A26953	----	Memorables of the life of faith taken out of Mr. B's sermon preached before the King at Whitehall : published thus for the poor that want money and memory / by one desirous to promote the common salvation. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1690 Approx. 18 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2006-06 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A26953 Wing B1307 ESTC R14225 12390605 ocm 12390605 60984 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A26953) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 60984) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 268:11) Memorables of the life of faith taken out of Mr. B's sermon preached before the King at Whitehall : published thus for the poor that want money and memory / by one desirous to promote the common salvation. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1 sheet (1 p.) Printed for Tho. Parkhurst ..., London : 1690. Attributed to Richard Baxter. Cf. BM. Three columns to the page. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith. Salvation. Broadsides -- England -- 17th century. 2005-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-08 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-01 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2006-01 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Memorables of the Life of FAITH , Taken out of Mr. B's Sermon , Preached before the King at Whitehall . Published thus for the Poor that want Money and Memory . By one Desirous to promote the common Salvation . Hebrews 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for , the Evidence of things not seen . Q. 1. WHat means the Apostle by these words ? A. He means , that tho' the glory promised to Believers , and expected by them , be yet to come , and only hoped for ; and be yet unseen , and only believed : yet is the sound Believer as truly affected with it , and acted by its attractive force , as if it were present and before his eyes . Or thus ; That the Nature and Vse of Faith is to be as it were instead of Presence , Possession , and Sight . Or , to make the things that will be , as if they were already in existence ; and the unseen things which God revealeth , as if our bodily eyes beheld them . It is true , 1. Faith changes not its Objects . 2. Nor gives it the same DEGREE of Apprehension or Affection , as the sight of present things doth give . No ; but , 1. Things Invisible are Objects of our Faith. 2. And Faith is effectual instead of sight of them . It is so unto four Uses ; namely , 1. The Infallibility of our Apprehensions . 2. The Determination of our Wills choice . 3. The Moving of our Affections in the degree necessary unto Holiness . 4. The Ruling in our Lives , and bringing us thro' Duty and Sufferings for the sake of the Happiness believed . Q. 2. Do you count Faith an Infallible sort of Knowledge then ? Why so ? A. Why , 1. So speaks the Scripture , Joh. 6. 69. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ , the Son of the living God ; Rom. 8. 28. And we know that all things work together for good , to them that love God , to them who are the called according to his purpose ; 1 Cor. 15. 58. Therefore my beloved Brethren , be ye stedfast , unmoveable , always abounding in the work of the Lord , forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 2. Believers know , as sure as they know there is a God , that God is true , and his Word true ; Heb. 6. 18. That by two immutable things , in which it was impossible for God to lie , we might have a strong consolation , who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us ; Titus 1. 2. In hope of eternal life , which God that cannot lie , promised before the world began . 3. They know that the Holy Scripture is the Word of God , by his Image which it beareth , the Evidencs of Divinity which it containeth , and the many Miracles by which it is confirmed . God , besides this , gives them to believe , Phil. 1. 29. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ , not only to believe on him , but also to suffer for his sake ; Eph. 2. 8. For by grace are ye saved , through faith , and that not of your selves : it is the gift of God. 4. And Believers have the Spirit of Christ within them to actuate Faith , and help them against Temptations ; 1. Cor. 2. 12. Now we have received , not the spirit of the world , but the Spirit which is of God , that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 5. Spiritual Experiences also advantage Faith. They have part of the Holy Scripture verified in themselves , and that much confirms their Faith of the whole . 6. Likewise very Nature affords us undeniable Arguments to prove a future Happiness and Misery . And that doth exceedingly help us in the Faith of the Supernatural Revelation of it . 7. And those that have seen the Objects of our Faith , have given us their Infallible Testimony ; Joh. 1. 18. No man hath seen God at any time , the only begotten Son , which is in the bosom of the Father , he hath declared him ; Joh. 3. 11. Verily , verily I say unto thee , We speak that we do know , and testifie that we have seen ; and ye receive not our witness ; 1 Joh. 1. 1 , 2 , 3. That which was from the beginning , which we have heard , which we have seen with our eyes , which we have looked upon , and our hands have handled of the word of life : ( For the life was manifested , and we have seen it , and bear witness , and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father , and was manifested unto us . ) That which we have seen and heard , declare we unto you , that ye also may have fellowship with us ; and truly our fellowship is with the Father , and with his Son Jesus Christ . Add 8. Satan's rage against the Life of Faith discovers there is more than a fancy in it . Q. 3. But why would not God let us have the SIGHT of Heaven and Hell ; being that would have prevailed for our Conversion more generally and more certainly ? A. 1. Who are you that dare dispute against God ? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it , why hast thou made me thus ? 2. It is fit God's Government suit the nature of its subject . Your Nature is a reasonable one . And Reason is made to apprehend more than we see : and by reaching beyond Sense , to carry us to seek nobler things than Sense can reach . Should a man understand no more than he sees ? a wise man and a fool , and a man and beast would then be very like . In worldly matters , men can go to much cost and pains for things they never saw ; why not in spiritual matters ? You shall believe God's Promises , if you have ever the Benefit of them ; and believe his Threatnings , if ever you escape the Evils threatned . If the Reward and Punishment were seen , what should difference wise men and fools good men and bad ? No man plays the Adulterer in the face of the Assembly . No Thief will steal before the Judge . Q. 4. Who is it ( then ) that with you goes for a Believer , or a Christian ? A. 1. He is one that lives as if he saw the Lord ; that in some measure so lives . He does all , as if he saw God stand by . All the day he waits on God , Psal . 25. 5. Lead me in thy truth , and teach me : for thou art the God of my salvation , on thee do I wait all the day . 2. He is one that liveth on a Christ whom he never saw . Lives on him with Trust in him , Adherence to him , Love of him , Joy in him , 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen , ye love , in whom though now ye see him not , yet believing , ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory . 3. He is one that judges of men by their invisible insides . Pitying the ungodly who pity not themselves , because they see not what he sees . And admiring the inward beauty of the Saints , thro' all their poverty seeing God's Image . Valuing none for stature , complexion , cloaths , or learning , &c. Psal . 15. 4. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned : but he honoureth them that fear the Lord : he that sweareth to his own hurt , and changeth not . 4. He is one that seeks a Happiness that he never saw ; and that with a greater estimation and resolution than he seeks any things that he hath seen . 5. He is one , that , all his life , prepareth for a day that is yet to come ; and for the presence of his Judge . One , that is asking , O what Life and Actions will be sweetest upon review when I come to my doom ! Not so much caring , what will now best please the flesh , and ingratiate with men . 6. He is one careful to prevent a threatned misery that he never felt ; and a place of torment that he never saw . — Other Faiths are ineffectual Dreams . And ( remember ) to dream you are Princes , may consist with Beggery . 1. O how rare a Jewel is true Faith ? 2. And how weak in Faith are the most of true Believers ? [ Even as Dying men are weak in Body . ] 3. How plain is the reason , that Believers are seriously holy , just , and charitable ? They are men that do see the Lord , see Heaven , see Hell. Their Faith sees them all in the Glass of Divine Revelations . 4. How plain is the reason , that Vnbelievers are careless of their hearts and ways ; and mock at Believers care , and take them for fools and mad men ? Poor wretches , they do not see the things that Believers see . If they saw the King of glory , as Believers do see him , they must reverence him as Believers do reverence him . Q. 5. Does it not concern every man , then , to make sure of this Faith ? This , that is given to make things to come as if they were at hand , and things unseen as if we saw them . A. It doth infinitely concern every man. For , 1. It is not so common a thing , as most do imagine it . 2. Till you have it , you are no living Members of Christ . 3. Till you have it , you are at enmity with God. 4. Till you have it , you are under the guilt of all your sins . No one of them is forgiven . 5. Till you have it , you will be carnally minded : and thro' the carnal end you will have in them , your works that be good materially , will be corrupt and fleshly . 6. Till you have it , you have no right to Heaven ; Joh. 3. 16 , 18 , 36. For God so loved the world , that he gave his only begotten Son , that whosoever believeth in him , should not perish , but have everlasting life . He that believeth on him is not condemned ; but he that believeth not , is condemned already , because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. He that believeth on the Son , hath everlasting life : and he that believeth not the Son , shall not see life : but the wrath of God abideth on him . Q. 6. Well , how shall I know whether I have this true Faith and saving , tho' in the least and lowest degree of it ? A. All that have it , tho' in the lowest degree , will have these four signs of it within them . 1. A Practical Estimation of things unseen , above all earthly things . 2. An Habitual Inclination of heart to embrace unseen things freely , delightfully , and resolutely ; above and against earthly things . 3. A Bent of Life for God , and for unseen Blessedness , as in Resolution , so in Practice . 4. A Disposition to let go all sensible possessions , when they be inconsistent with spiritual Hopes and Happiness ; Luk. 14. 33. So likewise , whosoever he be of you , that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my disciple . These you will have , if Faith be the Eye you do see by for the conduct of your Life . Q. 7. If Faith be the Eye by which I do see , whereby should I quicken my self to live by it ? Or if it be not , wherewithal should I stir up my self to seek Faith and the Life of Faith ? A. Put to thy Heart these questions , frequently and seriously . Q. 1. What should I be , if I saw the Lord continually before me ? And that as verily as I ever see a man ? If I saw him as Moses saw him , Exod. 34. Or as John saw him , Rev. 1. 13. And in the midst of the seven Candlesticks , one like unto the Son of Man , clothed with a garment down to the foot , and girt about the paps with a golden girdle . Or as St. Paul saw him , Acts 9. Q. 2. What should I be if I had seen the things that God hath done already in time past ? If I had seen the World drowned and the Ark saved ; Sodom and Gomorrah burned , and the righteous Lot saved ; Pharaoh and his Host swallowed up of the red Sea , and the Israelites saved ? And the like memorables of the H. Scripture . Q. 3. What should I be , if I saw the glory of Heaven above ? If I were rapt up but into the third Heaven , and had seen what St. Paul saw . If I had seen what St. Stephen saw before his Death . If I had seen Lazarus in Abraham 's Bosom ? Q. 4. What should I be , if I saw the face of Death , and were under the power of a mortal sickness , and were given over by all Physicians and Friends ? Or had a Messenger from God to tell me , I must die to morrow ? Q. 5. What should I be if I saw the great and dreadful day of Judgment as Christ doth describe it ? Mat. 25. If I saw that fulfilled which St. Paul speaks , 2 Thes . 1. 7 , 8 , 9 And to you who are troubled rest with us , when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven , with his mighty Angels , in flaming fire , taking vengeance on them that know not God , and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ . Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord , and from the glory of his power . Q. 6. What should I be if I heard Satan accusing me for all my sins unto God , and calling for justice against me ? Q. 7. What should I be , if I had seen and did now see the Damned in their miseries ? If I heard them cry out of the folly and self-destruction of their careless lives ; And wishing one were sent from the dead unto me to warn me that I come not unto their place of torment ? Q. 8. What should I be , if in my Temptations unto sin , I saw the Devil the Tempter , and heard him hissing me on to sin , to Swear , Curse , Rail , Lie , Scorn a holy Life ? O should I then ever chuse to be ungodly , or be patient of so being ? Nay , Q. 1. Should I not say in my heart , that the most gainful sin is worse than madness ? Q. 2. Should I not plead for the most serious Godliness ? Q. 3. Should I ever be offended with a Minister again , for plainest Reproof , and closest Exhortation ? Or for too much and plain Preaching ? Q. 4. Should I not hear at another rate than ever yet I heard a Sermon ? Q. 5. Should I not give over my greedy pursuit of worldly Wealth and Credit ? Q. 6. Should I ever be drawn away by Temptations again as I have been ? Q. 7. Should I ever stick at sufferings when God calls for them from me ? Q. 8. Should I not highly value Christ , his Spirit , his Grace , his Promises , his Word , his Ordinances ? Q. 9. Should I ever be quiet under uncertainty of my Reconciliation unto God ? Q. 10. Should I not then be all for Peace , Quietness and Love , with all that love the Lord Jesus Christ , and are seeking invisible things ? 1. O live not too much on things visible ! 2. Live upon the things invisible . 3. Promote the Life of Faith in others . Remember , 1. Worldliness is a loathsom Disease . To live by Sense , is to stand on ones head , and to turn ones heels toward Heaven . 'T is unnatural . 2. Vnseen things be the only great and necessary ones . 3. Faith is the Souls Wisdom , Sensuality is very Blindness . 4. Visible things are transitory . They be things that are not . 5. Things visible , by their changing , give us a disgraceful mutability . Fill us with disappointments and vexations . 6. Fore-seeing Faith is of necessity unto your Eternal blessed Life . 7. Vnseen things kept duly in your thoughts will serve you excellently unto these things . 1. They will repel your Temptations . 2. Quicken you to your Duties . 3. Instruct you to choose your Companies . 4. Furnish you with daily Comforts and Satisfaction . Things Sublunary be something or nothing as they relate unto Eternity . We judge of Means , as they conduce unto their Ends. I desire to know no mercy in any other Form or Name ; and to value none upon any other account . Idem alicubi . I have lived a sweet Life by Gods Promises , and I hope , through Grace , can die by a Promise . They be Gods Promises can stand by us . Through them Life is mine , Death is mine . God's Covenant is all my Salvation and all my desire . Jos . Alleyn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . O that I could by the effectualness of Contemplation behold the greatness of the heavenly Felicity which is provided for me ! Yet , as I can conceive it , I cannot chuse but long to be absent from hence , that I may be present with the Lord ▪ J. Ratliff . These Four Books are lately Published by Mr. Baxter . 1. English Nonconformity , truly stated and argued . 2. A Treatise of Knowledge and Love. 3. Cain and Abel ; or Enmity to serious Godliness Lamented . 4. Scripture Gospel Defended , and Christ , Grace and free Justification vindicated . London , Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel ▪ 1690. 
A29993	----	A short discourse upon the reasonableness of men's having a religion, or worship of God by His Grace, George, Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, 1628-1687. 1685 Approx. 22 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 16 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A29993 Wing B5329 ESTC R576 12241134 ocm 12241134 56774 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29993) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 56774) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 130:7) A short discourse upon the reasonableness of men's having a religion, or worship of God by His Grace, George, Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, 1628-1687. [6], 21, [2] p. Printed by John Leake, for Luke Meredith ..., London : 1685. Advertisements ([2] p.) at end. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Apologetics -- Early works to 1800. Apologetics -- History -- 17th century. Faith and reason. 2004-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-02 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-07 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2004-07 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A Short Discourse UPON THE REASONABLENESS Of MEN's having a RELIGION , OR Worship of God. By his Grace , GEORGE Duke of BUCKINGHAM . LONDON , Printed by John Leake , for Luke Meredith , at the King ' s Head , at the West End of St. Paul ' s Church-Yard , MDCLXXXV . TO THE READER . WHEN I began to write upon this Subject , it was out of a Curiosity I had to try , what I could say , in reason , against the bold Assertions of those Men , who think it a witty thing to defame Religion ; and I have seen so few Writings of late , which are not very tedious , that I was desirous at least to avoid that fault in this , by making it as short as I could . The Reason why I have suffer'd it to be Printed , is indeed , Because I could not help it ; Coppies having been taken of it , and sent to the Press , by the negligence of some to whom I lent it to Read. I was as much ashamed to forbid the Printing of it , as I should have been , to have order'd it , or as I should be now it is Printed , to disown what I have Written ; and therefore , I have here set my Name to it . By the nature of this Discourse , I was forced to Conclude with an Opinion , which I have been long convinced of ; That nothing can be more Anti-christian , nor more contrary to Sense and Reason , than to Trouble and Molest our Fellow-Christians , because they cannot be exactly of our Minds , in all the things relating to the Worship of God. And who will but examine what multitudes of Men there are now amongst us , of different Perswasions in Religion ; and how inconsiderable any one part of them is , compared to the rest , must , I am confident , be convinced , That the practice of it , at this time , would be of no advantage to the Publick . If a serious consideration of the Present State of this Kingdom , can sink deep enough into Men's Hearts , to make them endeavour , now , to promote a true Liberty of Conscience , I shall yet hope to enjoy happy days in England . But otherwise , without pretending to be a Prophet , I can easily foresee , That the contrary must of necessity terminate in this ; A General Discontent ; The Dispeopleing of our poor Country ; And the Exposing us to the Conquest of a Foreign Nation . BVCKINGHAM . A Short Discourse UPON THE REASONABLENESS Of MEN'S having a RELIGION , OR Worship of God. THere is nothing that gives Men a greater dissatisfaction , than to find themselves disappointed in their Expectations ; especially of those things in which they think themselves most concern'd ; and therefore all , who go about to give Demonstrations in Matters of Religion , and fail in the attempt , do not onely leave Men less Devout than they were before , but also , with great pains and industry , lay in their Minds the very Grounds and Foundations of Atheism : For the generality of Mankind , either out of laziness , or a diffidence of their being able to judge aright in Points that are not very clear , are apt rather to take things upon trust than to give themselves the trouble to examine whether they be true or no. But when they find , that what a Man undertakes to give them for a Demonstration , is really none at all , they do not onely conclude they are deceived by him , but begin also to suspect , they have been ill used , by those , who first impos'd upon them a Notion , for which no Demonstration can be given ; and from that suspicion proceed to this other of a more dangerous consequence ; That what is not demonstrable , may perhaps too not be true . I shall , therefore in this Discourse , make use of another method , and content my self with endeavouring to shew what , in my Opinion , is most probable : Demonstration being , as to Matters of Faith , absolutely unnecessary : Because , if I can convince a Man , That the Notions I maintain are more likely to be True than False , it is not in his power not to believe them ; no Man believing any thing because he has a mind to believe it , but because his Judgment is convinc'd , and he cannot choose but believe it , whether he will or no : and Belief is all that is required of us in the Speculative part of Religion . Besides , Demonstration being such an Evidence of a thing , as shows the contrary of it to be impossible ; it is , if you mark it , a whimsical kind of expression to say , That a Man does but believe a thing to be so , which he is sure cannot possibly be otherwise . It is just as ingenious as if one should profess , That he hopes he shall but begin to have a thing to morrow , which he is already this day in possession of . Belief and Faith being as intirely swallow'd up in Demonstration , as Hope is in Fruition . My design in this Paper is , To induce Men to a belief of Religion , by the strength of Reason ; and therefore , I am forc'd to lay aside all Arguments which have any dependence upon the Authority of Scripture , and must fashion my Discourse as if I had to do with those that have no Religion at all . The first main Question , upon the clearing of which I shall endeavour to ground the Reasonableness of Men's having a Religion , or Worship of God , is this , Whether it is more probable that the World has ordered it self to be in the Form it now is , or was contriv'd to be so by some other Being of a more perfect , and more designing nature ? For whether or no the World has been Created out of nothing , is not material to our purpose ; Because if a supreme Intelligent Agent has fram'd the World to be what it is , and has made us to be what we are , we ought as much to stand in awe of it , as if it had made both us and the World out of nothing . Yet because this latter Question ought not to be totally pass'd by , I shall take the liberty to offer some Conceptions of mine upon it . The chief Argument used against God Almighty's having Created the World , is , That no Man can imagine how a thing should be made out of nothing ; and that , therefore , it is impossible , he should have made the World , because there is nothing else , out of which it could be made . First then , I cannot choose but observe , that to say , Because we are not able to imagine how a thing should be , therefore the being of that thing must be impossible , is in it self a disingenious way of Argumentation ; especially in those , who at the same time declare they believe this World to be Eternal , & yet are as little able to comprehend how it should be Eternal , as how it should be made out of nothing . In the next place , I conceive that nothing can be properly said to endure , any longer than it remains just the same ; for in the instant any part of it is changed , that thing as it was before , is no more in being . In the third place , That every part of this World we live in is changed every moment ; and by consequence , that this whole World is so too , because the whole is nothing else but what is composed of every part ; and that therefore we cannot properly say , this World has continued for many Ages , but onely that all things in this World have been changed for several Years together . To evade which Opinion , those who maintain the Eternity of the World , are forc'd to say , That the Matter of it is not changed , but the Accidents only ; though this be a sort of Argument which they will not allow of in others . For when it is by the Romanists urged , in Defence of Transubstantiation in the Sacrament , That the Accidents of the Wafer remain , though the Substance of it be changed ; they reject that as a ridiculous Notion ; and yet it is not one jot more absurd to say , That the Accidents remain when the Matter is chang'd , than that the Matter remains when the Accidents are changed ; nay of the two , the Assertors of this latter Opinion are the least excusable , because they boldly attribute it to a Natural Cause , whereas the Romanists have the modesty at least to own it for a Mysterious Miracle . But that the weakness of this imagination , of separating Accidents from Bodies may the plainlier appear , let us examine a little what the meaning of the word Accident is . Accident then does not signifie a Being distinct from Body or Matter , but is only a Word , whereby we express the several ways we consider of what is in a Body , or matter that is before us . For example ; If we perceive a Body to have length , then we consider of that length as an Accident of that Body ; and when we perceive a Body to have a Smell , or Taste , then we consider of that Smell , and that Taste , as Accidents of that Body : But in none of these Considerations we mean , that any thing can have Length , or Smell , or Taste , but what really is Body ; and when any thing , that had a Smell or Taste , has left off to have a Smell or Taste , it is , because that Part of it , which had a Smell or Taste , is no more in it . So that , upon an Examination of the whole Matter , I am apt to believe , That there can be naturally no change of Accidents , but where there is a real change of Bodies . But to proceed a little further , the Question being , Whether it be more probable , that the World , or that God Almighty has been from all Eternity ? I think , I may adventure to affirm , That of two Propositions , the least probable is that which comes nearest to a Contradiction : Now nothing can come nearer to a Contradiction , Than Eternity , or abiding the same for ever , and a continued Changing , or not abiding the same one moment : And therefore I conclude , it is less probable , that this Changeable World should have been from all Eternity , than that some other Being , of more Excellence , and greater Perfection , should be so , whose very Nature is incapable of Change. That Being of more Excellence , and greater Perfection , I call God ; and those , who out of a foolish aversion they have for the Name of God , will call it Nature , do not in any kind differ from this Notion of that Being , but only change its Name , and rather shew , they have a vain mistaken Ambition of being thought Atheists , than that they have any Reason strong enough to Convince them to be so . The next Question I shall take into Consideration , is this , Whether , though there be a God , it is probable , that He should take a more particular Care of Mankind , than He does of Beasts and other Animals ? To which I have this to offer , That though there are several sorts of Animals , which give us occasion to imagine they have some kind of Reason in them , though not to so great a Perfection as Men have ; yet since no other Animal did ever any one thing , that could give us the least cause to believe , they have a Conception of another World , or of a Deity ; and that no Man was ever yet born , but had a Conception , or at least , a Suspicion of it , more or less . I say , for this Reason , it is probable , in my Opinion , That there is something nearer a-kin to the Nature of God in Men , than there is in any other Animals whatsoever ; and for that Reason , that God Almighty does take a more particular Care of us , than He does of them . If then God be Eternal , and it is probable there is something in our Nature , which is a-kin to the Nature of God , it is also probable , That that Part of us never dies . It is also probable , That what by it we are prompted most to value and esteem , as the highest Perfections , good Qualities , and Vertues , are Parts of the Essence , and Nature of God. Now , of all good Qualities , or Vertues , it is Justice ; which all Men do most highly esteem and value in others , though they have not all the good Fortune to practise it themselves . For Justice is that good Quality , or Vertue , which causes all other good Qualities or Vertues to be esteemed ; nay , it is that Vertue , without which , all other Vertues become as Vices ; that is , they all come to be abhorr'd . For he who wants Justice , and has Wit , Judgment , or Valor , will for the having Wit , Judgment , or Valor , be the more abhorr'd ; Because the more Wit , Judgment , or Valor he has , if he wants Justice , the more he will certainly become a Wicked Man : And he who wants Justice , and has Power , will for the having that Power , be the more abhorr'd ; Because the more Power he has , if he wants Justice , the more he will certainly become a Wicked Man : And therefore , in my Opinion , it is a very unreasonable thing for Men , out of a Design of extolling God Almighty's Power , to rob Him of Justice ; the Quality without which , even Power it self must necessarily be abhorr'd . And pray what can be more disrespectful to God Almighty , Than to phansie that he shall punish us for doing that , which he has from all Eternity predestinated ; that is , Compell'd us to do ? It is an Act that I can hardly believe there ever yet was born a Man cruel enough to be guilty of , even in the depth of his Revenge ; And shall we make that an Attribute of the Most Perfect , and the Most High God , which is beneath the effect of the meanest of Passions in the worst of Men ? It is , in my Opinion , more reasonable to believe , That God Almighty , out of his Love to Mankind , has given us an Eternal Soul ; That an Eternal Being , and Free-will , are things in their Nature inseparable one from the other ; and that therefore , according to our Actions , proceeding from our Wills , God Almighty , in Justice , will Reward and Punish us in another World , for the Good and Ill Deeds we perform in this . I do not say , that the best of our Actions here , are good enough to make us deserve the utmost Joys of Heaven ; we must owe them to God Almighty's Grace and Favour , as indeed , we owe all things else . Neither will I take upon me to guess at the several Degrees of Joys there are in Heaven . Our dull Sences , making it as impossible for us to discourse well of those things , as it is impossible for a Man Born Blind , to talk well of Colours . Nor will I pretend to judge how long , or how much God Almighty will Punish us hereafter ; Because , for the same Reason that we think him to be a God of Justice , we must also conclude him to be a God of Mercy . This only I do verily believe , That the more we Love him , the more he will Love us ; and the less we Love him , the worse it will be for us . Again , if this Instinct , or Conception , we have of a Deity , be the Ground of our Religion , it ought also to be the Guide of our Religion ; That is , if the strongest Reason we have to believe , That God Almighty does take a more particular Care of us , than He does of other Animals , is , Because there is something in our Nature , nearer a-kin to the Nature of God , than any thing that is in any other Animal ; I say , in all Reason , that part of us , which is nearest a-kin to the Nature of God , ought to be our Guide and Director , in Choosing the best Way for our Religious Worship of God. There is also this other Consequence , which , in my Opinion , does naturally depend upon what has been said ; That one of the greatest Crimes a Man can be guilty of , is , To force us to act or , sin against that Instinct of Religion which God Almighty has placed in our Hearts ; for , if that Instinct be somewhat a-kin to the Nature of God , the sinning against it must be somewhat a-kin to the Sin against the Holy Ghost . If then it be probable , that there is a God , and that this God will Reward and Punish us hereafter , for all the Good and Ill things we act in this Life ; It does highly concern every Man , to examine seriously , Which is the best Way of Worshipping and Serving this God ; That is , Which is the best Religion . Now , if it be probable , that the Instinct which we have within us , of a Deity , be a-kin to the Nature of God ; That Religion is probably the best , whose Doctrine does most recommend to us those Things , which , by that Instinct , we are prompted to believe are Vertues , and good Qualities : And that , I think , without exceeding the Bounds of Modesty , I may take upon me to affirm , Is the Christian Religion . And for the same Reason , it does also follow , That the Religion amongst Christians , which does most recommend to us Vertue , and a good Life , is , in all probability , the best Religion . And here , I must leave every Man to take pains , in seeking out , and chusing for himself ; he only being answerable to God Almighty for his own Soul. I began this Discourse , as if I had to do with those , who have no Religion at all : And now , addressing my self to Christians , I hope , they will not be offended at me , for ending it with the Words of our Saviour : Ask , and it shall be given you ; Seek , and you shall find ; Knock , and it shall be opened unto you . I shall beg Leave farther , only to propose a few Questions to all those , in general , who are pleas'd to call themselves Christians . First , Whether there be any thing more directly opposite to the Doctrine and Practice of Jesus Christ , than to use any kind of Force upon Men , in Matters of Religion ? And consequently , Whether all those that practise it , ( let them be of what Church , or Sect , they please ) ought not justly to be call'd Antichristians ? Secondly , Whether there can be any thing more unmanly , more barbarous , or more ridiculous , than to go about to convince a Man's Judgment by any thing , but by Reason ? It is so ridiculous , that Boys at School are whipped for it ; who , instead of Answering an Argument with Reason , are Logger-heads enough to go to Cuffs . And Thirdly , Whether the Practice of it , has not always been ruinous and destructive to those Countries , where it has been used , either in Monarchies , or Common-Wealths ? And , Whether the contrary Practice has not always been successful to those Countries , where it has been used , either in Monarchies , or Common-Wealths ? I shall Conclude , with giving them this Friendly Advice ; If they would be thought Men of Reason , or of a good Conscience , Let them endeavour , by their good Counsel , and good Example , to perswade others to lead such Lives , as may save their Souls : And not be perpetually quarrelling amongst themselves , and cutting one another's Throats , about those things , which they all agree , are not absolutely necessary to Salvation . FINIS . Books Printed for , and Sold by Luke Meredith , at the King's Head , at the West End of St. Paul's Church-Yard . TWO Treatises : The First , Concerning Reproaching and Censure ; The Second , An Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure-Footing . To which are annexed , Three Sermons Preached upon several Occasions ; and very useful for these Times . By the late Learned and Reverend William Faulkner , D. D. An Introduction to the Old English History ; comprehended in Three several Tracts : The First , An Answer to Mr. Petyt's Rights of the Commons Asserted ; and to a Book , Entituled , Jani Anglorum Facies Nova : The Second Edition very much enlarged . The Second , An Answer to a Book , Entituled , Argumentum Antinormanicum , much upon the same Subject : Never before Published . The Third , The Exact History of the Succssion of the Crown of England : The Second Edition , also very much enlarged . Together , with an Appendix , containing several Records , and a Series of Great Councils and Parliaments , Before and After the Conquest , unto the End of the Reign of Henry the Third . And a Glossary , expounding many Words , used frequently in our Antient Records , Laws , and Historians . Published for the Vindication of Truth , and the Assistance of such as desire with Satisfaction to read , and truly understand , the Antient English Historians , and other Pieces of Antiquity . By Robert Brady , Doctor in Physick . In the Press . A Dialogue between a Pastor , and his Parishioner , touching the Lord's Supper : Wherein the most material Doubts and Scruples about Receiving that Holy Sacrament , are removed , and the Way thereto discovered to be both plain and pleasant . Very useful for Private Christians in these scrupulous Times . by Michael Altham . The Second Edition . To which is added , Some short Prayers , fitted for that Occasion ; and a Morning and Evening Prayer , for the Use of Private Families . 
A30834	----	The blessed effects of true and saving faith with good counsel, vvholsome advice, and also encouragement to all Friends every where, that suffer for truth and righteousness sake / given forth by a servant of the Lord ... John Banckes. Banks, John, 1637-1710. 1684 Approx. 28 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 7 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A30834 Wing B651 ESTC R3552 13074884 ocm 13074884 97184 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A30834) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 97184) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 407:4) The blessed effects of true and saving faith with good counsel, vvholsome advice, and also encouragement to all Friends every where, that suffer for truth and righteousness sake / given forth by a servant of the Lord ... John Banckes. Banks, John, 1637-1710. 12 p. Printed by John Bringhurst ..., London : 1684. Name of printer from colophon. Reproduction of original in Bodleian Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Society of Friends. Faith -- Early works to 1800. 2003-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-06 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-07 Marika Ismail Sampled and proofread 2003-07 Marika Ismail Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-08 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Blessed Effects Of True and Saving FAITH : With Good COUNSEL , VVholsome ADVICE ; AND Also Encouragement to all Friends every where , that Suffer for Truth and Righteousness Sake . Given forth by a Servant of the Lord , who is in a Travail for the Prosperity of Sion , and that Jerusalem may become the Praise of the whole Earth . known by the Name of JOHN BANCKES . Let this Epistle be read in the fear of the Lord , in all the Meetings of Friends , both in Prison and at Liberty , thorough England , and where it may go or be sent elswhere . Faith is the Gift of God , and it Purifieth the Heart . Blessed are they that suffer for Truth and Righteousness Sake , for there 's is the Kingdom of Heaven . LONDON , Printed in the Year , 1684. The Blessed Effects of True and Saving FAITH , &c. DEAR FRIENDS : THE great Work of God in the Sons and Daughters of Men , is to purifie the Heart , and make clean the inward , part which is through Faith in his Son ; Faith is the Gift of God , and the work of it is to purifie the Heart , and cleanse the inside from dead workes , to serve him the true and living God , in the newness thereof ; this is the great work of God in and through Faith in his Son , to work out the old Leaven , and mould into a new Lump , to make the Heart anew , the Mind heavenly , and the Soul living . Oh! the blessed effects of True and Saving Faith ; even that Faith which stands in the Power of God , which as Man and Woman comes truly to the knowledge of , with the Heart such comes truly to believe in God , and Confession with the Mouth is made to Salvation , and so gradually a casting off and forsaking every thing that is Evil , whereby a learning to do well ( by the Teachings of the Grace thorough Faith ) comes more and more to be known , this is the blessed Effects of true and saving Faith , which true faith thorough the power of it , works a true tenderness in the Heart , instead of hardness , and brings to true openness those that have been shut up , and into a true nearness with the Lord , and one with another , even such that have been far seperated from him , and that by Wicked Workes ; this is true Faith , that works in the Heart , to the overcoming of it , which is True and Saving Faith , saves them that were lost , quickens them that were dead , and brings them in and through the Strength and Power thereof , to serve the true and living God , in the newness of Life . The blessed Effects of this true and saving Faith , is to make Clean , Pure and Holy , sanctifies throughout both in Body , Soul and Spirit ; makes a new Creature , which brings to a true Knowledge , What it is to be in Christ Iesus , and so the Heart and Mind with the whole Affections , comes to be set on things that are Heavenly , Everlasting and Eternal : Oh! the pure change and blessed Alteration that comes to be known herein and hereby ; Man that hath been unclean , is made clean , and Man and Women that hath been unholy and impure , is made holy and pure ; and so in the Holy Life , Holy Men and Holy Women come to worship and serve the pure Holy God , in the Newness , Livingness and Tenderness thereof ; and so according to measure , whether more or less , come with the Blessed Apostle , to say , by living experience ; The Life that I now live , is by Faith in the Son of God. Here , Old things are past away , and behold all things are become new . the old words past away , the bad Actions and vain Conversation put off , which is for Judgment and Condemnation , which being put off , the Armour of Light , and true and saving Faith comes to be put on through the blessed Effects thereof . So in and thorough this true and saving Faith , that stands in the Power of God , Gods people come to have their Armour on , whereby and because of which , they are made more then Conquerors , made able to withstand all the Fiery D●rts of the Devil , and all his Instruments both within and without , are made able thorough this same Faith with the Prophet to leap over a Wall , run through a Troop , and to break that which is as a Bow of Steel Spiritually , that otherwise , to wit , out of the Faith , cannot be got over , run through , nor broken : Oh! what is too hard , for those that are of and in this true and saving Faith ? As the Author unto the Hebrews saith , the 11th Chap. Vers. 22th , having spoken largly of the Fruits and Effects of Faith , saith he , What shall I more say ? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon , and of Bariak , and of Sampson , and of Jephthar , of David , and also of Samuel , and of the Prophets ; who through Faith subdued Kingdomes ; wrought Righteousness ; obtained Promises ; stopped the Mouths of Lyons ; quenched the violence of Fire ; escaped the Edge of the Sword ; out of weakness , were made strong ; Women received their Dead raised to Life again ; and others were tortured , not accepting of Deliverance , that they might obtain a better Resurrection ; and others had Tryals of Cruel Mockings and Scourgings ; yea , moreover of Bonds and Imprisonment ; they were stoned , they were sawn asunder , were Tempted , were slain with the Sword , they wandered about in Sheep-Skins , and Goat-Skins , being distitute , afflicted , tormented , of whom the World was not worthy , they wandered in Desarts and in Mountaines , and in Dens and Caves of the Earth , and these all have obtained a good report through Faith. So Dear Friends , Brethren and Sisters , whereever this may come , unto whom the Salutation of my Life reacheth ; try your selves , prove your selves , for that end you may know whether you be in this Faith or not , whereby all these blessed Effects are wrought and brought to pass , and many more , to the making perfect throughout , and none to content or satisfie your selves with the word Faith , or with the bare Profession of Faith ; but carefully mind what Christ Jesus our Lord saith , If thou have Faith as a grain of Mustard seed , thou shalt say unto this Mountain , be thou removed , and it shall be so . If Faith in this small measure or degree , through the blessed effects of it , be thus able , or those whose Faith is no more , thus gain Victory , how much more Victory shall those obtain that keep it unto the end , for it 's those that finish in that same Faith in which they have begun , that shall be saved , and that the Crown of Life and of Immortal Glory is laid up for . But now some may say that are young in the Truth , and that the Enemy may bear hard upon by Temptations , I thought I had had Faith in some Measure , however in the least degree , and yet those things stand in my way , like Mountaines , that I cannot get over as yet , and great Oppositions and Temptations I meet with , both within and without , that prevail with me . Dear Friend , in much tenderness doth my Soul breath unto the Lord for thy Deliverance , and in order that thou may be delivered from that which so oppresses thee in Spirit , or stands in thy way , [ mark well what I say unto thee ] thou willest too much , and through thy willing thou would run too fast , and make too much haste through thy Will , striving to be out and over things , which is the great cause of hindering thee , or why thou comes sho●t of obtaining Victory through Faith ; and that thou dost not come to know the blessed Effects or Work of it in thy Heart and inward part . Remember the Counsel given to Israel of old , Thy Strength oh Israel , is to stand still : So true Strength , Ability and Victory thorough Faith , over and against Enemies both within and without , is in standing still , and being quiet and cool in thy mind ; for as the Scriptures of Truth testifie , it is certainly true , It 's not in him that wills nor runs , the Battle is not unto the Strong , nor the Race unto the Swift . And Christ saith , Which of you by taking thought can add one Cubit to your Stature ? So to stand still and patiently wait to receive the true power that the Lord will give to all in his own time ( though not in their's ) that patiently wait for it , that so patience in thee may have its perfect work , that so true Experience thou may gain of Victory given unto thee , over all the Temptations of the Enemy through Faith in the Power of God , and so will all those things come to be removed out of thy way that thou stands questioning and reasoning about , and this is true Faith indeed , that gives Victory , and it s known to be so by the blessed Effects of it , and as Christ said , This is that which gives Victory , even your Faith ; and this is the way thorough Faith for all to come to know an Anchoring and Establishing upon the sure Rock , through Faith and Hope , that never makes ashamed . And now Dear Friends , unto all you whom God in and through Christ Jesus his Son , hath not only called to believe in his Name , but also to suffer for Truth and Righteousness sake ; Blessed and Happy of the Lord are all you , and happy shall you be , if you continue unto the end , that hath a true Knowledge and right Understanding , that your Suffering is for Truth and Righteousness sake , ( that is to say ) whose Suffering is for Christs sake , as those that are his , that he hath Redeemed , and Saved , and Sanctified by his Blood , Death and Suffering , as those that are not your own , nor any thing you have or enjoy , ( mark well and take good Notice , as those ) that your Suffering may be for Christ your Redeemer , your Saviour , your Shepherd , Counsellor , King , Priest , and Law-giver , and so for Righteousness , as those , that because of the tenderness of your Consciences cannot do , nor consent to be done , that which is Unrighteous , Unjust , nor Lawful , according to the righteous Law of God , and tends to Oppression . Blessed and Happy of the pure God are all you whose Suffering is on this wise and in this manner ; for it is not only that any doth suffer , whether in Body or Goods , that will tend to bring the recompence of Reward home , to the comfort of the Heart , and joy of the Soul , as a confirming encouragement in the Suffering ; but also that you all know and be sensible for what you suffer ( to wit ) to be in the Name , in the Power , in the Truth , in the Seed Christ , for which you suffer ; here is the true ease , the true peace , the true quietness in Spirit in Suffering this makes the Yoak easie , and the Burthen light , and the blessed Recompence of Reward from the Heavenly Hand of the Blessed God cometh , and is extended unto all such of an Hundred fold in this Life , and also shall inherit Life Everlasting , as Christ Jesus our Lord said unto Peter , Where there is a willingness to forsake Father or Mother , Wife or Children , Houses or Lands for his Name sake , this shall be their Reward . So Dear Friends , the Councel and Advice of my Life unto you all , in the Testimony of it is , that you all be truly careful what you suffer in and for , that none may have only a Name that you live , and be dead ; but as those who have Faith in the just Principle , and are in a Spiritual Travail ; for if any one suffer in Body or Goods , and not in the Truth , that will be a sad comfortless Suffering . So Dear Friends , while as a great Mercy from God , you have yet Health and Liberty to meet together to Worship and serve him , be faithful in meeting often together , First day and Week day ( Men & Womens Meetings ) and when met , be diligent in waiting upon him , for to receive of his living power from day to day , and time to time , which is that which truly Fits , Furnishes and Prepares in every good Word , Work and Service ; I say , make good use of time every one , in being truly careful how you spend it , for it 's the ill use made of time , or the careless squandering away of it , that makes many unfit for a day and time of Tryal , when called thereunto ; remember the ten Virgins they had all Lamps , but five wanted Oyl , and it 's said their Lamps were gone out ; it seems they once did shine , ( mark ) they were all called unto to prepare , but the five Foollish wanted wherewith , and so were left behind , and the door was shut against them , as to enter into rest , and pertake of Joy , because of their Unwatchfulness , and Sleepy Sluggardliness in the time they had given them ▪ and although they came calling and crying afterward , it was to no purpose , the door was shut ; it 's plain there was a time the door was open , when the Wise , that had both the Lamps and Oyl entered in ; so all be upon your watch continually , with a care to have Oyl in your Lamps , that an entering into the Place of Rest , where you shall pertake of Joy unspeakable and full of Glory in your Suffering , as in a House and Habitation of Safety , where none nor nothing can make afraid ; that if the Storm or Tempestuous Tryal last long , you shall never want for Bread , but it will be sure , and your Water will never fail ; for he for whose Name Sake ye suffer , will spread your Table , fill your Cup , and maintain your cause ; where your Communion will be sweet with the Lord , and your Unity and Fellowship will be very comfortable , that you will have and feel , with all his Faithful Suffering People . This is the Counsel and Advice of your Brother , in Bowels of tender Love , that all who do suffer in oppression for Truth and Righteousness sake , that it may be on this wise and in this manner , that so cause of great Encouragement you may all have in and under Suffering , whether in Body or Goods , which I can give in Truth by good experience , ( to wit , Encouragement to all faithful Sufferers ) who have had my own Goods spoiled , and my Body Imprisoned time after time , and now am a Prisoner , because for Conscience I cannot uphold that great oppression of Tythes ; and the same day and hour I was to go to Prison , were the Spoilers carrying away my Goods , for no greater Crime then Worshipping and Serving the Lord my God ; and oh ! the Ioy , Gladness , and Rejoycing that was in my Heart and Soul , that same hour and moment of time , being I was truly sinsible of the cause wherefore I suffered the same , being born up in my Understanding , my Joy was unutterable on this wise , and under this consideration , That the Lord my God should not only count me worthy to believe in his Name , but also to suffer for the same , and in that that Christ Iesus the Son of the Fathers love suffered all to save and redeem my Soul ; and therefore should not I willingly offer up all I had and did enjoy , in answer to what God through Christ his Son had done for me ? yea surely , I said in my Heart , I le offer up all freely ; I speak to his Praise and Glory , and the great Encouragement of all faithful willing Sufferers , whose Suffering on this wise will never be wearysome nor tedious unto you , no murmuring nor complaining will take place , or have room in any such a Heart , as to say or think , How shall I live ? Or how shall my Wife and Children be maintained ? Or my Business carryed on ? ( not to be void of an honest care in those things ) yet not to murmur because of the Suffering . What! is not God Almighty All-sufficient for the Soul ? And must not he be relied upon , through Christ his Son our Lord , for the Salvation thereof ? And is not he that is all-sufficient for the Soul , sufficient for the Body also ? ( yea assuredly , by living experience can my Soul say ) and is not the Earth the Lord's , and the fulness thereof ? And cannot he take and give according to his Good Will and Pleasure ? Let all remember the Patience of Iob , in his still retaining his Integrity , in his deep Affliction and Suffering , both in Goods and Body , whose Wife gave him bad Counsel , in saying , Wilt thou alwayes retain thine Integrity ? Curse God , and Die : but he refused it , and reproved her ; and suffered the loss of all his Thousands of Sheep and Camels , and Hundreds of Oxen ; all his Children and Servants ; yet the Lord restored him double , so that it 's said , The latter end of Iob , was far more Happy and Blessed than the Beginning . Oh! that the care of all called to suffer may be , to refuse all Evil Counsel , given either by Wife or Husband , Kinsfolk or Relations , that would perswade any to require the Lord Evil for Good , and desert their Testimony in Suffering , as such that would give Counsel on this wise . Oh! this is but a small matter , and the other is but a little thing ; thou mayest do it well enough , or suffer another to do it f●r 〈◊〉 : Oh! nay , ( saith the honest-hearted and true to God ) I must 〈◊〉 be faithful in the little , and then my Lord and Master will make me Ruler over more ; and that which I cannot for Conscience do my self , I cannot suffer ●●y co●nivingly to do it for me , for this is great Hypocrisie and Dissimulation . Oh! what Encouragement hath all the Faithful in Suffering , to trust the Lord with all they have and do enjoy , rightly to consider , and mind the Patience of Iob ; the Faithfulness of Daniel ; and the Faith , Courage and Nobility of Shadrach , Meshach and Abednego ; Daniel could not but open his Window , and Pray to his God , though a Decree made to the contrary , to cast him into the Den of Lyons , the Angel of whose Presence shut their Mouths , and preserved Daniel , the Servant of the Living God ; as the King was made to call him , when he saw his Faithfulness . Oh! the great Encouragement that all the Faithful have in Suffering , for the Kings and Rulers of the Earth with many People , are made to confess , We are the People of God indeed ; when they see us to stand faithful in our Testimony , as Nebuchadnezzer was made to call the three Servants of the Lord before named , Come forth ye Servants of the Most High God ; although before as many now will , ( threatned ) that , If they would not fall down , and Worship the Image he had set up , they should be cast into the Fiery Furnace , seven times hotter then ever ; and who is that God that shall be able to deliver out of my Hand ? said he ; yet as the Lord had then , so he hath a way now , to deliver all whose Trust and Confidence is in him ▪ beyond the expectation of the Wickedest and Cruellest of Men , notwithstanding their Fury and Decrees made in their Wills ; for Shadrach , Meshach and Abednego said , Be it known unto thee O King , we will not serve thy Gods , for our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the Burning Fiery Furnace ; and if not , we are not careful to answer thee in this matter . And so because they could not bow to the Kings Image , at the sounding of several sorts of Instruments of Musick , they were bound , and cast into the Burning Fire , with their Coats , Hosen , and Hatts ; and the Flame of the Furnace was so great , that those Men that cast them in , were slain thereby ; but not so much as one Hair of the Head of the three Faithful Servants of the Lord singed , nor the smell of Fire found on their Cloaths . Oh! what great Encouragement is here , for all that in any measure know God , to believe and trust in him in Suffering , whether in Body or Goods , though never so deep ; for hereby it 's evident and plain , that the Lords always had , and hath a true regard to his People , who by the Angel of ●is Presence and Arm of his great Power , the more need they stood and stand of him , so accordingly he appears , and works their Deliverance , ( according to that saying , The Rod of the Wicked shall not always ly upon the back of the Righteous ) and not only so but brings Plagues and Judgments upon the Heads of the Persecutors and Afflictors of his faithful Ones ; One Hair of whose Head , ( saith Christ ) shall not fall to the ground without your Fathers Providence . And although Herod the King , the troubler of the Church , then killed Iames ; and because it pleased the Iews , he took Peter also , and put him in Prison , intending to bring him forth to the People , with Wicked intents no doubt ; but the same Night before he so intended , although Peter lay bound in Prison with two Chaines betwixt two Soldiers , an Angel from God came upon him , and loosed his Chains , and caused the Iron-gate to open of its own accord ; and Paul and Silas they were put in the Inward Prison , after they had been beat and sore abused , and their Feet fastened in the Stocks , ( mark , in the Inner Prison ) where they Prayed and sang Praises unto God at Midnight ; and such was the wonderful Appearance , of the great Power of the Mighty God , that caused the Prison Doors to open , that it 's said , The Foundations of the Prison were shaken , and when the Jailer awaked , he thought to have killed himself , seeing the Doors open , supposing the Prisoners had been fled ; but Paul said , Do thy self no harm , we are all here ; and then he came trembling , when he perceived what was done , and said , What shall I do to be Saved ? and Paul and Silas spoke unto him the Word of the Lord , and bid him , Believe in the Lord Iesus Christ , and he should be Saved ; and he and all his House Believed . Oh! what great Encouragement is here , for all faithful honest Hearted Friends , though in and under Suffering , or that yet may be called thereunto ▪ to go on in all faithfulness , freely giving up Life and Liberty , and all into the Lords hand , willing to cast their care and put their Confidence in him , who hath all power in his own hand , to do and bring to pass whatsoever seems good in his own Eyes ; Oh! how the Wicked many times in the height of their Wickedness are frustrated , and Gods People , beyond all expectation preserved and delivered , as you your selves have many times been made living Witnesses ; hold it fast Dear Friends in your Remembrance . And you may also see when there is a freely giving up to answer what the Lord requires , in the faithful performance of the same , thorough the Might of Gods Power , Peoples Hearts and Consciences are reached , to the causing of them to tremble , whereby good desires are begotten and raised , What Men shall do to be Saved ; though before they have been Persecutors and Afflictors of Gods People , as you may see by the Goaler afore mentioned , and whose care it is thus to walk and shew forth a Godly Conversation and Example in doing or suffering , so as to reach to the Witness of God in Peoples Consciences , though in the Inner Prison , as Paul and Silas was , they have not only cause to bless and praise the Holy Name of the Pure God , for accompanying them by the Angel of his Presence , but also to Sing and make Melody unto him in their Hearts . For now , Dear Friends , and Suffering Brethren , though the Lord our God see it good so to come to pass , for a tryal of your Faith and Patience , to see how you will trust in him , in the hour of Temptation and time of Tryal , that Man shall be so far permitted , to take your Goods , and seperate you from your dearest and nearest Relations , your Dear Wives and Tender Children , and put you in Prison ; now this is greatly your Joy and Comfort , being sensible of the Cause wherefore you suffer , Man with all his Power and Strength , Fury and Rage , cannot seperate you from the pure enjoyment of the presence of the Lord ; but by it reacheth unto his Dear Suffering Lambs , though in a Dungeon ; which if it were not so , above all People we were most Miserable ; but now above all People we are most Blessed and Happy ; Blessed , and Praised , and Magnified for evermore be the Holy Name , and great Power of our God , by and thorough which he always did and doth carry through all his faithful Children and People ; for he is for ever worthy of all Praise , Honour and Glory , unto him alone be it given , both now and for ever more , Amen . And so Dear Friends put on Courage and Boldness , in the Name , Fear and Power of the Most High , as an Armour , faithfully to follow your Captain , the Lord Jesus Christ , that will never leave you nor forsake you , except you first leave him , who will lead in and through the good and bad report , the Fire and the Water , the sixt and in the seventh Trouble and Exercise , will also be your Preserver and Upholder , who upholds all his by his Word and Power : I say Dear Friends , all in faithfulness follow your Leader whithersoever he goes ; for as you with diligence follow him he will bring you thorough ; and bring you forth in his own time ; 〈◊〉 happy are they that patiently wait till it be ▪ though as great a Tryal as ever any of his People suffered : Yet I say , if you be stedfast in the Faith ▪ he will still bring you forth and thorough , more bright and more pure , Holy and Clean ; for the fiery Tryal makes so , concerning ▪ which as the Apostle Peter said , Marvel not concerning the Fiery Tryal , as though some strange thing had happened : for it 's for no other end , but that you more and more may shine , as the Stars of Heaven in the Firmament of his Power ; that so a True , Living and Faithful Testimony , whether in doing or suffering , Body or Goods , by you all , according to your several Measures , may be born unto the Truth , and for the pure God , and his Pure , Holy Worship , and against all Oppression and Unrighteousness that is upheld in the World , that the same may stand , remain , and be left upon record to after Ages and Generations , how faithful ye were to God in your day as a confirmation unto their Faith , and as may greatly tend to their Encouragement , as those faithful Witnesses that have already finished their course in the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ , and are gone to their rest , doth greatly tend to strengthen the Faith , and encourage all those that yet remain , that are travelling on in the same way . That so in that same love , Pure Life , and true tenderness , into which at first you were begotten , and raised to bear a faithful Testimony for the Lord , his Name , Truth and Glory , though but in little and small things when nothing in that day ( all keep it in Mind ) was too near or dear for you to part with , that you may all persevere and fi●ish in that in which you have begun , that that which was known to be the First , may carefully be kept unto , to be knowa to be the Last ; the Alpha , the Omega ; the Beginning and the Ending ; the same to Day , Yesterday and forever ; who is from Everlasting to Everlasting , that so the Crown of Life and of Immortal Glory may be set upon your Heads , that is laid up in store for all that in faithfulness continue unto the end ; unto which the Lord God of Life by and through the greatness and strength of his own Power , keep and preserve you all Faithful in Life and unto Death , and in the end , Amen . From my Prison-house in Carel●le in Cumberland , the 17th of the ●th Month , 1684. Printed by Iohn Bringhurst in Leaden-Hall . 
A20398	----	A Most excellent and profitable dialogue, of the powerfull iustifying faith shewing what it is to beleeue in God, and what wonders are wrought by the power of beliefe, be it worldly or diuine, and what things do hinder beliefe : also how a man may hate himselfe, and by faith forsake himselfe, and kill the deeds of the flesh : the effect of the talke is this, that he which beleeueth in God, and in his son Iesus Christ, is able by the power of that beliefe, to mortifie his flesh, with the lusts thereof, through the Holy Ghost, and to serue God in spirit and truth / translated out of Latine by Arthur Golding. 1610 Approx. 72 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 30 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A20398 STC 6809.5 ESTC S342 22293056 ocm 22293056 25342 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A20398) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 25342) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1750:27) A Most excellent and profitable dialogue, of the powerfull iustifying faith shewing what it is to beleeue in God, and what wonders are wrought by the power of beliefe, be it worldly or diuine, and what things do hinder beliefe : also how a man may hate himselfe, and by faith forsake himselfe, and kill the deeds of the flesh : the effect of the talke is this, that he which beleeueth in God, and in his son Iesus Christ, is able by the power of that beliefe, to mortifie his flesh, with the lusts thereof, through the Holy Ghost, and to serue God in spirit and truth / translated out of Latine by Arthur Golding. Golding, Arthur, 1536-1606. [58] p. Printed by N.O. for Samuel Rand, and are to be sold at his shop on Holburne bridge, London : 1610. Running title: The true beliefe of a Christian. Signatures: A⁴(-A1) B-D⁸ E². Marginal notes. Reproduction of original in the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith -- Early works to 1800. 2002-10 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2002-11 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-12 Olivia Bottum Sampled and proofread 2002-12 Olivia Bottum Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A MOST EXCELLENT AND PROFItable Dialogue , of the powerfull iustifying Faith : Shewing what it is to beleeue in God , and what wonders are wrought by the power of Beliefe , be it worldly or Diuine ; and what things do hinder Beliefe . Also how a man may hate himselfe , and by Faith forsake himselfe , and kill the deeds of the flesh . The effect of the talke is this : That he which beleeueth in God , and in his Son Iesus Christ , is able by the power of that Beliefe , to mortifie his flesh , with the lusts thereof , through the holy Ghost , and to serue God in spirit and truth . Translated out of Latine by Arthur Golding . LONDON Printed by N.O. for Samuel Rand , and are to be sold at his shop on Holburne bridge . 1610. TO THE CHRIstian Reader . GOod Reader , amongst the multitude of books both written and printed , that be at this day spread abroade in the world , I lighted vpon this little Treatise of Faith : wherein perceiuing a matter handled , so necessary & needfull to be read and knowne of all men , especially in these dangerous ( if not desperate ) daies , wherin iniquity haue gotten the vpper hand : and men are growne so blinde , that they striue more about the chaffe , then for the pure wheate corne it selfe , and content themselues to feede rather on the leaues then on the fruit of the fig tree ; that is , more to talke of an imagined faith , then to know , haue , and enioy in themselues , the true , powerfull , and liuing faith , which is a daily dying to sin , & rising to righteousnesse . Seeing the same , I say , a worke so necessary to bee knowne of all men , I thought it good , being also perswaded thereto by many that haue found great benefite by it , to be a means for the printing of it ; that whosoeuer haue any zeale or desire to know the true faith , and to haue it with the fruites thereof effectually in himselfe , as is said he may view himselfe in this little pithy Treatise of the powerful faith . The title with the Authors name was torne out before it came to my hands : but whosouer was the Writer , the matter will shew from whence it came . And so the almighty God which liueth euerlastingly , plant his true feare and faith in our hearts , that being iustified by this powerful faith that worketh through loue , we may haue peace with God , through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen . A MOST EXCELLENT AND PROFITAble little Booke , concerning the true Christian Faith. The persons that talke together are Lewis and Frederike . Lewis . GLadly in good sooth , friend Frederick , haue I heard your talke both yesterday and today , and thereby I haue learned many things which I knew not before ; and this is one thing which hath chiefly moued mee , that you haue shewed that our Lord commandeth not any thing which is vnpossible to bée done . For I was of beliefe before , that ( as it is commonly heard & taught ) Gods commandements are vnpossible to be obeyed . Which perswasion ( to tell you the truth ) hath made me slow to obey , so as I neuer strained my selfe to obey with my whole power . Fred. The like hath befalne vnto mee also , and I could neuer yeeld my selfe truly and earnestly to obeying , before I beleeued that it was possible to obey : And truly hereby I haue learned the force of Beliefe , which Beliefe maketh a man desirous and willing to obey : And desire being afterward matched with power giuen of God , bringeth to passe that a man doth the things which he hath beleeued himselfe to be able to do , and so he is saued by obeying , as he was earst vndone by disobeying . And so being led by the spirit of Christ , he fulfilleth the righteousnes of the law , not walking after the flesh , but liuing after the spirit : which righteousnesse is therfore called the righteousnesse of the law , not for that it maketh the beleeuer righteous , but because the law requireth it . For the whole performance thereof is Christs , because it is brought to passe by his power and spirit , liuing & working in those that are his . The law thē cōmandeth , & Christ fulfilleth , & so the praise is due , not to the commander , but to the performer . Neuerthelesse it were to smal purpose to beleeue that it is possible to obey God , vnlesse a mā do also know the way how God may be obeied , without the which obedience faith is dead , & without faith no man can be saued . But this I would haue you to be perswaded of my Lewis , that the discourses both of vs and of all others are ( to say no worse of them ) vnprofitable , if they traine vs not to obedience , and to the renewing of the man. Lew. These things are true Frederike . Therefore that I may fare somewhat the better by your cōmunication , I pray you shew me by what meane I may attaine to obey God. For inasmuch as you haue shewed me by your talke , that it is possible to be done , I haue conceiued a desire of obeying . Fred. O my Lewis , would God that I my selfe were rightly obedient , to the intent I might leade thee by the hand , to obedience . As now it is impossible for me to leade you further then I my selfe haue attained vnto . Lew. Yet notwithstāding I beléeue you haue procéeded further forward then I haue done , & therfore I beséech you shew me but as far as you your selfe are gone . Fred. Willingly will I do that , Lewis : but I am afraid the hardnesse and roughnesse of the way will scare you from it . Lew. Feare not : I hope I am ready to al things , be they neuer so hard , so I may attaine to the end that I desire . Fred. I pray God to establish this willingnesse of yours , & to bring it throughout to the end . And therefore to goe in hand with the matter , you know how the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrewes hath written , that without saith it is vnpossible to please God. Lew. I know it well . Fred. First of all then you must beleeue in God if you will be saued . Lew. Procéede on then to the other things my Fredericke . For as concerning beliefe , I haue euer from my child-hood beléeued in God : and truly I am of opinion , that there be very few ( if there be any at all ) which beleeue not in God. Fred. Indeed it is very easie to be said , and so are men commonly perswaded . But I feare me it is said rather rashly , and of custome , then of truth . For the time hath bene , that euen I also haue beleeued the same , both of my selfe , and of others ; but when it came to the tryall , then I saw how farre of I was . Lew. Thinke you then that I haue no faith ? Fred. I am not of opinion that you haue no faith Lewis , but I thinke you haue so slender a faith , as it cannot rightly bee said to be faith , or saue you . And I pray you bee not offended with mee , for in as much as you haue said that you are ready to all things , be they neuer so hard , it is meet afore all things that you shold suffer to haue it shewed , that you want the thing which you weene you haue aboundantly : & soothly , the first entrance to the knowledge of truth , is to vnlearne the vntruth , or else there will be no roome for seede , where all is ouergrowne with weeds . Come on therefore : let vs examine your beliefe . I pray you Lewis , when you were a child did you beleeue in your father ? Lew. What meane you by beléeuing in my father ? Fred. That you tooke him for your father , and depended wholly vpon him . Lew. Yea that I did . Fred. Then if you wanted any thing , as shooes , apparell , or meate , you resorted to none but him , neither doubted you any whit his good will towards you . Lew. Surely no more then of mine owne . Fred. Againe , if any mis-hap befel you , you had your eye vpon him onely . Lew. Yea verily . Fred. Also if he promised you any thing , you doubted not of his performance . Lew. No more then if I had had the thing already in my hand . Fred. Then tooke you no thought for his behauiour towards you , but onely of your owne towards him . Lew. You say truly . Fred. Moreouer , if he either commanded you any thing , or did any thing himselfe , whereof you being a child knew not the reason , or which seemed to you against reason : yet notwithstanding you did it , and stood not skanning doubtfully vpon his doings . Le. So is it . For vpon a time , whē new grapes were broght in , & he bad me tread vpon thē with my féet , surely me thought it was a fond thing to treade vpon so good and faire grapes , which I had rather should haue bene saued to eate . But because he was my father , I thought he cōmanded me not without a cause , & therefore I obeied him . Also at another time , whē he shredded his vines , & grafted trées to my séeming it was against reasō to cut off y e boughs which nature had brought forth , & which were likely to haue broght forth fruit . But yet this thought ran alwaies in my minde , Unlesse this were good , my father would not do it . Fred. Now let vs come vnto God. You say you beleeue in God the Father , & by that name you call vpon him , saying : Our Father which art in heauen , and so forth . Surely it is meete therefore that you should depend vpon him no lesse then you depended vpon your father when you were a child . Lew. Yea. Fred. Then if you want any thing , you fly vnto God alone , and you doubt not at all but that hee will giue you all things bountifully . What ? Doubt yee ? why answer you not my Lewis ? Confesse the truth , and let not fleshly feare restraine you , which is wont to with-hold men frō being aknown of their vices , because they are afraid , lest hee to whom they be to be vttered , should mislike of them as of sinful folk , or make the lesse account of thē . But there is no such perrill toward you at my hand : for I cannot finde in my heart to mislike of any man for those things which I both see & bewaile in my selfe not long agoe ; and I doubt not , but are in others also , vnlesse they bee come already to their wayes end , which certesse we two ( that is to say , you and I ) haue not yet attained vnto ; neither will I make the lesse account of you for confessing the things with your mouth to your friend , which I am sure you acknowledge already in your heart . Lew. O my Frederike I am ashamed to be acknowne of it . Uerily I am ( yea euen very sore ) afraid lest I should want bread and drinke , and such other things , specially when I sée I haue but a little money left , and no likely meane at hand whereby to get new money . Fred. What if you haue your purse full , or some meane in a readinesse whereby to come by money ? thē you take no thought at all , or at least-wise , your thought is the lesse . Lew. It is so . Fred. Ergo , you trust to your money , or to your owne policy , more then to God. Lew. Truly it is euen so . Fred. But when you were a child , you trusted onely to your father . Lew. Yea. Fred. Now then you see how you beleeue not in God , but in your mony , and in your owne policy . Verily I beleeue these things seeme boysterous vnto you , in that you be not able to deny them , and yet are either doubtful or ashamed to confesse them so soone . But enforce your selfe Lewis . Many things are to bee sifted out which lye lurking in our hearts , and the very root must be gone vnto , without the plucking vp whereof we cannot bee saued . Let vs go on . What say you to aduersitie Lewis ? Is your minde nothing troubled at it ? Lew. Yes very sore . I can very ill away with it ; and besides that , I séeke all the corners of my wit for worldly helpe . Fred. What do you concerning Gods promises ? Hee hath promised to giue all things needfull for your life , if you first seeke his kingdome and righteousnesse . Do you certainly beleeue that promise , so as you doubt no more of his faithfulnesse then you did of your fathers when you were a child . Lew. Alas , I am farre from it . Fred. But if your neigbour Henry Rottenfield , a rich man , and ( in account of the world ) a man of good credit , had promised you three hundred crownes , I am of opinion you were ridde of that care for a good sort of yeares . Lew. Yea that I were . Fred. Now God hath promised not 300. crownes , but all things that you haue need of , and yet you distrust him . Lew. O how truly you say ? Fred. Lesse therefore doe you beleeue in God , I say not than in your owne father , but than in Henry Rottenfield . Lew. I am compelled to confesse the truth . Fred. And yet men may start from their promises , either through vntrustinesse , or for want : wherof none of both can befall vnto God. You therefore by this distrust of yours , doe falsly accuse God , either of vntrustinesse , or of want . Lew. I do so indéed . Fred. Now if you doe thus distrust of God in the sustenance of your body , which notwithstanding you haue neuer wanted to this houre , can you trust to him for the blessed & endlesse life which you neuer yet tasted of ? For consider the matter after this sort with your selfe : If a king should now send an Embassadour vnto you to adopt you for his son , and you beleeued him , how would you behaue your selfe ? Lew. Truly what substance soeuer I haue , I would make no reckoning at all of it ; & being here as a Way farer in body , I should haue my minde running vpon the Court : for a much like thing happened to me when I was a stripling . For whereas I liued in very slender state , I was called into the houshold of a certaine Gentleman of great worship and wealth , wherupon I felt my mind so altered , y t I thought of none of the things which I had thought of before , neither was I pincht with any further care . Insomuch that when my father & my mother were about to haue sent me a little money , I sent them word againe , that thenceforth I should néed no money . What néed many words ? I imagined aforehand in my minde , a kinde of fashion of the buildings , and of the place , and of the persons among whom I was to dwell , and yet had I neuer seene them . Fred. I beleeue you Lewis . For I my selfe haue had experience of the like . But what if you had not beleeued that message ? Lew. Surely I had continued in mine old state still . Fred. And what if a man had seene you abiding in your former state ? might he not well haue auowed , that you beleeued not the message ? Lew. Yes , very well . Fred. Now let vs come to the matter . To them that loue God , God hath promised such good things , as neither eye hath seene , nor eare heard , nor heart of man conceiued . Let vs confesse the truth here also my Lewis . If we beleeued this promise throughly , should not our mindes be rauished vp into heauen , so as no earthly care might touch vs , & much lesse trouble vs ? Lew. Yes verily . Fred. But now when wee bee glad of gaine , sory for losse , greatly grieued and cast downe with reproch , hoysed vp with honour , and ouerioyed with pleasure ; all which things are earthly : is it not an apparant proofe , that we beleeue not Gods promises , but sticke still to the earthly inheritance ? Lew. Yes that it is . Fred. What if God should promise vs some thing that might seeme vnpossible , as when he promised old Abraham a son by Sara , being old and barren too ? Or what if hee should command vs a thing that might seeme vnreasonable ? as when he willed the said Abraham to offer vp his sonne in sacrifice , by which sonne he had promised him an off-spring without number . Lew. Surely I am afraid wee would not beleeue him . Fred. And yet was Abraham the father of the faithfull ; so , as if we will bee saued , we must haue the faith of Abraham . And thus much concerning beliefe in the Father . Now if we come to the Sonne , I feare me , we much lesse beleeue in him . For I take not faith ( as a number thinke it ) to be a beleeuing that Christ hath done and suffered the things which are written of him : for as for that faith or beliefe , the very diuels haue it . But I speake of the true , liuely , & mightfull faith , which is able euen to remoue mountaines ; whereof the Lord speaketh thus . The signes that shal follow those which beleeue , are these : In my name they shall cast out Diuels , speake with new tongues , and driue away serpents : if they drinke any deadly thing it shal not hurt them . When they lay their hands vpon sicke folkes , the sicke folkes shall recouer . Doe these tokens follow your faith , Lewis ? Lew. No verily , Fred. Then you haue not faith . Lew. Why ? They deny that there is now any néede of myracles . Fred. Neither do I now require any such , neither were they at that time wrought by all beleeuers . For Paul writeth : Do all worke myracles ? Haue all the gifts of healing ? Doe all speake with tongues ? The thing that I require , is the same that Peter requireth : Get you strength to your faith , ( saith he . ) For needs must the faith of any man or of any time haue strength , if it bee matched with loue . Which thing , that you may the better vnderstand , consider the force of worldly beliefe . A man beleeues that riches are good , and that it is possible for him to attaine to it by merchandise . Hereupon , leauing oftentimes a very faire and deare-beloued wife , and yong children at home , hee vndertakes the vnmeasurable perils of robbers , of waies , and of seas , and endureth intollerable pains to feth the riches whereon hee hath set his beliefe and loue , euen from Taprobane , and the Isles of Canarie , which are the vttermost parts of the world : and it is his beliefe that purchaseth him this stoutnesse . For vnlesse he beleeued , he would not do it . And therefore it may bee said that this man is enriched by beliefe . What shall wee say of Learning , Lewis ? The child beleeueth that learning and humane arts are a very goodly thing , and to bee sought with all his power . And thereupon applying himselfe to them day and night , hee endureth pouertie , cold , and whatsoeuer else , in seking them with all his might , to the intent hee may attaine to the thing which hee beleeueth to bee good . Also what do souldiers ? What kind of calamity is there which they vndertake not , to obtaine either victory or reward ▪ How often watch they all the night long How often are they pinched with hunger , insomuch that sometimes they eate Mice , Rats , Horses , yea & euen their own shooes , and afterward make their boast thereof ? Whence haue they so great strength ? Whence , but of beliefe ? For they beleeue the thing which they couet , to be good . Againe , what do hunters doe ? do they not spend oftentimes the whole winter nights abroad , when the cold is so great that it giueth euen the flints ? Yea and what do louers ? what inconueniences do they not most gladly endure to the intent to please the partie whom they be in loue withall ? And still they deeme themselues happy that they haue suffered those things for her sake . And this force of beliefe is seene , no onely in seuerall persons , but also euen in whole nations . For whereof comes it , that our Italians doe so easily absteine from drunkennesse ? or that the Swissers are so resolute in battell , that they will rather be slaine then flye ? Euen of this , that they are perswaded in themselues , that so they ought to doe . And surely if they perswaded themselues alike in all other vertues , they should excell alike in all other vertues . Many other things of the same sort may be gathered : so great is the power of the beliefe that worketh in thē . Therefore let vs examine our faith , that we may seee whether Christs spirit do dwell in vs or no. Christ telleth vs that they bee blessed which doe hunger and thirst after righteousnesse : and hee commandeth vs to hoord vp treasure in heauen . Come on . Doe you feele as great thirst of righteousnesse , as euer you haue selt at any time of water ? or as great desire of Gods kingdome , as the couetous man feeleth desire of money ? Doe you watch day and night to please God ? Haue you euer spent a whole yeare or twaine in the study of godlinesse ? Lew. Nothing lesse . Fred. Well : What strength haue you in suffering of wrongs ? If a mā strike you on the right cheeke , can you turne to him the left ? Can you blesse him that curseth you ? Can you wish well to him that reuileth you ? Can you pray for him that raileth vpon you ? Can you seeke his welfare which practiseth your death ? Lew. Soothly , I am very farre off from these things . Fred. Then doe you not beleeue in Christ. For if you did , you would obey his commandements . Lew. But I neuer referred beléefe to this obedience . Fred. What manner of thing then did you take faith to be ? Lew. I tooke it to be a trust of Gods frée-bestowed mercy , offered vnto vs in Christ. Fred. To what purpose then deeme you Christs commandements to serue ? Lew. To put vs in minde of our infirmitie , in that we be not able to performe the things which we ought to doe , and so to make vs hang wholly vpon Christ , who hath performed them for vs , and imparteth them vnto vs. Fred. Euen the Apostles themselues trusted to Gods free-bestowed mercy , & yet they obeyed Christs commandemēts . Neither doe I set saluation in our owne obedience , but in Gods free mercy . But this I say , that whosoeuer beleeueth Gods free mercy aright , obeyeth Christs commandements . And if a man doe beleeue but Gods free mercy onely , and not also his commandements , threatnings , promises , and sayings whatsoeuer : I say , his saith is maimed , and vnauaileable . For the full & mighty faith or beliefe , is that whereby the Saints haue subdued kingdomes , wrought righteousnes , obtained the promises , and done such other things as any man may wonder to think of thē . For that man doth not rightly beleeue in God , which vpon a rashnesse doth but onely beheight himselfe sauation by his free mercy , ( after which manner the Iewes do beleeue stil yet to this day : ) but he which doth so flatly yeeld credit and assent , not to some one peece of Gods sayings and doings , but to all of them : as you haue reported your selfe to haue beleeued your father when you were a child : or as wee spake of the couetous and lecherous persons , which haue such a faith or beliefe , as is not dead and idle , but effectuall and workfull , counterfeiting the spirit of Christ , and neuer resting till it haue obtained the thing that it desired . Such a one is the true Christian faith , which worketh through loue : and whosoeuer hath not such an one , doth falsly boast himself of saith . Therefore whereas men doe commonly challenge faith to themselues , and yet liue in all kinde of wickednesse , they lye , and haue not the true faith , but a dead one , which is no more worthy of the name of faith then a dead man is worthy of the name of a man. That this is not faith indeede , Christ himselfe sheweth sufficiently when he saith , that at his comming hee shall not finde faith vpon the earth . And also when vnto these which say , Lord , Lord , haue we not cast out Diuels in thy name ? Haue we not wrought wonders in thy name ? and hast thou not taught in our streetes ? hee shall say , I know you not , get you hence yee workers of wickednesse . Ye see he wil admit none for faithfull , but only the weldoers and the obeyers . For they be the only persōs which haue the true faith , of whom it is written thus : These are they which haue maintained Gods commandements , and the faith of Iesus . Now if you haue not the faith which may make you righteous , ( that is to say , chaste , lowly , gentle , liberal , and indued with such other of the vertues : ) see how far you be off from being able to worke the myracles which Christ hath told vs should be the signes of faith . I require not here bodily myracles , which were appoynted to the first trayning of the Church vnto faith : But the thing that I require , is , that he which beleeueth in Christ should breed the same vertues in other men , which God hath bred in him : that is to say , that of drunkards , he should make them sober : of lecherous , chaste : of irefull , milde : and at a word , of vnrighteous , righteous , For , to cast out Diuels , is to cast out the vices of lecherie , couetousnesse , wrathfulnesse , & such other . Also to speake with new tongs , is to speake with fiery & burning speech , such as no man can withstand ; of which sort theirs is , which speake the things , not which they haue heard , but which they haue seen with their eies , heard with their eares , and felt with their hands : that is to say , which they haue printed throughly in their hearts , & which they do as verily beleeue , as you do verily beleeue that it is now day , or that anone it shall bee night . With such tongues they be able , truly and effectually to comfort the afflicted , to hearten the weake minded , to releeue them that are in despaire , to strengthen the feeble , to counsell the fearefull , and to performe such other things , which I make farre greater account of , then of the working of outward myracles , and of such as belong but onely to the body . If a man haue not these things himselfe , he can conuey them into others : I see not by what right he cā claime faith , vnlesse it bee the faith which the Diuels haue , who do beleeue that there is a God , and do quake at him . But I speake of the true and iustifying faith , which maketh a man partaker of the nature of God , and causeth all things to bee possible to him . I haue shewed afore , how great force beliefe hath in matters of this world : and the same is to be seene euen in religion , be it false or true . The Turkes beleeue that wine is not to be drunke , & therefore they cannot forbeare wine . The Iewes beleeue that a man ought to absteine from the things which the law forbiddeth : & therfore they absteine . There are to be found which do pine themselues to death with long ouer-fasting : some whip themselues , I say not grieuously , but euen cruelly , till the bloud follow : other some for religion sake doe take vpon them long pilgrimages , wherein they endure beggery and many other inconueniences and perils . What shall I say of those which haue gelded themselues ? What shall I say of the Circumcellions , who ( as the report goeth of them ) to the intent to become Martyrs themselues , and to make otherfolks Martirs with them , destroied thēselues by sundry sorts of death , as drowning , burning , and leaping from high places ; and perswaded other men to do the like : al which they did throughly beleeue . For vnlesse they had beleeued that those things were to bee done , they would not haue done them . To be short , whatsoeuer thing men beleeue is to be done , they cā ( endeuor to ) do it . Now if their beliefe being false , and not only not grounded vpon Gods commādement , but alse cleane cōtrary thereunto , haue notwithstāding such strength : I pray you what is not that faith or beliefe able to do , which is both commanded , & also procured and strengthened by him ? Shal Gods spirit haue lesse power in man then the spirit of Sathan ? Shall light bee of lesse force then darknesse ? Ye see what force Paules faith had : Vnto this howre , ( saith hee ) we be hungry and thirsty , naked , and buffeted ; we bee tossed and turmoyled , we labour and worke with our owne hands . Being rayled at , wee wish well : being vexed , we suffer it : being reuiled , wee take comfort at it . If they be ministers of Christ , much more am I : In labour I exceede them : In taking stripes I goe beyond them : In being imprisoned I passe them : In death I haue often bene : Of the Iewes I haue fiue times receiued fortie stripes saue one . Thrice haue I bene whipped . Once haue I bene stoned : thrice haue I suffered shipwracke : day & night haue I spent in the deepe seas . Often haue I iourneyed . Often haue I bene in danger of Riuers , of Robbers , of mine owne Countrymen , & of strangers ; in the Citie , in the Wildernesse , on the sea , and amongst false brethren : Often haue I bin tired with trauelling and with watching : often haue I fainted for hunger and thirst in fasting : often haue I bene a cold for want of cloathes . And besides , all the other things which daily distresse me , verily the care of all Churches lyeth vpon me . Who is weakened and I am not the worse at ease for it ? who is offended and I am not grieued at it ? This is the almightie strength of faith Lewis , wherewith he being armed , was enabled to do al things by him which strēgthned him : and if we haue the same strength , then surely there is cause for vs to thinke our selues to haue the same faith : if not , thē let vs not beare our selues in hand that wee haue the thing which we wāt ; lest it befal vnto vs as it doth to that man which dreameth that he hath found a treasure , and when he awaketh , he hath not an halfepeny ? Lew. O my Fredericke , my imagination that I abounded in faith , is but a dreame : but now being wakened by your words , I sée plainly , that I am quite and cleane without it , as the rest of the world is . For as for this effectuall power of faith , I neither finde it in my selfe , nor perceiue it in the world . Fred. That you be faithlesse Lewis , it is to be lamented : but that being so , you see your self to be so , that is not only not to be lamēted , but also to be reioyced at : like as a sicknesse is it selfe to be misliked , but the knowledge of the sicknesse is to bee well liked . Lew. By what meane then , or by what medicine may this my disease of vnbeliefe be cured ? Fred. By taking away the impedimēts of vnbeliefe . Lew. Which are those ? Fred. You haue heard them of me already in my former talke . Howbeit for asmuch as you haue scantly cōceiued them , as things that your eares haue not heard of : for our maner is not to bee ouerhasty in bearing words or things away which we haue not heard of afore , I will tell you thē more plainly . Giue good heed . What thinke you to bee the cause why no man in matters of iustice , is admitted to bee a witnesse in his owne case ? Lew. Because all men doe loue themselues , and therefore will euer speake for themselues , or at least wise , neuer against themselues . Fred. You say rightly . And if they bee not willing to speake against themselues , neither are they willing to heare any thing against themselues . For the truth that is against them , misliketh them lesse out of another mans mouth , then out of their owne . Lew. It doth so . Fred. And if they be vnwilling to heare those things , truly they be not willing to beleeue thē . For no mā wil willingly beleeue the things which he is loath to heare of : but al men do easily beleeue the things which they like of . As for example . If a man should say , that the goods of Christians ought to be common among them , whether sort would easiliest beleeue it , the rich or the poore ? Lew. The poore . Fred. Why so ? Lew. Because that by that match they should not lose , but rather win . Fred. What would the rich folke doe ? Lew. Hardly , or not at al rather , would they beleeue it ; because they should thereby become the poorer , which thing they mislike of . Fred. What if a man should deny that mens soules are deliuered out of Purgatory by Masses ? whether would the Clergie or the Laytie soonest beleeue it ? Lew. Not the Clergie because that opinion would bee a diminishing of their reuenewes . Lewis . What if it should bee said that vsurie were vnlawful for Christians : were it possible to make those beleeue it which liue vpon vsurie , and become rich by it ? Lew. Scarcely . Fr. What if one should teach , that men ought not to bee put to death for religion : whether would they soonest beleeue it which are in credit with the Magistrats , and are Diuines themselues , and yet are persecuters of other men , or at the leastwise willing to persecute them ; or the contrary sort ? Lew. The contrary sort . For I know some Diuines , who as long as they wanted that authority , and were troubled for religiōs sake , taught that men ought not to be molested for religion . And yet the selfe same persons hauing gotten wealth and authority , haue both taught & done the contrary . Fred. You see then how faith is hindered by selfe-loue , so as men do not easily beleeue the things that are contrary to their liking . Lew. I sée it plainly . Fred. Let vs consider then whether the same cause bee not an impediment to our beliefe in Christ. In the doctrine of Christ are histories , promises , and commandements . As for the histories , and promises , almost all men beleeue them , because that in them no duty on mans behalfe is required . Neither is there any controuersie among Christians , whether Christ haue done the things which are reported of him in the holy Scriptures , or whether he haue promised the things that are conteyned there . But what is the cause that so few beleeue his commandements ? Lew. Do fewer folke beléeue his commandements , then do beléeue his doings and promises ? Fred. Doubt you of that ? First , as touching Gods commandements , whereas our maisters vniuersally be wont to teach , that they be not set downe to the intent we should obey them , but to make vs acknowledge our infirmities : what else is it then a discrediting of Gods commandements . For seeing our Lord hath said , that all things are possible to him that beleeueth : and Paul saith , he is able to doe all things through him that strgēthneth him : surely that man which not onely obeyeth not Gods commandements , but also beleeueth that it is vnpossible to obey them , doth not beleeue the commandements aright . Whereupon it followeth , that looke how few folke obey the commandements , so few do beleeue them . Lew. But this saying which you alledge , namely , that all things are possible to the beléeuer , séemeth to bee spoken of myracles , and not obedience . Fred. It is spoken generally of all the workes of faith which I spake of in alledging that place of the Epistle to the Hebrewes . Through faith the Saints conquered kingdomes , wrought righteousnesse , &c. For surely , to worke righteousnes is a deed of faith . Besides this , if Gods wil be , that mē should through faith be able to work myracles , which notwithstāding are not of the necessity of their saluation : much more is it his will that they shold by the same faith be able to obey his commandements ; seeing that without obedience a man cannot be saued : and that to obey is not a harder matter then to work myracles ; and yet that to obey belongeth to all beleeuers : whereas to work myracles belongeth not to all , as I haue shewed afore . Lew. Indeede these things are true Fredericke , but yet there remaineth one thing which I would faine haue opened vnto me . You said euen now , that all men beleeue Christs histories , but not his cōmandements likewise . But if they beleeued y e whole story of Christ , & specially his resurrection , in my opinion they should beleeue all the other things also . For no doubt but if they beleeued that Iesus Christ is risen from the dead , in so doing they should both beleeue that he is the very sonne of God indeed , and moreouer giue credit to all his sayings . In which respect Iohn said : These things are written to the intent yee might beléeue that Iesus is the annoynted sonne of God ; and that through beleeuing it , yée should obtaine life by his name . Fred. Whereas I deny that they beleeue his commandements , I would not haue it so taken , as though they beleeued not that his commanding of those things was well , and as became the sonne of God to doe : but that forasmuch as they beleeue not that the things which he commanded to be done , are either possible or needfull to be done , misconstruing them after their own fancy , & not according to his mind : I say they beleeue them not aright . For your better vnderstanding whereof , I will giue you an example . When God hauing brought the children of Israel out of Aegypt , commanded them to enter into the land of Canaan , did they beleeue that God commanded it ? Lew. Yea verily . Or else they would neuer haue sent spies into the land of Canaan . Fred. Why then did they not obey him ? Lew. Because they were of opinion that the Canaanites could not bee ouercome ; and that God had brought them out of Egypt , not to conquer Canaan , but to perish wretchedly in the wildernesse . Fred. Then did they not beleeue Gods commandement according to Gods meaning ; forasmuch as his meaning was that they should haue inuaded Canaan , & subdued the Canaanites . Lew. You say the truth . Fred. Thē did they not beleeue aright Lew. No , not aright . Fred. Whether then are they to be called beleeuers , or vnbeleeuers ? Lew. Truly by this reason they should be called vnbeléeuers . Fred. And soothly so they be ( Lewis ) in very deede . For in the very same place God calleth them vnbeleeuers in these words : How long will this people spite me ? How long will it be ere they will beleeue me , for all the miracles which I haue wrought among thē ? Now if these be iustly called vnbeleeuers , the same reason leadeth vs to call the others vnbeleeuers , and distrusters of Christs commandements , forasmuch as they do no lesse misconstrue the precepts of Christ , thā the Israelites did the commandements of God. For Christ hath not wrought fewer miracles to vs , then Moses did to them . Neither did Christ command vs lesse earnestly to subdue sin , then God commanded them to subdue the Canaanites . Neither are we lesse spiteful & distrustful towards him , if we deny that sin may be subdued , when as hee both commandeth vs , and promiseth vs strength ; then they were spitefull and distrustfull towards God , in denying it to be possible to ouercome the Canaanites . Neither do we offend lesse against the meaning of Christ , when we deny that it is either possible for vs , or meant by Christ , that wee should do the things which he hath commanded vs to doe , then the Israelites offended against the meaning of God , when they wrested it another way then his open words imported . And therefore in denying them to beleeue Christs commandements , I do them no wrong . As touching the place of Iohn by you alledged , it is to be taken as if a man should haue said at that time to the Israelites , GOD hath wrought these miracles for your sakes in Aegypt , to the intent you should beleeue , and by beleeuing , enter into the resting place of Canaan . But the cause why all of them came not there , was not Gods purpose , but their owne hardening of their hearts against him : which thing would God were not done in Christ also . But we see it is so : howbeit the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews warneth vs not to do it , citing this saying out of a certaine Psalme : To day if ye heare his voyce , harden not your hearts , as your forefathers did harden theirs . Therefore to returne againe to the matter : Whereas these men are wont so diligently to picke out the things to beleeue , which belong to the office of God , & to refuse the things that pertaine to the duty of man , I pray you what a dealing is it ? Gods gracious goodnesse hath yeelded saluation to all men : O how gladly is this admitted ? But as for that which followeth , namely , to teach vs to forsake vngodlinesse and worldly lusts , & to liue soberly , righteously , & godlily in this world , that is a seede which fewe men receiue . Many beleeue that Christ hath so performed that poynt , as that wee neede not to performe the same . Againe , that the man is blessed to whom the Lord imputeth no sinne , is easily beleeued of all men : but as for that which is annexed to it , namely , and in whose heart there is no guile , that they beleeue to be impossible . Likewise , it is commonly vaunted with full mouth , that they which are in Christ Iesus , are not subiect to any condemnation : for it is a very sweete saying indeed : but as for this , Which walke not after the flesh , but after the spirit , it is bitter , and of very fewe beleued . And ( to make fewe words ) men doe easily beleeue that they shall reape with ioy : but if you tell them that they must sow with teares , they put that sentence ouer vnto Christ. Hereupon it cometh to passe , that the false prophets , because they teach delectable things , and blaze abroad Gods pleasāt promises with open mouth , do easily finde credit : whereas the true Prophets , because they vrge men , & make them afraid with threats , & teach the truth seuerely , do beare sway among very few ; according as Esay crieth out : Lord who hath beleeued our preaching ? Hereby it appeareth plainly ( my Lewis ) that selfe-loue is the lot that men beleeue not the truth . And if self-loue were done away , they would beleeue nothing so easily as the truth , as who are born vnto truth , and doe by and by fall in acquaintance with it , as a thing of their owne kinne , if there bee no impediment to let it . Therefore if you will rightly beleeue the truth , ( that is to say , God , ) you must needes put away selfe-loue , or rather conceiue a hatred towards your selfe . Lew. Truly Frederike ▪ you win me to be of your mind in these things : but it is no smal matter for a man to hate himself . Neither do I sée how I may attaine vnto it , or yet perceiue whether it bee possible for me to attaine thereto , I am so farre in loue with my selfe . Fred. I know Lewis , that it is a very hard thing , and passing the strength of a mā but in this case we must beare in mind , how that when Sara beleeued not that she might breed child , our Lord said of her : Is there any thing which God cannot do ? The things that are vnpossible to man , are possible to God , and where God is our guide , nothing is to be despaired of . Lew. I beseech you then shew me the way to attaine thereunto . Fred. By Gods leaue I will do it : giue eare vnto me . If I had a seruant in whom I very much delighted , faire-spoken , and seruiceable , which should prepare mee some meates that best liked mine appetite , & with the same meats should mingle poyson to bereaue me of my life ; and you , who loue mee , should haue knowledge thereof , what would you do ? Lew. Surely I would spéedily and earnestly giue you warning , that you should not taste of those meates , nor loue that seruant ; for that hée lay in waite for your life . Fred. What if I should say , that I am delighted with the seruiceable behauiour of that seruant , and with the sweetnesse of his cooquery ? Lew. I would counsell you that you should not make so great account of your present pleasure , as to lose your life for it . Fred. What if some friend of yours were in loue with a flattering and painted harlot , which were diseased with the French pockes ▪ and you knew of it : what would you doe ? Lew. I would make him priuy to her disease , and ( to the vttermost that I could ) I would disswade him from her company . Fred. What if hee said he were delighted with her ? Lew. I would tell him that fishes also are delighted with baites : but yet that it were folly to purchase so small pleasure with so great sorrows , or rather with death . Fred. What if hee should say , that hee cannot but like well of the pleasure ? Lew I would counsell him , that if hée could not yet restraine the desire of his mind , he should at least-wise resist it , and not yéeld to obey it . Fred. But what if hee obeyed it for all that ? Lew. Then would I thinke him foolisher then the brute beasts , and worthy of any mischiefe . For fishes , wolues , foxes , puttockes ▪ and such other , bee they neuer so hungry , will neuerthelesse forbeare the baite , if they spye or mistrust any snare , or any thing wherewith they may bee caught . Fred. You say truth Lewis . Thus then standeth the case . Euery mans owne flesh is as a harlot ( as Iudas termeth it in his Epistle , ) yea and a painted harlot , which with her enticements and faire fawnings , doth allure , delight , and egge the man to sinne , and hold him downe in sin , and at length throwe him downe into death of the soule . And man being ignorant of the poyson , embraceth the pleasures , and yeeldes himselfe ouer to them . Now commeth in truth as a friend vnto him , and warneth him that the wages of sinne is death , declaring vnto him that his flesh whom he tooke to haue bene his friend , is his deadly enemy . Therefore if thou desire to be saued , thou must beleeue that thou hast not a more noysome enemy to thee then thy selfe , that is to say , then thy flesh , or thy lustfulnes ; & that as thou hast hitherto loued it , thou must hēceforth hate it & resist it , because it is noysome & deadly . And although thou canst not rid away her allurements out of hand , as indeede thou canst not , for they sticke fast to thee : the truth will say vnto thee , as it said in old time vnto Moses ; Goe thy way into Aegypt ( for it lyeth in thee to doe that ) and I will bee with thy mouth , and I will enable thee to doe that which thou canst not do . Euen so Lewis , the truth saith vnto thee as now : Do thou what thou art able , and God will enable thee to doe that which thou canst not do . As for examples sake . Thou sittest at a well furnished table , and hast eaten inough already to refresh thy powers , and to staunch hunger . Now there is brought in some delicate dishe , made to prouoke gluttony withall . By and by thy flesh is tempted with it , and putteth such an imagination as this in thy head : This is a fine dish , if I eate of it , I shall receiue pleasure by it . But the spirit striueth against the flesh , and warneth thee thus : Beware Lewis , that thou yeeld not vnto voluptuousnesse , for voluptuousnesse is a poysoner . For first , it calleth away thy mind from God , than the which there can be no greater mischiefe : for seeing that no man can serue two maisters , thou canst not serue both voluptuousnes & God ; because voluptuousnesse ouerwhelmeth the mind , beareth it downe to the ground , and separateth it from God. Besides this , it also hurteth the body with surfetting , insomuch that although thou hadst no soule , yet oughtest thou to abstaine from superfluity , euen for thy bodies sake . I require not now that you should not be tempted with the inticements of the flesh , but that you should not obey them . And whereas you alledge that you cannot but obey thē , you be easily disproued . For if a man would giue you a floren to abstein frō the said dish , would you not absteine ? ( Yes . ) And will you not absteine by reason of the truth ? Do you not hereby bewray , that the truth beareth lesse sway with you then one floren ? Or if some man should threaten that he would giue you a blow on the eare if you refrained not : surely you would refraine . Behold God threatneth a blow vnto your soule , and yet you refraine not . The like I say of all other things . You be minded to haue to do with a whore , but because a boy is by , you doe it not . Behold God is present , and yet you be not ashamed to do it . Do you not now make lesse account of Gods presence then of the presence of a boy ? Or if you forbeare for feare of punishment at mans hand , and not as well for feare of Gods punishment : doe you not preferre man before God ? You are angry with a man , and would faine cudgel him , but you forbeare for feare of the magistrate : Why forbeare you not as well for feare of God ? I pray you make as great reckoning of God , as you doe of men ; why doth the feare of God beare lesse sway with you then the feare of men ? You slaunder your neighbour : God seeth the slaunder , and yet you do it neuerthelesse . But if men saw it , you would not do it . Run through all things after the same sort Lewis , & you shall see that whosoeuer doth more for the loue or feare of men , then of God , doth beleeue in men rather then in God. Lew. O my Fredericke , my conscience beareth me witnesse , that y e things which you say , be true and rightfull : but thereof springeth a griefe in my heart . Lew. Why so ? did you feele any such griefe when we treated of Predestination , or of Free-will ? Lew. No , none at all . Fred. I beleeue you Lewis . For knowledge bringeth no griefe , but rather gladnesse , as which leaueth the old man vnminished . For although you could skill of all maner of mysteries , yet might you serue the Diuell euer stil. But now when we deale with the forsaking of our selues , the flesh perceiuing that she must goe to wracke for it ▪ playeth as harlots are wont to doe when young men giue them ouer . They vexe them with the desire of them , and try all meanes to hold them still . Euen so that harlot the flesh , which bewitcheth al men with the cup of her vncleannesse , as soone as shee perceiueth that a man mindeth to giue her the slippe , doth vexe him with the desire of her still , and leaueth nothing vnattempted , that shee may hold him still . Hereof breedeth great griefe , according to the greatnesse of the loue towards the flesh ; like as if you were to forsake your country , looke how much you were in loue with your country , so much would it grieue you to forgo it . And surely sin is our country , ( for in sin haue our mothers conceiued vs ) which cannot bee forsaken without griefe . Here is that crosse of Christ , wherof he himselfe saith , If any man be minded to come after mee , let him take vp his crosse and follow me . And if any man come vnto me , & hate not father & mother , wife & children , brethrē and sisters , yea and euen his owne life , so as he be contented to beare his crosse and to follow me , he cannot bee my Disciple . And to the intent you may vnderstand what the hating of a mans selfe is , & what crosse it bringeth with it , consider it throughly by the hating of another man. If you hated a man deadly , how would you bee minded towards him ? or what would you do to him ? Lew. I would wish him all euill euen from my heart , & likewise enuy him any good : I would be sorry for his welfare , and glad of his aduersity . If a man brought me word of any mischāce of his . I would reioyce at it , & gētly entertain him , & liberally reward the messēger with some gift . To be short , I would loue mine enemies foes , and do them good ; & I would hate his friends , and do them harme if I could . All his sayings and doings would I prye at , and take aduantage of them , and by all meanes possible ( yea many times euen to mine own harme ) would I hurt him . Finally I would kill him if I could , and that not by any common maner , but with the grieuousest death that could be : and I would doe what I could to wipe the very remembrance of him out of the world . Fred. Now turne this your hatred Lewis , towards your selfe : for you are a deadly enemy to your selfe , & ought to hate your selfe deadly , & not other men , who cānot kill you , that is to say , your soule . And therefore you must take pains to wish all maner of euill , yea & euen death to your selfe , that is to say , to your flesh ; and to enuy her all good things , and to bee sory for her prosperity , and to be glad of her aduersity . And that if any man tel you any thing amisse of your selfe , you may reioice thereat in spirit , & liberally reward the reporter thereof : and ( to bee short ) that you may deuise and do all things against your selfe , as men are wont to do against those with whō they be at deadly hate , & that you neuer rest till you haue killed your selfe . And forasmuch as no man hath euer yet hated his owne flesh , ( as saith S. Paul ) you must first and formost bee diuorced from your flesh , that shee may no longer be your flesh , but strange flesh : and in her steed you must place the spirit , betweene whom and the flesh there can neuer be any more concord or agreement then betweene fire and water . Lew. O my Fredericke , to tell you the truth , mee thinkes the things that you speake of , are as hard as stone . Fred. I beleeue you Lewis , and so must it needs be . But bee of good cheere , and begin euen now to loue me in spirit , because I am an aduersarie to your flesh . For it is for your benefite , and you cannot bee saued so long as your flesh is aliue . Wherefore if you will be saued , see that ye hate your selfe , and forsake your selfe . And I will tell you an example of this forsaking . If a seruant giue ouer himselfe in bondage to you , he abandoneth himselfe , that is to say , his owne libertie and will , thenceforth to follow your will and not his owne . Oftentimes when hee would sleepe , he must watch if his maister command him : when he would goe abroade , hee must tarry at home : when hee would play he must worke : and ( at a word ) he so forgoeth his owne freedome , that if he be asked what he will do , or what he mindeth to do , he must answer , what his maister listeth , at whose appointment hee is . So we ( if wee belong to Christ , who hath bought vs at a great price , ) are not at our owne disposition or appoyntment , but at Christs : and therefore wee must doe , not what we list , but what he listeth ; and worthily . For if hee , being the way and the truth , did notwithstanding so submit his will to the will of his Father , that he said , Not my will be done , but thine : what becometh it vs to do , which are ouer couered with errours and leasings ? Therefore when you be about to bee angry without cause , you must restraine your anger at the appoyntment of Christ. When you would giue your selfe to voluptuousnesse , you must absteine , and giue your selfe to sorrowing . When you would bee auenged of any body , you must forgiue him . When you would doe a man harme , you must doe him good . When you would laugh , you must weep . When you would sue for honour , you must endure shame . When you would seeke riches , you must suffer pouerty . And ( to be short ) you must in such wise depart from your own wil , as if you be asked what you would , you may answer , nothing but what Christ listeth . And all these things shal you do through faith : for vnlesse you beleued , you would not do thē . But it is necessary to be vnderstood , what is meant by this saying of S. Paules , that we must proceede from faith to faith . There is a certaine first and vnperfect beliefe , whereby a man is moued to renounce himselfe . This being once kindled , becommeth daily greater by a mans holding on , vntill at length hee become so farre , that he doth as certainly beleeue all Gods sayings , commandements , promises , and threatnings : as you beleeue that the day shal succeed the night . Hence springeth that almightie power of faith , wherethrough it is able to remoue mountaines : so as there is no pride , no couetousnesse , no lecherie , nor ( to be short ) no vice so huge and great , which that faith is not able to put away , and to plucke vp by the roote . Howbeit ere euer a man attaine to that strength , hee is to endure many hard things in the way of his forsaking of himselfe ; and without such hardnesse there is no accesse to be had to that strength ; like as a figge or a grape cannot become sweet except it be first sowre . And because I my selfe haue not yet attained the victory , but do yet still sweate in the incounter of forsaking my selfe , and as yet am farre off from the garland : I will say no more concerning the victory , that is to say , concerning the thing which is vnknowne to me : but yet as much as I can , I will helpe you ( by Gods grace ) in the incounter , if you wil be my companion . Lew. Truly for my part , although my selfe do shudder & start backe at it , yet am I carried with my spirit and mind , to follow you . For I sée no other way for a man to be saued , but by departing out of his owne nature , that hee may put vpon him the nature of Christ ; and by caring , studying , striuing , and taking paines , to repaire the image , whereafter we were created . And therefore beséeching God y t it may be to his glory , 〈◊〉 mine owne saluation , henceforth I yeeld my selfe into this way , as a follower of Christ , taking God for my guide . Fred. And I thanke God for this willingnesse which he hath giuen you , beseeching him to finish his worke which hee hath begun in you ; and to bring you to that poynt , that yee may at length serue righteousnesse , as ye haue serued vnrighteousnesse ; which thing hee will vndoubtedly do , except you grieue his spirit , and cast it out through your disobedience . Finally , of this I will warne you , that you must haue a rich faith , because you beleeue in him that is rich in doing good . For men haue euer sinned in beleeuing vnto wardly , and more niggardly of Gods gracious goodnesse , then they ought to do . Abraham and Sara were rebuked for laughing , as though it had bene a matter to be laughed at , that God promised them issue when they were both old , and Sara moreouer barraine . Zacharias the father of Iohn Baptist , was striken dumbe for a time , because hee beleeued not the Angels words . We be commonly more forward in following the weake beleefe ( or if I may so terme it ) the vnbeleefe of the godly , then in following their full and rich beliefe . Why doe wee not rather follow those which durst beleeue all things ? Elizeus durst craue double the spirit of Elias , ( which soothly was a great thing euen by the record of Elias himselfe ) and yet he obtained it : so vnpossible is it for any faith to be so great , but that Gods gracious goodnesse and power doe surmount the same . All things ( saith he ) are possible to the beleeuer . Againe , Whatsoeuer you aske , beleeue that you shall obteine it , and yee shall haue it in deede . Remember ( I say ) the saying of Elizeus , speaking after this maner to the poore woman : Borrow oyle vessels of thy neighbours , yea borrow a great sort , and the Lord will fill them all full . Euen so Lewis , let vs do our endeuour , that wee may haue such a faith , as may be able to receue the greatest good things , and let vs be bold to beleeue that God both can and wil bring to passe , that wee shall loue him alone with our whole heart , soule , power , and strength . And hee of his owne gracious goodnesse , will bestowe all thinges vpon vs , much more largely then we can euen thinke , for his Sonne , our Lord Iesus Christs sake , to whom be honour , glory and dominion for euer . Amen . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A20398-e100 2 Thes. 1.11 . Rom. 6.2.4 . Prou. 15. Rom. 5.1 . Gal. 5.6 . Notes for div A20398-e160 He beginneth at the difficulties of obeying GODS healthful commandements . The effectuall power & force of beliefe . The righteousnesse of the law , and why it beareth that name . Beliefe without obedience is dead : A godly & Christian wish concerning obedience . Beliefe in God is most necessary to the obtaining of saluation . Many things are easie to bee said which are hard to bee done . The first way to the knowledge of the truth What it is to beleeue in the Father , is shewed by the gathering together of certaine circumstāces . How needful obedience to the Father is , is shewed by examples . Fleshly feare , 〈…〉 . How belife in God is neglected , by trusting too much to these trāsitory & flightfull things . That Gods promises deceiue not the beleeuers . Two things may let mē frō performing their promises ▪ Honors change maners , as the common prouerbe saith . How boūtifull God is to them that loue him . Proofes or tokens of mistrust in God. Abrahams faith is of necessity to saluation . This ( as I take it ) is that which they call the historicall faith . The signes that are peculiar to the beleeuers . The force of worldly faith , and how wonderfully it moueth men . He proceedeth in shewing the strēgth of the worldly beleefe . How great force worldly beleefe hath euen amōg some whole Nations . A triall of Christian faith most worthy to be obserued . Where obedience is not , there is not faith The mark whereat mans saluatiō shooteth . What things our forefathers attained to by their faith . The fond & idle beliefe of the Iewes . The work fulnesse of Christian faith appeareth in charity . Who they bee which haue the true Christian faith To what purpose bodily myracles are wrought . The diuels that lurk within vs , and what is meant by speaking with new tongues . The works of such as speak with new tongs . Of the true & iustifying faith , & how mighty it is in working . No man doubts but that all these things are spoken of the wicked beleeuers . By an argument frō the lesser to the greater , he sheweth the force of true faith . Paules faith warranted by his owne record . What thing held Paul occupied chiefly & aboue all other things . The true faith hath scarce any place in the world . The impediments of faith shewed by an argument taken from the Court barre , or from a case in Law. An example by the vse of things in common . Another example by the deliuering of soules , &c. The last example by the persecution for religiōs sake . Selfe-loue is the hinderer of faith . There is no boubt among Christians cōcerning the doings of Christ : What is the cause that so few beleeue Gods commandements . Not myracles , but beliefe is needfull to saluation . The beleeuing of Christs resurrection maketh all the rest of his sayings & doings credible . What is meant by not beleeuing of Christs commādements , and who they be that offēd in that behalfe . How the Israelites beleeued not God in that they beleeued not his cōmādemēts How the place taken out of Iohn is to be vnderstood . Psalm . 95.8 Selfe loue dazeleth mens eyes that they cannot see to beleeue the truth . What is the cause why false Prophets do easily finde credit . We must 〈…〉 hate our selues , and not loue our selues . All things , be they else neuer so impossible are possible to the power of God. How pernicious selfe-loue is , is shewed by certaine familiar exāples Men are ●aught with pleasure as ●●shes are 〈◊〉 an an●gle & a ba●t 〈◊〉 their vndoing . Euery mās own flesh is a harlot , of whom he warneth men to take very good heede . Most wholsome counsel , & worthy to be followed . The incōparable harmes that come of pleasure . The preposterous ●re●erri●g 〈◊〉 the feare 〈◊〉 worldl●●unishnēt ●●fore the ●●are of GODS ●rath & ●engeāce . The cōclu●●ō gathe●ed of the ●●ings go●●g afore . The knowing of many , yea or of al things is no let 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 may serue the Diuell . 〈◊〉 being 〈◊〉 natiue ●ountry , ●annot bee ●orsaken without griefe to vs. Euery mā is a deadly enemy to himselfe , & how such an enemy is to bee dealt with . The flesh & the spirit are cleane cōtraries , and fightful ▪ but one against another . A familiar example , wha● by 〈◊〉 goet● about to teach a man how to forsake himselfe . That to the beleeuer all things , seeme they neuer so high , hard , or aboue power , are notwithstanding easie to bee done . There is but onely one right way to the attainment of saluatiō . Men must not conceiue spa●ingly , and niggardly , but largely 〈◊〉 aboun●antly of 〈◊〉 gra 〈…〉 dnesse . We cannot aske so largely at Gods hand but that his bounty wi●● surmoun● it . God will grant vs all good things for Christs ●●ke . 
A14750	----	The life of faith by Samuel Ward ... Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640. 1621 Approx. 95 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 66 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A14750 STC 25049A ESTC S1745 21531087 ocm 21531087 24736 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A14750) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 24736) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1718:9) The life of faith by Samuel Ward ... Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640. The second edition, corrected and amended. [14], 117 p. Printed by Augustine Mathewes, for Iohn Marriot and Iohn Grismand, and are to be sold at their shops in Saint Dunstons Church-yard, and in Pauls Alley at the signe of the Gunne, London : 1621. Advertisement: p. 117. Marginal notes. Signatures: A⁸(-A1) B-H⁸ I³. Reproduction of original in the Harvard University. Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith -- Early works to 1800. 2003-10 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-11 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2006-10 Aptara Rekeyed and resubmitted 2006-11 Pip Willcox Sampled and proofread 2006-11 Pip Willcox Text and markup reviewed and edited 2007-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE LIFE OF FAITH . By SAMVEL WARD Preacher of Ipswich . The second Edition , corrected and amended . LONDON Printed by Augustine Mathewes , for Iohn Marriot and Iohn Grismand , and are to be sold at their Shops in Saint Dunstons Church-yard , and in Pauls Alley at the Signe of the Gunne , 1621. TO THE HONOR AND VSE OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE THOMAS EARLE of Suffolke , Lord of Walden , Knight of the Honorable Order of the Garter , one of his Maiesties most Honorable Priuy Counsell . THis Manual , I first consecrate to your Honor. The greatest greatnesse hath no greater honour belonging to it , then to bee an Abrech , to Persons , Books , and causes of this nature . Such Cedars haue their spreadth and talenesse to shelter such Fowles of the Heauen vnder their shadowe : And Faith is content in this vallie of vnbeliefe to receiue defence and countenance : where it rather giueth both . As Christ in that olde Allegorie of Christopher seemes to be supported by him , whome in truth hee supporteth . And verely such Bookes as haue life in them giue a longer life to their Patrons , then the stateliest Buildings and largest Moniments . Principally I Dedicate , and Deuote it to your vse ; Charitie beganne at home . I first meditated , collected , and scribled them for mine owne benefit , carryed them about me with Antoninus his title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Notes for my selfe . That which with all my might in seeking I haue sought to attaine , is the truth and effect of that which many thinges promise , but Faith is only able to performe . Fulnesse of ioy and constancie of content in the middest of the chaunges , wane , eclypses , and fuls of all externall things , and that one day aswell as another throughout the course of a mans life in that latitude and extent whereof this life is capable . To cry out , I haue found it , I haue found it , might sauour of vanity and arrogancy : Altogether to deny it were an iniurie to the truth of Gods Spirit , Word , and Grace . Such as haue found out Sayling by the Compasse , the Art of Printing , or should one man discouer a speedier passage to the Indies , or meete with a speciall Cordiall in Physicke , or any lesse profitable secret , should he not iustly be sensured as enuious and iniurious to let such an one die with himselfe . What a sacriledge were it then to engrosse such a true Elixar of Spirituall life , as vpon some proofe , I am sure these prescripts containe . The substance therefore of them , I imparted first ot my Flocke in Sermons . Nextly , considering how much I stood obliged to your Lordshippe , and what speciall vse you might haue of them , I translated , and copied them out in the forme wherein now I humbly commend , and earnestly recommend them to your serious perusall and thorow triall . If vpon both , good shall bee thought the better , the more communicated , others shall accompt themselues beholding to your Honor , as the principall occasion of publication . More I would say , but I feare to spoile the elegancie of Augustine his Preface to Romanian , by englishing of it : Wherein is the summe of what I would say . Whither referring your Lordship , I rest , and continue as euer I haue done since my reference without intermission , publikely , and priuatly to pray to the Lord of Lords that you may finde all fauour in the eyes of God and man , and that all true happinesse may be multiplyed vpon you , and yours in this life , and a better . Your Lordships in the Lord SAMVEL WARD . The Contents of this BOOKE . THe Iust shall liue by his Faith. Page . 1 Christ the Fountaine , and Faith the meane of Life . 6 The third kind of the Life of Faith. page 12 The vse of Faith. 16 The first vse of Faith ot new-borne Babes , 24 The vse of Faith to young men in Christianity . 34 An inforcement of the former vse , with a reproofe of the neglect and disuse of Faith. 43 The vse of Faith to a growne Christian . 51 An obiection answered , and passage made to the life of Sanctification . 60 How Faith Sanctifies and Mortifies . 67 How Faith Viuifies . 78 How Faith vpholds life in Affliction . 86 An Epistle to the Reader pressing the vse of Faith. 100 THE LIFE OF FAITH . CHAP. I. The Iust shall liue by his Faith. THE basest life excels the best meere being , as much as Adam , the redde lumpe of earth whereof hee was made . The liuing Dog , the dead Lyon. Betweene life and life what a breadth of difference is there ? from the Mushrome to the Angels how many kindes of life ? Yea , in one and the same kind how many degrees ? The bondslaue hath a life as well as the King , the sicke man as the whole ; but such , as in comparison may rather bee termed a death . One best there is in euery kind as it approcheth neerest to that Fountaine of Life and Being , with whom to be , and to be most happy is all one . Poore Man hath , or rather had a certaine pitch and period of happy life , consisting in the Image and fauour of his Creator , from which hauing once fallen , it would pittie one to see how lamely and blindly he reaspires thereunto . The most part groaping as the Sodomites after Lots dore , the blinde misguiding the blinde in the common Labyrinth of error ; each one imagining he hath found the way , and so tells his dreame to his neighbour for a truth . The Couetous when he hath gotté goods , as if he had gotten the true Good , applaudes his soule , as if it were the soule of some Swine , Soule thou hast many goods , now , &c. The Voluptuous when he hath satiate himselfe with the huske of pleasure , cries out hee hath liued the onely royall and Iouiall life . The Ambitious when hee hath climbed the pitch and slipperie hill of Honour , builds his nest in the starres , thinkes himselfe in the skie and highest sphere of happinesse . Alas , alas , doe not all these know they are in the Chambers of death ? Dead whilest they are aliue , no better then walking ghosts in the shapes of liuing men : seeking and placing a spirituall and heauenly Iewell , in earthly pelfe , in watery Pleasures , in ayerie Honours , which being all dead , cannot affoord that life which they haue not themselues . Verily , if one liue an hundreth yeeres , beget children , plant and build , and see no other good but such as these , the vntimely byrth is better then he . What then ? Is this tree of life not to be recouered , no where to be found againe , yes doubtlesse , though there be many by-pathes , there is a Way ; though many errors , there is a Truth ; though many deathes , there is a Life . And behold , oh man that standest vpon the waies , inquiring after life . He that is the Way , Truth and Life that came from heauen to vanquish death , and by his death hath brought thee to life againe , who onely hath the words of life , Hee hath shewed thee the true way to life . Hath he not twise or thrise shewed thee in this liuely Oracle of his , The Iust shall liue by Faith. Yea , but if a man like to our selues might come from the dead that hath made proofe of this way and life , and would speake of his own experience : would we heare ? Behold Paul , slaine by the Law , reuiued by the Gospell , what doe wee thinke of him ? Did he not from the time of his conuersion to the time of his dissolution , enioy a constant tenour of ioy ; liue , if euer any , comfortably , happily : And doth not hee tell vs , euen while he liued in the flesh , that he liued by the Faith of our Lord Iesus Christ. Surely he must needs be blessed that liueth by the same faith with Bloffed Paul. Come therefore , you which desire to see good dayes and lay holde on the waies of life . Beleeue and liue . CHAP. II. Christ the Fountaine , and Faith the meane of Life . WHat then ? Commit we sacriledge against Christ in deifying of Faith ? Rob we the Lord to adorne the seruant with his diuine honours ? God forbid . Let that be giuen to Christ which is Christs , and that to Faith which is Faiths . Let the power of life and death be intirely reserued euer ascribed to the Lord of life , the well of life , the light and life of the World , the breath of our nosthrils , the life of our liues . Thy body , oh man ! hath it soule which enliues it , and so hath thy soule its soule whereby it liues , and that is Christ the quickning spirit . Take away the soule from the body , and earth becomes earth ; seuer Christ and the soule , what is it but a dead carrion ? Elementary bodies lighten and darken , coole and warme , die and reuiue as the Sunne presents or absents it selfe from them , Christ is to our soules the Sunne of righteousnesse : Sin parts vs ; Faith reunites vs : And so wee liue primarily and properly by Christ as by the soule : by Faith , secondarily , as by the spirits , the bond of soule and body : by a personall and speciall faith appropriating Christ to the beleeuer , as the leg or arme liues by proper sinews , arteries and nerues , vniting it to the liuer , heart and head , such an one as Paul had in Christ that dyed for him , whereby hee ingrosseth the common God to himselfe , as if his and no bodies else . Thus saith hee himselfe that is the Truth and the Life , I am the Life and Resurrection of the World , hee that beleeueth in mee , though hee be dead , yet shall he liue and not die . And this is the testimony of those three heauenly and earthly witnesses . God gaue life to the Sonne , And he that hath the Sonne hath Life . And he that hath Faith hath the Son. So that whateuer we lend to Faith , it redoundes to the honor of Christ ; neither haue we any sinister intent to praise the wombe or the paps of Faith , but to cast all vpon Christ who giues and works this Faith in vs , vivisies and nourishes it , yea iustifies the imperfection thereof by the perfection of his merit . Nay , let Faith knowe that if shee should waxe arrogant towards her Lord , or insolent ouer her fellow seruants , she should Lucifer-like fall from her dignity , and in so doing , of the best of graces , become the worst of vices . Verily , what hath the habite of Faith in it selfe considered better or equall with loue ? Is it not a poorer and meaner Act to beleeue then to loue : more like a beggarly receiuing , then a working and deseruing hand ? Haile then oh Faith freely graced , graciously exalted aboue all Christs Handmaides . Thy Lord hath looked vpon thy meane estate , because that hauing nothing of thine owne , as other Vertues haue , whence thou mightest take occasion to reioyce , thou mightest the better exclude that hatefull Law of boasting , the more humbly and frankely reflect all vpon thy Lord : who willingly emptied himselfe that he might fill thee with honour , whiles hee sayes to the cured of the Palsey Goe thy way thy Faith hath saued thee . Hence forth cals hee thee no more seruant or friend , but stiles thee as Adam his Spouse , Chauah , the Mother of all Liuing : Counts it no iniurie to diuide his praises with thee , likes it well that thou which doest nothing but by him , shouldest bee said to doe all things which he doth : To purifie the heart , to ouer come the world , to saue men , &c. And è contra , hee to doe nothing without thee , which yet does all of himselfe . Hee could worke no Miracles in Capernaum because they had no Faith. So glorious and wonderfull things are spoken of thee : ( I had almost said ) so omnipotent is thy strength which hast said to the Sunne and Moone , Stand yee still ; yea if but as big as the least graine , canst say to the greatest Mountaines , Remoue . What can God doe which Faith cannot doe if requisite to bee done ? Questionlesse , Iustifying Faith is not beneath miraculous in the sphere of it owne actiuitie , and where it hath the warrant of Gods Word . It 's not a lesser power then these , to say , Thy Sinnes are forgiuen thee , thy person is accepted of God , what-euer thou askest thou shalt haue , &c. Wherefore we need not doubt vnder Christ without feare of Praemunire , or offence to his Crowne and Dignity , to affirme of Faith , That it is Gods arme and power to the enliuing and sauing of euery beleeuer , as it is written , The Iust shall liue by Faith. CHAP. III. The third kinde of the Life of Faith. BVt least wee seeme to speake swelling thinges , whiles we soare in the Cloud of generalities , let vs descend to some solide particulars . Three thinges there are whence commeth Death to the Soule of Man , Sinne with the guilt thereof giues the first deadly blow , exposing it to the wrath of God who is a Consuming fire , whose anger is the messenger of Death , whence came the first Thunderbolt striking thorough the Soule , that sentence of God to Adam , Thou shalt dye ; And such as Nathans to Dauid , Thou hast sinned and art the childe of Death . The second , is the spott and corruption of sinne deprauing , yea , deading all the faculties of man to spirituall actions , which made Paul cry out , That which I would doe , I doe not ; And wretched man that I am , who shall deliuer me from this body of Death . Thirdly , that swarme of plagues and army of punishments , in the re-reward wherof comes first a second death . All which made Iob cry out , Why is light giuen to him that is in misery , and life vnto the bitter in soule ? which long for death more then for treasures ; and ioy when they can finde the graue . Were it not for these three , man might liue , fare , and doe well , but sin hauing entred into the World , brought in Death with it , which reigneth and triumpheth ouer the sonnes of Adam with this three-forked Scepter , of Guilt , of Corruption , of Punishment . Here comes in Faith with a three fould Antidote , brings vs to the Tree of Life , whose fruit and whose leaues heale vs of the sting and deadly poyson of Sinne : working in vs a three-fold life opposite to the forenamed deaths . The first is the life of righteousnesse , discharging vs from the sentence of death , restoring the light of Gods countenance appeased in Christ our surty : which made Dauid cry out , Blessed is the man whose sinne is couered . The second is the life of the Spirit , or new life , regenerating & reuiuing euery faculty , & quickning vs to euery good worke ; which maks Paul glory , that he is able to do al things through Christ inabling him . The third , is the life of ioy and comfort , cheering the soule in the middest of all trials and tribulations ; which made Iob in the valley of death exult and trust in his liuing Redeemer , and Paul insult ouer all kinde of Calamities as more then Conquerour , Romaines 8. In these three , being contained what-euer accomplisheth the life of the soule : may not Faith well be said to supply abundantly all things pertaining to life and godlinesse ? But what doe I treating of the kindes of life ? what should I blot paper and tyre my Reader in writing of the kinds of Faith , the degrees of Faith , or any other motions of Faith : things so well known of those that know any thing of Christ ? That nothing so much vexeth me to see so much spoken and written of faith , so little done by it , the Theory of it so throughly canuased and cleered in Controuersies and Sermons , and the practise of it so obscured and disgraced in the liues of Christians . CHAP. IIII. The vse of Faith. OH Faith when I read of thee , when I meditate of thee , when I feele any part of thy vertue , I finde thee to be a wonder-worker , I conceiue nothing but high and stately things of thee . When I looke into the World and vpon the liues euen of such as call themselues beleeuers especially of the common sort , I begin to question my thoughts for dreames , and to say ; Faith , thou art but a name , a sound , a meere word , no powerfull thing . Why are many of thy followers so dead , so mopish , so melancholly ? why are worldly men as merry , as iocund as they ? Yea , why are many ciuill men as righteous as they ? whence should this wrong and disparagement proceed ? Is thy Vertue exhaust , thy strength decayed in this old age of the World ? or is it because men know thee not ? verily neither of these . No drugge , no herbe so commonly extolled , so famously knowne . Paul of old , Luther of late , with infinite moe , euery Catechisme haue blazoned the name , described the nature , set out the properties and effects to the full . Only the miserie is , the World either knowes not the vse , or forgets the practise of it . There wants a practicall Luther which should deale by Faith , as Socrates by Phylosophie , who brought it out of the Skies and Bookes into Cities and Houses , taught and vrged the familiar and quotidian vse of it . Doth not all the praise , beautie , and lustre of Faith , as well ; or more then of other vertues consist in action and not in motion ? Is not the gaine and benefit of it in sense and feeling , not in knowledge or discourse ? Is not the throne and seat of it rather in the heart then in the head ? Who knowes not there is a Doctrinall speculation and discourse of Faith easily by reading and hearing attained , such in one as Schollers , that neuer went out of their Studies and schooles haue , of remote Countries , of their commodious situation , pleasant riuers , high mountains , costly buildings , rich mines , iewels , and al other commodities : which , what a frigid and ieiune contemplation is it , in comparison of that delight and benefit which the Merchant and Trauiler enioyeth by a reall sight and fruition of them ? What is the notionall sweetnesse of honey or sugar to the experimentall taste of them ? And yet this Aery , windie stuffe is all , the World at this day cares for and hunts after . The Schoole-men and Casuists , what doe they but languish into vselesse , needlesse , and endlesse questions , spending their thoughts about this magnificent vertue in cold and bloudlesse subtleties of the subiect , obiect , kindes , &c. Preachers for the most part inuring themselues to declaime in praise of some morall vertue , and to inueigh against some vice of the times , happily sometimes finde leisure to weaue a curious spiders webbe in commendation of Faith , rarely shewing or pressing the life , and vse of it . In a word , will you see the fashion of the World. The Schooles disputes of it , the Pulpit Preacheth of it , Profession talkes of it , prophane men sweare by it , two or three , few or none liue by it . I met with a story of an ancient Hebrew , a reuerend Rabby , who that he might the more liuely conuince the people in his times of their neglect of practise of this excellent Grace , put himself into the habit of a Mountebanke or trauelling Aqua-vitae-man , and made Proclamation of a soueraigne cordiall Water of Life he had to sell : being called in and demaunded the shew of it ; Turned them to the Bible , the Fountaine of Life , and to seuerall places of it , as the thirtie foure Psalme , &c. intimating , that if they would make vse and daily drinke of the water they had , they might ( as it should seeme hee did ) liue farre better , and more comfortably then vsually they did . And indeede , why is there such a price put into the hands of fooles that know not the worth and improuement of it ? As secrets and misteries in good Artisens , that haue sometimes a faculty whereby they can earne tenne or twenty shillings the day , and might liue as well as landed men ; but then they haue another boone withall , they loue idlenesse , pastime and good fellowship , and so liue like beggars : or as land and money in the hands of those ( whom we therefore aptly call misers ) to Haue and to Hold , but neuer make good vse of it : Who may well be said to vse the World , as if they vsed it not , for they put it foorth to vse , or locke it from themselues and others ; goe basely , fare hardly , liue in debt to backe and belly , as if they knew not it would buy them good meate and good cloathes , and other necessaries and conueniences for their liues . It is possible a man may haue a toole , a medecine , or an engine , and not haue the skill or strength to vse it . It is possible a man may haue a gift of God , and not the gift to vse it throughly , else needed not Paul call on Timothy to stirre vp the gift that was in him . Among all the gifts of God there is none more vsefull then Faith : others are profitable for some few things , this is for this life and the life to come , for all parts and purposes of our liues , in the vse of it manifold and rich euery manner of way . CHAP. V. The first vse of Faith to new-borne Babes . AND first , let me beginne with thee that art beginning to liue this life , thou Embryo that art in hatching , that hast so much life , as to know thy selfe dead in sinne , and to desire to liue in Christ , ( for what should I cast away speech vpon scelets and skulles , carnall men I meane meere Strangers to this life of Faith , I expect not reading should put life and spirit into them , onely I pray for such that they may heare Gods voyce in the Ministerie , and liue : ) but as for thee whom the Law hath wounded , and the Gospell is healing , who art euen at the byrth , and stickest betweene the knees , onely wantest power to come into the light ; who liuest but feelest not thy life , holdest Christ but with benummed hands ; beleeuest , but canst not yet beleeue thou hast Faith : What is the matter thou art still ensnarled in the cords of death ? Why loosest thou not thy handkerchiefes and commest out of thy Graue , and walkest chearefully in the Land of the liuing ? Suffer Faith to doe her perfect worke in thee , to forme Christ in thee , suffer not thy selfe alwaies to bee detained in the throwes and throbs of feare and doubt . The Common causes of this slownesse of beleefe and snares of Death , I obserue in most to be one of these three . First , Immoderate aggrauation of sinne . Secondly , Foolish and proud humilitie . Thirdly , Preposterous desire of Sanctification before Iustification . First , Thou wouldest beleeue , but thou hast beene a sinner . Whom came Christ to saue but sinners ? And whom doth hee iustifie but the vngodly ? Oh! but thy sinnes are Scarlet , crying , scandalous sinnes . Said I not all things are possible to Faith , onely if thou canst beleeue . Are not all faults easily pardonable to an infinite mercy , which exceedes Mans , as Heauen doth Earth ; which can redilier forgiue seuenfie , then Man seuen offences . Well did Mar●●●s answere the Diuell , himselfe obiecting his former life to him , that euen his might bee pardoned if hee could beleeue . Did not Christ take the flesh of Rahab and Bathsheba , and did hee refuse to take their sinnes vpon him ? Did not his blood wash Dauids bloody sinne as white as snow ? Doth not he delight to forgiue much , that hee may binde to loue much ? Shall not his fauour abound to the sense of thy Faith , where sinne hath abounded to the wounding of thy heart ? But thou art an olde habituate sinner . As if Christ came from Heauen to cure onely small fearres , greene cuttes , and not deepe inuetorate woundes , diseases of eight , of twelue , of eight and thirty yeares olde : to cast out single Diuels , and not Legions also ? Oh then take heede thou adde not to thy great and many sinnes , a greater then all : Cains sinne , which was greater in infidelitie then in fratricide . All thy help is to looke of thy selfe an obiect of confusion , and to looke vpon Christ an obiect of consolation : And then how fiery and deadly so euer thy sting bee , by meere looking ( a strange cure I confesse , yet most approued ) that is , by sole beleeuing thou shalt be cured and liue . Secondly , But forsooth thou wilt be more mannerly then so with Peter thou wilt not suffer Christs precious hands to wash thy foule feete . Take heede thy modesty turne not into pertinacy , lest he swear in his anger thou shalt haue no part in him , if thou stubbornly refuse his gratious offer : he liked well the humility of that Cananitish that bore the terme of dogge , but better her confidence , that would not be said nay of the crums of his table . And shalt thou not tenne times , more honour him and please him , in trusting his mercy and sealing to his truth , then in fearing his iustice and dreading his power ? Take heede of pride in the clothes of humilitie . Bee not deceiued , It is pride and high pride , not to come when thou art called . Faith is obedience , and obedience is more acceptable then curtesie & complement . The sooner thou commest the better welcome . It is rudenesse and not good manners not to do as thou art bidden to doe , yea , so often and earnestly charged to doe . To doe the worke of God is to beleeue in him whom he hath fealed and sent to be thy Sauiour . Thirdly , Oh! but thou wouldest faine first repent , amend and doe some good workes , and then thou wouldest bee bold to come . That is , thou thinkest thou shalt not be welcome vnlesse thou come with thy cost . Thou wouldest accept of a pardon if thou mightst pay for it : but his are free , and he bids thee come and buy without siluer , or else he saies , thou and thy money perish . Thou wouldest goe the old and naturall way to worke . What shall I doe to inherit euerlasting life , but that is now farre-done and impassable through our infirmity : Besides , before thou canst walke or worke , thou must be aliue . Did Christ indent with Zacheus for Restitution and almes ? or Paul bid the Iaylour first repent , become a new man , and then beleeue ? No they knew that the one would voluntarily , necessarily , together , & immediately follow or rather accompany the other . Wherefore swim out of these weedes , lay hold on the Rocke , and to facilitate thy birth by the Act of beleeuing , set beefore thy eyes Christs freedome to all suitors in the time of his flesh , repelling none that truely desired the price of his blood : And especially , Gods esteeme of Faith aboue all other Graces , Deeds , or Acts of thine . Study , striue , endeauor to beleeue , as thou doest in a difficult point to conceiue . Pray for a faculty and for the act of beleeuing . Be not euer beleeuing , and neuer a beleeuer ; euer beginning to liue , and neuer liuing . Liue to day , to day is Saluation offered , steppe from death to life , and write this day thy birth day , and number from hence the dayes of thy life , in which of a Childe of perdition , thou are made the sonne of GOD through Faith , and so made foreuer . Doest thou beleeue this with thy whole heart ? Driue on the Charriot of thy life with ioy and reioycing till thou come to the marke . But what signe shall I haue of the truth of my Faith ? May it not bee presumption if without repentance and sanctitie ? How shall I be sure it is not that vaine and dead Faith Saint Iames speaketh of ? At the first , it shall suffice to finde and feele a change of the minde , an vnfained purpose , desire , and resolution of new vniuersall obedience , which is contemporary with Faith , though the younger and a second brother in order of Nature : which where it is , sufficeth to warrant Faith , and to embolden the confidence in the first act of conuersion . Zacheus , the Iaylor , and all new Conuerts had not any more , could haue no experience of amendment of life , and yet relyed vpon the word Beleeue , and thou shalt bee saued . CHAP. VI. The vse of Faith to young men in Christianity . PVT off now thy sackcloth and ashes , put on the garments of ioy and gladnesse . Let not white raiment be wanting , nor oyle to thy head . Liue I say , liue to day , liue to morrow , liue oh Christian for euer . Not for one or a fewe dayes , But all the dayes of thy life . This thou mayst doe , if thou wilt learne to vse thy Faith , not as men vse Wedding apparell , for a weeke or two after Marriage , and then lay it vp for high and solemne dayes onely . This indeed is the fashion of beleeuers at their first conuersion : beeing iustified , to haue peace and ioy in beleeuing the remission of their sinnes , and for a while to bee glad of their estate ; but then to neglect and determinate the vse of Faith , as if it had now done all it should or could doe : except till they relapse againe into some foule sinne , then to recouer life againe , vsing it as Vsquebath and strong Waters for swones and heart qualmes onely , not being acquainted with a dayly and quotidian improuement of it : which ought to bee as constant and continuate as is the vse of Fire and Water , of Salt , of Bread , or Wine , or whateuer is more ordinary and necessary then other : such as no part of our liues may well be without . Serues Faith for entrance and beginnings , and not for proceedings and encreasings . Are we not nourished by the same Elements of which wee consist ? Is Faith the Midwife and breeder of ioy and peace , and not the Nurse and Foster-mother of them . Cherishing and feeding thee till thou come to a full and perfect age in Christ ? Is not the fruit of it sweeter in the eare then in the blade ? Hearken therefore to mee , oh thou of little Faith , and lesse vse of it . Doest thou desire to haue a continuall feast , to reioyce alwaies in the Lord ? I know thou desirest it with all thy soule . Let me prescribe a Dyet , a daily dyet without omission , strictly to bee kept , ( The Lord giue thee and mee grace to obserue it ) Looke how duly thou refreshest thy bodyly spirites by vse of repast , or recreations ; so often at the least bee sure to cheere vp thy Soule by the vse of thy Faith. Let thy soule haue two or three walkes a day vp to Mount Tabor , that is , into some retyred place of Meditation and Prayer , such as Isaaks Field , Gornelius his Leaded , Dauids Closet , &c. But what is there to be done ? I answere , Still make vse of thy Faith. But what is that you call vsing of Faith ? I now come to the point , to the chiefe misterie of Spirituall life . Shore vp thy soule in this Mount to conuerse with Christ. Looke what promises and priuiledges thou doest habitually beleeue , now actually think of them , rowle them vnder thy tongue , Chew on them till thou feele some sweetnesse in the palate of thy soule . View them ioyusly , seuerally : Sometimes muse of one , sometimes of another more deepely , and lest ( as Patients oft doe in Physicions Billes ) thou still complaine of obscurity : thus doe , thinke with thy selfe how excellent a thing it is to haue all thy debts cancelled , how sweet a thing to haue God appeased , how glorious a thing to bee the sonne of God , how happy and safe a condition for thee to bee sure thy perseuerance and saluation , how pleasant a state to bee ●●●●● of the fiere of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of glory . Feastmakers in ancient time had speciall officers that cheered vp their guests , they thought it not enough to set store of meate beefore them , but one must come in and say , Fall too and be merry , Let vs eate and drinke , It is a good time , &c. Thus say thou to thy selfe , as Paul to the Corinths ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) Let us feast and bee merry . Christ hath made vs Holy-dayes , our Paschall Lambe is slaine , Haue any more cause to bee merry ? With these Soliloquies mingle some Eiaculations to heauen , for grace and ayde : And leaue not , descend not this Mount till thou findest and feelest thy soule in some cheerely plight , reuiued and warmed with these spirituall Flagons of Wine , in the strength whereof thou mayest walke all the day following . This is that which the Sp●●se calles , Walking into the Gardens and eating of the fruits , &c. which in plaine termes , I call , vsing of Faith , and liuing by Faith. Which if thou wilt duely inure thy selfe vnto , thou wilt not maruell why I called it , Ascending Mount Tabor : thou wilt say thy selfe , vpon good proofe , It is good to be here , dayly to be here , often to come hither . This is that exercise of Faith , which paul inioynes Timothy , and calles stirring vp , or in kindling . Fire in the Embers vnstirred , glowes not , heats not the house ; Sugar in the cup vnstirred sweetens not the Wine . And in such it is all one not to haue Faith , and not to vse it . It may well bee said of Money-hoorders , they haue no quicksiluer , no currant money , they haue no more that which they haue , then that which they haue not . And so of such beleeuers as doe not thus vse their Faith , they haue no liuely Faith , They were almost ( for matter of feeling , and for present benefit and comfort ) be without Faith. A man is little the better for a sleeping habit . It is a rare portion , saith Salomon , and that which GOD giues onely to such as are good in his eyes , to make vse of wealth , to eate , drinke , and bee merry : it is a much rarer to vse Faith. What is a man the better for a Locke if he haue not the Key to vse it withall ? It is not a Trade , but a Trade well followed . It is not Land , but Land well tilled that maintaines men . Oh that this did as clearely appeare to the world in the matter of Faith , as it doth in all other habits , graces , giftes , vertues and good things whatsoeuer , that the principall beauty and benefit of them consists in vse , fruition and action , not the bare profession , yea the very increase and perfection of them . Vse limbes and haue limbes , the more thou doest , the more thou mayest . The oftner the liberall man giues Almes and does good turnes , the more his liberality growes , and shines . Vse will breed perfectnesse , and through disuse things perish , and come to nothing ; as the Plowsheare laid vp , rusts and consumes ; imployed , glisters , doth good and lasts the longer . Let any man diligently and throughly improue , and great will be his faith and great the ioy it will bring in . CHAP. VII . An inforcement of the former vse , with a reproofe of the neglect and disuse of Faith. WHerefore I say again , Liue by Faith , againe I say , alwaies liue by it , reioyce alwaies through Faith in the Lord. I dare boldly say , It is thy fault and neglect of this exercise , if thou suffer either thy own melancholly humor , or Satan to interrupt thy mirth and spirituall alacritie , and to detaine thee in dumps and pensiuenesse at any time . What if thou beest of a sad constitution , of a darke complexion ? Is not Faith able to rectifie nature ? is it not stronger then any ellebore . Doth not an experienced both Diuine and Phisition worthily preferre one dramme of it before all the Drugges in the Apothecaries shop for this effect ? Hath it not soueraigne vertue in it to excerebrate all cares , expectorate all feares and griefes , euacuate the minde of all ill thoughts and passions , to exhilerate the whose man ? But what good doth it any to haue a Cordiall by him , if he vse it not ? to weare a sword souldier like by the side , and not to draw it forth vpon an assault ? when a dump ouer-takes thee , if thou wouldest say to thy soule in a word or two ; Soule , why art thou disquieted ? know and consider in whom thou beleeuest ? would it not presently returne to it rest againe ? would not the Master rebuke the Windes and Stormes and calme thy minde presently ? Hath not euery man something or other wherewithall hee vseth to put away dumps to driue away the ill spirit as Dauid with his Harp : some with merry company , some with a cup of sack , most with a pipe of Tobacco , without which they scarce ride or goe , if they misse it a day together , they are troubled with rhumes , dulnesse of spirits , they that liue in Fennes and ill ayres , dare not stirre out without a morning draught of some strong liquor . Poore silly smoaky helps , in comparison of the least taste , ( but for dishonouring of Faith , I would say ) whiffe , or draught of Faith. Oh! that wise Christians would as often take the one , as idle Guls doe the other ? would not the drawing in of sweete ayer from the pretious promises breede excellent blood and cheerely spirits ; It is a mystery in bodily health that to keepe the arteries and the nosthrils , veines , and other passages to the head , heart , and liuer , cleere and free from colds and obstructions , maintaines a healthfull and cheerefull temper . The Pipe of Faith is the same to the soule . Hee that is Astmaticall , narrow breathed or straight breasted in his Faith , cannot bee but lumpish and melancholly . Wherefore as thou louest thy mirth aboue all other , tend this vitall artery aboue all keepings , keepe thy Faith and it will keepe thy ioy : It will keepe it an euen euerflowing current , without ebbe and flowe , clouds and eclipses , turning euer vpon the hinges of heauenly and solid mirth . And indeed , how or why should it be otherwise ? Doe not Christians consider how vnseemely it is for them , to goe drooping , hanging the head ? Is any so simple to think because hee is a Christian that hee should affect a sad carriage , a deiected look , a demure countenance like an image ? Away with such Monkish hypocrisie . How doth it become the Righteous to reioyce ? Do they not consider how they wrong themselues of the maine benefit of their Iustification ? what is a Christian but his mirth ? wherein doth the kingdom of Heauen consist but in Ioy ? Doe they not see how they offend standers by and beholders ? Is not heauinesse a check that driues away and mirth as a lure that wins to the liking of their profession ? Men wonder to see a rich man that hath the world at will , all things at hearts desire , to be but in a fit of heauinesse . What , say they , should hee ayle ? The Irish aske such , what they meane to die ? but I wonder a thousand times more to see one that hath Christ to friend , that beleeues God to be his shepheard , that knowes all must worke for the best , to bee at any time out of tune or out of sorts . For a N●abal to be all a mort like a stone , it is no newes to me ; but to see Nehemiahs countenance changed , there must needs be some extraordinary cause : should such a man as he feare , or carke , or grieue ? What if it doe not yet appeare what thou shalt bee ? Is a yong Ward prouder and gladder ( in his minority ) of an vncertaine reuersion , then a yeoman of his present estate ? And is not Faith an Hypostasis and euidence to thee of an infallible inheritance ? Canst thou bee sad , which mayest say , not to thy belly , but to thy soule , Thou hast , not many goods , but fulnesse of all treasures , layd vp , not in the earth , where moath and canker and theeues may come , but in heauenly places , out of the Deuils reach , and that not for many yeares , but for euer and euer , neuer to bee taken from thy soule , nor thy soule from them . Oh thou vaine man ! shew mee thy Faith by thy ioy : if thou liuest dumpishly , and yet say thou liuest by Faith , I wil as soone beleeue thee as him , that shall say hee hath the Phylosophers stone , and liues like a beggar , If it were euer well with thy Faith , could it euer bee amisse with thee : should not the temper of thy body follow the temper of thy soule , and the temper of thy soule , the temper of thy Faith ? The body may incline thy soule , but the soule commands the body , and Faith is the Lord of them both . According to thy Faith , so be it vnto thee , so will it be with thee . Vse thy Faith and haue ioy : encrease thy Faith , encrease thy ioy . CHAP. VIII . The vse of Faith to a growne Christian. NAy Christian , now I haue gotten thee hither , I must draw thee yet a pegge higher , and tel thee , it is a small thing for thee to come to an ordinary pitch of cheerefulnesse , except thy ioyes exceedes the mirth of a worldling , yea of a professed Epicure in the qualitie and quantitie of it . If thy mirth bee not a sweeter and more rauishing mirth of an higher kinde , of a more pure defecate nature , of a more constant tenure , then any Carnall man what euer , thou disparagest Faith , thou art very little and yong in the Kingdome of Heauen , which consists not in meates and drinkes , but in ioy vnspeakeable and glorious , in the ioy of the Holy Ghost . And must not that needes bee another manner of ioy then euer entred into the heart of a naturall man , then euer a Sardanapalus tasted of ? Yes vndoubtedly . So must bee construed that text , 1. Cor. 2. not of the ioyes of Heauen , which here the spirituall man himselfe cannot tell what they shall be , but of the Gospels ioy , of the Wine and Fatlings already prepared and now reuealed to the beleeuer by the Spirit : which if the carnall man scorne and scoffe at , thou canst no more helpe him or prooue to him , then a seeing man to a blinde man that hee sees orient rich colours . It is enough for thee to secretly feele and enioy it . Only it ought in thy life so to be expressed ; yea , so to shine in thy forehead , so to be read in the very face of thee , that their teeth may be set on edge , and that they may enquire , what is thy beloued aboue other beloueds ? what is that makes this man thus merry in all estates ? Thus let them enuy at thine , let not thy soule descend to theirs . Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better then the vintage of Abiezer ? Shouldest thou that hast tasted of the grapes of Canaan , long after the Onions and Garlick of Aegypt ? Is Pharphar like vnto Iordan ? hast not thou Riuers of water euer flowing out of thy belly ? and wilt thou stoope to their puddle waters , to their stolne waters , blousing , carding , dicing , whoring , &c. which should not thy soule altogether lothe and abhor , after the taste of Faiths Nectar and Ambrosia . But euen their ordinary and lawfull delights , the wine and oyle , musicke , hunting , hawking &c. to these God allowes thee to stoope for thy bodies sake , as the Eagle to the prey , or as Gideous souldiers to soope thy handfull , not to swill thy belly full . If Plato could tell the Musitians , that Phylosophers could dine and sup without them , How much more easie is it for Saint Augustine to weane himselfe from the childish rattles and may games of carnall delights , to bee merry without the Fiddle . Good leaue hast thou , yea , right and title to vse all externall recreations , wherof before thou wert but an vsurper , but vse them aright as if thou vsedst them not , knowing how to put thy knife to thy throat , and how to be without them : to bee as one that liueth not by them but by Faith. Were it not odious to see a man that hath a spouse peerelesse for beautie , to liue with a deformed blouse ? to see one professing some liberall Science , to liue by some base manuall trade ? no better fight is it to see a Christian vpholding his ioy by course and earthly pleasures , that hath more noble and generous , yea , Angelicall delights ; then which , what hath heauen better but in degree only , and manner of fruition ? what hath this world comparable ? Alas poore Phylosophers , when I read your Treatises of Tranquillitie of mind , of consolation , of remedies against both Fortunes , though in some things you come neere the kingdome of Heauen , yet how dull are your comforts to one of ours ? the highest of yours to the lowest of ours ? Had you but through a creuis or Lettice seene the things which the eie of Faith seeth with open face , how would you in comparison of Christianisme haue loathed your Stoicisme and Epicurisme ? Had you but with the tip of your tongue , tasted of Faiths dainties , how would you haue magnified Faith aboue all your Cardinall vertues ? you that so composed your liues by ieiune and empty contemplations of an autarky in vertue by the rules of nature ; what stately liues would you haue led and liued , if the grace and hopes of the Gospel had appeared to you by the rules of Faith ? As for you Poets of the lighter and pleasanter veine , when I read your oades and sonnets , chaunting out your choice ioyes and loues , your wishes and vowes , framing a conceited happinesse to your selues , as the highest you could imagine or desire : what low streines and meane aire do I reckon them , in comparison , of our Christian and diuine hymnes ? what pittifull subiects for such sublimated wits ? what difference between your oaten pipes and our heauenly harpes ? Salomon that loued both these loues , liued both liues , and sung songs of both sorts , when God raised his muse to an higher tune , and taught it to sing the song of songs , how despised he his former windy vanities in comparison of his new spirituall delicacies . Wherefore , O Christian , that hast such transcendent obiects of thy thoughts aboue al other men , why shouldest thou not euer keepe thy soule vpon the wing , euer in a manner bee in the third heauens , rowling and tumbling thy soule in these beds of roses : I meane these meditations of thy Iustification , sanctification and saluation through Christ , without which , why should one day passe thee ? why any one part of a day ? why should not thy soule haue her due drinkes , breakfasts , meales vndermeales , beuers , and after-meales , as well as thy body ? Thus to redeeme time , thus to taske and tye thy soule to such heauenly round of worke , would it not make the Mill of time pleasant , the yoke of businesse easie ? would not pretious time glide swiftly and easily away like a boate with full winde and tide needing no oares ; or a free mettald horse needing no spurres , needing no idle pastime to driue it before thee ? shall it not be a pleasure to thee to want other pleasures ? Thus mayest thou make all thy daies Christ-tides , Easters , Whitsundaies , Birthdaies , and Holydaies : not enuying Foelix his felicitie , Festus his festiuitie , nor Diues his daily purple and delicious fare : but liuing a life kingly and Angelicall , in comparison of the vulgar sort . CHAP. IX . An obiection answered , and passage made to the life of Sanctification . HAppily thou replyest , all this were possible and easie , were it not for that euen amiddest this diligent practise of Faith , euen in the stricktest watch , in many things the best faileth , many knowne frailties will escape , and more escape vnknowne : And how can mirth chuse but bee damped with frequent slips ? The answere is , such an one as keepes the watch of his God , and pretermits no day without the forementioned duties , shall seldom or neuer fall into any foule slough , and dash the ship of his Faith against any dangerous Rocke , and if hee doe , long hee cannot lye , but his Faith will set him on worke to goe out , weepe bitterly , and make his peace presently with his Lord , and Conscience , that he may enioy his wonted repasts : And for his ordinary infirmities it will daily fetch him out a pardon of course , washing and scouring his soule euery morning and eueuing , more duely then any Pharisie his face or hands : and set him on worke euery day as hee runnes into arrerages , to draw the redde lines of Christs Crosse ouer the blacke lines of Gods Debt Booke . And what if as an All-seeing God hee sees our violation of his Lawe , and knowes better then our owne Consciences euery peccant Act of ours in thought , word , or deed ? what if GOD looke vpon the Hand-writing against vs ? Doth hee not see the Billes cancelled with the Pretious Blood of his Sonne and our Suretie ? Which for matter of guilt , defilement , and punishment is all sufficient to expunge , couer , nullifie , abolish , and wholly to take away our sinnes , in such sort that he neither sees , will see , nor can see them as sinnes and debts bearing action against vs , obliging vs to any penalty ; no more then the Creditor who though hee sees the Items in his Booke , and knowes what debts haue beene , yet sees them crossed , cleared : And what thought then neede the Debtor take for such debts ? Why , but is not this to make Faith a Pandar to sinne ? And to make good the Papists and Worldlings slander of Solifidians . that make no more of it , but drinke and take Tobacco ; sinne , and beleeue ; get a pardon of the olde , and a licence for the new . Oh peeuish and froward Generation to whom it is not giuen to knowe the mysterie of Faith , which is of the nature of Soueraigne mundifying waters , which so wash off the corruption of the ulcer , that they coole the heate , and stay the spread of the infection , and by degrees heale the same : And of Cordials which so comfort and ease the heart , as also they expell the noxious humours and strengthen nature against them . These are ministred onely to prepared bodies , these pearles are not for Swine , this Diuinity wee Preach not in Gath and Askelon to vncircumcised prophane ones that will turne euery good thing to their owne destruction : But this belongs to the sealed Fountaine , to the Spouse of Christ alone : which when shee hath washed her feete how loath is shee to foule them againe ? When shee hath appeased her Beloued , howe doth shee adiure her-selfe and others by the Hyndes and Roes , not to awaken and offend him againe ? The Text sayeth , Not euery hypocrite , euery profligate professor of Faith that liues as hee listes , shall liue by his Faith , but the Iust or Righteous ? Which golden sentence is indeede ambiguously enunciated of purpose by the Holy Ghost that it may either way bee taken , The Iust by his Faith , shall liue : Or , The Iust shall liue by his Faith , yet so as it hath but one right eare to bee holden by , and that is onely for the hand of the Righteous man : Implying , that whosoeuer beleeues , or liues by his Faith , is also and must of necessity bee a righteous man , a Iust man , not onely imputatiuely , but inherently in part : such an one as vnfainedly loueth righteousnesse , studieth the practise of it , denieth and hateth all vnrighteousnesse , endeuoureth euery day to bee more and more righteous , and so deserueth the denomination of righteous . So that looke how the rationall Soule , includeth and implyeth the animall , so doth Iustification , Sanctification , being indiuiduall . CHAP. X. How Faith Sanctifies and Mortifies . SO I slide into the second part or kinde of Christian life , consisting in holinesse and righteousnesse , which I shall easily demonstrate not onely to bee an indiuiduall companion , but a naturall and necessary effect of Faith. For looke how the strength of the heart breedes , not onely cheerefulnesse but actiuenesse : Motion as well as health ( whence it is that life , is put for liuelinesse and agility ) driues away all lassitude , hebetude , and indisposition , brings in aptnesse and delight to stirre : the like doth Faith in the soule : which may as the former in the body , for a time stand with some sleight distempers , spots of the skinne , atche of limbes , but not long with deadly diseases , either vanquishing them , or vanquished by them . This noble vse of Faith will excellently appeare in both the parts of this newe life , Mortification and Viuification : And in each of these , two manner of wayes doth Faith produce this effect ; partly as a moouing , partly as a procreant cause . In the first kinde admirable is the Pitho & Saada of Faith aboue all the Oratory in the World : All the common incentiues taken from profitte , pleasure and honour , all the Topicke places of Logicke , Figures of Rhetoricke , what poore and weake engines are they to the irresistable pe●arre of Faith , which sayeth , but Ephata , and presently our Euerlasting Gates yeeld and stand open . For thus it goes to worke with vs , Hath Christ giuen himselfe for thee , forgiuen thee so many debts , conferred , fauours of all kindes vpon thee , and what hast thou to retribute ? If thou giue all thy goods to the poore , thy body to the fire , thy soule , to his seruice ; yea were euery hayre of thine head a man or Angell , were not all short of recompence ? Louest thou , louest thou this Sauiour of thine , and darest thou , or wilt thou dare to venture vpon any thing displeasing him , is there any thing too good , too heard or deare for him ? Mary , if thy teares will washe his feete , wilt thou not poure them out ? Is thine haire too good to bee the towell ? Is there any Spicknard too costly for his head ? Ioseph , the LORD requireth the handsell of thy Tombe , and wilt thou deny him ? Zacheus , louest thou thy wealth aboue his honour that hath saued thee ? Stephen , louest thou thy life aboue thy Master ? Can , or did any Beleeuer giue the nay to these melting commaundes or commaunding entreaties of Faith , will it take the repulse ? Doth it not constraine and extort more then all rackes and strapadoes , allure more then all wages and prizes ? Doth not this Magnes as easily drawe weighty yron as other Iet doth strawes ? So that when thou wouldest bee sure to speed and obtaine any thing of thine vntoward heart , set Faith a worke to make the motion , and that will be sure to speede , not onely by this perswading facultie , but also by a Diuine power secretly effecting what it requires , conueying into the heart , will , and abilitie vnto the deede . It stands not without doores as a Mendicant Flexanimous perswader , but enters into the closets of the heart , shootes the barres , vnlocks the boults , takes away all reluctation and redaction , infuseth a plyable willingnesse : of woluish and dogged , makes the Will Lambe-like , and Doue-like : of wilde and haggard , morigerous and mansuete . No otherwise then the medicine curing the vicious stomacke , and restoring it to health , makes it long for wholesome meate , as before for coales and ashes . All this it doth by fetching supernaturall efficacie from the death and life of Christ ; yea , part of that mighty power where by Christ raised himselfe from the dead , cured all diseases , and wrought all his miracles : By the vertue whereof it metamorphizeth the heart of man , creates and infuseth new principles of action . Make triall of this in mortifying the flesh to sinne , and quickning thy spirit to holinesse . For example , complainest thou of some preualent corruption , some violent passion that oft carries thee headlong against thy desire and resolution , as Castrusius to Hierom , who shall helpe mee subdue Nebuzardan , Goliah , Holofernes , my raging lustes that are too mighty for mee ? Answere thy selfe as Dauid himselfe to the like : Through thee O Lord shall wee doe valiantly , ouer Edom shall I cast my shooe , &c. yea , when thou hast spent all thou hast vpon other Phisitions , tried all morall conclusions of purposing , promising , resoluing , vowing , fasting , watching , selfe-reuenging , yet get thee to Christ , and with a finger of Faith , touch but a hem of his garment and thou shalt feele vertue come from him to the curing of thy disease . What if thou hast often encountred thy enemie , and receiued the foyle , relapsed after victorie : yet cast not away the sheeld of Faith , but with the Israelites against Beniamites the second and third time , set a fresh in the name of the LORD , and they shall flye before thee . Complainest thou with Augustine of his in-bred , hereditary , habituall , inueterate vices , holding thee in the Adamantine chaines of custome , against which thou hast often resolued , and resolued , modo & modo , now I will leaue them , and now I will forsake them , why should I not as well as such and such , as Potitian and Victorinus , and yet they keepe thee Prisoner still , full against thy will and endeauours . Find out the cause , which hee had reuealed to him in te stas & non stas . Thou standest vpon thine owne feete , and therefore fallest so foulely , thou wilt like a childe goe alone , and of thy selfe , and therefore gettest so many knocks . Dye to thy selfe , renounce the broken reede of thine owne free-will which hath so often deceiued thee : and put all thy trust in the grace of Christ , And it will crucifie the olde man , and giue him his Hoc habet , his deathes wound , pierce his sides , and breake his knees in peeces . Be weake in thy selfe and strong in the Lord , and through Faith thou shalt bee more then Conquerour . Leaue tuggling and strugling with thy sinne , and fall with Iacob to wrestle with Christ for a blessing : and though thy selfe goe limping away , yet shalt thou bee a Prince with God , and bee deliuered from Esaus bondage . Yea , what if Satan , what if Legions of Principalities , and powers haue long held possession in some strong fort of thy heart , beginne to pleade prescription , scorning as the Iebusites to bee eiected out of their impregnable tower : hast thou Faith , and canst thou beleeue , persist in resisting and hee shall flye , and thou shalt see him fall like lightening before thee . Christ raised from the dead , not onely the daughter of Iairus which was yet within bed , not layd forth : nor the Sonne of the Widdow newely carryed out of the Gate to buriall , but Lazarus that had foure daies lyen in the graue ; to that ende , sayeth Augustine , That such as haue long beene dead in sinne , yea such as vpon whom Satan hath rowled the stone of Custome , and such as stinke in the nostrilles of the world through putrified soares of sinnes , should not yet despaire , but know that which falles out in frequent experience , Faith can cure diseases past all other cures and hopes . Through Faith thou shalt roule away the stone from the Caue of Makpelah , and take out the fiue Kings that haue domineered and tyrannized ouer thee , set thy feete in the neckes of them and triumph ouer them . CHAP. XI . How Faith Viuifies . ANd what is there yet further , thou wouldest haue Faith doe for thee ? Oh sayest thou ! it is not enough to bee healed of the disease , vnlesse thou mayest take vp thy bedde and walke ; yea , leape and skippe as the Lame restored to his limmes . Oh! that I could finde that life of Grace which I see in some that can make it their meate and drinke to doe the will of God. Though I be not pestered and mastered with any reigning corruption , yet I finde my selfe so dull and vntoward , that I take no pleasure in my life . Know also that this quickning power , Faith only can helpe thee withall . To pray , to meditate , to haue thy conuersation in heauen , to keepe a Sabbath cherely is as easie to thee as to Iron to swimme , and stones to ascend vpward , but nothing is impossible to Faith : it can naturalize these things vnto thee , metamorphize thee , make thee a new creature , of a moule of the earth a soule of heauen , of a snaile a dromedarie : such a change as the Sunne workes in the vapour , when of an earthy heauy substance , it makes it light and aery , apt to ascend into the middle Region . Such a change Cyprian saith hee felt in his conuersion : And how else came Dauid to that high delight in Gods seruice , that he loued the Commandements of God more then thousands of gold and siluer , the honey and the honey combe , that hee rose at mid-night to meditate in them . The selfe-same duties may be done by the Ciuill man , and by the beleeuer ; for the outside and deede done , both may goe to Church , heare a Sermon , reade a Chapter , but the one goes as the Beare to the stake , as a slaue to the mill , and the dullard to schoole , in comparison of the other who hath a different internall principle : which is as a spring and oile to the wheeles , that makes them goe smoothly and currantly , makes the yoake light and easie . They that trust in the Lord shall renue their strength , lift vp the wing as the Eagle , runne and not bee weary , walke and not faint . Faith it is that fetcheth sap from the roote Christ , that makes euery tree bring forth fruite in it kinde , euery Christian in his owne calling . What else made Dauid so worthy a Souldier ? what taught his fingers to fight , so that a bowe of steele was broken in his hand ? What made Paul an able Minister of the Gospell , gaue him the doore of vtterance , made his tongue as the penne of a readie writer ? Hee beleeued , therefore hee spake . What made Onesimus of a false eye-seruant , trusty to his Master , as to the Lord ? The like might bee said of all trades and sciences . Looke what a full treasurie of all sorts of graces Christ hath stored vp in him , Faith dreineth and deriueth them out of his fulnesse to the vse of euery seuerall Christian , euen Grace for Grace . Faith is the Conduit Cocke that watereth all the Herbes and flowres in the Garden . All which the more I consider , the more I pitty the preposterous care and vnhappy trauell of many well affected , who study the practise of this and that vertue , neglecting this cardinall and radicall vertue ; As if men should water all the branches of a Tree and not the roote : Faine would they abound and shine in patience , meeknesse , zeale , yet establish and roote not themselues in Faith , that should maintaine all the rest , are ambitious to doe good workes , build Hospitalles , giue Almes , but study not to doe the worke of the Father : And what is the worke of the Father , but to beleeue in the Sonne whom hee hath sealed and sent into the world to bee relyed on for Saluation ; which worke is the gratefullest work that we can performe , and which will make gratefull all that we doe besides : without which all that we can doe will not please him . What cares hee for thy thousands of Rammes , thy Riuers of Oyle ? Hath he not shewed thee , Oh man , that he that trusteh in his Sonne honoureth him most of all in putting to his Seale that hee is true ? This honour if thou wouldest doe vnto him , hee would honour thee with all other graces and withhold no ornament , no good thing from thee , if it be fit for thee . Meeke thou shalt be as Moses , patients as Iob , zealous as Dauid , thy soule and life embroadered with all kinde of shining Graces , as the high Priests apparell with Iewels Wherefore adde this prescript to the former when thou art on the toppe of Mount Tabor , solacing thy soule in thy Lord , and his fauour through Faith : feasting and banqueting with him as Ester with Ahasuerosh . Bethinke thy selfe what suite thou hast to him , what troublesome enemy thou wouldest bee ridde off , suppose it bee some potent Haman of prid , make but thy complaint , and it shall bee executed and crucified before thine eyes . Consider what grace thou standest in neede of , and make thy petition as Achsah to Caleb , And hee shall giue thee the springs aboue and the springs beneath . This prescript if thou wilt dayly obserue , some daies more largely and feruently , as the Spirit that blowes how and where it lists shall assist , and as occasion shall require : but euery day some what more or lesse ; though I will not promise thee thou shalt attaine to perfection of degrees such as the perfected spirits of the Iust enioy in glory : because here thou shalt euer beleeue but in part , and therefore bee holy but in part : yet this I dare promise , as thou growest from Faith to faith so shalt thou grow from strength to strength in all other graces , till by degrees thou attaine to the fulnesse and maturitie of Age in Christ , which shall make thee a Saint in earth , alight in this darke world , and make thee able to liue in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of thy life , with much more comfort to thy selfe , and credit to the Gospell , then strangers to this life of Faith , either doe , or imagine may be done . CHAP. XII . How Faith vpholds life in Affliction . SAy then , O Christian , is there any thing yet behinde that may impeach the cōpleat happinesse of a beleeuers life , speake now if there be any thing that hinders it , which Faith cannot helpe ? Oh! yes saies the Flesh ( which euer is cowardly and loues ease ) though a man be neuer so iustified and sanctified , yet may he liue in pouerty , in crosses , yea in great & manifolde pressures , and what a life can there bee in such extremities ? Oh how doth Faith heere lift vp the Crest , shine and triumph aboue Nature , Reason and all Morall Vertues in her incomparable valour ? Being in all these not as they , onely a patient perforce , or a meere bearer , but more then Conquerour ; not onely , not daunted , but reioycing to fall into manifold trials and tentations ; knowing it selfe to bee the Adamant , that nothing will breake ; the Palme , that sinckes not vnder the waightiest of burthens ; the Oyle , that euer ouer-swims the greatest quantity of water you can powre vpon it , the sheate Anchor , that holds when all other Tackling breakes . Here is the Crowne and Garland of Faith. Were it not for Conflicts , what superexcellent vse were then of Faith ? Euery Cock-boat can swim in a Riuer , euery sculler saile in a Calme , in daily and ordinary gusts , euery man of a patient temper or cheerely disposition can hold vp the head , but when a blacke tempest comes , a tenth waue flowes , and one deepe calls another , nature yeeldes , spirits faint , heart failes : then to stand erect , then to liue and raigne , that onely can Faith doe , which hath the Word for the Compasse , and Christ at the helme . The greatest aduersities that are , are but the exercise , yea the soile and luster of Faith. Man gloryes when he can tame Tygers and Lyons , thinks himselfe a stately king when hee can make an Elephant bow and stoope to him , when he leads a Beare on the Ring , or can handle a Serpent without hurt ; but what a small conquest is this to that of Faith ? When it makes shame , pouertie , sickenesse , persecutions , banishment , yea death it selfe , not onely , not dreadfull and harmefull , but tractable and seruiceable ? Questionlesse , great and sundry aduantages hath a Christian by vertue of his Faith , aboue any Naturian or Politique by all his reason ; onely , heere is the defect of Christians that they want skill , or else forget to holde vp their shield when a Dart comes suddenly vpon them . Like him that was robbed by a Theefe with a staffe onely in his hand , hauing himselfe a Pistole at his backe ready charged , but surprised vpon the sudden , altogether vnmindefull , or vnable to vse it . And if a man hath a Target that is impenetrable , what is hee the better if his heart or Arte faile him when hee should defend himselfe by it ? This makes Christians when they ayle any thing , with Saul to runne to Endor , with Asa to send out to the Physitians , as if Faith could stand them in no steed . When therefore a storme rises , presently runne and awaken thy sleeping Faith , knocke at Faithes doore , ho Faith , helpe at a pinch , now doe thy office , and Faith will presenly ayde and releeue thee with one of these speciall cordials . First , whereas sense and reason did but dimmely and cloudily suggest to their followers certaine broken and confused opinions , little better then dreames of destinie and prouidence . Faith will confidently and euidently assure thee of this ground of comfort , that the least ticke befalles thee not , without the ouer-ruling eye and hand , not onely of a wise God , but of a tender Father , and fellow-feeling elder brother , who knowing thy mould doth more exactly measure out euery Crosse vnto thee , then the carefullest Apothecaries do their Scruples and Drammes of dangerous Physicke . Secondly , out of this Principle , Faith will , extract these infallible conclusions , this estate is not the Axe of Perdition but the Pruning Knife of Affliction : this Cuppe is not a potion banefull , but medicinable , how bitter and wringing soeuer . Whateuer befals , being in Christ , it cannot bend to thy confusion , condemnation or vtter vndoing , but an issue shall bee giuen out of it . What terrible noyse soeuer the storme shall make ouer thy head , it shall bee but as Hailestones vpon the Tiled or Leaded House that rattle more then hurt . Thou art kept by the power of his might the euill one shall not touch thee : thou art in safe harbour vnder the Rocke Christ , and mayest know in whom thou hast trusted , and art sure neuer to be confounded . If it be sicknesse or pouerty , it is in thy Fathers owne hand : if the rodde bee in some malicious enemies hand , if hee turne thee ouer to a seruant to scourge thee , and dresse him in the Diuels habit to scare thee , yea though Satan himselfe buffette thee , yet he stands by , lookes on , will moderate and number the stripes : the Diuels could not goe one inch beyond commission in the Swine : hee knowes thy strength is not the strength of Whales or stones , and therefore will not permit them to lay on more , then thou shalt well beare : his wisdome & grace will be sufficient for thee . Hee that is in good termes with a Prince , feares not the approach of Heraulds or Purseuants : he that is out of debt feares not Baylifes or Sergeants , but imagines they come vpon some good Messages . Afflictions are scarrbugges to wicked men , as bushes to theeues , but if thou bee a beleeuer , at peace with GOD in Christ , they lay off their terrible Vizard , and come with an amiable , countenance . GOD thy Father hath giuen the whole Host and Army of afflictions more inuiolable charge then Danids , Doe the younge man , my Sonne Absolon , no harme . Doe my annointed no harme . Thirdly , Faith will further assure that he hath not onely giuen them a prohibition or negatiue commission but an affirmatiue iniuuction to doe thee all good that may be : he hath said vnto them , purge , refine , trye , exercise , breed the quiet fruit of righteousnesse , giue him experience of his faith , make him bring forth more fruit : so that though there be in thy Phisicke some maligne or poysonful ingredients , yet being administred by him that knowes thy temper and disease , and entirely affects thy health , it shall bee so mingled with allaies and correctors that the confection shall be good , and all together shall and must worke for the best . When thou feelest thy bowels wring , or ( as in a Sea-sicknesse ) are dead sicke for the present , remember thou shalt bee the better many daies after . And though with Iob and Dauid thy querulous flesh complaine , and grunt , and groane , yet when it is ouer a little , thou shalt bee able to say , Oh this was good for me ! I would not for any thing but I had borne the yoake in my youth , that I may liue the more comfortably in age : Considering that sicke thou art , and that of many humours , thy Father should not loue thee , if he should feede thee with sweete meate , and mingle no Aloes with them : much folly is bound vp in thy back , and if thy indulgent father should forbeare the rodde he should hate and not loue thee . Fourthly , Moreouer Faith will reminde thee of Christs partnership in thy affliction , and of thy conformity with him , the first borne , onely begotten , and entirely beloued sonne of God , if hee that was without sinne , yet was not without stripes , wilt thou looke to bee a cockered Adoniah ? And what if the Crosse bee heauy , and thou a weake Childe , yet Christ a Gyant at one end , beares part of it , and makes it light and easie , hee is quicke of feeling , when Stephen is stoned , saith , Saul why persecutest thou mee ? Besides what more honourable Badge and Cognisance canst thou haue of thy Sonship , then this resemblance of him , not as now glorified in the heauens , which thou must stay for till thou come there , but as in the way to glory , when hee despised the shame , suffered the Crowne of thornes , the Scepter of Reed , the spittings , buffetings , mockes and mowes , and all reproches of vile sinners , the piercing of the Speare , and shewed himselfe to be the Sonne of God , not by descending from the Crosse but by enduring the Crosse : And shall I not ( saith he ) drinke the Cup which my Father hath tempered ? and if thou wilt bee his Disciple , the first lesson in his Schoole is , Christs Crosse , Deny thy selfe , take it vp and follow him , And glory with the Martyrs , now am I like my Lord and Master . Lastly , Faith will set before thee as before him the infinite recompence of rewarde , not onely renowne in this World , which yet by Faith the patience , not onely of Iob , but of all Martyrs haue obtained , but that farre most excellent Hyperbolicall weight of glory : Which Paul eying , counted his afflictions ( which to vs would haue beene intollerable ) light and momentany , not worthy the naming in comparison : which made him not onely , not weepe and howle , but sing in the Dungeon , and reckon it a speciall fauour and honour to be counted not onely a beleeuer , but a sufferer for Christ. And God forbid , that a beleeuer should glory in any thing so much as in the Crosse of Christ , in his wounds and scarres for his Lord and Master : As that worthy Vincentius sayd to the Tyrant , Threaten these things to your Courtiers and Carpet Knights ; Rackes , Strapadoes , torments , are but a play to vs , we Souldiers chuse to bee in Christs Garrison , rather then in the Court , in the Field and fore-front of the battle , then in the Pallaces of Princes . The more hazard and perill , the more glory and honour . And what else desire wee but to dye dayly , that the life in Christ may be manifested in vs ? Yea , in the very instant of Death , Faith helpes the beleeuer to liue , so as he may be said not to see death , & neuer to dye , ( but that requires a iust Treatise by it selfe . ) Let all the complaints , greeuances , wants , and miseries of the world be searched and gaged ; the bottome will bee found either to be want of Faith , or of the vse and practise of Faith : So that we may well say with Augustine , to any christian sinking vnder his crosse , or shrinking at his enemy , Hast thou lost thy Faith ? And conclude with that worthy Ensigne-bearer of Christ , Many are the troubles of the Righteous , but by Faith wee stand , by Faith we fight , by Faith we ouercome . CHAP. XIII . An Epistle to the Reader pressing the vse of Faith. NOw Reader , for so I chuse to call thee in a Postcript , whē thou hast reade the Booke , rather then in a Preface , when thou maist there leaue as many do . Giue me now leaue to grapple with thee , and minister to thee an Iutergatory or two . How many doest thou knowe within thy conscience , liue this life of Faith ? Many thou seest liue by their Lands , by their wits , by their shifts : but how many by their Faith ? For the want of this vse of Faith , Doe not many poore christians thinke , and say of it , as a poore labouring countrey-man sayd to his neighbour in serious priuate talke , That he neuer beleeued there was any such summe as a thousand pounds of money , but that onely rich men gaue it out so , in boasting , or pollicy to excite others to labour : so saith the common Protestant , out of doubt there is no such sweetnesse in the life of Faith : for wee see not beleeuers so cheerefull and contented aboue other men . If Attists and Trades-men did no more dayly and duely follow their worke , then most Christians doe practise their Faith , would they not be starke beggars ? But to aske thee a more profitable question , Leaue iudgeing of others , and answer mee in good serious sooth between God and thy soule , Hast , and doest thou thy selfe liue by thy Faith ? Let mee a little put thee to it , prooue and examine thy selfe , and take for instance this present weeke or day past wherein thou readest this little Manuell . How hast thou and vsually doest thou spend the day ? what thought diddest thou awake withall ? what was thy morning draught for thy soule next thy heart ? what hath cheered and made thee merry in priuate and in company ? whether thy sports and meales , more then thy heauenly ejaculations ? Deale plainely , not with me and this booke ( which yet shall witnesse against thee , if thou refuse to practise it when thou hast read it ) but with thy selfe . Hast thou , or hast thou not challenged some time more or lesse , halfe , or quarter of houre at the least , for this exercise of thy Faith ; hast thou not troubled thy selfe about the many things , that this one onely needefull hath beene forgotten ( that which only should be called worke and businesse ) hast thou not melted the day , yea , it may bee the weeke , or moneth past , and made thy soule wholly to fast and pine for want of these refeshings : if so , as I most iustly feare it in most of my Readers , how much more in such as are vsually no readers ? why then let thy heart smite thee for thy folly , smite thou thy selfe vpon the thigh , and say , how haue I liued , or rather not liued , but consumed precious dayes in time-eating Vanities ? How comes it about that the greatest part of my life is the least part wherein I haue liued . Oh then recouer and recollect thy selfe before thou goe hence , and be no more . Wilt thou dy before thou hast liued , as Boyes slubber out Bookes before they learne their lesson . Oh learne to liue this life , It is neuer too late , it is neuer , I am sure , too soone ; it is no shame to learne it what age or condition soeuer thou bee of . Bee thou Prince , Potentate , Nobleman or Gentleman , though few such Readers I looke for : remembring well what Bradford tels the Earle of Bedford , and Augustine tels Romanian , whiles hee was in the mouthes of all men , most honorable , most munificent , most fortunate , in the full of his prosperitie , in the source of pleasures in the toppe of greatnesse , &c. who durst lispe a word of a better life , of true happinesse , or what boote was it for any man to make mention of any such matter . Yet if any such God will perswade to make tryall of this life , thou which saist , what is a Gentleman but his pleasure ? shalt then tell mee , as Salomon of his youth such gentry is but vanity ; true pleasure there is none but in this life . What is a Christian but his Faith ? and what is his life but the vse of his Faith ? Beest thou a Scholler , a Prophet , or Sonne of the Prophets , what is thy worke ? what is thy scope ? or what should it bee in thy selfe and others , but this life of Faith ? What is Paul or Apolloes but such as by whom you haue beleeued ? What euer you teach , before you haue taught this you were as good Preache to the stooles and stones of your Churches ? What are your Auditors but dead bones , and skulles , till they , beleeue , and till Christ be formed in them . Get first an hold whereon you may fasten your Engines to drawe them to vertues and good workes . You which would doe that in soules which Elisha did in bodies , raise them from their graues : Interpretors one of a thousand get the tongue of the learned to declare their righteousnesse vnto them , the righteousnesse I say of Faith : shew your selues skilfull workemen , such as haue been brought vp not onely in moralls of the heathen , subtilties of Scholemen , sentences and conceipts of Postilers , rosaries , destructories , Anthologies , but in the wholesome word of Faith , which are the Arme and power of God to the saluation of euery beleeuer . Aboue all let it be our wisedome to liue our selues by that which we teach others to liue by ; wee that haue , or might , or should haue more Faith then common Christians , is it not a shame if we liue not more happily , and cheerefully then priuate Christians ? not by our Liuings wherein the Laity hath now gotten the start of vs for the most part , but by our Faith , wherein wee haue the aduantage of them , or else shame be it to vs. Is it not a shame to see an honor of a thousand pound a yeere liue as meanely as a poore Farmer , a Master and professor of an Art , as a meane practisioner . Yet this I must say euen to the meanest tradsmen and poorest people , this life belongs not to such onely that are booke learned , but is equally obuious and open ( as the Kings high way ) to all sortes of Trauailers to Heauen . Honourable liues , Pompous liues , voluptuous liues , poore folkes haue small hope to atteyne vnto : but a true happy life they may and doe liue as well as the learnedest Cleakes and greatest Princes , if they get the gift to practise that , which , such for the most part doe but study and talke of . To conclude , what euer thou art , or who euer that desirest to mend thy condition , to better thine estate , to multiply thy life , to change thy few and euill daies of thy pilgrimage , into good and many : behold here is the Art of liuing well and liuing long . Life is not to bee numbred by the houres , but measured by cheerfulnesse , as moneyes not by tale but value . A little peece of gold conteynes a great many peeces of siluer . Manhood consists not in the bulke of the bones , but in the mettall and spirits . Is not one weeke of an healthy man , better , then a yeere of a crasie ; one Sun-shine houre , then a gloomy day ? I haue often mused how a man might come neerest to that life which Adam lost , and recompence in this latter age of the World , ( wherein the liues of men are so contracted ) the longaeuity of those that liued before the Floud . And this is the best helpe I finde : To liue well is to liue twise . A good man doubles and amplifies his dayes : one may speake as much in few words as another in many . Persius wrote more in a few leaues then Marsus in large volumes . One day led by the rules of Faith is better then an immortalitie of vanity . A man may liue to as good content to himselfe and others , in a short space , as others in a long life ; some are old in yeeres tediously drawne out , others in howers cheerfully spent , some haue been long , and others haue liued long , and they onely are such as haue liued this life ; of whom I conclude as doth the story of the Kings , Ieremiahs Prophecie , touching Zedekiah vpon his aduancement by the King of Babell , His portion was a continuall portion , a Kingly portion , euery day a certayne all the dayes of his life , such I say it is , or might be , if Christians might be perswaded not to content themselues to professe or thinke they haue Faith , but to liue by their Faith : onely before I part with thee , take from me one Caueat , one aduise , one request , and so an end . First , take heede thou mistakest me not in all this , as if I had spoken of an absolute perfection in this life equall to vision & fruition in the life to come , confounded Heauen with earth , as if I thought my selfe , or any other to haue comprehended . If any man thinkes hee beleeues any thing , hee beleeues nothing yet as hee ought to beleeue , but all things in part , and imperfectly . Wee cannot by all our assiduousnesse in Reading , Prayer , and Meditation haue Gods Spirit at an absolute command , no more then Mariners the winde , or Husbandmen the showers , so as the most obseruant beleeuer hath his turbida interualla , his buffetings , lest hee bee too much exalted , his desertions wherein his beloued will hide himselfe behinde the grates , not to bee found of him for a while , that hee seeke him more eagerly , and prise his presence more thankefully , more heedefully keepe him when hee hath him , and be wholly dependant on his grace ; yet so as this remaines most sure and certaine , that the constant and dayly Practiser of his faith shall constantly , and congruously bee seconded with the gusts and gales of his spirit , the onely true Zephirus and Fauonius , shall haue Satan tyed vp from long and frequent molesting him , shall not haue such tedious absences of the Spirit , such vncertaine fits and moodes of his ioy and comfort , as the negligent and loose beleeuer , but a more stedfast frame and tenor of ioy , then any other kinde of man in the world that takes not this course . Prouided that thou take this aduise , that for the better and stronger vse of this Faith , thou seele vp thy senses and chaine vp thy reason . Walking by sight , and walking by Faith are opposite things : and therefore as men fortifie the visuall beames of one eye by closing the other ; so must thou winke and close vp the eye of thy soule to all worldly things , that thou mayest by the prospectiue of Faith fixe thy spirituall eye vpon heauenly delights : not that thou needest goe out of this world and sequester thy selfe like an Eremite into Dennes and Caues , retired from all societie , but euen in the middest of all glistering obiects see them as if thou sawest them not ; that is without being deepely affected with them . So looked Paul from off the things that are seene euen in the middest of Rome , and looked vpon things which were not seene : and Moses in Pharaohs Court saw him that was inuisible . A right beleeuer goes through the world , as a man whose minde is in a deepe study : or as one that hath speciall haste of some weighty businesse , goes through a street ; that gazeth on nothing , heare 's nothing , mindes nothing that is in the way , but onely that which his head is taken vp withall : Our conuersation is in heauen , our treasure is in heauen . Oh! that all our thoughts were there , so as no earthly obiect might detaine , or distract them , no more then must needes bee in our callings , so that the maine bent and intention of all that is within vs might be set vpon the dayly nourishing of our Faith. For which purpose I make this parting and farewell suite vnto thee , as thou meanest to receiue any good by this Booke . That thou wouldest euen from this very houre wherein thou endest the reading of it , determine and couenant , betwixt God and thy soule , neuer whilest thou liuest on the face of this earth to omit one day ( God enabling thee by his Spirit ) wherein thou wilt not vindicate and redeeme , at the least , one halfe or quarter of an hower , either twise or once in the day , at the least : Wherein all other affaires layd aside , thou mayest withdraw thy selfe apart from all company , and occasions , with a non obstante , to practise the exercise formerly prescribed . That is , by Prayer , Reading , and Meditation , to put some strength and life into thy Faith , till thou hast cheered , and reuiued , and warmed thy soule therewithall . This if thou shalt inuiolably obserue , the strength , the feeling , the comfort , and the fruites of thy Faith will by little and little insensibly , and in a little while , most sensibly thriue and growe till thou commest to the ripenesse of age in Christ. What hurt can it bee to thee if thou shouldest binde thy selfe by vow hereunto , or if thou fearest thy strength , yet by full purpose thus to doe all and euery day of thy life : that so in the Lees and Dregs of time , whiles fleshly Protestants are raysing contention about matters of Faith , or making Sects and Schismes in the Church about needelesse trifles , thou maist edifie thy selfe in thy most holy Faith and whilest thou liuest in the darke wombe of this world , liue by the Nauell of Faith till thou come to haue thy mouth satiate with fulnesse of all good things at the right hand of God. When , as Elizabeth Folk said , Faith shal cease to be Faith and be turned into fruition , and wee receiue the ende of our Faith , the saluation of our soules . These things haue I written that your ioy may be full . The Iust shall liue by his Faith. According to thy Faith so be it to thee . Lord increase our Faith. The Bookeseller to the Reader . GEntle Reader , I pray thee take Notis that Master Ward , hath lately published a most Remarkable Monument , of the Inuincible Nauie of 88. & the vnmatchable Powder Treason 1605. Necessary to be had in the House of euery good Christian , to shew Gods louing and wonderfull prouidence , ouer this Kingdome , when the Papists twise sought their vtter ruine & subvertion . These Monuments are to be sold where these Bookes are sould in Saint Dunstones Church-yard , and Pauls-Ally . Vale. 24 of Ianuary . 1621. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A14750-e120 Lib. 1. contra Academicos . Notes for div A14750-e630 Heb. 2 4. Rom. 1. 17. Gal 3. 11. Heb. 10. 38. Gal. 2. 20 , Notes for div A14750-e820 Chrysost. in 1 Cor. 1. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Iohn 11. 25. 1 Iohn 5. Act. 15. 9. 1 Ioh. 5. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 9. Notes for div A14750-e1200 Iob 3. 20. Psal. 32. Phil. 3 Notes for div A14750-e1710 Ioh. 6. Notes for div A14750-e2510 Doct. Bright of Melanch . Notes for div A14750-e3740 Esay 40. 31. Iudg. 1. 14& . Notes for div A14750-e4100 1 Sam. 28 7. 2 Chr. 16. 12. Foxe in 14. Apoc. Notes for div A14750-e4560 1. Cor. 3. A needfull Caueat . A profitable aduice . An earnest request . 
A26963	----	The nature and immortality of the soul proved in answer to one who professed perplexing doubtfulness / by Richard Baxter. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1682 Approx. 96 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 37 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A26963 Wing B1317 ESTC R37298 16347153 ocm 16347153 105299 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A26963) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 105299) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1604:20) The nature and immortality of the soul proved in answer to one who professed perplexing doubtfulness / by Richard Baxter. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 72 p. Printed for B. Simmons ..., London : 1682. Errata: p. 72. Imperfect: print show-through with slight loss of print. Reproduction of original in the Bodleian Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Soul -- History of doctrines -- 17th century. Immortality. Faith and reason. 2005-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-08 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-01 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2006-09 Aptara Rekeyed and resubmitted 2007-02 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2007-02 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE NATURE AND IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL PROVED . In Answer to one who professed perplexing Doubtfulness . By RICHARD BAXTER . LONDON : Printed for B. Simons , at the Three Golden Cocks , at the West End of St. Pauls . 1682. SIR , I Have Reason to judg you no Stranger to such Addresses as these : and therefore have adventured more boldly to apply my self to you . Others would , it may be , rigedly censure this Attempt ; but your more Christian Temper will induce you , I hope , to judg more charitably , did you but understand with what reluctancy I undertook this task . I have had many Disputes with my self , whether or no I should stifle these Doubts , or seek Satisfaction . Shame to own such Principles bid me do the first ; but the weight of the Concern obliged me to the last . For I could not with any chearfulness , or with that vigor I thought did become me , pursue those unseen Substances , those Objects of Faith Religion holds forth , except I did really believe their existence , and my own capacity of enjoyning them . I thought at first to satisfie my self in the certainty of the things I did believe , to confirm and establish my Faith by these Studies , that I might be able to render a Reason of the hope that is in me : but instead of building up , I am shaken ; and instead of a clearer evidence , I am invironed with uncertainties . Unhappy that I am ! I had better have taken all upon Trust , could I so have satisfied my Reason , than thus to have involved my self in an endless Study . For such I am afraid it will prove without help : for that I may not in this Concern rest without satisfaction ; and yet the more I consider , and weigh things , the more are my doubts multiplied . I call them only doubts , not to palliate any opinions ; for I have not yet espoused any ; but because they have not yet attained so much maturity or strength , as to take me off those things , my doubts being satisfied , I should conclude of indispensable necessity ; they are but yet in the Womb : assist to make them Abortives . I have not been wanting to my self , but in the use of all means to me known , have sought satisfaction , both by Prayer , Reading , and Meditation . I have weighed and consulted things according to my Capacity . I have been as faithful to my self in all my reasonings , as I could , and void of prejudice , have passed impartial Censures on the things in debate , so far as that light I have would enable me ; and what to do more , I know not , except this course I now take , prove effectual , you inclining to assist me , that I know have studied these things . My request to you therefore is , If your more publick Studies will permit you , That you would condescend to satisfie me in the Particulars I shall mention . I assure you , I have no other design , but to know the Truth : which in things of such moment , certainly cannot be difficult , tho to my unfurnished Head they have proved so : I hope my shaking may prove my establishment . That I may therefore put you to as little trouble as I can , I will first tell you what I do believe , and then what I stick at . First , therefore , I do really believe , and am very well satisfied , That there is a God , or a first Cause that hath created all things , and given to every thing its Being . For I am not acquainted with any independent Being . I know not any thing that is able to subsist without the Contribution of its Fellow-Creatures . I am conscious to my self , when sickness invades me , and death summons my Compound to a dissolution , I can do nothing to the preservation of the Being I enjoy . And if I cannot preserve my self as I am , much less could I make my self what I am : For when I was nothing , I could do nothing . And Experience and Sense tells me , As it is with me , so it is with others ; as there is none can preserve their Beings , so there is none could acquire to themselves the Being they have ; and if none , then not the first man. And indeed that was it I enquired after , from whence every species had at first their Beings ; the way , how , and means by which they are continued . I know not any Cause of the Being of any thing , of which again I may not enquire the Cause : and so from Cause to Cause , till through a multitude of Causes , I necessarily arrive at the first Cause of all Causes , a Being wholly uncaused , and without Cause , except what it was unto it self . My next Enquiry was into my self ; and my next business , to find what Concern I have with my Creator : which I knew no better way to attain , than by searching the bounds of humane Capacity . For I concluded it reasonable to judg those attainments I was capable of in my Creation , I was designed for . Now if man is nothing more than what is visible , or may be made so by Anatomy or Pharmacy , he is no Subject capable of enjoying , or loving God , nor consequently of a life of Retrobution . In this Enquiry I found Man consisted of something visible and invisible ; the Body which is visible , and something else that invisibly actuates the same . For I have seen the Body , the visible part of man ; when the invisible , either through indisposition of its Orgains , or its self , or being expelled its Mansion , hath ceased to act ( I speak as one in doubt ) : the Body hath been left to outward appearance the same ; it was yet really void of Sense , and wholly debilitated of all power to act : But then what this invisible is , what to conclude of it , I know not : Here I am at a stand , and in a Labyrinth , without a Clue : For I find no help any where . Many have , I acknowledg , defended the Souls Immortality ; but none have proved the existence of such a Being , and a life of Retrobution , and that copiously enough ; but none have proved a Subject capable of it . I know all our Superior Faculties and Actings , are usually attributed to the Soul ; but what it is in man they call so , they tell us not . To say it is that by which I reason , or that now dictates to me what I write , is not satisfactory : For I look for a definition , and such an one , as may not to ought else be appropriated . Is it therefore a real Being , really different from the Body , and able to be without it ? or is it not ? If not , whatever it be , I matter not . If it be , is it a pure Spirit , or meerly material ? If meerly material , and different only from the Body gradually , and in some few degrees of subtilty , it is then a question , whether or not that we call Death , and suppose a separation of the Compound , be not rather a Concentration of this active Principle in its own Body , which through some indisposition of the whole , or stoppage in its Orgains , through gross Corporeity , hath suffocated its actings . If it be a pure Spirit , I would then know , what is meant by Spirit ? and whether or no all things invisible , and imperceptable to Sense , are accounted such ? If so , it is then only a term to distinguish between things evident to Sense , and things not . If other wise , how shall I distinguish between the highest degree of material , and the lowest degree of spiritual Beings , or know how they are diversified , or be certain the Being of the Soul is rightly appropriated . For to me , an immaterial and spiritual Being , seems but a kind of Hocus , and a Substance stript of all materiality , a substantial nothing . For all things at first had their Origine from the deep dark Waters : witness Moses Philosophy , in the 1 st of Genesis , on which the Spirit of God is said to move . I am far from believing those Waters such as that Element we daily make use of ; but that they were material , appears by those multitudes of material Productions they brought forth . And if those Waters were material , such were all things they d●d produce , among which was Man , of whom the Text asserts nothing more plain ; for it saith , God created man of the dust of the earth ; the most gross part and sedement of those Waters , after all things else were created . Now the Body only is not Man ; for Man is a living Creature : it is that therefore by which the Body lives and acts , that constitutes the Man. Now the Apostle mentioneth Man to consist of Body , Soul and Spirit . My Argument then is this , God created man of the dust of the earth . But Man consists of a Body Soul and Spirit : Therefore Body , Soul and Spirit are made of the dust , &c. and are material . The major and minor are undeniable ; and therefore the conclusion . Yet do I not therefore conclude its annihilation : for I know all matter is eternal ; but am rather perswaded of its concentration ( as afore ) in its own body . But of its real Being , purely spiritual , and stript of all materiality , really distinct from its body , I doubt . Because that by several accidents happening to the body , the man is incapacited from acting rationally , as before ; as in those we call Ideots , there is not in some of them so much a sign of a reasonable Soul , as to distinguish them from Bruits : Whereas were the Soul such as represented , it would rather cease to act , than act at a rate below it self . Did it know its Excellencies , such as we make them , it would as soon desert its being , as degrade its self by such bruitish acts : It is not any defect in its Organs could rob the Soul of its Reason , its Essential Faculty . Tho the Workman breaks his Tools , his hands do not lose their skill , but ceaseth to act , rather than to do ought irregularly : so likewise would the Soul then act contrary to its own nature . Secondly , Because all the species both of the Mineral , Vegitable , and Animal Kingdoms , appear to me , but as the more eminent Works of a most excellent Operator , as Engines of the most accurate Engineer ; they all live , and have a Principle of Life manifest in their growth and augmentation , and so far as they are living weights , as I can perceive from the same source . But then comes in those Natures and Faculties whereby each is distinguished from other , even like several pieces of Clock , or Watch-work : the one shews the hour of the day , and no more ; the next shews the hour and minutes , another shews both the former , and likewise the Age of the Moon ; another hath not only the three former motions , but an addition of the rise and fall of Tides ; yet all this , and many more that in that way are performed , are several distinct motions , arising all from the same Cause , the Spring or Weight , the Principle of motion in them . So among living Weights , the first do only grow and augment their bulk , and have no possibility in nature to augment their kind ; the next , to wit , Vegitables , do not only grow and increase their bulk , but likewise have a power of propagating their like : the third Family , I mean the Animal Kingdom , do not only live and encrease their kind , but likewise are made sensative . And lastly , we our selves that are not only possest of all the former , but of something , I know not what , we think more excellent , and call Reason , and all this from the same source ; namely ▪ that we live ; which if we did not , we could not perform any of these acts . For life in us is the same as the Spring or Weight in the Watch or Clock , which ceasing , all other motion ceaseth , as in a Watch or Clock , the Spring or Weight being down . As Life therefore is the Cause of all Motion , and all natural Operation and Faculties ; yet those multifarious Operations and Faculties , manifest in , and proper to the particular species of the Three Kingdoms , requires not divers Principles of Life , no more than divers motions specified in a Watch or Clock , requires divers Weights or Springs . And as the diversity of motion in Watch or Clock , ariseth not from diversity of Weights or Springs , but rather from other means : so those diversities of Natures and Faculties , manifest throughout the Three Kingdoms , arise not from divers Principles of Life , but from one Principle of Life , manifesting its power in Bodies diversly organized . So that a Tree or Herb that only vegitates and propagates its kind , hath no other Principle of Life than an Animal that hath Sense , and more eminent Faculties . The difference only , as I conceive , is , this Principle of Life in the vegitable , is bound up in a Body organized to no other end , by which Life is hindred exerting any other power : but in the Animal it 's kindled in a purer matter , by which it 's capacitated to frame more excellent Orgains , in order to the exerting more eminent Acts. For the Principle of Life can no more act rationally in matter capable of naught but vegitation ( for it acts in matter according to the nature thereof , advancing it to its utmost excellency ) , than a man can saw with a Coult-Staff , or file with an Hatchet , or make a Watch with a Betle and Wedges . I am apt to believe those rare Endowments , and eminent Faculties , wherewith men seem to excel meer Sensatives , are only the improvement of Speech , wherein we have the advantage of them , and the result of reiterated Acts , until they become habits . For by the first we are able to communicate our Conceptions and Experiments each to other ; and by the other we do gradually ascend to the knowledg of things . For is all the knowledg either in the acts , Liberal or Mechanical , any more than this acts reiterated , until they become habits ; which when they are , we are said to know them ? And what is all our reasoning , but an Argument in Discourse tossed from one to another , till the Truth be found , like a Ball between two Rackets , till at last a lucky blow puts an end to the sport ? We come into the World hardly men ; and many whose natures want cultivation , live , having nothing to distinguish them from Brutes , but the outward form , speech , and some little dexterity , such as in Apes or Monkeys , in the things they have been taught , and the Affairs they have been bred to . And could we imagine any man to have lived Twenty or Thirty years in the World , without the benefit of Humane Converse , What would appear then , think you , of a rational Soul ? which the wise man well saw when he asserted the Condition of Men and Beasts to be the same what a meer Ignorant hath , Moses himself made of Adam , that in his supposed best state , knew not that he was naked : but I believe the Nine Hundred and Thirty years Experience of his own , and the continual Experiments of Posterity , in that time communicated to him , might quicken his Intellect . So that he died with more Reason than he was created , and humane nature in his posterity . The next Generation was imbellished with his attainments , to which their own Experiences still made a new addition . The next Generation built on their Foundation , and the next on their ; and so on : and we are got on the shoulders of them all . So that it 's rather a wonder , that we know no more , than that we know so much . So that what we have , seems rather times product , through the means aforesaid , than what our Natures were at first enricht with . The which appears likewise in those whose memory fails , and in whom the vestigia of things is wore out ; the habits they had contracted , and manner of working in their several acts being forgotten , what silly Animals are they ? Whereas were the Soul such as repesented , who could rob it of its Endowments ? It 's true the debilitating of a hand , may impead a manual labour ; but rase what hath formerly been done out of the Memory , and you render Man a perfect Bruit , or worse : for he knows not how to give a signification of his own mind . And indeed , I know not any thing wherein Man excels the Beasts , but may be referred to the benefit of Speech and Hands , capable of effecting its Conceptions ; nor find any better way to attain a right knowledg of our selves , but by beholding our selves in Adam , and enquiring , what Nature had endued him with , which will fall far short of what we now admire in our selves . But now supposing all this answer'd , what will it avail us to a Life of Retrobution , if all return to one Element , and be there immerged as Brooks and Rivers in the Sea ? If we lose our Individuation ; and all the Souls that have existed , be swallowed up of one , where are the Rewards and Punishments of each individual . And we have reason to judg it will be thus , rather than otherwise , because we see every thing tends to its own Centre , the Water to the Sea , and all that was of the Earth to the Earth , from whence they were taken . And Solomon saith , The spirit returns to God that gave it . Every thing then returning to its own Element , loseth its Individuation . For we see all bodies returning to the earth , are no more individual bodies , but earth : Have we not reason then to judg the same of Spirits returning to their own Element ? And what happiness then can we hope for , more than a deliverance from the present calamity ? or what misery are we eapable of , more than what is common to all ? The same is more evident in the body with which we converse , and are more sensibly acquainted with , seems wholly uncapable of either , &c. For all bodies are material , and matter it self is not capable of multiplication , but of being changed . Therefore Nature cannot multiply bodies , but changeth them ; as some bodies arise ▪ others perish . Natures expence in continual Productions being constantly supplied by the dissolution of other Compounds : were it otherwise , her Store-house would be exhausted ; for it s by continual Circulations , Heaven and Earth is maintain'd ; and by her even Circular motion , she keeps her self imployed on the same stock of matter , and maintains every species . There is no body the same to day it was yesterday , matter being in a continual flux ; neither immediately on the dissolution of a Compound , and Corruption of the body , doth the earth thereof retain any specifick difference of that body it once was , but is immediately bestowed by Nature , and ordered to the new production of other things . That part of matter therefore which constituteth a humane body , in a short time is putrified , and made earth , which again produceth either other inferior Animals , or Grass , or Corn , for the nourishment of Beasts and Fowl , which again are the nourishment of men . Thus circularly innumerable times round , Nature continually impressing new forms of the same matter . So that that matter that now constitutes my body , it may be a thousand years ago was the matter of some other mans , or it may be of divers mens , then putrified ; which in this time hath suffered infinite changes , as it may be sometime Grass , or Corn , or an Herb , or Bird , or Beast , or divers of them , or all , and that divers times over , before my body was framed ; who then can say , why this matter so changeable , should at last be restored , my body rather than his , whose formerly it was , or the body of a Bird , or other Animal ? For by the same Reasons that the body of man is proved to arise again , may , I think , be proved the Restoration of all other bodies , which is equally incredible to me ( if understood at one time ) . For Natures stock of matter being all at first exhausted , she could not employ her self in new Productions , without destroying some of the old ; much less can she at once fabricate out of the same quantity of matter , all the bodies that ever were , are , or shall be ; which yet , notwithstanding could she , they could not be said to be the same bodies , because all bodies suffer such alteration daily , that they cannot be said to be the same to day they were yesterday ; how then can they be capable of Reward or Punishment ? These are now my doubts ; but are they the fruits of Diligence ? and am I thus rewarded for not believing at a common rate ? A great deal cheaper could I have sate down , and believed as the Church believes ; without a why , or a wherefore , have been ignorant of these Disputes , and never have emerged my self in this gulf , than thus by Reflection to create my own disturbance . Had I been made a meer Animal , I had had none of these Doubts nor Fears that thus torment my mind ; for doubting , happy Bruits happy , far more happy than my self ! With you is none of this ; with you only is serenity of mind , and you only void of Anxieties ; you only enjoy what this world is able to accommodate with , and it may be too have those Caresses we know not of , while we , your poor purveyors , go drooping and disponding , doubting , fearing , and caring about , and our whole lives only a preying on one another , and tormenting our selves . You have the carnal content and satisfaction ; we nothing but the shell , a vain glorious boast of our Lordship over you , with which we seek to satisfie our selves , as Prodigals , with husks , while the truth is , we are afraid to confront our Vassals , except we first by craft and treachery beguile them from whom likewise we flee , if once enraged : and what a poor comfort is this ? Is this a Priviledg to boast of ? Is this all Reason advanceth to , only a Purveyor to Beasts , and to make my life more miserable , by how much more sensible of misery ! Well might Solomon prefer the dead before the living ; and those that had not been , before both ; intimating thereby , that being best , least capable of misery ; that is , of Trees , of Herbs , of Stones , and all inanimates , which wanting sense , are insensible of misery . Better any thing than man therefore , since that every brute and inanimate stock or stone , are more happy in that measure : they are less capable of misery . What the advantage then , what the benefit that occurs to us from them , or what preheminence have we above them , seeing as dieth the one , so dieth the other , and that they have all one breath ? Pardon this Degression ; the real sense and apprehension I have of things , extort it from me . For I , as Job , cannot refrain my mouth , but speak in the bitterness of my Spirit , and complain in the anguish of my Soul , Why died I not from the womb ? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly ? Why did the knees prevent me ? or why the breasts , that I should suck ? I had then been among Solomon 's happy ones : I should now have lain still and been quiet ; I should have slept , and been at rest : whereas now I am weary of life . For tho I speak , my grief is not asswaged ; and tho I forbear , I am not eased ; but now he hath made me weary , and made desolate all my company : he hath filled me with wrinkles , which is a witness against me ; and my leanness rising up in me , beareth witness to my face , God hath delivered me to the ungodly , and turned me cver into the hand of the wicked , and my familiar friends have forgotten me . I said , I shall die in my nest , and shall multiply my days as the sand , when my root was spread out by the waters , and the dew lay all night on my branch ; when my glory was fresh , and my bow was renewed in my hand : but I find while my flesh is upon me , I shall bave pain , and while my soul is in me , it shall mourn . Have pity upon me , O my friend ! for the hand of God hath touched me . The wicked live , and become old ; yea , they are mighty in power , their seed is established in their sight with them , and their off-spring before their eyes ; their houses are safe from fear , neither is the rod of God upon them , &c. they are planted , and take root , they grow ; yea , they bring forth fruit , yet God is never in their mouth , and far from their reins . In vain then do I wash my hands in innocency , seeing all things come alike to all . There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked , to the good , to the clean , and to the unclean ; to him that sacrificeth , and to him that sacrificeth not : as is the good , so is the sinner ; and he that sweareth , as he that feareth an oath . I have now done ( tho I hardly know how ) , lest I too far trouble you ; and only beg your perusal of these lines , and two or three in answer of them by this Bearer , who shall at your appointment wait on you for the same . Let me farther beg these two things of you : first , That you would consider you have not to do with a Sophistick Wrangler , or with one that would willingly err , but with one that desires to know the Truth . Let therefore your Answer be , as much as you can , void of Scholastick Terms , or Notions that may lead me more into the dark . And then , as Job did beg , That God would withdraw his hand far from him , and that his dread might not make him afraid ; so I. And further , That you would not awe me with his greatness , nor suppress my Arguments with his Omnipotence . Then call thou , and I will answer ; or let me speak , and answer thou me . Thus begging the Divine Influence to direct you , and enlighten me , I subscribe myself , SIR , § . 1. IT is your wisdom in Cases of so great moment , to use all just endeavours for satisfaction ; and I think you did but your duty , to study this as hard as you say you have done . But 1. I wish you had studied it better ; for then you would not have been a stranger to many Books which afford a just solution of your Doubts , as I must suppose you are , by your taking no notice of what they have said . 2. And I wish you had known , that between the solving of all your Objections , and taking all on Trust from men , or believing as the Church believeth , there are Two other ways to satisfaction ( which must be conjunct ) : 1. Discerning the unanswerable evidences in Nature and Providence , of the Souls future Life . 2. And taking it on trust from Divine Revelation ; which is otherwise to be proved , than by believing as the Church by Authority requireth you . I have written on this Subject so much already , that I had rather you had told me , why you think it unsatisfactory , than desire me to transcribe it , while Print is as legible as Manuscript . If you have not read it , I humbly offer it to your consideration . It is most in two Books : The first which I intreat you to read , is called , The Reasons of the Christian Religion : the other is called , The Unreasonableness of Infidelity . If you think this too much labour , you are not so hard or faithful a Student of this weighty Case , as it deserveth , and you pretend to be . If you will read them ( or the first at least ) , and after come to me , that we may fairly debate your remaining Doubts , it will be a likelier way for us to be useful to each other , than my going over all the mistakes of your Paper will be . And I suppose you know , that we have full assurance of a multitude of Verities , against which many Objections may be raised , which no mortal man can fully solve , especially from Modes and Accidents . Nay , perhaps there is nothing in the World which is not liable to some such Objections . And yet I will not neglect your writing . § . 2. When you were convinc'd , That there is a first Cause , it would have been an orderly progress to think what that Cause is ; and whether his Works do not prove his Infinite Perfection , having all that eminently which he giveth formally to the whole World , as far as it belongeth to perfection to have it . For none can give more than he hath . And then you should have thought what this God is to man , as manifest in his Works : and you should have considered what of man is past doubt , and thence in what relation he stands to God , and to his fellow-creatures : And this would have led you to know mans certain duty : and that would have assured you of a future life of Retribution . Is not this a just progress ? § . 3. But you would know a Definition of the Soul. But do you know nothing but by Definitions ? Are all men that cannot define , therefore void of all knowledg ? You know not at all what seeing is , or what light is , or what feeling , smelling , tasting , hearing is , what sound or odor is , what sweet or bitter , nor what thinking , or knowing , or willing , or loving is , if you know it not before defining tell you , and better than bare defining can ever tell you . Every vital faculty hath a self-perception in its acting ; which is an eminent sense : Intuition also of outward sensible Objects , or immediate perception of them , as sensata & imaginata , is before all Argument and Definition , or reasoning action . By seeing , we perceive that we see ; and by understanding ; we perceive that we understand . I dare say , That you know the Acts of your own Soul by acting , tho when you come to reasoning or defining , you say you know not what they are . You can give no definition what substance is , or Ens at least , much less what God is . And yet what is more certain than that there is Substance , Entity , and God ? § . 4. But I 'le tell you what the Soul of man is : It is a Vital , Intellectual , Volitive Spirit , animating a humane organized Body . When it is separated , it is not formally a Soul , but a Spirit still . § . 5. Qu. But what is such a mental Spirit ? It is a most pure Substance , whose form is a Power or Virtue of Vital Action , Intellection , and Volition ( three in one ) . § . 6. I. Are you not certain of all these Acts , viz. That you Act vitally , understand and will ? If not , you are not sure that you see , that you doubt , that you wrote to me , or that you are any thing . II. If you act these , it is certain that you have the power of so acting . For nothing doth that which it cannot do . III. It is certain , that it is a Substance which hath this power : For nothing can do nothing . IV. It is evident , that it is not the visible Body , as composed of Earth , Water and Air , which is this mental Substance . Neither any one of them , nor all together have Life , Understand●●g , or Will. They are passive Beings , and act not at all of themselves , but as acted by invisible Powers . They have an aggregative inclination to Union , and no other . Were it not for the Igneous Nature which is active , or for Spirits , they would be cessant . Therefore you are thus far past the dark , That there is in man an Invisible Substance , which hath , yea , which is a Power or Virtue of Vital Action , Intellection , and Volition . V. And that this Active Power is a distinct thing from meer Passive Power , or mobilitie per aliud , Experience puts past doubt . There is in every living thing a Power , or Virtue of self-moving , else Life were not Life . VI. And that this is not a meer accident of the Soul , but its essential form , I have proved so fully in my Methodus Theologiae , in a peculiar Disputation , that I will not here repeat it . It 's evident , That even in the igneous Substance , the Vis Motiva , Illuminativa , Calefactiva , is more than an accident , even its essential form : But were it otherwise , it would but follow , That if the very accidental Acts or qualities of a Soul be so noble , its essential must be greater . VII . But it is certain , That neither Souls , nor any thing , have either Being , Power , or Action , but in constant receptive dependence on the continued emanation of the prime Cause ; and so no Inviduation is a total separation from him , or an Independence , or a self-sufficiency . Thus far natural light tells you what Souls are . § . 7. You add your self , That those attainments which you were made capable of you were designed to . Very right . God maketh not such noble Faculties or Capacities in vain ; much less to engage all men to a life of duty , which shall prove ▪ deceit and misery . But you have Faculties capable of thinking of God , as your Beginning , Guide , and End , as your Maker , Ruler , and Benefactor ; and of studying your duty to him , in hope of Reward , and of thinking what will become of you after Death , and of hoping for future Blessedness , and fearing future Misery : all which no Bruit was ever capable of . Therefore God designed you to such ends which you are thus capable of . § . 8. You say ( p. 3. ) Many have defended the Souls Immortality ; but none have proved a Subject capable of a life of Retribution . It 's a Contradiction to be immortal , or rewarded , and not to be a Subject capable ▪ For nothing hath no accidents . Nothing hath that which it is not capable of haing . § . 9. You say , None tell us what it is . How many Score Volumes have told it us ? I have now briefly told you what it is . You say , [ To say it is that by which I reason , is not satisfactory . I look for a Definition ] . But on Condition you look not to see or feel it , as you do Trees or Stones , you may be satisfied . I have given you a Definition . The Genus is Substantia purissima ; the Differentia is Virtus Vitalis , Activa , Intellectiva , Volitiva ( trinum a Imago Creatoris ) . What 's here wanting to a Definition ? I have told you , That there is an antecedent more certain Perception , than by Definition ; by which I know that I see , hear , taste , am , and by which the Soul , in act , is conscious of it self . § . 10. You ask , 1. Is it a real Being ? Answ . I told you , Nothing can do nothing . 2. Is it really different from the Body ? Answ . A Substance which hath in it self an Essential Principle of Life , Intellection , and Volition , and that which hath not , are really different . Try whether you can make a Body feel , or understand without a Soul. 2. Those that are seperable , are really different . 3. You ask , Is it able to be without it ? Answ . What should hinder it ? The Body made not the Soul : A viler Substance giveth not being to a nobler . 2. Nothing at all can be without continued Divine sustentation . But we see , Juxta naturam , God annihilateth no Substance : Changes are but by composition , and separation , and action , but not by annihilation . An Atome of Earth or Water , is not annihilated ; and why should we suspect , that a Spiritual Substance is ? Yea , the contrary is fully evident , tho God is able to annihilate all things . § . 11. You say , If it be meerly material , and differ from the Body but gradually , Death may be but its concentration of this active Principle in its own Body . Answ . If you understand your own words , it 's well . 1. Do you know what material signifieth ? See Crakenthorp's Metaphysicks , and he will tell you in part , it 's an ambiguous word . Sometime it signifieth the same as substantia ; and so Souls are material . Sometime it signifieth only that sort of Substance which is called corporeal . Dr. More tells you , That Penetrability , and Indivisibility , difference them . But what if fire ▪ should differ from air materially , but in degree of subtilty and purity , or sensitive Souls from igneous , and mental from sensitive , but in higher degrees of purity of matter ; Is it not the form that maketh the specifick difference ? Air hath not the igneous Virtue of Motion , Illumination , and Calefaction ; nor ignis , the sensitive Virtues , nor meer sensitives the rational Virtues aforesaid . Forma dat esse & nomen . This maketh not a meer gradual difference , but a specifick . There is in Compounds matter , and materiae dispositio receptiva , & forma . There is somewhat answerable in spiritual uncompounded Beings . There is substantia , and substantiae dispositio , & forma . These are but intellectually distinct , and not divisible , and are but inadequate conceptions of one thing ▪ That substantia is conceptus fundamentalis , is confest . Some make penetrability and indivisibility , substantiae conceptus dispositicus . But the Virtus vitalis activa , intellective , volitiva , in one , is the conceptus formalis . 2. But what mean you by [ the active Principles concentration in its own body ] ? It is a strange Expression : 1. If you mean , that it 's annihilated , then it ▪ remaineth not . 2. If you mean , that it remaineth an active Principle , you mean a substance , or accident . If a substance , it seems you acknowledg it a self-subsisting being , only not separate from its carcass . And if they be two , why are they not separable ? If separable , why not separated ? When the dust of the Carcass is scattered , is the Soul concentred in every atome , or but in one ? And is it many , or one concentred Soul ? If you mean , That it 's but an accident , that 's disprov'd before ; what accident is it ? If concentred in the body , the body , and every dust of it , is vital and intellectual . And if so , every clod and stone is so ; which I will not so much wrong you , as to imagine that you think . § . 12. But you would know what 's meant by a spirit , whether all that is not evident to sense ? Ans . It is a pure substance ( saith Dr. More , penetrable and indivisible ) essentially vital , perceptive and appetitive . § . 13. You add , [ How shall I know the difference between the highest degree of materials , and lowest of immaterials ? To me an immaterial , and spiritual being , seems a kind of Hocus , a substantial nothing . Ans . If you take matter for the same with substance , it is material . But not if you take matter , as it 's usually taken , for corporeal ; or gross , and impenetrable , and divisible substance , uncapable of essential , vital , self-moving perception and appetite . If this seems nothing to you , God seems nothing to you , and true Nature , which is Principium motus , seems nothing to you : And all that performeth all the action which you see in the world ; seems nothing to you . It 's pity that you have converst so little with God and your self , as to think both to be nothing . § . 14. What you say out of Gen. 1. is little else but mistake , when you say [ all was made out of the deep waters by the spirit of God ] . The Text nameth what was made of them . It saith nothing of the Creation of Angels , or Spirits , out of them ( no , nor of the Light , or Earth , or Firmament . ) And whereas you say , [ God made man of the dust of the ground ; but the body only is not man , ergo . Ans : You use your self too unkindly , to leave out half the words , Gen. 2. 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground , and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life , and man became a living soul ; when the Text tells us the two works by which God made man , will you leave out one , and then argue exclusively against it ? What if I said , [ The Chandler made a Candle of Tallow , and then by another kindled it ] ? or [ a man made an house of Bricks , and cemented them with Mortar , &c. ] ? will you thence prove , That he made a Candle burning without fire , or the House without Mortar ? Words are useless to such Expositors . § . 15. Page 4. you say ; You know all matter is eternal . But you know no such thing . If it be Eternal , it hath one Divine perfection : and if so , it must have the rest , and so should be God. But what 's your proof ? You again ( believe the Souls concentration in its body ] . Ans . Words insignificant . It 's Idem or Aliud . If Idem , then dust is Essentially Vital and Intellectual . Deny not spiritual forms , if every clod or stone have them . If. Aliud , how prove you it to be there , rather than elsewhere ? And if you considered well , you would not believe essential , substantial life and mind , to lye dead and unactive , so long as the dust is so . § . 16. You come to the hardest Objecti - [ The Souls defective acting in infants , ideots , the sick , &c. and say , [ It would rather not act , if it were as represented . ] Ans . 1. It cannot be denied , but the Operations of the Soul here , are much of them upon the organized body ; and tho not organical , as if they acted by an Organ , yet organical , as acting on an Organ ; which is the material Spirits primarily . And so there go various Causes to some Effects , called Acts. 2. And the Soul doth nothing independently , but as dependent on God , in Being and Operation : and therefore doth what God knoweth , and useth it too , as his Instrument , in the forming of the body ; and in what it knoweth not it self . And as God , as fons naturae ▪ necessitateth the natural agency of the Soul ▪ as he doth the Soul of Bruits . But as the wise and free Governor of the world , he hath to moral acts , given mans Soul free-will , and therefore conducting Reason ; which it needs not to necessitated acts , as digestion , motion of the blood , formation of the body , &c. And as it is not made to do all its acts freely and rationally , so neither at all times , as in Apoplexies , Infancy , Sleep , &c. It is essential to the Soul , to have the active power or virtue of Intellection and Free-will , but not always to use it . As it is essential to the substance of fire , tho latent in a flint , to have the power of motion , lighe and heat . And its considerable , that as a traveller in his journey , thinking and talking only of other things , retaineth still a secret act of intending his end , ( else he would not go on ) when he perceiveth and observeth it not at all . He that playeth on the Lute or Harpsical , ceaseth when his Instrument is out of tune ; because he acteth by free-will . But the Soul of an Idiot or mad-man acteth only per modum naturae , not by free-acts , but necessitated by God by the order of nature . Only moral acts are free ; and that some other are but brutish ▪ and some but vegitative , is no more a wonder , than that it should understand in the head , and be sensible only in the most of the body , and vegitative only in the hairs and nails . It operateth in all the body by the Spirits , as valid ; but about the eyes , and open sensoria , by Spirits also as lucid , for that use . § . 14. But never forget this , That nothing at any time doth what it cannot do : but many can do that which they do not . Tho the Soul in the Womb , or Sleep , remember not , or reason not ; if ever it do it , that proveth it had the power of doing it . And that power is not a novel accident , tho the act may be so . § . 18. To your Explications p. 4. I say , 1. None doubts , but all the world is the work of one prime operating Cause ; Whom I hope you see in them , is of perfect power , wisdom and goodness , the chief efficient dirigent and final cause of all . 2. I doubt not , but the created universe is all one thing or frame ; and no one atome or part totally separated from , and independent on the rest . 3. But yet the parts are multitudes , and heterogeneous , and have their Individuation , and are at once many and one in several respects . And the unity of the Universe , or of inferior universal Causes ( as the Sun , or an anima telluris , &c. ) are certainly consistent with the specifick and individual differences of the parts . E. g. Many individual Apples grow on the same Tree ; yea , Crabs and Apples by divers grafts , nourished on the same stock : One may rot , or be sower , and not another . Millions of Trees , as also of Herbs and Flowers , good and poysonous , all grow in the same earth . Here is Unity , and great Diversity . And tho self-moving . Animals be not fixed on the earth , no doubr they have a contiguity , or continuity , as parts with the Universe . But for all that , a Toad is not a Man , nor a man in torment , undifferenced from another at ease , nor a bad man all one with a good . § . 19. And if any should have a conceit , That there is nothing but God and matter . I have fully confuted it in the Appendix to Reas . of Christian Religion . Matter is no such omnipotent sapiential thing in it self , as to need no cause or maker , any more than Compounds . And to think , that the infinite God would make no nobler Creature than dead matter , no liker himself ▪ to glorifie him , is antecedently absurd , but consequently notoriously false . For tho nothing be acted without him , it 's evident that he hath made active Natures with a principle of self-moving in themselves . The Sun differs from a clod , by more than being matter variously moved by God , even by a self-moving power also . Else there were no living creature , but bodies in themselves dead , animated by God. But it would be too tedious to say all against this that 's to be said . § . 20 ▪ When you tell us of [ One life in all , differenc'd only by diversity of Organs ] , you mean God , or a common created Soul. If God , I tell you where I have confuted it . It 's pity to torment or punish God in a murderer , or call ▪ him wicked in a wicked man : or that one man should be hang'd , and another prais'd , because the Engines of their bodies are diverse . But the best Anatomists say , That nothing is to be seen in the brain of other Animals , why they might not be as rational as Men. And if it be an Anima creata communis that you mean , either you think it is an universal Soul to the universal world , or only to this Earth or Vortex . If to all the World , you feign it to have Gods Prerogative . If to part of the world , if each Vortex , Sun , Star , &c. have a distinct individuate superior Soul , why not men also inferiors ? And why may not millions of individual Spirits consist with more common or universal Spirits , as well as the life of Worms in your belly with yours . That which hath no Soul or Spirit of its own , is not fit for such reception and communion with superior Spirits , as that which hath . Communion requireth some similitude . We see God useth not all things alike , because he makes them not like . § . 21. But if the difference between Beasts , Trees , Stones , and Men , be only the organical contexture of the body ; then 1. Either all these have put one Soul , and so are but one , save corporeally . 2. Or else every Stone , Tree and Beast hath an Intellectual Soul : for it is evident that man hath , by its Operations . I. Had you made but Virtue and Vice to be only the effects of the bodies contexture , sure you would only blame the maker of your body , and not your sclf , for any of your Crimes : For yon did not make your own body , if you were nothing . Is the common light and sense of Nature no Evidence ? Doth not all the world difference Virtue and Vice , moral good and evil ? Is it only the difference of an ▪ Instrument in Tune , and out of Tune ? Either then all called sin is good ; or God , or the universal Soul , only is to be blamed . Then to call you a Knave , or a Lyar , or Perjured , &c. is no more disgrace , than to say , that you are sick , or blind . Then all Laws are made only to bind God , or the Amima mundi ; and all punishment is threatned to God , or this common Soul. And it is God , or the common Soul only in a body , which sorroweth , feareth , feeleth pain or pleasure . II. And if you equal the Souls of Beasts , Trees , Stones and Men , you must make them all to have an Intellectual Soul. If man had not , he could never understand . And if they have so also , frustra fit potentia quae nunquam producitur in actum . It is certain that it is not the body ( Earth , Air or Water ) that feeleth , much less that understandeth or willeth . If therefore all men have but one Soul , why is it not you that are in pain or joy , when any , or all others are so ? Tour suffering and joys are as much theirs . You hurt your self when you hurt a Malefactor . Why are you not answerable for the Crimes of every Thief , if all b●● one ? § . 22. You vainly liken several Natures and Faculties to several pieces of Clock-work . For Natures and Faculties are self-acting Principles under the prime Agent : but a Clock is only passive , moved by another : Whether the motus gravitationis in the poise , be by an intrinsick Principle , or by another unseen active Nature , is all that 's controvertible there . All that your similitude will infer , is this , That as the gravitation of one poise , moves every wheel according to its receptive aptitude ; so God , the universal Spirit , moveth all that is moved , according to their several aptitudes , passives as passive , actives as active , vitals as self-movers , intellectuals as intellectual-free-self-movers under him . No Art can make a Clock feel , see or understand . But if the world have but one soul , what mean you by its concentring in the Carcass ? Is the universal Soul there fallen asleep , or imprisoned in a Grave , or what is it ? § . 23. Add page 5. You well say , That Life is the cause of all motion : Yea , infinite Life , Wisdom and Love , is the cause of all : but there be second Causes under it : Plurima ex uno . And it maketh things various , which it moveth variously ; and maketh them vital , sensitive or mental , which he will move to vital , sensitive and mental acts . Operari sequitur esse . § . 24. You are apt to believe , That those eminent Faculties wherewith men seem meer Sensitives , are only the improvement of Speech , and reitorated Acts , till they become Habits . Ans . 1. I had a Parrot that spoke so very plainly , that no Man could discern but he could have spoke as well as a Man , if he had but had the Intellect of a Man ; and quickly would learn new words , but shewed no understanding of them . 2. Many men born deaf and dumb , are of a strong understanding ( enquire of a Brother of Sir Richard Dyett's , a Son of Mr. Peter Whalley of Northampton , a Son in Law of the Lord Wharton's , &c. 3. The Faculty and the Habit are Two things . The Faculty is the Essential form of the Substance . The Habit , or Act , is but an Accident . The Faculty is nothing but the active Power . And the Power goeth before the Act. Doth acting , without Power to act , cause the Power ? What need you the Power , if you can act without it ? And What 's a Contradiction , if this be not , to say , I do that which I cannot do , or I can do that which I have no power to do ? You are not a man without the Faculty , but you are without the Act ; or else you are no man in your sleep . The act then is but the Faculties act ; and Habits are nothing but the Faculties promptitude to act . And this indeed is caused sometime by very strong acts , and sometime , and usually , by frequent acts ; and sometime suddenly , by a special Divine Operation . No doubt , but Oratory , and all Arts and Sciences , are caused by frequent acts , and their Objects : But those acts are caused by humane Faculties , under God , the first Cause . You can never cause a Carcass , or a Parrot , or any Bruit , to think of God , and the glory to come , nor to do any proper humane act . Credible History assureth us , That Devils , or separate Souls , have acted Carcasses , and discoursed in them , and seemed to commit Fornication in them , and left them dead behind them ; and they were known to be the same that were lately executed or dead , and were re-buried . Here the dead Organ was capable , when a Spirit did but use it . You too much confound Intellection and Ratiocination . The prime acts of intellective Perception ; are before Ratiocination . And there are a multitude of Complex Verities , which all found men know without , Syllogisms . The disposition to know them , is so strong , that some call it Actual Knowledg . § . 25. Add page 6. It 's well known , That the Natives in New England , the most barbarous Abassines , Gallanes , &c. in Ethicpia , have as good natural Capacities as the Europeans . So far are they from being but like Apes and Monkeys ; if they be not Ideots , or mad , they sometime shame learned men in their words and deeds . I have known those that have been so coursly clad , and so clownishly bred , even as to Speech , Looks and Carriages , that Gentlemen and Scholars , at the first congress , have esteemed them much according to your description , when in Discourse they have proved more ingenious than they , And if improvement can bring them to Arts , the Faculty was there before . When will you shew us an Ape or a Monkey , that was ever brought to the Acts or Habits before mentioned of Men ? Yea , of those that were born deaf and dumb ? § . 26. Your mistake of Adam's case , and Solomon's words , is so gross , that I will not confute it , lest the description of it offend you . § . 17. The case of failing memories is answered before , in the case ▪ of Infancy and Apoplexies , &c. Out memory faileth in our sleep ▪ and yet when we awake , we find that there remains the same knowledg of Arts and Sciences . They did not end at night , and were not all new made the next morning . The Acts ceased , because the receptivity of the passive Organ ceased : but the Habit and Faculty continued . And when memory in old men faileth about names , and words , and little matters , their judgments about great things are usually stronger ( by better Habits ) than young mens : § . 28. You say , You know nothing wherein Man excels Beasts , but may be referred to the benefit of speech and hands , capable of effecting its Conceptions . Ans . This is answered before . Those Conceptions are the cause of words and actions : and is there no cause of those Conceptions ? And if mans Conceptions differ from the beasts , the causes differed . And if the first Conceptions did not differ , the Subsequent would not differ neither , without a difference in the causal Faculties . Why do not Beasts speak as well as Men ? Parrots shew , That it is not in all for want of a speaking Organ . If one be born dumb , and not deaf , he will know but little the less for his dumbness . If he be born dead and dumb , and not blind , he will still be rational , as Dr. Wallis can tell you , who hath taught such to talk and converse intelligibly by their fingers , and other signs , without words . I confess , if all the outward Senses were stopt from the Birth , I see not how the Soul could know outward sensible things , as being no Objects to it . And how it would work on it self alone , we know not ; but understand , and will , we are sure it doth : and therefore can do it . And it 's one thing to prove Beasts to be men , or rational , and another thing to prove Men to be Beasts , or irrational . If you could prove the former , viz. That Beasts have Souls that can think of God , and the Life to come , if they could but speak , this would rather prove them immortal , than prove man unreasonable , or of a mortal Soul. Your whole speech makes more to advance bruits , than to deny the reason of man. § . 29. You say , You know no better way to attain a right knowledg of our selves , than by beholding our selves in Adam , and enquiring what Nature had endued him with , which will fall far short of what we now admire in our selves . Answ . 1. As a multitude of Objects , and Experiences , more tend to Wisdom than one alone ; so to know both what Adam was , and what all men are , and do , doth evidence more to our information , than to know Adam's first Case alone . 2. Adam's first Powers are to be known by his acts ; and his acts were not to be done at once , in a minute or a day : And we have not the History of his Life much after his Fall. But we may be sure , that Adam's Nature in Innocency , was no baser than ours corrupted . And therefore Adam had the Powers of doing whatever other men since have done . 3. But let us come to your Test : 1. Adam was made a living Soul by the breath of God , after the making of his body of the earth . 2. Adam and Eve were blessed with a generative multiplying Faculty : but they did not generate God ; nor did every bruit that had also that Faculty . Therefore there is a Soul which is not God , in every Animal , ( nor yet an Universal Soul ) . 3. Adam , no doubt , could not know external sensible Objects , till they were brought within the reach of his sense : no more can we . 4. Adam knew the Creatures as soon as he saw them ; and gave them Names suitable . This is more than we could so soon do . 5. Adam had a Law given him ; and therefore knew that God was his Ruler . He knew that God was to be obeyed ; he knew what was his Law : else it had been no sin to break it . He knew that he ought to love , and believe , and trust God , and cleave to him : else it bad been no sin to forsake him , and to believe the Tempter , and to love the forbidden Fruit better than God. He knew that Death was the threatned Wages of Sin. In a word , He was made in the Image of God : And Paul tells us , it is that Image into which we are renewed by Christ : And he describeth it to consist in wisdom , righteousness , and true holiness . 6. And we have great reason to think , that it was Adam that taught Abel to offer Sacrifice in Faith , and delivered to his Posterity the Traditions which he had from God. Tho Adam did not do all this at once , he did not receive a new Soul or Faculty for every new act . Can Apes and Monkeys do all this ? Doth God give them Laws to know and keep as moral free-agents ? But you say , Adam knew not that he was naked . Ans . What! and yet knew God and his Law , and how to name the Creatures , and how to dress and keep the Garden ? He knew not that nakedness was shameful ; for he had newly made it shameful . Perhaps you think of Adam's forbidden desire of knowledg , and his miserable attainment of it . But that did not make him a new Soul , that had no such Faculty before . Adam was the Son of God by Creation , Luk. 3. and it was his duty and interest to live as a Son , in absolute trust on his Fathers care and love : and instead of this , he was tempte● 〈◊〉 self-dependance , and must needs know more than his duty , & his fathers love and reward : He must know good and evil f●● himself : like a Child that must know what Food , and Rayment , and Work is fittest for him , which he should know only by trusting his Fathers choice , or as a Patient that must needs know every Ingredient in his Physick , and the Nature and Reason of it , before he will take it , when he should implicitly trust his Physician . Man should have waited on God for all his Notices , and sought to know no more than he revealed . But a distrustful , and a selfish knowledg , and busy enquiring into unrevealed things , is become our sin and misery . § . 36. You say , Suppose all this answered : what will it avail , as to a life of Retribution , if all return to one element , and be there immerged as Brooks and Rivers in the Sea , and we lose our individuation . Ans . I answer'd this in the Appendix to the Rea●… of the Christian Religion . I add ● . Do you believe , that each one hath now one individual Soul , or not ? If not , how can we lose that which we never had ? If we have but all one universal mover , which moveth us as Engines , as the Wind and Water 〈◊〉 Mills , how come some motions to be 〈…〉 ( as a Swallow ) , and others so slow , or none 〈◊〉 all , in as mobile a body ● ? Yea , how cometh 〈◊〉 motion to be so much in our Power , that we can sit still when we will , and rise , and go , and run ▪ and speak when we will , and cease , or change it when we will ? A stone that falls , or an arrow that is shot , cannot do so . Sure it is some inward formal Principle ; and not a material Mechanical mobility of the matter , which can cause this difference . Indeed if we have all but one Soul , it 's easie to love our Neighbours as our selves , because our Neighbours are our selves . But it 's as easie to hate our selves as our Enemies , and the good as the bad , if all be one ( for forma dat nomen & esse ) . But it is strange , that either God , or the Soul of the World , shall hate it self , and put it self to pain , and fight against it self , as in Wars , &c. But if you think still , That there is nothing but God and dead matter actuated by him , I would beg your Answer to these few Questions . 1. Do you really believe , that there is a God ? that is , an eternal infinite self-being , who hath all that power , knowledg , and goodness of will , in transcendent ●●●●…ey , which any Creature hath formally , and is the efficient Governor of all else that is . If not , all the world condemneth you ▪ for it is not an uncaused Being , and can have nothing but from its Cause , who can give nothing greater than it self . 2. Do you think this God can make a Creature that hath a subordinate Soul , or Spirit , to be the Principle of its own Vital Action , Intellection , and Volition , or not ? Cannot God make a Spirit ? If not , it is either because it is a Contradiction ( which none can pretend ) , or because God is not Omnipotent ; that is , is not God ; and so there is no God ; and so you deny what you granted . But if God can make a Spirit , 3. Why should you think he would not ? Some of your mind say , That he doth all the good that he can ; or else he were not perfectly good . Certainly his goodness is equal to his greatness , and is commmunicative . 4. Hath he not imprinted his Perfections in some measure , in his Works ? Do they not shew his glory ? Judg of his Greatness by the Sun , Stars , and Heavens ; and of his Wisdom , by the wonderful Order , Contexture , and Goverument of all things . Even the Fabrick of a Fly , or any Animal , poseth us . And do you think , that his love and goodness hath no answerable effect ? 5. Do you think , that passive matter doth as much manifest Gods Perfection , and honour the Efficient , as vital and Intellectual Spirits ? If it be a far nobler Work for God to make a free , vital , mental Spirit , to act under him freely , mentally , and vitally , than to make meer atomes , why should you think that God will not do it ? 6. And do you not dishonour , or blaspheme the prime Cause , by such dishonouring of his Work , as to say , he never made any thing more noble than Atomes , and Compositions of them . 7. Is there not in the Creature a communicative disposition to cause their like ? Animals generate their like : Fire kindleth fire : Wise men would make others wise : God is essential infinite Life , Wisdom and Love : and can he , or would he make nothing liker to himself than dead Atomes ? Yea , you feign him to make nothing but by Composition , while you say , That matter it self is eternal . 8. But when the matter of Fact is evident , and we see by the actions , that there is a difference between things moved by God , some having a created Life and mind , and some none , what needs then any further proof ? § . 31. But if you hold , That we have now distinct Spirits , which are individual , Substances , why should you fear the loss of our individuation , any more than our annihilation , or specifick alteration ? If God made as many substantial individual Souls , as men , is there any thing in Nature or Scripture , which threatneth the loss of Individuation ? I have shewed you , and shall further shew you enough against it . § . 32. You say , page 7. Every thing returneth to its element , and loseth its individuatiou : Earth to Earth , Water to the Sea , the Spirit to God that gave it . What happiness then can we hope for more than deliverance from the present calamity ; or what misery are we capable of , more than is common to all ? Ans . 1. Bodies lose but their Composition , and Spiritual forms . Do you think , that any Atome loseth its individuation ? If it be still divisible in partes infinitas , it is infinite . And if every Atome be infinite , it is as much , or more than all the world ; and so is no part of the world ; and so there would be as many Worlds , or Infinites , as Atomes . It is but an aggregative motion which you mention . Birds of a Feather will flock together , and yet are Individuals still . Do you think any dust , or drop , any Atome of Earth or Water , loseth any thing of it self , by its union with the rest ? Is any Substance lost ? Is the simple Nature changed ? Is it not Earth and Water still ? Is not the Haecceity , as they call it , continued ? Doth not God know every dust , and every drop from the rest ? Can he not separate them when he will ? And if Nature in all things tend to aggregation , or union , it is then the Perfection of everything . And why should we fear Perfection ? 2. But Earth , and Water , and Air , are partible matter . Earth is easily separable : The parts of Water more hardly , by the means of some terrene Separaror . The parts of Air yet more hardly : and the Sun-beams , or substance of fire , yet harder than that ( tho it's contraction and effects are very different ) : And Spirits either yet harder , or not at all . Some make it essential to them to be indiscerptible ; and all must say , That there is nothing in the Nature of them , tending to division , or separation . And therefore tho God , who can annihilate them , can divide them into parts , if it be no Contradiction ; yet it will never be , because he useth every thing according to its nature , till he cometh to miracles . Therefore their dissolu●ion of parts is no more to be feared , than their annihilation . 3. But if you take Souls to be partible and unible , then you must suppose every part to have still its own existence in the whole . And do you think , that this doth not more advance Souls than abase them ? Yea , you seem to Deifie them , while you make them all to return into God , as drops into the Sea. And if you feign God to be partible , is it not more honour and joy to be a part of God , who is joy it self , than to be a created Soul ? If a thousand Candles were put out , and their light turned into one Luminary , as great as they all , every part would have its share in the enlightning of the place about it . Is it any loss to a single Soldier , to become part of a victorious Army . 4. But indeed this is too high a Glory for the Soul of man to desire , or hope for . It is enough to have a blessed union with Christ , and the holy Society , consistent with our Individuation . Like will to like , and yet be it self . Rivers go to the Sea , and not to the Earth . Earth turns to Earth , and not to the Sun , or Fire . And the holy and blessed , go to the holy and blessed : And I believe , that their union will be nearer than we can now well conceive , or than this selfish state of man desireth : But as every drop in the Sea , is the same Water it was , so every Soul will be the same Soul. 2. And as to the incapacity of misery which you talk of , why should you think it more hereafter than here ? If you think all Souls now to be but one , doth not an aking Tooth , or a gouty Foot , or a calculous Bladder , suffer pain , tho it be not the body that feeleth ; but the same sensitive Soul is pain'd in one part , and pleas'd in another . And if all Souls be now but God in divers Bodies , or the Anima mundi , try if you can comfort a man under the torment of the Stone , or other Malady , or on the Rack , or in terror of Conscience , by telling him , That his Soul is a part of God. Will this make a Captive bear his Captivity , or a Malefactor his Death ? If not here , why should you think that their misery hereafter will be ever the less , or more tolerable for your conceit , that they are parts of God ? They will be no more parts of him then , than they were here . But it 's like , that they also will have an uniting inclination , even to such as themselves ; or that God , will separate them from all true unity , and say , Go you cursed into everlasting fire , prepared for the Devil and his Angels , &c. § . 33. No doubt it 's true , that you say , page 7 , and 8. That matter is still the same , and liable to all the changes which you mention . But it 's an unchanged God , who doth all this by Spirits , as second Causes , who are not of such a changeable , dissoluble , partible nature , as Bodies are : It is Spirits that do all that 's done in the world ! And I conjecture , as well as you , That universal Spirits are universal Causes . I suppose , That this Earth hath a vegitative form , which maketh it as a matrix to receive the Seeds , and the more active influx of the Sun. But Earth and Sun are but general Causes . Only God , and the seminal Virtue , cause the species , as such . The Sun causeth every Plant to grow ; but it causeth not the difference between the Rose , and the Nettle . and the Oak . The wonderful unsearchable Virtue of the Seed causeth that . And if you would know that Virtue , you must know it by the effects . You cannot tell by the Seed only of a Rose ; a Vine , an Oak , what is in it . But when you see the Plants in ripeness , you may see that the Seeds had a specifying Virtue , by the influx of the general Cause , to bring forth those Plants , Flowers , &c. Neither can you know what is in the Egg , but by the ripe Bird ; nor what the Soul of an Infant is , but by Manhood and its Acts. § . 34. You here pag. 7. divert from the point of the Immortality or Nature of the Soul , to that of the Resurrection of the Body : of which I will now say but this ; Christ rose , and hath promised us a Resurrection , and nothing is difficult to God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oft signifieth our living another life after this . The Body hath more parts than Earth and Water . The Spirits as we call them , which are the igneous parts , lodged in the purest aereal in the blood , &c. are that body in and by which the Soul doth operate on the rest . How much of these material Spirits the Soul may retain with it after Death , we know not : and if it have such a body , it hath partly the same ; and God can make what Addition he please , which shall not contradict identity : Paul saith of Corn , God giveth it a body as pleaseth him ▪ in some respect the same , &c. in some not the same that was sown . We do not hold , That all the flesh that ever a man had , shall be raised as that mans . If one man that was fat , grow lean in his sickness , we do not say , that all the flesh that sickness wasted , shall rise : It shall rise a spiritual body . God knoweth that which you and I know not . § . 35. You add , how easie it would have been to you to believe as the Church believeth ▪ and not to have immerged your self in these difficulties ? Ans . 1. The Church is nothing but all individual Christians ; and it is their Belief which makes them capable of being of the Church : As we must be men in order of Nature , before we are a Kingdom of men ; so we are Believers before we are a Church of Believers . A Kingdom or Policy maketh us not men , but is made of men ; and Church-society or Policy maketh us not Believers , but is made up of Believers . Therefore Belief is first , and is not caused by that which followeth it ? And why doth the Church believe ? Is it because they believe ? And whom do they believe ? Is it themselves ? I doubt you have fallen into acquaintance with those whose Interest hath made it their Trade to puzzle and confound men about things as hard to themselves as others , that they may bring them to trust the Church , and then tell them that it 's they that are that Church , as a necessary means to the quieting their minds . And they tell them , You are never able by reason to comprehend the mysteries of Faith ; the more you search , the more you are confounded . But if you believe as the Church believeth , you shall speed as the Church speedeth , But it 's one thing to believe the same thing which the Church believeth ; and another to believe it with the same faith , and upon the same Authority . If a man believe all the Articles of the Creed only because men tell him that they are true , it is but a human Faith , as resting only on mans Authority ; but the true Members of the Church believe all the same things , because God revealeth and attesteth them ; and this is a Divine Faith : And so must you . If you love light more than darkness and deceit , distinguish , 1. Believing men for Authority . 2. Believing men for their Honesty , 3. Believing men for the natural impossibility of their deceiving . And the foundation of this difference is here : Mans Soul hath two sorts of acts , Necessary and Contingent , or mutably free ▪ To love our selves , to be unwilling to be miserable , and willing to be happy ; to love God as good , if known , &c. are acts of the Soul as necessary , as for fire to burn combustible contiguous matter ; or for a Bruit to eat ; so that all the Testimonies which is produced by these necessary acts by knowing men , hath a Physical certainty , the contrary being impossible . And this is infallible historical knowledg of matter of fact . Thus we know there is such a City as Rome , Paris , Venice , &c. and that there was such a man as K. James , Ed. 6. Hen. 8. William the Conqueror , &c. And that the Statutes now ascribed to Ed. 3. and other Kings and their Parliaments are genuine . For Judges judge by them , Lawyers plead them , Kings own them , all men hold their Estates and Lives by them . Contrary mens Interest by Lawyers are daily pleaded by them against each other ; and if any one would deny , forge or corrupt a Statute , Interest would engage the rest against him to detect his fraud . 1. The certain effect of natural necessary Causes hath natural necessary evidence of Truth . But when all knowing men of contrary Dispositions and Interests ▪ acknowledg a thing true , this is the effect of natural necessary Causes . Ergo it hath natural necessary evidence of Truth . 2. It is impossible there should be an Effect without a sufficient Cause . But that a thing should be false which all knowing men of contrary Dispositions and Interests acknowledg to be true , would be an Effect without a Cause ▪ for there is no Cause in nature to effect it . It is impossible in nature that all men in England should agree to say , There was a King James , K. Edward , Q. Mary , or that these Statutes were made by them , if it were false . This is infallible Historical Testimony . It were not so strong if it were only by one Party , and not by Enemies also , or men of contrary Minds and Interests . And thus we know the History of the Gospel ; and this Tradition is naturally infallible . II. But all the Testimony which dependeth on humane Acts , not necessary , but free , have but an uncertain moral humane Credibility . For so all men are Lyars ; i. e. fallible , and not fully to be trusted . And I. Those Testimonies which depend on mens Honesty , are no farther credible , than we know the Honesty of the men : which in some is great , in some is none , in most is mixt , and lubricous , and doubtful , Alas ! what abundance of false History is in the world ! Who can trust the Honesty of such men , as multitudes of Popes , Prelates , and Priests have been ? Will they stick at a Lye , that stick not at Blood , or any wickedness ? Besides , the ignorance which invalidates their Testimony . II. And to pretend Authority to rule our Faith , is the most unsatisfactory way of all . For before you can believe that Jesus is the Christ , and his Word true , how many impossibilities have you to believe ? 1. You must believe that Christ hath a Church . 2. And hath authorized them to determine what is to be believed , before you believe that he is Christ . 3. You must know who they be whom you must believe ; whether all , or some , or a major vote . Whether out of all ▪ the world , or a party . 4. And how far their Authority extendeth ? Whether to judg whether there be a God , or no God ; a Christ , or no Christ ; a Heaven , or none ; a Gospel , or none : or what . 5. And how their determinations out of all the world may come with certainty to us : and where to find them . 6. And when Countreys and Councils contradict and condemn each other , which is to be believed . Many such impossibilities in the Roman way , must be believed , before a man can believe that Jesus is the Christ . In a word , you must not puzzle your head to know what a man is , or whether he have an immortal soul ; but you must , 1. believe the Church of Believers , before you are a Believer in Christ . 2. And you must believe , that Christ was God and Man , and came to save man , before you believe that there is such a creature as man , or what he is , and whether he have a soul capable of salvation . But I have oft elsewhere opened these Absurdities and Contradictions ; where you may see them confuted , if you are willing . § . 36. Your question about the souls nature , existence , and Individuation , may be resolved by a surer and easier way as followeth : I. By your own certain experience . 1. You perceive that you see , feel , understand , will and execute . 2. You may know , as is oft said , that therefore you have an active power to do these . 3. You may thence know , that it is a substance which hath that power . Nothing can do nothing . 4. You may perceive , that it is not the terrene substance , but an invisible substance , actuating the body . 5. You may know , that there is no probability , that so noble a substance should be annihilated . 6. Or that a pure and simple substance should be dissolved by the separation of parts ( or if that were every part would be a spirit still ) . 7. You have no cause to suspect , that this substance should lose those powers or faculties which are its essential form , and be turned into some other species , or thing . 8. And you have as little cause to suspect , that an essential vital intellective power , will not be active , when active inclination is its Essence . 9. You have no cause to suspect , that it will want Objects to action in a World of such variety of Objects . 10. And you have as little cause to suspect , that it will be unactive , for want of Organs , when God hath made its Essence active ; and either can make new Organs ; or that which can act on matter , can act without , or on other matter . He that can play on a Lute , can do somewhat as good , if that be broken . 11. And experience might satisfie you , that several men have several souls , by the several and contrary Operations . 12. And you have no reason to suspect , that God will turn many , from being many , into one ; or that unity should be any of their loss . All this , Reason tells you , beginning at your own experience , as I have ( and elsewhere more fully ) opened . § . 37. II. And you have at hand sensible proof of the individuation of spirits , by Witches , Contracts , and Apparitions : of which the world has unquestionable proof , tho there be very many Cheats . Read Mr. Glanvill's new Book , published by Dr. Moore , Lavater de Spectris , Zanchy de Angilii , Manlii Collect. Bodin's Daemonolog . Remigius of Witches , besides all the Mallei Malificorum , and doubt if you can . If you do , I can give you yet more , with full proof . § . 38. III. But all that I have said to you , is but the least part , in comparison of the assurance which you may have by the full revelatson of Jesus Christ , who hath brought life and immortality to light in the Gospel , where the state , the doom , the rewards and punishment of souls is asserted . And without dark and long Ambages , or Roman Juggles , we prove the truth of this Gospel , briefly and infallibly thus : I. The History of Christ's Life , Miracles , Doctrine , Death , Resurrection , Ascension , the Apostles Miracles , &c. is proved by such forementioned evidence , as hath physical certainty : Not such as dependeth only on mens honesty , or moral argument , much less on a pretended determining authority ; but such as dependeth on necessary acts of man , even the consent of all sorts of contrary minds and interests , as we know the Statutes of the Land , or other certain History . But we are so far from needing to ask , which part of Christians it is that is this Church , that is to be believed , that it tendeth to the assertaining of us , that all the Christian World , Papists , Protestants , Greeks , Moscovites , Armenians , Jacobites , Nestorians , &c. herein agree , even while they oppose each other . To know whether there was a Julius , or Augustus Caesar , a Virgil , Ovid Cicero , and which are their Works ; yea , which are the Acts of Councils , no man goeth to an authorized determining Judg for the matter of Fact , but to historiCal proof . And this we have most full . II. And if the History be true , the Doctrine must needs be true , seeing it is fully proved by the matters of Fact. Christ being proved to be Christ , all his words must ●eeds be true . § . 39. The Gospel of Christ , hath these four parts of its infallible evidence . I. The antecedent and inhererent Prophecies fulfilled . II. The inherent impress of Divinity on the Gospel it self , unimitable by man. It hath Gods Image and Superscription ; and its Excellency , propria luce , is discernible . III. All the Miracles , and Resurrection , and Ascention of Christ , the Gift of his Spirit , and extraordinary Miracles of the Apostles , and first Churches . IV. The sanctifying work of the Spirit by this Gospel , on all Believers in all Ages of the World , by which they have the Witness in themselves . A full constant unimitable Testimony . § . 40. And now how highly soever you think of Bruits , think not too basely of Men , for whom Christ became a Saviour : And yet think not so highly of Men , Bruits and Stones , as to think that they are God. And think not that your true diligence hath confounded you , but either your negligence , or seducers , or the unhappy stifling of obvious truth , by the ill ordering of your thoughts . And I beseech you remember , that Gods Revelationt are suited to mans use ▪ and our true knowledg to his Revtlations . He hath not told us all that man would know , but what we must know . Nothing is more known to us than that of God which is necessary for us : Yet nothing so incomprehensible as God. There is much of the Nature of Spirits , and the world to come , unsearchable to us , which will pose all our Wits : yet we have sufficient certainty of so much as tells us our duty and our hopes . God hath given us Souls to use , and to know only so far as is useful . He that made your Watch , taught not you how it 's made , but how to use it ▪ Instead therefore of your concluding complaints of your condition , thank God , who hath made man capable to seek him , serve him , love him , praise him , and rejoyce in hope of promised Perfection . Live not as a willful stranger to your Soul and God. Use faithfully the Faculties which he hath given you : sin not willfully against the truth revealed ; and leave things secret to God , till you come into the clearer light : and you shall have no cause to complain , that God , whose goodness is equal to his greatness , hath dealt hardly with mankind . Instead of trusting fallible man , trust Christ , who hath fully proved his trustiness ; and his Spirit will advance you to higher things than bruits are capable of . God be merciful to us dark unthankful sinners . Ri. Baxter . Mar. 14. 1681. ERRATA . IN the Second Part , p. 12. l. 9. for primus r Prime . p. 16. l. 21. for is r. are . I have not leisure to gather the rest , if there be any . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A26963-e120 Here 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 want 〈◊〉 the A●… Copy . 
A14753	----	The life of faith in death· Exemplified in the liuing speeches of dying Christians. By Samuel VVard preacher of Ipswich. Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640. 1622 Approx. 105 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 68 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A14753 STC 25052 ESTC S111636 99846923 99846923 11920 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A14753) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 11920) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1045:5) The life of faith in death· Exemplified in the liuing speeches of dying Christians. By Samuel VVard preacher of Ipswich. Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640. [10], 125, [1] p. Printed by Augustine Mathewes, for Iohn Marriot and Iohn Grismand, and are to bee sold at their shops in Saint Dunstons Church yard, and in Pauls Alley at the signe of the Gunne, London : 1622. Includes two sermons. The first leaf is blank. This edition has p. 4 catchword: onely. Also issued as part 3 of "The sermons and treatises which have beene heretofore severally published". Reproduction of the original in the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith -- Early works to 1800. Dying declarations -- Early works to 1800. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2003-10 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-12 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2003-12 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE LIFE OF FAITH IN DEATH . Exemplified in the liuing Speeches of Dying Christians . By SAMVEL WARD Preacher of Ipswich . LONDON , Printed by Augustine Mathewes for Iohn Marriot and Iohn Grismand , and are to bee sold at their Shops in Saint Dunstons Church yard , and in Pauls Alley at the Signe of the Gunne . 1622. TO HIS DEARE AND LOVING MOTHER . I Honour Augustine much for honouring his Mother so much after her death , whose name and example had otherwise lyen in obscuritie . But I like better , and wish rather to follow the piety of Nazianzene , who gaue himselfe to the performance of all Christian Offices to his louing Mother . God hath so blessed the former part of your life aboue the lot of most women , with two such able guides , as haue so stored you with Spirituall and Temporall furniture , that you neede not the ayde of any your Children . Neuerthelesse , Grace and Nature will bee ascending and expressing themselues , though in weake seruices . REVBEN when hee found but a fewe Flowres , must bring them to his Mother LEAH . ESAV when hee takes Uenison , gratifies his aged Father withall . SAMPSON findes home by the way and presents of it to his parents . Heere is a Posie gathered out of olde and new Gardens ; this sauory meate hath God brought to hand , heere is sweete out of the strong . Let your soule eate and blesse . The vse and fruit of them I wish to euery beleeuer , especially in age and sickenesse : but the handsell and honor of them ( if any be ) to your selfe , whom the Law of God and Nature binds mee to honour aboue others . Long may you liue to blesse your Children with your daily Prayers , especially your sonnes in that worke which needes much watering . Yet euery good Christian in yeares cannot but desire to bee forewarned against death approching , and that is the ayme of these endeuours . God prosper and blesse them as the former : and send mee my part in the benefit of these ( as hee hath done of them ) in the time of vse . Your Sonne in all dutie , desirous of the birth-right of your loue and blessing . SA : WARD . THE LIFE OF FAITH IN DEATH . THat which hath bin already spoken of the Life of Faith , is to the naturall man aboue all Faith. And yet if that bee all it can doe , then is all little better then nothing . Say it could fill the minde of man with all content , satiate his life with all delight , and sweeten the bitternesse of all afflictions , yet if for all this , there lurke in his breast a secret and slauish feare of Death , the least peece of this leauen but in a corner of the pecke , is enough to sowre the whole lumpe of his ioyes : the least dram of this Coloquintida will marre the relish of all his sweetes : and make him crie out , There is death in the pot . And , Oh Death , how bitter is thy mention and memory ? Aske Nature , and call to Philosophy , and see if they can affoord any ayd ▪ must they not confesse themselues heere quite posed and plunged ? hath not death set & foyled their whole army : for pouertie , shame ; and sicknesse , and other such pettie Crosses , some poore cures , and lame shifts haue they found out : but when death comes all their courage hath fayled , and all their rules haue left them in darke and desperate vncertainties . It is possible for Pharaoh with much a do to stand out the stormes of Haile , the swarme of Flies and Lice : but when once the crie of Death is in the houses , then is there no way but yeelding : his Enchaunters and Mountebancks could abide the crie of Frogs and other such vermine ; but this Basiliske affrights them . Onely Faith takes it by the tayle , handles it , and turnes it into an harmlesse wand , yea into a rod budding with glory and immortalitie . Quartane agues are not so much the shame of Phisicke , as Death is of all naturall skill and valour . Death is Faiths euill . Faith onely professeth this Cure , vndertaketh and performeth it with the least touch of Christs hand : and that as familiarly as the richest Balme doth the least cut of the finger . Faith turneth feares into hopes , sighings and groanings , into wishings and longings , shaking and trembling into leaping and clapping of hands . Alas , all troubles are but as Pigmyes to this Gyant , who defies all the hoste of Infidels : holds them in bondage all the dayes of their liues : and makes their whole life no better then a liuing Death and dying life . Only Faith encounters this Gyant , singles him out for her chiefe prize , and grapples with him not as a match , but as with a vanquished vnderling : insulting ouer him as much as he doth ouer the sonnes of vnbeliefe : sets her foot vpon the necke of this King of feares , and so easily becomes Conquerour and Emperour of all pettie feares , which are therefore onely fearefull , because they rend to Death ; the last , the worst , the end and summe of all feared euils . Here , and here onely is the incomparable crowne of Faith : here only doth she euidently and eminently honour her followers , and difference them from all others with a noble liuery of true magnanimitie and alacritie . It is true , if wee had windowes into the breasts of men , a difference one might see in the inward bearing of aduersitie : but for the face and outside , both may seeme alike hardy , both may seeme alike resolute : But when it comes to the poynt of Death , then the speech , the behauiour , the countenance , palpably distinguish the dull patience perforce of the worldling from the cheerfull welcome of the Christian. Let Death put on her mildest vizards , come in the habit of the greatest sicknes , to the stoutest Champion on his owne Downe bed , yet shall his heart tremble and his countenance waxe pale . Let her dresse her selfe like the cruellest Fury : Come with all her rackes , fires , strappadoes , wilde beasts , all her exquisite tortures : Faith will set a woman , or a childe to make sport with her , to dare and to tyre her , and her tormentors . Alas what doe they tell vs of their Socrates , their Cato , their Seneca , and a few such thinne examples which a breath will rehearse , a fewe lines containe their poore ragged handfull , to our Legions , whose names or number one may as soone reckon as the sand of the Sea shore : their 's a fewe choyce men of heroycall spirits trayned vp either in arts or armes : Our of the weakest sexes and sorts , onely strong in the Faith : their 's either out of windy vaine-glory childishly reckoning of a short death and a long fame , or out of blockish ignorance venturing vpon Death as Children and mad men vpon dangers without feare or wit : Ours out of mature deliberation and firme beliefe in Christ : who hath drunke out of Deaths bitter Cup an eternall health to all mankind , taken the gall and poyson out of it , and made it a wholesome potion of immortalitie . Faith heere proclaimes her challenge and bids nature or arte out of all their Souldiers or Schollers produce any one , who hauing free option to liue or die , and that vpon equall tearmes haue embraced Death : Whereas infinite of hers haue bin offered life with promotions , and yet would not bee deliuered expecting a better resurrection . If any shall challenge these for Thrasonicall flourishes , or Carpet vaunts , I appeale and call to witnesse not the Cloud now , but the whole skye of witnesses , such I meane as haue dyed either in the Lord , or for the Lord , who in the very poynt and Article of Death haue liued , and expressed liuely testimonies of this their life , partly in their incredible sufferings , partly in their admirable sayings . For their Acts and Monuments if they had all been penned , all the world would not haue conteined their Histories : the very summes would swell to large Volumes . The valour of the Patients , the sauagenesse of the Persecutours , striuing together , till both exceeding nature and beleefe , bred wonder and astonishment in beholders and Readers . Christians haue shewed as glorious power in the faith of Martyrdome as in the faith of Myracles . As for their last Speaches , and Apothegmes , pitie it is no better marke hath been taken , and memory preserued of them . The choyce and the prime I haue culled out of ancient Stories , and latter Martyrologies , English , Dutch , and French. The profite and pleasure hath paid me for the labour of collecting , and the like gaine ( I hope ) shall quit the cost of thy reading . Sweetly & briefly they comprise and couch in them the foundation , the marrow of large & manifold precepts , prescribed by the learned Diuines for preparation against Death . The Art of dying well is easier learned by examples then by directions . These chalk the way more plainely , these encourage more heartily , these perswade more powerfully , these chide vnbeleefe with more authoritie : if some worke not , others may : some will affect some , some another . Read them ouer to a sicke or to a dying Christian , if they quicken not , if they comfort not , it is because there is no life of Faith in them : if there be the least sparke , these will kindle it , cherish and maintaine it in the doore , in the valley , in the thought , in the act of Death . The Liuing Speeches of Dying Christians . PART . 1. OLd Simeons Swannes Song , Lord let thy seruant depart in peace , &c. The good Theefe , the first Confessor . Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome . Steuen the first Martyr , Lord Iesus receiue my Spirit , forgiue them &c. Peter the Apostle : None but Christ , Nothing but Christ. Andrew the Apostle : Welcome Oh Christ longed and looked for . I am the Scholler of him that did hang on thee , long haue I coueted to embrace thee , in whom I am that I am . Polycarpus to the Proconsull , vrging him to deny Christ , I haue serued him 86 yeares , and hee hath not once hurt mee , and shall I now deny him ? When hee should haue been tyed to the stake , he required to stand vntyed , saying : Let me alone ( I pray you ) for hee that gaue mee strength to come to this fire , will also giue me patience to abide in the same without your tying . Ignatius , I am the Wheat or Graine to be ground with the teeth of Beasts , that I may bee pure Bread for my Masters tooth ; Let Fire , Rackes , Pulleyes , yea and all the Torments of Hell come on mee , so I may winne Christ. Lucius to Vrbicius , a corrupt Iudge threaning death ; I thanke you with all my heart , that free mee and release mee from wicked Gouernours , and send mee to my good God and louing Father , &c. Pothnius Bishop of Lyons to the President asking him in the midst of torments what that Christ was , answered , If thou wert worthy , thou shouldest know . Cyprian , God Almighty be blessed for this Gaole deliuery . Ambrose to his Friends about him , I haue not so liued , that I am ashamed to liue longer , nor yet feare I Death , because I haue a good Lord. And the same to Calligon , Valentinians Eunuch threatning death , Well doe you that which becomes an Eunuch , I will suffer that which becomes a Bishop . Augustine , Boughes fall off Trees , and Stones out of Buildings , and why should it seeme strange that mortall men dye ? Theodosius , I thank God more for that I haue beene a member of Christ , then an Emperour of the world . Hilarion , Soule , get thee out , thou hast seuentie yeares serued Christ , and art thou now loath to dye , or afrayd of Death ? Vincentius , Rage , and doe the worst that the spirit of malignity can set thee on worke to doe . Thou shalt see Gods Spirit strengthen the Tormented more then the Deuill can doe the Tormentor . Iubentius and Maximinus , Wee are ready to lay off the last Garment the Flesh. Attalus answered to euery question , I am a Christian : being fired in an Iron Chaine , Behold , oh you Romans , this is to eat mans flesh , which you falsely obiect to vs Christians . Basill to Valens his Viceroy , offering him respite , No , I shall bee the same to morrow ; I haue nothing to lose but a few Bookes , and my body is now so crazy , that one blow will ende my torment . Gordius , To the Tyrant offering him promotion ; Haue you any thing equall , or more worthy then the Kingdome of Heauen ? Babilas dying in Prison , willed his Chaines should be buried with him ; Now ( saith he ) will God wipe away all teares , and now I shall walke with God in the land of the Liuing . Barlaam , holding his hand in the flame ouer the Altar , sung that of the Psalmist : Thou teachest my hands to warre , and my fingers to fight . Iulitta : Wee Women receiued not onely flesh from men , but are bone of bone , and therefore ought to be as strong and constant as men in Christs cause . Amachus , Turne the other side also , Least raw flesh offend . The like Lawrence . Symeones , Thus to dye a Christian , is to liue , yea the chiefe good and best end of a man. Marcus of Arethuse , hung vp in a basket , annoynted with hony , and so exposed to the stinging of Waspes , and Bees , to his persecutours that stood and beheld him ; How am I aduaunced , despising you that are below on earth . Pusices to Ananias an olde man trembling at Martyrdome : Shut thine eyes but a while , and thou shalt see Gods light . Bernard , Fense the heele voyd of Merite , with Prayer , that the Serpent may not finde where to fasten his teeth . The second part . EDWARD the 6. King of England , Bring me into thy Kingdom , free this Kingdome from Antichrist , and keepe thine Elect in it . Cranmer Archbishop : Thrusting his hand into the fire : Thou vnworthy hand ( saith hee ) shalt first burne , I will bee reuenged of thee for subscribing for feare of Death to that damned scrowle . Latimer Bishop : To one that tempted him to recant , and would not tell him his name : Well ( saith he ) Christ hath named thee in that saying , Get thee behinde mee Sathan ; And being vrged to abiure , I will ( saith hee ) good people , I once sayd in a Sermon in King Edwards time confidently , that Antichrist was for euer expelled England , but God hath shewed mee it was but carnall confidence . To Bishop Ridley , going before him to the Stake : Haue after as fast as I can follow : wee shall light such a candle by Gods grace in England this day , as I trust shall neuer hee put out againe . To whom Bishop Ridley : Bee of good heart Brother , for God will either asswage the fury of the flame , or else strengthen vs to abide it . Bishop Hooper ; to one that tendered a Pardon vpon recantation ; If you loue my Soule away with it , if you loue my Soule away with it : one of the Commissioners prayed him to consider that life is sweet , and death is bitter ; True ( saith hee ) but the death to come is more bitter , and the life to come more sweet ; Oh Lord Christ I am hell , thou art Heauen , draw me to thee of thy mercy . Iohn Rogers , to one that told him hee would change his note at the fire ; If I should trust in my selfe , I should so doe , but I haue determined to dye , and God is able to inable me . Being awakened , and bidden to make haste to Execution , Then ( saith hee ) shall I not need to tye my poynts . Iohn Philpot , I will pay my vowes in thee O Smithfield . Thomas Bilney : I know by sense and Phylosophie , that fire is hote and burning painfull , but by faith I know it shall onely waste the stubble of my bodie , and purge my spirit of it corruption . Glouer to Augustine Brenner : He is come , He is come , meaning the Comforter Gods Spirit . Iohn Bradford : embracing the Reeds and Fagots sayd ; Strayte is the way , and narrow is the gate , and few that finde it . And speaking to his fellow Martyr : Bee of good comfort Brother , for wee shall haue a merrie Supper with the Lord this night ; if there be any way to heauen on Horsebacke , or in fiery Chariots , this is it . Lawrence Saunders : I was in prison till I got into prison , and now ( sayes he kissing the Stake ) welcome the Crosse of Christ , welcome euerlasting life : my Sauiour began to mee in a bitter Cup , and shall I not pledge him ? Iohn Lambert : None but Christ , none but Christ. Baynam , Behold you Papists that looke for myracles , I feele no more paine in the fire , then if I were in a bed of Downe , it is as sweet to me as a bed of Roses . Hugh Lauerocke comforting Iohn A Pryce his fellow-Martyr , said vnto him : Bee of good comfort my Brother , for my Lord of London is our good Physition , he will cure thee of all thy blindnesse , and me of my lamenesse this day . William Hunter to his Mother , For a momentany payne I shall haue a crowne of life , & may not you be glad of that ? To whom shee answered , I count my selfe happy that bare such a Champion for Christ : and thee as well bestowed as any childe that euer I bare . Adam Damlip to his fellow-prisoners , wondring at his cheerefull Supping and behauiour after the message of his execution : Why ( quoth hee ) thinke you I haue beene so long in the Marshallsea , and haue not learned to dye ? And when they told him his quarters should bee hanged vp ; then ( said he ) shall I need take no thought for buriall . Priests wife to one offering her money , I am now going to a Countrey where money beares no Mastery : when sentence was read ; Now haue I gotten that which many a day I haue sought for . Kirby to Master Wingfield pittying him : Be at my burning , and you shall see , and say , there is a Souldier of Christ : I know fire , water , and sword are in his hands , that will not suffer them to seperate me from him . Doctor Taylor ; I shall this day deceiue the wormes in Hadley Church yard , and fetching a leape or two when hee came within two miles of Hadley , Now ( saith hee ) lacke I but two Stiles , and I am euen at my Fathers house . Walter Mill vrged to recant at the Stake ; I am no chaffe , but corne , I will abide Wind and Flayle , by Gods grace . Bishop Farrar , to a Knights Son bemoaning his death : If you see me stirre in the fire , trust not my doctrine ; And so hee stood holding vp his stumps , till one Grauell strooke him downe with a staffe . Rawlings to the Bishops : Rawlings you left mee , Rawlings you finde mee , and so by Gods grace I will dye . Iohn Ardley , If euery haire of my head were a man , it should suffer death in the Faith I now stand in . The like Agges Stanley , and William Sparrow . Thomas Hawkes , being desired to giue a signe , whether the fire was tollerable to be borne , promised it to his friends : and after all expectation was past , hee lift vp his hands halfe burned , and being on a light fire , with great reioycing , striketh them three times together . Lawrence Ghest to his wife meeting him with seauen children on her hand : Be not a blocke to me in the way , now I am in a good course , and neere the marke . The Lady Iane Grey requested by the Lieutenant of the Towre to write her Symbole in his book before her beheading , wrote this , Let the glassie condition of this life neuer deceiue thee , There is a time to bee borne , a time to die ; But the day of death is better then the day of Birth . Alice Driuer , when the chain was about her necke : Heere is a goodly Necker chiefe , God be blessed for it . Iohn Noyes kissing the stake : Blessed bee the time that euer I was borne for this day . To his fellow Martyrs ; We shal not lose our liues in this Fire , but change them for a better , and for coales haue pearles , &c. Iulius Palmer : To them that haue the minde linked to the body , as a theeues foot to a payre of stockes , it is hard to dye indeed ; but if one bee able to separate soule and body , then by the helpe of Gods spirit it is no more mastery for such a one , then for mee to drinke this Cup. Elizabeth Folkes , embracing the Stake ; Farewell all the world , Farewell Faith , Farewell Hope , and welcome Loue. Roger Bernard , being threatned whipping , stocking , burning ; answered , I am no better then my master Christ , and the Prophets , which your Fathers serued after such sort , and I for his names sake am content to suffer the like at your hands : so immediatly he was condemned , and carried to the fire . Thomas Sampal , offred a pardon in the midst of the fire : Oh now I am thus far on my iourney , hinder me not to finish my race . Latimer Bishop , when they were about to set fire to him , and Bishop Ridley , with an amiable countenance , said these words : God is faithfull which doth not suffer vs to be tempted aboue our strength . Bishop Ridley to Mistris Irish the Keepers wife , and other friends at Supper , I pray you be at my Wedding tomorrow , ( at which wordes they weeping ) I perceiue you are not so much my friends as I tooke you to be . Tankerfield , when hee had put one Legg into the fire . The Flesh shrinkes and sayes , Thou foole , wilt thou burne and needest not ? The spirit sayes , Hell fire is sharper , and wilt thou aduenture that ? The flesh saies , Wilt thou leaue thy Friends ? The Spirit answers , Christ and his Saints society is better . The flesh saies , Wilt thou shorten thy life ? The Spirit saies , It 's nothing to an eternall life . Ioyce Lewis , When I beholde the ouglesome face of Death , I am afrayd , but when I consider Christes amiable Countenance , I take heart againe . The third part . IOHN HVS to a Countreyman that threwe a Faggot at his head : Oh holy Simplicitie , God send thee better light . You roste the Goose now , but a Swanne shall come after mee , and hee shall escape your Fire ; Hus a Goose in the Bohemian language , and Luther a Swan . Hierom of Prague , Make the fire in my sight , for if I had feared it , I had neuer come hither : while it was making , he sung two Psalmes . Anonymus on his death-bed , Now Flegme doe thy dutie , and stop thou my vitall Artery . Now Death doe me that friendly office to rid me of paine , and hasten mee to happinesse : To a Friend of his that willed him to haue his thoughts on heauen : I am there already . Claudius Monerius being cauilled at by the Friers for eating a breakfast before his execution . This I do that the flesh may answere the readines of the Spirit . Michaela Caignoela , a noble Matron , seeing her Iudges look out of the windowes , said to her fellow-Martyrs : These stay to suffer the torment of their Consciences , and are reserued to iudgement , but wee are going to glory and happinesse . And to certaine poore women weeping , and crying , Oh Madam , wee shall neuer now haue more Almes , Yes hold you ( saith shee ) yet once more ; and plucked off her Slippers , and such other of her apparell , as shee could with modestie spare from the fire . Iames Delos , to Monkes that called him proud Heretike ; Alas , here I get nothing but shame , I expect indeed preferment hereafter . Madam la Glee , to one Chavique , that vpbraided her for denying the Faith ; Your cursed faith is not worthy the name of Faith ; she put on her Bracelets , For I goe ( said she ) to my Spouse . Marlorat to friends that called him deceiuer ; If I haue seduced any , God hath seduced me , who cannot lye . Castilia Rupea , Though you throw my body downe of this steepe hill , yet will my soule mount vpwards againe ; your blasphemies more offend my minde , then your torments doe my body . Christopher Marshall of Antwerpe , I was from eternall a sheepe destined to the slaughter , and now I go to the Shambles , Gold must bee tried in the fire . Vidus Bressius , If Gods Spirit saith true , I shall straight rest from my labours , my soule is euen taking her wings to slie to her resting place . The Duke of Wittemberg and Luneburgh , Many haue beene mine errours and defects in Gouernment , Lord pardon and couer all in Christ. Picus Mirandula , If Christes Death and our owne were euer in eye , how could wee sinne ? Death is welcome , not as an end of trouble , but of sinne . Martin Luther , Thee Oh Christ haue I taught , thee haue I trusted , thee haue I loued , into thy handes I commend my spirit . O ecolampadius to one asking if the light offended him not , I haue light enough here , laying his hand on his breast ; And to the Ministers about him , Let the light of your liues shine as well as your Doctrine . Francisco Varlute , Paul and Peter were more honourable members of Christ then I , but I am a member ; they had more store of grace then I , but I haue my measure , and therfore sure of my glory . Peter Berger , I see the Heauens open to receiue my Spirit ; And beholding the multitude at the stake , Great is the Haruest , Lord send Labourers . Iohn Mallot a Souldior ; Often haue wee hazarded our liues for the Emperour Charles the fifth , and shall wee now shrinke to dye for the King of Kings ? Let vs follow our Captaine . Iohn Fillula to his fellowes : By these Ladders we ascend the heauens , now begin wee to trample vnder seet , Sinne , the World , the Flesh , and the Deuill . Thomas Calberg , to the Fryers , willing him to repent at the last howre : I beleeue that I am one of those Workemen in Christs Vineyard , and shall presently receiue my penny . Robert Ogners , Sonne to his Father and Mother at the stake with him : Beholde millions of Angells about vs , and the Heauens open to receiue vs. To a Fryer that rayled , Thy Cursings are Blessings : And to a Noble man that offered him Life and Promotion : Doe you thinke mee such a foole , that I would change eternall things for temporary : To the people , We suffer as Christians , not as Theeues or Murderers . Constantine being carried with other Martyrs in a Dungcart to the place of Execution : Well ( saith he ) yet are we a precious odour , and sweet sauour to God in Christ. Fran : Sanromanus a Spaniard : Worke your pleasures on my bodie , which you haue in Chaynes your Captiue : but my soule is euen already in heauen through Faith and Hope , and vpon that Caesar himselfe hath no power . Ioan the Marshals wife of France to her Husband at the Stake with her : Bee of good cheere , our Wedding was but a shadow , an earnest and Contract of that solemne and blessed Marriage , which the Lambe will now consummate . Anne Audebert of Orleance : Blessed bee God for this wedding girdle ( meaning the Chaine ) My first Marriage was on the Lordes day , and now my second to my Spouse and Lord CHRIST shall bee on the same . Iohn Bruger , to a Fryer offering him a wooden crosse at the Stake : No ( saith hee ) I haue another true Crosse imposed by Christ on me , which now I will take vp : I worship not the worke of mans hands , but the Sonne of God , I am content with him for my onely Aduocate . Martin Hyperius , Oh what a difference there is betwixt this and eternall fire ! who would shun this to leape into that ? Augustine of Hannouia to a Noble man , perswading him to haue a care of his soule ; So I will ( saith he ) for I presently will lay downe my body to saue my Conscience whole . Faninus an Italian kissed the Apparitour that brought him word of his Execution ; To one reminding him of his Children ; I haue left them to an Able and Faithfull Guardian : To his friends weeping , That is well done , that you weepe for ioy with mee : And to one obiecting Christes agony and sadnesse to his cheerefulnesse : Yea ( saith hee ) Christ was sad , that I might be merry ; He had my sinnes , and I haue his merit and righteousnesse : And to the Fryers offering him a woodden Crucifix , Christ needes not the helpe of this piece to imprint him in my minde and heart , where hee hath his habitation . George Carpenter , All Bauaria is not so deare to mee as my wife and children , yet for Christes sake I will forsake them cheerfully . Adam Wallacke , a Scot , to a tempting Fryer , If an Angel should say that which thou doest , I would not listen to him : is the Fire ready ? I am ready ; Let no man be offended , no Disciple is greater then his Master . Iohn Burgon to his Iudges asking him , if hee would appeale to the high Court : Is it not enough that your handes are polluted with our Blood , but you will make more guiltie of it ? Fredericke Anuill of Bearne , to the Fryers that willed him to call on the Virgin Mary ; three times repeated , Thine O Lord is the Kingdome , thine is the power and glory for euer and euer ; Let 's fight , Let 's fight . Auaunt Sathan , Auaunt . Godfrey Varal of Piedmont ; Hangman doe thine office , my death will be fruitfull to my selfe and others . Halewine of Antwerp , and Harman of Amsterdam , to the Markgraue of Antwerpe , offering mittigation of Torments vpon abiuration , Wee are resolued these Momentany afflictions are not worthy that exceeding weight of glory that shal be reuealed . Peter and Nicholas Thiesse● brethren , vsed the like speech . Annas Burgius in the middest of his torments : Lord forsake mee not , lest I forsake thee . Peter Clarke with the root of hi Tongue plucked out , pronounced audibly ( to shew that none euer wanted a tongue to praise God ) Blessed be the name of God , as of old Romanus the Martyr , mentioned in Prudentius . Godfrey de Hammele , to one that called him Heretique , No heretique but an vnprofitable seruant , yet willing to die for his Lord , and reckoning this death no death but a life . Bucer , No man by talke shall withdraw my mind from Christ crucified , from heauen , & my speedy departure , vpon which my soule is fixed . When one aduised him to arme himselfe against Sathans temptations ; Hee hath nothing to doe with mee : God forbid but now my soule should be sure of sweet consolation . Tremelius , a Christian Iew , Let Christ liue , and Barrabas perish . Ferdinand Emperour : If mine Ancestors and Predecessors had not dyed , how should I haue beene Emperour ? I must that others may succeed mee . Frederick the third Elect. Palat. to his friends about him , wishing him recouery , I haue liued enough to you , let mee now liue to my selfe , and with my Lord Christ. Leonard Caesar : Oh Lord doe thou suffer with me , Lord support me and saue me . Windelmuta , to one that told her shee had not yet tasted how bitter Death was : No ( said shee ) neither euer shall I , for so much hath Christ promised to all that keepe his word , neither will I forsake him for sweete life , or bitter death . Henry Voes , If I had ten heads , they should all off for Christ. God forbid I should reioyce in any thing saue in his Crosse. The Minister of Brisgo , This skinne which scarce cleaues to my bones , I must shortly haue layde off by necessitie , how much more willingly now for my Sauiour Christ. Adolphus Clarebachius : I beleeue there is not a merrier heart in the world at this instant , then mine is : Behold , you shall see mee dye by that Faith I haue liued . Alexander Cane : when a fooles Cappe was put on his head : Can I haue a greater Honour done me , then to bee serued as my Lord CHRIST before Herod ? Lord , seeing my Persecutors haue no mercy , haue thou mercy on mee , and receiue my soule . Almondus a Via , My body dyes , my Spirit liues . Gods Kingdome abides euer . God hath now giuen mee the accomplishment of all my desires . Giles Tilman , vrged to know what hee beleeued of Purgatory . Purgatorie and Hell I leaue to you , but my Hope is directly to goe into Paradise : Neither feare I this great pyle of Wood , whereof some might haue been spared to warme the poore , but will passe through it purged for my Sauiour . Peter Bruse : I thanke God , my broken legge suffered mee not to flye this Martyrdome . Marion the wife of Adrian , seeing the Coffin hooped with Iron , wherein shee was to bee buryed aliue . Haue you prouided this Pasty-crust to bake my flesh in . Lewis Paschalis : It s a small matter to die once for Christ , if it might be , I could wish I might die a thousand deaths for him . Iohn Buisson : I shall now haue a double Gaole deliuery ; one out of my sinnefull flesh , another from the loathsome Dungeon I haue long lyen in . Hugh Stallour to Iohn Pike his fellow Martyr ; Yet a little while , and wee shall see one another before the Throne , and face of God. Levine de Blehere , To his friends that offered to rescue him by tumult : Hinder not the Magistrates worke , nor my happinesse : Father , thou soresawest this Sacrifice from eternall : now accept of it , I pray thee . Christopher Fabrianus : First bitter , then sweet ; first battell , the victory when I am dead ; euery drop of my bloud shall preach Christ , and set foorth his praise . Francisce Soet : You depriue me of this life , and promote mee to a better , which is , as if you should rob mee of Counters , and furnish me with Gold. Guy de Bres : The ringing of my Chaine haue beene sweet Musicke in mine eares : my Prison an excellent Schoole , wherein Gods spirit hath bin my Teacher : all my former Discourses were as a blinde mans of colours , in comparison of my present feeling . Oh what a precious Comforter is a good Conscience . Dionysius Peloquine , To the Inquisitour telling him , his life was now in his owne handes . Then said hee , It were in an ill keeping . Christes Schoole hath taught mee to saue it by loosing it , and not by the gaine of a few dayes , or yeares , to lose Eternitie . Lewis Marsake Knight , seeing his other brethren goe with Halters about their necks , which they offered not him because of his dignity ; Why I pray you ( quoth hee ) deny me not the Badge and ornament of so excellent an order , is not my cause the same with theirs ? which obtayning , hee marched valiantly to the Stake with them . Symon Laloeus to one Siluester his Executioner ; Neuer saw I man in all my life whose comming was more welcome to mee then thine . So cheerfull was his death , that Syluester amazed at it , left his office , became a Conuert and a Christian himselfe , went to Geneua for further instruction in the Gospell . Kilian a Dutch Schoolemaster , to such as asked him if hee loued not his wife and children , Yes ( said hee ) if all the world were golde , and were mine to dispose of , I would giue it to liue with them , though it were but in prison ; yet my soule and Christ are dearer to me then all . Giles Verdict : Out of my Ashes shall rise innumerable Christians , which Prophecy , God so verified by the effect , that it grewe a by-word after his death , That his ashes flewe abroad all the Countrey . Anthony Verdict brother to the former , condemned to bee eaten with Beastes , to preuent the like Prouerbe : sayd to his Father , Oh Father , how hath God enabled you , to haue two Sonnes honoured with Martyrdome . Iohn Barbevill , to Fryers that called him ignorant Asse : Well , admit I were so , yet shall my Bloud witnesse against such Balaams as you bee . Francisce Coluer , to his two Sons massacred together with himselfe : Sheepe wee are for the slaughter ; this is no new thing , let vs follow millions of Martyrs through temporall death , to eternall life . By all these which are but an handfull of Christs Campe Royall , it sufficiently appeares they had their Faith fresh and liuely in the face of this graund enemy , and by Vertue of their Faith , their Spirits , Wits , and Tongues , vntroubled , vndismayed ; insomuch that an auncient witnesse of the Christian Bishops , that they did more ambitiously desire the glory of Martyrdome , then others did Praelacies and Preferments . And a late mortall enemie of theirs , bade a vengeance on them , for hee thought they tooke delight in burning . What then shall wee gaine by them ? I remember Master Rough a Minister , comming from the burning of one Austo , in Smithfield , being asked by Master Farrar of Halifax , where he had beene , made answere , There where I would not but haue been , for one of my eyes , and would you knowe where ? Forsooth I haue beene to learne the way : which soone after hee made good , by following him in the same place , in the same kinde of death . Now if one President made him so good a Scholler : What dullards and non-proficients are we ? if such a cloud of examples work not in vs a cheerefull abilitie to expect and encounter the same aduersary , so often foyled before our eyes . Yet least any should complaine , that examples without Rules , are but a dumbe and lame helpe : I will annexe vnto them a payre of Funerall Sermons , opening a couple of Seales reuealed to Iohn in his second vision : The first , affording vs sundry Meditations of Death and Hell ; The second , of Heauen , & the happinesse of such as dye in the Lord , and rest vnder the Altar . The vse of them I chiefly dedicate and commend to old sick persons , such especially , as die of lingring diseases , affoording them leisure to peruse such themes , though I forbid none , but to all I say , Come and see . THE LIFE OF FAITH in DEATH . REVEL . 6. 7. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Come and see . And behold a pale horse , and his name that sate on him was Death , and Hell followed after him , and power was giuen vnto them , &c. COme and see . Were it some stately , some pleasing , yea or but some vaine sight such as Mordecay riding on the kings Horse in pompe with the Royall Furniture : or but a company of Players , riding through a Market , A Drum , a Trumpet , or the least call would serue the turne , to draw vs out to the sight : But these being serious , yea to nature somwhat hideous and odious Voyces , like vnto Thunders , are giuen to the beasts to call beholders . The Cryer in the Wildernesse is willed to cry this Theme aloud in the deafe eares of men . A Boanerges with all the vehemency and contention of his voyce and affections , will bee too little , vnlesse God boare the eares , open the eyes , and perswade the hearts of men to Come and see . Yet is it but our folly to be so shye of this sight , for though it bee sad , yet is it of all the sights vnder the Sunne the most necessary , the most profitable ; Though we turne away our faces and close our eyes , yet see it wee must , and see it wee shall , neuer the lesse , neuer the sooner , neuer the later . Nay , the truth is , see it wee neuer shall , but with closed eyes . Thou tender faint-hearted man or woman that art so loath to meete with a Corps or Beere , to see a skull , or any thing that minds thee of Death , shalt thou by this meanes protract or escape thy Death ? No , let mee tell thee praeuision is the best preuention , and praemonition the best praemunition . That which is commonly receiued of the Basiliske , is here no conceited Story , but a serious truth . He that sees it before he be seene of it , may auoyd the deadly poyson of it . Hee that sees it before it comes , shall not see it when it comes . Hee that mannageth an horse at an armed stake , fits him to rush into the maine Battell without feare . And wouldest thou with Ioseph of Arimathaea , walke euery day a turne or two with Death in thy Garden , and well foreacquaint thy selfe therewithall , thou shouldest haue , if not Enochs , yet euery true beleeuers Priuiledge , not to see Death , not to taste of Death , viz. in that ougly forme , distastfull manner , which other the sonnes of Adam do , who because they will not see the face of it , must feele the sting of it . To dye well and cheerfully , is too busie a worke to be well done ex tempore . The Foundation of Death must bee layde in life . Hee that meanes , and desires to dye well , must dye daily . Hee that would ende his dayes well , must spend them well , the one will helpe the other . The thoughts of thy end as the trayne of the Foule and Rudder of a Shipp will guide thy life , and a good Life will leade thee to a peaceable end , that thou shalt neither shame or feare to dye . In a word , Platoes Phylosophy in this , is true Diuinitie : that the best meane , and whole summe of a wise mans life , is the Commentation of Death , not euery fleet and flitting flash , but frequent and fixed contemplations . Death is the knownest and vnknownest thing in the world : that of which men haue the most thoughts and fewest Meditations . Be therefore perswaded to Come and see : that is , come that thou mayest see . Come from other obiects , infinite and vaine spectacles , with which the eye is neuer glutted . Drawe neere and close to this that thou mayest see it throughly . Wipe off the Clay , Spittle , and Scales of thine eyes , that thou mayest cleerly behold the nature , quality , and consequents of Death . No mortall wight but hath some blushes of mortality , such as go and come , but if they would suffer them to lodge in their mindes , they must needes stirre some affection , and leaue some impression in the memory , and produce some effects in their liues . Socrates had a gift that hee could fasten his eyes many howers on one obiect without change or wearinesse : Halfe so stayed a thought of ones mortalitie , might bring a man to immortalitie . It is not beautie seene , but looked on that wounds . I meet with a Story of one that gaue a young Prodigall a Ring with a Deaths head , with this condition , that he should one houre daily for seauen dayes together looke and thinke vpon it : which bred a strange alteration in his life , like that of Thesposius in Plutarke , or that more remarkable , of Waldus the rich Merchant in Lyons , who seeing one drop downe dead in the streets before him , went home , repented , changed his life , studied the Scripture , and became a worthy Preacher , Father , and Founder of the Christians called Waldenses , or poore men of Lyons . In Conference and Confessions many one hath acknowledged to my selfe the like : some that by dangerous sicknesse of their own , others that by feare of infection in times of the Plague , and generall Visitation , others by the death of friends , as by shafts that haue fallen neere them , haue beene awakened , affrighted , and occasioned to thinke deeply on their ends , to prouide against their ends , to attend the Word , which hath proued the meane of their conuersion and saluation . And this I thinke should bee enough to perswade young and olde , one and other to Come and see . But what now are we come out to see ? Behold , First the Seale opened . Secondly , the Horse issuing out . Thirdly , the Colour of the Horse . Fourthly , the Rider and his Followers . Death and Hell. This horse is vnder seale . Seales wee vse commonly to confirme and conceale , to make things sure and to keepe things secret . And thus death as all Gods iudgements are said to bee sealed . Iob. 35. and that with a firmer seale then of the Medes and Persians : In which sence this Horse Zach. 4. issueth from betweene two brasen mountaines , that is Gods ineuitable , vnalterable Decree : hee rusheth not out , rangeth not abroad at the will of man or Satan , at hap or by blinde Destiny , but at the pleasure and by the appoyntment of the great Master of these Gods horses , Iesus Christ , one of whose chiefe royalties is to keepe the locke and key of Death and Hell , Reuel . 1. else would he be euer trampling vnder feete the sonnes of men . Looke how naturally , and continually the Sea would ouerwhelme the whole Earth , if the waues were not bounded by prouidence : So would this horse ouercome the Inhabitants of it , were hee not tyed short , and restrained by his , and our Lord. You see him heere limited to the fourth part of the Earth , else had not one been left aliue : For all are sentenced , and haue deserued to dye , and it's fauour that all dye not . In a word , men dye not by chance , course of Nature , influence of Starres , but then , and therefore because it is appointed . A million of Aethiopians perish in one day , in one battell , 2. Corinth . 14. not because all were borne vnder one aspect of Planets , but because such a slaughter was sealed of God. And though there be one way in , and twenty out of the world , yet all falls out as God determines and disposeth . That Christian which beleeues this , though hee may desire Dauids Arithmeticke to number his dayes aright , that is , to know the breuity of them : yet will hee neuer study the blacke and senselesse Art of calculating his birth and death . None but fooles are curious and inquisitiue to know that , which is vnder Gods priuy Signet . We are all as Souldiers sent to Sea with Commission vnder seale , not to be opened till wee come to such and such a point . To guesse and conclude , we shall dye at such an age , in such a Climaterical yeere , what is it but to make a league with Death , not vnlike to that frenzie Merchant that would make and strike vp matches of hundreds and thousands with parties absent as if they were present . A fond itching humour , and such as would for the most part ( what euer wee thinke ) doe vs hurt rather then good , if the day and houre were far off , it would breede securitie : if neere hand horror . Sicknesses are sufficient summons and warnings . Marke such as sentenced by Iudges and Physitians fore-know their death , yet without speciall grace fore-fit themselues neuer the more carefully . Some deaths indeede ( as some Clockes giue warning before they strike ) which symptomes and signes infallible : and so extraordinarily God giues to some Moses and Hezekiahs a presage , and hearts to prepare : but generall God hath seene this the best for vs , that it should be for the generall most certaine , for the perticular most vncertaine , to him sealed , to vs concealed : of which hee would haue vs make these vses . First , for our bodily health not to bee too carefull , nor too carelesse : with all our Physicall dyet and miserable anxietie , wee cannot adde one cubite to the length of our dayes , or measure of our health . Wee are all sealed vp no otherwise then the measure of our wealth , of our crosses and blessings , for the hauing or auoyding of which : the meanes wee must vse without carking care , or cowardly feare , cheerefully relying on Christ , the Lord Keeper of the Seale , not wittingly and desperately preuenting that sealed date by surfeits of toyle or pleasure , by wilfull neglect of dyet , contempt of Physicke , by griefe or by melancholy : nay , not by haste to glory with Cleombrotus the Heathen , or with hastie selfe-murthering Christians , such as Augustines times were full off : but with Iob patiently all the dayes of our life , during the terme of our sealed lease , till the very day and date expire , and appointed time of dismission , and dissolution come . And secondly for our soules prouision , not to do as most that haue set dayes of truce and peace , and in which they hang vp their Armour a rusting , and their Beakons vnwatched : but as people that liue in perpetuall hazard of war , haue all things in a daily readinesse for seruice at halfe an howres warning , vpon the least Alarum : Who would liue one howre in infidelitie or irrepentance , least in that hee bee taken napping as the foolish Virgins , and that rich foole that reckoned of many yeares , and had not one night to continue . Grant it were enough to repent and belieue the last day of life , yet how can a man be sure to doe that , vnlesse he doe it euery day : considering that euery day may for ought he knowes , be the last . The seale may be opened in a day and houre one least thinkes of it , as it is to most that dye . Lastly , when euer this Horse comes to fetch away vs , or any of ours children or friends : A beleeuer stamps not , and rages not , as mad Marshall Birom : murmures not , repincs not as the wild Irish men without hope : expostulates not with Destenie , as Alexander for his Hephestion : but with Aaron , layes his hand on his heart and mouth for his sonnes suddaine Death , knowing what God hath sealed , shall be and must bee . If the Dreames of a blind fatall necessity could quiet Heathens , how much more should a Christian be chearfull at the disposall of a wise and louing keeper of the Seale . A minute sooner or later it shall not be , then hee hath fore-seene and foresealed for thy especiall good , who hath times , and seasons , and seales in his ordination . Worthy was the speech and resolution of an vnderstanding Diuine . If Christ hath the key and seale of Death , then a figge for Death . This though it be an ordinary notion , yet well digested , it is a singular stay to a beleeuer . The Seale being thus opened , Come and see the Creature that issues forth . Behold an Horse , a fierce a strong , a warlike , a speedy Creature so described by God himself , Iob 39. Looke therefore how easily Iehu stamped Iezabell into peeces : and Tamberlaine his Troupes of Horse the Turkish Foot-men , or as the sturdie Steede dashes out the little Whappets braines , so easily doth Death with the least kicke and spurne of his Heele the haylest Complexion , the stoutest Constitution , tryumphing like an Emperour ouer all sorts of people , treading in the neckes of Kings and Princes , as Iosua ouer them in Cane insulting in the tearmes of Rabshakeh , Where is Hamath ? the Kings of Arphad , Iuah , and Sepharuaim ? Elam , Meshech , and Tubal , whose feare was vpon the liuing , are they not descended into the graue ? made their bedds in the slimy valley , and layd their Swordes vnder their heads ? Where is Goliah with his brazen Bootes ? Hath wisedome deliuered , Strength rescued , or wealth ransomed any out of my fingers ? For all their Confidence , haue they not gone to the King of Feare ? How can it bee otherwise , seeing Death comes as an armed Horseman , vpon naked Footmen : no encountering , no resistance , no running away , no euasion by flight . This winged Pegasus , postes and speeds after men , easily giues them Law , fetches them vp againe , gallops and swallowes the ground he goes , sets out after euery man as soone as he comes into the world , and playes with him , as the Cat with the Mouse , as the Grey hound with the Badger , somtimes hee followes faire and a farre off , lingers aloofe and out of sight : anon hee spurres after , and by and by is at the heeles in some sicknesse , and then it may bee giues vs some breath againe , but in the end ouertakes vs , and is vpon vs with a Ierke , as the snare ouer the Fish , or the Foule . Absolom could not outride him : Pharaohs Chariot wheeles fell off in this chase . Ionathan and Saul , swift as the Egles , strong as the Lyon , yet how were they slaine with the mighty ? What then is the course the Christian takes ? He neither foolishly thinkes to resist , or escape , nor yet cowardly swounds , or crauenly yeelds : but as a valiant Footman that espies an Horseman pursue him in a Champion , stayes not till he come vpon him , but addresseth himselfe for the encounter : so does a Christian in his best health and prosperity , put on his armour , get him the Helmet of Saluation , the Shield of Faith , and learneth the vse of them betimes , before he be vnapt to it in sicknesse or age As the Parthians teach their verie Children to handle the Bow , the Scythians the Dart , the Germans the Speare : and so it comes to passe , that belieuers are not surprized , as worldlings often are , with milke but in their breasts , without Oyle in their Lamps , & all in vaine then fondly cry out to this Horseman to stay his stroake . As the rich Foole Gregorie relates of , who entreated Death to stay till the next morning , Truce but til to morrow , and I will bee ready for thee . A Christian wisely considereth , that hee hath no morrow , and therefore while it is called to day , is ready for this Horse , who neuer sets any certaine day of his comming . Behold also the colour of this Horse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the color of the withering leafe , pale and wan : Symbolizing and noting the effect hee hath first vpon the liuing , whom hee appalles , as hee did Baltashar , whome all his Concubines and Courtiers could not cheere , nor all his wine in the bowles of the Temple fetch colour into his countenaunce . See wee not often Prisoners at the Barre wanne away , and dye as white as a cloth at the Sentence of death pronounced on them . Many gulls and gallants we may heare sometimes flight off Death with a iest , when they think it out of hearing , and some wish it and call for it , as Gaal for Abimelech , but when it comes in good earnest , they are not able to looke it in the face , with the bloud in their cheeks . Some foolishly set a face on the matter , on their death-beds , lest neighbours should censure when they are gone for Cowards : hypocritically paynting their faces as Iezabel did , affronting Iehu out of the windowe , God knowes with a cold heart , & if her paint had bin off , a pale face should one haue seen vnderneth it . Wheras Christians hauing a good measure of faith to warme them at the hart , change not their countenance nor haue their colour any whit abated , but as is recorded of Mistris Ioyce Lewis at the stake , and sundry other Christians , euen of the fearfullest by nature and sex , looked as fresh and cheerely at the houre of death , as at their mariage . A second effect of this pale horse is after death , bereauing the bodies of all bloud and colour , making them liuelesse & wan carkases , and so layes them a rotting and mouldring among the wormes their sisters , till the fashion of them be vtterly altred , the beauty consumed , and shape turned into rottennesse . Oh how grieuous is this to such Absaloms , Iezabels , and Rosamonds , haue set much by their painted sheathes and pampered Carkases , whose belly is their God , and yet their end must be corruption . Dust they were , and to dust they must returne . Fauour is deceitfull , and beautie is vanity , when the pale Horse comes , there is no remedy . Here only Faith hath an Antidote comforting her selfe with these sayings : This base and vile bodie of mine must bee thus serued , that it may bee transfigured and made conformable to the glorious Standart Christs body , more glorious then the Sunne in his brightest hew . It must thus bee sowne in pale ignomy , that it may rise in glorious beautie . VVhat if I lose a little Vermillion red mixture of Fleame and Sanguine , shall I not recouer a radiant resplendant lustre ? Can the Alchimist with his Art , cause a dry withered floure to shew it selfe againe for a space , in it naturall verdant shape and colour : and cannot God that made mee first of Clay , and that Clay of nothing , reduce and refine the same after it hath beene in the Earth ? as the Chynois doe the materialls of their curious dishes for many scores of yeares , that when it is throughly deficate , their posteritie may temper and frame some vessell of excellent seruice withall . Certainly my Redeemer liueth , and with these eyes I shall see him , as hee is most admirable to behold , and my selfe like vnto him in my degree . Ten thousand times more comely , then is heere possibly for to imagine , the most personable Creature that euer the Sunne saw : when the body shall bee enriched with those excellent Dowries of Impassibilitie , Claritie , Subtiltie , Agilitie . Oh , but heere 's yet a more fearefull Spectacle behind , then all that hath yet come in sight . Hell , euen Hell it selfe in the worst sense , not the graue of the body , but of the soule . For Iohn sees here principally the Iudgement of the wicked , that were slaine for the contempt of the Gospell , by the pale Horse , for not yeelding to the White and his crowned Rider . And their wofull state is heere opposed to the happy condition of the Martyrs vnder the Altar . Well then , behold also , euen Hell the Page and follower of Death , attending him where euer hee goes among the wicked sort . Whence it is that they are so often coupled in this Booke , Death and Hell. Looke as the Foxes wayt vpon Lyons , Carrion Crowes vpon armies , Gaolers or Serieants for a prey : so diligently does the deuill on death for a booty . No fowler does more cunningly stalk behind the Horse , or creep behinde brakes and hedges , to get his ayme at the shye Fowles . No Serieant hides his Mase , no Angler his hooke more warily : knowing that else Hel should neuer swallow so many . Alacke , alacke , we silly Fish see one another caught , and ierk't out of the Pond , but see not the fire and Frying panne into which they come . In this consists the Deuils chiefest policie , and our grossest simplicity , and euen this is the cause of our sottish and foolish liuing and dying . Oh that my head were a Fountaine of teares , to weepe for , and bewayle the stupiditie , yea the desperate madnesse of infinite sorts of people that rush vpon Death , and chop into Hell blindling . How bruitish and beastly are the preaemises and conclusion of the Epicure and his brood , Let vs eate and drinke ▪ for to morrow we shall dye ? Who knowes whether the soule of the beast descend , and mans ascend , who euer saw the one goe downeward and the other vpward , and then what matter if the life of the one differ not from the other ? What need a man care whether hee bee a Sadduces Swine , an Epicures Horse , or himselfe ? The one many times hath lesse care , and more pleasure then the other , if Death be the last line , the full point , and finall cessation of the Creature . These ●ruits thanke Phylosophie that 〈◊〉 taught them not to feare any such Hobgoblins spirits , or old Wines tales , as Hell. But such Phylosophie Socrates , Plato , and the wiser sort euen of the Heathen haue hissed out of Schooles as belluine . Yea , the most sauage and vnlittered peoplè , the lesse soiled with Art , the more confidently doe they out of Natures instinct , and diuine impression , conclude of an eternall place of well and ill being after death for the soules of men . But these Monsters wilfully shut their eyes , deface and obliterate these stamps , and principles of nature , and so dance hood-winke into perdition . Miserable it is to see how boldly and blindly they thinke and venture on Death : Theramenes , he writes Bookes in praise of Death , as the end of all calamities . Augustus , hee dyes in a iest , calling for a Plaudite . Tiberius ●n dissimulation . Diogines hearing Antisthenes cry out in his paines , Who shall ease mee ? offers him a ●nife to dispatch himselfe withal . Caninus called to execution , bids his Fellow remember hee had the best of the Game . The Earle of Kildare seeing his Writ of Death brought in when hee was at shouelboard , throwes his cast , with this in his mouth : Whatsoeuer that is , this is for a huddle . Little list would these blind bayards haue for such idle mirth , if their eyes were opened to see this follower of Death . How pittifull is the frenzie of those braue Spirits , as they deeme and terme themselues ( as much as they scorne pittie ) our Duellists I meane , who as if they neuer had heard of Hell , are as Prodigall of their liues , as Cockes or Dogs are of theirs , powring them out vpon euerie drunken quarrell . I pittie not the losse or misse of such , good for little but to se● in the front of a Battell , or t● stop breaches and Canons withal : but I pitty the losse of their soules , who serue themselues , as the Iesuite in Lancashire , followed by one that found his Gloue , with a desire to restore it to him : but pursued inwardly with a guilty conscience , leapes ouer an Hedge , plunges into a Marlepit behind it , vnseene and vnthought of , wherein he was drowned . I maruell not , that they feare not a Rapier , or Pistoll , Who would not chuse it before a lingring and paineful sicknesse ? Were it not for the after-claps of Death ? No Coward need feare the encounter of it alone in a single combat . But Death hath a Second , a Page tenne times more dreadful then himself , with whom we haue to begin , when we haue done with Death , which is but the beginning of sorrowes . Death is pale , but his follower is a blacke Fellow , a terrible monster neuer enough feared . In which respect , how lamentable also is the blindnesse of all selfe-murderers , who make Death the remedie of euery griefe , and cure of euery violent passion : If they finde themselues inwardly vexed , or perplexed in Conscience , they seeke Death as a present ease ; not considering how they leape out of the smoake into the flame , out of the flame into the fire , out of a curable momentany disturbance , into an endlesse inrecouerable woe , ( without the extraordinary mercy of God ) to which vsually the Deuill speeds them , that hee might get them into his clutches , and so passe out of doubt , all meanes of preuention and euasion by Faith and Repentance . Oh senseles Achitophell , how did thy wisedome fayle and befoole thee , when thou settest thine house in order , and disposest of thy goods , forgettest thy soule , hangest thy selfe , which durst thou , or wouldest thou haue done , had but one belieuing thought of an eternall fire come into thy head ? How blockish is the manner of dying of many a Naball , who strucken with the feare of Death and Hell , become as insensate as stocks and stones , haue no mind nor power to thinke of one thing or other : Cannot abide to heare any mention of the danger of that which they feare , whose senses the Deuill bewitches and benumms , lest they should see and auoyde : such was Lewes the eleuenth , who straightlie charged his Seruants , that when they sawe him sicke , they should neuer once dare to name that bitter word Death in his eares . So doe Cowards and Crauens shut their eyes , and chuse rather to feele blowes , then to see and shunne them . Little better is the common course that most people take . Scared some are with a confused , and preposterous feare of Death , and flashes of Hell in their Consciences , and yet take no course to get pardon and Faith in CHRIST : but either taking it to bee some melancholly humour , send for merry companions to driue it away : or being giuen vp to hardnesse of heart and impenitencie , wilfully shake off all thoughts of repentance , shut their eyes and eares against all good aduise , and desperately put all at aduentures , and chop into the iawes of that roaring Lyon. Some of them ridiculously fearing Death , they knowe not why , more for the pangs of it ( which often are lesse then of the Tooth-ake ) then for the Hell following : like fooles that feare the thunder Cracke , and not the Bolt ; the Report of the Peece , and not the Bullet ; the Serieants arrest , and not the Gaolers Imprisonment : Labour to escape Death which they cannot , and Hell which they might . Others of them scarred with some terrible apparisions , affrighted , as Cardinall Crescentius a little before his death , with a blacke Dog in his Chamber . A Presage and Preludium of Hell approaching : they crie out they are damned , the Deuill , the Deuill , doe they not see him , &c. And so Spira-like , desperately and disconsolately depart in hellish horrour . Other of them a little wiser , and yet little the better for it , admit a colde thought or two , and it may bee a little parley about the matter , but when they haue fetched a sigh or put all vpon a Lord haue mercie on them : trust it shall goe as well with them as with others , euen as God will haue it : and thinke they doe much if they send to a Minister to pray with them or for them : neuer giuing all diligence to make their saluation sure , and to escape so great a condemnation . Oh if wee could consider how fearefully such finde themselues deluded , when their soules awake , worse then Ionas in the ▪ Tempest , euen in a gulfe of fire and brimstone . How would it awaken and arouse vs to fore-see Death and Hell in their shapes , and to fore-appoint our selues throughlie , not against the first Death which wee cannot , but against the second wee may , if we get our part in the first resurrection . This Text , mee thinkes speakes to euery sicke man bound on his bedde with the Cords of Death , as Dalilath to Sampson : vp and arise , for the Philistims are at hand : Death is at the doore , and behind the doore , the Fiends waight to fetch away thy soule . Bellarmine is of opinion , that one glympse of Hell were enough to make a man not only turne Christian and sober , but Anchorite and Monke , to liue after the strictest rule that can be . I am of beliefe , that Gods spirit cooperating a thorow meditation of it , might be a meane to keep one from it . For a man to wish to haue a sight of it , or that one might come thence & make report of the vntolerable and vnutterable paines of it is superfluous , superstitious : & if it should be granted , yet being not Gods ordinance and allowance , it might goe without his blessing , and doe one no good . Thy best course is well to ponder what wee that are Gods Ministers report of it , out of Moses , the Prophets , Christ , and the Apostles descriptions . And if God meane thee any good , our warning may doe thee some good . Popish writers are too bold in making Maps of Heauen and Hell , as if they had surueyed them and their regions , and inhabitants : but most I thinke are one the other hand to breefe and summarie in their meditations and writings . To paint it in it owne natiue colours is impossible , or by any contemplation to comprehend the horror of it . Shaddowes and parables the Scripture vseth , by which thou mayest and oughtest to helpe thy coniectures , and to worke on thy affections withall , after this or the like manner . Heere God hath allowed thee on his earth a pleasant habitation , commodiously situate in a good Ayre , richly decked with furniture , compassed with delightfull Gardens , Orchards and Fieldes , where thou hast liberty to walke and ride at thy pleasure : How would it trouble thee to thinke of being layd vp all thy life in some streight and loathsome prison , by this consideration how ill thou wilt brooke to be cast into a dolefull disconsolate Dungeon , to lye in vtter darkenesse , blacknesse of darkenesse in eternall chaines , in little ease for euer . Heere a great part of thy contentment , is to liue among good Neighbours , with a louing wife , with cheerefull companions : and loath thou art at any time to bee long in the house of mourning , to bee among melancholy malecontented , complayning feeble or brawling people in Hospitals , or Bridwels , or Bedlams . How will then thine eares indure to be tyred with continuall howling , scritching and gnashing of teeth , to liue among Dogges , Enchanters , vncleane Birds , reprobate Spirits , worse then so many Toades , Tygers , or Serpents . Here if thy Father should in displeasure bid get thee out of sight , or thy Prince banish thee his court and presence , as Dauid did Absolon , for some offence , thou wouldest take it heauily : how shall thine eares tingle to heare God say , depart out of my presence , Goe thou cursed into the lake prepared for the Diuell and his Angels . Here thou shrinkest to thinke of the gout , collick , stone , or strangurian , shiuerest to heare of the strappado , the racke , or the Lawne , how then wilt thou beare vniuersal tortures in all the parts of thy body , exquisite anguish and paines , such as of which the pangs of child-birth , burnings of materiall fire and brim stone , gnawings of chestwormes ; drinkes of Gall and Wormwood are but shaddowes ; and to which they are all but sports and fleabitings , euen to the torments thy body shall suffer for it sinnes against the Creator . But hast thou euer here in this world tasted of a troubled spirit , of the griefe and feares of a wounded Conscience possessed with bitter things : strucken and pierced with the venom of Gods arrowes , feares of the Almighty : by these thou mayst make the best gesse how it wil fare with thy soule when God shall powre al the vials of his wrath into a vessell of his fury , and vexe the soule in his sore displeasure , scourge thee with the rods of scorpions , make thee drunk with the gall of Aspes and Cockatrices , make thy mind heauy vnto the death , holding it euer in those Agonies , which made his owne Sonne sweate cloddes of water and blood . Oh how fearefull a thing is it to fall into the handes of God , who is a consuming fire . Thinke of it whiles there is hope , you that forget God , Heauen , and Hell , least you come there where there is no redemption , no hope of ease or end , which is that that makes Hell , Hell indeed : For if all these paines might haue an end , were it after million and millions of yeares , as many as there bee sands in the Sea shore , yet mightest thou nourish some miserable comfort of a release in the long runne : But this night hath no day , this Ague no intermission , his death no death to end it withal . Here thou wouldest be loath to lye on the Racke from morning to night , to be wroung with the Collick for a few dayes or hours , to be haunted with a Quartan from Michael to Easter : Oh then adde eternity to insupportable torments , and let thine eares tingle , and thine hart melt to think of it . Were it not for hope in small pressures , wee say heart would burst : Oh then this word euer and euer , if thou couldest duly belieue and consider it , how would it breake that hard heart of thine , which knowes not how to repent , nor cares to preuent the wrath to come . What thinkest thou , are these things tales and fables , is Hell but a name and word , a scarbug for to keepe fooles in awe ? Hath not God , thinkest thou , a day of reckoning , a prison and power to punish Rebels and Traitors , or are not his punishments like to his Iustice , infinite and eternall ? Know these things to be as true as God is truth , saue that they are short of the truth it selfe . Why dost thou not then take thy soule apart , and ruminate of these things by thy selfe , iudging thy selfe here , that thou mayst not bee condemned in the world to come . Art thou afraid of a melancholy fit , and fearest thou not this gulfe , and whirlpoole , and sorrow ? Art thou not loath to bee tormented before thy time , and fearest not to bee tormented time without end . I wonder how the soules of wicked men and vnbelieuers goe not out of their bodies , as the Diuels out of demoniaks , rending , raging , tearing and foaming . I wonder how any can dye in their wits , that die not in the faith of our Lord Christ. Verily if these things moue thee not , thou art in a worse plight then Foelix and Baltashar ; yea , the verie Diuels themselues , who belieue them ; yea , quake and tremble to thinke of them . How faine would I snatch thy soule out of this fire ? Vndoubtedlie know , that if this warning doe thee no good , it is because thou art of old , iustlie ordained to perish in thy impenetency , and to bee a fire-brand in these euerlasting flames . Now on the contrarie , if thou beest a vessell of mercie and honour , it will doe thee no hurt , but driue thee to Christ , in whom there is no condemnation : who onelie is perfectlie able to saue and deliuer thee out of this Lake . If thou be est alreadie in him , it will cause thee to reioyce in thy Lord and Sauiour , who hath deliuered thee from the feare of two such enemies that now thou mayst with the Ostrich in Iob despise the horse and his rider , and triumph by Faith ouer Hell and Death : O Death where is thy sting ! Oh Hell where is thy victorie ! Death is to men as he comes attended : To Diues he comes followed with Diuells , to carrie his soule to Hell : To Lazarus with troopes of Angels to conuey him to Abrahams bosome . So that we may in earnest say , that Death is the Atheists feare , and the Christians desire . Diogines could iestingly call it , The Rich mans enemie , and the Poore mans friend . This , this is that which makes death so easie , so familiar and dreadlesse to a belieuer ; he sees Death indeede , but Death is not Death without Hell follow him : and Hell he sees not , but onely as escaped and vanquished , and therefore is said not to see Death . Now ( sayes the belieuer ) comes death and the Prince of this world with him , but he hath no part in mee : all the bitternesse and teares of death lye in the feare of Hell , which , thanks be to Christ hath nothing to do with me , nor I with it , and therefore I taste not of death : now comes Gods Sergeant pale death , whom I know I cannot auoyde : but this I know , he comes not to arrest me to carry me to prison , but only to inuite me to a feast , attend and conuey me thither . Let such feare him as are in debt and danger , mine are all discharged and cancelled : he comes with his horse to take vp me behind him , and to fetch me to my fathers ioyes , to a Paradice as full of pleasures , as he carries the wicked to a prison full of paines . Pharaohs Baker and Butler were sent for out of prison , the one to promotion , the other to execution : hee that had the ill Dreame , expected the Messenger with horror , the other longed for him with comfort . The latter is my case , therefore though I be reasonably wel in this world , as a child at board , yet home is home , therefore will I waite till this pale horse comes , and bid him heartily welcome : and with him the Angels of my Father , who haue a charge to lay my body in a bed of rest , and to bestow my soule vnder the Altar , as it followes in the next seale , which is so pleasing a vision , that we neede no voice or preface , such as we had in the former , inuiting vs to Come and see : the very excellency of the obiect it self is of force enough to draw , and hold the eies of our minds vnto it . The second Sermon . VERSE 9. And when hee had opened the first Seale , I saw vnder the Altar the Soules , &c. WHen Death hath bin viewed in the palest , and Hell in the blackest colors that may be , yet if wee haue Faith enough to see Soules in their White roabes vnder the Altar ▪ there is comfort enough against the horror of both ; enough to enable the belieuer to despise and trample ouer them ●ooth . In the opening of this fifth Seale , I hope to finde more sollid Antidotes , more liuely Cordialls , against the feare of Death , then in all the dead and drie precepts of Bellarmines doting Art of dying . For this part of the vision was shewed Iohn of purpose to sweeten the harshnesse of the former : that his spirit grieued and amazed with the sight of the calamities and mortalitie vnder the persecuting Butchers , rather then Emperours , might yet be relieued and refreshed with a sight of the blessed estate of such as died either in , or for the Lord. Wherein was proposed to his sight , and to our consideration these seuerals . First , the immortall subsistence of soules after their seperation from the body . Secondly , their sure and secure condition vnder the Altar . Thirdly , their dignity and felicitie clothed with white robes . Fourthly , their compleate happinesse at the last day , when the number of their bretheren shall be accomplished . Of all these , Christ meant Iohn should take notice , and al beleeuers by his testimony to their full consolation . First , Iohn being in the spirit could see spirits , men indeed clad in flesh , can hardly imagine how a soule can haue existence out of the flesh . Eagles can see that which Owles cannot : so is that visible and credible to a spirituall man , which to a naturall is inuisible , incredible . And yet euen natures dimme eyes haue beene cleere enough to see this truth . Nature I say , pure and meere nature , not only the Platonists and other learned ones , who resolutely concluded it , and aptly resembled it , to the distinct being of the waggoner after the breaking of the Coach : the swimming out of the Mariner in the wreake of the ship , the creeping of the snayle out of the shell , the worme out of the case : not vnto the learned Grecians , and ciuilized Romans : But euen the rudest Scythians and vnlettered Sauages ; yea , though there bee many Languages , and sundrie Dialects in the world , yet is , and hath this euer been the common voyce of them all , That soules die not with the body . And howeuer the bodies resurrection hath to them been a Problem and Paradoxe , yet is the soules eternitie an inbred instinct sucked from natures breast ; or rather an indelible principle stamped in the soules of men by the finger of God. And indeed , to right reason , what difficulty or absurditie is there in it . What lets mee to conceiue a being of it in the Ayre , in the Heauen , or in any other place as well as in the compasse of my body , is not one substance as capable of it as another ? Can it liue in the one , and not in another ? Hath it not , euen whiles it is in the bodie , thoughts , motiues , passions by it selfe , of it owne different from the body , many crosse and contrarie to the disposition of the body , chearefull ones when that is in paine or melancholie : Cholericke ones when that is flegmaticke . Doth it waite vpon the body for ioy , sorrow , anger , and the like ? doth it not more often begin vnto it ? Not to speake of Martyres innumerable , who haue beene exceedingly pleasant in the middest of torments , as if they had beene spirits without flesh . How many auncient stories and dailie examples haue wee of chereful minds in distempered , pained , languishing dying bodies ? Reason will then conclude , that the Soule may well be , and be sensible after death without the body , which euen in the body can bee wel , when that is ill , cheerely when that is hurt , or sicke , grieued and troubled when that is in perfect temper and health . And on the contrary , small reason haue wee to thinke it sleepes out of the bodie , which neuer slumbers in the body , or that it is seazed by death out of the body , which neuer was ouercome by sleep , which is but deaths Image , and younger brother in the body , but euer was working and discoursing in the deepest and deadest sleepes of the body . Besides , is it likely God would enrich it with such noble and diuine dowries to bee salt onely to the bodie , to exhale with it as Bruits doe . The admirable inuention of Arts , Letters , Engines , the strange fore-casts , prospects and presages of the vnderstanding part , the infinite lodgings , the firme reteinings of the memorie , doe they not argue an immortalitie : Doe men ingraue curiously in Snow , Yce , or transient stuffe ? What meanes the great anxietie of men about their suruiuing name , if the minde perished with the bodie , if Death were the cessation of the man , and destruction of the whole substance . What should nature care for an ayery accident without a subiect , whereof no part of him should be sensible . What meanes the very feare of Death , if that were the end of all feares , and cares , and sorrowes , if nothing remained sensible , and capable of any thing to bee feared . Lastly , the fresh vigor , the vnimpayred abilitie , that nimble agilitie of the minde in sicknesse ; yea , manie times the freer vse of the faculties of it in the confines , yea , in the act and Article of Death , then in former health , doe they not tell the body , the soule meanes not to fall with the carkase ( which hath the name of falling ) lyes not a dying with it , but errects it selfe , meanes onely to leaue it as an Inhabitant doth a ruinous House , or as a Musition layes downe a Lute whose strings are broken , a Carpenter a worne instrument vnfit any longer for seruice and imploiment : and as a Guest makes haste out of his Inne , to his long home and place of abode . Loath I am to mingle Philosophicall Cordialls with Diuine , as water with wine , least my Consolations should bee flash and dilute : yet , euen these and such like arguments haue taught all Phylosophie ( the brutish schoole of the Epicure excepted ) to see and acknowledge that the soule is not a vapour , but a spirit , not an accident , but a substance , and elder and more excellent sister to the body immixt and seperable ; a guest that dyes not with it , but diuerts out of it , intending to reuisite and reunite it againe vnto it ▪ selfe . But Diuinitie certainely knowes all this to bee most certaine that it is a particle of diuine breath , inbreathed into the redde lome at the first , not arising out of it , but infused from heauen into it , and therefore may as wel exist without the clay after it , as it did before it : and when the dust returnes to the dust , heauen goes to heauen , both to their originals , the soule first , because first and principall in euery action , the body after as an accessary and second , and so the day of death to the body , is the birth day of eternity to the soule . This vndying , and euer-liuing condition of the soule , throughly rowled in the minde , firmely embraced , and vndoubtedly apprehended by Faith , workes admirable effects as in life , so in the approach of death . Seneca that saw it but through Clouds , cranies and creuises with yfs , and ands , yet professeth that when hee thought but a little of it , and some pleasant dreames of it , he loathed himselfe and all his trifling gratnes . But most diuinely , and resoluedly ▪ Iulius Palmer : He that hath his soule linked and tyed to the body , as a thiefes feete to a Clogge with guyues and fetters , no maruell hee knowes not how to dye , is loath to endure a Diuision : but he that vseth , and can by Faith separate the spirit from the body , to him it is to drinke this : and with that drinkes off a Cup of Wine in his hand , and within a while after , as cheerefully drinks of Deaths cup in the sight of the same Witnesses . Euen Socrates himselfe sweetened his Cup of poyson , with this discourse of the soules immortalitie , to the amazement of the beholders . Such Soules indeede as place all their felicitie to bee in a full fedde , and well complexioned body , and to partake of the senses corporeall delights , hath not accustomed it selfe to it owne retyred delights of obstracted meditations , knowes not how to bee merry without a play-fellow , no maruell though it bee as loath to part with the body , as a crooked deformed body to part with rich robes and gorgeous apparell , which were it onely ornaments . But such noble and regenerate spirits as know their owne Dowries , haue inured themselues to sublimate contemplations , and to haue their conuersation in Heauen , whiles they were in the body : such I say , though they do not Cynically reuile the body as a Clog , a prison , a lumpe of myre , &c. but know it to bee the Temple of the Holy Ghost , yet are they willing , yea and sigh to be vncloathed , to sowe it a while in the earth , being a dark and thick lanterne , hindering the cleare sight of it , till they may reassume it clarified , a spirituall , an Angelified body made apt and obsequious to all diuine seruices , to Celestiall Offices without wearinesse , intermission , and such like vanitie , which here it is subiect vnto : as willing as Dauid to lay aside Sauls cumbersome Armour , and to betake him to such as hee could better weeld and command at pleasure . This is the first and lowest helpe Faith hath to comfort the soule withall in the approach of Death ; when the strong men buckle , the Keepers of the house faile , they waxe dimme that looke out at the windowes , when the whole outward man decayes : that the inner man ages not , faints not , languisheth not , but rather lifts vp the head , is more fresh then formerly , and excepts to bee vnburdened , and to bee at libertie , freed from Corporeall tedious vnpleasing workes of sleeping , eating , drinking , and other meaner drudgery , that it may once come to higher and more spirituall imployments better suiting with it natiue condition : euen as the Lyon longeth to bee out of the grate , and the Eagle out of the cage , that they may haue their free scope and fuller libertie . Vnder the Altar . Now if this much reuiued Iohn ( as no doubt it did ) to see the Soules continuance after Death , how much more to see their safety and rest vnder the Altar : that is vnder Christs protection & custody , vnder the shadow of his wings . Who makes them gratefull to his Father , couers them from his wrath , safeguards them from all molestation , procures them absolute quiet and security . The phrase alluding to the Altar in the Tabernacle , which gaue the Offerings grace and acceptation : and partly to the safety of such as fled from the Auenger to the Altar . Christ is our Altar , and all the Soules of such as dye in his Faith , are as Stephan bequeathed to him : hee presents them to his Father , shelters them from accusation and condemnation , gathers them as the Henne her Chickens vnder his wings , being fully able to keepe what is committed to him from all disquiet . Hee that could keepe the three young men in the Furnace with whom he walked , yea their very garments from the violence of fire : The Israelites and their apparell in the wilderness : Ionas in the Whales belly : how much more easily now hee sits at the hand of his Father in Maiestie and Glorie , can hee defend saued and glorified soules from all Externall and Internall Annoyance , and settle them in absolute peace with him in his Paradise , according to his frequent promise to such as ouercome , they shall sit with me vpon thrones . And long white Robes were giuen vnto euery one . If Iohn had seene soules at rest , though in poore and meane condition , yet were a corner of an house with peace to bee preferred to a wide Pallace with disquiet : A poore dyet with greene Herbes with quiet , to a feast with stalled oxen , and crammed fowles , sauced with bitter contention . But behold , he sees not naked , beggerly , ragged soules , but adorned with white Robes ; that is , endowed now , and glorified with perfect righteousnesse , puritie , clarity , digtie , and festiuitie : of all which white apparell hath euer been an Emblem and Symbole in Diuine and Humane Herauldry , a cloathing of Princes in their great solemnities of Coronation , triumphs and ouations , saies Eusebius : so was Herod arrayed in cloath of siluer , with which the Sunne beames meeting , made such a glister , as amazed the people that styled him a God : so sayes Tertullian , were they woont to dignifie Seruants at their Manumissions with white Apparell , in token of their new libertie and preferment . At feasts great persons were wont to change their guests ordinary clothes with a white Synthesis , a colour fit to expresse alacritie . Christians , the whole Easter weeke wore white apparell . All the graces the soules had heere in this their infancy of Regeneration , were but stayned and polluted clouts : their knowledge darke and obscured with ignorance , their memories clouded with obliuion , their wills and affections tempested with mutinies and perturbations , their habits of holines and charity , sullid with defects and infirmities , their delights duske and particoloured & spotted with mixture of sorrow : all their apparell blacke & sad russet at the least ; but there purer then the Christall , whiter then the Snowe , or then Fullers earth is able to make them . The Lillyes , and Salomon in all their Royaltie not like vnto the meanest of them . Call vs no more Marah , may they say , but Naomi . For fulnesse of beautie is conferred vpon them , God becomming fulnesse of claritie and light vnto the vnderstanding , without errour or darknesse , continuation of Eternitie to the memory without forgetfulnesse , multitude of Peace to the Will and Affections without disturbance or disorder : the superiour part of the Soule , pleasing it selfe in the blessed vision of God , and the inferior satiate with the fruition of riuers of pleasures , & variety of monthly fruits . All this ioy increased by the aemenity and magnificence of the place being Gods Palace , built and prepared for eternitie , for the honour of his Maiestie , and habitation of his Saints , all shining like precious Iasper : enchanted by the full quire of Angels and communion of holy men , excellent when they were on earth , now perfected in their vertues , and freed from frailties , neuer mourning , but euer singing and lauding their Creator with Alleluiahs without defatigation or satietie : all this made vp and consummate by the addition not of a number of yeares , but of eternitie vncountable , vnalterable : incomprehensible . What are the chiefe miseries of this life , but the sordid apparell of the Soule , the blacke thoughts , the speckled phantasies , darke obliuion , royled , soyled affections , all the habite of it squalid , iagged , and tattered . Now then was Ioseph loath to change his prison-ragges , or Hester her olde and meane Cloathes with stately and royall array ? Promise a Childe a new Satin suit , and see whether hee will not long for it , and call for it ; see whether hee will crie when you bid him lay off his Russets ? Whence is it then that men dye so dully , so vnwillingly , so heauily ? or whence can it bee , but because they doe not liuely and certainely beleeue , and expect these white Robes for their soules . When the beautie of a mans minde is heere obfuscate and defaced with melancholly Tentations , and opake Imaginations , with yellow choller , with pallid feare , with ruddy shame , with sable dispaire ; oh what would he giue for a candid calme , and serene state of his mind ? and when againe it pleaseth God to affoord him sunshine holidayes of ioy and tranquilitie , wherein his mind is clad , and decked with golden , siluer , and precious ornaments of peace , meekenesse , temperance , patience , Oh what an Heauen would he thinke hee had heere on earth , if all his daies were but such dayes ! whereas this a Christian may well assure himselfe of , that what euer grace doth here prepare and begin , there glory will absolue & perpetuate for matter of sanctity , purity , & alacrity of the mind , typified in these white robes : yea further for matter of dignitie and tryumph , which then shall be most compleat , where they shall see Christ at that day come in the glory of the Father with millions of his Angels descending & bringing down his heauenly Ierusalem , meeting them halfe way in the clouds , and there auenging them of their enemies , sitting with them as assessors vpon thrones , to iudge the Angels , & the world of wicked ones , & such as haue insulted ouer them on the earth , in which they shall then without any malignity of enuy , anger , or appetite of reuenge , take amirable and vnspeakeable content and comfort , yea reck on it as the accomplishment of their inchoate glory , for which they are here said to long for , & groane vnder the Altar , till the number of all their brethren being consummate , God shal openly acquit & applaud them , condemne and confound their opposites . These , these are the only , stately , and Kingly dignities : the meditations whereof are onlyable to beget and foster true heroical & Christian resolutions against the feare of Death and Hell , otherwise vnuanquished . To conclude then , to the man that would both in health and sicknesse nourish euer in his breast vndaunted and more then conquering thoughts of these two enemies , instead of Bellarmines many friuolous and tedious rules : I prescribe but these two practises of Faith. The first is to worke in his minde a setled and vndoubted certaintie : and the second a liuely and frequent representation of them . Were heauen nothing else but an hauen of rest , wee know how welcome the one is to a Sea-sick weather-beaten traueller , and may by that guesse how desireable the other should be to a soule that long hath beene tossed in the waues of this world , sicke of owne sinfull imaginations , & tyred with externall tentations . The happiest soule that euer hath sayled ouer this Euripus , in the best ship , in the healthfullest body that euer was , neuer had so calme a passage , but that it hath had cause enough often to wish it selfe on shoare . What with selfe groaning phantasies , and iniected temptations , how little respit or rest is here to be found ? Is there any Palace or Tower here so high or strong , that can keepe diseases from the body : how much lesse cares , sorrows , feares , and Sathans assaults from the Soule ? Were there but such an Iland , as some haue dreamed of heere on earth , that might free our bodies or mindes from disquiet , but for the space of the moment of this life , how would people couet to dwell in it ? In the times of the late warres in Netherlands , how did the Boares forsake their Farmes , and flye into walled Cities for securitie from dangers ? What violence then should our heauenly Ierusalem suffer of our wishes and desires ? were it but for the sweet and amiable name of peace whereof it is denominated , hauing indeed the God of Peace for the King and Keeper of it : Wals many Cubits high , into which no Zenacherib can shoote an arrow , nor the Dragon Beast , nor the false Prophet to seduce or to accuse : strong gates and barres excluding all enemies and annoyances , and so affording perfect tranquility to all the Inhabitants , out of which they insult ten times more saferly , then the Iebusites ouer the blinde and lame , ouer the pale horse and his riders , Death and Hell. Consider and compare a little the simplicitie of the worldling with the wisdom of the Christian , the happy stabilitie of the one , with the wofull vncertaintie of the other at the time of their departure . Euen Foxes and Hares , and other such vermine fore-acquaint themselues with Muses , Thickes and Burroes , into which when they are chased and hunted , they may repaire for safety : but these fooles while they liue in health and prosperity , neuer thinke of the euill day , and when away they see they must goe , how vnshystable are they ? Some of the meaner sort , they take care for their winding-sheet : or if richer , for a marble or painted sepulchre , which yet cannot preserue their bodies or names from putrifaction : the superstitious sort to bee buryed in a Fryers Cowle , or vnder an Alter of stone : the desperater sort , wishing the Mountaines might couer them from the wrath of the Lambe . An harbour or receptacle for their soules they neuer thinke of ; whence it is that they are as loath to haue them turned out of their bodies , as Hagar and Ismael to be out of doores , and exposed to misery and dangers ; or rather as Cain , to be cast as a Vagabond out of Gods presence , fearing lest euery one that met him next , should cut his throat for a cursed Caitiffe . And indeed what else can they looke for , but instantly to bee deuoured of the roaring Lyon , that waites at the doore of Death , to fetch away their soules into the place where there is no night nor day . Onely the wise beleuer , he hath prouided a Sanctuary , or Citie of refuge against time of danger , hath learned wisdome of the Conies , who though a little nation , yet wise and forecasting , haue their refuge in the Rocks . Christ is the beleeuers Rocke , and his strong Tower , his Altar , and therfore he feares not what Death can doe vnto him . Christ hath assured him on his word , that hee shall haue all , teares wiped away , and the Spirit secured him that he shall rest from his labors . In which regard he is so farre from lingring and hankering after a continuance in this Baca of teares , this wildernes of feares , that he studies rather to enter into this rest , Cries out with Dauid , Wo is me that I dwell in , Meshek and Kedar , when I think of peace , there is warre at hand : With Ieremy , Woe is mee that I dwell with a contentious people . With Elias , I am weary of my life , an end good Lord. Or with blessed Simeon , Now Lord let thy seruant depart in peace , into that land of peace ; heere I haue seene that there is no peace to bee had : all here is vanity & vexation of spirit . For a minute of peace , moneths of vanity , for a dram of hony , pounds of aloes and gall . Soules here find no resting place for the soles of their feete , till they come to the mount Ararat , whither their works follow them , where their sorrowes leaue them . And so conclude with Vidus Bressius , Oh that my soule had I the wings of the Doue to flie and make haste to that mountain of God , and hill of tranquilitie and eternitie . Thus th' one dies howling , the other singing , because the one knowes he changeth for the better , the other for the worse : the one takes Death for a gulfe of sorrow , the other for a port of libertie and ease : the one because he is stript for a scourging ; the other because hee layes off his clothes to go to bed after his toile . If Queene Elizabeth whiles she was a prisoner in her sisters dayes could haue been fully assured , and had clearely foreseene her owne long ; glorious , and prosperous reigne ensuing , would she haue wished her selfe a Milke-maid for the present ? No , it had bin impossible . All our feares & doubts arise from infidelitie and the vncertaintie , or else from the deadnesse and dulnesse of our hopes . To put life into which , there can bee no better , no other help , then first to ground and root our Faith in Christ through the word and spirit : And then of ten to be setting before our eyes a state & condition happy aboue all that Cities , Kingdoms , Crownes , Pearles , and Iewels , Marriages , Feasts , and all other Metaphors and Parables of Scripture doe but shaddow out vnto vs. Which supereminent and super aboundant felicity , Paul that had been an eye witnes , not able to describe , much lesse to amplifie , summes it vp , An exceeding exceeding eternall weight of Glory . A superlatiue transcēdent phrase such as is not to be found in all the Rhetoricke of the Heathens , because they neuer wrote of such a Theame , nor with such a Spirit . If any of vs had but halfe the strength of Pauls Faith , or life of his hope , or chearefull fore-imaginations , which he had of this felicitie , woe could not but haue the same desires , and longings for our dissolution and fruition of them . If we throughly beleeued and remembred this to bee the state of our selues and dead friends , would we ▪ or could we so feare for our selues , or mourne for them in Blackes , whiles they are in whites , as Iacob for Ioseph , thinking him deuoured by some euill beast , when he was Lording it in Aegypt . No verily , but thinke of it , and looke for it we would with the same affections that Children do for their playes , Prentises their freedome , Spouses their mariage , Labourers their wages , Husbandmen their Haruest , Heyres their Inheritance , Princes their Kingdomes . Mongst many thousands , I chuse to instance and end with Monicah and Augustines examples ▪ the mother vsing this speech to her sonne ; All that I haue desired to liue to see , is that which I now see : thee my sonne a Christian. And now what doe I any longer in this base and impure world ? And hee of his mother : What cause haue I to mourne for a mother , of whose happinesse I may be so well assured . When I awake , I shall be satisfied . Write , O Christ , these Meditations in our hearts , imprint these Patternes so fast in our memories , that wee may all the dayes of our liues haue frequent fore-thoughts of our appointed change , chiefely in that last and solemne day of our death , when the Prince of this world will be busie , and wee shall be weake , let thy Comforter then bring them to minde , that by faith we may ouercome , and hauing the Arke of thy Couenant in eye , cheerefully passe through the waters of Iorden , and so take possession of that land which flowes with all varietie of delights , without either end or sacietie : euen so Come Lord Iesus , come quickly . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A14753-e230 Dr. Tayler . Tho. Hawkes . Beza . Perbins . Hall. Byfield . Notes for div A14753-e5110 2. Kings 19. 15. Ezek. 32. 
A41030	----	The character of the last daies a sermon preached before the King / by John Fell. Fell, John, 1625-1686. 1675 Approx. 42 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 15 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2006-06 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A41030 Wing F607 ESTC R6424 11795947 ocm 11795947 49312 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A41030) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 49312) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 492:3) The character of the last daies a sermon preached before the King / by John Fell. Fell, John, 1625-1686. [2], 26 p. [s.n.], Oxford [Oxfordshire] : 1675. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2005-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-11 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-02 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2006-02 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Character of the last Daies . A SERMON Preached before THE KING . By JOHN FELL , D. D. Dean of Christ-Church , and Chaplain to his MAJESTY . Printed by Command . At the THEATER in Oxford . Anno Dom. 1675. 2 Pet. 3. 3. There shall come in the last daies scoffers , walking after their own lusts , and saying , where is the promise of his coming ? For since the Fathers fell asleep , all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation . THE great business of Religion , is to oblige its Votaries to present duty by the awe and expectation of future retribution : and the particular design of the Gospel , the Doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ , is to oblige to this , by the assurance and belief that he who came unto us heretofore to teach his Law , will come again to execute the sanctions of it . Behold saies St. John , Rev. 1. 7. He cometh with clouds , and every eie shall see him , and they also which pierced him . And he saies of himself , Behold I come quickly , and my reward is with me , to give every man according as his work shall be . Rev. 22. 12. Which weighty truth , tho abundantly establisht , by all the miracles the types and prophecies that attend the Gospel , is most particularly enforc'd by the two inimitable expresses of Divinity , our Saviors Resurrection from the dead , and his Ascension into Heaven . Concerning the former of which St. Paul remonstrates , Acts 17. 30. The times of ignorance God winked at , but now commandeth all men every where to repent : because he hath appointed a day in which he will judg the world in righteousness , by that man whom he hath ordain'd : whereof he hath given assurance unto all men , in that he hath rais'd him from the dead . The other is exprest by St. Peter , Act. 2. 19. Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out , when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ , which before was preached unto you , whom the Heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things , which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets , since the world began . Indeed this second advent is the foundation , the support and end of our Religion . If in this life only we had hope , we were of all men most miserable , 1 Cor. 15. 19. If to the other Articles of our Creed which concern our Savior , there had not succeded the belief , that he shall come again to judg both the quick and the dead , we were as ridiculous as these mockers of the Text pretend us , hated and scorn'd by men , and deserted by Almighty God. It will therefore import us highly to examine whether the Christian be so absurd a person as these drols and merry men would make him , a creature only useful , because he finds them sport and entertainment . And for a just survey hereof , t will be material to consider , First the personal qualifications of the Disputers here describ'd , and Secondly the force of their arguments and discoursings : according to those two prevailing Topics in use among us , from the head of Autority , and that of Reason . And this being well deduc'd , t will not be hard to bring the whole debate to a short and certain issue , both in regard of speculation , and what is more important in reference to practice . I begin to consider what I first propos'd , the personal qualifications of the Disputers here describ'd . They are said to be scoffers walking after their own lusts . To be a Scoffer is sure no very laudable Character , being the joint result of Pride and Malice , the doing mischief , and the doing it in sport . So that whereas t is said that the Flatterer is the worst of tame beasts , and the Detractor of wild , the Scoffer has the ferity of both . Amidst the pretences to Urbanity , and being plesant company , he is the bane of all society , the poison of Asps is under his lips , his teeth are spears and arrowes , and his tongue a sharp sword , Psal . 5. 7. Any injury is supportable , that has not contemt and scorn superadded to it ; we can better bear the wounds , then the insultings of an enemy ; or if we must submit to that , we would not have our understandings trampled on ; be run down like fools and Idiots , or fall the victims of petulant ill nature , edg'd with envenom'd wit. But as this temper is most injurious and unsociable ; t is also ignorant and indocile . The sure effect of knowledg , is an humble sense of the want of it : the deeper we immerse our selves in any Art or Science , the greater and more insuperable difficulties are started by us : and the same event happens to all industrious enquirers , which befel Socrates ; to arrive at last to this one great discovery , that they know nothing . T is the peculiar priviledg of the ignorant and half-wited , by thinking well of their own skill and acquisitions , to make it impossible for them to have any . Seest thou a man wise in his own eies , saies Solomon , there is more hope of a fool then of him , Prov. 26. 12. and at the 9. Chap. ver . 7 , 8. He that reproveth a scorner getteth himself a shame , and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot : rebuke not a scorner least he hate thee : rebuke a wise man and he will love thee . and Chap. 14. ver . 6. A scorner seeketh wisdom , and findeth it not . But farther , over and above the before-mention'd ingredients , of pride , ill nature , and incorrigible folly ; the mockers of the Text are branded with immorality and vice : to walk after their own lusts . And sure there cannot be a more prodigious impudence , then that the guilty and obnoxious , persons liable to the severest punishments as well as censures , should dare to awaken observation , by being sharp on others . But so it is , the man that walks in the counsel of the ungodly , and has stood in the way of sinners , will not fail to recreate himself by sitting down in the seat of the scornful . a Aristotle truly resolv'd that the sensual or passionate were incapable of receiving moral knowledg , and t is hard that they who are not in a possibility to be learners , should take upon them to be judges . But in the present case t is their great concern and interest not to be instructed . To convince the sensual man that there is a future doom , is to sour all his joies , and torment him before the time . So that to pass all other grounds of prejudice , whatever is suggested by these mockers of the Text , their testimony at least is not to be consider'd , they being brib'd and led aside by interest to all that they assert . And let this suffice to have bin said of the personal qualifications of the disputers against a future judgment . I come now to examin the force of their discoursings . Where first , t is obvious to advert , that the Enquiry , Where is the promise of his coming , is very extravagantly made . As the Apostle saies , that hope which is seen is not hope , Rom. 8. 24. so a promise perform'd is not a promise , all its obligation is ceast . But tho our pacts and undertakings fall not under the notice of our senses , it do's not therefore follow they are nothing . Upon this transient blast of emty air , hangs all the entercourse and traffic of the world . If we will trust altogether to our eies , and nothing to promises and words , we must expect the self same diffidence from others ; and so be enemies and out-lawes to mankind . Nor is the delaying of performance a prejudice against it . T is true the morrow is to us a distant thing , however suddenly expected : and therefore a Martial did not amiss to enquire of one who still undertook for the next day , where his to morrow dwelt , whether in Parthia or Armenia ? But with Almighty God , every thing however distant it may seem , is actually present : and as whatever really is , however contingently it happen'd , certainly and necessarily is ; so whatever he has promis'd , must certainly and necessarily be : nay should be reckon'd on as already don . But the discoursings of the mockers in the Text , if they amount to any thing will run thus . All things continue as they were since the beginning of the Creation , therefore our Saviors promise of coming to judge the world is vain and frustaneous . The weakness of which reasoning , the Apostle effectually laies open , by destroying every part of it . First he denies the proposition , or supposal that all things continue as they were since the Creation : and Secondly he denies the consequence drawn from thence , Tho all things did continue , it no way follows they shall for ever do so ; and that the promise of a future change will not hereafter be accomplisht . As to the Proposition , it is observable , that the Creation of the world is frankly here acknowledg'd , tho it be to the evident disadvantage of the design'd Hypothesis . If the world were once Created , in that Act however transient , it has shew'd its self liable to the greatest change , since there are the same steps from not being unto being , as there are back again the contrary way : with this variety , that it is easier to pass from a habit to its privation , then it was from the privation to advance into the habit : and therefore as the Universe did not exist heretofore , so it may likewise not exist hereafter . But the truth is , the Origen of the World is a matter so notorious , that even Epicurus and his followers could not over-look it ; and thought it a less absurdity to make a casual concurse of Atomes , produce all the powers , the motion , the beauty , and order of the World , then to imagin it to have no beginning . And to this they were induced not only by attending the chain of causes , which in a succession of finite beings , could not be infinite : but more particularly , from the observation of those evident marks of newness , which appear every where thro-out the world ; and which are substantially urg'd by the Epicurean Apostle Lucretius in his 5 Book . I mean , the growth of Arts and Sciences , the plantation of Countries , the date of Histories , the Analogy of Languages , and the like . But to pass forward . Whereas t is urg'd by our Disputers , that since the Fathers fell asleep , all things continue as they did since the Creation , t is obvious to reply , that all things do not continue as they were , because the Fathers are fallen asleep : the destruction of all preceding generations , being a very remarkable mutation in the Universe . For however by constant successions the world has bin supplied , yet since t is evident that all the parts are in perpetual flux and motion , the whole which is nothing but an aggregate of those parts , must needs be of the same complexion . So that upon the matter the argument comes to this . All things continue as they were since the Creation , because nothing continues as it was since the Creation . T is true the World has lasted a long time , but so have divers other things , which many ages since have perisht , as also others which we see are perishing . Let us consider artificial compositions , for instance Buildings ; whereof the parts constantly decay and moulder : and tho by diligent repairs , the fabric is maintain'd so as to be habitable for several Ages , yet at last in spight of all supplies , it sinks into a ruine . And thus it fares in that other fabric of our Bodies , which we know are liable to a thousand accidents , every one of which is able to destroy us : and tho by the supply of food , and careful tendance we are not only maintain'd in life , but seem to grow and to be nurisht ; yet after a set period of years the whole drops down , and by no art or care can be preserv'd . So likewise in Societies , that Aggregate of separate members allied together by civil bonds of union , which we call the body Politic ; these we see preserve the same establishment , and setled form of government for several Centuries of years , and notwithstanding many shocks and great mutations , recover their pristin constitution : yet t is observ'd that there awaits even them a fatal period , and that after a 6 or 700 , or at most 1000 years they are totally dissolv'd and overthrown . From the which instances t is easy to collect , that in Systems of all kinds , whether artificial , natural , or political , every thing is transient and engag'd to dissolution . And tho the Universe in proportion to its vaster bulk , have a much larger term assign'd to its duration , then is prefixt to trivial little beings , all equally must share in the same common law of fate , and at length perish by inevitable ruine . The age of Man is by David Ps . 90. declar'd to be threescore years and 10 , that of Nations and Governments is esteem'd as 100 unto 10 , so that 6 or 700 years makes up their ordinary period . Now whether the Universe go on by like progression , and in accordance to the celebrated tradition , its rate be as 1000 is to 10 , and after a Millenary week ( and we know that the Apostle saies 1000 years is with God Almighty but as one day , ) the everlasting Sabbath shall commence , and a 2000 years having past before the Law , 2000 under it , and 2000 in the Gospel , the seventh thousand shall bring on the period of all accounts , when time shall be no more ; I will not go about to calculate . As God has conceled from us the day of our death , and that of the destruction of Empires , so has he of the Universe . In the mean time t is sure more reasonable from the premises laid down , to inferr the future destruction of the world and future doom , then the denial of it ; especially since in consequence to what has bin surmis'd , the times wherein the Gospel was first preacht , are distinctively said to be the last times , Act. 2. 17. and they who then liv'd , to be those upon whom , the ends of the world are come . To which we may subjoin , that our Savior has interpos'd his promise , that the regular date shall not be permitted to run out , and for the Elects sake those daies shall be shortned . Luk. 24. 22. But for a farther confutation of these Disputers , the Apostle by a memorable instance , that of the Flood , an event confest by the whole heathen world , the notice of it being transmitted down by general b tradition , by Histories of all Nations , and by the Rites and Ceremonies of their Religions , makes it manifest that all things have not , as they suggest , continued as they were from the beginning of the Creation . This , saies the Apostle ver . 5. they willingly are ignorant of , that by the word of God the Heavens were of Old , and the Earth standing out of the water , and in the water , whereby the world that then was , being overflowed with water perisht . But the Heavens and the Earth which are now , by the same word are kept in store , reserv'd unto fire , against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men . That is , men ( unless wilfully blind ) must acknowledg the Creation to be an unaccountable riddle of Omnipotence : the habitable Earth being so placed , that it indeed stands out of the waters , but yet so as to be really within the waters , the surface of the liquid Element being convexe , and in its workings demonstrably above the level of the shores that bound it : and nothing but the word of God that said unto the waves , Thus far shall you go and no farther , during the first Ages of the world with-held that general inundation , which afterward succeeded ; when , as the Scripture expresses it , the fountains of the great deep were broken up , and the windowes of Heaven , till then shut up , were open'd , Gen. 7. 11. whereupon immediatly the waters prevail'd upon the Earth . And on the other side , the force of the Promise of the s●me God of truth , set down at the 21 verse of the 8 Chapter , is the only dam and fence which ever since secures from a repeted ruine . Therefore the Heaven and Earth subsist , because they are reserv'd against the general conflagration . Which ( by the way ) was the common expectation of the Heathen World , according to that known perswasion of a Platonics , Stoics , and Epicureans also ; and celebrated frequently by the Doctors of Heathen Theology the Poets . In the same manner we see Prisons made strong , and safely guarded , that the Malefactors may be forth coming at the Assize and goal delivery . And therefore upon a true account , the preservation of the world , is so far from being an argument against a future Judgment , that in reference to it , its fabric is kept up , and hitherto continued . In like manner also , whereas ill men please themselves much in their impunity ; and because they have liv'd long without controul , think they shall for ever do so ; they have all reason to consider , that this success is of ominous abode unto them : their condition is the same with that of the guilty prisoner , who is therefore fed upon the public charge and carefully secur'd , because he is reserv'd to be brought forth to Execution : when in the interim the honest man is left at large , without that care , or any notice taken of him . T is true indeed God has besides another more kind intendment , when he indulges this impunity , if wicked men would be receptive of it : they therefore are repriev'd , that they may have an opportunity to sue their pardon out , and reconcile themselves to their offended Judg : for so it followes in the context , ver . 9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise ( as some men account slackness ) but is long-suffering to us-ward , not willing that any should perish , but that all should come to repentance . And this consideration is of an astonishing importance , that the best argument men can frame against the existence of Almighty God , and his future Judgment , is that he is infinitly good , and that he passes over those indignities , which in the opinion of the guilty Authors are beyond all sufferance . They would not have him be a revenger of their foul demerits ; no more would he himself : he would be a God to bless , to save and pardon , but not to punish and destroy ; and therefore , wretched as they are , they would not have him be at all : and madly throw away their hopes , when they would rid themselves of fear . To such a miserable issue do's brutish guilt engage ; makes it the interest of men that there should be no Omnipotence to support the world , or Providence to guide it ; no power in Heaven to bless and to protect ; and what is yet more desperate , no mercy there to pardon and forgive . But farther , suppose no promise had bin made of a future coming to Judgment , it will by no means follow that there will be none ; or that such a dreadful , tho but contingent possibility , should reasonably be laught at and contemn'd . Many things are daily don by us which we never engag'd before hand that we would do ; and sure t is equal , that the most free agent should be allowed the self same liberty . But lastly , to make the most advantagious supposal for these Disputers of the Text , that God had said , nay sworn that he would not come to Judgment ; with what face can they , who frequently do what they have bound themselves by horrid execrations never to attemt , expect a greater veracity from others then they exercise themselves ? Moreover since in all things else they disbelieve Almighty God , why should they credit him in this ? or if they will let him be veracious in this one instance , how are they sure he meant in earnest what he spoke , and did not rally , as they love to do ? T is certain the time will come , when he will transcribe their practice , and in their fatal exigence , laugh at their calamity , and mock when their fear comes : nor can they easily be sure , that he has not begun to treat them in their own way already . Now all this being put together , can any thing be more unaccountable , then that men should by such ropes of sand let themselves down to Hell ; by such pitiful inconsequences , which yet are the best proofs the matter can afford , think they have baffled all the expectations and fears , nay all the possibilities ; for nothing else can give security of future Judgment ? Yet so it is , these stupid Arguers have voted themselves to be the Masters of Reason , and so they are resolv'd to be . A dull inconsequence , pointed with a blasphemous scoffe , in despight of Logic and common sense , is Wit and demonstration to boot : and all they that own an awe of God , a love of Vertue , and fear of Hell , are fools and mad men , and t is lost labor to dispute against it . These Doctors of the scorners Chair , are ( if it may be ) more infallible then that of Rome . I shall not therefore any farther attemt to undeceive them : but having thus unravel'd the disputings of the Text in point of consequence and argument , I shall now take leave to look upon them in another light ; as they are a recital of a Prophecy , and thereby offer to us a farther proof of all that they propose : To wit The appearance of these scoffers in the World who laugh at all Religion , and despise a future Judgment , when so ere it happens , is its self a very signal mark of its approch . I stir up , saies St. Peter , at the beginning of this Chapter , and the words immediately preceding the Text , your pure minds by way of remembrance : that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy Prophets , and of the commandment of us the Apostles of the Lord and Savior : knowing this first , that there shall come in the last daies scoffers , &c. To which St. Jude exactly accords at the 17 and 18 verses of his Epistle , Beloved remember ye the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ , how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time , who should walk after their own ungodly lusts . And St. Paul 1 Thes . 5. 1. Of the times and seasons , brethren , ye have no need that I write unto you , for you your selves know perfectly , that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night : for when they shall say peace and safety , then sudden destruction cometh , &c. All which is in the same manner declar'd by our Savior himself , Mat. 24. 37. who saies that his coming will resemble that of the Flood , which fell upon a generation of men as they were eating and drinking , marrying and giving in marriage , and despis'd the warning and predictions of Noah the Preacher of righteousness , as St Peter calls him in the fore-going Chapter to the Text. Nor may it be suggested , that the scoffing at Religion and a future Judgment , is no such new thing in the world as to be any way remarkable , and made the Character of the greatest revolution that ever was . For tho there have bin alwaies debaucht and profligate persons more then a good many ; yet to have them openly scoffe at Religion , do it with assurance and impunity , is a thing so unusual , as may justly ground the observation laid upon it . Indeed for a fool to say in his heart there is no God , is not without example : but for a Sect of men to say it with their mouth , dictate it as Philosophy , and for that be esteem'd Wits and Masters of Reason , is utterly without the precedents of ancient times , and an atchievment to commence with the last dotage of the world : a prodigy great enough to go hand in hand with the Suns being darkned , and the Moons not giving her light , the Stars falling from their orbs , and the powers of Heaven being shaken , mention'd by our Savior as the prologues of his second coming at the 24 of St. Mathew , the place before recited . As no Nation in the world however barbarous has bin found to be without Religion ; so none has bin without a concern for it . By Gods law among the Jews , the Blasphemer was to be put to death ; and Levit. 24. we see that sanction by Gods particular command put in Execution . Which severity afterward obtain'd , even then when the worship of the nation diverted to Idolatry : for when Gideon had cut down the consecrated Grove of Baal , and destroied his Altar , Judg. 6. his life was required as an expiation of the fact . Nebuchadnezzar , tho a Heathen Prince , thought himself oblig'd to vindicate the honor not only of his Bel , but also of the God of Israel ; and as we read Dan. 3. 29. decreed that if any one should speak amiss against him , he should be cut in pieces , and his house be made a dunghill . At Ephesus , upon the suggestion that the honor of Diana had bin toucht , the whole city was put into a confusion , Act. 19. and at the 17 we find St. Paul question'd at Athens for being a setter forth of strange Gods , and probably would not have escaped , had the accusation run , that he deni'd the old . For in that place a Diagoras , Theodorus , Anaxagoras , Stilpo , Protagoras and others were on this account punisht by banishments , pecuniary mulcts and confiscations , and by death it self . Nay what is most remarkable , and particular to our present purpose , when Alcibiades had here in the jollity of a feast indulged unto his Wit , and made sport upon the Rites of Ceres , in mockery personating the Priest , tho he was their General in a most important war , they recall'd him home , who not returning , they proscrib'd his Person , seiz'd his Estate , and publicly devoted him by solemn execrations . It would be endless to deduce this subject thro ancient History : all the persecutions with so much blood and fury rais'd against Christians , are so many instances of this very matter ; they all arising from no other ground then the zeal they had for their false Gods , and an opinion that Christians were Atheists and Blasphemers , that mockt at their Devotions , and despis'd their Deities . Now whether it be reasonable for us , to have less veneration and esteem for the true God , then they had for the false , and verify whatever was suggested by the Heathen , it will not be difficult to determin . But if after the preaching of the Gospel , wherein are made discoveries of the Majesty of God and of his mercy , beyond any vouchsaf'd to former ages , men shall have less regard of Him and of his Honor , and after that his Son has for our sakes expos'd himself to shame and mockery , and become of no reputation , we shall therefore add to his inanition , and let him be of none with us ; converting all the obliging circumstances of his life and death to his continued reproch ; crucify him afresh , and put him to an open shame : and farther , if these multiplied , these unaccountable indignities , which in former times had certainly bin Capital , shall now become a Specimen of parts and education ; be committed by the Actors with bold insolence , and by the Hearers entertain'd with plesure and applause ; these practices thus put together and enhanc'd , upon a sober estimate must prove , such as do carry with them as the blackest guilt , so the most direful ominous abode . That this Age of ours has somwhat of mockery for its particular Genius , so that scarce any thing is so entertaining , as to sport with the misadventures or failances of others ; nor no faculty more recommending then the being dextrous in turning serious things to Ridicule , I think is a truth so notorious , that I may say it without offence to any : they that are passive in these skirmishes , being sufficiently sensible of what they suffer ; and they that are active , not desiring to concele or disown their Talent : nay both sorts at one time or other being active , those that have wit to shew it , and those that have none to pretend to it . Tho alas , what great proof is it of wit , to make others laugh ? which an Idiot can do as effectually by having none : and as to what is the height of that celebrated faculty , and is thought true bearing wit , the saying sharp unexpected rambling things , t is most happily acquir'd by an approch to drunkenness or frenzy ; and t will be no very advantagious barter , to loose our understandings to advance our wit. The a Masters of Greek and Roman Rhetoric in their Institutions , discourse indeed of causing laughter as a piece of the Art which they pretend to teach : but they tell us t is only to be allowed in those causes which admit no other defence . The Buffoon in a desperate exigence is to relieve the Orator , impudence to supply the place of argument , and wit fill up the room of sense : as we see men who have no better weapon , think it no shame to rake the canal , and secure themselves by throwing dirt . But what shall we say of those , who have introduc'd this way of fight into the Christian Warfare ? those Schole divinity Drolls of this our Age , who defend the Faith , by destroying Charity , attaque their fellow-men by those opprobrions methods of disputing , by scoffs and railing accusations , with which t were not allowable to oppose the Devil himself , Jud. 9. T is certainly great pity a good cause should be asserted by such arguments as libel and reproch it ; such as cannot be urg'd but by the worst of Men , and which even they will not produce , till that all others fail them . And were those flowers of Rhetoric weeded out of our late controversial books , we should find large Volumes shrink into Manuals , and be as little in their bulk , as they are in their conviction . Where ere this procedure takes place , t is not at all material on what side the truth lies ; a Jest will as effectually provide an answer to a demonstration , as to the most manifest inconsequence . The brightest evidence and vertue disguis'd and render'd monstrous by burlesque , like the Primitive Christians in the skins of wild beasts , will easily be worried and destroied . Nay so it fares , that the most venerable persons , things , and actions , are most liable to be thus expos'd and made ridiculous : for whatever this beloved acquisition proves , be it the gift of Nature , meant certainly for better purposes , or the product of drunkenness or frenzy , or what is yet a shorter method , of spight or malice , it has a peculiar faculty to pervert the best and most useful things , traducing sobriety for dulness , gravity for foppishness , order for formality , learning for pedantry , and is most immediatly prepar'd to cut the nerves of Government , by despising Dominion , and speaking evil of Dignities , Jude 8. These are the men , who , as the roial Psalmist tells us , make Songs of him , who pretend therein not only to impunity , but authoritative right ; and say , they are those who ought to speake . When these are once on the Tribunal , nothing can scape their sentence , the modesty of Virgins , learning of Scholars , wisdom of Counsellors , integrity of Magistrates , honor of Nobles , the dearest interests of all conditions and estates are laught away , as things not worth the keeping . Nay Majesty its self is here obnoxious , treated as our Savior was in order to his Crucifixion ; arai'd in a ridiculous robe , arm'd with a reed instead of a roial Scepter , then mockt and bowed to in reproch , and then t is thought high time to hang it on a tree . This leud familiarity ends in the worst contemt , and nothing can be so unhappy as Autority when baffled . The Coffee-house Rebell is more mischievous , then he that takes the field ; and a Prince is sooner murder'd with a libell , then a sword . And therefore it will concern those who are in Autority to consider of what effect it may be , that there are so many mockers of this form and level , in these last times of ours . My present enquiry is after those of a higher dispensation , who set their mouth against Heaven , and defy God and Providence ; which yet is but a natural emprovement of the other , and no less powerfully , if not much more destructive of Government and Lawes . And therefore it will also be the Magistrates great interest , as t is their highest duty , to be concern'd herein . To these ungodly mockers , walking after their own lusts , proud as they are , and confident that the day of Judgment will either never be , or is far off ; I shall not add more words upon that Head to their disturbance ; but mind them of another day , which they cannot deny to be approching , I mean the day of Death , that sentence of the Lord over all flesh , as the Wise man calls it , which is the day of Judgment to each particular person , as that of Doom is to the World. And will these mockers ask in scorn where is this promise of his coming ? tho the Fathers are faln asleep , do they hope by a peculiar privilege to continue still , and reverse the general law of the Creation ? If the long day of the Fathers had a night who after 7 , 8 , or 900 years went down to sleep in dust , and when they did so there was no inquisition in the grave , whether the date had bin so many hours , but all their labors vanisht as they did , in dull forgetfulness and silence ; shall our winter Solstice day , whose Sun scarcely looks over the Horizon , but instantly starts back again to dwell upon the other World , so lye upon our hands , as if the Sun were to stand still as it did in Joshuas time , or to go back as it did in Hezechias , that we might frolic it without disturbance , in everlasting riot and excess ? The sensual Epicure describ'd at the 12 of St. Luke , who said unto his soul , Soul , thou hast much goods laid up for many years ; take thine ease , eat , drink , and be merry : tho he only overlookt , and not deni'd a Providence , was stopt in his carriere by hasty vengeance , which pronounc'd this irreversible decree , Thou fool , this night thy soul shall be required of thee : and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided ? And let our jolly men of dissolute ungodly life , who notwithstanding the concerns of their immortal soul , are at leisure to make sport with every thing however Sacred , who with scorn and greediness pursue unlawful plesures , and bid defiance to Almighty Justice , lay their hands upon their breast , and ask themselves at what ensurance office they have secur'd a longer date of life : how they come to know their soul shall not be requir'd : or if it be , how well they are prepar'd to give an answer to the question but now askt . This very sentence at this moment is really pronounc'd against many thousands in the world , who ere to morrows night will breath their last ; of which number not one single person that now hears me , is sure that he is not . Have they debated calmly with themselves what death is , how many unwelcome circumstances are hudled up in that short word ? Can they willingly forego their houses and estates , their tables and their beds , and bid a long farwell to their dear company , their paramours and flatterers , lying gastly , and cold , and senseless , imprison'd in a Coffin , and immur'd in Earth ? To speak in the language of the Scripture , will the tender and delicate women , who would scarce adventure to put their feet unto the ground thro delicacy , Deut. 28. be content to be despoil'd of their rings and jewels , the changeable suits of apparell , the mantles , the wimples , and the crisping pins , the glasses and fine linen , the hoods and veiles , Isa . 3. and , as he adds , take in exchange , insted of a sweet smell a stink , insted of a girdle a rent , iusted of well-set hair baldness , and burning insted of beauty ? But this is not all , will they be willing to come to the Tribunal of their Maker , and render an account of all the words , the thoughts , the actions and omissions of an ill led life ? answer for their noon-day insolence , and mid-night revels ; answer for their own and others guilts : the sin of their rebellion , and greater sin of their impenitence : the accusations of offended justice , and deeper charge of slighted Mercy ? Or lastly can they after the confusion and horror , of having all their guilts set in aray before them , enhanc'd by the no less numerous overtures of grace and mercy , out-brave that dreadful sentence of Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire , prepar'd for the Devil and his Angels , Mat. 25. Will they maintain the jolly humor there , and like the three Children in the Babylonian furnace , sing in the midst of flames , and resemble them in being untoucht by pain , as they shall in not being wasted and devour'd ? Will they find arguments of mockery and laughter , in the place of weeping , and wailing , and gnashing of teeth ? If they can do this , on Gods name let them mock on , deny a future Judgment , or what is more generous and brave , let them provoke and dare it . But if they cannot dwell with the devouring fire , nor abide with everlasting burnings , Isa . 33. If they cannot wrestle with Omnipotence , nor have an arm like God ; t will be advisable , to take a timely warning , and according to the counsel given to Job , Chap. 41. 8. to think upon the battell , and do no more . I shall close all with the inference , and in the words of St. Peter pursuant to my Text. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night : in the which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise , and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat , the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up . Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolv'd , what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness ? looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God , wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolv'd , and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat ? Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new Heavens , and a new Earth , wherein dwelleth righteousness . Wherefore beloved seeing that ye look for such things , be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace , without spot , and blameless : and account that the long-suffering of the Lord is Salvation . Ye therefore , seeing you know these things before , beware least ye also being led away with the error of the wicked , fall from your own stedfastness . But grow in grace , and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ : to him be glory both now and for ever . Amen . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A41030-e90 a ad Nicom . Eth. lib. 1. a Epig. lib. 5. a Ptolem. Campanel . a Thalmud . Abod . Zara. c. 1. fol 9. R. Ketina . in Ps . 92. Hilar. in 17 Mat. Just . Mart. in Dial. cum Tryph. & quaest . ad Orthod . 71. Iren. l. 5. c. 28. 30. Cypr. l. de exhort . Mart. Lactant. l. 7. c. 14. b Abyden . Beros . Nic. Damasc . Plat. in Tim. Suidas in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex Apollin . a Plat. in Tim. Senec. Nat. quaest . 3. 13. Ep. ad Polyb. Minut. Fel. Ovid. Metam . l. 1. f. 7. Lucan . l. 1. Hystasp . in Euseb . Praep. Justin in Apol. a Suid. in Diag . Diog. Laert. Corn. Nep. in Alcib . a Arist . Rhet. l. 3. Quintil. Instit . l. 6. 
A15504	----	Some helpes to faith Shewing the necessitie, grounds, kinds, degrees, signes of it. Clearing diuerse doubts, answering obiections, made by the soule in temptation. By Iohn Wilson, preacher of Gods word in Gilford. Wilson, John, d. 1630. 1625 Approx. 141 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 121 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A15504 STC 25769 ESTC S103081 99838839 99838839 3228 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A15504) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 3228) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1161:10) Some helpes to faith Shewing the necessitie, grounds, kinds, degrees, signes of it. Clearing diuerse doubts, answering obiections, made by the soule in temptation. By Iohn Wilson, preacher of Gods word in Gilford. Wilson, John, d. 1630. [12], 227, [1] p. Printed by I. L[egat] for Robert Mylbourne, and are to be sold at his shop, at the great South doore of Pauls, London : 1625. Printer's name from STC. Running title reads: Some helps to faith. Some print faded and show-through; title page stained. Reproduction of the original in the Bodleian Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith -- Early works to 1800. 2004-12 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-02 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Olivia Bottum Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Olivia Bottum Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion SOME HELPES TO FAITH . Shewing the Necessitie , grounds , kinds , degrees , signes of it . Clearing diuerse doubts , answering obiections , made by the Soule in temptation . By IOHN WILSON , Preacher of Gods word in Gilford . PHILIP . 1.25.26 . For your furtherance , and ioy of faith that you may more abundantly reioyce in Iesus Christ. LONDON , Printed by I. L. for Robert Mylbourne , and are to be sold at his Shop , at the great South doore of Pauls . 1625. TO THE TRVELY NOBLE LADY , THE LADY LETTICE , Countesse of Leicester : Mercie and Grace in this life , Saluation with eternall glory in the World to come . Good Madam , VNthankfulnesse is a great defiler of conscience , both as it is a great sinne against iustice ; and as it prouokes wrath , whereby such persons are deliuered vp to vile affections . And though thankefulnesse cannot stay in the instrument , but goeth by it to the author , yet it is due to such , by whose hands God conueyes his benefits . It hath pleased that blessed God ▪ to stirre vp your Ladiship for my good : first , in calling mee to be a Minister to your Honourable familie , how weake soeuer ; yet not without some fruit by his blessing , whose power is seene in weakenesse ; where , how I was cared for , my conscience doth witnesse : secondly , in your opportunity ( preferring publike good , so were your words ) giuing me a free , and comfortable entrance into this charge , wherein I now labour , according to my measure . And from that time , I haue beene followed with kindnesse from that house ; but that specially refresheth mee to remember , that for the worke of my Ministerie , your Honour willed mee to count you as my mother . I am bold thus in particular , to propound you for Gods Honour , as an example , especially to Patrons . And finding my selfe so much bound , I haue long thought how besides my prayers , I might by some paper testimonie , shew my selfe thankefull to your Ladiship ; and resolued at last to write these notes faire , and send them for the helpe of your faith and comfort , in witnesse of the continuing , of my true care for your soules good . Hereunto I was the rather inclined , for that I vnderstood , some to haue found helpe ( through the mercie of God ) to the quieting of their conscience by the reading of them , when they were in shorter notes of a Sermon : In the meane time , diuerse friendes called vpon mee , for some thing to the Presse , from which the knowledge of mine owne wants hath hitherto kept me , yet debating it thus ; If the matter be profitable : first , it is not likely to bee hurt that way , but more vsefull then by writing : secondly , more fit to some for reading ; and to conuey bookes to friends , more commodious then Copies in writing . Here I stucke at this , that good books for this helpe bee not scant ; but then I thought againe , that acquaintance being a helpe to make them knowne , all come not to one hand : thi●dly , my desire to leaue testimonie of my faith , on whom I hold : and how , fourthly , that God hath glory of diuersitie of gifts , which manifest the spirit , giuen to profit withall : fiftly , that my selfe owe to them that haue so aduentured themselues . It yelded , not without feare , I confesse , yet commending it to God for his blessing , and to the loue of my deare friends to further it , it is now out of my hands . Good Madam , vse it among other helpes : I once left a little thing with you , to helpe you in examination of your title to Heauen , this may a little further that as being ( I thinke ) fuller , to that purpose . Calling made sure is a great comfort , and aduantage for a Christian , many giue testimonie to you : you haue giuen good example in your constant respect of Gods ordinances , glorifie God more with the fruites of your faith and loue ; call for the inspirations of the spirit , to be carried earnestly after him , hee purchased a people , to be iealous of good workes : looke into the felicitie of Gods chosen dayly , bee still making it sure in your owne conscience ; the end of this life puts Gods people in possession of endlesse life . The highest in the earth , haue but terme of life in their present things , how great so euer ; and dying out of Christ , are without end miserable . Blessed are they that so trust in Christ , as to haue the Lord for their God : that is to bee knowen in experience by the spirit of Christ , destroying the dominion of sinne , and lading vs , so as that in the course of our life , we are with God , though foyled for our humbling in many temptations . The God of life , preserue your life of his good pleasure , for the good of many , that praising God for you , may by their prayers further your grace heere with the exercise of it : the Lord bee with you , your Honourable sister with hers , all that belong to you , and guide your hearts into the loue of God , and to looke for his Sonne , the blessed hope from heauen . Your Honors in all dutie , and humble obseruance . Iohn Wilson . SOME HELPS TO FAITH . Shewing the necessitie , grounds , kinds , degrees , signes of it ; clearing diuerse doubts , answering obiections , made by the soule in temptation . Luke 1.20 . Because , thou beleeuest not my words , &c. THE holy Euangelist , set to deliuer the storie of Christ from his beginning ( concerning his humanitie ) puts first a narration of his forerunner , how he did rise ( as he that would speake of the day light beginnes at the day starre ) wherein hee mentioneth the promise of his miraculous conception , and the ioy of his father and other friends : 2. the doubting of the promise by Zacharie , with the reason of it , age making it impossible by course of nature . Which is aggrauated by the minister , Gabriel , and by the matter promised , glad tidings : 2. threatened with punishment of dumbnesse as a penall signe set out by the time , till the fulfilling of the promise ; & the cause , not beleeuing the words of such a messenger as he knew was sent of God. For Zacharies doubt appeares not to be about the qualitie of the Angel , whether he were true or false . If he had onely doubted whence the reuelation came , it would not haue beene so blamed , for Gideon did so , and desired a signe whereby he might know it was an Angel of God that speake to him Iudg. 6.17.21 . But looking to the order of nature , so as he considered not the power of God , as Abraham did in a like case , hee gaue not such glory to God a to rest on his word and power . Obseruation . I. From his punishment for this cause that hee beleeued not the word of God , sent by his messenger , we may gather , how prouoking a sinne it is not to beleeue God promising . His fault was but in one part of Gods word , admiting some doubt about thee fulfilling of the promise : 1. It was a particular act of vnbeleefe , no habite : 2. not full , but of infirmitie among many faithfull services , yet because he staggered at the promise , knowing that God had spoken , he shall speake no words of his owne , till God haue fulfilled his . Sara ouercame her doubt , Heb , 11.11 . by faith she receiued power to cōceiue seed , and was deliuered of a child when shee was past age ; because shee iudged him , faithful who had promised , yet laughed at the message of the Angel and is reproued for it , Gen. 18.12 . Our Sauiour doth reproach the two Disciples , honestly testifiing of him , for follie and slownesse of heart to beleeue all that the Prophets haue spoken , Luk. 24.25 . he vpbraides the eleuen with their vnbeliefe , because they beleeued not them which had seene him after his resurrection , Mar. 16.14 . Moses and Aarons ( faithfull seruants of God ) were iudged to death temporall , for not sanctifying the Lord by beleeuing his promise of bringing water out of the rocke , and to lose the honour of bringing Gods people into the Land of promise . When a doubt creeps into a mans minde , whether that which God hath spoken shall come so to passe , it is iniurious , and greiuous to him ; much more when with full vnbeliefe his promise is reiected . Psal. 106.24.25.26 , 2. King. 7.2 . Reasons . SIns are more greiuous as they haue God for their obiect more immediately , hating of God , despaire , vnbeliefe , the mother sinne , it dishonours God aboue many sinnes of morality : 1. In questioning his truth : 2. In limiting his power : 3. In disgracing his promise , and messengers : Esa. 7.13 . Is it a small thing for you to grieue men , that you will grieue my God , also . Secondly , it is of prauity of nature , mans faithlesse disposition , whereunto being indulgent , he beares with himselfe in it too much , where God offers to fence him not onely with promise , but sometimes with signe . God saith of his sonnes and daughters , that they are children in whom is no faith , Deut. 32.20 . Christ to his fearefull Disciples , how is it that yee haue no faith , Mar. 4.40 . Vse : 1. We ought therefore to feare with hatred all vnbeleefe , all kinds and degrees of it , and to sway our hearts against their natural disposition : we ought to beleeue God speaking to vs , whatsoeuer , how often soeuer , in what manner soeuer he do speake to vs ; and be violent against the hindering disposition , so breaking into heauen . The deuil flies not from vs by dallying , but by resisting him , Iam. 4.7 . Faith makes supernaturall things possible , Math. 17.20 . It obtaines wonderfull things Heb. 11.11.33.34 . It sanctifieth God in a mans heart , Esa. 8.13 . and giues him glory before men , Rom. 4.20 . Out-looking improbabilities , impossibilities in nature , resting on his truth and power . When God hath spoken ; let vs reioyce in his word , saying , I haue the word of God , whereof I glory ; the word of God , I say , whereof I will glory . Dauid assures himselfe , to the ouercomming of sorrowes and quickening him with spirituall ioy , that it shall be as God hath said , Psal. 60.6 . God hath spoken in his holinesse , I will reioyce , I shall diuide Shechem , and measure the valley of Succhoth . Gilead is mine , &c. when the Lord hath said , I will not leaue thee nor forsake thee , we may boldly say the Lord is my helper , I will not feare , Heb. 13.5.6 . God will doe that which he hath spoken to me of , Genes . 28.15 . Thus Paul did giue hope to them in the Ship with him in great extremity , Bee of good courage , for I beleeue God , that it shall bee euen so as he hath spoken to me : and they were all of good cheere . At length wee shall say ( to Gods praise ) As wee haue heard , so haue wee seene in the Citie of our God , Psal 48.8 . Let vs lay vp the promises in our hearts , set them still before vs , digest them in a holy hope , and feede our selues with them , bee they generall or particular , to this or that state and condition , absolute or with exception of the crosse ; wee shall beleeuing , perceiue in sensible effect that God hath not said in vaine , Seeke yee mee . None shall bee ashamed that waite for him : either wee shall haue the very thing which wee doe desire , or the good of the want of it . Vse . 2. Seeing one act of distrust in a particular promise is so offensiue to God , how grieuous is it to forsake the generall promise of mercy in Christ Iesus , made to euery one that beleeues on him ? Heb. 4.1 . Let vs feare , it is full of sinne and danger . First , It is a manifest disobedience , Rom. 10.16 , 21. against the first and great commaundement of the Law : which though it doe not directly command faith in Christ , nor reueale the righteousnesse whereby wee are saued , Rom. 3.21 . yet bindes vs to hearken to God , in all that hee commands vs ; to whomsoeuer Christ is preached , the commandement to beleeue in him is giuen , Mar. 1.15 . Ioh. 6.29 . They that reuolt after profession of faith , are saide to turne away from the holy commandement giuen to them . 2. Pet. 2.21 . Secondly , Vnbeliefe is a kinde of blasphemy ; it makes God a lyar , which agrees not with his nature , it is impossible to him . Heb. 6.18 . Tit. 1.2 . His witnesse is greater then the witnesse of man. Hee that honours a man with cap and knee , yet counts him a vaine lying fellow , doth more dishonour him thereby , then with all the outward signes he honours him : so hee that beleeues not God testifying of his Sonne , that whosoeuer receiues him hath life , what respect soeuer hee giue him in other things , dishonours more then hee honours him , making the credite of his testimonies suspected ; as hee that beleeueth hath sealed that God is true . Thirdly , Vnbeliefe hath in it an odious vnthankfulnes in refusing Christ with his grace so freely offered to euery creature , Mark. 16.15 . Christ louingly cals euery one that is athirst to come to him , with gracious promise that they shall not come in vaine , Ioh. 7.37 , 38. beseeching men by his seruants in his stead , to be reconciled to God , and not to receiue the grace of God in vaine . Hee waits that hee may haue place in mens hearts , promising sweete and refreshing familiarity to any that heares his voyce and opens vnto him , Reuel . 3.20 . He puts none away that come to him , Iohn 6.37 . God expostulates with men , why they will die , seeing life is so freely offered them , Eze. 18.31 . lamenting their folly and losse in refusing him . Therefore whether it bee of sottish negligence , or of obstinate rebellion , it is inexcusable vnthankfulnesse to reiect him . Fourthly , Vnbeliefe holds a man in the power of sinne , in an vniuersall pollution of nature : the seate of it is an euill heart , Heb. 3.12 . a heart full of euill affections ; so it robbes God of that inward worship , which faith purifying the heart sets vp and maintaines , it is ioyned with loue , a pure heart and a good conscience , 1. Tim. 1.5 . No true inward worship can be performed without faith , as may appeare by considering all the parts of it . I. Confidence in God ( whereby wee rowle our selues vpon him for all needfull good , and to bee helpt and defended against all hurtfull euill , so as not to bee afraide at any euill tydings , to laugh at destruction when it comes , to challenge the aduersaries of our happinesse with a holy insultation , either as it were at the barre , for accusation or condemnation ; or in the field , for force to separate vs from the loue of God in Christ Iesus , Rom. 8.33 , 34 , 35. ) cannot be without faith in Christ. We haue by him entrance vnto God , with boldnesse and confidence through faith in his name , Ephes. 3.12 . Him God raised from the dead , and gaue him glory , that our faith and hope might bee in God , 1. Pet. 1.21 . That a man may stay vpon God , hee must know that hee is his God , committing the care of his safetie , and the charge of his happines to belong to him , being both able and willing to helpe him ; which necessarily requires faith in Christ , that hee may haue right to that couenant , I will bee thy God. So knowing whom hee hath beleeued , he with quietnesse and confidence commits himselfe to him , as Paul , 2. Tim. 1.12 . Diffidence , and thereby feare are found in godly men , and that in good causes by defect of faith : much more in them that haue no faith , whose hearts by the sound of feare are mooued as the trees of the forrest by the winde , Esay 7.2 . or are hardned against threatnings , by flatterie , trust in lying words , making falsehood their refuge . Secondly , Loue of God ( whereby we are mooued towards him , and cleaue to him , as soueraignely good in himselfe ; 2. the authour and maintainer of all our good had or hoped for ; 3. and for him doe loue such persons and things as hee hath commended to our loue ; 4. giue our selues to him to bee at his will , seeking his glory , and hating our selues , as wee are against him ; 5. cannot be satisfied , but in fruition of him , and therein rest with delightfull contentment ; ) cannot bee in an vnbeleeuer . 1. In such the loue of God is not . 2. Gods loue preuents vs , and mooues ours . 1. Iohn 4.19 . 3. Hee circumciseth our hearts to loue him , his spirit is called the spirit of loue , because it works it in vs , and guides our hearts into it . 2. Tim. 1.7 . 4. It is one speciall note by which the heires of the grace of life are described , 1. Cor. 2.9 . & 8.3 . Eph. 6.24 . Rom. 8.28 . Iam. 1.12 . The vnbeleeuer is an enemy to God. Coloss. 1.21 . Thirdly , Feare of God ( whereby we sanctifie him in our hearts ; stand in awe of him & his word ; hate to sin against him , euen where no eye but his can take notice of vs ; giue our selues to good duties with strife to doe them , so as pleaseth him ; aspire to full sanctification , 2. Cor. 7.1 . ) cannot be in an vnbelieuer . For it is wrought in regeneration , by vertue of Gods Couenant with such as haue their sinnes forgiuen , Ier. 32.40 . by the spirit of God that rests vpon Christ for his members , Esa. 11.2 . is prouoked by Gods mercy , Psal. 130. vers . 4. and holds a man with a perpetuall will to God. The vnbeleeuer either contemnes God , and declares it by lewdnesse in his waies , Prou. 14.2 . Or if he feare , it is either penall Esa. 33.14 . like the diuells trembling ; or meere seruile , to be a bridle , to work some ciuility , the chiefe obiect of it is euill of punishment . The feare of the belieuer , is ingenuous , voluntary , with confidence , and ioy , the chiefe obiect of it is euill of sinne , not his owne distresse but Gods offence . Fourthly , Obedience ( a voluntary subiection of minde and heart to God , to hearken to , and to doe his will , after that manner , and to that end which hee appoints ) is not in an vnbeleeuer ; whose wisedome is enmitie against God , Rom. 8.7 . He is a seruant of sinne , addicted to the wils of the flesh and minde , to fulfill them , not subiect to God nor can be . Faith is the Mother of obedience , by it wee receiue the spirit , renewing our nature vnto delightsome agreement with Gods Law , Ioh. 5.3.4 . mouing vs by Gods mercies , impelling vs by the loue of Christ , to die to our selues to liue to him . Fiftly , Patience ( whereby vnder euills , wee adide in Gods waies ; possesse our soules , waite for God , and giue him glory , acknowledging his hand , authoritie ouer vs and ours , his wisedome , righteousnes and goodnes ) is not in an vnbeleeuer , for it is the daughter of faith and hope , 1. Thes. 1.3 . a fruit of the spirit , Gal. 5.22 . and is wrought in meditation and application of Gods promises , of the gift of his sonne the pledge of all promises , Rom. 8.31.32 . and his presence with vs in trouble , Psal. 91.15 . moderating the temptation to the strength he giues , that we may be able to beare it , working our present good and promoting our future glory , 2 Cor. 4. Vnbeleefe hath either , senselesse stupiditie , Ier. 5.3 . or hardening and making the courage stout to indure the vttermost , or a counterfeit humiliation , whereby men flatter God to get out of his hands , which if it succeed not , their pride opens their mouth against God vnto stout words , and their heart frets against the Lord. Esa. 58.3 . Mal. 3.13.14 . Sixtly , Prayer ( an action of the heart wherein , acknowledging the author of all goodnesse , we inforce the powers of our soules to doe an immediate seruice to him , to bring forward his decrees into execution ) no vnbeleeuer can rightly performe : for it requires faith not onely of Gods essence and power , but of his loue and good will to vs , accepting our person , and receiuing our prayer . Mar. 11.24 . Rom. 10.14 . Heb. 11.6 . Iam. 1.6 . and it must be by the holy Ghost . Iud. 2.20 . It requires an vpright person . Prou. 15.8 . the oder of Christs sacrifice . Reue. 8.4 . And so is a note of saluatition . Ioel. 2.38 . Which is farre from an vnbeleeuer . Seuenthly , thanksgiuing or sacrificing praise to God , cannot be rightly performed without faith , for it requires a heart affected with this aboue all benefits , that the Lord is our God , which was declared by giuing thanks before the Ark , the testimonie of Gods presence with his people ; it goeth thus , thou art my God and I will thanke thee . Psal. 118.28 . With tast of his loue in the benefits , as pledges of more to come , as the valley of Achor for a dore of hope with pleasure in the commandement , consecration of our selues and that we haue to God , offered in the mediation of Christ for acception . Vnbeleeuers , though formally they may giue thanks , conuinced that all good is from God , carried by pride in preferment of their gifts before other men , as the Pharisee , Luk. 18.11 . yet they bee more in prayers then in praises . As they cannot giue thanks for spiritual benefits which are giuen onely in Christ , to such as beleeue on him : so neither for temporall freely , feelingly , with loue of the duty , with tast of Gods loue and delight in him . As a iudge that feasts a malefactor by the way , who feares his hanging at a place appointed , gets but heartlesse thanks of him : so God for his bounty to an vnbeleeuer , who still feares that he will destroy him after he hath done him good . Vnbeleefe disables a man to euery good worke , the branch brings not forth but in the vine without Christ , or not being in him we can doe nothing , Ioh. 15.4.5 . The worke cannot be better then the nature whence it proceeds , an euill tree cannot bring forth good fruit . The work may be materially good , but euill by abuse : productions of the flesh by some peruerse affection , vnto ends not right in the sight of God , they be dead workes , not onely as they proceed from a person spiritually dead , a stranger from the life of God , but as they tend to the condemnation of the worker , though farre more tolerable then those sinnes that are such for their matter and kinde . Sixtly , Vnbeleefe holds a man vnder great misery . First , Vnder the rigor of the law , without mercie to the pardon of the least omission or defect . Secondly , Vnder irritation of the law , the more it reueales sinne , the more corrupt nature lusts and striues to doe it . Rom. 7.5.8 . Thirdly , vnder the coaction of the law : he is in bondage vnto feare of the threatnings of it , and withheld from the euill which he loueth , as a dogge tyed vp from biting or a foxe chained vp from prey , yet retaine their disposition . Fourthly , Vnder the malediction of the law , there is no curse but hee may feare it in his blessings , in his crosses , he hath euill of good , and euill of euill , all turnes to his hurt . It shutts out thee good of most excellent meanes , Heb. 4.2 . makes Christ with all his vertue vnprofitable to him , who by his absolute power , can doe whatsoeuer hee will , yet concerning his ordinate power is made impotent ( in a sort ) to great works by the vnbeleefe of men . Mar. 6.5 . Seuenthly , Vnbeleefe increaseth a mans misery liuing vnder the Gospell , it shall be required of him according to that which is cōmitted to him ; iudgement is to the Iew first , for abusing his preferment in the offer of saluation by Christ. This is condemnation that light is come into the world and men loued darknesse rather then light . Ioh. 3.19 . Christ is to the ruine of many in Israel . Luk. 2.34 . They haue a double damnation , one from the law wherein Christ found them , another from the Gospell in which deliuerance was offered , and they refused it , they that stumble at this stone , are broken , and they vpon whom it falls are all ground to powder . A malefactor dieth iustly by the law , but if he haue offer of the kings pardon and refuse it , he is twise guilty of his owne death : the iudgement beginnes here in spirituall plagues , Rom. 11.8.9 . Ioh : 12.39 . and is fulfilled in hell , in a more greiuous damnation then that of Sodome and Gomorrha . Resolue therefore speedily to obey the Gospel , consent to God commanding you to receiue his sonne , promising mercy in him to euery one that beleeues on him , dispute not against his faithfull and true sayings , listen not to the deuill and your carnall wisedome muttering and obiecting thus . Obiection . I. Who am I ? what is my worthinesse that I should conceiue of God that he so respected me as to giue his sonne , and with him so great happinesse for me ? I dare not beleeue it . Answere . First , The opening of the sealed Booke ( the bare fore-knowledge of things to come ) found no man liuing or dead worthy of it , but onely Christ , whom then shall so great loue find worthy of it in himselfe ? 2. It commends the free grace of God , that he was so farre from making the respect of our worthinesse , to turne his minde toward vs , that when we were of no strength , meere enemies , sinners and vngodly , he prouided the merit of his sonne for vs : his loue is set before the gift of his sonne . Ioh. 3.16 . To declare the freenesse of the benefit , we bring nothing , bring nothing but our needinesse : emptinesse , nothingnesse are onely receiuers of Christ with his blessing , and of faith also whereby to receiue him . It is of faith that it might be of grace . Rom. 4.16 . Herein hath God manifested , and made certaine his loue . 1 Ioh. 4.9 . That I may be setled in conscience that being in my selfe vnworthy , I am counted worthy , I must turne away mine eyes from my selfe , and behold Christ Iesus alone , on whose worthinesse the fulfilling of the promises depends , he that imbraceth him and the promise of mercy in him , is said to be worthy , as he that reiects the offer of God so gracious is said to be vnworthy Math. 22.8 . First , The holy seruants of God confessing their owne vnworthinesse , haue yet beleeued , and humbly claimed Gods promise , with this reason : thou hast told this goodnesse to thy seruant , thou art God and thy words be true , Gen. 32.9 , 10 , 11.2 Sam. 7.18.28 . praying him to performe it for his owne sake ; Dan. 9.19 . who for his owne sake puts away our iniquities , Esa. 43.25 . Obiection . II. The presumption of a bidden guest , sitting downe at the wedding feast without a wedding garment , was found and fearefully punished . Considering my nothingnesse , and withall my great sinfulnesse , I feare to meddle , humility seemes to with-hold me . Answere . It is not presumption but humilitie to yeeld to Gods will , and a meet thing to accept the gracious offer of his sonne vnto life , approue and yeeld to what God pronounceth to please him , giue your selfe liberty to iudge in his worke what is meet , consider the correction of Peter refusing in modestie his Lords offer to wash his feet . Ioh. 13.6.8.9 . There is a carnall humilitie that may spoile a man of his soule . Col. 2.13.23 . We be fittest for Gods mercy , when lothing our selues in our fowlenesse we aspire vnto his grace , which hee giues to the humble . 1. Pet. 5.5.6 . Secondly , Great things beseeme a great God , we are to consider not what we are in our selues meet to receiue , but what is meet for him to giue , whose counsell determines to this and that man , as his pleasure is , who works herein for the praise of his glorious grace , that makes all for himselfe , Lord of all , free to place his grace where he will , none giues him first . Rom. 11.35 . Thirdly , He suffers his elect , to fall into great sins , which he orders to his and their glory : 1. In giuing them notice of them , with feeling , whether strange terror & consternation accompanie it , or they passe in the birth more easly , yet they goe before many ciuill men into the kingdome of heauen . Math. 21.31 . disposing them therby vnto his calling vnto fellowship with Christ : 2. and makes them called , to doe more with impulsion of loue for much forgiuen , Luk. 7.47 . 3. To stand as patternes of Gods abounding grace , to preuent their diffidence , who desire Gods mercy and grace , yet distrust by the number and greatnesse of their sinnes . Forthly , Number or greatnesse of sinnes , are not barres in all to shut out Gods mercies in Christ , either for forgiuenesse , or healing of nature : they may be resembled by the Sea , in which Gods great workes are seene , which slowes to the couering not onely of sands , but rocks ; because God hath giuen his sonne , to take with the nature of the elect , their death . Heb. 2.9.14 . and thereunto their sinnes . He made him to be sinne for vs , that knew no sinne , that wee might be made the righteousnesse of God in him . 2. Cor. 5.21 . God laid vpon him all the sinnes of the Elect , figured in the goat that escaped , by lot Leuit. 16.21.22 . Ouer which Aaron confessed all the iniquities of the children of Israel , and all their trespasses in all their sinnes , putting them vpon the head of the goat , sending him by appointment , into a land not inhabited , that the sinnes and curse might not reside among Gods people , prophecied in Esa. 53.6 . Not onely the punishment of our sinnes , but our sins were made to meete vpon him , whether past , present , or to come : and the equall valew to all the wrath that they did deserue , he indured . 1. Tim. 2.6 . He his owne selfe bare our sinnes in his body to , or on the tree : 1. Pet. 2.24 . By his stripes or wailes we are healed , all haue sinned and are depriued of the glory of God , he that is Lord ouer all is rich vnto all that call vpon him . Be it ten thousand talents , fiue hundred or fiftie pence , he for Christ that hath ( as the suretie ) made satisfaction to the full , for the whole debt , counts it as if he had no wrong by vs , but that we are iust , cleare , not guilty , puts away his anger , loues vs freely : we neede not for feare , ( beleeuing in Christ ) paine and torment our soules in respect of punishment to come , for any sin or blasphemie committed . Verily I say vnto you all sinnes shall be forgiuen vnto the children of men , and blasphemies , wherewith they blaspheme . Christ appointed forgiuenesse of sinnes to be preached in his name without distinction of many or few , small or great . Thus Gods people are incouraged to follow the Lord , and to sett vpon reformation of sinners because there is hope in Israel for this . 1. Sam. 12.20 . 3. God inuites to his feast , sinners , of vilest sort , such as are as miserable in soule , as they be in body ; that by high waies and hedges , Church porches or any meetings to make their aduantage , shew and offer to pitie , faces gnawen , eyes , noses , and members eaten with rottennesse . Whosoeuer accepteth truely his inuitation , comes and eats of his prouision , is allowed , cleansed from all his sinne , cloathed with righteousnesse as a robe , and adorned with graces as with Iewels , Esay 61.10 . Luk. 15.21 . Reuel . 19.7 . Come receiue Christ , he shall cloath you and decke you vnto admiration . Who is shee , Cant. 6.9 . that comes out of the wildernesse to ioyne her selfe to her welbeloued ? Cant. 8.5 . Obiection III. Redemption is not vniuersall , in Gods purpose mercy is limited , Rom. 9.11.14 . according to his will is all the difference betweene them that are saued and them that perish , Math. 11. 25.26 . Christ came to doe the will of his father , in giuing eternall life to them that were giuen him . Iohn 6.37 . Hee gaue his life for his sheepe , Iohn 10.15 . dyed for the children of God scattered in all the world . Iohn 11.52 . But hee did not pray nor speake a good word for the world to his father , his sacrifice was the foundation of his intercession : they must needes therfore bee of one extent . How shal I know that Iesus Christ by the will of God gaue himselfe for mee , that I may stay vpon him ? Answer . First , Hee prayed for all , and therefore dyed for all that beleeue in him . Ioh. 17.20 . None come to him but whom his father drawes , he drawes none but whom hee had before giuen to him . Iohn 7.37 . Faith is peculiar to the elect . Iohn 10.26 . Acts 13.48 . Titus 1.1 . The election obtaines it . Romanes 11.7 . Beleeue , and you haue a cleare resolution , whereby you may say , he loued me and gaue himselfe for mee . Secondly , Suspition arising of a certaine preiudice without ground , inclining a man to the worst part , if it bee but towards a man , is sinne : for charitie thinks not euill , beleeues all things . 1. Cor. 13. To haue God in suspicion , when he cals me to receiue his grace in Christ Iesus , is much more sinfull , both for iniury to God , and hurt to my selfe . God hath prouided against such putting of stumbling blocks to a mans selfe . Esa. 56.3.5.7 . Whosoeuer loues the name of God and to be his seruant is assured of acceptance , and ioyfull experience thereof for person and seruice . The spirit of God makes no perswasion to a man of his reprobation , as he doth of his Election . Neither can it be gathered from sinne of nature , or Action internall , or externall . Where Christ is esteemed truely , the spirit of grace not dispited , if an Angel should pronounce your damnation , you should suspect him for a lying spirit . Or if you knew an Angel from heauen to say so much , that you shall bee damned , you are to beleeue him no further then vnder this condition , if you beleeue not in Christ Iesus and repent towards God ; the written word , in the true sense knowen , is to be rested in aboue the testimonie of an Angel from heauen . Galath . 1.6 . Thirdly , You haue inducements to beleeue , that thou ought not to neglect . You are borne holy ; 1. Cor. 1.14 . brought forth to God by the Church , Gods wife . Ezech. 16.20.21 . You are a child of the kingdome , Math. 8.12 . yours is the adoption , Rom. 9.4 . at least externally , as belonging to you . The couenant is propounded . Sacraments ministred , not onely as notes of profession but as testimonies of Gods good will in Christ. Men hauing written their couenants , sett their seales to them and deliuered them , they that deale with them vse to rest as secured , conceiuing they deale with wise , honest and able men . God hath written his couenant , set his seale to it , and by a minister authorized by him set you , as it were , in possession . If you reiect it not , not onely spirituall things , but the application of them is represented in the Sacraments : you are sprinkled with Sacramentall water , you haue giuen to you and receiue Sacramentall bread and wine , which by Gods appointment haue Sacramentall vnion with , and relation vnto the spirituall thing represented . It is such an obligation to faith , and consecration of a mans selfe to God , that if a man excite not his faith and yeeld himselfe , he shall account to God aboue others that neuer had these testimonies . Ezech. 20.37 . I will cause you to passe vnder the rod , and bring you into the bond of the couenant . Obiection . IIII. God will not cleare the guilty nor acquite the wicked : he ioynes perishing vnto impenitency : how shall I beleeue his promise of mercy to my pardon , that cannot cleare my conversion to my conscience . None can enter into the kingdome of heauen but borne of the spirit ; liuing after the flesh I shall die . I am commanded to let no man deceiue me with vaine words to secure me from such danger . Answere . These two questions are distinct & must not be confounded , what manner of persons they be that God admitts into heauen ? And what manner of person may receiue Christ , vnto iustification of life ? The answere to the first is , that God receiueth none into heauen but such as he hath made meete thereunto by iustification and sanctification in Christ Iesus . Col. 1.12 . 2 Thes. 1.11 . The Apostle praies for the Thessalonians , that God would make them meete for , or worthy of his calling of the high things in heauen vnto which hee called them by the Gospell , not that there is inherent dignitie in any man , but by imputation of the worthinesse of Christ , which is euer accompanied with sanctification , or Godly nature . The inheritance is vndefiled . 1. Pet. 1.4 . no vnrighteous person , nothing that is vncleane shall enter into it . Reu. 21. 27. Whosoeuer remaines in the full power of sin , working iniquitie , though he blesse himselfe in his heart , transforme God in his thoughts , deceiue himselfe in his imagination : he shall finde that God will not be mercifull to him . Deut. 29.19 . but set his sinnes in order before him , Psal. 50.21 . His religion is in vain , Iam. 1.26 . Without holinesse no man shall see God. Heb. 12.14 . The answere to the latter question is , whosoeuer finds his owne guiltinesse and death , euery burdened sinner hearing Christ propounded and the couenant of grace in him , may come receiue him with the promise of mercy , though when he heares the Gospell preached he be in a cleane contrary way to righteousnesse , Rom. 4.5 . He that worketh not , but beleeueth in him that iustifieth the vngodly , his faith shall be counted for righteousnesse . Faith possesseth the sinner of Christ and his righteousnesse , which God of his grace imputes to him : which is then as truely his own , as if he had wrought it himselfe , and so is not putatiuely iust as some blaspheming say , but truely and perfectly iust , and in that iustice worthy of heauen . Christs passions are his actions , Christs workes his merits by the vnion which by faith he hath with Christ. God cleares not the guiltie against order of iustice , his sin is translated frō him to Christ , in whom God finds him ; and Christs righteousnes to him : & receiuing in Christ full satisfactiō he holds him no longer guiltie , but is iust in the forgiuenesse of sins , and the sentence of righteousnesse pronounced vpon him , he receiueth right vnto life . Christ and the couenant in him is offered to vnregenerate men , who inabled by Gods spirit to performe the condition of the couenant , which is to beleeue in Christ , the promises conteined in the couenant are surely his , as a true heire of them . Galath . 3.29 . If ye be Christs , then Abrahams seed , and heires by promise . Regeneration is not the condition of the couenant but a promise conteined in it , which is receiued by faith in Christ in whom the beleeuer is a new creature , the workmanshippe of God , created vnto good workes . A man must not stay to beleeue till he finde regeneration and repentance towards God , the worke of it : but first beleeue that he may receiue in Christ the promise of the spirit vnto his new creation , or conuersion to God , which declares it selfe in outward workes . Christ is sent to blesse men in turning them from their iniquities . Act. 3.26 . Him God hath lifted vp with his right hand to bee a prince and Sauiour to giue repentance to Israel . Act. 5.31 . We are not to looke first to find repentance in our selues , and then come to Christ to obtaine forgiuenesse , but seeke both in him . As the woman beleeued first that shee should be healed touching the hemme of Christs garment , and vpon the touch felt in her selfe that she was healed ; so we feeling our loathsome disease of sinne , are to beleeue that we shall in Christ be healed comming to him , who healed all manner of diseases in them that sought to him , & after to seeke experience of his vertue in our soules . Childrē of the promise are such as are borne by faith of the promise , as Isaac was , when Sara was vnlikely to beare children as if shee had been dead . Heb. 11.11.12 . Gal. 4.28 . Offer violence to your vnbeleeuing nature , resolue , and bind your soule by vow , promise to God as Dauid doth to keepe his commandements : whereof this is not the least to beleeue in the name of his Son , and hold to your promise , think of the rebuke , you will not come to mee that you might haue life ; vnlesse you see signes and wonders you will not beleeue ; how it is that you haue no faith . Thinke of the praise of faith in such as without any experience vpon the hearing of the Gospel , when before they were great sinners , staying merely vpon the word of promise , whith by faith was neere vnto them , euen in their heart and mouth . Thus much of the second vse . 3 Vse . Seeing there is such danger in not beleeuing , when God promiseth , it requires our examination whether since wee heard the Gospell preached to vs , wee haue truely beleeued . Iames and Iohn disprooue some in their profession of faith by the want of vertue with it , to testifie of it . When men doe beleeue in Christ indeede , he makes them free , and God that knoweth their hearts , giueth testimony in fact of his accepting for iust by their faith , in giuing them the Holy Ghost . The Apostle Paul cals to examination of faith by experience of Christ in vs. 2. Cor. 13.5 . Obiection . I. This seemes not to bee by ordinary way attained , infallible knowledge that I doe sincerely beleeue in Christ , seeing there is a kinde of faith which alters men so as they escape the filthinesse of the world , yet it saues them not . How may I know the right kind . Answer . First , The exhortation had beene vaine , if they which beleeue could come to no certainety of faith in themselues , 2. Their profession ouer-bold that from sense professed that they did beleeue , and their comfort to bee suspected that reioyced that they did beleeue . Secondly , It is true , there bee diuerse kindes of faith , historicall , which hath some degrees ; ( temporary faith may be counted a higher degree of the historicall ) and iustifying faith : they differ in subiects , efficacie , and parts of nature . The historicall and temporarie faith , may bee in reprobates , as it was in Iudas , and Alexander the coppersmith , and such as hauing beene illuminated and tasted the word of God , fall totally and for euer away . Iustifying , or faith properly so called , is onely in the elect : the seate of that is onely the minde that assents to the truth and goodnes of the word . This is in the heart , receiuing Christ with his blessing , staying vpon him with affiance of heart for our whole felicitie . The temporarie faith receiues neither what should bee receiued , nor as it should , nor is effectuall in giuing out , as the sauing doth , by diuine vertue . Faith which is onely historicall , receiueth not Christ vnto vnion and communion : what it receiueth is neuer with an honest heart , it purifieth not the affections . Faith properly so called , receiueth Christ vnto vnion with the beleeuer . Iohn 6.56 . 2. Cor. 13.5 . Ephes. 5.30 . it receiues in Christ the gift of righteousnesse vnto iustification of life , Rom. 5.1.17 . reconciliation and safety from wrath for euer , Rom. 5.9 . adoption , to bee children of God , and coheires with Christ , Rom. 8. 16 , 17. the holy Ghost , vnto a new creation , vnto leading by counsell , motion , strength , warning , incouragement ; suppressing , crucifying , causing to dye the corrupt nature , lessening the force and fruits of it , Rom. 6.3 , 6. Ephes. 1.13 . Gal. 5.24 . and vnto entrance to God in prayer : the Spirit makes request for the Saints according to the will of God , Rom. 8.27 . Secondly , It workes towards God , according to the strength and measure of it , a quiet state of conscience , agreement of the new nature with Gods law vnto delight in it , consecration of our selues to God with loue to bee his seruants , confession of truth to his glorie , and commending of our soules into his hands , 2 Tim. 1.12 . Thirdly , To the beleeuer , according to the degree of it , it workes quiet dependance on God for prouision and protection , content and comfort in God in any condition , patience vnder Gods hand with delight in him . Psal. 73.25 , 26. Fourthly , Towards faithfull brethren , coniunction of soules and communion of gifts spirituall and temporall , with a brotherly kindnesse and loue edifying the body ; towards all men , loue , humanitie , iustice , equity , mercy and goodnesse euen to enemies . Fiftly , against the deuill , resistance , standing , victory , by the power of the Lords might . Eph. 6.16 . Thirdly , For parts of nature , temporary faith hath but two which the spirit workes ; knowledge , and appobation vnto some ioy in the word receiued : faith properly so called hath both them & an other as an essential degree aboue the other ; which distinguisheth it from the other in kinde , as sense distinguisheth the life of beasts from that of plants , that haue vegetatiue life but not sensitiue ; and reason the life of men from that of beasts , which haue sense common with man but not reason . And this part of faith which so formally & essentially differenceth it is application , or appropriation of Christ and the promise of mercie in him , which is called receiuing of Christ , and drinking his flesh and blood , putting him on : by this Christ dwels , and liueth in the beleeuer , ioyning him so to the Lord that he is one spirit with him . For want of this , the temporizer is an vnbeleeuer , in respect of true faith , a hidden infidel , such as Christ would not commit himself vnto . Ioh. 2.24 . Yet they are said to beleeue by reason of some materialls of faith : 2. for similitude in a chearefull profession of that Gospell : 3. In regard of some subiection to the word which open infidels cast away , yet differs from faith properly so called , as hypocritical from sincere , dead from liuely , generall from speciall , ineffectuall from effectuall , and transitory from abiding . Obiection . II. The things reuealed are sweete to them , they tast the word to be good , receiue it with ioy ; that seemes to implie application . Answere . By the light of God in their minde they see the kingdome of Christ to bee glorious , heauenly and aboue this world ; which many thought but earthly : they see their state for whom it is prepared to bee full of happinesse , Gods loue and good will therein of great admiration : they perceiue a possibility of obtaining this happinesse , which knowledge for the time delights them . Secondly , They perceiue sinne to be full of miserable vexation , know and feare a painefull sting in death , and hearing of a free and full deliuerance from these euils by Christ , they in some sort for a time submit themselues to the Gospell , forsake them which are wrapped in error , cease concerning act many grosse sinnes , and do many things commanded , and so are receiued in the charity of the Church as members : by which vanishing taste temporary and partiall reformation , with some common graces with the estimation of the Godly , they conceiue a rowling opinion that they shall bee saued , which for a while pleaseth them ; but is onely as the commotion of affections in a dreame . Thirdly , The spirit of God makes no preswasion of Gods loue to them , nor euer giues life to the seed which in sowing fel in such ground . It is saide to spring vp as corne in stonie ground or sowen among thornes that choke it , but it neuer is brought forward to that which God works in them whom he calls of his purpose . They are said onely to seeme to haue . Hence it is that they doe not so much ( setledly ) as purpose , desire , & indeuour to get that faith which is proper to the elect : 2. or striue ( of conscience of the commandements ) against doubts and feares to giue glory to God by beleeuing : 3. they are not iealous of the deceiuablenesse of their heart , they try not their state , with loue to be true , and to know they are of the truth . It is with them as with a man admitted into a rome , where a table is furnished with delicates ( for some chosen guests ) to see & tast of them , who is able to discerne the goodnesse of the things set forth , the good-will of the houshoulder to them that are bidden for whom they are prouided ; yet receiues them not so as they for whome they were intended . The true belieuer tasts the loue of God to him as a chosen guest in the delicats prouided for him , & by that taste is carried in desire to grow vp more in the grace that reioyceth him , praiseth Christ for that rest and sweetnesse he finds in in him , and comes with indeuour more and more to him , giuing himselfe to him as truely happie , in him his faith conquers , when the temporizers is ouercome , and he goeth back after Sathan . Obiection . III True faith giues a knowledge of Gods loue to him to whome it is giuen to beleeue . 1 Ioh. 4.16 . wee haue knowne and beleeued the loue of God towards vs. I finde not that knowledge of Gods speciall loue to me : can I haue faith and see none ? Answere . There may be faith in the soule that takes not notice of it ; God hides himselfe from them to whom he is a Sauiour . Christ told Thomas with the rest of the Disciples that they knew whether he went , and the way to come to him in their death : yet he said we know not whether thou goest , and how should wee know the way ? Christs words were true , they knew not their owne knowledge . So he promiseth when hee giueth his spirit more plentifully , they shall know ( by the effectuall working of it in them ) that hee is in them and they in him . Iohn 14.20 . Implying that yet they knew not that , as they should know it by experiment of faith . Faith may be implicite in respect of cleare knowledge of Gods fauour , euen after many yeeres soberly spent in Gods seruice . Secondly , Faith is for a time but in seed , not able to quiet the heart in knowledge of Gods loue , yet the reigne of vnbeleefe is destroyed : he that was carelesse of , or auerse from faith , now wills , loues , desires , labours to beleeue : the grace giuen hath disposed him to follow after it according to the commandement , Follow after faith . 1. Tim. 6.11 . The will is Gods worke . Phil. 2.13 . Vertues in will and act are the same in kinde , differing onely in degree , as in vice , lusting after a woman in heart vnlawfully is adultery in him that lusts , though it come not into act : coueting an other mans goods inordinately is theft , though he bee hindred from taking them . Thirdly , Lusting contrary to the flesh argueth the presence and working of Gods spirit ; Gal. 5.17 . in that the will of the flesh is not fulfilled but hindered . Desire of holy graces is an act of spirituall life , act argues facultie , and facultie being . Fourthly , Christ graciously receiues , & tenderly cherisheth the little ones , Zach. 13.7 . giuing charge against contempt , and therby offence of them , Math. 18.5.10 . incouraging men to receiue them as counting that in so doing he is receiued , when it is done in his name : hee calls on men to beare with the weak , to comfort the feeble minded , 1. Thes. 5.14 . he promiseth to binde vp the broken and to strengthen the weake , Ezech. 34.16 . to gather the lambes with his arme , & to carry them in his bosome , with tender regard of their weaknesse ; he giueth vnto him that fainteth , and vnto him that hath no strength he increaseth power ; Esa. 40.29 . hee quencheth not the smoaking flaxe , the bruised reed shall he not break , but of weake and small beginnings shall he bring forward his kingdome victoriously . Math. 12.20 . How did he respect the shaken Disciples , the two going Emmaus ? to whom hee ioyned himselfe , not without reproofe of their slownesse of heart to beleeue : yet to confirme their faith by opening the Scriptures vnto them , Luk. 24.32 . and the eleuen together , reproching them for their vnbeleefe , yet shewing his hands and his side , to the gladnesse of their hearts . Mar. 16.14 . Ioh. 20.20 . He crownes a gracious will where power want . Prou. 10.24 . Esa. 1.19 . 2 Cor. 8.12 . Fiftly , Though it bee giuen to some to know Gods loue to them with such sweete contentment as passeth pleasures of nature : Psal. 4.7 . and 63.5 . Cant. 1.3 . Yet it is not so with them at all times . Some that haue gloried in good , walking in the light of his countenance , made their songs of him , after haue oppressed with sorrow , their soules sore troubled , fainting within them , Ion. 2.7 . their heart failing them at the thought of the multitude of their sinnes , Psal. 40.12 . troubled in thought of God refusing comfort , in great temptation to despaire , vttering words sauouring of it , as if they forgat their seperation from them that perish : Esa. 6.5.7 . Psal. 31.22 . Lam. 3.18 . yet get victory at length . Obiection . IIII. Beleeuers purged by the blood of Christ , are without conscience of sinnes , Heb. 10.2 . know they are not guilty and are at rest in soule : I am sensible of guiltinesse with painefull feare ; how dwelleth then the faith in God in me ? Answere . First , Faith is but in iourney yet , and hath different degrees ; we reade or heare of weak & strong , little and great , as it increaseth it giues vs to know that wee haue no guiltie conscience . Secondly , God doth not ease the beleeuers of al their paine and feare at once , Dauid heard Nathan pronounce his absolution from his sinne in the name of God : 2. Sam. 12.13 . yet had not present freedome from conscience of sinne , as appeares , Psal. 51.7 . Maries loue testified her faith & forgiuenes of sins : yet was she afflicted in conscience , as appeares by her teares ; Christs absolution spoken to her face , thy sinnes be forgiuen thee , bidding her goe in peace . Luk. 7.48.50 . God accepts voluntary contrition for sinne , as it is offensiue to him ; it is founded in loue which argues faith begun . Psal. 34.18 . Psal. 51.17 . Esa. 57.15 . They must wait for the Lord that hideth his face , and looke for him . Thirdly it pleaseth God to quiet mens hearts by euidence of sanctification , somtimes , when they want sense of faith and iustification by it . 1. Ioh. 3.19 . As the naturall spirit comes not to any member but in connection to the head , so the spirit of sanctification is giuen to none but in their vnion to Christ. By that spirit we know he is in vs , and we in him : 1 Ioh. 3.24 . it is Gods seale and earnest , to assure his promise , something aboue a pledge in common vse : because the pledge is restored when the promise is fullfilled : an earnest is not restored but is made full according to the promise . Obiection . V. There is a righteousnesse not allowed in heauen which had loue from Christ , Mark. 10.21 . and something called sanctification which is no signe of true faith , because men fall away from it to greater sinfulnesse , then euer they had before , and their latter end is worse then their beginning : how may I then know that sanctification that infallibly testifieth of true faith ? Ans. 1. True holinesse is an effect of vnion with Christ , Heb. 2.11 . the vertue of his death and resurrection : Rom. 6.4 . Phil. 3.10 . Col. 2.11.12 . proceeds from election : Eph. 1.4 . and is an euidence to assure it vnto vs : 2. Thes. 2.13.2 . Pet. 1.10 . a beginning of glorification , which is brought forward vnto perfection of glory . Rom. 8.30 . 2. Cor. 3.18 . Therefore that from which men fall , and that morality which Christs example teacheth vs to loue , as a worke of Gods good prouidence to the preseruatiō of society , cannot be true sanctification , though sometime in a large sense so called for some materialls ; or because they seemed so to themselues deceiued in their imagination . Prou. 30.12 . Gal. 6.3 . They haue some kinde of dispositions towards grace , but it is not brought forward to sanctification : they onely seeme to haue . The world cannot receiue the spirit . Ioh. 14.17 . An honest heart whereby fruit is brought forth with patience is the note of a true beleeuer , resembled by the ground . Secondly , True righteousnesse in life , is such proofe of a man borne of God , and indeede righteous , as we are to rest in . 1 Ioh. 2.29 . & 3.7 . It differs from ciuill righteousnesse and seeming sanctification diuersly though they haue much of the matter in them : 1. in cause , extent , and end . 1. The next and immediate cause of a good worke is inherent righteousnesse infused from Christ , of whose fulnesse we all receiue grace for grace : it is not onely done in grace but by grace . 1 Cor. 15.10 . By the grace of God I am that I am , and his grace which is in mee was not in vaine , but I laboured , &c. not I but the grace of God which is with me , called liuing and walking in the spirit . They be actions of a supernaturall life begun , which wee haue in Christ by faith . Gal. 2.20 . That righteousnes which is not allowed in heauen , is produced by the flesh , of fleshly wisedome , which the Apostle opposes to the grace of God in guidance of conuersation : 2. Cor. 1.12 . it is by the prouidence of God , preseruing naturall light and conscience in some aboue others , and giuing to some light by his word and spirit , whereby corruption is held vnder for a time , that the heart cannot shew the naughtinesse that is in it , and they receiue some common graces which God governes to the producing of some good works for matter : but he neuer renewing the fountaines of actiō , the minde will , and affections , the worke proues in Gods sight corrupt by the disposition of the instrument , and no mixture of true goodnesse in the production , as there is none in in the instrument . They are as clouds without water , like comely members of a bodie that want a head to giue them life . God leads the beleeuers by his spirit into good workes , by gouerning the gracious habites infused , the godly nature into holy acts , hindered and corrupted indeed by the flesh concurring with the operations of grace in the same worke , that the best worke needs the sacrifice of Christ to make it accepted , the corrupt mixture pardoned . Yet their is some true goodnesse in it , and it is properly a good worke , by the production of the spirit exercising faith , hope , loue , zeale , feare of God , humility , and other graces . Secondly , True righteousnesse is a begun obedience to al the Law of God , by the seed of God abiding in the beleeuer wherby hee sinnes not , as the vnbeleeuer , nor can sinne . 1. Ioh. 3.9 . As disobedience was punisht with losse of originall righteousnesse , and vniuersal corruption of nature that man had all sin in seed : so by faith in Christ discharged of guilt thereof God giues againe originall iustice and all vertues in seed that are common to Christians . A little child shall lead him . Esay . 11.6 . because of his new creation and disposition to keepe Gods law which God hath put in his heart . False righteousnesse neuer deliuers vp a man to a full rule , and conscience of seueritie of right liuing ; it giueth not strife thereunto , it is with percialitie , reseruation either for persons , Math. 5.44 . times , Psal. 78.34.36 . or things , Mark. 6.26 . True righteousnes hath something singular , false righteousnesse is euer with reigning sinne : of which after . Thirdly , True righteousnesse is done to God in honour and obedience , to please and glorifie him , to adorne his doctrine , to iustifie profession , to prepare vnbeleeuers , to confirme and prouoke beleeuers by good example : in conscience of which the soule rests , when carnall men traduce the beleeuer and impute his worke sometime to madnesse , when it transcends their capacitie , sometimes to some peruerse affection , or bad counsells of heart . 2. Tim. 3.10 . Thou hast fully knowen my manner of liuing , purpose &c. 1. Cor. 4.5 . 2. Cor. 5.13.14 . False righteousnesse , as it s not wrought in God , so it is not done to him , but bends back vpon a mans selfe , Zach. 7.5.6 . either to auoid punishment , and get reward , it is seruile , and mercenarie , or to get praise , to be counted an honest man , fit to liue in a societie . To doe all in the name of Christ , Col. 3.17 . that God in all things may be glorified , 1. Cor. 10.31 . in ministring as of the abilitie that God ministereth , is of grace . It is the true loue of God that carrieth the heart in intention to God. To a good worke is required power , loue , and a sound minde which Christians receiue in measure . Loue is counted the fulfilling of the law , it produceth and directs the workes of the beleeuer to God in Christ , to whom he liues as the Lord of his life and death , Rom. 14.8 . Men vnconuerted are turned so away from God , that they cannot spiritually loue him . It may be as the God of nature , and author of benefits , which they seeke to haue and receiue , they loue him for their aduantage : but not as he is in himselfe soueraignely good , nor as they beleeue his loue to them in Christ. They may doe something not onely for temporall blessings , as Saul and Iehu , but with relation to eternall life as the young ruler that was so rich , Math. 19.16 . but liue not to magnifie Christ in their bodies which is peculiar to grace , Phi. 1.20 . Obiection . VI. Some that fall away seeme to be changed by the Gospell not onely outwardly but inwardly : how can I be then infallible certaine of the truth of my righteousnesse ? Answere . There change is the gift of some common graces , which Christ , as Lord , bestowes vpon them , but he neuer giues life to them as members of his body whereof he is head . They are made partakers of the holy Ghost , in some inferior working , but are not made new creatures , nor receiue grace accompanying saluation , as appeares by the opposition of these two , Their works proceede not from one and the same principle internall : the true beleeuers proceede from the new creature , faith working by loue , from the life of the spirit , which the other haue not . Consider a little the difference of the worke of God in the fountaines of action . First , the minde of a temporizer is not holy , though it be inlightened to know and acknowledg the truth . It is peculiar to beleeuers to be renewed in minde after the image of God : Col. 3.12 . They that beleeue not , haue mindes and consciences still defiled and not healed with the vnction from him that is holy . Which may appeare : 1. in that his knowledge of truth is not rooted in him , in time of temptation hee goeth away , and his light vanisheth ; so as that a greater darknesse commeth vpon him . If the light that is in thee be darknesse , how great is that darkenesse ? They goe backe after Satan the prince of darknes . For degree the deuill was said to be cast out , but repossesseth them againe ; so it is worse with them then before . Secondly , There minde not being sanctified , they soone are puft vp in their minde vnto vaine reasoning , which beget a false opinion : which hauing striuen for , they hardly forsake . They sometime fancy a lie which seemes wisedome to them to follow , though they send to inquire of God , as seeming to offer their minds to his direction to know what is best to doe . Ier. 42.3.5.20 . Surely ye dissembled , you were fully minded to go into Egypt whatsoeuer the Lord should say . They haue an inclination to vnrighteousnes , and meeting with deceiuers , are easily carried away , and that by the iust iudgement of God , whose the deceiuer and deceiued be , Iob. 12.16 . and makes the punishment of the master as the punishment of the Scholar . Mal. 2.12 . Thirdly , In that their knowledge is ineffectuall , they know not as they ought to know . 1. Cor. 8.2 . Not for their owne vse , which yet is required , Iob. 5.27 . Not what first and principally , what more earnestly to follow . It leaues them ignorant of themselues , so as they think themselues to be some thing , when they are nothing , are puft vp , Masterly , censorious not onely towards fraile man , but sometimes towards God himselfe , as , Mal. 3. verse 14. Their light shineth not effectually into their conscience , and so as to guid them , it is denied therefore the account of knowledge for the liuelesnesse of it . 2. Pet. 1.9 . 1. Ioh. 2.4.9 . Fourthly , their thoughts and deuises declare the fleshlinesse of their mindes , that which riseth naturally as the fruite of their minde is as an ill fauour out of a sinke , they minde things of the flesh , and when they take counsell and deliberate , it hath the same sauour with the roote , when they rowle some good thing in their heads , they corrupt and defile it , the diuell also whose power is yet in their minde , puts ill thoughts into them , as his first borne , and his breath to blow vp the fire of fleshly lusts , vnto which they so attend , as they forget God , his properties , works and wayes , and walke in the sparkes of their fire that they haue kindled , Isa. 50.11 . But the true beleeuer is not so . First his knowledge is an abiding light , shining constantly till hee come to life , called for that the light of life , Iohn 8.12 . He is taught of God , so as hee declines not from his statutes . Psal. 119 , 102. Because he taught him , hee cannot beleeue otherwise then hee hath receiued , though false teachers confirme their doctrine with signes and wonders . Matthew 24.24 . They will not heare a stranger , specially in fundamentall doctrine , they know not his voyce , Iohn 10.8 . 1 Ioh. 4.4 . They know by an holy annointing abiding in them the truth , and that no lye is of the truth , 1 Ioh. 2.27 . and discerne the particular lye , vsing such meanes and helps as God affords them . They be tempted & troubled with the temptation , but are alwayes with God , and ouercome the temptation , and returne to their minde with confirmation , knowing whom they haue beleeued , Psal. 73.2 , 23. Gal. 5.10 . Secondly , Though they may erre in many things because sight is not perfected at once , it is with some darkenesse as it were in the dawning betweene light and darkenesse , yet not in full darkenesse true light hath shined to them , and they see though with many fancies , as hee who at the first touch of his eyes saw men walke , but as trees , not in their perfect lineaments till Christ set to the cure againe , then he saw cleerely ; hence comes such diuersitie of iudgements among learned and good men : yet truth beeing propounded to them and defended by others , they haue a gracious aptnesse to yeeld to it when they see it . Esay 11.6 . A little child shall leade them . Iames 3.17 . The wisedome from aboue is tractable ; they offer sincerely their emptied minds vnto Christ that he may fill them with a frame of truth : so renouncing the wisedome of the flesh , they allow their wits no liberty but in God ▪ The eare tastes words as the palate doth meate , Iob 12.11 . 1 Cor. 14.37 , 38. Heresies in the Church manifest the approoued . 1 Cor. 11.19 . As Aegles to the carcase , by proper sagacity , so are they gathered to the truth concerning Christ , Luke 17.37 . Thirdly , their knowledge is effectuall , life eternall is begun , continued , and consummate in it , Iohn 17.8.12 . For Gods teaching is such as the effect followes . Iohn 6.45 . Euery man that hath heard , and hath learned of the Father , commeth to mee . These are together , 1. knowledge of him , 2. beeing in him , 3. loue of him , 4. and keeping his word , 1 Iohn 2.3 , 5. They by this light see God , specially as hee is reuealed in Christ , Ephes. 3.18 , 19. They see themselues in the very secret chambers of their hearts for defects , contrarietie to Gods law inwardly ; whence hindering of good and furthering of euill comes , admire the rich and abounding loue and grace of God in Christ , 1 Tim. 1.14 . confessing their owne vnworthinesse , haue meane thoughts of themselues , compared to God , compared to Saints : and shew by good conuersation their workes in meekenesse of wisedome . They be called the meeke of the earth , that doe Gods iudgements . Fourthly , The thoughts of the iust are right , Prou. 12.5 . their renued minde giueth disposition thereunto , and they are as fruits brought forth to God by the vertue of Christ ; specially as the spirit breaths obedience , and gouernes them to deuise good things Isaiah 32.8 . They not onely haue a good treasure in their hearts , whence good thoughts are brought forth , but they forme their thoughts vnto good minding , with studie and carefull thought how to do acceptably , pray for pleasing meditations , and labour to keepe their thoughts in an order , to serue God with their thought . Secondly , The conscience of a temporizer , whether you consider quiet , or troubled , differs much from the beleeuers , in the execution of the function ; because the beleeuer hath some holinesse restored to his conscience , which none can haue but in Christ , who haue learned him , and haue beene taught as the truth is in Christ Iesus , to put off the old man , and to put on the newe , Ephes. 4.22 . 1. The cause of quietnesse . 2. the effects . 3. the continuance , difference it . First , The quietnesse of an vnbeleeuer , or that beleeues not , ( so as it may properly bee called faith ) is vpon mistaken grounds , as that his faith giues him right in the Couenant which God hath made to all that truely receiue Christ , whose merit is the foundation of the couenant , it is infalliblie true in the proposition , whosoeuer hath his Sonne hath life , to as many as receiued him he gaue this dignity , to be the children of God , but it is false in the assumption , I beleeue in Christ and receiue him . So in the point of sanctification , deceiued with shew , when he hath not the truth , he rests vpon the promise made to the sanctified , but falsely assumed to him : as before . Secondly , Or it is by a wilfull presumption of finding God peaceable towards him , against the expresse words of the curse , trusting in a lying word , wherein sometimes they are strengthened by false teachers , that giue life to them that should not liue . Thirdly , Or by not stirring of corruptions , slumbering in error without sense . By ignorance of the law I was a liue without the law , but when the commandement came sin reuiued , and I died . Fourthly , By earthing themselues , as it were in a caue of forgetfulnesse of God , and their own estate ; diuerting their thoughts to other things , not considering that he remembers all their sinnes and that they shall come to iudgement . Fiftly , Oppressing their conscience with false reasonings they take euill for good , good for euill , & lye vnder the woe denounced against it without feare . Secondly it giues no true comfort in God as reconciled , no delight in him Iob. 27.10 . it is not renewed vnto that righteousnesse which was lost , holds not to vniuersall obedience , but suffers to liue in some sinne knowen consciencelesly , it witnes not , nor holds a man vnto , right manner and end of actions with due circumstances , but onely excuseth the worke done , as Iehu did when he said to Iehonadab the Sonne of Rachab come with me and see the zeale that I haue for the Lord. He was caried with a great will to the fact , but not with pure intention , but to make himselfe sure of the kingdome : as the young mans conscience witnessed , all these haue I kept ; when for right manner and end he had kept none of them . Thirdly , The peace it hath cōtinueth not . When God enterrupteth his presumption , opening his conscience to notice his working of iniquitie , in the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowfull and like Balteshar at the fight of a hand writing vpon the wall he is filled with terror , and his false confidence destroied , there shall be only feare to make them vnderstand the hearing . Esa. 28.19 . First , The quietnesse of a true beleeuers conscience is caused by resting on Christ , to the sprinkling of it with his blood , as the blood of attonement for all his sinnes ; so particularly for those that doe specially lye vpon the conscience , both for present peace with God , and safety from wrath for euer hereafter , through Christs aduocation and intercession , appearing in heauen for him . It is also strengthed by experience of Gods good will , Rom. 5.4 . Psal. 41.11 , 12. and by euidence of sanctification , in the dying of the root of all sinnes by degrees , lessening the force and fruits of sinne , in the life of the spirit gouerning the soul by exercise of holy graces planted in it , to bring glory to the name of God by good workes and labours of loue , Heb. 13.18 . 1 Ioh. 3.19 . with faith of Christian liberty , and particularly of freedome from the rigor of the law , that God accepts in Christ a begun obedience though it be imperfect . Secondly , For effects , it works comfort in God , reioycing in him because of the attonement , Rom. 5.11 . free enterance into his presence with our lawful suits , Heb. 10.22 . with a holy shame for sinnes though forgiuen , Ezech. 16.63 . witnessing the loue of Christ to vs , it holds to his word , to liue no more to our selues but to him ; it hath the authoritie of God in such respect that it cannot in any knowne law cast it out with despising the commandement , giuen to vs though in lesser matters : & therfore makes vs striue against sinne and maintaine a close fight with it , and not onely holds vs to trauaile of soule for inward mortification , but to hold on in good duties when wee suffer euill for the Lords sake . It encourageth in wel-doing not onely for matter , but for intention , against imputations of hypocrisie and vanitie . Iob. 27.4.5.6 . 2 Cor. 1.12 . The peace it giues keeps the minde and heart in Christ Iesus . Phil. 4.7 . Thirdly , For continuance , it is a neuer failing feast ; it may be interrupted , by desertion , temptation , falls , but it remaines in cause , and returnes at length . 2 Sam. 23.9 . The troubled conscience of the vnbeleeuer , or vaine beleeuer , and the troubled conscience of a true , though not perfect beleeuer are differenced in cause , measure and effects . First , The vaine beleeuers trouble is of the spirit of bondage causing feare and disquietnesse . Rom. 8.15 . He is amazed at his owne brutishnesse rebuked for sin , whereof the conscience is witnesse , by apprehension onely of misery following it . Prou. 5.12.13.14 . Secondly , For measure , the conscience of an vnbeleeuer accuseth too sorely , hiding away the Gospell ; and so without hope , greife wholly possesseth the hart , without strife against it , as sinfull ; vrgeth not to faith and repentance truely : hee affects deliuerance and sometimes complaines of God for the greatnesse of his punishment , as they doe in hell , with indignation gnashing their teeth , despairing vtterly as Iudas . For the spirit hauing opened their conscience to see their sins and Gods wrath , with sense of guiltienesse , leaues them in terrors , and mooues them not to go to Christ. So through their own corruptiō they bring forth desperate sorrow , a fearefull effect of their desperate sinning , who answere such as exhort them to repentance , There is no hope , I haue loued strangers and them will I follow ; Ier. 2.25 . to whom God may iustly say this shall ye haue at my hands , yee shall lye down in sorrow . Esa. 50.11 . Thirdly , it makes a man shunne God , as Adam vpon his fall , as the deuils did Christ as their tormentor , it makes a man flee the stroke of the word in a sincere ministerie , it hates the light Ioh. 3.20 . as Ahab said of Michaiah , whom he confessed a prophet of the Lord , I hate him , as Herod did Iohn . First , The troubled conscience of the true beleeuer is from the Spirit of grace sanctifying the conscience vnto some rightnesse , in performing this function , in accusing and disquieting to his good , though not without some mixture of the flesh , it troubles for sinne , as of enmitie against God , offensiue to him , and causing wrath , whereby the sinner is detestable to himselfe , doing things so vnworthy . He cannot liue vnder Gods displeasure . Secondly , for measure , this vnquietnesse is not full , because hee is not without some measure of faith in Christ , to the purging of his conscience from guiltinesse and filthines of sinne ; though , it may be , he seeth no faith in his owne heart . His conscience telleth him hee ought to beleeue because of Gods commandemēt , he valueth faith highly , and seekes it of God constantly , with mourning for his vnbeleefe ; he calles vpon his heart to trust in God , as not without hope , though languishing , not without loue whereby hee cleaues to God , seeking his fauour and the light of his countenance , specially , be he in prosperity or aduersity . Thirdly for effects , it makes the beleeuer to beare punishment vpon him , whether from God , Lament . 3.28 , 29. putting his mouth in the dust , hee opens not his mouth against God , Ezech. 16.63 . It maketh him to feare sin to come , and suffers him not to continue in knowne sinnes , it workes him to readinesse to forgiue men , because hee needes pardon and seekes it . He welcomes the ministerie , wounding and healing , and striueth to remember God in his waies , promising with purpose of heart to sing ioyfully of Gods righteousnesse , when he opens his mouth . Or from men : of which after ; whether from law and iustice , or from wrong dealing . Thirdly , the will of an vnbeleeuer ( of which a worke is specially good or bad , and so accounted of God ) is not made free from spirituall bondage : a man is counted good or euill of his will. It is the comfort of a strong christian , that he findes the worke of God in his will for delight to doe that which God requires , with present and working will , not altogether ineffectuall . The new heart is peculiar to them whom God hath receiued in Christ. Ezech. 36.26 . To haue the stonie heart taken away and to receiue a heart of flesh . Godly desires are peculiar to godly men who are carried by Gods Spirit , which they alledge to him as his owne worke , who giues to will , Nehemiah 1.11 . Esay 20.8 . graciously hearing and fulfilling them . Psal. 10.17 . Prou. 10.24 . It qualifieth a worke vnto acceptation and reward , that it was not onely done , but willed , 1 Cor. 9.17 . 2 Cor. 8.10 . Men not in Christ by a true faith , are said to be dead in sinne and their works dead , their Will is not free then to any spirituall work , death depriues not onely of action but facultie . They are said to serue sinne , if their will be in a full bondage they are not free , all that are not freed by Christ remaine in spirituall bondage to sinne , they must be in him whom he freeth , and that is by a true faith ; they are gouerned by the prouidence to some workes that are good for their matter , but in them they are intrinsecally guilty , they haue no will to obey & honour the Lord , therein they proceed not from an inward frame of goodnesse , and conformitie of heart to Gods law , their will is worse then their deed , they receiue the Gospell , but not with an honest heart , purely for it selfe , but with corrupt respect . They forbeare some sins but not for loue of God , and that they haue chosen Gods law , whereof sin is a violation , their will is not turned against it out of any inherent holines contrary to it , but as contemned by light of the minde as reprochfull for one that professeth true religion , or some way daungerous , as appeares by their partialitie in the law . Iam. 2.4 . The true beleeuer is by the spirit of Ghrist in part , truely and for euer freed in his will from the spirituall bondage and seruitude of corruption , and his libertie is brought forward by degrees . The change is by a supernaturall worke , as if a stone which a hundred times forced vpward falls downe againe should haue a new inclination put into it , the change were aboue nature . But now the inclination is naturall , so in this worke of God in taking away the stonie heart and giuing the will a new inclination , the diuine power hauing made this alteration by infusion of grace and holinesse into it ; the action of it , in willing to belieue to be iustified , to be healed in nature of the sinfulnesse perceiued , to be quickened vnto good workes , to doe them more spiritually , is naturall and free , by reason of the godly nature . Search your selfe according to this difference in minde conscience and will , and be a true witnesse of the worke of God in you . Obiection . VII . I find such corruption in my minde , conscience , and Will especially , that I feare I am vnder the dominion of sinne , not onely hauing damnable matter in me , ( from which Gods children be not free ) but damning , for sinne reignes vnto death . Answere . First , If you desire healing of your nature , grone in desire to grace , perceiue your fowlenesse vnto a lothing of your selfe , feare not , sinne hath not dominion ouer you . True grace and sense of sinne may be together in a true beleeuer , who by new light perceiueth what is sinne , by renewed selfe-loue more impartially iudge themselues and their doings , by spirituall life feel that which they that are blind & dead , in whom self loue is fully corrupted , neither see nor feel . Prou. 30.2.3 . Rom. 7.24 . That wee see , abhorre , confesse , lament as our exceeding miserie , sinne dwelling & working in vs , hindering the good wee would , corrupting our best workes , carrying vs to hated euill . That we earnestly desire deliuerance frō this bondage . That we may do Gods will in earth as it is done in heauen . No measure that is ioyned with imperfection satisfieth vs : but we contend further , that we indeuour our selues to get more grace and the exercise of it , apply our hearts to fulfill Gods statutes , bid battell to all vices , purge our selues , imbrace crosses as meanes of mortification and profit in holinesse , loue a wise reprouer , beare malicious reproofes , and that we rest not in aliuelesse conformity in the externall action to Gods law , it is of the grace of God giuen vs in Christ Iesus , Rom. 7.14.15.24 . Phil. 3.13.14 . 1 Chro. 28.7.9 . Hos. 6.3 . Psal. 119.101 . 1 Ioh. 3.3 . Heb 12.7.10.11 . Prou. 25.12 . 2 Sam. 26.10.12 . Psal. 119.93 . For sinnes past , 1. That we voluntarily remember them to afflict our selues , taking greife and shame for offending of God. 2. That we willingly beare the punishment of them , loathing our selues for our deeds that were not good , hold our selues wholly damnable , open not our mouth in defence or extenuation , but confesse our selues vile to Gods glory , with indignation , at our follie and brutishnesse : 3. that by rememberance of our seruice of such hatefull and now hated sinnes , wee keepe our selues from our iniquitie and prouoke our selues to the study of innocencie , that we are carried to labour in Gods worke with greater impulsion of loue , considering Christs loue dying for vs , Gods loue giuing him for vs , and forgiuing so great debt : 4. that we are humble , modest in opinion and speech of our selues , whatsoeuer graces we haue receiued , that considering our change by the grace of God , we bee humane , compassionate toward sinners , louing to make them iust , waiting for their repentance , deuouring indignities from them in hope and desire , that they which are such as we were , may be such as we are , by the grace of God , louingly and gladly receiuing them repenting , is of grace , Esay 54.6.7 . Ezech. 16.63 . Leu. 26.42 . 2 Sam. 15.26 . Mich. 7.9 . Iob. 42.6 . Psal. 73.22 . Psal. 18.23 . 1. Pet. 4.2.3 . 1 Cor. 15.9.10 . 2. Cor. 5.14 . Eph. 3.8 . 2 Tim. 2.24.25 . Tit. 3.3 . It is a token that is pacified , is moued in his bowels towards vs as his deare children ; Ier. 31.20 . will meete vs with tokens of peace and loue , Luk. 15.20.23 . and defend vs as now deliuered from our sinnes not being that wee were , being that we were not : Luk. 7.44 . and iustifie the ioy of good men in our returning from death to life . Luk. 15.31 . Secondly , Where sinne reigns , the man is but flesh , merely carnall , Gen. 6.3 . Ioh. 3.6 . distitute of the spirit , Iud. v. 19. in the full power of sinne . Rom. 7.5 . wholly replenished with it , & as it were buried in it . If the Spirit of Christ be in you , it freeth you from the law and force of sinne , and the hurt of death . You are not in the flesh , but in the Spirit ; for the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you , Rom. 8.2 , 9. Though you haue and shew forth much more corruption in affection and manners then many other christians doe , yet the new man liueth in you as a babe . 1 Cor. 3.1 . infirme and feeble to keepe the olde man vnder , and to bring forth the actions of a christian . And because of the seede of God in you ( though in comparison of stronger christians you may bee counted carnall ) yet compared with meere carnall men , you are spirituall , you are not wholly carried by the desires of the flesh as they , but contrary lusts striue in you to destroy one another , Galath . 5. verse . 5.17 . The perfectest Christian in this life compared with the spiritualnesse of Gods Law , may well ▪ pronounce himselfe carnall . Neither nature nor action is fully conformable to it , but though there bee much in him contrary to the Law , yet the roote of the matter is in him . Iob 19.28 . You should say why doe wee persecute him , seeing the roote of the matter is in him . Where sinne raignes , temptations fill the heart , Actes 5.3 . Satan possesseth the sinner in peace , Luk. 11.21 . who pampers his lust , and makes the motion of it his full contentment : hee will doe the desires of the deuil , who leades him with an inward efficacie , without any true resistance of his : hee liues and walkes in sinne , Coloss. 3.7 . lyeth in wickednesse , hee leades his life according to corrupt nature , though he haue materials of righteousnes , and be held back by Gods prouidence from some grosse act of sinne , as Genes . 20.6 . I kept thee also that thou shouldest not sinne against mee : therefore I suffered thee not to touch her . Yet neither is their heart sound in Gods statutes , nor indeede desires to bee : they haue no study of pietie raigning in them . When God regenerates a man , he makes him willing to bee regenerate , which is in time together with regeneration ; in order of nature the soule is healed before the desire , but the desire is first known to vs : wee see the effects which leade vs to the causes , as the morning light before the morning Sunne , yet wee know the light is from the Sunne drawing neere to be reuealed . Euen wants of righteousnesse note sinne to raigne , where a man feares not , repents not sinne in generall , with desire of an vniuersal cleannesse from sinne , secret or knowne to him , when sinne generally in nature , action , manner of producing actions with griefe to defile Gods worke , is not in some measure laboured against of conscience towards God , and pardon sought in Christ vnto rest in that blood of attonement , it is an vncomfortable state . Purging a mans selfe , is a note of a vessell of honour , opposed to the committing , so to the raigne of sinne . Raigne of it , is expressed by obeying it in the lusts of it ; His seruants yee are to whom yee obey . Rom. 6.16 , 17. Obedience subiects a man voluntarily ; yee haue obeyed from the heart , you were the seruants of sinne . The true beleeuer , detests so the Deuils motions , vpon the sudden iniection sometimes , that he is without taint of sinne by them : yet it is an affliction , with victorie , as it was with our Sauiour tempted by the Deuill , to whom God sent Angels for his comfort ; yet our corruption considered , it is a rare thing . Sometimes he is drawen aside , and inticed vnto consent , with a contrary will , sometimes deliberate , sometimes sudden : but he cannot bee brought vnder the raigne of sinne , yet vnto actes of sinne . For Christ keepes his possession , the seed of God abides in them , the Law is in their heart , they serue it with their minde , though sinne with their flesh . Rom. 7.25 . The spirit is willing , the flesh makes weake ; they haue onely good of their desires . Prou. 11.23 . God pardons , what they allow not themselues in , but hate , yet doe it : hee rewards the good , as the fruite of his owne Spirit , brought foorth to him in Christ. Their will is better then their deede , they please God , though not themselues , desiring more grace to serue him acceptablie . Doe you not by a will freed , sollicite the vnderstanding to discerne , and with iudgement truely determining , to commaund right things ? Seeke you not for more light of minde , and holinesse of iudgement , for the guiding of your way ? Doe you not desire rightnesse to your conscience , soundnesse of heart in Gods Statutes ? Could you not cast away righteous men , but in that name receiue them , were it not for loue of righteousnesse ? Doe you seeke to further Gods worke , by Ministers of righteousnesse , because they worke the worke of the Lord , and turne the disobedient to the wisedome of iust men ? Leaue you not the reignes corruption , but are held with a bridle of righteousnesse to serue it ? Doeth the feare of God , though sometimes driuen from its station , yet dwell as controuller in your soule , recouer the station , represse the refractarie thoughts & affections , sway your heart against the naturall motion , that you may keepe Gods Word , make you cease from your owne workes , with desire that God may worke his in you , that the leading of you ( though you be interlaced with the flesh ) you giue to the holy Ghost , louing that hee may haue the principalitie in you , praying for the holy Ghost principally ? ( of which after in the examination of prayer . ) Ponder you with care and delight to finde willingly , and setledly to follow things of the spirit ? Attend you your selfe , concerning spiritual being ? Greiue you inwardly , for that which the flesh doeth outwardly or within : not loosing , but vsing loue to God , in resisting sinfull motions ? it is not your working , but suffering of sinne . Charitie may bee in some sinnes astonished , but not abolished ; as a souldier , with a great blow on his head , may lie as liuelesse , yet his will to fight against the enemie remaines ; hee recouereth and seekes for his shield , and returneth to fight with increased resolution . The exercise of grace in thoughts , deuisings , purposes , desires , indeuours , which proceede from the spirituall part , haue promise of life and peace . Rom. 8.6 . They bee of regeneration , which is glorification begun ; in which men proceede by the Spirit of the Lord , from glory to glory . Obiection . VIII . Some wicked men are at some strife with themselues before they sinne , as Herod , and confesse their folly and guiltinesse after sinne done , sometimes with teares , as Saul : how shall I know , I haue true freedome from the raigne of sinne ; they doe the sinne which they sticke at , and returne to the sinne which they confesse , and weepe at the notice of ; I doing so in some particulars , what difference betweene me , and a foole returning to his folly ? Answere . First , in the strife before sinne , the difference is in the extent of matter : Secondly , in the motions , or principle whereout it proceedes : Thirdly , in the issue . For matter , the vnbeleeuers strife is commonly but in some more grosse euill , that makes one infamous amongst men : as Herods strife , about breaking his oath to the losse of his credit , with them that sate at table with him ; or to do a worke condemned by the light of his minde , in putting to death an innocent man , whose iustice triumphed in his conscience . He liued in other sins ( as may appeare ) without strife . The true beleeuer , as he hath receiued commandement not to sinne , hee striues to obey it , and so liues in a contention against himselfe , in minde , will , affections , about the body of righteousnesse deliuered in the law ; labouring to dead the very roote of all sinne , that his corrupt nature may bee more barren , and lesse rebellion in him against God , where man can take no motiue of it . This is implied in that prayer , Take from me the way of lying , and grant me graciously thy law , let no iniquitie haue dominion ouer mee , let my heart bee sound in thy statutes ; in that promise , I will runne the way of thy commandements , when thou shalt inlarge my heart : when it shall bee larger to receiue grace , and more free and willing to obey ; thus are they said to seeke Gods precepts , because they haue giuen themselues to God , and their members instruments of righteousnesse , they applie themselues to fulfill Gods Statutes ; and it is their comfort , that their conscience beares them witnesse of this care and strife , for the vniuersall righteousnesse of the law , as it concernes them . I will walke at libertie ( casting out tormenting feares , enioying a quiet rest and comfort in conscience ) for I seeke thy precepts . Verse 45. I with my minde serue the Law of God. Rom. 7.25 . The wicked are said to forsake the law , to depart from Gods Statutes , and therefore saluation to bee farre from them because they seeke them not , and to bee taken away as drosse . Psalme 119.155.119 . For motiues . As the strife is betweene a fleshly mind , and sensualitie , that informing the conscience , that the thing to be done is pernicious , and against ciuill behauiour , this wilfully egging him on to satisfie vnregenerate humour : So the arguments to hold backe the will from consenting to the act , are taken from feare , either of danger in the world or damnation in hell , or shame , and reproch , or some fleshly respect , which sometimes though they hinder the act yet not the desire , that in loue to sinne , they deuise vaine reasons and pretexts , and draw iniquitie with cords of vanity , inducing thēselues to false conceits : which concluding that they fancie , are to them strong to draw on sinne as cartropes to draw weights . They do not abhorre euill . Psal. 36.4 . And though a man haue a right iudgement for matter of good and euill , and his choise be according to his iudgement , his practise according to his choise ; if he hate not the euill which he forbeares , or loue not the good which he doth , hee is guilty within , how soeuer his out-side be . Thus Christian rigteousnesse is noted , Heb. 1.8.9 . The sceper of thy kingdome is a scepter of righteousnesse , thou hast loued righteousnesse and hated iniquitie . That which moues strife against sin in the beleeuer is the will of the spirit against the will of the flesh , with loue to God , to Christ , to Gods law , by the inherent holinesse agreeing with Gods Law , so the commandement is not greiuous , but obedience to it is chearfull and delightsome , thereby it setts it selfe against the corruption of it self : thus Dauid , I haue refrained my feet from euery euill way that I may keepe thy word , the strife was from the loue of the word of God , and so from the loue of God to obey and please him . Thirdly , The vnbeleeuer though he escape for some time the filthinesse of the world , he is intangled againe and ouercome , and come vnder a stronger bondage then before , obstinated in euill . 2. Pet. 2.20 . The true beleeuer striues in the strength of God , faith possessing him of Gods power , pointing him to Christs suffering in the flesh , armes him , 1. Pet. 1.5 . & 4.1 , that though in some particular he receiue the foile , yet his will is not wonne from righteousnes , he fights againe for his owne freedome , and is inuincible , thanking the Lord for his helpe , he holds on his way , & grows stronger & stronger , as did the kingdome of Dauid against the house of Saul , which became weaker and weaker . They by the allurement of temptations may sinne sometime against their light and conscience , as Dauid by violence of lust , captiued of the flesh as gotten into the power of it in that particular , the conscience brought a-sleep , the soule doting for a time vpon the deuise of the flesh , and a while lieth in a kinde of liking of the sinfull motion concerning the carnall part in the soule : now grace is driuen as it were from her station , and lyeth in weak and disseuered desires , yet without purpose to continue in and heape vp sin . But God will send new succour from heauen to ioyne to that weak grace remaining : then conscience awakes , the will is excited , downe goeth the power of the flesh , the heart is affectioned to Christ. This may appeare in the temptation of the Church , as she confesseth all the matter , Cant. 5.2 . I sleep but my heart waketh , &c. Yea it may fall out , that after victories , they may in some particular be brought backe to repented sinnes , which increaseth the fault , in that being healed they sinne again , it endangers to greater paine for their cure . Thirdly , It weakens grace that it giues not that helpe as before to the meanes vsed , as it is with nature made weaker by relapses into bodily disease . As frequent acts of vertue strengthen the habite : so by more acts contrary to it , it is weakened . Yet thus may it fall out in this strife of flesh and spirit : the diuell though resisted flees from vs , yet will returne againe with new assaults , and not alwaies tempt to other sins but many times to the selfe same that we haue repented , if God see it good to leaue vs and not confirme our wills in the strife . A good man may be brought vnder again in the same sin as Ionas that after his repentance of flying away from his worke at Niniue stands to iustifie it , and defiled his praier with it . Ion. 4.2 . He praied vnto the Lord and said I pray the O Lord was not this may saying when I was yet in my country and therefore I preuented it to flee to Tarshish ? As in anger grace giues an inclination against the inordination of it , yet vpon occasions it will preuaile , it was mortified without question in Dauid , as other sinnes in root ; yet find how Nabals churlishnesse stirred it to resolue vpon reueng vnto blood , so may it be in some other sinne with which a man is specially left to wrestle . Yet where resolution is to keepe the law of God , continued strife to performe the resolution , hope of sufficient grace to abide with him , not to be brought any more vnder dominion of sinne , mourning with many a low sigh for such a sinfull disposition , seeking newnesse of heart , walking constantly with God in other duties , hatred , after falls renewed , yea increased , argueth clearely that grace is present , sinne reignes not , the will is on Gods side truly , though weakly . Fourthly , God will not be lesse mercifull then he commanded vs to be , hee requires vs to forgiue men that repent seuen times in a day , seuenty times seuen times ▪ Math. 18.22 . The after griefe of hypocrites is not for Gods offence but for their owne distresse , either feared in the threatning as Achabs , or felt as in Esau weeping for the lost blessing , or ●t the best in the triumph of vertue ouer vice in their cōscience , as Dauids innocencie compared by Saul with his wrongs to him did draw teares from him , conuinced in his heart that God was with Dauid : but without turning to God , it workes not repentance vnto saluatiō . The true belieuer sorroweth of loue to God whom it greiues him to haue offended , his teares are dropped downe to God. Iob. 16.20 . the sorrowfull water that hee drawes he powers it forth before the Lord , 1. Sam. 7.6 . he repents towards God and weeping inquires the way to Sion with his face thitherward , renewing his couenant , Ier. 50.4.5 . You finding then you haue a constant will to bee healed in nature , to beleeue repent , and doe spirituall workes in such a manner as God may be pleased , that in doing good things you are carried with inward inclination as agreeable to your nature , the new creature delighting in it , purely for the holinesse and goodnesse of the law so commanding , that you ly not drowned in naturall sinfulnesse as one lyeth drowned in the water , but haue sin in you , out of the full power whereof you are gotten , as one gotten out of the water hath yet water in him , and labour to draine out your corruption through the holinesse in your will set against it , desiring to follow that will which resists the will of the flesh . That your will is better then your deed , feare not : you are so led by the spirit , as that you giue not your selfe as a seruant to sinne to obey and fulfill it in the lusts of it . As many as are led by the spirit of God they are the children of God. His leading frees not here from all sinne , but enlightening the mind and applying to cōsider things to be done or to be auoided , and by working vpon habits of grace infused , it excites the renewed will and confirmes it , and as he sees God either preserues it from , or giues strength in temptation , though not alwaies to euery duty , nor to auoid euery sinne , yet to hold a course in goodnesse to the end , and to preserue from dominion of sin , that in general you make no declinatiō from God though in many things you sin . He that said his sinnes were more then the haires of his head , said also I haue not declinēd from thy statutes . Obiection . IX . True grace will grow and he brought forward : I finde it not so in me , and therefore feare I haue none Answere . Grace is small in the beginning and is scarce perceiued but by will and desire to haue it , and that some goodnesse God takes notice of . Grace in the beginnings of it is resembled to the light before we see the Sunne , that light wee know is from the Sunne : to corne in the seed which first dieth , then is quickened , and after appeares in a blade , the husbandman knowes not how . Mar. 4.27 . Growth is , where it is , not sensible till after sometime . You must consider growth diuersly . 1. In parts of sanctification , which though all be infused in seed , yet they are brought to appeare by diligence . 2 Pet. 1.5 . Adde to your faith vertue , &c. some vertues are hardlier produced then other , yet by exercise become easie , we are commanded to learne to doe well . Esa. 1.17 . Secondly , In degrees of the same parts . 1 Thes. 4.10 . so we are required to cloth our selues , adorne and arme as with putting on vertues more and more . Rom. 13.12 . Coloss. 3.12 . 1 Pet. 3.4 . & . 5.5 . Thirdly , In more acts of the same vertue , Reu. 2.19 . or of the same renewed faculty , the mind more fruitfull in good thoughts , the will in good elections . Fourthly , In spirituallnesse of the same acts and faculties which haue lesse mixture of sinne in them . Examine whether as a plant of the Lord you are not more fastened in your root , spread in your branches , filling thē more with fruits , and they growing in bignes or ripenes to better rellish . Or consider in particular your loue which faith worketh by ; it groweth in intension , becoming more feruent & flames now that was before but a sparkle : 2 Thes. 1.3 . Secondly , In extension when it is not partiall , but takes in more persons , euen bad men to make thē good enemies to reconcile them , procuring their good , weake brethren to support them , bearing with them , pleasing in that which is good to edification , giuing them time and helpe to profite , poore neighbours , to fulfill the royall Law. Thirdly , In rooted firmenesse , not changed with changes in the persons loued abiding in aduersity , in falls , couering trespasses , ouercōming offences , passing by them , deuouring indignities . Fourthly , In guiding the acts of loue with more iudgement . Phil. 1.6 . We are to loue with our heart and with our minde : thus the Apostles loued a while though intirely yet not wisely , Math. 16.22.25 . Fiftly , In naturalnesse and purenesse , carrying to the good of the loued more , with lesse self-loue and respect of our owne good , more benevolence , lesse concupiscence in it . Sixtly , In labours and works of loue vnto store of good fruits , old and new Cant. 7.13 . 1 Cor. 15.58 . 1 Tim. 6.18 . 2. The growth of grace hath stoppes : 1. In Gods desertion . 2. By inordinate affection vnto , and contentment in lawfull things ; Eccl. 2.2 . 3. By suffering some fowle lust too far , as Samson lost his strength , as Dauid found all out of frame . 4. By our own dulnes & slownes of hart , Heb. 5.11.12 . Luk. 24.25 . We are called vpon to bee diligent in following after faith , hope , loue , and other graces , and not to be slothfull . Heb. 6.12 . Fiftly , by wilfull want of meet helpes , forsaking holy assemblies and ordinances , by preiudice and conceit . Disaffecting powerfull meanes for externall flourish , so the Corinthians were hindred , till rebuked they were sensible of their euill , and became feruently minded . Sixtly , vnlawfull fellowship with euill persons . Pro. 13.20 . Dauid the neerer he comes to God , with resolution to keepe his Law , the further hee remooues from the wicked , who were no helpes , but hindrances to his performing of his purpose , Psal. 119. 115. dangerous for cooling zeale , snaring with temptations , and learning their way . Not that all fellowship with such persōs is vnlawfull to all godly men , the Apostle allowes a christian ( table ) fellowship with a professed Infidell , and open Idolater , in the case of aduantage of Religion : if hee be bidden , aduise about the conuenience of his going , for probable good , either in winning , or making lesse auerse , to heare the trueth more equally with lesse preiudice . Or it may bee to further a mans owne peace or confirme it . Genesis 26.29 , 30. Or when a godly man is ioyned in office with them , not cōmunicating in their sinnes , shewing them good example , knowing how to answere euery man. Thirdly , sense of want of grace , complaint and mourning from that sense , desire setled and earnest with such mourning , to haue the want supplied , vse of Gods meanes , with attending vpon him therein for this supplie , is surely of grace . For promises are made to the poore in spirit , that mourne , that thirst , that desire the holy Ghost . Mat. 5.3 , 4. Reuel . 21.6 . Luke 11.13 . Such come from a spirituall sight , discerning the worth of grace , a spirituall tast , that the Lord is gracious , holinesse of will inclining a man to holy things . Exercise your knowledge , faith , hope , loue , spirit alredy receiued , to your Lords aduantage , and you shall haue more . Mar. 4.24 . Pray , & consider in Pauls prayers for the Churches , how farre your desire may extend , to be filled with all the fulnesse of God , as you are capable , till there bee no want of that in you , which should bee full in you , till he hath fulfilled in you , all the good pleasure of his goodnesse . Hee is able to doe exceeding abundantly aboue all that wee aske or thinke . Ephes. 3.19.20 . The desires of the righteous shall bee granted . Obiection . X. I haue prayed as I am able , and sought the Lord in his ordinances , I finde not Gods answere to my comfort , which makes me call my right in God , into question , and feare my case . Answere . First , God is knowen by hearing prayers . Psalm . 65.12 . Thus Manasseh knew him . 2 Chron. 33.13 . Israel halting betweene two opinions , was confirmed by the answer of Elias prayer , that the Lord , hee is God. 1 Kings 18.37 , 38. Dauid gathers Gods approbation of him , and his loue to him by receiuing , and answering his prayer , Psal. 66.17 , 18 , 19. Psal. 116.1.2 . and so calles his soule to rest . verse 7. Some vpon their hauing answere , that their prayer was heard , and the effect should follow , haue worshipped in thankefulnesse , before they saw it come so to passe , as was promised . 2 Chro. 20.18 , 19. The example of one heard in his prayer , addes to the hope of godly men , that they shall not seeke him in vaine . Psalme 32.6.34.5 , 6. He hath not commanded vs in vaine to seeke him . Esay 45.19 . Secondly , as the spirit makes requests which wee cannot expresse , but God knoweth the meaning therof . Rom. 18.26 . So may it giue answere , whereto , through anguish of spirit wee little attend : as Exodus 6.9 . Thirdly , though God answere the prayers of his seruants , when it is onely in their purpose , before they pray , perceiuing that they will aske . Psalm . 32.5 . Esay 65.24 . Sometimes while they are speaking . Dan. 9.21 . Or vpon the ending of their prayer . Act. 4.11 . Hee holdes some longer , sometimes many yeeres in suspence , yet answeres , when his glory shines most in the grant . Luke 1.13 . He will take notice of men praying . Ananias must to Paul , and giue him comfort , for behold hee prayeth . Act. 9.11 . First , hee deferres vs sometime for our humbling , wee are not low enough yet , for his exalting of vs. 2. Chron. 33.12.13 . Hee prayed , humbled himselfe greatly , and prayed , and God was intreated . Secondly , or to prooue vs. Deut. 8.2 . Wicked men will not attend long , but quarrell with God for not answering ; and leaue off praying . Mala. 3.14 . Esay 58.3 . Godly men feele strife of flesh . Lam. 3.8.24 . Yet the spirit that wrought , doeth maintaine the desire , and vpholdes the soule in the strife , and thus makes the victory of faith recompense the deferring of our desire , as in the woman of Syrophoenissa , who striuing with three great lets : Silēce , which the flesh might interpret a negatiue answere ; Particularitie , I am not sent but to , &c. thirdly , Vnworthinesse , called a dogge , vnmeete for the childrens bread : held her faith , vnto her great praise , obtained her desire , to her great comfort . Matth. 15.28 . Iacob was deferred , yet would not cease wrestling , till hee had the blessing , there God spake with vs , He obtained ; so shall wee , vsing like faith and constancie in our striuing with God in prayer . Hos. 12.4 . God that requires vnweariednesse , and will heare his crying day and night , Luke 18.1 , 7. doeth in stead of present answere , glorifie himselfe by his supporting grace . 2. Cor. 12.8.9 . Thirdly , he sits vs vnto due estimation of his gift , and care to hold that fast , which wee came so hardly by . Fourthly , he hath put to euery worke a conuenient time , which wee are no fit iudges of . Iohn 2.4 . Mine houre is not yet come . Different measures of grace , are giuen at diuerse times . Iohn 13.36 . Now thou canst not , thou shalt hereafter follow me . Fiftly , sometimes it may be , it is because wee aske amisse either in our end . Iames 4.3 . Or that wee are amisse , in not ioyning indeauours : we are to pray in the spirit , but with all to build vp our selues . Iud. 20. Wee must pray in temptation , but we arme our selues also , Ephes. 6.11 . Fourthly , it may comfort vs , that wee haue the grace of prayer , though our desired answere appeare not , it is a signe of a gracious estate . Zach. 12.10 . The spirit of prayer , is the spirit of adoption , and makes requests for the Saints . Rom. 8.15.27 . Such prayer as a good worke , furthers our account in the day of Christ ▪ Math. 6.6 . If wee know hee heares vs , wee know wee haue the petitions , that wee aske of him . 1. Iohn 5.15 . God will accept of no other language in prayer , but that which the spirit ioyns with making our voyce to bee heard aboue , in prayer : that is alway needefull ; the Lord bee with thy spirit . In all worshippe of God , priuate or publike , God seekes such as worship him in spirit and trueth ; Iohn 4.23 . in their spirit sanctified and gouerned by his . Obiection . XI . My prayers in respect of distractions , and inability to vary matter , are such as I feare my praier is not , as Iob saith of his , pure . Answere . First the holy spirit assists no man in this life in any good worke so as to free it wholly from mixture of sinne , when we would do good euill is present with vs. In praier , seing our lusts are but in part mortified they draw our thoughts to attend vpon them , and distract our attention and affection from the things we pray for , that our hearts are not held in meete eleuation to God , and the deuill taking aduantage of our carnalitie will hinder vs what he can in a worke so much against his kingdome , we are apt to be tyed to things by our senses , from which diuine things being so farre remooued , we cannot without much watching and trauaile of soule stay our spirits vpon them long . Secondly , A godly man hauing much of the flesh in him is sometimes onely sensible of the operations of it when yet the spirituall part is willing to doe the worke according to God , Gods breathing in vs is at his liberty , and no more to be let then the wind , sometime wee feel motion but we know not whence it comes , because we suspect the flesh . There be helpes to know when it is of God. First , When with vprightnesse we propound to our selues the seruice of God in praier , and with strife of heart labour to worship him with our faith , trust , hope , reuerence , humilitie of heart , bewailing our want herein . Secondly , when at other times we are conscionable of our doing Gods will , as we are in praier desirous that he should doe ours . Psal. 66.18.19 . Ioh. 9.31 . 1. Ioh. 3.12 . That praier which is out of a good conscience with strife to go forward in duty , though farre of it , is of Gods spirit who makes requests for them whom he hath sanctified . Rom. 8.27 . Thirdly , When wee are brought into Gods presence with loue and desire , our prayer not merely forced by necessitie , but an effect of our filiall affection to God , who inspires in the weakest motion of faith , teacheth to go , and holds by the armes such as submit to the cōmandement , with some pleasure in it . Fourthly , When we can deny our owne wills , carefull to vnderstand Gods , content in our heart that it be done whatsoeuer be to vs denied of that we desire , desiring that the creature may be for the creator , that his name may bee glorified in all that wee are taught to pray for , things , or persons , though we be not profited thereby , acknowledging the authoritie , the power , and the glory to be his . Fiftly , When we seeke spirituall things specially , Rom. 8.5 . they that minde the things of the spirit are after the spirit . It is of spirituall life that wee seeke and affect not things on earth but things in heauen Col. 3.1.2 . Sixtly , When not for our selues and ours onely , but for all that we are to pray for , friends and enemies in a due order , specially for Saints , and persons chiefe in place and power for Gods glory . Seuenthly , When such desires are setled , so as wee neither forsake them nor change them for others , knowing that they be after the will of God. Psal. 27.4 . One thing haue I desired of the Lord which I will require , that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of my life , that I may behold the beauty of the Lord. Naturall motion is not so : it is not hard to make the opposition , betweene it and spirituall motion , by that which hath beene said of the signes of it . For varying : 1. Our Sauiour giues example , when the matter is one , to make no scruple of varying words . God delights not in varietie of words , that which he lookes to , is specially , the desires and groanes of heart , whether we can expresse them or no , being after his will : as in singing , the melody that pleaseth the Lord is that in the heart . Forme of wholesome words is profitable , gathered according to inspired word , in the holy Scriptures , wherin matter of our requests is contained either expressed or by iust collection , inuention , memory , affection , may be helped so . If formes were vnlawful ny way as limiting the spirit , then the prescribed formes , by God appointed to be vsed , and chosen , yea commanded sometimes , in the words to bee done in extraordinary occasion of praise , as : 2. Cor. 20.6 . As he that praieth by another mans mouth praieth well , though he be kept therein to the forme deuised according to the will of God for matter to be asked : so may the forme written , informe him for matter sometimes more then his owne heart , and worke instantly with the apprehension , true feeling of it , and desire , by the spirit , whose work is specially inward . Occasions being diuerse , God reuealing other matter , will surely inable you to make knowen your requests , at least to looke to him , as a sicke child to his father , whose desires it may be the father knowes not , nor can satisfie . Our heauenly Father is full in both , this ability may be in a man , like the money he hath about him , which he knowes not of , till necessity makes him search , and is glad to find . It is good to meditate of matter needfull before we pray , and to lift our heart to God , to teach vs to aske what wee ought , who know not of our selues : and to giue what he knowes we ought to haue asked . Obiection . XII . I finde my selfe so affected to the World , in care for present things : secondly , in contentment , in hauing them : thirdly , in feare of man : fourthly , in want of desire to bee with Christ , that I feare , that I haue no spirituall life . Answere . First , calling is indeede a selection of men from the World , vnto Christ and his Kingdome . Iohn 15.19 . The note is not to be of the World , though in it , dead to it , liuing by another spirit , then the spirit of the the World. Both openning the minde to see better hope of calling , and guiding the freed will , to choose and tend to it . Hebr. 6.11 . with bent course following things aboue , this World left in preparation of heart at least . Secondly , yet being in this World care is required , euen where it may cause some distraction , from more full attendance on the things of God. As in a Christian husband and wife , with intentiuenesse of minde , to approue their faithfulnesse in the couenant mutuall betweene them . 1. Cor. 7.33.35 . They are to prouide for their owne . 1. Tim. 5.8.2 . Cor. 12.14 . with forecast . Prou. 21.5 . Hiding things vnder their hand . Prou. 27.23 . Discretion in ordering affaires , giuing necessaries , places , before delights and ornaments . Prou. 24.27 . To the good before God , hee giueth wisedome , vnderstanding , and ioy . Eccles 2.26 . Cautions . First , the heart must bee watcht ouer , that it bee not weighed downe with the cares of the World , not the Word bee choaked . Math. 13.22 . Luke 21.34 . Heb. 12.1 . Secondly , earthly imploiment must bee seasonable , not shutting out spirituall opportunitie . Luke 14.18 , 21. Thirdly , it must not bee seruice of worldly lust , but of God requiring in our place and personall calling , diligence : 1. To eate our owne bread : 2. To haue to minister to them that want : 3. To honour God with that we haue , to make our grace shine forth in good workes , Prou. 12.24 . Eccl. 7.13 . Secondly , It is not vnlawfull to take contentment in good things giuen of God to vs and our familie : we may tast him sweete in his blessings and reioyce , Deut. 26.11 . He giues aboundantly all things , not to lay vp , but to inioy : 1 Tim. 6.17 . he giues food vnto gladnesse Act. 14.17 . we may lawfully both see and bee affected with pleasure of the proper goodnesse of his creature . First , Cautions . So we see God in his blessings and creatures & be led to him , mooued by his goodnesse to serue him cheerfully and with a ioyfull heart . Deut. 28.47 . Secondly , That we dwell not in delight of the creature , our heart not resting in it , Iob. 31.25 . buying as not possessing , reioycing as not reioycing , making the Lord our portion , Psal. 119 57. resolued to keepe his law , exalted or abased , full or hungrie , Phil. 4.12 . Thirdly , That sensible of the reeling of earthly heights , vncertaintie of these changable cōditions , we haue our minde composed through habituall resolution , to depend on God to equabilitie of affection in all conditions , content with Christ our true , certaine , and great gaine , counting all , losse , dung , seperate from him . Phil. 3.8 . Fourthly , That wee be of like affection with others , reioycing with them that reioyce , and remembering Iosephs affliction , to the moderating of our pleasures , and to the exercise of loue and mercy . First , Nature feares things hurtfull to it , seekes the perseruation of it selfe , it is a part of true wisedome to foresee euills and to prouide against them : beware of men , Math. 10.16.17 . Secondly , There is a feare due from inferiors , in subiectiō to superiors . Rom. 13.7 . with sense of Gods image in their superiority , and conscience of their owne infirmitie , to season obedience , which requires feare , and to preserue them from vndecent behauiour . Thirdly , There is a corrupt and inordinate feare , whereby we sinne in not sanctifying the Lord in our hearts by depending vpon him , and making him our dread and feare , for no feare of any creature to sin against him : which is either full and occupieth the heart wholly : which kinde of fearefull ones haue a fearefull place appointed , if they doe not repent , Reu. 21.8 . Or it is of infirmity , with loue to God and his commandement , strife against it to glorifie God in resting on him , which in the weaknesse of faith may preuaile , yet not reigne . Thus many godly men haue beene guilty and out of this passion done reprochfull things . Confirme your heart against this feare , 1. by Gods commandement , in nothing feare your aduersaries . Phil. 1.28 . and call vpon the fearfull to be strong Esay . 35.4 . Secondly , By promises considered and applyed by faith in Christ , Esa. 51.12.13 . Heb. 13.7 , Ioh. 10.28 . of Gods presence , Psal. 91.15 . of his protection against hurt , or deliuerance , or strength to beare the temptation : 1. Cor. 10.13 . of certain profit by affliction , excellency of glory following sufferings for God , for Christ , both for matter and intention . And with the promises consider them that by faith and patience now inherit them , and specially look vpon Iesus , the author and finisher of our faith ; consider him in his sufferings being such a person not onely innocent , but the Sonne of God , and the glory that he liues in , and will bring them into that are faithfull in him . Thirdly , By weighing the prouidence of God , in three degrees : 1. In vnreasonable creatures , sparrowes of meane price , but haue the course of their life defined by it , swine were not free to the deuills will but by diuine permission . 2. In reasonable men vnbelieuing , haue him their Sauiour , he is the Sauiour of all men . 3. His prouidence speciall towards beleeuers , hauing their haiers in number , & custody . Mat. 10.30 those three in the ho●● fierie furnace had not a haire of their head burnt . A Christian aboue other men neither liues nor dies at aduenture , but to a Lord , that will owne him in life and death . If he giue quietnesse who can make trouble , whether vpon nations or a man onely ? Iob. 34.29 . Fourthly , Thinking on the spirit you haue receiued , not of the world , not of feare , but of power and a sound minde : 2. Tim. 1.7 . Fiftly , Of the good that comes by such sufferings to others , many glorifie God in seeing such grace shine forth in such as the spirit of glory rests vpon . Elect not called are prepared to conuersion , they that are called are confirmed becomming more hold in Gods cause , Phil. 1.13.14 . and for reprobates a testimony is left on Gods side against them whose iudges the beleeuers shall be with Christ at the day of iudgement . You haue not yet resisted vnto blood in striuing against sinne , you must resolue and prepare for it , whether God will call you to it , or not : it is a fellowship with Christ , greatly argueth faithfullnesse , Act. 15.26 . Lesser sufferings are the markes that are vpon Christs faithful seruants ; a great worke of our loue to God and our brethren , Ioh. 14.31 . Ioh. 15.13 . a glorious victorie ouer the world , flesh and deuill , Reu. 12.11 . leauing glory on the names of such , and making their example perswasiue . Ephes. 3.1 . Fourthly , To be with Christ whether by death , or by change is best of all ; we desire by chang if that might be , not to put off the substance of our bodyes but the qualities : 2. Cor. 5.4 . but that not granted to vs , but to such as shall be aliue & remaine at Christs comming : 1. Thes. 4.15.17 . It is a holy choise , with suctiection to God , to desire rather to be out of the body with Christ , then in the body absent from him . 2. Cor. 5.8 . Secondly , Yet for the vse of a good mans life to others , it may make a stop in this choise , Phil. 1.23.24 . Thirdly , Good men are not alwaies in such case as to dare to dy , their soule is troubled , Psal. 6.3 . 2. They would doe God more service , Psal. 119.17 . they desire to mourne more for their sinnes , which heauen admits not , there is no sorrow . Fourthly , The godly haue their graces mixt with their contraries , in remisse degrees the loue of Christ and the loue of being in this world may bee together , no man here followeth the guidance of the spirit without sensible hinderance of the flesh : the comfort is that we giue not the reignes to the flesh , you do not make present things your treasure , desiring to liue in the body onely to enioy them , as if you thought your felicity ended with your life . Doth it not afflict you that your loue to Christs presence is no more full and flaming ? feare not . What gather you of Lots lingering in Sodom till ( God being merciful to him ) the Angel led him out by the hand ? that he had no spirituall life ? or that some earthly thoughts and affections , striuing against his grace held him ? Kindle your loue to Christ , and coole it to the world , compare them and the gaine by them together . Cant. 8.7 . Phil. 3.8 . and come vp more out of this wildernesse to cleaue to your welbeloued , who makes his to be the glory aboue all societies in the world , to their admiration that swim in earthly pleasures ; pray to see the felicity of the chosen , the worth of your hope in immediate communion with Christ , that he may be all in all to you , you may keepe you chast in loue to him from adultery with this world , and greatly desire the sweetnesse of his familiaritie . Consider what account he makes of the loue of his set vpon him , Cant. 4.10 . and be prouoked to get more of it into your heart that is so precious with him . Go forth in contemplation of his incomparable excellency , glory and honour wherewith he is crowned . Cant. 3.11 . you shall find him wholly desireable , Cant. 5.10.16 . Labour to know his loue that passeth knowledge and be drawen to it as souldiers to their banners , all the world cannot giue an example of such loue , Rom. 5.8 . He is tied in his desire to the presence of his Church , his loue in pleasures , Cant. 7.5.6 . his prayer to his father a little before his death was , that they which beleeued in him might be where he is , he gaue his promise for their comfort that hee would come againe , and take them to 〈…〉 be where he is . Let this further your desire to be with him . In the meane time continue in his loue in keeping his commandements Ioh. 15.10 . stand on his side against Antichrist in his battailes with him , Reu. 17.14 . He iudgeth and fighteth righteously , and the victory is certaine on his side , Reu. 19.11.16.20 . Be diligent in making him knowen , in opening his excellencies , that his name being as an oyntment powred out , others may loue and seeke him , speake forth his praise , declare his will , confesse him before the world . It is not without fruit Cant. 8.13 . The companions harken to thy voice . Now the God of hope fill you with all ioy and peace in beleeuing , and the Lord guide our hearts into the loue of God and patient waiting for of his Sonne . Vnto God the Father , Sonne and holy Ghost be honour , Thanksgiuing , obedience and subiection : Whose is the kingdome , power , and glory , for euer and euer . Amen . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A15504-e230 Numb . 20.21.24 . Psal. 56 10. Act. 27.25.36 . Esa. 45.19 . Esa. 49.23 . 2. Thess. 1.8 . Ioh. 3.23 . 1. Ioh. 5.10 . Ioh. 3.33 . 2. Cor. 5.20 . 2. Cor. 6.1 . Psal. 112.7 . Iob. 5.22 . Ioh. 5 42 ▪ Deut. 30.6 . 2. Thess. 3.5 . 2. Chr. 19.9 Psal. 144.15 . Hos. 2.15 . 1. Pet. 2.5 . Luk. 17.16 , 17. Math. 7.18 . Rom. 2.9 . Math. 21.44 . Math. 10.23 . Reu. 5.2 , 3 , 5. Rom. 5.6 . Reu. 3.4 . Ezech. 36.31 . 1. Tim. 1.16 . Rom. 3.22 , 23. & 10 , 12. Hos. 14.15 . Mark. 3.28 . Esra . 10.2 . Math. 22.9 , 10. Luk. 14.23 . Ioh. 17.9 . Gal. 2.20 . Ioh. 3.5 . Rom. 8.13 . Eph. 5.5 , 6. Math. 9.21 , 22. Psal. 119.106 . Ioh. 5.40 . Ioh. 4.48 . Mark. 4.40 . Ioh. 20.29 . Ioh. 8.31.66 . Act. 15.8.1 . Ioh. 1.12 . 2. Cor. 5.17 . Rom. 5.1 . Rom. 7.25 . 2. Cor. 4.13 . Act. 4.32 . Eph. 4.16 . Ioh. 6.64 . Cant. 2.2 . 1. Pet. 2.2 . Ioh. 14.5 . Neh. 1.11 . Esa. 40.11 . Psal. ●7 . 9 , 10. Esa. 8.17 . 1. Ioh. 1.7 . 1 Pet. 1.2 . Rom. 7.6 . 1. Pet. 4.11 . Rom. 13.8 . Phil. 1.21 . Heb. 6.4 , 5 , 6 , 9. Math. 6.23 . Col. 2.20 . Mark. 8.24 , Iob 9.3.20 . Iam. 3.13 . Zeph. 2.3 . Ioh. 1.12 . Deut. 29.19 ▪ Ier. 7.8 , Rom. 7.9.11 . 2. King. 10.16 . Luk. 18.21 . Dan. 5.6 . Rom. 5.9 , 10. Rom. 8.33 , 34 , 35. Act. 24.16 . Psal. 18.22 . 1. Ioh. 3.9 . Act. 8.23 . Rom. 7.14 . 1 Ioh. 5 , 19 2. Tim. 7.2 . Math. 4.11 . Psal. 119.29 . &c. Vers. 32. Psal. 119.161 . Iob 17.9 . 1. Sam. 25.34 . Rom. 8.14 . Psal. 40.12 . Psal. 119.157 . Cant. 4 13 , 14 , 16. Hosh. 14.6 , 7. Ioh. 14.28 , Cant. 5.2 . 1. Tim. 6.11 . Heb. 10.25 . 1. Pet. 2.3 . Pro. 10.24 . Numb . 12.13 , 14. Gal. 6.18 . 2 Tim. 4.22 . Iob 16.17 . Rom. 7. ●1 . Ioh. 3.8 . Col. 3.16 . 2 Cor. 12.14 . Psal. 112.5 . Pro. 13.23 . 2 Thess. 3.8 . Eph. 4.28 . Prou. 3.9 . Eccles. 17.13 . Psal. 26.3 . 1 Cor. 7.30 Rom. 12.15 . Amos 6.6 . Esa. 8.13 . Esa. 43.2 , 3. Heb. 12.20 . 2. Cor. 4.18 Heb. 6.12 . Heb. 12.2 . Mat. 10.29 . Mark. 5.12 . 1 Tim. 4.10 Rom. 14.8 . 1 Thess ▪ 5.10 . Gal. 6.17 . 1 Cor. 15.51 , 52. Esa 38.18 , 19. Gen. 19.16 . Cant. 6.8 , 9. Ioh. 17 . 2● . Ioh. 14.3 . Cant. 1 ▪ 2. Rom. 15.13 . 2. Thess. 3.5 . 
A26214	----	The profit of believing very usefull both for all those that are not yet resolved what religion they ought to embrace, and for them that desire to know whither their religion be true or no / written by S. Augustine. De utilitate credendi ad Honoratum. English Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A26214 of text R7850 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing A4213). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 136 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 78 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A26214 Wing A4213 ESTC R7850 12193897 ocm 12193897 55956 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A26214) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 55956) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 119:3) The profit of believing very usefull both for all those that are not yet resolved what religion they ought to embrace, and for them that desire to know whither their religion be true or no / written by S. Augustine. De utilitate credendi ad Honoratum. English Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo. A. P. [20], 134 p. Printed by Roger Daniel ..., London : 1651. Translation of: De utilitate credendi ad Honoratum. Preface signed: A.P. This work also appears, on reel 649:7, as the fourth title in: Five treatises, 1651 (Wing V455). Reproduction of original in Yale University Library. eng Faith. A26214 R7850 (Wing A4213). civilwar no The profit of believing, very usefull both for all those that are not yet resolved what religion they ought to embrace: and for them that de Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Saint 1651 25066 476 0 0 0 0 0 190 F The rate of 190 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the F category of texts with 100 or more defects per 10,000 words. 2005-10 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-11 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-01 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2006-01 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE PROFIT OF BELIEVING , Very usefull Both for all those that are not yet resolved what Religion they ought to embrace : And for them that desire to know whither their Religion be true or no . Written by S. Augustine . LONDON , Printed by ROGER DANIEL In Lovels Court , near Pauls Church-yard . 1651. The Preface , To the well-disposed READER . Learned Reader , I Know thou art not ignorant , that of all the affairs and businesses in this world , there is none of that consequence and importance unto thee , as the saving of thy soul : and that our Blessed Saviour who knew best of all the inestimable value thereof , and vouch●●●ed to redeem it at so dear a rate as with his own p●etious bloud , plainly declared the importance thereof , when he said in the Gospel , Mat. 16. 16. What is a man profited , if he shall gain the world ●nd loose his own soul ? Or what shall he give in exchange ther●of ? Wherefore let me advise thee to seek out and embrace the true Faith and Religion , for that without such a Faith ( according to the Apostle , Heb. 11. 6. ) it is impossible toplease God , and without pleasing of him , it is impossible to be saved . If thou thinkest that thou ha●t found out the truth already , and that thou dost embrace it , then give me leave to tell thee , that the world at this present abounds with an hundred here●ies at least the embracers whereof shall not ( according to S. Pauls doctrine , Gal. 5. 20. ) inherit the kingdome of God , and yet ( as the same Apostle doth affirm , Ephes. 4. 5. ) there is but one Lord , one Faith , one Baptisme : so that it is an hundred to one , but that thy Faith and thy Religion are false , and thy salvation is in danger thereby . Is there not then great reason that thou shouldest well consider , whither the Faith and Religion which thou embracest be true or no , when upon this resolution depends thy fr●●tion of unspeakable blisse , or intolerable suffering of endlesse pa●ns for all eternity ? How to find out the true Faith & Religion it is a matter of very great difficulty , not onely by reason that there are many faiths and religions in the world , and of all these there is but one true , and all the rest be false , but also for that the controversies debated now adayes are so many , and so intricate , that few have leasure to study them , and fewer ability to conceive and understand them : yet the zeal of learned Writers hath not been wanting to satisfie men herein . But what age since the Apostles dayes hath brought forth any man so able to perform so great a task , as was that incomparable Doctor S. Augustine lib. 3. de Eccles. fol. 170. who ( as Doctour Field asserteth ) was the greatest and chiefest of the antient Fathers , and the most famous of all the Divines which the Church hath had since the Apostles time : and as Doctour Covell affirmeth in his answer to Master Burges pag. 3. ) hath farre excelled all others that have been or are like to be hereafter ( those onely excepted that were inspired by the Holy Ghost ) both in Divine and Humane knowledge . What man since the Apostles dayes , could ever so well discem true doctrine from false , truth from errour , and true faith from heresie , as could that great S. Augustine who did not onely like another David , fight against the Goliah of one heresie , but like another Joshua fought the battels of the Lord against all the force and power of heresie in his dayes , for fourty years together ? Wherefore if this great Doctour should have left any advises or instructions behinde him unto any of his dear friends that were then hereticks , whereby he taught them how to find out the true faith and religion , amongst so many heresies● ought not such instructions to be greatly desired , and if any such could be found to be highly esteemed , and diligently perused ? Surely thou wilt say , that coming from so great a Doctour , and being so proper and necessary fot these times , without doubt they ought . Why then Learned Reader , give me leave to pre●ent unto thee a learned Treatise of his , which he sent unto his dear and learned friend Honoratus , to draw him from the Manichean her●sie to the true Religion ; I durst not presume to tender it unto thee in this poor English habit , were I not confident that thou seekest more after the true Religion and the saving of thy soul , then after vain eloquence , & the entising words of humane wisdome ; 1 Cor. 2. 4. but I will assure thee , under this poore attire thou wilt find a rich and a learned discourse of great S. Augustine , not onely very profitable for those that are not yet resolved in point of Religion , but also for them that dere to be satisfied whither the faith and Religion which they embrace , be true or no . If the stile be displeasing and ungratefull unto thee , know that very many of the African Fathers have harsh stiles , besides consider how hard a matter it is to teach a native African to speak true English . In this work , first he shews how the old Testament is to be expou●ded , and defends the Authority or it against the Manichees that rejected it . Secondly he overthrowes that Manichean principle . That nothing is to be believed in point of Faith which is not first by reason made manife●t and evident unto the Believer . In the third place he adviseth ●ervent and frequent prayer , peace and tranquility of mind , and a sequestration of affections from terrene things , as aids necessary ●or the finding out the truth : then declaring that Christ hath raised a very great and a famous Church consisting of all Nations , which is to continue very visible and conspicuous even to the worlds end , he exhorts Honoratus to addresse himself unto the Pastours and Teachers thereof , and to learn of them the true faith and Religion . This way of proceeding to find out the truth , is far more short and easie then by the examination of all the points of controverted doctrine by their conformity to the holy Scrip●ures , for it consists in two points onely , first , in seeking out which of all the Churches is the Church of Christ , and secondly , whither this Church can erre or no . For the finding out of the Church S. Augustine proposed four marks unto Honoratus , Unity , Universality , Sanctity , and Apostolicall Succession , the which are set down very plainly in Scripture . The Unity of the Church is twofold , in body , and in faith ; in regard of the first , our Saviour faith , his Church is one fold and hath one shepheard Joh. 10. 16. and the Apostle calls it one body , 1 Cor. 12. 13. In respect of the second , S. Paul earnestly exhorted the Corinthians , 1 Cor. 1. 10. to speak the same thing , and that there be no division amongst them : but that they be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judg●ment : and he beseeched the Ephesians to endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace , Ephes. 4● 3 , 4● 5. affirming that there is one body and one spirit , one hope of their calling , one Lord one Faith , one Baptisme ; and the Scripture testifieth that in the Apostles dayes the multitude of Believers were of one heart and of one soul . Acts 4. 32. The Universality of the Church is also twofold , in time and in place ; this later was foretold by the Prophet Moses relating Gods promise made to Abraham of an ample posterity , and that all the nations of the earth should be blessed in his seed : Gen. 22. 18. Gal. 3. 8. by the Royall Psalmist●declaring that God the Father would give unto his Son the heathen for his inheritance , and the uttermost part of the earth for his possession , Psal. 2. 8. and that he should have dominion from sea to sea , and from the River to the ends of the earth : Psal. 72. 8. and by the Prophet Isaiah , affirming that all nations shall flow to the mountain of the Lords house , Isa. 2. v. 2. For the accomplishment of these Prophecies our Blessed Saviour declared , Luke 24. v. 44. that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses , ●nd in the Prophets , and in the Psalm●s , concerning him : and v. 47. that repentance and remission of sinnes , should be preached in his name among all nations , beginning at Jerusalem ; and for the performance hereof , he gave a commission unto his Apostles to teach all nations , Matth. 28. 19. and to preach the Gospel to every creature , Mar. 19. v. 15. That the Church of Christ should be universall for time , and continue perpetually unto the worlds end , it was plainly foretold by the Prophet Isaiah , who speaking of our B. Saviour , saith , that of the encrease of his government and peace there shall be no end . Vpon the throne of David● and upon his kingdome shall he sit to order it , and to establish it wit● judgement , and with justice from henceforth even for ever ; and that no doubt may be made of the performance hereof , the Prophet add●s , the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this . And by the Prophet Daniel affirming that in the dayes of those Kings shall the ●o● of heav●n set up a k ngdome which shall not be left to other people , but it shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdomes , and it shall stand for ever , Dan. 2. 44. All which was confirmed by the Angel Gabriel , saying , The Lord shall give unto Christ the throne of his Father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob , and of his kingdome there shall be no end , Luke 1. ver. 32 , 33. For the perpetuall settlement and establishing of this Church , Christ said unto S. Peter : Vpon this rock I will build my Church , and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it , Matth. 16. 18. Touching the sanctity of the Church of Christ , God by the Prophet Ezekiel saith , I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore : and the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctifi● Israel , when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore , Ezek . 37. v. 26 , 28. and by the Prophet Malachi , Mal. 1. 11. From the rising of the sunne , even to the going down of the same , my name shall be great among the Gentiles : and in every place incense shall be offered ●nto my name , and a peace-offering . Unto this sanctity our Blessed Saviour exhorts us , saying , Let your light so shine before men , that they may see your good works , and glorifie your Father which is in heaven , Matth. 5. 16. and Mark 7. v. 13 , 14. Enter ye in at the strait gate , for strait is the gate , and narrow the way , which leadeth unto life , and few there be that find it . And teaching how to distinguish the good from the bad , he saith , v. 20. By their fruits ye shall know them . As for Apostolicall succession , S. Paul saith , Ephes. 4. v. 11 , 12 , 13. that Christ gave some Apostles , and some Prophets : and some Evangelists , and some Pastours and teachers , for the perfecti●g of the Saints , for the work of the ministery , for the edifying of the body of Christ , till we ●ll come into the unity of faith , and of the unity of the Son ne of God , unto a perfect man , unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ , that is , ( as Doctour Fulk against the Rhem. Test . in Ephes. 4. sect. 4. fol. 335. and Mr. Calvin in his Instit. cap. 8. de fide , sect. 37 , 38. pag. 233. 234. do expound ) for ever . As for the second point , whether the Church of Christ can erre or no , S , Augustine saith , that neither the violence of heathens , nor the subtilty of hereticks can overthrow it , which agrees with our Savionrs promise , Matth. 16. 18● that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it ; and , to preserve her from all errour and heresie , Christ promised to be alwayes with her even to the worlds end , Matth. 28. 20. and God made this covenant with her : Isa. 59. 21. My spirit that is upon thee , and my words which I have put in thy mouth , shall not depart out of thy mouth , ●or out of the mouth of thy seed , nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed , saith the Lord , from henceforth and for ever ; by which words ( saith Mr. Calvin in Comment . hujus loci ) God promiseth that the Church shall never be deprived of this inestimable benefit , to be governed by the Holy Ghost , and to be suported by heavenly doctrine : and to this effect he sent down the Holy Ghost to teach the Church all truth and to remain with her for ever , Joh. 16. 13. Joh. 14. 16. Thus thou seest how S. Augustines instructions for finding out the truth are grounded in Scripture , but more expressely in S. Pauls doctrine , who tells us , Rom. 10. 17. that faith cometh by hearing , and hearing is by the word of God ; if we ask him how men may come to hea●e the word of God● he answers , v. 14 , 15. How shall they hear without a preacher ? and how shall they preach unlesse they be sent ? So that faith is bred in men by hearing and believing the word of God , made known unto them by preachers lawfully sent : which preachers ( as he saith to the Ephesians ) Ephes. 4. v. 11 , 12 , 13. are alwayes to be found in the Church of Christ , and are placed there , ver. 14. that from henceforth we be no more children tossed to fro , and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleighs of men , and cunning craftinesse whereby they lie in wait to deceive ; which is an office that cannot be performed by men that are frail and subject to errour , unles the Lord by his divine assistance , doth preserve them from erring . Doctour Field having considered the facility and solidity of this method , doth advise all those to practise it , that desire to be satisfied in matters of Religion in these terms , Epist. dedic. of the Church . Seeing the controversies in our time are grown in number so many and in nature so intricate , that few have time and leisure , fewer strength of understanding to examine them : what remaineth for men desirous of satisfaction in things of such consequence , but diligently to search out , which amongst all the societies of men in this world , is that blessed company of holy ones , that houshold of faith , that Spouse of Christ , and Church of the living God , which is the pillar and ground of truth : that so they may embrace her communion , follow her directions , and rest in her judgement ? Now that thou maist be the better able to follow this wholesome counsell , let me advise thee with care and diligence to peruse this e●suing treatise , and that thou maist ●eceive much benefit thereby for thy souls health , thou hast already the prayers of S. Augustine , and thou s●alt have the hearty wishes and desires of Thy charitable Welwisher . A. P. The TABLE . Chap. I. HOW S. Augustine came to be de●eived by the Manichees . Page . 1. II. That the Manichees do condemn the old Testament . 11 III. Of the four wayes of expounding the old Testament . 15 IV. 3. ways whereby men fall into errour . 31 V● Of the truth of the holy Scripture . 37 VI . That the holy Scripture is first to be loved before it can be learned 4● VII● Th●t we ought not to judge rashly of the holy Scriptures : and how , and with what care and diligence the trve religion is to be sought for . 49 VIII . Of the way to the instruction of piety : and of the wonderfull pains S. Augustine took to find it out . 63 IX . Of Credulity . 68 X. Why Credulity is the w●y to Religion 75 XI . Of under standing , belief● and opinion 83 XII . That it is the safest w●y to believe wise men . 93 XIII . That Religion takes her beginning from believing . 98 XIV . That Christ chiefly exacted belief 104 XV . Of the most commodious way to Religion . 114 XVI . That miracles do procure belief . 117 XVII . The con●sent of nations be●●eving in Christ . 124 XVIII . The conclusion by way of ex●ortat●●n . 129 The Profit of Believing . CHAP. I. How Saint Augustine came to be deceived by the Manichees . O Honoratus , IF any Heretick , and a man believing Hereticks did seem unto me to be one and the same thing ; I should think fit to be silent at this present , and to abstain both from speaking and writing in this cause : But now whereas they do verymuch differ ( For he is an Heretick ( according to my opinion ) who for some temporall benefit , and chiefly for glory and his own preferment , either broacheth or followeth false and new Opinions : but a man believing Hereticks , is one that is del●ded with a certain imagination of Piety and Truth ) I held it to be my duty to deliver thee my opinion , touching the finding out and embracing the Truth , with the love whereof we have both ( as thou knowest ) been greatly enflamed even from our youths . Truth is a thing farre differing from that which vain men do conceive , who having too deeply lettled their affections upo● these bod●ly and corporall things , do hold and imagine it to be nothing else , but what they do perceive and discer● by those five most known Messengers of the Body : and they tosse to and f●o and rerevolve in their minds the impressions and images which they have received from these things , even when they endeavour to disbeliev● their senses : and by a deadly and a most deceitfull rule taken from thence , they think that they do frame a right and perfect judgement of the ine●●fable Secrets and Mysteries of Faith . There is nothing more easie ( my most dear friend ) then for a man not onely to say , but also to think that he hath found out the Truth : but how extream hard it is to find it out indeed , thou wilt ( as I hope ) acknowledge and confesse upon the perusall of these my writings ; which that they may prove beneficiall unto thee , or at least not hurtfull , and unto all those into whose hands they may chance to light , I have beseeched the divine Majesty , and I do beseech him , and I hope it will come to passe , if mine own conscience can but bear me witnesse that I came to write them not with a desire of vain renown or frivolous ostentation , but with a pious and a serviceable mind . My intent therefore i● to prove unto thee , if I can , that it is sacrilegiously and rashly done of the Manichees , to speak bitter words and inveigh against those , who following the authority of the Catholick faith● are fortified and strengthened befo●ehand by believing , and are prepared to receive the light of the Divine grace , before they can behold that Verity and Truth which is seen and beheld with a pure and clean mind . For thou knowest , O Honoratus , that we put our selves into the company of such men for no other cause , but for that they said , that , the terrour of authority being set aside , they would with plain and admirable reasons bring their hearers and followers unto God , and free them from all errour . For what else was it that enforced me to follow them , and to hearken to them attentively , almost for the space of nine years , having despised and contemned the religion which by my parents was ingraffed in me , being a little child , but for that they affirmed that we are terrified with superstition , and commanded to believe , before any reason is given us of belief : and that they importune and urge none to believe , untill the truth be first discussed and made manifest unto them ; who would not be allured with these promises ? especially the mind of a young man desirous of truth , a babler , and one that was puffed up with pride upon ●isputations had with some skilfull and learned Schoolmen : and such an one they found me then to be , namely , who despised ( my former religion ) like old wives tales , and desired to embrac● and with greedinesse to receive the manifest and sincere Truth which they promised to teach and deliver . But again , what reason withdrew me and called me back that I did not wholly adhere u●to th●m , but kept my self in the degree of Hear●●s , as they use to call them , and did ●ot forgo the hopes and affairs which I had in this world ; but for that I also noted and observed , that they were more eloquent and copious i● consuting others , then firm and certain in proving● and maintaining their own grounds ? But what shall I say of my self , who was now become a Catholick Christian : who being almost exhausted and greedy after a very long thirst , was now with an ardent affection returned again to the breasts of the Church , which I shaked and wrung , much weeping and lamenting , to the end I might not onely draw from thence sufficient comfort for my misery and a●fliction , but might also recover my former hope of life and salvation ? What then shall I say of my self ? And as for thee , thou didest so vehemently hate and detest them , that I could hardly draw thee by entreaties and exhortations to hearken unto them and try them : and when thou hea●dest them , with what other thing I pray thee we●t thou taken and delighted ( for I beseech thee , call it to remembrance ) but with a certain great presumption and promise of reasons ? But because for a long time they made many large and vehement discourses touching the errours of un●k●●full men ( which every one that is but meanly learned can easily do ) it was late before I came to the knowledge thereof . And if they delivered any thing unto us out of their own men , we thought there was a necessity to receive and embrace it , when as other things up on which we might rely , occurred not : wherein they dealt with us as deceitfull Fowlers are wont to do , who prick down limetwigs by a waters side , to the end they may deceive the thirsty Birds : for they stop up , and by some means or other they cover the other waters that are thereabouts : or they drive the birds from thence with frights and fears , that not by their own free choise and election , but meerly for necessity and want of water they may fall into their snares . But why do I not return this answer to my self , that such neat and pretty similitudes as these , and such like reprehensions may be both most civilly and most snappishly objected by any enemy or adversary whatsoever , against all those that deliver any thing by teaching or instruction ? But yet for this cause I thought it necessary to insert some such thing into these my writings , that I may warn and admonish them thereby to leave off all such manner of proceedings : to the end that ( as a certain man said ) the toyes of common places being set aside , one thing may contend and strive with another , one cause with another , one reason with another : wherefore let them forbear to say , what they hold in a manner necessary to be spoken , when any one forsakes them that hath long been their hearer , The light is passed through him . For thou my greatest care ( for I am not too solicitous for them ) seest how vain a thing this is , and how easie a matter it is for any one to blame and reprehend it ; this therefore I leave to thy wisdome to be discussed . For I am not afraid le●t thou shouldest think that I was deprived of light , when I was entangled with a worldly life , and had a remote and obscure hope of a beautifull wife , of the pomp of riches , of the vanity of honours , and of other hurtfull and pernicious pleasures : for I ceased not to desire and hope for all these things ( as thou knowest right well ) when I was their follower and heard them attentively : not do I attribute this to their doctrine● for I confesse they diligently warned and admonished me to beware of these things : but to say that I am now desti●ute of light , when as I have al●enated and withdrawn my self from all these shadows and ●emblances of things , and have resolved to content my self with such food onely , as may seem necessary to the health of my body : and that I was enlightned and shining before , when I was addicted unto those things and was intangled with them , is the part of a man ( to speak in the mildest manner ) who lesse con●iderately ponders the things of which he much desires to talk and discourse . But if you please let us come to the matter . CHAP. II. That the Manichees do condemn the old Testament . THou art not ignorant how the Manichees reprehending the Catholick Faith , and especially renting and tearing in pieces the old Testament , do move and disturb the unskilfull people : who truly know not how those things are to be understood , and how being taken they may profitably descend and be conveyed into the veins and marrow of tender souls . And because there occurre certain things in those books which may give some offence to those that are ignorant and carelesse of themselves ( as the greatest part of the common people is ) they may be plausibly reprehended and blamed , but cannot be plausibly defended by many , by reason of the mysteries which are contained therein ; and those few that can do it , affect not publick and open conflicts whereby to divulge their fame and renown , and for this cause they are not known at all but unto those onely , who with much care and diligence do seek and enquire after them : wherefore touching this rashnesse of the Manichees , in reprehending the Old Testament and the Catholick Faith , hear I beseech thee , the things which move and trouble me ; the which I desire and hope that thou wilt receive with such an hearty mind and good will as by me they are delivered and spoken ; for God , unto whom the secrets of my conscience lie open and are manifest , knows , that I deal not malitiously in this speech , but as I conceive , it ought to be understood in proof of the truth , unto which long since I have addicted my self , and that with an incredible care and solicitude , lest I should erre and go astray with you , which I may easily do ; when as to hold the same course with you● and yet to embrace and keep the right way , it is a matter ( not to speak too harshly ) of extream difficultie . But I presume that even in this hope which I have of your attaining together with me unto the way of wisdome , he , unto whom I have consecrated my self , will not leave nor forsake me : when dayes and nights I endeavour to behold : and for that I perceive my self to be weak and infirm , by reason that the eye of my soul is for my sinnes , and the custome thereof wounded with the stripes of inveterate opinions , I beg it oftentimes with weeping and tears , and as it happeneth unto mens eyes , which after the sufferance of a long blindnesse and d●rknesse are hardly open : they have a great desire to see light , and yet by their twinckling and turning away , they refuse to behold it , especially if any one should endeavour to expose them to the light of the Sun : so it falls out with me at the pre●ent , for I acknowledge that there is a certain unspeakable and singular good of the soul , which may be seen and contemplated with the mind , but I confesse with tears in mine eyes and sighs from my heart that I am not yet fit nor able to behold it : wherefore the Divine goodnesse will not forsake me , if I fain nothing , if I speak according to my duty , if I love the truth , if I affect friendship , and if I take a great care that thou mayest not be deceived . CHAP. III. Of the four wayes of expounding the Old Testament . THose that earnestly desire to know the Old Testament , are to understand that it is taught and expounded after four manner of wayes : according to the History , according to the Etiologie , according to the Analogy , and according to the Allegory . Think me not foolish for using Greek names : First , for that I have so received , and I dare not deliver this otherwise unto thee then as I have received : Next thou also observest , that we have no usuall names for these things : and if I had framed any by-interpretation , I should be lesse apt to be understood : and if I should use any circumlocution , I should be lesse quick and lesse ready in discoursing : this onely I intreat and beseech thee to believe , that howsoever I may erre , I do it not out of any arrogancy or pride . The Scripture is treated according to the history when it is declared therein what is written , or what is done : and what is not done but written onely as it were done . According to the Etiology , when it is shewed thereby for what cause any thing is either done or said . According to the Analogy , when it is demonstrated that the two Testaments , the Old and the New , are not contrary the one unto the other . According to the Allegory , when it is read therein that certain things that are written , ought not to be understood according to the letter , but according to the figure . All these manner of wayes of alledging Scripture , have been used by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Apostles . He cited Scripture according to the History , when , unto those that objected that his Disciples had plucked the ears of Corn upon the Sabbath day , he answered , Have ye not read what David did , when he was an hungred , and they that were with him : how he entred into the house of God and did eat the loaves of Proposition ( or Shew-bread ) which it was not lawfull for him to eat , neither for them that were with him , but for Priests onely ? Mat. 12. 1 , 3 , 4. 1 Sam. 21. 6. Exod. 29. 32. He alledged Scripture according to the Etiology , when having forbidden the dismissing of wives for any cause but onely fornication , unto the Pharisees , who told him that Moses had given men leave to dismisse them , having first given them a bill of divorce , he said : This Moses did for the hardnesse of your hearts . Deut. 24. 1. Mat. 19. 8. for here a cause was rendred , why that was well permitted by Moses for a time , to the end that this which Christ commanded might seem to shew and demonstrate other times but to declare how the divine Providence hath with a certain wonderfull disposition ordered and composed the courses and order of these times , it is a long work . Now touching the Analogy , whereby appears the accord and consent of both the Testaments , what shall I say , but that all those have used it , unto whose authority the Manichees do give place , when as they may consider with themselves how many things they are wont to say are thrust into the divine Scripture by I know not what co●rupters of the truth ? which I alwayes thought to be an extream weak speech even when I heard and followed them : neither was this my opinion onely , but thine also ( for I well remember it ) and it was the opinion of us all who endeavoured to be somewhat more carefull and wary in judging , th●n was the common people and multitude of believers . And whereas they have expounded and declared unto me many things that did much move and trouble m● ( namely those wherein they boasted and bragged oftentimes , and th●t more abundantly because more securely , as not having any adversary to resist and oppose them . I think they have spoken nothing more impudently or ( to speak more mildly ) with lesse circumspection and more weaknesse , then that the divine Scriptures are falsified and corrupted : when as it ought but lately to have been done , and yet they cannot convince it to be ●o , by any copies that are now extant : for if they did say , that they did not think that they ought to receive those Scriptures at all , because they are written by such Authours as they did not conceive to have written the truth , their pretence of rejecting them would in some sort be more hidden , and their errour more humane and pardonable : for upon this ground they have rejected the book which is called the Acts of the Apostles : at which their proceedings , when I well weigh it and consider it with my self , I cannot sufficiently wonder and admire ; for they wanted not onely humane wisdome herein , but even a reasonable and an indifferent judgement : for that book hath so many things , which are like unto those which they do receive● that it seems to me to be a great folly not to receive this also , and if any thing displeas●th them therein , presently to say it is false and put in : now if they judge such a speech to be impudent ( as indeed it is ) why should they conceive those things to deserve any credit and est●em in S. Paul's Epistles , and the four books of the Gospell , wherein I know not whether or no , proportionably speaking , there be many more things then there could be in that book , which they would have men believe , to have been thrust in by falsifiers and corrupters ? But this indeed is my opinion , which I request thee to weigh and consider with me , with a very clear and peaceable judgement : for thou art not ignorant how the Manichees endeavouring to bring in the the person of their authour Manicheus into the number of the Apostles , do say that by him we have received the Holy Ghost , whom our Lord promised to send to his Disciples : if therefore they should receive those Acts of the Apostles wherein the comming of the Holy Ghost is evidently declared and set down●Act . 2. 2. they could find no ground to say why that was inserted and put in : for they pretend I know not what corrupters of the divine books to have been before Manicheus his time : and that they were corrupted by those that desired to confound the law of the Jews with the Gospel of Christ ; but this they cannot say of the Holy Ghost , unlesse perad venture they will affirm that the corrupters could foretell things that were to come , and thereupon did put into their books that which might be produced against one Manicheus who sometimes was to come , and who should say and averre that he had sent the Holy Ghost ; but of the Holy Ghost we intend to speak more plainly herea●ter ; but now let us return to our former matter ; for I think that I have sufficiently demonstrated and shewn , that the historicall sense is to be found in the Old Testament , and the Etiologicall and Analogicall in the New : it remains that I shew also the Allegoricall therein . Our Redeemer himself alledgeth in the Gospel an Allegory out of the Old Testament , saying : This generation seeketh after a sign , and none shall be given unto it , but the sign of the Prophet Jonas : for as Jonas was three d●yes and three nights in the Whales belly : so shall the Sonne of man be three dayes and three n●ghts in the heart of the earth . Mat. 12. 39 40. Jonas 1. 17. And what shall I say of the Apostle Paul , who also in his 1 Ep. to the Co●inthians c. 10. to the 12. v. signifies , that the ●●story it self of Exodus was an Allegory of the Christian people that was to come ? Moreover Brethren , I would not ( saith he ) that ye should be ignorant how that all our Fathers were under the cloud , Exod. 13. 21. Num. 14. 14. Deut. 1. 33. Psal. 78. 14. and all passed through the sea : Exod. 14. 22. Josh. 4 , 23. Psal. 78. 13. and were all Baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea : and did all eat the same spirituall meat , and did all drink the same spirituall drink : ( for they drank of the spirituall Rock that followed them , and the Rock was Christ ) but with many of them God was not well pleased : Num. 24. 28. and 26. 65. for they were overthrown in the wildernesse . Now these things were our figures ( or examples ) to the intent that we should not lust after evil things , as they also lusted . Psalm . 106. 14. Neither let us worship Idols , as some of them did , as it is written , Exod. 32. 6. The people sate down to eat and drink and rose up to play . Neither let us commit fornication , as some of them did , and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand men , Num. 25. 9. Neither let us tempt Christ , as some of them tempted him , and were destroyed by serpents . Numb. 21. 6. Neither let us murmure , as some of them murmured , and they perished by the destroyer . Numb. 14. 37. And all these things happened to them in a figure ( or for an example ) but they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come . The same Apostle useth also a certain Allegory , which is much to our purpose , because the Manichees are wont to alledge it in their disputations , and boast of it , when writing to the Galathians he saith , Gal. 4. 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26. For it is written that Abraham had two sonnes , the one by a bond-maid , Gen. 16. 15. the other by a free-woman● Gen. 21. 2. but he that was by the bond-maid was born according to the flesh ; but he that was by the free-woman was born according to promise : which things are said by an Allegory : for these are the two Testaments , the one from the mount Sina which gendreth to bondage , which is Agar ( for Sina is a mountain in Arabia adjoyning to Hierusalem that now is ) and is in bondage with her children : But Hierusalem which is above is free , which is the mother of us all . Here therefore those too too wicked men whilest they endeavour to frustrate the Law , do enforce us to allow and approve of those Scriptures : for they diligently observe that it is said , that they are in bondage that are under the Law , and they often alledge that last above the rest , Galath. 5. 4. Christ is become of no effect unto you that are justified by the Law , ye are falne from Grace . We grant all these things to be true , neither do we say , that that Law is necessary , but onely for those unto whom bondage is yet profi●able and expedient ; and therefore tha● it was fitly and commodiously ordained th●t such men as could not be reclaimd and withdrawn from sinning by reason , ought to be constrained by 〈…〉 ●●mely by the threats and terrours of those 〈…〉 even fools themselves can perceive and apprehend : from which when the grace of Christ doth free us , it doth not condemn that Law , but it invites us for the time to come to obey his charity , and not to serve and be subject to the terrour of the Law . For that is a Grace , that is to s●y , a Benefit , which they that yet desire to be under the bonds of the Law , do not understand that the Divine Majesty hath imparted unto them ; whom Paul the Apostle doth deservedly reprove , as though they were In●idels , because they did not believe that they are now freed by our Lord Jesus Christ , from that servitude and bondage whereunto they were subject for a certain time by Gods most just order and disposing . Hereupon it is that the same Apostle saith . Gal. 3. 24. The law was our Peda●●●●● 〈…〉 ●●ere●ore gave unto men a Pedagogue whom they should fear , who gave them afterwards a master whom they should love : and yet neverthelesse in those precepts and Commandments of the Law , ( which it is not lawfull for Christians now to use , such as are either the Sabbath or Circumcision or the Sacrifices , and whatsoever is of that sort ) so great mysteries are contained and comprehended , that every godly man may understand that there is nothing more pernicious and hurtfull , then that whatsoever is comprised therein should be understood according to the letter , that is , to the native sense of the words : and nothing ●ore wholesome and profitable , then to have it expounded according to the spirit or spirituall sense and unde●standing : hence it is that the letter killeth , but the spirit quickeneth or giveth life . 2 Cor. 3. 6. hence it is , that in the reading of the Old Testament , the self same veil remaineth untaken away , because in Christ it is made vo●d : vers . 14. for not the Old Testament , but the veile thereof is made void in Christ , to the end that may be understood and made manifest by him , which without him is hidden and obscure : and therefore the same Apostle immediately after saith : But when thou shalt turn to Christ the ve●l shall be taken away , vers. 16. but he doth not say that the Law or the Old Testament shall be taken away : they are not therefore taken away by our Lo●ds grace , as though unprofitable things lay hidden and were covered there , but rather the veil or cover is taken away , wherewith wholesome and profitable things were covered and kept close . This is the benefit which they reap and receive , who with a studious and a devout mind and not with a troubled and wicked spirit , do se●k after the sense of those Scriptures : and both the order of things , and the causes of what is s●id and done● and so great an accord of the Old Testament with the New , even to the last tittle , and so great mysteries and secrets of figures are ●●●●ly and plainly 〈◊〉 and shewn : that all the things that are found out by interpreting them , may enforce men to confesse and grant that they are miserable and wretched● that will condemn these things , before they have attain●d to the knowledge of them . Touchi●g t●ose words of the Apostl● : The le●●er killeth , but the spirit quickneth , as they are here expounded by S. Augustine , he passeth this judgement , that he did more conveniently in his op●●io●● expound them in his book De Spiritu & Litera , though this sense is not to be rejected . Lib. 1. Retract . ● . 14. CHAP. IV. Of three wa●es whereby men fall into errour . THat for the present the depth and profoundneste of knowledge and science being set aside , I may so treat with thee , as I think I ought to treat with my familiar friend , that is , as well as I can , but not so well as I have admired to see very learned me● been able to do : there be three kinds of errour into which men may fall when they reade any thing ; I will speak of every one of them . The first kind is , when that is thought to be true which indeed is false , and was thought to be ●o by the Authour that wrote it . The second kind not being of so large an extent , yet no lesse damageable and hurtfull then the former , is , when that which is false , is thought to be true● and was thought to be so by the Authour that wrote it . The third kind , is , when some truth is learned out of another mans writing , which the Authour himself that wro●e it , understood not : in which kind there is no small profit , yea if thou dost consider it attentively thou shalt find that the Reader gains unto himself the whole profit of the reading . An example of the first kind is this : If any one should say and believe that Rhadamanthus heareth and judgeth in hell the causes of the dead because he read it in Virgils verses ; for this man erres two manner of wayes : first , for that he believeth that which he ought not to believe ; and secondly , for that the Authour which he read , is not thought to have believed it . An example of the second kind may be this● because Lucretius writes● that the soul is made of atomes , and that after dea●h it is dissolved into the same atomes and perisheth , if any one should think that this is true , and that he ought to believe it : for this man is not lesse unhappy for perswading himself certainly in so great a ●atter that to be true , which indeed is false , for that Lucretius , by who●e books he was deceived , was of that opinion ; for what doth it avail him to be certain of the Authours opinion , when as he hath made choise of such an authour , not by whom , but with whom he might erre and be deceived ? An example of the third kind is this : if any one having read some place in Epicurus his works wherein he praiseth continency should affirm , That he placed the chie●e●t good and felicity in Virtue ; and that therefore he ought not to be blamed nor reprehended ; now though Epicurus believes that the chiefest happinesse of man consists in corporall pleasures , yet what prejudice doth this man receive and sustain by his errour , when as he holds not so filthy and hurtfull an opinion , nor for any other cause is he pleased with Epicurus , but for that he conceives him not to have held so bad an opinion as ought not indeed to have been h●ld and maintained ? this errour , is not onely humane and pardonable , but also oftentimes most worthy of a man : for what if a man should make me this relation touching one of my loving friend● that my friend when he was come to mans estate , told him in the hearing of many , that his infancy and childhood had been so plea●ing and delightfull unto him , that even he swore he would lead such a l●fe afterwards : and that I had received such certain proofs of the truth of this matter , that I could not without shame and impudency deny it : should I seen worthy of blame and reproof , if I should think that when he said this , he meant and intended to signifie thereby , that he took much delight in an innocent life , and a mind alienated from those appetites and desires wherewith mankind is wont to be involved , and thereupon my love and affection towards him should be much increased , although perhaps the young man having been foolish in his tender age , had greatly affected a certain l●berty in playing and eating and sluggish rest ? for suppose he had died after I had received this relation touching him , and no body could be found that could tell me what his judgement and opinion was herein : would any one be so mischievous and wicked , as to fall out and be angry with me for praising his resolution and intention according to the intelligence which had been delivered and imparted unto me ? Yea what if a just valuer and esteemer of things should perhaps make no difficulty to praise and commend my good will and opinion , for that I was taken and delighted with innocency , and being a man would rather frame a good conceit of another man in a doubtfull matter , even when he spake otherwise then he ought to have done ? CHAP. V , Of the truth of the Holy Scripture . NOw thou hast heard the three kinds of errour into which men may fall that reade any thing : hear also so many conditions and differences of the same Scriptures , for it is necessary that so many do occurre ; for either some one hath written a profitable work , and another doth not rightly and profitably understand it : or the writer and the reader have both bestowed their labours unprofitably ; or the reader doth well and rightly understand , but the Authours work is uselesse and unprofitable . Of these three kinds the first I d●●allow not , the last I esteem not : for ●hether can I blame an Authour whose work is not well and rightly understood , if he be no way guilty of that fault , nor can I be troubled to see an Authour read that hath not known the truth , when I see that his readers do receive no hurt nor prejudice thereby : wherefo●e , there is one kind that is most approved , and is most purged and cleansed from errour , which is , when not onely good works are set forth , but are also well and rightly understood by their readers ; yet notwithstanding that also is divided into two kinds , and it is not wholly free from errour : for it happeneth oftentimes that the writer hath a good meaning● and the reader hath so too , but another then he , and oftentimes a better conceit , oftentimes a lower , and yet one that is commodious and profitable : but when as we attain to the true sense and meaning of the Authour which we reade ; and the work much conduceth to the leading of a good life , the truth appears abundantly therein , and there is no gap nor passage that lies open to falshood and deceit . This kind is very seldome to be found , when the discourse is about things that are extremely hard and obscure ; neither in my opinion can it be clearly and manifestly known● , but onely be believed : for by what proofs or arguments can I so perfectly gather what the will of a man is , that is absent or dead● that I can swear and take my oath what it is : when as if he were asked even being present there might be many things which he might most officiously conceal and hide , although he wer● not a wicked man ? but to know the quality of the Authour I think it no●hing avails to the knowledge of the matter : yet neverthelesse he highly deserves to be reputed and esteemed to be a good man , who by his books and writings affords great assistance unto mankind and to posterity . Now I would have the Manichees to tell me in which kind they place the errour ( which they conceive ) of the Catholick Church . If in the first it is a grievous fault indeed , but we need not seek farre to know how to defend it ; for it is sufficient to deny that we understand it , as they conceive , when they inveigh against it . If in the second , it is no lesse ●grievous , but the same words will serve to confute it . If in the third , it is no fault at all . Go to then , and hereafter consider the Scriptures themselves : for what do they object against the books which are called the Old Testament ? do they say that they are good , but that we do not well and rightly understand them ? but they themselves receive them not . Do they say that they are neither good , nor rightly understood by us ? but this is sufficiently ●onvinced by the former defense ; or will they say , that we rightly understand them , but that the books be naught ? what is this , but to acquit and absolve their living adversaries , with whom they are in debate , and to accuse those that are formerly dead , with whom they have no contention nor strife ? Verily I do believe that all the works which those men left to posterity , were profitably written , and that they were great and very holy men , and that that Law was made and published by Gods will and command : and although my skill and knowledge be but very little in books of that kind , yet this I can easily prove to be true unto one that bears an equall and an impartiall , and not an obstinate and a refractory mind ; and I will do it , when thou wilt afford me an attentive and a courteous hearing , and mine own occasions will permit . But now is it not sufficient for me , howsoever that businesse goes , not to have been beguiled nor deceived . CHAP. VI . That the holy Scripture is first to be loved before it can be learned . OHonoratus , I call mine own conscience and God , who inhabits pure souls , to witnesse , that I judge and esteem nothing to be more 〈◊〉 nothing more chaste , nothing more rel●gious then all those Scriptures be , which under the name of the Old Testament , are held and embraced by the Catholick Church . I know thou admirest to hear me talk thus , for I cannot disguise nor dissemble the matter , we have been exhorted and perswaded to believe far otherwise : but truly , a rasher act cannot be committed ( rashnesse being a fault unto which we were addicted being yet but children ) then to forsake the judgement of the Exposit●urs of any kind of books who professe that they can receive them , and can teach and deliver them to their disciples : and to require their judgement and opinion of them , who being constrained , I know not for what cause have denounced a most sharp and bitter warre ag●inst their authours and compilers ? and that I may speak of those scie●ces whe●ein perhaps a Reader may 〈◊〉 without any heinous crime or off●●ce , who ev●r thought that the exposition of the profound and obscure books of Aristotle ought to be received from his enemy ? or who being desirous to learn the Geometry of Archimedes , would take Epicurus to be his master , against which he disputed very sti●fely and eag●●ly , and yet ( as ● conceive ) he understood nothing thereof ? Are those Sc●iptures of the law most plain and easie , against which they proceed with violence in vain and to no purpose , as though they were exposed and lay open to the capacity of the common people ? I think these men are like to that woman which they themselves do laugh at and deride , who being angry to hear the praises of the sunne , and to have it recommended unto her by a certain Manichean woman to be worshipped , as she was religiously simple , starts up upon a sudden , and stamping often upon the place , which the sunne with his beams had enlightned thorough a window , began to cry out , Behold I contemn and tread under foot the sunne and thy God . That this was done altogether foolishly , and like unto a woman , no man can deny : but do not those men seem to resemble her , who casting forth violent speeches and curses against the things they understand not , neither why they were written , nor what manner of things they be ( which seem as t●●●g● 〈◊〉 ●ere low and contemptible , but to them that understand them they are subtile and divine ) think to receive some benefit thereby , because unskilfull men do countenance and applaud them ? believe me whatsoever is contained in those Scriptures is high and divine : there is truth altogether in them , and most fit instruction both for the amending and reforming mens minds : and it is certainly so well digested and ordered , that every one may receive from thence that which is sufficient for himself , if he comes prepared to take it with such piety and devotion , as true Religion doth require . Should I go about to prove this unto thee I must alledge many reasons , and entertain thee with a longer discourse : for first I must perswade thee not to hate the Authours themselves , and then to love them : and this I must effect by a●● 〈◊〉 ●eans● rather then by expounding their opinions and their writings : and therefore if we did hate Virgil , yea if we did not love him upon the commendation of our Predecessours before we understood him , we should never be satisfied in those innumerable questions touching him wherewith Grammarians are wont to be much perplexed and troubled : nor should we give ●are to any man that could resolve those questions to his honour and praise , but we should give countenance and shew favour unto him who by those questions would endeavour to shew that he erred and doted ; but now when as many men do labour to expound them , and that after divers manners , and every one according to his skill and ability , they receive the chiefest commendation and applause , by whose expositions he is found to be a better Poet , and he is conceived and believed even by those that understand him not , not onely to have committed no fault nor errour , but to have said nothing which doth not de●erve much glory and praise : and therefore if a Master fails but in a small question , and knows not what to answer , we are rather angry and offended with him , then we will conceive that by any fault committ●d by Maro he is silent and dumb : but if a Master should in his own defence , 〈◊〉 that so great an Authour hath committed a fault , he would loose so much credit and reputation thereby , that his scholars would hardly continue with him even though he should hyre them with wages and rewards . How great a matter were it for us to give so much credit to those Writers by w●ose mouthes the Holy Ghost hath spoken as Antiquity confirmed by a long continuance doth testifie and declare ? but we forsooth being very wise young men , and wonderfull searchers of reasons , not having so much as perused those books nor sought o●t Masters to expound them unto us , nor somewhat accused our own slownesse herein , nor held them to have any judgement or understanding who affirmed that those works had for a long time been read , kept and expounded thorough the whole world , though that no credit was to be given unto them , being moved by their words , who were their enemies and offended with them , by whom we were enforced with a false promise of reason to believe and embrace unheard of millions of fables and ●ales . CHAP. VII . That we ought not to judge rashly of the holy Scriptures : and how and with what care and diligence the true Religion is to be sought for . BUt now if I can , I will accomplish that which I have begun , and I will treat with thee after such a sort , that in the mean time I will not expound the Catholick Faith , but I will shew unto them that have a care of their souls some hope of divine fruit , and of finding out the Truth , to the end they may search out the great mysteries and secrets of Faith . He that seeks after the true Religion , doth without doubt either believe already that the Soul is immortall , unto whom that Religion may be commodious and profitable , or he desires to find her to be so in the same Religion ; and therefore all Religion is for the souls sake : for the nature of the body howsoever it doth put him to no care and solicitude , especially after ●eath , whose soul hath taken a course by which it may become blessed . Wherefore true Religion if there be any , was either onely one chiefly instituted for the souls sake : and this soul erres and is foolish , as we see untill she gets and possesses wisdome , and that perhaps is the true Religion , if I seek out and enquire the cause of her erring , I find it to be a thing which is extremely hidden and obscure . But do I send thee to fables ? or do I enforce thee to believe any thing rashly ? I say our soul being entangled and drowned in errour and folly , seeks after the way of verity and truth , if there be any such to be found , if thou findest not thy self thus inclined and disposed , pardon me , and make me I pray thee , partaker of thy wi●dome : but if thou doest , let u● , I beseech thee both together seek out the truth . Imagi●e with thy self that no no●●c● had as yet been given unto us , nor no insinuation made unto us of any Religion whatsoever . Behold we undertake a new work , and a new businesse . Professours of Religion are I believe to be sought for , if there be no such thing . Suppose then that we have found men of divers opinions , and in that diversity seeking to draw every one unto them ; but that in the mean time , some amongst these do surpasse the rest in renown of ●ame , and in the possession of almost all people . Whether they embrace the truth or no it is a great question ; but are they not first to be examined and tried , that so long as we erre ( for as men we are subject to errour ) we may seem to erre with mankind it self ? but thou wilt say , Truth is to be found but amongst a few certain men : if thou knowest amongst whom it is , why then thou knowest already what it is . Did not I say a little before that we would seek after the truth , as though we were yet ignorant thereof ? but if by the force of truth thou doest conjecture that there be but few that embrace it , and yet thou knowest not who they be , what if those few do lead and rule the multitude by their authority , and can dive into the secrets and mysteries of faith , and can make them in a manner plain and manifest ? do we not see how few attain to the height of eloquence , and yet the schools of Rhetoricians do make a great noise throughout the whole world , wit● companies of young men ? Do all those that desire to become good oratours , being terrified with the multitude of unskilfull men , think that they ought to addict themselves rather to the studie of the orations of Co●cilius and Erucius , then to those of Tullius Cicero ? all men affect the things that are strengthened and confirmed by the authority of their ancestours . The simple sort of people endeavours to learn those things which a few learned men have delivered unto them to be learned : but very few there be that attain unto great eloquence , fewer there be that practise it , but fewest of all that grow eminent and are famous . What if true Religion be some such thing ? what if a multitude of ignorant people frequents the Churches , it is no proof nor arg●ment , that therefore none are made perfect by those mysteries ? and yet if so f●w should studie eloquence , as there are few that become ●loquent , our parents would never think it fit to have us recommended unto such masters . When as therefore the multitude , which abounds with a number of unsk●lfull people invites us to these studies● and makes us earnestly to affect that which few do obtain , why will we not admit that we have the like cause i● Religion , the which peradventure we contemne and despise to the great perill and hazard of our souls ? for if the most true and most sincere worship of God , though it be but amongst a few , yet it is amongst those with whom the multitude , though wholly addicted to their appetit●s and desires , and farre from the purity of knowledge and understanding● doth con●ent and agree , which without all doubt may come to passe : I ask , what answer are we able to give if any one should r●prove our ●ashnes & folly for that having a great care to find out the true Religion , we do not diligently search it out amongst the masters and teachers thereof ? if I should say the multitude hath discouraged me . Why then hath it not disheartened men from the study of the liberall sciences which hardly yields any profit to this present life ? why not from seeking after money and getting wealth ? why not from obtaining dignities and honours ? moreover , why not from recovering and preserving health ? finally , why not from the desire of a blessed & an happy life ? in all which affairs though many men be imployed , yet few there be that ate eminent and excell . You will say that the books of the Old Testament seemed to contain absurd things . Who are they that affirm it ? namely enemies , for what cause or reason they did it , is not now the question ; but yet they were enemies , you will say when you read them you understood so much by your own reading . Is it so indeed ? if thou hadst no skill in Poetrie at all thou durst not take in han●Terentianus Maurus without a master ; Asper , Cornutus● Donatus , and a multitude of other Authours are thought requisite for the understanding of any Poet , whose verses deserve no greater esteem then the approbation and applause of a stage : and thou without a guide doest undertake to reade those books , and without a master darest passe thy judgement upon them , which , howsoever they be , are notwithstanding by the confession of almost all mankind , published to be holy and replenished with divine matters : nor if tho● findest some things therein which seem unto th●e absurd , dost thou rather accuse the dulnesse of thy wit● and thy mind corrupted with the infection of this world ( as the minds of all fools are ) then those books which peradventure by such kind of men cannot be well conceived and understood . Thou shouldst do well to seek out a man both pious and learned , or one that is esteemed and reputed so to be , by the approbation and consent of many ; by whose instructions thou mightest become better , and more expert and skilfull by his learning . Such an one ( saist thou ) was not easie to be found : it would be some labour and trouble to seek him . There was none such in the land wherein thou didst dwell . If so , what cause could more profitably enforce thee to travell ? if he lay hid in the continent or firm land , or were not there at all ; thou shouldst sail beyond sea : if he were not there to be found by the shore , thou shoulde●t make a voyage even unto those lands , wherein the things which are contained in those books are said and reported to have been done . O Honorat us have we done any such thing ? and yet when we were but most wretched and silly boyes we did at our own pleasure , and in our own judgement , condemn a Religion , and that perhaps a most holy one ( for I speak , as yet , as though some doubt were to be made thereof ) whose fame and renown hath already possessed the whole world . What if the things which ●eem in those Scriptures offensive to some that are ignorant and unskilfull , be for this cause so written and set down , that when such things are read as ●gree not with the sense of all sorts of men , but much lesse with theirs that are holy and wise , we may with more care and diligence seek out a secret and hidden meaning thereof ? doest thou not see how men labour to interpret the pastorall Catamite , upon whom the rough shepherd poured out his affections : and how they as●irm that the boy Alexis ( upon whom Plato is also said to have made some love-ver●es ) signifies I know not what great and mysterious matter , but that it surpasseth the judgement and understanding of unskilfull men : when as indeed that Poet abounding in his inventions may without any detestable crime or offence be conceived to have published lascivious songs ? but were we indeed hindred and withdrawn from seeking out the true Religion , either by the publishing of some law against it , or by the power of them that oppose it , or by the contemptible shew and appearance of men dedicated to the service of God , or by any base or di●honest report ; or by the newnesse of the institution , or by some hidden profession thereof ? No , no , none of these things did withdraw and hinder us : all laws both divine and humane do permit men to seek out the Catholick faith , and certainly it is lawfull according to humane law to hold & embrace it , if so long as we erre , we be uncertain of the divine law . We have no enemie that puts any fright or terrour into our weaknes : although truth and the salvation of our souls , if it be sought after , where it is lawful to seek it with most safety ; and it cannot be found , ought to be enquired for with any danger and hazard whatsoever ; the degrees of all powers & dignities do most devoutly impart their service unto this sacred and divine worship : and the very name of Religion is most honourable , and hath a very great esteem and renown . What hindereth us then at last to seek out carefully , and to examine with a pious and diligent search , whether here be that truth which though few do know and retain after the sincerest manner , yet the favour and good w●ll o● a●l nati●●s doth con●●i●e therein ? All this being so , imagine ( as I said ) that we now make our first enquiry what Religion we ought to embrace , both for the cleansing and reforming of our souls . Without doubt we must take our beginning from the Catholick Church , for there are now more Christians then if the Jews were joyned with the worshippers of idols . And where●● of the same Christians there be divers heresies , and all would have themselves thought to be Catholicks , and do call others besides themselves hereticks ; the Church is one , as all do grant , greater in multitude , if thou considerest the whole world , and ( as those that know do affirm ) more sincere in truth then all the re●t ; but as for truth it is another question . But that which is sufficient for those that seek it , is , that the Catholick Church is one upon which other heresies do impose divers names , when as every one of them is called by its proper name , which it dares not deny ; where by we may understand by the judgement of● Arbitratours not hindred by any favour● unto whom the name Catholick which all seek after , ought to be attributed . But lest that any one should think that this thing ought to be debated with much babling or superfluous discourse● there is one Church indeed wherein even the humane Laws are after a sort Christian . Yet I will have no preocupation of judgement to be drawn from hence , but I judge it to be a most fit beginning for the seeking out of the truth . For there is no fear least the true worship of God relying upon no proper force of its own , should seem to stand in need to be upheld and supported by them whom ●t ought to sustain and support : but certainly it were a perfect happinesse , if the Tru●h could there be found , where with most security it may be sought and retained : but if it cannot , it ought to be sought for in another place , what danger and perill soever be incurred . CHAP. VIII . Of the way to the instruction of piety , and of the wonderfull pains Sa●nt Augustine took to find it out . HAving thus resolved and determined these things , which in my opinion are so right and just , that I ought to prevail in that cause with thee , whosoever were against it : I will recount unto thee as well as I can , what course I took to find out the true Religion , when as I sought it with such a mind and resolution as I have now declared , that it ought to be ●ought for . When I was departed from thee beyond the Sea , now staggering and doubting what I ought to embrace and what to reject ( which doubting daily encreased in me from the time that I gave ear unto that man , whose coming unto us , was as thou knowest ) promised as from heaven , for the resolving of all the difficulties where with we were troubled , and I knew him to be a man like other men , but onely that he was cloquent , I held a great debate and deliberation with my self being now in Italy ; not whether I should continue in that sect into which I was sorry and grieved that I had faln , but by what means I might find out the truth , for the love whereof thou canst bear me witnesse , how I sighed and groaned . I was often of an opinion that it could not be found out , and the great waves of my thoughts and cogitations moved me to assent to the Academicks . Oftentimes again when I considered as well as I could , that the mind of man is endued with such vivacity and naturall strength , with such wisdome and sharpnesse of wit , and with such quicknesse of judgement and understanding , I did not think that Tru●h could lye hidden and be concealed , but onely that the manner of Seeking it was hidden and unknown , and that that manner was to be received from some Divine Authority , it remained that I should enquire what that Authority was , when as in so great Dissensions and diversity of Opinions every one did promise that he would Teach and deliver it . Whereupon there occurred unto me an intricate Wood or Labyrinth into which it was very tedious and irksome to enter ; and my mind remaining restl●sse am●ngst these things , was toss●d to a●d fro with a great desire of finding out the truth : yet neverthelesse by little and little I brake off from their company more and more whom I had already purposed to forsake , and there was nothing now remaining in so great perils and dangers , but that with tears and pittifull words , I should beseech the Divine Providence to assist and help me ; and this I did deliver gently and carefully , and now I was almost shaken by some disputations had with the Bishop of Millan S. Ambrose , l. 5. conf. c. 14● so that not without some hope I desired to enquire many things touching the Old Testament , which ( as thou knowest ) being discommended and dispraised unto us we abhorred and detested . And I had resolved to remain so long a Catechumen in the Church unto which I was delivered by my parents , untill I could find out that which I desired , or could perswade my self that it ought not to be sought for . Wherefore if there had been any one then , that could have taught me , he might have found me a most apt schollar and very docible . After this manner and with the like care and anxiety of thy soul thou seest that thou hast been long troubled and afflicted , and if thou seemest to thy self to have been already sufficiently tosse● , and wouldest make an end of these labours and pains : Follow the way of the Catholick Discipline , which hath proceeded from Christ himself by his Apostles even unto us , and from hence shall descend and be conveyed to posterity . CHAP. IX . Of Credulity . THou sayest my advice is foolish and ridiculous , seeing that all men do make it their profession to embrace and deliver Catholick doctrine . That all Hereticks do professe this I cannot deny , but after such a manner , that unto those which they entice and allure unto them , they promise to give a reason for the most hidden and mostobscure things : and chiefly for this cause they blame and reprehend the Catholick Church , becau●e those that approch and come unto her are commanded to believe : but they glory and boast that they impose not upon their followers the yoke of Faith and Bel●eving● but open unto them the fountain it self of teaching and instruction . What ( sayst thou ) could be uttered or spoken more redounding to their praise and commendation ? It is not so . This they promise having no power nor ability to perform it , but that by the name and pretence of reason they may winne and allure much company unto them ; for the soul of man naturally rejoyceth at the promise of reason , and not having regard to her own forces and weaknesse , by a desire she hath to eat the meats of those that are in health ( which are not prudently given to the infirm ) she hastily falls upon the poyson of the deceivers . But as for true Religion it can by no means be well and rightly received without some weighty command and force of authority , unlesse those things be first believed , which every one may afterwards attain unto , and learn if he carries himself well , and be thought worthy of it . Perhaps thou requirest some reason hereof , whereby thou mayst be induced and perswaded to believe that thou oughtest not sooner to be taught by reason , then by Faith and Belief . Which I can easily give unto thee , if thou wilt accept and receive it from me with an equall and impartiall mind . But that it may commodiously be done , I would have thee as it were answer to such questions as I shall propose unto thee . And first of all I would have thee to tell me : why dost thou conceive that we ought not to Believe ? Because ( sayst thou ) credulity it self , from whence men are called credulous , seems unto me to be a certain vice , else it would not be a custome to object this name by way of reproch . For if a suspitious man be culpable and faulty , because he suspects things not certainly known : much more doth a credulous man deserve to be blamed , who differs herein from a suspitious man , that he that is suspitious maketh some doub● in unknown things , but he that is credulous makes none at all . In the mean time I admit of this opinion and this distinction ; but thou knowest also that we do not say a man is curious but by way of taunt and reproch , but when we call a man studious , we speak it in his praise a●d commendation : wherefore if you please , mark what difference you concei●e to be between these two . Thou answerest , that although both be moved with a great desire of knowing , yet in this they dif●er , that the curious man enquires after the things that belong not unto him , but the studious on the contrary after his own affairs . But we grant that a wife and children and their welfare do belong unto a man , and therefore if any one being gone a farre off out of his native soile should make a diligent enquiry of those that come from his parts , how his wife and children do , he hath certainly a great desire to know it , and yet we call not this a studious man , although he be desirous to know , and even those things which do chiefly belong and appertain unto him . Wherefore now thou understandest that that definition of a studious man is herein defective and imperfect : that every studious man desires to know the things that belong unto him , but that every man that hath such a desire ought not to be called a studious man ; but he who exceedingly seeks after the things which belong to excellent breeding , and to the adorning of the mind , we rightly call ( in Latine ) a Student , that is , a desirous man , especially if we adde what he desires to hear . For we call one also studious of his friends , that loves his friends onely : yet neve●thelesse we think him not worthy of the common name of studious men without any addition . But one that desires to know how his friends do , I wonld not call him studious or desirous of hearing , unlesse having a good fame and credit he should often desire to hear the same thing , but if he should but once desi●e to hear it , I would call him a Student or desiring man . Now reflect upon a curious man , and tell me whether if any one should willingly hear a short tale not conducing at all unto his profit , that is , of things not belonging unto him , and this not with great eagernesse and often , but very seldome and very modestly , either in some banquet , or in some meeting or assembly , wouldest thou think him to be a curious man ? I conceive not , but truly he that hath a care of that thing which he would willingly hear might seem indeed to be so . Wherefore the definition also of a curious man ought to be corrected by the same Rule as is that of a studious man . And therefore consider also , whither the things formerly spoken ought to be amended . For why is he not unworthy of the name of a suspitious man , who sometimes suspecteth something , and he of a credulous man that sometimes believeth something ? Wherefore as there is a very great difference between one that is desirous of any thing , and one that is altogether studious , and again between one that hath a care of a thing , and one that is curious : so is there between a believing man and a credulous man . CHAP. X. Why cre●●lity is the way to Religion . BUt thou wilt say , Now see whither we ought to believe in Religion . For neither if we grant it to be one thing to believe , another to be credulous , doth it follow , that it is no fault to believe in matters of Religion : for what if it be a fault both to believe and to be credulous , as it is both to be drunk and to be a drunkard ? whosoever thinks this to be certainly true , can in my opinion have no friend at all . For if it be a thing unreasonable to believe any thing , either he commits a foul fault that gives credit to his friend ; or if he believes him not , I see not how he can call himself a friend , or the other . Here peradventure thou wilt say , I grant that something ought sometimes to be believed : now declare how in Religion it is not ● thing unreasonable to believe any thing before we know it , or understand it . I will if I can . Wherefore I ask thee , which doest thou conceive to be the greater ●ault , to instruct an unworthy person in Religion , or to believe that which is said by the instructours and teachers thereof ? if thou understandest not whom I call an unworthy person : such an one I mean as comes to receive and embrace Religion with a feigned and dissembling heart . Thou grantest , as I conceive , that it is a thing more worthy of blame to expound to such an one the holy mysteries of faith , then to give credit to religious men , affirming something of Religion it self . Neither would it become thee to give another answer . Wherefore now imagine with thy self , that the man were present who is to in●truct thee in point of Religion : how wilt thou make him believe that thou comest with a true and an unfeigned mind , and that thou usest no deceit nor dissimulation in this businesse ? thou wilt say that upon thy good conscience thou feignest nothing , assuring it with all the words thou canst use , but y●t with words . For being a man thou canst not so open the corners and secrets of thy mind to another man , that he may know thee inwardly . And if he shall say : Behold I do believe thee : but is it not more fit that thou also shouldst give credit unto me , seeing that if I hold and embrace any truth , thou art to receive the benefit thereof , and I to impart it ? What answer shall we give , but that he ought to be believed ? but saist thou , Had it not been be●ter to alledge reason unto me , that I might followit without any rashnesse whithersoever it should lead me ? Perhaps it had been : but seeing that it is so great a matter for thee to know God by reason , doest thou think that all men are capable of understanding the reasons whereby the mind of man is led to the knowledge of divine things● or the greater part of them● or but a few ? I think , thou sayst but a few . Doest thou believe that thou art in that number ? Thou saist , It is not my part to answer to that question . Thou thinkest then that it is his part also to believe thee in this matter : which he doth indeed . Onely let me put thee in mind , that he hath already twice given credit unto thee , speak●●g uncertain things : and that thou wouldest not so much as once believe him , whe● he religiously warned and admonished thee . But suppose this to be so , and that thou comest with a ●incere mind to embrace Religion , and that being one of those few men , thou canst understand the reasons by which the divine power i● certainly known● doest thou think that Religion is to be denied to other men , that have not so great wi●s and judgements as thou hast ? or doest thou conceive that by little and little they ought to be led by certain degrees to those chiefest secrets ? thou plainly seest what course of proceeding is the more religious . For thou canst not think that any man ought by any means to be forsaken or rejected in the desire and affection of so great a matter . But art not thou of opinion , that unlesse a man ●irst beli●ves , that he shall attain unto that which he intended , and bears an humble and a suppliant mind , and being obedient to certain great and necessary precepts● be very w●ll purged and made clean by a certain course of life , he cannot otherwise obtain those things that are purely true ? indeed thou thinkest so . If then they , who by certain reason can most easily conceive the divine mysteries , ( one of which sort I believe thee to be ) should proceed in this way , wherein those walk that first do believe , would they receive any hu●t thereby ? I think not . But yet thou saist , what necessity is there of delay ? because , although by their proceedings they shall not prejudice themselves at all , yet they will endamage others by their example . For there is hardly any one , that hath so high a conceit of himself as he can have ; and he that thinks too humbly of himself , ought to be raised up , and he that thinks too high , ought to be repressed , that neither the one may be overcome by despair , nor the other cast down headlong by boldnesse and presumption . Which is easily brought to passe , if even those that are able to flie , should a little be enforced to go , lest any should be dangerously invited thereunto , and thereby also a sufficient care may be had of others . This is the Providence of true Religion : this God himself hath appointed and command●d : this hath been delivered by our Predecessours of happy m●mory , this hath been observed even untill our dayes ; to go about to overthrow this order● is nothing else but to seek out a sacrilegious way to true Religion . Which whosoever do , cannot attain unto that which they intend ; though that be granted them which they desire . For howsoever they surpasse and excell in wit , unlesse the divine Majesty doth aid and assist them , they creep upon the ground . Which assistance he then affords when they that tend and walk towards him , have a care to proceed according to the course of humane society . Then which degree and step towards heaven nothing can be found more firm and stable . Verily , such is the force and efficacy of this reason , that I cannot re●i●t it , for how can I say , that nothing ought to be believed unlesse it be known ? besides all friendship is taken away unlesse something may be believed which cannot be demonstrated and proved by certain reason : and oftentimes without offence credit may be given to such stewards as are servants to Lords . But in matters of Religion what can be done that is more unreasonable and unjust , then that Gods Prelates should believe us , when we promise that we come to embrace Religion with an unfeigned mind ; and we refuse to give credit unto them , when they teach and instruct us ? Finally , what way can be more wholesome and profitable , then by believing those things which God hath appointed as preparatives for the culti●ating and adoring the mind to be first disposed , and made fit to understand and receive the truth ? or if thou beest already sufficiently disposed thereunto , rather to go a little about , where thou maist walk with the greatest safety , then bo●h to be the Authour of danger to thy self , and an example of temerity , and rashnesse unto others . CHAP. XI . Of Vnderstanding , Belief and Opinion . VVE have shewed already how without offence we may follow those that command us to believe : it remains that we consider for what cause they are not to be followed that promise to conduct and lead us by reason . Some are of opinion that they can ●earken and give eare to these promisers of reason , not onely without any blame or dispraise , but also with some commendation and praise ; but it is not so , for there be two sorts of persons that deserve praise in point of Religion : the one which hath already found out the true Religion , which we ought to judge most happy and blessed : the other which with the greatest care , and after the rightest manner , doth seek after it : the first sort is now in possession of it , the second is in the way , by which notwithstanding most certainly they will arrive at it . There be three other kinds of men which are indeed to be misliked and detested . The first is , of those that are opinative , that is , who think they know that which they know not . The second is , of those who truly do perceive their own ignorance , but do not so seek that they may find . The third is of those that ●either think they know , nor have any will or desire to seek . There are also three things in the minds of men , near as it were the one unto the other , most worthy to be distinguished , to understand , to believe , and to think . Of which , if they be considered by themselves , the first is alwaies without offence , the second sometimes faultie , the third never without a fault ; and this we ought to reserve to the same beatitude and felicity . For in this life how much soever a man knows his knowledge doth not as yet make him most blessed , for that there be incomparably more things whereof he is ignorant . For to understand great and worthy , and divine things it is a most blessed thing . But it is not hurt full to understand superfluous things , but perhaps it was prejudicial to learn them , when as they took up the time of necessary things . Also it is not a miserable thing to understand hurtfull things , but to do or suffer them . For if any one understands how his enemie may be slain without endangering himself he becomes not guilty by understanding it , if he desires it not : yea if he be free from such a desire , who is more innocent and guiltlesse then he ? In believing a man is then to blame , when either he believes some unworthy thing of God , or gives too facile and easie credit unto the things reported of man . But in other things , if a man believes any thing , he commits no fault by believing , though he understands that he knows not the thing which he believes . For I believe that in times past , most wicked conspiratours were put to death by the power and authority of Cicero : but this I do not onely not know , but also I know assuredly that I can by no means attain unto the knowledge thereof , To be opinative or to be led by opinion , is for two causes an unseemly thing : First , because he cannot learn a thing● if it be to be learned , that hath perswaded himself that he knows it already . And secondly , for that rashnesse is of itself a sign or token of an ill disposed minde . For although any one thinks that he knows that which I said touching Cicero ( as there is nothing that can hinder him from learning it ) yet because he can have no certain knowledge of it , and for that he understands not , That there is a great difference , whither any thing be comprehended by certain reason of mind , which we say is to understand , or whither it be committed to common fame or writing , to be profitably believed by posterity , he erres indeed ; and there is no errour but hath its foulnesse and deformity . Wherefore that we understand we attribute it to reason : that we believe , to authority ; and that we are opinative , to errour and mistaking : but every one that understands doth also believe : and so doth every one that is opinative : but not every one that beli●ves , understands : and no man understands that is opinative . If therefore these three kinds be referred to those five sorts of men whereof we made mention a little before , to wit , to the two approved kinds which we put in the first place , and to the other three vicious kinds ; we find that the first kind ( which is those that are happy ) doth believe truth it self : and that the second kind ( which is those that are desirous and lovers of truth ) doth believe authority : in both which kinds the believers deserve praise . But in the first of the vicious kinds ( that is of those that think they know that which they know not ) there is indeed a faulty credulity . The other two disallo●ed kinds ( that is , both those that seek after truth with a despair of finding it out , and they that seek not after it ) do believe nothing ; and this is onely in things belonging to some doctrine or discipline , for how a man can believe nothing in the other actions of his life I understand not . Albeit even amongst those that affirm that in their actions they follow probable opinions , some there be that will seem rather not able to know any thing , then to believe nothing . For who doth not believe that which he doth approve ? Or how is that which they follow profitable , if it be not approved ? Wherefore there may be two kinds of those that oppose the truth : the one that opposeth knowledge onely , and not faith : the other that condemneth both the one and the other . But whither any can be found that use such proceedings in humane af●airs , I am wholly ignorant . These things are spoken that we may understand , that believing the things which we do not as yet fully know nor understand , we are vindicated and defended from the rashnesse and temerity of opinative men . As for them that say that we ought to believe nothing , but that which we k●ow , they have ●nely regard to the name of opinion , which I confesse is but base and ignominious : but if any one will consider attentively , that there is a very great difference between these two things , whither a man thinks that he knows a thing , or whither being moved by some authority , he believes that which he understands that he knows not , he shall certainly shun and avoid the crime both of errour , inhumanity and pride . Observation . S. A●g●stine in his first book of Retractations and fourteenth Chapter , would have those words . ( The one which hath already found out the true Religion which we ought to judge most happy a●d most blessed ) so to be understood , that they are most blessed not in this life , b●t in that which we hope for , and unto which we go by the way of Faith , for ( saith he ) they are to be conceived to have found out that which is to be sought for , who are there already● whither we by seeking and believing● that is by embracing the way of Faith do desire to arrive . And again he affirms that those words : To understand great and worthy and divine things , it is a most blessed thing● ought to be referred to eternall beatitude . And upon these words : ( There is a great difference whither any thing be comprehended by certain reason of mind , which we ●ay , is to understand : or whither it be committed to common fame , or writing to be pro●itably believed by posterity ; ) and upon these : ( That we understand we attribute it to reason : that we believe to authority ) he maketh this explication : This is not so to be understood that in common discourse we should be afraid to say we know that which we beli●ve by credible witnesses , for when ●e speak properly , we are onely said to know that which we comprehend by firm reason of mind . But when we speak with words more fit to be commonly used , as the Scripture also speaketh , we make no doubt to say , that we know both that which we perceive by our corporall senses , and which we believe upon the report of credible witnesses , but yet so that we understand what difference there is between the one and the other . CHAP. XII . That it is the safest way to Believe Wise men . IF that which is not known ought not to be believed , I ask then how can children obey parents and embrace them with mutuall love and affection , whom they may believe not to be their parents ; for that who is their father , it cannot be known by reason , but it is believed upon the word and authority of the Mother : and as for the Mother , she often is not believed , but Midwives , Nurses and Servants : For if her child may be stoln from her and another put in the place , cannot she deceive being deceived ? and yet notwithstanding we believe , and that without any doubt and staggering at all , that which we confesse we cannot know : and unlesse this were so , who sees not but that Piety the most holy tye and bond of mankind would be violated and defiled by a most proud wickednesse and offence ? For who , though he be a mad man , can think him worthy of blame , who doth perform his obliged duties unto those whom he behev●s to be his parents , although indeed they were not ? On the co●trary who will not think fit to have him cast out of the society of men , who will not love those which perhaps are his true parents , for fear les● he should love those that are false ones ? Many arguments may be brought to shew that nothing at all remains safe and secure in humane society if once we are resolved to believ● nothing which we cannot know nor understand . But now hear tha● whereby I am confident I shall at the present more easily draw and perswade thee , that seein● the question is concerning Religion , that is about the worship of God , and the knowledge of Divine things ) those are les●e to be followed , and hearkned unto , who most readily promising reason , do forbid and prohibite us to believe . No man doubts , but that all men are either fools or wise men ; I call not those wisemen here , that are prudent , ingenious , and witty but those that are endued with as firm and certain a knowledge both of Divine and Huma●e things as man is capable to receive and do lead their lives and frame their manners conformable thereunto : but as for others , how learned or unlearned soever they be● or whither they deserve to be praised or d●spraised for the manner of their lives● I repute and account them in the number of fools : which being so , what man , though but of a slender understanding doth not plainly see , that it is more wholesome and profitable for fools to obey the precepts and commands of wise men , then to frame and order their lives according to their own judgements and fancies ? For every thing that is done , if it be not rightly done , it is a fault : nor can any thing be by any means rightly done , which doth not flow and proceed from right reason ; now right reason is virtue it self ; But amongst what sorts of men is virtue to be found , but in the mind of a wise man ? wherefore the wiseman onely offends not ; but every fool offends , unlesse it be in those actions wherein he doth obey a wise man ; for such actions do proceed from right reason● nor is the fool to be accounred Master ( as I may say ) of his own actions● he being as it were but the instrument or servant of the wise man . Wherefore if it be better for all men not to offend then to offend● verily ●●l fools would live better if they could be servants to wise men . And if this without doubt be ●●t and expedient in things of lesse moment , as in buying or tilling a field , in marrying a wi●e , in the education and breeding of children , and finally in the managi●g of private affairs : much more is it expedient in matters of Rel●gion . For Hu●ane things are both more easie to be known then Divine : and in all things that are more holy and more exce●lent , we sinne so much the more g●ievously and dangerously● by how much we ow● unto them a greater honour , reverence and re●pect . Wherefore thou ●●●st that from hence forth there remains nothing more for us to do , so long as we are fools● but , if we desire to lead a good and a religious life , to seek out wi●e and prudent men , that by obeying of them we may not so much feel the dominion of ●olly , whilst it is in us , and at the length we may become wise men our selves . An Observation . S. Augustine in his first book of Retractions , and fourteenth chapter advertiseth that his division of men into wise men and fools , is to be understood of men after they come to the use of reason , whereby they are distinguished from beasts , as we say all men desire to be blessed , wherein little children cannot be included for they cannot yet de●ire it . CHAP. XIII . That Religion takes her beginning from Believing . HEre again ariseth a questio● of great difficulty : for how shall we that are fools be able to find out a wise man , ●eeing that divers do indifferently challenge that name unto themselves , although almost none dare presume to do it openly , when as they do so disagree amongst themselves about those things , in the knowledge whereof wisdome doth consist , that it is necessary to think that either none of them are wise men , or that there is but one certain wiseman . But when a fool enquires who that is , truly I s●e not by what means he can be plainly discerned and perce●ved : for a man cannot know any thing by any signs whatsoever , unlesse he knows the thing it self , whereof these be the signs ; but a fool knows not wisdome . For wisdome is not like gold and silver and such like things , which thou mayest both know when thou seest , and yet not enjoy and possesse them : he that wants wisdome cannot see nor behold it with the eye of his mind : for all the things which we perceive with our corporall senses , are outwardly proposed and presented unto us ; and therefore we may behold strange and externall things with our eyes albeit we have not any of the things , nor any thing of that kind : but that which is perceived by the understanding● is inwardly in the mind , and it i● nothing el●e to have it , but to see and behold it . But a fool wants wisdome , and therefore knowes it not , for he cannot see it with his eyes ; for he cannot see it and not have it : and he cannot have it and still continue and remain a fool : wherefore he knows it not , and whilst he knows it not , he cannot know it in another place : and therefore no man so long as he remains a fool , can by most certain knowledge find out a wise man , by obeying of whose precepts and commands he may be freed from so great an ev●l as folly is . Now it is God onely that can give satisfaction to this mighty difficulty , and afford remedy for this g●eat evil ; and because our question is ●bout Religion , unlesse we both believe that there is a God , and that he gives assistance to humane minds , we ought not indeed to inquire and seek for true Religion . For what do we desire to find out at length by so great an endeavour ? What wish we to attain unto ? Whither do we long to arrive ? Is it unto that thing which we believe not to have a being nor to belong and appertain unto us ? Nothing is more perverse then such a mind . When thou durst no● beg a favour of me● or with impudence durst crave one dost thou come to demand how Religion may be found out , when thou thinkest not that there is a God . and that we care not whither there be any or no ? What if it be so great a matter● that unlesse it be diligently sought for , and with all might and power it cannot be found out ? What if the extream difficulty of finding out the meaning and understanding of that which shall be found out doth vex and trouble the mind of the seeker ? For what is more pleasant and familiar to our eyes , then this light is ? and yet a●ter long obscurity and darknesse they cannot endure it . What is more fit and commodious for a body that is consumed and exhausted with sicknesse , then meat and drink ? Yet we see that those that are upon recovery are restrained and kept back that they may not pres●me to feed so plentifully as well men do , lest by a full diet they should return to their former di●ease . I speak of those that are recovering their health : but what do we not enforce the sick men themselves to eat something ? which is so great a trouble unto them , that certainly they would not obey us● did they not believe that they shall escape that sicknesse thereby . When therefore wilt thou settle thy self to a most painfull and labo●ious search ? When wilt thou adventure to take so great care and labour upon thee , as this businesse doth deserve , when as thou dost not believe that there is any such thing as that which thou seekest ? Wherefore it was rightly instituted and ordained by the majesty of Catholick discipline , that before all things they should be induced and perswaded to believe , that come to receive and embrace Religion . CHAP. XIV . That Christ himself chiefly exacted belief . SEeing my discourse is concerning th●se that desire to be called Christians● I pray tell me what reason can that heretick alledge unto me ? What can he say to draw me from Believing , as from a rash and incons●de●ate thing ? If he commands me to believe nothing● then do I not believe that there ●s any true Religion in the world : and becau●e 〈◊〉 do not believe that there is ●ny s●ch thing , I do not ●eek after it . But he ( as conceive ) will sh●w it to the ●eeker ; For so it is written : He that seeks shall find . ●here●ore I would not c●m● to him that ●orbids me to b●lieve , unlesse I believed something . ●s there any greater madnesse , then that I should displease them onely with a belief which is supported by no knowledge● a●d yet that belief alone ha●h b●o●ght me to the ●elf same man ? What shall I say● but that all Hereticks do exhort us to believe Christ ? Can they be mo●e oppo●ite and contrary to themselves ? Wherein they are to be pressed two manner of way●s . First they are to be asked , where is the reason which they promised , where the re●●●hension and blaming of rashnesse where the presumption of science and knowledge ? for if it be an ab●u●d thing to be●●eve anyone without reason w●y 〈…〉 expect● why dost thou go 〈…〉 to have me believe any one without ●eason that I may ●o●e easi●y 〈…〉 by thy reaso● ? ●ill thy rea●●n bu●●d any thi●g that is firm & stable upon t●e foundation of temer●●y & ●ashnesse ? I speak according to ●hem whom we discontent & di●please by believing . For to believe before reason , when thou art not yet fit to conceive and understand it , and by faith it self to prepare the mind to receive the seeds of verity and truth , I judge it to be not onely a most wholsome and profitable thing , but also so necessary , that tho●e that have sick and feeble minds cannot recover their healths without it : which because they conceive to be a ridiculous thing and full of rashnesse , it is impudently done of them to perswade and exhort us to believe Christ . Moreover , I confesse that I have already believed Christ , and have p●rswaded my self , that that is true which he hath said● although this my belief be supported by no reason . This is the first lesson O heretick which thou wilt teach me ; but becau●e I have not seen Christ himself , how he vouchsafed to appear amongst men , who is publickly reported to have been seen even by the eyes of common people give me leave a little to consider with my self upon whose words I have believed , that there was a Christ , that being already guarded and fortified by such a faith , I may give ear and hearken unto thee ; I perceive that I believed and gave credit unto none , but to a setled and confirmed opinion , and to a most renowned fame and report of people and nations : these people also I see in all places to be in possession of the secrets and mysteries of the Catholick Church . Why shall not I then chiefly enquire of them diligently what Christ hath commanded● by whose authority being moved , I have already believed that Christ hath commanded some profitable thing ? Wilt thou better expound unto me what● Christ hath ●aid ? whom I would not think to have been , or now to be , if thou didst recommend it unto me to be believed . This therefore ( as I said ) have I believed upon a famous report of men , confirmed with consent and antiquity : but you who a●e both so few , and so turbulent , and so new , it is certain you can produce and bring forth nothing which may de●erve c●edit and belief . And therefore what a madnesse is this in thee ( to say ) Be●ieve them ( the known multitude of Christendome ) that we ought to be●ieve Christ , but learn of us ( Manicheans ) what Christ hath said : Why so I beseech thee ? Verily● if that known multitude should fail● and could teach me nothing : I shou●d much more easily per●wade my self , tha● 〈◊〉 ought not to believe Ch●ist at all then that ● ought to believe any thing concerning him of any others bnt o● tho●e by whose means I first believed him . O migh●y confidence , or rather folly ! I will ( sayst thou ) teach thee what Christ hath commanded , in whom thou art already perswaded to believe . What if I did not believe in him at all , couldest thou teach me any thing concerning him ? But ( sayst thou ) it behooves thee to believe . What , upon your warrant and recommendation ? No ( sayst thou ) for we do by reason lead those which do alre●dy believe in Christ . Why then shall I believe in him ? Because it is a grounded report● was it grounded upon you , or upon others ? Upon others sayst thou . Shall I believe them first , and be afterwards taught an● instructed by thee ? Peradventure ● ought to do so , were I not above all things admonished by them not to come at all unto t●ee : for they say that you h●ld pernicious doctrines . Thou wilt answer● they lie . How ●hen may I believe them concerning Christ whom they have not seen : if I may not believe them concerning thee whom they will not see ? Here sayest thou , Believe the Scriptures . But all Scripture , if being new and unheard of , it be alledged or commended but by a few● and hath no reason to confirm it , receives no credit nor authority at all , but those that alledge it : wherefore if you that are so few and unknown commend those Scriptures unto me , I refuse to believe them : besides also you proceed against your promise , rather by commanding belief , then giving any reason thereof . Here again ( for the authority of Scriptures ) thou wilt call me back to the known multitude of Christendome , and to common report . Restrain at length thy obstinacy , and I know not what unruly appetite of worldly fame : and rather admonish me to seek out the chief rulers of this known multitude , and to enquire for them diligently and painfully , that rather I may learn something of them touching these Scriptures : who if they were not I should not know whither any thing ought to be learnt at all or no . As for thee , return into thy corner and lurkinghole , and delude us no more under a shew and pretence of truth , which thou endeavourest to take away from them , unto whom thou grante●● authority and credit : and if they also deny , that we ought not to believe Christ● unlesse an undoubted reason can be rendred thereof , they are not Christians . For certain Pagans do alledge that against us , foolishly indeed , but yet not contrary nor repugnant to themselves . But who can endure that those men should professe that they belong to Christ , who strongly asfirm that nothing ought to be believed , unlesse most evident reason can be given even unto fools , concerning God and divine matters ? But we see that Christ himself ( as that history teacheth which they also believe ) desired nothing more principally , nor more earnestly then that he might be credited and believed : when as they with whom he was to treat about those affairs were not yet fit to learn and conceive the divine mysteries . For to what other purpose did he work so great and so many miracles , he himself also affirming that they were done for no other end but that men might give credit and beliefe unto him ? He led the simple sort of people by belief : you lead them by reason : he cryed out that he might be believed you cry out against it : he commended those that did believe , you blame and reprehend them . But unlesse he had turned water into wine , to omit his other miracles , could men have been brought to follow him , if he had done no such things● but onely taught and instructed them ? Or is that word of his not to be regarded : 1 Joh. 14. 1. Believe God and believe me : Or is he to be blamed for rashnesse in belief , who would not have Christ come into his house , because he b●lieved that by h●s command onely his sick sonne could be cu●ed ? Mat. 8. 8. He therefore bringing a medicine which was to cu●●●he most corrupt manners , did by m●racles w●nne authority● by author●●y deserved belief , by belief dr●w ●●ge●her a mult●●ud● by a mult●●ude ob●ained an●●qu●ty b● antiquity st●●ngthened and confirmed Relig●on : which no● onely ●h● most foolish novelty of h●re●icks endeavouring by dec●●s but ne●●her the antient errour of the Gentlies being vio●●ntly ben● against it could in any part abolish or destroy . CHAP. XV . Of the most cemmodious way to Religion . VVHerefore albeit I am ●ot able to teach thee , yet do I not cease to warn and admonish thee , that ( because many men will seem to be wi●e , and it is not easie to discern whither they be fools or no ) thou beseechest the divine Majesty with very much earnestnesse and fervent desires with sighs and sobs , or al●o ( if it be possible ) with weeping and tears● to free and deliver thee from the evil of errour , if thou desirest to lead a blessed and an happy life . Which may more easily be brought to passe , if thou wilt willingly obey his commands which he hath been pleased to have confirmed and strengthened by so great an authority of the Catholick Church . For seeing that a wise man is by his mind so united unto God that nothing is interposed and set between them , which may divide and separate them , ( for God is truth , and no man is to be accounted a wise man that doth not attain to the knowledge of truth ) we cannot deny but that the wisdome of man is interposed as a certain medium between his folly and the most sincere truth of the Divine Majesty . For a wi●e man according to the ability which he hath received , doth imitate God : and a fool hath nothing nearer unto him which he may profitably imitate and follow● then a wise man : when because ( as I said ) it is not easie to understand by reason , it was necessary that certain miracles should be proposed and set before mens eyes ( which fools do use much more commodiously then their unde●standings ) to the end that the life and manners of men moved with authority , m●g●t first be purged and made clean● and so they m●ght be enabled to understand reason . And therefore when as man was to be imitated , and yet no confidence to be placed in him : how could the Divine Majesty shew greater signs of his favour and liberality th●n that the sincere eternall , and uncha●ge●ble wisdome of God , unto whom it behoves us to cleave and adhere should vouchsafe to take hum●ne nature upon him ? who did no● onely do those things , which m●ght serve to invite us to follow G●d : but did al●o endure and suffer those things , whereby we were discourag●d from following of him . For whereas no man can ob●ain the most ce●tain and chiefest good , unlesse he doth fully and pe●fectly love it , ( which by no means will be brought to passe so long as men fear the miseries of the body , and the things that ●re subject to fortune and chance ) he by his wonderfull birth and admirable wo●ks hath purchased for us love and charity : and hath excluded terrour and fear by his death and resurrection . And finally he hath shewed himself to be such an one in all other things ( too long to be here expressed and set down ) that we may know and perceive hereby how farre the divine clemency can reach and be extended● and how farre mans infirmity can be elevated and extolled . CHAP. XVI . That M●racles do procure Belief . THis , believe it , is a most wholesome authority : this at the first is a withdrawing of our minds from an earthly habitation : this is a conversion from the love of this world to the true God . It is onely authority which moveth fools to make haste unto wisdome . So long as we cannot understand sincere things , it is indeed a miserable thing to be deceived by authority : but truly it is more miserable , not to be moved thereby . For if the Divine Providence doth not rule and govern humane affairs , we ought not to busie and trouble our selves about Religion : but if even the frame and species of all things , which we must believe proceeds and flows from some fountain of the truest beauty , doth as it were publickly and privately exhort all the more noble and braver spirits both to seek God , in I know not what inward conscience and to serve him : we ought not to despair● but that the same God hath constituted and ordained some authority● upon which if we lean and rely as upon a sure step , we may be elevated and lifted up unto him . This authority , ( reason being set aside , which to understand to be true and sincere , it is a very hard matter for fools to do , as I have often said ) doth move and excite us two manner of wayes : partly by miracles , and partly by the great number and multitude of followers . It is certain that a wise man needs none of these things , but now we are discoursing how we may become wise men , that is , how we may cleave and adhere unto the truth : which is a thing that doubtlesse cannot be done with a foul and impure mind : the uncleannesse whereof , is ( to expound it briefly ) the love of all things whatsoever besides it self and God : from which fi●th by how much any one is more purged and cleansed , by so much the more easily doth he behold the truth . And therefore to desire to see the truth that thou mayst cleanse the mind , when therefore it ought to be cleansed , that thou mayest see the truth , is certainly a perverse and a preposterous thing . Wherefore to a man that is not able to behold the truth that he may be made fit to see it , and may suffer himself to be purged and cleansed , authority is at hand , which without doubt receives her str●ngth and vigour partly by miracles , and partly by the number and multitude of followers , as I said a little before . A miracle I call any hard or unwonted thing whatsoever , which appears above the expectation and power of the wonderer . In which kind nothing is more fit for the common people , and for men that are absolutely ●ottish and foolish , then that which is applyed and proposed to the senses . But these again are divided into two sorts : for some there be that onely move men to wonder and admiration : and others which besides do winne and purchase great favour and good will . For if any one should see a man fly , he would onely wonder at it , because it is a thing which besides the beholding of it , yields to the spectatour no commodity nor profit . But if any one being afflicted with a grievous and desperate sicknesse , shall so soon as the disease is commanded to depart , recover his health , he shall overcome the wonder of the cure by the charity of the curer . Such things were done as many as were sufficient , when God appeared to men in the shape of a true man : The sick were cured , Mat. 9. 6 , 13 , 15 , 16. Mat. 9. 7 , 22. Mar. 3. 5 , 10. Joh. 4. 53. the leaprous were cleansed ; Mat. 8. 3. Mar. 4 , 2. Luke 5. 3. & 7. 22. going was restored to the lame , Mat. 11. 5. sight to the blind , and hearing to the deaf , Luke 18. 42. Joh , 9. 7● The men of that time saw water turned into wine , Joh. 2. 9. five thousand people filled with five loaves of bread , Mat. 14. 20 , 21. men walking upon the sea●Mat . 14. 25. Joh. 6. 19. & 21. 7. and the dead rising from death to life , Luke 7. 15. & 8. 55. So some miracles were done for the cure of the body by a more manifest benefit , and some for the cure of the soul by a more hidden sign , but they were all for the help of mankind by the testimony of the Divine Majesty : thus did the Divine Majesty then draw unto it the straying souls of mortall men . Why ( sayst thou ) are not these things done now ? Because they would not move unlesse they were wonderfull , and if they were common and usuall they were no● wonderfull . For bring unto me a man when he first sees the courses of day and night , and the m●st constant order of celestiall things , the 4. cha●ges of the yeare , the falling and returning of the leeves unto the trees , the infinite vertue of seeds , the beauty of light , the varieties of colours , sounds , smels and tasts , and if wee can but speak with him , we shall find him wholly astonished , and quite overcome with the sight of these miracles : and yet we despise and we make and account of al these things , not because they are easily known ( for what is more obscure then the causes of them ? ) but for that we are accustomed frequently to see them● those things are therefore most fitly done , that a multitude of beleevers being gathered together and propagated by them● profitable authority might be co●verted into customes themselves . An observation . S. Augustine in his first book of his Retractations and 14. Chapter alledgeth these words : ( why sayst thou ) are not these things done now ? because they would not move , unlesse they were wonderfull , and if they were common and usuall , they were not wonderfull ) and expounds them thus : This I said because not so great nor all miracles are done now , but not that none are also now done . CHAP. XVII . The Co●sent of Nations beleeving in Christ . ALl customes have such vertue power to winn the love and affection of men , that we sooner can condemne and detest even the things that are naught and wicked in them then forsake or change them : and this for the most part comes to passe , when as our unlawfull appetites and deseres have gotten a dominion and predominancy over us : doest not thou think that great care hath been taken about the affaires of mankinde , and that they are put into a good state and condition , that not only divins most learned men doe argue and contend , that nothing that is earthly , nothing that is fierie finally , nothing that is perceptible by the corporall senses ought to be worshipped ●nd adored for God , but that he is to be prayed unto , entreated and supplicated only by the understanding or intellectuall power : but also that the unskilfull multitude of both sexes doth in so many and so divers nations both beleeve it and publish it ? that there is continency and forbearance of meates , even to the most slender diet of bread and water , and fastings , not for one day only , but also continued for divers dayes together● that there is chastity even to the contempt of marriage and issue : that there is patience even to the contemning of crosses and flames : that there is liberality even to the distribution of patrimonies to the poore : and finally , so great a disesteeme and contempt of all things that are in this world , that even death it self is wished and desired . Few there are that do these things , fewer that doe them well and prudently : yet the people doe approve them , hearken unto them , and like them : yea they love and affect them ; and not without some progresse of their mindes towards God , and certain sparks of piety and vertue , they blame and reprehend their owne weakenesse and imbecillity that they cannot doe these things . This the divine Providence hath brought to passe by the predictions of the Prophets , by the humanity and doctrin of Christ , by the voyages of the Apostles , by the contumelies , crosses , bloud and death of Martyrs , by the laudable and excellent lives of Saints , and by miracles done at convenient times in all these things worthy of so great matters and vertues . When as therefore we see so great help and affi●tance from God , and so great fruit and entrease thereby , shall we make any doubt or question at all of retyring into the besome of that Church , which even to the confession and acknowledgement of mankinde from the Sea Apostolike by succession of Bishops● hath obtained the sove●eignty and principall authority , heretiks in vain barking round about it , and being condemned partly by the judgement of the people themselves , partly by the gravity of Councels , partly also by the majesty and splendour of miracles ? Unto which not to graunt the chiefe place and preheminence , is either indeede an extreme impiety , or a very rash and a dangerous arrogancy , for if there be no certain way for the minds of men to wisdome and salvation , but when faith prepareth and disposeth them to reason ; what is it else to be ungraetfull unto the divine Majesty for his aide and assistance , but to have a will to resist an authority which was gained and purchased with such labour and paines ? And if ●very art and trade , though but base and easy , requires a teacher or master that it may be learned and understood : what greater expression can there be of rash arrogancy and pride , then both to have no minde to learne the books of the divine mysteries from their interpreters and yet to have a minde to condemne the unknown . CHAP. XVIII . The Conclusion by way of exhortation , VVHerefore if either reason or our discourse hath any wayes moved thee : and if thou hast a true care of thy self ( as I beleeve thou hast ) I would have thee to hearken and give eare unto me , and with a pious faith , a cheerefull hope , and ●incere charity to addresse thy self to good Masters of Catholick Christianity : and to pray unto God without ceasing and intermission : by whose only goodnesse we were made and created , by whose justice we are punished and chastized , and by whose clemency we are freed and redeemd , by which means thou shalt neither want the instructions and disputations of most learned men , and those that are truly Christian , nor books , nor cleare and quiet thoughts , whereby thou mayst easily find that which thou seekest . And as for those verball and wretched men ( for how can I speak● more mildly of them ) forsake them altogether : who found out nothing but mischiefe and evill , whilst they seek to much for the ground thereof . In which question they stirre up oftentimes their hearers to enquire and search , but they teach them those things when they are stirred up , that it were better for them alwayes to sleep , then to watch and take great pains after that manner , for they drive them out of a lethargy or drowsy evill and make them frantike : between which discases , whereas both are most commonly mortall : yet neverthelesse there is this difference , that those that are sicke of a l●thargy doe die without troubling or molesting others : but the frautike man is dreadfull and terrible unto many , and unto those especially that seek to assist him . For neither is God the author of evill , nor hath it ever repented him to have made any thing , nor is he troubled with a storme of any commotion or stirring of the minde , nor is a particle or piece of earth his kingdome : he neither approves nor commands any heinous crimes or offences , he never lies . For these and such like things did move and trouble us , when they did strongly oppose them and inveigh against them , and fained this to be the doctrine of the old Testament which is a most absolute falshood and untruth . Wherefore I graunt that they doe rightly blame and reprehend those things . What then have I learned ? what thinkest thou , but that when they reprove those things , the Catholike doctrine is not reprehended ? so that the truth which I learned amongst them , I hold and reteyne : and that which I conceived to be false and untrue , I refuse and reject but the Catholick Church hath also taught me many other things , whereunto those men being pale and without bloud in their bodies , both grosse and heavy in their understandings cannot aspire , namely that God hath no body , that no part of him can be perceived by corporall eyes , that nothing of his substance and his nature is any wayes violable or changeable , or compounded or framed , which things if thou grauntest me to be true ( as w●e ought not to frame any other conceit of the divine Majesty ) all their subtle devises and shifts are subverted and overthrown . But how it can be , that God hath neither caused nor done any evill , and that ●here neither is , nor ever hath been any nature and substance , which he hath not either produced or made , and yet that he frees and delivers us from evill , is a thing approved upon so necessarie reasons and grounds , that no doubt at all can be made thereof : especially by thee and such as thou art , if so be that to their good wits they joyne piety , and a certaine peace and tranquillity of a minde , without which nothing at all of so great matters can be conceived and understood , and here is no report of great and large promises made to no purpose , and of I know not what Persian fable , a tale more fit to be told to Children then to ingeni●us and witty men , and as for truth it is a farre other thing then the Manichees do foolishly imagine and conceive , but because I have made a farre longer discourse then I thought to have done , let me here end this booke : wherein I would have thee to remember that I have not yet begun to refute the Manichees , and impugne those toyes : nor to have expounded any great matter of the Catholick doctrine , but that my only intent was to have rooted out of thee if I could , the false opinion of true Christians which hath been malitiously or unskilfully in●inuated unto us , and to stirre thee up to the learning of certaine great and divine things . Wherefore I will put a period to this worke : and if it makes thy mind more quiet and contented I shall peradventure be more ready to serve thee in other things . FINIS . 
A39353	----	Justifying faith: or, That faith by which the just do live briefly describ'd in a discourse on 1 Joh. 5.12. By the author of a late book, entitled Summum bonum, or, An explication of the divine goodness, &c. To this discourse is added, an abstract of some letters to an eminent learned person, concerning the excellency of the Book of common prayer, &c. Elys, Edmund, ca. 1634-ca. 1707. 1679 Approx. 75 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 25 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A39353 Wing E675C ESTC R204257 99825330 99825330 29710 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A39353) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 29710) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1883:17) Justifying faith: or, That faith by which the just do live briefly describ'd in a discourse on 1 Joh. 5.12. By the author of a late book, entitled Summum bonum, or, An explication of the divine goodness, &c. To this discourse is added, an abstract of some letters to an eminent learned person, concerning the excellency of the Book of common prayer, &c. Elys, Edmund, ca. 1634-ca. 1707. [6], 12, [2], 23, [5] p. printed for William Crook, at the sign of the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar, London : 1679. Dedication signed: E.E., i.e. Edmund Elys. "An abstract of some letters to an eminent learned person, concerning the excellency of the Book of common-prayer, &c." has separate dated title page and pagination; register is continuous. Identified as Wing E563 (entry cancelled in Wing 2nd ed.) on UMI microfilm set "Early English books, 1641-1700" reel 1883. Reproduction of the original in the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Church of England. -- Book of common prayer -- Early works to 1800. Faith -- Early works to 1800. 2005-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-12 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-06 Elspeth Healey Sampled and proofread 2006-06 Elspeth Healey Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion JUSTIFYING FAITH : OR , That Faith BY WHICH The JUST do LIVE , Briefly describ'd In a DISCOURSE on 1 Joh. 5. 12. By the Author of a late Book , Entitled Summum Bonum , or , An Explication of the Divine Goodness , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil . in Psal . 115. To this Discourse is added , an Abstract of some Letters to an Eminent Learned Person , concerning the Excellency of the Book of Common Prayer , &c. LONDON , Printed for William Crook , at the Sign of the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar . 1679. ILLUSTRISSIMO Virtutum Omnium Exemplari , Domino HENEAGIO FINCH , BARONI DAVENTRIAE , Summo ANGLIAE Cancellario . AEQuum videtur , ut Linguâ non Vulgari Te Alloquar , Colendissime DOMINE , Quem Genii , & Indolis adeo non Vulgaris esse Expertus sum . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tuam Verè Coelestem Ego sane Naturam potius SERAPHICAM vocarem , quàm HUMANITATEM . Nimirùm hujusmodi in Me contulisti Beneficium , ut Quale sit Solus DEUS Cognoverit , nec quisquam poterit Mortalium Rem aliquam Tot , & tam Miris Involutam Circumstantiis Animquantumvis Perspicacissimo penit● Inspicere . Hasce nostras Bonitatis Infinitae Explicationis Nostrae Vindi● as , & Liturgiae Anglicanae Laudes T● bi Dicatas velim ; namque Anim Tuo Gloriosissimum Bonitatis Infinitae seu Divinae Characterem Impressum V● disse gestio ; ac Tui sanè Me semper Oportebit , in Precationibus Nostr● Quotidianis Meminisse , utpote , Q● sum , & ero — Dum Spiritus hos r●get artus , Amoris , ac Reverentiae Vinculo Arctissimo Dominationi Tuae Obstrictus E. E. To the Learned and Pious READERS . THE more just the Complaint is of the Excessive multitude of Books , so much the greater cause there is for the Publication of such short Discourses as This , by which I have contributed some assistance to Persons Virtuously dispos'd , to observe that Excellent Precept , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Simplifica Teipsum , viz. to draw off their Minds from the Distracting multiplicity of Imaginations concerning the Truth , to the Life and Practice of the Truth it self , which chiefly consists in the Efficacy of this Apprehension , That the Divine Essence is Absolutely One , And that Our Lord Jesus Christ , with the Father and the Holy Ghost , is the Onely True God He that believes This as he ought , will certainly despise this present World , an● love the Lord our God with all his Heart , and with all his Soul , and with all his Strength , and with all his Mind ; and his Neighbour as Himself . I doubt not but you will readily joyn with me in this Fervent Aspiration , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that hath the Son hath Life , he that hath not the Son of GOD hath not Life . 1 Joh. 5 , 12. THese words are such a kind of Epitome of the Gospel , as that is of the Law , which is given us by our Saviour , Luke 10. 27. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart , &c. For what is the Subject of the Gospel , but the Good Will of God towards Men , through His beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord , that to Believe in Him is the Way , the onely Way to Life and Salvation , which is fully implyed in these words of the Apostle , He that hath the Son hath Life , &c. Here let us consider first what Life is , as we are to understand it in this place . Secondly what it is to have the Son. Life , I shall define thus : 'T is a Principle of Acting according to the Nature of Man. By the Nature of Man I do not understand his Essential Form , That without which he cannot be a Man ; but that Course , Mode , or Kind of Acting which he was Made , or Constituted in . Now you know , Moses sayes , that Man was Made after the Image of GOD , and Solomon sayes , that GOD made Man upright , to wit , He appointed him to Actuate his Intellectual Faculties Chiefly and Principally upon Himself , the Fountain of all Goodness , Infinite Beauty , Infinite Love : and his Senses with his Passions , or Sensitive Affections upon Objects fully Agreeable , and Satisfactory to their several Capacities : In a word , Nature is to abhorre that which is Evil , and to cleave to that which is Good , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( sayes the Stoick ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Man may be said to be Alive , or Dead either in respect of his Animal , or Sensitive ; or of his Rational , or Spiritual Faculties : In respect of the former , every Man lives till there be a Separation of the Soul and Body : for all the Sensible Motions of any Mans Body in this present World , that tend Directly to the Support , or Conservation of the Sensitive Nature , viz. to the keeping of the Soul and Body together , are in some measure Pleasing , or satisfactory . But by reason of those manifold Pains and Diseases , anguishes , and dissatisfactions of our Senses External , and Internal , which in this present World we are subject unto , the Church may well say as she doth , In the midst of Life we are in Death . Non est vivere , sed valere Vita , sayes the Epigrammatist . The Rational or Spiritual Life He only Lives , whose Heart is set upon God , as the Principal Object of all his Love , so that all his other Loves flow from and back again into the Love of God , as Lesser Waters from , and into the Ocean . Even those , who habitually love the Lord their God with all their Heart , and with all their Soul , when they exert any Act of the Will that is not Formally , nor Virtually the Love of God , they are Dead , and they abide in Death , 'till they are Renew'd by Repentance , 'till the Course of their Souls be turn'd by an Act of Holy Love. Thus a great Number of those that are truly Godly , that live the Rational , Divine Life , by reason of their manifold Backslidings may say of themselves , as St. Paul speaks in respect of his temporal Calamities , that they are in Death oft . 2 Corinth . 11 , 23. The best Life Rational , or Sensitive , which most men Live , as to this present World , differs little or nothing more from Death , than a Shadow from Darkness . I conceive the Pen-men of the Holy Ghost have so often compar'd the Life of Man to a Shadow , not only in respect of his Vanishing , Perishable Condition , but also of that Deficiency of Light ; or Life , which All of us in this Mortal Body are Subject unto . But that little Portion of Spiritual Life ( if I may so speak ) which He that hath the Son is Partaker of even here upon Earth , is Infinitely more worth than the whole World , and as for his Sensible Death , or Dissatisfactions , which he suffers at present , they continually work together for his Good , they are no other than the Instruments of the Holy Ghost working upon him , to fit , and prepare him for an Eternal Life of Soul and Body in Heaven . This Notion of Life and Death , which I have endeavour'd to Express unto you , we may easily Demonstrate to be most suitable to the Sense , and Import of several Texts of Scripture . She that liveth in Pleasure is Dead while she liveth . 1 Tim. 5. 6. What can be more plain than this , that the Apostle attributes Life and Death , in divers Respects , to the same Person , at the same Time ? and whereto are those Respects but to the Animal or Sensitive ; And to the Rational or Spiritual Life ? She is Dead , i. e. is Separate from God the Fountain of Life , the Fountain of All true Joy , and Comfort : while she Liveth , while her Sou● remaineth in Conjunction with her Body : who liveth in Pleasure , i. e. who indulgeth to her self such Pleasures as are either in their own nature unlawful , or else become so , being inordinately i. e. Absolutely desir'd or enjoy'd . i. e. without respect to their due Subserviency to the Spiritual , or Divine Life , which requires them only for this End , that our Bodies being Recreated , Strengthen'd and Refresht by them may become more Vigorous in such Operations , which the Blessed God commands us to exercise them in . Let the dead bury their dead , sayes our Saviour , Matthew 8. 22. What can be meant by the Dead in this place but those that embrace this present World , and so Despise the glorious Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ : Of whom , sayes St. John , In Him was Life and the Life was the Light of Men. You know , all sinsul Actions are in the Holy Scriptures call'd dea●● Works , being the Fruits or Effects of Spiritual Death or Separation of the Soul from God. Thus , you see , that the Scriptures plainly demonstrate , that Sin , the Separation , or Disunion o● the Heart from God , is Death : And as for all Troubles , or Disturbances of our Senses External or Internal , as such , as they are to the Wicked , that is to say , the Wages of Sin , you know what the Apostle says of them , The Wages of Sin is Death . Death I : but that is Everlasting Death . Indeed we an● here to understand chiefly and principally Even lasting Death . Indeed we are here to understand chiefly and principally Everlasting Death , those horrible Gnawings of the Worm that shall never Dye , the Burnings of the Fire that shall never be Quenched : But that All Trouble is the Wages of Sin , who can deny that considers what he sayes ? In what we have already deliver'd , it is implyed , that Godliness , or a Pure , and Heavenly temper of Mind , is Life , which we shall shew expresly ; and then shall proceed by Gods assistance , to declare unto you what it is to have the SON . In testimony of this Truth , we shall produce but one Text of Scripture , that one being so plainly and unquestionably Agreeable to what has been said , Rom. 8 , 6. To be Carnally Minded is Death , but to be Spiritually Minded is Life , and Peace . The former words of this Verse are a further Proof of what we have spoken of Death , To be Carnally Minded is Death ; But , to be Spiritually Minded is Life and Peace . And what is it to be Spiritually Minded , but to have our Minds set upon GOD , who calls himself a SPIRIT , and the Father of Spirits , as the Principal Object of All our Thoughts and Inclinations ? But here it may be Objected , that Life is the Reward of Godliness , or Holiness ; and Death the Wages of Sin : How then is Godliness Life it self , and Sin Death ? To this I Answer , First , that whatsoever is properly Life of the Body in this present World , is Really Distinct from Godliness : and the Great and Good GOD gives unto All the Godly , All those that have the SON , so much of it , as He in His Infinite Wisdom sees them to stand in need of for the working out of their Salvation , for the preparing of their Souls for Heaven . And that Glorious Life of the Body , which they that have the SON shall have for ever and ever in Heaven , this also is Really Distinct from Godliness , of which it is the Reward . But it has indeed a great Affinity therewith , or Conformity thereunto , which we can have but little Knowledge of at present , but somewhat of it we may apprehend by that Saying of the Apostle , 1 Cor. 15. 44. It is rais'd a Spiritual Body . Here it is most Evident , that the Bodies of the Saints after the Resurrection , shall be throughly Affected with the Temper of their God-like Spirits ; as they are in some measure even in this present World. All these several Acts of Godliness , CHARITY , or Divine Affection , which the Elect of GOD perform in this Mortal Body , have the Nature of OBEDIENCE : But that One Continued Act of the most Intimate , Full , Perfect Adherence to the ONE INFINITE GOOD , being by the Free Mercy of GOD in CHRIST made Absolutely for ever and ever Uncapable of the least Defection , is the REWARD of All the Godly , or Holy Actions , which are Perform'd by Gods Elect , whilst they are in the World. Finally , These Holy Performances are in Divers Respects Acts of Obedience , and the Reward thereof . In Respect of their Conformity to the Will of GOD , they are Acts of Obedience ; in Respect of the Joy , and Satisfaction they impart to the Soul of the Doer , they are in a manner their own Reward . That Poet had a Glympse of this Truth , who say'd Ipsa quidem Virtus Pretiumsibi , Virtue 's its own Reward . But it shines forth most Gloriously in the Holy Scriptures . David sayes Expresly Ps . 19. 11. In keeping of them ( viz. the Judgments , or Just Commandements of GOD ) there is Great Reward . In the three Precedent Verses he does most Pathetically set forth the Great Joy , and Satisfaction they import to the Soules of the Obedient , upon which account he sayes here , In keeping of them there is Great Reward . The Statutes of the Lord are Right , Rejoycing the Heart &c. Her wayes ( sayes Solomon Prov. 3. 17. 18. ) are ways of pleasantness , and all her Pathes are Peace ( this he speaks of the ways of Wisdome , and what are her wayes but the Wayes of the Commandements of the Onely Wise GOD ? ) She is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold on her , and happy is every one that retaineth her . We may easily conceive how the Service of God , which is the Life of a True CHRISTIAN , is Perfect Freedome , if we consider that a Man's Freedome is to Do What He Would Do , For certainly He onely Does What he Would , that is to say , He onely Satisfies his Will or Intellectual Appetite , who Conforms It to the Divine Will , which we cannot Doe , unless we have the SON . Without Me ( sayes the Son John 15. 5. ) ye can Do nothing . And John 8. 36. If the Son shall make you Free , ye shall be Free indeed . He that hath the Son ( sayes his Beloved Disciple ) hath Life , &c. But what is it to have the Son ? That we may know what it is as We Ought to Know , Shine upon us O FATHER by the Influences of the HOLY GHOST in the Face of the Son JESUS CHRIST the Brightness of Thy Glory , that in Thy Light we may See Light. To Have the SON is to Believe in Him , which is To have Him Dwelling in Our Hearts by Faith , for so the Apostle phrases it in his Prayer for the Ephesians , that they might syncerely Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ , That Christ sayes he , may Dwell in your Hearts by Faith. But , alas , what Stirs , and Petulant Controversies have there been , and are still continued amongst those , that joyntly Profess the Christian Religion concerning the Nature of Faith in Christ , of the Faith of GODS ELECT ! A man can hardly say any thing by way of Description of it , but presently up starts one , or other , with some Argument to Disprove what we say . I shall do what I can in Declaring my Sense of it to speak Convincingly , and Unexceptionably , and therfore I shall pass by all such Descriptions of it , as I have found to have been Controverted , though I do heartily Approve many of them , as Implying the same Truth , which I shall endeavour to set forth in these words : The Faith , we speak of , Faith by which the Just do Live , Faith that Overcometh the World , Faith that worketh by Love , is Such an ASSENT to the Truths contained in the Holy Scriptures , which includes in its Nature the Trusting in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth , for Grace and for Glory , through the Merits of the Past Sufferings , and the Power , and Virtue of the Present Intercession of Jesus Christ His Only Son , Our Lord. By Grace I understand Principally All those Measures of Holiness , of Purity of Heart , of Participation of the Divine Nature which are Attainable here upon Earth , and Secondarily whatsoever the Onely Wise God Judges to be the Means of Attaining thereunto : By Glory I understand the Full Perfect , Eternal Enjoyment of the Holy , Blessed and Glorious TRINITY , in the Kingdome of Heaven . By Trusting in God for Grace , and for Glory Through the Merits and Incession of Jesus Christ I understand a Syncere Absolute Expectation from God of whatsoever He Knowes to conduce to our Eternal Happiness , that is , a Perfect CONFORMITY to Our Blessed Redeemer , both in Body and Soul , Upon the bare Account of His Promise to Give us Freely whatsoever we shall Ask of Him in the Name of His SON , that is to say , in a Syncere Beliefe that the SON , Being Over All , GOD Blessed for Ever , did in Time , for Us Sinful Creatures to Reconcile Us to the Holy Creator of All Things , Take upon Him the Nature of Man , Was conceiv'd by the Holy Ghost , born of the Virgin Mary , suffer'd under Pontius Pilate , was Crucifyed , Dead , and Buried , he descended into Hell , the third day he rose again from the dead , he ascended into Heaven , and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty , from thence he shall come to judge the quick , and the dead . The Syncerity of this Belief consists in a True , and Real Bent , or Intention of the Heart to Live no longer unto our selves , but unto him that Dyed for us , and Rose again . But here it may be say'd , why do you not mention the Pardon of Our Sins ? must we not Trust in God for that also ? I Answer , God's Pardoning of our Sins is implyed in the Giving us his Grace , in making us Partakers of the Divine Nature , in shedding abroad his Love in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost : For they that are Partakers of the Divine Nature , they that Love God Above All things , from whence Necessarily flowes the Loving of Every Man as themselves , They are in Christ and Christ in Them : And , you know , the Apostle sayes There is no Condemnation to Them who are in Christ Jesus , who walk not after the Flesh , but after the Spirit . Rom. 8. 1. From the Due Consideration of what has been say'd , This most Important Truth shines forth most evidently , That we cannot Do any thing Acceptable unto God , but only in the Power of the Holy , Blessed , and Glorious TRINITY : and hence it is that the Frequent Repetition of the Gloria Patri , that most Excellent Doxologie , Glory be to the Father , &c. And the like Frequent Mention of the Name , and Merits of Jesus Christ Our Lord , Hence it is , I say , that these Excellent Passages in Our Liturgie , which some Naughty men have call'd Vain Repetitions , cannot but be exceeding Pleasing , and Satisfactory to All Truly Christian Devout Souls . As for those , who are still so Mad , as to Dislike this Truly CATHOLICK Doxologie , they are more Fit for our Pity , than our Arguments . And let that Pity ever Move us to Pray Our Almighty , and most Merciful Father to Draw them out of those Waters of Strife , those Loose , Variable , Turbulent Opinions and to Lead them by His Good Spirit in the Pleasant Wayes of Truth , and Peace . And now , my Brethren , Let us seriously Examine our own Hearts , and See whether or no we are Spiritually Living or Dead Men. Does the main Stream of our affections Run out not upon the things that are on the Earth , but the things that are Above , where Jesus sitteth on the Right Hand of GOD ? Do we find any Rational Contentment , and Satisfaction even in the Objects of our Sensible Sorrows , in our Sicknesses , and Reproaches , in ●he Sicknesses , and Reproaches of our nearest Friends and Relations , or in any other kind of Affliction ? Certainly , he that hath the SON , he that Dwelleth ●n Love , cannot but Know , and Feel that the LORD Our GOD is as constantly GOOD in All that he Does , as True in All that He Sayes : that ●●her's nothing Absolutely , and in its own Naure EVIL , but only the Aversion of the WILL of the Creature from the Infinite Wise , and Good Creator , that All things work together for the Good of those that ●ove GOD , and therefore he Rejoyceth in Tribulation , and gives Thanks Always for all Things to God even the Father , in the Name of Jesus Christ . Do we indeed , and in Truth Resolve , through Christ enabling us , to do Always to All men , as we Would that in the like Case any one should Do unto Us ? If so , then we begin to Live , Then we begin to Satisfie our Immortal Soules , which Finite Objects can never in any measure truly Satifie ; Then I say we begin to Satisfie our Thirsty Soules with the Participation of the Divine Nature , with the Real Enjoyment of the Lord Our God , who calls Himself the Fountain of Living Waters , and He that drinketh of this Water shall never Thirst , but it shall be in him a well of Water springing up into Everlasting Life . Joh. 4. 14. Here ( it may be ) some Unsanctifyed man may say in his Heart , but what if I find that I am in a State of Death , what shall I doe ? I cannot give Life unto My self . 'T is true , Thou can'st not , but CHRIST will give thee Life , if Thou wilt not Reject it . Awake thou that sleepest , and Arise from the Dead , and Christ shall give thee Light , the Light of that Glorious Day that shall never End , that Light in which thou shalt for Ever See , and Enjoy Him in whose Presence there is Fullness of Joy , and at whose Right Hand there are Pleasures for ever more . But I am not able to Arise from the Dead : Not , in Thine own Naturall Power , but thou mayst Certainly by the Power of the Lord of Life , that Calls upon Thee to arise : This Call , this Commandement is Life Everlasting . If Thou wilt not Stop thine Ears against it , Thou shalt Live for ever . But I do not yet understand this Mystery , how I should Act in the Power of Christ . Take it for Thine own , Rely upon It in a Sense of Thine Interest , or Propriety in It. How shall I do that ? why It is in a manner Thine own already , because It is Freely offer'd unto Thee . So that there can be no other Cause of thy Abiding in Death , but the Perverseness of Thine own Will , Because Thou wilt be a Fool , and Embrace this Present World , and Despise the Lord of Glory , Because Thou wilt be the Worst of Mad men , a Destroyer of Thy self , a Lover of Death . But oh ! why Wilt Thou dye ? Receive the Lord Jesus , and He will give thee Power to become one of the Sons of God , to have thy Conversation in Heaven : He will make thee Partaker of Eternal Life , of Joy Unspeakable , and full of Glory . And , O , that We would All Hearken with the utmost Propensity , and Intention of our Hearts , and Minds to the Voice of the Lord Our God , Calling upon Us in the Words of the Blessed Psalmist , with which I shall Conclude my Discourse : Kiss the Son , lest He be angry , and ye Perish from the way , when his Wrath is Kindled but a little . Blessed are all they that put their Trust in Him. AMEN . HALLELUIAH . AN ABSTRACT OF SOME LETTERS TO AN Eminent Learned PERSON , Concerning the EXCELLENCY Of the BOOK of COMMON-PRAYER , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1 Cor. 8. 1. LONDON , Printed for William Crook , at the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar , 1679. SIR , I Humbly entreat you to tell me whether you do not Judge it Sinful to stay at home on the Lords Day , rather then go to Church only to hear the Common Prayer . Preaching doubtless is in no wise to be Neglected , but this I must say , that I cannot apprehend that that person has any Actings of that Faith which worketh by Love ( without which All the Knowledge we gain by Hearing Sermons does not Edify , but only Puff up the Mind ) who when he comes to the Place of God's publick Worship , knowing that he may not expect a Sermon there , is not Confident that he shall be as much Edified by the Prayers , & Chapters &c. as he should be by never so good a Sermon . But however , by reason of the Rarity of the Habit of True Christian Faith ( even in that part of the World , which we call Christendome ) and the frequency of the long Interruptions of its Actings , where it is , Various , & fresh Expressions of Saving Truths ( which are apt to Excite the Minds of the Unsanctifyed by the Phantasie to give heed to the Sense they import ) are very Necessary . But This is most evident , that People are exceeding apt to take the Sensible Workings of their Soul stir'd up by the Novelty of Expression in Sermons , & the Emphatical Pronunciation of the Preacher &c. for Fervency of SPIRIT ; which Sensible Motions I presume you will grant are of no value , otherwise than as they are Subservient to Rational Abhorrence of all Sin , of all Inordinate Affection to Finite Objects ; or to a Rational , or Spiritual Inclination to the ONE INFINITE GOOD through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD , the Effectual Notices of which INFINITE GOOD how is it possible but we should be continually stir'● up unto in the Hearing of the Common Prayer , we would Apprehend the Free Offers of the Spirit of Truth , which the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ makes unto us in an Unlimited Abundance in the Use of all such Means of Grace , as He calls us unto . Here I could Run out with much Fervor o● Indignation against the Despisers of these Means o● Grace , & Strong Guards from those Accursed Errors , Socinianism &c. which whilst I liv'd in Oxford , seem'd to me to be coming in like a Mighty Torrent upon this Distracted Kingdom , whil● the Frequent Professions of Belief of the TRINITY , Gloria patri , and the Three Creeds were ca● out of Our Churches . If it be say'd , what Reformation have we now ? &c. I Reply , that one Reason of this Kingdom 's Miscarriages , I might say Abominations , is , that some of those that are syncerel● Learned , & Pious have not such an Esteem of ou● Liturgie , as they Ought to have ; And hundreds ●● those that are thought by the Vulgar to be so , ●● themselves Despise it , or Countenance others in doing . You give me not any punctual Answer to my Question , whether you do not Judge it Sinful to stay at home ( though to read Good Books &c. ) on the Lords Day , rather than come to Church when nothing is to be heard there , but the Common Prayer . You say you are more against spending the Lords Day in Idleness or in any thing which is worse , than in Hearing that alone . I thank God I was never so Mad , as to make a question of This : I have nothing to say to it but that I dislike these words , worse than the Common Prayer , which seem to insinuate that It is not Good. I am not guilty of ●lighting Preaching ( as 't is taken in contradistinction to Reading &c. ) as you seem to Conceit . I Affirm , that to Suit , or Proportion our Expectations of Grace , in the Use of All Means whereunto we are Called , to the Apprehensions of INFINITE Bounty , &c. is a Property of Saving Faith. But , say you , GOD who appointeth several Means , doth usually work according to them ; and when he withdraweth them it is a Judgment , which it were not , if he had promis'd as much Grace without them as with them . I grant , that God who appointeth several Means , doth usually work according to them . But I utterly Deny , that when he withdraweth any Particular Means of Grace it is a Judgment to Him who is in the Act of syncere Love to the Blessed Jesus ; for such a one is at All Times , and in All Places Under the Gracious Influences of the INFINITY of Light and Love , directing him how ( by Submission to the Diuine Will withdrawing any Particular Means of Grace , and by the Renewing his Resolutions to make a Right Use of all such Means as God shall at any time call him unto , &c. ) He may Receive of the Fullness of Christ , in as great Measures , as he could have done in the Use of the Means withdrawn from him . The LORD give us both Understanding in all Things . Now I have found the way by your Letter to discover your Thoughts concerning the Common Prayer , in your Printed Papers ; I shall not trouble you with any more Post-Letters on that Subject : but shall stick to the Defence of this Great Truth , that the withdrawing of any particular Means of Grace is not a Judgment to him that is in the Act of Divine Love — Against which you Argue thus : That which tendeth to hinder his continuance in that Act of Love is a Judgment , but such is the withdrawing of some Means of Grace . I Answer , the withdrawing &c. is so far from being Directly , and in its own Nature that which tendeth to hinder &c. that , as It is in its own Nature , viz. the work of the Infinitely Good GOD , It is the Means of Grace , and he takes it for Such that is in the Act of Divine Love , as I endeavour'd to shew you in my last . We question not , say you , Gods bounty , but his Will : shew us a Promise that when a man is deprived of the Preaching of the Gospel , the Communion of the Church , the Company of all good men , and cast amongst impious deceivers , and haereticks , he shall have his love continued , and encreas'd as much as if he had better Means . I Answer , This Promise of Our Saviour , Whatsoever ye shall Aske the Father in my Name he will give it you ( John 16. 27. ) would Ingage the Heart of any one in the Act of Divine Love , if God should put him into such a Condition , as you express , to expect from GOD through Our LORD JESUS , as much Grace or Improvement of his Divine Temper under that Dispensation of Providence , as he knows he could have grounds to Expect in the Use of those Means of Grace which the Only Wise GOD has thought fit to Withdraw from him . But I am ready to say with you , If God should take away the Bible , and Preaching from the Land , I would take it for a Judgment , though the Common Prayer were left us : neither did I ever say any thing to the contrary : but I have say'd implicitly , and shall upon all occasions say expresly , that nothing retains the Nature of a Judgement , or Sign of the Wrath of God , to him that is in the Act of Divine Love , which Essentially implies Rational Complacence in Every thing that proceeds from the Will of the Infinitely Good GOD , I do not Grant ( as you may gather from what I have say'd ) that any Particular Means of Grace are Better , or more Spiritually advantageous , than the being Depriv'd of them , will certainly be to him that Complies with the Divine Will in that Dispensation , Doing whatsoever is his Duty to do in Relation thereunto . If in saying we question not Gods Bounty , but his Will : and Gods bounty giveth Grace according to his Liberty of Will , you imply this Proposition ( which I find asserted by a very Ingenious Person E. W. in his NO PRAEEXISTENCE p. 13. ) that the Will of God sometimes Obstructs the Effluxes of his Goodness ; your meaning is False , as I shall Demonstrate , if you shall call me thereto . 'T would be Absur'd indeed to say that Gods Bounty giveth Grace per modum naturae , quantum in se , but Gods Offers of Grace ( as I have formerly exprest my self ) are in an unlimited Abundance . Grace is Receiv'd by the Faithful Ad modum Recipientis : 't is only the Measure , or Non-Ultra of the Recipients Expectancy that Stints its Influence . I shall not give you , and my selfe the trouble of writing unto you any of my Reflexions on the former part of your Letter , supposing that whatsoever is in it Opposite to my Assertion will be fully Refuted in my Reply to your Direct Answer to my last , beginning thus : But you have a Promise that whatsoever we ask shall be given . Ans . yes ; whatsoever you ask according to Gods Will : but it may be his will to punish a cold Love , and other Sins consistent with Love , and not to remove the punishment upon our asking ; and indeed why should any man ask i● that is of your opinion ? But you describe him to be one that wholly complieth with the Divine Will , doing whatsoever is his Duty . You do not well to leave out these words of mine in that Dispensation and in Relation thereunto , for by them I signifyed the praying conditionally for the Restoration of the Lost Means of Grace , and the using of all possible means for the Recovery of them , because it is our Duty so to do ; not but that we may have sufficient grounds to Expect from God , in case he Judg'd fit not to Restore them , the same Grace we should Expect by the Restoration of them . This is a full Answer to those words of yours : one part of his Duty is to ament the Judgement of the removal of the Means , and to pray for the restoration ( so that here you are self-contradictory ) and to these words , why should any man ask it that is of your opinion ? By an Act of Divine Love I understand such an Act of the Will , or Tendency of the Heart to God , as implies an Aversion 〈…〉 . Finite Objects , unless as they stand in 〈…〉 Him , or ( to speak more Accurately ) As they 〈…〉 Him. He that is in this Act has all things that are of God , actually Good unto him . And whatsoever he Asks being Actually in this Divine Temper of Mind ( which implies that Faith which Punishes the Heart ) is certainly According to the Will of God , which is Our Sanctification ( as the Apostle speaks ) which certainly implies thus much : that God would have us to Ask nothing of him Principally and Absolutely but that we may be HOLY as He is HOLY . And that when we ask in Syncerity for Grace or Holiness in the Name of Jesus , It is alwayes the Will of God to supply the Defect of any Particular Means of Grace . But if you mean , say you , that as long as a man is perfect , and never sinneth no want of Means hurteth him , &c. I mean , as I have often say'd , that when a man is in the Act of Divine Love ( as I have describ'd it ) no want of Means hurteth him , but it does not follow but it is Our Duty , as earnestl●●● Desire any particular Means of Grace when 〈…〉 Depriv'd of them , as to make use of them when we have them , but this Desire , as of all things else but Grace , or Holiness , is but 〈…〉 Exception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as the Royal Philosopher speaks ) the Use of the Truth I Assert in this , and my other Letters , is to cure the Souls of men o● this most dangerous Disease , viz. the Conceit tha● any thing can be Directly , and in its own Nature the Hindrance of our Attainment to further Degrees of Grace , or Holiness , save only the Naughtiness of Our own Hearts . From hence also it is manifest to those that understand that the Common Prayer is Agreeable to the Scriptures , that no man can be a Loser ( as your word is in one of your Letters ) by comming to the Place of Gods Publick Worship to Hear those Prayers when there is no Preaching there , unless by the Perverseness of his own Heart . I do not speak this to derogate from frequent Preaching ; I know it is very Necessary , especially for Unsanctifyed people . I do not apprehend my self concern'd in what you bid me to demonstrate : but this proposition , Gods Will is the Same with Infinite Goodness , is a Demonstration of the Falseness of this , that Gods Will sometimes obstructs the Effluxes of his Goodness . I say further , that 't is Essential to God being Infinite in Goodness , to Fill the Capacities of his Creatures According to His Infinite Wisdom . Though the Almighty may not be say'd to give Grace per modum naturae , quantum in se , yet he may rightly be say'd to do it Secundum Naturam Bonitatis Infinitae . You do well to joyn Wisdom with Free-will , for All that the ALMIGHTY Does is According to the Councel , i. e. the Wisdom of his own Will , which imports the Communicativeness of his Goodness to all the Capacities of his Creatures . In Answer to my Saying that Gods Offers of Grace are in an unlimited Abundance , you write thus : Say you so ? who made thee to differ ? doth God do no more for any but offer them Grace ? is the Recipient's ●xpectancy none of his Gift ? can God make no man ●etter than he is ? nor take the Heart out of any man , otherwise than by offer ? is not Faith whereby we accept that offer , the Gift of God ? doth a clod , or stone so ●int Gods Influence that he could not make it an An●el , if he pleas'd ? nor make any creature nobler , or other than it is ? Doth God give as much Grace to all he Infidel Heathen World , as to Christians ? or do they so stint his Influence that he can give them no more ? Woe to us , if we have no more than the general Offers of Grace , and yet I believe not that this offer is unlimited , or equall to all the World. Good Sir , Be not so hasty , do not run on in a conceit that my words import that we make our selves to Differ from the Unsanctified . Doth God ●o no more , say you , for any , but offer them Grace ? I Answer ; that Gods Offering of Grace is he making of men presently Capable of Doing ●is Will , by the Assistance of his Good Spirit ; ●o that All the Acts or Inclinations to Act , of Gracious Souls , as such , are the Gift of God. The Re●ipient's Expectancy is the Gift of God , but the Non-Ultra , or Deficiency of it , is of himself . Can God make no man better than he is ? To this , I Answer ; Any mans being Better than he is , is not the Object either of Gods Volition , or Nolition : Not of the former , for then ( you know ) His Will would be Resisted : Not of the latter , for ●hen he would be the Direct Cause of the Creatures not Doing what He hath Commanded him ●o Do : the onely Cause then that any man is not what he Ought to be , is the Perverseness of own Will. As to the words following , Nor t● &c. If you think fit to continue this Dispute , a express what you mean by them in a plain way Opposition to any thing that I have said , I sh● give you an Answer . Doth a Cold or Stone , ●● I Answer ; Any such Creature may be Annihila● and another Angel Created , but that It shou● be made an Angel ( if we speak in sensu rigoros● implyes a Contradiction . Every Creature is in own Nature Res OPTIMA , though some Creatures are Better to Us than others , because they ● more Exhibit to us the Notice of the Divine Goodness ; and some Creatures are better to themselves than others , because they do more Enjoy It , whi●● is ALL in them All. God knows , I do not Aff●●● Obscurity of Expression , but such Deep Thin● cannot be set forth in Vulgar Phrase . To wh●● you say of the Heathen World , I shall make other Reply but this , that Gods Judgments are U●searchable , and his Wayes past finding out . But though we cannot shew How Many Trut● concerning his Boundless Goodness &c. do co●port with what we apprehend of His Wayes in m●ny Instances of His Dealings with the Sons of Me● it does not follow , that we should thereupon the least Scruple at these Truths . That Gods Offers of Grace are in an Unlimi● Abundance ( which you say you do not believe I prove thus : If God cannot be the Direct Cau● of Stinting the Influences of His Grace or Goodness into the Hearts of Men , Then his Offers of Gra●● in an Unlimited Abundance : But God cannot the Direct Cause , &c. The Minor is evident in ● , That the Essence of God is Infinite Goodness . I shall in this Paper give you my Reflexions but some part of your last Letter , wherein there many things so pertinently Express'd in Op●●sition to what I have written to you , that my ●●flexions , or rather Animadversions thereon , are ●eeding Advantageous unto me , for the Im●●ovement of my most Satisfactory Speculations ●●●cerning the Divine Goodness , whose Infinity we ●●st be ever Careful that we do not derogate ●●m , upon any Pretences of Preserving the Liber●● of the Divine Will. Liberty of Will ( so far as ●●mplyes Perfection , must of necessity be implied the Notion of the Infinity of Being . I Declare is to be the Root of all my Apprehensions in ●●eological Matters , EST UNUM SIMPLICI●R INFINITUM . ● shall now betake my self to the Consideration what you say in your last Letter . I think I ●●d not give any other Reply to that you say , man doth use all possible Means for the Recove●●● &c. but only to tell you , that by all possible ●ans , I understand All things which we Know ●e such Means , being also Assur'd that 't is possi●● for us to use them as such . On my Explica●● of what I understand by an Act of Divine ●e , your Animadversion is this : How easie had it ● for you to have told me , whether you mean a per●● Love , or an Imperfect culpably , and a perfect Aversion , &c. or a culpably Imperfect ? I must confess I have observ'd so many Learned men needlesly Entangling themselves in the hardest Knots of Controversie by reason of these words , Perfection , and Imperfection Attributed to the workings of men Hearts , that I have thought it my Duty to do what I can do to avoid the use of them ; but since you Urge me to it , I shall Tell you that the Motion , o● Tendency of the Heart , which I call an Act of Divine Love , does not imply , or include in its Nature any culpable Imperfection , but is as contrary to all Love of Creatures , or Finite Objects ( unless only such as arises from their Relation to the First Being ) as Light is to Darkness . To my saying that he who is in the Act of Divine Love has All things that are of God , Actually Good unto him , you Answer thus : While he is sinfully imperfect in this Act , he hath not the perfection which he wants , nor that complacential acceptance with God , nor that perfect freedom from castigatory Penalties internal , or external , nor that Glory which would be good to him ; and all this is of God. I Answer ; As to Castigatory Penalties , so far as they import nothing but what may be imputed unto God , as the Author thereof , they are Actually good to Him , viz. they All work together for his Good whilst he is in the Act of Divine Love , and all his Reflexions thereon are the Rejoycing of his Heart The Perfection he wants &c. are not , but only in GOD , the Fullness of All that he Wants : and certainly it is actually Good for him , That there is in God whatsoever is Wanting unto him . By being Actually in this Divine Temper , I mean the exerting of an Act of Divine Love , or Adhaerence of the Heart unto God , in which Act there is nothing Culpable , though there may remain Dispositions in the Heart very contrary thereunto , from which it often comes to pass , that many of us who are in some measure Sanctified Sink deep into such Impurities of Heart , and Mind , as we sometimes Fancy our selves Elevated so far Above , that there 's no Danger of Falling into them . But I can far more easily Describe what it is to be Holy , i. e. to be in the Light , than Discourse accurately , and Clearly of the Works of Darkness . He cannot Ask any thing not Agreeable to the Divine Will , who Desires nothing , but This , or in Subordination thereunto , that his Will may be Conformable to the Divine Will in All things . Whether he Pray Directly , and Expresly for Things Temporal , or Spiritual , he Actuates his Heart in a way of Conformity to the Will of God , who Prays , as he Ought , viz. Asking in Faith , which worketh by Love. I suppose by what I have already say'd , you will perceive , that ●n Asking for Holiness we Virtually Ask for Justification , or Pardon , and the continuance of being &c. And when we expresly Ask for these According to the Mind of Christ , We Virtually Ask for Holiness , or Purity of Heart . The Consummation whereof is the Fullness of Life , and Glory . All Desires of Holiness are Acts of Holiness Consider'd with Respect to their Efficacy to make way for further Acts , or Tendencies of Heart unto God. The Free Mercy of GOD in JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD is the Root , and Principle of all that Good which groweth in Us , or ( if you will ) in which We Grow the Sense of which is implyed in all Motions ●● the Heart acceptable unto God. By Absolutely I mean but what we are to understand by Fi●●● in the Gospel , where Our Saviour sayes , Se●ye First the Kingdom of God , &c. i. e. Chiefly , an● Principally , so as to Ask nothing else but in Su●ordination thereunto , and upon Condition , if ● may conduce to our furtherance in the Way of Holiness , which Lead unto Everlasting G●●ry . I do still most confidently Averr , that this is most Dangerous Disease of the Soul , to Conce●● that any thing can be Directly , and in its own Nature , the Hind'rance of Our Attainment to farther Degrees of Grace , save only the Naughtiness o● Our own Hearts . But , say you , Must we not carefully avoid that which Indirectly hinders also ? I Answer , We must Avoid , or Set our Heart against nothing but what we find to be the Will of God Reveal'd in his Word , that we should Loath , or b● Averse from . Any thing , which for ought w● know , God will bring to pass , as to the Deprivin● us of any particular Means of Grace , we must endeavour to prevent by all wayes of Duty to God and Man , which we Apprehend probable to prove Successfull for the Prevention thereof . But we must have a Care that our Heart be Mov'd again this , which for ought we know God will effect for the Glory of His Name , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with Exception , as I spake in my last . You say the penal withholding of the Operations the Spirit is a Direct Hindrance , and in its own Nature . If it be True that whatsoever God is the Author ●f , can never be in any wise Evil to us , but only ●y our Wrong , or Perverse apprehensions of it , then ● suppose you will grant that this Proposition of ●ours bears no Force against me . And whether this be a Truth or no , I shall referr you to Consider by taking a Review of what I have already Written of the Divine Goodness . And by your most ●erious , and unprejudic'd Judgement of what I shall say hereafter in giving my Reflexions on your Animadversions , on my saying that Gods Will is the Same with Infinite Goodness , &c. The Good Lord Lift up the Light of His Countenance upon Us , that we may at length attain to the Full Enjoyment of the Way , the Truth , and the Life . I shall here present you some more of my Apprehensions of the IMMENSE Influence of the Divine Goodness upon All , and Every Part of the Creation . I am Conscious to my self of the smalness of my Abilities to Express such a Truth in any way answerable to the Excellency , and Importance thereof . But some Sparklings of that Light , viz. the Notion I have of the IMMENSITY of the Divine Goodness , which from my Youth up has given me far greater Satisfactions than I should ever have had in all the Learning in the World without it , some Sparklings , I trust , you will perceive in these following Lines . You say to these words of mine , Gods Will is the Same with infinite Goodness , Very true : but the Question is , what that Goodness is ? I say it is not a Wi● to communicate to Creatures as much Good , as he can ▪ For then the World had been Eternal &c. I Answer that the Goodness of God is Himself , the INFINITY of Goodness , Wisdom , Power , of all Excellency , and Perfection . 'T was not Essential to Him to Create , i. e. not necessary for the INFINITY of Being to Produce out of Himself these Finite Essences , But they being Produc'd by His Power , according to His Wisdom i. e. the Councell of His INFINITELY Good Will , 't is Essential , or Necessary to His being INFINITE , to be ALL in them All. The Divine Power being INFINITE , such Expressions as these , as many Creatures as God can make &c. can in no wise import any Reality to the Understanding . To your saying that All Saints , and Angels would have the same Degree of Glory , I Answer , that there is no Want in Heaven , no Absence , or Privative Not-Being of any Degree of Glory , or Communicated Divine Goodness ; there is nothing but Refulgency of the GLORIOUS DIVINE NATURE . That one Creature should be better to It self , and to other Creatures , is most Rational to conceive , it being no way Inconsistent with the Notion of the One Infinite Goodness . As for Damnation , this I say , So far as it imports nothing else but what is of God ; It is in its own Nature altogether Good : It becomes Evil only to those to whom the Infinity of Love is a Consuming Fire . There 's nothing Absolutely , and in its own Nature Evil but SIN . But of all Instances , say , there 's none that confuies me more than the per●●sion of Sin. To this I Answer , that by Permision of Sin we must not conceive any thing of which ●e may say It is of God , but only His making such ●eatures , whose Nature implies a Possibility of ●nning , and the continuing them in Being after ●●ey have Sinned . There is , say you , an Higher thing in God , which his Goodness , even his Infinite Perfection , and Love himself , which is to be communicated according to ●● Wisdom and Free Will , and not as a natural necessary emanation from his Essence to the utmost of his ●●solute Power . To this I Answer , first , that Utmost ●ower is in no wise to be spoken of God , whose ●ower is INFINITE . Secondly , I do conceive ●●at your Notion here is not Contrary to mine , ●●ough it come somewhat short of it . I think your ●●eaning is not Opposite to what I Understand by ●●e Diffusiveness of the Divine Goodness , but only any Conceit of the Limitation of the Divine Pow●● which no Creature is Able to Resist . There can no Impediment to It ab extra &c. but I add neither ab Intra , call it Negative , or Self-Limiting , or ●hat you please . Therefore I say again , 't is Essen●●●l to Infinite Goodness to fill the Capacities of His creatures &c. which , I think , I shall clearly De●onstrate thus : That which does not Fill all Cre●●ed Capacities is not Infinite , Therefore &c. But perhaps you will say is not a Sinner Capable of being Sanctified . I Answer , that Sin is the Creatures ●●king It self Uncapable for the present of the ●ivine Goodness through a false Conceit that the Creator is not All in All. For I hold , yea I know and am perfectly Assur'd , that this Conceit is Virtually , if not Formally implyed in all Sin , or Aver● on of the Heart from Our HOLY ONE . My using these words Secundum Naturam Bonitatis Infinit● was not ( as you say ) to hide the Sense , but to prevent your Opinion that I should hold such an Absurdity as this , that God Acts any thing ad ul●mum Posse , which words can in no wise be spoke● of God : but it seems I had not my Aim . For in the Close of your Letter you tell me that you think m● work is to Prove , that God communicateth Goo● Naturally to the utmost of his absolute Power , as th● Sun doth its influence of Light , Heat and Motion God Forbid that I should undertake to Prove tha● God acts like a Finite Agent , as Finite , as having any Utmost , or Limited Power . Whether I misu● derstand Goodness ( which is another Passage in you● Letter ) I shall entreat you to Consider , by what shall say of it in my present Reflexions upon the words of yours . His Goodness , even his infinite Perfection , and Love to Himself . This is GOD Himself , He is His own infinite Joy , and Life , and Glory . He is All in all Things , and Ecents , Sin only excepted , Enjoying Himself in these small Creatures , which are so contemptible in the Sight o● Men , no less than in the most Glorious of the Heavenly Hosts . And the more we Partake of the Divine Nature the more we Delight Ourselves in a● the Works both of Creation , and Providence . Here I cannot but tell you , that I Hate as the Gates of Hell the Folly and Madness of some of the Adversaries of Our Liturgie , which prompted them ●o speak contemptuously ( under Pretence forsooth ●f Zeal for the Pure Service of God ) of that Excellent Hymn . O all ye Works of the Lord , Bless ye the Lord , Praise ●im , and Magnifie Him for Ever . O all ye Angels of the Lord , Bless ye the Lord &c. There is , say you , a Negative Limitation which is ●ot in Gods Power , and you seem to grant it to be in ●is Wisdom , which you truly call the Councell of his Will. But what Wisdom doth , it doth as the Guide ●f the Will , and therefore as Wisdom is the reason of ● [ I suppose you mean of a man 's not being Actually better than he is ; for you say in the next Page , ●hat our want of Goodness is the consequence of a ●eer Non Velle ] negatione Directionis , so the Will ●ust needs be the cause of it negatione Volitionis . To ●his I Answer , that the cause that any man is not ●etter than he is , is not that God cannot make him Better , i. e. that there is any Defect of Power in God : neither can it be rightly said , that God can make him Better than he is , For I understand those words , as you rightly conjecture in sensu composito . But perhaps you will say God could have made him Better than he is . To this I Answer , that the making him better than he is was never the Object of the Divine Power , of which there can be no other Object ad Extra , but what is judg'd Fit to be brought to pass by that Wisdom which is Essentially the Same with Infinite Goodness . This deep ●hing ( let me presume to tell you in all Humility ) ●equires your Utmost Attention . Neither are these Negations ( if we may put a Periphrasis of Noth● in the Plural number ) of Wisdom to Direct , Will to Execute the Cause , &c. For of m● Negation there is No Issue , or Consequence . ● that you say , Reflecting upon my words co●cerning the Object of Gods Volition or Noliti● &c. I do most Affectionately Approve , as i●porting very much of the same Truth , for wa● of which Dr. Twisse ( whom you mention ) see● to me in many Passages of his Controversial Wr●ings , to Rave ( and Talk indeed like a Schol● but like one out of his Right Wits ) rather than Dispute . But you seem to Faulter very much when you come to say , that our want of Goodness the Consequence of a meer Non Velle . For ( as I sa● but now ) of a meer Negation , or Nullity , i. e. Nothing , there is no Issue or Consequence at a● I think , say you , that it is not true , that Voli● quà Talis efficit ad Extra , sed tantùm quatenus ●● Potentiam Operatur . To this I Answer , Volitio D●vina ad Extra , quà Talis , Divina inquam , Efficit ● Extra , nam Essentialiter includit Sapientiam , & P●tentiam Infinitam . To these words , Omnis Volit● non est Efficiens ( for God willeth himself ) much less omnis Nolitio , I Answer thus : Gods Willin● of Himself may not properly be term'd Efficien● but it is Effectual , or to the Purpose ; that i● which He Willeth to Be : And every Object o● His Volition ad Extra , Is , or Shall be , Throug● the Efficacy of His Power , set on work by th● Infinite Goodness of the Councel of his Will. As fo● the Divine Nolition , this I say : By it we mea● not the Negative of Volition , but an Adverse Act the Will , which Essentially implying Infinite ●●●sdom and Power , can never be Frustrated , but wayes Effects the Opposite to that , to which it is ●●verse : So that if any man's being Actually Bet●● than he is , were the Object of Divine Nolition it ●●st needs follow that God would be the Direct ●use of the Opposite thereof , viz. that the man is ●●tually so Bad , as he is . What then is the Cause ●● ? I say again , Onely the Perverseness of his ●n Will : Sin only can be the Cause of Sin. What ●use than had the first Sin ? why ( as in effect I we say'd already ) none at all . Man 's own Perversess of Will , say you , was not the Cause of his First ●rverting , or Sin. When we speak of Perversness of Will with Reference to the First Sin , we mean ●●thing but the First Sin under that Notion , not at this Perverseness of Will is Really Distinct ●●om the First Act of the Will Perverted . I can●●t translate OPTIMA into any English , so suitable ●● my Conceptions , as these words FULL of Goodness . I did not retire into Silence ( as you speak ) at ●e Instance of the Heathens , but Told you this Cer●●n Truth , That we Ought not to Deny our As●●t to such Evident Propositions , as this , that 'T is ●ssential to Infinite Goodness to Fill the Capacities ●● all Creatures ; so that properly , and in the strict● sense there is no Evil , but the Aversion of the ●ill of the Creature from the Will of the Infinitely ●ood , and Wise , and Powerful Creator : To this , say , we ought not to Deny our Assent , because we ●●nnot give an account of some Particular Wayes of Providence i. e. of the Modes , or several Kinds the Influence of Infinite Goodness upon some Pa●… of the Creation . Modes &c. we Attribute only Extrinseco to the Divine Providence , they being only in the Creatures . The Reason , or Proof of the Consequence , if God cannot be the Direct cause 〈◊〉 Stinting &c. is this , because if He cannot be t●●Direct Cause of Stinting his Influence &c. It is 〈◊〉 His Part Unstinted , that is to say , in an Unlimit●… Abundance . But , say you , God may Non Age●● without any Stinting Cause : what restrain'd him fr●● making the World from Eternity ? To this I Answe● though God may Non Agere without a Cause such a Sense as you Instance in , yet there is a●wayes some Cause of his Not-Giving Grace to a●man to Do what He Commands him ; not that th●● can be any Impediment put upon God , but th●… He is ab Extrinseco Denominated Not-Giving Gra●● for that the Creature does not Receive it from his the Cause of which Non-Reception is only the Pe●versness of his own Will , which indeed is nothing else , but his Aversion from the Divine Goodness . To your Objection against my Description 〈◊〉 Gods Offering of Grace . viz. Offering is less th●… making , and making is more than offering &c. I Answer thus : Every Real Offer must needs imp●● the Presenting of the Object of Reception : wherever there is an Object of Reception , there is a Capaci●● or Power to Receive : There can be no Power to Receive that which is Good , but only from GOD : Therefore I do again most Confidently ●…verr , that Gods Offering of Grace is the making men Presently Capable of Doing His Will , or ( as we ●ay speak ) of receiving His Commands , By the Assi●ance of His Holy Spirit . From my Description of Gods Offering of Grace here may be an Objection rais'd against what has ●een so Earnestly insisted on , viz. that the Divine Goodness fills all the Capacities of His Creatures & c. ●ut the Answer is Easie . viz. that the Present Ca●acity of Doing the Will of God is Fill'd , i. e. the Will of God is Done According to that Capacity , where the Capacity is not Instanly Nullifyed by the Creatures Sinning , or Averting itself from the Di●ine Goodness . The Sense whereof that I may more ●igorously Excite in the Mind of the Learned and Pious Reader I shall here give him my Latine Translation ( together with the Original ) of an Excellent Prayer compos'd in English Verse by the ●ncomparable Mrs. K. P. The Same Sense in two Languages seems to me to Condense the Thoughts of the Reader , and to give the greater Strength to their Influence upon His Affections . ETernal Reason , Glorious Majesty , * Compar'd to whom what can be say'd to be ? Whose Attributes are Thee , who art alone , Cause of all various things , and yet but One ? Whose Essence can no more be searcht by man , Then Heav'n thy Throne , be grasped with a Span. Yet if this great Creation was design'd , To sev'ral ends fitted for ev'ry kind ; Sure Man ( the Worlds Epitome ) must be Form'd to the best , that is , to Study Thee . And as our Dignity 't is Duty too Which is summ'd up in this , to Know , and Do. These comly Rowes of Creatures spell thy Name , Whereby we grope to find from whence they Came By thy own Chain of Causes brought to think There must be one , then find the Highest Link . Thus all Created Excellence we see Is a Resemblance faint , and dark of Thee . Such Shadowes are produc'd by the Moon-Beams Of Trees , or Houses in the running Streams , Yet by Impressions born with us we find How good , great , just Thou art , how unconfin'd Here we are swallow'd up , and gladly dwell , Safely Adoring what we cannot Tell. All we know is , Thou art Supreamly Good , And dost Delight to be so understood : A spicy Mountain on the Universe On which thy Richest Odours do disperse . But as the Sea to fill a Vessel heaves More greedily than any Cask receives Besieging round to find some gap in it , Which will a new Infusion admit ; So dost Thou covet how Thou mayst dispense Upon the empty World thy Influence , Lov'st to disburst thyself in Kindness : thus The King of Kings Waits to be Gracious . On this account , O Lord enlarge my Heart To entertain what Thou would'st fain impart . Nor let that Soul by sev'ral Titles Thine , And most Capacious form'd for things Divine , ( So nobly meant that when it most doth miss 'T is in mistaken pantings after Bliss ) Degrade it self , in sordid things delight , ●r by prophaner mixtures lose its right . ● , that with fixt , unbroken thoughts it may ●dmire the Light which does Obscure the Day . ●nd since 't is Angels Work it hath to do , ●ay its Composure be like Angels too . When shall these clods of Sense , and Phantsy break , That I may hear the God within me speak ? When with a silent , and retired Art ●hall I with all this empty hurry part ? To the Still Voice Above my Soul advance My Light , and Joy plac'd in his Countenance , ●y whose dispense my Soul to such frame brought May tame each treach'rous , fix each wandring Thought , With such distinctions all things here behold , And so to separate each dross from Gold , That nothing my free Soul may Satisfie But t' imitate , enjoy , and Study Thee . O Ratio Omnipotens , Majestas , Gloria Summa , Cui si * Confertur Quicquam Non Esse probatur , Cui Quod inest , est Tu , Qui cunct is Rebus habere Esse suum Varium das Unus Semper , & Idem ; Cujus non magis Explorari Essentia possit Humano Ingenio , quàm Summi Culmina Coeli Comprendi Palmo . At fuerint si Cuncta per Orbem In certos generis diversi condita Fines , Ipsum Hominem , Mundi Specimen , Quò Maxima Spiret Nasci constat , idest , Quò se Tibi , MAXIME , Reddat . Hoc Nostrum Officium est , haec Nostra est Gloria , Sc● Et Facere usque , Jubet quicquid Divina Voluntas . Condita quaeque Tuum , quasi Sculpta Vocabula Nome Designant : Fontem hinc pervestigamus eorum : Scilicet ostendit Causarum longa Ca●ena Esse Unam Summam , ● Quâ Pendent Singula , Causa● Naturae quicquid Praeclarae lumina s●argit Hoc levis IMMENSI perhibetur LUMINIS Umbr● Quales in Fluviis Tectorum , aut Arboris Umbras Producit tenui splendescens Cynthia Cornu . Idêis tamen Innatis BONITAS Manifesta est Illa Tua , & nullis Te clausum Finibus esse , Hîc Alto Absorptos nos LUX IMMENSA recondit Tutò Admirantes Non Enarrabile Verum . Novimus hoc solum de Te , BONITATE SUPREM Gaudentem , Titulo Te Velle Agnoscier Isto . Mons es Aromaticus : Jucundos Suavis Odores Divite profluvio totum diffundis in Orbem . Ut coit Unda aliquod Vas impletura receptum In Mare , scrutando Rimas , quibus Influat usque Prosiliens , plus quàm possit Vas accipere urgens : Ut , Pater Alme , Tuâ possit Bonitate repleri Sic urges Vacuum Foecundo Numine Mundum . Ipse Benignus Amas Te Dispensare : Favorem Exhibet Indignis , condonat Crimina gratis Rex Regum . Amplifica DEUS O Ter Maxime nostr●● Cor : Avidè Arripiat , quod Tu Largir is Amanter . O , Anima haec Titulis Tibi soli Debita multis Magna , Tuique Capax ( tam purum , nobile cui sit Ingenium , ut Sitiat Verum , quod Devia linquit ) Ne se Deliciis Pravis illapsa , Minorem Quàm Quae Facta fuit , Faciat , revoluta deorsum , Jus adeo Antiquum potiundi Numine perdens . ● utinam certis immotae viribus Ipsa Mentis in Augustum sit Sacro Rapta Stupore ●umen , quo victi vel lucida Tela Diei ●n Tenebras abeunt . Quam fungi Munere Oportet Angelico , Angelicam tandem , Pater OPTIME , reddas ●lli Temperiem . Quando ista Repagula , Sensus , ●laudentes Animum , penitus Rumpentur , ut Intus Alloquio DEUS ipse Suo me Personet ? Arte Quando Ego Tranquillâ , Curâ semota Metuque Despiciam stolidi Bacchantia Gaudia Mundi ? Tu Rape sursum Animam : Lenem super Aethera Vocem Audiat : inque Tuo semper Mea Gaudia Vultu Ponantur . Nostras Te Disponente Medullas Nè Superet Fallax , Agitet nec Mobile . Coenum ; Clariùs ut valeam rerum cognoscere causas , Atque Auro cautè Scoriam distinguere vilem , Ut ruptis tandem Mens evolet Ignea Vinclis , Et Tibi se jungens Aeternâ Pace Quiescat . FINIS . Page 7. of the Letters , line 12. for Punishes read Purifies . Books Newly Printed this Year , 1678. for William Crook . 1. THe Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire , commonly led , the Devils Arse of Peak . 2. Reflections upon Antient and Modern Philosophy , M● and Natural ; treating of the Philosophers of all Count● and Ages . 80. 3. Melpomene , or the Muses Delight ; being New Poems Songs , written by several of the great Wits of the pres● Age. 4. Decameron Physologicum , or ten Dialogues of Natural losophy . By Tho. Hobbs of Malmsbury . 80. 5. Tunbridge Wells , or a Dayes Court-ship ; a Comedy Ac● at the Dukes Theatre . 6. The Man of New-Market , a Comedy , Acted at the Thea● Royal. 7. A Discourse , Whether it be lawful to take Use for Mon● Written by Sir Rob. Filmer , and published by Sir R●● Twisden . 120. 8. The School of Righteousness : A Sermon Preached before King by Dr. Sandcroft , Arch-bishop of Canterbury . 40. 9. Praxis Curiae Admiralitatis Angliae . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A39353-e3290 * In cujus Essentiae comparatione Esse nostrum non Esse est . S. GREG. Ior. 16. c. 16. 
A42464	----	Mysterious cloudes and mistes, shunning the cleer light, a little further disclosed in a short answer to Mr. John Simpsons long appendix, entituled, Truth breaking forth through a cloud and mist of slanders, wherein the charge of slander, so far as it concerneth, both himself and some others, is taken of and removed / by Tho. Gataker ... Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A42464 of text R21793 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing G324). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 49 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 8 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A42464 Wing G324 ESTC R21793 12260914 ocm 12260914 57885 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A42464) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 57885) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 916:2) Mysterious cloudes and mistes, shunning the cleer light, a little further disclosed in a short answer to Mr. John Simpsons long appendix, entituled, Truth breaking forth through a cloud and mist of slanders, wherein the charge of slander, so far as it concerneth, both himself and some others, is taken of and removed / by Tho. Gataker ... Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654. [2], 13 p. Printed by E. Griffin, and are to be sold by Fulke Clifton ..., London : 1648. Reproduction of original in Cambridge University Library. eng Simpson, John, 17th cent. Faith. A42464 R21793 (Wing G324). civilwar no Mysterious cloudes and mistes, shunning the cleer light, a little further disclosed, in a short answer to Mr. John Simpsons long appendix, e Gataker, Thomas 1648 9275 24 0 0 0 0 0 26 C The rate of 26 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2005-10 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-01 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-04 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2006-04 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion MYSTERIOUS CLOUDES AND MISTES , Shunning the Cleer Light , a little further disclosed , in a short Answer to Mr. JOHN SIMPSONS long Appendix , Entituled , Truth breaking forth through a Cloud and Mist of Slanders : Wherein the Charge of Slander , so far as it concerneth , both himself and some others , is taken of and removed By THO. GATAKER B. of D. and Pastor of Rotherhith . LONDON , Printed by E. Griffin , and are to be sold by Fulke Clifton , on Fish-street Hill , under Saint Margarets-Church . 1648. To Mr. JOHN SIMPSON . SIR , I Intend not to be over-long with you . My purpose is not to enter into dispute , about what you now professe to hold , or not hold ; or to examine how far forth your at present professed tenents are agreeable to truth : ( I have work of more weight to take up my time , that , in regard of my present infirmity , hangeth heavy on my hand ) but to cleare my selfe only , from such imputations as you have been pleased , in your late Appendix , to cast upon me ; as having raised 1 a mist , and cloud of slanders , committed 2 great and horrid sin , and used 3 reproachfull , and railing speeches , against you . For answer whereunto , when I shall have but simply and plainly related what concerning you , I have delivered , and on what ground ; I suppose the hainousnesse , and horridnesse of this hideous charge , will with any indifferent Reader be much allayed ; yea , I hope , your charge it selfe , will appeare to be groundlesse , and unjust . I shall rank the heads of it , in that order , wherein your selfe have laid them down . The first error , you say , that is charged upon you , is , that the morall Law is of no use at all to a beleever ; no rule for him to walk , nor to examine his life , by ; and that Christians are free from the mandatory power of it . Concerning this I say only , that * it was at a publike hearing before a Committee of the house of Commons , in the Star-chamber , by sufficient witnesses , proved to have been delivered by some of the three , that were there convented , and in particular , by Mr. Randall , and Mr. Simson . nor did I publish this , untill I had procured a view of the Papers of the worthy Chaire-man of that Honourable Committee , out of which , word for word , I transcribed the same . And if it be a wrong to divulge , what , in open Court , in a judiciary hearing , hath publikely past , I must then confesse that herein I have wronged Mr. S. otherwise not : for that is all , that herein I report Nor doth Mr. S. himselfe deny what I herein assert . Only two evasions he hath , not to refell my report ; but to wipe that of from himselfe , which he is , it may well be , now in part ashamed of . The former is , that * some did either through ignorance , misapprehend , or through malice misreport , what he had delivered ; and that to clear himself concerning the first branch of it , he had in a Sermon at Algate , taught the contrary ▪ as for * the other three , he can either affirme , or deny them all . And indeed it hath been wel-observed formerly concerning divers , who have taught about this City , wherein people , Athenian-like , too much affect novelties , that endeavouring to draw Disciples after them , by broaching of new-fangled fancies , they have been wont to deliver their tenents in such ambiguous termes , that albeit their followers acquainted with their canting language , understood what they intended in them ; yet they might , by some colourable glosses , and nice distinctions newly-minted , make them seem to be no other , then what the sound , and Orthodox held . But suppose Mr. S. have in part since preached the contrary , to what hee was then charged with ; and that the rest of it , he can either say , or unsay , as he pleaseth ; yet what is all this to that , which was then charged upon him , or by witnesse proved against him ? which is all that I relate : and if it be well weighed , may come neerer home to what he now saith then himself taketh notice of . howsoever , it is no other to a tittle , then mine originall exhibiteth . And if Mr. S. can , as he saith he can , averre the three latter ; I see not , why he should stick much at the first : since that it can hardly be conceived , what speciall use , the Law morall should have in regard of a beleever , that may not be referred unto , and comprised under , one of those three . But this latter evasion it may be , will stand him in better stead : and it is indeed of larger extent then the former , either charge or defence : for therein , he chargeth not me alone now , but the Honourable Committee , who had the whole managing of the businesse , and his brethren , ( as he is pleased yet to terme them ) that by Order attended the Committee there . For he telleth his Reader , that if this liberty had beene granted unto him , that his tenants might have beene received from himselfe , before he were censured for them , it might have prevented many reproaches , which he hath laine under , and many sins in those , who have rashly censured him· But withall insinuates that he was there , and then dealt with , as was John Husse , at the Councell of Constance , by the outragiousnesse of that Councell ; so many interrupting him at every word , and some mocking , and making mouthes at him , that it was impossible for him , to make a perfect answer to any thing : and in like manner , that when he endeavoured to acquaint the Committee fully concerning his mind , he was so interrupted , ( and why added he not mocked , and mouthed , to ? ) that it was impossible for any man to know his mind , and judgement : and that it was frequently added by the brethren , ( as if they had the managing of the businesse , and not the Committee ) that , that day was a day , wherein he was to heare the charge against him , and that there would be a day appointed , wherein he should have liberty to bring in his answer to the Committee ; but that such a day is not yet to be found , nor , as he further intimates , is like to be , untill Astraea ( an heathen Goddesse ) come down from heaven ( where , but by poeticall fiction , she ne●er was ) to doe justice to the oppressed . Concerning which , I shall take a little more pains , then I desired to doe , for the clearing of the Committee , as well , as my self . Mr. S. therefore here so telleth his own tale , that those , who were not acquainted with the proceedings of the Committee , might conceive the carriage of the businesse to have beene such , as that he , and his complices there , had but one day of appearance , and on that day , they had their charge only given them , unto which , they were not suffered to return answer , to any purpose : for that if they spake ought to that purpose , they were interrupted , if not farre worse dealt with ; and told that they should have another day for answer . Whereas indeed it is well known , that they had not , one , or two alone ; but many dayes of hearing . Yea , that at their first appearing , before any charge formally entred , or proceeding to examination of witnesses , they were by the Committee entreated to deliver their minds in writing , for the better clearing of themselves , concerning such points , as were suggested , to have been either taught or maintained by some of them , or to go for currant among their followers ; that so the businesse might be , in a fair , and friendly way ( if it were possible ) composed , without proceeding in any such judiciary course . But this they utterly at first , refused to doe ; nor without much urging , and pressing by the Committee , could be induced , at length , to condescend unto . And when they had , by such importunity , been drawn to undertake it ; and a day assigned them , to bring in their answer ; how willing , or desirous they were , to clear what they had taught , or to make manifest , what their mind , and judgement was , may appear , by their answers returned to some of the Questions , in writing delivered unto them ; which out of the Copies remaining in the worthy Chairmans hands , I shall here word for word , insert . Question . 1. Whether the morall Law did oblige a beleeving Iew to obedience ? Answer . That the beleeving Iew , before Christ , ( if any such one was meant ) was kept under the Law , shut up unto the faith , that should after be revealed . Gal. 3.23 . Quest . 2. Whether the morall Law doth now , as strongly oblige a beleeving Christian to obedience ? Answ . That the beleeving Christian , after Christs death ( if any such one be meant ) is not under the Law , but under grace . Ro. 6.14 . Quest . 3. Whether a beleever be bound to conform his life to the morall Law ; because God in that Law requires it ? Answ . That the righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in us , who walk not after the flesh ; but after the spirit . Rom. 8.4 . I through the Law , am dead to the Law , that I may live unto God . Gal. 2.19 . Quest . 4. Whether he that maketh the Law his Rule ; be a Papist in heart , whatever he be in practise ? Answ . That though the Law be an eternall Rule of righteousnesse ; yet he that putteth himself under it contrary to Paul , is so farre a Papist . Quest . 5. Whether the Law be a Rule , by which unbeleevers shall be condemned , and not a Rule , by which they ought to walk ? Answ . The Law abstracted from Christ , is no Rule , for unbeleevers to walk by , for life . Quest . 6. Whether a beleever may make threatnings a motive to deterre him from sin ; and the promises a motive to encourage him to duty ? Ans. That to serve God for the hope of a legall reward , and for fear of legall punishment , is no Christian service : or , in Mr. Tindalls words , That to serve God , for fear of hell ; or the joyes of heaven , are but shadows of good works . Quest . 7. Whether Peters person sinned in denying Christ ; or his flesh only ? Ans. That as it was in Paul ; so in Peter : No longer I , but sin , that dwelleth in me . Rom. 7.17 . Quest . 8. Whether a beleever in sinning , breaks any morall Law ? Ans. Sinne is the transgression of the Law . 1 Joh. 3.4 . Quest . 9. Whether when Peter wept bitterly for denying Christ , he did it out of weaknesse of faith , or duty to God ? Answ . Peters weeping might be from weak faith , and so from fear ; or , from strong faith , and so from love : but whether , we know not , only we hope it was an Evangelicall duty· Quest . 10. Whether a beleever be as well pleasing to God , in the act of adultery , or murder , as before ? Quest . 11. Whether a beleever in the act of adultery , or murder , may see the discharge of that sin in Christ , and his part in Christ , before his repentance , and humiliation for it , as well as after all the humiliation in the world ? Ans. 1. They are framed in very odious , and ambiguous terms . 2. That a true beleever seldome , or never falls into such wilfull , scandalous wickednesse ; because the love of Christ constrains him far above all legall motives . 3. That if perhaps a beleever should fall so ; yet ought he not to adde infidelity to this other sinne . Quest . 12. Whether a beleever in the act of adultery , or murder , may enjoy as sweet communion with God , as in the performance of any holy duty ? Ans. That the repetition of it , is unfit for any Christian mouth , and eare . Quest . 13. Whether God doth chasten a beleever for sin ? Ans. That the chastisement of our peace was upon him , that is , Christ ; and that by his stripes we are healed . Esay . 53.5 . Quest . 14. Whether a beleever falling into sinne , ought not to pray for the actuall pardon of it , in the sight of God , or only for the manifestation of it , to his own conscience , and the continuation of it ? Ans. That when it shall be explained to us out of the Scripture , what is meant by actuall pardon ; and what by the sight of God , then shall we be better able to answer to this proposition . Quest . 15. Whether there ought to be dayes of fasting and humiliation appointed under the Gospell ? Ans. We know nothing to the contrary . Quest . 16. Whether a Christian ought to afflict his soul , with sorrow for sin , in a day of humiliation , and whether it be sin to sorrow for sinne ? Ans. That all humiliation , and sorrow for sin , which is not of faith , is sin . Quest . 17. Whether a beleever humbling himself for sin , in these sad dayes , seeking Gods face , and returning unto him , may not expect a blessing from God , and the Nation for Christs sake in so doing , and whether the doing of these duties for this end , be the cause why our fasting , and Prayer prevailes no more with God , for the healing of the land ? Ans. That although a man pretend to humble himself ; yet if he make his humiliation , repentance , and reformation , a fortresse , and tower of defence , the munition , armour , and wall of brasse , to defend the Kingdome , and Nation ; if he makes his repentance of such omnipotent efficacy , that there is no thunder-bolt so great ; no wrath so furious in God ; but it will abolish it , without so much , as mentioning the Lord Iesus , who only delivereth us , from the wrath to come , who if he had not delivered us from the desert of the sinfulnesse of our humiliation , repentance , and reformation , the just wages thereof would have been everlasting fire : we beleeve such humiliation , is neerer the pride of Lucifer , then true Christian humiliation . 2. That among the great sinnes of the Kingdome , we beleeve , that the great esteem , dignifying , and exalting of our own works , doings , and duties , to make our peace with God , is a dethroning our great , and only peace-maker , and thereby a most dangerous enemy to the peace of this Kingdome . Now , besides that from some of these Questions , it may be observed , what wholesome and savoury documents their followers ( at least ) deduce from the tenents by these men maintained ; to let ( I say ) that passe ; let any intelligent , and indifferent reader judge by most of their Answers , whether these men desired to have men know their mind and judgement ; as this man pretendeth , that his desire , and endeavour was to have done , but that he was so interrupted , that it was not possible for him so to do . Sure in writing there was no body to interrupt him , or them : and Mr. S. himself , being the principall spokesman among them , was by some of the brethren in an orderly manner disputed with , without any such interruption , as he here complaineth of ; and was often also afterward heard at large . Nor was there proceeding to any hearing of witnesses , untill they had refused to give more clear , and satisfactory answer , unto these , and some other of the Questions , delivered unto them : for unto many of them , they returned no answer at all . And if this mans mind therefore were not then fully made known ( as he pretends ) concerning those points : himself was in fault ; in whose power , and at whose choise it was , to have fully in writing expressed the same , had he been minded so to doe : mean while , that he had so taught , as in the charge is related , was then , and there averred ; nor any exceptions taken unto those , that witnessed the same . These things then , so transacted at a publike hearing , and such points charged upon , and testified against , Mr. S. to have been delivered by him , which himself cannot gain-say : I suppose it to have been no “ breach of charity ( as hee chargeth it ) to deem , that * from thence , those exclamations of his might well proceed ; away with the Law , away with the Law : as also that horrid speech , ( so I term it again , and still shall do , whatsoever colours Mr. S. shall please to varnish it over with , thereby to smooth , or smoother the horridnesse of it ) The Law cutteth of a mans leggs , and then biddeth him walk : which whether it be fitly paralleled “ with those passages of the Apostle ; * The motions of sinne , which were by the Law ; and “ The letter killeth : or , whether it do not justly deserve such an Epithet , I shall leave to any pious , and impartiall Christian to determine : for the speeches themselves are not denyed . And as for some “ harsh expressions of Luther concerning the Law ; as the like also concerning Christ ; which in overmuch heat of passion , seem to have fallen from him ; and I would rather men should read in the writings of Mr. S. and others of his way and strain , then hear from me ; I suppose men moderately minded will hardly justifie them ; muchlesse take liberty to themselves therein to imitate him , and yet further muchlesse to forge others thereby far harsher then those of his . The next matte of charge against Mr. S. was , that he should teach , * That God doth not chastise any of his children for sinne , nor is it for the sins of Gods people that the Land is punished . Whereunto might further have been added , that presumptuous speech of his in open Court , then confidently uttred ; whereof my self was an ear-witnesse . That he did not beleeve , that any sinne of his own , or of any beleever , had any hand in the procuring of the judgements of God , then upon the Land . As also what in a paper was given in by him , under his own hand , conteining the heads of a Sermon Preached at Algate , at the giving , and taking of the Covenant ( occasioned it seems by that Question among others propounded ; whether a beleever may lawfully take the Covenant , as it reqireth his confessing his sins , deserving the calamities , and judgements , that now ly upon the Nation ? ) in these words . I did professe , that J thought what I had taught was a truth , That nationall punishments do not come upon a Land , or Nation , for those sins , for which Gods justice is satisfied in Christ . Now concerning this , which he cannot deny , and yet would fain salv ; he maketh answer , that “ some few weeks , for want of experimentall knowledge , he was a little clouded in his spirit , concerning the doctrine of affliction ; but that his mistake was never charged upon him , by his accusers : ( which riddle of his , what it means , I cannot arread ) and that * yet in his darkest , and most cloudy discourses , he held forth enough to charitable and loving hearers , to free him from this charge . He might better have said , that by these , and the like assertions , he staved people of , and kept them aloof , such especially as were forward to rank themselvs , among the number of beleevers , from deeming their sins to have any hand in the procurement of Gods judgements upon the state , and from being humbled in that regard , in the sight of God for the same . Sure when he appeared in the Star-chamber , he was far enough from holding out that , that might free him , from the charge : belike his appearance there , was within the compasse of those few weeks , during which his spirit was under the cloud , he speaks of . And yet by * a long lacinious discourse , to shew either the subtilty , or sublimity of his wit , in being able to argu either way , he would make men beleev , that he taught nothing then , but what he holds now , though he professeth now to have attained “ a more cleer and truly spirituall knowledge of the point . And herein he seems to resemble * one , that living sometime in the City , did preach publikely , that the plague was not infectious ; who being convented before autority , and qestioned for such his doctrine , his answer was , that he denied not , but that the plague-sores , or blains might be infectious ; but his meaning was , that the stroke of Gods Angel was not infectious . But as his doctrin , so delivered , whatsoever his reserved meaning was , did encourage people to repair over-boldly to those that were visited , and that , as was then deemed , to the damage , yea , and death , of not a few : So it may justly be feared , that these cloudy , or rather peremptory assertions of Mr. S. have endamaged , and endangered soules , not a few , in with-holding them from serious humiliation for their sins , under the hand of God , as wel upon themselvs in particular , as upon the land in generall ; notwithstanding these his distinctions , which he cometh out with now ; but not heard of then , when this charge , was given in against him : at which time , it seemed to be grounded upon Gods not sight of sin in any Beleever , the principall subject of Mr Eatons book , then justified among them ; else what reason should there be of Gods not inflicting evills nationall , more then personall upon any , in regard of sins satisfied for by Christ , in both which † himself makes the case to be all one . Mean while , what hath bin affirmed , is not here removed , that this position , in both branches of it , was by witnesses produced , proved to have bin delivered by Mr S. which is as much as I avert . The like may be said of the next Point ; to wit , * That if a man by the Spirit , known himself to be in the state of grace , though he be drunk , or commit murder , God sees no sin in him To this Mr S , saith nothing , but that † if he should name the party , that gave this in against him , it would be enough to acq●t him , in the judgement of those , that know him . But that † for the substance of it ( setting aside some words put in to bring an odium upon it , ) to wit , that God seeth no sin in his justified children , it is Gods truth , which he hopeth to maintain unto death . And I hope then it was no fault , either for that party , whoever he was , to charge it upon him ; though those terms ( which whether Mr S. instanced in , or no , is not much materiall ) might , if he did not , have bin spared : nor for me to relate what was then alledged . Mean while , he that now acknowledgeth it , to be * a gr●ss error , and destructive to the power of godlines , to maintain , that God in no sense , may be said to see sin in his people ; having yet in those terms , ( which he now here acknowledgeth , ) taught it ; knowing it to be so in Mr Eatons book maintained , and yet joyning with those , that had bin publishers , and were then defenders of it , and the subject matter therein conteined ; nor at all , manifesting his dissent therein from them , which by writing he might have done , had he bin so minded ; he hath no cause to complain , if it were so charged upon him , as it was then taught , and had bin delivered by him : these instances inserted , not at all altering , or concerning the state of the Question : and that the rather ; for that some of his followers ( whom , why I so term , I shall hereafter shew ) have in that manner , which he now would seem to condemn , maintained it . And let Mr S seriously consider with himself , whether his delivering his tenent in such terms , having bin by his Auditors so apprehended , have not given divers of them occasion to take the more liberty to sin , upon that conceit , that though they do commit sins never so heinous , or horrid , God doth not at all see it ; not is at all offended , or displeased with them , for the same . The nex● charge is with much vehemency prosecu●ed , to wi● , where I say , that * those grosly abuse the words of the Psalmist , Psal. 40.12 . who taking their rise from Luthers application of them , with some harsh expressions unto Christ , strain them so far , as to disswade Christian people from troubling of themselves about confession of their sins , as being enough , for them to beleev , that Christ have hath confessed them for them already , against the latter clause whereof , to wit , enough for them to beleev that Christ hath here confessed them for them already , in my margent , I name Mr S. preaching on that Text . From which aspersion to clear himself , he affirmeth , 1. * That he tooke not his rise for the exposition of the place from Luther , whose exposition thereof , be had not then seen . 2. † That the Apostle expoundeth that Psalm of Christ ; and other Autors of good note expound that passage of sins imputed unto Christ . 3. That † I would make my Reader beleev , that upon this account , he would wholy take away confession , which he denyeth ; and * is able , he saith , to prove the contrary , by the testimony of many godly , who then heard him , and would be deposed thereupon ; and † that the maine use of his sermon was to teach beleevers , how they should in an evangelicall way confesse sin , ever the head of the Scape-goat , Lev. 16.21 . in faith , beholding them laid , and charged upon Jesus Christ ; in which we do confesse , and acknowledge to the glory of Gods grace , and Christs goodnesse , that our sins are laid upon Jesus Christ . 4. That † about the same time , be preached in divers places , on 1 Joh. 1.9 . which Sermons might shew , that he is not against confession of sin . To all which I answer , 1. That I charge not him in particular , with taking the rise of his doctrine , therein , from Luthers harsh expressions . There are others , that so do , whom in those words I intended . 2. Nor do I control those , that understand either the Psalm of Christ , or that passage , of our sins impured unto Christ ; tho I rather approve of another interpretation ; which I there propound . 3. Nor do I charge him , that he would wholy take away confession of sin , which Mr Eaton himself doth not : but that herein he concurreth with him , and some others , in affirming that Christ there confesseth our sins for us : and thereupon taking away all necessity of confessing our sins , in such manner , as the faithfull Saints and servants of God , in Scripture ordinarily do , as incensing Gods wrath against us , under which we do lie , as * David ( though a beleever , and a person justified in Gods sight ) did , untill we do make sincere , and serious acknowledgment of them . 4. And this being still constantly avowed by persons religious , and judicious , who then heard him , is no way removed , or contradicted by that which be here relateth to have bin the main use of his Sermon : and all which I doubt not , but that , Mr Eaton himself , were he yet surviving , would readily subscribe unto . Nor do I make any question but that those two parties , who pronounce , the one of them * such beleivers , to be but poore melancholie creatures , as are much troubled for new sins , supposing God to be angry with them for the same ; the other , that it is † a signe of the spirit of Antichrist in persons , to be afraid of this sin , and of that sin ; and consequently of any sin ; yet would either of them owne the confession that Mr S. here speakes of , and † telleth us , is the best confession : to wit , whereby we confes that our sins are laid upon Christ . Neither is this that confession that * David , and other † men of God , made of their sins , recorded in the word ; nor that which the word of God under that term and title of confession † requireth of us ; but an acknowledgement of them , as offences committed by us against God , and our sincere and serious sorrow for the same . Neither would the confessi●n * made over the head of the Scape-goat , ever have availed any , unles it were accompanied , with inward remorse and contrition of spirit , as † Davids and that of those oth●r servants of God was . And all this therefore is but the crying up one necessary duty , for the crying downe and suppressing of an other . But the * great and horrid sin , that he would not have me forget to confesse , is the charging of him , for exhorting people to sinne , as fast as they will , ( because there is a fountain for them to wash in . ) Whereunto he addeth , that he doth think that if † the Devill himself should get up into a pulpit to preach , ( who doth often preach by his Vicars and Curates ) ( he might have added , no lesse often by Schismaticks and Sectaries , ) that he would not make use of any such exhortation . The words , upon occasion whereof , this hideous tragedy is raised , are these ; subjoyned to a relation of six severall tenents charged upon , and proved against those three , that appeared in Star-chamber before the Committee fore-mentioned , whereof Mr S. was one ; and particularly that out of Mr Eaton then objected to them , and defended , that when Abraham denied his wife , and in outward appearance seemed to lie in his distrust , lying , dissembling , and equivocating , that his wife was his sister , even then truly all his thoughts , words , and deeds were perfectly holy , and righteous from all spot of sin , in the fight of God freely . * To which may be added that wholesome exhortation , then also averred , to have been delivered by one of them likewise in the Pulpit , which might posse for an use of the point , Let beleivers sin as fast as they will , there is a fountaine open for them to wash in . Concerning which he granteth , that † this was brought in against him , that he should in a Sermon deliver those words just in the same terms , as I have related them , not as he now cutteth them asunder in relating of my relation ; nor doth he deny the uttering of them . Only he addeth that † the party that gave it in , being by some ( I know not who , nor when ) demanded , whether he did deliver it , by way of exhortation , was so ingenuous as to acknowledge , that it was not delivered as an exhortation . Then to justifie the matter , 1. * He paralleleth it , with those passages , Rev. 22.11 . He that is unjust , let him be unjust still , and he that is filthy , let him be filthy still . 2. He telleth me , that † my learning might have taught me , that the word Let , is not alwayes used by way of exhortation ; but sometime by way of supposition , and frequently signifieth as much as though , and † so taken , it is as seasonable a truth as he can in desire of my good , leave upon my spirit ; who though professing my self a beleiver , have sinned , as fast as I can , in his apprehension , against the laws of love , and the commandements of the Lord Jesus ; yet there is a fountaine opened , in which if God give faith , I may wash my selfe from these sins . To all which sore charge , and slight apologie , I answer , 1. That the speech it self , whether delivered in way of exhortation , or inference , ( and one of the two it must needs be ) doth savour too strongly of an incitation , and encouragement to sin , and that wilfully ; which was all that in the term to exhortation , I intended . 2. That if the thing it selfe be so hideous , that if the Devil himselfe should preach , he would not make use of such an exhortation ; and yet by his own grant , the words may be so taken ; then those surely have just cause to ●ake shame to themselves , who use expressions in the Pulpit , trenching so neer upon that , which is so hideous , that even the Devill himself would not so use ; that they cannot without some subtile nicety be distinguished the one from the other . 3. That to draw Scriptures thus in , as here , and before , to parallel , and bear out such speeches , as both that before , and th●s here , are , is to play , and dally with Gods word , and to be boulder with it , then Christian piety will well permit . 4. That it is a poore shift to help out such a loose speech , to tell us , that let is not alwayes a note of exhortation , when as the matter of the proposition , and manner of the conceiving it in those terms , sin as fast as they will , sound overmuch , and over loud , in any ordinary construction , to an incitement to willfull sin , for which , the though substitute in the room of let , is but a very sorry salv . As for this application of it to my self , that I have sinned , as fast , as I can , in his appr●hension , and yet if God give me faith , I may wash my self from these sins . I take the former branch as a fruit of his own selfish fancy , and the latter , as a frothy flout , and so leav them to him ; and this whole apology for my self , to the cen●ure of those that are of understanding , and abili●y , to discry , and discover the slights of imposters , th●ough such colours , as they are wont to glase over their unsound tenents withall ; and their shifts , in varying from point to point , as they find the bl●st of popular appl●use to blow . And now Sir , I addresse my self again unto you , who that you may seem , not without cause to have laid such a load of sin upon me , that I could not possibly , in your apprehension sin faster then I have done , against the Laws of love , and the commandments ●f Christ ; in the close of this your discourse , tel your Reader , * it might be exp●ted , you should speake somewhat to my reproaches , and railing speeches agai●st you ; but we know , you say , who hath said , men have learned to reproach me , and speak evill of me , and I to suffer . Sir , what reproachfull and railing speeches , other have suffered , not some one , or two ; but the maine body of Gods faithfull Ministers , and Messengers among us , from the mouths , and pens of those of that faction , which you have formerly adheared to , and complyed with , is too well known ; and I have at large † else where , discovered But Sir , where are those reproachfull , and railing speeches , that you here charge me to have used against you ? or why do you not produce them ; or point , at least , to the places , where they are to be found ? you have raked , and scraped together all to a tittle , for ought I know , or can call to minde , that I have anywhere written of you ; what railings appear there , in any part of it ? or who is able to say , that I ever railed upon you , either in publique , or in private ? Sir , it is none of my usage : what yours is , I wot not . This charge of yours therefore , I am well assured , you are lesse able to make good , then I am all , that hath bin by me charged upon you . For such erroneous points , as have bin broached by you , and others , if I have maintained the truth of God against you , or them , and discovered the evill consequents of them , I have therein done no more , then what my duty to God , and his people , hath in my place required of me : and that the rather , for that I perceived divers of my people to be too much taken with them . For your self , the time was , when having heard you , once , or twice in my place , and upon invitation of you home , had some conference with you ; I tooke so good liking of you , that not long after motion being made for a weekely lecture in my congregation , I recommended you , to some of my people , that were most active in the businesse , who upon enquiry enformed me , that y●u were like to settle , either at Dunstans , or Butolphs , whether of the two , I now remember not : and so that businesse was at an end . Some good space of time after , I heard , by reports of many , some of mine own people , among others , who used to hear you ; that you were fallen into divers strange points , tending to Antinomianism ; and that some of my Congregation , women especially , were , by hearing of you , therewith infected : that which afterward appeared to be no false report , or groundlesse surmise , but a truth . For there repared to me one day , two women of your Auditors , living under my charge , who were earnest with me , to have use of my Church , for a day of solemn humiliation ; affirming that they would bring none , but Ministers to perform the duties of the day . Demand being made , who the Ministers were ; the answer was , Mr: Simson , and Mr. Randal . why those ? because I had received some aspersions against Mr. Simson , ( I give you their words , ) which he would take off . What aspersions ? I had confuted some of his points , what points , or point ? I had taught that sanctification was an evidence of justification . and did he hold , and teach the contrary ? yea , and that which he had taught therein , was the truth , to wit , that sanctification was no sure evidence of justification ; that which according to their weak ability , they endeavoured stifly to maintain . In conclusion , I answered them , that if it were so , you should not , with my consent , come into my Pulpit , by the leavening of my people , to make me work , for the unleavening of them againe . They told me plainely , if they could not have you in publike , they would have you in private ; and so I was after told they had . Now true it is , that I had handled that point a little before purposely , upon occasion of another , that had neerer at hand , fallen upon that argument , and used some reproachfull terms , concerning that evidence , nothing minding Mr S. But Sir hence it appeares , what by your hearers acknowledgement , you then taught ; and that by your such teaching , whatsoever you now hold , or pretend to hold , people were then tainted , and some of mine own , among others ; ( for I presume they were not here in alone , ) who continue still stif both in this erroneous conceit , and in that other , which you now so deepely brand , concerning Gods not seeing sin at all in his Saints , which is not unlikely they sucked then together with the former , from Mr Randall , and your self , whom they constantly followed . But Sir , if I had so exceedingly wronged you , as you here pretend ; and used such reproachfull , and railing language , as you here intimate , against you ; I marvel much , what the reason should be , that I never heard ought of it , all this while before , from you : which had bin no difficult matter , for you , to have done , either by word of mouth , or by a few lines in writing ; you being not ignorant of the place of my constant abode , whereunto by a continued state of infirmity , I have bin confined , now almost these three years . That which yet I should not have mentioned , save in regard of some reports that have bin cast abroad , whether coming from your self , or no , I know not . It is not long since , I suppose , about a twelv-moneth past , that one of my people repairing to me , as ▪ from your self , acquainted me with your willingnes , to bestow your paines , some Lords day , with me , if I would give way to it . I told him , I thought it , not so safe for me so to doe ; in regard of those erroneous opinions that you had bin charged with , and had not cleared your selfe of . He replyed , that you now acknowledged your judgement in those points to be altered . I told him again , that if your judgement were altered , from what formerly you had hold ; you might do well to make it publikely known , thereby to undeceiv those , who had formerly bin misled by you : but that you should so prefesse , did to me seem very strange : for that within some few daies before , I had bin informed by a Gentlewoman of good credit , that it was reported by a Minister , then about the City , ( one in whose Lecture , at great All-halows , if I mistake not , you succeeded , ) as from your self , that you had bin with me , and made it appeare unto me , that I had wronged you , in charging you with what you had not held . Now Sir , whether both these ▪ or either of them , came from yourself , or no , ( the latter whereof , for the subject matter of it , I am sure , is untru ) your self best know . I relate them both as they came to me ; wishing that the former of them , may be tru , and that God will be pleased to give you a right understanding in all things . Thus , Sir , I have done with you , and your charge against me , not intending to waste further time about this busines , which ( in regard of other more important employment , formerly hinted ) both is , and will be very precious with me : but to leav and referre what I have here said , to the consideration , and construction of others , thereof to deem , and upon advised perusall to determine , whether I have attracted such hainous , and horrid guilt , or no , as you herein charge upon me , by ought that concerning you , and your teaching , I have anywhere published . And if it be demanded , why this Apology came no sooner abroad , since , that being so short , it might suddenly have bin dispatched ; the reason is , because by occasion of mine other hard task , ( the one half whereof , I had not as yet overcome , by reason of a long continued , and late renewed infirmity , being therein much retarded , and was loth therefore to filch time from for any other , not very necessary , by-busines , before I saw so much at least of it accomplished ) I had not leasure , so much , as to survey your charge against me ; nor was afterward able to returne so full answer thereunto , untill I had a view of some papers , concerning that busines of publike hearing ; whereof , by reason of disability to stir far abroad , I could not procure either fight , or transcript , but by others . To conclude all , Sir , I shall beseech you , in the fear of God , advisedly to consider with your self , what multitudes of people , have of late bin drawn aaside , into gross , and pernicious errors , by those , whom you have sometime consorted , and complyed with ; and by your self , in likelyhood , not a few ( as some of them profess it ) among the rest : that you may be seriously humbled in the sight of God , for what of this kind , you have formerly failed , and faulted in ; sincerely to his glory acknowledge your former oversights therein ; discreetly , and prudently , for time to come , forbear such expressions , as may in ordinary apprehension , tend to the fomenting of liberty to sin , and loosnes of life ; and piously prosecute the pressing upon all sorts , the practice of repentance , which God by his judgements present upon us , doth so incestantly , and so instantly call upon us for ; and that duty , which God in his Law reqireth of them , and whereunto in regard of Creation , as wel , as of redemption , they ought to hold themselvs stil obliged : that so you may , if it be possible , ( which with some peradventure yet , is never like to be ; ) but that you may at least , do what in you lieth , to reduce those , whom you have formerly turned out of the way , and caused to stumble at Gods Law . By so doing , you will gain more sound peace , and solid comfort in the end , then by complying with the humors of people , unstable , and unsetled , ( of whose mutability , and inconstancy I doubt not , but that you have had , or seen some experience your self ) you shall be ever able to attain . The Lord be with you , and vouchsafe unto you , and us all , spirituall wisdome to carry our selvs aright , and uprightly in all things , to the honour of his grace in us , and truth professed by us ; the preserving , and building up of his people , in either ; the faithfull discharge of our duty here , and eternall welfare , for , and with our blessed Saviour hereafter . Amen . FINIS . Imprimatur , James Cranford . Iuly . 22. 1648. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A42464e-130 1 pag. 1. 2 pag. 60. 3 pag. 62. * Preface to Gods ey on his Israel . p. 17.18 . * pag. 1. * p. 3. p. 52. p. 53. “ p. 17. * Preface to Gods ey , &c. p. 17. “ p. 28.30 . * Rom. 7.5 . “ 2 Cor. 3.6 . “ p. 18. * Preface to Gods ey , &c. ● . 18. “ p. 34. * Ibid. * From p. 36. to p. 43. “ p. 34. * H. Cl. † p. 42. * Preface to Gods eye , &c. p 18. † p. 43. † p. 44. * p. 50. * Gods eye on his Israel . p. 25. * p. 57. † p. 57.58 . † p. 58. * p. 56. † p. 58.59 . † p. 59. * Psa. 32.3 , 4 , 5. * I. Saltmarsh of Free Grace . p. 271. † Earburie . See Oxford Account p. 36. † p. 59. * Psal. 32.5 , & 51.3 , 4. † Ezr. 9.6.15 . & 10.1.10.11 . Nehem. 9. Dan. 9. † Prov. 28.13 . Jer. 3 13. 1 John . 1 . 9· * Levit. 16.216 p. 59. † Psal. 51.3 , 17. * p. 60. † ibid * Preface to Gods eye , &c. p. 18. † p. 61. † ibid. * p. 61. † p. 62. † ibid. * p. 62. † Preface to Gods eye , &c. p. 10.13 . 
A45703	----	The Christians blessed choice, or, The godly mans resolution to cleave fast to God and his truth, notwithstanding trials, troubles, and persecutions very seasonable for these times / by J.H. Hart, John, D.D. 1668 Approx. 48 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 24 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2009-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A45703 Wing H932 ESTC R40135 18763672 ocm 18763672 108229 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A45703) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 108229) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1656:8) The Christians blessed choice, or, The godly mans resolution to cleave fast to God and his truth, notwithstanding trials, troubles, and persecutions very seasonable for these times / by J.H. Hart, John, D.D. [47] p. Printed by J.W. for Eliz. Andrews ..., London : 1668. Engraved frontispiece of author opposite t.p. Advertisement: p. [46]. Reproduction of the original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- N.T. -- Hebrews XI, 25-26 -- Sermons. Faith -- Sermons. Christian life -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2008-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2008-08 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-10 John Pas Sampled and proofread 2008-10 John Pas Text and markup reviewed and edited 2009-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion The Christians BLESSED CHOICE OR , The godly Mans resolution to cleave fast to God and his Truth , notwithstanding Trials , Troubles , and Persecutions . Very seasonable for these Times . Josh . 24.15 . As for me and my House , we will serve the Lord. Rom. 8.18 I reckon that the sufferings of this present time , are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us . By J. H. a Servant of Jesus Christ . London , Printed by J. W. for Eliz. Andrews in Little St. Bartholomews Court in West-Smithfield , 1668. portrait of author THE CHRISTIANS Blessed Choice . Hebrews 11.25 , 26. Chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God , than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season : esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the honours in Egypt ; for he had respect to the recompence of the reward . IN this Chapter , beloved we finde the blessed Apostle opening and applying the Doctrine of Faith , having first assured them , that he and the rest of Christs Disciples were in the number of those who did believe to the saving of their souls . Having told them in the 38. verse of the foregoing Chapter that the just shall live by saith ; he comes here in this Chapter largely to declare and shew unto them what saving Faith is : and this is laid down in the fire first verses of this Chapter . As , first , It is the substance of things hoped for , the evidence of things not seen ; a means to obtain a good report . Through Faith the imbrace the truth of God contained in the word , as the creation of the world by the word of God. By faith ; and by faith alone , our sacrifices , our services , our duties , our persons , and performances are accepted in Iesus Christ . By faith we receive whatsoever we ask of God in prayer , Matthew 21.22 . And without saith ( in the sixth verse you see ) it is impossible to please God. And from the seventh verse to the end of the Chapter he sets down the several fruits and effects of faith in all ages , by the most eminent examples of Gods faithful servants . I shall not now trouble you with the several particular examples of faith recorded in the Chapter , but shall leave them to your own particular meditation as you finde them recorded in the Chapter , and consider what is there said , and the Lord give you understanding in all things , 2 Tim. 2.3 . Now that which I intend briefly to insist upon , is that eminent example of the faith of Moses , in the words before mentioned , in that he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God , than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season : esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches , than all the honors of Egypt . Before I come to the Observations which slow from hence , give me leave a little to look back into the two foregoing verses , wherein we have first the example of the eminent faith of Moses parents , who contrary to the Kings command refused to destroy him ; the King he commanded all the males to be slain , but they being strong in faith , by hiding of him did preserve him ; and when they could hide him no longer , they chose rather to trust him to the mercy of God , by casting him upon the water , rather than to endanger his life by the hands of merciless and bloody men . And this they did as the Apostle here saith , not fearing the Kings commandment . There are several useful and profitable instructions which may be deduced from hence , I shall onely name them , and so procéed . And the first is this , that God takes special notice of his peoples faith , he records it to all posterity . Secondly , I observe from hence , that its a very great mercy to be born of faithful and bolieving parents : had not Moses parents been faithful and believing , Moses might have been destroyed as well as others were . Thirdly , I note from hence , that God can and will preserve his people , maugre all the rage and malice of the Devil and all his instruments . The enemies of Gods people may design evil against them , but the Lord preserves them : when men are as it were at their wits end , and know not which may to fly for succour , then doth God know how to deliver them . Though the afflictions of Gods people are many , yet out of them all will God deliver them , Psam . 34. and the 19 verse . Fourthly , I note from hence , that it is lawful to disobey the wicked and unlawful commands of lawful authority . If Kings command that which God ( who is King of Kings ) forbids , we ought rather to obey God than men : instances of this truth we have many in Scripture . Memorable is that unparallel'd example of the three Children , Shadrach , Meshach , and Abednego , in the third Chapter of Daniel , when Nebuchadnezzar the King commanded all to fall down and worship his golden Image , or else to be cast into the fiery furnace , they stoutly resisted , knowing that God was able to deliver them . Be it known to thee , O King , we will not serve thy gods . If they obeyed not the King , then they must expect nothing but to be cast into the burning fiery furnace : but this they feared not , they took no care to answer the King in this matter , they knew God was able to deliver them ; however , they resolved whether deliverance came or not , they would rather suffer than sin . If it be so that we must be cast into the furnace , we know our God is able to deliver us : but if not , though we be not delivered , yet be it known unto thee , O King , that we will not serve thy Gods , nor worship the golden Image that thou hast set up . The King he threatens a burning fiery turnace , alas , that 's very dreadful , very terrible to flesh and blood , but what 's the fire of men to the everlasting fire of God : mens fire that can onely consume a poor rotten carkass , but the fire of God that is unquenchable , and will destroy both body and soul . Men can onely kill the body , and after that they can do no more ; but God can destroy both body and soul , and that for evermore . Excellent was that holy saying of that holy man of God , the blessed Martyr Polycarp , St. Johns disciple , when the Emperour threatned him with fire if he would not forsake Christ : Alas , saith he , you threaten me with your fire , alas , what a poor inconsiderable thing is your fire ! You do not , saith he , consider that ever lasting fire which God threatens . Do likewise the holy Apostles of our blessed Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ , in the 4. of the Acts , and the 18. and 19. Verses , when the Rulers commanded them not to preach in the name of Iesus , they answered and said , Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God , judge ye . God commands Ministers to preach the Gospel , and Ministers ought to preach the Gospel , notwithstanding the commands of men to the contrary . And so in the 25. of the Acts Vers . 29 , when the Apostles were brought before the High Priests and Councel , and by them questioned for doing their duty , namely for preaching the Gospel ; you will finde in the 29. ver that St. Peter and the other Apostles answered and said , We ought to obey God rather than men . And after that when they were beaten , and commanded not to preach any more in the name of Iesus , what did the Apostles do , did they obey ? no. They rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ . And as you may see in the last verse of that Chapter , That daily in the Temple , and in every house , they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ . Several other instances I might give you , but I proceed . In the next place , the next thing considerable is the eminency of Moses faith , in the 24 , 25 , 26. verses . By faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter ; where by the way observe , that it is more honour to be a Christian , than to be a Courtier . It is more honourable to be the son of God by grace and adoption , than to be the son of the greatest Monarch or Emperour in the World. There is none so nobly descended in all the world as the people of God , they are of the Blood Royal of Heaven : others they may take their pedegree from Kings , and Monarchs , and the great ones of the world ; but the people of God are all descended from him who is King of Kings , and Lord of Lords , the blessed and onely potentate , 1 Timothy 6.15 . Yea the people of God are all of them Kings and Priests unto God , Revelations 1.6 . Here likewise we might observe what low thoughts Christians ought to have of every thing , be it never so honourable , in comparison of Iesus Christ . It had been an honour , yes an exceeding great honour , if we may account worldly greatness and honour , for Moses to have been reputed the son of Pharaohs daughter , but how inconsiderable a thing was this in the eyes of Moses , who was more nobly descended , being born of God , a chosen servant of Iesus Christ , to go in and out before his people Israel : but I proceed . Now the eminency of Moses faith you may see in these following particulars : first , Moses here sees the various difficulties and dangers which were then like to fall upon him for his faith . Will Moses forsake Pharaoh and embrace Iesus Christ , then Moses must suffer affliction : this Moses foresees , and this makes his faith more glorious . As the people of God are by faith assured of Christ , so likewise being once in Christ , they are sure to bear the Crosse of Christ : Christ and his Cross are inseparable : All taht will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution , 2 Timothy 3.11 . See what our blessed Saviour saith in the Gospel of Saint Luke , If any man will come after me , that is , if any man will be a good Christian , let him deny himself , and take up his Cross daily , and follow me , Luke 9.23 . He that will follow Christ must bear the Cross as the blessed Apostles did , they rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ . And truly the people of God may well rejoyce in their sufferings ; for why , Christ hath born the brunt of all , he hath made our burthen light : although Christ by his sufferings hath not fréed the people of God from sufferings , yet he hath made their sufferings to become easie . Iust as it is with a man carrying a great trée on his back , and you may sée little children to bear up the small twigs of the trée ; alas , there is no weight in them , the weight of all the whole but then lies on the mans shoulders : so , beloved , it is with Christians , Christ carries the load , the weight of all their afflictions , they do but bear up the little end , the small twigs of it ; therefore the Apostle excellently calls his afflictions light : Our light affliction , saith he , which is but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory , 2 Cor. 4.17 . Secondly , the eminency of Moses faith appcars also in this , namely , the great willingness and forwardness of Moses , in that it is said , He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people ; which intimates unto us , the readiness of Moses to become the servant of Iesus Christ . Certainly this was a very great at of faith in Moses , a carnal eye would rather have chosen to have béen the son of Pharaohs Daughter , an eye of sense which sées no better , would rather have chosen greatness and eminency in the world ; then the meanness and poverty of Gods people : rather to have béen Pharaohs Grandchilde , and honourable at Court , then to have béen the poor afflicted sons of Gad. Carnal men , men whose God is their wealth , and whose hearts are set upon their riches , would rather chuse to be rich with Dives , than to be poor with Lazarus ; but a gracious Soul had rather want bread with Lazarus , than to want grace with Dives . It is not all the riches in the world that can content and satisfie the soul of a Saint ; a few will sée it better for him , if God sées it good for him to beg his bread with poor Lazarus on earth , than to beg his water with rich Dives in hell . A godly man by faith sées that glory which is to come , they know that when this earthly tabernacle of theirs shall be dissolved , that they have a building with God in heaven , an inheritance which is uncorruptible and undefiled , which passeth not away , reserved in heaven for them who do believe : but a wicked man he sees onely by an eye of sense , he sees no farther than his riches ; he thinks if he may be great and honourable here in the world , he esteems this the onely happiness , and he thinks nothing better than to be rich ; and indeed he may well think so , for he knows of no better condition . The world with the honours and pleasures of it are even a heaven to the men of this world ; I , and indeed it is all the heaven they shall have . Son , remember ( saith Abraham to Dives in the 16. of . St. Luke ) that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things . Dives would very fain have enjoyed heaven after his death , and yet he would live upon earth in such a sumptuous delicious manner , as if this would had been his onely heaven : And true it is ; the postion of a wicked man is in this life . God gives wicked men their portion in this life , but he reserves a portion for his Saints in the life to come . Wicked men are very like to some prodigal spendthrifts , who spend all their portion before they come to years ; but the portion of Gods people is reserved for them till they come to age . God sees it good , yea best for his Children to have their portions reserved for them till they come to years , and that is till they come to heaven . He gives his people as much of the world as may serve to bear their charges to heaven ; but their full portion he reserves for them till they come to heaven : and truly the portion of a Child of God is very great . God is the portion of his people , and believe it God will never see his people want so long as he hath it ; and Gods treasure is inexhaustible , it can never be drawn dry : All things are yours ( saith Saint Paul , 1 Cor. 3.21 . ) peaking to the believing Corinthisns ) whether Paul , or Apollo , or Ceahas , or the world , or life , or death , or phings present , or things to come , all tre yours , and ye are Christs , and Christ as Gods. Having thus briefly run over the words , I come now to give the practical Observations which flow from hence for our edification : And first of all , I observe from henc the transcendent excellency of savin faith , by faith Moses did thus and thus . Secondly , I note from hence , tha the condition of Gods Children in this life , is an afflicted condition . Thirdly , I observe likewise from hence , that the people of God should rather suffer any affliction , than commit the least sin ; it is better to suffer than sin . And then fourthly , I observe hence , the great vanity of sinful pleasures , they are but for a season . Fifthly , I observe , that the reproaches of Christ are better , yea , as the Text sweetly expresses if ; are greater riches than all the honours of the world . And then lastly , I observe from hence , that God hath a recompence of reward for his people , he will make them amends for all their losses at the last : he that loseth any thing for Christ , shall be no loser by the bargain : Every one that hath forsaken houses , or brethren , or sisters , or father , or mother , or wife , or children , or lands . for my Name sake , shall receive an hundred fold , and shall inherit everlasting life , Mat. 19.29 . Before I proceed to Application , I shall a little open and confirm these several truths by way of Doctrinal Explication : And to begin with the first , viz. What faith is a most transcendent , excellent , and saving grace ; and this you may see all along this whole Chapter . First , it brings the people of God into a good report . By faith our services become acceptable in the sight of God. And without faith it is impossible to please God ; For whatsoever is not of faith is sin . By faith , Noah being warned of God prepared the Ark , to the saving of his house , and thereby became an heir of righteousness . By faith Abraham forsook his Countrey , for by faith he saw the heavenly City which God had prepared for him . And all along the whole Chapter you may see the excellency of faith in the several effects of it in the faithful Saints and servants of God , who of all others , best deserve the name of Worthies : Who through faith subdued Kingdomes , wrought righteousnesse , obtained promises , stopped the mouths of lions , quenched the violence of fire , escaped the edge of the Sword. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings ; yea , moreover , bonds and imprisonments . They were stoned , sawn asunder , were tempted , slain with the sword : They wandred about in sheepskins and goat-skins being destitute , afflicted , and tormented . These all obtained a good report through faith , By faith the sick are healed , Luke 7.50 . Dy faith the people of God are purified , justified ; and by faith they are saved , Rom. 5.1 . Ephes . 2.8 . By faith we have access to God by prayer , Rom. 5.2 . By faith we believe the word of God , and they that by faith do believe in God , shall at the last receive the end of their faith , even the salvation of their precious souls , 1 Pet. 1.9 . In the next place to come to second point , which is this , That the condition of Gods children in this life is an afflicted condition : God had but one Son without sin , but God hath never a son without affliction . Our blessed Saviour himself was not free from afflictions ; nay , he was despised and rejected of men , a man of sorrows , and acquainted with grief ; he was oppressed , and he was afflicted , Isa . 53.3 , 7. The Prophets they were afflicted and imprisoned , and slain , Likewise the Apostles and Primitive Christians , as you may see at large in this Chapter where my Text is , Heb. 11. They were stoned , sawn asunder , cruelly scourged and imprisoned : yea , as the Psalmist saith , Many are the afflictions of the righteous , but the Lord delivers them out of them all , Psal , 34.19 . Our Saviour tells his Disciples what they must look for in the world at his departure from them : If the world hate you ( saith our Saviour , John 17.18 , 19 ) ye know that it hated me before it hated you . If ye were of the world , the world would love his own : but because ye are not of the world , that I have chosen you out of the world ; therefore the world hateth you . Remember the word that I said unto you , the servants is not greater than their Lord : if they have persecuted me , they will also persecute you ; and all these things will they do unto you for my names sake . Yea , saith the holy Apostle St. Paul ; reckoning up his manifold persecutions in 2 Tim. 3.12 . All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecutions . Many more Scriptures I might give you for the confirmation of this excellent truth , but these I hope may suffice , this being a truth which the people of God in all ages have born testimony unto with their blood . Nay , this truth is so clear , that it even may be read by the light of these fires in which the Saints of God suffered death , those glorious fires which ever burneth fresh in the memory of Gods people , even those fiery chariots which carried out heavenly Elijahs , our blessed Martyrs to heaven . In the third place , the third Observation to be considered is this ; That the people of God should rather suffer any affliction than sin . This you may see in Joseph , who rather than he would commit folly with his Mistriss , rather then sin against God , he would run the hazard of all afflictions . How shall I do this great wickedness , aad sin against God , Gen. 39.9 . And this truth is most eminently confirmed by holy Job , who rather than he would curse God and dye , would willingly with patience undergo all his afflictions . Job underwent all afflictions , and it is said of him , In all this Job sinned not . Let God afflict saith Job , I will suffer with patience ; it is the Lord , let him do what he pleases , my afflictions shall never move me to forsake my God. Though God afflict me all the dayes of my life , yet will I wait with patience till my change come . And in the thirteenth Chayter he resolves though God should kill him , yet he would trust in him . So likewise we finde an eminent example for this in holy Daniel , as you may read , Dan. 6.14 , 15 , 16. Daniel rather than he would sin against God in ceasing to call upon God by prayer , would suffer himself to be cast into the Lions den . So likewise the three children in the third Chapter of Daniel , rather than they would sin against God , by worshipping of Nebuchadnezzars golden Image , would undergo the furious flames of his burning fiery furnace , So the blessed Apostles , as you heard before , rathen than they would obey the wicked commands of men , in not preaching the Gospel , willingly rejoyced in suffering affliction for so doing . Many more examples I might give you , but these I hope may suffice : and if there had been no other example than what is set down in the words of the Text , this heavenly truth had been sufficiently confirmed . In the fourth place , I come to prove the vanity of all sinful pleasures , and that may appear , first from the shortness of them ; and secondly from the bitternesse of their end . They are but for a season , they come to an end ; nay , they shall end in endless woe and misery . Though sin be sweet for the present , yet its bitter , yea , bitternesse it self in the latter end . Though sin may be pleasant for a season , yet remember . I beseech you , it will be painful to eternity . The pleasures of sin they have an end , but the pains and torments which sin procures , they have no end . When sinners have undergone the wrath of God ten thousand times ten thousand millions of years , yet then are their torments as far off from having an end , as they were at first . The torments for sin are eternal , and I beseech you remember enternity hath no end : what pleasure then can there be in that which brings eternal pains with it ? Sinners even when they delight themselves in their sins , even then are they pulling destruction upon themselves , even eternal destruction . Every step in sin how sweet , how delightful soever it be in the eyes of the sinner , is a stop to misery , enternal misery . They that hasten to sin , hasten to sorrow ; yea , they run to hell . As Solomon saith , They love death ; he doth not mean that sinners love death , as death ; there is no beauty , or amiableness at all in death simply considered in it self ; but yet they may be truly said to love death who love sin , and delight in sin , and live in sin . The wages of sin ye know is death , Rom. 6.23 . Delight in sin is a hasting into the armes of death . Sinners by their delight in sin do as it were woe death , and invite death and the grave , even hell and destruction : so that even sinners themselves , though now for a while Satan blindes their eyes , yet at last when it is too too late they shall be forced to confess and say , that there is neither pleasure nor profit in sin . The Devil makes the sinner believe that there is a great deal of pleasure and profit in sin ; you shall get by it , saith the Devil : but let sinners once truly cast up their accounts , how that eternal damnation will be their wages , and then let them see what they have gotten by sin . It is possible I confess , that some may say they have gotten hundreds and thousands by it ; they have gotten Houses , and Lands , Honour Esteem among men , pleasure and profit in the world : but what a miserable gain is that which is gotten with the loss of the soul . Read that dreadful Scripture in St. Matthews Gospel , Mat. 16.26 . and then see if there be any thing gotten by sin : What is a man profited , if he shall gain the whole world , and lose his own soul ? Will thy Riches which thou hast gotten by sin , by oppressing the poor , and defrauding thy neighbour ; redeem thy soul from death , surely no. Thou mayest delight thy self in enlarging thy barns , as that rich Fool did : But thou Fool , this night shall thy Soul be required of thee , then whose shall they be . There is no loss like the loss of the soul . There is nothing to be gotten by sin ; thou mayest lose thy soul by sin , and lose heaven by thy sin , and lose the love and favour of God by sin . Sin may pretend pleasure and profit , but surely it brings ruine and destruction . Those rich men which Saint James speaks of , James 5.1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. Versses , they thought that gain which they got by defrauding their labourers of their wages to be very sweet : they lived in pleasures , they inriched themselves by the sweat of other mens labours : but what have they any cause to rejoyce in this ? No , saith the Apostle , Go too now ye rich men , weep and howl , for your misery which shall come upon you . They thought to heap up riches by their injustice and cruelty , but they heaped up onely a little fuel for the eternal fire . Dives he thought himself altogether happy when he enjoyed the world at will , when he fared deliciously every day ; but what did this profit Dives ? death robs him of all , and he himself is taken away from his sinful pleasures , and thrown headlong into eternal torments : he would enjoy the pleasure of sin while he lived , and now he must undergo the torments of sin for ever . O consider this you that delight in sin ; canst thou endure to dwell for ever in the everlasting burning : if thou canst endure the wrath of God for ever , if thou art able to stand before the Lord in the day of his fierce anger , then take pleasure in sin : if thou canst prevent God from bringing thee to judgement , then let thy heat rejoyce in sin : but if after all thou must come to judgement , then take heed of sin . Do not conceit that sin to be pleasant whose pains will be eternal : in vain do men flatter themselves that they may sin and not suffer ; did ever any man rebel and enjoy peace ; can any offend God and have his blessing , surely no : sin shall not go unpunished ; if men will sin they shall suffer . The soul that sinneth shall dye . Sin destroyed the Angels , those holy Spirits , sin made them unholy devils . Sin cast Adam out of Paradice . Sin destroyed the old World. Sin consumed Sodome and Gomorrah . Sin brings Wars , Plagues , Famine , & Destruction upon Nations . Sin ruins our names , sears our Consciences : and in a word , it destroys body and soul for ever . And then fifthly , I observed , That the reproaches of Christ are greater riches than all the honours of the world . The best of Gods Saints have been reproached , as holy Job , and David was not onely reproached , but was a reproach both to his enemies and to his neighbours : He was made the song of the Drunkards . The Apostles they were also reproached , but here is that which sweetens all , Christ hath born the brunt of all : Christ accounts all our reproaches to be his . The greatest part of Christs suffering for us was to bear our reproach : so the greatest part of our sufferings is to bear the reproach of Christ . Hence the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews , exhorts us to go forth unto him , bearing his reproach , Heb. 13.13 . And Indeed reproach in it self is so great a burthen , that were it not for his that Christ accounts it his , we should never be able to bear it . Hence Moses looked on his reproach as the reproach of Christ ; and believe me , though there may be a great deal of weight in the reproaches of Christ , to press us down , yet there is abundance of worth in them to inrich us : though they may be as thorns here , yet they shall be as a crown of glory to us hereafter . See what our Saviour saith in Matth. 5.11 , 12. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake , foe theirs is the kingdome of heaven . Blessed are ye when men shall revile you , and persecute you , and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake , rejoyce and be exceeding glad , for great is your reward in heaven . Christ doth not say , if ye be rich and honourable in the world you shall be blessed : but Christ saith , if thou art reproached thou shalt be blessed . Thou mayest be rich and honourable in the world , and yet be everlastingly miserable : but if thou art reproached for Christ , thou shalt be rewarded with Christ , If we suffer with him , we shall also reign with him , 2 Tim. 2.12 . Sixthly , and lastly , I observe from hence , That God hath a recompence of reward for his people . If we suffer for Christ , we shall also reign with Christ : If we be reproached with Christ here , we shall be rewarded with Christ hereafter . See what our blessed Saviour saith , Matth. 19.29 . Every one that hath forsaken houses , or brethren , or sisters , or father , or mother , or wife , or children , or friends , for my sake , shall receive an hundred fold , and shall inherit eternal life . I might be longer on this point but I procéed to the Vses which shall flow from hence for our edification . And the first Vse is this , Is it so then , that Faith is such an excellent grace , then let me exhort you all , in the name of Christ , to believe , to get Faith. Beloved , Faith is not onely excellent in it self , but it will also make you excellent : The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour , Prov. 15.26 . Believers were the onely excellent persons in whom David delighted , Psalm . 16.3 . Without faith it is impossible to please God , Heb. 11.6 . For whatsoever is not of faith is sin , and God cannot be pleased with sin . In a word , if ever you would be saved , get faith , for without faith there is no salvation : it is unbelief which is the soul-damning sin . He that believeth shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned . The Sentence of damnation is already past against all unbelievers . He that believeth not is condemned already , John 3.18 . He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life , and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life , but the wrath of God abideth on him , John 3.36 . For the Lords sake sinners believe , if you have any regard to your own good believe ; if you have any love or pitty to your precious souls believe ; if you would not be eternally miserable , believe in the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be eternally blessed . Secondly , Is it so that the condition of Gods Children in this life is an afflicted condition , what then shall the condition of wicked men be in the life to come ? If judgment thus begin at the house of God , what then shall be the end of sinners ? If the righteous be thus scarcely saved , where then shall the sinner and ungodly appear ? If God be thus severe to his Children , how terrible will he then be to his enemies : If through so many tribulations the people of God enter into heaven , then into what woeful miseries doe sinners plunge themselves into for a few sinful pleasures ; for a few séeming sinful pleasures they heap to themselves eternal torments . O consider this you that forget God. In this life the people of God are afflicted , but in the life to coure they shall be rewarded . Lazarus he was afflicted with hunger and sores , yea scorned and contemned by Dives ; but in the life to come Lazarus is rewarded , but Dives is tormented . The time will come when Gods people shall have pleasures , everlasting pleasures , when the wicked shall be turned into hell , and all the Nations that forget God , Psalm 9.17 . The Lord tryeth the righteous , ( saith David ) but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth . Upon the wicked he shall rain snares , fire and brimstone , and an horrible tempest , this shall be the portion of their cup , Psalm 11.6 . Thirdly , Is it better to suffer than to sin , then this may inform us of the great evil of apostacy ; they that will turn from the truth rather than suffer for the truth , such I say never did imbrace the truth in the love of it ; they went out from us , but they were not of us . Many will own Christ and the word of Christ when they may do it without fear , but when trouble and persecutions come , then they fall away . But whosoever they are that in this case go about to save their lives shall lose them : they that deny Christ for fear of persecution , Christ will deny him before his Father . Apostacy was the sin of the Devil , and they that apostatize from Christ for fear of persecution , shall have the Devils reward . Thou wilt not suffer for Christ , but Christ will make thée suffer eternally . Thou thinkest life is swéet , and indéed so it is , but remember eternal life is much more sweeter , and the soul is more precious than life . Christ laid down his life to save souls , therefore Christians should lay down ten thousand lives , if it were possible to have so many , rather than lose their souls . By apostacy from the truth thou mayest save thy life , but in so doing thou losest thy soul , which is of more value than ten thousand lives . Did Christ lay down his life for us , and shall not we much more lay down our lives for him . Did Christ who , is the prince of life become obedient unto death , even the death of the Crosse for us , then let nothing separate us from the love of Christ . Christians should shew themselves to be the servants of Christ by afflictions , persecutions ; be the way what it will , fair or foul , thick or thin , Christians should persevere . The Apostles loved not their lives unto the death in the cause of Christ : and he that is afraid of his life in the cause of Christ , is surely afraid of heaven . If he that endures to the end shall be saved , then certainly he that falls away shall be damned . If we fear them who can onely kill the body , more than God who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell , what will become of us . In a word , let me encourage you all in the words of the holy Ghost , as you may finde it , Revel . 3.10 . what saith God there , Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer , behold , the Devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tryed , and ye shall have tribulation ten dayes : But be thou faithful unto death , and I will give thee a crown of life . Fourthly , Is it so , that all sinful pleasures are short and vain , are they but for a season , then I note from hence by way of Vse , the great folly of sinners in neglecting eternal life for a few momentary pleasures . Sinners spend their time in gathering pebbles , and yet they trample upon pearls : How many grievous sinners are there , who with that wretched Cardinal are ready to say , they will not lose their part in Paris , for their parts in Paradice . Sinners had rather lose heaven than part with their sins ; as if they could enjoy the pleasure of sin for ever , never considering how soon death may come upon them , and turn all their pleasures into pains . Sinners are apt to flatter themselves in their own folly , and to fancy that they shall live for ever , or at leastwise that they may enjoy their pleasures till death come , and yet go to heaven : it is true , God suffers many to go on in their sins , and never awakes their souls at all ; but this he doth in judgement . Sinners despise Christ now , but Christ will hereafter despise sinners : They who say unto God depart now , we will have none of the fear of the Lord , God will say unto them depart ye cursed hereafter . When death comes , sinners must bid farewel to all their pleasures ; they rejoyce in their worldly pleasures here , but when death comes , farewell pleasures : not one laughter more , then never another jovial meeting , then no more ranting and singing , then all pleasures will be turned into pains . Consider , I beseech you sinners , will your pleasures profit you in the day of wrath , surely no ; they may torment you as they did Dives . How many are there now in hell , who had as much pleasure as thou canst have . who had as many merry méetings , as much drinking , and sporting , and other sinful partimes as thou hast had : Oh , but what pleasure is it now to them to think of those things for which they are now tormented ? The Lord awaken every secure sinner : for the Lords sake be not such fools as to damn your souls for such trifles as these are , which are not only vanity , but vexation of spirit also , even horrour and dread to all eternity . Fifthly , Is it so , that the reproaches of Christ are greater riches than all the honours in the world , then I observe from hence , that a Crown of life is more worth than all the Crowns and Kingdomes in the world . Moses he looked upon Pharaohs crown , and he sées that to be fading and tottering ; but Moses he looks upon the crown of life , and sees that to be everlasting . Kings by the permission of God , for the sins of a Nation , may be deprived of their earthly Crowns , as by sad experience we have found in this Kingdome ; but the Crown of life which God shall give his people is beyond the reach either of men or devils to deprive them of : God shall give it them , and none shall be able to take it from them . There shall be no Vsurpers in heaven to rob Gods people of their Crowns : there shall be no petitioning nor remonstrating against the Saints in heaven : the Devil who is now their accuser shall then be thrown down into the bottomlesse pit . The Saints Crowns shall not be voted uselesse and dangerous in heaven . God may for our sins suffer high Courts of Injustice here to take away the lives of Kings , but it is beyond the power and policy , either of them or devils , to take away eternal life from the people of God. Hereafter they are kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation . Men may take away the life of a Saint , but this now takes not away their Crown . Your joy no man taketh from you , saith our Saviour , John 16.22 . Men cannot deprive the people of God of their joy here , and certainly therefore neither men nor devils can take away their eternal joy , which shall be without sorrow , and without ceasing , even for ever to all eternity . Sixthly , Is it so , that the reproaches of Christ are such great riches yea , greater riches than all the honors of the world ; how great then are the rewards of Christ ? If Christ crucified be so lovely , how unspeakable lovely then is Christ in Glory ? If the Saints be so glorious here under reproaches , how glorious than shall they be in heaven , when Christ himself shall put his glory unto them . If the people of God are so glorious here , what shall they be when they come to their kingdom , where they shall be clothed with the glorious white robes of Christ ? For when Christ who is our life shall appear , ( saith the Apostle ) we shall also appear with him in glory . At the day of judgement , O how glorious shall the people of God then appear ; they shall have Crowns upon their heads , yea , they shall be clothed with glory , and honour , immortality , and life eternal for ever , Rom. 2.7 . Seventhly , Is it so then that God hath a recompence of reward for his people hereafter , then let me exhort you all to make choice of the Lord for your God : they that make choice of the Lord for their God here , shall be sure to have him for their reward hereafter . It was a good resolution that of Joshua , as you may read , Joshua 24.15 . As for me and my house , we will serve the Lord. Let the men of the world run after Idols , and inventions of their own fancies , a child of God , a Joshua , he will worship God in spirit and in truth . And if ever we would be rewarded with Christ , the let us chuse Christ , and the wayes of Christ . Labour to grow in grace , and to abound in holiness , for godliness is the way to glory . Godliness ( saith the Apostle ) is great gain . Godlinesse hath the promise , not onely of this life , but of the life to come . Were the wades of God never so hard and difficult , yet they have a glorious reward : Godlinesse brings the best gain , eternal life and glory . Wouldst thou in the day of Iudgement chuse heaven rather than hell , then chuse God and walk in his ways ; imbrace holiness although it be never so much despised by profane sinners , if ever thou wouldst be imbraced by Christ in heaven . Eightly , is it so , that there is such a glorious reward for the people of God , then let us live and dye as becomes the heirs of Glory : Let us then walk worthy of God ( as the Apostle saith , 1 Thes . 2.12 . ) that hath called us to his Kingdom and glory . Is it so that the Saints of God shall shine as the stars in heaven , then let the people of God labour to shine as lights in the world : If thy inheritance be in heaven , then let thy conversation be in heaven : if your reward , your treasure be there , then let your hearts be there also . Is thy name written in heaven , let the world sée it then in the legible Character of Holinesse . Think of that Crown of Glory which thou shalt everlastingly enjoy in heaven , and then so live that thou mayest be in a readinesse to receive it . Get oyl in your lamps , grace in your souls , that when Christ who is your life shall appear , ye also may appear with him in glory : receiving the end of your faith , even the salvation of your souls . Lastly , is there such a reward for the people of God hereafter , than be content with what God gives thée in this life : be thy portion what it will , if heaven be thine , thou hast that which is better than all the world ; they that have Christ for their portion have no want . The Lord is my portion ( saith David , Psalm 23.1 . ) therefore I shall not want . Saint Paul accounted all things but dross and dung in comparison of Christ . Remember , it is better to be poor and godly , than rich and miserable : Riches never made one soul happy , they have made many a soul miserable . Let the people of God then take off their affections from the world : it becomes not the heirs of glory to look after such trifles , it is enough for Swine to be routing in the earth ; Children who are fed at their fathers table will never regard the bones that are thrown to the dogs ; they that are daily fed with the fat things of grace and glory , should never regard the vain and transitory things of the world . The glory of this world is but the portion of a reprobate ; take them at the best they are but uncertain , here to day and gone to morrow ; they may be destroyed by fire , they may be stoln away by thieves : thou mayest lay up treasures here , and when thou hast done all , they may be cousumed by rust and moths . Therefore take Saint Pauls counsel , and set your affections on things that are above , and not on things below : Let your conversation then be without covetousness , and be content with such things as you have , for God hath said , I will never leave you nor forsake you . Heb. 13.5 . So to conclude , I beséech you fear the Lord all ye his Saints , for there is no want to them that fear him . FINIS . Courteous Reader . THere is lately published an excellent and profitable Sermon , called , Christs last Sermon , or , The everlasting estate and condition of all men in the world to come . Likewise , the Christians best Garment , Christs first Sermon . The Christians Blessed Choice . Heavens Glory , and Hells Horror . And a warning-piece to the Sloathful , Idle , Careless Drunken , and Secure Ones of these last and worst of times . Very godly Books , and are but three pence price . Likewise , 1. The Fathers last Blessing to his Children 2. This Devils disease , or , the Sin of Pride arraigned and condemned . 3. Englands faithful Physician . 4. Death Triumphant . 5. Peters Sermon of Repentance . 6. The dreadful charecter of a drunkard . 7. Dooms-day at hand . 8. The Charitable Christian . 9. The Plain Mans Plain Path-way to Heaven . 10. The Black Book of Conscience . All very necessary for these Licentious times . They are to be sold by Elizabeth Andrews in Little St. Bartholmews Court West-Smithfield 
A33547	----	An enquiry into the nature, necessity, and evidence of Christian faith. Part I. Of faith in general, and of the belief of a deity by J.C. Cockburn, John, 1652-1729. 1696 Approx. 150 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 37 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A33547 Wing C4810 ESTC R24209 08074066 ocm 08074066 40791 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A33547) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 40791) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1226:8) An enquiry into the nature, necessity, and evidence of Christian faith. Part I. Of faith in general, and of the belief of a deity by J.C. Cockburn, John, 1652-1729. [2], 68 p. Printed for William Keblewhite, London : 1696. Errata: p. 68. Reproduction of original in the Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith. Providence and government of God. 2003-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-06 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-07 Rina Kor Sampled and proofread 2003-07 Rina Kor Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-08 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion AN ENQUIRY INTO THE Nature , Necessity , and Evidence OF Christian Faith , In Several ESSAYS . PART I. Of Faith in General , and of the Belief of a Deity . By I. C. D. D. Vigilo Credo & Clamo Loquor . LONDON , Printed for William Keblewhite , at the Swan in St. Paul's Church-Yard , MDC XCVI . The CONTENTS of this First Part. INtroduction , shewing the Occasion and Design of the following Essays , p. 1. Essay I. Faith is and hath been the perpetual Standard of Righteousness from the Beginning of the World , p. 6. 1. Faith proper to Scripture and required under the Dispensation of both Testaments , ibid. 2. What to live by Faith , p. 7. 3. All the righteous upwards to Adam lived by Faith , p. 8. 4. It is great Insolence to find Fault with the Terms and Phrases by which the Principles of Scripture are set forth , p. 9. Essay II. Of Faith as opposed to Doubting , p. 11. 1. The Meaning of Faith ought to be enquired after , ibid. 2. Common Definitions and Distinctions of Faith not considered nor any new Definition offered , ibid. 3. Faith first opposed to Doubting , implies a firm Perswasion of Good and Evil , which is essential to a just Man , p. 13. 4. Of the Influence which this Faith has upon Actions , as to the rendring them Good or Evil , p. 14. 5. This Faith no light Perswasion , but the Effect of serious Enquiry and Deliberation , ib. 6. It is the first Principle of a good Life , p. 16. Essay III. Of Faith as opposed to Atheism , and how a Belief of the Existence of God is necessary to determine the certain Rule of Moral Actions , p. 17. 1. Faith is a Belief of God and his Attributes , ibid. 2. The Necessity of this Belief for knowing the first and great Rule of Moral Actions , ibid. 3. Righteousness according to Scripture , is to act with a continual regard to God , p. 18. 4. These Divines are very censurable , who recommend Morality upon other Principles more and oftner than this , p. 19. Essay IV. The Existence of God is most evident , p. 21. 1. It doth not require Learning or great Travel to know that there is a God , p. 22. 2. Some Truths more obvious than Mathematical Demonstrations , and it may be said , That the Existence of a Deity is more evident than the Propositions of Euclid , p. 23. 3. Whether there be real Atheists . The Causes of Atheism considered , p. 24. First Cause of Atheism , Vitiousness , p. 25. A Second Cause of Atheism , the being rebuted by Difficulties , ibid. A Third Cause of Atheism , want of Consideration , p. 26. Essay V. Evidences of a Deity in Man , p. 27. 1. The Outward Figure of Man's Body considered , ibid. 2. The Inward Frame , p. 28. 3. Life and Sense , with the Organs of them , ibid. 4. The Internal , and Intellectual Faculties , p. 32. 5. The Method of nourishing the Body . p. 33. 6. The Manner of its Generation , p. 34. 7. Of the useful Dependance of some outward Members upon our Will , and how readily they answer our thoughts , p. 38. Essay VI. Evidences of a Deity in other Parts of the World , p. 37. 1. All other things , as well as Man , prove that there is a God. It is evident , That Man and all other things had one Author or Cause , ibid. 2. Contrivance and Design in in every thing , in the Celestial Orbs , p. 38. 3. In Vegetables and Animals , p. 39. 4. Locusts and Caterpillars considered , p. 40. 5. The Disorders and Irregularities occasioned by Man no Reproach to the Wisdom of God , p. 41. 6. It is unreasonable to ask more Evidence for the Existence of God , than what we have , p. 43. 7. God's Eternity obvious . His Omnipotency appears in the Immensity of the World , p. 44. 8. His Wisdom and Power in the very Disposal of meer Matter , or the several kinds of Earth . p. 45. 9. In the Variety and Virtue of Plants , p. 46. 10. In the Diversity of Animals , p. 50. 11. It is impossible to convince them who resist these Evidences , p. 52. Essay VII . Of the Absurdity of Atheism , p. 53. 1. Two sorts of Demonstration . A Deity demonstrable by both of them , ibid. 2. The Existence of God proved by the First , ibid. 3. The Objections of Atheists do strengthen the Belief of a God. The First Objection stated , p. 54. 4. The Answer to it , p. 55. 5. A Second Objection , p. 59. 6. The Answer , p. 60. 7 A Third Objection , p. 62. 8. The Answer , p. 63. 9. A Fourth Objection , with the Answer , p. 64. 10. A Deity proved by the other kind of Demonstration , ex absurdo , p. 65. The Conclusion , p. 68. AN ENQUIRY INTO THE Nature , Necessity , and Evidence OF Christian Faith. INTRODUCTION . Shewing the Occasion and Design of the following Essays . AS certainly the Christian Religion has the fairest appearance of any , and comes to us with all the marks of Truth , being stampt with Characters truly Divine , and carrying along with it Authentick Testimonies , both from Heaven and Earth ; so they who had the keeping of it , have , for near these 1700 Years , taught that Faith was a very considerable part of it , and absolutely Necessary to the obtaining all those Advantages which are promised by it . But now there are a Set of Men who pretend new Discoveries : They decry Faith as much as it was formerly magnified , and turn the things proposed to be believed into ridicule . Some of them run down Faith , by exposing the Clergy , who require it , as ignorant and Foolish , a sort of Men who are easily imposed upon , or who , to keep up their Trade , study to impose on others , amusing them with mysterious Nonsense . Others essay to prove , That Faith is impossible where Reason rules and is used ; and therefore that Believing proceeds from a Defect of Reason , and consequently unworthy of those who own themselves to be Men , that is , reasonable Creatures . A Third sort examine the several Points of Faith , as they are set forth in Systems and Confessions , and do either dwindle them away into nothing , or render them very absurd , that is , impossible or no ways worthy to be believed . This Controversie is of the highest Importance : all ought to be inquisitive into it , and earnest to know on what Side Truth lies , not to satisfie an idle Curiosity , but to discover the certain and solid foundation , if there be any such thing , on which they may build their Peace and Comfort , with respect to the present life , and joyful hopes in reference to that which may be hereafter . Upon this account I resolved on this Enquiry , and to proceed in it with all the care that becomes a Lover of Truth , in matters of so very great moment , who ought not to suffer himself to be byass'd by his former Sentiments , nor to be carried off by the Censures of the World , nor to be possessed with a fondness for Opinions , meerly because they are New or Old , Singular or Common . My first aim was to satisfie my self ; and now I propose the giving true information to others , and for that end shall lay all things candidly before them , imposing as little on them , as on my self , who am not willing to be deceived . And I am confident that he , who is attentive and willing to be informed , shall receive plain and full Conviction . To try this Matter , I do not find it proper to appeal to the Universal Doctrin , either of the Present , or Primitive Church . The Fathers may be thought as partial and incompetent Judges as the Modern Divines . Authorities have no weight with the Patrons of Incredulity , they laugh at this Method , and judge it as unreasonable , as if one would consult old Bigotted Aristotelians about the New Philosophy . I know their regard to the Scriptures , is much the same as what they have to other Books : They read and examine it with the same boldness and freedom , and very often with less Modesty than human Writings : because its Assertions are plain , and otherwise unanswerable ; therefore , to shelter themselves , and to defend their Opinions , they disown its Authority , and cry it down as a Book which is not implicitly to be believed more than others . Hence it is that some attack the Authentickness and Purity of the Text ; others , the Integrity and Inspiration of the Pen-men : and all of them endeavour , one way or other , to remove the only sure Light we have to direct our Course . So they would reason us into a fearful and troublesom uncertainty : and they make our condition as deplorable as Persons at Sea in a dark tempestuous Night , without Waggoner , Compass , or Pilot. I intend not to prove the Divine Authority of the Scripture , which hath been admirably well done by several , both in this , and former Ages : I take this for granted . But if this be too great a Postulatum , it will be sufficient for my business to suppose it in the first rank of Books , which it may claim , both by reason of its Antiquity , and the things contained in it . The Authors of this Holy Book merit Reverence and Esteem , at least as much as Plato , Aristotle , Seneca , Epictetus , Confutius of China , and other Ancients , whose Sentiments the World is curious to know , and which Learned Men have been employed to Collect , as useful to Mankind . Nay , I am willing at present even to pass this too . I ask only ( which cannot be Justly denied ) a due Attention to what is said in Scripture , and an impartial and unbyass'd consideration of the excellency and reasonableness of what it proposes ; for then , I am sure , that the Doctrine of Christianity will appear divine , and true , and worthy of all acceptation : for it shines with Evidence , as the Light which proves and manifests it self to every one that is not blind . If our Gospel ( saith St. Paul ) be hid , it is hid to them that are lost , &c. The finest Picture doth not look well , if it be not set in a proper Light. Nor doth the Gospel appear reasonable , when it is not duly represented . All the Cavils and Objections , that are made against it , proceed from a wrong view of it ; represent it fairly , and there is nothing more agreeable : Its Imperfections are Beauties and admirable Contrivances : its Foolishness is the highest Wisdom : its seeming Absurdities and Contradictions , upon Examination , are most rational and perfectly consistent : its Faith is Conviction and Demonstration . In a word , it is every way faithful and true , and worthy to be received by the wisest and most perfect Men , as I hope to make appear by these Essays , and what are to follow hereafter , which I desire may be read with Attention and Candour , and according to the Method in which it is written : for Divine Truths are in this like the Propositions of Euclid . There is a dependency amongst them , the first must be received before the rest can be admitted ; but tho' what is Prior in order of Nature ought to be first considered , yet it is certain , that the same is not so fully comprehended , as when what follows is known and understood . Thus the Existence of a Deity is to be proved before a Providence , and yet the Proofs of a Providence , and such a view of it , as we may have by Reason and Revelation , doth not only mightily confirm us in the Belief of a God , but also very much enlarge our Idea of him : What may be known by Nature and Reason , should be proposed before the Discoveries of Revelation ; and yet the Light of Revelation doth give clearer Convictions of the former , and doth render intelligible , what before could not indeed be denied ; but yet was not well understood . Nature and Reason may be compared to the dawnings of the Morning , which is not to be despised ; but the Discoveries of the Scripture , resemble the Light of the Sun when it is mounted the Horizon , which is full and sufficient for all that is necessary to our present State. We should have begun at that Faith which is peculiar to the Gospel , and so spared our labour in proving a Deity and Providence , if the present growth of Atheism had not made it necessary to establish these first . It is true , these Subjects have of late been excellently well-handled , to which we might have referred ; but that would have been to build upon another Man's foundation . All must acknowledge , that these Subjects are of great importance , and therefore what we offer about them , ought to be kindly received both by those who doubt , and those who believe ; that the one may be confirmed , and the other satisfied , in Matters that so nearly concern them . I would not be thought to despise some Proofs and Arguments which I have not used : Our Essays would have run out into vast Volumes , if we had amassed all that might have been said , and therefore we have only made choice of such things as either have been least considered by others , or which may be of most common use . We do not write for the Instruction of those who have been bred in Universities , and therefore have purposely waved what could not be understood without Metaphysical Notions , and the abstruse part of Learning . We have digested our Enquiries about Faith into three Parts , of which the present Essays make the First : And we have been advised to Publish them separately , to encourage the Reading of them : For , tho' those who have most need of Information , have also generally most leisure to Read ; yet it is well known that they are also least willing to undertake the Reading of what requires many Hours and much Attention . Bulky Books fright them , and they throw them by , as too great Interruptions to their Diversions , for the most of their Occupations are nothing else . But if such will not be at the pains to read a few Sheets , they betray their Aversion to these Truths , and do in vain pretend to excuse their Infidelity , by want of true Conviction . The Second Part is wholly taken up about Providence , which is too copious a Subject to be exhausted by any ; but without the hazard of being vain or immodest , I may say , that there is at least some things suggested , which may both perswade the belief of a Providence , and also satisfie mens Minds in some measure about the Strange and Wonderful Dispensations of it , which , not being commonly handled , we have the more largely insisted on . In the Third and last Part , shall be considered that Faith which is founded upon Revelation ; which also we shall indeavour to set in its true Light. Both these Parts shall follow very soon , if it please God to assist us ; and I heartily wish , that all of them may prove Useful to the design proposed , by helping to clear those Truths which are of the greatest Importance . ESSAY I. Faith is , and hath been , the Perpetual Standard of Righteousness from the beginning of the World. 1. AS all Authors ( whether Historians or Philosophers ) have their peculiar Phrases and way of Speaking , so Faith is a word and term proper to Sacred Scripture . It never occurs to us in the reading of any of the Heathen Moralists , in that sense in which we meet with it almost in every leaf of the Holy Bible . St. Paul as agreeable to the other Apostles , he discourses often , and very much of Faith ; so , in three several Epistles , he asserts , that the Iust shall live by Faith : and in one of them , he Prefaces it with an as it is written , testifying by this , that it was no New Doctrine of the Gospel , but what was taught by the Law and the Prophets . And accordingly we find the same very words in the Prophet Habakkuk , Chap. 2. 4. whence we may conclude , that this is a Scripture Maxim , of certain and perpetual Verity , under every Dispensation , as well the former as the present . 2. By the Iust , is to be understood the Good , Holy , and Righteous ; in opposition to the Wicked and Ungodly . And to live , comprehends and must be extended to , the whole tract and course of their Life and Conversation ; for to restrain it to any single , or individual act , which hath not an Universal Influence upon the whole Man and all its Motions , is to make the Scripture and Inspirer of it , speak very improperly . He is not said to Live in a place , who Lodgeth there a Night or two ; but who has his constant Residence and Abode in it . Nor can he be said properly to live by any Art or Science , who now and then perhaps diverteth himself with it ; but only he who makes it his profession , aim , and study , who constantly exerciseth it , and subsisteth by it . So when it is said that the Iust live by Faith , the meaning is , and must be , that they always walk by Faith ; they order and frame their whole Life and Conversation according to it . It is the Principle by which they are actuated , and which produceth all that they do . As the Soul and Spirit give Life to the Body , excite , direct , and determine the Actions of the whole Man , so Faith is the Soul , Life and Spirit of a Just or Righteous Man , the first and great Principles of his Motions , the chief Rule and Director of his Actions , that which quickens his Hopes , awakens his Fears , excites and curbs his Passion , and which pusheth him forward to all that is suitable to his Rank , Quality , and other Circumstances in which he stands . In a word , to live by Faith , must be to think , speak , and act by it , for Life comprehends all this . And he who doth thus live by Faith , is truly Just , Good , Holy , and Righteous . For if it be true that the Iust do live by Faith , it is also true that they who live by Faith are Iust. As Knowledge and Wisdom render a Man learned and wise , so Faith makes one Iust and Righteous : and this Righteousness encreaseth according to the proportion of our Faith ; for there are degrees of Faith as of Life ; there are weaker and stronger , imperfect and perfect in both . 3. Now that it is not peculiar to the state of the Gospel for the Iust to live by Faith , but that they did so , under the Law , and before it , doth further appear from what the Apostle writes in the Eleventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews , where , by a long enumeration of particular instances , he proves that all the Righteous , even up to Abel , that is , ever since the Fall , did walk by Faith ; and that Faith was the source and spring of both their Common , and Extraordinary Actions . And he might have ascended higher , and shewed , that even in the state of Innocence , Faith was appointed the Life and Soul of Righteousness : for that Command which was given to our first Parents , about the Tree of Knowledge , in the midst of the Garden , was to exercise their Faith , as their Transgression was a failure of Faith as well as of Obedience . St. Paul , in the Epistle to the Galatians , and in the first Part of that to the Romans , pursues the same Truth against the Bigotted Jews and Judaizing Christians . For to convince them of their Error , in expecting to be Iustified by the Law of Moses , He shews clearly , that , before the Law was in being , Men were accounted Iust and Righteous before God , by reason of their Faith , and therefore that Faith was the permanent and perpetual Standard or Rule both for measuring Mens Righteousness , and for obtaining their Iustification . Because Abraham was an eminent Example of Faith , therefore he was not only reputed Righteous , but had the peculiar honour to be called the Friend of God , and the Father of the Faithful , in all succeeding Generations . And all who believe , and live by Faith , are stiled the Children of Abraham , and Heirs of his Honour and Privileges . Upon which account they are also named the Children of God , the holy Seed , the righteous Generation , in opposition to the Sons of Belial , the Wicked and Reprobate , who are branded with the Character of Vnbelievers , Children of Vnbelief , Persons without Faith , as the Original bears , which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Much more might be said on this Head , but it sufficiently appears from what hath been said , that according to the peculiar Dialect , both of the Old and New Testament , Faith and Holiness , Believing and to be Iust , or to live righteously , are used indifferently , as reciprocal Phrases , which import or inferr one another . And the reason of this Dialect is , because , according to the Philosophy of the Scripture , that which goes under the Name of Faith , is the first Principle which actuates a a good or just Man , and that the Goodness or Righteousness , which is acceptable to God , is only the Effects or Expressions of that Faith , which naturally and inseparably follow it , as the Light doth the Sun. Now , before I proceed further , it is fit to make a little Pause ; and it may be convenient to represent here the Obligation which lieth upon all , who own the Authority of Scripture , to entertain those Phrases and Expressions , with respect and reverence . 4. They ought to esteem them not only Sacred , but Exact and Just , and the fittest to convey true Notions into our Minds . A Wise Man can express his own Thoughts best . And sure none can be supposed more qualified to know the most apposite words for expressing Truth , than the Spirit of Truth , or they who are inspired by it . They , who recede from the Phrases of any Author , do also generally differ from his Sentiments , and give others occasion to mistake them : For the peculiar and repeated Phrases , which one has used constantly , do give the greatest Light to the Discovery of his Thoughts : For , if he had not perceived or fansied some Propriety in those Phrases , for representing what he would be at , he would not have been so fond of them , nor would he so constantly have used them , even as an exact and skilful Painter , observeth carefully , both the Strokes and Mixtures , which are fittest to shadow out the Colours and Figures he would represent . But even abstracting from the Divine Authority of Scripture , and the peculiar Inspiration of the Pen-men , it is very great Immodesty to offer to correct and amend their Expressions ; as if any now a-days could express their Thoughts , Notions and Sentiments better , than they themselves were capable to do , especially on Subjects with which they were well acquainted , and which they knew better than other Men , by reason of their Profound Meditation , the Purity of their Minds , and the Integrity of their Lives : These very things ( if divine and immediate Inspiration will not be allowed them ) could qualifie them to teach the Nature and Acts of a Holy Life , or true Righteousness far better than others . All the Heathen Philosophers came short of their Perfection , and therefore are not so good Masters of Morality : for Moral Truths are not like Mathematical ones , to be learned by Reading and Study : The Knowledge of those comes best , nay , can only be had by serious and continued Practice . A good Man Unlearned , has a deeper sense of Christian Morality , and can discourse more lively and reasonably of it , than the greatest Scholar , who has only the Theory . And there be some Expressions which seem mean and silly to the last , which the other feels to be just and Emphatick ; as what that Man esteems lofty and Sublime , this Man Undervalues ; for the one knows and thoroughly understands the Subject he speaks of , which the other does not . To return , all the Disciples of any Sect , reverence the Authors and Founders of them , and love to speak in their Language , and according to their Dialect . An Aristotelian will huff , and grow very angry , if the Cant of his Schools be mocked ; and the well-bred Cartesian will not be much more calm and easie , when the Terms and Principles of his Philosophy are played upon . Now ought not Christians to be much more tender of the Divine Phrases which the Prophets and Apostles have used to set forth the Secret and Sublime Principles of that Life , which renders us acceptable to God , and makes us to be reputed Righteous in his sight ? Which Phrases were neither blindly hit upon , nor affected to amuse , but wisely chosen as most proper ; because both clear and comprehensive . Therefore to mock Faith , and to turn Believing into Ridicule , to explode the Phrase , and pretend to give better , is insufferable Insolence , and a high Affront to the Apostles , and Prophets , and that Spirit which did inspire them . Christians ought to resent this : to bear with it is not Meekness ; but want of Zeal and Courage ; it is a lazy treachery , as when one beholds the Rights of his Country or Society invaded and betrayed , and yet holds his Peace . It does not become the Children of the Family to assume the Liberty , or rather licentiousness of Enemies and Aliens , and if the Wantonness of their Humour prompt them to it , it is their Duty who have the Charge of the Family , to Chastise them into better Manners . ESSAY II. Of Faith as Opposed to Doubting . 1. WHatever regard be due to Words and Phrases , there is a greater due to the sense and meaning of them . Men are no better than Parrots , if they utter words and do not understand them . The next thing therefore to be considered is , what is this Faith which the Just should live by , which is so much magnified and spoken of in Scripture , which is now , and which is said always to have been the Principle of a holy and spiritual Life . 2. In order to this , I resolve not either to consider the Definitions of others , or to give a New one of my own , the common Definitions of Faith would hamper me too much : If I were tied to them , I could not have the freedom of my design , which is , to make a clear , full , and ample Description of Faith. This is not to cast a slight upon any of the received Definitions ; which , as they are placed in the common Catechisms , do serve well enough to point out some of the special and chief Acts of Faith , but which yet are not sufficient to give a full or clear Idea of it . Nor will I attempt to amend them , or to establish a better one ; for it is not easie to make a good Definition of such a very comprehensive thing as Faith is : nor is such a thing well understood by any Definition , as by taking a particular and separate view of those things which it comprehends . It is but a very confused Notion of Grammer , Logick , or any other Science which Youth have by the Definitions which are first taught them ; they then only rightly understand the Nature and Use of these Sciences , when they have gone through them . And as I am not to trouble my self with the common Definitions , so neither will I intangle my self , or the Reader , with the ordinary Distinctions of Faith ; such as Temporary Faith , an Historical Faith , a Faith of Miracles , &c. For tho' there be something in Scripture which gives occasion to these Names and Distinctions , yet the consideration of them would give little light to our Enquiry , for they suppose the Knowledge of Faith which we enquire after , and are designed to mark out some certain degrees of Faith , rather than to instruct the Nature of it , which we mainly aim at . For my purpose is , by the light and guidance of Scripture alone , to search out this Faith , which is necessary to entitle one to be Just and Righteous before God , and upon which account it must be that St. Paul saith , without Faith it is impossible to please him , Heb. ii . 6. And to prevent all dangerous Errour , that we may not mistake one sort of Faith for another , a Faith which cannot , or doth not render Just , for one that doth , we shall have still in our Eye this necessary Relation betwixt Faith and Righteousness . 3. To proceed then , In the first place , I find Faith taken in opposition to Doubting : So it is taken , Rom. 14. and in several other places . And in this sense Faith is much the same with Conscience , and is an inward Conviction or Perswasion of Mind concerning what is true or false , good and evil , lawful and unlawful . Which Perswasion or inward Conviction , is the first Rule or Standard by which one 's Integrity and Uprightness is to be measured ; and therefore it is as necessary for the Just to live by this Faith , as for a Square to have four equal sides : both Texts of Scripture , and the Nature of the thing require it . The true and primitive Character of a Just Man is to be Conscientious , to follow the Dictates of his Mind , and to order his Life and Actions according to what he knows and believes to be right . A Just Man must be Upright , and there is no Uprightness if the outward and inward-man do not keep touches , if there be no Correspondence betwixt them , if the Mouth contradict the Heart , and the Life and Actions be disagreeable to the inward Light and Sentiments . This Faith is as the Eye by which we see and know how to order our Steps ; it is as the Light to shew the Way in which we should walk , and not to follow it , or to go contrary to it , is great Perverseness , and the Character of a Wicked Man. As the Spirit is the Principle of Life , and Life of Motion ; so this Faith is the first Principle of a good Life , and Men are to be reckoned good or bad as they walk according to it : He is a bad Man who contradicts it , and he is no good Man whose Actions do not flow from it . The Motions of a Puppet or Engine may be both Regular and Useful , but they cannot be reckoned Natural ; because they proceed not from a Principle of Life , but from Artificial Springs . So tho' one's Actions be never so plausible , fair or useful to others , yet they are not good ; nor is he , who doth them Just , if they proceed from any other principle than this Faith , that is , an inward Perswasion of their being just and good , lawful and reasonable , for whatsoever is not of Faith ( saith the Apostle ) is sin , Rom. 14. 23. Hence it is that we see some in Scripture branded with the Character of ill Men , and others denied the Approbation of being good , whose Actions were outwardly good and commendable , because they did what they did , for other Reasons , and upon another account , than the intrinsick goodness of those things , or their own Perswasion of it . 4. All the Actions of every one are to be Approved or Condemned , with a regard to this Faith , and by vertue of it , things , in themselves good and lawful , become evil , and what is evil loseth a part of its malignity . Thus the Eating of Flesh , which in it self is a lawful and innocent Action , is a damnable Sin to him who has the least doubt whether it be lawful ; and what is clean turns unclean to him who thinks it so , as is excellently discoursed in that fore-cited Chapter . So on the other hand , we find God himself excusing Abimelech for taking Sarah into his House , because he did it in the integrity of his heart ; that is , he was ignorant of her being another Man's Wife . And St. Paul's Perfection of the Saints was the more pardonable , because he verily thought he ought to do many things against the Name of Jesus : I was before ( saith he ) a blasphemer , and a persecutor , and injurious , but I obtained mercy , because I did it ignorantly in unbelief ; that is , without Faith , or the perswasion of the evil of it , 1 Tim. 1. 13. But then it is to be remembred , That this Faith which hath such Influence upon our Actions , and which is so Essential to a Just Man , is not Fancy or Imagination , nor a light or hasty Perswasion . Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind , saith the Apostle , ver . 5. and therefore our Faith and Perswasion ought to be well-grounded , the effect of serious Enquiry and Deliberation , that it may give true and certain Direction , otherwise it may be still said that we are regardless of Right and Wrong , Truth or Falshood , Good and Evil , which is inconsistent with the Character of a perfectly Just Man. A wise Architect doth not work at random , but by Plumb and Rule ; but then he is first careful that his Plumb and Rule be right and exact ; for without this , he cannot sincerely intend to have his work perfect . So a Just man carefully studieth both a Conformity betwixt his Actions and his inward Sentiments , and betwixt these and truth , and the stable Rule of Right and wrong , Good and Evil. To act contrary to inward Conviction is to offend wilfully , and the height of Wickedness ; but it is the next degree to it to be careless whether we offend or not , whether we do Good or Evil , which we are guilty of , when we are not at any pains to adjust our Perswasion to Truth , to know the right , or to inform our selves of what is good , lawful , and fit to be done . The same reason which makes it Just , and our Duty to act according to our Knowledge , and inward Perswasion , or to do the Good we know , obligeth us to search out the real Good that is , that there may be no Errour in our Perswasion , nor Crookedness in our Practice ; and then only our Thoughts can justifie our Actions , when , by Diligence and due Care , we have endeavoured to make our Thoughts just and true , conform to the Nature of things ; for without this , we cannot be fully perswaded in our Minds , as the Apostle enjoineth ; the assurance of Faith is wanting , which is necessary to dispel all doubts , and to establish our goings . Happy is he ( saith St. Paul ) that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth , Rom. 14. 22. by which he gives us to understand , that our Heart must approve our Actions ; our Minds must Judge , that the ways we take are right , otherwise we stand Self-condemned . Now the Judgment is not Just which is not certain , which is rashly or hastily pronounced , before a strict Examination , or a due Attention to all the Proofs and Evidences which can be brought for clearing the Cause . There is still place for Doubting , when necessary Caution and the proper Means have not been used for right and sufficient Information . And as Doubting defileth the Man , and polluteth all his Actions , so it is uneasie to the Mind : As Darkness , in which when one walketh , it maketh him Apprehensive , full of Fears and Jealousies , going forwards and backwards , to the right and left , without any steady course ; because he has no certainty of his way . What is translated a Double-minded Man , ought to be a Doubtful Man , one that has not the assurance of Faith ; and such an one ( saith St. Iames ) is unstable in all his ways , he wavereth like a wave of the Sea , which is driven with the wind and tossed , Jam. 1. 6 , 8. Fleeting and Inconstancy , change of Opinions and Practices , regarding Events and outward Advantages , is at least a sure sign and evidence that the Person has not attained to a true Faith , or full Perswasion of his Duty , of what is good , lawful , or necessary ; for Faith gives a chearful confidence , it makes one constant , and to be always the same ; because Truth and the Nature of things change not . To conclude this Matter ; By Faith here we are to understand a true Knowledge of the Nature of things , a clear Conviction of Truth , and a hearty full Perswasion of Good and Evil , Lawful and Unlawful , which every one should endeavour after as much as possible : And also every one ought to live answerably to the measure which he hath attained of it . Who doth thus , so far he is to be reckoned Good and Just ; for he hath no Perverseness in his temper , no crooked Byass in his Constitution , but sheweth an Integrity of Mind without guile or hypocrisie , and a regular Will , which offers no Prejudice , but which renders to every person and thing what is due . 6. Righteousness begins here : A tendency towards this Faith is the first Symptom and Appearance , as well as Motion , of a Just and Good Life , which like the Natural , upon its first Production , may be weak and languid ; but which , like it too , groweth if it be not stifled : and as it groweth , so it acquireth strength and vigour , until it arrive at Perfection . The first moments of the Morning are hardly distinguished from black Night ; but it creepeth on insensibly , until the whole Hemisphere be enlightened . So the Paths of the just ( saith Solomon ) are as the shining light , which shineth more and more until the perfect day , Prov. 4. 18. ESSAY III. Of Faith as opposed to Atheism , and how a belief of the Existence of God , is necessary to Determine the certain Rule of Moral Actions . 1. TO go on with Faith , which in the Second place is opposed to Atheism , and so it is a firm Belief of the existence of a Deity , a certain , full , and clear Perswasion that God is , and a sense of those Attributes which are necessarily included in the true Idea of God. He ( saith the Apostle ) who cometh to God , must believe that he is , and that he is a Rewarder of them who diligently seek him , Heb. 4. 6. 2. The Faith , spoken of in the former Essay , obligeth to enquire after this ; and this we are now upon , enforceth the reasonableness and necessity of that ; such is the relation betwixt them , and so mutually do they support one another . Not to Criticize Grammatically upon the words [ Lawful , and Vnlawful ] which suppose a Superiour , even Good and Evil depend much , if not altogether , upon the Knowledge of God , and are to be measured by a Relation to him : the Nature of these will be found to vary very much , according as the Existence or Non-existence of a Deity is established . If Man have no Superiour , none to reward or punish his Actions , then I suppose the Government of himself is Arbitrary , as the chusing Employments is now thought to be ; his chief business is to please himself ; and consequently , Good and Evil are only to be considered with relation to one's self and his present Interest ; which shall make as many different notions of Good and Evil , as there are different Humours , Inclinations , and Interests among Men. Good and Evil shall in that case have no certain Standard by which to be measured , but shall be of as mutable a Nature , as Honesty and Dishonesty in a divided Common-wealth , where the same thing is both Honesty and Knavery , in the Judgment of the different Parties , and where the same Person shall be both reputed a Hero and a Villain . Then no act can leave a guilt , and better or worse , well or ill done is to be measured by the Event and Success . And tho' Moral Laws can be shewed to have a Foundation in Nature , yet the transgression of them , for a particular Pleasure or Conveniency , will be thought no more culpable than to level a Mountain , to cut the course of a River ; to force Water to ascend , and such like , which seem to be equal Violences to Nature ; so that he who has a Liberty to do the one , may also do the other . But the case is quite altered , if there be a God , for then we are no more at our own disposal than Servants : He who made us , has an absolute dominion over us ; and all our care ought to be to please him : His Will is a Law , and the perpetual Standard of Good and Evil. 3. However it is certain , that , ( according to Scripture ) none are reckoned Just or Righteous , but such as act with a continued regard to God , which sometimes is expressed by the fear of God , sometimes by walking with him , or before him , and having the heart perfect or upright with God. When Hezekiah pleaded his Integrity , it was in these words , Remember , Lord , how I have walked before thee with a perfect heart , and have done that which is good in thy sight . Upon this account , Enoch , Noah , Abraham , Lot , Ioseph , Ioshua , Iob , and all the other Worthies in Scripture are put into the Catalogue of the Just. And granting that there is a God , it will necessarily follow that he only is a Just Man , who sets God before him , who makes him the end and measure of his Actions , and the very design of whose Life is to please God : Nor can there be a more proper Character of an Unjust Man , than that by which the Wicked and Ungodly are described in Scripture , Viz. They have not the fear of God before their Eyes , God is not in all their thoughts , they are without God ; that is , they have no consideration of him , nor regard unto him . He is not Just who doth not render to every Man what is due . If one keep squares with others never so well , if he deal never so fairly with them , yet if he , at the same time , be untowardly , or undutiful to his Parents , he cannot properly be called Just. So let one possess all that is called Vertue towards Men , yet if God have not due Acknowledgment from him , that Man is neither Just nor Righteous . Nay , as he is not a good and faithful Servant , who does not sincerely intend his Master's Honour and Interest in all he doth ; so , ( according to the Scripture ) none can claim the titles of Just or Righteous , or have them bestowed upon them , who do not all for God's sake , whose chief Motive to do Good and forbear Evil is , because the one is acceptable to God , and the other offensive to him . 4. Wherefore those Divines are much to be censured , who recommend Morality , and a good Life chiefly by other Topicks than these : for they are either ignorant of the Principles and Philosophy of the Scripture , or they discard the same to establish a better , and more plausible Scheme of things . They who profess to believe the Divine Authority of the Scripture , ought also to think that they are incapable to correct its Principles , or to establish what is more Just , or Wise ; and that they cannot better shew their Learning and Judgment , than by making it appear that they fully understand the Scope and Doctrine of the Scripture . But whatever Opinion they have of the Scripture , seeing their Profession obligeth them to teach it , they ought to do it candidly ; that is , without mixing their own Fansies and Opinions . If one was appointed to read a Lecture of either Aristotelian , or Cartesian Philosophy , he could not be said to execute his office with ingenuity , who did not represent them purely according to their Authors , but who did blend them with other Principles . A righteousness built on the Principles of Self-love , Honour , Conveniency , Pleasure , and such other Motives , is a Righteousness built on a Heathen Foundation , which cannot please God , no more than we do think our selves obliged by Acts and Deeds , which had no regard to us . I would not be thought by this to exclude all respect to our Private and Personal Interest ; nor yet to disprove a humble and modest Enquiry into the reasonableness or excellency of the Divine Laws : But as the surest Proof , the clearest and shortest Demonstration of this , is drawn from the Existence , Nature , Will , and Authority of God ; Just as we best understand the Wisdom and Reasons of a Government , by considering what the King is , and what he proposes to himself . So the only design of this Enquiry should be to encourage our Obedience , to render it more ready and chearful by convincing us , that he , who has the Authority over us , employs it most for our Advantage , that so the Servitude , which we owe by Nature , may become voluntary , that we may be incapable of revolting : and tho' we could be free , yet we may chuse rather to be Servants for ever , like that Servant under the Law , who gave his Ear to be bored thorow , preferring ( out of love to his Master ) perpetual Bondage to his Freedom . I know not whether it should move Indignation or Pity most , to see how pleasantly Men delude themselves with Suppositions of Mankind ; their starting up free without all obligation , except to consult their own Pleasure and Convenience . Some , who make these Suppositions , deny a Deity , and proceed without any Consideration of God. Others own a Deity , but they found our Obligation to him only on his possessing Wisdom , Reason and Knowledge in greater measure . But this state of Nature is a Dream and meer Romance , and all their Suppositions are wild , extravagant , against Reason and Nature , if Mankind had another beginning , if we all owe our being to another ; for then we are not free , our Creation subjects us to him . We ought in the first place to regard his Will , which is a Law of indispensible Obligation , not by vertue only of the reasonableness of it , or the conveniency it brings with it , but by vertue of the Authority enjoining it . He is an open Rebel who has no regard to this Authority at all , and he , who preferrs any thing to it , or has any other thing in greater consideration , has broke the first and greatest chain of Justice ; he is not truly Loyal , but waits an opportunity to revolt . Tho' Rewards and Punishments be proposed , yet they are not intended for weakening the Authority of the Supream Lord ; but to preserve it from contempt , and to heighten our regard for it . Which Rewards we ought to consider , and have always before us , both that we may know the Nature and Importance of those things to which they are annexed ; and also , that by them we may be the more capable to serve and glorifie God , to whom we owe infinite Service , if it were in our Power . ESSAY IV. The Existence of God is most Evident . FRom what hath been said it necessarily follows , that the first Principle of true Righteousness , the Foundation of all Morality and Religion , is this Faith by which we firmly believe that God is , and that we derive our Life and Being from him ; that he Rules and Governs the World ; and that he is a Rewarder of them who diligently seek him . This comprehends all ; and all other things are but Deductions from this . Shake this , and all falls to the Ground ; the whole Fabrick of Religion and Morality shivers into pieces . But then this cannot be shaken : It stands like a Rock , immoveable , notwithstanding of all the furious blasts of insolent Men in the several Ages of the World ; and perhaps , never any of the former made so many , or so violent attacks as this present . This Foundation is surer than that of the World it self ; for when the Foundation of the World shall be overturned , this shall stand sure to all Eternity , as it was before the Foundation of the World it self was laid . 1. And as it is sure and certain , so it is clear and evident . This is not a Truth which lies hid , or mysteriously wrap'd up , which requires depth of Judgment , vast Learning , assiduous Study , and great Pains to the digging it up : We may come at this , without undertaking long and dangerous Voyages , without the wearisome Study of Languages , without turning over many Volumes , without the trouble of consulting all the Wise and Learned , and collecting their Sentiments . This lies open to every Man of common Sense and Judgment , because it is what every Man should know , believe , and understand . The Necessaries of Life are common every where , and may be had in every Country by a reasonable Industry , which is no ways uneasie . What must be fetch'd from afar , with much expence and labour , doth rather please Fansie , than serve Nature : So they are only Indian Trifles , for amusing and sustaining a vain Curiosity , which for the most part are returned to us by the Laborious Travels of Learned Men. And tho' they produce also things Substantial , to give solid Delight and Satisfaction ; yet even of these it must be said , that they are not absolutely necessary to give us Wisdom and Knowledge , to establish this Faith , which is the Ground-work and Foundation of all . What is necessary and sufficient for this , is obvious and at hand , that all may be without excuse ; for which cause I may apply these words of Moses , This is not hidden from thee , neither is it far off . It is not in Heaven , that thou shouldst say , who shall go for us to Heaven , and bring it unto us , that we may hear it and do it . Neither is it beyond the Sea , that thou shouldst say , who shall go over the Sea for us , and bring it unto us , that we may hear it and do it ; but this word of Faith is very nigh unto thee , in thy Mouth , and in thy Heart , that thou mayst do it , Deut. 30. 12. That is , the Evidence of this Faith depends not on the knowledge of what is transacted in these upper Regions , nor on what passeth in the remote Parts of the World ; but the Evidence of it lies in every Man 's own Bosom : His own Mind ( if he hearken to it ) can make him conscious of this Truth : That thing within him ( whatever it be ) which makes him sensible of other things , can convince him of this . 2. Because I intend to speak intelligibly to all , what the meanest Capacity may comprehend , I will not run into the Philosophical Debate about innate Ideas ; I will not enquire , whether all be born with an Idea of God , nor of what force that is , to demonstrate his Existence ; but whether the Mind of Man come to the World void of all Notions , or prepossessed with Principles , by which it is to examine all things afterwards : it is certain , that it is capable of discerning things when duely set before it ; as the Eye is capable of distinguishing objects and colours in a clear light , and at a due distance . If the Mind cannot refuse an assent to some things , if upon every representation of them it owns a Conviction , and cannot without violence work it self into a denial ; it is all a matter , whether this be from innate Principles , or the natural Evidence of these things themselves . And that there are some things clearer and more evident than Demonstration it self , appears from this , that even Mathematical Demonstration proceeds upon the supposition of this , and requires them as Postulata . Now the Mathematicians have only considered such Axioms as relate to Lines , Figures , and Bodies : There are other Principles as self-evident as these ; whence comes that the Voice of Nature is Uniform , and that there is a common consent of Mankind : Wherefore it is no Paradox to say , that the Existence of God , and the Principles of Morality , is not only as certain , but more evident than the Propositions of Euclid , because the generality of Mankind have always easily ( by the very bent of their Nature ) given an assent unto them , and that the greatest Barbarity and Corruption could never entirely deface them . Some Mens Genius is not capable of Mathematicks , but all are capable or Morality ; and the reason of it is so plain , that every unbyass'd Mind assents to it . That there are Debates about some Moral Principles , and particularly this of a Deity , is no more an Objection against the Evidence thereof , than the Arguments of Zeno against the Possibility of Motion , or the Sophistry of the Scepticks against the certainty of these things which fall under our senses . There are some things which a Child can distinguish as well as any of riper Years , and which a Country Clown may Judge of as well as a Philosopher ; and consequently common Sense and Reason may be known from the one as well as the other , nay , very often better : for the one speaketh what his Mind naturally dictates , whereas the other being amused with the Notions he hath read , which his Head always runs upon ; He discourseth according to these , and so perverteth his Natural Reason . The most simple Person can at first sight distinguish Natural Things from Artificial , and without hesitation , without waiting a deduction of Logical Inserences is presently convinced , that both the one and the other has a cause , and did not spring from themselves . None was ever so sensless as to think a House was built without Hands ; and any of common sense seeth , that Natural Things far excelleth these of Art , being more curiously wrought , more admirably contrived , being more beautiful , serving to more uses ; and in a word , every way more perfect . Therefore leave Men to the freedom of their own reason , they would as readily believe a God , as that a House had a Builder , or a Watch an Artificer . 3. Some will not yield that there are , or can be real Atheists ; because it implies such absurdity . But we see daily instances of Mens swallowing very gross Absurdities : Nay , there is hardly any absurdity which some or other has not received ; which should teach the wisest to walk with fear , and to preserve their reason carefully . If there be no Atheists , some take a great deal of Pains to no purpose ; for they are at much ado to perswade us that they themselves are , and to bring others to be Atheists . But as I see no reason to doubt that there are such , tho' very much reason that there should be none . So Mens Athèism proceeds either , 1 st . From their Vitiousness , which first breeds in them a dislike of God , and then carries them to dispute his Providence , and at last his Existence . Just as they who are embarked in some Design , which makes them dread the King , first Quarrel with his Government , and then deny his right and title . Or , 2 dly . It arises from the Difficulties which they meet with in the Contemplation of his Nature and Attributes ; because they cannot clear or comprehend these , therefore they deny his Being , thinking it better to deny what is plain and evident , than to own their Ignorance , or the shortness of their Reason , than which nothing can be more unreasonable , as we may have occasion to shew afterwards . Is it reasonable to deny plain and common things , because there are some things without our reach ? Shall I put out my Eyes because they fail me in some particulars ? because they do not reach beyond the Clouds , nor penetrate into the Secrets of Nature ? Difficulties which are insuperable may put a stop to further Enquiries , and make it reasonable not to determine any thing positively in these Matters where we find them : but they can never make it reasonable to deny what was clearly perceived before these occurred . Tho' the Divine Essence he incomprehensible , because infinite , and because it does not fall under our sense , tho' the ways and Workings of God be unsearchable and past finding out , yet plainer and more certain Evidences cannot be desired of united Wisdom and Power , than what we have continually before us ; nay , carry about with us in our own selves . As soon as one casts his Eye seriously upon them , he shall be convinced : He that considers them , shall acknowledge them ; and therefore a Third Cause of Atheism is want of Consideration and Reflection . Some are Atheists , because they do not think ; their Souls are always asleep , and they never open the Eyes of their Mind to behold , by a wise regard , the many Prodigies of Omniscient Power , the beautiful Scenes , the curious and admirable contrivances of Almighty Wisdom , with which the World is filled . They are like these sensual , dull , and uninquisitive Souls , which creep about the Palaces of Princes , on the account of the Meat and Drink , which is to be had there in plenty . They mind nothing but the crambing their Bellies , and are altogether insensible of the Stately Magnificence , the Curious Architecture , the fine Sculpture and Painting , which draws Strangers thither from all Parts of the World. He , who leads such a life , should be set to graze with the Beasts , for his life is not much better than theirs , and his Soul seems to be altogether sensitive . It is the Property of Man to think : his Dignity above the other Creatures lies in a power of discerning and understanding things , their Nature , Ends , and Uses , their relation to each other , their cause and contrivance , and what else may enlarge the Mind with Wisdom and Knowledge to which he bends ( when free ) as naturally as a Stone to the Earth . He , who does not employ his Thoughts these ways , abdicates the Dignity of his Nature ; and he , who thus carefully maintains it , will be full of God , if I may so speak , God will be in all his thoughts , for he shall see him every where , before him , behind him , on every side , and in every thing . As the foolish Iews asked a sign of Jesus Christ , when according to their Hypotheses , and the Supposition of their Law and Prophets which they themselves believed , every word he spoke , and every work he did was a Sign . So some unreasonably demand a Proof or Demonstration of a Deity , whilst they walk in the midst of Demonstrations , and do tread on them every step . If we cannot see his invisible Essence , yet upon the first opening our Eyes , we discern unquestionable Effects of his Essential Attributes : And if they do not affect us , because they are common and ordinary , it bewrays our want of Judgment and Consideration ; for the excellency of a thing lies not in its being rare and singular , but in the design , contrivance , and usefulness . Is the Art of a Watch less to be regarded , or doth the Memory of the first Inventor deserve less honour , because now adays every body carries one in his Pocket ; and that perhaps some of no great capacity are taught to work them . ESSAY V. Evidences of a Deity in Man. 1. GEnerals do not much affect us , nor are things distinctly known by a general view of them , we then see and understand them best , when we consider each apart by it self . The World is too large a Prospect to be taken up at once ; we will therefore descend to particulars , and shall begin at home . Take a view but of the outward make and figure of the Body of Man ; Consider the variety of Parts , the Symmetry , Situation and Proportion , either in respect to the whole , or to each other ; the firmness of the Feet , the strength of the Legs , the well-compacted thickness of the Thighs , the stateliness of the Trunk , the force of the Arms , the contrivance and innumerable uses of the Hand , the comeliness and beauty of the Face , the majesty of the Countenance , and the ornament of the Hair. The finest Painters and most curious Statuaries think they cannot shew their Skill better , than to imitate these , and tho' the best imitation of them be very rude in Comparison with the Original , yet even these rude Counterfeits have been much admired , and have procured much Honour and Fame to those who made them . Now if the Copy be admired , what doth the Original deserve ? If the Picture or Statue shew Art and Skill , shall the Original be ascribed to chance ? Is it not more reasonable to think that it is the work of some wise and excellent Hand ? 2. Especially if we penetrate into the Inward frame and texture , which is altogether unimitable : none was ever so mad as to attempt it . When the outward covering of the Skin , which also is admirable , being a Net of Nerves curiously interwoven , when this ( I say ) is laid aside , what a wonderful Contrivance appears of Bones , Muscles , Arteries , Nerves , and other Vessels , which both astonish the wisest , and also afford them matter of curious Enquiry . Since the Beginning of the World all the wise and curious have been prying into the Body of Man , Dissecting and Anatomizing the Parts of it . Some have spent their whole life in considering but one particular Part ; and yet after so many Thousand Years , there is no perfect discovery , either of the whole , or almost of any part . There is a terra incognita even in this little World. As there are at this day better Anatomists than whom former Ages could boast off : So the most Skilful do acknowledge ingenuously , that they discern neither all the Parts of this admirable Machine , nor yet all the true Uses of those Parts which have been discovered . All the Functions of the Brain and Spleen are not yet understood ; and it is but meer Conjecture what is said of several others . Is it not then against common sense to ascribe to any thing but perfect Wisdom , what is thus above the reach of the wisest Men , and what puzzles them to comprehend ! 3. To give further Conviction of this truth , let Life , Motion , and Sense be considered . What admirable and exquisite Wisdom doth appear in the frame and disposal of the Senses ! As in a City invested with Enemies , and in danger to be betrayed , it is necessary to advert to all the Motions of those within , and to keep Watch at all the Ramparts , and other places proper for discovering the Advances and dangerous Approaches of the Enemy . So it is necessary to the preservation of the Body , that both its outward and inward state be perfectly understood , that all the Motions within , and all Applications without be felt , that it may be presently known what are hurtful , and what convenient , what should be cherished , and what prevented ; wherefore we see that the Organs of this Sense of Feeling are posted every where throughout the Body ; so that the least disturbance within , and the slightest touch without , even in the Extremities , is instantly perceived . Tasting being designed for distinguishing Meats , and for discerning what is agreeable ; therefore the Instrument of this Sense is the fore-part of the Tongue , which lies at the very Gates of the first entry or passage to the Stomach , to secure against what is disagreeable : For if the Faculty of Tasting had been placed more inwards , the disgorging unsavoury things should have been very incommodious . Because all the ends and purposes of Smelling may be served by one Organ , therefore there is no more , but that is curiously formed , and admirably sitted to receive the insensible Particles , which evaporate from all Material Substances , whether animate or inanimate , natural or composed . However the Organ of this Sense is grosser in Man , than in some other Animals , because they require it far more exquisite . For Example , If the Dog had not this Sense in a nicer measure than Man , he would not be worth keeping ; for then he could neither trace out his Master's footsteps , nor yet find out where the Partridge feeds , or the Hare has her Seat , which certainly never happened by Accident . If this be not Design , we may make Design and Chance all one ; for it is impossible to distinguish them . The two other Senses being by far the most Delightful and Profitable , therefore each has two Organs , most wisely situated , and most admirably contrived to answer the purposes of these two Faculties . The Fabrick and Motion of the Eye is so curious , that never any yet did consider it without wonder and astonishment . This is the foundation of the Opticks , which is the most pleasant and curious part of Mathematicks . Upon which account , I must say , That if there be Mathematicians who are Atheists , they are of all others most inexcusable : For seeing Vision , and the Fabrick and Motion of the Eye , by which it is performed , is according to the strictest Rules of Mathematicks , and that he must be a Master of that Art , who can unfold the Method and Manner of Vision , and explain the Reasons of it . Is it not the height of Impudence ? Is it not a Violence to common Sense ? Is it not to contradict and baffle Demonstration it self , either to think or say that Vision was contrived , or the Eye framed without Wisdom , or that the Author thereof was not skilled in the Nature of Light , the Rules of Motion , the Doctrine of Refraction and Reflexion , without which the Eye had been no Eye , nor Vision ever effectuated ? To secure this necessary Organ from danger , it is lodged in a well adapted bony Orbite ; and because only a Body of a Spherical Figure can move easily within another , especially when the whole space is to be filled up , therefore the Eye is Spherical , which is the only Figure capable of those many Motions which are necessary for discerning the various Objects which surround us ; and both to facilitate these Motions , and for performing them rightly , it is tied by various Muscles , interwoven with many Nerves ; by the means of which , it moves up and down and to either side easily . These Muscles are also so situate , that one is a kind of curb to the motion of the other , lest the Eye should be in hazard of being renversed : Moreover , they serve to keep the Eye fixed upon Objects , as long as there is occasion to look at them . The Eye-lids are not only for a cover when we are asleep ; but also they serve to clean and clear it by their Motions , which could not be so safely done by the Hand . As the Eye giveth Life and Beauty to the Countenance , and discovers the inward Thoughts and hidden Temper both of Body and Mind ; so nothing could have been more admirably contrived for Vision ; being composed of various humours contained in different Coats . The Cornea or White is convex , and receiveth different degrees of Convexity , according as the Objects are far or near : and to render it capable of changing its Figure thus , the humour next to it is thin , liquid , and pliable , which is therefore called Aqueous . The Pupilla or Sight doth dilate and contract it self as there is more or less Light. And because various distances of Objects require different Positions of the Cristalline humour , through which the Rays of Light pass to the Retina , where they form the Image of the external Object : For Rays from a nearer Object unite at a greater distance than those which come from an Object more remote ; therefore the Cristalline humour is pressed upon the Retina , by what Anatomists call Ligamentum Ciliare , and yet it is kept by the Vitrious humour , at such a due distance as is necessary for uniting the Rays exactly upon it . And that the Image of the Object , which is formed upon the Retina , may not be disordered by a Reflexion of the Rays which pass through it , therefore the Choroides or coat which surrounds it , is tinctured black , which colour doth not reflect any Rays ; for if it were of another colour it would , and so hinder a distinct Vision of external Objects . The Retina , upon which the Image of all external Objects is formed , is not above an inch and a half ; and yet without Calculation or consulting Experience , or Arithmetical Tables of Proportion , we are made to perceive all Objects distinctly in their just and real Proportions and at their true Distances , which is a most wonderful Contrivance , altogether impossible without infinite Power and Wisdom , as both this and some other particulars of Vision are inexplicable by humane Reason . Nor is the Ear less curious than the Eye : Some offer to prove it more Artificial ; but , Comparisons here ( as in other things ) are to no purpose . Certainly , there are as many ( if not more ) distinct Parts in the Fabrick of the Ear than Eye . But it not being my design to give an Anatomical Discourse , I will not offer to dissect it . Notice of all external Sound is given by a delicate Membrane , which is guarded by a viscous Substance , lest rude and violent Percussions should break it . There are wonderful Cavities for receiving the impressions and beatings upon this Membrane , for reverberating them , for modifying and distinguishing them , that they may be clearly understood . All which can be ascribed to nothing less than infinite Wisdom , which contrived the Eye , to give us the most delightful Prospect of the most pleasant Scenes of the Divine Opera ; and which formed the Ear to entertain us with the sweet Notes which the most Melodious feathered Chorus Sing to the Praises of their Creator , and especially that by these means our Souls , tho' strictly chained to , and closely detained in the Body , may be capable of communicating their Thoughts to one another . 4. Which leads me to the internal and intellectual Faculties ; the vast Capacity of the Mind , the quick and lively force of the Imagination , the incomprehensible Store-house of the Memory , where Myriads of things are laid up without any Confusion , but ranged in that good order , as a very Thought can produce them in a Moment . This is a large Subject , I dare not attempt it , lest I be carried too far , or should utter things not so obvious , or which might occasion debate . I only mark the excellency and usefulness of these Faculties , which every one can understand . It is by the means of these that we think , reason , discourse , arrive at Wisdom and Knowledge , by comparing things together , considering their mutual Relations , by Judging the present from what is past , by running the Effects up to their Cause , and by taking measures , both of Natural and Moral Events and Productions , from the Nature and Conjunction of Causes . By all which method and manner of reasoning , we constantly find that every thing must have a Cause , for nothing can produce nothing ; nor can any thing give to another the perfection which it self wants . Motion must have a Mover : Life must proceed from something that Lives , and Art and Contrivance from one or other that understands the same ; and consequently the whole System of our Reason must be overturned , the first Principles of Knowledge rejected , and the clearest Perception denied , if he who planted the Ear did not hear , if he who formed the Eye did not see , if he who teacheth man Knowledge doth not know . In a word , if the Author of our Being be not infinitely . Wise and Powerful , to which all Mankind have given their consent ; for as the Latin Orator , and some others have observed , there was never yet found any Nation or People who did not acknowledge a God. I crave leave to add some few Thoughts more for evincing this . 5. One is taken from the wonderful Contrivance of nourishing the Body , and supplying all its Parts . Many rare Inventions have been ruined , because they could not be sustained or repaired : When the secret Springs broke , they perished ; and what a trouble is it to uphold the Machines of Humane Contrivance , or to keep them a going ? But as the Author of our Being did foresee that our Bodies were liable to decay , and did waste themselves by acting and moving ; so he has most wisely provided against that Evil , and has laid down a wonderful easie Method of sending Recruits to all the Parts , far and near ; nay , even to these which are wrap'd up in the Heart of others , without doing prejudice to the surrounding Vessels , which is by receiving a little proper Food into the Mouth , from whence after chewing and mastigation , it is conveyed into the Stomach , where it is digested into a liquid Substance , whether by heat or acidity , or both , or by the motion of the Stomach it self , we shall not debate . But however it be , there is a speedy Dissolution of what comes there , and a better Se●retion or Separation of the different Substances after Dissolution , than can be by the most expert Chymist . Which Preparation being made , it is instantly discharged into Pipes and Canals , of different sizes , and strangely intersected , which supply every Part with what is necessary ; so that the remote Parts are not neglected , nor the nearer ones sooner supplied : all are equally provided and taken care of , and at the same instant refreshed . When the Body is faint and feeble , seems to have lost all its Spirits , and upon the point of expiring , how suddenly doth a little Food recover it ? how soon is its colour renewed ? and how instantly doth it begin to exert strength and vigour ? should this be passed over because common ? should it be slighted because ordinary ? should we not regard this wonderful Device , by which our Life is maintained from Day to Day ? Methinks , those who are so well pleased with Eating and Drinking , should thank the Contrivance . Upon this is founded the Custom of asking a Blessing before Meat , and of giving Thanks after ; and to say the truth , it is not only laudable , but more reasonable and necessary than is commonly believed . 6. And as the Nourishment of the Body doth ascribe Wisdom to its Author , so both his Wisdom and Power doth appear in its Generation . What an unlikely beginning has it ? how unaccountable that an homogeneous fluid should be the foundation of such an hetterogeneous solid ? We are sure it is , but how it comes to be cannot be comprehended . The manner of this Production is as much hid from our Understanding , as the place from our Eyes . The wisest Philosophers are but Children here ; their Principles of Mechanism can give no light to this Affair ; all they say , is but a heap of fanciful and groundless Conjectures . Nor do I believe the sole Power of what is called Nature sufficient ; there must be the guidance of an intelligent Spirit , to regulate Nature , and to see it perform its Duty . As in a Watch , all the Wheels and Parts have a mutual dependance on each other , and do regulate one another's Motions , and cannot move without the Spring : nor this , unless it be wound up by some Hand : So there is a mutual dependency among the Parts of the Body : They must be all formed at once , and must all perform their Functions together , otherwise not any of them can act or move . The Circulation of the Blood is the Cause of Animal Motion , or absolutely necessary to it , and the means of Nourishment . The Blood cannot circulate without the Motion of the Heart , nor the Heart move without Animal Spirits : Nor are Animal Spirits formed but by the Circulation and Secretion of the Blood ; therefore there must be some supervenient Power to influence them all simul & semel , to breathe Life into them , and to set them a going . And if it be said that this is now performed by the Blood and Spirits of the Mother , which circulate in the soetus , yet the Argument holds still against the formation of the first Man , without supernatural Aid ; which makes out my purpose , and which is agreeable to the account we have of Man's Creation in Genesis , where it is said , that God formed Man out of the Ground , and then breathed into his Nostrils the breath of Life ; that is , by his Almighty Power he wrought a lumpish piece of Earth into that wonderful Machine of Man's Body : But the Creation and Conjunction of those external and internal Parts , not being sufficient to give it Life and Motion ; he also afterwards inspired this , by a second Supernatural act of breathing into him . But to leave Philosophizing , and to return to our Subject , how doth the unsuitable and improbable matter from which we proceed , argue the Almighty Power of him who contriv'd it ? And was it possible without infinite Wisdom , to provide so wonderfully for the Nourishment and Safety of the Child during the Nine Months that it continues in the Womb ? from which Prison it is also delievered in a strange manner , which merits Admiration . When all these things are considered , how much truth and force is in that divine Hymn of David , where he Commemorates his Generation and Production , and where he saith , God hath possessed my Reins , thou hast covered me in my Mothers Womb. I will praise thee , for I am fearfully and wonderfully made ; Marvellous are thy Works , and that my Soul knoweth right well . My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret , and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth . Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect , and in thy Book all my Members were written , which in continuance were fashioned , when as yet there was none of them , Psal. 139. 13 , &c. Iob also hath spoken as Philosophically , and much more truely , than any who hath attempted to explain the formation of the foetus , and that in a very few words ; thus , Hast not thou poured me out as Milk , and curdled me like cheese ? Thou hast cloathed me with Skin , and fenced me with Bones and Sinews . Thou hast granted me life and favour , and thy visitation hath preserved my Spirit , Job 10. 10. Once more let it be considered how admirably each Part is fitted for the use to which it is destined : And as a great many perform their Motions without our concurrence , so these external Members , which are at the command of our will , do follow our thoughts quickly and readily , without previous Preparation , or so much as a Minute of time intervening . Nothing is quicker than a Thought , and yet as soon as we will it , the Tongue speaks , the Hand acts , and the Feet walk , &c. and all of them again cease their Motion just as we think it ; such a close dependence there is of these Members upon our Minds or Faculty of Thinking . One cannot Play well or distinctly upon any Instrument before he can distinguish the Strings , and until he learn what touches are proper to make the different Notes . But we are not taught the distinct and proper Muscles , Nerves , &c. by which our Members move : Nor do we so much as understand how they move them , and yet all is done , as if we had a distinct and perfect Knowledge , and that too with the swiftness of our Thoughts ; for our Thoughts and these Members keep pace together , if there be no obstruction and hinderance ; and if it were not so , we should be under great Disadvantages . I could bring several other instances to prove , that the Structure and Oeconomy of the Humane Body is a most wonderful and artificial Contrivance , which can be ascribed to nothing less than infinite Power and Wisdom , and consequently that it is a Demonstration of a Deity . ESSAY VI. Evidences of a Deity in other Parts of the World. IT hath been made appear that every one of us carrieth in us , and about us , a Demonstration of the Deity . Whenever we look upon our selves , we see him ; for we read his Wisdom and Power in our Make and Frame , in our first Production and daily Preservation , and by both our external and internal Senses . 1. But if one Evidence be not sufficient for so weighty a Point , let us interrogate other Creatures , and they will all unanimously answer the same thing . We are indeed a wonderful Work , but we are not the only Work of our Maker , he hath framed other Pieces besides ; which no less manifest his great Power and unsearchable Wisdom . It is evident that he who made us , made other things , and had both of us in his view when he made either . What should be the use of an Eye , if there was not Light ? And to what purpose should there be Light , if there was no Eye to see it , nor any Creature to discern the Beauties which it discovers . He then , who formed the Eye , created the Light ; and he who ordained Light , resolved to have a Creature capable of Seeing . We cannot live without Food ; nor can the Earth afford us necessary Food without the warm and kind influences of the Sun : that therefore there should be a Sun to render the Earth fruitful , by its benign influences , could not be Chance , but Contrivance , and this proves an intelligent Being . 2. If there was but one instance that looked like Art and Design , we should not lay much stress on 't ; we might be tempted to think that was only a lucky hit of blind Fortune . But we have many Thousand instances in the Heavens , in the Earth , and in the Seas , in both the Vegetable and Animal World , where each Individual is not only wonderfully contrived in reference to the Ends and Uses of its particular being ; but also in reference to one another : for they are admirably fitted to one another , and are made to serve other most wisely : The Vniversal Frame is as a huge Machine ; the vast Orbs above , and this in which we dwell , as so many Wheels and suitable Parts , which the Artist hath most skilfully joined , that not only each may have its proper Motion easily , but that the particular Motion of one may be beneficial to another , and all of them serviceable to the general Design ; no part can jolt out of its place , nor interfere with another . A Fleet of 500 Sail can hardly keep together without falling foul on each other ; and behold those innumerable and prodigious Orbs move continually in their immense space , without rubbing , tho' they naturally gravitate towards one another , which shews that they are steered by a most dexterous Pilot. And was it possible to put so many vast Orbs in motion without Omnipotency ? We may as well imagine that an Ant or Worm may cause an Earthquake . Certainly the Heavens declare the Glory of God , and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work . Day unto Day uttereth speech , and Night unto Night sheweth knowledge ; nor is there any Language where their Voice is not heard ; that is , though the several Nations of the World speak with different Tongues , which makes them that they cannot understand each other ; yet the Heavenly Bodies , by their regular and useful Motions , speak an Vniversal Language intelligible to all of common Sense , for convincing them that they are the Work and Contrivance of an Almighty and most Wise God. 3. Again , Let us consider the Vegetable and Animal World as a well-govern'd Common-wealth , where the People are wisely employed according to their Stations and Capacities , whose different Employments breed no Confusion , but do preserve the Order and Peace of the State , and promote its Wealth , Power , Strength and Glory . The Earth sends forth Trees , Herbs , and Plants of all Sorts for Food or Medicine , to serve the Necessities or Advantages of humane Life ; and all these spring up in their proper Situation , as if planted by the Hand of some skillful Gardner , which are sorted into different Climates , to whet and encourage Industry , for engaging and securing a good Correspondence amongst Men. Animals are destined to several Uses , and are assigned to such Regions as are proper to their Nature and these Uses . Fowls have the Air to rove in ; Fishes sport themselves in the Waters ; and Quadrupedes walk on firm Land ; Camels are allotted to Arabia , where there is no Water : Salvage Beasts are sent to Desarts , where they may do less Harm ; and they who are mild , tractable , and useful , are kept amongst Men. Such Animals as are dangerous to others , or of less Use , are generally barren and unfruitful , whereas other Kinds do multiply in Abundance : For there would be no Living in the World if Lions , Tigres , Bears , Wolves , Foxes , and the like , were as numerous as Sheep and Oxen. And the Air should shortly be dispeopled of its feathered Inhabitants , if the Vulture , Eagle , and Hawk , could draw out Armies like the Flocks of Crows and Pigeons . Now who impos'd these hard Laws upon those Beasts and Birds of Prey ? What Pharaoh forbad them to multiply to the Danger of the State ? Is it possible that the Terrour of Man could have made them drown or destroy their Brood ? Was it by the Art of Man that Foxes , Wolves , &c. produce all Dogs , and almost but one Bitch at every Litter , whereas other Animals bring forth Males and Females equally . Can this proceed from any , but the wise and potent Author of all things ? But to go on ; the climbing Goats feed upon the Rocks ; the simple Sheep and unweildy Oxen graze in the Valleys , and the frighted Deer are removed to range in the Woods . The fierce and undaunted Horse is appointed for the Battle ; the Ox to Labour , the Sheep for Food and Cloathing ; the Hare and Partridge for Diversion , and the Hound and the Hawk for catching them . Thus there is Use and Design to be seen in every Creature , nay , even in Insects and creeping Things , which we look upon with so much Contempt . The very common dull Worm hath its Use ; and lest they should be over numerous , the blind Mole is given to check them . But how useful is the Silk-Worm ? What a Treasure doth it yield ? And how splendid are Men by its Labour ? What might be said of the Bee ? It s Conduct and Industry are admirable ; like an excellent Chymist , it extracts the mellous Juice from the Herbs and Flowers , but does not spoil their Beauty and Figure , as Chymists do by their Operations . It admirably composes Wax , which serves to many Uses , and yet conceals from Mankind both the Matter and Art of that Composition ; for it is not yet discovered : For they are mistaken , who think that with which their Thighs are loaded is the Substance of Wax ; for this is of different Colours , whereas the Combs at first are almost a pure white : And besides , I my self have observed several Cells in the Combs , filled with that Matter which is upon their Thighs , but for what Use I have not yet discover'd , except it be for hatching their Eggs. 4. If any Object , the Locust and Caterpillar ; they may well as upbraid the Prudence and Policy of a State for keeping Forces , which generally are made up of very rude and insolent People ; for these are a Party of the Army of the Lord of Hosts , which he sends out at his Pleasure , to chastise the Pride , Wantonness , Ingratitude , and Forgetfulness of Man , who is the only disorderly Part of the Creation : He only breaks the Peace , and moves Sedition in this excellent and large Common-Wealth ; and he does it to his own Prejudice , as generally all rebellious and seditious People use to do : But his unruly and disorderly Behaviour is no Ground of impeaching the Wisdom of the Almighty Head of this great Common-Wealth of the World , far less than the rebellious and seditious practising of Subjects is chargeable upon the Government , who oftentimes ( as all Histories inform us ) run into it without just Provocation , through their own Wantonness or Ignorance , or foolish Fears , or the evil Counsel of cunning Men , who make them misapprehend some things , and beguile them with a Pretence of making other things better , which in the end turns worse . All the Disorders in this Universal State , which is made up of all Creatures , proceed from these very Causes , which give Disturbance to particular humane States . If I may be allowed to borrow a little Light from Revelation , when I reason against Atheism : The Devil or Lucifer being proud , and full of himself , became disaffected , and turn'd Male-content ; and to make himself a Party , he addressed to Man , preying upon his Weakness and Inadvertency , whom having once deluded , he still keeps into that rebellious Interest , by suggesting evil Thoughts , cherishing their Corruption and bad Inclinations . 5. Some may say , That this overturns all we have said about Design and Contrivance , seeing it seems to prove a grand Mistake in the Master-piece . If the World , the several Parts in it , and the Conjunction of these Parts be the work of infinite Wisdom , would one have been made to disturb all the rest , to disorder the whole Contrivance ? Or would the Power and Dominion over these have been committed to one altogether unqualified and unworthy of it , as Man seems to be ? Or must it be said , That the contriving of vegetative and sensitive things was with in the Skill of this wise Being , but that rational things , or what is of a higher Nature , is above his Reach ; and therefore he missed his Aim , and came short of his Design ? No , none of these things follow . The Almighty God would shew his Power and Wisdom by the creating an Infinite Variety of Beings , endued with all Degrees of Perfections ; and therefore one who was to be free , to be entrusted with the Government of himself , and who was to be under no other Force than that of Reason and Truth , nor to have any other Tyes than that of Gratitude and Interest , which he might know sufficiently by the Exercise of his intellectual Faculties , and the Application of his Mind to what is always before him . Other things could not be left to themselves ; being endued with no Sense or Reason of their own , they are still guided by the Wisdom of their Maker ; and hence it is that they never step aside , but always move regularly : Infinite Wisdom appears in all their Motions , and from this it is that some Creatures without Sense , and others which have no more than Sense , do out-do all the works of Men : Without Understanding they know the Rules of Architecture , the Nature and Uses of things , and the Means of compassing them better than Man with all his Reason , and after all his Study and Application : Nay , the Perfection of humane Art is but a faint Imitation of what other Creatures do by that which is called Natural Instinct , which is truely the Guidance of that Infinite Wisdom which contrived them . Mens best Knowledge is but Experience and Observation from their inferiour Creatures . And as it thus appears , that those Creatures are under the Management of their Maker , whose Wisdom manifests it self in their Motions and Actings : So it is no Defect in this most perfect Wisdom , that Men do not act perfectly or exactly right , because they are left to their own Freedom , and the Direction of an imperfect and limited Reason , which yet was sufficient , if they had adverted to the Marks and Instructions given them . As by Revelation we are assured that Man was at first made upright , so there are Reasons and Prints to convince us of it without Revelation . And as he is endued with Perfections above others in this part of the World , with intellectual Faculties which they want , so it seems evident , that all those other things were invented to be subject Matter for those intellectual Faculties to work upon . Pictures are not hang'd up but to be seen , for they cannot talk together ; so neither can Plants or Beasts . This World therefore would have been but as a wast House ; tho' richly furnish'd , yet it would have been altogether desolate of Inhabitants , if there had been wanting one of Understanding and Judgment , and capable of making wise Reflections on what there is in it . Man's Life would be very miserable if he had not the Service of those other Creatures , and they would be useless if it were not with a Respect unto him . Either they were designed to administer into him , or he was made to receive the Advantage which redounds from them : They are excellently fitted to one another , which could only proceed from an intelligent Being of infinite Wisdom and Power . Thus there are so many and so great Instances of Design and Contrivance , that no thinking Man is able to resist this Faith in God. He who doth not admit this Faith , must be strangely stupid , and so much to be pitied , or unreasonably obstinate , and therefore exceeding censurable . 6. I would ask such Persons what they would be at to satisfie them ? Do they require a Sight of God ? They may as reasonably ask to see a Voice , to touch a Tune , or to try the Objects of one Sense by another , as Colours by the Ear , and Odours by the Eye . Will they deny the intellectual Faculties of Perception , Judgment , Ratiocination , Memory , &c. to be in others , because they have no immediate Intuition of them ? Is it not sufficient Demonstration , that this , or the other Man doth possess these Faculties , when the one or the other sheweth the proper Signs of them , and that the necessary Effects thereof may be perceived in his Discourse and Actions ? And what greater Demonstration would any have of an Almighty , Intelligent Being , than prodigious and infinite Instances of Wisdom and Power , such as the World every where presents us with ! God's Essence is invisible , at least to us . What Organs the Angels of Heaven have for beholding him , we do not know ; but he dwelleth in a Light which no Man can approach unto , whom no Man hath seen , nor can see . But that which may be known of God is manifest , for he hath shew'd it ; for the Invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen , being understood by the things that are made , even his eternal Power and God-head ; so that they are without Excuse , viz. who doubt or deny a Deity , or who are not perswaded of his Eternity , Power , Wisdom , and Goodness , and who doth not glorifie him as such . 7. If God was not eternal , nothing could have been made , for there was then nothing to have produced any thing ; therefore his eternal Existence is evidently proved by the Existence of other things , which do not exist necessarily : And there is not any thing but himself which has necessary Existence included in its Idea . And though the creating of any one thing was a Demonstration of his Almighty Power and Wisdom , because nothing less could produce any thing out of nothing ; yet he hath created innumerable things of vastly different Natures and Properties , that by this infinite Diversity and Variety of Beings , his infinite Power may be visible to those who are capable to perceive it . The Immensity of his Power appears in the Immensity of the World , to which our very Imagination can prefix no Limits . * The Length and Greatness of the Earth , with the vast deep , doth astonish us when we have it in our View ; but how little doth this Greatness appear , when we lift up our Eyes to the Heavens and behold the innumerable Multitude of those shining Orbs , Two of which , viz. in the Panetary World , are only less than the Earth ; and some of them , not only many Thousands , but Millions of times greater , as we are assured by the Authority and Observation of Mathematicians , and which , without them , we may rudely conjecture by their Appearance at so vast a Distance : By the help of Glasses we may discern many more Stars , than what appear to the naked Eye . And there be very good Reason to believe , that there are many more which Glasses cannot reach ; so that Imagination it self cannot grasp the Universe : And all our perceptive Faculties fail us when we offer to view the Extension of it . Lo , all that we see are but Parts of his Ways , for how little a Portion is heard of him , saith Iob , chap. 26. 14. 8. How these celestial Orbs are filled and furnished , we know not ; but we have very good Reason to believe , That they are not wast and desolate Places , or meer Masses of Matter to fill up the immense Space of Vacuity . Without doubt they are admirably replenish'd by his Almighty Wisdom , as well as this which is inhabited by us , where are infinite Diversity of Instances , for forming and enlarging in us an Idea of the God-head , and to convince us that his Wisdom and Power cannot be bounded . In one Place Matter lies heaped in loose Particles as Sand , which can be easily separated , nay , blown asunder : In another Place it is kneaded like Dough , we know not how , as in Clay and such like Ground : Again , it is both closely united , and also hardned wonderfully , as Stone , of which there are divers sorts , some of a bright and dazzling Lustre , as the Diamond and Crystal ; other altogether Black , or of an unspotted White , or admirably variegated with different Colours , as the several sorts of Marble . Sometimes this hardned Matter is combustible , as Coal ; sometimes malleable , as Metal , which may be beat so thin , that a very small Quantity of Gold could be made to cover the whole Surface of the Earth , as can be demonstrated from Leaf-Gold , and the drawing of Gilded-Wire ; for a Grain Weight or two may be extended to some Thousand Ells of Length . Thus the Power of God doth wonderfully appear in the very Disposal of the Atomes and Particles of Brute and Lifeless Matter , which also sheweth his Wisdom no less ; for by this means , Matter is made to serve to many different Uses and Purposes , which otherwise could only have served one or a few . Convenient Houses , strong and magnificent Buildings , could never have been erected of Sand and loose Dust , nor could Stone be beat out into useful Plough-Shares and Pruning-Hooks , Swords and Knives , and such other Instruments as the Conveniency of Life requires . Of what Advantage Iron is , we may understand by the Imperfection of Arts in America , before the Europeans carried it thither : Tho' it be commonly reckoned the coursest of Metals , yet none is more useful , and without it other things could not be so well managed . It should be tedious to run over the several Species of brute Matter , but it is evident , That the wonderful Variety thereof renders the State and Condition of Mankind more convenient and happy ; and if but a few of them had been wanting , they should have laboured under great Inconveniencies ; As for Instance , how inconvenient would it be for those who inhabit Inland Countries , remote from the Sea , if there were not Rocks and Mines of Salt ; and therefore the Contrivance of such Variety , speaks out both the infinite Power and Wisdom of God. Which doth yet more appear when we consider Vegetables , which is Matter raised to the First Degree of Life , being made capable of Nourishment and Growth . Some have written several large Volumes about the Number , Kinds , and Vertues of Plants , and many more might be written without exhausting the Subject . There are many different Genders or Kind of Plants , and every one of these in the same Gender differ from other as to Size , Shape , Figure , Colour , Odour , Vertue , Duration , and the like ; so that the Number of known Plants are computed to be Eighteen or Twenty Thousand ; and there may be yet many more undiscovered . Some are almost insensibly small , other vastly great ; some proceed from the Seed , others by the Root ; some bear Seed , others none at all ; some send forth a Flower , others are without it ; in some the Flower puts out first , in most others it is last ; some have no Odour , others either refresh with their Fragrancy , or they offend with their Stink ; some are only commendable for their Beauty and Ornament , as the Tulip , others for their Use and Vertue ; and some have Beauty and Vertue enjoined , as the Violet , the Rose , the Lily , and the Gilly-Flower . Some wither almost as soon as they spring up others last a Season ; some are Annual , and others perpetual ; and all these divers Kinds have one common Nourishment , viz. the Rain and Dew from Heaven . What Admiration may it breed , to consider that such an insipid thing as Rain-Water , is capable to be distilled into Liquors of so many different Colours , Tasts , Smells , and Vertues , as are the Juice of Plants ! And it is no less Matter of Admiration , that this same liquid Rain should be consolidated into so firm , hard , and strong Parts , as are the Roots , Trunks , and Barks of Trees : For their Accretion and Growth is only from Rain , the Earth , being only a fit Receptacle to preserve it for them , as is evident from divers Experiments . Is not all this the wonderful Work of God , of which who can make any doubt ? If the inward Structure and admirable Mechanism of Plants or Vegetables be considered ; for they are composed of different Parts , wisely fitted for Nourishment , Growth , and Preservation : The Root fixeth it in the Earth , sucks in Nourishment , and is as the Stomach in Animals , to digest and prepare it . Then there are various Fibres as Veins to receive the Sap , and thro' which it circulates . There are also some Vessels to take in Air for Respiration , to facilitate the Circulation of the Sap. The outer and inner Bark of Trees preserve them from the Injury of the external Air : The Leaves are not only for Beauty , but to defend the Fruit , and to shade the Tree it self from excessive Heat , and to gather the Dew , which returning with the inward Sap , helps to nourish the Fruit and Branches . Every Vegetable has its peculiar Contrivance suited to its Nature and Use ; which abundantly demonstrates that they are all the Effects of infinite Power and Wisdom : But there are some more remarkable Instances , which , like strange Prodigies , seem to be planted with a Design to force our Admiration and Acknowledgment . Take this short Account of them , which Mr. Ray hath given in his ingenious and pious Treatise of the Wisdom of God in the Creation . First , The Coco or Coker-nut-Tree , that supplies the Indians with almost whatever they stand in need of , as Bread , Water , Wine , Vinegar , Brandy , Milk , Oyl , Honey , Sugar , Needles , Thread , Linen , Cloths , Cups , Spoons , Besoms , Baskets , Paper , Masts for Ships , Sails , Cordage , Nails , Coverings for their Houses , &c. which may be seen at large in the many Printed Relations of Voyages and Travels to the East-Indies , but most faithfully in the Hortus Malabaricus , Published by that immortal Patron of natural Learning , Henry Van Rheed van Drankenstein , who has had great Commands , and employs in the Dutch Colonies . Secondly , The Aloe Muricata , or Aculeata , which yields the Americans every thing their Necessities require , as Fences , Houses , Darts , Weapons , and other Arms , Shooes , Linen and Cloths , Needles and Thread , Wine and Honey , besides many Utensils , for all which Hernacles , Garcilasso de la Vega and Margrave may be consulted . Thirdly , The Bandura Cingalensium , called by some Priapus Vegetabilis , at the end of whose Leaves hang long Sacks or Bags , containing pure limpid Water , of great Use to the Natives , when they want Rain for Eight or Ten Months together . Fourthly , The Cinnamon-Tree of Cylon , in whose Parts there is a wonderful Diversity . Out of the Root they get a sort of Camphire , and its Oil ; out of the Bark of the Trunk the true Oil of Cinnamon ; from the Leaves an Oil like that of Cloves , out of the Fruit a Juniper Oil , with a Mixture of those of Cinnamon and Cloves . Besides , they boil the Berries into a sort of Wax , out of which they make Candles , Plaisters , Unguents . Here we may take Notice of the Candle-Trees of the West-Indies , out of whose Fruit boiled to a thick fat Consistence , are made very good Candles , many of which have been lately distributed by that most ingenious Merchant , Mr. Charles Dubois . Fifthly , The Fountain or Dropping-Trees in the Isles of Teno , St. Thomas , and in Guinea , which serve the Inhabitants instead of Rain and fresh Springs . Sixthly , and Lastly , we will only mention the Names of some other Vegetables , which with Eighteen or Twenty Thousand more of that Kind , do manifest to Mankind the Illustrious Bounty and Providence of the Almighty and Omniscient Creator towards his undeserving Creatures , as the Cotton-Trees , the Manyoc or Cassava , the Potatoe , the Jesuits Bark-Tree , the Poppy , the Rheubarb , the Scammony , the Jalap , the Coloquintida , the China , Sarfa , the Serpentaria Virginia , or Snakeweed , the Nisi or Genseg , the numerous Balsam and Gum-Trees , many of which are of late much illustrated by the great Industry and Skill of that most discerning Botanist , Doctor 〈◊〉 Plukened . Of what great Use all these , and innumerable other Plants are to Mankind , in the several Parts of Life , few or none can be ignorant . Besides , the known Uses in curing Diseases , in feeding and cloathing the poor , in building and dying , in all Mechanicks , there may be as many more not yet discovered , and which may be reserved on purpose to exercise the Faculties bestowed on Man , to find out what is necessary . 10. But if we make one Step higher to view the Animal Life , we shall see Wisdom and Power still more wonderfully displayed and diversified . What a prodigious Bulk of Life and Animal Motion is the Whale ! What a huge Animal Machine is that Leviathan ! By whose Neezings a Light doth shine , and whose Eyes are like the Eye-lids of the Morning . Out of whose Nostrils goeth Smoak as out of a Seething-pot or Cauldron . He maketh the Deep to boil like a Pot , the Sea like a Pot of Ointment . He maketh a Path to shine after him , so that one would think the Deep to be hoary . And is not the Epitome of the Animal Life as astonishing which we have in the Mite , and other almost imperceptible Creatures ! Which tho' they be but as Motes in the Sun , nay according to the Observation of some , there are some Animals less than a Grain of Sand by several Millions , yet they have Life and Motion , and consequently are inwardly composed of Heart , Lungs , Veins , Arteries , and Fibres , which proves the wonderful Divisibility of Matter , and the Art of Almighty Power , which can produce the same Motions and Sense in an Atome which we see in the hugest Animals . Again , we see here all imaginable Qualities distributed into various Sizes , Shapes , and Figures ; and also , all or most of them united together into one . Some are designed to fly in the Air , and for that end are furnished with Feathers , Wings , and very strong Muscles , by which means they are capable to continue and support themselves a long time in the Air , without wearying : And because their Feathers may be spoiled by Rain and Dew , and so rendered useless ; therefore each Fowl has Two Pots of Oil , that is , Two Glandules upon its Rump , which always produce an Vnctuous Substance , for anointing the Feathers that they may not be wet , or receive any Prejudice from Rain or the Moisture of the Air. Others are framed to swim in the Waters , and therefore have a peculiar Structure of their Lungs and inward Parts , which makes them require less Air than Terrestrial Animals . And tho' the Animals proper to one Element cannot live in another , for Fishes brought to the open Air pant and die ; Land-Fowl , and the Generality of Terrestrial Creatures , when they fall into the Water , cannot subsist long without Drowning . Yet to shew that nothing is impossible to Almighty Wisdom , there be some Fishes framed to fly above Water , and a great many Fowl to swim and dive under it . So there are Terrestrial Quadrupedes , which , without Feathers , fly in the Air , as Bats , and some Indian Squirrils ; and there be others , whose Food being Fish and Water-Insects , they range continually in the Waters , as the Beaver , the Otter , the Phoca or Sea-Calf , the Water-Rat , and Frog ; all which have their Toes interwoven with a thin Membrane to fit them for Swimming , and also are furnished with a Wind-Bladder to afford them what Air is necessary to the Circulation of the Blood , so that they can continue long in the Water without Suffocation . Now could all these different proper Structures of Animals have been contrived without Wisdom ? Could they have been distinguished in some , and united and intermingled in others , according to the Elements for which they were designed , without infinite Understanding ? To proceed , the Power of Seeing far is given to the Eagle and others , Swiftness to the Hare , Hound , and Roe-buck ; Strength to the Ox and Bear ; Fierceness to the Lion ; Cunning to the Fox ; Docility to the Dog ; Courage and Fleetness to the Horse ; and the Elephant is made both formidable and tame , cunning and docile , strong and fierce . And lastly , there is Man to manage this and all the other Animals , who , tho' he be neither so clear sighted as some , nor so strong , nor so fierce , nor so swift as others , yet by his Reason and the Ordinance of God , he has Dominion over the Fowls of the Air , the Beasts of the Field , and the Fish of the Sea , and maketh them all to do Homage unto him . O Lord , how manifold are thy Works ! In Wisdom thou hast made them all , the Earth is full of thy Riches . 11. We need not ascend higher , nor go further to fetch Proofs of a Deity , nor Instances of eternal and infinite Wisdom and Power . They who are so peevish as to quarrel what they see here , would not lay aside this unreasonable Humour , tho' they were carried to the Regions above . They who are not convinced by these things which are continually before them , would not be satisfied with other Arguments , and there are innumerable more . As they are hardned against the ordinary Works of God , so they would resist obstinately such as are extraordinary , for they mock all of this kind which have been . Wherefore it is wisely observ'd , That God never wrought a Miracle to convince an Atheist ; for besides that it is not reasonable that God should indulge an unreasonably willful , and obstinate Humour , no Miracle can be more effectual , or less liable to Exception than the regular Motion of those prodigious Orbs in the Heavens above , and the Multitude of Productions in the Earth below , all of which shew admirable Art and Contrivance . When common Food ceaseth to nourish , Delicacies and Dainties seldom do good . If the Body be clean and sound , common Food should be both savoury and nourishing . And if Men would lay aside their Pride , Malice , and Superfluity of Naughtiness ; if they would be meek and docile , they should soon perceive the reasonable Force of what we have touched , to perswade to a Belief of the Existence of God. And if any would have the Satisfaction of a fuller View of these Works of Wisdom and Power , I referr them to the forementioned Treatise of Mr. Ray , because it may be easily had , and is made plain and intelligible by the meanest Capacity . ESSAY VII . Of the Absurdity of Atheism . 1. THere are Two sorts of Demonstrations , one is a positive Proof drawn from certain and known Principles ; the other sheweth the absurd and unreasonable Consequences which would necessarily follow , if what is required be not granted , which is therefore called Demonstratio ex absurdo . Mathematicians make use of both : And there be many Propositions in Euclid which are not demonstrable but by the last Kind . Either of them makes a thing sure ; and what is capable of both is most evident , and consequently nothing can be more absurd and unreasonable than to deny and resist what is clearly made out both these Ways . And hence also it follows , That the Atheist is monstrously obstinate , and to the utmost Degree absurd and unreasonable ; seeing the Existence of a Deity can be demonstrated either way . 2. First , It is evident by what hath been delivered in the former Essays , that there are clear Instances of Wisdom and Power in the World ; and it also clearly appears that this Wisdom and Power are united in one , because they never act separately , but always work together . Power is always directed by Wisdom , and what sheweth the one sheweth the other , which is a sufficient , full , and as great a Demonstration as can reasonably be demanded , of the Existence of a wise Power or powerful Wisdom , and consequently that there is a Being superiour to all that we see , which has as much Wisdom and Power as what we find expressed in the Contrivance and Frame of the World , and in the Composition of the several Beings that are in it , that is , there is and must be an all-wise and Almighty God ; for by him we understand a Being whose Power and Understanding is infinite . Of whose Existence we are also further assured by all the Principles of reason and Knowledge , and by all those Methods by which we find out the Truth of any thing : For we are ascertained of the Truth of things , either by the Consideration of their Nature and abstracted Idea's , or by Deductions from Principles which all acknowledge to be self-evident , or by their effects and Manifestations , or finally by Testimony and Tradition . And all these several Ways , it is evident that there is such a supreme and perfect Being as is meant by God. 3. Moreover , this Truth is so far from being shaken by the Arguments and Objections of Atheists , that they do rather confirm it . Wherefore , that we may entirely silence them , and remove all Difficulties which any may entertain in this Matter , we will consider some of the chief of their Objections , without concealing or diminishing the Force of them . Firt , It is objected , That an Argument , drawn from final Causes , the Ends and Vses of things , is not concluding , nor of Force enough to establish such an important Truth , because it has more of Fancy than Solidity in it : The ends of things are but little known , and are only devised by a strong Imagination . Fancifull Men apprehend a Thousand things which have no Foundation in Nature , as cunning and industrious Persons can adapt and appropriate things to several Vses to which they were never destined . It is unreasonable to pretend , that the several things in Nature have been particularly designed for the Ends and Vses to which the Art or Necessities of Mankind have employed them . And the like may be said of most other things , which we only fanste were formed with a Respect to such or such an End , because we perceive some Agreeableness betwixt them and it . This Argument Lucretius insists on , which I shall set down according to the excellent Translation of Mr. Creech ; But now avoid their gross Mistakes , that teach The Limbs were made for Work , a Use for each ; The Eyes design'd to see , the Tongue to talk , The Legs made strong , and knit to Feet , to walk ; The Arms fram'd long , and firm , the Servile Hands To work , as Health requires , as Life commands : And so of all the rest whate'er they feign , Whate'er they teach 't is Nonsense all , and vain . For proper Vses were design'd for none But all the Members fram'd each made his own . Again : These various things Convenience did produce , We thought them fit , and made them for our Use. Thus these , and thus our Limbs and Senses too Were form'd before that any Mind did know What Office 't was that they were fit to do . Well then , 't is fond to think that these began For proper Vses made , bestow'd on Man. 4. The Summ of this Argument is , That all things happened by Chance , That nothing was contrived or made with Design , and that the pretended Ends and Uses of things are arbitrarily imposed by Men. But this Argument falls to pieces , and is of no Force at all , if it evidently appear that the Frame of the World , and the Structure of particular Beings cannot be ascribed to Chance , but to Contrivance and Design , which must necessarily inferr an Intelligent Being : For even the Proposers of this do acknowledge , That acting intentionally proves Wisdom and Understanding , otherwise they would not be so anxious to remove all Contrivance from Natural things . Now , neither the Continuation of the present State of things , nor their first Production can be afcribed to Chance without the grossest Impudence . Not the first , because Chance is Chance still , and not only may , but doth more often miss than hit right ; whereas the Motions of the Planets are certain and regular ; and the successive Production of Animals and Vegetables is constant and unchangeable , never miscarrying , but when some visible impediment happens . The several Species are not confounded or blended together , but every thing produceth its like of the same kind , with all its natural Perfections and Proportions . If one should always throw the same Number with Two Dyes , when the Odds is more than a Million to One , tho' there be but Six different Numbers on each , we would conclude that he did it not by Chance but by some Art or Trick which secured it . How improbable then , nay , how impossible is it , that so many Thousand admirable and regular Productions should happen merely by Chance , when each is a greater Chance than one against many Thousands of Millions without the Management of a wise Power . We conclude him a wise and expert Artist , who always hits his Mark , and compasseth his Design . And is there not as much Reason , to conclude these many natural Productions the Effects of an Intelligent Being . If it be replied , that all things now are continued and perpetuated by the Order and Method into which Matter has settled , and into which it fell by mere Chance ; I answer , That neither can the first Production of things , or that Order and Law by which they are now produced be ascribed to Chance , which was the other thing I asserted . For supposing Matter to be Eternal , we must also suppose some other thing to put it into Motion , for Motion is not essential to Matter : And tho' we should suppose , that both Matter and Motion were Eternal , yet we cannot thence conclude , that blind Matter and undetermined Motion could ever produce any regular thing , without a Director , or one to super-intend it . At the most it can be supposed only to occasion a Separation of its Parts , and a Secretion of the subtile from the grosser Particles , as we see done by some Chymical Operations ; but no Force put upon our Imagination can ever make us fansie that it could be so admirably organized of it self , or by mere Chance shap'd into so many different independent Species of Beings , which have also Power to perpetuate their Kind , not to speak now of the Faculties of thinking and reasoning . We may with much more Ease conceive , that a fortuitous Jumble of Letters may compose all the Books of the World , which the Atheists have been often , and of old twitted with . And as Reasoning à priori , we cannot admit Chance to be the Cause of things , so à posteriori , we cannot deny Contrivance and Design to be visible in the Frame of the World , the Order of Beings , and the particular Structure of each , unless we do Violence to both Sense and Reason . Such as refuse to acknowledge it , I would have them to declare greater Signs and Evidence of Art , Design , and Contrivance , than what is to be seen in and amongst natural things . Are not all things made in Number , Weight , and Measure ? Where do they perceive any Confusion or Disorder ? Where do they see irregular and unsuitable Mixtures or Compositions ? Are their disproportionable Quantities of Matter , or disagreeable Qualities conjoined in any Subject ? Is not Order , Method , just Proportion and Measure to be observed every where , and in every thing ? Are not all things so exactly adapted together , and so well fitted to each other , that whether we consider Individuals , or the several Species , or the whole Frame together , nothing can be better devised ? What is it to act intentionally , or with Design , but to propose some certain end , and to carry it on by suitable Means ? And therefore when we see things so conveniently adapted together as to produce certain Effects , and so well adjusted as to prevent the Miscarriage of them , have we not all Reason to conclude , that there is Design and Contrivance there ? The more excellent the Effects be , and the more Artificial the Means , it still proves more Wisdom in the Author and Contriver , and consequently the Author of Natural things is infinitely more wise than Men , because Natural Productions do far exceed those of Humane Art , and the Means by which they are produced are much more admirable . It is great Perverseness and inexcusable Obstinacy , not to acknowledge a wise Contrivance in the Ends and Uses of Natural things , or to alledge that they are all devised by Men : For tho' we should grant , that the Ends and Uses to which the Wit , Art , and Industry of Man has improved many of them , were not foreseen by their wise Author , nor those things which they have thus improved , intended by him purposely for the greater Conveniency and Advantage of Life ; yet there are real and visible Ends and Uses , and manifest admirable Contrivances in Order to the same , which are altogether independent upon either the Art or Imagination of Men. Is the Distinction of Animals into Male and Female , and the Adaptation of the Female to conceive and nourish the Foetus , both while it is in the Womb and after it is brought forth , merely grounded upon Fancy ? Could either Individuals have been multiplied , or the Kinds propagated without this ? And was not this an admirable Contrivance , and could it have been without Wisdom and Understanding ? What Reason is there to ascribe a Watch to Art and Contrivance more than the Structure of Animals , which is composed of different Parts and Vessels , curiously set together ? Why should we think , that Windows were designed to let in Light to the House , and not the Eye purposely framed to see ? Why should we think , Doors and Gates intended by the Architect for giving Entry to what we would admit into the House , and shutting out other things , and not also conclude the Valves of the Heart , Veins , and Arteries such another Contrivance ? Is there more Art in the various ways of joining the different pieces of any Frame or Machine , than there is in the different joinings of the Bones of the Body , which makes them move differently and very usefully ? As for Example ; The upper part of the Bone of the Arm is convex , and that Bone of the Shoulder which receives it is concave , by which Means we can trun our Arm round , whereas at the Elbow there is another Kind of Articulation , which only suffers that part of the Arm to turn upwards towards the Shoulder . And because neither of these joinings were proper for the divers Motions of the Hand and Fore-Arm , therefore its Bones are joined so as to make it capable of turning round , and of moving backwards and forwards , up and down , and almost every way . The Teeth are the only Bones of the Body , except those of the Ear , which are not covered with a most sensible Membrane : And if they had been covered with it , we had been liable to continual Pain . Now this Difference between the Teeth and the rest of the Bones could not be Chance , but a wise Contrivance . I might also make out this further , by considering the different Contrivance betwixt the Teeth of Men and other Animals , and those of other Animals according to their different Natures , and by many other Instances . But what hath been said is sufficient to prove , That the Ends and Uses of natural things are real and not fansied by Men ; that the Universal Frame and the Nature of particular things do evidently and demonstrably prove a wise Contrivance ; and consequently that all things are the Effects of a wise and intelligent Agent . And who would be further cleared and perswaded of this Matter , let them read the Treatise which the Honoured and Worthy Master Boyle has written of Final Causes . 5. But 2dly , 't is objected , That if it be reasonable to conclude the Existence of a Deity , or some supreme and intelligent powerful Being from the seeming Order and Contrivance of some things , it is as reasonable to conclude that there is no such being from the manifest Irregularity and Vselessness of other things , for if there was a God , or any Wise Almighty Being , as is pretended , all his Works would bear Prints of his Wisdom . But we see many things which have no manner of Contrivance in them , which are of no Vse , but rather prejudicial , and therefore we have Reason to believe , that the rest happened by Chance and not by Design . Thus ( say they ) the Spleen is the Occasion of much Pain and Trouble , and is of it self of no Vse , for several Animals have been known to live without it . Mountains are irregular and ill contrived Heaps , which spoil the Surface of the Earth , and render it less beautiful , and are very inconvenient for Travelling and Commerce . If this Terraqueous Globe had been the Work of a wise Agent , there would not have been more Water than dry Land , which is the only proper Habitation for Man and Terrestrial Animals , which are by much preferrable to Fishes : Nor would there have been so much Ground laid wast which cannot be inhabited , as the Desarts of Arabia , the Lybian Sands , and about the Two Poles , &c. 6. To all this I answer First , That tho' it should be granted that there are many thing without Contrivance , and which show no Design , yet it would be unreasonable to deny the necessary Consequences of what doth manifestly show both a Contrivance and Design ; and therefore whether there be more or fewer Instances which do so , it still follows that there is a Wise , Intelligent Being , capable to produce them . 2 dly , We cannot without Rashness conclude , That a things is without Contrivance , because we cannot find it out , nor is intended for any use , because we cannot perceive it . Our Knowledge is very much limited , and it is impossible for us to comprehend all that God doth , and it is great Presumption to condemn what we do not understand . No wise Man will slight the Works of any famous Mechanick or Artist , tho' he doth not presently conceive what he intended by it ; for his known Art and Skill in other things makes it reasonable to believe , that what is not yet declared or understood was nevertherless well designed and artificially contrived : Even so , seeing the general Frame of the World doth show so much Wisdom , and that there appears so much Art and Contrivance in the Nature and Structure of particular Beings , we ought from hence to conclude , that all things are wisely and well contrived for excellent Ends and Purposes , tho' we be ignorant of many of them . 3 dly , In passing a Censure and Judgment upon particular things , we ought not to consider them separately only , but also with a Respect to other things , to which they have a Relation , and with which they are conjoined . Having premised these things in general , I answer next to these particular Instances proposed . First , That tho' the Use of the Spleen is not yet well known , nor can it be certainly determined , nevertheless we have no Reason to think it useless , seeing the Structure of it is as curious as that of the Liver , Lungs , and other Parts . The Use and Function of several other Vessels were not known till of late , and after Ages may discover the Use of this too , which certainly was never placed in the Body without some special End or Use ; nor must it be reckoned altogether useless , because some Animals have been found to live without it : For so , both Men and other Animals do live without some Parts , which are of a known Use and of a special Contrivance ; besides , tho' the Loss of the Spleen did not instantly put an end to Life , it might have shortned it , or rendred it painful and uneasie , marring the Oeconomy of the Body . 2. As to the Mountains , they are very far from being useless ; for they serve to collect and condense the Vapours which feedeth Springs and Fountains : They determine the Winds in some measure : They nourish divers Plants , which will not grow upon the Valleys : They are proper for Metals and Minerals , and are so far from spoiling the Beauty of the Earth , that they make it much more pleasant , by casting it into divers Shapes and Figures . 3. There is as much dry Land as is necessarry either for Man or Terrestrial Animals , nay , as much as could contain many Millions more than there are , so that there is no Reason to complain of being straitned by want of Room . And it was necessary that there should be more Sea than dry Land , partly for the Conveniency of Navigation , and partly for furnishing sufficient Rain to water the Earth . The Ground requires all the Rain which falleth , which , by Computation is reckoned in one Year to be Five times the Quantity of Water in the Sea. If therefore there had been less Water , either the Earth should have been without sufficient Rain , or when it rained the Sea should have been too much emptied , which would have been very inconvenient , both for those Creatures who live in it , and also for the Ships that sail upon it . The Libyan Sands , and barren Desarts of Arabia , &c. cast no Reflection upon the wise Contrivance of the Earth , for it is not reasonable to think that all Parts should be alike good and excellent ; Diversity is both useful and pleasant : What is wanting in these barren Places is supplied by the Richness of others , which are also rendred more delightful by the Contemplation of such frightful Desolateness , even as Shadows contribute to the Beauty of a Picture , and the Brightness of the other Colours . Besides other Uses which we yet know not , they may be designed also to make us sensible how much we owe to the Bounty of the wise Author of all things , who hath made so much of the Earth a convenient Habitation for the Children of Men. Lastly , The same may be said in Reference to the Countries about the Two Poles , which are not very considerable , if we compare them with the rest of the habitable World. And besides , they show the wise Contrivance of the Spheroidical Figure of the Earth , and of making the Axis so much shorter than the Diameter of the Equator ; for if it had been otherwise the frigid Zones should have been much more large , and much less habitable . There is no way to Remedy that Inconvenience of the Country about the Poles , at least in our Conception , except there were Two Suns , or that this Sun was made to move without and beyond the Tropicks , neither of which would be so convenient as the present Contrivance . 7. 3 dly , It is said , That the World and all things in it were eternal ; which if true ( in their Opinion ) will cut off all Pretext of Contrivance and Design : For if nothing was ever made , then nothing also was ever contrived , there being no Occasion for contriving what was already existent . 8. But this Opinion of the Eternity of the World is taken up without any Shadow of Reason or Probability . It is a precarious Assertion , which being denied can never be proved . 2. It contradicts the Universal Tradition of Mankind , which hath always attested that the World had a Beginning . 3. It is against the current Testimony of all History , which traceth the Origin of Nations and People , the Inventions of Arts and Sciences , and which sheweth that all have happened within the Space of less than Six Thousand Years , according to the most probable , ( if not certain ) Calculation , which could not be if the World and Man had been Eternal . Therefore Lucretius reasoneth very well in his Fifth Book . But grant the World Eternal , grant it knew No Infancy , and grant it never New , Why then no Wars , our Poets Songs imploy Beyond the Siege of Thebes , or that of Troy ? Why former Heroes fell without a Name ? Why not their Battles told by lasting Fame ? But 't is as I declare ; and thoughtful Man Not long ago and all the World began : And therefore Arts that lay but rude before Are publish'd now , we now Increase the Store . We perfect all the Old and find out more Shippings improv'd , we add New Oars and Wings , And Musick now is found and speaking Strings . These Truths , this Rise of things we lately know . 4 thly , Tho' we may fansie that these greater and permanent Bodies of the Planets and Stars may have been Eternal , because they have lasted so many Thousand Years without any visible Change , as is acknowledged by all , yet we cannot bring our Imagination to conceive the Eternity of successive Beings possible , for a great many Contradictions and Absurdities do follow it . If Mankind had never any other Production than what is now , then there was never any Man who had not a Beginning : And if all had a Beginning , then Mankind cannot be Eternal ; therefore we must of Necessity acknowledge the Production of some one or more ( from whom the rest have descended ) in a manner different from the present : And there is no Account of the first Production of Mankind so reasonable or so probable , not to say now certain , as that which declares the immediate Creation of one Man and one Woman by the Hand of God. The like may be said of all other succesive Beings . But 5 thly and Lastly , Tho' we should force our selves to grant the Eternity of the World and all particular Beings , yet it could not be reasonably inferred from thence that there is no God ; for they , who desire this large Concession , must grant to us too , which cannot possibly be denied , that there have been from all Eternity Instances of great Power and Wisdom , from which it necessarily follows , that there is an Eternal , Wise , and Mighty Being ; for Power and Wisdom must proceed from something that is wise and powerful . Therefore the Old Philosophers , who did hold the Eternity of the World , did believe it a necessary Emanation from the Being of God , and thought not that it did , or could subsist without him . 9. It is 4 thly , Objected against the Being of a God , That if it was , it would render the Being of other things impossible ; for if he was , he would be infinite , and if infinite there could be no Room for the Existence of other things . But this Argument proceeds upon a mistaken Notion of the Infinite Nature of God , as if he was some gross material Substance vastly extended , whereas he is a Spirit , that is , a Substance altogether different from Matter or Body , who hath not the Properties of it ; and consequently , we cannot draw just or true Conclusions about him from what is observable in them . God's Infinity is not infinite Extension ; and tho' his Omnipresence hath some Resemblance to it , yet the Spirituality of his Nature makes his Ubiquity and Omnipresence in no wise incompatible with the Existence of Material Beings of Corporeal Substances : Nay , they are only sustained by the Infinity of his Essence ; and therefore the Existence of so many finite things , which have no Self-Sufficiency to exist of themselves , doth evidently demonstrate the Existence of an Infinite Essence as the Cause and Upholder of them . It would be tedious to consider all the little Cavils and Objections of Atheists against a Deity . The most material are reducible to those we have now proposed , and may be refuted by the Answers which we have now given ; for they proceed either from wrong Apprehensions of the Nature and Attributes of God , or from Ignorance of the Nature and Relation of other things , or from an obstinate Resistance of what is de facto evident ; and all of them demonstrate their Unreasonableness and Absurdity , which doth further appear by the absurd and unreasonable Consequences of not acknowledging a Deity , which is a second Way of proving it . 10. For , if there be no God , then it necessarily follows , That either every thing made it self , or that all things came from nothing , and that there are Effects which have no Cause ; for there is Life , Sense , and Reason , without any being capable to produce them : And there are artificial Contrivances , regular Proceedings , and wise Adaptation of things to Ends and Purposes far above the Power and Capacity of any thing which is existent . These and many such things follow the Denial of a God , which are not only great Difficulties , but such gross and senseless Absurdities as no thinking Person can either swallow or digest . As therefore Deformity sheweth Shape and Proportion beautiful , so the Belief of a Deity appears more reasonable , by the Absurdity and Unreasonableness of Atheism , which contradicts common Sense , overturns the agreed Principles of Knowledge and Reason , confound Chance and Contrivance , Accident and Design , and which has its Recourse to Wild , Romantick , and most precarious Hypotheses ; for they cannot shun the owning an Infinity , and the Existence of something from Eternity ; and they are forced to acknowledge that things are framed according to the Rules of Art and Proportion . Now is it not more reasonable to ascribe the constant Observance of these Rules to an Intelligent Being , than to Chance or no Cause ? For there is no middle thing betwixt them to be fixed on ; either the one or the other must take place . Nature , which they talk so much of , is an Obscure Word for concealing their Thoughts and Sentiments : If by this they mean something distinct from Matter , which moves and directs it , their Nature is God in Disguise ; and if they must flee to this for a rational Account of the Production of things , why do they quarrel at the Word [ God ] which carries a clearer Idea , and in the Sense of which all the World is agreed . Tho' this Nature of theirs be equivalent , yet it is more mysterious , and therefore it smells of some designed Perverseness , as if by the Use of this Word , and the Disuse of the other , they would turn Peoples Thoughts from God , and God from the Honour of being the Creator of all things . But if by Nature they only understand certain Laws , and I know not what Ordinances , by which things must move ; is this sufficient to explain the first Productions of things ? For tho' it should be true that Matter cannot move but according to these Laws , and that moving by them in process of Time the Work could have been produced as it is at present , after that Romantick Manner of Cartesius ; yet there was no Necessity that Matter should move at all , nor could it move of it self . Wherefore whether they will or not , they must own the Existence of something prior to Matter it self , or the Motion of it , which Cartesius was sensible of , and therefore he could not build his airy and fanciful System , without supposing the Existence of a Deity . And if he had kept his Eye upon this infinitely perfect Being , and considered the World and all particular things as his Work ; if instead of a vain curious Enquiry how things should have been , if Matter once moved had been left to it self , he had shewed how things are , and explained the admirable Contrivance of them , if he had given us a History of Nature , and described the Wisdom of God in the Make , Order , Place , and Relation of particular things ; I say , If Cartesius had done this , as he seems to have been able for it , the World would have been more obliged to him , his Philosophy should have been more rational and satisfactory , more useful to others , and of more lasting Fame to himself ; Whereas now by turning his Thoughts from the Ends and Uses of things , and the Wisdom of the Author and Contriver , he has turn'd his Back upon the only true Light that was to have guided him ; he has grop'd in the Dark and produced nothing but useless Conjectures and the extravagant Ravings of his Brain , which tickled Men at first , as all Novelties use to do , but which wise , inquisitive , and thinking Men will , and must disgust because there wants Solidity . As God is the first Cause and Author of all things , so the Belief of a Deity is the Foundation of all solid Reason ; what is not built on this is Nonsense and Absurdity . I know the Atheists arrogate to themselves Wit , and Judgment , and Knowledge above others , and do think that it is the Ignorance and Credulity of the Bulk of Mankind ( as one lately Words it ) which make them to be of another Belief . But I pray you , must they carry away Sense and Understanding from others , because they are so vain as to think it ? Do not those in Bedlam think themselves wiser than others ? All the rest of the World are Fools in their Eyes , and those who keep them there , not only Fools , but Oppressors and most unjust . And yet Atheism is a more extravagant and pernicious Madness , which it is the Interest of Mankind to keep from spreading . But alas it has been suffered to take Root and spread , nay it is cherished and encouraged . Men walk the Streets and publickly act this Madness . In every Corner they throw their Squibbs of Scoffs and Drollery against the Almighty Author of their Being . They meet in Companies to concert how they may most wittily expose him , and what is the readiest way to render him ridiculous in the Eyes of others : A Clinch , or Jest , or puny Witticism is received and entertained as an useful Discovery , and carried about with all Diligence . Tho' there be no Reason why the Atheist should be a Zealot , there being no Obligation on him to propagate his Opinions ; and because the less they are entertained by others he is the more secure ; yet no Sect is become more zealous of late than Atheists , and their Fraternity , who maintain their Cause by an affronted Impudence , by the Exercise of a froathy Wit more than Reason , and by Jesting and Drollery rather than serious Argument . And is this a reasonable or commendable way of handling a Matter so serious and important ? Should Impudence run down Evidence ? Should a Jest or a Witticism be of more Weight than the Dictates of common Sense and sober Reason ? If these Men were capable of Counsel , I would ask them whether they are absolutely sure that they are in the right ? Are they able to demonstrate that there is no God ? This is more than any ever yet pretended to ; and if they cannot pretend to this , ought they not to walk very cautiously , If there be a God , as there may , for any Assurance they have to the contrary , what then have they to expect for these bold Insults and that wicked Opposition to him ? A modest Enquiry into Truth , even into the Existence of God himself , is reasonable , and cannot offend either God or Man : But Spite and Insolency cannot by any Means be justified . It shews a Desire that there should be no God , more than Doubts and Scruples about his Existence , which must needs provoke the most hight God , and draw down his Judgments , both on those who are guilty , and on the Land which cherisheth them . The CONCLUSION . THO' the Existence of God be most evident , yet I thought my self obliged to insist the longer upon proving it , because it is of such Importance ; for it is the Foundation of all Knowledge and Certainty as well as of all Morality and Religion . The Belief of a Deity is the first Article of the Christian Creed , upon which the Truth and Certainty of the rest depend : And therefore 't was necessary to shew that this is no vain Hypothesis , or imaginary Supposition ; but a Truth loudly proclaimed , and strongly confirmed not only by Reason , but every part of the World. So that whatever the Atheist may arrogate to himself , and whatever Esteem may be paid to him unjustly in this corrupt Age , yet he is so far from being wiser than others ; that by the universal Voice of Nature as well as Scripture , he will be declared a Fool who saith that there is no God. When I have proved that this God doth rule the World , which is also included in this first Faith , I shall then consider what it is to live by it , and shall shew how necessary it is to the being just and righteous . And I hope that there is such Satisfaction given in these Essays , that who shall read them will be desirous of the other that are promised . ERRATA . PAge 1. line 2. read is , p. 3. l. 7. r. Scripture ▪ p. 7. l. 29. r. Principle , p. 12. l. 12. r. so well , p. 13. l. 17. for touchos r. touch , p. 19. l. 8. f. Squares r. Square . p. 23. l. ult . for is r. are , p. 40 ▪ l. 31. r. as well , ibid. l. 33 , r. a part , p. 42 ▪ l. 25. r. the f. their ▪ p. 43. l. 22. r. exceedingly , p. 45. l. 13. f. be ▪ r. is , p. 46. l. 21. f. should r. would , p. 47. l. 14. r. conjoined , p. 57. l. 20. r. there . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A33547-e1500 * By the latest and exactest Calculation of the Modern Mathematicians , there goes 69 Miles and a Tenth Part to a Degree , so that the Periphery or Circumference of the Earth is 24876 English Miles . It s Diameter is 7915 , and the whole Solidity may be reckoned Two Hundred Fifty Nine Thousand Five Hundred Seventy and Eight Million , Nine Hundred Thrity Three Thousand Four Hundred and Five Cubical Miles . The Earth is greater than Mercury , or Mars ; for the First bears only the Proportion to it , which an 100 hath to 347 , and the other of an 100 to 334 ; That is , the Earth is more than three times greater than any of these : But then it is much less than the rest of the Planets ; for in respect of Venus , the Earth has only the Proportion of 43 to an 100 , to Jupiter as 121 to 10000 , to Saturn as 296 to 10000 , and to the Sun as 1 to 1367631. The Magnitude of the fixed Stars cannot be conjectured ; but there are Demonstrations offered to prove them greater than any of the Planets ; seeing they shine so bright at amost stupendius Distance : For a Telescope which multiplieth 200 times , doth not shew them bigger than they appear to the naked Eye , but rather less . Whence it follows , That this planetary Orb is but as a Point , in respect of the Distance of the fixed Stars ; and consequently , That the Vniverse which comprehends the Planets and all the Stars , visible and invisible , each of which has a particular Orb , must be Immense beyond all Imagination and Apprehension . 
A33721	----	A discourse of faith in two points, viz ... / by Thomas Cole ... Cole, Thomas, 1627?-1697. 1689 Approx. 147 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 65 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-05 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A33721 Wing C5029A ESTC R35625 15501443 ocm 15501443 103587 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A33721) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 103587) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1185:10) A discourse of faith in two points, viz ... / by Thomas Cole ... Cole, Thomas, 1627?-1697. [2], 124, [2] p. Printed for Thomas Cockerill ..., London : 1689. "A discourse of repentance" (p. [81]-124) has special t.p. Advertisements: [2] p. at end. Reproduction of original in the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign Campus). Library. (from t.p.) I. How faith comes by hearing -- II. How we are justified by faith. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith. Repentance. Theology, Doctrinal. 2004-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-01 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-02 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2004-02 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DISCOURSE OF FAITH , IN TWO POINTS : VIZ. I. How Faith comes by Hearing . II. How we are Justified by Faith. By Thomas Cole Minister of the Gospel . LONDON , Printed for Thomas Cockerill , at the Three Legs over against the Stocks-Market , 1689. A DISCOURSE OF FAITH . ROM . 10. 17. So then , Faith cometh by hearing , and hearing by the word of God. THE Apostle towards the close of the Ninth Chapter speaking of a twofold Righteousness , of Works and of Faith , tells us that the Gentiles did attain to the Righteousness of Faith , but the Iews did not attain to the Righteousness of Works , which they so much trusted in , for they being ignorant of Gods Righteousness , and going about to establish their own , have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God , Rom. 10. 3. Hence the Apostle takes an occasion to compare the Righteousness of the Law , with that of Faith ; calling one our own Righteousness , the other the Righteousness of God , which the Law do's tacitly point to , promising Life to perfect Obedience , this not being found in any mere Man since the Fall , we are directed to seek it in Christ , who is the end of the Law to every one who believes , ver . 4. he brings in Moses , verse the 5th . describing the Righteousness which is of the Law , that the man which doth those things shall live by them . Such doers of the Law we are not , therefore can look for nothing but Death by Law. Verse 6th . He brings in the Righteousness of Faith by a Prosopopcia , speaking it self to an afrighted dejected sinner , who is also brought in musing upon his wretched Condition , full of sad thoughts , saying over many dismal th●●gs to himself in his own Heart about his Eternal State , how shall I get to Heaven , how shall I escape Hell , how shall I dwell with everlasting Burnings which I see no way to avoid by Law , the righteousness of Faith meets this convinced Sinner , in this great distress of Conscience , communes with him , discourses of Christ to him , minds him of his Resurrection from the dead , and Ascension into Heaven , you seem ( says the Righteousness of Faith ) to deny both in talking at this rate , your way to Heaven is plain , Christ is ascended , you shall as surely go to Heaven , if you believe as Christ is gone before you , as surely escape Hell and overcome Death , as Christ is risen from the dead , and the only way to get an Interest in Christ is to attend to the word of Faith that is preached , ver . 8. when once that prevails and brings you to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead , you shall be saved ver . 9. this proved out of Isa. 28. 16. Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed , whether Iew or Gentile , ver . 11 , 12. and because Prayer is the principal part of that outward Confession made with the Mouth , and the best indication of Faith in the Heart , he concludes ver . 13. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved . Whence Observe ; Observ. The chiefest thing we should now pray for , is , that we may have an Interest in Christ and his Righteousness , desiring to be found in him , &c. Having spoken so much of the Righteousness of Faith , he does in a certain gradation shew the way and means of attaining it , it is not a Righteousness that is to be done by us , to be wrought out with our own hands , but prepared for us by another , freely promised and given to us , therefore it must be askt , it must be earnestly pray'd for , we must beg hard of God to impute it to us , v. 13. the Law propounds the work of Righteousness to be done by us , the Gospel ( Rom. 5. 17. ) propounds the Gift of Righteousness to be pray'd for and thankfully received , v. 14. there can be no Prayer without Faith , no Faith without Hearing , no Hearing without a Preacher , no Preachers unless they be sent , from all which he draws this Conclusion , viz. that the next immediate Cause of Faith is Hearing . There is much Preaching and much Hearing in this City , but what comes on 't ? Truely if Faith does not come , nothing comes that will turn to any good Account to you : The Apostles in the Primitive times so spake that many believed , Acts 14. 1. with that evidence and power , their words had a special Accent in the Ears and Hearts of those that heard them , God gave a signal testimony to the word of his Grace , than fear came upon every Soul , Acts 2. 43. Those who were not savingly wrought upon , were greatly astonished at the Doctrine of the Gospel ; 't is otherwise now , how little of this astonishment does appear in our Assemblies , where is this fear that came upon every Soul , 't was short of Faith , yet I am perswaded when Faith comes in some open eminent Conversion , that the whole Assembly is usually struck with some present fear , the Word comes like a mighty rushing Wind into the Congregation , shakes all , when 't is about to Convert one ; something like this may be observed in the Acts of the Apostles , and other passages in the New Testament , it is fit that Grace should be solemnly attended when it goes forth to the publick Conversion though but of one Soul : If God intend the coming of Faith into any of your hearts this day , he 'l come along with his Work , he will prepare the way , he 'l bless your hearing , and speak something inwardly to you from himself , that shall incline your hearts to believe the Gospel , though God speaks by the Ministry of man , yet his voice is distinct from ours , and begins where that ends , carrying the Word from the Ear to the Heart , there leaving it under those mixtures of Faith that make it work effectually . Hear I beseech you with diligence least you obstruct the coming of Faith by not attending to what shall be spoken to you in the name of the Lord. So then faith cometh by hearing , &c. Doct. Hearing the Word of God Preached to us , is the ordinary means of begetting faith in us . First , What are we in a more special manner to understand by Faith here in the Text. The general Object of Faith is the whole Doctrine of God laid down in the Scriptures ; the special object of Saving Faith , is the Free-promise of Grace in Christ Jesus , this supports the former , we must believe the Divine Narrative of the whole Will of God revealed in the Bible , before we can pitch our Faith in any suitable actings upon any part of it , 't is one thing to assent to the Truth of the Word in General , a further and indeed another thing to apply the Promises ; he believes a Promise who do's siducially rely upon it , this is properly Trusting , we believe something in reference to our selves , living in a comfortable Hope and Expectation of it , respecting not only the Truth of the thing , but also the Goodness of it in reference to our selves under that possibility , probability or certainty of obtaining it , which our Faith , according to its various Degrees may represent unto us , Faith in the Righteousness of Christ for justification is here principally intended . Secondly , Why must this Faith come by hearing . Hearing is alwayes antecedent to Faith , though Faith be not always the consequent of Hearing , ver . 16. 18. all Hearers are not believers , though all Believers are first Hearers . I shall evince the necessity of Hearing in order to Faith , from these following grounds : I. Hearing is Sensus Disciplinae , the Sense by which all knowledge is let into the Soul. There is a two-fold Knowledge belonging to Faith , one leading to it , the other found in it , arising from it , and is the same with Faith it self . The First , is Litteral or Historical , 't is rather notitia then cognitio , a notice or particular information given us of the Contents of the Bible , especially of the report which the Gospel makes of the way of Salvation by Christ , we must know what we are to believe , before we can be supposed to believe any thing ; How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard , and how shall they hear without a Preacher . Words are the proper Object of this Sense of Hearing , where nothing is spoken , nothing can be heard , the sound of Words must reach the ear , before the sense of those Words can enter into the Understanding . This Historical Knowledge do's not lye in Learning the Scriptures by roat , without any Rational Knowledge of the Litteral Sense and Meaning of those Propositions of Truth that are contained therein , this would be only Memory without any Understanding : A Natural Man does not dis-believe the Scripture , because he has not a Rational Conception of the common Notion of things spoken of there , but because he has , and sinding them so uncouth , so seemingly contrary to Humane Reason , he rejects them as Foolishness . The Second , Is a Knowledge more than Historical , and is of the Essence of Faith all one with it , it is that which we call a Saving Knowledge ; it lies in the Use and Application of Gospel Truths to our own Souls , when we shape our selves to a real Conformity to the Call of God in every Gospel Truth , acting in a way of Duty what the Word of God commands . There is no Saving Knowledge of Gospel Truths , but the Knowledge of Faith , and no other Reason for Faith in the highest Misteries of the Gospel , but the bare Word of God. That Faith is Knowledge , I prove thus , Because in Scripture , 't is opposed to Folly , Blindness and Ignorance , Acts 17. 23 , 30. Ioh. 17. 3. Ier. 31. 34. Isa. 9. 1 , 2. Besides it has all the effects of Knowledge in the Soul , it gives full satisfaction to the Mind of a Man , removes all doubts , establishes the Heart in a full perswasion of the Truth of the Word of God ; Humane Knowledge is liable to many Mistakes but a Divine Faith admits of no Falshood , therefore Faith perfects mans Understanding , because it brings in nothing but Truth , no mans Errors do proceed from Faith , he may err in matters of Faith , but 't is not from his Faith , but his Unbelief , therefore Faith is Knowledge , unerring Knowledge we believe and are sure , we may be so , if we rightly understand our selves in an act of Believing , no demonstrations of Reason , do give that Evidence of Truth as Faith do's , as mans Understanding is too low , to take in Divine Truths , so Gods Understanding is too high , for man to comprehend , therefore we are called to yield the obedience of faith to his revealed Will , God governs man rather by giving him the knowledge of his Will , then lifting him up into his own Infinite Understanding , that is above our Capacity , our Duty lies not in knowing what God knows , but in doing what God commands , who gives no account of his matters to us , only commands us to believe his Word , and to look upon that as a sufficient ground and reason of our faith , when we hear it preached to us . II. Because God has appointed hearing the Word , as a necessary means of faith , he will not immediately speak to our hearts by his Spirit , but has appointed his Word to be first spoken to our Ears , and promis'd that way to let it down into our hearts , thus Faith comes by Hearing . Quest. How should Hearing of things above our Reason contribute any thing to our believing them ? One would think the oftner we hear them , the more absurd we should count them to be , and reject them with greater Indignation , having so often tried them by the Touchstone of our own reason , and pronounced them unintelligible . Answ. Hearing alone will not let in these Divine Mysteries into our Understandings , Isa. 6. 9 , 10. God must inwardly Teach us and reveal them to us by his Spirit , before we can believe them , which brings me to the third head , viz. III. How faith is wrought by our hearing the Word . 1. By a special Appearance of God to the Soul. 2. By opening the Heart , enlightning the Mind , and perswading the Will to a thorough closure with Christ upon Gospel Terms . To these two heads may be referred all that falls under our discerning and experience of the work of the Spirit in begetting faith in us . I. Faith is wrought by a special appearance of God to the Soul , what this appearance of God is , how it rises out of the Word , in what manner 't is let into the Soul , I shall endeavour to open to the experience of those who know what it is to hold Communion with God in hearing his Word : there is some co-incidence in the particulars above-mentioned , yet not without some distinction , which I leave to your own observation , the less of Art or Method there is in handling experimental points , the better , they come with most power to the Conscience in their own simplicity , therefore I shall in a joynt Discourse run the matter close together , looking sometimes on one side , and sometimes on t'other , till I have viewed it round , that I may present the whole Truth to you in so great and necessary a point , we can have no saving knowledge of God but in and by his word , we must look through that Glass upon him , and that appearance of God we meet with there , is the beginning of all Religion , the Word never comes with power to our Consciences , till God appear in it . How that is , I am now to shew . Whilst we are hearing his Word we see God standing forth , in his own words , declaring himself to be the Author of it , this draws in our attention , adds that weight and authority to the Word , that we cannot but receive it as the Word of God , and set our Seals to the Truth of it , we see sufficient grounds for our Faith in God from this manifestation of himself to our Souls . Thus God wrought faith in Abraham , Gen. 17. 1. by appearing to him several times as God Almighty and All-sufficient , that Abraham might not doubt of any thing that such a God should promise to him , and therefore 't is said Rom. 4. 3. that Abraham believed God , being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able to perform , ver . 21. Thus God appeared to Samuel revealing himself to him by his Word 1 Sam. 3. 21. So Christ appeared to Paul by a voice , and a Light from Heaven , I am Jesus , Acts 9. there are spiritual appearances of God now to our Souls under the Preaching of the Gospel answerable to these Visions of Old. God lets himself down into our Hearts , through the apprehensions of our faith , which frames in our hearts a right image of God answerable to that Character he gives of himself in the Word , he shines through the Word in all his Glory , when he spake of Old to the Patriarchs by an articulate voice , the unwritten word then was accompanied with such convincing signs of his Presence , that they could not but believe it , and so is the written Word now as capable of representing God to us , when he has a mind to be seen by us , as that was then ; the Letter of the Word is but a Creature , but the Truths contained in it are Eternal , and do all center in God himself , who is the Essential Word , thus God rises out of the Word , and looks a man in the Face , tells him , thus saith the Lord , I am that Lord God Almighty who now speaks unto you , he leaves no Objection unanswered , shews what sure grounds of faith , we have in him , shall God say and not do ? 't is impossible for God to lie , it must be so as God saies , it can't be otherwise , Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass away than one Tittle of the Word be broken , thus in God we praise his Word , Psal. 56. 4. 10. Consider the Word out of God : 't will puzzle Men and Angels to make out the meaning of it , to think the things spoken of possible or likely to come to pass , but all things are possible with God , and to those who believe in God , they stick at nothing , they are sure Omnipotency knows no difficulties , the Counsel of the Lord must stand , his thoughts shall come to pass : a Soul thus struck with a sense of Gods Presence yields immediately , I believe Lord with all my heart , am ready to do whatever thou requirest of me , so Paul : Oh that God would so manifest himself to every one of your hearts this day , that he would shew himself , come up close to you , look you in the face , and say , I am Jesus , you could not withstand this mighty presence of God in Christ Jesus , O speak Lord , 't is but thy saying to each of us I am Jesus , and we shall all be made to know the Lord from the least to the greatest , I hope the quickning voice of the Son of God , is now sounding in the Ears of your Faith , while I am speaking to you , and that you do receive the Word , not as the word of Man , but as it is indeed the Word of God , quick and powerful , sharper than a two-edged Sword in every one of your hearts . The knowledge of the Truth as 't is in Jesus ( Eph. 4. 21. ) is one thing , and the knowledge of the Truth as 't is in Ink and Paper is another ; they are the same Truths , but as they are in the Scriptures they lie in the dead Letter , as they are in Christ they are seen in their living root and principle from whence they spring , meer Scriptural Knowledge is but Historical , we look upon the things we read and hear , rather as notions than realities : till God fills up all expressions of Scripture concerning himself , with a Divine Presence answerable thereunto , we believe nothing that is said of him , but such a presence of God in his Word , captivates our hearts to the belief of it , we must believe him to be such a God as the Word declares him to be , before we shall count all his sayings true , we must fetch strength from the name of God , Rev. 2. 13. to support our Faith in all its actings upon any part of his revealed will , and we never deny any Truth plainly revealed but we deny his name , Rev. 3. 8. and question his Attributes ; some Truths bare more upon one Attribute , some more upon another , but all are founded in God and in the essential properties of his Nature , from whence they have their verification and accomplishment , so that till God appear and shew himself to the Soul , all that is said to us out of the Scriptures in the name of an unknown God affects us not , because it wants that which is the ground of its Credibility , no man can say that Jesus is the Lord , but by the Spirit , 1 Cor. 12. 3. he cannot say so and think so , he cannot say so and believe what he says , till the Father reveal his Son in him , Paul by the Light of that Revelation of Christ in him , knew all Gospel Mysteries , and without such an inward spiritual manifestation of God to our Souls , giving us a sight of him who is invisible , 't is impossible we should ever be throughly convinced of the Divinity of the Scriptures , all Divinity springs from God , leads to him , nay it looks him directly in the Face , and can't be considered apart from him , there is but one God and one Faith , God must be in the view of our Faith whensoever we really act it . Neither can we have that inward testimony of the Spirit convincing us of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures , without this special Appearance of God in the Soul as a witness to the Truth of his Word . While we are hearing the Word , God has invisible wayes of access to our hearts , he conveys himself through his Truth to our Souls , his Divinity leads the way , without some appearance of this , the contents of the Word would have no place in our hearts , but coming with so great a presence , in so great a name , and with so strong an impression , God himself writing them upon the heart , we cannot but receive his Testimony , the Word comes into our Hearts suddenly before we are aware , and seises them for God , we cannot but think , speak , act and judge as God does , the sense of the Word is the sense of our Souls , so far as the Word is written in our hearts , we read it without the least variation , the Copy answers the Original : Hence arises that habitual disposition or inclination to believe , God creates this new heart , I say this infused habit or principle of faith , is antecedent to all acts of faith put forth by us , and is in it self the sole act of God upon us in our first Conversion , it is from this supernatural principle thus infused , that the natural powers and faculties of the Soul of Man , viz. the Understanding and the Will , are enabled to take in things purely Spiritual and Divine , Nature never acts above its sphere , those inbred common Notions that are the Standards and Measures of Natural Truths in all their consequences will never lead us to grant , or admit that which is supernatural , when we do this , 't is always from some higher Principle ; when we see men acting above themselves , we may conclude they are acted by something higher than themselves , which is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them . This special Appearance of God , with those inward effects of it upon the Soul which I have been speaking of , may be known to Believers , they discern it in others , Acts 11. 17 , 18. and do when they give a true reason of their faith , see it in themselves , that all springs from the Fathers revealing his Son in them , they can give no other reason why they believe in Jesus , 't is God that opens the door of Faith and makes it effectual , Acts 14. 27. We are apt to be taken with any appearance of Man in a Sermon , this we look after , what words of Mans Wisdom , how Man acquits himself in reasoning of this or that Point . 'T is true there is some skill required in Planting , and Watering , but all the encrease comes from God , your Faith consists not in the Wisdom of Man but in the power of God , if God himself do not appear as a witness to his own Truth , as the great undertaker of all that he has promised , what we say will prevail little , your faith must terminate in God himself , and in that Ability that is in him to perform his word , this was the ground of Abrahams faith , Paul knew him whom he believed , 2 Tim , 1. 12. and so must you if ever you believe to the saving of your Souls . Did you go out of the Congregation after every Sermon you hear under a sight and sense of this appearance of God in his Word , speaking to you from Heaven and shewing himself to your souls in some spiritual resemblance suited and adapted to that Word you are hearing , how could you reject such a Word , so full of God , so exactly corresponding to what you see in God himself , you must yield and cry out each of you , who am I that I should withstand God ? This is the first way that God takes to work Faith in us , by our hearing the Word Preached to us . Secondly , Faith is wrought by opening the heart , enlightning the mind , and perswading the will to a through closure with Christ upon Gospel Terms . I shall now shew you how God thus appearing to us in hearing the Word , does open the heart , enlighten the mind and throughly perswade the will , to a through closure with Christ upon Gospel Terms . Naturally our hearts are shut up against the Gospel , our Minds are blinded 2 Cor. 4. 4. till God shines into our hearts , to give the light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ , ver . 6. Enlightning the eyes of our Understandings , Eph. 1. 17 , 18. Quest. What is this Light of Faith , and how does it differ from the Light of Reason ? Answ. The Light of Reason lies in the evidence of the thing it self , as it falls under a Humane Understanding , arguing from the cause to the effect , drawing certain conclusions from undeniable premises , granted and acknowledged by all men to be Truths in Nature : Upon such Concessions they build all their acquired Knowledge , and do put the stamp of Truth upon all fair inferences from thence , which they judge agreeable to those first principles and notions of Truth , that pass for currant under that name among credulous men , who do but think they know , and do rather ghess than judge : so great is the uncertainty of all humane Knowledge , we have little cause to glory in it . The light of Faith lies in the infallible certainty of Divine Testimony , faith sees not the causes of things in the things themselves , but in God alone , to whom all things are possible , faith excells all other knowledge , in as much as it sees and knows all things in their first Cause , God , and takes hold of them by the very root from whence they first spring , arguing from the Veracity of God , to the Truth of all his sayings , we know that God has spoken thus and thus , as Ioh. 9. 29. we know the Doctrine is of God , Ioh. 7. 17. and that no prophesie of the Scripture is of private Interpretation , 2 Pet. 1. 20 , 21. under this conviction we cannot but yield the obedience of faith to every word of God : I do not deny but experience may and does give Believers some Evidence of the things themselves , but this belongs rather to their after Edification , then to the first act of Faith in their Conversion , by which they close in with Christ , upon the credit of a bare word of promise from him who cannot lie , Object , Since these sublime supernatural Misteries of the Gospel are so much above , and so seemingly contrary to humane Reason , how comes it to pass that any man should own them for Truths , and be brought under the power of them . Answ. 'T is by a Divine Faith , I call it Divine because 't is the work of God that we believe his Testimony , Ioh. 6 , 29. Quest. Does not this Operation of God upon the Hearts of men in working faith in us , offer violence to mans Nature and force the Will to consent to that which is above the Understanding : Or how can the efficacy of Gods Grace in determining Mans Will to such a Spiritual Act of Faith in Christ Jesus be consistent with the liberty of the Will. Answ. Many intricate disputes there are about this Point , managed by subtil heads , not without some shew and appearance of Reason , who to secure the liberty of Mans Will , have denied the efficacy of Gods Grace , placing the power of believing in man himself , to avoid the force that otherwise they think must be offered to his Will. But to clear the efficacy of Gods Grace from this imputation , I need say no more but this , viz. That the Grace of God enters the Soul of man as a New Nature , and therefore cannot put any force upon him , Nature works kindly in all , by Inclination , not by Violence ; as Nature is from Generation , so the new Nature is from Regeneration ; one is the birth of the Flesh , the other of the Spirit ; as we are born Men by our first birth , so we are born Christians by our second birth . Artificial Christians are all name , without any living Nature answerable to it , being not truly born of God and thereby made partakers of his Divine Nature . The breathing in of this new Nature into the Soul of man by the Spirit of God , is that new Creation spoken of in the Gospel , 't is the first Act of God in our Conversion , 't is solely the Act of God , without any concurrence of ours , we have only a passive obediential power to receive the impression ! 'T is God that makes it , upon this supernatural Principle are grounded all after proceedings in bringing the Soul forward to an actual closure with Christ , all the natural powers and faculties of the Soul are gathered into this supernatural Principle , do act under it , are moved by it , and directed in all their free motions to a supernatural end , which they could not of themselves tend unto ; and let it not seem incredible to us that God should do this , he can do no evil from the perfection of his Nature , and for the same reason all good must needs be in the power of his hand , the greatest good that can be done to fallen Man , is thus to restore him . In this new Nature are wrapped up the seeds of all Grace , which by the efficacy of the Spirit , are drawn out into act , with the free consent of Mans Will : Should God determine the Will of Man to a good act whilst it is in a bad state and under a corrupt nature , this would imply force and violence , but to lead out a man according to his new Nature , is not to put a force upon him . If Sin had that efficacy upon Man in his perfect state , to encline his Will to Evil , why should not Grace have the like efficacy upon Man fallen to encline his Will to good . Though an inclination to Evil in Man standing was possible from the liberty of his Will in which he was created , yet such an actual inclination was inconsistent with his perfect state , and left such an inherent crookedness in his perverted Nature that nothing but Grace can rectifie and make streight again . What is a principle of Grace , but liberty to Good restored to fallen man , from whence an actual inclination to choose what is good do's follow of course , when God calls and excites him thereunto , here is no force put upon mans Will , it acts freely in the choice of good , and it cannot be otherwise , since Grace enters as a new Nature , ingenerating a powerful Principle of Holiness in the Soul , that do's incline a man freely to comply which the efficacious grace of God exciting him to those acts of Holiness so agreeable to the Nature of the new Creature , as Sin reigns unto Death , so Grace will reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life , Rom. 5. 21. Shall not he that raises the dead be able to quicken a dead Soul , but we are more sensible of that power that God puts forth upon the bodies of Men , then of that which he puts forth upon their Souls , that you may know that the Son of man hath power to forgive sins , Take up thy bed and walk , Mat. 9. 6. This you all see , but the actings of my saving power upon the souls of men , that power that works within , ( Eph. 3. 20. ) you see not ; let this that you see convince you of that which you see not , and never dispute my power more to forgive sin , I can heal the diseases of the Soul as well as those of the Body , the power that God has to forgive sin is the great prerogative of God , belonging to the soveraignty of his grace . God walks invisibly thorow the World , doing his mighty works of Grace , he touches some mens hearts , not others ; he draws some and not others , by the sweet yet irresistable force of his Grace ; we see nothing but man , mans Will , mans Choice , mans Act , and therefore conclude all is by mans own power , because we see not the wheel within the wheel , the Spirit of God setting the whole soul in motion towards Christ : This arcanum Iehovae , this secret of the Lord is with them that fear him , Psal. 25. 14. The way of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men is discerned by few , 't is a very hard matter to understand how God works in us to will and to do , because we find it to be our own act to believe , repent and turn to God , we ascribe all to our selves as if our own arm had saved us : The truth is , God in all the efficacious operations of his grace upon the hearts of men , loves to conceal himself , he will not be seen by others to do what he do's in and for his Saints , no noise in the streets , Matth. 12. 19. The kingdom of God comes not with observation , Luke 17. 20 , 21. All is done within secretly and silently , non are privy to this heart-work , but they that feel it , this is the hiding of his power from the observation of those whom he never intends to work upon , and for the hardening of their hearts , that they may still retain an opinion of their own ability to do that which they see others so freely and willingly addicting themselves unto : Though this be a cause of stumbling to many , who boast of a supposed power and freedom of will to believe and repent when they please , yet such in whose hearts God has wrought these mighty works of his grace , they see and feel the weight of his Arm revealed upon their souls , they know it is Gods doing , that a divine power has touched their hearts , and carried them out to all these acts of Faith that they put forth , they openly acknowledge this , 1 Cor. 15. 10. Phil , 4. 13. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Gal. 2. 20. Not I but Christ. When they feel themselves most strengthned by Christ , they are then most sensible of their own self-insufficiency and weakness , I can do all things through Christ , yet not sufficient of our selves to think a good thought ; when I am weak , then am I strong , 2 Cor. 12. 10. They would not say so , if they did not find a power more then humane exerting it self within them , and strengthning them with might in their inward man , I live , yet not I , but Christ lives in me , till we can thus distinguish between Nature and Grace , and see God influencing our Wills in all their free motions to that which is good , we shall vainly assume to our selves a power that never yet reduced it self to the least real act of Faith in any man whatever : 't is easie talking of a power to believe , before we come to believe in good earnest , then our strength fails us if God do not support us , and help our unbelief ; I believe , help my unbelief , 〈◊〉 I can't hold it , my faith will fail , if God do not put his Everlasting Arms underneath , if we consider what difficulties , what strong Objections unanswerable by Reason , Faith Acts against in keeping up a lively hope of Pardon in the Conscience of a convinced sinner , we must needs say , 't is the work of God that we believe ; we may wonder at our selves as men , when we consider what we believe as Christians . I have spoken all this to shew that God is the Author and Finisher of our Faith , 't is he only can open the heart , and dispose it , to give Credit to the Word of his Grace . Application . By way of Discovery , viz. How we may know when Faith comes by Hearing , even at the time of Hearing , and whether it be yet come into your hearts , by all you have heard hitherto . Faith is a secret and a sudden work , when it comes it gives some sense of it self to an observing Christian , that quickly convinces us of a change in our selves , a heart truly turned to God , is not the same it was before , not in the same posture , not in the same disposition and frame , there is something new appears in every new Creature , that do's not belong to the Old Man but rises up in opposition to him : this newness do's not lye in some one corner of the heart , but every where , 't is universal in every faculty ; all things are become new , though the old leaven be not totally cast out any where , but lest as an occasional provocation and challenge to the Grace of God to act in more opposition to those motions of sin , that put a force upon the New Creature , are directly contrary to the bent and genius of our renewed Nature ; till Faith comes we are never sensible of any such inward Conflicts between the flesh and the Spirit ; but then the fight begins , the good fight of Faith : 'T is Faith strikes the first stroke , makes the first assault upon our reigning sin and corruptions , and will never cease contending with them , till it has got a full Victory over them , and throughly mortified them . But how shall we know in the very time of hearing , when Faith comes . When the word Works effectually after hearing , it usually gives some powerful touch upon the heart at the time of hearing ; so 1 Cor. 14. 24 , 25. he speaks there of the occasional Conversion of an Unbeliever , who came into the Assembly , where there was Prophesying and Preaching , 't is probable some such are come in hither to day ; Oh that God would meet with them , that they might be convinced and fall down upon their Faces , worshipping God , acknowledging that he is among us of a truth ; so Acts 2. 37. their Hearts were prick'd , they cry out in the midst of the Sermon , Men and Brethren what shall we do ? We want such publick Conversions , had we more of these New Births in our Congregations ; we should have more of these out cries ; which would be very awakening to us all , if God would honour his Ordinances with such visible signs of his presence , as in the Primitive Times the Word was preached with that power , that it wrought a great consternation and astonishment in the whole Assembly , there was a great impression upon their minds , which had various effects ; some blasphemed , and some believed , but all were moved and stirred , struck inwardly , though many saw not the hand that struck them ; 't is otherwise now ; hearers are more unconcern'd , in a more drowsie frame ; we can hardly keep them waking all Sermon time ; they say these were extraordinary cases , not applicable to us now : I must tell you , Conversions wrought by ordinary means now , are extraordinary things , have extraordinary effects ; the Light into which we are brought , is , and ought to be , as marvellous in our Eyes now , as 't was in theirs heretofore ; they who find nothing of this , neither in nor after Conversion , would do well to make a stricter inquiry into their state ; sometimes we bring down Grace as low as we can for the sake of weak ones , but we must not make nothing of it , to please some who would rest in a silent easie ▪ Conversion , and think to go Heaven by the charitable Opinion others have of them ; that so great a change as Conversion is , should make so little appearance as it doe's in many pretending to it , is that we should not easily digest , Let every one examine himself . Should God come upon any of you with a through Conviction of Sin , and give you a real sight of Christ as your only Saviour , you would not be able to contain your selves under this marvellous Light ; 't will be like Fire in your Bones , Ier. 20. 9. you 'l immediately spring up as the Goaler did , Acts 16. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he did not consider which foot he should put foremost , but leaped up on a suddain , broke out into a passionate inquiry after the way of Salvation . Faith especially at its first entrance , when it first comes into our Hearts , is alwaies accompanied with a through Conviction of our lost undone Estate : I don't speak now of those legal Convictions that in some may be preparatory to Conversion , but of that saving Evangelical Conviction that is of the Essence of saving Faith , alwayes accompanying it , it is the reason of Faiths earnestness in its first actings upon Christ , Master save us , we perish . In the Acts we have several instances of Faith wrought in the time of hearing , Acts 10. 44. While Peter yet spake , the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word : So Acts 14. 1. Acts 18. 8. Acts 28. 24. Paul perceived Faith in the Cripple by his attentive hearing , Acts 14. 9. When Faith does not make this publick entrance into the Hearts of those who hear the word ; as it did in the Primitive times , in the view and face of the whole Congregation , and 't is much to be lamented that it does not : I fear it portends more than I am willing to tell you ; yet I hope Faith may and does come in a more silent manner into your Hearts at the time of hearing ; this you may know by a sudden astonishment , and trembling that sezes upon the Soul , Luke 4. 33. Acts 13. 12. Acts 9. 6. When a discovery of the Evil of Sin , and of the Grace of Christ do meet together in one saving Conviction in the Conscience of an awakened Sinner , we must needs be variously affected with horrour and hope ; Grace clothes it self with contrary passions at the same time , as it looks at Sin , and at Christ , loathing the one , and embracing the other ; this may be perceived at the first opening of the Heart to believe the Gospel , a present act of Faith is and will be the present sense of the Soul in and about what it believes ; there is no putting the word from us , when once we believe it in our Hearts : Men may talk of Gospel-Truths under a formal profession of Faith , and not be affected with them , but the Word works effectually in them that believe . Faith touches the Soul in the most sensible part of it , gathers up the Mind and Thoughts of a Man into a close and serious debate with himself , about those things which he believes in reference to himself ; his Heart waxes hot within him ; this is the Power and Dominion that Faith has over us , being the highest principle in Man ; it overcomes all contradictions from the Flesh , answers all Carnal Objections , throughly perswades a Man , firmly establishes the Heart in the belief of the present Truth , so that we become unmovable from the hope of the Gospel . These are the inward Commotions that Faith makes in the Soul at its first entrance , you cannot so slight the impressions of Faith , as not to be greatly concerned about them ; 't is not come to real believing till it comes to this ; you are and must be serious in and about that which with your hearts you believe concerning your Eternal State. Whether you now are , or ever have been in such a frame , God and your own Consciences know best ; they are not trifles that you believe , but matters of that moment that you cannot but be concerned in them , and there is nothing required to fire your Hearts with a zealous solitude and thoughtfulness about them , but only your believing them ; you can no more step over such an act of Faith , than you can cease to think while you are actually thinking , or cease to move while actually moving : An act of believing is the Soul in actual motion towards Christ , flying for refuge to the hope that is set before him . This is the way of the Spirit in working Faith at the time of hearing ; and if you observe such a one whose heart the Word has reached ; he goes home musing upon what he has heard : Suppose one standing in the Spirit of Isaiah at the Meeting-door , as you go forth crying out , Who hath believed our report , to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed this day ; how experimentally would such a one say , I have believed , to me hath the Arm of the Lord been revealed ; follow him further into his House , into his Chamber or Closet ; behold he prayes , as the Word brings down the sense of God into the Soul ; so Prayer carries up the sence of the Soul , concerning that word , to God above : Prayer , especially just after Conversion , is but a Holy enlargement of the Heart about those things that God first speaks to us by his Word . I will say ' its my people , they shall say , the Lord is my God. In hearing expect no other reason for Faith , but the bare testimony of the Word of God , search the Scriptures whether things are so or no , as Ministers declare , if you find them so , charge them upon your Consciences as most worthy of all acceptation and belief : Religion now a dayes is branched out into so many speculations and subtle questions wrapped up in such terms of art , under such nice distinctions , that the power and simplicity of the Gospel is almost lost , ordinary Professors know not what to believe while the Pulpit gives such an uncertain sound . There is not so much Rational Knowledge required to the obedience of Faith as some imagine , leave others to dispute , to produce their Reasons pro and con , do you quote Scripture and believe , begging of God to direct your faith into right apprehensions of his revealed Will , hold fast there and you are safe , the greatest Scholars in the World must come down to the plain mans Faith , if ever they die in peace , in all Gospel Truths , their consonancy , not to our Reason , but to the Scriptures is to be regarded . Mans leaning rather to their own understanding of the thing , than to their faith in the Word , about that thing , hath led them into Error , into false notions of Divine Mysteries . I grant from your faith in one Truth you may fetch Reasons for some other Truth depending upon it , these are Gospel Reasons not your own ; we don't believe because we know , but we know because we believe ; this is a new way of knowing things , which the world is not acquainted with , because it cannot receive the spirit of Truth , the spirit of Truth is a spirit of Faith ; hearing the Word is of singular use to Believers themselves , 1 Ioh. 5. 13. to confirm and strengthen your Faith , that you may be built up further in it , furnished with further matter to act it upon . Let none be discouraged though never so ignorant and unlearned , of a low , mean , capacity , yet come to hear with an expectation of Gods working faith in thee , faith will overcome all these difficulties , as weak and simple and ignorant as any may be supposed to be , yet be not discouraged , you may be made to believe more in one moment , than the greatest Scholars in the World can attain to the knowledge of in many years study . It is written in the prophets ( Joh. 6. 45. ) and they shall be all taught of God , every man therefore that hath heard , and hath learned of the father cometh unto me ; Not that any man hath seen the Father . 'T is not what men you hear , what Ministers you follow , till God the Father do's speak powerfully to your hearts by the Ministry of man. It matters not who the man is , your faith consists not in the Wisdom of man , but in the power of God , when you have a proof of Christs speaking in any , 2 Cor. 13. 3 then hearken diligently , till you hear an inward Word from this invisible Teacher , you 'l never come to Christ. If all the Ministers in the World should lay their heads together , they could never bring a sinner to Christ , till the Father speaks the word and draw him . We are but Ministers by whom you believe , as the Lord gives to every man ; So then , neither is he that planteth any thing , nor he that watereth , but God that giveth the increase , 1 Cor. 3. 5 , 6 , 7. The sum of all is this , We are sent to Preach , that you may Hear ; we carry the Letter of the Word to your Ears , the Spirit brings it home in the name of God to your Consciences , convincing you that it is his Word , under this Conviction you see the truth of the Word , in the veracity of God , this word of Truth and your Souls meeting so close , as they alwayes do in an act of Faith , sanctifies you ; this sanctification lies in the ready assent of your understanding , and free consent of your Will , the one is founded in light , the other in love , so that when an enlightned Understanding receives the Truth in the love of the Truth , there is a firm Principle of Holiness fixed in that Soul , flowing from that Union to Christ that Faith gives us , this is the beginning and progress of that Faith , the end of which is the Salvation of your Souls . The Second Point . How we are Iustified by Faith. WE ought to be Doers of the Word and not Hearers only , to maintain good Works for necessary uses , Tit. 3. 14. It behoveth us therefore to know what use we should make of our works and doings in the great business of our Salvation , so as not to entrench upon the Righteousness of Christ , not to degrade that from being our sole and only justifying Righteousness . Some men are as much mistaken in grounding their salvation upon doing , as others are in grounding it upon bare hearing ; and therefore these things must be warily spoken unto , and warily understood . When we urge the necessity of doing the Word of God , Carnal Reason lies at the catch , and is ready to take every thing in a wrong sense and meaning , and to bring down the Mysteries of the Gospel to a low loyal vulgar Notion more suitable to humane Reason . There are two extreams that men are apt to run into ; either they neglect good works , or else , they trust in good works ; either they do in a careless formal presumptuous manner , pretend to cast all upon Christ , without any serious inquiries after the Truth of Grace in themselves , or ever proving it by its fruits ; conceiving it altogether needless to be any way active in their own salvation . Secondly , If upon search they find any actings of Grace in their Hearts , any fruits of Grace in their Lives , these are their own proper goods they think , Money found in their own Purses ; it matters not how they came by it , they have it , and they are resolved to convert it to their own proper use , making it nothing less than a part of their Justifying Righteousness . Those of this way , with whom I have now to do , do state the matter thus . They say , that Christ is the meritorious cause of our Justification , having by his Death satisfied the Law , and discharged us from the Curse of it ; and so far we agree with them . They say further , That Christ to compleat our Justification , hath also purchased for us strenght and ability to perform the condition of the new Covenant ( this we assent to ) the performance of which according to them , is to be taken in as a part of our Justifying Righteousness , and this we deny . We say the performance of what is required in the New Covenant , is a good Justification of the Cause , whether it be of Faith or of Good Works , or of any particular thing or action , the sincerity and truth of which may be in question . But we deny that it adds any thing to the Justification of the person , and therefore they speak not ad idem , to the same thing , when they deny Christs imputed Righteousness to be the sole Righteousness that justifies the Person , because there is another Righteousness required , upon another account to justifie or clear up the sincerity of our Faith and Holiness ; I say to clear up this to our selves and other men , which we deny not . For we do not admit any Faith to be a justifying Faith , but upon good evidence of the Truth of it , neither do we admit any works to be good works but upon full proof of the goodness of them . The Sum of all is this ; we say , Faith and obedience once proved to be true and genuine , are good evidences of our interest in Christ , whose imputed Righteousness is the sole and only Righteousness by which our Persons are universally justified from all charges and blame whatsoever in the sight of God , and to say otherwise is in effect to say that Christ died to justifie us , that we might be justified without him ; or at least not only and solely by him ; which is highly derogatory to the death of Christ , neither will their owning Christ to be the meritorious cause of our Justification salve the matter while they do in any sense require another Righteousness distinct from that of Christs , for the justification of our Persons in the sight of God. And having given you this brief account of the matter in difference , I shall now proceed . The Point in General which I am to speak to is this . That though good works are highly necessary in a justified person , yet they not required in any way of causality to the Justification of the Person . Or thus , no part of our inherent Righteousness can be any part of our justifying Righteousness . This I might prove to you many ways . First , From the subject of Justification , an ungodly Person ; a believing Sinner flying in the sense of Sin unto Jesus Christ for Life and Pardon . Sin is that from which we are Justified , the Righteousness of Christ is that for which or by which we are Justified , Act. 13. 39. Secondly , Because there must be a change of stare in Justification , and by Justification , before we can derive any saving Grace from Christ to enable us to the least good work . I might also Thirdly , Argue from the weakness and imperfection of all Inherent Holiness which is not able to justifie it self , much less the Person . And many Arguments may be brought ; but my design is to contract this general to a particular point , concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere , or the act of believing ; and I shall shew that that part of our inherent Righteousness that flows from our doing the Word of God , that is , the Work of Faith as done by us in an act of believing , is no part of our justifying Righteousness . This is that which seems to have the fairest claim to , and interest in , our Justification ; and if this be disproved , the Argument will hold a fortiori against all the inferiour branches of our inherent Righteousness ; they must be forced to quit their claim also . That which seems to intitle Faith to such an Interest in our Justification as is pleaded for by some , is the phrase and manner of expression which the Scripture uses in speaking of Faith , telling us that Faith is imputed to us for Righteousness , that we are justified by Faith ; that he that believes shall be saved , and the like . The question is , in what sense these Scriptures are to be understood ; whither we are to take up our standing partly in the act of Faith , and partly in the object of Faith , making up a Righteousness , partly from our selves , and partly from Christ , or whether we are by Faith to go out of our selves unto Christ for our whole , sole and only justifying Righteousness ; and this is that which I affirm , and shall endeavour to make good , and shew you that the Scriptures alledged do not ascribe our Justification to the Act , but wholly to the Object of Faith ; not to our believing , but to Christ believed on , which I prove thus : First , From those Expressions of Scripture peculiar to Holy Writ , by which the Holy Ghost doth of set purpose limit Faith to its Object , Iohn 6. 47. Rom. 9 : 33. Ephes. 1. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to believe in , into , or upon Christ , which plainly points out this , that Faith is alwayes to be taken in relation to its Object ; that by Faith is meant Christ apprehended by Faith. Life is promised , not simply to believing , but to believing in ; in whom ? in Christ , or nothing . Faith is a relative term ( as to its whole sense and signification ) to the Object Christ. It must be Faith in Christ , or Faith in nothing . Believing is a Scripture Phrase , setting forth our leaning upon Christ. Faith , as our Act adds nothing to Christ , doth not make his Death satisfactory ; it was so in its self before , though by an applicatory act of Faith it is made so to us ; that is , we do reap the benefits of his Death and satisfaction ; we are not united to Faith , but by Faith we are united to Christ. Faith is the Medium uniens ; we do not trust in our Faith , but by Faith we trust in Christ ; all that Faith signifies is in relation to Christ ; all that it doth , is in the Name of Christ ; without Christ it signifies nothing , it doth nothing , it is nothing . When we are said to be justified by the Faith of Christ , or justified by Faith in Christ , Gal 2. 16. pray must the meaning be , that we are justified by Faith , and Christ , as some would have it , giving the priority to Faith , and making Christ but a remote cause of our Justification , and our inherent Righteousness to be the next and immediate cause ? Were Men more willing to exalt Christ , and debase themselves , this would be English plain enough : Faith in Christ would then signifie but one Righteousness ; it would not be Faith and Christ. Let Men have a care how they speak unadvisedly of Christ to the lessening and diminution of his Honour : God hath said he is our Righteousness without any Limitation , without any restriction : Now for Men to say , ay but not all our Righteousness , not our only Righteousness ; I say , 't is a bold word thus to distinguish whatever remote inferences they may gather out of Scripture to justifie their meaning ; yet since God hath not thought fit to drop any such diminutive expression of Christ in Scripture , I say it is a bold word for Men to Speak . You may see how severely speaking against God was punished , Numb . 21. 5 , 6. And God complains of it , Ezek. 35. 13. With your mouths ye haue boasted against me , and have multiplyed your words against me : I have heard them . We may safely deny any thing of God that implies weakness or imperfection ; but to deny that of Christ which tends to the Exaltation of his Name and riches of his Grace ; let Men distinguish how they will , it is dangerous meddling here : This is a tender point ; that is the first . Secondly , If the bare act of Faith without any relation to the object , justifies ; then any act of Divine Faith will justifie us as well as Faith in Christ ; for the Act is specified by the Object : Take away the Object , and all Acts of Faith are alike , equally insignificant . But I proceed . Thirdly , To the third Argument that shall be drawn from the Nature of Faith , which consists in receiving . As it is the Act of a Believer , it implies doing ; but properly as an Act of believing ; it consists in receiving , and that with an empty hand : Now the question is whether by this receiving Act of Faith there do redound to us a Righteousness of our own , distinct from that which we receive from Christ ? I say no : We are not justified by a Righteousness that we do , but by a Righteousness that we receive : Now the bare Act of receiving in a common Natural way , is not counted morally meritorious : A Beggars receiving an Alms , argues no merit in the Receiver , but meer Grace in the Donor . We count that he who only receives a benefit , he doth nothing for it , it comes freely : Indeed he doth something naturally in receiving , but nothing morally by way of merit for the thing received . Thus it is among Men , and so we understand it , in all such actings of ours ; but when we come to deal with God , how do our proud hearts put a value upon them ; then we put a value upon every thing , upon our coming , upon our adhering , upon our relying , upon our asking , upon our receiving ; We grow proud of those very Acts of Grace by which we do express our Poverty and Beggary , our absolute Dependance upon another ; as if Christ was beholden to us for our accepting of him : So naturally prone are we to rest upon any thing that looks like our own doing . Brethren ! There are two things to be considered in Faith. ( I. ) The Motion of the Soul in receiving , which is an Act naturally necessary to all manner of receiving ; it is as reaching forth , and opening the hand . ( 2. ) You may consider the passive reception it self , wherein the Nature of Faith doth chiefly consist , in admitting , applying , and owning the Gift . Though the word Believing doth Grammatically imply an Action , yet really and physically we are passive in believing : For these Reasons . First , The first Reason is this ; They who make our Act of believing a part of our Justifying Righteousness , do manifestly make Faith to contradict it self in and by its own Act : If by an Act of believing we go out of our selves to Christ for all : I do not see how by the same Act we can possibly settle upon any thing in our selves that is not Christ : If by being justified by faith they understand the Object of faith , then we agree with them ; then faith and Christ is all one : By faith we mean Christ applyed , and nothing but Christ. But if they understand the bare Act of believing in distinction from Christ the Object ; therein we differ from them . And they must so understand it who make our Act of believing a part of our justifying Righteousness distinct from Christs Righteousness ; and therein I say , they make faith to contradict it self in and by its own Act : I do not know whether I am understood ; I think I understand my self in what I have said : Take it thus , Pray consider what is the sense of a believing Soul under a present Act of faith in Christ ? I appeal to you all , I desire you would all be Judges in this matter who have ever been serious , and in good earnest , dealing with God by an act of faith for Salvation . You believe in Christ , what is the English of that ? What do you mean by it ? Is not this your sense ; you desire to cast yourself wholly upon Christ , to be found in Christ not having on your own Righteousness ; to be built upon that Foundation , to lay hold on Eternal Life in Christ ; to go out of your selves unto Christ for Righteousness and Life ; to seek that in another which you have not in your selves ; to count all things but loss and dung that you may win Christ ; don't you mean this ? Pray what an absurdity then is it , what a gross contradiction to say I am justified by something in my self , by virtue of that very act of faith , by which I do purposely go out of my self to Christ for all . If this be Reason and Sense , I have quite lost the use of both , and will never pretend to understand any thing . But how do some Men fight with their own shadows and lose themselves in their own expressions . They cannot speak of Christ , and of the way and manner of applying Christ , but presently they must be Co-workers with Christ in their Justification . Brethren ! We must not be perswaded out of our Christian Names , nay out of Christianity it self by those who would impose their own notions upon us , and indeed preach another Gospel ; let them read on and tremble . But I will say this , that if Paul were alive , and should hear any man upon Earth , or Angel from Heaven compound Faith and Works , Works and Christ in the matter of our Justification , I doubt not but he would curse them in the name of the Lord. Certainly we are not to be Mealy-mouthed , and silently suffer the grand principles of the Gospel to be decryed , as if we doubted whether they were true or no. These are the Pillars of the House , all fall with them , if they be taken away . These are the Ancient Land-marks and bounds of our Religion ; they must not be removed , for if you suffer that , you will quickly have a dead Child in the room of the living . New Notions , though not contrary to any received foundation , should be warily uttered ; but supposing there is the least discrepancy or opposition , it is our duty and wisdom to be silent , and not break the eye of the Needle , by forcing our Camel through . New Notions must yield rather to antient received Truths , they must be governed and over-ruled by them . It is dangerous to force plain Scripture , and plain principles to make good our own private interpretations . 2. Our act of believing is no part of our justifying Righteousness , because justification is an act of God ; not properly subsequent to our Faith , but simultaneous with it . They are concomitants , so close , so instantaneous , that we cannot say which is first , or last in time ; we cannot say the one takes its rise from the other . I explain my self thus ; it is one thing for the Scripture to speak Doctrinally of Faith , another thing to speak of a Believer under the actual exercise of Faith. When the Scripture speaks of the Doctrine of Faith in the Abstract , it tells us the consequents of it , that according to Gods order and appointment , Faith is requisite unto Justification , and so Faith is antecedent to Justification , and Justification is spoken of as a thing to come , upon our believing . The Doctrine of Faith shews what shall be to all who obtain it ; the actual exercise of Faith shews , what is to them who have it , and do believe it . It is not only he that believes shall be saved and justified , but is justified . It is true , who ever believes shall be saved ; the just shall live by faith , this is Doctrinally true . But he that believes hath everlasting Life , Iohn 3. 39. is justified ; this is experimentally true . God , if you rightly consider the point , doth justifie us , by working Faith in us . It is his way of Justifying ; it is the way God hath chosen to communicate the Righteousness of God , which is a stupendious Mystery , and cannot be otherwise applied to the soul. He doth not justifie us because of any antecedent act of Faith we have lying by us , and which we could now produce as a price ( as it were ) and Meritorious Means of our Justification . God justifies us by working Faith in us ; God being willing in so great an act of Grace , to speak to our Understandings and Knowledge , he hath appointed Faith as a fit means by which the soul not only doth the thing , but also le ts in a sense of what is done upon the soul ; and therefore faith the Apostle ; it is of faith that it might be of grace : God will be understood in all the acts of his Grace towards us . Now that there might be in us a sense of reception of so great a benefit , God resolves to put it into the hand of Faith , which hath a natural sutableness in it , and fitness to receive what free Grace tenders to it ; and so it doth when it is in any strength . Christ and our Souls would never meet were it not for Faith. There is no letting down any thing spiritual and supernatural into the soul , but by Faith ; Faith is our modus habendi , it is the way , the means by which we come to have God and Christ , and an Interest in the things of Heaven . We have what we have from Christ by Faith , and we hold it by Faith. Faith and Repentance as acted by us , and reflected upon , are very good Evidences of our Justifications , for it is in that reflection only that they do give evidence of themselves , and of any thing produced from them . Therefore , I say , as they are reflected upon they have retrospection to our Justification , of which they are very good and evident proofs ; but they have no antecedent causality to produce the thing signified , because they signifie it , as a thing already done , past and perfect . 3. And lastly , Justification is frequently set down in Scripture without any relation to these acts of Grace in us , to shew that it wholly flowes from Christ ; and that by our believing we add nothing to our Justifying Righteousness , but do only apply it , as wholly derived from Christ alone , 1 Ioh. 5. 12. He that hath the Son , hath life ; they that are in Christ there is no Condemnation to them , Rom. 8. 1. Now because we cannot admit sinners to be in Christ but by faith , therefore what flows from Christ , is attributed unto faith ; which is , I say , our modus habendi , but still the real cause of our Justification , that which makes us just in the sight of God , is our being in Christ , and our having the Son. There is no mention made of having any thing else ; but faith is our modus habendi ; we cannot have the Son but by faith , nor be in Christ but by Believing . Therefore God speaks , to our Understanding , and hath attributed that to the act of faith , which is only derivable from the Object . I shall now shew you the weakness of those grounds and reasons they go upon , who differ from us in this point . 1. They speak much of a Charge of Infidelity , Impenitency and Unholiness to be drawn up against us at the last day , and therefore it concerns us to muster up all our good works , all our acts of Grace , and every part of our inherent Righteousness , that we may be in a readiness to answer to this Charge and clear our selves . A specious Argument ! enough to amuse the World , and fright men back into the Popish Doctrine of Justification by Works . Brethren ! I do not deny that unbelieving , impenitent and ungodly Persons shall be charged with infidelity , impenitency and ungodliness , and be condemned ; but to talk of a charge of Infidelity against a Believer at the last day , I say , it is a groundless , unscriptural Notion . I do not deny that the faith of the Saints that draws them to Christ , and its efficacy afterwards in all its fruits , will be taken notice of by Christ , when they are admitted into the Kingdom , Mat. 25. 34. Come ye blessed ; and when that blessedness is fixed , Christ doth not put them upon the proof of their faith , but helps them himself to understand the former actings of their faith and love to God , which they were ignorant of before . When saw we thee an hungred , and fed thee ? or thirsty and gave thee drink ? &c. In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these , ye have done it to me . I see more Grace in you saith Christ , than ever you saw in your selves , so and so appearing in your lives ; Come ye blessed . Brethren , Good Works are good Evidences to us , to make out the Truth of Grace in us ; but the All-knowing God needs no such Evidences for his Information ; he knows what is in man , and needs not that any should tell him . He searches the Heart . Though we see Grace only in the Fruit , yet God sees it in the Root and Principle . Besides , I conceive , the last Judgment is not to prove who is , and who is not in a state of Grace ; but rather to pronounce the Sentence according to the state that every one shall appear in at the Resurrection . There will be no doubting of any mans state at the Resurrection ; the method and manner of the Resurrection will decide it . Christ himself will separate the Sheep from the Goats ; and he will do this before the Judgement , Mat. 25. 32 , 33. You shall know a Believer then by his Station at the right hand of Christ ; by his Company among the Sheep . The Angels are sent forth , Mat. 24. 31. togather up the Elect from the four Winds , from the one end of Heaven to the other . They will ransack every corner of the World to find out every Saint ; not only the Ninety and Nine , but the whole Hundred shall be presented to God ; not one missing , we shall all stand together . Now after they are thus ranked by Christ , and the Angels have declared them to be Sheep , to be true Believers , must they come under a charge of infidelity ? Who must draw up this charge , and manage this false Indictment ? Either God , or good Angels , or Conscience , or the Devil . God he hath justified them here , sealed them by the Spirit of Adoption to the day of Redemption , and he will never reverse his judgment . The judgment of God at the last day will be pursuant to the judgment already past by his Word and Spirit in the Hearts and Consciences of Believers here . Good Angels are imployed to gather up the Elect , and consequently they have a true discerning who they are . Our Consciences are sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus , and have an answer in readiness , by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead . And the Devil will have something else to do in that day , when he stands at the head of the wicked to receive his sentence with them , the time of his torment being then come . Though he be now the accuser of the brethren day and night before God , he must then Eternally be cast down . True , he is now our accuser , and we must labour to overcome him by the Blood of the Lamp , as Rev. 12. 10 , 11. that is , by Arguments drawn from the Blood of Jesus ; yet I say fear him not after death . The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death , saith the Apostle ; and must we have an after rancounter with the Devil ? Must we be set upon a fresh by him ? No , no , after death he hath done with you for ever ; he will not dare to look you in the face at the last day : He draw up a charge against you ? You shall accuse , judge and condemn him , and all the Devils in Hell , 1 Cor. 6. 3. Never fear , you that dye in the Lord , shall rise up under those denyable evidences of a state of Grace , that neither the Devils nor wicked Men shall dare to gain-say . What , must poor Christians who have lived under doubts , fears , under buffetings and temptations , under accusations and challenges from the Devil and their own Consciences , must they rise so ? Is this to be raised in power , with our Spirits made perfect ? Surely Paul was out in his triumph , Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect ? Do you make good your Title to Christ now , and never fear any charges afterwards at that day ; it will be a joyful day to Believers . Look up , saith Christ , lift up your heads for your Redemption draweth nigh , Luke 21. 28. And therefore comfort one another ; your Witness is in Heaven , and your Record is on high , as Job speaks , God , Christ , Angles , Conscience , will all be on your side . Aye , but if this feigned process be not observed , some mens notions will fall to the ground . Aye , and let them fall ; no matter how soon ; for they are not grounded upon the Word of God that endureth for ever . Brethren , we must not draw Schemes and Models from our own Brain , and when we have done , impose them upon God , and make his proceedings in every particular exactly to suit the methods of Humane Judicatures : The natural notion of these things is so strong in some mens heads , that it doth carry them out beyond the line of the Gospel . Good works certainly do best furthest off from the judgment seat of God. They are good and comfortable evidences here , but they will make but a sorry Righteousness there for us to plead . Though God may and will take notice of all the fruits of his Grace appearing in our words or works , when he passeth the solemn declaratory Sentence at the last day , which is but a fuller manifestation of our justification . God will personally and publickly own that which he hath secretly in our Consciences , done by his Word and Spirit in us . God doth now act mediately by his word , then he will act immediately by himself ; we shall hear the sentence of our Justification from his own mouth , which now we hear only from the mouths of his Ministers that speak to us in his name . Secondly , The second ground they go upon is this , they say , that it is a conditional service imposed upon us by God in the new Covenant ; and therefore the performance of it must needs be part of our Justifying Righteousness ; which is very specious , and very suitable to Humane Reason , as most things are that contradict the Mysteries of the Gospel , but it is of like sound and significancy with the other . Alas ! At how little a hole will self-Righteousness creep in ? How apt are we in the pride of our hearts to distinguish our self-Righteousness into our Justification , that we may have somewhat whereof to glory . To prevent mistakes I will premise one thing ; that is this , I do not deny , but that to believe in God , in Christ , is an eminent piece of service , a great act of Divine Worship , the greatest act of Worship we can perform to God on this side Heaven . But I deny that it is a service done in order to the procuring or purchasing those benefits which we receive from Christ as his free gift . Faith receives what Christ hath already procured . Faith doth not come to Christ to desire him to dye for us ; but having dyed for us , it comes for the fruit of his death : It comes on no other Errand but to receive what is already prepared . Faith hath no causality or efficiency at all in contriving , compassing , constituting the great act of Grace , wherein the pardon of our sin and our justification is held forth unto us . Our Faith did not move God to promise pardon , but finding all this Grace in Jesus , Faith applyes it , lays hold on it , and God gives us leave , nay commands us to do this . So that Faith is a service we owe to God by way of duty in complyance with his free Grace towards us , but it is not a service done by us in way of procuring that which is freely given . No , no , we owe that to Christ and not to Faith. Brethren ! In common acceptation , when we say come to me , and I will do this and that for you ; pray who is the doer , he that comes to have the thing done , or he that doth it . Certainly if coming be a service in this case , it is a service done to a Mans self , and can never be urged as a service done to God. But they further say , that this is a conditional service : Why ? Because God hath commanded us to believe that we may be justified . Commanded us to believe and pray , what is that ? I told you before the meaning of an act of Faith , even to renounce our own Righteousness , to come in our nakedness and poverty to Christ , without Money or without Moneys worth , that we may be enriched by him in all things . Is not this the old , honest , plain down-right notion of believing ? And is this the Conditional service required ? Why don't you do it then ? Who is against it ? Only let them attend to the sense of Faith , and not be carried away with the meer word and talk of Faith , as their own act , never regarding the inward sense and signification of the thing it self . Hath God required us to believe in Jesus ; let us know what that means and do it ; no body is against it . If that be the Conditional service , let them lye low before God , and seem more vile in their own eyes , and cast themselves upon Christ for all . Let them learn to come without Money . This is the proper Obedience of Faith ; that Obedience which the Doctrine of the Gospel doth require ; and since you will call this a condition , I say , why don't you perform it ? Is this the performance of such a condition of believing , according to the sense and meaning of believing , to tell the World that Christ is not our only Justifying Righteousness , that we must seek for something in our selves to joyn with him , if ever we will be saved ? Is this the condition ? Doth God mean this , when he bids me believe in Jesus ? Sirs ! Let us not read our Bibles backwards ; wresting Scripture to our own destruction : It is strange to me , that Faith which is all along in Scripture opposed to Works in our Justification , and is appointed by God to shut all good works out of Justification , should be thus made an inlet to bring all good works into Justification . Oh! That we were more under the powerful actings of true Justifying Faith , it would then open it self more fully to us , and shew us its meaning . I wish we could a little better understand the actings of our Faith , understand the reason , the sense of it , the importance , the intent of an act of Faith , what a thing Faith is . Thirdly , They suppose a double Justification , and a double Justifying Righteousness ; the first to justifie us from the accusations of the Law , the other to justifie the sincerity of our Faith and Holiness ; and here comes in all our inherent Righteousness . This is specious too : But I would not have men coyn new heads of Divinity to make good their own notions . We know but of one Justification , I say , the second Justification , which they talk of , it is implyed in the first ; and therefore needless and unscriptural : For since the Revelation of the Gospel , infidelity and unbelief is a sin against the Moral Law ; and Faith in Christ is injoyned as a duty by the Moral Law ; by which we take God to be our God , and consequently do bind our selves over to believe whatsoever he had , or hereafter should reveal to be his Will. This we are bound to by the Moral Law ; therefore if we are ( as they themselves affirm ) freed by Justification from the Law of Works upon the condition of Faith , then we are on our first Justification absolutely freed from infidelity , and our Faith is sufficiently approved to be true , and what then need a second Justification , unless we will suppose an error in the first Judgment ; which is impious to suppose ; as if God should acquit us from the accusation of the Law of Works upon the condition of Faith ; which upon after examination , Christ discovers to be false and unsound . So that these things do not hang together . Fourthly , They say that Faith and Holiness are conditions and evidences of our title to Christ , and all that comes by him ; and therefore part of our Justifying Rightcousness . It is hard to understand the strength of some mens reasoning ; but grant all this , it amounts to no more but Christ , and a title to Christ , so far we are agreed , for we desire no more . But how they will make Faith which is our title to Christ , and unto which Christ and all his benefits are by the Gospel granted , promised and made over ; how they will make this title never so well evidenced , to be part of our Justifying Righteousness , I see not : A title adds nothing to the inheritance , makes it neither more nor less , but conveys it down to us , according to the intrinsick value of the thing , be it more or less . A title to Land is no part of the Land ; only we are invested in it as it is , by vertue of our title . Now therefore if the Righteousness of Christ be not of it self sufficient to justifie us , I see not how a good title mends the matter ; for if the Estate be never so great , and we have no good title to it , it is worth nothing to us ; and if our title be never so good , we can have no more then is , and belongs to the title . So that after all this stir about conditions and evidences of our title to Christ , the result of all is this , we have a title , a good title , are under all the conditions and evidences of a good title ; but to what ? To an Inheritance that is not sufficient to maintain us , to a Righteousness that is not sufficient of it self alone to justifie us ; and where are we now with our conditions and evidences of our title ? For ever distitute of a compleat Justifying Righteousness . Is this to Preach Christ ? To Preach the glad Tidings of the Gospel ? Is this the way to quiet and settle the Consciences of poor distressed sinners ? surely no. Fifthly , They urge the literal sense of some few Scriptures that seem to speak for them ; especially two ; and I do not know of more in the whole Bible , as to the literal signification ; if there were we should hear enough of it . I know they quote many others , which add no weight at all to the Argument they would ground upon them , Therefore I shall not speak to them . Those two are Mat. 12. 37. By thy words thou shalt be justified , and by thy words thou shalt be condemned ; and that in Iames , where it is said , Abraham was justified by works , Iam. 2. 23. For that in Matthew , Calvin charges the Papists with very great weakness in offering to draw an Argument from that Text for Justification by Works . Maldonate a Learned Jesuite on the other hand is very angry with Calvin for supposing any of the Roman Church to be so weak and injudicious , as to argue so from that Scripture ; for , saith he , we very well understand that this Text doth not speak De justificatione , qua justi efficimur , sed de judicis sententia , qua , sumpto ex verbis nostris argumento , justi declaramur . So saith the Jesuite ; we know this Text doth not speak of that which is the cause of our Justification , of the thing for which , and by virtue of which we become just and righteous , only here is the appearance of our Righteousness by our words , and we are declared to be Righteous . So that this doth not touch this cause of Justification ; and yet this is the main Text brought for it , the main proof repeated again and again , to prove inherent righteousness to have an influence into our Justification . I say let them take the answer from the Papists or Protestants , which they please , they are both against them in this thing . As for the other Scripture , They will take it in no other sense but what implyes a contradiction to all other Texts of Scripture in the case . The whole current of Scripture is against Works in Justification , and leads us to a fair construction of that in Iames , that it is to be understood of a justification before men , and not of a justification before God. Protestant Writers have sufficiently cleared up this , to the Conviction of all but such who are resolved not to be Convinced . Certainly they should have a care how they abound too much in their own sense . The Learned Lord Bacon saith , that a little Phylosophy makes men Atheists , but a great deal will convince them of a Deity . Some mens Logick and School Learning overthrows Reason , which duely improved and well managed , would teach them to argue otherwise : Certainly in our reasoning about Divine things we should be careful not to abound too much in our own sense . It is better for us to leave the Mystery of the Gospel in its Mystery where we found it , than to seek to draw it out , and so to explain it , as to force it into the mould of Humane Reason , shaping it on every side to an exact conformity to the thoughts and conceptions of our weak imperfect Understanding ; I say , no Gospel Truth will bear this . After all our Faith and Knowledge and Experience , we know but in part , and there is at the end of every Gospel Truth , a Mystery ; something that is passing our Understanding , that calls for silence , for an holy Admiration , for an humble submission in Faith to the Will of God. Therefore I would not have men speak as if they knew all , and draw particular Schemes , and it must be so , and no otherwise ; and thus and thus you must proceed in this and that way and form , therefore things must be so stated . I have done with the Argumentative part . I will now speak a word or two in a looser way of Discourse . I say then thus , he may be a true Believer who doth not take his faith for any part of his Justifying Righteousness ; I suppose that will be granted : But he cannot be a true Believer who takes not Christ for his Justifying Righteousness . I do not say now for his only Justifying Righteousness , because I would speak in the sense of those I oppose . I say , they cannot be Believers who do not look upon Christ as their Justifying Righteousness ; but they may be true Believers who do not look upon faith as a part of their Justifying Righteousness . For the first , suppose it an Error , it is only about the act in our apprehension which doth not alter the nature of the thing at all . The second is an Error in the act , which quite destroys the very nature of faith . Therefore the safer way is rather to press persons to believe , to see they have faith indeed and in Truth , than urge them to such an unscriptural construction of their faith , putting such a title of Honor upon it to the reproach of Christ and his Righteousness . They honour faith sufficiently who only prefer Christ before it . No doubt God will give faith its due praise and place at the last day ; our not knowing or not understanding the reach and truth of our faith in all circumstances of it , will be no prejudice to faith at the last day . I heartily wish , we were more in the Exercise of Faith than in Controversies about it ; more in the Practise of Good Works than in Dispute about them ; we should then sooner understand both the one and the other . Sirs ! the mysterious , sublime Doctrine of Justification was revealed for our comfort , and proposed to our faith to be believed ; not to our reason to argue upon in a Quodlibetical manner and to toss to and fro for Argument sake . What if we know no more of Justification then is absolutely necessary for our Justification ? This is the case of many plain , sincere hearted Christians ; and if it were so with us all , we may have fewer Notions in our Heads , but possibly more Grace in our Hearts . The Lord grant , that we may know the Doctrine of Justification so as they know it who are saved by Christ. But surgunt indocti & rapiunt Coelum , & nos cum doctrinis nostris sine corde , volutamur in carne & in sanguine . The Learned they dispute and wrangle themselves into Hell ; the unlearned they believe , practice and gain Heaven , taking up the truth in simplicity according to the general scope of the Gospel , as it is held forth to the meanest Capacity . Brethren ! what Paul said to the Jaylor , Acts 16. 31. that I say to you all , Believe on the Lord Iesus Christ , and thou and thy house shall be saved . Don't you go home now , and tell your Families that they must not understand this Text so as to look upon Christ as their only justifying righteousness , but look out for something in themselves , if ever they be saved . No , pray speak Scripture Language , expound Scripture by Scripture , and tell them , that Christ is all in all ; tell them plainly that they must not be found in their own righteousness ; they must be found in Christ not having on their own righteousness , that they must count all things but loss and dung that they may win Christ ; that there is no other foundation but Christ , no other name under Heaven by which they can be saved , but the name of Christ ; tell them they must not come for Justification and Life in the name of their Good Works , of any thing that belongs themselves ; but only in the name of Christ , promote this Doctrine in your Families and among your Children and Servants . This is the way to save you and your Household . This is good , wholesome household Divinity , and suited to the ordinary Capacity of all serious Professors . We must not send our Hearers to intricate distinctions , to learn the meaning of the Doctrine of their Justification . The sense of the Gospel is plain enough in this thing , they that run may read it . Come , come , you shall never be charged at the Last Day for giving too much to Christ in the matter of Justification . You are bound to ascribe all to him , and you shall never be charged for giving too much . And certainly if it be possible to err on that hand , I had rather err in giving too much then too little to Christ. Do you think that a true Believer , who doth not look upon the act of Faith or works of Holiness to be any part of his justifying righteousness ; but casts himself upon Christ , do you think , I say , that God will reprove such a person at the last day for ascribing too much to Christ , and not pleading his own righteousness ? Certainly a Believer cannot plead the righteousness of Christ without Faith ; his way of arguing from Christ will sufficiently evince the truth and reality of his Faith ; there needs no other proof and demonstration of it . I should have made some Application . I will tell you what I intended . First , To those who ground their Justification upon the sandy Foundation of their inherent Righteousness ; I would exhort them to pull down the house presently before it fall upon their heads ; and lay a better Foundation , if ever they think to stand before the Son of Man in his Day . Then I should exhort them , and press them to study other Arguments , ( as there are very many ) to promote Good Works and practical Holiness among men ; and not justle out Christ to make room for self Righteousness in the matter of Justification . What , must we work for Life still ? To work for Justification is to work for Life , and why should we thus turn the Gospel into the Law ? I should speak also to those who are built upon the right Foundation , and have cast themselves upon Christs Righteousness for Justification unto Life . Let such be careful to maintain good Works ; let them be Examplary in the practise of them ; and bring forth fruit meet for the Kingdom of God. For as the Foundation may be too weak for the Superstructure , so the Superstructure may be too mean for the Foundation . And therefore down with all this Hay , Wood and Stubble , and labour to walk more sutable to that Holy Faith under the Profession of which you live . Brethren ! The unsutable and uncircumspect lives of Professors , have been the greatest scandal to the Doctrine of Justification by Faith ; it hath opened the Mouths of men against it . Therefore labour to live men into a Conviction of this Truth . Disputes and Words will not do it , till you make it appear , that the Grace of God that hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel , hath taught you to deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts. This is the way to promote the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone . You that are built upon the right Foundation had need be careful and circumspect . The House is not yet finished , we do all of us lie open more or less to Storms and Tempests here below , though they cannot throw down the house , yet they may shake the house ; the rain may beat into the house , may soak through every room of the house , may foul the house ; may greatly incommode us and distress us . Therefore keep your Souls in good repair , keep them as tite as you can against Wind and Weather . And for your Comfort I would have told you that Heaven will mend all the Errors in the Superstructure , if the Foundation be right . God will then take away and separate all those weaknesses and sinful mixtures that now run along with all our Graces ; all Cracks and Flawes , the sinkings , and failings , the bendings and leanings , this way and that way in any part of the building , Heaven will mend all , will set all right and straight ; when we are Sanctified throughout , and the Top-stone is laid . FINIS . A DISCOURSE OF REPENTANCE : SHEWING The Difference between Legal and Evangelical Repentance , AND The Necessary Connection between Evangelical Repentance and Saving Faith. By Thomas Cole Minister of the Gospel . LONDON , Printed for Thomas Cockerill , at the Three Legs over against the Stocks-Market , 1689. A DISCOURSE OF Repentance . MARK 1. 15. Repent ye , and believe the Gospel . THE summe of the Gospel lies in Faith and Repentance , which alwayes go together , and cannot be separated , though they may and ought to be distinguished one from the other : I have chosen this Text to show the necessary connection that is between Faith and Repentance ; that I may be the better understood I shall observe this method . 1. Distinguish between Legal and Evangelical Repentance . 2. Shew the nature of Evangelical Repentance , what it is , and wherein it does consist , how it rises out of faith , what its use and end is . 3. Shew the necessary connection that is between Evangelical Repentance and saving Faith. 4. The real difference that is between them , notwithstanding this necessary connection . 5. Inquire into the true cause and reason why the Professors of this Age , who are so much for Faith , do mind Repentance so little . 6. Apply all . First , Distinguish between Legal and Evangelical Repentance . You see the Repentance and Faith spoken of in the Text , have both of them a reference to the Gospel ; Repent and believe the Gospel . We shall better understand the nature of Evangelical Repentance , by comparing it with Legal Repentance , observing as we go how they differ from each . ( 1. ) Legal Repentance is the work of the Law , i. e. The work of the Spirit by the Law , for the Law works but faintly under the influence of meer Natural Light , unless the Spirit awaken the Conscience , and set home the Law , little will be done , such a work of the Law you have Rom. 2. 15. letting in a Spirit of Bondage upon the Conscience , accusing us for what we have done against the Law , and leaving us so convicted without any plea for our selves . Evangelical Repentance is the work of the Gospel , sweetly melting the Heart by Arguments drawn from the Love of God , and his free Grace in Christ towards Sinners ; it encourages a trembling Soul to plead with God for Mercy as the Publican , Lord be Merciful to me a Sinner . ( 2. ) Legal Repentance is all terrour and no hope , it rises from the revelation of Gods Wrath against Sinners ; 't is a despairing Repentance without any hope of pardon , the Curse of the Law lies hard upon a Man ; he knows not how to get from under it , but lives in a fearful expectation of fiery indignation to devour him , he is a terrour to himself : But Evangelical Repentance leaves not an affrighted sinner altogether without hope , as I shall shew under the next head . ( 3. ) Legal Repentance is from worldly sorrow , not so much for the sin as the penalty incurred thereby , the apprehension of which is very dreadful to a convinced sinner ; he is more affected with the evil of punishment , then with the evil of sin in it self ; 't is not for Gods sake but his own , that he repents of sin ; he could love it well enough if it did not damn him : Though I do not deny , but a Repentance purely legal , may have some sense of the evil of sin as sin , not only as malum prohibitum , but as malum in se , as evil in its own nature ; where common notions of good and evil are not utterly extinguished , it must needs be so , especially under a higher conviction from the Spirit of God , that gives us a farther discerning of the evil of sin , then the meer light of nature under its greatest elevation can possibly do . It was so in Iudas , Matt. 27. 34. he was convinced , not only that he had broken the Law of God , but that he had sinned in so doing . I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood : He knew he had a hand in murdering a Man , a good Man , a great Man , who was more then Man ; no doubt all this came up into his mind , concerning Christ , yet the knowledge of Christ that Iudas had , did not reach so far as to beget the least hope of Mercy from him ; and here lay the legality of his Repentance ; it was a despairing Repentance , he conversed only with the Law , and so sunk under the wrath of God , and the curse of the Law ; he had none to accuse him but his own Conscience , the Rulers and chief Priests were for him , had set him a work and rewarded him ; but seeing him under such horror of Conscience , he had done their business , what care they , see thou to that ; unconvinced sinners do slight the convictions of others , they may go hang themselves for all them , they have no pity for them . I speak this to shew that legal Repentance may take in something of the evil of sin in it self , as well as the destructive nature of it to us ; though these legal convictions of the evil of sin in it self , are far short of those more through convictions that accompany true Evangelical Repentance : Though the sorrow that is in legal Repentance be but worldly ; yet 't is very pungent , it pierces us thorow , and pretends to some Devotion too , as if it were for Gods sake , when self is only at the bottom . Pharaoh confessed his sins , and desired the Prayers of Gods People , Exod. 9. 27 , 28. Saul wept for his sins , 1 Sam. 24. 16. The effects of Gods wrath are very dreadful upon convinced sinners , may draw Tears from their Eyes , when they see what mischief they have brought upon themselves ; they repent , but how ? Not of the sin , but of the punishment : Alas ! What does that signifie , how ineffectual is it ? What have we to do to repent of the punishment ? We can't reverse it ; 't is Gods part to repent of the punishment , to turn from his wrath , to cease from his anger , which he will do , when we repent of the sin that occasioned it . To repent of the punishment , is in effect to be sorry that God is so just , that he so severely animadverts upon sinners ; we wish he would let them go unpunished , that we might more securely go on in our sins ; the only way to escape vengeance , is to acknowledge the sinfulness of sin , and to repent of our great folly in committing it ; such a frame of Spirit bears some proportion to the Holiness of God , argues true Godly sorrow , which worketh Evangelical Repentance unto Salvation . 2 Cor. 7. 10. ( 4. ) Legal Repentance is before Faith , without Faith may never issue in saving Faith , as in Cain , Saul , Iudas , but Evangelical Repentance does alwayes accompany saving Faith ; and of this I am now to speak under the second head ; shewing you Secondly , The nature of Evangelical Repentance ; what it is in its first rise and original ; upon what 't is founded . It came in with the Gospel , the Law never intended any such thing , the sinner was to be cut off by Law , to die without Mercy , in the day thou eatest thou shalt die , says the Law ; unless ye repent , says the Gospel ; here is an exception put in ( in case of repentance ) against the peremptory Sentence of the Law. I say repentance comes in with the Gospel , I will put enmity , &c. Gen. 3. 15. Repentance rises out of this Enmity . This seems to point particularly at the Conversion of Eve , who by Faith in the promised Messiah should turn against the Serpent . I will put enmity between thee and the woman ; this woman , whom thou hast deceived , shall become thy Enemy , and bring forth a seed that shall break thy head , thou shalt bruise his heel , but his Death shall be thy overthrow . Repentance is a Gospel Priviledge purchased by Christ , 't is an act of Grace in God to injoyn us Repentance , as his leaving men in an impenitent hardened frame is an act of his Justice and Wrath. The Law in its Original Constitution , does not intend the amendment of the sinner , but his utter Destruction ; the Law can kill the sinner , but cannot mortifie the sin ; Damnation makes no man better , but concludes him Eternally under sin and wrath , the Justice of God is not obliged to turn a sinner from his sins , but to turn him into Hell for his sins . That which makes it a just and righteous thing with God to forgive the sins of Believer , is Christs Merits and his own Promise ; 't is Justice in God to make good his own Promises , Rom. 3. 25 , 26. 2 Thes. 1. 6 , 7. he is a debtor to his own promise , he cannot deny himself , 2 Tim. 2. 13. he owes the performance of his Promise to his Faithfulness and Truth ; 't is an act of Justice to himself to keep his Promise : God offers Mercy to sinners , not because they do repent , but that they may repent : Repentance is not the Cause but the Effect of Pardon , God always intends Pardon to those whom he effectually calls to repentance ; he gave no such call to the Angels that fell ; there was no Gospel preached to them . No fallen Angel was saved , because no Elect Angel fell , but there are many of Gods Elect among the fallen Sons of Adam to whom promises of Salvation were made upon their believing in Christ ; this being published to all in the Gospel , all who hear the Gospel do put in for their share in this Salvation , and that they may render the attainment more easie and feazable to them , they deny absolute Election , bring in Universal Redemption , assert the liberty of Mans Will to believe if he please , and supposing it to be in their own power to believe , they conclude they may be saved as well as others , and this is the ground of all that security that is among common Professors . Having spoken thus much of Evangelical Repentance as it implies a real hatred of sin as sin , and a real turning to God as the chiefest good from an inward change of nature renewed after the Image of God , I shall now shew you , 1. That such a Repentance can never be wrought in any by the Law alone , the Gospel has a principal hand in this . Why not by the Law. Because in the Law there are not sufficient motives and inducements to Repentance , nothing that encourages to it , that renders it available to mans Salvation , the law cannot give life to a sinner upon his repentance ; the Gospel can , but the Law cannot , could a man under the Law , Repent , suppose that ? What would he get by it , he must to Hell after all , the Law as a Covenant of Works does not seek to bring a sinner to Repentance , but to Punishment , the Law cannot give Repentance unto Life , because it cannot give Life upon our Repentance . You 'l say then , is the Law against Repentance ? I don't say so neither ; for take Repentance as 't is a just equitable thing , as a holy disposition of mind ; so the Law is not against it where ever it may be found , as it is not against any other act of Moral Righteousness as such that a man may do , and yet for all this 't will condemn a man for his sin , and all his righteousness shall not be remembred , though the Law be not against Repentance , yet it will not accept of repentance as a satisfaction for past sins , but the Gospel provides full satisfaction for the Law , and promises sufficient and effectual Grace to the sinner to bring him to repentance ; having rescued him from the Curse of the Law , enables him to walk worthy of the blessing of the Gospel , if those who are justified were not sanctified , they would live to the scandal of the Gospel . The Law cannot contradict it self , having already pronounced a peremptory sentence of death upon the sinner , 't is impossible the Law should ever give repentance unto Life , the Law insists upon the Execution of its own Judgment , and will not be satisfied till that be done , in this the Gospel yields to the Law , to have execution done upon man for sin , and provides a man on purpose , the man Christ Iesus , who bore our sins in his own body upon the cross . 3. This Evangelical Repentance implies real Sanctification , but the Law sanctifies no man , because it can't convey its own Holiness to another , can't alter the Nature of a Man , but only shew him what mischief his sin has done him , shews him his sin in this or that instance , to his great terror , but if he happen to out-live those terrors , and not die in the fit as Iudas , his evil heart will encline him as strongly to sin , as ever it did before his former Convictions , they made him give a present start backwards , but he will quickly recover himself , and return to his wretched course , he cannot cease from sin , though he know it displeases God yet he likes it never the worse for that , might he but escape the punishment , 't is not the wrath of God in it self that he fears , but only as it goes forth in the penal effects of it against himself , else he could suffer God to be angry , and not be troubled at it , whereas this goes most to the heart of a Child of God , that he has incurr'd his displeasure . There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger , Psal. 38. 3. The Law alone never works any real Sanctification in a sinner ; 't is indeed the rule of Judgement , it judges us according to what we are , but cannot make us better . 4. Repentance is a turning unto God , but the Law gives no encouragement to a sinner to turn to God , it holds forth the Wrath of God against him , that makes him run from the presence of an angry God and hide himself as Adam did , how can dry stubble stand before a consuming Fire , but God out of Christ is a consuming Fire to a sinner , he dares not come near him . 5. The law by it self can't work a saving Conviction 't is very Instrumental in conjunction with the Gospel to do this , but of it self it cannot . Saving Conviction is of the essence of Evangelical Repentance . Saving Conviction hath these four properties . 1. It apprehends upon Scripture grounds a possibility of a sinners Salvation , and not only so , but a fair probability of it upon the due use of those means appointed by God in order thereunto , and leads out the sinner to seek relief in Christ , under some hope of obtaining it . 2. It works a hatred of sin as sin , strongly inclines and disposes the heart of a sinner to break off from his sins , and to betake himself to a strict course of Holiness : God offers Grace to sinners , because he intends to give Faith and Repentance to as many as are ordained unto Life , Faith inclines us to beg Repentance , disposes us to it , laies open the foulness of sin so plainly , so convincingly that we cannot but repent of it , under such a saving Conviction as Faith works in us , I call it a saving Conviction , because it puts us upon the diligent use of all means tending to Salvation ; a man is so convinced that he cannot rest till he has found out an effectual remedy to cure so deadly a disease , nothing will satisfie him but Christ , we see not all that is in sin ; till we see an absolute necessity of Christ to save us from it : Here is a deep discovery of sin indeed , when we know nothing but the Blood of Christ can take it away ; Behold the Lamb of God , &c. a Sacrifice of Gods providing , all the Bulls , Goats , Sheep and Lambs of Mans procuring will never expiate sin , nothing that is among men can do it , but God has a Lamb , cherished in his own bosom from Eternity , this Lamb must be slain to take away the sins of the World , 't is very astonishing to think what God parted with from himself to satisfie his own Justice ; his Attributes conspire together to heighten and advance each other ; infinite Grace lays out it self to satisfie infinite Justice , and satisfied Justice gives way to infinite Grace to glorifie it self in mans free Redemption . 3. It convinces us not only of particular sins , but of the general Corruption of our Nature , 't is by a Divine supernatural Light that we discern this , we have a feeling of it in our selves , from an inward Principle of a higher Life raised up in us by the power of God in our Regeneration , which will not suffer us to walk any more after the flesh , we cry and complain of that proneness that is in us to evil ; O wretched man that I am , &c. Rom. 7. No unconverted man is brought in complaining of the Corruption of his Nature , only David , and Paul , and such like , but none else . When we look upon the old man with the eyes of the new , we see that deformity that never appeared to us before . 4. It Convinces us not only of the severity of the Law , in punishing , but also of the Holiness of the Law in all its just and reasonable Commands ; Rom. 7. 12. This is a main difference between Legal and Evangelical Repentance , that Conviction and Sense that is in a Legal Repentance of the Holiness of the Law , is very small , next to none at all , and that which is , proceeds chiefly from the remainders of light in all natural Men , left on purpose in the Conscience , that all reverence of God and his Law might not be quite cast off , and something of this may now and then appear under strong legal Convictions of sin , as in Iudas , but all this never begets any true love to Holiness , for still they go on in their sins and have pleasure in them that do so , Rom. 1. 32. which is a great demonstration of the absolute Dominion sin has over fallen man , in carrying him on not only against the known Law of God written in the Word , but against all the natural Notions of the Law written in his own heart , nothing can hold him in , he despises God and man and his own Conscience , he will not be a Law to himself . Legal Convictions come short in all these properties of saving Conviction . Legal Convictions are either such as are antecedent to the Commission of Sin , or such as follow upon it , which are properly called Convictions . Convictions antecedent to sin , are all one with the knowledge of the Law , by which we understand what is morally good or evil in it self ; what is sin , and what is not , Adam and Eve in innocency were under this Conviction , they knew what God had forbidden , viz. to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil , and that to eat of it in opposition to Gods express command to the contrary , was a high act of Disobedience , to be punished with Death , but by the subtilty of the Devil they yielded to the Temptation , and did eat : if their perfect knowledge of the Law could not keep them in Innocency , from falling , how can we expect that our imperfect knowledge of the Law from any Convictions of that kind , which we may be under should keep us . And for those legal Convictions subsequent to the commission of sin , by which we see the obliquity of our own actions , and know our selves to be Transgressors of a holy righteous Law , they fall short in all the forementioned properties of saving Conviction , they leave us without hope of Mercy , work no renovation of nature in us , they may disturb us in the present act of sin , and terrifie us much about that , laying some present restraint upon us , but they work no real Reformation in us , Iudas was in great horror of Conscience for betraying his Master , was much troubled that he should have a hand in shedding innocent blood : and yet under the light and power of this Conviction , how evil it was to Murder another , he hangs himself , which was as contrary to Law , as killing another : I speak this to shew how legal convictions may hurry a man from one sin to another , but they never lead him into a constant setled way of true Holiness , whence I infer that Convictions purely legal will never work Repentance unto Life . How Repentance unto Life is wrought by the Gospel . Because God hath appointed the Gospel to be the means of Repentance , Luk. 24. 47. Rom. 16. 25 , 26. to the Glory of his Free Grace , as Justice is glorified in the Damnation of an impenitent sinner , so Grace is glorified in his Conversion ; Evangelical Repentance is from a Discovery of Gods Love and Free Grace : His goodness leads us to Repentance , Rom. 2. 4. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Psal. 130. 4. A true Penitent fears least he should miss of Mercy , and come short of it , he rejoyces at the good News of the Gospel , begins to lift up his head in some expectation of a blessed Redemption , he serves God chearfully being perswaded that his Duties and Services will be pleasing to him and accepted by him for Christs sake , Psal. 130. 4. Hos. 6. 1 , 2. a sence of love and mercy quicken up a drooping trembling sinner to return unto God , the Prodigal remembred what a kind Father he had , Luk. 15. 18. 't was Pauls Argument , Rom. 12. 1. 2 Cor. 7. 1. 'T is a sad thing that the Grace of the Gospel which is intended to keep men from Despair , should by some be made an encouragement to presumption , God forbid we should continue in Sin because Grace abounds . 2. The Grace of the Gospel is not only an appointed Means , but is in its own nature a fit means to work repentance , suited and adapted to that end , the goodness of God leads us to repentance , the Schoolmen tell us that amor est congregativus , and they give this reason for it , because it does congregate and gather in our roving scattered thoughts from those various lesser Objects after which they go , fixing our Minds upon God , the only soul-satisfying Object . Love is conciliative , when God doth through Faith let in any sense of his intended grace towards sinners , the heart melts under it , a sinner does not repent that he may believe , but because he does believe , something of the Love of God to sinners in Christ Jesus , some inkling of this is come to his ear , hath touched his very heart , before ever he sets upon repentance , and now he can hold no longer , the love of Christ constrains him , great is the power of Love , when it commends it self to us in some signal expressions of kindness to our visible advantage and benefit . 3. Because Christ gives repentance , Act. 5. 31. he purchased this and all other graces for us , by dying for us , he not only obtained pardon of Sin in our Justification , but all inherent Graces in the Saints come from Christ , he procured them for us , he works them in us , his sufferings being not only satisfactory for sin , but meritorious of grace to be bestowed upon us , though the Law can't sanctify a sinner yet Christ can , and 't is an act of special grace towards us when he doth , but he will first satisfie the Law and Justice of God , that being brought under grace by our free Justification , we may answer to the Law of grace in our sanctification , denying all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts , living soberly and righteously here below as the redeemed of the Lord ought to do ; the Law commands perfect Obedience , but in case of Failure , the Gospel Promises Faith and Repentance , Zach. 12. 10. Acts 11. 18. 4. Because God hath annexed a quickning Spirit to the Gospel , to make way for his Grace , and to give it a prevailing efficacy in the Hearts of men , they are drawn by the loving kindness of God , and cannot resist it , the Spirit opens the Mystery of the Love of God in Christ , and so charms the Soul with it , that it is impossible to withstand the allurements of it . 5. Because the ways and means of bringing a sinner to life , are all supernatural ; the Law speaks nothing of this , the Law never puts us upon any thing that is supernatural ; I mean that originally was so to man in his perfect state , for then it had been quite above the reach and capacity of Mans Understanding , but God suited his Law to those inbred Notions and Principles of Truth , that were concreated in us , the way of salvation through Faith and Repentance being supernatural ; we must apply our selves to the Gospel to know this . 3. The necessary Connection that is between Evangelical Repentance and saving Faith. I prove , it thus . 'T is so in the first production of Repentance , and in all the subsequent acts of Repentance , therefore 't is alwayes so . In the first production of Repentance if you consider how this was wrought by Iohns Ministry , Mat. 3. and Luk. 3. these two things will evidently appear . First , That Repentance alwayes presupposes Faith. Secondly , That Repentance rises out of Faith. And how ! I will clear up this by a brief Paraphrase upon those words , Repent ye , for the kingdom of heaven is at hand . Iohn is brought in inviting sinners to Repentance ; the Argument he uses is plainly this , God is inclined to Pardon you , therefore Repent : I come as a forerunner to prepare the way , that by bringing you the first newes of Gods intended grace and favour towards you , I might soften and mollify your hearts and dispose you to a ready thankful acceptance of Christ , this offer of Grace is called the Kingdom of Heaven because it is inclusive of all the happiness that Heaven can afford : all good comes along with Pardoning Grace , I see says Iohn , you are all lying under the sad damning circumstances of your own sins , in a very woful miserable condition , compassed about with Hell and Death , with horror and darkness , all things round about you , look very black and dismal , I am come to put you into a better state , to offer you a Kingdom , which will shortly appear in all its Glory ; 't is at hand , 't is coming toward you , Heaven it self is come to look after you to lend a helping hand to lift you out of this horrible Pit , before it shut its mouth upon you , see that you refuse not this grace , that you put not from you the word of the Gospel , least you judge your selves unworthy of Eternal Life , as Acts 13. 46. i. e. it will as plainly appear to be so , as if it had been so declared in open Court , upon a fair hearing of your Cause , if Heaven and Earth were to sit in Judgment upon you , they would conclude you most unworthy of Everlasting Life , and by putting the word from you , you have in effect passed this judgement upon your selves , or you have done that now which your own Consciences will so interpret at the last day , they will then tell you you might have had life and pardon , but would not ; you would not come to Christ that you might have life , therefore your damnation is just , you deservedly perish , & may thank your selves for it , how speechless will sinners be then : as to remain in impenitency under the outward Light of the Gospel , does argue the height of unbelief , so to be brought to Repentance by the Preaching of the Gospel does necessarily imply Faith in the Gospel , 't is impossible that a Tender of Grace should work Repentance till 't is believed , 't is of no force , makes no impression upon the Mind of a Man till then , therefore , Faith must be presupposed , I make it out thus . That which is brought as a motive for the doing of a thing , must be first understood , received and believed , before the thing can be done upon that motive : there is in the Gospel a general offer of Mercy to sinners , this proves an effectual means to beget Faith in all that are ordained unto life , upon their believing this general offer of Grace , their hearts begin to melt under it , and some inclination to Repentance is wrought in them , this Faith and this Repentance wrought in a more general way at first , do form themselves into more particular and distinct acts afterwards , thus the principles of the Doctrine of Christ , viz. Repentance from dead works and Faith towards God are first laid , and then there is ( in the light and power of these principles ) a going on unto perfection , Heb. 6. 1. Our first Faith is a more general Faith , and so is our first Repentance , rather an inclination and tendency to believe and repent , then actual Faith , or actual Repentance . Our first Faith wrought in us upon the general proposal of Gospel Grace , contains in it a saving Conviction of Sin , 't is impossible to receive grace without it , grace is nothing to us , of no signification to us , but as it gives relief against sin , which we must have some sense of , before we apply our selves to the grace of God for Pardon , we must see something in our selves that wants a pardon , and which we are willing to repent of and forsake in Case of a pardon , Repentance is as true an effect of Faith , as Pardon and Comfort , Faith first brings a sinner to Christ under some hope of Pardon , and then busies it self in working Repentance , in order to a comfortable sense of Pardon . The Spirit lets in some sense of Gospel Grace tendred unto sinners , and affects the heart with it , as very desireable , as a very seasonable offer , by no means to be slighted , the Soul begins to be taken with it , conceives some hope from it , and this is the begining of Faith , and with our first Faith Light comes in giving us some Gospel Conviction of sin in order to Repentance , I call it a Gospel Conviction , because it is wrought by means of the Gospel , all after acts of Faith and Repentance have their rise from this first work , which brings me to the second Point , viz. That Faith is not only joyned with Repentance in the first production of it , as has been shewed , but in all the subsequent acts of it ever after ; which I make out thus . Faith and Repentance do constantly refer to each other in their several actings , Faith to Repentance , and Repentance to Faith ; he that believes , repents because he believes , and he that repents , believes because he repents , i. e. as Faith is the cause of Repentance , so Repentance is the reason of every particular act of Faith put forth upou Christ for Pardon , 't is impossible to make up the full sense of an act of Faith on our part , if you fetch not the reason of it from Repentance : Why do we go to the Physitian , is it not because we are sick , weary and faint ready to die of such a Disease : So why does a weary Soul come to Christ , is it not to be eased of his Burden ? that insupportable burden of sin that is ready to sink him into Hell. If Faith and Repentance be thus always joyned together , does it not follow that we are justified by our Repentance as well as by Faith ? I Answer , No. Though we are not saved without Repentance , it does not therefore follow that we are justified by our Repentance ; but some to make good this Assertion have coyned many subtle distinctions , relating to both . Before I give a particular reply to this , let me say something in general . Religion may be considered , either in its primitive purity and simplicity , as it was laid down in the Fundamental Principles of it , by Christ and his Apostles . Or as it has since been drawn through the various Discourses , Reasonings and Writings of Men for so many Centuries past , this has so much overcharged Religion with so many nice distinctions , intricate questions , and endless disputes , that it seems to be quite another thing then it was in the Apostles dayes : The best way is to return to the primitive simplicity of the Gospel , especially in judging of Fundamentals , which are plainly and clearly laid down there in Terms very intelligible . Though Faith be the Gift of God , and is given of meer Grace but to a few , yet all who live under the Light of the Gospel may know what they ought to believe , which will render their unbelief more inexcusable ; did we dwell more upon what is plainly revealed as fundamentally necessary to Salvation , we should better discern , by the light of those Fundamentals , the just consequences of them , in any deductions from them , which may not be so particularly and expresly spoken unto in Scripture . But now to answer the query whether we may not be said to be justified by our Repentance , as well as by Faith , since we are not saved without Repentance ? Answ. There is a great deal of difference between Justification and Salvation , Salvation includes all qualifications belonging to that state , Justification lets us into that state ; gives us right to Life from whence spring all Qualifications becoming that Life . Besides , Saving Graces are so called , not that they are the Causes of Salvation , but because they accompany it , we cannot be saved without them . Faith it self as a Grace inherent in us , is no meritorious Cause of our Justification ; 't is that which carries us out of our selves to Christ for Righteousness upon the account of which we are justified in the sight of God , when we say we are justified by Faith , we don't mean we are justified by any thing in our selves , we can't understand it so , but the contrary , that we must be beholding to Christ for all . He that receives all from another , gives nothing to himself , he does indeed apply to himself , to his own use and benefit , what is freely given to him by another , but he cannot in any propriety of Speech be said to ascribe any thing to himself , or to owe himself thanks for what he receives from another : Faith in its justifying act does not look to it self as our grace , but unto Christ as our Righteousness , the inherent grace of Faith is not our justifying Righteousness , though it lead us out to him who is ; Faith is the hand , but Christ is the gift ; nay the hand it self is the gift of God , as well as that which is put into it : God gives us not only what we believe , but he gives us to believe ; the habit and act of faith are both from God , that he that glories may glory in the Lord only : And if it be so with faith , if that be shut out from being any part of our justifying Righteousness , 't will hold true much more in all other saving graces that spring from faith , whether Hope , Love , Fear , Repentance , &c. Repentance proves our Faith to be saving , such a faith as gives us an Interest in Christ , faith adds nothing to the Righteousness of Christ , but applies it as it is , it only gives us an Interest in it , and makes it ours by vertue of the Promise tendring it to us , by receiving the Promise we have a sure interest in the thing promised , and may ever after count it our own , and if we are not justified by our graces themselves , much less by our good works , which are the fruits and issues of them , we must resolve all our graces into faith , and faith it self into Christ and his Righteousness before we can be clear in the matter of our Justification . 4. The real distinction that is between them notwithstanding this necessary Connection . Faith and Repentance are frequently joyned together in Scripture , and sometimes each of them singly put for the whole work of Conversion , and then they do alwayes include each other , and imply the whole work of grace in the Soul , as Luk. 13. 5. Luk. 15. 10. Acts 3. 19. Acts 11. 18. Though they cannot be separated , yet they may be distinguished , not only nominally but really ; they are spoken of ( Act. 20. 21. ) as two distinct things , as Faith and Hope are inseparable , yet two distinct Graces , so 't is with Faith and Repentance , they grow together as different Branches from the same Root that bears and feeds them both , they are the two Vital Constituent parts of a Christian , which have their distinct Offices and Influences : Repentance is the same in Principle with Faith , though they receive different denominations , from the different objects and occasions about which they act : A principle of Grace is that immortal Seed , or that Spirit that is born of the Spirit ; the fruits of the Spirit are not the Spirit it self , but something produced by him ; all Graces are the fruits of the Spirit and are specified by their different objects : All Graces are but so many expressions of that holy Disposition , that is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost . To Repent of Sin is as true Holiness as not to sin at all ; a sinner has no other way to express his Love to Holiness , than by a declared Hatred of his Sins . They differ in their Objects , faith as justifying , hath Christs Righteousness for its Object , Repentance has mans unrighteousness for its Object ; as Faith acts upon Christ for an Interest in his Righteousness , so Repentance acts towards God , acknowledging our own Unrighteousness and bewailing it , we cannot rejoyce in the Righteousness of Christ , till we mourn for our own sins ; Christ reconciles God to us , by the attonement offer'd , 2 Cor. 5. 20 , 21. and us to God by working Repentance in us , who were Enemies to him in our Minds by wicked works , Col. 1. 21 , alienated from the life of God , Col. 4. 18. This Enmity against God and alienation from him , is removed by Repentance : Faith works upwards to appease Gods Wrath , by holding up the Blood of Christ ; Repentance works downwards upon our selves , changing our Minds towards God , that we may be conformable to his Will , and rebel no more against him . Besides , All Graces do not imploy , at least equally , the same Affections , there is more joy and hope in Faith , more sorrow and fear in Repentance ; faith lifts up and comforts a guilty sinner upon one account , Repentance humbles him and lays him low upon another account , filling him with godly sorrow for his sins . 5. Reasons why the Professors of this Age who are so much for Faith do mind Repentance so little , are so seldom found in the Exercise of it . 1. Because they rest in general Notions of Faith , and of Justification by Grace through Christ ; they say they have faith , and think this will save them , we may have right notions of faith in our Heads , and yet be under no real actings of faith in our Hearts ; we may be Orthodox in our Judgements , sound in the Doctrine of Faith , and yet be strangers to the Grace of Faith ; we may hold the Truth , dispute for it , preach it up , maintain it in our Discourses , as our Opinion , and yet be rotten at Heart for all this , under the power of unbelief , if you know these things happy are ye if ye do them . Faith must be done as well as talked of , it must be really acted by us in our own case , 't is not the doctrine of faith , but your faith in or according to that doctrine , that saves you , the just shall live by his own faith , the doctrine of faith is an external thing laid down in the letter of the word , but the grace of faith is an inward living principle found only in the hearts of real Saints , this is that I am inquiring after , and pressing upon you as that that will certainly produce Repentance , Zach. 12. 10. 'T is one thing to have a Notional Knowledge of the doctrine of faith as contained in the letter of the word , another thing to be under the power of the grace of faith as it passes thorow the heart in the lively actings of it : Notions of things may be separated from those effects that alwayes attend the things themselves when they are in being , we may shake and freeze under our notions of fire , but we cannot stand before fire it self and not be warmed by it , were there more real faith ; I mean of the grace of faith , among professors , there would be more Repentance , let us not slatter our selves in the good opinion we have of our faith , and of our supposed Interest in Christ , 't is all false , our faith is vain , and we are yet in our sins , if Repentance do not accompany our faith : The visible neglect of Repentance in the Professors of this age , has brought a reproach upon the doctrine of faith , and caused it to be evil spoken of , that faith that does not sanctifie , will never justifie , and without Repentance there can be no Sanctification : not that we make Repentance any Meritorious Cause of Pardon , or that it is to be rested in as any satisfaction for sin , only we affirm that justifying faith alwayes works Repentance . 2. Because they rest in a general Repentance , which they took up at their first Conversion and that must serve all their lives long , 't is enough they have once repented , that work is over , they have done with it now , and care not to return to it again : but because you have once repented , you must always repent , you entred into Covenant with God for your whole lives , to repent of every sin you should fall into , and shall we begin in the Spirit and end in the Flesh. 3. Because they have long since reformed what was amiss in their Lives , and refrained from the outward acts of those sins they lived in heretofore , all this may be without any true Repentance , you say you have forsaken your sins that is a gross mistake , for till you repent of them you have not forsaken them in Gods account , but are still looked upon as those who justifie your selves in those very sins , if not why don't you repent of them , you alwayes abide under the guilt of that sin which you have not repented of , the turning of the heart to God , can never be without Repentance ; till then you still retain the good opinion you had of your sins , your heart is set upon them still , nothing but Repentance turns the heart another way . There can be no real Reformation of Life , without a change of Heart ; Men may for a spurt force themselves to an outward Course of Holiness , but they can never hold it , the heart will go its own way , and carry the man after it , nothing but repentance makes a man a better man than he was before ; a man is the same that ever he was till he repents , then indeed he is another man , of another Mind . 4. Because they reckon all their particular sins among their Infirmities , and therefore a slight Repentance will serve the turn , they think they will be pardoned of Course to them , without any more ado . I look upon it as a great Error , to hold that all sins committed in a state of Grace are sins of Infirmity ; Saints themselves may be guilty of wilful presumptuous sins , and when they are , they must not think to shift them off as common Infirmities . I grant , those grosser acts of sin , that a Saint may be surprized into , do argue an infirm imperfect state , their state may be good though imperfect , there may be some good thing in their Hearts toward God , when they fall foul as David and Peter did ; but I am not now inquiring what is in their hearts , but what is in those grosser acts of sin , viz. Murder , Adultery , and the like ; I say there is nothing but Evil in them , they are all over and throughout sinful ; now , what is morally evil and sinful in its own nature cannot properly be called a sin of Infirmity , because an Infirmity in the true Notion of it , is the deficiency of a good Action , 't is not so good as it should be , absolutely evil in it self it is not , v. g. a Child of God prayes but not so fervently as he should , he hears the Word , but not so attentively as he should ; he believes in Christ , but not so firmly , so strongly , so stedfastly as he would , this is his Infirmity , here the action it self , or the thing done , is for the substance and matter of it good in it self , what God has commanded , but when we do that which is materially Evil in its own nature , and forbidden by God , this is more than an Infirmity , the whole action is naught ; 't is not a weak action , but a wicked one . He that is an infirm man , is a living man ; a dead man is more than infirm , he has no life at all in him that is capable of infirmity , if a Child of God should swear , be Drunk , or commit Whoredom , &c. I would not say as some do , Oh the Infirmities of the Saints , but I would say oh the Wickedness , the Leudness of the Saints ; you 'l think these hard words , hard things must have hard words , they that do well shall hear well , and they that do ill must hear ill : Sin is not the less sinful because a Godly Man commits it , it falls under greater Aggravations in him , than in another ; there may be some good thing in his heart , but there is nothing in these sinful acts but what is morally Evil and abominably wicked . This should awaken us to Repentance , are there not sins even mong us against the Lord our God ? 6. The Application . Repentance being the plainest and surest Evidence of Saving Faith , let us be much in the exercise of this Grace : We should repent as often as there is new matter for Repentance , I do not say we should alwayes be grieving and mourning for the same sin ; Repentance may have its perfect work , in reference to some particular sin , which God has sufficiently humbled us for . There is a time to set broken bones , we may rejoyce in the Cure , in that Ease and Rest that God gives us , when he speaks peace to us : By believing we enter into Rest , till some new sin disturb our rest , and then Repentance is to be renewed : By a new sin I don't mean common unavoidable Infirmities , but some grosser wilful Miscarriage : We ought to be humbled under our Infirmities , to confess them , and so to pass on by a present act of Faith , into our wonted serenity and peace of Conscience not doubting but God will overlook them for Christs sake . Faith is not so put to it , does not labour so much to take in the , pardon of them , as it does and must do to obtain the pardon of grosser sins , which put the Soul at a greater distance from God , then common Infirmities do , which are pardoned of Course to Believers upon their humble acknowledgement of them , but in case of any particular wilful sin , we must renew our Repentance in a more solemn manner , and afflict our souls for it , how long God may keep us mourning , before he restore to us the joy of our Salvation , must be left to him who knowes when to administer comfort to us , in the fittest season : When we are about this work , 't is good to reflect upon former sins already pardoned , there sinfulness appears thorow the Pardon . We may join our old scores to this new reckoning , and carry over all to the present Account , that having the sun Total before us , we may bewail the late addition we have made to it : When we see how high it rises , every new offence receives an aggravation , from so many that went before , 't is some Extenuation of a Fault to say , 't is the first time ; but frequent relapses into the same sin do heighten the guilt of it , and in such Cases there is nothing but Repenting , or perishing . The more you are in the Exercise of this Grace of Repentance , the less inclinable will you be to any sin : I am perswaded were the Devil sure you would Repent , he would not be so forward to Tempt you to any sin , nothing does so enrage the Devil , as the Repentance of the Saints , could he keep them always in that Mind , they are in , in the hour of a prevailing Temptation , he might Glory over them , but when they come to themselves , and consider better of it , how do they inveigh against the Tempter , and cry down the sin as an abominable Practise , and what does the Devil get by this , he loses more by their Repentance then ever he got by their Sin , he is laid open as an Impostor , as a Deceiver ; the Repentance of the Saints is the greatest Torment to the Devil before his time that can be ; as there is joy in Heaven at the Conversion of a Sinner , so there is no small sorrow in Hell upon the same Account . You cannot Honour God more than by a Daily Repentance , thereby you vindicate your holy Profession , from giving the least countenance to sin ; were the people of God more ashamed of sin , the wicked of the World would glory less in it , they would begin to blush with you , and hang down their heads for doing that which is so openly decry'd by all good men , good men are greatly wanting in the open Profession of their Repentance , if you did mourn for sin more , others would rejoyce in it less . FINIS . Books Printed and Sold by Tho. Cockeril , at the Three Legs in the Poultrey , over against the Stocks-Market . THE Works of the late Learned Divine Stephen Charnock . Two Vol. Folio . Annotations upon all the Books of Old and New Testament ; by Matt. Pool . 2 Vol. Folio . The History of Phylosophy , containing the Lives , Opinions , &c. of Phylosophers ; by Tho. Stanley , Esq Folio . The compleat Works of Mr. Isaac Ambrose . Folio . The Morning Exercise at Cripplegate , or several Cases of Conscience practically resolved by sundry Ministers . The 4th . Edition , 4to . A Supplement to the Morning Exercise at Cripplegate , or several more Cases of Conscience practically resolved by sundry Ministers . The second Edition , 4to . The Court of the Gentiles ; Part 3. The Vanity of Pagan Phylosophy demonstrated , &c. by Theophilus Gale. 4to . The Rise , Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God in the Soul of Man , opened in several Sermons , by Peter Sterry , sometimes Fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge , and late Preacher of the Gospel in London . 4to . Speculum Theologiae in Christo : Or , a view of some Divine Truths , &c. By Edward Polhil of Burwash in Sussex , Esq 4to . Geography rectified : Or a Description of the World in all its Kingdoms , Provinces , Countries ; &c. The second Edition enlarged , with above thirty sheets more in the Description and about 20 new Maps . By Robert Morden , 4to . Large Octavo's . THE Nature , Powers , Deceit , and Prevalency of the Remainders of In-dwelling sin in Believers ; Together with the ways of its working , and means of prevention , opened , evinced and applyed ; with a Resolution of sundry Cases of Conscience thereunto appertaining . Precious Faith considered in its Nature , Working and Growth . By Edward Polhil of Burwash in Sussex . Christus in Corde : Or , the Mystical Union between Christ and Believers considered , in its resemblances , bonds , seals , priviledges and marks . By the same Author . Armatura Dei ; or a preparation for suffering in an Evil Day , shewing how Christians are to bear Sufferings , and what Graces are requisite thereunto : suited for all good Christians in this present time . By the same Author . The Faithfulness of God Considered , and cleared in the great events of his World ; or a second part of the fulfilling of the Scripture . By the Author of the first Part. A Renunciation of several Popish Doctrines because contrary to the Doctrine of Faith of the Church of England . By. R. R. B. D. 
A47046	----	Of the rule of faith a sermon at the visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God, William Lord Bishop of Lincolne, holden at Bedford August 5, 1674 / by William Jackson ... Jackson, William, 1636 or 7-1680. 1675 Approx. 56 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 22 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A47046 Wing J95 ESTC R16801 12861560 ocm 12861560 94682 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A47046) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 94682) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 985:17) Of the rule of faith a sermon at the visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God, William Lord Bishop of Lincolne, holden at Bedford August 5, 1674 / by William Jackson ... Jackson, William, 1636 or 7-1680. 42, [1] p. Printed by John Hayes for Henry Dickinson ... : and are to be sold by R. Chiswel ..., Cambridge : 1675. Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Fuller, William, 1608-1675. Faith -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-10 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2001-11 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2001-11 TCP Staff (Michigan) Text and markup reviewed and edited 2001-12 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion OF THE Rule of Faith A SERMON , At the Visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God , WILLIAM Lord Bishop of Lincolne , holden at Bedford August 5. 1674. By William Iackson D. D. CAMBRIDGE , Printed by Iohn Hayes for Henry Dickinson in Cambridge , And are to be sold by R. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in S t Pauls Churchyard in London . 1675. S t Iude verse 3. Beloved , when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common Salvation , it was needfull for me to write unto you , and exhort you , that ye should earnestly contend for the Faith , which was once delivered unto the Saints . OF how fatal consequence to the Peace of the Church , and the Purity of our Christian Faith the Licentious Preaching of Dissenters hath been , we have had a late , and a wofull experience ; ( Warning enough surely not to trust them again : ) Having seen , not onely the Government , and Discipline of the Church broken down , and all the Articles of our Creed batter'd by whole Legions of Heresies ; But also the first Article , the very foundation of all Religion taken away too ; That it hath been by wise men of late thought a necessary work to prove that there is a God ; and to resume the Primitive Employment of writing Apologies , and defences for the Truth , and Excellency of Christian Religion , as if we had been reformed into the Heathenism of our Fore-fathers . And , though by the mercy of God , and the presence of his Anointed , we have for some years had the Government of the Church restored , and the Solemn Worship of God returned to our Publick Assemblies , yet we do not see , that the minds of the People generally , are resetled upon that firm basis of the Ancient , Catholique and Holy Faith , from which they were once so tumultuously removed : Those contrary winds of Doctrine , that raised that heavy storm , are not yet laid ; and so long as men take so much liberty of Indulgence , God knows when they will : But till then , it can never be unnecessary , or improper , especially in such an Assembly as this , to make use of this verse of St Iude with the variation of one word onely , Beloved , when I gave all diligence to preach unto you of the common Salvation , it was needful for me to preach unto you , and exhort you , that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints . The Text is plain enough to the meanest capacity , onely some , that think they have a peculiar interest in the word Saints , may be mistaken ; for by that word is meant in plain English , Christians , those that are baptized into the faith of Christ ; for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , spoken of persons in this life generally signifies in the new Testament , and in the Text , being used in the plural number , seems to denote the Collective body of them , the Church . And then faith being taken Objectivè , for the matters or things to be believed , The faith once delivered to the Saints is those Doctrines , which it pleased God in one set time to reveal , and to deposite as a standing Rule of Faith in the Church for ever . There are in the words three things generally observable . I. The nature and immutability of the Rule of Faith ; the Faith once delivered unto the Saints . II. The way and means to preserve this , as it was first delivered ; that ye should earnestly contend . III. The Importance and necessity of so doing ; Beloved , when I give all diligence to write unto you of the common Salvation , it was needfull for me to write unto you , and exhort you — 1. For the Rule of Faith. This must needs be the word of God , in what manner soever revealed , by what means soever made known to us to be such ; as might easily be proved to any that do believe there is a God. And therefore it is , 1. A word , that is some Doctrine or Divine truths , that we are to believe . For it is an a Intellectuall Rule , or a Rule to the understanding , which is to suspend or give assent to the Doctrines of Religion , so far as they disagree , or accord with this Rule . Now , seeing there is no belief , but of something that is affirmed or denied ; there can be no Rule of this , but onely some Doctrines , or propositions presupposed as true , and taken for granted before hand . And this is the way of all Arts and Sciences , which contain such diversity of objects for our belief , and understanding ; Every one of them hath some fundamentall Maxims or Propositions , upon which the whole body is afterward raised , and in Contradiction to which nothing is to be taken for true in the respective science . Now the Doctrine of Christian Religion being the most reasonable Doctrine in the world , is questionless also the most regular and Methodicall , hath in it as much certainty and evidence of a regular Method , as is in any science , and more ; and would so appear to us , had we as clear a comprehension of it , as we have of other doctrines . And therefore agreeably , this Phrase The Rule of Faith , is not to be taken Causally or Formally , as if we sought for a Measure antecedent to the fundamentall points of our Belief , to try them by ; but it is to be taken SubIectivè , or Materially , that is , a Rule consisting of the fundamentall points of Faith , and a formall Rule to determine controversies , and to condemn Heresies by . This was the sense of it , both name and thing , when it came first into use among the Fathers in the Primitive Church , as may be seen by b Irenaeus , c Tertullian , d S t Austin , e Epiphanius , f Nazianzen , g Leo , and the rest of them that treat of the Christian Faith ; Till of late upon the Popes pretensions to an infallible Iudicature , the words have been wrested from their primitive sense , to signifie the arguments and motives that perswade us to entertain the Christian Doctrine it self in gross , or more especially the chief parts of it ; for this seems to be the meaning of them in the Controversie at this day . But these Arguments , or Motives , whether from Reason or Authority are antecedent to this Rule , the ground and means of coming to it , not the Rule it self ; otherwise we should have as many Rules of Faith , as we have arguments from reason or authority , why we believe . Indeed , if we take the word Faith for our Act of believing , a Christians Faith hath this in Common with all other belief , that the Rule , and the object matter of it are the same thing : For the immediate limit , and measure of all belief , is , and must be the apparent truth of the thing proposed ; beyond which our assent cannot go without Error , or believing a falshood ; nor can it fall short of it without infidelity , or want of due belief : & these two properties make a Rule in the most adaequate , and exact sense . But then , nothing can have this apparent truth rightly , and Regularly farther , then as it is consonant to those propositions , on which the truth of it depends , and by which it is to be tried , as by a Rule : So that if men would speak properly and distinctly , as certainly they ought to do in Controversies , especially of this grand importance , by this question , what is the Rule of Faith ? can onely be meant , what , or where are the points , articles or Propositions , that are fundamentall in the faith of the Church ? For , as to points not fundamentall , they depend upon those that are , and therefore do not come primarily into the question . I would not trouble you with so much Metaphysicks , but that they are of so necessary use to clear the foundation of our Faith from that rubbish , and confusion , which the sophistry and petulancy of our Adversaries have thrown upon it ; who in this point make it their business to confound the Notion of a Rule , and a Iudge ; and then all those arguments that prove the necessity of an infallible Rule , are easily brought to prove an infallible Iudge , a Viva regula fidei which some of them make such a noise and a clamor with ; as if a person and a proposition were the same thing . This gives also an easie answer to those of them , that tell us , The Apostles went not with books in their hands to preach and deliver Christs doctrine , but with words in their Mouths , that the Scripture is a dead letter , and much other civil language of the like nature , as they are pleased to give it . It is not , you see , either the letter of Scripture , or the sound of the Apostles preaching , which is the Rule of our Faith ; but the great Doctrines , which they preach't , which were afterwards written ; and is the same Rule of faith , I trow , whether conveyed to us by writing or without it ; as Irenaus tells us of some Christians , that had no written word at all . 2. The Rule of Faith is the word of God , who is our Creator , and supream Lawgiver , and the Author , and object of that immortall happiness , to which true faith leads us . The word of God is indeed a glorious Title , and therefore no wonder that so many have laid claim to it . It would , I confess , look something like an adventure , to range at large through the history of all times and places , in quest of that , which was but once delivered : And yet did the time give us leave to be exact , it would be necessary to examine the claims of , at least , the most vogued , and considerable pretenders . There was never yet any Lawgiver in the world , that did not bear the People in hand , that his Laws were dictated an● given , at least ratified and auth orised by the Deity : But of all these , there is none , except them whose history is in the Bible , that have not been known , and laught at for fables by the most able , and greatest maintainers of them . Those in the Bible are chiefly two , which make up the two volumes of it respectively ; The one , a Revelation made to the Iews by Moses , the other , to all Mankind by Christ Iesus . The first of these appears to any understanding Reader to be wholly relative , and propheticall ; consisting of Prophesies , and other Praesignifications of a great Lawgiver and Prince , that was not to appear , till the world had attended his coming 4000 years . The second volume contains the historicall relation of the life and gesta of that great Prince , and the travels of his Ministers : And therefore our Faith was not , nor could be delivered sooner , because the chief contents , and matter of it are the conception , birth , speeches , actions , and sufferings of this Great One. And so S. Iudes phrase of once delivered is to be understood , of that one age , whvn this Divine Person the Son of God , was incarnate , suffered death , rose again from death , and did actually perform , and transact all those passages and events , which are the object matter of our Faith , and Creed ; and also when this , and all the rest was preached , and attested by them , that had seen these things done , and had Especiall Commission from him to propose them , as matters of Faith to all the world . And therefore our Rule of Faith is contained in the Narrative of Our Saviours pilgrimage , and his Apostles preaching ; that is , in the four Gospels , in the Epistles , and Acts of the Apostles ; which were all extant in St Iudes time in writing , and this writing taken for an undoubted Rule of Faith by the Church , and therefore alone called Canonicall : and so continued , till the many and monstrous changes made in the Faith by the Church of Rome made it necessary for them to look out for another Rule : Wherein how well they have acquitted themselves , shall be seen by and by . In the mean while , her single testimony ought not to overballance so great a cloud of Witnesses , as have deposed , even life it self for the Scripture , and against her own Iudgement for much above 1000 years . Especially , if it be added what arguments the present Church of Rome affords , to prove that the Rule of Faith is contained in the Holy Scripture . I. In the Iudgement of the Church of Rome it contains all necessary points of Faith , and therefore contains the Rule of Faith. Look over their Divinity-writers of all Sorts , Especially of Controversies and bodyes of Divinity , The decrees and Catechisme of the Councill of Trent ; You will find them , as well as we , labouring to prove their main points out of this written Word ; Yea , the very infallibility of the Pope , and such other doctrines , as they set up against the Scripture . And this they do in the first place , as may be seen in Bellarmine , and other their best writers , as fetching their prime foundation from thence . Nor have they been so bold as to say , that they make use of Scripture onely ad hominem , and not that they believe it ; For however they may deal with us in Controversie , it is to be hoped they are more faithfull to the Souls of their own People . So that , would they be true to their own Consciences , and the Consciences of their flocks , they must return to the Rule of Faith contained in Scripture , and confess with the said Bellarmine , that Sacra Scriptura is Regula credendi certissima & tutissima , The most certain and safe Rule of believing : That so all Christendom might once again , if possible , have one Faith. II. The Rule of Faith in the Church of Rome is contained in the Holy Scriptures , or else they have none ; Yes , may some say , The Church of Rome in full Council teaches us , that her Faith is contained in libris scriptis , & sine scripto traditionibus , in the written word , and in unwritten traditions ; But then they must mean , either , that some of their Articles of Faith are contained in the written word , and othersome in unwritten traditions onely ; or , that all their Articles are proved , partly from the written word , and partly from unwritten traditions . Not the first , for they endeavour to prove all out of Scripture , as was shewed even now ; Not the second , for Divine warrant from the written word ( if they have it ) is surely a sufficient Basis for any , or all the Articles of their Faith ; and tradition or the voice of the Church , being but an humane testimony , cannot cause a Divine infallible Faith. Yes , The testimony of the Church , say they , is divine and infallible . But here they lie cross one to another : For , by the voice of the Church , some of them mean a traditional delivery of the Faith from age to age without writing , as the Roman Catholick writers of England especially : Others mean the voice or sentence of the present Pope or Church , as the great Pontiff and Court of Rome with the Iesuits , and other their close Adherents : And these are as profest adversaries to one another , as they are to us : Those laying the stress upon the indefectibility of Oral , and Practical tradition : These upon an infallible assistance given to the present Pope , or Church . And so far hath the opposition between them proceeded , that our Countreymen have been , about twelve years since , condemn'd at Rome of Heresie by a solemn censure of the Inquisition , for their stiff maintaining tradition in opposition to the present Infallibility : And on the other side , they of Rome have been condemn'd by them in England , for their illimited Pretences to Infallibility . And which is worst of all , both have forsaken the Faith of their Trent-Fathers ; For they profess to receive the written word , and unwritten traditions pari Pietatis affectu , & Reverentiâ , with equal devotion , and submission ; But our assertors of Tradition are for it alone in opposition to the Scripture ; and the pretenders to a present Infallibility think themselves able to overrule both Scripture and Tradition . Whereby you may see , that since they have quitted the old foundation , they have not been able to fix any , that all their members can agree in : And withall may be seen , how necessary an implicite Faith is for those , that will be of the Romish Communion ; since , did they use but half an eye , they must needs discover , instead of A Guide in Controversies , an endless Maze : wherein , it is no wonder , that many , even of the greatest Wits , lose all Religion , and take up in Atheism . But we have many and greater arguments for this point ; more , and more convincing , then for any one point , either in Reason , or Religion , except it be for the Existence of a God. It will be impossible to speak to all , and it will be too great an ingratitude to the goodness of God to omit all : I shall therefore mention two or three of them . I. This book alone contains a Doctrine , and institution without error , and which therefore by vertue of that qualification can alone be an infallible Rule of our Faith. It is strange to consider , that for so long a time as it hath been in the world , so much read , and canvass'd , and written upon , more then any other book whatsoever ; nay , I might say , but that it would look like a solaecism , more then all other books put together , so many Commentaries , Annotations , Paraphrases , Versions , Animadversions , Scholia critica , & Anticritica , Collationes , Lucubrationes , Diatriba , Exercitationes , Myrothecia , Antitheses , and a hundred more sorts of disquisitions , and discussions of the truth of it : Yet not the least error , or misprision of error hath been found in it . An abundant proof , that there is none in it , that it is the dictate of an infallible understanding , which could not be put forth into the world for any other end , then to be a standing , and infallible Rule to Mankind , who is of their naturall condition confessedly overrun with Error . II. The Scripture contains the onely doctrine , that ever could prevail upon Mankind in that way , which the Rule of Faith onely doth , and can prevail ; And that is , by the strength and power of the light and truth , that shines in it ; and by the assistance of that Almighty arm , which never vouchsafed to give the Testimony of a Miracle to any thing , but to Truths of the greatest Consequence . Did it not , think you , seem strange to those that lived in the times , when it was first published , and did observe a doctrine so unlikely to take , either with the weakness and humour of Mankind in Generall , or with the pomp and powers of the world in Particular , as the worship of a poor beggerly Iew , which was our Saviours condition while he lived , and a crucified and derided Malefactor , which were the terms , whereon he suffered ? That this weak , and creeping pretender unarm'd , and unattended by any , but poor and ignorant men , that in worldly respects were indeed ( as they confess'd of themselves ) the very refuse of Mankind , like Master , like Apostles ; That it should notwithstanding , in less then fifty years , obtain so great and universall an Interest in all parts of the world , as to shake , and in few years after to overthrow all Religions , that had had so long undisturbed , and unquestioned possession ; Maugre that multitude of Priests , and Daemons by which they were maintained , and all that might , and opposition which the supream Powers of the world , the malice and cunning of the devil , yea , the very bent , and inclination of all Mankind could set against it ; And this without any humane helps , but onely the bare preaching and proposall of it ; Which from the mouths of such ragged , and forlorn Commissioners , as were employed , must , and did much prejudice the promotion of it . Especially , considering what absolute obedience it required of bringing down , even every imagination ; and what hard terms is propos'd of mortification , taking up the Cross , and forsaking all that was before counted dear in this world ; and , which is hardest of all , requiring self condemnation , and that in instances of greater and more pungent concernment , then the world had before been acquainted with . What could any sober man in those days Iudge from these things , and many more of the like Nature , but that it was a Doctrine given by the Supream Lord , and Lawgiver of the World to be an absolute Rule , both of Faith , and practice to all the World ? III. The Scripture contains that doctrine , which alone of all doctrines , that ever were publish't , doth entirely agree with the Soul of Man , and with the principles of reason within him ; And which consequently can alone be an infallible help to his understanding , and propose a Rule of Faith to him . It teaches us the same lessons , that we learn from the light of Nature ; that there is a God , that he made the World , and governs it , that he punishes the Evil , and rewards the Good. It instructs us in the knowledge and belief of these , and many more such doctrines , more clearly and convincingly then all the Philosophy in the World ; so fully and undeniably , as force the Soul to have what arguments and discourses she drawes from her own bottom , and to betake her self to this word , as the onely safe and impregnable rock , and hold of Truth . It informs , and extricates our Souls from those errors , and perplexities concerning our own nature and condition , which reason makes us sensible of , but can neither remedy , nor clearly discover . In all the infinitely various , and entangled Cases , wherein men are concerned , it never so much as once crosses their reason or understanding , but always helps it forward . It is the onely Doctrine , that ever taught mankind to abstract from the world , to disengage Religion from worldly designs , and temptations ; without which it is impossible , that our understanding should attain the full liberty of Iudging , or the true measures of believing . It calls up the mind to those sublime and heavenly contemplations , to that divine and inflaming ardour ; as force reason to stand at a distance , and acknowledge , that her most refined and studied wits , her most severe Stoicks and Recluses had not so much , as the husks of that fruit , which this Tree of knowledge and life affords ; That the strength of all her productions , were they never so genuine , cannot enrich her votaries with so true and solid learning , with so pure and charming a holiness , with so firm and delicious a happiness , as the meanest of the students of this Book are enabled to attain . It propounds mysteries of so high and glorious a nature , with so much Naifvetie , so much clear & native perspicuity , and so much commanding and dreadfull Majesty , as cannot be communicated any whence , but from that infinite and eternall Wisdom , who is alone able , as to discover and reveal , so to comprehend fully the Mysteries contained in the Scripture . Mysteries so much above our weak reason , so attractive of it , and so healing to it ; as may from their own nature and merit claim and exercise the Energy , and Authority of a Rule of Faith. IV. Lastly , Scripture contains the onely doctrine , that ever could obtain to give law to all the world , and the first that ever pretended to so large a Iurisdiction . But the Rule of Faith , as it is absolute , & admits of no appeal ; so the extent of it is illimited and universall , over all Persons to whom it is made known , of what nation , age , quality , or pretence soever : And that , both in respect of the contents of it , which are of a like importance to all to receive , and believe ; as of that power by which it stands , which is a like Soverain over all . Now call to mind what was done in the world for the first 4000 years , at the end whereof this Doctrine was revealed , and you will find as many Lawgivers , and Masters of Religion almost , as Countries ; Nor have there been since any pretenders to an Universall Monarchy in Religion , besides his Infallible Holiness of Rome , and the Seraphick Author of the Alcoran ; But S. Iude tells us , this Faith was delivered when he wrote his Epistle , and therefore both these are cut out by a far elder claim . And the Ancients made use of this very Topick , viz. The universall extent of the Gospel , to prove that main point of Faith , on which the rest depends , namely , the Divinity of Christ the Author of it . No Book ever came neer that high pitch of historicall credit , that this hath had ever since it was publish't : And he , that brings but that belief with him to the reading of it , cannot upon reading , but believe it is Divine , and look for a Rule of Faith in it . In a word , it hath the two Essentiall properties required in a Rule , Certainty in it self , and Evidence to us ; both which appear a Posteriori , from the constant Consent of all Churches in one abstract of things fundamentall to Salvation taken out of it : And we have as much proof , that it is to be such , as we can possibly have , suppose it were so . And now surely it may seem a strange presumption in flesh and blood , to attempt to put down this Oracle from that praeeminence , and power over the Faith of Christendom , wherein the Almighty did at first place it , and wherein it hath by undoubted possession prescribed for so many ages since . An attempt , that could not have entred into the hearts of men ; if extream , and overgrown corruption both in Faith and manners , had not first thrown out all fear of him , who hath threatned utter excision to all them , that dare add to , or detract from his word . To him we must leave them , who will stand by his own word , and bring to light the hidden things of dishonesty ; and consider what returns of duty become us , and they are especially three . I. The first is that , which is to appear in us in the first place upon the receipt of any mercy , or blessing whatsoever ; and that is thankfulness , and gratitude , that we offer up a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving , and that for this it be a dayly sacrifice , because this word is of more necessary , and frequent use to us , then our dayly bread . II. A chearfull , and absolute resignation of our Faith , and Understanding to it . III. A zealous , and unwearied endeavour to keep , and maintain this Faith whole , and untainted in all trialls and oppositions . The third we are now to speak to , expressed by S. Iude , in these two words , Contend earnestly , which Iointly imploy these two things . 1. The use of all means necessary to attain so noble an end . 2. Zeal , and perseverance in the use of them . I. The means most likely to preserve our Faith are , I conceive , these that follow . 1. The Preservation of the letter of Scripture intire and uncorrupt , and a diligent study of the literall meaning of it ; For we do not by the Scripture understand the bare characters abstracted from the sense , as a bold SerIeant of the Church of Rome is pleased to say of us , but by what Authority appears not ; Possibly it may be some remnant of his weak Faith before his defection , which by his defection seems to have gone no farther , then the bare characters , never to have been well grounded in the true sense and meaning of it . We mean by Scripture the literall sense of it , especially in the points fundamentall to Salvation ; which are the very points of Faith , not , as he saith , of which this Rule of Faith is to ascertain us , but of which it consists , which make it up , as the parts make the whole . These , we say , are contained in the first , and most obvious sense of the words of Scripture ; God being graciously pleased to lay them open to all capacities , and so making it a common Salvation , as S. Iude here calls it : As common reason will teach us , that any Writer , that would be understood , will endeavour to deliver the main parts , and substance of his discourse most plainly , and expresly . And therefore it is no wonder , that the mysticall exposition of plain Scripture prov'd so mischievous to the Faith of the Ancient Church . But so long as we have the letter of Scripture whole , and understand the literall meaning of it , so long we have our Rule of Faith safe . I shall not need to tell you , how both the one , and other are best done : by a study of the Originals of both Testaments , by comparing the severall ancient Copies , Versions , and Paraphrases , especially the Septuagint , and the Chaldee Paraphrast ; by observing the various readings and applications of places , as we find them scatter'd in the writings of the Fathers , and many other ways , wherein you are better experienced then my self . 2. To preserve the Faith , it is necessary to distinguish in the Scripture points fundamentall from those which are not so . This was proposed by the wise and learned King Iames , as the best expedient for ending the Controversies of Christendom . For as no book or doctrine ; so especially , not the doctrine of the Scripture can be well understood , much less maintain'd , without an Analysis , separation , and digestion of the parts of it : It being a Collection of the writings of so many Pen-men , and those written upon severall occasions , no one regularly delivering the whole Faith. Now by Fundamentall points we do not mean necessary for all to know and believe to Salvation : for to some more , to some fewer , are necessary , according to their severall abilities , and opportunities ; But we mean points principall , and most essentiall in respect of the whole System of the doctrine of Salvation , such as are necessary to make up the Unity of the Faith , and so constitute a Church . A perfect Catalogue of these we have in the Apostles Creed , so called , as the Fathers generally tell us , because made by the Apostles before their dispersion to be a Rule in their preaching . And therefore we need not go so far for a Rule of Faith , or look upon it as so strange a thing , and so difficult to find , having it in our dayly prayers . For this Creed is I conceive proposed in the Church of England to her Sons , and Daughters as a Rule of Faith , and was therefore in the beginning of the Reformation injoyned to be taught the People in English , together with the Pater Noster , and Ten Commandments , the Breviats of our petenda , and agenda respectively , as that is of our Credenda ; And hath been therefore commanded ever since to be repeated twice a day , that we might not , if possible , be to seek in so necessary a thing , as the Rule of Faith. This Creed the Ancients appeal to , as to their Rule of Faith , and thought their Faith sufficiently secured , so long as this was stuck to : Especially , as it is opened in some parts by the Catholique Creeds of Nice , Constantinople , Ephesus , Chalcedon , and Athanasius . This way they took to defend the Faith , and with good reason , for the defence of the Articles of our Creed involves the defence of all the Catholique Doctrine ; As in all sciences , the principles Iustifie those Conclusions , that are truly made from them . 3. For the defence of the Faith it is necessary to study the old Ecclesiasticall Writers , Fathers , Councels , Historians , or whatsoever other they be ; For a great part of the points of our Faith being matters of fact , such as our Saviours Birth , Death , Resurrection , &c. And our knowledge of the rest , that are not matters of fact , depending upon those that are , they must in reason be best learned from the study of those books , where they are best delivered historically ; whereof Scripture is the first , and most Authentick record : And next to it , are the Christian writers of the eldest times ; For what is not recorded in Scripture cannot now be expected any where but in their writings . Tradition , ( whatever some men would make of it ) having so early , and so grosly fail'd in the business of Easter , admitting infants to the Eucharist , and some other things . Besides , the many and great conflicts that they had with the Hereticks , who oppugned the chief points of Faith , give us a sight of all that can be objected against them , and of enough , though not all , that is to be said in defence of them . We do not say , they are to be read with an implicite Faith , as the Scripture is ; The infallible Inspiration of the Holy Ghost being withdrawn , when the first Planters of the Gospel had finished their course , and left the Word written ; Yet , it seems , the Holy Spirit did not take away all his extraordinary light at once , having guided them to profess , defend , and deliver to us a more pure , and unmingled Faith , and this embraced with a more fervent , and divine Love , then the following ages could boast of . How carefully the Church of England hath followed the ancient Fathers in this matter of Faith , how much she relies on their Iudgement herein , appears from the constant allegations of her ablest defenders since the Reformation , and from her own act in Convocation , 1571 ; where she forbids her publick Preachers to propose any thing to the People , as matter of Faith , but that , which Catholici Patres & veteres Episcopi ex S. Scripturae Doctrinâ collegerint , which the Ancient Pastors , and Catholick Doctors of the Church have drawn out of the Holy Scripture . And it were no great boldness to challenge all her adversaries to show , where she hath once swerved from this Rule , or own'd any one point of Faith , which she hath not proved ( after Scripture ) from a full consent of the Ancient Church . To these must be added the study of the Schoolmen , and of the chief writers of all Christian Churches that are , or have been : Since , what is confess'd , that there always hath been , and now is one Catholick Church , therefore one , because professing this same Rule of Faith , is to be demonstrated from the records of the severall Churches in the volumes of their Writers . 4. The fourth means is the often teaching , and explaining these chief articles , and other approved , and authorised forms of sound words to those , that are most apt to learn , and use best to remember what they learn ; And they are the younger sort , to whom these points are made most intelligible by the familiar way of Catechising . This is doubtless , next to the inward operation of Gods grace , the best and most effectual preaching , and planting the Faith in any Soul. To these it is commonly delivered in the most plain and free manner , without any false glosses , or sophistry , which may hide or adulterate the light of it : And in these tender and untainted minds it finds the least enmity , and opposition , obtains an easie quiet , and secure possession , and growing up with them becomes a rock , and shelter against the winds of strange doctrines : Whereas on the other hand , even the reading of the written Word of God , and much more the hearing of it paraphras'd upon in popular discourses and sermons , is of far less use , often of dangerous consequence to those , that not onely want their first principles , but it may be are leavened with false ones . And therefore it is necessary , that this be done , as was said , with approved , and authorised forms of words : For as the wisdom of the Church is best able to prescribe , what is generally necessary for all her members to know , and believe for their souls health ; So the interest , that both Church and State have in the right principling of Youth , make it our necessary duty to teach what they prescribe : Otherwise we can never answer it to God , who hath made us accountable to them ; nor can we give them any security that their people shall be brought up Orthodox in the Faith , or obedient and peaceable in the State. And it proves the better defence of the Faith , the more eminent they are , whose tender years are well seasoned ; as those of the best strength of naturall parts , and quickness of wit , and inclination to learning . Those that are naturally disposed to be religious , lest they prove Zealots in a wrong way ; Those that are likely to become Ministers of holy things and Stewards of this Faith ; Those that are of more then ordinary quality , even in worldly respects , as Birth , Riches or Favour , especially the families of Grands , and Princes . What advantages the Iesuits , above other Orders , have made of this , is not unknown ; and any one may see , that so long as these are made sound , and resolute for the Faith , there is the less danger of error in the rest . 5. The fifth means is by conflicting with , and suppressing all Hereticks , and Dissenters from the Faith , and extinguishing their Heresies , and Errors . This is properly to Contend , because it is against the adversaries of the Faith : And is done three ways especially . I. By confutation of their errours ; And that first , by Personall Congress , and disputation . This way our adversaries have of late been a little shy of ; having found , that neither their art , nor their zeal will maintain a bad cause before Iudges , who are not afore-hand at their devotion ; which they of Rome are not to expect in a Reformed Church , and I hope the rest will no longer find in the Church of England . And secondly , Their writings are to be answered with writings . And this way , their Arguments have been so sifted , and run so far , that controversies are on both sides drawn to the very dregs of opposition , and nothing new hath been objected of late , that is materiall : Yet , so long as they continue their batteries , we are not to sit down in silence , but to stand upon our Guard , lest we should betray that Faith to their importunity , which hath been so well defended against their arguments . II. The second way to suppress Heresies , is by acts of Convocation , and solemn Censures of the Church . This was the way of old ; The Fathers met in Synods , or Generall Councils , as the cause required ; to make provision against Heresies , as they rose , and infested the Church . But the late Disciplinarians have , it seems , thought the preservation of the Faith an easier work , and not of such Publick and Catholick concernment ; and have therefore in their new Model ordered Heresie to be Iudged in the Kirk-Session or Consistory , where are no more then the Minister of the place , and one Lay Elder or two : As if Heresie were so small a crime , as to be fit for the cognizance of two , or three no better Iudges : Or , as if any but the Clergy had power to Iudge of it ; This is utterly a great mistake , and miscarriage ; for Heresie , being at least a perversion , and so in effect a denial of some point of Faith , is a crime of the highest nature , as striking at the Churches foundation : And the Ministers alone are the Guardians of the Faith : And the Clergy in Convocation ( next to a Generall Council of the whole Church ) are the supream Iudges of all Controversies about it . So God himself ordained in that Church , which , of all the Churches of the first Plantation , was most troubled with Hereticks , and that was the Church of Corinth . 1 Cor. 14. 32. The Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets . That is , the doctrines of private Teachers in every Church are to submit to , and so to be allowed , or condemned by the concurrent Iudgement of all the Pastors of that Church ; which is not to be had , but in a Council of that Church , or a Convocation . As in all sciences , and callings , the concurrent Iudgement of those , whose proper employment and study they are , is the most likely , the most legall and authentick , and the derniere determinations . The King onely calls the Clergy together , and proposes to them , leaves them to debate , and determine : And though the Statute-Law set the temporall penalty for Heresie , yet it takes from the Iudgement of the Church , what Doctrines are Hereticall . A prudent , and a Christian constitution : For should the secular Power undertake without the Church to Iudge what is Heresie , it would give the People Iust reason to suspect , that it was not matter of Faith , but reason of State , that swayed the determination , which is the next way to cast all Faith and Religion out of their minds . Whereas on the other hand , a publick condemnation of Heretieall doctrines by the Ioint voices of them , whose cure and calling it is , must in reason have the most universall influence in any Christian Church , that is not neer its Apostasie . What is the cause , why nothing hath of late been this way done against the many Sects and Heresies , that trouble us , I may not say : but I must needs think , that the want of it is a main reason , that they are not lessened , but rather increased : And , if this want continue long , will be followed with a diminution , and decay of the Churches power ; of the purity , and stability of the reformed Religion professed in the Church of England ; and in fine , if not redressed , with the ruine of both . III. The third way for the suppressing of Heresie is the making , and executing of good laws for the silencing of Hereticks , and Dissenters from the Faith , and hindring their practices . And herein the secular Arm is to interpose as the nursing Father of the Church , and Defender of the Faith. For though the Church solely denounce Hereticks , yet she hath no power now to punish them temporally , but what the Civil Magistrate invests her with ; who is therefore constantly to assist her . And this not without absolute necessity ; for they are a sort of People , that have obstinacy in their very Nature , and definition , and are generally insensible of spirituall coercion . In this work the Godly Emperors of old were very diligent , as appears by severall of the ancient : Laws , especially in the first book of the Code . And , how the rules of Government come since to be so much changed , that the giving liberty to the inveterate , and avow'd enemies of the Church , and Religion established , shall be now thought the best , and onely way to make them obedient , and fit to be trusted in the Church , deserves well to be considered . Certainly , had their practises been as well obstructed by the execution of good laws , as their opinions have been fully confuted by the writings of learned Men , there had been by this time no pretence for a debate about Indulgence to Dissenters . And what ever event may in point of prudence be expected from this ; It cannot be thought , but that the many extravagant and blasphemous fancies , so freely published , in Print , in the frequent Meetings of Dissenters , and other ways ; Opinions so repugnant to the Christian Faith , and destructive of true Piety , will now have the same malignant influence , and effect upon both , which heretofore they used to have ; And will diffuse a venom too strong for any help , but that Power , which planted the Faith in its first Purity . And withall , it is to be feared , that the great dishonour done to the Majesty of God , the injuries done to our meek and most blessed Saviour , and to the most holy and sanctifying Spirit , by these blasphemous opinions , and by that wanton liberty they have of walking abroad with Publick connivence , will bring upon us a guilt and wrath from God , not to be expiated by another twenty Years suffering . VI. The sixth means to defend the Faith is , by a dayly and constant confession of it , in all times and trials , even of death , and Martyrdom . We are taught to profess our Rule of Faith twice a day in our publick prayers : And upon good reason ; For as all truth desires nothing more , then that beauty that is native to it to commend it to our belief , and best defends it self against all contradiction , when it appears most naked : So certainly , truths of so illustrious a magnitude as the Articles of our Creed , cannot be better preached , and maintained , then by an open , hearty , and constant profession of them . The most difficult service , which they require of us in the greatest opposition , is then but to own them , with which alone we gain an absolute Conquest over all the World , 1 Iohn 5. 4 , 5. This is the victory , that overcometh the world , even our Faith. Who is he , that overcometh the world , But he that believeth , that Iesus is the Son of God ? Our Faith is the purchase of His exinanition , and therefore the Cross the inseparable badge of it ; not to be laid aside when God puts it upon us , without certain loss of those Heavenly Ioys , that attend patient suffering for the truth , and Martyrdom ; which , as it is of peculiar benefit to those , that faithfully wade through it , sanctifying that death , which we owe to Nature for sin , and raising it as a gift of Faith , and Patience offered up acceptably to God ; So it did of Old , and always will give the greatest renown to the Christian Faith and Name ; being , next the Miracles wrought by God himself , the most pregnant , and visible testimony of the Power of the Holy Ghost going along with the Faith. And of this the first ages of the Church are a sufficient proof . These are some of the proper and direct ways of contending for the Faith ; There are others , that come in as Auxiliaries , and serve onely by consequence . The chief of which are these two . 1. Holyness of life , Purity of mind and conscience . This is the proper vehicle of true Faith , 1 Tim. 3. 9. Holding the mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience , Cap. 1. 19. Which some having cast away concerning Faith have made shipwrack . Long gathered habits of vertue , or vice insensibly cast the Soul into a setled state of good , or evil respectively . In which case , from the dictate of self-preservation , as all things else , it naturally seeks , and adheres to such principles , as will make good , and maintain the condition it is possest of . If the condition be good , it appeals to Faith , as the author , and refuge of it , in the strength whereof it stands , and in the encrease of it doth triumph , and glory : If the condition be evil , then Faith appears as a witness against us , and a tormentor ; and the Soul cannot contemplate it without horror , but must turn aside , and betake it self to the refuge of lies , some doctrines however false , yet plausible , that may help it at present to silence the fear of a Iudgement to come ; Which Article , and severall others , as remission of sins , the resurrection , and eternall life are absolutely inconsistent with a continuation , and security in evil courses . It is true , Faith is supernaturall Grace , infused into our Souls by God himself from above : Yet it is liable to be disturbed , yea , and ejected too by the strength of our own corruptions , and the powers of darkness raigning in us . These stifle and extinguish those motions and illuminations , whereby the holy Spirit doth usually work Faith in us ; Who though he delight to dwell in Tabernacles of Clay , in the hearts of the Sons of Men , yet abhorrs and flyes from the tents of the wicked , especially the proud , and the sensuall . And it is notorious in the history of the Church , that the great Heresies , that troubled it of old , had their birth from one of these , either the Ambition , or Debauchery of their first Broachers . 2. The next means , Is to preserve the dignity of the Ministers of the Gospel , who are the Dispensers of this Faith. Did Christians generally found their belief , and practice upon those rules , and principles , by which they are to be measured , there would be the less need of this ; But it is obvious to be observed , that men commonly begin with the esteem of a Person , or Party , and then raise their Faith according to the dictate of that Person , or Party . This the Hereticks of all ages have seen , and therefore made it their first business to worm themselves into vogue , and credit ; being sure they must needs be Masters of their Faith , whose understandings their reputation had first blinded . And indeed we cannot reasonably expect , that our Doctrine should gain much upon the minds of those , that despise our Persons , or Callings : which , God be thanked , at present is not , nor lightly can be done by any , but such , in whom Atheism , or Fanaticism hath smothered , if not destroyed the power of Religion . All Nations not wholly barbarous have lookt upon it , as both the security of their Religion , and Glory of their Countrey , to have the estate of their Priesthood maintained in honour , and plenty ; And it were much to be wished , that the Reformed Churches of Christendom had not been in this point more sordid , and sacrilegious , then all other Christians , not to say Nations , in the World. We have seen verified in England , what was upon this miscarriage in the Reformation foretold by the most learned , and Iudicious Writer of his rank among the Protestants , That the time of Religion , and the Service of God would likely fall , as the age of Man , within seventy or eighty years ; and what followed , would be small Ioy to them that beheld it . And we are yet to pray and hope , that the little , that remains may escape , if possible , all fears and Iealousies from the luxury , and profaness of the Age ; The naturall issue of which vices in conjunction is the devouring of holy things , and then an open Apostafie from the Faith : Unless Gods mercy make them childless , as unlawfull embraces often prove . I have now sufficiently tired you with a lame account of some things , in the right management whereof the continuance of our Faith is greatly concern'd : And had we hearts to make use of them with that Zeal , and constancy , which the greatness of the Cause it self , and our unchangeable concernment in it require ; ( and was the second part of our earnest Contention proposed ) they would not fail through Gods blessing , who never deserts the Cause of Faith , to make our Church , and People happy . But they have generally had that bad fortune , that other good things have , to be better known , and valued from the want , then from the enjoyment , and benefit of them . A miscarriage , which surely we have since his Majesties most happy Restauration been guilty of . A miscarriage , that must from the notion , and nature of it make Mankind miserable : ( all happiness consisting in the right apprehension and enjoyment of the good we are possest of ) And the more extreamly miserable , the greater Importance and Necessity the things themselves are of : which was the Third member of the Text , and hath two parts ; First , the importance of our carnest contending for our Rule of Faith ; It is the securing of the foundation , and the very Being of the Church , and the Pillars of our future Happiness , and undoubtedly of the greatest consequence . Secondly , the necessity of it , now the Greater , because of the restless importunity , and unrestrained licenciousness of our Adversaries ; which is so visible , and causes so much complaint already , that I shall not spend time in speaking of it , nor I hope need to caution you to defend yourselves against it . Yet must not forget to put you in the right way to do it ; and that is , by laying at home in your own Souls a good foundation of this Ancient , and Holy Faith , by a diligent learning of , and resolute adhering to these Articles , to this Rule of Faith ; as it is literally delivered in the plainest places of Holy Scripture , and comprised and explained in the three Creeds ; and the Church Catechism . If we forsake these holds , there is nothing in the Christian World can secure our Faith : These we are therefore constantly to teach our Flocks , and they diligently to learn , and to consider that exhortation of the Apostle , Hebr. 13. 7 , 8 , 9. Remember them , which have the rule over you , who have spoken unto you the Word of God , whose Faith follow , considering the end of their conversation ; Iesus Christ the same yesterday , and to day , and for ever : And be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A47046-e200 a Sure Foot. Disc. 1. Para. ●7 . b Lib. 1. capp . 2 , 3. c De Praescript . Regula est autem fidei , ut jam hinc , quid credamus defendamus , illa scilicet , quâ creditur unum ominino deum esse — Haec regula à Christo — Instituta nullas habet apud nos quaestiones , nisi quas Haereses inferunt , & quae Haereticos faciunt . Ceterùm , manente forma ejus in suo ordine , quantum libet quaeras & tractes — Fides in regulâ posita est — Cedet Curiositas Fidei — Certè aut non strepant , aut quiescant adversus Regulam . Idem de Veland . Virg. Regula quidem fidei una omnino est , soimmobilis , & irreformalis , credendi scilicet in unicum Deum omnipotentem mundi Conditorem — d Serm. de temp . 119. Symbolum est breviter complexa Regula fidei — Idem de fide & symbolo . Idem de Genesi ad literam . Catholica fides — Est haec Deum Patrem omnipotentem universam creaturam fecisse . Idem similiter pluries alibi . e Adversus Valentin . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Contra Marcosios versus finem . In Ancoratu versus finem . In compendiariâ verâ doctrinâ . De fide Catholicae & Apostolicae Ecclesiae . In Marcelli fide conscriptâ . f Ad Cledonium adversus Apollinarium Orat. 52. Fidem Nicaenam vocat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vide sequentia ibid. Idem Contra Iulian. Orat. 3. g Epist. ad Pulcheriam August . Siquidem ipsa Catholici Symboli brevis & perfecta confessio — Tam instructa sit munitione coelesti , ut omnes Haereticorum opiniones solo ipsius gladio possunt detruncari : Hujus symboli plenitudincm si Eutiches — Sure foot . Disc. 4. Par. 5. Lib. 3. Cap. 4. Verbo Dei. ● 1. cap 2. Concil . Triden . Sess. 4. Ibid. 1 Cor. 4. 13. S. Mar. 13. 10. Sure foot . Disc. 2. para . 2. Ibid. Edw. & . Injunct . 5. Q. Eliz. Injunct . 5. Rubr. before the Apostles Creed . Canon . de Concionator pag. 19 True relation of the Form and Government of the Kirk of Scotland . 1640. Primo Eliz. cap. 1. Hooker Eccles . Pol. l. 5. par . 79. 
A56437	----	A tryal of faith wherein, is discovered the ground of the faith of the hypocrite, which perisheth, and the faith of the saints, which is founded upon the everlasting rock, so all may see what their faith is, and what they trust to : written to the intent that every one may come to the true searcher of faith, that their faith which they speak of and trust to, may be searched, and the heart of the pharisee ript open and searched, and that the poor ignorant blind creatures may come to see and be deceived no longer intrusting to that which perisheth : verily it is of much concernment to every one, even the soul, the tryal of your faith / written from the spirit of the Lord, and published for the good of all, that they may come to build upon the everlasting rock, with him whose name according to the world is James Parnell. Parnell, James, 1637?-1656. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A56437 of text R6742 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing P535). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 14 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A56437 Wing P535 ESTC R6742 12801162 ocm 12801162 94054 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A56437) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 94054) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 725:25) A tryal of faith wherein, is discovered the ground of the faith of the hypocrite, which perisheth, and the faith of the saints, which is founded upon the everlasting rock, so all may see what their faith is, and what they trust to : written to the intent that every one may come to the true searcher of faith, that their faith which they speak of and trust to, may be searched, and the heart of the pharisee ript open and searched, and that the poor ignorant blind creatures may come to see and be deceived no longer intrusting to that which perisheth : verily it is of much concernment to every one, even the soul, the tryal of your faith / written from the spirit of the Lord, and published for the good of all, that they may come to build upon the everlasting rock, with him whose name according to the world is James Parnell. Parnell, James, 1637?-1656. 8 p. [s.n.], London : 1654. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. eng Faith. A56437 R6742 (Wing P535). civilwar no A tryal of faith, wherein is discovered the ground of the faith of the hypocrite, which perisheth, and the faith of the saints, which is fou Parnell, James 1654 2802 2 0 0 0 0 0 7 B The rate of 7 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the B category of texts with fewer than 10 defects per 10,000 words. 2005-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A TRYAL of FAITH , WHEREIN Is discovered the ground of the Faith of the Hypocrite , which perisheth , and the Faith of the Saints , which is founded upon the everlasting Rock , so all may see what their Faith is , and what they trust to . Written to the intent , that every one may come to the true searcher of Faith , that their Faith which they speak of and trust to , may be searched , and the heart of the Pharisee ript open and searched , and that the poor ignorant blind Creatures may come to see and be deceived no longer in trusting to that which perisheth : Verily it is of much concernment to every one , even the soul ; the tryal of your faith ; written from the spirit of the Lord , and published for the good of all , that they may come to build upon the everlasting Rock , with him whose name according to the world is , James Parnell . Try your selves , prove your selves , know you not that Christ is in you , unlesse you be Reprobates , 2 Cor. 13.5 . LONDON , Printed in the year 1654. The Tryall of Faith . COme try your Faith all you Professors of Godlinesse , of God , and of Christ , who your Father , and Christ your Redeemer and Saviour , and say you believe in God , & you are saved through faith in Christ ; come search the ground and bottom of your faith , what it is built upon , for the faith and hope of the Hypocrite perisheth , which stands in words , and on any unsteadfast foundation . You say you are saved by the blood of Christ , and by his stripes you are healed , and so would make him the ground of your faith , but what are you saved from , and what are you healed of ? Search & see within : Christ came to save and redeem sinners from their sin , and to heal them of the wound of sin , to bruise the Serpents head , and to bind the strong man , and cast him out of his house , to cast out the buyers and sellers out of the Temple of God , which is made a Den of Theeves & to open the prison doors and to set at liberty the imprisoned and to lead captivity captive , , to throw Antichrist out of the Temple of God , who sits as God there , & saith he is God ; and he is come to rend that vaile of darkness & to open the eyes of the blind , & to unstop the deaf eares , & to make blind those which can see , and to deaf those which can hear , and give strength to the weak , and to make weak those which are strong , and to feed the hungry , and to famish that which is fed , and to make a separation betwixt the Pretious and the Vile , betwixt the Wheat and the Tares , the Sheep and the Goats , and to purchase to man that which man hath lost , and to this end is he come and who can witness this , can witness him , and may claim an interest in him , & hath an assurance of their salvation ; & their faith will stand against the beast & overcome ; for the Lamb shall get the victory ; but who cannot witness , this cannot witness Christ , and so are Reprobates concerning the faith . Now here all you Drunkards are shut out , here all you swearers are shut out , here all you proud & covetous & lustful ones are shut out , here all you scoffers and scorners , & backbiters , and revilers , and extortioners , and whoremongers , & envious ones , & Gamers , and sporters , and all you self-righteous professors , who live in the fashions & customs of the world , delighting in the pleasures & vanities of the world , having fellowship with the world , whose conversation is amongst the Children of the world , all in one Generation , cleansing only the outside of the Cup , & the inside full of lust & filthiness , pride and covetousness , and all uncleanness , whited walls and painted Sepulchers , who deceive the carnal eye and ear , but the Lord searcheth the heart ; here you are all shut out from the true faith which purifieth the heart , and the Serpent is head in you , and your strong man keeps the house , and a stronger then he is not yet come , and the buyers and the sellers are uncast out of the Temple , and Antichrist sits in the Kingdom and reigns as an Angel of Light , and the imprisoned lies in prison , and the wound of sin is yet fresh , and the vail of darkness is yet spread over , & death reigns , and Christ lies low in the manger , and the Inne is taken up with other guests , and here you can challenge no interest in the blood of Christ , & have nothing to do to talk of God and Christ , & have no assurance of your salvation , & all your faith is vain , & hope vain , & the foundation thereof is sandy , & will not stand in the day of tryal , but will be as a broken Reed to lean upon , and all your prayers , and prayses , and singings , and graces , and baptism , and Sacraments which you build your faith upon , & think to merit withall , is all in vain , the enflaming sword is set against it ? being offered up from an unclean heart ; for how can your hearts be clean while you live in sin , for sin lodgeth in your heart , & while sin is there , no purity can dwell , & nothing that is pure can come forth of an unclean vessel , and God doth not put his Treasure in an unclean vessel , and he is pure , & receives nothing that is impure , & here all your faith is vain , & here you destroy all your faith out of your own mouths , who say , you believe you shall never overcome your sins so long as you are here , or be made free from sin ; and here you shew your faith is not built upon Christ , who came to destroy the works of the Devil , and to cleanse from all sin , & those whose faith was built upon him , did witness it , and said the blood of Christ hath cleansed us from all sin , and they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the lusts and affections thereof , which is the ground of sin , and he that believeth is born of God , and he that is born of God cannot commit sin , and no unholy nor unclean thing must enter ; so now what assurance have you of your salvation , or what is your faith built upon , when both Christ and the Scriptures witness against you ? and faith which is not built on the Rock Christ Jesus , is vain and perisheth , and the that hath this hope in him , purifieth himself , even as he is pure : here all your faith is searched , tryed and pro●ed , and is found all vain and perishing and so is not built upon the Rock which perisheth not : therefore come down all you high-minded Pharisees , and lay away all your profession , and throw down all your old building , and begin and lay a new foundation , for the higher the Pharisee climbs , the greater will be his fall ; and he that would be wise , let him first become a fool , for man by his wisdom knowes not God , here the Pharisee is shut out from the knowledge of God , who stands in his own wisdom . And all you wilful , blind , carnall , ignorant creatures , whom my soul pittieth to see how ignorantly you are led , who pin your faith upon the sleeves of your fore-Fathers , and live in lightness and wantonness , spending your youth in vanity , in gaming , pleasures and sporting , in drunkenness , in swearing and lying , in vain talk , and foolish jestings , in pride and lust , and filthiness , and say you follow your fore-Fathers , and say , what is become of them ? and say , your pleasures is pastime and recreation , and your vain talk and foolish jesting , is pastime and merriness , and so you passe the time away , & lay your drinking & rioting , & feasting is good fellowship and neighbourhood , and so you cover o●er your sins and iniquities , but woe unto him that hides his sin , and covers his iniquity , & all this will not profit you any thing , neither can your fore-Fathers excuse you before the Lord ; for in the beginning it was so , that Evah could not justifie Adam , neither could be any excuse , but rather condemned him , because he hearkened to the voice of the woman & disobeyed the Lord ; so Adam suffered for his own sin & so did Eve for hers . And so this will be no excuse for you , in the day of account , to say you followed your fore-Fathers , & did as they did before you ; but then will the Lord say , because you followed the traditions & fashions , and customs , and inventions of man , & have hearkened to the voice of the Serpent , and have disobeyed my voice , & my command , and slighted my counsel , and would none of my reproof , but cast my Law behind your backs , & trampled my mercy under foot , & have turned my grace into wantonness , & have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter , and have spent my creatures upon your lusts , & stoned , stocked , buffeted & imprisoned , and shamefully intreated my messengers which I sent unto you to forewarn you of your iniquity , & have killed my Son , therefore depart ye workers of iniquity , I know you not , into everlasting torment prepared for the Devil and his Angels ; to see now how vain your hope is , and how unsteadfast your faith is , when you have more assurance of your damnation then your salvation ; for the Lord saith , no unrighteous person must enter into his Kingdom , nor no unholy nor unclean thing . Therefore all you who desire salvation to your souls , try and prove your faith and hope which thou dost trust to , and take heed of trusting to a broken reed , lest it deceive you . Experience hath taught you , that if a foundation of a building be decayed , and wasted & naught , the building will fall when a storm comes : so let him that thinks he stands , take heed lest he fall ; so every one whose desire is after righteousness , hearken to that in your conscience , which raises up desires after righteousness , and which shews you the vainness of your lives , & checks you when you do amiss , and troubles you , and torments you in conscience when you have been drunk , or have done some evil act ; be willing to be guided by that , & that will lead you to repentance and a newness of life , to forsake those things which it discovers to be contrary to the will of God : and if you be willing to follow this , and be guided by it , you shall finde a teacher continually present , checking in the conscience for vain thoughts , and for vain and idle , and needless words and actions , and so will crucifie the lust which is the ground of those things , and which will lead you out of the paths of death , into the way of life , our of the traditions and customs , and fashions and opinions of the world , into the assurance of the eternal Truth ; and thou that art willing to follow this , and be guided by this , shalt need no man to teach thee , but it will be a teacher unto thee , teaching and directing in righteousness , purity and holiness ; and if thou beest diligent , keeping thy mind within , with an ear open to the pure voice , thou shalt find it present with thee wheresoever thou art , in the fields , in thy bed , in Markets , in company , or wheresoever thou art , when thy outward Priest or Teacher is absent , it may be in the Ale-house , or at his pleasures and delights , or far off , it will be present with thee , and will check thee , and condemn thee , for that which no outward eye can see , and will cleanse thy heart from lust and deceit , and uncleanness , and will purifie thy heart , and will make it a fit Temple for purity to dwell in , and then thy sacrifices will be pure , which comes from a pure heart : the Lord will accept them , for Abels sacrifices he receives , but Cains he denies ; but if thou wouldest attain to this , thou must be willing to deny thy lusts , thy vanity , thy delights , or whatsoever hath been thy life ; for he that will save his life , shall lose it , and he that will lose his life for my sake , the same shall save it : So there is no obtaining of life but through death , nor no obtaining the Crown , but through the Crosse : so thou must deny thy self , and take up thy Crosse daily and follow Christ , if thou wouldest be his Disciple , and give up thy self wholly to be guided by the will of God , that all which is contrary to the will of God may be crucified , though it be never so near and dear to thee , and be forsaken ; Lands or Livings , Wife or Children , friends and acquaintance , or all the world , and all delights in the world ; for he that loveth any thing better then me , is not worthy of me , and all things below the Lord vanisheth , but he endureth for ever . So the Lord God Almighty prosper all the tender desires which are raised up towards him , and feed the hungry and thirsty souls , as he hath promised , and raise up his own in all his , that he alone may be glorified , praysed , and honoured , who is worthy , and to whom all belongs . And this is the desire of his soul , who is a seruant of the Lord , who is hated , reviled , and derided of the world , because he hath no fellowship with the world , nor the vanities of the world , but testifies against their wayes , fashions , traditions , customs , fellowship , words and worship , and sees them all to be formal imitation , and the invention of man out of the Covenant of God , so cannot but deny them ; and for this cause he is hated of all , both Priest and People , whose name according to the world is , James Parnell . The Servant is not greater than his Master . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A56437e-130 Job . 8.12 1 Tim. 1.15 . Gen. 3.15 Mat. 21.12 . Luke 4.18 . Isa. 42.6 , 7. Luk. 4.18 . Luk. 8.10 . Mat. 8.11 . 
A28945	----	The Christian virtuoso shewing that by being addicted to experimental philosophy, a man is rather assisted than indisposed to be a good Christian / by T.H.R.B., Fellow of the Royal Society ; to which are subjoyn'd, I. a discourse about the distinction that represents some things as above reason, but not contrary to reason, II. the first chapters of a discourse entituled, Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity, by the same author. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1690 Approx. 239 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 120 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28945 Wing B3931 ESTC R19536 12258621 ocm 12258621 57680 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28945) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 57680) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 172:8) The Christian virtuoso shewing that by being addicted to experimental philosophy, a man is rather assisted than indisposed to be a good Christian / by T.H.R.B., Fellow of the Royal Society ; to which are subjoyn'd, I. a discourse about the distinction that represents some things as above reason, but not contrary to reason, II. the first chapters of a discourse entituled, Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity, by the same author. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Reflections upon a theological distinction. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity. [20], 120, [4], 35, [2], 57 p. Printed by Edw. Jones for John Taylor ... and John Wyat ..., In the Savoy : 1690. "Reflections upon a theological distinction" and "Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity" each has special t.p. First ed., 2nd issue. Cf. NUC pre-1956. The second part of The Christian virtuoso never published. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Philosophy and religion -- Early works to 1800. Faith and reason -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-03 Robyn Anspach Sampled and proofread 2007-03 Robyn Anspach Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Christian Virtuoso : IN TWO PARTS . TOME I. THE Christian Virtuoso : SHEWING , That by being addicted to Experimental Philosophy , a Man is rather Assisted , than Indisposed , to be a Good Christian . The First Part. By T. H. R. B. Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY . To which are Subjoyn'd , I. A Discourse about the Distinction , that represents some Things as Above Reason , but not Contrary to Reason . II. The first Chapters of a Discourse , Entituled , Greatness of Mind promoted by Christianity . By the same AVTHOR . In the SAVOY : Printed by Edw. Jones , for John Taylor at the Ship , and John Wyat at the Golden-Lion , in St. Paul's Church-yard , 1690. THE PREFACE . WHEN , many Years ago , I was induced to write something about the Subject of the following Treatise ; I did it , partly to give some Satisfaction to a Friend , and partly to impose upon myself an Obligation , to consider the more attentively upon what Grounds it may be asserted , That there is no Inconsistence between a Man's being an Industrious Virtuoso , and a Good Christian . How little fond I was of troubling the Publick with a Discourse of this Nature , may be guessed by my having thrown it aside , among other neglected Papers , for several Years . And it had still continued in that Obscurity , if the , formerly unprevalent , Desires of those that would have it appear in Publick , had not been enforced by an Observation or two , that I could not but make . For I could scarce avoid taking notice of the great and deplorable Growth of Irreligion , especially among those that aspired to pass for Wits , and several of them too for Philosophers . And on the other side , it was Obvious , that divers Learned Men , as well as Others , partly upon the Score of their Abhorrence of these Infidels and Libertines , and partly upon that of a well-meaning , but ill-informed , Zeal , had brought many Good Men to think , that Religion and Philosophy were incompatible ; both Parties contributing to the Vulgar Error , but with this difference , That the Libertines thought a Virtuoso ought not to be a Christian ; and the Others , That he could not be a true One. 'T is like , it may seem to some Readers , that I have too much enlarged the Notion of Experience , and too much insisted on the Proofs deducible from that Topick : But 't is not improbable , that others may approve the Reasons , with which that ample Notion of Experience is , where it is proposed , accompanied . And the Ingenious Person , I was chiefly to please , being a great Lover and Valuer of Experience , and of Arguments grounded on it , the Desire of gratifying Him enticed me to say so much , that when I took up the Thoughts of making this Treatise publick , I found the Effects of my Complaisance so interwoven with the other Parts of the Discourse , that I could not make any Great Alteration , ( for some I did make ) without almost spoiling the Contexture of it . I hope the Equitable Reader will not expect to find every Subject , of which I have occasion to discourse , fully Treated of : For I neither designed nor pretended to write a Body of Natural Theology , nor a Demonstration of the Christian Religion ; but thought it sufficient for me , to consider the Points I wrote of , as far forth as was Necessary , or very Conducive , to my Purpose . And therefore I thought myself , not only Warranted , but Obliged , ( in point of Discretion ) to decline the mention of several Arguments and Reflections , that would indeed have been very Proper , if my Design had been , to shew , why One should be a Christian ; but Impertinent , to shew , that a Virtuoso , while such , may be a true Christian . But , as for this Reason , I omitted many Things , that would have Enrich'd or Adorn'd my Discourse ; so I have endeavoured to make some Amends , both by suggesting some new Subjects , and by adding on those that have been already Treated of by others , divers Thoughts , into which I was led by the Attentive Consideration of the Subject itself ; on which score , they may probably not have yet occurr'd to the Reader , and may appear to him , either to be new , as to the Substance ; or , if any of them be coincident with the more known Ones , to have something of peculiar , as to the way of Propounding , or of Applying , them . And , I confess , I was somewhat Encouraged to communicate my Thoughts on these Subjects , by considering , that ( thô is ought not to be so , yet ) 't is Notorious , that in the Age we live in , there are too many Persons that are like to be found more indisposed to be Impress'd on by Arguments , in favour of Religion , from profess'd Divines , how worthy soever , than from such as I , who am a Lay-man , and have been look'd upon as no undiligent Cultivator of Experimental Philosophy . And that the Style might not be unsuitable to the Writer , and the Design ; I thought fit , in my Arguments and Illustrations , both to employ Comparisons drawn from Telescopes , Microscopes , &c. and to make frequent use of Notions , Hypotheses , and Observations , in request among those , that are called The New philosophers . Which I the rather did ; because some Experience has taught me , that such a Way of proposing and elucidating Things , is , either as most clear , or , upon the account of its Novelty , wont to be more acceptable , than any Other , to our Modern Virtuosi ; whom thus to Gratify , is a good Step towards the Persuading of them . For 't is easie to observe , that some Men are more accessible to Truth , and will be more prevailed upon by it , when it is presented to them in One Dress , than when it appears in Another : As we daily see , that some Persons will be more easily prevailed with to take a Medicine , and that it will have a more kindly Operation upon them , if it be exhibited in that Form and Consistence , that is best lik'd by the Patients ; whereof some love to have the Ingredients , the Medicine is to consist of , offer'd them in a Liquid , others in a Soft , and others in a Dry , Form. Though I am wont , as well as inclinable to spare the present Age ; and though my Censures of some reputed Virtuosi that live in it , are written with as harmless and friendly Designs , as was the seeming Rudeness of the Angel to St. Peter , when he struck him on the Side , and hastily rouzed him , but to awake him , to take off his Chains , and to free him from the Dangers that threatned him ; yet I shall be more troubled than surprized , if I shall find the following Treatise disliked by divers Persons , that would pass for Virtuosi , and by some that really are so . For some Men , that have but superficial , thô conspicuous , Wits , are not fitted to penetrate such Truths , as require a lasting and attentive Speculation ; and divers , that want not Abilities , are so taken up by their Secular Affairs , and their Sensual Pleasures , that they neither have Disposition , nor will have Leisure , to discover those Truths , that require both an Attentive and Penetrating Mind . And more than of either of these sorts of Men there are , whom their Prejudices do so forestal , or their Interest byas , or their Appetites blind , or their Passions discompose , too much , to allow them a clear Discernment , and right Judgment , of Divine Things . Upon which , and other accounts , I shall not think it strange , if what I write shall make no great Impression on Readers thus Qualified , whom to Convert , 't is not enough to Convince them : Nor shall I be greatly discouraged , or think much the worse of my Arguments , if they do not make Proselytes of those , whom Sinister Considerations make such Resolved Adversaries to the Truth , that He alone , that can Preach from Heaven , is able to prevail upon them ; and they must be Converted , almost as Saul the Persecutor was , by an extraordinary Light from Heaven , and a Power able to strike them to the Ground . But though I am not so little acquainted with the present Age , as to expect to plead for Religion with the Approbation of Atheists , or of Libertines , yet I shall not think my Pains altogether mispent , if what I have written , either Startle any Irreligious Reader so far , as to Engage him to consult abler Assertors of Christianity and Virtue , than I pretend to be ; or else prove so happy , as to Confirm and Strengthen , by new Arguments and Motives , those that have heartily embraced the Christian Faith and Morals , though perhaps not upon the firmest Grounds . For it will be no small Satisfaction to me , if , though I cannot Convert the resclvedly Irreligious , I shall at least furnish those that are not so , with Preservatives against them , and hinder their Impiety from being Contagious . But I fear , that those that are Enemies , both to the Doctrines I propose , and to the Aims I persue , will not be the only Persons that will find fault with the following Tract ; since , perhaps , there will not be wanting some Ingenious Men , that expected , as well as desired , that I should never write but as a Naturalist , because they themselves esteem nothing , save the Laws and Phoenomena of Nature , to be Subjects worthy of a Philosophical Pen : As if , because Rational Spirits are Invisible and Immaterial . Beings , all Disquisitions about them must be airy and uncertain Speculations , and , like their Objects , devoid of Solidity and Usefulness . But though among these Ingenious Men there are several , whose Expectations from me I am much more disposed to Gratify , than Disappoint ; yet , on such an occasion as this , I must take the liberty to own , That I do not think the Corporeal World , nor the Present State of Things , the Only or the Principal Subjects , that an Inquisitive Man's Pen may be worthily employed about ; and , That there are some Things that are grounded , neither upon Mechanical , nor upon Chymical , Notices or Experiments , that are yet far from deserving to be Neglected , and much less to be Despised , or so much as to be left Uncultivated , especially by such Writers , as being more concerned to act as Christians , than as Virtuosi , must also think , that sometimes they may usefully busy themselves about the Study of Divine Things , as well as at other times employ their Thoughts about the Inspection of Natural Ones . There are some Objects , whose Nobleness is such , that , though we derive no Advantage from them , but the Contentment of knowing them , and that but very imperfectly too ; yet our Virtuosi themselves justly think much Pains and Time , and , perhaps , Cost too , well spent in endeavouring to acquire some Conjectural Knowledge of them : As may be instanced in the Assiduous and Industrious Researches they have made about the remote Coelestial part of the World , especially the Stars and Comets that our Age has exposed to their Curiosity . For most of these , though they require chargeable Telescopes , and tedious , as well as unhealthy , Nocturnal Observations , are Objects , of which we can know very little with any Certainty ; and which , for ought appears , we can make no useful Experiments with . Since therefore we so much prize a little Knowledge , of Things that are not only Corporeal , but Inanimate ; methinks we should not undervalue the Studies of those Men , that aspire to the Knowledge of Incorporeal and Rational Beings , which are incomparably more Noble , than all the Stars in the World , which are , as far as we know , but Masses of Senseless and Stupid Matter . Since also the Virtuosi deservedly Applaud and Cherish the laborious Industry of Anatomists , in their Enquiries into the Structure of dead , ghastly , and oftentimes unhealthfully as well as offensively Foetid , Bodies : Can it be an Employment improper for a Christian Virtuoso , or unworthy of him , to endeavour the Discovery of the Nature and Faculties of the Rational Mind ; which is That , that Enobles its Mansion , and gives Man the Advantage he has of the Beasts that Perish ? I am content , that merely Natural Philosophy should often Employ my Thoughts , and my Pen ; but I cannot consent it should Engross them , and hinder me from being Conversant with Theological Subjects . And since , among my Friends , I have some , ( and those not Inconsiderable for their Number , and much less for their Merit , ) that press me to Treat of Religious Matters , as well as Others , that would have me addict myself to Cultivate Physical Ones ; I , who think myself a Debtor to Both these sorts , am willing to endeavour to Gratify Both ; and having already , on many Occasions , presented the later sort with large , as well as publick , Effects of my Complaisance for them , I hope , they will not think it strange , that I should now and then have Regard to the former sort , too ; especially , since I had higher Motives , than Complaisance ought to be , to induce me to Treat sometimes of Things that might be grateful to those Friends , that are much so to Religious Composures . I presume , it will be taken notice of , that , in the following Treatise , as well as in divers of my other Writings , especially about Subjects that are purely , or partly , Philosophical ; I make frequent use of Similitudes , or Comparisons : And therefore I think myself here obliged to acknowledge , once for all , that I did it purposely . And my Reasons for this Practise , were , not only because fit Comparisons are wont to delight most Readers , and to make the Notions , they convey , better kept in Memory ; whence the best Orators and Preachers have made great and successful use of Metaphors , Allegories , and other Resemblances ; but I was induced to employ them chiefly for two other Reasons : 1. That though I freely confess , that Arbitrary Similitudes , and likewise Those that are Foreign to the Subject treated of , such as are most of the Vulgar Ones , that are usually borrowed from the Fictions of the Poets , and from the uncertain , and often ill-applied , Relations of Pliny , Aelian , and other too frequently Fabulous Writers , are scarce fit to be made use of but to Vulgar Readers , or Popular Auditories ; yet Comparisons fitly chosen , and well applied , may , on many occasions , usefully serve to illustrate the Notions for whose sake they are brought , and , by placing them in a true Light , help Men to conceive them far better , than otherwise they would do . And , 2. Apposite Comparisons do not only give Light , but Strength , to the Passages they belong to , since they are not always bare Pictures and Resemblances , but a kind of Arguments ; being oftentimes , if I may so call them , Analogous Instances , which do declare the Nature , or Way of Operating , of the Thing they relate to , and by that means do in a sort prove , that , as 't is possible , so it is not improbable , that the Thing may be such as 't is represented : And therefore , not only the Illustrious Verulam , though not more a Florid , than a Iudicious , Writer , has , much to the satisfaction of his Readers , frequently made use of Comparisons , in whose Choice , and Application , he was very happy ; but that severe Philosopher Monsieur Des Cartes himself somewhere says , that he scarce thought , that he understood any thing in Physiques , but what he could declare by some apt Similitude ; of which , in effect , he has many in his Writings ; [ As , where he compares the Particles of fresh Water , to little Eels ; and the Corpuscles of Salt in the Sea-water , to little rigid Staves ; and where , after the Stoicks , he compares the Sense of Objects by the intervention of Light , to the Sense that a blind Man hath of Stones , Mud , &c. by the intervention of his Staff. ] To which I shall add , That proper Comparisons do the Imagination almost as much Service , as Microscopes do the Eye ; for , as this Instrument gives us a distinct view of divers minute Things , which our naked Eyes cannot well discern ; because these Glasses represent them far more large , than by the bare Eye we judge them ; so a skilfully chosen , and well-applied , Comparison much helps the Imagination , by illustrating Things scarce discernible , so as to represent them by Things much more familiar and easy to be apprehended . I confess , I might , on some Occasions , have spoken , not only more Positively , and Boldly ; but , as to many Learned Readers , more Acceptably , if I would have discoursed altogether like a Cartesian , or as a Partizan of some other Modern Sect of Philosophizers . But , besides that , I am not minded to give myself up to any Sect , I thought it convenient , that a Discourse , designed to work on Persons of differing Persuasions about Philosophical Matters , should not declare itself dogmatically , or unreservedly , of a Party , but employ rather the Dictates of Reason , or Principles either granted , or little contested , than proceed upon the peculiar Principles of a distinct Party of Philosophizers . If now and then I have insisted upon some particular Subjects , more than appears absolutely necessary , I did it , because that , though I wrote this Treatise chiefly for my Friends , yet I did not write it for them only ; but was willing to lay hold on some of the Occasions that the Series of my Discourse offered me , to excite in myself those Dispositions that I endeavoured to produce in others : And , by insisting upon some Reflections , impress them more deeply upon my own Mind ; especially when I was Treating of some Points , either so Important , or so Opposed , or Both , that they can scarce be too much inculcated . The Name of the Person , to whom the following Papers were address'd , not being necessary to be made Publick ; some Reasons made it thought convenient , that it should remain unmentioned . Postscript . TO give an Account of the Prolixity , that some might otherwise censure , of the foregoing PREFACE , I must Advertise the Reader , That 't is of an ancient Date , and that the First Part of the Treatise , that it belongs to , was already written , and 't was then designed , that the Second Part should accompany it to the Press : On which score 't was presumed , that , as the Particulars that make up the Preamble would not appear Superfluous , in regard of the Variety of Subjects to be Treated of ; So , its Length would scarce be found Disproportionate to the Bulk of the Whole designed Book . THE Christian Virtuoso : SHEWING , That by being addicted to Experimental Philosophy , a Man is rather assisted , than in disposed , to be a Good Christian . The First Part. SIR , I Perceive by what you intimate , that your Friends , Dr. W. and Mr. N. think it very strange , that I , whom they are pleas'd to look upon as a diligent Cultivater of Experimental Philosophy , should be a concern'd Embracer of the Christian Religion ; tho' divers of its Articles are so far from being Objects of Sense , that they are thought to be above the Sphere of Reason . But , tho' I presume they may find many Objects of the like wonder , among those with whom I am compriz'd by them , under the name of the New Virtuosi ; and among These , they may meet with divers persons more able than I , to ease them of their wonder ; yet , since they are pleas'd by singling me out , as it were to challenge me to do it , I shall endeavour to make them think it at least less strange , That a great Esteem of Experience , and a high Veneration for Religion , should be compatible in the same person . Wherefore I shall not deny , that I am now and then busied in devising , and putting in practice , Tryals of several sorts , and making Reflections upon them : And I own too , that ( about natural things ) I have a great Reverence for Experience , in comparison of Authority . But withal , I declare , that to embrace Christianity , I do not think I need to recede from the value and kindness I have for Experimental Philosophy , any thing near so far as your Friends seem to imagin . And I hope it will appear , that , If the Experimental way of Philosophising I am addicted to , have any things in it that indispose a man to assent to the Truth , and live according to the Laws , of the Christian Religion ; those few things are more than countervail'd by the peculiar Advantages , that it affords a Man of a well-dispos'd mind , towards the being a good Christian . I said , a man of a well-dispos'd mind ; that is , one , that is both docile , and inclin'd to make pious applications of the Truths he discovers ; because such a Qualification of Mind , I hope , God , through his Goodness , has vouchsaf'd me ; and the occasion given by your friends to the following Discourse , relating peculiarly to me , a personal account of my Opinions , and reasons of them , ought to suffice . And 't will be ex abundanti , ( as they speak , ) if my Discourse be found , as it often will be , to extend much farther . Which Reflection , I desire you would frequently have in your thoughts , to prevent mistaking the Design of the following Epistle . I doubt not , but the Popular Prejudices , that I perceive your two Friends , among many other more devout than well-inform'd Persons , have entertain'd , will make them think , that what I have now deliver'd needs good proof , and perhaps better than it is capable of . And therefore I hope you will easily allow me the liberty , I am going to take , of briefly premising some things , to clear the way for the principal Points , design'd to be discours'd of in this Letter . I know you need not be told , that the Philosophy ▪ which is most in request among the modern Virtuosi , and which by some is call'd the New , by others the Corpuscularian , by others the Real , by others ( tho' not so properly ) the Atomical , and by others again the Cartesian , or the Mechanical , Philosophy ; is built upon two foundations , Reason and Experience . But it may not be impertinent to observe to you , that although the Peripatetick , and some other Philosophies , do also pretend to be grounded upon Reason and Experience ; yet there is a great difference betwixt the use that is made of these two Principles , by the School-Philosophers , and by the Virtuosi . For those , in the framing of their System , make but little use of Experience ; contenting themselves for the most part to employ but few and obvious Experiments , and vulgar Traditions , usually Uncertain , and oftentimes False ; and superstructing almost their whole Physicks upon Abstracted Reason ; by which , I mean , The rational Faculty endowed but with its own Congenit or Common Notions and Idea's , and with Popular Notices ; that is , such as are common among men , especially those that are any thing Learned . But now , the Virtuosi I speak of , and by whom , in this whole Discourse , I mean those , that Understand and Cultivate Experimental Philosophy , make a much greater and better use of Experience in their Philosophical Researches . For they consult Experience both frequently and heedfully ; and , not content with the Phaenomena that Nature spontaneously affords them , they are solicitous , when they find it needful , to enlarge their Experience by Tryals purposely devis'd ; and ever and anon Reflecting upon it , they are careful to Conform their Opinions to it ; or , if there be just cause , Reform their Opinions by it . So that our Virtuosi have a peculiar Right to the distinguishing Title that is often given them , of Experimental Philosophers . I can scarce doubt , but your Friends have more than once oblig'd you to take notice , of the Prophane Discourses and Licentious Lives of some Virt●…osi , that boast much of the Principles of the New Philosophy . And I deny not , but that , if the knowledge of Nature falls into the hands of a Resolved Atheist , or a Sensual Libertine , he may misemploy it to Oppugn the Grounds , or Discredit the Practice , of Religion . But it will fare much otherwise , if a deep insight into Nature be acquir'd by a man of Probity and Ingenuity , or at least free from Prejudices and Vices , that may indispose him to entertain and improve those Truths of Philosophy , that would naturally lead him to Sentiments of Religion . For , if a Person thus qualify'd in his Morals , and thereby dispos'd to make use of the knowledge of the Creatures to confirm his Belief , and encrease his Veneration , of the Creator , ( and such a Person I here again advertise you , and desire you would not forget it , I suppose the Virtuoso this Paper is concern'd in , to be ) shall make a great progress in Real Philosophy ; I am perswaded , that Nature will be found very Loyal to her Author , and in stead of Alienating his Mind from making religious Acknowledgments , will furnish him with weighty and uncommon Motives , to conclude such Sentiments to be highly rational and just . On which occasion , I must not pretermit that judicious Observation of one of the first and greatest Experimental Philosophers of our Age , ( Sir Francis Bacon ) That God never wrought a Miracle to convince Atheists ; because in his Visible Works he had plac'd enough to do it , if they were not wanting to themselves . The Reason he gives for which Remark , I shall confirm , by observing , that 't is intimated in a passage of St. Paul , asserting both that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the Creation of the World , as Tokens and Effects , ( as I remember the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek doth elsewhere signify , ) and that his Divinity and Eternal Power may be so well understood by the things that are made , that the Gentiles , who had but the Light of Nature to lead them to the acknowledgment of the true God , were Excuseless , for not being brought by that Guide to that Acknowledgment . And indeed , the Experimental Philosophy giving us a more clear discovery , than Strangers to it have , of the divine Excellencies display'd in the Fabrick and Conduct of the Universe , and of the Creatures it consists of , very much indisposeth the mind , to ascribe such admirable Effects to so incompetent and pitiful a Cause as Blind Chance , or the tumultuous Justlings of Atomical Portions of senseless Matter ; and leads it directly to the acknowledgment and adoration of a most Intelligent , Powerful and Benign Author of things , to whom alone such excellent Productions may , with the greatest Congruity , be ascrib'd . And therefore , if any of the Cultivaters of Real Philosophy pervert it to countenance Atheism , 't is certainly the fault of the Persons , not the Doctrine ; which is to be judg'd of by it's own natural Tendency , not by the ill Use that some bad Men may make of it ; especially if the prevaricating Persons are but pretenders to the Philosophy they misemploy ; which Character will perhaps be found to belong to most , if not all , the Atheistical and Prophane Men , the Objection means . For most of these do as little understand the Mysteries of Nature , as believe those of Christianity ; and of divers of them it may be truly said , that their Sensuality , and Lusts , and Passions , darken'd and seduc'd their Intellects : Their Immorality was the Original Cause of their Infidelity ; nor were they led by Philosophy to Irreligion , but got and perverted some smattering of Philosophy , to countenance the Irreligious Principles , they brought with them to the Study of it . But all this notwithstanding , I fear , if not foresee , that you will surmise , that the study of Natural Philosophy , how innocent soever it may be in it self , will , in this Libertine City , engage me to converse with many , who , tho' they pass for Virtuosi , are indeed Atheists ; whose contagious Company must Endanger , if not Infect , me . This obliges me to tell you , that tho' I have no reason to take it at all unkindly , that you are jealous of me on the score of being Solicitous for my Safety ; yet I hope my Danger is not so great as you may apprehend it . For First , I must own to you , that I do not think there are so many Speculative Atheists , as Men are wont to imagin . And tho' my Conversation has been pretty free and general among Naturalists , yet I have met with so few true Atheists , that I am very apt to think , that Men's want of due Information , or their uncharitable Zeal , has made them mistake or misrepresent many for Denyers of God , that are thought such , chiefly because they take uncommon Methods in studying his Works , and have other Sentiments of them , than those of vulgar Philosophers . And in the next place I must tell you , that having , through the goodness of God , chosen my Religion , not Inconsiderately , but upon mature Deliberation ; I do not find those Virtuosi , you call Atheists , such formidable Adversaries , as those that are afraid to hear them , do , by that Apprehension , appear to think them . And indeed , I have observ'd the Physical Arguments of the Atheists to be but very few , and those far enough from being Unanswerable . And as for the very chief of them , tho' they are wont to puzzle such as are not vers'd in nice Speculations , because they represent the assertion of a Deity , as a Doctrine encumber'd with inextricable Difficulties ; yet I do not think the Objections solidly grounded , since the same Difficulties , or others not inferior , may be urg'd against those Hypotheses and Principles , that the Deniers of God do or must admit . And indeed , most of the perplexing Difficulties the Atheists lay so much stress on , do not proceed from any Absurdity contained in the Tenent of the Theists , but from the Nature of things ; that is , partly from the Dimness and other Imperfections of our Human Understandings , and partly from the Abstruse Nature , that , to such Bounded Intellects , all Objects must appear to have , in whose Conception Infinity is involv'd ; whether that Object be God , or Atoms , or Duration , or some other thing that is uncausable . For , however we may flatter our selves , I fear we shall find , upon strict and impartial Tryal , that finite Understandings are not able clearly to resolve such Difficulties , as exact a clear comprehension of what is really Infinite . But to persue this Discourse , would lead us too far . And 't is more fit , after so much has been said concerning not only the Design of this Tract , but the New Philosophy , the Virtuosi , and my self ; to proceed to those more Particular things , that directly tend to the main Scope of our Epistle . The first advantage , that our Experimental Philosopher , as such , hath towards being a Christian , is ▪ that his course of Studies conduceth much , to settle in his Mind a firm Belief of the Existence , and divers of the chief ▪ Attributes , of God : Which Belief , is , in the order of things , the first Principle of that Natural Religion , which it self is pre-required to Reveal'd Religion in general , and consequently to That in particular , which is embrac'd by Christians . That the consideration of the Vastness , Beauty , and Regular Motions , of the heavenly Bodies ; the excellent Structure of Animals and Plants ; besides a multitude of other Phaenomena of Nature , and the Subserviency of most of these to Man ; may justly induce him , as a Rational Creature , to Conclude , That this vast , beautiful , orderly , and ( in a word ) many ways admirable System of things , that we call the World , was fram'd by an Author supremely Powerful , Wise , and Good , can scarce be deny'd by an intelligent and unprejudic'd Considerer . And this is strongly confirm'd by Experience , which witnesseth , that in almost all Ages and Countries , the generality of Philosophers , and contemplative Men , were persuaded of the Existence of a Deity , by the consideration of the Phaenomena of the Universe ; whose Fabrick and Conduct they rationally concluded could not be deservedly ascrib'd , either to blind Chance , or to any other Cause than a Divine Being . But , tho' it be true , that God hath not left himself without witness , even to perfunctory Considerers ; by stamping upon divers of the more Obvious Parts of his Workmanship , such conspicuous Impressions of his Attributes , that a moderate degree of Understanding , and Attention , may suffice to make Men acknowledg his Being ; Yet , I scruple not to think , That Assent very much inferior to the Belief , that the same Objects are fitted to produce in an Heedful and Intelligent Contemplator of them : For the Works of God are so worthy of their Author , that , besides the Impresses of his Wisdom , and Goodness , that are left as it were upon their Surfaces ; there are a great many more curious and excellent Tokens , and Effects , of Divine Artifice , in the hidden and innermost Recesses of them ; and these are not to be discovered by the perfunctory looks of Oscitant or Unskilful Beholders ; but Require , as well , as Deserve , the most attentive and prying Inspection of inquisitive and well-instructed Considerers . And sometimes in one Creature , there may be I know not how many admirable things , that escape a vulgar Eye , and yet may be clearly discern'd by That of a true Naturalist ; who brings with him , besides a more than common Curiosity and Attention , a competent knowledge of Anatomy , Opticks , Cosmography , Mechanicks , and Chymistry . But treating elsewhere purposely of this Subject , it may here suffice to say , that God has couch'd so many things in his Visible Works , that the clearer Light a Man has , the more he may discover of their Unobvious Exquisiteness , and the more clearly and distinctly he may discern those Qualities that lye more Obvious . And the more wonderful things he discovers in the Works of Nature , the more auxiliary Proofs he meets with to establish and enforce the Argument , drawn from the Universe and its Parts , to evince That there is a God : Which is a Proposition of that vast weight and importance , that it ought to endear every thing to us , that is able to Confirm it , and Afford us new Motives to acknowledge and adore the Divine Author of things . In reference to this matter , we may confidently say , that the Experimental Philosophy has a great advantage of the Scholastick . For in the Peripatetick Schools , where things are wont to be ascrib'd to certain Substantial Forms , and Real Qualities ; ( the former of which are acknowledg'd to be very abstruse and mysterious things , and the later are many of them confessedly occult ; ) the accounts of Natures Works may be easily given in a few words , that are general enough to be applicable to almost all Occasions . But these uninstructive Terms do neither oblige , nor conduct , a man to deeper searches into the Structure of Things , nor the manner of being Produc'd , and of Operating upon one another . And consequently , are very insufficient to disclose the exquisite Wisdom , which the Omniscient Maker has express'd in the peculiar Fabricks of Bodies , and the skilfully regulated Motions of them , or of their constituent Parts : From the discernment of which things , nevertheless , it is , that there is , by way of result , produc'd in the mind of an Intelligent Contemplator , a strong Conviction of the Being of a Divine Opificer , and a just acknowledgment of his admirable Wisdom . To be told , that an Eye is the Organ of Sight , and that this is perform'd by that Faculty of the Mind , which from its Function is call'd Visive ; will give a Man but a sorry account of the Instruments and Manner of Vision it self , or of the Knowledge of that Opificer , who , as the Scripture speaks , form'd the Eye . And he that can take up with this easy Theory of Vision , will not think it necessary to take the pains to dissect the Eyes of Animals , nor study the Books of Mathematicians , to understand Vision ; and accordingly , will have but mean thoughts of the Contrivance of the Organ , and the Skill of the Artificer , in comparison of the Idea's that will be suggested of both of them , to him that , being profoundly skill'd in Anatomy and Opticks , by Their help takes asunder the several Coats , Humours , and Muscles , of which , that exquisite Dioptrical Instrument consists : And having separately consider'd the Figure , Size , Consistence , Texture , Diaphaneity , or Opacity , Situation , and Connexions , of each of them , and their Coaptation in the whole Eye , shall discover , by the help of the Laws of Opticks , how admirably this little Organ is fitted , to Receive the incident Beams of Light , and Dispose them in the best manner possible , for compleating the lively Representation of the almost infinitely various Objects of Sight . 'T is easie for Men to say in general Terms , that the World is wisely fram'd ; but I doubt it often happens , that Men confess , that the Creatures are wisely made , rather because upon other grounds they believe God to be a wise Agent , than because so slight an account as the School Philosophy gives of particular Creatures , convinces them of any Divine Wisdom in the Creator . And tho' I am willing to grant , that some Impressions of God's Wisdom are so conspicuous , that ( as I lately intimated ) even a Superficial Philosopher may thence infer , that the Author of such Works must be a wise Agent ; yet , how wise an Agent he has in those Works express'd himself to be , none but an Experimental Philosopher can well discern . And 't is not by a slight Survey , but by a diligent and skilful Scrutiny , of the Works of God , that a Man must be , by a Rational and Affective Conviction , engag'd to acknowledge with the Prophet , that the Author of Nature is Wonderful in Counsel , and Excellent in Working , Isa . xxviii . 29. II. After the Existence of the Deity , the next grand Principle of Natural Religion , is , the Immortality of the Rational Soul ; whose genuine consequence is , the Belief and Expectation of a Future and Everlasting State. For this important Truth , divers Arguments may be alledg'd , that may persuade a sober and well-disposed Man to embrace it : But to convince a learned Adversary , the strongest Argument , that the Light of Nature supplies us with , seems to be that which is afforded by the Real Philosophy . For this teacheth us to form true and distinct Notions of the Body , and the Mind ; and thereby manifests so great a difference in their Essential Attributes , that the same thing cannot be both . This it makes out more distinctly , by enumerating several Faculties and Functions of the Rational Soul ; such as , To Understand , and that so , as to form Conceptions of Abstracted things , of Universals , of Immaterial Spirits , and even of that infinitely Perfect One , God himself : And also , to Conceive , and Demonstrate , that there are Incommensurable Lines , and Surd Numbers ; to make Ratiocinations , and both cogent and concatenated Inferences , about these things ; to express their intellectual Notions , pro re natâ , by words or Instituted Signs , to other Men ; to exercise Free-will about many things ; and to make Reflections on its own Acts , both of Intellect and Will. For these and the like Prerogatives , that are peculiar to the Human Mind , and superior to any thing that belongs to the Outward Senses , or to the Imagination it self , manifest , that the Rational Soul is a Being of an higher Order , than Corporeal ; and consequently , that the Seat of these Spiritual Faculties , and the Source of these Operations , is a Substance , that being in its own nature distinct from the Body , is not naturally subject to Dye or Perish with it . And in reference to this Truth , our Virtuoso hath an advantage of a mere School-Philosopher . For being acquainted with the true and real Causes of Putrefaction , and other Physical kinds of Corruption ; and thereby discerning , that the things that destroy Bodies , are the Avolation , or other Recess , of some necessary Parts , and such a depraving Transposition of the component Portions of Matter , as is altogether incongruous to the Structure and Mechanical Modification , that is essential to a Body of that Species , or kind , it belongs to : Our Naturalist , I say , knowing this , plainly perceives , that these causes of destruction can have no place in the Rational Soul ; which being an Immaterial Spirit , and consequently a Substance not really divisible , can have no Parts expell'd or transpos'd , and so being exempted from the Physical Causes of Corruption that destroy Bodies , she ought to last always . And being a Rational Creature , endow'd with internal Principles of Acting , as appears in Free-will , she ought to live for ever , unless it please God to annihilate her ; which we have no reason to suppose he will do . But on the other side , the Modern Peripateticks ( for I question whether Aristotle himself were of the same opinion ) maintain Substantial Forms , by some of them , styl'd Semi-substantiae , to which in Apes , Elephants , and others , that pass for ingenious Animals , they ascribe some such Faculties and Functions , as seem to differ but gradually from those of the Rational Soul ; and ( how innocent soever I grant their Intentions to be ) their Doctrine tends much to Enervate , if not quite to Disable , the chief Physical way of Probation , whence the Immortality of Man's Mind is justly inferr'd . For since according to the Peripateticks , substantial Forms , are , as they speak , educ'd out of the Power or Potentiality of the Matter ; and do so depend upon it , not only as to Action , but as to Being , that they cannot at all subsist without it : But when the particular Body ( as an Herb , a Stone , or a Bird , ) is destroy'd , they perish with it ; or , ( as some of them scarce intelligibly express the same thing ) fall back into the basom of the matter : I think they give great advantage to Atheists , and Cavillers , to impugn the Minds Immortality . For if to an Ape , or other Brute Animal , there belongs a Being more noble than Matter , that can actuate and inform it , and make it self the Architect of its own Mansion , tho' so admirable as that of an Ape , or an Elephant ; if this Being can in the Body it hath fram'd , perform all the Functions of a vegetable Soul ; and besides those , See , Hear , Tast , Smell , Imagin , Infer , Remember , Love , Hate , Fear , Hope , Expect , &c. and yet be a mortal thing , and perish with the Body : 'T will not be difficult for those Enemies of Religion , who are willing to think the Soul Mortal , because their brutish Lives make them wish she were , to fancy , that human Minds are but a somewhat more Noble , but not for that less Mortal , kind of Substantial Forms ; as amongst Sensitive Souls themselves , which they acknowledge to be equally Mortal , there is a great disparity in Degrees , that of a Monky , for instance , being very far superior to that of an Oyster . III. The third main Principle of Unreveal'd Religion , and consequently of Reveal'd , ( which presupposes Natural Religion , as it 's foundation ) is a Belief of the Divine Providence . And in this grand Article , as well as in the two foregoing , a Man may be much Confirm'd by Experimental Philosophy ; both as it affords him positive Inducements to acknowledge the Article , and as it shews the great Improbability of the two main Grounds , on one or other of which , ( for they are not well consistent ) is founded the denyal of God's Providence . A Virtuoso , that by manifold and curious Experiments searches deep into the Nature of things , has great and peculiar Advantages , to discover and observe the excellent Fabrick of the World , as 't is an immense Aggregate of the several Creatures that compose it ; and to take notice in its particular Parts , especially those that are Animated , of such exquisite Contrivances , and such admirable Coordinations , and Subordinations , in reference to each other , as lie hid from those Beholders that are not both Attentive and Skilful . When our Virtuoso contemplates the Vastness , scarce conceivable Swiftness , and yet constant Regularity , of the various Motions , of the Sun , Moon , and other Celestial Lights : When he considers how the Magnetism of the Earth makes its Poles constantly look the same way , notwithstanding the Motions of its fluid Vortex ; how by daily turning about its own Center in four and twenty hours , it receives as much Light , and benefit from the Sun , and all the glorious Constellations of the Firmament , as if they , with all the vast heavenly Region they belong to , mov'd about it in the same time ; how by its Situation among them , it enjoys the regular Vicissitudes of Day and Night , Summer and Winter , &c. how the several Parts of the Sublunary World are mutually subservient to one another , and most of them ( one way or other ) Serviceable to Man ; how excellently the Bodies of Animals are Contriv'd ; what various and congruous provision is made for differing Animals , that they may subsist as long as they should , according to the Institution of Nature , by furnishing them , according to their respective Natures , some with Strength to take their Food by force , others with Industry to procure it by Subtilty ; some with Arms , as Horns , Hoofs , Scales , Tusks , Poysons , Stings , &c. to Defend themselves , and Offend their Enemies ; some with Wings or swiftness to fly from Dangers ; some with Foresight to prevent them ; some with Craft , and perhaps strange Fetches of it , to Elude them ; how being distinguish'd into two Sexes , each of these is furnish'd with apposite Organs , for the propagation of the Species , and with skill and kindness to nourish and train up their young ones , till they can shift for themselves ; how admirable , and indeed astonishing , a process is gone through in the formation of the Foetus ▪ , especially of a Human one ; how divers Animals are endowed with strange Instincts , whose Effects sometimes seem much to surpass those of Reason it self ; tho' they are superadded to the Mechanical Structure of the Animal , and argue a respect to things very remote from it , either in time , place , or both , and perhaps also to the Grand Fabrick or System of the World , and the general Oeconomy of Nature . When , as I was saying , a Philosopher duly reflects on these things , and many others of the like import , he will think it highly rational to infer from them these three Conclusions . First , That a Machine so Immense , so Beautiful , so well contriv'd , and , in a word , so Admirable , as the World , cannot have been the effect of mere Chance , or the Tumultuous Justlings and Fortuitous Concourse of Atoms , but must have been produc'd by a Cause , exceedingly Powerful , Wise , and Beneficent . Secondly , That this most Potent Author , and ( if I may so speak ) Opificer of the World , hath not Abandon'd a Masterpiece so worthy of him , but does still Maintain and Preserve it ; so regulating the stupendiously swift Motions of the great Globes , and other vast Masses of the Mundane Matter , that they do not , by any notable Irregularity , disorder the grand System of the Universe , and reduce it to a kind of Chaos , or confus'd State of shuffl'd and deprav'd things . Thirdly , That as it is not above the Ability of the Divine Author of things , though a single Being , to Preserve and Govern all his Visible Works , how great and numerous soever ; so he thinks it not Below his Dignity and Majesty , to extend his Care and Beneficence to particular Bodies , and even to the meanest Creatures ; providing not only for the Nourishment , but for the Propagation , of Spiders and Ants themselves . And indeed , since the Truth of this Assertion , That God governs the World he has made , would appear ( if it did not by other Proofs ) by the Constancy , and Regularity , and astonishingly rapid Motions of the vast Coelestial Bodies , and by the long Trains of as Admirable , as Necessary , Artifices , that are employ'd to the Propagation of various sorts of Animals , ( whether Viviparous , or Oviparous ; ) I see not why it should be deny'd , that God's Providence may reach to his particular Works here below , especially to the noblest of them , Man ; since most of those Learned Men that deny this , as derogatory to God's Majesty and Happiness , acknowledge , that at the first Creation , or ( if they dislike that term ) Formation of things ; the great Author of them must not only have extended his Care , to the grand System of the Universe in general , but allow'd it to descend so low , as to contrive all the Minute , and various Parts , ( and even the most homely ones ) not only of Greater and ( reputedly ) more perfect Animals , as Elephants , Whales , and Men ; but such Small and Abject Ones , as Flies , Ants , Fleas , &c. Which being manifestly propagated by Eggs laid by the Female , cannot reasonably be thought the off-spring of Putrefaction . Whence I gather , as from matter of fact , that to be concern'd for the welfare , even of particular Animals ; as it is agreeable to God's All-pervading Wisdom , and exuberant Beneficence ; so ( whatever Men's Vanity may make them surmise ) it is not truly derogatory to his adorable Greatness and Majesty . And on this occasion , I shall add , that since Man is the noblest of God's visible Works ; since very many of them seem made for his Use ; since , even as an Animal , he is ( as the Psalmist truly speaks ) wonderfully made , and curiously , or artificially wrought ; and since God has both given him a Rational Mind , and endow'd it with an Intellect , whereby he can Contemplate the Works of Nature , and by them acquire a Conviction of the Existence , and divers Attributes , of their supremely perfect Author ; since God hath planted Notions and Principles in the Mind of Man , fit to make him sensible , that he ought to Adore God , as the most Perfect of Beings , the Supreme Lord and Governor of the World , the Author of his own Nature , and all his Enjoyments : Since all this , I say , is so , Natural Reason dictates to him , that he ought to express the Sentiments he has for this Divine Being , by Veneration of his Excellencies ; by Gratitude for his Benefits ; by Humiliation , in view of his Greatness , and Majesty ; by an Awe of his Justice ; by Reliance on his Power , and Goodness , when he duly endeavours to serve and please him ; and , in short , by those several Acts of Natural Religion , that Reason shews to be Suitable , and therefore Due to those several Divine Attributes of his , which it has led us to the knowledge of . And here I shall take leave to add , that , from the Cartesian Principles , ( which you know are embrac'd , by a great part of the Modern Virtuosi ) I think , I may draw a double Argument for Divine Providence . For first , according to the Cartesians , all Local Motion ( which is , under God , the grand Principle of all Actions among things Corporeal ) is Adventitious to Matter ; and was at first produc'd in it , and is still every moment Continu'd and Preserv'd immediately by God : Whence may be inferr'd , that he Concurs to the Actions of each particular Agent , ( as they are Physical ; ) and consequently , that his Providence reaches to all and every one of them . And secondly , the same Cartesians believe the Rational Soul to be an Immaterial Substance , really distinct and separable from the Body . Whence I infer , that the Divine Providence extends to every particular Man ; since when ever an Embryo , or little Human Body form'd in the Womb , is , by being duly Organiz'd , fitted to receive a Rational Mind , God is pleas'd to Create one , and Unite it with that Body . In which Transaction , there seems to me a necessity of a direct and particular intervention of the Divine Power ; since I understand not , by what Physical Charm or Spell an Immaterial ▪ Substance can be allur'd into this or that Particular Embryo , of many that are at the same time fitted to receive a Human Soul ; nor by what merely Mechanical Ty , or Band , an Immaterial Substance can be so durably ( perhaps for 80 or 100 Years ) joyn'd and united with a Corporeal , in which it finds no Parts , that it has Organs to take hold of , and to which it can furnish no Parts to be fasten'd upon by them . Nor do I better conceive , how a mere Body can produce Pain , Pleasure , &c. by its own mere Action , or rather Endeavour to act , on an Immaterial Spirit . Nor will the force of all that has been said for God's Special Providence , be eluded , by saying , with some Deists , that after the first formation of the Universe , all things are brought to pass by the Setled Laws of Nature . For tho' this be confidently , and not without colour , pretended ; yet , I confess , it does not satisfie me . For , beside the insuperable difficulty there is , to give an Account of the first formation of things , which many ( especially Aristotelian ) Deists will not ascribe to God ; and besides that the Laws of Motion ▪ without which the present State and Course of things could not be maintain'd , did not necessarily spring from the Nature of Matter , but depended upon the Will of the Divine Author of things : Besides this , I say , I look upon a Law , as a Moral , not a Physical , Cause , as being indeed but a Notional thing , according to which ▪ an intelligent and free Agent is bound to regulate its Actions . But inanimate Bodies are utterly incapable of Understanding what a Law is , or what it injoyns , or when they act conformably or unconformably to it ; and therefore the Actions of Inanimate Bodies , which cannot incite or moderate their own Actions , are produc'd by real Power , not by Laws ; tho' the Agents , if Intelligent , may Regulate the Exertions of their Power by settled Rules . IV. I have taken notice of two other Accounts , upon which the Experimental Knowledge of God's Works , may , in a well-dispos'd Mind , conduce to establish the Belief of his Providence ; and therefore , tho' I shall not dwell long upon them , I must not altogether pretermit them . First then , when our Virtuoso sees how many , and how various , and oftentimes how strange , and how admirable Structures , Instincts , and other Artifices , the wise Opificer hath furnish'd , even Brutes and Plants withal , to purchase and assimilate their Food , to defend or otherwise secure themselves from hostile things , and ( to be short ) to maintain their Lives , and propagate their Species ; it will very much conduce to persuade him , that so Wise an Agent , who has at Command so many differing and excellent Methods and Tools , to accomplish what he designs ; and does oftentimes actually employ them , for the preservation and welfare of Beasts , and even of Plants , can never want Means to compass his most wise and just Ends , in relation to Mankind ; being able , by ways that we should never dream of , to execute his Menaces , and fulfil his Promises . But of these rare Structures , Instincts , and other Methods , and , if I may so style some of them with Reverence , Stratagems and Fetches of Divine Skill , that God is pleas'd to employ in the conduct of the visible World , especially Animals , I have already elsewhere purposely discours'd , and therefore shall now proceed , and observe , in the second place , That , when we duly consider the very differing ends , to which many of God's particular Works , especially those that are Animated , seem design'd , in reference both to their own Welfare , and the Utility of Man ; and with how much Wisdom , and , I had almost said , Care , the glorious Creator has been pleas'd to supply them with means admirably fit for the attainment of these respective ends ; we cannot but think it highly probable , That so Wise , and so Benign a Being , has not left his noblest visible Creature , Man , unfurnish'd with means to procure his own Welfare , and obtain his true End , if he be not culpably wanting to himself . And since Man is endowed with Reason , which may convince him , ( of what neither a Plant , nor Brute Animal is capable of knowing , namely ) that God is both his Maker , and his continual Benefactor ; since his Reason likewise teacheth him , That upon both those accounts , besides others , God may justly expect and require Worship and Obedience from him ; since also the same Rational Faculty may persuade him , That it may well become the Majesty and Wisdom of God , as the Sovereign Rector of the World , t●… give a Law to Man , who is a Rational Creature , capable of Understanding and Obeying it , and thereby Glorifying the Author of it ; since , ( farthermore ) finding in his own Mind ( if it be not deprav'd by Vice , or Lusts ) a Principle that dict●●●●… to him , That he owes a Veneration , and other suitable Sentiments , to the Divinely Excellent Author of his Being , and his continual and munificent Benefactor ; since , on these scores , his Conscience will convince him of his Obligation to all the Essential Duties of natural Religion ; and since , lastly , his Reason may convince him , That his Soul is Immortal , and is therefore Capable , as well as Desirous , to be everlastingly Happy , after it has left the Body ; he must in reason be strongly inclin'd to wish for a Supernatural Discovery of what God would have him Believe and Do. And therefore if , being thus prepared , he shall be very credibly informed , That God hath actually been pleas'd to Discover , by Supernatural Revelation , ( what , by Reason , without it , he can either not at all , or but rovingly , guess at ) what kind of Worship and Obedience will be most acceptable to him ; and to encourage ▪ Man to both these , by explicite Promises of that Felicity , that Man , without them , can but faintly hope for , he would be ready then thankfully to acknowledge , That this way of proceeding beseems the transcendent Goodness of God , without derogating from his Majesty and Wisdom . And by these and the like Reflections , whereof some were formerly intimated , a Philosopher , that takes notice of the wonderful Providence , that God descends to exercise for the welfare of Inferiour and Irrational Creatures , will have an advantage above Men not vers'd in the works and course of Nature , to believe , upon the Historical and other Proofs that Christianity offers , That God has actually vouchsafed to Man , his noblest , and only rational visible Creature , an explicite and positive Law , enforc'd by Threatning severe Penalties to the Stubborn Transgressors ; and Promising , to the sincere Obeyers , Rewards suitable to his own Greatness and Goodness . And thus the Consideration of God's Providence , in the conduct of things corporeal , may prove , to a well dispos'd Contemplator , a Bridge , whereon he may pass from Natural to Reveal'd Religion . I have been the more particular and express , in what I have said about Divine Providence , because I did not find other Writers had made it needless for me to do so : And I dwelt the longer upon the Existence of the Deity , and the Immortality of the Soul , that I might let you see , That I did not speak Groundlesly or Rashly , but that I had consider'd what I said , when I asserted , That the Experimental Philosophy might afford a well dispos'd Mind considerable Helps to Natural Religion . I find my self therefore now at Liberty to proceed to farther Considerations , and represent to you , That V. Another thing , that disposes an Experimentarian Philosopher to embrace Religion , is , That his Genius and Course of Studies accustoms him to value and delight in abstracted Truths ; by which Term , I here mean such Truths , as do not at all , or do but very little , gratifie Mens Ambition , Sensuality , or other Inferiour Passions and Appetites . For , whereas the Generality of those that are averse from Religion are enclin'd to be so , upon This account , ( among Others ) That they have a Contempt or Undervaluation of all Truths , that do not gratifie their Passions or Interests ; He that is addicted to Knowledge Experimental , is accustom'd both to Persue , Esteem , and Relish many Truths , that do not delight his Senses , or gratifie his Passions , or his Interests , but only entertain his Understanding with that Manly and Spiritual Satisfaction , that is naturally afforded it by the attainment of Clear and Noble Truths , which are its genuine Objects and Delights . And tho' I grant , that the Discoveries made by the help of Physical or Mechanical Experiments , are not , for the most part , of Kin to Religion ; yet , besides that some of them do manifestly conduce to Establish or Illustrate Natural Theology , which is that , ( as , tho' noted already , deserves to be Inculcated ) which Reveal'd Religion , and consequently that of Christians , must be Founded on , or must Suppose : Besides this , I say , we may argue à fortiori , That he , that is accustomed to prize Truths of an Inferior kind , because they are Truths , will be much more dispos'd to value Divine Truths , which are of a much higher and nobler Order , and of an Inestimable and Eternal Advantage . VI. There is another thing , that is too pertinent to the main Scope of this Discourse to be here pretermitted : and it is , That both the Temper of Mind , that makes a Man most proper to be a Virtuoso , and the Way of Philosophising , he chiefly employ's , conduce much to give him a sufficient , and yet well grounded and duly limited , Docility ; which is a great Disposition to the Entertainment of Reveal'd Religion . In the Vulgar and Superficial Philosophy , wherein a Man is allowed to think , that he has done his part well enough , when he has ascrib'd things to a Substantial Form , or to Nature , or to some Real Quality , whether Manifest or Occult , without proving that there are such Causes , or intelligibly declaring , How they produce the Phaenomena , or Effects referr'd to them ; in this Philosophy , I say , 't is easie for a Man to have a great Opinion of his own Knowledge , and be puft up by it . But a Virtuoso , that cannot satisfie Himself , nor dares pretend to satisfie Others , till he can , by Hypotheses that may be understood and prov'd , declare intelligibly the manner of the Operation of the Causes he assigns , will often find it so Difficult a Task to do so , that he will easily discern , that he needs further Information , and therefore ought to seek for it where 't is the most likely to be had ; and not only to Admit , but Welcome it , if he finds it . Besides , the Litigious Philosophy of the Schools seldom furnishes its Disciples with better than Dialectical or Probable Arguments , which are not proper , either fully to satisfie the Person that employs them , or leave his Adversary without any Answer , Plausible at least , if not full as Probable as the Objection ; upon which account , men that have more Wit than sincere Love of Truth , will be able to dispute speciously enough , as long as they have a mind to do so . And as such slippery Arguments are not able to Convince even Him that employs them , if he be a Man of Judgment ; so , if he deals with a witty Adversary , they will leave him able to Elude any Arguments of the like nature , with which he shall be press'd . And in effect we see , That in the Aristotelian Philosophy there are divers Questions , such as , whether the Elements retain their distinct Nature in a mixt Body ? whether the Caelestial Orbs are mov'd by Intelligences ? to omit many others , which are as it were stated Questions ; and as they have been disputed from age to age , are like to continue Questions for many more , if that Philosophy shall last so long . But a Virtuoso , that is wont in his Reasonings to attend to the Principles of Mathematicks , and sound Philosophy , and to the clear Testimonies of Sense , or well verifi'd Experiments , acquires a Habit of discerning the Cogency of an Argument , or way of Probation ; and easily discerns , That Dialectical Subtilties , and School Tricks , cannot shift off its force , but finds more Satisfaction in Embracing a Demonstrated Truth , than in the vain Glory of Disputing subtilly against it . VII . Another thing that may dispose a studious Searcher of Truth , ( not by Speculations only , but ) by Experiments , for Theology , is , that his Inquisitiveness , and Course of Studies , makes him both Willing and Fit to search out and discover Deep and Vnobvious Truths . I have with trouble observ'd , That the greater part of the Libertines we have among us , being Men of Pilate's humor , ( who , when he had scornfully ask'd what is truth ? would not stay for an Answer ) do , with great Fastidiousness , decline the Study of all Truths that require a Serious and Setled application of Mind . These Men are , for the most part , a sort of Superficial and Desultory Wits , that go no further than the Out side of things , without penetrating into the Recesses of them ; and being easily tir'd with contemplating one , pass quickly to another ; the Consideration whereof they , with the same Lightness , forsake . And upon this account , among others , it is , that this sort of Men , tho' often much applauded by others , because the Most are but Superficial , as well as They , do almost as seldom make good Philosophers , as good Christians . For tho' all the good Arguments , that may be brought to evince the Truth of Natural ( and Reveal'd ) Religion , be not Abstruse ; yet some of the chief ones , especially those that prove the Existence and Special Providence of God , and the Souls Immortality , are , if not of a Metaphysical , yet at least of a Philosophical , nature ; and will scarce be clearly understood , and duely relish'd , but by a Person capable of , and somwhat accustom'd to , Attentive and Lasting Speculations , ( as in another Paper has been more fully declar'd . ) But now , a Man addicted to prosecute Discoveries of Truths , not only by Serious Meditation , but by intricate and laborious Experiments , will not easily be deterr'd from effectually prosecuting his End , by the Troublesomness or Difficulties that attend the clearing of those Notions , and Matters of Fact , whereon Solid Arguments for Natural , or Reveal'd , Religion , are founded ; how remote soever those Truths may be from vulgar Apprehensions . In short , whereas a Superficial Wit , such as is frequently found in Libertins , and often helps to make them such , may be compar'd to an ordinary Swimmer , who can reach but such things as float upon the Water ; an Experimental Philosopher may be compar'd to a skilful Diver , that cannot only fetch those things that lye upon the Surface of the Sea , but make his way to the very Bottom of it ; and thence fetch up Pearls , Corals , and other precious things , that in those Depths lye conceal'd from other men's Sight and Reach . We have already seen , that Experimental Philosophy is , in its own nature , friendly to Religion in general . Wherefore I shall now add , That the Reverence I pay Experience , especially as it gives both Grounds and Hints to rational Notions and Conclusions , does not a little conduce to the Assent I give to the Truth of the Christian Religion in particular . This excellent Religion is recommended to well disposed Minds , by a greater Number of Prerogatives , and other Arguments , than it were proper for me to insist on in this Discourse : And yet my Design engages me to consider a few of them somwhat particularly . 1. And first , I shall observe , That , whereas the three grand Arguments , that conjointly evince the Truth of the Christian Religion in general , are ( at least in my opinion ) the Excellency of the Doctrine , which makes it worthy to have proceeded from God ; the Testimony of the Divine Miracles , that were wrought to recommend it ; the great Effects , produc'd in the World by it . Two of these three Arguments ( for the first is of a more Speculative nature ) are bottom'd upon matters of fact , and consequently are likely to be the most prevalent upon those that have a great Veneration for Experience , and are duly dispos'd to frame such pious Reflections , as it warrants and leads them ▪ to make . This last Clause I add , because , though I have formerly more than Intimated somthing of the like Import , yet 't is so necessary to my Design that you should take special notice of it , that I must not here omit to advertise you , That , when , in this Discourse , I speak of an Experimental Philosopher , or Virtuoso ; I do not mean , either , on this hand , a Libertine , tho' Ingenious ; or a Sensualist , though Curious ; or , on that hand , a mere Empirick , or some vulgar Chymist , that looks upon nothing as Experimental , wherein Chymistry , Mechanicks , &c. are not employ'd ; and who too often makes Experiments , without making Reflection on them , as having it more in his aim to Produce Effects , than to Discover Truths . But the Person I here mean , is such a one , as by attentively looking about him , gathers Experience , not from his own Tryals alone , but from divers other matters of fact , which he heedfully observes , though he had no share in the effecting them ; and on which he is dispos'd to make such Reflections , as may ( unforcedly ) be apply'd to confirm and encrease in him the Sentiments of Natural Religion , and facilitate his Submission and Adherence to the Christian Religion . An Experimental Philosopher , thus dispos'd , will , with the Divine Assistance , ( which he will be careful to Implore ) find pregnant Motives to the Belief of Christianity , in the two last of the three Arguments of its Truth , that I lately propos'd . That which is drawn from the Effects of this Religion in the World , as it is last nam'd , so I shall defer the Consideration of it , till I have treated of the other ; namely the Testimony of Divine Miracles , whose Difficulty makes it requisite for us to consider it the more Attentively , and distinctly declare the Grounds , upon which Experience may be esteemed a good Topick on the present occasion . For the clearing of this matter , I shall represent to you , That the word Experience may admit of divers Senses , whereof one is far more comprehensive than another ; and likewise of several Divisions and Distributions . For , besides its more restrained acceptation , it is somtimes set in contra-distinction to Reason , so as to comprehend , not only those Phaenomena that Nature or Art exhibits to our Outward Senses , but those things that we perceive to pass Within our selves ; and all those ways of Information , whereby we attain any Knowledge that we do not owe to abstracted Reason . So that , without stretching the Word to the utmost Extent of which 't is capable , and to which it has been enlarg'd ; it may be look'd upon as so comprehensive a Term , that I think it may be of some importance to my present design , and perhaps to Theology it self , to propose to you a Distribution of Experience , that will not , I hope , be found useless to clear the Extent of that Term. I shall then take the freedom to enlarge the Signification of the Word beyond its commonest Limits , and divide it , for distinctions sake , into Immediate and Vicarious Experience ; or rather somwhat less Compendiously , but perhaps more Commodiously , into Personal , Historical , and Supernatural , ( which may be also styl'd Theological : ) referring the First of the three Members of this distribution to Immediate Experience , and the two others , to Vicarious . I call that Personal Experience , which a Man acquires immediately by himself , and accrews to him by his own Sensations , or the exercise of his Faculties , without the Intervention of any external Testimony . 'T is by this Experience that we know , that the Sun is bright ; Fire , hot ; Snow , cold , and white ; that upon the want of Aliments we feel Hunger ; that we hope for future Goods ; that we love what we judge good , and hate what we think evil ; and discern that there is a great Difference between a Triangle and a Circle , and can distinguish them by it . By Historical Experience , I mean that , which tho' it were personal in some Other man , is but by his Relation or Testimony , whether immediately or mediately , conveyed to us . 'T is by this that we know , that there were such Men as Julius Caesar , and William the Conqueror , and that Joseph knew that Pharaoh had a Dream , which the Aegyptian wise Men could not expound . By Theological Experience , I mean that , by which we know what , supposing there is some Divine Revelation , God is pleas'd to relate or declare concerning Himself , his Attributes , his Actions , his Will , or his Purposes ; whether immediately , ( or without the Intervention of Man ) as he somtimes did to Job and Moses , and Constantly to Christ our Saviour : Or by the Intervention of Angels , Prophets , Apostles , or Inspir'd Persons ; as he did to the Israelites , and the Primitive Christian Church ; and does still to us , by those written Testimonies we call the Scriptures . By Personal Experience , we know that there are Stars in Heaven ; by Historical Experience , we know that there was a new Star seen by Tycho and other Astronomers , in Cassiopaea , in the Year 1572. and by Theological Experience we know , that the Stars were made on the Fourth Day of the Creation . By this you may see , That I do not in this Discourse take Experience in the strictest sense of all , but in a greater latitude , for the knowledge we have of any matter of Fact , which , without owing it to Ratiocination , either we acquire by the Immediate Testimony of our Own Senses and other Faculties , or accrews to us by the Communicated Testimony of Others . And I make the less scruple to take this Liberty , because I observe , that , even in common Acceptation , the word Experience is not always meant of that which is Immediate , but is often taken in a latitude . As when we say , that Experience teaches us , who perhaps were never out of England , that the Torrid Zone is Habitable , and Inhabited ; and persuades learned men , that never had opportunity to make nice Coelestial Observations , that Stars may be Generated and Perish , or at least begin to Appear , and then Disappear , in the Coelestial Region of the World. And on this kind of Historical Experience , consisting of the Personal Observations of Hippocrates , Galen , and other Physicians , transmitted to us , a great part of the Practice of Physick is founded . And the most Rational Physicians reckon upon , as matters of fact , not only what other Physicians have left upon Record , but divers Present things , which themselves can know but by the Relation of their Patients ; as , that a Man has a particular Antipathy to such a thing , which the Doctor perhaps judges fit for him to use ; or that a Woman with Child longs for this or that determinate thing . And Physicians reduce these and the like matters of fact to Experience , as to one of the two Columns of Physick , distinguished from Reason . Since then Learned Men , as well as common Use , confine not the application of the word Experience to that which is Personal , but employ it in a far greater latitude ; I see not , why that , which I call Theological Experience , may not be admitted ; since the Revelations that God makes concerning what he has Done , or purposes to Do , are but Testimonies of things , most of them matters of Fact , and all of them such , as , so far forth as they are merely Revelations , cannot be known by Reasoning , but by Testimony : Whose being Divine , and relating to Theological Subjects , does not alter its Nature , tho it give it a peculiar and supereminent Authority . Having premis'd and clear'd the propos'd Distribution of Experience , it will now be seasonable to consider , how it may be apply'd to the Matters of Fact , that recommend the Credibility of the Christian Religion ; and on this occasion , I shall distinctly offer you my Thoughts , in the two following Propositions . Prop. I. We ought to believe divers things upon the information of Experience , ( whether Immediate , or Vicarious ) which , without that information , we should judge unfit to be believ'd ; or antecedently to it , did actually judge contrary to Reason . This Proposition may be understood , either of Persons , or of Things , and will hold true , as to both . And first , as to Persons ; if your own Observation of what occurs among Mankind do not satisfy you , that we are oblig'd , after sufficient Tryal , frequently to alter the Opinions , which upon probable Reasons we had before entertain'd , of the Fidelity , or Prudence , or Justice , or Chastity , &c. of this or that Person ; I shall refer you to the Records of History , or appeal to the Tribunals of Judges . For both in the one , and at the other , you will find but too many Instances and Proofs from matters of Fact , that Persons look'd on , even by Intelligent Men , as Honest , Virtuous , and perhaps Holy too , have prov'd guilty of Falseness to their Friends , Perfidiousness to their Princes , Disloyalty to their Husbands or Wives , Injustice to their Neighbours , Sacrilege , Perjury , or other Impieties to their God : And in the Courts of Justice , you will find a great part of the Time employ'd to Detect and Punish , not only Civil Transgressions , as Thefts , Cheats , Forgery , False-witness , Adultery , and the like hainous Crimes , perpetrated by those , that , before they were throughly sifted , pass'd for Honest ; but you will find Sins against Nature , such as Sodomy , and other unnatural Lusts , the Murders of Parents by their Children , and Innocent Children by their Parents , nay , Self-murder too ; tho' this be a Crime , which cannot be acted without a violation of what seems the most Universal and Radicated Law of Nature , ( and is acknowledg'd so by wicked Men ) Self-preservation . But it will not be necessary more solicitously to prove , that we ought , upon the Testimony of Experience , to change the Opinions we thought we had rationally taken up of Persons ; and therefore I shall now proceed to make good the Proposition , in the Sense I chiefly intended , which is , as it relates to Things . If Experience did not both Inform and Certify us , Who would believe , that a light black Powder should be able , being duly manag'd , to throw down Stone-Walls , and blow up whole Castles and Rocks themselves , and do those other Stupendous things , that we see actually perform'd by Gun ▪ powder , made use of in Ordnance , and in Mines ? Who would think , that two or three grains of Opium , should so stupify a large Human Body , as to force a Sleep , and oftentimes even without That , suspend the sharpest Torments , in the Cholick , Gout , and other the most painful Diseases , and that in Patients of quite different Ages , Sexes , and Constitutions ; in whom also the Diseases are produc'd by Differing , or even by Contrary , Causes ? Who would believe , that the Poyson adhering to the Tooth of a Mad Dog , tho' perhaps so little as to be scarce discernable by Sense , should be able , after the slight Hurt is quite heal'd , to continue in the warm , and still perspirable , Body of the bitten person , not only for some Days or Months , but sometimes for very many Years ? And after , having lurk'd all that while , without giving any trouble to the Patient , should on a sudden pervert the whole Oeconomy of his Body , and put him into a Madness like that of the Dog that bit him , discovering it self by that ▪ as Admirable as Fatal , Symptom of Hydrophobia ? But , besides a multitude of Instances that may be given of Truths , that , were it not for Experience , we should refuse to believe ; because the small Strength of such Agents , seems altogether disproportionate to the Effects ascrib'd to them : Many other Instances might be alleg'd , wherein we assent to Experience , even when its Informations seem contrary to Reason , and that which , perhaps , we did actually and without scruple take to be True. Since Gravity is the Principle , that determins Falling Bodies to move towards the Center of the Earth ; it seems very rational to believe , with the Generality of Philosophers , that therein follow Aristotle ; That , in proportion as one Body is more heavy than another , so it shall fall to the ground faster than the other . Whence it has been , especially by some of the Peripatetick School , inferr'd , that of two Homogeneous Bodies , whereof one does , for Example , weigh ten pounds , and the other but one pound ; The former being let fall from the same height , and at the same time , with the latter , will reach the ground ten times sooner . But notwithstanding this plausible Ratiocination , Experience shews us , ( and I have purposely try'd it ) that ( at least in moderate heights , such as those of our Towers , and other Elevated Buildings ) Bodies of very unequal weight , let fall together , will reach the Ground at the same time ; or so near it , that 't is not easy to perceive any difference in the Velocity of their Descent . 'T is generally taken for granted by Naturalists , as well as others , that Strong and Loud Noises , as they are heard much farther off than Fainter Sounds , so , if the Sonorous Bodies be equally distant from the Ear , the very Strong Sound will arrive much sooner at it , than the other ; and yet by the Experiments of the Moderns about the Velocity of Sounds , ( in making divers of which , I have endeavour'd to be accurate ) it appears , that Weaker Sounds are ( at least as to Sense ) transmitted through the Air as swiftly as Stronger ones . And indeed , 't is often observ'd , that when Cannons and Muskets are discharg'd together , the Noises of both arrive also together at the Ear ; which would not be , if the Sound of a Cannon were any thing near as much Swifter , as 't is Louder , than that of a Musket . It seems irrational to conceive , that a Smaller and Weaker Loadstone , may draw away a piece of Steel from a Larger and Stronger ; and yet Experience ( which both others and I have made ) evinces , that in some cases , this Paradox is a Truth . It has generally , by Philosophers as well as other Men , been look'd upon as manifest , and consonant to Reason , that Cold condenses Water more or less , according as the degree of the Cold is ; and ( consequently ) that Ice is Water reduc'd into a lesser Volume . But 't is plain , by Experiments carefully made , ( some of which I have elsewhere publish'd ) that by Glaciation , Water is rather Expanded ; or at least , that Ice takes up more room , than the Water did before it was Congeal'd . And of this sort of Instances , where we believe , upon the Authority of Experience , things that are contrary to what we should otherwise judge to be a Dictate or Conclusion of Reason ; I could add many , if I thought it as needful in this place , as in some other Papers , where I have given them already . And now it will be seasonable to put you in mind , that in one part of the Proposition , hitherto discours'd of , it appears , That I design'd to extend the force of the Arguments , grounded upon Experience , to that which is not Immediate , but Vicarious ; that is , not personally our own , but communicated by others ; provided it be competently Attested , and duly Convey'd to Us. There will need but a little Reflection on what is judg'd reasonable , and freely practis'd , by Philosophers themselves , to Justify this Proposition . For how many Conclusions have the Modern Naturalists admitted , tho' not only Abstracted Reason never led Men to make them , but plausible Arguments , and the Notions and Axioms of the most generally receiv'd Philosophy , were repugnant to them . Thus , That in Heaven it self there should be Generations and Corruptions , was not only Unobserv'd before the time of Aristotle , ( who thence argues the Incorruptibility of Coelestial Bodies ) but is Contradicted by his Arguments ; and yet both many others , and I , have seen great Spots ( perhaps bigger than England , or than Europe it self ) Generated and Dissipated on or near the Surface of the Sun ; and several of the Modern Philosophers and Astronomers , having never had the good fortune to see any of these , ( which indeed of late years have but rarely appear'd ) must take these Phaenomena upon the Credit of those that have observ'd them . And much more must they do so , who , in spight of the Vulgar Philosophy , which made all Comets Sublunary , believe , there were Coelestial , and perhaps Firmamentary , Comets . For , that they were above the Concave of the Moon 's Orb , we must believe upon the affirmation of those that observ'd them , which very few have done themselves . And the height of the famous Comet , or Disappearing Star , in Cassiopaea , in the Year 1572. whereon so much stress is laid by our Philosophers and Mathematicians , is admitted and urg'd , chiefly upon the belief they have , not only of Tycho's Veracity , but his Skill in observing the Motions and Phaenomena of that Coelestial Light , and particularly its having no Parallax . In short , the great Architect of Experimental History , Sir Francis Bacon , when he divides it but into three parts , assigns the second of them to what he calls Praeter-Generations ; such as Monsters , Prodigies , and other things ; which being ( as to Us ) but Casualties , all those that happen'd in other Times and Places than we have liv'd in , ( and those will be confess'd to be incomparably more than any of us has personally observ'd ) we must take upon the Credit of others . And yet These , ( vicarious Experiments ) by Suggesting new Instances of Nature's Power , and uncommon ways of Working ; and by Overthrowing , or Limiting , received Rules and Traditions , afford us a considerable and instructive part of Natural History , without which , it would not be either so Sound , or so Compleat . Prop. II. After what has been hitherto discours'd , it may be , I hope , both seasonable and warrantable to advance to , and assert , our Second Proposition ; viz. That we ought to have a great and particular regard to those things that are recommended to our Belief , by what we have reduc'd to Real , tho' Supernatural , Experience . For , 1. 'T is manifest , that the most rational Men scruple not to believe , upon competent Testimony , many things , whose Truth did no way appear to them by the consideration of the nature of the Things themselves ; nay , tho' what is thus believ'd upon Testimony be so Strange , and , setting aside that Testimony , would seem so Irrational , that antecedently to that Testimony , the things at last admitted as Truths , were actually rejected as Errors , or judg'd altogether unfit to be Believ'd . And I must here desire you to consider , that the Points wherein Experience over-rules that , which , before it superven'd , was judg'd to be most agreeable to Reason , concern things merely Natural or Civil , whereof Human Reason is held to be a proper Judge : Whereas many of the Points recommended by Supernatural Experience , concern things of a Superior Order ; many of which are not to be Adaequately estimated by the same Rules with things merely Corporeal or Civil ; and some of which , as the Essence and manner of Existence , and some peculiar Attributes , of the Infinite God , involve or require such a knowledge of what is Infinite , as much passes the reach of our limited Intellects . But this is not all . For , 2. You may consider in the next place , that , whereas 't is as Justly as Generally granted , that the better qualify'd a Witness is , in the capacity of a Witness , the Stronger Assent his Testimony deserves ; we ought of all the things that can be recommended to us by Testimony , to receive those with the highest degree of Assent , that are taught us by God , by the intervention of those Persons , that appear to have been Commission'd by Him to declare his Mind to Men. For the two grand Requisites of a Witness , being the knowledge he has of the things he delivers , and his faithfulness in truly delivering what he knows ; all Human Testimony must on these accounts be inferior to Divine Testimony : Since this ( later ) is warranted both by the Veracity of God , ( which is generally acknowledg'd by those that believe his Existence ) and by his boundless Knowledge ; which makes it as impossible he should be Deceiv'd himself , as the other does , that he should Deceive us . And , because that , for the delivery of the Divine Testimony we are speaking of , it has oftentimes pleas'd God , who is a most Free , as well as a most Wise , Agent , to make use of Unpromising Persons as his Instruments ; I shall not on this occasion altogether overlook this Circumstance , That an Experimental Philosopher so often encreases his Knowledge of Natural things , by what He learns from the Observations and Practises , even of Mean , and perhaps of Illiterate , Persons , ( such as Shepherds , Plowmen , Smiths , Fowlers , &c. ) because they are conversant with the Works of Nature ; that He is not only Willing to admit , but often Curious to seek for Informations from them , and therefore is not like to find much repugnancy in receiving the Doctrines of Reveal'd Religion , such as Christianity , if the Teachers of it were honest Men , and had opportunity to know the Truth of the Things they deliver , tho' they were Fishermen , Tentmakers , or some other Mean Profession . And indeed , ( to enlarge a little upon a Subject that , I fear , has scarce been consider'd ) such a person as our Virtuoso , will , with both great Willingness , and no less Advantage , Exercise himself in perusing , with great Attention , and much Regard , the Writings of the Apostles , Evangelists , and Ancient Prophets ; notwithstanding any Meanness of their First Condition , or of their Secular Employments . And in these Sacred Writings , He will not only readily suffer himself to be instructed in these Grand and Catholick Articles of Religion , which , because of their Necessity or very great Usefulness , are to be met with in many places , and in variety of Expressions , by honest and duly dispos'd Readers : But He will , in stead of Disdaining such Tutors , both Expect , and carefully Strive , to Improve his Knowledge of Divine Things in general , even by those Hints , and Incidental Passages , that a careless or ordinary Reader would Overlook , or not expect any thing from . For , as the Faecundity of the Scriptures is not wont to be enough discern'd , when the Sacred Writers transiently touch upon , or glance at , a great many Subjects , that they do not expresly handle , and that therefore are not vulgarly taken notice of ; so the Docility we have ascrib'd to our Virtuoso , will make him repose a great deal of Trust in the Testimony of Inspir'd Persons , such as Christ and his Apostles , about Things of all sorts , either usually taken notice of or not , that relate to Objects of a Supernatural Order ; especially if among these , God himself , and his Purposes , be compriz'd , since divers of those things are not knowable without Revelation , and others are best known by it . And to be allow'd to ground a Belief about such things , on the Relations and other Testimonies of those that were in the Scripture-Phrase , Eye Witnesses and Ministers of the things they speak of , will by our Virtuoso be justly reputed such an advantage , in order to the Knowledge of things Divine , as the consulting with Navigators and Travellers to America , is , to him that is curious to learn the State of that New-world . For an ordinary Sea-man or Traveller , that had the opportunity with Columbus to sail along the several Coasts of it , and pass up and down thorow the Country , was able at his return to Inform Men of an hundred things , that they should never have learn'd by Aristotle's Philosophy , or Ptolomy's Geography ; and might not only Acquaint them with divers particulars , consonant to the Opinions which their formerly receiv'd Physicks and Cosmography did suggest , but also Rectify divers Erroneous Presumptions and Mistakes , which till then they thought very agreeable to the Dictates of those Sciences , and so to Reason . And , as one , that had a candid and knowing Friend intimate with Columbus , might better rely on His Informations about many particulars of the Natural History of those Parts , than on those of an hundred School-Philosophers , that knew but what they learned from Aristotle , Pliny , Aelian , and the like ancient Naturalists ; so , and much more , may we rely on the Accounts given us of Theological Things , by the Apostles , and constant Attendants of him that lay in the Bosom of God his Father , and Commission'd them to declare to the World the Whole Counsel of God , as far as 't was necessary for Man to know . We know , that Fuller Try al 's are allow'd , among Ingenious Men , to rectify the Informations of the more Imperfect Ones ; and therefore I shall add , that , tho' the Innate Notions and Sentiments , that Nature gives us of the Attributes and Mind of God , be highly to be priz'd ; yet the Informations that Theological Experience affords of those Abstruse things , is far more Excellent and Compleat . For methinks , those great Depths of God may be compar'd to the Depths of the Ocean . And we know , that in the Sea , there are some Abysses so deep , that the Seaman's Sounding-Lines have never been able to reach to the bottom of them ; and where they are not Unfathomable , all we are wont to do by our Soundings , is , to fetch from the bottom some little Gravel , or Mud , or Shells , or some such thing , that sticks to the tallow'd end of the Plummet , and gives us but a very imperfect account of the Bottom , even of the Shallower Parts of the Sea : But if a Skilful Diver be employ'd , he will not only tell us , whether the Bottom be Muddy , Gravelly , or Sandy ; but will be able to give us a kind of Topography of that Submarine Land , and acquaint us with many Surprizing Particulars , that we should never otherwise have Discover'd , or perchance so much as Dream'd of . And peradventure it may be no Hyperbole to say , that the Informations of a Plummet , which reaches not to Some Depths , and brings but a very slender account of Soils that lye in Any , are not more short of those of a Diver , than the Informations Philosophy gives us of some Divine things , are of those compleater Ones that may be had from the Holy Scriptures . And when I remember , how many Opinions about the Submarine Parts , that I , among many other Men , thought Probable , I found cause to Change , upon the Conversation I had with a famous Diver , that sometimes , by the help of an Engine , stay'd several hours at the bottom of the Sea ; I find the less Reluctancy , to suffer Opinions about Divine Matters , that before seem'd probable to me , to be Rectifi'd by the fuller Discoveries made of those things by the Preachers of the Gospel . You may find some things applyable to the Confirmation of what has been newly deliver'd , in an Essay , ( which you may see when you please ) that considers the Bounds and Use of Experience in Natural Philosophy . Wherefore remembring , that , before this late Excursion , I was speaking of Miracles , I shall now resume the Subject , and proceed to tell you , that I have the more insisted upon the Miracles that may be pleaded to recommend the Christian Religion , because I thought , that an Argument grounded on Them is little less than Absolutely Necessary , to Evince , that any Religion that Men believe to be Supernaturally Reveal'd , and consequently that the Christian , does really proceed from God. For , tho' the Excellency of the Christian Doctrine , and other concurrent Motives , may justly persuade me , that 't is worthy and likely to be given by God ; yet that de facto this Doctrine comes from Him by way of Supernatural Revelation , I can scarce be sufficiently Ascertained , but by the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Disciples , to Evince , that the Doctrine they Preach'd , as Commission'd by God to do so , was indeed His , being , as such , own'd by Him. But these Miracles having been wrought ( when 't was most fit and needful they should be wrought ) in the first Ages of the Church ; We , that live at so great a distance from them , can have no knowledge of them by our Own Senses , or Immediate Observation ; but must Believe them upon the account of the formerly mention'd Historical or Vicarious Experience , which is afforded us by the duly transmitted Testimony of those , that were themselves ( to speak once more in an Evangelist's phrase ) Eye-Witnesses and Ministers of the things they relate . And since we scruple not to believe such strange Prodigies , as Celestial Comets , Vanishing and Reappearing Stars , Islands founded by Subterraneal Fires in the Sea , Darkenings of the Sun for many months together , Earthquakes reaching above a thousand miles in length , and the like amazing Anomalies of Nature , upon the credit of Human Histories ; I see not , why that Vicarious Experience should not more be trusted , which has divers peculiar and concurrent Circumstances to confirm it , and particularly the Death that most of the first Promulgators chearfully Suffer'd to Attest the Truth of it , and the Success and Spreading of the Doctrine authoriz'd by those Miracles , and receiv'd chiefly upon their account . To which things , some perhaps would add , that 't is less incredible , that the Author of Nature should , for most weighty purposes , make stupendous Alterations of the course of Nature ; than that Nature her self , for no such end , should by such Prodigies , as are newly mention'd , as it were , throw her self out of her own Course . Miracles being so necessary to the establishment of Reveal'd Religion in general , it may be look'd upon as a farther Disposition in our Virtuoso to receive the Christian Religion , that the Philosophy , he cultivates , does much conduce to enable him to judge aright of those strange things , that are by many Propos'd as Miracles , and Believ'd to be so . For first , the knowledge he has of the Various , and sometimes very Wonderful , Operations of some Natural things , especially when they are skilfully improv'd , and dexterously apply'd by Art , particularly Mathematicks , Mechanicks , and Chymistry , will qualify him to distinguish , between things that are only strange and surprizing , and those that are truly miraculous : So that he will not mistake the Effects of Natural Magick , for those of a Divine Power . And by this well-instructed Wariness , he will be able to discover the Subtil Cheats and Collusions of Impostors ; by which , not only Multitudes of all Religions , especially Heathen , but even Learned Men of most Religions , for want of an insight into real Philosophy , have formerly been , or are at this day , deluded , and drawn into Idolatrous , Superstitious , or otherwise Erroneous , Tenents or Practices . And on the other side , the knowledge our Virtuoso may have of what cannot be justly expected or pretended from the Mechanical Powers of Matter , will enable him to discern , that divers things are not produceable by Them , without the intervention of an Intelligent Superior Power ; on which score he will frankly acknowledge , and heartily believe , divers Effects to be truly Miraculous , that may be plausibly enough ascrib'd to other Causes in the Vulgar Philosophy ; where Men are taught and wont to attribute Stupendous unaccountable Effects to Sympathy , Antipathy , Fuga vacui , Substantial Forms , and especially to a certain Being presum'd to be almost Infinitely Potent and Wise , which they call Nature : For This is represented as a king of Goddess , whose Power may be little less than boundless ; as I remember Galen himself compares it to that of God , and saith , that He could not do such a thing , because Nature cannot ; and Censures Moses for speaking as if he were of another Mind . The whole Passage is so weighty , that I thought fit to direct you to it in the Margent , tho' , to comply with my hast , I forbear to transcribe and descant upon so prolix a One , and add to it divers other Passages that I have met with in famous Authors ; who , for want of knowing the true Extent of the Powers of Matter and Motion , left to themselves in the Ordinary Course of things , Ascribe to Natural Causes , as they call them , such Effects as are beyond their reach , unless they be Elevated by Agents of a Superior Order . I know it may be objected , that the hitherto-mention'd Dispositions , that Experimental Knowledge may give a Man , to Admit the Histories of the Miracles recorded in the Gospel ; and likewise to Expect , that God will be able to perform the Promises and Menaces that are in his name deliver'd there , may be countervail'd by this , That those , who are so much acquainted with the Mysteries of Nature , and her various and strange ways of Working , as a Virtuoso may well be , may by that Knowledge be strongly tempted to think , that those surprizing things that other Men call Miracles , are but Effects of Her Power ; the Extent of which , is not easily discern'd by ordinary Men , nor safely defin'd by Philosophers themselves . But this Objection being plausible enough , to make me think it deserv'd to be seriously consider'd , I took an occasion that was once offer'd me , to examine the validity of it in a Paper by it self : And this being at your command , I shall refer you to it . And I hope , that in the mean time it may suffice to say , That to make it reasonable to judge this or that particular Performance , a Supernatural One , it is not at all necessary , that it surpass the whole Power of Nature , that is , of Physical Agents ; provided , it surpass the power of that Cause , or that complex of Causes , from which , the Effect must in reason , if it be purely Natural or Physical , be suppos'd to have proceeded . As for instance , That a Fisherman or two should speak other Languages than their own , does not at all exceed the power of Nature , if they employ'd a competent time in learning them . But that a great number of Fishermen , and other Illiterate Persons , should all on a sudden become Linguists , and in an hour's time be able to speak intelligibly to a great number and variety of Nations in their respective Languages , as the New Testament relates , that the Apostles and their Companions did on the day of Pentecost : That gift of Tongues , I say , was an Ability , which in those circumstances of Place , Time , and Persons , wherein 't was exercis'd , may justly be concluded to have been Supernatural or Miraculous . I fear you will think , I have dwelt too long upon the Argument for Christianity , drawn from that sort of matters of Fact we call Miracles ; tho' the uncommon way that my Design led me to represent them in , would not permit me to make it out in few words . Wherefore I shall now pass on to another Argument , in favour of the same Religion , that is afforded by Experience , being drawn from the strangely successful Propagation , and the happy Effects of Christianity , in the World. But having formerly had occasion to display this Argument in a separate Paper , which you may command a Sight of , if I shall not have time to annex a Transcript of it to the later Sheets of this First Part of the present Essay , I will refer you for more ample Proof to That Writing , and content my self in this place briefly to touch some of the Heads , and subjoyn a Reflection or two that you will not meet with in that Paper . 'T is a notorious Matter of Fact , that in less than half an Age , the Christian Religion was spread over a great part of the then known World ; insomuch , that in a few Years after it began to be preach'd , the Apostle of the Gentiles could tell the Romans with Joy , that their Faith ( i. e. profession of the Gospel ) was spoken of throughout the whole World. And in the Second Century , Tertullian , and other famous Writers , shew , that the Gospel had already numerous Proselytes , in a great number of different Kingdoms and Provinces . But I forbear to mention , what he and others have magnificently said of the Success of the Gospel , because I had rather refer you to the plain Narratives made of it by Eusebius , Socrates Scholasticus , and other grave Authors ; being of opinion , that mere Historians may give to a Philosophical Reader , a more Advantageous Idea of the Efficacy of that excellent Doctrine , than eloquent Orators , as such , can do . This wonderful quick progress of this Religion being ascertain'd to our Virtuoso , by a Thing he is so much sway'd by , as Experience ; it does not a little dispose him to Believe the Truth of so prevalent a Religion . For , If he considers the Persons that first promulgated it , They were but half a score of Illiterate Fishermen , and a few Tent-makers , & other Tradesmen . If he considers the Means that were employ'd to Propagate this Doctrine , he finds , that they had neither Arms , nor External Power , to Compel Men to receive it ; nor Riches , Honours , or Preferments , to Bribe or Allure them to it ; nor were they Men of Philosophical Subtilty , to intrap or entangle the Minds of their Auditors . Nor did they make use of the pompous Ornaments of Rhetorick , and fetches of Oratory , to inveagle or entice Men ; but treated of the most Sublime and abstruse Matters , in a most Plain and unaffected Style , as became Lovers and Teachers of Truth . If he considers the nature of the Doctrine , that in little time obtain'd so many Proselytes , he will find , that , instead of being suited to the Natural Apprehensions , or the Receiv'd Opinions , of Men ; and instead of gratifying their corrupt Affections , or complying with so much as their Innocentest Interests ; it prescrib'd such Mortifications , and such great strictness of Life , and high degrees of Virtue , as no Legislator had ever dar'd to impose upon his Subjects , nay , nor any Philosopher on his Disciples . And this Doctrine was propos'd in such a way , and was accompany'd with Predictions of such Hardships and Persecutions , that should in those times be the portion of its sincere Professors , as if the Law-giver had design'd rather to Fright Men from his Doctrine , than Allure them to it ; since they could not believe what he said , and foretold , to be true , without believing , that they should be made great Sufferers by that Belief . If our Virtuoso considers the Opposition made to the Progress of the Gospel , he will find cause to wonder , that it could ever be surmounted . For the Heathens , which made by far the greatest part of the World , were deeply engag'd in Polytheism , Idolatry , Magical Rites and Superstitions , and almost all kind of Crimes , and some of these were shameless Debaucheries , which oftentimes made a part of their Worship . And the Jews were by the corrupt Leaven of the Pharisees , and the impious Errors of the Sadduces , and the General Mistakes of the Nation about the Person , Office , and Kingdom , of the Messias ; and by their dotage upon their vain Traditions , and numerous Superstitions , grounded upon them : The Gentiles , I say , and the Jews , who were those that were to be Converted , were , on these and other accounts , highly Indispos'd to be made Proselytes . Especially when they could not own themselves to be such , without exposing their Persons to be hated and despised , their Possessions to be confiscated , their Bodies to be imprison'd and tormented , and oftentimes their Lives to be , in as Ignominious as Cruel ways , destroy'd . And whilst the Secular Magistrates made them suffer all these Mischiefs , the Venerated Priests , the Subtil Philosophers , and the Eloquent Orators , persuaded the World ; that they Deserv'd yet more than they Endur'd ; and employ'd all their Learning and Wit to make the Religion Odious and Ridiculous , as well as the Embracers of it Miserable : Accusing the Martyrs , and other Christians , of no less than Atheism , Incest , and the inhuman shedding and drinking the innocent Blood of Infants . These and the like Matters of Fact when our Virtuoso reflects on , and considers by what unpromising Means , ( as far as they were but Secular ) such seemingly insurmountable Difficulties were conquer'd ; He cannot but by this Historical Experience be inclin'd to think , that Effects , so disproportionate to the Visible Means , could not be brought to pass without the peculiar Assistance and extraordinary Blessing of God : By whom those successful Preachers averr'd themselves to be Commissionated . For , that the Supernatural help , the Christian Doctrine appears to have had , was Divine , not Diabolical , will seem evident to our Virtuoso , from the Nature , Tendency , and Effects , of the Doctrine it self ; which expresly teacheth , that there is but one God ; that He alone is to be Worshipp'd , and not Idols , nor any of the Heathen Daemons or Deities ; that the Devils are Wicked , Apostate , Malicious , and Miserable Creatures , that are Hated of God , and do extremely Hate Mankind ; and that those Vices , as well as Rites of Worship that they have establish'd in the World , were Abominable to God , and would be by degrees Destroy'd by him : As in effect they soon began to be in many places of the World , where the Worshippers of Christ cast the Devil out of His Temples , out of Mens Veneration , & oftentimes out of their Bodies too . One Circumstance there is of the Propagation of the Gospel , which , tho' it may seem more Extrinsecal than those hitherto mention'd , is yet too considerable to be here pretermitted ; since it is this , That the Quick Spreading and Success of the Christian Doctrine in the World , was Foretold both by the Prophets of the Old Testament , and the Author and promulgators of the New. For it being notorious , that there have been divers Errors and Superstitions , that have with too much Celerity been spread far and wide in the World ; either by mere Accidents , ( as they were reputed ) that were very friendly to them , or by the Industry and Artifices of Men : This , I say , being so , it ought to be no small Satisfaction to Equitable Judges , that the Quick Progress , and Notable Effects , of the Christian Religion , were Foretold , partly by the Ancient Prophets , and partly by the Messias and his Apostles . For by these accomplish'd Predictions it may appear , that the wonderful Success of the Gospel was not an Effect of Chance , but was long before determin'd by Divine Providence , as a Work sit to be Dear to God , and to be accomplish'd in a wonderful way by his Peculiar Assistance , ( as will by and by be somewhat more fully declar'd . ) That the Triumphs of the Gospel were Foretold by several of the Old Prophets , may appear by their yet Extant Writings ; some of which are alleg'd to that purpose , by those Writers of the New Testament , that were endow'd with the same Prophetick Spirit . And if you please to consider the Passages cited in the Margent , you will easily grant , that those Ancient Inspir'd Writers foresaw , that in the days of the Messias , there should be a great and notable Conversion of of the Gentiles of several Nations , to the Worship of the only true God of Israel : And tho' God did not think fit , that those Predictions , extant in the Gospel , should be so conspicuous and pompously set forth , that speak of the Conversion that should be made , not only of the Heathen World , but ( of a more ▪ Refractory portion of Mankind ) a great part of the Jewish Nation , to the Christian Doctrine ; yet there are divers Passages in the New Testament , that are Real , tho' some of them Unheeded , Prophecies of the wonderful Progress of the Gospel , and the large Extent of the Kingdom of the Messias . Thus Christ foretold , that his twelve Apostles should be his Witnesses , not only in Judaea and Samaria , but to the uttermost parts of the Earth . And , according to the most probable Explication of that Text , in the 24th of St. Matthew's Gospel , which is usually referr'd to the end of the World , but seems rather to respect the Destruction of Jerusalem ; there is a Prediction , that before the End , ( of the Jewish Polity , as well as the Mosaical Oeconomy ) the Gospel of the Kingdom ( of the Messias ) should be preach'd or proclaim'd in the whole World , ( in that Sense of the term World that was then much in use , and was employ'd by the Evangelist Luke to signify the Roman World or Empire . ) To which may be added , that ten or twelve Fishermen ( called the Apostles ) were sent to Convert all Nations to the Worship of a Crucify'd Person ; which would have been a strange Commission to be given such Men at that time , if their Master , who sent them , had not Foreseen the Success , as well as Known the Truth , of the Doctrine he sent them to Preach . The quick Diffusion of the Christian Faith , and the swift Growth of the Christian Church from despicable Beginnings , to a Greatness very Disproportionate to them , are more than intimated , by what Christ says of the Leaven hid in a great quantity of Meal ; and of the Mustard Seed that quickly grows ( in the hot and fertile Country of Judaea ) to a wonderful Bigness and Height ; since these Passages , that perfunctory Readers look on but as mere Parables , were really Prophecies , that quickly began to be manifestly Fulfill'd . And it may bring no small Authority to the Predictions of the New Testament , that when divers of them were made , there appear'd no Likelihood that they should ever be made good . When a Poor Virgin , that was betroth'd to a Carpenter , confidently pronounces , that all Ages should call her Blessed ; what probability was there , that what she said , should ever come to pass ? And when another Private Woman , then living in a Village , had it foretold her , that a censur'd Action of hers should be reported through the whole World , to her great Praise ; what sober Man , that were not a Prophet , would venture to lose his Credit , by making such a Promise ? And therefore , since we see such unlikely Predictions actually Accomplish'd , it may well convince an unbyass'd Man , that the Authors of them , as well as the ancient Seers , were really endow'd with a truly Prophetick Spirit ; and that the Events by That Foretold , were not Effects of Chance or Policy , but of Divine Providence . I thought it not improper , to make the mention of these Predictions follow so close the Discourse of the Miracles , because true Prophecies of Unlikely Events , fulfill'd by Unlikely Means , are supernatural Things ; and , as such , ( especially their Author and Design consider'd ) may properly enough be reckon'd among Miracles . And I may add , that these have a peculiar advantage above most other Miracles , on the score of their Duration : Since the manifest Proofs of the Predictions continue still , and are as visible as the Extent of the Christian Religion ; and some of them are still more and more accomplish'd , by the Conversions made of multitudes of Infidels , in several vast Regions of America , ( to name no other Countries . ) So that if we may call some Miracles transient ones , such as the Turning Water into Wine at a Wedding-feast in Galilee ; and the Darkening of the Sun , when the Moon was Full , at the Crucifixion of Christ : Accomplish'd Predictions may be styl'd permanent ones ; and their difference may be set forth by the differing States of the Mosaick Manna : For , tho' both that which fell daily ( except on the Sabbath ) in the Wilderness , and that which was laid up in a pot before the Testimony , were Supernatural Productions ; yet , whereas a portion of the Former outlasted not two or three days , That kept in the pot was preserv'd many Ages , and continu'd to be ( as it was foretold it should ) a Visible Miracle . There is another Reason , why the wonderful Propagation of the Gospel should be annex'd to the Argument drawn from Miracles , in favour of the Christian Religion . For the Preachers of it , both Pretended and Appeal'd to Miracles , as Proofs of the Truth of their Doctrine : And if we consider the great Disadvantages they lay under , and the powerful Opposition of all sorts that they met with and surmounted ; it cannot reasonably be thought , that such Unlikely Men should so Succesfully preach so Uninviting a Doctrine , unless it were confirm'd by Conspicuous Miracles . Or at least , if so uneasy and persecuted a Religion was propagated without Miracles , that Propagation it self ( as one of the Fathers well observes ) may justly pass for a Miracle ; and be no less fit than another , to Confirm the Religion so admirably Propagated . The past Discourse has , I hope , manifested , that a Virtuoso has some Helps , that other Men , generally speaking , have not , to make him judiciously approve the Arguments for the Truth of the Christian Religion , that are grounded on the Miracles wrought in its favour , and the wonderful Success of it in the World. But , because a Reveal'd Religion , how true soever it be , can scarce be prov'd but by Moral Demonstrations ; and because for this reason , it is not always sufficient , that the Arguments be good in their kind , but there are some Qualifications requir'd in the Minds of them that are to be Convinc'd by them ; I shall now add , that Experimental Philosophy does also Dispose the Minds of its Cultivaters to receive due Impressions from such Proofs , as Miracles do , as well as other Topicks , afford the Christian Religion . Another thing then that qualifies an Experimentarian for the reception of a Reveal'd Religion , and so of Christianity , is , that an Accustomance of endeavouring to give Clear Explications of the Phaenomena of Nature , and discover the weakness of those Solutions that Superficial Wits are wont to make and acquiesce in , does insensibly work in him a great and ingenuous Modesty of Mind . And on the score of this Intellectual , as well as Moral , Virtue , not only he will be very inclinable , both to Desire and Admit further Information , about things which he perceives to be Dark or Abstruse ; but he will be very unapt to take , for the adaequate Standard of Truth , a thing so Imperfectly inform'd , and Narrowly limited , as his mere or abstracted Reason ; ( as I think I have elsewhere intimated , that One may call That , which is furnish'd only with its own , either Congenite , or very easily and very early Acquir'd , Notions and Idaea's , and with Popular Notices . ) And tho' a vulgar Philosopher , that allows himself to refer the Obscurest things in Nature to Substantial Forms , Real Qualities , Sympathy , Antipathy , and some few other Terms , which , to be employ'd by him , Need not , and perhaps for their darkness Cannot , be clearly Understood ; and by which he pretends to explain all things in Nature ; and may indeed explicate one thing as well as another : Tho' ( I say ) such a Titular Philosopher may presume , that he understands every thing ; and may be easily tempted to think , that he must not hope , nor desire to learn from less able Men than his first Teachers ; and that , That cannot be true , or be done , which agrees not with his Philosophy ; yet a Sober and Experienc'd Naturalist , that knows what Difficulties remain , yet unsurmounted , in the presumedly clear Conception and Explications even of things Corporeal , will not , by a lazy or arrogant presumption , that his knowledge about things Supernatural is already sufficient , be induc'd to Reject , or to Neglect , any Information that may encrease it . And this frame of Mind is a very happy one , for a Student in Reveal'd Theology , where Cautiousness is not more Necessary for the avoiding of Errors , than Docility is Advantageous for the Learning of Truth : Since the knowledge and goodness of the Divine Teacher is such , that a Scholar , to improve his Intellect , needs but bring a Mind fitted to receive the genuine Informations , that are most liberally offer'd , ( in the Scripture ) and will never deceive Him , that employs , together with servent Prayers , a due Care not to mistake the Meaning of them . An assiduous Conversation with the exquisitely Fram'd , and admirably Manag'd , Works of God , brings a Skilful Considerer of them to discover from time to time , so many things to be Feazable , or to be True , which , whilst he argu'd but upon grounds of incompetently Inform'd Reason , he judg'd False or Unpracticable ; that little by little he acquires a Habit of receiving some sorts of Opinions , and especially those that seem unfriendly to Religion , but as Probationers , with a disposition to Reform or Discard them upon further Information . And This , as he is resolv'd to Submit to , in case he meets with it , so he is dispos'd to Receive , if not to Expect it , by having often found himself oblig'd , upon subsequent Information , to mend or lay aside his former Opinions , tho' very agreeable to the best Light he had to judge by , when he entertain'd them . As , tho' it seems a visible Truth , that the Discus of Venus is , in all respects to the Sun , totally Luminous ; yet when the Telescope discovers her to have her Full and her Wane , like the Moon , he will believe this further Observation , against the first made with his Naked Eyes . And indeed , I have sometimes doubted , whether to be vers'd in Mathematicks , and other Demonstrative parts of Philosophy , bring a greater advantage to the Mind , by Accustoming and Assisting it to Examine Strictly Things propos'd for Truths , and to Evince Strongly the Truths a Man knows , to Others ; than by Fitting him to Discern the force of a good Argument , and Submit willingly to Truths clearly evinc'd , how little soever he may have expected to find such Conclusions true . 'T will not be difficult to apply these Reflections to our present purpose ; since there are several passages in the Scripture that sufficiently declare , both that Multitudes persist in a Criminal Infidelity , out of an over-weaning Conceit of their own Knowledge , and a readiness to be sway'd rather by strong Prejudices , than by the strongest Arguments that would remove them ; and , that Docility is a very happy disposition to the Entertainment of Reveal'd Religion : In reference to which , this Qualification will be the more easily found in our Virtuoso ; because , whereas the things , about which he has been accustom'd to be sensible of his Ignorance , or desire further Instruction , are within the Sphere of Nature , and the Jurisdiction of Philosophy ; many of the things that Reveal'd Religion declares , ( such as are the Decrees , the Purposes , the Promises , &c. of God , and his most peculiar manner of Existing and Operating ) are things so Sublime and Abstruse , that they may well be look'd upon as of an higher Order than merely Physical Ones , and cannot be Satisfactorily reach'd by the mere Light of Nature . 'T is true , that our Philosopher , because he is so , will examine more strictly , than Ordinary Men are Wont or Able to do , the Proofs brought for this or that propos'd Revelation . But that is no disadvantage to a Supernatural Religion , such as the Christian ; if it be , as we now suppose it to be , True ; and the real Truth about Religion it self , does not require Credulity , but only Docility . And perhaps this matter may be illustrated , by comparing what happens to a Philosopher in the Examen of Opinions , and to a Chymist in that of Metals . For if a Piece of Coin , that Men would have pass for true Gold , be offer'd to an Ordinary Man , and to a Skilful Refiner ; tho' the later will examine it more strictly , and not acquiesce in the Stamp , the Colour , the Sound , and other Obvious Marks , that may satisfy a Shopkeeper , or a Merchant ; yet when he has try'd it by the Severer ways of Examining , such as the Touchstone , the Cupel , Aqua-fortis , &c. and finds it to hold good in those Proofs , he will readily and frankly acknowledge , that 't is true Gold , and will be more thorowly Convinc'd of it , than the other Person ; whose want of Skill will make him still apt to retain a Distrust , and render him indeed more easy to be Persuaded , but more difficult to be fully Satisfy'd . On the like account ; tho' our Virtuoso will examine with more Strictness and Skill , than Ordinary Men are able , Miracles , Prophecies , or other Proofs , said to be Supernatural , that are alledg'd to Evince a Reveal'd Religion ; yet if the certain and genuine Characters of Truth appear in it , He will be more thorowly Convinc'd of it than a less Skilful Man , whose want of good Criteria , ( or Touchstones ) and Sound Judgment , will incline him to be Diffident , and to be still afraid of having been Impos'd on . I expect , in the mean time , that you should here Object against what has been said in the later Leaves of the past Discourse , that it hath degraded the Human Intellect , by ascribing so much to Experience , Natural or Supernatural , that it has left nothing for Reason to do , unless servilely to Obey . But , tho' this Objection be plausible , yet the Answer to it will not be very difficult , if the Matter it self be duly consider'd , and Reason be brought to act , even on this occasion , not as an Interessed Party , but an Unbyass'd Judge . For we have already shewn , that Rational Philosophers scruple not to Alter or Renounce the Opinions , that Specious Reasons had Suggested to them , when once they either find those Opinions Contradicted by Experience , or meet with other Opinions more Conformable to Experience . And Aristotle himself , tho' he be accus'd to have , perhaps the first of all the Ancient Naturalists , perverted Physicks , by wresting them to a compliance with Logical and Metaphysical Fancies ; yet even He confesses , not only that in the Science of Nature , Reason ought to comport with the Phaenomena , and the Phaenomena with Reason ; but that to adhere to plausible Ratiocinations , with the neglect of Sensible Observations , is a Weakness , or Disease , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) of Mind . I will not here mention what I say in another Paper , by way of attempt to settle the Bounds of Reason and Experience , in reference to Natural Philosophy ; but it may concern our present Argument , to imploy a few Lines in this place , towards the further clearing the lately propos'd Objection . We may observe then , that , whether or no it be True , which is taught by Aristotle , and commonly receiv'd in the Schools , that the Understanding is like Blank Paper ; and that it receives no Knowledge , but what has been convey'd to it through the Senses : Whether , I say , this be or be not admitted , 't is plain , that the Notions which are either Congenite with the Understanding , or so easily and early Acquir'd by it , that divers Philosophers think them Innate , are but very few , in comparison of those that are requisite to Judge aright , about any one of a multitude of things , that occur , either in Natural Philosophy , or Theology . For in the Divine Nature , Power , Wisdom , and other Attributes , there is a Faecundity that has produc'd a World of Contrivances , Laws , and other things , that exceedingly surpass both the Number and Variety , that the dim and limited Intellect of Man could reach to , by framing and compounding Idaea's , without the assistance of the Patterns , afforded by the Works and Declarations of God. On the account of the same Prerogative of the Divine Knowledge , it must frequently happen , that the Notions and Opinions , Men take up , of the Works and Mind of God , upon the mere Suggestions of the Abstracted Reason , ( if I may so call it ) newly spoken of , must not only be almost always very deficient , but will be oftentimes very erroneous . Of which , we see evident proofs in many of the Opinions of the Old Philosophers , who , tho' Men of strong Natural parts , were misled by what they mistook for Reason , to maintain such things about the Works and the Author of Nature , as We , who , by the favour of Experience and Revelation , stand in a much clearer Light , know to be False , and often justly think utterly Extravagant . The Importance of the Subject lately spoken of , and its being too little Consider'd , may make it deserve to be Inculcated ; and therefore I shall subjoyn on this occasion , that That which I have lately call'd Abstracted Reason , is but a narrow Thing , and reaches but to a very small share of the Multitude of Things knowable , whether Human or Divine , that may be obtain'd by the help of further Experience , and Supernatural Revelation . This Reason , furnish'd with no other Notices than it can supply it self with , is so narrow and deceitful a Thing , that He that seeks for Knowledge only within Himself , shall be sure to be quite Ignorant of far the greatest part of Things , and will scarce escape being Mistaken about a good part of Those he thinks he knows . But , notwithstanding what has been hitherto said , I am far from intending to deny Reason any of its just Prerogatives . For I shew in another Paper , that Experience is but an Assistant to Reason , since it doth indeed supply Informations to the Understanding ; but the Understanding remains still the Judge , and has the Power or Right , to Examine and make use of the Testimonies that are presented to it . The Outward Senses are but the Instruments of the Soul , which Hears by the intervention of the Ear , and in respect of which , the Eye it self is but a more Immediate Optical Tube ; and the Sense does but Perceive Objects , not Judge of them . Nor do the more wary among the Philosophers , trust their Eye , to Teach them the Nature of the visible Object ; but only employ it to Perceive the Phaenomena it exhibits , and the Changes that happen to its self by the action of it . And whereas 't is confess'd , that the Sensories may deceive us , if the Requisites of Sensation be wanting ; as when a Square Tower appears Round at a great distance , and a Straight Stick half in the Water , appears Crooked , because of the double Medium ; 't is the part of Reason , not Sense , to Judge , whether none of the Requisites of Sensation be wanting ; which ( give me leave to add ) oftentimes requires , not only Reason , but Philosophy ; and then also 't is the part of Reason to Judge , what Conclusions may , and what cannot , be safely grounded on the Informations of the Senses , and the Testimony of Experience . So that when 't is said , that Experience Corrects Reason , 't is somewhat an improper way of Speaking ; since 't is Reason it self , that , upon the Information of Experience , Corrects the Judgments she had made before . And this ( borrow'd from the foremention'd Paper , because 't was never Publish'd ) prompts me to illustrate the Use of Reason , by comparing her to an able Judge , who comes to Hear and Decide Causes in a strange Country . For the General Notions he brings with him , and the Dictates of Justice and Equity , can give him but a very short and imperfect Knowledge of many things , that are requisite to frame a right Judgment , about the Cases that are first brought before him ; and before he has heard the Witnesses , he may be very apt to fall into Prejudicate Opinions of things , ( whether Persons or Causes . ) But when an Authentick and sufficient Testimony has clear'd Things to him , he then pronounces , according to the Light of Reason , he is Master of ; to which , the Witnesses did but give Information , tho' That subsequent Information may have oblig'd him , to lay aside some Prejudicate Opinions he had entertain'd before he receiv'd it . And what is said of Natural Experience , in reference to the Understanding , may , with due alteration , be apply'd to Supernatural Revelation : For here also the Understanding is to Examine , whether the Testimony be indeed Divine ; and , whether a Divine Testimony ought to be ( as It will easily perceive it should ) Believ'd , in what it clearly Teaches ; to omit other Uses of Reason , ( about Theological Matters ) which belong not to this place ; where it may suffice to have shewn , that Reason is not Degraded from the Dignity that belongs to her , of Perceiving and Judging ; tho' she be Obliged by her own Dictates , to take in all the Assistance she can , from Experience , whether Natural , or Supernatural ; and by the fuller Accounts of things she receives from those Informations , to Rectify , if need be , her former and less mature Judgments . In short , Those that cry up Abstracted Reason , as if it were Self-sufficient , exalt it in Words ; but we that Address Reason to Physical and Theological Experience , and direct it how to Consult them , and take its Informations from them , exalt it in Effect ; and Reason is much less usefully serv'd , by the former sort of Men , than by the later ; since whilst those do but flatter it , these take the right way to improve it . I hope you will not imagine , that I have , in the foregoing part of this Letter , said all that I could say pertinently . For , being mindful of the Brevity becoming an Epistolary Discourse , I omitted several Arguments , that would have challeng'd their places in a just Treatise ; and have but Touch'd upon most of those I have mention'd ; tho' Reasonings of this kind are usually like Tapestry , which loses much by being look'd on whilst the Hangings are Folded up , which should be display'd to their full Dimensions . But having offer'd you some things , which perhaps you have not met with elsewhere ; and having , tho' but transiently , touch'd upon the Grounds of divers other considerable Arguments ; I hope that your Learning and Sagacity , will both Supply what you will discern to have been Omitted , and Enforce what has been but Intimated ; and then I shall not despair , that what I have said may suffice to persuade you , that Experimental Philosophy may greatly Assist a well-dispos'd Mind , to yield an Hearty and Operative Assent to the Principles of Religion . I am , SIR , Your most &c. The End of the First Part. REFLECTIONS UPON A Theological Distinction . According to which , 't is said , That some ARTICLES of FAITH are Above Reason , but not Against Reason . In a Letter to a Friend . In the SAVOY : Printed by Edw. Jones , for John Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard . MDCXC . Advertisement . AFter the Author had begun the Second Part of his Christian Virtuoso , and made some Progress in it , which he designed to continue till he had Compleated it ; he was obliged to leave the Country , where he enjoyed some Leisure , and to remove to London ; where Sickness , and Business , and a Multitude of Visits he could not avoid receiving , did so distract him , that these Remora's , added to the Fertility of the Subjects that remained to be Treated of , which he found much greater than he was at first aware of , made him lay aside the Materials he had prepared for the Second Part , to a fitter Opportunity , and comply with the Occasions he had , to publish some Tracts that required more haste . And 't is for the like Reasons , that having at present some other Essays of a quite differing Nature in the Press , he is obliged to postpone his resuming and finishing the Second Part of the Christian Virtuoso ( which will require more Sheets than the former ) for some longer time ; thô yet to Comply with the Solicitations of the Printer , he consents both to let the First Part come abroad , and ( to make the Book of a more decent size ) add to it , by way of Substitution , a Discourse that is of Affinity enough to the other , upon the account of some of the Points it handles , and more upon that of its Scope ; and that will not be Ill received , if it have the good fortune to find the Publick as kind to it , as Private Perusers have been . For my Learned Friend Mr. H. O. SIR , 1. I Can neither admire nor blame the Curiosity you express , to receive some Satisfaction about the important Distinction that is made use of , in defence of some Mysteries of the Christian Religion ; namely , that they are indeed above Reason , but not against Reason . For though divers Learned Men have , especially of late , employed it ; yet I perceive you and your Friends N. N. think , that they have not done it so clearly , as both to prevent the Exceptions of Infidels , or render them more groundless ; and at least , to obviate the Surmises of those others , who have been persuaded to look upon this Distinction , but as a fine Evasion , whereby to elude some Objections that cannot otherwise be answered . And indeed , as far as I can discern by the Authors wherein I have met with it , ( for I pretend not to judge of any others , ) there are divers that employ this Distinction , few that have attempted to explain it , ( and that I fear , not sufficiently ) and none that has taken care to justifie it . II. In order to the removal of the Difficulties that you take notice of , I shall endeavour to do these Two things : 1. To declare in what sense I think our Distinction is to be understood . And , 2. To prove that it is not an Arbitrary or Illusory Distinction , but grounded upon the Nature of Things . Though I do not desire to impose my Sentiments on any Man , much less on You ; yet because I , as well as others , have had some occasions to make use of the Distinction we are considering ; I think myself obliged , before I go any further , to acquaint you in what sense I understand it . III. By such things then in Theology , as may be said to be above Reason , I conceive such Notions and Propositions , as mere Reason , that is , Reason unassisted by supernatural Revelation , would never have discover'd to us : Whether those things be to our finite Capacities , clearly comprehensible or not . And by things contrary to Reason , I understand such Conceptions and Propositions , as are not only undiscoverable by mere Reason , but also , when we understand them , do evidently and truly appear to be repugnant to some Principle , or to some Conclusion , of Right Reason . IV. To illustrate this Matter a little , I shall propound to you a Comparison drawn from that Sense , which is allow'd to have the greatest Cognation with the Understanding , which I presume you will readily guess to be the Sight . Suppose then , that on a deep Sea , a Diver should bid you tell him , What you can see there ; That which you would answer , would be , that you can see into a Sea-green Liquor , to the depth of some Yards , and no further : So that if he should farther ask you , Whether you see what lies at the Bottom of the Sea , you would return him a Negative Answer . If afterwards the Diver letting himself down to the Bottom , should thence bring up and shew you Oysters or Muscles with Pearls in them ; you would easily acknowledge , both that they lay beyond the reach of your Sight , and consequently argued an Imperfection in it ; thô but such an Imperfection , as is not Personal but Common to you with other Men , and that the Pearls have the genuin Colour and Lustre , that naturally belongs to such Gems . But if this Diver should pretend , that each of these Pearls he shews you , is as large as a Tennis-Ball , or some of them bigger than the Shells they were inclos'd in , and that they are not round but cubical , and their colour not White or Orient , but Black or Scarlet ; you would doubtless judge what he asserts , to be not only ( or not so properly , ) undiscernable by your Eyes , but contrary to the Informations of them , and therefore would deny what he affirms . Because , that to admit it , would not only argue your Sight to be Imperfect , but False and Delusory ; thô the Organ be rightly qualified , and duly applied to its proper Objects . V. This Illustration may give you some superficial Notion of the Difference betwixt a thing 's being above Reason , and its being contrary to it . But this may better appear , if we consider the Matter more distinctly . And to offer something in order to this , I shall beg leave to say , that , in my Opinion , the things that may be said to be above Reason , are not all of One sort , but may be distinguish'd into Two kinds , differing enough from each other . VI. For it seems to me , that there are some Things , that Reason by its own Light cannot Discover ; and others , that , when propos'd , it cannot Comprehend . VII . And First , there are divers Truths in the Christian Religion , that Reason left to itself , would never have been able to find out , nor perhaps to have so much as dream'd of : Such as are most of Those that depend upon the Free Will and Ordination of God , as , That the World was made in six Days , That Christ should be Born of a Virgin , and That in his Person there should be united Two such infinitely distant Natures as the Divine and Human ; and That the Bodies of Good Men shall be rais'd from Death , and so advantageously chang'd , that the Glorified Persons shall be like , or equal to , the Angels . VIII . Of this kind of Theological Truths , you will easily believe , that 't were not difficult for me to offer divers other Instances ; and indeed there are many Truths , and more I think than we are wont to imagine , that we want Mediums , or Instruments to discover , thô , if they were duly propos'd , they would be intelligible to us : As , for my part , when by looking on the Starry Heaven , first with my naked Eyes , and then with Telescopes of differing Lengths , I did not only discry more and more Stars , according to the Goodness of the Instruments I imployed , but discover'd great Inducements to think , that there are in those inestimably remote Regions , many Celestial Lights , that only the Want of more reaching Telescopes conceal from our Sight . IX . And thus much I presume you will close with the more easily , because it disagrees not with the Sentiments of some few ( for I dare say not , many ) Orthodox Divines . But I must take leave to add , that besides these mysterious Truths , that are too remote , and hidden , to be Detected by Human Reason ; there is another sort of Things , that may be said to be above Reason . X. For there are divers Truths delivered by Revelation , ( contained in the Holy Scriptures , ) that not only would never have been found out by mere natural Reason ; but are so abstruse , that when they are proposed as clearly , as proper and unambiguous Expressions can propose them in ; they do nevertheless surpass our dim and bounded Reason , on one or other of those Three accounts that are mentioned in a Dialogue about things transcending Reason ; namely either , as not clearly conceivable by our Understanding , such as the Infiniteness and Perfections of the Divine Nature ; or inexplicable by us , such as the Manner , how God can create a rational Soul ; or how , this being an immaterial Substance , it can act upon a Human Body , and be acted on by it ; ( which Instance I rather chose , than the Creation of Matter , because it may be more easily proved ) or else asymmetrical , or unsociable ; that is , such , as we see not how to reconcile with other Things , which also manifestly are , or are by us acknowledged to be , true ; such as are the Divine Prescience of future Contingents , and the Liberty that belongs to Man's Will , at least in divers Cases . XI . It will not perhaps be improper to observe , on this occasion , that , as of Things that are said to be above Reason , there are more kinds than one ; so there may be a Difference in the Degrees , or , at least , the Discernableness , of their Abstruseness . XII . For some things appear to surpass , or distress , our Understandings , almost as soon as they are propos'd , at least , before they are attentively look'd into . As , what is said to be Infinite , either in Extent or Number . But there are other things , the Notions whereof , as they first arise from the things considered in gross , and as it were indefinitely , are such , as do not choque or perplex our Understandings ; and are so far intelligible , that they may be usefully employ'd in ordinary Discourse . But when we come to make a deep Inspection into these , and prosecute to the uttermost the successive Inferences that may be drawn from them ; we reason our selves into Inextricable Difficulties , if not flat Repugnancies too . And to shew you , that I do not say this gratis ; be pleas'd to consider with me , that , we usually discourse of Place , of Time , and of Motion ; and have certain general indeterminate Conceptions , of each of these ; by the help of which , we understand one another , when we speak of them ; Thô , if we will look thorowly into them , and attentively consider all the Difficulties , that may be discover'd by such an Inspection ; we shall find our Reason oppress'd by the Number and Greatness of the Difficulties , into which we shall argue ourselves ; or , at least , may be argued by others ; thô these Men , who do make such shrewd Objections against the Hypothesis , we embrace , will hardly be able themselves to pitch on any , that will not allow us to repay them in the same coin . XIII . What has been newly said , may , I hope , assist us to clear a Difficulty , or Scruple , ( about the Distinction we treat of , ) which since it sprung up in my own Mind , may very probably occur also to your Thoughts ; namely , That if any Theological Proposition be granted to surpass our Reason ; we cannot pretend to believe it , without discovering , that we do not sufficiently consider what we say : Since we pretend to exercise an act of the Understanding , in embracing somewhat that we do not understand , nor have a Notion of . XIV . But on this occasion we may justly have recourse to a Distinction , like That I have lately intimated . For , in divers cases , the Notions , Men have of some Things , may be different enough , since the one is more obvious and superficial , and the other more Philosophical or accurat . And of these Two differing kinds of Conceptions , I have already offer'd some Instances in the very differing Notions , Men have of Place and Time : Which , thô familiar Objects , I elsewhere shew to be each of them of so abstruse a Nature , that I do not wonder to find Aristotle himself complaining of the Difficulty that there is to give a clear , and unexceptionable , Notion of Place ; nor to find so acute a Wit as St. Austin , ingenuously confessing his Disability to explicate the Nature of Time. XV. And what is said of the great Intricacies , that incumber a deep Scrutiny into these familiar Objects of Discourse , will hold , as to the Divisibility of Quantity ; as to Local Motion ; and as to some other Primary things ; whose Abstruseness is not inferior in Degree , thô differing as to the Kinds of things , wherein it consists . XVI . By such Instances as these , it may appear , that without talking as Parrots , ( as your Friends would intimate , that those that use our Distinctions must do ; ) or as irrational Men ; we may speak of some Things that we acknowledge to be on some account or other above our Reason ; since the Notions we may have of those Things , however dim and imperfect , may yet be of use , and may be in some measure intelligible , thô the Things they relate to , may , in another respect , be said to transcend our Understanding ; because an attentive Considerer may perceive , that something belongs to them , that is not clearly comprehensible , or does otherwise surpass our Reason ( at least in our present State. ) XVII . Having dispatch'd the Objection , that requir'd this Digression : I shall now step again into the Way , and proceed in it by telling you , that any one apposite Instance may suffice to clear the former part of the Expression that is imploy'd , when 't is said that a Mystery , or other Article of Faith , is above Reason , but not contrary to it : For if there be so much as one Truth , which is acknowledg'd to be such , and yet not to be clearly and distinctly comprehensible , it cannot justly be pretended , that to make use of the Distinction we are treating of , is to say something , that is not intelligible , or is absurd . And it will further justify the Expression quarrelled at , if we can make it appear , that it is neither Impertinent or Arbitrary , but grounded on the Nature of Things . And this I shall endeavour to do , by shewing , that though I admit Two sorts of Things , which may be said to be above Reason , yet there is no necessity , that either of them must ( always ) be contrary to Reason . XVIII . As for the first sort of Things said to surpass Reason , I see not , but that Men may be unable , without the Assistance of a more knowing Instructer , to discover some Truths ; and yet be able , when These are revealed or discovered to them by that Instructer , both to understand the disclosed Propositions by their own Rational Faculty , and approve them for True , and fit to be embraced . The Intellect of Man being such a bounded Faculty as it is , and naturally furnished with no greater a stock or share of Knowledge , than it is able by its own Endeavours to give itself , or acquire ; 't would be a great Unhappiness to Mankind , if we were obliged to reject , as repugnant to Reason , whatever we cannot discover by our own natural Light ; and consequently , to deny our selves the great Benefits we may receive from the Communications of any higher and more discerning Intellect . An Instance to my present purpose may be found among Rational Souls themselves , though universally granted to be all of the same Nature . For , thô a Person but superficially acquainted ( for Example ) with Geometry , would never have discovered by his own Light , that the Diameter of a Square is incommensurable to the Side ; yet when a skilful Mathematician dextrously declares , and by a Series of Demonstrations proves , that noble Theorem ; the Disciple by his now instructed Reason will be able , both to understand it , and to assent to it : Insomuch , that Plato said , that he was rather a Beast than a Man that would deny it . XIX . Other Instances may be alledged to exemplify the Truth newly mentioned . And indeed , there is not so much as a strong Presumption , that a Proposition or Notion is therefore repugnant to Reason , because it is not discoverable by It ; since it is altogether extrinsecal and accidental to the Truth or Falsity of a Proposition , that we never heard of It before ; or that we could never have found It out by our own Endeavours ; but must have had the Knowledge of It imparted to us by another . But then this Disability to find out a thing by our own Search , doth not hinder us from being able by our own Reason , both to understand it when duly proposed , and to discern it to be agreeable to the Dictates of right Reason . To induce you to assent to the later part of this Observation , I shall add , that these Intellectual Assistances may oftentimes not only enlighten , but gratify , the Mind , by giving it such Informations , as both agree with its former maimed or imperfect Notices , and compleat them . When , for example , an antique Medal , half consumed with Rust , is shewed to an unskilful Person , though a Scholar ; he will not by his own Endeavours be able to read the whole Inscription , whereof we suppose some parts to be obliterated by Time or Rust ; or to discover the Meaning of it . But when a knowing Medalist becomes his Instructer , he may then know some ( much defaced ) Letters , that were illegible to him before , and both understand the Sense of the Inscription , and approve it as genuine and suitable to the Things , whereto it ought to be congruous . And because divers Philosophical Wits are apt , as well as you , to be startled at the name of Mystery , and suspect , that because it implies something abstruse , there lyes hid some Illusion under that obscure Term : I shall venture to add , that agreeably to our Doctrine we may observe , that divers things that relate to the Old Testament , are in the New called Mysteries , because they were so under the Mosaick Dispensation ; thô they cease to be so , now that the Apostles have explained them to the World. As the calling of the Gentiles into the Church of God , is by their Apostle called a Mystery ; because , to use his Phrase , it had been hid from Ages and Generations : Though he adds , But now 't is made manifest to his Saints . And the same Writer tells the Corinthians , that he shows them a Mystery , which he immediately explains , by foretelling , that all pious Believers shall not dye , because that those that shall be found alive at the coming of Christ , shall not sleep , but be changed ; as the other Dead shall be raised incorruptible . Which surprising Doctrine , though because it could not be discovered by the Light of Nature , nor of the Writings of the Old Testament , he calls a Mystery ; yet it is no more so to us , now that he hath so expresly foretold it , and therefore declared it . XX. Other Instances I content myself to point at in the Margin , that I may pass on to confirm the Observation I formerly intimated ; that divers things which the Scripture teaches beyond what was known , or ( in probability ) are discoverable by natural Light , are so far from being against Reason , by being ( in the sense declared ) above it ; that these Discoveries ought much to recommend the Scripture to a rational Mind ; because they do not only Agree with the doubtful or imperfect Notions we already had of things , but Improve them , if not Compleat them . Nay , I shall venture to add , that these Intellectual Aids may not seldom help us to discern , That some Things , which not only are above Reason , but at first sight seem to be against it ; are really reconcileable to Reason , improved by the new Helps , afforded it by Revelation . To illustrate this by a Philosophical Instance , when Gallileo first made his Discoveries with the Telescope , and said , That there were Planets that moved about Jupiter ; He said something , that other Astronomers could not discern to be True , but nothing that they could prove to be False . And even when some Revelations are thought not only to transcend Reason , but to clash with it ; it is to be considered , Whether such Doctrins are really repugnant to any absolute Catholick Rule of Reason , or only to something , which so far depends upon the Measure of acquired Information we then enjoy , that , though we judge it to be Irrational , yet we are not sure , that the Thing , this Judgment is grounded on , is clearly and fully enough known to us . As , to resume the former Example , when Gallileo , or some of his Disciples , affirmed Venus to be sometimes Horned like the Moon ; thô this Assertion were repugnant to the unanimous Doctrine of Astronomers , who thought their Opinion very well grounded , on no less a Testimony than That of their own Eyes ; yet in effect the Proof was incompetent , because their unassisted Eyes could not afford them sufficient Information about this case . And so , when Gallileo spoke of Hills and Valleys , and Shadows , in the Moon , they were not straight to reject what he taught , but to have , if not a kind of implicit Faith , yet a great Disposition to believe what he delivered , as upon his own Knowledge , about the Figure and Number of the Planets . For they knew , that he had , and had already successfully made use of , a Way of discovering Coelestial Objects , that they were not Masters of ; nor therefore competent Judges of all the Things , though they might well be of many , that he affirmed to be discoverable by it . And though they could not see in the Moon what he observed , ( Valleys , Mountains , and the Shadows of these ) yet they might justly suspect , that the Difference of the Idea that they framed of that Planet , and that which he proposed , might well proceed from the Imperfection of their unaided Sight ; especially considering , that what he said , of the differing Constitution of what is there analogous to Sea and Land , did rather Correct and Improve , than absolutely Overthrow , their former Notices . For he allowed the Spots they saw , to be darker Parts of the Moon , and gave Causes of that Darkness ; which their bare Eyes could not have led them to any such Knowledge of . And the Non-appearance of the Mountainous Parts of the Moon in that form to the naked Eye , might well be imputed to the great Distance betwixt them and us , since at a far less Distance square Towers appear round , &c. XXI . It now remains , that I say something , that may both make some Application of the Form of Speech hitherto discoursed of , and afford a Confirmation of the Grounds whereon , I think , it may be justified . This I am the rather induced to do , because I expect it will be objected , that he that acknowledges , that the Thing he would have us believe , transcends our Reason , has a Mind to deceive us , and procures for himself a fair opportunity to delude us , by employing an Arbitrary Distinction , which he may apply as he pleases . XXII . But to speak first a word or two to this last Clause ; I acknowledge , that such a Distinction is capable enough of being misapplied : And I am apt to think , that , by some School-Divines , and others , it has been so . But , since there are other Distinctions that are generally and justly received by Learned Men , and even by Philosophers themselves , without having any Immunity from being capable to be perverted ; I know not , why the Distinction , we are considering , should not be treated as favourably as they . And however , the Question at present is not , whether our Distinction may possibly be misapplied by rash or imposing Men ; but whether it be grounded on the Nature of Things . To come then to the Thing it self , I consider , that for an Opinion to be above Reason , in the sense formerly assigned , is somewhat , that ( as was noted in reference to the first sort of Things , that surpass it ) is Extrinsecal and Accidental to its being True or False . For to be above our Reason , is not an Absolute thing , but a Respective one , importing a Relation to the Measure of Knowledge , that belongs to the Human Understanding , such as 't is said to transcend : And therefore it may not be above Reason , in reference to a more enlightned Intellect ; such as in probability may be found in Rational Beings of an higher Order , such as are the Angels ; and , without peradventure , is to be found in God ▪ Whom , when we conceive to be a Being Infinitely perfect , we must ascribe to him a perfect Understanding , and boundless Knowledge . This being supposed , it ought not to be denied , that a Superior Intellect may both comprehend several Things that we cannot ; and discern such of them to be congruous to the fixt and eternal Idea's of Truth , and consequently agreeable to one another , as dim-sighted Mortals are apt to suspect , or to think , to be separately False ; or , when collated , Inconsistent with one another . But to lanch into this Speculation , would lead me farther than I have time to go . And therefore I shall content my self to offer you one Argument , to prove , That of Things that may be said to be above Reason , in the Sense formerly explained , it is no way impossible , that even such an one should be true , as is obnoxious to Objections not directly answerable . For I consider , that of Things above Reason , there may be some which are really contradictory to one another , and yet each of them is maintainable by such Arguments , as very Learned and Subtle Men do both Acquiesce in , and Enforce , by loading the Embracers of the opposite Opinion , with Objections they cannot directly answer . XXIII . This I take to be manifest , in the case of the Controversy about the endless Divisibility of Quantity ; as , suppose , of a straight Line . For many eminent Mathematicians , and a greater number of Naturalists , and in particular almost all the Epicureans , and other Atomists , stifly maintain the Negative . The Affirmative is nevertheless asserted , and thought to be Mathematically demonstrated , by Aristotle in a peculiar Tract ; and both by His School , and by several excellent Geometricians besides . And yet in reality , the Assertions of these Two contending Parties are truly Contradictory ; since , of necessity a straight Line proposed must be , at least mentally , divisible , into Parts that are themselves still further divisible ; or , it must not be so , and the Subdivisions must at length come to a stop . And therefore one of the opposite Opinions must be true . And 't is plain to those , that have , with competent Skill and Attention , impartially examined this Controversy , that the side that is pitched upon , whichsoever it be , is liable to be exposed to such Difficulties , and other Objections , as are not clearly answerable ; but confound and oppress the Reason of those that strive to defend it . XXIV . I have , Sir , the more largely discoursed of the foregoing Distinction ; not only , because I did not find my self to have been prevented by others ; but , because I look upon the explaining and justifying of it to be of Importance , not alone to the Defence of some Mysteries of the Christian Religion , but ( what perhaps may have escaped your Observation ) of some important Articles of Natural Theology it self . For though Natural Religion taught divers Heathen Philosophers , such Truths as these , viz. The Production of the Rational Soul or Mind , which is an Immaterial Substance ; the Formation of the World out of the Universal Matter , though this Action required , that an Incorporeal Substance gave Motion to a Body ; that God knows Men's Thoughts and Intentions , how carefully soever they strive to hide them ; and that God foreknows the Events of the free Actions of such Men , as are not to be born these many Ages ; though , I say , these , and some other Sublime , Truths , were by divers Men embraced before the Gospel began to be Preached ; yet when I attentively consider , how hard it is to conceive the Modus of these Things , and explain how some of them can be performed ; and also , how some of the Divine Attributes , as Eternity , Immensity , Omnipresence , and some others , belong to God ; and how some Actions , as the Moving of Bodies , and the Creation of Human Minds , with all their Noble Faculties , are Exercis'd by Him : When I consider such Things , I say , I acknowledge , that , to my apprehension , there are some Doctrine allowed to have been discovered by the mere Light of Nature , that are liable to such Objections from Physical Principles , and the setled order of Things corporeal ; as , if they be urged home , will bring those that are Ingenuous to acknowledge , that their Intellects are but dim and imperfect , and indeed disproportionate to the sublimest and most mysterious Truths ; and that they cannot perfectly comprehend them ▪ and answer all the Difficulties that incumber them ; though they find themselves obliged to admit them , because of the weighty Positive Reasons , that recommend those Heteroclite Truths to their Assent . XXV . If you should now tell me , that , after all I have said , 't is plain , that the question'd Distinction ▪ if it were granted , might be of very bad consequence ; as affording shelter to any Unintelligible Stuff , that some bold Enthusiast , or conceited Philosophizer , may obtrude under the Venerable Title of a Mystery , above the Jurisdiction of Reason ; and , that though the Distinction were admitted , it would not be a good Proof of any disputed Article of the Christian Religion : If , I say , this shall be objected , I shall answer , ( what in part is intimated already ) That I do not deny , but that our Distinction is liable to be ill employed , but that this is no other Blemish than what is common with it to divers other Distinctions , that are without scruple Admitted , because they are useful ; and not Rejected , because they have not the Privilege , that they can never be misapplied : And therefore , both in reference to those Distinctions , and to That we have been Treating of , it becomes Men to stand upon their Guard , and strictly examine , how far the Notion , or Doctrine , proposed as a Mystery , does require , and is entituled to , the benefit of this Distinction . I shall also readily grant the greatest part of the second Member of your Objection . For I think it were great Weakness in a Christian , to urge our Distinction as a positive Proof : Since , thô it be Extrinsecal to an abstruse Notion , to be , or not to be , above Reason ; ( as was just now noted to another purpose , ) yet , generally speaking , that Abstruseness is less fit to bring credit to a Conception , or a Doctrine , than 't is to make it to be distrusted . Nor are Christians such fond Discoursers , as to pretend , That such an Article of Religion ought to be believed , Because 't is above Reason , as if that were a proof of its Truth ; but only , that if it be otherwise well proved , it ought to be believed , Notwithstanding its being above Reason . XXVI . And this I shall represent in favour of those that believe these abstruse Articles , that are clearly revealed in the Scripture , upon the Authority of the Divine Revealer ; ( who never deceives Others , nor can be Himself deceived , ) that since , as we have lately shewn by the contradictory Opinions about the Divisibility of Quantity , some Doctrines must be true , whose Difficulties do not appear to be surmountable by our dim Reason ; and since the Perfectness of God's Knowledge permits us not to doubt , but that He certainly knows which of the two Contending Opinions is the True ; and can declare so much to Men : It would not be a sure ground of rejecting a Revealed Article , to alledge , that 't is encumber'd with confounding Difficulties , and lyable to many and weighty Objections . XXVII . And , ( to add somewhat that may help to defend some Truths of Natural , and others of Revealed , Religion ) That a thing may be rationally assented to , upon clear positive Evidence , though we cannot directly answer the Objections , that a Speculative and Subtle Wit may devise against it ; is a Truth , which , as important as it is to Religion in general , and the Christian Religion in particular , I think one may sufficiently manifest by this one Instance , That , because we can walk up and down , and so remove our Bodies from Place to Place , by this one Argument , I say , we are justly satisfied , that there is Local Motion in the World , notwithstanding all the Specious and Subtle Arguments , that Zeno and his Followers have employed to impugne that Truth : Against which , they have alleged such Difficulties , as have not only puzzled and perplexed , but ( for ought yet appears ) nonplus'd the Antient Philosophers , and , I doubt , those Moderns too , that have attempted to give clear Solutions of them . XXVIII . If now , Sir , we look back upon what hath hitherto been discoursed , I hope you will allow me to gather thence the Conclusion I aim at , which is , that There is no necessity , that every Notion or Proposition that may be found deliver'd in the Holy Scriptures , that surpasses our Reason , must therefore be contradictory to it : And that , in case the Christian Religion be True , and it's Mysteries or other Articles divinely Revealed ; 't is not enough , for the Confutation of any of them , to reject the Expression , that 't is above Reason , but not contrary to it ; as if it involved an unintelligible or groundless Distinction : For thô This will not evince the Truth of a Mystery , since That must be Establish'd upon its proper Grounds and Arguments ; yet it will keep it from being Therefore Absurd or False , because it transcends our Reason : Since to do so , may belong almost indifferently to a Chymerical Notion , and a Mysterious Truth . And if the Expression be employed to justify any thing , that , thô styl'd a Mystery , is but a pretended One ; the Error will lye , not in the Groundlesness of the Distinction , but the Erroneousness of the Application . I am , SIR , Your most &c. FINIS . Greatness of Mind , PROMOTED BY CHRISTIANITY . In a LETTER to a Friend . The First Part. LONDON , Printed by Edward Jones , for John Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard . MDCXCI . To my honoured Friend Sir R. M. SIR , I Do not wonder , that a great Soul , like yours , should enquire , What aspect Religion , and particularly that of Christians , has upon Greatness of Mind : But , I confess , I somewhat marvel , that you should be put upon the Enquiry , by the Suggestions of such a Libertine as Mr. N. N.'s confidently pretending , that his Atheistical and Sensual Principles are much more friendly , than the Doctrines of Christianity , to a noble Frame of Mind . Wherefore I dare not permit the Sense I have of my own Weakness , how great and just soever , to keep me from presenting you with my Thoughts ; and the rather , because I presume you are not indisposed to receive a Satisfaction in this Point , since you seem to expect it from a Pen that is no better than mine ; which , you well know , must not be , on this occasion , assisted by the Arguments and Ornaments , that the fine Sentences of the Fathers , and other Divines and Humanists , might afford to a Person that were at leisure , and furnished with a Library . Yet I shall not much , either excuse , or deplore , my being so ill accommodated for the Task you impose upon me ; because as you seem to desire but my own Thoughts , so I know not , whether common Place-books would afford me any great Assistance on so uncommon a Theme ; and , I confess , that , when the Matter will bear it , I , as well as you , do less care for Authorities , especially taken from Discourses , designed rather to Persuade than Prove , in comparison of those Arguments , that are suggested by a due Consideration of the Nature of the Thing . But yet , I presume , you will readily give me leave to do that frequently enough , which your Friend , perhaps , will call Preaching . For besides that , your Desires , and my Haste , confine me to the Bible and my own Thoughts ; the frequent Citation of Texts of Holy Scripture is exacted by the Nature of the Question I am to handle : it being necessary , for the evincing of the Doctrines of Christianity , not to be inconsistent with Greatness of Mind , that we as well consider , What those Doctrines are , which sure will be best declared by the Scriptural Texts that contain them , as What are the Attributes of Greatness of Mind . CHAP. I. TO proceed then with some Method , as well as much Brevity , I conceive , it will be no unfit Way to come to a Resolution in our Inquiry , if I First set down and enumerate the chiefest Things , that , in the estimation of Intelligent Men , do , as if they were so many Ingredients , make up what we call Magnanimity or Greatness of Mind , That not being a single Starr , but a Constellation of elevated and radiant Qualities ; and then shew , that Religion , especially That of the Christians , is , at least , consistent with each of these , if it do not also promote it . But in this Enumeration , thô I shall , ex abundanti , take in some Qualities , that are not Essential to Greatness of Mind , but rather Accessions to it ; yet I shall not scrupulously distinguish those Things that are necessary to compleat it , and Those that are partly some of them Signs , and some of them Effects of it ; hoping from your Equity , that these additional Things will be thought to make full amends , if , through Haste or Mistake , I should chance to have omitted any Property , that you may judge to belong to the true Notion of Generosity . I shall , in the following Discourse , take it for granted , ( and I hope I need not tell you , that I do so ) that as we think not Masons , but Jewellers , fit to judge of the Genuineness and Value of precious Stones ; so you will allow me to take the Notion and Measures of Greatness of Mind , not from the Opinions of the Injudicious Vulgar , but the Judicious Estimates of Reason , improv'd by Philosophy , and enlightn'd by Natural Theology . I know , the undiscerning Multitude , whose Judgment seems rather lodg'd in the Eye than in the Brain , when they hear Men name Greatness of Mind , are apt to fancy Something , that , like the Coronation of a King , is attended with Pomp and Splendor , and a numerous Train of Gazers , and the loud Acclamations of the People . And , at least , when mention is made of an Heroick Soul , they imagine , that it cannot be but in a great Commander , like a Roman Emperor , or a Tartarian General , that leads and defeats Armies , and desolates whole Countries , and leaves them Peopled only with Carkasses . But Reason and Religion , that look on Human things with Eyes untroubled by those pompous Outsides that dazle the Vulgar , can easily see a vast Difference betwixt Greatness of Fortune and Greatness of Mind . And not only Christianity teaches , that God , who is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Respecter of Persons , Acts 10. and 34. 2 Sam. 14. and 14. Sees not Persons as Man sees them ; and that a thing that is sublime amongst Men , may be an Abomination to Him : But Philosophers themselves can easily distinguish betwixt that real Greatness , that truly belongs to the Man , and that Theatrical one , that Fortune may have annext to his Condition . And , thô they pay a peculiar Honor and Respect to great Virtue in Sovereigns , rather than in Subjects , because in the former , 't is more diffusively beneficial , and cannot last without resisting stronger Temptations ; yet , they do not think , that a great Empire always either finds , or makes , a great Soul. And if Dignities , how high soever , be attain'd by mean Submissions , or weak Actions , they think this extrinsecal Greatness can no more make a mean Soul Great , than high Stilts can make a Dwarf a proper Man. Perhaps , they look upon Many , who , for making a great Bustle and Noise in the World , are , by themselves , and the shallow Vulgar , thought great Spirits , but as Gnats , that are in themselves small and worthless Creatures , and are really considerable for Nothing , save the Noise and the Stings wherewith they are able to disturb Mens Rest . That lucky Monarch , that overcame so great a Part of the then known World , and conquer'd Countrys , faster than one would have thought he could have travell'd over them , has this Character given of his stupendious Exploits , by the Roman Historian , that all he had done , was , That he durst well despise despicable things . And in a Poet of the same Nation , this is his Elogy , Faelix Terrarum Praedo non utile mundo , Editus Exemplum . And if such Persons as They , had so little Respect for so great a Monarch , that was a lawful Sovereign ; what Liberty , think you , do Philosophers allow themselves , who so little value the Favourites of Fortune , for their being so that even such as those prosperous Usurpers , Phocas , &c. that her Fondness , and the Applause of a Multitude , ( as blind , perhaps , as She is painted ) have seated in the Throne ; Philosophers , in their Thoughts , do as well doom to a Scaffold , as Religion does to Hell. And certainly , True Greatness of Mind must be something that both Resides in the Soul , and is Perfective of it ; neither of which Properties belong to any thing that Fortune can bestow : and all that outward Greatness can do , is not to make a Soul Great , but to afford one that is , the opportunity of shewing itself to be so . And all these Submissions and Respects that Custom , or Fear , or Interest make Men pay to those , whom , only their Titles , or their Places , or their Power makes Great ones , do as little argue or increase the real worth of those envied Persons , as the standing for more than formerly in an account , turns a Brass Counter into Silver or Gold. And as no less skill in Arithmetick is requir'd , to Multiply , &c. a thousand Farthings than a thousand Guinea's , thô one of the latter , be worth almost a thousand of the former ; so the ordering or disposing of all things according to the best Rules , and after the best manner they are capable of , may argue no less Greatness of Mind in a private Man , than is exercis'd by a Great Monarch , in those Actions that attract the Eyes , and busie the Tongues , of Nations . And as it usually speaks a Man a better Artist to make a Pocket-Watch , than a great Town-Clock , all the Advantage the later has of the former , consisting in the Greatness of the Matter that is wrought , and not that of the Skill , that is display'd : So it sometimes happens , that those Productions of Virtue argue a greater Soul , that make , by far , a lesser Shew and Noise . And you may remember , not only , that Socrates , notwithstanding his private , and even necessitous , Condition , was by the Oracle preferr'd to all the Grecians , when Greece was the Theatre of generous Minds : But , that a far truer Oracle than That of Delphos , pronounc'd the poor Widows Mind , and Circumstances , to have made her Mite a greater Liberality , than all that the Rich Man had bestow'd upon the Corban . And it is the Sentence of no worse a Judge than Salomon . Let us not then from the mean Notions of the Vulgar , and the fond Opinions of common Souls , take our Estimates of so sublime and extraordinary a Quality , as Greatness of Mind . For many Things , to which they give not only their Approbation , but their Applause , are , and ought to be , as little esteem'd , if they be condemn'd by the Wise , as a piece of Brass Money , that has long past currant among the People , ought to be thought good Gold , when Refiners and Say-masters have declar'd it counterfeit . And if you ask me , What Notion then of Greatness of Mind , I am willing to allow , I shall freely tell you , that , in my apprehension , the Man that has a Great Mind , is he that uses his utmost moral Diligence to find out what are the best Things he can do , and then , without being deterr'd by Dangers , or discourag'd by Difficulties , does resolutely and steadily persue them as far as his Ability and Opportunities will serve ; and This out of an Internal Principle of Love to God and Man , and with a sincere Aim , to Glorify the one , and Benefit the other . CHAP. II. BUT , before I descend to Particulars , it will not be amiss to take notice of one Consideration , that may , in general , make it probable , That the Christian Religion is rather favourable , than opposite , to true Magnanimity . That this Argument may make somewhat the more Impression , I shall , thô very briefly , observe that the Aspects , both of the Author , the Rules , the Aims , or Scopes , and the Rewards of Virtue , as 't is recommended by Christianity , have a great and direct tendency to Elevate it , and make it Heroick . And first , the prime Author of the Doctrine of the Gospel being GOD himself , who both knows Man perfectly , and is mentioned in Scripture as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Lover of Mankind ; 't is but reasonable to suppose , that the Doctrines and Laws he caused to be solemnly delivered to Mankind , and confirmed by Miracles , and whose System is , in the Apocalypse , honoured with the Title of The Everlasting Gospel , ( i. e. ) not to be succeeded by a more perfect Institution , as the Mosaick Law was by That ; should be fitted to beget and advance solid and sublime Virtue , and be more , than any other Institution , Perfective of Human Nature . Next , the Rules , and ( if there be any such ) the Counsels of the Christian Religion require , and tend to , extraordinary degrees of Virtue : The Divine Legislator , being able to look into the Hearts of Men , makes his Laws reach Those , and Those principally , too . The loving GOD with all our Hearts , with all our Minds , &c. and our Neighbour as our selves , as comprehensive as those two grand Principles of Virtue are , is by our Saviour made the Summary of the Moral Law , and adopted into the Gospel ; the cleansing ourselves from all Filthiness , both of Flesh and Spirit ; and the abstaining from all kind , or appearance , of Evil , are the Negative Parts of the Christians Duty ; and for the Positive Parts , we are plainly told , That unless our Righteousness exceed that boasted one of the Scribes and Pharisees , we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . We are urged to grow in Grace , to add to our Faith , Virtue , and to That , a whole Train of excellent Qualities . And , for fear any such thing should be thought to be purposely omitted , because left unmentioned , this general Exhortation is given us ; Finally , my Brethren , whatsoever things are true , &c. But there is yet a more aspiring Path of Virtue trac'd us out in the Gospel , where it proposes to us the Example of Christ , as One , whose Steps we are to tread in : For not only that Divine Person never committed any Sin , neither was Guile found in his Mouth ; but the Supreme and Omniscient Judge , God Himselfe , Declared , by a Voice from Heaven , his full Approbation both of his Person and his Doctrine , when he said , This is my beloved Son , in whom I am well pleased , hear he him . And his Sinless Life , which was a Living Law , did not only surpass the Examples , but even the Precepts and the Idea's too , of the Heathen Moralists and Philosophers , as may be elsewhere shewn . And the becoming a serious Disciple of so Perfect and Divine a Teacher , does itself so engage a Man to renounce his former Vices , that when St. Paul had dissuaded his Romans from divers other Vices , instead of exhorting them to the contrary Virtues in particular , he only desires them , in general , to put on the Lord Jesus Christ , as a comprehensive Durty , which contain'd in it all the Virtues , he declin'd to enumerate . Thirdly , but thô he calls us to high Degrees of Virtue , yet he does not to Unattainable ones ; For , thô Philosophy wisely forbore , thô not always to commend , yet to injoyn , things disproportionate to Human Infirmities ; yet , he may well be allow'd to engage us to more than Human Virtues , that by his Divine Assistances , if they be duly sought , is always ready to inable us to acquire and practise Them. Of his Fulness , says St. John , We have all received , and Grace for Grace ; ( i. e. ) either Graces answerable to His , as the Faculties of a Child's Mind , are to Those of a Perfect Man ; or , Grace upon Grace , ( i. e. ) an Accumulation of Graces heaped upon one another ; which may keep you from wondring , that St. Paul should dare to say , That he could do all things thorow Christ that strengthned him . And where his Invitations meet with an honest and a willing Mind , his Commands do not only Chaulk out the Way , but Give Strength to walk in it ; and he usually , does by his Spirit , such a kind of Work , as he sometimes did miraculously by his Power , when he at once bid , and enabled , a Paralytick Person that wanted Strength to stir from his Bed , to rise and walk . And when , having commanded St. Peter to walk to him upon the Sea , he enabled him securely to tread upon the Waves ; thereby Approving and Rewarding the excellent Notion that Disciple had , That the Command of Christ was a sufficient Cause to put him upon Action , thô a Miracle were requisite to carry him thorow with it . Fourthly , The Rewards propos'd to Virtue and Piety , by the Christian Religion , do exceedingly tend to animate and heighten Them ; whether we consider the Recompences the Gospel propounds in this Life , or those that it promises in the Next . The great present Rewards of Virtue , are , you know , the Approbation of Good Men , and the Applause of a Man 's own Conscience . The First of these is as well attainable by Christian Hero's , as by any other ; for Virtue loses neither its Worth , nor Amiableness , by being Baptiz'd ; and thô in some Times and Places lesser Degrees of it may be disregarded , or traduc'd , yet , generally speaking , the greater Degrees of it will either invite , or extort , Mens Esteem . Among the Roman Persecutors , the exemplary Lives and Constancy of the Primitive Christians , brought it to be Proverbially said , That such a Man was a good Man , saving that he was a Christian ; and , Soli Christiani mortis contemptores , was usually in Heathen's Mouths . There are divers Qualities , and those more press'd by the Christian , than any other , Institution , that have in them so much of Native Loveliness , that St. Paul might justly say of them , That he that exercises himself in them , is , generally speaking , both ceptable to God , and approv'd by Men. Nor did those Virtues that recommended the Great Constantine , whilst he was a Gentile , lose their Lustre , or the Veneration they procured him , when he turn'd Christian , and practis'd them with higher Aims , than that of satisfying Himself , and pleasing his People . And as for the Reward of a good Conscience , which was able to make Hercules undergo all his Labors ; and made all the other Hero's of the Gentile World ; I think , it will not be doubted , but that this inward Recompence is received , not only without any Defalcations , but with great Improvements , by him , whose Virtues flow from Religion . For , to him the Applauses of Conscience may well be more acceptable than all the various sorts of Musick , that Solemniz'd the Dedication of Nebuchadnezar's Golden Image , since in him Conscience does not , as in mere Natural Men , act only the Part of a Domestick Judge , but That of a Delegate from God himself ; and its Absolutions are less welcome , as they are Approbations of Reason , than as they are the Pledges of Gods Acceptance , and of that higher Reward that will be consequent to it in the Life to come . For these Joys , that are plac'd on the other side of the Grave , are much the Noblest part of the Recompence of Virtue , and proportionable Incitements to the Practice of it ; and yet , on the account of future Rewards , the Christian has much greater Motives to Heroick Virtue , than the Heathen Moralist , or Philosopher . For , the posthume State of Man is so dim and uncertain , that we find even the greatest Men , among the Heathens , speak very doubtfully , and not without Ifs and And 's , of a future State , and much more of a future Happiness , as may be instanc'd in Socrates , Cyrus , Seneca , and many others ; so that they rather seem'd to have Wish'd , or Hop'd , than Believ'd , their future Felicity : And , I fear , that many of them , finding that happy State describ'd chiefly by the Poets , reckon'd it among Poetick Fictions . And those that did , though but waveringly , expect Recompences in the Life to Come , had but poor and mean Idea's suggested to them of it ; the Hopes they were entertain'd with , being of Fortunate Islands and the Elysian Fields , which are not so Transcendent as to make a diffident Man very forward to quit the Gardens of Epicurus , that he has here in Possession , upon the doubtful hopes of other Gardens in Elysium . Whereas , to excite the Christian to an Heroick Degree of Virtue , he is not allow'd to Hope , but Commanded to be intirely Confident of passing out of this World into a Place , to which the Poets Elysium is much more Inferior , than the Possession of a Garden is to That of an Empire . To attempt the Description of that Coelestial Happiness , would be , contrary to my Inclination , to launch out into a Common Place ; and were a Work , that if my Haste did not , my Disability would , dissuade me from : And therefore , though it be a State made up of the Confluence of all sort of Things rationally Desireable ; yet , having only said in general of all the other Goods that it comprizes , that the Scripture tells us , That Eye has not Seen , nor Ear Heard , nor the Heart of Man Conceiv'd , what God has laid up for them that Fear him : I shall particularly take notice only of those Parts of this Inestimable Reward , that may peculiarly concern my present purpose , by being the chief Things that Heroick Souls are wont to Aspire too ; a Good Name , Honour , and Dignity . To have a Good Name for Good Actions , cannot but be a very desireable Thing , the Applause of Wise and Good Men , being a loud Eccho from without , that , by repeating it , confirms the Approbation given by the Conscience within . But though to do Virtuous and Worthy Actions be the best and likeliest way of acquiring a Good Name , yet 't is not a certain one : For , such is the Ignorance , the Malice , or the Enmity of a great many , that no Man is sure to escape being Mis-represented , or Traduc'd ; as , we see , that the Sublimity , the Brightness , and the regular Courses of the Stars themselves , could not hinder wanton Poets , or fanciful Astronomers , from giving those Luminous Constellations the Names not only of the Nobler Beasts , as the Lyon , the Eagle , and the Whale ; but even of Animals that lie under an ill Name , as the Dog , the Goat , and the Scorpion . And though it be true , that oftentimes Innocency long Clouded , does , like Lightning , break out at last ; yet oftentimes too , that happens not till Malice and Envy are Dead , because the maligned Person is so ; by which means he does not Live to know he is justified ; and many , if not all , of those mis-inform'd Men are Dead and gone for whose good Opinion he was chiefly concern'd . But though the Christian may , as well as any other , be Traduc'd by Calumny , which often serves good Men , ( as the Heathen Persecuters did the Martyrs , when they exposed them to the Peoples view , cloath'd in the Skins of Beasts , to make them hideous and hateful ; ) yet he is justly cheared by the Assurance he has , that there will come a Time when opprest and disfigur'd Innocency shall shine forth and triumph , and his good Name , as well as his Body , shall have a Glorious Resurrection , even in the Sight of his Accusers and Enemies , and of all those whom their Slanders did either prevail with , or startle . For at that great and general Assize , to which there shall be a far greater Confluence , than the Assyrian Monarch drew to the Plains of Babylon , the Heroick Disciples of the Apostles will be able to say , upon happier terms than the Apostles themselves did here below , that they are made a Spectacle to God , to Angels and to Men. And in that Illustrious Assembly , of the First Born , whose Names are written in Heaven , being present , the Men , not only of all Nations , but of all Ages too , the Vizards shall be as well taken off , as the Masques ; and the formerly traduc'd Saints , being welcom'd with the Title of Good and Faithful Servants , shall solemnly be acquitted by the Sentence , not of a Fallible , or partial , Judge , but of an Infinite and Supreme One , That searches the Hearts and Reins , and cannot be Deceiv'd or Brib'd ; and , to be sure , that the injur'd Saint shall come off with Honour enough , he shall then be Absolv'd by being Crown'd . This Celestial Crown comprehending , in the Scripture Dialect , both the remaining Parts of the Christians Reward , Honour and Dignity , or Glory , and Preferment ; it will be pertinent to mention some Advantages that giveit an high Preference about the Crowns of Monarchs here below . And First , Earthly Crowns may somtimes be the Fruits and Recompences of Worth and Virtue , but are not at all the proofs of them . They are usually the Gifts of Nature , and , not unfrequently , of Fortune ; and History gives us cause to wish , they were more seldom the Acquists of Crimes . But the Celestial Crowns proclaim , thô not the Merit , the Worth of them that receive them , being never adjudg'd but to Such , whom previous Graces and Virtues have fitted and qualified for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light. Besides , as an Earthly Crown may be acquir'd without Merit , so it may be possess'd without Happiness . And if Crimes be made Steps to a Throne , they prove so many Thorns to him that sits on it , who is there a more Illustrious , not a less tormented , Malefactor . The Sublimity of a Throne , as little as the Height of a Scaffold , keeping a Criminal Person from feeling the punishments inflicted on him there . As may appear by the instance of Herod Agrippa , whose Throne , and glistering Habit , which Josephus takes notice of , thô they procur'd him not only the Acclamations , but Adorations , of the dazled Multitude , could not protect him from the incens'd Justice of an higher King than he ; so that whilst others treated him as a God , he found himself one of the most miserable of Men , and was fain to hasten from a Seat , which occasion'd , but could not protect , his Impiety . But a Coelestial Crown , as it is graciously bestowed for the Supream Recompence of Virtue , and on that account may be called a Crown of Righteousness ; so it always proves a Blessing as inseparable from Happiness , as a Thing is from it self . The Crowns of this World , by the very advantage of being Hereditary , shew , that they cannot preserve the Possessors from Death . But the Crown , I speak of , is by the Divine Bestower of it , called , A Crown of Life ; and of it , in respect of other Crowns , may be truly said , what Solomon said of Wisdom , in reference to other Goods , That the Excellency of it is , that it gives Life to the owner thereof . And though Earthly Crowns be such Transitory Things , that we may observe , that even the Four great Monarchies of the World were by God represented to Nebuchadnezar , but as parts of a Dream , whereas the Kingdom promis'd to Christians , is called in the Scripture , A Kingdom that cannot be moved , as the Believers Crown is , in opposition to those fading Crowns of Lawrel , that adorn'd the Heads of the Roman Conquerors , called an unwithering Crown of Glory : As if the Lawrel plac'd on the Christians Head , could grow and flourish in the Wreath , better than it did on the Tree . But all that I have yet said is Inferior to this last Prerogative of the Coelestial Crown , that it does not only confer a relative Dignity or Preeminence , but an essential Worth and Excellency ; as if the Diamonds , which adorn'd that Crown , should impart their own Sparklingness , Transparency , and Incorruptibility , to the Person that wears it . The highest Preferments here below do raise a Man above others , without raising him above himself . By being at the top of a Ladder , a Man comes to an higher Station , but is not really taller than he was ; and a Vane , by being plac'd on the top of the highest Steeple , is not from Iron turn'd into Gold or Silver , but remains still of the same base Metal it was , and is but a Weather-Cock , and so the Sport of the Winds . But a Coelestial Crown is always attended with a Personal Improvement , befitting so high a Dignity . The Heavenly Coronation has a Virtue like That of the Unction of Saul , who , upon his being made King , was inabled to Prophecy , and was turn'd into an other Man. And the Resemblance holds in this too , that Christ is said , to have made his Redeemed ones , not only Kings , but Priests to God and his Father , as if the Kingly Dignity were not enough , unless the Sacred Character of a Priestly Office were added . Congruously to which , St. Peter calls Christians , in general , a Royal Priesthood ; the Understanding , the Will , the Affections , are all refin'd and elevated ; and the very Body itself is transformed into a Spiritual Body . As if the Glorify'd Soul did shine , with an undiminish'd Splendor , through its happily chang'd Mansion . And we may well suppose , that this will be a Bright and Noble Structure , if we remember , that the Angels , who , in their Apparitions to good Men , were wont to be very careful not to frighten them , did yet appear with a Majestick Splendor ; and that Angel that the Apostles saw in our Saviours Sepulchre is represented as a young Man cloathed in a long white and shining Garment . And we are told by St. Paul , that , in the future State , our vile Bodies shall be transform'd into the likeness of his Glorious Body ; and how Glorious it is in Heaven , we may guess , by what it was at his Transfiguration here on Earth , during which , the Scripture relates , That his Face did shine as the Sun , and his Raiment was white as the Light. And of Moses and Elias , thô they came to speak to him of his Death , 't is added by St. Luke , That they also appear'd in Glory . And since our Saviour has assured us , That those shall be accounted worthy of that State , shall be like , or equal to the Angels ; And that then the Righteous shall shine like the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father , who knows , but that the Transfigur'd Soul and Body of some happy Saint may be as Glorious a Sight , as that which appear'd to St. John in the Apocalyps , when he saw an Angel standing in the Sun ? If it be said , that these are very bold Hyperbolies , I hope the Texts , I have mention'd , will keep them from seeming altogether groundless Conceits . And , when among other excellent Prerogatives , that our Saviour promises the persevering Beleivers , One is , That he will give them Power over the Nations , and to Rule them with a Rod of Iron ; and the Other , which may well be the last , is exprest in these words . To him that overcometh , will I grant to sit with me in my Throne , even as I evercame , and am set down with my Father in his Throne . And thô I readily yield , that these Expressions are not to be and literally , taken ; yet , when I consider the infinite Power , and Goodness , of God ; and that , for ought we know , he may have numberless Dominions , and Setts of Governable Creatures , that we are yet strangers too ; I think , God's Attributes , and Christ's Expressions , may warrant us to expect amazing things from him that is Able , and has Declar'd himself Willing , to do for us above what we can ask , or , in our present State , so much as think . And , at least , that will be allow'd me , which I drive at in this Celebration of our future Happiness , that the Christian Religion , by proposing such inestimable Rewards , presents Beleivers with far higher Motives to Heroick Virtue , than Morality , or Philosophy , can afford other Men. Advertisement . THe Author being desir'd to add yet something to the foregoing Discourses , to give the Book they make Parts of , a Thickness more proportionate to its Largeness ; he did among other Papers of his , that he turn'd over in Compliance with that request , light upon an Epistolary Discourse , which by its very being unfinish'd , seem'd ( by reason of its shortness ) the more fit to serve the present turn . For this Tract having been drawn up in a Countrey , whence the Author was oblig'd to remove , before he had made any considerable Progress in his Work ; he was easily induc'd to put it up in a Bundle of other Writings , which , like this , were laid aside till he should be at much leisure to compleat them . But upon the newly mention'd occasion , finding that among divers loose and lesser Memoirs , that had been thrown together in order to the design'd Treatise , there were 15 or 20 Pages at the beginning that were Coherent enough ; he was content they should attend the Christian Virtuoso , because of the affinity of the things design'd in both the Papers ; which being to recommend the Christian Religion to worthy Souls , 't was congruous enough that a Discourse which shews , That the Christian Religion may very well consist with a Philosophick Genius ; should be accompany'd by another that tends to manifest , That Greatness of Mind , which comprizes uncommon degrees of Virtue , is not only Consistent with Christianity , but may be highly Promoted by it . Those that reflect on this Aim , will not ( 't is hop'd ) think it strange , that the Style is a little Rais'd ; since tho' the Subject be Theological , yet the Writer , ( who was then many Years Younger than he now is ) being a Person of Honour , and writing for a Noble Gentleman , who , like himself , was a Layman ; 't was thought not only Allowable but Fit , that the Style should not be altogether unsuitable to the Subject and to the Aim : which was to make Impressions on an Illustrious Person , not by dry Precepts , or Languid Discourses , but by exciting him to Heroick Virtue , by the Noblest Patterns and Ideas , and the most moving Incentives , he could propose . And tho' the Discouragements lately mention'd , and since increas'd by the Authors not being able to find some of the principle Materials he had , in loose Sheets , provided for the following Discourse ; oblige him to lay aside the thoughts of Compleating it ; yet because 't is very possible that some Elevated Soul may have a Mind to prosecute the design , or Cultivate so noble a Subject ; he thought it not amiss ( as little Samples of his Method or Way of Treating it ) to Subjoyn to the greater Fragment , besides the Index of the Heads of Discourse , intended for the First Part , 5 or 6 Lesser Fragments that he lighted on , whilst he was seeking for some Papers belonging to the same Tract , that should have been , but were not , found in their Company . CHAP. III. TO have high Aims and Noble Designs , is so Genuin a Mark , and Effect of Greatness of Mind , that there is not any more generally acknowledged ; insomuch that Ambition , tho' it be but a Depravation or a Counterfeit of this Heroick frame of Mind , does yet so dazzle the Eyes of the greater part of Men , as to pass for Magnanimity ; and Noble Attempts do oftentimes , even when they fail of Success , not miss of Esteem . — Magnis tamen excidit ausis , was meant for an Encomium by him that said it . And I remember that one of the Ancients reckons it among the Glories of that Great Captain , Hannibal , who long successfully disputed , with the Romans , the Empire of the World , that he resolved to Besiege Rome , tho' he never prov'd able to lead his Army within the Sight of her Walls . Now , as to have Elevated Aims is one of the chief Signs , and indeed Parts , of an Heroick temper of Mind ; so , there are no men that seem to me to have Nobler and Sublimer Aims , than Those to which a true Christian is Encouraged ; since he aspires to no less things than to please and glorify God ; to promote the Good of Mankind ; to improve , as far as is possible , his Personal Excellencies in this Life ; and to secure to himself for ever a glorious and happy Condition in the next . CHAP. IV. ONE of the grand Difficulties , that he , who would be highly Virtuous , must expect to surmount and Conquer , especially in such a Degenerous age , as ours , is the Temptation that is afforded by the Universality of vitious Customs and Examples . I wish 't were needless , solicitously to prove , either how great an Influence Examples , especially bad ones , have on the generality of Men ; or how general bad Examples have been in most Ages , and in particular in That we live in . The Scandal given by bad Examples , tho' it be one of the most obvious Temptations , is none of the least dangerous . For Interest , Bashfulness , and that very Complaisance and Civility , that is so usually found in well-bred , or good-Natur'd , Persons , makes them very unwilling to offend or disoblige the Company they live with ; and whom they have several Inducements rather to please and gratify by imitation and compliance , than tacitly to reproach by Nonconformity to their Sentiments , and Practices . And , in effect , we find , that many that could not be perverted by the Frowns and Threats of the Vitious , have been Debauch'd by their Company and Example . Against this powerful Temptation , Religion strongly arms it's Hero , both by Precepts and Precedents . Thou shalt not follow a Multitude to do Evil , was the Express Command of the Mosaic Law. Say not thou a Confederacy to all , to whom this People shall say a Confederacy , was the Command of God to his Prophet . Our Saviour makes it an Argument to dissuade his Disciples from an anxious Solicitude about Meat and Drink and Cloathing , that after all these things the Gentiles ( which are by far the most numerous part of Mankind ) do seek . And , upon the same ground , he endeavours in the same Divine Sermon upon the Mount to keep them from Vain Repetitions in Prayer . And , whereas it may seem an Immodesty to dare to dissent from others , that vastly surpass us in number ; the Heroick Conqueror of Canaan speaks thus to the whole Body of the Victorious Jewish Nation , that they may choose to serve whom they thought fit , and worship either the Gods whom their Fathers served , or those Worshipp'd by the Neighbouring Nations , but as for me and my House , we Will serve the Lord , Be you not conformed to this World , says St. Paul. And another Apostle , speaking of himself and the true Christians of his time , scruples not to affirm it passionately and roundly , We know that we are of God , and the whole World lies in Wickedness . Nor does Religion furnish us with Precepts only , to disobey Custom , and Example , but with Precedents too , of which there are Three so illustrious , that I know not how to pass them by . The First is afforded by Lot , who lived in a place , that was grown so Proverbial for the Height of Wickedness , that to aggravate their Sins by the most Hyperbolical Comparison , we must liken them to themselves ; and they were grown so wicked , that in a place where an admirable Plenty , and an unbounded Libertinisme could not but make them very populous , there could not be found half a Score of good Men , the generality of that cursed People being fallen so much not only from Virtue , but from common Honesty , that they did not restrain themselves so much , as to Human Vices . And yet , even the Sins of Sodom , which cryed so loud as to reach Heaven , and bring down Fire and Brimstone from thence , disturbed Lot's Quiet , without destroying his Innocence , and an Apostle assures us , that , that just Man was but vex'd with the filthy Conversation of the wicked , not prevail'd with in the least to imitate it . The Next Instance of a Religious Courage , inflexible to bad Examples , is afforded us by the three Friends of Daniel , who , at the great Solemnity of the Dedication of Nebuchadnezars Golden Image ; when they had , besides that great and stern Monarchs Command , the Example not only of many Men but many Nations , and a more numerous Assembly of Persons , considerable for Quality and Dignity , than the World ever saw before or since , singly opposed their Naked Constancy to the haughty Tyrants Menaces , and the prostrate World's Example . And yet these Men were Courtiers , bred among that supple sort of fine Creatures ; that were as accustom'd to bow their Consciences , as their Knees , to their proud Master . They had not only Lives to lose , but the chief Dignities of the Province of Babylon , then the Queen of Nations . And they could not upon their refusal quit the stateliest Palace in the World , without immediately changing it for a burning Fiery Furnace . The Last Instance I shall name , and the most illustrious that can be named , is , that I am supplied with by Noah , he lived in an Age , in which there were as many Hainous Sinners almost as there were Men , thô Vice has generally had a Benjamins Portion , in the Distribution of Mankind betwixt It and Virtue , yet , Methusala excepted , the Inequallity was grown such , as gave Vice rather a Monopoly than a Share of Men ; or if a Distribution were to be admitted , 't was such a one , as That made of Saul and his Army , when all the people were on one side , and only he and Jonathan on the other : 'T is strange , that when the World was so recent , that many , that were then alive might remember and converse with one , that for two hundred Years liv'd contemporary with Adam , ( for so we may gather Methusala to have done ) Men should so soon forget all Sentiments of Piety . But yet in Noah's time , the World could not be compared to its present State , where thô it be Night in one place , 't is Day in another ; but to the state of Tohu va Bohu , or the first Chaos , where Darkness was over the face of the Universal Deep . For the Scripture tells us , That all Flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth , that every Imagination of the thoughts of Mans Heart was only evil continually . And tho' Noah's Family were saved with him in the Ark , yet it may be doubted , whether that were a certain token of their being untoucht by the general Contagion . For that wonderful Vessel contain'd Beasts clean and unclean , harmless and rapacious , and in it were saved Wolves as well as Lambs , and Vultures as well as Doves . And where God gives the Reason , why he vouchsafed to receive Noah and his House into the Ark , he Expresses it thus ; For thee have I seen Righteous before me in this Generation , without making mention of any of his Family . Nor , was the Wickedness of the Antediluvian World more Universal than it was Great ; that Mungrel breed were guilty of Sins as Gigantic as Themselves . The Text says , that the Earth was filled with Violence through them ; and those Impious Rebels against their Maker broke the Laws of Nature with an Insolence , that provoked him to break off the course of Nature to punish them , since nothing less than an Universal Deluge of Water could place Limits to such an impetuous and over-flowing Impiety . But all these sinful Examples , how general soever , could not prevail on Noah so much as to keep him from giving One of a quite contrary Nature ; the Scripture calls him an Herald or Preacher of Righteousness ; and tho' it appears not , that he made any Converts , he persever'd in his rejected Admonitions for Sixscore years , a time long enough to have tired his Patience , especially since he did not any of his Hearers Obstinacy . And his Constancy rais'd him as much above the reach of their Temptations , as the Waters that punished their Sin rais'd his Ark above their drowned Mansions . And now go and compare with any Constancy of the following times , where Virtue has always had some Party , tho' not a numerous one , this unequall'd Singularity of Noah , which God himself seems to have taken special notice of , not only by that Patriarchs wonderful Preservation , but by saying Emphatically , Thee have I seen Righteous before me in this Generation , which was so brutish and depraved , that I know not whether he were not obliged to live among worse Brutes before he finish'd the Ark than afterwards , when in it he was shut up with Lyons , Foxes , and Tygres . Another Virtue , that belongs to a great Mind , is Constancy , or persevering Patience in Afflictions . This Quality hath so Noble an appearance , that when 't is exercis'd even by Malefactors , it obtains our Esteem ; and whilest we cannot so much as excuse their Actions , we cannot but commend the Manner of their suffering for them : Calmness of Mind , in the midst of outward Storms , being something that looks so handsomely , that Crimes and Gibbets cannot keep it from doing so ; nor hinder those in whom 't is found , from being both pitied and applauded . That this part of Greatness of Mind is befriended by the Christian Religion , more than by any other Institution , will appear ; if we consider , what it contributes to Constancy and Patience , under outward Pressures and Calamities , by Precept , by Examples , and by Arguments . CHAP. V. HUmility is a Virtue , that , at the first blush , seems so distant from Greatness of Mind , that some would think it improper to refer the Former to the Later , under any other Notion , than that of an Opposite . But , whatever may be thought of Humility , solitarily consider'd , yet , when we find it in Conjunction with those other Qualities , that contribute to make up Greatness of Mind , it adds to their Number ; and ▪ tho ▪ it does not perhaps shine as bright as some of them , is as amiable as any ; and imparts somewhat of its own Loveliness to all the rest . And you will not much wonder , that I place this Virtue among those that Constellate , if I may so speak , an Heroick Mind , if you consider , whence Humility may in such a Soul proceed , and what difficulties it may surmount . For if Wealth , Honour , and other outward Blessings exalt our Hero's Condition ; to be Humble , in the midst of such Advantages , argues a Mind elevated above the Presents of Fortune , and speaks a Soul Great enough to undervalue those things that ordinary Souls admire ; and which even men that pass for Great , make the Objects of their Ambition , and , when attain'd , of their Pride . And if our Hero be ennobled with great Virtues , or famous for great Actions ; his Humility argues , that he has so rais'd an Idea of Virtue , and dares aspire to such a pitch of it , that he cannot rest satisfy'd with greater attainments , than Persons , but ordinarily Virtuous , aim at ; and looks upon himselfas oblig'd and born to an unwearied pursuit of Heroick and still increasing Degrees of Excellency . And if a laudable Practice , by being extremely difficult , is a mark of a Great Soul , Humility must not be deny'd that Character ; for This is a Virtue more difficult to Excellent , than to Ordinary , Souls . In other Cases , a Hero is to contend but with his Vices , or his Passions , or his open Enemies ; but to be Humble , he must overcome his Virtues too ; and that , when they act unitedly as one Body : Since , tho' other Virtues naturally assist one another , they all conspire to ruin Humility ; which , having Pride to contend with , is to deal with so subtle an Adversary , that sometimes even by being foil'd he overcomes . And as the Torpedo poisons his Arm that wounds it ; so sometimes in the best Arguments we employ against Pride , the very strength and seeming success of them , tempts the Maker of them to be Proud ; and I will not swear , that , at this very time , I exalt our Hero's Humility , without any Diminution of my Own. To the attainment of an Eminent degree of this lovely both Vertue , and Grace , the Gospel conduces , by furnishing its Embracers with Express Injunctions ; clear Directions ; high Rewards , and other weighty Motives ; and the Noblest Paterns and Perfectest Examples , that ever were , or can be , given ▪ The Heads of the Discourse , Entitul'd Greatness of Mind , befriended by Christianity . The Introduction . 1. OF the true Notion of Greatness of Mind . 2. Of the Tendency , that the Christian Religion has to promote Greatness of Mind in general . 3. That Christianity gives Men noble Aims , such as the glory of God , the pleasing of Him , the general Good of Men , Personal Excellencies in this World , and Eternal Happiness in the next . The Virtues or Qualifications , which , as so many constituent Parts , make up Greatness of Mind , and are peculiarly befriended by Christianity ; are chiefly These , 4. Courage or Valour . 5. Constancy and Patience in Afflictions . 6. Bounty or Liberality . 7. Forwardness to oblige . 8. Readiness to forgive . 9. A just and impartial Estimate of Riches , and other Things that Ordinary Men covet and admire . 10. Humility . 11. A Contempt of all that 's base . The End of the First Part. Greatness of Mind , PROMOTED BY CHRISTIANITY . The Second Part. THE former Discourse has , I hope , sufficiently manifested , That , of the several Virtues and Noble Qualities that make up true Greatness of Mind , there is not any that is not at least consistent with Christianity , and that most of them are eminently promoted by it . But I expect your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will pretend , that there are some Qualities required by our Religion , that directly and powerfully tend to debase the Mind they possess ; and hinder it from attaining , or even aspiring , to such great Things as it would reach to , if it were not detain'd or depress'd by Religion . Let us now therefore examin , Whether , notwithstanding , the Wings which we have shewn that Religion adds to the Mind , the Cloggs that it fastens to her , be heavy enough to disable her to raise her self above the pitch of Vulgar Souls ; and force her , instead of soaring aloft , to flutter about the Earth . The chief Things , that , as far as I can learn , are alleged , either by Philédonus , or more considering Adversaries than he ; to shew Religion to be either quite Inconsistent with , or very Unfriendly to , Greatness of Mind , are these . — But , in regard that I find not the Answers that were drawn up to the Objections ; and 't is not so convenient to let the Later appear unaccompany'd by the Former , 't is thought the safest Way to leave them both at present unmentioned ; and only take notice , that to the Last of the Six Objections , which , to deal candidly , were named and considered , these words were found subjoyned . And now , if it appear , that neither any nor all of these , have such an unfriendly Aspect on Greatness of Mind , as is pretended ; and that at least the Impediments , they can bring , are much more than countervail'd by the Assistances that Religion affords Heroick Virtue ; I hope it will appear , that Greatness of Mind is not incompatible with Christianity , but rather promoted by it . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28945-e1010 Rom. 1. 20. Psal . 94. 9. Psalm 138. 14 , 15. About some Causes of Atheism . An Essay of Improbable Truths . Luke 1. 2. John I. 18. Act. XX. 27. 1 Cor. II. 10. Luke I. 2. Gal. de Vsu part . Lib. XI . Cap. XIV . See Acts II. Rom. 1. 8. Gen. 49. 11. Isa . 2. 2. Psalm 2. 8. Mal. 1. 11. Mat. XXIV . 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke II. 1. Mat. 26. 13. Exod. XVI . 14 , 21 , 26 , 33. Notes for div A28945-e6800 Coloss . I. 26. Eph. III. 3 , 5 , 6. 1 Corinth . XV. v. 51 , 52. See Mat. XIII . 11. Ephes . V. 31. Notes for div A28945-e8550 Mark XII . 43. Prov. XVI . 32. Tit. III. 4. Revel . XIV . 6. 2 Cor. VII . 1. 1 Thess . V. 22. Matth. V. 20. 2 Pet. III. 18. I. 5. Phil. IV. 8. 1 Pet. II. 22. Mat. XVII . 5. Rom. XIII . 14. John I. 16. Phil. IV. 13. Matt. 9. 6. Mat. XIV . 29. Rom. XIV . 18. Dan. III. 7. 1 Cor. II. 9. Dan. III. 1 Cor. IV. 9. Heb. XII . 2 , 3. Matt. XXV . 21. Jer. XVII . 10. Col. I. 12. Acts XII . 21. Rev. II. 10. Eccl. VII . 12. Dan. II. Heb. XII . 28. 1 Pet. V. 4. 1 Sam. X. 6. Rev. 1. 6. 1 Pet. II. 9. Mark XVI . 5. Luke XXIV . 4. Phil. III. 21. Matt. XVII . 2. Luke IX . 31. Matt. XXII . 30. Mat. 13. 43. Rev. XIX . 17. Rev. II. 26 , 27 Rev. 3. 21. Eph. 3. 20. First Fragment . Second Fragment . 1 John , 5. 9. Gen. 6. 12. 2. Peter , 2. 5 ▪ Gen. 7. 1. Third Fragment . Fourth Fragment . Fifth Fragment . Notes for div A28945-e11730 Sixth Fragment . 
A34599	----	A conference Mr. John Cotton held at Boston with the elders of New-England 1. concerning gracious conditions in the soule before faith, 2. evidencing justification by sanctification, 3. touching the active power of faith : twelve reasons against stinted forms of prayer and praise : together with the difference between the Christian and antichristian church / written by Francis Cornwell ... Cotton, John, 1584-1652. 1646 Approx. 178 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 89 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A34599 Wing C6335 ESTC R17280 13156313 ocm 13156313 98175 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A34599) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 98175) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 136:11) A conference Mr. John Cotton held at Boston with the elders of New-England 1. concerning gracious conditions in the soule before faith, 2. evidencing justification by sanctification, 3. touching the active power of faith : twelve reasons against stinted forms of prayer and praise : together with the difference between the Christian and antichristian church / written by Francis Cornwell ... Cotton, John, 1584-1652. Cornwell, Francis. [24], 57 p., [15], 80 p. Printed by J. Dawson, and are to be sold [by] Fr. Eglesfield ..., London : 1646. The second part: A description of the spirituall temple, or, The spouse prepared for the Lambe, the Lord Jesus" has special t.p. "To the reader", signed Fran. Cornwell, describes this "as a learned treatise of Master John Cotton of Boston in New-England." Reproduction of original in Harvard University Libraries. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith -- Early works to 1800. Salvation -- Early works to 1800. Liturgics -- New England -- Early works to 1800. 2006-08 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-08 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-06 Robyn Anspach Sampled and proofread 2007-06 Robyn Anspach Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A CONFERENCE M r. John Cotton HELD AT BOSTON With the ELDERS of NEW-ENGLAND , 1. Concerning gracious conditions in the soule before faith . 2. Evidencing Justification by Sanctification . 3. Touching the active power of Faith. Twelve Reasons against stinted forms of prayer and praise . Together with The Difference between the CHRISTIAN and Antichristian Church . Written by FRANCIS CORNWELL , a Minister of Jesus the Christ . London , Printed by J. Dawson , and are to be sold Fr. Eglesfield , at the Signe of the Mary-gold in Pauls Church-yard . 1646. TO THE HONOVRABLE AND True-hearted lover of his Countrey , Sir HENRY VANE Junior , Knight , sometimes Governour of New-England ; Treasurer of the Navie Royall , and a Member of the House of COMMONS . Sir , THe Churches of the Saints and the World , may not bee unfitly compared to the Pearle and the Pebble : though both of one naturall substance , earth ; yet the one of rare price , whose beauty is the sun-beames inclosed ; the other wanting it , is cast away as refuse . What maketh the Saint more excellent then his neighbour , seeing both are borne of flesh , both subject to the same corruptions , sicknesse , death , but this ? The Saints excellency is nothing else but the Image of Jesus Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse shining in him : For as the moone and starres derive their light from the sunne ; so all the wisdome , righteousnesse , holinesse a Saint hath , hee deriveth from Christ . Hence David the King doth so prize their fellowship , All my delight is in thy Saints , thine excellent ones that are in the earth , and them that excell in vertue . Yea , it is a sure note of a Citizen of Sion , that hee honours them that feare the Lord : Whereas worldly men without grace , are rendred in his eyes as vile . Hence the Spouse acknowledgeth that all her excellency cometh from plantation ; Let my Beloved come into his garden , and eat his pleasant fruit . Yea , Christ declareth to Nicodemus that a beleevers holinesse cometh from regeneration ; that in Christ hee may onely glory . How doth the Lord discover this his excellency to a beleever , by his calling , till that time hee lieth amongst the refuse of the world , as foolish , disobedient , deceived , serving divers lusts and pleasures , living in malice and envie , hatefull , and hating one another . But then the kindnesse and love of God to man appeared , by delivering him out of the kingdome of darknesse , and translating him into the kingdome of his deare Sonne . By which it is manifest , that hee is one of the Chosen generation , the royal priesthood , the holy nation , the peculiar people , whom hee hath called out of darknesse into his marvellous light . But when doth the Lord discover the truth of his calling to his conscience ? Then when hee giveth him precious faith ; for that onely distinguisheth him form the world that lieth in sinne . Gal. 3. 22. The Scripture concludeth ( father , mother , sonne , daughter , nay the infant that is borne of the most holiest parents ) all under sinne , that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might bee given to them that beleeve . So that in that same houre the Lord giveth him faith , hee giveth him an evidence in himselfe , that hee loved him in Christ before he was borne , before hee had done good or evill , that hee hath justified him from all those things hee could not be justified by the Law , that hee hath purged his conscience from all dead works , that his person is accepted , his sinne discharged , and he hath a right to the purchased inheritance amongst them which are sanctified . Thus the love of Christ revealed to dye for him , to take away his iniquity , and reconcile him to God ; the Spirit given to take away his heart of stone , giveth him an heart of flesh , to cause to walke in his flatutes ; yea , and draweth his heart to yeeld obedience to every commandement of Jesus the Christ . The truth of this grace given , Right Worshipfull , you can give a true testimoniall ; for you were once in your naturall condition as well as others , till it pleased God who separated you from the womb , to call you by his grace , to reveale his Sonne in you ; you consulted not with flesh and bloud , but left your native soyle , ( in the persecuting times of the Prelates ) chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God ( according to the light they had received ) then to remaine in England and enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season . Yet there the Lord exalted your Worship to bee the Governour : And in that dawning light , coming forth out of mysticall Babylon , the Lord discovered much spirituall knowledge , of the riches of his free-grace in Jesus Christ , amongst you ; you being freed from the yoke of the Task-Masters heere , the Bishops , that kept you in bondage : you had liberty there to debate those Questions ; which the naming onely of them heere , would have rendred a man odious . But Satan that envieth the peace of the Saints ; stirred up a spirit of contention amongst you ; especially when these Queries came to be debated . 1 Whether there are any gracious conditions , or qualifications wrought in the soule before faith ? 2 Whether any man can gather his evidence of the assurance of his Justification from his Sanctification ? 3 Whether there bee an active power of Faith , and other gifts of grace in a Christian conversation ? The one side would not beleeve themselves justified , no farther then they could see themselves worke ; making their Markes , Signes , and Qualifications , the causes of their Justification . The other side , laid the Evidence of their Justification , onely by Faith in the free Promise : for there are foure things that makes remission of sinnes perpetuall to a beleever . First , The cause of Remission , the sacrificed Body of Christ on the Crosse , or accursed Tree ; Heb. 10. 4. By one offering , hee hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified . Secondly , The ground is a free promise tendred to us from God ; as to Adam , The Seed of the Woman shall breke the Serpents head , Gen. 3. 15. John. 3. 16. 1 John 4. 10. Thirdly , The meane is , Faith apprehending it , Phil. 3. 9. Fourthly , The Spirit of Christ sealing of it , Ephes . 1. 13. This truth revealed for the comfort of poore drooping Saints found great opposition ; But the good Lord , stirred up your gracious spirit , to countenance , and defend them in the midst of strong opposition ; and though you were sleighted , and set light by at the ende of your Government , as not worthy to be an assistant , with many other Instruments more ; yet the good Lord stood by you , and strengthned you , and delivered you from the hands of your opposers , perserved you from the dangers of the Sea ; and though at your returne to your Native Soyle , you lived like Joseph , a while , in a despised condition , yet the Lord raised you up to sit amongst Princes . So that though you were willing to lose life , friends , preferment , for Christ ; found you not then , life , peace , joy , in the Lord Jesus , which was better to you , then all worldly amity ; according to his owne promise , In the World you found affliction , but in him you found peace : And when you were called to be a Member of the high Court of Parliament , in our distressed and distracted times ; the Lord made you an ●nstrument to defect the Trecherous plot of those two brethren in evill ; Thomas Lord Strafford ; and William Lord Archbishop of Canterbu●y , that contrived the destruction of our fundamentall Lawes , ratified by the Statute of Magna Charta , by ●abouring to set up an Arbitrary Government , and keeping on foot a Po●ish Army , consisting of Irish Re●els , and others , to compell the faith●ull , and true-hearted Nobility , and loyall Commons of England , ●o subject themselves to their illegal Taxations : hazarding the losse of he favours of the King , Nobi●●ty , Parents , Friends , and Allyes , together with those places of Ho●our and Maintenance , the King of lemency had freely bestowed ; ra●●er then his Country should be ru●ed , and enthralled , by such accor●● 〈…〉 a branch of that goodly Caedar , under whose shade , the Innocent and oppressed , tender Consciences that stand for a through Reformation , agreeable to the Word o● God , find rest ) ever be forgotten , and left unrewarded ; God forbid : I● is worthy to be written on a Pilla● of Marble ; and recorded in the Chronicle : that after-ages may never forget to shew kindenesse , and mercy to your Noble Posterity that did not thinke your life ( together with your neerest relations deare unto you , so as to part with them , that you might purchase you Countries Liberty ; I cannot judge him Englands Friend , that enviet● your honour , and promotion ; Se●ing you are ( for the love you hau● shewed to Christ his Truth , and poore Members , together with you● Native Countrey ) worthy of double honour . Now ( worthy Sir ) seeing all your excellency is nothing else , bu● the Image of Jesus Christ , the Son of righteousnes shining in you . Dis●ain not to receive from the hand of a poore despised Instrument that presents this Treatise , The Learned Conference of Master John Cotton , that he had with the Elders , at the Bay of Boston in New England . Though I am the least of all Saints , not worthy to be called a Saint ; because ●n the time of the Prelats raigne ; I ●ided with them , in persecuting the Faith of Jesus Christ , and imprisoning of his Members ; But did it ●gnorantly , through unbeliefe , and when the Lord pierced my heart for it ; I trembling , cryed , What shall I doe ? The holy Spirit and the Bride said , Repent , and bee baptized in the name of Jesus , for the remission of sinnes , and I should receive the gifts of the Spirit , &c. Then Noble Sir , though I procrastinated it for a season , at last , I was not disobedient to the heavenly voice , but arose , and was Baptized ; For this cause , have beene much opposed by my old Friends , and Countrey-men ▪ But yet remaine a Loyall Cove●nanter , that standeth for a Reformation in England , and Ireland , a●greeable to the Word of God , and the best Reformed Churches : Seeing it is not the voice of the Churches , but Christ in the Churches we Convenented to hearken unto as Master Case his Sermon yet testifieth . First , To extirpate Popery ; ( which I apprehended at the taking of the Nationall Covenant ) was that Doctrine of Antichrist , which doth universally oppose the doctrine of Jesus the Christ . Affirming what Christ denieth ; and denying what Christ affirmeth . Secondly , Prelacy , viz. The Government of Arch-bishops , and Bishops , and all Ecclesiasticall Officers depending on that Hierarchy , Roote and Branch : as a Plant the heavenly Father hath not planted . Thirdly , Superstition : viz. Whatsoever is supra Statutum , that hath not the word of God to warrant it . Fourthly , Schisme : Namely , from all those that teach , and co●●sent not to the wholesome words , even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ , and to the doctrine which is according to godlinesse ; from such I must withdraw , 1 Tim. 6. 3 , 5. Fifthly , Heresie : Even from all them that deny that Jesus is the Christ ; They are Antichrist that deny the Father and the Sonne . Whosoever denyeth the Sonne , the same hath not the Father , 1 Joh. 2. 22 , 23. Sixthly , That the Lord may be one : viz. Even the Lord Jesus the Christ , whom God raised from the dead , and ●et him at his owne right hand in the ●eavenly places ; Farre above all principality , and power , and might , and dominion , and every name that is named , not onely in this world , but that which is to come : And hath put all things under his feet , and gave him to be head over all things to the Church , Which is his body , the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all , Ephes . 1. 20 , 21 22 , 23. Seventhly , And his Name to ● one in the three Kingdomes : ( that is , as I conceive it ) his power , authority , and royall Commission must be exalted in all his Offices , to be the eternall King , eternall Prophet , and eternall Priest , in all things appertaining to the conscience : seeing the loyall Spouse of Christ hath no Head , no Husband , no Lord , no Law-giver , but royall King Jesus . That wee , and our posterity after us , may live in faith , and love ; and the Lord may delight to dwell amongst us . For the keeping of which Covenant , I had rather chuse to dye , then to deny the faith of Jesus the Christ : Knowing , that he which confesseth him before men , him he will confesse before his Father . But hee which is ashamed of Christ , ●nd his words , in this sinfull and adulterous generation , of him also shall the Sonne of man bee ashamed , when hee cometh in the glory of his Father , with the holy Angels , Mar. 8. 38. Thus I desire , in the first place , to give to God the things that are Gods ; and , in the next place , render to the high and honourable Court of Parliament , whereof your Honour is a Member , and to your King , when the Lord shall put it into his heart to returne unto his Parliament , and to joyne with you , all your dues , tributes , customes , feare , honour ; and subject my selfe to obey all your just , legall , and civill commandements : Knowing , that you set not up the Sword for nought ; but to be a terrour to them that doe evill , and a praise , a guard and defense , for them that doe well . Your poore Oratour at the throne of grace , that earnestly prayeth , that the Lord will give you , and the great Councell of the Kingdome , wisdome and prudence , to beare with tender Consciences , that desire to exalt Jesus the Christ in all his Royall Offices , FRAN. CORNWELL . Orpington , in Kent , the ninth Month , 1645. To all the Churches of Iesus the Christ , coming out of Mysticall Babylon , gathered , or scattered , that follow the Lambe , the Lord JESUS wheresoever he goeth . BEloved in CHRIST , Disdaine not to Read this Learned Treatise of Master John Cotton , of Boston in New-England , out of any prejudice thou mayest take against the person , or publisher of it . What if some judge him a Schismaticke ? yet he regardeth not mans rash censure : Seeing he can with holy Paul , that before his Conversion persecuted the Church of God , safely Apologise for himselfe ; Acts 24. 14. That after the way that you call Heresie , so worship I the God of my Fathers ; beleeving all things that are written in the Law , and in the Prophets . Verse 15. And have an hope toward God , which you your selves also allow , that there shall bee a resurrection of the dead , both of the just , and unjust . Verse 16. And herein doe I exercise my selfe , to have alwaies a Conscience void of offence toward God & towardman . But yet this I confesse unto you , that I am lesse then the least of all the Messengers of Christ ; for I am not worthy to bee called a Messenger , or Minister ; for I persecuted the Church of God , that professed the Faith of Jesus the Christ ; that held foorth all his Royall Offices , King , Prophet , Priest , according to his outward administration , in admitting of Members into his Spiritual Kingdome : And sided with the Antichristian Prelates , and Bishops , that denyed , that Jesus is the Christ , whom the Spirit of God calleth Lyars , and Antichristians , That denyeth the Father and the Sonne , 1 John 2. 22. For though I , with the Antichristian Bishops , and Priests , did acknowledge Jesus the Christ , our high Priest that ever liveth to reconcile us unto God ; yet wee have persecuted them that hold his Kingly and Propheticall Office to be eternall , aswell as his Priesthood , and the gathering of his Church according to his Royall Commission , Matth. 28. 18 , 19 , 20. Hence it is , that Christ divided , becometh no Christ to the divider ; this according to the Vulgar Latine , Solvere Jesum , to dissolue Jesus , that is , to receive him onely in part , and not in the whole , which is the spirit of Antichrist . Now when the Lord opened the eyes of my understanding , and convicted me of all the abominations I had done in my spirituall Captivity under Antichrist , especially , that I had crucified Jesus the Christ in his Members , being pricked in my heart , I trembling cryed , what shall I doe ? The Spirit and the Bride , the Lambes wife , said ; Repent , and be Baptized in the name of Jesus , &c. Then I gladly received the Word , was Baptized , and was added to the Church , Acts 2. 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42. Yet , by the grace of God , now I am , what I am ; And having from some Friends , received this Learned Conference , kept it by mee as a precious Diamond of great worth , from which my soule , through the great goodnesse of God , did reape much spirituall comfort . And did wait , hoping that some learned and faithfull friends of his , would long agoe have Printed a larger , and an exacter Copy of it : But finding none , ( I that am lesse then the least of all Saints ) could not any longer conceale it , but thought with my selfe , I was bound in Conscience to publish it , in this learned Age , wherein there is so much enquiry after truth , for the benefit of poore , hungry , empty , selfe-denying Spirits ; rather then such a Learned Tract of heavenly light , should alwaies lye in the dust , as unseene , and forgotten . For this cause alone , I have attempted ( Courteous Reader ) to present ●o thy view this Learned Treatise ; Not ●hat I have any relation to that Lear●ed man ; nor any command from him ●o doe it : But onely in love , that this his Learned Disputation might not bee ●uried in silence . Read it therefore ( Beloved in Christ ) not for his sake that publisheth it ; but for his sake that was ●he Author of it ; or rather for the God ●f Truths sake . For whose cause the Learned Author contendeth for the Faith in these daies , wherein the Gos●ell of Truth hath suffered so great Ec●lipses , through the rage and tyranny of the Popish Antichristian Prelates and Priests . Thine that earnestly desireth to exalt the Lord Jesus the Christ , in all his royall Offices FRAN. CORNWELL . A Conference that Mr. IOHN COTTON had with the Elders of the Congregations in New-England , touching three Questions that are here discussed on : 1. Touching gracious conditions , or qualifications , wrought in the soule before faith . 2. Touching the gathering of our first evident assurance of our faith from sanctification . 3. Touching the active power of faith , and other spirituall gifts of grace in a Christian conv●rsation . The first Question . WHether there be any gracious conditions , or qualifications , in the soule before faith , of dependance unto which , such promises are made ? Wee deny it , for these reasons . If there be any gracious conditions , or qualifications , wrought in us before faith of dependance ; then , before wee receive union with Christ : The reason is , For by faith of dependance it is , that wee first received union with Jesus Christ , Joh. 1. 12. But there be no gracious conditions wrought in us before wee received union with Jesus Christ ; Therefore there bee no gracious conditions , or qualifications , wrought in us before faith of dependance . Minor. If wee cannot bring forth good fruit , till wee be good trees ; nor become good trees , untill wee be grafted or united unto Jesus Christ ; then there can be no gracious conditions , or qualifications wrought in us , before wee receive union with Christ . But wee cannot bring forth good fruit , till wee become good trees ; nor become trees of righteousnesse , untill wee be grafted into Jesus Christ ; Therefore there bee no gracious conditions , or qualifications wrought in us , before we received union with Jesus Christ . The Proposition is cleare of it selfe , that wee cannot bring forth good fruit , untill we be good trees : Mat. 7. 18. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit . Nor can we become the good trees of righteousnesse , of the Lords plantation , Isai . 61. 3. untill wee be grafted into Christ . Joh. 15. 4. As the branch cannot beare fruit of it selfe , except it abide in the vine , no more can yee , except yee abide in me . Verse 5. I am the vine , y●● are the branches ; hee that abideth in me , and I in him , the same bringeth forth much fruit : for without me ye can doe nothing . A second proofe of the Minor. If there be any gracious conditions , or qualifications wrought in us before union with Christ , then we may be in a state of grace and salvation , before we be in Christ : But that cannot be : Acts 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other ; for there is none other name under heaven given amongst men , whereby wee may be saved . If there be any gracious condition or qualification in us before faith , then there may be something in us pleasing unto God before faith : But there is nothing in us pleasing unto God before faith ; Heb. 11. 6. But without faith it is impossible for us to please him : for hee that cometh to God , must beleeve that hee is , and that hee is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him . But there must be some saving preparatives wrought in the soule , to make way for faith , and our union with Christ . For wee must be cut off from the old Adam , before wee can be grafted into the new : Wee must be dead to the first husband , before we can be married un●o another . To works of creation there need●th no preparation ; the almighty ●ower of God calleth them to be his people , that were not his people , 1 Pet. 2. 10. And by calling them to be so , hee maketh them to bee so . Rom. 9. 25 , 26. As hee saith inHosea , I will call them , My people , which were not my people ; and her , Beloved , which was not beloved . Verse 26. And it shall come to passe that ▪ in the place where it is said unto them , Yee are not my people , there shall they be called , The children of the living God. While Satan , the strong man , keepeth the house , Christ the stronger cometh upon him , and bereaveth him of his armour , and divideth the spole , Luke . 11. 21 , 22. Wee are dead to our first husband . the Law by the body of Christ , Rom. 7. 4. and therefore it is by the vertue of Christs death we have fellowship with Christ ; and that giveth the deadly stroak unto our first husband . The second Question . WHether a man may evidence his justification by his sanctification ? The state of the Question is thus unfolded . First , To take a mans sanctification , for an evident cause or ground of his justification , is flat Popery . Secondly , To take a mans sanctification , for an evident cause or ground of that faith whereby hee is justified , is utterly unsafe ; for faith is built ▪ upon Jesus , the Christ , the head corner stone , Ephes . 2. 20. Mat. 16. 16. and not upon works : A good work floweth from faith not faith from them . Thirdly , To take common sanctification , that is , such a reformation and a change of life as floweth from a spirit of bondage , restraining from sin , and constraining unto duty , and sometimes accompanied with enlargement and comforts in duty ; yet without the sense and feeling of the need of Christ , and before union with him , to take such a sanctification for an evident signe of justification , is to build upon a false and sandy foundation . Fourthly , That when a man hath first attained assurance of his faith , of his justification , by the witnesse of the Spirit of Christ , in a free promise of grace , made to him in the bloud of Christ , Acts 13. 38 , 39. hee may discern , and take his sanctification as a secondary witnesse , or an evident signe or effect of his justification . The Question being thus stated , I propound the Question thus ; Whether a man may gather the first evidence or assurance of his faith , of his justification , by his sanctification ? Wee hold in the Negative part . The first Argument . As Abraham came to the first assurance of his justification , so wee , and all that beleeve , as Abraham did ; for hee is made a patterne to us in point of justification : Rom. 4. 23. Now it was not written for his sake alone , that it was imputed to him ; V. 24. But for us also , to whom it shall be imputed , if we beleeve on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead . V. 25. Who was delivered for our offences , and raised againe for our justification . But Abraham came to his first assurance of his sanctification , not from any promise made thereunto , but from a free promise of grace ; Rom. 4. 18. Who against hope , beleeved in hope , that hee might become the father of many nations : according to that which was spoken , So shall they seed be . V. 19. And being not weak in faith , he considered not his own body now dead , when he was above an hundred yeares old ; neither the deadnesse of Sarahs wombe . Vers . 20. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbeliefe , but was strong in faith , giving glory to God. Vers . 21. And being fully perswaded that what hee had promised hee was able to performe : Vers . 22. And therefore it was imputed unto him for righteousnesse . The promise was absolute , and free , So shall thy seed be as the stars of heaven : this hee beleeved with full assurance of faith , resting onely on the faithfulnesse and grace , and power of him that promised , Rom. ● . 21. Therefore wee , and all the children of Abraham , come to our first assurance of our Justification , not from our Sanctification , or from any promise made thereunto ; but ●●om the free promise of grace . The secoud Arguwent . No man can take his assurance of the faith of his Iustification : But as God will declare and pronounce him righteous in Christ Iesus . But God will not declare , and pronounce us righteous in Christ , upon the sight and evidence of our sanctification . Therefore we cannot take the assurance of the faith of our Iustification , from the sight and evidence of our sanctification . The Assumption is proved thus . If God justifieth us ( that is ) declareth , and pronounceth us to bee righteous , he doth then declare his owne righteousnesse , that he might be just ; Then he doth not declare us to be righteous in Christ , upon the sight and evidence of our sanctification , which is a righteousnesse of our owne . But when God justifieth us , that is , first declareth us , and pronounceth us to be righteous , he doth declare his owne righteousnesse ; that he might be just . Therefore he doth not first pronounce and declare us righteous upon sight , and evidence of our sanctification , which is a righteousnesse of our owne . The proofe of the Proposition . It will not stand with the righteousnesse of God to declare and pronounce a man just , upon the sight of such an imperfect righteousnesse , as our best sanctification is : And therefore when God declareth , and pronounceth us righteous ; He doth it not upon any sight of any sanctification , or righteousnesse of ours : But onely upon the sight of the perfect righteousnesse of Christ imputed unto us . The proofe of the Assumption . That when God justifieth us ( that is , when he first declareth , and pronounceth us to be righteous ) he doth declare his own righteousnesse , that he might be just , as Paul speaketh , Rom. 3. 26. and the justifier of him , which beleeveth on Jesus . And it is the speech of David , that when God declareth himselfe to bee just ; hee declareth onely the sinnefulnesse of the Creature , Psal . 51. 4. The third Argument . If the promise be made sure of God unto faith out of grace ; Then it is not first made sure to faith out of works . But the promise is made sure of God to faith out of grace , Rom. 4. 5. to him that worketh not , but beleeveth on him , that justifieth the ungodly , his faith is accounted for righteousnesse . Therefore the promise is not made sure to faith out of works . From the opposition of Grace , and Works , Rom. 11. 6 Aud if by grace then it is no more of workes ; otherwise grace is no more grace . The opposition standeth not onely betweene grace and workes , but beweene grace and the merits of works ; now no man ascribeth the assurance of faith in the promise to the merits of works . The opposition standeth not only betweene grace and the merits of works : but between grace and the debt due to workes ; For so the Apostle Paul expresseth it , Rom. 4. 4. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of graco , but of debt . If the assurance of faith of our justification , doe spring from sight of sanctification , it is by right of some promise made unto such a worke , and the right which a man hath by promise to a worke , maketh the assurance of the promise , but debt unto him : and then the promise is not sure unto him out of grace . The fourth Argument . If when the Lord declareth himselfe pacified toward us , he utterly shames us , and confounds us , in the sight and sense of our unworthynesse , and unrighteousnesse ; then he doth not give unto us our first assurance of the faith of our justification , upon the sight and sense of sanctification . But when the Lord declareth himself pacified towards us , he doth utterly ashame us , and confound us , in the sight and sense of our unworthynesse , and unrighteousnesse . Therefore he doth not first give us assurance of the faith of our justification , upon the sight and sense of our sanctification . The consequence is plaine from the Law of Contraries : For , if the Lord shame us with a sight and sense of sinne ; hee doth not then , first comfort and incourage us , with the sight and sense of sanctification . Minor is proved , Ezek. 16. 63. Rom. 4. 5. Ezek. 16. 63. That thou maist remember and bee confounded , and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame ; when I am pacified toward thee , for all that thou hast done , saith the Lord God. Rom 4. 5. To him that worketh not , but beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly , his faith is accounted for righteousnesse . The fift Argument . When sanctification is not evident , it cannot be an evidence of justification . But when Justification is hidden , and doubtfull , Sanctification is not evident . Therefore Sanctification cannot be our first evidence of Justification . Minor. When Faith is hidden and doubtfull , Sanctification is not evident : But when Justification is hidden and doubtfull , Faith is hidden and doubtfull . Therefore when Justification is hidden and doubtfull , Sanctification is not evident . The first proofe of the Major . If Faith be the evidence of things not seene , then when Faith it selfe is hidden and doubtfull , which maketh all things evident , what can be cleare unto us . But Faith is the evidence of things not seene , Hebr. 11. 1. Therefore when Faith it selfe is hidden and doubtfull , Sanctification cannot be evident . The second proofe of the Major . If no Sanctification be true and sincere , but when it is wrought in faith : then neither can it be evident . But when it evidently appeareth to bee wrought in Faith : Therefore when Faith is hidden , and doubtfull , Sanctification cannot be evident . But no Sanctification is pure and sincere , but when it is wrought in Faith : nor cannot be evident , but when it evidently appeareth to bee wrought in Faith. Therefore when Faith is hidden and doubtfull , Sanctification cannot be evident . The sixth Argumont . Such a Faith as a practicall Sillogisme can make , is not a Faith wrought by the Lords Almighty power : For though Sillogismus ●i●em facit ; yet such a faith is but an ●umane faith ; because the Conclusion followeth but from the strength of reasonings , or reason ; not from the power of God , by which alone Divine things are wrought , Ephes . ● . 19. 20. Col. 2. 20. But the Faith which is wrought by a word , and a worke , and the light of a renewed Conscience without the witnesse of the spirit ; and ●efore it , is such a Faith as a practi●all Sillogisme can make . Therefore such a Faith as is wrought ●y a word , and a worke , or by the ●ight of a renewed Con●cience , without the witnesse of the Spirit , and ●efore it ; is not a Faith wrought by the Lords Almighty ●ower . The proofe of the Minor. From the condition of all these ●hree ; the Word , the Work , and the ●ight of a renewed Conscience ; they are all but created blessings , and gifts . There●ore cannot produce of themselves a word of Almighty power . Because the Word without the Almighty power of the Spirit is but a dead Letter ; and the Work hath no more power then the Word ; nor so much neither . For Faith cometh rather by hearing of a Word ▪ then by seeing of a Worke , Rom. 10. 17. And the light of a renewed Conscience , is a created gift of spirituall knowledge in the conscience . 1 Iohn 2. ● . Hereby we know that wee know him , that we keepe his Commandements . 1. John. 3. 14. Wee know wee have passed from death to life , because we love the Brethren . Vers . 19. Hereby we know we are of the 〈◊〉 . No better Answer need to be expected then what Calvin hath given in the exposition of these Scriptures ; who thus expoundeth them . Though every beleever hath the testimony of his Faith from his Workes , yet that commeth in a posteriori probatione , a latter , or , secondary proofe , instead of a signe . Therefore the assurance of Faith ( saith hee ) doth wholly reside in the grace of Christ ; and we must alwaies , saith he , remember , that it is not from our love to the Brethren , that we have the knowledge of our estate , which the Apostle speaketh of , as if from thence were fetched the assurance of salvation . For surely wee doe not know by any other meanes , that we are the Children of God : but because hee sealeth unto our heart by his Spirit , our adoption of us out of free-grace : and we by faith receive the assured pledge of him ▪ given in Christs love . Therefore as an addition , or inferiour helpe , for a prop unto faith , not for a foundation to leane on . Certaine it is , that those which ●ohn writ unto , were three sorts of ●en : Old men , Young men , and Babes : ●et there was none of them but did know their good estate , by the knowledge of the Father ; before they knew their good estat by their brotherly love : For even of Babe● ( he saith ) they knew the Father , 1 Ioh● 2. 13. And therefore by the rule o● relation , they knew their Son-ship● and adoption : And if it should be asked , how they knew it ; John telleth , By the unction they had receive● from Christ , ● Ioh. 2. 27. that is , b● the spirit it selfe , which taught them t● know all things ; which no created gifts of Sanctification could doe . Even in nature , children do● not first come to know their parents either by their lov● to their brethren or by their obedience to their parents ; but from their parents love descending on them : So we loved him because he first loved us , 1 Iohn 4. 19 ▪ Herein is love , not that we loved God , bu● that he loved us , and sent his Son to bee● propitiation for e●r sins , 1 Ioh. 4. 10. If Iohn could give sanctification fo● an evidence of adoption , to such a knew their good estate before by the witnesse of the Spirit ; this were but to light a Candle unto the Sunne ? Whether were it more absurd to light a Candle unto the Sunne , or to light a Candle to see to a mans eyes ; Now faith is instead of eyes unto the soule : By Faith Abraham saw the day of Christ , and rejoyced , ●hough it were a farre off , Ioh. 8. 56 : The same Apostle saith , that ●here bee six Witnesses that give ●ight and evidence unto our spiri●uall life in Christ : of which three ●e in heaven , and three on the earth ; ●nd the Spirit in both : yet he did ●ot thinke it a vaine thing to give ●he water of Baptisme , ( as out of ●he death and resurrection of Christ we receive the power to walk in new●esse of life , Rom. 6. 3. 4. ) as a witnesse ●fter foure of the greater lights . If you take Sanctification for a ●reated gift , it is indeed but a Candle to the Sunne . But when John ●aketh it , but to confirme faith , ●he meaneth then , the Spirit of God beareth witnesse in it : or else the testimony of sanctification , though it be a divine gift or work , yet it would not give a divine testimony , nor increase divine faith ; for the heavens and earth are divine and supernaturall works , yet they doe not give divine testimony of the Godhead , unlesse the Spirit of God himself doe beare witnesse in them . Therefore John giving sanctification for an evidence of a good estate , to such as already knew it , by the witnesse of the Spirit , is not a lighting of a candle to the Sunne ; but as the setting up of another window , though a lesser , to convay the same Sun light into the house another way . In 2 Pet. chap. 1. from verse 5. to 10. the Apostle exhorteth us , by adding one gift of sanctification to another , to make our calling and election sure . Let Calvin answer for me : This assurance ( saith hee ) whereof Peter speaketh , by adding grace to grace , is not in my judgement to be referred unto conscience , as if the faithfull did thereby before God know themselves called , and chosen ; but if any man will understand it , of making of it sure before men , there will be no absu●dity in this sense : Neverthelesse it might be extended further , that every one may be confirmed in their calling ; by their godly and holy life . But that is a proofe , not from ●he cause ; but from a signe , and effect . There be many conditionall promises in the Gospel , which are made to the gifts and duties of sanctification ; which are all in vaine , if poore drooping soules , finding such gifts , and duties of sanctification in themselves , may not take comfort from them , according to the promise . The conditionall promises are made to poore drooping soules , no● in respect of such conditions , or as they are qualified with such gifts and duties of sanctification ; but in respect of their union with Christ , to whom the promises belong , Gal. 3. 26 , 28 , 29. The fruits of such an union with Christ , such duties and gifts of sanctification be , when they be sincere : otherwise , if the promises were made to such soules , in respect of such conditions , then the reward promised would belong unto them , not of grace , but of debt , Rom. 4. 4. A promise made to any condition , after it be made , it becometh due debt to him , in whomsoever such condition is to be found : But therefore that such promises might be of grace , they are made to us , not as wee are indued with such and such conditions ; but as wee who have such and such conditions are united unto Christ . Whence it is , that such blessings offered in such promises , as they are tendered to us in Christ , so are they fulfilled to us in Christ . Whereupon , we look for the blessing , not in our gifts and duties ; but in going still unto Christ , for a clearer and fuller manifestation of him to us , and of comfort in him . As for example , A thirsty soule , to whom promise is made that hee shall be satisfied ; hee looketh not presently to be satisfied from his thirsting , nor from any right his thirsting might give him in the promise ; but hee looketh to be satisfied by going unto Christ , in drinking more abundantly of him by his Spirit , as Christ himself directeth such drooping soules to doe : and so we are to make use of such kind of promises ; Joh. 7. 37 , 38 , 39. No man can see his gifts and duties of sanctification in himselfe , but hee must first have seen Christ by faith , the Spirit of Christ enlightening his understanding in the knowledge of him . As in case of mourning , to which many promises are made , No man can ( with Evangelicall repentance ) mourne over Christ , and for himselfe , untill the Spirit work faith ; and by faith beholding Christ , hee hath seen him crucified , and by him , Zech. 12. 10. So then these conditions , and the promises made to them , doe not give us our first sight of Christ , nor the first glymyse of light and comfort from him ; but rather our sight of Christ , and some glympses of light and comfort from him , doth beget such conditions in us . Such conditionall promises are not in vain , though poore drooping soules have found no comfort by them , and though they cannot suck present comfort from them , and from their good conditions accordingly to them . Because these promises being discerned in a Covenant of free-grace made in Christ , by them doe work ( if they were not wrought before ) or at least confirme such conditions in the soule . As when God promised them to send a Redeemer out of Sion , unto them which turne from transgression in Jacob , Isai . 59. 20. the Apostle expoundeth it , That Christ shall come out of Sion , and shall turne away transgression from Jacob : which is as much as if hee should say , He shall work that condition which the promise was made unto . And this the Apostle maketh to be the meaning , and the blessing of the promise , according to the Covenant of grace , Rom. 11. 26 , 27. The promises are not in vain to such soules , in whom such good conditions are wrought ; because they direct them where they may find comfort , and satisfying to their hearts desire : to wit , not by clearing their good conditions in themselves ; but by coming unto Christ , and drinking a more full draught of his Spirit ; as Christ directeth thirsty soules to doe , Joh. 7. 37. If any man thirst , let him come to me , and drink . V. 38. Hee that beleeveth on me , ( as the Scripture saith ) out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water . V. 39. But this hee spake of the Spirit , that they which beleeve on him , shall receive . But why may not the holy Spirit breathe his first comforts into our soules , even on such conditions ? Is not this to limit the Spirit , who is free , and bloweth where hee listeth ? Joh. 3. 8. He doth not breathe his first comforts in such conditions , because he listeth not : it is not his good pleasure to give us our first comfort ( which is the comfort of our Justification ) from our owne righteousnesse , before hee give us comfort in the righteousnesse of Christ . The holy Spirit in all his dispensations to us ward , delighteth to receive all from Christ , rather then from us ; that so hee might glorifie Christ in us . The Comforter whom I shall send to you , hee shall glorifie me ; for hee shall receive of mine , and shew it unto you , Joh. 16. 14. Nor will he so much dishonour the righteousnesse and grace of the Father of glory , as first , to pronounce and declare us justified in the sight of our owne righteousnesse . In Mat. 7. from verse 16. to 20. The tree is knowne by his fruit . True , to others ; but not unto himselfe . If a tree could know it selfe , it would first come to know it selfe , by seeing upon what root it grew , before it came to see what fruit it did beare ; Joh. 15. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. But this Doctrine is new , it is not ancient , nor gray-headed . The Doctrines of the Covenant of free-grace are ever new ; because they are the Doctrines of the New-Covenant , which can never waxe old : should it once waxe old , it would soone vanish away , Heb. 8. from vers . 8. to 13. though it be as ancient as Abraham , yea , as Adam ; for hee had his first comfort and assurance , in an absolute promise of free-grace , Gen. 3. 15. yet it hath ever seemed new in every age . Augustines Doctrine of Conversion , that is of grace , and not of free-will . Luthers Doctrine of Justification , that is of faith , not of works . Calvins Doctrine of Predestination , that is of grace , not of faith and works fore-seen : were all of them thought new Doctrines in their times ; and yet all of them the ancient truths of the everlasting Covenant of grace . And surely , for this Doctrine in hand , Calvin is as clear , as my hearts desire to God is wee all might be ; his words have been partly rehearfed before , in the answer of some Objections ; and partly in my large Answer to your Reply . Bellarmine taketh it to be the generall Doctrine of the Lutherans , That , Assurance of faith goeth before works , and doth not follow after , Institnt . lib. 3. cap. 9. And Pareus in answer unto him , saith , That though there be an assurance that followeth good works , yet the former assurance from the witnesse of the Spirit goeth before . And seeing they that are the chief Reformers of the Protestant Assemblies , doe generally make sanctification a fruit of faith , and doe define faith to be , A speciall assurance of mercy in Christ ; it must needs be out of controversie their judgement , That a man receiveth his first assurance , not from his sanctification , which they make to be an effect flowing from it ; but from an higher principle , even from the grace of the Father , and the righteousnesse of the Sonne , the Lord Jesus Christ ; and witnessed by the holy Spirit . Bilney , in the Book of Martyrs , in his Epistle to B. Tu●stall , relating the manner of his conversion , pro●ested , That when hee had wearied himself in many superstitious works of fasting , and Popish pennance , hee received at last his first assurance , from that place in Timothy , 1 Tim. 1. 15. hee calleth it a most sweet word unto him , This is a true saying , and worthy of all men to be received , Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners , of whom I am the chiefe . A word from an absolute promise , set home unto him by the ●oly Spirit , without respect of any sanctification formerly wrought or seene in him . Alas , how farre are they mistaken , that thinke the contrary Doctrine hath beene sealed with the bloud of Martyrs ? Zancheus his judgement , though he was a godly and an eminent learned man , yet I would not have named him , but that Mr. Perkins highly approved his discourse , and translated it , as a choyce piece , into his owne Volume , which maketh it obvious to every godly Reader , that studieth Perkins learned Workes ; Page 429. the first testimony , saith Zanchey ▪ and Por●ius , for him ; by which God assureth us of our election , is that inward testimony of the Spirit , of which the Apostle Paul speaketh , Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit witnesseth to our spirits , that wee are the sonnes of God ; And afterward comming to give some direction how a man may know , whether this testimony be true , and proceedeth from the holy Spirit , or no. Hee answereth , Page 433. three waies . First , A man may know it , first , by the perswasion it selfe . Secondly , By the manner of its perswasion . Thirdly , By the effects . For the first , the holy Spirit doth not simply say it , but doth perswade with us ; that we are the sonnes of God : And no flesh can doe it againe . By reasons drawne not from our worke , or from any worthinesse in us ; but from the alone goodnesse of God the Father , and the grace of Christ freely bestowed , and in this manner the Devill will never perswade any man. The perswasion of the holy Spirit is full of power ; for they which are perswaded that they are the sons of God , cannot , but must needs call him Father , and in regard of love to him do hate sinne ; and on the contrary , they have a sound hearty desire to do his Word and Will revealed . For the second Answer to the imputation of Novelty ; Either ( saith John Cotton ) I am exceedingly deceived , or it justly falleth upon the contrary Doctrine , and they are much mistaken that think otherwise ; I never read it to my best remembrance , in any Author olde o● new : that ever a man received his first evidence of the faith of his Justification , from his Sanctification ▪ unlesse it be one , ( whom I met with within these two dayes ) Printed within these two yeares , that maintaineth our first comfort of Justification from Sanctification . But ●enerally all our English Orthodox Teachers doe oppose it . Amongst the English Teachers one , for ought I know , did more ●dvance the Doctrine of Marks and ●ignes , then Master Nicholas Byfield , ●●d yet he himselfe professeth , that ●umane reason cannot beleeve such ●reat things from God , from any ●●ing that is in us : But onely be●use we having the Word of God ●suring such happinesse unto such ● lay hold upon the promises con●ined in it . So that it is that which ●eedeth Faith , or as he calleth it , ●e perswasion of our good estates●et notwithstanding , saith he , the ●●surance of Faith is much increased , ●●d confirmed by Signes ; the for●er part of which speech , touch●●g the first begettings of the assu●●nce of Faith , consenteth with me ; the latter , concerning the increasing and confirming of the assurance● argueth plainely his consent , thu● farre also , that he meant not that th● assurance of the Faith of Justification should spring from Sanctification : But when he would have th● assurance of Faith to bee increase● and confirmed by the light 〈◊〉 Signes , I would not refuse it ; 〈◊〉 by the assurance of Faith , h●● meanes onely assurance of Knowledge ; or if he meaneth onely a●surance of Faith , properly so ca●led , I would then put in this ca●tion . That then the Spirit of Go● himfelfe had need , by his owne t●stimony , to reveale our justificat●on unto us , and Gods free grace 〈◊〉 accepting us in Christ : or else it 〈◊〉 not Word , nor Worke , nor t●● light of a renewed conscience , th●● can increase , or confirme , the ass●rance of Faith of our Justificatio● ▪ But only the manifestation of Go● Free-grace , in a Divine testimony , ●atified by his owne good Spirit . The third Question is concerning the activenesse of Faith : The Controversie is WHether Faith concurre as an active instrumentall cause to ●ur Justification ? In the explicating of it , I must ●●rst speake what it is that justifieth ●●ee . First , we doe beleeve , that in our ●ffectuall calling , God draweth us to ●nion with Christ , Ioh. 6. 44. Sheding abroad his Spirit in our hearts , Rom. 5. 5. And working Faith in us 〈◊〉 receive Christ , Ioh. 1. 12. 13. And 〈◊〉 live by Faith upon him , Gal. 2. 20. Secondly , we are no sooner alive in Christ , but we are accounted of God ●s his adopted children in Christ , Gal. ● . 26. Ephes . 1. 5. and so are made heires of righteousnesse , Galat. 3. 29. God imputing the righteousnesse of his Sonne Jesus to us for our justification , Rom. 4. 23. 24. 25. As we were no sooner alive in the first Adam , but we became his children , and heires of his transgression ; God imputing the guilt of it to our condemnation . Now in this we all consent ; that in receiving the gift of Faith we are meerely passive . But yet a double Question heere ariseth . Whether in receiving of Chris● ( or the Spirit , who commeth into our hearts in his name ) we be meerly passive ? Whether our Faith bee active to lay hold upon the righteousnesse o● Christ , before the Lord doe firs● impute the righteousnesse of Christ unto us . Our Reasons are . If it be the spirit of Grace she● abroad in our hearts , that doth be● get Faith in us : then if wee were Passive in receiving Faith , wee are much more passive in receiving Christ , or the Spirit of Christ , that begetteth Faith : for if we have no life to be Active untill Faith come ; we have much lesse life to be Active before the Cause , and root of Faith come . But it is the spirit of Grace , shed abroad in our hearts , that begetteth Faith in us , Zech. 12. 10. Therefore if we be Passive in receiving Faith ; we are much more Passive , in receiving the spirit that begetteth Faith. If we bee active in laying hold on Christ , before he hath given us his Spirit : then we apprehend him , before he apprehend us : then wee should doe a good act , and so bring forth good fruites , before wee become good trees ; yea , and bee good trees before we be in Christ . But these are all contrary to the Gospell , Philip. 3. 12. 13. Matth. 7. 18. Iohn 15. 4. 5. Therefore wee bee not active in laying hold on Christ , before hee he hath given us his Spirit . Whether our Faith bee active to lay hold upon Christ for his righteousnesse , before the Lord do first impute the righteousnesse of Christ to us ; we conceive no. For these Reasons . If the sinne of Adam were imputed unto us for our condemnation , assoone as we were alive by naturall life before we had done any act of life , good or evill : then the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ is imputed unto us to our Justification , as soon as we be alive unto God by Faith , before wee have done any act of Faith. But the former is plaine , Rom. 5. 18. 19. Therefore the latter also . If our Faith be first active , to lay hold upon Christ for his righteousnesse , before God imputeth it unto us ; Then wee take Christs righteousnesse to our selves , before it bee given unto us . But that wee cannot doe , for in the order of nature , giving is the cause of taking ; unlesse wee take a thing by stealth . If our Faith be first active in laying hold on Christ for his rightenesse , before God impute it unto us ; then we doe justifie God , before he doth justifie us . For hee receiveth the testimony which God hath given of his Son : that God hath given us life in his Sonne , he hath set to his seale that God is true , Iohn 3. 33. And so he which justifieth God , as others that doe not receive the testimony , condemne God of lying , 1 Ioh. 5. 10. But we cannot Justifie God before he justi●e us ; no more then we can love him before hee first loved us , 1 Ioh. 4. 19. If our Faith be first active to lay hold on Christ for his righteousnes , before God impute his righteousnes unto us : Then wee are righteous men to act , and worke out our own righteousnesse , before we be righteous , by the imputed righteousnes of Christ . But we be to our best acts and workes of righteousnesse , unrighteous , till our sinnes bee pardoned , which is not untill the righteousnesse of Christ be imputed to us . In the order of nature , the object is before the act that is conversant about it : Therefore it is in the order of nature , before the act of our Faith. To beleeve on the name of Christ is an act of Faith ; To beleeve on the name of Christ , is to receive Christ , Iohn 1. 12. Therefore the receiving of Christ is by an act of Faith. The place in Iohn , upon which the weight of this Argument lieth , saith no more , but that they which received Christ in the second Aorist in the time past , doe beleeve on his name in the time present . Which we willingly grant ; that they who receive Christ , their faith becommeth active through him to beleeve in his name , that so they might receive him , and his righteousnesse . We are justified by Faith , Rom. 3. 28. When we are said to bee justified by Faith ; It is by the righteousnesse of Christ imputed unto us . Abrahams To credere , his act of beleeving , was imputed unto him for righteousnesse , Rom 4. 3. It is taken generally amongst the Learned , for a singular opinion of Master Wotton , that To credere , the act of beleeving should be imputed for rigteousnesse . For , indeed , the act of beleeving is neither a righteousnesse according unto the Law ; For the Law is perfect , Psal . 19. 7. Nor a righteousnesse according unto the Gospell ; For the act of beleeving is an act of our owne , though given of grace : But the righteousnesse of the Gospell is not an act of our own And therefore Paul desireth that he may be found in Christ , not having his owne righteousnesse which is of the Law , but that which is through the Faith of Christ , the righteousnesse which is of God by faith , Phil. 3. 9. to wit , the righteousnesse of Christ imputed . But this Doctrine is opposite unto the streame of all the Learned ; a passive Faith is not heard of amongst men , and they doe genenerally make Faith an instrumentall cause of their Justification . A passive Faith is rarely hard of out of my mouth , but yet the thing meant by it , is never rare in the writings of the learned , nor sometimes the word passive Faith. Two things are meant by the word of Faith , and may be said to be passive in our Justification , in a double respect . Because a habite of Faith may be called passive , before it putteth forth any act , and we are justified assoone as by an habit of faith we are alive in Christ ; in the first moment of our conversion , before Faith hath put forth any act : as we were all guilty of Adams sinne , before we were active to reach forth any consent unto it . Faith may be said to bee passive in our justification , because it doth not lay hold on Christ , to fetch Justification from him , till Christ have first laid hold on us , and imputed his righteousnesse to us ; and declared it unto us by his Spirit , in a free promise of Grace : And then Faith becommeth active , actually to receive Christs righteousnesse ; and actually to beleeve on it , either by way of dependance , or assurance . For the truth is , seengi wee are not justified , neither as it is a gift in us ; nor as it is an acting and working from us ; but in regard of his object , the righteousnesse of Christ whch it receiveth . Therefore which way soever Faith may receive Christ first or last , by the same way we may be justified by it . Now Faith of it selfe , even the habit of Faith is an emptying grace , and so is as an empty vessell , fit to receive Christ and his righteousnes . And both the act of Faith , whether of dependance on Christ , or of our assrance in Christ , carrieth us out of our selves unto him , and so maketh us fit to receive Christ , and his righteousnesse . Thus I have explained what I meane by a passive Faith. Let me shew you , that neither the Word , nor the naming of it , is an untruth from our best learned men of eminent worth for parts and abilities . Calvine in his Institutions , Lib. 3. cap. 3. Sect. 5. Quoad Justificationem . Ursinus in his Catechisme , Quest . 60 , Sect. 5. Potius Deum primum . Chemierius de fide , lib. 13. Chap. 6. Verissimum esse duo . Doctor Amesius in Medullam Theologiae , lib. 1. Cap. 26. Recepti Christi . Paul Banes on the Ephesians 2. Vivificant . He quicken us , since he acknowledge a passive receiving of Christ , he must acknowledge a passive Faith : for there is no receiving of Christ , but by Faith. In a Booke of choice English Sermons , that goeth under the name of Doctor Sybbs , and our Brother Hooker , and master Davenport , there one stiled the Witnesse of Salvation , on Rom. 8. 15. 16. where in Page 135. are these words : In Justification , Faith is a sufferer onely ; But in Sanctification , it worketh , and purgeth the whole man. As for our Learned men that doe generally make Faith an instrumentall cause of their Justifica●ion . I confesse it is true ; But I doe not understand them ( as Chenerius doth in the like case ) to meane no other kinde of causa ; then Cause sine qua non , or , Causa removens , or prohibens . For Faith keepeth the Soule empty of confidence in it selfe , and maketh a way for the receiving of the righteousnesse of Christ . Even as the poore ▪ Widdowes empty vessells made a way for the receiving the oye out of the Cruse ; whereas the fulnesse of the Vessell caused the stay . The good Lord empty us more and more of our selves , that wee may be filled with him , Out of whose fulnesse wee receive grace for grace , John 1. 16. Gloria sit soli Deo. Twelve Reasons laid down against prescribed and stinted Formes of Prayers or Prayses . BEcause it is against Gods glory , in stinting unto him such a daily measure of Service ( consisting of Prayer or Praise ) and so hindering the spirituall petitions and phrases , that otherwise would be , if Gods good gifts were used . It is against the dignity of Christ , which hath qualified his Saints with a proportionable measure of the gifts of the Spirit , for Prayer or Praise , 1 Cor. 14. 15 , 16. in making their gifts needlesse and uselesse , when they can serve themselves with Books , and Formes , without them . It quencheth the gifts of the holy Spirit ; because it hath no spirituall imployment for Prayer nor Praise in his spirituall house , 1 Pet. 2. 5. God is so jealous of his glory , that hee cannot endure his worship should be corrupted with the least mixture of man : Nadab and Abihu , for offering with strange fire which God commanded them not , were destroyed with fire from the Lord , Levit. 10. 1 , 2. Vzzah , for touching the Ark contrary to the order of the God of Israel , was smitten dead , and Israel had a breach made amongst them , 1 Chron. 13. 9 , 10 , 11. compared with 1 Chron. 15. 12 , 13. Jeroboam devised worship at Dan and Bethel , though hee pretended by it to worship the true God , and advance the worship of Jehovah ; yet hee worshipped nothing but the Devils , and Calves that hee made , 2 Chron. 11. 15. And it became a sinne to Jeroboam and his house , to destroy it root and branch , and all the Kings that countenanced and upheld it ; 1 Kin. 13. 34. 2 Kin. 17. 21 , 22 , 23. But such as feared the Lord amongst them , both Levites and Priests , left their Cities , and possession ; and of the people , such as set their heart to seeke the Lord God of Israel , came to Jerusalem : So Jeroboams Kingdome weakned ; but Rehoboam , that gave liberty of conscience to worship the true God , strengthened ; 2 Chron. 11. 16 , 17. Now , was God so jealous of his glory under the Law , that hee that ●inned against that worship which God by Moses prescribed , hee died without mercy ? how much severer punishment are they worthy of , that sinne against the Sonnes authority , seeing hee is Lord of the spiri●uall house , whose house are wee , Heb. ● . 6. And the heavenly Father commandeth us to heare him , Mat. 17. 5. and that in all things , or our soules must perish , Acts 3. 22 , 23 ? Now , if we worship God in prayer or praise ▪ or any other way , by any innovation or invention of man , let us heare what our Prophet Jesus saith In vaine yee worship me , teaching f●● Doctrines the Commandements of me● Esay 29. 13 , 14. Mar. 7 6 , 7 , 8. An● however it may seeme glorious 〈◊〉 our eyes , yet God hath set th●● stigma on it , That it is a vai●● worship . I cannot worship God in a stinte● forme of worship , in prayer , a●● praise , and the like , lest I make 〈◊〉 selfe guilty of the bloud of Christ . Christ by his death hath free me from the whole Ceremonia● Law , so that if I consent to rea● againe what Christ by his dea● hath abolished , I crucifie Chris● make my selfe gailty of his blou● and as much as in me lieth , exp●● him out of the Nation . Now , the Ceremoniall Law h● his constitution in Israel , either fro● Moses , or from God : Not from 〈◊〉 for hee was a servant in his ●ouse , and hee did nothing in the Tabernacle , nor about it , but what God shewed him , Exod. 25. 4. Acts ● . 44. But the Ceremoniall Law 〈◊〉 his originall law from God : Now , if the death of Christ were ●f that power , to put an end to the ●hole Ceremoniall prescribed ●orship , so that whosoever should ●are it again should crucifie Christ , ●nd make us guilty of his bloud , &c. ●hen , that death of Christ is of ●●rce , to put an end to mans Cerenoniall Worship : But the first is true ; Ergo , the ●●ter . The Consequence is denyed . That power which can disanull ●e greater , must needs disanull the ●●●er ; if the death of Christ put an 〈◊〉 to the heavenly Fathers Cere●oniall Worship , and in prayer and ●aise , at , or before the Ark , or in ●e Temple ; then it will put an ●nd to all mans devised Worship , unlesse you will advance the authority of man above God the Father . Col. 2. 20 , 21 , 22 , 23. If Christ by his death hath freed us from the rudiments of the world , the Mosaicall Ceremonies , why living in the world are wee intangled with ordinances , after the doctrine , traditions , and commandements o● men ? But they are set up for the glory of God. Not I , but Paul shall answer fom me ; They have a shew of wisdome , i● will-worship ; but it is onely a shew there is no substance in it . Wee harden the obstinate Papist in their superstition ; for they say and that truly , Wee received mo●● of our formes of prayer and prai●● from them . Wee rob the Spirit of his glory who is given to Saints to form prayer and praise in them , 1 Cor. 1● . 15 , 16. Rom 8. 26. Gal. 4. 6. Wee impose a burthen upon 〈◊〉 conscience to be practised , which God hath left arbitrary , to be used according to our necessities ; If we be afflicted , then pray ; if wee have tasted how bountifull the Lord hath been to us in blessings , then let us praise him ; Jam. 5. 13. If wee frequent devised formes of Worship in prayer or praise , we shall lay a stumbling block before a weak brother , and cause him to fall . Woe be to them that follow the way of Balaam , who taught Balack to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel , Revel . 2. 14. Jud. v. 11. Now offences must come , but woe unto the men by whom they come : It were better for me , that a milstone were hanged about my neck , and that I were cast into the sea , then that I should offend one of these little ones , Luk. 17. 1 , 2. If wee frequent devised formes of Worship in prayer or praise , we shall offend our consciences ; ( even so many of us as are Saints enlightned , to behold the beauty of his spirituall Worship , performed , or offered in his spirituall house , the Congregation of the faithfull united ; ) Now if our consciences condemne us , God is greater then our consciences , and hee will condemne us also , 1 Joh. 3. 19. for he knoweth all things . Therefore I say to you ( who blame us for not frequenting devised forms of Worship in prayer and praises ) as Shadrach , Meshach , and Abednego did to King Nebuchadnezzar , We are not carefull to answer you in this matter ; Our God whom wee serve is able to deliver us out of your hand : But if he will not , be it known to you , we will not serve your gods ; nor worship our God in that devised way that men set up , Dan. 3. 16 , 17 , 18. It one set form of spirituall Worship in prayer and praises had been needfull , Christ would have left one : But the Prophets , Christ , the Apostles , never prayed nor praised God by any set forme of Worship invented by man ; but by the powerfull worke of the holy Spirit , Rom. 8. 26. Gal. 4. 6. A set forme of Worship prescribed in prayer or praises , cannot in prayer expresse the severall necessities of Gods people ; for the more grace they have , the more they see their owne wants ; and the more sensible they are of their owne infirmities , corruptions , and sinnes . Neither can it in praises expresse the manifold experiences that the Saints daily observe of Gods mercifull dealing with them : Therefore a set Forme of prayer or praises to Gods Saints , and faithfull ones , principled with a spirit of prayer and praise , it is altogether unusefull ; 1 Cor. 14. 15 , 16. Soli Deo honor & gloria FINIS . A DESCRIPTION OF THE Spirituall TEMPLE : OR THE SPOUSE Prepared for the LAMBE , The LORD JESUS . Written by FRANCIS CORNWEL , a Minister and Servant of Jesus , the Christ , for the benefit of poore distressed conscences , in City and Countrey . LONDON , Printed by John Dawson . 1646. TO THE HONOVRABLE , and the true lover of all conscientious Covenantours , that stand up for a through Reformation , according to the word of our good God , in England , and Ireland , CORNELIUS HOLLAND Esquire , a Member of the House of Commons Assembled in Parliament . SIR , DAvid describeth the godly man , by his pleasure , and by his paines : First , the pleasure of the godly man , in these words : He delighteth in the Law of the Lord. Secondly , the paines of the godly man : And in that Law he meditateth day and night ; not only in the day appointed for man to labour in , but in the night also appointed for man to rest : the reason is , because it is his meat and drinke , to doe the will of his God. ( Honoured Sir ) The Word of Christ being the Rule of Englands Reformation ; the good Lord ( that writeth his Lawes in his peoples hearts , according to his new Covenant of Grace : Heb. 8. 10. ) put it into my minde , seriously to consider , What Schisme was , that I had covenanted against . And searching the Scriptures , I found it thus written , 1. Tim. 6. 3. If any man teach otherwise , and consent not to the wholesome words , even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and to the Doctrine which is according to godlinesse . Vers . 4. He is proud , knowing nothing ; but doting about Questions , and strife of words ; whereof commeth envy , strife , raylings , evill surmisings . Vers . 5. Perverse disputings of men of corrupt mindes , and destitute of the truth ; supposing that gaine is godlinesse ; from such withdraw thy self . Yea , and after a further enquiry , to understand aright the things that are controverted amongst us ; by the good providence of the Almighty , I found two Texts of holy Scripture , setting forth two sorts of men , Diametrally opposing one another , as light doth darkenesse , truth doth falsehood ; the one th●s written : 1 John 5. 1. Whosoever beleeveth that Jesus is the Christ , is borne of God. And the other , thus ; 1 John 2. 22. Who is a lyar , but he that denyeth that Jesus is not the Christ , He is Antichrist , that denyeth the Father and the Sonne . And when I thought to understand the difference , it was to hard for me , untill I went into the Sanctuary of God ; where the Father of glory , of his good pleasure , revealed to me ( the most unworthyest of all his servants ) the truth of that ; which ( I conceive ) is the root of all our Controversies , and gave me to understand the meaning of the Scriptures , 1 John 5. 1. Whosoever beleeveth that Jesus is the Christ , viz. the eternall King , Prophet , Priest of the Church of the new Testament , ratified with his bloud , whom the Father of glory hath exalted to bee Lord and Christ , Acts 2. 36. and head , Ephes . 2. 20 , 21 , 22 , 23. Is borne of God. Seeing no man can say , ( that is confest ) that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Spirit , 1 Cor. 12. 3. Hence I find it written , Joh. 1. 11. Jesus came to his owne , but his owne received him not , that is , for the Christ , that Messiah which was to come : but onely for the Carpenters sonne ; Matth. 13. 58. The reason was , because none could understand that Mystery : but they onely to whom the Father of heaven revealed it , Matth. 11. 14. Hence , when Jesus demanded of his Disciples ? Whom doe men say that I the Sonne of Man am ? Peter answereth , thou art the Christ , the Sonne of the living God : Jesus answereth , Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona ; for flesh and blood hatb not revealed this unto thee ; but my Father in heaven . And thou art Peter , and upon this Rock ( Jesus the Christ , whom thou hast confessed ) I will build my Church , and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it , Mat. 16. 16 , 17 , 18. Many for fear durst not in those dayes confesse Jesus to be the Christ : Instance the Parents of the blind man : Because the Jewes had agreed , that if any did confesse , that hee was the Christ ; He should be put out of the Synagogue , John 9. 22. But so many as recived him ( viz. to be the Christ ) to them he gave power to be called the sons of God ; even to them that beleeve in his name ; which were borne not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh , nor of th● will of man , But of God , John 1. 12 , 13 ▪ And as for that other Text of the holy Scripture that doth universally oppose it the heavenly Father gave me thus to interpret it : 1 John 2. 22. Who is a lyar ( viz ●orne of the evill one , who is a lyar , and the father of lyes , and abode not in the truth , John 8. 14. But hee that denieth that JESUS ( whom hee confesseth dyed for his sinnes ; and rose againe the third day , according to the Scriptures ) Is not the Christ , viz. the annointed King and Prophet of his Church , in all his outward administrations and institutions , in admitting of Members into his spirituall Kingdome , according to his royall Commission , Matth. 28. 18 , 19. Mark. 15. 15 , 16. ( though he acknowledge him to be his eternall Priest that ever liveth , to make intercession to God for him , Heb. 7. 25. He is that Antichrist ( viz. an enemy and adversary to Jesus the Christ ) that denieth the Father and the Sonne , He that denieth the Sonnes Authority , to bee the eternall King , and his Commission to bee in force , Matth. 28. 18 , 19 , 20. Mark. 15. 15 , 16. and to be the eternall Prophet ; and his word to be the eternall rule for Doctrine and Gouernement ; aswall as his eternall Priest to reconcile him to God Denieth the Father , that sanctified the Sonne , and sent him into the World , John 10. 36. and raised him from the dead , and exalted him to bee Lord and Christ , Acts 2. 36. Hence it is ( my Honoured friend ) First , that in all my writings , I have studied to exalt Jesus the Christ , it being the Primitive . Faith once given to the Saints , Math. 16. 16. Secondly , to distinguish Jesus the Christ from all others named with the name of Jesus in Scripture Record : as Joshua is called Jesus , Hebr. 4. 8. &c. others . Thirdly , because I find the Scriptures giving that Title to him in divers places . John confesseth , I am not the Christ , John 1. 20. The Woman of Samaria said , I know the Messiah commeth which is called the Christ , John 4. 25. Apollos mightily convinced the Jewes , shewing by the Scriptures , that Jesus was the Christ , Acts 18. 28. Now that I received from the Lord , I could not but make knowne to you , You being one of the tender hearted Loyall Covenanters , a Member of that High and Honourable Court , under whose shade Conscientious Covenantours ( that contend for the faith of Jesus the Christ , once given to the Saints ) find rest . Know ( worthy Sir ) that the departure from the faith of Jesus the Christ , is a cause of so many Schismes , and Heresies maintained in the earth . Disdaine not therefore to read a little Treatise , called the Difference betweene the Christian , and Antichristian Church , Deliniated according to the Scripture Record , though the truth therein contained ( like the Two witnesses , Revel . 11. 3. ) have long mourned in Sackcloth : Yet if God give you an heart to receive it , It will be a Jewell surpassing all earthly Treasure . For if Iesus the Christ bee your Prophet to teach you , his heavenly Father will , Matth. 17. 5. Acts 3. 22. 23. He will then be your King to protect you , Matth 28. 20. Your Priest to intercede for you , Joh. 27. 20. Your Judge to acquit you , Joh. 12. 48. and if the love of Christ draw you to keepe all his Commandements ( though in the world you meet with af●liction for his sake ; yet in Christ you shall find peace ) for the Father , Son , and Spirit will dwell in your heart , and take it for the Sanctum Sanctorum , where they will abide to cheer and refresh you , Joh. 14. 23. And if you confesse , him in this world before men : He will confesse you before his Father , and proclaime it to your eternall peace and comfort , ( Euge bone serve ) Well done thou good and faithfull servant , enter into your Masters joy . Matth. 25. 21. Orpington in Kent ▪ the tenth Moneth , the first day , 1645. Yours , who contendeth for the faith of Jesus the Christ . FRANCIS CORNWELL To all loyall Covenanters , contending for the Faith of JESUS the CHRIST , once given to the Saints ; Mat. 16. 16 , 17. CVrteous Reader , be not too censorious concerning him that is the Publisher of this little Treatise , stiled , The difference between the Christian and Antichristian Church , as if hee condemned the Ages and Generations that are past , as in a lost condition ; because he saith they have built their house upon wood , and hay , and stubble , and not upon the sure rock Jesus the Christ : Farre be it from him to judge so ●ashly of the Ages and Generations past , or present , concerning their finall estate ; for ●ee is commanded to judge no man before ●he time , knowing that they stand and fall to their owne Master : And , wee shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ ; And then and there every one shall give an account for himselfe to God , Rom. 14. 4 , 10 , 12. Knowing , as it is recorded in the inspired Scriptures , that If any man build upon this foundation ( Jesus the Christ ) gold , silver , precious stones , wood , hay stubble ; Every mans work shall be made manifest : for the day shall declare it ; because it shall be revealed by fire : and th● fire shall try every mans worke . If any mans worke abide , which hee hath buil● thereon , hee shall receive a reward : If any mans work shall be burnt , hee shall suffer losse ; but himselfe shall be saved yet so as by fire , 1 Cor. 3. 12 , 13 , 14 , 15. Secondly , Know that the discovery of this truth was ( as the vision that is his for an appointed time ) and is become unto us , as the words of a book that is sealed , which men deliver to one that is learned , saying , Read this I pray thee : And h● saith , I cannot ; for it is sealed . And th● book is delivered to him that is not learned , saying , Read this I pray thee : An● hee saith , I am not learned , Esay 29. 11 , 12 ▪ So that it is not in him that is learned , no● in him that is unlearned , to discover the mystery of iniquity , by which Antichris● hath filled the Temple so full of smoak , that no man can see how to enter into it , unti● God enlighten him ; which caused the Lord Jesus in the dayes of his flesh , to break out into an Eucharistia of praise , looking on his Disciples , I thank thee , O Father , Lord of heaven and earth , that thou hast hid these things from the wise and learned , and hast revealed them unto babes . Even so , O Father , because it seemed good in thy sight , Mat. 11. 25 , 26. That the whole glory in discovering of truth to any , might be given unto God. Thirdly , Know ( gentle Reader , who art a searcher after truth in these inquiring times ) that the Publisher wrote this Treatise , to discover that the difference lieth not so much amongst us in point of Baptisme ; as it is about the Doctrine of the Faith of Jesus the Christ , the Sonne of God ; which whosoever beleeveth and confesseth , that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God , it is lawfull to baptize him , Act. 8. 36 , 37 , 38. And , to which Faith of Jesus the Christ , and Baptisme , the promise of receiving the gifts of the holy Spirit is given , Act. 2. 38 , 39. And though for publishing this mystery of Faith , which hath been hidden for some Ages and Generations that are past , hee suffer reproach and contempt from the hands and tongues of some ; yet , if the will of God be so , it is better hee suffer for well-doing , then for evill . Yet the love that hee beareth to the loyall Covenanters in the Nation , constraineth him to doe it , rather then his Country-men should ever remaine in blindnesse , under the power of Antichrist . Thine , who is the unworthiest of all the servants of Christ , ( who is content it should be said of his good name , that is as a precious oyntment , as Luther said of Moses his body , Let it die and rot , so God may be glorified , and Jesus the Christ exalted in all his royall Offices ; ) FRAN. CORNWELL . A DESCRIPTION Of the Spirituall TEMPLE . THe Spirituall Temple of the New Testament , the New Jerusalem which came downe from heaven , the Bride prepared for the Lambe , the Lord Jesus the Christ , Revel . 21. 2. may not be unfitly compared to the materiall Temple of Jerusalem , in the letter , whose foundation stone was of earth ; whose materials were hewen stones , compacted into one edifice or Tem●le : the furniture thereof was an Altar , a Sacrifice , and a Priesthood ; who were made after the law of a carnall Commandement , Heb. 7. 16. which was typicall , and was not to continue for ever ; but onely to the time of Reformation , and then the glory of it should vanish away . In which materiall Temple , none must come thither to worship , but the circumcised Jewes and Proselytes ; for the uncircumcised and unclean were an abomination , and must not enter in at the gates thereof ; Ezek. 44. 6 , 7. And for the defects the people of Israel and Judah committed in their worship , so long as they continued in their integrity , the high Priest went once every yeare into the Holy of Holiest , and that not without bloud , to offer up for himselfe , and for the errours of the people , Heb. 9. 7. Yea , and great were the priviledges that belonged to the Jewish Church : To them ( saith Paul ) pertained the adoption , and the glory , and the Covenants , and the giving of the Law , and the service of God , and the promises : Who are the fathers , and of whom , as concerning the flesh , Christ came , who is over all , God blessed for ever , Amen . Rom. 9 ▪ 4 5. But Christ being come an high Priest of good things to come , by a greater and a more perfect Tabernacle , not made with hands , that is to say , not made of this building , Heb. 9. 11. reareth up a spirituall structure , or house . 1. Whose Foundation was the living stone , who hath life in himselfe , Jesus the Christ , 1 Cor. 3. 11. Seeing other foundation no man can lay , save that is laid , Jesus the Christ , 1 Pet. 2. 4. For there is salvation in none other , Acts 4. 12. 2. The spirituall Materialls are such as are borne of water and of the Spirit , Joh. 3. 5. Who are they which are born of the Spirit ? Such men and women as through a Gospel Ministry are brought to beleeve , and manifest by their confession , that Jesus who was crucified , dead , and risen , is the Christ , is borne of God , 1 Joh. 5. 1. For no man can say ( that is , confesse ) that Jesus is the Lord , but by the holy Spirit : and being born of water , they are manifested to be lively stones , that have received life from Jesus the Christ , the living stone , 1 Pet. 2. 4. and fit spirituall materialls , to be set into the spirituall house , 1 Pet. 2. 5. 3. What is the Forme of this spirituall house ? Union : They which gladly received the word were baptized , and were added unto the Church ( and so were compacted into one spirituall house , whereof Jesus the Christ is Lord : Heb. 3. 6. But Christ as a Sonne over his owne house , whose house are we , if wee hold fast the confidence , and the rejoycing of the hope firme unto the end : ) And these continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine , and fellowship , in breaking of bread , and prayers , &c. Act 2. 41 , 42. The Furniture of this spirituall ●ouse of the new Testament , where●f Jesus the Christ is the King , Priest ●nd Prophet , is a Priesthood , Sa●rifice , and an Altar ; but all spiri●●all . First , The Priests , whether they ●e Male or Female , they are all ●ne in Christ , Gal. 3. 28. Yea , every ●ember of this spirituall house are ●ade Kings and Priests to God the Fa●her , Revel . 1. 6. Yea , and the whole Church united into a body , is a cho●●n Generation , a royall Priesthood , an ●oly Nation , a peculiar People ; that they ●●ould shew forth the vertues of him that hath called them out of darknesse into ●is marvellous light : Which in times ●ast were not a ●eople , but are now the people of God , 1 Pet. 2. 9 , 10. Secondly , The Sacrifices that ●●ese Priests offer , are all spiri●uall . 1. The first is Prayer , which the ●pirit of Christ formeth in the heart ●f a beleever , whereby hee layeth ●pen all his spirituall and temporall wants unto God his Father , in the name and mediation of Jesus Christ , through whom hee hath received a promise to bee heard , and to have his request granted ; Joh. 16. 23 , 24. 2. Secondly , Praise is a spirituall sacrifice , offered up unto God continually , that is , the fruit of our lips , giving thanks to his name , Heb. 13. 15. Which is done by praising God in Psalmes , and Hymnes , and spirituall Songs , which the Spirit o● Christ formeth in us , to sing , and make melody in our hearts to th● Lord , Ephes . 5. 19. Col. 3. 16. What is a Psalme ? It is a rehearsall of those special● mercies and particular experience● that the Lord hath done for a beleever , when his soule was brough● into great adversity ; and when the Lord delivered him , the Spirit o● God in the dayes of his mirth bringeth into his mind , and causeth him with heart and lips to blesse th● Lord in the Congregation , for his mercies received . Thus Hannah , that was barren , ●he Lord made to keep house , and ●o be the joyfull mother of a sonne , ●ingeth her song of praise , 1 Sam. 2. ● . My heart rejoyceth in the Lord , my ●orne is exalted in the Lord , my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies ; because ● rejoyce in thy salvation . Mary the mother of Jesus singeth her Magnificat ; My soule doth magnifie the Lord , and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour , Luk. 1. 46 , 47. So when the Lord had made good unto old Zacharias what hee had foretold him concerning his sonne John , Luk. 1. 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20. being filled with the Spirit , breaketh forth into his Eucharistia of praise , Luk. 1. 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel , for hee hath visited and redeemed his people . Yea , and old aged Simeon singeth his Nunc dimittis , Lord , let thy servant depart in peace ; for mine eyes have seene thy salvation . Nay , King David upon his har● warbles out the speciall mercies and favours , and deliverances Go● had done for his soule , Psal . 103 Blesse the Lord , O my soule , and 〈◊〉 within mee blesse his holy Name . Bles● the Lord , O my soule , and forget 〈◊〉 all his benefits . Who forgiveth all thi●●● iniquities : who healeth all thy diseases Who redeemeth thy life from destruction : who crowneth thee with lovin● kindnesses , and tender mercies , & ● Nay , the Psalmist exhorteth th● Traveller , the sicke man , and th● Mariner , to praise God for thei● speciall mercies received ; Psal . 107. Hence ( holy Paul saith ) I will pra● with the spirit , and I will pray wit● understanding also : I will sing wit● the spirit , and I will sing with under●standing also . Else , when thou shal● blesse with the spirit , how shall he whic● occupieth the roome of the unlearned ▪ say , Amen , at thy giving of thanks ? ● Cor. 14. 15 , 16. So that to sing blesse , and give thanks , in the language of holy Scripture , is all one . Hence , as spirituall Prayer is a Sacrifice , Psal . 141. 2. offered up unto God our Father in the name of Christ , to comfort , solace , and cure a sad and grieved spirit ; so spirituall praise is a Sacrifice , tendered to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , through Christ , Heb. 13. 16. by a merry and rejoycing Spirit , for the speciall mercies and blessings spirituall , and temporall , that the Lord hath bountifully bestowed on him . According to that of the Apostle Iames , Is any afflicted amongst yo● , let him pray ? Is any merry amongst you , let him sing ? James 5. 13. 3. Thirdly , Sacrifice , is a bro●en and a contrite heart for his sins , and his dayly failings he hath committed against a crucified Jesus : when God powreth upon his people the Spirit of grace and supplication , Zech. 12. 10. The more the Spirit of Christ openeth the eyes of their spirituall understanding , to looke up by faith upon a Jesus , who for their sinnes was peirced , the more will their hearts bee pierced with godly sorrow for their sinnes , which bringeth repentance to salvation , never to be repented of , 2 Cor. 7. 10 , 11. and to loath themselves in their owne eyes , for all their spirituall and corporall abominations , Ezek. 36. Hence beleeving David the King , that sorrowed after a godly manner , for all his iniquities , said , The sacrifices of God are a troubled spirit : A broken and contrite heart for sinne , o● God , thou wilt not despise , Psalm 51. 17. 4. Sacrifice ; is a free , ready , and cheerefull contribution to the poor● and needy members of Christ Hebr. 13. 16. To doe good and distribute forget not , for with such a sacrifice God is well pleased , Phil. 4. 18. 5. Sacrifice ; is an holy life , which the Spirit of Christ formeth in us . Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you brethren upon the mercifulnesse of God , that yee present your bodies a living sacrifice , holy , and acceptable to God , which is your reasonable service . 1 Cor. 6. 20. Yee are bought with a price ; glorifie God therefore in body and spirits which are Gods. Thirdly , The Altar , that sanctifieth the person and the Sacrifice , and maketh them both acceptable unto God , Is Jesus the Christ . 1 Pet. 2. 5. Yee also as lively stones ( that have received life from Jesus the living stone ) are built up a spirituall house , and holy Priest-hood to offer up spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God , through Jesus Christ . To this Spirituall House , or Church of the New Testament , gathered according to the royall Commission of King Jesus , Matth. 28. 18 , 19 , 20. as the Churches in Judea , in Rome , Corinth , Galatia , Ephesus , &c. were constituted . The Promises were made : First , that God would bee a Father to all those that did obey his voice , and come out from among the Jewes , Heathens , and Gentiles , and separate from their false waies , and superstitious worship , and touch not the uncleane thing , and he will receive you ; And yee shall be his Sonnes and Daughters , saith the Lord , the Almighty , 2 Corinth 6. 17 , 18. Secondly , for all the defects that these commit against his Spirituall worship , they have this promise ; The bloud of Iesus Christ , his Sonne , clenseth them from all their sinnes , 1 Iohn 1. 7. 1 Iohn 2. 1 , 2. Thirdly , So many as have been b●ptized into the name of the Lord Jesus ; ( that is , into the profession of Faith that the Apostles taught , to wit , that men should beleeve in a Crucified , dead , and risen Jesus , whom God hath exalted to be Lord and Christ ) had the promise of receiving the gifts of the holy Spirit . How prove you that to this Faith and Baptisme , the gift of the holy Spirit was granted . Repent , and be baptized every one of you , in the name of Jesus , for the remission of sinnes , and yee shall receive the g●fts of the holy Spirit . For the promise ( of giving the holy Spirit ) is to you , and to your children , ( as Joel the Prophet foretold ; ) I will powre out my spirit upon all flesh ; and your Sonnes and Daughters shall prophesie ; and your old men shall dreame Dreames ; and your young men shall see V●sions , and also upon the servants , and upon the handmaides , in those daies I will powre out my spirit , Joel 2. ●8 , ●9 . And all that are a farre off , even so many as the Lord our God shall call , verse 29. and to the twelve in Asia ●he promise was made good , Acts 19. 5 , 6 , 7. And when this Spirit is come , he will guid thee into all truth ; for he shall not speake of himselfe : but whatsoever he shall heare , that shall ●ee speake , and he will shew them things to come , John 16. 13. Yea to be to the whole Church , as a River that shall make glad the City of God , Psal . 46. 4. compared with John 7. 37. If any man thirst , let him come to me and drinke ; vers . 38. Hee that beleeveth on me , as the Scripture hath said , out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters . Vers . 39. ( But this he spake of the Spirit , that they that beleeve on him shall receive : For the holy Spirit was not yet given , because that Jesus wa● not yet glorified . ) But when Jesus was by the right hand of his Father exalted , he received of the Father th● promise of the holy Spirit ; He● hath shed forth this , which you now se● and heare , Acts 22. 33. Fourthly , All things that ar● lost and accursed to mankinde by the fall of the first Adam : are restored and sanctified to the use o● the beleevers , in and by the second Adam , Jesus the Christ . All thing● are yours : Whether Paul , or Apollo ▪ or Cephas , or the world , or life , or death , or things present , or things to come , all are yours , and yee are Christs , and Christ is Gods , 1 Cor 3. 21 , 22 , 23. Hence the unbeleeving wife is sanctified to the use of the beleever : And shee being an unbeleever dwelling with the beleeving husband is sanctified , to bring forth an holy Seed to the use of the beleever : though the childe be borne in sinne , and by nature the child of wrath , as the most prophanest Pagans are , Psal . 51. 5. Ephes . 2. 3. Void of understanding , not able to distinguish betwixt good and evill : Yet , Titus 1. 15 Unto the pure , all things are pure : Nay , the meat and drinke and the Creature which God hath created , are sanctified to his use ; 1 Tim , 4. 3 , 4 , 5. For every creature of God is good , and nothing to be refused ; If it bee received with thankesgiving : For it is sanctified by the Word and Prayer . What Priviledge hath the unbeleeving party , by dwelling and abiding with the beleever ? Great is the Priviledge , if he , or shee , will abide ; for living under them , where the holy Spirit breatheth , and his lips drop as the honey combe ; the sweet precious treasure of the Gospell of grace ; What knowst thou , oh thou beleeving husband , whether God will not make thee instrumentall to save thy wife ? though an unbeleever : Or what knowest thou , oh thou beleeving wife ? whether God will not make thee instrumentall to save thy husband ? 1 Cor. 7. 16. And when hee is converted , hee will blesse God for you , ( as David did for Abigail , in another case ) Blessed be the Lord for you , and blessed be your good counsell , for you have been an instrument to convert a soule from the errour of his way , and save a soule from death , and hide a multitude of transgressions . Is it not a greater Priviledge for an Infant to be borne of a beleever , then to be borne of a Jew , a Turke , or an Heathen ? yea ; For the Children borne of beleevers are brought up in holy instruction , and education from their childe-hood ( as young Timothy was taught in the Scriptures from his youth , by his mother Eunice ) seeing it is the charge , the holy Spirit hath laid upon beleeving Parents : Ephes . 6. 4. Fathers provoke not your children to wrath ; But bring them up in the nurture and feare of the Lord. Whereas if their Parents were Jewes , and Turkes , and Heathens , the Parents being without Christ , being Aliants from the Common-wealth of Israel ; and strangers from the covenant of Promise , having no hope , and without God in the world , Ephes . 2 12. Their children brought up with them , follow after Superstitious vanities ; and ferve dumbe Idolls , as their Teachers , and Fathers led them , ● Cor. 12. 1. Fiftly , They are people live under precious promises : And hee hath promised , that the eye of his providence shall bee over them , all their dayes for good : He biddeth them not distract themselves with immoderate carking care : For what they shall eate , or what they shall drinke , or yet for their bodies , what they shall put on . Reasons Christ giveth are two . First , Your heavenly Father knoweth yee have need of all these things . Secondly , But seeke yee first the Kingdome of God , and his righteousnesse ; and all these things shall be added unto you , Matth. 6. 33. Now the members of the Church of Christ , gathered according to Christs Institution , Matth. 28. 18 , 19 , 20. are the Children of the Kingdome ; and under the Promise , that God , as a Father , will provide for them ; Therefore they are exhorted to bee carefull for nothing : But in every thing , by Prayer , and Supplications , with thankesgiving , let their request be made knowne unto God , Philip. 4. 6. Hence the Apostle exhorteth the Church of ●he Hebrewes ; Let your conversation bee without covetousnesse ; and bee content with such things as yee have : For he hath said , I will never faile thee , nor forsake thee : So that we may boldly say , the Lord is my helper . And I will not feare what man shall doe unto me , Hebr. 13. 5 , 6. Sixtly , They are under the promise of Audience , whensoever they come to petition in the name of his Sonne Jesus the Christ , for what they want , be they few or many : Matth. 18. 19. I say to you , that if two of you ( beleevers baptized ) agree in earth , as touching any thing that they shall aske , It shall bee done for them of my Father in Heaven . Vers . 20. For where two or three are gathered together in my Name , ( that is , by his Power , Authority , and Royall Commission , he hath promised his presence ) there am I in the midst of them ; to heare and returne them an answer to their request ; yea , and to protect and preserve his Church , gathered in every Age , to the ends of the world . Thus at the Prayer of the Church , that was reproched , for holding forth the Faith of Jesus ; the gift of the holy Spirit was given , to speake the Word of God with boldnes , Acts 4. 31. At the earnest suit and intercession the Church made unto God , Peter the Apostle was released out of his Imprisonment , and brought to the house where they were praying , Acts 12. Seventhly , Lastly , there is no Society hath such Priviledges , as this Spirituall Ho●se , which is constituted according to the Magna Charta of the Gospel , Matth. 28. 18 , 19 , 20. Marc. 16. 15 , 16. though while they are in the Wo●ld , they are for the Faith of Jesus the Christ killed all the day long ( either in their good names , by r●proch , and ●lander ; or in their estates , by the ●ighty Nimrods of these oppres●●ng daies , they are exposed to plun●er and spoiling , which they are to ●ake patiently , Hebr. 10. 32. or in ●heir Liberties to be imprisoned , for ●ontending for the Faith of Jesus ●he Christ , 1 John 5. 1. Once given ●nto the Saints , or forbid to preach ●ny more in his name , as the Apo●tle Peter was , Acts 4 18. or to have ●heir lives taken violently f●om ●hem , as James the Apostle was by ●he Tyrant Herod , Acts 12. 2. 3. And accounted , But as sheepe for the slaughter , ( regarded no more by the Wolves in sheepes clothing , then the bloudy Butcher regardeth the life of his sheepe ; ) yet the poorest member amongst them is rich in faith , and heire of the Kingdome which God hath promised to them that love him , James 2. 5. Yea , and the whole body of beleevers , walking in that faith and order , Christ hath prescribed , with perseverance in the faith unto the ende , shall be more then conquerours , through him that loved them , Rom. 8. 36. Yea , next to the Paradise of glorie ; there is no Society like to this Spirituall Corporation of Saints , where the Lord will dwell in the middest of them , and give them light : Hence was the beloved Apostles Utinam , Oh that you had fellowship with us , 1 John 1. 3. Why was it such a Priviledge ? Truly , our fellowship is with the Father , and with his Sonne Jesus Christ : So that the Father , Sonne , and holy Spirit , and Saints , make up but one Society , or Family , where God will dwell , to comfort and solace them : the good Angels their guard , to protect and save them ( as they did once the Prophet Elisha from the troop of the Aramites , 2 King. 6. 17. ) seeing they pitch their tents round about them that feare him , Psal . 34. 7. And are sent forth to be ministring Spirits , to minister unto them that are heires of salvation , Heb. 1. 14. And when they die , they resigne their spirits to God that gave them , as the Proto-Martyr Stephen did , Lord Jesus receive my spirit , Acts 7. 59. to remaine in the mansion prepared for the spirits of just men departed . So that happy are the people that are in such a case ; yea , blessed are those Churches that have the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for their God. What is the Antichristian faith ? It is to deny that Jesus ( whom they confesse dyed to take away the sinnes of the world ) is the Christ . How prove you that ? 1 Joh. 2. 22. Who is a liar , ( viz. borne of the evill one , who is a liar , and the father of lies , and abode not in the truth , Joh. 8. 44. ) but hee that denyeth that Jesus is the Christ ? ( viz. the eternall King , Prophet , Priest of his Church , bought with his owne bloud ) hee is Antichrist ( an enemy and an adversary to Jesus the Christ ) that denyeth the Father and the Sonne . For he that denyeth the Sonnes authority , to be the eternall King and Prophet of the Church of the New Testament , to the end of the world , according to the royall Commission hee received from the Father of glory , when hee raised him from the dead , Mat. 28. 18 , 19 , 20. compared with Mar. 16. 15 , 16. aswell as his eternall Priest , that ever liveth to make intercession to God for him , Heb. 7. 25. hee denyeth the Father that sanctified the Sonne , and sent him into the world , Joh. 10. 36. and raised him from the dead , and exalted him to be Lord and Christ , Act. 2. 36. Ephes . 1. 20 , 21 , 22 , 23. What Congregations deny that Jesus is the Christ ? Even all such as build their house upon the hay and stubble of mans inventions , and not upon the precious stone , Jesus the Christ , in whom onely salvation is found , Act. 4. 12. Of which sort of builders are these : The first sort are those that build their house upon the person of Peter , and so successively upon the P●pe . These the Spirit of God discovereth to be foolish builders ▪ because there is no salvation in Peter , nor Pope : the Apostle Peter himselfe being the Judge to decide the controversie , Acts 4. 11. Peter speaking of Jesus the Christ , saith , This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders ▪ which is become the head of the corner . Ver. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other ; for there is none other name under heaven given amongst men , whereby wee must be saved . The second sort are those that build their house upon the Office of Peter , and so successively on the Officers : So that if the Officers united into a body in Councell erre , the whole Church that receiveth their faith , from their Edicts and Decrees , erre also . Now , that Councells may erre , and have erred , in things appertaining to God , appeareth in the 21. Article of the Church of England , by Law established ; as appeareth . Adoration of Images was established in the second Generall Councell of Nice . The Popish Clergy were advanced above all earthly Princes , by the Councell of Lateran . And Priests prohibited to marry , which is honourable amongst all men , Heb. 13. 4. by the said Councell . The late Trident Councell erred in many things grosly ; as in exalting the traditions of men to be of equall authority with the word of God ; Trident. Sess . 4. Decret . Together with the invocation of creatu●es . Or any other Councell , that should decree , that grace cometh by generation ; or , Beleevers should beget beleevers : or , Christians beget Christians : then the whole Church that build their faith upon such corrupt Councells may erre also . The third sort are all those that build their house upon another mans faith , and not basing or laying the foundation aright , on the Gospel faith ; to wit , to beleeve in a crucified , dead , and risen Jesus , whom God hath exalted to be the Christ : If they erre in the object of their faith , Jesus the Christ , though they owne him to be Jesus their eternall Priest , to make intercession to God for them ; yet if they deny him their eternall King and Prophet , in all his outward institutions , in admitting of members into his spirituall Kingdome , they build but on a sandy foundation , and not on the sure rock Jesus the Christ . These Congregations , when the storme of Gods ind●gnation bloweth upon them , it will faile them ▪ because they were so foolish as to build upon the sand , Mat. 7. 26. and not upon the immoveable rock Jesus the Christ ; seeing other foundations no man can lay , save that is laid , Jesus the Christ , 1 Cor. 3. 11. Paul calleth him , The corner stone , Ephes . 2. 20. Peter , The living stone , 1 Pet. 2. 4. Yea , The chiefe corner stone , elect and precious : hee that beleeveth on him shall not be confounded , 1 Pet. 2 6. Vnto you that beleeve ( in Jesus the Christ , hee i● precious , 1 Pet. 2. 7. Now , the true Spouse of Christ can have no communion with such as deny Jesus the Christ their onely Rock , in whom salvation onely i● found , Act. 4. 12. First , Because shee is a loyal● Spouse , that hath no head , no husband , no Lord , no Law-giver , in things appe●taining to the conscience , but royall King Jesus : no● will admit any other pretende● Spouse to have fellowship with h●r ▪ that is partly governed by the wor● of Christ , and pa●tly with the chaff● and straw of their owne traditions , in Gods spirituall worship , or in admitting of m●mbers into his spirituall house : Knowing , that in so doing shee should be found to be a Monster , that hath two heads ; o● else like to that proud harlot R●me , that hath a divided heart , that goeth a whoring after two husb●nds ; Christ , and Antichrist . Secondly , This loyall Spouse her love toward her husband the Lord Jesus the Christ , is tender and compassionate love ; shee cannot endure to heare her husband should bee spoyled of any of his royall dignities , either his Kingly or Propheticall , as well as Priestly Offices : Shee cannot with harlot Rome bee content with a divided Christ ; but with the true mother shee must joyn onely with them that will have a whole Christ , or no Christ . Christ her King , and his Commission to bee eternall , Mat. 28. 18 , 19 , 20. Christ her Prophet , whose voyce shee must onely heare ; as the Father of glory hath given her in charge to doe , Mat. 17. 5. Yea , and the extent how farre , in all things , whatsoever hee shall say ; Act. 3. 22. Knowing , the danger followeth , her soule shall be cut off from his people , Act. 3. 23. reckoned no sheep of his fold , Joh. 10. no Spouse of her royall husband , Ephes . 5. 24. as well as her eternall Priest , to make intercession for her , Heb 7. 25. because shee knoweth , Christ divided , becometh no Christ to the divider : And this , according to the Vulgar Latine , is solvere Jesum , to dissolve Jesus , to receive him onely in part , and not in the whole ; which is the spirit of Antichrist , &c. Lastly , The Christian Church , Christs loyall Spouse , knoweth that her royall husband is jealous of his glory , and will not endure his Worship should be corrupted with the inventions of man ; therefore shee deserteth the communion of all such as have forsaken Christ , the fountaine of living waters , and dig to themselves cisternes , broken cisternes , that will hold no water . Hence it is as possible for light and darknesse to agree in one subject , and the Temple of God , and I●ols : as the Church that hath Christ for her head , and the Word to bee the rule of her Doctrine , and Government . And those Congregations that are governed , partly by the Word of Christ , and partly by their owne T. aditions , should have communion together . But have Gods Elect in Babylon any power of themselves to returne out of the Land of their spirituall Captivity under Antichrist . Nay : Untill God enlighten them , that are darke ; and quicken them that are dead , and cause them to returne , by being obedient to a Gospel Ministery : as formerly he brought in our fore-fathers , which were Gentiles aswell as wee , and strangers from the common-wealth of Israel , and Aliants from the covenant of Promise , having no hope , and without God in the world , by opening their blind eyes : and turning them from darkenesse to light ; and from the power of Satan , unto God ; that they might receive the remission of their sinnes , and an inheritance amongst them which are sanctified by Faith in Christ Jesus , Acts 26. 18. Now as many as shall bee obedient to the voice of the Lord , will be unequally yoaked no more with unbeleevers , but wil become obedient unto the voice of the holy Spirit , and come out from amongst them , and be separate ; and touch no more any of the uncleane thing ; and then the Lord will make good his promise : To be a Father unto you , and yee shall be his Sonnes and Daughters . Having therefore these Promises ( dearely beloved ) Let us clense our selves ( even so many poore Iaphets , as God shall perswade to dwell in the Tents of Shem ; ) from all filthynesse , both of the flesh , and of the spirit , perfecting holynesse in the feare of the Lord , 2 Cor. 6. 14 , 17 , 18. Chap. 7 , 1. If all Churches come out of Babylon by degrees ; then you condemn all Churches that are not of your judgement ? We condemne no Churches that are built upon the tryed stone : the precious Corner Stone ; the sure Foundation , Esay 28. 16. Jesus the Christ . Seeing other foundation can no man lay , save that is layd Jesus Christ , 1 Cor. 3. 11. Whom Paul calleth the corner stone , Ephes . 2. 20. Peter , the living stone , 1 Pet. 2. 4. Yea , the chiefe corner stone , elect and precious , 1 Pet. 2. 6. For there is salvation in none other , Acts 4. 12. 2 And that holdeth the Gospell Faith : namely , that they beleeve in a crucified , dead , and risen Jesus ( through whom they obtaine remission of sinnes ) whom God hath exalted to be Lord , and Christ , viz. eternall King ▪ Priest ▪ and Prophet , and head of the body of his Church , Ephe. 1. 22 , 23. which must be preached among all Nations ; beginning at Jerusalem , Luke 24. 46 , 47 , 48. And constituted according to the Commission given to the Apostles , Math. 28. 19 , 20. which is left as a rule for the g●thering of all Churches , to the ends of the World ; seeing the Word of Christ is eternall . The word of the Lord endureth for ever ; and this is the Word , which by the Gospell is preache● unto you , 1 Pet. 1. 25. Yea , and after their apostasie , under the spirituall Babylonish captivity , to reforme any errour crept into the Churches of the old and new Testament : It was their holy custome , to reduce all things to their first Institution : Quod primum verum , th●t which was first is true , according to ertullians j●dgement . For instance , so 〈◊〉 David in the miscarriage of the Arke of God , 1 Chro. 15. 2. 12. 13. And it was zealous Iosiahs rule ( whom the Spirit of God so comme●deth in Scripture , that none was like before him for his Reformation ) 2 Chr● 34 31. The like example tooke Nehemiah after his returne from the Babylonish Captivity , Neh. 10. 29. To observe all the Commandements of the Lord , and the Statutes which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them to keepe . So in reforming of the particular Churches of the New Testament , whereof Jesus the Christ is head , King , and Prophet ( if ever they be rightly brought out of their Spirituall Babylonish captivity under Antichrist ) we must reforme all the Innovations , as the Lord Jesus himselfe reformed the long-spread errour of Bygamie and Polygamy . Non fuit sic ab initio , From the beginning it was not so , Matth. 19. 7 , 8. Yea , and we must so follow Paul ( as he followed Christ , 1 Cor. 11. 1. ) in reforming the abuses crept into the Church of Corinth , reducing all things to the first Institution : With a what I r●ceived from the Lord , that I delivered unto you , 1 Cor. 11. 23. We condemne none that are comming out of Babylon , that make enquiry after truth ( as the daughters of Ierusalem did of the Spouse , Cant. 5. 9. What is thy beloved more then another beloved ; oh thou fairest among women ? What is thy beloved more then others beloveds , that thou dost so charge us ? And tru●h being r●vealed to them , joyne with us in the practise of truth , ( as the Daughters of Ierusalem did with the Spouse , Cant. 6. 1. Whither is thy beloved gone , oh thou fairest among women ? Whither is thy beloved turned aside that we may seeke him with thee ? ) The Spouse giveth them a gentle , and a loving direction , Cant. 6. 2. My beloved is gone into his garden , to gather Spic●s : to feed in the garden , and to gather Lillies . But wee onely condem●e those that deny Jesus the Christ ( though they owne him their eternall Priest , that ever liveth , to make intercession to God for them Hebr. 7. 25. ) yet they deny him their King and P●ophet in all his outward administrations , in admitting of members into his Spirituall Kingdome ; stablished ●ccording to Christs eternall Commission , Mat. 28. 18 , 19 , 20. and are ●uil● upon wood , hay , and stubble , 1 Cor. 3. 12. Now though these pre●end to come out of Babylon , yet they persecute , scof●e ▪ and deride all poore weake enq●i●ing soules , for seeking after the pure wayes of that spirituall Worship , that Jesus the Christ hath appointed , and established in all the Churches of the Saints , gathe●ed according to the P●imitive ▪ pattern Act. 2. 41 42 , 43. as the watchman ●id the Spouse , Cant. 5. 7. Wee condemne onely those that sinne through a wilfull contempt ; because the ev●ll of their halfe-way Reformation is discovered by them , whom God hath raised up to declare his truth in an evill day . Now , when these sorts of men shall bee so farre from repenting of all the evill that they have done to the servants of the Lord Jesus , in this kind , that they still persevere in persecuting them for the truth they deliver , ( as the Jewes did of old the Lord Jesus , and their own Prophets , as it is written , 1 Thes . 2. 14. For yee , brethren , became followers of the Churches of God , which in Judea are in Christ Jesus ; for yee have also suffered like things of your owne countrymen , even as they of the Jewes : Verse 15. Who both killed the Lord Jesus , and their owne Prophets , and have persecuted us , and they please not God , and are contrary to all men ; Ver. 16. Forbidding us to preach to the Gentiles , that they may be saved , that they may fill up the measure of their owne iniquity , that the wrath of God may come upon them unto the uttermost . ) Upon these sorts of men , not we , but the Lord Jesus hath set this dreadfull doome , This is the condemnation , that light is come into the world , and men love darknesse rather then light , because their deeds are evill . For every one that doth evill , hateth the light , neither cometh to the light , least his deeds should bee dis●overed , John 3. 19 , 20. Not wee , but the good Spirit of ●ur God condemneth all those that ●inger after false and Antichristian wayes : When Babylons down-fall ●s pronounced , R●vel . 14. 8. Babylon ●s fallen , it is fall●n , that great City ; because shee made all nations drunk with ●he wine of her fornications . V 9. Af●er that followed a third Angel , that cryed with a loud voyce saying , if any man ( be hee high or low , rich or poore , noble or ignoble , bond or free , male or female ) worship the Beast ( that Antichrist of Rome , that exalteth himselfe above all that is called God , or worshipped ) or his Image , ( that is , his Government , that receive their power and ju●isdiction from , in , or under him ) or his mark , ( viz. his Canons , Constitutions , Edicts ▪ or Decrees ) into their hands , ( viz. to fight , or write in the defence of them ) or into their foreheads , ( to plead or preach for them ) mark their doome , The same ( not that doe it ignorantly through un●belie●e , that are mislead by thei● Teachers ; but they which sinn against knowledge , obstinately to defend their Antichristian practices● shall drink of the wine of the wrath o● God , which is poured out without mix●ture into the cup of his indignation , an● they shall be tormented with fire an● brimstone in the presence of the hol● Angels , and in the presence of the Lamb● And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever : and they hav● no rest day nor night , who worship th● Beast and his image , and receive th● mark of his name , Revel . 14. 10 , 11● The good Lord of his great mercy grant to all those that belong to his election ( that linger after false and Antichristian wayes and practices ) repenting hearts , to forsake their sinnes , that none of that evill threatned fall upon them . Amongst which marks of the Beast , Is not the decree of Pope Innocentius the third ? Decret . Gregor . lib. 3. ●it . 42. cap 3. as Doctor Willet in his Synopsis Papismi de baptismo infanti●m , citeth : That whereas Circum●ision ( by the commandement of God ) was conferred upon the in●ants as well as the elder sort ; so Baptisme also , which succeedeth in ●he roome thereof , and is more generall to men and women , must ●e conferred to both . By which Decree , the Nations in name and title have been christianized , ( though ●n the power they have denyed it ) and have killed many a precious Saint , under the brand of Hereticks , for opposing it : whereby , the inhabitants of the earth have beene made drunk with the wine of her fornication , Revel . 17. 2. But the Spirit of God describeth the true Church , after Babylons down-fall , Revel . 14. 12. Here is the patience of Saints : here are they which keep the commandements of God , and the faith of Jesus . And is it not a commandement of God , that all Churches should be gathered according to the Commission of King Jesus ? Mat. 28. 18 , 19 , 20. Mar. 16● 15 , 16. Wee onely condemne those Churches ( that persecute Christ in his members , from city to city , ( as Saul did , Act. 26. 9 , 10. ) fo● keeping the commandements o● God , and the faith of Jesus , Mat● 16. 16. 1 Joh. 5. 1. ) as no true Churches of Christ ; but rather Synagogues of Satan : for , no hurtful thing shall be in the holy mountaine● Esay 65. 25. The wolfe and the lam● shal● fold together ; and the lion shall eat straw like an oxe ; and the dust shall the serpent eat : They shall not destroy in all my holy mountaine , saith the Lord● As likewise , Esay 11. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. If the Churches that men now contend for ( coming out of Babylon by degrees ) should crucifie Christ in his members , for contending for the faith of Jesus the Christ , once given to the Saints , Mat. ●6 . 16 , 17 , 18. yea , reproach , whip , crop , and persecute them , for holding the Commission of their royall Master Jesus the Christ , Mat. 28. 18 , 19 , 20. that Antichrist by his Decretals , and Popish Councels , hath defaced , ( as of late the Arch-Prelate of England did some Worthies , that stood for a Reformation according to the light God discovered unto them ) then they in such an estate were no true Churches of Christ ; but Congregations that are hardened , and speake evill of the way before the multitude , and are to be separated from , Act. 19. 9. But if they be meek , and gentle , peaceable , and willing to bee instructed , inquiring after truth , it being discovered by the true Spouse ( whom God hath enlightened to direct them , ) wee contemne not those daughters ; but rejoyce in their fellowship , tender them as lambes of Christ , that have a longing desire to be added to that sheepfold , whereof ▪ Jesus is the true shepherd ; though as yet ignorant of the way of truth in many things ▪ But as for the neutrall party , tha● are neither hot nor cold , but luke-warme , God will spue them out o● his mouth , Revel . 3. 15 , 16. Whether the Church of Chris● is not now to be recovered out o● an Antichristian estate , that denyeth that Jesus is the Christ , 1 Joh● 2 , 22. and crucifieth Christ in hi● members ; as the Church of the New Testament in the Apostolicall times , was gathered out of th● Nationall Church of the Jewes ( that was of old once a true state untill they crucified Jesus the Christ in his humane nature ; whom God raised from the dead , and exalted him to be Lord and Christ , Act. 2. 36. ) i● God shall by his Gospel-Ministery wound and prick their hearts for their sinne of crucifying Christ in his members , that confesse the faith ●f Jesus the Christ , 1 Joh. 5. 1. ( as ●ee did once the Jewes that crucifi●d the Christ , their Messias , in his ●wne person , Acts 2. 37. ) so that ●●ey trembling cry out , Men and ●●ethren , what shall we doe ? Must not the Reply bee that ●oyce that the holy Spirit spake by ●e mouth of Peter , Repent , and be ●aptized every one 〈◊〉 you in the name of Jesus for the remission of sinnes : ●nd yee shall receive the gift of the ho● Spirit . For the promise is to you , and 〈◊〉 your children , and to them that are ●farre off , even so many as the Lord 〈◊〉 God shall call . And with many other words hee said , ( and must not ●ee doe so likewise ? seeing what●oever things ●ere written afore-time , were written for our learning , Rom. 15. ● . ) Save your selves from this unto●ard generation . Seeing the same wrath is fallen on them ( as was on ●he Jewes , for killing the Lord Jesus ●nd their owne Prophets , 1 Thes . 2. 14 , 15 , 16. ) seeing they crucifie Christ in his members , that contend for the faith of Jesus the Chris● ( as Paul did , Act. 9. ) Now so many as shall gladly receive this word and be baptized , shall be saved from wrath ; as Noah and his family were saved in the Ark , from perishing by water ; seeing it is written , by th● like figure Baptisme saveth , 1 Pet. 3● 20 , 21. The Reason is , first , Because th● time of our ignorance God hath winke● at ; but now ( seeing light is come and truth is revealed ) the Lord Jesus commandeth us every where to re●pent , &c. Acts 2. 38. Else our con●demnation will be heavie , Joh. 3 ▪ 19 , 20. This is t●e condemnation , ligh● is come , and men love darknesse mor● then light , because their deeds are evill , &c. Secondly , Because we have with Paul and the Jaylor , in the time o● our ignorance , beaten and perse●cuted Jesus the Christ in his mem●bers , that contend for the faith 1 Joh. 5. 1. and wee though within our selves we ought to doe something contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth ( as Paul did in the time of his ignorance , Act. 26. 9. ) If God shall by his good Spirit convince us of the evills that wee have done , so as that we trembling cry , Men and brethren , what shall we doe ? Must not the reply be , Repent ? &c. Act. 2. 38. Else , shall they not be disobedient to the voyce of the Spirit that speaketh ? seeing Paul and the Jaylor arose and were baptized , Acts 9. 18. & 16. 33. Thirdly , Because there is no promises of salvation to be found in the Antichristian states , that deny Jesus the Christ , 1 Joh. 2. 22. The Reasons are , First , Because all the promise of God are made over to them onely that beleeve in Jesus the Christ , 2 Cor ▪ 1. 20. Hee that beleeveth in the Sonne of God hath life , and he that beleeveth not in the Sonne of God , hath not life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him , John 3. 36. Secondly , Till we did beleeve in Jesus Christ , we were ( in respect of any visible calling ) without Christ ; being Aliants from the Common-wealth of Israel , and strangers from the Covenant of Promise ; having no hope , and without God in the world . But once beleevers in Christ , Yee who were sometime afarre off , are made nigh by his bloud , and through him have accesse by one Spirit unto the Father . And are no more strangers and forraigners : but fellow-citizens with the Saints , and of Gods houshold , &c. Ephes . 2. 12 , 13. 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22. Thirdly , Because they in denying the Sonnes authority to bee the King and Prophet of his Church in all his outward administrations , in admitting members into his spirituall kingdome , Math. 28. 19. 20. though they own him their Priest , that ever liveth to make reconciliation to God for them , Hebr. 7. 25. They deny the Father , that sanctified the Sonne , and sent him into the world , and raised him from the dead , and exalted him to be the Lord and Christ , Act. 2. 36. Ephes . 1. 20 , 21 , 22. Fourthly , Because the Antichristian state deny the Sonne , 1 Iohn 2. 22 , 23. Whom the Father of glory commandeth us to heare , Math. 17. 5. Yea , and the Apostle Peterciting the Testimony of Moses , saith , Truely Moses said to the Fathers , The Lord your God will raise up a Prophet from the midst of your bretheren , like unto me ; him shall yee heare in all things whatsoever he shall say : and the danger followeth . It shall come to passe , that every soule which refuseth to heare the voice of that Prophet , that soule shall be cut off from his people , Acts 3 , 22 , 23. The Reasons are these . First , If Jesus the Christ bee not our Prophet to teach us , hee will not be our King to protect us : Math. 28. 10. Teach them , saith Christ , to observe , all things that I command you : And loe , I am alwaies with you to the end of the world . Secondly , If Christ be no Prophet to teach us his heavenly Fathers revealed will , he wil be no Priest to intercede for us , Ioh. 17. 20. I pray not for these alone , but for all them that shall beleeve in me through their word . Now it is not their word that they speake , but what they have received from Christ to speake . Seeing it is written 2 Iohn 9. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ , hath not God : but he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ , hath both the Father and the Sonne . Verse 10. If there come any unto you , and bring not this doctrin , receive him not to house , neither bid him God speed . Verse 11. For hee that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evill deeds . Thirdly , If Christ bee no Prophet to teach us : Hee will bee no Judge to acquit us . Iohn 12. 48. Hee which rejecteth mee , and rece iveth not my words , hath one that judgeth him ; the words that I have spoken , the same shall judge us in the last day . And then like the wise Merchant , let us cast up our accouut , what it will profit us ? If by denying to heare the voice of our Prophet Jesus , we gaine the world , and in the meane season loose our precious soules . Knowing the Sonne of man shortly will come to judge the world : And then they which be ashamed of him , and his words , in this sinnefull and adulterous generation , of them will the Sonne of man be ashamed , when he cometh in the glory of his Father ▪ with all his holy Angels , Marke 8. 38. Fourthly , If we joyne with them that deny Jesus the Christ , I Iohn 2. 22. and will be partakers of their sinnes , wee shall bee partakers of their plagues , Revel . 18. 4. And for our unbeliefe , in persisting to persecute them , that contend for the faith of Jesus the Christ , Math. 16 ▪ 16 , 17 , 18. The wrath of God abideth on them , 1 Thess . 2. 14 , 15 , 16. Fiftly , There is no promise to any people , that deny the Faith and Baptisme of Jesus the Christ , that they waiting shall receive the gifts of the Spirit . But rather that they shall be given up of God to strong delusions , to beleeve a lye , 2 Thess . 2. 10. Because they received not the love of the truth , that they might bee saved . Verse 11. For this cause , God shall give them up to strong delusions to beleeve a lye . Verse 12. That all might bee damned that beleeve not the truth , but have pleasure to continue in unrighteous practises . 2 Thess . 2 10 , 11 , 12. But there is a promise to all poore enquiring soules , that in the time of their ignorance and unbeliefe , have denyed Jesus the Christ , their eternall King and Prophet , aswell as Priest , and now by the Spirit of God being convicted , that they are lyars and Antichristian , that deny the Father and the Son , 1 Iohn 2. 22. And being pricked at the heart , now trembling , cry out , Men and brethren what shall we doe ? The Spirit of Christ in the inspired Scripture , saith : Repent , and be baptized ▪ every one of you in the name of Iesus for the remission of sins , and yee shall receive the gifts of the holy Spirit , Acts 2. 38. We have an instance of twelve Disciples found at Ephesus , baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus , and and Paul laid his hands on them , and they spake with new tongues , and Prophesied , as Ioel the Prophet foretold , Ioel 2. 28. I will powre out of my Spirit upon all flesh , &c. But were those Disciples Paul found at Ephesus ( that had beene baptized by Iohn the Paptist ) rebaptized by Paul ? In answering this objection , I conceive : First , there was a vast difference betweene Faith and Baptisme ; Iohn preached before the suffering , death , and resurrection of Christ : And the Faith and Baptisine Christ commanded his Disciples to preach after his Resurrection , Luke 24. 46 , 47. Secondly , Iohn the Baptist preached the Baptisme of repentance ▪ saying , that they should beleeve on him that was to come after him , Acts 19. 3 , 4. Whom Christ himselfe declareth to his Apostles , being come in the flesh that he must goe up to Ierusalem , fall into the hands of sinners , bee killed , and the third day rise againe , but th● Disciples understood it not , though it were declared to them , and they were afraid to aske him , Mark. 9. 31 , 32. Much more John understood not , that Christ should dye , and rise againe from the dead . First , because it was not revealed to him , though John sent two of his Disciples to demand of him , Whether it were he that should come , or shall we looke for another ? Christ answereth , Goe tell John , the blind see he deafe heare , the dead are raised , and the poore the Gospell is preached , and lessed is he that is not offended in me , Math. 11 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6. Secondly , Christ saith of John : This was that Elias that was to come , ●hat should prepare the way before him , Mal. 3. 1. Thirdly , Hee was the greatest Prophet borne amongst women : for he saw him come in the flesh , and said to two Disciples , Behold that Lamb ●f God which taketh away the sinnes of he world , John 1. 29. Yet hee that is he least member in the kingdom of heaven is greater then John : because after the death and resurrection of Christ , they could preach and declare that great myst●ry of godtinesse , 1 Tim. 3. 16. that Iohn the Baptistnever knew . But the Apostles after the resurrection of Christ , he having opened their understanding , that they might understand the Scriptures , said unto them , That it behoveth , Christ to suffer , and rise againe the third day , that repentance and remission of sinnes should bee preached in his name , amongst all Nations , beginning at Ierusalem : and yee are witnesses of these things , Luke 24. 46 , 47 , 48. Again , Iohn the Baptists baptisme , was the Baptisme of water onely but had no promise of the holy Spirit annexed , as himselfe confesseth , Math. 3. 11. I indeed baptize you with water to repentance : But he that commeth after mee is mightier then I ▪ he shall Baptize you with the holy Spirit and with fire . Secondly , The holy Spirit wa● not to bee given in his full measure untill Christ was glorified . Iohn 7. 39 compared with Acts 2. 33. But to the Faith and Baptisme the Apostles preached after the death , and resurrection , and ascention of Christ into glory , there was a promise of giving the gifts of the holy Spirit , Acts 2. 38. Repent , and b● Baptized , every one of you in the nam● of Iesus for the remission of sinnes : and yee shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit : as the Prophet Ioel foretold , Ioel 2. 28. and the twelve at Ephesus received , Acts 19. 6. I affirme , that the twelve at E●hesus , that had beene Baptized by Iohn , or his Disciples Ministry , were re-baptized by Paul , or them that were with him in the time of his Ministery ; for these ensuing Reasons . First , In respect of the different dispensations . The Faith and Baptisme that these twelve had received from Iohn , or his Disciples Ministerie , though it was a saving Faith all the dayes of Iohn and his Disciples Ministry , yet it was not a saving Faith after the death , and resurrection , and ascention of Christ into glory , in the time of Pauls Ministery : For Iohn and his Disciples preached the Baptisme of Repentance ; saying , that they should beleeve on him that was to come after him ▪ that was in Jesus Christ , that was to bee crucified . But Paul and Timetheus preached , that Jesus indeed is come , and crucified , dead , and risen , through whom all that beleeve shall have remission of sinnes , Acts 13. 38 , 39. 1 Cor. 15. 3 , 4. Secondly , Because this Faith that they had received from Iohn , or his Disciples , in the time of Pauls Ministery would not save them : Because they denyed the Resurrection of Christ from the dead : Looking onely for him to come , and to be crucified ; and were ignorant that he was crucified , dead , and risen : And then according to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit , by the mouth of Paul , 1 Cor. 15. 14. If Christ be not risen , our Faith is vaine , and our Preaching is vaine . Thirdly , If the Faith and Bap●isme of Iohn , that declared that there was a Jesus to come to bee Crucified ; and the Faith and Baptimse of Paul that declareth that Christ dyed for our sins , according to the Scriptures , and rose againe the third day according to the Scripture , 1 Cor. 15. 3 , 4. Be all one for substance ( as some of the Learned amongst us affirme ) then are wee found false witnesses of God , because wee have testified of God ; that he hath raised up his Sonne Iesus Christ , whom he ●aised not up if the Faith and Bap●isme of Iohn be in force at his day , ● Cor. 15. 15. Fourthly , If the Faith and Bap●isme of Iohn be in force under the time of Pauls Ministery , Acts 9. 3 , ● . Then was the preaching of Paul vaine , and the faith of all that received his Gospell , ( to wit , That Christ dyed for our sinnes , according to the Scriptures , and rose againe the third day , 1 Cor. 15. 3 , 4. ) vaine , and ●hat they were yet in their sinnes , 1 Cor. 15. 16. 17. Neither were the gifts o● the Spirit then given : For they wer● not to be shed forth until Christ wa● risen and ascended up into glor● Acts 2. 33. which is blaspemous to imagine , or to divulge and declare abroad . For these Reasons , I conceiv● there was a nullity of the Faith an● Baptisme of John , which was to continue but till the death and resur rection of Christ : And the twelve in Asia were re-baptized into th● Faith of a crucified , dead , and risen Jesus , whom God exalted to b● the Christ . And Paul layd his hand on them , and they received the hol● Spirit , Acts 19. 5. 6. May it not rather bee , that with Apollos , they were more fully instructed what it was to bee Baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus . Nay ; Because there was as vast a difference , according to the distin●●ion I formerly layd downe , be●weene the Faith and Baptisme of ●ohn and his Disciples before the eath of Christ , and the Faith and ●aptisme of Paul ; and ●he residue of the Apostles after the death and resurrection of Christ : As now is ●etwixt the Jewes at this day : and ●s that truely beleeve in Jesus the Christ , 1 Joh. 5. 1. Whosoever beleeveth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. For the Jewes at this day be●eeve ( as John and his Disciples then taught , That they should beleeve on him that should come , Acts 19. 4. ) even in that Messiiah whom they wait ●or . And we beleeve ( as Peter and Paul then taught ) That Christ indeed is come , and crucified , dead , and risen , and exalted to bee the Christ , Acts 2. 36 Ephes . 1. 20 , 21 , 22 , 23. So that , if the Jewish Faith be not a saving Faith at this day ; Seeing they looke for a Messiah to come : when indeed hee is already come , and crucified , dead , risen and ascended to glory ; So that we wait now for a Saviour from heaven , Jesus that shall deliver us from the wrath t● come , 1 Thess . 1. 10. Neither coul● the Faith of those twelve Disciples Paul found at Ephesus bee a saving Faith in the time of his Ministery because Christ was come ( though they were ignorant of it , being a that time in Asia ) and had finished all those things that were written of him in the Law of Moses , the Prophets , and the Psalmes , Luke 24. 44. But as neither the twelve Disciples of Christ could not understand that all things were fulfilled of him : untill hee had opened their understandings , that they might understand the Scriptures : And then they rightly understood the end of his suffering , death , and resurrection : namely , That repentance , and remission of sinnes , should bee preached in his name among all Nations , beginning at Ierusalem , Luke 24. 45 , 46 , 47 , &c. So neither could these twelve Paul found at Ephesus know it ; because , they had not heard , whether there were any holy Spirit , yea , or nay ; and so were ignorant of the death , and resurrection of Christ , untill the Lord was pleased by his good Spirit to open their understanding , by the ministery of Paul ; therefore it is written , When they heard it , they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus , Act. 19. 5. Was there any necessity that they should be Re-baptized ; would not a more perfect instruction have served ? Nay : Because those twelve were departed into Asia , after they had received the Faith and Baptisme of John , and were ignorant whether there were any holy Spirit yea or nay , Acts 19. 2. Because Johns Faith and Baptisme ( as I have formerly shewed ) had no promise of giving the gifts of the holy Spirit , Mat. 3. 11. If they therefore should continue in the Faith and Baptisme they had received from John , they had no promise that waiting they should receive the gift of the holy Spirit . But to the Faith and Baptisme that Peter and the residue of the Apostles preached , there was a promise of giving the gifts of the holy Spirit , Acts 2. 38. And when these twelve which had been baptized by John , or his Disciples , heard it , they submitted them selves , and were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus ; ( viz. into that profession of Faith Paul preached , 1 Cor. 15. 3 , 4. ) And when Paul had laid his hands on them , the holy Spirit came upon them , and they spake with new tongues , and prophesied ; and the men were about twelve , Acts 19. 5 , 6. Such an instance likewise wee have in Samaria ; Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdome of God , and the name of Jesus Christ , and they were baptized both men and women , Act. 8. 12. When the Apostles which were at Hierusalem heard it , they sent Peter and John unto them : And when they were come down , they prayed , that they might receive the holy Spirit : ( For as yet hee was fallen upon none of them , onely they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus ) Then they laid their hands on them , and they received the holy Spirit , Acts 8. 14 , 15 , 16 , 17. So that by the examination of these texts of holy Scripture , it appeareth to me , that these twelve that were formerly baptized by Iohn , and then afterwards by Paul were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus ; and then the Lord according to his owne free promise , Acts 2. 38. gave them the gifts of his holy Spirit , by his ordinance of Imposition of hands ; that the earth might bee filled with his glory , and his Church replenished with gifts meet for the ministery , Ephes . 4. 11 , 12. But was Andrew and the other Disciple Iohn baptized , Re-baptized by the Disciples of Jesus the Christ ? Nay : Because that Faith which Iohn preached and baptized into , and the Faith and Baptisme that Jesus and his Disciples preached before his sufferings , death and resurrection , was all one in substance , and to one peculiar people , the Jewish Nation . Mat. 3. 2. Iohn preached , Repent , for the kingdome of heaven is at hand . So did Jesus , Mat. 4. 17. Repent , for the kingdome of heaven is at hand . So Christ commanded the twelve , As yee goe , preach , saying , The kingdome of heaven is at hand , Mat. 10. 7. Likewise the seventy , The kingdome of heaven is come nigh unto you , Luke 10. 9. Peter and all the Disciples were ignorant of the death and resurrection of Christ , untill he was risen from the dead , Mar. 9. 31 , 32. compared with Luk. 24. 6 , 7 , 8. They wait for the fulfilling of the promises as well as Iohns Disciples , Luke 24. 19 , 20 , 21 , 22. But were the twelve Disciples of Christ , and the seventy , Luk. 10. that had accompanied with him from the time of Iohns Baptisme untill the time of Christs ascension into glory , that had been baptized , were they also Re-baptized after the death and resurrection of Christ ? The Answer is , Nay : Because they had the promise of the holy Spirit to be given them , without any more baptizing with water . Acts 1. 5. Iohn truly baptized with water , but yee shall be baptized with the holy Spirit not many dayes hence . And the Lord made good his word of promise , they were filled with the holy Spirit , when the dayes of Pentecost were fully come , Acts 2. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. Thus I have answered the Objections . Because , If two Disciples of Christ agree together in earth , touching any thing that they shall ask , they have promise it shall bee done for them of his Father in heaven , Mat. 18. 19. But there is no promise to any people in faith and order , but a people agreed : Reas . 1. Because two cannot walk together unlesse they be agreed , Amos 3. 3. neither can the heart of two beleevers truly consent to pray together , unlesse they bee agreed touching the things they will ask of the Father of glory . Reas . 2. Difference of opinion causeth difference of affection , and is an occasion of many deare and precious soules to withdraw communion ; as is to be seen in Barnabas and Paul , dissenting about the choyce of a companion , the contention grew so hot , that they separated the one from the other , Acts 15. 37 , 38 , 39 , 40. Two or three Disciples of Christ , gathered together in his name , ( that is , by his power , authority , and royall Commission ) where-soever , ( whether in the mountaine , or in the desert , or in ship , or in the dungeon ) there will Christ be in the midst of them , to heare and grant their petitions , or deliver them out of trouble ; as he did Peter out of the prison , at the intercession of the Church , Act. 12. To all such as walk in this Gospel faith and order , the Lord Jesus hath promised a greater manifestation of his presence , and Spirit , Joh. 14. 26. And John in the Island of Pathmos ●ound it , Revel . 1. 9 , 10. Yea , and to all them that love him and keep his commandements , the Father and the Sonne hath promised to owne their poor hearts to be his Temple and Palace , where hee will abide and dwell ; Joh. 14. 23. Lastly , All such as are congregated in Gospel faith and order , have a promise from King Jesus , of Royall Protection in their greatest dangers , Heb. 13. 5 , 6. So that with the Prophet Habacuck they can glory in Christ , in their greatest extremities , Hab. 3. 17 , 18. Though the vine doe not yeeld her fruit , and the fatnesse of the olive faile , and the herd perish from the stall ; yet will I joy in the Lord , and rejoyce in the God of my salvation . But is there any hope to see the Nation of England reformed according to the Primitive pattern , founded upon the word of the eternall Truth ? Ephes . 2. 20. Yea. First , Because there was never a more exact Covenant taken in no Realme , or Nation , since the dayes of zealous Josiah , 2 Chron. 34. 31. and Nehemiah , Nehem. 10. 29. than is in these our dayes , to see a through Reformation in England and Ireland , according to the word of God ; and to extirpate Popery , Prelacy , Superstition , Schisme , He●esie , in Doctrine , Worship , and Discipline ; that the Lord should be one , and his Name one , in the ●hree Kingdomes . So that we are ●ot to leave so much as an hoofe behind us of any Superstition , or Romish relique , or any humane Tradition , in Gods worship , to be ●etained ; though it have remained ●nder the venerable garbe of An●iquity , Universality , and Unity , ●he three great pillars of the Roman Hierarchy . Secondly , Because there are in ●he Synod some learned , pious , ten●er , conscientious men , that in the ●ayes of the cruell and ambitious Prelates ( like the Priest and Levites , 〈◊〉 the dayes of idolatrous Jerobo●m , that served the Devils and the Calves hee made , 2 Chron. 11. 13 , 14 , ●5 . ) left all their maintenance , and went and lived in a strange land , to enjoy the liberties of a good conscience , and worship the Lord Jesus according to the light they had received ; that are at this day truly sensible , what a burden th● Penall Statutes have beene in ou● Land , in former times , to tende● consciences , that desire ( without any sinister ends ) to see a Reformation according to Gods word ▪ therefore will never consent t● have such a Penall Law enacted ( as the Prelates of England onc● obtained by fraud and policy , in the dayes of Richard the Second to kill the English Subjects , that would declare the whole truth o● God , so farre as it was revealed to them , and keep a good conscienc● toward God and man : which occasioned the death of some of th● Nobility , Gentry , and Ministery in the Nation ; with many other of inferiour rank . Thirdly , There are in the hig●● and honourable Court of Parliament , some such conscientious tender-hearted men , that in the Pre●ates dayes left , if not sold , their ●ossessions , to goe into a desolate ●ildernesse , to worship the Lord ●esus in spirit and truth , according ●o the light God revealed unto ●hem ; and many other were fol●owing after , that are truly sensi●le , that it hath ever been a plot of the Bishops and Priests to labour ●o enthrall the English Nobility , and Commons in Parliament , to ●●ake Lawes to kill and imprison ●he conscientious in the Land , that ●oe desire to worship the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in spirit and ●ruth , according to his revealed will in his owne word , under the spe●ious pretences of unity , and uniformity in the worship of God : as ●he Statutes of K. Henry 8. K. Edward 6. Q. Mary , and Q. Elizabeth , ●eclare . Fourthly , It is obvious to every well-affected Subject in the English Nation , that when our Brethren that noble , ancient , warlike Nation the Scots , contended for a Reformation according to the light they ha● received , and casting off Rome proud Papall and Prelaticall Government , with all their devise● formes of Worship , they must hav● dyed ; the English Prelates had s● farre incensed his Majesty against them , and raised large summes o● money toward the levying of a● Army , to kill and destroy them had not the Lord by his special● providence prevented it . Fifthly , When the Lord opened the eyes of our deare and thric● noble Patriots of our Countrey assembled in Parliament , to make a solemne Protestation , to oppos● all Popery and Popish innovations , and to extirpate Episcopacy root and branch , as a Plant th● heavenly Father never planted ; Then evill counsell prevailed with the King to withdraw from his Parliament , and under the pretence of a Guard to protect his Person , to make warre against his Parliament , that they should dye : But our faithfull Nobles , and true hearted Commons in England reply , Shall our Ionathans dye ? who have in part freed our consciences from Roman Traditions , and ancient corrupt Festivals , and covenanted with us for a pure Reformation agreeable to the word of our good God , and have preserved our estates and liberties from an Arbitrary Government ; shall they dye which have wrought such a deliverance in the Land ? they shall not dye : we will bleed our selves before an haire shall fall from their heads , if either wee with our persons , prayers , counsells , states , or swords can prevent it . And hath the Lord given such a blessing to our endeavours , that God hath made the righteous of the Land , ( next to the Lord ) a wall of defence to the Parliament ; shall it ever therefore enter into the heart of loyall and tender-hearted Covenantors to have such hard thoughts ; that the Parliament will ever consent to burden us any longer with unjust Penall Statutes , who have thought nothing too deare for them , but have jeopardized lives and livelyhods for their preservations . Especially , they being sensible what a burden such penall Lawes have been to tender Consciences , and what an hinderance they are for propagating truth . Sixtly , All the faithfull in the Parliament know but in part ; and the more they tast of the honey of Gods eternall truth , the more their eyes are enlightened to see , they have not as yet attained to a full Reformation . And if now they should build but upon the least hay and stubble , they should not onely suffer losse ; but lay a foundation of a new rent in the Ages and generations to come : yea , and looke what unjust Penall Statutes they impose now ; may perhaps fall as heavy upon their Posterity , as sometime did upon that famous Lord Cobham , that gave his consent to the Statute of Lolordi , and afterward was put to death for a Lolord . Seventhly , The Lord hath added such a blessing to the pious endeavours of the Parliament , that they have discovered many things to be ●ruth ; that the Learned Prelates in former times adjudged to be Heresies : As the parity of the Ministery . Superstitious formes of devised Worship , called Divine . Superstitious Festivals , formerly esteemed holy Feasts , now taken away , that men may follow their honest labour six daies , and Sanctifi● a Seventh , as a day of holy re●● to the Lord ; being now the first day of every weeke ; as the holy Scripture hath left us a rule of practise to observe and doe , Act 20. 7. And hee which hath begu● this great and happy Worke of Reformation by this Parliament : we are confident , will never leave them untill hee hath made them instruments , either to perfect it ; or a● least , to give to all his faithfull Daniels , libertie of Conscience , to worship the Lord in Spirit and truth according to his will revealed against whom they can object nothing , unlesse it bee in the matte● that concerne the spirituall worship of their God ; Seeing the● have learned to give Caesar his due Tribute , Custome , Feare , Honour ; Yea and lay downe their lives , rathe● then just and lawfull Magistrate should not be maintained among us , and obeyed in all their just , Legall , and Civill commandements . Knownig , they carry not the Sword for nought , but for the punishment of them that doe evill , and for the praise , and defence of them that doe well . Lastly , the wrondrous power of the Spirit of grace , in enlightning darke mindes with the knowledge of his Truth ; and scattering the knowledge of it , all the Kingdome over , in Cities , Countreyes , and Campe , and causing men of singular parts of learning to bring their gifts toward the building up of Zion ; and powring out of his Spirit ( as Ioel the Prophet foretold , Ioel 2. 28. ) upon all sorts of people , both young , and old ; rich , and poore ; which is to mee a plaine demonstration , that the Lord will never leave us , untill he hath made his new Jerusalem , the praise of the whole earth , and prepared the Spouse , the Lambes wife ; Yea , and advanced Jesus the Christ once againe upon the Throne , to be the Head , King , Priest , and Prophet of his Church , according to the ancient Prophesie of David , Psal . 2. 6. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion . Gloria soli Deo. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A34599-e230 1 Cor. 14 27 Ephes . 4. 24 1 Cor. 1. 30 Psal . 16. 3. Psal 15. Cant 4 16. Joh. 3. 5. Tit. 3. 3. Col. 1. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Heb 15. 1. Rom 9 11. Act. 13. 39. Heb. ● . 14. Act 26. 1● . Eccl. 36. 25. 26. Gal. ● . 15 , 1● . 〈…〉 Mat 22. 21 Rome . 13. 7. ● Pet. 2. 14 Notes for div A34599-e1610 Quest . 1. Reas . 1. Reas . 2. Object . Answ . 1. Quest . 2. 〈◊〉 Answ . Object . 1. Answ . 1. Answ . 2. Object . Answ . 1. Answ . 2. Answ . 3. Object . 2. Answ . Object . 3. Answ . 1. Answ . 2. Answ . 3. Reas . 1. Reas . 2. Object . Answ . Object . 4. Answ . Object . 5. Answ . Answ . 2. Quest . 3. Quest . 1. Quest . 2. Reas . 1. Reas . 2. Quest . 2. Reason 1. Reas . 2. Reas . 3. Reas . 4. Reason 5. Object . 1. Answ . Object . 2. Answ . Object . 3. Answ . Object . 4. Answ . Notes for div A34599-e6240 Reas . 1. Object . Answ . Object . Answ . Notes for div A34599-e7210 Psal . 1. 2. Notes for div A34599-e8140 Quest . Answ . Quest . Answ . Psal . 141. 3. Quest . Answ . Quest . Answ . A Quest . Answ . Quest . Answ . 1 ▪ Tim. 3. 15. Mat. 6. 25. Reas . 1. Object . Answ . Quest . Answ . Quest . Answ . Quest . Answ . Quest . Answ . Object . Answ . 1. Quest . Answ . Reas . 1. Reas . 3. Object . Answ . Object . Answ . Answ . 2. Reas . 1. Reas . 2. Reas . 3. Reas . 4 , 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Object . 2. Answ . Object . 3. Answ . Object . 4. Answ . Reas . 7. Reas . 8. Reas . 9. Reas . 10. Quest . Answ . Reas . 2. Reas . 5. Reas . 6. Reas . 7. 
A35974	----	A discourse concerning infallibility in religion written by Sir Kenelme Digby to the Lord George Digby, eldest sonne of the Earle of Bristol. Digby, Kenelm, Sir, 1603-1665. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A35974 of text R8320 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing D1431). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 219 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 119 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A35974 Wing D1431 ESTC R8320 11904068 ocm 11904068 50632 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A35974) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 50632) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 25:13) A discourse concerning infallibility in religion written by Sir Kenelme Digby to the Lord George Digby, eldest sonne of the Earle of Bristol. Digby, Kenelm, Sir, 1603-1665. Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677. 229, [4] p. By Peter Targa ..., Printed att [sic] Paris : 1652. Reproduction of original in British Library. eng Faith -- Early works to 1800. A35974 R8320 (Wing D1431). civilwar no A discovrse, concerning infallibility in religion. Written by Sir Kenelme Digby, to the Lord George Digby, eldest sonne of the Earle of Bris Digby, Kenelm, Sir 1652 42228 213 0 0 0 0 0 50 D The rate of 50 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the D category of texts with between 35 and 100 defects per 10,000 words. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-12 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-01 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2002-01 TCP Staff (Michigan) Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DISCOVRSE , CONCERNING INFALLIBILITY IN RELIGION . WRITTEN BY SIR KENELME DIGBY , TO THE LORD GEORGE DIGBY , ELDEST SONNE OF THE EARLE OF BRISTOL . Printed att Paris by PETER TARGA , Printer of the Archbishoppricke . M.DC.LII . — Nihil dulcius est , bonè quàm in●●nita tenere , Edita doctrinâ sapientum templa se●●ena : Despicere vnde queas alios , passimque videre Errare , atque viam pa●●n●●eis quaerere vit●● . LVCRET . MY LORD , I come now to pay your●● lordship the debt I haue owed you euer since our long discourse in one of the sideChappels of S. Germanes church ; when we spent most part of the afternoone in examining and weighing , which of the seuerall Religions that att present haue course in the world , a prudent man should rationally venture his soule vpon . It seemed to me that it was not a small ●●●●pe I had aduanced in obtaining your assent to the Catholike , when your lordship acknowledged great defects of seuerall kindes , in all others , and that ours , was adorned with more comelinesse and Maiesty , was maintained with more orderlynesse and prudence , was propped with more powerfull meanes to preserue vnity among the professors , and in the generall course of it was replenished with more efficacious motiues to incite men to the loue of God , then any of the others . But withall , you professed that there were some particulars of so harddigestion in it , as you could not winne of your selfe to yield your assent vnto them ; Nor were persuade●● that the authority from whence we receiue our faith was infallible , but that in all those particulars it had varyed and swarued from what in the beginning was taught by Christ and had bin preached throughout the world by his Apostles . What I replyed hereunto , seemed to your lordship out of the ordinary tracke of those who now adayes vse to handle controuersies . And it is but iust , that to so sublime a witt as yours is , arguments of a higher straine should be offered then such as are pressed to vulgar capacities . For as the ordinary sort of mankinde , haue their vnderstanding satisfyed with barely looking vpon God in quality of a Iudge , that punisheth or rewardeth according as men haue obeyed or transgressed his lawes : so is the enquiry of what they are to do or beleeue , at an end , when those vnto whose conduct Gods prouidence hath committed them , do pronounce his decrees to them in a legislatiue way . But so piercing a iudgement as yours that knoweth there is an orderly and naturall connexion betweene all causes and their effects , and that suspecteth , not God Almighty of hauing bound mankinde to a meere arbitrary law for the bare shewing of his authority and the exercising of their obedience ; will not be appayed , without hauing some scantling of the Why ; aswell as of the What , you are to do and to beleeue . Should we therefore apprehend their lott to be the worse , that are endowed with the eminentest talents ; since so much labor and paines is necessary to the quieting of their doubts ; when as simple people acquiesce so easily to what they are plainely taught ? Nothing lesse . For though it is true , the difficulty be great in ouercoming their strong resistance : yet , that once done , the vigorous progresse they afterwardes make , recompenseth to the full the precedent paines in wrestling with their reluctant imaginations and their opposing reasons . Whereas new stormes are easily raised by any crosse wind that shall blow vpon the others flexible nature . S. Augustines long irresolutenesse , his anxious seeking of truth , and his difficult rendring him selfe vnto it , was followed and crowned with admirable perfection in his owne particular , and with vnspeakable aduantages to the Church of God in generall : so as he is the onely saint in heauen after S. Paul , that hath the day of his conuersion celebrated in the Church . Hence is it that I am not one of those who wonder that your lordship is so long before you come into the fould that encloseth and secureth vs . You were not whom I take you to be , if you should yield vp your weapons before you were fully conuinced ; or be conuinced before you haue searched into the bottome of the question . To putt you into the way of receiuing an entire happy defeate in this conflict , I tooke the freedome to represent vnto you such considerations as had bin heretofore most preualent with me , when I had great vnquietnesse in beleeuing what I was taught till my reason was conuinced that I should do vnreasonably if I gaue not my assent thereunto . Not that I am so vaine as to thinke that my proper poore stocke can furnish ought that you already abound not more plentifully with . But it hath bin my good fortune ; ( that is to say , Gods Grace hath bin so mercifull to me ; ) that I haue mett with a knowing and iudicious guide , to leade me through this darke and intricate labyrinth . What I had formerly deriued from him for my owne satisfaction in this matter , I tendered to you for yours . And wherein I fell short●● by deliuering you but a lame coppy ( according to my meane skill ) of so excellent an originall , I referred you either to his learned writinges or to his fuller conuersation . For your lordship knoweth , he beareth you so great respect , that vpon any least intimation from you , he would purposely make a iorney to you from any remote place to do you seruice . In the meane time , I endeauoured to take a suruay as well as I could of the whole race that Man runneth ; from the first moment of his being produced a reasonnable creature , to the last periode of his iorney , when he is settled for euer in a state of permanency . For in such a subiect , the symmetry of the whole , and the due cohoerence of the partes , are of great weight with prudent and solide men . This can not be completely nor orderly done , without first settling firmely the fundamentall principle , That Mans soule is immortall and incorruptible , and suruiueth aeternally after the death of te body . In the next place , I applyed my selfe to shew , how the different courses of liuing in this world , do begett in the future , different conditions of happinesse or misery , each of them exceeding , beyond all conceiuable pr●●portion , the goods or euils of this life . Then , vpon consideration of the difficulty , or rather impossibility , for mankinde to arriue to the assured knowledge of those pathes which are necessary for him to walke in to bring him to Beatitude , that so his steppes might be steady and bold ones ; I concluded , that since God would have dealed more hardly with mankinde then with all other creatures besides , if to euery one of them he had assigned due and proportionable meanes to bring them to the vtmost periode of their nature , and should haue left onely him in the darke among ineuitable precipes ; It was certaine he had bequeathed to him a science or art whereby to gouerne himselfe and steere his course so as to be able to arriue safely into his wished hauen , and to that end which he was created for . And lastly , I vrged , that since the men who liue in ages after his who taught them this science ( which we call Religion ) can not be conceiued to receiue it immediatly from hismouth ; They would fall backe to an ince●●itude and distressed condition equall to the former , if he had not settled as infallible a meanes to conuey entirely to them this science , as in it selfe it is an infallible guide so bring them to Beatitude . And thence I proceeded to ●●stablish that rule wich keepeth vs Catholikes in vnity among our selues , and in security that wee are in the right way . This was the scope of our conference then : which comprising so many , so weighty , and so difficult pointes , that a few houres conuersation was too scanty a time to discusse them as they ought to be ; I promised to giue your lordship in writing a summary collection of some of the most important reflections I had made vpon them . The doing whereof , is the subiect of the following discourse . THE FIRST CHAPTER Of mistaken demonstrations . IN this course that I haue proposed to my selfe , my first endeauour must be to prooue , that the soule of man is immortall ; neither dying when the body dyeth ; nor being liable to corruption or destruction after it is seuered from the body , either through defectible principles in it selfe , or by the violence of any outward agent working vpon it . I conceiue I haue fully performed this in a former treatise , that I haue written vpon this subiect . But I may resonably apprehend that the length of that , and the heape of various arguments cumulated there one vpon another , may not obtaine from a ●●person so full of great employments as your lordship is , that discussion which belongeth to euery one of them in particular , to be secure of the consequence drawne out of them ; which requireth greater leisure , then your actiue and solicitous charges do allow you : And therefore I will here select some few of the chiefe of those which that treatise aboundeth with ; And will endeauour to make them as plaine as I can , that the discerning of the demonstration which I conceiue is contained in them , may not oblige you to labouring meditation , and Metaphysicall abstractions ( in which no man can fly with a stronger wing then you , when your leisure can allow you the time and quiett of minde that is necessary for such entertainements ) But may be obuious to you vpon such present reflection as the multitude of your present affaires can afford you . My ayme , and hope , is to prooue this truth fully and euidently : That is to say , to make a firme demonstration of it ; against which no solide opposition can be produced to weaken it ; and by which a iuditious and subtile vnderstanding shall be fully appayed and quieted . To know when that is done , it will not be amisse ( before we enter into the substance of the question ) to consider in short , the nature of a true demonstration ; that so we may be sure not to be deceiued by seeming proofes : which how many or how plausible soeuer , can but persuade opinion ; neuer force assurance . Some there haue beene , who haue thought that a multitude of reasons , may haue the force to proue and conuince that , which no one of them single , can reach to do . As particularly in our present case ; they produce for the soules immortality , numerous testimonies of great men , both such as haue beene eminent in naturall knowledge , and such as are estimed for supernaturall illuminations ; and to these , they adde their owne morall and naturall considerations : for example ; that , since it can not be doubted but that God is both wise and iust , and consequently will reward or punish euery man according as he hath deserued or demerited ; and yet we see that such lottes do not alwayes betyde men in this life ; It followeth , that there must be an other life after this here , wherein men shall reape the haruest they haue sowne vpon the earth . Againe ; That , seing all creatures who haue soules do moue themselues ; and that no inanimate creature , can do so ; It followeth , that the soule is the vertue and principle by which an animal is mooued . But if the soule can make an other thing mooue it selfe , it cannot be doubted but that she hath in her selfe the power of mouing her owne selfe . Now , life consisting in a thing 's mouing it selfe , it is cleare that what can do so , hath within it selfe without the helpe of ought else , a principle of liuing ; and consequently is not subiect to dying . Afterall these , and many more suche plausible arguments , they conclude , that howbeit neuer a one of them alone can be accounted a demonstration , yet all of them in bulke haue the strength to conuince and quiett a rationall man . I wil not here examine what force they may haue ouer the vnderstanding of a morall prudent person , who in debates before him vseth to inquire no further then whether side is the more grauely and the more learnedly disputed : But most certaine it is , that if they come before a subtile Metaphysitian or a cunning Logitian , they will fall mainely short . Fo●● when such a one shall haue rigorously discussed each particular argument , and shall haue found euery one of them to be deficient in some regard or other ; he will conclude , that no more then many nothinges can euer be multiplyed so as to make somethings ; no otherwise can neuer so many apparent proofes ( which being but such , are in truth no proofes ) euer arriue to constitute one reall proofe . Others there are , who fixing themselues vpon some one argument , do not consider in it the materiall nature of it ; That is to say , what connexion the medium on which they build their proofe , hath with the effect or proposition that they conclude out of it : but onely , whither their argument be difficult to be solued , or no . As for example ; a person of great eminency and reputation for learning , did vse to putt the following argument to proue that it was possible for Infinite to haue an actuall and reall being : Namely . There is no inconuenience that God almighty should produce att one instant as many Angels as he can produce in that instant . Suppose then that he doth so . Which if he do , the multitude of them wil be greater then any determinate number whatsoeuer ; and consequently , that multitude will be infinite . Therefore an infinite multitude is not impossible . This argument hath perplexed many great wits and learned men : But if we looke strictly vpon it , we may obserue how it it is not formed out of the notion of the subiect in question ( that is , of infinite ) but , out of the quality of God almighty and the Logicall notion of Possibility : And so , may be a hard argument , but not a demonstration , And will appeare to be a fallacy , if one reflecteth that the notion of infinity may agree to a thing in potentia , but not to a thing in Act : And therefore it can not be supposed that God hath done or will do all that he can do . According to which course , if in this question of the soules immortality , they frame a subtile argument out of what is common to all formes , or out of the nature common to all soules ; and withall discerne not how it may be vntyed ; They presently persuade themselues they haue demonstrated what they intended . Nay , though their discourse be drawne but out of the Logicall notions of contraries , of antecedents , and consequents , or out of some parity betweene the subiect they treate of and some other they compare it to ; they ●●traight flatter themselues with a conceit that they are arriued to science in that point . Not considering , that to know , requireth that one be absolutly certaine that his proofe be a firme demonstration ; and not onely , that it be such an implicated Gordian knotte , as that neither he himselfe nor any others he hath yet mett with , are able to vntie it ; but that truly and really , of its owne nature , it be impossible to be vntyed and solued . And ordinarly , they who ground their discourse vpon common and remote propositions ( as for example , they who vse Lullies art ) do vnwarily slide ouer some vnsound steppe betweene the axiome they rely on , and the conclusion they would inferre , which they see not . Whence it happeneth , that such manner of arguing , rather serueth for ostentation , then to acquire true knowledge . And as for such Logicall termes as we haue aboue mentioned ; it seldome happeneth but that they are lyable to some aequiuocation or other ; which quite enerueth the force of any proofe deriued from them . Both these sortes of persons do erre in assenting too lightly to an apparent proofe , and in taking that for a demonstration which in effect is none . But a third sort there is , who faile on the contrary side ; by conceiuing that a demonstration is neuer made , as long as any thing can be vrged against the Conclusion prooued by it . This ariseth from a great deficiency both of witt and of Iudgement . Of iudgement ; because they are not able to discerne the euidence of a discourse in it selfe , but are faine to looke into externall accidents to frame their opinion of it . And of witt ; in that they obserue not how the force and subtility of mans witt is so great , as to speake ( and that , most ingeniously too ) in opposition of such thinges as are most manifest . Zeno , euen whiles he walked with him that he disputed with , would be thought haue to demonstrated that it was impossible any thing could be moued in the world from one place to another . Anaxagoras was as peremptory that snow was blacke . We find ingenious Orations and whole bookes , whose scopes are to extoll the greatest defects and blemishes of nature , as baldnesse , lamenesse , blindnesse , vnreasonablenesse , and the like . What can be more euident then that 2. and 2. do make 4 ? yet Aristotle telleth vs , that 2. and 2. are are two distinct numbers ; and that 4. is but one number ; and consequently , that 2. and 2. are not 4. And to conclude , the Academikes or sceptikes haue laboured with much industry to take away all certainty . He were a weake man that would retaine his assent from an euident conclusion as long as subtile or cauilling disputants do catch att ought to oppose against it . But a iudicious person , when he seeth a solide demonstration vpon any subiect , is not att all shaken by any thorny difficulties that acute sophisters endeauour to implicate him in ; which though att the first sight they may a while perplexe him ; yet he is sure that with orderly reflection and due attention to euery ioint and progresse of their arguments , they are to be vnfolded and displayed , and the inconsequence of them to be made appeare . THE SECOND CHAPTER . Of the trew nature of demonstration . THat then which importeth vs mainely not to erre in , is in iduging when a perfect demonstration is produced . The trew nature of such a proofe requireth , that it make the reader or the hearer see euidently that the conclusion is directly so as the demonstrator auoucheth it to be , and that it is impossible it should be otherwise . Neither haue we reason to suspect that this can not be performed aswell in other sciences as in Geometry ; Seeing that there are definitions in all sciences as well as in it ; and that the termes of these definitions are linked together : And therefore it is obuious , that one conclusion maybe euidently and demonstratiuely drawne out of another . This can not happen in a scientificall discourse , vnlesse that which is taken to proone , be either the cause or the effect of that which is proued . But if there be any failure in either of these , then the demonstration can not be a perfect one . And though in substance it should not be deficient ; yet att the least it would be superproportioned on one side , and not according to the strict rules of art ; which requireth that euery truth be proued by his proper cause . As for example ; if Rationality , of its owne nature , and out of the force of Rationality , be the cause of immortality ; It followeth euidently that whatsoeuer is Rationall is immortall . And contrariwi●●e ; if Immortality , precisely by being such , do make the subiect vnto which it belongeth , to be Rationall ; It followheth that nothing can be immortall but it must also be Rationall . So that if either of these be so , he who considereth these two termes , seeth clearely that of necessity●● both of them must belong to what subiect soeuer he findeth either of them to reside in ; And why it is so ; and that it is impossible it should be otherwise . But if a third thing or terme , be cause of both ; or be the cause of the one and be caused by the other ; then the demonstration is mediate , and as it were a double one : As , if immateriality be the adaequate cause both of rationality and of immortality ; it is euident that whatsoeuer is rationall is immortall . But where the one side is superproportioned ; the proofe , though in substance it be true , yet is it not a proper and a perfect one . As for example ; if one should proue any thing to belong to a man because he is a sensible creature ; the effect , though it be in him , yet is it not peculiar to him , but common to all irrationall animals as well as to him . Such were the considerations that I had when I composed the two treatises out of which I concluded the immortality of Mans soule . For in them , this is the scope of my discourse : Corporeity and mortality , are adaequate to one another ; the first as cause , the second as effect : But a Rationall soule , is not corporeall : Therefore , not mortall . The subsumption I made euident , by shewing , that all operations whatsoeuer among bodyes , are performed by the disposure of grosse and subtile , or of dense and rare , partes ; and that what can not be effected by such , is not the operation of a body . For , the nature of a body ( in as much as it is a body ) is nothing else but to be a thing capable of diuision ; or , that hath a possibility of being made many ( which amounteth to as much , as to be lyable to destruction ; since the diuision of the partes that do essentially compose any thing , is the destruction of it . ) And the origidall difference of bodies , is , that some are more subiect to such diuision , that is are more easily diuided ; others with greater difficulty ; which resulteth meerely out of the partes being grosser or subtiler . So that , seeing the very essence of a body is , to be a collection of such partes ; It is euident that what can not be performed by such partes , is beyond the orbe of sole and meere bodies , and cannot be atchieued by them . It is trew , that in all the first treatise , which is of the nature of Bodies , I haue neither established nor made any mention of this Principle ; but haue reserued it to the second , where I make vse of what is settled in the former to discouer the nature of the soule : And the reason why I haue done so , is , because the slight mocke-Philosophy of this Age , not reaching to comprehend the true difference betweene a body and a spirit , easily swalloweth spirituall qualities in bodies , and as familiarly attributeth corporeall proprieties to spirits : And therefore I was obliged to runne briefely ouer the nature of all bodies , and to shew how all their operations ( euen the most refined ones , and that sauour most of a spirituall nature ) may be performed by the meere disposition of grosse and subtile partes ; there by to preuent the obiections that might be made me from such corporeall actions as vulgar Philosophy dispatcheth like spirituall ones . And I thought is not sufficient for a iuditious readers satisfaction , to do this onely by bare casting a composition in the ayre ; as Monsieur des Cartes & some others haue very ingeniously attempted to do : but I haue endeauoured to strengthen the proofes rising from the force of discourse , by accompanying them with such further obseruations as do clearely euince that whither or no I hitt right on all the particular lines that I trace out for the performance of those actions , yet it can not be doubted but that their causes are comprised vnder those heads I haue there established ; and that the wayes by which they are brought to effect , are not vnlike , ( if not the very same ) to those that I haue pitched vpon . This being the ●●orke of the first treatise ; The second looketh into the operations of a rationall soule ; And hauing discouered their nature , it sheweth that they can not be performed by the meere disposition and ordering of grosse and subtile partes of quantity or of a body ; and by consequence , that they proceede from an immateriall and spir●●tuall substance . Now here , vse is made of the former principle : for , it being made euident , that nothing but corporeity and diuisibility is the cause of corruption , and of subiecting the thinges where they reside to the seruitude of Mortality ; it followeth indefectibly , that the spirituall substance which we call a soule , can not be mortall and corruptible . This is the whole scope and discourse of that booke : out of which , for the reasons I haue already touched , I will here select onely three of the proofes contained in the latter treatise , to shew that our soule is a spirit , voyde of all quantity and materiality . THE THIRD CHAPTER . The Immateriality of the soule proved out of the Nature of vniuersall termes or Pr●●posi●●ions . THE first of them is drawne out of the nature of vniuersall termes or Propositions . Logicians do define an Vniuersall terme or Notion , To be that , which being the same , may be aff●●rmed of many . Metaphysicians define it to be , Somewhat that is the same in many . But to speake more familiarly to common sense , we may say , That it is , somewhat which is any of m●●ny . For when we say , Peter is a man , Iohn is a man , and Paul is a man ; If Peter and man be not the same thing , the saying is false : And the like is of euery one of the other two ; to witt , if Iohn , or Paul , be not a man . Againe ; seeing that one man is not two men ; If when I say , Peter is a man , the thing which I say of Peter were the same thing which is Iohn ; Such my saying would also be false ; for , Peter would be Peter and Iohn too , by being the man which is both Peter and Iohn . The notion therefore of Man , which is truly reported both of Peter and of Iohn ; is not both Peter and Iohn ; but either Peter or Iohn . And this is that which we call an vniuersall . This being hitherto euident , the demonstration proceedeth thus : We see that the thing which we call Peter or Iohn ; doth gett , by being in the soule , to be a thing that is either Peter or Iohn : But this condition or quality , to be either this or that , or to be a thing that is either this or that ; can not be had or gotten by the nature of a body , or by the disposition of subtile and grosse partes : Therefore , the soule●● in , and by which , it getteth this condition ; is of a different nature from Bodies . If here any one should answere me , that howsoeuer our wordes may seeme vnto him who shall sticke and criticise vpon them , to import that there is a notion in our minde , when we speake them , correspondent to those wordes ; which notion is no one of the subiects it is affirmed of , and yet is common to them all : Neuerthelesse , if he looke carefully into his minde , he shall finde that in truth there is no nature of Vniuersality there . For if he examine what picture he hath in his braine when he reflecteth vpon the notion of a man which he calleth an Vniversall ; he shall finde there the image of some particular and determinate man ; and no such thing as a man in common . To such a person as should say thus , I might reply , that to endeauour satisfying him with a long discourse , might seeme as ill placed paines as if I should go about to proue with learned arguments , that there are such bodies in the world as men call fire , water , earth , and the like . For euery mans senses of seeing and feeling , that are not depraued and corrupted , do assure him that they are , and that he continually is conuersant with them . In like manner , it is as euident to euery man who hath common sense and reason , and who reflecteth vpon what passeth in his vnderstanding when he speaketh suc●● propositions , or considereth such termes , as we haue euen now insisted vpon ; That indeed there is an Vniuersality in them . And therefore , if he be so vnhappy and short sighted , as not to discerne in his owne minde , that which common and continuall experience enforceth euery rationall man who looketh into the nature of vnderstanding and discourse , to owne and confesse ; he should , in speculations of this nature , content himselfe with belieuing the multitudes of others who are capable of iudging of them ( as blind men , ought to relye vpon those whose eyes are not vitiated , in matter of colours ) and not hazard his actions and his aeternall wellfare ( which dependeth of his actions in this life ) vpon his owne soddaine and slight conceit , in a matter whereof he hath no skill : As they do , who to iustify the strength of their wittes , will not onely speake and argue , but also liue , as though they belieued there where no life for the soule after the bodies death . But to be more indulgent to him then so ; I shall desire him to examine his instance , and to consider , that as when a square ( for example ) or a triangle delineated vpon paper , is proposed vnto a Mathematician to looke vpon , there by to discusse some Geometricall proposition ; though that square or triangle there drawne , be a particular determinate one , so and so formed , of such and such precise dimentions in each line and angle , and the like : yet the figure that is in his head , abstracteth from all those particular circumstances that accompanye either of these vpon the paper , and agreeth to any square or to any triangle imaginable , be their lines neuer so long or short , or drawne with red inke or with blacke , &c. In the same manner , that corporeall figure of a man which appeareth to our reflexion and resideth in our fantasy , is not the notion of a man that we here meane and speake of . But it is euident to any one who shall looke heedefully into his vnderstanding , that from the particular picture of some one man which his fantasy representeth to him , his vnderstanding hath gathered and framed a large notion of man in generall , which is applicable and indifferent to euery particular indiuidualll man . As is euident , if we looke into our owne meaning and intention , and consider what will satisfy vs ; as when ( for example ) I stand in neede of some one of my seruants to do some thing about me and therefore do call or ring a bell for some of them to come to me ; which soeuer of those that wayte without , cometh in , my turne is serued and I am satisfyed . In like manner , if a tenant is to pay me ten pounds ; It is allone to me , whither he bringeth it in halfe crownes or in shillinges or in six pences . And therefore it is euident that my intention aymeth no further then att a common notion ; and that I know so much . Now , my intention being regulated by my apprehension preceding it ; it is cleare that my apprehension is also of the like nature ; that is to say , it is indifferent and common to any one in particular . It may be further obiected , That from the apprehending of a thing which is indifferent to many , it can not be deduced that the apprehending nature is not corporeall but spirituall : for when we looke vpon an obiect a farre off , before we can distinguish enow particulars of it , we are irresolute what it is ; whither ( for example ) it be a horse , or an Oxe : And yet no man will inferre out of such indifferency that the eye in which it is , is a spirit and not a body . To this I answere , that the supposition is a false one ; there is no such indifferency in the eye as is intimated : all that is there , is precisely determinate : For , the whole obiect , and euery part of it , concurreth to the making of the picture in the eye ; and consequently there must needes be in the eye a representation of the whole and of euery minute part of it ; which is , a complete determination of it . Whence it appeareth , that the indetermination we haue of the obiect , is seated meerely in the vnderstanding ; which iudgeth it but imperfectly , by reason of the weake though entire picture that the obiect hath imprinted in the eye . And accordingly , a painter that were to draw that obiect att that distance , must comprise it within such lines as the eye receiueth from it . But that which in this case is indistinct and indifferent , is our knowledge , which resideth in our minde . For , it not being able to determine by the figure that the eye sendeth to the fantasy , whither it be of an Oxe or of a horse ; remaineth suspended , with an indifferency to attribute it either to the one or to the other . It may be further vrged ; that such indifferency of our soules thoughts , is no argument of her being a spirit : for if it were , spirituall substances would be accompanyed with such indifferency : the contrary whereof●● is euident ; seeing that no Angell ( for example ) can be either Michael or Gabriell ; but is precisely such a one determinate Angell , distinguished from all others . To this I answere , that I do not vrge such indifferency as a condition propper to spirits . For , in truth , they are more determined then bodies , by reason of their indiuisibility . The which is seene in these very notions ; that are more determined then the bodies from whence they are drawne , merely because they are in a spirituall subiect . But by this indifferency in the vnderstanding , springing from a determinate obiect ; and by such transformation there , of corporeall natures , to a quite different manner of being then they are in themselues ; I gather a different nature ( that is , a spiriturll one ) in the subiect where they are thus transformed . For , that bodies can be in our minde ( as they are when we thinke of them ) notwithstanding such indifferency ( which accordeth not with their na●●ure ) is an euident freeing of the minde from corporeall bondes . Now , that such a nature as this , of indifferency to distinct and different thinges ; can neither be in it selfe corporeall , nor be represented by bodies or by subtile and grosse partes variously disposed ; is so euident that it were a vaine labour to go about to prooue it . The meere casting of our eyes vpon materiall thinges , conuinceth it , without needing further discourse . We can not conceiue a chaire , a knife , a house , a metall , a plant , an animall , or any visible thing what soeuer , to be in it selfe without an actual termination . No Statue , no picture , no manufacture , nor ought in the world ( excepting intellectuall expressions ) can be imagined to bee , without its being con●●ined in all determination to such other bodies as comprise , enuiron , & besett it . Whosoeuer can doubt of this , is incapable of any euidence . And consequently , where we see an abstraction from all determination , and such an indifferency as we speake of ; we may securely conclude , that the subiect where it is made and where it resideth , and whence it hath it , is not of kinne to bodies , but is immateriall and spirituall . THE IV. CHAPTER . The Immateriality of the soule , proued out of the Natvre of Vnderstanding . THE second proofe of our soule 's immateriality and spirituality , I deriue from her manner of operation when she vnderstandeth any thing . That which she then doth , is to compare the thing by her vnderstood , with some other ; and by the relation or respect that is betweene them , she knoweth the nature of that thing which she so considereth or compareth . So that we may conclude the particular prerogatiue of a soule is , to haue or rather to be , a power of comparing one thing to another . And in truth , if we looke well into the matter , we shall perceiue that the notion which we frame of her vnder this consideration , compriseth all her whole negotiation . For , when the notion of Existence or Beeing is once imprinted in the soule , all others what soeuer are nothing else but respects to Beeing . Thus , when we consider what that is which we call a thing ; we find , it is that which hath Being ; or which can haue Being . The Quantity of a thing , is , what respect a determinate thing hath to the Being of the world ; which in plainer termes is , how much such a thing taketh vp of the extension that stretcheth out or that belongeth to the great bulke of what is corporeall . The Quality of a thing is , what relation or respect it hath to other thinges that are of its owne nature and line . The other seuen Praedicaments , or Classes of notions , are manifestly comparatiue betwixt diuers thinges considered together : All which I haue so fully explicated in the second part of my discourse of the Immortality of the soule , and is in it selfe so plaine ; that I will not enlarge my selfe further vpon it here , where for your sake I am as succinct as I can ; referring you to that , if you should desire further explication of this matter . Now these tenne rankes , or rather generall heads , of notions , comprising all the thinges and creatures that are or may be in the world ; and they being all of them comparatiue , and nothing but respects of one thing to an other : And all the working of our soule , being grounded vpon her notions : It followeth euidently , that all her notions being comparisons and respects , her nature must necessarly be the power of comparing or of making respects . Which how plaine soeuer it be in these notions of her first operation or of single apprehensions ; It is yet clearer in her second operation of deeming , iudging , or knowing . For , this is nothing else but a comparing of one notion to an other , and of compounding them together : As when we say , the wall is white , or aman is a reasonnable creature , we looke vpon the notions that we haue of the extremes , and consider what respect they haue to one an other ; and do find that they are vnited and identifyed betweene themselues by the force of Beeing . The very same that we find of this second operation of our soule , belongeth to her third ; which is but a multiplication of her second : for , discourse is noething else but a double or a treble composition ; which being taken in pieces , euery one of them is a Iudgement●● or enunciation : and consepuently , the worke of comparing which is performed in a Iudgement , is but multiplyed or repareaed in a discourse From these three operations of the soule , do spring her affections within her selfe , and her proceeding to action without her . For , according to the apprehensions she maketh of thinges , and to the Iudgements that she formeth of them by comparing some of those notions among themselues , and to the consequences she draweth out of a further composition of iudgements ; she is affected with a liking or with a dislike of them : and accordingly , proceedeth to action for the acquiring or repelling of them . Beyond this , our soule neither doth nor can do any thing . All her whole negotiation is comprised within these limits . And in all this , there appearing nothing but a power of comparing and of referring one thing to an other , It is most euident that the nature of comparisons and of respects must necessarily be the nature of a soule , And that she is nothing else but a thing or a power of making Respects . Lett vs then in the next place consider what a respect is . Hath it any dimensions ? do any colors make it visible ? doth any figure or shape belong to it ? doth it take vp any place ? Or is it measured by time ? All these thinges do necessarily accompany a body : And whatsoeuer is a body , is affected by euery one of them . But a respect , we find hath neither length nor breadth , nor is white or red or greene , nor is square or round , hath no dependance of time , and is so farre from taking vp place or filling of roome , that vnlesse both the termes which we consider as respectiue to one another , be indiuisibly together , there is no nature of respect betweene them . Thus , in the respect of Likenesse ; if you leaue out one of the termes on which the comparison is grounded , likenesse vanisheth ; it is lost . This square which resembleth that other square , or this white wall which in being white is like to that other white wall ; if you lay a side the other square and the other white wall , likenesse is gone , and there remaineth nothing but a square figure , or a white wall . None of the Qualities or properties which inseparably accompany bodies , haue any thing to do with this notion , to be like . It is euery way indiuisible . If we aske our senses , they will tell vs , that it is neither white nor blacke , nor hott nor cold , nor smooth nor rugged , nor sweete nor sower , nor of any other qualification that they are capable of discerning . And when we turne to our inward Iudgement , we shall find that all these thinges and what soeuer can affect our senses , are Respects . So that howeuer our senses haue cognition of obiects by a materiall participation of them , our minde knoweth nothing but by respects , nor can acquire any knowledge but by them ; and therefore , to be able to know any thing , she presently turneth it into respects ; And by doing thus , she is capable of knowing all thinges . For , respects do not hinder one an other . Bodies do exclude other bodies , from the place they possesse and fill . But respects , are so farre from shouldering out one an other , that they rather inferre and draw in one an another . And hence it is , that nothing can escape the knowledge of a soule , if she were not clogged by her body . Now , to make vse of what we haue here explicated of the soules working by respects ; and of the nature of a respect ; let vs returne to our Principle , that what soeuer is done among bodies , is performed by the disposition of grosse and subtile partes ; and examine , what disposition or ordering of such partes , can make a respect . Wee see well , that the thinges which are compared and are respectiue to one an other , haue partes . The wall that is like to an other wall , hath partes : And that other wall to which this is like , hath also partes : But all that which their partes can effect about each of them , is but to make them be white , It is not they that make their likenesse . What new partes must there be added , or how must these that are already there be placed and ranked , to make the walles like ? My eye seeth each of them to be white , and my hand feeleth each of them to be rough : yet neither my eye nor my hand determineth them to be like . But my vnderstanding , which neither toucheth nor seeth them ; yet by comparing the one of them to the other ; findeth them to be like , which their generation did not make them to be . So strange and so different from the nature of bodies is the nature of the soule . ●● I will not be so prodigall of your lordships time , or so abuse your patience , as to apply my selfe here to answere a slight obiection that may be made from the petty apprehensions of some moderne Philosophers of the schooles , who conceire , that as well grosse bodies as the sub●●iler soule are stored with respects ; and consequently , that according to what I haue said , those bodies should be immateriall , and spirits : which being euident that they are not , the soules being stored with like respects , can not be an argument of her immateriality . Thus , when they explicate the nature of grauity ( for example ) they tell vs , it is a quality whose nature is to haue a respect to the center of the world : When they teach vs what the power of seeing in an eye is ; they tell vs as grauely as if they bettered our knowledge much , That it is a quality , whose nature is to haue a respect to the animals action of seeing . When they explicate what it is to be in a place , they tell vs it is an entity in the thing placed ; whose nature is to be a respect to the thing ( or to the nothing , if you please ; when they will haue it be in Spatio imaginario ) that is called Place . And the like empty imaginations , by which they confound the common notions of thinges , making all Praedicaments to be relations , and affixing to them a surname of Transcendentall . For , such discourses are so wretched and so pittifull ones , that I thinke a neglect is fitter for them here , then in disputing against them to loose time , which should be better spent : Especially to your lordship , whose sharpe eyes wi●●l at the first sight looke through the inanity and vacuity of them . THE V. CHAPTER . The Immateriality of the soule , proued out of her manner of knowing obiects without her . THe third proofe of our soules spirituality , I deduce from her manner of knowing the obiects that are out of her . For the better explication of this point , I will make vse of a corporeall example ; which howbeit it falleth farre short of the wonderfull operation of the soule in this particular , yet it will conduce much to the illustration of it . Be pleased to reduce into your remembrance ( my Lord ) how you and I comming one morning into a faire ladyes chamber , ( I am sure you will not haue forgotten , not be to seeke , whom I meane ) we surprised her so attentiue vpon her looking glasse , as if she had bin discoursing with the faire image that she contemplated there . She was so pleased with gazing vpon that beautifull resemblance which her selfe made , as for a while she scarce tooke notice of our being att each hand of her : by which meanes we enjoied aswell as she , the same pleasing sight ; till her ciuility making her turne from it towardes vs , bereaued vs of that picture , which our eyes must haue bin loosers to haue changed for any other obiect but the originall that shee then shewed vs . And euen then , looking vpon her face , how louely soeuer it was ; our eyes could discerne no aduantage it had , of the faire picture in the glasse ; so exactly was it drawne . Now if we aske the vulgar Philosophers of the schooles , how this so liuely and so like representation of this ladyes face was made in the glasse they will tell vs , that the superficies or out side of that cristalline body , was imbued , or as it were tincted and dyed into the very substance of it , with a certaine representatiue quality , whose nature is to make it be like vnto the obiect or imbuing beauty opposed before it ; in such sort , and as truly , as the quality of whitenesse maketh a wall white , or as quantity maketh a body become great . Now , because likenesse is defined , to be an imperfect vnity betweene two obiects that are like one an other ( for , likenesse is euer accompanyed with some vnlikenesse ; else , they would be no longer like , but the same ) we may safely say , that as farre as the looking glasse agreeth by its likenesse , without any disagreement , to the obiect that it is like vnto ; so farre , the glasse is the very obiect it selfe . Hitherto , I haue borrowed the assistance of the ordinary explication how Images are formed in looking glasses : which how erroneous soeuer it may be in them ; yet being translated to our mindes , it will find there the truth which was from thence wrongly translated to bodies . For , euen they as well as we , do vse to say ( as Aristotle teacheth vs ) that th●● soule ●●s its obiects ; that is , she is all thinges , by knowledge . For , knowlege is not made in the soule by addition of seuerall new entities , that ioyned to her do become the partes of a new compound : But must necessarily be a true impression made in her ; that is , herselfe new stamped ; And is as truly the very same thing with the soule it selfe , as the figure left by a seale , is the very waxe it selfe , ( newly modifyed ) in which it is impressed . And therefore it cannot be denyed but that the soule is truly the obiect she vnderstandeth , as farre forth as the obiect is by her truly understood . And accordingly , we see that a person who hath a right vnderstanding of any thing , doth make vse of that thing in such sort as is fitting and agreable to the nature of it ; applying to it what is requisite to be applyed , and remoouing from it what is fitt to be remoued : so taking the knowledge which he hath of the nature of that thing ( that is , the thing it selfe , as farre forth as he hath right knowledge of it ) for a principle by which to operate ; that is , for his instrument , or for a part of his power of working . Now , because this instrument , this principle this knowledge , by which ●●he soule worketh when shee hath occasion to vse it , is truely and really the knowing thing it selfe ( that is , the soule ) it is cleare , that by such knowledge the knowing thing is truely the thing knowne ; and the thing knowne , is truely a part of the knowing thing . If barely thus much , would suffice , without any further addition , to denominate or affixe the attribute of kn●●wing vnto a thing wherein we find this performed ; we might with reason esteeme a looking glasse , or any material sense of an animal ( which in like manner receiueth materiall impression from an outward obiect ) to know , or to be a knowing thing . But when we procede a degree further , and examine what more then this is in a soule when shee knoweth any thing , we shall find that whereas the first is nothing else but that a likenesse of an outward obiect is in the glasse or sence which receiueth it ; A man , when he hath knowledge of an obiect , doth know , besides the likenesse of the obiect within him , that the thing he knoweth is without him . For example ; one who heareth a bell ring ; knoweth , that the bell is not onely within himselfe by the cognition he hath of it ; but also , that it is out of him too ; to witt , in the steeple by its proper Essence & existence . This further addition then , to the bells being within him , that the bell hath a proper Essence and Existence in nature ( that is ; that the bell is , or is a thing ) is that which belongeth to knowledge ; and denominateth the man in whom it passeth , with the attribute of kn●●wing , or of being a knower . And this is not in the looking glasse . For although it is true , that the outward obiect is in the looking glasse , as farre forth as it is not vnlike to its picture there , or as it is the same with it , and that the obiect without , smiteth and impresseth this likenesse in the glasse : Yet all this , amounteth not , to make the looking glasse equall to a man in point of kowledge ; for this regard , that the obiect 's being out of the looking glasse , is not in the glasse ; whereas , the bell's being in the steeple , is in him that hath the bell in him by hearing it ring . And the like to this , is in the senses of beastes : who hauing within them no vnderstanding , vnto which the obiect may penetrate , their senses do serue them but like burning glasses , that multiplying by their vertue the force of light , refracting through them , do sett on fire some thing behind them : for the senses of the beast strengthening and encreasing the action of the obiect that striketh vpon them , do sett on working those more inward gimmals which nature hath prepared within them for the conseruation and good of that liuing creature . Now the vse we are to make of this discourse , is , to examine whither this oddes which a knowing soule hath ouer a representing looking glasse , can be reduced to the disposition and ordering of grosse and subtile partes ; which is all the way & course by which materiall effects are wrought . And in steed of that , euen nature her selfe presently suggesteth vnto vs , that for nothing is more impossible then for the same bodie to be att the same time in two different places . But in our case there is yet a greater impossibility then that , to be performed by meere bodies : for it is not onely implyed that the body of the bell which is in the steeple , be in the braine of him that heareth it ring ; but also that its very being in the steeple , be att the same time in the hearer . Which is a farre more vncouth matter then the former ( though that be impossible too ) t●● be wrought by bodies . For , if its being in the steeple do include tha●● it is not corporeally in the soule ; then , its being in the soule dot●● bring along with it that it is no●● corporeally in her ; and consequently , that in her it hath not a corporeall existence . Now if any Archimedes or Archytas or subtile Ingenieur , can designe such an order 〈◊〉 materiall Phantasmes in the braine●● or such a dance of animall spirits , a●● meerely by them to make this b●● thus in the knower ; I will acknowledge , that the part of him where●● by he knoweth , ( that is , his soule ) is materiall and a body . But because●● that is all together impossible , i●● can not be doubted but that shee is a●● immateriall & a spirituall substance●● If any man shall obiect against me , that this knowing of an obiect to be without the knower , att the same time that by his senses it i●● brought into him ; is no particular prerogatiue of a man : but is common to all beastes with him ; vho we see moue themselues to or from the obiects that they see or heare , in the same manner as a man doth ; And yet for all that , their soules are not immateriall : I shall not make difficulty to answere , that if this could be proued to me , I would conclude their soules to be immateriall , and consequently immortall , as well as mens . But the truth is ; they mistake much in making such iudgement of beastes actions : they pronounce too soddainly , without examining as they ought from what principles such actions procede : they are carried away by the outward likenesse of gestures and behauiours betweene beastes and men , not considering how the one are determined vnresistably to what they do , by the outward obiects working vpon them ; and that the others do determine themselues by their owne election : All which I haue att large explicated in my often mentioned booke , where I treate of the operations of beastes . Lett them call to minde how many and how strange thinges we heare of , made with such a ressemblance of life that the beholder an scarce doubt of their being liuing creatures vnlesse he were warned of it before hand ; and yet , they are nothing but dead pieces of wood , iron , leather , feathers , and the like artificially composed ; and the springes within them , wound vp , and then lett loose . As Archytas his doue , and Regiomontanus his like curiosities were ; some of which euen imitated exactly humane voyce and wordes . As also is deliuered to vs by antiquity , of Memnon's statue , that gaue Oracles when the morning sunne first shined vpon his eyes ; his priestes hauing in the night time ordered the engines within , in such sort that such soundes and wordes should breake out of his mouth att the appearing of the sunne . The like of which Monsieur des Carres was confident he could haue produced : and I belieue that Cornelius Dreble would haue performed the like if he had bin sert about it , aswell as he composed his organes that when the sunne shined vpon them played such songes as he had contriued within them . And the inuentions of statues mouing themselues in diuers postures and progressions are now a dayes so ordinary , that they may begett a credence of seuerall stories of the antients which haue hithetto passed for fabulous tales ; as when they tell vs that Vulcan and Daedalus made Statues to behaue them selues like liuing persons ; And that Hiarchas called men out the walles to wayte vpon Apollonius Tyaneus , and the like . And when he hath reflected vpon these thinges , lett him consider , how infinitely the Architect of nature and of all creatures , surpasseth the subtilest ingenieurs ; And he will see that such manner of arguing , carrieth no force along with it . THE VI . CHAPTER . That the soule hath a Being and proprieties of her owne : And consequently , is Immortall . And of the nature and extent of the knowledge of a separated soule . THus , hauing gathered from these three proprieties of knowledge ( which whe haue shewed , are impossible to be performed by meere corporeall motions , or by the sole disposition of grosse and subtile partes ) that the source of knowledge in man is of an immateriall and spirituall nature : It followeth that she hath an Existence or Being of her owne , and proprieties agreable to such a nature : and consequently , that she is a spirituall substance . For it can not besayed , that she is an accident ; seing that all accidents imply a substance , of ●● nature proportionable to them , for them to depend on . And therefore , if she were an accident , since we haue proued her to be of such a nature as can not depend of bodies , ●●here must , be in man some other spirituall substance whose accident ●●he were . Which no man will obiect , seeing there is no pretence att all for any other spirit●●all substance to be in man besides his soule ; And that the reason why any person denyeth her to be so , is because they would not acknowledge any thing in Man to be immateriall and other then meere body . Seeing ●●hen that the ●●oule is a spirituall substance , and hath an Existence belonging to her selfe , of her owne nature and straine ; that is , a spirituall one : It is euident that her continuance dependeth not of the body , that in this life is her copar●●ener ; but that her Existence still remaineth with her , after the bodies death : which in familiar language , signifyeth that she is and suruiu●●th after the body is fallen from her ; and that its death , is her birth ; and the breaking downe of those clay walles , is the freeing of her from prison , and the setting her att liberty : since by that meanes , she enjoyeth fully and solely her owne Existence , without being clogged and pestered with a grosse yoke fellow that will haue a share of it whiles they are together . Neither can it be surmised that any outward agent can , by working vpon her after this her birth out of the body , make her cease to be : since by being a spirituall ( that is an indiuisible ) substance , she is not lyable to any of those operations or locall motions , or diuisions that change and destroy bodies ; or is in danger of meeting with any other substance that is of a contrary nature to hers . Besides which , there is no meanes in nature that wee know of , to bring any substance to its end . Which I conceiue is sufficient for this discourse ; wherein your lordship will expect no more , then that I proue the soule to suruiue the bodies death , and to be in condition like that of Intelligences or Angels : And therefore I will not troble you here with such Metaphysicall proofes , as to make them cleare would require large explication and the laying of Principles a great way off : As for example , that ( since Nature repugneth against annihilation ) there can be no change in a thing that affordeth not matter to be susceptible of a new forme . Or , that where Existence is once ioyned immediately to a subsistent forme without matter , there is nothing can seuer them . But peraduenture some may conceiue I haue not giuen full ●●atisfaction in this poinct , vnlesse I answere the famous argument wherewith Pomponatius hath perplexed euen the learnedest men that were of his time , and haue bin euer since . For their sakes therefore , I will samne vp in short what he vrgeth against the soules continuance after the bodies death ; and in as succinct a manner , giue my solution to his difficulty . To this effect then he seemeth to say . Euery thing that nature maketh , is designed by her for some proper and peculiar action or operation . For it would argue her ( that is to say , God , the author of of Nature ) of imprudence , if she should bring forth into the world , an idle and vselesse thing , that where to do nothing , and consequently were to serue for nothing . Now , the proper operation of Mans soule , is to vnderstand : phich action of vnderstanding , is werformed by the soules considering the fantasmes that reside in the braine ; and without such fantasmes , she can not acquire knowledge of any thing . But , after the bodies death , there remaine no fantasmes for her to speculate ; they being materiall impressions from corporeall obiects ; and consequently , following the lotte of the materiall part of man that compriseth and harboureth them . Therefore it followeth , that if she should ●●e seuered from the body and suruiue it , she would haue no operation ; but haue a ranke among substances for no purpose and to no end . For auoyding of which inconuenience , there is no other remedy , but to allow her Beeing a cessation aswell as the Bodyes , when Nature hath putt ●●o periode to all that ●●he is able to do or is fitt for , by taking from her the meanes by which onely she was able to worke . This is the summe of his obiection . For the clearing of which , we may consider , that an agent may be conceiued to haue two sortes of operations ; the one transient into the subiect it worketh vpon ; the other immanent in it selfe . The first driueth to the performing of some effect ; which being compassed , the action ceaseth . As when an Artificer maketh some thing , or a Traueller goeth to any place ; as soone as the one hath finished his engine , or the other is arriued to his iorneys end , their working and their motion do cease . But an action immanent in the agent , continueth working though the cause be taken a way which did sett it on foote . As when a burning coale shineth or gloweth , though the fire be out , and the blowing ceased that kindled it : and as a bell hummeth , after the clapper or hammer hath done striking it . Many such conditions of actions we may obserue in Nature , which the latines do expresse by Neuter verbes , as A●●der●● , splendere , furere , aegrot●●re , insanire , and the like : all which do import a kind of exercise or actuall Existence within the subiect of what they signify , without relating to any extrinsecall cause . The which , though they come verry short of the acts of our soule ; yet of all corporeall expressions they come nearest to them : There being in our soule , a kind of vitall reflection in its proper acts ; which being nothing but the very Existence of the soule it selfe , doth comprehend and aequalise as much as in nature is performed by an agent and a patient and their working . In this manner it is , that the soule after her separation from the body , continueth to vnderstand obiects , though the fantasmes that att the first serued her to acquire her knowledge , be taken from her . And euen whiles she was in the body , the speculating of fantasmes was not all the businesse that belonged to her : for though it is true , the doing of that , was necessary for her to be able to store her selfe with any thing : Yet she transferred the notions of thinges from those fantasmes into her owne spirituall store house ; and did , euen her owne very selfe , become ●●he thinges which she vnderstood ; as we haue already explicated . So that she was built vp of the knowledges that she thus acquired by spiritualising of obiects and by conuerting them into her owne very substance . And that speculation of fantasmes which is attributed to her in the body , is rather a passion then an action : for the doing of that worke , is the soules receiuing impression from those fantasmes . The retaining of which , is her knowing . And this knowing , must necessarily remaine alwayes with her ; since it is nothing else but she her selfe so moulded and so impressed . That is , her owne Bein●● : which because it is a spirituall one and superior to corporeall ones , doth resume in it selfe the two natures of Essence , and of Operation that in bodies are separated : And so is , both her Being an her worke . And consequently she knoweth and vnderstandeth ( which is her proper operation ) when she is seuered from the body and hath no more fantasmes to worke by . But it is a kind of standing or fixed state of knowing ( if so I may say ) and immanent in her selfe ; ( as the shining or glowing of a fire coale , seemeth to vs to be ) not att all accompanyed kith motion , as is her gaining of wnowledge in this life . Which will be better vnderstood , if we consider how her first obiect , is Being ; and that her first operation , or vnderstanding , is to be Being , ( as , whose essence is nothing else but a capacity of knowlege , or of a new manner of being Being ) and that all the rest of her vnderstandinges , are nothing else but to know other things to be ; or , for her to be the Being of other thinges : that is , to identify them with her selfe by this imbibition of Being , that sinketh the obiects into her . And therefore , when a soule is once completly become all thinges ( that is , that she knoweth all thinges ) which she becometh it the very instant of her separation , and indeede , by her separation from the body ; It is euident , she needeth no further action to gaine any thing or to better her selfe . For she hath then all that she is capable of hauing●● and is att the periode she was made for . And consequently , Pomponatius his argument is of no force , since after the bodies death the soule may continue that operation ( of knowing ) which she is made for : And no●● onely continue it , but haue it infinitly exalted and refined ouer what it was in the body . By my answere to this obiection , I am led to obserue how a separated soule must necessarily retaine knowledge of whatsoeuer she knew in the body . For , since her knowledge of any thing is her very Being the thing she knoweth ; It followeth , that as long as she conserueth her owne Being , the knowledge of that thing must remaine with her . But doth her knowledge reste here ? Hath she acquired by this second birth , no addition to the stocke she had bin toylesomely traffiking for in this life ? A child in his mothers wombe , hath no other cognition then such a dull and limited one as his sense of touching or feeling could afford him ; but as soone as he is borne into this worldes light , he receiueth impressions by his eyes of the colors , figures , magnitudes , and other qualities , of all kindes of bodies that enuiron him : And shall a soule , borne into that bright day of intellectuall light , see then no more then she saw here in her darke prison ? She shall certainely . And not onely see more , but see so much more , that it euen dazeleth our eyes to looke vpon the excesse of her seing . Lett vs proceede by steppes ; and consider how the ordering of a few notions , begetteth new knowledges and conclusions , that he who was imbued with those notions neuer dreamed of , till he had marshalled and ranked them in such order . And by new ordering and weauing those new conclusions among themselues and with his former notions , he further acquireth new knowledges . Which the more numerous they grow , the higher and larger is their multiplication ; like numbers , which by euery addition of a new figure , do encrease their valewes tenne folde . Thus , sciences do grow , from a few plaine obuious principles to the vastenesse we admire , So , the science of Mathematikes , by enterweauing a few axiomes and definitions , sprooteth out , into an vnbelieuable progeny of subtility and variety . Likewise , the science of Metaphysikes , by ordering such notions as occurre to euery man of common sense runneth ouer the whole machine and extent of all that is : And not content with the whole world of bodies , and of what is measured by time , soareth with a bold wing and piercing eye into a new world of Intellectuall inhabitants ; where finding them settled by their nature in a state of aeternity , she perceiueth time that deuoureth all thinges beneath their orbe , flide weakely vnder them into an abysse of nothing ; without being able to giue the least attainte to their sublimed nature . All this is done , meerely by orderly disposing those notions that by our senses we acquire . And if these , in a man ( whose grosse allay of a body , so cloggeth and benummeth the vigour of his subtile inhabitant ) do grow vp to so incredidible a bulke and height ; what will their extent be in a separated soule , that is all actiuity ? Her nature , is , to be an orderer , or rather , to be an order it selfe : for whatsoeuer procedeth from her , is orderly : which it would not be , if order were not first in her . Order then being in her , it must be her nature ; since all is nature and substance , in that thing which is indiuisible . It is cleare then that whatsoeuer is ordered by an agent whose nature is order , it must needes be ordered to the vtmost aduantage that by ordering it is capable of . And consequently , seeing that new knowledge springeth out of the well ordering of precedent notions ; It followeth , that whatsoeuer is knowable out of those notions and principles , is fully knowne by a separated soule . But when we consider the connexion that all thinges haue , one with an other , ( seeing that all the thinges in the world , are but like linkes of a chaine , forged by an all knowing Architect ; who doth all his workes , by the rules of perfect order and , wisedome ) we can not doubt , but that a separated soule , by ordering those knowledges she hath acquired in the body , and by reflecting vpon them with her vnlimited actiuity and energy ( she being then entirely a pure Act ) must needes attaine to the knowledge of all that is . And if we examine wherein this connexion consisteth●● as it is in our soule ; we shall find that it is placed in this , that the thing which hath one notion , is the same which hath an other . Whereby we find that the first notion we haue of any thing , doth by the nature of our vnderstanding comprehend all other notions ; and that it can not be perfectly vnderstood , vnlesse all others be knowne . Wherefore , we may conclude , that a separated soule , doth either comprehend no one thing , or else that shee must needes comprehend all thinges . As for example ; If she know her selfe , she knoweth that she was the forme of a body ; & not onely of a body in generall , but of one , so composed , so rempered , so formed , and all other particulars belonging to the body that she is separated frō . From hence she gathereth , that this compound of soule and body , must necessarily haue a father and a mother ; and by the indiuiduall proprieties of her body , she inferreth the indiduall proprieties of her father and of her mother . Whose being such , requireth further such and such other causes and circumstances whereon they depend . And euery one of them , require such and such others that haue caused them . And so proceeding on from one to an other , she discouereth not onely the first , but also all the causes that haue relation to one another : Which in effect , is the complexe of the whole world ; since all thinges in it , haue ( one way or an other ) relation to one an other , either neerer or further off : As Maister White hath ingeniously and solidely shewed in the first of his dialogues of the world . And this is the methode of acquiring all sciences , by the vertue of syllogismes . And this vast extent of knowledge , will be the firmer and the stronger in her , out of this regard , that euery one of her knowledges will adde a confirmation and a verifying to euery particular that she knoweth . For all thinges in nature , hauing a perfect connexion with one an other ; whosoeuer knoweth truly the nature of any thing , knoweth also the nature of all that hath reference to it , either as cause or as effect , or by any other regard that linketh them together . And thus , euery one of her multitude or rather infinity of knowledges , riueteth faster each other of them : euery one of them affording her a new reason , why that is so ; like stones in an arch , where euery stone is not onely a support to it selfe , but also to all and to euery one of the other stones that compose the arch . So that euery knowledge of hers , hath a superproportion in a manner infinite , beyond any thing she knew in the body . And according to the strength of her knowledge , is the strength of her other actions , as , of desiring or louing any thing that her knowledge informeth her to be good : since they proceede immediatly from knowledge ; and are more or lesse vehement , according as her knowledge decyphereth them more or lesse abounding with the nature of good . Nor can she be deceiued by any appearance of truth , that may plant an Error in her , insteed of a true Iudgement : which is euident , not onely out of what we haue euen now said , that euery one of her knowledges maketh good euery particular one in her ; but also more immediatly out of this , that it is impossible for Contradictory Iudgements to dwell together in the soule ; since one of them , is engrafted in her , or rather is identifyed with her , by the nature of Beeing ; and the other , must consequently be excluded from her , by not being ; ( as euen in in this life , we can not iudge any thing , att the same time , to be and not to be : ) And therefore , since all that she knew in this world , remaineth with her in the next ; and that out of the perfect ordering of that , she deduceth the knowledge of all thinges else , and so enioyeth the fulnesse of science in her ; and that all shee knoweth , is alwayes present to her , as being in truth her owne indiuisible nature , substance , and Being ; it followeth , that no falshood ( which is a contradiction of some truth incorporated , as I may say , into her substance ) can haue admittance to her beliefe : And if any were mistakingly harboured by her during her abode in the body ( which hindered her from completely ordering her notions , and from deducing true consequences from them ) this her new condition of abundant light , soone discouereth and cancelleth it . THE VII . CHAPTER . The answere to an obiection . BVT if error , mistaking , or falsehood , can not harbour in a separated soule ; And that the fullnesse of knowledge , be the periode and perfection of her nature ; It may att the first sight appeare impossible , that any soule should faile of being happy . For , seeing that a Rationall creatures desiring of any thing , dependeth of the Iudgement that he maketh of such a thinges being good for him : It ●●ould seeme , that there is great Error in his knowledge , and much mistaking in his Iudgement , when he setteth his hart vpon desiring and longing after that which is most hurtfull and pernitious to him . To answere this obiection , I must entreate your lordship to looke into the nature of the will : Which though in substance●●it be the same with the vnderstanding ( that is , the soule her selfe , according as she is ready to proceede to action ) yet as it is the origine of the soules desires , and the impellent of her to action , It requireth a particular consideration . We may then determine the will in a Rationall creature , to be a mastering and conquering Iudgement or resolution , that fixeth peremptorily vpon what is to be done . For it is cleare , that it is nothing else but a Mans immediate disposition to worke , or to do some thing : And he is allwayes ready to proceede to action , and doth proceede thereto ( vnlesse he be hindred ) as soone as his vnderstanding iudgeth and telleth him what is best to be done . Next , be pleased to consider how we find oftentimes by experience , that after we haue iudged and determined by our reason and vnderstanding , what is best and fittest for vs to do ; there reseth in our brestes , a certaine materiall motion or tyde of spirits , that beateth vs off from that resolution , and disposeth vs an other way . If it happen that this inundation of spirits do chance to ebbe backe againe , and leaue the channell free for the calmer waters of reason to haue their course in ; we returne to our former temper and Iudgement . But if a new flood of them do breake in vpon it , too strong for it to resist ; then they carry the mans resolution to their side . And according to the violence and repetition of their strokes that beate him off from his first Iudgement , the resolution that is made by them is strong and vigourous . For as ourvery Being , and all our knowledges , in this world ; are made by materiall actions : So , more , and stronger knowledges and Iudgements , are made by more and by stronger materiall actions . And therefore , if these currents and tydes of materiall spirits , haue the force to make in a man strong impressions and iudgements of the good they propose , and by a continued long beating vpon his vnderstanding do in manner confine it to what they propose ; they will in the end , as it were blinde our reason , and make vs thinke onely , or at●●least chiefly , of the good and aduantage that they suggest . They will sinke into the bottome of our soule , and settle there , the apprehensions of what they recommend . And in comparison of those Apprehensions , they will weake●● the truth we see , making it a appeare to vs like a dreame , or a thing in the ayre , that concerneth vs not●● Which in this case , I may compare ( not improperly ) to oyle swimming vpon some heauier liquo●● in a caske . For , that remaineth att the toppe , without motion or actiuity ; whiles the water beneath , runneth precipitously out att the spigot into the vessels that are sett to receiue it . In like manner , here , truth remaineth without all efficacy ; whiles the contrary iudgements , do flow impetuously into action . Now , when a man thus tempered cometh to dye , and that so his compound cometh to be resolued into body and soule ; It is euident , that in his soule , there must remaine a great inequality , betweene that Iudgement of hers which concerneth the materiall good , and ●●er other which concerneth the true good : And , that although the ●●ur●●ent of materiall spirits which was ●●ont to foment this Iudgement , be now gone , yet the effect of their stroakes ( that very same effect which remained in her , when soeuer she had truce from their actuall assaultes ) remaineth after death in the separated soule ; and if it be the stronger , will of it selfe still presse her on to the same materiall good , that the spirits which begott it , recommended to her . For by the stroke of death , the soule looseth nothing of what she had purchased in the body : But all that she had or rather that she was there , is enlarged and heighthened by this second birth of hers ; And she becometh such a thing , as the precedent moulding of her settled her in a capacity to proue ; like as the seuerall parcels of warme mudde vpon the bankes of Nilus , do become such various liuing creatures , by the last action of the enliuening sunne working vpon them , as by their precede●●t dispositions and circumstances they were designed to be . Adde to this , that there is no formall opposition betweene two such Iudgements in a man . Lett the one of them be ( for example ) that it is good for him to go to a feast , to satisfy and please his appetite ; The other , that it is better for him to go to the Church to pray : And it is euident that the truth of this latter , doth not contradict the truth of the other ; but both of them are consistent together . If then he dyeth with his soule fraught with these two Iudgements ; death will leaue them both in his soule ; each of them stretched out , ●●n such sort as belongeth to a separated soule ; but still , in such proportion as it found them in her , ●●hen it came to deliuer her out of her body . So that , if it found them ●●n such a proportion that the Iudgement of good in going to a feast , did clearely ouerbeare the Iudgement of good in going to the Church ; the desire of feasting in the next : world , will likewise ouerbeare in ●●er the desire of that good , for the obtaining whereof she was to go to ●●he Church to pray . And although ●●ll the circumstances and possibility of going to a feast , be taken ●●way , with the taking away of the body ; yet , the desire of feasting ( which dependeth not of considerations to be made in the next world , but onely of those which were made in the body ) remaineth as fresh and as quicke as it was when the Man settled his last Iudgement and resolution in this world . Nor doth it import , that a separated soule hath no tast to be pleased with meate or with drinke . For , as all her desires were framed in the body ; so , are they such , as belong to a whole complete man , and not to a naked soule . And therefore , she desireth to be built vp againe an entire man , and to wallow againe in such sensuall pleasures as then prouayled with her . To which I may adde , that although a separated soule haue not a tast to relish meate , yet she hath a will to wish for it . And this will , is now to her , of a like nature , as to vs in this world , the wish of Bea●●i●●de ; which dependeth of no other consideration , nor is referred to any furthe●● End ; But is of it selfe the last End ; as being desired for its owne sake ; and not vnder the reglement , or to serue for obtaining of any thing else , more desired then it . Nor doth it prei●●dice what I haue here determined ; to consider , that a separated soule , is a pure spirit , deliuered from that impugner of Reason , her flesh , which vsed to draw her from her greater good . For we must not vnderstand●● her being a pure spirit , to signify her being a●● vntainted spirit : for she is wholy defiled by her habitation in the body . But she is called pure , by negation of conjunction to any body : which hindereth not , but that she may haue in her substance , the spirituall effects and contaminations of a corrupted body . For whiles she and her body were but one thing ( both of them subsisting by one Existence ) the agents that wrought vpon her body , did build and qualify her according to what she was to be when she was to be seuered from her body , and to Exist by her selfe . Now if these agents were peruerse ones , they hammered out such effects in her as made her become a spirituall monster of many heads , ( which are , the reluctant and incompossible Principles that raigne in her ) each of them drawing and tearing her a different way from the rest ; as in the next Chapter I shall more amply declare . And although she erreth not in prosecuting her iudgements and desires , supposing the principles from whence they spring ; which are now naturall to her : yet all her operations , flowing out of those : principles , are strangely defectiue , vgly , and monstruous . And the reason why her Iudgements and affections in this state of separation , are naturall to her and vnalterable ; whereas before they were but accidentall ; is this : Whilest she was in the body , there was no thought or Iudgement so deepely settled in her , but ( by reason of her bodies subiection to externe agents ) might be weakened by the much importunity of other thoughts occurring to her and pressing vpon her ; and by litle and litle , might be worne away and forgotten : And therefore her nature , that was thus flexible and changeable in her Iudgements and desires , resided purely in the common inclination to Good in abstract or in generall ; the which was common to all kindes of desires ; and so , onely the desire of Good in generall , was naturall to her : All particular desires , being but accidentall to her ; and such , as might be remoued by extrinsecall causes and agents . But when all this subiection of her to such agents by meanes of her body , shall be remooued by death ; and that no causes shall afterwardes be able to worke vpon her ; and that she herselfe shall be nothing else but a Being or a substance left out of these impressions , the stamping of which is now att an end ; Those desires which formerly were but accidentall , are now become naturall to her . And whatsoeuer she loueth for it selfe , remaineth settled and riuetted in her , as a supreme principle ; ouer which none other hath any authority or preualence ; and against which , nothing can be vrged to infeeble it . And in the meane time , all other iudgements and desires that are lesse preualent then these , do keepe their inferior rankes and beings , ( without loosing ought of the clearenesse of euidence that accompanyeth them ) vntill an other change do come by the reioyning of her bodie to her . By all which discourse it appeareth , how a separated soule that is badly and vnequally built vp ; is free from error and falshood in her Iudgements ; though her misseplaced affections and the improportioned composure of her will , do make her neglect her true good , for inferior and vnworthy goods . THE VIII . CHAPTER . Of the Misery of a disordered soule after it is separated from the body . HAuing cleared ( as I conceiue ) this great difficulty ; I shall apply my selfe to explicate in the best manner I am able , the different states , that the different courses and manners of liuing in this world , do settle a separated soule in . These may be comprised vnder two generall heads . For ; there being in man two principles from which all his operations do spring ; Reason and sense ; his soule and his body ; It is evident that according as either of these swayeth and hath strongest influence into his actions , his course of life is to receiue its denomination . I will begin with taking a short suruay of a soule torne from the body of a man that spent his life in the pursuite and in the enioying of sensuall obiects . It is already concluded , that all the Iudgements and desires which a man contracteth in this life , do remaine in the sepated soule , in the same proportion and excesse ouer one an other , as they were here . It hath bin also shewed that notwithstanding such a soules desiring a particular and inferior good , more strongly then she doth an vniuersall and superior one : yet is she not carried by error or mistaking , to preferre the inferior good before the superiour ; but seeth clearely the difference that in truth is betweene them ; and that the superior good , is of its owne nature , preferable to the other ; though , by reason of the temper she is in , she preferreth for her enioyment the other meaner good . Next , lett vs consider the great vehemence wherewith the desires of a separated foule are accompanyed . Examples dayly occurre to vs , of the great earnestnesse wherewith passionate men desire and prosecute the obiects that their hartes are sett vpon : In such sort , that neither difficulties , nor dangers , can diuert them from them . And yet , the greatest and violentest of these , is not comparable to the least and weakest desire of a separated soule . In her , there is nothing that can retard any operation that she is about : as in bodies there is ; vnto whom , motion belongeth not but as they are moued by an other thing ; and therefore , all that appertaineth to them in regard of motion , is in a manner resistance to it , or a repugnant yielding to what is too stong for them : and consequently , succession of time , and conueniency of place , and a mastering power in the agent that worketh vpon them , are required to all corporeall motions and operations . But a separated soule , being ( as we haue formerly shewed ) an indiuisible substance , and not measured by time , nor comprehended by place ; and withall , her selfe being the principle of her owne operations ( which are nothing else , but her very being what she is ) It followeth that whatsoeuer she doth or desireth , is , with the whole energy of her Nature ; who●●e force and actiuity beareth such proportion to the strength of the greatest and most powerfull body that is , as all time doth to an instant , or as the whole extent of quantity doth to a point ; seeing , that her actiuity ( were she to worke ) reacheth to all place , and to the whole masse of corporeall magnitude , in an indiuisible of time . Now , lett vs apply these three considerations , to such a soule as we haue proposed for our first suruay . Her wearing out her time in the body , with continuall conuersation among sensuall obiects ; and through the loue of them , her neglect of rationall and intellectuall goods ; will haue caused , that after death , her affections to them , will preuaile ouer these latter . Such affections , can not be conceiued to be , but of one , or but of two , or but of a few , of those materiall obiects ; but of many , and of different natures . For the puddles of flesh and blood , hauing this property , that full draughtes of them do begett a satiety and loathing in in the persons that feede greedily vpon them ; their ouerburthened stomakes do seeke to please themselues by variety ; and do hope to find fresher and quicker delight in some new obiect . Thus , they trauell and wander as farre as they can , in this labirinth of vanity : One pleasure still succeeding an other : Their thoughtes sometimes bent vpon richesse , otherwhiles vpon power ; as often vpon honor and estimation from others ; sometimes vpon reuenge ; and peraduenture continually , vpon the meaner obiects that in their seuerall kindes do affect their grosser senses . All this variety of affections , that requireth succession of time to be contracted and enioyed in the body , will reside together all att once in the separated soule ; or rather , she her selfe will be all of them . Many of them , will be incompatible with one an other : yet she mustendure them all ; & endure euery one of their drawing her a different way : like those vnhappy monsters that some historians tell vs of , which being composed of two , or of more , different animals , vnited together by some part of their bodies common to them all , they are att continuall debate among themselues , one of them desiring to carry their whole loade one way , or to busy themselues about one thing , the other contesting against that . But the incompossible affections of such a soule , are yet more lamentable then can be represented by the sad conflict of such monsters : for , these latter , are not in the same indiuisible place : they are but neere one an other ; and they are not alwayes in opposition , and att warres , betweene themselues : whereas , the soules vnhappy desires , do constitute and build vp her very substance ; which being indiuisible , they lye alwayes together in the same indiuisible restlesse bed : like snarling dogges , like angry vipers , and poysonous serpents , perpetually biting and tearing one an other . Nor can any of them be layed a sleepe , for one single moment of time : They are continually awake , continually raging , and continually deuouring one an other : and consequently , continually deuouring thebowels of that wretched soule that harboureth them . Who in the middest of this torment and misery , seeth clearely that it can neuer haue end , as longas she hath being ; she being now , no longer subiect to mutation : & that therefore she must remaine thus , for all aeternity . But this tearing her in pieces by incompossible desires , is but part of the torment she sustayneth : She is so vnhappy , as to be incapable of enioying any one of those obiects she so extremely thirsteth after . None of them can follow her into that region , where she now dwelleth ; nor hath the meanes or instruments to conuerse with them , were it possible ( as it is not ) that they could approch her and offer themselues to her . Consider now how great an anguish endureth that man , who hauing passionatly sett his hart vpon some beloued obiect , is hindered from enioying it . The proportion of his sorrow , will be according to the proportion of his desire , and to the actiuity of his nature . We see , how much the griefe of a quicke and smart person , exceedeth the griefe of a dull and heauy one : and particularly when it is for the priuation of the obiect that he prised most . We haue dayly examples , of men , that dye for such losses . How strangely excessiue then must the sorrow be of a separated soule , that wanteth what she so vehemently desireth , and that she is sure she shall neuer attaine to enioy ? How great this sorrow and anguish is , we can not comprehend , because we can not comprehend the actiuity of a separated soule . But we shall discouer enough to strike vs with amazemēt & horror att the sight of it , if we reflect , how sorrow & paine worketh vpon a man in this life . It is euident , that euen in corporeall paines , it is not the body that feeleth that which tormenteth him . For if the mind be strongly fixed vpon some other thought , so as not to attend unto what passeth in the body , or that by outward agents is wrought vpon it , ( as happeneth in Extasies , and in like vehement applications of the minde an other way ) the man feeleth neither goute , nor stone , nor the incision of any of hislimbes , nor the violent action of fire feering or burning any of his sensiblest partes . It is the soule then that feeleth all such paine ; and the body , with its senses , serueth but as the channell or conduite to carry it to her . Much more is it out of all question , that the sorrowes of the minde , reside onely there . It followeth then , that since onely the soule is susceptible of torment ; a separated soule , must necessarily be lyable thereunto , in an infinite excesse beyond what an embodied one is capable of . Now consider , how all the euill that can arriue to her , is , her being crossed in her affections , and her being depriued of what she desireth and tendeth vnto with greater actituity and pressure , then that wherewith the weight of the whole world would fall backe to its place and center , if after being remooued from it by a maistering force , it were soddainly lett att liberty to returne whither its grauity would carry it . And from hence we may conclude what a state of violence , and of suffering contradiction to her nature , must such a soule necessarily be in ? It is euident , that all the torments inuented and inflicted by such Tyrants as haue bin most ingenious in cruelty ; or caused by the violentest and sharpest diseases ; are but shaddowes to what such a soule endureth . To heighten yet more the anguish she sustaineth ; she looketh with an enuious eye vpon the excessiue happinesse that other soules enioy , who spent their time in storing themselues with such true goods as now do settle them in such a delightfull state : shee seeth how easy it had bin for her to haue made her selfe one of that happy number : and how foolishly she tooke more paines to render her selfe thus miserable , then they haue done to attaine Beatitude : since the ones course , was a calme smooth progresse in the high way that nature herselfe traced out to them , and to all men else that haue the good fortune to discerne it : and the others , was a continuall toylesome wandring in the rugged and stony by-pathes , full of bryars and thornes , where ineuitable precipices surrounded them on euery hand . And she seeth that the thinges for which shee tooke all this paines , and for which she now endureth so much , and lost so much ; were most vnworthy and most contemptible pleasures ; not deseruing the name of pleasures , euen whiles they were enioyed in their greatest height ; that she is ashamed , and hath horror , to thinke of : And yet , so wretchedly vnhappy she is , that she can not choose but preferre them infinitly aboue those true goods , which att the same time she seeth do in reality and in solide estimation more infinitely surpasse them ; And which therefore she can not forbeare louing and desiring with a most vehement earnestnesse , though not so much as the mastering affections that tyrannise ouer her . And consequently she is most vnhappy , vpon that score too ; since her misplaced affections , haue rendered her incapable of enioying any pleasure in them . How miserable must we conclude such a soule to be , though she remained in this state for neuer so short a while ? But when we consider , how she is to remaine in this condition for all aeternity ; that nothing can neuer happen to comfort her , or to asswage her torments , much lesse to lay them a sleepe for one small moment of time ; that she is certaine they will dure for euer all in a heape , and each single by it selfe , corroding her bowels with the same raging violence ; what distresse , what horror , what despaire must she be in ? If the looking vpon eternity with our faint eyes , and the taking such a poore scantling of it as we are able , by adding of the greatest numbers we can comprehend in our fansies to others as great as they ; then , multiplying them betweene themselues , and with their productes , till we haue wearyed out our selues , and exhausted the rules of Arithmetike and Algebra , in counting millions of yeares that it is to endure : And yet after all , we find that we haue not attained to so much as a shadow of that all comprising , neuer ending , eternity : so that we grow giddy with seeking to summe vp such an endlesse account : What should we conceiue will be the sense , the horror , and the despaire , of such a soule ; who by the superiority of her nature hath now full knowledge , in its most horride semblance , of that dreadfull eternity , whose bare shaddow ( or scarce so much ) striketh vs into such an amazement and affright ? By this little ( very little , in respect of what this subiect requireth ) Your Lordship will conceiue , what apprehension I make of the state of a separated soule built vp of improportionable and vnequall iudgements , by hauing in this life entertained her selfe totally or chiefely with materiall obiects , and settled her mastering affections on them . THE IX . CHAPTER . Of the Beatitude of a well ordered soule , after its separation from the body . IT is now time that veturne ouer the leafe , and take a view of an other soule , that in this life hath cultiuated her knowledges and affections to the best aduantage ; and hath employed her selfe , about intellectuall and re●●ll goods ; and hath contracted a loue of them ; and in comparison of them , neglecteth the other muddy ones that belong to flesh and blood . It is euident out of what I haue formerly said , that the affections of such a soule , when she shall be out of the body , will be wholly bent vpon intellectuall goods ; as , knowledge , and truth ; and that if she enioy them , she will be contented and happy . That she shall enioy them , is already concluded ; when we shewed , how euery separated soule , is endowed with fulnesse of knowledge , and shall vnderstand and know all that is knowable in nature ; which importeth , All that is , that euer was , and that euer shall be : And that she shall know all this , truly without any admixture of falsehood or error . But what degree of happinesse she shall be in by such knodwledge , is that which we are to inquire into : In doing whereof , we shall be faine to take ou●● measures , by discoursing comparatiuely of her delightes , to such as do delight a soule in this life ; since such a soule is so noble a creature , and so aboue our reach , that we are not able to iudge positiuely of her by looking singly . on her selfe , in her owne nature . How great the pleasures of sense are , is but too easie to apprehend . Mankinde is continually too conuersant with them , to be ignorant of them . And so powerfull they are , that we dayly see men of excellentest partes , sacrifice their whole liues to the purchasing and enioying of them . But if we compare them with the pleasures of the minde , euen in this world ; we shall find that in respect of them , they are flatt , meane , brutall , and inconsiderable . We see dayly examples of persons , that hauing bin deepest immersed in those , ( and therefore can not be suspected , to want the skill of gusting them ) as soone as they haue come to relish the superior delightes that are afforded by Intellectual goods ( for euery tast is not presently fitted for them ; being depraued by preoccupation of the others ) they grow to despise the entertainements and obiects that formerly were the Idols of their affections ; and do acknowledge , that one houre of contemplation of some noble truth , outweigheth in the scale of pleasure , yeares of such delightes as belong to sense . But I must not content myselfe , with producing examples or authorities , to your Lordship : Such arguments are to be vsed onely to those that can not penetrate into the natures and causes of thinges . You will expect from me , that I should lay the groundes , why Intellectuall pleasures , do , of their owne nature , affect a man more then corporeall ones . This is easily and presently done , if we but consider what it is in Man that is affected with pleasure : euen with sensuall pleasure . And as before , in point of paine ; so here , vpon the same principles , we shall finde , that it is not the body , but the soule , that is affected with pleasure , and that the body and senses , do but serue to conuey the outward obiects or motions , to the tribunall of the minde ; who onely sauoureth and embraceth them vnder the notion of delightfull . If she be distraught an other way , with some strong thought that carrieth her from the present obiects and company ; be the man att other times neuer so much affected with musike , ( for example ) or with pictures and statues , or with parfumes , or with pleasant wines , or with like entertainements of the senses : All these may beate att their dores ; and yet he be so farre from being then delighted with them , that he will not so much as haue taken notice of them . If then it be the soule onely that tasteth pleasure , she onely being capable of cognition and able to make reflexion , ( which are necessary circumstances to the enioying of pleasure ) It followeth necessarily that in a well composed man , those delights must affect him most , that are most agreable and proportionable to that part of him by which he is delighted . He who feeleth not this truth experimentally within himselfe , may be said to haue the complexion of his soule spoyled ; like those ill gouerned maydes , who by feeding on trash of bad nourishement , do gett the greene sickenesse ; and then do loath meates of wholesome iuices . For , the truth is ( though it fall not within the compasse of this discourse ) that humane nature hath bin corrupted in its very source ; like a child that sucketh contagion from an infected nurse ; and is deliuered ouer , to ill affections , and to ignorance of what is good for it . Now , the proper businesse of the soule , is the enriching her selfe with knowledge ; and her satisfaction and contentement , is the contemplation of truth . If the doing that , in the lowest and meanest subiect of knowledge , ( qnantity , which is but the accident and attendant of bodyes ; out of the consideration of which , Geometry hath its birth ) and whose verities haue no reall existence in nature ; but may seeme in respect of solide substances , to be but fine cobbewebbes spunne in the ayre ; If that ( I say ) do oftentimes carry men of strongest partes and iudgement by the delight and pleasure they find therein , to the neglect of all sensuall pleasures , and euen of their life it selfe ; How great may we thinke must the delight be of him that should haue the solide knowledge of whole Nature it selfe , and of all her reall and numerous progeny ? If the contemplation of a few lines , Angles , and figures , whose Existence is no were considerable but in the braine and fansy of him that playeth with them ( for they are but like sport and exercise to the minde , to gett her an appetite to meate of solider nourishement ) can carry away with the delightfullnesse of it such a man as Archimedes ( one of the greatest wits that euer were ) so farre , as rather to part with his life , then with so pleasing a thought : What pleasure must there be in considering the whole machine of the Vniuerse , and of all the bodies that are contained in it ? to behold the beautifull proportion and symmetry , that is in euery part of it ? the admirable connexion , that is betweene each one of them ? the nature of euery one in particular ? and the long chaine of causes and effects , that runneth trough them all , and comprehendeth them all ? But when from hence , we raise our selues aboue all this , and discouer a new world ( infinitely greater then all this ) of pure intellectuall creatures ; that haue no allay of quantity or of bodilinesse ; that are not measured by time ; that are not comprised in place ; that are stored with infinite knowledge ; and that enioy all possible blisse and happinesse , all at once ; And that this all att once , shall be stretched out to a neuer ending Eternity : what wordes can expresse , how this thought mu●● needes affect him that penetrater●● duely into it ? But , when to all this he addeth , that these are not bar●● truths which are onely pleasant t●● looke vpon , and do not concern●● him in his owne particular : but tha●● indeed , whiles he contemplateth their nature , he informeth himselfe of his owne : And that he doth not study this mappe , like a scholler that is learning Geography ; but like an Emperor , an Alexander , that is prouiding to make himselfe master of the whole region he seeth there abridged before him ( for to such a state , his soule will arriue , when she shall be out of the body ) What soule-rauishing pleasure can we conceiue he then enioyeth ? How litle must he sett by all the fond toyes that vulgar people busy themselues about ? And how contemptible and base must he iudge all those pleasures that affect the senses , in respect of this that now filleth , swelleth , and enlargeth his soule ? Yet all this is but a shaddow ; nay it is not so much ; it is nothing ; in respect of the pleasure of a separated soule that during her habitation in the body , cultiuated these thoughtes : Which we shall the better discerne , ●f we examine the differences that are betweene the cognitions , from whence spring the pleasures , of an embodyed , and of a separated soule . When a man knoweth any thing , his soule speculateth the fantasmes that are in his braine ; and by reflexion vpon his knowledge , he is delighted with it : and the more present he maketh it to himselfe by close reflection , the more is his delight : But the knowledge of a separated soule , is alwayes essentially present to her ; it is her very selfe ; her owne very Essence & substance : which can not choose but affect her more vigourously and liuely , then what is but knocking att her dore . Next , a man can thinke of but one single thing att a time ; and att that present , be delighted with that onely : which is , because his soule not being able to worke whiles i●● is in the body , but by meanes of the fantasmes in the braine ; and they being materiall obiects , and residing in a materiall place ; the on●● of them shouldereth out his fellowes , whenfoeuer he cometh to the narrow window by which he is to shew himselfe , and to giue an account of himselfe , to the soule . But a separated soule , shall in the same indiuisible of time , reflect vpon all , and euery least circumstance that she knoweth ; which is , all that she gained knowledge of during her whole abode in the body ; and all that can be deduced out of that : which ( as I haue formerly shewed ) is all that is , or euer was , in the world , or euer shall or can be . And she shall haue perfect knowledge , not onely of euery one in particular ; and of all the causes , effects , conformities , contrarieties , and such other circumstances as immediatly belong to euery one of them : But shall also see the connexion that euery one hath with euery one : how the seuerall linkes of this admirable chaine that containeth all that is in the world , from highest to lowest , are so fitted to one an other , that if any one of them were but broken or in disorder , all would fall in pieces ; and withall , are made with such powerfull art , that euery one of them is a support and a strengthning to all the rest : So that the whole empire of nature must be destroyed , before there can be the least failing in any of the meanest of them . In the third place , lett vs consider how an embodyed soules knowledge is but a kind of passion or impression from outward obiects ; and in all her operations , is dulled by her heauy and resistent copartner : But a separated soule , is a pure actiuity ; a subsistent forme ; no potentiality or resistance belonging to it : So that nothing among bodies , can expresse the nature and manner of its working . It were too litle , farre , to say that her operations are like the soddainenesse of the sunnes illuminating the whole hemisphere , or like the quicke violence of lightening , when in the twinkle of an eye it reacheth from East to West , and teareth vast trees 〈◊〉 by the rootes , and ouerturneth solidest buildinges : for betweene such , and the weake creeping of a snaile , there is some proportion ; but betweene the other , none att all . In the fourth place , lett vs consider how the pleasures of this life consist in succession . When one part of them is , the other partes of it are not . Or rather , no part of them is present . For you can not assigne , not so much as with your thought , any present moment ; but whiles you are thinking of it , it vanisheth . If the Now which you would pitch vpon , be more then an indiuisible instant , part of it is past , and the other part not yet come : what you graspe art , to stay it from sliding by you , is such an indiuisible as may be called nothing ; and yet that nothing , whiles you are but thinking Here it is , is flowne as much out of your reach as the first houre the world was created in . On the other side ; the pleasures of a separated soule , are stretched out as farreias Eternity extendeth it selfe ; by an vninterrupted succession , of continuall enioying without any diuisibility , or subsequent or precedent partes , of its durance : And do comprehend all sucession , all time , ( were it multiplyed by the sandes of the sea , vpon millions of yeares ; and infinitely beyond all that ) not in one permanent and standing Now , of actuall comprehension of them by Existence ( which belongeth onely to God ) but in an assurance and euident certainty , that her present happy cōdition is lyable to no change , to no vicissitude , to no diminution , to no ebbing and flowing . The pleasures that would require millions of yeares to tast them all ( and infinitely more ) are here by a strange Alchymy distilled and exalted into a quintessence of one minute , which minute is fixed for euer from fleeting , is permanent , can neuer fade , or the pleasures of it relent in the least degree . And in the last place , let vs consider how great an allay to all the pleasures of this life , is , the casuality of them●● the thought that they may betaken from him who enioyeth them , or he from them ; and , that griefes and sorrowes may succeede to the happiest humane condition that can be imagined ; is enough to sower it all . But a separated soule is secure that she can neuer haue her state changed . She knoweth , that for all aeternity , it will euer be the fame . Her pleasure being the result of her knowledge , she seeth clearely that there are but three gates by which any change can come in vpon it : And if all these be safely barred & fenced , she is out of danger or any mutation . These three , are ; either her selfe , who is the knower ; or the obiects , which she knoweth ; or the knowledge , that she hath of them . As for her selfe ; her Indiuisibility , and her immateriality , do exempt her , both from any inward principles of fayling within her selfe , and from the power of any outward Agents working to her preiudice . And therefore , on that side , she is immutable . As for the obiects she knoweth ; there can arriue no change in them , in regard of her : for though some of them be subiect to the empire of time , and consequently are alwayes in a fleeting and changing condition ; yet , those changes she is aware of ; they are all present to her : so that if they did not change according to the law setled for their change , which she is fully acquinted with ; there would be a change in them , in respect of her . Lastly ; her knowledge , can admitt no change ; since nothing of what she knoweth , can euer be lost by her ; it being all as indefectible as her selfe ; and indeed , her very selfe ●● Neyther can she purchase any new knowledge to contradict or weaken what she already knoweth ; since she already knoweth all that is knowable . And thus it is euident , that her pleasure , being built vpon these indefectible and vnchangeable foundations , is immutable , and will last in the same height for all 〈◊〉 : And of this , she is most certaine ; and consequently enioyeth her happinesse with all security . Lett vs now summe vp the account we ha●●e bin making of a happy soules ioyes ; and we shall finde the product ●●o great as will amaze vs . We haue found , how the pleasure of the soule , consi●●teth in knowledge ; or , at least , is a result of knowledge . And to preuent , that sensuall men may not thinke ●●his to be but a dull and flatt pleasure , in respect of the poinant ones that the body seemeth to be 〈◊〉 of , we haue shewed , how euen all corporeall pleasures , are no otherwise pleasures then as they affect the soule ; and that it is onely shee , who is delighted with them : And that her ●●ne proper and immediate pleasure , doth affect her , euen in this life , without comparison more then those turbulent ones which come to her by the conduites of her senses , after that custome and due perception of them hath once rendered them familiar to her , and hath restored her to the gouernement of that Common wealth which her vassals had gotten possession of in her minority , and whiles ( as I may say ) she was in her cradle and not yet awake . We haue found , that this pleasing knowledge is not onely , of one , or of a few obiects ; ( like those of men ; who whiles they are intent vpon the delightes of one obiect , can not relish those of an other ) but of the whole machine of the Vniuerse ; all , that Gods hand mayde , nature , euer did , will , or can make ; gouerner , and conserue ; and how , when , and why , she performeth all her workes : Not onely in all the vast world of matter , ( whereof we in this life ; conuerse with , and haue knowledge of , but the least parcels ) But also in the much vaster Region of spirits ; who , besides the neere infinity of their number , haue yet this aduantage ouer corporeal●● thinges , that the meanest and lowest of all that innumerable multitude , is in entire world within himselfe , infinitely greater richer more beautifull and excellent then all the whole vast world of bodies ; And hath infinitely more power to worke what he will vpon it all , and vpon euery part of it , att once , ( when the doing so , should agree with the rules of his wisedome ) then the strongest Gyant that fiction euer built vp , can be imagined to haue in respect of mouing a slender straw or downy feather , or of crushing a litle bubble vpon the water . We haue also found that this vnfatho●●able sea of knowledge , is alwayes in a high flood of a spring ●●ide on euery coast ; not sometimes ebbing on one shore , whiles it floweth on 〈◊〉 other ; but alwayes swelling and ouling euery where ouer all bankes that might hemme it in ; and enioy●●ng all her seuerall knowledges , and the delightes of them , all att ●●nce ; as intent to euery one of them a particular , as to any one of them whatsoeuer : Which are so farre from breeding a confusion , that euen one of that incomprehensible multitude , strenghtheneth and heighteneth euery other of them ; and i●● againe strengthened and ; heightened by it ; and each , maketh the other be more tasted and better relished . Which tast in her , is not a cold or flatt one , dulled and blunted with too much feeding vpon her delightes ( as happeneth to corporeall ones , who loose their smartenesse , either by the too great actiuity of the obiects working vpon them , as when too great a light blindeth ones eyes ; or by being too much glutted with them , as when one surfetteth with delightfull mea●●es ; and the like ) but is all actiuity a kind of perpetuall growing in appetite ; a continuall effusion of itselfe with violent transport vpon this All and euery least parcell o●● it , that so delighteth it . And ye●● this effusion is not as vpon a pleasant obiect art some distance from i●●selfe ; as when a man looketh vpon a faire picture or fairer originall , that delighteth him : Nor yet att lesse distance , as when pleasant wine or meare slideth ouer the pala●●e that is affected with them , and doth mingle some litle atomes of their bodies with it : Nor as when more delightfull motions make a change in the sensiblest partes of a mans body , to begett in him a higher straine of pleasure then all the former ; then which , it may seeme that nothing can be neerer . But it is farre more intime to the soule then all this : It is she her selfe : All this pleasure of hers , is engrafted vpon her owne very Being : ●●t is a perpetuall effusion of her who●●e selfe , vpon her whole selfe : she needeth no reflexion vpon it to make it present to her ( as all pleasures of the body do , to make them perceiued & relished ) or rather , she is in a continuall most strict reflexion vpon it , as hauing it most intimely and substantially present to her ; for it is purely she her very selfe : And therefore she is in a perpetuall , vninterrupted , chewing , relishing , and enioying , with a most quicke sense , hungry appetite , and incomprehensible actiuity , of all and of euery one of these her wonderfull delightes . Which it is not enough to say she enioyeth all att once ; meaning onely that she enioyeth the pleasure of euery one of them att the same time : But because her enioying is without succession ; It fareth with her , as with wine , for example ; the actiuity and vertue of a whole tonne whereof is drawne into a small measure of aether●●all spirit : or as with the diffused sunne beames ; which being reduced to one point , do there become burning ; whereas in their extension , they were but warme : So in her the whole ●●asse and dilatation of delight which we may fansi●● would take vp innumerable millions of yeares to runne ouer , is extracted into one Minute ; into a perpetuall N●●w ; And the vertue ( as I may say ) which required to be diffused through all that vast space , is sublimed into this narrow , roome : and yet againe this narrow roome , or the concentrated vertue of it , is multiplyed so as to be all of it in euery moment of such a vast succession : As if after the extraction of the spirit , it were , multiplyed to fill againe the whole vessel with such : or after the burning glasses exposition to the sunne , euery line of light reflected from it or refracted through it , should become as hott and burning , as that single one which maketh the toppe of the Cone that terminateth the sunnes rayes . Now then , after we haue multiplyed such excesses , such burning pointes of pleasure , by euery one of the seuerall innumerable pleasures she enioyeth thus all att once , and that she is effused vpon with the whole actiuity of her Nature ( which is all sence , all fire ) What will be the product and totall of such immense particulars ? The vast number of atomes of sand , that Archimedes hath so wittily sett downe , and shewed was sufficient to fill vp all the space betweene our earth and the heauen ; would not expresse this foote of our account ; No not though it were neuer so often multiplyed within it selfe . For those multiplications would still begett but terminated numbers ; whereas this , is beyond all number , as she is aboue all time , by being aboue and beyond all quantity . Lastly , when for a crowne and full completing of all this immense delight and hapinesse , we shall consider , that the state she is in , admitteth no lessening or change ; that she is secure she can neuer loose any smallest parcell of it , nor be interrupted in the full and vigourous fruition of it ; but that it will last euer the same , for all aeternity ; and beas it were still beginning , and still fresh ; Your Lordship ( I belieue ) will not expect from me any further reflection vpon this dazeling subiect . I will therefore put an end to my course and weake expressions , that fall infinitly short of what I feele within me , when , in silence and in quiet , I contemplate the ioyes and blisse of a separated soule , departed out of her body , after due cultiuating her selfe there , by such a course of life , as Reason ( could we but discerne and follow her directions ) prescribeth to euery man : The deuiating from whose rules , begetteth such an vnhappy state as on the other side of this medall , I haue endeauoured to engraue . Both which , I haue sheved to be vnchangeable , as long as the soules that enioy them do remaine naked and seuered from their bodies . But what alteration they may be capable of , if euer they come to be clothed againe by their bodies , and to be reunited to them ; ( by whose mediation onely , new impressions may be made vpon a soule ) belongeth to another place to consider . THE X. CHAPTER . That the complete Beatitude of a separated soule consisteth in the sight of God . MAy I not seeme vnto your Lordship to haue amplifyed & exaggerated beyond possibility of truth , the states either of weale or of 〈◊〉 , belonging to a separated soule ? If it happen , that any besides your selfe , do reade this discourse ( especially if they be not inured to rigourous proofes , and to Metaphysicall speculations ) I can not expect , but that they should looke vpon the immense happinesse or misery , I haue in it allotted to the share of a separated soule , as an vnbelieuable Paradoxe . And they that should be most fauourable to me , will be apt to suspect ( according to their looser manner of iudging morall affaires ; which endure not such peremptory decisions , and so remote inferences heaped one vpon an other ) that howeuer there seemeth to be a pretty connexion in all I haue said , and an appearance of a sequele betweene the principles I haue taken , and the conclusions I haue deduced out of them ; Yet , that I haue driuen them too farre ; and that in so perplexed and long a discourse , there may easily haue slided in some litle errors or aequiuocations in sundry iointes of it , which in the last conclusion may haue caused an enormous mistake , though euery one of them in particular were almost an imperceptible one : And therefore , that these are rather pretty dreames , hanging handsomely together , of a much thinking and melancholike man ; then reall and solide truths . And att best , they will looke admiringly vpon them , as vpon vnconceiuable expressions ; without being att all moued and affected by them . But whatsoeuer others may thinke , who like vnto ill husbandes do looke but vpon the totall sommes of the accountes their Stewardes bring them in , without examining the particulars from whence they grow ; I am sure your Lordship will exactly weigh the reasons , vpon which I ground this bold and far , re-reaching conclusion ; And when you haue done so , I doubt not but you will find in it the same fault that I do ; namely , that my expressions arriue not to sett out the reall vastnesse of the thing I speake of . To the reasons I haue brought , I could haue added many more in confirmation of this great truth , for , the arguments I haue produced , are but a few , and that first occurred in the heate of writing , among the many that I might haue employed , if I would haue aymed att making a large and complete treatise vpon this subiect . But my ayme , is , onely to giue your Lordship hintes of the chiefe pointes that I ●●ould recommend to your consideration , as relying more vpon what your o●●ne strong discourse will suggest vnto you vpon such important considerations , after your thoughtes are once wakened to attend to them ; then vpon any thing I should be able to say . I pretend but to spring the game for you : And then , if you like what riseth , you will fly it home . If an Apologie for the faintnesse of my expressions , was euer needfull ; certainly it is now most necessary , for what I shall say in this Chapter : Where I labour vnder such a Weight of matter , that I want language to expresse but a bare shaddow of it . Yet I must not do as the great painter did , who hauing expressed as much passion as he could in the lookes of the by-standers att Iphigenia's Sacrifice , drew a veyle ouer her fathers face ; because he found his art too weake , to describe so great a sorrow as his ; And so left it to the spectators thoughts , to conceiue what a one that might be . For if I say nothing more then I haue done , of a separated soules blisse or woe : It may seeme that I haue no apprehension or suspition of any thing , beyond what I haue already layed groundes for . And on the other side , if I should go about to delineate scrupulously that which is the title of this Chapter ; I should , not onely misse of displaying to your Lordship the redundant light that shineth in this next region ; but strike my selfe blind with looking too fixedly vpon it . I will then go●● a middle way , And say enough to make you see , how that meruailous exuberance of good or bad I haue shewed doth betyde a separated soule , is nothing , ( not neere so much as an Atome to the whole world ) in respect of what will be her lotte in order to the seeing 〈◊〉 God Almighty : And yet , not engulfe my selfe farre in this 〈◊〉 ocean , that hath no shore on any side . It is euident , out of what ha●● beene already sayed ; that , seeing this life is short , our acts in it meane , and our science in it very limited and narrow : And that on the contrary side , the next life is aeternall , a soules acts in it wonderfull high , and her science immense : The great and finall happinesse of man , is not to be expected in this life , but in the next . It is euident also , that our hapinesse being to be respited till the next life , where we shall haue no senses to reape pleasures by●● it can not consist in sensuall pleasures : And consequently , that it must consist in the operations of the soule ; which are nothing but knowledge , & what resulteth out of that . Now , all knowledge , is either of effects , or of causes . Of the first kind , is all that knowledge of a separated soule which we haue bin hitherto discour●●ing of : for , all the obiects of it , are ●●omprised vnder the generall head of Creatures . The knowledge of ●●heir Creator , can not be doubted ●●o be as much superior to that , as the nature and excellency of such a cause , is superior to the effect that proceedeth from it . And considering the dignity of so Almighty and infinite a cause , as God , the Creator of all thinges ; a naturall man may reasonably question whither a separated soule ( who is but a particular and limited creature ) be capable of arriuing to see ( that is , to know ) this all comprehending and infinitely all exceeding cause . He may soone be resolued of his doubt , if he reflect vpon the course of nature in wafting man kinde to his long home : for doing so , he will see how this life is a perpetuall progresse in bettering , ( or , designed to the bettering ) of the soule 's knowledge in the next life ; as being the end of humane nature , and the onely thing that can giue it rest and satisfaction . He will also see , that as in the next life there is an infinite encrease of knowledge : so must there be also , an infinite encrease of the desire to see the cause of those infinite effects which we shall then see & admire ; Experience telling vs , that a cleare and lightsome vnderstanding , is euer vnquiett and thirsting to see the cause of the effect he taketh content in ; And reason likewise abetting it , by shewing how it is impossible to see an effect perfectly , if one pierce not into the cause of it ; for vnlesse he do so , he would not know why the effect is . So that it is euident , the whole course of nature , driueth to promote and aduance in vs the desire of seeing the Vniuersall cause of the infinite effects that a separated soule shall see . And consequently , the desire of seeing God our creatour , is planted and engrafted in man by the intention of nature . What is so ; is impossible to be frustraneous , and totally without effect ; but of necessity will be fulfilled in some . For , Nature , is nothing else , but the rules that the infinite wisedome and goodnesse of God hath alotted to all creatures . And it would not agree with those attributes , to prescribe any of them a periode , vnto which none of their kinde should euer arriue . Well may those he planteth in the Sphere of contigency , miscarry in sundry indiuiduals ; since it is the nature of contingency , that some should miscarry , whiles others arriue to their periode . But if all should miscarry , and none succeede ; it would no longer be contingency , but impossibility : and it might be concluded , that nature were vnduely moulded ; and the meanes to bring it to its end , vnwisely ordered . And in our case , we might adde , malice and cruelty , to the imprudence : since , by the course of our nature , we should be brought ineuitably to an eternity of misery , by causing in vs a most vehement and most actife desire of knowing and seeing that which we must neuer attaine to see . And the best men , that haue most cultiuated their soules according to the prescriptions of nature , would drinke deepest 〈◊〉 this bitter cuppe of gall and misery . Therefore , we may settle it for a firme and certaine truth , that some soules shall arriue to see , ( that is , to know ) God , the Vniuersall cause of all thinges ; as already I haue proued , that all soules shall arriue to know all thinges else . Lett vs now compare these two knowledges , one with an other ; and examine which of them is the greater and the more excellent . We are sure that God is an vnderstanding : And consequently , he knoweth what he is to do , before he doth it . Whence followeth , that he being the cause and maker of all creatures , he vnderstandeth and knoweth them all . Therefore , he that should haue that great register displayed to him to reade the contents of it , would find all creatures comprehended in it . And to know them there , is so much nobler , then to know them in themselues ; by how much nobler and excellenter , they must necessarily be in that great vnity and identity which they haue in him , then in their owne multiplicity and dispersion . Vnto which we may adde , the infinite excesse of thinges , which he could , but neuer will , make ; ouer those he hath or shall haue made . And then we can not doubt , but that the knowledge of God , must be farre beyond the knowledge of all creatures . But when besides this knowing of all creatures in God , we shall putt into the scale to it the knowledge of God in his owne nature and Essence ; the other scale wherein is the knowledge of creatures in themselues , will not onely become light beyond all proportion , but will vanish out of sight ; like a candle , that though it giue light enough to make a whole chamber luminous in the night , dissappeareth ( euen whiles it burneth ) if you sett it in the beames of the noone day sunne . They who vnderstand Metaphysikes , will contemplate how the nature of Existence , is of a pitch incomparably aboue that of Essence . For Essences are but possibilities ; dead notions ; till Existence come to enliuen and to actuate them . After which they are still defectible . For they carry alwayes with them a capacity of being diuided from their Existence ; which if it happen , they presently fall backe to their inuisible Chaos . But Existence can neuer fade . The nature of it , is , to Be ; and consequently , to exclude not Beeing . It dwelleth in so high a region , as nothing can arriue thither , but whom It eleuateth vp to it selfe . Here , God hath his habitation . But I correct my selfe : this is improperly said ; as though God , had his place among other thinges , likewise ranked there . He endureth no companion . He filleth the whole region . All of it belongeth to him singly . He alone possesseth it all . And therefore it followeth , that a ●●oule raised vp to the knowledge and sight of him , must needes be infinitely more noble and more Excellent , then an other that hath but the Essences of thinges drawne into her by the knowledge of them . If then , these two knowledges , that of God , and that of creatures , could not agree together ; but , that to acquire the one , the other must be deserted ; There can be no doubt , but that the knowledge of creatures , ought to be abandonned for the sight of him . For it is euident , that the happinesse which a soule must necessarily enioy by seeing of him ; is as much beyond that happinesse which we haue formerly described , resulting out of the vast knowledge which a soule hath in the next life ; as that knowledge , exceedeth the tryfling knowledge mankinde enioyeth in this world . But this is not the case . These knowledges are not incompossible . For it is the nature of knowledge , to be so farre from ones hindering an other ; that there is none , but of its nature , induceth and perfecteth some other knowledge . And accordingly , the knowledge of Almighty God encreaseth the knowledge of creatures ; shewing vs why they are ; and solidating their knowledge , vpon the vnshakable foundation of Gods knowledge . And consequently , the more that a soule shall know God ; the more firme and the more strong will be the knowledge she shall haue of creatures . Neuerthelesse , when we consider that God is an obiect , whose admirablenesse is aequall to his owne vnderstanding : that is , exceeding ours , beyond what it possible to be conceiued : we must conclude , that when a created vnderstanding enioyeth the knowledge and sight of him , it can not choose but be so employed and taken vp by that sight , as not withstanding the vehement desire which we haue shewed it hath to see it , yet it hath not desire enough to cleaue and apply it selfe to that obiect : much lesse , hath it any left for other thinges , but meerely as it is carried on by the sight of God . And consequently , it mattereth not to a soule that seeth God , whither she see any thing else or no : but she is entirely contented and ouerwhelmed with the greatnesse of that fundamentall sight . And although she knoweth and estimeth to the full the true worth of the sight of other thinges : Yet she is so drowned and absorbed in the sight of God ( which so infinitely exceedeth the other ) that she is no more affected with it , then a man would be with the hauing of that which is but a pure medium to helpe him to compasse some end or good he desireth for its owne sake . As for example ; when a sicke man drinketh a potion to recouer his health ; if the physike be such as hath no plesantnesse , ( but rather the contrary ) in its tast ; he valueth it not att all for its owne sake , but onely as it is a meanes to procure him health . And so , the soule that seeth God , accepteth of the sight of all creatures , as a meere consequent and appendix to the sight of God . Thus we see clearely , that in this composition of these two knowledges ; the whole of both , is comprised in that which is the principall ; And by it , is all the pleasure , and in it , all the good of them both . And consequently ; God and the sight of him , is the true blisse of man ; the sole end for which he was created ; the periode whereunto nature driueth , in all her course concerning him ; and which once attained , he is quiett , entirely contented , and can wish for no more . On the contrary side ; If a separated soule do faile of the sight of God , she cannot choose but know , that all this we haue declared is true ; And the euidence of it , will be confirmed to her by all the immense knowledge she shall haue in the next world : And consequently , she must needes be vnspeakably ●●rtured by this vnhappy losse ; and , ●●s it were , gnash her teeth and gnaw her owne bowels , for remorse , shame , and indignation . And thus , the misery or happinesse of a separated soule ; by the interuening of God into the account , cometh to be raised and swelled aboue what in the last Chapter I declared of them , as much as what is infinite exceedeth the least parcell of Quantity ; AEternity , time ; selfe-Existence , defectible natures ; And in a word , God , creatures . I am persuaded that after all this , your Lordship will not censure me of being niggardly in allowing pleasure or paine to soules in the next world . Yet seeing that the composition of man , includeth a body , aswell as a soule : I conceiue you will not be displeased , if I adde a word or two concerning the pleasures of sense , which will belong to a happy soule : the contrary whereof , will be the lotte of an vnhappy one ; And therefore what I shall say of the one , will require but turning ouer the leafe to referre it to the other . It is very true , a separated soule is eapable of no other pleasure , then such as belongeth to a soule : Yet if we looke well into the matter , we shall finde , that this pleasure of the soule compriseth also all the pleasures of the senses . For this end , your Lordship may please to remember , how I haue formerly shewed that in the sensuall pleasures which a man enioyeth in this life , it is not his senses that are affected with them . For , all pleasure dependeth of knowledge : And therefore , wheresoeuer we meete with expressions or semblances of pleasure , that are not accompanyed with knowledge ; we may truly say , they are but like such expressions and imitations of life , as cunning artificers bring to passe by wheeles and engines enclosed in a boxe , whereby the statue of a man , of a beast , of a bird , of a fish , or of a fly , is made to imitate the naturall motion of the creature it tepresenteth . But our senses are not endewed with knowledge , as hath beene explicated : Therefore the pleasure which they conuey vnto vs , can not reside in them ; but belongeth onely to that part of vs , where knowledge is ; that is , to our soule : And in truth is nothing else but the very pleasure of knowledge . Hence it followeth , that since in the next life we haue all knowledge ; and consequently all knowledge gotten by sense ; we must haue there , also all pleasure of sense . So that we shall haue there by our naturall knowledge , all pleasure , both of sense and of vnderstanding . Now , because the sight of God comprehendeth in it selfe , all pleasure of vnderstanding ; it followeth , that in it alone is comprised all pleasure of sense , and of vnderstanding , together with that pleasure which is proper to the sight of God . Which in summe , is a collection of all good , in an act that of its owne nature is vnperishable . And so it is euident , the sight of God , is , true and complete hapinesse ; including in it selfe , all that a man can desire ; without feare of euer loosing it : And therefore , perfectly quieteth the minde that enioyeth it , for all AEternity . I have said vnperishable ; not onely , as the soule her selfe and her acts , are naturaly vnchangeable : but , out of the speciality and propriety of this very act of seeing God . For , God of his owne Nature , actuating all thinges that haue Potentiality to him ; and the soule , being by Loue a potentiality to God ; It followeth , that as long as she loueth him , he can not forbeare the actuating of her ; which is , the being her Blisse . And on the other side ; his actuating of her , being her seeing that he is all her good ; she can not cease from louing him , as long as he doth not cease from actuating her . So that , his actuation , being necessitated by her louing him ; and her louing him , being necessitated by his actuating of her ; the conjunction is made vnseparable , by the very Essences of the two partes . Besides this , if we consider how diuines teach vs , that our beatificall vision is made by the immediate conjunof God Almighty his Essence to our vnderstanding ; and that by consequence , his being vnderstood by him selfe , becometh the Being of our soule as it vnderstandeth him : And , that his being vnderstood by himselfe , is his very AEternity : We shall find , that Eternity it selfe , is the duration of our soule , as she is the vnderstanding or seeing of him . Now , if Eternity be the duration of our blisse ; who can question whither it be vnperishable , or no ? See ( My Lord ) what a pitch we are arriued vnto , to participate the very God-head it selfe , in its owne Eternity ! Is not what the Apostle hath told vs , perfectly true , Quod , oc●●lus non vidit , ne●● aur●● andiuit , nec in cor hominis ascendit , quae praeparauit Deus ijs qui diligunt ilum ? THE XI . CHAPTER . That there is a certaine methode and way to bring mankind to Beatitude . And of the necessity of knowing it . WHat hath beene hither to said ; bauing euinced the Immortality of the soule ; and pointed att the pleasures of a happy one when she is out of the body , together with the miseries of an vnhappy one ; and glanced in grosse , att the different wayes which leade to these so different states ; And settled this great Principle , That Beatitude is not to be looked for in this world , but in the next : It can not be doubted , but that when an vnderstanding man shall haue well considered all this , his heart will be sett on fire to learne which is the straight , and beaten way , that may leade him with security to so great a good , intended him by God and Nature . For he can not choose but see , that no good of this world can be paragoned to that blisse ; as also , that no action is worth the doing , that is not aymed att purchasing that hoped and desired Beatitude . But when to this he shall adde ; that although he trauell not by designe in the opposite way , but that meerely through heedelessenesse or ignorance he do walke out of the vight way ; all such by-steppes do swarue his soule from her true good ; and as farre as they aduance him not , so farre they preiudice him : He will then conclude , that the methode and course of arriuing to this supreme and sole good ; is not onely the worthiest , the noblest , and the vsefullest art he can study : But that in very deed , all others are but fond and vaine misse-spendings of time ; And that this onely , is the businesse he is to employ himselfe a bout , with all his industry and application . He will be afraid of being ill directed : and will be solicitous to meete with a cleare and distinct rule that may instruct him how to treade boldly in euery steppe he is to make : And therefore will not be content with discerning in grosse , that the entertaining of his thoughts and affections with Intellectuall goods , will make him happy ; and that his settling them vpon sensuall ones , will bring him to a contrary condition : But seeing that these generals do branch out into numerous particulars , euery one of which requireth a particular diffection , and proper motiues and inducements to embrase or auoyde them ; He will be anxious and serupulous in seeking out the greatest certitude and infallibility that man's nature and the course of second causes can afford him , to be right in this pointe . In the meane time , during such his attentiue and earnest inquiry , he will haue the comfort of being secure that there is such an art : And that it is not like the specious vndertakinges ( for example ) of those who pretend to an vniuersall science , or Matrice tongue , whereby one may learne all others in very short time ; which haue no subsistance , but in credulous persons ayry fansies . For he who is able to weigh in his thoughts the progresse of Gods prouidence in his wayes to compasse his desired Endes vpon this world ; can not doubt but that he must haue framed stronger engines to bring about the saluation of mankinde , then for any other designe that he hath sett on foote within our reach and kenning : not onely , as being the noblest end of all others ; but euen that , vnto which the whole course of nature tendeth , and for which all this world that we conuerse with is made . And therefore he will conclude , that the security of obtaining the true meanes to gaine Beatitude , must be as great ( if not greater ) then the security of mens liuing peaceably and happily together vnder the reglement of ciuill and politicke constitutions , or what other security soeuer is in the gouernement of man's life . And consequently , if he compare the certitude belonging to the science which is to bring mankinde to Beatitude , with the certitude of such knowledges or rules as gouerne the arts that are vsuall among men , ( as Agriculture , Military discipline , the art of Nauigation , and all sortes of handicraftes and trades ) he will looke for att the least as great in this science , if not greater . But all these sortes of men , being taught by continuall experience , that when they worke according tho the rules of their art , the effect succeedeth to their wish ; are so secure in their seuerall wayes , that they can not admitt any doubt of the certainty and truth of their rules . Wee haue reason therefore to expect in this art of gouerning our actions in order to Beatitude , att the least such a security as may aequalise the security springing from experience that is in trades and manufactures . And this is by so much the more necessary , by how much the subiect of this art , hath greater difficulties then the subiects of others arts . First , because this is both speculatiue and practicall ; whereas others are onely practicall . In others , euery man desireth to do well : In this , for the most part , passions and interests make men desire not to do well . In others , no man doubteth of his rules ; and all his labour is onely to apply them rightly : But in this art , there is difficulty , aswell to vnderstand and belieue the principles of it ; as to apply them to our life when we know them . In other arts , a Master or teacher is readily mett with , and the manner to acquire them is obuious : But in this , a maine difficulty is the seeking and discerning of a right teacher . Lastly , other arts containe but some one part of a mans action and life ; But this , comprehendeth all our whole life ; and principally , the highest partes of it . I may therefore conclude , that the art of comming to Beatitude ( which we call Religion ) is the highest , the amplest , and the necessariest of all Artes whatsoeuer . The highest ; because the scope of it is to gaine Beatitude : which is our chiefe End ; and vpon which , all that is otherwise pleasing to vs ought to depend . The amplest ; because in the vse and application of it , it extendeth to all our actions . And the most necessary ; because if he be not instructed in it , he will infallibly miscary and perish . For as a man that is no Architect or Musician , and hath not learned how to build a house or to play a lesson on the lute ; though he will not be blamed for his ignorance in those arts , ( which happily is not through his owne default ; but by some impossibility of getting instructions in them ) yet if the one goe to build himselfe an habitation , or the other to touch a lute , they will not effect what they ayme att : But the disordely machine of stones and timber of the first's imitation of a house , will fall vpon his head ; and the seconds inconcerted strokes and stoppes , will annoy his owne and his hearers eares . In like manner , if a man haue not the true knowledge of liuing so as to attaine Beatitude ; Although he be not blamed for incredulity , if it were neuer duely proposed vnto him ; yet he shall faile of obtaining the blisse that followeth out of a well ordered life , and shall inherit in the next world all those tormentes and miseries which I haue expressed and shewed to be the effects and sequele of a disordered life in this . And therefore , no excuse serueth a man's turne for his ignorance in this art : which is so absolutely necessary , that without it ( be the cause what it will ) he is lost and ruined for euer . THE XII . CHAPTER . How the methode and science of attaining to Beatitude ( which is true Religion ) is to be learned . And that it is not come into the world by humane reason or inuention . THE art then of well liuing , or Religion , being a certaine and a diffu●●ed science , reaching to euery action of a man's life , as is deliuered ; Our next inquiry must be ; how to compasse the knowledge of it . It is euident that there can be but two wayes to arriue vnto it ; namely ; Either by ones owne Inuention , or else by an others instruction : There being no third way of acquiring any science . For , a man cometh vnto it , either by driuing of consequences out of knowledges that are euident as soone as they are proposed ( such like as are the Axiomes , vpon which Mathematicians do build their demonstrations ) And this is the course of Inuention : or else , he must be beholding to some other man who knoweth that science , for instructing him in it . And from such a one , he may deriue his knowledge in two different manners : The first , when he that is posseded of a truth , doth so explicate it and all belonging to it , that att the last the learner seeth the truth it selfe , and comprehendeth all the reasons of it , as fully as his instructour doth ; And so , though he be beholding to him for begetting such science in him ; yet now he hath no longer neede of him , but is as strong in it as he . And the gaining of knowledge in this manner , may be conceiued to sauour in some sort of Inuention , as well as of discipline . But the second , belongeth purely to discipline ; As when the learner arriueth no higher then barely to vnderstand what his teacher sayth ; and att the furthest , to haue some morall likely hood that it is true ; but att the head , relyeth vpon his teacher , as one who he is certainly persuaded can neither be ignorant of the truth he deliuereth , nor can lye and deceiue his disciple . For if either of these faile , the disciple can haue no certainty or rationall confidence of the t●●uth deliuered him : And then consequently , in our present case of Religion , he will want that quiet , that security , & that content of hart , which accompanyeth ones belieuing that he is in the right way of obtaining the happinesse he aymeth att . Now to apply vnto the knowledge of Religion , these two wayes of attaining any science , Inuention and discipline : I will begin with examining whither it may reasonably be hoped , that humane Inuention could discouer it , or no . Some may thinke the negatiue ; because in the mysteries of it there are no lines of demonstration ; that is , no such connexion of them vnto principles euident to vs by nature , that out of them any man , be he neuer so knowing , or euen an Angell , could deduce them . To discusse this in particular , were to enter vpon all the seuerall mysteries of our faith ; and shew , how they either are , or are not , connexed with reason : which , besides that it were two long a worke for my designed breuity , would be too heauy a burthen for my weake shoulders ; who am not so vaine as to pretend to any more of diuinity then what is necessary for euery rationall man to settle him in a right course ; which amounteth to no more , then to the finding of a certain and infallible guide to carry him safely to the end of this important iorney ; But if your Lordship desire to satisfy your selfe herein , giue me leaue referre you to Maister Whites . Dialogues ( vnder the name of Rushworth ) of the Iudgement of common sense in choice of Religion , and to the same author's sacred Institutions newly come a broad into●● the world ; in which learned workes you will find abundanr content . That therefore which I shall note vpon this occasion , is , That howeuer there may be in the mysteries themselues , sufficient groundes to build demonstrations vpon ; yet in regard of vs , there is no hope that we should be able to penetrate into them , without hauing first learned them otherwise . For our Nature is so encumbred with materiall fantasmes ; and all that we speake , or thinke , is deliuered in such aequinocall wordes ; and aboue all , most men are so blinded by passions and so byassed by interests ; and they ●●eete with so litle to helpe them in this designe ; that very few ( and they neither , not till towards the end of their life ) can be expected to make any progresse in so high an attempt . And therefore we may conclude , it is impossible , by inuention to reach the amplitude of those mysteries which are necessary to be knowne , to bring mankinde to Beatitude ; the doing whereof , is the scope of that art or science which we call Religion . Vnto which determination , drawne out of mature considering of the causes , no small corroboration is added by experience , shewing vs effectiuely how litle mankinde had aduanced herein during the long space of 4. or 5 , thousand yeares , that nature had continued from the beginning of the world , till our Sauiours coming to teach it vs completely . For if we looke vpon what the learned Grecians deliuered to their Roman Masters , att the time when the ouergrowne wealth of Rome was proposed vnto them to fire their wittes to find out what Beatitude was ( which was the learnedest age , the most abounding with great men , and the last , in which their studies were employed on that subiect ; and in a great measure sharpened by the opposition of Christianity , then beginning to grow into the world ) we shall finde that their attempts neuer reached with any steadinesse beyond this life . For although some of them discoursed that the soule was Immortall ; Yet they held it rather as a plausible opinion , then as a solide truth whereon men should ground their actions , and should gouerne their liues here by it . As your Lordship ( if you be desirous to satisfy your selfe in this particular ) may find in Lucretius , Tully , Seneca , Epitectus , Antoninus the Emperor , and seuerall others of that straine ; who prescribing remedies against the feare of death , and making exhortations to vertue in this life ; do neuer extend their motiues to any good obtainable in the next life . Which your Lordship may see proued att large in Lactantius ; who purposely maketh it his taske to do so . For of those Philosofers who guessed furthest into the state of the future world , none were euer able to ftame any scantling of the diuersity of the soules treatement there , otherwise then by Gods arbitrary distributing of reward , or inflicting of punishement : which way belongeth clearely to beliefe , and not to science . So that , as farre as history can informe vs , Man's nature and witt did neuer attaine to the first principle of well liuing ; which consisteth in considering what condition soules be in , after they are out of the body : so farre were they from hauing discouered true motiues to ballance our passions , and to sett vs in an euen way betweene the allurements of this world and the hopes of the next . And this is the good that we expect from Religion : whose scope is to raise and enflame the soules that are a wake , and to rouse those that are a sleepe in the dalliance of this world , to the esteeme and relishing of the happinesse they may enioy in the next . THE XIII . CHAPTER . That religion hath not bin introduced into the world by one mans teaching an other . Nor by Angels instructing of men . But hath bin taught by God . And that Christian Religion is the true one . IT can not then be expected that Religion should be iutroduced among men by inuention or strength of witt . It remaineth that it must be by discipline and by teaching . Whereof , seeing there are diuers kindes , or rather diuers kindes of teachers ; our next enquiry shall be , att whose handes we are to looke for it . Our first position shall exclude one man's teaching an other . For , suppose that some one man should haue beaten out by long study the true way of attaining to happinesse ( which neuerthelesse , out of the former discourse seemeth vnlikely , if not impossible ) the way for him to deriue it to others , must be , either by demonstrating it to them by reason , or by winning their beliefe to it because he assureth them of it . But , demonstration , in a matter so high and so difficult , can not be communicated to many : very few being capable of the strength of such a proofe , in much lower and easier subiects . It can not then be deriued to the people by any other meanes then by their relying vpon him that should positiuely tell them what they are to belieue . But vpon him , they could not relye : for he being but a man they can not be assured whither what he sayth be true or false : either , because he might be deceiued himselfe , and so deliuer them a falshood for a truth : Or else , because there might be considerations for him to propose it to them for true , although in his owne hart●●lie knew or doubted it to be false : As for example , either his owne particular profit , or glory , might preuaile with him to do so ; or he might deceiue them for their benefit ; keeping them by that meanes vnder good lawes , and to an obedience that should make them liue happily in this world . And from the suspition of this latter , euen the best man that can be imagined ( so he be no more but a man ) can not be free . For , if he want power to introduce among men that which he iudgeth best for them ; it may be doubted that he ayme●●h att bringing about his designes by art and cunning ; according to the old parable , of sowing the foxes skinne to the lyons to make it reach . Now if all these difficulties happen in the case of one man's propagating to the multitude this science of Religion , which he is supposed to haue beaten out by his owne industry & learning : They would be no whitte lesse , but rather more , when such 〈◊〉 and demonstrators should be many . And without their being many , it can not be conceiued how the generality of mankinde that is spread so wyde in place , an of so long durance in time , can be imbued with it . Adde to this , the much that halfe learned men , and halfe wittes , would obiect against Religion proposed by such as pretend to relye on it because they haue demonstration for it ; which would be farre more plausible to the vulgar of mankinde , then all that can be said to solue those obiections ; considering the profoundenesse and subtility that can not chose but be in such a demonstration , and the vngraspablenesse of the very Nature , and Essence of a separated soule , which is the necessary entrance into it : So that such men would giue ouer their inquiry and attention , before euer they aduance so farre as to weigh the reasons whither or no a soule can be without a body ; because they can not conceiue what such a soule is : And yet this is the hinge & fundamentall pointe of all Religion . So that it can not be expected , that if there were no more efficacious meanes then this to persuade mankinde ; they should by vertue of this onely , dis-seise their harfs from the goods of this world ( to which the course of our nature gleweth them strongly ) and settle them vpon vnconceiuable ones in an other world ; from whence they haue not experience of any soule that hath come to assure them thereof , and to informe them what kind of inhabitants they shall become there , when they arriue to the possession of those goods . We may then from this discourse conclude , that for prudent men to receiue Religion in the way of beliefe , they will expect to haue it built vpon a stronger rocke then humane credit . The next stoppe aboue the degree of men , is the Sphere of spirits or of Angels . Among whom , seeing there be good ones , and bad ones ; lett vs begin with considering what we may expect in this case att the handes of these latter : And lett vs suppose them to conuerse with men , by giuing them Oracles ; as auncient stories do record of Apollo att Delphos , or of Iupiter Hammon in Lybia , and the like . Can any thing they shall declare and reach , be a sufficient ground of beliefe ? Surely , if euer any such Oracle were animated with its ambitious soule ( as is pretended ) it is not reasonable to expect that the spirit of lying should alwayes speake truth . And if he do not ; one single lye , taketh away the credit of all the Religion that he should haue founded . For , if he can , and sometimes do , lye : Whence may it be certaine that he doth not lye , when he deliuereth such vnknowable thinges as those which concerne the state of the other world ? And consequently , if mankinde had no better security then this , the greate●● and highest designe of nature , woul●● be loosely gimalled , and more ●●●terring then euery meane trade . But lett vs consider what security we may haue from good spirits . If such should denounce Religion to vs ; it must be either in their owne names , that they would speake ; or it must be in Gods , as his Ambassadors . If in their owne names , what confidence can he to whom they speake , haue , that they may not be aswell of the tribe of lying spirits , as of the blessed Angels ? If he aske them , whither there be not such deceiuing ones , who were once their companions , and of the same nature as they ; and are since become wicked and malitious ; they will acknowledge there are , And then , what infallible markes can he haue to secure him , that these he conferreth with , may not be such , though they stile themselues Angels of light ? And their very speaking in their owne names , may iustly render them suspected : for , if they were such as they pretend to be ; that is , out of danger of falling ( as their mates haue done ) by hauing perpetuall sight of the aeternall verity ; then , their very being such , would reasonably make a man expect that what they deliuer him of that verity and of the way to arriue to it , should rather be a message from him that maketh them so stable and indefectible , then an instruction proceeding from their owne single impulse . And after all , if he do beleeue them to be of the happy sort , and for that cause do giue credit to what they say ; it is in effect vpon the score of him that enlighteneth and strengtheneth them , that he beleeueth them ; And the speaking of such , is rather from him , then from themselues . We may therefore conclude , that there neuer was , nor euer could , or can be , any true Religion among Gentiles or Idolaters , or amōg any who do not professe their beliefe hath its source from the true omnipotent God , the selfe-verity , and the spring-bonity . Nor can they pretend to such certainty of rules for bringing them to Beatitude , as experience sheweth accompanieth the rules of all trades and manufactures . All these then being excluded from all pretence to true Religion ; and all created instructors , appearing of too meane credit to settle it in the world ; It remaineth onely that we haue recourse to God alone for this supreme blessing ; And that we inquire what lawes and ordinances he hath giuen mankinde , to gouerne and direct them vntill the end of the world , that they may attaine to Beatitude . And we find no markes in story of any , that with likelihood we may pitch vpon , besides those tree memorable lawes which haue succeeded one an other : to witt , The law of Nature ; the written one ; and the last , giuen by Christ . The first of these , can not be admitted now to any plea ; the succession of it being so interrupted , that no body can claime the inheritance of that faith , Nor doth any body know the feuerall contents and articles of it , further then as some few of them may be supposed to be included in the written law ; and by the succession of them who professe the written law , deriued in them and in Cristians to our dayes . The Iewes can as litle pretend that the law which God giue them by Moses , is the religion whereby the whole bulke of mankinde in all ages is to be saued . The uery nature and essence of it , and all the maine circumstances that accompany it , do contradict that clayme . For it is manifestly limited to selected persons , to a determined time , and to a narrow place . Nor is it a good obiection , that some Proselytes of other nations were allowed to be adioyned to the seed of Abraham , in participation of rites and sacrifices : For such an adiunction could not reach to whole nations ; but contrariwise , some were expressely forbidden by name . And so , their law , was not a law for mankind ; but onely for the family of Abraham . Besides , God himselfe determined the land in which it should be practised : So as , sacrifice could not be lawfully made , nor altars erected , in the way of their profession , in any country but their owne : Which conuinceth that it was neuer intended for the saluation of mankinde , whose numerous progeny is dispersed ouer the face of the whole earth . And it is cleare that their Messias was promised them att the end of the raigne of Dauids house , and before their dispersion into the whole world : both which can not be denyed to haue bin long since performed : And consequently , it was a temporary Religion , and not designed to last till the worlds end ; which is a necessary propriety of that Religion , whereby all nations ( that is , all mankinde ) in all ages , are to obtaine Beatitude . It remaineth then , that Christian Religion must necessarily be the law that God hath designed for the saluation of all men , att all times , and in all places . Yet because Mahomet pretendeth as well as Christians , that his law is deriued from God ; it will not be amisse to examine his clayme in a word or two . First , there is a great disparity betweene the Christians and the Turkes law , in this ; that Mahomet pretendeth not to be himselfe God , as Christ doth ; Nor that he had his law immediately from God ; but that it was sent him by an Angell . Next , he alloweth Christ to haue bin a Prophet ; and yet taxeth him of lying for hauing giuen himselfe out to be God . By doing which , he maketh his owne doctrine rely but vpon a fallible authority . For since he obiecteth lying to Christ , whom he alloweth to be a Prophett : What security can one haue , that he who pretendeth not to be more , lyeth not as well as he ? Againe ; Christians pretend a publicity of infinite miracles done by Christ , attesting his God-head and the truth of his doctrine : Mahomet and his sectators , none ; or att least , such as by their owne confession are but obscure ones . Lastly ; the abominations of Mahomets law , against both reason and nature ; and a totall submitting of the soule by it to bodily obiects ; do euidently conuince , that the obseruing it is not a promoting and perfecting of Nature towardes the great end of Beatitude , deduced in some of the former chapters ; but a strong and maine alienation from it : and consequently , a peruersion of humane nature , and a carrying of mankinde to eternall disgustes , miseries , and torments . THE XIV . CHAPTER . How Christes doctrine hath bin conueyed purely and entirely to succeeding ages . That puritanes and Protestants can not lay clayme vnto it . IT is then onely the law of Christ , that can pretend with reason to the glorious title of a doctrine , able to bring a man securely to his desired hapinesse . Let vs then examine in the next place , if all they who giue themselues out to be Christians , do deserue that name , and in reallity and effect be such . No man will doubt , were he Iew on infidell , but that if Christ were God ( as Christians do professe and belieue ) he was both able and willing to deliuer vnto his flocke the truth so necessary for them . Which once granted , it presently appeareth , that Photinians , Arrians and all such pretended Christians as denyed Christ's being true God , had no Religion ; they bringing downe the certainty of faith , to an authority vnder God ; that is , to a fallible one , as I haue already shewed ; and consequently , subiect to falsity ; and therefore not to be relyed vpon . For , Christ spoke not an others dictates , as Moses did ; nor in his difficulties , had recourse to God , as to his lord or Master : but spoke as a master , and wrought as a Lord ; as one , from , and of , himselfe : and who when he prayed to his father , did it for our example , not for his owne necessity ; addressing himselfe vnto him , by the ●●ame of father , not of master . But setting a side all such blasphemours , as persons no wayes considerable ; lett vs looke backe vpon the maxime we haue formerly sett downe ; to witt , That he who li●●eth not well , that is , who doth 〈◊〉 actually treade in the way which ●●eadeth to Beatitude , shall not be happy ; how excusable soeuer he be for not knowing the way or law : And then we shall straight discouer , that it is not sufficient for any man to say , he hath Christ's doctrine , and is willing to follow it ; vnlesse he be certainly assured that he haue it . Nor can he be sure that he hath it , vnlesse he haue some infallible meanes whereby to discerne it from false and pretended doctrines . This infallible meanes , can be none other , but the infallibility of the authority and conueyance , by which this doctrine cometh to him . If Christ , whom he beleeueth to be God , did speake himselfe immediatly to him ; he would require no more : But seeing he is departed many ages since , from conuersing with mankinde ; we must inquire what infallible conueyance of his doctrine to vs , we may rely vpon . It is cleare , there can be but two wayes to performe that worke ; the one , by writing ; the other , by being handed downe from generation to generation ; by the mouths of them who first and immediately receiued it from Christ , and taught it to those that they conuersed with ; who againe preached it all ouer the world ; and they who learned it of them , taught it att their turne to those who succeeded them ; and so from generation to generation , and from age to age , is come downe to our present age . The vniuersality which ( euen in the very beginning , and whiles the doctrine was fresh in their memories that had it from its source ) requiring a great time to the forgetting and extetminating of it euery whe●●e , it may be conceiued to haue ●●in conserued pure and entire all this while , in some great part of the world . Third way , there is none : vnlesse peraduenture we make a subdiuision of writinges ; distingui●●ing betveene such as came from ●●he pennes of those teachers who ●●eceiued what they write , immedia●●ly from Christ ; and whose wordes 〈◊〉 authenticall and law●● And such other writinges , as being composed by authors in succeeding age●● , do informe vs what the Church hath held in all times . This sort of writers , may seeme to partake of both wayes : Of the first , as being writers : And of the second , as farre forth as they are in a manner a part of the handes through which Christe's doctrine hath bin conueyed vnto vs . These two wayes may seeme to haue bin shared betweene the french Caluinistes ( among vs , called Puritans or Presbyterians ) and the English Protestantes or common prayer men : But in reality , they haue them not . For , the Puritane , as soone as he hath highly and peremptorily pronounced , that nothing but scripture must be Iudge of Religion ; and that the word of God , pure and alone , must gouerne ; he presently maketh you a Catalogue of articles , which you must hold , if you will not be excommunicated and cost out of his Church . And howeuer he may pretend that he de●●iueth these articles out of scripture : yet , the wordes of them not being in the Scripture , he can not deny but that they are his owne collections and interpretations : So that if he misse in interpreting Gods written word ; the sense , aswell as the wordes , will be his , and not the Scriptures . Now the Protestant ; seeing the vnreasonablenesse of this proceeding , that a particular man or company should oblige all men to receiue his interpretation of Scripture ; thinketh to take a more plausible course , by pretending to explicate Scripture by the fathers ; especially , by the fathe●●s of the primitiue ages . But this seemeth to me more irrationall then the puritanes proceeding . For , first , he goeth against his owne principle , by appealing to the fathers after hauing pr●●tested against all humane authority , 〈◊〉 fallible . Secondly , he maketh himselfe iudge which of the fathers ●●re to be receiued ; and when ; and ●●hat of them to be reiected ; and how to be vnderstood : And so draweth the question , from the sole booke of Scripture , to the infinite volumes of fathers . And lastly ; that he may serue himselfe of the fathers manner of expressions , iointly with his owne conceits and opinions ; ( so to boulster out his fancyes with the semblance of their authority ) he confoundeth his owne language with their manner of speaking ; and neither vnderstandeth himselfe , nor ( much lesse ) can make an other man vnderstand what he sayth . Like those commentors of Aristotle and S. Thomas ; who not being bold enough to deny their authority , which hath taken so deepe rootes in all the schooles of Christendome ; do render their doctrine , and themselues , vnintelligible , by their wrested and confused interpretations . Yet I deny not , but that a right Protestant , is in many pointes neerer truth then the Presbyterian●● For , his reading of the fathers , and his allowing them some kind of estimation ; can not choose but worke some good effect in his minde . But that which I complaine of him for , is , that the rule he pretendeth , ( as he vseth it ) is more intricate then the Presbyterians ; and his discourse , is more ambigous and confused , by his counterfeiting to hold with the fathers , when in truth he renounceth them . THE XV . CHAPTER . A further consideration , of the insufficiency and vnreasonablenesse , of the late Protestants proceeding , in point of Religion . TRVLY it seemeth to me so euident , that neither of these haue any rule of Christianity ; as I haue oftentimes wondered when I haue heard some men ( in other thinges , appearing to be prudent ) say in earnest that they beleeue they haue one , and grow warme in their maintaining so much . For , there being but two channels whereby Christes doctrine can descend to vs ; writting ; and deliuering from hand to hand ; How can they pretend to Christianity , who accept of neither of these ? As for tradition by handes ; they clearely defy it . And as for Scripture ; If they take that for their rule , why do they binde men to opinions that can not be decided out of Scripture , but remaine still disputable after all is said that can be vrged from thence ? Well may they , in pursuance of their owne rule quarrell att such as shall deny any point that is cleare and euident in Scripture : But to anathematise , and punish ( when they haue the power ) those that produce out of Scripture as faire proofes for their opinions , as any thing they are able to bring against them ; seemeth to me a great iniustice . Certainly , nothing can be more-euident , then , that in all the points which haue bin disputed , out of Scripture alone , betweene Catholikes and them , now almost an 100. yeares ; the textes produced by them , haue not att all inclined the ballance on their side ; but rather ( if I may'be allowed to giue my verdict , in a case where I am in●●ere●●ed ) it hath weighed notably on our side . And therefore , lett them pretend what they will ; it is cleare , that Scripture is not their rule . As for the Protestantes pretending to the authority of the fathers in interpreting Scripture , the case is yet more cleare , if more may be . For , they sticke not to say vpon euery occasion , that the fathers erred ; and that they might erre , both in common and in particular . So that , theirs is but like a cobwebbe lawne lining : ( of no substance or solidity ) to the Nettelike cloke , wherewith the Presbyterians do endeauour to hide their foule play , when they recede from the rule which themselues propose ; and is looked through att the first casting of ones eyes vpon it : And in this regard , both their cases are the very same . And to speake plainely ; the rule common to both these , and to all others , who proposing Scripture for their rule , do afterwardes prefixe particular opinions to their Church ; neither is , nor can be any other , then a heady pride and wilfulnesse , to bind all other men to their , not knowledge , but guessing . Now if such guessing , can be iudged a sufficient meanes , for themselues and others , to be assured of those thinges , without the doing whereof mankinde must be eternally miserable ; these men may pretend to Christianity : But for my part , I can entertaine but a very meane estime of it . I know , ●●euerall of them are held for learned men : And that , not onely in their owne opinions , but by many others besides : How iustly they deserue that title , will appeare if we consider , what true learning and knowledge in any science , is . I take it , to be an assurance of the nature of the thinges that are treated of in that science . Such , Mathematicians haue in their profession ; such , the masters of all the artes that belong to mans life . Such , Philosophers haue , ( or should pretend to haue ; though some , vnworthy the name of Philosophers , do content themselues with probable opinions ) and much more , deuines ought to haue such assurāce of what concerneth their profession ; seeing , that any mistake therein , exposeth men to eternall ruine and misery . Now the learning of these men that would passe for so great deuines , wherein doth it consist ? They pretend to no other , then to know that hath bin said by others . Which others , are God and men ; to witt , what hath bin sayd by God in Scripture , and by men in their bookes . If they rightly vnderstood all this , they might with reason ha●●e a good conceipt of themselues . But let vs examine how they behaue themselues , in their proceeding with both these . As for Scriptures , I haue already touched how their penetrating into the sense of them , is but a meere guessing : Yet were it something , if they could make it appeare that they guesse fairely . I will allow them so much , if they can shew how any of their deuines in any one question , hath faithfully paralleled the places of Scripture vsed to be brought on each side ; and hath fairely compared and weighed them in the ballance , one against the other , and hath giuen each of them their full weight ; and then hath pronounced an orderly sentence , in this sort ; that by reason of plurality of places , propriety of wordes , efficacity of texts , and the like , the aduantage falleth to this side , rather then to that . If they should pretend they are able to do this ( which I am sure they neuer haue as yet performed ) I would entreate them to shew me a learned logike of wordes , out of which they had extracted the rules whereby the sense of wordes may be pondered ; and whereby one may be certaine when their sense is demonstratiuely knowne , and when but probably ; and by what weights , one probability appeareth greater then an other ; And after all this paines , I would tell them ( and they can not deny it ) that as long as both senses are probable , the lesse probable may peraduenture be the true one : And so , all their labour is lost . But lett vs examine , if their learning be any greater in humane writers . The depth of it is , to boggle att any darke place of History , or of fathers ; and by it , persuade such men as are not conuersant in antiquity , to frame a iudgement coutrary to the publicke practise of the Church of those ages . As for example ; what can be more publicke and notorious , then the succession and authority of Bishops ; then the being of Monkes and Nunnes ; then the principality of the Bishop of Rome ; then the practise of the Masse , Sacrements , and ceremonies ; then the custome of praying for the dead ; then the vse of Crosses and of pictures ? And euen for all these , they make it their labour ( and for which they pretend the title of subtile and deepe schollers ) to persuade you , out of some not fully declared sentence of a father , speaking vpon the by , that there were no such thinges as these in antiquity . Yet had our contryman more sincerity then this ; who in his translation of S. Augustines confessions , professeth plainely , that he had left out many thinges , because S. Augustine had erred in them . So the Centurists , and Luther , and Caluin , and all Nouellists , whiles there remained any ingenuity among them , confessed that the opinions which they reiected , were auncient errors of the fathers . But now , all their learning consisteth in belying of antiquity , and in pinning a false maske vpon the venerable face of it . How then can men deserue the name of learned , who take not the course to know any thing att all ? Neuerthelesse , they must passe for great deuines ; when peraduenture they are all together ignorant , what diuinity is . Diuinity signifyeth a science , that followeth out of faith or out of the discipline of saluation ; in such sort as Euclides Elements do follow out of the definitious and axiomes , which he hath prefixed as groundes for his bookes , and that he hath supposed before them . In like manner , faith must be supposed to diuinity . But in s●●eed of doing so , these men who terme themselues deuines , do spend all their paines and employe all their schollership , in opposing the receiued tenets of faith . So that they are such eminent deuines , as he would be a Geometrician , who in steed of studying throughly Euclides Elements , should neuer goe beyond the first leafe ; but should busy himselfe many yeares , and write great volumes , to proue that his definitions are ill contriued , and that this axiomes are false . And yet must such seely aequiuocation , so pusse them vp , and persuade their followers they are so great Clerkes , that all Antiquity , all the latter and present ages , and common sense it selfe , must be deserted to adhere to these learned Masters . Whereas those who are truly deuines , are beyond common Christians , and do begin their science and employment att the height of those notions which belong to common Christians : Whiles these , whom the Protes●●ants terme deuines , do neuer attaine to the knowledge that the simplest Christians are imbued with , by relying vpon tradition and vpon the authority of the Church . But enough of this : since it seemeth that God himselfe hath taken it to his taske to ruine them wheresoeuer they appeared to haue power . THE XVI . CHAPTER . The Socinians and the Independents , excluded from hauing the true doctrine of Christ . THESE two , being reiected from holding the rule of Scripture ; ( whatsoeuer they may pretend : ) there remaine yet two other families who lay clayme to that rule ; namely , the Independents , and the Socinians . Their difference , I take to be this : That the Independent acknowledgeth the booke we call the Bible , to be truly the word of God ; and accordingly , maketh it his precise study to know what is sayd in this booke . All that no lest findeth there , he holdeth for most certaine and holy . He bindeth others no further , then to acknowledge the letter ; and to draw the best meaning out of it , that of themselues they are able . He accompteth all who do so , to be of his religion and communion , if they agree thereunto . If they will not communicate with him , he presseth them not : but if they will , he refuseth them not . The Socinian his difference from the Independent , I take to be this : That he iudgeth the Bible to be the wisest and most authenticall booke that euer was written ; such a one , as no other humane writting can contest with it ; yet not such a one , as no ●●ippe or error might fall into it ; euen in matters of importance , and concerning our saluation : And therefore , that where reason is absolutely against it , he may seaue it ; though for ciuility sake , he will rather choose to putt a wrong glosse vpon it , then plainely refuse it . Further , he thinketh it not fitting to no lest anyman , who beareth the like respect to Scripture , and proceedeth modestly in his actions . Now it is cleare , that both of these do sticke to the rule that they propose to themselues , for attaining the science of Beatitude : And therefore their deficiency , is such as humane nature is lyable vnto ; It being incident to all men , to faile in their discourse , when it is long . Whereas Protestants and Puritans do in the same breath contradict themselues , and renounce the Principle which they lay for the first foundation of their receding from that Church they were borne in , and of their erecting a new one . This proceeding , no man can excuse from barbarous impudence , and irrationality ; or admitt them among the pretenders to religion , vpon the score of Scripture ; which att euery turne , they change into their owne fancy . But as I can not but prayse the other two for going consequently , and for sticking to their rule and principle ; and so esteeme them to be rationall men and such as deserue to be discoursed with : So withall , I can not allow that they haue ( properly speaking ) a religion among them , or such a rule as they may securely rely vpon for the saluation of their soules : Especially the Socinian ; according to the explication that I haue here made of his tenets : which whither it agree , or not , to all those who passe vnder the name of Socinians , I dispute not ; as not leuelling my arguments against Persons but against opinions . Against these then that I haue related , I thus frame my oppositiō . If it be true ( as I haue already declared ) that ignorance of the way to Beatitude , will hinder v●● from euer arriuing to it ; And that it importeth not , whither it be by our owne default , or no , that we are ignorāt of it ; ( for be it vpon what score you will ; and be wee as inculpable as you will suppose ; still , the missing of the way , will bring vs to a wrong periode and end of our iorney ; where we shall be plunged in infinite and eternall miseries : ) It followeth that it concerneth vs mainely , to prouide that we haue more security in this point , then in any other art or trade whatsoeuer that belongeth to our well being in this life . Now whither the Socinian haue such security or no , in the rule he relyeth vpon to bring him to Beatitude , is that which we are to examine . It can not be pretended that Scripture is his rule : for , seeing he supposeth Scripture to be fallible , and that vpon all occasions he correcteth it by his discourse ; it is not Scripture , but his discourse , and his reasoning , that is his true and supreme rule : which is the cause that they , or some of their party , did denominate themselues Sanarations , from right reason . Now , seeing that his discourse , is not confirmed by sensible and reall effects abetting it ; ( as for example , by miracles , wrought to take away all doubts or scrupules against it ; or by the returne of soules from the other world , to assure vs by their experience that we may safely rely vpon such a rule , as hauing brought them to Beatitude ) It can not be denyed , but that it hath no other strength , then that which it comprehendeth within it selfe & carrieth in its owne bowels . And this strength , ought , to be no lesse then certainty and vnanswerablenesse , if he intend that it shall settle all doubts and quiett all scruples in this affaire ; where it importeth euery man to be cautious , inquisiti●●e , doubtfull , and scrupulous to the vtmost . For if his discourse be any degree vnder certaine , it is but probable : And euery point that is but probable , the contrary of it may peraduenture be true : And consequently , all bare probable pointes , are either false , or el●●e not knowne to be true ; which is no better then false , to a man that can not be satisfyed with lesse then an infallible rule to rely on . And therefore , the Socinian can not satisfy a reasonable man , nor doth he giue a good account of himselfe , vnlesse he professe to demonstrate his assertions . And not onely those assertions , wherein he contradicteth Scripture ; but also those , wherein he agreeth with it . For , seeing that Script●●re hath with him no further authority , then of being probable ; all that he gathereth there , can haue no more●● force then of being likewise probable ; and consequently , to make it infallible , he must support and Corroborate it with a demonstration . But what I haue already sayd about demonstration in this subiect , will coole our hopes in expecting any att the Socinians handes : Neither do they ( as farre as I ha●●e vnderstood ) pretend there vnto . There remaineth then , onely the Independents rule of attaining to Beatitude , to be discussed . Whose proceeding is certainely more allo●●ble , more iudicious , and more pious , then all the others that we haue hitherto looked vpon . For , he resolueth his beliefe and groundeth ●●his actions , wholy vpon him that can neither be deceiued himselfe , nor deceiue others . In this matter , he is not content with any lesse authority●● then Gods wor●● What he findeth not in Scripture , belongeth not to his Creede . Infine , he giueth Scripture its true valew ; and he sticketh firmely to it , as his rule . But if all this may not suffice , vnlesse he haue security of his tenets out of Scripture ; I doubt he will haue a hard taske to proue them sufficient for saluation . For , omitting that he must be assured of the texts of Scripture which he maketh vse of ; that those very wordes which belong to his purpose , are in the originall , that the translation he readeth , is not discrepant from the originall , in as much as concerneth his text ( both which are impossible to be knowne by ordinary Sti●●klers in controuersie ) I am persuaded it is much harder to demonstrate out of wordes the way to Beatitude , then out of naturall principles ; if not wholy impossible . Th●● which , though I will not here dispute , ( it being largely handled b●● others ; and particulary by Maist●● Rushwor●● in his second Dialogue yet I will craue leaue to represent vnto your Lordship how the preiudice of continuall experience , for now att the least 1600. years , is strong against the Independents vndertaking . We know well , how during all this tract of time , there hath still bin great disputing out of Scripture against sundry most important propositions ; diuers of them directly impugning our Sauiour him●●elfe and his dignity and Godhead ; for the settling whereof in mens beliefes , it appeareth that a great part of the Scripture was written : And yet peraduenture , neuer a one of them was euer conuinced and beaten downe by Scripture , or by any other meanes then by Tradition and by the title of possession of the contrary Doctrine . And shall not the consideration of this successe after so many attempts , make vs very doubtfull and afraid , that nothing can be conuinced out of ●●ole Scripture ? I haue heard some , ●●ho haue employed their studies to be exact in the controuersy about Scriptures being the rule of faith , challenge others that haue pretended to haue greatest skill and insight in Scripture , to conuince out of it alone that there was but one God ( a point wherein all Christians agree ) and t●●ey could neuer receiue satisfaction in it . The Ecclesiasticall stories informe vs , how the Arrians defended their denying of our Sauiours d●●uinity , by pregnant texts of Scripture ; and could not be conuinced , otherwise then by Tradition : And how it fared in like manner with sundry others . The very nature of wordes ; so subiect to diuerses senses and vnderstandinges : The length of the Bible ; whereby all sortes of metaphores and improper manners of speaking do occurre in it : And th●● reiterating of the same speech , diuersly , in diuers occasions : Do render it mainely suspitious , that it is impossible to make a demonstration for proofe and explication of the true meaning of any passage in it , which great wittes haue engaged themselues in explicating a contrary way . And therefore , before a man can rationally rely vpon Scripture for a sufficient rule to bring him to Beatitude ; he must be satisfyed and conuinced , that there is a meanes , whereby he may certainely know what is the sense of Scripture ; and how he may compasse this meanes . For otherwise ; all that he draweth our of Scripture , is vncertaine ; And no lesse vncertaine it is , whither what he hath drawne , be enough ; or whither more be not necessary : And in a word , he remaineth on all handes in perpetuall inc●●titude . THE XVII . CHAPTER . That Tradition is the onely meanes of conueying Christes doctrine to succeeding ages . OF the two wayes of conueying Christes doctrine to Mankinde in all ages ( the first of which , is by writing ; and that ●●e haue bin hitherto reflecting vpon ) there remaineth onely the latter ( which is by handing it from one to an other ) to be considered . A doctrine so conueyed , implying thereby that it hath beene in all ages ; that is to say , in the vniuersality of time ; belongeth onely to Catholikes , to lay clayme vnto it ; and onely they who do so , may properly be stiled Catholikes . Neither can it be obiected , that the Greekes may pretend it in such pointes of faith as they differ in from those that liue in communion with the Roman See . Well may they , in matters of custome : But these are of such a nature , as they may haue bin different in seuerall places , euen att the very origine of them ; without any inconueniency att all : And consequently , in different places , there may haue continued different practises , euer since the Apostles time . But lett vs examine more particularly what aduantages or prerogatiues , this way of transmitting Christe's doctrine from hand to hand vntill our dayes , hath ouer the retriuing it in Scripture . First , we shall find that it hath the prerogatiue of Possession ; All aduersaries hauing found the Catholike Church ( out of which they broke ) in a quiett credulity that her doctrine was so descended from the Apostles . Next , it hath the prerogatiue of all the approbation and commendation that our fathers could giue it ; by themselues , by their lawes , by their rewardes and punishements , and by whatsoeuer else they could inuent for the continuation of it . It hath a high straine of testification , aboue all that is to be found in our titles to land , inheritances , legacies , bargaines , and all other morall transactions and concernements whatsoeuer . It hath the testimony of all our aduersaries , to haue continued for a thousand yeares , euen in those pointes wherein they dissent from vs : but in all others wherein they agree with vs , they allow our continuance from the very origine of Christianity . So as it can not be doubted , euen by our Aduersaries confession , but that this way is capable of bringing downe truths vnto us vncorrupted . But aboue all , it hath the euidence or its fidelity in conueying to posterity the doctrine of Saluation , by the connexion of one age to an other , Out of this maxime : That it is impossible , all fathers through out the whole world , should conspir●● to deceiue their Children , in so important an affaire . For , this Maxime doth so connect the knowledge of euery century , to what was knowne in the century immediately preceding it ; that it is impossible for any error to creepe in betweene them . And the maxime it selfe ; is as euident as any that belongeth to Mathematikes : And so much more cleare then any of those , as perpetuall dayly practise ; beateth vs into the knowledge and continuall view of it . For , as no man could doubt but that the braines of that person were crased , who conuersing with marchants vpon the Exchange in London , and hearing them speake dayly of Paris , and of moneyes they remitt hither , and of letters they receiue from thence ; Should neuerthelesse thinke confidently there were no such towne as Paris , because he was neuer there himselfe : So , much more , ●●ould he be held for a mad man , that liuing in England , and conuersing with all forces of people , reading their bookes of all kindes , hearing their sermons , considering their lawes and the change of some particular ones in matter of Religion , and innumerable other particulars , which speake manifestly how Catholike Religion had course in England before Henry the VIII . changed it ; should neuerthelesse deny it , because he liued not in the time when that Religion was publikely professed . For in this case , the number of wittnesses is farre greater then in the other . Now , when a motiue of humane prudence is so preualent a one , as to brand him with want of common sense , who shoud not assent to what it induceth ; It is a manifest signe of a conquering & axiomaticall euidence in the proposition that he should so deny . And consequently by this discourse , ( applying it to euery age since Christ's planting of his Church ) the descent of Christian or Catholike Religion from Christ is as euident as any Geometrical demonstration whatsoeuer . One great prerogatiue more , I must not omitt , that Tradition hath aboue Scripture : which is , that Scripture is deliuered in precise and determinate wordes ; whose sense , is not vnderstood : But Tradition , is deliuered in almost as many seuerall expressions , as there be seuerall persons that deliuer it . So that , in Tradition , the sense is constant , though the wordes be vncertaine : Whereas in a truth deliuered by writting ; though the wordes be agreed vpon , yet the meaning of them is disputed of . And therefore , seeing it is the meaning that we are to gouerne our actions by ; and , that wordes ; without meaning , are of no weight ; ●●t is euident , that Tradition is a rule , And that Scripture is none . But why do I troble your Lordship with such scrupulous balancing of these rules one against the other ; since by my discourse in excluding ●●ll former pretended rules , it ap●●eareth euidently , that if Tradition ●●e not the light which God hath hung out to his Church , whereby to know true doctrine from false ; when he sent his Apostles to preach , and promised he would be with them ( that is , with their preaching , or with their successours in preaching ) vntill the end of the world : We may truly conclude , there is no light or certainty to guide his Church by . Which is as much to say , as ; that when he had built the world for men ; and had fitted them with all thinges , requisite for their naturall and ciuill life in this world ; he failed and mistooke in the maine and chief end for which he had contriued all the rest . THE XVIII . CHAPTER . Against the opinion of some deuines that place Tradition in the consent of fathers that haue written in their seuerall ages : and against some other opinions of particular deuines . As also against Naturalists and Socinians . I am not ignorant , that among vs , there are some deuines , who as they acknowledge Tradition to be the rule of faith ( for without doing so , they could not be stiled Catholikes ) so , they place Tradition in the consent or fathers through all ages . But I conceiue I shall not wrong them , if I say that in doing thus they consider onely themselues , and not the Church ; which is composed of all sortes and of all degrees , of persons ; simple and wise ; learned and vnlearned . For no man is so weake , as not to see , that it were a wilder arrant , to send the commonalty of Christians , to the multitude of Fathers for their faith ; then to remitt them to the Scriptures . It can not be doubted , but that the rule of faith , must be somewhat within the peoples kenning . All sortes of persons are capable of discerning whither , or no , they are in the publike communion of those who professe they haue receiued their doctrine by a continued sequele of teachers succeeding one an other : But , for studying of fathers , or Scripture ; the vniuersality of mankinde , wanted for the most part capacity , talents , and leisure . And no small difficulty will be added to this taske , by our aduersaries endeauouring all they can , to cast a mist before mens eyes and to obscure what of it selfe is mo●● cleare . I take therefore the conse●● of fathers , to be a confirmation an●● a testimony to learned men , of th●● Tradition that is deliuered by handes : but not to be the substance of Tradition : which of its nature might haue bin ( if so God had pleased ) and would haue maintained its vnshaken & inuincible force , though there had bin neither writinges of fathers , nor Scripture . Others , seeme to thinke , that some points of faith are knowne by Tradition ( or , as they call it by the vnwritten word ) to witt , those whereof they find not sufficient proofe in Scripture : but that for the maine ones , we are to haue recourse to Scripture . Now for these , I admire att the loosenesse of their discourse ; when they allow Tradition to giue assurance of those pointes which are the outmost , and which can not be knowne without the former ; and yet will not haue the former to be knowne by the same Tradition . And therefore I imagine it is but a mistake in their deliuering themselues ; and that their meaning is , that all pointes are knowne by Tradition●● but some , not onely by tradition , but by Scripture too . And it is euident , that all they who referre vnto Tradition , the knowing that Scripture is the word of God , and that this booke is the Canon of Scripture ; must needes relate all certainty of faith , to Tradition ; euen of what they thinke they demonstrate out of Scripture . Other deuines there be , who adde to Tradition , some power of reuealing new verities to the Church . But euen they themselues do confesse that the knowing that there is such a power , must rely finally vpon Tradition . And then , seeing it is a point not fully resolued of among our selues ; I conceiue it is not fitt to presse it vpon those who haue yet reluctance in digesting so much as is resolued of , and is euidently true . The reason why I haue mentioned these opinions of some particular deuines ; is , because I desire that your Lordship should see that the way wherein we walke , is not onely a plaine and a smooth one ; but an easy one to be found out : which it would not appeare vnto you to be , if you should be obliged to what these men would impose . By my exceptions against which , as well as out of what I haue formerly established ; I conceiue I may safely conclude , That all Catholikes , do take Tra●●ition , for the last rule , into which the certainty of all particular articles of faith , is to be resolued . Now , were my taske performed ; & Tradition sett in the throne of commanding Christian beliefe : Did not the Naturalist and the Socinian , with iointe forces , endeauour to possesse Reason , of that chaire : Alleaging , how Reason is the nature of man ; the sole power in him , that can giue consent to any thing proposed vnto him ; And therefore , in spight of all I haue said , must be Queene and commanderesse both of his beliefe and of his actions . But when they obiect this to me , they do not consider , how I haue beene all this while labouring to do in effect that which they require . For , what hath all my discourse leuelled att , but to shew , that reason obligeth vs to ground our beliefe vpon Tradition ? So that I professe Tradition hath no force to command beliefe , vnlesse Reason tell vs so much ; and as it were deliuer vs vp to Tradition . Reason telleth vs , it is fitt to belieue a knowing teacher or directour , in a matter wherein ones selfe is ignorant . She telleth vs , that she herselfe hath not principles and meanes , without beleeuing some teacher , to giue vs certaine information of the state of our soule in the next world , and of the wayes in this whereby Beatitude is to be obtained . She telleth vs , that Tradition hath deriued this knowledge from a Master who was well assured of it ; and that she containeth within her selfe , a strength of infallibility , to reach vs without mistake what she learned of him . And So ; Reason concludeth , that we must barken to Tradition , and follow that rule . Else she renounceth vs , and protesteth we goe against her sentiments ; that is , we do vnreasonably . Will not this satisfy any man that professeth to follow the conduct of Reason ? Yet I will say more : Lett either Naturalist , or Socinian , produce true Reason ( that is , demonstration ) against any thing that is attested by Tradition ; and I will graunt him , we ought to leaue Tradition and follow reason . But , if reason could do that , i●● would not assert and maintaine the Infallibility of Tradition . It is not therefore true reason , but defectiue and Topicall essayes , and flashes of witt , which these men produce , and vpon which they rely : that is , vpon a broken reede ; whose splinters ( as the Scripture telleth vs ) will gore them that leane vpon it . Yet is it not my intention , by this discourse to persuade your Lordship that it is impossible , since the mysteries of Christian faith haue been reuealed , to reach by the helpe of faith vnto the demonstration of reuealed truths ; so as , nature be first duely vnderstood . I know , the wordes in which our faith is deliuered , ought to be explicated by naturall definitions . I am sure , that by the knowledge we haue of God by naturall sciences ( as , that he is a spirit ; that he is immutable ; and the like ) we come to know , that many wordes and expressions deliuered of him in Scripture , are to be vnderstood as spoken Metaphorically : And the like of angels , and all spirituall substances . I know that Man's freewill , is a naturall thing ; and that by Philosophy and Looking into our selues , we may come to vnderstand what it is ; and that out of the right or wrong explication of it , great and noble truths may be discouered ; and , as great and foule errors incurred . I know , that termes , once rightly vnderstood , must of necessity haue connexion among themselues ; and that we do not loose our vnderstanding , as soone as we apply it to faith ; And therefore , may make legitimate consequences out of faith and naturall principles ioyned together . I know , the doing of this , is expected from Deuines ; is commended to them by S. Paul ; the example of it is giuen them by the fathers ; is professed by the Princes of our schoolemen ; and , that consequently , there can not be a greater irrationality , then for a Diuine to say there can be no demonstration in Diuinity . Which were , in effect , to stile himselfe a professour of Diuinity ; and att the same time to professe there is no such science as Diuinity . For , whatsoeuer is deliuered as Diuinity , and is neither demonstration , nor the way to it ; is , not onely idle garrulity ; but profane and temerarious contamination of our holy Christian faith . But my Lord , I perceiue my weake boate is sliding apace , before I am aware , into a sea too rough and too dangerous for me to steere a steady course in . It is time for me to take in my sailes , and to lett fall an anchor . I pretend not to learning : much lesse to be knowing in Diuinity . The various courses in the world that my seuerall employments and fortunes haue cast me vpon , haue not allowed me time nor meanes to store my minde as I would with knowledge and solide litterature . If I haue acquired any thinne sprinkling in any of the partes of naturall learning , I owe it to my misfortunes , and to the reuolutions of my country causing them ; that haue condemned me to such a manner of liuing , as if I should not conuerse with bookes , and employ my time in some study , it would become burthen some and in supportable to me . And then , since my study is chiefly for my entertainement ; you may easily conceiue that my application of it , hath bin vpon such subiects as I haue beene most willing to be informed of . To see whither the Immortality of the soule may be demonstrated by reason , or no , hath bin a maine one among them : And then , hauing found satisfaction therein ; and by following of my principles , hauing discouered a new world in that region where she liueth , when the body is dead ; and meeting there such amazing considerations of weale or woe , resulting out of the guidance of ones life and actions in this world , as would rouse the sleepiest person aliue to be very solicitous what course he taketh here ; I do not deny , but that it hath made me more inquisitiue , then peraduenture , I should otherwise haue bin , into what rule and guide may secure a man in his iorney thither . For without such liuely stirrers vp , it is not vnlikely but that I might haue contented my selfe with walking dully and implicitely in the way that my birth and education had sett me in . Thus , My lord , I haue gleaned so much of Philosophy , and haue cast an eye so farre into Diuinity , as I haue iudged necessary for my owne priuate vse . In these few sheetes , you haue an essay of the litle I know in either . If it may proue as vsefull to you , as I conceiue it hath done to me ; I were much too blame , if I did not impart it to you , vnto whom I haue long since giuen an equall share and power with my selfe , in all that is mine . For besides your excellent partes in all kindes , ( as well the more gentle and the winning ones , as the strong ones ) that make you highly esteemed and honored by all those who know you ; your particular kindenesse and frendship to me , requireth a particular returne of affection from me . I can not expresse it better , then by confidently imparting to you , my priuatest thoughts ; which as they are the pleasingest I euer had ; so seeme they to me , the vsefullest . Such as they are , you haue them here . You will not deny them a welcome , for his sake , who truly loueth you , and is , MY LORD , Your most affectionate kynsman and most humble and most obedient seruant KENELME DIGBY THE APPROBATION OF the Doctors of Diuinity of the Faculty of Paris . THIS small , but learned treatise , entitled , A discourse concerning Infallibility in Religion ; full of sublime & Christian truths , expressed euen beyond the expectation of what humane language could afford ; doth clearely shew how Grace is engrafted vpon Nature , that is , how the Diuine & reuealed tenets of our Catholike Church , are framed to heighten , as most connaturall to , the light of reason ; whereby to raise our soules to a more celestiall straine of loue & piety , then euer pure nature could haue attained vnto . To say , it containe's nothing , in relation to faith not Catholique ; In reference to manners , not Christian ; were to discount from the worke 's desert●● It being an euident conuiction o●● the euer inuiolable & permanent subsistence of them both in the vniuersally vnited Roman Church : Demonstrating withall , the false foundations of the Presbyterian consistory of the Socinian ratiocination , of the Independents priua●● Spirit , & of the erroneous , or rather no grounds or principles of the late particular English Protestant Schismaticall Synagogue . Lett it then bee sett vpon a candlesticke by publike print , & giue light to all it's readers ; that it's bright flames may loudly speake it's Authour's vnspeakeable worth & learning . And ●●ee Doctours of Diuinitie of the Faculty of Paris , by signing here vnto , neede onely say , it needed not our ●●approba●●ion . Paris the 28. Novemb. 1652. H. HOLDEN . E. TIREL . THE Printer entreateth those who shall take the paines to reade this discourse , that they will be pleased ( before they do so ) to correct some errors , in the manner as is intimated hereafter . Others of lesse importance ( as , the mistake sometimes of a letter in a word ; or the putting two wordes so neere together as if they were but one ; or some failing in Orthography , or somme misse-pointing ) that will not perplexe the sense , to any easy reflection ; he submitteth to their courtesy to pardon . Which he doubteth not but they will be fauoubly induced to do , when they shall consider that the composer and the corrector of the presse for this piece , are Strangers to the tongue it is written in : and that they wrought not vpon the originall ; but vpon such a coppy , as hauing descended by seuerall transcriptions , and passed through sundry handes , fell in the end casually into mine : who durst not aduenture to haue recourse to the Author for his assistance herein , least he should haue hindered the publishing ( as hitherto he hath done ) of what is so much desired and sought after by all those who haue heard of it . Page . 2. line . 4. palanteis . p. 9. l. 6. the . p. 10. l. 3. precipices . p. 20. l. 16. to haue . p. 27. l. 10. it . p. 43. l. 17. repeated . p. 66. l. 17. which . l. 18. performed . p. 69. l. 1. on . p. 71. l. 4. with . l. 5. knowledge . p. 105. l. 3. euer . p. 145. l. 15. is . p. 147. l. 26. tortured . p. 164. l. 9. too . l. 22. leaue to referre . p. 172. l. 5. and . p. 178. l. 8. God did giue . p. 215. l. 12. writing . 
A59551	----	The reasonableness of believing without seeing a sermon preach'd before the King in St. James's Chappel, on Palm-Sunday, March 24, 1699/700 / by the Most Reverend Father in God, John Lord Archbishop of York. Sharp, John, 1645-1714. 1700 Approx. 39 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 18 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A59551 Wing S2979 ESTC R10684 13785819 ocm 13785819 101798 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A59551) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 101798) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 849:3) The reasonableness of believing without seeing a sermon preach'd before the King in St. James's Chappel, on Palm-Sunday, March 24, 1699/700 / by the Most Reverend Father in God, John Lord Archbishop of York. Sharp, John, 1645-1714. [4], 28 p. Printed for Walter Kettilby ... and William Rogers ..., London : 1700. "Publish'd by His Majesty's special command." Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- N.T. -- John XX, 29 -- Sermons. Faith -- Sermons. Faith -- Early works to 1800. 2003-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-06 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-08 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2003-08 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion The Reasonableness of Believing without Seeing . A SERMON Preach'd before the KING IN St. Iames's Chappel , On Palm-Sunday , MARCH 24. 1699 / 1700. By the Most Reverend Father in God , IOHN Lord Archbishop of YORK . Publish'd by His Majesty's Special Command . LONDON : Printed for Walter Kettilby , at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard : And William Rogers , at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet street . 1700. The Archbishop of YORK'S SERMON Before the KING , On Palm-Sunday , March 24. 1699 / 1700. St. JOHN XX. 29. — Blessed are they that have not seen , and yet have believed . THESE are our Saviour's Words to St. Thomas after his Resurrection . The occasion of them was this : The other Disciples had assured Thomas , That our Saviour was risen from the dead , and that he had in Person appeared to them . Thomas would not believe this upon their report , but required farther Evidence . Except ( saith he ) I shall see in his hands the print of the nails , and thrust my hand into his side , I will not believe . The next time that our Saviour appeared to them , Thomas was in the Company , and then he was pleased to give him such a Proof of his Resurrection as he himself had stood upon ; for he calls upon him , and bids him reach forth his finger , and behold his hands where the Print of the Nails was , and reach forth his hand , and thrust it into his side , and after this , not to be faithless , but believing . Hereupon Thomas owns himself fully convinced , and in token thereof , he answered and said unto him , My Lord , and my God. Then come in the Words of the Text : Iesus saith unto him , Thomas , Because thou hast seen me , thou hast believed : Blessed are they that have not seen , and yet have believed . In which Words , as our Saviour tacitly reproves Thomas for his Incredulity , in not believing a matter of Fact well attested , unless he himself saw it : So he lays down an universal Proposition for the Encouragement of all Mankind in future Ages of the world , to believe in him , though they had not seen him . Our Saviour knew very well , that this was to be the Case of far the greatest part that were to believe in him . For it was only to the men of that Age in which he lived , and of that Country where he conversed , to whom it was given to hear from his own mouth his Divine Doctrines , and to see with their eyes the Proofs that he gave of his Divine Mission , particularly that illustrious one of his Resurrection from the dead . But for all the succeeding Generations of men , they were to believe without seeing . Their Faith was not to be grounded on the Evidence of their own Senses , but on the Testimony of those that had had that Evidence . And therefore for the obliging and encouraging all Mankind , in the Ages to come , to Embrace his Religion upon such Motives and such Evidence as this , he pronounceth these words , Blessed are they that have not seen , and yet have believed . I doubt not but that all Christians are fully satisfied both of the Truth and Reason of this Proposition of our Saviour , and are convinced that they have Motives enow to oblige them to believe in him , and to own his Religion ; though they never saw , nor were capable of seeing the Original Proofs and Evidence he gave for the Truth of it . Indeed if it were otherwise , none of us at this day could be Christians upon rational Grounds . But this Doctrine will not pass among all men . On the contrary , By several , Their not Seeing , is made the great , if not the only pretence , for their not Believing . This being so ; I hope it will not be time mis-spent , if I endeavour to answer this Plea of theirs ; and I think I cannot to better purpose discourse upon this Text , than by doing so . The Case is this . Some there are among us that endeavour to run down all Reveal'd Religion . If you ask them whether then they are for any Religion at all ; They will tell you , Yes , they are for that which Natural Reason teacheth . We wish they were in good earnest when they say this . For then we should hope to be soon all of a mind . For we cannot doubt but that whosoever doth sincerely believe all that Natural Reason will teach him about Religion , and doth seriously endeavour to frame his Life accordingly ; such a one will not fail to embrace Christianity , whenever the Doctrines of our Saviour , and the Proofs he gave for the Truth of them , are fairly represented to him . But in truth , these mens loose way , both of discoursing , and of living , renders it suspicious , that their Profession of Natural Religion is not very sincere ; but only for the sheltering them from the Imputation of Atheism , and serving other secular ends . For such a Scheme of Natural Religion have they framed to themselves , as will not much trouble their Consciences , let them live how they will. But now the Christian Religion ( which is that they chiefly oppose under the name of Revealed Religion ) is a more Stubborn thing , and will not so easily be brought to Comply with their Humours and Inclinations . And That we fear , though they are loth to own it , is the secret reason of their Grudge against it . The Gospel of Christ doth not favour such sort of Principles as these men have taken up , nor such a kind of Life as they are engaged in ; But on the contrary , severely declares against them . And therefore some colourable Reason must be found out , for the setting aside the Authority of this Gospel , which is so contradictory to their Interests . But how is this to be come by ? To object against the Sufficiency of the Proof that our Saviour gave to the world of his being sent from God to teach this Religion to Mankind , That there is no colour for : For they are sensible that if his History , as it is related in the Gospel , be admitted to be a true History , so that one may depend upon the Matters of Fact there Recorded concerning him : If this , I say , be admitted , it cannot be denied but that our Saviour gave abundant Evidence , that he was what he pretended to be , the Son of God , and the great Prophet whom all men were to be obedient to , if they meant to be saved . Since therefore they cannot fasten upon this , they pitch upon another Method . They endeavour to run down all our Evidence for the Truth of Christ's Religion , by making a Difference between seeing our Saviour's Miracles , and reading them in a Book . They will allow , that if any man heard or saw Jesus Christ speaking those things , or doing those things , which are Recorded of him ; such a man would have sufficient Reason to induce him to be his Disciple : But they deny that they have any such Reason to be so , because they neither heard nor saw any of those things ; nor are they convinced that such things were ever done . They reproach us , that when they desire of us a Proof of the Christian Religion , all the Answer they can obtain of us is , that they must go to such a Book ( which we call the Bible ) and that will satisfy them . But why should they pin their Faith upon any Book in the world ? This is what they urge for their Infidelity . This now being the State of the Controversy between Us and several of the Unbelievers among us , you see it turns upon this single Point that is now before us ; namely , Whether a man that does not see , may not have sufficient Reason to believe at many hundred years distance ? Or more particularly thus ; Whether we in these days , who never saw our Saviour , nor his Miracles , ( particularly That of his Resurrection , with Reference to which these words were spoken ) have not abundant Reason to believe in him , upon the Testimony of those that did see all these things . We say we have . They say we have not . Here therefore we join Issue . Now for the making good our side of the Question , I proceed by these Steps . In the first place , We lay it down as a Principle , and I suppose every body will agree to it ; That if Iesus Christ and his Apostles , when they first Preached the Gospel , did give sufficient Proof and Evidence that what they Preached was from God : And likewise if both the Doctrine they Preached , and the Proof and Evidence they gave for it , be faithfully transmitted to us ; and with such Certainty likewise , that we cannot have any reasonable doubt that it is so transmitted : Then I say , we can have no reason in the earth to complain , that we want Evidence for the Truth of the Gospel . I do not say yet , that we have as strong Proof , as if we had seen or heard those things our selves : But I say we have sufficient Proof to convince any reasonable unbiassed man : This I presume no body will deny , and it is all that we ask at present . In the Second place ; I believe none will deny , that what was once really spoken , or what was once really done , may be truly and faithfully put into writing . And it is possible likewise that those Writings may come so well attested , to them that live many Ages after those things were spoken , or done , that none in any Age can reasonably doubt that they give a true and faithful account of the things therein reported to be done or taught . I say , I believe none will deny this ; for if it be not admitted , we can give no Credit to any History that was written ; nor consequently to any Matter of Fact that was done in former Ages . It therefore will , I hope , be granted , that both the Doctrines of our Saviour , and his Proofs of them , might in this way , if God so pleased , be so faithfully transmitted to Posterity , that future Ages might certainly come to the knowledge of them . In the Third place we say , That it is obvious to all Mankind , that if ever there was any Affair in the world , wherein the Providence of God was concerned , that there should be a faithful Conveyance of it made to all Generations to come , and carrying the Marks of its own Credibility ; this Affair of the Gospel of Christ was such a one . Because the Importance of it to all the Children of men was such , that their Salvation or Damnation to the end of the world , did depend upon the Belief of it , if the Author of this Gospel delivered a true Doctrine . And therefore we may certainly conclude , that if what Christ taught at the first , was from God ; God would take care that what he taught , together with sufficient Proof of the Truth of it , should be conveyed to all the Ages of the world . And if all this was to be contained in a Book ; we may likewise be assured , that Book should come to us , with such Evidence of its being true , that we could have no reasonable Suspicion concerning it . We are sure God's Providence hath taken care that Writings of an Ancienter Date than the Gospel , that are of infinitely less consequence to Mankind , should come down to us without any Suspicion of Imposture : And can it be imagined then , his Providence should be unconcerned , in preserving and bringing safe to our hands , the Records of a thing , by the Belief or Denial of which , the Eternal State of men in the other world is to be concluded ? In the Fourth place , having laid these Foundations , we advance a Step higher . It is certain , that there was a timely and a faithful Record of all the things that Iesus Christ taught in order to Salvation , and of all the Proofs he gave for the Truth and Divinity of his Doctrine : And this Record is contained in the Books of the New Testament . That this is true Matter of Fact , we have all the Proof that a thing of this Nature is capable of . These Books were written either by men that were Eye and Ear Witnesses of our Saviour's Miracles , and Doctrine , and Conversation : Or by such as Conversed with those that were . This appears not only from the Writings themselves , which carry in them all the Marks of their being written by Persons so qualified ; but also from the constant Tradition that hath in all Ages gone in the world , about the Authors of these Writings . And you may with as much , or more reason doubt , that those Writings among us , which go under the Name of Cicero , or Caesar , or Seneca ; or any other most unquestioned Author , were none of Theirs , but forged since their times ; than you can doubt that the Gospels of St. Matthew , Mark , and Iohn , and Luke's both Gospel and Acts of the Apostles , and St. Paul's Epistles , were not writ by those Authors , or in the Age they pretend to be . I say , there is a great deal more reason to doubt of that , than there is of this : Because we have not only all the Proofs of the Genuineness of those Writings , that can be given for any other Writings , which are the most unquestioned in the world ; but this over and above , which is compatible to none but these ; namely , That the Matter of these Writings is of such a Nature , that all Mankind were concerned to detect the Fraud and the Forgery of them , if there had been any : But yet they have always passed under the Names they bear at this day ; nay , and in every Age , from the first publishing of them , we have Authentick Authorities in a continued Succession to vouch for them . Well , but supposing these men to be the Authors of these Writings ; yet how can we depend upon the Truth of what they have Reported ? In answer to this , I say in the Fifth place ; Let any man read them , and then speak from his Conscience , Whether he does not think that these men were in good earnest , and did really write according to their own inward sense ? And yet the Matters they wrote were such , as it was not possible they could be deceived about them ; because they were all plain Matters of Fact ; things which their Eyes and Ears were witnesses of . But that is not all : They who lived in those days , and had full opportunities of examining the Truth of what they had written , gave Testimony to them ; since they built their Faith upon the Matters of Fact they had delivered . If therefore you suppose these Writers to be sincere honest men , it is certain that what they recorded concerning our Lord Jesus , and his Doctrines , and his Actions , must be true . On the other side , if you suppose them to have had Designs of imposing upon the world with a false Story ; you must at the same time suppose a great number of People ( of whom there is no ground for such a suspicion ) to be perfect Fools or Mad-men , who gave so much Credit to all that matter which they related concerning our Saviour , that they laid down their Lives to attest the Truth of it . I know nothing to be said against this , unless it be , That though they could not well be supposed to be mistaken in the Matters of Fact which they relate concerning our Saviour , yet they might in the Matter of his Doctrines . These they might misrepresent , and consequently their Writings ought not to be of that Authority with us , as that we should be bound to believe all that they say . But to this I give a very short Answer ; If we do admit them to be true Reporters of Matters of Fact , we must also of necessity admit them to be true Reporters , nay I say more , Infallible Reporters of our Saviour's Doctrine ; so as that their Declarations of it must for ever conclude all Christians . And the reason is this : The Authors of these Writings were either Apostles , or Apostolick Men , as has been said before ; and it is one of the matters of Fact reported in these Writings , that our Saviour did so assist these men with his Holy Spirit , that they were enabled faithfully and infallibly to Preach that Doctrine to others which he had delivered to them . Now if we be sure they were inspired in what they Preached ; we may be as much assured they were inspired in putting what they Preached into writing ; since it was the same Doctrine that they Preached and that they Wrote ; and especially since after it was written it was to remain to all succeeding Generations , and to be a Rule of mens Faith so long as the world should last . And further , we are sure that all the Christians of those days did look upon those Writings to have a stamp of divine Authority upon them , and distinguished them from all other human Compositions . And to Evidence this , they made these Writings to be the Standard of their Belief ; the Measure by which they tryed all Opinions and Doctrines in Religion : So that whatever was not found in these Scriptures , was not accounted as necessary to Salvation ; and whatever was found disagreeing from these Scriptures , was rejected as an Innovation , or an Error in Christianity . And of this we have sufficient Evidence from Antiquity . Well , but how shall we know whether these Scriptures be faithfully transmitted down to us ? How do we know but that they may have been corrupted since the time they were written , and made to speak different things now , from what they did at the first ? This is the last Question upon this Argument ; and in Answer to it , I say in the Sixth Place ; If the Providence of God , as I told you before , was ever concerned to preserve any Writings from being depraved or corrupted ; it was certainly more especially concerned to do it , as to the Writings we are now speaking of , they being of such vast Importance to all the Generations of Mankind . But I do not leave the matter so . There is Evidence of Fact as well as Reason to be offered in this Case . Let the Books of the New Testament , as we now have them , be tryed by the severest Rules of Criticism . Let the Copies both Ancient and Modern , which are extant of them , be compared . Let the several Versions of them likewise that were made in the earliest times be examined . Lastly ; Let all the Ecclesiastical Writers from the beginning of Christianity to this day , who have either commented upon them ; or proved any Doctrine from them ; or but occasionally quoted them in their Writings , be searched into : It will appear by all these ways of Tryal , that our Scriptures are the same at this day , that they were at the beginning , without any material difference . Indeed , considering the multitude of Copies that were taken of these Books , and the several Translations that were made of them into other Languages , even shortly after the time they were first published ; we cannot imagine it possible , that in After-ages , any thing could be foisted into them , to serve the Turn of any Party , but the Imposture would have been presently discovered . And accordingly we find , that when any Attempts of this kind have been made , there were not wanting those who took care to detect and expose them . I do not , when I say this , deny that there are many differences and various readings to be met with , in the ancient Copies of these Books , occasioned by the negligence or mistakes of Transcribers . Nay , and some few Passages may be wanting in some Copies that are found in others : But then I desire it may be observed that these differences are of such small moment , that it is of no Importance to the Christian Faith , which of the Readings be right , and which of them be wrong . For they all agree in all the Matters which concern either our Saviour's Doctrines , or his Precepts , or the Proofs he gave of his Divine Mission . And farther agreement than this I think none needs to desire . Indeed if slight and verbal differences in Copies be a good Argument against the Genuineness of a Writing ; we have no Genuine Writing of any ancient Author at this day . For the same thing has happened to all old Books whatsoever , that have been often transcribed : And to suppose , that it should be otherwise in the Books of the Scripture , is to suppose , that God ought in every age , as immediately and infallibly to guide the Pen of every Transcriber of them , as he did the Minds of their first Authors . To make now a little Reflection on what I have said about the Scriptures of the New Testament . It is urged by our Deists , as a very hard thing , That whereas , when the Gospel was first preached , men had opportunities of being convinced by their senses of the Truth of it ; ( or at least it is pretended they had such Opportunities ) we now are only referred to a Book that gives us an account of these matters : Why , I desire to know , what other way they would have had an account of them but by Books ? Would they have had our Saviour to come down from Heaven every Fifty or Threescore years , and to Preach the same Doctrine ; and Confirm it by the same Miracles to the men of that Generation , that he once did among the Iews ? Yet this it must be supposed necessary for him to do , if Men cannot otherwise be convinced of the Truth of his Religion , but by their Senses . Nay , that would not be enough : He must not only publish his Doctrine , and repeat his Miracles to every Age , but to every individual Man of every Age : Otherwise All Men had not opportunity of being convinced by their Senses , and consequently could not upon reasonable grounds believe in him . But if this Supposition be absurd , as it certainly is ; then we must be content ( and there is all the reason in the world we should be so ) with that sort of Evidence for the Truth of his Gospel , that other Matters of Fact , done at a great distance of time from us , are capable of : That is to say , Authentick Witnesses of them at the first ; and the Testimony of those Witnesses faithfully transmitted down to Posterity . And how any Testimony can be more faithfully transmitted , than by the way of Writing , let them shew us , if they can . And then , as for the Books or Writings that we refer you to in this Case , we ask no more for the gaining Credit to them , than only that it may be seriously considered , of what sort they are , and what Authority they carry along with them . We do not send you to Herodotus , and Pliny , or such like Writers ; who , though they were very good Authors , yet took a great deal of what they said , from uncertain Reports . Much less do we send you to a Golden Legend , or the Lives of the Saints , as they have been written of later days , by Men who took advantage of the Ignorance and Credulity of the Age they liv'd in , to obtrude what they pleased upon the World. But we send you to Authors who themselves knew , and were Witnesses of what they wrote . Who gave all possible proof of their Sincerity and Integrity , not only by publickly , in all places , asserting the Truth of what they had written , but some of them also sealing it with their Blood. Who were so assisted with the Divine Spirit , that they themselves wrought the same Miracles , for the confirmation of Christ's Doctrine , that they had recorded him to have done . And lastly , Who in all succeeding Ages were had in such veneration among Christians , that their Writings were esteemed the Platform and Standard of True Faith : And upon which they set so high a value , that they would keep them at the Peril of their Lives . And Instances we have of Multitudes , who rather chose Torments and Death , than they would deliver up their Bibles . Taking now all this together , can any thing like it be said for the Truth or the Authority of any other Book in the world ? But this is not all . I desire in the Seventh and last place , it may be considered ; That we do not send you to a bare Book for the Proof of the Christian Religion , how much soever that Book may have the Marks , not only of a True and Genuine , but also of a Divine History . But we insist upon a great many other things for the Proof of the Matters contained in that Book , besides the Authority of the Book it self . If indeed nothing had followed upon Christ's publishing his Gospel , and we had never heard more of it , or him , save what we might happen to meet with in those Old Writings ; I do not know how far their Evidence alone , now at the distance of near Seventeen hundred Years , would have prevailed with us to embrace his Religion : But now when we see and are convinced , that so many remarkable Effects ensued upon his Preaching in the world , and still continue visible at this day ; which yet cannot be ascribed to any other cause , than to the particular Power and Providence of God , which was concerned to justify our Saviour , and his Pretensions to the world : This is certainly a new Evidence , and a standing one , both for that Book which mentions all these things , and especially for that Cause it maintains . The Case of the Christian Religion is plainly this . Iesus Christ , a mean Person as to his outward Circumstances , sets up for a Preacher of a new Religion . And this , not in the times of Ignorance , and Barbarism ( when an Imposture might be supposed more easy to be carried on , and which Advantages Mahomet afterwards made use of ) but in the Reign of Augustus Caesar , when Learning , and Arts , and Sciences were in the most flourishing Condition , that ever they were known to be . He chuses a Company of very ordinary Unlettered Men , but very Honest Men , to be the Witnesses of his Conversation and Doctrine . And these he designs for the Spreaders of his Religion throughout the World. He neither makes use of Arts , nor Arms for the gaining Disciples to himself : only declares plainly , that he is the Person , whom God had long before promised to send , and whom he did now send , to publish Eternal Salvation to all that should believe in him . The Religion which he taught , and which all his Followers were to take upon them , was so far from gratifying Flesh and Blood , that it seemed much better contrived , as the World then stood , for the frighting men from it , than for the alluring Proselytes to it . For there was nothing in it that ministred to any sensual or worldly purposes ; nothing that tended to make a man either wise , or rich , or great , or happy , in the sense of this world ; but all the quite contrary . He that would be his Disciple , must quit all the popular Notions about Happiness . Instead of being thought wise , must submit to be counted a Fool for Christ's sake . Instead of getting Wealth , or Honour , or Preferment , must be prepared to part with all these things , if he was already possessed of them ; must deny himself , and all his Temporal Interests ; nay must forsake Father and Mother , and his own Life also , whenever he was called to it . The way to Heaven , as he taught it , was by Humility and Meekness , and Contempt of the World , and all the Glories of it ; by patient suffering Afflictions and Injuries , and an absolute Resignation of our selves to God , to do and suffer whatever was his Will. And he himself , as he lived thus , so did he thus go off the Stage ; being after Three Years preaching this sort of Doctrine , hanged up on a Cross , as an Impostor , and that by the Vote of his own Countrymen . Where now was the temptation to the generality of men , to own this Man as a Prophet sent from God to Mankind ? Why , in truth , by what I have yet represented , there was very little : Nay indeed , to any one that considers these beginnings of the Gospel , it will be matter of Astonishment that any more came of it , and that it did not presently dye with the Author of it . But here was the thing . Our Lord , in how poor a Condition soever he lived , yet he spake as never man spake . He so explained the Old Scriptures which foretold of him : He taught such Important Truths concerning another Life ; concerning the Nature and Providence of God , and his Mercy to lost Mankind , and the way in which he would be served , and in what sort of things it was , that true Religion did consist , that he pierced the very Souls of those that heard him . There was so much Evidence in the Truths themselves that he delivered , that no honest virtuously-disposed Minds could stand out against them , but must be convinced in their own Consciences , that this , of all that they had ever heard of , was a Religion worthiest to come from God , and most accommodated to the Spiritual Needs of men ; nay , and their Temporal ones too , supposing that all men would embrace it . And then the whole Tenor of his Life was suitable hereunto : For he appeared in all his Actions and Conversation , to be a Man of so much Candor and Goodness , and Clearness of Spirit ; so Humble , so Just , so Prudent , so Charitable , so Obliging to all Mankind ; so full of Piety and Devotion , and Resignation to God ; and lastly , so free from all suspicion that he carried on any selfish Designs ; that all these Heavenly Doctrines came better out of his Mouth , than if any other had delivered them . But that which crowned all was this ; that throughout the whole Stage of his Life there was a visible Evidence of a Divine Power and Presence going along with him , which shewed it self in a thousand Instances of the most glorious Miracles that ever were seen or heard of in the world , and that to the Amazement of the whole Country where he lived . In this manner , I say , did our Saviour lay the Foundation for a Belief of his Doctrine , to all succeeding Generations ; and a solid unshaken Foundation it was . But yet for all that , if the Power of God had stopped here , I do not know what Superstructure would ever have been made upon this Foundation . For so it was , that those very men , those honest plain-hearted men that he had taken into his Family , to be Witnesses of what he did and taught , with a design , as I told you , of sending them abroad to publish all those things throughout the World ; yet when he came to dye , such poor-spirited Creatures they proved , that every man of them forsook him . O sad Example of human Frailty and Inconstancy ! those men that had the greatest opportunities of knowing him and his Doctrine , and had professed the most firm Resolutions of adhering to him ; yet all forsook him in the hour of danger , and shifted for themselves . But God Almighty , tho he suffered good men to act as men , did not therefore lay aside that great Design he had set on foot by our Lord Jesus ; no , nor of accomplishing it by the Ministry of these very men . For he raised up his Son from the dead on the Third Day ( as our Saviour had before told them he would ) ; and this put new Life and Spirit into those Persons that had lately abandoned him . But that was not all . Our Saviour calls them all together after he was thus risen from the dead . He acquaints them with the Work that he had committed to them . He assures them that he will be with them , and those that should succeed them in that Ministry for ever . Not in Person , for he was to continue in Heaven to intercede for all Believers at the Right Hand of God ; but by the Virtue and Presence of the Holy Spirit , who was to be his Deputy and Vicegerent upon Earth . This Holy Spirit he would in a few days send down upon them , who should effectually furnish and endue them with all Powers , and Qualities , and Abilities , needful for the discharge of so great a Work , as the Conversion of the World to his Religion , was . And after he had told them these things , he visibly in their Presence ascended up into Heaven . Here now begins Christ's Kingdom . He had conquered Death before , and now he comes to conquer the Devil and the World. From henceforward you hear of no Fear , no Pusillanimity , no mean Behaviour in any of the Apostles . They then go and Preach to all the World that Gospel which their Master ordered them . No Danger frights them : No human Learning or Philosophy is able to stand before them . The greatest Obstacles , the greatest Terrors that come in their way , are so far from making them quit the Work they had begun ; that they rather prove Incentives to them to go on in it . They make it their business to gain Souls in every place to Jesus Christ : They run about the whole Roman Empire , and farther than ever that extended . They pretend to no Eloquence , no polite Learning , no Arts of Insinuation : But they preach a plain , honest , pious Doctrine ; but withal such a Doctrine , that as the Times then went , a man must expect to bid an everlasting Adieu to all the Wealth , and Pleasures , and Honours of this World , if he once embraced it . They declare to all people the Authority they had for the Preaching this Doctrine . They vouch our Lord Jesus Christ as the Author of it , who died for the bearing Testimony to it ; and rose again for its Confirmation ; and is now King of Heaven and Earth . And they shewed that they had an Authentick Commission from Heaven for the doing all this ; by speaking the Language of every Country where they came , without ever being taught it ; by curing all diseased people that were brought to them ; by dispossessing Devils ; by giving sight to the blind ; and making the lame to walk , and restoring dead Bodies to life . All these wonderful things they did all the World over . And what the Effects hereof were , was manifest every where , and continues manifest to this day . The Gospel spread like Lightning in all places : And whereever it came , Pagan Idolatry was confounded : Till at last the whole Roman Empire was converted to the Religion of Jesus Christ. Converted it was by men naked and unassisted ; without the least Encouragement at the first from the Secular Powers , nay , in contradiction to the severest Penalties that the Secular Powers could contrive or decree to hinder it . We grant indeed , that many thousands of brave men did lose their Lives in this Religious War between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Devil ( who was then the Prince of this World ) , and did patiently submit to Death , that they might assert the truth of our Saviour's Cause : But that was Christ's way of vanquishing the Devil : He did thus break the Serpent's head , while the Serpent bruised his heel : And he did at last by this way effectually break his Kingdom ; as is visible and notorious even from that time to this day . And now I Appeal to every one , Whether this , which is matter of Fact , and known to all men that look into the Histories of Time ; and of which we at this day see and enjoy the happy Effects , in having the Christian Religion , not only received among us , but made a part of our National Constitution : I say , whether this be not a convincing Proof , both of the Truth of our Religion , and likewise of those Scriptures from whence we fetch it . Had not the Christian Religion been true , how could these things have ever come to pass ? Seeing it is utterly unconceivable , that without a Divine Power they could be effected . And sure none can suppose that God would exert his Power for the confirming of a Falshood . And again ; had not our Scriptures been true likewise , or had they been the Fictions of any designing men ; how is it possible they should have given us an account of these things so long before they came to pass , and when there was so little appearance of their ever coming to pass ? And yet all that I have now mentioned is plainly there set down , as foretold by our Saviour , and his Apostles : And not only those things , but a great many other remarkable Events are there also foretold , which have since been exactly made good . I hope by what hath been said , it doth appear that we at this day have sufficient Arguments to oblige us to believe and adhere to the Religion of Jesus Christ , tho we never saw the Original Proofs he gave of it ; which was the Point I was to make good . For I think I have shewed , That if those Proofs were good and conclusive at the first , to them that saw them , and were Witnesses of them ; they are so to us now , who receive them upon their Testimony . And as for the difference that may be alledged in point of Evidence , between a man's seeing a thing , and receiving it upon the Report of others ; all that , I think , by the account I have given , is in a great measure out of doors as to this matter . For the Report upon which we receive the Gospel , being so Authentick , so unexceptionable , and likewise so confirmed by Matters of Fact still visible to us , it amounts to as strong a Proof , as if we had Evidence of Sense . And I do in my Conscience believe , that there is not a man in this Nation now stands out against the Religion of Jesus Christ , but who would have done so , if he had lived in the time of our Saviour , and heard him preach the Gospel . As for us who believe , let us persevere in our Faith without wavering . Our Faith is never the worse for not seeing . Blessed are they that have not seen , and yet have believed . And as for those that do not believe , their not seeing will be no excuse for them , if our Saviour may be Credited : For it was as well with respect to them that did not see , as to them that did , that he pronounced his Definitive Sentence , when he sent out his Apostles to Preach his Religion : Go ( saith he ) and preach the Gospel to every creature : He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned . God give us all Grace to consider the things that belong to our Everlasting Peace . That both all those who now oppose the Truth as it is in Christ Iesus , may be converted from the Error of their ways ; and that all those who do own and profess it , may adorn the Doctrine of God which he hath called them to , by a pure , holy , and unblameable Life ; to the Glory of God , and the Eternal Salvation of their Souls , in the Day of our Lord Jesus . To whom , &c. FINIS . 
A60659	----	To all the faithfull in Christ Jesus Smith, William, d. 1673. 1665 Approx. 9 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 3 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A60659 Wing S4337 ESTC R32692 12746339 ocm 12746339 93257 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A60659) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 93257) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1536:45) To all the faithfull in Christ Jesus Smith, William, d. 1673. 4 p. s.n., [London : 1665] Caption title. Signed at end W.S. [i.e. William Smith] Reproduction of original in the Harvard University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Society of Friends -- England -- Pastoral letters and charges. Faith. 2005-04 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-06 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-06 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion To all the Faithfull in Christ Jesus . PRetious and welbeloved Lambs , natural branches of the only Vine , fruitful plants in the Heavenly Vineyard , babes born again of Immortal Seed , who stands in the fear and councel of the Lord God , with a free Resignation into his blessed will , following his leadings in sincerity and truth ; yee are his Jewells whose amiable beauty adorns the Gospel , and unto you his love is very dear , and his eye is over you in much tenderness and choiceness , freely dispensing his pretious virtue to your refreshment and comfort , whereby yee feel all things added for your support and strength in the great work whereunto he hath called you ; so that yee are daily supplied from the riches of an Everlasting fountain that sendeth relief in every condition wherein yee stand to serve the Lord ; for he hath made you near to himself in a perpetual covenant , and in the light hath set you apart to bear witness unto his power , life and truth ; and yee are raised as a cloud of witnesses that covers the Earth with brightness and glory , and your faithful Testimony that yee have received of God , and in which yee live unto God is a sweet savour unto the life in all ; for in your faithfulness , patience , and innocency you make way to the Just which witnesseth for you : And though your life be hated by that Spirit which would not have it reign , and that yee suffer and endure great affliction by your oppressors ; yet in your meek and innocent life you reach Gods witness in them , by which they are many times smitten for what they do unto you ; so that ye are manifest in their Consciences , though they be from that in themselves , which makes you manifest , and in cruelty proceeds against you from evil to worse , that ( if possible ) they might darken your Glory , and bring down your holy Testimony into obscurity , and for that end they take occasion against you whom God hath chosen to follow his leadings , and you must either transgress the command of your Leader , and deny his Spiritual Worship , or be exposed to the severity of merciless men , and rendered Offenders by a pretended Law , and this is determined against you , and done unto you , because they know not him that hath raised you in your living Testimony . But Oh , how do these things work together for good unto all that love God ; how doth it quicken the true birth unto watchfulness and faithfulness ; how doth it enliven unto freeness and chearfulness to do the will of God , and brings down the showers of life upon all the single and upright hearted : Oh my dear friends these purposed and practised cruelties of Sions enemies doth much advance her glory , and worketh good for all her Children though wickedly intended against them ; for , thereby our faith is tried and strengthened , our peace increased and multiplied , and in the hour we are preserved . Oh dear Lambs , be yee strong in the Lord , for you are not forsaken though you may be cast down , you are not extinguished as tow , though in the fire you be tried ; but with mercy you are compassed in the Salvation of God ; and this he worketh for you who is Lord of all , that hath all power in his hand , and in his power ruleth over darkness , and enmity , and preserveth Sion in the midst of her troubles ; for the Remembrance of Sion is alwayes with him , yea in the very time when she sits in the dust bewailing ; therefore let the Babes rejoyce , and the plant be fruitful , let the weak put on strength , and the mourner be comforted , for of a truth God is with us , and he will not hold them guiltless that any way oppress us : So be not discouraged thou innocent birth , but keep close to thy God , and trust in him who hath raised thee , and let not thy Faith fail within thee , then thou wilt go comfortably in the Holy Testimony ; and rejoyce over all that would suppress the truth in thee , for the Lord God is assuredly with thee in all thou suffers for him , and in all he calls thee unto , his arme sustaines thee ; and though he permit darkness for a time to try thee , yet his love and good will is to thee , and his pleasure and delight is in thee , and thou hast had experience of his favour towards thee , and knows how thou hast been succoured in thy adversity , and wonderfully delivered out of thy Captivitie . Oh therefore keep thy eye to him that hath never failed thee , nor never will fail thee as thou abides in his councel ; let not the world entice thee , nor flatteries prevaile with thee , nor feares dismay thee , but follow thy God who is greater then all , so will his hand keep thee for being plucked out , and though thou may be in the Furnace of affliction , and may feel it sharp and tedious to endure , yet from thence he will take thee , and as well refined Gold will bring thee forth to his praise for ever . So all dear Friends every where , waite in that which makes you sensible of your own conditions , that you may feele to Christ your life and hope of glory , your helper , preserver and deliverer ; so you will be stayed with a sure anchor in a troublous time , and will feel the springings of life to revive the hope of Israel , and then your Faith will not be driven to Shipwrack though storms be high and violent , but will be preserved and strengthened unto a further growth in the power which raises the seed , and this is testified in the power that yee may have strong consolations in the midst of your affliction , and in the testimony all glory is given to the power as most worthy ? Oh , a stayed minde in the power is exceeding precious , for there the Birth lives in that which is eternal , and feeds upon the virtue in which it delighteth , and in stayedness , stillness and quietness , the heavenly glory rests upon it , and so there is a living sensibleness of the deep love and life of God , in which yee abiding , yee will attain unto wisdom and understanding in the seed , and feel the Image of God in you restored again , and so come to lye down in Christ Jesus your rest and peace . And now dear beloved Friends , be stedfast in the Faith , and hope to the end , for the end will manifest all things , and as yee abide in the patience you will overcome ; and as you keep the Faith you will obtaine victory , and the Crown will be yours . Dear and tender hearts , you may read the dearness of my love in the lines of Life , where I lye down with you in the bond of peace , beseeching you all to have fervent love amongst your selves , and keep your eye single one over another , and entertain no exceptions one against another , for there is a watching eye that is not single , and that will take occasion to make a fault where there is none , and then will be exceptions , and raise a whisper to accuse ; but the true birth that lives in the true love , it covers faults as they happen through weakness , and restores again in the Spirit of meekness , and so in the power that giveth life unto its Testimony , it judgeth presumptious pride and arrogancy , and covereth faults that happeneth through weakness or infirmity , and rest●res that again which mourneth because it hath offended ; and so it reacheth to its own in tenderness , and condiscends to the lowest that travailes after Righteousness , but unvaileth all feigned subtilty that would exalt it selfe over the Royal innocency , for the light discovereth and unvaileth the mystery of Iniquity , and judgeth Infallibly , and none by wilt or reason can either adde unto it , or diminish from it ; therefore all dear Friends , live in that which keepeth the minde low in the fear and counsel of the Lord God , that in wisdom and understanding yee may have clear discerning , and so in sound judgement reach to the oppressed with mercy , that yee may break down the nature of the Oppressour , and restore and heal the grieved Birth that is ready to confess and forsake that which through weakness hath been done amiss , and here yee will have the Soveraigne balme that healeth the wound safely , and not sleightily , and so you will be a comfort one to another , even as yee are sensible that the Lord comforts you , in which work the Almighty God confirm and strengthen you all to the glory of his Power , Life and Wisdom for Evermore . The Salutation of my Life in the heavenly love unto every Babe that Secretly panteth to doe the Will of God. This may be read among friends as freedome is given , being a true token of my love ( in a few words ) as moved of the Lord. Nottingham County Goale , the 3 d day of the 4 th month , 1665. W. S. THE END 
A53700	----	Gospel grounds and evidences of the faith of God's elect shewing : I. The nature of true saving faith, in securing of the spiritual comfort of believers in this life, is of the highest importance, II. The way wherein true faith doth evidence it self in the soul and consciences of believers, unto their supportment and comfort, under all their conflicts with sin, in all their tryals and temptations, III. Faith will evidence it self, by a diligent, constant endeavour to keep it self and all grace in due exercise, in all ordinances of divine worship, private and publick, IV. A peculiar way whereby true faith will evidence it self, by bringing the soul into a state of repentance / by John Owen ... Owen, John, 1616-1683. 1695 Approx. 159 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 49 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A53700 Wing O759 ESTC R9544 12329950 ocm 12329950 59627 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A53700) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 59627) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 644:22) Gospel grounds and evidences of the faith of God's elect shewing : I. The nature of true saving faith, in securing of the spiritual comfort of believers in this life, is of the highest importance, II. The way wherein true faith doth evidence it self in the soul and consciences of believers, unto their supportment and comfort, under all their conflicts with sin, in all their tryals and temptations, III. Faith will evidence it self, by a diligent, constant endeavour to keep it self and all grace in due exercise, in all ordinances of divine worship, private and publick, IV. A peculiar way whereby true faith will evidence it self, by bringing the soul into a state of repentance / by John Owen ... Owen, John, 1616-1683. [4], 93, [1] p. Printed by John Astwood for William Marshal ..., London : 1695. Advertisement: p. [1] at end. Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith. 2005-03 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-04 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-05 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-05 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Gospel Grounds and Evidences OF THE FAITH OF GOD's Elect : SHEWING I. The Nature of true saving Faith , in securing of the Spiritual Comfort of Believers in this Life , is of the highest importance . II. The Way wherein true Faith doth evidence it self in the Soul and Consciences of Believers , unto their Supportment and Comfort , under all their Conflicts with Sin , in all their Tryals and Temptations . III. Faith will evidence it self , by a diligent , constant endeavour to keep it self and all Grace in due exercise , in all Ordinances of Divine Worship , Private , and Publick . IV. A peculiar way whereby true Faith will evidence it self , by bringing the Soul into a State of Repentance . Examine your selves , whether ye be in the Faith , prove your selves , know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you , except you be Reprobates , 2 Cor. 13. 5 By JOHN OWEN , D. D. LONDON , Printed by John Astwood for William Marshal , at the Bible in Newgate-street ; where you may be supplyed with most of Dr. Owen's , Dr. Beverly's and Mr. Caryl's Works . 1695. To the Reader . AS Faith is the first vital Act that every true Christian puts forth , and the Life which he lives is by the Faith of the Son of God , so it is his next and great concern to know that he doth believe , and that believing he hath Eternal Life ; that his Faith is the Faith of God's Elect , and of the Operation of God , without s●me distinct believing knowledge of which , he cannot so comfortably assure his Heart before God concerning his Calling and Election , so far as to carry him forth in all the ways of Holiness , in doing and suffering the Will of God with necessary Resolution and Chearfulness , the doing of which in a right manner , according to the Tenor of the Gospel , is no small part of spiritual Skill ; whereunto two things are highly requisite : First , That he be well acquainted with the Doctrine of Christ , and knows how to distinguish the Gospel from the Law ; and , Secondly , That he be very Conversant with his own Heart , that so by comparing his Faith , and the Fruits thereof , with the said Doctrine of Christ , he may some to see that as he hath received Christ , so he walks in him ; all his reasonings concerning himself being taken up from the Word of God , so that what Judgment he passeth upon himself , may be a Judgment of Faith , and Answer of a good Conscience towards God ; for all Tryals of Faith must at last be resolved into a Judgment of Faith , before which is made , the Soul still labours under staggerings , and uncertainties . The design of this ensuing Treatise is to resolve this great Question , Whether the Faith we profess unto , be true or no ? the Resolution of which , upon an Impartial Enquiry , must needs be very grateful and advantageous to every one that hath but tasted that the Lord is gracious . That the late Reverend , Learned , and Pious Dr. Owen was the Author , there needs be no doubt ; not only because good Assurance is given by such as were entrusted with his Writings , but also in that the Stile and Spirit running thro' the other of his Practical Writings is here very manifest , and accordingly with them is recommended to the serious perusal of every diligent Enquirer unto the Truth of his Spiritual Estate and Condition . Isaac Chauncy . Evidences of the Faith of GOD's Elect. THE securing of the Spiritual Comforts of Believers in this Life , is a matter of the highest Importance unto the Glory of God , and their own Advantage by the Gospel . For God is abundantly willing that all the Heirs of Promise should receive strong Consolation , and he hath provided ways and means for the Communication of it to them ; and their Participiation of it is their Principal Interest in this World , and is so esteemed by them . But their effectual Refreshing Enjoyment of these Comforts is variously opposed by the Power of the Remainders of Sin , in Conjunction with other Temptations . Hence notwithstanding their Right and Title unto them by the Gospel , they are oft-times actually destitute of a Gracious sense of them , and consequently of that Relief which they are s●ited to afford in all their Duties , Trials and Afflications . Now the Root whereon all real Comforts do grow , whence they spring and arise , is true and saving Faith ; the Faith of Gods Elect. Wherefore they do ordinarily answer unto , and hold proportion with the Evidences which any have of that Faith in themselves ; at least they cannot be maintained without such Evidences . Wherefore that we may be a little useful unto the Establishment or Recovery of that Consolation which God is so abundantly willing that all the Heirs of Promise should enjoy , I shall enquire , What are the principal Acts and Operations of Faith , whereby it will evidence its Truth and Sincerity in the midst of all Temptations and storms that may befall Believers in this World : And I shall insist on such alone as will bear the severest Scrutiny by Scripture and Experience . And , THE Principal Genuine Acting of saving Faith in us , inseparable from it , yea , essential to such acting , consists in the Choosing , Embracing , and Approbation of Gods way of saving Sinners , by the Mediation of Jesus Christ , relying thereon , with a renuntiation of all other ways and means pretending unto the same End of Salvation . THIS is that which we are to explain and prove . SAVING Faith is our Believing the Record that God hath given us of his Son , 1 John 5. 10. And this is the Record that God hath given unto us , Eternal Life , and this Life is in his Son , verse 11. This is the Testimony which God gives , that great and sacred Truth which he himself bears witness unto , namely , That he hath freely prepared Eternal Life for them that believe , or provided a way of Salvation for them . And what God so prepares he is said to give , because of the Certainty of its Communication . So Grace was promised and given to the Elect in Christ Jesus before the World began , 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 1. 2. And that is so to be communicated unto them in and by the Mediation of his Son Jesus Christ ; that it is the only way whereby God will give Eternal Life unto any , which is therefore wholly in him , and by him to be obtained , and from him to be received . Upon our Acquiescency in this Testimony , on our Approbation of this way of saving Sinners , or our Refusal of it , our Eternal Safety or Ruin doth absolutely depend . And it is reasonable that it should be so : For in our receiving of this Testimony of God , We set to our seal that God is true , Joh. 3. 33. We ascribe unto him the Glory of his Truth , and therein of all the other Holy Properties of his Nature , the most Eminent Duty whereof we are capable in this World : And by a Refusal of it , what lieth in us , we make him a Liar , as in this Place , v. 10. which is virtually to renounce his Being . AND the Solemnity wherewith this Testimony is entred is very remarkable , ver . 7. There are three that bear Record in Heaven , the Father , the Word , and the Holy Ghost ; and these three are one . The Trinity of Divine Persons acting distinctly in the Unity of the same Divine Nature , do give this Testimony : And they do so by these distinct Operations , whereby they act in this way and work of God's saving Sinners by Jesus Christ , which are at large declared in the Gospel . And there is added hereunto a Testimony that is immediately applicatory unto the Souls of Believers , of this Soveraign Testimony of the Holy Trinity ; and this is the witness of Grace and all sacred Ordinances : There are three that bear witness on Earth , the Spirit , and the Water , and the Blood , and these three agree in one ; ver . 8. They are not all essentially the same in one and the same Nature , as are the Father , Word , and Holy Ghost , yet they all absolutely agree in the same Testimony ; and they do it by that especial Efficacy which they have on the Souls of Believers to assure them of this Truth . In this Record , so solemnly , so gloriously given and proposed , Life and Death are set before us . The Receiving and Embracing of this Testimony , with an Approbation of the way of Salvation testified unto , is that Work of Faith which secures us of Eternal Life . On these Terms there is Reconciliation and Agreement made and established between God and Men , without which Men must perish for ever . SO our Blessed Saviour affirms , This is Life eternal , that we may know thee [ Father . ] : the only true God , and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent , Joh. 17. 3. To know the Father as the only true God , to know him as he hath sent Jesus Christ to be the only way and means of the Salvation of Sinners , and to know Jesus Christ as sent by him for that end , is that Grace and Duty which enstates us in a Right unto Eternal Life , and initiates us in the Possession of it : And this includes that Choice and Approbation of the way of God for the saving of Sinners whereof we speak . BUT these things must be more distinctly opened . 1. THE Great fundamental Difference in Religion is concerning the way and means whereby Sinners may be saved . From Mens different Apprehensions hereof arise all other Differences about Religion : And the first thing that engageth men really into any Concernment in Religion , is an Enquiry in their Minds how Sinners may be saved , or what they shall do themselves to be saved : What shall we do ? What shall we do to be saved ? What is the way of Acceptance with God ? is that Enquiry which gives Men their first Initiation into Religion : See Acts 2. 37. of Chap. 16. 30. Micah 6. 6 , 7 , 8. THIS Question being once raised in the Conscience , an Answer must be returned unto it : I will consider , saith the Prophet , what I shall answer , when I am reproved , Hab. 2. 1. And there is all the Reason in the World that Men consider well of a Good Answer hereunto , without which they must perish for ever : For if they cannot answer themselves here , how do they hope to answer God hereafter ? Wherefore without a sufficient Answer always in Readiness unto this Enquiry , no Man can have any Hopes of a Blessed Eternity . NOW the real Answer which Men return unto themselves is according to the Influence which their Minds are under from one or other of the two Divine Covenants , that of Works , or that of Grace . And these two Covenants taken absolutely , are inconsistent , and gives Answers in this Case that are directly contradictory to one another : So the Apostle declares , Rom. 10. 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. The one says , the man that doth the Works of the Law , shall live by them ; this is the only way whereby you may be saved : The other wholly waves this Return , and puts it all on Faith in Christ Jesus . Hence there is great Difference , and great Variety in the Answers which men return to themselves on this Enquiry ; for their Consciences will neither hear nor speak any thing , but what complys with the Covenant whereunto they do belong . These things are reconciled only in the Blood of Christ ; and how the Apostle declared Rom. 8. 3. The greatest part of Convinced Sinners seem to adhere to the Testimony of the Covenant of Works , and so perish for ever . Nothing will stand us instead in this matter , nothing will save us , but the Answer of a good Conscience towards God , by the Resurection of Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. 3. 21. 2. THE way that God hath prepared for the saving of Sinners is a Fruit and Product of Infinite Wisdom , and powerfully Essicacious unto its End. As such it is to be received , or it is rejected . It is not enough that we admit of the Notions of it as declared , unless we are sensible of Divine Wisdom and Power in it , so as that it may be safely trusted unto . Hereon upon the Proposal of it , falls out the eternally distinguishing Difference among Men. Some look upon it , and embrace it as the Power and Wisdom of God : Others really reject it , as a thing foolish and weak , not meet to be trusted unto ; hereof the Apostle gives an Account at large , 1 Cor. 1. 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24. And this is mysterious in Religion ; the same Divine Truth , is by the same way and means , at the same time , proposed unto sundry Persons , all in the same Condition , under the same Circumstances , all equally concerned in that which is proposed therein : Some of them hereon do receive it , embrace it , approve of it , and trust unto it for Life and Salvation ; others despise it , reject it , value it not , trust not unto it . To the one it is the Wisdom of God , and the Power of God ; to the other Weakness and Foolishness , as it must of necessity be one or the other , it is not capable of a middle State or Consideration . It is not a good way , unless it be the only way ; it is not a safe , it is not the best way , if there be any other ; for it is eternally inconsistent with any other . It is the Wisdom of God , or it is down-right Folly. And here after all our Disputes , we must resort unto eternal Soveraign Grace , making a Distinction among them unto whom the Gospel is proposed , and the Almighty Power of actual Grace in Curing that Unbelief which blinds the minds of Men , that they can see nothing but Folly and Weakness in Gods way of the saving of Sinners : And this Unbelief worketh yet in the most of them unto whom this way of God is proposed in the Gospel : They receive it not as an Effect of Infinite Wisdom , and as powerfully Essicacious unto its proper End. Some are profligate in the Service of their Lusts , and regard it not ; unto whom may be applied that of the Prophet , Hear ve Despisers , and wonder , and perish : Some are under the Power of Darkness and Ignorance , so as that they apprehend not , they understand not the Mystery of it : For the Light shineth into Darkness , and the Darkness comprehendeth it not . Some are blinded by Satan as he is the God of this World , by filling their Minds with Prejudice , and their Hearts with the Love of present things , that the Light of the Glorious Gospel of Christ , who is the Image of God , cannot shine into them . Some would mix with it their own Works , Ways and Duties , as they belong unto the first Covenant , which are eternally irreconcible unto this way of God , as the Apostle teacheth , Rom. 10. 3 , 4. Hereby doth Unbelief eternally ruin the Souls of Men ; they do not , they cannot approve of the way of God for saving Sinners , proposed in the Gospel , as an Effect of Infinite Wisdom and Power which they may safely trust unto , in Opposition unto all other ways and means , pretending to be useful unto the same End. And this will give us Light into the Nature and Actings of saving Faith , which we Enquire after . 3. THE whole Scripture , and all Divine Institutions from the Beginning , do testifie in general that this way of God for the saving Sinners is by Commutation , Substitution , Attonement , Satisfaction and Imputation . This is the Language of the first Promise , and all the Sacrifices of the Law founded thereon . This is the Language of the Scripture : There is a way whereby Sinners may be saved , a way that God hath found out and appointed . Now it being the Law wherein Sinners are concerned , the Rule of all things between God and them should seem to be by what they can do or suffer with Respect unto that Law : No , saith the Scripture , it cannot be so ; For by the Deeds of the Law no man living shall be justified in the sight of God , Psal. 142. 2. Rom. 3. 20. Gal. 2. 16. Neither shall it be by their Personal Answering of the Penalty of the Law which they have broken : For they cannot do so , but they must perish eternally : For , If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquities , O Lord , who shall stand ? Psal. 130. 3. There must therefore be , there is another way , of a different Nature and Kind from these , for the saving of Sinners , or there is no due Revelation made of the mind of God in the Scripture . But that there is so , and what it is , is the main Design of it to declare : And this is by the Substitution of a Mediator instead of the Sinners that shall be saved , who shall both bear the Penalty of the Law which they had incurred , and fulfill that Righteousness which they could not attain unto . THIS in general is Gods way of saving Sinners , whether Men like it or no : For what the Law could not do , in that it was weak through the flesh , God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh , and for Sin condemned Sin in the flesh , that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us , Rom. 8. 3 , 4. See also Heb. 10. 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. He made him to be sin for us , who knew no sin , that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him , 2 Cor. 5. 21. HERE Unbelief hath prevailed with many in this latter Age to reject the Glory of God herein : But we have vindicated the Truth against them sufficiently elsewhere . 4. THERE are sundry things previously required , to give us a clear View of the Glory of God in this way of saving Sinners : Such are , a due Consideration of the Nature of the Fall of our first Parents , and of our Apostacy from God thereby . I may not stay here to shew the Nature or Aggravations of them : Neither can we conceive them aright , much less express them . I only say , that unless we have due Apprehensions of the Dread and Terrour of them , of the Invasion made on the Glory of God , and the Confusion brought on the Creation by them , we can never discern the Reason and Glory of rejecting the Way of Personal Righteousness , and the establishing this way of a Mediator for the saving of Sinners . A due Sense of our present infinite Distance from God , and the Impossibility that there is in our selves of making any Approaches unto him , is of the same Consideration ; so likewise is that of our utter Disability to do any thing that may answer the Law , or the Holiness and Righteousness of God therein ; of our universal Unconformity in our Natures , Hearts , and their Actings unto the Nature , Holiness and Will of God : Unless , I say , we have a sense of these things in our Minds , and upon our Consciences , we cannot believe aright , we cannot comprehend the Glory of this new way of Salvation . And whereas Mankind hath had a general Notion , though no distinct Apprehension of these things , or of some of them , many amongst them have apprehended that there is a Necessity of some kind of Satisfaction or Atonement to be made , that Sinners may be freed from the Displeasure of God : But when God's way of it was proposed unto them , it was , and is generally rejected , because the Carnal Mind is Enmity against God : But when these things are fixed on the Soul by sharp and durable Convictions , they will enlighten it with due Apprehensions of the Glory and Beauty of God's way of saving Sinners . 5. THIS is the Gospel , this is the Work of it , namely , a divine Declaration of the way of God for the saving of Sinners , through the Person , Mediation , Blood , Righteousness and Intercession of Christ. This is that which it revealeth , declareth , proposeth and tendreth unto Sinners ; there is a way for their Salvation . As this is contained in the first Promise , so the Truth of every word in the Scripture depends on the Supposition of it . Without this there could be no more Entercourse between God and us , than is between Him and Devils . Again , it declares , that this way is not by the Law or its Works ; by the first Covenant , or its Conditions ; by our own Doing or Suffering ; but it is a new way found out in , and proceeding from Infinite Wisdom , Love , Grace and Goodness ; namely , by the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God , his Susception of the Office of a Mediator , doing and suffering in the Discharge of it whatever was needful for the Justification and Salvation of Sinners , unto his own eternal Glory : See Rom. 3. 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27. Chap. 8. 3 , 4. 2 Cor. 5. 19 , 20 , 21. &c. MOREOVER , the Gospel adds , that the only way of obtaining an Interest in this Blessed Contrivance of saving Sinners , by the Substitution of Christ , as the Surety of the Covenant , and thereon the Imputation of our sins to him , and of his Righteousness unto us , is by Faith in him . HERE comes in that Trial of Faith which we Enquire after : This way of saving Sinners heing proposed , offered and tendered unto us in the Gospel , true and saving Faith receives it , approves of it , rests in it , renounceth all other Hopes and Expectations , reposing its whole Confidence therein . FOR it is not proposed unto us meerly as a Notion of Truth , to be assented to or denied , in which Sense all believe the Gospel that are called Christians ; they do not esteem it a Fable : But it is proposed unto us as that which we ought practically to close withall , for our selves to trust alone unto it for Life and Salvation . And I shall speak briefly unto two things . 1. HOW doth saving Faith approve of this way ? on what Accounts , and unto what Ends. 2. HOW it doth evidence and manifest it self hereby unto the Comfort of Believers . First , IT approves of it , as that which every way becomes God to find out , to grant and propose : So speaks the Apostle , Heb. 2. 10. It became him in bringing many Sons to Glory , to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through Sufferings . That becomes God , is worthy of him , is to be owned concerning him , which answers unto his infinite Wisdom , Goodness , Grace , Holiness and Righteousness , and nothing else . This Faith discerns , judgeth and determineth concerning this way , namely , that it is every way worthy of God , and answers all the holy Properties of his Nature : This is called the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus , 2 Cor. 4. 6. THIS Discovery of the Glory of God in this way is made unto Faith alone , and by it alone it is embraced . The not discerning of it , and thereon the want of an Acquiescency in it , is that Unbelief which ruines the Souls of Men. The Reason why Men do not embrace the way of Salvation tendred in the Gospel , is because they do not see , nor understand , how full it is of Divine Glory , how it becomes God , is worthy of him , and answers all the Perfections of his Nature . Their Minds are blinded , that the Light of the Glorious Gospel of Christ , who is the Image of God , doth not shine into them , 2 Cor. 4. 4. And so they deal with this way of God , as if it were Weakness and Folly. HEREIN consists the Essence and Life of Faith. It sees , discerns and determines , that the way of Salvation of Sinners by Jesus Christ proposed in the Gospel , is such as becometh God and all his divine Excellencies to find out , appoint and propose unto us . And herein doth it properly give Glory to God , which is its peculiar Work and Excellency , Rom. 4. 20. Herein it rests , and refresheth it self . IN particular , Faith herein rejoyceth in the manifestation of the infinite Wisdom of God. A View of the Wisdom of God , acting it self by his Power in the Works of Creation , ( for in Wisdom he made them all ) is the sole Reason of Ascribing Glory unto him in all natural Worship , whereby we glorifie him as God ; and a due Apprehension of the infinite Wisdom of God , in the new Creation , in the way of saving Sinners by Jesus Christ , is the foundation of all Spiritual , Evangelical Ascription of Glory to God. IT was the Design of God in a peculiar way to manifest and glorifie his Wisdom in this Work. Christ crucified is the Power of God , and the Wisdom of God , 1 Cor. 1. 24. And all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge are hid in him , Col. 2. 3. All the Treasures of Divine Wisdom are laid up in Christ , and laid out about him , as to be manifested unto Faith in and by the Gospel . He designed herein to make known his manifold Wisdom , Ephes. 3. 9 , 10. WHEREFORE , according to our Apprehension and Admiration of the Wisdom of God in the Constitution of this way of Salvation is our Faith , and no otherwise : Where that doth not appear unto us , where our Minds are not affected with it , there is no Faith at all . I cannot stay here to reckon up the especial Instances of Divine Wisdom herein . Somewhat I have attempted towards it in other Writings ; and I shall only say at present , that the foundation of this whole work and way , in the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God , is so glorious an Effect of infinite Wisdom , as the whole blessed Creation will admire to Eternity . This of it self bespeaks this way and work divine . Herein the Glory of God shine in the face of Christ Jesus . This is of God alone ; this is that which becomes him , that which nothing but infinite Wisdom could extend unto . Whilst Faith lives in a due Apprehension of the Wisdom of God in this , and the whole Superstruction of this way , on this foundation it is safe . GOODNESS , Love , Grace and Mercy , are other Properties of the Divine Nature , wherein it is gloriously amiable . God is Love : There is none good but he : Grace and Mercy are among the principal Titles which he every where assumes to himself ; and it was his Design to manifest them all to the utmost in this work and way of saving Sinners by Christ , as is every where declared in the Scripture ; and all these lie open to the Eye of Faith herein : It sees infinite Goodness , Love and Grace , in this way , such as becomes God , such as can reside in none but him , which it therefore rests and rejoyceth in , 1 Pet. 1. 8. In Adherence unto , and Approbation of this way of Salvation , as expressive of these Perfections of the Divine Nature , doth Faith act it self continually . WHERE Unbelief prevaileth , the Mind hath no view of the Glory that is in this way of Salvation , in that it is so becoming of God and all his holy Properties , as the Apostle declares , 2 Cor. 4. 4. And where it is so , whatever is pretended , Men cannot cordially receive it and embrace it ; for they know not the Reason for which it ought to be so embraced : They see no Form nor Comeliness in Christ , who is the Life and Center of this way , no Beauty for which he should be desired , Isa. 5● . 2. Hence , in the first Preaching of it , it was unto the Jews a Stumbling-block , and unto the Greeks Foolishness ; For by reason of their Unbelief they could not see it to be what it is , the Power of God , and the Wisdom of God , and so it must be esteemed , or be accounted Folly. YEA , from the same Unbelief it is , that at this day the very Notion of the Truth herein is rejected by many , even all those who are called Socinians , and all that adhere unto them , in the Disbelief of Supernatural Mysteries : They cannot see a Suitableness in this way of Salvation unto th Glory of God , as no Unbeliever can ; and therefore those of them who do not oppose directly the Doctrine of it , yet do make no use of it , unto its proper End. Very few of them comparatively who profess the Truth of the Gospel , have an Experience of the power of it unto their own Salvation . BUT here true Faith stands invincibly , hereby it will evidence its Truth and Sincerity in the midst of all Temptations , and the most dismal Conflicts it hath with them ; yea , against the perplexing Power and Charge of Sin thence arising : From this strong hold it will not be driven ; whilst the Soul can exercise Faith herein , namely , in steadily Choosing , Embracing and Approving of Gods way of saving Sinners by Jesus Christ , as that wherein he will be eternally glorified , because it is suited unto , and answers all the Perfections of his Nature , is that which every way becomes him , it will have wherewith to relieve it self in all its Trials . For this is Faith , this is saving Faith , which will not fail us ; that Faith which works in the Soul a gracious Perswasion of the Excellency of this way , by a sight of the Glory , of the Wisdom , Power , Grace , and Love , and Goodness of God in it , so as to be satisfied with it , as the best , the only way of coming unto God , with a Renunciation of all other ways and means unto that End , will at all times evidence its Nature and Sincerity . AND this is that which gives the Soul Rest and Satisfaction , as unto its Entrance into Glory upon it Departure out of this World. It is a great thing to apprehend in a due manner , that a Poor Soul that hath been Guilty of many Sins , leaving the Body it may be under great Pain , Distress and Anguish , it may be by outward Violence , should be immediately admitted and received into the Glorious Presence of God , with all the holy . Attendants of his Throne , there to enjoy Rest and Blessedness for evermore . But here also Faith discerns and approves of this great , of this ineffable divine Opperation , as that which becomes the infinite Greatness of that Wisdom and Grace which first designed it , the glorious Efficacy of the Mediation of Christ , and the Excellency of the Sanctification of the Holy Spirit , without any Expectation from any thing in it self , as a Cause meritorious of an Admission into this Glory : Neither did ever any man know what it is , or desire it in a due manner , who looked for any Desert of it in himself , or conceived any Proportion between it and what he is or hath done in this World. Hence some of those who have not this Faith have invented another State after Men are gone out of this world , to make them meet for Heaven , which they call Purgatory : For , on what Grounds a man should expect an Entrance into Glory on his Departure out of this World , they understand not . LET them who are exercised with Temptations and Dejections , bring their Faith unto this Trial. And this is the Case in various Degrees of us all . First then , Examine strictly by the Word whether this be a true Description of the Nature and Acting of saving Faith. Sundry things are supposed or asserted in it ; as , ( 1. ) That the way of saving Sinners by Jesus Christ , is the principal Effect of Divine Wisdom , Power , Goodness , Love and Grace . ( 2. ) That the Design of the Gospel is to manifest , declare and testify that so it is , and so to make known the Glory of God therein . ( 3. ) That saving Faith is that Act , Duty and Work of the Soul , whereby we receive the Record of God concerning these things , do ascribe the Glory of them all unto him , as discovering it in the way of Life proposed unto us . ( 4. ) That hereon it proceeds unto a Renunciation of all other Ways , Means , Hopes , Reliefs , in Opposition unto this way , or in Conjunction with it , as unto Acceptance with God in Life and Salvation . I say , in the first place Examine these things strictly by the Word , and if they appear to be ( as they are ) Sacred , Evangelical , Fundamental Truths , be not moved from them , be not shaken in them by any Temptation whatever . AND in the next place , bring your Faith to the Trial on these Principles : What do you judge concerning Gods way of saving Sinners by Jesus Christ , as proposed in the Gospel ? are you satisfied in it , that it is such as becomes God , and answers all the glorious Attributes of his Nature ? Would you have any other way proposed in the room of it ? Can you , will you commit the eternal Welfare of your Souls unto the Grace and Faithfulness of God in this way , so as that you have no Desire to be saved any other way ? Doth the Glory of God in any measure shine forth unto you in the Face of Jesus Christ ? Do you find a secret Joy in your Hearts , upon the Satisfaction you take in the proposal of this way unto you by the Gospel ? Do you in all your Fears and Temptations , in all Approaches of Death , renounce all other Reserves and Reliefs , and betake your whole Confidence unto this way alone , and the Representation of God made therein ? Herein lies that Faith , and its Exercise , which will be an Anchor unto your Souls in all their Trials . AND this is the first and principal Ground , or Reason , whereon Faith , divine and saving , doth accept , Embrace and Approve of the way of Gods saving Sinners by Jesus Christ ; namely , because it is such as doth become him , and every way answer unto all the holy Properties of his Nature , which are manifested and glorified therein . And where Faith doth approve of it on this Ground and Reason , it doth evidence it self to be truly Evangelical , unto the Supportment and Comfort of them in whom it is . Secondly , IT doth so approve of this way , as that which it finds suited unto the whole Design , and all the Desires of an Enlightned Soul. So when our Lord Jesus Christ compares the Kingdom of God ( which is this way of Salvation ) unto a Treasure , and a precious Pearl , he affirms that those who found them had great Joy , and the highest Satisfaction , as having attained that which suited their Desires , and gave Rest unto their Minds . A Soul Enlightned with the Knowledge of the Truth , and made sensible of its own Condition by Spiritual Conviction , hath two predominant Desires and Aims , whereby it is wholly regulated ; the one is , that God may be glorified , and the other , that it self may be eternally saved . Nor can it forgoe either of these Desires , nor are they separable in any Enlightned Soul. It can never cease in either of these Desires , and that to the highest Degree . The whole World cannot dispossess an Enlightned Mind of either of them . Profligate Sinners have no Concernment in the former ; no nor yet those who are under Legal Convictions ; if they have therewithal received no Spiritual Light. They would be saved , but for the Glory of God therein , he may look to that himself , they are not concerned in it . For that which they mean by Salvation , is nothing but a freedom from eternal Misery ; this they would have , whether God be or no ; of what is Salvation truly , they have no Desire . BUT the first Beam of spiritual Light and Grace , enstates an indefatigable Desire of the Glory of God in the Minds and Souls of them in whom it is : Without this the Soul knows not how to desire its own Salvation : I may say , it would not be saved in a way wherein God should not be glorified : For , without that , whatever its state should be , it would not be that which we call Salvation ; the Exaltation of the Glory of God belongs essentially thereunto , it consists in the beholding and Enjoyment of that Glory . This Desire therefore is immovably fixed in the Mind and Soul of every enlightned Person ; he can admit of no Proposal of Eternal Things that is inconsistent with it . BUT moreover , in every such Person there is a Ruling Desire of his own Salvation : It is natural unto him , as a Creature made for Eternity ; it is inseparable from him , as he is a convinced Sinner . And the clearer the Light of any one is in the Nature of this Salvation , the more is this Desire heightned and confirmed in him . HERE then lieth the Enquiry , namely , How these two prevalent Desires may be reconciled and satisfied in the same Mind ? For , as we are Sinners , there seems to be an Inconsistency between them : The Glory of God in his Justice and Holiness , requires that Sinners should dye and perish eternally ; so speaks the Law , this is the Language of Conscience , and the Voice of all our Fears : Wherefore , for a Sinner to desire in the first place , that God may be glorified , is to desire that himself may be damned . WHICH of these Desires shall the Sinner cleave unto , unto whether of them shall it give the Preheminence ? shall he cast off all Hopes and Desires of his own Salvation , and be content to perish for ever ? This he cannot do , God doth not require it of him ; he hath given him the contrary in Charge , whilst he is in this World. Shall he then desire that God may part with and lose his Glory , so as that one way or other he may be saved ? Bring himself unto an Unconcernment , what becomes of it ? This can be no mere in an Enlightned Mind , than it can cease to desire its own Salvation . But how to reconcile these things in himself a Sinner finds not . HERE therefore the Glory of this way represents it self unto the Faith of every Believer : It not only brings these Desires into a perfect Consistency and Harmony , but maketh them to encrease and promote one another . The Desire of Gods Glory encreaseth the Desire of our own Salvation , and the Desire of our own Salvation enlargeth and inflameth the Desire of glorifying God therein and thereby . These things are brought into a perfect Consistency and mutual Subserviency in the Blood of Christ , Rom. 3. 24 , 25 , 26. For this way is that which God hath found out , in infinite Wisdom to glorify himself in the Salvation of Sinners . There is not any thing wherein the Glory of God doth or may consist , but in this way , is reconciled unto , and consistent with the Salvation of the chiefest of Sinners . There is no Property of his Nature , but is gloriously exalted in and by it : An Answer is given in it , unto all the Objections of the Law , against the Consistency of the Glory of God and the Salvation of Sinners . It pleads his Truth in his Threatnings , in the Sanction of the Law , with the Curse annexed ; it pleads his Righteousness , Holiness , and Severity , all engaged to destroy Sinners ; it pleads the Instance of God's dealing with the Angels that sinned , and calls in the Witness of Conscience to testifie the Truth of all its Allegations : But there is a full and satisfactory Answer given unto this whole Plea of the Law , in this way of Salvation . God declares in it , and by it , how he hath provided for the satisfaction of all these things , and the Exaltation of his Glory in them , as we shall see immediately . HERE true Faith will fix it self in all its Distresses : Whatever , saith the Soul , be my State and Condition , whatever be my Fears and Perplexities , whatever Oppositions I meet withall , yet I see in Jesus Christ , in the Glass of the Gospel , that there is no Inconsistency between the Glory of God and my Salvation ; that otherwise insuperable Difficulty laid by the Law , in the way of my Life and Comfort , is utterly removed . Whilst Faith keeps this Hold in the Soul , with a constant Approbation of this way of Salvation by Christ , as that which gives a Consistency unto both its governing Desires , that it shall not need forgoe either of them , so as to be contented to be damned , than God may be glorified , as some have spoken ; or to desire Salvation , without a due Regard unto the Glory of God , it will be an Anchor to stay the Soul in all its Storms and Distresses . Some Benefit which will certainly ensue hereon , we may briefly mention . 1. THE Soul will be hereby preserved from ruining Despair , in all the Distresses that may befall it . Despair is nothing but a prevalent Apprehension of mind , that the Glory of God and a mans Salvation are inconsistent ; that God cannot be Just , True , Holy , or Righteous , if he in whom that Apprehension is , may be saved . Such a Person doth conclude that his Salvation is impossible , because one way or other it is inconsistent with the Glory of God ; for nothing else can render it impossible . Hence ariseth in the Mind an utter Dislike of God , with revengeful ▪ Thoughts against him , for being what he is . This cuts off all Endeavours of Reconciliation ; yea , begets an Abhorrency of all the means of it , as those which are weak , foolish and insufficient . Such are Christ and his Cross unto Men under such Apprehensions ; they judge them unable to reconcile the Glory of God and their Salvation . Then is a Soul in an open Entrance into Hell. From this cursed Frame and Ruin , the Soul is safely preserved by Faiths maintaining in the Mind and Heart a due Perswasion of the Consistency and Harmony that is between the Glory of God and its own Salvation . Whilst this Perswasion is prevalent in it , although it cannot attain any Comfortable Assurance of an especial Interest in it , yet it cannot but Love , Honour , Value , and Cleave unto this way , adoring the Wisdom and Grace of God in it , which is an Act , an Evidence of saving Faith. See Psal. 130. 3 , 4. Yea , 2. IT will preserve the Soul from heartless Dispondencies . Many in their Temptations , Darknesses , Fears , Surprizals by Sin , although they fall into ruining Desperation , yet they fall under such desponding Fears and various Discouragements , us keep them off from a vigorous Endeavour after a Recovery : And hereon , for want of the due Exercise of Grace , they grow weaker and darker every day , and are in danger to pine away in their sins . But where Faith keeps the Soul constant unto the Approbation of Gods way of saving Sinners , as that wherein the Glory of God and its own Salvation are not only fully reconciled , but made inseparable , it will stir up all Graces unto a due Exercise , and the diligent Performance of all Duties , whereby it may obtain a Refreshing Sense of a personal Interest in it . 3. IT will keep the Heart full of Kindness towards God , whence Love and gracious Hope will spring . It is impossible but that a Soul overwhelmed with a sense of Sin , and thereon ●illed with Self-Condemnation , but if it hath a View of the Consistency of the Glory of God with its Deliverance and Salvation , through a free Contrivance of infinite Wisdom and Grace , it must have such Kindness for him , such gracious Thoughts of him , as will beget and kindle in it both Love and Hope , as Mic. 7. 18 , 20. Psal. 85. 8. 1 Tim. 1. 15. 4. A Steady Continuance in the Approbation of Gods way of Salvation , on the Reason mentioned , will lead the Mind into that Exercise of Faith , which both declares its Nature , and is the Spring of all the saving Benefits which we receive by it . Now this is such a Spiritual Light into , and Discovery of the Revelation and Declaration made in the Gospel , of the Wisdom , Love , Grace and Mercy of God in Christ Jesus ; and the way of the Communication of the Effect of them unto Sinners by him , as that the Soul finds them suited unto , and able for the pardon of its own sins , its Righteousness and Salvation , so as that it placeth its whole Trust and Confidence for these Ends therein . THIS being the very Life of Faith , that Act and Exercise of it whereby we are justified and saved , and whereby it evidenceth its truth and sincerity against all Temptations , I shall insist a little on the Explanation of the Description of it now given : And there are three things in it , or required unto it : 1. A Spiritual Light into , and Discovery of the Revelation and Declaration made in the Gospel , of the Wisdom , Love , Grace and Mercy of God in Christ Jesus . It is not a meer Assent unto the Truth of the Revelation , or the Authority of the Revealer ; this indeed is supposed and included in it , but it adds thereunto a spiritual Discerning , Perception and Understanding of the things themselves revealed and declared , without which , a bare Assent unto the Truth of the Revelation is of no Advantage : This is called the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God , in the face of Jesus Christ , 2 Cor. 4. 6. The Encrease whereof , in all Believers , the Apostle doth earnestly pray for , Eph. 1 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20. So we discern spiritual Things in a spiritual manner ; and hence ariseth the full Assurance of Understanding , to the Acknowledgement of the Mystery of God , and of the Father , and of Christ , Col. 2. 2. Or a spiritual Sense of the Power , Glory and Beauty of the Things contained in this Mystery : So , to know Christ , as to know the Power of his Resurrection , and the Fellowship of his Sufferings , Phil. 3. 10. FAITH affects the mind with an ineffable Sense , Taste , Experience and Acknowledgment of the Greatness , the Glory , the Power , the Beauty of the Things revealed and proposed in this way of Salvation . The Soul in it is enabled to see and understand , that all the things belonging unto it are such as become God , his Wisdom , Goodness and Love , as was before declared : And a spiritual Light enabling hereunto , is of the Essence of saving Faith ; unless this be in us , we do not , we cannot give Glory to God , in any Assent unto the Truth : And Faith is that Grace which God hath prepared , sitted and suited , to give unto him the Glory that is his Due ; in the Work of our Redemption and Salvation . 2. UPON this spiritual Light into this Revelation of God and his Glory , in this way of saving Sinners , the Mind by Faith finds and sees , that all things in it are suited unto its own Justification and Salvation in particular , and that the Power of God is in them , to make them effectual unto that End. This is that Act and Work of Faith , whereon the whole blessed Event doth depend ; it will not avail a man to see all sorts of Viands and Provisions , if they be no way suited unto his Appetite , nor meet for his Nourishment : Nor will it be unto a Man's spiritual Advantage , to take a View of the Excellency of the Gospel , unless he find them suited unto his Condition : And this is the hardest Task and Work that Faith hath to go through with . FAITH is not an especial Assurance of a Man 's own Justification and Salvation by Christ that it will produce , but not until another step or two in its Progress be over ; but Faith is a satisfactory Perswasion , that the way of God proposed in the Gospel , is fitted , suited , and able to save the Soul in particular , that doth believe , not only that it is a blessed way to save Sinners in general , but that it is such a way to save him in particular : So is this matter stated by the Apostle , 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying , and worthy of all Acceptation , or Approbation , that Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners , whereof I am chief . His Faith doth nor abide here , nor confine it self unto this , that Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners ; that this is the holy and blessed way of God , for the Salvation of Sinners in general ; but he puts in for his own particular Interest in that way ; it is God's way , fitted and suited , and able to save me , who am the chiefest of Sinners . AND this , as was said , is the greatest , and the most difficult Work of Faith : For , we suppose concerning the Person who is to believe , ( 1. ) THAT he is really and effectually convinced of the Sin of Nature , of our Apostasie from God therein , the Loss of his Image , and the direful Effects that ensue thereon . ( 2. ) That he hath due Apprehensions of the Holiness and Severity of God , of the Sanction and Curse of the Law ; with a right understanding of the Nature of Sin , and its Demerit . ( 3. ) That he have a full Conviction of his own actual sins , with all their Aggravations , from their Greatness , their Number , and all sorts of Circumstances . ( 4. ) That he hath a Sense of the Guilt of secret or unknown sins , which have been multiplied by that continual proneness unto sin , which he finds working in him . ( 5. ) That he seriously consider , what it is to appear before the Judgment . Seat of God , to receive a Sentence for Eternity , with all other things of the like nature , inseparable from him as a Sinner . WHEN it is really thus with any man , he shall find it the hardest in the World , and clogged with the most Difficulties , for him to believe that the way of Salvation proposed unto him , is suited , fitted , and every way able to save him in particular ; to apprehend it such , as none of his Objections can rise up against , or stand before . But this is that , in the second place , that the Faith of God's Elect will do : It will enable the Soul to discern and satisfie it self , that there is in this way of God , every thing that is needful unto its own Salvation . And this it will do , on a spiritual Understanding , and due Consideration of ( 1. ) The Infiniteness of that Wisdom , Love , Grace and Mercy , which is the Original of Soveraign Cause of the whole way , with the ample Declaration and Confirmation made of them in the Gospel . ( 2. ) Of the unspeakable glorious way and means for the procuring and communicating unto us of all the Effects of that Wisdom , Grace and Mercy , namely , the Incarnation and Mediation of the Son of God , in his Oblation and Intercession . ( 3. ) Of the great Multitude and Variety of precious Promises , engaging the Truth , Faithfulness and Power of God , for the Communication of Righteousness and Salvation from those Springs , by that means . I say , on the just Consideration of these things , with all other Encouragements wherewith they are accompanied , the Soul concludes by Faith that there is Salvation for it self in particular , to be attained in that way . 3. THE last Act of Faith in the order of Nature , is the Souls Acquiescency in and trust unto this way of Salvation for its self , and its own Eternal Condition , with a Renuntiation of all other ways and means for that End. And because Jesus Christ in his Person , Mediation and Righteousness , is the Life and Center of this way , as he in whom alone God will glorifie his Wisdom , Love , Grace and Mercy ; as he who hath purchased , procured and wrought all this Salvation for us , whose Righteousness is imputed unto us for our Justification , and who in the Discharge of his Office doth actually bestow it upon us , he is the proper and immediate Object of Faith , in this Act of Trust and Affiance . This is that which is called in the Scripture believing in Christ , namely , the trusting unto him alone for Life and Salvation , as the whole of Divine Wisdom and Grace is administred by him unto those Ends. For this we come unto him , we receive him , we beleive in him , we trust him , we abide in him , with all those other ways whereby our Faith in him is expressed . AND this is the second Ground or Reason whereon Faith doth close with , embrace and approve of God's way of saving Sinners ; whereby it will evidence it self , unto the Comfort of them in whom it is , in the midst of all their Trials and Temptations . Thirdly , FAITH approves of this way , as that which makes the Glory of God in the giving , and the Sanction of the Law , to be as eminently conspicuous , as if it had been perfectly fulfilled by every one of us in our own Persons . The Law was a just Representation of the Righteousness and Holiness of God ; and the End for which it was given , was , that it might be the means and Instrument of the Eternal Exaltation of his Glory in those holy Properties of his Nature . Let no man imagine that God hath laid aside this Law , as a thing of no more use ; or , that he will bear a Diminution of that Glory , or any part of it , which he designed in the giving of it . Heaven and Earth shall pass away , but no Jot or Little of the Law shall do so . No Believer can desire , or be pleased with his own Salvation , unless the Glory of God designed by the Law be secured . He cannot desire that God should forgo any part of his Glory that he might be saved . Yea , this is that on the Account whereof he principally rejoyceth in his own Salvation , namely , that it is that wherein God will be absolutely , universally and eternally glorified . NOW in this way of saving Sinners by Jesus Christ , by Mercy , Pardon , and the Righteousness of at other , of all which the Law knows nothing , Faith doth see and understand how all that Glory which God designed in the giving of the Law , is eternally secured and preserved entire , without Eclipse or Diminution . The way whereby this is done is declared in the Gospel ; See Rom. ● . 24 , 25 , 26. Chap. 8. 2 , 3 , 4. Chap. 10. 3 , 4. Hereby Faith is enabled to answer all the Challenges and Charges of the Law , with all its Pleas for the Vindication of divine Justice , Truth and Holiness : It hath that to offer which gives it the utmost . Satisfaction in all its Pleas for God : So is this Answer managed , Rom. 8. 32 , 33 , 34. AND this is the first way , whereby the Faith of Gods Elect doth evidence it self in the minds and Consciences of them that do believe , in the midst of all their Contests with Sin , their Trials and Temptations , to their Relief and Comfort , namely , the closing with , and Approbation of Gods way of saving Sinners by Jesus Christ , on the Grounds and Reasons which have been declared . The Second Evidence of the Faith of God's Elect. THE second way whereby true Faith doth evidence it self in the Souls and Consciences of Beleivers , unto their Supportment and Comfort under all their Conflicts with sin , in all their Trials and Temptations , is by a constant Approbation of the Revelation of the Will of God in the Scripture , concerning our Holiness , and the Obedience unto himself which he requireth of us . This Faith will never forgo , whatever Trials it may undergo , whatever Darkness the mind may fall into : This it will abide by in all Extremities . And that it may appear to be a peculiar Effect or work of saving Faith , some things are to be premised and considered : 1. THERE is in all men by Nature a Light , enabling them to judge of the Difference that is between what is morally good , and what is evil , especially in things of more than ordinary Importance . This Light is not attained or acquired by us ; we are not taught it , we do not learn it : It is born with us , and inseparable from us : It prevents Consideration and Reflection , working naturally , and in a sort necessarily , in the first Actings of our Souls . AND the discerning Power of this Light as to the Moral Nature of Mens Actions , is accompanied inseparably with a Judgment that they make concerning themselves , as unto what they do of the one kind or other , and that with respect unto the superiour Judgment of God about the same things : This the Apostle expresly ascribes unto the Gentiles , who had not the Law , Rom. 2. 14 , 15. The Gentiles which have not the Law , do by Nature the things contained in the Law ; these having not the Law , are a Law unto themselves , which shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts , their Consciences also bearing Witness , and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another . This is a most exact Description of a natural Conscience , in both the Powers of it ; it discerns that good and evil which is commanded and forbidden in the Law , and it passeth an acquiting or condemning Judgment and Sentence , according to what Men have done . WHEREFORE , this Approbation of Duties in things moral , is common unto all Men. The Light whereby it is guided may be variously improved , as it was in some of the Gentiles : And it may bestisled in some , until it seem to be quite extinguished , until they become like the Beasts that perish : And where the discerning power of this Light remains , yet through a continual Practice of sin , and obduracy therein , the judging power of it as unto all its Efficacy may be lost : So the Apostle declares concerning them who are judicially hardened and given up unto sin , Rom. 1. 32. These knowing the Judgment of God , that they which commit such things are worthy of Death , not only do the same , but have pleasure in them that do them . They still discern what is evil and sinful , and know what is the Judgment of God concerning such things ; but yet the Love of sin and Custom in sinning , do so far prevail in them , as to contemn both their own Light and Gods Judgment , so as to delight in what is contrary unto them : These the Apostle describes , Eph. 4. 19. Being past feeling ( all sense of Convictions ) they give themselves over nnto Lasciviousness , to work all Uncleanness with greediness ; such as the World is filled withall at this Day . THIS is not that Approbation of Obedience which we enquire after : It is in some measure in the worst of Men , nor hath it any likeness unto that Duty of Faith which we treat of , as will immediately appear . 2. THERE is a farther Knowledge of Good and Evil by the Law , and this is also accompanied with a Judgment acquiting or condemning : For the Law hath the same judging Power and Authority over Men that their own Consciences have ; namely , the Authority of God himself . The Law is to sinners as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil , it opens their Eyes , to see the Nature of what they have done : For by the Law is the Knowledge of sin , Rom. 3. 20. and so is the Knowledge of Duty also ; for it is the adequate Rule of all Duty . There is , I say , a Knowledge and Conviction of Duty and Sin , communicated unto Men by the Law , and those far more clear and distinct than what is or can be found in Men , from the meer Light of Nature ; for it extends to more Instances , that being generally lost where it is alone , as unto many important Duties and Sins : And it declareth the Nature of every sin and duty , far more clearly than Natural Light of it self can do . AND this Knowledge of good and evil by the Law , may be so improved in the Minds of Men , as to press them unto a Performance of all known Duties , and an Abstinence from all known sins , with a Judgment on them all . But yet herein doth not consist that Approbation of Holiness and Obedience which Faith will produce . For , 1. AS unto Approbation or Condemnation of Good or Evil : That which is by the Law is particular , or hath Respect unto particular Duties and Sins , according as Occasion doth present them ; and extends not unto the whole Law absolutely , and all that is required in it . I do not not say , it is always partial : There is a Legal Sincerity , that may have respect unto all known Duties and Sins , though it be very rare . Hardly shall we find a Person meerly under the Power of the Law , who doth not evidence an Indulgence unto some Sin , and a Neglect of some Duties : But such a thing there may be ; it was in Paul , in his Phariseisme ; He was , touching the Righteousness which is in the Law , blameless , Phil. 3. 6. He allowed not himself in any known sin , nor in the Neglect of any known Duty , nor could others charge him with any Defect therein ; he was blameless : But where this is , still this Approbation or Condemnation is particular ; that is , they do respect particular Duties and Sins , as they do occurr ; there is not a respect in them unto the whole Righteousness and Holiness of the Law , as we shall see ; wherefore a man may approve of every Duty in its season , as it is offered unto him , or when at any time he thinks of it by an Act of his fixed Judgment , and so on the contrary , as unto sin , and yet come short of that Approbation of Holiness and Righteousness which we enquire after . 2. IT is not accompanied with a Love of the things themselves that are good , as they are so , and an Hatred of the contrary : For the Persons in whom it is , do not , cannot delight in the Law of God in the inward Man , as Rom. 7. 22. so as to approve of it , and all that is contained in it , cleaving to them with Love and Delight . They may have a Love for this or that Duty , and an Hatred of the contrary , but it is on various Considerations , suited unto their Convictions and Circumstances ; but it is not on the Account of its formal Nature , as good or evil . Wherefore , 3. NO Man without the Light of saving Faith , can constantly and universally approve of the Revelation of the Will of God , as unto our Holiness and Obedience . TO make this evident , which is the Foundation of our present Discovery of the acting of saving Faith , we must consider , ( 1. ) What it is that is to be approved . ( 2. ) What this Approbation is , or wherein it doth consist . 1. THAT which is to be approved is the Holiness and Obedience which God requireth in us , our Natures and Actions , and accepts from us , or accepts in us . It is not particular Duties , as they occur unto us , taken alone , and by themselves ; but the universal Correspondence of our Natures and Actions unto the Will of God. The Scripture giveth us various Descriptions of it , because of the Variety of Graces and gracious Operations which concurr therein . We may here mention some of its principal Concerns , having handled the Nature of it at large elsewhere : For it may be considered , ( 1. ) As unto its Foundation , Spring and Causes , and this is the universal Renovation of our Natures unto the Image of God , Eph. 4. 24. or the Change of our whole Souls in all their Faculties and Powers into his Likeness , whereby we become new Creatures , or the Workmanship of God , created in Jesus Christ unto good Works , 2 Cor. 5. 17. Eph. 2. 10. Wherein we are originally and formally sanctified throughout in our whole Spirit , Soul and Body , 1 Thes. 5. 23. It is the whole Law of God written in our Hearts , transforming them into the Image of the divine Holiness , represented therein : And this , next unto the Blood of Christ and his Righteousness , is the principal Spring of Peace , Rest and Complacency , in and unto the Souls of Believers : It is their Joy and Satisfaction , to find themselves restored unto a Likeness and Conformity unto God , as we shall see farther immediately . And where there is not some gracious Sense and Experience hereof , there is nothing but Disorder and Confusion in the Soul : Nothing can give it a sweet Composure , a Satisfaction in it self , a Complacency with what it is , but a spiritual sense of this Renovation of the Image of God in it . 2. IT may be considered as unto its permanent Principle in the Mind and Affection : and this because of its near Relation unto Christ , its Conjunction with him and Derivation from him , is sometimes said to be Christ himself ; hence we live , yet not so much we as Christ liveth in us , Gal. 2. 20. For without him we can do nothing , Joh. 15. 5. For he is our Life , Col. 3. 4. As it resides in Believers , it is a permanent principle of spiritual Life , Light , Love and Power , acting in the whole Soul , and all the Faculties of the mind , enabling them to cleave unto God , with purpose of Heart , and to live unto him in all the Acts and Duties of spiritual Life : This is that whereby the Holy Ghost is in them a Well of Water , springing up into Everlasting Life , Joh. 4. 14. It is the Spirit that is born of the Spirit ; it is the divine Nature , whereof we are made partakers by the Promises : It is a Principle of victorious Faith and Love , with all Graces any way requisite unto Duties of Holy Obedience ; as to the matter or manner of their Performance , enabling the Soul unto all the Acts of the Life of God , with Delight , Joy and Complacency . THIS it is in its Nature , however as unto Degrees of its Operation and Manifestation it may be very low and weak in some true Believers , at least for a Season : But there are none who really are so , but there is in them a spiritually vital Principle of Obedience , or of living unto God , that is participant of the Nature of that which we have described ; and if it be attended unto , it will evidence it self in its Power and Operations unto the Gracious Refreshment and Satisfaction of the Soul wherein it is ; and there are few who are so destitute of those Evidences , but that they are able to say , whereas I was blind , now I see , tho' I know not how my Eyes were opened ; whereas I was dead , I find motions of a new Life in me , in breathing after Grace , in hungring and thirsting after Righteousness , though I know not how I was quickned . 3. IT may be considered as unto its Disposition , Inclinations and Motions ; these are the first Actings of a vital Principle : As the first Actings of Sin are called the Motions of sin , working in our Members , Rom. 7. 5. Such Motions and Inclinations unto Obedience do work in the minds of Believers , from this principle of Holiness : It produceth in them a constant , invariable Disposition unto all Duties of the Life of God : It is a new Nature , and a Nature cannot be without suitable Inclinations and Motions : And this new spiritual Disposition consists in a constant Complacency of Mind in that which is good , and according to the Will of God , in an Adherence by Love unto it , in a Readiness and Fixedness of Mind with Respect unto particular Duties : In Brief , it is that which David describes in the 119th . Psalm throughout , and that which is siguratively foretold concerning the Efficacy of the Grace of the Gospel , in Changing the Natures and Dispositions of those that are Partakers of it , Isa. 11. 6 , 7 , 8. THIS every Believer may ordinarily find in himself , for although this Disposition may be variously weakned , opposed , interrupted by in-dwelling Sin , and the Power of Temptation ; though it may be impaired by a neglect of the stirring up , and exercise of the Principle or spiritual Life , in all requisite Graces , on all Occasions , yet it will still be working in them , and will fill the mind with a constant Displacency with it self , when it is not observed , followed , improved . No Believer shall ever have Peace in his own Mind , who hath not some Experience of an universal Disposition unto all Holiness and Godliness in his Mind and Soul : Herein consists that Love of the Law , of which it is said , those in whom it is have great Peace , and nothing shall offend them , Psal. 119. 165. It is that wherein their Souls find much Complacency . 4. IT may be considered with Respect unto all the Acts , Duties and Works , internal and external , wherein our actual Obedience doth consist : Being on the Principles mentioned , made free from Sin , and becoming the Servants of God , Believers herein have their Fruit unto Holiness , whereof the end is everlasting Life , Rom. 6. 22. This I need not stay to describe . Sincerity in every Duty , and Universality with respect unto all Duties , are the Properties of it . THIS is the Will of God , even your Sanctification , 1 Thessal . 4. 3. That Holiness , without which none shall see God , Heb. 12. 14. That good and acceptable and perfect Will of God which we are to approve , Rom. 12. 2. OUR next Enquiry is , what is that Approbation of this way of Holiness which we place as an Evidence of saving Faith ? And I say , it is such as ariseth from Experience , and is accompanied with Choice , Delight , and Acquiescency : It is the Acting of the Soul in a delightful Adherence unto the whole Will of God : It is a resolved Judgment of the Beauty and Excellency of that Holiness and Obedience which the Gospel reveals and requires , and that on the Grounds which shall be immediately declared , and the Nature thereof therein more fully opened . THIS Approbation cannot be in any unregenerate Person , who is not under the Conduct of saving Faith , who is destitute of the Light of it : So the Apostle assures us , Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is Enmity against God , for it is not subject unto the Law of God , neither indeed can be . Whatever Work it may have wrought in it , or upon it , yet whilst it is carnal or unrenewed , it hath a radical Enmity unto the Law of God , which is the frame of Heart which stands in direct Opposition unto this Approbation . It may think well of this or that Duty , from its Convictions , and other Considerations , and so attend unto their Performance , but the Law it self , in the universal Holiness which it requires , it doth utterly dislike ; those in whom it is , are alienated from the Life of God , through the Ignorance that is in them , Eph. 4. 18. This Life of God is that Holiness and Obedience which he requireth of us in their Principles and Duties : And to be alienated from it , is to dislike and disapprove of it ; and such is the frame of Mind in all unregenerate Persons . HAVING thus prepared the way , I return unto the Declaration and Confirmation of the Assertion , namely , THAT true and saving Faith , in all Storms and Temptations , in all Darknesses and Distresses , will evidence it self , unto the Comfort and Supportment of them in whom it is , by a constant , universal Approbation of the whole Will of God , concerning our Holiness and Obedience , both in general , and in every particular Instance of it . WE may a little Explain it : 1. FAITH will not suffer the Mind on any Occasion or Temptation to entertain the least Dislike of this way of Holiness , or of any thing that belongs unto it . The Mind may sometimes through Temptations fall under Apprehensions that one shall be eternally ruined , for want of a due Compliance with it ; this makes it displeased with it self , but not with the Obedience required , Rom. 7. 10 , 11 , 12. The Commandment which was ordained to Life , I found to be unto Death ; but the Law is holy , and the Commandment is holy , and just , and good . However it be with me whatever becomes of me , though I dye and perish , yet the Law is holy , just , and good . It dislikes nothing in the Will of God , though it cannot attain unto a Compliance with it . Sometimes the Conscience is under Perplexities and Rebukes for Sin ; sometimes the Mind is burthened by the Tergiversation of the Flesh unto Duties that are cross unto its Inclinations and Interests , sometimes the World threatens the utmost Dangers unto the Performance of some Duties of Religion , but none of these are able to provoke the Soul that is under the Conduct of Faith to dislike , to think hard of any of those ways and Duties whence these difficulties arise . And , 2. AS it will not dislike any thing in this way of Holiness , so it will not desire on any Occasion , that there should be any Alteration in it , or any Abatement of it , or of any thing required in it . Naaman the Syrian liked well of the Worship of the true God in general , but he would have an Abatement of Duty , as to one Instance , in compliance with his earthly Interest , which discovered his Hypocrisie . Such Imaginations may befall the Minds of Men , that if they might be excused in this or that Instance unto Duties that are dangerous and troublesome , like Profession in the Times of Persecution , or might be indulged in this or that sin , which either their Inclinations are very prone unto , or their secular Interest do call for , they should do well enough with all other things . Accordingly the Practice of many doth answer their Inclination and Desire ; they will profess Religion and Obedience unto God , but will keep back part of the Price , will hide a Wedge in their Tents , through Indulgence unto some Corruption , or Dislike of some Duties in their Circumstancees : They would give unto themselves the measure of their Obedience , and according as Mens Practice is , so do they desire that things indeed should be , that that Practice should please God which pleaseth them : This Faith abhorrs ; the Soul that is under the Conduct of it , is not capable of any one Desire that any thing were otherwise than it is in the will of God , concerning our Holiness and Obedience , no more than it can desire that God should not be what he is . No , though any Imagination should arise in it , that by some Change and Abatement in some instances it might be saved , which now is uncertain whether that be so or no , it will admit of no such Composition , but will choose to stand or fall unto the entire Will of God. WE shall therefore in the next place proceed to enquire , on what Grounds it is that Faith doth thus approve of the whole Will of God , as unto our Holiness and Obedience ; as also , how it evidenceth it self so to do : And these Grounds are two ; tho one respecting God , the other our own Souls . 1. FAITH looks on the Holiness required of us , as that which is suited unto the Holiness of God himself ; as that which it is meet for him to require , on the Account of his own Nature , and the infinite Perfections thereof ; the Rule is , Be ye holy , for I the Lord your God am holy : I require that of you which becometh and answereth my own Holiness ; because I am holy , it is necessary that you should be so ; if you are mine in a peculiar manner , your Holiness is that which becometh my Holiness to require . WE have before declared what this Gospel Holiness is , wherein it doth consist , and what is required thereunto ; and they may be all considered either as they are in us , inherent in us , and performed by us , or as they are in themselves , in their own Nature , and in the Will of God. In the first way , I acknowledge that by reason of our Weaknesses , Imperfections , and partial Renovation only , as to degrees in this Life , with our manifold Defects and Sins , they make not a clear Representation of the Holiness of God : However they are the best Image of it , even as in the meanest of Believers that this World can afford ; but in themselves , and their own Nature , as it lies in the Will of God , they make up the most glorious Representation of himself that God ever did or will grant in this World ; especially , if we comprize therein the Exemplification of it , in the humane Nature of Christ himself ; for the Holiness that is in Believers is of the same Nature and Kind with that which was and is in Jesus Christ , though his exceed theirs inconceivably in Degrees of Perfection . WHEREFORE , we are required to be holy , as the Lord our God is holy ; and perfect , as our heavenly Father is perfect ; which we could not be , but that in our Holiness and Perfection there is a Resemblance and Answerableness unto the Holiness and Perfection of God : And if a due Sense hereof were continually upon our Hearts , it would influence us into greater Care and Diligence in all Instances of Duty and Sin ▪ than for the most part we do attain unto and preserve . If we did on all Occasions sincerely and severely call our selves to an Account , whether our Frames , Ways and Actions , bear a due Resemblance unto the Holiness and Perfections of God , it would be a spiritual Preservative on all Occasions . FAITH , I say then , discerneth the Likeness of God in this Holiness , and every Part of it , sees it as that which becomes him to require , and thereon approves of it , reverencing God in it all ; and it doth so in all the parts of it , in all that belongs unto it . 1. IT doth so principally in the inward form of it , which we before described ; in the new Creature , the new Nature , the Reparation of the Image of God that is in it : In the Beauty hereof , it continually beholds the Likeness and Glory of God ; For it is created 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according unto God , after him , or in his Image , in Righteousness and true Holiness , Eph. 4. 24. The new Man is renewed after the Image of him that created him , Col. 3. 10. WHEN God first created all things , the Heavens and the Earth , with all that is contained in them , he left such Foot-steps and Impressions of his infinite Wisdom , Goodness and Power , on them , that they might signifie and declare his Perfection , his Eternal Power and Godhead ; yet did he not , he is not said to have created them in his own Image : And this was , because they were only a passive Representation of him in the Light of others , and not in themselves ; nor did they represent at all that wherein God will be principally glorified among his Creatures , namely , the universal Rectitude of his Nature in Righteousness and Holiness : But of Man , it is said peculiarly and only , that he was made in the Image and Likeness of God ; and this was , because in the Rectitude of his Nature he represented the Holiness and Righteousness of God , which is the only use of an Image : This was lost by Sin : Man in his fallen Condition doth no more represent God , there is nothing in him that hath any thing of the Likeness or Image of God in it , all is dead , dark , perverse and confused ; this new Nature whereof we speak , is created of God for this very end , that it may a blessed Image and Representation of the Holiness and Righteousness of God. Hence it is callled the Divine Nature , whereof we are partakers , 2 Pet. 1. 4. And he that cannot see a Representation of God in it , hath not the Light of Faith and Life in him . HEREON , I say , Faith doth approve of the Form and Principle of this Holiness , as the Renovation of the Image of God in us ; it looks upon it as that which becomes God to bestow and require , and therefore that which hath an incomparable Excellency and Desirableness in it : Yea , when the Soul is ready to faint under an Apprehension , that it is not partaker of this holy Nature , because of the Power of sin in it , and Temptations on it , it knows not whether it self be born of God or no , as is the Case with many ; yet where this Faith is , it will discern the Beauty and Glory of the new Creation in some measure , as that which bears the Image of God , and thereon doth it preserve in the Soul a Longing after it , or a further Participation of it . BY this Work or Act of it , doth Faith discover its Sincerity , which is that which we enquire after ; whilst it hath an Eye open to behold the Glory of God in the new Creature , whilst it looks on it as that wherein there is a Representation made of the Holiness of God himself , as that which becomes him to require in us , and thereon approves of it as excellent end desirable , it will be an Anchor unto the Soul in its greatest storms : For this is a Work beyond what a meer Enlightned Conscience can arise unto : That can approve or disapprove of all the Acts and Effects of Obedience and Disobedience , as unto their Consequents , but to discern the spiritual Nature of the New Creature , as representing the Holiness of God himself , and thereon constantly to approve of it , is the Work alone . 2. IT doth the same with respect unto the internal Acts and Effects of this New Creature , or Principle of New Obedience : The first thing it producoth in us is a Frame of Mind Spiritual and Heavenly ; they that are after the Spirit are spiritually-minded , Rom. 8. 5 , 6. It looks on the opposite Frame , namely , of being Carnally minded , as vile and loathsome ; it consisting in a Readiness and Disposition of Mind to actuate the Lusts of the Flesh ; but this spiritual Frame of Mind is a just Constellation of all the Graces of the Spirit , influencing , disposing , and making ready the Soul for the Exercise of them on all Occasions , and in all Duties of Obedience ; this is the inward Glory of the Kings Daughter , which Faith sees and approves of , as that which becometh God to require in us ; whatever is contrary hereunto , as a sensual , carnal , worldly frame of Mind , it looks on as vile and base , unworthy of God , or of those who design the Enjoyment of him . 3. IT doth the same with respect unto all particular Duties internal and external , when they are enlivened and filled up with Grace : In them consists our walking worthy with God , Col. 1. 10. 1 Thessal . 2. 12. Such a Walk as is meet for God to accept that whereby and wherein he is glorified The contrary hereunto , in the Neglect of the Duties of Holiness , or the Performance of them , without the due Exercise of Grace , Faith looks on as unworthy of God , unworthy of our high and holy Calling , unworthy of our Profession , and therefore doth constantly condemn and abhor . ALL this , as we observed before , Faith will continue to do constantly under Temptations and Dissertions : There are Seasons wherein the Soul may be very weak , as unto the Powers , Effects and Duties of this spiritual Life ; such the Psalmist often-times complains of in his own Case , and it is evident in the Experience of most ; few there are who have not found at one time or another great Weakness , Decays , and much Deadness in their spiritual Condition : And sometimes true Beleivers may be at a Loss as unto any Refreshing Experience of it in its Operations . They may not be able to determine in the Contest whether Sin or Grace have the Dominion in them : Yet even in all these Seasons Faith will keep up the Soul unto a constant high Approbation of this way of Holiand Obedience , in its Root and Fruits , in its Principle and Effects , in its Nature , Disposition , and Duties : For when they cannot see the Beauty of these things in themselves , they can see it in the Promises of the Covenant , in the Truth of the Gospel , wherein it is declared , and in the Effects of it in others . AND great Advantage is to be obtained by the due Exercise of Faith herein . For , 1. IT will never suffer the Heart to be at Rest in any sinful way , or under any such spiritual Decays as shall estrange it from the pursuit of this Holiness . The Sight , the Conviction of its Excellency , the Approbation of it , as that which in us and our measure answers the Holiness of God , will keep up the Mind unto Endeavours after it , will rebuke the Soul in all its Neglects of it ; nor will it allow any Quiet or Peace within , without an Endeavour after a comfortable . Assurance of it . That Soul is desparately sick which hath lost an abiding sense of the Excellency of this Holiness , in its Answerableness unto the Holiness and Will of God. Fears and Checks of Conscience are the whole of its Security against the worst of sins , and they are a Guard not to be trusted unto in the room of the Peace of God. This is one great difference between Believers and those that have not Faith : Fear of the Consequents of sin , with an Apprehension of some Advantages which are to be obtained by a sober Life and the Profession of Religion , do steer and regulate the Minds of Unbelievers , in all they do towards God or for Eternity ; but the Minds of Believers are influenced by a View of the Glory of the Image and Likeness of God in that Holiness and all the parts of it which they are called unto : This gives them Love unto it , Delight and Complacency in it , enabling them to look upon it as its own Reward : And without these Affections none will ever abide in the ways of Obedience unto the End. 2. WHERE Faith is in this Exercise , it will evidence it self unto the Relief of the Soul in all its Darknesses and Temptations . The Mind can never conclude that it wholly is without God and his Grace , whilst it constantly approves of the Holiness required of us . This is not of our selves , by Nature we are ignorant of it . This Life is hid with Christ in God , Col. 3. 3. where we can see nothing of it ; hereon we are alienated from it , and do dislike it ; alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that is in us , Ephes. 4. 18. And most men live all their days in a Contempt of the principal Evidences and Duties of this Life of God , and of the Principle of it , which they look on as a Fable : Wherefore the Mind may have great Satisfaction in a sight of the Beauty and Approbation of this Holiness , as that which nothing can produce but sincere and saving Faith. Secondly , FAITH approves of this way of Holiness and Obedience , as that which gives that Rectitude and Perfection unto our Nature whereof it is capable in this World. It is the only Rule and Measure of them ; and whatever is contrary thereunto , is perverse , crooked , vile and base . Some Men think that their Nature is capable of no other Perfection but what consists in the Satisfaction of their Lusts ; they know no other Blessedness , nothing that is suitable to their Desires but the Swinge of Nature , in the Pursuit of its corrupt Lusts and Pleasures : So are they described by the Apostle , Eph. 4. 19. The Business of their Lives is to make Provision for the flesh , to fulfill it in the Lusts thereof : They walk in the Lusts of the flesh , fulfilling ( so far as they are able ) the Desires of the Flesh and of the Mind , Ephes. 2. 3. They neither know nor understand what an Hell of Confusion , Disorder , and base Degeneracy from their Original Constitution , their Minds are filled withall ; this Perfection is nothing but the next Disposition unto Hell , and it doth manifest its own vileness unto every one who hath the least Ray of Spiritual Light. SOME among the Heathen placed the Rectitude of Nature in Moral Virtues and Operations , according unto them , and this was the utmost that natural Light could could ever rise up unto : But the Uncortainty and Weakness hereof are discovered by the Light of the Gospel . IT is Faith alone that discovers what is good for us , in us , and unto us , whilst we are in this World : It is in the Renovation of the Image of God in us , in the Change and Transformation of our Nature into his Likeness ; in acting from a gracious Principle of a Divine Life , in Duties and Operations suited thereunto , in the participation of the Divine Nature by the Promises , that the Good , the Perfection , the Order , the present Blessedness of our Nature do consist . HEREBY are the Faculties of our Souls exalted , elevated , and enabled to act primigenial Powers , with respect unto God , and our Enjoyment of him , which is our utmost End and Blessedness . Hereby are our Affections placed on their proper Objects , ( such as they were created meet for , and in closing wherewith their Satisfaction , Order , and Rest doth consist ) namely , God and his Goodness , or God as revealed in Jesus Christ by the Gospel ; hereby all the Powers of our Souls are brought into a blessed Frame and Harmony in all their Operations , whatever is dark , perverse , unquiet , vise and base , being cast out of them ; but these things must be a little more distinctly explained . 1. THERE is in this Gospel-Holiness , as the Spring and Principle of it , a spiritual saving Light , enabling the Mind and Understanding to know God in Christ , and to discern spiritual things in a spiritual saving manner ; for herein God shines into our Hearts , to give us the Knowledge of his Glory in the Face of Jesus Christ , 2 Cor. 4. 6. Without this , in some Degree , whatever pretence there may be , or Appearance of Holiness in any , there is nothing in them of what is really so , and thereon accepted with God. Blind Devotion , that is , an Inclination of Mind unto Religious Duties destitute of this Light , will put Men on a Multiplication of Duties , especially such as are of their own Invention , in a shew of Wisdom in Will-worship , Humility , and neglecting of the Body , as the Apostle speaks Col. 1. 23. wherein there is nothing of Gospel-Holiness . THE new man is renewed in Knowledge , after the Image of him that created him , Col. 3. 10. That this saving Light and Knowledge is the Spring and Principle of all real Evangelical Holiness and Obedience , the Apostle declares in that Description which he gives us of the whole of it , both in its Beginning and Progress , Col. 1. 9 , 10 , 11. We desire that you may be filled with the Knowledge of his Will , in all Wisdom and spiritual Understanding : That you might walk worthy of the Lord , in all pleasing , being fruitful in every good Work , and encreasing in the Knowledge of God , strengthned with all might , according to his glorious Power , unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness . It is a blessed Account that is here given us of that Gospel-Holiness which we enquire after , in its Nature , Original , Spring , Progress , Fruits and Effects : And a serious Consideration of it as here proposed , a View of it in the Light of Faith , will evidence how distant and different it is from those Schemes of Moral Virtues which some would substitute in its room ; it hath a Glory in it which no unenlightned Mind can behold or comprehend ; the foundation of it is laid in the Knowledge of the Will of God , in all Wisdom and Spiritual-Understanding ; this is that spiritual saving Light whereof we 〈◊〉 , the Encrease hereof is prayed for in Believers by the Apostle , Ephes. 1. 17 , 18. Even that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ , the Father of Glory , would give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of him ; the Eyes of your Understanding being enlightned , that you may know what is the Hope of his Calling , and what is the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the Saints ; which here is called encreasing in the Knowledge of God , ver . 10. The singular Glory of this saving Light in its Original , its Causes , Use and Effects , is most illustriously here declared , and this Light is in every true Believer , and is the only immediate Spring of all Gospel-Holiness and Obedience : For , The new man is renewed in Knowledge , after the Image of him that created him , Col. 3. 10. THIS Light , this Wisdom , this spiritual Understanding thus communicated unto Believers , is the Rectitude and Perfection of their Minds in this VVorld : It is that which gives them Order , and Peace , and Power , enabling them to act all their Faculties in a due manner , with respect unto their Being and End : It is that which gives Beauty and Glory to the inward man , and which constitutes a Believer an Inhabitant of the Kingdom of Light ; whereby we are delivered from the Power of Darkness , and translated into the Kingdom of the Son of God's Love , Col. 1. 13. Or , out of Darkness into his marvellous light , 1 Pet. 2. 9. THAT which is contrary hereunto , is that Ignorance , Darkness , Blindness , and Vanity , which the Scripture declares to be in the Minds of all unregenerate Persons ; and they are really so , where they are not cured by the glorious working of the Power and Grace of God before-mentioned . NOW Faith discerneth these things as the spiritual man discerneth all things , 1 Cor. 2. 15. It sees the Beauty of this heavenly Light , and judgeth that it is that which giveth Order and Rectitude unto the Mind ; as also that which is contrary unto it is vile , base , horrid , and to be ashamed of . As for those who love Darkness more than Light , because their Deeds are evil , it knows them to be strangers unto Christ and his Gospel . 2. Again , there is required unto this Holiness a Principle of Spiritual Life and Love unto God : This guides , acts , and rules in the Soul , in all its Obedience , and it gives the Soul its proper order in all its Operations : That which is contrary hereunto is Death , and Enmity against God. Faith judgeth between these two Principles and their Operations ; the former in all its Actings it approves of as lovely , beautiful , desirable , as that which is the Rectitude and Perfection of the Will ; and the other it looks on as deformed , froward , and perverse . 3. THE like may be said of its Nature and Operations in the Affections , as also of all those Duties of Obedience which proceed from it , as it is described in the place before-mentioned . IT remaineth only , that we shew by what Acts , Ways , and Means , Faith doth evidence this its Approbation of Gospel-Holiness , as that which is lovely and desirable in it self , and which gives all that Rectitude and Perfection unto our Minds , which they are capable of in this World. And it doth so , 1. BY that Self-displacency and Abasement which it works in the Mind on all Instances and Occasions , where it comes short of this Holiness : This is the chief Principle and Cause of that holy Shame which befalls Believers on every Sin and Miscarriage , wherein they come short of what is required in it , Rom. 6. 21. The things whereof ye are now ashamed : Now when by the Light of Faith you see how vile it is , and unworthy of you , what a Debasement of your Souls there is in it , you are ashamed of it . It is true , the principal Cause of this holy Shame , is a sense of the Unsuitableness that is in sin unto the Holiness of God , and the horrible Ingratitude and Disingenuity that there is in sinning against him : But it is greatly promoted by this Consideration , that it is a thing unworthy of us , and that wherein our Natures are exceedingly debased . So it it said of provoking Sinners , that they debase themselves even unto Hell , Isa. 57. 9. or make themselves as vile as Hell it self , by ways unworthy the Nature of men . And this is one Ground of all those severe Self-reflections which accompany godly Sorrow for sin , 2 Cor. 7. 11. AND hereby doth Faith evidence it self and its own Sincerity , whilst a man is ashamed of , and abased in himself for every sin , for every thing of sin , wherein it comes short of the Holiness required of us , as that which is base and unworthy of our Nature , in its present Constitution and Renovation ; though it be that which no Eye sees but God's and his own , he hath that in him which will grow on no Root but sincere Believing . Wherefore , whatever may be the disquieting Conflicts of sin in and against our Souls , whatever Decays we may fall into , which be the two Principles of Darkness and Fears in Believers , whilst this inward holy Shame , and Self-abasement , on the Account of the Vileness of sin , is preserved ; Faith leaves not it self without an Evidence in us . 2. IT doth the same by a spiritual Satisfaction which it gives the Soul in every Experience of the transforming Power of this Holiness , rendring it more and more like unto God. There is a secret Joy and spiritual Refreshment rising in the Soul from a sense of its Renovation unto the Image of God , and all the Actings and Encreases of the Life of God in it augment this Joy ; herein consists its gradual Return unto its primitive Order and Rectitude , with a blessed Addition of supernatual Light and Grace by Christ Jesus : It finds it self herein coming home to God from its old Apostacy , in the way of approaching to Eternal Rest and Blessedness : And there is no Satisfaction like unto that which it receives therein . THIS is the second way wherein Faith will abide firm and constant , and doth evidence it self in the Soul of every Believer ; however low and mean its Attainments be , in this spiritual Life , and the Fruits of it , though it be overwhelmed with Darkness and a sense of the Guilt of sin , though it be surprized and perplexed with the Deceit and Violence thereof , yet Faith will continue here firm and unshaken . It sees that Glory and Excellency in the Holiness and Obedience that God requireth of us , as it is a Representation of his own glorious Excellencies , the Renovation of his Image , and the Perfection of our Natures thereby , as it constantly approves of it , even in the deepest Trials which the Soul can be exercised withall ; and whilst this Anchor holds firm and stable , we are safe . The Third Evidence of the Faith of God's Elect. THirdly , FAITH will evidence it self by a diligent , constant Endeavour , to keep it self and all Grace in due Exercise , in all Ordinances of Divine Worship , private and publick . THIS is the Touch-stone of Faith and spiritual Obedience , the most intimate and difficult part of this Exercise : Where this is not , there is no Life in the Soul. There are two things whereby Men do or may deceive themselves herein ; ( 1. ) Abounding in the outward Performance of Duties , or a Multiplication of them ; hereby Hypocrites have in all Ages deceived themselves , Isa. 58. 2 , 3. And it was the Covering that the Church of Rome provided for their Apostacy from the Gospel : An Endless Multiplication of Religious Duties was that which they trusted to , and boasted in ; and we may find those daily that pretend a Conscience , as unto the constant Observation of outward Duties , and yet will abstain from no sin that comes in the way of their Lusts. And Men may and do oft-times abide constant in them , especially in their Families , and in publick ; yea , multiply them beyond the ordinary Measure , hoping to countenance themselves in other Lusts , and Neglects thereby . ( 2. ) Assistance of Gifts in the Performance of them ; but as this may be , where where there is not one Dram of Grace , saving Grace , so when rested in it , is a most powerful Engine to keep the Soul in Formality , to ruin all Beginning of Grace , and to bring an incurable hardness in the whole Soul. WHEREVER Faith is in sincerity it will constantly labour , endeavour , and strive to fill up all Duties of Divine Worship with the living , real , heart-acting of Grace ; and where it doth not so , where this is not attained , it will never suffer the Soul to take any Rest or Satisfaction in such Duties , but will cast them away as a defiled Garment : He that can pass through such Duties without a sensible Endeavour for the real Exercise of Grace in them , and without Self-abasement on the performance of them , will hardly find any other clear Evidence of saving Faith in himself . THERE are three Evils that have followed the Ignorance , or Neglect , or Weariness of this Exercise of Faith , which have proved the Ruin of multitudes . 1. THIS hath been the Occasion and Original of all false Worship in the World , with the Invention of those Superstitious Rites and Ceremonies wherein it consists : For Men having lost the Exercise of Faith in the Ordinances of Worship that are of Divine Institution , they found the whole of it to be useless and burthensome unto them : For without this constant Exercise of Faith there is no Life in it , nor Satisfaction to be obtained by it ; they must therefore have something in it , or accompanying of it , which may entertain their Minds , and engage their Affections unto it : If this had not been done , it would have been utterly deserted by the most . Hereon were invented Forms of Prayer in great Diversity , with continual Diversions and Avocations of the Mind from what is proposed : Because it cannot abide in the pursuit of any thing spiritual , without the Exercise of Faith : This gives it some Entertainment by the meer Performance , and makes it think there is something where indeed is nothing ; hereunto are added outward Ceremonies of Vestments , Postures , and Gestures of Veneration unto the same end ; there is no other Design in them all , but to entertain the Mind and Affections with some Complacency and Satisfaction in outward Worship , upon the loss or want of that Exercise of Faith which is the Life and Soul of it in Believers : And as any Persons do decay herein , they shall find themselves insensibly sinking down into the use of these lifeless Forms , or that Exercise of their natural Faculties and Memory , which is not one Jot better : Yea , by this means some from an Eminency in Spiritual Gifts , and the performance of Duties by vertue of them , have sunk into an Ave-Mary , or a Credo , as the best of their Devotion . 2. THIS hath caused many to turn aside , to fall off from , and forsake the solemn Ordinances of Divine Worship , and to betake themselves unto vain Imaginations for Relief , in Trembling , Enthusiastical Singing and seigned Raptures ; from hence have so many forsaked their own Mercies to follow after lying Vanities , they kept for a while unto the Observance of the divine Institutions of Worship , but not having Faith to exercise in them , by which alone they are Life and Power , they became useless and burthensome unto them ; they could find neither Sweetness , Satisfaction , nor Benefit in them . It is not possible that so many in our days , if ever they had tasted of the old Wine , should so go after new ; if ever they had Experience of that Savour , Power , and Life , which is in the Ordinances of Divine Worship , when acted and enlivened by the Exercise of Faith , should forsake them for that which is nothing : They went out from us , but they were not of us ; for had they been of us , they would have continued with us : Had they known it , they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory . This therefore is the true Reason why so many in our days , after they have for a season abode under and in the Observation of the Gospel-Ordinances of Worship , have fallen off from them , namely , not having Faith to exercise in them , nor endeavouring after it , they did really find no Life in them , nor Benefit by them . SOME on the same Ground fall into Prophaneness , pretending to take up with a natural Religion , without any instituted Worship at all . Of this sort of Persons we have multitudes in the days wherein we live , having nothing of the Light of Faith , they can see no Form or Comeliness in Christ , nor any thing that belongs unto him ; by these means are Souls every day precipitated into ruine . HEREIN therefore , I say , true Faith will evidence it self , in all Darknesses and Distress whatsoever : It will always endeavour to keep it self and all other Graces in a due and constant Exercise in all Duties of Worship , private and publick ; it may soemtimes be weakened in its Actings and Operations , it may be under Decays , it may be as a Sleep , and that not only as unto particular Duties and Seasons , but as unto the inward habitual frame of the Mind ; but where it is true and genuine , it will shake it self out of this dust , cast off the sin that doth so easily beset us , and stir up it self with all Might and Contention unto its Duty : And there is no more dangerous State for a Soul , than when it is sinking down into Formality , and neglect of the Exercise of Faith , in a multitude of Duties ; then is it assuredly ready to dye , if it be not dead already . IF we are Wise therefore , we will watch , and take care that we lose not this Evidence of Faith ; it will stand us in stead , when it may be all other things seem to be against us ; some have been relieved by the Remembrance of this Exercise of Faith , when they have been at the door of Desperation ; such or such a Season they had Experience of the work of Faith in Prayer , hath been their Relief , an Experience hereof is a Jewel , which it may be of no great use whilst it lies by you locked up in a Cabinet , but which you will know the worth of , if ever you come to need Bread for your Lives . IT is therefore worth while to enquire what we ought to do , or what means we ought to use that we may keep up Faith unto its due Exercise in all the parts of Divine Worship , so as that it may give us a comforting Evidence of it self in times of Temptation and Darkness ? And unto this End the ensuing Directions may be of use . 1. LABOUR to have your Hearts always affected with a due Sense of the infinite Perfections of the Divine Nature in all our Approaches unto him , especially of his Sovereign Power , Holiness , Immensity , and Omnipresence ; and this will produce in us also a Sense of infinite Distance from him . As this is necessary , from the Nature of the things themselves , so the Scripture gives us such Descriptions of God as are suited to ingenerate this frame in us ; this is that which Joshuae aimed to bring the People unto , when he designed to engage them in the Service of God in a due manner , Josh. 24. 19 , 20 , 21 , 22. That which the Apostle requireth in us , Heb. 12. 28 , 29. And unto the same End glorious Descriptions and Appearances of God are multiplied in Scripture : If we fail herein , if we do not on all Occasions fill our Minds with reverential Thoughts of God , his Greatness , and his Holiness , Faith hath no foundation to stand upon in its Exercise in the Duties of Worship : This is the only inlet into the due Exercise of Grace ; where it is wanting , all holy Thoughts and Affections are shut out of our minds ; and where it is present , it is impossible but that there will be some gracious working of Heart in all our Duties ; if we are empty hereof in our Entrance of Duties , we shall be sure to be filled with other things , which will be cloggs and hindrances unto us : But Reverential Thoughts of God in our Approaches unto him , will cast out all superfluity of Naughtiness , and dissipate all carnal , formal frames , which will vitiate all our Duties . Keep your Hearts therefore under this Charge in all your Accesses unto God , and it will constantly open a door unto that Exercise of Faith which we enquire after . HEREON , and herewith we shall be affected with a sense of our infinite Distance from him , which is another means to stir up Faith unto its due Exercise in Reverence and Godly Fear : So Abraham was affected , Gen. 18. 27. which the wise man directs us unto , Eccles. 5. 2. CARNAL Boldness in the want of these things ruins the Souls of Men , rendring all their Duties of Worship unacceptable unto God , and unprofitable unto themselves . AFFECT your Hearts with a due sense of Unsuitableness of our best Duties unto his Holiness and Majesty , and of his infinite Condescension in the Acceptance of them . Suppose there is in any of our Duties the best and the most lively Exercise of Grace that we can attain unto , the most Fervency in Prayer , with the most diligent Attendance of our minds , the most Humility and contrite Trembling in hearing the Word , the most devout Affection of our Minds in other parts of Worship ; alas ! what is all this to God , how little doth it answer his infinite Holiness ! See Job 4. 18 , 19. Chap. 15. 15 , 16. Our Goodness extends not unto him , Psal. 16. There are no measures , there is no proportion between the Holiness of God and our best Duties . There is Iniquity in our holy things , they have need of Mercy and Pardon , of Cleansing and Justification by the Blood of Christ no less than our Persons : And an infinite Condescension it is in God to take any notice of us or them . Yea , it is that which we must live in all holy Admiration of , all our days . NOW if it be thus with our best Duties , in our best Frames , what an Outrage of Sloth and Negligence is it , if we bring the Carcass of Duties unto God , for want of stirring up Faith unto its due Exercise in them ! how great is this folly , how unspeakable is the Guilt of this Negligence ! Let us therefore keep a sense hereof upon our Hearts , that we may always stir up our selves unto our best in Duties of Religious Worship . For , 3. A Negligence herein , or the want of stirring up Faith unto a due Exercise in all Duties of worship , is the highest affront we can put upon God , arguing a great Regardlesness of him ; whilst it is so with us , we have not , we cannot have a due Sense of any of the divine Perfections , of the divine Nature , we turn God what lies in us into an Idol , supposing that he may be put off with the out side and appearance of things . This the Apostle cautioneth us against , Heb. 4. 12 , 13. and which God detests , Isa. 29. 13. And he pronounceth him a Deceiver , and Cursed , who offereth unto him the lame and blind while he hath a Male in the flock , Mal. 1. 14. Yet thus is it with us in some degree , whenever we are negligent in stirring up Faith into its proper Exercise in holy Duties : That alone renders them the Male of the flock , without it they are lame and blind , a corrupt thing . IT is a sad thing for Men to lose their Duties , to be at charge and trouble in the Multiplication of them , and Attendance unto them to no purpose : Oh how much more sad is it , when they are all Provocations of the Eyes of God's Glory ? when they tend to encrease the Formality and Hardness of their Hearts , towards the ruine of their Souls ? STAND in awe therefore , and sin not , commune with your own Hearts ; cease not , until on all Occasions you bring them into that Exercise of Faith wherein you may glorifie God , as God , and not deal with him as an Idol . 4. UNTO the same End , keep your Souls always deeply affected with a sense of the things about which you are to treat with God in all the Duties of his Worship . They are referred unto two Heads ( 1. ) Those which concern his Glory . ( 2. ) Those which concern our own Souls : Without a constant due Sense of those things on our Hearts , Faith will not act it self aright in any of our Duties : Without this intimate Concern and deep Sense , we know not whether we need Faith in our Prayers , or have an Exercise of it ; Formality will drown all . The best of our Prayers is but an Expression unto God of what Sense we have of those things ; if we have none , we Pray not at all , whatever we say or do ; but when these things dwell in our Minds , when we think on them continually , when our Hearts cleave unto them , Faith will be at Work in all our Approaches to God. Can you not Pray ? charge your Hearts with these things , and you will learn so to do . 5. WATCH diligently against those things which ye find by Experience are apt to obstruct your fervency in Duties : Such are Indispositions through the flesh , or weariness of the flesh , distracting foolish Imaginations , the Occasions of Life revolving in our Minds , and the like . If such Impediments as these be not removed , if they be not watched against , they will influence the mind , and suffocate the Exercise of Faith therein . 6. ABOVE all , the principal Rule herein is , that we would always carefully remember the Concernment of Christ in these Duties , with Respect unto his Office : He is the high Priest over the House of God ; through him , and under his Conduct are we always to draw nigh to God , and his Work it is to present the Prayers and Supplications of the Church to God. Now we have no way to come unto Christ for his Assistance in the discharge of his Office on our Behalf but by Faith ; and in all our Duties of holy Worship we make a Profession of our doing so , of our coming unto God by him as our high Priest ; if we endeavour not therein to have Faith in Exercise , how do we mock , or make a shew to him of doing that which indeed we endeavour not to do . There can be no greater Contempt of Christ in his Office , nor greater Undervaluation of his Love : But a due Consideration hereof , namely , of the Concernment of Christ in all our Duties , with respect unto the Office which he dischargeth for us in Heaven , is that which directly leads Faith into its proper Exercise : For through him , and that in discharge of his Office , we believe in God. And when the Mind is exercised with due Thoughts of him , if there be any thing of true saving Faith in the Heart , it will act it self unto a blessed Experience . THESE things may be of use to stir us up , and guide us unto that Exercise of Faith in all holy Duties , an Experience whereof abiding in the Soul , will evidence the Truth of it , unto our Supportment and Comfort in all Temptations and Distresses . SOME it may be will say , that their Gift in Prayer is mean and weak , that they cannot express themselves with Earnestness and Fervency , and so know not whether there be any Faith in Exercise in their Prayers or no. I answer , there is nothing at all herein , for Grace may be very high where where Gifts are very low , and that frequently . AND it may be others will complain of the meaness of their Gifts on whom they attend in Prayer , which is such as they cannot accompany them in the Exercise of any Grace . I answer , ( 1. ) There is no doubt but that there is a great Difference in the spiritual Gifts of Men in this matter , some being much more effectual unto Edification than others . ( 2. ) Take care that you are called in Providence and Duty to join with them whom you intend , that you do not first voluntarily choose that which is unto your Disadvantage , and then complain of it . ( 3. ) Be their Gifts never so mean , if Grace in their own Hearts be exercised by it , so it may be in ours ; where there is no Evidence thereof , I confess the Case is hard . ( 4. ) Let the mind be still fixed on the matter or things uttered in Prayer , so as to close with and act Faith about what is a real Object of it , and it will find its proper work in that duty . The Fourth Evidence of the Faith of God's Elect. I Come in the next place to instance in a peculiar way whereby true Faith will evidence it self , not always , but on some Occasions ; and this is by bringing the Soul into a state of Repentance . And three things must be spoken unto . ( 1. ) In general , what I intend by this state of Repentance . ( 2. ) What are the Times and Occasions , or who are the Persons wherein Faith will act it self unto this End. ( 3. ) What are the Duties required unto such a state . 1. BY this state of Repentance I do not understand meerly the Grace and Duty of Evangelical Repentance : For this is absolutely inseparable from true Faith , and no less necessary unto Salvation than it self . He that doth not truly and really repent of sin , whatever he profess himself to believe , he is no true Believer . But I intend now somewhat that is peculiar , that is , not common unto all , whereby on some Occasions Faith doth evidence its Power and Sincerity . NEITHER yet do I mean a Grace , Duty or State that is of another kind or nature from that of Gospel-Repentance , which is common to all Believers . There are not two kinds of true Repentance , nor two different states of them that are truly penitent : All that I intend , is an eminent Degree of Gospel-Repentance , in the Habit or Root , and in all the Fruits and Effects of it . There are various Degrees in the Power and Exercise of Gospel-Graces , and some may be more eminent in one , and some in another ; as Abraham and Peter in Faith , David and John in Love. And there may be Causes and Occasions for the greater and higher Exercise of some Graces and Duties at one time than at another ; for we are to attend unto Duties according unto our Circumstances , so as we may glorifie God in them , and Advantage our own Souls : So the Apostle James directs us , Chap. 5. 13. Is any afflicted ? let him pray : Is any merry ? let him sing Psalms . Several States , and various Circumstances in them , call for the peculiar Exercise of several Graces , and the diligent Performance of several Duties . And this is that which is here intended , namely , a peculiar , constant , prevalent Exercise of the Grace and Duties of Repentance in a singular manner : What is required hereunto , shall be afterwards declared . 2. As unto the Persons in whom this is required , and in whom Faith will evidence it self by it , they are of various sorts . 1. SUCH as have been by the power of their Corruptions and Temptations surprized into great sins : That some true Believers may be so , we have Presidents both in the Old Testament and in the New : Such I mean as Uncleanness , Drunkenness , Gluttony , Theft , Premeditated Lying , Oppression in Dealing , and sailing in Profession in the time of Persecution : This latter in the Primitive Church was never thought recoverable , but by Faith acting it self in a state of Repentance . Such Sins will have great Sorrows , as we see in Peter , and the incestuous Corinthian , who was in danger to be swallowed up of overmuch Sorrow , 2 Cor. 2. 1. Where it hath been thus with any , true Faith will immediately work for a Recovery by a through Humiliation and Repentance , as it did in Peter : And in case that any of them shall lye longer under the power of sin , through want of effectual Convictions , it will cost them dear in the Issue , as it did David ; but in this Case , for the most part Faith will not rest in the meer joynting again the Bone that was broken , or with such a Recovery as gives them Peace with God and their own Consciences , but by a just and due Remembrance of the Nature of their Sin , its Circumstances and Aggravations , the shameful Unkindness towards God that was in it , the Grief of the Holy Spirit , and Dishonour of Christ by it , it will decline and dispose the Soul to a humble contrite Frame , to a mournful Walking , and the universal Exercise of Repentance all its Days . AND indeed where it doth not so , Mens Recovery from great Sins are justly to be questioned , as unto their Sincerity . For want hereof it is that we have so many palliated Cures of great sins , followed with fearful and dangerous Relapses ; if a man subject to great Corruptions and Temptations hath by them been surprised into great actual sin , and been seemingly recovered through Humiliation and Repentance , if he again break the yoke of this stated Repentance whereof we speak , he will quickly again be ovorcome , and perhaps irrecoverably . Herein he alone that walketh softly , walketh safely . 2. IT is necessary for such as have given Scandal and Offence by their Miscarriages ; this will stick very close unto any who hath the least spark of saving Faith. It is that which God is in a peculiar manner provoked with in the sins of his People , as in the Case of David , 2 Sam. 12. 14. So also Ezek. 36. 20. Rom. 2. 24. This keeps alive the Remembrance of sin , and sets it before Men continually , and is a spring in a gracious Soul of all Acts and Duties of Repentance ; it was so in David all his days , and probably in Mary Magdalen also . Where it hath been thus with any , Faith will keep the Soul in an humble and contrite frame , watchful against Pride , Elation of Mind , Carelesness and Sloath ; it will recover godly Sorrow and Shame , with Revenge , or Self-reflection , in great Abasement of Mind , all which things belong to the state of Repentance intended . They that can easily shake of a Sense of Scandal given by them , have very little of Christian Ingenuity in their Minds . 3. IT is so unto such as have perplexing Lusts and Corruptions which they cannot so subdue but that they will be perplexing and desiling of them : For where there are such , they will in Conjunction with Temptations frequently disquiet , wound and desile the Soul : This brings upon it weariness and Outeries for Deliverance , Rom. 7. 24. In this State Faith will put the Soul on Prayer , Watchfulness , Diligence , in Opposition unto the Deceit and Violence of sin . But this is not all , it will not rest here , but it will give the Mind such a Sense of its distressed , dangerous Condition , as shall fill it constantly with godly Sorrow , Self-abasement , and all Duties of Repentance . No man can hold out in such a Conflict , nor maintain his Peace on right Grounds , who doth not live in the constant Exercise of Repentance , indeed who doth not endeavour in some measure to come up unto that State of it which we shall afterwards describe : For Men who have untameable Corruptions working continually in their Minds , by Imaginations , Thoughts , and Affections , to think to carry it in a general way of Duties and Profession , they will be mistaken , if they look either for Victory or Peace : This sort of men are of all others most peculiarly called unto this State and Duty . 4. SUCH as would be found Mourners for the sins of the Age , Place , and Time wherein they live , with the Consequents of them , in the Dishonour of God , and the Judgments which will ensue thereon . There are times wherein this is an especial and eminent Duty , which God doth highly approve of : Such are they wherein the visible Church is greatly corrupted , and open Abominations are found amongst Men of all sorts , even as it is at this day ; then doth the Lord declare how much he values the Performance of this Duty , as he testifies Ezek. 9. 4. They alone shall be under his especial Care in a day of publick Distress and Calamity : A Duty wherein it is to be feared that we are most of us very defective . Now the frame of Heart required hereunto cannot be attained , nor the Duty rightly performed , without that state of Repentance and Humiliation which we enquire into ; without it we may have transcient Thoughts of these things , but such as will very little affect our Minds : But where the Soul is kept in a constant spiritual Frame , it will be ready for this Duty on all Occasions . 5. IT becomes them , who having passed through the greatest part of their Lives , do find all outward things to issue in Vanity and Vexation of Spirit , as it was with Solomon when he wrote his Ecclesiastes . When a Man recounts the various Scenes and Appearances of things which he hath passed through in his Life , and the various Conditions he hath been in , he may possibly find that there is nothing steady but Sorrow and Trouble . It may be so with some , I say , with some good Men , with some of the best Men , as it was with Jacob : Others may have received more satisfaction in their Course ; but if they also will look back , they shall find how little there hath been in the best of their transcient Comforts , they will see enough to make them say , there is nothing in these things , it is high Time to take off all Expectations from them : Such persons seem to be called unto this especial Exercise of Repentance and Mourning for the Remainder of their Lives . 6. SUCH as whose Hearts are really wounded and deeply affected with the Love of Christ , so as that they can hardly bear any longer absence from him , nor delight in the things wherein they are detained and kept out of his presence : This frame the Apostle describes , 2 Cor. 5. 2 , 4 , 6 , 8. They live in a groaning Condition , throughly sensible of all the Evils that accompany them in this absence of the Bridegroom ; and they cannot but continually reflect upon the Sins and Follies which their Lives have been and are filled withall , in this their Distance from Christ : Whereas therefore their Hearts are filled with inflamed Affections towards him , they cannot but walk humbly and mournfully until they come unto him . It may be said , that those who have Experience of such Affection unto the Lord Jesus , cannot but have continual matter of Joy in themselves , and so of all Men have least need of such a state of constant Humiliation and Repentance . I say , it is so indeed , they have such matter of Joy , and therewith Christ will be formed in them more and more every day . But I say also , there is no Inconsistency between spiritual Joy in Christ , and godly Sorrow for Sin. Yea , no man in this Life shall ever be able to maintain solid Joy in his Heart , without the continual working of godly Sorrow also : Yea , there is a secret Joy and Refreshment in godly Sorrow , equal unto the chiefest of our Joys , and a great spiritual Satisfaction . THESE several Sorts of Persons , I say , are peculiarly called unto that Exercise of Faith in Repentance which we enquire after . BEFORE I proceed to shew wherein this state I intend doth consist , and what is required thereunto , which is the last thing proposed , I shall premise some Rules for the right judging of our selves with respect unto them . As , 1. FAITH will evidence its Truth , ( which is that we enquire after ) in its sincere endeavour after the things intended , though its Attainments as unto some of them be but mean and low : Yea , a sense of its coming short in a full answering of them or Compliance with them , is a great Ingredient in that state called unto : If therefore Faith keep up this design in the Soul , with a sincere pursuit of it , though it fail in many things , and is not sensible of any great Progress it makes , it will therein evidence its Sincerity . 2. WHEREAS there are sundry things , as we shall see , required hereunto , it is not necessary that they should be found all equally in all who design this State and Frame . Some may be more eminent in one of them , some in another ; some may have great Helps and Furtherances unto some of them in a peculiar manner , and some great Obstructions in the Exercise of some of them . But it is required , that they be all radically in the Heart , and be put forth in Exercise sometimes on their proper Occasions . 3. THIS state in the Description of it will sufficiently distinguish it self from that Discontent of Mind whereon some withdraw themselves from the Occasions of Life , rather condemning others than themselves on meer Weariness of the Disappointments of the World , which hath cast some into crooked Paths . THE first thing required hereunto is Weanedness from the World : The Rule of most men is , that all things are well enough with them , with respect unto the World , whilst they keep themselves from known particular sins , in the use of the things of it ; whilst they do so in their own Apprehensions , they care not how much they cleave unto it , are even swalowed up in the Businesses and Occasions of it . Yea , some will pretend unto , and make an Appearance of a Course of Life more than ordinarily strict , whilst their Hearts and Affections cleave visibly to this world , and the things of it . But the Foundation of the Work of Faith we enquire into must be laid in Mortification , and Weanedness from the World. IN Antient Times , sundry Persons designed a strict Course of Mortification and Penitence , and they always laid the Foundation of it in a Renunciation of the World , but they fell most of them into a threefold Mistake , which ruined the whole Undertaking . For , 1. THEY fell into a Neglect of such natural and moral Duties as were indispensibly required of them : They forsook all Care of Duties belonging unto them in their Relations , as Fathers , Children , Husbands , Wives , and the like , betaking themselves into Solitudes , and hereby also they lost all that Political and Christian Usefulness which the Principles of Humane Society and of our Religion do oblige us unto : They took themselves unto a Course of Life rendring the most important Christian Duties , such as respect other Men of all sorts , in all fruits of Love , utterly impossible unto them : They could be no more useful nor helpful in the Places and Circumstances wherein they were set by Divine Providence ; which was a way wherein they could not expect any Blessing from God. No such thing is required unto that Renunciation of the World which we design ; with nothing that should render Men useless unto all men doth Christian Duties interfere . We are still to use the World whilst we are in it , but not abuse it : As we have Opportunity , we must still do good unto all . Yea , none will be so ready to the Duties of Life , as those who are most mortified to the World : Thoughts of Retirement from Usefulness , unless a great Decay of outward strength , are but Temptations . 2. THEY engaged themselves into a number of Observances no where required of them ; such were their outward Austerities , Fastings , Choice of Meats , Times of Prayer , whereunto at length Self-maceration and Disciplines were added . In a Scrupulous Superstitious Obervance of these things , their whole design at length issued , giving rise and Occasion unto innumerable Evils . Faith directs to no such thing , it guides to no Duty , but according to the Rule of the Word . 3. AT length they began to engage themselves by Vow , into such peculiar Orders and Rules of a pretended Religious Life as were by some of their Leaders presented unto them , and this ruined the whole . HOWEVER , the Original Design was good , namely , such a Renuntiation of the World as might keep it and all the things of it from being an hindrance unto us , in an humble Walk before God , or any thing that belongs thereunto : We are to be crucified unto the World , and the World unto us , by the Cross of Christ , we are to be so in a peculiar manner , if we are under the Conduct of Faith , in a way of Humiliation and Repentance : And the things ensuing are required hereunto . 1. THE Mortification of our Affections unto the desirable things of this Life ; they are naturally keen and sharp , set upon them , and do tenaciously adhere vnto them : Especially they are so when things have an Inlet into them by nearness of Relation , as Husbands , Wives , Children , and the like . Persons are apt to think they can never love them enough , never do enough for them ; and it is granted , they are to be preferred above all other earthly things ; but where they fill and possess the Heart , where they weaken and obtund the Affections unto things Spiritual , Heavenly , and Eternal , unless we are mortified unto them , the Heart will never be in a good Frame , nor is capable of that degree in the Grace of Repentance which we seek . It is so with the most as unto all other useful things in this World , as Wealth , Estates , and Peace : Whilst they are conversant about them , as they suppose in a lawful manner , they think they can never over-value them , nor cleave too close unto them . BUT here we must begin , if we intend to take any one Step into this holy Retirement . The Edge of our Affections and Desires must be taken off from these things : And hereunto three things are necessary . 1. A constant , clear View and Judgment of their Uncertainty , Emptiness , and Disability to give any Rest or Satisfaction . Uncertain Riches , uncertain Enjoyments , perishing Things , passing away , yea , Snares , Burthens , Hindrances , the Scripture represents them to be , and so they are . If the Mind were continually charged home with this consideration of them , it would daily abate its Delight and Satisfaction in them . 2. A constant Endeavour for Conformity unto Christ crucified , it is the Cross of Christ whereby we are crucified unto the World and all things in it . When the Mind is much taken up with Thoughts of Christ as dying , how and for what he dyed , if it hath any Spark of saving Faith in it , it will turn away the Eyes from looking on the desirable things of this World , with any delightful friendly Aspect . Things will appear unto it as dead and discoloured . 3. THE fixing of them steadily on things spiritual and eternal , whereof I have discoursed at large elsewhere : The whole of this Advice is given us by the Apostle , Col. 3. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. HEREIN Faith begins its Work , this is the first Lesson it takes out of the Gospel ; namely , that of Self-denial , whereof this Mortification is a principal part . Herein it labours to cast off every Burthen , and the Sin that doth so easily beset us . Unless some good Degree be attained here , all further Attempts in this great Duty will be fruitless . Do you then , any of you , judge your selves under any of those Qualifications before mentioned , which render this Duty and Work of Faith necessary unto you ? sit down here at the Threshold , and reckon with your selves , that unless you can take your Hearts more off from the World , unless your Affections and Desires be mortified and crucified , and dead in you , in a sensible degree and measure , unless you endeavour every day to promote the same frame in your Minds , you will live and dye Strangers to this Duty . 2. THIS Mortification of our Affections towards these things , our Love , Desire , and Delight . will produce a Moderation of Passions about them , as Fear , Anger , Sorrow , and the like ; such will Men be stirred up unto , in those Changes , Losses , Crosses , which these things are subject unto . They are apt to be tender and soft in those things ; they take every thing to Heart , every Affliction and Disappointment is aggravated , as if none almost had such things befall them as themselves : Every thing puts them into a Commotion : Hence are they often surprized with Anger about Trifles , influenced by Fear in all Changes , with other turbulent Passions ; hence are Men morose , peevish , froward , apt to be displeased , and take offence on all Occasions ; the subduing of this Frame , the casting out of these Dispositions and perverse Inclinations , is part of the Work of Faith. When the Mind is weaned from the World and the things of it , it will be sedate , quiet , composed , not easily moved with the Occurences and Occasions of Life : It is dead unto them , and in a great measure inconcerned in them ; this is that Moderation of Mind wherein the Apostle would have us excel , Phil. 4. 5. For he would have it so eminent as that it might appear unto all Men , that is , who are concerned in us , as Relations , Families , and other Societies ; this is that which principally renders us useful and exemplary in this World ; and for the want whereof many Professors fill themselves and others with Disquietments , and give Offence unto the World it self . This is required of all Believers , but they will be eminent in it in whom Faith works this Weanedness from the World , in order unto a peculiar Exercise of Repentance . 3. THERE is required hereunto an Unsollicitousness about present Affairs and future Events : There is nothing given us in more strict Charge in the Scripture , than that we should be careful in nothing , sollicitous about nothing , take no thought for to morrow , but to commit all things unto the sovereign Disposal of our God and Father , who hath taken all these things into his own Care. But so it is come to pass , through the Vanity of the minds of Men , that what should be nothing unto them is almost their all . Care about things present , and Sollicitousness about things to come , in private and publick Concerns , take up most of their Thoughts and Contrivances : But this also will Faith subdue on this Occasion , where it tends unto the Promotion of Repentance , by weanedness from the World. It will bring the Soul into a constant , steady , universal Resignation of it self unto the Pleasure of God , and Satisfaction in his Will. Hereon it will use the World as if it used it not , with an absolute Inconcernment in it , as unto what shall fall out . This is that which our Saviour presseth so at large , and with so many divine Reasonings , Mat. 6. 25 , to the 34. 4. A constant Preferrence of the Duties of Religion before and above the Duties and Occasions of Life : These things will continually interfere , if a diligent Watch be not kept over them , and they will contend for preferrence ; and their Success is acording to the Interest and Estimation which the things themselves have in our Minds : If the Interest of the World be there prevalent , the Occasions of it will be preferred before Religious Duties ; and they shall for the most part be put off unto such Seasons wherein we have nothing else to do , and it may be sit for little else . But where the Interest of spiritual Things prevails , it will be otherwise , according to the Rule given us by our Blessed Saviour ; Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof , &c. Mat. 6. 33. I confess this Rule is not absolute , as unto all Seasons and Occasions , there may be a Time wherein the Observation of the Sabbath must give place to the pulling an Ox or an Ass out of a Pit ; and on all such Occasions the Rule is , that Mercy is to be preferred before Sacrifice . But in the ordinary Course of our Walking before God , Faith will take Care that a due Attendance unto all Duties of Religion be preferred to all the Occasions of this Life ; they shall not be shuffled off on trifling Pretences , nor cast into such unseasonable seasons as otherwise they will be . There also belongs unto that Weanedness from this World which is necessary unto an Eminency in degrees of Humiliation and Repentance , Watching unto Prayer . 5. WILLINGNESS and Readiness to part with all for Christ and the Gospel , this is the animating Principle of the great Duty of taking up the Cross , and Self-denial therein : Without some measure of it in Sincerity , we cannot be Christ's Disciples : But in the present Case there is an Eminent Degree , which Christ calls the hating of all things in comparison of him , that is required ; such a Readiness as rejects with Contempt all arguing against it , such as renders the World no Burthen unto it in any part of our Race ; such as establisheth a determinate Resolution in the Mind , that as God calls , the World and all the Concernments of it should be forsaken for Christ and the Gospel . Our Countenances and Discourses on Difficulties do not argue that this Resolution is prevalent in us , but so it is required in that work of Faith which we are in the Consideration of . 2. A second thing that belongs hereunto , is a peculiar Remembrance of Sin , and Converse about it in our Minds , with Self-displicency and Abhorrency . God hath promised in his Covenant , that he will remember our Sins no more ; that is , to punish them ; but it doth not thence follow that we should no more remember them , to be humbled for them . Repentance respects Sin always ; wherever therefore that is , there will be a continual calling Sin to remembrance ; saith the Psalmist , My Sin is ever before me . THERE is a threefold Calling our past Sins unto remembrance : 1. WITH Delight and Contentment ; thus is it with proffligate Sinners , whose Bodies are grown unserviceable unto their youthful Lusts ; they call over their former Sins , roll them over in their Minds , express their Delight in them by their Words , and have no greater Trouble but that for the want of Strength or Opportunity they cannot still live in the Practise of them ; this is to be old in Wickedness , and to have their Bones filled with the Sins of their Youth : So do many in this Age , delight in filthy Communication , unclean Society , and all Incentives of Lust : A fearful Sign of being given over unto a Reprobate Mind , an Heart that cannot repent . 2. THERE is a remembrance of Sin unto Disquietment , Terror and Despair : Where Mens Consciences are not seared with an hot Iron , Sin will visit their Minds ever and anon with a troublesome remembrance of it self , with its Aggravating Circumstances . For the most part Men hide themselves from this Visitor , they are not at home , not at leisure to converse with it , but shift it off like insolvent Debtors , from day to day , with a few transient Thoughts and Words . But sometimes it will not be so put off , it will come with an Arrest , or a Warrant from the Law of God , that shall make them stand and give an Account of themselves : Hereon they are filled with Disquietments , and some with Horror and Despair , which they seek to pacify and divert themselves from , by farther emerging themselves in the Pursuit of their Lusts , the Case of Cain , Gen. 4. 13 , 16 , 17. 3. THERE is a calling former Sins to remembrance , as a Furtherance of Repentance , and so they are a threefold Glass unto the Soul , wherein it hath a trebble Object . 1. IT sees in them the depravation of its Nature , the evil Quality of that Root which hath brought forth such Fruit : And they see in it their own Folly , how they were cheated by Sin and Sathan ; they see the Unthankfulness and Unkindness towards God wherewith they were accompanied : This fills them with holy Shame , Rom. 6. 21. This is useful and necessary unto Repentance . Perhaps if Men did more call over their former Sins and Miscarriages than they do , they would walk more humbly and warily than they do for the most part . So David in his Age prays for a renewed Sense of the Pardon of the sins in his Youth , Psal. 25. 7. 2. THE Soul sees in them a representation of the Grace , Patience , and pardoning Mercy of God : Thus and thus was it with me , God might justly have cast me off for ever ; he might have cut me off in the midst of these sins , so as that I should have had no leisure to have cried for Mercy ; and perhaps some of them were Sins long continued in . O the infinite Patience of God that spared me ! the infinite Grace and Mercy of God that forgave unto me these provoking Iniquities ! This Frame is expressed Psal. 103. 3 , 4. 3. THE Soul sees herein the efficacy of the Mediation and Blood of Christ , 1 Joh. 2. 2. Whence is it that I have deliverance from the Guilt of these sins ? that way was made for the advancing of Grace in the Pardon of them ? Whence is it that my Soul and Conscience are purged from the stain and filth of them ? Here the whole Glory of the Love and Grace of Christ in his Mediation , with the Worth of the Attonement that he made , and the Ransom that he paid , with the Efficacy of his Blood to purge us from all our sins , is represented unto the Mind of the Believer : So out of the Eater comes forth Meat , and hereby a Reconciliation is made between the deepest Humiliation , and a refreshing Sense of the Love of God , and Peace with him . THIS therefore a Soul which is engaged into the Paths of Repentance will constantly apply it self unto : And it is Faith alone whereunto we are beholding for the Views of these things in sin ; in no other Light will they be seen therein : Their Aspect in any other is horrid and terrifying , suited only to sill the Soul with Dread and Horror , and Thoughts of Flying from God : But this View of them is suited to stir up all Graces unto an holy Exercise . 3. HEREON Godly Sorrow will ensue ; this indeed is the very Life and Soul of Repentance , so the Apostle declares it , 2 Cor. 7. 9 , 10 , 11. And it comprizeth all that is spoken in the Scripture about a broken Heart and a contrite Spirit , which expresseth it self by Sighs , Tears , Mourning , yea , watering our Beds with Tears , and the like . David giveth so great an Instance in himself hereof , and that so frequently repeated , as that we need no other Exemplification of it . I shall not at large insist upon it , but only shew ( 1. ) What it doth respect : And ( 2. ) Wherein it doth consist , ( 3. ) How Faith works it in the Soul. ( 1. ) What it doth respect : And it hath a twofold Object : 1. SUCH past sins as by reason of their own Nature or their Aggravations , have left the greatest Impressions on Conscience : It respects indeed in general all past and known Sins that can be called to remembrance , but usually in the course of Mens Lives there have been some sins whose Wounds on various Accounts have been most deep and sensible , these are the especial Objects of this Godly Sorrow ; so was it with David in the whole Course of his Life , after his great fall , he still bewailed his Miscarriage therein : The like respect he had unto the other sins of his Youth ; and none have been so preserved , but they may fix on some such Provocation as may be a just Cause of this Sorrow all their days . 2. IT respects the daily Incursions of Infirmities in Failings , Negligences in our Frames or Actions , such as the best are subject to ; these are a matter of continual Sorrow and Mourning to a gracious Soul that is engaged in this Duty and way of Repentance . ( 2. ) WHEREIN it doth consist ; and the things following do concur therein : 1. SELF-JUDGING ; this is the Ground and Spring of all Godly Sorrow , and thereon of Repentance , turning away the Displeasure of God , 1 Cor. 11. 31. This the Soul doth continually with reference unto the Sins mentioned ; it passeth Sentence on it self every day : This cannot be done without Grief and Sorrow ; for although the Soul finds it a necessary Duty , and is thereon well pleased with it , and yet all such Self-reflection ; are like Afflictions , not joyous but grievous . 2. THE immediate Effect hereof is constant Humiliation : He that so judgeth himself , knows what frame of Mind and Spirit becomes him thereon : This takes away the Ground from all Pride , Elation of Mind , Self-pleasing ; where this Self-judging is constant they can have no place : This is that Frame of Mind which God approves so highly , and hath made such Promises unto ; the Humble are every where proposed as the especial Object of his own Care , his Respect is to them that are of a broken Heart , and of a contrite Spirit : And this will grow on no other Root . No man by his utmost Diligence on any Argument or Consideration shall be able to bring himself into that humble frame wherein God is delighted , unless he lay the Foundation of it in continual Self-judging , on the Account of former and present sins . Men may put on a Fashion , Frame , and Garb of Humility ; but really humble they are not ; where this is wanting , Pride is in the Throne , in the Heart , though Humility be in the Countenance and Deportment : And herein doth this godly Sorrow much consist . 3. THERE is in it a real Trouble and Disquietment of Mind , for Sorrow is an Afflictive Passion ; it is contrary to that Compose which the Mind would constantly be at . Howbeit this Trouble is not such as is opposed unto spiritual Peace and Refreshment , for it is an Effect of Faith , and Faith will produce nothing that is really inconsistent with Peace with God , or that shall impeach it ; but it is opposite unto other Comforts . It is a Trouble that all earthly things cannot take off and remove . This Trouble of his mind in his Sorrow for Sin , David on all Occasions expresseth unto God ; and sometimes it riseth to a great and dreadful Height , as it is expressed Psal. 88. throughout . Hereby the Soul is sometimes overwhelmed , yet so as to relieve it self by pouring out its Complaint before the Lord , Psal. 102. 1. 4. THIS inward Frame of Trouble , Mourning , and Contriteness , will express it self on all just Occasions , by the outward Signs of Sighs , Tears , and mournful Complaints , Psal. 31. 10. So David continually mentions his Tears on the like Account , and Peter on the review of his Sin wept bitterly ; as Mary washed the Feet of Christ with her Tears , as we should all do , a Soul filled with Sorrow will run over and express its inward Frame by these outward signs . I speak not of those Self-whole jolly Professors which these days abound with , but such as Faith engageth in this Duty will on all Occasions abound in these things . I fear there is amongst us too great a Pretence , that Mens natural Tempers and Constitutions are incompliant with these things : Where God makes the Heart , soft and godly Sorrow doth not only sometimes visit it , but dwell in it , it will not be wholly wanting in these Expressions of it ; and what it comes short of one way , it may make up in another ; whatever the Case be as to Tears , it is certain that to multiply Sighs and Groans for sin , is contrary to no Mans Constitution , but only to sin ingrafted in his Constitution . 5. THIS Godly Sorrow will constantly incite the Mind unto all Duties , Acts and Fruits of Repentance whatever ; it is never barren nor heartless , but being both a Grace and a Duty , it will stir up the Soul unto the Exercise of all Graces , and the Performance of all Duties that are of the same kind : This the Apostle declares fully , 2 Cor. 7. 11. THIS therefore is another thing which belongs unto that state of Repentance which Faith will bring the Soul unto , and whereby it will evidence it self on the Occasions before-mentioned : And indeed if this Sorrow be constant and opperative , there is no clearer Evidence in us of saving Faith. They are blessed who thus mourn : I had almost said , it is worth all other Evidences , as that without which they are none at all ; where this Frame is not in some good measure , the Soul can have no pregnant Evidence of its good Estate . 4. ANOTHER thing that belongs to this state , is outward Observances becoming it ; such are Abstinence unto the due Mortification of the Flesh ; not in such things or ways as are hurtful unto Nature , and really obstructive of greater Duties : There have been great Mistakes in this matter , most men have fallen into Extreams about it , as is usual with the most in like Cases ; they did retain in the Papacy , from the Beginning of the Apostacy of the Church , from the Rule of the Scripture , an Opinion of the Necessity of Mortification unto a Penitent State ; but they mistook the Nature of it , and placed it for the most part in that which the Apostle calls the Doctrine of Devils , when he foretold Believers of that Hypocritical Apostacy , 1 Tim. 4. 1 , 2 , 3. Forbiding to marry , engaging one sort of men by Vows against the use of that Ordinance of God for all men , and enjoyning Abstinence from Meats in various Laws and Rules , under pretence of great Austerity , was the Substance of their Mortification : Hereunto they added Habits , Fasting , Disciplines , Rough Garments , and the like , pretended self-macerations innumerable . But the Vanity of this Hypocrisie hath been long since detected , but therewithall most men are fallen into the other Extream : Men do generally judge that they are at their full Liberty in and for the Use of the things esteemed Refreshments of Nature ; yea , they judge themselves not to be obliged unto any Retrenchment , in Garments , Diet , with the free use of all things in themselves lawful , when they are under the greatest necessity of Godly Sorrow , and express Repentance . But there is here a no less pernicious Mistake than in the former Excess , and it is that which our Lord Jesus Christ gives us in Charge to watch against , Luk. 22. 34 , 35 , 36. THIS therefore , I say , is required unto the state we enquire after ; those things which restrain the Satisfaction of the Appetite , with an Aversation of the joyous Enticements of the World , walking heavily and mournfully , expressing an humble and afflicted frame of Spirit , are necessary in such a Season . The Mourners in Zion are not to be ashamed of their Lot and State , but to prosess it in all suitable outward demonstration of it ; not in fantastical Habits and Gestures , like sundry Orders of the Monks ; not in affected Forms of Speech and uncouth Deportments , like some among our selves ; but in such ways as naturally express the inward Frame of Mind enquired after . 5. THERE is required hereunto a firm watch over Solitudes and Retirements of the Night and Day , with a continual readiness to conflict Temptations in their first Appearance , that the Soul be not surprized by them ; the great design in the Exercise of this Grace , is to keep and preserve the Soul constantly in an humble and contrite frame , if that be lost at any time , the whole design is for that Season disappointed : Wherefore Faith engageth the mind to watch against two things ; ( 1. ) The times wherein we may lose this Frame . ( 2. ) The means whereby . And , ( 1. ) FOR the times ; there are none to be so diligently watched over as our Sollitudes and Retirements by night or by day : What we are in them , that we are indeed , and no more ; they are either the best or the worst of our times , wherein the Principle that is predominant in us will shew and act it self ; hence some are said to devise Evil on their Beds , and when the Morning is light they practise it , Mich. 2. 1. Their Sollitude in the Night serves them to think on , contrive , and delight in all that Iniquity which they intend by day to practise , according to their Power . And on the other side , the Work of a gracious Soul in such Seasons is to be seeking after Christ , Cant. 3. 1. To be meditating of God , as the Psalmist often expresseth it . This therefore the humble Soul is diligently watchful in , that at such Seasons vain Imaginations which are apt to obtrude themselves on the mind , do not carry it away , and cause it to lose its Frame , though but for a Season ; yea , these are the times which it principally lays hold on for its improvement : Then doth it call over all those Considerations of Sin and Grace which are meet to affect it and abase it . ( 2. ) FOR the means of the Loss of an humble frame , they are Temptations ; these labour to possess the mind either by sudden surprizals , or continued Solicitations . A Soul engaged by Faith in this Duty is aware always of their Deceit and Violence ; it knows that if they enter into it , and do entangle it , though but for a season , they will quite cast out or deface that humble , contrite , broken frame , which it is its duty to preserve : And there is none who hath the least grain of spiritual Wisdom , but may understand of what sort these Temptations are which he is obnoxious unto ; here then Faith sets the Soul on its Watch and Guard continually , and makes it ready to combate every Temptation on its first Appearance , for then it is weakest and most easily to be subdued ; it will suffer them to get neither time , nor ground , nor strength : So it preserves an humble Frame , delivers it frequently from the Jaws of this Devourer . 6. ALTHOUGH the Soul finds Satisfaction in this Condition , though it be never sinfully weary of it , nor impatient under it ; yea , though it labour to grow and thrive in the Spirit and Power of it , yet it is constantly accompanied with deep Sighs and Groanings for its deliverance : And these groanings respect both what it would be delivered from , and what it would attain unto ; between which there is an Interposition of some sighs and groans of Nature , for a continuance in its present state . 1. THAT which this Groaning respects Deliverance from , is the remaining Power of sin ; this is that which gives the Soul its Distress and Disquietment : Occasionally indeed its Humility , Mourning , and Self-Abasement are encreased by it , but this is thro' the Efficacy of the Grace of Christ Jesus : In its own Nature it tends to hurt and ruine ; this the Apostle emphatically expresseth in his own Person , as bearing the place and state of other Believers , Ro. 7. 24. AND this constant groaning for deliverance from the power of sin , excites the Soul to pursue it unto its destruction : No Effect of Faith , such as this is , is heartless or fruitless , it will be opperative towards what it aims at ; and that in this case is the not being of sin ; this the Soul groans after , and therefore contends for ; this is the Work of Faith , and Faith without Works is dead ; wherefore it will continually pursue sin unto all its Retirements and Reserves . As it can have no rest from it , so it will give neither Rest nor Peace unto it ; yea , a constant design after the not being of sin , is a blessed Evidence of a saving Faith. 2. THAT which it looks after , is the full Enjoyment of Glory , Rom. 8. 23. This indeed is the Grace and Duty of all Believers , of all who have received the first Fruits of the Spirit ; they all in their measure groan , that their very Bodies may he delivered from being the subject and seat of sin , that they may be redeemed out of that Bondage : It is a Bondage to the very Body of a Believer to be instrumental unto sin : This we long for its perfect deliverance from , which shall compleat the Grace of Adoption in the whole person : But it is most eminent in those who excel in a state of Humiliation and Repentance ; they , if any , groan earnestly ; this they sigh , breath , and pant after continuually ; and their Views of the Glory that shall be revealed , gives them refreshment in their deepest Sorrows ; they wait for the Lord herein more than they that wait for the morning . Do not blame a truly penitent Soul , if he longs to be dissolved : The Greatness and Excellency of the Change which he shall have thereby , is his present Life and Relief . 3. BUT there is a Weight on this Desire , by the Interposition of Nature , for the Continuation of its present Being , which is inseparable from it : But Faith makes a Reconciliation of these repugnant Inclinations , keeping the Soul from Weariness and Impatience ; and this it doth by reducing the mind unto its proper Rock : It lets it know that it ought not absolutely to be under the Conduct of either of these Desires . First , it keeps them from Excess , by teaching the Soul to regulate them both by the Word of God ; this it makes the Rule of such Desires and Inclinations , which whilst they are regulated by , we shall not offend in them : And it mixeth a Grace with them both that makes them useful , namely , constant Submission to the Will of God ; this Grace would have , and this Nature would have ; but saith the Soul , the Will and Sovereign Pleasure of God is my Rule : Not my Will , holy Father , but they Will be done : We have the Example of Christ himself in this matter . 7. THE last thing I shall mention , as that which compleats the state described , is abounding in Contemplations of things heavenly , invisible and eternal : None have more holy and humble thoughts than truly penitent Souls , none more high and heavenly Contemplations ; you would take them to be all sighs , all mourning , all dejection of Spirit ; but none are more above , none more near the high and lofty one : As he dwells with them , Isa. 57. 15. so they dwell with him in a peculiar manner , by these Heavenly Contemplations . Those who have lowest thoughts of themselves , and are most filled with Self-abasement , have the clearest Views of Divine Glory . The Bottom of a Pit or Well gives the best Prospect of the Heavenly Luminaries : And the Soul in its deepest Humiliations , hath for the most part the clearest Views of things within the Vail . FINIS . Books lately Printed of Dr. Owens , and Sold by William Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-street . 1. THe true Nature of a Gospel-Church . 2. A Treatise of the Dominions of Sin and Grace . 3. A Breif and Impartial Account of the Nature of the Protestant Religion . 4. A Brief Instruction in the Worship of God. 5. An humble Testimony unto the Goodness and Severity of God. 6. A Discourse of Temptations . 7. The Principles of the Doctrine of Christ. 8. Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ. 9. Two Discourses concerning the Holy Spirit and his Work , the one of the Spirit as a Comforter , the other as he is the Author of spiritual Gifts , which is an Addtion to the Folio . In Octavo bound 2 s. 10. A Guide to Church-Fellowship and Order according to the Gospel Institution , wherein these following particulars are distinctly handled : ( 1. ) The Necessity of Believers to joyn themselves in Church Order . ( 2. ) The subject matter of the Church . ( 3. ) A Continuation of a Church state . ( 4. ) What sort of Churches and Disciples of Christ may and ought to joyn themselves unto , as unto entire Communion . Drice bound 6 d. Where you may be supplied with most of Dr. Owen's other Books that are in Print , at the Bible in Newgate-street . Books written by other Authors and Effigies sold as above . Caryl's Exposition on the Book of Job . Two Volumes Pool's Synopsis in Latine . Five Volumes . With the Index's . Pool's Synopsis on the New Testament . In Two Volumes , in Latine , with the Index , is sold very Cheap , for 20 s. in Quires , and 30 s. Bound . Index's of the Old and New Testament , to be sold alone . Price . 5 s. Clark's Martyrology . Dr. Manton's Effigies , Price 6 d. Dr. Owen's Effigies , Price 6 d. Mr. Caryl's Effigies , Price 6 d. Mr. Bunyan's Effigies , Price 6 d. With several other Ministers Effigies . 
A59860	----	The protestant resolution of faith being an answer to three questions : I. How far we must depend on the authority of the church for the true sense of Scripture? II. Whether a visible succession from Christ to this day makes a church, which has this succession, an infallible interpreter of Scripture, and whether no church, which has not this succession, can teach the true sense of Scripture? III. Whether the Church of England can make out such a visible succession? Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. 1683 Approx. 72 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 23 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A59860 Wing S3332 ESTC R22228 12570110 ocm 12570110 63434 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A59860) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 63434) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 703:12) The protestant resolution of faith being an answer to three questions : I. How far we must depend on the authority of the church for the true sense of Scripture? II. Whether a visible succession from Christ to this day makes a church, which has this succession, an infallible interpreter of Scripture, and whether no church, which has not this succession, can teach the true sense of Scripture? III. Whether the Church of England can make out such a visible succession? Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. [6], 37, [1] p. Printed for F. Gardiner ..., London : 1683. Advertisement: p. [1] at end. Reproduction of original in Duke University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Church of England -- Doctrines. Faith. 2003-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-09 Andrew Kuster Sampled and proofread 2004-09 Andrew Kuster Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE PROTESTANT RESOLUTION OF FAITH , Being an Answer to Three Questions . I. How far we must depend on the Authority of the Church for the true sense of Scripture ? II. Whether a visible Succession from Christ to this day makes a Church , which has this Succession an infallible Interpreter of Scripture ; and whether no Church , which has not this Succession , can teach the true sense of Scripture ? III. Whether the Church of England can make out such a visible Succession ? LONDON , Printed for F. Gardiner , at the White-horse in Ludgate-street , 1683. THE PREFACE TO THE READER . THese Papers , which are here presented to thee , were writ for the use of a private Person , and by the Advice of some Friends , are now made Publick . We find how busie the Romish Emissaries are to corrupt our People , and think our selves equally concerned to Antidote them against Popery and Fanaticism : Two extreams equally dangerous to the Government of Church and State in these Kingdoms , both in their Principles and Practices ; and both of them very great Corruptions of the Christian Religion , and very dangerous to mens Souls . Some of our Clergy have already been so charitable to our Dissenters , as to warn them of their danger , and by the Strength and Evidence of Scripture and Reason , to Convince them of their mistakes ; and I pray God forgive those men , and turn their Hearts , who will not contribute so much to their own Conviction and Satisfaction , as diligently and impartially to read and consider what is so charitably offered to them . Ignorance and mistake may excuse men , who have no opportunities of knowing better , but such willful and resolved Ignorance , which bars up mens minds against all means of better Information , will as soon damn them , as sins against knowledge . And now it might justly be thought want of Charity to those of the Roman Communion , should we take no care at all of them ; nay , want of Charity to those of our own Communion , and to Dissenters themselves , who are daily assaulted by the busie Factors for Rome . For the Disputes against the Church of Rome , as well as against Dissenters , are for the most part too Learned , and too Voluminous for the instruction of ordinary People , and therefore some short and plain Discourses about the principal Matters in dispute between us , is the most effectual way we can take to confirm men in their Religion , and preserve them from the crafty Insinuations of such as lie in wait to deceive . Some few Attempts , which have been already made of that kind , give me some hope , that several other Tracts will follow , that the ruine of the Church of England ( if God shall please ever to permit such a thing ) whether by Popery , or Fanaticism , may not be charged upon our neglect to instruct People better . Some Persons , it seems , whose Talent lies more in censuring what others do , than in doing any good themselves , are pleased to put some sinister Constructions on this Design ; as it is impossible to design any thing so well , but men of ill minds , who know not what it means to do good for goods sake , shall be able to find some bad name for it . Some guess that we now write against Popery only to play an after-Game , and to regain the Favour and good Opinion of Dissenters , which we have lost by writing against them : But I know not that any man has lost their Favour by it , nor that any man values their Favour for any other reason , than to have the greater advantage of doing them good . If so good a work , as confuting the Errors of the Church of Rome , will give the Dissenters such a good Opinion of us , as to make them more impartially consider what has been writ to perswade them to Communion with the Church of England , I know no reason any man has to be ashamed to own it , though it were part of his design ; but whether it is or not , is more than I know ; I dare undertake for those Persons I am acquainted with , that they neither value the favour , nor fear the displeasure either of Fanaticks or Papists , but yet heartily desire to do good to them both . But there is a more mischievous suggestion than this , that the design of such Papers is only to raise a new cry and noise about Popery , and to alarm the People , and disturb the Government with new Fears and Jealousies : Truly , if I thought this would be the effect of it , I would burn my Papers presently ; for I am sure the Church of England will get nothing by a Tumultuary and Clamorous Zeal against the Church of Rome , and I had much rather suffer under Popery , than contribute any thing towards raising a Popular Fury to keep it out . We profess our selves as irreconcileable Enemies to Popery , as we are to Fanaticism , and desire that all the World may know it ; but we will never Rebell , nor countenance any Rebellion against our lawful Soveraign , to keep out either , we leave such Principles and Practices to Papists and Fanaticks . But when we find our People Assaulted by the Agents of Rome , and do not think our selves secure from Popish Designs , we think it our Duty to give them the best instructions we can to preserve them from such Errors , as we believe will destroy their Souls ; and cannot but wonder , that any men , who are as much concerned to take care of Souls as we are , should think this a needless or a scandalous undertaking . I wish such men would speak out , and tell us plainly , what they think of Popery themselves . If they think this Design not well managed , by those who undertake it , it would more become them to commend the Design , and do it better themselves ; I know no man , but would very gladly be excused , as having other work enough to imploy his time , but yet I had rather spend my vacant minutes this way , than in censuring the good that other men do , while I do none my self . The Words of the Paper , which was sent to me , are these . IT is my Opinion that the infinite Goodness of our Legislator , has left to us a means of knowing the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures , which is the Church : Now I judge this Church must be known to be the true Church , by its continual visible Succession from Christ till our Days . But I doubt whether or no the Protestant Church can make out this continual visible Succession , and desire to be informed . ANSWER . THAT Christ has left a means of knowing the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures , I readily grant ; or else it had been to no purpose to have left us the Scriptures . But the latter Clause is very ambiguous , for the meaning may either be , that we may understand by the Scriptures , which is the Church ; or that the Church is the means whereby we must understand the true sense and meaning of the Scripture . The first is a true Protestant Principle , and therefore I presume not intended by this Objector . For how we should know that there is any Church without the Information we receive by the Scripture , I cannot Divine ; and yet we may as easily know that there is a Church , as we can know which is the true Church without the Scripture . For there is no other means of knowing , either that there is a Church , or what this Church is , or what are the Properties of a True and Sound and Orthodox Church , but by Revelation , and we have no other Revelation of this but what is contained in the Holy Scriptures . As for the Second , That the Church is the means of knowing the true sense and meaning of the Scriptures , it is in some sense very true , in some sense very false . 1. It is in some sense true , and acknowledged by all sober Protestants . As , 1. If by the Church we understand the Universal Church of all Ages , as we receive the Scriptures themselves handed down by them to our time , so whatever Doctrines of Faith have been universally received by them , is one of the best means to find out the true sense of Scripture . For the nearer they were to the times of the Apostles , the more likely they were to understand the true sense of their Writings , being instructed by the Apostles themselves in the meaning of them . And thus we have a certain Rule to secure us from all dangerous Errors in expounding Scripture . For the great and fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion , are as plainly contained in the Writings of the first Fathers of the Church , and as unanimously asserted by them , as the Authority of the Scriptures themselves : and therefore though we have not a Traditionary Exposition of every particular Text of Scripture ; yet we have of the great and fundamental Doctrines of Faith , and therefore must never expound Scripture so as to contradict the known and avowed sense of the Catholick Church . And this course the Church of England takes ; she receives the Definitions of the four first General Councils , and requires her Bishops and Clergy to Expound the Scriptures according to the profest Doctrines of those first and purest Ages of the Church . 2. We ought to pay great deference to , and not lightly and wantonly oppose the Judgment and Authority of the particular Church , wherein we live , when her Expositions of Scripture do not evidently and notoriously contradict the sense of the Catholick Church , especially of the first and best Ages of it . For it does not become private men to oppose their Sentiments and Opinions to the Judgment of the Church , unless in such plain Cases , as every honest man may be presumed a very Competent Judge in the matter ; and no Church , nor all the Churches in the World have such Authority , that we must renounce our Senses , and deny the first principles of Reason , to follow them with a blind and implicite Faith. And thus the Church , that is , the Sense and Judgment of the Catholick Church , is a means for the finding out the true sense of Scripture ; and though we may mistake the sense of some particular Texts , ( which the Romanists themselves will not deny , but that even infallible Councils may do , who tho' they are infallible in their Conclusions , yet are not always so in the Arguments or Mediums , whether drawn from Scripture or Reason , whereby they prove them ) yet it is Morally impossible we should be guilty of any dangerous mistake , while we make the Catholick Doctrine of the Church our Rule ; and in other matters follow the Judgment , and submit to the Authority of the Church , wherein we live ; which is as absolutely necessary , as Peace and Order and good Government in the Church . 2. But then this is very false , if we mean that the Church is the only means of finding out the true sense of the Scriptures ; or if by the Church we understand any particular Church , as I suppose this Person does , the Roman Catholick , that is , the particular universal Church of Rome ; or if we mean the Church of the present Age , or by Means understand , such a Decretory Sentence , as must determine our Faith , and command our Assent ; that we must seek for no other Reason of our Faith , but the Authority of the Church in expounding Scriptures . I shall discourse something briefly of each of these . 1. To say that the Church is the only Means to find out the true sense of Scripture , is very false and absurd . For , 1. This supposes the Holy Scriptures to be a very unintelligible Book , which is a great reproach to the Holy Spirit , by which it was Indited , that he either could not , or would not speak intelligibly to the World. 2. This is a direct Contradiction to those Exhortations of Christ and his Apostles to study the Scriptures , which were made to private men , and therefore necessarily supposes , that the Holy Scriptures are to be understood as other Writings are , by considering the Propriety of the Words and Language wherein they are written , the Scope and Design of the place , and such other means , as honest and studious Inquirers use to find out the meaning of any other Book . 3. If the Scriptures are so unintelligible , that an honest man cannot find out the meaning of them , without the infallible interpretation of the Church . I would desire to know whether Christ and his Apostles Preach'd intelligibly to their Hearers ? If they did not , to what purpose did they Preach at all ? By what means were men Converted to the Faith ? If they did , how come these Sermons to be so unintelligible now they are written , which were so intelligible when they were spoken ? For the Gospels contain a plain History of what Christ did , and of what he said ; and the Apostles wrote the same things to the Churches when they were absent , which they Preach'd to them when they were present ; and we reasonably suppose , that they as much designed that the Churches should understand what they Wrote , as what they Preach'd , and therefore that they generally used the same form of words in their writing and in their Preaching : And this makes it a great Riddle , how one should be very plain and easie to be understood , and the other signifie nothing without an infallible Interpreter . 4. If the Scriptures be in themselves unintelligible , I would desire to know how the Church comes to understand them ? If by any humane means , together with the ordinary Assistances of the Divine Spirit , then they are to be understood , and then why may not every Christian in proportion to his Skill in Languages , and in the Rules of Reason and Discourse , understand them also ? If the Church cannot understand the Scriptures by any humane means , but only by Inspiration , ( for there is no Medium between these two ) to what purpose were the Scriptures written ? For we might as well have learnt the will of God from the Church , without the Scriptures , as with them . God could have immediately revealed his will to the Church without a written Rule , as well as reveal the meaning of that written Rule , which it seems has no signification at all , till the Church , by Inspiration , gives an Orthodox meaning to it . 5. And if we cannot understand the Scriptures , till the Church Expounds them to us , how shall we know , which is the Church , and that this Church is such an infallible Interpreter of Scriptures ? The Church is to be known only by the Scriptures , and the Scriptures are to be understood only by the Church ; if we will know the Church , we must first understand the Scriptures , and if we will understand the Scriptures , we must first know the Church , and when both must be known first , or we can know neither , it is impossible in this way , either to understand the Scriptures , or find out the Church . For , suppose the Church does expound Scripture by Inspiration , how shall we be assured that it does so ? Must we believe every Man , or every Church , which pretends to Inspiration ? This is a contradiction to the Apostles Rule , not to believe every Spirit , but to try the Spirits . How then shall they be tried ? I know but two ways , either by Miracles , or by Scripture . Miracles are now ceas'd , unless we will believe some fabulous Legends , which all wise men in the Church of Rome are ashamed of ; and if there were real Miracles wrought , they are of no Authority against a standing Rule of Faith , which the Apostle calls a more sure word of Prophesie . If then we must judge of these pretences to Revelation by the Scriptures , which is the only way now left , then there is a way of understanding the Scriptures without this Revelation ; for if we must understand the Scriptures by Revelation , and Revelation by the Scriptures , we are got into a new Circle and can understand neither . Obj. But do we not see how many Schisms and Heresies have been occasioned , by suffering every one to Expound Scripture for himself ? How many Divisions and Sub-divisions are there among Protestants , who agree in little else , besides their opposition to Popery ? And is it possible to cure this without an infallible Interpreter of Scriptures ? Is it not a Contradiction to common Experience , to say , that the sense of Scripture is plain and certain , when so few men can agree what it is ? Ans. 1. Yes , we do see this , and lament it , and are beholden to the Church of Rome , and her Emissaries in a great measure for it . But yet we know , thus it has been in all Ages of the Christian Church , as well as now ; and we take the same way to confute these Heresies , and to preserve the Purity of the Faith , and the Unity of the Church , which the Primitive Fathers did , by appealing to Scripture , and the Doctrine and Practice of the Catholick Church , which is the best way any Church can take , when there is no infallible Judge of Controversies : And if the Primitive Church had known any such infallible Judge , they would certainly have appealed to him , at one time or other ; and it had been impossible , that any Errors or Heresies should for any long time together have disturbed the Church ; but we hear nothing of him for many hundred years after Christ ; but the ancient Fathers took the same way to confute the Heresies of their days , which we do now , which is a good probable Argument , that they knew no better . And the present Divisions of the Christian Church , are no greater Argument against us , than the Ancient Heresies were against the Primitive Church , or than the Protestant Heresies ( as they are pleased to call them ) are against the Church of Rome ? For what advantage has the Church of Rome upon this account above any other profession of Christians . Those who are of the same Communion are of the same Mind . Thus it is among us , and it is no better among them ; for we are no more of their mind , than they are of ours ; nay notwithstanding all their pretences to infallibility , most of the Disputes , which divide the Protestant Churches , are as fairly disputed among themselves , witness the famous Controversie between the Jansenists , and Molinists ; which their infallible Judge never thought fit to determine to this day : They live indeed in the Communion of the same Church , notwithstanding these Disputes , because it is a very dangerous thing to leave it ; but they are more beholden to the Inquisition , than to infallibility for this Unity . 2. How do these Divisions and Heresies , which disturb the Church , prove , that no man can be certain of his Religion ? If we can certainly know what the sense of Scripture is , notwithstanding there are many different Opinions about it , then the diversity of Opinions is no Argument against us ; if we cannot be certain of any thing , which others deny , dispute , or doubt of , then how can any Papist be certain that his Church is infallible ? For all the rest of the Christian Church deny this , and scorn their Pretensions to it . I may indeed safely acquiesce in the Determinations of an infallible Judge , whom I am infallibly assured to be infallible , how many contrary Opinions soever there are in the World ; But when infallibility it self is the matter of the dispute , and I have no infallible way to know whether there be any such thing , or where this infallibility is seated , if diversity of Opinions be an Argument against the certainty of any thing , which I am not , and cannot be infallibly assured of , then it is a certain demonstration against infallibility it self . Unless we will take the Church of Romes word for her own infallibility , we cannot have the Decision of an infallible Judge in this matter , for she will allow no other infallible Judge , but her self ; and yet this is so absurd a way , that it supposes , that we believe , and that we dis-believe the same thing at the same time . For unless we before-hand believe the Church to be infallible , her saying so is no infallible proof that she is infallible ; and yet the very demand of a proof supposes that we are not certain of it , that we doubt of it , or dis-believe it . When we ask the Church whether she be infallible , it supposes that we are not certain of it , otherwise we should need no proof ; and when we believe the Church to be infallible , because she says so , it supposes , that we did before-hand believe that she is infallible , otherwise , her saying so is no proof . The greatest Champions for the Church of Rome , never pretended that they could produce any infallible proofs , which is the true Church . Cardinal Bellarmine attempts no more , than to alledge some Motives of Credibility , to make the thing probable , and to incline men to believe it ; and yet it is impossible we can be more certain of the Infallibility of the Church , than we are , that it is a true Church ; and if a Papist have only some motives of Credibility , to believe the Church of Rome to be a true Church , he can have no greater probabilities , that it is an infallible Church . Now not to take notice , what a tottering Foundation some high probabilities , though they amounted to a moral assurance , is for the belief of Infallibility , which is to put more in the Conclusion than there is in the Premises . The only use I shall make of it at present is this , That we can at least be as certain of the meaning of Scripture , as the Papists are that their Church is infallible , for they can be no more infallibly assured of this , than we are of our interpretations of Scripture ; and therefore , if the diversity of Opinions about the sense of Scriptures , proves that we cannot be certain what the true Sense of it t is , the same Argument proves , that they cannot be certain that their Church is infallible , because this is not only doubted , but absolutely denied by the greatest part of the Christian World , and was never thought of by the best and purest Ages of it . So that this Argument proves too much , and recoils upon themselves , like a Gun which is over-charged ; and if , for their own sakes , they will grant that we may be certain of some things , which are as confidently denied , and disputed by others ; then the diversity of Opinions in the Church , is no Argument , that we cannot be certain of our Religion , but only teaches us greater Caution , and Diligence , and Honesty , in our inquiries after Truth . 3. These Divisions and Heresies that are in the Christian Church , are no better Argument against the truth and certainty of our Religion , than the diversities of Religions that are in the World , are against the truth of Christianity . The whole World is far enough from being Christian ; great part of it are Jews , or Pagans , or Mahumetanes still ; and this is as good an Argument , to prove the uncertainty of all Religions , as the different Parties and Professions of Christians are to prove , that we cannot be certain , what the true Christian Church , nor what true Christianity is . The Gospel of our Saviour was not designed to offer any force or violence to mens Faith or Understanding , no more than to their Wills. Were there such an irresistible and compulsory Evidence in the Gospel , that wherever it were Preach'd , it should be impossible for any man , though never so wicked and ill disposed , to continue an Infidel , or to prove a Heretick , Faith would be no greater a Virtue , than forc'd Obedience and Compliance is . The Gospel has Evidence enough to Convince honest Minds , and is plain enough to be understood , by those who are honest and teachable ; and therefore has its Effects upon those who are Curable , which is all that it was designed for . Those , who will not believe , may continue Infidels , and those , who will not understand , may fall into Errors , and believe a Lye ; and yet there is Evidence enough to Convince , and Plainness enough to Instruct well disposed minds , and certainty enough in each to be the foundation of a Divine Faith. The sum is this , Though the Instructions of the Church are a very good means for the understanding of the sense of Scripture , yet they are not the only means ; the Holy Scripture is a very intelligible Book , in such matters as are absolutely necessary to Salvation ; and could we suppose , that a man , who had never heard of a Church , should have the use of the Bible , in a Language which he understood , by a diligent reading of it he might understand enough to be saved . 2. If by Church is meant any particular Church ; as suppose the Roman Catholick Church , or the Church of the present Age , it is absolutely false to say , that the Church , in this sense , is always a sure and safe means of understanding the Scripture . What has been Unversally believed by all Christian Churches , in all Ages , or at least , by all Churches of the first and purest Ages of Christianity , which were nearest the times of the Apostles , and might be presumed best to understand the sense of the Apostles in the great Articles of our Faith , is a very safe Rule for the interpretation of Scripture ; and the general Practice of those Primitive Apostolick Churches , in matters of Government and Discipline , before they were corrupted by worldly Ambition , and secular Interest , is a very safe Rule for our Practice also , and this is the Rule whereby our Church is reformed , and to which we appeal . There are but three things necessary to be understood by Christians , either the Articles of Faith or the Rules of Life , or the external Order and Discipline of the Church , and Administration of Religious Offices . 1. As for the Rules of Life , all those Duties which we owe to God and Men , they are so plainly contained in the Holy Scriptures , that no honest man can mistake them ; I suppose the Church of Rome her self , will not pretend , that there is any need of an infallible Interpreter to teach men what is meant by Loving God with all our Heart , and our Neighbour as our selves . 2. As for the Articles of Faith , those which are fundamental to the Christian Religion , and which every Christian ought to believe , are so plain in Scripture , that every honest and unprejudiced man may understand them ; but however , as I observed before , we govern our selves in these things by the received Doctrine of the Catholick Church of the first and purest Ages , and if this be not a safe Rule , we can be certain of nothing . And what the Catholick Faith was , we learn from those short summaries of Faith , which were universally owned by all Catholick Churches . For what we now call the Apostles Creed , was very anciently received in all Churches , with some little variety indeed of Words and Phrase , but without any difference of sense ; and the Catholick Faith was not only preserved in such short Summaries and Creeds , which were as liable to be perverted by Hereticks , as the Scriptures themselves , but was more largely explained in the Writings of the ancient Fathers ; and though this will not inable us to understand every Phrase and Expression of Scripture , but we must use other means to do that , as Skill in the Original Languages , a knowledge of ancient Customs , and ancient Disputes , to which the Apostles frequently allude , a consideration of the Scope and Design of the place , &c. Yet the Catholick Faith received and owned by the Primitive Church , is so far a Rule , as it directs us to Expound Scripture to a true Catholick sense . As St. Paul commands the Romans , that those who prophesie , should Prophesie according to the proportion of Faith , Rom. 12. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to the Analogie of Faith : That is , that in the interpreting the Scriptures of the Old Testament they should expound them to a Christian sense , according to those Doctrines of the Christian Faith , which he had taught them ; and this was a safe Rule for expounding the Old Testament , which contained the Types , and Figures , and Prophesies of the Gospel-State . And thus in expounding the new Testament , now it is committed to writing , we must Prophesie according to the Analogie of Faith , or as he commands Timothy in his Preaching . Hold fast the form of sound words , which thou hast heard from me . 2 Tim. 1. 13. It seems the Apostle had given him a form of sound words , according to which he was to direct his Preaching ; whether this refers to a short summary of Faith , such as our Creed is , I cannot say , though it is not improbable it may ; but it is plain , we have a form of sound words delivered to us by the Catholick Church , which contains the true Catholick Faith , and therefore ought to be so far a Rule to us in expounding Scripture , as never to contradict any thing which is contained in it , for that is to contradict the Faith of the Catholick Church . And when one great Article of this Faith , concerning the Eternal God-head of Christ the Son of God , was corrupted by Arius , a Presbyter of the Church of Alexandria , it gave an occasion for a more full Declaration of the sense of the Catholick Church about it . And though the effects of that Controversie were very fatal to the Church , yet it was very happy that it broke out in such an Age , when it could be determined with greater certainty and greater Authority , than it could have been in any succeeding Age of the Church ; by men , who were venerable for their Age , for their Wisdom , for their Piety , for their undaunted Confessions under Heathen and Persecuting Emperours , who knew what the sense of the Catholick Church was , before this Controversie broke out , and before External Prosperity had , through ease and wantonness , corrupted the Faith , as well as the Manners of Christians . 3. As for matters of External Order , Discipline , and Government , the Universal Practice of the Catholick Church is the best and safest Comment on those general Rules and Directions we have laid down in Scripture . There is no doubt at all , but the Apostles did appoint Governours , and Rules of Order and Discipline , in the Churches planted by them ; what these were , the Christians of those days saw with their Eyes , in the daily practice of the Church ; and therefore the Apostles , in those Epistles which they wrote to their several Churches , did not give them so punctual , and particular an account of those matters , which they so-well knew before , but , as occasion served , make only some accidental mention of these things , and that in such general terms , as were well enough understood by them , who knew the practice of the Church in that Age , but it may be , cannot meerly by the force of the words , which may be capable of several Senses , be so certainly and demonstratively determined to any one sense ( by us , who did not see what was done in those days ) as to avoid all possible Cavils of contentious men . This has occasioned those disputes concerning Infant Baptism , the several Orders and Degrees of Church Governours , the Rites and Ceremonies of Religious Worship , and the like . Those who lived in those days , and saw what the Apostles did in these matters , could not doubt of these things , though it were not in express words said , that Infants should be baptized with their Parents , or that Bishops are a Superiour Order to Presbyters , and Presbyters to Deacons , or that it is lawful for the Governours of the Church to institute and appoint some significant Rites and Ceremonies , for the more decent and orderly Administration of Religious Offices . But because there is not a precise and punctual account given of these matters , in the Writings of the Apostles , which there was no need of then , when these things were obvious to their very Senses , some perverse and unreasonable Disputers , who obstinately reject all other Evidence , will judge of these things just as they please themselves , and alter their Opinions and Fancies , as often as they please . But now if there be any certain way to know , what the practice of the Apostles was in these Cases , this is the best Comment we can possibly have on such Texts , as are not sufficiently plain and express without it . Now methinks any reasonable man must acknowledge , that the best way to understand the Practice of the Apostles , is from the Practice of the Catholick Church in succeeding Ages , especially while the memory of the Apostles was fresh , and the Church Governed by Apostolical men ; when we cannot reasonably suspect any Deviation from the Primitive Practice ; and this is the Rule which the Church of England owns in such matters , and by which she rejects and confutes both the Innovations and Corruptions of the Church of Rome , and the wild pretences of Fanaticism . So that we do in the most proper sense own the Belief and Practice of the Primitive Church , to be the best means for Expounding Scripture . We do not leave every man to Expound Scripture by a private Spirit , as our Adversaries of the Church of Rome reproach us ; we adhere to the ancient Catholick Church , which the Church of Rome on one side , and the Fanaticks on the other , have forsaken : And though we reject the new invention of an infallible Judge , yet we are no Friends at all to Scepticism , but can give a more Rational account of our Faith , than the Church of Rome can . Had we no other way of understanding the sense of Scripture , but by Propriety of the Language , and the Grammatical Construction of the Words , and the scope and design of the Texts , their Connexion and Dependence on what goes before , and what follows , and such like means as we use for the understanding any other Books of humane Composition ; I doubt not , but honest and diligent Inquirers might discover the true meaning of Scripture , in all the great Articles of our Faith ; but yet this alone is a more uncertain way , and lyable to the Abuses of Hereticks and Impostors . The Socinians are a famous Example , what Wit and Criticism will do to pervert the plainest Texts ; and some other Sectaries are as plain a demonstration , what work Dullness and Stupidity , and Enthusiasm will make with Scripture ; but when we have the practice of the Catholick Church , and an ancient and venerable summary of the Christian Faith , which has been the common Faith of Christians in all Ages , to be our Rule in Expounding Scripture , though we may after all mistake the sense of some particular Texts , yet we cannot be guilty of any great and dangerous mistakes . This use the Church of England makes of the Catholick Church , in Expounding Scripture , that she Religiously maintains the ancient Catholick Faith , and will not suffer any man to Expound Scriptures in opposition to the ancient Faith and Practice of the Catholick Church . But though the Belief and Practice of the Catholick Church be the best means of understanding the true sense of Scripture , yet we cannot affirm this of any particular Church , or of the Church of any particular Age , excepting the Apostolick Age , or those Ages which immediately succeeded the Apostles . Notwithstanding this , the Church of Rome may be no good Expositor of Scriptures , for the Church of Rome , though she usurp the name of the Catholick Church , as presuming her self to be the Head and Fountain of Catholick Unity , yet she is but a part of the Catholick Church , as the Church of England , and the Churches of France and Holland are ; and has no more right to impose her Expositions of Scripture upon other Churches , than they have to impose upon her . If there happen any Controversie between them , it is not the Authority of either Church can decide it , but this must be done by an appeal to Scripture , and the sense of the Catholick Church , in the first and purest Ages of it . For when we say , that the belief and Practice of the Catholick Church is the best means to find out the true sense of Scripture , we do not mean that the Church is the Soveraign and absolute Judge of the sense of Scripture , but the meaning is , that those Churches , which were founded by the Apostles , and received the Faith immediately from them , and were afterwards , for some Ages , governed by Apostolical men , or those who were taught by them , and convers'd with them , are the best Witnesses what the Doctrine of the Apostles was , and therefore as far as we can be certain , what the Faith of these Primitive Churches was , they are the best Guides for the Expounding Scripture . So that the Authority of the Church in Expounding Scripture being only the Authority of Witnesses , it can reach no farther than those Ages , which may reasonably be presumed to be Authentick and Credible Witnesses of the Doctrine of the Apostles , and therefore if we extend it to the four first general Councils , it is as far as we can do it with any pretence of Reason ; and thus far the Church of England owns the Authority of the Church , and commands her Ministers to Expound the Scriptures according to the Catholick Faith , owned and profess'd in those days ; but as for the later Ages of the Church , which were removed too far from the Apostles days , to be Witnesses of their Doctrine , they have no more Authority in this matter , than we have at this day , nor has one Church any more Authority than another . 3. And therefore , if by the Church being the means of knowing the sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures , be understood the Judgment and Sentence , and Decree of the Church , that we must seek no farther for the reason of our Faith , than the insallible Authority of the Church , in Expounding Scripture , this also is absolutely false and absurd . This is more than Christ and his Apostles assumed to themselves , while they were on Earth ; they were indeed infallible Interpreters of Scripture , but yet they never bore down their Hearers meerly with their Authority , but Expounded the Scriptures , and applied ancient Prophesies to their Events , and took the Vail off of Moses's Face , and shewed them the Gospel-state concealed under those Types and Figures ; they confirmed their Expositions of Scripture by the force of Reason , and appealed to the Judgments and Consciences of their Hearers , whether these things were not so ; Christ commands the Jews not meerly to take his own word , and to rely on his Authority for the truth of what he said , but to study the Scriptures themselves ; and the Bereans are commended for this generous temper of mind , that they were more noble than those of Thessalonica , for they daily searcht the Scriptures , to see whether the Doctrine the Apostles Preach'd were to be found there or not ? Now I think no Church can pretend to be more infallible than Christ and his Apostles , and therefore , certainly ought not to assume more to themselves than they did ; and if the Church of Rome , or any other Church , will convince us of the truth of their Expositions of Scripture , as Christ and his Apostles convinc'd their Hearers , that is by inlightning our Understandings , and convincing our Judgments by proper Arguments , we will gladly learn of them . This course the Primitive Christians took , as is evident in all the Writings of the ancient Fathers against Jews and Hereticks ; they argue from the Scriptures themselves to prove what the sense of Scripture is ; they appeal indeed sometimes to the sense of the Catholick Church , not as an infallible Judge of Scripture , but as the best Witnesses of the Apostolical Doctrine : Thus Tertullian argues against Hereticks , in his Book De Praescriptionibus ; but when they reason about the sense of Scripture , they never direct us to any infallible Judge , but use such Arguments , as they think proper to convince Gain-sayers . Nay , this is the way , which was observed in all the ancient Councils ; the Bishops of the Church met together for Common Counsel and Advice , and in matters of Discipline and Government , which were subject to their Authority , they considered what was most for the publick benefit of the Church , and determined them by their Authority , not as infallible Judges , but as Supreme Governours of the Church . In the disputes of Faith , they reason from Scripture , and the sense of the Catholick Church , not from their own Authority ; and what upon a serious debate and inquiry they found to be most agreeable to the sense of Scripture , and the Doctrine of the Church of former Ages , that they determined , and decreed to be received in all Churches , as the Catholick Faith. That this is so , is evident from all the Histories of the most Ancient , and celebrated Councils , which any man may consult , who pleases . Now I would ask some few Questions about this matter . 1. Whether these Councils took a sure and safe way to find out Truth ? If they did not , what reason have we to believe that they determined right ? If they did , then we may use the same way , which they did ; for that which is a good way in one Age , is so another , and then there is no necessity of an Infallible Judge , to find out the sense of Scripture , because we have other certain ways of doing this ; the same which all the ancient Councils observed . 2. I would know , whether it be not sufficient for every Christian to receive the Decrees and Determinations of these Councils , upon the same Reason and Authority which moved the Fathers assembled in Council to make these Decrees ? Whether , for Instance , we must not believe the Eternal God-head of Christ , and that he is of the same substance with his Father , for the same Reasons for which the Nicene Fathers believed this , and required all Christians to believe it ? If we must , then Scripture , and the sense of the Catholick Church , not the Authority of a general Council , or any Infallible Judge , is the Reason of our Faith : For the Nicene Fathers , who were the first that met in a General Council , could not believe this , upon the Authority of any other General Council , much less upon their own Authority ; unless we will say , that they first Decreed this , then believed it , because they themselves Decreed it . If Scripture , and the sense of the Catholick Church , antecedently to the determinations of a General Council , or any other pretended Infallible Judge , be not a sufficient foundation for our Faith , then the whole Christian World , before the Council of Nice , which was the first general Council , had no sufficient Foundation for their Faith , for there was no particular Bishop , or Church in those days , which pretended to be the Infallible Interpreter of Scriptures . We Protestants have the same way to understand the Scriptures , have the same Reason and Foundation of our Faith , which the Nicene Fathers themselves had , or which any Christian could have , before there was any general Council , and if the Church of Rome do not think this enough , we cannot help that , we are abundantly satisfied with it . The Authority of a general Council in those days , was deservedly sacred and venerable , not as an Infallible Judge , which they never pretended to , but as the most certain means they could possibly have to understand , what was , and in all Ages had been the received Doctrine of the Catholick Church . They met together not to make new Articles of Faith , which no Council in the World ever had any Authority to do , but to declare what was the truly ancient and Apostolick Faith ; and to put it into such Words , as might plainly express the Catholick sense , and meet with the Distempers of that Age. For this end Grave and Reverend Bishops assembled from all parts of the Christian World , not meerly to give their private Opinions of things , but to Declare what was the received Doctrine of those Churches , over which they presided ; and I know no better Argument of an Apostolick Tradition , than the consent of all Churches , as remote from each other as East and West , which were planted by several Apostles , and differed very much from each other , in some External Rites and Usages , but yet all agreed in the same Faith. And this is the true Authority of those ancient Councils , that they were most likely to understand the true sense of Scripture , and of the Catholick Church . This is the Protestant Resolution of Faith , and the Nicene Fathers themselves had no other way , nor pretended to any other . Nay , the Church of Rome her self , as much as she talks of Infallibility , makes very little use of it . She has never given us an infallible Comment on Scripture , but suffers her Doctors to write as fallible Comments , and in many things as contrary to each other , as any Protestant Divines do : And I cannot imagine what good Infallibility does , if an infallible Church has no better means of understanding Scripture , than the Comments of fallible men ; that is , no better means than every fallible Church has ; for no man can understand the Scripture ever the better for the Churches being infallible , unless this infallible Church improve this glorious Talent of Infallibility in Expounding Scripture ; which she has not done to this day , and I believe never will. Indeed it is apparent , that Infallibility , as it is pretended to by the Church of Rome , can be of no use , either in the Resolution of Faith , or in Confuting Hereticks , who deny this Infallibility , and then I cannot imagine what it is good for , but to multiply Disputes , instead of ending them . As for the Resolution of Faith ; suppose I ask a Papist , why he believes such Articles , as the Divinity of Christ , or the Resurrection of the dead , to be contained in Scripture ? if he answer , as he must do , Because he is taught so by the Church , which is infallible ; my next Question is , How he knows the Church to be infallible ? If he says he learns this from Scripture ; I ask him how he comes to understand the Scripture , and how he knows that this is the sense of it ? If he know this by the infallible interpretation of the Church , then he runs round in a Circle , and knows the Scripture by the Church , and the Church by the Scripture , as I observed before ; if he can find out the Churches infallibility by the Scripture , without the help of an infallible Judge , then it seems the Scripture is to be understood without the infallible interpretation of the Church ; and if men can find out infallibility in Scripture without the Church , I am confident they may find out any thing else in Scripture as well , without the Churches infallibility ; For there is no Article of our Creed so hard to be found there , as the Churches infallibility is . But however that be , after all this boast of infallibility , a Papist has no more infallible Foundation for his Faith , than a Protestant has , nor half so much . We believe the Articles of the Christian Faith , because we find them plainly taught in Scripture , and universally received as the sense of Scripture by the Catholick Church in the best and purest Ages of it : A Papist believes the Church to be infallible , because he thinks he finds it in Scripture , though the Catholick Church for many Ages never found it there , and the greatest part of the Christian Church to this day cannot find it there : Now if they will but allow , that a Protestant ( though a poor fallible Creature ) may reason about the sense of Scripture , as well as a Papist , and that the Evidence of reason is the ●●me to both , then we Protestants stand upon as firm ground as the Papists here , and are at least as certain of all those Doctrines of Faith , which we find in the Scripture , and are ready to prove by it , as they are of their Churches infallibility ; but then we have an additional Security , that we Expound the Scriptures right , which they want , and that is the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church , which confirms all the Articles of our Faith , and Rules of Worship and Discipline , but gives not the least intimation , that the Pope or Church of Rome , was thought infallible by them , and if the Primitive Church was ignorant of this , which is the best witness of Apostolical Tradition , it is most probable , that no such thing is contained in Scripture , though some mercenary Flatterers of the Pope have indeavoured to perswade the World , that they found it there . So that we have a greater assurance of all the Articles of our Religion , from Scripture and Catholick Tradition , than a Papist can have of the Churches Infallibility , and yet he can have no greater assurance of any other Doctrines of Religion , which he believes upon the Churches Infallibility , than he has of Infallibility it self . So that in the last Resolution of Faith , the Protestant has much the advantage of the Papist , for the Protestant resolves his Faith into the Authority of the Scriptures , Expounded by the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church , the Papist resolves his into the Infallibility of the Church , which he finds out only by Expounding Scripture by a private Spirit , without the Authority of any Church , but that whose Authority is under dispute . And as the Doctrine of Infallibility is of no use in the last Resolution of Faith , so it is wholly useless in disputing with such Hereticks as we are ; who deny Infallibility : for it is a vain thing to attempt to impose any absurd , or groundless , and uncatholick Doctrines upon us , by the Churches infallible Authority , who believe there is no such infallible Judge ; but are resolved to trust our own Eyes , and to adhere to Scripture and the Catholick Faith of the Primitive Church in these matters . And therefore the great Advocates for the Church of Rome , are forc'd to take the same course in confuting Heresies , as they call them , that we do : They alledge the Authority of Scripture , the Authority of Fathers and Councils , to justifie their Innovations , and here we willingly joyn issue with them , and are ready to prove , that Scripture and all true Antiquity is on our side ; and this has been often and unanswerably proved by the Learned Patrons of the Reformation . But there are some very material things to be observed from hence , for our present purpose . For either they think this a good way to prove what they intend , and to convince Gain-sayers by the Authority of Scripture , and Primitive Antiquity , or they do not . If they do not think this a good way , to what purpose are there so many Volumes of Controversie written ? Why do they produce Scripture , and Fathers , and Councils , to justifie the Usurpations of their Church , and those new Additions they have made to the Christian Faith and Worship ? If this be not a good way to Convince a Heretick , why do they give themselves and us such an impertinent trouble ? If this be a good way , then we are in a good way already ; we take that very way for our satisfaction , which by their own Confession and Practice , is a very proper means for the Conviction of Hereticks , and to discover the Truth , and after the most diligent inquiries we can make , we are satisfied that the Truth is on our side . If the Authority of Scripture signifie any thing in this matter , then it seems Hereticks , who reject the Authority of an Infallible Judge , may understand Scripture without an Infallible Interpreter , by the Exercise of Reason and Judgment in studying of them , otherwise why do they pretend to expound Scripture to us , and to Convince us by Reason and Argument , what the true sense of Scripture is . If the Authority of the Primitive Church , and first Christian Writers , be considerable , ( as they acknowledge it is , by their appeals to them ) then , at least , the present Pope or Church , is not the sole infallible Judge of Controversies , unless they will say , that we must not judge of the Doctrine or Practice of the Primitive Church , by ancient Records , ( and then Baronius his Annals are worth nothing ) but by the Judgment and Practice of the present Church . The sum is this , There is great reason to suspect , that the Church of Rome her self , does not believe her own Infallibility , no more than we Protestants do ; for if she does , she ought not to suffer her Doctors to dispute with Hereticks , from any other Topick , but her own Authority ; when they vie Reasons and Arguments with us , and dispute from Scripture and Antiquity : they appeal from the infallibility of the present Church , to every mans private Reason and Judgment , as much as any Protestant does : and if the Articles of the Christian Faith may be establish'd by Scripture and Antiquity , without an infallible Judge , as they suppose they may be , by their frequent attempts to do it ; this plainly overthrows the necessity of an infallible Judge . In a word , not to take notice now , how weak and groundless this pretence of Infallibility is , it is evident , that it is a very useless Doctrine ; for those who believe the Churches Infallibility , have no greater assurance of their Faith , than we have , who do not believe it ; and those who do not believe the Churches Infallibility , can never be Confuted by it . So that it can neither establish any mans Faith , nor confute any Heresies ; that is , it is of no use at all . The Church of England Reverences the Authority of the Primitive Church , as the best witness of the Apostolical Faith and Practice , but yet resolves her Faith at last into the Authority of the Scriptures . She receives nothing for an Article of Faith , which she does not find plainly enough taught in Scripture , but it is a great confirmation of her interpretation of Scripture , that the Primitive Church owned the same Doctrines , which she does ; and she looks upon it as a just prejudice against any Expositions of Scripture , if they contradict the common Faith of the first Christians ; and therefore when the words of Scripture are fairly capable of different senses , she chuses that sense which is most agreeable with the Catholick Faith , and practice of the Primitive Church ; but should any Doctrines be imposed upon her , as Articles of Faith , which are no where to be found in Scripture , or which are plainly contrary to it , ( as the new Trent Creed is ) whatever pretence there be for the Antiquity of such Doctrines , she utterly rejects them ; she will not put out her own Eyes to follow any other Guide ; and thanks be to God , she needs not reject any truly Catholick Doctrine in this way . We still retain the Faith of the Primitive Church , and are greatly confirmed in it , from that admirable consent there is between the Scriptures , as Expounded by us , and that Faith which was anciently owned and received by all Christians . Having thus shewn in what sense the Church is the Interpreter of Scripture : I proceed now to the Second thing contained in this Paper , That this Church must be known to be the true Church , by its continual visible Succession from Christ till our days . Now these few words contain a great many , and very great mistakes . The subject of the Inquiry is , how we may find out such a Church , whose word we may safely take for the true sense and meaning of Scripture . Now , 1. The Author of this Paper , whether ignorantly , or designedly , I know not , alters the state of the Question , and instead of a Church , which is an unerring and infallible Interpreter of Scripture , which would be very well worth finding , he tells us how we may know a true Church ; now I take a true Church , and an infallible Interpreter of Scripture , to be very different things . A Church may be guilty of Schism and Heresie , and yet may be a true Church , though not a sound , Orthodox , and Catholick Church ; for a true Church is such a Church , as has all things necessary , and essential to the Being and Constitution of a Church ; this a Church may have , and superadd other things , which are destructive of the Christian Faith , and very dangerous and fatal mistakes ; as we believe , and are able to prove the Church of Rome has done ; and yet we acknowledge her a true Church , because she retains the true Christian Faith , though miserably Corrupted by Additions of her own ; as a man is a true man , though he be sick of a mortal Disease . Now if a true Church may corrupt the Christian Faith , we have no reason to rely on the Authority of every true Church , for the true sense and meaning of Scripture . 2. Let us suppose , that by a true Church , he means an Infallible Church , whose Authority we may safely rely on in Expounding Scriptures ; this Church , he says , is to be known by a continual visible Succession from Christ , till our days : Now if this visible uninterrupted Succession be the mark of such a true Church , as is an infallible Interpreter of Scripture , then , 1. The Greek Church is an infallible Interpreter of Scripture ; for she has as visible and uninterrupted a Succession , from Christ and his Apostles to this day , as the Church of Rome has ; and so we have two infallible Churches ( not to instance in any more at present , who have as good a Succession as either of them ) which are directly opposite to each other ; and what shall we do in this Case ? Must we believe Contradictions , or must we dis-believe infallible Churches ? 2. If a visible Succession from Christ and his Apostles makes any Church an infallible Interpreter of Scripture , then all the Churches , which were planted by the Apostles , were infallible . All the Churches which were planted by the Apostles , have an equally visible Succession from Christ ; those Churches which were planted by the Apostles , may be presumed as infallible while the Apostles were present with them , as they were afterwards ; and those Churches which succeeded these Apostolical Churches , at the distance of an Age or two , may be supposed as infallible as any Church of this Age is ; for if a visible Succession from Christ makes a Church infallible , why should not a Succession of a hundred , or two hundred years make them as infallible as a Succession of sixteen hundred years , unless they think that Infallibility increases with the Age of the Church , which I could wish true , but we see very little sign of it . Now according to these Principles all the Churches which were planted by the Apostles , and have a continual visible Succession from Apostolical Churches , through all Ages , since the time of the Apostles , must be infallible ; for if a continual visible Succession confers Infallibility , and is the mark whereby we must know it , then every Church , which ever had , or has to this day this vissible Succession , must have Infallibility also , which , it seems , is entailed on Succession . And thus we have found out a World of infallibility , and it is wonderful , how any Apostolical Church came to be oover-run with so many Errors and Heresies , and to grow so corrupt and degenerate , as to provoke God to root them up ; if every Apostolical Church was infallible , I cannot imagine how whole Churches , which visibly succeeded the Apostles , should be infected with Heresie ; for if Infallibility it self will not secure a Church from Heresie , the Lord have mercy upon us . 3. This mark he gives how to find out such a true Church as is an infallible Interpreter of Scripture , viz. A continual visible Succession from Christ till this day , includes another great mistake ; for it supposes , that there is some Church now in being , on whose Authority we must rely for the sense of Scripture ; for otherwise there can be no use of a visible Succession to this day , in this Controversie : if , as I have already proved at large , we must rely only on the Authority of the Primitive Church , not of the Church of this present Age , for the sense of Scripture , and that not as an infallible Judge , but as the most Authentick Witness of the Apostolical Doctrine and Practice , then we cannot find out this Church by a visible Succession to this day , but by examining the ancient Records of the Primitive Church , where we shall find what the Faith and Practice of the Church in those days was , which is the safest Rule to guide us in the Exposition of Scripture . Though there were no Church in the World at this day , which could prove a continual visible Succession from Christ and his Apostles , yet while we have the Scriptures , and the Records of the Primitive Church , we have very sufficient means for the understanding the true meaning of Scripture : So that of whatever use this talk of a continual visible Succession may be in other Cases , it is wholly impertinent in this . A Church which cannot prove such a continual visible Succession , which was not founded by any Apostle , or Apostolical men , or has lost the Memory or Records of its first Plantation , may yet have very certain means of knowing the true sense of Scripture , from the Scripture it self , and the Doctrine and Practice of Apostolical and Primitive Churches , and a Church which has the most visible uninterrupted Succession from Christ and his Apostles , may be so far from being an infallible Interpreter of Scripture , that she may be very corrupt and erroneous her self , if she forsake the Apostolical Tradition , contained in the Writings of the new Testament , and Expounded by the Catholick Faith and Practice of the first Churches ; as we know the Church of Rome has done , which is so far from being an infallible Church , that we believe her to be the most corrupt Church in the World. And thus I think we are prepared to venture upon the last Clause of this Paper , wherein the whole force of the Argument , such as it is , is turned upon the poor Protestant Churches . But I doubt ( says the Author of this Paper ) whether or no the Protestant Church can make out this continual visible Succession , and desire to be informed . The sting of which Argument lies in this , that we Protestants have no certain way of knowing the true sense and meaning of Scripture , because we cannot prove the continual visible Succession of our Church , from Christ unto this day ; and therefore we ought to go over to the Church of Rome , who has this visible Succession , and receive all her Dictates as infallible Oracles . But , for Answer to this , consider , 1. That suppose the Protestant Church could not make out such a continual visible Succession , yet we may understand the Scriptures very well without it , and need not go to the Church of Rome to Expound Scripture for us , as I have already shewn at large . Had he proved that we had been no Church , for want of a visible Succession of Church Officers , or that our Religion were a Novelty , which was never heard of in the World before Luther , this had been something more to the purpose ; but to pretend that we cannot understand the Scriptures , for want of a visible Succession , is such a loose and inconsequent way of reasoning , as a poor fallible Protestant would be ashamed of . 2. But pray , why can't the Protestant Church of England prove her continual visible Succession from Christ till this day , as well as the Church of Rome ? Here was a Christian Church planted in this Nation , as very good Historians say , as early as at Rome , and it has continued here ever since , to this day : when Austin the Monk came over to England , he found here a company of resolute Brittish Bishops and Monks , who would not submit to the Usurpations of Rome , and the English and Brittish Churches under several Changes and Alterations , have continued to this day , with a visible Succession of Christian Bishops , and what better Succession can Rome shew than this ? I suppose no Roman Catholick will disown the Succession of the Church of England , till the Reformation , and I pray , how came we to lose our Succession then ? Did the Reformation of those Abuses and Corruptions , which had crept into the Church , unchurch us ? Just as much as a man ceases to be the same man , when he is cured of some mortal Disease : Did not the Church of England consist of the same Persons , before the Reformation and after ? A great many indeed disowned the Reformation ; but were not at all those Persons , who were so active and zealous in the Reformation , formerly of the Roman Communion ? And did they lose their Succession too , when they became Reformers ? When a Church consists of the same Bishops , Priests , and People , which she had before , though she have not all the same that she had ; when she retains the same ancient Catholick and Apostolick Faith , which she did before , only renounces some Errors and Innovations , which she owned before , how does this forfeit her Succession ? The Church of England is the very same Church now , since the Reformation , which she was before , and therefore has the very same Succession , though not the same Errors , to this day , that ever she had ; and that , I think , is as good a Succession as the Church of Rome has . There are but two things to be considered in the case of Succession : Either a Succession of Church Officers , or a Succession of the Faith and Doctrines of the Church . 1. As for a Succession of Church Officers , we have the same that the Church of Rome has . Those English Bishops who embraced the Reformation , received their Orders in the Communion of the Church of Rome , and therefore they had as good Orders , as any are in the Church of Rome ; and these were the Persons , who Consecrated other Bishops , and so in Succession to this day . For as for the story of the Nags-head Ordination , that is so transparent a Forgery , invented many years after to reproach the Reformation , that I presume no sober Roman Catholick will insist on it . But we are Hereticks and Schismaticks , and this forseits our Orders , and our Succession together . But , 1. This charge ought first to be proved against us , that we are Hereticks and Schismaticks , we deny and abhor both the name and thing , and if we be not Hereticks , and Schismaticks , as we are sure we are not , and as the Church of Rome can never prove us to be , then according to their own Confession , our Orders must be good . 2. However be we Hereticks , or Schismaticks , or whatever they please to call us , how does this destroy our Orders and Succession ? The Catholick Church would not allow in former Ages , that Heresie or Schism destroyed the validity of Orders . St. Jerome disputes against this at large , in his Book Contra Luciferianos . And St. Austin allows the Donatists Bishops to have valid Orders , though they were Schismaticsk , and therefore that the Sacraments administred by them were valid . And indeed , if Heresie will destroy Orders and Succession , the Church of Rome will be as much to seek for their Orders and Succession , as we are , which , by their own Confession , have had several Heretical Popes , and no body knows how many Bishops Ordained by them . 2. As for Succession of Doctrine , which is as considerable to the full , as Succession of Orders , the great Articles of our Faith are not only plainly contained in Scripture , but have been delivered down to us , through all ages of the Church by an uninterrupted Succession . The Church of Rome her self , in her greatest Degeneracy , did own all that we do in pure matters of Faith : When we reformed the Church we did not make a new Religion , but only separated the old Faith from new and corrupt Additions ; and therefore the quarrel of the Church of Rome with us , is not that we believe any thing which they do not believe , but that we do not believe all that they would have us . The Doctrine of the Church of England is truly Primitive and Catholick , taught by Christ and his Apostles , owned by the Primitive Church , and excepting the Dispute between the Latin and Greek Church , about the Filioque , or the Holy Spirits proceeding from the Father and the Son , received by all Catholick Churches to this day ; which is as compleat and perfect Succession , as any Doctrine can have ; therefore when the Church of Rome asks us , Where was our Religion before Luther ? we tell them it was all the World over , all Catholick Churches believed what we do , though we do not believe all that they do , they themselves did , and do to this Day , own our Creeds , and Articles of Faith , excepting such of them as are directly opposed to their Innovations . So that we are on a sure Foundation , our Faith has been received in the Catholick Church in all Ages . But now the Church of Rome cannot shew such a Succession for her new Doctrines and Articles of Faith , which were unknown to the Primitive Church for many Ages , which were rejected by many flourishing Churches , since the first appearance of them , which never had a quiet possession in her own Communion , and were never formed into Articles of Faith , till the packt Conventicle of Trent . This I think is a sufficient Answer to this Paper , and it pities me to see so many well-meaning Persons abused with such transparent Sophistry . FINIS . Books Printed for FINCHAM GARDINER . A Continuation and Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stilling fleet 's Unreasonableness of Separation , in Answer to Mr. Baxter , and Mr. L●b , &c. Considerations of present use , considering the Danger Resulting from the Change of our Church-Government . 1. A Perswasive to Communion with the Church of England . 2. A Resolution of some Cases of Conscience , which Respect Church Communion . 3. The Case of Indifferent things , used in the Worship of God , Proposed and Stated , by considering these Questions , &c. 4. A Discourse about Edification . 5. The Resolution of this Case of Conscience , Whether the Church of England's Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome , makes it unlawful to hold Communion with the Church of England ? 6. A Letter to Anonymus , in Answer to his Three Letters to Dr. Sherlock about Church-Communion . 7. Certain Cases of Conscience Resolved , concerning the Lawfulness of joyning with Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship . In two Parts . 8. The Case of mixt Communion . Whether it be Lawful to separate from a Church upon the Account of promiscuous Congregations , and Mixt Communions ? 9. An Answer to the Dissenters Objections against the Common Prayers , and some other parts of Divine Service Prescribed in the Liturgy of the Church of England . 10. The Case of Kneeling at the Holy Sacrament , Stated and Resolved , &c. The first Part. 11. Certain Cases of Conscience , &c. The Second Part. 12. A Discourse of Profiting by Sermons , and of going to hear where men think they can profit most . 13. A serious Exhortation , with some Important Advices , Relating to the late Cases about Conformity , Recommended to the Present Dissenters from the Church of England . 14. An Argument for Union , &c. 15. The Case of Kneeling , &c. The Second Part. 1. A Discourse about the charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England , made by the Papists asking of us the Question , Where was our Religion before Luther ? 2. A Discourse about Tradition , shewing what is meant by it , and what Tradition is to be Received , and what Tradition is to be Rejected . 3. The Difference of the Case between the Separation of Protestants from the Church of Rome , and the Separation of Dissenters from the Church of England . 
A47618	----	The saints encouragement in evil times: or Observations concerning the martyrs in generall with some memorable collections out of Foxes three volumes. Martin Luther. The covenant and promises. Living and dying by faith. By Edward Leigh Esquire. Leigh, Edward, 1602-1671. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A47618 of text R222045 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing L1000). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 196 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 89 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A47618 Wing L1000 ESTC R222045 99833283 99833283 37759 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A47618) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 37759) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2173:02) The saints encouragement in evil times: or Observations concerning the martyrs in generall with some memorable collections out of Foxes three volumes. Martin Luther. The covenant and promises. Living and dying by faith. By Edward Leigh Esquire. Leigh, Edward, 1602-1671. [22], 152, [4] p. printed by A[braham]. M[iller]. for William Lee and Thomas Underhill, London : 1648. The title words "Foxes ... faith" are joined by left brace. Title page signed A2. With an index. Copy tightly bound with print show-through. Reproduction of the original in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. eng Luther, Martin, 1483-1546 -- Early works to 1800. Catechisms, English -- Early works to 1800. Christian life -- Early works to 1800. Martyrs -- Early works to 1800. Faith -- Early works to 1800. A47618 R222045 (Wing L1000). civilwar no The saints encouragement in evil times: or Observations concerning the martyrs in generall, with some memorable collections out of Foxes thr Leigh, Edward 1648 35059 328 115 0 0 0 0 126 F The rate of 126 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the F category of texts with 100 or more defects per 10,000 words. 2004-03 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-03 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-07 Melanie Sanders Sampled and proofread 2004-07 Melanie Sanders Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Saints Encouragement IN EVIL TIMES : OR OBSERVATIONS Concerning The MARTYRS in generall , with●some memorable Collections OUT OF Foxes three Volumes . Martin Luther . The Covenant and Promises . Living and dying by faith . By EDWARD LEIGH Esquire . REVEL. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the LORD , Mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hâc morte transibit . Cyprian de mortal . LONDON , Printed by A. M. for William Lee and Thomas Vnderhill , 1648. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER . READER , THe Church even in her Infancy , the Christian Church was under the Crosse , Stephanus lapidatus , Jacobus trucidatus , saith Austin , Stephen was stoned , and James beheaded . The Church hath had two kinde of persecutions , one from Rome ethnicall , the other from Rome Papall . After the Apostles what a continuall storme arose against Christians , which lasted three hundred years under the ten monsters of men those bloudie Emperours , Nero , Domitian , Trajane , Antoninus , Severus , Maximinus , Decius , Valerianus , Aurelianus , Dioclesianus , whose rage was such as a man could not set his foot in Rome , but tread on the graves of Martyrs ▪ Nero was the Authour * of the first grand persecution , wherein Saint Peter ( as it is said ) and Saint Paul were martyred at Rome , with others innumerable , and Jacobus Iustus at Jerusalem , whence Tertullian inferred , That the Gospel must needs be a precious thing , because Nero hated it . Dioclesian raised the tenth and extreamest persecution * , wherein Churches were overthrown , Bibles burnt , whole Cities razed , women hanged upon trees naked with their heads downwards . The Christians yet in that time under the Heathen Emperours had many lucida intervalla , many breathing spaces under Princes not altogether so bloudy . But the Popes have persecuted the Protestants for six hundred years together , and that without any intermission . I might exemplifie in many of their cruell practices ▪ 1. In their wars against the Waldenses and Albigenses . 2. In the Massacre of France , in which the rivers were died with bloud . 3. In our tempora Mariana Queen Maries daies ; Who hath not heard of bloudy Bonner and Gardiner ? 4. In the rebellious insurrection in Ireland , and the cruell butchery of above 200 thousand Protestants there . Platina writes of seventeen thousand martyred by Dioclesian ; but Meterane writes of 50 thousand slaughtered by the Pope only in the Low-countries , and that in the time of Charles the 5th ▪ Natalis Comes of sixty thousand in France only in one year . Iulius the second in seven years shed the bloud of above two hundred tho●sand Christians . Antichrist is drunk with the bloud of the Saints , Revel. 17. 6. and 18. 24. In her , that is , Babylon , now Rome , was found the bloud of Prophets , that is , of all those that preacht the Word of God , and of Saints , and of all that were slain upon the earth ; They were put to death by the authority of the Pope . Some hold that the bitterest persecutions of the Church of God are yet to come , but two considerations may much support the spirits of Gods people . 1. The shortnesse of the Persecutours lives , and their miserable ends for the most part . 2. The good that comes to the Church of God by affiction and persecution . I will not speak of the short lives of many Popes , and the short reign of Queen Mary * , nor of the miserable end of many persecuting Emperours , but shall out of Foxes Martyrology , instance in the exemplary punishments of some of the persecutours of our Martyrs . George Eagles ( alias , Trudge over the world ) hid himself in a Corn-field , and by the benefit of the height of the Corn , and breadth of the field he had escaped , had not Ralph Lurdane one of his persecutours with more malicious craft , climbed a high tree to view over the place , and so descried him . This persecutour a lewd fellow of life for theft and whoredome , within a few years after he had apprehended the foresaid George Eagles for gain of money , he himself was attached of felony for stealing a horse , condemned and hanged in the same place and Town of Chelmesford , where George Eagles before suffered martyrdome . A Bishop coming to Stephen Gardiner ( Bishop of Winchester ) on his death-bed , put him in remembrance of Peters denying his Master ; he answering again : said , That he had denied with Peter , but never repented with Peter , and so both stinkingly and unrepentantly died . Doctour Storie was a great enemy to the Protestants in Queen Maries daies , but in Queen Elizabeths reign he being beyond sea was by a handsome wile brought over into England , and suffered as a Traitour , on whom the boyes sung these verses , D. Story for You I am sorrie , The hangman must have Your gown : Your father the Pope , could not save You from the rope ; For all his triple crown . Secondly , The people of God like Commomile , the more they were trod on the more they did spread , and ( like Rabbets in frosty weather ) did thrive under persecution . One * saith , Martyrologie and catechizing were the great engines by which the reformers battered down Poperie . Jerome compares the state of the Ch●rch under Constantine and some Christian Emperours with that under Dioclesian and some persecuting Emperours : under the former the Church increased much Potentia & divitiis , in power and wealth , but diminished virtutibus , in vertue ▪ How strangely was that promise accomplished in England and France , Whosoever will save his life shall lose it ; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake , shall finde it . William Wolsey Martyr being in prison sent by another a noble to Richard Denton with this commendation , That he marvelled he tarried so long behinde him , seeing he was the first that delivered him the book of Scripture into his hand , and told him that it was the truth , desiring him to make haste after as fast as he could . This money and message being delivered to Denton almost a year after Wolsey was burned , his answer was this . I confesse it is true , but alas I cannot burn . But he that would not burn in the cause of Christ , was afterward burned against his will ; for his house was set on fire , and while he went in to save his goods he lost his life . On the contrary , some that were in prison , and purposed to suffer for the truth , were ●y the death of Queen Mary happily preserved , that being a true observation which * one hath , As good husbands do not put al their corn to the oven , but save some for seed , so doth God ever in the worst of persecutions . When Henry the fourth of France had conquered his enemies , he turned Papist , and gave this reason of it , That he might settle himself in peace and safety . Ravilliak who slew him , confessed that the reason why he stabbed him , was , because he was of two religions . It is well noted by a Reverend Divine * , That the book of martyrs was in high esteem all the days of Queen Elizabeth : All Churches by authority were injoyned to have it , so as all that would might read it . There was scarce a family of note that had it not , it was usuall to spend the long winter evenings in reading it . By the constancy of Martyrs therein set out , people were much encouraged to stand to that faith which was sealed by their bloud . Whether the killing of the two Witnesses be near at hand or no , I determine not , but sure there is likelihood enough of troubles and persecutions to Gods people , therefore I conceive these severall Tracts , Of the Martyrs in generall , and Concerning our English Martyrs , Of Martin Luther a couragious Reformer , Of the Covenant and Promises , Of living and dying by faith may be very suitable to our times . But some may urge , that for the first subject concerning the Martyrs , there was a book long since published , stiled , The Mirrour of Martyrs , usefull that way . I deny not but that book might be profitable to divers Christians , who either wanted money to purchase or leasure to reade the large book of Martyrs : But my drift in this worke is to excerp onely ( among the many dicta facta of the Martyrs ) those speeches and acts of theirs , which were specially observable . Master Co●ton ( who composed the book before mentioned ) hath confusedly jumbled divers things together : some of which are ordinary , though others may be remarkable , and I believe he mistakes in that which he hath of Voes , it being not consonant to the originall whence he took it . He hath also the same thing twice of Iohn & Christopher Waid . I hope therefore ( though I have many things the same with Cotton , that this work will be of speciall use to those , who would not be ignorant of the living speeches of dying Christians . The Saints are best toward their end ; so it was with Jacob and Moses , as appears in his excellent song made a little before his death , so David , Solomon , what an excellent Sermon and praier did our Saviour make a little before his death . I have likewise long since put forth a Treatise of the Covenant and Promises , yet having collected divers new Observations of that excellent subject , ( for some of which I was beholding to two of our worthy Lecturers * at Westminster ) I thought good to adde this Tract to the rest , it being of speciall use alwaies for Christians , especially in evil times . Thus hoping God will blesse these my endeavours for the good of his people , I rest Thy true Christian Friend EDWARD LEIGH ▪ THE SAINTS Encouragement IN Evil Times . CHAP. I. Observations concerning the Martyrs in generall . A Martyr in common use of speech , means one which seals his witnesse to the Gospel with his bloud , suffers death for Christ . That 's a Martyr , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the highest * degree . But the word in Grammar sense , means but a witnesse . Tertullian cals confessours to Christ , Martyrs . He must suffer in a good cause for the name of Christ , 1 Pet. 4 14. Causa non poena facit martyrem . Non debet quid quisque patiatur , sed quare patiatur , attendi . Aug. contra Crescon. lib. 4. cap. 46. The cause not the punishment makes a martyr . When I consider the cause of my condemnation ( said Mr Bradford ) I cannot but lament , that I do no more rejoyce then I doe . For it is for God● verity and truth , so that the condemnation is not a condemnation of Bradford simply , but rather a condemnation of Christ and of his truth Bradford is nothing but an instrumen● in which Christ and his doctrine i● condemned . How early did martyrdome come into the world ? The first man that died , died for religion . One saith , None are saved but Martyrs ; martyrs either actually or habitually ; having faith enough to encourage , and love to constrain them to be martyrs , if the honour of their profession should require it . The habit of martyrdome is included in the most fundamentall principle of Christianity , love of Christ better then our selves , self-resignation or deniall . To suffer death for Christ is the greatest honour which can befall a man , and such a promotion that the highest Angel in heaven is not permitted to have . In the primitive times they were wont to call martyrdome by the name of Corona Martyrij , the crown of martyrdome , and Stephen the protomartyr had his name in Greek from a crown . One woman martyr having her childe in her hand , gave it to another , and offered her self to martyrdome ; Crowns ( saith she ) are to be dealt this day , and I mean to have one . Luther writing to those which were condemned to death , saith , the Lord will not do me that honour , I who have made all this busle : It was very strange * that one who had so provoked the Pope and all his potent party , should die quietly in his bed . Bernard saith there are three sorts of martyrs , 1. Martyrs voluntate solùm , in will only , so all the godly are martyrs . 2. Voluntate & opere , in will and act ; those who chearfully lay down their life for Christs cause . 3. Opere solum , in act only ; so the children of Bethlehem , Mat. 2. 16. This was rather a passive then an active martyrdome , and improperly so called , since to true martyrdome not only slaughter and a good cause are requisite , but a will and intention of undergoing death for Christs sake . It is a question among the Schoolmen why Christ should so complain in his sufferings , as in the garden and on the crosse , and yet the martyrs suffer so chearfully . 1. They suffered for God , and Christ from God . 2. They suffered in their bodies , Christ in his soul , and the wrath of God , Isa. 43. 10. 3. Their sufferings were mixed with joy and comfort , exuberance of joy sometimes . Christs sufferings on the crosse were void of all comfort , Mat. 27. 46. and there was a suspension of divine influence . M. Ball in his catechisme saith , The testimony of conscience is a strong argument to prove that there is a God , and the constancy of the Saints * is a good reason to prove the Scriptures to be the Word of God , both these main principles of religion may be then confirmed from the carriage and courage of the Martyrs . First , How forcible was the working of conscience in some of them ! Bilny and Bainham at first recanted , but what a hell did they feel in their consciences till they returned to God and bewailed their abjuration ! On the contrary , what ravishing comfort did Robert Glover injoy a little before his martyrdome ? Dear wife ( saith Sanders * ) riches I have none to leave behinde me , wherewith to endow you after this worldly manner , but the treasure of tasting how sweet Christ is unto hungry consciences ( whereof I thank my Christ I feel part , and would feel more ) I bequeath unto you , and to the rest of my beloved in Christ to retain the same in sense of heart alwaies . Secondly , The Martyrs constant suffering may much establish us in the assurance of the Scriptures coming from God . 1. Observe the number of those which suffered for the truth , of all sorts and conditions , stout and tender , noble and base . Famesius departing out of Italy is reported to have said , That he would make such a slaughter in Germany that his very horse might swim in the bloud of the Lutherans . So much bloud of the Protestants was spilt in France that the very rivers in the streets flowed with bloud . The Duke of Alba sitting at his Table * said , that he had taken diligent pains in rooting out the tares of heresies , having delivered 18000 men in the space of six years only to the hands of the hangman . Within the compas●e of lesse then four years continuance , there died in England in Q. Maries reign 277 persons , without regard * of degree , sex or age . In the heat of those flames were consumed five Bishops , one and twenty Divines , eight Gentlemen , eighty four Artificers , one hundred husbandmen , servants and labourers , twenty six wives , twenty widdows , nine virgins , two boies , and two infants . Secondly , The persecutours could neither by torments nor pleasures induce them to deny the truth . When Valens the Emperour coming to Caesarea commanded Basil to assent to the Arians , and threatned to banish and punish him if he obeyed not , Pueris ( saith Basil ) illa terriculamenta proponenda sunt , sibi verò vita eripi potest , sed confessio veritatis eripi non potest . Those bug-bears were to be propounded to children , but for his part ( said he ) though they might take away his life , yet they could not hinder him from professing the truth . When King Lysimachus threatned Cyrenaeus Theodorus with hanging , Istis quaeso ( saith he ) ista horribilia minitare purpuratis tuis : Theodori quidem nihil interest , humine an sublimè putrescat . Threaten those terrible things to thy brave Courtiers , Theodorus cares not whether he rot in the air , or on the ground . Cyprian said Amen * to his own sentence of martyrdome , and the Proconsul bidding him consult about it , he answered , In re tam justa * nulla est consultatio . Bonner said , A vengeance on them , I think they love to burn . When the Proconsul threatned Andrew the Apostle with the crosse , if he left not off his preaching , I would never ( said he ) have preacht the doctrin of the crosse , if I had feared the suffering of the crosse . Jerom in the life of Paulus the Heremite reciteth a story of a certain souldier , whom when the Pretor could not otherwise with torments remove from his Christianity , he devised another way , which was this : he commanded the souldier to be laid upon a soft bed in a pleasant garden among the flourishing lillies and red roses ; which done , all others being removed away , and himself there left alone , a beautiful harlot came to him , who imbraced him , and with all other incitements of an harlot , laboured to provoke him to her naughtinesse . But the godly souldier fearing God more then obeying flesh , bit his own tongue with his teeth , and spit in the face of the harlot , as she was kissing him , and so got he the victory by the constant grace of the Lord assisting him . Thirdly , The Martyrs suffered with much comfort , courage and assurance of their salvation , going to the fire as to a feast , calling the coles roses , and the day of their martyrdome , their marriage day . I am to die ( said Bishop Ridley * ) in defence of Gods everlasting truth and verity , which death I shall by Gods grace willingly take with hearty thanks to God therefore , in certain hope without any doubting to receive at Gods hand again of his free mercy and grace everlasting life . Rowland Taylour departing hence in sure hope without all doubting of eternall salvation , I thank God my heavenly Father through Jesus Christ my certain Saviour . Amen . They thanked their Judges for condemning them , Sententiis vestris gratias agimus , cum damnamur à vobis à Deo absolvimur . Tertul. Apol. c. 5. The Martyrs were eminent in many graces . 1. In humility . They neither called themselves martyrs , nor did they give way to others so to entitle them , but if any in epistle or speech so named them , they did sharply reprove them , saying , That this appellation was due to Christ alone , which only is a faithfall witnes to the truth . Ignatius in his Epistles saith , I salute you , who am ultimus , the last and least of all : and so in another Epistle , Tantillitas nostra . Lord ( said Hooper ) I am hell , but thou art heaven , I am a sink of sin , but thou art a gracious God , and a mercifull Redeemer . 2. In love to God and Christ . Ignatius called Christ his love , Amor meus crucifixus est , said he , My love was crucified . None but Christ , none but Christ , said John Lambert . They offered to some of them gifts and honors to take them off , to which one well answered , Do but offer me somewhat that is better then my Lord Jesus Christ , and you shal see what I will say unto you . 3. In love to the brethren , and one another . Ejusmodi vel maximae dilectiovis operatio notam nobis inurit penes quosdam , vide inquiunt , ut invicem s● diligant . In the primitive times the cry of the Heathens was , See how they love one another , See how they are ready to die for one another . How did they express their affection to one another likewise by their gilt pence , nutmegs , and other tokens which they sent to one another , and by their hearty praiers ? 4. In * patience , Victi sunt Gentiles , & eorum Idololatria , non à repugnantibus , sed à morient●bus Christianis . Aust. 5. In liberality to the poor . * 6. In fidelity , John Bradford had often leave of his keeper , while he was in prison , to go see a friend , and he returned to his prison again rather before his time . 7. In zeal and fervency in * praier . 8. In mildenes * and forgiving their enemies . CHAP. II. Some memorable Collections concerning the Martyrs , especially out of Foxes three large volumes . Polycarpus . EVsebius * saith he was wont to say when he fell into the company of hereticks : Bone Deus in quae me tempora reservasti ? Good God what times hast thou kept me for ? When Marcion the heretick casually met him and said , Cognoscis nos ? Dost thou know us ? Polycarpus answered , Cognosco primogenitum diaboli , I know the first born of the devil . Being urged by the Proconsull to deny Christ , he answered : I have served him 86. * years , and he hath not once hurt me , and shall I now deny him ? When he should have been tied to the stake , he required to stand untied , saying : Let me alone ( I pray you ) for he that gave me strength to come to the fire , will also give me patience to abide in the same without your tying . Ignatius . Being led from Syria to Rome , there to be devoured , he wished by the way as he went , that he were in the midst of those beasts which were ready to rent him in pieces , and that their appetites might be whetted to dispatch him quickly , fearing least it should happen to him as to some other Martyrs , that the beasts out of a kinde of reverence and humanity , would not dare to approach unto him ; being ready , he said , rather to provoke them to fight , then that they should suffer him so to escape . It is reported of him , by some popish writers ( quam verè ipsi viderint ) that he was so frequent in roling the name of Jesus in his mouth , that when he died , there was ingraved and written in his heart the character of that name in golden letters : This may be fabulous , but Christ was very dear unto him , he called him his love , meus amor crucifixus est * , my love ( said he ) is crucified . When he heard the lions roaring , he said ; I am the Lords wheat * that must be ground with the teeth of wilde beasts , that I may be found pure bread . Ignis , crux , ferarum concursus , ( sectiones , lanienae ) ossium discerptiones , membrorum concisiones , totius corporis contritiones & diaboli tormenta in me veniant , tantummodo ut Jesum nanciscar . Id. ibid. Come ( saith he ) fire , gallows , wilde beasts , breaking of bones , tearing of members , contrition of the whole body , and torments from the devil , so that I may gain Christ . After all his sufferings he said , now I begin to be a Disciple . John Hus. Martin Luther in his preface to Daniel , cals him , sanctissimum Martyrem , a most holy Martyr , where he rehearseth also this prophesie of his : They shall now burn a Goose ( for Hus in the Bohemian tongue signifies a Goose ) but a Swan * shall come after me , which shall escape their burning . The Bishops caused to be made a certain crown of paper almost a cubit deep , in the which were painted three devils of wonderfull uglyshape , and this title set over their heads , Haeresiarcha * . The which when he saw , he said , My Lord Jesus Christ for my sake did wear a crown of thorns , why should not I then for his sake again , wear this light crown , be it never so ignominious ? Truly I will doe it , and that willingly . You knew how before my Priesthood ( which grieveth me now ) I have delighted to play oftentimes at chesse , and have neglected my time , and have unhappily provoked both my self and others to anger many times by that play . Hierome of Prage . He being condemned by the councell of Constance , thus prophesied , Et cito vos omnes , ut respondeatis mihi coram altissimo & justissimo judice post centum annos . Here I cite you to answer unto me before the most high & just Judge within a hundred years . He said thus to the Executioner , make the fire in my sight , for if I had feared it I had never come hither . Henry Voes and John Esch. Henry Voes and John Esch Friers , being burned at Bruxels , one of them seeing that fire was kindled at his feet , said , Me thinks ye doe straw rooses under my feet . Peter Moice . One of the Martyrs which suffered in Germany , being called befor● the Senate at Dornick , they bega● to examine him of certain articles 〈◊〉 religion . To whom as he was abou● to answer boldly and expressely t● every point , they interrupting him ▪ bad him say in two words , either yea or nay : Then said he , If ye will not suffer me to answer for my self it matters of such importance , send me to my prison again among my toad● and frogs , which will not interrup● me while I talk with my Lord my God . Peter Serre . One of the Martyrs which suffered in France , being put to the fire stood so quiet , looking up to heaven all the time of his burning , as though he had felt nothing , bringing such admiration to the people , that one of the Parliament said , that way was not best to bring the Lutherans to the fire , for that would doe more hurt then good . Bartholmew Hector . A French Martyr at his death , praying and speaking heavenly to the people , and taking his death patiently , many of the people wept , saying , why doth this man die which speaketh of nothing but of God ? Pomponius Algerius . An Italian Martyr , thus underwrites a comfortable letter of his to some of his Christian friends , From the delectable Orchyard of Leonine prison . Patrick Hamelton . Certain faithfull men being present the same time when this Scottish Martyr was in the fire , they heard him to cite and appeal the black Frier called Cambell that accused him to appear before the high God , a● generall Judge of all men , to answer to the innocencie of his death and whether his accusation were ju●● or not , between that and a certai● day of the next moneth , which h● there named . By the same witness● it is testified , that the said Frier died immediately before the day came without remorse of conscience , that he had persecuted the innocent . Thomas Bilney . His first conversion was by reading the new Testament set out by Erasmus , and particularly , 1 Tim. 1. 15. At the last ( saith he ) I heard speak of Jesus , even then when the new Testament was first set forth by Erasmus , which when I understood to be eloquently done by him , being assured rather for the Latine then for the word of God ( for at that time I knew not what it meant ) I bought it even by the providence of God , as I doe now well understand and perceive : And at the first reading ( as I well remember ) I chanced upon this sentence of St Paul ( O most sweet and comfortable sentence to my soul ) in his first epistle to Timoth. chap. 1. vers. 15. It is a true saying and worthy of all men to be embraced , that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners , of whom I am the chief . This one sentence through Gods instruction and inward working , which I did not then perceive , did so exhilerate my heart , being before wounded with the guilt of my sins , and being almost in despair , that immediately I felt a marvellous comfort and quietnesse , in so much that my brused bones leapt for joy . After this , the Scripture began to be more pleasant unto me then the hony or the hony-comb . Latimer cals him in his Sermons , blessed Saint Bilney , and shews how he was converted by him , and in what anguish of soul Bilney was in after his abjuration , and that he returned again and suffered for the Gospel . Being in the prison he divers time proved the fire by putting his finge● near to the candle : At the first touc● of the candle , his flesh resisting , an● he withdrawing his finger , did afte● chide his flesh in these words , Qu● ( inquit ) unius membri inustione● ferre non potes , & quo pacto cras t●●tius corporis conflagrationem tolerabi● What ( saith he ) canst not tho● bear the burning of one member and how wilt thou endure to mor● row the burning of thy whole body ▪ The night before his execution , divers of his friends resorted unto hi● in the Guild Hall where he was kep● amongst which one of them findin●● him eating an Alebrew with a cheerfull heart and quiet minde , said , that he was glad to see him at that time so shortly before his painfull an● heavy departure , so heartily to refresh himself : Whereunto he answered , O said he , I follow the example of the husbandmen of the countrey , who having a ruinou● house to dwell in , yet bestow cos● as long as they may to hold it up ▪ And so doe I now with this ruinous house of my body , and with Gods creatures , in thanks to him , refresh the same as ye see . Then sitting with his said friends in godly talk to their edification , some put him in minde , that though the fire which he should suffer the next day , should be of great heat unto his body , yet the comfort of Gods Spirit should cool it to his everlasting refreshing . At this word the said Thomas Bilney putting his hand toward the flame of the candle burning before them ( as also he did divers times besides ) and feeling the heat thereof , O ( said he ) I feel by experience , and have known it long by Philosophy , that fire by Gods Ordinance is naturally hot , but yet I am perswaded by Gods holy Word , and by the experience of some spoken of in the same , that in the flame they felt no heat , and in the fire they felt no consumption : and I constantly beleeve , howsoever that the stubble of this my body shall be wasted by it , yet my soul and spirit shall be purged thereby , a pain for the time whereon followeth 〈◊〉 unspeakable . And then most co●fortably entreated of Isa. 43. 1 , 2. well in respect of himself , as app●●ing it to the particular use of friends there present , of whom for took such sweet fruit therein , the they caused the words to be 〈◊〉 written on tables , and some in the books . The comfort whereof ( 〈◊〉 divers of them ) was never tak● from them to their dying day . James Bainham . As he was at the stake in the mid● of the flaming fire which had ha● consumed his arms and legs , he spak● these words : O ye Papists , behold 〈◊〉 look for miracles , and here now y● may see a miracle , for in this fire I f●●● no more pain , then if I were in a bed● down : but it is to me as a bed of rose● ▪ William Tyndall . For his notable pains and travel he may well be called the Apostle o●England in this our later age . He translated the new Testament , and five books of Moses ; for his faithfulnesse therein , observe his own words , I call God to record against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus , to give our reckoning of our doings , that I never altered one syllable of Gods words against my conscience , nor would doe this day , if all that is in earth , whether it be honour , pleasure or riches , might be given me . There was at Antwerp on a time amongst a company of Merchants , as they were at Supper , a certain jugler which through his diabolicall inchantment of art magicall , would fetch all kinde of viands and wine from any place they would , and set it upon the table presently before them , with many other such like things . The same of this jugler being much talked of , it chanced that Master Tindall heard of it , he desired certain of the merchants that he might also be present at Supper to see him play his parts . The Supper was appointed , and the Merchants with Tindall were there prese●● ▪ Then the jugler being required 〈◊〉 play his feats , and to shew his cuning , after his wonted boldnesse began to utter all that he could d● but all was in vain . At the last w●● his labour , sweating and toili●● when he saw that nothing would 〈◊〉 forward , but that all his encha●●●ments were void , he was compell● openly to confesse , that there w●● some man present at supper , whi●● disturbed and letted all his doings . He cried at the stake with a fe●vent zeal and a loud voice , * Le● open the King of Englands eies . John Lambert . After that his legs were consum●●● and burned to the stumps , he lifti●● up such hands as he had , and his fi●●gers ends flaming with fire , cri● unto the people in these words , No● but Christ , none but Christ . Anthony Person . He being come to the place of ●●●ecution , with a cheerfull countenance embraced the post in his arms , and kissing it , said , Now welcome mine own sweet wife ; for this day shall thou and I be married together in the love and peace of God . Henry Filmer . He said to Person and Testwood , two other Martyrs which died with him , Be merry my brethren and lift up your hands unto God , for after this sharp breakefast , I trust we shall have a good dinner in the kingdome of Christ our Lord and Redeemer . At the which words Testwood lifting up his hands and eies to heaven , desired the Lord above to receive his spirit . And Anthony Person pulling the straw unto him , laid a good deal thereof upon the top of his head , saying , This is Gods hat ; now I am dressed like a true souldier of Christ , by whose merits only I trust this day to enter into his joy . Many which saw their patitient suffering , confessed that they could have found in their hearts ( at the present ) to have died with them . Adam Damplip . He understanding from the Keepe● that he should soon suffer , was ye● merry and did eat his meat as wel● as ever he did in all his life , in so much that some at the bord said unto him , that they marvelled how he could eat his meat so well , knowing he was so near his death . Ah master ▪ quoth he , doe you think that I hav● been Gods prisoner so long in the Mar● shalsey , and have not yet learned to dy Yes , yes , and I doubt not but God wi●● strengthen me therein . Kerby . Master Wingfield said to Kerby 〈◊〉 prison , Remember the fire is ho● take no more upon thee then tho● canst perform , the terrour is grea● the pain will be extream , and life 〈◊〉 sweet : Better it were betime to sti●● to mercy , while there is hope of lif● then rashly to begin and then to shrink . To whom Kerby replied , Ah , Master Wingfield , be at my burning and you shall say , there standeth a Christian souldier in the fire : for I know that fire and water , sword and all other things are in the hands of God , and he will suffer no more to be laid upon us then he will give us strength to bear . Anne Askew . Pray , pray * , pray . To her confession in Newgate she thus subscribes . Written by me Anne Askew , that neither wisheth death , nor feareth his might , and as merry as * one that is bound towards heaven . Wrisley Lord Chancellour sent her letters ( being at the stake ) offering to her the Kings pardon if she would recant , who refusing once to look upon them , made this answer again , that she came not thither to deny her Lord and Master . Sir George Blague . He being one of the Kings privy Chamber , was condemned and appointed to be burned , but being pardoned by the King , and coming after into his presence ; Ah my Pig ( saith the King to him , for so he was wont to call him ) Yea , said he , if you● Majestie had not been better to m● then your Bishops were , your Pig had been rosted ere this time . Mr John Rogers . That morning he should be burned he was found asleep , and could scarce with much jogging be awaked : At length being raised and waked , and bid to make haste , the●● said he , if it be so I need not to ti● my points . The sunday before he suffered , he drank to Mr Hooper , being then underneath him , and bad them commend him unto him , and tell him there was never little fellow would better stick to a man , then he would stick to him , presupposing they should both be burned together , although it happened otherwise , for Mr Rogers was burnt alone . He was the Protomartyr of all the blessed company that suffered in Queen Maries time , that gave the first adventure upon the fire . His wife and children being eleven in number , ten able to go , and one sucking on her breast , met him by the way as he went toward Smithfield ; this sorrowfull sight of his own flesh and bloud could nothing move him , but that he constantly and chearfully took his death with wonderfull patience in the defence of Christs Gospel . Laurence Sanders . He seeming to be somewhat troubled at his lodging , one which was there about him asked him how he did : In very deed ( saith he ) I am in prison till I be in prison : Meaning , that his minde was unquiet untill he had preached , and that then he should have quietnesse of minde , though he were put in prison . He that did lie with him in prison in the same bed , reported that he heard him say , that even in the time of his examination he was wonderfully comforted , in so much as not only in spirit but also in body , he received a certain taste of that holy communion of Saints , whilst a most pleasant refreshing did issue from every part and member of the body , unto the seat and place of the heart , and from thence did ebb to and fro unto all the parts again . At Coventry ( where he was burned ) a poor Shoemaker which was wont to serve him of shoes , came to him and said ; O my good master , God strengthen and comfort you Gran mercy good Shoemaker , quoth Master Sanders , and I pray thee to pray for me , for I am the unmeetest man for this high office , that ever was appointed to it ; but my gracious God and dear Father is able to make me strong enough . When he came to the fire he fell to the ground and praied , then he rose up again and took the stake to which he should be chained , in his arms , and kissed it , saying : Welcome the crosse of Christ , welcome everlasting life : and being fastened to the stake , and fire put to him , full sweetly he slept in the Lord . In the beginning of Q. Maries time , there being a communication between Laurence Sanders and D. Pendleton , the Doctor took upon him to comfort Mr Sanders all that he might , admonishing him not to start aside , having put his hand to Gods plough ; I will see said he ( being a fat man ) the utmost drop of this grease of mine molten away , and the last gobbet of this flesh consumed to ashes , before I will forsake God and his truth . Sanders on the other side seemed so fearfull and feeblespirited , that he seemed rather to fall quite from Gods word which he had taught , then to stick to his profession and abide by his tacle , but after Sanders suffered most willingly , and Pendleton played the Apostata . Mr John Hooper . Being at Zarick with Bullinger , at his parting with him he promised to write unto him how it went with him . But the last news of all I shall not be able to write : for there , said he ( taking M. Bullinger by the hand ) where I shall take most pains , there shall you hear of me to be burned to ashes , and that shall be the last news , which I shall not be able to write unto you , but you shall hear of me . When Mr Hooper being made Bishop of Worcester and Glocester should have his Arms given him by the Herald , as the manner is for every Bishop to have his Arms assigned unto him ( whether by the Bishops or Heralds appointment is uncertain ) the Arms to him allotted was a Lamb in a fiery bush , and the sun-beams from heaven descended down upon the Lamb , rightly denoting as it seemed , the order of his suffering , which afterward followed . His life was so pure and good , that no kinde of slander ( although divers went about to reprove it ) could fasten any fault upon it . I know not one of all those vertues and qualities required of St Paul in a good Bishop , lacking in this good Bishop . Bishop Ridley and he differed about the ceremonies , yet both being in prison for the truths sake they were reconciled . Every day his manner was to have to dinner a certain number of poor folk of Worcester by course , who were served by four at a messe , with whole and wholesome meats : and when they were served ( being afore examined by him or his Deputies of the Lords prayer , the Articles of their faith , and ten Commandments ) then he himself sate down to dinner , and not before . Sir Anthony Kingston his friend coming to him a little before his death , used these words , Life is sweet and death bitter , to whom he replied , that the death to come was more bitter , and the life to come more sweet . A blinde boy being brought unto him , who had not long afore suffered imprisonment at Glocester for confessing of the truth , Master Hooper after he had examined him of his faith and the cause of his imprisonment , beheld him stedfastly , and ( the water appearing in his eies ) said unto him : Ah poor boy , God hath taken from thee thy outward sight , for what consideration he best knoweth ; but he hath given thee another sight much more precious , for he hath indued thy soul with the eye of knowledge and faith : God give thee grace continually to pray unto him , that thou lose not that sight , for then shouldst thou be blinde both in body and soul . Being at the stake , and having entred into his prayer , a box wa● brought and laid before him upon ▪ stool with his pardon ( or at least fained so to be ) from the Queen if he would turn : At the sight where of he cried , If you love my soul away with it , if you love my soul away wit● it . The box being taken the Lor● Shandoys said , Seeing there is no remedy dispatch him quickly . Master Hooper said , good my Lord , I trust you will give me leave to make an end of my praiers . Doctor Taylor . He told the Sheriffe and others ( who laboured to turn him to the Popish religion ) that he had been deceived himself , and was like to deceive a great many of Hadley of their expectation . I am ( said he ) as you see , a man that hath a very great carkasse , which I thought should have been buried in Hadley Church-yard , if I had died in my bed as I well hoped I should have done ; but herein I see I was deceived : and there are a great number of worms in Hadley Church-yard which should have had jolly feeding upon this carrion , which they have looked for many a day : but now I know we be deceived , both I and they ; for this carkasse must be burned to ashes , and so shall they loose their bait and feeding that they look to have had of it . Having light off his horse in his journey to Hadley a little afore he suffered , he leapt and fet a frisk or twain , as men commonly doe in dancing : Mr Doctor quoth the Sheriffe , how doe you now , he answered ; well , God be praised good Mr Sheriffe , never better , for now I know I am almost at home , I lack not past two stiles to go over , and I am even at my fathers house . The same morning in which he was called up by the Sheriffe to go to his burning ( about three of the clock in the morning ) being suddainly awaked out of his sound sleep , he sate up in his bed , and putting on his shirt , had these words , speaking somewhat thick after his accustomed manner : Ah horson theeves , ah horson theeves , rob God of his honour , rob God of his honour . Afterward being risen and tying his points , he cast his arms about a balke which was in the chamber between Mr Bradfords bed and his : and there hanging by the hands , said to Master Bradford : O Master Bradford , quoth he , what a notable swing should I give if I were hanged ? William Hunter . His mother said to him a little before his suffering , that she was glad that ever she was so happy to bear such a childe which could finde in his heart to lose his life for Christs name sake . Then William said to his mother , for my little pain which I shall suffer , Christ hath promised me mother ( said he ) a crown of joy , may you not be glad of that mother ? with that his mother kneeled down on her knees , saying ; I pray God strengthen thee my son to the end , yea I think thee as well bestowed as any childe that ever I bare . Being at the stake , he said , Son of God shine upon me , and immediately the sun in the firmament shone out of a dark cloud so full in his face , that he was constrained to look another way , whereat the people mused because it was so dark a little time before . John Lawrence . He being not able to go ( because his legs were so worn with heavy irons in prison , and his body weakned with evil keeping ) was born to the fire in a chair , and he sitting in the fire , the young children came about the fire and cried as well as young children could speak , saying , Lord strengthen thy servant and keep thy promise , Lord strengthen thy servant and keep thy promise . Dr Farrar Bishop of St Davids . One Richard Jones a Knights son coming to M. Farrar a little before his death , seemed to lament the painfulnesse of the death he had to suffer , unto whom the Bishop answered again to this effect , saying , that if he saw him once to stir in the pains of his burning , he should then give no credit to his doctrine . And as he said , so he right well performed the same ; for so patiently he stood , that he never moved , but even as he stood , holding up his stumps , so still he continued , till one Richard Gravell with a staff dashed him upon the head , and so struck him down . Rawlins White . The Bishop of Landaffe asking him whether he would revoke his opinions or no . Surely ( said Rawlins ) my Lord , Rawlins you left me , and Rawlins you finde me , and by Gods grace Rawlins I will continue . The night before he was to suffer , he sent to his wife , and willed her by the messenger that in any wise she should make ready and send unto him his wedding garment , meaning a shirt , which afterward he was burned in . As he went to the place of execution , in his way his poor wife and children stood weeping , and making great lamentation : the sudden sight of whom so pierced his heart , that the very tears trickled down his face , but he soon after , as though he had misliked this infirmity of his flesh , began to be as it were altogether angry with himself , in so much , that in his striking his breast with his hand , he used these words ; Ah flesh , staiest thou me so ? wouldst thou fain prevail ? well , I tell thee doe what thou canst , thou shalt not by Gods grace have victory . Thomas Haukes . Darbishire Bishop Bonners kinsman said unto him , that he was too curious , for he would have nothing but his little pretty Gods book . And is it not sufficient for my salvation ? said Haukes : Yes ( said he ) it is sufficient for our salvation , but not for our instruction : God send me the salvation ( said Haukes ) and you the instruction . Some of Haukes his friends privily desired him , that in the midst of the flame he would shew them some token if he could , whether the pain of suffering were so great , that a man might not therein keep his minde quiet and patient . Which thing he promised them to do , and so secretly between them it was agreed , that if the rage of the pain were tolerable and might be suffered , then he should lift up his hands above his head toward heaven , before he gave up the ghost . Having continued long in the flame , and his speech being taken away by the violence of the flame , and his fingers consumed with the fire , so that now all men thought certainly he had been gon , suddenly and contrary to expectation the blessed servant of God , being mindfull of his promise afore made , reached up his hands burning on a light fire ( which was marvellous to behold ) over his head to the living God , and with great rejoicing , as seemed , strook or clapped them three times together : At the sight whereof there followed such applause and out-cry of the people , and especially of them which understood the matter , that the like had not commonly been heard . John Bradford . He did not eat above one meal a day ; which was but very little when he took it : and his continuall study was upon his knees . In the midst of dinner he used often to muse with himself , having his hat over his eies , from whence came commonly plenty of tears dropping on his trencher . He was very gentle to man and childe , and in so good credit with his keeper , that at his desire in an evening ( being prisoner in the Kings bench in Southwark ) he had licenc● upon his promise to return again that night , to go into London without any keeper to visit one that was sick lying by the Still-yard : Neither did he fail his promise , but returned unto his prison again , rather preventing his hour then breaking his fidelity . He slept not commonly above four hours in the night ; and in his bed till sleep came , his book went not out of his hand . He counted that hour not well spent wherein he did not some good , either with his pen , study , or in exhorting of others . Whosoever ( saith he ) hath not learned the lesson of the crosse , hath not learned his A , B , C , in Christianity . He was not content till he found God coming into his spirit with severall dispensations , according to the severall parts of his prayer . The keepers wife came up suddenly to him ( he being in the keepers chamber ) as one half amazed , and seeming much troubled , being almost windelesse , said , O M. Bradford , I come to bring you heavy news , what is that , said he ? marry quoth she to morrow you must be burned , and your chain is now a buying , and soon you must go to Newgate ; with that M. Bradford put off his cap , and lifting up his eies to heaven , said , I thank God for it ; I have looked for the same time , and therefore it cometh not now to me suddenly , but as a thing waited for every day and hour , the Lord make me worthy thereof . Creswell offering to make sute for M. Bradford : He thus answered , I● the Queen will give me life I will thank her , if she will banish me I will thank her , if she will burn me I will thank her , if she will condem● me to perpetuall imprisonment , I will thank her . Some of the subscriptions of his letters were observable , The most miserable , heardhearted , unthankfull sinner , John Bradford . A very painted hypocrite , John Bradford . Christopher Waid . As soon as he was fastened to the stake , he spake ( his hands and eies being lifted up to heaven ) with ● cheerfull and loud voice , the last verse of the 86. Psalm . Shew me ● token for good , that they which hate m● may see it and be ashamed , because thou Lord hast holpen me and comforted me . Fire being put unto him , he cried unto God often , Lord Jesus receive my soul , without any sign of impatiency in the fire , till at length after the fire was once throughly kindled , he was heard by no man to speak , still holding his hands up over his head together towards heaven , even when he was dead and altogether rosted , as though they had been staid up with a prop standing under them . Robert Samuell a Minister . He would often in prison have drank his own water , but his body was so dried up with his long emptinesse , that he was not able to make one drop of water : After he had been pined with hunger two or three daies together , he then fell into a sleep , as it were one half in a slumber , at which time one clad all in white seemed to stand before him which ministred comfort unto him by these words , Samuel , Samuel , be of good cheer , and take a good heart unto thee , for after this day shalt thou never be either hungry or thirsty . Which thing came even to passe accordingly , for speedily after he wa● burned , and from that time till b● should suffer , he felt neither hung● nor thrist . Robert Glover . After he was condemned by the B●shop , and was near his death , tw● or three daies before his heart bein● lumpish and destitute of all spiritual● consolation , he felt in himself ● aptnesse nor willingnesse , but rathe● a dulnesse of spirit , full of much dis●comfort to bear the bitter crosse o● martyrdome ready to be laid upo● him . Whereupon fearing in himself least the Lord had utterly with drawn his wonted favour from hi● he made his moan to Austen Benh●● a Minister , and his familiar frien● signifying how earnestly he had pra●ed day and night unto the Lord , an● yet could receive no motion , no sense of any comfort from him : unto whom the said Austen answerin● again , desired him patiently to wai● the Lords pleasure , and howsoeve● his present feeling was , yet seeing his cause was just and true , he exhorted him constantly to stick to the same , and to play the man , nothing misdoubting but the Lord in his good time would visit him , and satisfie his desire with plenty of consolation , whereof ( he said ) he was right certain , and therefore desired him whensoever any such feeling of Gods heavenly mercies should begin to touch his heart , that then he should shew some signification thereof , whereby he might witnesse with him the same , and so departed from him . The next day when the time came of his martyrdome , as he was going to the place , and was now come to the sight of the stake , although all night before praying for strength and courage he could feel none , suddenly he was so mightily replenished with Gods holy comfort , and heavenly joyes , that he cried out clapping his hands to Austen , and saying in these words , Austen he is come , he is come , and that with such joy and ala●rity , as one seeming rather to be risen from some deadly danger to liberty of life , then as one passing out of the world by any pains of death . Such was the change of the marvellous working of the Lords hand upon that good man . Bishop Ridley . He offering to preach before the Lady Mary ( being made Queen ) was refused . He was after brought by Sir Thomas Wharton to a room , and desired to drink . After he had drunk , he paused a little while looking very sadly , and suddenly brake out into these words ; Surely I have done amisse , Why so ? quoth Sr Thomas Wharton . For I have drunk ( said he ) in that place where Gods Word offered hath been refused . Whereas if I had remembred my duty , I ought to have departed immediately , and to have shaken off the dust of my shoes for a testimony against this house . These words were spoken by him with such a vehemency , that some of the hearers afterward confessed , that it made their hair stand upright on their heads . The night before he suffered , his bear'd was washed and his legs , and as he sate at supper the same night at M. Irishes ( who was his keeper ) he bad the hostesse and the rest of the bord to his marriage ; for , saith he , tomorrow I must be married , and so shewed himself to be as merry as ever he was at any time before . M. Ridley looking ( as he was going to the stake ) espied Master Latimer coming after , unto whom he said , O be ye there , Yea , said M. Latimer , have after as fast as I can follow : After they came both to the stake , D. Ridley with a wondrous chearfull look ran to M. Latimer , imbraced and kissed him , and as they that stood near reported , comforted him , saying : Be of good heart , brother , for God will either asswage the fury of the flame , or else strengthen us to abide it . D. Smith preached at the burning of Bishop Ridley and M. Latimer on the first of the Corinth . 13. 3. wherein he railed against the Martyrs ( and these two especially ) crying still to the people to beware of them , for they were heretikes , and died out of the Church . Dr Ridley ( after the Sermon was ended ) desired liberty to speak , but could not obtain it , unlesse he would revoke his erroneous opinions and recant . To which he answered , so long as the breath is in my body , I will never deny my Lord Christ , and his known truth : Gods will be done in me , and said with a loud voice , Well , then I commit our cause to Almighty God , which shall indifferently judge all . M. Hugh Latimer . In King Edwards time he did so evidently fore-shew and prophecy o● all those kindes of plagues which afterwards ensued , that if England ever had a Prophet , he might seem to be one . And as touching himself h● ever affirmed , that the preaching of the Gospel would cost him his life . When the Lieutenants man upon a time came to him in prison , the aged * Father kept without a fire in the frosty winter , and well nigh starved for cold , merrily bad the man tell his master , that if he did not look the better to him perchance he would deceive him . He praied fervently , and oftentimes so long continued● kneeling , that he was not able to rise without help . The three principal matters he praied for , were First , That as God had appointed him to be a Preacher of his Word , so also he would give him grace to stand to his doctrine untill his death , that he might give his heart-bloud for the same . Secondly , That God of his mercy would restore his Gospel to England once again , and these words , Once again , once again , he did so inculcate , as though he had seen God before him , and spoken to him face to face . His third request was for the preservation of Queen Elizabeth , whom in his praier he was wont to name , and even with his tears desired God to make her a comfort to this comfortlesse Realm of England . Upon new-years day every Bishop was used to present the King with some handsome new-years gift , so they did some with gold , some with silver , some with a purse full of money , and some one thing , and some another : but M. Latimer being Bishop of Worcester then , among the rest presented a new Testament for his new-years gift with a napkin having this posie about it , Fornicatores & adulteros * judicabit Dominus , Fornicatours and adulterers God will judge . To some that asked him why one that preacht his Sermon did not preach as he did , he answered , he had his siddle and stick , but wanted his rozen . Quem recitas meus est O Fidentine , libellus : Sed malè dum recitas , incipit esse tuus . He spake to M. Ridley at the stake with him in this manner ; Be of good comfort M. Ridley , and play the man , we shall this day light such a candle by Gods grace in England , as I trust shall neve● be put out . M. John Philpot. Bishop Bonner said thus to him , What say you to the omnipotency of God ? Is not he able to perform that which he spoke ? This is my body , I tell thee that God by his omnipotency may make himself to be this carpet if he will . To whom Philpot answered , God is able to do whatsoever he willeth , but he willeth nothing which is not agreeable to his Word : Non potest Deus facere quae sunt naturae suae contraria . It is contrary to the nature of God to be a carpet , for a Creator to be the creature . A messenger from the Sheriffs coming to M. Philpot , and bidding him make ready , for the next day he should suffer and be burned at a stake with fire . Master Philpot answered and said , I am ready ; God grant me strength , and a joyfull resurrection . And so he went into his chamber , and poured out his spirit unto the Lord God , giving him most hearty thanks , that he of his mercy had made him worthy to suffer for his truth . As he went with the Sheriffs to the place of execution , entring into Smithfield the way was foul , and two Officers took him up to bear him to the stake . Then said he merrily , What ? Will ye make me a Pope ? I am content to goe my journies end on foot . But first coming into Smithfield he kneeled down there , saying these words ; I will pay my vows in thee , O Smithfield . And when he was come to the place of suffering , he kissed the stake , and said , Shall I disdain to suffer at this stake , seeing my Redeemer did not refuse to suffer a most vile death upon the crosse for me ? Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury . He was so milde to his enemies that if any of them ( who had wronged him ) would seem never so slenderly to relent or excuse himself , he would both forget the offence committed , and also evermore afterward friendly entertain him , insomuch that it came into a common proverb , Doe unto my Lord of Canterbury a displeasure , a shrewd turn , and then you may be sure to have him your friend while be liveth . He was a means to bring some learned men from beyond sea into England , as Bucer , Paulus Fagius , Peter Martyr , Tremellius * , being very hospitable to learned and pious men . And there are in Calvins Epistles letters between Calvin and him . When the fire began to burn near him , he stretching out his arm put his right hand to the flame , which he held so stedfast and immoveable ( saving that once with the same hand he wiped his face ) that all men might see his hand burned before his body was touched . His eyes were lifted up into heaven , and oftentimes he repeated his unworthy * right hand , so long as his voice would suffer him ; and using often the words of Stephen , Lord Jesus receive my spirit ; in the greatnesse of the flame he gave up the ghost . William Tyms . He being brought and examined before Bishop Boner and the Bishop of Bath , The Bishops began to pi●y Tyms case , and to flatter him , saying ; Ah good fellow thou art bold , and thou hast a good fresh spirit , we wish thou hadst learning to thy spirit . I thank you ( my Lord ) said Tyms , and both you be learned , and I would you had a good spirit to your learning . Hugh Laverock an old lame man , John Apprice a blinde man , Martyrs , burn'd at Stratford the Bow . At their death Hugh Laverock after he was chained , casting away his cr●tch , and comforting John Apprice his fellow martyr , said unto him ; Be of good comfort my brother , for my Lord of London is our good Physitian . He will heal us both shortly ; thee of thy blindenes , and me of me lamenesse . Bradbridges wife . When she was condemned of the Bishop to be burned , she had two children named Patience and Charity . Who then said to the Bishop , That if he would needs burn her , yet she trusted that he would take and keep Patience and Charity , meaning her two children . Nay , quoth the Bishop , by the faith of my body I will meddle with neither of them both . Elizabeth Folks . She being a young maiden and examined , whether she believed the presence of Christs body to be in the Sacrament substantially and really o● no , answered , that she believed it was a substantiall lie , and a reall lie . When she was at the stake , she said , Farewell all the world , Farewell faith , Farewell hope , and so taking the stake in her hand , said , Welcome love . William Sparrow . He said thus to Bishop Boner , that which you call truth I do believe to be heresie , and that which you call heresie is good and godly , and if every hair of my head were a man ( said he ) I would burn them all rather then go from the truth , &c. John Rough . Master Rough being at the burning of Austen in Smithfield , and returning homeward again , met with one M. Farrar , a merchant of Hallifax who asked him where he had been . Unto whom he answered , I have been where I would not for one of mine eyes , but I had been . Where have you been , said M. Farrar ? Forsooth ( saith he ) to learn the way . And so he told him he had been at the burning of Austoo , where shortly after he was burned himself . Roger Holland . He said thus to Bishop Boner . This I dare be bold in God to speak ( which by his Spirit I am moved to say ) that God will shorten your hand of cruelty , that for a time you shall not molest his Church . And this shall you in a short time well perceive , my dear brethren , to be most true . For after this day , in this place shall not there any by him * be put to the triall of fire and fagot . William Pikes . Somewhat before his apprehension , he sitting in his garden , and reading in a Bible , suddenly there fell down upon his book between 11 , and 12 a clock of the day four drops of fresh bloud , and he knew not from whence it came . Then he seeing the same was sore astonished , and could by no means learn from whence it should fall , and wiping out one of the drops with his finger , he called his wife , and said . In the vertue of God wife what meaneth this ? will the Lord have four sacrifices ? I see well enough the Lord will have bloud : his will be done , and give me grace to abide the triall . Afterward he daily looked to be apprehended of the Papists , and it came to passe accordingly . Alice Driver . D. Gascoin and she conferring , she asked him whether it was Christs body that the Disciples did eat over night . He answered , yea . What body was it then ( said she ) that was crucified the next day , he replying , Christs body , How could that be ( said she ) when his Disciples had eaten him over night ? Except he had two bodies , as by your argument he had . One they did eat over night , and another was crucified the next day . Such a Doctour , such doctrine : She put all her examiners to shame , that one looked on another , and had not a word to speak , whence she brake out into these words , Have you not more to say ? God be honoured , you are not able to resist the Sperit of God in me a poor woman . I was an honest poor mans daughter , never brought up in the Vniversity , as you have been , but I have driven the plough before my Father many a time , I thank God , yet notwithstanding in the defence of Gods truth , and in the defence of my Master Christ , by his grace I will set my foot against the foot of any of you all , in the maintenance and defence of the same ; and if I had a thousand lives they should goe for paiment thereof . Prests Wife . In her trouble she would take no money , for she said , I am going to a city where money beareth no mastery whiles I am here God hath promised to feed me . Elizabeth Young . She being committed to close prison , the Keeper was charged by Doctor Martin in her hearing , to give her one day bread , and another day water , to which she made this answer : If ye take away my meat , I trust that God will take away my hunger . CHAP. III. Martin Luther . HE was born on St Martins day , and therefore called * Martin Luther . He was though strong in body , yet sparing in diet ; I saw him ( saith * Melancthon ) when he was in good health , four whole daies eating and drinking nothing at all , I have often seen him at other times to be content many daies with a little bread and herring daily . When he recreated himself , and took his minde off his studies , he was delighted with the play of Chesse , and was skilfull at it . He was almost beyond measure liberall toward the poor : it happened once that a student asked some money of him , he bad his wife to give him something , but she excusing the matter in regard of their penury at that time , he took a silver cup which stood near to his hand , and gave it to the scholler , wishing him to sell it to the Goldsmith , and take the mon● to himself . Erasmus saith , Lenitatem se in 〈◊〉 desiderare , He wished him more moderation and temper in his writing Erasmus also often said , That God gave to this last age a sharp Physitian because of the greatnesse of their diseases . Intemperans aeger crudelem medicum fecit . He was by nature fiery but placable ; therefore when Melancthon came once to him being vehemently moved , he rehearsed this verse to him the rest being silent , Vince animos iramque tuam qui caeter● vincis . Overcome thy minde and anger ▪ which overcomest other things . Calvin * saith , Though Luther should call him a devil , yet he would honour him as a famous servant of God , who as he excels with great vertues , so he hath also great vices , but I would ( saith he ) he had alwaies exercised his vehemency which was imbred in him on the enemies of the truth , and not also on the servants of God , and that he had spent more pains in acknowledging his own faults . He was of a just stature , a strong body , of such a Lion-like vivacity of eyes that many could not endure to look directly upon him . He had good health , except that towards his later end he was often troubled with a pain in his head ; whence he : Valemus omnes praeter Lutherum ipsum , qui corpore sanus , foris à toto mundo , intus à Diabolo patitur & omnibus angelis ejus . We are all well save Luther himself , who being sound in body suffers outwardly from the whole world , inwardly from the devil and all his angels . A great deal of money was given him by Dukes and Princes , so that I began ( saith he ) to fear least God would herereward me , sed protestatus sum me nolle sic satiari ab eo , but I protested that I would not so be satisfied by him . He saith somewhere of himself , that he was never in all his life tempted to covetousnesse , one that was so great a reformer as he was , had need to have a spirit disingaged from the world . When upon a time one Papist demanded of another , why do you not stop the mans mouth with gold and silver ? The other answered , Hem , Germana haec bestia pecuniam non curat . See , this Germain beast careth not for money . He was the first that opposed the Popish Indulgences . Occasione nundinationis Indulgentiarum pretio numerato , Lutherus initio fuit permotus ad hoc quod suscepit reformaetionis opus . In the same year * when Martin Luther began , Pope Leo the tenth did create one and thirty Cardinals : In which year and day of their creation , there fell a tempest of thunder and lightning in Rome , which so shook the earth when the Cardinals were made , that it removed the little childe Jesus out of the lap of his mother , and the keyes out of S. Peters hands , which thing many then did interpret to signifie and foreshew the subversion and alteration of the Sea of Rome . Erasmus told Frederick Duke of Saxony , That in Luther were two great faults : First , That he would touch the bellies of the Monks . Secondly , That he would touch the Popes Crown , which two matters in no case are to be medled withall . Luthers friends disswading him from going to Worms , some crying that by the burning of his books it appeared he was condemned in the judgement of the Papists : others instancing in the examples of John Hus and Savanarola : Luther thus answered * , As touching me , since I am sent for , I am resolved and certainly determined to enter Worms in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ , yea although I knew there were so many devils to resist me , as there are tiles to cover the houses 〈◊〉 Wormes . Whose undaunted minde , mos● fervent zeal , great learning ( sait● * Chamier ) stirred up many who armed themselves against the errours and commonly received superstitions , among which were Zuingllus * Oecolampadius , Melancthon , B●cer , Calvin , and many others , whos● labours and endeavours that way● God would not suffer to be frusta●neous . Albertus Crantzius an Historia● of the Vandales is reported to hav● said to Luther , Frater vade * in cel●lam , & dic Miserere mei Deus . Brother go into thy cell , and say , Lord have mercy upon me , insinuating that an Aust●n Monke should in vai● dispute against the Pope . His praiers were so ardent unto Christ , that ( as Melancthon writeth ) they which stood under his window where he stood praying might see his tears falling and dropping down . He praied every day three hours , and then when his spirits were most lively , Pertres horas easque ad studia aptissimas . When he preached they which heard him thought every one his own temptations severally to be noted and touched , whereof when signification was given unto him by his friends , and he demanded how that could be : Mine own manifold temptations ( said he ) and experiences are the cause thereof . For from his tender years he was much exercised with spirituall conflicts , and vexed with all kinde of temptations . Hee regarded not the threats of his adversaries the Papists , he said to Melancthon , Si nos ●uemus ruet Christus una , scilicet ille regnator mundi : & esto ●uat , malo ego cum Christo rue●re , quam cum Caesare stare . If we fall Christ the Lord and Ru●er of the world falleth with us , I had rather fall with Christ then stand with Caesar . When any evil news was brought to him , he called for the 46. Psal● to comfort him . He saith in one place , odi istud v●cabulum paenitenti● * there was one no word so terrible unto him ( while he was a Papist ) and which his so●●did more hate then that , Repent , b●● after no word was more sweet , when he understood the Gospel . When a certain Jew was appointed to come to destroy him by poison yet it was the will of God that Luther had warning thereof before , an● by the face of the Jew sent to him by picture , whereby he knew him , an● avoided the pill . In the garden of his houses the devil appeared to him in the form of 〈◊〉 black bore , but he regarded it not . Cajetan asked him whether 〈◊〉 thought the Duke of Saxony would make warre in his behalf ▪ he said , 〈◊〉 would not have him : Where wil● you be then said Cajetan ? Luthe● answered , I shall be sub caelo under heaven . Erasmus wrote that there was more solid Divinity contained in one folio of Luthers Commentaries , then in many large writings of the Schoolmen and such like . He said and taught many things truly and gravely , as concerning the sacred Scripture and its authority , Solis canonicis libris debetur fides , caeteris omnibus judicium . We must beleeve the Canonicall books only , and may judge all others . He was so zealous to have the Scriptures read , that he professed , if he thought the reading of his books would hinder the reading of the Scripture , he would burn them all before he died . His saying was , Ecclesia sanguine & oratione totum mundum convertit . When something concerning a businesse was concluded amisse at Norimberg , he said , Longe aliter in caelo quam Norimbergae hoc de negoti● erat conclusum : It was farre otherwise concluded in heaven then at Norimberg concerning that matter . He took a liberty to himself t● speak stoutly when he was brought before the Emperour , till he hear● the pen go behinde the hangings . He hath some high expressions in● in his writings , fiat volunt as nostra , let our will be done . Cave non tantum à peccatis sed etiam a bonis operibus . Take heed not only of sins but also of good works . He being in an agony , and 〈◊〉 glimpse of Christs righteousnesse being discovered to him out of Rom. 1. 17. and perceiving that it was not meant , de justitia puniente , but justificante , not of his punishing justice , but that which justifieth the ungodly , he saith , I perceived my self regenerate , and to have entred into Paradise , the Scripture presently appeared in a new hew . He would have been content at the first if they would have taken away indulgencies . He said , Brevi efficiam ut anathema sit esse Papistam : I will shortly cause it to be a curse to be a Papist . A young man about Wittenberg being kept bare and needy by his father , was tempted by way of sorcery to bargain with the devil or a familiar ( as they call him ) to yield himself body and soul unto the devils power , upon condition to have his wish satisfied with money , so that upon the same an obligation was made by the young man , written with his own bloud , and given to the devil : upon the sudden wealth and alteration of the young man , the matter first being noted , began afterward more and more to be suspected , and at length after long and great admiration he was brought unto Martin Luther to be examined . The young man whether for shame or fear long denied to confesse , and would be known of nothing , yet God so wrought being stronger then the devil , that he uttered unto Luther the whole substance of the cause , as well touching the money , as the obligation . Luther understanding the matter and pittying the lamentable state of the man , willed the whole Congregation to pray , and he himself ceased not with his prayers and labour , so that the devil was compelled at last to throw in his obligation at the window , and bad him take it again unto him . He held Consubstantiation , but confessed to Melancthon that he had gone too far in the controversie of the Sacrament . Melancthon perswaded him by the publishing of some milde writing to explain himself . Luther replied to that , that by this means he should cause his whole doctrine to be suspected , but Melancthon might do what seemed good to him after his death . When they said he had recanted , he writing to his friend Stupitius , saith , Omnia de me praesumas praeter fugam & palinodiam : Presume any thing of me sooner then flying and retracting . Luther so much esteemed of his book de servo arbitrio , that he gloried in it as unanswerable and wrote to Wolfangus Fabricius Capito : Nullum se agnoscere justum suum librum , nisi fortè De servo arbitrio , & Catechismo , that he acknowledged none of his books for his , but those two , that de servo arbitrio , and his Catechisme . If any of his books be to be disliked , surely that de sermonibus Convivalibus is most faulty , of which Gerhard * ( a Lutheran ) saith thus , Liber ille Convivalium sermonum à Luthero nec visus , nec lectus , nec approbatus est , quin multoties privato quorundam arbitrio mutatus , mutilatus , auctus . He said of the Pope , non habeo argumentum robustius , that he should fall , then quia sine cruce regnat . Luther speaks slightly himself of his first labours . Above all I beseeeh the godly Reader , and for our Lord Jesus Christs sake , that he would reade my writings judiciously , and with much compassion , and let him know that I was formerly a Monk and a most furious Papist , when I first entred into the cause undertaken by me . He fitly called the Popes bull bullam , a bubble in respect of its vanity . Being reproached , he said , Prorsus satan Lutherus sit , modo Christus vivat & regnet , Let Lurther be counted a devil so Christ may live and reign . His saying was , Turcicum imperium quantum quantum est , mica tantum est quam pater-familias pr●jicit canibus , The whole Turkish Empire is but a crumme that the master of the family throws to a dog . He said he learnt more by one fervent prayer , then he could get by reading of many books or most intent * meditation . Melancthon in his preface to his 3d Tome reports this of him . When he often seriously thought of the anger of God , or the wonderfull examples of punishments , suddenly he had such terrours that he was almost dead with them , and in disputing once about some points being much amazed , he lay upon a bed in the next room , where he often inserted this sentence in his prayer : He hath concluded all under sin that he might have mercy on all . His prayer a little before his death was this , Paeter mi caelestis , Deus & Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi , Deus omnis consolationis , ago tibi gratias , quod filium tuum Jesum Christum mihi revelasti , cui credidi , quem sum professus , quem amavi , quem celebravi , &c. My heavenly Father , the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , the God of all consolation , I give thee thanks , that thou hast revealed thy Son Jesus Christ to me , whom I have beleeved , whom I have professed , whom I have loved and celebrated . When he lay a dying , this was his will for his wife great with childe and his little son . Domine Deus , gratias ago tibi , quod volueris me esse pauperem super terram & mendicum . Non habeo domum , agrum , possessiones , pecuniam 〈◊〉 quae relinquam . Tu dedisti mihi uxorem & filios , tibi reddo , nutri , doce , serva , ut hactenus me , O Pater pupillarum , & judex viduarum . O Lord God , I thank thee that thou wouldst have me to be poor upon the earth , I have no house land or money that I should leave them . Thou hast given me wife and children , I restore them to thee , doe thou O father of Orphans and Judge of widdows , nourish , teach , keep them , as thou hast hitherto me . CHAP. IIII. Of the Covenant and Promises . I. Of the Covenant . THE Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Berith , is derived from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Barah , elegit , to choose , because God in the Covenant of works did choose out man especially with whom he made the Covenant , and because in the Covenant of grace he chuseth out of the multitude the elect , and because a Covenant is a thing which two chuse , and of which they mutually agree and promise betwixt themselves , although the word be used where ore alone doth promise with a simple promise , and so it may be referred to the Testamentary disposition . Or else it may come from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Barah , comedit , to eat , as if they should say an eating , because they used in the Eastern countries to establish Covenants by eating and drinking together . The condition was about eating in the Covenant of works . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Bara , signifieth to slay ( whence some derive a Covenant ) because God made the first Covenant of grace and sealed it by sacrifices * of beasts slain and divided . The Covenant in generall may be described a mutuall compact or agreement betwixt God and man , whereby God promiseth all good things , specially eternall happinesse unto man , upon just , equall and favourable conditions , and man doth promise to walk before God in all acceptable , free and willing obedience , expecting all good from God , and happinesse in God according to his promise , for the praise and glory of his great name . A Covenant is a solemn compact or agreement between two chosen parties or more , whereby with mutuall , free , and full consent they binde themselves upon select conditions tending to the glory of God and their common good . It differs from a promise gradually and in the formalities of it , not naturally or in the substance of it . A Covenant usually is the collection of many promises , as a constellation is the collection of many starres , though it be but one promise , I will be thy God , yet it is such a one as comprehends many . There is a difference between a Law and a Covenant . A Superiour may give a law whether the inferiour consent to it or no , but a Covenant is ratified by the consent of both parties . A Covenant is something unto which two persons by mutuall consent doe freely binde themselves . There are divers distinctions of Covenants . 1. A Covenant of nature . 2. A Covenant of grace . 3. A mixt Covenant consisting of nature and grace . Others make these three Covenants , 1. Foedus natura , the Covenant of nature made with Adam . 2. Foedus gratiae , the Covenant of grace made to us in Christ . 3. Foedus subserviens , a preparing Covenant to make way for the advancement of the Covenant of grace in Christ . Others say , there were never any but two Covenants made with man , one Legall , the other Evangelicall , of works or grace , the first in innocency , the other after the fall . Foedus operum , when it was first made with man , was foedus amicitiae , God and man were then friends , foedus gratiae is foedus reconciliationis inter i●imicos . 1. The Covenant of works wherein God Covenanteth with man to give him eternall life upon condition of perfect obedience in his own person . 2. The Covenant of grace which God maketh with man , promising eternall life upon condition of beleeving . We reade not in Scripture the Covenant of works and of grace totide● syllabis , the nearest we come to it is Rom. 3. 27. the law of works opposed to the law of faith , which holds out as much as the Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace . The Covenant of works was 1. That Covenant wherein God was the authour and the ground of it , was Gods free grace , it was reciprocall betwixt him and Adam . We call not the second Covenant a Covenant of grace , because there was no grace in the first Covenant , but in opposition to the condition of the first Covenant which was works , and because greater grace is manifested in it then the first , 2. It was the same Covenant under which the best of the creatures the Angels now stand and injoy their happinesse , and Adam should have been happy by observing this Covenant if he had stood . Christ was made under this Covenant . 3. The promises of this Covenant were very glorious . 1. For naturall life , in the body there was perfection without defect , beauty without deformity , labour without wearinesse . 2. For spirituall life , Adam should not have had terrours in his conscience , sorrow , fear , shame . 3. For death , he should have been translated without dissolution . The Faederati were God and Adam together with all his posterity . God made a Covenant with Adam as a publick person , which represented all mankinde . The reasons of it may be these , 1. From the imputation of Adams sin to all mankinde , Rom. 5. 12. In whom , or for as much as all have sinned , they sinned not all in themselves , therefore in Adam , see vers. 14. In him all died , 1 Cor. 15. 47. 2. Those on whom the curse of the Covenant comes , they are under the bond and precept of the Covenant , all mankinde is directly under the curse of the Covenant , Rom. 8. 20. 21. Gal. 3. 13. Adam did consent to it and understood the terms of the Covenant , for God dealt with him in a rationall way , and expected from him a reasonable service . Either he knew the tenour of the Covenant , or else he broke it out of ignorance , but the first sin could not be a sin of ignorance , he knew whatsoever was necessary to know in a way of duty . God dealt with Adam not only in a way of sovereignty but in a way of Covenant , God did this for divers reasons . 1. For the speciall manifestation of his free grace . 2. That it might be the greater obligation to Adam to obey , God made a promise and he gave his consent . 3. To sweeten his authority to man , Deut. 6. 24. 4. To encourage man to obedience , Heb. 12. 2. 5. That this might be a ground to Adam to exercise His faith in beleeving whatsoever God had revealed or should reveal . 2. His love , 1 John 4. 19. 3. His hope . 6. To leave man inexcusable if he sin , that a clear way might be made for Gods justification and mans conviction . Objection , God is a free Agent , how can it stand with his honour and absolute liberty to be bound to the creature ? Answer , In a strict sense , 1. God cannot be said to be bound , but promittendo s● fecit debitorem , saith Austins , and he is rather bound to himself , and his own faithfulnesse , then the creature . Objection , How can it stand with Gods justice to involve Adams posterity in a Covenant , which themselves never consented to . Answer , It is not an injustice among men for parents to conclude their children , their acts binde them and their heirs . 2. God hath reserved to himself a liberty to visit the sins , not only of the first , but immediate parents on their children , Gen. 9. 22. 1 Thes. 2. 26. The Sodomites children were punisht with their parents . 3. Adam was our parent , there was the will of the nature , which was enough to inwrap them in originall sin , the sin of the nature . 4. This Covenant was made with Adam and his posterity out of free grace , therefore all his posterity was bound by way of thankfulnesse to consent . 5. They ought to rejoice in Adams exaltation being so advanced , and to agree to the Covenant made with him . 6. God made the best choice for them in the first Adam ( as he did in the second ) in so doing , seeing he made him so perfect . The first Covenant consists of three parts . Gal. 3. 10 , 11 , 12. 1. The precept , that continueth not in all things . 2. The promise , live , the man that doth them shall live . 3. The curse in case of transgression , cursed in every one . The precept requires perfect and personall obedience . The condition of the Covenant on mans part was 1. Perfect obedience . 1. The commandment then did ( and still doth as it refers to the first Covenant ) call for perfect obedience , Lev. 18. 5. Rom. 10. 5. Gal. 3. 12. Ezek 20. 25. 2. Because there is a curse denounced against the least transgression , Gal ▪ 3. 10. One sinne and that but in thought , broke the Angels Covenant , Rom. 5. 17. 3. Gods holinesse is such , that he requires from the creature perfect obedience , Job 4. 18. Heb. 1. 13. 4. There are two things in the law , 1. The principall part of it , the precept . 2. The accidentall , the curse : man is bound to the precept , jure creatoris , to the curse , jure judicis . 5. He gave us a perfect ability to obey in our creation , Ephes. 4. 22 , 23. Eccles. 7. ult. 6. He requires perfect obedience in Christ , Rom. 8. 4. 2. Personall obedience . 1. There is a perfect obedience to the law required of every particular man , Gal. 3. 10. 2. The curse is denounced against the person , the soul that sins shall die . 3. This was required of Christ our surety , Gal. 4. 4. 4. It was required for the acceptation of our persons and salvation of our souls . 5. The righteousnesse of the first Covenant might easily be lost by transgression , Dan ▪ 9. 23. CHAP. V. Of the Covenant of grace . AFter man by his fall had broken the first Covenant , God our of his free grace did enter into a better and second Covenant . 1. All the persons in the Trinity did enter into Covenant with man , they have all the same nature , essence , will , and this is an act ad extra , 2. Sin was against all the persons in Trinity , therefore all they were to be reconciled , but the person that chiefly made the Covenant with man was God the Father , the other persons have their peculiar office● in the administration of this Covenant , the persons that God would take into Covenant were designed by the Father , John 17. 9. Rev. 13. 6 , 8. He imploies Christ as Mediator of the Covenant , Isa. 49. 8. Matth. 12. 18. He appoints how much grace and glory he will give to every one in this Covenant . 2. The fountain from whence this Covenant flows is the free grace of God , Gen. 17. 2. I will make ( Hebrew , I will give ) my Covenant . Ephes. 1. 6. Isa. 41. 1 , 2. 2 Sam. 7. 21. Free grace is here exalted in these particulars . 1. From the consideration of the person that enters into Covenant , God Alsufficient . 2. Of● the persons with whom he enter● into Covenant , man fallen , Gal. 4. 21. 3. In that this Covenant was made with some of those that fell , and not others , Ephes. 2. 12. 4. In that the Lord hereby exalts our persons and services , Hos. 2. 19. 5. In that sin can never spend the righteousnes of this Covenant , Hos. 3. 2 , 3. The Covenant of grace is that free and gracious Covenant which God of his free mercy in Jesus Christ , made with man a miserable and wretched sinner , promising unto him pardon of sin , and eternall happinesse , if he will return from his iniquity and embrace mercy reached forth by faith unfained , and walk before God in sincere , faithfull , and willing obedience , as becomes such a creature lifted up unto such injoyment , and partaker of such precious promises . God himself plotted this Covenant , Ephes. 1. 9 , 10. He spent infinite thoughts about it , Psal. 40. 7. took infinite delight in it , Isa. 53. 10. The main end of Christs coming into the world was to bring in a new Covenant , Mal. 3. 1. Heb. 7. 22. an● 12. 24. The spirit belongs to the se●cond Covenant , Isa. 59. ult. his glo●rious works , a witnesse , seal , earnest , belong to the spirit of the second Covenant . The Covenant of grace is more glorious then that of works . The first Covenant was made with the first Adam a mutable head , the second with the second Adam an unchangeable head , Gal. 3. 16. Secondly , The Covenant it self was a changeable Covenant , it gave place to the Covenant of grace , but this second Covenant was an everlasting Covenant . Thirdly , The righteousnesse of the second Covenant is far more glorious then the righteousnesse of the first Covenant , that of the first Covenant was the righteousnesse of a creature , this the righteousnesse of God . Fourthly , The condition of the second Covenant was more glorious then that of the first , the condition of the first Covenant on mans part , was perfect and personall obedience of this Covenant-faith , to sin against God in Christ , is the highest way of sinning , and to glorifie God in Christ , is the highest way of glorifying him . Fiftly , The power of performing it is more glorious , now we have a constant supply of the spirit , Ephes. 1. 19. and 4. 13. then we had none to assist us . Sixtly , The promises of the second Covenant are more glorious then those of the first , Heb. 8. 6. * I will be thy God , I will give thee my Son , my Spirit , God did not tell Adam that he would be his God in that way that he promiseth himself to his in the second Covenant . God promiseth a more glorious manifestation of himself , and union with himself in Christ , a higher manifestation of his wisdome , holinesse , power , and also of his mercy , which was not before discovered , a higher union , under the first head there was only a moral union of love , under the second a mysticall union , we are the same person with Christ ; the second Covenant brings repentance and pardon upon repentance . The first Covenant said , If thou dost well thou shalt be excepted . We have a higher Sonship . Adam was a son by creation , we by Christ , our ground of the acceptation of all our services is higher , God looks on us as being one with Christ , we have a greater ground of perseverance , we have a higher title to our inheritance , Adam was made King of this low world , Christ was made heir of all things , and we coheirs with him . Question , How can the Covenant of grace be called a Covenant * , as Ier. 31. 34. since it contains a meer absolute free promise , whereas a covenant requireth mutuall conditions . Now no condition can be required to this covenant , which the covenant it self doth not work ; For I will write my laws doth denote all things done by grace . Answer . Though God do perform , and in his Covenant promise to performe what he requires , yet still there is something required which man consenting to , and promising to perform ( though not of himself by his own power ) it is a covenant . The Covenant of grace is mentioned an hundred times directly in the Scripture , and a thousand times by consequence . In generall it comprehends all the blessings which God can give from election to glorification . Particularly he gives ; 1. His own self , God spared not his own Sonne , To us a Son is given , I will be thy God , thy reward , thy portion , thine inheritance . He is their reconciled God , theirs in a league of love and friendship . 〈◊〉 Scripture useth to expresse this 〈◊〉 some peculiar relations , as of King● Husband , Father , He will do 〈◊〉 the offices of a good King , of a ●●ving Husband and Father . 2. He doth actually with himse●● put the soul into the possession 〈◊〉 many other things . 1. He brings reconciliati●● with God . 2. Justification , the pardon 〈◊〉 all their sins , and covering 〈◊〉 their deformities with the 〈◊〉 of Christs righteousnes . 3. Adoption , makes them 〈◊〉 heirs with himself . 4. Sanctification , He gi●● his Spirit to dwell in them . Thirdly , He gives them infin●● wealth in bils & bonds , in promi●● 1. For this life , 1. Of preservation and de●●●verance from all evils , they 〈◊〉 either be prevented that 〈◊〉 come not , or sanctified if 〈◊〉 do come , or removed . 2. Of a constant supply of 〈◊〉 good things they stand in need of , for soul , body , name , Ps. 34. He will prosper and give successe to all the works of their hands , Psalm 1. 2. Job 22. 28. 2. For life to come . In the new Covenant there be three great Promises . 1. I will be your God . 2. I will pour out my Spirit on ●ou . 3. I will give you my Sonne . His giving his Son is the ground of both the rest , He is a God to none but 〈◊〉 whom Christ is a Saviour , we ●ave the Spirit also by interest in Christ . First , I will be your God , Genesis ●7 . 7. Psal. 48. This God is our God , Psal. 144. ult. 2 Cor. 6. 16 , 18 . ●●at is , you shall have as true an in●erest in all my attributes for your ●ood , as they are mine for my glory , ●y grace to pardon you , my power ●o protect you , my wisdome to di●ect you . This is a comprehensive ●romise for God to be our * God it includes all , Deus meus & omnia , said Luther . The Covenant of grace is both Faedus amicitiae & conjugale , a Covenant of friendship , and a conjugall Covenant . Abraham was in covenant with God , and God stiles him his friend ; also it is a conjugall league , Hos. 2. 19 , 20. Secondly , God promiseth his Spirit , Ioel 2. 28. John 14. 16 , 26. and 15. 26. and 16. 7. Luke 24. 49. Act. 1. 4. an accomplishment of which promise we have , Act. 2. 23. The Spirit is called , Ephes. 1. 13. The holy Spirit of promise , because this was the great promise which Christ from the Father hath made unto us , the giving of the holy Ghost to work in us all the good which he requireth & apply all the good wch he hath promised . The giving of the Spirit is a great and excellent promise of the new Testament . The great promise of the old Testament was the promise of Christ , Gen. 3. 16. of the Messiah , all the ceremoniall Law was but a typical enlargment of that promise . Christ when he was to goe out of the world promised his Spirit . 1. That in this last age of the world there might be a more full discovery of the great things of the Gospel , the Spirit reveals truth and stablisheth us in the truth , that Gods people might know more of himself and his Son , and prie more into the mysteries of the Gospel . 2. There are more glorious conquests to be made in this last age of the world , all the great enemies of Jesus Christ are to be vanquished , Ze. 4. 7. 2 Thess. 2. 9. the sharpest sufferings are reserved for these times , therefore Christ hath provided the most sovereign cordials . What undaunted courage , what invincible patience , what ravishing consolation had the martyrs in the flames ? God made good this promise to them in sending his Spirit . We should put our bond in sute , turn promises into praiers , presse God with much importunity for more of the Spirit . 3. God hath promised to give us his Son . The whole Covenant of grace i● purchased , founded , sealed , ratified in Christs bloud , Mat. 26. 28. Heb. 9. 14 , 15. and 13. 20. It was Gods plot from all eternity to save man in such a way , as should advance all his glorious Attributes , his wisdome , power , justice , mercy , compassion , wrath , vengeance . The Covenant of grace is the most free and gracious tender of Christ , and all his rich purchases to all the lost and undone sons of Adam that shall believe in him . All other particular promises found in the book of God receive their confirmation by the promise of Christ . God promiseth sometimes to deliver from a particular affliction ; to assure them that that shall be kept , he makes a promise of Christ , Behold a virgin shall conceive . There are three things in the promise of Christ to confirm all other promises . 1. Because there may be made more objections against the Lords giving of Christ , then against any other promise whatsoever , in that the great provoked God must come to be a suter to his vassall , Jehovah must lie in a virgins womb . 2. More love and compassion is shewed in that one promise of Christ then in all other promises whatsoever . 3. Because this is the mother promise , 2 Cor. 1. 20. Some say , The conditions of the Covenant of grace , are repentance , faith and new obedience . Sincerity alone ( or Evangelicall perfection ) is the only absolute condition of the Covenant of grace , Gen. 17. ● . It is called an upright heart , that is , straight : It is also called Integrity , a body that wants no members , a sound heart , a pure or sincere heart , a single heart , a simple and honest heart . Evangelicall perfection is a work of Gods Spirit whereby the whole inward man is applied to God and his waies without the mixture of strange intentions or affections . 2. Sincerity of singlenesse , purity , perfection is the whole substance and mettall of all graces which God worketh in the soul ; it is not any one grace , as patience , meeknesse , but the substance of every grace , faith and love unfeigned , Praier which comes not out of feigned lips ; we must worship God in spirit and in truth , Ephes. 4. 34. 3. God and the Saints have ever judged of men by this , Iudge me , O Lord , according to mine integrity . 4. The promises are made to this , Ps. 119. 1. Mat. 5. 8. Characters of sincerity . As preparatory or a motive to the rest , to be willing and desirous to have his heart thorowly tried and searched , Joh. 3. 18 , 19 , 20. Psalm 139. There are three reall marks , 1. It makes the work of grace universall . 1. In regard of the subject : therefore it is called a new creature . 2. In respect of the object , abstains from all sin , and performs all duty . 2. It is constant . 3. It presseth on to have more till it be filled with God and his waies , Phil. 3. 8 , 9 , 10 , 11. It is a matter of great concernment for a man rightly to understand the nature of the Covenant under which he is , 2 Sam. 23. 3 , 4. Reasons . 1. Because it is the covenant which God hath respect unto in all his dealings with you , Psal. 105. 8. & 111. 5. 2. Else we shall never be able to understand our own state , 1 Cor. 11. 28. and 2 Cor. 12. 5. Galat. 4. 23 , 24 , 25. 3. Else we shall never be able to judge a right of any of our actions , neither of Gods waies to us , nor ours to him , Gen. 4. 4. 4. Without knowledge of the nature of the Covenant we can never understand our own sinnes , we are not only breakers of the Law , but transgressors of the Covenant , Hosea 6. 7. Deut. 29. 21. Lev. 26. 24 , 25. 5. According to our Covenant , such is the Spirit by which we are acted , and such is our law and practice , one under the first covenant is acted by the spirit of bondage , one under the second is acted by the Spirit of adoption . 6. We cannot else understand our mercies or afflictions , whether they come from Gods love or displeasure . 7. Without this we cannot understand the riches of Gods grace in the second covenant . 1. That he should enter into a covenant at mans creation . 2. When man had broke that to enter into a new covenant . 3. To finde out such a glorious way to abolish the first covenant . 4. To make it with such a glorious Head , Christ . 5. That the promises of this covenant should be better then those of the first covenant . 8. All our terrour or comfort comes from our covenant under which we are , Heb. 6. 17. 1 Pet. 3. 9. Eph. 2. 2. We are under the covenant of grace . 1. If we be in the second Adam , if we be willing to accept of Christ upon his own terms , Hos. 2. 18. 2. If sin have not dominion over us , Rom. 6. 12. 3. If the Lord put his laws into our minde , and write them in our hearts , Heb. 8. 8. * It is an allusion to the two Tables of the Law . They were first written by the finger of God , and then put into the Ark : so God first writes the Law in our hearts , and then puts it in our mindes . The writing of the Law in the heart signifies , 1. Similitudinem , a conformity , an inward principle and disposition in the heart answerable to the doctrine in the book . 2. Permanentiam , continuance , it is not a flitting but a binding principle , Litera scripta manet . All the errours almost of these times may be confuted from the doctrine of the covenant , Heb. 8. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. 1. Merit and supererogation of works , Satisfaction given to justice must be commensurate to that justice which it must satisfie , infinite . 2. The Popish and Arminian doctrine of Free-will . Can man work in a way of grace so as to determine and make it effectuall before he have grace , a principle of working ? Can a man receive grace offered without a speciall work of grace stirring and exciting him ? I will write my laws in their hearts , the promise then written in the heart is the foundation of all our faith , and the precept of all our obedience . 3. For in vocation of Saints . Christ is the Mediatour of the new Covenant ; He is touched with our infirmities , and yet cloathed with majesty , to his Father he gives his merit for us , from his Father he gives his Spirit to us . 4. That Arminian doctrine of universall grace and redemption , that Christ should die intentionally for all . Where ever the merit of Christs death goes , there goes his Spirit , the price and power of his death are equal ; all have not the Spirit of Christ , therefore not his merit . The Socinians deny the satisfaction of Christs death , justice must have satisfaction . Christ ( they say ) came into the world to be an example , and give us a patern of vertue , as the Pelagians say we have Adams sin by imputation . They deny all infused habits of grace , and would only have moral perswasions . The Antinomians also are hence confuted , there must needs be a work of grace in a man else the death of Christ will be ineffectuall , then some principle of grace must be put into us . The old rule may stand still , though there be a new principle put into the heart , because the holines of God is not varied . The Anabaptists , the covenant is with the house of Israel , and Gods children born in the covenant are of the house of Israel . Some say men are miserable two waies by Adams fall . 1. As we stand under his covenant , and so come short of conformity to the Law which requires perfect , personal , and perpetuall obedience . 2. As we bear his image , life and eternall salvation is offered on impossible terms , therefore ( say they ) in conversion there is required a double change . 1. Morall , which is the change of a mans covenant . 2. Physical , the change of a mans image . So that as a mans covenant is , such is his state , if under the first covenant , he is in a state of sin , of bondage and death , if he be under the second covenant , he is in a state of grace , of liberty and life , because he is no longer a son of the bond-woman , but of the free-woman . A man in Christ is freed from the Law as a covenant , in these respects . 1. For justification , Gal. 2. 21. in respect of condemnation , Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us , Gal. 5. 23. against such ( persons , not works ) there is no law . 2. He is freed from the Law in respect of irritation , there is a power in it to stir up the lusts of men , Ro. 6. 14. For ye are not under the law , as a covenant ( whether we understand it of its condemning or irritating power ) but under grace . 3. In respect of coaction the law causeth him not to do duties or forbear sins out of fear of the curse of it , Gal. 5. 18. Ye are not under the Law , viz. constraining , 1 Tim. 1. 9. A godly man is perfectly freed from the Law as a covenant in respect of justification and condemnation , he is freed by degrees from the irritation and coaction of the Law , al those that are out of Christ are under the law for justification , condemnation , irritation and coaction . The covenant of grace is the same for substance now to us since Christ was exhibited , and to them before he was exhibited , but the manner of administration of it is different , because it is , 1. Now clearer : things were declared then in types and shadows : heaven was typed out by the land of Canaan , we have things plainly manifested , 2 Cor. 3. 12. in this respect it is called a better testament or covenant , Heb. 7. 22. not in substance , but in the manner of revealing , and they are said to be better promises , Heb. 18. 6. 2. Of greater extent : Then in Iudah was God known , now to all Nations . 3. Abundance of the Spirit is poured out now : some few men then had a great deal of grace , but * generally now men partake of abundant more grace , * both for knowledge and holinesse . CHAP. VI . 2. Of the Promises . CHristians have many and great Promises , 2 Cor. 7. 1. 2 Pet. 1. 4. whereby are given to us , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , great and precious promises . 1. God makes them , they are the Promises of a great God : Great persons make great promises . 2. They are made to Gods people , his elect : a King will not bestow mean things upon his Favourites . Reasons , Why God makes great Promises to his people . 1. Hereby God sets forth his love to them , Tit. 1. 2. 2. That we might have ground for our faith and hope : here in this world we are in a state of expectation , Heb. 11. 39 , 40. 3. That hereby he might support them in their many troubles , Gen. 15. 1. Heb. 10. 35 , 36. This is a mercifull administration of the Lord , Adam had all his good things in possession , he soon lost them , by the Promises they are as certain as if we had them already , 1 Pet. 1. 3. The Promises are sure and certain , God hath confirmed them , 1. By the Sacraments . 2. By oath , the strongest confirmation that may be , Heb. 6. 17 , 18. The faith of Gods people is built upon two pillars , his power and faithfulnesse resembled by those two pillars , 1 King. 7. 21. Bo●● in it is strength , Jachin , he will establish . 1. Gods power , that is often given as a prop to uphold our faith in his Promises , Mat. 22. 21 , 29. Rom. 4. 20. & 11. 23. 2. His faithfulnesse , Heb. 10. 23. 1 Pet. 4. 19. When Gods Promises come to be fulfilled to his people , they finde twice as much in them as they expected , 1 Cor. 2. 9. The Promise is the shell wherein the kernell is contained , Ephes. 1. 20. 2 Pet. 1. 4. That Promise in the covenant of grace That God will be our portion , there is a great deal more in it then we can understand ; God will put his fear in his peoples hearts , Job 28. 16 , 17. Prov. 3. 13. They shall enjoy eternall life with him in heaven , when this Promise comes to be accomplished , it will be farre greater then we can now imagine . They finde the mercies of this life double many times to what they expect . Reasons , 1. From our weak capacity , we are not able to understand how much is laid up in a Promise , the experience of Gods people is a great proof of this , the longer they chew the Promise the sweeter it is . 2. The infinite goodnes and bounty of God joyned with his omnipotency and all-sufficiency , because God hath set his heart on his people he will give them abundantly more then they think of . The Promises of God are of two sorts . 1. Absolute , those which the Lord hath undertaken to perform of his own free grace , not only citra meritum , but also citra conditionem , without all supposed or pre-required conditions in us : of this kinde are all those great promises of the new covenant , Genesis 3. 15. and 17. 7. Isaiah 43. 25. Ezekiel 11. 19. Jeremy 31. 33. Hosea 14. 4. Joel 2. 18. I will be thy GOD , I will give my Sonne , I will pour out my Spirit , I , even I am he who blot out your iniquities for my Names sake , I will take away the heart of stone , and I will give an heart of flesh , I will put my Law in your inward parts , and write it in your hearts ; I will heal your backesliding , and love you freely , for mine anger is turned away . 2. Conditional , which shews what God will do upon the performance of such duties and conditions by the creature , which conditions without Gods grace he is never able to perform ; Ier. 17. 8 , 9 , 10. These are made for the encouragement of the creature in the waies of obedience , and to shew a mans inability , that he may flie to Christ for strength , but they doe not alwaies shew the purpose of God to give the condition or reward . When once God makes a Promise , though it may be a long time before it be fulfilled , yet it yeelds comfortable fruit from the day of his making of it . All agree that a Promise is a certain pledge of performance in due time . Four other fruits grow from a Promise before it come to be accomplisht . 1. It is a certain evidence of Gods love , a declaration of his heart and good will ; outward administrations come all from Gods hand , but his Promises come all from his heart , his affection is set on them who have an interest in the Promises . Reason , All the Promises are made in and thorow Christ , to Christ and then to those who are united to him . 2. A Promise from the day of the date of it is a sufficient pledge to the soul to whom it is made , that God will never doe them hurt , but his purposes and thoughts to them are alwaies good , notwithstanding the outward administrations . 3. It brings preservation to the soul , 1 Pet. 1. 5. It will preserve it from the assaults of the devil , and the world . 4. It brings present consolation to the soul : in Peter , where the Apostle speaks of great and precious promises , he saith , We rejoyce with joy unspeakable . An ingagement of God in a Promise is a speciall means to support Christians in times of distresse . God was ever wont to bear up the spirits of his people rather by Promises then providences . First , A great part of the Bible is spent in reporting Gods ingagements to his people by promise , and the exemplification of his people in performing his Promises . Secondly , The Saints of God were wont to live by faith , Ps. 56. 4. They ever fetcht consolation from the Promises , as Jacob , Hast thou not said ? and Jehosaphat , 2 Chron. 2. Reasons , 1. The end of God in making the Promises was to give security . 2. They are a ray of his power for the creating of help : he that hath a promise hath a blessing in the root of it . 3. Promises issue from the love , the grace and goodnesse of God , and are as unchangeable as his love , they are founded upon the truth and Allsufficiency of God . That in Heb. 13. 5. is as full a promise as any is in the Bible , it is applicable to particular cases , made in the hazards of warre and difficulties of reformation , it is double to shew it is a fixed truth , and for time to come in the future tense , in the Hebrews there is more said then is to Ioshua . God saith , He will not leave him nor forsake him , Heb. 13. 5. there are five negatives in that little sentence . All the subjects of Christs Kingdome of grace inherit all the Promises of the Covenant , they are their portion . 1. It is a great priviledge to be the heirs of Gods Promises , and the Saints have gloried in it , David saith , Thy Promises have I claimed as mine heritage , by faith they imbraced the Promises , Heb. 11. 2. Every childe of God hath a right to all the promises , 1 Tim. 4. 8. Gal. 3. 16. Rom. 9. 4. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 1. They are all made in and through Christ , as branches of the Covenant of grace . Objection , Particular Promises were made to this or that man in a speciall case . Answer , No particular Promise was ever made to any for his own sake , but for Christs ; Therefore those Promises which at first uttering of them were made to some particular person on a particular occasion , were after pressed on all Gods people , as that , Josh. 1. Heb. 13. This is a peculiar priviledge to Gods people , none but those under Christs dominion have interest in the Promises . We should therefore , 1. Study the Promises , and know for what use and time they serve . 2. Beware of weighing them by our own carnall sense and reason . 3. Set faith awork , let the heart rest on Gods Alsufficiency , his truth , wisdome , faithfulnesse . A good man fetcheth contentment ▪ and satisfaction to his soul in all conditions . 1. From the Covenant of grace in generall , 2 Sam. 23. 5. This Covenant of grace , which God hath made with his people is Gods assurance office , and the Saints in all their fears may and ought to go to the Covenant to assure all things to them , to assure their estates and their lives . 2. For particular Promises in the Covenant of grace , a gracious heart looks upon every Promise as coming from the root of the Covenant of grace in Christ . See Psal. 34. 10. and 37. 6. and Isa. 58. 10. and elsewhere● where there are divers Promise● which may bring Christian contentment . It is the greatest honour that 〈◊〉 creature is capable of to be taken in●to Covenant with God , Levit. 26. 18 , 19. Jer. 11. 11. Zach , 11. the staffe of beauty , that is the Covenant , and you sin against offers of a second Covenant which the devils never did . Those who are in Christ and have their covenant changed are in a happy condition . 1. By this means God and thou art reconciled , thy covenant is a covenant of●peace , Ezek. 37. 26. 2. Being once taken into the covenant thou hast interest into glorious relations ; God is become thy Father , thy Husband , thy Friend , 2 Cor. 6. 16. 3. Thou hast interest into a most glorious inheritance by becoming the son of a free woman . 4. Thou hast a foundation for thy faith and a ground of all thy praiers , the covenant contains all the priviledges a beleeving soul can expect , it is the ground of all thy praiers , Jer. 31. 18. Isa. 64. 9. The people of God still plead it , it upholds the soul from sinking . When David came to dy , God hath made with me an everlasting covenant . So Christ , My God my God , Psal. 89. 26. 5. It is a covenant that can never be broken , 2 Chron. 13. 5. Isa. 50. 7. CHAP. VII . Of living and dying by Faith . I. Of living by Faith . FAith is a staying , resting , depending and relying upon the merits and satisfaction of our blessed Saviour , by the vertue and merit thereof to obtain remission of sins and eternall life , and all good things promised in the new covenant , at the hands of God . That there is such a life as the life of faith , is plain , Habak. 2. 4. But the just shall live by his faith . The just shall live the life of grace here , and of glory hereafter , in and by faith . Gal. 2. 20. Neverthelesse I live , yet not I , but Christ liveth in me , and the life which I now live in the flesh , I live by the faith of the Son of God Psal. 74. 13 , 14. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength : thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters : That is , of the chief captains , and commanders under Pharaoh . Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan ( that is , Pharaoh ) in pieces , and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wildernesse , for their faith , not their bellies . While they were in the wildernesse they remembred Gods mercy to them at the red sea , and lived by the faith of this providence of God . It is a life arising from the union of God with us by his sanctifying Spirit , whereby a man is able to perform actions spirituall , in the Promises is the life of the spirit of Gods people . The life of faith ( saith Mr Perkins ) is a true life indeed , the only life . The Schools dispute of faith , Ministers preach of faith , Professours talk of faith , prophane men swear by faith , but few men live by faith None can live , nor rightly understand this life but the Saints of God , a Promise from God is sufficient for faith to rest upon against all improbabilities whatsoever . Many reasons might be given why we should rather live upon Gods Word then any thing else . The first reason may be taken from Gods Alsufficiency . Consider 3. Attributes in God . 1. His Almighty power , he can as easily perform as promise . God urged this to his people when they were weak at any time , Numb. 11. Is the Lords hand shortened ? Gen. 18. Is any thing too hard for the Lord ? 2. The goodnesse and love of God , his promises are given to his people as fruits of his love , Jer. 31. 3. 3. His truth , faithfulnesse and unchangeablenesse , Mal. 3. 6. The second reason may be drawn from the interest which Christ hath in him that makes the promise , and in him to whom the promise is made . 1. All the Promises are yea and Amen in Christ , Consider , 1. Christs interest in his Father who makes the Promise , his Father makes them all for the Sons sake , all the Promises are called the sure mercies of David , Isa. 55. He being a type of Christ . 2. Christ hath bought all the Promises of the Father with his own hearts bloud . 2. The interest Christ hath in his people , he is one with them , and they one with him . A third reason may be taken from the nature of faith , the proper object of it is a Promise from God , Heb. 11. 1. Faith sees things clearly , infallibly , strongly . Motives to living by faith . First , The necessity of it . 1. Take away this and you take away the only principle which distinguisheth the life of a man as a Christian from the life of other men . 2. The only cause of all heart-breaking and uncomfortable sorrows which Gods people meet with in any condition is the want of this , Psal. 42. 3. The want of this is one great cause , if not the only cause of the unevennesse found in the conversation of Gods people . Rebecca and Jacob had a direct Promise that Jacob should have the blessing , yet because Esau was great with his father they used unjust means . 4. Without this we can expect no benefit from the Promises ( though they be precious ) unlesse we rest our selves upon them , Isa. 26. 3. Secondly , It is a very becoming , amiable , fitting thing that we should rather live upon a word of God , then any other help whatsoever . No creature on earth ever attains to a self sufficiency , one must have something for his support , therefore it is better to take a Promise from God , then to depend upon the deceitfulnesse of creature-comforts . Thirdly , The wonderfull gain which comes by it . 1. The soul which hath but once learnt to make the Word of God a sufficient stay to it self , such a one will live the easiest life that any man in the world lives . It is not easily learnt ( for much grace is required to it ) but when thou hast once got it , it is comfortable . Such a one lives as a childe when he is in his fathers house , he is never troubled with care for meat , drink , or cloathes : the soul is at quiet when it hath learn'd to center it self upon the word . 2. It is the greatest ingagement ( as I may say ) to God to help them , we cannot put a greater obligation upon him , then by trusting in him , God will never fail such as trust in him , Isa. 26. 3. Psal. 91. 9 , 14. Means to attain this life of faith . How may a soul learn to pick a living out of the word , to live by faith . The life of faith is to fetch the counsell , the portion and comfort of his life out of the word . Ten directions how the soul may attain to live this life of faith . First , Nothing but a sound , true , living faith is a principle of this life , all the Schoolmasters in the world cannot teach any creature to live by reason , till it hath a reasonable soul . Labour to understand the true nature of faith , and get it wrought in thy soul , the just man will live by his faith . Secondly , Every degree of saving faith will not serve a man to live comfortably and free from distempers , one must have a sound faith , and a pleropho●y , and a great deal of faith for that end , the least degree of saving faith will serve for justification , sanctification , adoption , salvation , but not for consolation : Every blast of temptation overthrew the Disciples while they were weak beleevers , they questioned the truth of all , Christ therefore rebukes them for it , and saith , Why are your hearts troubled ? Paul when he could say , I know whom I have beleeved , though after he was told he should be whipt , he said , none of these things troubled him . Thirdly , He gets acquaintance with some things in the covenant of grace which may take off those objections that usually trouble beleevers , which are four , and these doe hinder Gods people from living by faith . 1. They finde corruption in their hearts , this should no way hinder their comfort , if they hate it and strive against it . 2. Temptations trouble them , whereas Gods own people are liable to temptations of all sorts . 3. Afflictions , God breeds them up which are in covenant with him under divers and great afflictions . 4. Desertions , They finde not the working of Gods Spirit , nor the assurance of his favour , God many times leaves his best children to great and sad desertions . Fourthly , Thou must get sound acquaintance with the Promises of the Gospel , else thou wilt be to seek in time of trouble . Some generall Promises concern all estates we can be in , all things shall work for good to them that fear God , and no good thing shall be wanting to such . 2. There are excellent promises in the Scripture for any condition imaginable . Fiftly , As the exigents or occasions require , whether to bear afflictions or go through temptations , act thy faith upon that Promise which sutes thy present need . A good man having all taken from him , and his wife desiring to know how he and his family would live , he said he would now put his bond in suit . Think on Gods power , truth , love , and Christs interest in the Promises to incourage thy soul . Sixtly , As a Promise from God must be measured by faith , so only by faith , not by carnall sense or reason , doe as Abrahaem did , he never told his wife Sarah when he was to go cut his childes throat and offer him a sacrifice to God . Seventhly , Faith must be helped with a use of all other means which God hath appointed to attain the blessing , 2 Sam. 7. later end . Psal. 5. 3. Psal. 119. Deal well with thy servant according to thy word . Faith made Noah to build him an Ark , work belongs to us , successe to God . Eightly , Resolve to wait the Lords leasure in all thy beleeving , limit him not to the time or manner of delivering thee , resolve God shall do it in his own time , if thou hast an able good paymaster thou wilt be willing he should pay thee how and when he will . He that beleeves will not make haste . Ninthly , Get thy will so far subdued to Gods will , that his will may be thine , as near as it is possible for poor sinners to attain it : learn to say Gods will is the best will , Rom. 12. 3. 4. Tenthly , Study the life of holines , let David be an example to thee , he had great communion with God , and knew how to improve a Promise . Some think one ought to beleeve whatever corruptions he gives way to , they say men are duty-mongers , merit-mongers . Others of Gods people are too much dejected with the remainders of their own corruption . CHAP. VIII . 2. Of dying in Faith . QValis vita , finis ita : He that will die in faith , must first of all live by faith , and there is but one example in all the whole Bible , of a man dying in faith that lived without faith , viz. that thief upon the crosse . To die by faith , is when a man in the time of death , doth with all his heart rely himself wholly on Gods speciall love and favour and mercy in Christ , and as it is revealed in the word . Religion is seen in its glory , when one not only lives but dies in Christ , Phil. 1. 21. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain . And ver. 20. So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body , whether it be by life or death . If I live , by preaching , if I dy , by suffering . Dr Preston said a little before his death , I have long● conversed with Christ in the world , and though I change my place , I shall not change my company . Revel. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which dy in the Lord , from henceforth , yea saith the Spirit , that they may rest from their labours , and their works doe follow them . In the Lord , that is , say some for the Lord , as Ephes. 4. 1. Which suffer death for Christ , rather in the faith of Christ being incorporated into him , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} from henceforth , as Rom. 8. 1. and 16 , 17. That constantly hold out in these times of persecution , say some , presently , saith Dr Rainolds , from the very time of their death , they rest from their labours , of their particular calling , under afflictions from God , and persecutions from men , under sin , temptations , desertions . And their works , That is metonymically , the rewards of their works , as 2 Cor. 5. 26. Do follow them , accompany or go with them , the words well weighed sound so . When a godly man dies he dies in the ●ord by vertue of his union with Christ , when there is a dissolution of the soul and body , the mysticall union is not dissolved , as the personall union of Christ was not dissolved when he died . Before I lay down directions how to die well , and shew the benefits that come to the godly by death , I will shew 1. The necessity , or certainty of death , and the misery of it to the wicked . 2. Resolve some questions about death . Of the first , Death is a common condition appointed for every man first or last to undergo . Heb. 9. 27. And as it is appointed unto men once to die , but after this the judgement . The Greek word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} translated , It is appointed , signifieth , it lieth as a mans lot . Once imploies two things , 1. A certainty , it shall once be . 2. A singularity , it will be but once , 1 Samuel 26. 8. 1 King. 2. 2. I go the way of all the earth , saith David Job 30. 23. The grave is called the house appointed for all the living . Eccles. 12. 5. Solomon calls the grave {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Bajith Gnolam , domum saeculi , the house of age : We translate it long home , where he must abide for a long time . 1 Cor. 15. 26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death , that is , death destroies all and after is destroied it self . Psal. 89. 48. What man lives and shall not see death ? When we would affirm any thing to be infallibly true , we say as sure as death . A young man may die , an old man must die . It is an Hebrew proverb , In Golgotha are to be seen sculs of all sizes , that is , death comes on the young as well as the old . Omnes una manet nox , Et calcanda semel via lethi . When it was told Anaxagoras that both his sons ( which were all he had ) were dead , being nothing terrified therewith , he answered , Sciebam me genuisse mortales , I knew I begat mortall creatures . There are three speciall reasons why all must die . 1. Because God hath so decreed it , Heb. 9. 27. 2. All men are made of one mould and matter , Job . 4. 19. Dust thou art , and unto dust shalt thou return , Gen. 3. 19. 3. Because all have sinned , Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one man sinne entred into the world , and death by sin : and so death passed upon all men , for that , or in whom all have sinned . Beza prefers that version , in whom , In Adam legally , as they stood under his Covenant , in him naturally , as they bear his Image . Sin brought death into the world , either meritoriè , as it deserves wrath , or privativè , as it takes away the power of the law to conferre life . Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sinne is death . The word in the * Originall signifies properly victuals , because victuals were that which the Roman Emperours gave their souldiers as wages in recompence of their service : but thence the word extends to signifie any other wages or salary whatsoever . Death is then certain , because no man can eschew it , yet it is 3. waies uncertain . 1. In regard of time , no man knows when * he shall die , Hezekiah only had a lease of his life . 2. In regard of place * , no man knows where he shall die . 3. In respect of the kinde of death , no man kuows what death he shall die , whether a naturall or violent death . Objection , 1 Cor. 15. 51. We shall not all sleep , but we shall all be changed , Christ is said to be the judge of the quick and dead , therefore all men shall not die . Answer , Cajetan on 2 Thes. 4. 17. gives both a succinct and sufficient answer , Statutum regulare est , illos autem non mori singulare est . Others say that change shall be a kinde of death . Secondly , The misery that comes to the wicked by death . Every man in an unregenerate estate lies under the fear of death . 1. The Scripture thus frequently sets forth naturall men . Heb. 2. 15. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage . Job 18. 14. Death is called The King of terrours , an ordinary hebraisme , as the Lord of glory , that is , most glorious , death hath a dominion over them . Luk. 1. 79. The shadow of death , that is , such darknesse as strikes men with fear of death . 2. All unregenerate men hate the very thoughts of death , Isa. 28. 15. Lewis the 11th of France straitly charged his servants , that when they saw him sick they should never dare to name that bitter word , Death , in his ears . 3. Thoughts of death often imbitter all the comforts of this life . The reasons of this truth may be these . 1. Because death is contrary to nature it self , and to that inseparable desire of its own preservation , it being a dissolution of the whole man , and a separation of two most loving companions , the soul and body , by vertue of that ancient curse , Gen. 2. 17. Yet it is not an enemy to the godly mans person , though it be to his naturall estate , 1 Cor. 3. 22. Christ did maledictionem benedicere , paupertatem ditare , ignominiam glorificare , saith Luther . 2. Because they die in their sins they must themselves conflict with the terrours of death , 1 Cor. 15. 55. John . 8. 44. Sin in every man brings with it a secret guiltinesse , which makes him fear something worse will follow after death . 3. It puts an end to all the benefits and comforts of this life . Son remember that in thy life time thou receivedst good things . It deprives him of friends , goods , pleasures , credit . 4. It puts an end to all his hopes , Job 11. ult. Their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost . 5. His conscience shall then be awakened , this is the worm . 6. It brings him to the barre of judgement , Heb. 9. 27. He must go to God to give an account , in whom he hath no interest . 7. All offers of grace shall be at an end . 8. It is the inlet to eternity and puts them into an unchangeable condition . In the next place I shall resolve some questions about death . 1. Question , Whether it be lawfull to desire death ? We have examples of both kindes , Paul desired to be dissolved , but Hezekiah mourned , and prayed exceedingly against it , so did David , Psal. 102. yet he rashly wished to die for Absolom , 1 Sam. 18. 33. The Israelites offended this way , Would God we had died in Egypt , and would God we had died with our brethren . Elisha , Job , and Jonah were to blame this way , O that I had never been born , said Job , O that I had died so soon as I was born , O that I might die out of hand , for these are the three parts of his desperate words . It is often in the mouths of wicked people , would I were dead , and I would I were out of the world . If they were to die indeed they would be loath enough to it . Like the man in the fable , who being wearied with his burden of sticks , lay down and called for death , but when death came indeed to take him , and said , What shall I doe man ? thou calledst me : I pray thee , said he , help me up with my burden of sticks . To answer this question , we must distinguish , 1. Of desire , there is Desiderium carnale , spirituale , heroscum , a carnall , spirituall , and heroicall desire . If this desire ariseth , 1. From diffidence of Gods help and succour . 2. From impatience under crosses . Or 3. From shunning of those labours and pains which are to be endured for Gods glory and the Churches good , it is very sinfull , but if it arise from a holy desire to injoy the presence of Christ , and to be freed from sin , it may be lawfull . Secondly , We must distinguish of the manner in desiring , which is either absolute or conditionate , if it be a conditionate one with submission to Gods will , as long as the Church hath need of him , it may be lawfull , Domine si adhuc populo tuo sim necessarius , n●llum recuso laborem . 2. Question , Whether a godly man may fear to die ? Answer , He may . 1. For some sin that he is not enough humbled for . 2. For want of the clear evidence of pardon and assurance of interest in Christ . 3. Question , Whether may one pray against a sudden and violent death ? Answer , A violent and sudden death chiefly by some immediate hand of God , is tedious to mans nature : The Apostles themselves in a tempest made bold to waken Christ with some what a reproving speech , Master , carest thou not that we perish ? Christ told Peter ( foretelling a violent death ) that he should be led to it as to that which he would not , meaning by the naturall inclination of his will , this gives us just ground and warrant to pray against sudden and violent death . 4. Question , Whether may we mourn for the dead ? Answer , Yes , Because 1. Death is a fruit of sin , In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt d●e the death , and a sign of Gods displeasure against it . 2. It is a separation of friends , and they should not part without some grief , onely we must look that our mourning in such cases , be 1. Serious , not counterfeit . 2. Moderate , not excessive , either for quantity or continuance , which may shew want of hope and excesse of love , both naught . 3. Holy , turning our sorrow from the death of our friends to the bewailing of our sins , the only procurers of that and all other crosses . In the last place I shall lay down directions how to die well , and shew the benefits that come to the godly by death . 1. What a Christian should do that would die comfortably . 1. Discharge the place and office which God hath called him to with much diligence and sincerity , 2 Tim. 4. 7 , 8. Act. 20. 31. Why dost fear O my soul ( said Hilarion ) thou hast served God this seventy years , and art thou afraid to die ? Live much in a little time , doe all for eternity , be abundant in serving thy generation , Acts 13. 36. You live no longer in Gods account then you serve him . 2. Doe nothing against conscience for the greatest advantage , this troubled Iudas , he betraied innocent bloud , this made the wofull tragedy of Spira . 3. Take heed of unjust dealing and violent oppressing of others . Samuel before his death , Tell me ( saith he ) whose ox or asse have I stolen or taken away ? * 4. Improve thy riches and honours for Gods glory , Luk. 16. 9. 5. Spend the time of thy health well , and lay up praiers for death before hand . Teach us to number our daies ( that is , to consider how few they are ) that we apply our hearts to wisdom . 6. Get acquaintance with death , take notice of all the approaches of it , behold the mortality of others and consider thine own , do not think to die all at once , the Apostle saith , I thank God I die daily , So seriously meditate on death , as to draw from thence some wholesome and profitable conclusions and resolutions for the well ordering of thy life , and that in respect of four things chiefly ; sin , the things of the world , our own persons , and the persons of others . For sin , this conclusion must follow , therefore sin is a most hatefull thing to God , and a most harmfull thing to man , for it alone hath provoked God to inflict this heavy punishment of death , yea of eternall death after this upon the sons of men , unlesse repentance come betwixt . Sinne is the parent and sting of death , sin brought it into the world and makes it terrible , therefore I must hate sinne , lament sin , resist and mortifie sin , and must make it my chiefest and in a manner my only care to get my sins forgiven , my iniquity subdued , and then resolve especially to mortifie that sin which thy heart is most unwilling to reform . 2. In respect of the world , we must conclude and resolve , that wealth honour , pleasure , friends , are but very vanities , trifles and toies , poor petty short and vanishing goods , therfore I must , and by Gods grace will resolve to pull mine heart from off these things , not rejoice in them , trust in them , boast of them , seeing I brought nothing into the world and must carry nothing out , use the present world as if we used it not . 2. Diligently prepare for the life to come , every man must be for ever in heaven or hell ( there is no middle place as * pargatory ) so soon as his soul and body are separated . Labour therefore to get good assurance of bettering your estate and injoying eternall life by bewailing the sinfulnesse of your nature and lives , and seeking unto , and resting upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone , and his mediation and obedience and the sprinkl●ng of his bloud for pardon of sin and help against damnation , and lastly labour and study to reform your hearts and lives more and more . 3. Concerning our own persons , we must thus conclude that we are but mean and contemptible creatures that must die and turn to dust and be made food for worms , why should I then be proud , or think my self better then others because of my strength , beauty , wit , learning , parentage , titles , offices , attendances ? of all which death will strip me and teach me to know they were but borrowed things . 4. For other men we ought to to conclude thus , they also must die as well as my self , my husband , wife , my dear and faithfull friend , who knows how soon ? therefore it is a great weaknesse to trust on such , to place my happinesse in them . Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils , therefore use al persons as well as all things , as if thou didst not use them . Lastly , Let the Saints of God take great comfort in the contemplation of the good that death will bring them , it concludes all their sorrows and evils and is a beginning of all joies , pleasures , comfort , glory and happinesse . Death is to such a resting from their labours , Rev. 14. 14. A happy change , Phil. 3. 21. Job 14. 14. cals death a change , it is not an annihilation or extinction , but a mutation , and that by way of eminency , My change . It is the last change we shall meet with till the resurrection . 2. A lasting , nay an everlasting change , it puts us into an eternall condition of happinesse or misery . 3. An universall change , 1. in respect of persons all must meet with it . 2. In regard of the whole man , body and soul , makes the body a stinking carkasse , and puts the soul into heaven or hell . 4. A different change according to the quality of the person changed , terrible to a sinner , comfortable to the godly . Death is their bodies seed-time , 1 Cor. 15. the crowning day to the soul , 2 Tim. 4. 7 , 8. the funerall of all their sins and sorrows , Rom. 6. 7. I shall in the last place mention some of the chief benefits that come to the godly by death . By it he is freed 1. From sin , not only the destroying power , but the being of it is then taken away . 2. From those miseries which follow sin , Isa. 57. 1 , 2 , 3. 3. From the temptations of the devil , Rev. 12. 8. 4. From the troubles of the world , and vexations of the flesh , Rev. 14. 13. Eccles. 4. 1 , 2. 2. There is nothing in his death but what conduceth to make him happy . 1. A godly man dies in Gods love , and mercy , 2. He never dies til he be prepared , till his graces be perfected and work finished , Job . 5. 26. 3. He shall in some measure be assured of a better life , 2 Cor. 5. 1. 4. When he dies he shall leave a sweet favour behinde him , Prov. 10. 7. The memory of the just is blessed * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Septuagint thus translates it , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . The memory of the just is with praises . Let the godly therefore comfort themselves against death with these promises , Joh. 3. 16. & 5. 24. and 10. 28. and 11. 25. 1 Cor. 15. 22 , 57. 2 Cor. 5. 1. FINIS . AN ALPHABETICALL TABLE . A. Anne Askew . p. 29. Aprice . p. 59. B. Bainham . p. 24. Beleever freed from the law , how . p. 111. Bilney . p. 20 , 21 , 22 , 23. Blague . p. 30. Bradbridges wife . p. 59. Bradford . p. 44 , 45 , 46. C. Covenant , the reason of the hebrew name . 81 , 82 What a covenant is , 82. The severall kindes of covenants . p. 83 , 84. 1. The covenant of works . p. 85 , to 91. The covenant of grace . p. 91 , to 113. Cranmer . p. 56 , 57 , 58. D. Damplip . p. 28. Death is common to all . p. 136 , 137 , 138 , 139. The misery which comes to the wicked by death . p. 140 , 141 , 142. Whether it be lawfull to desire death . p. 142 , 143 , 144. Whether may one pray against a sudden and violent death . p. 145. Whether may one mourn for the dead . p. ib. Whether a good man may fear to die . p. 144. What a christian should do to die comfortably . p. 146. Dying in faith . p. 134 , to the end . E. Error , all the errors almost of these : times may be confuted from the doctrine of the covenant . p. 108. to 110. F. Faith , what it is . p. 124. Farrar . p. 40. Filmer . p. 27. Folk . p. 60. G. Glover . p. 48 , 49. H. Hamelton . p. 19. Hauks . p. 42 , 43. Hector . p. 19. Hierome of Prague . 17 Holland . p. 61. Hooper . p. 34 , 35. Hunter . p. 39 , 40. Hus. p. 16. I. Ignatius . p. 14 , 15 , 16. Indulgencies , Luther first opposed them . 68. K. Kerby . p. 28 , 29. L. Lambert . p. 26. Latimer . p. 52 to 55. Laverock . p. 59. Lawrence . p. 40. Living by faith . p. 124 , to 134. Luther , divers memorable things of him . p. 65. to 81. M. Martin , why Luther was so called . p. 65. 3. Martins much opposed the papists . ib. Martyr , Observations concerning the martyrs in generall . p. 1 , to 13. What a martyr is . p. 1 , 2 , 3. The great honor of martyrdome . p. 3 , 4. The severall sorts of martyrs . p. 4. They suffered cheerfully . p. 5. Constantly . p. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. With much comfort and assurance . p. 10. The number of them . p. 6 , 7. They were eminent in many graces . p. 11. to 13. Moice . p. 18. P. Person . p. 26 , 27. Philpot. p. 55 , 56. Pikes . p 62. Policarpus . p. 13 , 14. Pomponius Algerius . p. 18. Prests wife . p. 64. Promises . p. 113 , to 124 R. Ridley . p. 50 , 51 , 52. Rogers . p. 30 , 31. Rough . p. 60 , 61. S. Samuel . p. 47 , 48. Sanders . p. 31 , 32 , 33. Serre . p. 18 , 19. Sincerity . p. 103 , 104 , 105. Sparrow . p. 60. T. Taylor . p. 37 , 38 , 39. Tyms . p. 58. Tyndall . p. 24 , 25 , 26. V. Voes . p. 17. W. Waid . p. 46. White . p. 41 , 42. Y. Young . p. 64. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A47618e-230 When any common calamity befell the people or State , as famine , dearth , pestilence , they straightway imputed it to the Christians , saying , that they and their wicked religion were the cause thereof . Christianos ad Leonem . Tertul. Away with them to the Lion , to the stake . * Consule Commentarios vestros , illic reperietis primum Neronem in hanc sectam●tum maxime Romae orientem Caesariano gladio ferocisse : Sed tali dedicatore damnationis nostrae gloriamur . Qui enim scit illum , intelligere potest non nisi grande aliquod bonum à Nerone damnatum . Tertul. Apol. cap. 5. * Vide Euseb. lib. 8. * Of all since the conquest her reign was the shortest , only excepting that of Richard the tyrant , but much more bloudy then was his . Speeds Chro. in Q. Marie . Foxes Acts and Monum. 3d vol. pag. 1023. Foxes 3d vol. p. 95. See also in Fox a notable story of the death of Dr Whittington a persecutour . Fox ubi supra * Mr Manton on Rev. 2. 3. Mat. 25. Foxes Acts and Monum. 3d vol. p. 433 * Dr Hall . * Dr Gouge on Exod. 13. 13. Deut. 32. John 14. 15. 16. and 17. chap. * Mr Marshall and Mr Strong . Notes for div A47618e-1940 Vide Bezam in Act. 22. 20 Heb. 12. 4. Rev. 2. 13. & 6. 9. * Martyrū nomen bodiè duntaxat illis attribuitur qui mortem pro Christo perpessi sunt . Olim verò & potiss●mum aetate Cypriani , etiam illis qui à confessione nominis Christi nulla tormentorum atrocitate abduci poterant ; quos eleganter Tertullianus lib ▪ ad Martyres , designatos martyres nuncupat . Pamelius ad Cypriani ▪ epist. 9. M●Bradford to all that professe the Gospel in Lancashire . D. Halls contempl. . M. Pinkes fourth Sermon on that Text ▪ Luke 14. 26. See more there . Phil. 1. 29. Carelesse in his letter to Agnes . Glascock . Foxes 3. vol p. 29. And Guide Bree 3 vo . p. 38. Magnificus martyrij titulus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Grot. in 21. Joh. 19. * Hic ( sc. amor spon●● ) leonis faucibus 〈…〉 eripuit , & ●uod meritò stupebat mu●dus , in medio tot ac etiam potentum hostium , infimo homuncioni & longam vitam prorogavit , & placidam mortem intra domesticos parictes concessit . Brightman in cant. 6. 2 Spanhom . Dub. Evan p●r ● . Dub 84. * Ex illa tanta multitudine omnis generis sexusque hominū tot locis ac saeculis distinctorum , qui pro hac religione mori non dubitarunt , colligendum , magnam aliquam tantae constantiae fuisse causam , quae alia cogitart non potest , quam lux veritatis Grot. de veritate Rel. Christ . l. 2. See Foxes 1. volume in Bilney , and 2. vol. p. 300. * In a letter to his wife Fox . 3. vol. p. p. 138. See Rawlins and William Sparrow . Sleid con● l 17. * Meter . hist. de reb. Belg. l. 15. From the beginning of the Jesuites to 1580. ( being the space of 30 years ) almost 900 thousand Protestants were put to death in France , England , Spain , Italy , Germany , and other parts of Christendome . Reverend Cranmer , learned Ridley , Down right Latimer , zealous Bradford , pious Philpot , patient Hooper . Fuller . on Heb. 9. 10. * Speeds chron. in Q. Mary . Neither in Q Elizabeths reign , nor in the reign of K. James , nor King Charles , vvas any Papist put to death meerly for his conscience . Cic quest . Tusc. l. 1. * S. Cyprian●● senten●i●m in se latam audiens , dixit gratias ago Deo omnipotenti , qui me à vinculis hujus corporis dignatur absolvere ▪ Pont. in vita Cypriani . * Aug Ser. de Cypr. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 1 p. 8● . See in Io. Hus. Ierom of Prague . Hen. Voes . Pet. Serre . Ia. Bainham . Anth. Person . An. Askew * In a letter to his kindred & friends at his farevvel . Fox . vol. 3. pa. 506. D. Tailour in his last vvill and testament . Fox . vol. 3. p. 175. Crudelitas vestra gloria est nostra ●ert . ad Scap. c. 5. Euseb. eccles. hist ▪ l. 5. In a praie● a little before his death . F●xes vol● 3. p. 154. See the subscriptions of Brad●ord● lett●rs . Tertul. Apolog. c , 39. * See M. Kerby , Io. Rogers , D. Farrar , * See in B. Hooper * See B. ●ati●er ▪ * See Archbishop Cran●er . * Hist. Eccles. l. 5. c. 19. * Hilarion morti proximus dixisse fertur , egredere , quid times ? egredere anima mea , quid du●itas ? septuaginta propè annis serviisti Christo , & mort●m times ? Hier. epist. ●am. lib. 3. & in ejus vit● ▪ Euse. hist. Eccles ▪ Permi●tite me sic , inquit , Qui enim mihi dedit velle larg●etur & posse ; atque ipsum tollerabilem faciet voluntati ignem ardentem . Smyrnensis Ecclesiae epistola , de S. Polycarpi Martyrio . A Syria Romam usque terra marique cum testiis de pugno , noct● ac interdiu alligatus de cem Leopardis ( quae est militaris custodia ) qui & beneficio affecti pejores . fiunt , utinam fruar bestiis mihi paratis , quas opto veloce● mihi inveniri , quas & blanditiis demulcebo , ut citius me devorent , non ut quosd●m me●uentes non attigerunt , sed & si ipsae aversae nolint , ego illas vi adigam . Ignatii epistola ad Romanos . * Ignatii epistola ad Romanos . * Fr●mentum sum Dei , dentibus ferarum molo● ut mundus panis Dei inveniar . Ignat ep ▪ ad Rom. * Luther in the Bohemian language signifieth a Svvan . Foxes Acts and Mon. 1. vol p. 820. * A Ring leader and Captain of an heresie . Foxes 1. vol. p 830. Iohn Has repents his playing at chesse . Foxes 1●vol. p. 830 Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 2 p. 102. K. Hen. Foxes Act , and Mon. in 2. vol. Henry 8. p. 122. Foxes Acts and Mon. 2. vol p 143. Plures efficimur quotiesme timur a vobis . Ter. Foxes ib ▪ p. 155. Foxes Acts and Mon. 2. vol p. 183. Foxes 2. vol. K. Henry the 8. p. 238. See the like propheticall speech of Philbert Hamlin in Foxes● . vol. p 151. And of a poor man in Calice , p 565. And of Roger Holland , 2. vol. p. 145. Foxes Acts and Mon in 2. vol K He. 8. p. 268. Psal 50. Foxes Acts and Mon. 2. vol. K He. 8. p. 271 , 27● . And 3. vol. p. 450. Soultet . Annal. Anno 153 Foxes 2. vol p. 277. Fox ubi supra . Foxes ● . vol. K. He. 8. p. 301. Foxes Acts and Mon. 2. vol. p. 361. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 2. p. 367. Fox ib. Tindall said I will go and see this , but I wil set my faith to beleeve t●e contrary . The power of Gods Saints against the devil . He said , I cannot do it , for there sits the man ( pointing to Tindal ) who holds my hands . * He was burned at Filford in Flanders . Fox ib. Foxes Acts and Mon. 2. vol. p. 427. Foxes Acts and Mon. 2d . vol p. 554. Foxes●d . vol. p. 555. The like words spake the L. Cromwell to the L. Hungerford , they both going to their death . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 2d . p 564. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 2d p. 586. * She said so twice . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. ●d . p. 576 , 578. Sanders saith the s●me tvvice . George Marsh saith , pray , pray , pray , never more need . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 235. * Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. ●d . p 576. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 2d . p. 580. Foxes Acts and Mon. 2d . vol p. 586 , 587. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d p. 130. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 130. He was a bold Israelite that first s●t his foot into the red sea saies D. Hall . Foxes Acts and Mon. 3d. vol p. 131. Foxes Acts and Mon. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d p. 140. Id. ib. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3. p. 140 , 141. B. Hooper prophesieth of himself . Foxes Act , and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 145. Fox ibid. p. 146. Epistle to Timothy . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d p 147. While he vvas Bishop of Glocester and Worcester in K. Edw. time . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 148. Foxes Acts and Mon. 3d. vol p. 153. Id. ib. Foxes Acts and Mon vol 3d. p. 154. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3. p. 176. Id. Ibid. 177. Another Martyr said , hold out faith and patience your vvork is almost at an end . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 179. Id. ib. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 193. Fox ibid. 193 , 194. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 200. Foxes Act● and Mon. vol. d●2 . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. 219. Fox ib. p. 220. See before in Rogers . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d p. 257. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d p. 265 , 266. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 181. Qui non est Crucianus non est Christianus . Luth. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol : 3. p. 282. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d p. 356 , 357. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 382. See a strange token also upon Robert Smith in the fire , Fox ib. 410. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3. p. 414. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 427. Foxes Acts and Mon. 2d . vol. p. 788. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 502. Id , Ibid. Fox ubi supra . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p 502 , 503. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 461. Fox ib. * He was called father Latimer ▪ viz. Not burn , but starve for cold . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 463. The Lord did most graciously grant all these requests . Latimers new years gift sent to K. Hen. the 8. Foxes Act , and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 486. * Heb. 13 ▪ 4 They both suffered together in Oxford against Baily College Martialis Epig. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d p. 503. Foxes Act● and Mon. 3d. vol p. 555. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d p. 593. Fox ibid. His life is written in latin ( out of Fox ) by Melchior Adam . Foxes Acts and Mon. 3 vol. p. 63● . * Hom● {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , nec minus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ( Thomas Cranmerus Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus ) me non solum excepit , sed etiam in aula sua aliquandiu detinuit . Sed quid aulam invidioso verbo nomino ? Schola certè fuit , vel palaestra pietatis & literarum . Tremel . epist. in Hos ▪ enarrat . Foxes Acts and Mon. 3d. book , p. 671. * Because by his right hand he had formerly subscribed his recantation . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 682. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d p. 701. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d. p. 2 , 7. Foxes Acts and Mon , vol. 3d. 832. Id. ibid. 833. There is no use of faith and hope in heaven , love & joy remain . See 1 Cor. 8. 13. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d p. 557. Foxes Acts and Mon. 3d. vol. p. 862. Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3d p. 877. * B Boner , after which day no man suffered in Smithfield for the testimony of the Gospel . Foxes Acts and Mon. 3d. vol. p. 879. Foxes Acts and Mon. 3d. vol. p. 887. Luke 22. 19. Fox ubi supra . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 3. p. 891. * Three Martins have much opposed the Papists , Martin Luther , Martin Bucer , and Martin Chemnicius . * Melanct. Praefat. ad ●dum volumen Lutheri . Homo affectibus suis nimium indulgens , qui ipse animi suiaestum praeproperum saepe agnoscit . Rai●ol . de lib. Appoc . praelect , quarta vide Gesner ▪ B●bliothecam . * Saepe dicere solitus sum : etiamsi me Lutherus diabolum vocaret , me tamen hoc illi honoris habiturum , ut insignem Dei servum agnosca● : qui tamen ut pollet eximiis virtutibus , ita magnis vitiis laborat , Vehementian autem quae illi est ingenita , utinam in hostes veritatis semper contulisset , non etiam vibrasset in servos Dominitutinam recognescendis suis vitiis plus operae dedisset . Cal. Bul. As for sedition , for ought I know me thinks I should not need Christ if I might so say . Latimers 3d Serm. before Edw. the 6 Rivet . Iesuit . vap ▪ * About the year 1517. Foxes Acts and Mon. 2d . Tom. out of I. Bale . The spirit of Luther was raised by opposition . Concurrimus utrinque , illi extremo ●urore , & ego summo cōtemptu , & vincet mea audacia . * Melch. Adam . Si scirem tot Wormatiae esse diabolos quot tegulae in tectis ▪ tamen essem ingressurus . He might more fitly be called Doctor resolutus then the schoolman * Tom. 2d l. 16. c. 15. * Famous writers of the reformation , Luther & Melancthō in Saxony , Oecolampadius in Helvetia , Calvin and Beza in France , Peter Martyr and Zanchi●s from Italy * Sculter . Annal Fox . Acts and Mon 2d Tom. p. 83. Tanta reverentia aliquid petit , ut cum Deo : tanta spe & fide ut cum patre & amic● se loquisentiat . Melc . Ad. He said 〈◊〉 things make a Divine , meditation , praier , tēptation . His motto was , Sit miser , qui miser esse potest . * Prius non fuerit fermè in Scriptura tota amarius mihi verbum quam paenitentia , nunc nihil dulcius aut gratius mihi sonat qua● paenitentia . Lutherus Stupitio . Foxes Acts and Mon 2d . tome . p. 88. Quid ( inquit ) putas princi●em Frideri●ū propter tearma sumturum dixi ? hoc nollem prorsus , & ubi manebis ? Respondi , sub caelo . Lutherus praetat . ad Tom. primum . Ego ipse odi meos libros , & saepe opto eos interire , quod met●o ne morentur lectores , & abducant à lectione ipsius Scripturae , quae sela omnis sapientiae fons est ▪ Luth. in Gen. 19. Hic me prorsus renatum esse sensi , & apertis portis in ipsū Paradisum intrasse ibi ●ontinuò alia mihi facies totius Scripturae apparuit . Lutherus praesat . ad pr●mum opus . Foxes Acts and Mon. vol. 2d . p. 88. Paulò ante mortem a gens cum Philippo Melancthone , fatetur in negotio cae●ae ni●●um esse factum . ●●●nold ▪ de lib. Apoc prael quarta They offered him a cardinals hat if he would be quiet & not speak against the popish indulgencies , he answered , he would not though he might be Pope . * Loco primo de sacra Scriptura . Lutherus de primis conatibus petit , ut ea legatiector cū magna commiseratione & meminerit authorem fuisse aliquando monachum & Papistam insaniffimum . Luth. tom . 10. operū in praefat. Vide Melc . Ad. * Ipse ●go in una aliqua ardenti oratione mea plura saepedidi●i ▪ quam ex multorum librorum lectione aut accuratissima meditatione co●sequi potu●s●em . Luth. tom . 1. Melc . Ad. Melch. Ad Dicitur Hebraeis foedus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Berith vel à {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Barah id est , eligendo , quod Foedus est ut Abenezra scribit mutuus cōsensus super aliqua revel à {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Bara id est exscindēdo , e● quod in foederibus semper ali ●uid occide●●atur ▪ Gen. 15 10 , 17. Foedus Latinis a ferie●do ▪ Paul . Fag . Armot . in Deu. ●9 . 11. * Berith quasi Cerith , because sacrifices were slain in making of Covenants , and therefore it is often construed with the verb {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Carath fecijt , he s●ruck , vide Su●kii , Antiq. Conviv . l. 1. c. 30 , See also M● Mede on Mal. 1. 11. and M. Cudworths discourse concerning the true notion of the L. Supper chap. 6. Omnes nos eramus ille unus . Aug. Deut 29. 21. God required mans service , non ex indigētia , sed ex abūdantia . Aquinas . Heb. 12. 24. Eph. 13. Gen. 17. 1. It is called the Covenant of grace , because God of his meer love and favour made it with man when he lay wallowing in his bloud , Ezek 16. 6. It doth not exclude all conditions , but only those which will not stand with grace . It is called a new Covenant , Heb. 8. 8 , 10. The Covenant of life , of salvation and grace , Rom. 4. 16. Gal. 3. 18. Isa. 42. As the first Adam Caput cum faedere , so the 2d , Adam , Isa. 42. 6. Gen. 17. 7. 2 Sam. 5. 23. Isa. 54. 10. Hos 2. 19. Vide Ames . Medul. l. 1. c. 24. 2 Cor. 5. ult. The first Covenant offers no surety , it is a Covenant without a Mediator . * All the promises of the law were conditionall , This doe and thou shalt live , Those great ones of the Gospel , of pardon of sin , of giving a soft heart , are absolute : 2. Those of the Gospel are mighty promises , they can give the mercy promised , and grace required , the law is weak through the flesh . God in the second Covenant set forth as it were a new edition of all his attributes . Repentance is a fruit of the second Covenant Act. 2. * Faedus dicitur , quia firma est promissio in Scripturis ēim quodlibet firmū statutū , quā vis sit de rebus inanimis , dicitur , faedus Ier. 33. 20 , 25. Quia tamen gratuita donatione constat , & morte donantis confirmatur , non tam propriè faedus quam testamentum vocatur , Heb. 9 16. quod cum in priori non invenitur , illud non tam propriè testamentum vocatur quam foe●us . Ames ▪ Med The . l. 1. c. 24. He is their shield , Ge. 15. a wall of fire round about them Zech. 12. The goodnesse of duties lies inadverbs , and the sweetnes of the covenant lies in possessives . Deus quantus , quantus 〈…〉 noster est ▪ Tolle De● & nullus ero . * Substantia foederis , Iun. Anima foederis . Pare . Caput foederis , Mus. Isa. 44 3 Ier. 31. 33 Ezek. 36. 26 ▪ The Spirit reveals & applies the promises . Christus impletio legis spiritus impletio Evangelij . Veritas à quacunque est à spiritu sancto est . Abraham saw Christs day a farre off , and rejoyced . Anna , Zacharias , & Elizabeth waited for the consolation of Israel , L● . 2 ▪ 25 , 30. Isa. 7. 14. Rom. 8. 20 See those Greek words ( which have an emphasis in them ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , Mat. 10. 16 , and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Phil. 1. 10. explained fully in my Greek Critica . Isa. 34. 5. * God discovers four things to his people by writing the law in the heart . 1 His holinesse , that a conformity to this law is a conformity to his holinesse , Ephes. 4. 24. 2. A perfect patern of that glorious image our first parents had in innocency . 3. A perfect patern of the law of God in Christs humane nature . 4. A patern of that perfection they shall attain unto , Hebrews 12 ▪ 24. Heb. 8. 10. It is not barely said thus , You shall not teach every man his neighbor , but that clause is added , saying , Know the Lord , not as if you were ignorant , but my law shall be in your hearts & you shal be taught as a knowing people . Iob 9. ●3 . Gal 4. 24. Partu● sequitur ventrem . Gal. 4. 4. Christ was not only under the ceremonial law as he was a Iew , but under the moral as a man , for it is under the law under which we were , and frō which we were redeemed . See Gal. 3. 13. Vid. Ames . Medul. l. 1. c. 39. * Rom. 4. 18. Heb. 11. 17. * Isa. 11. 9 & 54. 13. Rom. 9. 4. Though 1. The matter was exceeding great , yet God made good his Promise , as in that of Christ , Gen. 3. 15. who was more worth than heaven and earth , yet in the fulnesse of time Christ came . 2. Though it exceeded all humane reason as the Promise of a childe to Abraham and Sarah when so old . 3. Though it was a cluster of good things , and that to a nation . 4. Though he hath taken a great time to make it good . 5. Though humane policies have stood in the way , as in the case of the people of Israel and David . 2 Cor. 12. 4 Psal. 16. M. Strong on 1 Sam. 2. 30. Gods promises are of two sorts , such as are absolutely , and such as doe run conditionally according unto the nature of that good thing which he promiseth ; some good things promised are absolutely good for us , as pardon of sinne , grace . Thus Gods promise is made absolute to the elect in Christ : some good things are but conditionally good for us , as degrees of grace , comfort and outward blessings : and concerning these Gods promise is made conditionally , which condition if he break , he is at liberty . M. Bridge on Lam ▪ 5. 2. Numb 14 34 q●d I have p●omised to bring you into the land of Canaan upon such and such conditions , if you doe not perform the condition I am free . Promises are a manifestation of the covenant of grace , the covenant of love . The consolations of the Gospel differ from all other comforts , 1 They are unutterable , 1 Pet ▪ 1. 8 , Phil. 4 5. 2. Real , Ioh. 14 27. 3 Great & strong , Ephe. 6. 18 4 Reach to the inward man , 5 Comfort in the saddest distresses . Mic. 5. 5. 6. Are everlasting , 2 Thess. 2. 18. Josh. 1. 5. Those that are driven frō their houses , spoiled of their goods , should remember the hundred fold promise , and that Mic 4. 6 , 7 When David was driven from house and harbour , he incouraged himself in the Lord his God Tolle meum & tolle Deū . Aug. What faith is . Justifying faith is a spirituall habit , by which a regenerate man having in himself , upon a Divine testimony , an evidence of t●e truth and goodnesse of the promise , and covenant of eternall salvation through Jesus Christ , relies on him only for everlasting life . Mr White . Isa 38. 16. M. Ward . Ephes. 5. So is Christ , that is , the Church . Heb. 11. M. Perkins his right way of dying wel Psal. 73. ●● . These were the words of Tremellius a converted ▪ Jew near his end , Vivat Christus pereat Barabbas . Domini causa , id est ▪ propter Dominum . Beza . In Domino moriuntur , quicunque perfidem uniti & conjuncti Christo inunum quasi corpus cum eo coalescunt . Rainold . de l. Apoc. praelect. 80 Beati a modò , statim , è vestigio , ab ipso mortis tempore . Id. ib. There must be a being in Christ before there can be a dying in him , those that sleep in Iesus . Horace . Adam of Adamah , homo ab humo . Some reade {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} propterea quod , for as much as . * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Stipendia capitur , Lu● . 3. 14. & 1 Cor. 9. 7. pro stipendio militum . de Dieu . in loc. Vide Grotium . in loc. * Morte nihil certius , boramortis nihil incertius . * Incertum est , quo te loco mors expectet , itaque tu illam omni loco expecta . Sen. epist. 26. Act. 10. 42. Vide Calv. in 1 Cor. 15 , 51 , Death is the Atheists fear , and the christians desire . Tenebrae metum mortis incutientes . 1 Cor. 15. 26. Lies down with the sins of his youth . A great man wrote thus a little before his death , Spes & fortuna valete . Phil. 1. 23 1 Kings 19. 4. Jonah 4. 3. Job 7. 15. and 6. 9. M. Fenner of conscience . Summum nec met●as diem nec optes . Mors non est simpliciter & , absolutè optanda , quia habet in serationem mali , sed primò tanquam medium ad finem praestantiorē , secundò propter consecutionē majoris boni . Egredere , quid times ? egredere anima mea quid dubitas ? septuaginta propè annos servisti Christo & mortem times ? Hier epist. Fam. l. 3. Non est timendum quod nos liberat ab omni timē , do . Tertul. Deu. 32. 19 * Psal. 90. 12. This will make death less bitter and terrible unto us , forewarned fore-armed . Tu mor●ē ut nunquā time as , semper cogita . Senec It is the act of acts & science of sciences to learn to die . Moriantur ante te vitia Sen. Our Saviour being at a great feast at Bethanie , sell into meditatiō and speech of his death and 〈◊〉 , Ioh. ●● . 7 , 8. Ioseph of Arimathea made his tomb in his gardē , Ioh. 19 4● * Nemose decipiat fratres , duo enim loca sunt , & tertius non est visus . Qui cum Christo regnare nō meruit , cū diabolo absque ulla dubitatione peribit . Aug. serm. 1. de ebrietate . See Ioh. 11. 44. 2 Tim. 4. 7 * The Iews when they make mention of any of their deceased Worthies , are wont to doe it with this encomium {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} id est , Memoria ejus sit in bened●ctionem . Which encomiasticall scheme is taken from that of Solomon , Pr● . 10. 7. Buxtorf . de Abbreviat Hebr. Fuller . Concord . Hebr. transm . and Mede on Psal. 112. 6. 
A57956	----	A discourse of the use of reason in matters of religion shewing that Christianity contains nothing repugnant to right reason, against enthusiasts and deists / written in Latin by the Reverend Dr. Rust ; and translated into English, with annotations upon it by Hen. Hallywell. Rust, George, d. 1670. 1683 Approx. 148 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 46 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A57956 Wing R2361 ESTC R25530 09008157 ocm 09008157 42202 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A57956) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 42202) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1293:12) A discourse of the use of reason in matters of religion shewing that Christianity contains nothing repugnant to right reason, against enthusiasts and deists / written in Latin by the Reverend Dr. Rust ; and translated into English, with annotations upon it by Hen. Hallywell. Rust, George, d. 1670. Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703? [6], 79 p. Printed by Hen. Hills, Jun. for Water Kettilby, London : 1683. Latin text followed by English translation. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Deism. Faith and reason. 2002-08 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2002-09 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-10 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2002-10 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-12 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DISCOURSE OF THE Use of Reason IN Matters of Religion : Shewing , That CHRISTIANITY Contains nothing Repugnant to RIGHT REASON ; Against ENTHUSIASTS and DEISTS . Written in Latin by the Reverend Dr. RVST , late Lord Bishop of Dromore in Ireland : AND Translated into English , with Annotations upon it , By HEN. HALLYWELL . LONDON : Printed by Hen. Hills , Jun for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard , 1683. TO THE Reverend and profoundly Learned Dr. Henry More , Fellow of Christ's-Colledge in Cambridge . Honoured Sir , THat I presume to intitle this Discourse , with it s affixed Annotations to your Great Name , proceeds from a real sense , that it is but your just due , who have merited so much of the Learned World , and whose Labours and Pains to advance all useful Knowledge have been so indefatigable ; more especially in rendring the Christian Doctrine in all its Parts such as it ought to be , that is , Rational and Unexceptionable , bringing the Glories both of Greek and Barbarick , and whatever other piece of Ancient Wisdom was ever esteemed , to adorn and beautifie the new Jerusalem : and partly because you were an intimate Friend of the Reverend Author , whose Great Soul could not take up with little and dwindling Conceipts , but strove to enlarge his own Mind with noble and important Truths , and became a Happy Instrument in promoting the same generous Temper in others . And now , Sir , give me leave , among the other Motives which persuaded me to this Address , to add this as none of the least , that I may testifie to the World to be what I really am , An humble Honourer of your Virtues , HEN. HALLYWELL . The PREFACE to the READER . READER , THat I may do right to that Great and Excellent Person the Author of this Discourse I have adventured to publish , and likewise obviate all Cavils and Mistakes which freakish Wits may make upon the Account of giving a Reason of our Faith , it will be needful to suggest somthing by way of Preface ; as 1. That this Discourse is principally level'd ( as is intimated by the Reverend Author himself ) against Enthusiasts and Deists : The one pretending to immediate Inspiration , and so taking the various Impulses of their own Private Spirits as the sole Criterium to know and discern the Will of God , though they be never so extravagant and Contrary to the common Reason of Mankind : And the other pleading only for a Natural Religion in opposition to any Particular Mode or Way of Divine Revelation ; And hence though they profess to acknowledge a God and Providence , yet have withal a mean and low esteem of the Scriptures and Christianity , as if the Christian Religion were a thing that could not well be Apologized for , nor any fair and rational Account given of it . Wherefore Theism being so opposite to Christian Religion as Christian , and the Natural Current of Enthusiasm falling at last into down-right Atheism , it became necessary to Assert a Modest and Discrcet use of Reason in Things of Religion , and to shew that the Christian Religion will bear the strictest and severest Tryal of Right and unprejudic'd Reason . 2 ly . That our Learned Author had no Intent or Design to abet or countenance Capricio's of such pert persons as think themselves obliged to believe and profess nothing more then they can maintain by their own solitary Reason applying it self to the Scriptures . Which Presumption what strange work it hath made in the World is evident from the Socinians and other Sectarists , who upon this very Ground are really bewildred in their Speculations of Things , and under Pretence of Reason have obtruded their own Fancies upon the World , and vented such crude and indigested Notions as are not only inconsistent with the clear Current of Scripture , but contrary to the sense of the best and purest Antiquity . Wherefore ( 3 ly . ) according to the intention and meaning of the Author in this Discourse , the Authority of the Primitive Church before the Times of Apostasie , and of Reformed Churches in such Things wherein they generally agree with the Primitive times wherein the Church was Symmetral , is to be taken in as one solid Reason of our Faith and Belief . For the Spirit of Prophesie , which is the Testimony of Jesus , having so clearly predicted the Times of the Apostasie of the Church , it is manifest that the Authority and Profession of the Ancient Church while it was Symmetral and Apostolical ought to be had in the greatest Esteem and Veneration , and stand as a light whereby to steer ●…afe from those dangerous Rocks of Errors upon which they that have neglected this and ventured wholly to their own Reason have split themselves . Nor is the Authority of our own Church to be less regarded ; for the being with the rest of Reformed Christendom so plainly indigitated and pointed at by the Rising of the Witnesses in that Divine Book of the Apocalypse , immediately upon which follows that joyful Acclamation in Heaven , The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ , it cannot be but a mighty Confirmation and strengthning to any Man's Faith to see so clear a Testimony and Approbation of that Church whereof he is a Member given by the Spirit of Prophesie , that it is really emerged and risen into the state and condition of the Church when it was Symmetral and Apostolical . And this will further appear to be of huge Consequence to private men , and of but mean Capacity in the dicussing of Things . For they being neither Philosophers , nor guiding themselves by that Synosura of the Unapostatized Church , nor of our own Church reformed into the Condition of the Church while it continu'd Symmetral , if they be pert and confident , or follow such pert & confident Guides into what Errors may they not run ! Wherefore here such of the Populacy will find a solid and sure Rule for their safe conduct and guidance in rendring an Account or Reason of their Faith. These things I have hinted as well to prevent all sinister Interpretations of the Sense of that Pious and Learned Prelate now with God , as to free my self from all Suspicion in my Annotations of setting up Private Reason against the Authority of the Ancient and Unapostatized Church , or our own Church so excellently well temper'd and reformed according to the Primitive Pattern . H. H. 1 PET. 3. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 NOn me pudet Evangelii Christi , dixit ille magnus Apostolus , Gamaliele Praeceptore gaudens ▪ omni tum Judaicâ tum Graecâ Doctrinâ instructissimus ; Adeóque Religione Christianâ undique oppressâ & despicatui habitâ , Judaeis scandalo , Graecis ludibrio , nihilominus spretâ ignominiâ , cruce contemptâ , Paratus sum ( inquit ) Vobis qui Romae estis , apud egregios Urbis istius , non Armorum magis quam Artium Magistrae , Philosophos & Oratores , Evangelium praedicare . Quippe etiamsi non defuere sibimet de suâ sapientiâ magnificè plaudentes , ●…aecitatis interea & Ignorantiae tenebris obducti , qui Doctrinam Evangelicam stultitiae insimulant & deridendam exhibent : Veruntamen si quis , seposito omni inordinato affectu & praejudicatâ Opinione , rem ut decet , sincero & incorrupto Judicio aestimaverit , compertum habebit Religionem Christianam Potentiam esse & sapientiam Dei , rationi apprimè concinentem , omni fide Dignissimam . Quemadmodum verò nobis Exemplo praeivit Insignis ille Doctor Gentium , ita pariter Apostolus Circumcisionis verbis modò ▪ lectis hortatur , Paratisemper sitis ad satisfactionem omni poscenti vos Rationem de eâ quoe in vobis est spe : i. e. Parati estote causam reddere cur sitis Christiani : Atque in hanc sententiam vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saepius occurrit in Actis & Scriptis Paulinis : Act. 22. 1. Phil. 1. 7. & 17. 2 Tim. 4. 16. Per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intelligo Doctrinam Evangelicam , quo sensu idem Vocabulum usurpatum legimus , Act. 26. 7. In re Religionis intervenit usus Rationis . Ita comparata ést Religio Christiana ut de eâ Ratio reddi possit . Paratum esse oportet fidei suae rationem reponere quisquis Evangelio nomen dederit . Ea sunt quae ex hoc loco observanda veniunt . In Religione eligendâ non vacare prorsus Rationem , & ejusmodi esse Religionem Christianam , quae nihil contineat Rectae Rationi adversum , contra Enthusiastas & Deistas praesenti disquisitione demonstrandum in me recipio . Per Rationem non Intelligo Superbiae , Avaritiae , Cupidinis , Irae aut alterius cujusl●…bet pravi affectûs dictamina : Haec nimirum ea est Carnis sapientia , Deo nec minus verae Rationi inimica : Hi sunt illi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui evertendi sunt , 2 Cor. 10. 4 , 5. Hoc illud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod in Captivitatem redigendum est in obedientiam Christi ; nimirum Ratiocinationes & discursus isti qui Carni & Cupiditatibus nostris inserviunt . Hic est ille 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui non capit eaqu●… sunt spiritûs Dei ; stultitia enim ipsi sunt , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is enim est homo Animalis qui sensu & Appetitu ducitur . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim ( ut satis nôrunt qui veterum scripta vel parum delibârunt ) est ea Animae facultas quae Corpori adaptatur . Qui verò talis est spiritui Dei & Doctrinae Evangelicae perpetuò adversatur ; & quae in●…bi dicta sunt mera st●…ltitia videntur , neque ea scrie ▪ potest , quia spiritualiter , h. e. mente humili , compositis affectibus , sereno lumine , puro , internóque sensu discernuntur . Haec est illa sapientia superbiâ & fastu tumida , apud quam Verbum Crucis pro stultitiâ habetur . Obscura enim Christi Vita & probrosa Mors ridiculo semper erat Animo ( ut videtur ) sublimioribus Notionibus elato ; Haec denique est illa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pravis affectibus aut vanâ scientiae opinione inebriatorum : Quam tamen Deus & quilibet vir sapiens summam reputat stultitiam . Hujusmodi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & Ratiocinationes & Sapientia non sunt rectae Rationis foetus , sed-mentis Cupiditatibus occaecatae fallaciae & Paralogismi . Per rectam itaque Rationem intelligo facultatem Animae humanae insitam , quâ dignoscat rationes , mutuásque affectiones rerum , unúmque ex alio arguit & concludit . Atque Rationi sic Intellectae aïo Religionem Christianam non adversari . Duo sunt qui huc pertinent usitati loquendi modi ; Videlicet aliquid posse esse vel supra vel contra Rationem . At verò ut quod res est dicamus , quicquid nobis vel credendum proponitur ne quidem supra Rationem esse debet , ni verba ista in eam sententiam accipienda sint , quod sit altius & à sensu communi remotius quàm ut ab Intellectu adinveniri possit . Equidem Articuli quidam Fidei dici possunt esse supra Rationem quoad rei credendae modos quosdam non revelatos : Ita v. g. superat vim Rationis nosse exactè modum Resurrectionis & Glorificationis nostrae , aut quaenam illae sint futuri se●…uli Voluptates & Gaudia , aut quomodo Divinae Hypostases sint Unus Deus ; aut Divina & Humana natura sint Unus Christus : sed de his rebus neque expressa est revelatio nec explicita requiritur fides : Et haec obscuritas non parum con●…ert ad Reverentiam conciliandam Christianae Religioni . At nihil est quod explicitè credendum proponitur quod Rationis Captum , ita ut de eo ne conceptus quidem formari possit , ex●…edat . Nam fides consistit in Assensu ; Assensus sequitur Judicium ; Judicium nu●…lum esse potest de re ignotâ & non intellectâ . Ergo quod omnem Intelligentiam excedit , omnem etiam excedit fidem . Et qui sibi persuadere conatur quod credat rem non Intellectam , nescit quid credit , sed vocabulis quibusdam aptè dispositis & grande quiddam sonantibus , quibus tamen nullus in mente respondet Conceptus , sibimet miserè imponit , dúmque Mysterio cuidam non Intellecto fidem adhibere somniat , meras consectatur Verborum Umbras , quibus velis subductis , fides sua sensúsque omnis evanuit . Religionem verò Christianam nihil continere rectae Rationi repugnans , simúlque usum intervenire Rationis in Religionis negotio sequentibus Argumentis probatum dabo . 1. Primò , Deum quicquam credendum proponere , quod rectae Rationi contradicat , aliquid ex his quatuor Absurdis ( nec cogitanti mihi occurrit quintum ) necessariò infert , aut Deum posse decipi , aut posse decipere , aut Rationes & Affectiones rerum non esse aeternas & Immutabiles , aut denique facultates humanas , esse errori obnoxias , cùm maximè claram & distinctam habent de objectis suis perceptionem . Horum Primum & secundum repugnant Notioni & Ideae quam de Deo mentibus nostris concepimus . Tertium quod attinet , est quidem non Nemo qui Rationes Rerum contingentes statuit & ad Arbitrium Mutabiles , Blasphemiamque , Mendacium , Perjurium , ipsúmque adeò Divinae Majestatis odium posse subire rationem Virtutum & cultûs Deo grati . At Deus bone ! quam temeraria quam detestanda Dogmata ! aut aeterno silentio obruenda aut non sine horrore nominanda . Percurre Vetera Concilia , nullam invenies haeresin damnandam priùs , aut omni magis dignam Anathemate . Ipsius Inferni Abyssus si panderentur Viscera , nihil evomere possunt magis abominandum , aut blasphemum magis . Enimverò sapientiâ , Immutabilitate , Bonitate reliquisque quas ei attribuimus perfectionibus Deum spoliat ; Omnis Discursûs Principia & Fundamenta evertit ; Omnia etiam Contradictoria probabilia reddit ; Omnem in Promissis Divinis fiduciam destruit ; Omnémque spem & expectationem futurae felicitatis profligat : quas omnes Consequentias ex ho●… Principio naturaliter oriri aliàs probavimus , & cuilibet attentius consideranti facilè patebit . Quartum verò , Quod Deus nobisejusmodi insereret facultates quae tum falsae esse possint , cùm clarissimè & distinctissimè objecta sua per●…ipiant , adversatur Bonitati & Veracitati Divinae . Praeterea fieri non potest ut Deus quicquam credendum revelet , nisi hoc prius jacto fundamento , facultatibus nostris adhibendam esse fidem . Nihil enim nobis à Deo proponi potest nisi sit conforme alicui facultati : At si facultas ista cùm maximè clarè & distinctè percipit Objectum suum , non est à Deceptione immunis , quomodo nobis innotescet errorem hunc non cadere in praesens id quodcunque sit negotium , praesertim si Ratio facultatum nostrarum Princeps clarè & distinctè intelligat illud esse falsum quod nobis ofsertur sub specie Divinae Revelationis ? Haec enim Revelatio accipienda est aut ab Auditu aut alio aliquo sensu externo , aut denique ab internâ Imaginatione . At num non potiori jure existimanda erit illusio si adversetur clarae & evidenti Rationi , quàm quod Ratio nostra quae in Ducem & Directricem à Deo collata est deciperetur in maximè claro & distincto Rerum Conceptu ? Nam si abjiciamus Rationem , nulla alia facultas ductrix reliqua est praeter sensum Externum ejúsque inclinationes , & stultam levémque Phantasiam infinitis Deceptionibus obnoxiam . Quapropter Ratione valere jussâ , annon nosmet exponimus illusioni cujuslibet spiritûs circulatorii qui praestigiis suis Divinam simulaverit Virtutem ? Quamobrem , si Moses legem suam constituit tanquam lapidem lydium quo probaretur quicunque se jactitaret Prophetam , monens populum suum , quod si quis signa aut miracula ederet non tamen ei auscultandum esse , si quid doceret legi isti adversum quam ipsis à Deo tradiderat : An non nos pariter decet ad Legem Naturae & Rectae Rationis quae stylo Adamantino mentibus nostris inscripta est tanquam ad Normam & Regulam minimè fallacem revocare omnes quicunque Divinam Authoritatem obtenderint ? ( Obiter moneo sermonem esse de Ratione Incorruptâ , malis affectibus liberâ & spiritûs sancti lumine collustratâ ) Hujus autem Ducis auspicio destituti , fieri potest ut confidentes quidem , & obstinatè persuasi , at nullatenus certi simus nos unquam viâ rectâ incedere . Nec refert dixisse Rationem posse quidem judicium ferre in rebus humanis , nequaquam tamen in Divinis . Etsi enim id verum sit de Ratione malis Passionibus occaecata , & omninò locum teneat in üs rebus quae objecta sunt potiùs gustûs & sensûs interni quàm Rationis ; At secus se res habet ubi solius Intellectûs assensus requiritur . Quicquid enim exhibetur explicitè credendum , de eo primùm formandus est conceptus : de quocunque autem conceptum formamus , Ratio aut detegit terminorum quibus constat Harmoniam , reique ipsius cum communi aliquâ Notione consensum ; atque ideò pronunciat eam esse veram : aut deprehendit Terminos esse contradictorios & repugnantes , rémque innato alicui Principio è Diametro oppositam , atque ita judicat eam esse falsam : Aut cernit Terminos esse partim concordes , partim Dissonos , aut nullam omnino ad invicem Relationem habere : atque hinc affirmat rem aut probabilem aut possibilem . Et si quod ingens Miraculum edatur ad confirmandam alteram sive probabilitatis sive possibilitatis partem , tum demum Ratio calculum suum adjiciet , fidem esse adhibendam . V. g. Fingamus quod jam factum est , quendam Maria ac Terras ambientem , huic negotio intentum ut doceat atque instruat humanum Genus in suo erga Deum atque homines officio , aeternam Beatitudinem sub conditione obedientiae pollicentem , ipso interim degente vitam inoffensam atque innocentissimam ; & simul seipsum praedicante tanquam Legislatorem à Deo missum , & quod omnis Potestas cùm in Terris tum etiam in Coelis ei delata fit , & quod ipsius interventu omnes preces & gratiarum actiones sunt Deo offerendae : Nihil hîc habetur contradictorium , aut Naturae Principiis repugnans . Facilè tamen suspicatur Ratio subesse aliquam superbiam & Divini Nominis & cultus affectationem . At verò si quod nudè spectatum possibile videtur , fuerit Divinâ Potentiâ consignatum , hujus Doctrinae Authore hujusmodi miracula edente , qualia nemo hactenus vidit Mortalium , Ratio extemplò in eam sententiam ibit , rem esse admodum credibilem : Atqui si hic homo docuisset aliquid Rectae Rationis Dictamini adversum , si introduxisset Doctrinam impiam & profanam , aut effiaenem vivendi licentiam , & iisdem miraculis fidem extorquere sategisset , se à Deo missum ut hujusmo●…i nobis persuaderet , Ratio nostra suggessis●…t ilicò fuisse eum Impostorem & Deceptorem : quoniam nihil Legi Naturae aut Rectae Rationi contrarium à Deo aut quoquam Divinam Authoritatem obtinente promulgari potest . Et licet urgeri possit esse contra Veracitatem Divinam , testimonium praebere Mendacio , & proinde quicquid innititur Miraculorum fide ( cùm haec fere unica sint voluntatis Dei externa indicia ) necesse videri à Deo originem suam deducat , nihilominus quia nequeo certò scire , num non haec fiant in tentationem , aut alium aliquem finem , mihi quidem ignotum , infinitae tamen sapientiae consentaneum , potius diffiderem huic Ratiocinationi , quàm hoc Argumento motus , quicquam admitterem tanquam coelitus profectum , quod Naturae Principiis evidenter adversatur . 2. Secundum Argumentum . Ita comparata est Hominis Natura , ut omnino fieri non possit , ut rei alicui Assensum praeberet absque ductu Rationis . Quod ut clarius pateat mutuanda sunt quaedam praesenti Instituto accommodata à magno illo Barone insignis istius libelli de veritate Authore . Ex illius ita que sententiâ quatuor sunt Facultates quibus in rerum Notitiam pervenimus : Instinctus Naturalis , sive Facultas Notionum communium Discretrix ; Sensus Internus , Sensus Externus & Discursus . De quibus magnum illud Effatum , pluris certè faciendum quàm integra alia Volumina de Animâ ejúsque Facultatibus conscripta ; Quod neque per instinctum naturalem , sensum internum , sensum externum , neque discursum innotescit , tanquam verum proprie dictum , nullo pacto probari potest . At verò cum hae quatuor sint facultates , & quicquid credendum proponitur harum alicui conforme esse necesse sit , dictat Ratio Instinctui Naturali , Sensui Interno , Sensui Externo , singulis rite dispositis adhibendam esse fidem . Ipsa verò ( quod ejus est munus ) praedictis facultatibus in auxilium vocatis , principiis primis & suâ luce claris subnixa , advocat discursus , conclusiones deducit . Naturali Instinctui semper praebenda est fides : sensus cùm externus tum internus aliquando falli potest ; & proinde aliquando credendus est , aliquando non item ; atque penes solam rationem est hujus discriminis judicium . Nulla enim alia facultas reliqua est cui hoc muneris deferatur ; Ergo nulli reiassentiri potest mens humana quin facem praeferre debeat Recta Ratio , vel saltem aliqua ejus Umbra . Ergo fieri non potest ut Religio Christiana , quae nobis credenda proponitur , assensum cogat contra nitente Rectâ Ratione . At dum respiro paulisper , Enthusiastas audio iteratis vicibus spiritum oggerentes ; & nemo fere est quin spiritum intus testante obtenderit , ne ei minùs quàm reliquis Deus favere videatur . Si quaeratur unde dignoscant spiritus testimonium , respondent , perinde ac solis splendorem , ex proprio lumine . Sed instamus porrò , Testimonium quod spiritus sibimet ipsi perhibet , estne valida & obstinata persuasio , aut exultatio & ecstasis gaudii , aut zelus quidam sive fervor animi , an denique Dignitatis & Excellentiae earum rerum quae revelantur , clara & sapida persuasio ? Postremum si dicatur , non abhorret à modo dictis . Reliqua verò Capita quod attinet , infinitus penè est eorum numerus qui se Vitrum , Butyrum , Canem , Felem , Regem , Imperatorem , Papam , Paracletum ▪ Messiam , ultimum maximúmque Prophetam , vivorum & mortuorum Judicem , aut denique Deum ipsum haud leviori fundamento , pertinaciter asseverârunt . Quorum plerosque praeter modum gaudio perfusos , & Divino ( ut videbatur ) fervore accensos legimus . Quae tamen omnia ( tam longè aberant ab afflatu Divini Spiritûs ) Maniae erant & Melancholiae symptomata : neque originem suam debebant nobiliori principio , quam sanguini & spiritibus turbatis , & quae prae caeteris Numen aliquod ostentare videtur , atrae bili . Ea quippe , ut nos docet Aristoteles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 efficit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quamobrem haud satis à nobis cautum fuerit , si subitam nimis fidem adhibeamus persuasioni obfirmatae , aut validae imaginationi , sive exultationi sive zelo admistae ; praecipuè verò quando sensus noster internus adeò sit Errori obnoxius , aliarum facultatum suffragia priùs petenda , quibus renuentibus , saltem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oportet & sustinere ab assensu . Verùm ne quid derogare videar spiritui sancto , opportunè hîc loci monendum censeo , quàm nulli sumus , quàm nihil possumus ejus ope destituti , adeò ut nemo quisquam sit , qui solis naturae viribus semet ad Christum recipit , nisi superveniat Divini Auxilii gratia . Quod ut abundè testatum facit S. Scriptura , ita neque minus suffragatur Ratio . Illud utique certissimum est effatum , contra sensum & experientiam frustra argumentis contendi . Etiamsi igitur quispiam ( quod de Zenone fertur ) non dari motum probare conetur , aut quantitatem , materiam , tempus extra rerum naturam subtili disputatione eliminare sategerit , nunquam tamen e●…ecerit , ut quisquam , oculis manibúsque omnem prorsus fidem deroget . Eodem igitur jure cùm expertum unicuique sit sensus suos gratâ admodum voluptate ab externis hujusce mundi objectis perfundi , neque tamen rebus altioris & nobilioris Naturae perinde affici : quantumcunque severioris Rationis monitis renitatur , animúmque ab istis tanquam infra suam dignitatem positis conetur revocare ; nihilo tamen magis illum inde dimovebit , quam Diogenem Zenonis argumenta . Quinetiam quamdiu validus ille vegetúsque externarum voluptatum gustus animum abduxerit , non vacat susurranti intus monitori aures adhibere : vel forte os illi nullo negotio obturare dabitur , aut in suas partes pellicere ; sensu nempe sive externo sive interno ducimur , non inerti & insipida ratione , quae de spiritualis vitae deliciis perinde scit disserere , ac caecus de coloribus . Et sanè operam omninò lusurus est , qui id agit ut caecum instruat , quàm jucunda res sit solem intueri , & lucis usuram capere , & variegatis inde objectis oblectari : solus oculus hisce demonstrandis ita par est , ut Animus inde afficiatur . Nunquam omnigenae voluptatis mancipium eó perduxeris , ut in Mathematicae demonstrationis ratione intelligendâ , majus aliquod oblectamentum subesse existimet , quam Bacchi aut Veneris ludo . Nempe si animi sui sententiam palam facere non detrectarent , compertum facile esset totius humani Generis Rationem , instantis sensus Imperio subesse . Adeóque nisi Deus ita Animos nostros affecerit , ut amaritudinem quandam in terrenis hisce voluptatibus persentiscamus , & rerum coelestium dulcedinem praelibemus , fieri non potest , ut vel ab istis ablactemur , vel haec admodum appetamus . Addo insuper , morigeros nosmet praebuisse voluntati Patris nostri qui est in Coelis , sola via est facilis & aperta , quae in Divinarum Revelationum veritatum , sensúmque deducat . Quippe res coelestes haud aliter cognoscuntur , quàm gustu interno & ●…apido lumine ; quale impertire solet Divina Gratia humilibus & defaecatis animis . Quin & de viâ flectentes monere , lumina menti praeferre , fidem corroborare , efficere ut Argumenta Pietatis aliàs ad quemlibet levissimae tentationis ventum difflanda , penitus impressa fixáque animo maneant , haec & similia accepta serimus eidem Sancto Spiritui . Quae omnia nobis coelitus illabi facilè agnoscimus , utpote divino isti Principio quod Dei in nobis reliquum est consentanea . Sed si quando huic veritatis Criterio nuncium remittimus , & Rationem nostram praepotentis phantasiae ductui & imperio subjicimus , valeat oportet omnis Religio nisi quae sub specie Divini afflatûs ab atra bile & faeculentis sanguinis halitibus inspiretur . Adeóque perinde nobis erit quaevis Religio : Rationis utique Judicio abdicato , quo Argumento innotescet Religionis Christianae supra Mahumetismum aut Gentilismum praestantia ? Sed ne verborum ambiguitate laboremus , sciendum est nihil à nobis percipi praeterquam Mentis nostrae Operationes ; proinde Spiritum prout est in nobis Principium cognoscendi , aut esse sensum internum aut rationem : Hae enim ( nisi addere etiam libet instinctum naturalem ) solae sunt Facultates , quae luminis Divini radiis collustrari possunt ; Ut revertamur igitur unde sumus digressi , cum sensus noster internus adeò lubricus sit & fallax , qui Testimonio ejus auscultaverit , reclamantibus licet reliquis facultatibus , nae ille homo est fide nimis incautâ & temerariâ . At inquies , concedamus probari quidem hoc Argumento , nihil posse credi sine Ratione ; hinc tamen non constare rem ipsam credendam non posse rationi adversari ; quoniam Deo testanti adhibenda est fides , quamvis maximè sit rationi contrarium quod credendum proponitur : quia fieri potest ut intellectus humanus cùm maximè videtur ratione uti , hallucinetur . Sed nefas est suspicari Deum sapientissimum posse falli ; aut veracissimus cùm sit , velle fallere . Equidem nihil potuisset dici verius ; Deo enim testanti nemo est tam incredulus , aut sui plenus , quin fidem habeat : At illud in dubium vocatur , quomodo rem divino testimonio confirmatam dignoscamus ? Num ex solis miraculis ? at iis inclaruisse comperies Pythagoram , Apollonium Tyanoeum qui Magicâ suâ labantem Idololatriam erexit ; quem ausi sunt sui temporis homines Christo opponere , uti constat ex Hieroclis & Philostrati libris in hunc finem compositis . Magos utriusque Orbis in medium proferre possim , qui omnes quamplurima operati sunt Naturae vires excedentia , non aliâ tamen quam Daemonum Virtute . Si quis itaque Divinam legationem obtenderit , tria sunt quibus Authoritatem ejus probari oportet ; Miracula , Vitae Sanctitas , & Doctrina Deo digna , humano generi utilis & accommodata . Quae omnia si affuerint , credendus est à Deo missus . Nulla utique via jam reliqua est , quâ fallacia detegatur . At nullatenus consonum videtur divinae veracitati & bonitati testimonium ferre mendacio , aut hominem in rebus maximi momenti deceptioni exponere nullâ diligentiâ evitandae . Itaque non solummodo spectanda sunt miracula , sed & vita , doctrináque hominis cui fidem facere videntur . Proinde Servator noster validissimo usus est Argumento adversus Pharisaeos objicientes , eum Daemonia ejicere virtute Principis Daemonum : Quod scilicet Regnum internis dissidiis distractum stabiliri nequit ; cum itaque ipse Doctrinâ & operibus suis se regno Satanae opponeret , fieri non potuit ut Satanae Virtute Daemonia ejiceret . Itaque ut judicium feramus de Divino Testimonio , Res ipsa consideranda venit quam attestatur ; quae si quid habeat immotis Naturae Principiis adversum , miracula haec praestigiae Daemonum , non Dei opus credendasunt . Beroeenses laudati sunt à Spiritu Sancto , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , tanquam magis ingenui & liberalioris indolis , quia inquirebant in Pauli & Siloe verba , num quae ab ipsis dicta sunt ita se haberent . Quidni & nos eadem Commendatio pertingat , si à quocunque dictata , tanquam legem divinitùs acceptam , severissimo examini subjiciamus ? 3. Tertium Argumentum haurimus è Naturâ Religionis , quam convenit esse materiam Electionis & Oblectamenti . At fieri non potest ut quis semet oblectet in eo quod Naturae suae Principiis contradicit . Revera Conclusiones novisse , etsi nihil contineant rationi dissonum , nisi porrò sciamus è quibus fluant Principiis , parum gratum est intellectui nostro . Sic Mathematico Ingenio volupe est , non Geometriae problemata , tanquam certissimae Veritatis efsata memoriter tenere , sed eorum demonstrationes longâ Propositionum serie deductas comprehendisse animo . Maximè itaque divinae Bonitati consonum videtur , eousque homini in Evangelio indulfisse , ut eorum cum Ratione Harmoniam comperire possit , quae ●…i credenda proponuntur . In eo praecipuê differt genus humanum à brutis , quod sit Religionis capax . At verò quod maximè homini proprium est & naturale , ut sit facultatibus ejus adversum , omni à Ratione abhorret . Num cui in mentem venire potest Deum in animo habuisse intellectum humanum non-percipiendis impedire atque implicare subtilitatibus ? Num quid ideò excellentius quia omnem excedit intelligentiam ? Illéne putandus est Religionis capacissimus , qui aut superstitiosus maximè aut oscitanter credulus ? Num exuenda est natura humana , ut imbuamur Religione ? Certè insedisse animo vel leviculam hujusmodi suspicionem , Religionis ludibrium est & opprobrium . Ea esse debet uniuscujusque de Religione suâ existimatio , quod nihil absurdi , indecori , aut rectae Rationi repugnantis continere credatur : Quantum enim redit in Religionis dedecus , metuere sibi à Rationis Tribunali ? Ea mihi semper Religio amplectenda visa est , quae à severissimâ Ratione in judicium vocata , causam obtineat . Quorsum Benignissimus Deus largitus est nobis Rationis facultatem , si nefas sit , cùm res nostra maximè agitur , eam munere suo fungi ? Aut quaenam alia facultas reliqua est cujus ductu veram Religionem investigemus ? Si Rationis partes deseramus , annon educationi , superstitioni , aut afflatui cuidam Fanatico , omnis accepta ferenda erit Religio ? At Ratio nostra , inquies , ex quo à Deo defecimus , caligat nimium , ideóque pares non sumus de rebus Divinis judicium ferendo . Ergóne luce Meridia●… destituti , languidiores solis radii contemptui erunt , & tenebrae reputandae ? Num cui paulò obtusior est acies , omni prorsus lumine cassus censebitur ? Aut oculi claudendi penitus , quia Aquilarum carent perspicacitate ? Verùm annon Religio eâ est naturâ quae summam postulet diligentiam & curam , utpote quae res sit maximi momenti , in cujus disquisitione errasse summum est infortunium ? Et quem in finem datae sunt Facultates , si nulli esse possunt adjumento , cùm iis maximè est opus ? Num quis alius nostro loco judicium feret ? Num alterius intellectus meam diriget voluntatem ? Num alienis oculis videbo ? Aut alterius cujuspiam lumine praeeunte ambulabo ? Num affectus inordinatos argumentis non intellectis edomabo ? Num ad normam Principiorum , quae alius mente concepit , vitam meam disponam ? Annon proprio judicio , intellectu , lumine , haec omnia peragenda sunt ? Num verò hoc fieri potest sine usu Rationis ? Quin potius eccujus Facultatis usus est in delectu Religionis & Principiorum ad quorum exemplar vitam instituendam esse judicamus , praeterquam solius Rationis ? Religio res est liberae & ingenuae indolis , nemini vim inferre patitur , intellectum solâ formâ & pulchritudine suâ captivat . Qui secus senserit , falsò ei crimen impegit , & in Religionis locum Superstitionem suffecit . 4. Quartum Argumentum desumo ex Naturâ Rectae Rationis ; Unde firmissimè demonstratur fieri non posse , ut quid à Deo revelatum sit ei contrarium . Delibati enim sunt hominum Animi ex mente Divinâ ; Estque Recta Ratio coelesti stirpe oriunda , ad increatae sapientiae & intelligentiae imaginem efficta : Est Radius quidam Intellectualis solis , lucis primigeniae similitudinem referens . Divina enim sapientia nihil aliud est , quam Idearum rerum Comprehensio , unà cum earum rationibus , affectionibus , mutuisque relationibus , sive concordiae sive repugnantiae , quae à rerum ipsarum naturâ immediatè emanant , sicut Relationes posito Fundamento & Termino . Atque hasce affectiones unà cum ipsarummet rerum Ideis , eodem intuitu perlustrat Divinus Intellectus , earúmque ordinem & reciprocationes discernit . Atque hoc quid aliud est quam Ratio fixa & stabilis , rerum omnium rationes nexúsque immoto oculo simul advertens ? Hujus verò accurata effigies est Recta Ratio , menti humanae insita ; quae etsi res omnes earúmque Rationes unico actu retegere & nôsse nequeat , eos tamen successione & per vices evolvit . Harum verò Idearum & Rationum quotquot simul intuemur , clarè & distinctè percipimus sive consensum sive dissonantiam , atque ita unius ex altero sive probationem sive refutationem instituimus . Proinde Ratio Humana verè imitatur atque exprimit sapientiam Divinam ; hoc solo Discrimine , quòd quae illa eodem simplici actu simul comprehendit , ista operosis deducit consequentiis . Deum itaque quicquam revelare Rectae Rationi contrarium ▪ perinde cogitatu impium est , ac Deum mendacem fore , internisque sapientiae 〈◊〉 conceptibus contradicturum . Recta enim Ratio & Divina Sapientia idem ferunt de Rebus Judicium ; & si quid secus pronuncietur ab intellectu humano , non id fit Rationis culpâ sed Ignorantiae . Ideoque si quid sub specie Divinae Revelationis propositum videtur Rationi contradicere , suspicandum est me non satis capere mentem ejus , ideóque ulteriori indagini insistendum , idque credendum Deum intendisse quod Naturae Principiis maxime consonum videbitur . Nollem tamen Intellectum Humanum nimium sibimet arrogare , & quod Captum ejus excedit , audaci facinore continuò damnare . Quippe si potissima pars eorum quae Divino Testimonio tradita & consignata sunt , Deo sint digna , & facultatibus nostris consentanea , quoad reliqua Fidem implicitam adhibere fas est Divinae Revelationi , iisque , etsi à Ratione abhorrere videantur , nihilominus assensum praebere ; saltem juxta sententiam Spiritûs Sancti , etsi quae tandem illa sit , haud dum satis capiamus . 5. Quintum atque ultimum Argumentum à Naturâ ipsius Christianae Religionis depromendum duximus . Et primò quoad ejus praecepta , eorum Puritas , Sanctitas ; & tum privata , tum publica , commoditas cuilibet attentiùs consideranti tam facilè comprobatur , ut opus superfluum aggressurum me sentirem , si eorum cum Ratione concordiam evincendo tempus contererem . Praesertim cùm id jam abundè satis demonstratum sit à Doctissimo nostro Hammondo , quem hâc de re consulatis velim . Hinc verò necessariò sequitur Promissa & Comminationes esse etiam oppidò rationi consona ; utpote quae hisce praeceptis muniendis inserviant . Sed quoad haec tria Religionis Christianae membra , etsi longè praecellant , tamen non planè diversa sunt ab aliis quae olim obtinuerint Religionibus , praesertim istâ Sapientum & Doctorum apud Paganos Philosophorum ; qui praecepta moralia severa & sublimia admodum tradebant , & praemiorum & poenarum post hanc vitam fidem ostentabant . Adeò ut quicquid dici potest in Priscae Pietatis & Sapientiae patrocinium , potiori jure vindicaverit sibi Religio Christiana . Lecta enim S. Scriptura ab ingeniis maximè profanis , & Atheis , con●…essionem expressit , praestantissima in eâ continere Virtutis & Pietatis praecepta . Ideóque potius breviter disserendum ce●…eo de Christianismo sub ratione Religionis determinatae & ab aliis discrepantis , ut hâc etiam in parte compareat ejus cum Rectâ Ratione conformitas . Primò verò , quid cogitari potest magis rationi accommodum , quam quod Deus alicui Provinciam delegaret docendi atque instruendi Genus humanum in suo erga Deum atque invicem Munere fungendo ? Degeneres enim Adami Posteri valde ignari sunt officii sui , ( unde per omnia secula notantur ridiculi Superstitionis ritus ) ac proinde indigent Doctore ; atque etiam pervicaciter & obstinatè dediti sunt carnis Cupiditatibus , adeóque ejusmodi postulant Legislatorem , qui Venerationem & Timorem incutiat . Utque Legi●…ator jam dictus sit illibatae atque innocuae Vitae , ita enim & nobis exemplo est , & Doctrinae suae Authoritatem conciliat : Ut fine semine virili Divini Spiritûs Potentiâ in Utero Virginis formetur , 〈◊〉 enim à faece humanâ , & ordinario Naturae Cursu segregatus , in majori honore habebitur : Ut intimè Uniatur Naturae Divinae , sive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , atque ita verè & propriè Deus fiat ; sic enim maxima comparatur dictis Majestas . Nec fieri potest ut ▪ Deus viâ Naturae Humanae convenientiori voluntatem suam significet ; Nequit enim nobis comparere sine corporeo velamine : Et quodnam aptius domicilium quam caro nostra ? Quidni itaque Deus uteretur aliquo è nobis , uti Anima Corpore , tanquam Instrumento , quo interveniente consilium suum declaret ? Nihil hic habetur aut Rationi contrarium aut conceptu difficile .. Cur enim magis vexaret Intellectum conjunctio Deitatis cum Naturâ Christi , quàm Humanae Animae cum Corpore ? Quo enim superioris est Naturae , eò faciliùs semet insinuare potuit . Caeterùm quamvis Persona haec tam illustris sit , congruum tamen videtur ●…ore , eum quoad Vitam Externam humilis sortis , & conditionis obscurae , iisdem malis & infirmitatibus , quibus nosmet ipsi , expositum . Sic enim magis provocamur ad Dei Amorem , & gravissima mala patienter ferenda , salutis nostrae duce innocentissimo nostri gratiâ tam multa passo . Adde quod Argumentum sit summae in hoc Servatore fiduciae ; Ipse enim pressionibus absolutus , novit quomodo subveniat afflictis . Porrò jure postulamus certiores nos faciat vitae aeternae & immortalis ; in dubiâ enim hac de re opinione haerebant Ethnici ; quin & Resurrectionis Corporis sine quâ non consistit summa hominis felicitas . Et quàm promptus sit Deus ad ignoscendum peccatoribus credentibus & agentibus Poen●…tentiam : Hoc enim facilè in dubium vocamus dum advertimus Peccati Malignitatem , & quàm rarescit apud homines offensae remissio , & quam proni ipsi simus in vindictam . Similiter ut fidem stabiliat Praemiorum & Poenarum post hanc Vitam ; ut illa respicientes alliciamur ad obedientiam , ab istis verò metuentes deterreamur à peccato . Utque his omnibus fidem faceret tum miraculis , tum morte suâ ; Miracula enim maximum sunt Divinae praesentiae testimonium : Quod verò Seipsum morti tradiderit , indicio est sincerè & sine fuco nobiscum egisse . Praeterea evidentissima Demonstratio est Divinae erga nos bonitatis , qui unigenito suo filio non pepercit , ut nostro bono inserviret . Et validissimum Argumentum ad crucifigendum Carnis Cupiditates , & ad subeundam mortem pro fratribus & aliorum commodo . Porrò quod hâc morte suâ Sacrificium fiat ob Peccata , quo Deus se placatum agnoscit , consilium erat infinitae Sapientiae & Bonitatis quo Animae argumenta Diffidentiae à Sanctitate & Justitiâ Divinâ petenti opportunè succurritur , Justitiam Divinam Christi Morte abundè propitiante . Itidem Resurrectio ejus ex Mortuis admodum Rationi consentit ; Omnium enim prius actorum Certitudinem consignavit ; & nostrae Resurrectionis & vitae post mortem possibilitatem demonstravit . Quod verò suscitatus ad Dextram Dei sedeat , & omnes Preces & Gratiarum Actiones per ipsius interventum offerendae Deo sint , & semper apud Deum Causam nostram agat , hoc quoque Rationi consonat ; dum nimirum Deus non solum benevolum erga nos animum notum fecit , sed etiam Fratrem nostrum ipsimet charissimum , nobis amicissimum , ad Dextram suam posuit , per quem alacriter & cum fiduciâ ad Deum accedamus ; Christo interea nostrî gratiâ Deum deprecante , ut quicquid nobis contingit boni , primam suam Originem purè Deitatis Amori debere agnoscamus . Deinde quòd omnis Potestas tum in Terris tum etiam in Coelis illi commissa & credita sit , quódque sit Dei quasi Vicarius , Sanctorúmque & Angelorum Caput , maximè hoc cedit in nostrum solatium , quod qui nos tantopere amet , potestate tantâ potiatur . Praeterea cùm citra Controversiam ●…it esse quandam Politiam & Regimen apud ipsos beatos sanctos & Angelos , cui potius debetur Principatus , quàm Jesu Christo , qui Deus ipse est Humanâ Naturâ Vestitus ? Quod verò aliquando Daemones atque homines vocandi ●…int ad tremendum Dei Tribunal , apprimè convenit ; hujus enim Cogitatio timorem incutiet audacissimo Peccatori , & Judicii solennitas Deum vindicabit ab omni Malignitatis crimine , adeò ut suâ se culpâ & stultitiâ in miseriam lapsum ab unuiscujusque Confcientiâ confessionem extorserit . Quod verò Christus Judex sedeat , nihil ●…ingi potuisset accommodatius ; Nam cum Deus Verendum hoc Judicium exercere nequeat nisi sub specie visibili , quodnam huic Instituto aptius Instrumentum esse potuit quàm ea humana Natura in quâ jamdudum Domicilium suum collocaverat ? Denique quod omnibus inimicis subjugatis , Regnum Patri traderet , neque hoc à Ratione abhorret ; Nam cùm Integrum ejus Munus Mediatorium huic fini destinatum sit , ut Creaturae in peccatum lapsae ad Deum revocentur , & supremâ donentur felicitate ; hujus sanè operis Absolutionem sequi debet Regni sui Determinatio . Quae tamen non ita intelligenda est , quin Jesus Christus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abinde semper Sanctorum atque Angelorum Princeps , & Caput permansurus sit . Atque ita singula fere Religionis Christianae Capita breviter perlustravimus ; neque iis diutius immorari per vestram patientiam licebit . Quod reliquum est Verbo expediam . Ex dictis liquidò constare arbitror , quam indecorum sit & homine Christiano indignum Religionem suam haurire simul cum Materno lacte , eámque non ingenuae Rationis Disquisitioni , sed Patriae institutis , Educationi , Magistrorum Dictatis , & hujus ●…arinae Praejudiciis acceptam ferre : Adeóque non in veri falsique delectu , sed praeconceptâ Opinione pertinaciter tuendâ omnes animi vires nervósque intendere . Ea quippe haud fides dicenda est aut putanda D●…o grata , quae Originem suam debet inerti potius Casui , quàm Rei ipsius Evidentiae aut Argumentorum momentis ; quinimò post humilem , piam , attentamque rerum pensitationem , in errorem lapsus , potiori Jure censendus est , si non laude , saltem Excusatione dignus , quàm ipsi vel etiam Veritati caecus istiusmodi & fortuitus assensus . Neque secus edisserit Sacra Pagina dum jubemur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Denique ( ut hortatur Apostolus noster ) parati simus ad respondendum cuilibet , ejus spei , quae in nobis est , Rationem petenti . FINIS . 1 PET. III. 15. — Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you . IAm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ , said the Great Apostle who was bred up at the feet of Gamaliel , and fully instructed in all the Learning both of the Jews and Greeks . Wherefore when the Christian Religion was every where oppressed and despised , when it was a scandal to the Jews , and foolishness to the Greeks ; yet then despising the shame , and undervaluing the Afflictions he should meet withal , I am ready ( says he ) to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome , among the famous Philosophers and Orators of that City , renowned as well for Arts as Arms. For although there are not wanting some , the Eyes of whose Minds are covered with gross Ignorance and Darkness , yet glorying mightily in the mean while of their own Wisdom who endeavour to expose and ridicule the Doctrine of the Gospel as the greatest Piece of Folly ; nevertheless he that laying aside his Prejudices and Tumultuous Affections , shall weigh the thing it self ▪ in the Balance of a sincere and incorrupted Judgment , will really find the Christian Religion to be the Power and Wisdom of God , wholly agreeable to Reason and worthy of all belief . As therefore the Great Doctor of the Gentiles has given us a rare Example of our Duty ; so the Apostle of the Circumcision in the Words now read , exhorts us , Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you , i. e. Be prepared to render an Account , why you are Christians . And in this sense the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often occurs in the Acts of the Apostles , and in the Epistles of St. Paul , Act. 22. 1. Phil. 1. 7. & 17. 2 Tim. 4. 16. By [ hope ] I understand the Doctrine of the Gospel , in which sense the word is used , Act. 26. 7. That Reason is to be made use of in the matter of Religion . That the Christian Religion i●… so framed that a ●…ational Account may be given of it . That every Man professing Christianity ought to be ready to give a Reason of his Faith. These are the main Observables from this Text of Scripture . That in the choice of Religion , Reason is not to be laid aside , and , That the Christian Religion is such as contains in it nothing contrary to Right Reason , I shall undertake to make good in this present Discourse against Enthu●…asts and Deists . By [ Rea●…on ] I do not mean the Dictates of Pride , Covetousness , Lust , Anger or any other naughty Affection ; for this is that Wisdom of the Flesh which is enmity against God , as well as against Right Rea●…on ; these are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imaginations that are to be cast down , and this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thought which is to be brought into Captivity to the Obedience of Christ , namely those Reasonings and Discourses which Minister to the Flesh and the lusts thereof . This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Natural Man , who receives not the things of the Spirit of God , for they are foolishness unto him , neither can he know them , because they are Spiritually discerned : For this is that Animal Man which is guided only by his sensual Appetite ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as those know well enough who are conversant in the Writings of the Ancients ) signifies that Faculty of the Soul which is adapted to the Body . And he that is such cannot be subject to the Spirit of God , nor Obedient to the Gospel , forasmuch as the things contained there , are mere foolishness to him ; nor can he know them , because they are spiritually discerned , i. e. they are discerned by an humble Mind , composed Affections , clear Light , and Pure , and Internal sense . This is that Wisdom pu●…ed up with Pride and Vain-glory , unto which the preaching of the Cross is foolish●…ess . For the ob●…ure life and ignominious Death of Christ was always counted ridiculous by a Mind turgid , & swell'd with higher Notions and conceits . Lastly , this is that Wisdom of this World , and of the Princes of this World , who are intoxicated with vile Affections , and an Opinionative Knowledge , which God and every wise Man looks upon as foolishness . Such Wisdom and Ratiocinations as these , are not the Off-spring of true Reason , but the Fallacies and Paralogisms of a Mind blinded with lusts . By Right Reason therefore I understand that innate Faculty of the Soul of Man , by which it discerns the Reasons and Mutual Affections of things , and argues , and concludes one thing from another , And now I say that Christian Religion is not contrary to Reason thus understood . There are two usual Forms of Speech pertinent to this occasion , viz. that something may either be above or contrary to Reason . But that we may speak freely and according to the nature of the thing it self ; whatever is propounded to us as matter of belief ought not to be so much as above Reason , unless these words be taken in this Acception , namely , That a thing is so high and remote from common sense , that bare ●…ntellect could not light upon it . There are verily some Articles of Faith which may be said to be above Reason , as to some Modes of the Thing to be believed that are not clearly revealed . Thus for Example , it exceeds the strength of Reason to give an exact Account of the manner of our Resurrection & Glorification , or to make a perfect Description of the Joys and Pleasures of the Future life , or to shew how the three Hypostases are one God , or the Divine and Humane Nature one Christ : But of these things as there is no express Revelation , so neither is there an Explicit Faith required ; And besides , This Obscurity is not a l●…ttle subservient for the begetting and conciliating Reverence and Esteem to the Christian Doctrine . But there is nothing to which an Explicit Faith is required , which so far exceeds Reason , as that it is not able to form any Conception of it . For Faith consists in Assent ; the Assent follows the Judgment , but no Judgment can be made of a thing that is not at all known or understood ; therefore whatever exceeds all Knowledge , must needs likewise exceed all Belief . And he that can persuade himself that he believes a thing that he does not understand , believes he knows not what ; and miserably imposes upon himself with a company of words prettily put together , and giving a great sound , which yet have no Conception answering to them in the mind , and while he dreams of believing some unintelligible Mystery , he only pursues mere shadows of words from which when the veil is withdrawn , all Faith and Sense presently vanishes . But that the Christian Religion contains nothing Repugnant to right Reason , and that the use of Reason is necessary in the Affair of Religion , I shall endeavour to prove by these following Arguments . First , If God should propound any thing to be believed that were Contradictory to Right Reason , one of these four Absurdities ( nor can I think of a fifth ) will necessarily follow upon it ; Either that God can be deceived , or may deceive , or that the Reasons ▪ and Affections of things are not Eternal and Immutable ; Or lastly , that our Faculties are obnoxious to Error when they have the clearest and most distinct Perception of their proper Objects . The first and second of these are contrary to that Notion and Idea of God which we have implanted in our Minds . As for the third , there is indeed a certain Person who asserts the Reasons of things to be contingent and Arbitrarious , and that Blasphemy , Lying , Perjury , nay , a hatred of the Divine Majesty may be reckoned into the Account of Virtues , and become a Worship pleasing and acceptable to God. But good God! What rash and abominable Positions do we hear ! Such as are rather to be buried in Eternal Oblivion , or not to be named without Horror and Astonishment . Search the Ancient Councils , and you shall find no Heresie more deserving an Anathema then this . Nay the very Jaws of Hell could not belch out any thing more detestable and blasphemous . For this robs God of his Wisdom , Immutability , Goodness , and all those other Perfections we attribute to him : It overthrows the Principles and Foundations of all ▪ Discourse ; makes Contradictions become probable ; destroys all Trust and Confidence in the Divine Promises , and banishes all Hope and Expectation of Future Happiness . That all these Consequences do naturally flow from this Principle we have proved elsewhere , and the same will appear very evident to any that shall attentively consider it . The Fourth , That God should plant such Faculties in us as may then deceive us when they most clearly and distinctly perceive their Respective Objects , is contrary to the Divine Goodness and Veracity . Moreover , it is impossible that God should reveal any thing as an Object of Faith , unless we first suppose , that we must give credit to our own Faculties . For nothing can be delivered to us from God , unless it be conformable to some Faculty or other : But and if that Faculty may be deceived when it most clearly and distinctly per●…eives its Object , how are we assured that this Deception may not happen in the present Case , especially wh●…n Reason , the chiefest of our Facultys , clearly and evidently finds that to be false which is offered under the specious Pretext of Divine Revelation ? For this Revelation must be conveyed to us either by the ●…ar , or some other External sense , or else by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : But ought we not much rather to 〈◊〉 that to be an Illusion which is con●…rary to the Principles of Evident and sound Reason , then to ●…ancy that our Reason which is given us of God for a Guide , should be deceived in its clearest and most distinct conception of things ? For if we throw a way Reason , there is no other Directive Faculty , but External sense and its Inclinations , and blind , and uncertain Phansie which is obnoxious to innumerable Deceptions . Wherefore bidding adieu to Reason do we not evidently expose our selves to the Illusion of every Jugling Spirit , who by crafty Tricks shall counterfeit a Divine Power and Assistance ? If therefore Moses ordain'd his Law as a Touchstone to try the Truth of a Prophet , advising his People not to hearken to any who should do Signs and Miracles , if he taught a●…y thing contrary to that Law which he himself had delivered to them from God : Ought not we in like manner to examine all those that pretend Divine Authority , by the Law of Nature and Right Reason , as by an in●…allible and unerring Rule ? ( By the way it is to be noted , that I here speak of incorrupted Reason , freed from all evil Affections and inlightned by the Spirit of God. ) For without the help of this Guide , our Minds perhaps may be filled with a Great Measure of Confidence and Obstinate Persuasion , but can never attain any settled Assurance that they are in the right way . Neither is it any thing to the Purpose , to say that Reason may indeed judge of Humane , but not of Divine Things . For though this be true of Reason darkned with evil Passions , and indubitable in such things as are rather Objects of Taste , and Internal sense , than Reason , yet it is quite otherwise where the Assent of the Understanding alone is required . For whatever is proposed as matter of Explicit Belief , there must in the first place be a Conception formed of it ; but now whatever we can frame a Conception of , there Reason either discovers the Harmony of the Terms of which it consists , and its Agreement with some common Notion , and so pronounces the Thing to be true ; or e●…se it finds the Terms to be contradictory and Repugnant , and that the Thing is Diametrically opposite to some i●…ate Principle , and consequently judges it to be false : Or else it perceives the Terms to be partly agreeing and partly di●…onant , or to have no Relation at all to one another , and from hence affirms and allows the Thing to be either Probable or Possible . And now if any Part either of the Probability or Po●…bility shall be confirmed by some Illustrious Miracle , then Reason adds its Suffrage that it ought to be believed . As for Example ; let us imagine , what is already done , a certain Person compassing Sea and Land , and w●…olly intent upon this very Thing to teach and instruct Mankind in their Duty to God , and to one another , promising Eternal Blessedness upon Condition of Obedience , he himself in the mean time leading a most innocent and inoffensive life , and withal declaring himself to be a Law-giver sent from God , and to have all Power both in Heaven and Earth committed into his hands , and that Prayers and Praises are all to be offered to God through his Mediation : Here is nothing in this that implies a Contradic●…on , or is repugnant with the Principles of Nature , though Reason may be apt to suspect some Pride and Affectation of Divine Glory and Worship to lie underneath . But now when that which is barely looked upon as Possible shall be effected and accomplished by Divine Power , and the Author of this Doctrine inabled to work such stupendious Miracles as never Man before saw , Reason will presently conclude that the Thing it self is very credible . Yet not withstanding if this Per●…on should have taught any thing contrary to the Dictates of Right Reason and introduced either a Pro●…ane and im●…ious Doctrine , or countenanced a licentious , and disorderly way of living , and that he might the better persuade us to these things , should have gone about to confirm his Divine Mission by Miracles , our Reason would immediately have suggested , to us that he was an Impostor and Deceiver ; because nothing can be 〈◊〉 by God , or by any Person commissionated by him , which is contrary to the Law of Nature or Right Reason . And though it may be urged , that it is contrary to the Divine Veracity to bear Witness to a lie , and therefore whatever is grounded upon the Credit of Miracles ( since these are the only visible signs of the Divine will ) must of necessity be supposed to derive from God ; yet because I cannot be assured whether these things may not be permitted for a Tryal , or for some other end unknown to me , yet agree●…ble to Divine Wisdom , I should rather d●…strust this way of Reasoning , then admit any thing from the Authority of this Argument as Divine , which contradicted the clear Principles of Nature . 2. A Second Argument : The Nature of Man is so framed that it cannot yield Assent to any thing without the Conduct of Reason . Which that it may more clearly appear we shall borrow some few things hugely suitable to our present Purpose from the Famous Lord Herbert in his Book of Truth . According to his Opinion therefore there are four Faculties by which we come to the Knowledge of things ; Natural Instinct , or that Faculty which di●…cerneth Common Notions , Internal Sense , External Sense , and Discourse . From whence may be collected this great Truth , more valuable then whole Volumes written concerning the Sou●… and its Facul●…es ; That which 〈◊〉 be known , neither by Natural Instinct , Internal Sense , External Sense , nor by Discourse , cannot any way be proved properly true . Now since these are Faculties , and that whatever is propounded to be believed ; must necessarily correspond and be conformable to some one of these , Reason affirms that to each of them being rightly d●…posed , cre●…t is to be given , viz. to Natural Inst●…t , to Inte●…nal and Ex●…nal Sense . Moreover Reason it self ( according to its proper Office ) making use of the 〈◊〉 of the aforesaid Faculties , and relying upon first and self-evident Principles , summons Discourse , and deduces Conclusions . Natural Instinct is always to be believed ; but sense , as well External as Internal , may sometimes be deceived , and therefore sometimes deserves Credit , and at other times not ; to discriminate and discern the Differences of which is in the Power of Reason alone , there being no other Faculty to preside in this Case . From whence it follows : First , That the Mind cannot assent to any thing where Right Reason , or at least some shadow of it , does not give a preceding light ; And then , That Christian Religion requiring Faith , cannot force or compel assent against the Dictates of Right Reason . But against these Clear and Natural Sentiments the Enthusiasts importunately urge the Spirit , and indeed every man will pretend the Testimony of the Spirit t●…at he may not seem to be less favour'd of God then others . If we demand how they know the Testimony of the Spirit , they Answer , After the same manner as we discern the splendor of the Sun , by its own proper light . But we insist further ; That witness which the Spirit bears to it self , is it a strong and obstinate Persuasion , or an Ecstatical Joy , or a kind of Zeal and Fervor of Mind ; or Lastly , a clear and savoury Persuasion of the Dignity and Excellency of those things that are revealed ? If this last , it is very consentaneous and agreeable to what we have already spoken : But as for the other particulars , it is very well known what an Innumerable company of Men there have been , who upon such like grounds have very pertinaciously affirmed themselves to be compounded o●… Glass , or Butter , to be Dogs , Cats , Kings , Emperors , Popes , the Paraclete , the Messiah , the last and greatest Prophet , the Judge of Qu●…ck and Dead , nay , even God himself . And we find most of these to have been actuated with an Excess of Joy , and transported with a seemingly Divine Fervor . All which Effects are so far from the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit , that they are no better then Frenzies and Symptoms of Melancholy , and derive their Original from no higher Principle then the undue Fermentation of the Blood and Spirits , and chiefly from that Melancholy which above all other disposes the Minds of Men to fancy Divine Influxes and Illuminations For this ( as Aristotle affirms ) is wont to produce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore to be too easie and credulous in believing an obstinate Persuasion or strong Imagination , whether there be a mixture of exultancy or zeal with it , would argue a great want of Caution and Circumspection : But we are to note especially , where our Internal Sense is so obnoxious to Error , That the Suffrages of other Faculties are first to be obtained , upon whose refusal it behooves us at least to suspend our Assent . But that we may not seem to derogate from the Holy Spirit , we may ●…itly here suggest what mere Nothings we are , and how little it is we can do without his help , so that there is no Man whatever that can come to Christ without the supervenient Assistance of Divine Grace . And as this is clearly attested in the Sacred Scripture , so it is no less Consentaneous to Reason ; forasmuch as this is a most certain Truth , that 't is a great Vanity to dispute against Sense and Experience . And though some one ( as 't is reported of Zeno ) should go about to prove there is no such thing as Motion , and should endeavour by subtilty of Argumentation to banish Quantity , Matter and Time out of the Nature of Things , yet he could never induce any sober Person wholly to distrust his Eyes and Hands . By the same Reason , since every Man finds his Senses highly gratified with that Pleasure flowing from External and Mundane Objects , and yet not to be alike affected with things of a higher and nobler Nature ; how much resistence soever he may make by Virtue of the Counsels of severer Reason , and strive to alienate his Mind from those ▪ as things less comporting with the Dignity of his Nature , yet he will be no more able to reclaim himself , then the Arguments of Zeno were able to move Diogenes . Moreover , so long as that brisk and lively rellish of sensual Pleasures draws away the Mind , it will not be at leisure to attend to the so●…t Whispers of that gentle Monitor within . Or perhaps it will easily slop its mouth , or at least allure it to its own side : For we are led by Sense ▪ either External or Internal , not by dry and insipid Reason , which gives much what the same Account of the Delights of a Spiritual life , as a blind Man would do of colours . And doubtless it would be but lost labour to teach a blind Man how pleasant a thing it is to behold the Sun , and to enjoy the benefit of the Light , and recreate himself with the Variety of Objects . It is only the Eye that is sufficient to make such a Demonstration of these things as may affect the Mind . You can never persuade a Man that is a perfect Slave to his Pleasures that there is any greater Delight and Satisfaction in Understanding the Reason of a Mathematical Demonstration ▪ then there is in Wine or the Caresses of a Mistress . For if they were not bashful in declaring the Sentiments of their own Minds , it would soon appear that the Reason of all Mankind is subjugated to the Imperious Dictates of present sense . And unless God so affect our Minds , as that on the one hand they may find some allay & uneasiness in these Terrestrial Pleasures , and on the other give them some Prelibations of the sweetness of things Celestial , it can hardly be , that we should either be weaned from those , or very much desirous of these . I add moreover , that to render our selves obedient to the will of our hea●…enly Father , is the only plain and easie way to the attaining a true Knowledge and Vital Sense of Divine Revelations . For heavenly things are not otherwise to be known but by such an in ward rellish and affecting light as Divine Grace usually imparts to defecate & humble Minds . And further , to admonish ▪ them that are going astray , to illuminate the Eyes of the Mind , to strengthen the Faith ▪ and to fix and impress the Arguments of Godliness upon the Soul , which otherwise would be driven away with the least Wind of a Temptation ; these and such like things we owe to the Be●…ign Influence of the Holy Spirit ; All which we readily acknowledge to descend from Heaven by that Congruity they retain with that Divine Principle the only remain of God in us . But if we discharge this Criterium of Truth , and subject our Reason to the Conduct and Guidance of prevailing Phansis , we must bid adieu to all Religion but that which under pretence of Divine Insp●…ration is nothing but the Result of 〈◊〉 , and the feculent steams of the Blood. Thus all Religions will be alike ; For by ▪ what Argument shall the Excellency of Christianity appear above 〈◊〉 or Gentilism , when the use of Reason is laid aside ? But that we may not spend time in Ambiguity of Words , we must know , T●…at nothing is perceived by us but the Operations 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 , and there●…re the Spirit as 't is a Principle of Knowledge in us , is either Internal Sense or Reason ; for these are the only Faculties ( unless we will add Natural Instinct ) capable of being inlightned with the Beams of Divine Light. To return therefore from whence we have digressed ; since our Internal Sense is so slippery and fallacious , that Man that shall hearken to its Testimony against the Voice of all his other Faculties , must be a Person of a very Imprudent and Temerarious Belief . But you will say , We grant indeed that it appears from this Argument that nothing can be believed without Reason , but it does not follow fro●… hence , that the thing to be believed is not contrary to Reason ; because we ought to credit a Divine Attestation , though the matter attested be never so much Contrary to Reason : For it may happen that Humane Understanding may thenErr , when it seems most of all to make use of Reason . But it were Impious to imagine that God who is most wise can be deceived , or being most Veracious can deceive . It is confest that nothing could be spoken truer ; for no Man is so incredulous or self-conceited , but he will presently give credit to Divine Attestation : But the Question is how we shall know when a thing is confirmed by Divine Testimony ? Will it appear from Miracles alone ? We shall find Pythagoras , Apollonius Tyanoeus , who endeavoured by Magick to keep up the Credi●… of decaying and sinking Idolatry was famous for these ; whose Contemporaries durst oppose him to Christ , as may appear from the Books of Hierocles and Philostratus written of this subject . I might likewise introduce the Magicians of both Worlds , all which have acted diverse things exceeding the Powers of Nature , only by Demoniacal Assistance . If any one therefore shall pretend a Divine Commission , there are Three things which he ought to prove his Authority by : Miracles , Holiness of Life , and a Doctrine worthy of God , and every way useful to Mankind . If he bring all these things , he is to be believed as sent from God. But it no way comports with Divine Goodness and Veracity to bear witness to a Falsehood , or to expose men in things of the Greatest moment to an Everlasting and inevitable Delusion . Wherefore we are not only to look at Miracles , but at the Life and Doctrine of the Person who pretends them , to gain to himself the Belief of Divine Authority . To this purpose our Saviour made use of an invincible Argument against the Pharisees , who objected to him that he cast out Devils by the help of the Prince of Devils , viz. That a Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation : Therefore since he both by his Doctrine , and the mighty works that he did , set himself wholly to pull down and overthrow the Kingdom of Satan , it could not be that he should cast out Devils by the Assistance of Satan . Therefore to make up a Right Judgment concerning a Divine Testimony , the matter it self which is attested ought to come into Consideration , which if it contain any thing contrary to the setled Principles of Nature , those Miracles are not to be looked upon as Divine , but as Diabolical Delusions . The Beroeans were commended by the Spirit of God to be more Noble then those in Thessalonica , i. e. of a more ingenuous and pliable Temper , in that they searched the Scriptures , whether those things spoken by Paul and Silas were so . Why should not the same Commendation belong likewise to us , if we put to a severe Scrutiny & Trial whatever is deliver'd to us by any Person for a Divine Law ? 3. A third Argument may be drawn from the Nature of Religion , which ought to be matter of Choice and Delight . But now it is impossible that any one should please himself in that which is contrary to the Principles of his very Nature . And indeed to know Conclusions themselves , unless we likewise are ascertain'd from what Principles they flow , yields but a slender Delight to the Understanding : As the Pleasure of a Mathematical Genius results , not from having Geometrical Problems as undoubted Axioms by Heart , but ●…rom the being able to comprehend their Demonstrations deduced by a long Series of Propositions . Wherefore it is most agreeable to the Divine Goodness so ●…ar to indulge and have regard to the Nature of Man under the Gospel , that he may find the Harmony and Agreement of those things with Reason , which are propounded to him as Objects of Faith. For here lies the Principal Difference between Mankind and Bruits , in their being capable of Religion . And it is a thing abhorrent from all Reason , that that which is most Natural , and the sole Propriety of Man , should yet be contradictory to his own Faculties . Can it be imagined that God intended to perplex Humane Intellect with inexplicable subtleties ? Or is any thing the more excellent and Venerable , because it exceeds all Understanding ? Is he to be deemed the fittest subject for Religion , who is most Bigotical and carelesly credulous ? Are we to put off Humane Nature that we may become Religious ? Surely to entertain the least suspicion of such a thing were the very Reproach of all Religion : Such ought to be every Man's Judgment of his Religion , that it contain nothing in it absurd , unbecoming , or Repugnant to Right Reason ; for what a shame were it for Religion to be afraid of the Tribunal of Reason ? I have always looked upon that Religion most worthy of my choice , which comes off Victorious when called to the Bar of strictest Reason . Wherefore should a Gracious God bestow upon us the Faculty of Reason , if we must not suffer it to do its Office when our concern is most in Question ? Or what other Faculty is there left by who●…e conduct we can search into the Truth of Religion ? If we once forsake the Guidance of Reason must not all Religion be owing either to Education , Superstition or some Fanatical Impulse ? But you will say , our Reason since the Fall is too much darkned , and therefore we are not competent Judges of Divine things . But are the faint and more languishing Rays of the declining Sun therefore contemptible , and to be reputed Darkness , because we are deprived of his Meridian and more Exalted Light ? Must he whose Eyes are somewhat dull , be therefore accounted stark blind ? Or must we quite shut our Eyes , because they want the sharpness and Perspicacity of Eagles ? Is not Religion of such a Nature as requires our greatest Care and Diligence , as of a thing of the highest moment , and in which to have erred were our greatest Infelicity ? And to what Purpose were our Faculties given , if they be of no use in those things wherein we most need them ? Shall another Judge for us ? Or shall the Understanding of another direct my will ? Shall I fee with other mens Eyes ? Or walk only by the light that another carries before me ? Shall I mortifie my irregular Affections with Arguments that I do not understand ? Or govern my life by the mea●…ure of another Man's Principles ? Are not all these things to be done by a Man 's own proper Judgment , Intellect and Light ? And can this be effected without the use of Reason ? Nay further , is there need of any other Faculty in the choice of Religion , and such Principles as tend to the Regulation of Life , but only of Reason ? Religion is a free and ingenuous thing , that forceth none , but Captivates the Understanding with its own solitary Beauty & Pulchritude . And he that thinks otherwise falsly accuses Religion & introduces Superstition into its Place . 4. A Fourth Argument I take from the Nature of Right Reason ; from whence arises a clear Demonstration , that no Divine Revelation can be contrary to it . For the Souls of Men are derived from the D●…vine Mind , and Right Reason is of a Celestial Original , framed after the Image of Uncreated Wisdom and Knowledge . It is a certain Beam or Ray of the Intellectual Sun , bearing the Resemblance of Primigenial light . For Divine Wisdom is nothing else but a steady Comprehension of the Idea's of Things , together with those Reasons , A●…ections , and Mutual Relations whether of Concord or Discord , which Immediately slow from the Nature of Things themselves , as Relations po●…ito fundamento & termino . And the Divine Intellect does intimately penetrate and behold at one view these Affections together with the Idea's of the Things themselves and discerns their Order and Reciprocations . Now what is this but fixed and stable Reason looking upon the Reasons and Connections of all things at once , and as it were with an Unmoved Eye ? Whose express and accurate Resemblance is Right Reason engraven on Humane Minds , which though it cannot know and lay open all things , and their respective Reasons , by one single Act , yet it explicates and unfolds them successively and in order . Moreover , we have a clear and distinct Perception of the Consent or Discrepancy of so many of these Idea's and Reasons as we have an Entire and Comprehensive view of , and accordingly undertake either the Probation or Refutation of one from another . Wherefore Humane Reason does truly imitate and express Divine Wisdom , with this only Difference , that what she comprehends at once with one single Act , Reason deduces by many and operose Consequences . That God should therefore reveal any thing contrary to Right Reason , is alike impious as to suppose him to be a Liar , and to contradict the internal Conceptions of his own Wisdom . For Right Reason and Divine Wisdom give the same Judgment of things , and if Humane Understanding shall at any time determine otherwise , that must not be looked upon as the Fault of Reason , but of Ignorance . Therefore if any thing propounded under the Plausible Name of Divine Revelation shall seem to contradict Reason , I ought to suspect that I do not fully conprehend the meaning of it , and therefore must insist upon a further search , and resolve that God intended that to be believed , which should be most consonant to the Principles of Nature . Nevertheless I would not have Humane Understanding arrogate too much to it self , nor rashly attempt to condemn presently that which exceeds its Capacity . For if the chiefest Part of those things which are delivered and consigned by Divine Testimony , be worthy of God , and Consonant to ou●… Faculties , as to other things we ought to yield an implicit Faith to Divine Revelations , though they seem otherwise to clash with Reason , yet to give our Assent to them , at least according to the sense of the Spirit of God , although what that is , we cannot yet so fully understand . 5. A Fifth and last Argument shall be drawn from the Nature of the Christian Religion it self . And first of all as to its Precepts , their Purity , sanctity and usefulness , both as to particular Persons , and also the Publick , are so clear to every attentive and considerative Man , that it would be altogether super●…luous to go about to evince their Agreement with Reason : More especially when the thing it self is so fully made good already by the learned Dr. Hammond . From hence it likewise follows , That the Promises and Comminations in Religion are extreamly agreeable to Reason , forasmuch as they are a kind of Hedge and Security for the Precepts contain'd in it . And though these three Parts of Christianity do far excel , yet they are not wholly different from other Religions that have taken place in the World , especially among the wiser and more Philosophical Pagans , who set the Precepts of Morality at a high Pitch , and also held the Doctrine of Rewards and Punishments after this life . So that whatever may be said in Vindication of the Ancient Piety and Wisdom , may with greater Reason be spoken in behalf of Christian Religion . For even the most profané and Atheistical Wits upon reading the Holy Scriptures have confessed that they contain in them the most excellent Precepts of Piety and Virtue . Therefore I shall choose rather to discourse briefly of Christianity under the Notion of a Determi●…ate Religion different from all other , that its Conformity with Right Reason may from hence likewise be made apparent . First , therefore , What can be thought more agreeable to Reason then that God should intrust some certain Person with the Office of teaching and instructing Mankind in the Discharge of their Duty to him , and to one another ? For the Degenerate Offspring of Adam are hugely ignorant of their Duty ( whence so many ridiculous Rites of Superstition have been observable throughout all Ages ) and very much need a Teacher . And besides they are obstinately and wilfully bent upon the Lusts of the Flesh , and for this Reason want such a Law-giver as may Cause a Veneration and Fear in them . And that this Legislator should be a Person of an unspotted and blameless life is very congruous , both that he may be a Pattern and Example to us , and likewise beget a Reverence and Esteem of his Doctrine . That he should be conceived by the Power of the Holy Ghost in the Womb of a Virgin without the concurrence of Man , is an excellent provision for a higher Esteem and Valuation of his Person , being separated from Humane Defilements , and the Ordinary Course of Nature . That he should be intimately united to the Divine Nature , and so truly and properly God , adds the greater Majesty to what he should deliver . Nor could God signifie his will in a way more agreeable to the Nature of Man ; for he cannot appear to us but under some Corporeal Veil ; and what more fitting Mansion or Covering then our Flesh ? Why may not God make use of some one of us ( as the Soul doth of the Body ) as an Instrument by whose Intervention he may discover his Mind to us ? Here is nothing either Contrary to Reason or hard to be understood . For why should the Conjunction of the Deity with the Nature of Christ more trouble the Understanding then the Union of the Soul with the Body ? For the higher and more exalted Nature any thing is of , with the greater Facility may it insinuate and derive it self . But though this Person be so illustrious , yet it seems Reasonable that in reference to this Bodily life he should be of mean Quality and obscure Condition , obnoxious to the same Evils and Infirmities , to which we our selves are exposed : For so we shall have mighty Incentives to the Love of God , and Patient bearing of Afflictions , when we see the most Innocent Captain of our Salvation , suffer fo much upon our Account . Besides , that it is an Argument of the greatest Trust and Confidence in our Lord and Saviour , who being himself made perfect through sufferings , knows how to succour and relieve those that are oppressed under them . Moreover we may reasonably expect that God should give us some greater certainty of Eternal and Immortal life , then what was found among the Heathen , who spake very doubtfully of it ; as likewise that we should be more fully assured of the Resurrection of the Body , without which the Happiness of Man cannot be Compleat : And how ready God is to Pardon Sinners upon a true Faith and Repentance ; for this we are apt to doubt of when we consider the Malignity of Sin , our own proneness to Revenge , and how rare a thing it is to find forgiveness of a fault amongst men . In like manner , that he should establish the Belief of Rewards and Punishments after this life ; that by looking up to those we may be allured to Obedience , and out of fear of these may be deterred from sin . And that he should gain credit to all these things both by his Miracles , and by his Death : For Miracles are the greatest Testimony of Divine Presence . And in that he yielded himself up to Death , it is a Great sign of the Truth and Sincerity of his dealing with us . Besides , It is a clear Demonstration of the Divine Goodness towards us , who spared not his own Son that he might do us good . Nor can there be a stronger Argument to move us to Crucifie our Lusts , and to lay down our lives for the Brethren . But that our Lord by his Death became a Sacrifice for sins , by which God declared his Placableness , it was a design of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness to relieve and succour the Soul under the Arguments of Despondency and Distrust , which it fetcht against it self from the Holiness and Justice of God , the Death of Christ for that very End propitiating Divine Justice . His Resurrection from the Dead is likewise very Consonant to Reason , being an Ample Confirmation of his past Actions , and also a Demonstration of the Possibility of our Resurrection and Return to Life after Death . But that after his Resurrection he was exalted at the Right hand of God , and that all Prayers and Praises should be offered to God by his Mediation , and that he always makes Intercession for us , this is likewise very agreeable to Reason : For hence God not only makes known to us his kindness and Good-will , but has placed our Brother at his Right hand , a Person most dear to him , and most tenderly affected towards us , through whom we may with cheerfulness and full trust make our approach to God ; Christ in the mean while deprecating God in our behalf , that we should acknowledge whatever Good befals us to proceed wholly and purely from the love of God. And then in that all Power both in Heaven and Earth is committed into his hands , and that he is Gods Vice-gerent , and the Head of Saints and Angels , it is a great Comfort to us , because it is he that so dearly loves us who is possest of such mighty Power . Moreover since there is without Dispute a certain Polity and Government among the Blessed Saints and Angels , whom can we imagine to have better and greater Right to this Principality than Jesus Christ , who is God clothed with Humane Nature ? And that both Devils and Men are sometime to be summon'd before the dreadful Tribunal of God , is very Consentaneous ; for this very thought will strike Terror into the most daring Sinner , and the Solemnity of the Judgment will vindicate God from all Suspicion of Malignity and Injustice , because every Man's Conscience will testifie to him that his Misery proceeds from his own wretched Folly. Nor can any thing be imagined more proper then that Christ should be appointed Judge ; for since God cannot execute this solemn Judgment but under a visible shape , what fitter Instrument can there be for this Purpose , then that very Nature in which long ago he has taken up his dwelling ? And lastly , 't is no way discrepant from Reason , that having subdued all his Enemies , he should deliver up the Kingdom to his Father : For his Mediatory Office being designed to this Purpose , that lapsed Man may be recovered to the Life of God , and invested with endless Happiness ; upon the perfecting this work , the Determination of his Kingdom ought to follow . Which yet is to be understood after this manner , viz. That Jesus Christ , God-Man shall from thence , and for ever continue the Prince and Head of Saints and Angels . Thus we have briefly run through the several Heads of Christian Religion , and shall not further trespass upon your Patience . What remains I shall dispatch in a Word . From what hath been already said it appears clearly indecorous and unworthy of a Christian to draw in his Religion with his Mothers Milk , and to attribute his receiving it , not to the Ingenuous Disquisition of Reason , but to the Laws of his Country , his Education , to the Dictates of some learned Man in whom he has an Implicit Faith , and such like Prejudices as these . And in Conclusion , makes it his whole business pertinaciously to defend it , not upon a due choice and difcernment between Truth and Falshood , but upon some preconceived and prejudicate Opinion . Whereas that is scarce worthy the Name of Faith , nor grateful to God , which owes its Original rather to some dull chance , then either to the Evidence of the thing it self , or the weight of the Arguments for it . Nay certain it is , that he who after an humble , pious , and attentive weighing of Things shall yet fall into Error , is upon better grounds to be judged if not worthy of Praise , yet at least of Pardon , then he that shall blindly and fortuitously assent , though to Truth it self . To which the Holy Writings bear witness , by commanding us to search the Scriptures ; to prove all things ; and to examine and try the Spirits : And as our Apostle exhorts us , to be ready always to give an answer to every Man that asks us a Reason of the ●…ope that is in us . The End. ANNOTATIONS Upon the forogoing DISCOURSE . THe Pious and Excellently learned Author of this Discourse , being himself so Great a Master of Reason , made it his whole Business to imploy his Great Parts for the Honour and Advantage of Religion . He was a well instructed Scribe for the Kingdom of Heaven , and as a Faithful Steward of the Mysteries of God , brought forth out of his Treasures things New and Old. And finding Christianity attackt and assaulted by Deists and Enthusiasts , he resolutely came in to her Aid and Assistance , and by invincible Arguments hath made Good both the use of Reason in Matters of Religion , and that Christianity contains nothing in it contrary to the Laws and Inscriptions of Right Reason . Upon this Foundation the whole Discourse is setled and grounded , on which I here offer such Annotations as may best serve to illustrate and confirm that high Sense and great Reason our Ingenious Author hath curiously and with most accurate Judgment drawn together . Pag. 3 , 4. What ever is propounded to us as matter of Belief , ought not so much as to be above Reason . ] There are some who out of stupidity rather then a due Veneration of Religion , make the choicest of its Articles so incomprehensible as to be elevated above Reason , that is , in their sense , such as of which Humane Intellect can have no Conception : Then which certainly nothing can be more derogatory to that Sacred Oeconomy , which the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of God hath set on foot , nor give greater Ground to the bold Cavils and Pretentions of Enthusiasts and disguised Atheists . As if there were no other design in the Christian Religion but to amuze and puzzle Humane Understandings , by propounding a Company of intricate and perplexed Riddles , of which we can have no Apprehension , but must believe them merely because they are unintelligible . For certain it is , that whatever is in its own Nature unconceivable can be no Object of Humane Understanding , and consequently can be no Object of Faith. And it were a vain and ridiculous Thing to tell us that God reveals unconceivable Mysteries to us , to convince us of our Emptiness and Nothingness : For Christian Religion makes its ultimate End to be the Perfection of Humane Nature ; Now that which is wholly and absolutely above Reason is likewise unintelligible , and what is so , can in no sense be said to advance and better the Faculties of Man , and perfect his Nature . 'T is true , in this sense , and in no other , we may admit a thing to be above Reason , that is ( as our excellent Author speaks ) because bare Intellect could not light upon it . For the whole Frame and Contexture of Christianity shews a Wisdom exceeding that of Angels as well as Men , but yet now it is manifested and revealed to us , there is nothing in it unconceivable , nor any one Article beyond the Power of a Rational Soul to have , though not a full , yet a clear and distinct Idea of . The very Notion of God implies Incomprehensibility in it , yet notwithstanding a Rational Mind may have a very evident and clear Conception of his Nature . And that which dazles our Eyes with such an amazing lustre in Christianity , that is , the Doctrine of the Trinity , was not thought either unintelligible or irrational by the wise●… and most learned Pagans , though such is the Profoundness of the Mystery , that Humane Understanding could never have fall'n upon any such Thing without a Divine Revelation . Therefore what the best of the Pagans discoursed of it , was but a Communication of that Doctrine which had been received by Tradition from the first Ages of the World , and was made known to them by Supernatural Revelation . The same we may say of all other Mysterious Points in the Christian Religion , that being revealed , they bear a pleasing and agreeable Harmony with our Reasons , and do intimately correspond with something in our own Minds . Pag. 4. This Obscurity is not a little subservient to beget and conciliate Reverence and Esteem to the Christian Doctrine . ] The Christian Religion has this in Common with all other Mysteries , that it hath a Veil drawn over its more recondite and hidden Doctrines , partly that it may not be prophaned and exposed to contempt by every common Eye ; and partly to whet and sharpen the Industry of Capacious Minds to a diligent search and inquisition after such inestimable Treasures . For as the Initiati in the Mysterious Rites both of Greeks and Egyptians , were first to undergo a due Purification of themselves before they were admitted to the Presence and Fruition of the worshipped Deity ; so does Christian Religion declare its end to be the perfecting Humane Souls , and at last conducting them by an orderly P●…cation both of Body and Mind into the Sacred Adytum to enjoy the Presence of God in the highest Heavens for evermore . Hence Christianity as it is a Mystery , so in opposition to the prophane Rites of the Heathen worship , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mystery of Godliness , 1 Tim. 3. 16. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Doctrine according to Godliness , 1 Tim. 6. 3. And it is very decorous and becoming the Wisdom of God , to hide and conceal the choice Doctrines of Christianity as precious Treasures , behind a Cloud , that they may not be the too easie Purchase of every dissolute Person , and that Religion it self may not be contemned and disesteemed by supposing it to have nothing Venerable and excellent in it . But as the Spectators at the foot of the Hill behold no greater Beauty and Comeliness in the Face of our Saviour then in other men , but when he ascended the Mount his Countenance appear'd to those that were capable , with a Brightness and Lustre far surpassing that of the Sun : Thus it is with his Doctrine ; while we converse only below , and our Eyes are filled with Dust , and our Minds swell'd with the Lusts and Vanities of the World , we see no more Excellency and Beauty to command our Veneration and love in Christianity then in other things : But if we would ascend up to the top of the Mount by a due Purification of our Spirits , by Mortification of our irregular Appetites and by Assimilation of our Minds to God , we should behold admirable Glories , and be enravished with the Pulchritude of the transfigur'd Face of Jesus . For the Secret of the Lord is only with them that fear him . Pag. 5. There is a certain Person who asserts the Reasons of Things to be contingent and arbitrarious . ] The Person intended here was Szydlovius who in a Treatise intituled , Vindicioe Quoestionum aliquot difficilium & controversarum in Theologia , printed at Franeker , among other things lays down such Positions as these , Quoeritur ( inquit ) An detur aliquid antecedenter bonum ad Voluntatem Dei : Sive , An res sint ideò justoe & bonoe quia Deus eas vult , vel , An ideò eas velit quia justoe sint ? Negatur dari aliquid antecedenter bonum ad voluntatem Dei , & Affirmatur Res ideò esse justas & bonas , quia eas Deus vult ; non contra , ideò eas velle Deum quia Justoe & bonoe sint . And afterwards he thus goes on , Objiciet quispiam : Ergo sic Deus poterit imperare Blasphemiam , Perjurium , Mendacium , &c. quod absurdum Videtur . Resp. Etiam in illis quoe ad cultum Dei pertinent , nullo a●…o modo homines obligantur nisi ex proecepto & per legem . Si enim Deus voluisset , tum potuisset alium Cultum vel modum Cultûs jubere sibi proestari . Itaque etiam ista quoe ad Cultum suum pertinent , Deus liberrimè proecepit , & quidem ut potuerit aliter proecepisse : ideóque ex Hypothesi tantùm Mandati Divini ista sunt vitia . Et videtur hîc proesupponi , quasi Mendacium & Blasphemia afficiant Deum aliquo modo , quod prorsus falsum est . Certum igitur est Deum potuisse contrarium modum cultûs sibi jubere proestari . Which execrable Positions our Author out of that tender and delicate sense he had of Truth , and mighty Zeal for the Honour of God , did justly detest and abominate , and therefore set himself to confute such Blasphemous Assertions as these in a short but exceeding Compact and Rational Discourse , which since his much lamented Death has been Published by the Title of A Discourse of Truth , and is now reprinted with another useful Discourse of an Ingenious Person with Annotations upon them both . To which for full satisfaction and Prosecution of the Heads here mentioned I refer . And shall only transcribe what I find concerning this Subject in a Philosophical Poem . If God do all things simply at his Pleasure , Because he will , and not because it 's Good , So that his Actions will have no set measure ; Is 't possible it should be understood What he intends ? I feel that he is lov'd Of my dear Soul , and know that I have born Much for his sake ; yet is it not hence prov'd That I shall live , though I do sigh and mourn To find his Face , his Creatures wish he 'll slight & scorn . When I breath out my utmost Vital Breath , And my dear Spirit to my God commend , Yet some foul Fiend close lurking underneath My serious , humble Soul from me may rend : So to the lower shades down we shall wend. Though I in Hearts simplicity expected A Better doom ; sith I my steps did bend Towards the Will of God , and had detected Strong Hope of lasting Life , but now I am rejected . Nor of well Being , nor Subsistency Of our poor Souls , when they do hence depart : Can any be assured , if liberty We give to such odd thoughts , that thus pervert The Laws of God , and rashly do assert That Will rules God , but Good rules not Gods will : What e're from Right , Love , Equity doth start , For ought we know then God may act that ill , Only to shew his Might , and his free Mind fulfil . Pag. 5 , 6. That God should plant such Faculties in us as may then deceive us , when they most clearly and distinctly perceive their respective Objects , is contrary to the Divine Goodness and Veracity . ] 'T is tr●…e , if God were such an Arbitrary Being whose sole Will were the Rule and Measure of Goodness and Justice , as the forecited Author contends he is , it is utt●…rly impossible we should have any certainty of the clearest Truth , not so much as that Three and Three make Six , because we can never be assured that this Arbitrary Omnipotent Deity did not purposely make the Frame of our Souls so , as that they should then be deceived when they have the clearest and most evident Perception of things . Therefore that Acute Philosopher Des-Cartes committed a great over-sight when he would have us doubt of the Truth of those Things whereof we have the clearest Evidence and Demonstration ; becau●…e till we come to the Knowledge of a God we cannot be certain that our Faculties are not false and imposturous ; for we have no way to come to the knowledge of God , but by our Faculties . And therefore this were , 1. To condemn us to an Eternal Scepticism from which there is no possibility of ever extricating our selves . 2. It is a Ridiculous way of Argumentation to prove the Truth of God's Existence ●…rom our Faculties of Reason and Understanding ; and then to prove the Truth of those Faculties from the Existence of God. 3. There being nothing more Immediate to us , nor any thing whereby we can conclude more certainly a thing to be true then by our own Faculties , if the Truth of our Faculties is to be proved by any thing , it is evident , it is to be proved by our Faculties themselves , but this were also a ridiculous circular Demonstration , to prove the Truth of our Faculties , by the Truth of our Faculties . Whence it necessarily follows that we are only to suppose our Faculties to be true , it being Impossible for us to prove them to be so . But to be above this Pitch is the Priviledge only of the Eternal Mind , or of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only wise God , as our Faculties if rightly cultivated suggest unto us , & the Apostle does admonish us . That therefore was the main slip in Des-Cartes that he was not content to suppose our Faculties to be true , but he would prove them to be so , when he was destitute of all Argument for it , but the Truth of the Faculties themselves . But some Philosophers bring the business to a closer pinch , as they conceive , by supposing the very Essence of Truth to be clear and distinct Perceptibility , insomuch that not Omnipoteuce it self , much less Casualty , can bring to pass that what is false should be clearly perceived to be . But these otherwise witty and learned Contemplators do not consider , That Truth is a Thing antecedent to Perceptibility , which respects the Perceptive Intellect , and is in it self nothing else ( I mean Eternal Truths ) but the necessary Coherence or Incoherence of the Terms of which the Truth it self doth consist . And therefore Perceptibility cannot be the Essence of Truth . I speak here of Truth in the Object , not in the Subject , as our Author has distinguished in his Ingenious Discourse of Truth ; which no Intellect Perceptive or Conceptine makes , but finds in the Intellect Exhibitive , as his Annotator has also observed : Insomuch that the Divine Intellect it self quatenus Perceptive or Conceptive is not the A●…thor of Archetipal Truth , but quatenus Exhibitive . Moreover , though clear and distinct Perceptibility were the very Essence of Truth , whenas indeed it is only a Relative Mode thereof , what is this to our Perceptive Faculty , till it come to a clear actual Perception , and what is this but a strong Cogitation that I clearly and distinctly perceive a thing ? But that many have been mistaken when they have had such a strong Cogitation is indeed the known Disgrace of Speculation and Philosophy . Whence it is manifest , when they say that Omnipotence it self cannot bring to pass that what is false should be clearly perceived to be , that the Word [ perceived ] is fallaciously abused , to a sense beyond the Capacity of the present Circumstan●…es , as if it signified [ really to find ] whenas it only signifies , strongly to think we clearly perceive a Thing to be . Which many have and yet have been in a mistake ; and this by Casualty . What then cannot Omnipotence do in this kind , if it would ? But supposing our ●…aculties to be true when all Moral diligence has been employed to fit them for use ( and none but a Humorist will then call into Question their Verdict , when they clearly discern a thing to be ) the Existence of God and his Attributes being plain to us , we have a further Assurance , we having such an Author of our Being , that he gave not our Faculties to abuse us but to inform us faithfully of all Truth necessary and useful for us , so that what is clear to them is really true . Which is the Assertion of this our Learned and Pious Writer without any Cartesian Fetches and Ambages . And lastly , we may note by way of Overplus , That clearness and distinctness of Perception in the Intellect Perceptive or Conceptive , is not the Right notion of Truth , but the Conformity of the Perception or Conception with the Thing conceived , which is Truth in the Object ; and that therefore in false Opinions the Perception of the Intellect is not only obscure , but false , because it perceives or conceives otherwise then the Thing it self is , which is the true and universally acknowledged Notion of what is false in the conceiving of Things . Pag. 8. Our Reason would immediately have suggested to us that he was an Impostor and Deceiver . ] That God may permit an Impostor and Deceiver to work Miracles , we have the express Testimony of Holy Scripture , and the matter of Fact confirmed in the Egypti●… So●…cerers , Deut. 13. 1 , 2. Moses tells the 〈◊〉 , that if any Per●…on should come in the Name of a Prophet , and should do a Miracle , i●… that Prophet 〈◊〉 attempt by this to seduce them to Idolatry , then he was not to be bel●…eved , because God might suffer this in Tentationem , to prove their Faith and Belief in the true God. But on the other side if a Prophet should come in the Na●…e of God , and produce M●…acles as the Credentials of Divine Authority and Commission , and should exhort them only to the Worship of the True God of Israel , than he 〈◊〉 to ●…e believed . For this was the Sign or Note by which they should know a true Prophet from a false , Deut. 18. 21 , 22. In like manner , We that are Christians , having the Law of Right Reason engraven in our Souls , ought to be as Cautious and Jealous of admitting Belief , though a Person should by Miracles seek to extort it from us , if under pretence of Divine Revelation he would introduce any thing contrary to clear and evident Reason . Because we may be assured that no such thing can be Authorized of God , but that if the Miracles are true and real , they are done in Tentationem . See Annotat. upon p. 14. Pag. 10. We find most of these to have been actuated with an excess of Joy , and transported with a seemingly Divine fervor . ] How far a Natural Enthu●…iasm may Prevail upon men is evidently seen in the fresh Examples which every Age produces ; and 't is observable that those Sects among us which pretend most to Divine Inspiration , are most of all in●…ected and agitated with Melancholy , which arising from the lower Region of the Body , and ascending in Copious-steams with the Blood and Spirits into the Brain , ferments like new Wine , and stains the Imagination with Variety of Phantasms and Impressions . And if this happen to a Devotional and Religious Temper whose understanding is not strong enough to discern the Illusions of Phansie from the Dictates of the Spirit of God , it presently begets in him a strong and vigorous Conceit that he is Divinely acted and inspired . With which Delusion they are the more easily imposed upon , for want of a right Understanding of the Nature of the Prophetical Spirit , whose impulse and influence upon the Mind , though it were strong and vigorous , being in the Heart as a burning Fire , shut up in the Bones , which sensibly afflicted and pained till it received a Vent ( as is expressed by the Prophet Jeremy , Chap. 20. 9. ) yet it never altered nor clouded the Rational Faculty , but the Intellectual Light remained still free and undisturbed , nor did ever any Prophet when acted by Divine Inspiration deliver any Thing contrary to the fixed and Eternal Laws of Reason . Now the way to distinguish these Enthusiastical Impostures from Divine Influxes and Illuminations , is by comparing them with the known and infallible Dictates of Right Reason ; for no Truth delivered by Divine Revelation is ever contrary or contradictious to the Rational Faculties of Mankind . He that would know more of the Effects of this Natural Enthusiasm may consult that Excellent Treatise of Dr. More , intituled Enthusiasmus Triumphatus . Pag. 12. So long as that brisk and lively rellish of sensual Pleasures draws away the Mind , it will not be at leisure to attend to the soft Whispers of that Gentle Monitor within . ] There is in the Soul of Man a double Nature , Intellectual and Animal , which the Scripture calls by the Name of Flesh and Spirit , or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inner and outer Man. And according to this double Capacity , the Respective Objects are likewise different : The Animal Nature or Outer Man dictates the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is pleasant or profitable in the Grossest sense , and is only that blind and irrational Appetite which results from the Souls Union and Conjunction with the Body . With reference to this the Apostle says , 1 Joh. 2. 16. All that is in the World , the Lust of the Flesh , the Lust of the Eye , and the Pride of Life , is not of the Father , but of the World : i. e. These are the Gratifications of the Mundane Life or Animal Nature , and about such things as these the Corporeal life is perpetually conversant as with its proper Objects . But now the Intellectual Nature or Inner Man takes for its Object the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what ought to be done , being ruled and guided by the Counsels and Inspirations of Right Reason . Now because the Soul cannot attend to two different Faculties or Capacities at the same time in their highest actings and Invigorations , it follows that upon the Prevalency and Enlargement of either of them , the other is sensibly dimini●…hed , abated , and debilitated . For who is there that sees not how crazed and besotted those Persons are in their Intellectuals , who let themselves loose to the conduct of their irregular Lusts and Appetites , and plunge their Souls without bounds or measures in Corporeal Joys ? So that were it not for their External shape , there would be little difference between them and Bruits . And is it possible now to discern the faint and weak glimmerings of Intellectual Light through such profound and clammy darkness ? Nay , it is very easie to conceive that the Rampancy and Luxuriancy of the Animal Life may arise to such a height as to form an Extraordinary and thick Cortex over the Intellectual or ▪ Divine Principle , that its actings should never be perceptible any more , but like the Central Fire in an incrustated Star , be totally extinguished at the long run . Of so high a Concernment is it to Mankind to mortifie and subdue the irregular Excursions of this Plastick or Animal Life , and 〈◊〉 its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 irrational and blind Appetites in the Embryo or first rudimental Efformations . For the flush eruption and blazing of the Corporeal life , is a sad Presage of the Death and Extinction of the Diviner Faculties . And Death it self in a Physical sense is only the Consopition , or laying asleep some Powers that others may awake in their stead : Hence the Spirit of God affirms that those who live in pleasures , i. e. licentiously and delicately , omitting no opportunities of gratifying that worser ▪ Life to which they have so tender a Regard , are dead while they live . To this purpose is that of Plotinus , Ennead . 1. l. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A vitious Person dies after that manner the Soul is capable of dying ; and the Death of the Soul is by a total Immersion and repletion of it self with Corporeity . Ibid. We are led by sense , either External or Internal , not by dry and insipid Reason . ] It is 〈◊〉 Part of the Authors Design to prove that bare and dry Reason is a sufficient Criterion to discern the true and ●…ffecting rellish of Heavenly Things ; for as there is some Principle in us which has a Vital sense and sapid Gust of Corporeal Joys and Pleasures , so there is a Principle likewise in the Soul of Man , which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , something better then Reason , and which a Platonist would call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Flower and Summity of the Mind , when by due Purification of its self from all Corporeal Dregs and Pollutions , it arises to such a Measure of Participation of the Divine Life , as that it perceives a Generous Rellish , and G●…ateful , and affecting Pleasure in Holiness and Virtue . For till this inward Intellectual Sense be in some Good measure awakened , Religion it self does but very little , and weakly affect the Mind . Therefore our Author adds , That heavenly Things are not otherwise to be known , but by such an inward rellish and affecting light as Divine Grace usually imparts to defecate and humble Minds . And a little above he says , That to render our selves Obedient to the Will of our heavenly Father , is the only plain and easy way to the attaining a true knowledge and vital Sense of Divine Revelations . Consonant to what our Saviour himself expresly affirms , Joh. 7. 17. If any Man will do the Will of God , he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God , or whether I speak of my self , i. e. The true rellish and vital sense of Religion arises from a Conformity of Mind with the Will of God. So that though Reason may furnish a Man with sufficient Arguments to assure him of the Truth of Religion , yet the sapid gust and affecting sense of it flows from the Expergefaction of the Intellectual Powers into a Divine life . Ibid. To admonish them that are going astray , to illuminate the Eyes of the Mind , to strengthen the Faith , and to fix and impress the Argument of Godliness upon the Soul , these and such like Things we owe to the benign Influence of the Holy Spirit . ] It is a very great Indication of a Mal●…ous Mind , or weak and crazy Intellectuals , when Men shall load and burden their Adversaries with the opprobrious and Invidious Term of Heresie , as denying the Aid & Assistance of the Spirit of God to be Necessary , when they only endeavour to make the Mystery of our Faith , the Oeconomy of Christian Religion to appear in all its Parts Rational , i. e. worthy and becoming of its Author the Eternal Wisdom of God. It has been the ill Fortune of some Eminent and Inge●…ous Persons of late to be traduced for Pelagians , Socini●…s and what not , for no other cause that I know of , but because they speak sense , and care not to explicate Religion by unintelligible Words and Phrases , quaint Allusions and odd Similitudes , but instead of all this jingling noise , they appeal to the Common and Rational Faculties of all Mankind . And in this they are so far from laying aside or rendring useless the Aid of the Holy Spirit of God under the Gospel , that they ●…eely acknowledge all their strength to derive from his ever-blessed Influence , that of themselves they are nothing , but that it is he who works in them both to will and to do ; and that he is not only the beginner , but Finisher of every good work . Although perhaps they may not think the Operation of the Spirit of God to be by an Omnipotent Power at large , but Hypothetical , and upon certain Terms and Conditions , like the great Formative Power in Nature , which produces not the Lineaments and Primigenial Rudiments of the Body of a Plant or Animal out of a Flint , but requires a pliable Ductility and Sequaciousness in the Matter it works upon . Pag. 14. Pythagoras , Apollonius Tyanaeus who endeavoured by Magick Art to keep up the Credit of sinking Idolatry , was famous for Miracles . ] That Miracles may be wrought by wicked Persons for ill ends and designs , is evident not only from the Prediction before cited , Deut. 13. as also from the Miracles wrought by the Egyptian Magicians to invalidate those of Moses , but likewise from the express Prophesie of our Saviour himself concerning false Prophets that should arise and shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great signs and wonders , to deceive , if possible , even the Elect. And the Apostles of our Lord Jesus foretelling the coming of Antichrist , describe it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , after the effica●…y of Satan , with all Power , and Signs , and Wonders [ or Miracles ] of a Lye. And St. Iohn speaking of the same Person , says that 〈◊〉 shall do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great Wonders , and deceive them that dwell on the Earth , by the means of those Miracles which he has Power to do in the sight of the Beast . Now ●…rom hence we may collect these things . 1. That true Miracles may be wrought by wicked Persons ; not that God does immediately concur by his Almighty Power , in assisting them to do Miracles to countenance Falsehoods , and the open Violation of his Laws , but that he may permit invisible created Spirits to exert their Energy and Power in producing Supernatural Effects : Whence we have no Reason to think that the Miracles , foretold to be done by Antichrist and his Followers , or by false Prophets to be mere Juggles and Delusions of our Senses , but that some of them may be real Miracles , but because they are wrought to confirm Idolatry , and to establish such Doctrines as are plainly repugnant to the Rational Faculties of Mankind , therefore we are not to heed them , but to look upon them as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Miracles of Falshood , and a Lye. And of this sort were the Miracles of Apollonius , who though he might dazle the Eyes of some by the Glittering Brightness of his Counterfeit Virtues ( it being for the Interest of the Divels Kingdom that he should act that part well yet he never transcended the bounds of the Animal life , but was an Archi-mago or Grand Magician , as Moeragenes , who wrote his life , testifies . 2. That God never permits false Prophets to do Miracles by the Assistance of evil Doemons , but only in the Case of such Falshoods as are clearly discoverable by the Light of Nature or common Dictates of Universal and Right Reason ; because if he should , it would be an Invincible Temptation : But ( as our Author speaks a little below ) it no way comports with Divine Goodness and Veracity to bear witness to a falshood , or to expose men in things of the greatest moment to an everlasting and inevitable Delusion . 3. That Miracles alone are not a sufficient Confirmation of the Divinity of a Doctrine , forasmuch as they have been wrought by Pagans , and the same is asserted by Busbequius of some among the Turks ; therefore besides Miracles , to perfect and compleat a Divine Testimony , there is required Holiness of life in the Person that pretends a Divine Mission , and a Doctrine worthy of God , and every way useful to Mankind . Hence our Author adds , p. 15. That to make up a right Iudgment concerning a Divine Testimony the matter it self which is attested ought to come into consideration , which if it contain any thing contrary to the settled Principles of Nature , those Miracles are not to be looked upon as Divine , but as Diabolica●… Delusions . Therefore for the Writers of the Romish Church to pretend Miracles now , and to rank them among the Essential Characters to prove the Truth of a Church by , as Bellarmine does , when all men whose Eyes are open , discover the greatest part of those Miracles to be the Frauds and Impostures of cunning Priests , or if they were true , it being evident that they are wrought by Apostate Spirits for the Confirmation of such Doctrines as are clearly repugnant to the setled Principles of Right Reason , it is , ( 1. ) To hazard and call in Question the Truth of those Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles for the Confirmation of Christianity . And ( 2. ) to use the Words of a learned Man of our own , If any strange things have been done in that Church , they prove nothing but the Truth of Scripture , which foretold that ( God's Providence permitting it , and the Wickedness of the World deserving it ) strange Signs and Wonders should be wrought to confirm false Doctrine , that they which love not the Truth should be given over to strong Delusions . So that now we have Reason rather to suspect and be afraid of pretended Miracles as signs of false Doctrine , then much to regard them as certain Arguments of Truth . Neither is it strange that God should permit some true Wonders to be done , to delude those who have forged so many Wonders , to deceive the World. Pag. 15. Here lies the Principal Difference between Mankind and Brutes in their being capable of Religion . ] That the Essential Difference between Mankind and Brutes does not lie solely and purely in Rationality , appears from hence , in that Brutes are capable of Reason , though in a lower Degree . And moreover we can frame a very Intelligible Idea of such Creatures as are capable of Reason so as to build Cities , and to Form and Institute Common-wealths , which yet have no Distinction of moral Good and Evil , and consequently are neither capable of rewards nor punishments ; and perhaps some such Animals may be actually existent in some part or other of the World. But that which constitutes the true difference between Men and Brutes is Religion , which the Satyrist took notice of , — Separat hoec nos A grege mutorum , atque ideò venerabile soli Sortiti ingenium divinorúmque capaces . Pag. 16. If we once forsake the guidance of Reason , must not all Religion be owing either to Education , Superstition , or some Fanatical Impulse ? ] To him that forsakes the Conduct of Right Reason all Religions are alike , and he may as well be a Mahumetan or Jew as a Christian , and indeed that he has any Religion at all , is owing chiefly to his Education , and the Laws of the Country wherein he lives . But Religion being a matter of choice , there must be some standing and setled Rule by which to try and judge the Truth or Falshood , the Congruity or Incongruity of it : And such a Rule as this God has furnished Mankind withal , namely Right Reason , and he that having means and opportunity to try and examine the Religion that is propounded to him as Matter of his Choice , shall yet carelesly content himself with it , because he has been educated and trained up in it , has his Understanding given him to no purpose , and may justly fear as a Punishment of this his careless Oscitancy and slothful Credulity , that Providence should permit him to swallow great and dangerous Errors as well as Truth . For he that believes without Reason declares himself indifferent to believe any thing right or wrong . Socrates gives this Commendation of Cebes , that he was careful to inquire into all things , and duly weigh them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and would not presently believe that which any Body said , though otherwise he had sufficient respect unto him . I shall subjoin what an excellent Writer speaks to this Purpose : We ought not ( says he ) to surrender our belief to any thing carelesly ; nor , either out of idleness and sloth , or being over-awed by the Confidence which any men assume to themselves , content our selves with an Implicit Faith : Neglecting to search and try , and prove all Things which demand to have no less then our Souls resigned up unto them . We ought therefore to suspect those who would have us believe them without putting our selves to the trouble of much search . It is a sign they mean to deceive ; for if God himself does not expect to be believed , unless there be Good witness for that to which his Ambassadours demand Assent ; why should men be so presumptuous as to ask us to believe them blindly ? Or why should we be such Obedient Fools , as to do more for them then God would have us do for himself ? He has given us Eyes , and therefore we ought to look about-us , especially when Men bid us wink and take any thing upon trust . He has endued us with Reason , and therefore we ought to sift , and try , and examine that which is propounded to us . And if any Body say , Do not try , nor examine ; you are not able to discern the Differences of things ; Believe as we teach , for we cannot deceive you : Mark that Man or Company of Men as the greatest Deceivers , who intend to impose something upon you , which will not abide the Test. Pag. 17. Religion is a free and ingenuous Thing , that forceth none , but Captivates the Understanding with its own solitary Beauty and Pulchritude . ] The Soul of Man being the Workmanship of the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wisdom of God , and coming into the World furnished with the Seeds and Principles of all true Wisdom and Knowledge , however its Lapse and Degeneracy have clouded and darkned its Intellectual Faculties , yet there still remaining such a Cognation and Harmony between it and Truth , she cannot but embrace it whenever duly and advantageously proposed . Now Christian Religion being likewise the Genuine Offspring of that Wisdom which has left such visible Characters and Signatures of it self upon the whole Frame of Heaven and Earth , the Soul of Man presently discovers all the Beautiful Emanations of it to be Congenerous and Homogeneal to its own Intellectual Light , and as all like is attractive of its like , is gently and willingly captivated , and sweetly drawn as with some hidden strings to a closer and nearer union with it . And this is the Reason why Christianity neither needs , nor uses Violence or Force to beget Belief and Entertainment in Humane Minds , because it is made up only of such Things as intimately Correspond with the Intellectual Frame and Furniture of the Soul. Nor indeed ( supposing Religion to contain any thing contrary to Right Reason ) could Men ever be forced to believe it : For such is the Constitution of a Rational Soul , and such are the Essential Impresses of its Intellectual Nature , that no Man can believe what he pleases , but is fatally bound up to such Things as are agreeable to those Principles of which his Rational Nature is compounded . And if it were in the Power of any Man to believe any thing though never so contradictory and repugnant to the Natural Sentiments and Impressions of his own Mind , he might then yield as firm an Assent to Falshood as Truth , and repute all the Contradictions and Absurdities in the World to be infallible Oracles . And as he cannot arbitrariously fix his Mind to the Reception of a Falshood , so neither of that which is irrational ; for that which is Repugnant to Right Reason is certainly false , and all the Difference between them lies only in the Number of Syllables . Pag. 18. Right Reason and Divine Wisdom give the same Judgment of things . ] The Foundation of all Knowledge whether Divine or Humane lies in the Apprehension of the Idea's , Natures and mutual Respects and Relations of things ; Now these not being Arbitratious , but setled , Eternally fixt and Immutable , it clearly follows that Right Reason and Divine Wisdom give the same Judgment of Things . Forasmuch as not only Right Reason is a Participation of the Divine Understanding , but likewise , that it is no more in the Power of God to change or alter the Idea's , Respects , and References of Things , then it is in his Power to die , or destroy his own Being . Hence a Triangle with its three Angles equal to two Right ones , and all Idea's with their Immutable Respects , and Habitudes , appear the same in Humane Understanding as they are Represented and Exhibited in the Divine Intellect ; because our Understanding is an Abstract or Copy of the Divine Understanding ; as likewise because the contrary would undermine and destroy the very Foundation of all Knowledge in the World. Therefore it was truly asserted by Tully , Est igitur , quoniam nihil est Ratione melius , eáque & in homine & in Deo , prima homini cum Deo Rationis Societas : Inter quos autem Ratio , inter eosdem etiam Recta Ratio communis est . Nor do we by this in a Stoical Arrogance make Man equal with God , as some may fondly imagine : For the Divine Intellect ( as our learned Author speaks ) doth intimately penetrate and behold at one view these Affections with the Idea's of the things themselves , and discerns their Order and Reciprocations . And this is properly called fixed and Stable Reason ; whereas Humane Understanding explicates and unfolds things successively and in order , and this is Reason in succession , or flowing and moveable Reason . Pag. 41. As to other Things we ought to yield an Implicit Faith to Divine Revelation , &c. ] Christian Religion sufficiently obtains its end , in that all those things which pertain to Life and Godliness to the Renovation of Mens Minds into the faultless Image of our Lord Jesus , are plain and intelligible even to the meanest Capacity ; but in such things as are of a more Abstruse , Profound , and Speculative Nature , it is sufficient to have an Implicit Faith , i. e. to believe that the sense of all those Things that are delivered and consigned by Divine Testimony , though they transcend my Capacity , whatever it is which was intended by God , is true . For he that does not so , calls God's Truth in Question . But to believe this or that to be the true sense of them , or to believe the Modes of such and such Doctrines which are not plainly revealed in the Holy Scriptures , are thus to be explicated , and all other Explications of them utterly false , is not necessary either to Faith or Salvation . For if God would have had under Pain of Damnation those Doctrines which are not so plainly laid down , as that all should have the same Conceptions of them , to be equally believed by all in this Particular and Determinate sense , it could not consist with his Wisdom to deliver them in obscure Terms , nor with his Justice to require of Men to know certainly the meaning of those Words which he himself has not revealed . Pag. 43. That he may be a Pattern and Example to us . ] For ( as Lactantius speaks excellently well . ) Quomodo poterit amputari excusatio , &c. i. e. How can all excuse be taken away , unless he that teacheth , does the same things that he teacheth , and conducts , and lends his helping hand to him that follows ? For if he should be subject to no Passion , a Man might thus reply upon his Teacher ; I would not sin , but I am overcome , being clothed with frail and weak Flesh : This is it which is angry , which covets , which grieves , which fears to die . Therefore I am led unwillingly , and I sin , not because I would , but because I am forced . I am sensible likewise that I sin , but the necessity of Humane Frailty compels , which I cannot withstand . What shall this Teacher of Righteousness answer to these Things ? How will he refute or convince that Man who lays the blame of his sins upon his Flesh , unless he himself be likewise clothed with Flesh and Blood , that so he may shew that Flesh it self is likewise capable of the Exercise of Virtue ? Ibid. That be should be conceived by the Power of the Holy Ghost in the Womb of a Virgin , without the concurrence of Man , is an excellent Provision for a higher esteem and Valuation of his Person . ] That Christ should be Born of a Virgin without the Concurrence of Man , could not be looked upon as Incredible by the Pagan World , who scarce ever had any famous Hero among them , but they presently found out some God for his Father . And Plutarch in the Life of Numa relates , That the Egyptians supposed it probable enough that the Spirit of the Gods has given Original of Generation to Women , and begotten fruit of their Bodies . And Lactantius argues the Reasonableness of the Nativity of Jesus of the Virgin Mary , from what was commonly believed among the Heathens concerning other Creatures , Quod si Animalia quoedam Vento & Aurâ concipere solere omnibus notum est , cur quisquam mirum putet , cùm Spiritu Dei , cui est facile quicquid velit , gravatam esse Virginem dicimus ? The belief of which when facilitated , will appear an excellent Provision for a higher esteem and valuation of the Person of our Saviour . Therefore perhaps it was not only a drunken humour in Alexander , when he would be thought the Son of Jupiter Hammon , but to make himself appear more August and Venerable by the Reputation of being the Son of a God. To this purpose it is related by Huetius that among the Turks there are certain Boys , which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believed of the common People to be Born of Virgins , and in great esteem , as supposed to do strange things : In the Turkish Language they are called Nephes-Ogli , i. e. the Sons of Soul. However these Things be , yet this is certain , that among all Nations those Persons have been always had in the greatest esteem and Veneration who have been taken to be the immediate Offspring of God. And this was it which put Pilate into such a great Fear , when the Jews told him that our Saviour asserted himself to be the Son of God , Joh. 19. 8. imagining according to the Opinion of the Gentiles that he might be the Son of Jupiter or Apollo , or some other of their Deities , and consequently that he ought rather to be reverenced , then given up to be Crucified . Ibid. Adds the greater Majesty to what he should deliver . ] From hence it was that most of the Legislators among the Heathen , that they might obtain the greater Credit and Veneration to their Laws , were wont to tell the People they received them from some God or other . As Mynias persuaded the Egyptians that he was taught his Laws by Mercury : Minos intituled his to Ju piter ; and Zamolxis among the Getes to the Goddess Vesta . Now albeit these were but Fictions , yet from the Dictates of common Reason they all concluded thus much , that there was no Law so binding , or that carried greater Majesty and Authority , then that which had Divinity stamped upon it . Ibid. Nor could God signifie his will more agreeable to the Nature of Man. ] Admirably to 〈◊〉 Purpose the forecited Lactantius discourses , where shewing how highly Reasonable it was that Christ should take upon him our Flesh , he adds , Si verò sit Immortalis , exemplum proponere homini nullo modo potest — i. e. If he had been wholly Immortal , he could not have offered himself as an Example to Mankind ; for some grave Person would be very apt thus to bespeak him ; you indeed do not sin , because you are free from this Body ; you covet not , because an Immortal Being wants nothing : But I have need of many Things to maintain this life of mine . You are not afraid of Death , because it can have no Dominion over you . You despise Pain , because you are Impassible . But I poor Mortal have reason to fear both , because they bring upon me such grievous Torments as weak and infirm Flesh is not able to endure . Therefore he that is a Teacher of 〈◊〉 ought to take away this excuse from men , 〈◊〉 none may ascribe his sins rather to Necessity then his ownfault And that he may be every way compleat , nothing ought to be objected against him by him that is to be taught : As if any one should say , you command Impossibilities , he may readily answer , Behold I do the same things : I am clothed with Flesh , whose Property is to sin , yet I bear about a Mortal Body without sin . I cannot for Righteousness sake either suffer Pain or Death , because I am frail ; Behold Pain and Death hath Power on me ; and I overcome those things which thou fearest , that I may make thee a Conqueror over Pain and Death . I go first through those things which thou pretendest thou canst not bear ; if thou canst not follow me in what I command , yet surely thou mayst follow me going before thee . Thus all manner of excuse is taken away , and every Man must confess that 't is his own fault that he is Vitious , in neglecting to follow not only the Teacher of all Virtue , but the Guide and Conductor to it . And if any shall Object with that Impious Epicurean , and ask , Why could not God appear , and at once take away all wickedness and sin out of the Soul , and plant Virtue there ? To this Origen replies , 1. That it may well be doubted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether such a thing be naturally possible or not . 2. Supposing it be , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where will be the Liberty of our will ? and where that laudable Assent to the Truth , and Aversation from Lies and Falshood ? For if we take away Liberty and Spontaneity , we destroy the very Essence of Virtue . So that no Course could have been taken more agreeable and suitable to the Nature of Man , then what is made choice of in the Christian Religion . Ibid. God cannot appear to us but under some corporeal Veil . ] The Essences of all Things and so of Spirits are invisible , and nothing can be the Object of our Senses , but under some Corporeal Modification ; therefore the Evangelical Oeconomy requiring not only that the Person who should come from God to instruct the World should be intimately and Hypostatically united with the Divine Nature , to conciliate the Greater Majesty to what he should deliver , but likewise that he should appear to Men in some visible form and shape . Divine Wisdom thought nothing a more sitting Mansion or Covering then a humane Body , partly because an Angelical Body had been impassible , and then that we might not lose that Natural encouragement and Provocation to Virtue flowing from the Example of one made after our own likeness , who by those many endearing Circumstances he might make use of in the Flesh , would more Powerfully captivate and attract Humane Souls to the Love and Obedience of him . And therefore Ignatius in his Epistle to the Ephesians does justly condemn some Hereticks in his Time , who said that our Saviour Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was only a putative Man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that he did not take unto himself a true and real Body . Pag. 44. Who spake very doubtfully of it . ] When Socrates had brought as good Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul as he could , yet Simmias thought he had Reason to say , that to know any thing clearly of it in this life , was either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Impossible , or a thing extremely difficult . But ( says he ) a Man must choose the best Reasons he can find , which are least liable to Exception ; and he must venture to embark himself in these , and Sail by them through this life , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. unless he can be so happy as to be carried safer with less danger , in a surer , stedfast Chariot of some Divine Word , i. e. Revelation ; which is not only a clear acknowledgment that meer natural Reason is at a loss , but a kind of Vaticination of an indubitable certainty , and perfect security of Immortal life to be expected from some Divine Revelation : And accordingly is now put out of all doubt by our Lord and Saviour , who has brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel . Nor could that excellent Philosopher Cicero speak with greater Confidence , for when he had weighed all things on both Parts , he knew not what to say but this , Harum igitur Sententiarum , qu●… vera sit , Deus aliquis viderit . i. e. Which of these Opinions is true , God only knows . Pag. 46. Since God cannot execute this Solemn Judgment , but under a visible shape . ] That our Lord Jesus should appear at the End of the World in some visible shape and form , and in that pass a Final doom upon all Refractory and Impenitent Sinners , seems highly Rational , there being no other way whereby so effectually and sensibly to convince Atheistical Persons of the Existence of God and his Steady and All-comprehensive Providence in ruling all things . And this seems to be expressed by St. Jude v. 15. 16. in reciting the Prophecy of Enoeb , where one End of the Appearance of our Saviour with his Holy Myriads is , for the Conviction of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those wicked sinners who were not contented to act unrighteously but did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak opprobrious and contemp●…uous Things of God and all Religion . Nor is this only peculiar to the Terrestrial state of life , for it is probable that many Spirits may be tainted with the same Atheistical conceits in the Aereal Regions , and may resolve all Things there likewise into blind Chance and Fortune . Now when our Lord Jesus , according to the clear Predictions of Sacred Scripture , shall think fit to put an End to the Scene of Affairs in this lower World , and to that Purpose shall visibly descend from Heaven with an Innumerable Company of Mighty Angels , making all those Regions through which they pass bright before them with the glory and lustre of their Celestial Bodies , and in this Posture shall for some time face the Earth , and after that dreadful Sentence pronounced upon wicked Men and the Apostate Spirits of the Air , by his stupendious Power shall excite all the Principles of Fire both in Earth and Air , to perfect a General and Universal Conf●…agration of this Terrestrial World for the Punishment of the Rebellious Crue ; this will be such an amazing and surprizing Testimony and irre●…ragable Proof of the Immediate Hand of God , as must and will convince the most wretched and deplorable notwithstanding the Courseness and Stubbornness of their Natures , both of his Being and Providence . Pag. 47. He who after an Humble , Pious , and Attentive weighing of things , shall yet fall into Error All Error is not alike hurtful and dangerous : For an Error may be purely and simply Involuntary , or it may be in respect of the cause of it Voluntary . If the Cause of it be some Voluntary and avoiable Fault , the Error is it self sinsul , and consequently in its own Nature damnable . As if by negligence in seeking the Truth , by unwillingness to find it , by Pride , by Obstinacy , by desiring that Religion should be true which sutes best with my Ends , by fear of Mens ill Opinion , or any other worldly Fear or Hope , I betray myself to any Error contrary to any Divine revealed Truth , that Error may be justly styled a sin , and Consequently to such a one of it self damnable . But if I be guilty of none of these Faults , but be desirous to know the Truth , & diligent in seeking it , and advise not at all with Flesh and Blood about the choice of my Opinions , but only with God and that Reason he has given me , if I be thus qualified , and yet through humane Infirmity fall into Error , that Error cannot be damnable . Thus far a great and learned Man. I may add , That a sober and serious Christian , who endeavours by all means to know the will and Mind of God , and so soon as he can discover it , is ready sincerely to believe and practise it , and has withal a lively sense of the Honour of God , and a hearty Good-will to Mankind , this Person through the Goodness of God shall be kept from falling into any dangerous and damnable Error . But now when any Man shall carelesly neglect to use that Reason which God has given him to discriminate between Truth and Falshood , and shall happen to assent to Truth , not upon a due choice and discernment between it and Falshood , but blindly and fortuitously , this Assent is no way commendable , and an Involuntary Error after a clear and well qualified search is to be preferred before it . I have now finished my Annotations upon this Excellent Discourse , in which I have endeavoured to illustrate and confirm such Things , as our Reverend Author has but lightly touched , at least could not largely insist upon in that concise way of a Sermon . And this I have the more readily performed , because I judged a Discourse of this Nature by a Person of so extraordinary Piety , such clear Intellectuals , and so every way accomplisht as our Author was , could not prove unacceptable to any of the Lovers of Truth and Ingenuity ; and likewise that I might do Honour to his Venerable Name and Memory from whom I had the Happiness of receiving the first Rudiments of Academical Learning . This I affirm moreover ( with an Humble Deference to better and more inlightned Judgments ) that such an Explication of Religion as our Reverend and Learned Author drives at , is the most likely way not only to silence the bold Cavils of Enthusiasts and Atheists , but to eradicate all carnal and sensual Doctrines and Opinions , and to bring on through the Assistance of the Mighty Spirit of God ( whose presence is never wanting to the sincerely Conscientious ) that Blessed and desirable State of the Church , the Philadelphian interval which our Lord and Saviour will all along fill with Glorious Manifestations of his Power and Providence . FINIS . ADVERTISEMENT . THe Folios of the Sentences Commented on in the Annotations being most of them not altered from what they were in the Manuscript , for prevention of confusion in the Reader , they are to be mended thus : The first in Pag. 48. has p. 4 , 5. in stead of p. 26. The rest are to be thus in order as they go on in the Book , p. 27. p. 30. p. 33. p. 34. p. 35. p. 36. p. 38. p. 39. p. 40. p. 41. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A57956-e520 ●… Cor. 2. 14. 1 Cor. 1. 18. Notes for div A57956-e1310 Rom. 8. 7. 2 Cor. 10. 4 , 5. 1 Cor. 2. 14. 1 Cor. 1. 18. 1 Cor. 1. 20. & 2. 6. Mat. 12. 24 , 25. Act. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Joh. 5. 39. 1 Thes. 5. 21. 1 Joh. 4. 1. Notes for div A57956-e2620 Psal. 25. 14. See Dr. More 's Vol. Philosoph . Tom. 2. p. 161. 1 Tim. 5. 6. Mat. 24. 24. 2 Thess. 2. 9. Rev. 13. 13 , 14. Origen . contr . Cel l. 6. Iuvenal , Sat. 15. L. 1. de leg . Lib. 4. c. 24. Loco supradicto . Demonstr . Evangel . P. 385. Contra●… Cel. L. 4. P. 163. In 〈◊〉 Platonis : Tu●…ul . Quaest. L●…b . 1. 
A55568	----	The young mans conflict with, and victory over the Devil by faith, or, A true and perfect relation of the experiences of T.P., begun in the 15th and continued till the 17th year of his age ... by T.P. Powell, Thomas, fl. 1674-1679. 1675 Approx. 151 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 76 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A55568 Wing P3076 ESTC R17963 12395415 ocm 12395415 61141 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A55568) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 61141) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 287:10) The young mans conflict with, and victory over the Devil by faith, or, A true and perfect relation of the experiences of T.P., begun in the 15th and continued till the 17th year of his age ... by T.P. Powell, Thomas, fl. 1674-1679. [17], 123, [4] p. : port. Printed for John Hancock, Sen. & Jun. ..., London : 1675. Epistle dedicatory signed: Tho. Powell. Cropped t.p. Errata: p. [1] at end. Advertisements: p. [3] at end. Reproduction of original in British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Temptation. Faith. Devil. 2003-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-06 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-08 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2003-08 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion ●hough Satan doth in Chains of Darkness ly , ●et hath he pow'r on Earth mens Soules to buy , ●ut that's but limited : for here you see ●im foyl'd , & God my Gratious God to bee . THE YOUNG MAN● Conflict with , and Victory over The Devi● by FAITH . OR , A True and Perfect Relation of the Experiences 〈◊〉 T. P. begun in the 15th . and continued till t●● 17th : Year of his Age , who ( upon his first Co●victions , having an earnest desire to serve Chri●● in the Work of the Ministry ) was much tempte● to make a Contract with Satan , who often appeared visibly , and made Eminency in Learning th● grand Bait to catch his Soul ; but ( by an Omnip●tent Hand ) was Prevented from that Agreement Pub●ished for the Benefit of such , who have bin , or shall 〈◊〉 tempted in the like manner ; And Composed by way of Dialogue between four Interlocutors , Viz. Evangelus , a Minister of the Gospel . Paulus , a young Convert Demas , an Apostate . Apollion , the D●vil . By T. P. MIC . 7.8 . Rejoyce not against me , O mine enemy , wh●●●● fall , I shall arise ; when I sit in darkness , the Lord shall 〈◊〉 a ●ight unto me . LONDON , Printed for Iohn Hancock Sen. & Iun. at 〈◊〉 three Bibles in Popes Head. Alley in Cornhill . 16●● . To that little Flock in and about the County of Hartford , the Author sends Greeting . SIRS , WHEN I take a View of the Wonderfulness of Gods Providence in bringing me first among you , together with those Bonds of Love , by which I am held so fast , that it is my quotidian and daily study , how I may be further capacitated to serve you , and the Church of my Lord Iesus ; Verily , I must confess , you are the People that have all my thoughts : And besides this , you are those who have the greatest interest in my Prayers ; Others have some of my heart , but next to God you have all my heart , I have heard much of the love of a Minister to his People , as that I could scarce give credit unto it ; but I do now believe it , because Experience has taught me so , though that by which I am obliged unto you is not the same as with a Minister and his People , it being only a sincere Love begotten by my frequent , painful and laborious Preaching unto you , without any further charge , and yet notwithstanding how do I love you , and pray for your happiness in this World , and the World to come ; I can't endure to think of your damnation , no , not any of you . I am sick at the heart ( many times ) through fear , lest I should rise up in judgement against some of you , because there are those amongst you , that seem to takeiittle notice of God , Christ , and their immortal souls , though through grace all of you are not molested with the Contagion of this Distemper , which is so Epidemical , not only in foreign Places , but likewise in our English Island , as that it doth many times occasion Floods of Tears to run down from the eyes of Gods precious Servants , who , as so many Lots , do bewail the iniquities of this Land. Sirs , I have thought good to reach you with my Pen , when my Tongue cannot ; and hence it is , that I dedicate this unto you in part , though it is possible I could have found out many others , whose Names I might affix in the Frontispiece of this Book , only my Love is most endeared to you ; and wherefore do you think it is , that I should concern my self so much with you ; would you know , take then these few Reasons . First , because God made me not altogether for my self , but for you and others ; we were not made for our selves , and therefore we act most like beasts , when we only minde our selves , and not others , who are our Kinsfolk , according to Creation ; but when that goodness that is in us is so diffusive , as that it leads us forth to succour those who srand in need of our help , then we act as our selves , and like rational creatures , it is God that created me , and why did he create me , but that I should serve him , and in what better way can I do it , then in the first place to seek my own salvation , and after that , the salvation of you and others . But , Secondly , the End of my Creation is not all by which I am induced to concern my self thus with you , but likewise the End of my Redemption requires me so to do ; I , you , and all of us were no sooner created , but we fell from God ; and through Adherence to the Devil , lost that glorious Image which he had invested us with , and thereby forfeited the favour of God , and so became the Children of Wrath ; but now Iesus Christ , that immaculate and spotless Lamb of God , who knew no sin , became sin for us , by assuming the humane nature , and taking upon him the guilt of all our transgressions , Isa. 53.6 . How then can I , you , or any of us , be slothful in Gods service , when he hath done so much for all of us as he hath done ; May we not say as Bernard did concerning Christ , * Thou hast loved me , Oh Lord , more then thy self ! And now the End wherefore Christ did all this was , that we might be restored to Gods Image again , and to serve him in all manner of holiness ; And in no better way can I do this , then in looking after my own soul and the souls of others . Thirdly , the End of my Redemption doth not only require me thus to concern my self with you , but likewise the End of my Sanctification . I am sanctified ( as I hope ) and am washed with the water of Regeneration . Now it is the duty of those who are sanctified , to lead other in the way to Sanctification and obedience of the Spirit ; This our Saviour lays down as a Rule to Peter , That when he was converted , he should strengthen his Brethren . But Fourthly , the very End of my Ministry requires me to have a diligent care of your souls ; 'T is a duty of us who are Preachers of the Gospel , to pity and look after poor souls that are in their blood ; and God , yea , Angels and my own Conscience do bear me witness how I pity your souls , and that I could go hundreds of Miles barefoot ●o do any of you good , though never so mean in life and descent ; I was devoted from the Womb to the Ministry ; and now when I come forth unto it , shall I not in any wise answer the end thereof , the Lord forbid . Fifthly and lastly , not onely the End of my Creation , Redemption , Sanctification and Ministry ; but likewise the end of my Preservation doth thus oblige me to you : Hath God done for me what he hath done , and shall I not to the utmost do what I can for him ; Hath he wrought such deliverances for me , and shall I be slack and negligent in his service , far be it from me , and all those who have experienced the like that I have ; And hath he moreover kept me hitherto , and must I not seek his glory ; to such perverse walking the Lord put an end : Many other Obligations there are , by which I am bound to look after you ; ( viz. ) I am a dying Creature , and therefore whilst I have life I must act for God , because when I am in the Grave I cannot write unto you , My Preaching-Work then will be over ; And h●nce it is , that I do think it meet , whilst I am in this earthly Tabernacle , to put you in mind of these things , and to stirr you up to the doing thereof ; And as the consideration of my Mortality should move me to do what I can for God ; and you see likewise the consideration of yours should make you more willing to hear and receive , what I and others do both Preach and write unto you . And now , Sirs , what remains , but that you would follow those Practical things , which the good Spirit of God may by these Lines put you in minde of ; Consider , you must one day render an Account for all the good Sermons that you have heard ; the Word will either prove a savour of life , or of death ; you will either be the better for Sermons , or the worse , and therefore to you now I speak , that have often heard the vociferation of the Gospel , but are not as yet reformed ; Consider , after Death comes Iudgment , and then what will you do , will you not wish that you had taken the good Counsel of God given by his Ministers , will you not then remember these Sermons which once you , forgot as soon as ever you went out out of the Church , and will not the remembrance thereof be as a Worm gnawing of your Consciences in Hell , Oh with what shame and confusion will ye then be cloathed , when all those secret sins , which you thought were impossible to be brought to light , shall be made manifest before the Lord Iesus , who is ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) light it self . Moreover , consider that without you have an Advocate , the●e is no standing at this Tribunal , and who is this Advocate , but Iesus Christ will plead to the utmost for you , if you can but make sure of him , for without him nothing can be done , in order to your being sheltred from that wrath of God , which then shall be revealed on all those who have slighted this Advocate , and have accounted Sermons of no worth , further believe and consider , that if you have not the Lord Iesus to stand as your friend , you must be thrust down into Hell , and there howl with the damned for ever : And what think you now of these things , do you stedfastly believe them ; if you do not , search the Scriptures , and there you will finde what I have said to be true ; if you do believe them , why then do some of you live , as if there were neither God , Heaven , Hell or Iudgement ; if these things are sincerely believed by you , stir up then , and lay hold upon God , and claim of him deliverance from wrath to come , for it is hastning apace , and w● unto you if you lay up nothing against this burning wrath of God for the time to come , is as sure as the time that is present , why therefore are you all for the present time , assure your selves , that the walking in repulse against these Considerations , and the sweet motions of the Spirit will make you smart one day . But Finally , if you will all observe these things to do them , what a blessed Meeting shall we have , how wide will the Gates of Heaven stand open for u● ? what a Welcom will God the Father give us , the very thoughts of it doth glad my very heart and soul ; Suffer therefore the good Word of God to take Impression upon you ; Endeavor to live a life of Grace here , that so you may live a Life of Glory hereafter ; Persevere in all good , hold out to the end , for the Crown will make amends for all : Be constant in the use of means ; Follow Peace with all men , be useful in your several Vocations , that in all things ●u may be fit for the being received 〈◊〉 into the Heaven of Heavens ; ●hich is and ever shall be the desire ●d Prayer of him , Who is , SIRS , Your Souls Friend , THO. POWELL PAULUS in his Unconverted state AEtatis suae 12. Evangelus . WELL met , Friend ; Whither are you going ? Paulus . I am going to see a Play , for they say it is very well worth ones observation . Evangelus . How ! to see a Play ? I would not have you for a World , could I but hinder you , I would , for there is nothing but wickedness and Profaneness for your Contemplation ; and if this is worth your observation , judge you . Paulus . You talk more like a Phanatick then a Civil and honest man , for I verily believe , there may be as much good gather'd from the observation of such a sight , as somtimes hearing of a good Sermon . Evangelus . Oh , what Prodigious and black ignorance is this , to think that more benefit may be received from open Prof●neness , then from hearing the Word of God ; Have you not yet known the difference between evil and good . Paulus . There are some ( I believe ) as good and as wise as your self , that goes to such places ; and certainly , if it be lawful for them , it is lawful for me . Evangelus . That is true friend , if lawful for them , then it is for you ; but it is not lawful for them , and therefore let such be never so wise , yet if they go to such Places as you plead for , they do in that fall short of being wise men ; And moreover , herein is shewed much of your folly in grounding lawfulness for the same , on no other Foundation , but because such and such do so , whereas we that are Christians should endeavour to make our lives congruous with the Sacred Writ , yea , that which the Prophets and Apostles have built upon should be our Foundation . Paulus . Pray , Sir , keep your breath to cool your own Pottage , for every Tub must stand upon its own bottom , therefore catechise not me , for I will not be catechised by you , and as long as I have a mind to go , I will go . Evangelus . Friend , be not so touchy , for I mean you no hurt , nothing I am ●o you : it is true , and that every Tub must stand upon its own bottom I know , yet considering that ●very one was not made for himself , but for the Glory of God , ●he good and benefit of each other , therefore it does behove us to be giving one another good Counsel ; If you know any thing more then me , I 'll learn of you : and if I know any thing more then you , you shall learn of me if you please . Paulus . Nay , this is very fair , I must needs confess . Evangelus . Well then , my friend , if it may s● please you , to deny your self of going t● that Place , first intended by you , I wi●● then tell you what we will do in stea● thereof . Paulus . I don't much care if I do fo● once . Evangelus . What think you then of going t● yonder Grove ; where we may sit down in the shade , and discourse concerning Soul-Affairs . Paulus . With all my heart , good Sir. Evangelus . Well Friend , seeing then that Go● his Providence has bin pleased to ●ring us into one anothers Company ; ●ill you give me leave to ask you a ●w Questions ? Paulus . Yea , Sir , and I shall thank you ●oo . Evangelus . What do you think then concerning Heaven ? Paulus . It is a good place , no doubt . Evangelus . Yea , and how happy shall we be if we can but get thither . Paulus . Why , do you question getting thither ? Evangelus . Yea , that I do ; Don't you ? Paulus . No , I did never question getting to Heaven , since I have been born , I thank God for it . Evangelus . I am apt to think , you might ha● had more cause to bless God , for qu●stioning your title to Heaven , the● for not questioning it ; and I am 〈◊〉 opinion , that you and others w● scarce get to Heaven , except yo● come first to doubt of your righ● thereto . Paulus . You are the strangest man that ● ever met with in all my life ; and indeed this is the fault which I find● to be in you Phanaticks , viz. you● censuring . Evangelus . Friend , you mistake us , and I suppose you do not very well understand me , for did you not say just now , that you questioned not getting to Heaven . Paulus . Yea , I did , what of all that ? Evangelus . I only then ask you , the Grounds on which you build your hopes for Heaven so stedfastly , without the least questioning assurance thereof . Paulus . The Mercy of God , no better ●rounds can there be . Evangelus . The Mercy of God ▪ that 's true , ●iend ; but Gods Mercy has bin ●rfeited long ago through our diso●dience in Adam , have you now ●ined it : if you have , pray tell me ●w , and by what means ? Paulus . Nay , if so , the Lord look down ●on me , for I never heard of this ●fore . Evangelus . It is very true , my Friend ; and ●ce it is , that we have brought 〈◊〉 with us into the World , by ●ich we are made the Heires of ●ath . Paulus . Be you sure , this is true . Evangelus . Do you believe all those Truths c●●tained in the Holy Bible ? Paulus . Do I believe them ▪ yea ▪ certain●● or else I should be a Papist or an I●●fidel . Evangelus . Then see this prov'd from these 〈◊〉 Places of Scripture , Psal. 51.5 . I 〈◊〉 shapen in iniquity , and in sin did 〈◊〉 Mother conceive me ; And Eph. 2● We are by nature the children wrath , even as others . So Rom. 5. l● By one man sin entred into the wor●● and death by him , and so death 〈◊〉 over all men , for that all ha● sinned . Paulus . Nay , here is Scripture enoug● none can deny . Evangelus . Well then , seeing 〈◊〉 it is as I say , had I 〈◊〉 Grounds ( do you thin● for speaking what I di● and therefore I pray 〈◊〉 willing to give me some further sa●●●faction touching the belief of your ●●●vation . Paulus . Nay ▪ you have so puzled me , that ●●w I know not what to do , except it to tell you , that I pray Morning ●●d Evening . Evangelus . Well , what of all that ? I hope you not expect to get to Heaven by your ●●ayer , do you ? Paulus . Yes ▪ I do , or else I know not how to 〈◊〉 to Heaven . Evangelus . Oh Friend , had you been acquaint●● with godly Ministers , or any of ●●ds People , and desired their Instru●●●ons , certainly you would have bin 〈◊〉 now acquainted with the way that 〈◊〉 to Heaven and eternal Happi●●●s , for thou art grossly ignorant thinking to be saved by Prayers . Paulus . I don't say Prayers only , 〈◊〉 take in Reading of good Books , a● hearing of good Sermons . Evangelus . Nay , it is all one for that , 〈◊〉 if you take in all good Works what●●● ever , they will prove insignificant● merit salvation . Paulus . Say you so , why I never heard 〈◊〉 from our Minister , and he is a 〈◊〉 good Church-man . Evangelus . Nay , as to that I know not , but 〈◊〉 I 'le assure you , that what I have hea●● from you , as yet does rather savour Popery , then of true Christianity . Paulus . How ! a Papist , Sir ; God forbi● for I am sure I am so far from bei●● a Papist , that if I do but meet 〈◊〉 one , I go the other side of the 〈◊〉 because I will not see him . I do hate him . Evangelus . Perhaps you walk more by custo● then by judgement ; for I 'le assure you it is as I say . Paulus . Pray Sir , tell me then , what must save me , if good works cannot ; Thanks be to God I met with you : or else I should have died in this mistake , notwithstanding our Minister . Evangelus . Why thus you see , Friend , Gods dealings with us are various ; but to gratifie your desire , let me ask you this Question ; Did you never hear of Iesus Christ ? Here has not bin so much as one word concerning him . Paulus . Nay , hold you ; I have heard of Jesus ; what of him ? Evangelus . What of him ▪ why it is he that must save you . Paulus . It s no marvel then , why I have heard such a talk concerning Jesus Christ , but I ever thought it was my good works that must save me . Evangelus . Nay , Friend , I will shew you an insuffi●iency in that ; and lik●wise , that salvation is only to be had in Christ , and by him you must be saved , if ever saved ; Receive these Scriptures for the truth of both , Rom. 3.20 . Therefore by the deeds of the Law no flesh shall be justified in his sight ; for by the Law is the knowledge of sin ; So the 28 th . verse , Therefore we conclude , that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law , Gal. 2.16 . Paulus . Why then , by your Reckoning , I have all my work to begin before I can get to Heaven . Evangelus . If you understand no more then this , I must needs say , you are far from being a new creature ; and if far from being a n●w creature , then far you ●re from the Kingdom of Heaven . Paulus . How do you prove that ? Evangelus . I prove it from these following Scriptures , Mark 16.16 . He that believeth and is baptized , shall be saved ; and he that believeth not , shall be damned . So Luke 13.3 , 5. I tell ye , nay , except ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish , Iohn 3.3 , 5. Verily , verily , I say unto thee , except a man be born again , he cannot see the Kingdom of God ; And what think you of th●se Scriptures ? Paulus . Why , I think they are very good ; but if I have all this to do , as you say , and am still to begin the Christians A , B , C ; then I had as good desist a little while , seeing that as yet I am but young , and so for a time take my pleasure : and when I come to be old , I 'le then take this way to serve God which you have prescribed ; for I am afraid lest I should not hold out in serving God another way , in regard that I have taken so much pain ▪ in the other , for indeed I am spent . Evangelus . Oh Friend , give not way to the Devil● ▪ these are only his suggestions , believe him not ; for can you serve God in a more acceptable time then in the days of your Youth ; Consider , I pray you , these following things . First , Consider your Youth ; God requires Eccl. 12.1 . Remember your Creator in the days of your youth . Secondly , it is a Question whether you may live to an old Age , which if not , what will become of you . Thirdly , grant that you live to an old Age , it is a Question whether the day of grace may last so long . Fourthly , if the day of grace should last so long , it is a question , whether you will not , through the pains and imbecilities of old Age , be rendred incapable to serve God. Fifth●y , Consider you may serve God when it is too late , but you can never serve him too soon . Paulus . Verily , this is true , I cannot deny it ; but do you not think , that God is more glorified by an old Convert , then by a young . Evangelus . When you have such suggestions as these , endeavor to make them abortive at their birth ; for any will tell you , that there is nothing more acceptable unto God , then when a young man offers up the Flower of his Age unto him ; yea , and what does conduce more unto Gods glory then the same . Paulus . Well , I am now convinc'd of my folly , especially of confiding in good works for salvation . Evangelus . Well , bless God for it ; and now seeing , through infinite mercy , an insufficiency in good works to save you , what think you of God ? Paulus . Why , I think that he is a Spirit . Evangelus . He is so , my friend , and they that worship him , must worship him in spirit and in truth . Paulus . This I knew a great while ago . Evangelus . Very good , are there more Gods then one ? Paulus . Y●a surely , there must be three Gods ; God the Father , God the Son , and God the Holy Ghost . Evangelus . Know , Friend , that thou art wofully ignorant ; for though there be three Persons in the Godhead ; yet th●se three are but one in substance all this while ; there is but one individual Deity ; as the Fire does contain in it three Properties , 1. It s self . 2. Heat . 3. Light. So though there be but three ways of subsisting in the Godhead , yet all this while it is but individual . Paulus . Pray Sir , is there any Scripture for this ? Evangelus . Yea , Scripture enough ; see Deut. 6.4 . Hear , O Israel , the Lord our God is one Lord , Isa. 44.6 . I am the first , and I am the last , and beside me there is no God , Isa. 45.22 . Look unto me , and be ye saved all the ends of the Earth , for I am God , and there is none else . So 2 Cor. 8.4 , 5 , 6. and Eph. 4.5 . 1 Tim. 2.5 . Paulus . I confess these Scriptures do hit me ; for how many times have I read the Bible over ▪ and yet ▪ do not remember these places . Evangelus . You minded then well what you read , for certainly , if you had read diligently , and with a desire to know , you would have given a more pertinent Answer to such a Fundamental and Practical Point of Divinity as this . But this is not all , our Souls are spirits , Angels are spirits , and the D●vils are spirits ; what difference is th●●● then between God and these ? Paulus . Why , I suppose he is bigger then all of them . Evangelus . Bigger then all of them ; this is no solid Answer . God , he is an increated Spirit , all others are created ; God , he is an infinite Spirit , all others are finite . Paulus . Nay , this is very good . Evangelus . Well , I am glad you like it , but what difference is there between the Devils and the Angels . Paulus . Why , I suppose they are both Spirits , and both Angels , only the Angels in Heaven are the good Angels , and the Devils are the evil ones . Evangelus . Thou sayest right ; the Devils th●● are now in Hell were once righteous Angels , but through pride and malice they are now become , of all creatures , the most miserable ; but where do the Devils inhabit ? Paulus . I suppose the Devils do dwell in Hell , it being a Place prepared for them and the wicked . Evangelus . The habitation of the Devils is , partly in Hell , and partly in the Air ; The Devils do dwell in the Air unto the Day of Iudgement , and usurping the same , on purpose that they might rule in the hearts of men ; But what difference is there between the spirits and our souls , for our souls , you know , are spirits ? Paulus . Nay , I believe , now you ask me that which you cannot answer your self . Evangelus . Think not so , friend ; for the Angels were the firs● Creatures that God made , whereas our souls are not : the Angels are not covered with flesh , but our souls are ; the Angels are perfect spirits , but our souls through union with their bodies are imperfect and impure ; but enough of this , what think you now of Iesus Christ ? Paulus . Who is Jesus Christ ; why he is the Son of God ? Evangelus . It is true , my friend , he is so ; for God the Father testifies it , Mat. 3.17 . The Chu●ch acknowledgeth it , Matth. 16.16 . And the Devils confess it , Luke 4.41 . But who do you think of these were first , God the Father , or God the Son ? Paulus . There is a question indeed , surely the Father must be before the Son. Evangelus . Yea , friend , that is true ; it is so in natural generation , but here it is not ; for Christ Iesus is co-eternal with his Father , and equal with him in Power and Glory . Paulus . This will not stand by reason . Evangelus . Divine Mysteries are not to be apprehended by carnal reason , for he who would see by an eye of Faith , must shu● out the eye of Reason ; and what think you now of the Holy Ghost ? Paulus . Why , I suppose he is God too , is he not ? Evangelus . Yes , he is so ; see 1 John 5.7 . For there are three that bear Record in Heaven , the Father , Word and Holy Ghost , and these three are one . Paulus . Nay , this is very evident , you bring Scripture ( I say ) to prove what you say . Evangelus . Well , if so be you do believe what I have said concerning the blessed Trinity , say with me , God the Father , God the Son , and God the Holy Ghost , and these three are one . Paulus . God the Father , God the Son and God the Holy Ghost , and these three are one . Evangelus . Right , what think you now of the Creation of the World ; did God make the World of somthing , or of nothing ? Paulus . Of somthing surely ; for out of nothing , nothing can be made . Evangelus . Friend , what do you think Creation signifies ? Paulus . Truly , I know not very well . Evangelus . Why , it signifies a making all things of nothing . Paulus . Say you so . Evangelus . Yea , and have you not read that the World was made only by the especial word of his Power , not that we should understand that any word did really proceed from God , but only that he will'd it . Paulus . Did God , do you say , only speak● th● word , and was this World made ; I cannot believe this , except you bring me Scripture . Evangelus . If Scriptures will convince you , I 'le bring you Scriptures enough . See Psal. 33.9 . For he spake , and it was done ; he commanded , and it stood fast , Heb. 11.3 . Through faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God , so that things which are seen , were not made of things which do appear . So Rom. 4.17 . Paulus . All this now is very clear unto me . Evangelus . I am glad of it , and therefore bless God ; And now tell me , I pray you , what you what is your belief concerning the Incarnation of our Saviour ? Paulus . I do believe that Jesus Christ did come into the World to save sinners . Evangelus . And that he was made Man. Paulus . No , I cannot think so , in regard that it is impossible for God to become man. Evangelus . Herein thou art grossly ignorant , because thou doest believe Christ came into the World , and yet cannot think he was made man. Paulus . No , nor I shall not , except you give me good Scripture for it . Evangelus . Nay , you are to be commended for that , because you are not to take any thing from me , or any man , without Scripture , and therefore , if Scripture will do the business , Scripture you shall have enough : See John 1.14 . And the Word was made flesh , and dwelt among us , ( and we beheld his glory , as of the only begotten of the Father ) full of grace and truth . So 1 Tim. 3.16 . And without controversie , great is the Mystery of Godliness , God was manifest in the flesh , justified in the Spirit seen of Angels , preached unto the Gentiles , believed on in the world , received up into glory . Paulus . I see Scripture does hold forth this truth but who would think that this should be so . Evangelus . It is so , and that for these Reasons , as I suppose . 1. Gods Iustice by Man was offended , therefore by Man it was to be satisfied . 2. Christ was Man that he might die , for had he not been Man , he could not have died . 3. He was Man , that he might sympathize and condole with us in all our conditions and infirmities . 4. He was Man , that he might be d●●ompleat Mediator . 5. He was Man , that he might make Man Partakers of the Divine Nature . Paulus . Then by this reckoning you must make Christ a sinner . Evangelus . So he is ( i.e. ) by Imputation . Paulus . This is strange doctrine , methinks , to make Christ a sinner ; 〈◊〉 if also he is man , then consequentially he is not God. Evangelus . Your consequence is false , my Friend ; for Christ is God-Man , God that he might satisfie , Man that he might die , 2.5 . Paulus . Well , these things are very deep and profound , therefore ( I pray you ) ask me somthing else , and I will meditate upon them when I come home . Evangelus . Very good , the next Question then shall be this , what think you then concerning the Resurrection ? Paulus . Truly , Sir , this has been ever obscure to me , I could wish you would inform my judgement concerning it . Evangelus . With all my heart , for I like this enquiring mighty well ; Now that there shall be a Resurrection , it is evident from these Places of Scripture , Dan 12.2 . And many of them that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake , some to everlasting life , and some to shame and everlasting ' contempt : Iohn 5.28 , 29. Marvel not at this , for the hour is coming , in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear his voice , and shall come forth , they that have done good , unto the Resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil , unto the Resurrection of damnation . So see 1 Cor. 15. and Rev. 20.12 , 13. Paulus . Well , this truth I also believe ; for I see , there are many Scriptures for the demonstration and proof of the same . Evangelus . What think you now concerning the last Iudgment , do you believe it or not ? Paulus . I do believe that Jesus Christ will come at the last day , and judge the world . Evangelus . And are you willing , friend , that I should try your knowledg in this necessary truth . Paulus . Willing , why do you think I should be unwilling : pray don't question that , for I am so willing , as that I shall look upon you as my best friend , if you take the pains to inform me in this . Evangelus . Well then , seeing that I have such a free access unto you , I shall ask you these several Questions , in order to your better understanding of this great truth ; what then is the last Iudgment ? Paulus . The last Judgement is a day ( as I suppose ) wherein Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour , shall come down from Heaven with great Glory , to judge the whole World , and give unto every one according as his works shall be . Evangelus . Very well ( my friend ) for your Answer pleases me exceeding well , but how manifold is the coming of Christ ? Paulus . How manifold is the coming of Christ ; why , is there more comings of Christ then one ? Evangelus . Yes , friend , the Scriptures do hold forth unto us a threefold coming of Christ ; the first was in the flesh about sixteen hundred years ago , when he came in the forme of a servant , taking upon him our sins ; the second is , his coming now with the Power of the Gospel , in the hearts of sinners ; and the third is , his future coming , when he shall in the end of the World come in glorious Glory , not to be exprest : And this is called his second Appearance to Iudgement , Acts 10 42. Christ is appointed by God the Father Iudge both of the quick and dead . So Acts 17. Paulus . These are wonderful things , pray tell me now , how Christ will judge the World ? Evangelus . Visible in the clouds ; for even as he ascended , so shall he descend ; but wherefore do you think , my Friend , Christ will judge the World ? Paulus . That he may render eternal life , with fulness of joy unto the godly , and eternal punishment to the wicked . Evangelus . You answer right , but what do you think will be the Order of this Iudgement ? Paulus . Truly , Sir , I know not very well . Evangelus . My friend , observe , there are certain Transactions that do pr●cede this day , certain Transactions done in the day , and certain Transactions that does ensue this day . First , some things there be that ar● antecedent to , or coming before this day , which will be these , 1. A Subversion of the Roman Empire , and the Man of Sin revealed . 2. The Rising of false Christs , and false Prophets . 3. Signe● that shall be in the Sun and Moon . 4. The Gospel being preached through● out all Nations . 5. Obedience yielded unto the Gospel by Iews and Gentiles and all that do pertain unto the Election of Gods grace . Secondly , those Transactions done in this day are these . 1. The Son of Man shall be seen in the Air. 2. The dead shall rise , both righteous and unrighteous . 3. Christ shall separate the bad from the good , and denounce the last sentence . Thirdly , that which follows this day , is the proportioning of a reward unto every Mans work ; and now tell me what thou thinkest of these things ? Paulus . Truly , they are things that I never knew till now . Evangelus . Bless God then for what you know , and answer me this question , Is the Iudgement-Day known unto any or no ? Paulus . None but unto God , as I suppose . Evangelus . Thou sayst right , for neither Men nor Angels know this day , but God himself , Matth. 4. And thus , friend , I have shewed you these Points of Divinity , to be believed of all that seek after an eternal life of Felicity , being these as follows , 1. God , or the Trinity . 2. The Creation of the World. 3. The hypostatical Vnion , or Christs assuming the humane Nature . 4 The Resurrection . 5. Iudgement . I come now to ask you how and by what means you may come to know God ? Paulus . By the Holy Bible . Evangelus . It is true friend , the Scriptures , conteined in the Old and New Testament , is the only Rule by which we may come to know God and serve him 〈◊〉 but tell me what thou doest understan● by the Old and New Testament . Paulus . By the Old Testament I understan● the Writings of Moses and the Prophets , and by the New Testament th● Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles . Evangelus . Your Answer as you should do ; But are the Scriptures sufficient of themselves to work faith in us or no ? Paulus . Truly , I am not able to determine of that . Evangelus . Why then I will tell you , the Scri●tures of themselves cannot work faith ●n us , but by Gods Spirit cooperating ●ith them ; and hence it is , that the ●ord is called a dead letter , not but ●hat the Word is quickning , but be●ause the Word of it self without the Spirit , cannot so much as work any ●race in us . Paulus . This I do believe . Evangelus . Then I hope you do believe the Scriptures to he so Canonical , as that ●t is Blasphemy to esteem of any other Writings , to be of equal Authority with the same , and so consequentially ●hose are to be blamed who annex the ●pocrypha to the Bible , and do fre●ently take out certain verses conteined therein , as their texts , whenas the Scriptures , and only the Scriptures , are for a standing Rule in Gods Church . Paulus . But is not the Apocrypha the Word of God ? Evangelus . No , for they were not written in the Hebrew Tongue , nor acknowledged a● Canonical by the Iews of old , to whom the keeping of the Oracles of God was committed . Paulus . I am now convinc'd of that , which I thought I should never have been perswaded to the contrary . Evangelus . Again , if you do grant the Scriptures to be infallible , you must then grant that the Scriptures are not to be ruled by the Church , but the Church by the Scriptures . Paulus . If so be the Scriptures do not depend upon the Church , for the Truth and Authority thereof , how then can we be assured that it is the Word of God. Evangelus Friend , herein you are grossly mistaken , for we may be assured of the Scriptures being the Word of God ; which may be prov'd from several Testimonies and Arguments divine and humane ; from Testimonies Divine , being two , internal and ●xternal ; One is the Testimony of the Spirit , who sometimes by special R●v●la●ion and Power do declare the 〈◊〉 thereof , upon the Hearts and C●nsc●en●es of Men and Women ; and th●● is the divine internal Testimony : The d●vine external Testimony is the Scriptures , testifying of themselves ; and hence it is many times , that they do run in this Order , ( Thus saith the Lord ) Thus saith God. Now the Arguments to prove the same , are deduced and taken from . 1. The efficient causes of the Scriptures , viz. Men , t●e Calling , Miss●●● and Insperation of whom was divine . Secondly , the Scope and End of the Scriptures being the glory of God , and the eternal salvation of our souls . Thirdly , the subject-matter of the Scriptures , which is so full of Majesty and Div●nity , as that it is far beyond humane capacity to comprehend . This is sufficient to shew the Authority of the Scriptures , without depending upon the Church . Thus is the truth of the Scriptures , and the Authority of them evidenced without the help of the Church . Paulus Is not the Testimony of the Church then of some use ? Evangelus . Yes , that I deny not , but the thing which I aim at is to shew , that the Authority and Truth of the Scriptures can be made apparent , from Gods Spirit , and from themselves , without the help of the Church , which assertion does contradict the Papist , who does audaciously affirm , that the Authority of the Scriptures do absolutely depend upon the Church , the absurd consequences of which opinion are these . 1. Of all , to hold that the Scriptures has no more Authority , but what the Vniversal consent of the Church gives unto it , is to make the Scriptures no otherwise , but a Nose of Wax , yea , it is to make the eternal and inviolable truth of God , rest upon the pleasure of men ; verily the matter and scope of the Scriptures is to be denied and to be of no use at all , if this opinion is right , these and such like are the Absurdities that must of necessity be held by retaining opinions of this kind . Paulus . But did not Austin say , that he would not believe the Gospel , save that the Authority of the Church moved him thereto . Evangelus . The Papist do give a false interpretation upon his words , if we do but consider the whole tenor of his writing . For as Calvin well Observes , Austin had then to do with the Manichees , who arguing with them , spoke thus , I my self would not beleeve the Gospel , save that the Authority of the Church moved me thereto . Meaning , that he himself when he was a stranger from the faith , could not otherwise be brought to embrace the Gospel for the assured truth of God , but by this that he was overcome with the Authority of the Church . And what marvel is it , if a man not yet knowing Christ , have regard to men , therefore Austin does not there teach , that the faith of the godly is grounded upon the Authority of the Church . Paulus . I am very well pleased and satisfied in what has been said , have you any more Questions to ask me ? Evangelus . Yes , friend , I have many Questions to ask you still . How do you prove , that Salvation is only to be had through Christ ? Paulus . How do I prove it ? I prove it from Acts 4.12 . where it is thus written , Neither is there salvation in any other , for there is none other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved . Evangelus . Thou hast given the right Scripture ; but now , if salvation is only to be had in and through Christ , does it not , do you think , concern you to have an interest in this Christ ? Paulus . Yea , certainly that it does . Evangelus . Are you then interested in him ? Paulus . Truly , I question it , but how may I come to have an interest in him ? Evangelus . That must be by faith . Paulus . What is faith ? Evangelus . Faith is a receiving of Iesus Christ into the Heart , as he is Priest , Prophet and King , with a fiducial dependance upon him , being fully satisfied , that there is salvation , in , through , and by none but him . Faith is the substance of things hoped for , and the evidence of things not seen . Heb. 11.1 . Paulus . How is this Faith attained ? Evangelus . It is attained by a conscientious use of the Word , and increased by Prayer and Sacrament . Paulus . What is Prayer ? Evangelus . Prayer is the pouring out of our souls unto God in the Name of Christ , by the help of the Spirit , and with faith on the Promises , for those things which are agreeable unto his Will. Paulus . This I remember , for it has been told me a great while ago . Evangelus . You understand herein , I shall examine by asking you several questions concerning this duty ; as first , ought we to pray unto God , and only unto him ? Paulus . Only unto him , excepting Saints and Angels . Evangelus . How do you mean Saints and Angels ? I hope you don't hold praying to them . Paulus . Nay , I cannot think any otherwise , but that it is lawful to pray to them , for they are those who do make a way unto God the Father for us . Evangelus . I deny it , and therefore shall affirm , that Christ only is the way to the Father ; but that I might further clear this truth , observe , 1. Prayer is a part of Divine Worship , ( which all grant ) and God only is the object of Divine Worship , therefore to pray unto any besides God , is a perfect violation of that Command , Deut. 6 . 1● . Mat. 4.10 . Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God , and him only shalt thou serve . 2. Consider , we have but one Intercessor and Mediator in Heaven , and therefore it is a high affront unto Christ , to make any use of others in that kind . 3. Consider that excellent place of Scripture , Rev. 19 10. And I fell at his feet to worship him ; and he said unto me , see thou do it not , I am thy fellow-servant . And in the last place , consider here is but little encouragement for any of us to pray unto Saints , because the best Saints in Heaven is ignorant of our conditions here below , Isa. 63.16 . John 14.21 . Paulus . Why , truly all this is clear , none can deny . Evangelus . Well , friend , what think you of this question ? can one pray , and not speak ? Paulus . No , surely , that can't be . Evangelus . Yes , one may , for there is vocal Prayer , and mental Prayer : Vocal Prayer is the expressing our desires unto God by the words of our lips ; and Mental Prayer is the offering up of our desires unto God without the help of words , as Hannah prayed when her voice was not heard . 1 Sam. 1.13 . Paulus . How may I pray , so as to finde acceptance with God ? Evangelus . First , direct your supplications unto God. Secondly , Pray in faith , Thirdly , with a sense of your wants . Fourthly , with a sense of your unworthiness , to have any of your wants supplied . Fifthly , with Sincerity and Perseverance . Sixthly , beg what you beg in the Name of Christ. Seventhly , conclude your Prayer with a Doxology , being this , For thine is the Kingdom , Power and Glory , for ever and ever . Amen . Paulus . I thank you , good Sir , for this seasonable advice . Evangelus . What think you now of the Sacrament ? Paulus . It is an Ordinance instituted by Jesus Christ himself . Evangelus . A Sacrament is a seal of the Covenant of grace , whereby as God doth oblige himself to give unto us all the benefits contained therein , so we in like manner do by that oblige our selves to be the Lords , and to be true and faithful● unto him . Paulus . This I now do understand . Evangelus . Very good , now how many Sacraments are there of use in thi● Gospel● Dispensation . Paulus . Surely , there are but two . Evangelus . Thou sayst right , and therefore the Papists herein are to be blamed , wh● say there are seven Sacraments , whereas we do deny any such number , and do affirm , that there are but two Sacraments , viz. Baptism and the Lords Supper : Baptism is a Sacrament , wherein the washing with wa●er , in the Name of the Father , of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost , doth signifie and seal our ingrafting into Christ ; the Lords Supper is a Sacrament wherein these things given , viz. Bread and Wine are signified , exhibited and shewed forth unto us ; the Body of our Lord Iesus which was broken , and his blood which was poured out abundantly for the remission of our sins . Circumcision and the Passeover was in the Law , in room whereof comes Baptism and the Lords Supper ; Baptism in the room of C●rcuncision , and the Lords Supper in the room of the Passeover . Paulus . In this I am also very well satisfied . Evangelus . I am glad of that ; but what think you of this ? Is the bread really transubstantial , and turn'd into the Body of Christ ? Paulus . Yes , that is really my belief ; for does not our Saviour say , This is my Body , 1 Cor. 11.14 . Evangelus . Friend , believe it not ; because there is not Grounds whereupon Reason should be built , much less faith ; Observe what I have to say contradictory to it ; and you will finde , that such an opinion is against Scripture , Sense and Reason . Consider , these words ( This is my body ) is no proper but figurative expression ; were all Scriptures to be understood literally , then there would be some reason for the understanding of this expression , to be as you would have it . Paulus . What do you tell me of Figures ? surely , our Saviour would have spoken more plainly to his disciples than so , especially in the instituting of an Ordinance . Evangelus . Christ spoke intelligible enough ; but tell me , is not that plain enough , when we take the words as they are frequently and commonly used in Scriptures . Paulus . Yes , That I can't deny . Evangelus . Well then , these words are common and frequent in Scripture , John 6.14 . is thus written , I am the Way ; so John 10. I am the Door ; Christ properly is no Door , but only as a Door is an entrance into a Place , so Christ in this respect is an entrance into Heaven ; Now compare this with the other Place of Scripture , ( This is my Body ) the true meaning is , This is a figure , sign , and Pre-Presentation of my Body ; ( This is my Body , ) that is , as Bread doth nourish , strengthen and refresh the Body , and satisfie the natural appetite , so the Body and Blood of Christ , received by faith , doth strengthen , nourish , refresh and satiate the spiritual appetite . Observe , I pray you , how oppugnant this is to reason ; for is it not absurd , that bread should be turn'd into another substance , and yet the accidents remain the same ; there is the colour , ●as●e and smell of the bread ; if the bread in the Sacrament is turn'd into the real Body of Christ , then the Nature & End of a Sacrament would be destroyd the nature of a Sacrament is to be a Sign , and the Ends of it is to be a remembrance of Christ , both which supposes Christs Body to be absent . Again observe , our Lord Iesus mentions Bread after the words of Consecration , saying , ( the bread which we break , ) 1 Cor. 10.16 . He that eateth this bread , 1 Cor. 11.27 , 28. If the bread is turn'd into the real Body of Christ , then wicked Communicants may receive Christ , and Christs Body must be in a thousand Places at once ; and now what say you unto all this ? Paulus . I see now , as you say , that this opinion is oppugnant unto Scripture , Reason , and our three senses , viz. Seeing , Smelling and Tasting ; I wish with all my heart that I could stay a little longer with you , for the benefit which I have received from you is unconceivable , but I am sent for an Errand and therefore cannot ; yet if you please to inform me where you dwell , and what is your name , I shall thereby be much obliged unto you . Evangelus That you shall my friend , I dwell in such and such a place , my name is so and so . READER . AS Concerning this young man , being so willing to defer his Repentance unto an old Age , was the main Suggestion , which did keep him off from Closing with Jesus Christ ( of whom is shadowes in this Dialogue , and signified by Paulus ) together with his beleeving that God was more glorified by an old Convert , than by a young one , but when you come to understand how God dealt with this young man in bringing him off from all those letts and Impediments , by which he was kept from Closing with Christ , you will admire , it being in form following . This young Man , as aforesaid , being much molested with Temptations of that kinde ; One day above the rest , a Small-coal man going along the streets , did measure some thereof unto a Customer , who having no sooner done it , but he imm●●●●tely fell down dead , ( although he was as well as I am now at this present writing ) which being noised abroad , and many coming to see him , he made one ; who seeing him to lie dead on the ground , was amazed , especially when he understood the suddenness thereof . Thus , after a little Contemplation upon him , he goes home ; falling down upon his knees , saying to God , Lord have mercy upon me ; and this was all he could say for an hour together , ( somtimes it was ) Lord have mercy upon me a sinner , and pardon my sins ; thus continuing for the space of many weeks , despairing of Gods mercy to his soul ; and being also convinced of his former ignorance , he is now glad to receive good Counsel from any body , his minde and will being changed , makes him to believe , that there is salvation only in Christ , and looks now upon all his duties , ( as a Pauls indeed ) accounting them but dross and dung compar'd with our Lord Christ. But one day more than the rest , praying to God , does earnestly beg of him for a pardon of all his sins ; Thus Expostulating with God for the attainment thereof , Lord , ( saith he , ) Thou hast given a Pardon unto some , and why not unto me ? what way and course therefore may I take for the obtainment of the same ; and immediately at his request , ( after the performance of duty ) the Lord was pleased to give in this Text of Scripture , Isa. 55.7 . Let the wicked for sake his way , and the unrighteous man his thoughts , and let him return unto the Lord , and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our God , for he will abundantly pardon ; from hence he gathers hopes of Gods mercy unto his soul , but in temptations his hopes vanished away again ; as to those other Scriptures which the Lord was pleased to han● forth unto him , for his stay and comfort in his journey to the heavenl● Ierusalem , is conteined in the ensuin● Dialogue . And observe , what now treateth o● him , is about his converted estate ; being the second Part. The End of the First Part. The Second Part , being YOUTH in his unconverted state AEtatis suae 16. Evangelus . WELL met , Friend ; how is it with you now ? Paulus . Now I wonder at my self , how ●●norant I have bin ; and especially ●f my being so unconcern'd with my 〈◊〉 estate as I have . Evangelus . Yea , Friend , when God is pleased to 〈◊〉 a sinner a sight of his fearful 〈◊〉 out of Christ , he is startled , and 〈◊〉 amazed , at the consideration of 〈◊〉 former security therein . Paulus . I have found it so , blessed be God 〈◊〉 you . Evangelus . And blessed be God also , for that ●rovidence which brought us then to gather , and which now has vouchsafed another like opportunity , wherein we may confer about the things of another world ? how therefore ( my friend ) ha● God dealt with you since I last parted from you ? Paulus . God ( I hope ) has blessed what then you said unto me , the verity of which has bin set home , by a specia● and extraordinary Act of Providence . Evangelus . What kinde of Providence ( I pray friend ) has been exercised towards you since I last saw you ? Paulus . That , Sir , which the Lord was pleased to hand forth unto me ( by you your self , ) in answer unto those two suggestions , wherewith I was heretofore troubled , has bin seconded by the sudden death of a poor Small-coal-man . Evangelus . How , I pray ? Paulus . He was going along the streets , who was measuring of a few Small●oal to one of his Customers , did ●●mediat●ly fall down dead , al●hough he was as well as now you ●nd I are in body , that the sight of ●is d●ath together with the sudden●ess thereof , did startle me , and shew●d th● vanity of protracting and de●erring time and repentance as I ●id . Evangelus . Oh! Glory unto the Father , Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed for ever ! Oh , ●ow is your heart affected with this ! Paulus . I am so unsatisfi●d in minde , as that does render me very incapable ●f performing any service unto God. Evangelus . Be sure you give not present Enter●ainment unto any thing suggested , ●ithout special examination , what is 〈◊〉 therefore in which you are unsa●●sfied ? Paulus . In Gods mercies . Evangelus . How so , for when you knew nothing● you could then render unto me God● mercy , as grounds sufficient , on whic● you built your hopes of salvation● Then ( my friend ) you had no cause s● to to do , but now you have , I dar● say . Paulus . I do suppose , it is all one for that● inform me , I pray you , then , how I may come to obtain Gods favour and grace ; for I find , as once you tol● me , that I have lost it in Adam . Evangelus . Friend , as Gods favour was lost in Adam , so it is found in Chri●t , see● therefore the favour of God i● an● through Christ. Paulus . I must first come to Christ and receive him , before I can make use of him to reconcile me unto God , wheras my faith is weak , and will not as yet lead me unto him . Evangelus . Does that faith which thou hast , assent to Gods Essence ; and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him . Paulus . Yea , I think it does so , if my heart deceives me not . Evangelus . Well , if so , then you have that which will commend you to Iesus Christ , and not only commend you un●o him , but likewise that which will ●nable you to receive him ▪ see Heb. 6.1 . For he that cometh to God , must believe that he is , and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him . Paulus . God will ( I see ) make use of you to do my soul good , but what do you think now of my Condition ? Evangelus . Why , I do believe that thou art an ●lected Vessel , Paulus . What is the reason do you think ●hen that I should be all this while without an assurance of Gods Lo●● and mercy to my poor soul. Evangelus . Wait , and thou shalt have it , an● consider well this Scripture , being Ma● 9.17 . Neither do men put new win● into old bottles , else the bottles break and the wine runneth out , and the bottle perish : but they put new wine into ne● bottles , and both are preserved . Fro● which I would have you to note , tha● though God has his saving work i● your soul ; yet many corruptions ther● are unsubdued , which must be morti●fied , before he sees it meet and convenient to give you assurance ; nay , unti● then , perhaps God sees you uncapabl● as to the management thereof . Paulus . Blessed be God also for this goo● Counsel and Advice . Evangelus . If it has proved so to be , I desi●● to bless God likewise . Paulus . Sir , being in haste , I must bid yo● farewel ; but I shall consider upon what you have said . Evangelus . Farewel then , but I hope I shall see 〈◊〉 again Paulus That you shall , for I cannot 〈◊〉 ●ee you now and then . YOUTH in his CONE●●●● Etatis●uae 18. Evangelus . OH , my good friend , how glad a● I to meet with you , for I will a●●sure thee , thou hast been much up●● my heart ; where has been your abo●● all this while , that I have sought you ●● frequently , but could never have t●● happiness to finde you until now . Paulus . Whether ( Good Sir ) you a● glad to see me I know not ; but I a● sure , I am glad to see you : for m● wants and indigencies are innum● rable and how to express them un● any other ( but your esteemed sel● I know not : in regard that hereto● fore you have been very benefici● unto mee . In the like strait th● now I am in , wherefore ( worth● Sir ) if the presen● opportunity do serve as well for you , as it does ● ●e , Administer something of Com●rt unto me I pray you ? Evangelus . It is a duty , my friend , incumbent ●pon those who are Preachers of the Gospel , to imitate their Lord and Sa●iour , and to tread those same steps , ●herein he before them did tread , who ●lways made the extremity of sinners , ●is opportunity to do his Fathers Work , ●nd the like must I ; speak on therefore , ●nd welcom . Paulus . I am in such misery , that I know ●ot what to do ; my Condition is ●ch that I am asham'd to make ● known , and my crimes are so hor●id , that for a great time I have con●ealed them , and loth I am still to di●ulge and bring them to Light. Oh! ●herefore pity me , pity me . Evangelus . Why dost thou say , thou art in such misery , as that thou knowest not what to do ; I can't chuse but give ●hee a check for saying thus , upon these several respects . First , we ought not to despair ● long as we have a God , which inde● we have , 1 Sam. 17.46 . Secondly , there is no malady so r● mediless , but God can apply a Reme● thereto ; no wound so sore , but God ca●●eal ; no misery so anxious and irr● coverable in our apprehensions , but ● can extinguish the anguish there● heals it , and makes that which is i● possible with us possible with himsel● Gen. 18.14 . There is no misery th● side of Hell and the Grave , but Go● out of his infinite free grace hath ap● pointed some proper means for th● same , viz. hearing and reading th● Word for the unconverted , Prayer an● receiving of the Sacrament for th● weak in Gifts and Graces , and Chris● unto all in general , who will receiv● him by faith , Mat. 11.28 . Thirdly , why doest thou say , tha● thy condition is such , as that thou ar● ashamed to make known ; was not a● our conditions once s● , for a natural condition is a damnable , cursed and ignominious condition , Eph. 3. Fourthly , why doest thou make the aggravations of thy sins as an Argument to conceal them ; whenas God in his Word has said , He that hideth his sins shall not prosper . Finally , David used the aggravations of his sins , as an Argument with God to Pardon them . Paulus . Do you think ( good Sir ) that I am not a miserable creature , when the Sin against the Holy Ghost is imputed to me . Evangelus . This is a cunning stratagem of the Devil ; for those who have committed this sin , have never the Gift of Repentance , their hearts are so hard as that they cannot mourn ; and indeed , the great reason rendred , why the sin against the Holy Ghost is unpardonable , is , because there 's no repentance for the same ; bat now this is not thy case . Paulus Ah , but you do not know the misery that I am in . Evangelus . You cry out of your misery , but you do not tell mee wherein it does consist ? Paulus . My misery I would fain express , but I cannot , I see therefore that this opportunity will prove to be a lost opportunity , unto my soul , and O wretched man as I am : That I should make a Non-Improvement of those precious seasons which might be so exceeding advantagious unto me , I shall only now desire of you to appoint another time wherein I shall to the utmost ( if God willing ) lay open my deplorable Condition unto you . Evangelus . But heark you ( my friend ) do not think that I can be put off with such a frivolous excuse as this , shall we meet together and go away without profit to each other , this is a temptation of the Devil , therefore adhere not to it . Paulus Sir , business does call me home , and I am also under such an indisposition of body , as that I cannot talk any longer with you ? Evangelus . What then , shall we not pray before we part , if you will , I 'le joyn with you . Paulus . No , ( Good Sir ) do you , and I will joyn with you . A PRAYER Performed by the MINISTER . O Most Glorious and Gracious Lord God , from everlasting to everlasting thou art the great Creator of Heaven and Earth , and the wise Disposer of all things which thou hast made ; We the most unworthiest of all thy servants , do desire to prostrate our selves before thy Divine Majesty , under an humble acknowledgment of thy Goodness , thy Grace , thy Truth and Faithfulness : thy many mercies renewed & continued every day to us , and our great unworthiness of the least of them : We are not worthy of the crumbs that fall from thy Table ; not only because we were born in sin , but because we have liv'd in sin , and have daily added to our sinnes , by the vanity of our thoughts , words and actions , and the unsu●●ableness of the whole man to all thy Commands : We are ignorant of them , yea , we have digged to our selve● Cisterns that will hold no water ; W● have doubted of thy Promises , broken thy Laws , polluted thine Ordinances , Profan'd thy Sabbaths , abused thy Mercies , slighted thy Iudgements , sinned against the light of our own Consciences , against Grace receiv'd , against the motions of thy Holy Spirit , against Heaven , and in thy sight , and we are not worthy to be called thy children ; and therefore most iustly mayst thou pour down thy displeasure upon us , and empty the Vials of thy wrath upon us and ours ; it is mercy , nay , infinite mercy and free grace , that we are this side of Hell and the Grave , but much more that we have an opportunity to plead with thee ; how many are there in Hell , that would give ten thousand worlds for what we enjoy and have ; We bless thee ( O Lord ) for Iesus Christ , by whose blood these Mercies were Purchased , and the Priviledges which we now enjoy , receive him for us , and accept us in him , magnifie thy grace in and through him towards us , by pardoning our sins , remiting our transgressions , sanctifying our nature , washing our souls in the water of Regeneration , and by evidencing thy favour unto us under all our cloudy and gloomy dispensations ; and this is that ( O God ) which we are come about at this time ; it is the Sun-shine of thy countenance , and strength against our adversary the Devil . Behold , O Lord , thy servant before thee , that is molested by Satan , and burried with his temptations . Behold , O Lord , the enemies which he hath to wrestle with : how are they increased both from without and from within ; increase his faith , that his spiritual existence may be sustein'd ; let him not perish in his distress and warfare for want of thy assistance ; seeing , O God , that we sue not to thee for any terrene or earthly enjoyments , but for grace , that we may through strength received , therefrom be enabled to repel and quench all the fiery darts of the evil one ; and therefore for the sake of thy Son Iesus hear us , and strengthen thy servant , whereby he may now at ●ist conquer Satan , who has so much ●●deavored to overthrow him : Ap●ear for him ( O blessed Iesus ) unto ●hom all Power is given in Heaven ●nd in Earth ; and being tempted , ●nowest how to succour those that be ●empted . And with us , sweet Father , ●e mindful of all thine throughout the ●hole World ; Bless thy Church and Zi●n , bring home Iews and Gentiles , and ●ll that belong unto the Election of thy ●race ; Give unto thy Son the Hea●hens for his inheritance , and the ut●ermost Parts of the Earth for his Possessions . O Lord , keep up England ●rom falling from thee , let it not languish nor decay in Godliness ▪ and let ●ot wantonness under the means of ●race procure any want of grace ; thou ●ast divided us , bring us together again ; And thou who art a God of Order , O settle Order in thy Church , ●●d Vnity among thy Saints ; Let ●uch as do erre out of ignorance , learn ●nowledge ; and such as have sinn'd against knowledge , finde repentance ; Endu● the Magistrates with the knowledge of thy Spirit of Grace and Wisdom , as well as with Power , that w● may live a peaceable and quiet life under them , in all godliness and honesty . O let thy Ministers be cloathed with holiness , write it on their Breasts , give them the Urim and Thummim , and let them shine by holiness of life , as well as by doctrine , and Crown all their labours with a Garland of Souls . Remove not ( O Father ) thy Candlestick from us , for our unworthiness of it , and unthankfulness for it ; but pardon our unpro●●ableness under it , and teach us to profit more and more ; And now , O Lord , comfort thy afflicted Servant before thee ; stand by him , and be his Help ; and all this we beg in the Name , and for the sake of Iesus Christ , to whom with thy self , and ever blessed Spirit of Grace , enable us to ascribe , as is most due , all Power , Praise , Glory , and sincere obedience , from us and all thine , now , henceforth , and for evermore . Amen . Well , I 'le detain you no longer , only take this from me , Do not give place to the Devil . Reader , Take notice , that this poor young ●onvert , having taken his leave of this ●recious Minister , doth in his return ●omewards meet with a cursed in●rument of the Devil , being one De●as ( by name ) a sad Apostate , who ●●swades him to throw off Religion , ●nd to turn Atheist ( that is , nothing at ●ll ) of which this ensuing Dialogue ●ill give a further account . Demas . How now , why do you look somelan●holy ; no doubt but you have been with ●ome Phanatick Priest or another , your ●ountenance is so dreadful . Paulus I blame your folly , for he whom ● have been with , let him go under what notion soever , is a holy man , and has been one of great use to me . Demas . I sware you talk more like a mad ●an than any body else , I tell ●ou ; if you believe all what they say , you 'll be distracted , if you are not already . Paulus Whether I am distracted or no , I matter not , for take notice , I must observe what they say unto me , because it concerns what I am to do for God , and for my own soul , Demas . Why , doest thou think there is a God ? Paulus . Yes , as firmly as I do believe the Sun to be in Firmament on Noon-dayes . Demas . Doest thee : I hope then , before I shall have done with you , to make you of the same opinion as I am . Paulus . What opinion ( I pray ) are you of ? Demas . What opinion am I of ? why I am of such an opinion , as that I can produce you one , whom I 'le affirm to be God , Omnipotent , Omnipresent , Om●iscient , and more just then the God ●hom you serve ; for I shall tell you , I have been of the same opinion with your ●elf , and have believed on the same God ●hich you believe , but now I am of an●ther mind , and I question not but that ● shall make you of the same also , if you ●e but ruled by me . Paulus . Pray what is he ? Demas A sober Gentleman . Paulus . Will he do one no hurt ? Demas No he will not hurt you ; for he is a harmless Gentleman , you may see him if you please . Paulus Pray then bring him and let me see him . Demas Rather than that , I would have you come to my House about ten a Clock to● morrow morning , and then we may talk together without any interruption : You know where I live . Paulus Well then I le be sure to come , if I am in health . Demas Be sure you do not fail me . Reader Now followeth another Conference between Evangelus a Minister of th● Gospel , and Paulus the young Convert , who endeavours to hinder him from going , but cannot . Evangelus So , So , I see I am forc'd to visit you , before you will visit me . Paulus Truly ( Sir ) I can't help it , for I have been so out of order both in soul and body , ( since I saw you last ) a● that I am not fit to keep any body Company Evangelus Why did you not send for me all this while ? if you had , I should have come ; for I doubt you have had no company , since I have been with you . Paulus Yes Sir , I have had some Company with me . Evangelus . What company , ( I pray ) good company ? Paulus . Truly , I know not very well , it was a man , but what to make of him , I know not : For he has undertaken to bring me a Gentleman that is as fully God , as he whom I and you serve . Evangelus . Oh fie , why are you so deceived , as to think any such thing ? what evil company have you commun'd with , know you not , that there is but one God , and that is our God ? what a blasphemous wretch was he that told you , from whence did he come , and where doth he dwell ? Paulus . His name is Demas , he came out of the Countrey , his place of abode ( for a time ) is in the City ; and about ten of the Clock this Morning ; I am bound by vertue of Promise to come and see him and the Gentleman . Evangelus . Well , although you have promised to● come and see him , yet I do intend to prevent you . Paulus . No , pray Sir , say not so , for if I● should disappoint him , he would then● reflect upon us and our Religion , and cause the honour of Christianity to lie at stake , if you are loth to let me go alone , do you then go with me . Evangelus . I , nor you , neither shall go ; if they will come to us , well and good ; but for us to come to them , I do not approve of it ; therefore think not of going , though you have promised , remembring the Proverb , It s better somtimes to break a Promise then to keep it . Paulus . How if they should come to me after you are gone . Evangelus Then send for me ; and I dare to meddle with them , if they come upon our own grounds . ●hereby God suffers him to conquer us , what we do in a way of Disputation with must be onely in our own defence . Reader , Now take notice , that after the departure of this Minister ; these two Deceivers comes unto this sweet Convert ; One of which proves no otherwise then the Devil , as you shall finde by the sequel of the story . Demas and Apollyon . How now , who taught you to break your Promise , did your Priests ? Paulus . No , other busines● did intervene , so as yet I could not come according to promise . Demas . Well , this is the Gentleman of whom I spoke , and Promised to bring to you . Paulus Is it so , I pray you ; Sir , sit down , for you are very welcom . Apollyon . I thank you , Sir , Paulus . I did promiss to inform a friend of mine concerning you : Wh● promised to come unto me , and to make one of our Company . Demas . What is he , I pray ? Paulus He is a Minister of the Gospel . Demas . Oh it is no matter fo● him , another time we● serve as well as now , 〈◊〉 moreover , I brought th●● Gentleman with me , o● ly to speak concernin● affairs , privately among our selves . Apollyon . It will not be convenient to have an● besides our selves . Paulus . Well , Sir , what you please . Apollyon . Sir , I understand here , by my friend , that you are under some sore Conflict , wherefore I was desir'd occasionally by our self , and instrumentally by him , ● . e . Demas , to visit you ; and so consequentially to administer somthing of ●omfort unto you , in order to which I must have you to promise me these three several things . First , to deny the God whom now you serve . Secondly , ●o abstain from the Company which you frequent . Thirdly , to believe what I shall say unto you . Paulus To any thing that is reasonable , ● shall yield , especially if you can but ●move your self to be God , and him whom I serve to be no God , the pro●ation of which I expect through ●ertue of promiss , made by your friend . Demas Well that he can do . Apollyon . Yes , and easily too . Reader , Note , how Demas doth app● himself to Apollyon , prescribing a● ter what manner the Conferen● shall be carried on with conven●ency . Demas . The only Method , as I suppose , carry on this Conference among 〈◊〉 selves , is , ( Good Sir ) by letting hi● produce those Arguments , which has so prove a God ; and so you to a● swer as he brings them , and pray 〈◊〉 me how you like it ? Apollyon . I like it very well ; how do yo● like it , Sir ? Paulus . I do like it very well also , provide● you will not let the plainness of 〈◊〉 Arguments make any thing invalid . Apollyon . Well , produce your Arguments co● cerning the certainty of a God. Paulus . I shall after this manner express myself ; And first of all , the Creatures do testify the truth of a Deity , and him whom I serve , in regard that it is he who gaveth being of all things , viz. The beings of the Heavens , and of the Earth , and all things contained therein . Secondly , that kind of Gubernation which is among all Creatures , whether humans , divine or diabolical , does evidence the one supream Government , which is of God. Thirdly , the great impression of a Deity upon the hearts of men , evidenced by the accusations of a guilty conscience ; and likewise by that Worship which Heathens do ascribe unto fa se god , which being considered it doth exceedingly demonstrate that there is a true God , though they be ignorant of him . Fourthly , I do believe there is a ●od , and that it is him whom I serve , because the Scriptures do directly make an obvious discovery and revelation of him . Fifthly and lastly , I do believe that all what I have said is true , because the Devils in Hell would tear us in pieces , were it not for the Existence of an Almighty God. Apollyon . Well , all this we do not deny : for wha● you have said as yet does prove me as much God as any other , therfore you must begin again . Paulus . Nay , I would not for a thousand of Worlds think any otherwise , but that there is a true God● and he it is whom I serve . Apollyon . Nay , but I 'le prove to the contrary , and will affirm , that the God whom you now serve , is a diabolical Spirity , and likewise is one whom I shall , in Process of time , inflict my wrath upon , for his carriage both to me and all mankinde . Paulus . Why , is not that God whom I serve , now in Heaven , and surely if so , then he is the true God. Apollyon . That is true , he is in Heaven , but it is only by usurpation . Paulus . Whose Throne is Heaven then ? Apollyon . It is the Throne of the true God. Paulus . Who is the true God ? Apollyon . He who now doth talk with you . Paulus . How come you to be out of your place then ? Apollyon . I came out of my place for your sake . Paulus . Sir , I am in great distress , pity me therefore , and do not argue sophistically with me , who am not able at this time to answer you . Apollyon . Have a care you do not by me as the woman of Samaria did , when I appeared visibly on earth ( to the whole world ) for the sake of mankind . Paulus . O what shall I do ? Apollyon . Believe in me that you may have life . Paulus . Lord have mercy upon me . Apollyon . Why do you doubt , I am a Spirit do you not know that God is a Spirit John 4.24 . Paulus . I do believe God is a Spirit . Apollyon . Why do you then contend with m● any further , who am so fully God as have declared unto you . Paulus . Did you create the Heavens and th● Earth , and all thing contained ther● in . Apollyon . Yea , and you too . Paulus . Lord have mercy upon me . Apollyon . Nay , him whom thou thinkest to be God , I made . Paulus . Pardon me then blessed God ) that I have offered to con●end thus with thee ; ●als by ( I pray ) my ●alapert , audacious , ●nd rustical carriage ●owards thee ; for I see now I am , ●ike the woman of Samaria , who , through ignorance , ascribed the title of Sir ship unto him that was King over Heaven and Earth , even as I have done towards thee . Apollyon . I pardon thee , because what thou hast done , has been through ignorance . Paulus . Yea ( good Lord ) that it was . Apollyon . Well , time doth call me away , for indeed I have many souls to look after , therefore I must leave you , only desiring you to remember those three things once Propos'd ; viz. 1. The denying of God which once you serv'd . 2. The abstaining from those Ministers , which once you frequented . 3. The believing what I have said , and shall furthermore say unto you . Paulus . With all my heart , good Lord. Apollyon . Farewel ther , to-morrow-morning I 'le come and see you again . Paulus . Oh , my Lord , go not away so soo● from me . Apollyon . It matters not , as long as I shall come so quickly unto you again . Paulus . Then farewel , my Lord. Reader Take notice , that when the Devil had parted from this Youth , Demas the day after comes according to promiss ; But Apollyon is not with him ; from whence we may gather thus much , It is impossible for the Devil to keep his promiss , in regard that he is the father of lyes and lyers , The end wherefore Demas came , you will understand by the ensuing discourse . Demas . How do you , my friend ? Paulus . As well as any damned creature can do , but where is my Lord. Demas . He could not come through excessive want of him at another place ; but why doest thou say , thou art damned , for if so , then thou art irrecoverable ; which if thou wert , Apollyon would not undertake to do any thing for you , neither should I have brought him to you . Paulus I believe you good Sir , and therefore do desire to bless God for you , because you brought me acquainted with him . Demas . Alas , I have tried all ways , but could finde no rest , till I met with him , and so it will be with thee . Paulus Ha , how may one be deceived ; for I thought that I was in the right way , and worship'd the true God , but it seemes it is otherwise , do you think therefore your God will receive me , after I have been serving a strange God ? Demas . Yes , yes , I 'le warrant that . Paulus When will he come to me then ? Demas . Tomorrow morning precisely , at five of the Clock ; I came therefore , as desired by him , to inform you of it , and likewise from my self to advise you of several things . Paulus Speak on , and well come . Demas . First , be sure you do remember and ●e●r in minde what Apollyon said unto you last ; Now that which I have from my self unto you is this , Whatsoever my Lord shall require of you , condescend unto it immediately ; therefore if he should require your self , give up your self unto him by a free Resignation of spirit , with●ut any doubting , for if you should in the juncture of time that he requires any thing of you , seem to refuse , he then departs from you totally and finally ; This I know , because , through fear , I had like to have given him occasion my self ; and hence it is that I caution you . Paulus The Lord your Master treble it into your bosome , for what you have done unto me . Demas . Nay , my Work is wages . Paulus I Question not but it is . Demas . Well , I must bid you adieu . Paulus And you also , but be sure yo● bring my Lord with you . Demas . Don't question that . Reader When this young Convert had departed from his two supposed friends ▪ and from one especially , he walks abroad , and in his return homewards , finds a letter directed unto him by that Choice Minister of Jesus Christ , from whom he had abstein'd so long , and by whom he could not be found , through obligation unto a Promise . The Letter is as followeth . To the Beloved of my Soul T.P. My Son , FOR so I may call thee , because in the Lord Iesus I begot thee , in whose Name I command attention unto the affectionate Exhortations of your distressed father , who through thy disobedience unto God , has almost brought his hoary head with sorrow unto the Grave : and for which cause I have made my tears my meat and drink , day and night , ever since I saw thee last . Ah Child , thou art gone , which vexe● me sore ; but the consideration of thy being gone from God , vexes me sorest of all ; how happy wouldest thou make me , if I could but see ▪ thy face before I go from hence , and be seen no more : I long to understand thy Conflicts , as once I did , that I might thereby administer something of comfort and advice , in a more sympathizing and condoling manner then ever . The thoughts of thy groans pierces me to the heart ; but the thoughts of thy trials and temptations doth so oppress my spirits , as that I know not what to do ; Art thou not therefore blame-worthy , to carry thy self in such an occult and secret manner as thou doest ; fall down , I beseech you , through the sense thereof ; think not of being freed from Satan , while thou art such a friend unto him in keeping of his counsel . The Devil is a subtile enemy , adhere not to him , believe him no● , and give no credit unto any of his suggestions ; to be ruined is sad , but to be instrumental to thy own ruine is more sad : Something of the Devils wiles thoa hast already s●●n : O therefore , let such an Experiment anticipate all his other designes from having effect ; keep off from him , have nothing to do with him ; for there is nothing but malice and evil in all his designes : I hear , you make a strict Inquisition after Satan , I pray wherefore is it ? Have you a minde to lose your soul ? Are you in love with your own damnation ? Is the loss of Heaven , and the Enjoyment of God nothing ? Will the Devil ve a better friend to you then God ? Will the Flames of Hell be as sweet as a Bed of Roses ? Will weeping in the Labyrinth of eternal misery , be more pleasant then the singing Hall●lujahs in the glorious Heavens ? which is best to be chosen , misery , or felicity , Iudg you ; which would you chuse , to sit at Gods right Hand , or his Left ; why I tell you , if you combine with the Devil , you will then take Gods gre●test Enemies part , and thereby will lose all those perpetual , heavenly and celestial Ioys , Promised and Prepared for Gods Elect. If thou believest and know what heaven is , live then as one that knows the same . Oh , go to the throne of grace , and leave it not , till thou doest find the grace of God and the Oyl of Consolation Pour'd into thy heart , and for the order of your appearing unto God , demean your self as the Prodigall , Luke 15. Cry as David , Psalm . 38.18 . For I will declare my Iniquities , and will be sorry for my sins ; how thy state now is , I know not , and therefore after what maner to write to thee I know not , I do believe your case is dreadfull , by the oppression of my own spirlt , and your being so long absent from me , and whether now this may come to you I cannot tell , therefore I shall desist from writing so amply as I would . Aug. 16. 1672. Your Father in the Lord Jesus W. W. The young Man having received this Letter , reades it ; and having read it , he considers upon it , and at last is affected exceedingly therewith ; but these two Deceivers coming unto him again , doth through their vain discourse and diabolical concernment , make this Youth to yield unto them , so as that he forgets the Letter ( which came from his dear friend ) in which was conteined such wholesom , seasonable and compassionate Instructions . Demas and Apollyon . So , what now , I hope you have not transgress'd . Paulus Not I indeed . Apollyon . How then comes it to ▪ pass you look so sad ? Paulus I have by an unparalleld providence , received a letter from one who lov'd me , which is strange in regard that he knew not where I dwelt . Apollyon . Sha , Providence ; there 's not such things as that ; for those things which you call Providence , are only things which falls out by chance ; and you also talk illiterately and foolishly , to say that was unparallel'd , because such as this has bin common ere now . Paulus Nay , I do not know , but none shall make me to believe any otherwise but that it was Miraculous , if it will not hold with being unparallel'd . Demas . Pray let me speak a word in your ear . Paulus . With all my heart , Good Sir. Demas . Pray now , have a care of carrying your self foolishly , left thereby you occasion him to depart , as I told you once before . Paulus Well I will. Apollyon . How are you compos'd in minde ? Paulus Not very well , My Lord. Apollyon How can you call me Lord ? and adjoyn such an ep●thite ( as my ) thereto , whereas you have not given up your self unto me . Paulus Will you accept of me , Oh Lord ? Apollyon If I had meant otherwise , I should not have ask'● you . Paulus Lord I am at your service , do with me as seems good in thy sight . Apollyon Has that God which you serv'd , been good to you ? Paulus Truly I must needs say this , that though I had many things of the other ●od whom I serv'd yet he would not give me all as I desir'd . Apollyon That I believe , and shall I tell you those many things which you had of him were not so reall as they were Presented to you , being only shadows . Paulus It 's likely so truely . Apollyon Well if you are willing ( as you say ) to be my Servant , meet me about five of of the Clock at night , by the place where we use to meet , and bring with you your Penknise , Paper , and Pen , this is all , only be sure to meet me without fail , or else be it to your own peril . Paulus I 'le be sure not to fail you . Apollyon Till then farewell . Reader Thus thou seest how this poor Convert is tossed up and down through the wiles and Machinations of Satan , how Sollicitous have been the vety powers of H●ll , to destroy the soul of this young man , how have they Combin'd together for the making of their stratagems effectual . For once he went with an intent to meet the Devil , and as he was entring into the appointed place , the Spirit of God interrupted him by setting home this Scripture , with such power , Mat. 16.26 . For what is a man profited , if he should gain the whole world , and lose his own soul ; At that he was forc'd to return home again , and ask God for pardon , and yet nevertheless Corruption being very prevalent and the Devil mighty busie , he was thereby impuls'd to make another attempt in the like manner , who accordingly did , as you may understand by what shall follow . Apollyon . Well met ( my Paulus ) why does● thou muse with thy self ? Paulus I am at a stand , and know not what to do . Apollyon . At a stand , why so ? Paulus You know ( O Lord ) the business which we are met about , and the weightiness thereof , therfore I hope , reason will shew why I look so . Apollyon . Friend , As for my part , it matters not , whether or no you consent to what I require ; it was for your happiness that I requir'd this from you ; but to conclude , take notice , that I will not be made a fool by such an one as you ; Go therefore to your other God , and see what ●e can do for you , for I scorn to receive you . Paulus . Good Lord , fret not your self so , for I am not going away from you , only I desire deliberation , suiting with a work of so great a concernment as this . Apollyon . Nay , call not me Lord , except you were my servant ; and as for your deliberation , you have had time enough already . Paulus . Ha , but I never did deliberate upon it till now . Apollyon . If so be you could not deliberate , when you had time enough , expect it not now . Paulus . Well , if so , you will not give me leave to satisfie my self herein ; I know not what to say to you . Apollyon . You know not what to say to me , say somthing or nothing ; and if in this you be not satisfied , a Fig for you . Paulus . Be not angry , I pray . Apollyon . Here is cause to be angry , when you deal thus with me , who am so fully God. Consider the aggravation that does attend it , therefore in this one minute resolve me , either in the negative or affirmative . Paulus . What would you have me to do ? Apollyon Only this , Put P●n to Paper and write thus . Paulus . Well , I will write thus , ( For ) Apollyon . Proceed , why stay you your hand ? Paulus . I know not what the matter is , for I cannot move my hand . Apollyon . You had as good go on now , seeing that you have written the first word , viz. ( For ) for you are mine by what you have done already . Paulus . I defie you as yet , for I know what I have done . Apollyon . A Nuncup●ti●● Well is as good as a written one , so that what you have not done by Pen you have done by word of Mouth , and therefore it is all one . Observ. I. The young man supposing him , with whom he had conferr'd so long , to be the Devil , breaks forth into these breathings of spirit ( unto the true God whom once he serv'd ) viz. Now , now , now , O precious Saviour , give me somthing for my faith to act upon , by making of thy self unto me ● present help in the time of need , and for the future try me . Observ. II. The Devil perceiving such sweet Motions to be upon the heart of the young man , and being destitute of all hopes in having him as his prey ; doth by the Authority of God vanish and leave him for a time . Observ. III. This young man , as he was walking up and down , did experience more and more , that he with whom he conspir'd against his God , was the Devil , which caus'd him to cry out thus , O wretched man as I am , that I should go so far with the wicked one ; how shall I escape damnation , whenas I have thus transgress'd . Observ. IV. This young man wondring at him self , did meditate upon several things ; and as he was reading one place of Scripture , alluded to in a book , entituled , ( The Sinners Sanctuary ) being , Hebr. 10.23 . Let us hold fast the Profession of our faith without wavering , for he is faithful that promised . The Devil assaults him again , and appears in the shape of a white Spaniel dog , with a Letter in his Mouth , saying unto him , Thou 〈◊〉 not Elected ; at which the young man rises up , and speaks to God as follows . And I thought thou didst give unto at some token of love and mercy ; but ●ow I am afraid that I was deceived , and therefore if the manifestation which then I had was not right , skew it ( I pray thee ) unto thy servant ; but if right , then be pleased to back it with another as Powerful as before , through the efficacy of some Scripture , co-essential with it , which the Lor● accordingly did in the very junctur● of time ; and bringing also with th● same a Scripture essential thereto , viz Hos. 11.3 . From whence he gathere● That the truth of Election did not consist in a bare knowledge thereof , bu● that Election might be where no appearance thereof could be foun● The Youth now travelling homeward doth in his way meet with a great ma● stiffe Dog , running round about him and catching hold on the left latchets o● of his shooes , doth vanish . And b●● ing return'd safe home , he meets wit● the holy Minister who was so much concern'd with him , and the discours be● tween these two , it as f●lloweth . Evangelus Oh , My Lamb ! Where hast tho● been all this while ? For it rejoyceth my soul to see thee once more . Paulus Oh , but you have no cause to be glad in seeing me at this time , and i● such a condition . Evangelus . Why talkest thou thus ( My Child ) as now thou doest , tell me therefore to case my oppressed soul , where thou hast been , and what is the matter with thee ? Paulus . I have been where I have seen a man that did come out of the Air , yea , where I know not my self I have been . Evangelus . Obstinacy against good Councel doth always bring forth evil effects ; for now have I prayed with thee , wept over thee , and given thee good Councel , but by none of these could I prevail , for fighting and rejecting of which thou art brought into unspeakable misery . Paulus . I am sensible of this , but here lies my misery , it is too late . Evangelus . Do not say so , as long as we have a day in which we may work . Paulus . Did I belong to God , I should receive somthing of comfort from what you say , but you know not my condition , in vain therefore it is to take pains with such an one as I. Evangelus . Why not take pains with you now ▪ I have done so once , and God has blest it ; and I question not but he will d● the like now . Paulus . I believe nothing is too hard for God , and I know that he can save my soul , but I am sure he will not . Evangelus . My C●●●d , it pricks me to the heart , in hearing such blasphemy proceed from thee ; certainly an evil spirit has bin busie with thee . Paulus . Busie , yea , and more busie will he be . Evangelus . Child , I am thy friend , thou knowest it ; do not therefore put me off with such Riddles , AEnigmaes , Allegories , and dark kinde of speeches as these are ▪ 〈◊〉 I do not affect them , especially from ●han one as your self . Paulus . I am afraid the devil has bin too ●d for me . Evangelus . Wherein , my Lamb ! Paulus . The last time that you was with 〈◊〉 ( you may remember ) you en●ir'd of me , what company I had ? 〈◊〉 which I reply'd , A man that I ●ew not very well . Evangelus . What , that irrenious fellow ? Paulus . Yea , that fellow . Evangelus . But I hope , you have not seen him , the Gentleman which you spoke of , ●ce that time . Paulus . Yes , but I have to my sorrow , I ●nsure . Evangelus . I am afraid so too , what did you do ●hen you were together ? Paulus To rehearse I dare not , to con● I am ●o●nd . Evangelus . What means this ( To reveal I 〈◊〉 not , to conceal I am bound ) who i● that you are so oblig'd to , as that dare not disoblige ? none but surely . Paulus I wish it was so . ●vangelus . Dally not with me , if it is to contrary , tell me so . Paulus Loth I am to tell you , beca● was once a Christian , or at least in pretence , once I did own Christians God. But who do think is my God now ? Evangelus . Him , I hope , besides whom properly can be said to be God. Paulus Is not the Devil God ? Evangelus . Yea , catachr●stically and impro●● he is so called , but ( I hope ) 〈◊〉 him whom thou hast chosen . Paulus . What he is , I know not , but he ●es in the habit of a Gentleman . Evangelus . What is it the Gentleman which you 〈◊〉 me of just now . Paulus . Yea , that is him whom I have own●● to be God. Evangelus . How ! Renounce it for the sake of our soul , I charge you . Paulus . It has bin past renouncing long ●go . Evangelus . God forbid , I would not have it so ●orten thousand worlds . Paulus . It is so confirm'd , as that ten thousand and ten thousand can't revoke it . Evangelus . What hast thou done then ? Paulus . I have given my soul to him . Evangelus . Did he require it of thee , and hast thou done it ? Yes , yes , yes . Evangelus . ● Dost thou● know what thou h●● done ? Paulus . I think so , why what is the ma●●ter ? Evangelus . What is the matter ? thou hast 〈◊〉 Gods greatest enemies part . Paulus . Who is that , I pray ? Evangelus . Satan , which is call'd the Devil . Paulus . The Lord forbid . Evangelus . Nay , it is so , and Christ have mercy on thee ; from a Christian thou ar● become a Wizard ; and so consequentially thou art ripened for Hell , a● much as once I thought thou wert for Heaven ; thy condition is such , as i● renders thee incapable of the love of God ; so that now he hates you , his Children hates you , your Relation hates you ; and , adieu , my friend , adieu . Paulus Attend ( Good Sir ) and do not you who has been alwayes my friend leave me now in my greatest perplexity . Examine me a little , before you give me over quite , and let the time before encourage you hereunto . Evangelus . I wish you were but more sensible ; when I saw you first , you seem'd to be somwhat penitent ; but I am afraid now God has stricken thee with a judicial hardness and blindness . Note , in this Discourse comes Demas , who interrupts , and speaks as followeth . Demas . I wonder , Sir , you would urge him to renounce that which he hath seal'd to by his own blood , and calling God as a witness to the same . Paulus . O stop thy mouth ; false thou hast been to me , for as to paper , yea , and also blood , I do deny , and therefore say no such word . Evangelus . Is this he ( my Child ) whom thou call'st Demas ; if so then , that thou didst not enter into any combination with him and his Comrague the Devil by blood , return Praise to God , and matter not what they say : And wherfore dost thou ( O Demas , ) impute that to my Lamb , which he was never guilty of ? Demas . Pray who be you , that you rage so much at me , as if I was engaged to the Devil , and as if I was the cause of troubling your friend ; both of which I deny , and pray speak no more but what you can prove . Evangelus . Thou art a Liar , being like the Devil thy father ; for we fear not thee nor any of thine , and it shall be prov'd that thou wert the great Instrument , which the Devil made use of to destroy my Child ; but the God whom we serve has deceived thee , Glory be ascrib'd unto him for ever . Demas . Know you friend , I will not be th●● taunted at by you ; and did I b● bring the God whom I serve , yo● would tremble , meerly through a fight of him . Evangelus . We care not for you , nor your God ; and if you should bring him hither , we would not stir out of our Places . Demas . I shall ere long make trial of that , and until then , farewell . Evangelus . And farewel y●u . Paulus . How glad am I that he is gone . Evangelus . Ha Child , walk as long as you live in the sense of this mercy , of agracious God unto you , in restreining you from doing what you was tempted to ; And now for the glory of this God , I do desire you to make a brief Confession of your being first acquain●ed with this Person , and so with the Devil , and what it was he required of you , tha● these things may be left as a Narra●tive of Gods dealings with you unt●● succeeding Generations . The CONFESSION of PAVLVS When I first began to be troubled , this Person ( Demas ) being a● ancient Acquaintance of mine , wh● at first seem'd mighty zealous in the ways of Godliness , did of late visit me very often , and perceiving of m● to be somwhat unsatisfied , he demanded the Reasons thereof ; and a● last understanding somthing of it , he told me that he had experienc'd the God whom I serv'd , not to be the true God , producing substantial Reasons ( as I thought ) for the proof thereof , which winn'd so upon me , and being likewise perceiv'd by him , it did make him somwhat prevalent with me , to grant leave that he might bring the Gentleman unto me , ( i.e. Devil ) which being granted , and concealing it from you , together with many temptatious that attended me . I did meet him at a certain time and place appointed , and so in process of time he got me to deny these three things . 1. To deny the God whom I serv'd . 2. To abstain from the Ministers I frequented . 3. To believe whatsoever be should say unto me ; which after these were granted , he then made me to promise my soul unto him , in form as aforesaid , ( ) and as soon as I had set Pen to paper ; and writ this word ( For ) I could not go any further , which being perceived by him , he cursed me , and withal told me , that if I did not write , it was all one , and I was his , as long as I had set Pen to Paper ; only this he added , If I would write all , then he would be more merciful unto me at the expiration of my time ; but if I did not , he then would use me ●o much the more cruel ; the saying of which does at this present time trouble my soul very much 〈◊〉 ●hinking that I am his : And therefore , I pray Sir , what think you of it ? Evangelus . Child , that was only a temptation fram'd by himself , to draw you aside 〈◊〉 set Pen to Paper . Paulus . Say you so , but what shall I 〈◊〉 then with your God , which I on● worshipped , he , I suppose , will b● never recounted unto me , because have disowned him and all his Commandments . Evangelus . Truly ( my Child ) if so be it is a● things are Presented to me , I mus● needs say then , If your Head was 〈◊〉 fountain of tears , and your Hands streams thereof , you could not sufficiently mourn for what you have done ; and moreover , if God had damn'd you longere this had been committed , he would have been justified therein , but much more now , when you are guilty of that which I thought you would never have been guilty of . Nevertheless , from hence gather Hope , viz. Gods restraining of you to do what was intended , it being an infallible sign that God is willing to save thee . Paulus . O that I had but assurance of it . Evangelus . Nay , ( no doubt ) it may be a long time before God will give you an assurance of his love , in regard that you have by exceeding Provocations forfeited it . Paulus . Ha , but I am one , that can never be at peace , unless God doth immediately tell me that all my sins are forgiven , nay , I am afraid I shall kill my self , if God does not cast some favourable aspect upon me . Evangelus . How do you talk ! have you not provoked God enough already , and will you provoke him still ? have a care lest you do thereby augment your misery . Paulus . Alas , I am damn'd , I am damn'd , do not then blame me for speaking so . Evangelus . I must needs confess your case is desperate ; but yet notwithstanding this , if you will go to God in his own way , you may find mercy . Paulus I have ( without doubt ) commited the sin against the holy Ghost , in regard of those several aggravations which do attend my Sins , for did you ever hear of any sav'd , who sin'd after their Baptism , and acknowledgment of the truth . Evangelus . Yea , surely , for what think you of David , Manasse , Peter , and the Church of the Galatians , when called in by Paul to repentance . Paulus If I had but access to the Throne of grace , it would be something , but I have been for a year and an half ( through sin ) debarr'd there from , how think you therefore that I can go without Blushing . Evangelus . If thou wouldest have God to take any notice of thee , thou must go to the Throne of grace in great shame and confusion . Paulus What if I can't lift up so much as my eyes unto him . Evangelus . Yes , for have you not read of the Publicans demeanour before God ? Paulus This is true , and therefore my dear friend , I am much oblidg'd to you , for all your love and pains with me , and if you will be pleas'd to tell me what I must do when I come home , I shall thereby be ingaged more than ever . Evangelus . First , believe that God is still able and willing to save thee . Secondly , confess thy iniquities , be sorry for them , and then ask forgiveness , with a firm resolution in the strength of Christ , to do so no more . Thirdly , by the greatness of thy sins plead for a Pardon from God. Fourthly , make Christ the Way to the Father , excluding altogether your own works and righteousness , from justification and salvation . Fifthly , omit no duty for your life . Sixthly , endeavour to be content in all states and conditions . Seventhly , be not a friend io the Devil , by concealing any of his Suggestions . Eighthly , tempt not the devil . Ninthly . For the future live with a more holy jealousie then ●ver . Paulus This together with what you have formerly done for me , I shall remember ( I hope ) as long as I live . Evangelus . Nay , many things I have to say , but you cannot hear them now ▪ I shall therefore reserve them till another opportunity that you and I may have ; but in the mean time , the God of Heaven bless you , and so farewel . FINIS . Courteous Reader , Which Title thou shalt well deserve , if thou wilt but excuse the Author from such Errata's as have escaped the Press , being very many and great , his distance from the City not giving him the opportunity to peruse the sheets as they were done , the most material whereof are here subjoyn'd , and do beg the coverture of thy candid censure . ERRATA in the Epistle Dedicatory . Line 31 read not of any of you , line 177 leave out and. line 218. read but Iesus Christ who will plead . Errata in the Book . Page 3 line 4. in the Margent put Eph. 2.20 . p. 8. l. 6 . put three for two . page 22. l 1. for 1 Iohn 5.7 . put Acts 5.3 . p. ib. l. 6. for I say r. I see . p. 34. l. 3. for 4. r. 24. p. 35. l. 1. for your r. you . p. 49. l. 3. for it r. them . p. 42. l. 17. for you understand r. your understanding . p. 57. l. 5. for that r. thus . p. 66. l. 3. for gratia r. gratiae . p. 66. in the last words of the Margent r we are hindred from effecting what we intended . p 67. in the Margent , for does . r. d● . p. 75. l. 4. for I shall r. shall I. p. 79. l. 13. for as yet r. as that . Thus with many more , which would be tedious and somwhat vain to particularize , besides the mis-placing of Comma's , Periods and Marginal Notes . An Advertisement to the READER . REader , Thou art desired to take Notice , that by Evangelus ( one of the Interlocutors ) is signified a holy Man and Minister , who often conversed with the Author when he was in his deplorable condition . By Paulus , the Author himself , considered in his unconverted and converted estate , together with his Conflict . By Demas , an Apostate and Atheist , who was instrumental to the bringing of the Author to his sad condition . And by Apollyon is signified the Devil himself , who often appeared visibly , designing thereby the Authors destruction . Vale. A CATALOGUE of BOOKS Printed and are to be sold by John Hancock Sen. & Jun , at the Sign of the Three Bibles in Popes-Head Alley . TWelve Books Publish●d by Mr. Thomas Brooks . 1. Precious Remedies against Satans devices , or a Salve for Believers and Unbelievers Sores . 2. Heaven upon Earth , or a Discourse touching a well-grounded Assurance . 3. The unsearchable Riches of Christ. 4. Apples of Gold for young Men and VVomen . 5. String of Pearls , or the best things reserved till last . 6. The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod. 7. An Ark for Gods Noahs . 8. Crown and Glory of Christianity . 9. The Privy Key of Heaven , or , A Discourse of Closet Prayer . 10. A Heavenly Cordial . 11. A Cabinet of Choice Jewels , or , A Box of precious Oyntment . 12. London's Lamentations . Mr. Calamy's Godly Man 's Ark. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A55568-e370 * Dilexisti me Domine magis quam ●ipsum . Luke 22.32 . Post mortem nulla Paenitentia . Christi revere●se Tribunal . Scio Domi●e Iesu quod districtus arbiter ●mnium ven●urus clandestina hominum facta & verba cogit●ta in lucem proferes . G●rhard de extremo judicio . Notes for div A55568-e820 The first Salutation . Wha●soever is sinfull , is delightfull to the carnal eye . It is the work of a Minister to anticipate every sinful enterprize . A carnal man knows no difference between things spiritual and temporal , 1 Cor. 2.14 . A Repro●f How will sinners plead for the satisfaction of their sensual desires from evil examples . An Answer ●o the aforesaid Plea. Eph 2.20 . This is a Proverbial speech amongst the Naturalists . The End of our Creation are these two . 1. The Glory of God. 2. The good of each other . Divine cont●ivement . Providentia guber . nat omnia . Practical Question . Heaven , though it is a Saints , yet it may be call'd in question by a Saint . Wicked men think , they bring assurance of Heaven with them into the world . Questioning of our selves is a demonstration of our sincerity . Strict Godliness in the eyes of the World is censuring . A Soul-searching question . Naturalists think God has no other Attribute , then his Mercy to glorifie . We are fallen with Adam . Matters of sublime spirituality , are new things to the carnal eye . Cum multis aliis . A true Mi●ister , i● loth that any should perish , and go out of the World mistaken . Faith can puzzle carnal reason at any time . Upon this Rock many are split . Whether ignorance is the Mother of Devotion , I leave it for you to judge ; but ignorance , I am sure , is the 〈◊〉 that breeds high thoughts of our selves , and low 〈◊〉 of our Lord Jesus . Eph ● . 5 , 8. By grace ye are saved . There is a ●ind of zeal to be found in Naturalists . So Carnality affects . What a sad con●●deration is this , that when God has sent hi● Son into the World ▪ he is not known by the best part of 〈◊〉 . Behold the vast difference between a believer , and an unbeli●ver ; One depends upon Christ for salvation ; and the other depends upon duties for salvation . A true Believer is willing to be nothing , so that Christ may something , whereas an unbeliever acts to the contrary . Joh. 4 . 24● ●imonide● the more he stu●ied to know what God was , the harder still it seemed unto him . God cannot b● defined . Some do think , if they do but read Gods Word , it is sufficient , thoug● they take no notice o● w●at 〈◊〉 contained therein . Chris●u● Leo dicitur , propter fortitudinem , Agnus propter inno entiam : Leo , quod invictus : Agnus quia mansuetus . Ipse Agnus occasu vicit Leonem , qui circuit quaerens quem devoret , Di●bolus Leo dictus ●eritate , non virtut● . Aug. Habitatio Diab●lorum est p●rtim A●● partim in●ernus putat . Aug. 1.8 . de Civ . Dei. c. 22. Illos usurpasse ●erem ad exercenda● s●am dominationem in homines , vult Ambros. in ●p . ad Eph. Ipsos antequam ad det●●iora conversissent , ●●ris administrationem habuisse , tradit Theodor. epitom . divin . Decret . Denique Lombard l. 2. s●nt . dist . 6. cap. solet . Author est , Luciferum , Princip●m Diabolorum , relig●rum man●re in inferno , nec a● nos tentendos accedere : alios vero Diabolos alternis vicibus huc & 〈◊〉 ferno ad animos hominum cruciandos vel deduce 〈◊〉 ad infernum venir● , qui ●liis suc●edentibus ipsis 〈◊〉 tantur in infernum . Angeli sic ●o●is exc●nt , ut in●●rnis contempla●ionis gaudils non priventur . Greg. Tres vitales Spiritus c●e●it Omnipotens : unum , qui carne non tegitur ; alium , qui carne tegi●ur , sed non cum carne moritur ; alium , qui carne te gi●u● , & cum carne moritur ; Primus Angelorum , ●ecundus Hominum , tertius Brutorum est . Als●ed . Prov. 8. John 10 ▪ 30. Ego & Pater sumus unum . Christ is equal with the Father according to his Divine Nature , but inferiour according to his Humane . The Phi●osophers 〈◊〉 this Maxime , Ex ●ihil●●●hil fit . O●id ! Metaph. After th● old Chaos was brought into form● the Poets did feign , That the World was divided into four Ages ▪ The first was the Golden Age , the second was the Silver Age ; the third , the bra●en Age ; and the fourth , the ir●● Age : The four Ages whereof by Perdic●●● is compared to the four Seasons of the Year ▪ the first , resembling the Spring time , the second Summer , the third Autumn , the fourth Winter . Mun●us magnu● homo , homo parvus , mundus esse dicitur . Mundus est Speculum A●ributorum De● . When we receive any benefit from God , we should keep ●une with the P●almist . ●enedi●ite , bless ye the Lord. The Bereans were commended for examining of the Apostle Pauls doctrine ; H●● Mysterium est abscon●i●um a seculis , patefactum in tempore , Paradoxum & impossibile visum Iudais & Gentibus aestimatum , d●piis tanquam ma●eria sotidi Gaudii & consolati●●is . ●●de in Be●am in lib. Confession is Christianae fidei c. 3. artic . 19. Deus homo fit , ut homo divinae gratiae & naturae particeps fi●t . Ger●●●d . med . 14. p 52. Jesus Christ is the greatest sinner in the World ( saith Luth●● ) by imputation . Vide Bezam i● lib. Co●fessionis Christianae fidei p. 13. c. 3. ●rtic . 20. 1 Tim. This ●ruth the Sadduces denied , Mat. 22.23 . The great Mystery contained in this Truth , made the Philosophers to dream of a Transformation , one body being transform'd into the shape of another , or a Transmigration ●oul , taking its flight out of one body into another . They could not think that one numerical and individual body , after it is corrupted in the water , consumed by fire , converted into earth , vanished into air , nay , eaten up by fishes , and those fishes ea●en by men , it was above them to think , that this same body should rise again . When Paul disputed this Point at 〈◊〉 the great Philosophers of the Epicur●●●s laughed at him , What will this Babler say ? They lookt upon this as babling . Extremum judicium , est quando Dominus Iesus Christus in adventu suo , cum virtu●e magna & Maje●ate , extremam omnibus hominibus , juxta sua facta sententiam feret aequam & irrefragabilem , tum pils , tum impiis , aut ad vitam aeternam , aut ad supplicium aeternum . Et hoc frequenter debemus meditari cu●● Hier●nymo , qui ait ; Quoties illum diem considero , toto corpore contremisco ; five enim comedo , sive bibo , sive aliquid aliud facio ▪ semper videtur illa tuba terribilis sonare auribus meis ? Surgite mortui , venite ad judiclum . Christ coming threefold . Venit Christus occulte judic●●dus , venie● & mani●este judicaturu● . Antecedent , Concomitant , and Subsequent . 2 Thes. 2. Mat. 24. Luke 21. Mat. 25. 2 Cor. 3.6 I 2.59 . ●1 . 1 John 2.20 , 1 Cor. 2.10 . 11 , 12 , 13. 2 Cor. 2.21 , 22. 2. Ti● 3.16 . 2 Pet. 1 20.21 . Rom. 1● . 17 . 1 Pet. 2.2 . Ou Prayers are our Sacrifices , and Christ alone is the Altar , where on we must offer them to God the Father . Prayer is the wing , wherewith the soul flye●h to heaven , and Meditation the eye , wherewith we see God. Amb. Whether it is lawfull pray unto Angels ? John 14.6 2 Tim● 15. Mat. 69. Mat. 6. Est Promissionis divinae sigi num a Deo institutum constat autem Elemento & verbo , ut ext●t memoria Promissionis . There are but Sacraments in the Christian Church . Of Transubstantiation . Three Acceptations of a Door in Scripture , threefold , 1. It is an Entrance into the heart , Cant. 5.4 . Psal. 24.9.2 . Church , Iohn 10.1 3. Heaven Mat. 25 , 10. Notes for div A55568-e10430 A Salutation a● before . Especially of his future ●state . The worke of God upo● a convert●● soul is one of the greatest wonders and miracles in the world . A Declaration of Gods Work upon his soul , and the blessed eff●cts it has produced , which may serve as an Item to others . God must have all the Glory , because it is he that worketh all our works in us and for us . Either to despair or presume , is many times our condition . A converted soul is migh●y inquisitive . Joh. 14.6 . A sincere Saint bleseth God for every mercy . They part from each other . Notes for div A55568-e11700 Ministers are glad when they can have any opportunity , wherein the Work of the Lord may be carried on . The sufferings of our Lord Jesus , are not only applicatory , but exemplary . These two extreams undoes many , elther we are prone to think our conditions better then they are , or worse then they are , Job 19 . 2● Miserius nihil est misero se non miserante . None are in misery but they that can't pity themselves . The sin against the Holy Ghost is a final impenitency . Augustinus intellig●t percatum in Spiritum sanctum , ● au● finalem impaenite●iam in iis , qui non accipiunt Evangelium aut desperationem . Qui● haec peccata proprio pugnant cum gratia & 〈◊〉 abjiciunt . Nam cater●● peccata , cum fugimus ad gra●tam remi●tuntur . Ideo sic interpretatur Augustinus dictum Christi : Qui dixerit verbum contra Spiritum sanctum , id est , qui ●●bum gratia , quod praedicatum , & confirmatum est Testimoniis spiritualibus , finaliter repudiat , is habet peccatum in Spiritum sanctum . Peccatum in Spiritum sanctum est , cum quis divina veritati , & quidem Evangelio cujus fulgore sic perstringitur , ut ignorantiam causari nequeat ta●● destinata malitia resistit , in hoc ut resistat . Alsted . Sinners under ●heir first convictions , takes themselves to be of all most miserable . The Devil doth what he can , to divert us of those opportunities , which he thinks may prove most advantageous unto us , many times by dese●●ing we are hindred from effecting what we hindred . As the Devil does endeavor to hinder Ministers , from doing their Fath●rs Work , so Ministers , in like manner , does endeavor to hinder the Devil from the Accomplishment of his cruel Designes . The Devil can frame excuses at his will. It is the duty of Christians to pray one with another . ●e dat● locum Diab●l● . Eph. 4.27 Accus● tuam stu●titiam . The wicked of the World do ●ccount godly sorrow nothing but madness & distraction None are so impioūs , and sinfully audacious , as such who have fallen from the truth , wherof they were once Professors . There are many opinions in this world . Mark how the Atheist contradicts ●imself to call his God a Gentleman , it seems then his God is not a spirit . It is not good to be too inquisitive after evil spirits . True is that Adage Nemo l●editu● ni●●● sci●so , No man is h●●ted but by himself . A Diabolical contrivement A true Minister is at the Call of any that may want him . Some evil company are so subtil , as we cannot mediately finde out what they are . The Christians God is but one God , Deut. 6.4 . Deceivers are here , and there , and every where . Holy Anticipation is allowed . Mark the fallacious way of arguing from a deceitful heart . We must have à care of challengeing the Devil , left therefore the Devil How Ironically do they speak . Necessitas ●on habit legem . Christians can't but shew themselves civilly to strangers . The Devil can carry himself as civil and sober as any . The young Mans Petition unto the Devil for concession , In a matter of special concernment . ' As there is no room for Gods children here below among the wicked , so likewise there shall be no room above in Heaven for the wicked among Gods children . The devil must have a word in . Mitte Diabolum , let the Devil alone . The Devil , makes a bargain with the young man. The Bargain is accepted upon such , and such conditions . The Devil is a brag . The Devil must have one to help him . The Trinity prov●d from five Considerations . Vengeance will be executed upon the devil one day , for appropriating Gods titles unto himself . As long as faith is in a soul , so long is the Reverence of a Deity continued . The devil is a blasphemous spirit . Observe the Combate between youth and the devil . The devil is a lying spirit . The youth ( through ignorance ) familiarizes too much with the devil . Audacious blasphemy . A doubting soul affects nothing so much as plainness . Behold the devices of this fallen Angel , th● Lord keep us from him . The Devil can bring Scripture for a need . When we are tempted , we should rather say . Get ●lee behind us , Satan ; than to talk with him , and ask him Questions . The Devil is made up with nothing but lies . How far does God somtimes suffer the Devil to usurp his Prerogative . Oh poor young man ! my bowels do yearn after thee , and all in thy condition ; yet I doubt not , but God will raise thee up again , and shew thee the vanity of thy ways . O Devil pardon thy self . Faith is batter'd . The Devil rehearseth over his bargain , that he might be sure , for he is fearful of his prey . Observe this plain contradiction ; for if he was God , then he could not have been hindred ; moreover , this denies the Omnipresence of God , as well as his Omnipotence . Here is Thanksgiving without occasion , and a blessing of the devil instea● of God. T●e trying of no way conscientious , is the cause of ma●y tha● comes to be nothing . The devil and his companions are all one . A cursed inqui●tion . We are apt many times to welcom that , which in the cl●se , conduceth to cur ruine . The Devil proves there is no Providence by a Lie and corrects the young man for his illiterat●ness . There are the whisperings of an evil spirit , us well as a good . Behold the Devi● . The young Man speaks to the Devil after the Language of Canaan , which ou●ht to be used with God only . Hard thoughts of God are the fruits of Atheism When th● soul has hard thoughts of God , the Devil will do what he can to multiply them The young man now accords with the Devil in everything A time appointed for the Contract . The Devils salutation The young man is daunted . An Interrogation . He reasons with the Devil . The Devil knows how to suit hims●If , according to the constitutions of People . The Devil makes many times , as if he was but indifferent , in those things which he is most earnest and desirous of . The devil is an angry spirit . We are apt many ti●es to consider when it is too late . The Devil knows so well the advantage of consideration , as that if he should give way to it , he knows it would dash all his designes to pieces . Bla●●hemy . The Author dares not write here what he did write , lest it should prove a tentation . Note , thus far he went , and further he had gone , if divine Grace had not restrain'd him . The devils Advice to the yong man Divine Providence interrupts . The devil claims him before he is his . The young man defies the devil . A devilish machination it was , that which had almost prevailed upon the young man , in making of him to yield , by putting Pen to Paper , of which further observe . The young man talks light-headed , through the excessive te●n ▪ p●●t●ons of the devil . The danger of shunning good Councel . He despairs . It is the sin of young Converts , to condemn and censure every thing , which seems not at the first view right . The misery of this young man contributes anxiety to the Minister . An ambiguous speech . The grounds of fear . The Ministers suspicion . The Minister se●ks a●●er an interpretation of the young M● is Proverb . He ●eclare this A●ost●ey . The Ministers belief ' of the youth . In what respect the devil is God. The dev can transform him ▪ self into many shapes . The young man did go very near in contracting with the Devil , but he did totally contract with him , as you will find in fine . The young man prays for a deprecation of his misery . Behold how his misery is augmented by many gradations . An Exhortation to Thanksgiving . Motives to Confession ▪ Observe the evil eff●cts that do ensue the concealing of suggestions . Nam multa possunt ostendi veteris & Novi Testamenti exempla ubi lapsi remissionem peccatorum & absolutionem à Christo & Ecclesia sunt consecuti , viz. David , Manasse , Petrus , lapsa est Galatarum Ecclesia , & à Paulo ad poenitentiam revocata : & Paulus ipse Corinthium incestum jub●t recepi post poeni tentiam . Aug. The young mans sins of omission and commission . He cannot lift up his eyes to God. Luke 16. Heb. 7.25 Ezek. 33.11 . Psal. 32.5 . Psa. 38.18 Joh. 14.6 . Mat. 26.41 . 1 Thes. 5.17 . Phil. 4.11 1 Tim 6.8 Eph. 4.27 . Jam. 47. Eph. 4.27 . 2 Co. 11.2 . 
A59900	----	A vindication of Dr. Sherlock's sermon concerning The danger of corrupting the faith by philosophy in answer to some Socinian remarks / by William Sherlock ... Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. 1697 Approx. 81 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 23 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A59900 Wing S3371 ESTC R21027 12048983 ocm 12048983 53116 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A59900) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 53116) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 823:12) A vindication of Dr. Sherlock's sermon concerning The danger of corrupting the faith by philosophy in answer to some Socinian remarks / by William Sherlock ... Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. [4], 40 p. Printed for W. Rogers ..., London : 1697. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. -- Danger of corrupting the faith by philosophy. Faith -- Early works to 1800. Socinianism. 2003-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-09 Melanie Sanders Sampled and proofread 2004-09 Melanie Sanders Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A VINDICATION OF Dr. Sherlock's SERMON CONCERNING The Danger of Corrupting the Faith by Philosophy . IN ANSWER TO SOME Socinian Remarks . By WILLIAM SHERLOCK , D. D. Dean of St. Paul's , Master of the Temple , and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty . LONDON : Printed for W. Rogers , at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet . MDCXCVII . To the Right Honourable Sir EDWARD CLARKE , LORD MAYOR : And to the Honourable Court of Aldermen . MY LORD , I Beg leave to Present Your Lordship with the Vindication of my Sermon lately Published by the Order of Your Court , against the Cavils , Calumnies , and wilful Misrepresentations of a Socinian Writer . The Argument is of that great Consequence that it deserves to be defended ; and this Pamphleteer has so rudely reflected upon the Honour and Sincerity of the Court , for their Order to Print it , that I look'd upon my self under a double Obligation , to Defend so Important a Truth , and in that to justify Your Lordship's Order . I pray God rebuke that perverse Spirit of Infidelity and Heresy which is gone abroad in the World , and secure the Faith of Christians from all the Arts and Insinuations of Impostors . That God would bless Your Lordship's Government , and preserve this Great City from all Temporal and Spiritual Evils ▪ is the hearty Prayer of , MY LORD , Your Lordship's , Most Obedient Servant , William Sherlock . A VINDICATION OF Dr. SHERLOCK'S Sermon before my LORD MAYOR , &c. WHEN I receiv'd the threatning and boasting Message from some busy Factors of the Socinian Fraternity , what work they would make with my late Sermon before my Lord Mayor , concerning the Danger of corrupting the Faith by Philosophy , my greatest Concernment was , how to meet with their Answer , which usually comes last to my hands , and how to bear the Drudgery of reading it ; for their Arguments have been spent long since , and that little Wit they had is now degenerated into Railing . That scurrilous Treatment they have lately given to so many Excellent Persons , especially to that Great Man the Bishop of Worcester , is a fair Warning to all who dare oppose them , what they must expect : And besides the Experience of their many former Civilities , I had more than ordinary reason to expect it now , they being touch'd in a very sensible part , without any other Defence to make : And this Author has not deceiv'd my Expectations ; for upon a Perusal of his Remarks , I find nothing of Argument , a very little Wit , and abundance of Railing . His Wit and Railing be to himself ; but I am sorry I can find nothing that looks so like an Argument , as to administer occasion for any useful Discourse . This there is no help for ; if Men will write Books without any Arguments to be answered , there is nothing to be done , but only to shew that they have offered nothing to the purpose , or that needs an Answer : And this will be done in a few words ; for he has disputed at large against what I never said nor thought , but has not one word against any part of the Argument of that Sermon . His Title-Page pretends a great Zeal for the Doctrine of the Catholick Church , and of the Church of England , concerning the Blessed Trinity : Which is as true , as that Richard Baldwin printed this Pamphlet , who has publickly disowned it in Print : But though a Socinian Conscience can digest such Godly Cheats , as a piece of Wit and Artifice , yet a Wise Man would not venture on them , because Mankind hate to be abused , and grow very jealous of Men of Tricks . And yet had we to deal with Modest Men , it would be thought a little of the latest for a Socinian to talk of defending the Doctrine of the Catholick Church , and of the Church of England , concerning the Blessed Trinity : For their Cant about Real and Nominal Trinitarians , and Three Infinite Minds and Spirits , is too well known to pass for so much as a Jest any longer ; and till they can defend the Judgment of their Disinteressed Person a little better than by scorning the Answer , which they will never be able to make any other Reply to , it were time for them , could they find any thing else to say in the room of it , to let that alone . And yet this is what he would bring this present Dispute to , if he knew how : He often flirts at Three Infinite Minds and Spirits , though there is no such Expression in the whole Sermon ; but still he says I intimate this in asserting a Real Trinity : Now if Three Infinite Minds and Spirits be essential to the Notion of a Real Trinity , ( as his Inference supposes ) it is the best Vindication that could possibly be thought of for that Expression : For not to believe a Real Trinity , is to deny the Father to be a True and Real Father , and the Son to be a True and Real Son , and the Holy Ghost to be a True and Real Spirit ; and this is to deny the Catholick Faith of Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , which cannot be a Real Trinity , cannot be really Three , if each of them be not truly and really what is signified by those Names . But though that Phrase of Three Infinite Minds and Spirits was used very innocently by me , only to signify Three Infinite Intelligent Persons , each of which is Infinite Mind and Spirit , and neither of them is each other , which is the Catholick Faith ; yet I freely acknowledge , as I have done more than once , That it is liable to a very Heretical Tritheistick Sense , if understood absolutely , and in that Sense I always disowned it : And it is a sign Men have very little to say , when they make such a noise with an inconvenient Form of Speech , though expounded to a Catholick Sense : But the Margin will direct the Reader where he may find the true State of this Controversy . But what is all this to my Sermon ? which neither explains nor defends any particular Hypothesis about the Trinity , but is a general Vindication of the Christian Faith from the Pretences of Reason and Philosophy . But , The Doctrine of the Catholick Church , and of the Church of England , concerning the Blessed Trinity , explained and asserted ▪ against the dangerous Heterodoxies in a Sermon by Dr William Sherlock , &c And , Remarks upon Dr. William Sherlock ' s ( False and Treacherous ) Defence and Explication of some Principal Articles of Faith , &c. were more specious Titles , and both so good , that they knew not which to chuse , and therefore adorned the Title-Page with one , and the Frontispiece with the other , that if ever a poor Sermon was confuted with Titles ( which have a strange Magick in them ) this is utterly undone . But it is time to consider his Remarks , which exactly answer the Title , that they are nothing to the purpose . I am not at leisure to follow him in all his Harangues ; and his Wit and Buffoonry I despise too much to take notice of it ; and when it appears that a Man has discharged all his Artillery of Witticisms against his own Mistakes , he is witty at his own Cost too . He has made an Abstract or Summary ( as he calls it , P. 4. ) of my Sermon , but in his own Method , his own Words , and directly contrary to my Sense : That is , he has abstracted from every thing that is in the Sermon , that no Man living by his Abstract can tell what the Subject or Drift of the Sermon was , or any one Argument contained in it : I 'm sure I who made the Sermon , knew nothing of it but by mere guess , as I read it in his Abstract ; and would those Men who read these Remarks , be but so fair and honest as to read the Sermon too , there would need no other Answer . The First Branch of my Sermon in his Abstract ( P. 8. ) is this ; Philosophy and Reason are the only things which those Men adore , who would have no God at all . And what makes some Men Atheists and Infidels , even the Philosophick Tincture , and their adherence to Natural Reason , the same makes others to be Hereticks , that is , to be Arians , Socinians , and Pelagians . Now any one would think that this were one of the Heads of my Sermon ; which is so far from truth , that there is no such Proposition to be found there , but the contrary to this is to be found there in express words . In the first Page of my Sermon there are these words : What some Men call Philosophy and Reason ( and there is nothing so foolish and absurd which some Men will no call so ) is the only thing which those Men adore , who would either have no God , or a God and Religion of their own making . And what Attempts some have made to undermine all Religion , and others to corrupt and transform the whole Frame of the Christian Religion , upon a pretence of its contradicting Natural Reason and Philosophy , is too well known to need a Proof . And soon after ( P. 2. ) This vain Pretence to Reason and Philosophy ; the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the vain deceit in my Text , which is applicable to all vain spurious Philosophy , as well as Platonism , and is so meant by the Apostle . And P. 7. Truly that which makes some men Infidels , makes others Hereticks , that is , a vain Pretence to Philosophy . Now let any man judge , Whether this be to charge Atheism , Infidelity , and Heresy , upon Reason and Philosophy , or upon what some men call Reason and Philosophy , which may be very foolish and absurd ? Whether the Pretences of contradicting Reason and Philosophy , and the vain Pretences to Philosophy , signify Reason and Philosophy ? This is wilful Misrepresentation ; for it is impossible he should mistake , I having expresly distinguisht between these vain Pretences to Philosophy , and true Philosophy , ( p. 3. ) Whoever considers what an Enemy these vain Pretences to Philosophy have always been to Religion , will see need enough for this Caution ( of the Text. ) True Reason , and the true knowledge of Nature , which is true Philosophy , would certainly direct us to the acknowledgment and worship of that Supream Being , who made the World , and yet we know , there never was an Atheist without some pretence to Philosophy : Though it seems , as this Author tells us , ( p. 9. ) there has been an Arch-heretick , even Socinus himself without it ; and so may all his Disciples be too , and yet be vain Pretenders to Reason and Philosophy ; however , I am as Orthodox in this Point , as my Lord Bacon himself , whom he objects against me , whose Sense I exactly expressed , though not his Words . But nothing can more fully declare my sense in this particular , than what the Reader may find ( p. 10. ) 2dly . Let us now consider what great reason we have to reject all the vain Pretences to Reason and Philosophy , when opposed to a Divine Revelation . For that i● all the Apostle intends in this Caution , not to discourage the use of Reason , or the study of Philosophy , which are great improvements , and a delightful entertainment of Human Minds , and with a wise and prudent conduct may be very serviceable to Religion too ; but we must not set up any Conclusions in Philosophy against the Christian Faith ; nor corrupt the Faith with a mixture of Philosophy ; nor reject any Revealed Truths for want of Natural Ideas to conceive them by . Nothing can be plainer than this ; That I am very far from condemning the sober use of Reason and Philosophy , though with the Apostle , I will not allow them to oppose the Authority of a Divine Revelation . So that our Author need not be so terribly frighted , as if this Innocent Sermon were a designed revenge against the Oxford Heads , the Learning of the Place , and Philosophy it self , ( p. 1. ) ( though the Apostle indeed will not allow Philosophy alone to make Decrees in Articles of Faith ) ; here is no danger of setting up Folly and Falshood ( which would be to encroach upon his Province ) or of writing a second Moriae Encomium , or praise of Folly. Here is no danger , that the Articles of Faith should disagree with true Reason and Philosophy , though a vain appearance , a Socinian Philosophy , may contradict the Articles of Faith. Nay my Lord Mayor , and the Court of Aldermen , ( p. 9. ) notwithstanding this Sermon , may very safely send their Children to Cambridge or Oxford , if they get good Tutors for them , who will reach them no Socinian Logick or Philosophy : And which is more , we may confute Atheists and Infidels by Reason and Philosophy , ( p. 8. ) without being at the charge of buying a massy Quarto Bible , with Clasps , and Bosses , to knock'em down with : As he very wittily , and with great reverence to the Holy Scriptures , expresses it : For Reason and Philosophy may confute Atheists and Infidels , though they have no Authority to make or unmake Articles of Faith , as to matters of pure Revelation . Nay more than this still ( if it be possible to please him ) , we will allow Reason and Philosophy to confute Heresies , though not to judge absolutely in matters of Faith : Which I suppose is the reason , why , as he observes ( p. 9. ) Hereticks , many of them , are no less bitter against this same ( damnable ) Philosophy : They protest , especially in their Latin Works , that 't is this Philosophy that corrupted and debauched Divinity . Damnable is a very fashionable word , and shews him to be well bred , and to have good Acquaintance ; but it is a very great Truth , That though Catholick Christians would never build their Faith on Philosophy , yet Hereticks have always had great reason to rail at true Philosophy , as I observed in my Sermon ( p. 10. ) The importunity of Hereticks did very often engage the Catholick Fathers in Philosophical Disputes ; but this they did , not to explain the Christian Mysteries by Philosophy but only to shew , that as incomprehensible as these Mysteries are , the Philosophy of Hereticks , and their Objections against these Articles , were very absurd . And such Disputes as these may sometimes be absolutely necessary , and of great use to shame these vain Pretences to Philosophy , while we do not put the trial of our Faith upon this issue . And thus much for his first Proposition , ( for it is none of mine ) that Reason and Philosophy are the two Idols of Atheists and Hereticks , and that make Atheists to be Atheists , and Hereticks to be Hereticks , ( p. 12. ) His second Proposition ( Ibid. ) runs thus . That to ascertain the very and true Faith , we must attend only to that meaning of Scripture which the Words and Phrases do imply : Rejecting all mixture of Reason and Philosophy in our Disputes about Religion , and our Inquiries about the meaning of Scripture . Now let any Reader try , whether he can find any such Proposition as this in all my Sermon , either in words or sense . I could not for some time guess , what shadow of pretence he could have for charging such a Proposition on me : I did indeed in some principal Articles distinguish between Faith and Philosophy ; between what is revealed in Scripture , and what Philosophical Disputes , which the Scripture takes no notice of , have been raised about them , and warned all men from mixing and corrupting the Faith with Philosophy ; but does this forbid us Expounding Scripture agreeable to Reason and common Sense , and Philosophy too , where Sense , and Reason , and Philosophy , are proper judges ? They are not the supreme and absolute judges in matters of pure Revelation ; But does it hence follow , that they cannot judge of their proper Objects ? Do I any where say , That we must always expound the Scripture to a literal Sense ? That when Christ is called a Way , a Door , a Rock , we must understand this literally ? And yet this is plainly what he would have to be my Sense , as his beloved instance of Transubstantiation shews . In this Sermon I have given no Rules for Expounding Scripture , which in time I hope I may . But what I assert is this , That when by all those Methods which Wise Men observe in expounding any Writing , we have found out what the true sense of Scripture must be , we must not reject such Doctrines meerly because natural Reason cannot conceive or comprehend them . That Revelation as to such matters as are knowable only by Revelation , must serve instead of Sense , natural Ideas , and natural Reason , ( p. 11. ) This gives a plain Answer to all his Cant about Transubstantiation , from our Saviour's words , This is my Body , ( p. 12. ) For is there no way of knowing what is Bread , and what is Flesh , but by Revelation ? Is not this the proper object of Sense and Reason ? And then it does not come within my Rule ; for Sense and Reason must judge of their proper Objects , though Revelation must serve us instead of Sense and Reason , as to such matters as can be known only by Revelation ; that is , as I expresly add , we must upon the Authority of Revelation believe things which we do not see , things which we have no natural notion or conception of , things which are not evident to natural Reason : As for instance , If it be Revealed in Scripture that God has an Eternal Word , his Only-Begotten Son ; and that in time this Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us ; this Son of God became Man ; that God sent forth his Son made of a Woman , made under the Law : Though neither Sense nor natural Ideas , nor meer natural Reason , give us any notice of it ; yet if we will own a Revelation , we must believe it upon the sole Authority of Revelation : But though Revelation in such cases be Sense and Reason to us , because we have no other means of Knowledge ; yet Sense must judge of the natural Objects of Sense , and Reason of the Objects of natural Reason ; but Revelation was never intended to unteach us what Sense and natural Reason evidently teach , and therefore it cannot teach us , that Bread is Flesh , and Wine is Blood. But this Socinian is got so far towards Popery , that he will not allow Sense to be judge of this matter , whether the Bread be Transubstantiated or not , and that for a very pleasant Reason ; his words are these , ( p. 13. ) He cannot have recourse to Sense in the case , 't is only Reason and Philosophy can help him out : For though the Apostles , who saw and tasted that it was Bread only , and not Flesh , might have appealed also to their Senses ; yet we that never saw or tasted the Substance which Jesus gave then to the Disciples , can know by Reason and Philosophy only , by nothing else , that it was not his Flesh and Blood : That is , I can't know by Sense that Christ gave Bread and Wine , and not Flesh and Blood to his Disciples , because I did not See and Taste my self that very Substance that Christ gave to his Disciples : But can I judge by Sense that what I my self See and Taste in the Lords Supper , is Bread and Wine after Consecration , not Flesh and Blood ? For that is the Question between us and the Church of Rome ; not , whether we receive the same now which Christ gave to the Apostles in the first Institution ( which they take for granted , and to question which , is meer Scepticism ) but what that change is , which the words of Consecration make in the Elements to this day ; and if we cannot judge of this by Sense , the Church of Rome have a better Plea for themselves than I thought they had . And if I can't now judge by my own Senses what it was Christ gave to his Apostles , and what they Saw and Tasted , I fear it will much weaken some other very good Arguments against Transubstantiation . But how will this Socinian , who rejects the Evidence of Sense , confute Transubstantiation ? Why that is easily done by Reason and Philosophy ; as thus , The Text expresly says , it was Bread which he blessed and brake , and called it his Body ; therefore it was his Body in Sign and Signification , not in Reality . All this is Arguing , 't is Reason that convinces us , not Sense , that the Substance he divided to them was indeed Bread , not his Flesh , which he neither blessed nor brake . This is Reasoning indeed ; But did I ever reject Reasoning and Arguing about the meaning of Scripture Words and Phrases , and the true Sense and Interpretation of Scripture ? Is there no difference between Reasoning about the Sense of Scripture , and setting up the Conclusions of meer natural Reason and Philosophy against the plain and evident Doctrines of Scripture ? It is certain I made a manifest distinction between them , p. 9. In all these cases we are concerned to enquire what the true sense of the Article is ; for this the Scripture teaches , and so far our Faith is concerned , and these are not only justifiable , but necessary Disputes , if the true Faith be necessary . And such were the Disputes of the Catholick Fathers with the Sabellian , Arian , and Photinian Hereticks , &c. So that I allow of Arguing and Reasoning as much as he does ; and add , But that which we are to beware of , is not to mix Philosophy with our Faith , nor to admit of any meer Philosophical Objections against the Faith , nor to attempt any Explication of these Mysteries , beyond what the Scriptures and the Faith and Practice of the Catholick Church will justify . This distinction he knew very well , but very honestly dissembles it , and endeavours to impose upon his Readers , as if Reasoning and Arguing about the Sense of Scripture , and resolving our Faith into meer natural Reason and Philosophy , were the same thing . He was aware what Answer would be given to this , and therefore in the very next Paragraph he confutes his own Reasoning from Scripture , and proves that the Text does not confute Transubstantiation : But if our Preacher , says he , believes it was only Bread , because the Text it self calls it Bread ( which was his own Argument ) , let him consider , that seeing what was called Bread before Christ blessed it , after the blessing he calls it his Body ; we cannot know by Sense or by the Text , but by Reason and Philosophy only , that it was not changed ( by the blessing ) into what now he calls it , namely , his Body . But if This signifies Bread , then . This is my Body , signifies , This Bread is my Body ; and if Bread be his Body , then his Sacramental Body is not Flesh : But I do not intend to dispute this Point with him , but only observe , That to set up his Reason and Philosophy to be absolute Judges in Matters of Faith , he will not allow either Sense or Scripture to confute Transubstantiation . It cannot but give all sober Christians a just Indignation , to see the most Sacred and Venerable Mysteries perpetually ridicul'd at this Prophane rate ! In the Reign of King James there was a Pamphlet published to reconcile men to Transubstantiation , by representing the Doctrine of the Trinity to the full as absurd , and chargeable with as many Contradictions as Transubstantiation it self : This was then charged on the Papists , and they were sufficiently expos'd for it ; but a Great Man has lately informed us , That it was writ by a Socinian , to make men Papists or Socinians , as it should happen ; which was a Glorious Design at that time of day , for men who take it ill if you will not allow them to be Protestants , and to enjoy the Liberty of Protestants : For they could not but see that Popery was then grown very Fashionable and Tempting by the Favour and Frowns of a Popish Prince ; and that the generality of Christians did so firmly believe the Doctrine of the Trinity , that could they have persuaded them , as they endeavoured , That Transubstantiation was as reasonable a Doctrine as the Trinity , it was much more likely that they would turn Papists than Socinians . Instead of Popery men are now running into the other Extremes of Atheism , Deism , and a Contempt of all Reveal'd Religion , and that upon a pretence of making mere Natural Reason and Philosophy their sole Guide and Judge ; and now our Socinians have a new Game to play ; and if they dare not absolutely deny the Authority of Revelation ( which in many Instances they have shewn a good Inclination to ) , yet they give a superior Authority to Reason , which will serve as well , and make less noise than to reject all Revelation . And if you shew them how absurd this is , to pretend to own a Divine Revelation , and to make Revelation submit to mere Natural Reason and Philosophy , they presently take sanctuary in Transubstantiation , and defend it against the Evidence of Sense , and the Authority of Scripture , to make Reason and Philosophy the Supreme Judge in Matters of Faith ; and in the mean time matter not what becomes of Religion , what advantage they give either to Popery or Deism , so they can but expose the Faith of the Trinity . He has given us a little Specimen of it here ; but the same Author , as far as I can guess from the same Words and the same Thoughts , has with his usual Civility attack'd my Lord Bishop of Sarum upon this Argument , which upon this occasion I shall briefly consider . His Lordship in vindication of the Christian Mysteries , with great reason rejects Transubstantiation out of the number of Mysteries , because it contradicts Sense in the Object of Sense ; his words are these : Transubstantiation must not be a Mystery , because there is against it the Evidence of Sense in an Object of Sense : For Sense plainly represents to us the Bread and Wine to be still the same that they were before the Consecration . Now I cannot think this Author in earnest in the two first Answers he gives to this . His first Answer is , That it is not pretended by the Papists , that the Bread and Wine have received any the least Change in what is an Object of Sense . This is a Discovery worthy its Author , that the Papists don 't deny that they see , and feel , and taste , and smell the sensible Qualities of Bread and Wine : For who ever charged them with such a Contradiction to Sense as this ? But our Senses judge of the Substances of things by their sensible qualities ; judge that to be Bread and Wine , which has all the qualities of Bread and Wine : And therefore to say , as the Papists do , That what our Sight , and Taste , and Smell tell us has all the qualities of Bread and Wine , is not Bread and Wine , does not indeed contradict our Senses as to sensible qualities , but contradicts that Judgment our Senses make of the Natures of things from their sensible qualities : And this is that Contradiction to Sense which the Bishop justly charges upon Transubstantiation ; as is evident in his very words . In his Second Answer he Disputes against the Infallibility of our Senses , as he calls it , by such Common Arguments as every Freshman knows how to Answer ; only I do not remember , that the Delusions of our Dreams used to be objected against the Evidence of Sense ; but suppose our Senses may deceive us in some few instances wherein both Sense and Reason can Correct the mistake , must they therefore deceive in the Nature of Bread and Wine ? Can he prove , that they ever deceive us with Qualities and Accidents without a Substance ? For that is the Cheat of Transubstantiation : It is not pretended , as he observed in his First Answer , That our Senses deceive us in the Colour , or Figure , or Taste , or Smell of Bread and Wine ; and therefore all his instances of the Deception of our Senses are nothing to the purpose ; but let him give us any one instance of the other kind , if he can , and then we will believe Transubstantiation in Contradiction to our Senses . But does he consider , what the Consequence of this Argument is ? He will not allow it a good Argument against Transubstantiation , That it contradicts Sense , because our Senses may deceive us in the Objects of Sense ( which by the way makes his instance of the Delusions of Dreams , which are not the Objects of Sense , very impertinent ; ) now if contradiction to Sense be not a good Objection , because Sense is not Infallible , what will become of his great Argument of Contradiction to Reason ? For all men confess , That Reason is not so Infallible as Sense is , as is evident from all the Disputes and Clashings of Reason , and those Absurdities and Contradictions which contending Parties mutually charge upon each other ; and if a Contradiction to Fallible Sense be not a good Objection against the Truth of any thing , how comes a Contradiction to much more Fallible Reason to be so unanswerable an Objection ? And then we may much more safely believe a Trinity in Unity , notwithstanding all their pretended Contradictions to Reason , than we can believe Transubstantiation in Contradiction to Sense . But in his Third Answer , he seems to be in good earnest , and I shall consider it as such ; and it is this . Transubstantiation is contradicted by Sense , saith his Lordship , in an Object of Sense ; therefore 't is a false Mystery . This is as much as to say , That a Faculty or Power judging of its proper Object , always judges truly , and must determine our Belief . He must say this , or his Reasoning is nothing . I ask now of what Faculty or Power is Almighty God the Object . He will Answer , God is the Object , not of Sense , which discerns him not , but of Reason , which discovers , and sees this most Glorious Being . Therefore Reason , by his Lordship 's own Argument , judges infallibly concerning God , and must determine our Belief about him : We must hearken to Reason , when it finds Contradictions in what men affirm concerning God. Now notwithstanding his vain Brags , and his Triumphant Challenge to the Bishop , a very little Skill will Answer this Argument . For , 1. The Bishop need not say , because it is not true , That every Faculty and Power judges as certainly of its proper Object , as Sense does , and then his Argument is quite lost : For if Sense judges more certainly than Reason , then a manifest Contradiction to Sense is a more unanswerable Objection , than any appearing and pretended Contradictions to Reason . I believe this Author is the first man who ever thus universally equalled the Evidence of Reason to that of Sense ; or that ever affirmed , that Reason could judge infallibly of God. And if Reason may be mistaken ( which I shall take for granted ) especially in the Infinite and Incomprehensible Nature of God , some appearing Contradictions , or what some men will call Contradictions , are not a sufficient reason to reject a Revelation , and to disbelieve what God tells us of Himself , and his own Nature . 2 dly . Whatever certainty we allow to our Faculties in judging of their proper Objects , we must extend it no farther than to what belongs to the judgment of that Faculty : The same thing may be the Object of different Faculties , as it is of our different Senses ; but every Faculty , and every Sense , judges of nothing in any Object , but only what belongs to it self . All the Objects of Sense are the Objects of Reason too ; but Sense judges of nothing but what belongs to Sense , and Reason of what belongs to Reason ; and Reason can judge no farther of any Object , than it is knowable by Reason ; and not only the Divine , but even Created Nature has such Secrets and Mysteries as are not knowable by Reason ; and therefore it is manifest Ignorance or Sophistry , to conclude from God's being the Object of Reason , therefore Reason judges infallibly concerning God : For , not to Dispute about the Infallible Judgment of Reason , God is the Object of Reason , because Reason can know something concerning God ; but God can be the Object of Reason no farther than he is knowable by Reason ; and therefore if there be any thing which Natural Reason cannot know of God ( as I hope this Author himself will own ) , with respect to such matters God is not the Object of Reason , and Reason cannot judge at all , much less judge infallibly concerning God. But as Sense leaves room for Reason in the same Object , so Reason leaves room for Faith. But must we not hearken to Reason when it finds Contradictions in what men affirm concerning God ? Yes , most certainly , as far as God is the Object of Reason , and knowable by Reason , but no farther ; for in such matters as Reason cannot judge of at all , it cannot judge of Contradictions . Sense and Reason can judge of Contradictions only for themselves , or as far as their judgment reaches , but may appear Contradictions themselves to each other . As for instance : Reason assures us that Man consists of Soul and Body , which are closely united to each other , and yet the Union of Spirit and Matter is no better than contradiction to the judgment of Sense ; for Sense knows no Union but by Contact , nor any Contact but between Bodies , which have extended and solid Parts , that can touch each other ; so that an Union without Contact is one contradiction to the judgment of Sense , and a Contact without extended solid parts , which a Spirit has not , is another ; and yet Reason does not matter these Contradictions to the judgment of Sense , because Sense is not the Judge of such things : And it is the same Case between Reason and Faith , which receives its information from a Divine Revelation , concerning such Matters as are not knowable by Natural Reason : should Reason contradict Faith in such Matters as Reason is no Judge of , this is no more an Objection against the Superior Evidence and Authority of Faith , than the Judgment of Sense is against the Evidence of Reason ; such Contradictions are not in the nature of things , but are owing to our ignorance of Nature , and presumption in judging of what we cannot understand . The Example he gives of such a contradiction to Reason , is a Trinity of Persons , every one of which is perfect God , and yet all of them but One God ; but for my life , I cannot see this plain Contradiction , That Three Persons , each of which has all the Perfections of Divinity , and is perfect God , should be so essentially united in the s●me One Eternal and Infinite Nature , as to be but One God. This is not a Contradiction in terminis , it is not Three Persons and but One Person , or Three Gods and but One God , but Three Divine Persons , and One God. If the Unity of the Godhead consisted in the Unity of a Person , I grant it would be a flat Contradiction to say , Three Persons and One God , which would be equivalent to Three Gods and One God ; but if the Unity of the Godhead consists in the Unity of Nature , that there is but One Eternal and Infinite Nature , which is the One God , and this Unity , and Identity of Nature be perfectly and entirely preserved in Three Divine Persons , it is so far from a Contradiction to say , That Three Persons are One God , that it would be a Contradiction to say , That Three Divine Persons , who have the same One Identical Nature , should be more than One God ; for that is to say , That One Divine Nature , which can be but One God , is Three Gods. Now this is all that Natural Reason tells us of the Unity of the Godhead , That there is , and can be , but One Eternal Infinite Nature , which is but One God ; this we expresly teach , and therefore do not contradict Reason ; but then Scripture tells us , That there are Three , Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , to whom the Name and Attributes of God , and therefore this One Infinite Undivided Nature , belong . This Reason boggles at , and Socinians call a Contradiction ; but it is such a Contradiction , as Sense would judge the Union of Spirit and Matter to be : At most it is an imaginary Contradiction in the Subsistence of the Divine Nature , which Reason knows nothing about , and therefore can make no judgment of ; and such appearing-Contradictions are no Objections , because they may be no Contradictions ; as we are sure they are none , when the Doctrines charged with these Contradictions are taught in Scripture . There is one distinction , which seems to me to set this matter in a clear light , and to answer all the Pretences of Contradictions ; and that is , The distinction between Contradictions in Logick and Philosophy . A Contradiction in Logick , is when two Propositions in express terms contradict each other ; and all men grant that both parts of such Contradictions cannot be true , as that there are Three Gods , and but One God , which is to say , that there are , and that there are not Three Gods ; that there is , and that there is not , but One only God. A Contradiction in Philosophy , is when any thing is affirmed concerning the Nature or Essential Properties of any Being , which seems to contradict all the Notions and Ideas we have of Nature in other Beings , and such Contradictions as these may be both true ; for the Natures of things may be contrary to , and contradict each other and yet both of them be true and real Beings . There are infinite Instances of this in all Nature ; the Ideas of Hot and Cold , of White and Black , of Light and Darkness , of solid and fluid Bodies , of Matter and Spirit , are direct Contradictions , in this notion of a Contradiction , to each other : And had we known but one of these Opposites by our Natural Ideas , and the other had been revealed to us , we might as justly have cried out of Contradictions , as the Socinians now do , when you mention a Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Nature . For Heat contradicts the Idea of Cold , and Fluid of Solid ; as much as Three Persons in the Unity of Nature , contradicts the Unity of Nature in the Unity of a Person : This latter indeed is the natural notion we have , That there is but One Person in One Subsisting Intelligent Nature ; for we have no example of any thing else , and therefore can have no natural Idea of any other Unity ; but this does not prove , that it cannot be otherwise ; for there may be Oppositions and Contrarieties in Nature ; and did we but consider what an infinite distance and unlikeness there is between God and Creatures , we should not think it reasonable to judge of the Divine Nature by the Ideas of Created Nature . This is a very real and sensible distinction between Contradictions in Logick , and in Nature and Philosophy , and there is a certain way to know them : Logical Contradictions are always immediately reducible to is , and is not ; for they affirm and deny the same thing in the same sence : The Contradictions in Nature and Philosophy are only the opposition and contrariety there is between the Ideas of several Beings , which can never be reduced to a Contradiction in Logick , but through Ignorance or Mistake , by changing the sense and use of words . Let any Socinian try the Experiment in the Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity , and reduce it to such a Contradiction if he can . A Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Nature , is a Contradiction to that Idea we have of the Unity of Person and Nature in created Beings , but this is no Contradiction in Logick ; for it is not a Contradiction in the same Nature and Being , as all Contradictions in Logick must be , but it is a Contrariety or Contradiction ( if we will so call it ) between the Unity and Personalities of two very different Natures , the Divine and the Created Nature ; and all the Contradiction that can be made of it , is no more than this , That the Unity of the Divine Nature , which is perfect and undivided in Three distinct Persons , contradicts the Notion of Unity in a Created Nature , which admits but of One Person in One Individual Nature : But there are a thousand such Contradictions in Nature , that is , different Natures , whose Ideas are opposite and contrary to each other , and yet all of them real Beings : But could they make a Trinity in Unity contradict it self , that the Trinity should in express terms destroy the Unity , and the Unity the Trinity , this would be somewhat to the purpose ; for it would prove a Contradiction in Logick , when the Terms destroy each other ; but then the Trinity and Unity must be the same ; a Trinity of Persons , and but One Person ; or a Trinity of Natures , and but one Nature : But a Trinity of Persons , true , proper , subsisting Persons , in the Unity of Nature , which is the Catholick Faith , is not a Contradiction in Logick , though it contradicts the Notion of Human Personalities , which it may do , and yet be very true . This is abundantly enough to shew the Weakness and Folly of this Socinian Cant about Transubstantiation ; the Impiety , Prophaneness , and mischievous Consequences of it , let others consider . His Third Charge is , That I say , That as we are Christians , and unless we will be understood to reject the Supreme Authority of Divine Revelation , we must believe those Doctrines which are thought to be most mysterious and inconceivable , notwithstanding any Objection from Reason or from Philosophy against ' em . He that believes no farther than Natural Reason approves , believes his Reason , not the Revelation ; he is a Natural Philosopher , not a Believer . He believes the Scriptures as he would believe Plato or Tully , not as Inspired Writings , but as agreeable to Reason , and as the result of wise and deep Thoughts , p. 14. Here he has taken some of my Words , and so put them together , as to conceal the whole Force of the Argument , which he always takes care to do . My business ( P. 10 , 11 , &c. ) was to prove , That we ought to believe those Doctrines which are thought the most mysterious and inconceivable , notwithstanding any Objections from Natural Reason and Philosophy against them : And this I proved from the Nature , Use , and Authority of Revelation . That Revelation , as to such matters as are knowable only by Revelation , must serve instead of Sense , Natural Ideas , and Natural Reason . That if we believe upon God's Authority ( which is the strict Notion of a Divine Faith ) we must believe without any Natural Evidence , merely because God has revealed it ; and then we must believe such things as are not evident to Sense and Reason . That to believe no farther than Natural Reason can conceive and comprehend , is to reject the Divine Authority of Revelation , and to destroy the distinction between Reason and Faith. He that will believe no farther than his Reason approves , believes his Reason , not the Revelation , and is in truth a Natural Philosopher , not a Believer . Here any man may perceive that our Socinian was plainly baffled , for he has not one word to answer , but only says , that I contradict this my self in my Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity , where I assert , That suppose the natural Construction of the Words of Scripture import such a Sense as is contrary to some evident Principle of Reason , I won't believe it : Of this more presently ; but what is this to the purpose ? Is there no difference between what Reason can't conceive , comprehend , approve , and what the Reason of all Mankind contradicts ? No difference between believing what we do not see , what we have no natural notion or conception of , what is not evident to natural Reason , and believing in contradiction to sense , and such natural Notions , and natural Evidence , as all Mankind agree in ? But he is very much troubled , according to his Principle of believing Scripture no farther than Natural Reason and Philosophy approves , how to distinguish between believing Plato and Tully , and believing a Revelation . He says , They look upon Plato and Tully , as great Men , but Fallible ( p. 15. ) and therefore may take the liberty to dissent from them ; and believe them no farther than Reason approves : Very right ; but will he believe the Scripture any farther than Reason can conceive , comprehend , approve ? Have a care of that : But they will do as well ; if Reason will not approve of such Scripture Doctrines , as it can't conceive and comprehend , they will Expound and Torture Scripture , till it submits to Reason : For it is more congruous to think , that an Inspired Writer uses a Figurative , or it may be a Catachrestical ( very Catachrestical ) Expression or Phrase , than that he delivers flat contradictions , or downright impossibilities : That is to say , they must by all means believe , or pretend to believe , the Scripture ; but then they must never own any thing to be in Scripture , which their Reason calls a flat contradiction , or downright impossibility ; which is the very same thing ; for the reason why they will not allow , that the Scripture contains any thing , which their Reason does not approve , is because they must believe the Scripture , but must not believe it beyond their own Reason and Comprehension ; and the only difference they make between Plato and Tully , and the Scripture is , That they can safely reject their Authority , when they please , but must be at the trouble of Expounding away whatever they do not approve in the Scripture . This is what I told them in the Vindication ; and as Impious as this Author thinks it , I will venture to Transcribe that whole Paragraph . But I have not done with our Author thus ; but must give him a little more about Expounding Scripture according to Reason : For I affirm , that Natural Reason is not the Rule and Measure of Expounding Scripture , no more than it is of Expounding any other Writing . The true and only way to interpret any Writing , even the Scriptures themselves , is to examine the use and propriety of Words and Phrases ; the Connexion , Scope , and Design of the Text , its allusion to Ancient Customs and Usages , or Disputes , &c. For there is no other good reason to be given for any Exposition , but that the words signify so , and the circumstances of the place , and apparent Scope of the Writer requires it . But our Author ( as many others do ) seems to confound the Reasons of believing any Doctrine , with the Rules of Expounding a Writing . We must believe nothing that contradicts the plain and express Dictate of Natural Reason , which all Mankind agree in , whatever pretence of Revelation there be for it ; Well , say they , then you must Expound Scripture so as to make it agree with the necessary Principles and Dictates of Reason : No , say I , that does not follow ; I must Expound Scripture according to the use and significations of the Words ; and must not force my own Sense on it , if it will not bear it . But suppose then , that the Natural Construction of the words import such a sense as is contrary to some evident Principle of Reason ; Then I wont believe it . How ? Not believe Scripture ? No , no. I will believe no pretended Revelation , which contradicts the plain Dictates of Reason , which all Mankind agree in ; and were I persuaded , that those Books , which we call the Holy Scriptures , did so , I wou'd not believe them ; and this is a fairer and honester way , than to force them to speak , what they never intended , and what every impartial man , who reads them , must think was never intended that we may believe them : To put our own Sense on Scripture , without respect to the use of words , and to the Reason and Scope of the Text , is not to believe Scripture , but to teach it to speak our Language ; is not to submit to the Authority of Scripture , but to make Scripture submit to our Reason , even in such matters as are confessedly above Reason , as the Infinite Nature and Essence of God is . Though I am never so well assured of the Divine Authority of any Book , yet I must Expound it , as I do other Writings ; for when God vouchsafes to speak to us in our own Language , we must understand his words , just as we do , when they are spoke by men : Indeed when I am sure that it is an Inspired Writing , I lay it down for a Principle , That it contains nothing absurd and contradictions or repugnant to the received Principles of Natural Reason ; but this does not give me Authority to Expound the words of Scripture to any other sense , than what they will naturally bear , to reconcile them with such Notions as I call reason ; for if one man has this liberty , another may take it , and the Scripture will be tuned to every man's private Conceit ; and therefore in case the plain sense of Scripture contradicts those Notions I have of things , if it be possible to be true , I submit to the Authority of Scripture ; if it seems to include a Contradiction and Impossibility , if that Contradiction be not plain and notorious , and in such matters , as I am sure , I perfectly understand , there I submit again , and conclude it is no Contradiction , though I cannot comprehend how it is ; if I can by no means reconcile it , I will confess , I do not understand it , and will not pretend to give any sense of it , much less to give such a sense of it , as the words will not bear . His Fourth Charge is , that I say , Difficulty of conceiving a thing , nay , the absolute unconceivableness of it , must not hinder our assent to what is contained in Revelation ; because we do not disbelieve what is made known to us by Sense or by Reason , notwithstanding any difficulty or inconceivableness adhering to such things . These are neither my Words nor my Argument . My Argument is this ; That since , as I had shewn , in matters of pure Revelation , which can be known no other way , Revelation must stand in the place of Sense and Reason , we must allow no Objections against revealed Mysteries , but what we will allow to be good Objections against Sense and Reason . Now no man questions the truth of what he sees and feels , or what he can prove to be true by plain and undeniable Reason , meerly because there are unconceivable difficulties in it , as there is in every thing , even the most certain and familiar things in Nature : And if revealed Truths are not more unconceivable than many Natural Objects of Sense and Reason , why should their being unconceivable be a greater Objection against believing a Revelation , than it is against believing our Sense and Reason in matters equally unconceivable ? ( Serm. p. 13. ) This Argument is easily understood , but can never be Answered ; and therefore he wisely resolved not to understand it . In Answer to this he tells us , That he does not always believe his Senses , nor his Reason neither , when it is not clear , but perplext with difficulties , or darkening doubts , but especially when there is a remarkable and manifest inconceivableness . Nor do I require he should ; but my only Question is , Whether he does not believe , both his Senses and Reason , that there are many things in the World , whose Natures are so mysterious , that he cannot conceive or comprehend the Reasons and Philosophy of them ? That though he sees Men and Beasts , Heaven and Earth , Sun , Moon , and Stars , he will not believe , that there are such things as he sees , because he cannot understand the Philosophy of their Natures , and sees a great many things done by them , which are perfectly unaccountable , and would have been thought absolutely impossible , had we not seen them done ? These are all the contradictions and impossibilities , which I say men may make or find , when they know not the Philosophical Natures of things , nor how they act , and yet will be reasoning and guessing at them ; which this wise Author calls a Sermon for Contradictions . But do I require any man to believe Contradictions ? Nay , do I say , that there are any such Contradictions ? But this , I say , that there are such unconceivable Mysteries , in all Created Nature , much more in the Incomprehensible Nature of God , as some Gotham Philosophers ( as he who knows them best calls them ) charge with impossibilities and contradictions ; and yet these Gotham Philosophers are so wise as not to disbelieve their Senses as to the being of those things , how unconceivable and incomprehensible soever their natures are ; and this is all I ask , that in matters of pure Revelation we give the same credit to Revelation , that in the Objects of sense we give to sense , i. e. not to disbelieve what is revealed , As , that God has an Eternal Son , and that this Eternal Son in time was made Man , because the Eternal Generation and Incarnation are inconceivable Mysteries ; as we do not disbelieve , that there are any Men in the World , because Human Generations , and the Union of Soul and Body are inconceivable Mysteries in Nature . Towards the Conclusion of my Sermon , I Answered Two Objections against believing a Revelation as to such Doctrines which are inconceivable and incomprehensible to meer Natural Reason . And here to prepare the way , he first scorns the Objections , as never made before , or however by none but my self . That I pass over known and very dangerous Objections , and Answer only to Chimera's and Follies , never suggested or thought of by any . ( p. 18. ) I am glad to find , that he grows ashamed of these Socinian Chimera's and Follies ; but let us hear what they are . 1. It is thought very unnatural , that when God has made us reasonable Creatures , and therefore made natural Reason to us the measure of truth and falshood , he should require us to believe without Reason , as we must do , if he reveal such things to us , as we do not , and cannot possibly know the reasons of : If we must believe with our understanding , how can we believe things , which we cannot understand ? Now this Socinian does not believe , that any Sect of Religious ever made this or the like Objection ; Let him , as he says , snuff his Candle once more , and look into the late Socinian Pamphlets : What is the meaning of all their Zeal for Reason in this Cause , of their great noise and outcry about Mysteries , Nonsense , Contradictions ? What is the meaning of their Expounding Scripture by Reason , not like Fools , but like Wise men ? Why has this Author shewn such a furious Zeal against believing a Revelation notwithstanding any Objections from meer Natural Reason and Philosophy against it ? If , as he now says , our Reason and Understandings are finite and imperfect , and the Wisdom and Power of God most perfect : Therefore he may reveal many things to us , to be believed by us , though we understand them not , nor have any other cause of our believing them , but only God's Revelation of them , ( p. 19. ) Nothing can be more true , than what he says , that Reason is the measure of truth and falshood , but not the frail Fallible Reason of Men , but the Infallible Wisdom of God. If he be sincere and hearty in this , we are perfectly agreed ; for this is the very Doctrine of my Sermon , which he has so furiously opposed , or would be thought to oppose ; for to speak the Truth , he has not opposed the Doctrine of my Sermon ; but , in his own Language , his own Chimera's and Follies . But here is either a Fallacy in his Words , or he gives up his Cause , which it is plain he never intended : The Question is not absolutely , What is the Rule and Measure of Truth and Falshood , but what is so to us ? Now if he will allow , that Frail and Fallible Reason is not a Rule to us , then we may believe things , which our Reason does not approve ; nay , which it may judge improbable and false : And if the infallible Wisdom of God be a Rule to us , it can be so only in a Revelation , and then we may and must believe the infallible Wisdom of God in a Revelation against the Objections of Frail and Fallible Reason . And one may easily guess , there is something amiss still , notwithstanding all these concessions ; for as silly an Objection , as he says , this is ( which I am glad to hear ) , he will by no means own , that I have Answered it , and then I have very ill luck indeed , to make a silly Objection , which was never made before , and not be able to Answer it when I have done . The Answer I give to this Objection is this , That the Matter of the Objection is not true ; for we do understand both what it is we believe , and the reasons why we believe it ; and this I suppose may pass for an Answer to that Objection : But then it is farther Objected , That we believe such things , whose Natures we cannot understand , and cannot account for by natural Reason : To this I Answer , That Reason is not the judge of the Nature and Phil●sophy of things , nor does it require us to believe nothing but what we thus understand and comprehend : For then , as I had shewn , we must no more believe Sense and Reason , than Revelation : And this I take to be a good Answer too ; but then to shew the reason of this , I add : When we make an Objection against any thing , that it is without Reason , or as we apprehend , contrary to reason , we must first consider , whether it be the proper Object of Reason ; otherwise it is no Objection ; as it is no Objection against sounds , that we cannot see them , nor against colours , that we cannot hear them ; because sounds are not the object of sight , nor colours of hearing . This , I think , is plain Sense , and good Reason too ; but this he says is no Answer to that Objection , Why should reasonable Creatures be obliged to believe things without Reason ? Nor was it ever intended as an immediate Answer to it ; the Answer I give is , That we are not oblig'd to believe without Reason ; but when such Men as this Author Object farther , That to Believe things , whose natures we do not understand , and cannot account for by natural Reason , is to believe without Reason ; it is a proper Answer to say , That Reason is not judge of the Nature and Philosophy of things , and nothing can be said to be without Reason , or against Reason , which is not the object of Reason ; as no man pretends , that the pure Natures and ●ssences of things , or their Essential Reasons , Properties , Unions , Operations , are ; ( Serm. p. 19. ) But herein , it seems , I was mistaken ; for I have met with a Man at last , who makes Reason the judge of all this ; for if these be not the Objects of Reason , Reason has no Object at all ; for our Reason can be no otherwise employed , but either about Substances , or their Unions , Essential Reasons , Operations or Properties , ( p. 20. ) Very right ! we may know something of all this ; but I speak of the Philosophy of Nature : Now can this new Philosopher tell us , What the pure simple Essence and Substance of any thing is ? What naked Matter stripp'd of all Accidents and Qualities is ? How Soul and Body are United , which cannot Touch each other ? How a Spirit should feel Pain or Pleasures from the Impressions on the Body ? How we Think and Reason ? Nay , How we See and Hear ? How Thought moves our Bodies , and excites our Passions ? And a Thousand such like Mysteries ; which could he Unriddle , he would infinitely gratify the Inquisitive world : But Christianity not Mysterious , and the Philosophy of pure simple Nature , are too great Discoveries for one Age ; and yet if ever this happens , they must go together . For as I observed , this is all the incomprehensibility men have to complain of in the Doctrine of the Trinity and Incarnation : The first concerns the pure Nature , Essence , Substance , of God , and the Essential Distinction and Unity of the Godhead , which we neither do , nor can know any thing of ; for all Nature is a Secret and Mystery to us , much more the Infinite Nature of God. And the second concerns the Union of the Divine and Human Nature in the Person of Christ ; which is a Mystery , but what we ought not to complain of , since the Philosophy of all Natural Unions is a Mystery to us . These things are not the Objects of Reason ; and therefore though we believe them upon the Authority of a Revelation , without understanding the Mystery of them , this is not to believe without , or contrary to Reason . And what now does this Socinian say to this ? truly not one word , but falls out with Socinus and Crellius , and some of his best Friends , for talking so much of Mysteries , ( which by the way shews , that this is not such a new and unheard of Objection , as he would pretend ) for now he has found out , that there is no Mystery at all in the Doctrines of the Trinity , and Incarnation ; and he is in the right , if his Socinian Explication of these Doctrines , ( which destroys the Mystery , and the Catholick Faith together ) may pass for the Doctrine of the Church . But there has been enough said of that in the distinction between Real and Nominal Trinitarians examined , which the Reader may consult , and this Author answer , at his leisure ; though I am very sensible he can never want such Answers as this for any thing . 2 dly , The Second Objection against such a Revelation , as contains matters which natural Reason cannot comprehend , is , to what purpose such a Revelation serves ? what merit there can be in believing such Doctrines ? and of what good use such a Faith can be to us ? Serm. p. 2● . This is another Objection , which he thinks no Sect of Religious ever made ( p. 24. ) but the Irreligious m●y make this Objection , and there are more than one Sect of these . As to the usefulness of it , I observed , That though neither Natural , nor Revealed Knowledge extends to the Reasons and Causes of Nature , and of Essential Properties and Operations , yet both Natural and Revealed Knowledge is of as much use to us , as if we did perfectly understand all the Secret and Incomprehensible Mysteries of the Nature of God , or of the Natures of Creatures . Both Natural and Revealed Knowledge are alike upon this account , that they only acquaint us what things are , and what ends they serve , and then we know what use to make of them , without understanding the Secret Mysteries of Nature . This I shew'd both in the Knowledge of Nature , and of God , and added ; We may make all the use that can be made of this World , and of every thing in it , without understanding the Essential Reasons and Causes , or Internal Nature of any thing . This last Clause he fixes his Remarks on ; and that he may have something to remark , he changes my Words thus . We may use the World as fully , and every thing in it to as good purpose , as if we understood the Reasons and Internal Natures of things . And then adds , No , Trisler ; not so fully , nor to so good purpose , as if we better understood the Natures of things . Now this fully , and to as good purpose , are not my Words but his own ; nay we can make no use at all of it , but only so far forth as we understand the Nature and Reasons of things in it . We can use nothing to any purpose , till we know or understand something of its nature ; and no farther can we apply it and use it , than we understand its Nature , and know its Properties and Powers . Now this is not meerly trifling , but Knavery : He represents me very ridiculously asserting , That we may as fully , and to as good purpose use every thing in the World without knowing its Nature , Vertues and Properties , as if we knew them ; whereas I expresly assert , That we must first know , what things are , and what ends they serve ( and the better we know this , to be sure the better ) and then we know what use to make of them , without understanding the secret Mysteries of Nature . That is , when by Experience and Observation , we know what things are good for , we know how to use them without understanding the secret Mysteries and Philosophy of Nature : As how God created all things out of nothing ; how the Corn grows , or our Food nourishes us , and the like : And thus I shew'd it was as to the Doctrine of the Trinity , and Incarnation , that how unaccountable soever these Mysteries be , it is the most useful and necessary Knowledge in the world . But there is one thing still behind , which I find nettles this Author ; and I don't wonder at it : To shew how much it became the Goodness of God to reveal these Mysteries of Salvati●n to us , I observed , That the lapsed state of Human Nature makes Supernatural Knowledge necessary : — For though Natural Knowledge must be allowed sufficient to all the ends of Human Life , while man continued Innocent — Yet when man had sinned , he forfeited the Favour of God , and a natural Immortality ; and whether he should be restored or not , and by what means he should be restored , depended wholly on the Sovereign Will and Pleasure of God. And therefore the Light of Nature , though it could direct an innocent man how to please and worship God , and to preserve himself Immortal , it could not teach Sinners how to make Attonement for Sin ; nor give them any certain Hopes that God would for●ive sins , and bestow immortal Life on them : Which makes it necessary , that the Religion of a Sinner be a Revealed Religion . This he imperfectly transcribes , and adds ; True , but not in the least to the purpose : 'T is no Answer to that Objection , but to another : Namely to this ; Why Revelation or a ●upernatural Knowledge is necessary ? Here he had overshot himself , in allowing Supernatural Knowledge necessary , and therefore immediately qualifies it with , or however highly requisite , which declares this Socinian's Opinion , That we might have been saved without the Knowledge of Christ or the Gospel-Revelation ; for I know nothing that can make any thing more necessary , than the necessity of ●alvation : And therefore if it be not necessary , but only highly requisite , we might be saved without it : He adds the Reason why he says this is nothing to the purpose . The Obje●tion was concerning a Revelation and Faith , not intelligible , or not conceiveable ; the Answer is only concerning Revelation or Supernatural Knowledge ) in general , Why it was given to men . But it is neither so , nor so ; the Objection concerns the use of such a Revelation as contains matters which Natural Reason cannot comprehend ; This part of the Answer proves from the lapsed state of Human Nature the absolute Necessity of the Gospel Revelation , which contains these Mysteries . For if Nature can't save us , it can't discover to us the way of Salvation neither ; and if we must be saved by a Supernatural Grace and Power , it must be supernaturally revealed ; and what is Supernatural is the Object of Faith , not of Natural Knowledge . Serm. p. 24. But he adds , There is a great difference between Supernaturally revealed , and unconceivable ; the whole Christian Religion , the Precepts as well as Faith of it , is a Supernatural Revelation , and yet a System so intelligible that it must be taught to the Women , to the Poor , and ●ven to little Children . This is true , but there is a difference between Supernatural Knowledge , as opposed to Natural Knowledge , and Supernatural Revelation : Such things as Nature can teach us , may be supernaturally revealed , and the degeneracy of Mankind may make this , in his Language , highly requisite ; as the Nature and Providence of God , a future State , and the differences of Good and Evil : But Supernatural Knowledge is a Knowledge which Nature cannot teach , but must be learned only by Revelation ; and this is the Knowledge , and a Mysterious Knowledge it is , which the lapsed state of Human Nature makes necessary , as necessary as the Salvation of Sinners by the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God : Which makes a great difference between the Precepts and Faith of the Gospel , though both contained in the same Revelation . He adds , It was not made the matter of Supernatural Revelation , for its Difficulty , Mysteriousness , or Transcendency of the Human Understanding , but to ascertain the Truth of it , and to enforce its Authority in the world . Which is in plain English to say , That the Design of the Gospel-Revelation was not to teach us any thing beyond the Discovery or Comprehension of meer Natural Reason , but only to give greater Certainty and Authority to the Laws and Religion of Nature And here , for a conclusion , I joyn Issue with this Socinian ( and am glad to take the least Hint for some useful Discourse ) , Whether the Gospel Revelation contain any thing which Nature could not teach us , and which Natural Reason cannot comprehend ; or were only intended to give greater Certainty and Authority to the Religion of Nature ? That the Gospel is a New Revelation of what Nature could not teach , nor meer Natural Reason comprehend , I shall prove ; not from the Name or Notion of Mysteries , which these men so foolishly and absurdly ridicule ; but from the express Authority of St. Paul , 1 Cor. 2.14 . But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God , for they are foolishness unto him , neither can he know them , because they are spiritually discerned . A brief Explication of which Words will be of great use in our present Dispute . The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Natural Man , as Theophilact and other Greek Fathers observe , is the man who judges only by Natural Light and Reason , and will receive and believe nothing beyond what Nature teaches : And the Context proves this to be the true meaning of it . This account the Apostle gives of the Graecian Philosophers , That as the Jews required a sign , so the Greeks seek after wisdom , 1 Cor. 1.22 . nothing would content them but some Philosophical Speculations , and Natural Proofs and Demonstrations of Faith ; which in this Chapter he calls , The enticing words of man's wisdom , and opposes to the demonstration of the spirit , and of power : that is , to the Evidence of Miracles wrought by the Spirit of God ; which are a more certain and infallible Proof than all their Pretences to Reason and Demonstration : For where is the wise ? where is the scribe ? where is the disputer of this world ? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world ? for after that in the wisdom of God , the world by wisdom ( by natural Reason and Philosophy ) knew not God , it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe , 1 Cor. 1.20 , 21. These are the men who rejected the Faith of Christ , of whom the Apostle here speaks , and gives an account of the reason of their Infidelity in these words , The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God. Which will more fully appear , by examining what these things of the Spirit of God are : And it is evident from the whole Context , that they are matters of pure Revelation , which can be known only by the Revelation of the Spirit , or the whole Oeconomy of our Salvation , by the Incarnation , Death , Resurrection , Ascension , of Jesus Christ , the Eternal Son of God , which is the Subject of the Gospel-Revelation . This he calls , The Wisdom of God in a Mystery , even the hidden Wisdom , which God ordained before the world to our glory , ver . 7. and what this is , immediately follows ; Which none of the princes of this world knew ; for had they known it , they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory ; which can refer only to the Dispensation of Grace by Jesus Christ. This Nature could not teach us , as it is written , Eye hath not s●en , neither ear heard , neither have entred into the heart of man , the things which God hath prepared for them that love him , v. 9. That is , such things as neither Sense , nor Natural Reason could inform us of : But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit , for the Spirit searcheth all things , even the deep things of God ; for what man knoweth the things of a man , but the Spirit of a man which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man , but the spirit of God : Now we have received not the Spirit of the World , but the Spirit which is of God , that we may know those things which are freely given us of God : Which proves that these are properly the things of the Spirit , which could never be known but by the Revelation of the Spirit : For they are the deep things of God , his Secret Counsels and Purposes for the Redemption of Mankind ; the free Results of his own Wisdom and Goodness , the things which are freely given us of God ; and therefore can be known , and can be revealed only by the Spirit ; and these are the things of the Spirit , which the natural Man , the vain Pretender to Reason and Philosophy , receiveth not . Now can any man desire a plainer Proof than this , how incompetent a Judge meer natural Reason is of the Mysteries of Faith , of the whole Oeconomy of Gospel-Grace ? For what the natural Man does not receive , that meer natural Reason does not receive ; for the only Reason why the natural Man does not receive it , is because natural Reason does not receive it ; and what is foolishness to the natural Man , is foolishness to natural Reason ; and what the natural Man cannot know , because they are spiritually discerned , that natural Reason cannot discern . Now can there be a plainer Proof than this ( if we believe St. Paul ) that there are such Doctrines contained in the Gospel , as natural Reason does not receive , or approve , but rejects with scorn : For it is not said , That the natural Man cannot by the mere Light of Nature find out , or discover these things of the Spirit ; that he had asserted before , but these words give a reason of the Infidelity of the Wise Men , the Scribes , the Disputers of this World , who rejected the Faith when it was preached to them by the Apostles ; that the natural Man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , does not receive or approve the Faith ; and not only so , but rejects it as foolishness , as absurd , contradictious , impossible , unworthy of a Man of Reason , and Philosophy . Like the Philoso●hers of the Epicureans , and the Stoicks , who encountred St. Paul , when he preached at Athens ; and some said , What will this babler say ; other some , He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods , because he preached unto them Jesus and the res●rrection . 17. Acts 18. If then there be such Doctrines as these in the Gospel-Revelation , it is certain , it can be no O●jection against any Article of the Christian Faith , that meer natural Reason does not receive , approve , comprehend it , but accounts it absurd , ridiculous , foolish ; for thus the things of the Spirit of God were to the natural Man in St. Paul's days , and thus they will always be . Nay if the things of the Spirit of God are so far above the comprehension of Human Reason , then such Doctrines as meer natural Reason does not receive , have this Mark and Character of Divinity , if they are contained in the Gospel-Revelation : Nay , let me add farther , That those Doctrines which have been always owned and defended with the warmest Zeal by the Catholick Church , and opposed and rejected with as great scorn and contempt by Pagans , Infidels , and Hereticks , as a contradiction to the Reason of Mankind , and the Philosophy of Nature , are most likely to be the true Christian Faith ; for this proves that the Christian Church always believed them to be Gospel-Doctrines ; and Infidels and Hereticks rejected them as incomprehensible , and inconceiveable , and absurd to Human Reason ; and such the Doctrine of the Trinity , and Incarnation , and Cross of Christ , have always been to such natural Men. Nay , farther : If there be such Doctrines in the Gospel-Revelation , which meer Natural Reason receiveth not , but accounts foolishness ; then it is certain , that is not the true Christian Faith which contains none of these Mysteries , none of this hidden Wisdom , none of these deep things of God. Let the Socinian then tell us , What things there are in their Faith , which the Natural Man receiveth not , which are above the comprehension of meer Natural Reason : They glory that they have no such incomprehensible Mysteries in their Faith ; that they have a reasonable Faith , that they have stript Christian Religion of Riddles and Mysteries , and fitted it to the level and comprehension of Human Reason ; but this very thing wherein they glory , is a demonstration against them , that Socinianism is not the true Christian Faith ; for that contains such Doctrines , as the Natural Man and meer Natural Reason receiveth not . They commonly laugh at that distinction between things contrary to Reason , and above Reason , which Human Reason is no judge of . We assert , That a Divine Revelation can never contradict true Reason ; for a Divine Revelation must be true , and true Reason is true , and Truth cannot contradict Truth : But we assert , that there are many things in the Christian Faith which are above Reason ; which Reason is not a competent judge of , and which Natural Men may call contradictions , if every thing must pass for a contradiction to Reason , which meer Natural Reason does not receive , approve , allow . But after all , they must find something above Natural Reason , if they will believe like Christians ; for such things there are in the Christian Faith , and then let them distinguish as they can between contrary to Reason , and above it . But I must take notice of one thing more in these words , the reason why the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God , and cannot know them , viz. because they are spiritually discerned , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they are to be known and judged of only by Spiritual Arguments and Methods ; and therefore the Natural Man , who rejects all means of Knowledge but Natural Reason , can never know them . The Truth and Certainty of our Faith must be learnt , not from the Evidence of Natural Reason and Philosophy , which was the Evidence the Philosophers expected . The Greeks seek after Wisdom , 1 Cor. 1.22 . But ●t . Paul tells us , That Christ sent him to preach the Gospel , not with Wisdom of words , lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect . v. 17. &c 2.4 , 5. And my Speech and my Preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom ; but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power . I did not confirm my Doctrine by Natural Reasons and Arguments ; but by the Evidence of Miracles wrought by the Power of the Holy Spirit ; That your Faith should not stand in the wisdom of men , but in the power of God. And the true Interpretation , and admirable Wisdom of these Divine Mysteries , must be spiritually discerned also . Which things also we speak not in the words which man's Wisdom teacheth ; but which the Holy Ghost teacheth , comparing spiritual things with spiritual . There is a spiritual Language belongs to spiritual Things ; and we must learn the true Sense and Interpretation of the Faith , not from Natural Ideas , or the Words and Notions of Philosophy , that is , in the Socinian Language , by Expounding Scripture by Natural Reason ; but by studying the Language of Scripture , and the meaning of the Holy Ghost in it , especially by comparing the Old and the New Testament together ; Spiritual things with Spiritual : This is a way of Learning which Natural Men despise , and therefore cannot know the things of the Spirit of God , which must be spiritually discerned . All this I think abundantly proves that there are such Mysteries in the Christian Faith , as meer Natural Reason cannot discover , cannot prove , cannot receive and comprehend , cannot interpret ; which shews what reason we have to distinguish betwen matters of pure Faith and Philosophy ; and what danger there is of corrupting the Faith by Philosophy . And now I think I may conclude ; for I suppose no body will expect , that I should defend my self against his ridiculous Charge , That I am a Socinian ; which had he believed , I should have found better treatment from him : But I shall leave him to rave by himself , and look upon all these Hurricanes of Fury and Vengeance , as a good sign that they feel themselves mortally Wounded . THE END . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A59900-e270 The Distinction between Real and Nominal Trinitarians examined , &c. Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity , p. 21 , 22. Vindicatition , p. 150. 
A23663	----	A discourse of the nature, ends, and difference of the two covenants evincing in special, that faith as justifying, is not opposed to works of evangelical obedience : with an appendix of the nature and difference of saving and ineffectual faith, and the Allen, William, d. 1686. 1673 Approx. 326 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 118 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-05 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A23663 Wing A1061 ESTC R5298 12190793 ocm 12190793 55859 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A23663) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 55859) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 118:2) A discourse of the nature, ends, and difference of the two covenants evincing in special, that faith as justifying, is not opposed to works of evangelical obedience : with an appendix of the nature and difference of saving and ineffectual faith, and the Allen, William, d. 1686. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. [16], 215, [1] p. Printed by J. Darby for Richard Chiswell ..., London : 1673. Attributed to William Allen. Cf. BM. Errata: p. [1] at end. Reproduction of original in British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Covenant theology -- Early works to 1800. Faith -- Early works to 1800. 2003-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-02 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-03 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2003-03 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DISCOURSE of the Nature , Ends , and Difference OF THE Two Covenants . Evincing in special , That FAITH as Justifying , is not opposed to WORKS of Evangelical Obedience . WITH An APPENDIX of the Nature and Difference of saving and ineffectual Faith , and the reason of that difference To which is prefixed a PREFACE , by Mr. Rich. Baxter . 2 Pet. 1. 5. Add to your Faith , Virtue . Jam. 2. 22. And by Works was Faith made perfect . LONDON Printed by I. Darby , for Richard Chiswell , at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church-yard , 1673. TO THE READER . Reader , THeology is the Doctrine of the Kingdom of God : A Kingdom is a State of Government : Government is by Laws : He therefore that will understand any thing in Divinity , must understand the Laws of God : And though there be many inferiour Particles , distinguished from the weighty things of the Law , which few do clearly understand , yet is it necessary that we know in general , what kind of Law , it is that we are under , and also that we know the most important parts : If we understand not the Law of Tything Mint and Cummin , we must not be ignorant of Iudgment , Mercy and Faith , Matth. 23. 23. They that tell us we are now under no Laws , do tell us thereby that we are under no Goverment , and consequently that God , and out Redeemer Jesus Christ , is not the Governour of Believers . And he that knoweth that the Name [ GOD ] doth signifie the Divine Relation to Man , as well as the Divine Nature , will know that this is to deny a God , and to deny Iesus Christ ; and rather to be called Atheism , and Infidelity , than Antinomianism : Even they that had not the written Law of Moses , had a Law of Nature , partly written out upon their hearts : And Christians have both the Law of Nature Extrinsick , and the written Law of Christ , and both ( acccording to the various measures of Grace ) written out upon their hearts , that is , received by knowledge , Faith , Love , and readiness to obey . But they that know that we are under a Law ( as those in Heaven , even Angels are ) yet do not all well understand what Law it is , and on what terms the World , or the Church are governed , and must be judged . That the first Law of Natural Innocency , as alone , or as to the Promissory part , or as to threatning without mercies or remedy , is it that any part of the Earth is now governed by , or under , is an intolerable Errour : God promiseth not sinners everlasting life on condition they be no sinners : That Promise ceased by a Cessation of the Subjects capacity without any more ado , or possibility of reviving it . Nor doth God deal with any people according to the sole threatning of that Law , without mercy , dispensation , or remedy . The Law of Grace was as truly made with all men in Adam , Gen. 3. 15. as the Law of Innocency was . Though the Serpents Seed be mentioned in it , that intimateth not that any were such as then in the Loins of lapsed Adam , but as consequently they would become such by rejecting and abusing Grace , and so contracting a further Malignity . If Man , as in Adam's loyns , then was the Serpents Seed , then all God's Elect should be such , and so be bruised , and not saved by Jesus Christ : For all then were really alike in Adam . And to say , that God's meer Election and Reprobation , without any real inherent difference existent , or foreseen , is the reason of denominating , some the Seed of the Woman , and some the Seed of the Serpent , is an unproved fancy , and irrational corrupting the Word of God. All men therefore in lapsed Adam were at once under the guilt of Sin , and also under a remedying Law of Grace , so far as that it is enacted and offered , to save those that receive it . It saved not Adam himself meerly by the making of it , till by Faith he had received it . And no doubt but as the Covenant of Grace to us extendeth to the faithful and their Seed , so did the Covenant of Grace to Adam ; for it was the same as was made to all the faithful before Christ●s Incarnation . The case of Infants being obscure , clearer Truths are not to be reduced to it : And whether Cain and Abel as they were both born in Original Sin , so were both pardoned upon their Covenant-Dedication to God by their Parents , and Cain after lost his Infant-state of Grace ( as Davenant , Ward , &c. think Infant Grace may now be lost ) or whether Adam and Eve neglected that Dedication of Cain to God which was needful to his Sanctification , or whether God past him by , and denyed him Infant-Grace of his meer will , I leave to Mens enquiry , and various judgments ; ( The controversie concerneth Children now , as well as then , and the difficulties every way are not small ) But of these things I am past doubt : 1. That Cain was not the Serpents Seed meerly for Original Sin , and as born of Adam ( as Abel was also ) nor did God make him the Serpents Seed by Reprobation ; but that he made himself so by superadded Sin against the Redeemer and Law of Grace . 2. That all Mankind are still under this Law of Grace , further than they forfeit the benefits of it by sins against it . 3. That most Writers , if not most Christians , do greatly darken the Sacred Doctrine , by overlooking the Interest of Children in the actions of their meer Parents , and think that they participate of no guilt , and suffer for no Original Sin , but Adams only ; and bring the Doctrine of Original Sin it self into doubt , by laying all upon Covenant-Relation , and denying , or overlooking the Natural Proofs : Doubtless , through Scripture it is remarkable that God usually judgeth the posterity of new sinners to new punishments , and promises and threatnings are made ( since the Covenant of Innocency ceased ) to the believers , and unbelievers , or wicked , with their Seed : For we may well say that the Seed of Cain , Cham , Nimrod , Ishmael , Esau , Saul , Ahab , &c. had more Original Sin than what they had from Adam . And Matth. 23. 35. Expounds the matter . It was not in vain that Ezra , Daniel , &c. confessed their forefathers sin , nor doth our Liturgie pray for the dead , but the living , when it saith [ Remember not Lord , our offences , nor the offences of our Forefathers , neither take thou vengeance of our Sins . The Author of this Treatise beginning at the Promise made to Abraham , doth it to comport with the Apostle Paul , who thought meet to call the Iews to no higher Observations than the Case in hand ( about the Non-obligation of Moses's Law to the Gentiles ) did require . But this denyeth not , but supposeth the same Law of Grace in the main to have been made to all men in Adam , and Noah , and to have been in force to all Mankind before it was renewed to Abraham ; saving that to him and his Seed there were many great priviledges added , above the rest of Mankind , upon his extraordinary obediential Faith. Of how great importance it is to have a right understanding of the difference between the Law of Innocency , and the Law of Grace , and in it , the Promise made to Adam , and Noah , and that to Abraham , and the peculiar Mosaical Law and Covenant , and the perfecter Edition of the Law , or Covenant of Grace by Christ Incarnate , a true Student of Theology may easily discern : Wherein I hope the Reader , will find that ( among the many late Treatises on this Subject ) the Authour here hath done considerable service to the Church of God. Of which Subject I have written long ago so much my self , and am attempting to make it yet more plain , that I need not here tell you what is my judgment ; only , lest any who know not how to stop in Mediocrity , should be tempted by Socinians or Papists , to think that we countenance any of their Errors , or that our Differences in the Point of Justification by Faith or Works , are greater than indeed they are ; and lest any weak Opiniative persons , should clamour unpeaceably against their Brethren , and think to raise a name to themselves for their differing Notions ; I shall here give the Reader such evidences of our real Concord , as shall silence that Calumny . Though some few Lutherans did upon peevish suspiciousness against George Major long ago , assert , that [ good Works are not necessary to Salvation ] And though some few good men , whose zeal without judgment doth better serve their own turn than the Churches , are jealous , lest all the good that is ascribed to Man , be a dishonour to God ; and therefore speak as if God were honoured most by saying the worst words of our selves ; and many have uncomely and irregular Notions about these matters ; and though some that are addicted to sidings , do take it to be their godly zeal to censure and reproach the more understanding Sort , when they most grosly erre themselves : And though too many of the people are carried about through injudiciousness and temptations , to false Doctrines and evil lives ; yet is the Argument of Protestants thus manifested : 1. They all affirm that Christ's Sacrifice , with his Holiness and perfect Obedience , are the Meritorious Cause of the forgiving Covenants , and of our Pardon and Iustification thereby , and of our right to Life Eternal , which it giveth us . And that this price was not paid or given in it self immediately to us , but to God for us ; and so that our foresaid benefits are its effects . 2. They agree that Christ's Person and ours were not really the same , and therefore that the same Righteousness which is an Accident of one , cannot possibly be an Accident of the other . 3. They all detest the conceit that God should aver , and repute a Man to have done that which he never did . 4. They all agree that Christ's Sacrifice and Merits are really so effectual to procure our Pardon , Justification , Adoption , and right to the sealing gift of the Holy Ghost , and to Glory , upon our Faith and Repentance ; that God giveth us all these benefits of the New Covenant , as certainly for the sake of Christ and his Righteousness , as if we had satisfied him , and merited them our selves : And that thus far Christ's Righteousness is ours in its effects , and imputed to us , in that we are thus used for it , and shall be judged accordingly . 5. They all agree that we are Justified by none but a Practical or working Faith. 6. And that this Faith is the Condition of the Promise or Gift of Justification , and Adoption . 7. And that Repentance is a Condition also ; though ( as it is not the same with Faith , as Repentance of unbelief is ) on another aptitudinal account ; even as a willingness to be cured , and a willingness to take one for my Physitian , and to trust him in the use of his Remedies , are on several accounts the Conditions on which that Physitian will undertake the Cure , or as willingness to return to subjection & thankful acceptance of a purchased parden , and of the Purchasers love and future Authority , are the Conditions of a Rebels pardon . 8. And they all agree that in the first instant of a Mans Conversion or Believing , he is entered into a state of Justification before he hath done any outward works : And that so it is true that good Works follow the justified , and go not before his initial Iustification : As also in the sense that Austin spake it , who took Justification for that which we call Sanctification , or Conversion . 9. And they all agree , that justifying Faith is such a receiving affiance , as is both in the Intellect and the Will , and therefore as in the Will participateth of some kind of love to the justifying Object , as well as to Justification . 10. And that no Man can choose or use Christ as a means ( so called in respect to his own intention ) to bring him to God the Father , who hath not so much love to God , as to take him for his End●n the use of that means . 11. And they agree that we shall be all judged according to our Works , by the Rule of the Covenant of Grace , though not for our Works by way of Commutative , or Legal proper Merit . And Iudging is the Genus , whose Species is Iustifying and Condemning : And to be judged according to our Works , is nothing but to be Iustified or Condemned according to them . 12. They all agree , that no Man can possibly merit of God in point of Commutative Iustice , nor yet in point of Distributive , or Governing Iustice , according to the Law of Nature or Innocency , as Adam might have done , nor by the Works of the Mosaical Law. 13. They all agree , that no Works of Mans are to be trusted in , or pleaded , but all excluded , and the conceit of them abhorred . 1. As they are feigned to be against , or in stead of the free Mercy of God. 2. As they are against , or feigned , instead of the Sacrifice , Obedience , Merit , or Intercession of Christ. 3. Or as supposed to be done of our selves without the Grace of the Holy Ghost . 4. Or as supposed falsly to be perfect . 5. Or as supposed to have any of the aforedisclaimed merit . 6. Or as materially consisting in Mosaical observances . 7. Much more in any Superstitious Inventions . 8. Or in any evil mistaken to be good . 9. Or as any way inconsistent with the tenor of the freely pardoning Covenant . In all these senses , Justification by Works is disclaimed by all Protestants at least . 14. Yet all agree that we are Created to good Works in Christ Jesus , which God hath ordained that we should walk therein , and that he that nameth the Name of Christ must depart from iniquity , or else he hath not the Seal of God ; and that he that is born of God sinneth not , that is , predominantly . And that all Christ's Members are holy , purified , zealous of good Works , cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit , that they might perfect holyness in God's fear , doing good to all Men , as loving their Neighbours as themselves : And that if any Man have not the Sanctifying Spirit of Christ , he is none of his , nor without holiness can see God. 15. They all judge reverently , and charitably of the Antients that used the word [ Merit of good Works ] because they meant but a moral aptitude for the promised Reward , according to the Law of Grace through Christ. 16. They confess the thing thus described themselves , however they like not the name of Merit , lest it should countenance proud and carnal conceits . 17. They judge no Man to be Heretical for the bare use of that word , who agreeth with them in the sense . 18. In this sense they agree , that our Gospel-obedience is such a necessary aptitude to our Glorification , as that glory ( though a free gift ) is yet truly a Reward of this Obedience . 19. And they agree that our final Justification by sentence at the day of Judgment , doth pass upon the same Causes , Reasons , and Conditions as our Glorification doth 20. They all agree that all faithful Ministers must bend the labour of their Ministry in publick and private , for promoting of Holiness and good Works , and that they must diifference by discipline between the obedient and the disobedient . And O! that the Papists would as zealously promote Holiness and good Works in the World , as the true serious Protestants do , whom they factiously and peevishly accuse as enemies to them ; and that the Opinion , Disputing and name of good Works , did not cheat many wicked persons into self-flattery and perdition , while they are void of that which they dispute for . Then would not the Mahometans and Heathens be deterred from Christianity , by the wickedness of these nominal Christians that are near them : Nor would the serious practice of that Christianity which themselves in general profess , be hated , scorned , and persecuted by so many , both Protestants and Papists ; nor would so many contend that they are of the true Religion , while they are really of no Religion at all , any further than the Hypocrites Picture and Carkass may be called Religion . Were Men but resolved to be serious Learners , serious Lovers , and serious Practisers , according to their knowledge , and did not live like mockers of God , and such as look towards the life to come in jest or unbelief , God would vouchsafe them better acquaintance with the true Religion , than most Men have . Having prefaced this much , for the rest I refer thee to the perusal of this Treatise , which will give thee much light into the nature of the Gospel , and especially help thee to the right understanding of the meaning of the Apostle Paul in all his Epistles , about the Law , the Gospel , and the Justification of a sinner . O pray , and labour for A CONFIRMED PRACTICAL FAITH , as daily doth Your fellow Disciple , Ri. Baxter . Iune 4th 1672. The chief Heads of Discourse . 1. THe nature of the Promise to Abraham . 2. Why the Law was added to the Promise . 3. How those under the Law were saved . 4. The nature of the Legal Covenant . 5. The mistakes of Iews about the Law and Promise , and how St. Paul counter-argues those mistakes . 6. How St. Paul's Doctrine of Iustification by Faith , and not by Works , was then mistaken by some . 7. That the Doctrine of St. Paul , and of St. James , about Faith and Works , do not differ . 8. With an APPENDIX touching the difference , and the reason of the difference , between saving and ineffectual Faith. A DISCOURSE Of the Nature , Ends , and Difference OF THE TWO COVENANTS . THe mistake of the unbelieving Iews , about the true import of Gods Promise to Abraham , and of the Law of Moses , was a principal cause of their rejecting Christ and his Gospel , and their own salvation thereby . To rectifie which mistake , the Apostle St. Paul used various reasonings , according to the various Errors contained in it . In which reasonings of his , there being some things hard to be understood ; there were others again which probably mistaking the Apostles reasonings against the Jew-Jewish Notion of Justification by Works , ran into a contrary extream , thinking they might be saved by Faith without Works ; as on the contrary the incredulous Iews thought they might be saved by Works without Faith. And if many in our dayes had not run into somewhat alike extream through a misunderstanding also of the Apostles writings , labour , and pains would not have been so necessary , as now they are , to rectify their mistake , and to prevent it in others . To the end therefore that the plain Truth may the better appear , touching Gods promise to Abraham , touching the Law of Moses , and the Apostles arguings about these ; I shall very briefly endeavour these seven things . 1. To open the Nature and Design of Gods promise to Abraham . And to shew 2. For what ends the Law was added to the promise . 3. By what Faith and Practice , the Iews under the Law were saved . 4. That the Law contained a Covenant , different from that with Abraham . 5. The grand mistakes of the unbelieving Jews , and St. Paul's counter arguings , touching both the Law and the Promise . 6. The mistake of some pretended Christians in the Apostles days , touching the Doctrine of Iustification by Faith without Works . 7. That the Doctrine of St. Paul , and St James about Faith and Works , in reference to Iustification , do not differ . I shall begin with the first of these . CHAP. I. The Nature and Design of Gods Promise to Abraham . I Shall endeavour to open the Nature and Design of Gods Promise to Abraham : Which Promise is also called the Covenant , Act. 3. 25. Gal. 3. 17. In doing of which , these eight things will come under consideration . 1. What the nature of this Promise is in general . 2. What the design of it is . 3. What are the special benefits promised . 4. What the extent of it is . 5. The security given by God for the performance of it . 6. That this Promise was conditional . 7. What the condition of it was . 8. What we are to understand by Gods accounting Abrahams Faith to him for Righteousness . Sect. 1. Of the nature of it in general . This Promise I take to be of the same nature with that which in the Gospel is called the New Covenant . It 's true indeed they greatly differ in the Administration , the one being but general , implicite , and obscure ; and the other more particular , express , and perspicuous . But though in this they differ , yet in their general nature they agree in one , and are the same . For , 1. This Covenant , as delivered to Abraham , was confirmed in Christ as well as the Gospel afterwards , Gal. 3. 17. and that 's a Character of the New Covenant , Mat. 26. 28. 2. The Gospel is said to have been preached to Abraham in the Promise that was made him , Gal. 3. 8. 3. He was justified by Faith ; which he could not have been , but by vertue of a New Covenant : And it was by Faith in the Promise made to him by God , by which he was justified : Which two things supposed , it necessarily follows that that Promise was of the nature of the New Covenant . 4. St. Paul argues against the erroneous Iews in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians , the necessity of Evangelical Faith unto justification now under the Gospel , from Abraham's being justified by Faith , and from God's setting him forth for a pattern and example to all after-ages , of his justifying both Iews and Gentiles upon the condition of believing . The strengh of which arguing seems to depend upon this supposition ; That the Promise , by the belief of which Abraham was then justified , and the Promise in the Gospel , by the belief of which men are now justified , do both agree , and are one in the general nature of them . And upon these grounds , and under this notion of the Promise to Abraham , I intend to discourse of it . But when I consider for what reason he that is least in the Kingdom of God , is said to be greater than Iohn the Baptist ( though not Abraham himself , nor any of the Prophets were greater than he ) and when I consider likewise how ignorant the Apostles were for a time , touching the necessity of the Death and Resurrection of Christ , notwithstanding the many plainer Revelations thereof in the Prophets , than we find Abraham had ; I cannot I confess think that Abraham had or could have a distinct notion of all that was contained and implyed in the Promise , as now it is opened and unfolded in the Writings of the New Testament , it does appear was wrapt up in it . And therefore though I think I may well found a Discourse of the New Covenant upon the Promise made to Abraham , as it is now explained in the New Testament , yet I would not be understood to suppose Abrahams apprehension or Faith to have then been commensurate to the Promise as it is so explained . Supposing then the Promise to Abraham , to be the New Covenant it self in a more imperfect Edition of it than afterward came forth . I shall now a little further consider what it was , and what the New Covenant is , & ever hath been , in the general nature of it , since it first commenced . And it is a new Law or Covenant , made by way of remedy against the rigour and extremity of the Law of Nature , under which Man was created . For the Law of Nature , the Law of Gods Creation , as well as his instituted Law in Paradise , being violated , and impossible to be kept inviolable by Man in his lapsed state , by reason of his moral impotency , and the pravity of his Nature derived from Adam ; he must inevitably have sunk and perished under the condemnation of it , unless there had been a new Law instituted to supercede the procedure of this Law against him , in its natural and proper course . If Salvation had been attainable by Man in his lapsed state , without this remedying Law of Grace , there would have been no need of a New Covenant . If there had been a Law given which could have given life , verily righteousness should have been by the Law , Gal. 3. 21. But there was no such Law given besides this new Law. Nor could the Original Law be repealed for the relief of faln Man , it being founded in the Nature of God , and the nature of Man , as he was created after Gods own Image ; and is no more changeable , than the Nature of good and evil are changable . And therefore , as I said , there was a necessity that Man must have perished under the condemnation of the Law of his Creation , as the lapsed Angels did under theirs , unless a Law of Indemnity had been Enacted . But God whose tender mercies are over all his works , to the end so great and considerable a part of his Creation , as Man is , might not be wholly lost and undone to all eternity , out of his infinite compassion , mercy , and love , did constitute a new Law or Covenant for mans relief ( which well may be called the Covenant of Grace ) against the rigour and extremity of the first Law. Which new Law was in some degree , though but obscurely , made known to Man not long after Adams fall , or else there would have been no ground for that Faith which we are assured was in Abel , Enoch , &c. Heb. 11. But it was doubtless somewhat more fully declared to Abraham than to any before , and at last compleatly established and published by Jesus Christ the Mediatour of it , who was given for a Covenant to the people . And this new Law in the last edition of it under the Gospel , is variously denominated ; being called the Promise , the New Covenant , the Law of Faith , the Law of Liberty , the Gospel , the Grace of God , or the Word of his Grace . And so we come Sect. 2. To consider what the design of God was in this New Covenant or Promise unto Abraham . Next to his own glory , it was to recover the Humane Nature from its degenerate state , to a state of holiness , to that likeness to God in which Man was at the first made , and therein and thereby to a state of happiness , both which were lost by the fall . Holiness , love , and goodness , as they were once the glory and happiness of Man before he lost them , so are still perfective of his nature . And therefore it is impossible in the nature of the thing to recover Man to happiness , without recovering his nature to a conformity to God in these ; or for Man to be perfectly happy , whose nature is not perfected in them . Sin is the disease and sickness of the Soul ; and it 's as possible for a sick man to enjoy the pleasure of health , as it is for the sinful and corrupt nature of man , while such , to enjoy the pleasure , which the humane nature did naturally enjoy , or was capable of enjoying in its innocency and purity . But when the nature of Man is once recovered to perfection in knowledge , holiness , love , and goodness , it will then be matter of unspeakable delight to him to love God , Angels and Men , and to do the will of God in every thing . It is so to the holy Angels : And it was so to our blessed Saviour , who counted it as his meat and drink , to be doing the will of his heavenly Father . And to what degree the nature of man is here in this world , restored towards its proper perfection , to the same degree it is matter of pleasure and delight to him to act holily and righteously , and to be doing good ▪ It i● joy to the Iust to do judgment , Prov. 21. 15. It is a pain to a man to act contrary to the bent and inclination of his nature , by compulsion or fear . And therefore unless the corrupt ▪ nature of Man were changed , Heaven would not be Heaven to him , in case he were there . Those Divine and Heavenly exercises which are there the unspeakable delight of Saints and Angels , would be his pain and torment , as being contrary to his nature ; And the pleasures of that state , as having not what will satisfie the unsatiable lusts of mans corrupt nature , would not be such to him , but add rather to his anguish . For , as it would be a torment to a Man to be in extremity of hunger and thirst , and to be without Meat and Drink , and all hopes of any to satisfie him : So will it be a grievous torment to the corrupt nature of Men in another morld , to retain their lusts and the violent cravings of them , and yet to be without all hope of having wherewith to satisfie them ( which yet is like to be the condition of men in Hell. ) Here mens unnatural lusts are not such a torment to them , because they can make provision to satisfie them , or live in hopes so to do ; and in the mean while drown the noise of them by diversion . But in Hell it will be quite otherwise . And therefore its easie to imagine that the torment which will arise from the corruption of mens natures there , will be unspeakably great , besides the piercing sence of the happiness they have lost , and the other intollerable pains which they must indure ; and therefore as whoever hath not his nature renewed in this World , is never like to have it renewed in another ; so without renewing of it , it is impossible he should be happy there . Except a man be born again , he cannot see the Kingdom of God , Joh. 3. 3. That is , he cannot enjoy it , and why ? It is not only from Gods Decree , or established Law to the contrary that he cannot , but also from the utter incapacity of his Nature , as corrupt . Wherefore all the Vessels of Mercy are such as God aforehand prepares unto glory , Rom. 9. 23. They are such as are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light , Col. 1. 12. Such as God hath wrought for the self same thing , 2. Cor. 5. 5. So that , as I said , there is a necessity in the nature of the thing , that if God would design the Restoration of the Nature of Man to happiness , that in order thereto he should design a Restoration of it to holiness , as indeed he hath . He hath chosen us to salvation , through sanctification of the Spirit , 2 Thes. 2. 13. And therefore the end of Christs great undertaking for the Redemption and Restauration of Man , is described , by his saving his people from their sins : By his redeeming them from all ●niquity , and purifying to himself a peculiar people , zealous of good works . By his washing and sanctifying of them , that he might present them to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle , or any such thing . That this was the design of Gods promise to Abraham , appears , in that at the very first it was propounded to him by way of Motive , to quit the Idolatry of his Fathers , and the evil customes of his Countrey ( for they served other Gods , Iosh. 24. 2. ) Get thee out of thy Countrey , and from thy Kindred , and from thy Fathers house ; and I will make of thee a great Nation , and thou shalt be a blessing , and in thee shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed , Gen. 12. 1 , 2 , 3. In which God had a farther design than to reform Abraham only : His design in him , and by him , was to set on foot the Reformation of the World , and the recovering the Nations thereof from the dregs of Idolatry into which they were sunk . And therefore God said unto him , Thou shalt be a blessing . And this he designed , not only in giving him a numerous Issue , and making them a great Nation , whose Education in the worship of the true God was founded in Abraham , but also in making both him and them eminent examples of his special favour in the ●ight of the Nations , by which they might see how much better it was to serve the God of Abraham , than the Gods of the Nations : And thereby to invite and draw them from their Idolatry , Superstition , and Ungodliness , to worship and serve the true God. And God in promising to Abraham , both the Messias in his Seed , and also that he would bless them that should bless him , and curse them that should curse him , and that his Seed should possess the gate of his enemies ; had , it should seem , this in design , viz. to encourage and quicken them to a holy life , Luke 1. 72 , 73 , 74 , 75. To perform the mercy promised to our Fathers , and to remember his holy Covenant : The Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham , that he would grant unto us ; that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies , might serve him without fear , in holiness and righteousness before him , all the days of our life . But besides all this , considering that the Promise made to Abraham , was the New Covenant as it was then exhibited , ( as I have shewed before ) the benefits therein promised had a proper tendency in them , to restore Man again to a likeness to God in the Moral perfections of his Nature . For the great and precious Promises contained in the New Covenant as such , are given for this very end , that by them we might be partakers of a Divine Nature , the glory whereof is knowledge , purity and charity , 2 Pet. 1. 4. And for God by such promises to make overtures unto Man of love and good-will , and of desires of reconciliation , is the direct way and method of recovering faln Man from a state of enmity against God , to a mind reconciled to him , to think well of him , to love him , and delight in him . For we love him because he first loved us , 1 Joh. 4. 19. And God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself , and how ? by not imputing their trespasses to them ; but being willing , upon their repentance and returning to their duty , to forgive them , 2 Cor. 5. 19. God useth the same way of overcoming mans enmity against him , which he hath taught us to use to overcome mans enmity against us ; and that is , by overcoming their evil with our good , Rom. 12. 21. David dealing so with Saul , though a bitter enemy , melted him into tears , and made him cry , Is this thy voice , my son David ? 1 Sam. 24. 16. And , to whom much is forgiven , the same person loveth much , Luke 7. 42 , — 47. And if God by these methods do once recover Mans love to him , he will quickly recover him to his loyalty and duty , of which , Love is the proper Source and Spring . If a man love me , he will keep my words , Joh. 14. 23. Now that God's promise to Abraham , did contain expressions of wonderful grace and love , and consequently what is most apt to beget in Man a love to God again , and all the desirable effects of it , will appear , if we consider the special benefits comprehended in that Promise ; Which is the third thing now to be considered . Sect. 3. The special benefits contained in the Promise made to Abraham , were such as these . 1. It contained a Promise of the Messias , a promise of sending Christ into the world , and that he should come of his Seed : In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed , Gen. 12. 3. and 18. 18. and 22. 18. which Seed is Christ , as is said , Gal. 3. 16. And in this promise of sending Christ , were implyed the things he was sent for , the things by which he should bless the world , as his Death and Resurrection , and what else pertained to his Mediatory Office ; because these are the things by which the Nations of the Earth became blessed in him , which was the thing expresly promised . That such things were implyed in the promise , appears not only by the reason of the thing , but also from St. Paul's testimony , Acts 13. 32 , 33. We declare unto you glad tidings , how that the Promise which was made unto the Fathers , God hath fulfilled the same unto us their Children , in that he hath raised up Iesus again . I do not say that Abraham , from a Promise that was but so generally expressed as that was , could apprehend in particular what the Messias should both do and suffer , though they were wrapt up in it . He apprehended so much by it in general , that God would send the Messias into the World , and that he would send him upon such terms , as that his coming should be matter of great benefit to the world . Abraham had such a prospect of this , though at that distance , as made him rejoyce and be glad : So saith our Saviour himself , Iohn 8. 56. Your Father Abraham rojoyced to see my day ; and he saw it , and was glad . And the promise to Abraham , as it was a Promise of sending Christ to be the Saviour of the world , was expressive of the greatest love . For in this was the love of God manifested towards us , because God sent his only begotten Son into the world , that we might live through him . Herein is love , not that we loved God , but that he loved us , and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins , 1 Joh. 4. 9 , 10. A Propitiation for our sins : That is , one that by his Death hath procured favour , having taken off that sore displeasure which God by his Law had declared against all the transgressors of it . For the wise and just God , did not think the righteousness of his Government , and the honour and reputation of his Law would be sufficiently salved , and his great hatred of sin sufficiently manifested , without some considerable satisfaction given for the dishonour done to Him and his Law by Mans transgression . And yet that this might not be exacted at the hands of the guilty , in executing the curse of the Law on them themselves ; he was most graciously pleased to accept of the sufferings of his own dear Son , instead of what the sinners themselves were to have undergone . He hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law , being made a curse for us , Gal. 3. 13. Christ suffered for sins , the Iust for the unjust , or in their stead , 1 Pet. 3. 18. Upon account of which undertaking of Christ for us , all the benefits of the Covenant do accrue to Man. What ever is required of Man by way of condition of his acceptation with God , becomes accepted to that end , upon account of Christ's suffering . And His Intercession in Heaven , through which all our sincere ( though otherwise imperfect ) performances , become acceptable to God , and rewardable by him , is made in the virtue of it . For the whole Covenant it self is founded in the Blood of Christ which he shed for the remission of sins . Therefore it is called the New Testament in his Blood , Mat. 26. 28. And his blood , the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant , Hebr. 13. 20. 2. It contained a Promise of Iustification or remission of sin through Christ , unto all that should so believe , as thereupon to repent of their former folly , and become sincerely obedient for the future . For that is necessarily implyed in the Promise of blessed●ess to the Nations in Abrahams Seed ; it being impossible men should be blessed without Remission of sin , which consisteth in removing the curse of the Law , in remitting the penalty . Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven , and whose sin is covered , Psal. 32. 1. St. Paul acquaints us that this blessing of the New Covenant , was declared to Abraham in the Promise , Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture foreseeeing that God would justifie the Heathen , through Faith , preached the Gospel before unto Abraham , saying , In thee shall all Nations be blessed . 3. It contained in it tacitly , a Promise of Divine assistance unto men in their endeavours to fulfil the condition of the Promise . For God in promising blessedness to the Nations through Abrahams Seed , therein promised all that was absolutely necessary for him to vouchsafe to make them blessed , and without which they could not be blessed . And if so , then he therein implicitly promised to assist the endeavours of men to perform the condition of the Promise , without the assistance of whose grace they cannot savingly believe , repent , and obey . And so it should seem the Old Testament-Church understood Gods subduing of sin , as well as his pardoning of sin , to be comprized in the Promise to Abraham , Mich. 7. 19 , 20. He will subdue our iniquities ; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea : Thou wilt perform the truth to Iacob , and the mercy to Abraham , which thou hast sworn to our Fathers , from the days of old . And Christ his turning men from their iniquities , which he doth accomplish by appointing them means , & by assisting them in the use of them to that end , is part of the blessing contained in the Promise made to Abraham , and was so reckoned by St. Peter , Acts 3. 25 , 26. Ye are the children of the Prophets , and of the Covenant which God made with our Fathers , saying unto Abraham , And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed . Vnto you first God having raised up his Son Iesus Christ , sent him to bless you , in turning every one of you from his iniquities . 4. It implicitly , or somewhat obscurely contained in it a Promise of eternal Life . I say , implicitly ; For I do not find that eternal Life was expresly promised to Abraham . But yet that was expresly promised him , from which the hope of eternal Life might well be inferred : As first , Blessedness through his Seed , the Messias : And secondly , That God would be a God to him and his Seed . For blessedness is a happiness that runs parallel with the duration of Man's immortal Soul. And God's Promise of being a God to Abraham , carried in it a Promise of a happiness worthy of God to bestow , such as everlasting Life or happiness is . And therefore he was not ashamed to be called their God ( meaning Abraham , Isaac , and Iacob ) because he had prepared for them a City ; meaning that in so doing , he had answered that title of relation of being their God , and done like himsel , Heb. 11. 16. And upon these and the like Revelatio●s of of God's mind to him , Abraham looked for a City which hath foundations , whose Builder and Maker is God , and a heavenly Countrey , Heb. 11. 10 , 16. If Abraham did but use his reason about these Promises , as he did about reconciling God's Promise , that in Isaac his Seed should be called , with his command to sacrifice him , ( Heb. 11. 17 , 18 , 19. ) he might discern eternal Life in them , though but very obscurely , in comparison of what is now revealed in the Gospel , by which Life and Immortality is brought to light , 2 Tim. 1. 10. But how obscurely soever a future happiness was promised to Abraham , yet promised it was , for which we have the testimony of St. Paul , Gal. 3. 18. If the inheritance be of the Law , it is no more of Promise : But God gave it to Abraham by Promise . He was here proving against the Pharisaical Iews , and Judaizing Christians , that Justification unto Life , was to be had by the Promise , and not by the Law ; by Faith , and not by works of the Law ; that the Iust should live by Faith , as vers . 12. And therefore by Inheritance here , which he saith God gave to Abraham by Promise , he doubtless means eternal Life , which elsewhere he calls the Promise of eternal Inheritance , Heb. 9. 15. Consider now , how God carryed on his design of restoring Man by the promise of those benefits . For if expressions of the greatest Grace and Love in God to Men , is the way to beget in them a love to God again , and in begetting that , to beget all the desirable effects of Love ; ( which are no less than a sincere conformity in Man's Nature and Life to the Divine Law ) And if the giving of great and precious Promises , is the way of recovering Man again to a participation of the Divine Nature , ( as I have shewed it is ) then the Promise of God to Abraham which was expressive of the greatest Grace and Love , and contained in it Promises , than which there are not materially greater , nor more precious , was a wise and graciovs contrivance of God , to recover Man to a likeness to himself , wherein the glory and perfection of his Nature did first consist . Sect. 4. The next thing to be considered , is , the extent of the Promise of God to Abraham . [ The greatness of God's love and good-will , was not expressed only in the greatness of the bene●its promised to Abraham , but also in the extent of the Promise ; reaching not only to the Iewish people and their Proselytes ( to which another Covenant was restrained ) but even to all Nations of the Earth , Gen. 12. 3. and 22. 18. which shews it to be of the same nature with the general Promise in the Gospel , though it was not so intelligible then , as it is since made by the Gospel . But God we see , so loved the world , as first to promise , and after to give his only begotten Son , that whosoever should believe in him , should not perish , but have everlasting life . Joh. 3. 16. Christ gave his life for the life of the world , Joh. 6. 8. He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world , 1 Joh. 2. 2 He gave himself a ransome for all , 1 Tim. 2. 6. And tasted death for every man , Heb. 2. 9 Sect. 5. Consider we in the next place , the security given by God , for the performance of his Promise to Abraham and his Seed . For because men knowing how ill they have deserved from God , having made themselves enemies to him , would be apt to question whether there were indeed so much love and good will in God to them as the greatness of his Promise did import ; Therefore God , to remove all jealousie of this nature , and to give them the greatest security and assurance he could , of the reality of his intentions , and of his heart and good will towards them , he confirmed his Promise by an Oath , swearing by himself , because he could swear by no greater . And this he did , that they to whom the Promise did extend , might have strong consolation from God , such as might work in them strong and vigorous affections to him , such as were in Abraham , through which he was wrought to an entire resignation of himself to God , and to his will , and by which he was denominated the friend of God , Heb. 6. 17 , 28. Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the Heirs of Promise the immutability of his Counsel , confirmed it by an Oath : That by two immutable things , in which it was impossible for God to lye , we might have strong consolation , who have fled for refuge , to lay hold of the hope set before us . Sect. 6. The next thing I have to shew , is , That this Promise of God to Abraham , was conditional . If the Promise of sending Christ was absolute , yet the actual collation of the great benefit of Remission of Sin , and eternal Life by him , was not promised but upon condition of Faith and Repentance , as appears by the Scriptures frequent explanation of the the general Promise . Abraham believed in the Lord , and it was counted unto him for righteousness , Gen. 15. 6. If Abraham had not believed God , he had not been justified notwithstanding the Promise . So that this Justification depended as well upon his performing the condition of the Promise , as upon the Promise itself . And when God said to Abraham , Walk before me , and be thou upright , and I will make a Covenant with thee , Gen. 17. 1. The Lord made Abrahams upright walking before him , the condition of his keeping , as well as making Covenant with him . Besides , it is apparent that God made Circumcision to be the Covenant to be kept on Abraham's and his Seeds part , as the condition of what God had promised on his part , Gen. 17. 4 , 7 , 10. As for me , my Covenant is with thee , &c. Thou shalt keep my Covenant therefore , thou and thy Seed after thee in their generations . And this is the Covenant which ye shall keep between me and you , every Man-child among you shall be circumcised . By which is to be understood , not so much Circumcision in the flesh , as in the Spirit ; as I shall shew anon . And the truth is , it would not suit with God's end and design in his Covenant , of restoring Man to the rectitude of his Nature ( mentioned before ) to do it without Man's endeavours in the use and exercise of his natural faculties of Understanding and Will , as he is a rational Creature and free Agent . For God works that change in Mans nature , designed in his New Law or Covenant , not meerly Physically , but Morally also . 1. By proposing great and important Truths to his mind and understanding , and in assisting this natural faculty , in considering how his happiness is concerned in that which is proposed , in case it should prove true , and in considering likewise what reason there is to believe that it is true , and in discerning the truth of it upon consideration . And 2. By proposing Motives to the Will to incline it to follow the dictates of the enlightned mind , and by assisting the Will to be governed thereby . So that Man himself is not wholly passive in this change , or what goes to the making of it ; but is so far active in it , as to denominate what he doth by God's assistance , to be his own act . So that the Man is said to believe , to repent , to obey , when he doth believe , repent , and obey : For so he is every where in Scripture said to do . God doth not repent in Man , but Man repents through his grace and assistance . And therefore God's grace , and Man's indeavours in working this change , are very consistent . Phil. 2. 12 , 13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling . For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure . If Man do but what he can do , through the assistance of God's common Providence ( in whom we live , and move , and have our being ) God is most ready , through his good pleasure , or out of the goodness of his will and pleasure , to work in him both to will and to do savingly , to carry the work quite thorow . Otherwise if there were nothing that Man could do in a way of common Providence towards his salvation , why should he be exhorted and perswaded to do that , which yet will not be done to effect and quite thorow , without the assistance of God's Grace and good Spirit . The co-operation of God's grace with Man's endeavours , in this change in the nature of Man , which is necessary to his salvation , is a Doctrine that lies very fair and plain in the Scriptures . And therefore men are called upon to make themselves new hearts , Ezek. 18. 31. Make you a new Heart , and a new Spirit , for why will ye dye , O house of Israel ? And God is said to make them new hearts also , Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you , and a new Spirit will I put within you . Men are called upon to circumcise their own hearts , Deut. 10. 16. And God is said to circumcise the heart , Deut. 30. 6. Men are required to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and Spirit , 2 Cor. 7. 1. And they are also said to be washed and sanctified by the Spirit of God , 1 Cor. 6. 11. Men are commanded to repent , Acts 17. 30. And God is said to give them repentance , 2 Tim. 2. 35. Acts 5. 31. It is by reason of this co-operation of God's assistance , and Man's endeavours , that St. Paul expresseth himself as he doth once and again , Gal. 2. 20 I am crucified with Christ ; nevertheless I live ; yet not I , but Christ liveth in me , 1 Cor. 15. 10. I laboured more abundantly than they all : Yet not I , but the grace of God which was with me . He doth not by these last words so deny what he had said in the former , as if he had not spoke true , for he speaks the same thing in effect in another place , without any such correcting himself , as here he useth , 1 Cor. 3. 9. For we are labourers together with God. And therefore by his so correcting himself , saying , Not I , but the grace of God which was with me , he only intends to magnifie Gods grace , as having the principal stroke in the work . It is a phrase of like import with that , 2 Cor. 3. 10. For even that which was made glorious , had no glory in this respect , by reason of the glory that excelleth . So mans indeavour though it be somewhat in it self considered , yet comparatively , and in respect of the work of Gods grace by his Spirit which excels , it is nothing . Therefore in fine , as men are said through the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the body , Rom. 8. 13. So they may be said through the same Spirit , to believe , repent , obey ; that is , through the assistance of the Spirit , who is said to help our infirmities , Rom. 8. 26. Considering then that there is promise of Divine assistance to Man , using his endeavours in doing what he may , and can do towards the performing the condition of the Covenant , we may well conclude , that there is no Man under the Gospel , doth perish , but through his own fault and neglect . It is true , God doth sometimes for special reasons meet with , and convert sinners with a high hand of grace , whil'st they are pursuing their sins in a full career , and using no indeavours at all towards their own salvation , as he did Saul before he was Paul. But such extraordinary instances , are no Rules to us by which to judge of God's ordinary proceedings in converting men : Nor hath the Lord put men in expectation by any promise of his , of their being converted after that manner , and upon such terms . And therefore it will in no wise be safe for any man to expect to be converted by such extraordinary workings of grace , and to neglect to do what he can do , and what God requires he should do , towards his own conversion . There are many things which men may , and can believe and do , without any supernatural grace , and by vertue of God's common grace . It is no Supernatural Act to believe the Being of God , and the Immortality of the Soul or future state : Or to know that we are ●inners against God , and consequently that we stand in need of his mercy : Nor is it a Supernatural Act for a man to desire the future happiness of his own Nature or Being ; or to hear the Word of God which directs the way to that happiness ; no more than it is to hear any other Doctrine that only pretends to do so . Nor is it a Supernatural Act to consider the Doctrine of the Scriptures with as much seriousness , as men do or may , the contents of any other Books . Nor is it a Supernatural Act to consider how we are concerned in the Doctrine of the Scriptures , in case it should prove true : No more is it a Supernatural Act seriously to consider the strength and force of those Reasons that tend to perswade men to believe that Doctrine to be true : Nor , under the natural desires which men have to be happy in another world , is it a Supernatural Act for them to pray to God to direct and assist them in the use of means , that they may be happy . These I take to be no Supernatural Acts in men , For though the depraved wil of Man needs special or Supernatural grace to do these so seriously and effectually , as is needful to true Sanctification , yet in some sort and measure they may be done by common help . And if men would but go thus far ( as they can ) out of a real desire to be happy , I should make no question but that the Spirit of God would yield them his assistance to carry them quite through in the work of conversion . And whether our Saviour doth not by the hearers , resembled by the good ground , mean such men as before their conversion have some such working of heart about their future state , as doth incline them to hear and consider what with any fair probability may be said about the way to be happy in that state , and not to hear out of curiosity , or for fashion-sake , or to carp ; I submit to consideration . It is doubtless then mens inconsideration , carelesness and negligence in those things which they do believe , and which they can do , that undoes them . It is because seeing they see not , and hearing they hear not , which is the reason why more is not given , but rather that taken away from them which they had . That is , The reason why God with-holds his special grace , and many times withdraws common grace and assistance from men , is , because though they have understanding and considering faculties , which they could if they would use and imploy about their being happy in another world , as well as they do about their happiness in this , yet they will not , though they are frequently called upon , and excited thereto : Whereas those that take heed or consider what they hear , and how they are concerned in it ; to them more shall be given : God wil come into such with supernatural aid , Mark 4. 24. And therefore God , to put men upon a holy necessity of complying with his grace , in acting diligently towards the working out their own salvation , hath wisely made the obtaining of the great benefits of the Covenant , remission of Sin , and eteternal Life , conditional , so that men can have no farther assurance of pardon of sin and Salvation , than they are sure they sincerely indeavo●r to perform the condition on their part , upon which they are promised . Wherefore we are greatly concerned to be awakened by such sayings as these ; Strive to enter in at the strait gate : So run that ye may obtain : Vse all diligence to make your calling and election sure : Work out your salvation with fear and trembling : Let us therefore fear , lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest , any of you should seem to come short of it . Sect. 7. I come now in the next place to shew , What the condition of the Promise to Abraham was . In short it was a practical Faith. And under this Head , I shall endeavour , 1. To give some account of the nature of Abrahams Faith in general . 2. To describe Faith. And 3. To shew reason why Faith is made the condition of the Covenant . 1. The condition of the Promise to Abraham , was Faith , and ( as I shall after shew ) a practical Faith. For that was it upon which the great blessing of the Covenant , Justification , was conferred upon him , with the consequent benefits . In Gen. 15. 6. it is said of Abraham , that he believed in the Lord , and he counted it to him for righteousness . But St. Paul reciting this Scripture , saith , Abraham believed God , and it was counted to him for righteousness , Rom. 4. 3. Gal. 3. 6. If there be any difference between believing God , and believing in God , it seems to be this . To believe God , is to believe him upon his Word , to believe all that to be true , which he saith when he hath once spoken it . But to believe in God , is first , to believe him to be such an one , of such a Nature , as neither will , nor can at any time speak any thing but what is true : It is to believe him to be a God that cannot lye . For all true Faith , as Abraham's was , is founded in the Nature of God. Abraham did primarily believe in God , and consequently believed his sayings , of what nature soever they were . And secondly , to believe in God , is to believe that he can , and will perform whatever he promised , how unlikely soever the thing in its own nature otherwise be . And this was the nature of Abrahams Faith , as appears by St. Pauls Comment upon it , Rom. 4. 20 , 21. He staggered not at the Promise of God through unbelief , but was strong in Faith , giving glory to God ; and being fully perswaded , that what he had promised , he was able also to perform . He gave to God the glory of his Nature and Being , of his truth and faithfulness in his Promises , and of his power and ability to perform what he had promised , notwithstanding its utmost improbability in nature . And therefore , or for this reason , his Faith was imputed to him for righteousness , as we are told in ver . 22. of Rom. 4. And so it should seem it is not the believing of any one particular or single Promise , that is counted for righteousness , otherwise than as it is an instance of Faith in God in general , in reference to whatever he doth say or shall declare . Which may be the reason why Faith is said to be counted to Abraham for righteousness , as well when he had not the Messias in the Promise as the immediate Object of his Faith , but somewhat else , as when he had . The Promise , the believing of which was counted to Abraham for righteousness , in Gen. 15. 6. was a Promise of a numerous issue , [ So shall thy Seed be ] viz. as numberless as the Stars . But that which produced a belief of this particular Promise , would , and doubtless did produce in him a belief of the Promise of the Messias , and of every other Promise and Word of God , and declaration of his mind , so far as understood by him , & that was a habitual belief of God's Truth , and Faithfulness , Wi●dom , Power , and Goodness ; his fixed belief in God. And so a believing God's threatnings so as to use means to escape them , is ( it should seem ) counted to one for righteousness , as well as the belief of the Promises , as growing upon the same Root . Thus Noahs believing God's threatning to bring a Deluge upon the World , and his obedience to God's command in the preparing an Ark for the saving of his house , was that , or at least one instance of that Faith , by which he became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith , Heb. 11. 7. It was this general Faith in God that made Abraham so complyant with every intimation of his will and pleasure . By it he forsook his own Countrey and Kindred at God's command , to go he knew not whither , but depended on God's after-direction in that case , Heb. 11. 8. By it he was ready to offer his son Isaac , in whom the Promises were made : And he had such a firm belief in God's Promise , that in Isaac his Seed should be called , that he concluded that God would raise him from the dead when he had sacrificed him , rather than fail in the least of making good his Promise , Heb. 11. 17 , 18 , 19. He had such a confidence in God , that is to say , in his Wisdom , Goodness , Truth , and Power , as wrought him to an entire resignation of himself to God's will and pleasure . He believed God to be so good & so wise , as not to put him upon any thing but what should be for his good in the issue : And so true and powerful , as to promise nothing but what he could and would perform . In a word ; this his belief in God , made him believe all his Promises , and obey all his Precepts . 2. Come we next to some description of that Faith , which is the condition of the Promise , or Covenant of Salvation : Wherein I shall have respect to the nature of saving Faith in general , in reference to all Ages of the Church , and also to the Christian Evangelical Faith in special . Faith strictly taken , is an assent unto the truth of any Proposition upon the credit of the Speaker . But saving Faith is of a more comprehensive nature than is a meer assent unto the truth of any one Proposition . And although saving Faith is sometimes described by an assenting to the truth of one single Proposition , yet then it implies the belief of many more , and such a belief as draws in the Will to act according to the import and concernment of the thing believed . As for instance : The belief of this Proposition [ That Christ Iesus is the Son of God ] by which Faith is sometimes described , doth include in it a belief of the truth of his whole Doctrine , both concerning God's Grace , and Mans Duty , and the Will 's concurrence as to its concernment in it . For , if he be the Son of God , then he cannot lye or deceive in any thing he hath said . And again , the belief of this Proposition [ That God raised Christ from the Dead ] by which Faith is also described , Rom. 10. 9. includes in it a belief that all that Doctrine which he taught , is undoubtedly true : For if it had not , God would never have wrought such a Miracle as to raise Christ from the dead to confirm it . The belief then of such single Propositions , include a belief of the whole Doctrine of the Gospel , which is the Proper Object of the Christian Faith , and for that cause is frequently stiled Faith , or the Faith , in the New Testament . But if we respect the nature of Faith in general , as answering the different degrees of God's Revelation of his Will in several Ages of the World , both under the Gospel , and before ; I do not know how better to define it than thus : Faith is such a hearty belief of God's Declaration concerning his own Grace , and Man's Duty , as doth effectually cause a man to expect from God , and to act in a way of sincere Obedience , according to the Tenour and Import of such a Declaration . Or , if you will take in the belief of God's threatnings against sinners , into the definition ; then it will be thus : Faith is such a hearty belief of God's Declaration concerning his own Grace and Displeasure , and Man's Duty , as doth effectually cause a man to expect from God , and to act in a way of sincere Obedience , according to the Tenour and Import of such a Declaration . Faith thus defined , we have already seen exemplified in Abraham , who is the great Exemplar of believing , and the Father of Believers . And that it was his belief of God's Promise , or Declaration of grace and favour to him , as it was practical in producing Repentance , Self-denial , and sincere Obedience , by which he was justified and made happy , appears farther , not only in that it 's said by St. Iames , that his Faith wrought with his Works , and was made perfect by them , and that he was justified by Works , as well as by Faith ( of which more anon ) but also in that it 's said , that he received the sign of Circumcision ( which was the Condition upon which God covenanted with him to be his God , and upon the same terms to be the God of his Seed ) a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had while he was yet uncircumcised . For supposing ( which is not denied ) Circumcision to be an outward Sign of inward Grace , of the Circumcision of the Heart , consisting in Mortification , or a Penitential change of the Heart , which is the effect of Faith , his Circumcision as such , was a Seal of confirmation to Abraham , that it was upon his former so believing God upon his Promise , as thereby to be induced to leave the evil Customs of his Countrey , and his Countrey it self , with his Kindred , & his Fathers house ; that God would be his God indeed : In which Promise was implicitly promised , all that would make him eternally happy . And God's further design of giving to Abraham this Covenant of Circumcision , as a Seal to assure him the enjoyment of the benefit wrapt up in that Promise upon the terms aforesaid , was , that he might be the Father of all them that believe , whether literally circumcised or not ; that is , that he might be a great Example and Pattern to all others , of obtaining the same benefits in the same way , and so might be a means of begetting others to believe in God , and to obey him , as he had done ; to be a great Instrument to propagate the kind of new Creatures , of Men renewed to God , to the end they might be blessed as he was . This , or somewhat to this effect , is doubtless the meaning of Rom. 4. 11 , 12. And he received the sign of Circumcision , a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had , being yet uncircumcised : That he might be the Father of all them that believe , though they be not circumcised ; that Righteousness might be imputed to them also : And the Father of Circumcision to them who are not of the Circumcision only , but also walk in the steps of that Faith of our Father Abraham , which he had being yet uncircumcised ; and it is not unlikely , but that as Heart-Circumcision under the figure of Literal-Circumcision , was together with Faith , made the condition of the Covenant then ; so Spiritual Baptism , which is a death unto sin , and a living unto God , is under the Figure of Water-Baptism , joyned with believing , as the condition of the Promise of Salvation : now , Mark 16. 16. He that believeth , and is baptized , shall be saved . According to which St. Peter having spoken of Noah's Ark , saith ; The like figure whereunto Baptism now saveth us ; not the putting away of the filth of the flesh , but the answer of a good conscience towards God , 1 Pet. 3. 21. Now as it was in Abraham , such a belief of God's Declaration of Grace and Favour , as did effectually induce him to love and obey God , by which he was justified , so ( I shall shew afterwards ) it was the very same kind of Faith , working after the same manner , by which the Saints under the Law of Moses , were saved . But Faith , as Evangelical and Christian , is such a hearty assent and consent unto God's Declartion in the Gospel by his Son , concerning Christ himself , and his Grace and Favour towards Men by him , and concerning their own duty , as causeth a man to expect from God , and to act in a way of duty , according to the Tenour of such a Declaration , and his own concerns in it . And Faith , thus defined , is fully agreeable to the Tenour of the Gospel : Mark 16. 15 , 16. Go ye into all the world , and preach the Gospel to every Creature : He that believeth , and is Baptized , shall be saved . He that believeth What ? Why , he that believeth that Gospel which was to be preached to every Creature . Which Gospel contains a Declaration of God's Grace , & Man's Duty , & of his Wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men. For , 1. It declares from God that he hath given his Son Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of the World , by being a Propitiation for the sin of it , in becoming a Sacrifice to expiate sin . 2. It declares that God upon account of his Sons giving himself a Ransom for all , hath made , and doth establish a New Covenant with the World , to pardon , and eternally to save as many as shall believe in his Son , and repent of their sinfulness , in changing their Minds , and reforming their Lives , and becoming new men , in yielding sincere obedience to the Precepts of the Gospel . 3. It declares that those that believe not , shall be damned , and such as repent not shall perish , and that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. This summarily is that which the Gospel declares concerning God's grace and displeasure , and Mans duty . Now it is the Practical belief of all this , that is the saving Faith. It is not the bare belief that God hath given his Son to be the Saviour of the World , and a Propitiation for the sin of it : Nor is it a bare belief that he will for Christ's sake pardon and save as many as truly repent and amend their lives , and become new Creatures ; unless they so believe all this as seriously and heartily to Repent themselves of their former folly , and to return to their duty in new Evangelial Obedience . For otherwise , for a Man barely to believe all this , and not to act according to his own concerns in it , will be so far from being a believing to the saving of the Soul , as that it will rather plunge him the deeper in destruction for living and acting contrary to his own light and belief , as holding the truth in unrighteousness ; the wrath of God being revealed from heaven against all such , Rom. 1. 18. A man of this practical Faith which I have described , eyes as well the condition upon which the saving Benefits are Promised through Christ , as the Promise it self of those benefits ; and expects the enjoyment of those benefits upon God's Promise and Christ's purchase , no otherwise than as he with the assistance of God's grace , is careful to perform the condition . Which belief of his , makes him as careful to perform the condition in discharge of his own duty therein , as ever he hopes to enjoy the promised pardon of Salvation by Christ , and to escape the damnation threatned against those who perform not the condition . So that a Man by this Practical Faith , belives one part of God's Declaration in the Gospel as well as the other , and his own duty to be as well necessary to his Justification as the condition appointed by God , as the Grace of God , through Christ , it self is upon another account : And by this belief he is effectually moved , as well to act in a way of duty to God , as to expect mercy from him ; considering how his happiness is concerned in both , when he hath the whole of God's Declaration in all the parts taken together , in prospect , as the Object of his Faith. When he hears that God so loved the World , that he gave his only begotten Son , that whosoever believes in him , should not perish , but have everlasting life . When he hears that God hath set forth Christ to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood : And when he hears again , that God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself , not imputing their trespasses unto them ; he believes all this to be true , as coming from God that cannot lye , and accordingly is incouraged to hope in God's mercy , and is comforted thereby . But then when he hears again , that except we repent , we shall all perish ; that except a man be born again , he cannot see the Kingdom of God : That without holiness , no man shall see the Lord ; and that the pure in heart shall see God : That not every one that saith Lord , Lord , shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven , but he that doth the will of the Father which is in Heaven : That the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven , with his mighty Angels in flaming fire , to render vengeance to all those that know not God , and which obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ : But that he is the Author of eternal Salvation to all those that obey him . I say , when he hears all this , he as verily believes this part of Gods Declaration in the Gospel , to be the faithful and true sayings of God , as he accounted the other to be . And accordingly , doth as seriously , and sincerely set upon the work of Repentance , and as carefully useth God's appointed means for the changing of his Heart , and renewing of his Nature , for the purifying of himself as God is pure ; and doth as carefully obey all the Precepts of the Gospel ; as he hopes upon the account of Christ's sufferings and God's Promise , to be pardoned and saved ; as believing that those Benefits are neither promised , nor can be obtained , but in this way of performing the Condition . And I doubt not to say , this practical Faith , as it respects God's Declaration touching Mans duty , in conjunction with his own Grace in Christ , is , where the Gospel comes , the only saving justifying Faith. 3. Come we now to shew Reason why Faith is made the Condition of the Promise . 1. It is of Faith that it might be of Grace , saith the Apostle , Rom. 4. 16. It is that the Grace of God to miserable Men , might the more shew it self . For so it doth , not only in promising unspeakably great things through Christ to Man , who is not only un-deserving , but ill-deserving also ; but also in that these are promised upon such a possible practicable easie condition as Faith is , considering the means and assistance promised by God to work it : And considering also that the Promise is made to the truth , unfeignedness and sincerity , and not to perfection of Faith , Repentance , and new Obedience in their utmost degree . So that Christ might well say , my Yoke is easie , and my Burden light , Matth. 11. 30. Whereas the old way of promising the Inheritance on the Law terms , would have been to have promised it upon impossible conditions , as the case now is with fallen Man. And if God should Promise never so great things to Man , in his impotent and miserable state , upon an impossible condition , he would have been so far from manifesting abundance of Grace , Compassion , and Love to him in that condition , as that he would rather have seemed to insult over him in it . And therefore if the Promise should have run upon the Law-terms and not of Faith , it would utterly have frustrated God's design of manifesting his grace to Man , and of recovering Man's Love and Loyalty to him thereby . Rom. 4. 14. If they which are of the Law be Heirs , Faith is made void , and the Promise made of none effect . But it is of Faith , that it might be by grace , to the end the Promise might be sure to all the Seed , not to that only which is of the Law , but to that also which is of the Faith of Abraham , ver . 16. 2. This may be another reason why such a Faith as I have described , is made the condition of the Covenant of Salvation , viz. Because it best answers God's design in this Covenant , of renewing the nature of Man in Holiness and Righteousness , and by that means restoring it to happiness . For , by Faith Men are born of God , or made the Children of God. Gal. 3. 26. Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Iesus . Joh. 1. 12 , 13. As many as received him , to them gave he power to become the sons of God , even to those that believe on his Name . Which were born , not of blood , nor of the will of the flesh , nor of the will of man , but of God. Now to be born of God , or , which is the same , to be made the Child of God , is to have ones Nature restored to the likeness of God , in which Man was first made , and is the same thing with that wich is called Regeneration , and a being born again , and a new Creature . Which new Creature , or the nature of Man renewed by Faith , is also called the new Man , which after God , is created in righteousness and true holiness , Ephes. 4. 24. To be born again , is to have the faculties of Mans Nature restored to a rectitude in their motions and operations in reference both to God and Man , to be restored to their proper moral use for which they were made . It is in a word , that which is called a being made partakers of a Divine Nature . For those which are begotten of God , are begotten in , or to his likeness . Men can adopt those which are not their natural Children to inherit their Estates , but they cannot adopt them to a participation of their Moral Endowments . But God adopts his Children to a participation with him in the Inheritance , by adopting them to a participation of the Moral perfections of his Nature ; that is , to a consimilitude to him in them . And this we say is done by Faith ; that is , by Faith in God , and by Faith in his Word . For , in order of Nature , God is first believed to be a God of Truth , before his Word is believed to be the Word of Truth . And the creditableness of his Word depends upon the knowledge or belief of the fidelity of his Nature . And this Truth of God and of his Word , is the immediate Object of Faith. By Faith , a Man believes that to be true which God reveals or declares as his Mind and Will , let the Import of it be what it will. But then this Faith operates upon the Will and Affections , according to the Tenour and Import of that which is revealed . If it be matter of sad import , it works a hatred to him that threatens it , and a fear of the thing threatned , if it be apprehended to proceed from an enemy . And this is the effect of the Faith of Devils , who believe , and hate God , who believe and tremble , Iam. 2. 19. But if that which is revealed by God , and believed by Man , betoken unspeakable love & good will in God to Man , and matter of the greatest benefit to him , as a proof of such love , then it worketh love to him that expresseth such love ( for Faith worketh by Love , Gal. 5. 6. ) and a longing desire after the promised benefit . And as the Soul grows more and more in love with God , because of his love ; in love with his blessed Nature and Divine Perfections ; such as are his Love , and Goodness , Truth , and Faithfulness , Purity and Patience , Mercifulness , and readiness to forgive , which render him altogether lovely ; so it contracts a likeness to God in these upon the Soul , and so changes and renews the Moral habit and constitution of the Soul , and consequently of the whole Life . There is an aptness and promptness in men to imitate that in others ( and so in God ) for which they love them . And frequent imitating Acts , beget habits , Custom changing Nature . And hence it is , that through Faith we are made partakers of a Divine Nature . We all with open face , beholding as in a Glass the glory of the Lord , are changed into the same Image , from glory to glory , as by the Spirit of the Lord , 2 Cor. 3. 18. This beholding the glory of the Lord , is by Faith , ( For we walk by Faith , and not by sight , 2 Cor. 5. 7. and by it Moses saw him who is invisible , Heb. 11. 27. ) And the medium by which this Prospect is taken , is the Gospel , by which the Lord in his lovely Perfections is now openly revealed : And Faith being from time to time busied in beholding of , and conversing with these Perfections , it transforms the Soul into the same Image or likeness , from glory to glory ( that is gradually ) as by the Spirit of the Lord ; that is , through the co-operation of God's Spirit with Mans Faith. To comprehend the breadth , length , depth , and heighth , and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge , is the way to be filled with all the fulness of God , by transcribing all his imitable perfections upon the Soul , Ephes. 3. 18 , 19. And it is by virtue of their Relation to Christ , and being thus begotten and born of God , and made partakers of a new Nature conformable to God's , that Men can with confidence call God Father : This blessed effect of God's Spirit , is the Spirit of Adoption , by which they cry , Abba , Father . And it is this new Nature that is the Spring and Fountain of a good Life , of all Pious and Virtuous Actions . As it is said of God , Thou art good , and dost good ; so it is true of all those that are born of him . A good Man out of the good treasure of his heart ( thus renewed ) bringeth forth good fruit : The Tree being good , the Fruit will be good . And as this new Creature groweth up to strength and maturity , so doing of good , and acting worthily , will become natural and pleasant to him in whom it is . To such an one the Commandments of God are not grievous , but he will be able in some good measure to say , I delight to do thy will , O God , yea thy Law is in my heart . And for sin , it being contrary to this new Nature , there is a kind of Moral Impotency in him in whom it is , to commit sin : He cannot sin , because he is born of God , 1 Joh. 3. 9. Or if such an one be overtaken in a fault , it will work a disturbance in the Soul , just as that will in the stomach , which a Man hath eaten , against which he hath an antipathy in Nature . But as for such as perform Religious Duties , and do things materially good , only by the strength of Extrinsecal Motives , and not froman inward Principle of this new Nature , or love to the things themselves ; to such those actions , being unnatural , become grievous and burdensome , and will be continued in no longer , than those Motives continue in their strength . Sect. 8. The last thing I proposed to consider about God's Promise to Abraham , is , What we are to understand by God's counting Abrahams Faith to him for righteousness . And I take it to signifie thus much : That God in a way of special grace , or by virtue of a new Law of grace and favour which was established by God in Christ , ( Gal. 3. 17. ) that is , in reference to what Christ was to do & suffer in time then to come , did reckon his Practical Faith to him for Righteousness ; that is , that which in the eye of that new Law should pass in his estimation for Righteousness , subordinate to Christ's Righteousness , which procured this Grant , or Law. For otherwise Faith , neither as it is the condition of the Promise of Remission of Sin through Christ , nor as it works Repentance for sins past , or sincere Obedience for time to come , is Righteousness in the Eye of the Original Law. For that accounts no Man that hath , though but once transgressed it , to be Righteous either upon the account of anothers suffering for his sin , or his own Repentance or sincere imperfect Obedience ; but curseth every Man that from first to last continueth not in all things which are contained in that Law. But it is as I said , an Act of God's special Favour , and by virtue of his new Law of Grace , and as it is established in Christ , that such a Faith as I have described , comes to be reckoned , or imputed to a man for Righteousness , and through God's imputing it for Righteousness , to stand a man in the same , if not in a better stead , as to his eternal concerns , as a perfect fulfilling of the Original Law from first to last would have done : Christ's Righteousness being presupposed the only Meritorious Cause of this Grant or Covenant . And thus indeed the Faith which I have described , is a Man's Righteousness in the Eye of this new Law , because it is Summarily all that is required of him himself to make him capable of the Benefits promised by it , which as it is now revealed , is the Gospel . Justification is a Law-term : And no Man shall be justified in Judgment , or upon Tryal , but he that is just in the Eye of this new Law of Grace , as every one that rightly believes , repents , and sincerely obeys , is , because that is all that it requires of a Man himself to his Justification and Salvation . And yet every Believers Justification will be all of Grace , because the Law by which they are Justified , is wholly of Grace , is wholly a Law of Grace , and was Enacted in meer Grace and Favour to undone Man , that was utterly undone by the fall . There are two things which I conceive do constitute and make up the Righteousness of the Law of Grace ( presupposing all to be procured by the purchase which Christ hath made ) first , the Righteousness which consisteth in the forgiveness of sins ; and secondly , the Righteousness of sincere Obedience . And in reference to both these , Faith is imputed for Righteousness , by virtue of the Law of Grace . First , Faith as practical is imputed to a Man for Righteousness , as it is that , and all that which is required of him himself by the Law of Grace , to entitle him to the Righteousness which consisteth in the remission of sins through Christ. Now that remission of Sinnes is part of the Righteousness which is by Faith , is evident from Rom. 4. 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. Where the Apostle to prove that a Man's Faith in God who justifyeth the ungodly , is counted to him for Righteousness , he citeth a passage out of Psalm the 32d , Even as David also ( saith he ) describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works , saying , blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven , and whose sins are covered . Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin . The Righteousness imputed in this sense , doth consist in the non-imputation of sin . Not to impute sin , is not to reckon a Man not to have sinned ; but it is to deal with him not according to the demerit of his sin , it is to pardon him for Christ's sake upon his penitential Faith , and not to punish him for his sin ; and this by vertue of a new Law , or Act of Indemnity , or Covenant of Grace . For although pardon of sin is obtained for Man by Christ his suffering for sin , ( In whom we have redemption through his blood , the forgiveneess of sins , Ephes. 1. 7. and though God , for Christ's sake doth forgive us , Epes . 4. 32. ) yet the actual collation of this great Benefit , is not promised , but upon condition of Man's Faith. Him hath God set forth to be a Propitiation ; but it is through Faith in his blood , Rom. 3. 25. By him all that believe are justified from all things , from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses , Acts 13. 39. and 10. 43. Although Christ is the Propitiation for the sins of the whole World , ( 1 Ioh. 2. 2. ) yet that saying of Christ must and will will take place ; If ye believe not that I am he , ye shall dye in your sins , Joh. 8. 24. and that also , Mark 16. 16. He that believeth not , shall be damned . So that Faith is imputed for Righteousness , partly as it is the Condition upon which pardon of sin is granted . Secondly , That Faith is imputed for Righteousness , which is practical , or productive of sincere Obedience , without which property it is not a fulfilling of the Law of Grace as a condition of the promised Benefits , and consequently cannot justifie a Man in the Eye of that Law. For First , Repentance , and likewise forgiving men their injuries ( for instance ) are such Acts of Obedience , as without which a Man cannot be pardoned ; and if not pardoned , then not justified . And therefore Faith is not imputed for Righteousness , unless it be productive of Obedience . Secondly , No Faith is available to justification , but such as worketh by Love , Gal. 5. 6. Which to say is all one , as to say , no Faith is imputed for Righteousness , but such as worketh by keeping the Commandments of God , and fulfilling the Law ; for that is the interpretation of love , both to God and Men , 1 Ioh. 5. 3. Rom. 13. 10. Thirdly , Abraham who was set forth by God for a Pattern of his justifying Men by Faith , was Justified by such works as were the fruits of his Faith , and not only by his Faith which was the Root of them : And therefore his Faith as practical , was imputed to him for Righteousnss : And such must be the Faith of all others that shall obtain Justification upon their believing as he did , Iam. 2. 21 , 22 , 23. Was not Abraham our Father justified by Works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar ? Seest thou how Faith wrought with his Works ; and by Works was Faith made perfect . And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith , Abraham believed God , and it was imputed to him for Righteousness . Where note these four things . 1. That Abrahams Faith wrought with his Works about the same end , as a Condition of obtaining it , to wit , his Justification . 2. That by his Works his Faith was made perfect , to wit , in its aptitude by God's Institution , to justifie him , without which it would not have reached that end . 3. Note further , that it was his Faith as it wrought with his Works , and as it was compleated and made perfect by them , that was imputed to him for Righteousness . 4. Note , that in the Imputation of his Faith for Righteousness , as it was thus accompanied with , and perfected by Works , was the Scripture ful●illed which saith , Abraham believed God , and it was imputed to him for Righteousness . And if so , then the Justification by Works , together with Faith , of which St. Iames speaks here , is a Justification before God , and not before Men only , and to a Man 's own Conscience : For of such a Justification doth the Scripture in Gen. 15. 6. speak , which is here cited by St. Iames. Nor doth this , that Faith accompanied with Obedience is imputed for Righteousness , at all derogate from the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ in reference to the ends for which they serve . Because the whole Covenant , and all the parts and terms of it , both Promises of Benefits , & the Condition on which they are Promised , are all founded in Christ his undertaking for us , and all the Benefits of it accrue to us upon our Believing and Obeying , upon his account , and for his sake . We are in him , who of God is made unto us Wisdom , Righteousness , Sanctification , and Redemption , 1 Cor. 1. 30. For which cause also he is called the Lord our Righteousness . Not as if his personal Obedience to the Law , was so formally imputed to us , as that we should be reckoned to have kept the Law in his keeping of it , ( which hath been the Opinion of some ) for if that had been so , there would have been no more need that Christ should have suffered for us , than there was that he shoud have suffered for himself who had no sin , for neither should we , if we had perfectly kept the Law in him , or in his keeping of it . CHAP. II. For what Ends the Law was added to the Promise . I Now come to shew in the next place , for what end the Law of Mo●es was added to the Promise . And before I do this in particular , I shall note only in general , that it was not added to cross or confront the Promise , or God's Design in it , but to be subservient to it , Gal. 3. 21. Is the Law then against the Promises ? God forbid . For it is not to be thought that God would prevaricate in his Design , so that when he had once made a new Law of Grace for the saving of faln Man , he would yet afterwards give any Law but what should one way or other subserve to the same end , if Men do not deprive themselves of the intended benefit by perverting it . And therefore to be sure , God did not intend to revive the Old Covenant of Works made with Adam in Paradise , in the after promulgation of the Law of Nature ( which we call the Moral Law ) already broken . He did not therein come to demand his full debt of Innocency in Mans broken and bankrupt condition , or to let him know that he would without any other condition than perfect incency , cast him into prison , until he had paid the utmost farthing . For if he had , then the Law indeed would have been against the Promise , which declares quite otherwise . It is true , the Law of Nature as it is a perfect Rule of Natural Righteousness , founded in God's Nature and Man's Nature , doth of it self require perfect innocency , and can require no less , being suited to the Nature of Man in its perfect state . But when God brings this Law forth , and sets it before Men that are now faln from that state , as he doth in the promulgation of it , it is to let them know indeed what they once were , and from whence they are fallen , and how unhappy their condition now is , according to the Tenour and Terms of that Law , and that it would have continued so for ever , if God had not made a new Law of Grace , to over-rule that Law ; and to let all know that they shall still remain in that condition that wilfully exclude themselves from the benefit of the Law of grace , by not performing the Condition of it : and not to let them know , they should have no better terms from him than that Law affords them , nor to make their perfect keeping of it the condition of their Justification . But the Law of Moses entirely taken in all its parts , was rather given as an Appendix to the Promise , both as a Rule of the material part of that Obedience , which God would now require of the Israelites in conjunction with their Faith in the Promise , and as a Motive to that Obedience : This in general . The Question is put , Gal. 3. 19. Wherefore then serveth the Law ? And the Answer there is , That it was added because of transgression , until the Seed should come . And it was added because of transgression in more respects than one . 1. It was added to discover Sin , to make that known to be Sin , which was so of it self , and in its own nature before the promulgation of the Law. For by reason of that grievous Wound which Man got in his Understanding by the Fall , and by reason also of a Progressive Degeneration in Mankind , the Natural Sense of Moral Good and Evil , was to a great degree worn out of the minds of Men. For the repairing of which decay , a promulgate Law ( the ten Commandments ) answerable to the Law of pure Nature in the Spirituality of it , was set on foot in the World. And by this Law came Sin and Duty to be more clearly known than they were before , Rom. 3. 20. By the Law is the knwoledge of Sin , Rom. 7. 7. I had not known Sin but by the Law : For I had not known Lust , except the Law had said , Thou shalt not covet . 2. The Law was added , not only barely to make known that to be Sin , which was so●of it self before , but to set it out in it's Colours , to make it known in the horrid nature and consequence of it , that Men might be the more afraid to have to do with it . The Law entred that the offence might abound : That is , that by that means it might be rendred the more Criminous and Demeritorious : That Sin by the Commandment , might become exceeding sinful , Rom. 5. 20. & 7. 13. 3. The Law as it discovered Sin , and made it more criminous , and the people the more sensible of guilt , and more apprehensive of their obnoxiousness to punishment , was given to set off so much the more , the Glory , Beauty , and Desirableness of God's Grace in the Promise of pardon and Salvation , Rom. 5. 20. The Law entered that the offence might abound : But where Sin abounded , Grace did much more abound . By how much the more Sin appeared Sin , and was enhanced , and aggravated , and rendred manifestly mischievous by a Promulgate Law ; by so much the more grace appear'd to be Grace , in all its Glory , that brought deliverance from it , Rom. 5. 21. That like as Sin hath reigned unto death ( viz. by the Law , that being the strength of Sin , 1 Cor. 15. 56. ) Even so Grace might reign through Righteousness unto eternal life through Ie●us Christ our Lord. After Christ came , the rest which he gave , was so much the more sweet to these Iews who received him , by how much they had been weary and heavy laden under a Spirit of bondage before . 4. The Law ( saith St. Paul ) was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ , that we might be justified by Faith , Gal. 3. 24. That is , It was a lower sort of Institution accommodated to the weak and more imperfect state of the Church● , until afterward it should deliver them over to a more perfect Institution under Christ. Parents first teach their Children to speak , and after put them to School to learn Letters , Syllables , Words , and Sentences , the use and design of all which they do not understand while they are Children , as they do when they come to be Men. In proportion to this hath God dealt with his Church in the World , beginning with a lower and more imperfect sort of Instruction , Precepts and promises , and so proceeding to those that are higher and more perfect , and so by certain gradations , to lead on , and build up his Church to a more perfect Spiritual and compleat state of Faith and Holiness ; To all the riches of fulness of understanding of the Mystery of God , of the Father , and of Christ , Col. 2. 2. And thus the Law as a Schoolmaster , had a double end and use : The one respecting the time then present : The other that which was then future and to come . The then present use of it was twofold also . 1. To reclaim and restrain them from the Superstitious Customs of the Heathen , to which they were addicted , in which respect also it was added because of transgression . The Heathen Worship , stood in divers Superstitious Rites or Ceremonies : And because the Israelites were adicted to a bodily Worship like theirs , ( for they said , let us make us Gods to go before us , Exod. 32. 1. ) and were in danger thereby of being drawn to Worship their Gods , therefore to prevent this ( as Parents put their Childeren to School , partly to keep them out of harms way ) the Lord by way of condescention to their childish humour , did ordain a Worship consisting much in bodily exercise , and Instituted divers Laws , which stood in Meats and Drinks , and divers Washings , and carnal Ordinances , until the time of Reformation ; till he should by sending his Son , appoint more excellent Laws for reforming both them and the rest of the World. Lev. 18. 3 , 4 , 5. After the doings of the Law of Egypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do ; and after the doings of the Land of Canaan whither I bring you shall ye not do ; neither shall ye walk in their Ordinances . Ye shall therefore keep my Statutes and my Iudgments : Which if a Man do , ●e shall live in them , Ezek. 20. 6. — 11. 2. The Lord did Institute diuers Temporary Laws for tryal and exercise of their Obedience in those lesser things for a time , as being such as they were as yet best capable to receive , thereby to lead them on to higher instances of Obedience afterward . These many Ceremonies which they were obliged to observe , were not things of any Natural or Intrinsick goodness , but only made use of by God for a present turn , which when that was served , they ( as to practise ) were of no value , but became beggerly Elements . But yet while they continued commanded of God , their obedience in the use of them , was rewardable , as well as their obedience to any other Laws . The other end and use of the Law as it was a Schoolmaster , respected the time then to come . For the high Priesthood , and Sacrifices of the Law , as they were Types of what Christ should be , do , and suffer as Mediatour , were of great use to the Iews after Christ had suffered , and was risen again , and ascended into Heaven , to facilitate both the knowledge and belief of the Mystery of Redemption by Christ. 1. To facilitate the knowledge thereof , and to beget in them a right Notion of these things in Christ , by which forgiveness of sins , and acceptance with God , is obtained on our behalf . For those who had long seen and known the effect of Legal Sacrifices , as how they did procure Legal impunity for offences committed , God accepting the life of a Beast that had not sinned , instead of the life of a Man that had , might soon come to understand from that by parity of reason , that God would much more accept of his own Sons offering himself in Sacrifice for us , so as to excuse us from suffering eternal punishment for our sin . For if the blood of Bulls , and of Goats , and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean , sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh ; how much more shall the Blood of Christ , who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God , purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God , Heb. 9. 13 , 14. And so the High Priests entring into the Holy of Holies in the behalf of the people , with the blood of the Sacrifice , and burning Incense there , doth greatly assist the mind in understanding the Nature of Christ's Intercession for us in Heaven , in virtue of his Bloodshed for us on Earth , Heb. 9. 2. The Law in the Typical Nature of it , was of great use to the Iews , to facilitate and strengthen their belief in Christ ; and so were the Predictions of the Prophets in conjunction with it : for these and the accomplishment of them in Christ , did so answer each other , as in Water Face answereth to Face , that those who believed the Law and the Prophets , had a great advantage by means thereof , to believe in Christ. And therefore our blessed Saviour when he would satisfie his Disciples touching himself , that he was indeed the Christ , and of the necessity of his death , ( which death occasioned at first a staggering in their Faith ) beginning at Moses and all the Prophets , he Expounded to them in all the Scriptures , the things concerning himself , Luke 24. 27. And St. Paul when he laboured the conversion of the Iews at Rome , to Christianity , as the chiefest way to effect it ; he Expounded to them , and testified the Kingdom of God , perswading them concerning Iesus , both out of the Law of Moses , and of the Prophets , from morning to evening , Acts 28. 23. Had ye believed Moses ( Saith our Saviour to them ) ye would have believed me ; for he wrote of me : But if ye believe not his Writings , how shall ye believe my words , Joh. 5. 46 , 47. And thus in both the forementioned respects , the Law was a Schoolmaster indeed to bring them to Christ , that they might be justified by Faith. 5. The Law was given to the Jewish Nation , not only for their behoof and benefit , but also for a general good to the World : That the Nations round about , hearing of such excellent Laws , & perceiving how happy and prosperous those people were , so long as they observed them ; might thereby be invited to quit their Idol Gods , and to take hold of the Covenant , and to joyn themselves to the people of the God of Abraham , even as it came to pass in such as were Proselited . And upon this account it seems to be , that the Psalmist prayed thus : God be merciful unto us , and bless us , and cause thy Face to shine upon us : That thy way may be known on Earth , thy saving health unto all Nations , Psal. 67. 1 , 2. and concludes , ver . 7. that if God should so do , his fear would be propagated through the World : God shall bless us , and all the ends of the Earth shall fear him , Deut , 4. 6 , 7 , 8. Keep therefore and do them , for this is your Wisdom , and your Vnderstanding in the sight of the Nations , who shall hear all these Statutes , and say , surely this great Nation is a Wise and an Vnderstanding people . For what Nation is there so great , that hath God so nigh unto them , as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for ? And what Nation is there so great , that hath Statutes and Iudgments so righteous , as all this Law which I set before you this day ? To them were committed the Oracles of God , Rom. 3. 2. They were committed in trust to them as Feoffees for the World , to communicate the knowledge of God and of his Laws to the Nations ; to carry on further the Reformation of the World begun in their Father Abraham , and which was Promised to be more compleatly effected by the Messias , in that all Nations of the Earth should be blessed in him . And as God's Judgements on the Iews for breaking his Laws , was Admonitory to the Nations about them , Deut. 29. 24 , — 28. So his famous Deliverances wrought for them upon their Repentance for breaking his Laws , made God known abroad to be a great favourer of such as repent of their worshipping and serving other Gods , and such a one as could and would save , deliver and bless them that turned to him to serve him only . Which seems to be his meaning when he saith he will be sanctified before the Heathen , when he should gather them from among the people where they were Captives , and that the Heathen should know that he was the Lord , Ezek. 20. 41. & 36. 23. And by this means be brought them to fear & worship the God of Israel . Psal. 102. 13 , 15. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion ; So the Heathen shall fear the Name of the Lord ; and all the Kings of the Earth thy glory . When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion , they said among the Heathen , The Lord hath done great things for them , Psal. 126. 1 , 2. 6. The whole Law was given to be a Political Instrument of governing the Israelites ( according to that state of their minority ) as a peculiar Republick , of which God himself was the Soveraign Legislator . But of this more afterward . CHAP. III. Shewing by what Faith and Practice the Iews under the Law were saved . I C●me now to shew by what Faith and Practice the Iews under the Law were saved . And doubtless what ever it was , it became available to that end , upon the account of what Christ was to suffer , when he should come . For , as I shewed before , that God's Covenant with Abraham and his Seed ( by virtue of which the faithful then were saved ) was confirmed in Christ ; was established with them in reference to what he was to do and suffer as Mediatour afterwards , Gal. 3. 17. And by means of his death , there was Redemption for the transgressions that were under the first Testament , Heb. 9. 15. And the Sacrifices and Priesthood , were a Figure for the time then present , of what Christ should afterwards do and suffer , and for what end . But when I say so , I do not say that all that were saved , did understand so much . For we see the Apostles of Christ , though they did believe him to be the Messias , which the Iews expected , yet they did not understand or expect that he should suffer death as a Sacrifice , till he told them so : Nay the thing was so far from their thoughts , as that they did not understand him when he plainly foretold them of his death , Luke 18. 32. And if the Doctrine touching the resemblance that is between the Priesthood of Melchizedech and the Priesthood of Christ , was not in the Apostles sense , Meat which Babes in Christanity could well digest in their understandings , but was Meat for strong Men , Heb. 5. 10. — 14. we may well guess by that how little the Iews understood the Typical and Spiritual sense of those Types about which they were frequently conversant ; and wherefore it 's said that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than Iohn the Baptist , though he was so great , that there was none greater before him . Hence we may see , that one Reason why those Iews were all their life time under a spirit of bondage to fear , was the great Obscurity of the Declaration of God's purpose of Grace to the World through Christ , and the Way and Method of Salvation by him . Moses was but a servant for a Testimony of those things , which were [ after ] to be spoken , and so declared afterwards , as that the Typical meaning of them might be understood , Heb. 3. 5. In the mean while , as touching those things , they were shut up unto the Faith which should [ afterwards ] be revealed , Gal. 3. 23. It is said of the Prophets , whereof Moses was one , that not unto themselves , but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto us , by them that have preached the Gospel to us , 1 Pet. 1. 12. Add we to all this , Heb. 9. 8. where having spoken in ver . 7. of the High Priests entering alone into the Holy of Holi●s with the blood of the Sacrifice in behalf of the people once every year , he saith , The Holy Ghost this signifying , that the way into the Holiest of all , was not yet made manifest , while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing . By the Holiest of all , here is meant Heaven , signified of Old by the Holy of Holies , as appears , ver . 12 , 24. And the plain meaning seems to be this , That the peoples entring into Heaven by the Sacrifice and Blood , and Intercession of Christ , was not made manifest while the Tabernacle-Worship continued . For Christ is our way into Heaven ( to the place within the Vail ) by his Blood shed as a Sacrifice , Heb. 10. 19 , 20. Having therefore Brethren , boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Iesus , by a new and living way , which he hath consecrated for us th●ough the Vail , that is to say , his flesh . But this way he tells us was not made manifest , while the first Tabernacle was standing . But as obscure as this way was , as to what was to be done and suffered in particular by the Messias , yet they had some general Grounds of Faith and Hope , that upon their Faith , Repentance , and sedulous endeavours to walk in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord , they should obtain remission of their sins , and a future happiness in another World. Among which Grounds these were not the least : 1. They had the knowledge of the Promise of Blessedness to all Nations in Abrahams Seed , and of the Promise of those other Benefits which were Promised to Abraham and his Seed . 2. They had an addition of several other Predictions concerning the Messias , both by Moses and other Prophets , that perhaps were somewhat more express , such as in Deut. 18. 16. Isa. 53. Dan. 9. and others . These Promises and Predictions , put them in great expectations of Special Benefits by the Messias , and wrought in them a longing after his day . Upon which account our Saviour said to his Disciples : Blessed are your Eyes , for they see , and your Ears , for they hear . For I say unto you , that many Prophets and Kings , and Righteous Men , have desired to see those things which ye see , and have not seen them , and to hear those things which ye hear , and have not heard them , Mat. 13. 16 , 17. Luke 10. 23 , 24. 3. They had large significations from God of his special favour to them above all people , as in chusing them to be his peculiar people , and in declaring himself to be their God ; in giving visible Signs of his Presence among them , and excellent Laws & Promises to them , and sending his Prophets amongst them , and working many wonders for them , and casting out the Nations before them to make room for them , and the like , Deut. 7. 6 , 7 , 8. and 26. 18 , 19. Psal. 147. 19 , 20. Rom. 9. 4 , 5. 4. They had express Declarations from God of the goodness of his Nature , and of his compassion towards Sinners , and of his readiness to pardon such as should repent and return to their duty in loving him , and keeping his Commandments . As for instance , Exod. 34. 6 , 7. The Lord passed before him , and proclaimed , The Lord , the Lord God , merciful and gracious , long-suffering , and abundant in goodness and truth , keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving iniquity , trangression and sin . And when he delivered them his Law , with the greatest terrour and astonishment to them , yet even then he assured them that he would shew mercy to thousands of them that love him , and keep his Commandments ; as in the second Commandment . And in case of their miscarriage to the drawing down of Gods Judgements upon them , he bespeaks them thus : When thou art in tribulation , and all these things are come upon thee , even in the latter days , if thou turn to the Lord thy God , and shalt be obedient to his voice : ( For the Lord thy God is a merciful God , ) he will not forsake thee , nor forget the Covenant of thy Fathers , Deut. 4. 31. and 30. 1 , 2 , 3. Levit. 26. 39 , &c. From all which Grounds , the faithful among them , had such a hope and confidence of pardon of Sin , and of a future happiness in another life , upon their Repentance and sincere Obedience , as did effectually induce them to have good thoughts of God , to love him , and to endeavour to please him , by having respect unto all his Commandments . This made him say , Psal. 130. 4. There is forgiveness with thee , that thou mayest be feared . And under this hope and confidence , the twelve Tribes did instantly serve God day and night , and grounded this Hope of theirs upon the Promise made of God unto their Fathers , as St. Panl tells us , Acts 26. 6 , 7. And indeed it was the unanimous Faith of the most eminent among them from age to age , that God had both made , and would keep a Covenant to shew mercy to those that love him , and keep his Commandments , or that walk before him with all their heart : For that they looked upon as the Condition of God's Promise of shewing Mercy . This we may see in Moses , David , Solomon , and in Daniel , and Nehemiah , Deut. 7. 9. Know therefore that the Lord thy God , he is God , the faithful God , which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him , and keep his Commandments . So David , Psalm 103. 17 , 18. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to such as keep his Covenant , and to those that remember his Commandments to do them . And thus Solomon , 1 Kings 8. 23. And he said , Lord God of Israel , there is no God like thee , who keepest Covenant and mercy with thy servants , that walk before thee with all their heart . So Daniel in his 9th Chap. 4th ver . O Lord , the great and dreadful God , keeping the Covenant and Mercy , to them that love him , and to them that keep his Commandments . And Nehemiah likewise , Ch. 1. 5. I beseech thee , O Lord God of Heaven , the great and terrible God , that keepeth Covenant and mercy for them that love him , and observe his Commandments . This we see was the serious and constant Profession of the Faith of the servants of God in those times . And in this Faith and Practice doubtless it was , that they lived , and dyed , and were saved . CHAP. IV. That the Law contained a Covenant different from that with Abraham . IN the next place I am to shew , that the Law of Moses did contain a Covenant distinct , and of a different nature from the Covenant which God made with Abraham and his Spiritual Seed . Besides the general Promise which God made to Abraham , respecting the Gentiles as well as the Iews ( In thee all Nations of the Earth shall be blessed ) he made a Special Covenant with him , as a reward of his Signal faithfulness , to give unto his Natural Seed the Land of Canaan . Nehem. 9. 8. Thou foundest his heart faithful before thee , and madest a Covenant with him , to give the Land of the Ca●aanites — to his Seed . In order to the fulfilling of which Promise , after he had brought them out of Egypt , he united them under himself as Head , in one Political Body , by a Political Covenant , Exod. 19 , &c. which is the Covenant I am now to discourse of . In which discourse I would , 1. Shew in what respect the Law of Moses is said to contain a Covenant of a different nature from the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham . 2. Prove that it did contain such a different Covenant . 3. For farther Illustration , consider it in its parts , and their relation one to another . 4. And in what respect this Covenant is called the first Covenant , when as the Covenant of Grace was made before it . 1. In what respect the Law of Moses is said to contain a Covenant of a different Nature from the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham . The Law of Moses comes under a twofold consideration . 1. As in conjunction with the Promise to Abraham , to which it was annexed , it made up one entire Law , by which the Israelites were to be governed and directed in the way to eternal life : And in this Conjunction , the Promise was the Life and Soul as it were of the Body of the Mosaic Law properly taken . And in this sense as the word Law signifies the Pentateuch , or five Books of Moses , ( which contain the Promise as well as the Law ) it is sometimes used in the New Testament , Gal. 4. 21 , 22. 1 Cor. 14. 34. Luke 16. And in this sense doubtless we are to understand the Law upon which David bestowed so many glorious Encomiums as he did , saying , The Law of the Lord is perfect , converting the Soul , &c. Psal. 19. 2. We are to consider the Law of Moses as given at Sinai , in a stricter sense , as it was an Instrument or Rule of Government in the Commonwealth of Israel . The Law , in the former sense of it , promised eternal life ( though but obscurely ) to those that did believe its Promises , and sincerely obey its Precepts . In the latter sense , it promised only temporal Blessings to those that strictly observed it in all the parts of it ; and threatned those with temporal calamities that did not . The same Laws materially , of this Political Covenant , related to both the Covenants . As eternal Life was promised in the Covenant of Grace , upon condition of sincere obedience to those Laws , as an effect of Faith in the Promise ; So those Laws , in Conjunction with the Promise , were , as I may so say , Evangelical . But as temporal benefits only were promised in that Covenant upon condition of strict obedience to those Laws ; and as those Laws were enjoyned under temporal penalties as they were Commonwealth-Laws ; so that Convenant , containing those Laws , was Political , and in this Political respect , it was another Covenant . If the Law of God , and the Law of Man command or forbid things materially the same ; yet if the one command or forbid them under pain of damnation , and the other only under temporal penalties ; these Laws are not formally the same . The Commonwealth of Israel had no Commonwealth Laws , but what God himself gave them , the which Laws they also covenanted with him to observe ; by which Covenant they were united under him as Head of that Political Body . And therefore when they would needs choose them a King like other Nations , God told Samuel , saying , They have not rejected thee , but they have rejected me , that I should not reign over them , 1 Sam. 8. 7. Ye said unto me ( said Samuel ) nay , but a King shall reign over us , when the Lord your God was your King , 1 Sam. 12. 12. I conclude then , that as the Law of Moses did serve to this Political end , so it was a distinct Covenant , and different from the Covenant of grace . 2. Let us see how this may be proved to be a Covenant so distinct and different , as I have said , from the Covenant of Grace declared to Abraham . And to this purpose these things are considerable . First , They are called the two Covenants , by St. Paul , Gal. 4. 24. And if they are two , then there is a real difference between them , else they would be but one and the same . Secondly , They bear distinct denominations , the one is called the first and the Old Covenant , and the other , the Second and the New , Heb. Chap. 8. & 9. Thirdly , There were some sins pardonable by one of these Covenants , which were not so by the other ; and that shews that they were quite of a different nature . The Murder and Adultery which David was guilty of , was not pardonable according to the terms of the Political Covenant , if there had been any Superiour Power on Earth to have executed that Commonwealth-Law ; and yet according to the terms of the Covenant of Grace , they were pardonable upon repentance , and upon those terms were pardoned unto him . The like might be said perhaps of Manasseh . The unbelief of Moses and Aaron in not Sanctifying God in the eyes of the Children of Israel , was according to the terms of the Covenant of Grace , pardoned as to the eternal penalty , but yet was not wholly pardoned according to the terms of the the Political Covenant as to temporal punishment : For the Lord told them that for that cause they should not bring the Children of Israel into the Land of Canaan , Numb . 20. 12. And in reference to this case , the Psalmist saith , thou wast a God that forgavest them , though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions , Psal. 99. 8. Fourthly , The Covenant of Grace never ceaseth , but it is of perpetual duration throughout all Generations ; and therefore is called the Everlasting Covenant , Heb. 13. 20. But this Mosaical Political Covenant , is vanished long since , Heb. 8. 13. by which also it appears to be a Covenant effentially different from the other . 3. For a farther Illustration of the nature of this Covenant , we will consider it in its parts , and in the relation which those parts bear one towards another . And in general , it did consist of two parts . 1. Of Laws ; and 2. Of the Sanction of those Laws : The Laws likewise were of two sorts . 1. Laws of Duty . 2. Laws of Indemnity . 1. Laws of Duty . And in them we may consider , 1. What those Laws were . 2. What manner of obedience to those Laws it was which would free men from the penalties of them , and entitle them to the Promises of reward annexed to them . First , The Laws of Duty , of which this Covenant did in great part consist , were those which pass under the various denomination of Moral , Ritual or Ceremonial , and Judicial . Some of which Laws , ( viz. the Decalogue especially and almost wholly ) for the matter of them , were natural , that is , such as were founded in the nature of Man , forbidding things which of themselves were evil , and commanding things which in their own nature were good , and might be discerned to be so , by Man in his pure Naturals , and in great part since the degeneration of his nature , whether they had been expresly forbidden , or commanded , or no. But these Laws became part of the Political Covenant , only as they were expresly and externally declared to the Iews by a Promulgate Law. For if this had not been so , the Gentiles could not have been said to be without the Law , as they were , Rom. 2. 14 , 11. 1 Cor. 9. 21. For they had the force and effect of the Law in their hearts , and were in that respect a Law unto themselves , Rom. 2. 14 , 15. But because the Decalogue , as well as the other Laws , was delivered to the Iews only , and to none else , from Mount Sinai , therfore they only ( and Proselytes that joyned with them ) were said to be under the Law , and all the rest without Law. And therefore is the giving of the Law reckoned to the Iews among their peculiar Priviledges , Rom. 9. 4. Psal. 147. 19 , 20. And in this sense only as the Decalogue was a part of the Political Law , can the Ministration ingraven in Stones , be said to be done away , as it is , 2 Cor. 3. 7 , to ver . 11. For so much of it as was a Copy of the Law of Nature , or is by Christ incorporated into his Laws , remains in force to all men . The other Laws of which this Covenant did consist , were Arbitrary , the force of which did wholly depend upon Divine Institution : And such were the Laws Ceremonial ; and a great part of those we call Judicial . Secondly , That obedience which would be sufficient to secure a Man from the penalty of the Political Law , and to entitle him to the Promised Reward annexed thereto , was no less than a strict Obedience to it in all the parts of it . For it is written , Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them : And all the people shall say , Amen . Deut. 27. 26. And this extended to Heart-obedience , and Heart-sinning , as well as to the outward act , commanding love to God , forbidding to covet , as under the Heart-searching Political Soveraign , who reserved to himself the final Judgement and Execution , even in temporal respects , in many cases . 2. Laws of Indemnity ( of which also this Covenant did consist ) were partly those which ordained Sacrifice and Offerings for the Expiation of many sins made pardonable by those Laws , so far as to exempt the Delinquent person from the temporal penalty threatned for breach of those other Laws , which for distinction sake , I call Laws of Duty ; for otherwise these also were Laws of Duty as well as of Priviledge . There were other Laws of Indemnity likewise for the purification of persons legally unclean ; which being observed , the persons unclean became delivered from the penalties they suffered while their uncleanness was upon them ; such as was their separation from the Congregation . Consider we next the Sanction of these Laws ; and that did consist in Promises annexed to the observing of them , and in a curse denounced against the transgressors of them . And for our better understanding the Nature of the Promises of this Covenant , we will consider them Negatively , and Affirmatively . 1. Negatively ; The Promises of this Political-covenant as such , were not Promise ; of eternal life ; And when I say so , I do not deny but that , first , the Iews in Moses time , and before , had Promises of eternal life implyed in the Covenant made with Abraham and his Seed . And accordingly the faithful ones among them , sought after the Heavenly Countrey , and looked for a City which hath Foundations , whose builder and maker is God , Heb. 11. 10 , 14 , 16. Nor secondly , will I deny but that there are some passages in the Law of Moses , if you take the Law of Moses in a large sense , which look somewhat like a renewall of the antient Covenant with Abraham to his Seed . As when , for instance , God made a conditional Promise to the Israelites in Moses his time , to be their God , and that they should be his people , as in Levit 26. 12. Deut. 29. 13. Which form of words is interpreted sometimes to imply a future happiness in another World , Heb. 11. 16. Matth. 21. 31 , 32. And I do not deny but the Iews had by Moses , as express a Promise of the Messias , as Abraham had , Deut. 18. 15. — 19. But St. Paul doth not speak of the Law in this large sense , when he opposeth the Law and the Promise , the Law and Faith , one to another . But if we understand by the Law of Mo●es , the Law as Political , the Law of the Common-wealth ; so the Promises of it were not Promises of Eternal Life ; For Promises of this nature did pertain to another Covenant , to wit , th●t made with Abraham , and his Spiritual Seed as such . First ; Therefore St. Paul doth down-rightly deny that the Promise of the Inheritance , ( which in Heb. 9. 15. is called the Eternal Inheritance ) was by the Law , which yet it would have been , if by Law he had meant the Law in that large sense , in which the Law and Promise to Abraham are conjoyned , and not in that strict sense , by which he means the Political Law distinctly . And if the Inheritance had been promised upon the same terms as temporal Blessings were in the temporal Covenant , the Inheritance might have been obtained by the Law , as well as temporal Blessings were . Rom. 4. 13. For the Promise that he should be Heir of the World , was not through the Law , but through the Righteousness of Faith. Secondly ; St. Paul evinceth the badness of that Opinion , to think that Eternal Life was Promised upon the Law-terms , from the absurd consequence of it ; shewing that if it were , that then it would make void the Promise of God to Abraham , and the way of saving men by Faith in that Promise , of none effect : Gal. 3. 18. For if the inheritance be of the Law , it is no more of Promise : But God gave it to Abraham by Promise . Rom. 4. 14. For if they which are of the Law be Heirs , Faith is made void , and the Promise made of none effect . It was altogether unreasonable to think that the Inheritance should be promised upon such distant and inconsistent terms , as are Faith in the Promise , and by Works of the Law. Thirdly ; The Law , saith the Apostle , is not of Faith , but the man that doth them shall live in them , Gal. 3. 12. meaning , that what the Law promised , it did not promise it upon condition of believing , but upon condition of doing . And Eternal Life is not since the fall promised upon condition of doing without Faith , but upon condition of believing ; For the Iust shall live by Faith , Vers. 11. and therefore Eternal Life is not promised by the Law. Fourthly ; Wherefore else are the Promises of that better Covenant , Heb. 8. 6. said to be better Promises ? But because they are Promises of better things than were promised in the first Covenant ; which yet they could not be , if Eternal Life had been promised in that Covenant , because that is the best of all Promises . To say they are better only in respect of Administration , and clearness of Revelation , would not satisfie such as should well consider ▪ That if the betterness of the Covenant and Promises , lay only in that , the difference would not be so great , as to denominate them two Covenants , and two so vastly distant as the Scripture represents them to be . The difference then would be but only gradual , as that is , which is found in the same Covenant of Grace in the several Editions of it , to Adam , to Abraham , to David , and now to all Nations since Christ's coming ; and not Essential , as that between the two Covenants seem to be , as it is represented in Gal. 4. 24. Besides , St. Paul represents the Administration of the two Covenants , to differ as much as Righteousness and Condemnation , Life and Death differ , which sure is more than a gradual difference . The one is the Ministration of Death and Condemnation ; the other , the Ministration of Righteousness and Life . 2 Cor. 3. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. The Law made nothing perfect , but the bringing in of a better hope did , Heb. 7. 19. By which it appears again , that the hope of the Gospel ( in which the things hoped for upon the Promises of the Gospel are not the least ) is better than what the Law promised the observers of it . This is the Promise which he hath promised us , even Eternal Life , 1 John 2. 25. 2. And Affirmatively ; It was then a long and Prosperous life in the Land of Canaan , that was promised in the first Covenant , Deut. 28. 11. The Lord shall make thee plenteous in Goods , in the fruit of thy Body , and in the fruit of thy Cattel , and in the fruit of thy Ground , in the Land which the Lord sware unto thy Fathers to give thee , Deut. 11. 21. That your days may be multiplied , and the days of your Children as the days of Heaven upon Earth . A great variety of outward blessings is promised , as the reward of keeping that Covenant . And therefore Wisdom under that Dispensation is described , as having length of days in her right hand , and in her left ha●d Riches and Honour ; whose ways are ways of pleasantness , and all her paths peace , Prov. 3. 17. And as this Covenant was National , so there were Promises of National Blessings ; such as was the setting them on high , above all the Nations of the Earth ; making them the Head and not the Tail : The giving them victory over ●nemies ; multiplying the Nation , and bestowing on it Health , Peace , and Plenty , Deut. 28. Lev. 26. When it 's said once by Moses , thrice by Ezekiel , and twice by St. Paul , that the Man that doth them , shall live in them , ( Lev. 18. 5. Ezek. 20. 11 , 13 , 21. Rom. 10. 5. Gal. 3. 12. ) thereby Epitomizing the first Covenant ; I conceive that by living , is meant a long and prosperous life in this World. As on the contrary , the condition of one greatly afflicted , is in Scripture-Dialect , a kind of Death , and such an one said to be free among the Dead , Psal. 88. 5. And that which inclines me so to think , is not only the Reasons already given to prove that no other life was promised in the first Covenant , but also the congruity of this sense with other passages in the Writings of Moses . As Deut. 30. 15. See , I have set before you this day , Life and Good , Death and Evil. If you would know what is meant by Life here , the next verse will inform you : That thou mayest live and multiply , and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the Land whither thou goest to possess it . The contrary whereunto is the death he had set before them ; saying , I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish , and that ye shall not prolong your dayes upon the Land , &c. Deut. 32. 46 , 47. Set your hearts unto all the words which I testifie among you this day , ; for it is not a vain thing for you , because it is your life ; and through this thing ye shall prolong your dayes in the Land wherein ye go . The latter words are exegetical of the former : Through this thing ye shall prolong your dayes , is the interpretation of those ; it is your Life . And it may be considered also , whether this Particle [ in ] ( which if a man do he shall even live [ in ] them ) may not determine the nature and kind of that reward which was promised in the first Covenant , as it was a present reward , a reward which was received even while the work was doing , according to that , Psal. 19. 11. In keeping them there is great reward . And this is agreeable to what fell out in the event . The Lord was with them to prosper them , while they were with him ; but when they forsook him , presently troubles overtook them . The pouring out of God's fury on them to consume them in the Wilderness , being put in Ezek. 20. 13 , 21. as the direct contrary to those words , which if a man do , he shall even live in them , seems greatly to favour this Nation . But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the Wilderness : They walked not in my Statutes , and they d●spised my Iudgments , which if a man do , he shall even live in them : Then I said , I would pour out my fury upon them to consume them in the Wilderness . And indeed one main difference between the two Covenants , ( which I would have here observed ) lies in this , to wit , the presentness of the reward promised in the first , and the futurity of that promised in the second . St. Paul in his Allegorical description of the two Covenants , Gal. 4. 24 , &c. represents those that adhered to the first Covenant , by the children of Bond-servant , to whom Abraham gave gifts in present , and sent them away , as in Gen. 25. 5. and those that adhered to the second , by the Son of the Free-woman , Isaac , who was Abrahams Heir , to whom he gave the whole Inheritance at last . And the Adoption of Sons , as the Priviledge of the New Covenant ▪ is opposed to the condition of Servants under the Old , Gal. 4. 7. And what are they adopted to , but to an Inheritance for the future ? for by Adoption they are made Heirs : If a Son , then an Heir of God through Christ : an Heir of what ? of an Inheritance for the future ; an Inheritance Incorruptible , undefiled , and which fadeth not away , reserved in Heaven , 1 Pet. 1. 4. And therefore they are said to wait for the Adoption , to wit the redemption of their Bodies , at the resurrection , Rom. 8. 23. Sons and Heirs serve their Father with a free and ingenuous Spirit , though they have but little for the present , in confidence of what he will do for th●m hereafter in another world , when they shall come to age . But those under the Old Covenant , were like Servants , who serve with a servile Spirit , because they do it with expectation of present pay . The one walk by Faith , which is the substance of things hoped for , and the evidence of things not seen ; the other were influenced in their obedience , by the expectation of present reward , because that was it which the first Covenant promised to the observers of it . These Promises now insisted on , were promises of reward to the observers of this first Covenant : But besides these , there was another sort of Promises exhibited in the first Covenant , and they were Promises of pardon , in many cases , when the Laws of that Covenant were broken . There were ( as I have shewed ) Laws of Indemnity , which made many of the breaches of the Laws of duty , pardonable upon certain conditions . And such were all sins of Ignorance and Inadvertency , and some of those also which were committed wittingly . But presumptuous sins , and such as carried in them a kind of contempt of the Law , these were exempted from pardon : Heb. 10. 28. He that despised Moses Law , died without mercy , under two or three witnesses . But for the other , there were promises of pardon upon certain conditions ; which conditions were not always the same . In some cases the offering of a Sin-offering , or Trespass-offering , was the Condition . In other Cases , that with confession of Sin , was the Condition . And in some other Cases , Sacrificing , Restitution , and Satisfaction were the Condition . And afflicting of the Soul , as well a the Sacrifice for Atonement on the day of general Expiation , was always a Condition of forgiveness . These things in the particularities of them , you have in the 4 , 5 , 6 , 16 , and 23d Chapters of Levit. And then the Condition of the Promises of Purgation of Legal Uncleannesses , and the penal effects of them , was the observing the Rules prescribed for purifying the Unclean . Now the forgiveness promised by these Laws of Indemnity , did not free the Conscience from all Obligation to Eternal punishment , but only freed the Person from suffering those temporal evils , which were threatned in this Covenant against those which did not continue in all things written in the Book of it . Neither Sacrifices , nor Legal Purifications , Sanctified , but unto the purifying of the flesh , and to their temporal concerns only , Heb. 9. 9 , 10 , 13. And here we may observe a five-fold difference in reference to Remission of Sin , between the first Covenant , and the Covenant of Grace . 1. They differ in the nature of those Sacrifices by which Atonements were made , and upon which forgiveness was promised . The blood of the Sacrifice of the first Covenant , was but the blood of Bulls and of Goats , and the like , Heb. 10. 4. But the Blood of the Sacrifice of the second Covenant , is the Blood of Christ the Eternal Son of God. So that the nature of the Sacrifices of the two Covenants , upon which the Promise of the pardon of Sins was granted , doth differ as much as the blood of Beasts and the Blood of the Son of God differ . 2. Those two sorts of Sacrifices pertaining to two kinds of Covenants , differ in the proportion of Efficaty and Virtue to accomplish their respective ends and effects . There is a greater richness of proportion in the Blood of Christ to free the Cons●ience from the guilt of Sin , or obligation to Eternal punishment , than there was in the blood of Beasts to free the Delinquent person from temporal punishments . This is plainly intimated in Heb. 9. 13 , 14. For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats , and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean , sactifieth to the purifying of the flesh ; [ how much more ] shall the Blood of Christ , who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God , purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God. 3. They differ in the nature of the pardon promised in each of the Covenants respectively . The Redemption granted in the first Covenant , was but temporal , as the Covenant it self was ; it was but from evils temporal : But Christ Jesus by his Atonement , hath obtained Eternal Redemption for us , Hebr. 9. 12. 4. They differ in respect of the Sins made pardonable by each Covenant respectively . There were many sins for which the first Covenant granted no pardon upon any terms whatsoever . They that despised Moses Law , died without mercy , Heb. 10. 28. But the Covenant of Grace makes promise of the pardon of the greatest sins upon Repentance . All manner of Sin and Blasphemy , except the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost , are pardonable upon Repentance . This difference is set down , Acts 13. 39. And by him all that believe are justified from all things , from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses . We may well suppose that the first Covenant did finally condemn some , which the Covenant of Mercy pardoned . David in the matter of Vriah , did that which was unpardonable by the first Covenant ; it was a Fact to have been punished with death by the Law , but that there was none but God that could duly inflict it upon him in his capacity ; and yet upon his Repentance , it was pardoned as to his Eternal concerns , as well as temporal , by virtue of God's Covenant of Mercy . On the other hand , a man probably might be so righteous in the Eye of the first Covenant , as not to be visibly blameable , and yet even then he obnoxious to the curse of the Everlasting Covenant . Paul while he was Saul , and in the state of unbelief , was even then as touching the righteousness which is in the Law , blameless , as he himself saith , Phil. 3. 6. So different were these two Covenants , that him whom the one condemned the other might justifie , and likewise justifie him whom the other condemned . 5. They differed in respect of the Condition to be performed on Man's part for the obtaining of pardon . Pardon was promised i● the first Covenant upon condition of doing only without reference to Faith ; but so are not the pardons of the New Covenant , Gal. 3. 11 , 12. But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God , it is evident ; for the Iust shall live by Faith : And the Law is not of Faith ; but the man that doth them shall live in them . So much concerning the first Part of the Sanction of the first Covenant . Come we now to the second . The other part of the Sanction of this Covenant , did consist in the curse of it denounced against the breakers of it . Though it 's true that every Man is under a condemnation that would be Eternal , until he comes to be absolved by Virtue of the Law of Grace , yet more than temporal death was not expresly threatned for breach of the Political Covenant as such . 1. For first , A violent death inflicted by the hand of the Magistrate , for Capital Offences , is called the Curse , Deut. 22. 23. He that is hanged , is accursed of God , or is the Curse of God. 2. Christ who did not suffer Eternal punishment for Man's Sin , did yet suffer the curse of the Law , in that he was hanged on a Tree , Gal. 3. 13. It is true indeed , that by that temporary suffering of his , he redeemed us from Eternal punishment , which we were obnoxious to . 3. Those who Apos●atize from Christ , and reject his Gospel , merit sorer punishment than what was inflicted on them that despised Moses Law ; and yet sorer punishment for kind they cannot suffer , if Eternal punishment had been the penalty of that Covenant as such , Heb. 10. 28 , 29. 4. As the Promises of that Covenant when particularly expressed , did appear to be but temporal , so the curses of it appear to be no other in the particular enumeration of them . As for instance ; a violent death inflicted by the hand of the Magistrate , was the punishment threatned for many Capital Offences ; Such as was Idolatry , Blasphemy , Witchcraft , working on the Sabbath , invading the Priests Office , and for being a false Prophet ; & also for Murder , Adultery , Sodomy , Buggery , Man-stealing , Cursing , or Smiting of Parents , or being stubbornly rebllious against them , and some other . And a cutting off from among the people ( whether by God's hand immediately , or by Mans , I determine not ) was the penalty threatned for eating leavened Bread within the time prohibited , for not purifying ones self when unclean , for profaning holy things , for ones eating of the Sacrifice with his uncleanness upon him ; for offering Sacrifice any where but at the Tabernacle , for eating of Blood , and for eating of the fat of the Sacrifice ; for neglecting to keep the Passover , and for not afflicting the Soul in the day of general Atonement ; and for several other Offences . And those Offences for which cutting off from among the people , is threatned , being less criminous than the former , we have no reason to think the penalty of cutting off from among the people , to signifie more ( if so much ) than the suffering of a temporal death . As we may observe how the Israelites various punishments are exprest for their manifold crimes in the Wilderness , by God's overthrowing them in the Wilderness by Pestilence , and otherwise . 1 Cor. 10. In brief ; The temporal evils threatned in this Covenant , were either Personal , Domestick , or National . The Personal and Domestick evils , were no less , than whatsoever tended to the infelicity of Man's life , as Diseases in Body , Perplexity of Mind , unfruitfulness in Body , in Cattel , in Ground ; Scarcity , Poverty , Oppression , loss of Relations , fewness of days , and an untimely cutting off from the Promised Land. The National were wild Beasts , Pestilence , Sword , Famine , Captivity , and such like . These were inflicted when the breach of the Covenant became National in the generality of the people : But especially when those who had the management of publick Affairs , Civil and Ecclesiastick , did not restrain the people by a due Execution of Laws , but rather led them into sin by their Example , and sometimes by their Commands ; corrupting Religion , and perverting Justice , Levit. 26. Deut. 28. And the evils threatned being National , as the Covenant it self was , they must needs be but temporal , because there is no Judging , Condemning , and Executing Nations as Nations , but in this World. 4. Come we now to shew reason why this Covenant is called the first Covenant , since there were others made before it ; as that with Adam in Paradise , and that Covenant of Salvation with Adam after his fall , and with Noah , and Abraham . And , 1. Negatively ; It is not so called , as if it were the same for substance with that which was first made with Adam in Paradise , as many have thought , or because it was proposed upon the same term . For , First , That Covenant was established upon the terms or condition of perfect innocency ; no provision being made in it for pardon in case of failure , upon any condition whatsoever . But it was otherwise in this Mosaick Covenant , as I have shewed , in that it contained several Laws of Indemnity for the relief of Delinquent persons , upon certain possible and practicable conditions . Secondly , If this and the Paradisical-Covenant had been of the same Nature , then it and the Promise made to Abraham and his Spiritual Seed , would have been inconsistent , the one promising Eternal life upon believing , the other only upon condition of sinless obedience . If this had been the case , the Law would have been against the Promise , which God forbid it should , Gal. 3. 21. and the one would have excluded the other , according to St. Pauls ' reasoning , Rom. 11. 6. If by grace , then it is no more of works ; otherwise grace is no more grace . But if it be of works , then is it no more grace ; otherwise work is no more work . But 2. Affirmatively . It is called the first Covenant , because it is the first of the two under question and dispute between the Apostles and unbelieving Iews . The Question and Controversie between them was , which of the two Covenants , that by Moses , or that by Christ , was finally adhered to as the way of Salvation . In the handling of which Controversie , that by Moses is called the first , and the Gospel-Covenant established by Christ , as was Prophesied by Ieremiah , is called the second : Even as the one is called the Old Covenant , not because it was the Oldest of all Covenants , but because opposed to that which was Prophesied of under the name of a New Covenant . It is observable , that where we meet with the first mention of the first Covenant under that Denomination , it is not stiled [ the ] first Covenant absolutely , but [ that ] first Covenant , as pointing at that under dispute , Hebr. 8. 7. For if [ that ] first Covenant had been faultless , then should no place have been sought for the second . CHAP. V. The grand mistakes of the Jews about the Law and Promise ; and how St. Paul counter-argues these mistakes . I Am now in the next place to shew the fatal mistakes of the unbelieving Iews , about God's Promise to Abraham , and about the Law of Moses ; and how St. Paul doth counter-argue these mistakes . A distinct understanding of which Errors , and of St. Paul's arguings against them , sometimes severally , and sometimes conjunctively , and in the gross , will be as a Key to open many passages in his Epistles , which otherwise will be hard to be understood . 1. They held Circumcision in the flesh to be the condition in special , upon which all the blessings of God's Covenant with Abraham were promised ; but did not understand tha● Spiritual Circumcision , viz. the mortification of sinful affections and lusts , was principally intended , when God made Circumcision the Condition of his Covenant . For they were it seems grosly ignorant of the necessity of Regeneration , and so of the Spiritual design of Circumcision ; which was the reason why Nicodemus , though a Ruler among the Iews , answered Christ so aukardly when he Preached to him the necessity of being born again , Joh. 3. An ignorance that some allowance possibly might have been made for , had not the Circumcision of the Heart , and the making themselves a new Heart , been expresly called for , as it was , Deut. 10. 16. Ier. 4. 4. Ezek. 18. 31. Now this ignorance of theirs in the Doctrine of the Circumcision of the Heart , and the sense they put upon God's making Circumcision to be the Condition of his Covenant of being their God , was doubtless the reason why they placed so very much as they did in Literal Circumcision . For , although Circumcision first given to Abraham by way of Covenant , was afterwards incorporated with the body of Moses's Law , yet it should seem these Iews considered it not so much as it was a part of that Law , but chiefly as a Condition of God's Covenant with them in Abraham , as they were his Seed . And therefore St. Paul where he reckons up his Jewish Priviledges whil'st he was a Pharisee , puts Circumision in the Head of them all , and as accou●ted by him while a Pharisee , a Priviledge distinct from his being blameless touching the Righteousness which was in the Law , Phil. 3. 5 , 6. Whence also the Judaizers said , it was needful to Circumcise them , and to command them to keep the Law of Moses , Acts 15. 5 , 24. as if Circumcising did import something different from , or at least something more , than keeping of the Law did , though otherwise it was a part of the Law. Upon this account doubtless it was that we find them more zealous for Circumcision , than for any other Point of the Law besides . Against this Erroneous Opinion of theirs touching Literal Circumcisions being the Condition of the Spiritual Bene●its of the Covenant , St. Paul argueth several ways . First , By maintaining that the Covenant did chiefly respect Circumcision in the Spirit , Rom. 2. 28 , 29. He is not a Iew which is one outwardly ; neither is that Circumcision , which is outward in the flesh ( that is , it was not that Circumcision which would savingly avail them , as they thought it would ) but he is a Iew , which is one inwardly ; and Circumcision is that of the Heart , in the Spirit , and not in the Letter ; whose praise is not of Men , but of God : Again ▪ By shewing that Abraham could not have been justified before Circumcision , if the great benefits of the Covenant ( of which Justification was one ) were suspended upon that , as a necessary condition . And yet that h● was justified when not Circumcised , there is the express Authority of Scripture for . This he asserts . Rom. 4. 9 , 10. For we say that Faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness . How was it then reckoned ? when he was in Circumcision , or in Vncircumcision ? Not in Circumcision , but in Vncircumcision . Afterwards he proceeds to undeceive them in the apprehension they had , that the benefits of the Covenant were entailed upon Abraham's Natural Seed as such ; or at least as such , with the addition of a literal observation of Circumcision and the Law , without respect to the Spiritual and new Birth : Rom. 9. 6 , 7 , 8. They are not all Israel , which are of Israel ( as they thought they were ) neither because they are the Seed of Abraham , are they all Children : But in Isaac shall thy Seed be called : That is , those shall be called Abraham's Seed , which are born as Isaac was , by Faith in the Promise , which are therefore called Children of the Promise . For so the Apostle expounds it , saying , They which are the Children of the flesh , these are not the Children of God ; but the Children of the Promise are counted for the Seed ; to wit , such as are born after the Spirit , as it is explained , Gal. 4. 28 , 29. And this agrees to what he had said before , Rom. 2. 28. He is not a Iew , which is one outwardly , &c. Against which corrupt Opinion , Iohn the Baptist did oppose himself when he admonished the Pharisees , to bring forth Fruit meet for Repentance , and think not to say within your selves , we have Abraham to our Father , Mat. 3. 7 , 8. The Apostle labours to cure this grand Error about Literal Circumcision as disjoyned from Spiritual , in many other places , and shews how that Circumcision availeth nothing , but a new creature , such as Spiritual Cir●umcision makes a man to be , Gal 6. 15. Not Circumcision , but Faith , Gal. 5. 6. Not Circumcision , but keeping the Commandments , is that which would only reach those great ends which they sought after in Literal Circumcision , 1 Cor. 7. 19. But I shall have occasion to improve these Scriptures further upon another Head of this Discourse . And by the way , we may observe , that those who build their hopes of future happiness upon their having been Baptized , and their being of the Church , without the inward Grace signified by Baptism , which is the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost , they are much a-kin to those miserable mistaken Iews . 2. They not understanding the Typical and Spiritual use of the Legal Sacrifices , as they did prefigure the death and suffering of Christ , and the general Atonement which was to be made thereby , nor yet the Predictions of the Prophets touching his death , they ran into another gross Error , and that was , That the promised Messias should not by suffering death , become a Sacrifice for sin . And therefore they said to him when he spoke to them of his death ; We have heard out of the Law , that Christ abideth for ever ; and how sayest thou the Son of Man must be lift up ? Joh. 12. 34. They did not dream of his dying , but of his Reigning visibly as a mighty Monarch among them , and subduing all Nations under them , Because they knew him not , nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day , they have fulfilled them in condemning him , Acts 13. 27. Their ignorance in the meaning of the Types and Predictions touching the death of the Messias , would have been the more excusable , if they had not wilfully and obstinately persisted in that Error after those Types and Prophecies were fulfilled and explained to them . Ignorance in this matter was found in Christ's own Disciples a great while ; but their slowness to believe those Types and Prophecies after they were fulfilled , was a thing which our Saviour rebuked them for , saying , O fools , and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken . Ought not Christ to have suffered these things , and to enter into his glory ? Luke 24. 25 , 26. But the unbelieving Iews were tenacious of this Opinion , after they had sufficient means to have been convinc'd of their Error in it . In opposition to which Opinion , the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews , argues at large the necessity of Christ's suffering by death . As first , he argues it from his Priesthood . For having proved him according to Prophecy , to be a Priest not after the Order of Aaron , but of Melchizedeck , and so a Priest of greater Dignity , Chap. 5. and 7. He infers , Chap. 8. that as a Priest he must have something to offer in Sacrifice , and that of greater value than what was offered by Priests under the Law , that were but of an inferiour Order ; and that he shews to have been himself and his own Blood , as the Antitype of all those Legal Sacrifices , Chap. 9. Secondly , He proves his death necessary for the confirmation of the second and new Covenant , as he was Mediatour of it . As the first Testament was not dedicated without Blood , so neither is the second : For where a Testament is ( saith he ) there of necessity must also be the death of the Testator , Chap. 9. 15 , — 23. Thirdly , His death was necessary for the obtaining of Remission of Sins ; a Benefit promised in the new Covenant : For without shedding of Blood ( saith he ) there is no Remission of Sin , Chap. 9. 22. with Chap. 10. 5 — 18. And indeed it was a good part of the Apostle's work to beat down this Opinion , that the Messias was not to dye . Acts 17. 3. St. Paul , as his manner was , went into them , and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures , opening and alledging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead . Yea , this Opinion had so generally obtained among them in our Saviours time , that it seems the Apostles of Christ at first were not free from it . For when our Saviour told them , that at Ierusalem he should be delivered to the Gentiles , and that they should scourge him , and put him to death , and that the third day he should rise again ; it 's said , they understood none of these things , and that this saying was ●id from them , neither knew they the things which were spoken : Though they were spoken plainly and in no Parable , Luke 18. 32 , 33 , 34. Christ his being crucified , became a stumbling-block to the Iews through this Error of theirs , and that which they insisted upon as a Reason why they would not receive him as the Christ of God , 1 Cor. 1. 23. 3. They held another Error which probably was Mother or Daughter of the former , and that was , That the Legal Sacrifices did expiate and take away Sin , not only so as to free them from Legal penalties , and temporal punishments , as in many Cases they did , but so also as to free them from all Obligation to Eternal punishment . And so they did attribute to those Sacrifices , the same atoning virtue and purging efficacy , as is proper only to the Blood of Christ. In opposition to this Opinion , it is maintain'd , 1. That those Legal Sacrifices , were but Figures of the great Sacrifice , Christ Jesus , Heb. 9. 10 , 11 , 12. and 10. 1. 2. It was argued , that it was impossible that the blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away Sin , because these were offered year after year , over and over in the day of general Atonement for the same sins . And that if the former Sacrifices which were first offered , had taken away sin , the latter could not have been necessary to the same purpose , Heb. 10. 1 , 2 , 3 , 11. The often repetition of Sacrifices for the same sins , argues that the Worshippers had a secret sense in their Conscience , that those Sacrifices were not of a competent value , nor a sufficient price to redeem their Souls from Sin , as it exposeth to Eternal punishment ; however they might sanctifie as to the purifying of the flesh , yet they could not make any perfect as pertaining to the Conscience ; Heb. 9. 9. & 10. 1 , 2. 3. It was argued from a Prophetical passage in Psal. 40. in which Christ is brought in speaking thus ; Sacrifice and Offering thou would ' st not , but a Body hast thou prepared me : In burnt Offerings and Sacrifice for sin thou hast had no pleasure : Then said I , Lo , I come to do thy will , O God. From whence he infers , that the first sort of Sacrifices were taken away as insufficient , that the second might be established . By the which will , saith he , we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Iesus once for all , Heb. 10. 5. — 10. This Opinion of theirs , that Legal Sacrifices did expiate all their Sins , did keep up in them a hope of impunity here and hereafter , under many immoralities and great transgressions in the course of their lives . Though they multiplyed transgression , yet if they multiplyed Sacrifices too , they thought they should escape well enough . Amos 4. 4 , 5. Come to Bethel and transgress , at Gilgal multiply transgression , and bring your Sacrifice every morning , and your Tythes after three years , and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with Leaven , and proclaim and publish your free-Offerings , for this liketh you , O Children of Israel , saith the Lord God. And much after this rate do carnal Christians bear up themselves in hopes that all their sins are done away by the Sacrifice of Christ the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World , though they live from day to day in ungodliness . Only indeed they sin at a cheaper rate for the present than the wicked Iews did . The Iewish sinners were at the cost of many a Sacrifice to stop the mouth of Conscience ; but these are at cost only in making provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof , and depend upon Christ to pay all their scores . 4. Another of their Errors as consequent upon the former was this ; That without Circumcision and observing of the Law of Moses , the Gentiles could not be saved . This Opinion the Judaizing Christians retained after their Conversion to the Christian Profession . Acts 15. 1 , 5 , 24. Certain men which came down from Iudea taught the brethren , saying , Except ye be Circumcised after the manner of Moses , ye cannot be saved . There rose up certain of the Sect of the Pharisees which believed , saying , that it was needful to Circumcise them , and to command them to keep the Law of Moses . In opposition to which Opinion , St. Paul taught that the Righteousness of God by Faith without the Law is manifested unto all , and upon all that believe , whether Iews or Gentiles , and that there is no difference , Rom. 3. 21 , 22. And that a Man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law , though never Circumcised : And that God is the God of the Gentiles , as well as of the Iews , and that he doth justifie the uncircumcision and the circumcision ; those that had observed the Law of Moses , and those that had not , upon the same terms , viz. of Evangelical Faith , Rom. 3. 28 , 29 , 30. Whereunto agrees the words of St. Peter , Acts 15. 9 , 11. He put no difference between us and them , purifying their hearts by Faith ; i. e. us Iews , and they Gentiles : But we believe that through the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ , we shall be saved even as they , and upon no other terms , though we have observed the Law , and they have not , Gal. 2. 15 , 16. Upon the same account St. Paul again affirms , Rom. 4. 5. That to him that worketh not , but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly , his Faith is counted for Righteousness . That is , the Idolatrous Gentiles that never had observed the Law , but lived without God in the World ; should yet have their practical belief of the Gospel imputed even to them for Righteousness . And he further exemplifies this in Abraham , Ver. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. whose Faith was reckoned to him for Righteousness before he was Circumcised , that he might be the Patern and great Example of Gods justifying the Heathen upon their believing and obeying as Abraham did , in leaving his Idolatry and his Countrey upon God's Promise and Command , though he never had been Circumcised . And upon the like account he saith again , Gal. 3. 8 , 9. That the Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith , preached before the Gospel unto Abraham , saying , In thee shall all Nations be blessed . And from thence he concludes that those Gentiles that be of Faith , that believe as Abraham did , are blessed as Abraham was , are blessed with faithful Abraham . 5. Another Error which was held by some Judaizing Christians was this ; That Faith in Christ and Literal Circumcision , with a Literal observation of the Law of Moses , joyntly , were the Condition of Justification . Though they were such as believed , yet they taught that except men were Circumcised and kept the Law of Moses , they could not be saved , Acts 15. 1 , 5. They seem to have retained the same false Opinion of Justification by the Law , as the unbelieving Iews did , but held the Death of Christ necessary to be superadded . To convince them of which Error , St. Paul sets before them the bad consequence of it in two respects . 1. In that they hereby rendered the death of Christ needless in it self . Gal. 2. 21. If righteousness come by the Law , than Christ is dead in vain : There would then have been no need of Christ's death to accomplish it , as the unbelieving Iews indeed did hold . 2. In that this Opinion of their's made Christ and his death useless unto them , and cut them off from receiving any benefit by him , Gal. 5. 2 , 4. Behold , I Paul say unto you , that if you be Circumcised , Christ shall profit you nothing : Christ is become of none effect unto you : whosoever of you are justified by the Law , ye are fallen from Grace . And hereto agrees that in Hebr. 13. 10. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle : Those Judaizers who stand for the necessity of Mosaic Observations ▪ have no right to , nor shall receive benefit by Christ , who is the only Christian Altar to which we bring all our Sacrifices . 6. They held the Law of Moses to be unalterable , and of perpetual obligation . In opposition to which , the Author to the Hebrews improves to great purpose that Prophesie , Ier. 31. 31 , 32. Behold , the days come , saith the Lord , that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel , and the house of Iudah : Not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt , &c. For in that he saith , a new Covenant , he hath ( saith he ) made the first old . Now that which decayeth and waxeth old , is ready ( saith he ) to vanish away . And St. Paul shews how that the Legal Ministration how glorious soever it was , was yet done away , when that which was far more glorious did appear , 2 Cor. 3. 7 , 11. And again , that we are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ , and delivered from the Law , Rom. 7. 4 , 6. 7. The last of their Errors I shall insist on , was this : They held the first Covenant as alone , or separated to be the Covenant of Salvation , only taking in with it the Covenant of Literal Circumcision , which also was made a part of their Law. That first Covenant which I have already described as a temporal Covenant , and the Promises and the threatnings of it but temporal , they took to be established for perpetuity , and the Promises of it to contain Promises of Eternal Redemption , or Remission , as well as temporal , and Eternal Life and Felicity as well as Temporal : And such a Literal observation of the Laws of it to be the Condition of those Promises , as would render them inculpable in the eye of the Magistracy ; such a Righteousness sufficient to justifie them before God , as St. Paul saith he had while he was a Pharisee , Phil. 3. 6. As touching the Righteousness which is in the Law blameless ; which then he accounted to be his gain . Now that they did peremptorily adhere to this first Covenant , and the terms of it , for Justification and Eternal Life , it doth plainly appear by the mighty opposition which the Apostles made against them in it . For they did still oppose another Covenant as the Covenant of Justification , and Eternal Life unto this Mosaical Covenant ; and Faith , as the Condition of that , in opposition to Works as the condition of this , as will appear if we come to Instances . 1. St. Paul argues it with them , that the Promise of God to Abraham and his Seed , was not through the Law , but through the righteousness of Faith , Rom. 4. 13. Not through the Law , that is , not upon the terms upon which the benefits of the first Covenant were promised to the Nation of the Iews , but upon quite other terms , exprest by the Righteousness of Faith. 2. He argues it farther with them ; That God's way of accounting men righteous by Faith , and their way of seeking Righteousness npon the terms of the first Covenant , were utterly inconsistent , & the one destructive of the other , and that but one of these ways could possibly stand . For if they which are of the Law be Heirs , Faith is made void , and the Promise made of none effect , Rom. 4. 14. And again , If the Inheritance be of the Law , it is no more of Promise : But God gave it to Abraham by Promise , Gal. 3. 18. And if by Grace , then it is no more of Works , otherwise Grace is no more Grace , &c. Rom. 11. 6. 3. And that the Law did not exclude the Promise to Abraham , he farther argues , in that the Covenant with Abraham was confirmed , and unalterably setled and established in the Messias 430 years before the Law by Moses was given , and that therefore for them to go about to introduce the Law in the room of the Promise to Abraham so confirmed , would be as unreasonable and unjust , as for one man to alter or make void anothers Covenant after he hath confirmed it . Gal. 3. 15 , 17. Brethren , I speak after the manner of men : though it be but a Mans Covenant , yet if it be confirmed , no Man disanulleth or addeth thereto . And this I say , that the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ , the Law which was 430 years after , cannot disanul , that it should make the Promise of none effect . 4. St. Paul argues it impossible in the nature of the thing that they should be justified by the Law , because one main end of God's promulging the Law of Nature ( which yet was a great part of the first Covenant ) was to convince men of their guilt , and of their obnoxiousness to wrath , and to stop their Mouthes , and to leave them without any plea of defence as from it , Rom. 3. 19 , 20. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith , it saith to them who are under the Law : That every mouth may be stopt , and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the Law , there shall no flesh be jnstified in his sight : for by the Law is the knowledge of sin . And if the Law doth convict men , it cannot justifie them : For the same Law cannot both condemn and justifie the same person in reference to the same charge . If all are cast and condemned by the Original Law , as they are ( for he hath concluded all under sin , that he might have mercy upon all , Gal. 3. ) then so many as come to be justified after this , must needs be justified by another Law superceding that , and that is none other than the Law of Grace . The Law of Nature curseth every one that hath broken it , though but once , and therefore it cannot justifie them too : Out of the same mouth ( in this case ) doth not proceed blessing and cursing . 5. He argues this Opinion of theirs to be contrary to the Doctrine of the Prophets many hundred years after , as well as contrary to the Promise to Abraham long before the Law. That no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God , it is evident ; for the Iust shall live by Faith : and the Law is not of Faith ; but , the man that doth them , shall live in them , Gal. 3. 11 , 12. from Hab. 2. 4. The Law is not of Faith , that is , it doth not promise pardon , or any other blessing upon believing , but upon condition of doing the things therein required : the man that doth them , shall live in them , Levit. 18. 5. 6. The insufficiency of the first Covenant to make men eternally happy , and the necessity & validity of the second to that end , is further argued in Heb. 8. from another famous Prophecy in Ier. 31. 31 , &c. of God's making a new Covenant with Israel and Iudah in the latter days , not according to that he made with their Fathers when he brought them out of Egypt . 1. It 's argued that that first Covenant was but temporary , and being old , was ready to vanish , and to give place to a New and Everlasting Covenant , Chap. 8. 13. 2. That the first Covenant was faulty , or defective , or else there would have been no place sought for a second , ver . 7. 3. That the Promises of that first Covenant were not of such things as men stand in need of to make them everlastingly happy , as those better Promises of the second Covenant are , ver . 6. 4. And yet more particularly , that in this New Covenant there is promise of such a forgiveness of sins , as that iniquity shall be remembred no more , ver . 12. whereas the first Covenant did not promise any such pardons : All that it promised , was a forgiveness only as to the concerns of this life , otherwise their sins were still kept upon the File to be taken away ( if ever taken away ) by the Mediatour of the New Testament , by means of his death , for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament , Chap. 9. 15. But in those Sacrifices ( which were but the Sacrifices of the first Covenant ) there was a remembrance again made of sins every year , Heb. 10. 3. And now by all these reasonings of the Apostle put together , it sufficiently appears that the unbelieving Iews did expect Justification and Eternal Life , only upon the terms of the first Covenant , and that they held that Covenant , as comprehending the Covenant of Circumcision , to be the Covenant of Eternal Life . And indeed this last mentioned Error of theirs , in holding the first Covenant to be the Covenant of Salvation , did in a manner contain in it all the rest mentioned before , which did naturally grow out of it . For if that had been the Covenant of Salvation , then it would have followed that the Sacrifices of that Covenant had been sufficient , and the death of Christ needless ; and that Circumcision and keeping the Law of Moses would have been necessary to the salvation of the Gentiles , &c. And now after all this , considering what Erroneous Opinions the incredulous Iews held about the Law , and about Circumcision , and considering in what sense they asserted Justification by the Law , and by Circumcision , it will be no difficult thing to understand exactly in what sense the Apostle doth every where deny Justification to be by the Law , or by the works of the Law. For doubtless St. Paul's denial of Justification and Salvation to be by the Law , or works of the Law , is to be understood in the very same sense in which the incredulous Iews , against whom he disputed , did hold these to be attainable thereby . For else his reasonings would have been beside the question under debate between them . And therefore we must take our measure of St. Paul's sense in the Negative part of the Question , by his Adversaries sense of it in the Affirmative . And if so , then in his denying Justification and Salvation to be by the Law , or by works of the Law , we must understand him to deny a freedom from the Eternal Punishment to be attainable by Legal Sacrifices : And also to deny that the Promise of Eternal Life was made upon condition of Literal Circumcision , and a Literal Observation of the Mosaical Law , without being by Faith renewed in the inward frame & Moral constitution of the Soul : And likewise to deny Eternal Life to be attainable by the terms of their Political Covenant , the Promises whereof were not made upon condition of believing , but of doing . The Law is not of Faith , but the man that doth those things , shall live in them , Gal. 3. 12. For these and such like were the Opinions which those J●ws did hold ( as I have shewed ) and these were the things in which St. Paul opposed them . They divided and separated Circumision and the Law in the letter of them , from the Spirit of them both ; claiming Justification by the Letter alone . And they divided the Law from the Promise rightly understood , and looked to be justified by Works of the Law , without Faith in the Promise rightly understood . They looked for the M●ssias indeed , but not to become a Propitiation for Sin , or to establish a New Covenant of Salvation , but to further their Temporal and Eternal Felicity in the way of their Obedience to the Political Law. But then it doth not in the least appear that St. Paul in denying Justification to be by the Law in the sense thus explained , doth also thereby deny works of sincere Obedience to God , to concur with Faith in Man's Justification in all respects . And if any shall yet suppose that St. Paul in denying Justification by Works in the Jews corrupt sense , doth also , on the by , deny all Works of Evangelical Obedience to bear any part of the Condition on which God promiseth to justifie Men through Christ ; such a Supposition , if admitted , would make his Doctrine herein , inconsistent not only with the Faith of the holy Men of Old , who were wont to express the Condition of the Covenant of Merey , by loving God , and keeping his Commandments ; but it would also make him inconsistent with himself and his own Doctrine , and the Doctrine of other Apostles , as I doubt not , but plainly to make appear before I have done with this Discourse . There is one Character of Works given , by which you may certainly know what Works they were which St. Paul denyed Men were justified by ; and they were such Works which were apt to occasion boasting , Ephes. 2. 9. Not of Works , lest any man should boast . Rom. 4. 2. For if Abraham were justified by Works ( to wit , in the Jews sense , by Circumcision in the flesh , to which St. Paul alludes , ver . 1. ) he hath whereof to glory , but not before God , but only before Men who were not Circumcised as he was . For the unbelieving Jews who sought and expected Justification by Circumcision and other Legal Observations , did glory over the poor Gentiles , that were destitute of those Works which consisted in the outward Priviledges which the Jews had ; and looked down upon them with contempt , though some of them were much better than themselves , such as Cornelius , whom they looked upon as unclean . This boasting humor of the Iews over the Gentiles , is described and reproved , Rom. 2. from ver . 17. to 29. Now the Doctrine of Justification by Faith ; of obtaining pardon by anothers undertaking for us , to wit , Christ Jesus , and of being accepted with God through him , upon our sincere , though otherwise imperfect obedience , ( which sincere Obedience too , is not performed without his special Grace and assistance ) takes away all occasion of boasting , in reference both to God and Men , and laid the Iews as low as the Gentiles , and made St. Peter a Jew to say : But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Iesus Christ we shall be saved even as they , Acts 15. 11. And therefore when St. Paul had said , that now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested , even the righteousness of God which is by Faith of Iesus Christ unto all , and upon all them that believe , for there is no difference ; meaning between Iews and Gentiles , Rom. 3. 21 , 22. he thereupon demands , in ver . 27. saying , where is boasting then ? It excluded . By what Law ? Of Works ? Nay , but by the Law of Faith. Therefore we find the holy Men of Old among the Iews , who expected acceptance with God upon other terms than the Pharisaical Iews did , who placed their confidence ( called trusting in the flesh , Phil. 3. 4. ) in their External Priviledges and Performances alone ; were so far from glorying in such a Righteousness as that , that they cryed out in reference to that ; all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags , Isa. 64. 6. Thus Regenerating Grace made David so far from boasting either of Priviledges , or of his Performances , that he saith unto God , Who am I , and what is my people , that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort ? for all things come of thee , and of thine own have we given thee , 1 Chro. 29. 14. This made St. Paul to say , We are not sufficient of our selves , as of our selves to think any thing , but our sufficiency is of God , 2 cor . 3. 5. And by the grace of God , I am what I am , 1 Cor. 15. 10. And of him are we in Christ Iesus , who of God is made unto us , Wisdom , Righteousness , Sanctification , and Redemption , that he that glorieth , may glory in the Lord , having nothing but what he hath received from him gratis , and without all desert , yea contrary to his demerits , 1 Cor. 1. 30 , 31. The good Works which the Saints do , they do them by vertue of their being created in Christ Iesus in order thereunto , Ephes. 2. 10. and all that good is , is through Christ strengthening them , Phil. 4. 13. From whence therefore we may well conclude , that if the works which St. Paul wholly excludes in the matter of Justification , were only such as were apt to occasion boasting , that then Acts of Evangelical Obedience were none of those Works . According to the sense explained then , I presume we may well understand that Text , Rom. 3. 28. which of all others seems in the Phrase and Expression to be most Exclusive of Works in the point of Justification ; the words are these , Therefore we conclude , that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law. Which words ( if you consider the context ) seem to import no more but this , viz. That a Man is justified in the Gospel-way , which in the verse before is called the Law of Faith : And not by the deeds of the Law , or upon the terms of the first Covenant , which in the verse before , likewise is called the Law of Works . Which two , the Gospel terms , & the first Covenant terms , are still opposed to each other in the point of Justification . Now although the Conclusion here laid down is true , in reference to the Iews as well as to the Gentiles , yet it seems to be written here with special reference to the Gentiles . Intimating that upon their belief , they might be justified , without turning Proselytes to the Jewish way , as appears by that Interrogation in the very next words following , ver . 29. 30. Is he the God of the Iews only ? is he not also of the Gentiles ? yes , of the Gentiles also : Seeing it is one God which shall justifie the Circumcision by Faith , and Vncircumcision through Faith. And the words in the 31 , ver . do intimate that the words in the 28th vers . are to be understood in such a limited sense as I have assigned in my Explication , viz. as excluding the deeds of the Law in the act of Justification , only in the Iews corrupt sense of the Law : because St. Paul therein affirms his foresaid Doctrine of Justification by Faith without the deeds of the Law , not to be at all destructive of the Law , but contrariwise tending to establish the Law , if we take the Law not in that distorted sense in which those Iews held it , but as it was appointed by God to promote holiness in the World , which is the end and scope of all his Laws . In which sense the Apostle was so far from excluding the works of the Law from having any thing to do in the Justification of Men , as that he had expresly affirmed before , That though the hearers of the Law were not just before God , yet the doers of the Law should be justified , Rom. 2. 13. Meaning by doers , such as do sincerely obey that Law of God under which they are , and not such as do perfectly fulfil it , as some would seem to understand it . For I have shewed before , that God never made Promise of Justification upon naturally impossible conditions as that would be , and they are dishonourable thoughts of God to think he hath ; and therefore the Apostle may not be understood to promise Justification to the doers of the Law upon any such terms . There is one vein of Texts mo●● wherein the Opposition is made in such a form of words between the Iews way of seeking Justification by the Law , and the Gospel-way of seeking it by Faith : that being a little opened , will both illustrate and confirm what I have been representing to you : And they are such in which the Iews erroneous way is called their own Righteousness , and the true Christian-way of Justification , the Righteousness of God by Faith , and the Righteousness of God , Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of God s Righteousn●ss , and going about to establish their own Righteousness , have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God , Phil. 3. 9. And be found in him , not having mine own Righteousness , which is of the Law , but that which is through the Faith of Christ , the Righteousness which is of God by Faith. This Righteousness is called their own Righteousness in opposition to the Righteousness of God , upon a three-fold account , as I understand it . 1. Because they sought the pardon of their sins by that only which was their own ; their own Sacrifices , Sacrifices which they themselves brought to be offered . Whereas the Christian Justification is called the Righteousness of God , because the Sacrifice by which pardon of sin , and acceptation with God is obtained , was from God , and given by God , to wit , Christ Jesus , whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation , Rom. 3. 25. and Christ hath given himself an offering and a Sacrifice for us , Ephes. 5. 2. And he is made unto us of God , Wisdom , Righteousness , &c. 1 Cor. 1. 30. 2. It was called their own Righteousness , because they did not think Regeneration , or Supernatural Grace necessary to the obtaining of it , but a Literal observation of the Law and Circumcision , such as passed for a Righteousness among Men , and such as they without Supernatural aid were able to perform . As for those Precepts which commanded the loving of God with all the heart , and the circumcising the heart ; because these were not enjoyned under express penalties , as those things were of which the Rulers were to take cognizance , therefore the Ph●risees counted them but Counsels only , and not direct Precepts . But the Christians-Righteousness which is by Faith , may be said to be of God , because by Grace they are saved through Faith in Christ Iesus , and that not of themselves , it is the gift of God : And we are his Workmanship created in Christ Iesus , Ephes. 2. 8 , 10. 3. It was called their own Righteousness , because it was a way of seeking to be justified of their own devising , and not of God's appointing . And on the contrary the Gospel-Method of Justification is called the Righteousness of God through Faith , because it is of God's Institution and appointment : It is the substance of God's new Law or Covenant . The result of all then is , That they were the Works of the Law , as exclusive of Faith in Christ and his death ; which the Apostle denied any Man to be justified by ; and not those works of the Law which are the immediate effects of Faith in Christ , in his Death , and in his Doctrine . CHAP. VI. How St. Paul's Doctrine of Iustification by Faith , and not by Works , was then mistaken by some . I Come in the next place to shew how that St. Paul's reasonings about Faith and Works , in reference to Justification , were probably mistaken by such Solifidians as St. Iames reasoned against . For he having taught that God did justifie the ungodly Gentiles upon their believing , and without the deeds of the Law , but denying Justification to as many of the Iews as did not believe , though they were Observers of the Law ; there were some who thereupon through mistake , laid the whole stress of Salvation upon believing , to the neglect of a holy and virtuous life . And St. Paul being sensible how apt some were to make a bad use of his good Doctrine , and to draw bad Conclusions out of good Premises , he frequently mentions such Inferences , on purpose to caution Men against them . As for Instance : He having said in Rom. 5. 20. That where sin abounded , grace did abound much more : In Chap. 6. 1. he saith , What shall we say then ? shall we continue in sin , that grace may abound ? as some it seems were ready to infer ; God forbid , saith he ; how shall we that are dead to sin , live any longer therein ? You may consult to like purpose in general , Rom. 3. 5 , 6 , 7 , 31. & 6. 15. Gal. 2. 17. and find that St. Paul and others were slanderously reported to have said , let us do evil that good may come . That there were such as did misrepresent St. Paul's Doctrince touching God's grace and long-suffering , and wrest several passages in his Epistles , and other Scriptures , to their own destruction , we are told by St. Peter also , 2 Pet. 3. 15. 16. And account that the long-suffering of the Lord is Salvation ; even as our beloved brother Paul also , according to the Wisdom given him , hath written unto you ; as also in all his Epistles , speaking in them of these things : In which are some things hard to be understood , which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest , as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction . And after St. Paul in his 2 Tim. 3. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , verses , had by many black Characters , described a sort of Christians that had a form of godliness , but denyed the power thereof : In ver . 8. he further describes them by that which was the cause of the forementioned unsavoury fruits of the flesh , to wit , that they were men of corrupt minds or understandings , and reprobate concerning the Faith , or void of Judgement concerning the Faith , as the Margin hath it . They were Men of corrupt Principles , and injudicious concerning the Doctrine of faith : They did not discern faith to be necessary in the operative and practical nature of it : But as they did satisfie themselves with a form of godliness without the power ; so they did likewise with a formal inefficacious and liveless Faith , which made them so unsavoury in their lives . And St. Iohn , after he had in his first Epistle antidoted the Christians against the pretentions of the Gnosticks , who held a bad life consistent with Communion with God through illumination of mind , and the Christian Faith , deceiving themselves , and labouring to deceive others , in thinking they might be righteous without doing Righteousness , 1 Ioh. 3. 7. He , towards the conclusion of that Epistle , sums up his general scope in it in these words : These things have I written unto you that believe in the Name of the Son of God ; that ye may know that ye have Eternal Life , and that ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God , Chap. 5. 13. His meaning is , as I conceive , that he wrote this Epistle , first , to the end they might be the better assured of salvation by Christ upon their rightly believing on him . And secondly , To the end they might not be drawn into mistakes in the point of believing , as if any Faith less than such as is accompanied with a constant adherence to Christ's Doctrine and example touching a holy life , would give them that assurance . He wrote to them that did believe , that they might believe ; that is , that they might believe yet more understandingly , more groundedly , and so perseveringly against all temptations to Apostacy from the Profession of the Faith , or to loosness in the Profession of it . St. Iude also , ver . 3 , 4. stirred up the Christians to contend earnestly for the Faith , the Doctrine of saving Sinners in the way of Believing ; because , as he told them , there were certain Men professing Faith , but of ungodly lives , that were amongst them , that turned the grace of God into lasciviousness ; so understanding the Law of Grace , the Gospel , as if it had been a Proclamation from Heaven of a general pardon for Christ's sake , and through Faith in him , of as many sins as Men had a mind to commit . The which Error led them into those Monstrous Impieties charged upon them in that Epistle : By reason of which , the way of Truth , the right Faith they pretended to , was evil-spoken of in the World ( as St. Peter notes ) they being indeed Spots and Blemishes to the Christians and Christian-Profession , so long as they were admitted to their Feasts of Charity , as owned by them to be of their number . This was indeed an ungodly Faith : But the Faith which he exhorted them to contend for , and to build up themselves upon , as on a sure Foundation , he calls their most holy Faith , vers . 20. such a Faith as is an Operative Principle of a holy life . And they were such Christians as St. Iames in his Epistle did expostulate with , that did lean so much upon a meer believing , upon a meer assent of the mind unto the truth of certain Propositions , as that they were careless in the subduing of their Passions , and bridling their Tongues , and regulating their Actions ; as if these had not been necessary to Salvation : But thought themselves safe upon account of their barren Faith , though they were proud and conceited of their knowledge and Atainments , censorious and contentious , unmerciful and uncharitable . In a word , they were such as were injudicious concerning the Faith that will save , and under mistakes of the Apostles Doctrine about it . All this will easily appear to any that shall but with a competent measure of understanding , view and consider the Scope and Contents of that Epistle . And thus you see how plainly it appears by the Epistles of the Apostles , that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works , in the sence in which the Apostles asserted it , was misunderstood by many Gnosticks , carnal Gospellers , or Solifidians . The sense in which the Apostles did assert it , was , that Faith justifies without Works Antecedent to believing , and without Works as the Works of a literal observation of Moses Law , which was opposed by the Iews to Faith , as having Christ crucified for its Object , and Repentance , Regeneration , and sincere Obedience in a holy Life , for its inseparable Effects . But these deceived Souls that deceived their own Hearts , seem to have understood the Apostles , as if they had taught Justification by Faith , considered only as having the Death of Christ , and the Atonement made thereby , for its Object , without respect to Regeneration and new Obedience , as any part of the Condition . And it had been much better for the Christian World , if those corrupt Notions about the Doctrine of Faith as justifying , had dyed with those Men , which in the first Ages of the Christian-Church were infected with them . But alas , it is too apparent , that the same , or much of the same dangerous and destructive mistakes , have been transmitted to , or revived in these latter Ages of the Church . For we find by experience in this present Age , that very many of those who are called Christians , presume themselves to be Christians indeed , and such as shall be saved by Christ , though their lives declare them to be far from being new Creatures , from ●eing renewed in the Spirit of their Minds , Wills , Affections , and Conversations , as those are that have been taught as the Truth is in Iesus , Ephes. 4. 21 , — 24. For they are confident they believe all the Articles of their Creed , and in doing so , they are confident they shall be saved ; and so they would , if that belief of theirs were but so effectual and operative as to produce such a change in Heart and Life , as would denominate them new Creatures . But the mischief is , they deceive themselves in the nature of their Faith ; it being but an Opinionative inoperative and dead assent to the truth of the Gospel , such as is only an act of the mind or understanding , and doth not powerfully influence the Will , and so it is not a believing with all the Heart , but is the act only of one faculty of the Soul. A Belief its probable may be found in the Devil himself : And such a Belief was found in some who were so convinced by the power of Christ's Miracles in concurrence with his Doctrine and Life , that they could not choose but believe him to be an extraordinary Person sent from God ; though their carnal interest prevailed so much in them , as that it would not suffer them to confess him openly , because they loved the praise of Men , more than the praise of God , Joh. 12. 42 , 43. And besides , these Men deceive themselves about their Faith in this also ; that they do not heartily believe the whole Doctrine of the Gospel , but are partial in their Faith. They in a sort believe Christ to be the Son of God , and that he came into the World to save sinners , and that he dyed for our sins , and the like . But then they do not heartily believe his Doctrine touching the necessity of Repentance , of being born again ; of denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts , & of living righteously , godly , and soberly in this present world . Or else they frame such Notions of these things unto themselves , of Repentance and Regeneration , as that they think they believe Christ's Doctrine touching them , when they believe only the lying imagination of their own brains . And there is too much ground to fear , that many Mens ill managing the Doctrine of Justification by Faith , hath not a little strengthened Men in this vain confidence . For while Evangelical Obedience it self , under the Notion of those Works to which Faith is opposed , hath been decryed as Popish when interessed in Justification , and Justification asserted to be by Faith alone in opposition to all works whatsoever , inward and outward , as well Evangelical as Legal , as well those after Conversion as those before , yea , and the disposition thereunto ; the Flesh and the Devil to help it , hath got great advantage thereby to perswade men against the necessity of a holy Life , in such a sense of a holy Life , as the Scripture makes absolutely necessary to Salvation . For though its true that good Works have been acknowledged and pressed too as necessary to Salvation ; yet when withall , they have been denyed to be necessary to Justification , and Men have been taught that when once they are Justified , they can never fall away from a state of Justification , they have easily been drawn to believe that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation no more than to Justification , but Faith only . And upon supposition that the other 2 Points of Doctrine are true , it would be but rational for them so to believe . For if good Works be not necessary to Justification at all : And if it is impossible but that those who are once justified should be saved ; how should Men chuse but infer from hence , that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation ? unless it shall be said that Men are not put into an immediate capacity of Salvation by being justified : Which to affirm would be to say Men are not freed from Condemnation , by being freed from Condemnation , which would be a contradiction in terms : For to be justified , is to be freed from condemnation , Rom. 8. 33 , 34. & 5. 16 , 18. and therefore Justification must needs put Men into an immediate capacity of being saved . And as there is great reason to think that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone in opposition to the works of Evangelical Obedience , hath been a stumbling-stone unto many , and a back-friend to the power of godliness ; so there is another which hath been wont to be joyned with it , that hath rendred it the more dangerous , and it self no good friend to holy living ; and that is the Doctrine of the imputation of Christ's Righteousness unto Justification , in that way in which it hath been managed by very many : for otherwise there is a sense ( as I have shewed ) in which it is a great and a comfortable truth . For when Men have been taught to esteem their own Righteousness but as filthy rags ( not only because of its utter insufficiency to justifie in stead of Christ , or as he justifies , in which respect indeed it is no better ; but also as any part of a Condition of Justification or of our acceptance with God : ) And when they have been taught also , that upon their believing only , Christ's Righteousness in fulfilling the Law for them , becomes imputed to them in it self , and not only as the procuring cause of their Justification upon the terms of the Gospel , so that they are looked upon as having themselves perfectly kept the Law in him , it hath doubtless infeebled their endeavours after an inherent Righteousness , and proved a temptation to them , to think that so long as they have such anothers inherent Righteousness essentially in it self imputed to them as Christs is , they have no great need to find it in themselves ; considering also that if they had it , they must rather loath themselves for it , than take any comfort in it : But let no man deceive you ( saith St. Iohn ) he that doth righteousness , is righteous , as he is righteous , 1 Joh. 3. 7. I do acknowledge , that many of them have been worthy men , who yet have propagated these Opinions : But that makes the Opinions never the better , but have done more hurt in gaining thereby the more credit . It is true also that those worthy Men have zealously pressed the necessity of Repentance , Regeneration , and a holy Life : which proved indeed an Antidote against the Poyson of the other Opinions , so that they did not become mortal to many as otherwise they would have done . And indeed they would have made mad work , if they had not been yoked with wholesomer Doctrine , as we see they did among Antinomians , Ranters , and other carnal Chistians that have followed the Docture of those Opinions , but have been shy of letting the Doctrines of Mortification and strict living , to have any power over them . But then if the preaching of those sounder Doctrines of Repentance , Regeneration , and a holy Life , have done much good , notwithstanding they have been clogged with Opinions of another tendency ; it is easie to imagine that they would have done much more good , if they had not been checkt by those unsound Principles . But I shall say no more of this ( though more might be said ) because I hope I may say , that most of those who have formerly imbibed these Opinions , are now come to deliver themselves with more caution than heretofore . And so I shall proc●●d to the last thing I propounded to touch upon , and that is , to shew , CHAP. VII . That the Doctrine of St. Paul , and of St. Iames about Faith and Works in reference to Iustification , do not differ , but are wholly one . IT is true indeed , though the Doctrine of St. PAVL , and St. IAMES , was in nothing opposite the one to the other , yet the nature of the subject-matter of their Epistles , did differ , just as the Errors they engaged against , did differ . The Errors of the unbelieving Iews consisting much in denying Justification to be by Christ and Faith in him , and in placing it in their own works of Circumcising , Sacrificing , and other Mosaical Observations . And St. Paul , designing in some of his Epistles , to antidote the Christians against the infection of them , and to establish them in the saving Doctrine of the Gospel , was led of course to bend his discourse in great part against Justification by Works of the Law ; and on the contrary to assert it to be by Faith in Christ , in his Death , and in his Doctrine , without those works . Whereas St. Iames having to do in his Epistle , with such as professed the Christian Faith , and Justification by it , but erring dangerously about the nature of Faith as justifying , thinking that opinionative Faith would save them , though destitute of a real change in the moral frame and constitution of their Souls , and of a holy Life : Hereupon it became in a manner as necessary for him to plead the Renovation of Man's Nature , and Evangelical Obedience to be some way necessary unto Justification , as it was for St. Paul to contend for Justification by Faith without the deeds of the Law. And therefore though their Doctrines in this respect did in great part differ , yet they did not differ as Truth differs from Error , nor as opposites , but only as one Truth differs from another . For otherwise when St. Paul had to do with the like Erroneous and Scandalous Christians , as those were which St. Iames expostulated the matter with : When he had to do with such as had a form of godliness , but denyed the power thereof , he could , and did decry a reprobate faith , and plead the necessity of a Faith that is unfeighned , and of a holy Life , as well as St. Iames ; as appears in part by what was said in the former Chapter , and will , I doubt not , be made sufficiently evident in this . In order whereto I shall recommend to consideration these ten things . 1. That Works of Evangelical Obedience , are never in Scripture opposed to God's Grace . 2. That St. Paul in speaking against Justification by Works , gives sufficient Caution not to be understood thereby to speak any thing against Evangelical Obedience in reference thereto . 3. That Regeneration , or the new Creature as including Evangelical Obedience , is oposed to Works in the business of Man's Justification , as well as Faith is , and as well as the grace of God it self is . 4. That Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith , and together with Faith , is opposed to the Works of the Law , in reference to Justification . 5. That Evangelical Obedience alone , is opposed to the Works of the Law. 6. Faith it self is an act of Evangelical Obedience . 7. By Evangelical Obedience , Christians come to have a right to Salvation . 8. The Promise of benefit by the Blood of Christ , is made to Evangelical Obedience . 9. Repentance . And 10. Forgiving Injuries are both acts of Evangelical Obedience , without which a Man cannot be justifyed . And if these things be made out , they will I think amount to such a Demonstration , as that we cannot well desire a clearer or fuller proof , that St. Paul , together with other the Apostles , taught Justification by Evangelical Obedience as the effect of Faith , as well as St. Iames. 1. The works of Evangelical Obedience , as the effects of Faith , and Regeneration by Faith , are never in St. Paul's Epistles , or any other the holy Scriptures , opposed to God's Grace in referenee to Justification and Salvation . Works and Grace indeed are opposed to each other : But then by Works we are to understand either Works antecedent to Conversion , or as they are denyed to merit at the hands of God : or the Works of the Law of Moses as Erroneously contended for by the Iews : Or the Works of the Law as Typical , and as opposed to things Typified : Or the Works of the Law , as the Law is in its rigour opposed to the milder Oeconomy of the Gospel : But the Works of Evangelical Obedience are never opposed to Grace , no more than Faith it self is . And there is no reason why they should , because Evangelical Obedience is the effect of Divine Grace as well as Faith it self is , and tends to the praise of it , and is accepted , and will be rewarded through Grace . Contrary hereunto , those words in Titus 3. 5. Not by works of Righteousness which we have done , but according to his mercy he saved us , are wont to be alledged to prove that Works after conversion , as well as those before , are opposed to the Mercy of God in the saving of Men. But whether this be duly collected from these words , will best appear by opening the Scope and meaning of the words with the Context . The words in the 3 , 4 , and 5 , verses , are these ; For we our selves also were sometimes foolish , serving divers lusts and pleasures , living in malice and envy , hateful , and hating one another . But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward Man appeared : Not by Works of Righteousness , which we have done , but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration , and renewing of the Holy Ghost . By their being saved here , is meant their being rescued and delivered from their sinful state , mentioned vers . 3. In that this is said to be done , not by Works of Righteousness which they had done , but according to God's Mercy : The plain meaning ( I doubt not ) is , that this change of their condition , and deliverance from their sinful state , was not effected , or so much as begun among them by any Reformation of their own , till the Gospel came to work it , ( which is meant by the appearing of the kindness and love of God , vers . 4. and is of like import with that Chap. 2. 11 , 12. ) which God of his mercy , and not of their desert , sent among them to that end . And if this be the meaning of the words , the Apostle was far from intending by Works of Righteousness in this place , Works after Conversion . I might rather well argue on the contrary from this place ; That Baptism which is an Act of Evangelical Obedience in the person Baptized , & Regeneration which is Evangelical Obedience in the root & principle , are together with the mercy of God , and , as subordinate to it , opposed to the Works of Righteousness here mentioned , in the Work of Salvation . For it is probable that by the washing of Regeneration here , is meant Baptism as the Figure of Regeneration , and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost , Regeneration it self . By both which , as subordinate to God's mercy therein , they were said to be saved , and not by the Works of Righteousness which they had done before these . There is another place in 2 Tim. 2. 9. which is wont to be urged with this to Titus , to the same purpose : But it being of the same nature with this , the same answer may serve both with a little variation . 2. St. Paul in speaking against Justification by Works , gives sufficient caution not to be understood thereby to speak against Evangelical Obedience in the Case . When he had asserted Justification to be by Faith without the deeds of the Law , and that the Gentiles might be justified by believing , without ever observing Moses Law , Rom. 3. 28. lest he should be understood thereby to favour Gentilism , or loose living in men , provided they would but turn Christians ; he frames and answers an Objection thus , vers . 31. Do we make void the Law through Faith ? God forbid : Yea we establish the Law. And how did they so ? certainly they did not thereby establish the Ceremonial Law in the Letter of it , but in the Spirit of it they did , in as much as in Preaching Justification in the Gospel-way , they preached in plain Precepts the necessity of that Spiritual purity unto salvation , which was but darkly , and in a Figure taught by the Ceremonial Law : And this they did , in Preaching the necessity of Mortifiation , instead of Circumcision . And by the Doctrine of Justification by Faith , they established the Moral Law , both in the Letter and Spirit of it , in teaching the necessity of Evangelical Obedience to it , after a more Spiritual and forcible manner than had been taught before . So again when he had charged ▪ the unbelieving Iews with a great Error , in going about to establish a Righteousness of their own , in opposition to God's , in adhering to their Law against the Gospel , Rom. 10. 3. to the end it might not be thought that he would take them off their Law , that they might be lawless , or less Religious , he adds , vers . 4. that Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth . For so he is in his Doctrine , having therein taught that Righteousness of living which the Law it self taught , but in a far more Excellent , Spiritual , and effectual manner , than was taught by the Law. So that all that he designed in taking them off from their Law , was but to put them under a better conduct : To make them dead to the Law , that they might be married to another , viz. to Christ by his Gospel , that they might bring forth fruit unto God , as it is , Rom. 7. 4. And likewise in ver . 6. he saith , We are delivered from the Law , but not to be lawless , but that we might serve in newness of Spirit , and not in the oldness of the Letter ; that is , according to the Spirit , Scope , and Design of the Law , now expressed in plain Precepts , and not in the oldness of the Letter and Ceremony . And so he saith of himself , Gal. 2. 19. I through the Law am dead to the Law , i. e. he through a better understanding of God's Design in the Law , became dead as to all his former expectations of Justification by it . But then , if he were dead to the Law , it was , as he saith , that he might live unto God , live a life in the flesh through the Faith in his Son , through believing his Gospel in its Precepts and Promises ; the one directing , and the other quickning unto a most excellent life , ver . 20. And if St. Paul were thus careful in denying Justification by Works , to assert the necessity of Evangelical Obedience , we may well conclude , that he never intended under the notion of Works of the Law , to exclude Evangelical Obedience from having any hand sooner or later in Justification . 3. Regeneration , or the new Creature , as including Evangelical Obedience , is opposed to Works of the Law , in the business of Man's Justification , as well as Faith is , and as well as the Grace of God it self is . Gal. 6. 15. For in Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but a new Creature . Circumcision is here as elsewhere by a Synecdoche , put for the Works of the Law in general . For there were none that were for circumcising , but who were also for keeping the Law of Moses : Only Circumcision is mentioned frequently instead of all the rest , because they held it to be not only a part of the Law , but more ; and because they laid the greatest stress upon it , as I shewed before , Chap. 5. Now in that which the Apostle deni●s Circumcision and the Works of the Law to avail a Man , in that he affirms the becoming a new Creature will avail him , and that was in the business of Justification and Salvation : For in that sense the unbelieving Iews and Iudaizers held Circumcision and other Works of the Law available . And this new Creature thus opposed to works , and thus available to Justification , consisteth in a new frame of Spirit , and the vital operations thereof , and which we can have no right notion of , without Evangelical Obedience in will and resolution at least ( which are really inward acts of that obedience , and are a conformity of the renewed will to the Divine Law ) . 4. Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith , and together with Faith , is opposed to the Works of the Law in reference to Justification and Salvation . Gal. 5. 6. For in Christ Iesus , neither Circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but Faith which worketh by love . Here again Circumcision by the same Figure , and for the same reason as before , is put for the Works of Moses Law. And as these are denyed to avail any Man to Justification and Salvation , so on the other hand it is affirmed that that Faith which worketh by love doth avail to these great ends . For to say that Faith which worketh by love doth so , is the same in sense , as to say , that Faith which worketh by fulfilling the Law , and by keeping the Commandments , doth so avail : For so love is said to be , Rom. 13. 10. 1 Ioh. 5. 3. The Assemblies Annotations upon the place give notice , that the word here translated [ worketh ] ( Faith which worketh by love ) being in the mean , or middle voice , may be taken either Actively or Passively . And several other Learned men ( among whom Dr. Hammond is one ) do render and understand it passively ; as if the Apostle should have said , Faith which is wrought , or perfected , or consummate by love , and so make it directly parallel with that in St. Iames , Chap. 2. 22. by Works was Faith made perfect . So far is the Scripture we see from opposing acts of Evangelical Obedience to Faith in the Work of Justification , as that it conjoyns them with Faith in the title to it , and in opposition to false pretentions to it . 5. Evangelical Obedience alone is opposed to the Works of the Law in reference to Justification ; so far is it from being true , that where the Works of the Law are excluded , there Evangelical Obedience is excluded from having any share in the Work of Justification . 1 Cor. 7. 19. Circumcision is nothing , and uncircumcision is nothing , but the keeping of the Commandments of God. Circumcision is here again , as before , put for the whole Law : And indeed he that was circumcised , was bound to keep the whole Law , as this Apostle noteth in Gal. 5. 3. And when he saith Circumcision is nothing , he means here doubtless , as in those other places already opened , that it avails nothing to any Mans acceptation with God , or to his Justification and Salvation , as the Iudaizers of those times thought it did . But then the keeping of the Commandments of God will avail to these ends : For that I conceive was intended , and ought to be understood by the opposition that is made between Circumcision and keeping the Commandments . 6. Faith it self is an act of Evangelical Obedience ; this as wel as love is an act of Conformity to our Lord's Commands ; and therefore a Man cannot be justified by Faith , but in being so , he must be justified by Evangelical Obedience . 1 Iohn 3. 23. This is his Commandment , that we should believe in the name of his Son Iesus Christ , and love one another , as he gave us Commandment . This by our Saviour is called a work , Joh. 6. 29. This is the work of God , that ye believe on him whom he hath sent . And there is so much of the Nature of Evangelical Obedience in Faith it self , as that to believe and to obey are promiscuously put one for another ; and so is unbelief and disobedience . Accordingly you have in many places the one reading in the Text , and the other in the Margin , as Acts 5. 36. Rom. 11. 30 , 31. Ephes. 5. 6. Heb. 4. 11. & 11. 31. And belief and disobedience are in Scripture opposed to each other as direct contraries , Rom. 10. 16. 1 Pet. 2. 7. 2 Thes. 2. 12. So that since Faith is an act of Evangelical Obedience , it follows , that to say the Works of Evangelical Obedience do justifie , does no more derogate from the Grace of God , or the freeness of his Grace in justifying , than to say Faith justifies . First , Because other acts of Evangelical Obedience are the effects of God's Grace , and produced by it , as well as Faith. It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure , Phil. 2. 13. And secondly , Because it is meerly of the Law of Grace , that Faith and other Acts of Evangelical Obedience , are made the Condition of the Promise of Salvation , Ephes. 2. 8. By grace are ye Saved , through Faith in Christ Iesus ; and that not of your selves , it is the gift of God. As Men do not believe or obey of themselves without supernatural assistance , so neither is it of themselves that they are justified or saved upon their believing , but both the one and the other , is the gift of God. It is not of him that willeth , nor of him that runneth , but of God that sheweth mercy . It is by virtue of God's new Covenant , that a Promise of pardon is made to Repentance , or to Faith ; for the primary Law , the Law of Nature , promised no such thing upon Repentance . And it is by virtue of the same Law of Grace , that a Promise of Justification and reward , is made to sincere Obedience in other Acts of Obedience , as well as those of Faith and Repentance . That which hath made many afraid of interessing Evangelical Obedience with Faith , in justifying men , hath been an Opinion , that so to do would derogate from God's Grace , & attribute too much to Man : But you see there is no ground for such an Opinion . It 's true indeed , the proper merit of Works , and God's Grace are inconsistent : And therefore are opposed to each other in Scripture . But Evangelical Obedience and Grace , are no more opposite or inconsistent , than Cause and Effect , or than Causes principal and subordinat● . And as it doth not follow , that because we are justified freely by God's Grace , that therefore we are not justified by Faith : So neither doth it follow , that because we are justified by Faith , that therefore we are not justified by sincere obedience . For these and the Blood of Christ , do all concur in producing many of the same effects , though not in the same respect . 7. By Evangelical Obedience , Christians come to have a right to Salvation . Revel . 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his Commandments , that they may have a right to the Tree of Life , and may enter in through the gates into the City . This is left on Record as a special Memorandum for Christians in closing up the Canon of the New Testament ; and therefore is to be taken special notice of . This right to the Tree of Life , and of entring into this blessed City upon keeping the Commandments , is from a new Covenant , or Law , Act , or Grant from God : For otherwise Man that had transgressed the first Law he was put under , would have been far from having any right to such happiness upon the terms here mentioned , viz. of sincere , though imperfect Obedience . But seeing that a Right to Salvation doth accrue to Men upon a sincere keeping of God's Commandments , notwithstanding their forfeiture of their first Right by Man's first fall , it evidently follows , that Evangelical or Sincere Obedience , is part of the Condition of the Promise of blessedness in the new Law or Covenant , and is here put for the whole of it , as at other times Faith is put for the whole of the Condition . And that Moses , David , Solomon , Nehemiah , and Daniel received it in this sense , and understood all along that sincere Obedience flowing from Love , was the Condition of God's Covenant of mercy when they styled him a God keeping Covenant and mercy with those that love him , and keep his Commandments , Deut. 7. 9. 1 King. 8. 23. Neh. 1. 5. Dan. 9. 4. I have before shewed . If it shall be here said , that sincere obedience is indeed a Condition of Salvation , but not of Justification , and that it is so made here in this 22d of the Revelation . I have I think sufficiently answered this Objection in the former Chapter , but shall here add ; That such as thus say , are morecurious and nice in distinguishing between Justification and Salvation , than St. Paul was . For he calls Justification , the Iustification of Life , Rom. 5. 18. Whom he justified , them he also glorified , Rom. 8. 30. and proves that men shall be justified by Faith , because it is written that the Iust shall live by Faith , Gal. 3. 11. Thus with him to be justified , & to be blessed are all one , Gal. 3. 8 , 9. Ro. 4. 7 , 8 , 9. And to confirm this , Righteousness or Justification and Life , are used by him as Synonimous terms , Gal. 3. 21. For if there had been a Law given which could have given life , verily Righteousness should have been by the Law. And Justification and Condemnation are put in direct opposition to each other , Rom. 5. 18. & 8. 33 , 34. And to be from Condemnation ( which is Justification ) and to be saved , are as much one , as not to dye , is to live . In short , Salvation as well as Justification , is promised to believing , Ioh. 3. 16. Act. 3. 31. Heb. 10. 39. And therefore Salvation as well as Justification , must needs be the immediate effect of Faith ; if we take Salvation as begun here in this Life ( as the Scripture represents it to be , Ioh. 5. 24. 1 Ioh. 3. 14. & 5. 12. ) From all which me may conclude , that what is absolutely necessary to Salvation , must needs also be necessary to Justification . Add we hereto , that to be justified , and to be saved , is the same thing with St. Iames , as well as it is with St. Paul , according to the tenour of his reasoning , Chap. 2. from ver . 14. to the end . What doth it profit my brethren ( saith he ) though a man say he hath Faith , and have not Works ? can Faith save him ? vers . 14. This Interrogation implyes an Emphatical Negation , and the meaning is , that such a Faith can by no means save a man ; and he gives the reason of it twice over in vers . 17 , 20. because Faith without Works is dead . And then afterwards argues the necessity of Works together with Faith , unto Justification , or unto Salvation ( which was the thing he began with ) by God's justifying Abraham by Works , together with his Faith , who was the great Patern or Example of God's justifying all others . If then to be ju●tified , and to be saved amounts to the same in St. Iames's Discourse here , then by the way , they do not rightly understand St. Iames , who think he doth not speak of a Justification before God in this his Discourse about Justification by Works , together with Faith , but of a Justification before Men , and to their own Conscience only . Which supposition of theirs doth directly thwart the very Scope and Design of his whole Discourse , which is to set forth what will , and what will not avail a Christian-Professor in the sight of God , to the saving of his Soul , as abundantly appears . So that the Scripture which saith Abraham believed God , and it was accounted to him for Righteousness ; and which St. Iames saith was fulfilled in Abraham's being justified by Works as well as by Faith , was not fulfilled in Abraham's being justified to others , and to his own Conscience , but in his being justified before God , and so St. Paul understood it , Rom. 4. 3. Gal. 3. 6. But this was touched before in Chap. 1. The result then of what hath been argued in Answer to the Objection , is this , viz. That all that are justified , are thereby put regularly into an immediate capacity of Salvation ; so that if they should dye the very next moment after they are once justified , they would undoubtedly be saved . And therefore Evangelical Obedience can be no more necessary to Salvation , than it is to Justification , and it is as necessary to the one as to the other . And if to say Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification , be injurious to Christ and to the Grace of God , as some would pretend ▪ how comes it to pass then , that to say Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Salvation , is not so too ? For our final Salvation is as much the effect of God's Grace , and of Christ's undertaking for us , as our Justification it self is , and of as much value . And therefore if the one be not injurious in this kind , neither is the other . 8. As the Promise of forgiveness of sins by the Blood of Christ , or the Promise of an interest in his Blood to the pardon of Sinne , is sometimes made unto believing , so sometimes again it is made unto Evangelical Obedience , or a holy Life , as in 1 Ioh. 1. 7. If we walk in the light , as he is in the light , ( that is , endeavouring to be holy , as God is holy ) then have we fellowship one with another , and the Blood of Iesus Christ his Son , cleanseth us from all Sin ; but otherwise it doth not . And so the Christians to whom St. Peter wrote , were said to be elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father , through Sanctification of the Spirit , unto obedience , and sprinkling of the Blood of Iesus Christ , 1 Pet. 1. 2. But they were not elect to the benefit of being sprinkled with the blood of Christ without obedience . And therefore by this we see also that Evangelical Obedience , is part of the Condition of the Promise of Justification by the Blood of Christ. 9. To forgive Injuries is an act of Evangelical Obedience to that Precept of our Lord , Mar. 11. 25. And yet without this act of Obedience , Men that have been injurious , cannot be justified , because they cannot be pardoned , according to the Word of our Lord , Mark 11. 26. Mat. 6. 15. & 18. 35. Therefore Evangelical Obedience must needs be part of the Condition of Justification . 10. Repentance is an eminent Act of Evangelical Obedience , Acts 17. 30. and yet pardon of sin which is essential to Justification , is not to be obtained without it , Luke 13. 3 , 5. Therefore again it follows , that Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification , and part of the Condition of it . And now by this time I suppose it fully appears to any unprejudiced Reader , that the Doctrine of St. Paul , yea , and of St. Peter , and Iohn too , do fully accord with the Doctrine of St. Iames , touching the necessity of Evangelical Obedience unto Justification . The opposition then which some have made between Faith and all Internall and External Works in reference to Justification , as well Evangelical as Mosaical , hath not been only without Scripture-ground , but against Scripture-evidence ; and looks more like that which was made by the Gnosticks , or other Solifidians , opposed by St. Iames , ( if it be not the very same ) than any the Scripture any where maketh . And how much injury the Christian Religon and the Souls of Men may have suffered thereby , is a thing to be thought on , and sadly laid to heart . It is a pleasant Doctrine , and the worst of Men called Christians , are glad to hear that they may be justifyed by Christ , only upon their believing in him without any Works of Righteousness or self-denial of their own . And upon that account ( presuming verily that they do believe ) they are confident that they are justified , though they are unsanctified . But those especially are in great danger of deceiving their own Souls , by building their confidence upon this Doctrine , who together with this belief , have more of the form of godliness than the other have , and are found much more in the use and exercise of the external devotional part of Religion , and are zealous for this or that Opinion , Party , or Way which they think most Orthodox ; though they be greatly destitute of love to the Nature of God , and of Humility , Charity , strict Justice , Fidelity , Peaceableness , Sobriety , Temperance , Modesty and Meekness , and of that renewed frame of Soul which would make them like Christ Jesus , wherein the power of Christiany doth consist : The External duties of Hearing , Reading , Praying , and the rest , being in great part but means referring to the other as the end : So that no Man is to account himself truly Religious , further than he attains to these truly Christian Qualifications , by the use of the External Means , and Internal Aids . Yea , the fleshly part , even in Men good in the main , is very apt to make an advantage of such a Doctrine as aforesaid , to the lessening of their Care , Diligence , and Zeal , in working out their Salvation , in striving to enter in at the straight gate , in governing their own Spirits and Appetites , in cleansing themselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit , and in perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And therefore there is great need for those that are Spiritual Guides to the people , to insist much upon the necessity of Repentance , Regeneration , and a holy Life as well as Faith , in order to their being justified and saved by Christ Jesus . For the people , yea , the better sort of them , stand most in need , as of being well-grounded touching the truth of the Christian Religion , so especially of having the Doctrines of Morality inculcated upon them , the Precepts of the Gospel being almost all of that Nature , ( though some speak diminutively of Moral Preaching ) and tend to the perfecting of the Nature of Man in regulating the Internal operations of the Soul , and the External actions of life , in reference both to God and Man , our selves and others : The recovering of Men to which , is God's great design by the Gospel , in order to their being made perfectly happy at last , as I have shewed in Chap. 1. There is indeed an absolute necessity of believing the Gospel in order to Christian Practice : And therefore our blessed Saviour did not only Preach the necessity of Faith in him and his Doctrine , but also wrought abundance of Miracles to beget this Faith in Men. And yet he knowing the great danger of Mens miscarrying in point of Morality in the disposition of Soul , and actions of Life , insisted chiefly in his Preaching , upon Doctrines of that nature ; as you may see in his Sermon on the Mount , and elsewhere . He taught the necessity of being born again : Of making the Tree good , that the fruit might be good . And to inforce this Doctrine of his , he was not wont to tell his Auditors that every Man shall be rewarded according to his belief , but that when the Son of Man shall come , every Man shall be rewarded according to his Works : That those that have done good , shall come forth to the resurrection of life , and those that have done evil , to the resurrection of damnation : That by their words they shall be justified ( which are no more Faith than Works are ) And by their words they shall be condemned : That in the great day of the tryal of all Nations ; every Man shall be acquitted or condemned , according to the good they have done , or neglected to do , Mat. 25. And that then not every Man that had Faith enough to cry Lord , Lord , or to Prophesie , cast out Devils , or do wonders in his Name , shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven , but such and such only as have done the will of his Father . Great need there is therefore of peoples examining themselves impartially , and of being often admonished to take heed , left they mistake and deceive themselves in the nature of Religion , and in what is absolutely necessary to be done on their part ; because men are very apt to flatter and deceive themselves in that , and to think that when their Faith is right in the Object of it [ as when they believe in the true God , and in his Son Jesus Christ , and expect Salvation by him alone ] that then they are true believers , and such as shall be saved ; especially if therewith they joyn the frequenting of God's Ordinances , and the paring off of some of the grosser enormities of their lives , though in the mean while they make no Conscience of cleansing their hearts , and governing their Spirits , of subduing their Passions and inordinate affections , and of bridling the Tongue . For this cause it is that Christians are so often in Scripture cautioned to take heed lest they should be deceived . Be not deceived , God is not mocked : for whatsoever a Man sows , that also shall he reap , Gal. 6. 7 , 8. Little Children , let no man deceive you : He that doth righteousness , is Righteous , even as he is righteous , 1 Joh. 3. 7. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Ephes. 5. 6. An APPENDIX touching the nature and Difference of that Faith which is justifying , and of that which is not ; and the reason of that difference . MEn's Eternal Estate of Weal or Wo in another World , and their Peace and Comfort in this , being very much concerned in their right understanding , or mistaking the nature and difference of that Faith which is saving , and of that which is not ; I shall here add to what is said before , something to state the nature and difference of those two kinds of Faith , with what brevity and perspicuity I can . I cannot ( I co●fess ) think that the nature of Faith , which is of absolute necessity to the Salvation of the meanest Christian , is in it self hard to be understood , were it not that the many Controversies about it , about its Object , and the Acts of the Soul necessary to it , had puzzled mens minds , and distracted their apprehensions concerning it . Things absolutely necessary to Salvation , as they are not many , so there are hardly any Doctrines delivered with more plainness than they , that the weak who are as much concerned in them as the strong , might competently understand them as well as they . Men may multiply Notions about Faith , as the Scripture useth various expressions about it : But I doubt not but that the general sense of the Scripture hereabout may be summarily ●xpressed in this plain Proposition : That saving Faith is such a belief of Christ to be the Son of God , and of the truth of his Doctrine , especially touching the virtue of his Death and Resurrection , and the necessity of amendment of life , for the obtaining remission of Sin , and Eternal Life , as causeth a man to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts , and to live a godly , righteous , and a sober life . This is so plain in Scripture , as that there is no Christian so weak , but may easily come to understand it , and so evident , that none who acknowledge the Truth of the Gospel , can deny it . That I may state the difference then between Effectual and Ineffectual Faith , and matters relating to them , with all the plainness I can , I shall very briefly endeavour these five things . 1. To open the comprehensive nature of Faith. 2. Shew wherein the defect lies of that Faith which is not saving . 3. Shew whence that defect proceeds . 4. How , and after what manner , Faith in the Understanding , works savingly upon the Will. 5. Answer some few Objections . 1. The comprehensive nature of ●aving Faith opened . That I may open the comprehensive nature of Faith the better , I shall first observe how variously the Condition upon which saving benefits are promised , is expressed in Scripture , and then what actings of the Soul are thereby signified . It is thus variously expressed in Scripture : Sometimes it s called a believing God , Rom. 4. 3. Gal. 3. 6. a believing in God , 1 Pet. 1. 21. a believing on God , Rom. 4. 24. a believing the Record which God hath given of his Son , 1 Ioh. 5. 10. Sometimes it s called a believing on Christ , Ioh. 3. 16 , 36. Act. 16. 31. a believing him to be the Christ the Son of God , Ioh. 20. 31. 1 Ioh. 5. 5. It 's called Faith in his Blood , Rom. 3. 25. a believing that God raised him from the dead , Rom. 10. 9. Sometimes it s called a believing of the Gospel , Mar. 16. 15 , 16. a believing of the Truth , 2 Th●s . 2. 15. a believing the testimony of the Apostles , 2 Thes. 1. 10. Sometimes it is expressed under the Notion of Repentance , Acts 2. 38. & 3. 19. & 11. 18. 2 Cor. 7. 10. and sometimes of obedience , 1 Iohn 1. 7. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Heb. 5. 9. The Condion of the Promise of saving benefits , being thus variously expressed , can signifie no less than a three-fold Act of the Soul : The first , being the Act of the Understanding : The second , of the Will : The third , of the Understanding and Will conjunct . I. Such expressions of the Condition of the Promise as is the believing God , the believing in God , the believing his Record , the believing the Gospel , the believing Christ to be the Son of God , do most properly signifie the act of the mind or understanding in assenting to the truth of what God testifieth , or promiseth . Which assent is grounded upon a knowledge , or belief of God's Veracity , his Truth , and Faithfulness , armed with All-sufficiency of Power , Wisdom , and Goodness , to make good his Word to a tittle . And although such expressions as aforesaid , do most properly signifie the act of the Understanding , yet , when ever saving Benefits are promised , and the Condition expressed in such a form of words as doth most properly and primarily signifie the assent of the mind , even then the act of the Will in consenting to the Condition , is implyed , and ought to be understood ; as I shall fully prove in the next Particular . And the reason why the whole of the Condition of the Promise relating to the consent of the Will , as well as the assent of the Understanding , is frequently expressed in such a form of words , as primarily and strictly signifie the assent of the mind , is , I conceive , because such assent of the mind , is the Principle from which all concurrent acts of the Will necessary to Justification and Salvation do proceed . And it is of frequent use in Scripture , to denominate the whole of Religion , by some one Principal part which is a fruitful Principle of all the rest . Thus the knowledge of the true God , and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent , is said to be Eternal Life , Ioh. 17. 3. And thus sometimes the fear of God , and sometimes the love of God , is put for the whole of Mens saving Religiousness , and the same Promise of blessedness made to one of these singly exprest , is to be extended to the whole . In like manner , the whole of Christianity , is frequently denominated by Faith , and the Christians stiled Believers , and the houshold of Faith , and the like ; and all because that Christian life of theirs , by which they differ from other Men , flows from their Faith , which is the first active Principle of it . 2. Another act of the Soul essentially necessary to that Faith which is the Condition of the Promise , is the consent of the Will to repent , to receive Christ as Lord & King , to be govered by his Laws , as well as to own him for a Priest once of●ering himself , and ever making interecession for us . For the Condition of the Promise of Pardon and Salvation , is expressed under the notion of Repentance , and sometimes of Obedience , as I shewed before : And Repentance and Odience are acts of the Will as renewed . And that there is no Promise of saving benefits upon meer believing , without observing that part of the Condition which consisteth in Repentance , Regeneration , and Obedience , is most evident : Because they are expresly excluded in Scripture from having any share in the saving benefits of the Covenant , Justification , or Salvation , who do not Repent , Luke 13. 3. who are not regenerate , Ioh. 3. 5. who love not the Lord Jesus Christ , and that above any worldly enjoyment , 1 Cor. 16. 22. Matth. 10. 37. and who do not obey him , Acts 3. 22 , 23. Luke 19. 27. 2 Thes. 1. 7. By all which we may certainly know that when ever there is Promise of Justification and Salvation , made to believing , it is to be understood of such a believing as doth at that instant in which a man believes savingly , produce a sincere consent of the Will to repent , to love Christ , and to obey him : For otherwise those Scriptures and these would be in●onsistent . For if men cannot be pardoned , nor delivered from the curse , nor be safe from destruction until they have repented , are regenerate , do love Christ , and obey the Gospel , as the forecited Scriptures do assure us they cannot ; then no Faith whatsoever is justifying , or can entitle them to Pardon and Salvation acording to the Tenour of God's Promise , until it hath produced that Repentance , Regeneration , Love , and Obedience : Which is a full and an undenyable proof of the necessity of such a consent of the Will as aforesaid , to render Faith justifying and saving . Now this consent and resolutionof the Will to repent and obey Christ , and to forsake all for him , is the Moral change of the Soul , and the new life in its first beginning . And so a mans first effectual Belief , is his whole Christian life in its beginning . And a mans first Faith is perfected afterwards by Works , ( Iam. 2. 22. ) as a Child is perfected in his manly state , as he grows up to manly actions ; or as the Seed is perfected when it grows to a full Ear. By this first consent of the Will , we restipulate and strike Covenant with God ; and not only so , but we thereby begin also to keep and perform Covenant with him on our part . When this consent is first wrought in the Will , then the Laws of the new Covenant are first put into the mind and written in the heart : And by this we first begin to become savingly a people unto God , to believe in him , to love and serve him , as he by Covenant and Promise becomes a God unto us , to make us happy . Heb. 8. 10. This is the Convenant that I will make , I will put my Laws into their mind , and write them in their hearts ; and I will be to them a God , and they shall be to me a people . 3. The other act of the Soul , which I call the act of the Understanding & of the Will conjunct , is an affiance in God through Christ ▪ a trusting in him , or a relying on him for the fulfilling of his Promise of saving Benefits , while we continue sincerely to consent , resolve , and endeavour to perform the Condition on our part . This is that , or part of that , which is called a believing on God , a believing on Christ , and a trusting in him : Noting the Souls dependence upon Christ ●or the saving benefits which accrue to Men by his Mediation , Office , and Undertaking , and on the Truth and Faithfulness , Power , Wisdom , and Goodness of God , to perform all that he hath promised them through his Son , and upon the terms he hath promised , and not otherwise . For the Promise of saving Benefits being made but upon the Condition before mentioned a true Believer , or he that is rational & wise , considers as well upon what terms the benefits are promised , as who hath promised them , and what they are ; and expects the one , no otherwise than as he sincerely resolves and endeavours to perform the other . And therefore if any shall rely on God , and Christ for those benefits , in whom yet the qualifying condition of the Promise of them is not found ; Such a relyance is but a groundless presumption , and not Faith or Affiance duly so called . For such do not only rely on Christ for that for which they have no Promise , but for that which God hath expresly declared they shall have no share in whilst they remain destitute of that qualification , which is the Condition upon which , and not without it , the promise of those benefites is made . These three acts of the Soul exercised on their Objects , do make up that Faith which is justifying and saving . And when justifying Faith in the compleat nature of it is spoken of in Scripture ; all these three acts of the Soul are to be understood , and especially the two first ; though perhaps they are many times mentioned severally and apart ; Faith being described sometimes by one of them , and sometimes by another : As God himself is represented to us , sometimes by one Attribute , sometimes by another . II. Wherein the Defect lyes of that Faith which is not saving . By what hath been discoursed touching the nature of that Faith which is saving , it is easie to dis●ern wherein the defect lies of that Faith which is not so . And the defect lyes chiefly in the Will , in its not consenting to perform the condition of the Promise in repenting , and in receiving Christ as Lord to be governed by his Laws . I will not deny but the defect in part may be in the Understanding , when its assent unto the Truth of Divine Revelation is so weak , as that it can make but a too weak and ●aint impression upon the Will , to procure its consent unto the Condition of the Promise . But then that defect in the assent of the Understanding , doth usually , at least in great part , proceed from the Will ; as I shall shew afterwards . Now that the defect lyes mainly in the Will 's not consenting to the Condition of the Promise , appears by this ; because unregenerate men may assent unto the truth of God's Testimony , and may trust that they shall be saved by Christ ( which contain the other two acts of the Soul ) but no man truly consents , to perform the Condition of the Promise , but in doing so , he is regenerate in the first Act , and justified . 1. Unregenerate men may have the same Faith of assent in the Understanding to a degree , as the regenerate may : They may believe God to be the Father Almighty , Maker of Heaven and Earth , and Jesus Christ to be his only Son , and the rest of the Articles of the Creed ▪ and they may believe in great part that to be their duty both towards God and Man which is so indeed , and yet hold that truth in unrighteousness , which they do believe . Rom. 1. 18. Many of the chief Rulers believed on Christ , who yet loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God , and durst not confess him , Joh. 12. 42 , 43. As also did many others when they saw his Miracles , who yet were such as Christ had no mind to commit himself to , Ioh. 2. 23 , 24. And Simon Magu● believed , wondering , and being astonished at the signes which were done by Philip , who yet remained in the bond of iniquity , Acts 8. Such as are resembled by the stony ground , believed , who yet loved their ease and worldly interest more than Christ ; And those that St. Iames expostulates with , Chap. 2. were thus far believers also . 2. Excepting the consent of the Will to the Condition of the Promise ; unregenerate Men may hope to be saved by Christ , and rely on him for Salvation as well as the Regenerate : Only for want of their performing the Condition of the Promise , their hopes and confidence are groundless , and will deceive them . But otherwise men , that are but carnal , and live in some known sin , may and oftimes do perswade themselves that they shall be saved by Christ Jesus , because they believe that he dyed for sinners , and because they ask God forgiveness , and perform some acts of Religion . Our Saviour saith , Many will say unto me in that day , Lord , Lord , open unto us : Have we not prophesied in thy Name ? and in thy Name have cast out Devils , and done many wonderful works . We have eaten and drunk in thy presence , and thou hast taught in our streets . To whom he will say for all that , Depart from me , ye workers of iniquity , Matth. 7. 22 , 23. Luke 13. 25 , 26. These had some kind of Faith in Christ , by which they prophe●ied in his Name , and cast out Devils , and did many wonderful works . They were such as were hearers of his Word , and Preachers of it too , and had eaten and drunken in his presence . And because of this Faith , and these Works , they had a Hope and Confidence that Christ would open unto them , and receive them into his Kingdom , and would not be easily beaten off from this confidence . But the true reason why their Faith will stand them in no stead , nor their Religious performances neither , is , because for all that they were workers of iniquity , they never heartily consented to the terms of the Promise of Salvation by Christ in repenting : They did not first heartily resolve , and after sincerely endeavour to turn from every known sin , unto every known duty . And in this very thing doth the defect of that Faith lye which is short of saving . Which will yet further appear , in that St. Iames when he would state the difference between that Faith which is saving , and that which is not , fixeth it here . The dead Faith is denominated such by him , from its being alone without Works , Iam. 2. 17. Even so Faith if it hath not Works , is dead , being alone , or by it self . And again , vers . 20. But wilt thou know , O vain Man , that Faith without Works is dead . And again , ver . 26. For as the body without the Spirit is dead , so Faith without Works is dead also . Meaning by its being dead , that it avails a Man no more to his Justification and Salvation , than a dead Corps avails to the produceing the useful and serviceable effects of a living Man ; or than a Tree that is dead , avails to the bringing forth fruit ; or than a few good words , Depart in peace , be ye filled and warmed , will avail poor people , when nothing is given which is needful to the body , ver . 15 , 16 , 17. In all this I do not deny , but that there may be in such as do not savingly believe , some consent of the Will to do something towards performing the Condition of the Promise , in repenting and obeying . Such Men may consent and resolve to forsake some sins , and to do some , yea many duties , who yet never savingly consent , because they do not heartily consent and resolve to forsake [ all ] known sin , and to do [ all ] known duties ; in which the sincerity of Repentance and Obedience doth consist , to which the Promise is made . Such men may not be far from the Kingdom of God , but yet must go farther , if ever they would have any good ground of hope to enter into it : But of this more afterwards . III. Whence this defect doth proceed . I have shewed before , that there is the Faith of assent in the Understanding unto the truth of God's Testimony , in some unregenerate men , as well as in the regenerate . And in whomsoever the Faith of Consent in the Will to perform the Condition of the Promise is found , it always proceeds from the Faith of Assent in the Understanding . A Man always ( in order of nature at least ) believes that the promised benefits shall be made good to him , in case he perform the Condition , before he consents to perform it ; and doth consent to perform the Condition in hope and confidence of obtaining the promised benefits . Now then the Question is , whence is it ' and what is the reason that the Faith of assent in the Understanding , doth not always produce the same consent in the Will in one , as well as in another ▪ and as it always doth , when it becomes effectual to Justification and Salvation ? Why doth this Faith remain alone in some , when as it is accompanied with Works in others ? I shall offer what I conceive to be the reason of this , First , in general , and then more particularly . The difference sometimes may proc●ed from the different measures and degrees of the evidence upon which the same Truth is believed . One man may have a clearer discerning of the evidence than another , which causeth a stronger assent in the discerning faculty , and that stronger assent in the Understanding , may well cause a stronger consent in the Will , and a firm and lasting resolution . As on the contrary , a weak and partial consent and resolution in the Will to the Condition , sometimes proceds from a weak assent in the Mind , to the Truth of God's Testimony , or Promise , and that from the weakness of the faculty in the discerning the evidence of that Truth which is the Object of Faith. But the reason most commonly why the assent in the Understanding unto the Truth of God's Testimony doth not work a consent in the Will to the Condition of the Promise , is to be taken , I conceive from the opposition which the lower faculties of the Soul , the Will , & Affections , assisted and influenced by the sensual Appetites , make against the superiour Faculty the Mind , or Understanding , so that they do not hearken to its Notices , nor obey its Dictates . The Will which is the Spring of Action , is a middle Faculty between the Understanding and the sensitive Affections or Appetites , and is sollicited by both . As the Understanding calls upon it to obey its rational Dictates in chusing the means which tend to the best end , both which the Understanding represents to it from the Word of God ; so on the other hand , the sensitive Affections sollicite it to be on their side , and to be active in making provision for the flesh , in chusing such things as tend to satisfie its cravings and lusts . And because the Will hath usually been pre-ingaged to the flesh , and had a share in its gratifications , it 's not without much difficulty prevailed with to be cōsenting to , & active in the crucifixion of those affections and lusts . Which until the Will do , and herein obey the enlightned Understanding , the Faith of assent in the Understanding abideth alone . The Will 's obstinate adherence then to Mens fleshly lusts , and carnal interests , in opposition to that belief in the Understanding which puts it upon destroying them , as absolutely necessary to the Man's Salvation , as believing God touching the necessity of this as a means , as well as it doth believe him touching the blessedness of the end ; this obstinate opposition in the Will , I say , is the true reason why the Faith which is in some men , is but a dead Faith. How can ye believe ( saith our Saviour ) which seek honour one of another , and seek not the honour that cometh from God only ? Joh. 5. 44. Yes , some of them could , and did believe so far as to assent in their minds , that Christ was no Impostor , but one that came from God ; and that therefore his Doctrine must needs be true ; but they did not believe so as to be converted in their Wills , to consent to part with their carnal interest of honour and reputation , with their party the Pharisees , which they must have done as the case then stood , if they would have confessed him openly ; which to do , was necessary to make them capable of the Promise of Salvation by him . Ioh. 12. 42 , 43. Among the chief Rulers , many believed on him , but because of the Pharisees , they did not confess him , lest they should be put out of the Synagogue , for they loved the praise of Men , more than the praise of God. These had more understanding than the common people , who , as they said , knew not the Law , ( Ioh. 7. ) and yet not so many of them as of the people believed on Christ , so as to confess and follow him , because their wordly interest being greater , it held them faster and had the greater power over their Wills. The unbelief then of Men where the Gospel comes , is generally to be resolved into the obstinacy of their Wills , in opposition to the convictions of their Understanding , Iohn 5. 40. Ye will not come to me that ye might have life . How oft would I have gathered you , and ye would not , Mat. 23. 37. O that my people had hearkened to my counsel ! but Israel would none of me . Psal. 81. 11. They did not chuse the fear of the Lord , Prov. 1. 29. They chose their own ways , their Souls delighted in their abominations , Isa. 6. 3. Thus much in general . But I would shew yet more particularly how the Will doth obstruct the perfecting the work of Faith after it 's begun in the Understanding . And it doth it as I conceive . I. By calling off the Understanding from a frequent consideration of that evidence by which it was first convinced of the Truth of Gods Testimony touching the Promised Benefits , and the Condition and Means of obtaining them , and from a frequent application of it to the Will : and this the Will can do . For as the Understanding hath a power over the Will , so far a to represent it's apprehensions to the Will in order to its acting thereupon according to a Man 's own concerns therein ; so also the Will hath ak●nd of power over the Understanding , both to put it upon frequent consideration , to strengthen it self in the belief of that which the Will would have to prove true and to be believed ; and also to call it off from so doing , when there is a great reluctancy in the Will against having that prove true which the Understanding represents as true . And if the Understanding be taken off , so that it hath not frequent recourse to that evidence which first procured its assent unto the Truth of God's Testimony in the Gospel , that it might be thereby nourished , strengthened , and maintained ; that Faith in the Understanding will languish and grow weak , and so have no powerful operation upon the Will to change and renew it , and to procure its effectual consent to perform the Condition of the Promise , when the Will stands disinclined of it self , to the Verdict of the Understanding . Besides , if the Understanding doth not ply the Will , and frequently inculcate upon it , it s own apprehensions concerning God's Testimony , and the consequence and concernment of it to a Man 's own self , thereby to make the Word believed to be an ingrafted Word , it will not not work any Cure upon it , or any through change in it . The unwillingness in Men to have their Minds ingage in the consideration of God's ways and their own , is the reason of their turning back from him , Io● 34. 27. They turned back from him , and would not consider any of his ways . As on the contrary the Scripture represents the conversion of a sinner as proceeding from the consideration of the bad tendency of his evil ways , Ezek. 18. 28. Because he considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions which he hath committed , he shall surely live , he shall not dye . And our Saviour seems to cast mens profiting , or not profiting , their belief , or not belief by hearing Gods Testimony in the Gospel , upon their considering , or not considering of it . Mark 4. 24. And he said unto them , consider what you hear ( so Dr. Hammond reads it ) for with what measure ye mete ( viz. in considering , or not considering ) it shall be measured to you again , in profiting , or not profiting ; which is to be understood according to God's ordinary proceeding with men . The reason why the Faith of those resembled by the stony ground , doth not abide , or come to perfection , is , because they have no Root in themselves , and that comes to pass for want of much consideration , and a frequent working the first conviction of the mind from the evidence of Truth , into the Will & Affections , by a constant Consideration , and close Application of it . Acts 17. 11. They searched the Scriptures [ daily ] whether th●se things were so ; and therefore they believed . 2. When men hold fast their lusts out of their great love to them , notwithstanding their conviction in their Understandings , and are ●ot willing to part with them upon any terms ; the Fumes of those lusts continually ascending , will cloud and darken the Understanding as a thick Fogg doth the Sun , and by degrees make it less capable of discerning its Object , viz. saving Truth , in its clear evidence , and proportionably hinder in its that opperation upon the Will. The cares of this World , and the deceitfulness of Riches , and the lusts of other things , choaked the Word , and it becometh unfruitful , Mar. 4. 19. He that hateth his Brother is in darkness , and walketh in darkness , and knoweth not whether he goes , because darkness hath blinded his eyes , 1 Joh. 2. 11. 3. Sinful Mens understandings are ●ot so uncorrupt , but that they are apt to be bribed by their Wills , to cast about and devise how to evade the force and edge of their own notices and Dictates , and to attempt and baffle their former apprehensions and convictions , to the end they may still retain their lusts without any great disturbance from their Understandings . This when it is yielded to , and put in practice , is that which in Scripture is called Mens closing their eyes , le●t at any time they should see with their eyes , and hear with their ears , and understand with their hearts , and should be converted and healed , Mat. 13. 15. And when this takes place in Professors of Christianity , that do believe that Faith , Repentance , and Obedience are necessary to Salvation , as the Condition on which it is promised , the way by which they u●ually deceive their own hearts , is , by perswading themselves , that they do perform the Condition of the Promise in these , when indeed they do not ; but frame to themselves Notions of saving Faith , Repentance and Obedience , different from the Scripture Notions of them , as I shall shew in ●ach of them . 1. Many delude themselves by taking up a wrong Notion of saving Faith , and so think they have it , when they have it not . They believe indeed Christ to be the Son of God , and Saviour of the World , and that those shall be saved that believe in him , and those damned that do not , because the Scripture , which they believe to be the Word of God , saith so : And thus far they believe rightly objectively . But then they deceive their own Souls by perswading themselves that a meer assent of their mind to the Truth of these and other Evangelical Verities , is the Faith to which the Promise of Justification and Salvation is made , though it hath no such powerful operation upon their Wills , as to make them new Creatures , to make any thorow change in the temper of their hearts and tenor of their lives . And many doubtless have been greatly strengthened in this delusive confidence , by having been taught that Faith justifies without any Works at all . And these again perswade themselves , that they believe in Christ to the saving of their Souls , because they rely on him alone for Salvation , and upon what he hath done , and suffered for them , though they love their sins , and live in them still . Just like some Iews of old , who though they were very bad in their lives , yet leaned upon the Lord , and said , is not the Lord among us ? none evil can come upon us ? Mich. 3. 11. Isa. 48. 1 , 2. They leaned upon God's Promise of being their God , as those do upon Christ's undertaking to be a Saviour , although they overlooked the Condition to be performed by them in being a people unto him , in loving and serving him , as those Christians I speak of , also do . Though Christ alone is to be relyed on for Salvation , as touching all that is proper to the Mediatory Office and Work , yet no man is to rely on him , so as to think he should excuse him , if he do not repent , or be not regenerate , or as if he did repent , or were regenerate for him . If they do ; they promise themselves from him , that which he never promised , or undertook , but hath told them plainly , that except they themselves repent , they shall perish , and that except they themselves be born again , they cannot see the Kingdome of God. 2. They deceive their own hearts also in the nature of Repentance , their Notion of it being one thing , and the Scripture-Notion of it quite another : So that they perswade themselves they have repented , when indeed they have not . They know and believe perhaps , repentance to be necessary to Salvation , because Christ hath said , that except ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish . But then they mistake in perswading themselves that they do repent , because they are frequently sorry for what they have done , though they cease not to do the same again . Indeed when the pleasure of Sin is over , and rebukes of Conscience come in the room of them ; these trouble their minds for what they have done , which was the Repentance of Iudas ; and there is no peace to the wicked , who are like the troubled Sea. Now this they count repentance , though it work no effectual and thorow change in Heart and Life ; but when that sad fit is over , they appear to be the same Men they were before , by returning to the same sins . And herein the Romish Church hath most unhappily laid a Snare , which as is to be feared catcheth multitudes of Souls to their destruction , in asserting Contrition , yea , Attrition with confession , to be repentance sufficient to Salvation . Whereas sorrow alone , though it be godly sorrow , is not Repentance , but as St. Paul saith , Godly sorrow worketh repentance , 2 Cor. 7. 10. But Repentance itself , which is saving , consisteth chiefly in a real change in Mens apprehensions of , and affections to both sin and duty ; and in ceasing to do evil , and learning to do well . Others again deceive themselves in taking a partial Reformation for true Repentance : Because they have left some sins which they could best spare , as blemishing their Reputation , or impairing their Estates , or their Health : And because they have done many things ( which yet Herod also did , Mar. 6. ) they think they have repented , and are converted , though they retain others which are more gainful , or yield them more pleasure . Whereas the sincerity of Repentance can be proved by nothing less then a hatred of , and turning from sin as sin , and so from all sin , by diligent and careful endeavours . 3. They deceive themselves by a false Notion of that Obedience which is necessary to Salvation . They believe in the gross indeed , that Obedience to the Commands of God , to the Rules and Precepts of the Gospel , is necessary to Salvation , because the Scripture so plainly declareth it to be so : But then they deceive their own hearts , in thinking and perswading themselves that they have performed this part of the Condition of the Promise , when as they have not performed one half of it . They have , been it may be , somewhat careful to be found in acts of External Worship and and Devotion , both publick and private ; and to keep themselves from Idolatry , Swearing , Cursing , Sabbath-breaking , Murder , Adultery , Stealing , False-witness-bearing , and the like , in the outward and gross acts of them . But all the while have made no conscience of governing their Thoughts , Affections , and Passions , nor their Tongues neither as to many things . And in all this , wherein do they exceed the Pbarisees , whom if we exceed not in Righteousness , Christ hath told us ( who best knows ) that we shall never ●nter into the Kingdom of Heaven , Matth. 5. 20. They were strict and zealous in the observation of the Laws for Circumcision , Sacrifice , Sabbaths , Tythes , and other positive Precepts , and that to a tittle ; and fasted often , and made long Prayers , and gave Alms ; and made Ostentation also that they were not as others were ; Extortioners , Unjust , Adulterers , nor as the Publicans . And why would not all this bring them to Heaven ? Because all this notwithstanding ( as they had not Faith in Christ , so ) they were Covetous , Proud , and Ambitious , seeking Honour one of another , contemning , and despising others , they were envious , and malicious , cruel , and ill-natured , unmerciful , and persecuting such as faithfully reproved them . They made clean the outside of the Cup and Platter ; and so far as they did so , they did well : But that for which Christ denounced wo to them , was that their inward part was ful of ravening and wickedness , and for want of love to God , and of Judgment , Mercy , and Fidelity . God is a Spirit , and the Service that is acceptable to him , as being most agreeable to his Nature , is that which is done in Spirit and Truth . And therefore his Preceps are given to govern the inward Man as well as the outward . He that said thou shalt not kill , hath said also , Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart , nor be angry with him without a cause , or bear a grudge against him . He that said , Thou shalt not commit adultery , hath said also , Thou shalt not lust after a Woman in thy heart . And he that said , Thou shalt not steal , hath said also , Thou shalt not covet , and the like . And therefore they that think themselves to be obedient Children to God , upon account of their abstaining from outward gross sin , and of being outwardly righteous , and do not truly endeavour , and make a business of it to mortifie and subdue their Pride , Covetousness , love of the World , Envy , Hatred , Malice , thoughts of Revenge , the unruliness of Passions , and all immoderate Affections ; but indulge themselves in these , or any of these , or the like , they deceive themselves , whatever their External Conformity to Divine Precepts otherwise may be . They are the pure in heart that shall see God. And they that are Christs , have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts . God observes more what Men are inwardly , than what they are outwardly , and judges of them accordingly . He is not a Iew , nor he a Christian , who is one outwardly , in the flesh , but he who is so inwardly in heart , whose praise is not of Men , but of God , Rom. 2. 28 , 29. And therefore St. Iames counted them but Earthly , Sensual , and Devilish , in their profession of Christianity , how high soever they professed , and such as did lye against the Truth , that indulged bitter envying and strife , though it were but in their hearts , Jam. 3. 14 , 15. And if 〈◊〉 and passions within , shall break out in an unbridled Tongue in slandering , reviling , backbiting , evil-speaking , rash , and uncharitable censuring , or the like ; how Religious soever such a man may otherwise seem to himself , or others , yet St. Iames hath plainly determined his case ; such an one hath deceived his own heart , and his Religion is vain , Jam. 1. 26. Mat. 5. 22. Men may go a great way in Religion , yea so far as until they are not far from the Kingdom of God. Yea , many shall seek to enter in by doing many things in order thereto , and yet shall not be able for want of striving to do all that is necessary thereto . And for that very reason , and because of the great danger of Christians falling short , though they have gone far , and done much , are they so earnestly exhorted to work out , or to work through their own Salvation with fear and trembling ; with a fear of falling short , Phil. 2. 12. And not only so , but to fear even a seeming to come short of the promised rest , Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear , lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest , any of you should seem to come short of it . The matter is of that huge consequence , that every wise Man that doth not despise his own Soul , should be afraid to do , or omit to do , any thing that hath but the least ●eeming shew or appearance of putting his Salvation into any hazard . And therefore [ all ] diligence is not too much for the wisest Man living to use , to make his calling and election sure , 2 Pet. 1. 10. Thus when Mens Understandings are bribed by their corrupt Wills , they then take up with a partial Faith , a partial Repentance , and a partial Obedience , instead of that which is Evangelically compleat , and hope it is a fulfilling of the Condition of the Promise . And when Men shut their own Eyes , and stop their own Ears against the evidence of the word of Salvation , that they may the more quietly enjoy the pleasures of any sin , God many times in his righteous Judgment , after much striving , and long-suffering , withdraws the assistances of his Grace and Spirit , and leaves them to themselves , and their own delusions , and to be practised upon by the Devil for their farther hardening ; according to that dreadful Prophesie , in Isa. 6. 9 , 10. mentioned no less than five or six times in the New Testament ; Mat. 13. 14. Mar. 4. 12. Luke 8. 10. Ioh. 12. 40. Acts 28. 26. Rom. 11. 8. Go tell this people , hear ye indeed , but understand not , and see ye indeed , but perceive not . Make the heart of this people fat , and make their Ears heavy , and shut their Eyes , &c. When Men will not receive the love of the Truth that they might be saved , but have pleasure in unrighteousness , God sometimes sends them strong delusions to believe a lye , 2 Thes. 2. 10 , 11 , 12. Whereas on the contrary , the good ground-hearers are described by the honesty of the heart into which they receive the Word : They study no tricks or shifts , nor use any shuffling upon the account of any dishonest interest , to evade the plain Truth , but are content that should take place , and all other things give place to it : They suffer that Word which was received and assented to in the Judgment before , in order of Nature , to sink down into their hearts , by which the Will and Affections become changed . IV. How , and afer what manner Faith in the Vnderstanding , works savingly upon the Will. The Faith of Assent in the Understanding , worketh a Consent in the Will unto the Condition of the Promise , by its operative and affecting influence upon the passions of Hope , Fear , and Love , the powerful Principles of Action in Man. For though Faith in the Understanding , is the first Principle of Action as Christian , yet not that , but the Will , as it is affected with Hope , Fear , or Love , is the next and immediate Principle of Action . The Understanding when it rightly performs its Office , doth not only assent unto the Truth of Divine Revelation , upon competent evidence that it is from God ; but also considers and weighs , as in a ballance , the import of it , and how a man is concerned in it ; as whether it betoken good or evil to him , and how much , and upon what terms , whether absolutely , or conditionally , and what the Condition is : All which when brought down to the subordinate Faculties of the Soul , the Will , and Affections , is apt to affect them , and work upon them more or less , accoring as the things believed are expressed more or lesse to concern a Man. And the things believed , Eternal Life , and Eternal Death in another World , being invisible and absent things , it is a mans Faith , touching the reality of them , that supplies the room or absence of sense . For Faith is the substance of things hoped for , and the evidence of things not seen , Heb. 11. 1. We neither see nor feel the glorious things promised , nor the dreadful things threatned in another World , otherwise than by Faith , which gives the Believer a prospect of them . But a man by his Faith in that Gospel by which they are revealed , hath a foresight of them ( as Abraham had of Christs day ) and that fills the Soul with hope , and fear , and a sence of God's love in giving such an hope . And this hope , fear , & love , puts Men upon , more or less , care , diligence and industry in doing what is necessary for the obtaining of the one , and efcaping the other , as they are more or less influenced by a Faith that is weaker or stronger , or more or less active and exercised about these things . And hence comes that change which is made in the Hearts and Lives of true Believers , who walk by Faith , and not by Sight , that is , they govern their Lives by the belief of invisible , and not sensible things , 2 Cor. 5. 7. This in general . But more particularly , the Faith of Ass●nt in the Understanding , works the Faith of Consent in the Will , by its operation upon those three Passions , or Affections of the Will , Hope , Fear , and Love. 1. As a firm asse●ting to the Truth of God's Promise through Christ , of pardon of Sin , and Eternal Life upon Condition of Repentance and new Obedience , together with his Faith , gives a man hope and confidence of obtaining these great benefits upon the terms on which they were promised . The hope of this happiness causeth a Man to be willing to comply with the Condition upon which it is promised , in order to the obtaining the happiness it self . There is a Principle of self love planted by God in the nature of every Man , by which he doth naturally desire and aspire after the happiness of his own being . And that will put a man upon the use of such means , and the performance of such a Condition , without which he believes , and is verily perswaded he cannot be happy . Now every Man in whom there is the Faith of assent unto the Truth of God's Testimony in the Gospel firmly fixed , being verily perswaded that everlasting happiness is not attainable without Repentance , Regeneration , and sincere Obedience , because God hath declared this as plainly as he hath done any thing : ( And it is the nature of Faith to acquiesce in his Testimony . ) The love of the end , which is Mans own happiness , makes him in love with the means , such as is Repenting , Mortifying , and Obeying work , without which he cannot attain his end in being happy . This Principle of Self-love under the conduct of a Mans Understanding and Reason enlightned , and regulated by a Declaration of the Divine Will , and influenced by a firm belief of it , will work in a Man new apprehensions of , and new Affections to both Sin and Duty ; and will cause him to abandon the little pleasures of sin which are but for a season , that he may come to the fruition of that fulness of joy , and those Rivers of pleasure , which are in the presence of God , and at his right hand for evermore ; when once he knows , and firmly believes that they cannot otherwise be obtained . Thus by Faith is the victory over the world obtained , in all its temptations from Honours , Profits , and Pleasures , 1 Ioh. 5. 4. For by such a Faith a Man well perceives that the World offers him to his unspeakable loss , though it should offer him all of these that it is able to confer upon him , if it be upon condition of doing , or omitting to do that by which he shall certainly deprive himself of that Glory , Honour , and Immortality , which he is well assured of through Faith in God's Promise , if he overcome . We see Men are so commonly governed by a Principle of Self-love , in parting with a lesser good or conveniency for a greater , even in the things of this life , that they are worthi●y an ● deservedly counted fools that do the co●trary : And therefore those are guilty of so muc● the greater folly and madness , who deprive themselves of the happiness of Heaven , by a sinful seeking or possessing of the Honors , Profits , or Pleasures of this life : as the happiness of Heaven exceeds the enjoyments of this World , in kind and height of satisfaction , and in continuance and duration , so rational a thing it is to live and walk by Faith of unseen things , and unreasonable and unmanly to be governed by the sense of present things in opposition thereunto , 2 Th●ss . 3. 2. 2. The Faith of Assent in the Understanding , worketh a Consent in the Will to the Condition of the Promise , as the passion of fear is awakened by believing God's threatnings against such as do not observe and fulfil that Condition . There is a Principle of self-preservation planted by God in every Man's nature , by which he fears and abhors that which he knows , and verily believes tends to the infelicity and misery of his being , and which puts him upon the avoiding of that which he believes hath such a tendency , in order to the declyning the misery , or destruction it self . When a Man receives such sayings into his Understanding , as threaten , that if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye ; that except ye repent , ye shall all perish : That without holiness , no Man shall see the Lord , and the like ; and doth assent unto them as the true sayings of God , which assent is his Faith ; the fear of the misery threatned , and the Principle of self-preservation , work in him a desire and endeavour to have his sinful inclinations and appetites mortified , and a care to avoid the outward acts of sin , as really and truly as he desires to escape Eternal Destruction it self ; as believing and knowing they tend thereto , and that he cannot escape the one , without a sincere desire and endeavour to destroy and avoid the other . And in this way Faith is a Believers Victory , by which he also overcomes the World , when it tempts him to sin by threatning him with disgrace , loss of Estate or Liberty , or with enduring of corporal punishment , or death it self . For he believes the punishments in the other world to be of such a nature and duration , as that the worst things which Man can inflict , are altogether inconsiderable in comparison of them . By which belief he is so far guided , that he chuses to suffer the less , when his faithfulness to God , and his own best interest doth expose him to it , rather than to expose himself by unfaithfulnes to infinitely the greater , to avoid the less . And thus Faith purifies the heart of all inordinate affection to Riches , Honour , Ease , and Pleasures , Acts 15. 9. 3. The Faith of Assent or Credence in the Understanding touching the exceeding greatness of God's love to mankind in the gift of Christ for their Redemption , and in his great and precious Promises made in him upon a very gracious Condition , works in the Will a love to God , and so a love to please him , in doing those things which he hath made the Condition of his Promise . When once the Understanding represents it to the Will , as a certain Truth upon clear evidence , that notwithstanding Mens Apostacy from God , and Rebellion against him , and the Condemnation they are under thereby ; yet God is reconcileable to them , yea , willing , and so desirous to reconcile them to himself ; that as an evidence and proof of it , he hath given his own Son Christ Jesus to become a Rans●me for them ; and that he hath made a new Covenant , declaring that upon account of his Son 's undertaking for them , he is not only abundantly willing to pardon all such as shall unfeig●●dly repent of their disloyalty , and sincerely return to their duty ; but that he will also bountifully reward their future sincere Obedience with perfect and perpetual happiness : I say , when all this is represented to the Will , as unquestionably true , it will work in it a love to that God and Saviour , that hath been so loving , if it be but kept close to it . A minifestation of such love and goodness to Man , and that while yet in enmity against God , so ill deserving , and so obnoxious to the power of his wrath ; when he hath no need of him , nor can be profited by him , will create good thoughts of God , and reconcile Man's mind to him , and work melting affections in him to God , when heartily believed . What Rebel is there , or Nature so bad , that would not be won to leave off rebelling against his Priuce , and to love and please him , upon undoubted assurance , that by so doing he should not only be pardoned , and restored to favour , but also preferred to the greatest honour and happiness he is capable of receiving from any mortal ? And yet how weak a motive is this in comparison of what comes from God , to reduce men to their love and loyalty to him ? God's love to Man when perceived , and heartily believed , is the great motive , and attractive of Mans love to God. We love him , because he first loved us , 1 Joh. 4. 19. Love is an active and commanding Principle in Man , and procureth Thoughts , Cares , and Endeavours of pleasing God. If any Man love me , he will keep my words , saith our blessed Saviour , Iob. ●4 . 23. And after this manner , Faith worketh by Love , Gal. 5. 6. Thus I have represented to you , how , and after what manner Faith in the Understanding works a saving Consent in the Will unto the Condition of God's Covenant of Salvation . V. Some few Objections answered . 1. Some have thought Men may be justified only by their believing , even while they are ungodly in their lives ; and have thought that Scripture , Rom. 4. 5. will bear them out in such a conceit , which saith , He that worketh not , but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly , his Faith is counted for Righteousness . But they grosly mistake the Scripture , and deceive themselves . For that Text speaks of God's justifying the Gentiles upon their sincere conversion to the Christian Faith and Life , though they had lived in Gentilism , in all ungodliness before , and until then , and though they should not work at all , as the Judaizers would have had them , in turning Proselytes to the Jewish way . But otherwise it 's flatly against the express Doctrine of the Gospel , and current of the Scriptures , for Men to hope to be pardoned by any believing whatsoever , while they remain impenitent ; as every Man doth while he remains ungodly . To justifie the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. It 's said that Christ made the blind to see , the deaf to hear , and the dumb to speak , as well as it 's said God justifieth the ungodly . But is any man so senseless as to think that Christ made them to see , to hear , and to speak , while they remained blind , deaf , and dumb ? And if not , but that they know the meaning is , that Christ made those to see , to hear , to speak , which had been blind , deaf , and dumb , before those Cur●s were wrought upon them ; they might as well know also that the meaning is , that God justifieth those upon their believing , which had been ungodly until then , and not that he justifies them while they remain ungodly . 2. Some alledge that although the Faith which is alone , and with the concomitant effects of it , Repentance , Regeneration , &c. doth not justifie ; yet that Faith alone which doth produce such effects , doth justifie without the concurrence of these in the justifying act . Which they illustrate by this Similitude . A Man sees with his Eye alone , though he doth not see with his Eye that is alone , or separated from his body . In return to all which , let these things be considered . 1. They that go thus far , do grant that which will secure the Notion of the necessity of Repentance , Regeneration , and new Obedience unto Justification . They grant we see such a necessity of these , as without which no man can be justified , no not by Faith. In granting which , though we suppose them to err in their foresaid Notion , yet this makes their Error the less dangerous ; because the presence of Repentance , Regeneration , and Obedience are no less necessary to Justification according to this account , than they esteem them to be , who say they concur with Faith in the very act of Justification . 2. When they say Faith , alone is all that is necessary to the justifying act , without the concurrence of any thing else done by us : By justifying Act , they mean either God's Act , or Man's Act. If Man's Act , that 's nothing but Man's performing ▪ the Condition upon which God hath Promised to justifie Men. If they mean God's Act , it is his imputing Mens performing the Condition of the Promise unto them for Righteousness . The only thing then in question will be , what it is which is a fulfilling of the Condition of the Promise of Justification , which God imputes for righteousness ? If they say it is only the Assent of the Understanding unto the Truth of Gods Testimony in the Gospel ; or this Assent , together with a relyance on Christ for Salvation : I have shewed before , that both these may be found in Men unregenerate , and unjustified : And that these two of themselves without Repentance and hearty Obedience to the Laws of Christ , are not a fulfilling of the Condition of the Promise , and that consequently Men without these cannot be justified by any Faith whatsoever , and so not by Faith alone ; unless they will call Repentance and Heart-Obedience in conjunction with the foresaid Assent of the mind and relyance of the Soul , by the name of Faith : Which if they will , we are agreed as to the thing at least , if not to the name , that we are justified by such a Faith alone . And yet I doubt not that when ever Justification is promised to believing singly and alone exprest , but that there the foresaid effects are comprehended under that name also , for the Reasons formerly given . 3. They which say , we are justified by Faith alone , but not by that Faith which is alone , do distinguish where the Scripture doth not distinguish : The Scripture no where saith we are justified by Faith alone , as contradistinguished from Repentance , Evangelical Obedience , &c. The third Chaper of Rom. 28. and Tit. 3. 5. are sometimes made use of to countenance their Notion , but to how little purpose , hath been shewed already in the Treatise , which needs not be here repeated . 4. The Scripture is not only silent in the case , not any where affirming we are justified by Faith alone ; but it expresly affirms the quite contrary . Iam. 2. 24. Ye see then how that by Works a Man is justified , and not by Faith only . That this is affirmed in reference to our Justification before God , hath been shewed before . 5. Faith and Repentance are a joynt Condition upon which Justification is suspended , and are both constituted so by the same means , and that is by promise of pardon to such as do believe , to such as do repent , and by threatning the contrary to those that do not both . And if they are a joynt Condition of the Promise of Justification , then Justification proceeds not upon either of them alone , but upon both together . 6. Whereas it is said in the Similitude , that a man sees with his Eye alone , though not with his Eye which is alone , or when it is alone . I doubt this is no more true than that which is intended to be illustrated by it . For Naturalists will tell them the contrary , that it is not the Eye alone by which a Man sees , but that it is the Soul that sees by the Eye as its Organ . The Eye sees not when the Soul is departed , though it be not then alone . I confess I cannot possibly conceive either how the Soul should not concur with the Eye in the act of seeing , when the Eye cannot see without it , nor yet that Repentance should not concur with Faith in the act of Justification , so long as men cannot be justified by Faith it self without it , or in the absence of it , as they themselves grant . 3. This lyes in the way of some ; they cannot conceive how Justification by Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith , should consist with the possibility of somes being justified by believing , who yet may not live so long after , as to have an oppertunity of doing good Works . How rare Instances of this kind are , I shall not dispute : But doubtless , when ever men so believe Gods Promise of pardon through Christ upon their Repentance , and the necessity of their own Repentance for the obtaining of it , as that they in Will , and a fixed and lasting Resolution become new men , then they first believe unto Justification . And it is not impossible but that some may so believe , that may never after they do so , have opportunity to be much active in External Acts of Obedience . But though this should so fall out , yet such are not justified without Evangelical Obedience as wel as Faith. For , 1. These Motions and Acts of the Will , are themselves Acts of present Evangelical Obedience . 2. They are in the Root and Cause , Evangelical Obedience future , and to come . I. They are in themselves Acts of present Evangelical Obedience . For by these Motions and Acts of the Will , Men do when ever they take place , turn from sin to God and their Duty , out of hatred to that they turn from , and out of love to that they turn to . And these Acts of the Will which consist in affection and resolution , are proper effects and fruits of Faith in the Understanding , and Acts of Heart-Obedience in the sight of God , and a conformity of Soul to his declared Will and Commandment . And they may as well , and as truly be called Works , as evil Acts of the Will may , such as are a love to evil , and desires and resolutions of perpetrating it : Which evil Acts of the Will , are yet in Scripture called Works , and a working of wickedness , Psal. 58. 2. Ye work wickedness in your hearts , Micah 2. 1. He that looketh upon a Woman to lust after her , hath committed adultery with her already in his heart , Matth. 5. 28. And envy , wrath , and hatred , which are Internal Acts of the Soul , are called Works of the flesh , Gal. 5. 19 , 20 , 21. And if such inward fixed resolutions in Men , of obeying God in External Acts , if ever they have opportunity and a Call to it , did not pass in God's account for Obedience , and were not accepted in stead of the Deed , when opportunity for the Deed is wanting , the best Man in the World could be no Disciple of Christ , who doth not actually forsake all that he hath , and lay down his life for him . Whosoever of you forsaketh not all that he hath , cannot be my Disciple , saith he Luke 14. 26 , 33. Whereas Christ pronounceth the poor in spirit blessed , many of whom never became actually poor for his sake , as not being called to it . But if they are poor in Spirit , if they firmly resolve to become poor in forsaking all for Christs sake , when called to it , these are capable of blessedness in Christ's account , as well as those that suffer the loss of all for Righteousness sake , Matth. 5. 3. II. Those Acts of the Will , are in the Root and Cause , Evangelical Obedience future , and to come : Because those resolutions against evil for good , when they are of a fixed and lasting nature ( as they alwayes are , when together with Faith , they make men capable of Justification ) will certainly produce External Acts of sincere Obedience , as opportunity doth occur . When the Tree is made good , it will bring forth good Fruit in the season of Fruit , if it be not cut down before : When the heart is renewed in affection and resolution , the course of a Mans Life will certainly be answerable to it , if ever he have opportunity of shewing it . A good man out of the good treasure of his heart , bringeth forth good things , Mat. 12. 35. And God who knows the heart , doth judge of , and estimate men according to what they are in the inward frame of their heart , and prevalent bent of their Wills. If there be first a willing mind , it is accepted according to that a man hath , and not according to that he hath not , 2 Cor. 8. 12. We judge of the Cause by the Effects ; of the goodness of mens hearts by the goodness of their lives ; to us the Tree is known by its Fruit : But God who is greater than our hearts , and knows them better than we do , judges of the effect by the Cause , and knows what a Mans Life will be by what his heart is upon its first conversion to him ; and so confers on him the benefit of Justification , when the Foundation of a good Life is laid in the conversion and renewing of the heart . The Understanding of this Part of Discourse , will serve not only to satisfie the foresaid doubt , but also to inform us what Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification in its beginning . Not but that actual Obedience in Life is necessary to the continuance of Justification where Life is continued . And therefore we find that Abraham was justified by his after-believing , and after-obedience , as well as by his first ; and so was Noah before him . Noah was a righteous Man , and justified , before he became heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith , by his believing and obeying God in preparing the Ark , Gen. 6. 9. Heb. 11. 7. It was by Faith in God's Promise that Abraham left his Countrey to obey God at the first , and by that he was first justified , Heb. 11. 8. And yet his believing God's Promise , so shall thy Seed be , which was not made till some years after , was imputed to him also for righteousness , Gen. 15. 6. It was many years after that again , that by Faith he offered his son Isaac upon the Altar , and yet by that he was justified as well as by his first Faith and obedience , Iam. 2. 21. pardon of sin , is our Justification from sin , Act. 13. 39. And this we are directed by the Lords Prayer , to pray for daily all our dayes . And the continuance of Justification is promised upon Condition of continuance of Faith and Obedience to the Gospel , Col. 1. 21 , 22 , 23. and a discontinuance of it threatned in case of disobedience , according to the Tenour of the Parable , Mat. 18. from ver . 23. to ver . 35. By all which we may see what need there is for all Christians to work out , to work through their own Salvation with fear and trembling , to which they are earnestly exhorted , Phil. 2. 12. and to run so that they may obtain , 1 Cor 9. 24. 4. Some to evil affect their own and others minds ; with prejudice against Discourses of this nature do suggest , That the laying so great a stress upon Duty , as to esteem any thing of it necessary to Justification , save believing only , doth derogate from the Glory of Christ's great Undertaking in the business of Mans Salvation ; and that it is a trusting in our own Righteousness . But it will appear far otherwise , if they will but impartially consider in what sence , and upon what account such stress is laid upon Duty ; which I shall open in two particulars . 1. They that rightly understand themselves in this matter , do not look that any of their Duties of what nature soever , should of themselves as such , be available to their Justification or Salvation ; but that it is for the sake of Christ , and upon account of his undertaking for us , that God accepts , and imputes for Righteousness to us , such Duty as Faith , Repentance , and Obedience is , and that he doth make promise of Justification upon Condition of these . Since the fall we say , all our Duties that are acceptable to God , or available to us , become so through Christ , and for his sake . And therefore so long as we Attribute and Ascribe the benefit we expect upon our Repentance , and sincere Obedience or Belief , unto Christ , and to his great and worthy undertaking for us ; we are far from derogating from the Glory of it , and from trusting in our own Righteousness in that Notion in which mens trusting in their own Righteousness , is condemned in Scripture , or any otherwise than as our Duty is made a Condition , without which we shall have no part in Christ , nor be qualified for glory . 2. When we lay such stress upon Repentance , Obedience , &c. as a condition , or part of a Condition of the Promise of Justification and Salvation , as without which we say , we cannot be justified or saved by Christ's undertaking for us , yet then this stress is laid , and depends upon the Will and appointment of God , by which these Duties are thus made the Condition , and not on the intrinsick worth or value of the Duties themselves simply considered without reference to God's Ordination , appointing them to that use . For if God had not made a new Covenant , promising pardon for Christ's sake to such as do repent , and acceptance and reward to such as sincerely obey him , they would have had no sufficient ground to have been confident of Pardon , Acceptance , or Reward , though they should have repented , and so obeyed . And the reason is , because Men are not justified in the Eye of the Natural or Moral Law , upon any such account as that is . So that all the stress which is laid on Duty by them that rightly understand their Duty in this matter , doth terminate partly in Christ's undertaking for them , and partly in God's Institution and Appointment , who hath made his Promise of justifying us for Christ's sake so , as that he hath made our Duty of Repentance , and sincere Obedience a necessary Condition of it . And he that trusteth to be pardoned , accepted , and rewarded for Christ's sake upon his repentance , and sincere Obedience , because God hath promised that he shall ; trusteth in God , and in the fidelity of his Word and Promise . And in doing so , what more stress doth he lay upon Duty in this kind , than they that trust to be justified and saved upon their believing ? For their believing is matter of Duty , as wel as their Repenting and Obeying : And their believing would no more have entitled them to the benefit without the Promise which gives them that title , than other Acts of Duty would do . And other Acts of Duty do entitle to the same benefits as fully as Faith it self doth , where there is promise of the same benefits annexed to them , as Faith hath : And that they have , I have shewed before . So long then as the stress which is laid on Duty , terminates in Christ , and in God's Will and Appointment in the new Covenant , and is regulated by his Word and Promise , there is no danger of overcharging Duty . It 's true indeed , if we should expect that Duty should do that for us , which is proper only to Christ , as to expiate our sin , or the like ; we should sinfully overcharge it , as the Pharisaical Iews did their Sacrifices , and other Legal Observances , in expecting remission of Sin by them without Christ's Atonement : Which Righteousness of theirs is for that cause called their own Righteousness which was by the Law , as being no method of Justification of God's appointment , but of their own devising , which in that respect was indeed but as filthy Rags , and loathsome to God. But this is not the case with Protestant Christians , who lay no such stress upon Duty , no not upon Faith it ●elf ; but do acknowledge that all the power and virtue it hath to justifie , depends wholly upon , and is derived from the Will and Ordin●tion of God in Christ , Ioh. 6. 40. & 1. 12. Ephes. 2. 8. And we say the same of Repentance , and sincere Obedience also . And a confidence of being saved in a way of Duty upon such terms , is represented in Scipture , as trusting in the Righteousness of God through Faith , in opposition to ones trus●ing , in his own Right●ousn●ss , Phil. 3. 9. ●o 〈◊〉 is it 〈◊〉 trusting ▪ in our own Righteo●sness ●r from 〈◊〉 from Christ in the Glory 〈…〉 Natural or Moral Law , upon any such account as that is . So that all the stress which is laid on Duty by them that rightly understand their Duty in this matter , doth terminate partly in Christ's undertaking for them , and partly in God's Insitution and Appointment , who hath made his Promise of justifying us for Christ's sake so , as that he hath made our Duty of Repentance , and sincere Obedience a necessary Condition of it . And he that trusteth to be pardoned , accepted , and rewarded for Christ's sake upon his repentance , and sincere Obedience , because God hath promised that he shall ; trusteth in God , and in the fidelity of his Word and Promise . And in doing so , what more stress doth he lay upon Duty in this kind , than they that trust to be justified and saved upon their believing ? minds , thirst more after Discourses Consolatory upon account of believing only . Which may serve instead of an Apology for writing this and the forgoing Discourse . Saint Paul charged Titus to affirm this [ constantly ] that they which have believed , be careful to maintain good Works , Tit. 3. 8. 〈…〉 pointment in the new Covenant , and is regulated by his Word and Promise , there is no danger of overcharging Duty . It 's true indeed , if we should expect that Duty should do that for us , which is proper only to Christ , as to expiate our sin , or the like ; we should sinfully overcharge it , as the Pharisaical Iews did their Sacrifices , and other Legal Observances , in expecting remission of Sin by them without Christ's Atonement : Which Righteousness of theirs is for that cause called their own Righteousness which was by the Law , as being no method of Justification of God's appointment , but of their own devising , which in that respect was indeed but as filthy Rags , and loathsome to God. But this is not the case with Protestant Christians , who lay no such stress upon Duty , no not upon Faith it self ; but do acknowledge that all the power and virtue it hath to justifie , depends wholly upon , and is derived from the Will and Ordination of God in Christ , Ioh. 6. 40. & 1. 12. Ephes. 2. 8. And we say the same of Repentance , and sincere Obedience also . And a confidence of being saved in a way of Duty upon such terms , is represented in Scripture , as trusting in the Righteousness of God through Faith , in opposition to ones trusting in his own Righteousness , Phil. 3. 9. so far is it from trusting in our own Righteousness , or from derogating from Christ in the Glory of his undertaking for us . And now for a Conclusion : It would be considered whether such as are educated in Christianity , are not hardlier brought to live as becomes the Gospel in point of practice , than to believe that Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners ; and that he dyed for them , and rose again : And whether there is not cause to fear that very many more such do eternally miscarry through neglect of the former , than for want of the latter : And if there be , as doubtless there is ; Then practical discourses among such must needs be highly necessary , however some of weak minds , thirst more after Discourses Consolatory upon account of believing only . Which May serve instead of an Apology for writing this and the forgoing Discourse . Saint Paul charged Titus to affirm this [ constantly ] that they which have believed , be careful to maintain good Works , Tit. 3. 8. FINIS . ERRATA . PAge 2● . Line ▪ 35 , read 25. P. 40 , l. 6. for of , r. and. P 42. l. 29. f. should promise , r. should have promised . P. 43. l. 28. f. were , r. are . P. 45. l. 32. dele of . P. 49. l. 10. dele a. p. 56. l. 24. f. and , r. but. P. 59. l. 2. f. these , r. those . P. 60. l. 24. f. Law , r. Land. P. 61. l. 6. f. these , r. those — ● . 28. f. these , r. those . P. 62. l. 5 & 6. dele from that . P. 65. l. 17. dele from that . P. 67. l. 14. f. wherefore , r. therefore . P. 83. l 30. f. would , r. will. l. ibid. f. should , r. shall . P. 84. l. 11. f. seem , r. seems . P. 87. l. 25. r. the. P. 89. l. 27. f. of , r. from . P. 91. l. 9. f. sactifieth , r. sanctifieth P. 93. l. 14. f. until , r. unless . P. 95. l. 8. dele as . P 97. l. 19. r. to be . P. 99. l. 8. r. as he did . P. 120. l. 30. r. is P. 133. l. 18. r. such . P. 154. l. 8. r. freed . — l. 18. f. me , r. we . P. 157. l. 16. f. injurious , r. injured . P. 180. l. 27. f. a , r. as . P. 183. l. 10. dele in that — l. 14. f. choaked , r. choak . — l. 24. f ; and , r. to . P. 189. l 30. f. immoderate , r. inordinate . P. 193. l. 27. f. expressed , r. appr●hended . P. 202. l. 11. r. without P. 208. l. 2. r. and. 
A53931	----	A treatise proving Scripture to be the rule of faith writ by Reginald Peacock ... before the Reformation, about the year MCDL. Pecock, Reginald, 1395?-1460? 1688 Approx. 201 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 44 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-05 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A53931 Wing P1043 ESTC R1772 12576380 ocm 12576380 63588 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A53931) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 63588) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 327:12) A treatise proving Scripture to be the rule of faith writ by Reginald Peacock ... before the Reformation, about the year MCDL. Pecock, Reginald, 1395?-1460? Wharton, Henry, 1664-1695. [3], xl, xli, [3] p. Printed for James Adamson ..., London : 1688. Edited, with a preface and glossary, by H. Wharton. Cf. BM. Reproduction of original in Harvard University Libraries. Marginal notes. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Rule of faith. Faith. 2003-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-02 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-03 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2003-03 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus , A Treatise of Reginald Peacock , &c. Guil. Needham , R. R. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelm . Archiep. à Sac. Dom. &c. Ian. 12 , 1687. A TREATISE PROVING SCRIPTURE To be the Rule of Faith. WRIT BY REGINALD PEACOCK , Bishop of CHICHESTER , before the REFORMATION , About the Year MCDL . LONDON , Printed for Iames Adamson , at the Angel and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard . 1688. PREFACE . IF in any part of the Christian Religion an undoubted Certainty and most firm Assurance may justly be required ; if a scrupulous Examination and curious Enquiry may ever be allowed in Matters of Religion ; certainly an exact Knowledge of the Rule of Faith will deserve as our first , so our chief , Consideration . For since the Articles of Christianity are not in themselves self-evident ; nor can be found out by the sole principles of Reason ; since all revealed Religions are no farther credible , than as they can demonstrate their Revelation to have been true and real , some Rule was necessary , which might propose to Mankind those Articles of Faith which Reason could not suggest , and propose them also with such evidence , as that the denial of assent should in all become irrational . What this determinate Rule is , hath been the great Controversie of this and all preceding Ages . However , all parties agree in affixing some certain properties to it , whereby it may be distinguished ; and indeed without which it can never supply the Office , or serve the ends of a true Rule . These may be reduced to four Heads , That it be able safely and inviolably to convey down all revealed necessary Truths : That it be fitted to propose them clearly and invariably to all Mankind : That it be independent on all other revealed Articles : And lastly , that it be assigned as a Rule by God , the Author of all revealed Religion . If either of the two first Conditions be deficient , the Rule will be unuseful ; if either of the latter , uncertain and without authority . The Scripture enjoys all these properties in so eminent a manner , that no reasonable Doubt can be made of the Truth of it . For if we consider , that whatsoever is revealed , may be pronounced ; whatsoever is pronounced , may be written down ; and whatsoever is committed to Writing may be preserved safe , while those Writings are preserved unaltered ; we must conclude , that any revealed Religion may be intirely , and without danger of mistake , proposed from written Books to the universal Belief of Mankind , since these will afford a standing Rule both to Pastors of teaching of their People , and to the People of examining the Doctrine of their Pastors , in case of Diffidence . The independence of Scripture from all other revealed Articles is no less evident . For that these Books were indeed written by those persons whose names they bear , and these persons highly credible , is known by the same evidences whereby the Authors , and Credibility of any other Books are known ; I mean by the concurrent testimony and consent of all succeeding Ages , considered not as a Collection of Men professing the Christian Faith , but as persons devoid neither of common sense , nor integrity , as they must have been , if they had mistaken themselves , or deluded us in believing , and then testifying a matter of fact so easie to be known , and more easie to be remembred . Being thus assured of the Credibility of Scripture , that it was written by such Historians , who really , either performed , or saw those Miracles which they do attest , we cannot but believe these Miracles ; and consequently , that the Authors and Founders of the Christian Religion acted by a Divine Commission , and may reasonably command our assent to their Revelations . Being thus assured of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures , we may probably conclude from the nature and end of them , but most certainly from their own Testimony , that they contain all things necessary to Salvation , and are the only Rule of Faith : and all this although we did not yet believe any other Article of the Christian Religion . On the other side , Tradition wants every one of those Conditions which are necessarily required to a Rule of Faith. For first we can never be assured , that any Articles were invariably and intirely without any addition or diminution conveyed down to us by Tradition ; since it hath been in all Times and Ages observed , that Matters of Fact , much more of Belief , not immediately committed to Writing , presently degenerated into Fables , and were corrupted by the capricious Malice or Ignorance of Men. Nothing can exempt the Tradition of the Christian Religion from this Fate , at least from our reasonable suspicions of it , but the Infallibility of that Society of Men which conveys down this Tradition . But the latter can never be known till this certainty of Tradition be first cleared and presupposed , since the Belief of this supposed Infallibility , must at last be resolved into the sole truth and certainty of Tradition . In the next place , Tradition cannot certainly and invariably propose the Belief of Christianity to all private persons . For from whence shall this Tradition be received ? from a Pope , or a Council , or both , or from none of these , but only the Universal Church ? In every one of these Cases infinite difficulties will occur , which will singly appear insuperable : As , who is a true Pope , what his intentions in defining were , whether he acted Canonically , in what sense he hath defined ? What Councils , whether Oecumenical , Patriarchal or Provincial may be securely trusted ? What are the necessary Conditions and Qualifications of a General Council ? Whether all these Conditions were ever observed in any Council ? What these Councils are , what they have defined , what is the true sense and intention of their Definitions ? From whom must we learn the Belief of the Universal Church , if Popes and Councils be rejected ? From all Christians , or only from the Clergy ? If from the later , whether the assent of every member of the Clergy be required ? If not , how great a part may safely dissent from the rest ? From whom the opinion of the major part is to be received ? Whether from the Writings of Doctors , or the teaching of living Pastors ? If from the latter , whether it be sufficient to hear one or a few Parish Priests , or all , or at least the major number are personally to be consulted ? All these Difficulties may be branched out into many more , and others , no less insuperable , be found out ; which will render the Proposal of Religion by way of Tradition , if not utterly impracticable , at least , infinitely unsafe . Thirdly , Tradition is so far from being independent on other Articles of the Christian Faith , that the Belief of all other Articles must be presupposed to it . For since all Sects propose different Traditions , and the truth of none of them is self-evident , it must first be known which is the true Church , before it can be determined which is the true Tradition . Now the knowledge of the true Church can be obtained only two ways , either from the Truth of her Doctrines , or from the external Notes of a true Church . If the first way , then it must first be known what are the true and genuine Doctrines of Christianity , the stedfast belief of which causeth this Society to become the true Church . But if the true Church be known only from some external Notes , these Notes are either taught by Scripture , or found out by the light of Reason . If taught by Scripture , then the knowledge of the Divine Authority of Scripture is antecedent to the knowledge of the true Church , and consequently independent on it . For otherwise Scripture will be believed for the Authority of the Church , and the Church for the Authority of Scripture : which is a manifest Circle . Besides , in this case that grand Article of Belief in the Holy Catholick Church will be received not from Tradition , but from the Scripture : and consequently Scripture , not Tradition , will be the primary Rule of Faith. Lastly , if the Notes of the Church may be found out by Natural Reason , then to pass by the infinite Contradictions which would arise from such a Proposition , these Notes can be no other than Antiquity , Universality , Perpetuity , and such like ; every one of which doth some way or other presuppose the knowledge of the true Doctrines of Christianity , as well as those of the present Church . For the end of these Notes is to compare the former with the latter : and consequently both of them must be first known . Lastly , It can never be proved that Tradition was assigned by God as a Rule of Faith. For this proof must be taken either from the Scriptures , or from Tradition . Not from the first , for not to say , that Scripture is wholly silent in this matter , such a supposition would destroy it self , and involves a manifest Contradiction . For if it be a Point of Faith that Tradition is the Rule of Faith , and this Article is deduced and received only from Scripture ; then Scripture is the immediate Rule of one Article of Faith , and the mediate Rule of all other Articles ; and consequently Tradition cannot be the Rule of Faith. No less absurd is it to imagine any Proof of this Article can be drawn from Tradition . For we can never be assured , the Tradition of this very Article is of Divine Authority , and consequently infallible , until we be first satisfied , that God , by assigning Tradition for a Rule of Faith , conferred Divine Authority upon it , which is the matter now in question . Thus have I briefly pointed out some Arguments , which prove that Tradition neither is , nor can be the Rule of Faith. And indeed all Ages of Christianity have been so far satisfied of the truth of this , that in all Controversies the Catholicks no less constantly appealed to Scripture , than the Hereticks recurred to Tradition . The pretence of Tradition is so easie , and impossible to be refuted by the meaner Christians , that , no wonder if Hereticks always took this more compendious way , when to pretend the Authority of Scripture , would have been too palpable and too gross an impudence . The Standard of written Truths continued always the same , and could not be universally corrupted . Whereas Tradition might securely be adapted to the most absurd and contrary Opinions ; since to effect that Design no more was required , than the confidence or mistake of Hereticks , pretending to have received their own Dreams and Errors , as necessary Articles of Faith , from their Forefathers . Thus all the Hereticks of the three first Centuries , when the true and genuine Tradition of the Church might much more easily be known , than it can be at this day , proposed their Heresies under the venerable name of Apostolick Traditions ; which pretence they carried on so far , that they published the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Traditions of almost every Apostle and Apostolick Man , wherein they committed to Writing those revealed Truths , which they believed the Apostles to have preached , and have left unwritten . In vain should the Fathers and Writers of the Church have recurred to the true and genuine Tradition of unwritten Revelations , since they could never demonstrate , that this true Tradition was rather to be found among them , than among those Hereticks . For many of these Heretical Sects were contemporary with , or began immediately after the Apostles , were vastly numerous , and scattered through the whole Church ; and consequently could put in so fair a claim for Tradition , that no human wit could ever have determined the Question , if the Scripture had not been called in , and opposed to such unreasonable pretensions . Accordingly Scripture was ever pleaded by the Catholicks , and the pretence of unwritten Revelations derived down by oral Tradition was then esteemed as a Characteristick Note of Hereticks . Thus S. Augustin * , and before him Clemens Alexandrinus † , complain of the Hereticks of their times ; Tertullian ‖ assures us , it was the usual evasion of Hereticks , to decline the Scriptures , and flee to Tradition , pretending , that the Apostles published not the Gospel to all People , nor committed all revealed Truths to Writing , but delivered many Articles of Faith secretly to approved Men ; which Articles were no other than their own Heresies . In the same manner the Hereticks , opposed by S. Irenaeus * , were wont , when urged with the Authority of Scripture , and their perfect silence as to those Articles which they obtruded upon the World , to plead the Imperfection of the Holy Scriptures , that they were not intended by God as a Rule of Faith , Because the Truth could not be learned from them by those who were ignorant of Tradition . For that the Christian Faith was not delivered by Writing , but by Word of Mouth , or by Oral Tradition . To produce but one Example more , Eunomius the Heretick in his Apology extant in Manuscript in S. Martin's Library , every where pleadeth the Tradition of precedent Ages , and professeth to follow that as his only Rule of Faith. It is necessary ( saith he † ) for those who treat of matters of Faith , setting before them the holy Tradition , which hath all along obtained from the times of the Fathers , as a Rule and Canon , to make use of this accurate Rule to judge of those things which shall be said . Afterwards proposing his blasphemous Opinion about the Holy Ghost , he introduceth it with this Preface , Exactly following the Doctrine of the Holy Fathers , and receiving it from them , we believe , &c. This then was the Artifice and Practice of the ancient Hereticks . What the Practice of the Catholick Fathers was in opposing these Hereticks , or establishing any necessary Article of Faith ; that they accounted Scripture to be the only adequate Rule of Faith , and to contain in express and plain words all things necessary to be believed ; that they rejected all Articles , which could not be thence deduced , as spurious and false , or at least uncertain and unnecessary ; and always asserted the Sufficiency of Scripture , I will not here insist to prove ; since that Point hath been so often handled and cleared by the Writers of our Church , more particularly by Bishop Taylor * , to whom I remit the Reader . My Design and the Age of that Treatise which I now publish , require me to descend lower , and demonstrate , that even in latter Ages it was the commonly received Opinion of the Church , that Scripture is the Rule of Faith. And this alone will as evidently overthrow the Plea of Tradition , as if the Consent of all Ages herein were demonstrated . For since Tradition is the perpetual Succession of any Doctrine conveyed down in the Church by word of mouth from the Apostles to this present time ; if this Succession were in any Age whatsoever interrupted , it can no more claim the Title of Tradition than if it had never been believed . So that if it can be proved , the Doctrine of Tradition , being the Rule of Faith , was in any Age of the Church disbelieved , not only the proof of this Article from Tradition will fail ; but even the Article it self will appear to be evidently false . For it is not possible that Tradition should be the Rule of Faith , if that very Article , that Tradition is the Rule of Faith , were not delivered down by an uninterrupted succession of Belief : for then it would not be the Rule of that very Article . Besides , it is absurd , that the Church of any Age should have power of declaring what the Tradition of Faith is , and consequently of fixing the Rule of Faith , and yet be so far from being conscious of any such power inherent in her , that she disbelieved it . Not to say , that if at any time Tradition was not believed by the Church to be the Rule of Faith , and yet at the same time divers Articles of Faith were defined by the Church , Tradition must necessarily ever since have ceased to be the Rule of Faith ; since otherwise all Definitions of the Church must indifferently be admitted , made by her both when she followed , and when she deviated from the Rule of Faith ; and consequently the Faith of all private Christians must be subjected to infinite uncertainty . Now to prove that the Tradition of this Article was in any Age of the Church interrupted and discontinued , it is not necessary , that all members of the Church should then agree in the disbelief of it , that no Doctors should believe Tradition to be the Rule of Faith , or none maintain the Insufficiency of Scripture . It is sufficient , that some Divines of great name , who lived and died in the Communion of the Church , were ever held in great esteem both for Piety and Learning , and never censured by the Church for any erroneous Opinions , much less for Hereticks , that some such , I say , disbelieved this Article , and maintained Scripture to be the Rule of Faith. For if any such were , then the contrary Opinion could not be the belief of the universal Church , much less an Article of Faith. That there were such Doctors I shall immediately prove , by producing their own Words ▪ and thereby demonstrate my intended purpose . And not only so , but farther shall therewith render it highly probable , that it was the generally received Opinion of the Church at that time , that Scripture , not Tradition , is the Rule of Faith , by all those Arguments , which a question of this Nature will admit , I mean by the authority of the most eminent Writers , and publick practice of the Church in Councils . For it cannot be imagined , that so many Learned Persons , esteemed , as it were , the Oracles of their Times , and Pillars of the Church , should either be ignorant of the Doctrine of the Church , touching the Fundamental Principle of Faith , or if willfully opposing it , should obtain , or conserve to themselves so great a Reputation ; or that the General Councils of that time should , in their Sessions and Disputations , permit the Sufficiency of Scripture to be laid down as an uncontroverted Principle , without giving some check to so grand an Error . That the Church therefore in the fifteenth Age did generally believe the Scripture to be the Rule of Faith , and contain all things necessary to Salvation , may be evidently demonstrated from this Treatise which I now publish . The Author of which was far the most Eminent and Learned Bishop of the Church of England in his time ; a person , who , as himself assures us , had spent more than twenty years in writing Controversial Books against the Lollards , when he composed this Treatise ; and who every where giveth manifest proof of his great Learning . So eminent a person cannot be supposed to have been ignorant of the general Belief of the Church in his time , concerning the Rule of Faith ; nor will his apparent zeal for the Interest of the Church , permit us to believe , that he wilfully opposed the Doctrine of the Church , in whose Service he employed the greatest part of his life ; or that when he so zealously pleaded the Cause of the Church against the Lollards , he should himself depart from the Church in her principal Article , and therein become a Lollard . Since therefore he plainly asserts and teacheth , that Scripture is the Rule of Faith , this undeniably proves , that the belief of this Proposition , was not , in the time of our Author , accounted any part of Lollardism , or supposed Heresie ; but rather esteemed an Article of Catholick Belief , at least , an Article which might be freely disputed , without violating the Definitions , or dissenting from the universal Belief of the Church . And indeed our Author in the beginning of this Discourse assureth us , that the Doctors of his time disagreed in determining , whether the Church or Scripture were chiefly to be respected in the resolution of Faith. One thing may be objected against the Authority of our Author ; That he was forced , by the ruling Clergy , to recant several Opinions and Doctrines taught by him , as erroneous ; and consequently , that he cannot be esteemed a Doctor of the Church . But here not to say , that the sentence of two or three partial Bishops ( for no more condemned him ) is not to be accounted the Judgment of the Church of England , this very Recantation addeth no small strength to our Argument . For when the malice of his Enemies obliged him to recant all those Doctrines which they esteemed to be erroneous , they took no notice of his having asserted Scripture to be the only Rule of Faith , nor obliged him to recant that Proposition ; a manifest Argument that it was not then accounted either heretical or erroneous , or contrary to the received Doctrine of the Church ; since otherwise they would not have failed to place it in the front of his Recantation , as an Error of an higher degree , and greater contagion , than any of those for which he stood condemned ; which , in truth , were so far from being Heresies , that they were all at that time maintained by many eminent Divines , who never were censured by the Church , and some of them so far true , that no Learned Man of the Church of Rome will at this day deny them . And this also fully clears our Author from any suspicion of Lollardism , or secret inclination to it . That he was not singular herein , defended no Paradox , nor opposed any Doctrine of the Church ; I come next to prove : The School Divinity was at that time universally received in the Church of Rome , taught in all Universities and Schools , and by long use become in great measure the Doctrine of the Church . The most famous and celebrated Author of this Divinity was S. Thomas Aquinas , whose Writings were then in all Mens hands , universally applauded , and religiously embraced . Some few Divines indeed dissented from him , and followed the System of Scotus ; but this Disagreement respected not the Rule of Faith , nor indeed any material point of Divinity , but only some abstracted Notions and Scholastick Niceties of Divinity . The Doctrine therefore of Aquinas is to be esteemed the general opinion of the Divines and Writers of those times . It cannot be here objected against the force of our Argument , that the same Divinity is yet retained and taught in most Popish Countries , although the Doctrine of the Scriptures Sufficiency be rejected . The Method of Reasoning and Disputing is now infinitely altered among the Writers of the Roman Church from what it was before the Reformation . Before that time they made no difficulty to acknowledge and even urge the necessity of Reformation ; whereas now the Honour of their Church obligeth them to declare it both unnecessary and unlawful . While Scripture was yet looked up in an unknown Tongue , and removed from the knowledge of the Laity , ( who were then generally very ignorant ) they were not ashamed to make confident Appeals , for the Truth of their Doctrine to the Holy Scriptures . When that Veil was removed , the Scriptures translated , and the World become more intelligent and inquisitive , some other Artifice was to be found out , which might preserve the Credit of antient Errors , and defend them from the silence and opposition of Scripture . To this end no stratagem could conduce more than the constant Artifice of all Innovators in Religion , the Plea of Tradition . Before that , lesser Artifices could hide the Deformity of their Errors , and while ignorant Christians could be securely misled with false , and sometimes foolish Interpretations of Scripture , while Ecce duos gladios was thought sufficient to evince the coercive Power of the Pope over temporal Princes ; and Arabant boves , juxta comedebant asini , could effectually perswade the Laity intirely to resign up their Judgments to the Direction of the Clergy , there was no need of any desperate Remedy ; but when persons became so far inquisitive , as to inquire into Reasons of Things , and demand some better Authority for the belief of Articles imposed on them ; nothing less than the arrogant pretence of an infallible Tradition could secure and palliate the contradiction of impossible Propositions . To prove therefore Aquinas his Doctrine concerning the Rule of Faith , to have been intirely agreeable to that of our Author , I will go no farther than his Sum of Divinity , the most famous and best known of all his Works . In the beginning of it laying down the Principles upon which Divinity and the proofs of Religion ought to proceed : he saith † ; That this Holy Doctrine useth the Authority of Philosophers as extraneous , and only probable ; but the Authorities of Holy Scripture as properly belonging to her , and concluding necessarily ( or infallibly ) but the Authorities of other Doctors of the Church as properly indeed belonging to her , but concluding only probably . For our Faith is founded upon the Revelation made to the Apostles and Prophets , who wrote the Canonical Books of Scripture , and not upon any Revelation made to other Doctors , if any such there be . Whence S. Augustin saith in his Epistle to S. Hierom , To the Books of Scripture only , which are called Canonical , have I learned to pay this honour , that I should most firmly believe none of their Authors to have erred in any thing in composing them . In the two next Articles it is inquired , whether Holy Scripture may use Metaphors , and contain diverse senses under one and the same Letter . In both places the Objections are thus formed . These Qualities would be incongruous to a Rule of Faith ; but the Scripture is the Rule of Faith. This last Proposition is no where reinforced in the Objections , but laid down as an uncontroverted Principle . Aquinas in answering them , no where denies Scripture to be the Rule of Faith , but endeavours to take off the incongruity of a metaphorical and ambiguous Style to the Rule of Faith ; and in answer to both Objections hath these words . * Although Metaphors and Allegories be found in Scripture , yet doth Holy Scripture suffer no detriment or imperfection thereby . For nothing necessary to Faith is contained under the hidden sense , which Scripture doth not somewhere manifestly deliver in the literal sense . Afterwards being about to dispute of God , and the Mysteries of the Trinity , and Incarnation , he proposeth this as a most certain and undoubted Principle , That † we ought to affirm nothing of God , which is not found in Holy Scripture , either in words or in sense : conformably to what the Master of Sentences , and Founder of the School Divinity had before taught ; who inquiring what Method is to be observed in treating of the Trinity , answers , That * it must in the first place be demonstrated according to the Authorities of Holy Scripture , whether the Christian Faith teacheth it or not , and in what manner . But to return to Aquinas , he asserteth Scripture to be the Rule of Faith in many other places of his Summ. Thus disputing † of the nature and properties of the New Law or Covenant , he inquires whether it be a written Law. in resolving of this Question he opposeth not the written Law to Tradition , but to the Law written in the Hearts of Men , by the virtue and operation of the Holy Ghost ; and at last concludeth thus : ‖ The New Law is principally that very Grace of the Holy Ghost which is written in the Hearts of the Faithful ; but secondarily it is the written Law , in as much as those things are delivered in it which either dispose to Grace , or respect the use of that Grace . Here the very nature of this Question , and comparison of the Written with the New Law , supposeth that the whole System of revealed Truths is contained in the written Law : and lest we should doubt of this supposition , the latter part of the Passage now cited plainly determines it . But to proceed , Aquinas often reneweth this supposition ; and at last comparing the Old with the New Testament , he determines thus : * All things which are plainly and explicitely delivered to be believed in the New Testament , are delivered also to be believed in the Old Testament , but implicitely and obscurely . And in this respect also as to matters of Belief , the new Law is contained in the old . But if all matters of Belief in the new Law be contained in the Old Testament ; and whatsoever is contained in the Old Testament , is plainly and explicitly taught in the New Testament : then the New Testament doth not only contain all matters of Belief in the New Law , but also , which is more considerable , proposeth them clearly and explicitly . He intimates the same no less manifestly , when he teacheth , That † Man is bound explicitly to believe all the Articles of Faith ; but implicitly whatsoever is delivered in Holy Scripture . Here he manifestly supposeth Scripture , not Tradition , to be the Rule of all Articles of Faith. Otherwise he was obliged by all the Laws of Reason to conclude , that an implicit Belief , not of all things delivered by Scripture , but of all delivered by Tradition is required . But the most considerable Testimony of Aquinas is yet behind . For inquiring whether the Articles of Faith be conveniently disposed in the Creed , he formeth this Objection against it . ‖ It should seem that the Articles of Faith are inconveniently disposed in the Creed . For Holy Scripture is the Rule of Faith ; to which it is unlawful either to add , or to take away . For it is said Deut. IV. Ye shall not add to the word which I speak unto you , nor take away from it . Therefore it was unlawful to compose another Creed , in manner of a Rule of Faith , after the Promulgation of the Rule of Faith. Here certainly , if ever , was a fair occasion presented to deny Scripture to be the Rule of Faith. But Aquinas is so far from doing it , that he allows it , and endeavours to prove , that the Composure of a Creed doth not necessarily include either any Addition to , or diminution from Scripture . For thus he answers , * To this Objection it is to be answered , that the truth of Faith is diffusively contained in Holy Scriptures , and divers ways , and in some places obscurely : so that to collect the true Faith out of Scripture , a long Study and Exercise is required , to which all those cannot arrive who ▪ are necessarily obliged to believe the truth of Faith , since many of them , taken up with other business , cannot attend to study . Therefore it was necessary that somewhat manifest should summarily be collected out of the sentences of Holy Scripture , which might be proposed to all to be believed : which indeed was not added to Holy Scripture , but rather taken out of Holy Scripture . I have used the greater diligence in representing the Doctrine of Aquinas , because he beareth not a single Testimony , but carrieth a numerous train of School Divines along with him . I proceed now to the Writers of the fifteenth Age , contemporary to our Author , premising only the Authority of a Learned and Judicious Canonist of the precedent Age. This was Marsilius Patavinus , Professor at Padua , and Privy Counsellor to Lewis the Emperor : who asserteth , † That we are bound to believe the Pope and Bishops to have received such a Power and Authority from Christ , as we can evince from the Words of Scripture , was conferred on them , and no other . But he more plainly afterwards decides the Question , when he layeth down this Proposition . ‖ To no Speech or Writing are we bound to give certain faith and credence , or acknowledge them to be true , upon pain of damnation ; except to those which are called Canonical , that is , which are contained in the Volume of the Bible . In the beginning of the fifteenth Age the Council of Constance was held : which , as Aeneas Sylvius * assureth us , founded all their Decrees and Definitions upon the Authority of Holy Scripture . The most eminent Divine in that Council , and indeed of all Christendom , at that time , was Iohn Gerson , Chancellor of Paris ; who , by the unanimous Delegation of all the Bishops , drew up the Decrees of the Council ; a person of that Eminence and Repute , that by reason of the known Conformity between his Opinions and the received Doctrines of the Church , he was usually styled , The most Christian Doctor ; and when the Bohemians declined the Authority of the Council , Cardinal Zabarella could oppose no Argument to them more plausible than the Reputation and Fame of Gerson . To find out therefore the received Opinion of the Church in his time , he ought in the first place to be consulted . Thus then he delivers his Opinion : † Holy Scripture is the Rule of Faith ; against which , rightly understood , no authority or reason of any Man whatsoever is to be admitted . Neither is any Custom , Constitution or Observation valid , if it be proved to be contrary to Holy Scripture . This Rule is a common Foundation both to us , and those Hereticks , against whom I now dispute . He was then disputing against the Bohemians , the Followers of Husse and Wicliff , whom all know to have asserted Scripture to be the Rule of Faith. In another place he hath these words . In examining Doctrines it must be first and principally inquired , whether the Doctrine be conformable to Holy Scripture as well in it self , as in its circumstances . This is manifest from the authority of S. Dionysius , who pronounceth thus : We must not dare to teach any thing of Divine Matters , except what is delivered to us in Holy Scripture . Of which the Reason is this ; because Scripture was delivered to us as a sufficient and infallible Rule for the Government of the whole Body of the Church , and the members of it , even to the end of the World. Scripture therefore is an Art , a Rule , and a Copy of that Nature ; that any other Doctrine not conformable to it , is either to be rejected as heretical , or suspected ; or at least to be esteemed no part of Religion , nor belonging to it . Every Revelation is suspected , which the Law and the Prophets , with the Gospel , do not confirm . Otherwise they are rather to be esteemed the Delusions of Devils , or rather the Capricio's of Mens Brains , than Revelations . To such Idiots that saying of Christ may justly be objected : Ye err , not knowing the Scriptures . But some will say : From the beginning of the Gospel to this day some wholesom Doctrines are found in the Mouths and Writings of Men , which the Holy Scripture doth not contain . I answer , that Scripture contains them all according to some degrees of Catholick Truths . Lastly , disputing of those Articles of Faith , which are necessary to be believed , he determines thus : * It is mani●est , that the Canon of the Bible is the whole revealed Law of God ; whose Literal Assertions are founded upon this one only literal Principle . At the same time Nicolas Clemangis , Doctor of the Sorbon , was held in great repute for his extraordinary Learning and Piety : who , treating of the Rule of Faith , and Authority of General Councils , placeth the first in Scripture , and denieth the latter to be infallible in these words : † But although the Authority of the Church Militant be very great , which founded upon a firm Rock cannot be shaken , and against which the Gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail : yet we ought not ( as it should seem ) to ascribe to it the Titles of the Church Triumphant , as that it is infallible and impeccable ; which , as you know , often both doth deceive , and is deceived . — It seemeth indeed very odd , that any one should prefer the Authority of the Church Militant to the Authority of the Gospel ; whenas the Church may err in many things , the Gospel cannot in the least : and the Authority of the Church it self , as to the Ground and Foundation of it is chiefly deduced from the Gospel . Nay , the very Institution , Power and Edification of the Church can no way so expresly and certainly be known , as from the Gospel . But , as I imagin , it can by no method be so certainly determined , whether the Church or the Gospel be of greater Authority , as by supposing this Case , when the Church defineth any thing contrary to the Gospel . I know indeed that this cannot be . ( This is to be understood of the Belief and received Doctrine of the Universal Church , not of the Decrees of the Representative Church . Otherwise Clemangis will most foolishly contradict himself . ) However , that we may the better find out the truth , let us put this Case ; Do you imagin , that in that case S. Augustin would have rejected the Doctrine of the Gospel , and adhered to the Definition of the Church ? No surely . Where he proceeds at large to urge this Argument , and thereby to assert the Superiority of the Scriptures Authority to that of the Church . Before the middle of this Century flourished Thomas Waldensis , Provincial of the Carmelites , and Confessor to two Kings of England , Henry V. and Henry VI. successively , generally accounted the most Learned English Man of his Age , and the great Champion of the Papal Cause against the Lollards and other supposed Hereticks of his time , against whom he writ a large and elaborate Work ; which was in a particular manner confirmed and approved by a special Bull of Pope Martin V. Therein proposing an intire System of Divinity , he layeth down the Sufficiency of Scripture as a most certain Principle in three whole Chapters ; † out of which I will produce some few Passages . Disputing therefore of all Articles necessary to be believed , and the complete System of Christian Faith , he useth these words ; They who ‖ yet believe the Canon of Scripture to be imperfect , and that it may yet be augmented by the Authority of the Church , do yet with the Iews expect the fulness of time , perhaps under a Iewish Messias . He then takes notice of that famous Passage of S. Augustin , I would not believe the Gospel , unless the Authority of the Catholick Church perswaded me . And giveth this Answer to it : I do not approve the arrogance of some Writers , who upon occasion of this place maintain the Decrees of Bishops in the Church to be of greater Weight , Authority and Dignity , than is the Authority of the Scriptures . Which indeed seemeth not so foolish as mad : unless such an one would say Philip were greater than Christ ; when he induced Nathanael to believe that Christ was he of whom Moses writ in the Law and the Prophets : although without his Authority ( or Admonition ) he would not have at that time perceived it . — All Ecclesiastical Authority , since it serveth only to bear testimony of Christ , and of his Laws , is of less Dignity than the Laws of Christ , and must necessarily submit to the Holy Scriptures . Well therefore did S. Thomas ( Aquinas ) allegorize , when he introduced the Samaritan Woman to represent the universal Church : which Woman , when the Citizens of Samaria heard preaching Christ , they were induced to believe on him , &c. This Passage clearly represents to us the Opinion of Waldensis to have been , that by the attestation of the Church , the Divine Authority of the Scripture is known : which being once known , all matters of Belief , and Articles of Faith are to be learned from the Scripture ; just as Philip induced Nathanael , and the Samaritan Woman her Neighbours to believe Christ to be a Divine Person : of the truth of which , when once satisfied , they learned not the Rules of Life , or Articles of Faith from Philip , or the Woman , but received both from Christ himself . And therefore Waldensis subjoyns , That the Authority of the Scripture is far superior to the Authority of all Doctors , even of the whole Catholick Church ; and that although the Catholick Church should attest and confirm their Authority ; that the Authority of all latter Men ( following the Apostles ) and Churches ought to be submitted to the Authority of the holy Canon , even to its Footstool : That * the former is subjected to the latter , as a Witness to a Iudge , and a testimony to the truth ; as a promulgation to a Law , and as an Herald to a King. As a testimony therefore is no farther to be regarded than as it is true , a promulgation invalid , when it either increaseth or mutilates the Law ; and an Herald not to be obeyed when he exceeds the Commission of the King : so the Decrees , Definitions and Doctrines of the Church are no longer to be respected , than as they are exactly conformable to the Scripture , and deduced from it . Upon this account Waldensis teacheth in the next Chapter , That the Church cannot superadd any new Articles of Faith to the Scripture : and that the Faith from the times of John the Evangelist ( who writ the last Book of Scripture ) receiveth no increase . And therefore applieth to the Books of Canonical Scripture , the measure of the new City of God made by the Angel in the XXI . Chapter of the Revelations ; That as the circuit of that City consisted of so many miles , neither more nor less ; so the whole System of Christian Faith and Divine Revelations is completed and contained in so many Books of Scripture ; and can receive no farther Addition . Lastly , shewing how many ways the Knowledge of the Catholick Truth may be attained , he saith , * It may be obtained best of all , and most certainly from the Canonical Scripture . He proceeds to prove this from the Authority of S. Augustin , and then concludes ; See four ways of coming to the undoubted Truth , but more or less certain : of which the first and most certain is by the Holy Scriptures : the rest begetting only an Historical and uncertain knowledge of the Articles of Religion , However these Doctors already mentioned were of great authority , and sufficiently declare the common Doctrine of the Church in their time ; yet the practice and judgment of General Councils will give us greater assurance of it . Two General Councils were held at the same time in this Age , the one at Basil , the other at Florence . In both together the whole Western Church was present by its Representatives ; and in that of Florence the Eastern also . These two Councils indeed thundered out Excommunications one against the other ; yet both agreed in using Scripture as the Rule of their Definitions , and in all Disputations laid that down as a common uncontroverted Principle . I begin with the Council of Basil ; wherein Iohannes de Ragusio , a Learned Dominican , by the appointment of the Bishops , disputed publickly in the year 1433. against the Bohemians about Communion under both kinds . Here magnifying the Authority of the Church , he urgeth this Argument chiefly , that without the Attestation of the Church , the Divine Authority of the Scripture cannot be known ; and consequently , that the Authority of the Church is antecedent to the knowledge even of the Rule of Faith , and therefore the first Principle of the Christian Religion . For thus he argues : † But that the aforesaid Article ( the existence of one holy Catholick Church ) is the first of all others , into which all others are resolved , is manifest . For if any doubt arise concerning any other Articles , recourse is immediately made by common consent to the Holy Scripture , as to a most certain and invariable Rule ; and according to the Testimony of Scripture the Truth is cleared , and all Doubts removed . — For unless the Existence of the Church be known , Scripture hath no Authority . Whether this Argument be valid and conclusive , concerns not my present purpose . It is sufficient , that he assumes this Proposition , Scripture is the Rule of Faith ; as an undoubted Principle common to both Parties . However , if by a Church in this place he meant no more than a Society of credible Persons , whose unanimous attestation of a matter of Fact ought to be received , the Argument will be good and valid . And that he meant no more , I am induced to believe ; because , immediately after , disputing of the Authority of a Church properly so called , he acknowledgeth the proof of this Article is to be taken from Holy Scripture , However , these words cannot infer the Doctrine at this day received in the Church of Rome ; since they expresly assert the Scripture to be the Rule and Judge of all Articles of Faith , saving this one of the Existence of the Church ; and attribute to the Church no more than the power of bringing us to the knowledge of the Scripture , which thenceforward is to be used as our only Rule and Guide . He proceeds to lay down several Suppositions , as Foundations and Postulates of his subsequent Determinations . Of these the sixth is conceived in these words : ‖ Faith and all things necessary to Salvation , as well Matters of Belief , as of Practice , are founded in the literal sense ( of Holy Scripture ) and from thence only may Arguments be drawn to prove those things which are of Faith , and of necessity to Salvation . The seventh Supposition is this : † Holy Scripture in the literal sense well and soundly understood , is the infallible and most sufficient Rule of Faith. This he doth not only suppose , but also proveth with divers Arguments ; of which the second is this : * If Holy Scripture were not a sufficient Rule of Faith , it would follow , that the Holy Ghost , who is the Author of it , had insufficiently delivered it ; which is by no means to be thought of God , all whose works are perfect . Besides if Holy Scripture were deficient in some things necessary to Salvation ; then those things , which are wanting , might lawfully and meritoriously be superadded from some other Principle : or if any things were superfluous in it , they might lawfully be diminished . But this is forbidden by S. John the Evangelist in the last of the Revelations ; where he saith , If any one add to this Book , &c. From which words of John the Evangelist it is clearly proved , that nothing is deficient or superfluous in Holy Scripture : which is also consentaneous to the Author of it , who is the Holy Ghost , as was before said , to whose Omnipotence it agreeth , that he give us a System of Wisdom neither deficient , nor superfluous ; and that he should deliver it in a method agreeable to our necessity of Salvation . In the Council of Florence however the Greeks and Latins differed in all other things , till the former were forced into a complyance by the Commands and Threats of their Emperor ; yet in this they agreed , in laying down Scripture to be the only Rule and Principle of Faith , although they dissented in determining how far it might be explained by the Church . The Controversie was occasioned by the addition of FILIOQVE to the Nicene Creed ; this the Greeks maintained to be unlawful , because the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son is not in express Terms taught in Scripture ; which they held to be the only Rule of Faith. The Latins denyed not this , but only asserted , that it was sufficient this procession was taught in the Scripture in implicit Terms ; the Church having authority by explanation of those obscure Passages , to constitute Articles necessary to be believed , and add them to the Creed , although but implicitly contained in Holy Scripture , the Rule of Faith ; and consequently , that to insert FILIOQVE in the Creed , was no addition to the Faith , since that Article is implicitly contained in Holy Scripture . The Opinion of the Greeks is thus represented by Bessarion , Archbishop of Nice , who was chosen by the Greeks to manage and defend their Cause . † We derive and receive all Articles of Faith from the Fountains of Holy Scriptures , which are the Principles and Foundations of our Faith. Nothing was ever added to them ( accounted necessary to be believed , which is not contained in them ) nor may any thing ever be added to them , neither by us , while we are our selves , nor by any other Christians . And when the Latins recurred to their wonted refuge of Explanation or Declaration made by the Church , of what is implicitly contained in Scripture , Bessarion replyed , * That it is undeniable , that although any thing were added by way of Declaration , it was still an addition , which seemeth to be forbidden ; and consequently the addition of this word ( FILIOQVE ) ▪ is forbidden . But whereas ye alledge the Actions of the Fathers ( in Councils ) wherein some things seem to be thus explained , this reacheth not our Question . For that any thing should be added to the Faith , it never was , nor ever will be lawful . The Bishop of Friuli was chosen by the Latins to answer the Arguments of Bessarion , and defend the addition of the word FILIOQVE . This he doth not by denying Scripture to be the Rule of Faith , but endeavouring to prove , that the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son might be deduced from the Principles of Faith , viz. from the Holy Scriptures . Ye grant , saith he , ‖ that Articles of Faith are taken from the fountain of Scriptures , which are the Principles of Faith. From this Proposition we infer , that a Declaration , Expression and Explication , which is made concerning an Article of Faith , or of the Creed , by the Writings of the Gospel , the Epistles of Paul , and the Booke of the Old and New Testament , is by no means to be accounted extraneous , or a Doctrine of another kind , since it is the Doctrine of God and of the Church . For then only is a proof to be accounted extraneous , when it is made not by the proper Principles of that Doctrine , but by the Principles of some other kind of Science . As if a Physical Conclusion should be proved by a Mathematical Principle . But according to you the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Principles of Faith. Therefore a Proof and Declaration , which is made by these Scriptures , is plainly made by the proper Principles of Faith , and intrinsecal Principles of our Religion . — Yea , this ought not properly to be called an addition , this being once granted , viz. That it may be evidently deduced from the proper Principles of Faith , that is , from the Holy Scriptures . This manner of Disputation in defending the Article then in question , sufficiently manifests , that the pretence of Oral Tradition , however entertained by some private Men , had yet gained no general applause in the Western Church . From Councils I return to private Writers , but those of so great Repute and Authority , that their Opinion can be esteemed no other than the general Doctrine of the Church at that time . Of these I shall produce only two more , Cardinal Panormitan , and Antoninus , Archbishop of Florence ; the first , accounted by all , the greatest Canonist of his Age , and by many the greatest of all Ages : and which is more considerable , who had been to the Council of Basil , what Gerson was to that of Constance , an Oracle and Dictator : the second a person of so great Authority in the Church , that in the Judgment of Pope Nicolas he deserved to be Sainted whilst alive , and was really Sainted , when dead . Panormitan therefore proposeth his Opinion in these words : † In Matters pertaining to Faith , a Council is above the Pope . — Yet I suppose , that if the Pope were induced with better Reasons and Authorities than the Council , that his Determination were rather to be embraced . For a Council also can err , as it hath sometimes erred . For in matters relating to Faith , even the opinion of one private Man were to be preferred to the Determination of the Pope , if he were induced with better Reasons of the Old and New Testament than the Pope . Here Panormitan not only asserteth the Old and New Testament to be the Rule of Faith , but also allows to every private Man a power of interpreting that Rule , and even of rejecting the Definitions of Popes and Councils , if he thinks them not consonant to it . Antoninus hath transcribed those words into his Summ of Divinity , * and proposeth them as his own Opinion . And not only so , but also in another place declareth his Judgment no less plainly in these words ; † God speaketh in the Scriptures , and so fully ( as S. Gregory explaineth in the twenty second Book of his Morals upon Job ) that it is not necessary God should any other way reveal any thing necessary to us , since all things necessary may be had there . After so many and so great Authorities , it cannot reasonably be doubted , what was the general Belief of the Church in that Age touching the Rule of Faith : I mean not , that then the Sufficiency of the Scripture was asserted by all , and denied by none ; but only that it was maintained by the greater , and more considerable part of the Church ; as the Practice of General Councils , and Positions of the most famous Writers of that Age do manifestly evince . Many indeed had for some Ages before asserted the existence of some necessary Articles not contained in Scripture , but conveyed down to us by Tradition only ; but they equalled not the Followers of the former Opinion , either in number or Reputation . And therefore Occam ‖ in the preceding Age , representing the Arguments and Reasons of both Opinions , proposeth that of the Sufficiency of Scripture in the first place , as the most common , and more generally received Opinion : and Ioannes de Neapoli , * a Dominican , and Doctor of the Sorbon , disputing of the Science of Faith , doth all along suppose , that whole Science to be contained in Scripture ; and lest we should doubt of his Opinion , doth in more than one place positively assert it . Not to say , that Nicolas de Lyra , in his Glosses upon the whole Bible , doth every where suppose it ; and in his general Preface † most expresly maintain it . And of what Repute his Gloss was formerly in the Church of Rome , may appear from that vast number of Manuscript Copies of them , which may be found in our ancient Libraries . But I will not any longer insist upon the Writers of this Age , having intended to confine my Discourse to the fifteenth Age ; the general Belief of which , concerning the Rule of Faith , I have already manifested ▪ It remains , that I say somewhat more particular of the Treatise here published , and of the Author of it . He was born in Wales , and bred in Oriel College in Oxford ; where he was created Doctor of Divinity , and obtained a great esteem for his rare Eloquence , and extraordinary Learning . He was soon taken notice of by that great Patron and Protector of Learning and Virtue , Humphrey , Duke of Glocester , at that time Protector of the Kingdom ; by whose Favour he was promoted to the Bishoprick of S. Asaph , in the year 1444 ; translated to Chichester in the year 1450. His singular Learning appears not only from this Discourse , which , if put into modern English , would appear to the meanest Reader both rational and elegant : but also from many other plain and manifest Indications . He had read the Works of the Fathers with no small care and diligence ; and as it should seem from what he says upon the Article of Christ's Descent into Hell , had made Critical Observations on them , far beyond the Genius and vulgar Learning of that Age. He was not unacquainted with the Genuine Epistles of Ignatius ; and in the first Part of that Work , whereof this Treatise makes the second , citeth the Acts of his Martyrdom , writ by his contemporary Philo , and published in this Age by the Learned Bishop Vsher. As his Learning enabled him , so his Zeal prompted him to write divers Books of Controversie in defence of the Church against the supposed Hereticks of that time , the Lollards : whom he endeavoured by all means possible to reduce into the Communion of his Church : to which Work , as it should seem from divers Passages in the first part , he had dedicated his whole Life . He mentions many of them in this Work , which are these : The just apprising of holi Scripture . The just apprising of Doctours . Of faith in Latyn . Of Presthode . The Donet . The folower to the Donet . The Represser . The forcrier . The book of Cristen Religion . The provoker . The book of signis in the Church clepid also the boke of Worschiping . The boke of Leernyng . The boke of filling the IV. Tablis . This present book of Feith . Of the Churche in Latyn . Beside these already mentioned , Bale * reckons up , The Defender . The Follower of it . The Declaratory . Of the Creed . To Godharde the Franciscan . Of Divine Offices . A Manual . Of the Providence of God. Of the Liberty of the Gospel . Of the Power of Seculars . Against Constantines Donation . Of the equality of Ministers . Of the Laws and Doctrines of Men. Of Communion under both kinds . Against unlawful Begging . An Account of his own Recantation . The greatest part of these Books are lost , being studiously suppressed by his Enemies , and also burnt at his Recantation . However I have seen his Represser in a fair Manuscript , in the publick Library of the University of Cambridge in Quarto . It is intituled , The Repressour of over much blaming the Clergy : wherein he passeth through all points in Controversie between the Church of Rome and the Lollards ; and largely endeavours to confute the latter . But as his zeal induced him to plead the Cause of the Church so copiously ; so his Learning enabled him to discover the Follies and gross Superstitions practised in that Age : which , when once discovered , his Piety inforced him to detest . Religion had now passed through so many ignorant and barbarous Ages ; the means of greaterknowledge had been so studiously hidden from the People , and the ignorance of the Laity was so advantageous to the interest of the Clergy , that the true Spirit of Christianity seemed to be wholly lost , and had degenerated into Shews and Ceremonies , many of which were unlawful , but almost all unuseful . And not only this fatal stupidity and idle Superstition had generally possessed the minds of Men ; but all Remedies were detested , and all Artifices made use of to continue the Disease . Many good and Learned Men endeavoured the Reformation of these Abuses , without departing from the Communion of the Church ; but were attended herein with the usual Fate of the Opposers of inveterate Evils ; who seldom escape the Persecution , but never the hatred of those , who are engaged both by zeal and interest in the continuance of those Evils . Our Learned Bishop was of the number of those brave and generous persons ; who while he earnestly invited the Lollards into the Communion of his Church , no less vehemently opposed the Superstitions of his own Party . Some Footsteps and Marks of this Disposition may be found in this Treatise ; which prove his Integrity to have been equal to his Zeal , and neither inferior to his Learning . The Authority of the Church , and Infallibility of her Definitions , had of late been set up as the most successful Engine against the prevailing growth of supposed Hereticks . To refute the Arguments of Wicleff , and convince his Followers with solid Reasons , neither the Ignorance of the Clergy , nor the Badness of their Cause did then permit . It was accounted too great a Condescension in the Governors of the Church to confute the Mistakes , and inform the Judgments of their seduced People . Yet somewhat , at least , was necessary to dazle the eyes of the unthinking multitude , and at once convict all their Adversaries of the Charge of Heresie . Nothing could be more effectual to this end than the pretence of Infallibility ; which alone might satisfie the Scruples , and command the assent of credulous persons . For this reason ever since Heresie began to be punished with death , it was thought sufficient to oppose the Infallibility of the Church to the Arguments and Reasons of condemned Hereticks ; and the maintenance of this pretence was esteemed the great Bulwark of the Church . However , our Bishop easily discovered the vanity of these pretences ; and in this followed the Opinion of the most Learned Writers of his Age , that the Representative Church , or General Councils , were not only fallible , but had sometimes actually erred ; that the Decrees and Definitions of the Church ought to be submitted to the Examination of every private person ; that no Article of Faith was to be received , which was repugnant to the Principles of Reason ; and that not the Belief and Acceptation of the Church caused any Doctrin to be accounted true , and an Article of Faith , but the presupposed Truth of the Doctrine rendred the Belief of it rational and justifiable . Indeed the Doctrine of the Churches Infallibility had by some Men in this Age been advanced so far , that nothing less than a fatal credulity , or no less fatal ignorance could excuse the admission of it . Our Author assureth us in the first part of this Book of Faith , that many Divines in his time argued from those words of S. Paul : If we or an Angel from Heaven should teach any other D●ctrine than that which ye have received , let him be anathema , that if it should happen that the Church militant and the Church triumphant disagreed in an Article of Faith , the Determination of the Church militant were rather to be followed . Such crude Positions might raise the admiration of fools , but deserved the indignation of wiser Men. Our Author chose to do justice unto Truth in owning and asserting the Fallibility of Church and Councils ; and yet not to quit the specious pretence of the Churches authority in pleading her Cause , and confuting the Lollards . This therefore he proposed in a more plausible way , confessed the Church might err , and that even in matters of the greatest moment : however , that it would be most safe and rational for ignorant Laymen intirely to submit their judgment to the Direction of the Clergy ; that by this submission indeed they might possibly be led into Error and mortal Heresie ; but that this would be no disadvantage to them , since in that case God would reward their submission and docility , although to them the occasion of most grievous Errors , no less than if they believed the Christian Faith intire and incorrupted ; and would even bestow upon them the Crown of Martyrdom , if they laid down their lives in testimony of their Errors . And since in that Age the Laity were generally very ignorant of the true Principles of Religion , and devoid of all sort of Learning ; he included them all in the number of those , whose duty and interest it was to pay an implicit submission to the direction of the Clergy . But not only did he disown the Infallibility of the Church , but also disallowed and condemned her practice of burning Hereticks . He desired rather to win them to her obedience by gentle methods , and thought it more noble to convince them by Reasons and Arguments , than by Racks and Fires . This moderation could not but displease his Fellow Bishops , who chose rather at that time to satisfie their Malice by the punishment , than serve the Church by the conviction of supposed Hereticks . But our Author was acted with more noble and generous Principles ; he endeavoured to remove their Errors , but refused to practise upon their Lives ; and which perhaps was no small part of his Crime , neglected to thunder out his Curses against them , and scorned to treat them with opprobrious Titles . Rather in the first part of this Work he giveth to them an honourable Character , and confesseth them to have been generally persons of good Lives and exemplary Conversations . The incredible Fables of Legends , and incurable itch of Lying for the Honor of their Saints and Patrons ▪ which then reigned among all the Monastick Orders , and was fondly received by the credulous multitude , were one of the greatest scandals and most pernicious abuses in the Church at that time . The greater and more necessary Articles of Faith , and all genuine and rational knowledge of Religion had generally given place to fabulous Legends , and Romantick Stories ; Fables which in this respect only differed from those of the ancient Heathen Poets , that they were more incredible , and less elegant . These , our Learned Bishop feared not to oppose and disesteem ; arraigns them of Error , Heresie and Superstition ; proclaims their falseness , and derides their folly . This denial of Infallibility , moderation towards the Lollards , and disesteem of Legends , drew upon him the envy and hatred of the Clergy , to which may be added , his favour with , and faithful adherence to his Patron Duke Humphrey ; who had always manifested a moderation towards the dissenting Lollards , and aversion from the superstitious practices of the Clergy . No sooner was the Duke oppressed by a contrary State Faction , but his Client the Bishop was attempted , and his ruin designed . Several Passages were taken out of his Writings , which his Enemies accused of Heresie , at least , of Error . Hereupon in the year 1457. he was cited to appear at a Synod held at Lambeth , by Thomas Bourchier , Archbishop of Canterbury , attended with the Bishops of Winchester , Lincoln and Rochester , and 24 Divines ; by whom , after a short hearing , he was condemned of Heresie , and injoyned to recant his heretical and erroneous Opinions publickly at S. Paul's Cross. The Recantation he performed on the fourth day of December , when his Books were also publickly burnt . His Fortunes after that time are very uncertain . Some relate him to have been made away in prison ; others , to have been kept prisoner in his own Episcopal Palace until his natural death ; and lastly , some , that he had a small pension assigned to him out of the Revenues of the Bishoprick , and retired into a Monastery , where he ended his days in a short time . The Opinions which he was forced to recant , as they are represented by Bale * , Bishop Godwin † , and Fox ‖ , are these , I. That it is the Office of a Christian Bishop , before all other things to preach the Word of God. II. That human Reason is not to be preferred to the Holy Scripture . III. That the modern use of the Sacraments ( as attended with so many superstitious Ceremonies and Customs ) was l●ss advantageous than the use of the Law of Nature . IV. That Bishops buying their Admissions of the Bishop of Rome , do sin . V. That no man is bound to believe and obey the Determination of the Church of Rome . VI. That the Revenues of Bishops are by Inheritance the Goods of the Poor . VII . That the Apostles composed not the vulgar Creed . VIII . That the Article of Christ's Descent into Hell was not formerly in the Creed . IX . That no other sense is to be attributed to Holy Scripture , but the first and genuine sense . X. That it is not necessary to Salvation , to believe the Body of Christ is materially in the Sacrament . XI . That the Universal Church ( in a General Council ) may err even in Matters of Faith. XII . That it is not necessary to believe in the Holy Catholick Church . XIII . That it is not necessary to believe the Communion of Saints . XIV . That the voluntary begging of the Mendicant Friars was unprofitable , and no ways meritorious . It must not be imagined , that these Articles were generally at that time accounted erroneous and heretical in the Church . For if we examine them , we shall find that many of them were taught and believed by the greatest Divines of the Church at that time : some at this day allowed to be literally true by the Learned Writers of the Church of Rome : and in fine , that our Author knew the Doctrine of the Church far better than his Judges ; and although condemned by them , was no less Orthodox than they . As for the twelfth and thirteenth Articles , which seem to be most odious , , they are meer Calumnies , as appears from this very Treatise , For towards the end of it he acknowledgeth it to be necessary to believe the existence of the Holy Catholick Church , and of the Communion of Saints ; but yet unnecessary to believe on them , that is , as himself explains it , to give a blind assent to all their Determinations . The seventh and eighth Articles are known to be literally true by all Learned Men. For no proof can be brought , that the Apostles composed this Form of Creed , which we now use : and it is most certain , that the Article of Christ's Descent into Hell was found in none of the Ancient Creeds , for the first 400. years , except in that of the Church of Aquileia . The first , second , sixth and ninth Articles , if candidly interpreted , cannot be denied to be true by any sober Romanist ; and whosoever considers the gross Ignorance and Superstition of those times , will not deny the third . The fourth Article may be justified by the Opinion of many great Canonists , who define all such payments to be Symony ; and the Church of France hath all along decried and disapproved them . The fourteenth was defended by Richard , Archbishop of Arniagh , Gulielmus de S. Amore , and many other great Divines of the Church of Rome . The eleventh , and consequently , the fifth Articles were believed and maintained by Occant * , Peter de Alliaco , Cardinal of Cambray † , Thomas Waldensis ‖ , Panormitan * , Antoninus † , Cardinal Cusanus ‖ , Clemangis * , and many others in this Age. Lastly , the tenth Article may be defended from Peter Lombard * , Peter de Alliaco † , Scotus ‖ , Tonstal , Bishop of Durham * , and others ; who believed indeed the Truth of the Article , but denied it to be necessary to be believed . That Treatise which I here publish , and which gave occasion to the present Discourse , was by me transcribed out of a Manuscript extant in Trinity College in Cambridge ; which seemeth to have been written with Bishop Peacock's own hand , as may be conjectured from the frequent Emendations and Additions inserted in the Margin , and bottom of the Pages by the same hand . The whole Work was intituled by the Author , A Treatise of Faith ; however , in the Front of it this Title is affixed by a later hand , Reginald Peacock , Bishop of Chichester 's Sermons , in English : whereas the whole Treatise is a Dialogue between the Father and the Son , divided into two Books : whereof the first proposeth to treat of the most probable means of reducing the Lollards to the Church , which he assigns to be an intire submission of Judgment to the Decrees of the Church , although supposed fallible . The second treateth of the Rule of Faith. The first Part is chiefly taken up with a long Digression , proving that Faith is only probable , not sciential , or that the Truth of the Christian Religion cannot be proved by demonstrative , but only by probable Arguments . This Dispute is managed in a Scholastick Way , full of Subtleties and Niceties of Philosophy and School Divinity , and very obscure : which therefore I thought not worthy either my transcribing , or the Readers perusal . However , I transcribed some considerable Fragments or Excerpta , which seemed to me more remarkable and worthy of notice ; which I here present to the Reader . The second Book or Treatise of the Rule of Faith , I have published intire , as far as the Manuscript Copy permitted me . For , which is much to be lamented , some few Leaves were wanting in the end . Besides what I have already mentioned , many things may be here found worthy a particular Observation ; as with how great ardor he impugns the refusal of submitting the Decrees and Doctrine of the Church to the examination of every private man ; how strongly he contends , that God can reveal nothing contrary to our reason , or oblige us to the belief of it : that he rejecteth the authority of Tobit and Susanna , as being Apocryphal Books ; that a Divorce and Separation of the Clergy from their Wives , after Marriage once contracted , in unlawful ; that the Council of Nice condemned that Separation , and consequently prohibited not to the Clergy the use of Marriage in the third Canon ; that the Church hath no more authority of interpreting Scripture , and proposing it to the faithful , than hath every private Housholder of proposing it to his Family , every Divine to his Hearers , every Learned Man to ignorant persons ; or no more than a Judge hath of expounding the Laws , , or a Grammarian the Rules of Grammar . I will not so far presume upon the Judgment of the Reader , as to make an Apology for the old and obsolete stile of our Author . If it wanteth the Elegance and Beauties of our modern Language , that must be imputed to the fault of the Age , not any deficience of the Author . I had once intended to represent his Arguments in our modern Language , and publish both together in distinct Columns , but the fear of inlarging these Papers too much , deterred me from pursuing that design . However , I have drawn up an Alphabetical Catalogue of the more obsolete and unusual words , and affixed their significations to them : which the Reader will find at the end of the Book , and may consult upon occasion . A Treatise of REGINALD PEACOCK , Bishop of CHICHESTER , before the Reformation ; ( In the Year 1450. ) proving that Scripture is the only Rule of Faith. CAP. I. I. DEsiring for to wynne the Lay Children of the Churche into Obedience , whiche undir greet perel of ther Soulis thei owen paie and holde to the Clergie , y entende and propose in this present Booke for to mete agens suche unobediencers bi an open wey and in a nother manner , and bi meene which the lay persoonys wole admitte and graunte : which meene is this : That we owen to bileeve and stonde to sum Saier or Techer which may feile , while it is not knowne that thilk Seier or Techer thereyne failis . And so for to move and convicte them into obedience never the lesse and never the latter to the Clergie in leernyng their feith ; thoug it were so that the Clergie mygte solempnely determyne agens trew feith . II. Twey thingis be the principal causis of Heresie in the lay yeple . Overmyche leenyng to Scripture , and in such manner wise as it longith not to holi Scripture for to receyve . And the seconde is this : Setting not bi for to followe the Determynatiouns and the Holdingis of the Churche in mater of Feith . III. The Feende hath broughte in so greet a sleigte in the Secte of the Sarrasenes , that thei ben ful wondirful violenti settid for to geve audience to eny proofe making for Christen Feith , or making agens Sarrasene Secte . For whi thilk wickid Man Mahumet , whiche brought in their Secte , or sum Prelate after him , made as for a po●nt of his Law , that no persoone of his Secte schulde heere eny Declaracioun or evydence agens his Sect , and that under peyne of passing cruel deep . But O thou Lord Iesu God and Man , heed of thi Christen Churche , and Techer of Christen Bileeve , y besee●he thi mercy , thi pitee and thi charite , fer be this seid perel fro the Christen Churche , and fro ech persoon thereyne conteyned , and schilde thou that this Venom be never brougte into thi Churche , and if thou suffre it to by eny while brougte in , y beseche that it be soon agen out spet : but suffre thou ordeyne and do that the Law and the Feith whiche thi Churche at eny tyme kepith be receyved and admitted to fall under this examinacioun , whether it be the same verri Feith , which thou and thi Apostlis taugten or no : and that it be receyved into examinacioun whether it hath sufficient evydencis for it to be verry feith or no : and ellis it mygte be holde aghe , and it were a full suspect thing to alle them that schulde be convertid therto , and ellis also it were a ful schameful thing to the Christen Churche for to holde such a feith for a substaunce of her salvacioun , and yitt dursten not suffre it to be examined whether it is worthi to be allowid for trew feith or no. And it were a vilonye putting to Crist , that he schulde geve such a feith to his peple , and into which feith he wolde his peple turne alle other peple , and yitt he wolde not allowe his feith to be at the ful tried , and that he durste not be aknowe his feith to be so pure and so fyne fro al falsehede , that it mygte not by strenghe of eny evydence be overcomen . And therefore Lord Almygti , thou forbid that eny such prisonyng of thi feith be maad in thi Churche . And also this is worschip ynoug for Cristen Feith , that it may withoute feere be avowed , and be publischid and be profred to be examyned bi eny wit under Heuene in such maner of examynacioun now bifore seid , as vi which ech pretense feith ougte to be examyned whether it be trew feith or no. And yitt ferthemore to this now seid , may evydence be this : that ellis Crist wolde have gove such a Lawe to be hadde and to be contynued in his name , of whiche Law sum of our feith is a party , ne were that it mygte abide the fier of triel and of examynacioun of ech creaturis resoun , so the examynacioun be such as ougte to be taken and usid for to examine and prove whether a feith pretense be trewe feith or no , as ferforth as eny Goldsmyth wole avowe and warante his Gold , which he desyneth to be tried and examyned by all manner of fier of this wordli brennyng . IV. And ferthemore y wole Clerkis to have in consideracioun that not for a thing is famed to be an Article of Feith , therefore it is an Article of Feith : but agenward for that it is an Article of Feith . and proved sufficiently to be such , therefore it is to be bileeved bi feith . So that an Article to be bileeved bi feith is dependant on this , that it is bifore proved sufficiently to be feith . And an Article to be an Article of Feith is not dependent of this , for that it is bileeved as an Article of Feith . V. The Clergy shall be condemned at the last day , if by cleer witt they drawe not Men into consent of trew feith , otherwise than by fier and sword or hangement . Although I will not deny these second means to be lawfull , provided the former be first used . VI. Thomas had thanne these same evydences ( of Christis Resurrection ) in as good maner or in better than we hau now for us . For whi he herde the Apostlis denounce Christis Resurreccioun to him bi ther owne mouthe , the that denouncen the same to us bi their Writing : and also he knewe by experience the treuthe and the sadnesse and the unbigilefulnesse of hise felowis , where that we knowen it by liklihode , oonly thoug so likeli , that to the conttary we have noon evydence so likeli . VII . Sone y seid bifore that there ben two maners of feith : oon is opinial feith ; and this is the which we and alle Cristen hau bi the comon lawe of God , whilis we lyven in this lyf . Another feith is sciencial feith ; and thoug this feith may be had bi specialte in this lyf , yitt it is not commonli had in this lyf , but it is had in the Blisse of Hevene . VIII . Wherefore he ( the Church ) knowith not himself , neither ougte know himself for to teche authentikli or bi authorite of maistrie to eny persoon , ni las●e than he knowe himself to have receyved the same feith fro God in maner of arguyng bifore seid by oon of these Meenes , of which oon is this : Holi Scripture witnessith and denouncith this Conclusion . Another is this Holi Church ; for Feith hath bileeved this in tyme of the Apostlis fro thens contynueli hidirto . Another is this : Myracle is doon unto witnessing of it . IX . Resoun which is a sillogisme well reulid aftir the craf taugt in Logik , and having two Premyssis openli trewe and to be grauntid , is so strong and so mygti in al the kindis of maters , that thoug alle the Aungels in Hevene wolden feie that this Conclusion were not trewe : yitt we schulde leeve the Aungels seing , and we schulden truste more to the profe of thilk sillogisme than to the contrari seiyng of alle the Aungels in Hevene . For that alle Goddis creaturis musten nedis obeie to doome of resoun , and such a sillogisme is not ellis than doome of resoun . If the Church in erthe determines agens it what such a sillogisme concludith , we schulen rather trowe and holde us to thilk sillogism than to the determynacioun of the Church in erthe . X. Every Man is bound to obey the determination of the Church ; but if he can evidentli and openli without eny dowte schewe teche and declare that the Churche bileeveth , or hath determyned thilk Article wrongli and untreuli , or ellis that the Churche hath no sufficient ground for to so bileeve or determyne , yhe thoug the Churche schuld bileeve or deterymne amys , yet thereof schulde not this persoon be blamed of God , but schuld be ful excused . XI . Sithen it is here bifore undoutabili proved that bi thi obedience to the Clergie in case of the Clergies erring , whilis thou it not knowist neither desirist neither makist ; noon hurte schal come , but the same good which schuld to thee therebi come , if the Clergie in thee teaching not errid : is not this ynoug to thee ? what maist thou loke aftir eny more ? XII . If a Parish Priest should teach his Parishioner some grosse Heresy instead of an Article of Feith , it were his Duty to receive , and would not only be excusable before God , but would be as meritorious , and equally rewarded with the belief of any true Article . Nay if that Man should lay down his life for defence of this Heresy , imagining all this while that it is the Doctrine of the Church , he would be a true and undoubted Martyr . XIII . If you seie to me thus , I have leernyd that holi Writte is so worthi a ground and fundement of oure Feith , that noon othre ground or fundement passith it , or is surer to be eleven to than is it . Wherfore , Sir , it wolde seem that if y cleve to holi Scripture to take of it my Feith , y am not to be blamed , but y am thereyne thank-worthi , forasmuch as I conforme me to thilke reule , which God hath purveied for to be oure reule in mater of feith , and whom no other reule in erthe passith . Sir , that this is trewe y graunt wee l , namel●●l , as anentis al the feith which holi Writt techith . For that this be trewe shall be shewed wel in the Book of Feith in Latyn , or ellis in the Book of the Churche in Latyn , as God wole graunte . PARS II. Fadir ye hau seide in the X. Chapter of the first parti of this present Book to alle tho lay men whiche ben obstinat to the feith of the Church , that holi Writt is the chief principal ground of all the feith which is conteined in holi Writt . And treuli fadir y can not undirstonde as yitt but that nedis ye must have so seid to them , yf it mygt be holde for trew in eny wise ; nameliehe sithen ye hau seid to them , as ye musten nedis seie to them , and it mygten not be left unseid , that the dewe and rigt literal undirstonding of holi Writ for trewe feith to be had . laymen musten fetche at the Churche : that is toseie , that the al hool Clergie of Dyvynite or of the more and wittier party thereof . And redily y know so moche of her wittis and of her counseilis , that ellis if ye hadde not so seid to them , ye schulden labour in vain ; as for to bringe them into the obedience , into which ye ben about by writing of this present Book . Also resoun thereto money thus . The Churche or the Clergie in delyvering to peple feith which is in holi Writt alleggith for thilk delyverance holi Writt , and expowneth holi Writt into thilk feith so delyvered . Wherefore the Churche in that biknows that he hath thilk feith of holi Writ , and so not of him silf principali . Forwhi not of him silf originali or groundeli , but of the seid holi Writ eer and bifore ; and therefore of holi Writ originali and groundeli . And so as anentis al feyth conteynyd in holi Scripture the same Scripture schulde be principal bifore the Churche . Confirmacionn to the same may be this . If the Churche hadde of him silf principali , groundeli and foundamentali al the feith which is conteynyd in holi Writt , the Churche wolde not and ougte not for to leene to holi Writt as for grounding and foundamental teching of thilke feith : neither wolde sende eny askers into holi Writt , or wolde labore to expowne holi Writt to them into thilk feith . But the Church wolde and ougte to seie to such askers of rigt feith : Bileeve ye to me , for that I seie this to be rigt bileeve . And the Churche wolde not fetche to such askers auctorite of a thing longer and of lasse auctorite to the purpos than the Church is . Wherfore the Church , as it seemeth bi his owne pretencioun or interesse to expowne holi Writt in to teching which is trewe feith , must nedis knowleche that he takith holi Scripture for his better , worthier , higer and groundier foundament of the Feith , which Feith the Churche techith by holi Writt , and bi the exposicioun of the same holi Writt . And therfore opene it is that ye have not seid amys in this youre now spoken seiyng to laymen . Into the othre contrarie side Fadir manye skilis now be maad , that the Churche is principalier and cheefer than is holi Writt , anentis eny feith taugt by holi Writt , and that for VIII . Argumentis , which y can make thereto . Wherefore y donte not but that trouble and discencioun schulen be bitiwixe Lay Men and Clerkis , yhe and bitwixe summe Clerkis and othre Clerkis upon this , whether holi Writt or the Churche is chefir and of more power havyng anentis feith is conteynyd in holy Writ : ni lasse thanne ye Fadir answer to thilke VIII . Argumentis ; and so y can not se but that the mater of this discencioun muste nedis be brougte forth in utteraunce and conicacioun . Sone y am redi to heere thi VIII . Argumentis , and for to answere to them yf I can . Peraventure in the answering to them schal growe in sum thing , wherebi schal be clerid what comparisoun is to be hadde bitwixe holi Writt and the Churche anentis al feith conteynyd in holi Writt . And bi so moche y am the leefir for to heere thi Argumentis and for to answere to them , bi hou moche thou hast now seid and trouthe is , that the treuthe which is now occasioun of the comparisoun making bitwixe holi Writte and the Churche mygte not be left unseid and untoold to the Lay Peple neither to Clerkis . And that cause bifore bi thee alleggid . Fadir agens this which ye hau allowid bifore in the X. Chapter to be trewe , that holi Writt is such a ground and foundement of oure Cristen general Feith , that noon gretter or bettir or surer to us ground or foundament is for oure Cristen general Feith written in holi Writt , y may argue by VIII principal Argumentis , of which this is the first . Nothing is to be seid ground to us of oure feith without which thing oure feith mygte have be sufficientli groundid and witnissid . But without Holi Scripture now had Feith mygte habe be to us sufficiently groundid . Wherfore holi Scripture is not to be seid ground of another thing , without which the othre thing may be : and the seconde premysse is to be proved thus . Thoug the Apostlis hadde not write eny word , yet thei mygten have taugt to othre Clerkis and lay folke the al ful hool feith sufficientli to thbihove of the peple as to ther therof the leerning , reporting and remembring ; whithe Clerkis and lay folke so taugt of the Apostlis and outlyving to the Apostlis mygten have taugten othere Clerkis and lay folke the same al hool feith sufficientli , which surviving and outlyvyng her Techers mygte have taugte othere folke bothe of the Clergie and of the Layte the same hool feith sufficientli ; whiche folke so taugt also surviving and outlyvyng her Techers mygten have taugt the same al hool feith sufficientli to othere ; and so forth into this present dai without eny writing maad delivered to folke upon the same feith so taugt . And if this had be doon , thanne the feith of ech Leerners hadde be sufficientli ynoug groundid in her Techers , and in no Scripture therupon maad . Wherfore it folowith that Scripture is not , ne was not the ground of feith to eny persoonys bileeving . That this be trewe which is bifore takun in the profe of the seconde premysse , that thoug the Apostlis hadde not written eny word , thei mygten have taugt the al hool ful feith to peple sufficiently , y may argue thus . In tyme of the oold Lawe it was so that al the bileeve conteynyd in thill● Lawe was taugt by mouth , and mas leerned by mouth . For whi Exod. the XIII . Chap. whanne it is seid of the paske day , that it schulde be kept yeerli by the Lawe thanne renning , it is seid ferthe anoon aftir this : And thou schalt telle to thi sone in that day , and schalt seie : This is it what the Lord dide to me , whanne y gede out of Egipt , and it schal be as a signe in thi honde ; and as a memorial bifore thi igen , and that the lawe of God be ever in thi mouth . For in a stronge honde the Lord ledde thee out of Egipt , &c. Also soone aftir there whanne it is bede that the peple of Iewis schulde halowe to God ech first gendrid thing that openeth the wombe among the sones of Israel as well of Men as of Bestis , thanne it is seid anoon aftir thus : And whanne thi sone schal aske of thee to morewe , and seie what is this ? thou schalt answere to him : In a stronge honde the Lord ledde us out of Egipt of the hous of servage . For whanne Pharao was maad hard , and wolde not delyver us ; the Lord killid al the first gendrid thing in the londe of Egypt fro the first gendrid of man til to the first gendrid of bestis : Therefore y offre to the Lord al thing of mawle kinde that openeth the wombe , and y agenbie alle the first gendrid thingis of my sones . Therefore it schal be as a signe in this honde , and as a thing hanged for mynde bifore thi igen . For in a stronge honde he ledde us out of Egipt . Also lyk sentence to this is written Deutro . VI. Chap. of the paske daie keping : and Josue IV. Chap. of the XII . Stoones taken out of the water and sette on drie lond into perpetual remembrance that Jordan was dried . Also Deutr. IV. Chap. it was seid thus : Forgete thou not the wordis which thin igen sigen , and falle thou not from thin herte in alle the daies of thi lyf . Thou schalt teche tho to thi sones and to thy sones sones . Telle thou the day in which thou stodist bifore thi Lord God in Oreb , whanne the Lord spake to me and seid , &c. Also Deutro . XI . Chap. it was seid thus : Putte these wordis in youre hertis and soulis , and hange ye the wordis for assigne in hondis and sette ye bitwixe youre igen , teche youre sones that thei thenke in tho wordis , whanne thou sittist in thi house , and goist in the wey , and liggist doun and risist . Thou schalt write tho wordis on the postis and gatis of thi house , that the daies of thee and of thi sones be multiplied in the lond , which , &c. Wherefore bi like skile in tyme of the newe Lawe the al hool feith mygt have be taugt bi word of mouthe fro oon to an othre into this present day sufficientli . Ferthemore into prof or into confirmacioun of the same seid seconde premysse availith this , that we seen in summe Monasteries the kunnyng and the fulfilling of certeyn usagis and customes be had forth in persoones of the Monestarie , and be continued bothe in knowing and in fulfilling sufficientli fro the first Fadirs of the Monestaries unto this present day , and that without eny writyng maad upon the same usagis , but bi discente of word oonli fro persoone into persoone . Wherfore in lyk maner the kunnyng and the using of al oure hool feith mygte have be hadde and lad and contynued sufficientli bi mynde and bi teching of mouthe fro Fadris and Prelatis into her Children and Parischens without eny writyng to be maad therupon . The seconde Argument is this : If it had be done in dede as is next above argued , that it mygte so have be doon , that is to seie , if it had be so doon that the Apostlis hadden taugt bi word manye Clerkis and manye of the lay folke the hool al ful feith sufficientli ; these Clerkis and laifolk surviving and outlyvyng to the Apostlis hadden taugt bi word the same al hool ful feith to othre Clerkis and laifolk succeding aftir the deeth of the Apostlis , and that sufficienli , and so forth into this day : thanne the feith so taugt bi word and so descending bi word fro persoonys into persoonys into this present day sufficientli , hadde be sufficientli groundid in the Clergie so taugten to othere . Thoug therwith a Scripture hadde be maad and delyvered forth bi the Apostlis upon the same feith ●o bi word taugt to othere . But so it was indede that the Apostlis taugten othre Clerkis the ful al hool feith bi word sufficientli , and the Clerkis so taugt of the Apostlis sufficientli taugten othere Clerkis succeding aftir them the same al hool feith , and that bi word sufficientli , and so forth continuali into this present day . Wherfore the al hool ful feith bothe in the tyme of the Apostlis and alwey ever sithen was groundid sufficientli in the Clergie for the tyme beyng and lyvyng , and bi the maner now seid teching and delyveryng . And thanne ferth it folowith thus . If the Clergie for the tyme being bi ther such now seid teching and delyvering was and is sufficient ground for our feith for al tyme sithen the daies of the Apost●lis : it folowith at the leest that for to loke aftir or sette eny othere thing as is Scripture , every othere thing to be ground of the same feith after Cristis teching bi word , and sithen the teching of the Apostlis bi word is no nede . The first premysse of this secunde principal argument is open ynoug to be trewe , and the II. Premysse of the same argument schal be proved thus . Crist bade to hise Apostlis Matth. the last Ch. thus , Go ye therefore and teche ye alle folkis , baptizing them in the name of the Fadir and of the Sone and of the Holi Goost : teching them to keep alle thingis whatever thingis y have comaundid to you ; and also Mark the last Chap. Crist bede to hise Apostlis thus , Go ye into al the World , and preche ye the Gospel to every creature : and anoon aftir it is seid there thus , Thei forsothe goyng forth prechiden every where . But so it is , that the Apostlis hadden not fulfilled this now seid Comaundement maad to them bi Crist , in lasse than thei hadden prechid bi word of mouthe sufficientli al the hool feith necessarie to be had of the peple . For whi al the hool feith necessarie to be had is included in the Gospel of God , that is to seie , in the message of God , which message God sent into the world . Wherfore sothe it is that the Apostlis prechiden bi word of mouthe to othere Clerkis and folkis al the hool ful feith sufficientl● : and so the secunde bifore maad principal premysse to be proved is trewe . The III. principal argument is this , If the Apostlis hadden taugt manye Clerkis and manye of the laifolk the hool al ful feith bi word of mouthe principali ; and these Clerkis and laifolk survyvyng and outlyvyng to the Apostlis hadden taugt bi word principali the same hool feith to othere Clerkis , and to othere folk aftir the deeth of the Apostlis , and so forth into this day : thanne the al hool feith so taugt bi word of mouthe principali and descending bi word principali fro persoonys into persoonys unto this present day hadde be principali groundid in the Clergie whilis the Clergie so taugt othere , thoug therwith had be a Scripture maad and delyvered forth bi the Apostlis to othere upon the same feith . But so it was in dede that the Apostlis taugten othere Clerkis the hool ful feith bi word principali , and tho clerkis so taugt of the Apostlis bi word principali taugten othere clerkis succeding to them the same al hool feith , and that bi word principali , and so forth contynueli into this present day . Wherefore the al hool feith bothe in the tyme of the Apostlis and alwey sithen was groundid principali in the Clergie for the tyme beyng and lyvyng ; and bi maner nowe seid teching and delyveryng . And thanne ferth it folowith thus , If the Clergie for the tyme veyng bi ther nowe seid such teching and delyveryng was and is the principal ground for our feith for al tyme aftir the daies of the Apostolis ; it folowith at the fulle that to loke aftir or seche aftir or seie Scripture to be the principal ground of our feith , or that Scripture schulde be a principal ground thereof , or more necessarie and better grounding of the same feith , thanne is the Clergie of the Church aftir the daies of the Apostlis , is waast ydel vanite and untrewe . The first Premysse of this III. principal argument is pleyn ynoug to be trewe . And for profe of the II. premysse of this III. principal argument may be maad the same argument , which bifore is maad for profe of the II. premysse of the II. principal argument , and that bi the rehercid Textis of Matt. the last chapter , and Mark the last chapter . The IV. principal argument is this , The Church of Crist which be foundid on erthe , and of which he is the heed , is alwey and altymes oon and the same , as S. Paul witnessith , where he seith that to man to have by the lawe oon Wyf undeptabili signifieth Crist to have oon Church for his spouse . And the same witnessith the Clergie bi the profis or sequencis , whiche he singith in the Masse of Dedicacioun Feest day , and in the VIII . day of the same Feest , and this same is comounli allegoriesed upon thilk Text Cant. Oon is mi Dove . But so it was that in the tyme of the Apostolis the Churche of Crist in erthe bi his principal partly , which was the Clergie , was of so greet worthinesse and auctorite and dignite , that he thanne more groundid the Feith of Crist , than Scripture groundid feith of Crist thanne . For whi the Apostlis thanne beyng the Clergie of Cristis Church groundid more Cristis Feith than ther writyng maad and writen bi them groundid as thanne the same Feith : in as moche as the effect of a cause dooth not so moche in to another effect as doith the cause of the same effect into the same other effect aftir good Philosophie . Wherfore it seemeth folowe that the Church of Crist nowe being , and at al tyme a this side the Apostlis for the tyme being is and was of great worthinesse , auctorite and dignite , that he now more groundith the Feith of Crist than Scripture groundith now the same Feith . Sithen oon and the same Churche is nowe and thanne , and therfore bi like skile the same Clergie of the Churche is now which was thanne . The V. principal argument is this , The Clergie of the Churche dispensith with the thing which holi Scripture forbedith . For whi the Pope geveth leeve to a Bigam , that is to seie to a man that hath be twies weddid , to be a Dekene and a Prest , notwithstonding that holi Scripture forbedith it . 1 Thi. 3. c. But so it is that the lesse worthi refreyneth not the worthier , neither lowseth the buidingis of the worthier . Wherfore the Clergie of holi Churche is worthier mygtier and of gretter auctorite than is holi Scripture , or at the leest the Clergie is of evene worthinesse , even power , and mygte and of auctorite with holi Scripture of the newe Testament . The VI. principal argument is this , The Chirche of Crist bi his cheef party the Clergie now and al tymes hath power to expowne , declare and interprete holi Scripture , thoug holi Scripture oweth to be undirstonde in the sense and undirstonding of God. But so it is that even peer hath power into his eeve peer aftir the comoun wel allowid proverbe ; neither the lesse worthi hath power on his worthier , as may be takin of Paul , Heb. 7. chap. where he seith , That the lesse worthi is blessid of the more worthi . Wherfore it seemeth that the Clergie and the Chirche bi his party , which is the Clergie is more worthi than is holi Scripture . The VII . principal Argument is this , What ever thing nedith to have upon him silf an interpreter or a declarer , nedith to have the same thing as his overseer and worthier . But so it is , that holi Scripture nedith to have of him silf an interpreter and a declarer , which is the Clergie in erthe , as for to schewe which is the dewe understonding of holi Scripture . Wherfore holi Scripture nedith to have the Clergie is to be to holi Scripture an overseer and to him as a worthier . The VIII . Argument is this , What ever thing the Apostlis settiden in the comoune Crede is to be bileeved and to be holden and usid of alle Cristen . But the Apostlis settiden in the comune Crede this Article , that is , for to bileeve to the general holi Chirche in erthe . Wherfore nedis it is to bileeve to the universal or general holi Chirche in erthe . And we mowe in noon othere wise bileeve to holi Chirche in erthe than we bileeven to the Clergie of the general Chirche in erthe , for as myche as the Clergie is the principal parti of holi Chirche in erthe . Wherfore it folowith that nedis we must bileeve to the Clergie of the general Chirche in erthe . And if the Clergie ougten in eny dede be bileeved , he ougte be bileeved in his dede whanne he determyneth eny Article to be taken as feith . For as myche as this dede is oon of the grettist aviseable dedis , which the Clergie dooth . Wherfore alle Cristen owen for to bileeve to the determynacioun of the Clergie thoug he determyne agens holi Scripture . Lo fadir these VIII . Argumentis y have gadered togidere for to be assoilid bi youre hige wisdom . CAP. II. SOne thi seid VIII . Argumentis ben rigt welcome to me . For me thenkith the answer and the assoiling of them with Goddis grace schal do good . The II. premysse of the same first principal Argument , whanne it is seid thus , Without holi Scripture our nowe had feith mygte have be to us sufficientli groundid is fals , for to speke of kindeli mygte in our side and in our Soulis without greet singular myracle of God above kind to have be doon in oure resouns and mynde . And it is moost convenient in this purpos to speke . And whanne for prof of this II. premysse it is argued thus , Thoug the Apostlis hadden not write eny word , yitt thei mygten have taugt to othere Clerkis and layfolk the hool al ful feith sufficientli , so theli this is fals . For whi a Feith is not taugt to a peple sufficientli , but if it be taugt so that bi thilk reching thei mowe cleerli undirstonde al it , and esili reporte al it , and remembre al it perfitli and currauntli , and kunne reherce it and talk it in a stable foorm of wordis without variaunce maad in wordis and processis whanne it is at dyverse tymes rehercid . And but if thei mowe have recours therto and to ech poynt therof redeli whanne eny nede schal aske . And sotheli for to speke of al the hool ful Feith written in the Gospels and Epistlis it may not in this seid wise be taugt , without that it be write , and but if the writing therof be delyvered to the Clergie . Wherfore oure al hool Feith which is now bitaken to us in Scripture , mygte never bi kinde have be taugt sufficientli to eny peple without therof the Scripture : and thoug ful manye a processe withynne the boondis of the Gospels ben lawe of resoun and of kinde , yitt this that Crist taugt it and rehercid it is Feith : and so the al hool Feith writen in the Gospels is oon long a tale for to be sufficientli learned without therof the writyng . And therfore sithen neither the Apostlis neither eny othere Clerkis mygten have taugt sufficientli the seid Feith without Scripture , and the peple mygte not bi studiyng in the Scripture have leerned without techers ; it folowith nedis that holi Scripture is more worthi ground of our Feith than is eny congregacioun of the Clergie . O my Sone , if thou woldist take hede hou a tale or a tiding bi the tyme that it hath runne thoroug IV. or V. mennys mouthis , takith pacchis and cloutis , and is chaunged in divers parties , and turned into lesingis , and al for defaute of therof the writing : and hou that langagis whos reulis ben not writen , as ben englisch , freensch and manye othere ben chaungid withynne yeeris and cuntrees , that oon man of the oon cuntree and of the oon tyme mygte not and schulde not kunne undirstonde a man of the othere kuntre and of the othere tyme , and al for this , that he seid langagis ben not stabili and foundamentali writen : thou schuldist ful soone and ful sikirli deeme , and so schulde ech wel avisid man deeme , that the long tale of the Gospels mygte never bi eny long tyme be truli and aftir oon maner toolde and reportid and remembrid of dyvers folke without therof the writing : but manye a cloute schulde therto be sette , and maney a good pece therof be takin awey , and moche strys schulde ther be about the trewe rehercel therof , as which were trewe rehercel therof and whiche were not so : but if the same long tale of the Gospels were write . And therfore there may no teching of the Clergie ground wee l & sufficientli to us oure seid Feith . And yitt the writyng maad and purveied bi God and bi the Apostlis , and bi the Apostlis heerers of thilke same long tale may grounde suffi●ientli the same Feith in ech Clerk or Lay-man notabili resoned for to understonde what he redith in the newe Testament , though he not leerne the same Feith bi eny general Counseil , or eny multitude of Clerkis tokider to be gaderid , thoug peraventure he schal have nede at some while and in some textis of the seid Scripture seche to have expositioun hadde bi the eldist party of the Churche joyned to the Apostlis and lyvyng in tyme of the Apostlis , as soschal be taugt in the book of Feith in Latyn and in the book of the Chirche . Verily as y may trowe thoroug al the tyme of werre during these XL. yeer bitwixe Ynglond and Fraunce , wiste y not scant III. or IV. men , whiche wolden accorde thorug our in telling hou a toun or a castel was wonne in Fraunce , or hou a batel was doon , the though thilk men were holden rigt feithful men and trewe , and thoug ech of them wolde habe swore that it was trewe what he tolde , and that he was present and sawe it . Wherfore bi all resoun in-lyk maner it wolde have be and was in dede of the report of the dedis and wordis of Christ , eer thei were writen bi the Evangelistis . And that in dede it was so therynne witnessith Luk in the prolog of his Gospel , and seith that therfore he was movid for to write the Gospel which he wrote . And so bi lyk skile for the same cause the othere Evangelistes gave them to writing . Hou ever therfore mygte it have be wel and trewe of oure Feith , if it schulde have come to us bi reporte of heering , and bi mouth speking without therof the writing . Also what that ever eny counseil of Clergie , or eny Clergie without gadering into counseil techith as Feith , even the Clergie referrith his so maad teching of Feith into holi Scripture . And therfore needis the holi Scripture is more worthi ground for oure Feith , than is the Clergie of the hool chirche on erthe . And if thou wolt wite of what Scripture y meene , ●ertis it is the writing of the oold Testament and of the newe Testament . For it witnessith al the Feith or ellis at the lest wel nigh al the Feith , which Crist sechith of us . Yhe and the writing of the newe Testament confeermeth al the oold Testament in that , that the writyng of the newe Testament referrith us oft into the writyng of the oold Testament ; as Matt. XXVI . ch . Mark XII . and Mark XIV . Johne I. Luke XXIV . Johne V. XVII.XIX . and XX. and in manye placis of the Epistlis of the newe Testament . Ferthemore sone not oonli the writyng of the al hool Feith in the Gospels is so necessarie to the peple being a this side the Apostlis , but also the same writyng maad and writen of the Apostlis were rigt necessarie as bi wey of kinde and of resoun to the same Apostlis , that bi the writyng of the Apostlis whiche thei wroten , thei himsilf migten holde in mynde the multitude of tho trouthis there writen . And that bi recurse to be maad of them into the seid writyng left that therof the perfigt mynde schulde bi kinde falle away from them , whilis thei were so moche in dyverse troublis occupied . And so therfore ful opene it is , that the writyng of oure Feith is more necessarie ground to us for oure Feith , than is eny congregacioun of Clerkis biganne sithen the deeth of the Apostlis . For answer to the Textis bifore alleggid of the oold Testament in the first argument it is to be seid that thoug bi tho Textis it is had fadris schulden teche bi mouth ther sones and ther sones sones the lawis of God and the benefits of God. Yitt bi tho Textis it is not hadde that thilk to be doone bi mouthe schulde have be sufficient teching to tho sones and sones sones without writing : and therfore tho textis maken not into the entent , into which the first argument them alleggith . Namelich sithen in the processis of the same Textis it is had among that it is bede with al this that the fadris schulden teche ther sones bi mouthe , it is had in the last of tho Textis that is to seie Deutron . XI . that tho same fadris and alle the peple schulde have Goddis lawis and Goddis benefeits in writing . For whi it is seid there that thei schulden have tho lawis and benefits bifore ther igen . And this is ynoug for answere to tho Textis . More thing according to this answer and confeermyng it thou maist see soone in the booke of leernyng in thi vulgar tunge . But thanne fadir if it was so necessarie writyng to be had upon Christen Feith , whi was writyng of oure Feith so long tyme deferrid eer it was maad by the Apostlis , as that Matthew wrote his Gospel in the VII . peer aftir Cristis ascencioun , and Mark wrote in the X. yere aftir Cristis ascencioun , as may be had bi croniclis of Martyn ; and Luk wrote aftir othere writers of the Gospelis , as he seith him silf in the prolog of his Gospel . And Jon wrote aftir alle the othere , as manye men trowen . Also whi wrote not ech Apostle as wel as summe ? Also whi wroten not thei to ech Cuntre ? Sone answer to thi first questioun may be this . Our Lord is wisist , and he is for to lede us into oure kunnyng to be had in profitabilist maner alwey rediest . And for as myche as peple to know bi experience hou necessarie it was to them for to have their Feith writen was to them more profitable than for to knowe it without experience : therfore God so schope that the Feith schulde bi a notable time be prechid oonli bi word to the peple , that thei mygten therbi take experience , that preching of the al hool Feith bi word oonli were not sufficient without therof the writyng , and thanne that therfore the peple schulde desire to have the Feith writen , and the Apostlis schulden se the same treuthe bi experience , and schulden consente for to write to the peple the same Feith , which bifore bi parcellis thei prechiden bi word . An othere cause mygte have be this . A preciouse thing whanne it is ligtli and soone gotten without long bifore goyng desrie to have it , schal be the lesse sette bi , whanne it is receyved . For as myche as the writyng conteyning oure al hool Feith is preciose , and ougte not be sette litil bi , neither be feyntli and unworthili receyved , therfore God so schope that it was long of the peple desirid eer thei it receyveden : as for lyk skile God differreth ful holi mennys boonys , for that bither long desiring and priyng and abiding aftir it thei schulden the more joie have , and the more thanke God , whanne thei it receyveden . An othere cause rennyng herwith mygte be that the Apostlis hadden not grettist leisers for persecuciouns , that thei mygten anoon in the bigynnyng have writen , and peraventure longe tyme in the biginnyng the Apostlis prechiden not , neither mynystriden to the peple but a fewe articles of Feith : as were these of Crists comyng , and of his incarnacioun , and of the cause whi he came . And longe tyme minethis mygte suffice for to bringe the peple into consent and bileeve of these fewe Feithis . Also scolers in ech kinde of scole schulden not be oppressid in the bigynnyng of ther scole with overmanye maters to be mynistrid to them at oonys or suddenli or oversoone . And therfore a good while bi yeeris scolers in the scole of cristendoom herden peces mele the Feith prechid eer the hool summe and birden therof was delyvered to them bi writing . And thus myche for answer to thi first questioun . If it be trewe that Joon the Evangelist wrote his Gospel eer than it is seid that he wrote ; and so that he wrote his Gospel bifore his comyng from exile , as therto may be hadde greet motyve bi the writyng is of Seynt Denis Areopagite , bi cause Joon hadde writen his Gospels eer Denys wrote hise bookis . Thanne answere to the secunde questioun may be this . Right as what is necessarie to a comonute is to be purveid fore : so what is waast and comberose and chargeose to a comonute is to be left of , and to be avoidid . And for as much as whanne Mathew , Mark , Luk , and Joon haden writen , the othere Apostlis sithen these writingis , and sithen these writingis were sufficient to expresse the comyng of Crist , the birth of Crist , the lyvyng of Crist , the teching of Crist : and therfore the othere Apostlis wolden not as for the same maters combre the peplis wittis with eny more writingis therupon . And that what oon Apostle or a Disciple wrote , alle the othere Apostlis and Disciplis knewen . We mowe take mark bi this , that Petir in his Epistil the laste knowlechith that he wiste of Poulis writing ; and bi a greet liklihode he knewe what the othere writers wroten : and bi as myche greet liklihood Poul wist what Petir wrote , and what ech othere writer wrote ; and therfore he himsilf wrote noon Gospel , but helde him content with the Gospels writen of othere . Namelich siithen Luk was felowe to Poul in mych of alle Poulis labouris , and therfore to Poul mygte not be straunge and unwist the writing of Luk. And also that it was not to Poul unknown , it seemeth wel herbi . For in the first Epistle to Corinthies the XI . ch . Poul rehercith the processe of Luk the XXII . ch . wel nyg word bi word . And thus myche Sone for answere to thi II. questioun . To thi III. questioun y answere thus , The Apostlis knewe wee l as thei mygten wel knowe bi resoun , that the writyng of oure general Feith wole serve like wele to peple of each cuntre , as to peple of oon cuntre : and thei wisten that the oon same writyng mygte and schulde renne from oon cuntre into anothere cuntre , like as Poul in his Epistle to the Colociens biddith that thilk same Epistle schulde be radde to the peple which ben callid Laodocenses . And therfore it was no nede to make to dyverse cuntrees dyverse writingis in this wise dyvers ; that thei schulden conceyve dyverse maters , thoug the writing of oon and the same mater mygte be writen or translatid into dyverse langagis . And thus is the III. questioun assoili● . Fadir y perceyve wel hou ye hav declarid ful wel that what was taken to prove the seid II. premysse in the first principal argument is untrewe , and therfore it is to be denyed . But ye hav not answerid to the argumentis for the prof of it what was so taken in to the prof of the same seid II. premysse . Therfore Fadir answere ye to them . Sone the first argument bifore maad for prof of it what was taken to prove the seid II. premysse , goith upon processis and textis of the oold Testament , whiche prove no thing the entent whitherto thou bringist them in thine argument . For whi tho textis wole no more than this , that God wolde the oold Lawe and the oold Feith be leerned bi heering of word . But certis herof folowith not that God wolde or meened it to be leerned so and in lyk maner sufficientli . And therfore the textis hurten not myn entent , neither thei proven the entent wherfore thou brougtist them forth into thin argument . Also the contrarie , that is to seie , that God meened thilk leernyng bi word herd was not sufficient to the Clergie therynne and to the peple thanne ; apperith wel bi this , that God bede the oold Lawe to be writen , and forto so bidde had be yvel and in veyn , if the teching and the leernyng of the same . Lawe bi word oonli hadde be sufficient . To the II. argument maad into the same entent y answere thus . Thoug a fewe usagis and customes in monestaries mowe be born in mynde without writing ; hou schulde therof folowe that so long a tale as is the storie of the IV. Gospels mygte be born in mynde bi leerning of word without therof eny writing . That this schulde folowe , hath no colour , and therfore thilk argument is ligt to be in this now seid maner answered and assioiled . CAP. III. FAdir agens you metith this : that the Feith which was in the beginning of the world , and was contynued forth into the daies of Moyses , was not writen . For whi Moyses which was aftir the beginnyng of the world bi XX. hundrid yeeris , wrote the book of Genesis , and it is seid comounli , he wrote it bi inspiracioun , and bi such propheci wherbi thingis passid ben knowen above power to knowe them bi kinde , and yitt thilke Feith was a long tale and a long storie , as is opene be the book of Genesis with rehercels ful hard to mynde upon generaciouns of persoonys and upon the names of persoonys . Wherfore it seemeth that as wel the stories of the Gospels mygte have be sufficientli taugt of the Apostlis , and have be leerned of the othere Clergie and of the peple without writing . Sone if thou or eny othere man ellis were sikir or hadde eny greet liklihood herto , and gretter than to the contrarie , that there was no writing of the Feith in the eldist tyme fro the bigynnyng of the world into the flood of Noe , and fro thennes into the writing of Moyses , thin argument were stronge . But certis noon such sikirnes neither eny such liklihood to the contrarie is had . For whi soon aftir the flood of Noe there was leernyng of the VII . Sciencis , and writing therof maad in II. pilers , oon of brass and another of erthe : and also in the same tyme there was leernyng and writing of Whicchecraft or of Nycromancie , as the Maistir of Stories * writith in the Chapiter of the Toure of Babel . And if worldli men in that tyme were so bisi in worldli leernyng and writing ; it is not to be trowid but lyk bisi were summe of manye goostli men in leernyng and writing of goostli maters perteyning to the Feith and the servyce of God and to the eend wherto man was maad . Wherfore it is more likli that in tho dais soone aftir the flood of Noe there was writing of Feith perteyning to God and to mannys governyng and eending : than that there was no on such in tho daies anoon aftir the flood of Noe. Also long bifore the flood of Noe Ennok founde lettris and wrote book is , as the Maistir of stories seith . And this Ennok was a passing holy man , as the Bible witnessith . And he lyved in the daies of Adam . Wherfore sithen it is so that such as a man is , such is his leernyng , studying and writing : it is more likli that he wrote holi wondirful thingis of the Feith . And namelich sithen he lyved in the daies of Adam , which coude ful myche teche Ennok what he schulde write in such mater , than that he wrote eny othere worldli thing oonli . And sithen Noe was a ful holi man , it is likeli that he hadde and kept sum and myche of this writing with him saaf in his schippe whilis the flood durid namelich sithen he prechid an hundrid wintre to the peple eer the flood came that thei schulde leeve ther synne . And certis suche preching coude not have be doon without greet kunnyng of ful goostli thingis . And also it muste be bi alle liklihood that Ennok delyvered to his owne Sone Mathussale the same goostli writing which Ennok wrote . And this Mathussale the Sone of Ennok lyvede with Noe six hundrid wintre : and therfore it is to be seid that Noe hadde ful myche and hige kunnyng of Feith and of his writing . For so good a man as Noe was , wolde not leeve unaspied so profitable a writing . And what he had so profitabili in writing he kept saal in his schipp , and delyvered aftir to hise Sones Sem , Cam , and Japheth , which Sem clepid otherwise Melchisedeck lyved in the daies of Abraham . Wherfore Abraham bi dilygence of his holynesse schapide him to receyve the same writing of Sem. And bi liklihode Abraham bitooke it to Ysaac , Ysaac to Jacob , and Jacob to hise Sones : and hou likli it is that Ennok wrote what he leerned of Adam perteyning to God and to Men , so likli is it that Noe or sum othere wrote what he leernyd of Matussale , that felle in the daies of Ennok and of Matussale : and Sem or sum othere in the daies of Sem wrote what he leernyd of Noe that felle in the daies of Noe. And Abraham or othere in hise daies wrote what he herd of Sem that felle in the daies of Sem , which was clepid Melchisedeck . For whi even liklihode was of ech of these casis , as was in eny oon of them . And so at the laste Moises gaderid al this togider , and maad a book therof which is clepid Genesis . And certis this is more likli bi storie bifore allegid and bi resoun togidere , than forto sei that Moyses had bi inspiracioun without eny manys bifore govun to him informacioun . Namelich sithen we owen for to not feyne forge allegge but the trowe , nor holde eny myracle to be doon , save whanne nebe compellith us therto : that is to seie , that we mowe not save the caase otherwise bi liklihode of resoun for to seie that Moyses hadde sufficient informacioun bifore of writings , thoug he schulde make the book of Genesis , than is liklihode to this that he had noon such now seid informacioun . Therfore in this case it is not to renne into myracle , thoug divers doctouris in this case , and in special Gregory upon Ezechiel , without myche avisement , and soon moved bi devocioun so doon . Also of sum thing doon bifore the flood of Noe , wherof no mensioun is maad in the writing of Moyses , we have knowing in stories , as of this , that Lameth was an hunter and dymme of sigt , and that he was lad bi a yong man in hunting , and that he schotte Cayn bi dressing of the seid leder . Of this thing so untaugt in Moyses writing we mygte not have had knowing , if there had not be eny writing bifore Noes flood of thingis which bifelle bifore the same flood . Wherfore such writing of stories was bifore Noes flood . And thanne ferthe if such storying of worldli chauncis was writen bifore Noes flood : moche rather storying of worthi goostli thingis was writen bifore the same flood . And if this be trewe , thanne suche writen stories weren kept saaf bi Noe in his schippe for skile bifore maad : and so thei came aftirwarde into the knowing of Moyses , as is bifore argued : and Moyses compiled the book Genesis out of them : and whanne the bokis of Moyses were hadde , the othere bokis fallen out of use , as it is likli to bifall ; for so it fallith in othere lyk casis . O Fadir me thenketh ye holden a ful reasonable wey in this mater , and such a wey , which hath more likli evydencis for it , than hath the contrari party . Therfore youre wey ougte bi lawe of kinde , and undir perel of vice and of synne be holden , till gretter evydence be founden to the contrarie , thanne ben the evydencis making for this party . But certis out of this folowith , as semeth to me , that we schulde holde this party , that Esdras renewid not the oold Testament in writing bi gift of inspiracioun , as is comounli holde : but that he renewid the oold Testament in this wise , that he maad be writen and multiplied manye bookis of the oold Testament manye mo than there were bifore , and that for zele which that he hadde to this that Goddis Lawe schulde be wel knowe , thoug of ech kinde of tho Bookis sum Copie was bifore . For whi like evydencis ben that Esdras hadde Copies of the oold Lawe , as ben evydencis that Moyses hadde Copies for to write or compile bi them the Book of Genesis . Yhe gretter evydencis to holde this now seid affirmative party , thanne ben evydencis for to holde the contrarie negative party . Sone y holde wel with thi conceyt in this mater , and the evidencis therto ben these . Hou ever yvel the Peple of Iewis at eny tyme was , yitt thei were never without summe holi lovers and keepers of the same among them . Forwhi whanne grettist ydolatrie was usid in Jewri in the daies of King Achab so fer forth , that the Prophete Hely weved and seid to God , That of alle the Jewis there was noon but he al oon left alyve which lovyd and kept the Lawe . The Lord answerid to Hely and seid , ( that it was not so , for he kept to him he seide ) More than five hundrid in Israel , whiche never bowid ther knees to Baal . That is to seie , to the fals God , which in tho daies was worschipid openli thorug al Israel . And if this was trewe in tho daies of grettist ydolatrie , that there was manye privey lovers and kepers of the Lawe ; bi like skile it schulde be trowid , that in ech othere tyme there weren suche lovers and kepers of the Lawe . And in lyk it was in ech tyme whanne Jerusalem was in traldom bi enemyes withoutforth , and whanne the Jewis weren translatid into Babilonye , and whilis thei dwelliden there . But so it is , that no man lettrid wolde caste him to be urri knower of the Lawe , and therfore an urri keper therof , but that he wolde caste him to have the same lawe in writing . Wherfore in alle tymes of the Jewis , both whilis thei were in the lond of Israel , and whilis thei were in the lond of Babilonye , there were among summe of them bokis writen of the lawe and usid of them : thoug the lawe writen in summe bokis was brent in the brennyng of the Temple . Also Jeremye lyvede and abode in Jerusalem , whilis the last and grettist captivite of the citee was maad , and whilis the Jewis weren laste translatid , and the temple was distroied , and herof he proficied , and wrote his Prophecie a litil before eer this grettist and last captivite was doon . And aftir that this captivite was doon , he abiding in Jerusalem with the releef and rescail of the Jewis , wrote his book clepid the Trenys . But al this was not likeli to be , if Jeremye schulde not have had with him the Book of the Lawe , into the keping of which lawe he so often preachid and stirid the peple . Wherfore it is to be trowid that Jeremye had with him alwey writen a book of the lawe ; thoug sum book conteyning the same lawe was brent in the temple . And for lyk skile it is to be trowid that Ezechiel hadde also the lawe writen , which Ezechiel lyved in tyme of this grettist and last thraldom , and was caried into Babylonye fro Jerusalem with the greet route . And in Babilonie the fifth yere of this thraldom he bigan to prophecie there in Babilonie . Also sumwhat bifore the thraldoms of Jerusalem the King of Joas maad the book of of the lawe be knowun , and be publischid ful myche , which long bifore was unknown as to the Prestis and to the more multitude of the peple . Wherfore it is lyk that in this Kingis daies there were writen in greet noumbre manye bokis of the lawe . Nameli sithen the peple were thanne brougt into a greet devocioun anentis the lawe , as it is open . Also in ech tyme of Jewis there weren summe Prophetis , as may be takun bi the prologgis of Jerom into the bokis of Prophetis , and also bi the text : and to them it longid to not be unknowers of the lawe , in as moche as God comaundid his lawe to be of his peple knowun . And without writing such so long a law mygte not be knowun . Wherfore at alle daies of the Jewis both in Israel and in Babilonie there were bokis al redi of the same writen . And herto wolde serve ful openli the storie of Thobie , and the story of Susanne , Daniel 13. ch . ne were that thei ben Apocrisis . Also Daniel , Esdras , Neomyas , Zorobabel , Mardoche , Hester , and othere were kepers of the lawe , whilis thei weren freeli in Babylonie inhabiting , as the storie of the Bible makith mencioun . Wherfore it is like that thei hadden the lawe writen , namelich sithen thei mygten sende and have messages to and fro Jerusalem and Babylonie . And if al this be trewe , certis it is likli ynoug , that whanne Esdras and Zorobabel came fro Babylonie into Jerusalem for to bilde agen the citee and the temple : thei hadden bokis al redi writen of the lawe : and thanne hereof folowingli this that Esdras renewid the five bokis of Moyses and alle the stories into hise daies , is to be undirstonde thus : that he wrote or provokid or ordeynyde to be writen and multiplied manye bokis of the same lawe in great noumbre , wherof was not but fewe bifore . And if this be trewe , as it hath more likeli evidencis to be trowid for trewe than hath his contrarie party : it folewith that for to seie this whiche summe Doctouris comounli holden with the Maistir of stories , that Esdras bi inspiracioun wrote without eny copi alle the five Bokis of Moyses , and alle the o●here Bokis of Stories and of Prophecies in to hise daies , is not but a feynyd thing . For it is seid without sufficient therto servyng evydencis . And therfore this seid opinioun of Esdras his writing bi privey miraclus inspiracioun , is worthi to be leid a side . Namelich sithen to privey myraclis we schulde not renne for to defend oure opinioun or oure answere bi them without that sufficient evydence therto serveth . For ellis there mygte noon opinioun be overcome bi strengthe of argument , hou false so ever the opinioun were : so that he included no repugnance , such as God mygte not do bi myracle . CAP. IV. FAdir , aftir alle this , what is seid for answere to the first principal argument , and what is sunken in bi occasioun of the same answere , it is now tyme the ye biginne answere to the second principal argument . Sone , thou seist sooth , and therfore as for answere to the second and third principal argumentis togidere , the second premysse in ever ech of them is to be denyed . Forwhi sithen bi answer maad to the first principal argument it is declarid that the Apostlis mygten not without writing teche sufficientli oure al hool ful feith , wherof nowe is the newe Testament writen , it folewith that thei taugten not without writing sufficientli the same seid al hool ful feith , whiche is agens and contrarie to the second premysse of the second principal argument . Neither thei taugten without writing principali the same al hool ful feith which is agens and contrarie to the second premysse of the third principal argument . And that for as myche as what the Aposilis mygten not do sufficientli or principali , thei diden not sufficientli neither principali . And so as now y bifore seid , the bothe second premysses in the second and third principal argumentis ben to be denyed . Ferthemore thoug Christ bede as thou allegist Matt. and Mark the last chapitris , hise Aposilis to preche al the hool Gospel , and so al the hool feith to ech creature by parcel mel in word speking of dyvers tymes , and thoug thei fulfillid this Comaundement , yitt herof folowith not that Crist has herynne bade them preche the Gospel and the al hool feith as sufficientli or principali to be doon . For Crist wolde that a good preching not sufficient neither principal schulde go bifore the teching ful and sufficient and principal : which principal and sufficient teching aftirward schulde be doon bi writing oonli , or ellis bi word and writing togidere . For as the Philosophie seith , Kind in his worcking beginneth fro imperfit pr●ceding and growing into perfit : and man dooth in the same wise in hise werkis of craft . And thoug God the Auctor and maker of kinde do in same wise in hise Werkis , as it is not to be wondrid , but it is to be wel prisid . Forwhi in that his worching accordith wel with oure resoun . And so the two premysses in thin bothe argumentis maad for proving of the two principal premyssis in the second and third principal argumentis be not groundid upon the textis of Mathew and Mark in ther last Chapitris , and ben to be denied . And this wise sufficient answere is maad to the second and to the third principal argumentis togidere . For answere to the fourth principal argument thou schalt undirstonde that Paul seith ad Ephes. ch . IV. thus : Oon is the Lord , oon feith , and oon Baptim . And yitt the baptim of this man here in Ynglond is not the same baptym in being and in kinde , which is the baptym of anothere man in Fraunce . For ech man as he is dyvers in being fro ech othere man , so his baptim and his sacramental waisching is dyvers in being fro ech othere mannys baptim and waisching in water . Nevertheles this baptim of this man in Ynglond is oon in significacioun and in representacioun with ech othere mannys baptim in Fraunce . Forwhi alle the baptims and sacramenten are oon thing , which is this as Poul seith , Rom. c. That ech man owith be deed and biried to alle synnys and rise into a new lyf in clennes of vertu . Also in lyk maner the Chirche of Ynglond is oon Chirche with the Chirche of Fraunce , but hou , certis not in being , in kinde and in substaunce . Forwhi the peple being here is not the peple being there . But thei ben oon in reputacioun of auctorite of feith , of power , and of jurisdictioun . That is to seie , for the oon of these Chirchis hath lyk power and juresdictioun to the othere goven to them fro God. And in lyk maner it is to be undirstonde whanne it is seid that the Chirche whiche now is , is the same Chirche which was this same tyme a thousind wintre , or which was in the daies of the Apostlis : or that the Chirche of God is alwei oon not in being or in kinde or substaunce . Forwhi the peple is not now and thanne oon , neither alwey oon , but oon in reputacioun . And not in al maner reputacioun , but in reputacioun of lyk feith , and of lyk power , and of lyk jurisdi●●ioun goven fro God. But certis open it is to ech mannys resoun that thoug the Chirche nowe lyvyng be in this seid maner of reputacioun the same Chirche whiche the Apostlis weren , yitt it nedith not to folowe that this Chirche nowe lyvyng hath like moche kunnyng and power for to witnes oure feith as hadde the Chirche , which the Apostlis weren . Neither it folowith that this Chirche now lyvyng hath more kunning and power forto witnesse than hath the writing of the newe testament forto so witnesse : thoug it were so that the Chirche of the Apostlis hadde kunnyng and power forto so more witnesse . And al herfore . For this Chirche is not the same Chirche in kinde , in being , and in substaunce with the othere seid Chirch , rigt as these pesoonys be not tho persoonys . And thilk Chirche had informacioun of the feith bi heering the Apostlis and the Evaungelistis , whiche the Chirche now being hath not , but so sechith aftir forto have bi reding in the writing of the Apostlis and Evangelistis . And so , Sone , if thou woldist this argument if it were maad to thee : this Chirche now lyvyng , and the Chirche of the Apostlis weren oon in the seid reputacioun . Therefore as the Apostlis weren in this degree of holi lyvyng and mygten do myraclis , s●eke with dyvers tungis and write a new testament , and witnesse that thei sawe Crist do and suffre , and herd him teche ; so this Chirche now being is lyk holi , and may do lyk greet myraclis , may speke with dyverse tungis , and write a newe testament , and witnesse that he sige Crist do and suffre and herde him teche . Even so in lyk maner thou schalt be moved forto deme thin owne fourth principal argument that it make no folowing : which argument is this . The present Chirche is alwey oon and the same with the Chirche of the Apostlis . Wherfore as the Chirche of the Apostlis groundid the feith more than Scripture it groundith ; therfore the Chirche , which now is , groundith more our feith than Scripture it groundith . Hou ever it be of the conclusioun or of the consequent of the argument , which conclusioun or consequent whether it be trewe or no schal be tretid in the boke of the Chirche in Latin. And ferthemore , Sone , thoug thou woldist putte a successive aggregate of alle the Apostlis and of alle Cristen Men , whiche ever weren ben and schulen be , to be the Chirche of Crist , and therfore that there is alwey thoroug al tymes oon , and the same Chirche in aggregate being kinde and substaunce : yitt herof folowith not that hou ever kunnyng holi mygti and worthi this aggregat was in eny time bifore in hise parties passid , so kunnyng holi mygti and worthi this aggregat is now in hise parties now being : no more than folowith if the successive aggregate mygte as he was thanne in hise parties passid do myraclis , that the same aggregat may do now as he is in hise parties now being : no more than it folowith , if Ynglond sumtyme mygte make such a conquest , therfore he schal be ever a power forto make lyke greet conquest . And therfore , Sone , if thi fourth argument be maad in this wise , the hool successive aggregat of Clerkis is now which was in the tyme of the Apostlis ; but in thilk this aggregat was a worthier witnesser of oure feith than was Scripture : therfore so is this aggregat now . Certis this argument is not worth . For he concludith and makith no folowing . Nevertheles , Sone , for to putte and holde such a successive aggregate in kinde in propirte without figurative speche is agens good Philosophie , and therfore ▪ agens good resoun , and agens trouthe , as ful wel mygte be provyd , if this place were according to trete such mater . But whilis the putting and the holding therof hurtith not my present entent , y wole here lete the treting therof passe undir suffraunce . For answere to thi fifth principal argument thou schalt undirstonde that scripture of the newe testament is not thorug ech party of him lyk in auctorite in worthines and in dignite . For whi summe parties of Scripture techen to us feith , summe techen to us lawe of kinde and of natural resoun , as the text in it silf wel schewith , and Austyn witnessith the same . Nevertheles this that Crist taugt thilk lawe of kinde and of resoun , wherof it is writen in holi writte that Crist them taugte , is feith . For whi , this that he so taugt them cannot be leerned and found bi mannys resoun without therof a teller and a denouncer . Summe parties of the seid scripture techen to us positive ordinauncis of Crist , as ben the sacramentis , and sum partie therof techen to us ordinauncis of sum Apostle , as the lawe of bigamie , and that a woman vowe not chas●ite bifore the sixtieth yeer of hir age . Now , Sone , thoug the Clergie that now is , and thoug the Pope that now is , may dispense with it that the Scripture techith us the ordinaunre of an Apostle and may revoke it , as he may dispense with this that Poul ordeynyd a bigam to not be Deken or Prest : 1 Thim . III. ch . and with this that Poul ordeynyd a widowe to not take perpetual videwite undir boond eer sche be of LX. Winter , and but if sche hadde be wyf of oon man , 1. Thim . IV. ch . yhe and revoke these two pointis ; bicause that the Pope is of lyk auctorite and of juresdictioun with ech or with the grettist of the Apostlis : yitt herof folowith not , that the Clergie now lyvyng or the Pope now lyvyng may dispense with this that Scripture techith as the positive ordinaunce of Crist ; and that he may revoke eny of tho ordinauncis . Forwhi so revoke and dispense mygte noon of the Apostlis . And so thoug the Chirche now lyvyng be evene in auctorite and power with sum parti of Scripture , as with ful few parties of Scripture , as in this forto make positive ordinaunces lyk as holi Scripture bi power of the Apostle maad , and for to revoke thilk positive ordinaunce of holi Scripture maad by the Apostle : yitt he is not evene in auctorite and power with al the Scripture of the Newe Testament , neither with manye othere parties therof . To thi sixth argument y answere , graunting the first premysse , that the Chirche now lyvyng hath power forto expowne and interprete and declare the trewe undirstonding of holi Scripture . And y deny the second premysse that even peer hath no power into his even peer . Forwhi the sugget hath some power upon his Sovereyn as for to loke upon him , forto speke to him , and forto warne him of hise harms , and forto defend him , and such othere . And so the Chirche now being , yhe and ech thrifty wel sped studient in Divinite hath power forto declare and expowne holi Scripture : yhe and ech good Grammarien hath power to construe Scripture , so that as the urri dewe literal undirstonding we schulden aske and leerne of a greet leerned sad Divine , rather than of anothir youngir and lasse leernyd Divine : so we schulde aske and leerne it of the universal or general hool Clergie rather than of eny perticuler persoone or persoonys save in the execeptioun spokun of in the first parti of this book in the seventh ch . and in othere chap. aftir there folowing . And therfore as it folowith not herof that ech thrifti Divine and ech Gramarien is more worthi for to grounde Feith than is holi Scripture , so it folewith not that the Chirche now lyvyng or the Clergie now lyvyg are more worthi forto grounde feith than is holi Scripture . Sone , manye kindis of Powers ther ben . The even Peer hath no power of constreynyng upon his even Peer : that is to seie forto make his even peer to do what he wold not do in thilk kind of werk , in which thei ben evene peers : and yitt oon evene Peer may revoke and relese that the othere evene Peer ordeynyth or biddith to be do or doith indede : as we seen that oon executour revokith and relesith what the othere ioined to him executour ordeyneth , biddith or doith , namelich bi the Lawe of Ynglond , and in this case is ech Pope with ech of the Apostlis . As for answere to thi VII . principal Argument , y seie that power forto interprete , expoune and declare which is the rigt sense of Scripture is not but a ful litil power upon Scripture : as power forto construe Scripture aftir rulis of gramer is a ful litil power upon Scripture ; but yitt moche lasse than the othere power now spokun . Forwhi so bi these powers no thing is takun awey fro Scripture what he had bifore , neither eny thing is sette of the newe to Scripture , what Scripture hadde not bifore , neither eny thing is commaundid to be or not to be agens the comaunding the or nylling of Scripture . And that bicause this seid power of interpreting , expownyng , declaring and construyng is not but a power of kunnyng oonli for to schewe and make open the thing of Scripture which is in Scripture al redi bifore thoug priveli and hid : rigt as the Prest in Lent tyme drawith the Lent veil , and therbi makith open to the peple what was bifore in the Auter alredi , thoug not seen of the peple . Wherfore the first Premysse in thi VII . principal Argument is untrewe and to be denyed , whanne it is seid thus : Whatever thing nedith to have upon him an Interpreter or Expowner or a Declarer , nedith to have the same thing as his overer and worthier . And whi this is untrewe it is now seid . Forwhi ellis a Deltene yhe the Perisch Clerk were worthier than the Prest stonding at the auter , whanne the Clerk drawith aside the Lent veil . And also if the seid first Premysse were trewe , thanne Scripture were worthier than sche her silf is , and sche were overer to hir silf , which is repugnaunce . For whi Scripture ful oft expowneth hir silf bi as moche as bi the reding of Scripture in oon parti a man schal leerne which is the trewe undirstonding of Scripture in al othere parti wherynne he doutid or unknewe bifore . Also Sone the Iugis which the King makith in his rewine for to juge alle cause aftir the Lawe which he and his Parlament malten , ben not so worthi forto grounde rigt wisnes in causis as the seid Lawe is . Forwhi al that thei han to juge rigt wisnes in causis thei han of thilk Lawe : and yitt the same seid Iugis han power bi ther greet kunnyng for to declare what is the trewe entent of the Lawe writen or not writen , whanne othere not so kunnyng persoonys in the Lawe as thei ben dougten therynne or not so fer seen therynne . And therfore bi lyk maner in this present purpos it is that thoug the Clergie or sum of the Clergie bi ther greet leernyng have power or kunnyng forto declare to simpler folk which is the urri sense and undirstonding of Scripture : yitt herof folowith not the Clergie or thilk persoone of the Clergie so declaring is worthier in wei of grounding what Scripture was ordeyned to grounde bi his dewe undirstonding of treuthe , than is the same Scripture in him silf for so to grounde . For certis it may be that sum oon simple persoon as in Fame or in State is wiser forto knowe juge and declare what is the trewe sense of a certeyn portioun of Scripture , and what is the treuthe of sum Article , and that for his long studying , laboring , and avising therupon , than is a greet general Conceil . For whi ful of it is seen that oon persoon in a general Conceil redressith al the Conceil fro that , that thei wolden ordeyne , as y have rad . If oon symple persoone had not agenstonde bi hise resounis a general Counceil wolde have ordeyned that Prestis schulde have be weddid to Wyves if thei wolden . And also y have rad in the tre departid storie that if Finucius * hadde not recleimed in the greet Counceil of Nice there hadde be ordeynyde that tho Prestis which have had Wyves schulden have left ther Wyves and schulden have be divorced fro hem . For answere to thi VIII . argument thou schalt undirstonde that it is not oon and the same forto trowe a thing to be , and forto trowe the same thing for whi y may trowe the Sowdan of Babylonye to be , yitt it nedith not therfore that y trowe to him . And in lyk maner it is not oon and the same forto bileeve a thing to be , and forto bileeve to thilk thing . For whi y may and ougte bileeve the feend to be , and yitt y ougte not therbi forto bileeve to the Feende . Wherfore it is not oon and the same forto bileeve oon universal Chirche of God in erthe to be , and forto biléeve to thilk oon universal Chirche . And sithen it is so that bi thilk Article putte into the comoun vulgar Crede y bileeve the holi universal Chirche , we ben not taughte as bi strengthe of thilk wordis forto bileeve othere than this that oon holi universal Chirche is , and what folowith therof . Even as bi lyk Articlis of the same comoun Crede , bi lyk tenour of wordis we ben taught oon Bap●im to be , forgevenes of Synnys to be , everlastyng lyf to be ; and not bi tho Articlis forto bileeve to oon Baptim , and forto bileeve to forgevenes of Synnys , and forto bileeve to everlastyng Lyf , as schal be schewid bettir her aftir in this same II. partie the VIII . Ch. Wherfore folowith that bi the tenour of thilk Article in the comoun Crede in which and bi which we ben taugt for to bileeve oon holi universal Chirche , we ben not taught forto bileeve to the holi universal Chirche , that is to seie to bileeve that the holi universal Chirche seith and techith treuthe . So that if we be bounde forto bileeve to the holi universal Chirche in this now seid undirstonding , it must rise bi sum othere fundament than bi thilk Argument in the comoun vulgar Crede , which in thi VIII . Argument thou alleggist . Whi the Article to be bileeved that oon universal Chirche of God is , was putte into the comoun Crede , schal be sumwhat tretid here aftir in this same II. Parti the VII . Ch. and more sumwhere ellis in Latyn . Nevertheles schortli to seie here . Soon aftir the Apostlis rosen Heretikis , and summe of them helden that there were dyverse Chirchis of God on erthe , and that thei were a Chirche of God bi hem silf . And for as myche as the grete Fadris in the Chirche hadden abomynacioun herof , thei puttiden into the comoun Crede forto bileeve oon hool universal Chirche to be with hise parties not discording oon fro the othere in Feith of God. And this is fer fro this for to bileeve nedis to thilk universal Chirche in alle ●asis . This is ynow o my Sone here for an answere to thin VIII . principal Argument . Also it is to be undirstonde that Catholik is as myche to seie as General , and therfore the Catholik Feith is as myche to seie as General and Vniversal Feith , and Catholik Chirche is as myche to seie as General or Vniversal Chirche . This wole good and trewe , grammer , and this wolen oold Doctouris of dunte as Ysidir and Bede in ther writingis . And alle witti men knowen that tho significaciouns of wordis in Latyn ougten be take of grammer . Also Orthodoxe is as myche to seie as rigt glorie , or the thing which is worthi rigt glorie : and therfore al trewe Feith , thoug it be particuler , ougte be clepid Orthodoxe Feith , thoug not ech Feith ougt be clepid Catholik Feith , and ech trew feithful particuler Chirche ougte be clepid Catholik Chirche , that is to seie General or Vniversal Chirche . And yitt men now late not wee l leerned in Latin and in Grammer , as good weren that thei weren , and as the oold Scole of Grammer brougte forthe men leerned , hav brougte into a viciose use now late bi ignonoraunce of trewe Grammer for to calle a thing Catholik , for that it is Orthodoxe , evene as for defaute of sufficient leernyng in Grammer men bigynne forto bringe into use forto seie in Alioquin schort , where if thei were wel leernyd in Grammer thei wolden sei Alioquin longe . Loke alle men whether the Ele●●urarie whiche Nicholas the Phisisien in his Antidotari callith Catholicon is called so for that it is Orthodoxe or for that it is universal . And loke also alle men whether the Book of Januens● in Grammer upon the IV. parties of Grammer is callid Catholicon for that it is Orthodoxe , or for that it is universal ; and thanne lete alle them be schamed , or at the leest lete them amende ther ignoraunce , whiche cl●pen the Chirche or Feith Catholik for that it is Orthodoxe or trewe , and not for that it is universal or general . CHAP. V. FAdir may the Clergie or al the hool Chirche in erthe make , of the newe eny Article to be Feith , which was not bifore Feith in it silf . Sone , I wolde thou forgatist not what is taugt in the first parti of the folower to the donet the XI . ch . hou that Feith is takun in II. maners . In oon maner the knowing bi which we knowen the trewe Article , is clepid Feith ; and this maner of taking Feith is propre . In an othere maner the same trewe Article in it silf knowen ●i Feith now seid in the first maner , is clepid also Feith . But the secunde maner of cleeping , thoug it be oft usid , it is an unpropir maner of cleeping . Ensample herof is this : the knowing with which y knowe that Marie conseived C●ist in her maydenhode , is Feith in the first maner of speeche ; and the same Treuthe or Article now rehercid and bileeved , which is this , Marie conceyved Crist in her Maydenhode , is Feith in the II. maner of speche . And lyk maner ech othere Article bileeved is woned to be clepid Feith . Thanne ferthe thus , ever ech of these maners may be departid into tweyn othere maners . For whi as it apperith Chap. in the first parti of the folower to the donet , the knowing wherynne y consent in myn undirstonding to a treuthe beyng above oure capacite to knowe , save bi therof Goddis affermyng or reveling is Feith . And also the knowing wherynne y consent in myn undirstonding to a treuthe not bi my resoun● fynding , but bi this that a creature , which for good evydeneis y trowe not therynne to lie , it affeermede , is Feith . And so the comoun speche usith to seie , y gave credence to him , he is a credible man , and so forth of othere spechis lyk . Wherfore it folowith bi strengthe of the first particioun now bifore seid , that answeringli to these now last seid membris , the Article or the Treuthe knowun bi the first membre of this last particioun is Feith ; and the Article or Treuthe knowun bi the II. membre of this particioun is also seid Feith . Fadir , the particiouns or dep●r●ingis of Feith y conteyne wel , and y take and comprehende them sufficientli in mi witt and in my mynde . Wel Sone thanne ferthe thus . Take thou thilk Feith which is a knowing whereynne we consenten in oure undirstonding to a treuthe being above oure capacite to fynde and knowe , and therfore we knowen it bi this that God it affeermyd ; and take thou the Feith which is the Article or the Treuthe in this now seid maner knowun , and certis never neither of these II. Feithis the Clergie or the hool Chirche may make of the newe at his owne wil. Forwhi it is not in the power of the Clergie , neither in the power of the hool Chirche forto make such an Article to be trewe or to be untrewe ; as it is not in the Chirchis power forto make this to be trewe or to be untrewe , that Marie conceyved a Childe in her maydenhode , or this , that Crist was de●d and roos agen unto lyf , and so forthe of othere Articlis of Feith in this seid maner and kind . And therfore it that al the Clergie or the hool Chirche may do heraboute , is denouncing and declaring and defynyng to the sympler parti of the Chirche what is in ever either of these now last seid maners , and that this is to be take for su●h seid Feith , and that this othere is to be take for such Feith , and so forthe of othere lyk . But alle wise men may soone se that fer is this fro power to make eny thing to be such seid Feith ; and that the Chirche makith not a thing to be such Feith in this that he decreeth , decerneth , jugith , determyneth , and witnessith , and publis●hith a thing to be such a Feith . ●esoun wole that the wiser parti of al the hool multitude of Cristen Men take upon them forto teche and enfoorme auctoritativeli the simpler parti , which thing ougte be take for Feith and which not , and that into greet aligting and esiyng and suring to the simpler parti : and ●o doith the Clergie to the Lay parti . And of more strengthe than this is , y se not that the determynacioun of the Chirche is . But agenward take thou Feith which is the knowyng wherynne we consenten in oure undirstonding to a treuthe which we fynden not in oure resonyng other wise than for a creature , which for sufficient evydencis we trowen not therynne to lie , it affeermyde : and take thou the same Treuthe so of us trowid and bileeved , which also is Feith : and ever either of these Feithis may be maad of new of the Clergie . Forwhi the Clergie may make now first a Fastyng day and an Holi day , which never weren bifore . And of this making and ordinaunce risen up these II. Treuthis which never were bifore : this day is to be fastid , and this day is to be halowid . Now manye of the symple peple mowe leerne these II. Trouthis of the Clergie , that is to seie , thei mowe leerne and knowe that this day is to be fastid , and this day is to be holowid : which thei witen not whi save for this that the Clergie seien so and affeermen so to them . And therfore it is in the power of the Clergie to make into them such Feith as is now seid . Fadir , this maner of Feith whiche the Chirche may make is of noon othere kind , but as is the credence or Feith which ech housholder may make to hise yong Children and hise rude and symple Hyves and to his Hondmaydens , and Boond Men not myche witti to resone : and therfore these Feithis whiche the Clergie may make ben fer fro the hignes and worthines of Feithis , whiche God to us makith . And therfore Fadir lete us speke her aftir , as we hav spoken bifore of tho Feithis , which we hav bi affermyng of God : for suche ben algatis necessarie to oure helpe . Sone y assente wel that we schulen so speke , and therfore aske therof what thou wolte . Fadir y aske this : owith the Clergie or the Chirche bileeve as Feith eny Article which is not expressid in the litteral sense or undirstonding of holi Scripture ; and which is not folowing out of eny Article in holi Scripture ; but if he have forto it bileeve and trowe bi this Argument : whatever God affeermed or schewid or revelid is trewe . This Article God affeermyd or revelid . Wherfore this Article is trewe . And but if he have sufficient evydence for Treuthe of the II. Premysse , as bi such a Premysse : whatever the Apostlis or othere undoutabili trewe heerers of God , or sum undoutable myracle , or sum undoutable inspiracioun , or sum undoutable appering without forth or withynne forth to eny persoone , or sum long uce of bileevyng in the Chirche without eny bigynnyng knewen therof , witnessid God to have affeermyd or revelid or schewid ; God it affermed revelid or schewid . So it is that the Apostlis or sum other undoutatable credible heerer of God or sum undoutable myracle or sum undoutable inspiracioun , or sum undoutable appeering withynne forthe or without forth , or sum seid longe uce of bileeving in the Chirche , witnessid that God affeermyd or revelid this Article . Wherfore treuthe is that God affeermyd thilk same Article . And yitt fer ther upon the II. now seid Premysse he muste have notabili likli evydencis in Argument , and so likli that to the contrarie is not hadde , neither hopid to be hadde eny evydence so likli . And sotheli Sone , as may ful openli be deducid , if al what is seid of Feith in this present Book be wee l takun undirstonden and comprehendid , whatever Article the Clergie or the hool Chirche bileeveth as Feith , and hath not upon the same Article this seid processe of evydence and of prof : he in so bileevyng is over hasti , and usurpith and presumeth ferther than he schulde : and upon whatever Article the Clergie can have the said processe of prof , it the Clergie may bileeve as Feith without perel . And if the Clergie have such a preef as now is ensampled upon sum Article not writen openli in holi Scripture , neither folowingli out of eny Article so writen , ( the Chirche so hath upon these trouthis that this holi lyver aftir his deeth is acceptid into salvacioun and to be reverencid and worschipid and folowid as for a savyd Soule and moche lovyd and worschipid of God , and so of many Martiris , Confessouris and Virgins othere and dyverse fro the persoonys of the Apostlis : the Chirche hath the now seid prof , and that bi help of Myraclis wel tried and examyned bi sufficient trewe witnessing , or bi open at fulle schewing . Thoug the Chirche nedith not seche help of Myraclis for the Apostlis to be doon , and that bicause Crist seid to them : Thus joie and be ye glad , for your names ben writen in Hevenes . And thanne therof folowith this to be take for an Article of Feith : Thomas of Cantirbiri is a Seint , Joon of Bridlington is a Seint in the said dew undirstonding of this word Seynt ; and so forthe of othere whose lyvyng and for whom the myraclis doon be wee l examyned and tried bi witnessis sworne notwithstonding that pretense Myraclis and pretense Inspiraciouns and pretense Appeeringis of God or of Aungels withynne forth and without forth and legendis or lyves of Seyntis and othere stories whiche ben writen and hadde in ●ame , ben ful slider and unsure groundis forto grounde upon them Feith , that is to seie , a treuthe passing nature and revelid bi God , without passing greet trial of them . For certis among them a diligent wise ensercher schal fynde sumtyme Supersticiouns , sumtymes Errouris agens sure knowen Treuthe , sumtyme Heresies agens the Feith , and sumtyme contrariete bitwix hem silf ; as forto putte out in special where and hou oft , it were ●ver longe here . And therfore thoug the Chirche suffre manye suche to renne forth and be redde , and be takin as wise men wole juge and fele of them ; the Chirche is not so hasty forto determyne autoritativeli them to be trewe . Nevertheles alle tho whiche the Chirche takith into greet and perfigt examinacioun , and ther aftir jugith and ●erreeth and determyneth autentikli to be trewe ben nedis to be take for trewe , in lasse than sufficient prof be made into the contrarie , and unto tyme thilk prof be maad and knowe , as y seid bifore in the Ch. of the first parti of this Book . But yitt that the Apostlis bitoken not , out and bisidis holi Scripture eny Articlis unwriten to be bileeved for necessarie Feithis , thoug summe men so comounli holden , y may argue bi rigt notable evydencis , of whiche the first is this . The Apostlis bitoken not to cristen men eny Articlis to be bileeved as such seid Feith bi eny such wey , which the Apostlis knowen to be no spedeful and sufficient wey forto in it bitake eny Articlis to be bileeved as so greet Feith . But so it is that the Apostlis knewen wel that to bitake to the heering and mynde of the peple oonli without writing eny such Articlis forto be of them bileeved was no spedeful and sufficient wey . Wherfore the. Apostlis not so bitoken . The II. Premysse of this Argument may in this wise be proved . Thilk wey was wel knowen considered and aspied to be insufficient and unspedful , which was bi the Apostlis remedied and left and leid aside . But so it was that this seid wey for to belyvere eny Articlis as such feith to the peple bi heering and mynde oonli without writing was left and leid aside and remedied bi this that thei wroten the Gospels and Epistlis to the peple . Forwhi ellis thei hadden no sufficient cause for to so write . And Luk in his prolog unto hise Gospel meneth the same . Wherfore it folowith , that the seid wey was wee l knowin and considered and aspied to be insufficient for the seid entent to be sufficientli sped . Also the seid second premysse mygte be proved thus : The Apostlis maad so wise bi the holi Goost forto overse and knowe Scripturis of the oold testament , mygte soon knowe and remembre hou that manye trouthis Adam seide and taugte to hise sones and hise ofspring over it that is writen in the Bible . Wherof no man in the tyme of the Apostlis coude eny thing seie : and thilk maner it was knowun of the Apostlis to be trewe that Noe and Abraham seiden and taugten manye treuthis to ther here 's not writen , whiche no man coude reherce in tyme of the Apostlis , and al for that thei were not writen . And in lyk maner it was trewe of David and of Solomon auentis ther heerers , so that noon of ther wordis be knowun , than tho ben writen . And if we wolen come neer hoom , Joon the Evangelist seithen the last ch . of his Gospel , that mo myraclis Crist dide , than be writen in this Book , which if thei weren writen , al the world , thoug it were turned into bokis , schulde not take and comprehendo . And that of al tho myraclis not writen in the Gospels not ●on is of us now knowun . Wherfore it folowith that so wyse men as weren the Apostlis in goostli necessarie maters , and so fulfilled with the holi goost , and also wel putte into good avi●is bi ful witti Clerkis convertid into Cristen Feith knewn well that this wey forto delyver necessarie feith to peplis bi word and heering and mynde oonli without that of the writing was insufficient to the peple . The second evydence is this . If the Apostlis hadden lete renne eny Articlis undir necessarie feith to be bileeved without prof of the Scripture ; this entent and dede of the Apostlis schulde have be better knowen and holden of the Chirche , which was in tyme of grete Constantyn the Emperor , than of eny Chirche being aftir tho seid daies . For so it was the Chirche in the daies of Constantyn holde not , trowid not , and considerid not , that the Apostlis so left without writing eny Articlis to be takun as necessarie feith . Wherfore no Chirche aftir the daies of Constantyn owith so holde . The second premysse y may prove thus . In the daies of the greet and first Constantyn Emperour there was maad an universal Counceil of all Cristen in Nice of Bityne , in which universal Counceil was gaderid the Latyn Clerkis and the Greek Clerkis togider for this entent principali to declare the trewe feith in the article upon which Ari errid , and folowingli forto putte out in an expresse Crede the substauncial pointis and articlis of oure feith , as is opene in the stories clepid ecclisiastick storie and tripartid storie , or ellis thus . The Churchis storie and the third departid storie : which stories ben the worthiest and moste credible of eny othere save the Bible . And therfore so thei dide and maad a Crede , which in the seid second book is writen . But so it muste nedis have be that if the Chirche in tho daies hadde knowen or trowid that the Apostlis had delyvered to the peple eny articlis undir heering and mynde oonli ; the Chirche in thilk seid general Counseil gaderid for to point and articlee maters of our feith wolden rather have sette forth in writing of the Crede than maad tho seid articlis , which the Apostlis left out of writing , than tho of whom expresse mencioun is maad in the writing of the Apostlis . And that fer as myche as to the mo n●de remedie is rather to be goven than to the lasse nede . And the nede to putte tho Articlis undir writing was ful greet as soone aftir appere . Wherfore the Chirche then gaderid hadde no conceite that the Apostlis leften eny suche Articlis of necessarie feith , which the Apostlis not wroten . And in lyk maner as it was in the first seid general Counseil of Nice that thei pointiden out Articlis of bileeve to alle Cristen peple into a foorm of a Crede , so dide anothere greet general Counseil aftir at Constantynopil , and manye othere provincial Counseils , as apperith in the book clepid Decrees of Counseils rehercen the II. now seid Credis ; and in noon of them so making and pointing Articlis of oure feith in ther credis is mensioun maad of eny articlis taugt bi the Apostlis out of Scripture . The III. evydence is this . If eny Article schulde be left to peple fro the Apostlis undir heering and mynde to be holde and bileeved of the peple greet as feith , these pointis and articlis schulde be tho rather than othere , or as soon as othere ; that is to seie : we schulen prie toward the Eest , we schulen blesse us with a cros , Prestis schulen make tre foold crossis upon the brede and wyne offride in the a●ter bifore the consecracioun , the font of baptim schal be blessid with oile , and baptisid persoonys schulen be anointed with oile . But so it is that ech of the seid governauncis takun ther bigynnyng and ordinaunce of oure Fadirs oonli not the Apostlis bi a chapiter of holi Ba●ile in the summe of Gracian , Dist. XI . c. Ecclesiasticorum . And in the same wise it is to be demed of holi water , whom Alisaundir the first and Pope ordeynyd . And of holi brede and of the moost parti of observaciouns in the Masse , and of the fasting Lent , and of manye othere suche observaciouns , whom alle holi Fadirs sithen the Apostlis ordeynyd , and as it appereth by opene witnessing of writings . Wherfore it is not to be holde that eny othere observaciouns or articlis dyvers fro these now rehercid the Apostlis bitoke without writing to be kept and to be bileeved as such seid greet feith . Also holi Basile the now bifore alleggid c. in the summe of Gracian , c. XI . Ecclesiasticorum , departith tho thingis whiche alle Cristen owen to holde and to bileeve into III. membris , that is to seie , into thingis pointis or articlis , which to us levith and bitakith apostolik ordinaunce , that is to seie , ordinaunce of a Pope , or of Popes , which to us bitaketh holi Scripture , and which to us bitaketh devoute uce chosen of the mo part of the peple . Wherfore holi Basile conceyved no mo membris than these III. to be nedis takun and kept of Cristen peple : and thanne folowith that he conceyvyd not such a fourth membre to be takun and kept of the peple , that is to seie , whiche the Apostlis taugten and leften and bitoken for substauncial feith without writing . And that bi the first nowe rehercid membre Basile undirstood Popis ordinauncis it is likli therfore : Forwhi the ordinauncis of Popis ben ful famose and more famose and more reverente attendaunce in the comoun peple than is the custom and usage of the comoun peple , or at the leest of and even so myche . Wherfore it is likli that Basile left not Popis ordinauncis unspokun of in his particioun bifore seid . But othere it is that he speke not of Popis ordinauncis , but if he speak , therof in the first membre of the sei● particioun . Wherfore it is trewe , that he so speke . And so fynally forto seie into the principal entent of this present chapiter , y am not ware that the Chirche techis or delyverith eny thing to be suche seid catholick feith as a treuthe doon or taught in tym of Crist or of the Apostlis , exceptid which is conteynyd expressely in the writing of the newe testament or following prof in former argument . If eny othere man kan remembre him of othere or of 〈◊〉 , wel be it . But yitt thingis doon or taugt longe aftir tyme of the Apostlis the Chirch may determyn for such seid feith , thoug not as a treuthe doon or taugt or revealid bi God in the tyme of Crist or of the Apostlis , but l●tir aftir the tyme of Crist and of the Apostlis : among whiche thingis declarid bi the Chirch for feith not conteynyd expresse●t or impressel● in holi Scripture , if eny such be , y remembre me nowe of noon , save of it what is bifore seid in this seid chapiter lo●gen to the c●nony●●ng of Seintis . And that if eny such be , which condicioun y seie for peraventure it may be hold and undirst●nd wee l , that the Chirch ●ntendith not forto decree and determyn and publisch this to be an article of such seid feith , Thomas of Cantirbiri is a seynt , John of Bridlington is a seynt , Ambrose is a seynt , and so of othere lyk divers fro Marie , and fro the Apostlis in the newe testament , but the Chirch admyttith and allowith them to be holde and morschiped and fo●●wid for seintis in al , or in myche thing taugt or doon bi them , & ellis peple schulde not courtesi so do , as the Chirch 〈◊〉 not or determyneth neyther publisc●●th the writings of Ambros , of Jerom , of Austyn to be trewe , but admittis them to be take in 〈◊〉 of stydiyng , and of reading and heering with fredom to feele of them evydencys nowe reasona●li and sufficientli more in tyme comyng whiche writing is schulden not ellis boldely and ●o●●seli be take into suche studiyng , reading and heering as thei now ben take ; ne were the seid admissioun doon upon them bi the Chirch , even as the Chirch repellith and we●●neth the writingis of sinn othere writers to be take into uce of reeding and heering courseli , of which both dedis doon bi Pope Gelasi mensioun is maad in the summe of Gracian Dist. XV ▪ c. Sancta Romana , and therfore thoug y wole not exclude fro sum what helping into the grounding myraclis and revelaciouns and longe uce of bileeving in the Chirch , namelich which may be in longe uce of understaunding thus or thus holi Scripture , as for his litteral sence yitt thei ben ech ful feble in him silf for to found the seid feith , but he be sufficienth proved and tried . And ferthemore it seimeth that the Apostlis entendiden not for to give eny catholick feith necessarie to Cristen Mennys savacioun bi word oonli to be kept without writing and remembraunce , and so bi al that is writen fro the biginnen of this present chapiter hiderto , it semeth that the Clergie ougte not induce or constreyne the othere peple into bilieve and feith of othere pointis and articlis as upon the feith of whom is hangen oure salvacioun than ben expressid in the litteral sense of holi Scripture , or following them so expressed . O Fadir , y am mych delitid in your so wise and depe forth leeding of the seid now bifore goyng pro●●s . Nevertheless y truste so moche in youre to me good Fadirhood that ye wole suffre me make agens your doctrine this now to folowe objectioun . Oon of the best Clerkis and wisist Divins and clepid therfore the Doctour Sutel Scotus , seith in his writing that this article Crist in his deith of bodi discerdid into hellis is an article of necessarie feith . And that for as myche as it is putte in the comoun crede , whiche e●ede is ascribid to have be maad of the Apostlis , and yitt this ●ame article , as he seith , is not groundid in holi Scripture . Wherfore youre doctryne stondith not , if this Doctour was not in this his newe seide sentence bigilid . O Sone , he berith him ful wel which is never bigilid , namelich if he write myche or teche myche . For as holi Scripture seith in myche spechis defaut is not wanting . But that the seid Doctour was in this conceit bigilid , so y may schewe thus . In the tyme of Austyn and of othere holi Clerkis aboute Austyns tyme the comoune crede hadde not withynne him this seid article : Crist in his deeth of bodi descendid to hellis , as y prove in the book of feith in Latyn . And no man may seie that the Apost●is settiden thilk article in the comoun crede , a this side the daies of Apostlis . Wherfore nedis it is trewe that neither bifore neither aftir Austyns daies the Apostlis settiden thilk article into the comoun crede . And so the grounde Foundemente and cause whi the seid Doctour held the seid article to be a feith is not trewe , that is to seie , that the Apostlis puttiden thilk article into the comoun crede ▪ and that the Kirke may make noon such article of feith , is bifore schewid in of this present chapiter the for-heed . That in the tyme of Austyn and of othere holi Fadris about Austyns tyme the comoun crede had not this seid article it is opene bi diverse and manye omelies and expo-siciouns , which Austyn and the othere seid Fadris maden , expownyng the comoun crede in ther daies rennyng . And that fro article to article bi and bi fro the first unto the last , and thei leeven unspokun of the now seid article . And also thei overleepen this article . Caetera desunt . An Alphabetical TABLE of the more Obsolete English Words to be found in the Treatise , with their Significations . A. AGens , against . Aghe , against . Agenbie , redeem . Agens metith , opposeth . Algatis , in all respects . Aligting , facilitating . Anentis , concerning . Anoon , presently . Apocri●is , Apocryphal . Apower , able . Ari , Arlus . Assoilid , refuted . A this side , since . Auter , Altar . Aviseable , deliberate . Avisement , deliberation . B. Bede , commanded . Benefetis , benefits . Berith , behaveth . Bi , by . Bifelle , be●el . Biknows , acknowledgeth . Bileeve , bel●ef . Birden , burden . Biried , buried . Bisi , bulsie . Bisidis , besides . Bitaken , delivered . Bitooke , delivered . Boondis , contents . Boonys , gifts , graces . Brennyng , burning . Brent , burnt . Buidingis , commands . C. Cast him , set himself . Certis , certainly . Chargeose , expensive . Chauncis , accidents . Che●●r , superior . Clepid , called . Comberose , cumbersom . Combre , loud . Comonute , soc●ety . Conicacioun , examination . Coude , could . Courseli , hastily . D. Deed , dead . Deeme , judge . Dekene , Deacon . Demed , considered . Departid , divided . Departith , divideth . Dewe , due . Discencioun , dissention . Doome , judgment . Dougten , doubtful . Dowte , doubt . Dressing , beating . Dunte , ●ame . Durid , lasted . Dwelliden , dwelt . Dymme , dim . E. Ellis , else . Ennok , Enoch . Eny , any . Erthe , earth . Esili , easily . Evene , equ●l . Expowne , expound . F. Fadir , father . Fadris , fathers . Feende , dev●l . Felle , happened . Fer , far . Ferthe , forth . Fier , fire . Finucius , Paphnutius . Folowing , consequence . Folowingli , consequently . Forheed , foregoing part . Foundement , foundation . Fro , from . G. Gede , went. Gendrid , born . Goostli , spiritual ▪ Govun , given . Grete , great . Groundeli , fundamentally . Groundier , firmer . Grow in , intervene . H. Hadde , had . Han , have . Hangement , hanging . Han , have . Heed , head . Heere , hear . Hemsilf , themselves . Her , their . Herden , heard . Here that , whereas . Here 's , heirs . Hige , high . Hise , his . Holde , hold . Holi , holy . Hondis , hands . Hool , whole . Hyve , company . I. Igen , eyes . Impresseli , impl●citly . Ion , John. Ioon , John. Iugis , Judges . K. Kinde , nature . Kindeli , natural or ordinary . Kirke , Church . Kunne , can . Kunnyng , knowledg . Kuntre , countrey . L. Leefir , more willing . Lesingis , lies . Lettris , letters . Liggist , lyeth . Likli , likely . Litil , little . Longid to , belonged . Lyf , life . Lyk , like . Lyvyng , living . M. Maad , made . Mannys , many . Mawle , male . Mede , Salvation . Mennys , mens . Mensioun , mention . Mete agens , oppose . Mo , more . Moche , much . Money , many . More , greater . Morewe , morrow . Mowe , may . Myche , much . Mygte , power . Mygten , might . Mynystriden , administred . Myraclus , m●raculous . N. Namelich , namely . Ne , neither . Nede , necessity . Nedis , necessarily . Ni●asse , unless . Noon , none . Notabili , notably . Noumbre , number . Nylling , nulling . O. Omelies , Homilies . Oold , old . Oon , one . Oonli , only . Oonys , once . Openli , mani●estly . Othre , other . Overer , super●ours . Owen , ought . P. Pacchis and cloutis , additions . Parischens , Parishioner . Paske , Passeover . Peces mele , p●ecemeal . Per●it , perfect . Persoonys , persons . Physisien , Physitian . Poulis , Pauls . Prechiden , preached . Premyssis , propositions . Pretense , pretended . Prie , pray . Privey , private . Processe , passage . Proficied , prophesied . Prologgis , prologues . Puplischid , published . Purveied , provided . R. Radde , read . Recleimed , opposed . Redi , ready . Releef and resca●l , poorer and meaner sort . Renne , run . Rennyng , running or curr●nt . Rennyng herewith , concuring to it . Resoned , learned . Resoun , reason . Reule , rule . Rewine , room . Rightwisnesse , justice . Roos , rose . Route , multitude . S. Saaf , safe . Sad , grave . Sadnesse , gravity . Save the caase , solve the question . Scant , scarce . Schai , shall . Schapide , prepared . Sche , she . Schewe , shew . Schipp , ship . Schope , intended or ordered . Schortli , shortly . Schotte , slew . Schulde , should . Scole , school . Se , see . Seche , seek . Seie , say . Servage , bondage . Settid , resolved . Settiden , placed . Seyntis , Saints . Sigen , did see . Sikir , secure . Sikirli , securely . Sithen , since . Slider , uncertain . Sone , Son. Sooth , truth ▪ Sothe , certain . Sotheli , certainly . Sowdan , Soldan . Stabili , firmly . Stirid , stirred . Suffraunce , permission . Sugget , subject . Sum , some . Summe , some . Sunken in , drawn in . Synnys , Sins . T. Take mark , be shewed . Takun , assumed . Teche , teach . Thanne , then . Thei , they . Thennes , thence . Theuke , meditate . Thi , thy . Thilk , that , or the said . Tho , those . Thorug , through . Tho that , who . Ti● to , unto . Togidere , together . Tre , three . Trenys , lamentations . Tretid , treated . Treuli , treuly . Trew , true . Trouthis , truths . Trowe , believe . Tungis , tongues . Twey , two . Twies , twice . V. Uce , use . Uerri , very . Ueyn , vain . Uidewite , widowhood . Unbigilefulnesse , veracity . Undeptabili , undoubtedly . Undoutabili , undoubtedly . Unto tyme , un●●l . Unwist , unknown . Urri , true . W. Waast , vain . Waisching , washing . Wee l , well . Weie , way . Wel prisid , well esteemed . Weren , were . Werkis , works . Werre , War. Weved , complained . Whanne , when . Whicchecraft , witchcraft . Whilis , whilst . 100 Wintre , 100 years . Wiste , know . Withoute forth , external . Withynne forth , internal . Witti , learned . Wittis , undirstanding . Wittyngis , testimonies . Wolden , would . Wole , will. Worching , working . Worschipid , worshiped . Worschipid , esteemed . Wyf , Wife . Y. Y , I. Ydel , idle . Ye , you . Yere , year . Yhe , yea . Yitt , yet . Ynoug , enough . Ysidir , Isidore . Yvel , evil . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A53931-e170 * Tract . in Ioan. 96 , 97. † Lib. Strom. passim . ‖ De Praescript . Haeres . * Lib. 3. cap. 2. lib. 2. cap. 3. Quia non possit ex his ( S. Scripturis ) inveniri veritas ab his qui nesciunt Traditionem . Non enim per literas traditam illam sed per vivam vocem . Ibid. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Apologetic . in fine Prologi . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Post medium . * Dissuasive from Popery . Par. 2. lib. 1. Sect. 2. † Sed tum S. Doctrina hujusmodi auctoritatibus ( philosophorum ) utitur quasi extrantis argumentis & probabilibus , auctoritatibus autem Canonicae Scripturae utitur propriè ex necessitate argument●ndo , auctoritatibus autem allorum doctorum eccl●siae , quasi arguendo ex propri●s sed probabilibus . Inniiitur enim fides nostra revelationi Apostolis & Prophetis factae , quì canonicos libros scripserunt ● non autem revelationi , si qua fuit aliis Doctoribus facta . Unde dicit Augustinus in epistolâ ad Hier. &c. par . 1. qu. 1. art . 8. * Non tamen ex hoc aliquid deperit S. Scripturae ; quia nihil sub spirituali sensu continetur fidei necessarium , quod Scriptur per literalem sensum alicubi manifestè non tradat . Art. 10. † De Deo dicere non debemus , quod in S. Scripturâ non invenitur , vel per verba , vel per sensum . qu. 36. Art. 2. * Primò , secundùm authoritates Sanctarum Scripturarum , utrùm fides ita se habeat , demonstrandum . Sentent . lib. 1. Dist. 2. qu. 3. † 1.2 . qu. 106 ▪ Art. 2. ‖ Lex nova principaliter ipsa gratia est Spiritûs S. in corde fidelium scripta ; secundariò autem est lex scripta , prout in ●â traduntur illa , quae vel ad gratiam disponunt , vel ad usum ipsius gratiae spectant . Ibid. * Omnia quae credenda traduntur in Novo Testamento explicitè & apertè , traduntur credenda in Veteri Testamento , sed implicitè & sub figurâ , & secundùm hoc etiam quantùm ad credenda lex nova continetur in veteri . Ibid. Art. 3. † Tenetur homo explicitè credere omnes fidei articulos , implicitè verò quaecunque in sacrâ traduntur Scripturâ . 2.2 . Qu. 1. Art. 5. Concl. ‖ Videtur quod inconvenient●r articuli fidei in Symbolo ponantur . Sacra enim Scriptura est regula fidei cui nec addere nec substrahere licet . Dicitur enim , &c. 2.2 . Qu. 1. Art. 9. * Ad primum ergo dicendum , quòd veritas fidei in S. Scripturis diffusè continetur , & variis modis , &c. Et ideò fuit necessarium ut ex sententiis S. Scripturae aliquid manifestum summariè colligeretur , quod propon●retur omnibus ad credendum : quod quidem non est additum S. Scripturae , sed potiùs ex S. Scripturâ disumptum . Ibid. † Eos enim talem potestatem & authoritatem habuisse à Christo tenemur credere ; qualem per verba Scripturae sibi tradita convincere possumus , nonaliam . Defensor pacis . l. 2. c. 4. ‖ Nulli sermoni vel scripturae fidem sive credulitatem certam aut confessionem veritatis praestare tenemur , nisi iis quae Canonicae appellantur , i. e. quae in volumine Bibliae continentur . Ibid. l. 2. c. 28. * De gest . Concil . Basil. l. 1. paulò ante med . † Scriptura sacra est regula fidei , contra quam bene intellectam non est admittenda authoritas seu ratio , &c. Haec regula fundamentum est commune nobis & haereticis quos impugnare conamur . Tract . contra Haeresi● de commun . sub utráque speci● , Opp. Tom. 1. p. 521. Nihil audendum dicere de divinis , nisi quae nobis à Scripturâ sacrâ tradita sunt . Cujus ratio est quoniam Scriptura nobis tradita est tanquam regula sufficiens & infallibilis pro regimi●t totius Ecclesiastici corporis & membrorum usque in finem saeculi . Est igitur talis ars , talis regula vel exemplar , cui se non conformans alia doctrin● vel abjicienda est , ut haereticalis , aut suspecta ; aut impertinens ad religionem prorsus est habenda . Suspecta est omnis revelatio , quam non confirmat lex &c prophetae cum Evangelio . Alioquin , &c. De Examinat . Doctrin . Par. 2. Tom. 1. p. 541. * Constat autem quòd Canon Bibliae lex est Dei per revelationem habita ; cujus Assertiones literales innituntur huic unico literali principio . Declarat . verit . quae credenda sunt de necessit . salut . Tom. 1. p. 414. † Licet autem Ecclesiae militantis authoricas sit maxima , &c. non illi tamen nos oportet ( ut videtur ) triumphantis Ecclesiae titulos ascribere , ut infallibilis sit & impeccabilis , quae saepe , ut nôsti & fallit & fallitur . — Mirum sanè primâ specie satis videtur , quòd authoritatem peregrinantis in terrâ Ecclesiae authoritati videtur Evangelii anteponere : cùm in multis illa falli possit , illud omnino nequaquam possit : & cum ipsius Ecclesiae authoritas quantum ad ipsius radicem & fundamentum maximè ex Evangelio constet , &c. Disput. de materiâ Conc. Gen. p. 61 , 62. Lugd. Bat. 1613. † Doctrinale fidei antiquae . Tom. 1. lib. 2. cap. 20 , 21 , 22. ‖ Qui adhuc credunt Scripturarum Canon●m imperfectum , & posse adhuc augeri per authoritatem Ecclesiae , cum Iudaeis plenitudinem temporis expectant , Iudaico forsan sub Messia . cap. 2● . Nec tamen hîc laudo supericilium quod quidam attollunt , volentes occasione hujus dicti decretum patrum in Ecclesiâ majoris esse auctoris & culminis & ponderis , quàm sit auctoritas Scripturarum . Quod quidem non tam ineptum videtur quàm satuum : nisi talis quis dicat , &c. cap. 21. * Subjicitur tamen ipsi , sicut testis judici , & testimonium veritati , sicut praeconizatio definitioni , & sicut praeco regi . Ibid. Cap. 22. * Omnium optimè atque certissime Scripturis Canonicis . Ecce quatuor vias veniendi ad indubiam veritatem , sed plus & minùs certas , quarum prima & certissima est per Scripturas Divinas . Ibid. † Quòd autem praedictus articulus sit inter alios omnes primus , in quem omnes alii resolvuntur , manifestum est : quia si dubitatio circa alios articulos contingit , statim ad sacram Scripturam veluti ad certissimam & inobliquabilem regulam communiter recurritur ; & secundùm testimonium veritatis ejusdem sublatis dubiis veritas elucescit . — Nisi autem Ecclesiae existentia sciatur ; nulla est Scripturae authoritas . Concil . Tom. XII . p. 1025. Praecipuè & maximè ●sumenda est ex authoritate S. Scripturae . p. 1026. ‖ Sexta Suppositio . Fides & omnia necessaria ad salutem tam credenda quàm agenda fundantur in sensu literali ( S. Scripturae ) & ex ipso solo argumentatio sumitur ad probandum ea quae fidei sunt vel necessitatis ad salutem . p. 1028. † Septima suppositio . S. Scriptura in sensu literali sanè & benè intellecta est infallibilis fidei regula & sufficientissima . * Si S. Scriptura non esset sufficiens fidei regula , sequeretur quòd , &c. p. 1029. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil . Flor. Sess. 8. Conc. Tom. XIII . p. 14● . * N●gari non potest , etsiper modum declarationis veniret , qui● sit additio , quae prohibita videtur , & prohibitum hoc verbum apponi . Cùm verò induxistis actae Patrum , quibus aliqua videntur declarari , dubium nostrum non tangit . Nam quòd aliquod apponatur fidei , hoc nunquam licuit , neque licebit . Concil . Flor. par . 2. Collat. 7. Concil . Tom. XIII . p. 935. ‖ Dicitis sic , dogmata fidei sumuntur ex fonte Scripturarum , quae sunt principia fidei . Ex hoc dicto inferimus nos , quòd declaratio , expressio & explicatio , quae fit circa articulum fidei vel symboli , per Scripturas Evangelii , epistolas Pauli , & Vit. & Nov. Testamenti , nullo modo est extrinseca reputanda , aut alterìus gene●●● doctrina ; cùm sit doctrina Dei & Ecclesiae . Quia tunc tantùm dicitur probatio extrinseca , quando fit non per principia illius doctrinae , sed , &c. Ergo probatio & declaratio quae fit per hujusmodi Scripturas , fit notoriè per principia propria fidei , & intrinseca doctrinae nostrae . Ibid. Collat. 10. p. 959. Immò nec propriè additio dici debet , illo dato , sc. quòd ex propriis principili fidei , so . ex S. Scripturis evidenter deducatur . Ibid. p. 960. † In concernentious fidem Concilium est supra Papam . — Puto tamen quòd si Papa moveretur melioribus rationibus , &c. Nam & Concilium potest errare , sicut aliàs erravit . Nam in concernentibus fidem etiam dictum unius privati esset praeferendum dicto Papae , si ille moveretur melioribus rationibus N. & V. Testamenti quàm Papa . In cap. Significâsti de electione . * Par. 3. tit . 23. cap. 2. Sect. 6. † Loquitur Deus in Scripturis , & ita copiosè ( ut Gregorius exponit 22. Moral . ) quòd non oportet Deum iterum loqui nobis aliquid necessarium , cùm ibi omnia habeantur . Par. 3. lib. 18. cap. 3. ‖ Dial. l. 2. c. 1. * Vide Quaest. 21. punct . 2. quaestiunc . 3. Edit . Neap. 1618. † Vide Edit . Lugd. 1518. * De Script . Angl. Cent. 8. p. 594. * Cent. 8. p. 594. † De praesul . Ang. p. 559. ‖ Martyrol . vol. 1. p. 928. * Dial. par . 1. l. 5. c. 25. † Quaest. Vesper . Art. 3. ‖ Tom 1. l. ● . c. 19. * Loc. supra cit . † Concord . Cath. l. 2. c. 3 , 4. ‖ Disp. de Conc. * Sentent . l. 4. dist . 11. * Sentent . l. 4. dist . 11. † In 4 Senten . qu. 6. Art. 4. ‖ In 4. Senten . Dist. 11. qu. 3. * De Eucharist . lib. 1. Notes for div A53931-e6040 * Peter Comestor . Notes for div A53931-e7330 * Paphnutius . 
A60586	----	A sermon of the credibility of the mysteries of the Christian religion preached before a learned audience / by Tho. Smith ... Smith, Thomas, 1638-1710. 1675 Approx. 108 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 42 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A60586 Wing S4250 ESTC R10064 13773207 ocm 13773207 101752 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A60586) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 101752) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 850:29) A sermon of the credibility of the mysteries of the Christian religion preached before a learned audience / by Tho. Smith ... Smith, Thomas, 1638-1710. [4], 76 p. Printed by Tho. Roycroft for Ric. Davis ..., London : 1675. Errata: p. [4] Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- N.T. -- Timothy, 1st, III -- Sermons. Faith -- Sermons. Faith -- Early works to 1800. Apologetics -- Early works to 1800. Apologetics -- History -- 17th century. 2005-04 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-06 Andrew Kuster Sampled and proofread 2005-06 Andrew Kuster Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SERMON OF THE Credibility of the Mysteries OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION , Preached before a LEARNED AUDIENCE . By THO. SMITH , Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen College in Oxon. LONDON , Printed by Tho. Roycroft , for Ric. Davis Bookseller in Oxford , 1675. Imprimatur , Sept. 7 h. 1674. C. Smith R. P. D. Episc . Lond. à Sacris Domest . Nobilissimo Viro , D. ROBERTO BOYLE , Verae ac Solidae Pietatis , Summae eruditionis , Instaurandae sanioris Philosophiae , Optimè de literis tam Sacris quam Humanioribus merendi Famâ longè celeberrimo , Magno aevi Exemplo & Ornamento : T. S. Hanc Concionem ( unà cum Appendice ) coram Academicis Oxoniensibus , solenni S. Marci Evangelistae Festo , In sacello Collegii B. Mariae Magdalenae Superiori anno habitam , In debitae observantiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Lubens merito dedicat consecrátque . ERRATA . P. 7. l. 10. — 〈◊〉 . p. 15. l. 13. belief . p. 17. l. 7. the ordin ▪ l. 23. ingenious . p. 21. l. 24. for its read his . p. 26. l. 10 ▪ revealed , . p. 28. l. 15. when . p. 34. l. 14. belongs . p. 42. l. 5. for I , read we ▪ p. 45. l. 12 ▪ the onely . p. 48. l. 24. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Appendix refers to Page 47. A SERMON Preached before a Learned Audience . 1 TIM . III. the former part of the 16. verse . — Without Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness . HOW much the Doctrine of Christianity tends to the improvement of Reason and Learning , how it has brought into the World a better and more certain knowledg of God and of our selves , how it has advanced the common notices of nature , and has chased away with the clear evidences of its truth those thick shades of error , that had darkned the understanding , and has removed all those prejudices , that were taken up from sense and a very partial and deceitful observation of things , may be fully demonstrated by comparing the former estate of Mankind , before the coming of Christ in the flesh , with the present , wherever it is received in its truth and power . Men before were led by opinion and conjecture and fancy only , as to matters of Religion and the concerns of another World : They had fears upon them indeed of a divine justice , that would revenge the violation of the law of nature either here or hereafter ; and a reflection upon the strange traverses and difficulties of life had taught them to expect another life after this : but their eyes were dim however , and they could not see far into futurity ; they could have no clear deductions of particular truths for want of a right knowledg of true and certain principles : hence it was , that they were so inconstant and wavering , and knew not well where or what to fix on . But Christ by his appearance and manifesting the will of God to us , hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel , and children and persons of an ordinary reach and capacity may now easily apprehend those things , that is , in reference to God and his attributes , the misery we are in by sin , the means of our recovery from this woful estate of life , the immortality of the Soul , and the like ; which before those great Philosophers , notwithstanding all their vaunts and quests after learning , notwithstanding they set up Schools and were ambitious to give names to Sects , had but a very imperfect knowledg of . But while these truths were received by those , that were willing to be taught , and to submit themselves to the dictates of reason , and convictions of miracles , which were added to give all possible satisfaction to the understanding , others , who were resolv'd before hand not to be convinced , who had rather remain in their ignorance and idolatry and their sins , then be converted to a new Religion , and reduced to such strictness of life , as that requires , from their debaucheries and brutish pleasures , who had rather fall down before a Statue or a Picture , because their Fathers had done so before them , and because it was the established Religion of their Country , than acknowledg and adore a Crucified Saviour , reject it upon the account of the Mysteries of Faith , without ever examining the weight of the arguments , that would have enforced them upon their belief : They could not in the mean while but acknowledg the happy and glorious change , that Christianity had wrought in the World , how much it exceeds and goes beyond all the morality of the wisest and best Lawgivers and Founders of Republicks , how it not only laies down rules for the right ordering of life , but furnishes its votaries with a power to practise them ; not only shews us a way to walk in , but takes us by the hand and leads us in it : but the difficulties , it seems , that are to be met with in conceiving some of its mysteries , offended them . This was their pretence and their plea for their infidelity ; they would have demonstration for every thing , they would be taught and convinced by Syllogism , their Pride and their Self-conceit and the opinion they had of their own learning would not permit them to believe . They made their understanding the measure of all truth , and what did not suit with those narrow and low principles they had taken up , was scornfully rejected by them . The Jews , saies the Apostle , 1 Cor. 1. 22 , 23. require a Sign , and the Greeks seek after Wisdom ; but we preach Christ crucified , unto the Jews a stumbling-block , and to the Greeks foolishness . But how irrational was the demand of both ? for what greater sign could there be to the Jews , than the fulfilling of all the Prophesies in the person of Christ , even to the minute circumstances of his life and death , and those mighty miracles that shewed forth themselves in him ? what greater wisdom could the Philosophers pretend to or desire , than the wisdom of God in a mystery , as it is called , 1 Cor. 11. 7. than those clear discoveries of the divine nature and the essential perfections of the Godhead , than the admirable contrivances of the redemption of mankind by the sufferings and death of Christ , the Son of God , than the ways and means of recovering the dignity of our nature , and of living here like men , and of living hereafter like Angels ? Such a wisdom , as will not only gratifie our earnest desires and pursuits after knowledg , but will make us happy too for ever . Their weak and blear eyes could not endure such a great light that brake in upon them , and therefore they were desirous to retire into the shade . They could not fully conceive and comprehend them , they seemed therefore foolish and impossible notions , that were owing wholly to an ungovern'd imagination . And hereupon a they proceed to calumniate the Christians as a company of well-meaning and honest and good-natur'd , but very simple and over-credulous people , who took all things upon trust , without enquiring into their truth , and certainty ; for such were the slanderous accusations of b Celsus , c Lucian , and d Hierocles , and the rest of the learned enemies of the Christian Religion : They upbraided the Christians of their times , with whom they conversed , in their writings and in their discourses , that they received all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with an irrational Faith and an hasty assent , past without any examination , that they could bring no proof or demonstrative argument of what they held so pertinaciously , that nothing was required to make a Christian a Believer , as they used to speak by way of Scorn , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an unjudicious and groundless Faith ; yes certainly , a good life and a sanctified understanding , and an humble opinion of a mans self . But these are but words , and men are not to be laughed and rallied out of their faith and a well-grounded perswasion ; there is nothing of argument in scorn and passion ; they only shew the weakness of the cause , and want of reason in those , who make use of them . But now after so many myriads of Converts to the Christian Faith , after the attestation and consent of so many ages , who have examined severely the principles , on which it is founded , who would expect that any one should dare now to question the truth of it again , that men who have been baptized into it , should abjure and renounce it , should no longer acknowledg Christ their Saviour , should deny him to be God , or that he had any commission from Heaven to institute a new Religion , should act over the part of the Jews , and arraign the Son of God as an impostor , and side with the Heathen Philosophers against Christianity , as a doctrine not to be endured and embraced , and make use of their very arguments for the defence of their infidelity ? But we know whence the malice and the infidelity of these Theists proceed ; they have abandoned themselves to a wicked life , they are immersed in sensual pleasures , which they make the only end of life . They are convinced , that Christianity , which is a Doctrine according to Godliness is not consistent with such practices , which yet even nature and right reason utterly condemn . The Mysteries of Faith do not so much trouble these men , as the severity of its commands . These they cannot away with , their lusts help them to arguments against the other , and they content themselves with little pieces of Sophistry , and think to vindicate the ill course of life , they have taken up , this way . Natural conscience and an ordinary reflexion upon the works of nature will not permit them , it may be , to deny a God , though they live , as though there were none : They will acknowledg him , it may be too in a good humour , the Creatour of the World , but not the Judg and Governour of it ; they look upon themselves , as only born to gratifie their sensual appetite ; They declare equally for a liberty of living and thinking as they please . They will have no restraint laid upon their understanding , or their lives . Christianity is too strict , and therefore too difficult for them ; They may have the wit perchance , but not the morality of the Philosophers , whose very lives notwithstanding will condemn them as much as the Christian doctrine ▪ Their evil education and custome and prepossession , those great hinderances of truth , made their refusing Christianity the less inexcusable upon the account of its mysteries , while they acknowledged the rules and institutions of it to be according to the highest reason , and the exaltation of the humane nature , while these men pretend its mysteries to be therefore incredible , because the rules of it , which thwart their lusts so much , are so severe . Little or no good I know is to be done upon these men by perswasion or argument , of which they are scarce capable , who turn all things into Burlesque and ridicule : They it seems are too witty ( for so they call their boldness and want of judgment ) either to understand or embrace the principles of Christianity ; but their ill lives shew , that were they as clear as the principles of Geometry , so long as a strict and holy life is as necessary and essential to the being of a Christian , as a right and sound faith , they would except and cavil at them , and at last reject them ; and if the Gospel be hid , be esteemed after so many clear and undoubted revelations , after such evident proofs and convictions , an obscure and incredible doctrine , it is hid to them that are lost , or rather , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in them that are lost ; it is only so to such desperate and obstinate wretches , whom reason it self cannot satisfie , in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not , least the light of the glorious gospel of Christ , who is the image of God , should shine unto them . 2 Cor. iv . 3 , 4. But these are wild and extravagant persons , of debauched understandings and lives , and only to be confuted by the severity of laws ; and of the two the Christian religion has suffered more by the secret underminings of Hereticks , than by their bold attaques . These are the more dangerous enemies , who deny the truths and mysteries of it , upon a pretence of wariness and caution , and go soberly about to destroy it . But all their objections , how plausible soever , must at last resolve into obstinacy and pride : They fancy things must be , and are , as they would have them , or else they cannot be at all : They vainly suppose themselves able to search into the depths of all divine and humane knowledg , and being once prepossessed with this conceit , they grow peevish and angry because the Christian Religion proposes things to their belief , which they cannot grasp , and are too big for their understanding ; and rather than forego this beloved Principle , they will destroy the Fundamentals of Christianity , and to apply that of * Tertullian to them , nisi homini Deusplacuerit , Deus non erit , homo jam Deo propitius esse debebit : Christ shall not be God , nor satisfie the divine justice for the sins of mankind , because this seems incongruous to them ; it is a difficulty , that doth puzzle their understanding ; it is above the strength of their fancy ; their reason , they say , tells them , this cannot be ; allowing of no such thing as faith , which is the great duty of the Gospel , and forgetting , that Christianity is , as it is undoubtedly , the great mystery of Godliness . Thus under a pretence of clearing the truth of Religion , and making it the more easily intelligible , to Turks and Jews , they resist it in the true notion of it , and corrupt and destroy it ; to whom fully agrees that character , which St. Paul gave of the followers of Simon Magus , 2 Tim. iii. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , men of corrupt minds , and reprobate concerning the faith ; such whose understandings are wholly vitiated and perverted , notwithstanding the great and fierce claims they laid to knowledg , as if they were the only men , that understood the will and mind of God ; such who reject the establish'd truths of the Gospel , who have no regard to the heavenly doctrine of the Evangelists and Apostles , the truth of which they sealed and confirmed with their blood ; but do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use the words of St. * Polycarp in his Epistle to the Philippians , that is , by their fraudulent devices model the oracles of God according to their own fancies and lusts ; who set up a new Religion , which the Catholick Church of Christ never knew or was acquainted with , and endeavour to destroy the faith of Christianity , and think in the mean while they have reason on their side for so doing : and how far by their arts and subtilties and plausible insinuations , by this their slight and cunning craftiness , whereby they lie in wait to deceive ( for it is nothing else , however blancht over and disguised with shews of sober reason ) they have prevail'd upon this Age , is too sad to consider ; so that now it chiefly concerns us to secure the ground-work , the principles of the doctrine of Christ , and to oppose this growing evil , to watch and stand fast in the faith , and quit our selves like men , and not to be like children , carried away with every blast and wind of doctrine , and especially of the vain doctrine of Socinus , as it will appear , when the varnish and false colours are washt of , but to be establisht in the truth of the holy Gospel , as the Church hath taught us to pray in the Collect of this anniversary of St. Mark. To evince therefore the unreasonableness of their pretensions , I shall endeavour in the following discourse to make out these two particulars . 1. That the great mysteries of Religion cannot , and ought not to be any way prejudicial to the truth of it . 2. That the Christian Religion requires us to believe these mysteries , upon such grounds , as we cannot reject , without doing violence to our faculties , and consequently , that the rejecting and disbelieving them must be unreasonable . 1. The great mysteries of Religion cannot and ought not to be any way prejudicial to its truth . They who find fault with Christianity for proposing such great mysteries to our beliefs , and would have all things so plain and obvious , that they should command and force assent , should first trie their reason in solving the difficulties of nature ; and if notwithstanding all their labour and toil , after the most accurate researches into the nature of sensible beings , of things that we daily see and handle , of things that seem to lie level with our understanding , and are no way disproportionable to it , they cannot pretend to a perfect knowledg of them , if the ordinary operations of nature be so abstruse , and unintelligible , and these depths are not to be fathomed , if her secrets are beyond the discovery of the most piercing judgment and reason ; Religion with greater reason must be allowed to have its mysteries ; there being such a vast disproportion between things relating to God and his nature , and the things of the world . The contemplation of nature is curious and useful ; it is a part of the service and worship we owe to God the Creatour , to admire his wisdom and power in the beautiful frame and order of things , which is best done by enquiring into their natures and properties , into their powers and operations and qualities , by examining the curious contexture and the fitness and usefulness of their parts , and there is nothing in the whole universe , but deserves to be considered , and very much conduces to this end . This is the business of Philosophy , and what contemplative minds labour in the search of , to discover and make out how things were at first made , and are still continued in their being , and to find out their peculiar virtues , whereby they produce such a variety of effects , and how they may be altered or improved for the farther use and benefit of mankind . Nothing of which can be effected , at least but very imperfectly , and in a way scarce tolerable , by acquiescing in general observations , derived from weak and slight notices , without descending to severe trials and experiments , or by relying upon the principles of ordinary Philosophy , that are confessedly unintelligible , and which instead of explaining nature , do but perplex and confound the understanding , and which have nothing to maintain and keep up their credit , but the authority of a name and the immoderate love of antiquity . But whatever hypothesis we fix upon , they who have the deepest insight into nature will be forced to confess , they see but a little way , and all that they can pretend to is but conjecture and probability , that when they may seem to arrive at some satisfaction in the order and connexion of things , it is very possible and likely , that things may be made and exert their causalities otherwise , than they suppose , be their fancy never so ingenuous , and their reason never so profound and strong ( for who will be so presumptuous , as to limit either the wisdom or power of God , that he can do no more , or must do what they fancy ? ) that there are thousands of things , that they cannot give any satisfactory account of , and that the more they seek to comprehend the reason of things , the more they are at a loss , the more they are dissatisfied , and the effect of their study is nothing but disorder and trouble of mind . Now if we are convinced of the weakness and insufficiency of our reason in our ordinary speculations , if it fails us , when we attempt to give an account of our selves , and the operation of our minds , and when we have to do with plain matters of sense , how unfit and unable must it be to comprehend and make out things , that stand at that infinite distance from it , to which it bears no proportion ? They may as well pretend that all these great difficulties and perplexities , we meet with in the conceptions of things , should be taken away , that all men ought to be born compleat Philosophers , and be inspir'd with the perfect knowledg of things , which they cannot attain to after several years , spent in labour and study , that nothing should exist , but what we can conceive , and that the truth and possibility of things should not derive from the will and pleasure of God , and from that Idea he has in his divine understanding , but only take their measures , and be judged by those narrow conceptions , we borrow from sense . Men are not to be disputed out of the belief of their senses , that there is no such thing as motion , or continuity of parts in extended matter , because of the great difficulties , that attend the conception of them , and things are daily produced and by degrees arrive at the perfection of their being , and perform actions suitable to their respective natures , though Philosophers disagree in their opinions , and are dissatisfied one with another , and cannot tell how or in what manner they do all this . 2. Thus Nature has its Mysteries ; and who will undertake to explain Secondly , the Mysteries of Providence , and account for all those extraordinary events , which have hapned in all ages of the world ; O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and power of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments , and his wayes past finding out ! Rom. xi . 33. It is presumption to enquire too busily into the ends and reasons of God's proceedings with men , as well as impiety to find fault with them . This should satisfie us , that God , who is of infinite perfection , neither does nor can do any thing , that is unjust ; that he governs the World by an infinite wisdom , that he permits men to act according to the liberty of their will ; and that they stand accountable to him for the actions of their lives ; and that they are but his instruments to bring about his eternal purposes and decrees ; and that nothing comes to pass without his ordering or foresight ; and that all those cross dispensations are for wise ends , best known to himself . Why things are thus , for instance , why the Jews were selected by him to be his peculiar people ; why the coming of the Messias in the flesh was deferred so long ; why so many Heathen Nations lie yet unconverted , and the like , must be referred wholly to his divine will and pleasure , which is guided by rules of eternal rectitude and wisdom . Let it abundantly content us in all changes and chances of this mortal life , in all those distinguishing acts of Providence , that are every where visible between Nation and Nation , or between man and man in respect of the outward conditions and states of being , that God will have it so . God is wonderful in his doings with the children of men . These things call for our admiration : They are secrets not to be enquired into ; which way soever we look , whether up to heaven , or down upon the earth and sea , and observe what is done in each , or whether we turn our eyes inward , we shall find our selves surrounded with wonders , too great for our knowledg , and enough to baffle and confound our curiosity , and to convince us , that there is as well an infinite distance between God and us , in respect of wisdom , as of power . Now would these men have the state of things altered and changed , and the world new modelled , and new laws given to mankind , and a new nature too , and all things reduced to an easier order , and regulated by their fancies , that so nothing may be above their capacity and understanding ? What is this , but the effect of a foolish pride , that is discontented and troubled , that so many things are out of his reach and power , and that will scarce be brought to acknowledg , that God can do , more than they fancy or comprehend ? 3. Besides , those who object against the instituted religion of our Saviour , the greatness of its mysteries , may use the same arguments against the principles of natural religion . That there is an infinite being , in whose Idea is essentially included all possible perfection , is the voice and dictate of nature , right reason , and conscience , and evidenced by the constant and uninterrupted order and course and frame of the universe , and by the universal consent of mankind , who have rites and ceremonies of religion , their Priests and their Sacrifices , to whom they offer up prayers and oblations , to whom they appeal for justice when injured , and to whom they flie for refuge and succour , when they are distressed and in danger , as it were by instinct , and without any deliberation . But notwithstanding this evidence and clearness and demonstration of the existence of a God , they will not pretend to understand fully the nature of the Godhead . That God is infinite in essence and power , and that all things owe their being to his will , they must be forced to confess , or else deny his being , and fancy an infinite series of causes , infinite periods of motions , and an infinite succession of generations , which is absurd and contradictious and impossible , though they have only a negative notion of infinity . Our understandings cannot reach so far , as to have a compleat and comprehensive notion of it ▪ and when we cannot give satisfactory accounts concerning the affections of a natural body , as motion , place , time ; much less can it be expected , that we should do this concerning eternity , immensity , or the other necessary and essential attributes of God : so that the difficulty of conceiving a thing does not any way hinder the truth and possibility of its existence . However the most scrupulous and inquisitive may be satisfied , that there are such attributes , and that consequently upon a reflection , not only on the nature of God , but on the scant measures of knowledg in creatures , it is necessary , they should be above our reach and comprehension . As we may discover much in a curious piece of art , or wonder of nature , as the Load-stone , or any Electrical body : we may find out some virtue in a plant , or mineral , or peculiar sort of earth ; and yet oftentimes after a laborious search , the best Naturalists are forced to confess , that there is or may be at least a great deal more , than what they have discovered . But here , they say , that the understanding neither does nor can admit of any thing incredible ; and we say so too . God doth not , and consequently the Christian Religion , which is the doctrine and revelation of God , does not propose any thing to us , as the object of our faith , that is really impossible in it self , and involves in it a perfect and manifest contradiction ; and nothing less can or ought to be judged incredible . But when they pretend , that no proposition ought or can be believed farther , than it may be cleared up to the understanding by the evidence of natural reason , or of the things themselves contained in it , we reject it as an unjust and unreasonable demand , which will fully appear by shewing the falseness of both parts of the supposition . 1. It is utterly false , that nothing is credible , but what can be proved and made out by reason . There are indeed several degrees of credibility , according to which the mind does admit some things with a greater ease and freeness than others . But however be the matter proposed never so unlikely or unusual , if the authority be just and good , it must not therefore be pronounced incredible , because perchance it is not fully agreeable to the present state of affairs and practice of the World , or because I have some little prejudice against it . For as in a matter of fact , where there are sufficient proofs given of a Relators both honesty and knowledg , when I have all the assurance in the World , that such a matter is capable of , and that he could not mistake in understanding it , and that his words and thoughts do not in the least disagree , when I can object nothing but a groundless surmise , that possibly , and for ought I know , it may be otherwise , this will challenge my assent , and be a sufficient warrant to me to believe it , whether I have a clear Idea of it or no : for this unlikeliness and seeming repugnancy of it , may arise from my being ignorant of several circumstances , the knowledg of which would render it probable and easie : so is it in matter of Doctrine ; whatsoever is proposed by God , becomes thereby immediately credible , and my assent is rational and just , though the thing be above my apprehension ; and this I must ascribe to the greatness of the object , and the imperfections of my reason , which neither is nor can pretend to be an arbiter and judge in such matters , which are too high for it : so that before a man can safely pronounce a doctrine , that is revealed , incredible , and reject it as such , he must question the power and veracity of God , and maintain , that nothing is possible , but what we can comprehend ; and thus under a pretence of caution , betray the greatest immodesty in the world , when he himself believes several other things , upon the bare testimony of men , which neither his wit nor curiosity , nor his reason can ever be able satisfactorily to make out and demonstrate . 2. It is equally false , that no Proposition ought to be believed , but what may be cleared up to the understanding by the evidence of the things themselves . The falseness of which assertion I shall fully evince in these three particulars ; by shewing 1. That it destroyes the nature Faith. 2. It takes away the blessedness and rewardableness annext to it . 3. It reflects on the Wisdom and Soveraignty of God , who may , if it pleases him , propose such things to us , and command us to believe them . 1. It destroyes the nature of Faith. To believe in general , in the proper notion of it , is to assent to things upon the discovery and attestation of others , which are not evident and apparent of themselves ; that is , when I have no demonstrative or sensible knowledg of things , I admit and judge them to be true , not because I either saw them , and can assure my self of them by any of my other senses , or because they are so evident to my reason , that I must needs embrace them , as a principle or conclusion in Philosophy , but because I have received them from another , who informs me and gives me this account of them , for whose sake I assent to them as real and certain . By which it is distinguished from science , which is grounded upon the evidence and clearness of the apprehension of the respective propositions or objects , when things are so plain that they do necessitate our assent , as that the opposite members of a true and perfect contradiction cannot belong to the same thing at the same time , that equals added to equals make equals , that in a triangle , three angles are always equal to two right angles , and the like . And the like assurance and certainty of knowledg is gained , when we draw conclusions according to rule and the laws of method from first principles , which are assented to , assoon as they are proposed , and the terms understood ; whence there is an immediate dependance and connexion of things , and one thing naturally follows another ; Then we are said to know a thing , when we can run it up to its first principles , can trace its original and cause , and understand its effects and operations . This distinction being so just and natural , to call for evidence and demonstration in things proposed to be believed , is to confound different assents of the mind , to turn Religion into Science , to destroy the truth of History , and Tradition , and Revelation , and to fall into Scepticism , and doubt whether any thing be certain , but what we see and can prove and represent by a Scheme , and at last question whether our Sense , and what we call our Reason do not deceive us , or else , which is the effect of a greater phrensie , run our selves into this gross absurdity , that we are as wise as God , and that he can do no more , than what our gross fancies will have him . That then some of the grand articles of Religion are not so clear , as Propositions in Metaphysicks or Theorems in Geometry , or indeed are not clear at all , cannot be objected against their credibility . They are in themselves as certain and as infallible ; nay more certain and more infallible , if infallibility may be supposed to admit of degrees ; but in reason , it cannot be expected , our knowledg of them should be as explicit and as clear : Supernatural Truths are not , cannot be determined or judged of by proofs , derived from nature or sense ; they have proper proofs of their own , as all other arts and sciences have . To judge of these things therefore by our narrow conceptions , is a most false and unwarrantable way of procedure ; and indeed it cannot seem strange , that so much Error and Blasphemy and all that direful train of Heresies , in matters relating to God and Religion , which have so much disturb'd the peace of Christendome , should spring from this one absurd and corrupt principle . Hence it was also , that a Orpheus , and the other Greek Poets have dressed up their Gods in the habit and figure of men , and cloathed them with all the infirmities and passions incident to humane nature , and hereby made way for all the debaucheries and superstitions , that lust could possibly suggest , or a troubled fancy invent . They made use of no other faculty to judg of God , but a gross imagination ; b Epicurus upon this very slight pretence excluded God from having any thing to do in the ordering and governing of the world , because he fancied , this could not be done without anxiety and trouble , like the due management of a great charge or employment , which takes up ones whole time , and requires contrivance and study and foresight to keep things in an equal poise , to prevent disorders , to apply remedies to the least inconveniences , that otherwise might quickly grow and improve into a mischief , and to secure all by an equal distribution of rewards and punishments ; forgetting that God's power is infinite and inexhaustible ; that his eyes reach from one end of the world to the other , and see into the very essences of things ; that all things are at his absolute disposal and command ; that trouble only arises either from fear of success , or when we are overwhelm'd with business , or our strength is not proportionable or any way sufficient to sustain so great a weight . Aetius presently rejects the eternal generation of the Son of God , because this does not in all things agree with natural generations ; and because it cannot be so with men , he impiously and dogmatically concludes , it is an impossible notion , and thinks he has reason for his blasphemy and peremptoriness , by laying down seven and forty arguments for it , as they are numbred and confuted by * Epiphanius in his Panarium . The same gross fancies have the Mahometans of this article of faith to this day , who deride the Christians , by asking impious questions concerning it , and even in their Devotion renounce it with a great deal of earnestness , with a far be it from thee , what the Christians impute to thee ; as if man were the measure and standard of all things , even of God himself , who made him , and who is of infinite perfection , beyond the utmost reach of fancy , or conception . His actions and understanding must needs as much transcend ours , as does his essence . His ways are not as our ways , nor his thoughts as our thoughts . Isa. lv . 8. 2. This Hypothesis of theirs , that nothing is or ought to be believ'd but what is cleared up to the understanding by the evidence of the things themselves , does wholly take away the Blessedness and Rewardableness annext to Faith. One necessary condition to make any action capable of reward or commendation is , that it flow from a principle of liberty ; and herein man , who is endowed with reason , the only true foundation of it , has the preeminence above all other creatures , that act only by instinct , or the force of appetite , or by necessity of * Nature ; He becomes hereby as it were Lord of himself , and can act or not act , according as he is guided by counsel and rational motives , or meerly as it pleaseth him ; and according either to the right or ill use of this liberty , he is to be judg'd , whether he has deserved well or no. That Chrystals shoot out into curious and exactly regular figures , that the flakes of Snow are Hexagonal , and ten thousand other Rarities of Nature , are not to the commendation of the things themselves : They shew admirably the wisdom of the first contriver of them : the Artist , not the Pendulum , is praised , though it measures time so exactly , and performs all its various motions without any interruption or inequality , because this necesssarily arises from a due proportion of weights and wheels , and from a just adaptation of the several parts of it ; 't is the perfection of a man , that he acts freely , and consequently that he is virtuous out of choice , notwithstanding all the allurements and inclinations of sense . And the like is to be said of the several assents of the mind ; if the truths of Religion were in themselves so clear and evident , that we could not but assent , whether we would or no , if they could be prov'd by arguments , deriv'd from sense or nature , where then would be the blessedness of Faith our Saviour speaks of , which belong to those , who have not seen , and yet have believed ? when we have a clear and distinct perception of a thing , then we know it ; and he must be very stupid and very pertinacious , that ●ill not submit to the truth , and evidence , and conviction of a demonstration . How ridiculous would it be to raise a dispute , and heap up arguments against clear evidence , and pretend dissatisfaction in the midst of so great certainty , as science affords ? If there were no difficulty in the notions , where were that Obedience of Faith , the Apostle St. Paul mentions ? where would be our submission and humility ? for a trial of which I am perswaded , that many Mysteries are now proposed by God , which hereafter as a reward of our Faith shall be more clearly made out to us , and that this shall be one principal part of the glory that shall attend the blessed in the other world , when we shall be divested of those circumstances , that now hinder the exertions of Reason , when our understandings shall be enlightned , and our capacities enlarged , and our thoughts heightened and exalted ; not that it is possible for the most refined and raised intellect ever to attain to a full and comprehensive knowledg of them ( for the Angels , those glorious spirits , who attend the throne , and are continually in the presence of God , humbly vail their faces and adore ) but that what we now know by Faith and Revelation only , we shall have a somewhat clearer insight into , and be as fully and satisfactorily convinced of , as for instance , that there is a Trinity of Persons in one undivided Essence , as if we understood the manner of their several subsistences . 3. It reflects upon the Wisdom and Power of God , who may , if he please , propose these things to us and command us to believe them . For that God may do this , who can question ? or deny , that we are as much obliged to give up our judgments and understandings , as our wills , to his will , to assent to any speculation or truth of doctrine revealed by him , as to any mode of instituted worship commanded by him , or any precept of Morality ; and that I am not to object and throw in my little conjectures and probabilities , because it is not altogether , or in the least , evident to my reason , when the nature of the thing renders it impossible that it should , or if it did not , yet his command should be enough to force my assent ? now to fancy , that nothing is or ought to be credible , but what can be made out and cleared up to the understanding by the evidence of the things themselves , destroyes this supposition , which has its certainty from , and is supported by , several of the divine attributes . The Wisdom and Power of God are both infinite , and therefore he knows more , and can do more , than what we possibly can conceive : otherwise we must equal our little knowledg , which we chiefly derive from the images and representations of things in our minds , and which every contemptible insect and vegetable is too big for , with his ; and upon the same account , we must fancy our power equal too : which is the effect of an irrational pride and madness , like that of the Apostate Angels , and by consequence , throw off our dependence upon him , and deny to yield obedience to his laws , because they do as much cross our vitious and corrupt inclinations , as the Mysteries of our Faith do our narrow conceptions and sentiments . An infinite understanding only can fully comprehend an infinite perfection ; such a proportion between the faculty and the object being altogether necessary : for if it could be comprehended by a finite intellect , it would immediately cease to be infinite . How insufferable then is such an insolence ! How vain and foolish are such imaginations ! and every high thing , as the Apostle speaks , extravagant fancies and conceits , that get into the brain , that exalt themselves against the knowledg of God , which ought to be captivated and made subject upon the highest Reason in the World to the obedience and doctrine of Christ : which will appear by descending to the 2. Second Particular , I proposed to make good , that the Christian Religion requires us to believe its Mysteries upon such grounds , as we cannot reject without doing violence to our faculties , and consequently , that the rejecting and disbelieving them must be unreasonable . Now the grounds are chiefly these two . 1. That we believe and admit the divine Revelations . 2. That we yield obedience and submit our understandings and all the powers of our minds to the Will of God. 1. That we believe and admit divine Revelations ; because God is of infinite veracity , and to deceive is repugnant to the holiness of his Nature ; there is an utter impossibility in it . Now if we repose so much trust and confidence in a friend , because we have tried him , and know that he is a man of great integrity , and that he abhors the very thought of deceiving any one with the least falsehood , and speaks exactly according to his knowledg without any reserved or secret meaning or equivocation , or concealing part of the proposition in his mind that it may be otherwise understood than he intends it ; much more with all the readiness of submission of mind imaginable are we to receive , whatever comes from God , without the least demur , or doubt , or contradiction . This an infinite and eternal rectitude does justly challenge from us ; for God may assoon deny his being , as falsifie his word ; so that whoever goes about to question or disbelieve any thing that God has revealed , will run himself upon one of these two gross and absurd impieties , either doubt whether God himself has an exact and perfect knowledg of those things , he has propos'd to our belief , or whether he has been just and true to deliver what he knows . It is a most rational conclusion of St. John 1 Epist. v. 10. he that believeth not God , has made him a lyar . No difficulty then can or ought to deter me from the belief of a thing , if God has once revealed it ; nor can the mind of man possibly desire a greater satisfaction than this . 2. That we yield obedience and submit our understandings and all the powers of our minds to the will of God , for 1. That there are thousands of things de facto above our knowledg and conception cannot be deemed by any , without the highest immodesty , an unjust postulatum . 2. That all or at least most of our knowledg deriving from sense , the more things are freed and abstracted from the entanglements of gross matter , the more difficult is the conception ; because they fall less under the examination of our senses , from which we receive so great prejudices in our infancy and childhood , which make that deep impression on our fancies , that they are not easily to be removed . 3. God by virtue of his absolute dominion and soveraignty may command us to assent to things above our reach , and conception , and knowledg . Faith is not to choose its Object , no more than a mans will can prescribe and set to him a Law , because its whole and only power consists in the liberty of obeying or not obeying of a Law prescrib'd by a superiour Power . Whatsoever Doctrine therefore is delivered and revealed by God , becomes immediately credible , by reason of the authority , that does accompany it , and enforce it upon us . The Articles of Faith carry along with them sufficient motives of Credibility , but then these motives must not be fetched from the nature of the things themselves , as if they were to be so evident , that our Reason might fully discover their connexion and dependance , but from without ; that is , my Faith is rightly grounded , and an obligation lies upon me to believe , what is proposed by God , if it be evidenced so to be , by just and rational proofs ; and if the authority be certain and infallible : God therefore declaring his Will , and confirming the Revelations he has made of it by his divine Power , this latter is a sufficient proof , and a just and rational ground of my Belief ; for how absurd would it be for any one , because he cannot comprehend and make out a thing fully , which in the nature of it , and by reason of our weakness and incapacity , is incomprehensible , and which he ought to acknowledg to be such , unless he will presume to measure Eternity and grasp Infinity with a span , therefore to doubt of so plain a truth , as this is , that the divine Power cannot be made use of to confirm any Proposition , but what is exactly true and certain ? so that this is not to forego our Reason , as the Socinians plead , for nothing is more agreeable to the principles of right Reason , but to act according to it : and therefore to say that we Believe I know not what , if they mean , that the objects of our Faith cannot be proved to exist with the same kinds of proofs , as what is presented to our senses , or as a propriety may be demonstrated of the subject of a speculative Science , this cannot be any prejudice at all to our belief , because in all Faith , whether Humane or Divine , there cannot be the same clearness and evidence , but that there are such Objects of our Faith we are as certainly assured , as if we had a particular demonstration of each . Now that the Mysteries of Christianity are confirm'd by such an authority , and therefore are to be believed by us , and consequently that the Christian Religion requires our assent to no more , than what is apparent to be God's Will , we have this assurance , that they were attested and made good by the miracles of our Saviour ; by these he proved his Commission to be deriv'd from Heaven . This was the belief of the Jews in general , both Learned and Unlearned ▪ Nicodemus was fully convinced of the truth and evidence of it , Joh. iii. 2. Rabbi , we know , that thou art a Teacher come from God , for no man can do those miracles , that thou dost , except God be with him . In the case of the blind man , who was restored to his sight , the doubt was rational , How can a man , that is a sinner do such miracles ? Joh. ix ▪ 16. If this man were not of God , he could do nothing , v. 33. that is , he could not do such things , as are above the power of a meer Man , which we see him do . It was nothing , but a most unjust prejudice to our Saviours Person , and to the meanness of his Birth and Parentage , arising from a false principle concerning the temporal Kingdom of the Messias , through a misunderstanding of the Prophesies , that made them , against their Belief and Conscience , reject the authority of so many evident and often repeated miracles ; and though they would not acknowledg him for their Messias , that came in a way of humility and meekness , so opposite to their humours and expectations , who thought of nothing , but triumphs and revenge ; yet they are forced to acknowledg , that the Messias could not do greater ; and lastly our blessed Saviour appeals to miracles , as to his credentials , as being a most rational motive to work faith in the minds of the most scrupulous ; if ye believe not me , believe the works that I do . This then is a sufficient confirmation of our Saviours mission , and of the doctrine He and the Apostles delivered from him , and preach'd through the several parts of the World , which they travelled , and after put in writing for the benefit and greater satisfaction of all succeeding Generations . Nor are we now at this great distance of time to call for new signs from Heaven , or to desire a farther confirmation of what hath been received so universally for so many successions of Ages . The holy Scriptures are the authentick Registers of the Doctrine and Revelations of God , and that I may add this by the way , were they but of humane authority , they deserved not to be drolled upon , but to be treated with an equal , if not a greater , respect , than Polybius , or Livy , not only upon the account of their Antiquity , but for those excellent remarks they contain , and the Theists of our Age may as well doubt , whether there were such a man as Cyrus and Alexander , as Moses and Joshua , and question whether Cicero wrote those Orations , and the other excellent Books , that go under his name , or Virgil those admired Poems , as whether St. Mathew or St. John , who were the known Disciples of Christ , and conversed daily with him for above three years together , wrote those Gospels , which contain the History and Acts of his Life and Death . Upon these evidences our assent is raised , which make it rational and just ; our Faith is resolv'd into the testimony of God , which is only the rule of it , we believe nothing , but what our Saviour and his Apostles taught , for which we have the authority of their words , and what the whole number of Christian People embraced and received , as the just and true meaning of them . Now because we cannot reconcile these express and clear Revelations of the Gospel , laid down in plain expressions , as that Christ is the son of God , was in the beginning with God , before the world was made , God manifested in the flesh , God blessed for ever , and that he and the father are one ( not to descend to the other Articles , which are laid down as clearly ) with our narrow conceptions of things , is most irrationally to conclude against God in favour of our selves , meerly for this only reason , because we cannot tell or understand , how it can or should be , when he hath told us expresly it is so . Hereupon they heap up strange and absurd interpretations of Scripture , and which are impossible to be true ; they deny to words their proper , and natural and genuine significations ; they fancy nothing but improprieties and ambiguities of expression ; and admit of absurd notions for all their high vaunts and pretences to reason , which destroy the very design and institution of Christianity . Thus our most blessed Saviour , the only begotten son of God must be only so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God only by grace and favour , and for the holiness and excellence of his life , as a Ebion , and b Arius , and c Paulus Samosatenus used to blaspheme of old , or Deus Factus , a Created God only , such by Designation and Office , as our modern Socinians impiously distinguish , when , not only the name , but the essential Attributes of the Godhead are ascribed to him . Thus the Doctrine of the Ever blessed Trinity , which is clearly contain'd in the form of d Baptism , as might fully be made good against the exceptions and cavils of Wolsogenius , and in St. Joh. v. 7. ( a e Verse written by the same hand that wrote all the rest of the Epistle , as it is most evident from the verses in conjunction with it , which would be altogether defective and imperfect without it , however it be omitted in the Alexandrine Manuscript , rather by chance ( for that is not the only omission in that Copy ) than design , as if it had favoured the Heresie of the Antitrinitarians ; ) this Doctrine of the Trinity , I say , must be exploded , because they cannot satisfie their bold curiosity , as why the emanation of the Deity stops at three Hypostases , that is , why the Divine Essence is not communicated to more than Three Persons , and how it can be Communicated , and yet altogether remain Vndivided , and the like . That this Article was explicitly believed in the very beginnings of Christianity , may , to omit at present other wayes of proofs , be evinced hence , that the Heathens of those times used to upbraid the Christians with the belief of so unlikely a Doctrine . Thus Critias in the Dialogue Philopatris ( which if not Lucians , was written however in Trajan's time , whose victories and successes in the East , and particularly in the taking of Ctesiphon and Babylon and other places from the Persians , and in repressing the incursions of the Scythians , as hapning just at that time , are there mentioned ) when Triephon had expressed the belief and sense of the Christians about this Article , by adjuring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , makes a mock at it , and replies with a great deal of impudent raillery , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So far is that from having the least truth in it , which the Enemies and Opposers of this Doctrine affirm , without the least shew of Reason and Authority , that it derives wholly from Pythagoras and Plato , and was learned in their Schools , and afterwards drest up by the Fathers , who were admirers of that Philosophy , and not heard of till the Third or Fourth Century . So that upon the whole it will appear , that the Christian Religion has just and sure evidences , and therefore to fancy , which is the only thing they can alledge in behalf of their Unbelief , that nothing is or can be believed , but what ought to be fully comprehended by the Understanding , is so foolish , so unjust , so unreasonable a thing , that nothing but intolerable Pride and Obstinacy can possibly suggest such a Thought , and consequently that before any one can become an Arrian or a Socinian , he must forego his Reason , and forget that God is of infinite Perfection , and forget too , that he himself is a Man. To draw towards a Period . Christianity being a Great Mystery , and necessarily such : It is but a natural inference , that all our enquiries into the Articles of it be sober and modest ; that we expect not a comprehensive knowledg of them ; that we be not too busie and curious in our Searches into the Secrets of God ; that being conscious to our selves of the defects , and shallowness , and weakness of our Reason in lesser matters ; how imperfect and untrue oftentimes our collections are of sensible beings , to which our faculties may seem proportionate ; and to what errors and delusions we are subject , by taking up false notions , by fancy and prejudice ; we learn to be wise unto sobriety , and not to think of our selves , above what we ought to think . It was nothing at first , but an overbold curiosity , not content with Revelation , and with just proofs of it , that raised in the mind thoughts of Disbelief ; but it stopt not here ; it soon improved into a proud conceit of mastering all the difficulties of Religion by the strength of Reason ; and to this we may justly impute the original and growth of all those Heresies and Blasphemies , that have been vented from the very first Preaching of the Gospel to this day . It is a vain thing to think to do this ; 't is a passing beyond the bounds which God and our own Nature hath set us ; a piece of Sacrilegious rashness , as Salvian justly words it , in his third Book De Gubernatione Dei , speaking of the various dispensations of Providence : Hoc ipsum genus quasi Sacrilegae temeritatis est , si plus scire cupias quàm sinaris : The Articles of Faith , as they are not to be tried , so neither to be proved by the Principles of Mathematicks or Natural Philosophy . It is as great folly to attempt it , as to expect it , both arising from a wantonness of Wit , which quickly looses it self in a Labyrinth of wild Opinions , and pleasing it self with new Notions and Ideas , is more and more perplext and entangled , and is scarce ever reducible to a right and sober temper . What ill success the Schoolmen have had in their attempts this way upon the Articles of Religion , Christendome has long since had sad experience of ; these men guilty of the other extream would scarce acknowledg any thing of Mystery in it ; all things seemed so clear to them , as if they had had a particular Revelation ; they have thrown open the Vail , that covers the Ark ; they define boldly , and obtrude their Conjectures for Oracles . St. Paul and St. John shall be explained and proved by the Writings of Plato and Aristotle ; thus prostituting the Majesty of the Sacred Scriptures , and corrupting the Simplicity of the Christian Religion by their niceties and subtilities of Distinctions , and exposing it the more to the Cavils of Hereticks , who observing the falseness of their Principles , and the weakness and incompetency of their Proofs , are more encouraged to reject the truth of it . Hereby too a Contentious and Disputative Theology has been introduced in the Schools ; and unnecessary and bold questions started , impossible to be resolved with any satisfaction , which perplex and confound the Understanding , and are so far from Building us up in our Holy Faith , and from explaining the Doctrine of it , that it has scarce suffered by any one thing more . Some things we may understand , but we see more to admire , which with all our art and subtility we can never attain to . It is enough , that the Christian Religion doth perswade us by Rational Arguments to the acknowledgment of its Doctrine , that it laies down sufficient grounds of the certainty and necessity of our Belief , that it gives us all the assurance we can , with any modesty , pretend to , and all the proofs the nature of the things , proposed to our belief , are capable of and will bear . 'T is Faith in Christ , that He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the World , that denominates us Christians ; to deny this , how excellent a Person soever we make him for Meekness and Holiness of Life , is to renounce Christianity , and in effect to turn Mahometans ; for they acknowledg Christ to have been a Great Prophet , to have been born of a Virgin , to have been assumed into Heaven , and the like . Satis sit pro universis rationibus Author Deus ; as the same Salvian has it . This is that , that is equivalent to ten thousand Demonstrations ; this will level all those objections , that are raised against the Mysteries of Christianity ; that will silence all the Sophistry of Corrupt Reason , and cut off all those Arguments , which presumptuous Men are wont to make : and certainly if we rightly consider it , the Mysteries of Christianity , as they are proposed in the Scriptures , are by reason of the great difficulties , that attend the conception of them , so far from being incredible , that they ought thereby to become more credible ; that is , they are more worthy of the infinite Majesty and perfection of God , by how much they are above the reach of our Faculties . 2. Let us remember that Christianity is a Mystery of Godliness , and consequently that the Great Mysteries of it ought to have an influence upon our Lives and Practices . As on the one hand , to say , that these Great Articles of our Faith are nice Speculations , and the explicit Belief of them , as they are proposed , not necessary , and to question that Sense of them , in which they have always been received by the Catholick Church , is to undermine the Fundamentals of Christianity ; So on the other side , it takes off very much from the obligation to Obedience , and dulls those affections , which a reflexion on these Great Mysteries must needs cause in the mind . That God should send his Son into the world to discover this Mystery to us in Person , and in order to our Redemption , was the Effect of an Infinite Wisdom , and of an Infinite Love ; that God should be Manifested in the Flesh for our sakes , and submit himself to the weaknesses , and imperfections , and contumelies of the humane nature ; that the Second Person of the Trinity , Co-essential and Co-eternal with the Father , should condescend to assume flesh , and therein to suffer ; a reflection on this cannot but fill us with admiration and love . One great part of the Worship we owe to God consists in our admiring his infinite Perfections ; all our Praises and Thanksgivings are but the outward significations of this , and faint expressions of our thoughts , which loose themselves in the contemplation of them . Now these Mysteries afford us eternal matter for our admiration . Besides , what greater obligation to Obedience can there possible be , than the Revelation of this Mystery , upon which our Salvation is founded ? A Holy and Religious Life then is the best evidence of our belief of these Articles of Christianity beyond all subtility of Disputation . This especially concerns us , who are dignified with the Holy Priesthood , who are Ministers of Christ , and Stewards of the Mysteries of God. This shews , that we do more than barely assent to the truth of them , when they produce in us all , both Priests and Lay , these effects , for which they were principally discovered ; that so living in obedience to the will of God revealed to us by his Son , whom he sent out of his own Bosom , and in all holy conversation and godliness , we may at last be admitted to the sight and fruition of his glorious Godhead , to sing Praises and Hallelujah's to the blessed Trinity for ever and ever , Amen . Appendix . IT must be confessed , that this Verse is not to be met with in several Old MSS. as particularly in the mentioned Alexandrine , now in the Kings Library at St. Jame's , brought out of Egypt by Cyrillus Lucari , when he removed from the See of Alexandria to the Patriarchate of Constantinople , who was strangled by the Turks in the year 1638 , and sent to K. Charles I. though not so antient , I believe , as is pretended , as if it had been wrote by the hand of Thecla , an Egyptian Woman of an honourable Extraction , and a Martyr for the Christian Faith , condemned to the Amphitheatre under Dioclesian , as Eusebius relates in the Supplement to the Eight Book of his Ecclesiastical History , which is found in several Copies , if it be his ( cap. 3. ) before the first Council of Nice , which is barely said and conjectured ; and I suppose , that it may be proved , that the Vatican exemplar is the more Genuine of the two , and comes nigher the Original . It is omitted also in an ancient Manuscript in the Archives of our Colledg Library , containing the New Testament entire ( except the Apocalyps ) with the Psalter and several Hymns collected out of the Old Testament , the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being also wanting in the eight verse , and in several others . Upon this the Enemies of this Doctrine triumph and boldly pretend , that it was inserted by the Catholicks : Thus to mention only one for all , Socinus himself in his Commentary on these words — Satis constat illa esse Adulterina , & ab hominibus , qui suum dogma de trino & uno Deo quâcunque ratione defendere & propagare volebant , in hunc locum infarcta . But let the appeal lye to any indifferent Person , which is most likely , that those , who professed their belief of this Doctrine , which was grounded too upon several other Texts of Scripture , and was derived down to them from the first Ages of the Church , and which they contended for with so much earnestness , should without any necessity dare commit , such a Forgerie , which could not but be taken notice of by their watchful Enemies , or that this should be done by the Opposers of this Doctrine , who were arraigned in general , by all the Catholick Writers , who had to do with them , as falsifiers of the sacred Records , and were so much concern'd to do it in defence of their private tenets and fancies , and especially to raze this Text , with which they were so oppressed , out of several Copies , from which by Transcripts it might easily be propagated into others : And consequently it is not to be admired , that several of the Fathers , no not Athanasius himself , nor Cyril of Alexandria , not St. Hilary , who defended with so much learning the truth of this great Mystery , did not make use of this Testimony , they lighting upon some of these Transcripts ; which is to be said also for St. Austin , in his Book 3. Chap. 22. against Maximinus an Arian Bishop , for St. Leo in his Epistle to Flavian Bishop of Constantinople , against the Heresie of Eutyches , Ep. 10. Cap. 5. for Eucherius de questionibus N. Testamenti , and for Oecumenius in his Commentary on this Epistle , and several others . The same reason holds for the omission of it in the Syriack , Arabick , and Aethiopick Translations , the two former of which , as they are now extant , as is most probable , were made long since the times of Arius , notwithstanding the pretensions of some to a far greater Antiquity , the last is confessedly of a later Date . The scarcity of Copies in those days , and the malitious industry and cunning of the Hereticks render the conjecture sufficiently probable , if no Copy were to be found with this Verse entire , and that we had only the authority of some of the Antients , who cite it as authentick , as having met with it in their Books . The Divines of Lovain in collating the N. T. with a great number of Latin Copies , found it only wanting in five . R. Stephanus in his Edition of the N. T. had the use of fifteen or sixteen old Greek MSS. above half of which retain'd it . So the Edition of the N. T. at Complutum compared with antient MSS. printed in the beginning of the Restauration of Polite Literature in Christendome , at the expences of the great Cardinal Ximenes , only with this variation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Thus Erasmus confesses he met with a Manuscript in England , which he calls by the name of Codex Britanicus , which had the whole seventh Verse , as we now read it , and the eight Verse , the latter part thus altered , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I shall lay no stress upon two Writings , which pass under the name of Athanasius , where this Verse is cited , because it is not to be met with in those larger works of his , which are acknowledged genuine , the one is an account of a disputation , according to the title , had with Arius in the Council of Nice ; but the title is faulty , as appears from the Discourse it self ; nor was Arius the Person disputed with there , but one of his followers ; and the reason of the mistake of the title may be ascrib'd to an ignorant Librarius , putting down Arius for Arianus , and the Dialogue not real , but supposed , as was usual amongst the Fathers , introducing the Hereticks pleading their Cause , and the Orthodox refuting their Cavils and defending the Truth . And if this may pass for likely , there can be no great reason to suspect the Authenticalness of it , the a words are , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The other is in a Book extant only in Latine b lib. 1. de unitâ Deitate Trinitatis ad Theophilum , dicente Joanne Evangelistâ in Epistolà sua , tres sunt , qui testimonium dicunt in Coelo , Pater , & Verbum , & Spiritus . But this piece , I confess , is very justly rejected as none of his , though perchance wrote not many years after his time . St. Cyprian , who suffered Martyrdome about the year of Ch. 258. Galienus and his Son Valerianus being then Emperours , about sixty years before the calling of the Council of Nice , in his book de unitate Ecclesiae Catholicae , cites this Text expresly , as found in the Copies of his time : — Dicit Dominus , Ego & Pater unum sumus , & iterum de Patre & Filio & Spiritu Sancto , & hi Tres unum sunt . It is not any way material to the design and purpose of this Scholion to inquire , in what sense St. Cyprian understood these words , but only to vindicate the antiquity of the Copies , that retained this reading , though it might easily be proved that it was a thing usual with the Fathers , as no one can be ignorant , who has turn'd over their Writings , to interpret places of Scriptures sometimes , not according to their primary intent , but by way of accomodation . Which testimony is so clear and convincing that Sandius in his Appendix quaestionum Paradoxarum , uses all his art and skill to avoid the force of it , by pretending , that several things have been changed , added , taken away , and some other way varied in the Epistle , as appears by the observation of Possevinus , who took the pains to compare the printed Copies with four MSS. and the acknowledgment of others , Perkins , James , and Rivet : from which premises he concludes very boldly upon a meer possibility , that this place was never cited by that blessed Martyr , but put in by some body else ; Quam facile itaque etiam hic locus interseri potuit ab his , qui non exhorruerunt sacras literas corrumpere propter metum Hereticorum . But first this is barely said without the least proof , and without the authority of any MS. Secondly neither Pamelius nor Rigaltius , nor any other , as I know of , who put forth St. Cyprian , make mention of any various reading in this place , all agreeing in it . Now that this Epistle is St. Cyprians is undoubted : St Cyprian himself referring to it , and that the reading is the same now , as it was in the old Copies written above eleven hundred and forty years ago , appears from Fulgentius , who not only cites this seventh verse in his book de fide Catholicâ adversus Pintam Episcopum Arianum , in his testimonies del rinitate , and in his book de Trinitate ad Felicem Notarium , c. 4. which thus begins , En habes in brevi alium esse Patrem , alium Filium , alium Spiritum sanctum , alium & alium in personâ , non aliud & aliud in natura ; & idcirco ego , inquit , & pater unum sumus ; unum , ad naturam referre nos docens , sumus , ad personas : smiliter & illud . Tressunt , inquit qui testimonium dicunt in Coelo , Pater , Verbum , & Spiritus , & hi tres unum sunt . Audiat Sabellius , sumus : audiat tres : & credat esse tres personas , & non sacrilego corde blasphemet , dicendo , ipsum sibi esse Patrem , ipsum sibi Filium , ipsum sibi Spiritum sanctum , tanquam modo quodam seipsum gignat , aut modo quodam a seipso ipse procedat , cum hoc etiam in naturis creatis minime inveniri possit , ut aliquid seipsum gignere valeat . Audiat scilicet & Arius unum , & non differentis filium dicat esse naturae , cum natura diversa unum dici nequeat , a but cites this very place of St. Cyprian , in his book contra objectiones Arianorum , in his answer to the tenth or last objection . His words are these , In Patre & Filio , & Spiritu sancto unitatem substantiae accipimus , personas confundere non audemus ; beatus enim Johannes Apostolus testatur , dicens , tres sunt , qui testimonium perhibent in Coelo , Pater , Verbum , & Spiritus , & hi tres unum sunt . Quod etiam beatissimus Martyr Cyprianus in Epistolâ de unitate Ecclesiae confitetur , dicens , qui pacem Christi & concordiam rumpit , adversus Christum facit : qui alibi praeter Ecclesiam colligit , Christi Ecclesiam spargit . Atque ut unam Ecclesiam unius Dei esse monstraret , haec confestim testimonia de Scriptur â inseruit , dicit Dominus , Ego & Pater unum sumus , & iterum , de Patre & Filio & Spiritu sancto scriptum est , & hi tres unum sunt . If it be said , that St. Cyprian cited only the latter part of the 8. v. where the vulgar Latine has those very words , & hi tres unum sunt b and that thus Facundus , Episcopus Hermianensis , in the time of Justinian , to whom he dedicates his book , which he wrote pro desensione trium capitulorum Concilii Chalcedonensis , seems to understand it , without taking any notice of the 7. v. citing this place of St. Cyprian , though by a lapse of his memory he saies it is to be found in Epistolâ sive libro , quem de Trinitate scripsit : I reply first in general that [ in ] might easily be left out by the oscitancy of the Librarii , not to say , razed out by the Hereticks ; the Syriack Interpreter reading in his Greek Copy , what we find in ours , as to the latter part , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and accordingly translating it so , & tres sunt testes , Spiritus & Aqua & Sanguis , & hi tres in uno sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bechad , and so the Arabick Interpreter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in uno , only the Aethiopick conforming to the present reading of the vulgar Latine . But what will they say to the Alexandrine MS. which they so much adore , which has the same reading , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; which are the words also of our MS. so in the Copies , which Oecumenius followed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Hierom's translation leaves out in the 8. v. & hitres unum or in unum sunt , and so the Greek of Arias Montanus , and the Complutensian Edition ; in the Margin of which later it is noted , that Aquinas in the exposition of the second decretal de summâ Trinitate against Abbot Joachim , who perversely interpreting the end of the 7. v. of the unity of will and consent , alledges the end of the 8. v. for his authority and justification , had made this observation , sed hoc in veris exemplaribus non habetur , sed dicitur esse appositum ab Hereticis Arianis ad pervertendum intellectum sanum auctoritatis praemissae de unitate essentiae trium personarum . I suppose the great respect Aquinas had for the vulgar Latin , made him rather suspect the whole to be added , than that it was ill translated , which he would easily have acknowledged , had he consulted any Gr. MS. But this kind of learning they were not acquainted with in that Age of Scholastical ignorance and barbarousness . Secondly , as they take it for granted , that this was the reading of the vulgar Latine at that time , so they more vainly and weakly suppose , that St. Cyprian made use of the same vulgar Latine edition , the contrary of which appears in several of his citations , and it is more likely , that he might translate so literally the latter part of the 7. v. and not at all regard the 8. v. or the vulgar translation , and so it appears from the testimony of Fulgentius , cited above , that he understood it . Afterward when several , out of an evil design to overthrow the Mystery of the most blessed and adorable Trinity , omitted in their translations of the Scriptures into the Latin Tongue this Verse ( a liberty which , it seems , every Pretender almost made use of , and it may well be suspected , that an Arian then , as a Socinian now , in his translation would be over-favourable to his own opinions , by leaving out and putting in what might make for them , and accordingly interpreting what was retained to their best advantage : a St. Hierome in his preface to the Canonical Epistles , vindicates the antient reading , and laies open the baseness and perfidiousness of these men . I shall here put down the whole Preface ; Non ita ordo est apud Graecos , qui integrè sapiunt , & fidem rectam sectantur Epistolarum septem , quae Canonicae nuncupantur , sicut in Latinis codicibus invenitur : Quod quia Petrus primus est in numero Apostolorum , primae sunt etiam ejus Epistolae , in or dine caeterarum ; sed sicut Evangelistas dudum ad veritatis lineam correximus , ita has proprio ordini Deo juvante reddidimus . Estenim prima earum una Jacobi , duae Petri , & tres Johannis , & Judae una . Quae si sicut ab eis digestae sunt , ita quoque ab Interpretibus fidelitèr in Latinum verterentur eloquium , nec ambiguitatem legentibus facerent , nec sermonum sese varietas impugnaret , illo precipuè loco , ubi de unitate Trinitatis in primâ Johannis Epistolâ positum legimus , in quâ etiam ab infidelibus translatoribus , multum err atum esse à fidei veritate comperimus ; tria tantummodo vocabula , hoc est , aquae , sanguinis , & spiritus in ipsâ suâ editione ponentibus , & Patris verbique ac spiritûs testimonium omittentibus , in quo maximè & fides Catholica roboratur , & patris ac filii ac spiritûs sancti una divinitatis substantia comprobatur . In caeteris vero Epistolis , quantum à nostra aliorum differt editio ; Lectoris prudentiae derelinquo . Sed tu Virgo Christi , Eustochium , dum à me impensius Scripturae veritatem inquiris , meam quodammodo senectutem invidorum dentibus corradendam exponis , qui me falsarium corruptoremque sacrarum Scripturarum pronunciant . Sed ego in tali opere nec aemulorum meorum invidentiam pertimesco , nec sanctae Scripturae veritatem poscentibus denegabo . Erasmus and Socinus are so urged with this testimony of St. Hierome , that they are forced to make use of very pitiful and dis-ingenuous arguments to invalidate it . Socinus had said before — fortasse ante Hieronymum vix ullus invenietur , qui testimonium istud hoc in loco planè agnoverit , the falsity of which conjecture , however so warily laid down , has been disproved ; hereby craftily concealing the citation out of St. Cyprian , he very boldly accuses St. Hierome of Forgery , who having got a Copy or Copies , in which this verse was added , adversus fidem aliorum omnium exemplarium , tam Latinorum , quam Graecorum , lectionem particulae istius tanquam germanam defendere & promovere coepit , conquerens publicè eam culpâ & fraude hereticorum abrasam à vulgatis codicibus fuisse . But St Hierome has sufficiently confuted the falseness and boldness of this Cavil . He was used to this kind of language , as if he had corrupted the Scriptures , but he was no way moved by it ; though this accusation of those of his own time perchance may not so much be referr'd to this place , as to his translation in general , and may proceed not so much from heretical malice and pravity , as envy of several of his contemporaries , who were orthodox in the faith , but were no friends to his new translation . He charges the omission upon these unfaithful Translators ( questionless Sabellians and Arians ) and upbraids them with it as a thing manifest and notorious , and easily demonstrable ; and certainly he would not have made himself so obnoxious , unless he had grounded his confidence upon the authority of several Greek Copies : with what little pretence of reason therefore Erasmus and Socinus fancy St. Hierome to have changed the publick and common reading , let any indifferent person judge . But supposing that the Copies of those times varied , which Erasmus grants ( and therefore St. Hierome is most falsely and unjustly accused by Socinus to have been the author of this interpolation ) He enquires , quonam argumento docet utrum sit rectius , utrumve scriptum sit ab Apostolo , praesertim cum quod reprehendit , turn haberet publicus usus Ecclesiae ? To this it may be answered , 1. that some vitiated and defective Copies , ought not to prejudice the authority of entire and better Copies , whether Latin or Greek . 2. that St. Hierome had reason to prefer and vindicate that reading , which gives such an evident proof of this great Article of the Christian Religion , agreeable to the doctrine of the Catholick Church , derived down to them by an universal Tradition , and acknowledged as such , by all , excepting a few , whom either discontent , or pride and conceitedness of their own parts , and a love of innovation and of being the author of a Sect , had drawn into the contrary heretical opinion . Besides , his words are so clear , that one might justly wonder , that Erasmus should pretend any difficulty or perplex sense in them , as he does in his , non satis video , quid sibi velit hoc loco Hieronymus ; but that we have too just cause to suspect , how that great Scholar was biast and perverted in his judgment , concerning those great mysteries of Faith ; though he is so wary and cunning , as not to discover himself too openly . He indeed is forced to confess the nature of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost to be simple and undivided , and the essence the same , though he is peremptory , that it cannot be proved from this Text , constat hic agi de fide testimonii , non de substantia personarum , herein followed by a Beza , and with a great deal of ceremony confesses it to be pious to submit our understanding to the judgment of the Church , as soon as she shall declare herself ( as certainly she has done in this in her publick Creeds , to the great shame and conviction of Hereticks , who reject her authority ) yet still for all this demureness , he pleads for a liberty of interpreting Scripture , as if the truth were not yet wholly reveal'd , and the Church might err in her declarations , nec interim nefas est citra contentionem scrutari verum , ut Deus aliis alia patefecit ( which is also the pretence of Socinus and his followers : ) and accordingly he interprets several places of Scripture in favour of Arius and the other Hereticks , and particularly this , cum totus locus sit obscurus , non potest admodum valere ad revincendos Haereticos ( the same pretence being made use of for all places , though never so plain ) and endeavours to elude the force of that famous place in 1 Tim. 3. 16. by expunging the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as much as in him lies , that is , by pretending it was added by the Arian Hereticks . So that we need the less value the censure he passes upon S. Hierome in this matter , where nothing but pure zeal for the truths of God could make him so concern'd and fervent — Ille saepe numero violentus est parumque pudens , saepe varius , parumque sibi constans . Idacius Clarus a Spanish Bishop , who died about the year 388 , at what time the elder Theodosius and Valentinian were Emperours , cites both verses , though as to their order transposed , and with a little alteration , in his book against Varimadus an Arian Deacon , responsione 3. — Item ipse ( i.e. Johannes Evangelista , whose Gospel he had just before cited ) ad Parthos , tres sunt , inquit , qui testimonium perhibent in terrâ , Aqua , Sanguis , & Caro , & tres in nobis sunt : & tres sunt , qui testimonium perhibent in coelo , Pater , Verbum & Spiritus , & hi tres unum sunt ; which very citation is made use of , as being borrowed hence , by the author of the collections of the decretal Epistles , which beyond all doubt are proved to be counterfeit a and supposititious , in the 1 Epistle of Hyginus , and by this is to be corrected , Item ipse ad Parthos , tres sunt , qui testimonium perhibent in terram , Aqua , Sanguis & Caro ; & tres in nobis sunt , qui testimonium perhibent in coelo , Pater , Verbum , & Spiritus , & hi tres unum sunt . There is like variety of reading in both verses in several old Copies , some leaving out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , others retaining them ▪ For this [ in terrâ ] Socinus confesses to be found in quibusdam emendatis exemplaribus , though that we may gain nothing by this confession , he tells us immediately after , it is not extant in emendationibus . It might easily be foreseen , that if either had been lest , and particularly this latter ; the one would have infer'd the other justly and necessarily , and therefore it cannot seem strange , if the first corrupters of this Scripture , to make all sure , and to render their false and perfidious dealing the more unsuspected , omitted both ; so too in that antient MS. Grotius made use of , though he gives us no proof of its antiquity in that place , and suppose it were written a thousand years since , we are not to be swayed by it , as if it were authentick , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and no more , who thereupon conjectures these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the former verse to have been added by the Arians to prove the father , son and holy ghost , to be one in consent only , but afterwards removed and altered by the Catholicks , and added to the former verse , which is said without any the least proof either from reason or antiquity , and has nothing to maintain the fancy , but the great name of the Author of it . That which * Sandius and several others allege in the first place , that eo omisso meliorem esse verborum connexionem , the connexion is far better , if the 7 v. were omitted , and that therefore it ought to be so , and was antiently omitted ; if the supposition were true , is not only vain and frivolous , but very bold and immodest to ty the spirit of God to such a way of writing , as pleases their humours and fancies best , and savours most of humane artifice , and by the same argument they may reject not only verses , but whole chapters in the N. T. for the meanness and inaccuracy of the stile , and the seeming carelesness of the method , which is not always conformable to the rules of the Gr. eloquence . 2. Indignum est summo Deo esse testem , inio coram quo judice testis foret ? is a groundless and bold cavil ; for this witnessing is nothing else but the declaration of God to mankind by evident signs and tokens concerning our Saviours being the true Messias , and of his being born in the flesh , and that he came from him . This God has attested and sufficiently made known to the World , and in this sense the Word often occurs in the Scriptures , without the least indignity offered to the Divine Nature . The only pretence he has for his fancy is a base and unworthy comparison he conceives in his mind between Gods being a witness , and mans being a witness in our Courts of Judicature , forgetting the genuine and easie sense of the word , as I have above expressed it . 3. That it is highly probable that this verse was inserted by a Sabellian , the contrary whereof is most true . 4. That in several MSS. and Editions of modern languages , there is a transposition of these two verses . The same before was acknowledged to be found in some Greek copies , which no way proves the pretended interpolation , but only that antient copies do not all agree . 5. That this v. does very highly favour the Arians , but this is such a strain of fancy , that he may as well allege the first words of the Book of Genesis , to prove Aristotles opinion of the eternity of the World. If men out of a prejudicate opinion , against the doctrine of the Catholick Church , allow themselves to interpret Scripture according to their own fancies , it cannot seem strange to any , that they should go about to prove and justifie their blasphemies from the plainest texts of Scripture , that in the judgment of all sober persons , who are free from those prejudices , do most evidently refute them . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A60586-e660 ● Tim. 1. 10. a Thus Eusebius sums them up in general , it being the common argument of the Heathen Philosophers against the Christian religion — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 4. Parisiis , A. C. 1628. b The words of Celsus , as we find them , in Orig●ns first book against that Epicurean Philosopher , are these — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. ● . edit . C●ntab . In this latter part he alludes to S. Pauls words , 1 Cor. 3. 18. which he most horribly and maliciously perverts , as Origen shews p. 12. He had before , out of his great Philosophical wariness , advised his readers not to take up opinions upon trust , without following reason and a rational guide , which he imputes to the Christians , and reckons them among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. such as rashly believe juglers and pretenders to Legerdemain tricks , whose credulity and simplicity they aluse to evil designs and intents . So in the third book ▪ he most falsly accuses the whole body of Christians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as diving away every wise man from the doctrine of faith , and only admitting persons void of understanding , and of a base and servile temper . p. 121. c De morte Peregrini , speaking of the Christians , whom he makes a company of idiots , easily cheated — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . d In Eusebius , in the confutation of his impious book ( which he intitl'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) wherein he compared Apollonius of Tyana to our most blessed Saviour , where he objects to the Christians — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — lightness and easiness of nature , p. 512. and calls them — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — fools and rusiicks . p. 514. edit . Paris : in fine librorum de demonstratione Evangelica . * In Apologetico cap. 5. where he mentions an old decree of the Ron an Senate , Ne qui Deus ab Imperatore consecraretur , 〈◊〉 à Senatu prebatus ; and hereupon he tells us , that the Emperor Tiberius moved by the report of those [ mighty ] works , which declared the truth of our Saviours Divinity , he received out of Pal●stine , detulit ad Senatum cum praerogativa suffrag●i sui ; though the Senate were not disposed to admit him into the number . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : ex editione Reverendissimi Usserii Armachani , p 20. This perchance more particularly respects Marcion the heretick ; for by that name he called him to his face : as we read in Irenaeus 3. lib. adv . haereses , cap. 3. a See the excellent discourse of Plato about this subject , toward the latter end of his second book de Republica , p. 377. &c. lomi secundi ex editione Serrani . b In his Epistle to Herodotus , as it is extant in Diogenes Laertius — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . edit . Londinensis p. 285. — This he establisht as one of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or main principles of his Philosophy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , p. 300. and laid down therefore in the first place by his great admirer and follower Lucretius in the beginning of his philosophical Poem , to make the better way for the Atheism , which was to follow , that is , to exclude God , with a fairer pretence , from having any thing to do , either with the framing or governing of the world , and to deny a providence : that censure , which Cotta in Tully mentions to have bin past upon him by several , being exactly true — Video non●ullis videri Epicurum , ne in offensionem Atheniensium caderet , verbis reliquisse Deos , re sustulisse . lib. 1. de Nat. Deorum , speaking of this very Atheistical afhorism . * In haeresi An●maeorum , quae est LXXVI . * Principiorum Philosophiae parte primâ , sect . XXXVII . Joh. 20. 29. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Epiphanius in haeresi Ebionaeoru● ▪ q●ae est XXX . sect . XVIII , ex edit . Pet●vi● . Peris●is 1622. pag. 142. b Epiphanius in haeresi A●i●ncrum , quae est LXIX . sect . XVIII . p. 741. c Gregorius Abulpharagius , in historiâ Dynastiarum , Arabicè , p. 129. edit . Oxon. 1663. Eu●ychius in Annalibus Alexandrinis Arabicè , edit . Oxon. parte primá p. 397. & 441. d This argument drawn from the Form of Baptism , is generally made use of by all the antient Fathers , against the blasphemy of Sabellius , Arius , and the rest of the Hereticks , who had departed from the true faith , establisht at first , to follow phansies and inventions of their own . But reserving these numerous citations for another work , I shall content my self at present to say with the Author of the Breviarium fidei adversus Arianos , who lived above 1200 years since , put out by the most learned Sirmondus , to whom the world is so much obliged , for his publishing several writings of the antients , out of MSS. — Qui [ Spiritus sanctus ] si Deus non esset , non in baptismo in uno nomine Deitatis patris & filio sociaretur , sicut scriptum est , ubi regulam baptismi posuit ipse Dominus : Ite , inquit , baptizate omnes gentes in nomine Patris , & Filii , & Spiritus Sancti . Quod solum testimonium deberet haereticis sufficere ad credulitatem insiparabilis Trinitatis , quia nec ipse audent aliter baptizare , ne regulant Domini corrumpere videartur . Et ubi unum nomen dicitur , ibi & mejor & miner excluditur . e Of this see the Appendix . Notes for div A60586-e6360 a 1 V●l. p. 147. Paristis . 1627. b Tom. 2 p. 55● . p. ●8● . p. 772. a p. 591 ex Editione Theophili Ranaudi , Soc. Jesu , ●arisiis 1671. printed with St. 〈◊〉 Maximus T●urinensis , and four others which make up the ●●pras ●raesulum . P. 447. b lib. 1. p. 16. ex Edit . I. Sirmondi Parisiis 1629. a This Preface is printed in an old edition of the N. T. with the interlineary Gloss , and I find it in several MSS both in the Bodleyan and our own Colledg-Library before the Catholick Epistles . The Stile is exactly St. Hierom's and questionless his , and acknowledg'd as such , both by Erasmus and Socinus , however omitted by Erasmus in his edition of St. Hierom's works at Basil . a de illâ ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) ut mihi quidem videtur non agitur hoc in loco ; quod & glossa ista interlinearis , quam vocant , agnosci● . Tom. 4. Bibliothecae veterum Patrum . Paris . 1610. pag. 372. a Consule Epistolarum Pontificalium censuram à D. Blondello editam Genevae . A. Chr. 1628. pag. 190. * In appendice Interpretationum Paradoxarum p. 381. 
A41441	----	The old religion demonstrated in its principles, and described in the life and practice thereof Goodman, John, 1625 or 6-1690. 1684 Approx. 338 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 198 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A41441 Wing G1111 ESTC R2856 12412784 ocm 12412784 61579 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A41441) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 61579) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 666:13) The old religion demonstrated in its principles, and described in the life and practice thereof Goodman, John, 1625 or 6-1690. [10], 384 p. Printed by J.M. for R. Royston ..., London : 1684. Reproduction of original in Cambridge University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Christian life. Christian ethics. Protestantism. Religion -- Early works to 1800. Faith -- Early works to 1800. 2007-09 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-11 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-01 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2008-01 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Old Religion Demonstrated in its PRINCIPLES , And described in the LIFE and PRACTICE thereof . Jerem. vi . 16. Thus saith the Lord , stand ye in the ways and see , and ask for the Old Paths , where is the Good Way , and walk therein , and ye shall find Rest for your Souls . LONDON , Printed by J. M. for R. Royston , Book-Seller to His most Sacred Majesty , at the Angel in Amen-Corner , MDCLXXXIV . THE EPISTLE TO THE Pious Reader . Good Reader , THou art here presented with a new Book concerning the Old Religion . As therefore thou art not to expect thy curiosity should here be gratified with new Notions , ( for I am not describing a new way to Heaven , but directing thee in the good old way which the holy Scriptures have marked out , and which wise and good men have all along walked in ) ; so neither art thou to think thy self disappointed , if thou meetest not with a Discourse modishly drest up , with all the fashionable Ornaments of Wit and Eloquence . For give me leave to tell thee , though that would have been acceptable to the humour of the Age , and perhaps might without any great difficulty have been complied with ; yet it would neither have suited so well with the nature of the subject I am upon , nor especially have fitted the persons for whose sake this little Book was written . That therefore which I here pretend , and which I hope thou wilt not fail of in the Papers before thee , is , First , A brief but plain and substantial proof of the grounds and fundamental Principles of Religion in general . Secondly , A discovery and confutation of several vulgar Opinions , which deform the beauty , and defeat the efficacy of Christian Religion in particular . And lastly , A clear description , a rational deduction , and a serious inculcation of the most important duties of that Religion , wherein either the glory of God , our own comfort , or the peace and happiness of Mankind are principally concerned . As for the management of these Points , though I have not given countenance to this Discourse by citation of Authors , nor either adorned the Text with fine Sayings , nor the Margin with great Names ; yet I hope thou wilt find a vein of sound Reason in it , and the spirit of the Gospel running quite through it . I assure thee I have dealt sincerely and conscientiously herein , I have impartially consulted the holy Scriptures , I have made use of the best understanding God hath given me , and I here set before thee ( though not the product , yet ) the result of many years observation , consideration , and experience . And so I leave it to Gods blessing , and thy candid acceptance . Farewel . THE CONTENTS . PART I. An Introduction to an holy and comfortable Life . CHAP. I. THE wisdom of being religious . Page 1 CHAP. II. The reasonableness of Religion in general . p. 9 CHAP. III. Of the rewards of Religion in another World. p. 21 CHAP. IV. Of the great influence and mighty efficacy of believing Heaven and Hell , or rewards and punishments in another World. p. 38 CHAP. V. Of the choice of a Religion , or what particular Religion a man should apply himself to . p. 55 CHAP. VI. More particular Directions for the setling a mans mind in Religion . p. 71 CHAP. VII . Cautions against some Opinions which are hindrances both of an holy and of a comfortable life . p. 85 CHAP. VIII . Directions for the effectual prosecution of Religion . p. 139 PART II. The practice of holy and comfortable Living . CHAP. I. OF Secret Devotion and particularly of secret Prayer . p. 181 CHAP. II. Of several other instances of secret Devotion . p. 209 CHAP. III. Of private Devotion , or Family-Piety in general . p. 235 CHAP. IV. Of Family Duties in special . p. 254 CHAP. V. Of Family-Discipline , or by what means a Family may be brought to the observance of Religion . p. 281 CHAP. VI. Of publick Piety and particularly in relation to the Church and publick Assembly of Christians . p. 301 CHAP. VII . Of Civil Piety , or how a man may and ought to promote Gods honour , and the publick good of the Parish , considered only as a Civil Society or Neighbourhood . p. 346 AN Introduction TO AN HOLY AND A Comfortable LIFE . CHAP. I. The Wisdom of being Religious . THE Holy Scripture ( that Book of Books , and Treasury of Divine Wisdom ) expresses it self thus concerning Religion , Psal . III. V. 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , and a good understanding have all they that keep his commandments . Eccles . 12. 13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter , fear God and keep his commandments , for this is the whole ( duty or business ) of man. S t Luke 13. 23. Strive to enter in at the strait gate , for many shall seek to enter in , and shall not be able . Phil. 2. 12. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling , &c. 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure . S t Mat. 6. 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God , and his righteousness , and all these things shall be added to you . S t John 6. 27. Labour not for the meat that perisheth , but for that meat which endureth to eternal life . S t Mat. 16. 26. What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world , and lose his own soul . By all which , and abundance of other such like passages , it appears , that Religion is as much our interest as our duty ; and that Piety and Care of another World , are not only the Commands of God , and his impositions upon us , but the upshot and result of the best and truest Wisdom . For Wisdom doth not consist in sceptical jealousies and suspicions , but in a determinate knowledge and resolution what is fit to be done ; not in a superficial smattering of many things , but in a clear and distinct apprehension of the just nature , value , and moment of them ; not in an endless hunting after curiosity , but to know where to stick and fasten ; not in pilling a flint , or laborious beating out of unprofitable difficulties , but in applying a mans self to such things as are savoury and useful ; not in tricks of wit , sophistry , or eloquence ; and least of all in a jest or a repartee ; but to discover what is fit to propound to a mans self as his end and design , and by what means to attain it ; to have great things in a mans thoughts , and to despise and scorn little and petty designs : in a word , to see a great way before him , and to be well provided for the future . Now all this is verified in Religion more than in any other thing in the whole World ; for here a mans mind is taken up with the greatest thoughts and sublimest objects , God and Eternity ; he takes care to secure the main stake , his own Soul ; he imploys himself about things of the greatest moment and consequence ; by inquiring about another World , he gives proof of the greatest foresight ; in considering of it , he gives evidence of a sagacious temper ; in resolving upon it , he shews judgment ; in pursuing it by the means appointed , he demonstrates the command he hath over himself , and that he is led by his reason , not ridden by his passions ; and by persevering in this course , he arrives at true tranquillity of mind , the Crown and Glory of Wisdom . Accordingly we find by experience , that commonly where-ever there is a grave , thoughtful , sedate , Person , such an one as is either fit to give or to take advice , he is seldom destitute of a sense of Religion : But on the contrary , where-ever you see an incogitant shatter-brain'd fellow , that knows not himself enough to make him modest and civil , that hath not so much reason as to weigh an argument , nor so much Arithmetick as to value any thing but what is present ; that is so much under the power of his Senses , as scarcely to know whether he hath such a thing as a Spirit within him , or hath so much Drink about him , that his head works nothing but yest and froth ; here is a man cut out to be an Advocate for Scepticism or Atheism ; this is the Person that will be captious against Religion , and malapert towards God Almighty . But let such men enjoy their humour as long as they can , they will be sure sadly to repent , or rue it at last : and in the mean time , they only betray their own shame and folly , for their tongue will prove no slander to Religion ; the mighty concern of which , is not only declared by God Almighty , confirmed by our own reason , and justified by our experience , but also affectionately recommended to us by all wise and good men ; by those whose sagacity and discretion is such , that we have no reason to suspect they are deceived or imposed upon themselves ; and whose sincerity and integrity is such , that we can as little think they should have any design to impose upon us . And therefore those Persons , who being either prevailed upon by the evil examples of the World , or discountenanced by the lewd sayings of such as we mentioned even now , and ( declining the ways of Piety and Devotion ) give themselves up to a loose and irreligious life , are in the first place errant Cowards towards men , whilest they are insolent towards God : And in the next place , they are false to the common reason of mankind , which obliges men to provide for the future . In the third place , they are false to their own interest of self-preservation . And lastly , they are false and ingrateful to their best friends , whose counsels they forsake , and abandon themselves to the conduct of the most silly and profligate Wretches . But if any shall think to excuse themselves from this censure , by suggesting , that they look upon Devotion , as either the effect of a weak judgment , or of a melancholy and timorous constitution . I add , that this makes the matter so much worse , as that it involves them , not only in the guilt of all the former , but also of extream rudeness and incivility towards the best of men . To make all this more clear and convincing , and to lay the surer foundation of all that is to be said hereafter , we will now in the next place shew the grounds upon which Religion stands . CHAP. II. The Reasonableness of Religion in general . THAT which is meant by Religion ( in the general notion of it ) is nothing else but a due regard towards the Divine Majesty , a diligent care of approving our selves to the supreme Being , the Creator and Governour of the World : Or , which comes to the same effect , the prudent ordering a mans conversation in this World , so that he may erect his mind with comfortable expectations of the favour of God and happiness in another World. Thus much we are taught by the Author to the Hebews , Chap. 11. 6. He that cometh to God , must believe that he is , and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him ; in which few words , we may observe in the first place the matter or duty of Religion , exprest by diligent seeking of God ; and secondly , the two Pillars , or ( as I may say ) Poles of it , namely , 1. the persuasion of the Being of God , 2. the expectation of rewards from him ; the former of which most properly contains the first rise and reason of Religion , and the latter the motives and inducements to pursue it . If these two Pillars be united , they make so firm an arch , that no objection can shake the Building ; but if they be taken and considered singly , they are each of them of mighty strength for the upholding of Religion . § . 2. As for the former , if ( I say ) we consider the nature of God only , that alone is able to possess us with an apprehension of the fitness and reasonableness of diligently seeking him . It is true we cannot see the Divine Majesty as we may behold corporeal objects , because he is of a spiritual nature , and for the same reason we cannot see our own Souls . And it is true also , that we cannot fully comprehend him in our minds neither , because of his infinite perfections ; yet we cannot so much as doubt whether there be any such Being or no , if we do but bethink our selves in this one thing , namely , how we our selves came to be ? For , though it may be at the first blush of this question , we shall think it sufficient to say , we had our beginning from our immediate Parents , and they in like manner successively from their Progenitors ; yet when we proceed on in our inquiry so far as to consider and ask our selves , what it was which brought the whole race of mankind into Being ? we shall then find our selves forced to acknowledge the hand of God in it . Forasmuch as in the first place , it is certain that nothing could take a beginning without a cause , and in the next place , it is as certain that this thing called mankind , could not be the cause of it self , or produce it self ; and then to impute it to chance , or to imagine that such an excellent Being as mankind is , wherein there is so much variety of Parts , and yet order and decency , and in short , so many instances of admirable art and wisdom in the very composure of his Body ( setting aside his mind : ) that this , I say , should be the product of blind chance , is more absurd than either of the former ; therefore there must be a God , for none but a fool indeed can say , There is no God. Now if we acknowledge a God , who gave beginning to our selves , and to all other things , we must also own him to be eternal , as being before all things , and the cause of them ; and as such , he must needs , not only have in himself eminently all those perfections , which are to be found in any part of his workmanship , but be also unlimited in his own perfections . And this will inavoidably lead us to the acknowledgment of all , or most of those Attributes , which either the Holy Scripture ascribes to him , or which Religion is concerned in , namely , that he is a free Agent , that he is Omnipotent , that he is infinitely wise , that he is just , and that he is good , as will easily appear in particular . First , He must needs be a free Agent , that is , such an one as acts not necessarily , or that is bound down by any fatal necessity , or determined to this or that act , or object , or measure of acting by any thing without him , but wholly follows his own voluntary motion and choice , the counsel of his own will ; the reason is plain , because he made things when nothing was before , and so there could be nothing to bound , limit , or determine him . Secondly , He must needs be Powerful or Omnipotent , for the same reason , namely , because he gave being and beginning to things that were not at all ; for we cannot conceive a greater instance of Power , than to bring something out of nothing . Thirdly , He must be wise , both because we see he hath contriv'd things according to the rules of exactest wisdom , insomuch , that the more we understand the Divine workmanship , the more we admire it ; and also , because he hath imprinted some image of of his wisdom upon our selves . Fourthly , We must acknowledge him just , as well because ( by reason of his infinite power and wisdom ) he can have no litle ends to biass him , as because he hath also made an impression of justice upon our minds . Lastly , He must needs be good , not only because he is wise ( as aforesaid ) but because he is infinitely happy and perfect , and so can fear nothing , can envy nothing , can need nothing from any other Being , but contrariwise , being infinitely full , must have a pleasure to diffuse and communicate himself to them . § . 3. All these Doctrines concerning the Deity , flow from that one perswasion , that there is a God ; and the influence of every of these upon Religion , is as great and apparent as the consequence of them from the acknowledgment of such a Being , was natural and necessary : so that a man may with as much reason deny any of the aforesaid Attributes to belong to the Divine Majesty , as ( granting them to be in him , or belong to him ) avoid the force of them upon his conscience , to incline him to regard this great God , i. e. to be Religious , which we will again shew particularly . First , If the Divine Majesty be a free Agent , then it is certain all the good and all the evil which he doth to us , he doth by choice ; and then we ought to be sensible of our obligations to him for the one , and humble our selves to him under the other . And then also , because we are convinced , that he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy , we know there is no trifling and dallying with such a Deity , but we ought to use all possible means of propitiating him towards our selves . Secondly , For the Divine Omnipotency , the natural consequence of that is , that we fear him , and trust in him ; for who is there that thinks of a God that made him out of nothing , and is therefore able to destroy him , and resolve him into nothing again when he pleases , who doth not think it the highest wisdom in the World that he shouldbe subject to him , pay him all possible homage , tremble before him , and also think fit to trust and rely upon his Almighty Power in all exigencies and difficulties ? Thirdly , The Divine Wisdom makes our obligations to Religion yet more strict and close ; for it convinces our reason that we ought to submit to his Providences whatsoever they are , and not to dispute his commands , nor doubt his promises , but hold him in the highest veneration and admiration that is possible for us to express ; to be reverent towards him upon all occasions , to submit our wills to his ; and especially in consideration that he must needs see and take notice of all our carriage and behaviour , to live with as much caution in the greatest retirement and privacy , as when we are sensible that we are upon the greatest Theatre . Fourthly , The apprehension of the Divine Justice and Integrity , not only assures us that he hates all sin , but that he hath no respect of Persons , but will judge the World in righteousness , and then who will grumble at any of his Providences , break any of his Laws , or do any unjust and base action , and that because it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God , who always can , and in due time will right himself ? Lastly , The consideration of Gods goodness , and that he is a Gracious and Benigne Majesty , cannot choose but mightily inflame our hearts with love to him , and provoke us to serve him with all chearfulness ; for who that believes him delighted to communicate himself to the relief of all his Creatures , doth not think of him with pleasure , and comfort himself in him ; or who can find in his heart to offend and abuse him , and not rather repent of all his former follies and ingratitudes , and resolve to sin no more ? For as the Apostle hath said , the goodness of God leadeth to repentance . So that in this one Principle ( the belief that there is a God ) we have a large foundation for Religion in general , which I have the rather insisted upon thus particularly , for the sake of those who are called , or call themselves Theists ( because they pretend to be convinced of no more of the Articles of Religion , but only of this great point , the Being of a Deity : ) these men , I say , if upon that single Principle they do not live religiously , are either men of no Conscience , and then it will be all one what their Principles are ; or are men of no Principles at all , i. e. are Atheists rather than Theists , forasmuch as by what hath been said , it is apparent how pregnant that one Principle is of Virtue and Piety , if it be sincerely believed , and rightly improved . But so much for that . CHAP. III. Of the rewards of Religion in another World. LET us now consider the other Principle of Religion , viz. that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him . This ( as I intimated before ) is properly the motive or inducement to the observance of the Divine Majesty ; for it hath pleased him to conjoin our interest with his own , and he hath made the greatest part of our duty towards him to consist in such things as conduce to our own good , as well as to his glory ; and to that purpose hath laid the foundation of Religion , by planting in us that principle of self-love , and self-preservation , which is inseparable from our natures , and by which he works upon us . Concerning this point therefore of the rewards of Religion , we will first consider the evidence of it , and when that is clear , we shall easily in the second place be convinced of the efficacy of it , to the purposes of making men devout . The former of the two we will make way to the discovery of by this train of discourse . 1. We have shewed already that there is both justice and goodness in the Divine Nature , either of which severally , but most certainly both together in conjunction , afford ground of expectation , that he will make a difference betwixt those that serve him , and those that serve him not . For seeing his power and greatness render him a fit object of Worship , and our dependance upon him as his Creatures , makes homage due from us to him : and seeing by his infinite Wisdom , he must needs be sensible how men carry themselves towards him ; it cannot consist with his Justice to let those escape unpunished , who pay no observance to him ; nor stand with his goodness to suffer those to be unrewarded , that serve and honour him . Indeed it must be acknowledged , that this consideration of those Attributes will not amount to a proof of rewards in another World , because of that other Attribute of his , viz. the Divine Liberty or Freedom , upon account of which , he cannot be bound to exercise whatsoever act or instance either of justice or goodness is possible ; for that would make him a necessary Agent ( an error which some men fall into unawares , whilest they are in pursuit of some extreams of opinions ) it may therefore be consistent enough with those Attributes ( barely considered , and looking no further ) that he reward and punish only in this World : but that which follows inevitably , is , that some such thing as rewards and punishments there must be upon the account of mens carriage towards him , which is all I intend hitherto . But then I subjoin . 2. It is highly reasonable upon other accounts , to expect greater rewards of Virtue and Obedience , than what usually befall men in this World ; as also severer punishments of Impiety and neglect of the Divine Majesty , partly because of the unequal distribution of things in this Life , where the race is not always to the swift , nor the battel to the strong , &c. but good and bad events happen oftentimes alike to all ; wicked men are sometimes prosperous , and holy men unfortunate and miserable ; by which intricacy of divine Providence , the Wisdom of God seems to lead us into an expectation of another World , where amends shall be made for what is amiss here ; partly also because the life of men is so short , and they so quickly go off the stage of this World , that neither the rewards of Virtue would be considerable , nor the punishments of Impiety formidable enough , if they were no more than what men could receive or suffer in this short Pilgrimage ; but principally because the good things of this World are so mean , and empty , and inconsiderable , that they afford no satisfaction to the great mind of a virtuous man. Riches , and honour , and pleasure , may perhaps fill and swell up a narrow sensual Soul , but a brave man can by no means be contented with them ; and therefore it is manifestly unworthy of the greatness and goodness of the Divine Majesty , to give no better rewards to those that love and honour him , than what they are capable of in this Life . 3. There is no impossibility in the thing , that there should be another World besides this , and that we should live in it , either to reap the fruit of our serving of God , or to receive the just reward of our Impiety ; all the reason of Mankind , nay all the wit , Scepticism and Sophistry together , can find no repugnancy and contradiction in it ; and therefore the concern of Religion is not inconsiderable . If there were any impossibility in it , it must lie in this , that men should live again after they are dead ; but this is so far from implying a contradiction , that it is not at all difficult to him that believes an Almighty Power , which every one must acknowledge that owns a God ; for why is it harder to restore a man to life again , than to make him at first out of nothing ? so that he relapses into flat Atheism , that denies the possibility of that which we are now making way for the belief of . 4. Nay , I adde further , this thing is so far from being impossible or incredible , that the consideration of the nature of our Souls renders it very probable , and makes us capable of such a condition ; for it is plain , we have that in us which doth not altogether depend upon our Bodies , but our Bodies upon it ; that which gives life and motion to the Body , but receives neither from it ; that which guides , governs , restrains and contradicts the Body when it pleases , and which can act vigorously when the other is weak and languid , as we oftentimes observe the strange efforts of wit and reason , when the Body is almost worn out and at its last gasp . This being of a spiritual nature hath no contrary principles in its constitution , by the conflict of which it should be brought to dissolution , as the other hath . In a word , the Soul hath life in it self ( though not from it self ) and therefore cannot perish , unless either it should be supposed to desert it self , or else that God by his Omnipotency should oppress and destroy it ; which last thing there is no reason to suspect , since from the beginning of the World till now , he hath not put out of being any thing that ever he made ; and we see in all the changes and revolutions of things , the least Atom of matter is not lost : and can it then seem credible , that a vital Spirit should utterly be extinct and perish when it leaves the body , or rather is deserted by it ? and this will be further confirmed if we adde 5. He that made us , hath implanted several things upon our natures which have relation to another Life , and another World , and which make it reasonable for us to expect it accordingly ; such as not only a desire to live , which yet we know we cannot do long here below , but a sollicitude what shall come after , an inquisitiveness and continual thoughtfulness for the future , extending it self infinitely beyond the stage of this short life ; nay , some kind of obscure notion and anticipation of another World , which generally the best of men are most sensible of , and usually the more wise and holy any men are , the more they are under such apprehensions ; and sure it would not consist with the goodness of God to permit such men to be the most deluded , especially he himself would not be guilty of putting a cheat upon them , which notwithstanding must be , if there were nothing at all in it of truth ; forasmuch as this is not the peculiar phancy or opinion , either of the sanguine or of the melancholy constitution , but of all the bravest and worthiest men ; and this is that which principally bears them up in adversity , and fortifies them against Death , and in the approaches of it , sometimes ravishes and transports them . Above all , there is such a thing as Conscience , which is common both to good and bad , and which chears and animates the one whensoever they do virtuously , though no humane Eye be witness of the action , and when they expect no benefit of their performance in this World : And on the other side terrifies and affrights the other , viz. wicked men , though no man be privy to their misdeeds , and this as it were binds them over to answer for them another day ; now all these things being the hand-writing of our Creator upon our Souls , are more than probable Arguments of another World. 6. God hath declared there shall be such a state . He that created Mankind at first , hath assured them he will revive them after Death , and reward and punish them in another World proportionably to their carriage towards himself in this . This comes home to the purpose , whereas all that which hath been said hitherto ( how reasonable soever ) depends upon the uncertain and fluctuating Discourses of men , ( though it is very true , that wherever there hath been wisdom and virtue in conjunction , they have seldom failed to render this great point competently clear to those who had no other light . ) But some are more stagger'd with a trifling objection , than convinced by a demonstration , and others are not able to follow so long a train of consequences as is necessary to make out so great a Question . But now we come into the Day-light , and have divine Revelation for our guide , and Gods veracity for our assurance . I confess I might have fallen upon this way of proof at first , and so have saved all the labour of what I have been saying hitherto , but that I partly thought it useful to shew how far natural Theology would go in this business , and principally I took this method to the intent that this great Doctrine of Christianity might not seem strange to any one , but might be the more readily entertained when it is prefaced to , and usher'd in with so much probability of humane reason . Now , I say , God Almighty hath himself assur'd us , that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord , that Piety shall not go unrewarded in another World , nor Impiety unpunished ; this he hath innumerable times expresly affirmed in the Gospel , and with such circumstances , as may both best assure our judgments , and awaken our affections . He hath told us he will hold a solemn Judgment at the end of the World , at which all men shall appear and receive their Doom ; he hath declared who shall be the Judge , and confirmed him to be so , by that wonderful instance of raising him from the Dead . He hath foretold the circumstances , and the manner of proceeding at that great day , he hath described ( as well as words could admit it ) the Joy and Glory that holy and good men shall thenceforth be put into the Everlasting possession of , and set out the torments and anguish that shall be inflicted upon the Ungodly . I shall not need to go about to aggrandize these things , since they are so vastly great and concerning that there is no way to despise them but by disbelieving them . But what colour or pretence can there be for that , after God hath said it , and sent his Son to declare this great news to the World ? Will men be so wretchedly absurd as to say still , it is impossible that men should live again after they are once dead ? when there is plain matter of fact against this suggestion , which is beyond all the arguments in the World ; for was not our Saviour most certainly put to Death , and did he not also exhibit himself alive afterwards to the Eyes and Ears , and very feeling of his Apostles and many others ? Will men say , Heaven is but a Dream , or a Romantick fancy ? when there were so many Eye Witnesses of our Saviours Ascension to Heaven , and that he was alive and in power there ; there was that glorious proof , the descent of the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles on the famous day of Pentecost , according to his promise made whilst he was upon Earth . Will they say , God hath a mind to impose upon men ? when he hath no ends to serve by it , when he can compass his designs without it ; and when he hath it in his power to dissolve a World that would not comply with him , and make another in its stead . Or , Will they say , that men impose upon one another , and there was never any such matters of fact as we have here supposed ? But why do they not then disbelive all History , all antient Records , give the lie to all great actions , and abrogate all Faith amongst men ; yea , although there be never so plain , never so numerous , so concurrent , and so disinteressed testimonies ? all this , and more than this , they must do that deny the matters of fact we speak of ; and if they do not do so , they must of necessity believe another Life , an Hell and an Heaven . And then , if those be believed , Piety will be the best Wisdom , and Religion the greatest Truth ; Sin will then be the greatest Folly , and trifling with God and Religion the most dangerous thing imaginable ; but that we shall more particularly make out in the next Chapter . CHAP. IV. Of the great influence and mighty force of believing Heaven and Hell , or rewards and punishments in another World. THere are a sort of men , who ( being too much in love with this World to have any great mind to the other ) will pretend that the grounds to believe these things are not sufficient , and that there are , as the case stands , neither incouragements enough to make a man Religious , nor Arguments powerful enough to restrain Vice ; because we are only prest upon by hopes and fears of hereafter , but nothing befals presently . These men require , that for the countenance of Religion , there should be a present discrimination between him that serves God , and him that despises him ; that the Sinner should be taken and Executed in the very fact , and the good man Crowned upon the spot ; or at least they think it not an unreasonable demand , that if it be the will of God that evil men should be reprieved , and good men kept in suspence till another World ; yet he should give Mankind a view of what shall befal hereafter , that they might have a sight of Heaven and Hell , and so dispose themselves accordingly . The former part of this phancy was taken notice of by Solomon , Eccles . 8. 11. Because Sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed , therefore the heart of man is fully set to do wickedly . The other part of it is much like that of the Forlorn wretch in the Gospel , Luke 16. 30. who thought it reasonable to ask , that one might be sent from the dead to convince his relations of the reality of another World. But all these men , as they do too palpably betray they have no love to Religion , nor no desire it should be true : so they evidently discover that they neither understand what satisfaction is fit for God to give in these matters , or for man to require ; nor do they consider what the nature of Virtue and Religion will admit of , no nor do they understand themselves so well as to know what motives will work upon men ; nor lastly , have they applied their minds to take a just estimate of the value and efficacy of these motives of hopes and fear which it pleases God to set before them . First , They do not consider what satisfaction in these matters it is fit for God to afford , or for men to require . It is not reasonable that the great God should gratify the humour and curiosity of his Creatures , nor that they should peremptorily prescribe to him . It is fit indeed for his goodness to give us assurance in these important affairs ; but he thinks good to satisfy our reasons , and we will have our senses convinced , which is as much as to say , we will not believe God but our own Eyes . Secondly , They do not consider what evidence the nature of Virtue and Piety will admit of , that requires such inducements as may incourage good , and discourage evil , such as may provoke us to choose the one , and to avoid the other , not such as will over bear our choice and necessarily determine us . Religion requires . such Arguments as may improve humane nature , not supersede or destroy it ; and it is best promoted by such a state of things as wherein a man conflicts with some difficulties , exercises self-denial , modesty , humility , and trust in God. It consists in a prudent estimate of all circumstances , a discretion and judgment to value things in reversion , and is worth nothing if there be no such ingredients in it , as Faith , and Patience , and a virtuous choice ; all which there is no room for , if the rewards of it were wholly present , or exposed to our senses . Thirdly , Nor do the men that talk at this rate so much as understand themselves and their own hearts so well , as to know what would be sufficient to prevail with them . They phansy if they had the good luck to be Spectators of a Miracle actually wrought , it would unquestionably lead them to assent ; and yet we see those that were Eye-witnesses of abundance of such , were never the better for them . They imagine that if they had seen the passages of our Saviours Life , Death and Resurrection , they should not have been incredulous ; yet there were multitudes that all those things wrought nothing upon . And assuredly as Abraham told the rich man in the last mentioned passage of St. Luke , if men hear not Moses and the Prophets , i. e. if they do not believe upon such satisfaction as God gives them , neither will they believe upon such other as their curiosity or capricious humour demands , no not if one rose from the dead ; for the same unwillingness which is in them to believe that Evidence which they have , will follow them still , and the same captious temper will except against their own demands , and find evasions if their very Eyes were gratified ; for Faith cannot be extorted from men , nor can any thing make him believe that hath not a mind to it . Lastly , Nor do they understand the force and efficacy of these inducements of hope and fear which God hath set before us ; which is the thing I principally consider in this place . If indeed the objects of these passions , or the things expected in another World were mean and inconsiderable , there were then no reason to expect that they should have any great force upon the minds of men to prevail with them to despise a present World for the attainment of Heaven . Or ( supposing the objects as great as we can ) if the grounds of our hopes and fear were childish and vain , i. e. our fears were panick and unaccountable , and our hopes mere sanguine Dreams , and Romantick phancies ; then it were justly to be expected , that if Almighty God would oblige us to Religion , he should give us better Evidence . But if both the things to be fear'd or expected in another World are vastly great and concerning , if they prove to be real , and also the Evidence or assurance of their reality be reasonable too , then it is no less than madness , to run the hazard of them by neglect of Religion , whilest we fondly cavil to have our humour satisfied . Now that these hopes and fears of rewards and punishments in another World are just and reasonable , and indeed as well grounded as hopes and fears can or ought to be , I have shewed already , forasmuch as if there were more evidence than there is , they would cease to be hopes and fears , and would be the apprehensions of sense . And that the things thus hoped for , and feared , or expected , are of so unspeakable moment , as that if the evidence for them were less than it is , it would be all the wisdom in the World not to run the hazard of them , will easily appear by this short and faint representation . That which good men hope for , and that which God Almighty promises them in the other World , is no less than to be raised up again from the dead , and to live for ever and ever , without any pain , sickness , want or infirmity of Body ; with minds secure from danger , free from temptation , void of care , incapable of fear , errour or disorder , together with serenity of Spirit , peace of Conscience , unspeakable Joy , in the presence of the Divine Majesty , and the blessed Jesus , and in the Society of glorious Angels and good men made perfect , where also they shall partake of a felicity as great as divine Goodness could design , as his wisdom could contrive , and his power effect for their entertainment . On the other side , that which God in the Holy Scripture gives wicked men ground to expect and fear , is , that they also shall be raised up again from the Grave , and then be exposed openly before all the World , their hypocrisy , lewdness , folly and ingratitude being proved upon them ; and they thereupon be condemn'd to utter darkness , to be for ever abandoned of God and good men , and to become the Company indeed , but the sport and triumph , of infernal Spirits , who shall make them the subjects of their malice and tyranny , and there live under the perpetual anguish of their own Consciences ; and in short , full of the wrath of the Almighty , which like Fire and Brimstone shall prey upon them and burn them without remedy or remission of torment . Who now can doubt whether these things are of mighty influence upon the hearts and Consciences of men to incline them to Religion ? For can any man be so void of all manly discretion , as to despise such an happiness as is promised to good men , or so destitute of all sense as to be content to dwell with Everlasting burnings , which will be the portion of wicked men ? No wonder therefore if Felix ( a loose and debauched man ) trembled when St. Paul preached to him of righteousness , temperance and judgment to come , Acts 24. 25. and it would be strange and prodigious fool-hardiness , if any man that lives without regard of God and Religion , should at any time happen to consider these things , and should not find a Convulsion within himself like that of Belshazzar , Dan. 5. 6. when he saw the fingers of an hand writing upon the wall against him , of whom the Text tells us , that thereupon his countenance was changed , his thoughts troubled him , the joints of his loins were loosed , and his knees smote one against the other . For certainly the least impression , which the consideration of these things can make upon a man , is to render sin very uneasy to him , and to spoil his greatest jollities . Forasmuch as every time he knowingly or willfully commits it , he not only judges himself unworthy of eternal life , but defies God Almighty , and treasures up against himself wrath against the day of wrath . And the reflection on this must needs make the prospect of death very terrible to him , when these things shall come into Plea , and when what before was only feared , must now be felt and undergone ; and without a perpetual debauch , it will be hardly possible for him to avoid thinking of this unpleasant Subject , since while he hath his senses about him , he cannot but take notice how daily that unacceptable Guest makes his approaches towards him . And if Death be terrible to a man , it is certain thenceforward life cannot be very comfortable ; for every accident will discompose him , every Disease is dreaded by him , as the Harbinger of that King of terrors ; his Spirits are convulsed , his Joys are blasted , his diversions afford him no relief ; he sees reason to be afraid of every thing , and is tempted basely to flatter and humour every man , because every body hath it in his power to bring upon him the summ of all Calamities , that is , to kill him . Against all this there is no protection , no Sanctuary but in Religion ; if the Sinner flee not to that , he perishes , and which is worse , feels himself tormented before the time : this therefore he is mightily prest to do , by the terrors of another World. And although it is true , that it is not in the nature of fear ( even of Hell it self , ) to make a man generously good , because it only cramps his powers , and is not a principle of action , yet it is an instrument of caution , and if it be attended to , will make him less evil , wherein the first work of Religion , namely Reformation , begins . And then so long as there is Hope also in the other Scale , it may happily not end there . The Apostle hath told us , the law ( which was a Ministry of fear and death ) made nothing perfect , but the bringing in of a better hope did , by the which we draw nigh to God , Hebr. 7. 19. For the hopes of that unspeakable felicity and glory , which , as I shew'd before , doth await all good men in another World , is able to make a man forget flesh and infirmity , to despise danger and difficulty , and to raise him above himself , 2 Pet. 1. 4. Those great and precious promises which are propounded to us by the Gospel , do make a man partaker of a divine nature . For great hopes raise brave Spirits , and effect wonders . The mere perswasion , that I have an immortal Soul , is of mighty efficacy to make me value my self more , than to think my self made to eat and drink ; and will not permit me to drown this divine particle in drink and debauches , nor exert it only in folly and buffonry ; but will prompt me to cultivate this immortal part , to furnish it with wisdom and knowledge , that I may enjoy it the better in another World : To subdue my sensual inclinations , that I may learn betimes to live like an Angel , and to castigate my anger and wrath , and fury and malice , those unsociable vices , that I may be fit for that peaceable conversation , and Everlasting Friendship in Heaven . The thoughts of living for ever will not suffer a man to be fond of the present life , but will inable him to banish all servile fear , to defy danger , to flatter no bodies follies , to comply with no bodies vices , but to dare to be good in spight of an evil Age , and bad Examples . For what should cow him that hath this Armour of proof , and is every way invulnerable ? The contemplation of those inestimable good things laid up for good men in Heaven , is not only able to restrain sensuality , rapine , injustice , treachery ; but to make self-denial very easy , and to place a man so high above the vanities of this World , that he shall only look down upon the things themselves with contempt and scorn , and upon the men that dote upon them with wonder and pity . He that hath hopes given him of seeing and enjoying the blessed Jesus in Heaven , will according to the Apostle S. John 1. Epist . 3. 3. find himself powerfully obliged to purify himself as he is pure . And to say no more , he that believes that God is , and that he is such a rewarder of those that diligently seek him , must needs find great inducements to seek and serve him accordingly . CHAP. V. What particular Religion we should apply our selves to . HAving in the premisses discovered the ground and foundation of Religion in general , and thereby made it appear to be so highly reasonable , that it is every mans wisdom and interest to comply with it ; We now proceed to inquire , what mode or profession of Religion in special , he ought to apply himself to , who is convinced of the necessity of it in the general . And this is the rather to be done , because some men make the variety of Religions which they observe in the World , an argument against them all ; and because there are so many forms of it that they cannot easily resolve which to addict themselves to , these men ( as they think very wisely ) pitch upon none , but fairly stand Neuters . Now for prevention of this mischief , as well as to make way for the resolution of the great Question before us , let us consider these two things . First , that it is not only an impious , but a very foolish and frantick resolution to stand off from all Religion , upon pretence that there are differences and disputes about it . For 1. Men will not be content to go by that rule in other Cases , no man will conclude there is no such thing as meum and tuum , or right and wrong in their Civil interests , because they observe Lawyers to wrangle at the Bar , or to give different opinions in particular Cases ; nor because Physicians often disagree in their Judgments of Diseases , will any discreet man refuse their assistance , and resolve to let his Disease take its course : this objection therefore of sceptical men , is but a mere pretence made use of to countenance their aversation to Religion , and not a real Maxime of Reason with them . 2. The ground of this objection is foolishly or maliciously represented ; for it is plain , that the main things of Religion are very little or nothing in dispute , but are confessed and agreed in by all . Or if there be some points of moment disputed , they are generally such as are speculative , not matters of practice . For who disputes whether God should be worshipped ? whether a man should live soberly , righteously , and godly in this present World ? in such things as these , all discreet and well disposed men agree . Let the sceptical person therefore agree to these too , and practise them ; or else let him be so ingenuous as to acknowledge , it is only his unwillingness to comply with the rules of a good life , which makes him pretend to stumble at disputes . 3. It is to be considered , that even those who differ and dispute in several points , agree notwithstanding in this , that it is the wisest and safest course to come to a resolution in Religion , forasmuch as particular disputes about it , prove undeniably this in the general , that by confession of all Parties there is great moment in it ; because there could be no reason why either the one side or the other should trouble themselves , and raise such heats about it , but that both are satisfied of the great consequence of the subject of the question , and the consideration of that is it which makes them be so nice , curious and critical , about the very punctilioes of it . But , Fourthly and lastly , It is especially to be considered , that he that stands neutral , and holds off from all Religion upon pretence of the danger of mistake , upon account of the great variety of perswasions , runs into the most fatal mistake of all , and is of all men in the most desperate condition ; for whatsoever becomes of other men , under a mistaken zeal or a false opinion , he is certainly a lost man who hath no Zeal or Religion at all . For though it be certain , all perswasions cannot be right , and therefore some must miscarry ; yet so long as there is a real foundation for Religion in general ( as we have seen ) it is evident the Sceptist cannot be saved ( whoever be damned ) who entertains no perswasion at all . Therefore as it is better uncertainly to erre , than certainly to perish ; so it must needs be a wiser course to determine our selves someway , notwithstanding the disputes , than gravely to doubt our selves into Hell by a phantastical neutrality . But then secondly , as it is a very dangerous and absurd resolution to be of no Religion , for fear we should mistake the right ; it is not much better on the other side , to be such Latitudinarians , as to think it indifferent what Religion a man be of , so long as he is zealous and devout in his way , unless we could be assured , that the broad way was the way to Heaven , which is most certainly false . I confess it is a very bad Religion indeed which is not better than none at all , as the faintest hopes are better than utter desperation . And it is undoubtedly true , that without fervour and devotion in the prosecution of a mans perswasion , no Religion , be it never so good and Orthodox , will signify any thing . It is true also , that a man of a devout temper hath the ground of Piety , and a foundation for good institution to work upon ; yet notwithstanding Religion speaks something more than to be in earnest , and Piety requires more than a good intention . For unless that honest temper be cultivated and improved , it will bring forth nothing but wild fruit ; that zeal must be governed and conducted by good principles , or it will betray a man to presumption , to superstition , and to a thousand irregularities . We are set to run a race towards Heaven , but in that case it is not only speed , but the keeping the exact course withal , that intitles to the reward . He that runs wrong , the more hast he makes , the worse is his speed ; for he hath the more to undo again . Nor is this any reflection upon the Divine Majesty , who is infinitely good , and consequently very pitiful to the well-meant errors of Mankind ; for it must be considered , that he is wise , and great , and just also , not so soft and fond as to be pleased with whatsoever is well meant towards him , or to be contented with whatever men phansy . No , he hath a mind and will of his own , and requires and expects those be complied withal by such as he rewards with Eternal Life . Therefore the Question which we are now upon is very serious and necessary , viz. how amidst such variety of perswasions or forms of Religion as are in the World , a man may make a right choice , and know which of them in particular he ought to determine himself upon . But the assoiling of it cannot be difficult , forasmuch as if God will be served in his own way , it is evident , that he must have taken some course or other for the discovery and interpreting of his mind and will to the Sons of men , to the intent that they may have a rule to govern their devotions by . Now it is plain , beyond dispute , that there are three and but three things which can with any colour of probability pretend to give us aim in this Case , viz. natural light , the Spirit , or the holy Scriptures ; and therefore all the difficulty comes to this point , which of these three we are to follow and govern our selves by . As for the first of the three , namely the light of nature , or natural reason ; it is true , that this is able in some measure to discover to us that there is a God , and to assure us also of some of his Attributes and perfections , so as to lay a general foundation of Religion ( as we have briefly shewed already ) but it can neither discover all the divine perfections , because he is infinite and beyond our comprehension , nor much less penetrate the depths of his counsels , or the secrets of his will and pleasure , because ( as we also noted before ) he is a free Agent , and hath no necessary measures , but freely chuses as it pleases him . And therefore as no man knows the mind of a man but the spirit of a man which is in him , so much less can any man know the mind of God till he be pleased to reveal it . Now the design of Religion being to please and propitiate the divine Majesty to us , it is impossible any man should pretend to know what will fully do that by natural reason . Consequently not only the old Philosophers but the modern Theists , and that Sect of men called Quakers , who pretend to attain happiness by the natural notions of God , or the light within them ; must miserably be bewildered whilest they follow so imperfect and uncertain a Guide . As for the second , namely a private Spirit , there is no doubt but that the divine majesty could ( if he had pleased ) have conducted men by immediate Revelation , and as it were led them by his own immediate hand from time to time , dictating his own will to their minds ; and there is as little reason to question , but that sometimes in extraordinary Cases he hath done so in former times : but that this should be his ordinary and standing course , is not reasonable to think ; not only because we cannot now observe , that the best of men either have experience of , or so much as pretend to any such thing , but because in the first place it is evident that such immediate Revelation could be of no further use than to that particular person to whom it was made , in regard it would be like the white stone , Rev. 2. 17. which no man knows what is written upon it , but he that receives it ; and secondly , because the very person himself that should pretend to it could not secure himself from illusion , but might easily mistake the Idols of his own phancy , or the very illusions of the Devil , for the dictates of the Divine Spirit ( as we find by sad experience that many have done ) unless there were withal a constant succession of Miracles to assure their minds that it was the divine impression : Therefore , forasmuch as those who pretend to the Spirit , can give no assurance of it , and natural reason cannot pretend to discover sufficiently the Divine Will ; it remains , that only the Holy Scripture is that which must be our guide in the way to please God , and attain the Salvation expected in another World. The holy Scripture then is that provision God hath thought fit to make for our weakness and ignorance . This is the transcript of the divine mind , a light that shineth in darkness , and by which divine wisdom designed to guide us through all the maze of disputes , and to resolve us of all the important questions that concern our eternal interest ; and this is that which he hath so fitted to our use , that whosoever consults it with a mind free from prejudices and anticipation , he shall not miss his way to Heaven . Nor shall such a man as is disposed to receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child , i. e. comes with a mind willing to learn and be convinced , and with that temper applies himself to the holy Scripture , need either the pretended infallibility of a Pope , or the Authority of a Church to interpret it to him : For it is certain God is as able to express his mind to us , as either of these are , whensoever he thought fit to do so ; and where he resolved to be obscure , it is not to any purpose to consult them in the Case , who are no more privy to his secret counsels than we our selves are . And it is not consistent either with the goodness or wisdom of God , to order matters so , that he should be betray'd to any capital error ( so as to indanger his Salvation ) who applies himself to the holy Scripture , and comes qualified with an honest heart , and in the use of such ordinary means as are afforded for the understanding of them . It is indeed not impossible , but that such a man , notwithstanding both the perfection and perspicuity of his rule , may erre in some smaller matters ; but there is no reason to fear they should be either such as will abuse him in the great Doctrines of Faith , or the rules of a good Life ; he can neither mistake the Object of his worship , nor the manner of it , nor indanger the glory of God , or his own Salvation . For this will direct him to a Religion plain and easy , humble and peaceable , reasonable and hearty ; a Religion that neither imposes an implicit Faith , nor countenances a bold presumption , that will make men devout without superstition , and holy without arrogance or pretending to merit at Gods hands ; in a word , the holy Scripture impartially consulted , will bring us to a Religion that shall neither consist of speculations , and be opinionative and fanatical on the one side , nor made up of external shew and pomp , as that of the Church of Rome on the other side , but such as that of the Church of England , which manifestly avoids both extreams . CHAP. VI. More particular Directions for the setling a mans mind in Religion . ALthough it be never so certain , that the holy Scripture was both composed and preserved by the providence of God , for mens guidance in the way to Heaven ; and notwithstanding its great perspicuity and sufficiency in that case ; yet ( as I intimated before ) prejudice of mind is able to defeat the ends of it : therefore for the removal of that , it will be of great use that the following particulars be considered . First , He that would make a right use of the holy Scripture , and thereby discover the true lineaments of Religion , let him make inquiry after the most antient and the most Catholick Religion , and not indulge his curiosity so as to be taken either with novelty , or singularity ; for each of those will lead him aside , both from the truth of Religion in general , and from the Christian Religion in particular . As for the former of these notes of Religion , viz. Antiquity , the oldest Religion must needs be as much the truer , as God is before the Devil ; therefore the Prophet Jerem. 6. 16. directs the people to inquire for the good old way , and walk therein , and they should find rest to their souls ; and for Christianity in particular , forasmuch as that depends upon Divine Revelation , it is impossible that After-ages should add any thing to it , or make improvement of it , without new revelation . Whilst God is of the same mind , Heaven of the same nature , and the Gospel of the same tenor , there can be no new Christianity . Therefore let all new lights go for Ignes fatui , and mere meteors , that serve to no purpose but to bewilder men ; he that seeks for true Christianity , let him neither content himself to look back to 41 , or the last Age , as some do ; nor 500. years backward to a dark Age , as others ; but let him inquire for a Religion as old as Gospel , and observe in what Rules it was delivered , and in what Examples it first shew'd it self in the World. As for the other note of Religion , viz. Universality ; It is certain , the true Religion is the most truly Catholick . For it is evident , that our Saviour intended but one Church , and one Religion in all the World ; and to that purpose he instituted Christianity in such sort , that it should agree with all times and ages , fit all Countries and Climates , suit all Constitutions and conditions of men , and subsist under whatsoever form of Government , or Civil polity it should meet with . Those therefore who model Religion according to the peculiar fashion of some one Country , or frame a notion of it which requires a certain complexion and temper of Body ; ( as for instance , that make some austerities essential to it , which all cannot comply with ) or that describe a Religion for the Cloyster , and not adequate to common Life ; or that model it so , as that it must have the Civil Government submitted to it , or it cannot subsist ; or in a word , that confine it to narrow bounds , or Canton it into separate parties : none of these understand the true genius of Christianity , nor take the measures of Religion from the holy Scripture . Secondly , He that would make a right choice of his Religion , must not take it upon publick Faith , or be determined by common fame , or so much as regard the loud shouts and acclamations of the vulgar . For they are generally sworn Enemies to sober reason , as being moved more by heat than light , and governed by sense and phancy , and consequently cannot entertain any great esteem for a modest , sedate , manly and rational Religion , but on the contrary infinitely dote upon all the tricks of Superstition and Enthusiasm ; and those two do so wholly govern them , that they receive no impression of Religion where one or other of them doth not strike their imaginations . As for Superstition , the wonderful efficacy of that upon common minds , is so notorious , that nothing can be more . If they see a man so extreamly scrupulous , that he finds ( as we say ) a knot in a Bullrush ; so squeamish and strait-laced , that he becomes a burden to himself and all about him ; so infinitely full of doubts , and fears , and jealousies , that he scandalizes Religion by his impertinency , and renders God Almighty a very unbenign and severe Majesty : such a man notwithstanding is apt to be cried up as a great Saint , although in greater matters perhaps he gives himself more liberty than other men . Or if they observe a man pretend to great austerity and mortification by the carelessness of his habit , dejectedness of his Countenance , or other peculiarity of his garb , as wearing an hair shirt , or girt with a rope , especially if he also macerate himself with Fasting , or whip himself till the blood comes , or use any such severity towards himself , they are strangely affected with this pageant of Piety , and these things alone are security enough to them that he is an holy man , and of the best Religion . Thus no doubt the Priests of Baal , who ( as we read , 1 Kings 18. 26. ) prayed from Morning to Mid-day , made horrible outcries , and used antick postures , and amongst the rest , in a blind Zeal , cut themselves with Knives and Lancets , had a mighty veneration amongst the rabble of superstitious Israelites , insomuch that the Prophet Elijah , with all the holiness of his life , and very great austerity of conversation too , was not able to bear up with them . And thus the Scribes and Pharisees in our Saviours time , what by their demure and mortified looks , disfigured Faces , and outward appearance of Sanctimony ; what by their broad phylacteries , and fringes of their Garments , beset with sharp thorns to prick and vex them ; what with long Prayers and frequent Fastings , and such other Artifices , they so led the people by the Nose , that all the wisdom , temper , goodness , nay Miracles of our Saviour were scarce sufficient to procure their attention to him . And thus it will be also with Enthusiasm , that raises the admiration , and captivates the minds of the generality as much or more than superstition . If a man pretend to the Spirit , and to extraordinary Communications from the Divine Majesty ; if he now and then either feel or can counterfeit raptures and transports , so that by turns he shall be sometimes as it were snatcht up to the third Heaven , and at another time be cast down to Hell ; and if in these fits he can talk non-sense confidently , can make vehement harangues against pride , formality , or superstition ; if he make shew of extraordinary Zeal and Devotion , and have the pride or insolency to speak ill of his Betters , to slight all ordinary Forms and censure the Government ; if he have either an horrible Voice , or an oily melting tone , an artificial Countenance , a peculiar motion of his Eyes , or especially hath the trick to resemble an Epilepsy in all this Legerdemain , then when he speaks evil of dignities , he shall be thought to have the zeal and spirit of Elias , but unquestionably the spirit of God is in him , and he is admired , if not adored , by inconsiderate people . When in the mean time , sound Doctrine , sober reason , wise conversation , and grave Piety , shall signify nothing but form and carnality with them . For ( as I intimated before ) such things as I last named , commend themselves only to a sedate mind , and a considerative temper ; but the other bear strongly upon the senses and the phancies of men , and so carry away the vulgar . He therefore that would not have his devout intention abused , must not suffer the multitude to chuse his Religion for him , nor take it upon trust from publick fame and noise ; for if he decide this case by the poll , he shall be sure to have shadow for substance , and either imbrace a Religion made up of paint and varnish , or else one animated only by a spirit of Enthusiasm . Thirdly , He that would make a right choice in Religion , and is content to follow the measures of the holy Scripture therein , must resolve with himself , not to seek for , or pitch upon such a way as will put him to the least pains , and give him the least trouble ; but be willing to deny himself , and to conflict with any difficulty that he may save his Soul ; for pretended easy Religions are like Mountebanks Cures , deceitful and palliative . Some men have the folly to perswade themselves , that a Religion consisting of mere Faith , without the trouble of a good Life will serve the turn ; nay , that to be of a peculiar Party , Sect or Church will be sufficient ; but then it is strange our Saviour should bid us strive to enter in at the strait gate : for it would be a wonder if any should miss of Heaven upon these terms ; or if any be so sottish , they deserve to perish without pity . Others there are that entertain a conceit of getting to Heaven by the merits of other men , as by purchasing an Indulgence , or by hiring a Priest to say Prayers for the man when he is dead , that would not be at the trouble to pray for himself whilst he was alive ; or by getting a plenary absolution of all his sins at the last gasp , or some other such voluptuous and compendious ways of Salvation . He that seeks out such expedients as these , argues that he hath some little love to himself , so far as to be loth to be damned , but that he hath none at all towards God or Virtue ; and indeed demonstrates , that he hath not so much as any worthy notion of God , or apprehension of the nature of the happiness of the other World. Nay , he gives evidence , that he is as much in love with his sins as with himself , and would have both saved together . St. Paul assures us 2 Cor. 5. 10. that when we shall appear at the Judgment-seat of Christ , we shall receive our Doom , according to the things done in the body , whether good or evil ; not according to what shall be done for us when we are out of the Body , much less according to what others have either officiously or mercenarily performed for us . All such methods are Cheats , the artifices of Hypocrisy , and constitute only a Religion for an Epicure , but are as far , as Hell is from Heaven , from the institutions of the Scripture . It is true our Saviour saith , his yoke is easy , and his burthen light , but that is spoken either comparatively to the burden of the Mosaick Law , especially considered with the additional impositions of the Scribes and Pharisees , who as he tells us , laid heavy burdens upon others , but would not buckle under them themselves ; or with respect to the great assistance and mighty incouragement which those men shall meet with that apply themselves in earnest to Christianity . For certainly , if there had been no considerable difficulty in the Christian Religion , the first Lesson of it would not have been , that a man must deny himself . Nor would our Saviour have required us , that if our right eye or right hand offend us , we must pluck out the one , and cut off the other , that we may enter into Life . CHAP. VII . Cautions against some opinions which are hindrances both of an Holy and of a Comfortable Life . WHen a man hath setled his Principles , and made a good choice of his Profession of Religion , he is then in a fair way towards an Holy and a Comfortable Life ; yet there are several vulgar opinions , which if they be not carefully avoided will have an unhappy influence upon both , and therefore it is expedient he should be cautioned against them ; especially such as those whereof I will here give a Catalogue in the particulars following . To which I will premise this in the general , that although some of the opinions that shall be mentioned , may seem only mere speculations in the first view of them , and perhaps may go no further with some persons , whose singular probity and sincerity of heart may antidote them against the malignity of such tenets , yet in their own nature and the genuine consequences of them , they are very dangerous , as shall now be made appear in particular . 1. Therefore let him that would make a due improvement of the Principles of Christianity , take care of allowing himself to pry too curiously into the secret counsels of God , or of marshalling too confidently the Decrees of Election and Reprobation , and especially of arguing presumptuously concerning his own or other mens Salvation or Damnation from them . There is no question with me but that God Almighty foreknew from all Eternity whatsoever should come to pass in after times ; and let it be taken for granted also , that from the same Eternity he decreed with himself whatsoever he would afterwards effect or permit ; nay let us moreover suppose he hath expresly determined with himself who shall be saved and who shall be damned , and that so peremptorily , that only they shall be saved whom he hath so decreed to save , and those shall certainly be damned whom he hath past such a Decree upon . But what then ? the proper and only reasonable use we can make of these suppositions , is to admire the Divine Eternity , Soveraignty , Power and Omniscience ; here is neither matter for our curiosity nor for our reason to descant upon : not for our curiosity , since it is plainly impossible to know , what the particular import of those Decrees is , or whom they concern ; and less for our reason , since if we will argue any thing hence , it must be no better than deducing conclusions from unknown premisses . The very prying into these Cabinet Counsels ( besides the folly and immodesty of it ) tends to very ill purposes , for it certainly either blows men up with presumption , or casts them headlong into desperation . The sanguine , and confident , and self-applauding , are filled with vain hopes by these speculations ; and the modest , melancholy and despondent tempers , are inclined to despair by them . But the arguing and drawing consequences of Salvation or Damnation from thence , contradicts the design of the whole Scripture , which charges us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling , and to use diligence to make our calling and election sure ; Nay it turns into ridicule all the Exhortations , threatnings and promises of the Gospel . For to what purpose doth God perswade us , when he hath irrevocably determined our fate with himself ? It discourages all use of means , and all comfort in so doing , since it will be labour in vain : it baffles Conscience whensoever it either checks us for sin , or would comfort us for doing virtuously ; for what matter is it what Conscience saith , when God hath decreed ? it renders the solemnity of the great day of judgment a mere piece of empty pomp and pageantry , seeing mens Cases are all decided before-hand ; nay it makes the very coming of our Saviour , his Life , Death , Propitiation and Intercession , to be illusory and insignificant things ; forasmuch as upon this supposition , men are saved or damned antecedently to his undertaking . Now if after all this , any man will be so desperately absurd and fool-hardy , as to say nevertheless Gods Decrees are irrevocable , and therefore the matter of fact is true , that if I be decreed to Salvation , I shall then be saved without more ado ; and if I be decreed to be damned , I must perish , and there will be no help for it ; it will be in vain to use means seeing I shall but strive against the stream ; my Doom is past , and I may bewail my hard fortune , but cannot reverse it . I would only further ask such a man this plain Question , viz. How he came to perswade himself that God Almighty hath decreed to save and damn men right or wrong ( as we say ) i. e. whether they repent and believe in Christ , Jesus or no. Forasmuch as it is evident , that he that harbours such an opinion of the Divine Majesty contradicts the very notion of a God , and represents him to be the worst and most hateful Being imaginable ; a Being that hath only power and will , but hath neither love nor hatred , neither wisdom , justice nor goodness in him at all ; that hath no esteem for Faith , Virtue or Piety , no sense of gratitude and ingenuity , nor any aversation to baseness and villany ; but as if he were an unmoved , rigid Idol , is inflexible by any repentance , prayers , tears , addresses and importunities , and insensible of , and unprovoked by all the affronts and insolencies that can be done to him : to be sure he that can think thus of God , will easily believe him to have set a mean value upon the blood of his only Son ; forasmuch as he hath given him up to Death to no purpose upon the aforesaid supposition . Now unless all this be true ( which is impossible ) there can be no colour nor foundation for such an horrid and barbarous opinion . And if this be false , as most certainly it is , then we shall easily be led into this Scriptural Hypothesis of the divine Decrees , viz. that as he decreed from all Eternity to send his Son to be the Saviour of the World , so he then also determined that as many as should believe on him should be saved , and such as did not so , should be damned . And then , what if we find it to follow from the nature of Gods Omniscience , that he must foreknow the individual persons that shall be saved or damned , or from the nature of his determinations , that only such and no other can be saved , namely , those he hath decreed to it ; yet then it will be evidently to no purpose to gaze up to Gods Decrees : for then whatever hath been written in the Archives of Heaven , it is certain it cannot contradict this , That if I believe and repent , and become a good and holy man , I shall be saved , or otherwise I shall be damned ; and then all is plain before me : for in this case I have nothing further to do , but to make use of the means of Grace which God affords me , and to look into my own heart and life for my Evidences of Heaven . Thus as the wise Persian , who sooner found the Sun to be upon the Horizon , by turning himself towards the Western Hills , than he that fixing his Eyes upon the East , expected to see the Sun it self : so we shall sooner find the beams of divine favour in the reverse and reflection of them upon our own Souls , than by a presumptuous prying into his secret purposes . And the consideration of this truth will ingage men in all care and caution , in all diligence and humility , in the use of means , till they gradually improve into a state of holiness and comfort here , and to assurance of the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter . And this is the course which the Apostle leads us to , 2 Tim. 2. 19. The foundation of God standeth sure , having his seal , the Lord knoweth who are his , and let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity ; as if he had said , It is true indeed , God knows from Eternity whom he intends to save , and all such shall eventually be saved and none else , but our hope and comfort cannot be built upon unknown principles , such as only are recorded in Heaven , but upon the counterpart of an holy life , or a conformity to those conditions which God hath expressed in his Gospel , as a Copy from the Original , kept in his own bosom . 2. The next dangerous mistake which we ought carefully to avoid , is , concerning the Grace and holy Spirit of God. When men unreasonably expect that God should do all for them in the business of their Salvation , without their own indeavours , upon pretence that we can do nothing our selves , and therefore it is in vain to go about it ; our part is only to wait Gods time of working , and when his holy Spirit moves , the business will be done without more ado , but in the mean time all our diligence is discharged as impertinent , and even our Prayers too ( if this Doctrine be consistent with it self ) : for according to this opinion , if ever men come to Heaven , they must be dragged thither by Omnipotency , ( as the Disciples of Mahumet expect to be by the hair of their heads . ) Now though it be undoubtedly true , that all the good that is in us , is owing to the father of lights from whom every good and perfect gift cometh , forasmuch as he worketh in us both to will and to do ; and therefore we can never magnify grace enough , nor attribute too much to the holy Spirit ( without making machines of our selves , and nonsense of the Gospel ) yet it is as sure on the other hand , that God needs not that we should tell a lie for him , nor would have us slander his Creation for the honour of Regeneration , since he doth not destroy the man when he makes a Christian . So far from it , that ( as I have noted before ) he charges us to strive to enter in at the strait gate , and to use all our diligence to make our calling and election sure , Which plainly implies , that he doth not intend to supersede our powers when he repairs our natures ; and that although he made us without our own activity , yet he will not save us without our own indeavours . And therefore the holy Scripture always represents to us the way of Gods working good in our Souls , to be by exciting our Spirits , by assisting and strengthening our faculties , and by cooperating with us , not by over-bearing our capacity , and doing all for us without us ; insomuch that that man who dreams of being carried to Heaven by Omnipotency , without his own concurrence , is so far from any incouragement from the Scripture , to hope that ever he shall come there , that it is most certain he shall never see that happy estate , unless it please the divine mercy to make him so early sensible of this fatal errour , that he may timely repent and pursue the right way thither . For he that expects to attain the Kingdom of Heaven by Miracle , it will be a Miracle indeed if he come thither . And this fond opinion is as mischievous as it is unscriptural , not only as it apparently deprives a man of all the comfortable reflections of his own Conscience upon whatsoever ( by the grace of God ) he hath obtained , forasmuch as it equals the condition and character of the most slothful Epicure , with that of the most generous and industrious ; but especially as it disposes men to slight all the means of grace , and all the advantages of Gods Church , and that upon good reason : for if this opinion be true , they are all insignificant and collusory . It also tempts men to sin , and that without regret or remorse , under a pretence that they cannot help it ; and in short , it perfectly betrays them to their own lusts , and into the hands of the Devil , making way for whatsoever temptation he will think fit to make use of . For the man of this perswasion ( that it is impossible to make resistance ) is bound by his own principles , and to save himself useless trouble , to strike Sail and surrender upon the first assault or Summons . 3. A third dangerous opinion , which it is necessary to be cautioned against , is a mistaken notion of sins of infirmity ; this at first mention of it may seem of kin to that which I last spoke of , but as I intend it , it is of a different nature , viz. when men do not altogether discourage their own indeavours upon the pretence of natural impotency in general , but yet perswade themselves that some certain sins in particular are so necessary to them , and unavoidable , that God will allow of them under the favourable notion of infirmities , and pardon them without repentance . It is very true , there are such things as pitiable infirmities , which the best of men cannot be altogether free from , and which infinite goodness therefore so far considers , as to make a vast difference between them and wilful or presumptuous sins ; pardoning the former upon a general repentance , whereas he requires a very particular repentance for , and reformation of the latter . But the mischief ( which I seek here to prevent ) is when men cheat themselves into a perswasion that some voluntary sin or other is necessary to them , and therefore must come under this estimate of infirmity , and consequently need neither be repented of nor forsaken ; from whence it comes to pass , that ordinarily the sin which hath been most customary and habitual to them , ( because it easily besets them , and they find it not easy or pleasant to them to forgoe it ) is therefore incouraged under the favourable name of infirmity . For thus they say , every man hath his infirmities , and this is mine ; and so the mouth of Conscience is made up , as if a pardon of course were due to it , without the solemnity of Reformation . They will allow such a case to be that which they must always complain of , but yet they never expect or desire to see it cured ; for these sins are thought to be only like the Canaanites in the land , or some other remainder of those devoted and accursed Nations , which must never be quite rooted out , but be always as Thorns in the Eyes , and Goads in the sides of the true Israelites , i. e. tolerated but not extirpated . But if this be not a very false notion , what was the meaning of our Saviour when he requires us to cut off our right hand , and to pluck out our right eye , when either of them offend us ? That is , that if we will enter into life , we must part with the sin that is as pleasant to us as our Eyes , as necessary or convenient to us as our right hand , and as painful to part withal as either of them . Whereas if the aforesaid Doctrine of infirmity take place with us , it will save all the pains and trouble of mortification , and keep the body of sin whole and intire , and yet put men in hopes they may go to Heaven notwithstanding ; and no sin that we have a kindness to , but a man may enjoy it without danger . For thus , it shall be one mans infirmity to be drunk , another mans to swear , a third mans to be seditious or censorious ; and in short , by the benefit of a soft word or distinction ( together with a good opinion of a mans self ) he may reconcile God and Mammon , Christ and Belial , Hell and Heaven . But this cheat is too palpable , for the Plea of infirmity is only allowable in such Cases as these following ; namely , when either ignorance or mis-information betrays a man into errour , or he fails in the manner of doing that which was otherwise good for the matter of it , or a great fear over-powers him , or the suddenness of a temptation surprizes him before he was so much aware as to collect himself ; or something of like nature to these , may be called sins of infirmity . But assuredly , that which a man knows to be a sin , and yet commits it , that which a man takes pleasure in , and lives in the habitual practice of , can never be esteemed a meer pitiable infirmity ; and therefore whosoever truly loves his own Soul , and is in earnest for Eternity , hath great reason to take care of this errour . 4. A fourth danger I would give warning against , is the mistaken opinion about Conversion to God , which if it be rightly understood , is a great , solemn and divine thing , and whereever it is truly accomplisht , is the happiest passage of a mans whole life , and the very Crisis of Eternity , viz. when either a man who ( by unhappy Education or otherwise ) was betray'd to evil and mischievous opinions , comes by the advantage of better information and the grace of God , to be otherwise instructed and set right in his principles , or especially when one who was formerly of a lewd and flagitious life , is by the grace of the Gospel now brought to a sight of his sin , a sense of his danger , and thereupon changes his whole course and becomes a new and holy man : Both these are ( as I said ) great , and solemn , and happy things , to be spoken of with all reverence , and considered with joy and admiration . But now there is a two fold mistake very common in this great affair , viz. when either such a Conversion ( as we have now described ) is looked upon as universally necessary , and prescribed to all men , as the condition of their Salvation , or else ( which is far worse ) when the whole nature of the thing is mistaken , and conversion from sin to God , is made to be a mere momentaneous act , a kind of qualm or fit of Religion , and as such is relied upon , as sufficient to Salvation , without an habitual course of holy life subsequent to it . Both these last named are false and dangerous opinions , but the evil of the former of them lies in this , that it is apt to perplex the Consciences , and disturb the peace of very good men , viz. When those who by the blessing of God have been trained up in good principles , and by his grace not only preserved from a loose and debauched life , but ingaged also in a holy and virtuous course all along , shall notwithstanding have it preached to them , and prest upon them , that they also must be converted and born again , or else they shall never see the Kingdom of God. This indeed was necessary and proper Doctrine from our Saviour to Nicodemus , and to the generality of the Jews , as well as from the Apostles to the Pagan World , who had been nursed up in Ignorance , Superstition and Idolatry : But it was not preached to John the Baptist , nor to St. John the Apostle , nor to Timothy , who had known the holy Scriptures from a Child , 2 Tim. 3. 15. and who had been early ingaged in an holy life , by the blessing of God upon the careful instructions of his Grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice , 2 Tim. 1. 5. not can such Doctrine ( without equal indiscretion and danger ) be preached to several others now who are of that condition , that as our Saviour saith , they need no repentance . But it is the latter of these opinions about Conversion , which I intend in this place principally to give caution against , viz. when a man who hath been formerly either of a sottish and careless , or of a notoriously debaucht and profligate life , shall be incouraged to think his peace is made with God from such time as he hath had a qualm come over his Conscience , and been put into a mood of seriousness and devotion , having been taught to date his Regeneration from hence . The mischief of this mistake is very frequent and apparent , for that it tempts men to grow secure before they are safe , and it is very common and natural for such persons to grow careless of themselves upon a vain confidence in this kind of Conversion , as if now their work were done , without the trouble of bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance and amendment of life . Nay further , when perhaps such men have committed some such great sin , as ( that were it not for this unhappy errour ) would startle their Consciences , they are hereby ( instead of applying themselves to God by hearty repentance ) inclined only fondly to look back , and to remember that such a time I was converted , and enter'd into a state of grace , and therefore all is well enough already ; and from hence it comes to pass also , that nothing is more frequent than such mens falling from grace in this sense , that is , to apostatize from such hopeful beginnings ; for indeed they were at most but beginnings , but being foolishly rested in , as if they had amounted to the whole attainment of Christianity , they flatter men into security first , and betray them to shame afterwards . And the falsity of this conceit is evident in this , that whereas it makes the great business of Eternity to lie in an instantaneous act , the transaction perhaps of a day or an hour , or a Sermon , the holy Scripture quite contrary-wise represents it as the business of a mans whole life , and requires , that men not only set out well , but that they make a daily and gradual progression towards Heaven ; forasmuch as it tells us , that otherwise he who hath begun in the spirit may end in the flesh , and that a man may return with the Dog to his vomit , &c. and then the latter end of such a man is worse than the beginning . 5. Another mistake not inferiour to any of the former , either in respect of errour or danger , is about the power and authority of Conscience , viz. When men perswade themselves that all is right and true , which they are satisfied of in their Consciences , and that it is lawful for them to do whatsoever that dictates to them , or allows them in , as if Conscience were not a thing to be ruled but to rule , and were invested with a kind of Soveraignty , so that it were a Law to it self , and to others also . If you reprove some mans opinion ( instead of arguments for it ) he tells you it is his Conscience , and that 's enough ; or if you blame some action of his life , he regards not your reprehensions , for , saith he , my Conscience smites me not for it , and therefore I am safe ; or if you forewarn him of some counsels or undertakings as tending to Sedition and publick disturbance , it is no matter , it is his Conscience , and he must pursue it . The mischief of this is very intolerable , for by this means the most foolish and extravagant actions are justified , and the malefactor rendered incorrigible , being both hardened in his sin and in his sufferings , for ( if it come to that ) you cannot convince such men , for they have a testimony within them which is infallible , and in confidence of that , whensoever you bring an Argument which they cannot answer , they reject and defy it as a temptation of the Devil . If you rebuke them , you blaspheme the holy Spirit ; if you go about to restrain them , you violate the most sacred Prerogative of Conscience , and are gulty of the only sacriledge which ( in their opinion ) can be committed , and which is worst of all , thus God is intitled to the very passions and follies of such men , and to all the extravagancies in the World : for if it be their Conscience , God must patronize it , and bear the blame of all . Now one would justly wonder what these men think this thing called Conscience to be , surely no less than some God Almighty within them , and so indeed several expressions of them seem to intimate . But certainly , if they thought Conscience to be nothing else but a mans own mind , or opinion , or perswasion , or practical Judgment ( which certainly it is , and no more ) they could not either in reason or modesty think fit that this should have such a paramount Authority as to bear all down before it , at least they could not imagine that their peculiar phancy or humour , their particular Education or Idiopathy , their ignorance or stubbornness , should be lawless and uncontroulable . For if mens opinions or perswasions are infallible , what is instruction for ? if the light within be sufficient , what is the light of holy Scripture for ? if Conscience be a guide to it self , to what purpose are spiritual Guides provided by divine wisdom for our conduct ? and if that may not be restrained in its extravagancy , wherefore were Laws made , and Magistrates appointed ? So that either this wild notion of the power of Conscience must be false , or else Instruction and Education are useless , Magistracy and Ministry impertinent , and both Laws and Scripture of no effect . And if notwithstanding this notion be imbraced , it is plainly impossible , that such men should live either holily or comfortably . Not holily , because Conscience thus left alone to it self , without guide or rule , will in all likelihood follow mens temper and inclination , and then a mans most beloved Lusts shall be the dictate of his Conscience . Not comfortably , because he that is destitute of a Law , and a guide to resolve him in difficulties , must needs ( if he consider and be sensible of any thing at all ) be perplexed with perpetual disputes , and endless scrupulosity upon every undertaking . But it will be pretended that there is no help for it , but when all is done , men must and will follow their own Consciences ; forasmuch as Discourse , or Laws , or Scripture , signify nothing till they are applied by Conscience ; they indeed may give aim , or may be of the nature of evidence in a Cause ; but it is Conscience which collects the result , and he that complies not with that , is guilty of sin , whether the Evidence was well summed up or no. To this purpose some passages of Scripture are usually misapplied : e. g. Let a man be perswaded in his own mind , Rom. 14. 5. That which is not of Faith is sin , Rom. 14. 23. and he that doubteth is damn'd , &c. I do confess here is something of truth in this Plea , but blended with a great deal of errour , and here I verily believe lies the rise or occasion of the perswasion of the extravagant authority of Conscience . But when we consider wisely , the truth is no more but this , that a mans Conscience ought to go along with him in the acts of his Obedience to the Law , or that he ought to be perswaded the thing is lawful to be done before he does it , otherwise he doth violence to himself , and condemns his own act . But it doth not follow , that therefore it is lawful to do whatsoever he is perswaded of in his Conscience , or that it is not his duty to do any thing but what he is so perswaded of ; for this abrogates all the Laws both of God and Man , and makes their Legislations to depend upon private consent . If therefore any man through ignorance or prejudice , or any such cause , shall have his Conscience alienated from the Law , or dictating otherwise to him ; this as it cannot make a Law , so neither can it discharge him from the obligation of one . All that this works , is , that it puts a man into so sad a case that he may sin both ways , that is , both in obeying and in disobeying ; but because he is brought into this strait by his own default , it is evident this cannot acquit his Conscience ; for one sin is no discharge for another . That therefore which he hath now to do , is first to inform his Conscience better , and then to comply with the rule . And that this is the true state of this Case , will appear ( beyond all exception ) by the resolution of our Saviour himself in two passages of the Gospel ; the former Matt. 6. 23. if the light that is in thee be darkness , how great is that darkness ! Where first he supposes that the principles of a mans mind or Conscience may be very false and erroneous , and then pronounces , that he that is in such a Case is in a very deplorable condition ; forasmuch as the errour of his Conscience will be sure to run him upon miscarriages of life , and the priviledge of its being his Conscience will not exempt him from the consequences of so doing . The other passage is Joh. 16. 2. where he foretels his Disciples that they should fall into so unhappy times , and lie under such prejudices & misprisons with the World , that those that killed them , should think they did God good service . Now those that think they do good service , and perform a meritorious action in such a thing , most certainly follow their Consciences in so doing , and yet it is as certain , that this did not justify the fact ; for then the Persecutors of Christianity and Murderers of the Apostles , must have been a very conscientious and commendable sort of men : wherefore it is evident , that Conscience is no rule nor sufficient warranty for our actions . 6. In the sixth place let him who hath thoughts of attaining the happiness of the World to come , take care of entertaining an opinion of the impossibility of Religion according to the measures of the holy Scripture . This is a common prejudice upon the minds of ignorant or cowardly people , for they phansy that a life according to the Laws of the Gospel , is rather a fine speculation , or a philosophical Hypothesis , than a necessary and practicable truth . They confess it would be a very good and commendable thing , if we could comply with the rules of our Saviour , but they look upon it as impossible , and so of no indispensable obligation . For they say , our natures are so corrupted by our fall , and thereby our faculties are so weak and impaired , that we are indeed nothing but infirmity on the one side ; and on the other , we are so beset with temptations , and the World , the Flesh and the Devil , are so much too strong for us , that we must sin , there is no avoiding of it , and God must pardon , and there 's an end of the business . Now if such an opinion as this possess a man , it will prove impossible that ever he should live holily . For if natural corruption have not infeebled us sufficiently , this cowardly conceit will be sure to do it effectually . For no man ( in this case especially ) is ever better than his design , nor rises higher than his aim or projection ( no more than water rises above its Fountain ) nay , it is a thousand to one , but he that sets his mark low , will fall yet lower in his prosecution ; and he that is cowed and dejected in his own mind , so as to think he shall never overcome the difficulties before him , most certainly never will or can do it . He only is like to prove a good Christian , that resolves with the true-hearted Israelites to despise difficulty and danger , and to conquer the good Land , whatsoever it cost him ; for such a man unites his strength , collects his Forces , and disheartens his Enemies as well as defies their opposition ; but the despondent cowardly Person , both infeebles himself and incourages his Enemies ; so that he can neither attempt , nor much less effect , any brave thing . And the same conceit of impossibility will as certainly render our Spirits uncomfortable as remiss ; because after all the pretence a man can make for his cowardice and remissness , he cannot but observe the strain of the whole Scripture to be against him ; and surely that man cannot enjoy himself very well under those attainments , which God and his own Conscience condemn as mean and unworthy . But after all , the ground of this opinion is as false as it is mischievous ; for in the first place , the holy Scripture assures us of some persons , and particularly of Zachary and Elizabeth , Luk. 1. 6. That they walked in all the commandments of the Lord blameless , and were both righteous before God , and yet they were the Children of the same Adam , and exposed to all the temptations , ill examples , and difficulties with other men . Besides , the aforesaid opinion , under a pretence of modesty , and an humble acknowledgment of humane weakness , reflects very dishonourably both upon the wisdom and goodness of God , when it imputes to the great Law-giver of the World , such over-sight and severity , as to prescribe such Laws as were not fitted to the capacities of those that were to be subject to them , and to be judged by them ; unto which adde , that it puts an intolerable slight upon the power of Faith , and ( which is more ) upon the very grace of God also , as if neither of them could carry us through all the difficulties we should be exposed to . Upon all which considerations ( and several such other which need not here be mentioned ) this opinion of the impossibility of Religion appears to be very bad , and such as ought by all means to be avoided by him that would lead an holy and comfortable Life . 7. And yet there is another opinion , which is both as common and as dangerous as any of the former ; against which therefore I will give caution in the seventh and last place , viz. when though perhaps Religion shall not be universally pronounced to be impossible , yet it shall be thought to be only the peculiar business , or especially to belong to some certain sorts or conditions of men , but not to be the general calling , the necessary and indispensable duty of all men . Under this pretence , serious and constant devotion is looked upon as appropriate to the Cloyster , where men live retired from the World , and are thought to have nothing else to do ; or to be the imployment of Churchmen , whose peculiar Profession it is ; or for old and Bed-ridden persons , who are fit for nothing else , but a Prayer-Book ; or at least for men fallen into adversity , who have no other thing to retire to , and to suppor themselves withal , but the contemplations of another World. But for men of callings and business , or for those that are in the flower of youth , and warmth of blood , in health and prosperity , these are thought to have allowances due to them , at least for the present , and the more solemn consideration of Religion must be adjourned to another time . If in the mean while such as these go to Church , and perhaps now and then say their Prayers , it is as much as is to be expected ; for their business is pretended to be too great , or their temptations and avocations too many , or at least their spirits are too light and brisk to permit them to be strictly devotional , or to make Religion their business . Thus men make vain Apologies , but doth God Almighty allow of them , hath he made any such exceptions or distinctions ? no certainly , he hath made Religion every mans duty , and hath charged us first to seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness ; he hath equally imposed this task upon Prince and Peasant , Clergy and Laity , rich and poor , Master and Servant , young and old , the afflicted and the prosperous , the man of business as well as those of leisure and retirement . He that hath an absolute soveraignty over the World , that hath right to our homage and attendance , that hath laid infinite obligations upon us to love and obey him ; he that hath considered and forecast all our circumstances , businesses , difficulties , temptations and excuses ; he that observes our carriage and behaviour towards himself , he that cannot be deceived , will not be mocked , and is no accepter of persons : He , I say , hath made no such exceptions or exemptions in this great concern of Religion ; and therefore they cannot be mentioned without great unreasonableness , nor relied upon without horrible danger . If indeed Eternity were the peculiar concern of a certain sort and condition of men only ; or if old men only died , and none else ; or if rich men can be contented that only poor men shall go to Heaven , then the other sorts of men may excuse themselves from devotion : but otherwise it is the greatest absurdity that can be to hope for the end without the means . What though old men must dy , yet will not young men quickly come to be , old men too , at least if they do not die first ? And what if men of retired lives have more leisure for Devotion , and more time to spend in it , yet is any man so hard put to it , but that he may ( if he will ) spare some time for his Soul and Eternity ? What if it be acknowledged that Churchmen have peculiar obligations upon them to recommend Religion to others , yet it is certain , that the necessity of practising it , is common to others with themselves ; forasmuch as there is no duty of it peculiar to them , unless it be to be exemplary in all . It is true , poor men , and men in adversity , are justly accusable of intolerable sottishness , if they who are frown'd upon by the World , do not seek to repair their unhappiness by the favour of God and the hopes of another World. But it is as true , that rich men and those in prosperity , are as justly to be upbraided with disingenuity , and base ingratitude , if they be not devout towards him that hath dealt so bountifully with them . Besides all this , there is no calling or condition of men , but under it they may ( if they have a heart to it ) very affectionately attend upon Religion , consistently enough with all other lawful business or occasions . Almighty Wisdom hath not so ill contrived the state of this World , that there should be any necessity that business should supplant Religion , or Religion intrench upon business ; nor if things be rightly considered , are these two kind of affairs so contrary , or doth Devotion take up so much time , or so much exhaust mens spirits , but with a good zeal and a little forecast , both may be carried on together . Or if it were otherwise , and that the care of our Souls would indeed weary our Bodies , or the securing of Heaven would disorder , and a little incommode our secular interests ; yet neither is Life so certain , nor the present World so considerable , nor Heaven so mean and contemptible an interest , as that a man should not be willing to put himself to some trouble for the latter as well as for the former . And as there wants not reason for this course , so neither are Examples wanting in this kind , where men that might have made such excuses , as aforesaid ( as justly as any persons whatsoever ) have notwithstanding quitted and disdained them all , and applied themselves remarkably to the service of God and Devotion . For if riches , and the variety of Worldly cares and business which usually attend them , were a just excuse from attendance upon Religion , then Job might have claimed exemption , who was the richest man in all the East , and yet the devoutest too . His thousands of Sheep , and Oxen , and Camels , his abundance of Servants , his numerous Family , and the care of all these , did not tempt him to the intermission of one dayes Devotion . If either the temptations and pleasures of Youth , or the voluptuousness of a Court , or the multitude of Examples of prophaneness , or the cares of a prime Minister of State , or the jealousies of a Favourite , could all together have amounted to a just dispensation from the strictness of Religion : then Daniel who was in all those circumstances might have pleaded it , and upon that account might have retrencht his Conscience , and intermitted his praying three times a day , especially when he knew his Enemies , watcht advantage against him in this particular . If the general licence of Souldiers , the temptations such men are exposed to , the necessities they often are prest with , or the sudden avocations they must be subject to , could make a tolerable apology for profaneness , or an excuse for Irreligion , then Cornelius , Acts 10. had been excused from praying to God continually , and serving the Lord with all his house . Nay , lastly , if either the state and grandeur , or the Prerogative of a Soveraign Prince , if the impunity of a King , or the glory and affluence of a Kingdom ; nay , if either interest of State , or weight of affairs , the Cares and Policies of Government , had been all together sufficient to make a dispensation from the strict obligations of Religion , then David might have pretended to it , in abatement of his duty to God , and of his constant and ardent Devotions . But all these holy men considered , that God was a great Majesty , not to be trifled with , and an impartial Judge , without respect of persons , that Eternity was of more consequence than the present Life , and Heaven better than this World ; and they were so far from thinking an Eternal Interest to be inconsistent with the management of temporal affairs , that contrarywise they believed there was no such effectual way to succeed in the latter as by a diligent prosecution of the former . But as for those who being convinced of the absolute necessity of Religion , and of the inexcusableness of a total and final omission of it , would notwithstanding make it to be only the business of old Age , or a Sickbed ; these ( although by the folly and sloth of men , they have too many followers in their opinion , yet certainly ) are the most absurd and inexcusable of all . Forasmuch as in order to the making such an Hypothesis passable with their own Consciences , they must not only suppose several very uncertain things , which no wise man can have the confidence or rather madness to presume upon ; but the very supposition it self implies divers other things so base and disingenuous , as no good man can be guilty of . First , they make very bold and desperate suppositions , as for Example , that they shall live to old Age , and die by a leisurely and lingring sickness . That God will then accept of mens return and repentance ( who never stopt in their carriere of sin and the World , till Death arrested them . ) That God will give them repentance what time they prefix to him , or that they can repent when they will. That they shall be fit for the most weighty affairs when they are at the last gasp , and the most important of all business can be transacted when their strength and spirits are exhausted . And to say no more , that it is fit and tolerable for a man to leave that to be last discharged , which if any accident prevent him in , he is everlastingly ruined . All these things must be taken for granted by him that shall venture to put off the business of his Soul to the last act of his Life , every one of which are at the best uncertain , and for the most part false , and therefore to build upon them is extream presumption . Secondly , If the foundation of such a course were not rotten and unsafe , yet that which is built upon it is base and dis-ingenuous ; for the man who upon any considerations whatsoever can content himself to put off the things wherein Gods Honour and his Souls Welfare are concerned to the very last , proclaims he hath an unreasonable love and admiration of this World , for the sake of which he postpones Religion , and that he hath no real kindness for , or good opinion of the ways of God , in that he puts the care of that business as far off , as possibly he can ; and indeed that he would not mind God or his Soul at all , if it were not for mere necessity and fear of damnation . Now whether this then can be a reasonable course , or he be a Candidate of the Kingdom of Heaven that governs himself by these measures , it is too easy to judge . Wherefore let the man who hath entertained any principles of Religion , and hath any value for his Soul , and care of Eternity , utterly abominate and avoid this last named , as well as all the forementioned prejudices or opinions . And having so done , let him then attend to the more positive and direct advices in the following Chapter . CHAP. VIII . Directions for an effectual prosecution of Religion . HE that is resolved to be a Christian in earnest , will find it necessary ( in the prosecution of his design ) to attend to the six following Directions . 1. Let such a man be sure always to keep himself strictly sober , by which I mean , not only that he avoid the extremity of a debauch , but that he indulge not himself so liberal an use of Wine and strong Drink , as that he shall come too near the confines of intemperance , especially in the general habit of his Life ; or that he take care that through facility or carelesness he comply not with the too common practice in this particular . Forasmuch as it is evident , that the approving a mans self to God , and the taking care of Eternity , are such weighty and important affairs , that they must needs require the greatest composure of thoughts , and the utmost intention of our minds ; and can neither be worthily taken in hand , nor much less pursued as they ought , in such a light and jolly humour as the custom of tipling doth ordinarily put men into ; for that relaxes a mans thoughts , and fills his spirit with froth and levity ; it renders the mind of a man so airy and trifling , that he becomes transported with a jest , and diverted by every impertinence ; it banishes sollicitude , and puts him besides his guard of caution and circumspection ; a mans head in such a case is impatient of weighty considerations , incapable of grave deliberations ; his thoughts are fluctuating and uncertain , he comes to no stable resolution , nor can he make any constant progress ; and surely such a temper cannot make a fit soil for Religion to take root in , or to thrive upon . Besides , intemperance doth not only disturb the reason of the mind , but also weakens and depresses it , and exalts phancy in the room of it ; which fills a man with wild , loose , and incoherent Ideas : And which is still worse , it raises the brutal passions also , both irascible and concupiscible , and thereby makes work for repentance and mortification ; which must needs become a very hard task to perform , when the same causes which have made it necessary , have therewithal impaired those powers that should accomplish it ; and therefore this course is utterly inconsistent with a design of Religion . Moreover , besides the evil of intemperance it self , it exposes a man to a thousand temptations , and puts him at the very mercy of the Devil , forasmuch as he that is under the power of drink , is not only out of Gods keeping , but out of his own also ; he hath quenched Gods Spirit whilest he inflamed his own , he hath deprived himself of Gods Providence by going out of his way , and he is not perfectly in possession of his own mind , and therefore surely is in a dangerous condition . To which adde , that whereas sobriety and watchfulness use always to be accounted inseparable Companions ; it is apparent , that he who neglects the former , can never be able to maintain the latter ; and consequently the intemperate man cannot be fit for Prayer and Meditation , and other great exercises of Piety . Upon all which accounts our Saviour S. Luke 21. 34. charges those that will be his Disciples to take heed to themselves , lest at any time their hearts be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness , &c. 2. In the second place , let the man who designs to prosecute Religion effectually , take care of intemperance of mind , as well as of that of the body ; and with equal heed , avoid intoxication by wild opinions , as he would do a surfeit of meats and drinks . The Prophet Isaiah complains of the people of the Jews , Isai . 29. 9. That they were drunken but not with Wine , they staggered but not with strong drink ; and the Apostle exhorts men to be sober minded : so that it seems there is a kind of spiritual drunkenness , which disguises mens minds as much as the other brutal custom disorders their outward person . Of this there are a great many instances , but two most remarkable , viz. opiniatre and scrupulosity : I mean by the former , when men have no setled judgment in Religion , but allow themselves an endless inquisitiveness in matters of opinion , and are always hunting after novelty : By the other I understand a captious or squeamish humour of Conscience , under which men perpetually vex both themselves and others with unreasonable fears and jealousies . As for the former of these , it is notoriously the humour of some men to be always doubting , disputing , and gazing after new light , as if all mankind had been imposed upon till now , and the old way were not the good way , but every new invention , or upstart notion contained some admirable mystery in it ; therefore they think it necessary to try all things before they can hold fast that which is best , and indeed surfeit on the forbidden Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil , as if it were the same with the Tree of Life . And if perhaps they fall not into any of those dangerous opinions which I gave caution against in the former Chapter , yet it is by chance if they do not ; for they having no judgment of discern the difference of things , no ballast to poise and settle them , are driven up and down with every wind of Doctrine ; they are of the opinion of the last Book they read , or the last man they discoursed with , for always the newest and freshest opinion is the best ; and so ( as they say of the Chameleon ) they take their colour from the next object . This temper is a mighty disparagement to divine truth , for it looks as if there were no certain way of satisfaction to the minds of men , but that they must always seek and never find , and endlesly dispute but could never come to a resolution : and it is so intolerable an impediment of the life and practice of Religion , that it is many times more harmless to be setled in some bad opinions , than to be thus unsetled , and to dispute every thing . For besides that this course draws off the spirits of men , and spends their best heat upon unprofitable notions , and so takes them off from studying their own hearts , examining their Consciences , and diligent attendance to their ways and actions ; it raises passion , nourishes pride , foments divisions , and in a word , turns Christianity into vain Janglings . Whereas a truly sober Christian is readier to believe than to dispute in divine things , and more careful to practise old rules than to devise new models ; he studies the Scripture sincerely , not for objections but for resolution ; he lives up to what he knows , and prays God to direct him where he is uncertain ; and so is led by the Divine Grace in a plain path towards Heaven . The Novellist or great Disputer contrariwise , being unresolved of his way , makes no hast in his Journey , and cannot very earnestly practise any thing to day , because he cannot tell what opinion he shall be of to morrow . And then for the other instance of intemperance of mind , namely scrupulosity . When men have such headstrong and ungovernable , or such shy and squeamish Consciences , that they boggle at every thing which doth not just fit their peculiar phancy and humour , though they can give no reasonable account of their jealousy or aversation , but only they dislike and are offended with such and such ( indifferent ) things , they know not why , their Conscience takes check at them , and there is no more to be said in the Case . Now such as these can by no means be reputed sober men , who ( like as we say of Drunkards ) see double , and consequently fear where no fear is , or who are terrified by their own idle phancies , their brains being clouded and darkened by the crude steams of riot and excess . This temper however in some cases it may be pitiable , is notwithstanding very mischievous , not only as it disturbs the Peace of the Church and of Mankind , by rendering those who are under the power of it , busy and pragmatical , censorious and uncharitable towards all that are not just of their own mode and size , but ( which is far worse ) it misrepresents the Divine Majesty , as if he were a captious Deity , who watched mens haltings , to take advantage against them , as having more mind to damn than to save them . By which means it discourages men from Religion , as if it were the most anxious and uncomfortable thing in the World ; and consequently of all this , it extreamly hinders proficiency in virtue ; for he that is always jealous of his way , will often make halts , or have a very uncomfortable progress . On the other side , he that is likely to make a good Christian , satisfies himself of the Divine Goodness and Candour in interpreting the actions of his Creatures , and being conscious of his own sincerity , in following closely the rule of the Scripture , where it is plain , thinks himself at liberty where that is silent , and takes the direction of his Spiritual Guides where it is obscure , and then goes chearfully and vigorously on his way towards Heaven . 3. Next to regard of Sobriety both of body and mind , let the man who designs the other World , take heed that the present World grow not too much upon him , and distract or over-burden him in his Journey towards Heaven : and the diligence and circumspection in this point ought to be the greater , in regard this World is placed near us , and therefore is apt to seem great to our sight , and the other ( though incomparably greater ) being at a distance from us , is apt to seem little and contemptible . Besides , it is the chief aim of the Devil to make the present World seem much more beautiful and valuable than it is , that by its blandishments he may soften us , by its allurements debauch us , or at least by the care and concerns of it distract us and take off our edge to better things . It is certain also , that he whose affections are eagerly ingaged upon secular interests , can never be ingenuous and free enough to have a right understanding of the true and real difference of things , nor conscientious enough to stand by that truth which he understands ; for he can never be steady in any principles , but must turn with every Tide , and sail with every Wind , as it shall make for his purpose : Besides , it is plain , that our Souls are too narrow to hold much of this World , and yet to afford room for any great share of Heaven together with it . Therefore our Saviour hath said , ye cannot serve God and Mammon , and accordingly in his first Sermon on the Mount , Matt. 6. 24 , 25 , 26. to the intent that his Doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven might take place in the hearts of his Disciples and hearers , he very emphatically and largely cautions them against admiration of the World , and too eager pursuit of it . And in the aforementioned passage , Luk. 21. v. 34. to his admonition against over-charging themselves with surfeiting and drunkenness , he subjoins the cares of this life , intimating , that those two kinds of Vices ( as opposite as they may seem to each other ) agree in their malignant influence upon Religion : neither indeed are they so contrary in their natures as they seem to be ; for as Drunkenness is nothing but a liquid Covetousness , so on the other side , Covetousness is a kind of dry thirst or drunken insatiable humour ; and it is so much the more dangerous and incurable than the other , as it is the less infamous , merely because it doth not presently discover it self by such odd and ridiculous symptomes as the other doth . To avoid this therefore , let the man we speak of , consider constantly with himself the shortness and uncertainty of the present life , by which he will easily be apprehensive of how much more consequence it is to provide for Eternity , than for that little abode we are to make in that state wherein the things of this World are of any use to us . Let him also observe the success of things , and he will easily conclude , that much more of our prosperity is owing to the providence of God , than to our own forecast and indeavours ; and consequently , that it is a better provision for our Children and Posterity , to leave them under the blessing of God , than in great possessions . And in consequence of these perswasions , he will not be tempted to grasp too much business , so as to hinder him in devotion , but will rather consider his own strength , viz. how much care and labour he can undergo , without depression of his Spirit , or debasing his mind ; and will weigh the dangers and temptations of the World against the pleasures and all urements of riches . This will also incline him prudently to methodize his affairs , and to put that business which seems necessary , into the best order , that so it may take its due place in subordination to his greater concerns , and not supplant or interfere with them . To which purpose also , if he have any considerable matters to dispose of , he will think it convenient to set his House in order as well as his business , and have always his Will made , not only , that thereby he may be the more effectually admonished of his mortality , and be provided against the surprizal of Death , but that in the mean time he may have the less sollicitude upon his spirit , and may the more singly and undistractedly apply himself to his main business . And then 4. In the fourth place let him attend to the counsel of Jesus the Son of Syrach , Ecclus. 2. 1. My Son , if thou come to serve the Lord , prepare thy soul for temptation , that is , as if he had said , Whensoever thou undertakest a course of Religion , be not so fond as to imagine thou shalt be able to accomplish it without sweat and difficulty , or so secure as to think of obtaining the Crown without a conflict , but expect to meet with temptations of several kinds , and arm thy self accordingly ; especially in thy first entrance on such a course , thou must look for the sharpest encounters , for thy Enemies are not so soon vanquisht as defied , nor are they either so fair and civil as to give thee scope to harden and fortify thy self in thy enterprize , or so imprudent as to slip the opportunity of thy weakness and security together . Beginnings in all such cases are attended with the greatest hazards and difficulties . The Devil rages most at first , out of indignation to suffer the prey to be taken out of his mouth , whereas when he is past hopes of recovering it , he hath more wit than to labour in vain , and will not so much trouble himself to tempt when he sees no likelihood of success , but he is more resolute than quickly to despair or give over his siege upon the first denial of his Summons . No he will storm and batter thee night and day , and cast in all his bombs and fiery darts to affright and compel thee to a surrender . And for the flesh it is certain , that the first checks which are given to sensual inclinations , are harshest , and go most against the grain , because they have used to take their full scope and swinge ; indeed when a man hath accustomed them to denial in their importunities , they by degrees and in time grow tame , and submit to the yoke of reason , as fire is extinguish'd by being supprest , or as a violent torrent that is turned into a new Chanel , and restrained its antient course , at first rages , and foams and swells against those new banks , though at length it ceases its tumult , and runs along quietly within its boundaries . It is not one overthrow will dishearten the old man , he must be baffled and vanquisht over and over before he will cease to rebel , nor must you think to find virtue easy till you have accustomed your self to it ; for nothing but custom can intirely subdue custom , wherefore ( till that is introduced ) you must never be secure but always upon your guard . And then as for the World , the first rejection of that out of a mans heart is performed with as great difficulty as any of the former ; when a man hath once cast over-board that luggage which otherwise was likely to have sunk him , it 's possible he may be glad of the exchange , and despise what before he admired ; but it is a great matter to be convinced of the necessity of unburdening the Vessel , and a long dispute before men are willing to lose any thing for Heaven . It requires a great sagacity to see the empty Pageantry of the World , so as to slight fame , applause , riches , ease and pleasure ; a hard piece of self-denial to abridge himself of the liberty other men take ; a great mastery of a mans self to be deaf to all the charms , and insensible of all the caresses of the World , and in a word , to keep a mans Eyes and thoughts steadily fixed upon another life . Therefore there is great reason that a man should count upon difficulty in the undertaking of Religion , lest when it comes upon him unforeseen , he turn recreant , and come off with shame and loss . Besides all this there is something more which ( I apprehend ) the Wise man intended in the aforesaid advice , namely , that he that resolves to be a virtuous man , must fortify his mind , as well against the perswasions , examples , and discouragements of his less considerate Friends and acquaintance , as against the bitter scoffs and reproaches of his Enemies , that neither the insensible insinuations of the one dissolve him into lukewarmness and remissness , nor the rough attacks of the other sink his spirits , and shake his resolution . Opposition from each of these he must expect to meet with : from the former , out of folly , or else in their own defence , that such a man's zeal may not reproach their negligence ; from the other , out of malice and as assailants , that they may reak their spight upon God and his holy ways ; and therefore he ought to be provided for both . Against the soft insinuations of injudicious persons , he must be provided , by being girt about with truth , and have on the breastplate of righteousness , as the Apostle advises , Eph. 6. 14. that is , he must establish his heart in an undoubted belief of the truth on his side , by considering the authority of God , the Example of our Saviour , and other holy men , and hence be able to render a reason of the hope that is in him with meekness and fear ; and if this do not ease him of their fond importunities , he must then put on some degree of morosity , and resolve with David , 2 Sam. 6. 22. that if this be to be vile , he will yet be more vile . Against the rude treatments of lewd and malicious men , he must as the same Apostle advises , Eph. 6. 16 , 17. take the shield of faith , whereby he shall repel all the fiery darts of the wicked , and for an helmet the hope of salvation ; and in contemplation of the Objects of both those , he will be able generously to contemn all obloquy and reproach , as disdaining to be hectored out of Salvation . In a word , for altogether he must always remember , that self-denial is the first Lesson of Christianity , and that he that hath not so learnt it , as to take up his Cross and follow Christ , cannot be his Disciple . 5. In the fifth place , let the Candidate of the Kingdom of Heaven take care that he do not precipitate himself into temptation ; for as on the one side we ought to behave our selves stoutly and bravely , when it pleases God to lay it upon us , so on the other side , ought we to be as cautious and timorous of drawing it upon our selves ; the first of which is seldom separate from the last ; for he that knows how to encounter a danger , will not ordinarily thrust himself into it ; and usually those who are so stupid and fool-hardy , as to run themselves into difficulties , shew as little courage and conduct in conflicting with them , as they did discretion in the adventure upon them ; and no wonder , seeing in such a case they put themselves out of Gods protection , trusting to themselves , and then they cannot in reason expect other than to be deserted by his grace in such unwarrantalbe enterprizes . Let the piously disposed man therefore not be so fond as to try experiments upon himself , lest he buy his knowledge of his own weakness at the cost of too great an hazard . Let him not go too near sin , in confidence that he can divide by an hair , and come off clever enough . For instance , let him not nibble at an Oath , nor mince the matter of profaneness , nor drink to the highest pitch of sobriety , nor go to the utmost extremity of justice in his dealings ; for he knows not the deceitfulness of his own heart , nor considers the slippery ground he stands upon , that will thus venture to the very brink of his liberty . Nor let him provoke Enemies to himself by intemperate zeal , as if a good man should not meet with opposition enough without his own procuring , nor the World had malice enough unless he inflamed and exasperated it ; especially , let him not thrust himself into lewd Company , in confidence of his own integrity and stability : for he hath no sufficient apprehension of the power and malice of the Devil , who by any of the aforesaid imprudences tempts him to tempt himself ; nay , nor doth he seem to hate and abominate sin so absolutely as he ought to do , that loves the Vicinage and Neighbourhood of it . What the wise man therefore advises , Prov. 5. 8. concerning the whorish woman , is very applicable to this Case , Remove thy way far from her , and come not near the door of her house ; and so also he saith of flagitious men , chap. 4. 14 , 15. Enter not into the path of the wicked , and go not in the way of evil men , avoid it , pass not by it , turn from it , and pass away ; for he that goes ordinarily to the brink of a Precipice , is in great danger sometime or other to fall in , and he that nibbles at the bait , will one time or other be taken with the hook . 6. Sixthly and lastly , as a discreet man , and concerned for Eternal Life , ought not to be over-daring and confident in his approaches towards sin and danger , so neither ought he on the other hand to be timorous and strait-laced in things eminently and unquestionably good ; whether it be in instances of devotion towards God , or of self-denial and mortification of himself , or in acts of Charity towards others ; for in all these , there is such a scope and latitude , as that a brave and noble spirit of Christianity , may and will distinguish it self from a narrow and stingy temper in the discharge of them . For Example , such a man as we speak of , neither will nor ought to confine his Devotions to such strict and precise measures , as that he that falls short of them will be guilty of an omission of his duty ; but will contrarywise find in his heart to spend something more than ordinary of his time in Prayers and Meditation , and such other acts of immediate worship . He will not stick to apply somewhat more than the just tenth or tythe of his increase , to the incouragement of Religion ; nor will he grudge to deny himself , upon weighty occasions , some of that pleasure which at other times he can allow himself without sin : or if occasion be , he will give alms , not only out of the superfluity of his estate , but to the utmost of his ability , perhaps beyond his convenience ; for these things though ( generally considered ) they are not matters of express duty , yet do they not cease to be good , merely because they are not commanded , so long as the species and kind of them is commanded ; and besides , such extraordinary expressions of obedience to a general command , are very fit to demonstrate our love to God , our gratitude for his unspeakable bounty towards us , and our value of the Kingdom of Heaven , seeing that by such instances especially , we shew , that we love the Lord our God with all our heart , and soul , and strength ; and that we think nothing too dear for the assuring our selves of Eternal Life . And though it would not be expresly a sin to omit any one of the instances of the several kinds aforesaid , yet it must be a palpable argument of a narrow heart towards God , to yield no such instances at all , and cannot but proceed from very culpable superstition to be afraid of so doing ; nay more , for a man to be barren of such fruits , and careless of such performances , is a great point of folly and imprudence towards our selves , in respect of the comfort which our hearts might receive by such generosity ; for although by no after act of ours ( how excellent soever ) it be possible for us , to make any proper amends to the Divine Majesty , for our former offences and omissions , yet by such expressions as these ( we speak of ) we shew our selves sensible of those miscarriages , and that we are under remorse for them , and we give proof , that we truly love God , though we have offended him , and desire to obtain his favour by the most costly oblations . Upon all which accounts it seems very adviseable , that he who sets his Face towards Heaven , should indeavour to open and inlarge his heart this way , and not suffer himself to be cramped and contracted by any odd opinions to the contrary . Whereas therefore some men seem to fansie a frugal way of Religion , and accordingly inquire for the minimum quod sic ( as we say ) or the lowest degree of saving grace , as if Heaven and Hell were divided by an hair , and they would be at the trouble of no more piety than would just carry them out of danger ; They are to be admonished that they seek after impossibilities and contradictions ; for it is in truth as if they should say , they would have fire without heat , Religion without Devotion , Piety without Affection , Holiness without Zeal , or that they desire to fear God , but have no inclination to love him . To speak plainly , the lowest degree of goodness is never sought after but in an ill temper of mind , and by a cowardly and hypocritical heart , nor can it be found with comfort ; for the essence of grace is no more discoverable without the fruits , than a body without its accidents ; and therefore there are but two ways of obtaining true comfort in our Souls , viz. either by our daily proficiency , or by our extraordinary fervency . First , By daily proficiency we discover the life of grace in our hearts , as we discern a plant to be alive because we see it grows . Secondly , By extraordinary fervency , as when perhaps a man hath not had time to give proof of himself by a long course of growing daily better and better , he may yet demonstrate a vital principle of good in his Soul , by such generous efforts of zeal as we have been speaking of ; in consideration of which , it is therefore not only sordid and ingrateful towards God , but very uncomfortable to our selves to inquire for the mere essence of grace , and to stand upon strict and precise terms of duty . But perhaps these men think a pretence of modesty will countenance them against any imputation of cowardize or hypocrisy , for they will say they are contented with the lowest seat in Heaven , and so they may arrive at that state , they are ambitious of no more . Silly men ! as if it were a culpable ambition to indeavour to be very good ! as if supreme happiness could be modestly or remisly desired ! or that he either understood or truly desir'd Heaven , who would modestly complement , others to enter before him ! No , no ; the chiefest good is desirable for it self , and the natural manner of desiring it , is to do it without measure and bounds , and it is impossible it should be otherwise ; he therefore that hath these modest desires of Heaven , is either a stark hypocrite , or hath no true notion of that state at all . Besides , if it were or could be possible for a man to be modest and good in this sense , I mean to love Heaven but moderately , and yet to comethere , notwithstanding it could not be without great folly and danger , for a man to set himself too low a mark in so high a concern ; for ( as I observed before ) we see it is almost constant with men to shoot below their aim , and nothing more ordinary than for their practice to fall short of their speculations ; and therefore every man that would not miscarry in his design , takes care to direct himself high enough ; accordingly in this great affair of Religion , he that yields to such a faint-hearted temper , under the notion of modesty , will not only never be very good , but scarcely ever be tolerable or good at all ; for if his projections be mean , his performances will be worse , in regard the deceitfulness of his own heart , the reluctancy of the flesh , and the temptations of the Devil , will be sure to get some ground upon him ; and when abatements are made for all such disadvantages , what a pittiful dwarfish sanctity will this over modesty arrive to at last ? But yet after all this , some perhaps will be found so silly as to think , or so disingenuous as to pretend to a suspicion , at least , that such extraordinary works as we have been now recommending , may savour of merit or supererogation ; very likely , if any man could be so absurd as to attribute any such thing to them ; but surely he that takes his measures of things from the holy Scripture , will be in little danger of such a gross mistake , especially whilest we are expresly told by our Saviour , that when we have done all that we can , we are still but unprofitable servants ; for can a mortal man oblige his Maker ? can infinite perfection become a Debtor to Dust and Ashes ? But forasmuch as God requires and deserves that we should love him with all our Soul , and heart , and strength ; it is impossible we should love him too much , but great danger we should love him too little : it cannot therefore choose but be the wisest and safest course to incline to the side of God Almighty , and to favour his interest against the sensuality , deadness and deceitfulness of our own hearts . O but ( may some man say ) will it not at least be will-worship to affect uncommanded instances of love to God and zeal of his glory ? I answer , it is possible that such a thing may be , if these things be done with neglect of those expressions of love and zeal which God hath particularly appointed ; for this looks as if a man pretended to be wiser than God himself , and so would undertake to choose for him , what he should be pleased with . But now , if neither his appointments in special be superseded by these voluntary performances , nor these voluntary performances be unagreeable to those standing and general rules he hath given us , there can be no danger that divine goodness should ill interpret them , especially since there can be no imaginable reason why he that was pleased with a free-will-offering under the Law , should be offended with the like under the Gospel ; where above all things he requires a free , chearful , generous and reasonable service . Wherefore let the man who really believes there will be rewards of well-doing in another World , and is resolved to obtain them , be always ready to every good work , and chearfully imbrace the opportunity wherein he may perform a costly or a difficult service ; and let him take care that no tradition of men , nor superstitious conceit of his own head , neither the example of other mens careless lives , nor the too natural remissness of his own heart , prevail upon him to neglect such instances , whereby the glory of God may be most advanced , and his own Comfort assured . PART II. THE PRACTICE OF Holy and Comfortable LIVING . Jer. 6. 16. Thus saith the Lord , stand ye in the ways , and see , and ask for the old paths , where is the good way , and walk therein , and ye shall find rest for your souls . THE PRACTICE OF Holy and Comfortable LIVING . CHAP. I. Of secret Devotion , between God and a Man 's own Soul , and particularly of Prayer . HItherto in the former part of this little Book , we principally designed these four things , First , To discover the foundations of Religion in general , and from thence to demonstrate the reality , importance and necessity of it . Secondly , To settle mens judgments and determine them in the choice of their profession of Religion in particular . Thirdly , To give caution against certain common but dangerous mistakes , which might otherwise undermine and disappoint the ends and purposes of Religion . Fourthly and lastly , To lay down some general directions necessary to be premised in order to the effectual prosecution of a religious design , and all this we comprized under the title of An Introduction . But now we come to build upon those foundations , and more particularly and plainly to draw out the lines of an holy and comfortable Life . Here therefore it may seem expedient that we should in the first place consider the extent and whole compass of Religion , to the intent that it may not be taken for such a narrow and stingy thing as the generality of men represent it , namely to shew , that it is not a mere scuffle about opinion , nor a canting with peculiar phrases , neither a clubbing into a distinct party under the notion of a Church or select Society , nor yet the formal acting of a part with the observance of abundance of nice Rites , Ceremonies and Punctilio's ; that it is not a thing which looks beautifully , and promises fairly in publick , but is forgotten or laid aside at home , nor is it immured in a Closet , and never sufferd to take the air in Conversation ; to say no more , that it is not mere morality , nor mere devotion , but both these in Conjunction , together with all that is brave and noble , and wise and good ; all that can better the minds and tempers , and lives of men , and all that can improve the state of the World ; all this is within the Verge of Religion , especially the Christian Religion . For so the Apostle intimates , Phil. 4. 8. Finally Brethren , whatsoever things are true , whatsoever things are honest , ( or grave ) , whatsoever things are just , whatsoever things are pure , whatsoever things are lovely ( or friendly ) , whatsoever things are of good report , if there be any virtue , and if there be any praise , think of these things , i. e. Count them branches of Christianity , for true Religion is nothing less , nothing , I mean of no narrower extent than a wise and worthy conduct and manage of a mans self in all those Relations we stand in , namely towards God , our Neighbour , and our selves . This I take to be the true notion and the just Province of Religion , but I can neither think it possible to handle all the parts of so vast a subject in this short Treatise , nor indeed do I apprehend the discoursing of them all to be equally necessary to those for whose use I principally intend these Papers . Therefore omitting ( but not excluding ) all other branches of Religion , I will here only speak of these three things . First , Of secret Devotion , or those acts of Piety which are transacted only between Almighty God and a Mans own Soul. Secondly , Of private Piety , or the exercises of Religion in every particular Family . Thirdly , Of the more publick acts of Religion , and concerning a mans governing himself so as to consult the honour and service of God in the Parish wherein he lives . I begin with the first , viz. of secret or Closet Devotion . That this is an essential branch of true Religion , and a necessary and universal duty , appears by the command of our Saviour , Mat. 6. 6. When thou prayest , enter into thy Closet , and when thou hast shut the door , pray to thy father who is in secret , &c. in which words it is not our Saviours meaning to forbid or put a slight upon all but Closet Devotion ; for he himself frequently prayed publickly and taught his Disciples so to do ; nor though he speak of a Closet , doth he intend to confine this duty to the strict formalities of a Closet , but that it may be done in the Fields , or in any recess or place of secrecy whatsoever , as he himself practised ; nor lastly , though he use the word Prayer only , doth he make that strictly taken to be the whole office of secret Piety ; for it is usual in the Scripture , and in common speech also , to express all the acts of immediate worship by the name of Prayer , whether they be Praises , or Adorations , or Confessions , or Thanksgiving , or Meditation or Self-Examination ; all therefore which our Saviour here intended , was to represent the necessity of secret Devotion as well as publick , and to press that upon his Disciples which the hypocrisy and ostentation of the Pharisees had laid aside , because in truth they sought not Gods glory but their own . And this is further recommended to us by the universal practice of all good men in all Ages and Countries of the World , and of whatsoever opinion or perswasion otherwise . There have perhaps been those who under some pretence or other have neglected Family worship , and those also who have been abased by some scruples into an omission of publick worship ; but I verily think that none but flat Atheists , or gross Hypocrites ( which are much the same thing ) could ever dispense with themselves in the common and habitual neglect of secret worship ; for a man cannot believe there is a God , or much less have any worthy apprehensions of him , but it naturally puts him upon some act or other of adoration towards him . Acts of publick worship are to the Soul as exercise is to the Body , it may live and subsist , though not long and healthfully without it ; but secret Devotion is like the motion of the heart and lungs , without which a man is presently choaked up and destroy'd ; if his heart do not move towards God , and as it were by circulation return in praises , all those benefits which it continually receives from him , it is stifled by repletion ; and if by Prayer he do not breathe out his griefs , and as it were ventilate his spirits , he is strangled by his own melancholy : for the publick performance of religious offices cannot make a supply in these Cases , because every man hath his secret sins to confess to God , which it is ordinarily unsafe to make other men privy to , and his peculiar infirmities and temptations , his griefs and burdens , which it is in vain to lay open to men , seeing only God can relieve them ; and every man hath received sundry personal mercies and savours from the hands of God , in answer of his Prayers , which require a personal acknowledgment to the Divine Goodness . And the opening of a mans heart in any of these Cases is commonly attended with such affections and passionate expressions , as would be indecent to the Eyes of men , though they are very becoming towards God , in respect of which last thing , we find , 1 Sam. 1. 13. Hannah was thought to be drunk , by the holy and wise man Eli the Priest , when yet , as the truth appear'd afterwards , he saw in her only the devout symptoms of a sorrowful Spirit . Besides , these acts of secret worship are very necessary in order to publick worship , both as they dispose and fit a mans heart for it before he enters upon it , by composing the thoughts and raising the affections ; and as they make application of it afterwards , pressing home upon the Conscience , the instructions there received , and improving and confirming into a stable resolution , those good affections and inclinations which were stirred up by it ; insomuch , that that man will either have no mind to Gods publick service , or no suitable temper in it , or be little the better after it , that hath not first fitted and prepared his heart for it by secret Devotion . And herein lies the true reason , as well of the lamentable unprofitableness as of the common irreverence of publick performances ; because men rush into Gods House without the due Preface of secret preparation , and they turn their backs upon God when they depart from the Church , never attending to , or improving those good motions which the spirit of God had kindled in them . Moreover , these devout offices of Religion , though they are by no means to supplant and supersede the publick ( as we have intimated already , and shall demonstrate at large by and by ) yet in some respects they are more acceptable to God than the other ; forasmuch as they are founded upon an acknowledgment of his Omniscience , and demonstrate the great and intimate sense we have of the Divine Majesty , and consequently of this they give the greatest assurance to our own hearts , of our sincerity , and so are the most comfortable : for publick Devotion may possibly have a great alloy of secular interest , and may owe it self in a great measure to the authority of Laws , or to publick fame and reputation ; but he that worships God in secret , where and when no Eye is privy but only that of God Almighty , is secure to himself , that he can have no mean or sinister end in so doing , nothing can move him to this but the mere reverence of God , and therefore our Saviour in the forementioned passage , Mat. 6. 6. lays an Emphasis upon those words , thy father which is in secret , and adds this incouragement of such addresses to God , thy father which seeth in secret will reward thee openly . Upon all which considerations let the man who either values Gods glory , or his own improvement , Peace and Comfort , or indeed who makes any pretence to Religion , strictly make Conscience of , and constantly practise secret Devotion . The nature , extent , manner , instances and circumstances whereof , I am now further to explain in the following particulars . 1. And I begin with that which is so universally acknowledged , and so principal a part of Divine Worship , that ( as I noted before ) it is ordinarily put for the whole , I mean Prayer to God , touching the secret exercise whereof , let the good Christian take these following Directions . First , Let him not fail Night and Morning ( at least ) solemnly and devoutly to pray to God : Divers holy men we read of , who according to the greatness of their zeal , or urgency of the occasion for it , have prescribed to themselves stricter measures than this ; particularly , David saith he would worship God seven times in a day , and Daniels custom was to do it three times a day , Dan. 6. 10. as seems also to have been that of the Primitive Christians ; but less than twice a day I cannot find to agree with the practice of any good men , unless either sickness disabled them , or some very extraordinary occasion diverted them : and it is wondrously fit and decorous , that we , who owe our whole time to God , should pay him the tribute of devoting those critical periods of it ( I mean Evening and Morning ) to him , especially in consideration of the peculiar circumstances these two points of time are attended with , namely in the Evening , having finished the course of that day , and reflecting upon our infirmities in it , we cannot but observe by how many failings we have justly incurred Gods displeasure , if he should severely animadvert upon us ; and therefore have great cause to deprecate his anger , and to make our peace with him : and we must needs also be sensible both how many dangers we have escaped , by his Providence , and how many instances of blessing we have received from his goodness , and therefore have reason to praise and magnify his name ; nd especially being then also to betake our selves to sleep , when above all times we are out of our own keeping , and are exposed to a thousand dangers from thieves , from malicious men , from violent Elements of Wind , Fire and Water , from the enterprizes of evil spirits , and frightful Dreams , and our own foolish Imaginations , in which and sundry other respects , no man knows what a night may bring forth , and in consideration of which , he is a stupidly secure , and fool-hardy person , that doth not think it highly to be his interest , by peculiar addresses , to recommend himself and all his concerns to the watchful Eye of Providence , which neither slumbers nor sleeps . And in the Morning , having not only by the guard of holy Angels been preserved from all those dangers which might have surprized us in the dark , and when our senses were so lockt up that we could not help our selves , but refreshed and recruited in all our powers by that admirable divine Opiate , sleep ; nothing less can become us than to consecrate anew all these restored powers to our Creator and Preserver , by hearty Adorations . Besides this , we are then sensible that we are now entring upon a new scene of business , where we shall be exposed to innumerable accidents , dangers , difficulties , and temptations , none of which we are match for without divine assistance , and have therefore need to implore his grace and good providence before we encounter them , so that it is not timidity or superstitious fear , but just wisdom not to dare either to go to Bed , or to set our foot out of doors , till we have recommended our selves to Almighty God by Prayer . And by so doing ( as aforesaid ) we maintain the juge sacrificium , and ( in Gods gracious interpretation are said to ) pray continually , and to consecrate our whole time to him ; and besides , we keep up a lively and constant sense of him upon our hearts . Secondly , Let him be sure that these duties be done fervently as well as constantly and frequently , not formally and customarily , without life and feeling of what a man is about , or with wandring thoughts and distracted affections , but with the greatest vigour and intention of mind that is possible ; for if a mans heart be flat and remiss in these special approaches to God , he will be sure to be much worse , and even loose and Atheistical upon other occasions ; for these secret duties are the special instruments and exercises of raising our hearts towards Heaven , and as it were the nicking up of our Watch to that cue in which we would have it go . In the more publick offices of Religion the credit and reputation of it is principally concerned , and therefore they ought to be performed with all gravity and solemnity , but the very life and soul of piety lies in these secret duties , and therefore they ought to be discharged with the quickest sense and most inflamed affections ; insomuch that a man must not think he hath acquitted himself when he hath repeated such , or so many Prayers , until he find also his heart warmed , and his temper of mind raised and improved by them ; to this purpose therefore , let him in the entrance upon these retirements place himself under the Eye of God , and be apprehensive of the immediate presence of the Divine Majesty , that this may give check to all levity of spirit and wandering of thoughts , and make him grave and reverential ; let him also all along be sensible of the great value and necessity of those things which he either begs of God , or returns thanks for ; that this may render him ardent in his desires , and affectionate in his praises , and whilest he perseveres in these duties , let him join with them , reading and meditation , not only to fix his mind , but to prevent barrenness , and to impreganate and inrich his Souls with divine notions and affections . To this end , Thirdly , Let him take care that he tempt not himself to flatness by an affected length of these holy duties ; for though it be a sign of an indevout temper to be too compendious and concise in them , as if we grudged the time spent in Gods Service ; and although it be also irreverent towards God to be so short and abrupt , as if we briefly dictated to him what we would have done ; yet it is to be guilty of the same fault , to be impertinently tedious with him , as if he could not understand us without many words , or would be wrought upon by tedious importunity . Besides all this , it is to be considered , that often , when the spirit is willing , the flesh is weak , and that our bodies cannot always correspond with our minds : now in such a case to affect the prolonging of our Devotions , is to lose in the intention what we get in the extension of them ; for it will be sure either to make us go unwillingly to our duty , or to perform it very superficially ; in either of which circumstances it is not likely we should be pleasing to God , or be able to make any comfortable reflections afterwards upon such performance . The measures of Devotion therefore are not expresly prescribed by God , but are to be determined by a prudent respect to the peculiar constitution of the person , the condition of his affairs , and the extraordinariness of the occasion ; and to go about to exceed these bounds , is an argument of intemperate zeal , which is never acceptable to God , and is so far injurious to a mans self , that it manifestly hinders what it pretends to promote . To these I add , Fourthly , Let not the devout man be very curious or sollicitious about the from or expressions of his secret duties ; I mean , whether his Prayers be read out of a Book , or be the present conceptions of his own mind , so long as they are offered up from an understanding Soul , and an humble and affectionate heart , for these are all the things that God looks at , and wherein his honour is directly concerned ; and therefore as he hath no value for eloquence of speech on the one hand , so neither hath he for strength of memory , or for pregnancy and variety of phancy on the other ; but only ( as I said ) that we worship him with our understanding , and do not like Parrots , utter words whereof we have no sense or notion ; that we bring an humble and contrite spirit , as sensible of the infinite distance between him and us , and an heart seriously affected with his presence and the nature and value of the things we are conversant about . It is true , that a composed form is most sutable to publick worship , where ( as I noted before ) the dignity and credit of Religion is concern'd , and that perhaps in private duties , our present conceptions may most please and affect our selves ; but our acceptance with God ( especially in these secret duties ) depends neither upon the one nor the other , but upon those inward dispositions of the Soul aforesaid . Wherefore let no man cheat himself into an opinion that those heats of phancy or transports of affection which sometimes happen in conceived Prayer , are instances of real and extraordinary devotion ; or that because the use of a form or Book may perhaps be destitute of such flights , therefore those duties are dead and formal : forasmuch as those services may be most acceptable to God which are less pleasant to our selves ; since it is not those sudden flashes but a constant and even servour of piety which he hath regard to . And this leads me to another advice , namely , Fifthly , Let the pious man think himself obliged to pray without ceasing , and that he is never to lay aside or intermit the regular course of a daily devotion upon any pretence whatsoever , but especially not upon the absurd pretext of awaiting the motion of the spirit ; for although it be true , that the Spirit of God ceases not to move men to their duty , the way of the Spirit of God is not to move sensibly , and to make violent impressions upon us ; and therefore he that suspends the performance of his duty till he is so jogged and stirred up to it , will never pray at all : and indeed what reason can there be to expect such a thing , or what need of it in the case of a known duty ? if it were the will of God to put us upon some extraordinary service , then it were reasonable to expect some special mandate or impulse upon our spirits from him , which might both warrant the enterprize , and quicken us in the prosecution ; but in ordinary duties , the motion of the holy spirit in the Scripture , is and ought to be sufficient , and he that will not be stirred up by that , doth but pretend to wait for a spirit in excuse of his own Atheism , Unbelief , or intolerable slothfulness ; and in so doing lays himself open to an evil spirit , whose design it is to check and withdraw men from Religion , and this is matter of sad and common experience , that from waiting for the motion of the spirit , men very usually grow first to frequent omissions , then to carelessness of their duty , and at last to a total neglect of it . Therefore let not any man slight a regular and methodical Devotion , as a meer formal and customary thing , since this is the very attainment of Piety , when that which is matter of duty becomes also in a good sense customary and habitual ; and he that out of such a temper performs the duties of Religion constantly and reverently , gives far greater proof of sincere Christianity , than he that seems to himself to do them with greater heat and transport , but needs from time to time to be jogged and provoked to the performance . Sixthly , To all these I adde in the last place , that it is very advisable , though not absolutely necessary , that in these secret Devotions , a man should ( where it may be done with privacy , and without oftentation or such other impediment ) pray vocally and audibly ; for although God knows our hearts , and observes all our thoughts , and the motions of our affections before we express them , and therefore needs not that we should interpret our minds to him by words , yet it is fit we should imploy all the powers and capacities we have in his service ; our Bodies as well as our Souls , and our Lips as well as our hearts . Besides , though we cannot affect God with the tone and accents of our Speech , yet we often times affect our own hearts the more , and raise them a note higher in concord with the elevation of our Voices : but that which I principally intend is this , viz. by the harmony of our tongue and voice , our hearts are as it were charmed into the greater composure and intention upon that we are about . And so whereas it is the usual complaint , especially of melancholy and thoughtful persons , that their hearts are apt to rove and wander in these secret duties of Religion , by this means we have it very much in our power to keep them from extravagancy , and at once to make our Devotions the less tedious to our selves , and the more acceptable to God. CHAP. II. Of several other instances of secret Devotion . THough Prayer be the most general duty of Religion , the common instrument of all Piety , and the most immediate address to God ; yet it is a great mistake to make it the only instance of secret Devotion , for there are several others of great moment , amongst which I reckon in the next place , 2. Study and Meditation ; not only to direct and assist our Prayers ( of which I said something before ) but especially to cultivate and improve our own minds , that we may be wiser , and consequently both more capable of doing God better service in this World , and also fitter for the Society of Angels and the Conversation of the spirits of just men made perfect in the other World. For we are to consider , that God Almighty hath set a mighty value upon our Souls , in redeeming them by no less a price than the blood of his only Son ; and therefore we should be intolerably ingrateful towards him , if we bestow no cost upon them , but live as if we were mere matter and body , and take care only to please and gratify our senses , and in the mean time abandon our minds to folly and ignorance , to sloth and superstition . We are to consider also , that the same infinite goodness hath by the same purchace deliver'd us from the fear of Eternal Death , which otherwise would have kept us in perpetual bondage , and so have contracted our spirits , and rendered our very selves so inconsiderable to our selves , that no man could have had the heart to take any care of himself , but would be tempted to have lived like a beast because he expected to die like one , or worse ; but now that we are made to hope for immortality , and to live for ever and ever , there is great reason a man should spare no cost , no labour and pains about himself , since he may reap the fruit and enjoy the comfort of so doing in the better enjoyment of himself a thousand Ages hence , and to all Eternity . Moreover the same Divine Goodness hath designed us to a glorious estate of happiness in his own Kingdom of Heaven , a state of intellectual pleasure , and the most sublimed ingredients of felicity , which a dull , sottish , and sensual Soul can never be capable of perceiving , if he were placed in the midst of them , and therefore he is more than brutish that doth not dispose himself so , that he may be meet , to partake of that inheritance with the Saints in light . To all this we are to consider , that the general apostafy of mankind hath weaken'd our natures , clouded our understanding , and disorder'd all our powers ; and together herewith the foolish opinions and traditions of the World have abused and deceived us yet more and more , so that we must be most silly and unhappy Creatures , if we do not indeavour to deliver and disingage our selves from both these Calamities . And the case is not totally irreparable in respect of either of these mischiefs , if we be not wanting to our selves ; for to the intent that we might in some measure recover our selves , it hath pleased God to give us time to consider in privacy and retirement from the noise of the World , that we may recollect our selves ; he hath set before us his works and providence to meditate upon , we have his holy Scriptures to inlighten our minds , and guide us out of the perplexed state of things we enjoy , the publick ministry and abundance of good Books to help us to understand those Scriptures , and above all we are assured of the assistances of his holy spirit against the weakness and confusion of our own understandings . So that as there is great reason and great necessity that we should apply our selves to study and meditation ; so we have as great incouragement to hope for success in so doing : for by application of our selves to the means aforesaid , we may not only rid our selves of that wildness and ferity which is ordinarily upon our natures , but outgrow vulgar opinion and tradition , and come to be able to make a true estimate of things set before us ; we may greaten our spirits so as to despise those little things which silly men dote upon ; we may free our minds of childish fears and unaccountable superstitions ; we may understand the true reason of Religion , the loveliness of virtue , and in a word , have worthier notions of God , and clearer apprehensions of the World to come . And although it be acknowledged that all men are not alike capable of these improvements , either by reason of the weakness of their minds , or the unhappy constitution of their bodies , or the perplexed condition of their outward affairs ; yet certainly God Almighty hath by the means aforesaid put it into every mans power to be wiser than he is if he would but apply himself to the use of them , and therefore let the devout man be sure to make the experiment . To further him the more wherein , let him to all the considerations foregoing adde these two following . First , That forasmuch as he was made in Gods Image , it is no less than a contempt of the Divine Majesty to have no regard to the cultivating and adorning that part of himself wherein he especially resembles his Maker ; and consequently it will appear to him to be a very fit and proper instance of worship towards God to improve his own Soul ; and therefore it is here justly placed amongst the expressions of Devotion . Secondly , Let him consider , that the great game of Eternity is but once to be plaid , and that there is no retrieving of our neglects and carelessness afterwards ; therefore there is all the reason in the World that we should play it intently and warily : my meaning is , that therefore we ought to redeem time from folly and sensuality , and apply it to the advantage of our Souls ; and he that doth so , and begs Gods blessing upon it , will undoubtedly find his mind inlarged , his life more regular , and his spirit more comfortable , which are all the chief ends of Devotion . 3. The next instance of secret Devotion ( for I am not curious in what order I place them ) shall be the exercise of Faith in God and dependance upon him , in pursuance of an acknowledgment that he alone governs the World , and the framing a mans heart to take notice of him , to have recourse to him , and stay it self upon him in all exigencies , and accidents and passages whatsoever , that he may impute nothing to chance , fate or the stars , but possess himself with a deep and setled apprehension of the great interest of God in all revolutions or occurrences . This is a point of great and real honour to the Divine Majesty , as it sets God always before us , and places him continually in our Eye , as it brings us to an intire resignation of our selves to his dispose and puts us into a constant gravity and a reverence towards him , as it provokes us to address our selves to him upon all occasions , to pray to him , to trust in him , to walk humbly and thankfully before him . And it is of mighty advantage to our selves , as it strengthens and fortifies our weak spirits by the contemplation of that mighty providence we are under , and that we are protected by a wise , and good , and powerful Being , whom nothing can be too hard for , and who is liable to no surprize or mistake , as it assures us , that nothing befals without him , and therefore every thing is ordained for wise ends , and shall be turned to good in the conclusion ; this also inables us to be contented in every condition , secure against all fears , and to arrive at such an evenness of spirit , that we shall not be tost with every accident , hurried by every emergency , but possess our selves in patience and tranquility . And consequently this must needs be a very worthy entertainment of our retirements , and such as deserves and requires the application of our minds to it , that we may be under the power of this perswasion , and be able to answer to our selves the atheistical objections against it , to give some account of the intricacy and obscure passages of Providence , without ( some skill in ) which it will be very difficult , if not impossible , to walk either piously or comfortably ; but by this exercise we hold continual conversation with God , we live and walk with him , he is always at hand to us , to awe us , to support and comfort us , and our hearts become not only a Temple where we solemnly offer up our services at set times to him , but an Altar where the holy fire never goes out , but sends up constantly the sweet odours of Prayers and Praises to him . 4. Another exercise of secret Devotion is to premeditate our conversation , and so to forecast the occurrences of life , that we may conduct our selves both with safety to our Souls , and to the best advantage of our spiritual interests ; forasmuch as he that lives ex tempore ( as we say ) and unpremeditately , will neither be able to avoid the dangers which will be sure to encounter him , nor to improve the opportunities which may offer themselves to him . In our converse in this World we must expect temptations from the Devil , allurements from sensual objects , provocations from the folly or malice of evil men , vexations by unhappy accidents , and above all abundance of evil examples to debauch and corrupt us ; and that man will most certainly be surprized by some or all of these , that doth not forecast them : and arm himself against them , and therefore a wise man will not adventure to go abroad and take in the infectious air of the World , till he hath antidoted himself against the danger , by the advantages of retirement , and the secret exercises of Devotion . To this purpose he will before he goes out of his Closet , not only consider the common Calamities of the World , the reigning sins of the Age , but the especial difficulties of his calling and profession , and the peculiar infirmities of his own temper ; and withal will forethink and prepare himself against such efforts as by reason of any of these may be made upon him . If he can foresee that he shall unavoidably fall into evil Company , he will first indeavour to warm and affect his heart with the quicker sense of Religion , that he may not only take no hurt himself , but ( if it be possible ) imprint some sense of good upon those he converses with . If any thing be likely to happen that will strike him with melancholy , he will first go to God by Prayer for strength and constancy of mind , and indeavour to fix his heart so intently upon another World , as that the occurrences of this may not discompose him . If he be likely to meet with that which may provoke him to anger , he will compose himself to as great a coolness as possibly he can , that no passage may inflame him . If any allurement to sensuality present it self , he will consider how he may retreat into grave Company , or earnest business , that so he may decline that which is not easily to be withstood . And on the other side concerning opportunities of doing or receiving good ; forasmuch as every wise man is sensible that the seasons of things are no more in his power than the time of his life is , that no enterprize succeeds well which is not nicked with a fit season , and that it is impossible to recal it when it is slipped by ; therefore the pious man will forethink what may offer themselves probably in such circumstances as he stands in , lest he should overlook them when they present , and so he lose an advantage of doing glory to God , or good to men , and of promoting the interest of his own Soul , and accordingly will dispose his heart in secret to apprehend them , and to improve them ; he examines his capacity , and stirs up his attention , and projects the means , either how he may reap some benefit by good and wise Company , or how he may seasonably interpose a word on Gods behalf in common Conversation , or how he may do some good thing that will turn to account another day . 5. But if either by the neglect of such opportunities as aforesaid , the pious man omit the doing of some good he might have done , or by security of conversation he fall into any of those dangers he ought to have watcht against , then there is a fifth great work for private Devotion , for in this case there lies a double care upon him ; first , that he slight not his danger , and secondly , that he despair not of remedy , but be both deeply sensible of his miscarriage , and also rise again with indignation and resolution . First , That he slight not his fault ( as generally men do by the plea of Example , or the pretence of humane infirmity ) and so harden himself in his sin , but feel a deep remorse , and conceive a mighty displeasure against himself for it . Secondly , That on the other side he aggravate not his guilt to such a degree as to preclude repentance by despairing of the divine mercy , but presently flee to the grace of the Gospel , and implore Gods Pardon , with setled purposes never to offend in the like kind again . Now neither of these are done as they ought to be , but in retirement , viz. when a man hath opportunity of dealing impartially between God and his own Soul , and therefore ( especially because the occasions of them often happen ) are justly reckonable as a part of Closet Devotion , and accordingly they are represented by the holy Psalmist , Psal . 4. 4. Stand in awe and sin not , commune with your own hearts in your chamber , and be still , &c. Wherefore let every man that hath any sense of God upon him be throughly perswaded to set some time apart for this purpose , that he may romage his own heart , and find out all the evils of his life ; and when he hath discovered any particular guilt upon his Soul , let him not forsake his Closet , and depart out of Gods presence till he have affected himself with deep sorrow and contrition for his sin , and prostrated himself at the throne of grace with strong and earnest cries for pardon , and until he have confirmed his heart in a resolution of watchfulness and more strict obedience for the time to come . And let him do this often , that he may not run up too big a score , and so either his heart become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin , or his Conscience be so affrighted with the greatness of his guilt , that like a Bankrupt he be tempted to decline looking into his accounts , because he can have no comfortable prospect of them , or run away from God in a fit of desperation , instead of running to him by repentance . Let him , I say , do this often , not by chance or unwillingly , but frequently and periodically ( set times being appointed for it ) and though I would be loth to impose a burden upon the Consciences of men , yet I think it ordinarily very adviseable , that this be done once a month , viz. whilest a man hath his past actions and carriage in remembrance , and can take a just account of himself ; but especially it is very fit to do it against the time of the administration of the Holy Sacrament , and then would be extraordinarily proper and seasonable : for these two things , Self-examination and partaking of the Lords Supper , do marvellously suit and answer to each other ; the former preparing a mans heart for that sacred solemnity , and that holy solemnity sealing to him the pardon of those sins he hath discovered and repented of in secret . But whether this work of self-reflection and ransacking a mans own heart in secret be absolutely necessary to be done at certain times and periods , it is wonderfully useful , that it be seriously and conscientiously practised some time or other ; forasmuch as on the one side it is not conceivable how a man should be able to maintain an holy and comfortable Life without it ; so on the other hand it seems equally impossible that he should continue to be an evil man who habitually and sincerely practises it : for as there is no way so effectual to preserve an estate from being squandred away extravagantly , as the keeping constant and strict accounts of receits and expences , so there is no method more powerful to restrain sin than this of self-examination ; the very searching into our hearts jogs and awakens Conscience , and that being rowsed , will be a faithful Monitor of all that was done amiss , the mere prospect of which will make a man very uneasy , by the fears and horrors that attend it ; the consideration of the silly motives upon which a man was induced to sin , will fill him with ingenuous shame and indignation , and the easiness ( which he cannot but find ) of withstanding such motions , by the grace of God will provoke him to a resolution of amendment ; in a word , the sight and knowledge of the Disease is a great step to the Cure , and an heart well searched is half healed . But this leads me to another instance of great affinity with what we have now been speaking of , and which shall be the last excercise of secret Devotion which I will here make mention of , viz. 6. Trial of our proficiency and growth in grace , this is of great importance ; forasmuch as ( we have seen before ) the truth of grace is scarcely any otherway discernible but by its progress , and in that it makes men daily better and better , for the essences of things are indiscernible , and a man may endlesly dispute with himself whether such or such a thing be a sign of grace , and of spiritual life in him , till he puts all out of controversy by the fruits and improvement of such a vital principle ; and therefore it is extreamly necessary , if we will arrive at spiritual comfort , that we make experiment of our selves in this particular , which can no otherwise be done than by retirement into the Cabinet of our hearts , and the diligent comparing our selves both with our selves and with the rules of the Gospel . The common estimation of the World is a very fallacious and improper measure of divine life , and as the Apostle tells us , it is a small thing to be judged of men one way or other , but if our hearts condemn us not , then have we confidence towards God ; for they being privy to our ends and designs and to all our circumstances as well as to matter of fact , cannot nor will not deceive us , if they be secretly examined , and therefore must be impartially consulted , if we would indeed know our selves , and be able to prejudge our own condition . Now the testimony which our hearts can give us of our spiritual improvement , is not to be grounded upon the increased length of our Prayers , nor merely from the passion and earnestness of them ; for the former of these may be the effect of hypocrisy , and the latter may proceed from some peculiar temper of body or outward accident ; nor upon our affectionate hearing of Sermons , for the stony ground received the seed with joy as well as the good ground ; nor yet upon a more than ordinary scrupulosity of Conscience ( especially in smaller matters ) for this may proceed from Ignorance , Superstition or Hypocrisy . But the safest decision of this great case , whether we grow in grace or no , is to be made by examining our hearts in such points as these following , viz. Whether we be more constant in all the duties of Religion than formerly ? Whether we be more exact and regular in our lives daily ? Whether our hearts be more in Heaven than they were wont , and that we have arrived at a greater contempt of the World ? Whether we are more dead to temptation , especially in the case of such sins as agree with our constitution and circumstances ? Whether affliction be more easy than it used to be , and we can better submit to the yoke of Christ ? Whether we are more conscientious of secret sins , and such as no Eye of man can take notice of and upbraid us for ? Whether we are more sagacious in apprehending , and more careful of improving opportunities of doing good than heretofore ? In a word , Whether we are grown more meek , more humble and obedient to our Superiours , &c. If upon due inquiry , oru hearts can answer affirmatively for us in such points as these , then we may comfortably conclude , that we have not received the grace of God in vain , which being of unspeakable consequence to us to be substantially resolved of , self-examination in the aforesaid particulars ( as the only way to arrive at it ) ought to have its share in our Closet Devotions . CHAP. III. Of Family-Piety in general . THough the consideration of Gods Almighty Power , Wisdom , Goodness , and his other perfections , together with our dependance upon him , and obnoxiousness to him , be the first reason and ground of religion ( as we have already shewed ) and so the Divine Majesty is the immediate and principal object of it ; yet notwithstanding this is not so to be understood , as if the obligations of Religion extended no further than to acts of worship or address to God : for it is as much our duty to manage our selves well towards others for Gods sake , as towards him for his own sake . And therefore ( as hath been intimated heretofore ) true Piety in its just dimensions comprizes no less than a worthy discharge of our selves in all those relations Divine Providence hath placed us in . Now next to our obligations to our Creator and Preserver , and next to our concern for the better part of our selves , our own Souls , a man stands related to his Family so nearly , that he is wanting in both the former that is negligent of this . Almighty Wisdom and Goodness pronounced it not fit for man to be alone , and therefore the first provision he made against the uncomfortable state of solitude , was to enter him into the Society of a Family ; partly , that in so near a station , they might mutually relieve and help one another in difficulties , entertain one another by Discourse , and improve one anothers reason ; partly , that in this Conjunction they might fortify one anothers Spirits against all ill accidents , or the enterprizes of wicked and malicious Spirits more powerful than themselves ; but principally , that they might mutually provoke and inflame one anothers hearts to admiration , love and reverence of their great Creator . And this end is so great and the injunction of it so strict , that every man in this Society stands charged with the Soul of another , and is accountable for it , at least so far , that he cannot be excusable that doth not indeavour to bring those with whom he so intimately converses , and upon whom he hath so many opportunities , to a sense and regard of God and Religion . And this especially concerns those that are heads of Families ; forasmuch as by virtue of their place they have always been accounted , not only Kings and Governours , but also Prophets and Priests within their peculiar sphere and province . Accordingly we find it to have been the constant care and practice of all good men in all Ages , to train up those of their Families in the knowledge of the true God , and the exercises of true Religion : particularly God himself testifies of Abraham , Gen. 18 — 19. that he knew he would command his children and his houshold after him that they keep the way of the Lord , &c. And Job 1. 5. we find it to have been the continual care of that holy man to sanctify his Children and Family , and daily to intercede with God for them by Sacrifice . Deut. 6. 6. it is an express injunction upon the Children of Israel , that they not only keep the laws of God in their own hearts , but that they should teach them diligently to their Children , and talk of them when they sate in their houses , and when they walked by the way , &c. that is , that they should convey and imprint a sense of God and his Religion upon the minds of those they familiarly conversed with . And so great is the authority and influence of Governours of Families , and so powerful is good example in this particular , that Josh . 24. 15. Joshua undertakes for his Family , that they should serve the Lord , whether other people would do so or no. David often declares his zeal for the maintenance of Religion in his Family , so far , that he resolves those persons should be excluded his House that made no Conscience of God , and most remarkably , 1 Chr. 28. 9. he gives this solemn charge to his Son Solomon , Thou Solomon my Son , know thou the God of thy Father , and serve him with a perfect heart , and with a willing mind ; for the Lord searcheth all hearts , and understandeth all the imagination of the thoughts : if thou seek him he will be found of thee , but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever . And for the times of the New Testament there is abundant evidence , that it was the constant practice of all those who had a sense of Religion in their hearts , to set it up in their Families also , of which the testimonies are so many , and so ready at hand , that it is needless here to recite them ; and the success was commonly answerable to the indeavour : from whence it comes to pass that Acts 10. 2. it is said of Cornelius , that he was not only a devout man and prayed to God always , but that he feared the Lord with all his house , i. e. his Example , Prayers and instruction prevailed upon all those that were under the influence of them , to bring them to ( at least ) a profession of piety also ; upon which account it is further observable , that generally when any Governour of a Family imbraced the Christian Faith , and was converted to that Religion , it is said that such an one believed and all his house , or he and all his house were baptized , namely , because truly good men did not fail by their example and endeavours to bring those over to the same Religion which themselves were heartily perswaded of , and accordingly we see it often come to pass in these times wherein we live , that several persons very heartily bless God that his providence disposed them into such or such pious Families wherein the foundation of their eternal happiness hath been laid , by the means of the instructive and exemplary devotion which they have there been under the advantages of ; upon consideration of all which reasons , examples and incouragements , and several others which might with great ease have been added , let no good Christian be of so monastick a spirit as to extend his care no farther than his own Cell , and to think he hath acquitted himself well enough when he hath discharged the offices of his Closet , and hath kept Religion glowing in his own heart ; but think it his duty to take care that his light shine quite through his House , and that his zeal warm all his Family . In order to which we will here consider these three things . First , Of the several members which usually a Family consists of , and which are concern'd in its discipline . Secondly , The several duties of piety which especially become and concern a Family . And thirdly , By what means the members of a Family may be brought to comply with all those duties . 1. First , The ordinary relations of a Family ( especially as it signifies those which dwell or converse together under the same roof ) are Husband and Wife , Parent and Children , Master and Servant , Friend and Friend ; and all these I take to be comprized in those several passages of the Acts of the Apostles , where it is said , that such a man and all his house were converted or baptized , for there are great interests of Religion which intercede between every of these ; as for the relation of Husband and Wife , as it is the nearest and strictest that can be , so consequently it is of mighty importance to their mutual comfort , and a wonderful indearment of affections , when both the relatives are animated with the same spirit of Religion , and promote the eternal interest of one another : As it is vastly mischievous and unhappy when those who are inseparably yoked together , draw divers ways , one towards Heaven , and the other towards Hell ; in respect of which danger the Apostle advises those who are free not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers , 2 Cor. 6. 14. for saith he , what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? what communion hath light with darkness ? what concord hath Christ with Belial ? and what part hath he that believeth , with an infidel ? Yet because it is possible , that light may prevail against darkness , therefore when such an unequal Society is contracted , he doth not think it a sufficient ground for separation ; for saith he , 1 Cor. 7. 16. What knowest thou , O Wife , but thou maist save thy Husband ? or what knowest thou , O man , whether thou shalt save thy Wife ? especially since by the piety of one of the Parents , the Children are sanctified and placed under the advantages of the Covenant of grace , as he there adds , v. 14. And seeing it is possible for one of these relatives to be so great a blessing to the other , there is mighty reason they both should endeavour it , out of self-love as well as charity and conjugal affection , since it is both very difficult to go to Heaven alone , and also equally easy and comfortable , when those in this relation join hearts and hands in the way thither . As for the relation of Parents and Children , that is also very near and intimate , and consequently their interest and happiness is bound up together ; for as it is a mighty advantage to have holy Parents , in regard the Posterity of such persons ordinarily fare the better to many Generations , as is assured in the second Commandment , and therefore there is a double obligation upon Parents to be good and virtuous , not only for the sake of their own Souls , but also for the sake of their Children ; so on the other hand , it is no less glory and comfort to Parents to have good and pious Children , and therefore they are strictly charged to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; and indeed he is worse than an Infidel , nay worse than a Brute , that can be content to bring them up to Hell and the Devil ; for they are part of our selves , and a man that considers any thing , can as well be willing to be damned himself , as that they should be so if he can help it . Now that there is much in their power this way , appears by that charge of the Apostle last named , as also by the observation of Solomon , Prov. 22. 6. Train up a child in the way he should go , and when he is old he will not depart from it ; for Children in their young and tender years are like Wax , yielding and pliable to whatsoever form we will put them into , but if we miss this opportunity it will be no easy matter to recover them to good afterwards , when they are debauched by evil principles , confident of their own opinions , headstrong by the uncontrouled use of liberty , and hardened by the custom of sinning . And therefore it is observable , that far the most part of good men and women are such as had the foundations of piety laid in their youth , and very few are to be found who were effectually reclaimed afterwards . But whilest Children wholly depend upon their Parents , and their natures are soft and pliant , when as yet they have not the hardiness to rebel , nor the confidence to dispute the commands of their Fathers ; so long they may by the grace of God easily be wrought upon to good , and which is very remarkable , the influence of the mother is especially considerable in this case : for so we find not only that King Lemuel , Prov. 31. 1. remembred the Lessons which his mother taught him , but as I have noted before , Timothy was seasoned with grace , by the instructions of his Mother Eunice , and his Grandmother Lois , 2 Tim. 1. 5. and many other instances there are of the successfulness of the Mothers pious indeavours . But where Parents neglect their duty , usually the Children perish , and their blood will be required at the hands of careless Parents : and which is more , there is commonly this dreadful token of divine vengeance in this World , that those who are careless of their duty both towards God , and towards their Children in this particular , feel the sad effects of it in the undutifulness , contumacy , and rebellion of those Children against themselves afterwards , as if God permitted them to revenge his quarrel . In the next place , as for the relation of Master and Servants , it is a mighty mistake to think they are meerly our slaves to do our will , and that nothing is due from us to them but what is expresly bargain'd for , since they are or ought to be Gods Servants as well as ours , and must do him service as well as us , and they are put under our protection , and placed in our Families , that they may be instructed in his pleasure , and have the liberty to serve him , of whom the whole family of heaven and earth is called . So that properly speaking , we and they are common Servants to one great Master , only in different ranks , as the one part ( after the manner of Stewards ) is allowed to have Servants under them , and the other must do the inferiour business , but still they are Gods Servants more properly than ours , and must therefore have not only ( as I said ) liberty and leisure to serve our common Master , but also instructions from us and incouragement so to do : and he that denies them any of these , might as justly deny them their . Bread or their Wages ; nay more , he that forgets to pray for them too , remembers himself but by halves , forasmuch as his interest is concerned , not only in their health and prosperity , but in their virtue and piety ; for it is evident , that the better men they are , the better Servants they will prove . So St. Paul tells Philemon in his Epistle to him , that he would be a gainer by Onesimus's Conversion , for that he would be so much a more profitable servant henceforth as he was now become a better man , such persons being not only the most faithful and trusty , but by so much the more industrious as they are the more conscientious : Besides , that it is well known that Divine Providence often blesses a Family for the sake of a pious Servant , as God blessed Labans substance for the sake of Jacob , and the House and all the affairs of Potiphar for the piety of Joseph . So that in short , he loves himself as little as he loves God , who doth not indeavour that his Servants should be sincerely religious . And though it 's true , it is not altogether in his power to make them so , or to put grace into their hearts , yet by virtue of his place and authority , he hath mighty advantages of doing them good , and will be sure to be called to account how he hath improved his Stewardship in this particular . Lastly , In a Family there are commonly some who under the general relation of Friends or Acquaintance , are either resident in it , or at least hospitably entertained by it ; now as this lays an obligation upon the persons treated , so it gives some authority to him who treats them : and consequently as such a Master of a Family is in some measure answerable towards men for the scandals and misdemeanours of his Guests ; so is he much more responsible to God for any profaneness they shall be guilty of towards his Divine Majesty . For ( as I said before ) every man being King in his own Family may give Laws to it , and oblige those who are under his protection to pay him Allegiance , and to serve and worship God with him , especially he ought to do this , because the fourth Commandment requires at our hands that we use this authority , not only over our Sons and Daughters , our Man-Servants and Maid-Servants , but over all those that are within our Gates . But so much in the general , let us now consider in the second place the particular duties of Religion in a Family ; of which in the next Chapter . CHAP. IV. Of Family Duties in special . IN the first place I look upon it as the duty of every Family , that ( besides Closet-Devotions , of which I have spoken before ; and besides publick Worship , of which I shall speak anon ) once a day at the least they join together in Prayers to God. I say once a day at the least , in favour of mens occasions , and the peculiar circumstances of some Families , were it not for which , it would be very fit that there should be Prayers Morning and Evening , as is the general practice of most pious Families ; but certainly it is wonderfully decent , that all the members of every Family should once in the day meet together , and with one heart and one mouth glorify God and pay their homage to the great Master of the whole Family of Heaven and Earth ; and it is very strange , if any excuse should be pleaded or admitted in this case . For as I said before , every several Family is a peculiar Body or Society , which hath its distinct circumstances , effects and consideration ; it hath its respective needs to be supplied , and therefore hath occasion to make proper and peculiar requests to God , as that he will be pleased to continue it in health , to settle concord and unity amongst the several members of it , that the whole may enjoy prosperity and safety from Thieves , from Fire and other dangers . And every such Society hath also proper and peculiar mercies to give thanks to God for , as namely for success in affairs , for quiet habitation , that they are not molested with ill Neighbours , nor vexed with Law-Suits , for hopeful Children , faithful Servants , &c. for in several of these respects a man may be well and comfortable in his own person , and yet be unhappy in the Society ; and contrarywise the Society or Family may be happy in the general , and yet a particular person may be in ill circumstances : and therefore there is just reason of addresses and acknowledgments to God in relation to the Family , and by the whole Family in Conjunction , as well as by every single person apart , and in his Closet . And though perhaps there may be some Family wherein there is no person who can aptly and properly represent the peculiar concerns of it to the Almighty , and it may be also there is no form of Prayer at hand that will express all the respective circumstances of such a Society ; yet they may lift up their hearts and voices together in a general form , and supply with their thoughts and affections whatsoever is wanting in the expressions . And as there is just ground and reason for such family worship , so there is good cause to expect it will be singularly successful , when the whole community joins together , and present themselves and their tribute of praise before the Lord : no question but the very manner of doing it , as well as the matter , will be highly acceptable to him ; and when with prostrate bodies , devout hearts and hands , and eyes lift up to Heaven , they combine together to importune , and as it were , besiege the Almighty , they cannot fail of a blessing ; or however it is a mighty satisfaction to the minds of all such persons , and a great security to them that they have thus jointly and solemnly commended themselves to the divine protection . Besides , that this course is an effectual means to conciliate peace and love and kindness , between all the members of this body , and to knit their hearts to one another , when they are thus accustomed to unite their hearts and join their hands in Gods service , and conspire to pray with and for each other , which is the greatest indearment of affection . Perhaps some man will now say , there is no express Scripture which requires of men this daily office of Family Prayer : To which I answer , first , what if it were so , yet nevertheless it is a duty , seeing there is so apparent reason for it . For God who considered , that he gave Laws to reasonable men , did not think himself bound to prescribe every thing in particular , especially in natural worship , where the reason of man might supply him with direction what was fit to be done in such a case . Besides , secondly , ( as I discoursed in the former part of this Treatise ) it is a stingy and narrow-soul'd trick , and an argument of no true love to God and goodness , to stand upon so strict terms in our piety , as to require an express command in particular , for that which is admirably good in the general , and hath also been the general practice of all good men , as this hath been . But after all , I would in the last place crave leave to ask those men a plain question , who insist upon more express proof of Family Prayers , and it is no more but this , Whether they think there is any such thing as publick worship required of men ? if they do , then let them remember there was a time when there was no more publick Society than that of Families , namely at the first planting of the World , and then either publick worship must be this of Families or none at all ; and to inlighten them in this case , let them consider that passage , Gen. 4. 26. when Seth had Enos born to him , it is said , then began men to call upon the name of the Lord , that is , so soon as there began to be a Family in the pious line of Seth , then presently they set up Gods worship in it . Now this was not the beginning of secret worship , for no doubt but Seth was careful of that before Enos was born ; nor was it properly publick or Ecclesiastick worship , for in that minority of the World , there neither was nor as yet could be any Church established in such a sense : therefore it must follow that Family worship is as antient as the being of Families themselves . Or let pious and ingenious persons consider of that passage of the Gospel , Luke 11. 1. where in the first place we find our Saviour was at Prayers ; and that it was not secret Prayer but with his Disciples , is more than probable , since they were present at them : and accordingly , when he had concluded , one of them asks him to instruct them how to pray . Now if this be acknowledged , then here is our Saviours Example for what we are discoursing of , forasmuch as the Disciples with whom he was at Prayer , were his Family . But that which I observe further is , they ask him to teach them to pray , as John taught his Disciples , that is , to prescribe them a form wherein they ( who were his Family ) might join together , as the Family or Disciples of John did ; or not only to pray severally or secretly , but in Conjunction and Society : and this our Saviour gratifies them in , by prescribing to them the well-known and admirable form : in which these two things are further remarkable to this purpose ; first , that the Prayer is in the plural number , which renders it far more probable , that it was intended for a social office . For though some other account may be given of his using that number , yet nothing is so natural as this reason which I have intimated . Secondly , The very petitions themselves ( if they be considered ) will incline a man to think , that though the Prayer was contrived with infinite wisdom to fit other purposes , yet it was primarily intended for the use of a Family or Society , especially such an one as this of our Saviours Disciples was ; but so much for that . 2. The next instance of Family Duty is the sanctification of the Lords Day , and other days and times set apart for his service . As for the Lords Day , though it be undoubtedly true , that as the Jewish Sabbath ( which is our Saturday ) is not obliging to Christians at all ; so neither are we bound to observe any day with that Sabbatical nicety and strictness , which ( for special reasons ) was required of that people : yet that the first day of the Week , or the Lords Day , be observed piously and devoutly , is recommended to us by the constant practice of the Christian Church . And the sanctification of it principally consists in this , that we make it a day peculiar for the offices of Piety and Devotion , as other days are for common and secular affairs ; for though the business of Religion must be carried on every day of our lives , and that be a profane day indeed in which God hath not some share allowed for his service , yet as God hath not required that it be the whole work of those days , but after a little of the time be consecrated to him , the residue be applied to the common affairs of Life ; so on the Lords Day we are allowed to consult our infirmity , to provide for necessity , and to do works of humanity or mercy : but the proper business of the day is Religion , and to that the main of it must be applied . And there is great reason for this , namely by this interruption of the course of Worldly affairs , in some measure to take our hearts off from them ; for we should hardly avoid sinking absolutely into the cares and business of this life , if we went on in a continual course , and were not obliged at certain intervals of time to retreat from them , and betake our selves to things of another nature , by which means also , we begin to practise an Heavenly Sabbatism , and inure our selves by degrees to those spiritual imployments which we are to enter upon , and be everlastingly performing in another World. Let therefore the pious man thus sanctify the Lords Day by applying it to holy uses , that is ( besides publick worship ) to reading , Meditation , singing of Psalms , and grave Discourses of Religion , and let him according as he hath Warrant from the fourth Commandment oblige all those within his Gates to do so too , and not only restrain his Family from common labours , but from lightness and folly , tipling and gossipping , idle visits and impertinent talking of News ; and use his indeavour to ingage them to be as much in earnest about the service of God and their Souls on that day , as they are about their business or pleasure on other days . As for other holy days set apart by the appointment of the Church , there is very good use to be made of them too : for besides , that the great Festivals are the ignorant mans Gospel , and bring to his mind all the great passages of our Saviour and his Apostles , it is certain also , that God hath not so strictly tasked us to the labour of six days , as that he will not be better pleased if we now and then apply some of them to his honour , and make a sally towards Heaven ; but then the observation of these days is not to be made merely a relaxation from servile work , nor much less a dispensation for looseness and profaneness , but God must be served on them with greater diligence than can be ordinarily expected on other days . And this is another branch of the pious mans duty in his Family . 3. There is another thing I would mention in the third place , amongst Family exercises , which I do not call a necessary duty , but would offer it to consideration , whether it be not adviseable in some cases for the promotion of Family Piety , that in every Family , where it can be done , some persons should be incouraged to take notes of the Sermons which are preached in the Church , and repeat them at home ; forasmuch as this course would not only afford a very seasonable and excellent entertainment for the Family in the intervals of publick worship on the Lords Day , but would also be very advantagious , both to Minister and People . For the Minister , it would incourage him to study and to deliver weighty things , when he saw his words were not likely to perish in the hearing , and be lost in the air , but be reviewed and considered of ; by which means one Sermon would be as good as two , and might serve accordingly . For the People , it would put the most ordinary sort of them upon considering and indeavouring to remember and make something of that which is delivered to them , when they observe , that some of the ablest of the Congregation think it worth their pains to take so exact notice of it as to write it down ; at least they would be ashamed to snore and yawn , when others are so intent and serious . And as for the Family in which the repetition is made , they would have further occasion to observe , with what clearness and evidence the doctrine was inferred from the Text , opportunity to weigh the arguments used to inforce it , and be put upon making application of all to their own Consciences . But I foresee several objections ( such as they are ) will be made against this ; it will be said , this course is unfashionable and puritanical , that experience hath discovered that writing after Sermons hath taught men to be conceited and captious , and presently sets up men for Lay-Preachers ; and in a word , that repeating Sermons raised the Rebellion . But In answer to the first of these , I observe , that it is neither unusual nor under any ill character in Courts of Judicature , for men to take Notes of the reasonings , determinations , and even the opinions of the Judges ; and surely Religion is of as much moment as the municipal Laws ; and Cases of Conscience are of as great consequence as meum and tuum : but if the Discourses of Preachers be not so considerate , their reasonings not so close and weighty , nor their determinations so well grounded as to be worth noting , the more is the pity , to say no more . As for the second objection , I answer , that if the Preacher handle only the indisputable Doctrines of Christianity , and press them home and close upon the Consciences of men , these will afford little scope for conceitedness or captiousness ; but some men that are of such an humour will be pragmatical and profane , whether they write after Sermons or no , and therefore let us lay this blame where it is due . To the third objection it is answered , that though writing after Sermons might perhaps furnish men with materials for Lay-preaching ; yet it was impudence which disposed men to it , and the dissolution of Government which gave opportunity for it : and if the last of these three things be taken care of , the second will be curbed , and the first harmless and innocent . But lastly , whereas it is objected that writing and repeating of Sermons was accessary to the late Rebellion : I answer , that it is evident , it could be neither the writing nor the repeating , but the seditious matter of the Sermons that was in the fault ; for it is certain , that good and pious Sermons are the most effectual way to prevent all mischief of that kind , tending to make good Subjects as well as good Christians , and the writing and repeating of such Sermons is a means to settle such Doctrine the deeper in the hearts of men , and therefore I see not but that it would be good prudence to apply that to a good end which hath been abused to a bad one , unless we will countenance the humour of some late Reformers , whose method was to abolish things for the abuse of them . Upon the whole matter , I see no just discouragement from this instance of Family-Devotion ; however I will say no more of it , but proceed to such as are unexceptionable . 4. It is certainly a Family Duty to instruct all the young and ignorant persons in it , in the substantial Doctrines of Religion , and rules of good life . The obligation to , and the advantages of this office , have been sufficiently represented before in the foregoing Chapter ; now therefore only to speak briefly and plainly of the manner of discharging it , it comprises these following particulars . First , That care be taken betimes to subdue the unruly wills and passions of Children ; which is ordinarily not very hard to do if it be minded time enough , whilest they are tender and pliable , but the defect herein ( like an errour in the first Concoction ) is hardly remediable afterwards : accordingly the wise man adviseth , Prov. 19. 18. Chasten thy Son whilest there is hope , and let not thy Soul spare for his crying : By breaking his stomach now , we prevent the breaking of our own hearts hereafter ; for by this means with the blessing of God upon it , we shall have comfort in a Child , and the State and publick Society , a governable Subject ; whereas contrariwise stubborness and malapertness in youth grows to contemptuousness of Parents , & to faction and sedition in the State , in age . In pursuance of this , Secondly , Let them learn and be accustomed humbly to beg the blessing of their Parents and Progenitors ; this ( as meanly as some inconsiderate people think of it ) is of mighty use : for it not only teaches Children to reverence their Parents , but wonderfully provokes and inflames the affections of Parents towards them ; and besides this , it is the usual method of conveying the blessings of God upon them : for though it be only God that bestows the blessing , yet his way is to use the intervention and designation of Parents , and generally those whom they bless ( in this case ) are blessed , and those whom they curse are cursed . Thirdly , Then let them learn to read , to pray , and especially to say their Catechise ; for though these things are not throughly understood by them now , yet they will stick by them , and be remembred when they are more capable of improving them : insomuch that it will be uneasy to one that hath been well principled in his minority , to be impious and profane hereafter ; or if he should prove so , there will yet be some hopes of reclaiming him , because these things will some time or other revive and awaken his Conscience . Fourthly , after this , let them be brought to the Bishop , that he may lay his hands upon them , pray over them , bless and confirm them . For if the fervent Prayer of every righteous man avail much , as St. James tells us , undoubtedly the solemn Prayer and Benediction of Christs immediate Substitute , and the prime Officer of his Church is not inconsiderable . Besides , when men have understandingly and solemnly addicted themselves to the Christian Religion , and made it their own act by a voluntary and publick choice , it will ordinarily have a great influence upon them in modesty , honour and reputation as well as Conscience , that they shall not easily go back from it , and renounce it : and though it is too true , that many have miscarried afterwards in point of practice , yet it is very observable in experience , that few or none who have been confirmed as aforesaid , have apostatized from the profession of Christianity . Fifthly and lastly , After such foundations are laid , it is no time yet to be secure , but these beginnings must be followed with further instructions , that such persons may be brought to a savoury sense of Piety , and to understand the reasons of the Religion which they have imbraced , and so neither be debauched with Examples , nor tossed to and fro by every wind of new Doctrine ; nay further , these young persons ought to be put upon all the ingenuous learning they are capable of receiving , and we are able to afford them , for the improvement of their minds , that they be the more serviceable to God both in Church and State , by the intent prosecution of which , they will not only be kept out of the dangers which rash and unimployed youth is ready to run upon , but become an Ornament to themselves and to their Relations ; and which is more , be able to imploy and enjoy themselves in elder years , without the usual diversions of drinking and gaming , which commonly are the silly resorts and refuges of those who wanted Education in their youth . 5. There is a principal branch of Family Discipline yet remains to be taken notice of , and that is the curbing and restraining first of all profaneness and contempt of things sacred , whether it be by cursing , swearing , blaspheming , or any other impudent scurrility ; and then in the next place , of all intemperance , drunkenness and debauchery ; for such things as these do not only bring a stain and blemish , but a Curse upon the Family , and to be sure the allowance of them is utterly inconsistent with any pretence to Piety . And the care and concern for the suppressing these Vices , extends not only so far as to the restraining of it in all the constant and setled members of the Family , but also to the discountenancing of it in those that are only occasionally as Guests in it . For how can any man that loves God , indure to see him abused before his face , and not interpose for him , especially where he hath authority , namely , within his own Gates ? Shall a man pretend Piety , and make his table become a snare to his own Soul , and his House a Sanctuary and priviledged place for prophaneness ? Nor let any man think it becomes him in gentility and complaisance to take no notice of the one , or out of hospitality to indulge the other ; for he that loves God as he ought to do , and hath any measure of manly courage , will not be so sheepish , but that he will at least discountenance such indecencies within his jurisdiction . But as for those that are setled members of the Family , as Servants and Relations ; if any of them be guilty of such lewdness , I do not say , that they must presently be banished the Society : for it may be divine Providence sent them thither on purpose for their Cure , and that we might have the glory of performing so worthy a work , and those Sinners the happiness of meeting with the means of reformation ; and therefore we must when it happens so , look upon it as our duty to apply our selves in good earnest to recover them : but if after all good means used , there appear no hopes of reformation , it is certainly a good mans duty to dismiss such persons , both to avoid the scandal and the infection of them . And he that is truly conscientious of Gods honour and the spiritual interest of his Family , will not stick to Sacrifice the petty interests of an useful Servant , or a beneficial relation , thereupon . CHAP. V. Family Discipline , Or by what means the several members of a Family may be brought to conform to the aforesaid Duties . HE that resolves to maintain Piety in his Family , must do it by such a method as this . First , Let him be sure to keep up the authority which God hath given him , and not through carelessness , facility or sheepishness , level himself with those he is to govern , and suffer every body to do what is right in their own Eyes ; for then no wonder if Piety and all things else be out of order . He that abjects himself shall be a meer cypher , and signify nothing in his own House ; but it is very much in a mans own power whether he will be despised or no : for he that values himself upon the dignity of his place , and asserts his own just authority , shall find Divine Providence standing by him therein , and striking an awe upon the spirits of those that ought to be governed , and so he will be able to do good service , not only in his Closet , but within the whole sphere of his Family . To this end let him observe , that as in the fourth Command God requires and expects , that every Master of a Family be responsible for all those that are within his Gates ; so accordingly in the fifth Commandment he hath invested him with honour under the title of Father and Mother , and both commanded and promised to reward obedience to him : and let not any one think that God will desert his own institution , so as to permit the authority he hath here invested Parents with , to be either trampled upon by others , or prostituted by themselves , without severe animadversion . Let him consider also the great interest that lies in the conserving of paternal authority , in which the foundation is laid , both of Civil and Ecclesiastical Government ; forasmuch as accordingly as people are inured to order , and to be in subjection in private Families , such will be their behaviour afterwards in Church or State : for he that suffers his Children and Servants to be contumacious towards himself , trains them up for instruments of Schism and Rebellion ; and he that on the other side countenances Faction and Disobedience to publick Authority , makes a leading case for Rebellion and confusion in his own Family ; but he that accustoms those which belong to him , to obedience at home , makes his House a Seminary of good Subjects , and of good Christians , and will feel the comfort , and reap the blessing of both . Above all let him consider the nearness and naturalness of the Principles of Religion to the minds of men ; insomuch that there are hardly any but are convinced of the necessity and obligation of it in their own Consciences ; in other things Inferiours may perhaps dispute the wisdom of their Governours , and so be tempted to disobey their Commands ; but plain matters of devotion admit of no dispute , they are imposed by divine authority , written upon the hearts of men , and inacted and proclaimed within their Consciences , and therefore people may with the greater readiness be brought to the observance of them , if we do but stir up and awaken , or at most second Conscience by our Authority . But then Secondly , This authority ought to be tempered with sweetness and benignity in the exercise of it ; for a man is not to be a Tyrant but a Father in his Family , he must not superciliously command , and imperiously will and require , but incline and perswade by the use of all motives and incouragements , and by all the arts of indearment oblige men to their Duty . A mans Family is his own Body , and may be called himself , considered at large and in all his capacities , therefore unnecessary harshness and severity is as indecent in this Society , as cruelty to his own flesh is unnatural . And it is commonly as insuccessful as it is indecent ; for power without goodness is a weapon without edge , which will go no further than mere force carries it . When men only fear , they will hate too , and be sure to obey no more than needs must . Therefore the Apostle Eph. 6. 4. advises , Fathers provoke not your children to wrath , and v. 9. forbids Masters to use threatnings towards Servants , but especially Col. 3. 19. all bitterness towards wives is prohibited ; for these courses ( in such near Relations ) ordinarily make them worse instead of mending them , and stir up all the mud and dirt of their temper . Besides , it is to be considered , that the interest of making men good is very great and valuable , and he doth a very acceptable service to God who obliges his Family to serve and honour him ; for by so doing a man promotes the Salvation of his own Soul , and he will have great allowances made for his personal infirmities at the day of Judgment , who in his more publick capacity hath advanced Gods glory in the Salvation of others . Therefore it is exceedingly worth the while , that we should deny our selves , and condescend to any honest art and method of ingaging men in Religion . Especially this is to be considered , that the instances of Piety and Devotion are above all things to be voluntary , free and chearful , or they are nothing worth ; and therefore harshness and severity are the most improper instruments for such an effect ; consequently it must be wise Discourses , obliging carriage , sweetness of temper , kindness and benignity , that are the most likely methods of prevailing in such a case ; and ordinarily to gain this point , no more is requisite , than that a man discriminate between the good and the bad , that he favour the one and discountenance the other ; and this alone will in time make a strange change in a Family . Especially Thirdly , If in the third place the Governour of a Family be a great Example of Piety himself : Rules without Examples are neither understood nor considered by those to whom they are propounded ; and he that goes about to over-rule his Family to Piety without making Conscience of it in his own practice , nay , who doth not make his own life a great pattern of what he perswades to , undermines his own indeavours , and shall not only fail of success , but be ridiculous for his pains ; for every body is aware of this , that if Devotion be necessary to one , it is so to another ; if the Servant ought to pray to God , so ought the Master ; if one ought to be zealous , certainly the other ought not to be careless or profane ; or if one may be excused the trouble of Religion , so may the other also . And indeed it is hardly possible for a man in these matters to have the confidence earnestly to press the observation of that upon those under him , which is not conspicuous in his own practice ; or at least , if he have the forehead to do it , and can so well act the part of the Hypocritical Pharisee , as to lay heavy burdens upon others , which he himself will not touch with one of his fingers ; yet as he cannot do it heartily , so he must be very vain if he thinks men will not be able to see through the disguise , and very sottish if he can expect that such commands of his should carry any authority with them . But there is a majesty in holy Example , it not only commands but charms men into compliance ; there is life and spirit in it , insomuch , that it animates and inflames all about a man ; it makes Piety to become visible , and not only shews it to be necessary , but represents it with all its advantages of goodness , beauty and ornament ; it confutes mens mistakes of it , answers their objections against it , removes their suspicions , shames their cowardice and lukewarmness : in a word , it doth ( after the manner of all great Engines ) work powerfully , though almost insensibly . We find by common experience , that men are sooner made wise and fit for great actions by the reading of History than by studying of Politicks ; because matter of fact strikes us more powerfully , and the circumstances of things as they are done , instruct us more effectually than all dry rules and speculations can do : to which purpose it is to be remarked , that the way of the holy Scripture is rather to teach men by Examples than by rules ; and accordingly the whole sacred Writ consists principally of the History of the Lives of holy men , Almighty Wisdom thinking that way the fittest , not only to express the Laws of Virtue , but to make impression of them upon the spirits of men ; and indeed ( which is further remarkable ) there are some of the more curious and excellent lines of Piety , which can hardly be exprest by words , but are easily legible in the lives of holy men . Therefore let him who would ingage his Family to Devotion , give them a fair Copy of it in his own Example , and then he shall not fail of the honour and comfort to see it transcribed and imitated by those about him . 4. But that he may with the more certainty and expedition attain this desireable effect , it is very necessary , that he neither make the lives of those he would gain upon , burdensome to them , and exhaust their spirits by too great and constant drudgery about the affairs of the World , nor that he make the business of Religion irksome and unpleasant to them by unnecessary length and tediousness of Family-Devotion ▪ For the former of these will take off their edge , and leave them with no heart to Religion ; and the latter will beget an utter aversation to it . As for the former , our Saviour hath told us , we cannot serve God and Mammon , and that no man can serve two Masters ; i. e. either one of them must be neglected , or both served very remisly : for it 's certain , when men are harassed with secular business , they cannot have spirits enough to attend Religion with any vigour . And for the other , if the duties of Religion be drawn out phantastically to a tedious length , it will be impossible ( whilest men are men ) that they should either be inclined to go to them with such chearfulness , or persevere in them with such delight and fervour as is requisite . Therefore let the World be so moderately pursued , as that time , and strength and room , may be left for Devotion ; and let the Duties of Religion be so contrived , that they may be pleasant and easy , and then ( besides that Devotions so performed are most acceptable to God ) it will be no hard matter to bring our Families to comply with them . Especially 5. If in the fifth place the Governours of Families take care to order and methodize affairs so , that these different things intrench not upon each other , neither the World incroach upon Religion , nor Religion shut out and exclude the common affairs of life ; but both may take their places in a just subordination . We commonly observe , that things in an heap , and which are not digested into any order , look vast and numerous , so as to amuse our minds in the contemplation of them , insomuch that we neither apprehend any of them distinctly , nor comprehend them all together ; and in a crowd of business , we are either so confounded with the multiplicity , or distracted with the variety of things before us , that we apply our selves to nothing at all effectually ; for one hinders and supplants the other . So it is here in the case between the affairs of the two Worlds , if both lie in gross before men , and no distinct place be assigned to each of them ; the effect is , that both together being an intolerable burden , one of the two must necessarily be neglected , and that commonly falls to be the lot of Religion : or if it happen that these offices are not totally omitted , they will be sure to be superficially performed ; the minds of men neither being sufficiently prepared for them , nor united enough to attend them without distraction and wanderings . Therefore as the wise man tells us , there is a time for every thing ; so let every man , who would promote Religion in his Family , appoint set hours for Prayer , and all the offices of Devotion , and then it will neither be difficult to obtain the constant observance of them , nor so ordinary to perform them carelesly and formally . 6. Sixthly and lastly , It will be the wisdom of every Master of a Family who would bring those which are under his care and tuition to an uniformity in Religion and the worship of God , and to seriousness and heartiness therein , that he express all tender affection to them and regard of them , when any of them happen to be sick , or under any adversity , and by that means make to himself an opportunity of obliging them to take his counsel , and follow his direction in all other cases . We use to say , he that will gain an interest in any man , so that he may be useful to him , or compliant with him in his prosperity , must lay the foundation of his Friendship in that mans adversity . For no man knows who are his Friends till he hath occasion to make experiment of them , which cannot be done but in adversity ; for every man is a Friend to him that hath no need to him , but he that like the good Samaritan , deserts us not in our greatest difficulties , him we have just grounds to value and confide in . Now above all kindnesses men are most sensible of those which are done to their Bodies , and they commonly take the measures of all Friendship and sincerity from thence , and therefore he that will win upon the minds of men , must first oblige them in their bodily interests . Besides , as we observe , that all inferiour Creatures are most tractable and docible at such times as wherein they are lowest and can least help themselves ; so mankind is most disposed to take advice , and most obedient to counsel when he is at a non-plus in his affairs , and especially when the vanities of this World , which dazled his Eyes before , begin to vanish , and there seems to be but one way left with him ( that is , to prepare for another life ) he will then freely admit of Discourse of the other World , and be glad to comply with all serious advice in order thereunto . These seasons of adversity therefore are by no means to be let slip by him who is tender of the Souls of those who are under his charge . To which add , that forasmuch as it is the constant method of all the Zealots and Emissaries of false Religions to insinuate themselves into sick and calamitous persons , to the end that by such an opportunity they may gain Disciples to their party , and they too frequently find this subtilty successful : the consideration hereof ought to awaken the diligence , and incourage the hopes and indeavours of all those that sincerely desire to save their own Souls , and those that are imbarqued with them , to apprehend and improve such opportunities to better purposes ; especially seeing that in such seasons men are as capable of good principles as of bad , if there be not as much shameful and supine carelessness on the one side , as there is commonly vigilance and application on the other . And so much for Family-Piety . CHAP. VI. Of publick Piety , and particularly of governing a mans self in relation to the Church and publick assembly of Christians . AS it is certain we were not born for our selves , so neither is it a sufficient discharge of our duty , that we be useful in our private Family , or amongst our Kindred and Relations only , but that we express a zeal of Gods glory and the good of Mankind , answerable to the full extent of our capacity , and let our light so shine out before men , that we may provoke , as many as are within our reach , to glorify our Father which is in Heaven . Now every private man is in some measure concerned in the Neighbourhood and Parish wherein he dwells , and whereto he belongs ; and therefore should so far at least dispense the influence of his zeal for God and Religion : for Almighty God , who hath appointed the bounds of mens habitation , having thus setled every man in his station , expects that he should look upon this as his proper sphere , and adorn it as his peculiar Province . No private man hath any just reason ordinarily to prompt him to go beyond this , forasmuch as if every good man would do his part within these bounds , the whole World would be amended , and he that is remiss and negligent in this , cannot easily satisfy himself that he hath demonstrated such love to God as becomes him , nor can he expect to reap all those comforts and benefits which otherwise by a conscientious discharge of himself in this particular might redound to him . Now that which we mean by the relation to a Neighbourhood or a Parish hath a double consideration . First , As every Parish is or ought to be a branch or member of the Church . Secondly , As it is a branch or member of the Commonwealth . Accordingly there is a double obligation lies upon every man that is within the bounds of it , and from thence arise duties of a different nature : for brevity and perspicuity , I will distinguish them by the names of Ecclesiastical and Civil Piety , and then shew what each of them comprehends , beginning with that which I call Ecclesiastical Piety , or the discharge of such publick duties as especially concern the Society of a Church . And this consists in these few following particulars . 1. That a man join himself to , and carry himself as a member of the Church , and not out of pride , phantastry or contempt separate himself from it , or schismatically set up Factions and Conventicles against it . It is evident , that our Lord Jesus Christ established the Society of a Church ; that is , appointed that all those who would be his Disciples , should not content themselves singly and particularly to believe on him , but should all be obliged to associate themselves , and make up a body or spiritual corporation wherein they were to hold Communion with each other , as members , as well as with him their head . The ends and uses of this institution were very many and great ; for besides that by this means order and unity is promoted , which is very beautiful in the Eyes of God himself , our Lord hereby provided that the truth of Christianity might be jointly held up in the World , and the several members of this Society become mutually more helpful and comfortable to each other , and also that by a constant method of Christian intercourse here , they may be fitted for Eternal Friendship and Society in Heaven . In subserviency to all these ends , publick Officers were appointed in the Church to govern and to instruct the several members of it , which it were plainly impossible for them to do ( unless their numbers were almost infinite and equal to that of the people ) if it had not been that the people were to join together , and become a common flock for those Officers to govern and instruct . Moreover it was also the intention of our Saviour , that this Church of his should be but one , and Catholick , imbracing all the true Believers all the World over , and therefore it is called his Body and his Spouse : from whence it follows that every man who will partake of the benefits which flow from him , must be a part of this Body , and thereby hold Communion with him by Conjunction with that , which is otherwise impossible to be done , than by joining with that part of the Catholick Church where it hath pleased the Divine Providence to settle our abode and habitation , that is , in the Parish and Neighbourhood where we dwell ; for without this , though it 's possible we may retain the fame Faith in our hearts with the Catholick Church , yet we cannot perform the offices of members , nor serve the ends of such a Society . The result is therefore , that it is ordinarily every Christians Duty to communicate in all the offices of Christianity , to submit to the Officers , to be subject to the censures , ahd to comply with the orders of that part of the Church amongst which the Divine Providence hath placed him . I say ordinarily , because it may happen that the Society of Christians amongst whom a man lives may be heretical in their Doctrine , or Idolatrous in their Worship , and then it will not be his sin but his duty to separate from them ; but bating that case , and where the Doctrine is sound , and the worship free from Idolatry , I see not what else can acquit him of Schism that separates , or what can be sufficient to dissolve the obligation of joining with the Catholick Church by Conjunction with that particular Society , or Member of it , where he is placed . Therefore let not the good Christian without flat necessity , suffer himself to be alienated from the particular Church , lest by so doing he lose the comforts and benefits of the Catholick Church ; but let it be his care and indeavour ( so far as it is in his power ) that there may be but one Church in the World , as was the intention of our Saviour : to this purpose let him not hearken to the fond pretences of purer Ordinances and double refined worship , or to the vain boasts of greater edification in other Assemblies ; for besides that a man may justly expect most of Gods blessing upon those means which are most his duty to apply himself unto ; it is also evident , that if such suggestions be attended to , it will be flatly impossible that there should ever be such a thing as unity or order in the Christian Church ; nay these conceits will not only distract and confound the order of the Church , but they serve to fill mens heads with endless disputes , and their hearts with perpetual scruples about purity of administrations , so that they shall rest no where , but under pretence of soaring higher and higher , shall ramble from one Church to another , till at last they cast off all Ordinances as the highest attainment of spirituality . Nor let him give ear to any peevish insinuations against the Church and publick worship , upon account that there are some Rites or Ceremonies made use of which are only of humane institution ; for it is not only reasonable to hope that God will be well pleased with humility , peaceableness and obedience to humane Laws , but certain , that there is no Church in the World , that is or can be without some observances , that have no higher original than humane institution . But against these , and all other such like principles of separation , let him indeavour to secure himself ; First , by dismissing the prejudices of Education , and the unnecessary scrupulosities of a melancholy temper , and above all , acquit himself of pride and pragmaticalness , and then he will easily and comfortably comply with any sound part of the Christian Church . In pursuance whereof 2. He must diligently frequent all the publick offices of Religion in that Society , whether it be Prayers , Preaching or reading the word of God , or Administration of the Sacraments , &c. For it is a mighty shame that a man should pretend to be of the Church , who cares not how little or how seldom he comes at it , and who slights the advantages of its Communion . For such a man , however he may hector and swagger for the notion of a Church , manifestly betrays that all is but humour or interest , and no true principle of Christianity at the bottom ; and really , he doth more dishonour to that Society , than the professed Schismatick doth or can do . For besides that he incourages them in their contempt of it , and discourages good men in their zeal for it ; he foments the suspicion of Atheistical men , that Religion is but a politick trick to catch silly persons with , whilest those that are privy to the plot , keep out of the bondage of it : I need not adde , That he defeats the institution of our Saviour , that he baulks his own Conscience ( if he have any ) and aggravates his own Damnation , which are all very sad things . On the other side , the blessings and comforts of frequenting the offices of the Church are so many and great , that it is not imaginable how any man who is convinced of the duty of Communion in general , should be able to neglect the particular instances of it . For besides that the Church is Gods House , where he is especially present , and where we meet him , and place our selves under his eye and observation , and from whence he usually dispenses his favours ; it is a great furtherance of our zeal and piety , to be in the presence of one another , where the example of holy fervour and devotion in one , powerfully strikes and affects others . There is also an extraordinary majesty in the word of God , when it is not only fitted to our peculiar condition , but authoritatively pronounced , and applied to our Conscience by Gods Messenger . Above all , in Prayers , when our Petitions and requests are not only put up to Almighty God , by his own Minister appointed for this purpose ; but our weakness is relieved , our spirits incouraged , and we are inabled ( notwithstanding our private meanness or guilt ) to hope for acceptance and success in our desires , by the concurrent Devotions of so many holy men as there join with us in the same suit , and in the same words , and whose united importunity besieges Heaven , and prevails with Almighty Goodness for a blessing . Wherefore let no man permit the private exercises of Piety it self , such as Prayer , reading , or Meditation , to supersede or hinder his attendance upon the publick offices of the Church , seeing that as these yield more publick honour to the Divine Majesty , so they are more effectual for our own benefit ; much less let sloth or too great eagerness upon the affairs of the World , make us forget or neglect them ; but least of all let any lukewarm indifferency or Atheistical carelessness seise upon any man in this particular ; but let the man who glories to be of the Christian Church , be sure to be found there in the Assemblies of Gods Servants . 3. And more particularly , let him not neglect the opportunities of receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper , as often as they are presented to him , unless some weighty occasion hinder or disable him . It is well known to have been the use of the primitive Church to administer this holy Sacrament as often as it held any solemn Assembly for divine worship , and the Christians then as duly received it as they came to Church ; nor did the frequency of it abate their reverence to it , but highly increased it rather . And this office they therefore called the Communion , because it was the symbol of a compleat member of the Church , and the fullest instance of that Society . To have been kept from it by any accident , was then looked upon as a great Calamity ; but to be debarred from it by the censure of the Church , was as dreadful to them as the Sentence of Death . They sought to be restored to it with tears , with prostrations in SackCloth and Ashes , with all the intercession of their Friends , and all the interests they could make . There was no need in those times to use arguments to convince men of the duty , or repeated exhortations to press them to the performance of it ; the Ministers of the Church had no trouble in answering objections against it , or removing impertinent scruples about it , much less was there any occasion to urge the observance of it by humane Laws ; for they remembred it was instituted by their Saviour on the same night in which he was betrayed , for the Commemoration of his Passion , and recommended to their observance by the most obliging circumstances ; they found the constant solemnity of it setled in all Churches by the Apostles , and they were well aware of the unspeakable comforts of it . Now the reason of all these things holds as much in these times as then ( saving that men are not so conscientious and devout as they were ) : for in the first place , it hath been the custom of the Church in all times since , to make this Sacrament the badge and cognizance of her members , until of late those have pretended to be Churches where there was neither Order nor Unity , neither Sacraments administred nor indeed persons qualified to administer them ; and it 's great pity and shame that such an unhappy novelty should prescribe against all Antiquity . And then secondly , as for the institution of this Sacrament by our Saviour , it is manifest , that he did not deliver himself by way of counsel and advice , so as to leave it to our discretion or courtesy to observe this Sacrament or omit it , but by express and positive command , Do this in remembrance of me ; and therefore there is no room for the cavil against mixt Communion , as if we were excused from celebrating the Lord's Supper , because others do it unworthily ; which is as much as to say , because some do it as they should not , I may chuse whether I will do it at all . But ( as I said ) here is an express command that we do it , and therefore we have no liberty to omit it upon any such pretence . And upon the same account it will be in vain to pretend I am not prepared for it , and therefore must be excused ; for when our Lord hath made it our duty to do it , it is our duty also to do it as we should do , and the neglect of one duty will not excuse another , i. e. our sin of unpreparedness will be no apology for our sin in total omission of the Sacrament . The whole truth is , here are two things required of us , one expressed and the other implied ; the express duty is ; that we celebrate the memorial of our Saviours Passion ; the implied duty is , that this be done with such preparation as agrees with so sacred a mystery ; both these therefore are to be performed : for as my coming to the Sacrament will not excuse my coming unpreparedly , so much less will my unpreparedness excuse my not coming at all . But of the two , it seems far the more pardonable to come , though somewhat unpreparedly , than not to come because of unpreparedness ; for that is neither to come nor prepare neither . I say , though neither ought to be done , yet it is plainly better to offend in the point of an implied duty , than of an express one ; but especially , it is more tolerable to commit one sin than both , as he that comes not to the Lords Supper at all , notoriously doth . But then thirdly , for the comforts of this holy Sacrament , those are so vastly great , that the man is as well insensible of his own good as of the honour of Christ Jesus , who willfully neglects the Lords Supper . For in the first place , by commemorating the Passion of our Lord in that holy Feast , we not only perform an office of obedience and gratitude to our Saviour , but we strengthen our Faith in the efficacy of his Death and Sacrifice for the expiation of sin , which affords the greatest relief to our guilty Consciences that can be . And together herewith we melt our own hearts into contrition , fears and sorrow for those sins of ours which required such an atonement . For who can consider what his Saviour suffered , and look upon him whom we have pierced , and not mourn heartily for his sin and his danger ? Again , by eating and drinking at the Lords Table we are made sensible of the happy estate of Friendship with God , which we are now restored to by the intercession of our Lord Jesus . Moreover by commemorating his Death , and the ends and effects of it , we fortify our own minds against the fear of Death , and by feeding upon his body and blood we have the pledges of our own Resurrection and Immortality , and to say no more ( though in so copious and comfortable a subject ) by partaking of his body and blood we become united to him , and partake of the same spirit that was in him . And now after all this , who will make that an excuse for omitting the Sacrament , that they do not find or observe , that either themselves or others profit by it ? What , is it no profit that we have done our duty and exprest our gratitude to so great a Benefactor ? Is it no profit to see Christ Crucified before our Eyes , and to see him pour out his heart blood for Sinners ? Is it no profit to be made ingenuously to weep over our own sins ? Is it no priviledge , no comfort to be admitted to the Lords Table , in token of Friendship and reconciliation with him ? Certainly there is no body but profits something more or less by these things ; and if there be any man who doth not profit greatly by them , he must needs have a very naughty heart indeed , and had need to prepare himself , and go often to the Sacrament that it may be mended . But however let the good Christian gladly imbrace all opportunities of this holy solemnity , and not doubt to find comfort by it . 4. As for the other offices of the Church , such as Prayers especially , let him remember to frequent them constantly and intirely . By constancy of attendance upon publick worship , I mean , that he should not only apply himself to it on the Sundays or Lords Days , but every Day of the Week if there be opportunity : and by intireness of Gods Service , I understand it to be his duty both to go at the beginning , and to join in it both Morning and Evening , that by all together he may not only sure himself and his own Conscience of his heartiness and sincerity , but demonstrate to all about him the great sense he hath of the moment of Religion , and that he looks upon the serving of God as of greater consequence than all other interests whatsoever . As for the first of these , viz. the frequenting the publick Prayers every day ( where they are to be had ) it is observable in the character of Cornelius , Acts 10. 2. that amongst other instances of devotion it is said of him that he prayed to God always , which cannot well be understood of any thing else but his daily frequenting the publick Prayers , because his private Prayers could not be so well known as to make his Character . But most expresly it is said of all that believed , Acts 2. 46. that they continued daily with one accord in the temple , which must needs principally have reference to this duty of publick Prayer ; and it is very hard if any man be so put to it , that he cannot spare one hour in a Day to do publick honour to the Divine Majesty , or rather it is a great sign of unbelief in his providence as well as want of love to him , if a man cannot trust God so far as to hope that such a time spent in his service shall be recompensed by his blessing upon the residue of the Day ; or however , a good Christian will be well contented , and gladly sacrifice so much of his secular interests ( as this comes to ) to the Divine Majesty . As for the second point , viz. going at the beginning of Prayers , it is a shameful neglect which several persons are guilty of , who will not altogether be absent from the Church , but yet will come commonly so late , that they not only lose part of the Prayers , but enter very abruptly and irreverently upon that which they partake of . It is possible a man may sometimes be surprized by the time , or diverted from his intention by some emergency ; but to be frequently tardy is an argument that he loves something better than God and his worship . For doubtless a good Christian would ordinarily choose rather to stay for the Minister , than that the publick office should stay for him , and thinks it fitter to spend a little time in preparing and disposing his heart for the duties of Religion , than either to enter into the divine presence rudely , or to serve him only by halves . And as for the third branch of this instance of Devotion , viz. the resorting both to Morning and Evening Service , it is observable Acts 3. 1. that the Apostles were at the temple at the hour of Prayer , being the ninth hour , which is both a proof of their frequenting the Evening Service as well as that of the Morning , and also an example of observing the just and stated times of publick worship ; and surely it will become every good Christian to be lead by such a precedent , especially seeing the Gospel worship which we resort to is so much more excellent and comfortable than the Jewish was ( which those holy men thus carefully frequented ) as we shall see by and by . 5. In the next place it is to be minded , that in all these publick approaches to Gods House , we are to express a great reverence towards the Divine Majesty : by which I do not only mean that we ought in our hearts to think worthily of him , and prostrate all the inward powers of our Souls to him , but that in our outward man , in our carriage and bodily deportment we express an awful regard to him , by all such gestures and signs , as according to the common opinion of men , are taken to betoken the highest reverence and observance , such as standing , kneeling , bowing , and prostrations of our selves before him . For though the heart be that which God principally looks at , yet forasmuch as he made our bodies as well as our Souls , and we hope he will save both , he therefore expects we should glorify him , both with our souls and with our bodies which are his , and which he hath bought with a price , 1 Cor. 6. 20. And indeed there is such a nearness and sympathy between our bodies and spirits , that they ordinarily move by consent , and draw one another into compliance . Insomuch , that he who truly bows his Soul to God , can scarcely forbear at the same time to bow his knees to him also ; and he on the other side that bows his knee to him , is by that very motion of his body in some measure put in mind to entertain reverential thoughts and affections towards him . And this care of bodily worship is the more important in publick service , and especially in Gods House , because ( as I noted before ) then and there his honour and grandeur is concerned , and any indecent carriage in such a case , is an affront to him , and exposes him to contempt in the eyes of men , and therefore that carriage which in secret worship might admit of excuse , will in publick be intolerable profaneness . Wherefore let not the pious man be affrighted by any one out of the expressions of bodily reverence , under the notion of superstition , which is become a Bugbear , by which weak men are made afraid of every instance of a decorous or generous Devotion . There can be no culpable superstition in our worship , so long as we have the true object for it , and whilest we use not such expressions of our Devotion as he hath forbidden ; but this of bodily reverence is so far from being forbidden , that it is expresly required in the holy Scripture , and hath been constantly practised by all holy men . Nor let the phancy of a spiritual worship , required under the Gospel , beguile any man into a contempt or neglect of bodily reverence ; for it is plain , that although the Christian Religion raises mens inward Devotion higher , yet it abates nothing of outward adoration ; but rather when it requires the former should be more intense and affectionate , it supposes the other should be answerable , because it is natural so to be ; for this being the accessory cannot but follow the principal . It is true , there is a possibility that more stress may be laid upon the shadow than the substance , and some men may hope to complement God Almighty out of his right to their hearts , by the addresses of their bodies : but the fault in this case is not , that there is too much of the latter , but too little of the former ; and the good Christian therefore will be sure to join both together ; and as he will come to Gods House with the most elevated affections , so he will express his apprehensions of the infinite distance between him and the Divine Majesty by the lowliest postures of his body . 6. Next to this let the pious man think it his duty to pay some measure of reverence to Gods Minister as well as to the Divine Majesty , and for his sake . In the Old Testament , God took special care of the respect and dignity of his Ministers as well as of their maintenance ; for indeed all contumely towards them redounds upon himself : And the new Testament is very full and express in this particular , they are those that watch for our souls , and must give account for them , they are Gods Embassadors , and workers together with him , those by whose hands he pardons and blesses his people , and therefore he holds them as the stars in his right hand , and those who slight them that speak in his name on earth affront him that speaketh from heaven , but amongst the many passages in the New Testament to this purpose , that of the Apostle to the Thessal . 1. Ep. 5. 13. is very considerable , the words are these , We beseech you brethren to know those who labour amongst you , and are over you in the Lord , and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake . The last words are so emphatical they cannot be expressed in English , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to give them greater esteem than otherwise is due to them for their work and office sake , i. e. to value them above their parts and merits and quality in other respects , for the sake of that relation they stand in to God , and for their office and usefulness towards our Souls . And indeed touching that last particular , it is evident in experience , that all those who have any regard to their own Souls , are such as indeavour to raise in their hearts an esteem for their Minister ; not only that they may incourage his studies and sweeten his labours to him , but that they may render themselves the more capable of following his counsels and receiving benefit by his instructions : and on the other side , those that slight and vilify the persons of such , neither do nor possibly can ( ordinarily ) receive any benefit by their Ministry , and therefore the Prophet Hosea 4. 4. speaking of a profligate and hopeless sort of people , useth this expression , this people are as those that strive with the Priest , q. d. they are not only horribly vicious and profane , but they are incorrigible too . Therefore the piously disposed man will be sure to reverence Gods Ministers , both for Gods sake and his own too , and this leads me to another duty of kind to the former , viz. 7. That the good Christian account it an office of publick Piety as well as of common justice , to pay truly and faithfully his Tithes and Church dues to the Minister : this the Apostle intimates by the expression of double honour , 1 Tim. 5. 17. Natural reason and the common sense of mankind requires that they which serve at the Altar should live upon the Altar . And in the Old Testament when God himself setled the provision for his Ministers , he did it most amply and honourably ; and under the Gospel pious antiquity took care that the Christian Church and Ministry thereof should be liberally indowed , till the envy and rapacity of after-times deprived it of a great part of its rights ; but now after those depredations it would be an horrible sin and shame to rob the Church of any part of that remainder , or fraudulently to diminish or impair it . For it is evident , that no man can pretend any right to it , as having neither purchased it nor hired it , nor had it descend upon him by inheritance ; the Churches due being a reserved estate , or a rent-charge upon every private estate . And it is notorious that it is what pious Ancestry consecrated to this use , and therefore no part of it can be invaded , intercepted or incroached upon without Sacriledge and the Curse of God. And for proof of this , we need no more than to observe the common success of such men as purloin from the Church , and ( as their own phrase is ) are always pinching on the Parsons side . They are generally a querulous , uneasy , lean , hungry and unthrifty sort of people , God Almighty blowing upon and blasting their other labours for the sake of this accursed thing in their Tents ; or if any of them thrive for the present , yet , one time or other , a Coal from the Altar will take hold of , and fire their Nests . Whereas on the other side , those that are just to God in this particular , ordinarily find the benefit of it in the success of their affairs , and they are commonly chearful in their spirits and prosperous in the World. But the good Christian will not need these arguments , for he loves God and his service , and his Ministers , and thinks it fit that he that reaps spiritual things ought liberally to sow temporal things , at least he will rather abridge himself than wrong the Church , although it may be never so cleverly done , under the countenance of a corrupt custom or prescription . So far from it , that 8. In the eighth place he will be an example of pious munificence , and put himself to some voluntary cost for the Ornaments of Religion and the House of God , and that his publick service may be performed with gravity , decency and solemnity . For he thinks it very fit that the great Majesty of Heaven and Earth should not only be worshipped with sincerity and devotion , but with grandeur and magnificence . He will not therefore humour the profaneness of degenerate times so much as to forswear building of Churches , if it be in his power , nor much less will be backward or stingy in repairing of them when there is occasion ; for he cannot find in his heart to let Gods House lie waste when he builds his own , nor frame his mind to think that is good enough for the uses of Religion which he could not be contented with for his private accommodation , if better were in his power , and therefore will in all Parish-meetings about these matters vote for God against his own Purse , for he is of Davids mind , who had no fancy for a cheap Religion , nor would serve God with that which cost him nothing , 1 Chron. 21. 24. And as he Psal . 84. verses 5 , 6 , 7. blesses those that took pains to repair the ways , and to make the passage easy towards God House at Jerusalem ; so the pious Christian will indeavour by his counsel and example , that the whole external face of Religion may be lightsome , beautiful and decorous in the place where he dwells , to the end that not only his animal spirits may the more chearfully comply with the devotion of his mind , but that those also may be invited to frequent Gods House and worship , who have not yet experimented the spiritual ravishments of it . In further pursuance whereof 9. The pious man ( we speak of ) will together with all the aforesaid allurements , use also his utmost indeavours by perswasions , incouragements , and all other fit means to prevail with the whole Neighbourhood or Parish to frequent the Church . For as he would not go to Heaven alone , nay knows assuredly he shall not come there , if he do not indeavour to carry others along with him ; so neither is he contented to feed upon the fatness of Gods House alone , but would have others partake with him . He hath a holy indignation to observe Theaters to be filled , Exchanges and Markets thronged , and Gods House unfurnished with Guests . He wonders at the inconsiderateness of men who incur such a guilt by the contempt of Religion , and pitties their folly that deny themselves so many comforts and advantages as Gods House affords above any other place of resort whatsoever . Besides , he considers , that not only God is more honour'd by a general confluence to his service , but that his own heart is more inlarged and chearful , and his affections more raised ( as it were moving in Consort ) when there is a brave concourse in Divine Offices . Psal . 122. 1 , 2. I rejoiced ( saith the holy man ) when they said , Come , let us go up to the House of the Lord , our feet shall stand within thy gates O Jerusalem . Well-disposed persons ( it seems ) then were wont to call upon and provoke one another , and to flock together in Companies towards the Temple , and it was a pleasant spectacle to the Psalmist to behold it . And let good Christians be ashamed to be outdone in any thing of this kind , since our Church and worship is so incomparably more excellent than theirs . What was it that a zealous Jew could provoke his Neighbours to go up to the Temple for ? to see a Beast slain and a smoke made with the fat and entrails , or to muse upon the obscure Hieroglyphicks in the Fabrick , the Utensils , the Ornaments and Service of that House ? But a Christian goes to the Church to hear the lively Oracles of God , to see Heaven opened in all its glories , and to be shewed the way thither . Therefore he that is sensible of the great odds on the side of the Christian worship , and who hath so much Prudence and Charity as to render him serviceable amongst his Neighbours to such a purpose , will jog and awaken them out of their sloth and negligence of going to the Church , by wise and manly Discourses , and friendly and familiar Exhortations , from the considerations of the scandal to Religion , and discouragement to the Minister by the peoples remissness , and of the duty and benefit of diligent attendance , and he will with the same zeal and care indeavour to answer their objections , and remove their scruples about it ; and especially considering , that this is commonly better taken , and sinks deeper into such men as need it , when it is done ( not only by the Minister , who is presumed by these incogitant persons to do it for his interest or the reputation of his person or profession , but ) by those who are upon the same terms with themselves . To all this , the pious man aforesaid will wisely improve the interest of his Charity to oblige the poorer sort to their duty , dispensing most liberally to them who are most inclinable to follow his counsel in this particular ; and for the middle sort of men , he will trade and buy and sell upon choice with those that are best affected to the Church and Religion . But if all this should not do , and that he cannot prevail upon all , yet 10. In the last place , he will not fail at least to over-rule his own Family , that they shall universally and constantly frequent the Church , and so be an example to the Neighbourhood . This I have shewed before , every Governour of a Family hath authority from God to do , and the holy Scripture affords us several instances of the efficacy and success of making use of it to this purpose ; amongst the rest , by virtue hereof , Joshua undertook for his House , that they should serve the Lord ; and Cornelius prevailed upon those under him so , that he is said to fear the Lord with all his House . And indeed a Master of a Family will be able to give a very sorry account of his Family , if he cannot oblige them to go to Church with him ; for we find by woful experience , that where under pretence of scruples about the publick worship , inferiours have claimed the priviledge of exemption , and been permitted to resort to Conventicles , the effect hath been , that such persons have not only grown captious and insolent , and by degrees to despise their Superiours , but having by this means gotten from under the Eye of their Governours have made no scruple to run into Debauchery . Therefore let the pious man strictly charge himself thus far , and look upon himself as very insignificant in his place , if he do not so much publick honour to God and Religion , as to bring his Family to the House of God. CHAP. VII . Of Civil Piety , Or , How a good man may carry himself so , as to promote Gods honour , and the publick good , together with his own peace and comfort , in the Parish , considered only as a Civil Society or Neighbourhood . WHen our blessed Saviour , Mat. 5. 13. saith to his Disciples , Ye are the salt of the earth , he did not direct himself only to his Apostles , or to them and their Successors , the Pastors of his Church ( as some have imagined ) but to all his Disciples in general . For besides that the Beatitudes which he pronounces in the former part of the Chapter , and his other Discourse ( pursuant of them ) which immediately precedes these words , apparently concern all Christians , so far as they are qualified for them ; It is evident also by S. Luke , Chap. 14. comparing the 25 Verse with the 32. that it was his intention to apply this title of being the salt of the earth , to the whole body of true Christians . And then the importance of that expression will be this , That the true spirit of Christianity is and ought to be a principle of activity ; and the Professors of this Religion are not to content themselves with passive innocency , and that they escape the contagion of evil Example , nor be corrupted and debauched by the temptations or customs of the World : But that they must look upon it as their duty to better and improve the state of Mankind , to influence upon it , to season and preserve others from corruption as well as themselves . Nor is this activity of true Christianity to be strictly confined within the limits of the Church , or to display it self merely in the great duties of Religion properly considered . For as our Saviour designed not only to shew men a way to another World above , but also to amend the condition of this present World below , and to make it a more quiet and comfortable habitation : so doubtless when he calls his Disciples the salt of the whole Earth , he intended to require , that every good man should ( within his whole sphere ) indeavour to promote humanity , morality , and the civil and political happiness of mankind . The discharge of which is that which I call civil Piety , and the measures whereof ( at least so far as concerns the purpose in hand ) are briefly described in the following particulars . 1. The first office of civil Piety is to maintain Government and Order , to keep up the honour and dignity of the Prince , to preserve the reverence of Magistracy and the Laws of a mans Country . For the doing of this , we have as express and urgent commands of God as any are to be found in the whole Scripture ; and therefore the conscientious discharge hereof is as acceptable to him as any act of immediate worship . For God Almighty needs nothing at our hands for himself , or for his own use and advantage , but makes the publick good of his Creatures the matter and reason of his Laws : Now publick Peace and tranquillity ( which are only to be preserved by Laws and Magistracy ) are of mighty concernment to mankind , as well as beautiful in the Eyes of him that calleth himself a God of order . For without Government we could have no quiet in our habitations , no security of our persons , no propriety in our Estates , no defence against Foreign Invasion , nor any refuge from the inraged multitude or combined force of evil men ; but the weak would be a prey to the strong , the slothful would eat the labours of the industrious , the World would be filled with Murders , Rapine and Violence , and become an Hell upon Earth ; and therefore it is not only worthy of a wise mans care to uphold Government , but must be his important duty to indeavour it . And the being instrumental herein , is not only very honourable to Religion , and consequently procures the benign aspect of Princes towards it , and provokes them to become nursing Fathers of it , but is peculiarly commodious to all the offices and exercises thereof . Therefore it is observable , that the Apostles generally in all their Writings , immediately after they have discoursed of the peculiar Duties of Christianity , subjoin earnest exhortations to obedience to humane Laws and civil Powers ; and the primitive Christians were so infinitely tender herein , as if they thought that God could not have his honour , and glory , and service rightly performed to him , unless Peace and Order were preserved in the World. Now forasmuch as the greatest Kingdoms consist of so many several lesser Bodies , as the integral parts thereof ; and those again of so many Parishes : And forasmuch as it is impossible there should be peace and good order in the Whole , if the particular parts or members be out of order : Therefore it must not only be the duty , but be within the power of every private person to contribute something towards the great ends aforesaid ; first by disposing himself , secondly by principling his Family , and thirdly , by perswading and inclining his Neighbours to favour and assist the Government towards the attainment of the design of humane Society . And this the good Christian ought at this time especially to set himself about with the greater zeal , because the looseness herein seems to be one of the peculiar evils of the present age we live in , and that which not only makes an ill reflection upon Religion , but indangers the state of it . In order therefore to the upholding of Government , let the good man indeavour in converse with his Neighbours to possess them with an apprehension of the necessity of submitting private interests to common utility , and particular opinion to publick discretion , and so bring them into a good opinion of the reasonableness of the Laws , and of the wisdom of their Governours . Let him labour to remove peoples discontents , to confute their jealousies , and to make them chearful and well-pleased with the state of the World , which God hath ordered . Let him discountenance all seditious Libels and News , not permit in his Company any pragmatical censuring of the Laws or publick Counsels ; no traducing the persons or exposing the infirmities of Governours ; nor no repining at , and envying the glory and splendour of those that are preferred above themselves . That he may be successful in all this , let him be careful to preserve and keep up the distinct ranks , orders and degrees of men , and that those differences which it hath pleased the Divine Providence to make in the fortunes and conditions of men be observed , I mean in respect of age and youth , riches and poverty , honour and obscruity ; the neglect of which is not only a malapert Quakerly humour , but a principle of sedition and confusion in the World. For as it is evident , that there can be no peace and quiet in the World , if there be no Government ; so it is as certain , there can be no Government where there is no Order , nor the different degrees amongst men observed : and therefore he that would either level the condition of all men , or ( which is the same things in effect ) would destroy that reverence which keeps up that distinction and diversity of condition , dissolves the very sinews of humane Society . God Almighty indeed could easily have levelled the condition of all men , and taken away or prevented the differences of Rich and Poor , honourable and ignoble ; and of old and young too , if he had so pleased . But then , it is not imaginable how there could have been any Society amongst men , at least , unless he had also by his omnipotency made them all to be wise and good too : but forasmuch as he resolved to have order and government amongst men , and yet would not effect it by violence ; he therefore resolved by means of those different conditions aforesaid , to subordinate them one to another , and to unite them together in the Bonds of mutual usefulness and dependance . So he ordered that some should be poor to ease the rich of labour and drudgery , and others rich to imploy and incourage their industry ; that the one might have superfluity to relieve the others want , and the other be obliged by their bounty : the same Providence ordered that there should be some men in power and dignity , and others in privacy and obscurity ; that the man of honour standing by and countenancing the ignoble as his Client , he on the other side should observe and acknowledge him as his Patron , and so harmony arises out of this discord . Again , he ordered the World so , that all should not be of a stature and capacity of body or mind , but that there should be old men able to counsel and advise others , but not of strength to execute ; and young men of spirit and vigour for Execution , but destitute of counsel and wisdom : that the former by their experience and observation instructing the latter , and the latter by their strength and courage assisting the former ; they might be mutually indeared to each other as members of the same Body . He therefore who incourages or suffers ( if he can help it ) the Poor to be surly and insolent towards the Rich , or the private person to be contumacious towards those in dignity , or the young to be rude and malapert towards the aged , opposes himself to Divine Providence , and is the Author of dissolution of Government and confusion in the World. But he that perswades the poor to be modest , as well as the rich to be charitable ; that puts private persons in mind of subjection , as well as great men of generosity and mildness ; that disposes young men to reverence the gray hairs of the aged , as well as them to do worthily of their respect and gravity , subserves the Divine Providence in his wise method of preserving peace and order , and lays the first foundation of good Government . For the foundation of all Laws and Magistracy is to be laid in the hearts and principles of men ; and unless a modest reverence of superiority be first setled there , the exercise of mere power and authority will be very difficult and insuccessful . So that it is in the power of private persons to promote publick Government , and the office of virtuous men to do so . 2. The second office of a Christian in his Parish is to promote justice and honesty amongst the Neighbourhood in all their dealings and transactions one with another . It is commonly and truly said , that justice is the Pillar of the World , and therefore it is observable , that the great Creator and Governour of the World usually interposes by a visible Providence , more in behalf of this Virtue than of any other ; insomuch , that oppression , and those secret instances of injustice , which cannot ordinarily be discerned and punished by the hand of the Magistrate , seldom escape a curse and Divine Vengeance in this Life . For besides the mischief that such sins do to humane society , they are Arguments of great Infidelity and Atheism ; forasmuch as it plainly betrays that man to have no perswasion of a World to come , who can be tempted for the sake of the present World to do such base and ununworthy actions ; and therefore it is as well an act of Piety towards God , and of Charity to men , as of advantage to the state of civil Society , to use all indeavours to prevent such kind of transgressions . But it is not only strict justice which I here intend , but my meaning is to take it in the full latitude , so as to comprise truth , and faithfulness , and equity also ; that men be true in their assertions , faithful and steady in their promises , and equitable and candid in all their dealings , and so far from doing violence to each other , that they do not enterprize to out-wit , surprize , or over reach one another , but that they use a humane temper , and express a publick spirit ; and in a word , that they govern themselves by that golden Rule of doing to others as they would be content to be done unto , every man making the case of his Neighbour to be his own . And this I the rather represent to the good Christians care , because this kind of injustice is become another very common and epidemical sin of the age , and men seem to applaud themselves in being able to cheat beyond the cognizance of humane Laws , and to play upon and abuse the simplicity , credulity , or inadvertency one of another . For prevention and remedy of which , the Person we speak of , must in the first place render himself a great example of integrity and equity , especially because the measures of these Virtues cannot be so well delivered by the prescription of any Laws whatsoever , as they may be exprest in the Life , and observed in the conversation of good men . And in the next place he ought to endeavour by discourse to make those he converses with , sensible of the baseness and villany of injustice , by representing the sordid love of the World from which it proceeds , the distrust in Gods Providence with which it is accompanied , or rather the utter unbelief of a God by which it is incouraged . How treacherous and cowardly a thing it is to work upon other mens necessity or facility : how selfish and un-neighbourly a thing to have no respect to any thing but our own private interest : how little is commonly gotten at last by such kind of courses : and to how little purpose , since a man cannot but expect the curse of God upon his honest endeavours ( otherwise ) for the sake of his unjust acquisitions . 3. The third office of good neighbourhood is to indeavour to bring into fashion again that almost antiquated Virtue of simplicity and plain-heartedness in our discourses and communications ; that men , especially Neighbours , should ordinarily be free and open and plain to one another without cunning and scrupulous reservation , than which nothing is more suitable to the relation of Neighbours , nothing more friendly and obliging ; for it makes conversation safe and easy when men express a moderate confidence one in another : and although this like some of the lesser stars , make no great shew in the World ; yet is it of very great influence to sweeten the tempers of men , and improve the comforts of Society . Besides , it is an argument of sincerity of heart , of competent assurance of a mans own judgment , and a real instance of true greatness of mind ; whereas little artifices of concealment are justly looked upon as the disguises of weakness , or the prefaces to fraud , and consequently render a man either dangerous or contemptible to those he converses with . Some men indeed please themselves much in closeness and caution , and count it not only a point of prudence , but a piece of state and greatness to live in the dark to all about them ; but it is easy to observe , that if any men admire such persons for their depth , they withal suspect them for their designs , and to be sure do not love them . I acknowledge there is such a thing as a prudent and virtuous secrecy and taciturnity , which is very commendable and necessary in some cases ; for no man values him that labours under a looseness of tongue , and an incontinency of mind , so that he cannot keep his own counsel : and who shall trust him with their secrets who is a blab of his own ? And it is well enough said , that nakedness of mind is as undecent as that of the Body . But then on the other side , must a man be accounted naked unless he cloath himself in Armour ? To be always upon the Ward , and to stand continually upon our guard , as if we were in an Enemies Country , is at least un-neighbourly and disobliging . For besides that such an artificial conversation is very troublesome to both Parties , in regard on the one hand it is very difficult to the reserved man always to stand bent , so as never to betray himself , and then he spoils all his design : And on the other hand , it puts other men upon their guard too ; for men are naturally shy of those whom they observe to be constantly and rigidly close , and so conversation is interrupted ; whereas nothing unlocks other mens hearts , like the opening of our own to them . Again too great reservedness as it is always entertained with jealousy and suspicion for the present , so it commonly breeds disputes and contests in the conclusion ; whereas plain-heartedness hath no rubs nor difficulties in its way , nor no after-game to play : for every man believes and trusts such a man as plays upon the square , and such a conversation is pleasant and acceptable . Moreover cunning is always lookt upon as an argument of a little mind and of a cowardly temper ; for what should tempt a man to dissemble and work under-ground , but mistrust of his own abilities or consciousness of evil designs ; and this is so far from affording a man any security , that it provokes other men , first to pry the more curiously into him , and then to countermine him , and at last to expose him . To all which add , that if this reservedness we speak of proceeds from insincerity and design , it betrays great unbelief of God and of Providence ; for the clear apprehensions of those great points will incourage a man to be open , and plain and confident : but if it proceed from temper and constitution only , yet even then it doth far more harm than good , and particularly ( as I said before ) it makes life and conversation very uncomfortable , and good Neighbourhood plainly impossible ; and therefore it is well worthy of the care and indeavours of a good man to reduce and recover the antient sincerity and simplicity , instead of that hollow complemental hypocrisy which hath of late supplanted and excluded it . 4. But yet care is to be taken withal , that this plainness and simplicity degenerate not into rudeness , or frothy and foolish conversation , and therefore it is the fourth office of a virtuous man amongst his Neighbours , to indeavour to render conversation favoury , and manly and profitable as well as sincere ; that is , that it be neither trifled away with flat , inspid and gossiping impertinence , nor misimployed in light and idle drollery , nor turned into an occasion of tipling and sensuality , much less debauched by profaneness and malapert reflections on things sacred , but that it be applied to the furtherance of real business , to the bettering of mens understandings , to virtuous purposes , and especially to the advantage of Religion . These last things are useful to the World , and worthy of men ; but the other are a mis-expence of time , a degrading of our selves , a reproach to our reason , and the bane of conversation . With a peculiar respect to such things as these it is that Christians are called the salt of the earth ( as I observed before ) because they are not only to prevent the rottenness and putrefaction , but also the flatness and insipidity of conversation . And as for that which I intimated in the last place , namely , the consulting the advantage of Religion , I must now say further , that although it be true that that is not the only subject of good Discourse , forasmuch as God allows us both the refreshment of our spirits , and a moderate concern about the affairs of this life ; and therefore consequently the affair of another World ought not to be importunely thrust in upon all occasions to the exclusion of other entertainments : yet most certainly it ought to have its place and share in our friendly communications , as being the most weighty and important subject , and if it be dexterously managed , the most gentile and obliging . Neither will it be so very difficult as is commonly imagined , to turn the stream of Neighbourly Discourse this way , if men would be perswaded to try , and apply themselves seriously to it : and surely he that hopes to attain the joys of Heaven himself , cannot but wish his Neighbours in the way thither also ; nor can he whose heart is throughly affected with the apprehensions of it , omit now and then to let fall something or other that way tending ; at least every good man owes so much to God and Religion , as to interpose a good word sometimes in their behalf , which besides that it gives some countenance to Piety for the present , may by the blessing of God make a greater impression than we are aware of , and redound to his own comfortable account another day . But 5. It is unquestionably the duty of every Christian to labour to the utmost of his power to make and preserve peace amongst his Neighbours . To this purpose it is very observable , that our Saviour , Mark 9. 50. joins these two things together , have salt in your selves , and have peace one with another ; as if he had said , Though you are the salt of the Earth , yet you must take care you be not too sharp and acrimonious . You must indeed preserve the World from corruption , but yet you must not exasperate it into passion and disorder ; for you must compose men to peace and quietness , and quench their combustions as well as inflame their Zeal and Devotion . And indeed the latter of these can never successfully be undertaken , unless at the same time , the former be provided for ; for Religion never takes place in mens hearts , nor brings forth fruits in their lives , when the spirits of men are imbroiled with heats and animosities . Men are not fit to consider of the counsels of the Gospel , nor to estimate the reason and importance of them , when their minds are in a flame , and their thoughts in an hurry . Nor if they were already perswaded of them , could they be in a temper to comply with them , or to make any fit expression of love and service towards God , whilst they are at variance with their Brethren , and therefore the Apostle tells us , the fruits of righteousness are sowen in peace , James 3. 18. And as peace is very advantagious to Gods service , so the making and procuring it is very honourable and comfortable to them that are imployed about it . They are under one of our Saviours Beatitudes , and he intitles them the Children of God in a peculiar manner , Mat. 5. 9. viz. as being those who especially imitate and resemble him . And one instance of the blessedness of such men is this , that they which make peace , commonly reap the fruits of it , both in the benign and kindly chearfulness of their own spirits , and in the fair and courteous usage they generally meet with from other men , as well as in the repose and quiet they enjoy when all the World is peaceable and still round about them ; whereas Makebates and Incendiaries torment themselves first before they torture other men , and besides , bring the fire home to their own Houses when they have inflamed other mens . The Good Christian therefore is not only peaceable himself , but a Peacemaker in his Parish , to which end he will in the first place discountenance all Whisperers , Eves-Droppers and Tale-Bearers as the pest of Society ; for these are the Bellows that blow up a spark into a flame . He will indeavour to prevent and take up Law-Suits , which commonly begin in passion and end in malice : for the decision of them rather immortalizes the quarrel than finishes the dispute ; and he that overcomes , very often like the Bee , destroys himself whilst he fastens his sting upon another . He sets a mark upon them that single themselves from the rest of their Neighbours , and divide into parties as men of a great deal of Pride , but of little Wit ; for a great and generous mind would be easily able to animate such a Society as a Parish , and render himself considerable in the whole without tearing it in pieces that he may lead a Faction . He detests and abhors all affected singularity , though the instance of it be in it self unblameable ( so long as it is not absolutely necessary ) because he considers such things first raise Jealousy , then provoke Emulation ; and at last end in alienation of affections . He indeavours that no new Opinions in Religion may be broached amongst the Neighbourhood , as knowing well there can be no new Gospel , or new way to Heaven , and he hath learnt by experience , that whilst men stand gazing after new lights they make halt in the race of virtue , and lose the way of peace , without which they shall never come at Heaven . He indeavours therefore to keep up the antient Landmarks , both in spiritual and temporal affairs ; but if any disputes be raised , he will presently bring Water to quench the Fire in the beginning , and by discreet and temperate Discourses incline both Parties to coolness and moderation , by representing the littleness of the matter in Controversy between them , the great benefit of Unity and Concord amongst Neighbours , and especially by putting them in mind of the approaches of Death , which will very shortly take away the subject of the Question , and the Disputants too . 6. Sixthly , Next to this and to the intent that his indeavours of making Peace may be the more successful , he will contrive to render his person acceptable and fit to be interposed in quarrels , by making himself remarkable for all other offices of Charity and Beneficence , such as relieving of the Poor to the very utmost of his ability , and by sympathizing with those he cannot help , by visiting the sick , counselling the weak and injudicious , comforting the disconsolate , vindicating the injured , rescuing the oppressed , and taking the part of the Widow and Fatherless ; by all which and several other good offices he will become a common Father and Friend to the whole Neighbourhood . Most of these things may be performed without much cost or trouble , or if they be chargeable either way , the expence will be abundantly recompensed by the delight that attends the discharge of them : for they are commonly as comfortable in the doing to those that undertake them , as they are beneficial to those for whose sake they are undertaken . Thus at a cheap rate a man becomes a Benefactor and a blessing to the times and places where he lives , and besides , doth a singular service to God , vindicating his Providence in the inequal distribution of his temporal blessings , and he renders Religion lovely in the Eyes of all the World , and he very effectually consults the comfort of his own Soul , giving proof to himself , that he loves God whom he hath not seen , because he loves his Brother whom he hath seen . 7. Seventhly and lastly , ( and to speak summarily ) it is the duty and the practice of a good Christian by all the means he can devise , to promote the welfare and prosperity of his Parish and Neighbourhood , not only because it is far more comfortable living amongst those who are in a prosperous condition ( as to their outward affairs ) in regard that moderate prosperity sweetens mens spirits and betters their temper , as much as pinching want and necessity , soures and disorders them : but also because generally God is better loved and served by men whose hearts are chearful and easy , than by the querulous and unhappy . In order therefore to the wealth and prosperity of the place where he dwells , the good Christian will in the first place take care to prevent the idleness of the Inhabitants by bringing in some manufacture or other ( if it be possible ) that so all hands may be set on work in some honest way of living ; for Idleness , besides that it makes a very ugly figure , clothing the slothful persons with Rags , it commonly inclines people to be great Eaters , having nothing else to do but to mind their Bellies , and so they become a sort of Caterpillars which devour other mens labours ; it also tempts them by their necessity to pilfer , cheat , lie and steal , and do any base action imaginable ; and moreover such people are generally envious , malicious , busy bodies , medlers in other mens matters , and in a word , being desperate in their fortunes , they are past fear and shame . Whereas on the other side , honest industry , besides that it is attended with the blessing of God , renders people modest , quiet , governable , chearful , good natured , and publick spirited . In the next place , and in pursuance of the same ends , the pious Parishioner will , as far as he is able , prevent tipling and drunkenness amongst his Neighbours , which is well known to be the common cause of want amongst the inferiour sort of People ; for this beastly way they will swill down presently that which might go a great way in the maintenance of their Families , besides , that the custom of it loses their time , softens and relaxes their Nerves , and makes them impatient of labour ; it raises their passions , and abates their discretion , and so disposes them to be quarrelsome with their Families when they come home ; and which is worst of all , renders them proud , insolent and ungovernable . Furthermore , the good man will indeavour ( if it be wanting , and the place be capable of it ) to get a good School setled in the Parish , which besides the great advantage of it , for the education of youth , doth generally inrich the place , and is more beneficial than a manufacture ; for this affords some imployment for those poor that are there already , and makes no more , nor draws other such to the place as manufacture usually doth . And lastly , to all this , a good Neighbour will indeavour to bring all vicious and incorrigible people to shame and punishment , than which nothing conduces more to the honour of Religion , to the peace of the Inhabitants , or the felicity of the place . There are notwithstanding some fond and incogitant people who think this course quite contrary to good Neighbourhood , and look upon those as the best Townsmen that will connive at mens Vices , and let every Body do what they list : but with their leave , as it is the greatest kindness toward such vicious persons , to make use of the provision which the wisdom of Laws hath made for their amendment , so he is the best Christian that discriminates between good and bad men , as well as the best Townsman who will not permit virtue and industry to be discouraged by the impudence and impunity of some lewd persons ; but so much for that . These things which I have now treated of in this Chapter , are a certain kind of lesser Morals , and the peculiar instances of that which I called Civil Piety ; But if the good Christian will ( as he ought ) take care of them , he will do at least a collateral service to Almighty God , by being a Benefactor to the World ; he will render the attendance upon Religion more easy , and make his own passage through the World towards Heaven the more quiet and comfortable , which is the thing aimed at all along in these Papers . THE END . 
A67764	----	Preparation to conversion, or, Faith's harbinger in a rare epistle, writ by a person of quality before his death, to his surviving friends, shewing, that Satan prevails most by deception of our reason, that the beauty of holiness and true wisdom is unseen to the world, that ingrateful persons are as witless as wicked, why most men hear the Gospel year after year, and are never the better, with wholsom instruction, to prevent destruction : all richly fraught with choise and pithy sentences, similitudes, examples, metaphors, rhetorical and pointed expressions, which being thought by many worth the transcribing at no small charge, is now committed to the press / by R. Young ... Younge, Richard. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A67764 of text R39195 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing Y176). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 61 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 9 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A67764 Wing Y176 ESTC R39195 18266110 ocm 18266110 107264 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A67764) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 107264) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1138:27) Preparation to conversion, or, Faith's harbinger in a rare epistle, writ by a person of quality before his death, to his surviving friends, shewing, that Satan prevails most by deception of our reason, that the beauty of holiness and true wisdom is unseen to the world, that ingrateful persons are as witless as wicked, why most men hear the Gospel year after year, and are never the better, with wholsom instruction, to prevent destruction : all richly fraught with choise and pithy sentences, similitudes, examples, metaphors, rhetorical and pointed expressions, which being thought by many worth the transcribing at no small charge, is now committed to the press / by R. Young ... Younge, Richard. 16 p. Printed by Thomas Newcomb, and are to be sold by James Crump ..., London : 1658. Caption title. Imprint from colophon. Imperfect: tightly bound amd stained, with print show-through. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library eng Faith -- Biblical teaching. Calvinism -- England. A67764 R39195 (Wing Y176). civilwar no Preparation to conversion, or, Faith's harbinger in a rare epistle, writ by a person of quality before his death, to his surviving friends, Younge, Richard 1658 10984 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 B The rate of 2 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the B category of texts with fewer than 10 defects per 10,000 words. 2004-12 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-02 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-03 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-03 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Preparation to Conversion ; Or , Faith's Harbinger . In a rare Epistle , writ by a Person of Quality before his death , to his surviving Friends . Shewing , That Satan prevails most by deception of our Reason : That the beauty of Holiness and true Wisdom is unseen to the World : That ingrateful persons are as witless as wicked : Why most men hear the Gospel year after year , and are never the better : With wholsom instruction , to prevent destruction . All richly fraught with choise and pithy Sentences , Similitudes , Examples , Metaphors , Rhetorical and pointed Expressions . Which being thought by many worth the Transcribing at no small charge , is now committed to the Press by R. Young of Roxwel in Essex . Much Respected , IF you ask , Why I take this pains ? Turn to Levit. 19.17 . Heb 3.13 . and you have there both my answer and warrant ; for I do but supply with my pen , what I was bound to perform with my tongue . If for a President ? Take that of Photian ; who , when a Friend of his would have cast himself away , suffered him not , saying , I was made thy Friend to this purpose . And he that loves not such a Friend , hates himself . If , why I have been silent so long ? These are the only reasons : Want of courage , fear to displease ; and left you should think me to have had more Zeal then Wit , and more Religion then Discretion : A case too common ; which makes me fear , that what our Saviour says Mar. 8.38 . Whosoever shall be ashamed of me , &c. will prove a dreadful Text to a great many : For who almost does not make a very Idol of Discretion ; and more fear the censures of men , then the displeasure of God ? Men owe God some good will , but ( like those Rulers , Joh. 12.42 . ) they dare not shew it . They would please him , yet so as they might not displease others , nor themselves : Never considering , that he who bears with his Friends vices , makes them his own . Now in case you shall ( with those Gentiles Rom 10.20 . ) receive more good by it then you desire , admire the providence and free grace of God , who will shew mercy to whom he will shew mercy , Exod. 33 19. Rom. 9.15 . That little which Croesus learnt of Solon , saved his life : And had Pilate taken that fair warning his wife gave him , it might have saved his soul . Nor am I without hope to prevail with some of you ; since Nathan wrought more upon David by one private particular Admonition , then all the Lectures of the Law could do for three quarters of a year together . However it were happy for millions , were they so plainly dealt withall . Wherefore be perswaded to hearken a while unto me , as you would have Christ another day hearken unto you . Which that you may do , I will even refer the point to your selves to determine . As let me propound your case in the person of another , as the disguised Prophet dealt with Ahab , 1 King. 20. v. 39. to 43. Or as Christ dealt with the Priests , Scribes and Elders , Luke 20. v. 1 , to 20. The case is this . 2 ¶ God in great love sent Sampson to deliver the men of Judah from the slavish thraldom of their enemies ; but they in requital binde him ( in whom all their hope of deliverance lay ) and deliver him up to those enemies that kept them under ; to the end they might slay him , and still make slaves of them , Judg. 15. Again after this , God sent unto their successors the Jews , his onely Son ; to the end he might heal their diseases , feed their bodies , inlighten their mindes , and save their souls : And they in requital of all , hate , revile , scourge and crucifie him ; though in killing him , they did their utmost to split or sink the onely ship that could save them . Two rare and remarkable Examples ! Now tell me what you think of these blockish Jews : Were they more wicked , or witless , or ingrateful ? I know you will answer me , You cannot tell ; as the Priests , Scribes and Elders did our Saviour , when the conscience of their own guiltiness had stopt their mouths , Luke 20.1 , to 8. Or if you do make a satisfying answer , it shall be like David's answer to Nathan's parable , wherein he pronounced sentence of death against himself , 2 Sam. 12 1 , to 8. For it is your very Case , if you had but eyes , or the wit to see it . I mean all you , who any way misuse , or are ingrateful to your Ministers ; whom God out of his infinite love hath sent to be your Deliverers from the grievous slavery and thraldom you are in , under Sin , Satan and Hell . I know you think your selves wise men , and Christians good enough ; yea , what but your high thoughts and good opinion of your selves , hath brought you to become scorners of your Teachers and Instructors , and more of their godly instruction ? As proud men are wont to admire their own actions , but to abate the value and derogate from the esteem of others ; every whit as basely to vilifie other mens doings , as they over-highly prise their own , as Julian observes . But consider it rightly , and this alone ( could you be taxed with nothing but this ) not onely shews you to be foolish and frantick , but so ingrateful and wicked withal , as if your wickedness and unthankfulness did strive with Gods goodness for the victory ; as Absalom strove with David , whether the Father should be more kinde to the son , or the son more unkinde to the Father . As what can you alleadge for your selves , or against your Pastors ? Are they any other to you , then those three Messengers-were to Lot , that came to fetch him out of Sodom , that he might not feel the fire and brimstone which followed ? Gen 19. Or then the Angel was to Peter , that opened the iron-gates , loosed his bands , brought him out of prison , and delivered him from the thraldom of his enemies ? Acts 12. 3 ¶ What wrong do they do you ? They beg and dig , they dig and beg ; as that good Vine-dresser did , whose Mattock kept off the Masters Ax , Luke 13.8 , 9. They beat their brains , they spend their spirits , pour out their prayers , plot and contrive all they can to save your precious souls , ( were you but willing to be saved : ) They bring you the glad tidings of salvation ; would furnish and endow you with the spiritual , invaluable , and lasting riches of grace and glory : They are content to waste themselves ( like a candle ) that they may give light unto , and bring others to Heaven , 1 Cor. 9.19 . 2 Cor. 12.15 . And do you , instead of honoring , respecting and rewarding them , hate , traduce and persecute them ? This is not for want of ignorance : For you shew just as much reason in it , as if those blinde , deaf , diseased , possessed , distracted or dead persons spoken of in the Gospel , should have railed upon our Saviour for offering to cure , restore , dispossess , recover and raise them again : And had not they great reason so to do ? For shame think upon it : For did you know and rightly consider , that you cannot be nourished unto eternal life , but by the milk of the Word ; you would rather wish your bodies might be without souls , then your Churches without Preachers : You would not , like so many Mules , suck their milk , and then kick them with your heels . But this most plainly shews , that you are so far from knowing the necessity and worth of the Word of life , that you do not know you have souls ; which makes you as little care for them , as you know them . Otherwise , how could you make such a mighty difference between your bodies and souls ? As had any of you but a leg or an arm putrified and corrupt , you would even give money , and think your selves beholding too , to have them cut off ; Because it is the onely way and means to preserve the whole body . And if so , what love and thanks can be too much , that is exprest to them , who would ( would we give them leave ) pluck our Souls out of Satans clutches , and bring us to eternal life ? Nor can he ever be thankfull to God , who is not thankfull to the instrument or means by whom God does , or would do him good . Yea more , That man ( I dare boldly affirm ) cannot possibly have any interest is Christs blood , who is not forced with Admiration to say , How beautifull are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace , bring glad tidings of good things , and publish salvation ! Rom. 10.15 . Isa. 52.7 . But to prove and cleer this , see both Examples , and Testimonies . 4. ¶ First , Examples . The Galatians are said to have received them as Angels of God , yea , even as Christ Jesus ; and that to pleasure them , they would , if it had been possible , have pluck'd out their own eyes , and have given the same unto them , Gal. 4.14 , 15. and thought it their duty , to communicate unto them in all their goods , Gal. 6.6 . And likewise the Romans , Rom. 15.27 . Yea , by the Apostles testimony , we that are converted do owe even our own selves unto our spiritual Pastors , Phil. 19. and the like of other Churches : Insomuch that Luther ( speaking of the Primitive times , and of Christians in general ) says that so soon as the Gospel took root in mens hearts , the glad tidings of salvation by Christ was so sweet to them , that in comparison thereof riches had no relish . And Acts 2.44 , 45. and 4.34 , 35. do sufficiently confirm the same . And indeed , who ever knew what Conversion and Regeneration was ; who hath tasted of the powers of the world to come , and enjoyed the joy of the Holy Ghost , and that peace of conscience which passeth all understanding ? but would rather have their bodies want food , and the Firmament want light , then that their souls should want that light and spiritual food of the Gospel , by which they are nourished and do live ? For , far better be unborn , then untaught , as Alexander a meer Heathen could say . That this is the one onely thing necessary , and which Believers prize above all , you may see by what holy David says of it , Ps. 27.4 . & 84.1 , to 11. & 119.1403 . One thing have I desired , &c. Oh how sweet is thy word unto me , &c. As turn but to the places , and see how he expresseth himself ; for I may but touch upon things . And the like of wise Solomon , Pro. 8.10 . True , to you that are strangers to , and utterly unacquainted with these soul-ravishing enjoyments , these things will appear impossible ; as the like did to Nicodemus touching Regeneration , Joh. 3.4 . and to that multitude of Jews touching Stephens vision , when he told them how he saw the heavens opened , and Jesus standing at the right hand of God in glory : Which they were so far from believing , that it made their hearts brast for madness , to gnash their teeth , stop their ears , cast him out of the city , and stone him to death , Acts 7.54 , to 60. They could not possibly-believe , that he should see what was hid to every one of them . But this I can assure you , ( even you my friends ) beyond all exceptions ; That if ever the mask of prejudice be taken from before your sight , or if your eyes shall be opened before you drop into Hell , you will have other thoughts of these things , and so of the Publishers of them , and be clean of another minde ; yea , you will loath what you now love , and love what you now loath . Yea , I dare refer my self in this case to the very damned in hell : For what else made Dives , being in those torments , desire Abraham , that one might be sent unto his brethren from the dead , to give them warning , and to acquaint them with his success , but the alteration of his judgment ? And you , know how that Reprobate Balaam wish'd to die the death of the righteous ; though for the present he preferred and loved riches and honor before and above his soul . But , 5 ¶ Secondly , see precepts and testimonies to confirm it . Are we not commanded by the Holy Ghost to have them in singular love , and count them worthy of double honor for their works sake ? 1 Thes. 5.13 . 1 Tim. 5.17 . Yea , the Apostles words are not only , Let them that labour in the word and doctrine be accounted worthy of double honor ; but he adds , He who preacheth the Gospel , should live of the Gospel , 1 Cor. 9.7 , to 15. saying also , Let him that is taught in the word , communicate unto him that teacheth in all his goods , Gal. 6.6 . Yea , if any man ( saith he ) does not communicate , and communicate in all his goods , God is not mocked , v. 7. So it falls , and I fear it falls heavy on many amongst us . Again says the same Apostle , If we have sown unto you spiritual things , is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things ? 1 Cor. 9.11 . Do ye not know , that they which minister about holy things , live of the things of the Temple ? and they which wait at the Altar , are partakers with the Altar , &c. v. 13 , 14. Again , does he not say , that our debt and duty ( he terms it not benevolence ) to our Spiritual Pastors is such , as that we owe unto them even our own selves , Phil. 19. with a great deal more of the like , that he may meet with mens carnal reasonings in this case , which are not a few , 1 Cor. 9. All which is New Testament too , if obstinacy would permit men to take notice of it . Thus you see how you ought to esteem and reward your Ministers ; and how Believers do , and have done . Whereas you , ( as if you were Antipathites to all wisdom and goodness ) hate , revile , slight , rob and persecute them . Are you not ashamed of it ? does it not make you tremble ? yea , is it not enough to make you despair of ever finding mercy at the Throne of Grace , or of having Christ your Redeemer and Advocate ? to whom , and for whose sake you do it , as I shall suddenly shew . But you will say ( for want of acquaintance with the Word of God , and your own hearts ; as every Natural man is as great a stranger to his own heart , as Hazael was , who could not be perswaded by the Prophet that he should commit such abominable wickedness , as a while after it fell out ; ) That you neither hate , nor persecute any one of them . To which I answer : What then makes you so spightful , in spitting out your spleen against them , when you but hear a Minister mentioned ? What makes you so frequent in slighting , scorning , and scoffing at them where ever you come , and in all companies ? What makes you pick so many holes in their coats , finde so many faults with them , raise so many objections ( if not lies ) against them ; that nothing they either do , or deliver , can please you ? As how many of your cavils and exceptions could I reckon up , that I have heard from your own mouths , if I would foul Paper with them ? Yea , I could give you a large List of instances , and in your own expressions : But they are so trivial , barbarous and base , that I am ashamed , to nominate them ; and no less unwilling , lest I should arm other mad men with your weapons . Now do but lay aside dissimulation , and speak the naked truth ; and then say , whether all this proceeds nor from an heart full fraught with enmity and malice against the Ministery , even for the very graces of Gods Spirit that shines in them ? As it fared with that Councel of Priests , Scribes and Elders touching Steven , Acts 6.15 . & 7.54 . Do but examine your Consciences well , and you will not deny it . 6 ¶ Again , what makes you that are so civil in other cases , so uncivil , as not to afford them of all other men the common Title of [ Master such an one ] which you will not deny to a very Cobler ? Can you tell me ? No , I dare challenge the strongest brain'd Achitophel , or the most fluent Tertullus amongst you , to yield a wise reason thereof : except that which God hath set down , Gen. 3 , 15. I will put enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman . But further to convince you , answer me another question : What makes you to detain their dues from them , and not pay them a penny except you be forced to it ? Or if you do for your peace or credit sake , any thing is thought too much for your Minister ; and what you part with , is drawn from you as so much blood from the heart . And then also you will basely asperse him ; at least you will alleadge one thing or other to save your purses ; as , He had not my voice nor consent when he was chosen ; or , I hear at other Churches , and come not at him ; or , I like not his preaching , or the like : As any thing shall serve , to save your silver , and to forestal you with prejudice , and make you resolve against your own Conversion : For what is this , but to pick straws , as it were , to put out your own eyes withal ? Yea , many they be , that will pretend conscience ( forsooth ) that they may rob their Minister ; and alleadge , That he hath taken Degrees , is Ordained , He is a Black-coat : Or rather which is the same in effect , He is a conscientious Pastor , or Sheperd of Christs sending , and not an Intruder . But left what hath been said should not prove sufficient ; how basely will you calumniate him that but takes his Dues , especially of a poor body ? Ministers , more then all the world besides , must take a restern for a shilling . And not he alone shall suffer , but all these Church-men ( say you ) are so covetous , that they never think they have enough : when they have scarce enough to fill the bellies of their own families . All which not onely argues you as brainless as beasts , but proves you to be as full of the serpents enmity , as the egg of a Cockatrice is full of poyson . Thus every , or any thing shall serve their turns , that study quarrels : Even as a crocked stick shall serve to beat a dog , when a straight one cannot be found . Now lay all together , and tell me whether this argues not hatred ? if not , what can ? For love ( as the Apostle witnesseth ) suffereth long , it is kinde , charitable , envieth not , doth not behave it self unseemly , seeketh not her own , is not easily provoked , thinketh no evil , rejoyceth not in iniquity , beareth all things , endureth all things , 1 Cor. 13. Yea , love is so far from finding faults where are none , that ( as wise Solomon hath it ) it covereth or passes over all sins , and will not see them , Prov. 10.12 . So that if you loved the Ministers , as you will pretend you do , you would deal by them , as the people did by Ulysses ; whom they so applauded for the acuteness of an ingenious minde , that they spared to object unto him his bodily deformities ; Or if any one did shew the least malignity towards him , that person was branded for a notorious wicked man , as Homer relates . And to speak rightly , we need say no more of a man , then — He is an Enemy to his faithfull Pastor ; that is enough to brand him : Nor can there be a greater argument of his being of the brood of Cain , Haman , Eliah , Michol , Doeg , Shimei , Ahab , Rabshekah , Tobiah , Sanballar , Pashur , Zedekiah , Elymus , Herodias , and their fellows , then the hatred of good Ministers . For such men would do the same to Christ himself , were he their Minister . There was never any so innocent or vertuous , to whom such Belialists took not exceptions ; because they are as deeply in love with vice , as others are with vertue . Yea , whom all men commend , you have some Thersites will take occasion to blast . I 'll give you an ear-mark to know such a one by : whereas one of the modester fort will alledge , his Minister is a Presbyterian , or an Independent , or a Royalist ; this overgrown Tead will object , that he is a Roundhead ; the meaning whereof is , a Religious , Godly , Conscientious man . 7 ¶ But perhaps this is not your case . Suppose it be not ; yet what I have before convicted you of , is sufficient to prove you a souldier belonging to that great Red Dragon , that fighteth against Michael and his Angels , Rev. 12. Who , when his hands are bound , casteth a flood of reproaches out of his mouth against the Church , and the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God , and have the testimonie of Jesus Christ , v. 15 , 16 , 17. But you are not at all versed in Scripture ; therefore we 'll come to Reason , and therein answer me a few questions . Do you do by the Ministers as you ought , or as you would be done by ? Would you , when you have discharged your duty and conscience to the utmost of your endeavour , have ill constructions made of your best actions and intentions ? be rewarded with the greatest evil , for the greatest good ; and the greatest hatred , for the most superlative love ? ( For , love to the soul , is the very soul of love . ) Is this an evidence that you have them in singular respect for their works sake ? Is this to receive them as an Angel of God , yea , as Christ Jesus ? Is this to make them partakers of all your goods , and to be willing to pluck out your own eyes , and to give them if need were , as God commands , and as the godly have been willing to do ? I think not . Indeed , if you may be your own Judges , you will ( during the time of this your prejudice ) think all but little or nothing . But if the Word of God be consulted with , it will be found persecution in the highest degree : Like that of Ahab and Jesabel to Elias ; or that of Herod and Herodias to John Baptist ; or that of the Jews , Scribes and Pharisees against our Saviour : for they did but express their utmost spight to Gods Messengers that came to save them ; and so do you . And this is a sure rule : He that now under the Gospel shews a spightfull and a malicious minde to a godly zealous Minister ; if he had lived in Christs dayes , he would have been ready to have driven the first nail into his body , and rather have been for Barrabas then Jesus . And God measures what we do , by what we would do , whether in good or evil . Thoughts and Desires , in Gods account , are good and evil works : Neither does he punish or reward any thing but the Will . Again , whereas you think not Tongue-taunts to be persecution ; you shall one day ( if you go on ) hear it pronounced so , in your Bill of Indictment . Ishmael did but flout Isaac , yet S. Paul saith he persecuted him , Gal. 4.29 . God calls the scorning of his servants by no better a name then persecution . Cham did but scoff at Noah , yet that scoff brought his fathers curse upon him , and Gods upon that . Even the serpents hissing betrays his malice . Those two and forty little children ( though but children ) were devoured of wild Bears , for only scoffing at the Prophets bald head , 2 King. 2.24 . A small matter , if Sensualists may be Judge . But whatever you conceive of it , let all , even heart and tongue-persecution be as far from my soul , as my soul from hell . For assuredly , God will one day laugh you to scorn , for laughing his to scorn ; and at last despise you , that have despised him in his Ambassadors . 8 ¶ Again , you think it nothing , or no great matter to detain the Ministers maintenance . But look narrowly into it , and you shall find it to be theft , sacriledge , murder , yea soul-murder , and that in the highest degree : For you rob the Minister of what is as due to him , as any land of inheritance is to the owner . You rob God of his Tythes , offering , &c. which he accounts most abominable ; as you may gather from the many complaints and threatnings which God throughout all the Old Testament utters touching it . For which see only Mal. 3.8 , 9 , 10 , 11. & 1. 7 , 8 , 13 , 14. Hag. 1 & 2 chap. Hereby you make your selves guilty of murder : First of murdering your Pastors body and whole family ; for if all should be of your mindes , they should starve . Secondly of your own , and all the peoples souls , as much as in you lies : For how should your Pastor feed your souls , if you feed not his body ? how should the lamp burn , if you take away the holy oil that should maintain it ? and in case it burn not , there will be but a dark house . Men would have fire kept in the Sanctuary , but allow no fewel ; they would have the lamp burn , but without oil . But how do they serve Christ & themselves , in so serving their Ministers ? To take away the Provante from the Army , is to betray it to the Enemy . And indeed , if you might have your wills , or if others were of your mind & temper , there should be no Preaching at all , no souls saved , all go to hell . For , to expect that Ministers should preach without maintenance , yea good maintenance , ( for to furnish themselves with Books only will cost more then a little ) is as if you should shut a Bird into a cage , give her no meat , and yet bid her sing . It amazes me to think how unreasonable and base most men be : They will bestow more upon their very Hair in a moneth , or upon the Smoke of a needless Indian wanton Weed in a week , then upon God and their sculs in a whole year . And were it not most just with God to take away our faithful Ministers from us , when we so ill intreat them , and so unworthily reward them ? yea , since we love darkness more then light , may not God justly leave us in the dark ? and bring upon us a famine of Preaching , who would bring a famine upon the Preachers , by purloining the maintenance of his Ministers ? It is but just with God to take away the lamp from that Nation , which hath taken away the holy oil that should maintain it . But it is a true observation , Sacrilege is the greatest theft , yet of it men make the least conscience . But lastly , You make your selves not only guilty of persecution , theft , sacrilege , of murdering bodies and souls , of provoking God to send a famine of his Word , and the like , but you become by it guilty of high treason against God , in thus using his Ambassadors , and against Christ and all his members . For besides that all the disgraces and wrongs that are done to Christs Ministers , redound to him ; and he that traduceth , or any way wrongs a Minister for the discharge of his place , his envy strikes at the Image of God in him , as a world of places prove : So the very root or spring of this their spight and enmity against the Ministry , is an inbred enmity and hatred against God himself . As when Satan flew Jobs sons and servants , his malice was against Job ; Or as when Saul darted a spear at Jonathan , his spight was against David . And accordingly , God takes what is done to his messengers , as done to himself ; as in that case of David sending his Ambassadors to the King of Ammon , 2 Sam 10.6 , 7. They have not cast thee away , says God to Samuel , but they have cast me away , that I should not reign over them , 1 Sam. 8.7 . You are gathered together against the Lord ; and what is Aaron , that ye murmure against him ? Numb. 16.11 . and the like Exod. 16.7 , 8. Luke 10.16 . Joh. 15.23 , 24. Joh. 7.7 . He that despiseth you , despiseth me , 1 Sam. 17.45 . Isa. 37.23 . Saul , Saul , why persecutest thou me ? Acts 9. 4. Rev. 16.9.11 . Psal. 89.23 . 9 ¶ Which being so , how does it behove you to look to your selves , and bewail this sin , this horrible and desperate sin ! Was there ever any that was stout against the Lord and prospered , as Job speaks , Job 9.4 . When the Pitcher contends with the Rock , straw with the fire , it is easie to judge who will come by the worst . And certainly , if most men were not both blinde and mad , they would more respect the Ministry : For if I understand any thing of the Word of God , or know what rectified reason is , there is not a sin in the Nation that so hinders the blessings , or pulls down the judgments of God upon us , as does this very sin . And yet it is not more provoking , then it is a common sin . How it will be answered to their Lord and master at the great day , I tremble to think : Can you answer it then with flashes of wit , or carnal reasons , as you do now ? I beseech you look to it . Nor is our love , or hatred to God any way better known , then by our respect to , and usage of his Ambassadors . Lip-love is but lying love . If you love me , keep my commandments , says our Saviour , Job . 14.15 . Wherefore let my counsel be acceptable : Break off your sins by repentance , kick no more against the pricks ; Refrain your selves from these men and let them alone , lest ye be found even fighters against God , Acts 5.38 , 39. Nor will it ever repent you , if you come in Heaven , that you were stopt in this your way to destruction . Yea , let the consideration of what you have already done , make you sink down with shame , and tremble for astonishment to think , that notwithstanding you have been so many years in arms against your Maker and Redeemer , and most spightfully and maliciously persecured his Ambassadors that came to rescue you from the subtlery and slavery of Satan , that bloody devouring Dragon , and vowed enemy of all mankinde : yet God hath no taken the advantage of casting you into Hell , but of his never enough admired mercy hath spared you to this hour ! whereas he might most justly have prevented all , in sending you body and soul into everlasting torments , when you were but a span long . For know this , that we need no more to condemn us , then what we brought into the world with us . Yea , we were condemned , so soon as conceived : And that you and I are not at this present frying in Hell-flames , never to be freed , no reason can be alleadged , but O the depth ! Wherefore take heed in time , and as you tender the good of your own souls , defer not a minute ; but study and bestir your selves how you may make your peace with God . Yea , do it while the yerning bowels , the bleeding wounds , and compassionate arms of Jesus Christ lie open to receive you ▪ whiles ye have health , and life , and means , and time to repent , and make your peace with God . As you tender , I say , the everlasting happiness and welfare of your almost lost and drowned souls : As you expect or hope for grace , or mercy , for joy and comfort , for heaven and salvation , for endless bliss and glory at the last : As you would escape the direfull wrath of God , the bitter doom and sentence of Christ , the never dying sting and worm of conscience , the tormenting and soul-scorching flames of Hell , and everlasting separation from Gods blissfull presence , abjure and utterly renounce this accursed sin . Oh , get an interest in Christ ! For till we become members of his mystical body by regeneration and a lively faith ; we ( even the best of us ) are as Traitors condemned to suffer eternal torments in Hell-fire , being onely reprieved for a time . O bless God all the dayes you live , yea , to eternity , that the gate of mercy yet stands open ! 10 ¶ But withal take hold of the opportunity before the Draw-bridge be taken up , left you never have the like again . Do not dally with God and your own souls ; for if this warning be slighted , never look for the like : For warning ( such a warning ) not taking , is a certain prefage of destruction , Pro. 29.1 . & 1.24 , 25 , 26. The sons of Eli would not hearken unto , nor obey the voice of their Father : why ? because ( saith the Text ) the Lord was determined to destroy them , 1 Sam. 2.25 . I know , saith the Prophet to Amaziah , the Lord hath determined to destroy thee , because thou hast done this , and hast not obeyed my counsel , 2 Chron. 25.16 , 20. Whereas contrarily the Ninevites by hearkning to Jonah ; and those very murtherers of the Lord of life , by listening to Peter , were converted and saved , Acts 2.36 , 37. O take heed of proferring your own carnal reason before the written word of God : And that what is spoken of Babel , may not be verified in you ; We would have cured him , but he would not be cured : lest you be given up to destruction , as she was . What sayes our Saviour ? This is the condemnation ( none like this ) that light is come into the world , and men love darkness rather then light , because their deeds are evil , John 3.19 , 20. Indeed , if you will rather beleeve Satan , or his sollicitor the Flesh , or be led by the perswasions of your own flattering heart , which is deceitfull above all things , and most desperately evil , Jer. 17.9 . No marvel you should be deaf to all hath been said , as thinking your selves already good enough , and then farwel all hope of being better : For the opinion of mens being wise , and good enough , is the sole and onely cause of their being no wiser , nor better . Yea , therefore are millions Christians in name onely , because they think themselves Christians indeed . And who is there in all this Nation , that thinks not himself a Christian ? though they are able to yeild no reason except this ; They are neither Turks nor Jews , nor ( which is worse then either , as they suppose ) Round-heads . A strong argument , I promise you , able to move the gentlest spleen alive to laughter ! for the Devil can make as good a confession of his faith as this . Yet all the reasonings of Carnal men are thus weighty : As let me give you a few instances . 11 ¶ They will say , they love and fear God as they ought : when what he commands , they do the contrary ; are flint unto God , wax to Satan ; have their ears always open to the Temper , shut to their Maker and Redeemer ; when they are Traitors to him , and take up arms against him . A good sign they serve God and Christ , when Satan , the World and the Flesh have more command of them : When they are so far from loving and serving him , that they hate those that do it , and that for their so doing ; and from fearing him , that they more fear the worlds scorns , then his anger . They will in like manner pretend they love Christ that died for them , when they hate all that resemble him in holiness . They are Christians in name , when they will scoff at a Christian in deed , and are enemies to the cross of Christ : Love a form of godliness , but hate the power of it . They will do what God forbids , yet confidently hope to escape what he threatens : will do the Devils works , yet look for Christs wages : Expect that Heaven should meet them at their last hour , when all their life-long they have gallopped in the beaten road towards Hell : Expect to have Christ their Redeemer and Advocate , when their consciences tell them that they seldom remember him but to blaspheme him , and more often name him in their oaths and curses then in their prayers : Will persecute honest and orthodox Christians , and say they mean base and dissembling Hipocrites ; think they do God good service in killing his servants , Joh. 16.2 . as Paul touching Stephen , and the Jews touching Christ : Boast of a strong faith , and yet fall short of the Devils in believing , Jam. 2.19 . These are some of their syllogisms or arguings ; I could even tire your ears with the like . But what doting , blockish and brain-sick Bedlam-Positions are these ? Could rational men ever argue in this manner , had not the God of this world blinded their eys , that the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ should not shine unto them , 2 Cor. 4.3 , 4. 2 Thes. 2.9 , 10. Did not their deceitfull hearts damnably delude them , as in that case of Leah , Gen. 30.18 . and of Saul , 1 Sam. 23.7.21 . and of Micah , Judg. 17.13 . Turn to the places , for they are rare to this purpose . If this be Reason , it is Reason frighted out of its wits : Yet this is every wilfull sinners case , yea of every unregenerate man in some measure : As I 'll but give you one instance more to clear it . You shall have them maintain with incredible impudence , accompanied with invincible ignorance ; That if a man make scruple of small matters , or of those sins or sinfull customs which they allow of , and will not do as they do , That he is over-precise : Though they may as soon finde Paradise in Hell , as any Text in the Bible that makes for loosness , or against circumspect walking . Yea , who would dream that so gross blockishness should find harbor in any reasonable soul , as to think that God should like a man the worse for his being the better , or for having a tender conscience ; or look for less fear , reverence , and obedience from his servants , then we do from our servants ? And yet the same men will grant , that a servant can never be too punctual in his obedience to his masters lawfull commands . But you see the reason ; Natural men are blinde to spiritual objects , as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 1.18.20 . & 2.14 and so no more fit to judge of them , then blinde men are fit to judge of colours . And hence it is , that they have the basest thoughts of the best men , making ill constructions of whatsoever they speak or do ; as the Scribes and Pharisees dealt by our Saviour . Until we are born again , we are like Nicodemus , who knew not what it was to be born again , John 3.4 . Until we become zealous our selves , we are like Festus , who thought zeal madness , Acts 26.24 . Until we be humble our selves , we are like Michal , who mocked David for his humility , and thought him a fool for dancing before the Ark , 2 Sam. 6.16 . For , to carnal-minded men , all Religion seems foolishness , 1 Cor. 1.18 . It faring between the Sensual and Spiritual , as it does between Youth and Age : For as Young men think Old men to be fools , but Old men know the Young to be fools ; so Worldlings think the Religious fools , but the Religious know them to be fools , because they have had the experience of both conditions ; as the old have been young , but the other are utterly unacquainted with what they see and know . Besides , the one make the Word their rule in every thing ; for they live , and believe , and hear , and invocate , and hope , and fear , and love , and worship God in such manner as his Word prescribes : The other do all as the flesh leads them , and according to the customs and rudiments of the world . 12 ¶ Now lay all together , and you will think it no whit strange , that notwithstanding their condition is so miserable , they should yet be so jocund , confident and secure , that they should neither be sensible of their present condition , nor afraid of future Judgment . Security makes worldlings merry ; and therefore are they secure and merry , because they are ignorant . A Dunce ( we know ) seldom makes doubts ; yea , a Fool ( says Solomon ) boasteth and is confident , Pro. 14.16 . Ignorance is a veil or curtain to hide away their sins . Our knowledge , saith one of the Learned , doth but shew us our ignorance : And Wisdom ( says another ) is but one of mans greatest miseries , unless it be as well able to conquer , as to discern . The next thing from being free from miseries , is , not to be sensible of them . Erasmus could spie out a great priviledge in a blockish condition ; Fools ( saith he ) being free from ambition , envy , shame and fear , are neither troubled in conscience , nor macerated with cares . And Beasts , we see , are not ashamed of their deeds . Where is no reason at all , there is no sin ; where no use of reason , no apprehension of sin ; and where no apprehension of sin , there can be no shame . Blinde men never blush ; neither are Worldlings ashamed , or afraid of any thing ; because for want of bringing their lives to the rule of Gods word , they perceive not when they do well , when ill . The Timber not brought to the Rule , may easily appear straight , when yet it is not . Whereas every small sin , to a holy and regenerate man that weigheth his sin by the ballance of the Sanctuary , is very grievous , and disturbeth his conscience exceedingly . Besides , the Regenerate know , that the very end for which they were created and redeemed , was , that they might honour , love and serve their Creator & Redeemer . They remember also , that they bound themselves by vow and promise in their baptism so to do . Whereas these brainless and bruitish men never once consider what they came into the world for , nor what will become of them when they depart hence : Only their care is , that they may eat , drink , play , sleep and be merry : Whereupon they spend their days in mirth , and suddenly they go down into hell , as Job speaks , Job 21.13 . For , like men sleeping in a Boat , they are carried down the stream of this World , until they arrive at their Graves-end Death ; without once waking to bethink themselves whither they are going , to Heaven or Hell . I grant , that in their long sleep they have many pleasant dreams . As for instance : They slumber , and suppose themselves good Christians , true Protestants ; they dream they repent them of their sins , and that they believe in Christ ; they dream they have true grace , that they fear , and love , and serve God as they ought ; they dream they shall go to Heaven and be saved : But the truth is , all their Religion is but a Dream , and so is their assurance of salvation . They have Regeneration in conceit , Repentance and Righteousness in conceit ; they serve God well in conceit , and they shall go to Heaven only in conceit , or in a dream ; and never awake , until they feel themselves in a bed of unquenchable flames . Neither did pure and naked Supposals , ever bring any man to eternal life . 13 ¶ Which being so , and that with the greatest part of the World : How does it concern every one of you to try and examine your selves , whether it fares not so with you ; and to mistrust the worst of your selves , as all wise and sound-hearted Christians do ; as you may see by the Apostles , Matth. 26.22 . even every of them was jealous of himself , and examined his own heart , though but one of them was guilty of that soul sin which Christ spake of . Now if you would examine your selves but by those marks I have already given you , you may easily see whether you are the men guilty of what I have laid to your charge . If you would be further informed , ask your selves only these three questions . Whether you are of that small number , whom Christ hath chosen out of the world ? Whether you are Regenerate ? Whether you have true and saving faith ? For otherwise all your hopes and perswasions are but vain presumptions and delusions . First , Are you of that small number ? For , the greatest number , whether of men , or great men , or great Scholars , go the broad way to destruction ; and but a few of either , the narrow way which leadeth unto life ; as appears by many cleer testimonies and examples ; for which see those known places , Mat. 7.13 , 14. 1 Joh. 5.19 . Rev. 20.8 . Christs flock , that believe the Gospel , are but a little flock , Luk. 12.32 . and but few in number , Isa. 10.22 . & 53.1 . Rom. 9.27 . & 10.16 . Rev. 3.4 . 2 Cor. 4.4 . Mat. 8.34 . & 27.22 . Acts 28.22 . Rev. 13.16 . Yea , of all the CCLXXXVIII several Opinions which Philosophers held touching the Chief good ; never any was 〈…〉 to think the way to attain to it , was by doing as the most do . Yea , they all concluded , that Number was the best note of the worst way . And we even see by experience , that the basest things are ever most plentifull . And therefore it amazes me to think , how men should be so blockish as they are in this particular : for if you mark it , most men walk in the broadway , and yet every man thinks to enter in at the strait gate : which could never be , if they were not fools , or frenzie . Again take notice , that many seekers fall short of heaven , Luke 13.24 . Do you strive ? The righteous shall scarcely be saved ; what then shall become of the unrighteous ? 1 Pet. 4.18 . 14 ¶ Secondly , Are you regenerate and born anew ? For Christs words to Nicodemus ( a knowing , honest , moral man ) are express ; yea , and he bindes it with an oath : Verily , verily I say unto you , except ye be born again ye can in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven . Now if you be regenerate , it will appear by this : Regeneration or new-birth , is a creation of new qualities in the soul , as being by nature onely evil-disposed . In all that are born anew , is a change , both in the Judgement from error to truth , and in the Will from evil to good ; and in the Affections from loving evil , and hating good , to love good , and hate evil ; in the whole man from darkness to light , and from the power of Satan unto God . Is this change wrought in you ? For without it there is no going to heaven , no being saved . Then — Thirdly , Have you a true and lively faith in Jesus Christ ? For there is no coming to Christ but by faith , Heb. 11.6 . By faith we receive the forgiveness of our sins , Luke 7.47 , 50. By faith we are justified , Rom. 3.26 , 28 , 30. Gal. 3.8 . By faith through grace we are saved , Eph. 2.8 , 9. Luk. 18.42 . By faith through the power of God we are kept and preserved to salvation , 1 Pet. 1.5 . Nothing but faith can assure us of Gods favor , Eccles. 9.1.2.3 . By faith we obtain whatsoever we ask , Mat. 21.22 . By faith we are blessed , Gal. 3.14 . By faith we know God , 1 Joh. 4.7 . Psal. 9.10 . Without faith we cannot profit by hearing the Word , Heb. 4.2 . Without faith it is impossible to please God , Heb. 11.6 . Whatsoever is not of faith is sin , be they never so glorious performances , Rom. 14.23 . and 10.14 . Now you shall know whether you have faith , by this : Faith comes by bearing the Word preached , Rom. 10.17 . And the Spirits powerfull working with it , Ioh. 3.3 . 5.8 . Faith purifieth the heart , Act. 15.9 . worketh by love , Gal. 5.6 . and sanctifieth the whole man throughout , Act. 26.18 . Faith is known by its works , Iam. 2.17 . 18.22 . Faith and holiness are as inseparable as life and motion , the sun and light , fire and heat . Again , Faith believeth the threats of the Word , together with the promises ; and thereupon feareth sin , as it fears hell . Again , if the Image of God by faith be repaired in you , you cannot but love them that love God , 1 Ioh. 3.10 . Besides , this is a sure rule : That that perswasion only which follows found humiliation , is Faith ; That which goes before it , is Presumption . And as Ambrose speaks ; No man can repent of sin , but he that beleeves the pardon of sin ; nor none can beleeve his sins are pardoned , except he hath repented . Lastly , how easie a matter soever men think it is to believe ; he that goes about it , shall finde it as hard a work to beleeve the Gospel , as to keep the Law : And onely God must enable to both . Now if upon trial you evidently finde that you are of Christs little flock , that you are regenerate , and that you have this precious grace of Faith wrought in your heart , you may comfortably assure your self that you shall be saved . Otherwise the Devil and your own heart do but delude you , in promising you the least benefit by the blood of Christ : Yea , it had been better for you , that there had been no Christ come into the world : For , even the mercy of God , ( which you have contemned ) and the means of grace , and the offer of salvation , shall but inhance your damnation . Yea , Christ himself that onely Summum bonum , who is a Saviour to all Beleevers , shall be a just Revenger to you , if you go on ; and bid you Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire , &c. Matth. 25.41 . 15 ¶ And so much , for the discharge of my conscience and duty ; and to make a supply of that , which I should have some way performed long since . Yet least I should imitate those , who kindle a fire under greenwood , and leave it so soon as it begins to flame ; ( for I take it for granted , that some of you will lay to heart what hath been said ) I have sent you three Books ( writ by an impartial Author , not a Party ) which I hold exceeding profitable for you to peruse . The one speaking more home and full to this matter . The second shewing how it comes to pass , that so many are deceived , who hope to be saved . The third setting out to the life , the very thoughts , words , and actions of all natural men ; insomuch that no glass can more lively represent your faces , then it does your hearts . Therefore that you may not be disappointed of your end , by mistaking your way ; that you may become as true friends to God , and the Ministry , as you have been bitter enemies ; and so have your part and portion with them at Gods right hand , where are pleasures for evermore : Be perswaded to read them , with as much observation and circumspection , as you would do the Evidences of your Inheritance . Neither count it as a thing indifferent , that may either be done , or dispensed with ; except you are indifferent whether you be saved or damned . Yea , so minde what you read , as if it were an Epistle writ from Heaven , and sent to each of you in particular . Expect not that Christ Jesus himself from Heaven should call to you severally by name , as he did to Saul , and say , Ho Ishmael ! such a one ; or Ho Elymas ! such a one ; why doest thou persecute me ? I am Jesus whom thou persecutest , Acts 9.4 , 5. Which yet , if he should , it were no more in effect then he hath often done ; nor would you be any more warned , or reclaimed by it . As is evident by the example of Hazael , 2 Kings 8.12 , 13 , &c. And by what Abraham told Dives , Luk. 16.31 . If you will not beleeve Moses and the Prophets , Christ and his Apostles in his Word ; neither would he be perswaded , though one should be sent unto you from the damned in hell , or from the glorified spirits in heaven . Wherefore hearken unto Conscience ; and what concerns you , apply it not to others , as the most do . Do not like a Childe , that beholding his own face in a glass , thinks he seeth another childes face , and not his own . Want of Application makes all Means ineffectual . Yea , there are very few men that make not the whole Bible and all the Sermons they hear , yea the checks of their own Consciences , and the motions of Gods Spirit utterly ineffectual , for want of wit and grace to apply the same to themselves . Whereas if they would rightly and ingenuously apply but one Text or two unto their own souls , as they can unto others , ( being better able to discern others moats , then their own beams ) they might be everlastingly happy . 16 ¶ But it is now a just plague upon our so much Formality and Profaneness , under our so much means of Grace ; that because we ( many of us ) have heard the Word , and enjoyed the means for thirty , forty , fifty years together , and are never the better , bring forth no fruits thereof ; that Christ should say unto such , as he did to the fruitless Fig-tree , Mar. 11.13 , 14. Never fruit grow on thee henceforward . And the truth is , if you observe it , you shall very rarely hear of an old Formalist , or Protestant at large , that ever is converted , ( but young ones , as Ministers can sufficiently inform you : ) Perhaps they may turn to be Antinomians , Ranters , Quakers , or the like , and imbrace Error ; but they turn not to the Truth . Or if so , it is a greater miracle then was the creating of the whole world . For , in making such a one a New creature , must be a number of miracles : A blinde man is restored to sight , a deaf man to hearing , a man possest with many devils dispossest ; yea , one not only dead in sin , but buried in the grave of long custom , with a grave-stone laid upon him , raised from the dead ; and in every one , a stone turned into flesh . In all which God meets with nothing but opposition , which in the Creation he met not with . Thus I have been large : But as John could only baptize with water , so I can but teach you with words ; And when God withholds his contemned grace , Paul himself cannot move a soul . If the Holy Ghost shall set it home to your hearts , that you may so meditate on what hath been spoken , and so practise what hath been prescribed ; that God in Christ may be pacified , your sins by free-grace pardoned , and your souls eternally saved : That while you are here , you may enjoy the peace of God which passeth all understanding , Phil. 4.7 . and when you depart hence , you may arrive at the Haven of all happiness in Heaven , where is fulness of joy , and pleasures for evermore ; Blessed and happy are ye , Psal. 16.11 . Which is my prayer and hope , and should be my joy . FINIS . London , Printed by Thomas Newcomb , and are to be sold by James Crump in Little Bartholomews Well-yard , and Henry Cripps in Popes-Alley . 1658. 
A57960	----	Two discourses; viz. A discourse of truth. By the late Reverend Dr. Rust, Lord Bishop of Dromore in the Kingdom of Ireland. The way of happiness and salvation. By Joseph Glanvil, chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty Rust, George, d. 1670. 1677 Approx. 202 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 100 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A57960 Wing R2368 Wing Q836 ESTC R218562 99830144 99830144 34594 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A57960) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 34594) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2018:17) Two discourses; viz. A discourse of truth. By the late Reverend Dr. Rust, Lord Bishop of Dromore in the Kingdom of Ireland. The way of happiness and salvation. By Joseph Glanvil, chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty Rust, George, d. 1670. Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680. Way of happiness and salvation rescued from vulgar errours. [18], 34, [12], 26, 35-138, p. 399, [1] p. : ill (metalcut) printed for James Collins, in the Temple-passage from Essex-Street, London : 1677. With an engraved frontispiece. "A discourse of truth." by Dr. Rust has a separate dated title page on pg. [5]. "The way of happiness and salvation.." by Joseph Glanvil has a separate dated title page on pg. [1] (second sequence); text and register are continuous despite pagination; includes imprimatur page and final page of advertisment; published separately as Wing (2nd ed.) Q836. Reproduction of the original at the Bodleian Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith -- Early works to 1800. Salvation -- Early works to 1800. Theology -- Early works to 1800. 2002-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2002-05 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-06 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2002-06 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-07 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Iohn . 14. 6. Jesus saith vnto him , I am the way , and the truth , and the Life , &c TWO DISCOURSES ; VIZ. A DISCOURSE OF TRUTH . By the late Reverend Dr. RVST , Lord Bishop of Dromore in the Kingdom of Ireland . The Way of HAPPINESS And SALVATION . By Joseph Glanvil , Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty . LONDON , Printed for James Collins , in the Temple-passage from Essex-Street . 1677. A DISCOURSE OF TRUTH . By the late Reverend Dr. RVST , Lord Bishop of Dromore in the Kingdom of Ireland . Together with a LETTER , giving an Account of the Author and the Book : Written by JOS. GLANVIL , Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty . LONDON , Printed for James Collins , in the New Temple-passage from Essex-street , 1677. A LETTER Concerning the Subject and the Author . SIR , I Have now perused , and returned the Manuscript you sent me ; it had contracted many and great Errours in the Transcription , which I have corrected : I was enabled to do it by a written Copy of the same Discourse which I have had divers years in my Hands . The Subject is of great and weighty importance , and the Acknowledgment of the Truths here asserted and made good , will lay a Foundation for right conceptions in the Doctrines that concern the Decrees of God , For the first Errour , which is the ground of the rest , is , That things are good and just , because God Wills them so to be ; and if that be granted , we are disabled from using the arguments taken from natural Notions , and the Attributes and Perfections of the Divine Nature , against the Blackest and most Blasphemous Opinions that ever were entertained concerning Gods proceedings with the Sons of Men. If there be no settled Good and Evil , Immutable and Independent on any Will or understanding , then God may have made his reasonable Creatures on purpose to damn them for ever . He may have absolutely decreed that they should sin , that he may damn them justly ; He may most solemnly and earnestly prohibit Sin by his Laws , and declare great displeasure against it ; and yet by his ineluctable Decrees Force men to all the sin that is committed in the World : He may vehemently protest his unfeigned desire of their Life and Happiness , and at the same time , secretly resolve their Eternal Destruction ; He may make it his Glory and Pleasure to triumph eternally in the torments of poor Worms , which himself hath by his unalterable and irresistible Will made miserable ; yea ( as the discourse instanceth ) he may after his Decrees concerning the Salvation of the Elect , after the death of his Son for them , and the mission of his Spirit to them , and after all the promises he hath made to assure them ; thrust them also at last into the dreadful Regions of Death and Woe ; I say if there be no immutable respects in things , but Just and Vnjust , Honourable and Dishonourable , Good and Cruel , Faithful and Deceitful , are respects made by meer arbitrarious will , it will be in vain to dispute from Them against any such dismal Opinions : yea it will be great folly to argue for the Simplicity of the Divine Nature against the vile conceits of the old Anthropomorphites , and the Blasphemies of the present Muggletonians , of God's having a Corporal shape , Parts and Members , if there be no necessary Independent Connexion , Immensity , Spirituality and Perfection ; but this being establish'd , that there are immutable respects in things , and that such and such are Perfections , and their contrary Defects and imperfections , hence it will follow , that it is impossible the forementioned Doctrines can be true concerning God , who cannot lye , cannot deny himself : viz. He being Absolute and Infinite Perfection , cannot act any thing that is Evil or imperfect ; But all the expressions in Scripture , that at first sight look towards such a sense , must be interpreted by the general Analogy and course of them , which declares his Infinite , Immutable Excellencies ; and these Notions of himself , which he hath written on the Souls of Men. So that the Subject of this little Discourse , is of vast Moment , and the truth asserted in it , is , I think confirmed with an irresistable Strength and force of Reasoning ; and not to be convinced by it , will argue either great weakness of Vnderstanding , in not perceiving consequences that are so close and plain , or great obstinacy of Will , in being shut up by prejudices , and preconceiv'd Opinions against Light that is so clear and manifest . The Author was a Person with whom I had the Honour and Happiness of a very particular acquaintance ; a man he was of a clear Mind , a deep Judgment and searching Wit : greatly learned in all the best sorts of Knowledge , old and new , a thoughtful and diligent Enquirer , of a free Vnderstanding , and vast Capacity , join'd with singular Modesty , and unusual Sweetness of Temper , which made him the Darling of all that knew him : He was a Person of great Piety and Generosity ; a hearty Lover of God and Men : An excellent Preacher , a wise Governour , a profound Philosopher , a quick , forcible , and close Reasoner , and above all , a true and exemplary Christian. In short , he was one who had all the Qualifications of a Primitive Bishop , and of an extraordinary Man-This I say not out of kindness to my Friend , but out of Justice to a Person of whom no Commendation can be extravagant . He was bred in Cambridge , and Fellow of Christ's Colledge , where he lived in great Esteem and Reputation for his eminent Learning and Vertues ; he was one of the first that overcame the prejudices of the Education of the late unhappy Times , in that Vniversity , and was very Instrumental to enlarge others . He had too great a Soul for the trifles of that Age , and saw early the nakedness of Phrases and Phancyes ; He out-grew the pretended Orthodoxy of those days , and addicted himself to the Primitive Learning and Theology , in which he even then became a great Master . After the return of the Government , the excellent Bishop Taylor , foreseeing the vacancy in the Deanery of Connor , sent to Cambridge for some Learned and Ingenious Man , who might be fit for that Dignity : The motion was made to Dr. Rust , which corresponding with the great Inclination he had to be conversant with that incomparable Person : He gladly accepted of it , and hastn'd into Ireland , where he landed at Dublin about August 1661. He was received with much Respect and Kindness by that great and good Bishop , who knew how to value such Jewels ; and preferr'd to the Deanery as soon as it was void , which was shortly after . He continued in that Preferment during the Bishops Life , always dearly lov'd , and even admir'd by him . At his Death ( that sad stroke to all the Lovers of Religion and Learning ) he was chosen for the last solemn Office to his deceased Father and Friend ; and he preach't such a Funeral Sermon as became that extraordinary Person and himself . It hath been since published , and I suppose you may have seen it , upon the lamented Death of Bishop Taylor , which hapned August 13 th 1677. The Bishopricks were divided : Dr. Boyle Dean of Cork , was nominated Bishop of Downe and Connor ; and Dr. Rust Dean of Connor Bishop of Dromore ; he lived in the Deanery about six years , in the Bishoprick but three ; for in December 1670 he dyed of a Fever ( in the prime of his years ) to the unspeakable grief of all that knew his Worth , and especially of such of them as had been blest by his Friendship , and most sweet and indearing Conversation : He was buried in the Quire of his own Cathedral Church of Dromore , in a Vault made for his Predecessour Bishop Taylor , whose sacred Dust is deposited also there : and what Dormitory hath two such Tenants ? This is the best account I can give you of the Work and the Author : and by it you may perceive his Memory deserves to live , and this Product of him : but there is so much reverence due to the Manes of so venerable a Person , that nothing should be hastily published under his honour'd name : I know , had he designed this Exercitation for the Publick , he would have made it much more compleat and exact than we now have it : But as it is , the Discourse is weighty , and substantial , and may be of great use . As it goes about now in written Copiesit is , ( I perceive ) exceedingly depraved , and in danger of being still worse abused ; the Publication would preserve it from further corruptions . However I dare not advise any thing in it , but this , that you take the judgment of that Reverend Doctor you mention ( the deceased Authors Friend and mine , ) and act according as he shall direct . I am , Your real Friend Jos. Glanvil . A DISCOURSE OF TRUTH . TRUTH is of aequivocal signification , and therefore cannot be defined before it be distinguish't . It is two fold ; Truth in things , which you may call Truth in the Object : and Truth in the Vnderstanding , which is Truth in the Subject . By the first I mean nothing else but that Things necessarily are what they are : By the second that there are mutual respects and relations of Things one unto another . Now that Things are what they are , and that there are mutual Respects and Relations Eternal , and Immutable , and in order of Nature antecedent to any Understanding either created or uncreated , is a thing very plain and evident ; for it 's clearer than the Meridian Light , that such Propositions as these , Homo est animal rationale , Triangulum est quod habet tres angulos , are not arbitrarious dependancies upon the Will , Decree , or Understanding of God , but are Necessary and Eternal Truths ; and wherein 't is as impossible to divide the Subject , and what is spoken of it , as it is for a thing not to be what it is , which is no less than a Contradiction ; and as indispensible are the mutual respects and relations of things both in Speculatives and Morals . For can it be imagin'd that every . Argument can be made a proportioned Medium to prove every Conclusion , that Any thing may be a suitable means to Any end ? that any object may be conformable to any Faculty ? Can Omnipotence it self make these Propositions that twice two are four , or that Parallels cannot intersect , clear and convincing Arguments to prove these grand Truths , That Christ came into the World to dye for Sinners , and is now exalted as a Prince and a Saviour at the Right Hand of God ? Is it possible that there should be such a kind of Geometry , wherein any problems should be demonstrated by any Principles ; quidlibet ex quodlibet ; as that a Quadrangle is that which is comprehended of four right Lines : Therefore the three Angles of a Triangle are equal to two right ones ? Can the infinite Wisdom it self make the damning of all the Innocent & the unspotted Angels in Heaven a proportionate means to declare and manifest the unmeasureableness of his Grace and Love , and goodness towards them ? Can Lying , Swearing , Envy , Malice , nay hatred of God and goodness it self , be made the most acceptable Service of God , and the readiest way to a mans Happiness ? And yet all these must be true , and infinitely more such contradictions than we can possibly imagine , if the mutual respects and relations of things be not Eternal and Indispenfible : which that they are , I shall endeavour to prove ; and in order to it First , we must premise that Divine Vnderstanding cannot be the Fountain of the Truth of things ; nor the Foundation of the references of one to another . For it is against the Nature of all Understanding , to make its Objects ; it is the nature of Understanding , ut moveatur , illuminetur , formetur : &c. Of its Object , ut moveat , illuminet , formet : Intellectus in actu primo hath its self unto its object , as the Eye unto the Sun ; it is irradiated , inlightned and actuated by it : And Intellectus in actu secundo , hath its self unto its objects , as the Image to that it represents ; and the perfection of Understanding consists in being actuated by , and in an adaequate Conformity to its object , according to the nature of all Idea's , Images or Representations of things . The Sum is this , No Idea's or Representations are the things they represent ; all Understanding is such ; therefore no Understanding doth make the Natures , Respects and Relations of its Objects . It remains then , that absolute , arbitrarious and independent Will must be the Fountain of all Truth ; and must determine the References and Dependencies of things : which assertion would in the First place destroy the Nature of God , and rob him of all his Attributes . For then it 's impossible that there should be such a thing as Divine Wisdom and Knowledge , which is nothing else but an apprehension of common notions , and the natures and mutual respects and relations of things . For if the Nature of God be such , that his arbitrarious imagination that such and such things have such and such natures and Dependencies , doth make those things to have those Natures or Dependencies , he may as easily Unimagine that Imagination ; and then they that before had a mutual Harmony , Sympathy and Agreement with one another , shall now stand at as great a distance and opposition . And thus the Divine Understanding will be a mere Protaean Chymaera , a Casual Conflux of intellectual Atomes : Contradictions are true , if God understands them so , and then the foundation of all Knowledge is taken away , and God may as truly be said to know nothing as every thing ; nay , any Angel or Man may as truly be said to know all things , as God himself ; for then every thing will be alike certain , and every apprehension equally conformable to Truth . These are infallible consequences , and a thousand more as absurd as these , if contradictory Propositions may be both true : and whether they be so or no , it 's a meer casual Dependance upon the Arbitrarious pleasure of God , if there be not a necessary immutability and eternal opposition betwixt the being and the not being of the same thing , at the same time and in the same respect . Likewise all those Truths we call Common Notions , ( the Systeme and Comprehensions of which , is the very Essence of Divine Wisdom ; as the conclusions issuing from them , not by any operose deduction , but a clear intuitive light , are the very Nature of Divine Knowledge , if we distinguish those two Attributes in God ) I say , all these propositions of immediate and indemonstrable Truth , if these be only so , because so understood by God , and so understood by God because he pleased so to have them , and not because there is an indispensible relation of Harmony and Proportion betwixt the Terms themselves ; then it is a thing meerly casual , and at the pleasure of God to change his former apprehensions , and Idea's of those Truths , & to make their contradictories as Evident , Radical and Fundamental as themselves but even now were ; and so Divine Wisdom and Knowledge will be a various , fickle and mutable thing , a meer tumult & confusion : all these consequences infallibly flow from this certain Principle , that upon a changeable and uncertain Cause , Effects must needs have a changeable and uncertain Dependance . And there is nothing imaginable in it self more changeable and uncertain than Will not regulated by the dictates of Reason and Understanding . If any deny these Consequences and Deductions , because they suppose that God is mutable and changeable ; I answer , by bringing this as another absurdity , that if there be no indispensable and eternal respects of things , it will rob God of his Immutability , and unchangeableness : for if there be no necessary dependence betwixt Vnchangeableness and Perfection , what should hinder , but that if God please to think it so , it will be his perfection to be changeable ; and if Will , as such , be the only principle of his Actions , it is infallibly his Perfection to be so . For 't is the perfection of every Being to act according to the principle of its Nature , and it is the nature of an arbitrarious Principle to act or not , to do or undo upon no account but its own will and pleasure ; to be determined , and tied up , either by it self , or from abroad , is violent and contranatural . And therefore from this Principle , that absolute and soveraign Will is the Spring and Fountain of all Gods Actions , It was rightly inferr'd by a late Pamphliteer , that God will one day damn all Mankind , Good and Bad , Believers and Unbelievers , notwithstanding all his Promises , Pretensions or Engagements to the contrary ; because this damning all mankind in despight of his Faithfulness , Justice , Mercy and Goodness will be the greatest advancement of his Soveraignty , Will and Prerogative imaginable . His words are , God hath stored up Destruction both for the Perfect and the Wicked , and this does wonderfully set forth his Soveraignty ; his exercising whereof is so perfect , that when he hath tied himself up fast as may be , by never so many promises , yet it should still have its scope , and be able to do what it will , when it will , as it will : here you have this principle improved to the height . And however you may look upon this Author as some new Light , or Ignis fatuus of the times , yet I assure you in some pieces by him set forth , he is very sober and rational . In the next place , to deny the mutual respects and rationes rerum to be immutable and indispensible , will spoil God of that universal rectitude which is the greatest Perfection of his Nature : for then Justice , Faithfulness , Mercy , Godness &c. will be but contingent and arbitrarious Issues of the Divine Will. This is a clear and undeniable Consequence , for if you say these be indispensible perfections in God , for instance , if Justice be so , then there is an eternal relation of Right and Equity betwixt every Being and the giving of it , that which is its propriety ; if Faithfulness , then there is an indispensible agreement betwixt a promise , and the performance of it ; if Mercy , then there is an immutable and unalterable suitableness and harmony between an indigent Creature , and pity and commiseration ; if Goodness , then there is an everlasting Proportion and Symmetry between fulness and its overflowing and dispreading of it self , which is the thing denyed : for to say they are indispensibly so , because God understands them so , seems to me extream incogitancy ; for that is against the nature of all understanding , which is but the Idea and Representation of things , and is then a true and perfect Image , when it is exactly conformed to its object : and therefore , if things have not mutual respects and Relations eternal and indispensible , then all those perfections do solely and purely depend upon absolute and independent Will , as Will ; And consequently , it was and is indifferent in it self that the contrary to these , as , Injustice , Vnfaithfulness , Cruelty , Malice , Hatred , Spite , Revenge , Fury ; and whatever goes to the constitution of Hell it self should have been made the top and highest perfections of the divine Nature : which is such Blasphemy as cannot well be named without horror and trembling , for instead of being a God , such a nature as this is , joyned with omnipotency would be a worse Devil than any is in Hell. And yet this is a necessary and infallible consequence from the denial of these mutual respects and relations of things unto one another , to be eternal and unchangeable . And as by the denial of these , the Nature of God is wholly destroyed , so in the second place , the mind of Man would have no certainty of Knowledge , or assurance of Happiness . He can never come to Know there is a God , and consequently not the Will and Mind of God , which if there be no intrinsecal and indispensible respects and relations of things , must be the ground and foundation of all Knowledge : for what means or arguments should we use to find out , or prove a Divine Nature ? It were folly and madness to sit down and consider the admirable contrivement and artifice of this great Fabrick of the Universe ; how that all natural things seem to act for some end , though themselves take no Cognizance of it : How the Sun by its motion and situation , or ( which is all one ) by being a Centre , of the Earths Motion , provides Light and Heat , and Life for this inferiour World , how living Creatures bring forth a most apt composure and structure of parts and members , and with that a being endued with admirable Faculties , and yet themselves have no insight into , nor consultation about this incomparable Workmanship ; how they are furnished with Powers and Inclinations for the preservation of this Body when it is once brought into the World ; how without praevious deliberation they naturally take in that Food which without their intention or animadversion is concocted in their Ventricle , turned into Chyle , that Chyle into Blood , that Blood diffused through the Veins and Arteries , and therewith the several Members nourished , and decayes of strength repaired ; I say , the gathering from all these ( which one would think were a very natural Consequence ) that there is a wise Principle which directs all these Beings unknown to you , in their several motions , to their several ends , ( supposing the dependance and relations of things to be contingent and arbitrarious ) were a piece of folly and incogitancy ; for how can the Order of those things speak a wise and understanding Being , which have no relation or respect unto one another , but their whole agreement , suitableness and proportion is a meer casual Issue of absolute and independent Will ? If any thing may be the cause of any effect , and a proportionate mean to any end , who can infer infinite Wisdom from the dependence of things and their relations unto one another ? for we are to know that there is a God , and the Will of that God before we can know the mutual Harmony , or Disproportion of things ; and yet , if we do not know these principal respects that things have among themselves , it is impossible we should ever come to the knowledge of a God : for these are the only arguments that any Logick in the World can make use of to prove any conclusion : But suppose we should come to know that there is a God , which , as I have demonstrated , denying the necessary and immutable truth of common Notions , and the indispensible and eternal relations of things is altogether impossible . However , let it be supposed ; yet how shall we know that these common Notions , and principles of natural instinct , which are the foundation of all Discourse and Argumentation , are certain and infallible Truths ; and that our Senses , ( which with these former Principles , we suppose this Divine Nature to have given us to converse with this outward world ) were not on purpose bestowed upon us , to befool , delude and cheat us ; if we be not first assured of the Veracity of God ? and how can we be assured of that , if we know not that Veracity is a perfection ; and how shall we know it is so , unless there be an intrinsecal relation betwixt Veracity and perfection ? for if it be an arbitrarious respect depending upon the Will of God , there is no way possible left whereby we should come to know that it is in God at all ; And therefore we have fully as much reason to believe that all our common Notions and Principles of natural instinct , whereupon we ground all our reasonings and discourse , are meer Chymera's to delude and abuse our faculties ; and all those Idea's Phantasms and Apprehensions of our external senses , we imagine are occasioned in us by the presence of outward objects , are meer Spectrums and Gulleries , wherewith poor mortals are befooled and cheated ; as that they are given us by the first Goodness & Truth to lead us into the Knowledge of himself and Nature . This is a clear and evident consequence , and cannot be denyed by any that doth not complain of darkness in the brightest and most Meridian Light. And here you have the foundations laid of the highest Scepticism ; for who can say he knows any thing , when he hath no bassion which he can raise any true conclusions ? Thus you see the noble faculties of man , his Mind and Understanding , will be to no end and purpose , but for a Rack and Torture ; for what greater unhappiness or torment can there be imagined , than to have Faculties , whose Accomplishment and Perfection consists in a due conformation unto their objects , and yet to have no objects unto which they may be conformed ; To have a Soul unmeasurably breathing after the embraces of Truth and Goodness , and after a search and enquiry after one and the other , and to find at last they are but aiery empty and uncertain Notions , depending upon the arbitratious determinations of boundless and independent Will ; which determinations she sees it beyond her reach ever to come to any knowledge of ? Here you have likewise the true Foundations of that we call Rantism , for if there be no distinction 'twixt Truth and Falshood , Good and Evil , in the nature of the things themselves , and we never can be assured what is the mind and pleasure of the supream and absolute Will ( because Veracity is not intrinsecally and ex natura rei , a Perfection , but only an Arbitrarious , if any Attribute in the Deity ) then it infallibly follows , that it is all one what I do , or how I live ; and I have as much reason to believe that I am as pleasing unto God , when I give up my self unto all Filthiness , Uncleanness and Sin ; when I swell with Pride , Envy , Hatred and Malice &c. as when I endeavour with all my Might and Strength to purge and purifie my Soul from all pollution and defilement both of Flesh and Spirit ; and when I pursue the mortification of all my carnal Lusts and Inclinations : And I have fully as much ground and assurance , that the one is the ready Way to Happiness as the other . And this is another branch of this second Absurdity , from the deniall of the intrinsecal and eternal respects and relations of things , that a man would not have any assurance of future Happiness ; for though it be true indeed , or at least we fancy to our selves that God hath sent Jesus Christ into the world , & by him hath made very large and ample promises , that whosoever believes in him and conforms his life unto his Precepts , shall be made heir of the same Inheritance and Glory which Christ is now possessed of and invested with in the Kingdom of his Father , yet what ground have we to believe that God does not intend onely to play with and abuse our Faculties , and in conclusion to damn all those that believe and live as is above expressed ; and to take them only into the Injoyments of Heaven and Happiness , who have been the great Opposers of the Truth , and Gospel , and Life and Nature of Jesus Christ in the world : for if there be no eternal and indispensible Relation of Things , then there 's no intrinsecal Evil in Deceiving and Falsifying , in the damning the Good , or saving obstinate and contumacious Sinners ( whilst such ) notwithstanding any promises or threatnings to the contrary : and if the things be in themselves indifferent , it is an unadvised Confidence to pronounce determinately on either side . Yea further , suppose we should be assured that God is Verax , and that the Scripture doth declare what is his Mind and Pleasure , yet if there be not an intrinsecal opposition betwixt the Being and not being of a thing at the same time , and in the same respect ; then God can make a thing that hath been done , undone ; and that whatever hath been done or spoken either by himself , or Christ , or his Prophets , or Apostles , should never be done , or spoken by him on them ; though He hath come into the world ; yet that He should not be come ; though he hath made these promises , yet that they should not be made ; though God hath given us Faculties , that are capable of the enjoyment of himself , yet that he should not have given them us ; and yet we should have no Being , nor think a thought while we fancy and speak of all these contradictions ; In fine , it were impossible we should know any thing , if the opposition of contradictory terms depend upon the arbitrarious resolves of any Being whatsoever . If any should affirm , that the terms of Common Notions have an eternal and indispensible relation unto one another , and deny it of other truths , he exceedingly betrayes his folly and incogitancy ; for these common Notions and principles are foundations , and radical truths upon which are built all the deductions of reason and Discourse , and with which , so far as they have any truth in them , they are inseparably united . All these consequences are plain and undeniable , and therefore I shall travel no further in the confirmation of them . Against this Discourse will be objected , that it destroys God's Independency and Self-sufficiency ; for if there be truth antecedently to the Divine Understanding ; the Divine Understanding will be a meer passive principle , acted and inlightned by something without it self , as the Eyes , by the Sun , and lesser objects , which the Sun irradiates : And if there be mutual congruities , and dependencies of things in a moral sense , and so , that such and such means have a natural , and intrinsecal tendency , or repugnance to such and such ends , then will God be determined in his actions from something without himself , which is to take away his independency , and Self-sufficiency . The pardoning of Sin to repenting Sinners seems to be a thing very suitable to infinite Goodness and Mercy , if there be any suitableness , or agreement in things antecedently to Gods Will ; therefore in this case will God be moved from abroad and as it were Determined to an act of Grace . This will also undermine and shake many principles and opinions which are look'd upon as Fundamentals , and necessary to be believed : It will unlink and break that chain and method of Gods Decrees , which is generally believed amongst us . God's great plot , and design from all eternity , as it is usually held forth , was to advance his Mercy and Justice in the Salvation of some , and Damnation of others ; We shall only speak of that part of Gods design , the advancement of his Justice in the Damnation of the greatest part of mankind , as being most pertinent for the improving of the strength of the objection against our former Discourse : That I may do this , He decrees to create man , and being created , decrees that man should sin , and because , as some say , man is a meer passive principle , not able , no not in the presence of objects , to reduce himself into action , Or because in the moment of his creation , as others , he was impowered with an indifferency to stand or fall ; Therefore , lest there should be a frustration of God's great design ; he decrees in the next place , infallibly to determine the Will of man unto Sin , that having sinned he might accomplish his Damnation ; and what he had first , & from all eternity in his intentions , the advancement of his Justice . Now if there be such an intrinsecal relation of things , as our former Discourse pretends unto , this design of God will be wholly frustrated . For it may seem clear to every mans understanding that it is not for the Honour and Advancement of Justice to determine the will of man to sin , and then to punish him for that Sin unto which he was so determined ; Whereas if God's Will , as such , be the only Rule & principle of actions , this will be an accommodate means ( if God so please to have it ) unto his design . The Sum is , We have seemed in our former discourse to bind and tye up God , who is an absolute and independent Being , to the petty formalities of Good and Evil ; & to fetter and imprison freedom , and liberty it self , in the fatal and immutable chains , and respects of things . I answer . This objection concerns partly the understanding of God , and partly his Will ; As for the divine understanding , the Case is thus ; There are certain Beings , or natures of things which are Logically possible ; it implyes no contradiction that they should be , although it were supposed , there were no power that could bring them into being ; which natures , or things , supposing they were in being , would have mutual relations of agreement or opposition unto one another , which would be no more distinguished from the things themselves , than Relations are from that which founds them . Now the Divine Understanding is a representation , or Comprehension of all those natures or beings thus logically , and in respect of God absolutely possible , and consequently it must needs be also a comprehension of all these Sympathies , and Antipathies , either in a natural or a moral Way , which they have one unto another : for they , as I said , do necessarily , and immediately flow from the things themselves , as relations do , posito fundamento & termino . Now the Divine understanding doth not at all depend upon these natures , or relations though they be its objects ; for the nature of an object doth not consist in being motivum facultatis , as it is usually with us , whose apprehensions are awakened by their presence ; but its whole nature is sufficiently comprehended in this , that it is terminativum Facultatis ; and this precisely doth not speak any dependency of the faculty upon it , especially in the divine understanding ; where this objective , terminative presence flows from the faecundity of the Divine nature : for the things themselves are so far from having any being antecedently to the Divine understanding ; that had not it been their exemplary pattern , and Idea , they had never been created , and being created they would lye in darkness ; ( I speak of things that have not in them a principle of understanding , not conscious of their own natures , and that beauteous harmony they have among themselves ) were they not irradiated by the Divine understanding , which is as it were an universal Sun that discovers and displayes the natures and respects of things , and does as it were suck them up into its beames . To the second part of the Objection , the strength whereof is , that to tye up God in his actions to the reason of things , destroys his Liberty , Absoluteness , and Independency . I answer , it is no imperfection for God to be determined to Good ; It is no bondage , slavery , or contraction , to be bound up to the eternal Laws of Right and Justice : it is the greatest impotency and weakness in the world to have a power to evil , and there is nothing so diametrically opposite to the very being and nature of God ; Stat pro ratione voluntas , unless it be as a redargution and check to impudent and daring inquirers , is an account no where justifiable . The more any Being partakes of reason and understanding , the worse is the imputation of acting arbitrariously , & pro imperio . We can pardon it in Women and children , as those from whom we do not expect that they should act upon any higher principle , but for a man of reason and understanding , that hath the Laws of goodness and rectitude ( which are as the Laws of the Medes and Persians that cannot be altered ) engraven upon his mind , for Him to cast off these golden reins , and to set up arbitrarious Will for his Rule and Guide , is a piece of intolerable rashness and presumption . This is an infallible rule , that liberty in the power or principle is no where a perfection , where there is not an indifferency in the things or actions about which it is conversant : And therefore it is a piece of our weakness and imbecillity , that we have natures so indetermined to what is good . These things need no proof , indeed cannot well be proved , otherwise than they prove themselves : for they are of immediate truth , and prove themselves , they will , to a pure unprejudiced mind . 2. Our former Discourse doth not infer any dependency of God , upon any thing without himself ; for God is not excited to his actions by any foreign , or extrinsecal motives ; what He does , proceeds from the eternal immutable respects , and relations , or reasons of things , and where are these to be found , but in the Eternal and divine Wisdom ; for what can infinite Wisdom be , but a steady , and immoveable comprehension of all those natures and relations : and therefore God in his actions , does not look abroad , but only consults , ( if I may so speak ) the Idea's of his own mind . What Creatures doe , is but the offering a particular case , for the reducement of a general principle into a particular action ; or the presentment of an occasion for God to act according to the principles of his own nature ; when we say that God pardoneth Sin upon repentance , God is not moved to an act of grace from any thing without himself ; for this is a principle in the Divine Wisdom , that pardon of Sin to repenting sinners , is a thing very suitable to infinite goodness , and this principle is a piece of the Divine nature : therefore when God upon a particular act of repentance puts forth a particular act of grace , It is but as it were a particular instance to the general rule , which is a portion of Divine perfection , when 't is said , to him that hath shall be given , and he shall have abundance , the meaning is , He that walks up unto that light , and improves that strength , that God hath already communicated unto him , shall have more abundant incomes of light and strength from God : It doth not follow that God is moved from without to impart his Grace . For this is a branch of Divine Wisdom ; it is agreeable to the infinite goodness of God , to take notice of , and reward the sincere , though weak endeavours of his Creatures , after him ; so that what is from abroad is but a particular occasion to those divine principles to exert , and put forth themselves . Thus have we spoken concerning the truth of things . It follows that we speak Concerning Truth in the power , or faculty , which we shall dispatch in a few words . Truth in the power , or faculty is nothing else but a conformity of its conceptions or Idea's unto the natures and relations of things , which in God we may call an actual , steady , immoveable , eternal Omniformity , as Plotinus calls the Divine Intellect , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which you have largely described by him . And this the Platonists truly call the intellectual world , for here are the natures of all things pure , and unmix'd , purged from all those dregs , refined from all that Dross and alloy which cleave unto them in their particular instances . All inferiour and sublunary things , not excluding man himself , have their excrescencies , and Defects , Exorbitances , or privations are moulded up in their very frames and constitutions . There is somewhat extraneous heterogeneous and preternatural in all things here below , as they exist amongst us ; but in that other world , like the most purely fined gold , they shine in their native and proper glory . Here is the first goodness , the benigne Parent of the whole creation , with his numerous off-spring : the infinite throng of created Beings : Here is the fountain of eternal Love , with all its streams , and Rivulets : Here is the Sum of uncreated glory , surrounded with all his rayes , and beams : Here are the eternal , and indispensible Laws of right and Justice , the immediate and indemonstrable principles of truth , and goodness : Here are steady and immoveable rules , for all cases and actions , however circumstantiated , from which the Will of God , though never so absolute , and independent from everlasting to everlasting , shall never depart one Tittle . Now all that truth that is in any created Being , is by participation and derivation from this first understanding , and fountain of intellectual light . And that truth in the power or faculty is nothing but the conformity of its conceptions , or Ideas with the natures and relations of things , is cleare and evident in it self , and necessarily follows from what hath been formerly proved concerning the truth of things themselves , antecedently to any understanding , or will ; for things are what they are , and cannot be otherwise without a contradiction , and their mutual respects and dependencies eternal and unchangeable , as hath been already shew'd : so that the conceptions and Ideas of these natures and their relations , can be only so far true as they conform and agree with the things themselves , and the harmony which they have one to another . FINIS . THE WAY OF HAPPINESS And SALVATION Rescued from Vulgar Errours . BY JOSEPH GLANVIL Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty . LONDON , Printed for James Collins , in the Temple-passage from Essex-Street , 1677. Imprimatur , Sam. Parker . April 9th 1670. To the Right Honourable Charles Lord Herbert , Eldest Son to the most Honorable HENRY Lord Marquis of WORCESTER . My Lord , ALthough I have not had the Happiness to see your Lordship since your very tender years , by reason of your distance in Foreign parts ; yet I have heard so much of your great Improvements in Knowledge and Vertue , that I cannot slip this occasion to congratulate your early Fame , and the hopes , or rather Assurance you give of being an extraordinary Person . For that season of Life which so many others pass away in Frolicks , and Riot , and vain Amours ; In Raillery , and the wanton Essays of Buffooning & Versifying Wit , ( which contemptible childishness the youth of the present age seems to value as the highest Perfection ) your Lordship wisely , and worthi'y imploys in gaining those real Acomplishments , which may fit you for Publick Service , in that high Station in which Providence hath set you . My Lord , you are descended from an Ancient Stock of most Noble Progenitors , and are the immediate Son of a Lord and Lady , whose Vertues may inspire all who have the Honour and Happiness to be related to them , with the Noblest Thoughts and Endeavours ; and doubtless a generous Ambition prompts your Lordship to appear worthy the Glories of such Ancestors . Nobility is the mark of the favour of Princes , and when 't is adorn'd with intellectual and moral Excellencies , it hath then the Signatures of God upon it , and the Personal gives Lustre to the Hereditary Greatness . Secular Honours extort outward shews of Respect and Homage ; while the unsuitable Dispositions of such as are painted with misplaced Titles , make them Objects of the real scorn of their pretended Adorers ; But the Nobleness of a wise and Vertuous Spirit commands inward Venerations , and hath a large Empire over the Souls of Men. Knowledge is a Beam of the Coelestial Light , and Vertue a Branch of the Divine Image ; Great Excellencies in themselves , and true Accomplishments of humane Na ure : In both your Lordship hath out-done your few years and given a Pattern to young Noblemen , how to imploy their Youth Honourably and Becommingly , to the Reputation of their Quality , and Families ; and their own Happiness and Glory . But , my Lord , there is a Perfection beyond these , or more properly , 't is the height and perfection of them , and that is Religion : this makes Honourable in both Worlds ; and enters those that are truly possest of it , among the Nobility of God. I doubt not but your Lordship hath taken care to season your Active and Considerate Youth with the Study and Practice of this best Accomplishment : such a Dedication of the first Fruits to our Maker is most just in it self , most acceptable to Him , and will be most comfortable to the Person that makes the Offering . Your Lordship is by the Bounty of Providence incircled with all Circumstances of Earthly Felicity ; Piety and a Religious Life will procure the Divine favour , bless all your Injoyments in this World , and assure infinitely better in another . There dwells our Happiness , and Religion is the way to it . This is the Subject of the little Book with which I here humbly present your Lordship . If it may contribute any thing to your Service , in these highest Concerns , it will be a mighty Pleasure , and Satisfaction to , My Lord , Your Lordships Most humble and most obedient Servant , Jos. Glanvil . The Preface . THis Discourse was first printed about six years ago ; since which time it had the fortune of a stoln Edition in Scotland . The ocasion of its Publication was this , I being desired to preach at a neighbour-City , recollected the last Sermon I had delivered to mine own people , and made use of that : some of the Hearers , that thought themselves fit Judges , misapprehended my meaning in divers things , and past Sentence upon their own mistakes as mine : this induced me to transcribe it out of my memory ; which I did while it was yet fresh in my mind , exactly as to the matter , though possibly with some small difference as to the frame of words , and with some additions at the end : The Copy was accidentally seen by a near Relation , who desired it should be publish'd , which I permitted ; and do it now again at my Bookseller's Instance . Luke 12. 24. Strive to enter in at the strait Gate : For many , I say unto you , shall seek to enter in , and shall not be able . The Way OF HAPPINESS AND SALVATION . WHEN I consider the goodness of God ; and the merits of his Son , our Saviour ; and the Influences of the Holy Spirt ; and all the advantages of the Gospel ; The certainty of its Principles , the reasonableness of its duties , the greatness of its ends , the suitableness of its means , the glory of its Rewards , and the Terrour of its punishments ; I say , when I consider these , and then look upon Man as a reasonable Creature , apprehensive of Duty , and interest , and apt to be moved by hopes and fears ; I cannot but wonder , and be astonisht to think , that notwithstanding all this , the far greater part of men should finally miscarry , and be undone . 'T is possible some such Considerations might be the occasion of the Question propounded to our Saviour in the verse immediately foregoing the Text. — Lord , are there Few that be saved ? God is Love , and all the Creatures are His , and man a noble sort : He is the Lover of Men , and Thou art Redeemer of Men ; and though Man hath offended , yet God is propense to pardon , and in Thee he is reconciled ; He is desirous of our happiness , and Thou art come into the world to offer , and promote it ; and the Holy Ghost is powerful and ready to assist our endeavours ; We were made for happiness , and we seek it ; And — Lord , are there Few that be saved ? The Text is Christ's return to the Question , Strive to enter in at the straight Gate ; for many , I say unto you , will seek to enter , and shall not be able . In which words we have three things . ( I ) An Answer imply'd ; straight is the Gate . ( II ) A duty exprest , strive to enter . ( III ) A Consideration to engage our greater care and deligence in the Duty ; For many will seek to enter , and shall not be able . By the Gate , we may understand the entrance , and all the way of Happiness , and that is , Religion ; By the straightness of it ; the Difficulties we are to encounter . By striving ; earnest and sincere endeavour : By seeking ; an imperfect striving . And from the words thus briefly explain'd , These Propositions offer themselves to onr Consideration . I. There are many and great difficulties in Religion , The Gate is straight . II. The difficulties may be overcome by striving , Strive to enter . III. There is a sort of striving that will not procure an entrance , For many will seek to enter in , and shall not be able . I begin with the First in order , viz. That there are many and great difficulties in Religion ; And to what I have to say about it , I premise this negative Consideration . That , The Difficulties of Religion do not lye in the Vnderstanding . Religion is a plain thing , and easie to be understood . 'T is no deep subtilty , or high-strain'd notion ; 't is no gilded phancy , or elaborate exercise of the brain ; 'T is not plac'd in the clouds of Imagination , nor wrapt up in mystical cloathing ; But 't is obvious and familiar , easie and intelligible ; First preach't by Fishermen and Mechanicks , without pomp of speech , or height of speculation ; addreft to Babes and Plebeian heads ; and intended to govern the wills of the honest , and sincere ; and not to exercise the wits of the notional , and curious . So that we need not mount the wings of the wind to fetch Religion from the stars ; nor go down to the deep to fetch it up from thence ; For 't is with us , and before us , as open as the day , and as familiar as the light . The great Praecepts of the Gospel are cloathed in Sun-beams , and are as visible to the common eye , as to the Eagle upon the highest perch . 'T is no piece of wit or subtilty to be a Christian , nor will it require much study , or learned retirement to understand the Religion we must practise . That which was to be known of God , was manifest to the very Heathen , Rom. 1. 19. The Law is light , saith Solomon , Prov. 6. 13. And 't is not only a single passing glance on the eye ; but 't is put into the heart , and the promise is , that we shall all know him , from the greatest to the least . Our duty is set up in open places , and shone upon by a clear Beam ; 'T was written of old upon the plain Tables of Habakkuk , Hab. 2. 2. So that the running Eye might see and read : And the Religion of the H. Jesus , like himself , came into the world with Rays about its Head. Religion , I say , is clear , and plain , and what is not so , may concern the Theatre , or the Schools ; may entertain mens Wits , and serve the Interests of Disputes ; but 't is nothing to Religion , 't is nothing to the Interest of mens Souls . Religion was once a Mystery , but the Mystery is revealed ; And those things that we yet count Mysteries , are plainly enough discover'd as to their being such as we believe them , though we cannot understand the manner how ; and 't is no part of Religion to enquire into that , but rather It injoyns us meekly to acquiesce in the plain declarations of Faith without bold scrutiny into hidden things . In short I say , the difficulties of Religion are not in the Vnderstanding ; In prompto & Facili est aeternitas , said the Father ; The affairs of eternity depend on things Easy and Familiar . And I premise this to prevent dangerous mistakes . But thoug Religion be so facile and plain a thing to be understood , yet the way to Heaven is no broad , or easie Path ; The Gate is straight enough for all that ; and I now come to shew what are the real difficulties of Religion , and whence they arise . 1. One great Difficulty ariseth from the depravity of our Natures . The Scripture intimates , That we are conceived in sin , Psalm 55. 5. Transgressours from the Womb. Isaiah 48. 8. And Children of Wrath. Ephes. 2. 3. And we find by Experience that we bring vile Inclinations into the Wold with us . Some are naturally Cruel and Injurious ; Proud and Imperious ; Lustful and Revengful ; Others , Covetous and Unjust ; Humoursome and Discontented ; Treacherous and False : And there is scarce an instance of habitual vice , or villany , but some or other are addicted to it by their partieular Make and Natures : I say , their Natures , for certainly it is not true what some affirm , to serve their Opinions , in contradiction to Experience ; That Vices are not in Mens natural Propensions ; but instill'd by corrupt Education , evil Customs and Examples : For we see that those whose Education hath been the same , do yet differ extreamly from each other in their inclinations ; And some , whose Breeding hath been careless and loose , who have seen almost nothing else but Examples of Vice ; and been instructed in little , besides the arts of Vanity and Pleasure ; I say , there are such who notwithstanding these their unhappy circumstances , discover none of those vile Inclinations , and Propensions , that are in others , whose Education hath been very strict and advantageous . This I think is enough to shew that many of our evil habits are from Nature , and not from Custom only . And yet I cannot say that Humane Nature is so debaucht , that every Man is inclin'd to every Evil by it : For there are those , who by their Tempers are averse to some kind of Vices , and naturally disposed to the contrary Vertues ; some by their Constitutions are inclined to hate Cruelty , Covetousness , Lying , Impudence and Injustice , and are by Temper , Merciful , Liberal , Modest , True and Just. There are kinds of Vices which our Natures almost universally rise agaisnt , as many Bestialities , and some horrid Cruelties ; and all men , except Monsters in Humane form , are disposed to some Vertues , such as Love to Children , and Kindness to Friends and Benefactors . All this P must confess and say , because Experien̄ce constrains me ; and I do not know why Systematick Notions should sway more than that . But notwithstanding these last concessions , 't is evident enough that our Natures are much vitiated , and depraved ; and this makes our business in the way of Religion , difficult . For our work is , to cleanse our Natures ; and to destroy those Evil Inclinations ; to crucifie the Old Man ; Rom. 6. 6. and to purge out the old Leven ; 1 Cor. 5. 7. This is Religion , and the Way of Happiness , which must needs be very difficult , and uneasie . For the vices of Inclination are very dear , and grateful to us ; They are our Right Hands , and our Right Eyes , and esteemed as our Selves : So that to cut off , and pluck out these , and to bid defiance to , and wage War against our selves ; to destroy the first born of our Natures , and to lop off our own Limbs ; This cannot but be very Irksom and Displeasant Imployment , and this is one chief business ; and a considerable thing that makes Religion difficult . II. Another Difficulty ariseth from the Influence of the Senses . We are Creatures of sense , and sensible things do most powerfully move us , we are born Children , and live at first the life of Beasts : That Age receives deep Impressions ; and those are made by the senses , whose Interest grows strong , and establisht in us before we come to the use of Reason ; and after we have arrived to the exercise of that , sensible objects still possess our Affections , and sway our Wills , and fill our Imaginations , and influence our Vnderstandings ; so that we love , and hate ; we desire and choose , we fancy , and we discourse according to those Impressions ; and hence it is that we are enamour'd of Trifles , and fly from our Happiness ; and pu●sue Vexation , and embrace Misery ; and imagine Perversely , and reason Childishly : for the influence of the Body and its Senses are the chief Fountains of Sin , and Folly , and Temptation : Upon which accounts it was that the Platonical Philosophers declaim'd so earnestly against the Body , and ascrib'd all Evils and Michief to it ; calling vice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , corpore● Pestes , material Evils , and bodily Plagues . And the Apostle that understood it better , calls Sin by the name of Flesh , Gal. 5. 17. Works of the Flesh , Gal. 5. 19. Law of the Members , Rom. 7. 23. and cries out upon the Body of this Death , Rom 7. 24. And now this is our natural Condition , a state subject to the prevalent influences of Sense , and by this means to Sin and Temptation ; and 't is our Work in Religion , to mortifie the Body , Rom. 8. 13. and to cease from mkaing provision for the Flesh , Rom. 13. 14. and from fulfilling the Lusts thereof , Gal. 5. 14. To render our selves dead to the prevalent life of Sense and Sin , Rom. 6. 8. and 11. 5. and to arise to a new Life , Rom. 6. 4. The Life of Righteousness , and Faith , Hab. 2 4. A Life that hath other Principles , and other Pleasures ; other Objects , and other Ends , and such as neither Eye hath seen , nor Ear heard , nor any of the Senses perceived . Yea , this is a Life that is exercised in contradiction to the Judgments of sense . It s Joy , is Tribulation ; Jam. 1. 2. It s Glory , Reproaches ; 2 Pet. 4. 14. It s Height , is Lowness ; Luke 14. 11. It s Greatness , in being Meanest ; Matth. 20. 27. And its Riches , in having Nothing ; 2 Cor. 6. 10. To such a Life as this , Religion is to raise us ; and it must needs be difficult to make us , who are so much Brutes , to be so much Angels ; us , who seem to live by nothing else but sense , to live by nothing less ; This with a witness is an hard , and uneasie Work , and another difficulty in Religion . III. A Third proceeds from the natural Disorder and Rage of our Passions . Our Corrupt Natures are like the troubled Sea , Isa. 57. 20. And our Passions are the Wa●e of that Ocean ; that tumble and swell , and keep a mighty noise ; they dash against the Rocks , and break one against another ; and our Peace and Happiness is shipwrackt by them . Our Passiions make us miserable . We are sometimes stifled by their Numbers , and confounded by their Disorders , and torn to pieces by their Violence ; mounted to the Clouds by Ambition , and thrown down to the deeep by Despair ; scorcht by the flames of Lust , and overwhelmed by the Waters of unstable Desire ; Passions fight one against another , and all against reason ; they prevail over the Mind , and have usurpt the Government of our Actions , and involve us in continual Guilt and Misery . This is the natural State of Man ; and our work in the way of Religion , is to restrain this Violence , and to rectifie these Disorders , and to reduce those Rebellious Powers under the Empire and Government of the Mind , their Soveraign . And so to regain the Divine Image , which consists much in the order of our Faculties ; and the Subjection of the Brutish , to the reasonable Powers . This , I say , Religion aims at , to raise us to the perfection of our Natures , by mortifying those Members , Col. 3. 5. our unruly Passions and Desires ; and crucifying the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts ; Gal. 5. 24. And thereby to make us humble in Prosperity , quiet in Adversity ; meek under Provocations , steady amidst Temptations , modest in our Desires , temperate in our Injoyments , constant to our Resolutions , and contented in all Conditions . Here is our great Business , and our Work is this : And certainly 't is no easie thing to bring order out of a Chaos , and to speak a Tempest in a Calm ; to resist a Torrnt , and to stop and turn the Tyde ; to subdue a Rebellious Rabble , and to change them from Tyrannical Masters , to Modest and Obedient Servants : These , no doubt , are works of difficulty enough , and these must be our Imployment in the way of Religion ; and on this score also , the Gate is straight . IV. Our Work in Religion is yet more difficult , upon the account of Custom , to which we are subject , and by which we are swayed much . This is vulgarly said to be another Nature , and the Apostle calls it by that name , 1 Cor. 11. 14. Doth not Nature it self teach you , that if a Man have long Hair , it is a shame unto him ? By the word Nature , the best Interpreters say only Custom is meant ; since long Hair is not declared shameful by the Law and Light of Nature , taken in its chief and properest sense : For then it had never been permitted to the Nazarites : But the contrary custom , in the Nations that used it not , made it seem shameful and indecent . There are other places in Scripture and ancient Authors , wherein Nature is put for Custom : But I must not insist on this ; the thing I am about is , that Custom is very powerful ; and as it makes a kind of Nature , so , many times it masters and subdues it . Wild Creatures are hereby made gentle and familiar ; and those that naturally are tame enough ; are made to degenerate into wildness by it . And now besides the original depravities of our Natures , we have contracted many vitious habits by corrupt and evil usages ; which we were drawn into at first by pleasure and vanity in our young & inconsiderate years , while we were led by the directions of sense : These , by frequent acts , grow at last into habits ; which though in their beginning they were tender as a Plant , and easie to have been crusht or blasted , yet time and use hardens them into the firmness of an Oak , that braves the Weather , and can endure the stroak of the Ax and a strong Arm. Now to destroy and root up these obstinate customary evils , is another part of our Work. And Religion reacheth us to put off concerning the Old Conversation , the Old Man , Eph. 4. 22. and to receive new Impressions and Inclinations ; to be renewed in the spirit of our Minds , 5. 23 and to put on the New Man , 5. 24. To make us new Hearts , Ezek. 18. 31. and to walk in newness of Life , Rom. 6. 4. This we are to do , and this we may well suppose to be hard work ; the Scripture compares it to the changing the Skin of the Aethiopian , and the Spots of the Leopard , Jer. 13. 23. and elsewhere . How can they do good , that are accustomed to do evil ? Jer. 13. 23. 'T is hard , no doubt ; and this is another difficulty in Religion . V. The Power that Example hath over us , makes the way of Religion difficult . Example is more prevalent than Precept , for Man is a Creature given much to Imitation , and we are very apt to follow what we see others do , rather than what we ought to do our selves . And now the Apostle hath told us , That the whole World lies in wickedness , 1 Joh. 5. 19. and we sadly find it : we cannot look out of doors , but we see Vanity and Folly , Sensuality and Forgetfulness of God ; Pride and Covetousness , Injustice and Intemperance , and all other kinds of Evils : These we meet with every where , in Publick Companies , and Private Conversations ; in the High Ways , and in the Corners of the Streets . The Sum is , Example is very powerful , and Examples of Vice are always in our Eyes ; we are apt to be reconciled to that which every one doth , and to do like it ; we love the trodden Path , and care not to walk in the Way which is gone in but by a few . This is our Condition , and our work in Religion is , to overcome the strong Biass of corrupt Example ; to strive against the Stream , to learn to be good , though few are so , and not to follow a Multitude to do Evil , Exod. 23. 2. This is our Business ; and this is very Difficult . VI. The last Difficulty I shall mention , ariseth from Worldly Interests and Engagements . We have many Necessities to serve , both in our Persons and our Families . Nature excluded us naked into the World , without Cloathing for Warmth , or Armature for Defence ; and Food is not provided to our Hands , as it is for the Beasts ; nor do our Houses grow for our Habitation , and comfortable abode . Nothing is prepared for our use without our Industry and Endeavours . So that by the Necessity of this State , we are engaged in Worldly Affairs : These , Nature requires us to mind , and Religion permits it ; and nothing can be done without our Care ; and Care would be very troublesome , if there were not some Love to the Objects we exercise our Cares upon : Hence it is , that some Cares about the things of this world , and Love to them is allowed us ; and we are commanded to continue in the Calling wherein God hath set us , 1 Cor. 7. 20. and are warned that we be not slothful in Business , Rom. 12. 11. We may take some delight also in the Creatures that God gives us , and love them in their degree : For the animal Life may have its moderate Gratifications ; God made all things , that they might enjoy their Being . And now , notwithstanding all this , Religion commands us to set our Affections upon things above , Col. 3. 2. not to love the World , 1 Joh. 2. 15. to be careful for nothing , Phil. 4. 6. to take no thought for to morrow , Mat. 6. 34. The meaning of which Expressions is , That we should love God and Heavenly things , in the chief and first place ; and avoid the immoderate Desires of Worldly Love and Cares . This is our Duty : and 't is very difficult : For by reason of the burry of Business , and those Passions that Earthly Engagements excite ; we consider not things as we should , and so , many times perceive not the Bounds of our Permissions , and the Beginnings of our Restraints ; where the allowed Measure ends , and the forbidden Degree commenceth : what is the difference between that Care that is a Duty , and that which is a Sin ; Providence and Carking ; and between that Love of the World which is Necessary and Lawful , and that which is Extravagant and Inordinate ? I say , by reason of the hurry we are in , amidst Business and worldly Delights , we many times perceive not our Bounds , and so slide easily into Earthly-mindedness and anxiety . And it is hard for us , who are engaged so much in the World , and who need it so much , who converse so much with it and about it , and whose time and endeavours are so unavoidably taken up by it ; I say 't is hard for us , in such Circumstances , to be crucified to the World , Gal. 6. 14. and to all inordinate Affections to it : to live above it and to settle our chief Delights and Cares on things at great distance from us , which are unsutable to our corrupt Appetites , and contrary to the most relishing Injoyments of Flesh ; which Sense never saw nor felt , and which the Imagination it self could never grasp . This , no doubt , is hard Exercise , and this must be done in the way of Religion ; and on this Account also , it is very difficult . Thus of the First Proposition , That there are great Difficulties in Religion . I come now to the Second . II. THat those Difficulties may be overcome by striving ; which imports both the Encouragement and the Means ; That they may be vanquisht , and how . ( I. ) That the Difficulties may be subdued , is clearly enough implyed , in the Precept ; we should not have been commanded to strive , if it had been impossible to overcome . God doth not put his Creatures upon fruitless Undertakings : He never requires us to do any thing in order to that , which is not to be attained . Therefore when he was resolved not to be intreated for that stubborn and rebellious Nation . He would not have the Prophet pray for them , Jer. 7. 16. Pray not for this People , for I will not hear thee . He would not be petitioned for that , which he was determined not to grant . He puts not his Creatures upon any vain Expectations and Endeavours ; nor would he have them deceive themselves by fond Dependences . When one made this Profession to our Saviour , Lord , I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest . Christ tells him , that he must expect from him no worldly Honours or Preferments ; no Power or sensual Pleasure , no , not so much as the ordinary Accommodations of Life . The Foxes have Holes , and the Birds of the Ayre have Nests , but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his Head. Luk. 9. 5 , 8. He would not have the man that likely might look for these , upon the opinion of his being the Messias , in the Jewish sense , one that should at last , whatever the meanness of his Condition was at present , appear as a Mighty , and Triumphant temporal Monarch ; I say , our Saviour would not have the Man follow him for that , which he had not to bestow upon him . Since then that he who would not put us upon fruitless labours , hath commanded us to strive to enter ; 't is evident , that an entrance may be procured into the Gate by striving , and that the Difficulties may be overcome . The next thing in my Method is to shew , How ; the manner is implyed in the Text ; and exprest in the Proposition , viz. By striving ; and by this , is meant , a resolute use of those means that are the Instruments of Happiness . They are three , Faith , Prayer , and active Endeavour . ( 1. ) Faith is a chief Instrument , for the overcoming the Difficulties of our way . And Faith in the general , is the belief of a Testimony ; Divine Faith the belief of a Divine Testimony ; and the chief things to be believed , as encouragements and means for a Victory over the Difficulties in Religion , are these ; That God is reconciled to us by his Son ; That he will assist our weak endeavous by the Aids of his Spirit ; That he will reward us if we strive as we ought , with immortal Happiness in a World of endless Glory . By our belief of God's being reconciled , we are secured from those fears , that might discourage our approaches and endeavours , upon the account of his Purity and Justice . By the Faith of his Assistance , all the objections against our striving , that arise from the greatness of the Difficulties , and the disproportionate smalness of our Strength , are answered . And from our believing eternal rewards in another World , we have a mighty motive to engage our utmost diligence , to contest with all difficulties that would keep us from it . What satisfaction is there , saith the believer , in the gratification of my corrupt Inclinations and Senses , in comparison with that , which ariseth from the favour of God , and an Interest in his Son ? What difficulties in my Duty , too great for Divine Aids ? What pains are we to undergo in the narrow and difficult way , that the Glory which is at the end of it , will not compensate ? What is it to deny a base Inclination that will undo me ; in obedience to him that made , and redeemed me ; and to despise the little things of present sense , for the hope of everlasting enjoyments ; Trifting pleasure , for Hallelujabs ? What were it for me to set vigorously upon those Passions that degrade my noble Nature , and make me a slave and a beast , and will make me more vile , and more miserable ; when the Spirit of the most High is at my right hand to assist me ? Why should my noble Faculties , that were designed for glorious ends , be led into infamous practices by base Vsages , and dishonourable Customs ? What is the example of a wicked , sensual , wretched World , to that of the Holy Jesus ; and all the Army of Prophets , Apostles and Martyrs ? What is there in the World , that it should be loved more than God ? and what is the Flesh , that it should have more of our time and care , than the great interests of our Souls ? Such are the Considerations of a mind , that Faith hath awakened ; and by them it is prepared for vigorous striving . So that Faith is the Spring of all ; and necessary to the other two Instruments of our Happiness . Besides which , it is acceptable to God , in it self , and so disposeth us for his gracious helps , by which we are enabled to overcome the Difficulties of our way . While a man considers the Difficulties only , and weighs them against his own strength , let him suppose the Liberty of his Will to be what he pleaseth , yet while 't is under such disadvantages , that will signifie very little ; and he that sees no further , sits down in discouragement ; But when the mind is fortified with the firm belief of Divine help , he attempts then with a noble vigour , which cannot miscarry , if it do not cool and faint . For he that endures to the end , shall be saved , Mat. 24. 13. Thus Faith sets the other Instruments of Happiness on work , and therefore 't is deservedly reckoned as the first ; and 't is that which must always accompany the exercises of Religion , and give them life and motion . ( II. ) Prayer is another means we must use , in order to our overcoming the Difficulties of the way . Our own meer , natural Strength is weakness ; and without supernatural helps those Difficulties are not to be surmounted . Those Aids are necessary , and God is ready to bestow them on us ; For He would have all men to be saved , and to come to the Knowledge of the Truth , 1 Tim. 2. 4. But for these things he will be sought unto . And 't is very just , and fit that we should address our selves to him by Prayer , to acknowledge our own insufficiency and dependence , on him for the mercies we expect ; and thereby to own Him for the giver of every good and perfect gift ; and to instruct our selves how his favours are to be received and used , viz. with Reverence and Thanksgiving : This , 't is highly fit we should do ; and the doing it prepares us for his blessings ; and he fails not to bestow them on those that are prepared by Faith and Prayer ; For he giveth liberally and upbraids not ; And our Prayers are required , not as if they could move his will , which is always graciously inclined to our Happiness ; But as it 's that tribute which we owe our Maker and Benefactor ; and that without which 't is not so fit he shonld bestow his particular favours on us . For it by no means becomes the Divine Majesty , to vouchsafe the specialties of his Grace and Goodness to those , that are not sensible they want them ; and are not humbled to a due apprehension of their weakness and dependence . But for such as are so , and express their humble desires in the Ardours of Holy Prayer , God never denies them the assistances of his Spirit : For if ye being evil ( saith our Saviour ) know how to give good gifts unto your Children , how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to those that ask Him ? Mat. 7. 11. And These Divine Helps obtain'd by Faith and Prayer , and join'd with our active constant endeavour , will not fail to enable us to overcome the Difficulties , and to procure us an entrance at the straight Gate . And so I come to the Third Instrument of our Happiness , which is implyed in striving , viz. ( III. ) Active Endeavour , in which Repentance and the fruits of it are implied ; Both Faith and Prayer are in order to this ; and without it neither can turn to account . For Faith without works is dead , Jam. 2. 20. and Prayer , without endeavour fruitless ; yea indeed , in the Divine Estimate , it is none at all : 'T is bodily exercise ; no Prayer . For when we invoke Gods help , we desire it , that we may use it ; Divine Grace is not a Treasure to lay up by us , but an Instrument to work with ; and when we pray that God would assist us in our endeavours , and endeavour not at all , we mock God , and trifle with him in our Prayers : Endeavour then is necessary , and necessary in a degree so eminent , that this is always included in Faith when 't is taken in the highest and noblest Evangelical sense , viz. for the Faith which justifies and saves ; for that comprehends all those endeavours , and their fruits , whereby we are made happy . We must not expect that God should do all ( exclusively ) in the work of our Salvation . He doth his part , and we must do ours ; ( though we do that , by his help too . ) He that made us without our selves , will not save us without our selves , said the Father . We are commanded to seek , Mat. 7. 7. To Run , 1 Cor. 9. 24. To fight , 1 Tim. 6. 12. To give diligence , 2 Pet. 1. 10. These all import Action and Endeavour . And that endeavour must not be only a faint purpose , or formal service ; but it must be imployed in the highest degree of Care and Diligence . The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence , Mat. 11. 12. and this violence must not be used in an heat , and sudden fit only , that cools and dies , and contents it self with having been warm for a time : But it must be a steady and constant course of activity , a continual striving to overcome the remaining difficulties of the way . We must endeavour vigorously and constantly ; and in that , ( after our Faith is strengthened by deep consideration , and Divine assistance implored by ardent Prayer ) our course is , ( 1. ) To abstain from all the outward actions of Sin , and to perform the external acts of the contrary Vertues . To cease to do evil , Isa. 1. 16. is the first step . When the Publicans askt John the Baptist , Luke 3. 12. what they should do ; His direction was , that they should not exact , vers . 13. and to the Souldiers , asking the same question , he answers , Do Violence to no man , verf. 14. These were the sins of their particular Professions , which were to be quitted , before any thing could be done higher . We have ordinarily more power over our actions , than our habits , and therefore we should begin here , and resolve deeply , by divine help , to cut off those supplies that feed vitious inclinations ; for wicked habits are maintain'd by actions of Wickedness ; when they ceafe , the inclinations grow more faint , and weak : and when we are come but thus far , to have confined our lusts , we shall be encouraged to proceed to destroy them . 'T is said , There is no great distance between a Princes Prison and his Grave ; The saying is most true in the case of Tyrants and Vsurpers ; and the habits of sin are both ; when they are restrain'd , they are not far from being destroyed , if we imploy our endeavours , and the divine aids , as we ought . This then must be done First , and the other part of the advice must be taken with it , viz. we must practise the outward actions of the contrary Vertues . We must do well , when we cease to do evil . When we turn from darkness , it must be to light , Acts 26. 18. Not from one kind of darkness to another . When we cease to opprefs , we must be charitable ; when we leave to tyrannize over our inferiours , we must be kind and helpful to them . When we forbear to slander , we must speak all the good we can of our Neighbour . The outward actions of Vertue are in our power ; and 't is somewhat to come so far as this : What is more , viz. The inward love and delight in goodness , will succeed in time , if we persevere . 'T is not safe for us to propose to our selves the greatest heights at first ; if we do , we are discouraged , and fall back . God accepts even of that little , if it be in order to more . He despiseth not the day of small things , Zech. 4. 10. If thou dost well , shalt thou not be accepted ? Christ loved the young man who had kept the external part of the Commandments , Mark 10. 12. If he had had the courage to have proceeded ; what he had done , would have steaded him much . The inward love of Vertue and Holiness is promoted by the outward exercises of them , and hereby the contrary evils are both pined and thrust out . Thus of the First thing that Endeavour implies ; upon this must follow , ( 2. ) An attempt upon evil habits , viz. Those that have been super-induced on us by Carelesness and Temptation , bad Customs and evil Company . Every victory is a means to another ; we grow stronger , and the enemy weaker by it . To have overcome the outward acts of sin , is a beginning in our spiritual warfare ; but our chief enemies are the habits ; these must be attempted also , but with Prudence ; wild Beasts are not to be dealt with by main strength ; Art and Stratagem must be used in this War ; and 't is good policy , I think here , to fight the least powerful foes first , the contracted habits , before we fall on the inbred natural Inclinations . While our forces are weak , 't is dangerous setting upon the strongest holds , viz. the vices of Complexion , which are woven into our very Natures . If a man apply all his force where he hath not resolution enough to go through with what he undertakes , he receives a foyl , and 't is odds but he sits down and faints . Prudence therefore is to be used , where we distrust our strength : Fall upon Sin , where 't is weakest , where it hath least of Nature , and least of Temptation ; and where we have arguments from Reputation and worldly Interests wherewith to war against it . If we prevail , we are heartned by the success : Our Faith and Resolution will grow stronger by this experience , when we have triumph't over the sins of evil Custom , Example , and sensual Indulgence . And when that is done , we must remember that 't is not enough that those habits are thrust out ; others must be planted in their room : when the soyl is prepared , the seed must be sown , and the seeds of vertuous habits , are the actions of vertue . These I recommended under the last head , and shall say more of the introducing of habits , under one that follows on purpose . ( 3. ) The next advance in our endeavours , is , In the Strength of God , and in the Name of his Son , to assault the greater Devils , and to strive to cast out them ; I mean the Sins of Complexion , and particular Nature . This is a great work , and will require strong Faith , and many Prayers , and much Time , and great Watchfulness , and invincible Resolution : Imploy these heartily ; and though thou now and then mayst receive a foyl , yet give not off so , but rise again in the strength of God , implore new aid , and fortifie thy self with more considerations , and deeper resolves ; and then renew the Combat upon the encouragement of Divine Assistance , and Christ's Merits and Intercession , and the promise that sin shall not have Dominion over us , Rom. 6. 14. Remember , that this is the great work , and the biggest difficulty ; if this be not overcome , all our other labour hath been in vain , and will be lost . If this root remain , it will still bear poysonous fruit , which will be matter for Temptation , and occasion of continual falling ; and we shall be in danger of being reconciled again to our old sins , and to undo all ; and so our latter end will be worse than our beginning , 2 Pet. 2. 20. Or , at least , though we stand at a stay , and satisfie our selves with that ; yet though we are contented , our condition is not safe . If we will endeavour to any purpose of duty , or security , we must proceed still after our lesser conquests , till the sins of Complexion are laid dead at our feet . He that is born of God , sinneth not , and he cannot sin , 1. Joh. 3. 9. Till we come to this , we are but strugling in the Birth . Such a perfection as is mortifying of vitious temper , is I hope attainable , and 't is no doubt that which Religion aims at ; and though it be a difficult height , yet we must not sit down this side : At least we must be always pressing on to this Mark : if Providence cut off our days before we have arrived to it , we may expect acceptance of the sincerity of our endeavours , upon the account of the merits of our Saviour : For he hath procured favour for those sincere . Believers and Endeavoureres , whose Day is done before their work is compleated ; this I mean , of subduing the darling sins of their particular Natures . But then if we rest , and please our selves with the little Victories and Attainments , and let these our great Enemies quietly alone , 't is an argument our endeavours are not sincere , but much short of that striving , which will procure an entrance into the straight Gate . The next thing ( and 't is the last I shall mention ) which is implyed in striving , is , ( 4. ) To furnish our selves , through Divine Grace , with the Habits and Inclinations of Holiness and Vertue . For Goodness to become a kind of Nature to the Soul , is height indeed ; but such a one as may be reacht : the new Nature , and new Creature , Gal. 6. 15. are not meer names . We have observ'd that some men are of a Natural Generosity , Veracity and Sweetness ; and they cannot act contrary to these Native Vertues without a mighty Violence : why now should not the New Nature be as powerful as the Old ? And why may not the Spirit of God , working by an active Faith and Endeavour , fix Habits and Inclinations on the Soul , as prevalent as those ? No doubt , it may , and doth , upon the Diviner Souls : For whom to do a wicked , or unworthy Action , 't would be as violent and unnatural , as for the meek and compassionate temper to butcher the innocent ; or for him , that is naturally just , to oppress and make a prey of the Fatherless and the Widow . I say , such a degree of perfection as this , should be aim'd at , Heb. 6. 1. and we should not slacken or intermit our endeavours till it be attain'd . In order to it , we are to use frequent meditation on the excellency and pleasure of Vertue and Religion ; and earnest Prayer for the Grace of God ; and diligent attendance upon the publick worship ; and pious Company and Converses : For this great design , these helps are requisite , and if we exercise our selves in them as we ought , they will fire our Souls with the love of God and Goodness ; and so at last , all Christian Vertues will become as natural to us , as si● was before . And to one that is so prepared , the Gate of Happiness will be open , and of easie entrance ; the difficulties are overcome , and from henceforth the way is pleasant and plain before him , Prov. 3. 17. Thus I have shewn , that the formidable difficulties may be overcome , and How : 't is a plain course I have directed , that will not puzzle mens understandings with needless niceties , nor distract their memories with multitndes . Let us walk in this way , and do it constantly , with vigour and alacrity ; and there is no fear , but in the Strength of God , through the merits and mediation of his Son , we shall overcome , and at last enter . I had now done with this general Head , but that 't is necessary to note three things more . ( 1. ) Those Instruments of our Happiness which we must use in striving , viz. Faith , Prayer , and active Endeavour , must all of them be imployed . Not any one singly , will do the great work ; nor can the others , if any one be wanting . If we believe , and do not pray ; or pray , and do not endeavour ; or endeavour , without those , the Difficulties will remain , and 't will be impossible for us to enter . ( 2. ) We must be diligent in our course : If we do not exercise Faith vigorously , and pray heartily , and endeavour with our whole might , the means will not succeed ; and 't is as good not at all , as not to purpose . The Difficulties will not be overcome by cold Faith , or sleepy Prayers , or remiss Endeavours : A very intense degree of these is necessary . ( 3. ) Our striving must be constant ; we must not begin , and look back , Heb. 10. 38. or run a while , and stop in midd course , 1 Cor. 9. 24. and content our selves with some attainments , and think we have arrived , Phil. 3. 14. If we do so , we shall find our selves dangerously mistaken . The Crown is at the end of the Warfare , & the Prise at the end of the Race . If we will succeed , we must hold on : The life of one that strives as he ought , must be a continual motion forwards ; always proceeding , always growing . If we strive thus , we cannot fail ; if any of these qualifications be wanting , we cannot but miscarry . And hence no doubt it is , that many that seek to enter , shall not be able , and the presumed sons of the Kingdom are shut out , Mat. 8.12 . They seek , and are very desirous to be admitted ; They do some thing , and strive ; but their striving is partial , or careless , or short ; by reason of which defects , they do not overcome , and shall not enter . This is a dangerous Rock , and perhaps there are as many undone by cold and half striving , as by not striving at all . He that hath done some thing , presumes he is secure ; He goes the round of ordinary Duties , but advanceth nothing in his way ; He overcometh none of the great Difficulties , none of the Habits or depraved Inclinations ; He is contented with other things that make a more glorious shew ; though they signifie less ; and perhaps despiseth these , under the notion of Morality ; and so presuming , that he is a Saint too soon , he never comes to be one at all : such are the Seekers that shall not be able to enter : Their seeking imports some striving ; but 't is such , as , though it be specious , yet it is imperfect , and will not succeed . And hence the Third Proposition ariseth , that I proposed to discourse . ( III. ) THat there is a sort of Striving that will not procure an entrance : implyed in these words , For many will seek to enter in , and shall not be able . 'T is a dangerous thing to be flattered into a false peace ; and to take up with imperfect Godliness ; to reconcile the hopes of Heaven to our beloved sins , and to judge our condition safe upon insufficient grounds . This multitudes do , and 't is the great danger of our days ; Men cannot be contented without doing something in Religion ; but they are contented with a little . And then they reckon themselves godly , before they are vertuous ; and take themselves to be Saints , upon such things as will not distinguish a good man from a bad . We seek after Marks of Godliness , and would be glad to know , how we might try our state : The thing is of great importance ; and if the Signs we judge by are either false , or imperfect , we are deceived to our undoing . Meer Speculative mistakes about Opinions , do no great hurt ; but errour in the Marks and Measures of Religion is deadly . Now there are sundry things commonly taken for signs of Godliness , which though they are something , yet they are not enough ; They are hopeful for beginnings , but nothing worth when they are our end and rest . They are a kind of seeking aud imperfect striving ; but not such as overcometh the difficulties of the way , or will procure us an entrance at the Gàte . Therefore to disable the flattering , insufficient Marks of Godliness , I shall discover in pursuance of the Third Proposition , How far a man may strive in the exercises of Religion , and yet be found at last among those seekers that shall not be able to enter . And though I have intimated something of this in the general before , yet I shall now more particularly shew it in the instances that follow . And in these I shall discover a Religion that may be called Animal , to which the natural man may attain . ( I. ) A Man may believe the Truths of the Gospel , and assent heartily to all the Articles of the Creed : and if he proceeds not , he is no further by this , than the faith of Devils , Jam. 2. 19. ( 2. ) He may go on , and have a great thirst to be more acquainted with Truth ; He may seek it diligently in Scripture , and Sermons , and good Books , and knowing Company ; And yet do this , by the motion of no higher Principle , than an inbred Curiosity , and desire of Knowledg ; and many times this earnestness after Truth , proceeds from a proud effection to wiser than our Neighbours , that we may pity their darkness ; or the itch of a disputing humour , that we may out talk them ; or a design to carry on , or make a party , that we may be called Rabbi , or serve an Interest : and the zeal for Truth that is set on work by such motives , is a spark of that fire that is from beneath : 'T is dangerous to a mans self , and to the publick Weal of the Church and mankind , but the man proceeds , and is , ( 3. ) Very much concern'd to defend and propagate his Faith ; and the Pharisees were so in relation to theirs , Matt. 23. 15. and so have been many Professors of all the Religions that are , or ever were . Men naturally love their own Tenents , and are ambitious to mould others judgments according to theirs . There is glory in being an Instructer of other men ; and turning them to our ways and opinions : So that here is nothing yet above Nature ; nothing but what may be found in many that seek , and are shut out . But , ( 4. ) Faith works greater effects than these , and Men offer themselves to Martyrdom for it ; This , one would think , should be the greatest height , and an argument that all the difficulties of the way , are overcome by one that is so resolved ; and that the Gate cannot but be opened to him . And so , no doubt it is , when all things else are sutable : But otherwise these consequences by no means follow . St. Paul supposeth that a man may give his Body to be burned , and not have Charity , without which his Martyrdom will not profit , 1 Cor. 13. For one to deny his Religion , or what he believes to be certain , and of greatest consequence , is dishonourable and base : and some out of principles of meer natural bravery , will die rather than they will do it ; and yet , upon other accounts be far enough from being heroically vertuous . Besides , the desire of the glory of Martyrdom and Saintship after it , may in some be stronger than the terrours of Death : and we see frequently , that men will sacrifice their lives to their Honour and Reputation ; yea to the most contemptible shadows of it . And there is no passion in us so weak , no lust so impotent , but hath , in many instances , prevail'd over the fear of dying . Every Appetite hath had its Martyrs ; and all Religions theirs ; and though a man give his Body to be burnt for the best , and have not Charity , viz. Prevalent love to God and Men , it will not signifie : So that Martyrdom is no infallible mark , nor will it avail any thing , except sincere endeavour to overcome the greater difficulties , have gone before it . Thus far Faith may go without effect : and yet one step further . ( 5. ) Men may confidently rely upon Christ for Salvation , and be firmly perswaded that he hath justified , and will make them happy . They may appropriate him to themselves , and be pleased mightily in the opinion of his being theirs . And yet notwithstanding this confidence may be in the number of those seekers that shall not enter . For Christ is the Author of Eternal life , only to those that obey him , Heb. 5. 9. and to obey him , is to strive vigorously and constantly , to overcome all our sinful Inclinations and Habits . And those that trust he will save them , though they have never seriously set about this work , deceive themselves by vain presumption , and in effect say , that he will dissolve or dispense with his Laws in their favour . For he requires us to deny our selves , Mar. 8. 34. To mortifie the body , Rom 8. 13. To love enemies , Mat. 5. 44. To be meek , Mat. 11. 29. and patient , Jam. 5. 8. and humble , 1 Pet. 5. 7. and just , Mat. 7. 12. and charitable , Heb. 13. 16. and Holy , as he that called us is holy , 1 Pet. 1. 15. And he hath promised to save upon no other terms ; For all these are included in Faith , when 't is taken in the justifying sense , and this is the Way of Happiness and Salvation : If we walk not in this , but in the paths of our own choosing , our relying upon Christ is a mockery , and will deceive us . We may indeed be confident , and we ought , that he will save all those that so believe as to obey him ; but may not trust that he will save us except we are some of those . To rely upon Christ for our Salvation , must follow our sincere and obedient striving , and not go before it . The mistake of this is exceeding dangerous , and I doubt hath been fatal to many . The sum is to rely on Christ , without a resolute and steady endeavour to overcome every sin and temptation , will gain us nothing in the end but shame and dissappointment : For 't is not every one that faith unto him , Lord , Lord , shall enter into Heaven , but he that doth the will of his Father which is in Heaven . Mat. 7.21 . The foolish Virgins relyed upon him , and expected he should open to them ; Lord , Lord , open to us , Mat. 25. 11. but he kept them out , and would not know them , v. 11. Thus of the First imperfect Mark of Godliness ; A man may upon the account of meer Nature , arrive to all the mentioned degrees of Faith ; and yet if his endeavours in the practice of Christian vertues be not suitable , he will certainly come short at last . ( II. ) A man may be very devout , given much to Prayer , and be very frequent and earnest in it ; He may have the gift of expressing himself fluently , without the help of Form or Meditation : yea , and so intent and taken up in these exercises , that he may as it were be ravish't out of himself by the fervours of his Spirit ; so that he really kindles very high Affections as well in others , as in himself : And yet if he rests in this , and such like things as Religion , and reckons that he is accepted of God for it ; if he allow himself in any unmortified lusts , and thinks to compound for them by his Prayers , he is an evil man notwithstanding , and one of those seekers that shall not be able to enter . The Pharisees , we know , were much given to Prayer : They were long in those Devotions , and very earnest in them often repeating the same expressions out of vehemence . Ignatius Loyola , founder of the Jesuites , was a man almost ecstatical in his Prayers ; and Hacket the Blasphemer , executed in the days of Queen Elizabeth , was a person of Seraphical Devotion , and would pray those that heard him even into transports . Basilides the cruel Duke of Mos●o , is said to have his hands almost continually lifted up in Prayer , except when they were imployed in some barbarous and bloody Execution : And we have known and felt one not much unlike him . There are infinite instances in our days of this dangerous sort of evil men . And we may learn hence , that the greatest gift of Prayer , and earnestness and frequency in it , is no good mark of Godliness , except it be attended with sincere , constant and vertuous endeavours . For some men have a natural spice of Devotion in a Religious Melancholy , which is their temper ; and such have commonly strong Imaginations and zealous affections , which when they are heated , flame forth into great heights and expressions of Devotion : The warm Fancy furnisheth words and matter readily and unexpectedly , which many times begets in the man a conceit that he is inspired , and that his Prayers are the breathings of the Holy Ghost ; or at least , that he is extraordinarily assisted by it ; which belief kindles his affections yet more , and he is carryed beyond himself , even into the third Heavens , and Suburbs of Glory , as he fancies , and so he makes no doubt , but that he is a Saint of the first rank , and special favourite of Heaven ; when all this while , he may be really a bad man full of Envy and Malice ; Pride and Covetousness ; Scorn and ill Nature ; contempt of his Betters , and disobedience to his Governours . And while it is so , notwithstanding those glorious things , he is no further than the Pharisee . Hearty and humble desire , though imperfectly exprest , and without this pomp , and those wonders , is far more acceptable to God , who delights not in the exercises of meer Nature Psal. 147. 10. but is well pleased with the expressions of Grace in those that fear him . So that a sincere and lowly-minded Christian that talks of no immediate incomes , or communications ; and perhaps durst not , out of reverence , trust to his own present conceptions in a work so solemn , but useth the help of some pious form of words sutable to his defires and wants , who is duly sensible of his sins , and the necessity of overcoming them ; and is truly and earnestly desirous of the Divine aids , in order to it : such a one as this Prays by the Spirit , and will be assisted by it ; while the other doth all by meer Nature and Imitation , and shall not have those spiritual aids which he never heartily desires nor intends to use . This , I think , I may truly and safely say : But for the Controversie between Forms and Conceived Prayers , which of them is absolutely best , I determine nothing of it here . And indeed I suppose that in their own nature , they are alike indifferent , and are more or less accepted , as they partake more or less of the Spirit of Prayer , viz. of Faith , Humility and holy desire of the good things we pray for ; and a man may have these that prays by a Form ; and he may want them that takes the other way , and thinks himself in a dispensation much above it . So that my business is not to set up one of these ways of Devotion against the other , but to shew , that the heights and vehemencies of many warm people in their unpremeditated Prayers , have nothing in them supernatural or Divine , and consequently , of themselves , they are no marks of Godliness : which I hope no one thinks I speak to discredit those pious ardours that are felt by really devout Souls , when a vigorous sense of God , and Divine things , doth even sometimes transport them : Far be it from me to design any thing so impious ; my aim is only to note , that there are complexional heats raised many times by fancy and self-admiration , that look like these , in persons who really have little of God in them ; and we should take care that we are not deceived by them . Thus far also those may go that shall not enter . I add , ( III. ) A man may endeavour somewhat , and strive in some degree , and yet his work may miscarry , and himself with it . ( 1. ) There is no doubt , but that an evil man may be convinced of his sin and vileness , and that even to anguish and torment . The Gentiles saith the Apostle , Rom. 2. 14. which have not the Law , shew the works of the Law written in their Hearts , their thoughts in the mean time accusing , or excusing one another . Conscience often stings and disquiets the vilest sinners ; and sometimes extorts from them lamentable confessions of their sins , and earnest declamations against them . They may weep bitterly at their remembrance , and be under great heaviness and dejection upon their occasion . They may speak vehemently against sin themselves , and love to have others to handle it severely . All this bad men may do upon the score of natural fear , and self love , and the apprehension of a fature judgment . And now such convictions will naturally beget some endeavours : A convinced understanding will have some influence upon the will and affections . The mind in the unregenerate , may lust against the Flesh , as that doth against it . So that ( 2. ) such a meer animal man may promise , and purpose , and endeavour in some pretty considerable measure ; but then , he goes not on with full Resolution , but wavers and stops , and turns about again ; and lets the law of the members , that of death and sin , to prevail over him . His endeavour is remiss , and consequently ineffectual ; it makes no conquests , and will not signifie . He sins on , though with some regret ; and his very unwillingness to sin , while he commits it , is so far from lessening , that it aggravates his fault : It argues that he sins against conscience and conviction ; and that sin is strong and reigns . 'T is true indeed , St. Paul , Rom. 7. makes such a description seemingly of himself , as one might think concluded him under this state ; he saith vers . 8. That sin wrought in him all manner of concupiscence : vers . 9. That sin revived , and he died : vers . 14. That he was carnal ; and again ; sold under sin , vers . 20. That sin dwelt in him , and wrought that which he would not : vers . 23. That the Law of his Members led him into captivity to the law of Sin : and vers . 25. That he obeyed the law of sin . If this be so , and St. Paul , a regenerate man , was in this state , it will follow , that seeking and feeble endeavour , that overcometh no difficulty , may yet procure an entrance , and he that is come hitherto , viz. to endeavour ; is safe enough though he do not conquer . This objection presseth not only against this head , but against my whole Discourse , and the Text it self . Therefore to answer it , I say , That the St. Paul here is not to be understood of himself ; He describes the state of a convinced , but unregenerate man , though he speaks in the first person ; a Figure that was ordinary with this Apostle , and frequent enough in common speech : Thus we say , I am thus , and thus , and did so , and so , when we are describing a state , or actions in which perhaps we , in person , are not concerned . In this sense the best Expositors understand these expressions , and those excellent Divines of our own , Bishop Taylor , and Dr. Hammond , and others have noted to us , That this description is directly contrary to all the Characters of a regenerate man , given elsewhere by this , and the other Apostles . As he is said to be dead to sin , Rom. 6. 11. Free from sin , and the servant of Righteousness , Rom. 6. 18. That he walks not after the Flesh , but after the Spirit , Rom. 8. 1. That the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus , hath made him free from the Law of sin and death , Rom. 8. 2. That he overcometh the world , Joh. 5. 4. He sinneth not , 1 Joh. 3. 6. He hath crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts , Gal. 5. 24. Which Characters of a truly regenerate person , if they be compared with those above-cited out of Rom. 7. it will appear , that they are as contrary , as 't is possible to speak , and by this , 't is evident that they describe the two contrary states . For can the regenerate be full of all manner of concupiscence , and at the same time be crucified to the Flesh , and its affections and lusts ? one in whom sin revives while he dies ; and yet one that is dead to sin ? carnal , and yet not walking after the flesh , but after the Spirit ? sold under sin , and yet free from sin ? Having sin dwelling in him ; and a captive to sin ; and obeying the Law of sin ; and yet free from the law of sin and death ? how can these things consist ? To tell us , 'T is so , and 't is not so , and to twist such contradictions into Orthodox Paradoxes , are pretty things to please Fools and Children ; but wise men care not for riddles that are not sense . For my part I think it clear , that the Apostle in that mistaken Chapter , relates the feeble , impotent condition of one that was convinced and strove a little , but not to purpose . And if we find our selves comprised under that description , though we may be never so sensible of the evil and danger of a sinful course , and may endeavour some small matter , but without success , we are yet under , that evil , and obnoxious to that danger : For he that strives in earnest , conquers at last , and advanceth still , though all the work be not done at once . So that if we endeavour and gain nothing , our endeavour is peccant , and wants Faith or Prayer for Divine aids , or constancy , or vigour ; and so , Though we may seek , we shall not be able to enter . But ( 3 ) an imperfect Striver may overcome sin in some Instances , and yet in that do no great matter neither , if he lies down , and goes no further : There are some sins we outgrow by age , or are indisposed to them by bodily infirmity , or diverted by occasions , and it may be by other sins ; and some are contrary to worldly Interests , to our credit , or health , or profit ; and when we have in any great degree been hurt by them in these , we fall out with those sins , and cease from them , and so by resolution and disuse , we master them at last fully : which , if we went on , and attempted upon all the rest , were something : But when we stop short in these petty victories , our general state is not altered ; He that conquers some evil appetites , is yet a slave to others ; and though he hath prevailed over some difficulties , yet the main ones are yet behind . Thus the imperfect Striver masters , it may be , his beastly appetite to intemperate drinking , but is yet under the power of Love and Riches , and vain Pleasure . He ceaseth from open debauchery , but entertains spiritual wickedness in his heart : He will not Swear , but will backbite and rail : He will not be Drunk , but will damn a man for not being of his opinion : He will not prophane the Sabbath , but will defraud his Neighbour . Now these half conquests , when we rest in them , are as good as none at all . Then shall I not be ashamed , when I have regard to all thy Commandments , saith the Kingly Prophet , Psal. 119. 6. 'T is shameful to give off , when our work is but half done ; what we do , casts the greater reproach upon us for what we omit . To cease to be prophane , is something as a passage , but nothing for an end . We are not Saints as soon as we are civil . 'T is not only gross sins that are to be overcome . The wages of sin is death , not only of the great and capital , but of the smallest , if they are indulged . The Pharisee applauded himself , that he was not like the Extortioners , Adulterers and Vnjust , nor like the Publican , that came to pray with him , Luk. 18. 11. and yet he went away never the more justified . The unwise Virgins were no profligate Livers , and yet they were shut out . He that will enter , must strive against every corrupt appetite and inclination . A less leak will sink a Ship , as well as a greater , if no care be taken of it . A Consumption will kill , as well as the Plague ; yea sometimes the less Disease may in the event prove more deadly , than the greater ; for small distempers may be neglected , till they become incurable ; when as the great ones awaken us to speedy care for a remedy . A small hurt in the finger slighted , may prove a Gangreen , when a great wound in the Head by seasonable applications is cured . 'T is unsafe then to content our selves with this , that our sins are not foul and great , those we account little ones , may prove as fatal , yea they are sometimes more dangerous : For we are apt to think them none at all , or Venial infirmities that may consist with a state of Grace , and Divine favour ; we excuse and make Apologies for them , and fancy that Hearing , and Prayer , and Confession are atonements enough for these . Upon which accounts I am apt to believe , that the less notorious Vices have ruined as many as the greatest Abominations . Hell doth not consist only of Drunkards , and Swearers , and Sabbath-breakers : No , the demure Pharisee , the plausible Hypocrite , and formal Professor , have their place also in that lake of fire . The great impieties do often startle and awaken conscience , and beget strong convictions , and so sometimes excite resolution and vigorous striving ; while men hug themselves in their lesser sins , and carry them unrepented of to their Graves . The sum is , we may overcome some sins , and turn from the grosser sorts of wickedness , and yet if we endeavour not to subdue the rest , we are still in the condition of unregeneracy and death , and though we thus seek , we shall not enter . ( 4. ) A man may perform many duties of Religion , and that with relish and delight , and yet miscarry . As , ( 1. ) He may be earnest and swift to hear , and follow Sermons constantly from one place to another , and be exceedingly pleased and affected with the Word , and yet be an evil Man , and in a bad state . Herod heard John Baptist gladly , Mark 6. 20. and he that received the seed into stony places , received it joyfully , Mat. 13. 20. Zeal for hearing doth not always arise from a consciencious desire to learn in order to practise , but sometimes it proceeds from an itch after novelty and notions , or an ambition to be famed for Godliness ; or the importunity of natural conscience , that will not be satisfied except we do something ; or a desire to get matter to feed our opinions , or to furnish us with pious discourse ? I say , earnestness to hear , ariseth very often from some of these ; and when it doth so , we gain but little by it : yea , we are dangerously tempted to take this for an infallible token of our Saintship , and so to content our selves with this Religion of the Ear , and to disturb every body with the abundance of our disputes and talk , while we neglect our own Spirits , and let our unmortified affections and inclinations rest in quiet , under the shadow of these specious services . So that when a great affection to hearing seizeth upon an evil man , 't is odds but it doth him hurt ; it puffs him up in the conceit of his Godliness , and makes him pragmatical , troublesome and censorious ; He turns his food into poyson : Among bad men , those are certainly the worst , that have an opinion of their being godly ; and such are those that have itching ears , under the power of vitious habits and inclinations . Thus an earnest diligent hearer , may be one of those who seeks , and is shut out . And so may ( 2. ) He that Fasts much , and severely : The Jews were exceedingly given to fasting , and they were very severe in it . They abstained from all things pleasant to them , and put on sackcloth , and sowre looks , and mourned bitterly , and hung down the head , and sate in ashes ; so that one might have taken these for very holy , penitent , mortified people that had a great antipathy against their sins , and abhorrence of themselves for them : And yet God complains of these strict severe Fasters , Zach. 7. 5. That they did not Fast unto him ; but fasted for strife and debate , Isa. 58. 4. Their Fasts were not such as he had chosen , to loose the bands of wickedness , to undo the heavy burden , and to let the oppressed free , vers . 6. But they continued , notwithstanding their Fasts , and God's admonitions by his Prophets , to oppress the Widow , and Fatherless , and Poor , Zach. 7. 10. Thus meer natural and evil men sometimes put on the garb of Mortification , and exercise rigors upon their Bodies and external persons , in exchange for the indulgences they allow their beloved appetites ; and while the strict Discipline reacheth no further , though we keep days , and Fast often , yet this will not put us beyond the condition of the Pharisee , who fasted twice in the week , as himself boasted , Luke 18. 12. And , ( 3. ) An imperfect striver may be very much given to pious and religious discourses : He may love to be talking of Divine things ; especially of the love of Christ to sinners , which he may frequently speak of with much earnestness and affection , and have that dear name always at his tongues end to begin and close all his sayings ; and to fill up the void places , when he wants what to say next ; and yet this may be a bad man , who never felt those Divine things he talks of ; and never loved Christ heartily as he ought . 'T was observed before , that there are some who have a sort of Devoutness , and Religion in their particular Complexion ; and if such are talkative ( as many times they are ) they will easily run into such discourses , as agree with their temper , and take pleasure in them for that reason ; As also for this , because they are apt to gain us reverence , and the good opinion of those with whom we converse . And such as are by nature disposed for this faculty , may easily get it by imitation and remembrance of the devout forms they hear and read : so that there may be nothing Divine in all this ; nothing but what may consist with unmortified lusts and affections : And though such talk earnestly of the love of Christ , and express a mighty love to his name , yet this may be without any real conformity unto him in his Life and Laws . The Jews spoke much of Moses , in him they believed , and in him they trusted , John 5. 45. His name was a sweet sound to their ears , and 't was very pleasant upon their Tongues ; and yet they hated the Spirit of Moses , and had no love to those Laws of his which condemned their wicked actions . And we may see how many of those love Christ , that speak often and affectionately of him , by observing how they keep his Commandments , John 14. 15. especially those of Meekness , Mercy , and universal Love. Thus imperfect Strivers may imploy themselves in the external offices of Religion : I have instanced only in Three , the lik may be said of the rest . And to this , I add , ( IV. ) That they may not only exercise themselves in the outward matters of duty , but may arrive to some things that are accounted greater heights , and are really more spiritual , and refined . To instance . ( I. ) They may have some love to God , Goodness , and good Men. The Soul naturally loves Beauty and Perfection ; and all mankind apprehend God , to be of all Beings , the most beautiful and perfect ; and therefore must needs have an intellectual love for him : The reason that that love takes no hold of the passions in wicked men , is , partly because they are diverted from the thoughts of Him , by the objects of Sense ; but chiefly , because they consider him as their enemy , and therefore can have no complacency or delight in him , who they think hath nothing but thoughts of enmity , and displeasure against them . But if once they come to be perswaded ( as many times , by such false marks , as I have recited , they are ) that God is their Father , and peculiar Friend ; that they are his chosen , and his darlings , whom he loved from Eternity , and to whom he hath given his Son and his Spirit , and will give Himself , in a way of the fullest enjoyment ; Then the Love that before was only an esteem in the understanding , doth kindle in the affections by the help of the conceit of Gods loving them so dearly , and the passion thus heated , runs out , even into seraphick , and rapturous Devotions ; while yet all this , is but meer animal love , excited chiefly , by the love of our selves , not of the Divine Perfections . And it commonly goes no further , then to earnest expressions of extraordinary love to God in our Prayers and Discourses , while it appears not in any singular obedience to his Laws , or generous and universal love to mankind : which are the ways whereby the true Divine Love is exprest : for , This is the love of God , that we keep his Commandments , saith the Apostle , 1 John. 5. 3. And as to the other , thus , If we love one another , God dwelleth in us , and his love is perfected in us , 1 John 4. 12. And on the contrary , If a man say I love God , and hateth his brother , he is a lyar , John 4. 20. Charity then and universal obedience are the true arguments and expressions of our love to God ; and these suppose a victory over corrupt inclinations and self-will . But the other love which ariseth from the conceit of our special dearness to God upon insufficient grounds ; that goes no further then to some suavities , and pleasant fancies within our selves ; and some passionate complements of the Image we have set up in our imaginations . This Love will consist with Hatred and contempt of all that are not like our selves ; yea , and it will produce it : those poysonous fruits , and vile affections may be incouraged , and cherish'd under it . So that there may be some love to God in evil men : But while self-love is the only motive , and the more prevalent passion , it signifieth nothing to their advantage . And as the imperfect striver may have some love to God , so he may to piety and vertue : every man loves these in Idea . The vilest sinner takes part in his affections with the vertuous and religious , when he seeth them described in History or Romance ; and hath a detestation for those , who are character'd as impious and immoral . Vertue is a great Beauty , and the mind is taken with it , while 't is consider'd at a distance ; and our corrupt interests , and sensual affections are not concern'd . 'T is these that recommend sin to our love , and choice , while the mind ftands on the side of vertue : with that we serve the Law of God , but with the flesh the Law of Sin , Rom 7. 25. So that most wicked men , that are not degenerated into meer Brutes , have this mental and intellectual love to goodness : That is , they approve , and like it in their minds , and would practise it also , were it not for the prevalent biass of flesh and sense . And hence it will follow likewise , That the same may approve and respect good men ; They may reverence and love them for their Charity , Humility , Justice and Temperance , though themselves are persons of the contrary Character ; yea , they may have a great and ardent affection for those that are eminently pious and devout , though they are very irreligious themselves . The conscience of vertue , and of the excellency of Religion , may produce this in the meer natural man , who is under the dominion of vile inclinations and affections ; and therefore , neither is this a good mark of godliness . Our love to God & goodness will not stead us , except it be prevalent . And as the love described , may be natural , and a meer animal man may arrive unto it : So , ( 2. ) He may to an extraordinary zeal for the same things that are the objects of his love . Hot tempers are eager , where they take either kindness or displeasure . The natural man that hath an animal love to Religion , may be violent in speaking , and acting for things appertaining to it . If his temper be devotional and passionate , he becomes a mighty zealot , and fills all places with the fame of his godliness : His natural fire moves this way , aud makes a mighty blaze . Ahab was very zealous , & 't is like 't was not only his own interest that made him so , 2 Kings 10. 16. The Pharirisees were zealous people , and certainly their zeal was not always personated , and put on , but real ; though they were Hypocrites , yet they were such , as , in many things deceived themselves , as well as others . They were zealous for their Traditions , and they believ'd 't was their duty to be so . St. Paul while a persecutor , was zealous against the Disciples , and he thought he ought to do many things against that name . And our Saviour foretells , that those zealous murderers that should kill his Saints , should think , They did God good service in it , John 16. 2. So that all the zeal of the natural man is not feigning , and acting of a part ; nor hath it always evil objects . The Pharisees were zealous against the wickedness of the Publicans and Sinners . Zeal , and that in earnest , and for Religion may be in bad men . But then , this is to be noted , that 't is commonly about opinions or external rites , and usages , and such matters as appertain to first Table Duties , while usually the same men are very cold , in reference to the Duties of the Second : And when Zeal is partial , and spent about the little things that tend not to the overcoming the difficulties of our way , or the perfecting of humane nature , 't is a meer animal fervour , and no Divine Fire . And the natural man , the Seeker that shall not enter , may grow up to another height that looks gleriously , and seems to speak mighty things . As , ( 3. ) He may have great comforts in religious meditations , and that even to rapturous excesses . He may take these , for sweet Communion with God , and the joys of the Holy Ghost , and the earnest of Glory , and be lifted up on high by them , and enabled to speak in wonderful ravishing strains ; and yet notwithstanding be an evil man , and in the state of such as shall be shut out . For this we may observe , That those whose complexion inclines them to devotion , are commonly much under the power of melancholy ; and they that are so , are mostly very varius in their tempers ; fometimes merry , and pleasant to excess ; and then plung'd as deep into the other extream of sadness and dejection : one while the sweet humours enliven the imagination , and present it with all things that are pleasant and agreeable ; And then , the black blood succeeds , which begets clouds and darkness , and fills the fancy with things frightful and uncomfortable : And there are very few but feel such varieties , in a degree , in themselves . Now while the sweet Blood and Humours prevail , the person whose complexion inclines him to Religion , and who hath arrived to the degrees newly discours'd of ( though a meer natural man ) is full of inward delight , and satisfaction● and fancies at this turn , that he is much in the favour of God , and a sure Heir of the Kingdom of Glory ; which must needs excite in him many luscious , and pleasant thoughts : and these further warm his imagination , which , by new , and taking suggestions still raiseth the affections more ; and so the man is as it were transported beyond himself ; and speaks like one dropt from the Clouds : His tongue flows with Light , and Glories , and Communion , and Revelations , and Incomes ; and then , believes that the Holy Ghost is the Author of all this , and that God is in him of a truth , in a special way of Manifestation and Vouchsafement . But when melancholick vapours prevail again ; the Imagination is overcast , and the Fancy possest by dismal and uncomfortable thoughts ; and the man , whose head was but just before among the Clouds , is now groveling in the Dust : He thinks all is lost , and his condition miserable ; He is a cast-away , and undone ; when in the mean while , as to Divine favour he is just where he was before , or rather in a better state , since 't is better to be humbled with reason , then to be lifted up without it . Such effects as these do meer naturalpassions and imaginations produce , when they are tinctured and heightned by religious melancholly . To deny ones self , and to overcome ones passions , and to live in a course of a sober Vertue , is much more Divine than all this . 'T is true indeed , and I am far from denying it , that holy men feel those joys and communications of the Divine Spirit which are no fancies ; and the Scripture calls them great peace , Psal. 119. 165. and joy in believing , Rom. 15. 13. and the peace of God that passeth all understanding , Phil. 4. 7. But then , these Divine Vouchsafements are not rapturous , or ecstatical : They are no sudden flashes that are gone in a moment , leaving the Soul in the regions of sorrow , and despair ; but sober lasting comforts , that are the reward 's and results of vertue ; the rejoycings of a good conscience , 2 Cor. 1. 12. and the manifestations of God to those rare souls , who have overcome the evils of their natures ; and the difficulties of the way , or are vigorously pressing on towards the mark , Phil. 3. 14. But for such as have only the forms of godliness I have mentioned , while the evil inclinations and habits are indulged , ( whatever they may pretend ) all the sweets they talk of , are but the imagery of dreams , and the pleasant delusions of their fancies . THus I have shewn how far the meer animal Religion may go , in imperfect striving : And now . I must expect to hear , ( 1. ) That this is very severe , uncomfortable Doctrine ; and if one that shall eventually be shut out , may do all this , what shall become of the generality of Religious men that never do so mtch ? And if all this be short , what will be available ? who then shall be saved ? To which I Answer , That we are not to make the measures of Religion and Happiness our selves ; but to take those that Christ Jesus hath made for us : And he hath told us , That except our Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven , Mat. 5. 20. Now the Scribes and Pharisees did things in the way of Religion , that that were equal to all the particulars : I have mentioned ; yea they went beyond many of our glorious Professors , who yet think themselves in an high form of Godliness . They believed their Religion firmly , and Prayed frequently and fervently , and Fasted severely ; They were exact , and exceeding strict in the observation of their Sabbaths , and hated scandalous and gross sins ; and were very punctual in all the duties of outward Worship ; and in many things supererrogated and went beyond what was commanded : Such zealous people were They ; and They separated from the conversations and customs of other Jews , upon the account of their supposed greater Holiness and Purity . These were heights to which the Pharisees arrived ; and a good Christian must exceed all this : And he that lives in a sober course of Piety and Vertue ; of self Government , and humble submission to God ; of obedience to his Superiours , and charity to his Neighbours : He doth really exceed it , and shall enter , when the other shall be shut out . So that , when our Saviour saith , that the Pharisaick Righteousness must be exceeded , the meaning is not , That a greater degree of every thing the Pharisees did , is necessary ; but we must do that which in the nature and kind of it is better , and more acceptable to God , viz. That whereas they placed their Religion in strict Fastings , an nice observations of Festivals ; in lowd and earnest Prayers , and zeal to get Proselytes ; we should place ours , in sincere subjections of our wills to the will of God ; in imitation of the life of Christ , and obedience of his Laws ; in amending the faults of our natures and lives : in subduing our Passions , and casting out the habits of evil : These are much beyond the Religion of the Phanatick Pharisee ; not in shew and pomp ; but in real worth , and divine esteem . So that , upon the whole , we have no reason to be discouraged , because They that do so much are cast out ; since , though we find not those heats , and specious things in our selves which we observe in them , yet if we are more meek and modest , and patient , and charitable , and humble , and just , our case is better ; and we have the Power of Godliness , when theirs is but the Form ; And we , whom They accounted Aliens and Enemies shall enter ; while they , the presumed friends and domesticks , shall be shut out . But ( 2. ) I expect it should be again objected against this severity of Discourse , That our Saviour saith , Mat. 11. 20. That his yoke is easie , and his burden is light : which place seems to cross all that hath been said about the Difficulties of Religion . And 't is true it hath such an appearance , but 't is no more ; For the words look as cross to the expressions of the same Divine Author ; concerning the straightness of the Gate , and narrowness of the Way , as to any thing I have delivered from those infallible sayings . Therefore to remove the semblance of contrariety , which the objected Text seems to have to those others , and to my Discourse , we may observe , That when our Saviour saith , that his yoke is easie , the word we read is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth very good , excellent , gracious ; and the meaning I suppose is , That his Precepts had a native beauty and goodness in them ; That they are congruous and sutable to our reasonable Natures , and apt instruments to make us happy ; In which sense , this expression hath no antipathy to the Text , or to any thing I have said . And whereas 't is added , [ My Burden is light ] I think by this , we are to understand , That his Commands are not of that burdensome nature , that the Ceremonies of the Jewish Laws were : Those were very cumbersome , and had nothing in their nature to make them pleasant and agreeable ; whereas his Religion had no expensive , troublesome Rites appendant to it ; nor did it require any thing but our observation of those Laws which eternal Reason obligeth us to , and which of our selves we should choose to live under , were we freed from the intanglements of the World , and interests of Flesh. So that neither doth this Objection signifie any thing against the scope of my Discourse . AND now I descend to the Improvement of what I have said ; and the things I have to add will be comprehended under these two Generals ( 1. ) Inferences , and ( 2. ) plain Advice in order to practise . I begin with the Inferences and Corollaries that arise from the whole Discourse . And , ( 1. ) We may collect , What is the state of Nature ; and What the state of Grace . We have seen that 't is the great business of Religion to overcome evil Inclinations , and the prevailing influence of sense and passion , and evil customs and example and worldly affections ; And therefore the state of Nature consists in the power and prevalency of These . This is that the Scripture calls the Old man , Eph. 4.22 . The Image of the earthy , 1 Cor. 15. Flesh , Gal. 5. 17. Death , Rom. 7.24 . Darkness , Joh. 3. 19. and old leven , 1 Cor 5. 7. On the contrary , The state of Grace is a state of sincere striving against them ; which if it keeps on , ends in Victory . And this is call'd Conversion , Acts 3. 19. and Renovation , while 't is in its first motions ; And the Divine Nature , 2 Pet. 1. 4. the Image of the Heavenly , 1 Cor. 15. 20. The Spirit , Gal. 5. 16. Light , Ephes. 5. 8. and Life , 1 Joh. 3. 14. when 't is arriv'd to more compleatness and perfection . For our fuller understanding this , we may consider , That Grace is taken ( 1. ) for Divine favour ; ( 2. ) for Christian Vertue . As it signifies Divine favour , so it is used , ( 1. ) For those helps and aids God affords us , viz. the Gospel , Joh. 1. 17. and the influences of his Spirit , 1 Cor. 12. 9. In this sense we are deliver'd from the state of Nature by Baptism , viz. We are intituled to divine helps , which is a kind of regeneration ; for we are born in a condition of importence , and weakness , and destitution of spiritual assistances ; This is the world of meer nature ; But then in Baptism , we are brought into the world of the Spirit , that is , are put under its influences , and are assured of its aids , and so are morally born again ; Not that this Regeneration alone will save us , without our endeavours ; it imports only an external relation , and right to priviledges , and by these we may be powerfully assisted in our striving , if we use them . But then ( 2. ) Grace , as it signifies divine favour , implies his special love and kindness , such as he vouchsases to holy and vertuous men ; so that we may observe that there may be a distinction between a state of Grace , and a state of salvation . A state of Grace , in the former sense , is a condition assisted by the influences of Gods Spirit , and all baptized persons are in that . But if they use not those helps , they are not in Gods special favour ; and so not in a state of Salvation . But when those assistances are duly imployed , and join'd with our sincere endeavour , then the person so using them , is in a state of Salvation also ; and in God's special love and favour . Thus of the state of Grace in the first sense , as taken for divine favour . ( 2. ) The word is also used for Christian Vertue , 2 Pet. 3. 18. and Vertue is call'd Grace , because 't is wrought in us by the assistance of Gods Spirit and the light of the Gospel , which are divine favours ; and to be in a state of grace in this sense , is to be a virtuous man , which supposeth divine aids , and intitles to divine love . These things I have taken an occasion thus briefly to state ; because there is oft-times much confusion in mens discourses about Grace and Nature , from which much trouble and many controversies have arisen . And by what I have said also in these brief hints , the doctrine of our Church in the office of Baptism , may be understood clearly , and will appear to be very sound and true , notwithstanding the petty exceptions of confident Dissenters . ( II. ) I may infer , That the great Design of Religion and the Gospel is to perfect humane nature . The perfection of our natures , consists , in the subjection and subordination of the affections and passions to the Mind , as it is enlightned , and directed by the divine Laws , and those of Reason . This is the state of integrity , in which we were first made ; and we lost it by the rebellion of our senses and inferiour powers , which have usurpt the government of us ever since . Here is the imperfection , and corruption of our natures . Now Religion designs to remove and cure these ; and to restore us to our first , and happy state . It s business is not to reform our looks , and our language ; or to model our actions , and gestures into a devout appearance ; not only to restrain the practice of open prophaness and villany ; nor to comfort us with the assurance of Gods loving us we know not why : But to cure our ill natures , to govern our passsions , to moderate our desires , to throw out pride and envy , and all uncharitable surmisals , with the other spiritual sorts of wickedness ; and thereby to make us like unto God , in whom there is no shadow of sin , or imperfection ; and so to render us fit objects of his delight , and love . So that whatever doth not tend to the making us , some way or other really better : better in our selves , and better in all Relations , as fathers , and children , and husbands and wives , and subjects , and governours , and neighbours , and friends , is not Religion ; It may be a form of Godliness , but 't is nothing to the life , and power . And where we see not this effect of Religion , let the professor of it be never so high and glorious in his profession , we may yet conclude that either his Religion is not good , or that he only pretends , and really hath it not . This I take to be a consideration of great moment and great certainty , viz. That Christian Religion aims at the bettering and perfecting of our natures . For the things it commands relate either to worship or virtue . The instances of external worship are prayer , and praise ; both which are high acts of gratitude and justice , and they fit us for divine blessings , and keep us under a sense of God , and prepare us for union with him , which is the highest perfection of which the creature is capable . Thus the outward acts of worship tend to our happiness ; and the inward do infinitely the same . These are , Faith , and Love , and Fear . Faith in God supports and relieves us in all afflictions , and distresses . The love of him is a pleasure and solace to us in all losses and disappointments , since he is an object most filling , and satisfying ; and one that cannot be lost , except we wilfully thrust him from us . Fear of God hath no torment ; 'T is no slavish dread of his greatness and Power ; but a reverence of his perfections , and a lothness to offend him ; and this disposeth us also for the communications of his grace , and love , Ps. 85.9 . And this it doth by congruity , and its own nature ; which is to be said likewise of the others . So that they would make those happy that practise them , whether they had been positively enjoyn'd , or not ; And though no express rewards had been annext unto them . There are other two acts of worship which Christianity requires , which are instituted and positive , & respect Christ our Lord ; They are , the Sacraments ; Baptism , and the Lords Supper ; both which are holy Rites of high signification ; and seals of an excellent Covenant between God and us , assuring us of pardon of sins , and all divine favours , upon the conditions of our Faith. and repentance ; and more firmly obliging us to holy obedience , and dependence ; The only way in which we can be happy . Whence we see briefly , that all the parts of worship which Christianity binds upon us , tend to our perfection and Felicity . And all the vertues that it commands do the same ; both those that respect us in a personal capacity , and those others that relate to us as members of Societies . Thus humility , recommended Mat. 5. 3. Meekness blest , ver . 5. purity , ver 8. are vertues that accomplish our particular persons , and make us happy in our selves . For of Pride cometh Conteution , Prov. 13. 10. And a great part of our troubles arise from stomach and self-will ; which humility cures . Meekness also takes away the occasion of the numerous mischiefs we run into through the rage and disorder of our passions ; and 't is in it selfe a great beauty and ornament , since it ariseth from the due order , and goverment of our faculties . Purity which comprehends temperance of all sorts , frees us from the tormenting importunity of those desires that drag us out of our selves , and expose us to sin , and folly , and temptation , and make us exceeding miserable ; besides which it is a perfection that renders us like unto God , and the blest Spirits of the highest rank . And Christian vertues do not only accomplish , and make us happy in our particular persons , but they do the same in our publique capacities , the more publick capacity also ; They dispose us to a quiet obedience to our governours without murmuring , and complaining ; and thereby the publique peace is secured ; and all good things else in that . But there are other vertues that Christianity enjoyns , which have a more direct tendency to the happiness of others , as Justice , Mat 7. 12. Charity , 1 Cor. 13. Loyalty . Rom. 13. and all other publique vertues may , I think , be comprehended under these . Where there is no Justice , every man preys upon another , and no mans property is safe , Where Charity is wanting , Jealousies , hatreds , envying , back-bitings , and cruelties abound , which render the world deplorably unhappy . Where there is not Loyalty and conscionable submission to Governours , the publick is upon every occasion of commotion , involv'd in infinite miseries , and disasters . So that all the precepts of our Religion are in their own nature proper instruments to make us happy ; and they had been methods of Felicity to be chosen by all reasonable creatures , though they had never been required by so great , and so sacred an Authority . These things I have said , because I could not choose but take this occasion to recommend the excellency , and reasonableness of our Religion ; And I have done it but only in brief hints , because it ariseth but upon a Corollary from my main subject , and from this I infer further . ( III. ) That Christanity is the height , and perfection of morality . They both tend to the real bettering , and accomplishment of humane nature : But the rules and measures of moral Philosophy were weak and imperfect till Christ Jesus came ; He confirmed and enforced all those precepts of vertue , that were written upon our hearts ; and cleared them from many corruptions that were grown upon them , through ignorance and vice , the glosses of the Jews , and false conceits of the Gentiles ; and he inforced them anew by his Authority and the knowledge he gave of divine aids , and greater rewards , and punishments , than were understood before ; yea he enlarged them in some instances ; such as , loving enemies and forgiving injuries . Thus Christ Jesus taught morality , viz. the way of living like men ; And the 5. Chapture of Mathew is an excellent Lecture of this kind . So that to disparage morality , is to disgrace Christianity it self ; and to vilifie one of the ends of Christs coming into the world . For all Religion and all duties respect either God , our neighbour , or our selves ; & the duties that relate to these two last , are acknowledg'd moral vertues . The Apostle St. James counted these Moralities of visiting the Widow and Fatherless , to be the pure Religion and undefiled . Jam. 1. 17. And the prophet Micah intimates , that those moral vertues of Justice and mercy were some of the main things that God required of us Micah 6. 8. Our Saviour saith that the whole Law is summ'd up in these two , to love God with all our souls , and our neighbour as our selves , Math. 22. 13 which latter contains the duties of morality . And that which the grace of God in the Gospel teacheth , according to St. Paul is , to live soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world , Tit. 2. 11 , There is no godliness without morality . All the fruits of the Spirit reckon'd up Gal. 5. 22. are moral vertues . And when we are commanded to grow in grace , 2 Pet , 3. 18. vertue is partly understood . For one branch of what is call'd Grace in us , is moral vertue , produced by divine aids , Christian principles , and incouragements ; though 't is true , the word is extended to those duties that relate immediately to God also . By which we see how ignorantly , and dangerously those people talk , that disparage morality as a dull , lame thing of no account , or reckoning . Upon this the Religion of the second Table is by too many neglected ; and the whole mystery of the new Godliness is lay'd in frequent hearing , and devout seraphick talk , luscious phancies , new lights , incomes , manifestations , sealings , in-dwellings , and such like . Thus Antinomianism , and all kinds of Phanaticism have made their way by the disparagement of morality , and men have learnt to believe themselves the chosen , pretious people , while their hearts have been full of malice , and bitterness , and their hands of violence , while they despised dominions , and spake evil of dignities , rebel'd against the Government , destroyed publique peace , and endeavoured to bring all into misery and confusions . 'T is this diabolical project of dividing morality from Religion that hath given rise and occasion to all these villanies . And while the Practisers of such things have assumed the name of the only Godly , Godlyness it self hath been brought into disgrace by them ; and Atheism incouraged to shew it self , in open defiance to Religion , Yea , through the indiscretions , and inconsiderateness of some preachers , the phantastry , and vain babble of others , and the general disposition of the people to admire what makes a great shew , and pretends to more than ordinary spirituality ; things are , in many places , come to that pass , that those who teach Christian vertue & Religion , in plainness and simplicity without sensless phrases , and fanyastick affectations , shall be reckon'd for dry moralists , and such as understand nothing of the life , and power of Godliness . Yea , those people have been so long used to gibberish and canting , that they cannot understand plain sense ; and vertue is become such a stranger to their ears , that when they hear : it spoken of in a pulpit they count the preacher a broacher of new divinity ; and one that would teach the way to heaven by Philosophy : And he escapes well , if they do not say , That he is an Atheist ; or that he would reconcile us to Gentilism , and Heathen Worship . The danger and vanity of which ignorant humour , the contempt of morality , is apparent in the whole scope of my Discourse , and therefore I add no more concerning it here ; but proceed to another Inference , which is . ( IV. ) That Grace and the new nature , make their way by degrees on the Soul ; for the difficulties will not be removed nor the corrupt nature fubdued all at once . Habits that grow by repeated acts , time , and continuance , will not be expelled in a moment . No man can become greatly evil or good , on a sudden . The Path of the just shines more and more to to a perfect day , Prov. 4. 18 , We do not jump from darkness into full light , We are not fully sanctified and converted in an instant . The day begins in an insensible dawn , and the Kingdom of heaven is like a grain of Mustard seed , Mat. 13. 31. It doth not start up presently to the stature of a tree . The Divine birth begins like the Natural , in an imperfect embryo . There are some seeds of Knowledge and Goodness that God hath sown in our natures ; these are excited by the Divine Grace and Spirit to convictions , which proceed to purposes ; these to resolutions , and thence we pass to abstinence from all gross sins , and the performance of outward Duties ; and so at last by degrces , to vigorous attempts , for the destruction of evil habits and inclinations . When Grace is arrived to this eminent growth , 't is very visible , as the Plant is when 't is above the ground . But the beginnings of Conversion are not ordinarily perceived . So that to catechize men about the punctual time , and circumstances of their Conversion , is an idle device , and a great temptation to vanity and lying . Who can tell the exact moment when the night ends , and the dawn enters ? 'T is true indeed , the passage from the excesses of Wickedness , which begins in some extraordinary horrors and convictions , is sometimes very notable ; but 't is not so in all , or most . The time of St. Paul's conversion was eminent , but that change was from great contrarieties and miraculous , and therefore 't is not to be drawn into instance . Both the beginnings and minute progressions of Grace , are usually undiscerned : We cannot see the Grass just putting out of the earth ; or actually growing ; but yet we find that it doth both . And Grace is better known in its fruits , than in its rise . By their Fruits ye shall know them , saith our Saviour , Mat. 12. 33. and the same way we may know our selves . ( V. ) We see that there is an Animal , as well as a Divine Religion : A Religion that is but the effect and modification of complexion , natural fear and self-love . How far these will go , we have seen , and how short it will prove in the end . The not noting this hath been the sad occasion of deceiving many . Some observing great beats of zeal and devotion in the modern Pharisees , take these to be the Saints and good people ; believing all the glorious things which they assume to themselves : When others , that know them to be envious and malitious , unjust , and covetous , proud and ungovernable , and cannot therefore look on them as such choice holy people , are apt to affirm all to be hypocrisie and feigning . In which sentences , both are mistaken for want of knowing that there is a meer Animal Religion , that will produce very specious and glorious effects ; So that though the Pharisee Prays vehemently , and Fasts severely , and talks much of the love of God , and delights greatly in hearing , and pious . Discourse , and will suffer all things for what he calls his Conscience ; yet he is not to be concluded a Saint from hence , because the meer Animal Religion may put it self forth in all these expressions . And though this Professor be a bad man , proud and covetous , malicious and censorious , Sacrilegious and Rebellious , yet we cannot thence be assured that he is an Hypocrite , in one sense , viz. such an one as feigns all that he pretends : But we may believe that he is really so affected with Hearing and Praying , and devout Company , as he makes shew , and yet for all this , not alter our opinion of his being an evil man : since the Animal Religion will go as far as the things in which he glories . There is nothing whereby the common people are drawn more easily into the wayes of Sects and Separations , than by the observation of the zeal and devotion of those of the factions : These they take to be Religion , and the great matters of Godliness , and those the religious and only godly people . And so first they conceive a great opinion of them , and then follow them whithersoever they lead . For the generality of men are tempted into Schism and Parties , not so much by the arguments of dissenters , as by the opinion of their Godliness , which opinion is grounded upon things which may arise from the meer Animal Religion , and very commonly do so . This they understand not , and by this ignorance are betrayed into the snare of Separation , to the disturbance of the Peace of the Church , and their own great hurt and inconvenience . Whereas could they be made to know and consider , that complexion and natural passions may bring forth all these fruits , they might be secured by this means against the tempting imposture ; and learn that Meekness and Patience , Affability and Charity , Justice , and a Peaceable , humble temper , are better arguments of Saintship than all these . Thus a great mischief might be prevented ; and there is another that might be remedied by the same Observation : The inconvenience is this , While the enemies of Factions object Hypocrisie to them , affirming that all they do and say , is meer personating and pretence ; they confirm and settle those people in their way ; for many of them know , that they are in earnest , and consequently , that their opposers are mistaken in their judgments concerning them ; by which they are better establisht in their own good opinion , and hardned against conviction whereas , did they consider such things as I have suggested , about the Animal Religion , and grant to them that they may be serious , believe themselves infinitely , and feel all those Warmths , which they pretend , and yet be evil men , and far enough from being Godly ; Did they shew them , that all their zeal and Devotion , and more and greater than theirs , may arife from a principle that hath nothing Divine and supernatural in it : They would thereby strike them in the right vein , and bring them down from the high perch , whereon , by their false marks , they had placed themselves ; and thereby disabuse them , and prevent the abuse of others . ( VI. ) We see how we may know our state , whether it be that of Grace and Life ; or the other sad one of Vnregeneracy and Death . The state of Grace is a motion towards the recovery of the Divine Image , and a perfect victory over our selves , and all corrupt inclinations and affections , The state of Vnregeneracy and Death , is the continuance under the power and prevalency of sense , passion , and evil habits . Now when 't is question'd by our selves in which of these states we are ; it must be supposed that we are arrived at something of Religion : For the grosly wicked cannot but know what their condition is . And the way I would propose to those others , who are yet uncertain , is this , viz. To take notice , Whether they really design , and make any progress in Goodness . Every motion indeed cannot be felt or perceived ; but if we go on , though never so insensibly , time will shew that we are grown . If we consider what are our particular defects , and studiously apply proper instruments to remove them : if we find success in those indeavours , and that we are better this year than we were the former ; That our Passions are better governed , and our inordinate affections more restrained , and our evil habits and inclinations less powerful with us , 't is an infallible sign , that we live and are in a state of Grace ; that we shall at last arrive to a perfect man in Christ Jesus , Eph. 4. 13. and shall ●attain if we faint not , 2 Cor. 4. 1. whereas on the other hand , if we come to some hopeful pitch , and stand still there ; if sin and temptation be as powerful with us now , as they were a year ago , and our inclinations and passions just at the same pass ; we are in a bad state , and dead . While the Plant grows , it lives , and may become a great tree , though at present it be but small : whereas that whose stature is bigger , and more promising , if it proceeds not , decayes and comes to nothing . Though we are imperfect , if we are striving and going towards perfection , God overlooks our . Infirmities , and pardons them for Christ's sake . This is our sincerity , and an effect of true Faith. But if on the other hand , we think our selves well , and do not always attempt forwards , our state is bad , and our sins will be imputed : Be our pretences what they will , our Faith is not sincere , and will not stead us . When we get to a certain pitch in Religion , and make that our state , 't is an argument that our Religion was meerly Animal ; and but a mode of complexion , self-love , and natural fear . When we overcome some sins , and are willing to spare and cherish others , 't is a sign that we are not sincere in our attempts upon any , and that what we have done , was not performed upon good and divine motives . Sincerty is discovered by growth , and this is the surest mark that I know of Tryal , So that we have no reason to presume , though , as we think , we have gone a great way , if we go not on . Nor on the other side , have we any to dispair , though our present attainments are but small , if we are proceeding . The buds and tenderest blossoms of Divine Grace , are acceptable to God ; when the fairest leaves of the meer Animal Religion are nothing in his esteem . This is a great advantage we have from the Gospel , that imperfection will be accepted , where there is sincerity ; whereas according to the measures of exact and rigorous Justice , no man could be made happy in the high degree of glory , but he that was perfect , and whose victories were absolute . ( VII . ) It may be collected from our Discourse , Wherein the Power of Godliness consists , viz. In a progress towards perfection , and an intire victory over all the evils of our Natures . The Forms of Godliness are not only in the ceremonies of Worship , and external actions of feigned Piety ; But all the fine things of the Animal Religion are of this kind ; and they are the worst sort : By the grosser Forms men hardly deceive others ; by these they effectually gull themselves . So that many that vehemently oppose Forms , are the greatest Formalists . Forms of Worship may well agree with the Power of Godliness ; whenas zeal against Forms , may be a Form it self ; whatever makes shew of Religion , and doth not make us better , that 's a Form , at least to us . There are Spiritual Forms , as well as those of the other sort , and these are most deadly . Poyson is worst in Aqua Vitae . He that speaks his Prayers ex tempore with vehemence and lowdness , if he strive not against his ill nature and self-will , is as much a Formalist , as he that tells his Prayers by his Beads , and understands not one word he saith . And those that run away from Forms in Churches , meet more dangerous ones in Barns and private corners . Orthodox Opinions , devout Phrases , set Looks , melting Tones , affected Sighs , and vehement Raptures , are often meer Forms of Godliness , that proceed from the Animal Religion , which it self is a Form likewise . O that the observers of so many motes in their Brethrens eyes , would learn to throw out the Beames of their own ! The Form of Godliness that pretends it self to be no more , is not so hurtful : But the Formes , that call themselves the Power , are deadly . 'T is the Formality and Superstition of Separatists that keeps on the Separation : They contend for phancies and arbitrary trifles ; We for order and obedience . The people are abused by names , and being frighted by the shadows of Superstition and Formality , they run into the worst Formality , and silliest Superstition in the World. The Kingdom of Heaven consists not in meats and drinks , Rom. 14. 17. neither in Circumcision , nor Vncircumcision , 1 Cor. 7. 19. not in zeal for little things , nor in zeal against them ; both the one and the other are equally formal . The power of Religion lies in using Divine aids heartily and constantly , in order to the overcoming the Difficulties of our way . This Godliness is not exercised so much in reforming others , as our selves : The chief design is to govern within , and not to make Laws for the World without us , This is that Wisdom that is from above , which is pure and peaceable . Jam. 3. 17. It makes no noise and bluster abroad , but quietly minds its own business at home . So that certainly the best men have not always had the greatest fame for Godliness ; as the wisest have very seldom been the most popular . They are the effects of the Animal Religion that make the biggest fhew . The voice of true Religion is heard in quiet , it sounds not in the corners of the street . The power of Godliness is seen in Justice , Meekness Humility , and Charity , things that look not so splendidly as the Spiritual Forms . And thus of the Inferences and Corollaries that may be drawn from my Discourse , which though they cannot all be inferred from any of its minute and seperated parts , yet they lie in the design and contexture of the whole . I Come now to the Advice for Practice . The way of Happiness is difficult , but the difficulties may be overcome by striving . A little will not do ; many seekers are shut out ; what remains then , but that we perswade our selves to strive , and that diligently ; with constant resolution and endeavour ? We were made for Happiness , and Happiness all the World seeks : Who will shew us any good ? Psal. 4. 6. is the voice of all the Creatures . We have sought it long in emptiness , and shadows ; and that search hath still ended in shame and disappointment . Where true substantial Felicity is we know , and the Way we know , Joh. 14. 4. It is not hid from us in Clouds and thick Darkness ; or if it were , 't were worth our pains to search after it . It is not at so great a distance , but it may be seen , yea , it may be brought so neer as to be felt . Though the way is streight , yet 't is certain ; or if it were otherwise , who would not venture his pains upon the possibility of such an issue ? Many Difficulties are in it ; but our Encouragements and Assistances are infinite . The love of God , and the gift of his son ; the blood of Christ , and his intercession ; the aids of the Spirit , and the directions of the Gospel ; the Invitations and Promises , the rare Precepts , and incomparable Examples of those holy men that have gone before us : These are mighty helpes and great motives to assist us in striving , and to quicken us to it . Let us then arise in the strength of Faith , and in the encouragement of those aids , and attempt with courage upon the Difficulties of our way . Let us ingage our deepest Resolutions , and most diligent endeavours . Here is no need to deliberate , the things are necessary , the benefits unspeakable , and the event will be glorious . It is no Question , I hope , whether God , or the Creature is to be first chosen ; whether Heaven or Hell be better ? and therefore there is no cause that we should stay and consider ; we cannot be rash here , we cannot hurt our selves by a too sudden ingagement ; we have delayed too long already , and every moment we sit still , is one lost to our Duty , and our Happiness . Let us resolve then , and begin with courage , and proceed with diligence , 't is our End and Felicity for which we are to strive ; and every thing is active for its End and Perfection . All Creatures are diligent in serving the Designs of Providence ; the Heavens are in restless motion , and the Clouds are still carrying about their fruitful Waters ; the sluggish Earth it self is always putting forth in variety of Trees , and Grass , and Flowers ; the Rivers run towards the Sea , the Brooks move towards them , and the Sea within it self . Thus all things even in inanimate Nature may mind us of acting towards our end . And if we look a little higher , the Beasts of the Field , the Fowls , and Cattel , and creeping things are diligent in striving after the good and perfection of their Natures , and Solomon sends the Sluggard to those little Insects , the Ant and Bee , to teach him activity and diligence , Prov. 6.6 . And shall the Beasts act more reasonably than the professed Sons of Reason ? May it not shame us , that we need Instruction from the Creatures that have no understanding ? With what face can we carry our heads so high , and look down with contempt upon inferiour Animals , when they live more wisely and more regularly than we ? The Sum is , All things are incessantly moving towards an End ; and Happiness is ours , which therefore should ingage our most careful Thoughts , and most active Endeavours We are sollicitous and diligent about things of infinitely less moment , and in effect of none , viz. uncertain Riches , sensual Pleasures , and worldly Honours ; though the way to these is sufficiently difficult and uneasie , yet we are not discouraged ; we attempt all those Difficulties with an obstinate Courage , though without promise of any equal assistance , or assurance of success . We are often defeated in our pursuits , and yet we go on . We are overmaster'd by cross events , and yet we try again . We miss our happiness , when we have attain'd our end , and yet we are as active in courting disappointment another time ; either we attain not the things we seek , or find no true satisfaction in them , or they die in our hands presently , and yet we strive . And doth not this activity about uncertain , unsatisfying Trifles , shamefully reprove our Negligence in reference to our great End , Happiness and Perfection ? In striving for which we have all the powers of Heaven to aid us , and the Word of God , and the Blood of his Son , and the experience of all that ever try'd , to assure us that we shall neither fail of the things we seek , nor of the pleasure that we expect from them . And why then do we lazily sit down , and with the Sluggard say , There is a Lion in the way , while we despise greater discouragements , when vain things are to be sought ? The Merchant doth not give off , because there are Storms , and the numerous Dangers of the Deep to be met with in his way to the Indies ; nor the Souldier lay by his Arms , because of the hazards and toils of War. And do we act courageously for petty purchases ; and faint and despond when we are to strive for Crowns and eternal Glories ? 'T is true indeed our own natural strength is small , in proportion to the Difficulties we are to encounter ; but the Grace of God is sufficient for us , 2 Cor. 12.9 . and we may do all things through Christ that strengthens us , Phil. 4. 13. Nature is weak , and imperfect , but we are not left in the condition of meer nature : For we are not under the Law but under Grace , Rom. 6. 14. We are under the influences of the holy Spirit , which will remove the mountains , and plain the way before us , if we take care to engage those aids by Faith and sincere endeavour . For this we may be sure of , that God will never be wanting to us , if we are not so unto our selves , So that the case as to our natural inability , and the assistance of Gods Spirit , seems to be thus . A man in a Boat is cartied from the Harbour he designs , by the violence of the Current ; he is not able only by playing the Oar , to overcome the resistance of the Tide ; but a gen tle Gale blows with him , which will not of it self carry him up against the Torrent : Neither of them will do it single : But if he hoist the sail , and use the Oar too , this united force prevails ; and he gets happily to the Harbour , This methinks resembles our Condition ; we are carried down the Torrent of evil inclinations and Affections , our own unaided powers are too little for that great force : but the Holy Spirit is with us , It breaths upon us , and is ready to assist , if we are so to use it , and by the superaddition and ingagement of those blessed Aids , there is no evil in our natures but may be overcome . So that we have no reason to be discouraged at the apprehension of our impotence , out of weakness we shall he made strong Heb. 11. 24. If we imploy our Talent , though it be but a very small one , we shall have more , Mat. 25. 29. And if we accept of those divine helps , and use them , what was before , to meer natural consideration , uneasie , will be pleasant and sweetly relishing . One of the greatest Difficulties in the way of Religion , is to begin : the first steps are roughest to those feet that have been unaccustomed to it . The helps and manifold incouragements we shall meet with in the Progress , will render it more agreeable and delightsome . Those very toils will be grateful ; there is scarce any great sense of pleasure , but where there is some Difficulty and Pain . Even our Work it self will be Wages . And 't is not only the End of Wisdom that is pleasantness , but the very way , Prov. 3. 17. So that though we are call'd upon to strive , and to run , and to fight , ( which words import Labour ) yet we are not required to Quit our pleasures , but to change the objects of them ; to leave the delights of Swine for those of Angels ; sensual for spiritual Satisfactions . Thus all things encourage , and invite us to strive ; God calls upon us , and our own Interests call ; Christ Jesus came to ingage us to this Work , and the Holy Spirit waits to assist it . If notwithstanding all this , we sit still , our Negligence will be inexcusable and fatal : or if we arise and go a little forward , and then lay us down to take our ease and rest , our state ( in the judgment of one that knew ) will be worse , more desperate , and excuseless , 2. Pet. 2. 21. I Conclude all then , in the words of the Blessed Apostle , 1. Cor. 15. Therefore my beloved Brethren , be ye stedfast , unmoveable , always abounding in the work of the Lord , forasmuch as ye know that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord : To him be Glory and Honour henceforth , and for ever . Amen . FINIS . Books published by Mr. Glanvil . ESSAYES on several important Subjects in Philosophy and Theology . Seasonable Reflections and Discourses in order to the Cure of the Scoffing and Infidelity of a degenerate Age. Lux Orientalis ; being a modest Philosophical Enquiry into the Doctrine of Pre-existence . Catholick Charity , recommended in a Sermon before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London . A Fast-Sermon on the King's Martyrdome . An Earnest Invitation to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper . The Way of Happiness , represented in its Difficulties and Encouragements , and free'd from many popular and dangerous mistakes . 
A64357	----	A Discourse concerning a guide in matters of faith with respect especially to the Romish pretence of the necessity of such a one as is infallible. Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715. 1683 Approx. 104 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 25 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64357 Wing T695 ESTC R37882 17150689 ocm 17150689 105906 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64357) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 105906) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1160:15) A Discourse concerning a guide in matters of faith with respect especially to the Romish pretence of the necessity of such a one as is infallible. Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715. [6], 43 p. Printed for Ben. Tooke ... and F. Gardiner ..., London : 1683. Other eds. show author's name on t.p. Advertisement: 1 sheet bound before t.p. Running title: Of a guide in matters of faith. Errata: prelim. p. [6] Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Includes bibliographical references. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Catholic Church -- Controversial literature. Popes -- Infallibility. Faith. 2003-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-06 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-02 Rachel Losh Sampled and proofread 2005-02 Rachel Losh Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion BOOKS Printed for Fincham Gardiner . 1. A Perswasive to Communion with the Church of England . 2. A Resolution of some Cases of Conscience which respect Church-Communion . 3. The Case of Indifferent things used in the Worship of God , proposed and Stated , by considering these Questions , &c. 4. A Discourse about Edification . 5. The Resolution of this Case of Conscience , Whether the Church of Englands Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome , makes it unlawful to hold Communion with the Church of England ? 6. A Letter to Anonymus , in answer to his three Letters to Dr. Sherlock about Church-Communion . 7. Certain Cases of Conscience resolved , concerning the Lawfulness of joyning with Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship . In two Parts . 8. The Case of mixt Communion : Whether it be Lawful to Separate from a Church upon the account of promiscuous Congregations and mixt Communions ? 9. An Answer to Dissenters Objections against the Common Prayers , and some other parts of Divine Service prescribed in the Liturgy of the Church of England . 10. The Case of Kneeling at the Holy Sacrament stated and resolved , &c. In two Parts . 11. A Discourse of Profiting by Sermons , and of going to hear where Men think they can profit most . 12. A serious Exhortation , with some important Advices relating to the late Cases about Conformity , recommended to the present Dissenters from the Church of England . 13. An Argument to Union ; taken from the true interest of those Dissenters in England who profess and call themselves Protestants . 14. Some Considerations about the Case of Scandal , or giving Offence to the Weak Brethren . 15. The Case of Infant-Baptism , in Five Questions , &c. 16. The Charge of Scandal , and giving Offence by Conformity , Refelled , and Reflected back upon Separation , &c. 1. A Discourse about the charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England , made by the Papists asking of us the Question , Where was our Religion before Luther ? 2. A Discourse about Tradition , shewing what is meant by it , and what Tradition is to be received , and what Tradition is to be rejected . 3. The Difference of the Case between the Separation of Protestants from the Church of Rome , and the Separation of Dissenters from the Church of England . 4. The Protestant Resolution of Faith , &c. A DISCOURSE Concerning a GUIDE IN Matters of Faith ; With respect , especially , to the ROMISH pretence of the necessity of such a one as is infallible . LONDON , Printed for Ben. Tooke at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard , and F. Gardiner at the White-horse in Ludgate-street . 1683. THE CONTENTS . THE Question , Whether a Man , without submitting his judgment to an infallible Guide on Earth , may arrive at certainty in Matters of Faith. p. 1. The Moment of this Question . p. 2. The Temptations to a belief of the negative part of it , Sloth and vitious Humility . p. 2. The Resolution of the Question in six Propositions . p. 3. Propos. 1. The True Faith and the Profession of it never failed yet , nor shall it ever fail , in all places . 3 , 4 , 5. Propos. 2. Wheresoever God requires Faith , he gives means sufficient for the obtaining of it . 5 , 6. Propos. 3. Whatsoever those means are , the Act of Assent is ultimately resolved into each Mans reason . 6 , 7 , 8. Propos. 4. No true reason directeth to an infallible Guide on Earth . 8. This is proved by several Considerations . Consid. 1. God did not set up such a Guide amongst the Israelites . 8 , 9. Consid. 2. God hath no where promised such a Guide to Christians . 9 , 10. Either directly . 10 , 11 , 12. Or by consequence . 12 , 13. Consid. 3. God hath not given direction for the finding of such a Guide ; which he would have done , had he designed the setting of him up . 13 , 14. Consid. 4. We cannot find out such a one by the strictest enumeration . 14. For 1. This Guide is not the Church diffusive of the first Ages . 14. Nor 2. The Faith of all the Governours of all the Primitive Churches . 14. Nor 3. An Universal or General Council . 14 , 15 , 16 , 17. Which whilst the Reformed deny , they do not assume to themselves such Authority in their Synods . 17 , 18. Nor 4. Is this Guide any present Church pretending to declare the sense of the Churches of former Ages . 18 , 19. Nor 5. Is this Guide the Bishop of Rome . 20. This is shewed by the following Arguments . Arg. 1. The Romanists themselves are not at agreement about his Authority . 20. Arg. 2. The infallible Guidance of it is denied in the publick form of the Popes Profession . 21. Arg. 3. His Plea for this Guidance as Successor of St. Peter is insufficient . 21. Arg. 4. The Writings of the Popes manifest their Ignorance and Fallibility . 21. Both in lesser matters . 22 , 23. And in Matters of Faith. 23. Particularly , Pope Vigilius erred in a Matter of Faith. 23 , 24. And Pope Honorius . 24 , 25 , 26. Arg. 5. There seems not , in the constituting such a Guide , either necessity or fitness . 26. Propos. 5. The Reformed , especially those of the Church of England , refuse not all Ecclesiastical Guidance , though they submit not to any pretended infallible Guide . 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30. Nor doth our Church pretend to immediate illumination in Matters of necessary Faith. 30 , 31. Nor doth it exalt private reason to the prejudice of just Authority . 31 , 32. But the Vnlearned have more of the just Guidance of Authority in it , then in the Church of Rome it self . 32. Propos. 6. Though Ecclesiastical Authority is a help of our Faith , yet the Scripture is the only infallible rule of it . 32 , 33. This Proposition is handled in three Assertions . Assert . 1. A Man , without a Papal Guide , may know which are the true Canonical Books . 33 , 34. Assert . 2. He may also find out the necessary Articles of Faith contained in those Books . 35. The necessary Doctrines are therein contained . 35 , 36. The sense of the words in which they are delivered , may be found out without submission to such a Guide . 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , &c. Assert . 3. A submission of our unprejudiced Assent to the Holy Scripture as the Rule of Faith , is the true means to Vnion in Faith in the Christian Church . p. 42. ERRATA . PAge 2. marg . l. 5. for , affirmative r. negative . p. 16. l. 13. for , Abots r. Abbots . p. 17. l. 10. for doubts r. doubles . p. 18. l. 21. for Christian Ancient r. Ancient Christian. p. 19. l. 19. for , them r. it . p. 20. l. 27. blot out the Comma betwixt Mauritius and Burdin . p. 22. l. 13. for . Salvations r. Salutations . p. 23. l. 2. after this add ; refuse matter , It. l. 12. for nomina r. nomine p. 24. l. 3. after ▪ of , — add , an . l. 25. for , rigour r. vigour . p. 26. marg . l. 3. for Consid. 5. r. Arg. 5. p. 36. marg . put p. 583. after Critique . p. 38. l. 1. for Council r. Counsel . p. 40. l. 6. for , relectance r. reluctance . A DISCOURSE Concerning a GUIDE IN Matters of Faith. THE design of this Discourse is the Resolution of the following Query . Whether a Man who liveth where Christianity is profess'd , and refuseth to submit his Judgment to the Infallibilty of any Guide on Earth , and particularly to the Church or Bishop of Rome , hath , notwithstanding that refusal , sufficient means still left him whereby he may arrive at certainty in those Doctrines which are generally necessary to the Salvation of a Christian Man. Satisfaction in this Inquiry is of great Moment . For it relateth to our great end , and to the way which leads to it . And it nearly concerneth both the Romanists and the Reformed . If there be not such a Guide , the Estate of the Romanists is extreamly dangerous . For then the Blind take the Blind for their unerring Leaders ; and being once misled , they wander on without correcting their Error , having taken up this first as their fixed Principle , that their Guide cannot mistake the way . On the other hand , If God hath set up in his Church a Light so very clear and steddy as is pretended ; the Reformed are guilty of great presumption , and expose themselves to great uncertainty , by shutting their Eyes against it . Now , there lyes before Men a double Temptation to a belief of the being of such a Guide in the Christian Church ; Sloth and Vitious Humility of Mind . Sloth inclineth Men rather to take up in an Implicit Faith , than to give themselves the trouble of a strict Examination of things . For there is less Pain in Credulity , then in bending of the Head by long and strict Attention and severe Study . Also there is a Shew of Humility , in the deference which our understandings pay unto Authority ; especially to that which pretends to be , under Christ , Supreme on Earth . Although , in the paying of it without good reason first understood , Men are not Humble but Slavish . But these Temptations prevail not upon honest and considerate Minds , which inquire , without prejudice , after Truth , and submit to the Powerful Evidence of it . Such will resolve the Question in the Affirmative ; and they may reasonably so do by considering these Propositions which I shall treat of in their order . First , The Christian Church never yet wanted , nor shall it ever want , either the Doctrines of necessary Faith , or the Belief and Profession of them . Secondly , Wheresoever God requireth the Belief of them , he giveth means sufficient for Information and unerring Assent . Thirdly , Whatsoever those means are , every Man 's Personal reason giveth to the Mind that last Weight which turneth Deliberation into Faith. Fourthly , The means which God hath given us towards necessary Faith and the certainty of it , is not the Authority of any Infallible Guide on Earth . Yet , Fifthly , All Ecclesiastical Guidance is not to be rejected , in our pursuance of the Doctrines of Christian Faith , in the finding out or stating of which it is a very considerable help . Sixthly , By the help of it , and Principally as it offers to us the Holy Scriptures in the Quality of the Rule of Faith , we have means sufficient to lead us to certainty in that Belief which is necessary to Life Eternal . First , The Acknowledgment and Profession of the necessary Doctrines of the Christian Faith , are annexed inseparably to the Christian Church . There is but one Faith ; and according to the saying of Leo the great * , If it be not one , it is not at all : For it cannot be contrary to it self . And though it be but one , yet Men of differing Creeds pretend to it , as the Merchants of Relicks in the Church of Rome shew , in several places , the one seamless Coat of Christ † . This one Faith never did , nor ever shall in all places fail . The Apostles were themselves without error both in their own assent to the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith , and in the delivery of them . They heard the Oracles of Christ from his own mouth , and they were Witnesses of his Resurrection ; And they spake * what they had seen and heard . And they gave to the World Assurance of the Truth , by the miraculous signs of their Apostolical Office. And if they had not had such Assurance themselves , and could not have given proof to others of their mission , there would have been a defect in the first promulgation of the Gospel ; and such as could not afterwards have been amended . That which , at first , had been delivered with uncertainty , would , with greater uncertainty , have been conveighed down to after Ages ; and Men , who , in process of time , graft error upon certain Truth , would much more have grafted error upon uncertain Opinion . Ever since the Apostles times there has been True Faith , and the Profession of it in the Catholick Church : And it will be so till Faith shall expire , and Men shall see him on whom they before believ'd . For a Church cannot subsist without the Fundamentals of Christianity . And Christ hath Sealed this Truth with his promise , that there shall be a Church as long as this World continues . * I mean by a Church a visible Society of Christians both Ministers and People ; for publick Worship on Earth cannot be invisible . But the True Faith and the Profession of it is not fixed to any place , or to any succession of Men in it . God's Providence has written the contrary in the very Ashes of the Seven Churches of the lesser Asia . Neither is any particular Church , though so far infallible in Fundamentals as to be preserved from actual error , an infallible Rule to all other Christians . If they follow the Doctrine of it , they err not , because it is true ; but if they follow that Church as an unerring Guide or Canon , they mistake in the Rule and Motive of their Faith. For that particular Church which Teacheth Truth , might possibly have err'd ▪ and the Church which errs , might have shined with the True Light. But the whole Church cannot so err in any Age ; for then the very being of a Church would cease . Neither doth it , hence , follow , that the Faith of the Roman Church , when Luther arose , was the only true and certain Doctrine . For that Church was not then the only visible Church on Earth . The Greek Church ( for instance sake ) was than more visible than now it is , and more Orthodox : The Rich Papacy having much prevailed upon the necessities of it by Arguments guilded with Interest . That Church did not err in Fundamental Points ; the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father by the Son , which the Romans accuse of Heresie , being easily acquitted of it , if Men , agreeing in the sense , forbear contention about the Phrases . Besides ; if our Fore-Fathers under the Papacy embraced the True Faith , we have it still ; the Faith not being removed , but the Corruption . Their Question therefore [ Where was your Religion before Luther ? ] is not more pertinent amongst Disputers than this is amongst Husbandmen , [ Where was the Corn before it was weeded ? ] We have seen that necessary Faith is perpetual , and it is as manifest that wheresoever God requireth the belief of it , he vouchsafeth sufficient means for information , and unerring Assent . Of all he does not require this belief , for to all the Gospel is not preached , and where it is preached there are Infants , and Persons of Age so distempered in Mind , as to remain unavoidably Children in understanding . And though the same Sum of Doctrines is generally necessary to Salvation , yet the Creed of all Men is not of equal length , seeing they have unequal capacities . But wheresoever there is a particular Society of Men , who call themselves a Church , yet err actually in the necessary Articles of the Faith , it is certain they were not forced into that error for want of external means . For the Just Judge of the World would never have required Unity in the Faith upon pain of his Eternal displeasure , if he had not given to Men Power sufficient for such Unity . No Tyrant on Earth has been guilty of such undisguised injustice as that is , which maketh a Law for the punishment of the Blind because they miss their way . The Art●cles of Christian Religion come not to the Mind by natural reason but by Faith ; and Faith comes by hearing or reading ; and where these means are not offered , a Man is rather an Ignorant Person than an Unbeliever . Wherefore our Saviour told the perverse Jews , * that if the Messiah had never been reveal'd to them , they had not been answerable for the Sin of Infidelity : But that , since he was come to them , and by them despised , their Infidelity was blackned with great aggravation . The means , then , are sufficient wheresoever the end is absolutely required ; but whatsoever those means are , the Act of Assent is to be ultimately resolved into each Mans Personal reason . For no Man can believe or assent but upon some ground or motive which appears credible to him . He could not believe unless he had some reason or other why he believed . When all is done ( said Mr. Thorndike * ) Men must and will be Judges for themselves . I do not quote the saying because it is extraordinary , but because that Learned Man said it who was careful to pay to Authority its minutest dues . If a Man believes upon Authority , he hath a further reason for the believing of it . He is not willing to take Pains in examining that which is proposed to him ; or he thinks himself of less Ability in understanding than those from whom he borrows his Light. If he desireth another to judge for him , his choice is determined by the Opinion he hath conceived of him . Every Man has his reason , though it be a weak one , and such as cannot justify it self or him . Something at last turns the Ballance , though it be but a Feather . This the Romanists own as well as the Reformed , till it toucheth them in the case of a new Convert . To induce a Man of another particular Church to embrace their Communion , they submit these weighty points to his private Judgment : What is a True Church , and which are the marks of it ? What is the Roman Church ? And whether the marks of the True Church do only belong unto the Roman ? What Men or what Books speak the sense of that Church ? They tell us * That the Light of a Man 's own reason first serves him so far as to the discovery of a Guide ; Also that , in this discovery , the Divine Providence hath left it so clear and evident , that a sincere and unbyassed quest cannot miscarry . But when once this Guide is found out , the Man is afterwards , for all other things that are prescribed by this Guide , to subject and resign his reason . As if it were not as difficult to judge of such a Guide , as of his direction . It seems , the Roman Church is like a Cave , into which a Man has Light enough to enter ; but when once he is entred , he is in thick Darkness . But , how subservient soever our reason may be to our Faith ; The means which God hath given us towards the certain attaining of it , is not the Authority of any infallible Guide on Earth . This will not be disbelieved by those who weigh well the following considerations . First , God did not set up such a constant , infallible Guide among the Jews ; though , at first , he gave Assurance to them by Miracle , that Moses had received his Commission from him , and had brought to them the Tables which he had Written , for their direction , with his own finger . Some of the Sanedrim were of the Sect of the Sadduces , who erred in the Fundamental point of a future State. Most of them erred in the Quality of the Messiah , not considering their Scriptures so much as their Traditions . And of the errors of the Levitical Priesthood there is , in the Old Testament , * frequent mention , and great complaint . And the Prophet Malachy , † as soon as he had said , The Priests lips shall preserve Knowledge , he adds this reproof , but ye are departed out of the way . It is true , the Israelites were , by God , directed in difficult cases to an Assembly of Judges * . But they were not Judges of controversies in Doctrine , but in Property . To their sentence the People were to submit , as to an expedient for Peace ; though Judgment might be perverted , or mistaken . It must be , also , confessed that God spake to them by the Oracle of Vrim , and that the voice of it was infallible . But its answers concerned not the necessary Rudiments of the Mosaick Law , but emergencies in their civil affairs ; those especially of Peace and War. But if we admit that there was under Judaism a living infallible Guide ; it does not , thence , follow , that it must be so under Christianity . For their small precinct ( the People of which were thrice in a year to come up to the Temple ) was much more capable of such a judge than the Christian Church , which is as wide as the World. Also the new Revelation is more clear and distinct than the old one was , and stands not in such need of an Interpreter . Secondly , God hath , no where , promised Christians such a judge : He hath no where said that he hath given such a one to the Christian Church . And seeing such a one cannot be had without Gods supernatural assistance , the most knowing amongst Men being subject both to Error and to Falshood ; it is great arrogance , whilst the Scripture is silent , to say he is in being . And to affirm that if there were not such a Guide , God would be wanting in means sufficient for the maintenance of Peace and Truth , is presumptuously to obtrude the schemes of Mans fancy upon God's Wisdom . He can Govern his Church without our methods . Now , God hath no where promised such a judge to Christian Men ; though he hath promised help on Earth , and assistance from Heaven to Men diligent and sincere in their inquiries after Truths which are necessary for them . There are two places of Scripture , which are by some taken for Promises of such a nature , though they were not , by the Divine Wisdom , so intended . Of these , the First is that which was spoken by Christ unto St. Peter . * The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against ( the Church . ) Which Promise concerneth the Church in general , and the necessary Faith of it , and not any particular persons , or places , or successions of persons in them . And Christ doth here assure us , that the Gates of the Grave shall not swallow up the Church ; that it shall not enter in at them ; that it shall not die or perrish . But he doth not say he will preserve it by the means of any Earthly Infallible Guide . He can , by other ways , continue it till time it self shall fail . The other place of Scripture is , the promise of Christ a little while before his Ascension into the Heavens . † Lo , I am with you alway , even unto the end of the World : As long as this Age of the Messiah shall last , and that is the last time or Age. This promise is , indeed , made to the Apostles , and to their successors also . But it is a promise of general assistance ; and it is made upon condition that they go forth and make Disciples of all Men of all Nations , and Baptize them , and give them further instruction in the things which Christ gave in charge to them . And some of the successors of the Apostles have not performed these conditions ; and the Governour of the Church of Sardis had not held fast what he had received and heard . As God hath not promised an unerring Guide , so neither hath he said he hath set up such an one in any Church on Earth . He hath not said it , either directly , or by consequence . The places which are supposed directly to affirm this , are two , and both mistaken . One of them is that of Christ to his Disciples , after he had given Commission to them to preach the Gospel , * He that heareth you , heareth me ; me the infallible way and the Truth . This Speech , if it be extended to all Ministers , it makes them all infallible Guides . And it is certain they are so , as long as they deliver to the People what they received from Christ. But the words are especially directed to the seventy Disciples who were taught to preach a plain Fundamental Truth , that the Kingdom of God was come nigh to the Jews . † And these Disciples were able to give to the Jews a demonstration of the Truth of that Doctrine which they taught , by miraculous signs : By healing the Sick , * and doing , among them , mighty works . Another place , used as an express Testimony is that in the first to Timothy to whom St. Paul saith , that the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth . But this place also is misapplied . It seemeth to be spoken of that Church of Ephesus in which St. Paul advised Timothy to behave himself with singular care : Which place hath so far failed that the lofty Building called St. John's Church , † is now become a Turkish Mosch . But if it were spoken in a general sense , it would amount only to this meaning : A Christian Church is like a Pillar sustained by a Pedestal on which a writing is so fixed , that all who pass by may see it . It is ( as Jerusalem once was to the Heathen-World ) a City on a Hill : It is a visible Society which giveth notice to Jews and Gentiles of Christianity , and is instrumental to awaken their observation , and by their sense to prepare the way to their belief . For , this advertisement being so publickly given to them , they have fair occasion of examining the grounds of Christian Truth , which when they find , they will be induced to build upon them . In this sense likewise , though not in this alone , Apostolical Men were called Lights and Pillars . In the Book of the Revelation * this promise is made to him who persevereth in his Christianity , notwithstanding the cross which it brings upon him . Him will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God , and I will write my name upon him , and the name of his God , and the name of the City of his God which is new Jerusalem [ or the Christian Church . ] And S. Chrysostom † gives S. Paul the Titles of the Light of the Churches , the Foundation of the Faith , the Pillar and Ground of Truth . The Governours of the Church do ministerially exhibit Christian Truth ; they do not by mere Authority impose it . Among the Places which are said to prove , by good consequence , that there is a Living Guide of Faith , that in the eighteenth of St. Matthews Gospel * is the Principal . There our Saviour , requireth his Followers , if their Brethren persisted in their offences , to tell it to the Church , and to esteem them no longer Members of their Society , if they despised the Sentence of it . From whence they conclude with strange Inadvertence , that such a Decree is therefore infallible . But our Lord speaks of their Brothers Trespasses against them , and not of his Heresie : And of the Discipline , and not of the Doctrine , either of the Synagogue or the Church . In which case if we submit , even where there is error in the Sentence , for Peace sake , and because we are come to the last Appeal ; we worthily sacrifice private Good to publick Order . And such Submission is safe in point of property , though not in point of Doctrine ; for we may , without Sin , depart from our property , but not from our Faith. Now , much of this that has been said in order to the explication of the foregoing places , might have been well omitted , if I had designed this little Discourse for the use only of such Romanists as had been conversant with the writings of the Fathers . For then I should have needed only to have cited those Ancients , and shewed that their sense of these several places was plainly different from the modern interpretations of the Church Men of Rome . And , by this way of arguing , they are self-condemned . For they fall according to their own Rule of expounding Scripture by the unanimous consent of the Primitive Fathers , who with one voice , speak another sense . Those who doubt of this may receive satisfaction from the Learned Letters of Monsieur Launoy . * If God had promised an infallible Guide , or told us he had given one to his Church , he would , doubtless , have added some directions for the finding of him . For , to say in general , you shall have a Star which will always Guide you without all dangerous error ; and not to inform us in what part of the Firmament it is to be seen , is to amuse rather than to promise . Now , God hath no where given us such direction . He hath no where pointed us to this Church , or that Council ; to this Person , or that Local succession of Men. He hath not said the Guide is at Antioch , or Hierusalem ; at Nice , or Constantinople ; at Rome or Avignon . You will say , he hath directed us to St. Peter . I answer , no more than to the rest of the Apostles , to whom he gave equal power in their Ordination ; * All of whom he made equally Shepherds of the Flock ; † to all of whom he gave equal Commission to make Proselytes of all Nations . * And in this sense St. Chrysostom † affirmed concerning St. Paul that the whole World [ or the World of the Roman Empire ] was his Diocese . You will reply , that he promised , on him particularly upon this Rock , or Stone , this Kipha ( a Syriac Word of the Masculine Gender † ) this Peter ; to build his Church . I answer , the Ancients took the Word as Feminine , * and understood it rather of his Confession than of his Person . If it was spoken of his Person , it was spoken by way of Emphasis , not Exclusion ; for there were twelve Foundations † of these he might be called the first , having first preached the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles , * the Eleven standing up with him , and he speaking as the Mouth of the Apostolical Colledge . We cannot , by the strictest ennumeration , find out any living infallible Guide existing in any Age after St. Peter in the Christian Church . 1. This Guide could not be the Church diffusive of the first Ages . For the suffrages of every Christian were never gathered . And if we will have their sense , they must rise from the dead and give it us . 2. This Guide cannot be the Faith ( as such ) of all the Governours of all the Primitive Churches . The sum of it was never collected . There were anciently general Creeds , but such as especially related to the Heresies then on foot ; and who can affirm , upon grounds of certainty , that each Bishop in the World consented to each Article , or to each so expressed ? 3. This Guide is not a Council perfectly free and universal . For a Guide which cannot be had , is none . If such a Council could assemble , it would not err in the necessaries of Faith. For there cannot be a regular Flock without a Shepherd ; and if all the Spiritual Shepherds in the World should at once , and by consent , go so much astray ; the whole Flock of the Church Catholick would be scattered . And that would contradict the promise of Christ the Supreme , Faithful , Infallible Pastor . But there never was yet an universal Council properly so called : Neither can we suppose the probability of it but by supposing the being of one Temporal Christian Monarch of the World who might call , or suffer , it . In the Councils called General , if we speak comparatively , there were not many Southern or Western Bishops present at them . It was thus , at that first Oecumenical Council , the Council of Nice ; though , in one sacred place ( as Eusebius † hath noted ) there were assembled , Syrians and Cilians , Phoenicians , and Arabians ; Paloestinians Egyptians , Theboeans , Libyans , Mesopotamians ; a Persian , a Scythian Bishop ; and many others from other Countries . But there was but one Bishop for Africa , one for Spain , one for Gaul ; two Priests as Deputies of the infirm and Aged Bishop of Rome . Whilst ( for Instance sake ) there were seventeen Bishops for the small Province of * Isauria ; yet such Councils are very useful ; such we reverence ; but God did not set them up as the only and the infallible Guides of Faith. If these were such Guides , what Guided the Church which was before them ? By what rule was Ebion judged before the Council of Nice ? How can we be infallibly Guided by them in Controversies of Faith not determined by them ; nay not brought before them ; nay scarce moved till these latter days ? Such ( for the purpose ) are the Controversies about the vertue of the Sacrifice of Christ , and of Justification by the Faith of mere recumbence upon his Merits . Or how shall a private Man who errs in the Faith , be deliver'd from his Heresy , seeing he may die some years ere a Council can assemble , or , being assembled , can form its decrees . Arius vented his Heresy about ten years before the Council of Nice was called for the suppressing of it . And soon after he had given vent to it , it spread throughout Egypt and Lybia and the upper Thebes , as Socrates † has reported : And , in a short time many other Provinces and Cities were infected with the contagion of it . And , in the pretended Council of Trent , no less than five Popes were successively concerned ; and it lasted , in several places longer than two legal lives of a Man. * There was , indeed , a Canon in the Western Church † for the holding of a Council once in the space of each ten years : But that Canon has not been , hitherto , obeyed ; and as affairs stand in the Church , it is impracticable . For the Pope will exclude all the Greek and Reformed Bishops : he will crowd the Assembly with Bishops of his own Creation ; and with Abots also ; he will not admit of former Councils unless they serve his purpose ; not so much as that of Nice it self . * He will be the Judge , though about his own Supremacy . He will multiply Italians and others who , upon Oath † owe their votes to him . He will not hold a Council upon the terms approved by all Romish Princes . Nor did they agree at their last Council ; the Emperour would not send his Bishops to Bologna , nor the French King his to Trent . And though the French Church believed the Doctrines of that Synod , yet they did not receive them from the Authority of it , but they embraced them as the former Doctrines of the Roman Church . And the Parisian Faculty (a) prepared the way to the Articles of Trent . Notwithstanding all this , we firmly believe that at least the first four general Councils did not err in Faith ; and it is pious to think that God would not suffer so great a temptation in the Church on Earth . Yet still we believe those Councils not to be infallible in their constitution , but so far as they followed an infallible rule . For the greatest Truth is not always with the greatest number : And great numbers may appear on contrary sides . The Council of Constantinople under Constantine Copronymus , consisting of three hundred thirty eight Bishops , decreed against the use of Images in Churches . Yet the second Synod of Nice consisting of about three hundred and fifty Bishops determin'd for it . And , a while after , in the West , the Council of Frankford consisting of about three hundred Bishops , reversed that decree : And , after that , the Council of Trent did re-establish it ; though there the voting Persons were not fifty . With such uncertain doubts of belief must they move who follow a Guide in Religion without reference to a further rule . But , here , there is offered to us , by the Guide in Controversies , * an Objection , of which this is the sum . The fifth Canon of the Church of England does declare that the thirty nine Articles were agreed upon for the avoidance of the diversities of opinions and the establishing of consent touc●ing true Religion . Consent touching true Religion is consent in Matter , of Faith. Establishing of consent relateth both to Layety and Clergy . The third and fourth Canons of 1640. decree the Excommunication of those who will not abjure their holding Popery and Socinianism . The Re●ormed Churches in France teach the like Doctrine , threatning to cut them off from the Church who acqu●e●ce not in the resolution of a National Synod . † The same course was taken with the Remonstrants in the Synod of Dor● . * Wherefore Protestants ought not to detract from the Authority of general Councils , whilst they assume to themselves so great a Power in their particular Synods . The force of this Objection is thus removed . Every Church hath Power of admitting or excluding Members , else it hath not means sufficient to its end , the order and concord of its Body . Every particular Church ought to believe that it does not err in its definitions ; for it ought not to impose any known error upon its Members . But though it believes it does not err , it does not believe it upon this reason , because God hath made it an infallible Guide ; but rather for this , because it hath sincerely and with Gods assistance followed a rule which is infallible . And , upon this supposition , it imposeth Doctrines , and excludeth such as with contumacy dissent from them (a) 4. This Guide is not the present Church declaring to particular Christians the sense of the Church of former Ages . How can this declaration be made , seeing Churches differ , and each Church calls it self the true one , and pretendeth to the Primitive pattern . The Church of Rome hath , on her side , the suffrages of all the Councils and Fathers , the first , the middle the last , if Campian the Jesuite may be believed (b) On the other hand Monsieur Larroque hath Written a Book of the Conformity of the Protestant Churches in France with the Discipline of the Christian Ancient Church , taking it for granted that their Doctrine was Catholick . And we likewise pretend , both to the Doctrine and Discipline of it . All of us cannot be in the right . The Roman Church , without any proof , calleth her self the Church Catholick ; and she pretendeth to conveigh to us the sense of the Ancient Fathers and Councils ; which sense was that they understood formerly by the word Tradition . * And in this sense a Romanist said of Pope Honorius † , that he had broken the rule of Tradition . But how can we esteem that Church a faithful representer of the sense of the Ancients whilst the Reformed consult the Ancients with equal ability , and find a contrary sense in them ? Whilst the Church of Rome , * by a kind of Ecclesiastical Coinage , stampeth Divine Authority upon Books esteemed by the Councils and Fathers to be Apochryphal ? † Whilst it hath forged decrees of Popes , * and ( like a deceitful Gibeonite ) rendred that which was really new , in appearance old and mouldy , on purpose to promote imposture ? How doth it give us the sense of the Ancients , when it owneth what it formerly disowned as Canonical , the Epistle to the Hebrews † ? When it taketh away the Cup which Pope Gelasius called a grand Sacrilege * ? When it now rejecteth the Communicating of Infants which , in former times , was esteemed by many a very necessary point ? When a former Pope Gregory condemns the Title of Universal pastor as Anti-Christian , and a latter insists upon it as the choicest flour in the papal Prerogative ? When St. Austin (a) and from him the very Breviary (b) shall expound Christs promise , of being always with his Church , of the presence of his Divinity and of his Spirit , and not of his Body : And Pope Innocent the third shall interpret them as meant also of his corporal presence (c) ? And , if the Roman Church falsifyeth written Tradition , how shall we trust her for Oral ? And how and at what time did that Oral Tradition remove from Greece to Rome where the Greek Church , which it alloweth to have been once possessed of the true Tradition , is accused of Heresie ? At the same time ( I suppose ) that the Chappel of the Virgin removed from Nazareth to Loretto . This principle of Oral Tradition is most uncertain to their Judges ; and to those to whom they offer it , it is most obscure . It is a principle on which they can serve a purpose , in justifying novel Doctrines as Oral Traditions not known to any but the Roman Church , which pretendeth to the custody of them . 5. God hath not set up any one Person in the Catholick Church in the Quality of an unerring Guide in the Christian Faith. The Bishops of Rome who pretend to this Prerogative , do but pretend : It is a tender point ; and the Pope's Legates , in the Council of Trent , * were enjoyned to give forth this Advertisement , that the Fathers , upon no account whatsoever , should touch it , or dispute about it . They who examine it , will soon reject it as false and useless . And , 1. Whether the Pope be or be not the Guide , the Men of the Roman Communion are exposed to dangerous uncertainty . For , it is not yet determined amongst them , whether they are to follow the Pope , with , or without , or against a Council . Yet a Pope hath owned a Council which deposed other Popes , and by decree , set it self above them , or rather vindicated the superiority due to it . Thus Martin the fifth received the Papal Mitre from the Council of Constance , after it had deposed Gregory the twelfth , Benedict the thirteenth , and John the twenty third . Again , there have been , by the account given us in their own Historians , † more than twenty formed Schisms in that Church ; two or more Popes pretending at the same time to the infallible Chair , and each of them not being without their followers and giving Holy Orders . And at this time there is risen an Apologist * for Mauritius , Burdin or Gregory the eighth , though he was ejected by the Roman Church , which received Gelasius into his place ; Burdin being disliked by them as a Creature of Henry the Emperour . This Schism ( saith St. Bernard † ) distracted that Church and gave it a wound only not incurable . And Baluzius * professeth that it was then difficult to understand which of the two , Gregory or Gelasius , was the Legitimate successour of Pope Paschal . Now , how useless , to them , is the pretence of a Guide , when they want some other Guide who should tell them which of the pretenders they may securely follow ? Secondly , the Popes themselves , in their Solemn Profession , suppose themselves liable to the misleading of the People even in Matters of Faith. For , having owned the Faith of the Six general Councils , * They further profess themselves and others to be subject to an Anat●ema , if they advance novelty contrary to the aforesaid Evangelical Tradition , and the integrity of the Orthodox and Christian Faith. Thirdly , If the Pope challengeth this Power of infallible Guidance , he must lay claim to it by his succeeding of St. Peter in the Chair Apostolical . But , then , by equal reason , the successors of each Apostle may challenge the office of an infallible Guide . For the Power which Christ gave to St. Peter , he gave to the rest : It was not special . And , for the Bishops of Antioch who first succeeded St. Peter , they have a much fairer pretence than those of Rome . The Truth is , Hierusalem was properly the Mother-Church : Though Rome was the Imperial City ; and if , by this means , the Popes had not sate higher , they would not have pretended to see further than others . Fourthly , those who have considered the writings of many Popes , and the decrees made by them , have found no reason to lay their Faith at their Golden Sandal . It is manifest to every Learned Man that the Eyes of the Pope are not ( metaphorically ) like those of Augustus in which ( it is said ) there appeared a brightness like that of the Sun. If we had more of their History , and more of their Writings , we should find more of their errors . They have shewed both ignorance and extravagance in opinion , and error in the Faith it self . There are not , perhaps , weaker or more absurd passages in any Ecclesiastical Writer , than we may find in the works of Pope Innocent the third , who was called the Wonder of the World * . He saith of Subdeacons that they represented the Nethinims † ( or Nathinnims as he calls them ; ) and that Nathaniel was one of that Order . * That the Pope does not use a Pastoral rod , because St. Peter sent his Staff to Eucharius the first Bishop of Treves , to whom Maternus succeeded , who , by the same Staff , was raised from the dead . † That the People have seven Salvations in the Mass , in order to the expelling the seven deadly Sins , and receiving the seven fold Grace of God. * That an Epistle , signifying in Greek an Over-sending or supererogation , the word agrees very well to the Apostolical Epistles , which are superadded to the Gospel (a) He allots to each Article of the Apostolical and Constantinopolitan Creeds , a particular Apostle , and finds the mystery in all things that are twelve in number . For example sake , in the twelve loaves of Shew-Bread ; in the twelve Tribes ; twelve hours , twelve Months . He gives this reason why Water is by the Bishop mixed with Wine in the Holy Chalice ; because it is said in the Revelation , that many Waters signify many People , and that Christ shed his Blood for the People (b) He saith that Judas was not at the Sacrament (c) because he was not to drink it new with Christ in his Kingdom , which priviledge he had promised to all the partakers . He teacheth that Mice eat only the Shews of Consecrated Bread (d) He professeth rather to venerate Sacraments than to prie into them (e) because it is written in Exodus the twelfth , concerning the Paschal Lamb , Eat not of it raw , nor sodden at all with Water , but rost with Fire . I have not narrowly ransacked the plaits of the Popes Vestments , for this is obvious enough ; and so were a great many other sayings of equal weakness ; but I am weary of the folly of them . There have been other Popes , also , injudicious even to duncery . Eugenius the third approved of the Prophesies or Enthusiastick Dreams of Hildegardis , in the Synod of Tryers , as Inspirations . Pope Zachary judged the true Doctrine of Antipodes , to be heretical in the case of the more Learned and Knowing Virgilius (a) Herein the Pope committed a greater error than the poor Priest who Baptized in nomina Patria & filia & Spiritûs Sancta (b) and whose lack of Latin Boniface the German Apostle would have punished by the Rebaptization of his Proselytes , if the said Virgilius had not , by application to that Pope , prevented it . It is true , Virgilius was accused as an Heretick who had set up another Sun and another Moon , as well as another World of Men whose feet were opposite to ours . But Velserus himself (c) hath the ingenuity to confess that this was meant only of the Sun and Moon as shining to our Antipodes , as well as to us : And that the accusation was framed by ignorant Men who had not the acuteness to understand the Globular form of the Earth , and the scheme of the proposer . Neither had Pope Zachary himself sagacity enough to discern the nature of this ridiculous charge . He who can mistake Truth for Heresie , may mistake Heresie for Truth . Now that Popes have erred not only in lesser things , but even in Matters of Faith , is plain from History . I will instance , only , in Vigilius , and Honorius , for-bearing to speak of Liberius and divers others who swerved from the truly Ancient Catholick Faith. Pope Vigilius framed a Constitution in favour of the three Chapters or Nestorian-Writings of Ibas Bishop of Edessa , Theodorus of Mopsuestia , and Theodoret Bishop of Cyrus . This Constitution was published by Cardinal Baronius † out of Ancient Manuscript in the Vatican Library : And he calls it a Decree * in defence of these Chapters . In this Decree the Pope doth not only justify these Heretical Writings , but , with the Followers of Theodorus , he falsly chargeth upon the Council of Chalcedon the Epistle of Ibas * , and calls it Orthodox . This charge the Fathers of the fifth general Council (a) shew to be unjust and false . That Council condemneth those three Chapters as Heretical . And , together with them , it condemneth (b) Pope Vigilius and others under the name of Sequaces or Followers of Nestorius and Theodorus . Baronius himself acknowledgeth that the decree of that Council was set up against the decree of that Pope (c) These Chapters had not been condemned if they had not contained in them the Nestorian-Heresie . The Epistle of Ib●● does , in particular manner , extoll The d●r●● . And the Council affirmeth concerning his Creed , that the Father of lies composed it . And it denounceth a ●●rse against both the Composer and the Believers of it . Yet doubtless , these writings were , in themselves , inconsiderable enough . But the Council opposed them with such rigour , because the Faction had made them very popular , and advanced them into the Quality of a kind of Bible of the Party . For Pope Honorius , he fell into the Heresie of the Monothelites . * That is , of those who held that there is but one Will in both the Natures of Christ. This Doctrine he published in his Epistles . This he declared in the sixth general Council † he is , in the seventh Council * condemned as a Monothelite . And he was expressly anathematized for Confirming the Wicked Doctrine of Sergius . The guilt of Heresie in Honorius , is owned in the Solemn Profession of Faith made by the Popes at their entrance on the Papacy (a) This matter is so manifest that Melchior Canus (b) professeth , no Sophistry is artful enough to put the Colour of a plausible defence upon it . A late Romanist hath undertaken to write the History of the Monothelites (c) ; and the Defence of Honorius seemeth to be the principal motive to that undertaking . Yet so great is the power of Truth , and such , in this case is the plainness of it , that , in the Apologist himself , we find these concessions : That the Pope (a) was condemned by the Council , and that the Council was not to be blamed † ; that Pope Leo the second owned both the Council and the Sentence , and that Honorius was Sentenced as an Heretick . * He would abate this guilt by saying (b) that Honorius erred as a private Person , and not as Head of the Church , because his Epistle was hortatory , and not compulsive . It is true , he erred not as Head of the Church , for such he was not , neither as such was he owned . But he erred as a publick person and with Heretical obstinacy . For Pope Leo , as he noteth , said concerning him , that he had made it his business to betray and subvert the Holy Faith. (c) Now this matter of Fact sufficeth for the refuting all the fallacious reasonings of the patrons of Papal infallibility . For all must agree that they are not unerring Guides who actually err . The Sieur de Balzac (d) mocks at the weakness of one of the Romish Fathers who offered four reasons to prove that the Duke D' Espernon was not returned out of England : And offered them to a Gentleman who had seen him since his return . There seemeth no sitness in the constituting of such a Guide ; nor any necessity for it . Had it been agreeable to Gods Wisdom , his Wisdom would not have been wanting to it self . God having made Man a Reasonable Creature , would not make void the use of deliberation , and the freedom of his judgment . There is no vertue in the Assent , where the Eye is forced open , and the Light held directly to it . It is enough that God ▪ the rewarder of them who believe , hath given Men sufficient faculties , and sufficient means . And , seeing Holiness is as necessary to the pleasing of God , and to the peace of the World , as Union in Doctrine ( to which there is too frequently given a lifeless Assent ; ) seeing there must be Christian Obedience as long as there is a Church ; seeing ( as the Guide in Controversy * himself urgeth ) the Catholick Church and all the parts of it are believed , in the Creed , to be Holy as well as Orthodox ; We ask not the Romanists an impertinent Question when we desire them to tell us , why a means to infallibility in the judgment , rather than irresistibleness in the pious choice of the Will , is to be , by Heaven , provided in the Church ? Both seem a kind of Destination of equal necessity . But , though the Reformed , especially those of the Church of England , see no necessity for an infallible Guide , nor believe there is one on the face of the Earth , yet they do not reject all Ecclesiastical Guidance ; but allow it great place in matters of Discipline and Order ; and some place also ( though not that of an unerring Judge ) in Matters of Faith. At the beginning of the Reformation the Protestants , though they refused the judgment of the Pope their Enemy , yet they declined not the determination of a Council . And , in the Assembly at Ausburgh , the Romanists and Protestants agreed in a Council as the Umpire of their publick difference . At this the Pope was so alarumed ( saith the Sieur de Mezeray * ) that he wrote to the Kings of France and England , that he would do all they would desire , provided they hindred the calling of a Council . In the Reformation of the Church of England great regard was had to the Primitive Fathers and Councils . And the aforesaid French Historian was as much mistaken in the affairs of Our Church , when he said of our Religion , that it was a medly of the Opinions of Calvin and Luther (a,) as he was afterwards in the affairs of our State , when he said King James was elected at the Guild-hall King of England (b.) The Romannists represent us very falsly , whilst they fix upon us a private Spirit , as it stands in opposition to the Authority of the Catholick Church . Mr. Alabaster (c) expresseth one motive to his conversion to the Roman Church in these Words : Weigh together the Spouse of Christ , with Luther , Calvin , Melancthon : Oecumenical Councils with private opinions . The Reverend and Learned Fathers with Arius , Aetius , Vigilantius , Men always in their time Burned for Hereticks [ of which words , the former are false reasoning , the latter are false History . ] The Bishop of Meaux (d) reasons after the same fallacious manner , Supposing a Protestant to be of this perswasion that he can understand the Scriptures better than all the rest of the Church together , of which perswasion he saith very truly , that it exalteth Pride , and removeth Docility . The Guide in Controversies (d) puts the Question wrong in these terms . Whether a Protestant , in refusing the submission of his judgment to the Authority or Infallibility of the Catholick Church in her Councils , can have , in several Articles of necessary Faith , wherein the sense of Scripture is controverted , as sure a Foundation of his Faith , as he who submits his judgment to the foresaid Authority , or also Infallibility ? Here the Catholick Church is put in place of the Roman , Authority and Infallibility are joyned together ; and it is suggested dishonestly concerning the Reformed , that they lay aside the Authority of the Catholick Church in her general Councils . Authority may be owned where there is no infallibility ; for it is not in Parents Natural or Civil : Yet both teach and govern us . If others reject Church-Authority , let them who are guilty of such disorderly irreverence , see to it . The Christians of the Church of England are of another Spirit . Of that Church this is one of the Articles : The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies , and Authority in Controversies of Faith. There is a Question ( saith Mr. Selden * ) about that Article concerning the power of the Church , whether these words [ of having power in Controversies of Faith ] were not stolen in . But , it 's most certain , they were in the Book of Articles that was confirmed ; though , in some Editions , they have been left out . They were so in Dr. Mocket's † ; but he is to be considered in that Edition as a private Man. Now this Article does not make the Church an infallible Guide in the Articles of Faith , but a Moderator in the Controversies about Faith. The Church doth not assume that Authority to it self in this Article which , in the foregoing * , it denied to the Churches of Jerusalem , Alexandria , Antioch and Rome . When perverse Men will raise such Controversies , who is so fit , for Peace sake , to interpose , as that Church where the Flame is kindled ? There can be no Church without a Creed ; and each particular Church ought to believe her Creed to be true , and , by consequence , must exercise her Authority in the defence of presumed Truth . Otherwise she is not true to her own constitution . But still she acts under the caution given by St. Augustine . (a) You bind a Man on Earth : Take heed they be just bonds in which you retain him . For Justice will break such as are unjust in sunder . And whilest the Church of England challengeth this Authority , she doth not pretend to it from any supernatural gift of infallibility , but so far only as she believes she hath sincerely followed an infallible Rule . For of this importance are the next words of the Article before remembred . — It is not Lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods word written . — And besides the same it ought not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation (b.) After this manner the Church of England asserteth her own Authority ; and she runs not into any extream about the Authority of Councils , or the Catholick Church . We make Confession of the Ancient Faith expressed in the Apostolical , Nicene , or Constantinopolitan and Athanasian Creeds . The Canons of forty reject the Heresie of Socinus as contrary to the first four general Councils (c.) Our very Statute-Book hath respect to them in the adjudging of Heresie . (d) Yet our Church still teacheth concerning them (e) , that things by them ordained have neither Strength nor Authority , unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture . When Controversies arise , especially when the doubts concern not so much the Article of Faith it self , as the Modes of it , we grant to such venerable Assemblies a Potiority of Judgment . Or if we assent not , yet for Peace sake we are humbly silent : We do not altogether refuse their Umpirage . We think their Definitions good Arguments against unquiet Men who are chiefly moved by Authority . We believe them very useful in the Controversies betwixt us and the Church of Rome ; and as often as they appeal to Primitive Fathers and Councils ; to Fathers and Councils we are willing to go with them , and to be tryed by those who were nigher to the Apostles , in the Quality of Witnesses rather than Judges . We believe that in matters of Truth of which we are already well perswaded , there may be added by the Suffrages of Councils and Fathers , a degree of Corroboration to our Assent . In sum we say with S. Aust●ne * that there is of Councils in the Church of God a most wholesome [ though not an infallible ] Authority . And if S. Gregory Naz●anzen never saw ( as he saith ) a happy effect of any Synod , (a) this came not to pass from the Nature of the means as not conducive to that end , but from the looseness of Government , and the depraved manners of the Age in which he lived : For such were the times of Valens the Emperour . It is true , there are some among us , though not of us , who , with disdainful insolence , contemn all Authority ; even that of the Sacred Scripture it self . These pretend to an infallible Light of immediate and personal Revelation . It hath hapned according to the Proverb , every Man of them hath a Pope within him . Henry Nicholas puffed up many vain ignorant people with this Proud Imagination . Hetherington a Mechanick , about the end of the Reign of King James , advanced this notion of Personal Infallibility . His followers believed they could not err in giving deliberate Sentence in Religion (a) And this was the principle of Wynstanley and the first Quakers , though the Leaders , since they were embodied , have in part forsaken it . But these Enthusiasts have intituled the Holy Spirit of God to their own Dreams . They have pretended to Revelations which are contrary to one another . They can be Guides to themselves only , because they cannot by any supernatural sign prove to others that they are inspired . And such Enthusiasm is not otherwise favoured in the Church of England then by Christian pity , in consideration of the infirmity of Humane Nature ; but in the Church of Rome , it hath been favoured to that Degree , that it hath founded many Orders and Religious Houses , and given Reputation to some Doctrines , and canoniz'd not a few Saints amongst them . The Inspiration of S. Hildegardis , S. Catharine of Siena , S. Teresa , and many others seemeth to have been vapour making impression on a devout fancy : Yet the Church of Rome in a Council under Leo the Tenth , hath too much encouraged such distemper as prophesie * . For private Reason , it is the handmaid of Faith ; we use it , and not seperately from the Authority of the Church , but as a help in distinguishing true from false Authority . And in so plain a case as Heresie , if our Church thinketh a private Man may without an infallible Guide on Earth judge aright of it , it does but believe as Pope Adrian believed , as he professed in a Synod at Rome , of which profession report is made in the second Synod of Nice † For , speaking of the Sentence against Pope Honorius , he excuseth it in point of good behaviour , because it was given in the case of Heresie . For in that case , and in that case alone , he allowed Inferiors ( so he was pleased to call the Oriental Bishops ) to reject the corrupt sense of those who are superior to them . I will hasten to the next Proposition , after I have added one thing more which relates to the guidance of Ecclesiastical Authority : And it is this . Those of the Unlearned Laity who are Members of the Church of England , have much more of the just guidance of Ecclesiastical Authority than the like order of Men in the Church of Rome . For the Authentick Books of that Church being all written in the Latin Tongue , the illiterate People resolve their Faith into the ability and honesty of their Confessor or Parish Priest. They take it upon his word , that this is the Doctrine , this the Discipline , this the Worship , of their Church . Whereas each Minister in our Church can direct the People to the Holy Bible , to the Books of Homilies , Articles , Canons , Common-Prayer , Ordination , as set forth in their native Tongue , by publick Authority . Of this they may be assured by their own Eyes , as many as can but competently read . They do not only take this from the mouth of a Priest , but from the Church it self . Where the Laws of the Church and the Statutes of the Civil Government are written in an unknown Tongue , there the Unlearned depend more upon private than publick Authority ; for they receive the Law from particular Priests or Judges . Though Ecclesiastical Authority be a help to our Faith , yet the Holy Scripture is the only infallible Rule of it ; and by this Rule and the Ministerial Aids of the Christian Church , we have sufficient means without Submission to papal . Infallibility , to attain to certainty in that Faith which is generally necessary to Salvation . I do not mean that , by believing the whole Canon of the Scripture in the gross , we thereby believe all the necessary Articles of the Faith , because they are therein contained . That looks too like a fallacy ; and it giveth countenance to an useless Faith. For he that believes on this manner , hath as it were swallow'd a Creed in the lump only , whereas it is necessary for a Christian to know each particular Article and the general Nature and Tendency of it . Otherwise his Faith will not have a distinct influence upon his Christian behaviour to which if it were not useful , it were not necessary . To believe in general as the Scripture believes , is with the Blind and Flexible Faith of a Romanist , to believe at adventure . He believes as his Church believes , but he knows not what is the belief of his Church ; and therefore is not instructed by that Faith to behave himself as a Member of it . The Scripture is that rule of Faith which giveth us all the particular Articles which are necessary to eternal Life . By this rule the Primitive Fathers govern'd themselves , and this they commended to the Churches . And Clemens Alexandrinus (a) does in terms , call the Consent of the Old and New Testament the Ecclesiastical Canon , and the Touchstone of true and false . I will not multiply Testimonies ; enough of them are already collected (b) . I will rather pursue the Argument before me , in these three Assertions . First , a Protestant without the submission of his Judgment to the Roman Church , may be certainly directed to the Canonical Books of Holy Scripture . Secondly , He may without such submission , sufficiently understand the Rule of Faith , and find out the Sense of such places in those Canonical Books , as is necessary to the belief of a true Christian. Thirdly , This rule of Faith is the principal means of Union in Faith in the Christian Church . First , a Protestant without the submission of his Judgment to the Roman Church may be certainly directed to the Holy Scriptures . It is commonly said by Men of the Roman perswasion , but injudiciously enough , that we may as well receive our Creed from them , as we do our Bible . The Scribes and Pharisees might have said the like to the People of the Jews . But with the good Text , they conveighed down to them a very false gloss , and misinterpreted the Prophesies , as meant of a pompous temporal Messiah . But , for the Reformed , they have received neither Creed nor Bible from the Church of Rome . The first enumeration of those Books they find in the Apostolical Canons , and in those of the Council of Laodicea ; no Western writings . They have received the Scriptures from the Universal Church of all Ages and Places , the Copies of them having been as widely dispersed as the Christians themselves . And they receive them not from the infallibility of any particular Church , but upon the validity of this sure principle , that all the Christian World , so widely dispersed , could not possibly conspire in the imposing of false Books upon them . For particular Churches , we may , of all others suspect the Roman , in reference to the Scriptures . For what sincerity of dealing may we hope for from such a Cabal of Men as has forged decrees of Councils and Popes , obtruded upon the World Apocryphal Books as Books Canonical , purged out of the writings of the Fathers such places as were contrary to their Innovations , depressed the Originals under an imperfect Latin Copy , and left on purpose in that Copy , some places uncorrected for the serving of turns . For example sake , they have not either in the Bible of Sixtus , or in that of Clement ( both which , though in War against each other , are made their Canon ) changed the word [ She ] in the third of Genesis , (a) for [ That , or , He. ] But , contrary to the Hebrew Text , to the Translation of the Seventy , to the Readings of the Fathers , they persist in rendring of it after this manner ; She shall break thy Head. They believe this Reading tendeth most to the Honor of the blessed Virgin , whom they are too much inclined to exalt , in the Quality of a Mother , above her Son. The English Translation of Doway hath followed this plain and partial corruption . Secondly , A Protestant may without Submission of his judgment to the Roman Church , find out , in the Books of Holy Scripture , the necessary Articles of Christian Faith. Two things are here supposed ; and both of them are true . First , That the Scriptures contain in them all the necessary Articles of our Faith. Secondly , That the sense of the Words in which these Articles are expressed in Scripture may be found out by a Protestant , without the Submission of his judgment to the Papacy . First , The Scriptures contain in them all the necessary Articles of the Faith. This is true , if the Scriptures themselves be so : For this they Witness * St. Paul (b) saith of the Old Testament , as expounded of Christ , that it was able to make a Man wise unto Salvation . Much more may this be affirmed of the entire Canon . The Apostles preached the necessaries to Salvation , and what they had preached they wrote down * concerning the manner of it , Eusebius may be consulted † . For the Primitive Fathers , they allowed the Scriptures to be a sufficient Rule . Irenaeus said of them they were perfect * ; and of the words of St. Austine this is the sense ; Among those things which are plainly set down in Scrpture , all those things are to be found which comprehend Faith and Good Manners . Nay , the Romanists themselves attempt to prove their very additional Articles out of the Bible . That there are in it the Articles of the Apostolical Creed , is evident enough to a common Reader . But how the Romish Articles should be found in that Bible which was written some hundreds of years before they were invented , is a riddle beyond the skill of Apollo . Secondly , the sense of the Scriptures , in matters necessary to Salvation , may be found out by Men of the Reformed Religion , without Submission to Roman Infallibility . The Learned know the Originals , and the true ways of Interpretation . And amongst us , those of the Episcopal Clergy have obliged the World with such an Edition of the Bible in many Languages as was not before extant in the Roman Church . And a Romanist who writes with great mastery in such matters , prefers it before the great Bible of Paris (a.) For those of the Laity who are Unlearned , they have before them a Translation which errs not in the Faith. And the phrases are not so obscure , but that , by study and Ministerial helps , they may understand them . They have , before them , a Translation which errs not in the Faith. Of this the Italians and French may be convinced by comparing the Translations of James de Voragine , and the Divines of Lovain with those of Signior Diodati , and Olivetan or Calvin . And the English may receive satisfaction in this matter by comparing their Translation with that of Doway . In all of them they will find the same Fundamental Doctrines of Faith. And were there any such material alteration made in our Bible , it would appear by the notorious inconsistence of one part of the Canon with another : It would have been , long ago , detected , and exposed to publick shame , both by the Romanists and the other Dissenters from our Communion . But the former are not able to produce one instance ; and the latter agree with us in the use and excellence of the Translation , though in other things , they extreamly differ from us : And where they do but dream we err they forbear not to proclaim it . In so much that a difference in the Translations of the Psalter which concerns not Faith or Manners † and a supposed defect in the Table for keeping Easter have been made by them publick Objections * and stumbling blocks in the way to their Conformity . It is true , there is a Romanist who hath raved against the Bible of the Reformed , in these extravagant words (a;) The Sectaries have as many different Bibles , in Canon , Version , and sense , as are days in the year . — The Sectarian Bible is no more the Word of God then the Alcoran , Almanack , or Aesops Fables . Of great corruption he speaks in general , but his madness has admitted of so much caution , that he forbears the mention of any one particular place . The Learned Romanists understand much better , and the Ingenuous Will confess it . And they are not ignorant that we Translate from the Original Tongues , after having compared the Readings of the most Ancient Copies , and of the Fathers : Whilst they Translate the Bible from the Vulgar Latin , which , indeed , in the New Testament is a tolerable , but in the Old , a very imperfect Version . If our English Bible were turned into any one of the Modern Tongues by a Judicious Romanist who could keep Council , it would pass amongst many of that Church for a good Catholick Translation . And this is , the rather , my perswasion , because I have read , in Father Simon (a,) that not unpleasant story concerning the Translation of Mr. René Benoist a Doctor of the Faculty of Paris . This Doctor had observed that a new Latin Translation of the Organon of Aristotle , performed by a person who understood not the Greek Tongue , had been very well received : Upon this occasion he was moved to turn the Bible into the French Tongue , though he was ignorant of those of the Greek and Hebrew . For the accomplishing of this Design , he served himself upon the French Translation of Geneva ; changing only a few words , and putting others of the same signification in their room . But , it seems , he was not exact enough in this change of words . For he having over-looked some words which were used by the Genevians and not the Romanists , a discovery was made by the Divines of Paris , and this Edition of the Bible was condemned by them , though published under the name of one of their Brethren . I do not say that such places of Scripture as contain Matters of Faith , are plain to every Man. But those who have a competence of capacity , who are not prejudiced against the Truth , who pray to God for his assistance , who attend to what they read , who use the Ministerial helps which are offered to them , shall find enough in Holy Writ to Guide them to everlasting life . In finding out the sense of the Scriptures , the Church gives them help , but it does not , by its Authority , obtrude the sense upon them . The Guides of it are as Expositors and School-Masters to them : And by comparing phrase with phrase , and place with place , and by other such ways , they teach them how to judge of the meaning themselves . They give them light into the nature of the Doctrine , they do not require them to take it upon trust . They endeavour to open their understandings that they may , themselves , understand the Scriptures . And if they cannot themselves understand the Doctrine , it will be of little use to them in their lives . For they then believe in general that it is a necessary Truth ; but what Truth it is or for what ends it is necessary , they apprehend not . A Foolish Master in the Mathematicks may require his Schollars to take it upon his word that a Problem is demonstrated : But a wise and useful teacher will give them light into the manner of the demonstration , in such sort , that they themselves shall at last be able to judge that it is truly performed : And till they can do this , they are not instructed . St. Hierom relates it in praise of Marcella a Roman Lady (a,) that she would not receive any thing from him after the Pythagorean manner , or upon bare Authority . She would , with such care examine all things , that She seemed to him , not so much his Schollar as his Judge . It is certain that there are great depths and obscure Mysteries in the Holy Bible . But the Doctrines of Christian Faith are , to the sincere and industrious and such as wait on God in the way of the Reformed Church , sufficiently plain . But to the Idle , the prejudiced , the captious , Light it self is Darkness . The Romanists affright with this pretence of obscurity and profoundness ; as if we must not adventure into any part of the Waters , because in some places , we may go beyond our depth . If there are hard and difficult places which the Vnstable wrest ; who required their meanness to make a judgment of that for which they might perceive themselves to be insufficient ? But whilst St. Peter speaketh of some few places in St. Paul's writings which are obscure , he does , at the same time , suppose many others to be plain enough for the capacities of the Unlearned . And if they be evil Men , though very Learned , they will wrest the plainest places ; and ( as some did in St. Hieroms * days ) they will draw violently to their private sense a Text of Scripture which is incongruously , and with relectance applied to it . It is true all Sects of Christians cite the Scriptures ; but that does not prove the obscurity of those Sacred writings : It rather shews the Partiality , Boldness , and Sophistry of those who alledge them . All Laws are obscure if this Argument hath force in it . For every Man , in his own case , has the Law on his side . Men take up their opinions and Heresies from other reasons ; and then , because the name of Scripture is venerable , they rake into the several Books of it , and they bend and torture places , and force them on their side by unnatural construction . So do the Socinians , producing all the niceties of Grammar and Criticism in a matter of Faith. Yet the Guide in Controversies (a) useth it as an Argument against the plainness of this Rule of Faith , that the Socinians cite the Holy Scriptures in favour of their Heresie . But is not this Argument two-edged ? And will it not cut as well on the other side , and do Execution against the words , of Fathers and Councils , and the Apostolical Creed it self ? For the Socinians ( those especially who are turned Arians ) since Petavius hath furnished them with Quotations , will cite the writings of the Ancients : And Slichtingius , a mere Socinian , * hath expounded every Article of the Creed in a sense agreeable to the Heresie of his Master . But , if the Scriptures were so obscure in necessary matters , what remedy would be administred by the Roman Church ? They cannot offer to us any Ancient ; infallible exposition . What the Antients have said , the Reformed generally understand much better then Popes , amongst whom there have been some who could scarce read the Holy Gospel in Latin. For the Fathers of the earliest Ages , they were more busied in writing against Heresies , then in explaining of Scriptures . Nor , to this day hath the Roman Church , given any Authentick Collection of Expositions , either of the Ancients or of her own . And if we must go to any Church for a comment on the Scriptures , let the Roman be one of our last Refuges . For it is manifest that the Key the Papalins use , is the Worldly Polity of that Church . And as they like , so they interpret . Had not they governed themselves by this art , we should not have found in the writings of their Popes , and in the very Canon Law it self , those words which were spoken to Jeremiah expounded of the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome (a) I have set thee over Kings , to root out , to pluck up , and to destroy . (b) The Donatists found their Church in these words of the Canticles , Tell me ( thou whom my Soul loveth ) where thou feedest ; where thou makest thy Flock to rest at noon . For they expounded this ( as it liked them best ) of the Flock of their party in the Southern Country of Africa . Such Expounders of Scripture are those Popish Writers , who interpret [ Feed my Sheep ] of the Universal Monarchy of the Bishop of Rome , and conclude that a Pastor must drive away Wolves or depose Princes hurtful to the Church . But the straining of such Metaphorical expressions ( as an excellent Person * saith ) proves only that they want better proofs . And , by a like way of interpretation , from the same Text it might be concluded that all Christians are Fools , because Sheep are silly Creatures . No expositions are more besides the sense of the Text , or more ridiculous , then some of those which may be found in the Authentick Books of the Roman Church . And those who composed them appear to have looked asquint on the Scriptures . For whilst they looked on them , they seem to have looked another way . I will instance only in a few of those many absurd expositions , with which the Roman Breviary abounds . The words of the Angel to the Holy Virgin [ a Sword shall go through thine own Soul also ] are (a) interpreted of that word of God which is quick and powerful , and sharper then any two-edged Sword. And this sense is designed as an evasion of their reasoning , who from that Text , conclude concerning the blessed Virgin , that she died , and was not miraculously assumed . The Ascension of Elias is thus expounded . (b) He was taken up into the aerial , not the aetherial , Heavens ; from whence he was dropped in an obscure place on Earth , there to remain to the end of the World , and then to expire with it . They say † of Job , That when he spake of a Bird , and of her path in the Air , he , by a figure , called Christ a Bird , and , by the motion of it in the Air , figured also our Lords Ascension . We may perceive , by these few Instances , what an entrance into the sense of Scripture is like to be given , whilst a Pope has the Key of Knowledge in his keeping . Thirdly , If Men would use the Church as their Ministerial Guide , and admit of the Scripture as the only Rule by which all Matters of Faith are to be measured , they would agree in the proper means to the blessed end of Unity in the Faith. This was the perswasion of St. Austin who thus applieth himself to Maximinus * ; Neither ought I at this time to alledge the Council of Nice , nor you that of Ariminum : For neither am I bound to the Authority of the one , nor you to that of the other . Let us both dispute with the Authorities of Scripture which are Witnesses common to both of us . Whilst the Romanists ascribe the differences which arise amongst the Reformed to their want of an infallible Guide , and to their different interpretations of the Scriptures , they unskilfully derive effects from causes which are not the natural Parents of them . There is ( saith St. Austine ) one Mother of all strifes , and she is Pride . Neither doth the Scripture divide us , nor does the infallibility of their judge unite them . Their Union ( such as it is ) ariseth from the mighty force of their External Polity ; and they speak not differently because they dare not ; and the strength of that Polity arose at first from Rome , not as the Chair of St. Peter but as the Seat of the Empire . Our divisions like theirs , arise ( as all Wars do , be they Ecclesiastical or Civil ) from the unruly Lusts and Passions of Men. And from these likewise , arise generally the misinterpretations of plain Laws , and Rules ; the sense of which must be made to chime according to the Interest of prejudiced Men , or else they will not give attention to them . If the Lusts and Passions of Men were mortified ; all Christians agreeing in the certainty of the Scriptures , though not of any Living Guide ; and the words of the one being as intelligible as those of the other : All might agree in one Creed , and put an end to those unnecessary Controversies which entangle Truth , and extinguish Charity . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64357-e1630 The Question . The moment of ●his Question . The Temptations to believe the Affirmative part of this Question . The true Resolution of the Query . Prop. I. * Nisi una est Fides , non est . L. M.Ser . 23. † See Ferrand . l. 1. c. 1. Sect. 4. disquis . Relig. * Acts 4.19 , 20. * S. Mat. 28.20 . Prop. II. * Jo● . 15.22 , 24. Prop. III. * To the Reader of the Dis. of Govern. of Church●s . * R. H. Guide in Controv. in Pref. p. 3. Prop. IV. Consid. I. * Isai. 56.10 . Jez . 2.8 . Ez. 7.26 . C. 22.26 . † M●l . 2.7 , 8. * Deut. 17.8 . to 12. See Levit. 4.13 . Consid. II. * S. Mat. 16.18 . † S. Mat. 28.20 . Revel . 3.1 , 2 , 3. * S. Luke 10.16 . † S. Luke 10.1 , 9. * Ver. 12. 1 Tim. 3.15 . † Ryc . of the Greek Ch. p. 44. * Revel . 3.12 . † In 1 Cor. 9.2 . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. * S. Mat. 18.15 , 16 , 17. See Deut. 17.6 . * Launoy in Epist . ad Carol. magistrum ad Jacob. Bevil . ad . Guil. Voell . ad Raim . Formentinum in 5. par . Epist. Consid. III. * Joh. 20.21 . † S. Mat. 9.36 . C. 10.6 . 2. Pet. 5.2 . * S. Mat. 28.16 , 17 , 18 , 19. † S. Chrys. in 1 Cor. 9.2 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. † See R. H. Guide in Controv . Dis. 1. p. 5. and Socin . in Loc. * S. Hil. de Trin. l. 6. dixit Petrus , Tu es filius Dei , &c. super hanc igitur Confessionis Petram Ecclesiae edificatio est v. Launoy in Epist ad Voellum . † Revel . 21.14 . Ephes. 2.20 . * Act. 2.14 , 41 , 47. IV. Consid. † Euseb. l. 3. vit . Const. c. 7. ▪ 8. p. 487. Socrat. E. H. l. c. 8. p. 19. * V. Concil . Lab● . Tom. 2. p. 50 , &c. † Socr. Eccl. Hist. l. 1. c. 6. p. 9. * From A. 1545. to A. 1563. † V. Council . Const. sess . 39. * V. Greg. magn . Ep. 6.31 . Leo. 1. Ep. 53. Gelas . 1. Ep. 13. † Concil . Labb . Tom. 10. p. 23 , 379. & Pontific . Roman . (a) A. D. 1542. in Coll. Sorb . See Richer . H. Conc. general . vol. 4. p. 162 , 163 , &c. Object . * R.H. Annot. on D. Still . Answer . p. 82 , 83. † Art. 31. Ch. 5. du consistoire . si un ou plusieurs , &c. * Syn. Dord . sess . 138. Answer . (a) See Artic. 20 , 21 , 22. (b) Camp. Rat. 3. p. 180. Rat. 5. p. 185. * Lib. diurn . Pontif. p. 35. etenim hujus Apostolicae Traditionis normam quam venerandam Sanctorum 318. Patrum Con●ilium quod in Nicaea , &c. & p. 43. hujusmodi Evangelicam Traditionem . † Ant. Dezallier in Histor. Monoth . p. 123. * Conc. Trid. Sess. 4. decr . 1. † V. constit . Apost . can . Apost . conc . Laod. conc . Nic. 1. S. Hieron . Prolog . &c. Euseb . E. H. l. 4. c. 26. p. 149. Cron. l. 2. &c. * V. Blondelli Pseudo-Isodorum . † V. S. Hieron . in Isai. c. 6.8 . * Gratian in de Consecr . dist . 2. cap. 2. (a) S. Aug. tract . 30. in Job . & tract . 50. (b) Brev. Rom. Dom. infra . oct . Asc. 3. noct . lect . 7. p. 440. (c) Innoc. 3. Myst. miss . l. 4. p. 196. * H. Conc. Trid. l. 2. Arg. I. † See the Index of Onuphrii , vit . Pontif. ed. Colon. 1610. * Steph. Baluz . in miscellan . l. 3. p. 471. to 514. † S. Bern. Ep. 219. * Baluz . ibid. p. 514. difficile tum erat , &c. Arg. II. * Lib. diurn . Pontif. 2. professio fidei . p. 43. — Vndè & districti Anathematis interdictioni subjicimus , si quis unquam , se● n●s , sive est Al●us , qui novum aliquid praesumat contra bujusin●di Evangel●cam Traditionem , & Orthodox●efid●i , Christianaeque Religionis integritatem , &c. Arg. III. Arg. IV. * Mat. par . A. 1217. stupor mundi . † Ezra . 8.20 . * Innoc. 3. Myst. missae l. 1. c. 2. fol. 158. † Innoc. 3. ibid. c. 62. fol. 165. * Ibid. l. 2. c. 24. fol. 170. (a) Ibid. c. 29. fol. 171. (b) Ibid. c. 58. fol. 177. (c) Ibid. l. 4. c. 13. fol. 189. (d) Ibid. c. 16. fol. 190. (e) Ibid. c. 19. (a) Epist. Zach. p. ad Bonifac. inter op . M. Velseri . in l. 5. Rer. Boic . p. 148. de perversa autem [ Virgilii ] Doctrinâ , quam contra dominum & animam suam locmutus est , quod scil . alius mundus & alii homines sub terrâ sint , ali●squeSol & Luna , si convictus fuerit ita consiteri , hunc accito Concilio ab Ecclesiâ pelle Sacerdotii honore privatum . (b) Velser . op . Ibid. p. 147. (c) Vels . Ibid. p. 149. † Baron . Annal . A. 553. N. 48. ed. Colon. p. 486. * Id. Ibid. N. 218. p. 419. * Id. An. 553. N. 192. p. 511. (a) Conc. Constant . 2. Collat . 6. (b) Defin. Conc. col . 8. (c) Baron . Annal . 553. N. 212. p. 417. — Act. mque est ( ut apparet ) adversus Vigihi constitutum , licet pre reverentà ipsum non nominaverint . * Dezall . Hist. mon. scrut . 5. p. 192 , 193. Altera phrasis Honoriana longè dificilior , munimè tamen dissimulanda , ea est , quod dicat apertè . Unde & unam voluntatem fatemur dom . nostri Jesu Christi . † Syn. 6. act . 13. See Richer . Hist. Conc. General . vol. 1. p. 569. &c. * Syn. 7. Act. ult . p. 886. Con. in Labb . Richer . H. Conc. Gen. vol. 1. p. 658. Ad calc . ejusd . Act. 7. in ●mn . editionibus Concil . legitur Epist. Synod . quam Tarasius , &c. — Et diserte narrat cunctos Patres — Honorium damnasse . (a) Lib. diurn . Pontif. Conf. fid . 2. p. 41. Autores verò novi haeretici dogmatis , Sergion , Pyrrhum , Paulum , & Petrum Episcopos , unà cum Honorio ( qui pravis corum assertionibus fomentum impendit ) pariterque & Theodorum Pharamitanum , & Cyrum Alexandrinum , cum eorum imitatoribus , &c. (b) Melch. Can. Loci com . l. 6. c. ult . p. 242 , 243. &c. (c) Anton. Dezallier . Hist. Mon. Par. 1678. (a) Id. ib. p. 224 , 225 , 226. † 218. * Id. p. 220. (b) P. 207 , 208. (c) Id. p. 122. profanâ proditione immaculatam fidem subvertere conatus est . — Flammam confovit , p. 123. (d) Socr. 〈◊〉 . p. 4●0 . C●●●id . V. * R. H. Annot. on D. St. Answ. p. 81. Prop. V. * Hist. Fran. A. 1530. (a,) Mez. Hist. A. 1548. (b.) Id. ib. A. 1603. (c) See I. Racsters 7 motives of W. A. p. 11 , 12. (d) Confer . avec M. Claude . p. 110. (d) R. H. Annot . on D. St. Answ. p. 84. Art. 20. * Mr. Selden in his Colloquies ; a Ms. in the word Church . Sect. 5. † Doctr. & Polit . Eccl. Ang● . A. 1617. p. 129. * Artic. 19. (a) S. Aug. d● verb. Dom. super Mat. Ser. 16. (b.) Art. 20. (c.) Can. 5. (d) 1 Eliz. 1. Sect. 36. (e) Art. 21. * Ep. 118. Concil . in Eccl. Dei saluberrimam esse Authoritatem . (a) Greg. Naz. Ep. 42 , ad Procopium . (a) See D. Dennisons white wolf . * Conc. Lat. sess . 11. A. 1516. inter Labb . Conc. Max. p. 291. Caeterùm si quibusdam eorum Dominus futura quaedam in Dei Ecclesia inspiratione quapiam revelaverit , ut per Amos prophetam ipse promittit , & Paulus Ap. praedicatorum princeps Spiritum , inquit , nolite extinguere , prophetas nolite spernere , hos aliorum fabulosorum & mendaciumgregi connumerari vel aliter impediri minime , volumus . † Syn. Nic. 2. Art. 7. sec. vers . Anastasii . Licet enim Honorio post mortem Anathema sit dictum ab Orientalibus , sciendum tamen est quia fuerat super haeresi accusatus , propter quam solam licitum est minoribus majorum suorum moribus resistendi , vel pravos sensus liberè respuendi , &c. Prop. VI. (a) Cl. Alex. Strom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. & Strom. 7. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . (b) V. Davenant . de Judice & norm● fidei . c. 12. p. 53. &c. D. Till . Rule of Faith. part . 4. sect . 2. p. 320. &c. Assert . I. (a) Gen. 3.15 . Assert . II. * See S. Joh. 20.30 , 31. C. 21.25 . (b) 2 Tim. 3.15 , 16 , 17. * Iren. l. 3. c. 1. † Eus. Hist. Eccl. l. 2. c. 14. * Iren. l. 2. c. 47. S. Aug. de doct . Christ. l. 2. c. 9. (a.) V. P. S. p. Hist. Critique . p. — Mais elle est 583. plus ample & plus commode ; &c. † See Hook. Eccl. Pol. Book fifth . Sect. 19. * Mr. Hs. peaceable design renewed . p. 14. (a;) A. S. Reconciler of Religions , Printed 1663. c. 11. p. 38 , 39. (a,) Histoire Critique . Ch. 25. p. 392 , 393. (a,) S. Hieron . in prf . ad Comment . in Epist. ad Galat. — Vt sentirem me non tam Discipulam habere quam judicem . v. Psal. 119.99 . * S. Hieron . in Ep. ad Paulin. ad sensum suum incongrua aptant Testimonia — Et ad voluntatem suam S. Scripturam repugnantem trabunt . (a) R. H. Guide , &c. Disc. 4. p. 375 , 376 , 377 , 378 , &c. * V. Confess . fid . Christ. ed. nom . Eccles. Polon . &c. (a) V. Innoc. 3. in decret . Greg. l. 1. tit . 33. c. 6. Greg. 7. Ep. l. 8. Ep. 21. Extrav . de Major & Obed. c 1. P. Pi. 5. in Bull● Cont. R. Eliz. in Camd. Annal . A. 1570. (b) Jerem. 1.10 . * D. Falkner in Christ. Loy . p. 315. (a) Domin . infrâ Octav. Nativ . in 2. nocturno Lect 8. p. 175. (b) Dom. infrâ Oct. Asc. in 3. Noct. p. 443. † Infra . Oct. Asc. 3. Noct. Lect. 8. p. 447. Assert . III. * S. Aug. Cont. Max. l. 3. 
A41840	----	Great precious promises, or, Some sermons concerning the promises and the right application thereof whereunto are added some other concerning the usefulnesse of faith in advancing sanctification, as also, three more concerning the faith of assurance / by Mr. Andrew Gray ... ; all being revised since his death by some friends, the last impression carefully corrected and amended. Gray, Andrew, 1633-1656. 1669 Approx. 330 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 110 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-05 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A41840 Wing G1609 ESTC R39446 18419588 ocm 18419588 107523 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A41840) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 107523) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1634:13) Great precious promises, or, Some sermons concerning the promises and the right application thereof whereunto are added some other concerning the usefulnesse of faith in advancing sanctification, as also, three more concerning the faith of assurance / by Mr. Andrew Gray ... ; all being revised since his death by some friends, the last impression carefully corrected and amended. Gray, Andrew, 1633-1656. [6], 210 p. Printed by George Swintown and James Glen ... Edinburgh: 1669. Imperfect: tightly bound, with print show-through and some loss of print. Reproduction of original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Church of Scotland -- Sermons. Faith -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2004-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-02 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-03 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2004-03 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES , OR , Some Sermons concerning the Promises , and the right application thereof : Whereunto are added some other concerning the usefulness of Faith in advancing Sanctification . As also , three more concerning the Faith of Assurance . By Mr. ANDREW GRAY , late Minister of the Gospel in Glasgow . All being revised since his death by some friends . The last Impression carefully corrected and amended . 2 Cor. 7.1 . Having therefore these promises ( dearly beloved ) let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit , perfecting holinesse in the fear of God. Edinburgh , Printed by George Swintoun and Iames Glen , Anno Dom. 1669. To the Reader . Christian Reader , ALthough ( upon some considerations ) these following Sermons have been keeped back till now , and have waited the vacancy of the Presse from other things : yet was it at first intended ( the connexion of the purposes so requiring ) that they should have come forth as soon as some other of this precious Author , which we did formerly publish : And therefore in the Preface which we then prefixed , we did relate to both , and gave the Reader such advertisements as we conceived necessary , concerning the one as well as the other : So that we have nothing to do at present , but to put this little Piece into thy hands , commending it to thy serious thoughts , and the Lords blessing upon them . Neither shall we use many words to this purpose ; Only , we find some help is offered unto thee , in three most weighty and concerning points of Christian Religion . 1. How by the lively exercise of faith ; thou may apply the great and precious Promises . 2. How by faith thou may advance the work of Sanctification . And 3. How thy faith may grow up unto Assurance . Of all which we may truly say , that nothing can more seasonably take up the thoughts nor bring more advantage to the souls of the Lords people in these times . O how necessary is it in such troublesome days , to learn , how through Faith and Patience , we may inherit the Promises : and now when our strong corruption ( hath in a manner necessitate the wise Physician to mix unto us so bitter a cup , and give so strong a potion , in what a fainting and swouning condition must we be , if by the two immutable things , in which it is impossible for God to lie , we reoeive not also the strong consolation . Again , when profanity and ungodlinesse hath so abounded in these Nations , that from the top of the head to the sole of the foot , there is no soundnesse , but wounds and bruises , and putrifying sores : And when the corruptions of the Time like the sons of Zerviah , are grown too strong , even for the Davids who are amongst us ; What should we study with more earnestnesse , then to purifie our hearts by faith , and by having these promises , to cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit , perfecting holinesse in the fear of the Lord ? 3. When the Lord hath removed us so far from peace , that the souls of many have even forget prosperity , and the multiplied changes and revolutions in our days , hath so clearly demonstrate the instability of all sublunary glory , and so convincingly taught us , that this 〈◊〉 not our ●est ; Vndoubtedly , it is time to look for a city that hath foundations , and to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure . The subject then is useful . As to the manner of handling it : It is true , much accuracy and neatnesse , is not to be expected in any work of this nature , being only the hasty gleanings of a Church Writer ; And as to livelinesse and power , though it he as easie to draw a picture with the heat and motion of a living man , as to Write or Print , these lively motions of the spirit which do often accompany the Lords Messengers in Preaching , and in an eminent measure were also let out upon this blessed Author , yet we suppose thou will find , the matter most seriously and feelingly spoken unto , as from a heart which believed , and therefore spake : Yea , both conceptions and expressions savouring much of an exercised Spirit , not only much taken up in communion with God within it self , but even thirsting also , and panting for the salvation of others ; nay ( in some measure ) travelling in birth , till Christ might be formed in them . Oh , that more of this holy zeal and fervency , might accompany this great measure of light and knowledge in the mysteries of the Gospel that the Lord hath graciously bestowed both on Pastors and People in this generation , that once again we might see , ( as in the dayes of John Baptist ) the Kingdome of Heaven suffering violence , and the violent take it by force . And that the blessed Spirit by the same gracious operations , may so warm and inlarge thy soul in the use of this and all other means for thy eternal Salvation , is , and shall be the sincere desires of Thy servants for Christs sake , Robert Traill . Iohn Stirling . Great and precious Promises . SERMON I. 2 Pet. 1.4 . Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises , that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature , having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust . MAy we not truly say , that if ever the Christians who live in those dayes shall be advanced to stand within the holy place , and shall inherit everlasting life , all these are now before his Throne may lay aside their harps and give us leave to sing ? Will it not be a mysterie , suppose ye , unto heavenly Enoch that spent so much of his time in communion and fellowship with God , when he shall behold such Christians within that everlasting rest , that have spent so little of their time in corresponding with God ? Will it not be a mystery unto believeing Abraham , when he shall behold such misbelievers , such disputers of the promises of God , advanced to reign with Christ ? Will it not be a mystery unto wrestling Iacob , when he shall behold these Christians once crowned with immortal glory , that did so little know what it was as Princes to wrestle with God , till they did prevail : Will it not be a wonder to patient Iob , when he shall behold such impatient Christians as we have been , entering into that blessed place of repose ? Will it not be a mystery unto holy David , when he shall behold such unmortified Christians entering within that City , into which no unclean thing doth enter ? Will it not be a mystery unto tender Iosiah , to behold such Christians as we are , that have our hearts dying as a stone within us , entering into Heaven ? Will it not be a mysterie unto upright Nathaniel , to behold such hypocriticall Christians as the most part of us are , entering within the holy place , and to see those that have been cloathed with hypocrisie and guile , now cloathed with the robes of immortal Glory ? And will it not be a mysterie unto self denied Paul , when he shall behold so proud and selfish Christians enter into Heaven ? Give me leave to say this , go where we will , we shall be matchlesse and singular ; for if we shall go into eternity of pain , we shall be the greatest debtors unto the infinit justice of God , in regard of mercies we have received : and if we shall enter into eternity of joy , we shall be the greatest debtors unto the spotlesse grace of Christ , in regard of mercy we have abused . There shall be none in heaven like to us , and if we shall go to hell , there shall be few there that may be compared unto us . And let me but adde thus further before I come to the words , go where we will , we shall be out of doubt with our condition : Within a short time a real Christian shall be exalted above the reach of his misbelieving , a hypocrite shall be depressed below the reach of his faith , and one that is grosly in nature , he shall be abased beyond the reach of his presumption : A Christian ere long shall m●sbelieve no more ; a hypocrite ere long shall believe no more ; and one that is grosly in nature shall ere long presume no more : there is no misbelief in heaven , and there is no faith nor presumption of well being in hell . But to come to that which we intend to speak to , we told you when first we began our discourse upon that precious and exalting grace of Faith under a twofold notion and consideration . first , As it is justifying : And , secondly , as it is sanctifying . For the first , we resolved to speak to it in a twofold consideration . First , As it closeth with Christ simply as the object upon which it resteth , and of this we have spoken from that place , 1 Ioh. 1.3.23 . Secondly , As it closeth with Christ , as held forth in the Promises . And now being to speak of it in this consideration , we have made choise of this place , in which those things concerning the promises , shortly . 1. Ye have that fountain and spring from whence the promises do flow , holden forth in the first words of the verse , Whereby , or ( as the words may be more fitly rendered ) By whom relating unto Jesus Christ who is the original and spring of all the Promises . 2. The properties of the Promises , and these are , 1. The freedom of the promises held forth in that word , Given , whereby are given , which speaketh this , that the promises are free gifts flowing only from good pleasure , 2. Their unchangeablenesse , and that is holden forth also in the word , Given , the gifts and calling of God , being without repentance . 3. That they are exceeding great , and the Promises are called great , either in respect of that price that was laid down to purchase the Promises , or they are called great in respect of the great things that are contained in them . 4. That they are precious ; Now the Promises are called precious ; either in respect of their originall , that they come from precious Christ ; or else in respect of this , that they are the object ( I mean the object , quo , or by which ) of precious Faith , as it is called in the first verse of this Chapter ; or else they are precious , because they are things that a Christian ought to put a high account upon ; for the word that is rendered precious may likewise be rendred honourable , whereby are given unto us exceeding great and honourable promises . 3. We have holden forth in the words the great advantage of the Promises , By them we are made partakers of the divine nature : Now this is not to be understood of any essentiall conversion of our substance into the substance of God , but of a Christians having the divine vertues of Jesus Christ impressed upon his soul , and expressed in his life and conversation . And there is this lastly , concerning the promises in the words , even the time when the promises are eminen●ly accomplished ; It is , when we have escaped ; or as the word is , When we have fled from the corruptions that are in the world through lust : That is the time when a Christian meeteth with the accomplishment of the Promises . Now before we can speak to any of these , we must speak a little unto some things as necessary to be known , in order to the better understanding of all . 1. We shall not dwell long in pointing out unto you what is a promise : We conceive it is a glorious discovery of the good will of God towards sinners , and withall , a purpose and intendment , and ( if we may say ) an engagement to bestow some spiritual or temporal good upon them , or to withhold some spiritual or temporal evil from them : And certain it is , that in this description of the promise , there is a divine harmony betwixt Mercy and Truth , betwixt Righteousnesse and Peace , they kisse one another : Neither shall we stand long to point out the distinction of the promises : 1. There are some promises that are conditional , and there are some promises that are absolute , absolute promises are these that have no condition annexed unto the performance of them ; such a promise is that , that God will destroy the world no more by water , that is an absolute promise ; such a promise was that of God sending his Son into the World , that was an absolute promise ; and such is that promise of conversion , in giving the heart of flesh , it is an absolute promise : As for the conditionall promises , they are these that do require some condition to be performed by the Christian , before the accomplishment of the promise , such as that promise of Salvation , it requireth believing as going before it , He that believeth shall be saved ; And pardon , it is promised unto a Christian upon Repentance : and yet we confesse , that there is not a conditional promise that is in all the Covenant of Grace , but it may be reduced unto an absolute promise , in regard that the thing promised ( in the conditional promise ) is one absolute free gift , and the condition of the promise is another . 2. There are some promises that are temporal , and some that are spiritual ; temporal promises are these , that promise some temporal thing unto a Christian , and spiritual promises are these , that promise the bestowing of something that is of everlasting concernment . 3. There are some promises that are not accomplished in this life , such as this , That wee shall see him 〈◊〉 he is , and shall be made like unto him : But for the promises of Faith and of ●ustification , these are accomplished in this life . 4. There are some promises that are extraordinary , and there are some promises that are common : extraordinary promises are these , that are given to some particular Believer as a singular priviledge : such was that promise that was given to Abraham , that in his seed should all families of the earth be blessed , and that promise that was given to Rebekah , That the elder should serve the younger : As for common promises , they are these , that every believer in Christ hath a right to make use of . Neither shall we stand long to point out that it is the duty of a Christian to be much in the exercise of Faith , upon the promises ; it is clear from Psal. 62.8 ▪ Trust in him at all times ye people : and it is clear from the practice of that precious cloud of witnesses , recorded of in Heb. 11. that spent their dayes in imbracing of the Promises . But , 7. We would have you consider , that it is more easie for a Christian to believe spiritual Promises , then to believe temporal promises ; it is easier to trust Christ for eternal Salvation , then to trust him for our daily food when we are redacted unto straits ; and the grounds upon which we assert this , may be these ; 1. Because it is hard for a Christian to believe that Christs death reacheth for the purchasing of temporall promises , which more easily he taketh up in spiritual promises ; for a Christian can hardly believe that such a thing was in Christs intention , as to die for his daily food , which yet is most certain , if we consider it as a special mercy . 2. In a Christians believing of spiritual promises , there is often some sense and reason that helpeth him to the exercise of Faith , at least , they presse not the contrary ; but to believe a temporal promise , when a Christian is redacted unto a strait , and that he can see no outgate present , sense and reason stands upon the top of his Faith , and presseth him to dispair : As for instance , when a Christian is living upon the top of a mountain , and knoweth not where to sup at night , to believe that there is a promise upon which he may rest , that he shall not want his food ; but if that the Lord had service for him he will provide : Here , he hath not only reason to dispute against , but the strong pinching sense of hunger , both crying out , How can bread be given in the wildernesse ? 3. The tentations that assault a Christian to misbelieve upon temporal promises , they are more subtile and more con-natural to a Christian , then his temptations that assault him in resting upon spiritual promises : When a Christian is in straits in the world , the temptations that hinder his exercise of Faith , they are more consonant to flesh and blood ; we are ready to yeeld to misbelief then , because we think it is rational , and speaketh the truth . 4. A Christian is often so affrighted by his daily failings , or some particular more grosse out-breakings in his life , that howbeit he may ( through grace ) be helped to believe that the Lord shall make out these promises which concern his eternal salvation , and so do him good in the latter end : yet may he be sadly perplexed and distrustfull in making use of any particular temporary promise , for drawing forth any comfort or encouragement therefrom , as to his present exigent : because he knoweth , that although the Lord doth forgive his peoples iniquities , yet may he take vengeance on their inventions , Psal. 99.8 . and therefore may punish his present failing with the like calamities as he hath done others . 5. There is also much of a natural and carnal self love to a present life , remaining in the best , that we are many times worse to satisfie in our securities for the things of this life , then of that which is to come , and can more easily trust the Lord for our souls , then for our bodies ; so that though his naked word will sometimes satisfie us for the one , yet it will not for the other : And the last ground of it may be a Christians unacquaintednesse with that lot of exercising Faith upon temporal promises , there being many who think not that there is use for Faith , except for Salvation and the things above , which maketh his Faith upon these more difficult then upon promises that are spiritual : And this may appear most clearly , in that we find men more easily bear their spirituall wants ( even a Christian that is most exercised ) then they bear their temporal want ; and more corruption and impatience doth arise from temporal want , then from spiritual want . 2. Consider , That all a Christians duties are turned over into promises : there is not a duty that is required of a Christian , but it is converted into a Promise . Is not Faith a duty , 1 Ioh. 3.23 . This is his Commandment that ye should believe ? And is not that turned over in a promise , Ier. 3 19. Thou shalt call me thy Father ? The word importeth not only an act of necessity , but of violence , thou shalt do it : And in the thirteenth of Zechary , at the close , Thou shalt call me thy Father , and so in Ezek. 11.19 . Is not mortification a Christians duty , Colos. 3.5 . Mortifie therefore your members ; and it is turned over in a promise ▪ Ier. 32.28 . and Ezek. 36.25 , 29. where he promiseth , that he will purge away all their uncleannesses : and it is clear from Micah 7.19 . I will subdue ( said he ) all thine iniquities , it is not said , thou must subdue them , but , I will do it , Is not also the knowledge of God a commanded duty ? and yet it is turned over in a promise in the Covenant of Grace ; They shall know me from the highest to the lowest , neither shall there be need any more that one should say , know the Lord , for they shall be all taught of me . Is not the commandement of fear your duty , as is clear from Eccles. 12.13 . and yet that is likewise turned over in a promise ; I will put my fear in their inward parts , they they shall not depart away from me : So tendernesse is a Christians duty , and yet that is turned over in a promise , I will take away their heart of stone , and give them a heart of flesh . And that I may say no more of this , look but to these four places , and there ye will see almost all duties turned over in promises : there is Ier. 31. Ier ▪ 32. Ezek 11. and Ezek. 36. ye will see all the duties of the Covenant converted into Promises . But may not some say , what advantage is there of this ? much certainly , every way : That the duties are turned over into promises ; it may give a Christian hope , that he shall once perform these duties : Will ye not once be tender ? Yes certainly , because your tendernesse lieth within a promise ; Will ye not once be much in the exercise of fear ? No doubt ye will , and the ground of it is this , because your fear lieth within a promise , and so of the rest . And 2. There is this advantage of it , that all the duties required of a Christian are turned over in promises because by this means , a Christian may go to God when he cannot perform such a duty , and desire him to fulfill his word , and accomplish his promise ; and so may make use not only of the Omnipotency of God , but of the faithfulnesse of God also . There is this third Consideration that we would propose , that there are some things of a Christian within a promise , that he doth not believe to be within it , especially these three : First , the challenges of a Christian are within a promise , when ye are convinced , that is the accomplishment of a promise , this is clear from Isai. 30 21. where convictions and challenges are turned over in a promise ; When thou art turning unto the right hand or to the left , thine ears shall hear a voice behind thee , crying , this is the way , walk in it : And it may be clear , that our convictions are the accomplishment of promises , because it is a work of the Comforter , as well to convince , Iohn 16.9 . as it is for him to make one rejoyce : and if a Christian could believe that his challenges were the accomplishment of a promise , he might imbrace his challenges , he might see the faithfulnesse of God in his challenges , and he might see much love in his challenges . 2. A Christians crosse is within a promise , so that when a Christian meets with such affliction , he may sit down and cry out , this is the accomplishment of a promise , and this is clear from Psal. 89 31 , 32. wherein in the midst of the promises of ●he Covenant of Grace , that promise of visiting their iniquities with rod● , is put in the bosome of them : and from Psal. 119.77 . In faithfulnesse hast thou afflicted me ; Why doth David say in faithfulnesse ? It was this , because his crosse was the accomplishment of a promise : and it may be clear also from that word , Heb. 12.7 . Forget not the exhortation , ( speaking of the crosse ) the word is , Forget not the consolation that speaketh unto you , As if the holy Ghost did say , crosses do yeeld much consolation , as in vers . 11. They yeeld the peaceable fruits of righteousn●sse : And if this were believed , that our crosses were the accomplishment of the promises , it would help a Christian unto much humble submission , and there would not be murmuring under them , if once we did believe that they were the accomplishment of a promise : Yea , there is this advantage further , that if we did believe that our crosses were the accomplishment of a promise , we would be much in advanceing holinesse under our crosse . There is nothing that obstructeth the sweet fruits of righteousnesse under a crosse so much as impatiency : and I would say this to commend the crosse , a Christian never moveth so swiftly to heaven , as when he is under a sanctified crosse ; a crosse when it is sanctified , will prove a Christians motion to Heaven , more then ten enjoyments , for our enjoyments ordinarily do retard our way as much as further it . And there is this , Thirdly , that is within the promises , even your daily food , and the hairs of your head , the hairs of a Christians head are numbered , and within the Covenant . So that ye may see what a high respect Christ hath put upon Christians , that is clear from that word , Psal 111.5 ▪ 8. He hath given meat unto them that fear Him , He will ever be mindfull of His Covenant . Our fourth consideration shall be , to point out a little these grounds upon which Christ doth delay his accomplishment of the promises ; It is certain that a Christian is oftentimes put to this , Doth his promise fail for evermore ? and cryeth out , Why art thou become unto me as a liar , and as waters that fail ; and the grounds of this delay are these : 1. Christ knoweth that a Christian can often better improve the delay of the accomplishment of the promise , then he can improve the accomplishment it self : we might find this in our experience ( it being for the most part ) easier for a Christian to bear his crosses , then to bear his enjoyments . I think David never had so sweet a time as then , when he was pursued as a Partridge by his son Absolon ; then grace did breath forth most sweetly in his actions : but let David be under prosperity , and then we see he falleth in the sin of Adultery . And therefore never repine when ye are under a crosse ; for certainly , if we had spirituall understanding , we would not judge it so great a hazard to be under a crosse , as under prosperitie , since we have greater strength to bear the one , then to endure the other . 2. The slothfulnesse of a Christian ●o whom the promises are made , this makes the promises to be delayed in their performance , as was clear in the people of Israel ; they are fourty years in a wildernesse , before that promise of entering into Canaan is accomplished ; It was a promise that could have been accomplished in a few dayes , and yet because of their sin , it was not accomplished for fourty years , as ye may see from that word in Numb . 14.33 , 34. 3. The accomplishment of the promises is delayed , that Faith may be more put in exercise ; this is clear from that remarkable word , Psal. 105.19 . Vntill the time that his word came ; that is , un●ill the word of the Lord was accomplished ; The word of the Lord tried him , that is , it was the matter of his exercise , an exercise espe●ially unto Faith ; for indeed it is much for a Christian to believe upon a word , when it is delayed in its accomplishment . The fourth ground of delay is , that the exercise of prayer may be more ; and it is certain , that the best improvement of delayes is , to be much in prayer ; the promises they do occasion prayer , as is clear from Exod. 4. last , They believed , and bowed down their heads and worshipped , and from 2 Sam. 7.27 . where the great promises being made to David , he cryeth out , Therefore have I found in my heart to pray this prayer unto God , and it is clear from Psal. 119.49 . Perform the word unto thy servant , upon which thou hast caused me to hope . It is a bad improvement of delayes when we turn impatient ; and it is a bad improvement of delayes , when we quite our confidence . Know that promises are accomplished after delayes , and they have a luster upon them that may compence all the delay . 5. There is this other ground of the delayes of accomplishment of the promises , even that the thing that is promised may be more sweet to a Christian when it cometh : this is clear from that word of Solomon , Prov. 13 12. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick , but when the desire doth come , it is as a tree of life ; O but a mercy that cometh to a Christian through a promise , it is sweet ; yea , a drink of cold water taken up as the accomplishment of a promise , is more sweet then a feast of fat things full of marrow , and wine on the lees well refined ; to take up your bread and your dink as the accomplishment of your promises , it would make them refreshfull to you . 6. The Lord delayes his promises , that a Christian may be more in the exercise of dependency , and may be alwayes keeped about the throne . A Christian goeth to God from a threefold principle , he goeth to God from a principle of Faith , from a principle of necessity , and from a principle of love : but would you know that which putteth the Christian oftenest to God ? it is a principle of necessity : and believe it , that if necessity did not drive a Christian unto the foot of the Throne , we would seldom go from a principle of love , or from a principle of faith . And there is this last ground of the delay of the accomplishment of the promises , that the glory of the wisdom of God may appear , and the glory of his power in the accomplishment of the promise . When the promise is long beneath ground , then the wisdome and power of God doth more appear in the accomplishment of that promise . And from this I would only say to Christians that are under that exercise , complaining of the want of the performance of the promises , these few things : 1. Believe that the promise shall once be accomplished , that though the vision tarry , yet at last it shall speak . 2. Believe , that every hours delay of the accomplishment of the promise hath a sweet design of love : there is not one moment of delay , but it is for the advantage of a Christian , as is clear from that word , Rom. 8.28 . And , 3. that promise that cometh after long delays , it hath these three sweet and soul-refreshing attendants . 1. It is performed most seasonbly , a Christian if he will observe , he will see infinite wisdome shining in timeing the accompaniment of the promise to such a particular day : a Christian will be constrained to cry out , if the promise had been fulfilled before there had been no such Art of wisedome appearing in the performance of it . 2. That the promise when it is accomplished , will engage a Christian more in the exercise of ●ove , than four promises accomplished at a ●hort and smaller time : there is nothing that will so inflame the soul with love , as to have a promise accomplished after delayes . And , 3. the promises accomplished after de●ayes , have much sense waiting upon the per●ormance thereof : I think hardly a Chri●tian ever met with the accomplishment of ● promise after long delay , but his soul was made as a watered garden , and as springs of water whose waters fail not ; this promise ●aileth and cometh to a Christian perfumed with love . Now we shall shut up our discourse at this ●ime , and shall only speak to these six defects of a Christians faith in believing the promi●es . 1. That our faith is impatient , wee ●annot stay upon the promise if it be delayed : Hence ye will see , that in Scripture of●en patience is annexed to faith ; which ●peaketh this , That it is impossible for a Christian to believe as he ought , that wanteth the exercise of patience . See Heb. 6.12 . Be ye followers of them , who through faith and patience inherit the promise : And that word ●n the Revelation , This is the faith and pa●ience of the Saints . 2. Our faith in closing with the Promises , it is most unconstant : A Christian when first a promise is born in upon his spirit , he will then believe the promise and joyn with it ; but after six or seven dayes go about , he will change his Faith : this is remarkably clear from Exod. 4.31 . compared with Exod. 6.9 . When first the promise cometh to the people of Israel , that they shal go out of Egypt , it is said of them in the fourth Chapter at the close , They believed the Promise , and worshipped : But look to them in Exod. 6.9 . and there ye will see them not believing , because of bitterness and anxiety of heart : And I will tell you the grounds why our Faith is unconstant . 1. Sometimes the reading of a promise to a Christian will be as his savory meat ; sometimes when a Christian will read one time in the Covenant , it will be perfumed with love , and his soul will bee transported with joy after it , and at another time when he shall read that promise again it will be tastelesse as the white of an egge , and as his sorrowfull meat 2. That we are not much in studying the exercise of the thing● that are promised , which certainly would cu● short many of our debates . There is this third defect of our Faith , That we are not diligent , a diligent faith we call this , that after a Christian hath believed , he would be much in the exercise of prayer , for the accomplishment of the promise , he would be much in the exercise of meditation , to make that promise sweet and lively to him . And a fourth defect is this , We build our faith more upon Dispensations then upon the Word : when dispensations say that which ●he promise saith ▪ then we will believe : but when dispensation speaketh the contrary language unto the promise , then we will re●ect our confidence and hope . I will tell you two great mysteries of believing , it is hard for a Christian to believe when the Commentary seemeth to destroy the Text , that is , when the Commentary seemeth to declare , that the promise shall never be accomplished . In 〈◊〉 it is this , It is hard to believe when dispensations will say , the Word of the Lord will faill , and when promises bids you believe . 2. It is hard for a Chri●tian to take impossibilities in the one hand , and the word of promise in the other , and ●ay , O precious Christ reconcile these two together , that impossibilities do not destroy the promise , but that the promise may be accomplished notwithstanding of this . ● . We have this defect of faith amongst us , That we build our faith more upon sense , ●hen upon the word of promise ; when a Christian is in a good frame , he will believe , but when Christ hideth his face , he will then give over his hope . And lastly , there is this , That our faith upon the promises is general , we believe the truth of the promises , but we study not to make a particular application of them . I shall not stand long to make any use of what we have spoken ▪ Only I would have the Christians of this age , and those that are here , to go home with this conviction , the damnable neglect of believing of the promises . A Christian neglecteth these three duties of Religion most , he neglecteth the duty of self examining , the duty of believing the promises , and that noble soul exalting duty of meditation : these three duties ● Christian doth so constantly neglect , that almost he is above the reach of conviction , that he doth neglect them . But I would say a word unto these tha● are destitute of the Faith of the promises , and are strangers unto these blessed things that are recorded within the Covenant : And i● is onely this ; doubtlesse ye must believe your senses , if ye will not believe his Word . It is a question indeed , Which of all the senses shall be most satisfied in heaven , whether that of seeing , when we shall behold the King in his beauty ; and see him as he is , o● that of hearing , when we shall hear these melodious Halelujahs of that innumerable company , which are about the Throne , withou● any jarring amongst them all ▪ o● that of smelling , when we shall find the sweet perfume of his garments , which are perfumed with all the powders of the merchant ; or , that of touching , when we find Maries inhibiti●on taken off , Touch me not , and be admitted to imbrace him who is now ascended to his Father ; Or , that of tasting , when we shall drink of these rivers of Consolation , that shall neuer run dry . This , I say , is indeed a question ; But give me leave to tell you 〈◊〉 athiests and enemies of God : It is also a question , Which of all the five senses of a Reprobate shall be tormented in Hell , and what would ye answer to it now ? Whether ●hink ye the sense of sight , when ye shall be●old that darknesse of wrath , the devil and ●is angels , and your fellow prisoners in that ●ungeon ? Or whether shall your sense of ●earing be most tormented in hell , when ye ●hall hear those screighings and howlings ●hat shall eternally ascend up before God , ●y the souls that are in prison ? O but the ●reatest enemy would have compassion upon ●is enemy , to hear their cryes : Or , whether ●ill ye say the sense of tasting shall be most ●ormented , when ye shall drink of these ri●ers of brimstone ? Or , will the sense of ●●uching , when ye shall be eternally scorch●d 〈◊〉 with these flames of eternal indignation ▪ 〈◊〉 the sense of smelling , when ye shall eter●●lly be , as it were , suffocated with the ●●oke of that sulphurious furnace that shall ●ever be quenched ? O think you if Cain ●●ould come from hell and preach that do●●rine , that we should not persecute the ●●ints , would we listen unto him ? If Ab●●●on should come from hell , and should ●●each against the evil of ambition , would ye , 〈◊〉 unto him ? And if Achitophel should 〈◊〉 from the dead and preach that doctrine ●●to you , Let not the wise man glory in his ●●sdome , would we stop our ears ? Or if 〈◊〉 would come from hell and preach to 〈◊〉 the evil of hypocrisie , in betraying the 〈◊〉 of man with a kisse , would we believe 〈◊〉 ? Or if Dives that is recorded in the ●ospel should come from hell , and choise 〈◊〉 Text to preach upon , Iam. 5.1 . Go to ye rich men and howl , and weep for your miseries that shall come upon you . And if Dem●● would come and second him with that word love not the world , nor the things that are in the world : I fear ye would cry out wee will imbrace that doctrine at another time . Wee desire not to insist much upo● these , but O to believe , that there is an eter●nity of pain , and that there is an eternity 〈◊〉 joy . I will give you a description of the athiest , and let him think upon it , it is easie● to convince hundreds of you , that ye wa●● the fear of God , then that ye want the fait● and love of God. Oh , an imaginary faith● and a conceit of love , will yee ever quit● these it w● Idols . I confesse , once ye sha● have a faith that no man shall ever rob yo● of , and that is , the faith of that truth , th●● when once yee enter into eternity of pai● there is no redemption out of that plac● Awake , awake , for behold the Judge comet● and he shall render vengeance unto the●● that know him not . To his blessed 〈…〉 precious Name wee desire to gi●● praise . SERMON II. 2 Pet. 1.4 . Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises , that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature , having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust . THough Justice and Judgement be the habitation of His Throne , yet mercy and truth do go before it ●s two divine Ushers to convey ●s home unto God. There are these two things that we would ●ave Christians principally to study . 1. That ye would be much in the study of these wrongs and injuries that ye have done to Christ : And , 2. that ye would be much ●n the study of these infinite acts of precious ●ondescendency that Christ hath manifested ●owards you , that the one may provoke you ●nto sorrow and humility , and the other may provoke you unto a sweet astonishment ●nd admiration . And I would ask you this , ●f Christ should present that challenge unto you . which Absolon presented unto Hushai , Is this thy kindnesse unto thy friend ? O be●oved , what could you answer , when you were thus reproved ? I think if Christ had not forgetfulnesse for that blessed end , to ●orget the wrongs and injuries of his own ; I know not unto what use Christ should have forgetfulnesse , for he knoweth not what i● is to forget our good works , but he hath 〈◊〉 blessed arte of forgetting our wrongs ; though we may say upon the contrary , that we hav● a cursed arte of forgetting them our selves ▪ There are these three things that Christian● doth forget ; they forget much Christ , tha● is the great author of the promises , so tha● he may charge them with this , Why have 〈◊〉 forgotten me ? 2. They forget their mercies , and these divine receipts of love that Christ hath given unto them . 3. They forget even their iniquities , yea sometimes the● forget them before Christ doth forget them and passe an act of pardon upon them . 〈◊〉 shall not stand long to plead with you fo● your undervaluings of that blessed and nobl● Plant of renown ; I think if there were no more to evidence that low esteem that we have of Christ , but only this , that we ar● so much in sleighting the promises , it were more than sufficient : but besides , is there not this to testifie how much you under● value that holy and just one ; that ye study more to have an outward conformity unto him , than to have an inward . We may cal● the Christians of this time Nephthali ; they are as a hind let loose , and they give goodly words , but we do not give Christ godly practices : And is there not this also th●● testifieth our undervaluings of Christ , tha● we slight so much , secret and retired correspondance and communion with him ? 〈◊〉 suppose there are some that are here , whos● consciences beareth them record , they do not exercise themselves unto godlinesse , and I shall only say that word , that Gideon spake in another case , If God be with us , how then is all this come upon us ? such a spirit of formality , such a spirit of lazinesse , such a spirit of hardnesse , and such a spirit of undervaluing of Christ ? I suppose , that if there were a Chronicle written of all the lives of the Saints that have been since Adams dayes , and the Christians of this time should read over that Chronicle , when they should begin and read the life of Adam , they might put this to the close of it , my life is not like his , and when they should read the life of Abel , they might put this to the close of it ▪ my life is not like his ; and when they should read the life of Enoch , they might put this to the close of it , my life is not like his : O! to which of the Saints can we go : and if ye should call , is there any that would answer you , your life is like mine . But to come to the words , we told you at the last occasion tha● we spake upon them , that there were these things concerning the promises holden forth in them . 1. The rise of the promises is holden forth in these words , Whereby , or as we cleared the words may be thus rendered , by whom , which relateth unto Jesus Christ. The second thing concerning the promises holden forth in the verse is , the property of the promise , and they are these four . 1. That the promises are free , holden forth in that word , Whereby are given unto us ; all the promises of the everlasting Covenant are gifts , and not debt . There is that second property of the promises , that they are unchangeable , holden forth in that word , Given , the gifts and calling of God being without repentance . And the third property of the promises was , That they were exceeding great ▪ And the fourth , That they were exceeding precious . The third thing concerning the promises , holden forth in the words , is the advantage● that floweth to a Christian by the promise● that by them they might be made partakers o● the divine nature . And the last thing concerning them was that time when the promises were especially accomplished , it was then when we had escaped the pollutions of the world throug● lust . Now , as for the first thing , to wit , the fountain , original and rise of the promise● which is Jesus Christ , By whom ; In speakin● unto this , we shall speak a little unto thes● two . 1. In what respects Christ may b● said to be the fountain and original of th● promises ; and we conceive he may be sai● to be so . First , Because he purchased th● promises unto us by his own precio● bloud . There is not a promise in all th● everlasting Covenant , but it is the price 〈◊〉 the bloud of the Son of God ; this is clear 〈◊〉 Ephes ▪ 2.12 , 13. where speaking of the Ge●●tiles , that they were strangers unto the Co●venant of promise : he setteth down in th● 13. verse , the way by which they wer● brought near unto the Covenant , and had ●ight unto it , it was through the bloud of his ●rosse : and it is clear in Ephes. 3.9 . that the promises of the Gospel were given unto us in him , that is , through the purchase of him , ●nd his merits : and 1 Pet. 1.19 . where we are said to be bought by his bloud : for the promise of Redemption , was the price of ●loud . Secondly , Christ may be said to be ●he fountain of the Promises , in this respect , ●hat hee is the Person unto whom the promises of the Covenant are first made , and ●hrough him are made over unto us ; this is clear in Gal. 3 16. the promises were given unto Abraham , not unto many seeds , but as ●nto one , that is Christ ; and it is clear from 2 Tim. 1.9 . where the promises of Grace ●nd Salvation are said to be given unto us in ●im before the world was made : It is true , ●hat the promises are not given to Christ , considered only as the Son of God , ( for so he had no other relation to us then the Fa●her of the holy Ghost ) but yet they are , first , made to him as the Mediator and head ●f his Church , and as that blessed Dayes man , ●nd King of Saints , and the Great Lord ●eeper of all the Rights of the young heirs of Glory ; And we all receive of his fulnesse , and grace for grace . Thirdly , There is this ●espect , in which Christ may be said to be ●he fountain of the promises , that he it is ●y whom we have a right unto all the promises ; this is clear , ● Cor. 3.12 , 13. where ●hese two are conjoyned , yee are Christs , and ●hen all things are your● : If once a soul close with Christ in the Covenant of Promise , there is not one promise in Scripture but he may write this superscription abov● it , This is mine , this is mine . Fourthly Christ may be said to be the fountain of th● promises , in regard that he is the Person tha● applyeth the promises , and maketh us t● rest upon them , and to believe them , thi● David did acknowledge , Psal. 119.49 . Re●member thy word unto thy servant , upon whic● thou hast caused me to hope : as if David said I had never believed a promise , except tho●● hadest caused me , and it is clear , Ephes. 2.8 ▪ where faith is called the gift of God , eve● faith to believe the promises , it is the roy●● donation and gift of Christ. Fifthly , H● may be said to be the fountain of the pro●mises , in that he qualifieth us for the accom●plishment of them . Christ giveth us strengt● to obey the condition that is annexed to th● promise , and Christ he infuseth habitua● grace in us , by which we may be helped 〈◊〉 exercise faith upon the promises ; so th●● grant all the Scripture were promises , y● if Christ did not help us , we would never be●lieve a promise , and there would never a pro●mise be accomplished unto us . Sixthly ▪ The last respect in which Christ may be sai● to be the fountain of the promises , is , Th●● all the promises of the everlasting Covenan● they have their accomplishment throgh hi● according to that word , 2 Cor. 1.20 . All 〈◊〉 promises of God are in him yea , and in him Ame● so that ye are to blesse Christ , not only fo● the giving of the promises , but for the accom●plishment of them also . That which secondly we shall speak to from this , that Christ is the fountain of the promises , shall be to presse upon Christians these three excellent and soul concerning duties . The first , That they would not have a light account of the promises , since they are rivolets and streams that flow from that blessed Ocean : O but if a Christian did believe that the promise that he hath for his daily bread , it was bought with the blood of the second Person of the blessed Trinity , would he not have an high account of that promise ? And let me tell you , it is impossible for the promises to be in high account with you , till once ye reduce them unto their ●ise , and to their fountain : but once know that all the promises are sweet streams of ●ove that have run through the heart of precious Christ , and from thence they have ●lowed unto you , and then when this is be●ieved , how shall ye sit down and comfort your ●elves in the promises , and rejoyce exceeding●y in them . The second duty that we presse upon you ●rom this , is , That since Christ is the foun●ain and original of the Promises , be much 〈◊〉 the application of the Promises : And ●ere I shall speak a little upon these three ●hings . 1. A little unto the evidences and ●arks of those that have a right to apply ●he promises ; and shall only name unto you ●hese few : The first is , to be a person under ●onvictions of sensible need and necessity of ●uch a promise ; have ye convictions of such 〈◊〉 necessity ; Then from that ye may infer , I have a right to the promises , and are not these glad tiding● ? I know there are some that are under such convictions of their sin , tha● they think it boldness to apply the promises ▪ But I would say this unto you , that if y●● were under sensible convictions of your lostnesse , ye would give a world for an hair o● a promise whereby to hang : believe it , the exercise of misbelief is never at its height , till we would be content to dig through the earth to get a promise , and till we were at that , that our souls would pursue after them from the one end of the world to the other : And for the grounds of this assertion , that sensible necessity giveth a right to the promises , if ye will look to these grea● promises of the everlasting Covenant , are they not given to that Christian that is under a need , Isai. 55.1 , 2. and Matth. 11.28 where the great promise of the Gospel 〈◊〉 given out , and the invitation of Jesu● Christ , is unto these that are weary and heav● laden . Christ would account it an excellen● courtesie , that ye would not dispute , bu● believe , and that ye would look upon you● necessities as his call to believe the promise ▪ 2. A person that hath a high account of th● Promises , he hath a right to apply the pro●mises : Let once your soul , close with Chri●● by Faith and Love , and then you may wit● boldnesse close with the Promises . I con●fesse , if we were more in believing the pro●mises , we would have a higher and mo●●●full esteem of the Promiser : Would yo●●now the reason that Christ is not acounte● matchlesse , it is because of this , our necessities of the promises is not alwayes within our sight , and our exercising of Faith upon the promises is not our daily work . 3. This looketh like a right to the promise ; that which is born in upon a Christians spirit when he is near God in prayer , and is under most sensible exercise under his own inf●rmities , he hath readily a right to apply that promise : As for instance , when a Christian is debating himself out of Christ , which is but an unpleasant exercise ; to meet with a promise born in upon their spirit , that giveth them some ground of hope , that they may apply and rest upon Christ : or when a Christian is fainting under affliction , and is like to give over ; to meet with a word of promise born in upon his spirit , that doth uphold him in the day of his triall , he may probably conclude he hath a right to believe that promise . 4 There is that evidence , persons that have an high account of the promises , they have a right to apply the promises , it is an excellent and most concerning work for a Christian to believe the excellency of the promises , when he cannot have the actual application of the Promises . For when once a Christian cometh to this , that the great things of the everlasting Covenant are matchlesse in his eyes ; then that is the val●● of Achor , and a door of hope , that ere long Christ will apply them . 5. When a Christian hath great delight in the promises , when they are sweet to his taste , and are the refreshing and rejoycing of his heart , that is an undeniable sign that h● hath a right to make use of such promises ▪ Were your souls never refreshed by readin● of the boundlesse Covenant of love , an● the sweet promises that are in it ? I woul● have Christians marking these promises tha● have upholden them in their straits , I woul● have them marking the promises that hav● been lively to their souls , and say , Th●● once was my goodly meet , and made me to rejoyce in the house of my affliction ; and 〈◊〉 would have a Christian marking the time o● the accomplishment of the Promises , i● which he will see infinite wisdome shining i● ordering the accomplishment of the pro●mises to such a time . And I would have 〈◊〉 Christian marking the frame of his own spirit , when the promises are accomplished ( as ye will find often in Scripture ) and by all this , ye should find such a reviving an● profitable delight in the promises , that should give a very full evidence of your righ● unto them . 6. Lastly , when a Christia● understraits can receive consolation from no other thing , but all prove Physicians of no value and miserable comforters : when 〈◊〉 Christian is convinced , there is no joy to be had under such a crosse but in the faith o● the promises , that is an evidence that th●● person hath a right to the promises . I would only say this , O beloved in the Lord ▪ is not this your guilt , your undervaluing o● the promises , and your little exercise o● faith ? I would pose you with this , when last studied ye to apply any promise of the Covenant of Grace ? When last did ye exercise saith upon any of them ? Shall I tell you what is the practise of the most part of us , we study perhaps to apply one promise , but for the rest of the promises we lay them aside , and do totally neglect them : we study to apply the promises of salvation , and of having redemption through Christ , but for the promises of Sanctification , for the promises to help us to perform duties , for the promises to support us under the crosse , for the promises to comfort us in our way to heaven , for promises in reference to all ordinary things , we are not much in application of these . O but if a Christian were believing the promises , he might sit down even while he is here , and sing one of the songs of Zion , though yet but in a strange land . The second thing that I shall speak to upon the application of the promise , shall be to propose unto you some rules that ye would make use of in the application of them , and ●hall name unto you these . First , Study these four things , one is the ●aithfulnesse and truth of the promises , that ●uch a thing is the saying of him that is the faithful witnesse , and Amen : This was the practice of Paul , 1 Tim. 1.15 . the way how ●e was brought to make application of the promise , was , 1. by laying down that conclusion , this is a faithfull saying ; and Rev. ●2 . from the beginning to the 6. verse , when ●here are great promises made , and much ●poken to the commendation of heaven , this is subjoyned in the 6. verse , These are the faithfull and true sayings of God : As if Iohn had said , all that I have spoken concerning heaven , will be to no purpose , except ye believe the truth of the promises ; and this was the practice of David , 2 Sam. 7.28 . Thy words are truth , O Lord , he subjoyned th●● unto the actual application of the promises . 2. Study the sweetn●sse and excellency of the promises , this was the practice of Paul , 1 Tim. 1.15 . This is a faithfull saying , and then he subjoyneth , and worthy of all acceptation : And this was the practice of David , Psal. 119.72 . I have esteemed the laws of thy mouth better then thousands of gold and silver . O such an opinion , to esteem the promises better then thousands of gold ! It is heterodox amongst the most part of you , that prefer the world before the promises of the Covenant : and it was his practice , vers . 103. and vers . 162. I rejoyce at thy word as one that findeth great spoil : he had an higher account of the Promises , then to divide the spoil after war. 3. Let the Christian study the necessity that he hath of the promise , that there is no way of winning above that neces●sity but the closing with the promise , an● laying hold upon it . 4. Lastly , A Christi●an would study the suitablenesse that is in th● promise to answer their necessities , that i● they be under need , there is a preciou● way of remedy manifested unto them by these . The second rule that we would prescrib● in the application of the promises , is , Tha● ye do not expect sensible comforts immediately after ye have believed the promise , a Christian may apply the promises , and yet want the joy and sweetnesse that is in them : This is clear , Psal. 119.25 . My soul cleaveth unto the dust . There he is under much anxiety and much sorrow ; and yet he is a believer of the promises in the mean time , as the words following doth clear , Quicken me according to thy word , he layeth claim to the promise , and this is clear in the 81. vers . of that Psalm , My soul doth faint within me ; There is much exercise of sorrow , and yet he is a believer in the promise , But I hope in thy word : A Christian after he hath believed ●he promise , he would put a blank in Christs hand concerning the sweetnesse of the promises to be made out in its own time . What is sense ? Is it the precious indulgence of Christ that he giveth to his own . I would presse this upon you , prophesie nothing before your believing of the pomise ; but , having believed , ye may surely prophesie that the promise shall be accomplished in its own time , and the word that he hath spoken shall certainly come to passe : but as for sense , as for quickening , as for comforting , as for receiving , ye must put a blank in the hand of Christ to dispense these things to you as he seeth fit . The third rule in the application of the promises , is , That ye do not build your faith upon this , that the promises shall be accomplished , because probability and reason seem to say the thing : I would say this to a Christian , that ye may oftentimes suspect the promise is not near to be accomplished when reason saith , Behold the word of the Lo●● cometh , and that oftimes the Lord is neare● when we begin to passe a conclusion , the Word is not at hand , and the time of the accomplishment of the promise is not near ▪ Certainly many times before Christ accomplish the promises , he will learn us to be liv●ing above sense and reason , and he will hav● reason to submit to faith , and he will hav● probabilities to contradict the accomplishment of the promise ; and when probabilities are furthest away , that is His time 〈◊〉 work : this is clear in these two signal deliverances of the people of Israel from Egy●● and Babylon , Exod. 3.4 , 5. and Ezech. 37 . ●● the beginning . And therefore as a Christia● would not quite his grip of the promises , because dispensations seem to contradict th● accomplishment of the promise , and sometime cryeth out , Why art thou become unto 〈◊〉 as a liar , and as waters that fail ? So on th● other hand , ye are to build your faith upo● the promises , and not upon dispensation● even when favourable ; seeing that we kno● the way that Christ taketh many times 〈◊〉 accomplish the promises , is by contrar● means to our apprehension ; His paths 〈◊〉 in the whirlewind , and his footsteps are 〈◊〉 known . And may we not cry out , Who ca● take up the wayes of God , whose wa●es ar● more subtil than the way of an eagle in the ai● or the way of a serpent upon the rock , or the wa● of a ship upon the sea , &c. The fourth rule that we would prescribe unto you in the application of the promises , is , That ye would close absolutely with the promises , I mean , without limiting the only One. There is a limitted closing with the promise , which is the frequent exercise of our hearts ; we will close with the promise , but with this restraint laid upon Christ , That whensoever we begin to believe the promises , all things might go as we desire : and this is the great occasion that we do so frequently reject our confidence , and do refuse our hope when God doth not answer our peremptory expectations . Fifthly , We give you this rule , that ye would eye Christ much in the application of the promises . There is a threefold sight of Christ that a Christian should have when he applyeth the promises , a Christian should have a sight of the boundlesse and condescending love of Christ , that so he may be constrained to hope , and may be constrained to love . 2. A Christian should eye the faithfulnesse and unchangeableness of Christ , ●hat what his blessed lips have spoken , he will also do , and what he hath said , he will likewise bring to passe . And , 3. in the application of promises , he must eye the omnipotency of Christ , that what he hath said , he ●s able to bring to passe . And O when shall we have occasion to sing that song , What hath God wrought for us , which was the song ●hat Balaam sung who yet was but a profane wretch . 6. There is this rule that we would prescribe unto you in the application of the promises , that a Christian after he hath applyed them , he would be much in the exercise of Prayer for the accomplishment of these promises ; this was the practice o● David , 2 Sam. 7.27 . When God in passing many precious promises ; David doth subjoyn that word , Therefore have I found i● my heart to pray this prayer : And we see i● Ezek. 36.37 . All alongs that Chapter , Go● is passing most excellent promises ; and yet in vers . 37. this is subjoyned , For all these things , I will be enquired of the house of Israel : And in Ier. 29.10 , and 12. where the time is coming , when God would accomplis● his good word ( as he speaketh ) that is subjoyned in vers . 12. Then shall ye call upon me ▪ and seek after me : And Daniel 9.2 , 3 ▪ when Daniel knew that the promise 〈◊〉 near the time of its accomplishment , the● hee set himself by prayer and supplication 〈◊〉 seek the face of God. I would say these three words unto a Christian ; The smallest mercy that a Christian meeteth with , if he can call it Samuel ▪ that is , The son of prayer , and 〈◊〉 ye can call it Isaac , that is , The childe of promise , he may then , and doth ordinarily receive much consolation in that mercy . O but a mercy flowing to a Christian through a promise , if it were but a drink of col● water , and a piece of brown bread , it wil● be more excellent chear , then all the dainties of the Kings of the earth . O but to eat and drink , taking these things as the accomplishment of the promises , this would make us eat our bread with singleness of heart , and much chearfulnesse . And there is this , ●econdly , I would say unto you , When a promise is accomplished , and a Christian is ●ot much in the exercise of Prayer in the ●ccomplishment of it , one to a hundred if ●ee loose not the sanctified use of the accom●lishment of that promise . Ah , know yee ●ot that a promise when it is accomplished , may bee a curse to a Christian. That word ●s most terrible , Mal. 2.2 . I will curse your ●lessings . And the last word that I would ●ay to this , is , That a Christian who believeth ●he promises , notwithstanding that dispen●ations seem to contradict it , that promise ●hall be made most refreshfull unto his spirit , when it is accomplished . O but a Chri●tian that never had much jealousie , nor much staggering about the accomplishment ●f the promise , when it cometh , it will bee most refreshfull unto him : And believe it , ●here is not one hours entertainment of jea●ousie about the accomplishment of the promise , but it will impare the sweetnesse of ●he promise when it is accomplished , ex●ept so far , that the transcendant and free ●ove of Christ is seen in the accomplishment ●f them , notwithstanding of our misbe●ief . The last rule that I shall offer a Christia●●n his application of the promises , when ye meet with objections that yee cannot answer , but they do silence you ; I will tell you what ye should do with them , misken these obstructions and lay them by . This was the practice of believing Abraham , Rom. 4.9 . He considered not his own body being weak , and the deadnesse of Sarahs womb . The weaknesse of his own body , and the deadnesse of Sarahs womb were so strong objections in the way of the accomplishment of the promises , that he could not answer them ; and the way he taketh to refute them was , He did not consider them ; as it were , he forgot those objections and went about his duty . The third thing that we shall speak to , in relation to the application of the promises , shall be somewhat for helping a Christian that is standing at too great a distance , to get the promises applied . First , A Christian would be much in the study of these experiences of the faithfulnesse of God , and what others have met with . When ye begin to apply a promise , ye may be helped in the Faith of applying promises ▪ by beholding these great records of the faithfulnesse of God that are extant . This was the way the Angel took with Mary , Luke 1.36 . where helping her to believe that promise , that of her should be born the Messiah ; this is the way that he strengthened her , Thy cosin Elizabeth is now with childe , and hath gone six moneths , even she that was called barren . And , I shall onely name these two places in Scripture which may help you exceedingly , and strengthen you to believe the promises upon this acount . There is that ●ord in Exod. 12.41 . and 51. It is a most re●arkable saying , At the end of the four hundred ●nd thirty-years , on that same very day , ( there ●as not one day missed after the time that ●as set was accomplished ) In that same very ●ay they came out , and this is marked in ver . 51. ●gain : And there is that word 1 Kings 8.56 . ●here Solomon , when he is singing most ●weetly to God , he taketh an observation of ●is , Loe ( saith he ) there hath not failed one ●ord that God hath spoken to you by his servant Moses . Secondly , Ye would be much in the con●●deration of your own experiences , that ●ou have in the accomplishment of promises ●●rmerly . This was Davids way that he ●●ok to strengthen himself to believe the ●romise , He that hath delivered me from the ●ge of the Lion , and the paw of the Bear , he ●ill deliver me from this uncircumcised Phi●●stine , 1 Sam. 17.35 . and 37.46 . And this ●as the practice of the Apostle Paul , 2 Tim. ● ▪ 17 , 18. God hath delivered me from that 〈◊〉 lion : And from thence he subjoyneth , ●nd the Lord will deliver me from every evil ●ork : And this was his practice . 2 Cor. 1. ●● . where these three are swetly knit to●ther , God hath delivered me , he doth deli●●● me , and he shall deliver me . There is 〈◊〉 one experience of this kinde , but it ●eacheth that 〈◊〉 your● O , believe the ●●omise , and do not ●all in question his faith●●●nesse . Thirdly , There is that help ; that ye● study much the excellency of the promise● that is the most noble and excellent way 〈◊〉 move you to apply the promises , accordin● to that word , Psal. 119.111 . I have ma● thy testimonies my heritage for ever ; and th● ground of it is that , Because they are the r●●joycing of my heart . The sweetnesse of the promises would engage our heart to apply them . And there is that fourth help , a Christi●● would study the omnipotency of God , th●● so hee may bee helped to believe and appl● the promise : This is clear in Zech. 12.1 ▪ where God going to passe many excelle●● promises , hee ushers in that discourse wi●● high and magestick description of his powe● in that hee streatcheth forth the heavens , 〈◊〉 layeth the foundation of the earth , and forme● the spirit of man within him . And this 〈◊〉 the practice of Abraham , Rom. 4.21 . the 〈◊〉 how he came to believe the promise , He 〈◊〉 him able that had made it , that he 〈◊〉 perform it . Fifthly , For your help in applying 〈◊〉 the promises , Study much the unchang●●ablenesse of Christ , and his faithfulnesse , kno● that hee is the same , yesterday , and to 〈◊〉 and for ever . This was the way that 〈◊〉 came to the faith of the promises , Heb. 11. ● ▪ Shee believed , 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of it 〈◊〉 that shee judged him faithfull that had pr●●mised . There 〈…〉 of misbeli●● that a Christian falleth into , but it sai●● that God is not faithfull , and that hee is not true . Now the last duty that wee would presse ●rom this point , that Christ is the fountain of the promises , is , that wee may have an high esteem of the Promiser ; even of Jesus Christ , in whom they are yea , and Amen . And I shall close all at this time with this , ●re there not many here , that have no re●pect unto him who is that faithfull witnesse , ●nd the Amen ; who hath promised us him●elf , and all things : and if yee will not take with the challenge , let your hearts but an●wer these two or three things : 1. Hath ●ot the losse of things in the world affected ●our heart more , then ever absence from ●hrist did ? Hath it not ? And can such a ●oul say , I have an high account of the Pro●iser ? Is it possible , that these that will ●ourn more under the absence of their Idols ●an for the want of him , that they can have 〈◊〉 high account of Jesus Christ ? I am per●●aded of this , there are some Merchants , 〈◊〉 the losse of their goods at the Sea , hath ●●●verted them from their nights rest , and 〈◊〉 absence from Christ never did divert 〈◊〉 from their sleep one hour . O when 〈◊〉 love to find out Jesus Christ , and to enjoy 〈◊〉 fellowship , make you rise up in the silent ●●atches of the night , and to pursue after 〈◊〉 . 2. Have not your souls delighted ●ore on the enjoyment of the things of a ●orld , than ever they did in the enjoyment 〈◊〉 Christ. Is not this true , that the increase 〈◊〉 wine and oyl , and of silver and gold hath affected your hearts more with joy than ever Christ did ? And have you a high esteem of the Promiser ? 3. Are you taking delight to entertain fellowship and communion with the Promiser ; Is this true ? When went you to your prayers , but yee wearied ere yee went away ? And have yee a high account of the Promiser ? Is not that th● language of your hearts ; O when shall the Sabbath be over ? and when shall the new mo●● be gone , that I may pursue after my Idols ? 〈◊〉 would pose you with this , if there were n● eye to take notice of you , would you 〈◊〉 slight secret prayer , would you not sligh● Family Prayer ? Wee love not to serve Je●sus Christ. I know there are atheists her● that would love to go to heaven witho●● Faith , Love , Prayer and Repentance , the● would love to go to heaven by a way th●● never one went before them . And now 〈◊〉 shall say but this one word to you that 〈◊〉 the heirs of the promise , and have the bless●● expectation of heaven , what ever the 〈◊〉 do , esteem yee highly of him : O rememb●● and comfort your selves in the thoughts 〈◊〉 the blessed day which Christ ( after hee 〈◊〉 past the sentence of condemnation upon 〈◊〉 wicked ) shall go in upon the head of 〈◊〉 Troups of the first born , hee shall walk 〈◊〉 before us through the Ports of the New J●●rusalem , having Crowns of Immortal Glo●● upon his head , and then shall follow aft●● Him His Angels , and then shall follow aft●● Him the blessed company of the first 〈◊〉 every one having the Harps of God in the ●and , and they shall be singing as they enter 〈◊〉 through the Ports of the City , Hallelujah ●nto him that was dead , and is alive , and now ●iveth for evermore . O to believe that day when first we shall all enter in through the ●●reets of the New Jerusalem , when we shall ●ee cloathed in white robes , having Crowns ●pon our head ! O such a day , if it were ●elieved , might it make us often shake our ●lasse , and streach out our necks , ( as the word 〈◊〉 , Rom. 8.19 ) till once we saw that blessed ●ay were approaching to us ! There is no ●earying in heaven , the promises are now ●ccomplished unto them , and they are inhe●●ting the promises ; When shall that word 〈◊〉 accomplished , or when shall we have oc●asion to say it ? Mark 1.37 . Behold all men 〈◊〉 after thee ; the word that these Disciples ●●ake to Christ : O study to love him , study 〈◊〉 believe on him , for bee perswaded hee is ●pon his way . And I shall say no more but ●his , that as all the promises that are within 〈◊〉 bounds of this everlasting Covenant , they 〈◊〉 yea , and Amen , in an imbraced Christ , 〈◊〉 laid hold on by faith ; so I say , all the ●●rses that are in Deut. 26.27 , 28. and all the ●●rses that are within the volumn of the Book 〈◊〉 this Covenant , they shall be yea and Amen 〈◊〉 a despised Christ , and not laid hold upon 〈◊〉 faith . SERMON III. 2 Pet. 1.4 . Whereby are given unt● us exceeding great and precious Promises , that by these you might b● partakers of the divine nature , hav●ing escaped the corruption that is i● the world through lust . SOmetimes the soul of a Christian do●● move in the paths of God , and in th● wayes towards Zion as the chariots 〈◊〉 Aminadab , when they are under the so●● enliving and quickening influences of heave● and sometimes the soul of a Christian do●● move in those blessed paths as Pharaohs ch●●riots , they drive most heavily , when there●● a cloud between the precious face of Chr●●● and them : and wee conceive that sound 〈◊〉 spirituall exercise of Faith upon the Pr●●mises , would make a Christians motio● more swift towards heaven . We grant Chr●●● hath three different wayes of guiding 〈◊〉 and daughters to Glory : there are some th●● Christ carrieth to heaven in a chariot pav●● with love , that all alongs their life they 〈◊〉 living within sight of that promised La●● and are taken up with the refreshing fo●● tastes of the heavenly joyes ; such a one 〈◊〉 Henoch , who spent his dayes in walking wi●● God : there are some that Christ guideth 〈◊〉 heaven in a chariot that is drawn with speck●ed horses ; they have mixed dispensations of sorrow and joy attending them in their walk , they have a winter and a summer , they have a night and a day , and such a one was Iob. 3. There are some that Christ carryeth to Heaven in a fiery chariot , that all alongs their life they are under distracting terrours of the most High , and are living perpetually to their own apprehensions upon the borders of hell , and such a one was Heman , whom Christ thus did guide to heaven : however , if wee shall go there , we need not much dispute the way how wee came , for he doth all things well . And upon the other part , Satan hath three different wayes of guiding souls unto everlasting torment ; there are some that Satan carryeth to hell in a chariot of delusions , making them believe that they are still going to heaven ; and such are the hypocrites in Sion : and I shall say ; I think that chariot was never so ●illed as it is in those dayes . O fear that ●nxious disappointment that many of you ( it is like ) will meet with ? An hypocrite hee hath strong hopes , hee hath strong idols , ●nd hee hath strong delusions , these are his three attendants . And there are some that Satan carryeth to hell in a chariot of profa●ity and ignorance of God , whose judgement goeth before hand , and they are known that ●hey are going there . And there are some ●hat Satan carryeth to hell in a chariot of civility , whose Religion stands in this , con●erning the letter of the Law to bee blamelesse . And certainly , believing of the promises ▪ and studying to exercise faith upon them , 〈◊〉 that which might prevent many of these damnable soul destroying and murdering delusions that are within some of our beast● . There are three things in Scripture that are called precious : Christ he is called precious 1 Pet. 2.7 . Faith is called precious , 2 Pe● ▪ 1.1 . To you that are partakers of the li●● precious faith with us , and the promises they are called precious , in the words that 〈◊〉 have read , and Faith ( as it were ) hat● two blessed eyes , by one of those it beholdeth Christ , and by another of these it beholdeth the promises , and fixeth it self upo● them . O Christians and expectants of He●ven , would you know what is the rise of 〈◊〉 the sad things that have befallen you in the●● dayes ? It is this in short , ye believe not th● promises . O Christians , what is the reaso● that ye carry not your crosses with patience it is , because ye believe not the promises b● which your soul must be upholden in th● day of your affliction . O Christian , wh●● is the rise of your little mortification ? 〈◊〉 it not because ye believe not the promises for by them ye should be made partakers 〈◊〉 the divine nature . O Christian , what is th● ground that ye pray so little , and that yo● pray with so little successe ? It is , becaus● ye believe not the promises . A Christia● when he goeth to pray , he should take the●● two things along ; 1. The sensible co●●victions of his necessities : And , 2. Th● precious promises that is given to answe● that necessity , the one would provoke fervency , and the other Faith. Are there not some here that knoweth not what it is to pray upon a promise , and that maketh you pray to so little purpose . O Christian , what is the reason of your so much sorrow , and of your little spiritual comfort ? It is , that ye believe not the promises : It is no wonder that your names be called Marah , because ye exercise not faith upon the precious promises of God. I think without wronging you or any that are here ; I doubt much if ever Christians had such hearts as the most part of us have ; O what a heart is that , that can neither pray nor praise ? both are alike mysteries unto them : What a heart is that , O Christian , that can neither believe promises , believe threatnings , nor obey commands ? What a heart is that , that can neither sorrow for sin , nor rejoyce in God ? and what a heart is that , that can neither love Christ when he is present , nor can they ●ong for Christ when he is absent ? and what ● heart is that , O Christian , that can neither ●ove heaven , nor can fear hell ? and is there nor such hearts with us , even with us that ●re here this day ? At the last occasion that we spake upon these words , we spake a little to the first ●hing in them , which was the rise and originall of the promises , holden forth in that word , Whereby , or by whom . The second ●hing in the words , was the properties of ●he promises ; and wee told you that there were these four holden forth in the words . The first property of the promises is , that they are free , which is imported in that word , are given ; all the promises of the everlasting Covenant being the precious and free gifts of God. Hence you will see that oft times the tenor of the Covenant of Grace runs upon that strain , I will give you , as i● clear , Ier. 32.39 . I will give you one heart , and Ezek. 36.26 . I will give you a new heart , and Ezek. 11.19 . I will give you ; It is the strain of the language of the Covenant of Grace , to give . Now in speaking upon this first property of the promises , to wit , their freedom , I shall speak a little unto these two , the first thing shall be to point out unto you the way how a Christian may win to the distinct uptaking of the freedom of the promises ▪ and then I shall from thence presse some duties . And in short , as to the first , we conceive that a Christian may win unto the distinct uptaking of the freedom of the promises , by these Considerations . 1. Let a Christian cast his eye upon the sweet rise , and spring , or fountain of the promises , and there ye will see their freedom shining most clear : for what is the fountain of the promises ? Is it not the boundlesse and everlasting love of Christ : this is clear , Deut. 7 ▪ 7. where God giving a reason of all the great things that he had performed for them , he setteth down the rise of it , Because I loved you , saith he : and again the ground of this is , Because I have loved you , there being no reason of love , but love : and it is clear , 2. Sam. 7.2 . where David having received many precious promises , hee setteth down the rise of all these in that verse , For the words sake , saith he , and according to thine own heart , hast thou done all these things to make them known to thy servant . And it is clear , Ezek. 17.8 . where God calleth the time of entering into Covenant with them , a time of love ; that love it was eminently shining in that day when God did condescend to Covenant with them : And hence yee see in Scripture , that the promises they are called by the name of mercy , Micah 7.20 . To perform the mercy to Abraham , which is the Promises , and they are so called , because mercy and boundlesse love is the sole fountain and spring of all these promises . Secondly , Consider the persons who have right to make use of the promises ? Must not the promises be free when the proclamation is upon these tearms , Rev. 22.17 . Whosover will , let him come , there is nothing to give you a right to the promises , but only a willingnesse to embrace them , if yee will , yee may take them . And , thirdly , yee may read the freedom of the promises in this , that any condition which is annexed to the promise : Christ giveth to the Believer strength to perform that condition : It is known that Faith is the condition of the promises , and it is certain Christ giveth a Believer that condition as well as hee giveth him the promise , Philip 1 29. To you it is given to believe , and Eph. 2.8 ▪ It is the gift of God : It is impossible for a Christian to perform the condition , except Christ who is surety for him did perform it . Fourthly , Ye may read the freedom of the promises , 〈◊〉 ye consider the time when the promises are accomplished , it is often at such a time , when the Christian hath been , and is under no very spirituall frame . Hence yee will see in Ezek. 16.60 , 61. that when the promises are accomplished , then God requireth confusion and blushing of face , because of their former wayes : and Ezek. 36.31 . when the promises are accomplished , then that is the time when the Lord calleth them to remember their own evil wayes , and their doings that were not good ; yea , hee will have them and all the world to know , it is not for their sakes that he doth this ; therefore he commandeth them to bee ashamed and confounded for their own wayes , or the posture they were in when he accomplished his promise : And if there were no other thing to speak the freedome of the promises , but the trysting of the accomplishment of them with such a frame , it were more then suff●cient : But besides this , see Davids practice , 2 Sam. 7.8 . hee readeth the freedome of the promises from his own imperfections , What am I ( saith hee ) and what is my fathers house , that thou shouldest have brought mee hitherto ? And even in the same Text , there is an Emphasis in that word , to us , Whereby are given to us , as if the Apostle did say , to prove that the promises are gifts : I can bring no other argument so strong as this , They are given to us . Fifthly , Yee may read the freedom of the Promises , if yee will consider and take up the infinite fulnesse and all-sufficiency of the Promiser , that there is nothing without himself that can perswade him to give such promises . Hence yee will see , Gen. 17.1 . when hee is making the Covenant with Abraham , hee putteth it still in the Frontispiece of the Covenant , I am God all-sufficient , as it were , to put off all thoughts of merit that Abraham might have , and that Abraham might bee perswaded of this , that there was not any imaginable perfection in himself , that could be the ground and rise of such promises . And there is that , lastly , from which yee may read the freedom of the promises , if yee consider the greatnesse of these promises : if they were of a lower nature ; then were it lesse to bee wondered , if merit should come in to plead for it self : But when a Christian shall compare himself , and the greatnesse of the promises together , hee cannot but then sing that blessed song , These are the gifts and donations of God , and what am I , and what is my fathers house that thou hast brought me hitherto . Now the second thing that wee purposed to speak to , is , to presse some duties upon you from this , that the promises are free , and wee shall lay before you these three . The first , That since the promises of God , are free , then as you would not destroy your own souls , bee much in making use and application of the Promises : Are not the promises your life ? Did not all the Saints that went to heaven before us go to heaven , living upon the promises ? There was not a step of Abrahams life , but hee walked with a promise in it ; there was not an affliction that Abraham met with , but hee took comfort to himself from the promises ; and I shall remove these two mistakes that are incident to Christians in the application of the promises , even from this ground , that they are free . The first is this , There are some Christians that will not apply the promises , because they are under the convictions of their own infirmities , and of their own basenesse : so that when wee presse you to believe the promises , yee reject this counsell , because yee consult with your own infirmities . This was the practice of David , Psal. 22.4 . Our father 's trusted in thee , they trusted and were delivered : but hee durst not trust in the 6. verse , But I am a worm , and not a man ▪ I am a reproach among the people . And it is that same divinity that is in these dayes , when we presse you to believe the promises , because of the great cloud of witnesses that have gone before you , that believed the promises . O say yee , if I were like David , and Abraham , I would believe the promises ; but truely David said that same , that lived before you , if I were like my fathers , I would believe the promises , but I am not like my fathers . And therefore I would say to you these two words . 1. Are yee inferiour o● short unto David in holinesse , or necessities ? Wee do not question but all of you will answer , wee are not inferiour to David in necessities , but in holinesse ; Then say wee , if ye be not inferiour to David in necessity , then make use of the promises : for as we cleared the last day , necessity giveth ● right in making use of the promises . 2. I would say , I am certainly perswaded , that sensible necessity would cut short many of our formal debates , in closing with the promises , necessities ( as ye use to speak ) hath no Law , and necessity hath no manners . Let mee say that to you who will not close with the promises , that if yee were under sensible necessity ▪ if Christ should forbid you to close with such a promise , ye would close with it though hee forbid you , as the woman of Canaan did , there is nothing but sensible necessity will overcome it : necessity never disputes its right , for it goeth over the belly of such a dispute , it presently maketh use of that that its need calleth for . Secondly , There is that other mistake amongst Christians in believing the promises , that they want the qualifications annexed to the promises , and therefore they dare not believe the Promise , especially that promise of closing with Christ , they think they are not under such a deep measure of humiliation , of sorrow for sin , nor under such lively apprehensions of the excellency of Christ. And I shall say but these six things unto these that will not close with Christ , because they want qualifications , or at least , have not these qualifications after such a way . First , Let mee tell thee ( O Christian that thus disputes , ) go between the first steps of a Christians way to heaven and the last , and see if yee can behold a grave upon which this is written , Behold here lieth a man or a woman that came to Christ to imbrace him , and hee would not receive them ; Did yee ever behold such a grave as this ? And why then do ye so much dispute ? Will ye take a trial of Christ whether hee will refuse you if yee come , and if hee shall refuse you , sure I am , he will do that which he never did to any before you . The second thing I would say to such , that the want of such degrees of such things , ought not to be a ground of your not closing with Christ ; for if yee had these qualifications that yee require , yee would maintain that same dispute that yee do now ; for when we desire you to close with Christ , ye answer , that your sorrow is not come to such a height as it ought , nor is your humiliation come to such a height , as ye pitch for your self to come to . O Christian , if yee come to ten times more , and yet ten times more , yee would have that same dispute then which ye have now : and the ground of it is this , the more that a Christian have real sorrow , he will oftentimes be the more in the apprehension that hee hath not sorrow . Thirdly , If yee want the qualifications that are required in these that should close with Christ in the Covenant of promise , then come to Christ to get these qualifications . I would only ask at you , think yee to spin sorrow for sin out of your own hearts ; Think ye to spin humiliation for sin out of these wretched breasts of yours , yee must come to Christ for sorrow , as well as ye come to Christ for life . Fourthly , All the qualifications ▪ that ●re annexed unto that promise of closing with Christ , and coming to him , they point ●ut rather the qualification of them that will come , then the qualification of these ●hat ought to come : Yee read such a command as that , Come unto mee all ye that are wearied and heavy loaden . O say yee , I am not weary , and I am not under the burden of sinne , therefore I cannot come . I will tell you what is the meaning of that command ; Christ inviteth these who have the greatest unwillingnesse , to come and get willingnesse : But withall , it sheweth this , none will come to get rest from Christ , but these that are first weary ; and that this is the Lords method of working , first , to make weary , and then to ease ; but no such matter in his Word , That first , wee must have a wearinesse of our own making , or else hee will not receive us : now but when yee come , yee will be weary , and hee will receive you . Fifthly , let mee say to you who thus disputes , make your want of qualifications the very ground of your closing with Christ. I shall but in three places let you see this strange arguing of Faith in closing with the promises : There is that , Psal. 40.11 , 12. Let thy truth continually preserve mee , that is , let thy promises be accomplished and made lively unto mee , which are my preservation : and would yee know the ground and reason that hee anexeth unto this ; For saith he , Innumerable evils encompassed me about , they have taken such hold of me , that I am not able to look up . He maketh his very want of qualifications , the grounds of his closing with the promise , and seeking the accomplishment of it . And there is that second expression which is most wonderfull , Psal. 25 11. David prayeth for the accomplishment of that promise , Pardon my sinne upon that same very account , Because it is great . And I shall give you a third place in which the arguing of Faith is most mysterious , Exod. 33. compared with Exod. 34.9 . In the first place , God denieth the accomplishment of that promise , of going up amongst that people : And the ground hee giveth of it , is , Because , saith hee , yee are a stiff necked people . And chap. 34. verse 9. when Moses is praying for the accomplishment of that promise , That God would go amongst them ; he taketh that same very argument out of the mouth of God ; Go up amongst us ; For , saith hee , wee are a stiff-necked people : God said he would not go up because they were a stiff necked people , and Moses desireth him to go up because of this ▪ And there is this , lastly , that wee would say to you , that so much dispute ; If yee would have these qualifications that yee want , yee would study to close with Christ by Faith ; Would ye have sorrow for sin ? then believe ; Would ye have high thoughts of Christ ? then believe : Would ye have humiliation ? then believe ; for believing is a mother grace unto all these . The second duty that we would press upon you from this consideration that the promises are free , is , That when the promises ●re given to you , and are accomplished , ye would study to be denied to any merit in your selves , which ye may suppose to be the ●ise of the giving or accomplishment of the promises . There is nothing that a Christian ●eceiveth , but it is a fruit of infinit love , there ●s not a conviction that trysteth a Christian , ●ut it is the fruit of infinite love ; there is ●ot one real sigh for sin , but it is the fruit of ●nfinit love ; there is not one blink of the precious countenance of Christ , but it is a ●ruit of infinit love ; there is not the least ●egree of hatred against sin , but it is the fruit of infinit love ; there is not the least promise that is accomplished unto you , but it is ●he fruit of infinit love : so that upon all our ●eceipts from God , there is reason to sing that ●ong , Not unto us , not unto us , but unto thee ●oth belong the glory : And therefore , I would presse this upon you , O Christians , ●educe all your mercies unto the fountain , ●nd there sit down and pen songs of everlast●ng praise to him . Will ye but take a view ●f this , there is not one bit of bread that ye ●at , that is within a promise , but it is a mercy ●hat hath come running to you through the ●owels and tender heart of Christ : his heart 〈◊〉 the fountain of all our mercies , and they ●weetly stream out of that precious foun●ain ; so that if ye had no other thing to com●end your mercy from , but that it is a gift ●f the heart of Christ , ye may take it in your ●rms upon this account , and solace your ●elves with it . The last duty that we would presse upon you from this consideration , that the promises are free , is this ; Ye would be studying to close with Jesus Christ that is promised and freely holden out to you in the Gospel ; O sinner of eighty years old , O sinner of sixty years old , O atheists of fourty years old , and O sinner of twenty years ol● and downward ! I do here invite you , 〈◊〉 the Ambassadour of Jesus Christ , to imbrace Christ freely offered in the promise ; yea , 〈◊〉 do invite you by all the vertues of that noble Plant of renown ; by that everlasting love that dwelt in his precious heart , by all the sufferings and wounds that he received , by his eternal glory , and by all the blessings and joyes of heaven , and by that love that ye owe unto your precious and immortal souls ▪ that ye would come and imbrace him freely offered to you in the Gospel . And for the further pressing of this , and for clearing of the way of your closing with him , I shall first propose some Gospel mysteries , and sweetly agreeing contradictions , ( if so we may speak ) held forth in Scripture . 1. Come and buy Christ , and yet buy him without money ; that is , come and receive Christ , and ye shall have as unquestionable a right to him as if ye had bought him , that is to buy without money ; ye have nothing to commend you to Christ but necessities , and necessities bideth you go , and Christ biddeth you come , why then will ye sit this call . 2. What a Gospel mysterie is that , Yee ar● to buy Christ , and Christ is above price , there is nothing that we can give to buy that pear● of greatest price , and yet we must buy him : then the meaning is , come , and buy Christ by faith , and by forsaking of your idols , this is all the price that he doth require for himself ; and so he requireth nothing of you but what he himself doth give , or what is both your duty and advantage to forsake , and which is no gain for him to receive : Christ is not enriched by your hearts , and by giving of your consent to him . 3. This is a Gospel mysterie , that we are to buy without money and without price , and yet to buy with a price , according to that word , Prov. 17.17 . there is a price put in the hands of fools , to buy wisdom , and what is the meaning of tha● , to buy with price , and buy without price ? It is in short this , though Christ be offered to you in the Gospel freely , ye must not sit down , but be active in closing with him ; What is the price that Christ requireth of you ? even this , that ye would forsake your soul destroying idols , and that ye would forsake your former evil wayes , and take hold of the present opportunity for imbracing him . And O! cursed shall the heart be that will not imbrace Christ ; O but to have him one hour in our arms , it were well worth ten thousand E●ernities of the enjoyment of all things that are here below ; ye would never open your arms again to another lover , if once ye had him between your breasts . O but a sight of him that now is the eternal ravishment of all that are above , would transport your hearts with joy , with delight , and admiration , above all expression . Fourthly , There is this Gospel mystery by which we would presse you to imbrace Christ ; A Christia● must buy Christ , and yet he must have him freely . Is there not an inconsistence , do you suppose between buying and having freely ▪ But I would say this to clear it , Christ is bot● the seller , he is the wares , and he is th● buyer ; Christ he presenteth himself unt● your hearts , and he desireth to sell himself and he perswadeth and freely enableth yo● to buy him : I will tell you what Chris● doth , he standeth without our hearts , and within our hearts , he standeth without an● knocketh by the Word , and he standeth within and openeth by his Spirit ; Christ he bot● commandeth , and he obeyeth , both withi● doors , and without doors , and all this 〈◊〉 doth freely . The second thing I shall say to perswade your hearts to take Christ freely promised and offered unto you , shall be this ; Will yo● consider that there is willingness in the hear● of Christ to take you . I shall give unto you these six things that speaketh ou● Chris● his willingnesse to receive you . First , Doth he not command you to come and receive him ? and if ye could multiply objection● throughout eternity , why ye should no● close with Christ , ye may cut them all asunder with this knife , This is his Commandement : And doth he not command you , Mat ▪ 11 28. Come unto me all ye that labour : And Isai. 55 1 ▪ Ho , every one that thirsteth ▪ com● to the water . Secondly , Hee doth regra●● and deeply resent it that ye will not come . ● think Christ never weeped so bitterly , as ●hat day when he weeped over Ierusalem , ●hat they would not imbrace him , Luke 19. ●● . If thou , even thou , at least , in this thy day , ●ad known these things that belong unto thy ●eace : And Iohn 5.40 . Yee will not come to me that ye may have life . O what think yee can be the rise of this , that Christ should ●orrow because yee will not give up your hearts to him ; doth hee increase his gain when yee give him your hearts ? No cer●ainly , but he cannot endure that madnesse ●n you , that ye should forsake your onely gain . Thirdly , Would you do Christ a joy●ull turn , and make his heart glad ? Imbrace him ; This is clear , Luke 15.5 . that when hee finde●h the sheep that is going astray , He returneth rejoycing . Fourthly , I say no more unto you , would you make all the Persons of the blessed Trinity to rejoyce , would yee make all the Angels of Heaven to ●ing , would yee make all the Saints that ●re round about the Throne to ex●lt for joy ; ●hen give your hearts up to Christ , and close with him in the Covenant of promise ; according to that word , Song 6. last vers . Re●urn , return O Shulamite , return , return , that we may look upon thee . Four times that command is repeated , return ▪ and the great argument with which he ba●keth it , is . That ●ll the Persons of the Trinity may rejoyce , That we may look upon thee . Fourthly , Con●ider but how he hath concescended to give himself at a very low rate : What will yee give for Christ ? O sinners , what will ye give for him ? Would yee give the world for Christ ? I will tell you what yee will ge● Christ for , ye will get him for a very look , Isa. 45.22 . Look unto mee , O all yee ends of the earth : And think yee not that is a matchlesse mercy , that the thirty three years sufferings of Christ , all the pains and torture● of his heart , his being under the unsupportable wrath of an offended God , the fruit o● all that should be yours for a look . Will ye deny that to Christ , Oh , do yee ever think to finde a more down-coming market ? Ye● , fifthly , doth not this speak an admirable willingnesse to have you , hee is to give you that look . It is impossible for these cursed eyes of ours , ever to give precious Christ a look , and therefore he hath Promised to give that to us , that we may give to him , Zech. 12 10. They shall look to mee , that very look yee are to get from Christ , and ye see it is withi● the compasse of a promise . Lastly , That speaketh Christs willingnesse to receive and take you , that he doth not take the first refusal . O Christians that are now in Christ , if Christ had taken an hundred refusals from you ye should never have been in heaven , but he waiteth for an answer , and doth not take us at our first word : acording to that word , Song . 5.2 . I am wet , saith he , with the drops of the morning , and my locks with the dew of the night : Hee was long knocking at her heart , and stayed a long time there patiently ▪ suffering all the injuries he could meet with . And I would only pose you , think yee that ●f one of the richest of you were suiting a ●ery poor woman , and shee refused you so ●any times , would your proud hearts sub●it to take her ? And yet how often-times ●ath the precious heart of Christ submitted ●o many effronts , and refusals that wee have ●iven him : I think if it were possible , Chri●●ians would wink when first they behold ●hrist upon the day of their espousals : For 〈◊〉 suppose their wil be a great dispute between ●●me and love , desire and confusion ; shame ●ill make you to close your eyes , because ye ●ave oftentimes undervalued that Prince , and ●et love will not let you close them ; desire ●ill put you to look , though reflecting upon our former wayes , will make you blush and 〈◊〉 ashamed . Thirdly , To perswade you to receive ●hrist in the offer of his free promises ▪ I ●●all but say these three words and close . Look to these excellent gifts that Christ ●●ingeth with him , he bringeth Justification ●ith him , and is not that an excellent gift ? 〈◊〉 bringeth Sanctification with him , and is 〈◊〉 that an excellent gift ? Hee bringeth joy 〈◊〉 the holy Ghost with him , and is not that 〈◊〉 excellent gift ? Hee bringeth the love of ●od with him , and is not that an excellent 〈◊〉 ? Hee bringeth patience under sufferings ●ith him , and is not that an excellent gift ? 〈◊〉 why should I name what hee bringeth ? 〈◊〉 bringeth himself and all things , and what ●●ould ye have more ? O but for one saving ●●ink of his face , it would make your hearts 〈◊〉 down your enimity that you have maintained so long . 2. O Christian , that ye ma● close with Christ , do but remember the hap●pinesse that yee will have in imbracing him I told you not long since , and now I put yo● in mind again : There is a sixfold crown whic● shall bee put upon your head ; Would yo● have long life , then come to Christ , and y●● shall have a crown of eternal life : Would 〈◊〉 have glory ? then come to Christ and ye sha●● have a crown of glory : Would ye have know●ledge of the mysteries of God ? then come 〈◊〉 Christ , and he shall crown you with know●ledge : Would you have an eternal felicity and an uninterrupted happinesse , then com● to Christ , and ye shall have an immort●●● crown : Would you have holinesse and s●●●ctifiation , then come to Christ , and yee 〈◊〉 have a crown of righteousnesse ; yea , he sha●● put a royal crown upon your head , a crow● of pure Gold ; and then that word shall be accomplished to the full , Zech. 9.16 . The● shall they be as the stones of a crown lifted 〈◊〉 and as an ensign upon the land . O what a 〈◊〉 think yee will it bee , when Christ shall 〈◊〉 your crowns upon his hand , and shall 〈◊〉 them upon those heads never to be remov● again , here we are often put to sigh 〈◊〉 that lamentation , The crown is fallen from 〈◊〉 heads , woe unto us for wee have sinned , b● there shall be no more sin to make our crow● to totter . 2. I must tell you , There is ● fourfold sute of apparel that yee shall be cloathed with ere long : ye are now cloath● with heavinesse , but then yee shall be cloath●ed with the garments of praise ; And did 〈◊〉 ●ver know such a robe as that ? Is it not a more excellent robe then the robes of Kings ●nd Emperours in the earth , to bee cloathed with praises ? Many of them are and shall ●e for ever cloathed with infamy and 〈◊〉 . Yee shall be cloathed with change of ray●ent , and shall be brought unto the King in ●ayment of needle work . O poor L●sse and ●oor Lade that sitteth upon the dung-hill , ●hat knows not what it is to have change of ●pparel , yee shall have it in that day , when ●hrist shall solemnize the Marriage with ●ou , ye shall misken your self . O Christian , 〈◊〉 yee knew your self never so well , ye will ●ee forced to cry out , O ▪ is this I ? Is this I 〈◊〉 am now made perfect through his comeli●sse . 3. Ye shall be cloathed with the gar●ents of immortall glory , yee that have your ●●undation in the dust , and dwell in the houses 〈◊〉 clay , yee shall then bee cloathed with these ●●cellent robes of immortality , and cloathed 〈◊〉 with your house from heaven . And lastly , 〈◊〉 shall bee cloathed with the garment of 〈◊〉 spotlesse righteousnesse of Christ. O such a ●●jestick walk as ye will have , when ye shall 〈◊〉 a scepter in one hand , and a palm in 〈◊〉 other , these robes put upon your back , 〈◊〉 these crowns upon your heads , and then 〈◊〉 bee walking through these streets that 〈◊〉 paved with Gold. 3. I shall give you 〈◊〉 word to think upon , That there are 〈◊〉 things that shall be your exercise in 〈◊〉 . 1. Yee shall be constantly taken up in ●●ndering : If it be not presumption for us ●hink a little ; What is the exercise of Christ and the Saints that are above , we conceive it is this , Christ is wondering at thei● beauty , and they are wondering at his beauty , Christ is looking upon them , and the● upon him ; and is it not true , that if Chris●●e now ravished with one of our eyes , Son● 4. ver . 9. much more shall he be ravishe● when both our eyes shall be given to hi● and shall eternally behold him , without go●ing a whoring after other lovers . 2. 〈◊〉 shall be continually in the exercise of prais● joy and light shall be flowing in , and admir●●tion and praise shall be flowing out eternally ye shall then sweetly warble upon the● Harps of God , and shall cry , Hallelujah 〈◊〉 him that sitteth upon the Throne , there 〈◊〉 be no discord there ; there is a sweet 〈◊〉 beautifull harmony amongst all these spirit● all and heavenly Musicians . O but to 〈◊〉 them , it were a heaven , though we had 〈◊〉 that blessed lot as to sing with them . 3. 〈◊〉 shall be continually taken up in the 〈◊〉 of love : Faith is your predominant 〈◊〉 while ye are here , but Love shall be 〈◊〉 predominant grace when ye are there . 〈◊〉 is it not a mysterie to take up these 〈◊〉 emanations of love and delight , that 〈◊〉 passe between Christ and you ? ye shall be folding Christ , and Christ shall be infold you . 4. Ye shal be continually beholding 〈◊〉 I think it is hardly possible for the Wife to ●●●member her Husband in heaven , though loved him as her own heart , they will 〈◊〉 taken up in beholding him that sitteth on Throne , they will think it too low an 〈◊〉 to be taken up with looking upon another in these relations : all will be ravished beholding him , and one another in him , and for him . O the blessed exercise of these that are now entred within tha● City , and within these Gates , whose name is praise . 5. Ye shall be continually taken up in beholding , ye shall be alwaye● knowing , and yet never able to comprehend the endless mysteries and perfections of Jesus Christ. O such a study ! Is it not pleasant alwayes to be studying Christ ? and will not these things perswade you . And now but a word more to these that will not have this free offer : If yee will not ●mbrace Christ and take him , let me tell you , 〈◊〉 would not bee in the stead of that person ●or ten thousand worlds , if yee will not im●race Christ and take him for your portion , ●he stones of the wall of this house will bear witnesse against you , and they shall have a ●ongue to speak against you , that yee have ●een invited to take him , and would not : 〈◊〉 long that day is approaching , and draw●●g near , when the Athiests and refusers of ●hrist they shall change their faith , they shall ●hange their love , they shal change their fear , 〈◊〉 they shall change their joy ; and they ●●all change their mind , ye shall change your 〈◊〉 yee that are refusers of Christ ; for I 〈◊〉 there are many that thinks they have 〈◊〉 with Christ , who never did close with 〈◊〉 ; that faith shall flee away , and ye shall ●●lieve the con●rary : yee shall change your 〈◊〉 , or at least , your opinion of your love : 〈◊〉 think yee love Christ , but yee do not imbrace him ; I will tell you what will be you● exercise , and I can tel you nothing so te●rible Christ shall eternally hate you , and ye shal● eternally hate Christ , there shall be a 〈◊〉 hatred betwixt you two for evermore . 〈◊〉 that dreadful word , Zech. 11.8 . it shall the● bee accomplished to the uttermost , My 〈◊〉 loathed them , and their soul also abhorred mee● ▪ And ye shal change your fear , for now thoug● ye fear not God , nor reverence man , yet the●● the horrour of God shall make you shake 〈◊〉 a leaf , and ye shall change your light and you● judgement . Ye do now undervalue Christ and thinks him of nothing worth ; when Chris● is presented unto you , there is no beauty 〈◊〉 yee should desire him : But , O think on th●● day when Christ shall sit down in the cloud● and ye shall see his beautifull face , every 〈◊〉 of which shal be able to captivate your hear● if they were then capable to be ravished 〈◊〉 the sight . O what will be your thoughts 〈◊〉 him ? And if the blessings of a crucified 〈◊〉 our come not upon you , then the eternal , 〈◊〉 unsupportable vengeance of Christ shall 〈◊〉 upon your heads that would not condesce●● to take him : ye shall be cursed in your 〈◊〉 ye shall be cursed in your death ▪ and ye 〈◊〉 be cursed after death ; What say ye to 〈◊〉 Are ye content to take him ! ye might 〈◊〉 the day that ever ye were born , if yee 〈◊〉 once come to close with Christ. Now 〈◊〉 him that hath the keyes of the house of D●vid , that can open your hearts to give 〈◊〉 entry , we desire to give praise . SERMON IV. 2 Pet. 1.4 . Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises , that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature , having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust . THere are three most glorious and excellent gifts that God hath bestowed upon man , there is that comprehensive gift of heaven , Iesus Christ , who is so called , Iohn 4.10 . and sure such a gift as ●hat , ought in some sense to blind our eyes , ●nd make us look upon all things that are be●ow him , as nothing . The second royal Gift that the Lord hath given , is the precious promises of the everlasting Covenant , which are given to us thorow him : A Christian ●hat is united unto him by the bloud of Faith ▪ 〈◊〉 may write this above the head of every promise of the everlasting Covenant , this is ●ine , and this is mine . His third precious gift , is the gift of Faith , which is that grace that maketh use of the former two : and wee conceive , that our little making use of ●hese three excellent gifts , is the great occasion and cause why these four most sad ●nd lamentable evils have befallen us . ● . The evil of a silent conscience , that though we be profound to commit iniquity , and do love a reward under every green tree , yet our conscience doth not speak nor reprove us ; and if at any time they do speak ; yet there are some that are so possessed with a dumb and dea● spirit , they can neither hear what God doth speak , nor can they hear their cons●ience . 2. The evil of a 〈◊〉 nod , wee know not the voice of our rod , and who is he that hath appointed it ; God doth not now open our ears to discipline , nor seal up our instruction . 3. There is that evil of silent mercies , the mercies that we receive of God , we understand not the language of them : ar● not our mercies Barbarians unto us , speaking to us in an unknown tongue ? and yet we may say , there is not a rod nor a mercy a Christian meets with , but it hath a voice , if wee did understand it . And lastly , there is that evil which hath befallen us , and alas , this is the capestone of all , a silent God , who doth not hearken unto the voice of our cryes , but turneth about the face of his Throne , covering himself with a cloud in his anger , so that our prayers cannot passe through . Alas , may not each Christian of this time cry out ▪ Call mee no more Naomi , but call me Mara , because th● Lord hath dealt bitterly with me . In short , I think there are these two things that may b● our lamentation upon the high places of Israel . First , That we live without sight of God ; And secondly , that wee live without sight of our selves , and all this , because wee live without a sight of these precious Gifts ▪ Christ and his Promises . But now to the words ; We to●d you ▪ tha● in them there were these four things holden ●orth concerning the promises . 1. The original and fountain of the promises , in that word , Whereby , or by whom : 2. The properties of the promises which we told you , were these four . The first was , that the promises were free ▪ holden forth in that word , they are Given ; all the promises of the everlasting Covenant being the noble gifts of God. The second ( of which we are to speak at this time ) is this , that the promises of the Covenant they are unchangeable , which is imported also in that word ▪ they are given , the gifts of God being indeed without repentance ; And as to this : 1. Wee shall prove the truth of the point : and for this end , consider that place , Numb . 23.19 . which was a part of Balaams song , Hath hee not spoken it , and will hee not also d● it ? Hath hee said it , and shall it not also come to passe ? and Psal. 89.34 . I will not break my Covenant , nor alter the word that hath gone out of my mouth : and the point is clear also , from the name that the promises getteth in Scripture , are they no called the sure mercies of David , Isa. 55.3 . and are they not sometimes in Scripture called Truth , as wee may see from Micah 7.20 . Thirdly , The nature of the Covenant proveth it ; in that it is called an everlasting Covenant , and sometimes a Covenant of Salt , because that Covenant is above the reach of alteration or putrifaction : And fourthly , It may be likewise shown from the constant experience that the Saints have had of the unchangeablenesse of the promises . This Ioshua taketh notice of , Chap. 23.24 . where when he was a dying , There hath not failed ( saith he ) one thing of all these good things that God hath spoken ; and hee is so confident of this , that he is forced to repeat that word over again in that verse : and hee taketh notice of it , Iosh. 21.45 . where hee hath tha● same expression again , There hath not failed ( saith he ) one thing of all the good things that God hath spoken : and this Solomon hee took notice of , 1 King. 8.56 . There hath n●t failed one thing that God hath spoken unto us by Moses ; and indeed , there is near six thousand years experience that preacheth this truth , the promises are unchangeable , so that wee may now say , The word of the Lord i● tried as silver is purified in a furnace of earth hot seven times : If there had been any falshood in the precious promises of the everlasting Covenant , six thousand years triall should have brought it to light ; but doth not every one of the cloud of witnesse● that have gone before us , leave this testimony upon record , Faithfull is he that hath promised , who will also do it ▪ his promise 〈◊〉 with the night and with the day , it cannot bee altered , the ordinances of heaven continue to this day , much lesse can this Covenant of love be broken or altered , only wee would have you taking this Caution by the way , that there are some conditional promises that God passeth unto his people ▪ which in the depths of his spotlesse wisdom hee doth not accomplish unto these who never fulfill the condition ; such was that promise that he gave to the Israelites in the land of Egypt of their possessing the land of Ca●aan , who yet died in the wildernesse : And ●ence is that strange word , Numb . 13.34 . see shall know my breach of promise , saith the Lord , which is a word spoken after the man●er of men , not importing any change of pur●ose in God , but only shewing that because ●hey did not believe , and so fulfill the condi●ion of the promise , therefore it was not to ●e fulfilled personally to them ▪ The second thing that we shall speak to ●pon this , that the promises are unchange●ble , shall be to propose these six golden ●illars and excellent foundation● , upon which the unchangeablenesse of the promises 〈◊〉 built . And the first of them is the omni●otency of God , that there is nothing that he ●ath promised , but he is able to effectuate ●nd to bring to passe , Therefore , 2 Cor. 6.8 . when God had been passing many ex●ellent promises , he strengtheneth their faith with this , Thus saith the Lord God Almighty : ●nd no doubt , Where the word of this King 〈◊〉 , there is power , and who can say unto him , ●hat dost thou : O misbeliever of the pre●ious promises of the Covenant ; be ashamed ●o cast up your eyes to heaven above , or to ●he earth beneath ; we think the Stars , the ●un , the Moon , and all the works of God , they ●ay speak out that to you , do not misbelieve God , but trust in him , That is wonderfull in ●ounsell and excellent in working . The se●ond is , the wisdome and infinit counsel of God , hee hath not only complea● ability to accomplish the promise that hee hath given , but hee hath the depths and treasures o● knowledge , by which hee hath contrived th● way of the accomplishment of such a promise : Hence is that word , 2 Sam. 23.5 ▪ that the Covenant is well ordered , which speaketh out the wisdome of God : and the● that word is subjoyned , the Covenant is sure● yea , the Covenant of Grace is such a thing● that there is so much of the arte of heaven● so much of infinite wisdom shining in it , tha● it is called the counsel of God , Heb. 6.17 . Tha● ye might know the immutability of his counsel . The third golden pillar , is , the infinite love 〈◊〉 God , that though there be nothing in us tha● can put him to ●●complish the promises , ye● he will take an argument from his own love , to make out such a promise to us ; there i● sometimes ( if not alwayes ) nothing in us , but that which may speak forth delayes o● the accomplishment of the promises ; but when God can bring no argument from us , he can bring an argument from his own love , 〈◊〉 Deut. 7.7 , 8. where giving a reason of the accomplishment of many promises , and o● his love to them , I loved you , saith he , because I loved you ; there being no reason that ca● bee given for love , but love . The fourth is , The unchangeablenesse of the Promiser , that he is the same , yesterday , and to day , and for ever , and without all alteration and shaddow of change : Hence yee may see , Exod. 3.14 . when God is repeating many preciou● promises unto Moses , Hee ( as it were ) ●trengtheneth Moses faith with this , I am , ●aith he , that I am , which wee conceive to point sorth the unchangeablenesse of God , ●hat what he hath said , he will certainly ac●omplish in its own time , and though the ●ision do tarry , yet at last it shall speak . The 〈◊〉 i● , The faithfulnesse of God , and that hee 〈◊〉 one that cannot lie , but certainly will ●ake out what hee hath spoken . Love , it ●aketh the promises , the faithfulnesse and ●ower of God accomplisheth the promises , ●nd the infinite wisdom of God chooseth the ●ost fit time f●r the performing of them . ●ence it is said , Psal. 119 89 , 90. Thy word 〈◊〉 Lord , is for ever setled in heaven , and the ●round of it is in the following verse ; For ●●y faithfulnesse is unto all generations : Hence ●ou may see , that oftentimes when God is ●aking promises to his own , he putteth to ●●at word , I that speak in righteousnesse , Isa. 5 , 19. and Isa. 63.1 . O! must not the ●●omises be unchangeable that are made by 〈◊〉 Father who is the God of Truth ? Must 〈◊〉 the promises bee unchangeable that are ●●ceived and merited by the Son , that is ●ruth it self , and the faithfull Witnesse , and ●men ? Must not the promises be unchange●●le that are applyed by the holy Ghost , that 〈◊〉 the Spirit of Truth ? And must not the ●●omises bee unchangeable that are made ●●own unto us by the Gospel , that is the ●ord of Truth ? Was there ever any who 〈◊〉 leave that upon record of God , that he ●as unfaithfull in the accomplishment of his ●●omises . O what a clear sight of the faithfulnesse of God shall a Christian get , whe● he shall be standing upon the outmost li●● between Time and Eternity , then he will 〈◊〉 God faithfull in accomplishing all his pr●●mises unto him from first to last . The 〈◊〉 golden pillar , is , The justice of God , 〈◊〉 justice , it now putteth him to accompli●● his promises , mercy and righteousnesse ha● now kissed each other : Hence is that wor● 1 Joh. 1.9 . He is just and faithful to forgiv● So that now the accomplishment of t●● promises , it is not only an act of love , but 〈◊〉 is an act of justice also : We confesse indee● love and mercy maketh the promises , 〈◊〉 justice and truth also putteth God to the ac●complishment of them : Hence is that word Micah 7.20 . To perform the truth to Iaco● and the mercy to Abraham : Why is it mercy to Abraham , and it is truth to Iacob ? It i● in short this , because mercy made the promises to Abraham , but truth did accomplis● the promises to Iacob ? The third thing that we shall speak to fro●●his , That the promises are unchangeable shall be , to presse these six duties upon yo● from this point . O Christians and Expectants of Heaven , who have Christ in you , the hope of Glory , rejoyce and be exceeding glad that the promises are unchangeable . 1. This is a duty that is pressed from that ground , Heb. 6.18 . That by two immutable things we might have strong consolation : There is exceeding much joy that may come to a Christian from this , that the promises shall be accomplished i● their own time . We conceive that the word unchangeable , it is engraven upon the head of many a Christians mercies . Is not unchangeable written above the head of our promises ? Is not unchangeable written upon the head of our blessednesse ? Is not unchangeable written above the head of our enjoyment of God ? That day is coming when we shall have unchangeable love , unchangeable enjoyment of God , and all things unchangeable : A●d we conceive , that if these two were believed , the truth of the promises , and the unchangeablenesse of the promises , a Christian might walk through this valey of tears with joy , and comfort himself in hope . The second duty we would presse , is this , that ye would sursease and give over your disputings and carnal reasonings about the accomplishment of the promises , since the promises of God are unchangeable , ought not we with this to silence misbelief , and all that blind humane reason can say : This is pressed , Heb. 6.16 . An oath for confirmation , it is an end of all strife . Gods confirming of his Covenant by an oath , it ought to cut short the disputings of misbelief ; And here give me leave to point out a little these grounds upon which it is that Christians doth so much dispute the accomplishment of promises : and to let you see how all these grounds may be answered from these six pillars that were given of their unchangeablenesse . The first is , When dispensations seemeth to contradict the truth of the Promises , the promise it speaketh one thing , and dispensations seem to speak another : and this is the occasion that oftentimes Christians cry out , Doth his promise fail for evermore . This is clear from the practice of David , 1. Sam. 27.1 . when dispensations were upon the top of the accompl●shment , and truth of the promises , then misbelief it ariseth as a Champion mighty to war , and cryeth out , I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul : And wee conceive , that dispensations contradicting the truth of the promises , was the occasion of his speaking that word , Psal. 116.11 . I said in my haste , all men are liars . And I would only say to you that dispute the truth of the promises upon this account , that dispensations contradicteth them : Do but consider this : God in his way is not like unto you : Would ye know the time when the promises are nearest their accomplishment , it is then when we can least see that they are to be accomplished , the promises are never nearer their performance , then when wee think that they are furthest off from it : And therefore let the faith of the omnipotency of God , uphold your spirit under such a debate , then let dispensations speak what they will , yee may answer all with this , There is nothing too hard for him , there is nothing too hard for the Lord. I grant this may try the strength of the strongest faith , yea , we finde it hath made the best to stagger when they had no probabilities to tell them that the promise shall be accomplished : this was the ground of Sarahs misbelief , Gen. 18.12 . that when she heard she should bear a son in her old age , shee laughed within her self , and did , as it were , mock at such a promise : and this was the ground of Moses his misbelief , Numb . 11.21 , 22. hee did not see a probability that such a multitude should be ●ed with flesh , and therefore hee did call in question the truth of that promise : this was the ground of the misbelief of that Lord that is made mention , 2 King. 7.2 . and this was the ground of Zecharies misbelief , Luk. 1.20 . But I would only say to you that do so much consult with probability in the exercise of your faith , these two things . 1. There is nothing too hard for God , this was the very argument that God took to convince Sarah in the 14. vers . of that 18 Chapter , Is there any thing too hard for God ? And , 2. Faith is never in its native and spirituall exercise , till once probabilities contradict the truth of the promise , then faith it is put upon the stage , and then faith doth act ; but as long as faith and probabilities think one thing , then the day of the trial of the strength of faith is not yet come . The second ground upon which Christians dispute the accomplishment of the promises , ●s their much disputing of their interest in God ? Sometimes a Christian will believe ● promise , and before the accomplishment of ●he promise come , their hope will be darkned , their interest in Christ will be obscured , and then they do quite their faith in adhering to the truth of that promise . These two are joyned together , want of the faith of our interest , and want of faith of the accomplishment of the promise , as it is clear from that word , Psal 77.8 . Is his mercy clean gone . There is disputing of his interest , and presently this is subjoyned , Doth his promise fail for evermore . Except a Christian can read his name in the ancient records of heaven , and can seal this conclusion , I am my beloveds , and my beloved he is mine , it will be a hard , and a difficult task for him , if not impossible to believe the promises . The fourth ground of a Christians disputing the truth of the promises , is , their mistaking the way how the promises are to be accomplished , There are some that suppose that when ever they close with a promise by faith , there is no more but to enter to the possession of such a promise ; but do not mistake it , between your believing the promise and the accomplishment of it , there may bee sad and dark dayes interveening , according to that word in Mark 10.30 . where Christ passing great promises to his Disciples , He , as it were doth adde , do not mistake me that ye shall have these promises without trouble and affliction , Ye shall receive ( saith he ) an hundred fold in this life with persecutions . A Christian when he believeth the promises , he must resolve to have a winter before the spring time come , wherein the promise shall bud and flourish . The fifth ground of a Christians disputing the truth of the promises , is , when the promises are long in their accomplishing . A Christian when first hee meeteth with a promise , he will cry forth , O I believe , but when ●ime is taken for the accomplishment of it , ●hen his faith beginneth to faint , and his hope beginneth to languish and give over ; yea , sometimes Christians they fall in this ●a●lt , when they believe a promise , they fix ● day for the accomplishment of it , which ●f God do not keep , but go over ; then they ●mmediately cry forth , What is my strength ●hat I should wait , and what is my confidence ●hat I should prolong my dayes . This is clear in the practice of Abraham , where the promise of having a numerous seed being given ●o him , Gen. 2.12 . the long time before that promise was accomplished in part to him , was the occasion of his misbelief , that hee vented , Gen. 15.3 . O Lord , what wilt thou give me , since I go childelesse : But yee must know , that before the vision shall speak , there is an appointed time that ye must wait , according to , 1 Pet 5.9 , 10. After yee have suffered a while , then the promises shall bee accomplished , and yee shall bee made perfect . The sixth ground upon which Christians call in question the accomplishment of the promises , is , The consideration of the greatnesse of the thing that is promised , when they compare it with their own worth and deserving , then they begin to dispute , O shall such a thing be , shall unworthy I , shall sinfull I , shall self-destroying I , shall I that am lesse then the least of his mercies , receive the accomplishment of such a mercy ▪ This we may suppose was one ground o● Abrahams misbelief , Gen. 17.18 . when h● cryed forth at that same time , when the Lord was giving him the excellent promise of 〈◊〉 Isaac , O that Ishmael might live : He though● an Isaac such an excellent mercy , that he● could not without presumption , expect th● accomplishment of that promise . And Zach. 8 ▪ 6. this was the ground of their misbelief which God doth sweetly obviate , If i● be wonderfull in the eyes of the remnant of th● people in these dayes , should is also bee wonderfull in mine . The last ground upon which Christian● dispute the accomplishment of the promises is , When in the time between their believing and the accomplishment of the promise they fall into some grosse iniquity , 〈◊〉 maketh them exceedingly debate , whethe● the promise shal be accomplished unto them for since they have transgressed the Covenant of God , and have broken their purposes and resolutions , they cannot suppos● God will abide faithfull to them , and 〈◊〉 accomplish his promises unto them , 〈◊〉 the only way how to answer this dispute , is to look to the faithfulnesse of God , and 〈◊〉 that word , 2 Tim 2.13 . Though we believ● not , yet God doth abide faithfull , he cannot 〈◊〉 himself . And now to shut up this second duty tha● we presse from the unchangeablenesse of th● promises : I shall only say these two word● unto you , 1. Assure your selves of thi● ●●at these accomplishments of promises that 〈◊〉 not through the lively exercise of 〈◊〉 , doth loose much of their sweetnesse , ●uch of their luster , and much of their ad●●ntage : Sometimes a promise will bee ac●●mplished unto a Christian , when he hath 〈◊〉 been much in the constant lively exer●●se of Faith in believing such a promise ; 〈◊〉 then the disadvantage that attendeth ●●ch a one , are not easily experessed : How ●ften may hee cry out , The Lord was in this ●ace , and I was not aware : How little of 〈◊〉 doth hee see in it , how short is hee in ●raises and rendering to the Lord according 〈◊〉 the good hee hath received ? How negli●ent in improving or keeping the mercy , ●nd how loath to lay it out for God , when ●ee saith , The Lord hath need of it : and many ●●ing● more of this kinde which may presse 〈◊〉 to be stedfast in believing . And , 2. O ●ispute lesse , and believe more , what pro●●te shall yee have of your disputings ; and 〈◊〉 yee would produce all your strong argu●ents why yee should not believe the pro●ises , yee may drown them in this immense ●epth , God is unchangeable . Let mee say ●ut this further , There are three most re●arkable changes in a Christian , in his ma●ing use of the promises : Fi●st , Sometimes ●ee will believe the promises and make ●pplication of them , and ere many hours ●o about , hee will misbelieve that promise ●hich presently he believed . Will not some●●me a Christian in the morning cry out , I ●m my beloveds , and my beloved he is mine , and ere twelve hours come , they will chang● their note and cry out , My hope and 〈◊〉 strength is perished from the Lord : Some●times a Christian in the morning will cry out My mountain standeth strong , I shall never b● moved , and ere many hours go about , he wi●● change his note , and cry out , Thou hast 〈◊〉 thy face from me , and I was troubled . Secondly Sometimes a promise will bee to a Christia● sweeter then the honey & the honey comb : Some●times a Christian would die and live upon 〈◊〉 promise : Sometimes the believing of a pro●mise will bee to a Christian as the valey 〈◊〉 Achor for a door of hope , that will make hi● to sing , and yet ere many dayes go about , h● may come to that same very promise , and i● will prove tastelesse to him as the white of 〈◊〉 egge ; so that he may cry out , O that it 〈◊〉 with mee , as in months past , and in the ancie●● times : And O where is the sweetnesse tha● found in such a promise ? O it is gone , it 〈◊〉 gone , and I am left desolate . Thirdly , Some●times when a Christian will be believing su●● a promise , and resting upon it , he wil ( throug● the Spirit of the Lord ) see much light an● clearnesse in that promise , hee will take 〈◊〉 the deep things of God that shineth therei● and at another time hee may come to th● same promise , and it may be dark to him , 〈◊〉 that his light hath evanished : and sometime the joy of a Christian in the promise will be gone when his light that hee had in it , 〈◊〉 remain with him . A Christian may come 〈◊〉 the promise , and finde his ancient light , ye● not his ancient joy , nor his ancient delight . Therefore if yee would have the promises ●lwayes sweet unto you , pray over them , ●ray that God might breath upon such a pro●ise , and make it lively to you . The third thing that wee would presse ●pon you from the unchangeablenesse of the ●romises , is that which by proportion yee ●ay gather even from this , that the threat●ings of God are unchangeable ; these two ●re conjoyned , yea , Ioshua seemeth to infer ●he unchangeablenesse of the threatnings ●rom the unchangeablenesse of the promises , Chap. 23.14 ▪ compared with verse ▪ 15. and ●hese two are conjoyned , Zech. 8.14 , 15. That as I thought to punish you , and it hath ●ome to passe , so I have thought to build you up , and it shall come to passe . And I would from this desire you to stand in awe , lest you come under the lash of the unchangeable threat●ings of God ; for know , that as God is unchangeable in the promises , and there is not one word in all the everlasting Covenant that shall not bee accomplished ; so likewise know , there is not a curse in all the Book of the Covenant , but it shall bee accomplished in its time : And know this likewise , that the day is coming when that sad word that is in Hos. 7.12 . shall bee accomplished , I will chastise them as their Congregation hath heard . And O yee that live in this place , if all the threatnings that your Congregations hath heard , shall bee accomplished in their time , yee may take up the last words of Baalams song , alas , Who shall live when God shall do these things : And therefore , since the threa●●nings of God are unchangeable , as also th● promises , life and death is set before you and either yee shall bee the Object of ●he ●●●changeable threa●nings of God , or yee mu●● be the Object of the unchangeable promise● of God : And therefore , I would from th● charge you , that as you would not be help●full to the destruction of your own immo●●tal souls , you would not undervalue th● threatnings that ye hear in your Congreg●tions , since there is a declaration past , th●● the threatnings in your Congregations sha●● be accomplished . Now there is that fourth duty that we● would presse upon you from this , that th● promises are unchangeable , have an unchange●able love to the Promiser ; let this comme●● the Promiser , let this constrain your hearts t● delight in the Promiser . O what a blessed dispensation of love is this , that an unchangeabl● God should make unchangeable promises u●●to changeable Creatures . If the promises 〈◊〉 the Covenant of Grace were as changeable i● their nature as we are changable , there shoul● not one of us go to Heaven ; but know , it i● the blessed design of love , and it hath been ● blessed practice of the infinit wisdom of God that when he hath to do with changeable creatures , he will give them unchangeable promises . And I would once invite you again that you would come near and imbrace thi● unchangeable Promiser : I shall speak these five words that may perswade you . First Christ is easily to bee gotten if yee will take ●im , ye will get Christ if ye will but hear ; ●ea , for one listening of your ear to his ●oice ye shall get him : according to that word , Isa. 55.3 . Hear , And what of that , ●nd your soul shall live ; Is not this to get Christ at an easie rate : and as we spake be●ore , ye will get Christ for a look , and is ●ot that an easie rate , Isa. 45.22 . Look unto 〈◊〉 all ye ends of the earth and be saved : Have ye a desire to take Christ , ye shall get him for that desire ; according to that word , Isa. 55.1 . Ho every one that thristeth , let him ●ome and he that wills let him come : Will ye ●ut consent to take him , ye shall have him , and what can you have at a lower rate then ●his : Shall never your cursed hands take the 〈◊〉 and put to your name to the blessed con●ract of Marriage ? Shall never these cursed hearts of ours cry forth , Even so I take him , and do promise to live to him , and to die to him . O strange , will ye not do it , upon what terms would the world have Christ , is ●t possible to have him without a consent to take him ? Oh if ye would but open to him , he would condescend to come in unto you , and to sup with you , and ye with him ; do ye but stir to open , Christ hath the Keyes in his own hand , and he would help you to open . O what if Christ the precious Gift of Heaven , the eternal admiration of Angels , that branch of Righteousness shall be despised , being offered upon so easie terms ; then cursed eternally shall be that perso● that thus undervalueth Christ , it had been better for him that he had never been born : Cursed shall ye be in your birth , and in yo●● life , and in your death , all the curses of th● Persons of the Trinity will light upon yo● yea , believe it : O wife that hath a believin● husband , in the day that the great sentenc● of eternal excommunication from the pre●sence of the Lord , shall bee past against th● undervaluers of Christ , a believing husban● will say amen to that sentence , even to hi● wife that did thus undervalue that Nobl● Plant of renown : and the wife upon th● other part will say with hearty consent , ame●● to that sentence against the unbelieving husband , and the father to the son , and the so● to the father . Now there is this fifth duty that we● would presse upon you from this , That th● promises are unchangeable , that ye woul● be perswaded to make the promises your portion and your inheritance ; What can ye wan● that will choise the promises for your portion ? I know , our cursed eyes doth not love to make invisible promises , and that invisibl● crown , and an invisible God our portion , w● look to walk by sight , not by faith . But 〈◊〉 if you knew once what it were but to clai● a relation to Christ ! Did ye once know wha● it were to have but Christ a moment between your breasts , ye would cry forth , O! wh● would not love him who is the King of Saints 〈◊〉 who would not be content to quite all thing● that they might get Christ that noble pearl o● price . And there is this last duty that wee would presse upon you from this , That the promises are unchangeable ; read a lecture from his , O Christian , even your misbelief ; God ●ath confirmed his everlasting Covenant ●ith an oath , with the Bloud of his Son , by 〈◊〉 two great broad Seals of heaven , the Sa●●ament of Baptism , and the Lords Supper ; ●nd what doth all these confirmations speak ●ut our dreadfull misbelief , and that wee now not what it is to be resting on a naked ●ord of promise . I shall say no more , but ●esire that yee would consider and take no●●ce of these three . First , Ye have been ●●lemnly and often invited by the Ambassa●ors of Christ to close with him , and to ●●ke him for your Husband and your Lord , 〈◊〉 will you consider presently , that all 〈◊〉 Angels in heaven , and all that are about 〈◊〉 Throne , and the three most glorious ●ost blessed Persons of the Trinity , that they 〈◊〉 witnesses , and shall bee to your dissent . ●nd are there not many here whose hearts ●ould never be brought up to give a hearty ●onsent to close with Christ that is the great ●●omiser , and who hath laid all the bonds ●●at heaven or earth could contrive to gain ●●ners hearts unto himself : O precious ●hrist , what could hee do to perswade us to ●●ve him which hee hath not done ; and yet 〈◊〉 may bee your name , which is in Ephes. 2. Children of disobedience . Or as the ●ord is , Children of Imperswasion , wee can●●t bee perswaded . Secondly , I fear if ●hrist Himself would come from heaven 〈◊〉 invite you , and say , here am I , imbrace 〈◊〉 , there are some here who would close not only their eyes , but their ears , they would close their eyes lest the beauty o● Christ should allure them , they woul● close their cursed ears lest they should be gained and captivate by the sweet enchaunt●ing voice of that blessed Charmer , when h● should charm so wisely . And , lastly , wi●● thou tell mee , O Christian and expectant o● heaven , what a day shall it be when all th● unchangeable promises of God shall bee a●●complished ? What a day shall it bee whe● that promise shall be accomplished , Ye sh●● see him as he is ? What a day shall it b●● when that promise shall bee accomplished ▪ Yee shall bee made like unto him ? What a da● shall it be when that promise shall be accom●plished , yee shall know as yee are known ? 〈◊〉 are ye not longing for the day of the full ac●complishment of the precious promises o● God , when yee shall sit down and comfor● your selves in the eternal and unspeakabl● fruition of them ? O let us long and wa●● till the day shall bee when that voice shall 〈◊〉 heard in heaven , That the mysteries of God 〈◊〉 finished , till the day when that voice sha●● be heard in heaven , Behold , the Bridegroo● cometh , go yee out to meet him . Oh how 〈◊〉 willing are wee to leave a world . And ho● gladly would wee take up our rest on th● side of Iordan . I think if this were th● night that that blessed voice were to be heard in heaven , Behold , the Bridegroo● cometh , go yee out to meet him ; some , if no● many of the Christians ( that are so indeed● in this time would cry forth , Oh spare little that wee may recover strength , before wee go hence and shall bee no more . Are yee not longing to bring the King over Iordan , and to bring him home to your self , and to have your heart brought home to him ? O blessed , blessed are these that are above ; Is not the voice of these that shout for victory heard ●mongst them ? Is not the voice of these that sing for joy heard among them ? Iob doth not now any more complain , Why dost ●hou make mee to possesse the iniquities of my ●outh , and setteth a print upon my heels ? David doth now no more complain , Why doth ●hy promise fail for evermore , but rather doth ●weetly sing , How is thy promise fulfilled for ●vermore ? Heman doth now no more complain , While I suffer thy terrours I am di●●racted , but rather cryeth ou● , While I feel ●hy comforts I am ravished . The voice of ●ourning is now sweetly gone away , and ●he voice of Hallelujah and of eternal prais●ng of him that sitteth upon the Throne is ●ow heard in the place of it : O such a day ●hat shall never admit of a following night . ●ow to him that is upon his way , that will ●ome , and shall come , and shall not tarry , ●e desire to give praise . SERMON V. 2 Pet. 1.4 . Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises , that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature , having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust . THere are three cardinal and excellent Graces that are exercised and taken up with the precious promises , there is the excellent grace of Faith , th●● believeth the truth and the goodnesse of th● promise ; there is the precious grace o● Hope , that with patience waiteth for th● accomplishment of the promise , and do●● stay untill the vision speak : and that nobl● grace of Lov● , that loveth the thing that 〈◊〉 promised ; and taketh exceeding much de●light in the Promiser . If we may be allowe● to speak so , we think these strange revolu●●●ons and times we live in , are another Eccl●●siastes , which doth fully preach forth th● vanity and emptinesse of all things that ar● below God : And wee do indeed conceiv●● that it is the great design of God in the dar●●ning of our pleasant things , and in makin● every gourd to wither , under the shaddow 〈◊〉 which we use to repose our self , and in f●●mishing all the gods of the earth , to bring h●● own to delight themselves in this visib●● Treasure , the promises of the everlasting Covenant , and in him who is the substance of them ; and that since all things else 〈◊〉 declared to be vanity , we might choise these , as our own portion for ever . At the last occasion that wee spake upon these words , we were speaking unto the properties of the promises ; and wee told you that there were ●our of them holden forth . 1. The freedome of the promises . 2. The unchangeablenesse of the promises , of which two wee have spoken unto you ; and now there remains other two to be spoken to , to wit , that the promises are exceeding great , and that they are exceeding precious , a sweet and excellent , though a rare conjunction , greatnesse and goodnesse here kissing one another , preciousn●sse and highnesse linked ●ogether by the bond of Union : And we shall speak unto these two properties toge●her , and shall clear a little this thing , in what respects the promises of the Covenant may be called exceeding great and precious : And we conceive in short , they may be cal●ed so in these eight respects . First , They ●re exceeding great , in respect of the great price that was laid down to purchase them , ●here not being a promise of the everlasting Covenant above the head of which this may not be engraven in great letters , Here is the price and purchase of bloud : And no doubt ●his ought highly to commend the promises , ●hat they are bought at so infinite a rate . Must they not be great and precious things ●hat so wise a Merchant did lay down so infinit a treasure for the purchasing of them 2. They may be called exceeding great an● precious , in respect of those great and pre●cious things that are promised in them . 〈◊〉 not godlinesse a great thing , and this is with●in the bosome of a promise ; Is not heave● an eternal enjoyment of God a great an● precious thing ? and yet this lyeth withi● the bosome of a promise ? Is not the know●ing of God as he is , our perfect conformit● with God , our victory over Idols , great an● excellent things ; and yet all these are trea●sured up in the promises . 3. They maybe called exceeding great and precious , in re●spect of the great advantage that redound to a Christian through the enjoyment o● them : the promises of the everlasting Co●venant ( if so we may speak ) are the Pensi● that draws the draughts and lineaments o● the Image of Christ upon the soul , it is th● promises of the everlasting Covenant b● which we are changed from glory to glory , 〈◊〉 it were by the Spirit of the Lord , and as Pete● doth here speak , the promises are such thing● whereby we are made partakers of the divin● nature . 4. They may be called exceedi●● precious , in respect of that neer relation th●● they have unto Jesus Christ ; What are 〈◊〉 the promises of the Covenant of Grace Are they not streams and rivolets that flo● from Jesus Christ ; Christ is the fountai● out of which all these promises do spring and can this fountain that is sweet in it se● send forth any bitter waters ? must they 〈◊〉 be precious things that have such a nob●● ●escent ? as to be streams of love flowing ●ut from the Father to the Son , and from ●im unto us , as the pouring out of the ●yntment upon the beard of Aaron which ran ●own the head unto the skirts of his gar●ents . 5. They may be called exceeding ●recious promises , in respect they , or ra●her Christ in them are the object of precious ●ith : What is the meat upon which faith ●oth feed ? is it not upon the promises of ●he Covenant , and Christ the kernel of them : What are these things that faith taketh so ●uch delight in , and is suported by ? Is ●t not the promises of the Covenant : ● . They may be called exceeding precious , 〈◊〉 that they are the things that guideth and ●●adeth us to precious Christ. There is not 〈◊〉 promise within the Book of the Covenant , ●ut , as it were , it cryeth forth with a loud ●oice , O come to Christ ; The promises are ●ndeed the Star that leadeth us unto the ●ouse where Christ dothly , and there is no ●●ccesse unto Jesus Christ but by a promise , Christ is to be found there , for he dwells within the bounds of the everlasting Cove●ant , and there he will tryst with his people , ●nd be found of them . And , 7. They may ●e called exceeding precious , in respect that ●he Saints have found such sweetnesse , and ●uch unspeakable delight in these promises . Did not David find a great sweetnesse in the ●romises when he cryed forth . The words of ●hy mouth are better unto me , then thousands of ●old and silver ? Did he not find much sweet●esse in the promises , when he was constrained to cry out , Thy Law is sweeter unto me , then the honey and the honey comb ? David in a manner was put to a nonplus , to find out any suitable similitude and significant resemblance , to point out the sweetnesse of the promises ; though we may see the Christians of this time in a spiritual fever , they have lost their spiritual taste , so that they may say , if wee may allude unto that word , 2 Sam. 19.25 . I am this day fourscore years old , and cannot discern between good and evil , can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink . They know not what it is to bee overcome with the sweetnesse that is to bee found in these excellent streams of divine consolation . Lastly , The promises may be called exceeding precious , in that the Sai●t● have a high and matchlesse account of them ▪ Hence that word here rendered Precious , may likewise bee rendered Honourable , which speaketh forth that there is nothing th●● hath so much of the esteem of a Christia● as the promises . Would ye put wisdom , o● riches , or honour , or what ye will in the ballance with the promises , they would cry forth , what should I profit to gain all these if I lose the promises . We shall say no more of this , but that the promises are indee● that Apple , the eating of which would mak● us in some respect , ( and in humility be i● spoken ) as God knowing good and evil : Th● promises are these things that doth elevat● the soul unto a divine conformity with God● And oh that this might be the fruit of them the promises are as cords let down to soul● sinking in the myrie clay , and in the horrible ●it , do but lay hold upon them , and ye shall undoubtedly be drawn up , and he shall set your feet upon the rock , and order all your goings . Now we come to speak of the third thing ●n the words : which is the advantage and ●nspeakable gain that floweth to a Christian ●hrough the promises , holden forth in these words , That by them ye might be made par●akers of the divine nature ; which words ●oth not hold forth tha● there is any sub●tantial change of our natures unto the es●ence of God ; but onely it holds ●orth this , ●hat the soul that is taken up in believing of ●he promises , they arise unto a liken●sse and ●onformity to Him in Holinesse , Wisedome ●nd Righteousnesse . And as to these ad●antages that come to a Christian through ●he promises : 1. We must lay this for a ●round , that the fruit of all cometh to him ●hrough believing the promises , and in ●aking application of them . And the first is , That they do exceedingly ●elp and promove that excellent and neces●ary work of mortification : This is clear ●rom the words of the Text ; As likewise ●●om 2 Cor. 7.1 . Having these promises , ●early beloved , let us cleanse our selves from 〈◊〉 filthinesse of the flesh and spirit , perfecting ●olinesse in the fear of the Lord. And the ●●fluence that the promises have upon San●●ification , may be shown unto you in these ●hree . First , They lay upon a Christian 〈◊〉 ●ivine bond and obligation to study holinesse , that since Christ hath signified and testifie ▪ His respects unto us , in so ample and larg● a way as to give us such precious promise● we ought to endeavour to study holinesse which is that great reward of love that h● seeketh from us for all things that he hat● bestowed , and we receive , and this is th● meaning of that , 2 Corinth . 7.1 . Secondly ▪ The strength and furniture of a Christian fo● fulfilling and accomplishing of the work o● Sanctification , lyeth within the promises ▪ Are not the promises of God unto a Christ●●an , as Samsons lo●ks , in which their grea● strength dothly ; and if once they cut them●selves off from the promises through misbe●lief , their strength doth decay , and 〈◊〉 become as other men . Where must th● Christian go to for strength ? Is it not to th● promise : Is it not the Name of the Lord ▪ yea , this is the strength of a Christian unt● which he must resort continually . And thirdly , the promises of God they hold fort● that unspeakable reward that attendeth th●● Christian that shall study holinesse . Ther● are several promises of the everlasting Cov●●nant that cryeth forth to the Christian , t● him that overcometh will this promise b● accomplished , to him that overcometh sha●● this truth be fulfilled , and this doth exceed●ingly provoke a Christian to wrestle with 〈◊〉 his discouragements he meeteth with in th● way , he burieth all his anxieties within th● circle of his immortall Crown , which h● hopeth for , and seeth in the promise , and hi● hope maketh him dispence with his want● his expectation maketh him overcome his fears , and his looked for joy maketh him to dispence with his sorrows . The second advantage , is , That the faith of the promises do help a Christian to a spiritual and heavenly performance of the duty of prayer , and withall , maketh him delight in the performance of it : This is clear from ● Sam. 7.27 . where David believing the promises , it is subjoyned , Hee found in his heart to pray that prayer unto God ; and if any will look unto the words of that prayer , they will see them running in a heavenly and spiritual strain , speaking him one much acquainted with God , and under most high and majestick apprehensions of his Glory , as is clear also , Psal. 119.147 . I prevented the ●awning of the morning and cryed ; and as if David had said , would you know what made me thus fervent and diligent in prayer , ●t was that , I hoped in his word ; and hence ●t is , that he hath so many prayers in that Psalm , all were occasioned through the ●ith of the promises : As for instance , when ●e cryed forth , Quicken me according to thy ●ord , be mercifull unto me according to thy ●ord . And we conceive , the faith of the ●romises helpeth a Christian in his prayer to ●hese four Divine ingredients of that duty . ● . It maketh him pray with faith : when ●nce he buildeth his prayer upon the pro●ises , then he venteth his prayer with much ●onfidence of hope , according to that word , ●sal . 65.3 ▪ where ye may see a man be●ieving , and praying when he is believing , and expressing his confidence mo●● strangely in th●se words . As for our trans●gressions thou shalt purge them away ; It i● not said , thou wilt purge them away , or we desire that thou should purge them away , bu● thou shalt , which speaketh forth both the confidence of Faith , and the boldnesse o● Faith : A Christian that believeth the promises , he can take the promise in his hand and present it unto God , and say fulfill this promise since thou wilt not de●y thy Name but art faithfull . 2. It maketh a Christian pray with much humility , for when he doth understand that there is nothing that he hath but it is the fruit , and accomplishment of ● promise , he doth not boast as those tha● have received , but walketh humbly unde● his enjoyments : this is clear , Gen. 32 10 ▪ where we may see Iacob speaking to Go● with much humility , and in the ninth verse he is speaking to God with much Faith And 3. It maketh a Christian pray wi●● much love : Would you know the grea● ground that we are so remisse in the exercis● of love in prayer , it is , because we build no● our prayers upon the promise . And 4. I● helpeth a Christian to pray with much fer●vency ; when was it that David cryed to God ? Was it not when he was believing the promise that past to him of old , we would not plead with God with such remissnesse i● we did believe the promises that are withi● the Covenant . The third advantage is , That the faith o● the promises doth somtimes uphold a Christian under his spiritual disertions and tentations . Is it not certain , that sometimes he hath been ready to draw that conclusion , I am cast out of his sight , and shall no more behold him in the land of the living ? when a promise hath been born in upon his spirit , hath supported him and made him to change his song , and to invert his conclusion . This is clear from Psal. 94.18 . when I said , my foot slippeth , there is the conclusion of misbelief and dispair , yet thy mercy , O Lord , did hold me up , there is the gate at which faith doth bring in consolation , not from bygone experiences onely ; but certainly from that which he found in some precious promises that was born in upon his spirit : Many excellent cords of love hath Christ let down unto a soul , when they have been going down into the depths , and the weeds have been wrapt about their heads : It is clear likewise from Psal. 119.81 . My soul fainteth for thy salvation : as if David had said , I am in hazard to give over my hope , and to break my confidence : And would ye know what was it that supported me under such an estate , I hoped in thy word : Hath not this oftentimes been the song of a Christian in their darkest night , In the multitude of my thoughts within me , thy comforts do delight my soul : Faith will see a morning approaching in the time of the greatest trouble ; and no doubt that promise that upholdeth a Christian in their doubting and most misbelieving condition , the lively impressions of that promise will remain a long time with him ; and when first it is born in upon their spirits , they will see no small love shining forth in carving out such a promise to suit with such a providence as they are ( it may be ) meeting with for the time . The fourth advantage in believing the promise , i● , that thereby we have an excellent help to patience and divine submission under our saddest outward afflictions : this is clear from Psal. 27.13 . I had fainted unlesse I had believed to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living ; and from Psal. 119.49 , 50. where David telling his exercise in the 49. I hope , saith he , in thy word , Immediately he subjoyneth , This is my comfort in mine affliction , as if he had said , if I had not had the promises to be my comforters , I had sit alone and kept silence , and should have remained without comfort in the day of my adversity , and vers . 92. Vnlesse thy law had been my delight , I should have perished in my afflictions ; and we conceive in short , the influence which faith upon the promises hath upon the patient bearing of the crosse , may be shown unto you in these two particulars ; First , Faith it is an excellent Prophet , that alwayes prophesieth unto us good things . Would ye enquire at Faith at your midnight of affliction , what is its opinion of God and of your own estate ; Faith would sweetly resolve you thus , Wait on God for I shall yet praise him for the health of his countenance . Faith knoweth not what it is to have a wrong construction of God ; and therefore it is the noble interpreter of a Christians crosse : If sense , reason , and misbelief interpret your crosse , they will make you cry out unto God , Why art thou become unto as an enemie , or as a liar , and waters that sail ? but if faith that noble Interpreter do interpret your crosses , it will make you cry out , I know the thoughts of his heart , that they are thoughts of peace and not of evil , to give me an expected end . Faith letteth a Christian see a blessed ou●gate and issue of all the sad dispensations that he meeteth with . Faith , that is its divinity , I sow in tears , but I shall reap in joy , weeping may be at evening , saith Faith , but joy shall come in the morning . Secondly , It affordeth unto a Christian such soul refreshing consolation in the midst of their afflictions , that in a manner they forget their sorrows , as waters that passe away ; this David doth divinely assert in Psal. 119.50 . This is my comfort in mine affliction : The faith of the promises are indeed that tree which if they be cast into our waters of Marah , they will make them immediately become sweet . The fifth advantage is , that the faith of the promises doth help a Christian to a greater distance with the world , and to live as a pilgrime , as is clear from Heb. 11.13 . where these two are sweetly linked together , their imbracing of the promises by Faith , and confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims here on earth . And we shall show the influence that faith hath upon this , in these three . 1. It maketh a Christian see the end of all perfection here , and that there is nothing within this Glob of the World that is not vanity and vexation of spirit , Faith is that prospect through which a Christian hath most clear discoveries of the vanity of all things , and this doth exceedingly help him to live as a pilgrime . 2. It letteth a Christian see the endlesse perfections of heaven , and bringeth it within sight of that immense and everlasting hope , and this maketh him to live as a pilgrime , and to declare plainly that he seeketh a Countrey . And , 3. It doth exeedingly help him forward in that blessed work of weaning of affections from all things that are here ; Would you know where a Believers heart is ? It is in Heaven ; would you know where his thoughts are ? They are in Heaven ; Would ye know where his conversation is ? It is in Heaven ; Would ye know where his hope is ? It is in Heaven , his treasure is in heaven , and therefore his heart and his conversation is there , And Christ in him is the hope of glory : and indeed , more faith of the promises would constrain us all to subscribe that Confession of Faith that is in Heb 11.13 . The sixth advantage that attendeth the believing of the promises , is . That it is the mother of much spiritual joy and divine consolation , and maketh a Christian to be much in the exercise of praise : this is clear from Psal. 71.14 . But I will hope continu●ally , and then immediately is subjoyned , And will yet praise him more and more ; As likewise from Rom. 15.13 . and from 1 Pet ▪ 1.8 . If a man would have his way to heaven made pleasant , and while they are sitting by the rivers of Babel , would bee admitted to sing one of the songs of Zion , then ought they ●o believe the promises , and to choose them as their heritage for ever : and then hee may sing in hope , and praise in expectation , though he have but little in hand for the present : indeed when he looketh to his possession , there will not be so much matter of rejoycing , but when hee looketh upon his hopes and his expectations , hee may be constrained to cry ●orth , Awake up O my glory , I my self will awake early . The seventh advantage is , That the faith of the promises is a notable mean to attain unto spiritual life : This is clear from Isa. 38.16 . By these things , saith Hezekiah , do men live , ( speaking of the promises ) and in all these things is the life of my spirit . As likewise from Psal. 119.50 . Thy word , saith David , hath quickned mee . O what spirituall and divine life doth attend that Christian that is much in the exercise of Faith upon the promises : And what is the great occasion that our hearts are oftentimes dying within us like a stone , and wee are like unto ●hose that are free among the dead ? Is it ●ot because wee do not make use of the promises . Eighthly , there is that advantage , that ●aith of the promises , it maketh a Christian have an esteem of the thing that is promised : What is the reason that wee write ●his above the head of the great things of ●he everlasting Covenant , this is a Zoar , a little one ? Is it not because we do not believe ; great things sometimes to us have no beauty , and there is no comlinesse that appeareth in them why they should be desired ▪ but if we had so much faith as a grain of mustard seed , we would cry forth . How excellent are these things that are purchased to the Saints , and how eternally are they mad● up that have a right but to one line of the everlasting Covenant , That is well ordered i● all things and sure . And ninthly , The faith of the promise● is the door at which the accomplishment o● the promises doth enter in : according to tha● word , Luk. 1.45 . Blessed are they that believe for there shall be a performance of these thing● that are spoken of the Lord unto them . If w● were more in waiting for the accomplishmen● of his promises , the vision should speak and should not tarry : And no doubt , a mercy coming to us as the fruit and performance o● a promise , will make it an exceedingly to freshfull thing ; When a Christian getteth leave to sing that song which is in Isa. 25.9 . Lo , this is our God , we have waited for him and he will come and save us : And when 〈◊〉 mercy is the fruit and accomplishment of th● promise , there is a beautiful luster an● dy● upon that mercy , which no arte could 〈◊〉 on , but only the finger of the love of God The smallest mercy then becometh a matchlesse mysterie of love , and the most matchles●● mysteries of love without the exercise o● Faith , they become as things that are contemptible in our eyes , and we do not value ●or praise them . Faith maketh our thoughts ●o ascend , and misbelief makes our thoughts ●o descend , in relation to the mercies of heaven . Lastly , Besides all these advantages , We ●ave these two mentioned in the Text : ● . That by them we are partakers of the Di●ine Nature , and are brought up unto tha●●lessed conformity with God , which we had ●ost in the fall . 2. That by them we escape ●he corruptions in the world through lust : I ●ntend not particularly to open up the nature of these things at this time , because I am only ●o speak of the exercise of Faith in the promises . But O what excellent mercies are these ●o get on the beauty of the Image of God , and ●o get off these ugly defilements which were ●he image of Satan upon our souls . O how ●hould this commend the promises unto us , ●hat by faith in them , we do all behold with ●pen face as in a glasse , the glory of the Lord , ●nd are changed into the same from glory to glo●y as it were by the Spirit of the Lord. Now that which , secondly , we shall speak ●o , shall be the advantages that results to a Christian from a spiritual observation of the Lords accomplishing his promises ; for here ye see in the Text , the Apostle maketh ●n observation of these excellent things that ●re the fruit of these precious promises when they are accomplished . And the first ●dvantage is , That it stampeth the soul of a B●liever with most divine impressions of ●ove : This is clear , Isa. 38 15. where Hezekiah cryeth out , What shall I say , he hath spoken it , and himself hath done it , being as it were , astonished and overcome with th● apprehensions of the condescendency of God He is put to a non plus , and to what shall 〈◊〉 say , Psal. 41.8 , 9. As we have heard ( sait● David ) so have wee seen in the City of th● Lord of hosts , That is according to his promise , we have had suitable performance and he subjoyneth , verse 9. that which wa● both their exercise and their advantage , We● have thought of thy loving kindnesse , O God , i● the midst of thy Temple ; as it were , the ob●servation of the performance of the promise made their thoughts wholly to bee taken up with the love of God : and no doubt , ther● is more love in performing one promise , the● eternity were sufficient to make a commen●tary upon . It is one wonder of condescendency , that God should obliege and bind himself to us by promises : and another depth of wonderfull love , that he should perfor● these bonds , and answer his words with performance . The second advantage is , That the observing of accomplishment of promises doth bring in to the soul new discoveries of God this is clear , Exod. 6.3 . where God th●● speaketh to Moses : I was known ( saith he ) unto Abraham , and unto Isaac , and unto Iacob by the name of the Almighty , but by the nam● of Iehovah was I not known unto them , tha● is , by the Name of giving an accomplishment unto my promises , that Name was no● discovered unto them , but should bee mad● known unto their posterity , in the day whe●● ●is promises should passe unto performances ▪ ●nd hence it is also , that when the Lord is ●peaking of the accomplishment of great pro●ises , he doth so often in the Scripture sub●●yn that word , Ye shall know that I am Ieho●ah , or the Lord , Isa. 49.23 , 52. and 60.16 . ●nd indeed we do daily find it so ; for , is not ●very accomplshment of a promise , a new ●iscovery of the wisdome of God , that shineth 〈◊〉 the suitable tyming of the accomplishment ●f a promise : Is not every accomplishment ●f a promise a new discovery of the faithful●esse of God , that hee will not alter that which hath gone out of his mouth ? And is ●ot every performance of the promise a new ●iscovery of the love of God , that hee desir●th to magnifie his mercies above all his work , and a new discovery of the power and ●mnipotency of God , that can bring forth the ●erformance of his promise , notwithstand●ng of all things that are in the way , yea , ●ake things that are not to bee , and bringeth to ●ought things that are . The third advantage is , That it helpeth 〈◊〉 ●hristian to have high apprehensions , and ●ajestick uptakings of God : This is clear , ● Tim. 1 ▪ 15 compared with vers . 17. whe●e Paul closing with that promise , That Christ ●ame in the world to save sinners , and behold●ng in the accomplishment of it , in himself , ●is heart ( as it were ) i● elevated within ●im , and he cryeth forth . Now unto the King ●ternal , immortal , invisible , the only wise God , ●e honour and glory for ever and ever , Amen . There is an Emphasis in that word , Now , 〈◊〉 if Paul had said , I could never praise and ex●toll him till now , and I am so much bound 〈◊〉 Christ that I will not delay this exercise on● moment , now I will blesse him , and it is clea● from Mic. 7.18 . where the accomplishmen● of the promises that are there , made th● Church cry out , Who is like unto thee , he be●came matchless unto them through the performance of the promises . And so we conceiv● that these who are much in spiritual observation of the performance of the promises , they will see precious draughts of the Majesty o● God engraven upon them ; so that they wil● bee constrained to cry out ▪ that hee above 〈◊〉 mighty , that his Name is Iehovah , and in hi● is everlasting strength , upon which we ough● to rely in our greatest straits . The fourth advantage is , The observing of the accomplishment of the promises , wil● help a Christian when hee is redacted unto new straits , to be much in the exercise of faith upon God ; his former experience will produce hope in his soul ; for there is not 〈◊〉 discovery of the faithfulness of God , but hat● a voice , and cryeth out , O believe him who i● able to give a clear being unto his word : Thi● is clear from Psal. 56. at the close . Thou has● delivered my soul from death , saith David , an● then he subjoyneth , Wilt thou not deliver m● feet from falling : that is ▪ I am certainly per●swaded , thou wilt likewise perform that wor● unto me . And from Psal. 37.2 , 3. he giveth that tittle unto God , vers . 2. that he performeth all things for him , and then he doth subjoyn . Hee shall send from heaven and save mee : ●nd ( by the way ) the soul that can give God ●●at tittle and stile . That hee performeth all ●hings for them , that soul must of necessity be 〈◊〉 a choise and excellent state : And the point 〈◊〉 likewise clear from 2 Cor. 1.10 . where Paul saith , God hath delivered me , and he doth ●eliver me ; and from hence he draweth that ●onclusion of Faith , And hee will yet deliver 〈◊〉 . We confesse somtimes our former ex●eriences of the faithfulnesse of God , they do ●ot support our faith when wee are redacted ●nto new difficulties , which is either occasio●ed through the greatnesse of the strait that ●e are now put to , ( in our apprehensions ) ●bove that which we were put to before ; so ●hat though God did deliver us when we were ●unning with footmen , yet we have no faith to ●elieve that hee shall deliver us when we are ●bout to contend with horses : or else it is , ●hrough the unfaithfulnesse of our walk , in ●ot answering the precious dispensations of Christ in accomplishment of his promises , for ●his maketh us that we cannot with boldness ●ake use of his Word when we are brought ●nto a new strait , a guilty conscience is the ●●ther of misbelief . The fifth advantage is , That the accom●lishment of the promises doth occasion ●uch spiritual joy & rejoycing unto his own . We told you , the giving of the promises occa●●oneth joy , and when the promises travelleth 〈◊〉 birth and bringeth forth , that occasioneth ●uch more spiritual joy : this is clear from Psal. 28.7 . The Lord is my strength and my shield , my heart trusted in him , and I was hel●●ed : And he draweth this excellent conclusio● from it , Therefore my heart greatly rejoycet● and with my soul will I praise him , And we● conceive , that sometimes , that God tryste●● the accomplishment of the promises wi●● some precious manifestation of himself to th● soul , which maketh them to rejoyce with jo● unspeakable , and full of glory ; but however this is the matter of a spiritual song , Th●● mercy and truth have met together , and righte●ousnesse and peace are kissing one another : Is i● not a pleasant matter of a song to behol● love making promises , and to behold faithful●nesse accomplishing them ? And the last advantage is , That the observation of the accomplishment of promise● doth strengthen a Christians faith in his inte●rest in God ; so that now many disputings ar● silenced , and many questions now are out o● the way , this is clear Psal. 31.21 , 22. Davi● confesseth his quarrelling before , but whe● once the Lord had shewed his marvellous lovi●● kindnesse in a strong city , then all his quarrel● was against himself , because he had quarrelled and did say in his haste , I am cut off from befor● thine eyes . And now wee shall only speak a little un●to some duties that wee would presse upo● you , from that which wee have spoken ▪ And the first duty is , That Christians would bee much in waiting for the accomplishmen● of the promises , and standing upon thei● watch tower untill the vision shall speak ▪ And wee shall only give you these to enforce ●t . 1. It is commanded that you should so do : this is clear from Psal. 27. at the close , where David presseth that duty very much , Wait on the Lord , saith hee , and if ●hat be not enough , he will repeat that command in that same verse : Wait I say on the Lord : and no doubt the doubling of it ●peaketh not only advantage that is in it , but ●ur difficulty to obey it , and the great necessity that wee have to go about it : and ●hat same word is repeated by David , Psal. ●1 . 24 . Bee of good courage , which is that ●ame , to wait upon the Lord. 2. These that wait patiently for the accomplishment of ●he promises , God will strengthen them to ●ait : this is clear from Psal. 27. at the close , Wait on the Lord , and when wee are Hagar ●ike , casting away the childe of hope , hee ●ill open our eyes , and give us refreshment , ●y which wee may bee supported under our ●isquietment , and hee shall strengthen thine ●eart : And there is this . 3 There shall ●e a speedy accomplishment of the promises : 〈◊〉 is not long before all the mercies that ever 〈◊〉 Lord hath promised , and thou hast be●●yed , shall be told down to you , as it were , 〈◊〉 one sum , principal and interest : as is clear 〈◊〉 Hab. 2.3 . where hee positively assert●●h , That the vision will come , and will not ●●rry . There is indeed a pleasant seeming ▪ ●●ntradiction in that verse , hee had said be●●re , that the vision would tarry , and yet here 〈◊〉 ●aith , Tho vision will not tarry , but will 〈◊〉 come : in which ye may see the divini●● both of sense and faith , and that noble contradiction that is between their assertions , Sense asserting that the promise doth tarry too long , and Faith crying out , it will surely come , it will not tarry ; which i● set down , 2 Pet. 3.9 . The Lord is not slack concerning his promise . 4. Promises that come unto us through the most strong and lively exercise of Faith , and that are expected and longed for by us before they come , they are most relishing and sweet , and these mercies come unto us with a binding tye of love : this is somewhat pointed at in Isa. 25.9 . where the Church cryeth forth , Lo , this is our God , wee have waited for him , wee will bee glad and rejoyce in his salvation ▪ their waiting and expecting of the promise to be accomplished in its time is there the fountain of their song and of their spiritual joy : I think sometimes a Christian is like that misbelieving Lord , 2 King. 7.2 . that though they meet with the accomplishment of a promise , yet they do not taste of the sweetnesse that is in it , because they did not believe the Word of the Lord. The second duty that wee would press● from what we have spoken , is , That Christians would close with the promises for their everlasting inheritance , since the promise● of the Covenant are exceeding great , and ex●ceeding precious , and the advantage that lyet● in them is unspeakable . O! should no● these things proclaim aloud unto us , Clos● with the promises ●s your portion for ever . 〈◊〉 think , one that hath a right to the promises and hath entered himself heir unto the 〈◊〉 ●nheritance ; he may sometimes rejoyce in ●hat threefold mystery of the Gospel , that ●o a naturall man can hardly appear other ●hen a contradiction . 1 ▪ He may sometimes , ● have nothing , and yet I possesse all things ; ●or when hee looketh unto his being in the word , hee is as poor Lazarus , having no ●lace whereon to lay his head ; but when ●ee casteth his eye unto his spiritual inheri●●nce , then hee beholdeth his treasures , and 〈◊〉 constrained to cry out , I possesse all things . 〈◊〉 ▪ Sometimes hee may cry forth , I am ●ich , and yet I am exeeeding poor ; he may be ●●ch in hopes , and yet poor in his possessions . ●here is much of a Christians treasure that 〈◊〉 in hope ; hope is that thing that will ●ake the Christian sweetly quite all other in ●●mparison of that : that is the motto of the ●hristian , spero meliora which he holdeth 〈◊〉 in his flag , even in the great●st storm , 〈◊〉 at length hee findeth it true , that hope ●aketh not ashamed . 3. Sometime the Chri●●an will cry forth ▪ I am alwayes sorrowing , 〈◊〉 yet alwayes rejoycing : when hee casteth 〈◊〉 eye upon himself , he will sit down and 〈◊〉 his couch with tears , but when with 〈◊〉 other eye he reflecteth upon Jesus Christ ▪ ●ee will rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full 〈◊〉 glory ; a Christian can both weep and re●●●ce at one time , and again hee can rejoyce 〈◊〉 weep : No doubt , the reflecting upon 〈◊〉 immense hope , and that everlasting 〈◊〉 , will make a Christian rejoyce under 〈◊〉 his disquietmen●s and anxieties in the 〈◊〉 , he can look to the back of time , and behold a glorious inheritance . A Christia● hath the eye of an eagle that can behold an● discern things afar of . The third duty that we would presse upo● you , is , To long for the day when all the promises of the Covenant of Grace shall receiv● their compleat accomplishment , and when 〈◊〉 shall be entered into the everlasting fruitio● of all these things wherein your blessedness● lyeth . There is a threefold come that Chris● speaketh to the soul that is united unto him all which they sweetly obey . There is tha● first come , which is in Matth. 11.28 . Com● unto me all ye that are weary and heavy loaden And there is that second come , Isa. 26. Com● my people , enter into the chambers , which is t● entertain that excellent correspondency wit● him in troublesome times : And there is th●● third matchlesse come , when Christ shall sa● to his own in the day of their standing befor● the tribunal , Come , O blessed of my Father ▪ Shall we say it , that if we had faith ●s a 〈◊〉 of mustard seed , we would cry forth , Why 〈◊〉 his chariot so long in coming ; and did we 〈◊〉 or made a high account of the matchless pr●●mises of the boundlesse Covenant , we wou●● cry forth , O that our time would flee away 〈◊〉 the ships of desire . I shall say no more but th●● Christ is gone up with a shout unto heaven , an● shall come again with the sound of a trumpe● sing praises to God , sing praises , sing praises un●● our God , sing praises . The last thing that we would presse up●● you is , That ye would mark the time of 〈◊〉 accomplishment of the promises . And as 〈◊〉 ●his , I shall say but these : 1. That ordina●ily the time of the accomplishment of the promises , is the time when sense , reason , and probability doth most contradict them : this ●s clear , Ezek. 37. in the fulfilling of the promises that were past to Iudah in their capti●ity , was it not when they were as a valley of dead bones , and their hopes were in a manner cut off for their part , from the 11. verse of ●hat chapter , compared with the 12. And 2. That the time of the accomplishment of ●he promises , ordinarily i● a praying time : ●his is also clear from Dan. 9.2 , 3. and from Ier. 29.12 . compared with the 11. vers . and ●he 10. thus saith the Lord , the time when he will visit them , and perform his good word ●o them , in causing them to return , it shall be a time when they shall call upon me , and shall go and pray unto me , and I will hearken ●nto them . And , 3. the time of the accomplishment of his promises , it is a time when our thoughts of the promises are high and ●arge , when once we begin to value our mercies , this is a sign that our mercy is near , and ●t is bringing forth : However , it is our duty ●o wait on Him who can give a being unto his Word , and sweetly perform his promises . We ought not to limit infinit wisdom , nor to ●ay unto him that is infinite in strength , How ●an such a thing be ? but answer all objections of misbelief with this , God hath spoken it , ●nd he will also do it , and drown all our ob●ections of misbelief in that glorious and my●terious Name of His , I am that I am . To Him be praise . SERMON VI. Acts 26 ▪ 18. To open their eyes , an● to turn them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unt● God , that they may receive for●givenesse of sins , and inheritanc● among them which are sanctified b● faith that is in me . WHen first we did begin our di●●course upon the precious 〈◊〉 excellent grace of Faith ; W● told you that we intended t● speak of it under a twofold notion and co●●sideration . First , As it layeth hold upo● Christ for Justication ; and of this we hav● spoken to you at some length , as ye hav● heard . Secondly , As it closeth with Chri●● for Sanctification ; and of this we are 〈◊〉 speak at this time ; and have chosen thes● words to speak of it , which are a part 〈◊〉 that excellent Oration and Discourse th●● Paul had before Agrippa in his own defence ▪ In which Oration and Discourse of his , 〈◊〉 may behold these four things eminently shin●ing : 1. That Godlinesse and good manner are not inconsistent , not contrary one to ano●ther : Therefore ye will see in the second an● third verses of this Chapter , Paul acting th● part of a Courtly Orator : and believe 〈◊〉 there is more good manners to be learned by being seven dayes in the School of Christ , then by being seven years in all the Courts of France . This , secondly , that innocent Policy that he made use of in the deliverance of this Oration , which likewise doth appear in the second and third verse of this Chapter , where he endeavours to insinuate & ingratiate himself in the favours of the person before whom he had stood ; I confesse , piety is the best policy that is taken up in intertaining piety , howbeit true policy may move in one 〈◊〉 and sphere with piety , and the one is not contrary to the other in some case . 3. This shineth in that discourse , even the spiritual boldness Paul had in giving an excellent confession of his faith , and the declaring him to be God , even Jesus Christ in whom he did believe ; Christ witnessed a glorious confession before Pontius Pilat for him , and he would witnesse a glorious confession before Agrippa for Christ , that since Christ had not denied him in that notable day , he would not now deny precious Christ in this day : and this is from the beginning and all alongs . Lastly , This shineth in the words that Paul doth set forth , the matchlesse freedom & unspeakable riches of Christ , not onely toward himself in that he did cast the lot of everlasting love toward him ; but likewise toward the Gentiles to whom he was sent as a Preacher , and that he did gloriously condescend to visit the dark places of the earth , and to have the morning Star , and the Day spring from on high ●rising on the habitations of cruelty . And in this verse which we have read , you may behold these five glorious ends of the preaching of this everlasting Gospel , for attaining of which , Ministers are made instruments under God. The first is , to open the eyes of the blind , which in short is even this to give those that are ignorant of God , the spiritual knowledge of the deep mysteries o● the Father , and of the Son : So that from this , ye may see that the Gospel hath a kind of omnipotency in producing effects abov● the power of nature . The second , we may see in these words , to remove them from darknesse to light : Which importeth these two ▪ 1. The removing of persons from an estate of excellent joy . 2. The removing of persons from an estate of iniquity , unto an estate of holinesse , darknesse in Scripture pointing out sin , and light in Scripture pointing ou● holinesse . 3. The bringing us from unde● the power of Satan unto God , the making 〈◊〉 blessed exchange of captivity and bondage that these who were under the captivity o● Satan , may be under the captivity of Love that those who were under the bondage o● sinne , may bee under the sweet obedience 〈◊〉 Christ , whose yoke is easie , and whose burde● is light , Matth. 11.30 . 4. That person may receive the remission of sins , and the for●givenesse of their iniquity ; This is the grea● voice of the Gospel , come to a crucifie● Christ , come to a pardoning Christ , com● to a glorified Christ , Christ hath the pardo● of iniquity in his one hand , and riches 〈◊〉 himself in the other , and these are the grea● motives by which he studieth to perswade us to come . And the last is in the close of the verse , that persons may receive forgivenesse of sins , and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me , that is , that they may have a share of that glorious mansion , of that excellent Kingdome that Christ hath purchased , and hath gone before to prepare . And withall , in this verse as the words are set down , ye may see the excellent and orderly methode that the Gospel keepeth in conquering souls , & you may see these excellent alurements , these perswasive arguments that Christ holdeth forth to conquer you , as it were , Christ cometh not unto us cloathed with the robes of Majesty , but clothed with the robes of Love and advantage , knowing that in this posture he shal most ●gain upon our hearts . Now in speaking unto that last end of the preaching the Gospel , we shall only according to our present purpose , take notice of this one thing from it , ( not intending to prosecute it as it is an end of the Gospel ) but as a property of Faith : and it is that , Faith in Iesus Christ hath a noble and excellent influence upon the growth of Sanctification , and the attaining of holinesse , they are sanctified , saith he , through faith in me . We shall not stand long to clear this unto you , it is evident from Act. 15.9 . where the Apostle telleth us of purifying their hearts by faith : And likewise , 1 Tim. 1.5 . where a pure heart and faith unfeigned , they are joyned and linked together : As likewise , 1 Ioh. 3.3 . Every man that hath this hope in him , 〈◊〉 purifieth himself . All the Graces of the Gospel they are linked together by a golden an● unseparable chain , so that he that obtainet● one , he shall obtain all ; yea , more , all th● graces of the Gospel , they have a mutual in●fluence upon one anothers growth , so tha● we may compare them unto Hypocrates twin of whom it was reported , that they 〈◊〉 laugh and weep together , and they did grow together : even so when one grace doth re●joyce , the rest doth rejoce with it , an● when one grace doth mourn , the rest dot● also mourn with it , and when one grace dot● grow the rest of the graces of the spirit they do likewise grow apace . There are only three particulars that w● shall insist a little upon : First , We shal● shew you how faith hath influence upon th● attaining of Sanctification , and this we mak● clear unto you in these respects . 1. In that it discovereth to the soul th●● matchless excellency , that transcendent beauty , and that surpassing comelinesse that is i● Christ , which sight doth exceedingly perswade the soul to draw that conclusion , Wh●● have I to do any more with idols ? A gloriou● sight of Christ , and acquaintance with hi● maketh us lose our acquaintance with ou● idols , and when once we are united unt● Christ by faith , we break that union we ha●● with them . And indeed , the want of th● knowledge of that excellent comelinesse th●● is in Christ , and of love to him , is the grea● occasion that the poorest dieties and idols 〈◊〉 the world taketh up your hearts : did ye but once see him who is that glorious Son of righteousnesse , yee would be forced to put in your Amen unto that excellent confession of Faith , Eccles. 1.2 . Vanity of vanities , and all is but vanity and vexation of spirit . 2. In that it is the grace that discovers unto a Christian the spotlesse holinesse of Christ , Faith doth not onely discover the beauty of Christ , but likewise his holiness , and this doth make the soul fall in love with that excellent thing Sanctification . It is recorded amongst the first steps to sin and misery , that we desired to be as Gods , knowing good and evil ; but certainly it is among the first steps to life and happinesse , when the soul desireth to be holy as hee is holy : And I suppose , this is the great ground that yee are not much endeavouring a blessed conformity to God , and to be partakers of the blessed Image of Christ , ye know not the beauty of holinesse . 3. Faith layeth hold upon Jesus Christ , ●nd draweth strength and vertue from him for the conquering of lusts , and in raising 〈◊〉 up into a blessed conformity unto himself : when the Christian is weak ; Faith is that noble correspondent between that emptiness ●hat is in us , and the fulnesse that is in Christ ; ●aith is that noble correspondent between ●hat weaknesse that is in us , and that everla●●ing strength that is in him : Therefore ●here are two noble and excellent counsels ●f Faith : First , It counsels us not to lean 〈◊〉 our own strength : And , secondly , to ●ave our recourse unto him whose Name is Iehovah that everlasting strength ; And no doubt , if we were more taken up in imploying Christ by faith , that prophesie should be accomplished , I will make the feeble ones as David , and David as the Angel of God : and when a Christian is most diffident in himself , then God should prove himself to be Almighty , and All-sufficient . And , 4. Faiths influence may be cleared in this , that it layeth hold upon the promises , and doth believe them : and believing of the promises bringeth forth that noble birth , conformity to God , according to tha● word upon which we were speaking , 2 Pet ▪ 1 : 4. by believing the promises , ( that is the advantage of it ) We are by them made partakers of the divine nature . 5. Faith also believeth the threatning● that are past in Scripture against sin , and the believing them hath an undoubted and strong influence upon the attaining and growth o● Sanctification : Faith strengtheneth a Christian against the committing of iniquity with these two words : that word , Rom. 6.20 O soul ( saith faith ) commit not iniquity , fo● the wages of sin is death : and that word , Rev ▪ 21. last , There shall in no way enter into th● City , any thing that is unclean , or that committeth iniquity . And be perswaded of it that the faith of the threatnings and of the promises that are in Scripture , would be as 〈◊〉 threefold cord not easily broken , to restai● you from the acting of iniquity : And shall tell you briefly the ground why these curse● hearts of ours doth commit iniquity wit● so little fear , and with so much delight , it is even this , because we believe not the threatnings of God , which shall be accomplished in their own season : for is it possible that if ye believed that word , Rev 21. last . That nothing shall enter into the New Ierusalem that defileth or worketh abominations , or that maketh a lie ; that ye durst not for a world adventure upon the committing of iniquity as ye do . And I shall only say to such that do undervalue the threatnings of God , the day is coming when they shall be constrained to cry out , He hath spoken it , and he hath done it , & faithful is he , there is not one jot nor title in the word of the Lord that shal fall to the ground : And believe it , God will be faithful in the accomplishment of his threatnings , as he is faithful in the accomplishment of his promises . 6. Faith discovereth unto a Christian the noble excellencies , and those spiritual dignities that are in that everlasting estate that is provided for the Saints in light ; Faith ( as it were ) carrieth up the soul to the top of Pisgah , off which it is admitted to behold the promised land , and truely the seeing of these noble things that are provided for the Saints , cannot but make them study holinesse , since they know that there is an impossibility for one to attain to that estate with ou● holinesse , because he had said it , Without holinesse no man shall see God. O then if once ye saw heaven , ye would be constrained to walk in that path of Sanctification , since it is the glorious way by which ye must walk in through the gates of that blessed City . Bu● ye know ▪ not the excellency that is there , i● is a fancy and notion unto you : and that i● the ground that ye do not study to conform your selves unto that blessed image of God. And I would only ask you this one question ▪ Is it possible that such a delusion as this can overtake you , as to think , that ye who never studied holinesse on earth , shall yet enter into heavens gates . I know there are some that say in their hearts , I shall have peace though I walk in the imaginations of my own heart : and many more , that suppose that they might fight and overcome , that they may quite the estate of nature , and be compleat in the estate of grace all in one day . But why will ye deceive your selves , Can a nation be born in one day ; Or is there but one step between hell and heaven ? O remember , though nothing be impossible with God , yet there was but one thief saved upon the crosse . 7. Faith hath influence upon the attaining of holinesse in this respect , That it believeth the exceeding great advantages that are promised unto the person that studieth holiness : Faith believeth that word , Matth. 5.8 . Blessed are the poor in spirit , for they shall see God : Faith it layeth hold upon the truth of the excellent sayings , and maketh the Christian endeavour to attain unto a likenesse and conformity with him , that so he may be admitted to behold his face for all eternity , and to be made like unto him . 8. Faith discovereth unto Christians the sinfulnesse of sin , that is never done till once they be in the lively exercise of the grace of Faith. And I will give you these three grounds why faith compleaty discovereth the sinfulnesse of sin . 1. Faith letteth us see the person against whom we commit this sin , and that doth exceedingly aggrege sin ; for when the Christian is admitted to behold God ; and to see that matchlesse excellency that is in him ; then ( saith he ) what a beast was I to offend such a glorious Majesty as He ? What a fool was I to kick against the pricks ; or to enter in the lists with such an infinite God ? 2. Faith letteth a Christian see these excellent obligations of love that Christ hath imposed upon us ; Faith letteth us see the ancient and everlasting love of Christ ; Faith is that grace that letteth us see his sufferings ; Faith letteth us see all that he hath done for us , and this maketh the Christian to cry out , Do I thus requite the Lord , O foolish one and unwise : And no doubt , if a Christian were more taken up in the study of this duty , he would be lesse in contracting debt , and were you but seriously taken up in the study of these two great Registers . 1. The Register in which all the infinit acts of love are recorded . And , 2. That Register in which all your acts of offending precious Christ are written , ye would be astonished and ashamed to see so much forgiven you ; and durst not sin any more ; there ye would see infinite mercy desiring to rejoyce over Iudgement , and there ye would see the spotlesse riches of that transcendent grace that is in Christ. 3. Faith letteth a Christian see the disadvantages of sin , and what woful effects doth follow upon it , and this doth exceedingly hold forth the sinfulnesse of sin . The second thing that we shall speak to concerning Faiths influence in the attaining Sanctification , shall be to enquire a little unto these things that hinder even Believers from attaining this blessed effect of their Faith ; for some Christians there are that in some respects are taken up in the exercise of Faith , making use of Christ for Sanctification , and yet their making use of Christ by Faith , doth not weaken the strength of their idols ( at least ) to their apprehensions , neither yet raise them up to a conformity with God ; so that they are constrained somtimes to cry out , I shall once fall by the hand of one of mine iniquities , and when they fight and doth not overcome , they are at last constrained to say , There is no hope . The first ground of such a dispensation is , That a Christian is not constant in his acting● of Faith , he will be strong in faith to day , and when the morrow cometh , he will faint in that exercise , and this doth exceedingly interrupt the noble victory of Faith : For when faith hath gotten its advantages , they lose them through security and negligence : that is a command that should be continually obeyed , Trust in the Lord at all times : and no doubt , if a Christian were more taken up in the constant actings of Faith , he should sometimes sing that song , I trusted in God , and I was helped . Secondly , The most part of Christians , they are not strong and vigorous in actings of their Faith , their Faith is exceedingly weak , and so they cannot bring forth these noble fruits and effects of Faith. If we were trusting in God with all our hearts , then that promse , Psal. 37.5 . should be accomplished to us , Trust in the Lord , and hee shall bring it to passe . Thridly , There is a strong heart conjunction and soul union between us and our idols : wee are joyned to our idols , and therefore we cannot be easily divorced ; yea , when we are in the heat of the war against them , there is a procuratour within that cryeth , O spare this little one , or this profitable or pleasant one , and this is ordinarily our practice , to spare the choisest of our lusts ; so that our Agags may cry forth , The bitternesse of death is past . But I confesse , if that union were once dissolved , wee should then bee heard with greatest earnestnesse to cry forth , O blessed bee the Lord that teacheth my hands to fight . Fourthly , Sometimes a Christian layeth too much weight upon the actings of Faith , and doth not imploy Faith , but as an instrument to which Christ must bestow strength to conquer . Sometimes we think that faith hath the vertue of overcoming in its own hand , but remember , Faith is but an empty thing without Christ : as ye may see , Acts 15.9 . where the purifying their hearts by faith is ascribed to the holy Ghost , so that the activity of faith is from him , and not in it self . Fifthly , A Christian doth not hate sin with a perfect hatred , even in the time of his warfare with his lusts , and with these strong idols that are within him , but there is a secret heart inclination to that very idol which he doth oppose : So that oftenimes there is that twofold contradiction in a Christian ; Sometimes his light will cry , mortifie such an idol , and yet his heart will cry , O spare such an idol ; yea more , sometimes his hear● will cry , mortifie such an idol , and yet hi● heart will cry , O spare such an idol : That is to say , there will be one part of our affection crying one thing , and another part o● it will cry another thing . O! but there is a remarkable command for the perfect hatred of sin , Rom. 12.9 . Abhor that which is evil . The word is in the Original , ha●e evil , as ye would do hell , that is : have perfect hatred to sin , O to hate iniquity as much as hell a and joyn that word , Eph. 5.11 . Reprove the unfruitfull works of darknesse ; or as the word may be rendered , Make out by unanswerable arguments to your tentations , that you cannot imbrace the unfruitfull works of darknesse , convince your tentations that ye cannot do it : As we suppose , it was a noble arguing of Ioseph when he was tempted , How shall I do this ? he put the tentation ( as it were ) to it : O tentation give me ou● ground why I should commit such an iniquitie . And certainly , if we were thus reasoning with our tentations , they should flee before us : But the truth is , we imbace the desire of our tentation upon implicite faith . It is a sad regrate ; and yet I may utter it , O if men would but deal with God as they do by Satan , we never dispute the promise of Satan , and never examine these allurements he setteh forth , and yet we constantly dispute with God upon every thing . Sixthly , A Christian promoveth not in the growth of Sanctification , though in some measure exercising faith , because he hath not such a heart to holinesse . If we did discover more that excellent beauty , that is , in being cloathed with that glorious robe of the righteousnesse of Christ , and in having the sweet draughts of the Image of Christ engraven upon our hearts , we would have more victory over our lusts : There is a command for a perfect love to that which is good , and holinesse in that same place , Rom. 12.9 . and cleave ( saith he ) to that which is good ; or , as the word may be rendered , Be married and glewed to that which is good , let there be an unspeakable and undissolvable knot of union between you and that which is good : And certainly , if once we believed that report which is given of holinesse , we would endeavour more to be cloathed with it : but that is the great ground why we advance not in holinesse , we know not the advantage nor diguity , to be made like God. O will ye think on it , What a thing is it for you who are the dust of his feet , to be made conform to him ? Seventhly , A Christian is not much in the exercise of other duties that should go along with faith , suspect that faith for presumption , that can act , and be maintained without Prayer , certainly prayer it keepeth in the life of Faith : Prayer , it is that grace that must act mutually with faith , in accomplishing that blessed work of Sanctification , and if we prayed more , and believed more , then we should have more to speak concerning the victory over our lusts . When was it , O Christian and expectant of heaven , that yee was constrained to put up an Eben●zer , and cry forth , Hitherto hath the Lord helped mee ? When was it , O Christian and expectant of heaven , that ye was put to cry forth , God hath arisen , and mine enemies are scattered before my face ? I will tell you what is your practice , ye make such a covenant with your idols , as Nahash did with the men of Iabesh Gilead , 1 Sam. 11.2 , 3. your lusts desire to make you pluck out your right eyes , and there is nothing your lusts will command you , but almost ye will obey ; but would you send out prayers as a messenger to tell the King of such a tyrannie , yee should know better what it is to bee victorious . There is such a Covenant between the graces of the Spirit , especially between faith and Prayer ( if so wee may allude ) as was made between Ioab and Abishai , 2 Sam. 10.11 . one grace , as it were , saith to another , If I be weak , Come over and help me , and if ye be weak , I will come and help you . When once grace is like to fall in battel , then another grace cometh and helpeth it ; when faith is like to die , then prayer and experience cometh in and sweetly helpeth faith ; when love is beginning to die , and waxe cold in the fight , then faith cometh in and putteth life in love ; and when patience is like to fall and be overcome , then faith comes in and speaks that word to patience , Wait on God , for I shall yet praise him for the health of his countenance . Oftentimes our patience and our sense they joyn together , for when sense speaketh good things , patience is in life , but when once sense preacheth hard things , it is like to die , and Faith must then maintain and uphold it . The third thing that we shall speak as to faiths influence upon Sanctification , shall be to draw these four conclusions from the point . The first is , That ye may know from this , the rise and original of your little successe over corruption : There are many that are troubled with this question ; O! what is the ground that I get not victory over my lusts , and they propose that question to Christ that once the Disciples proposed to him , Why was it that I could not cast out such a devil ? And I can give no other answer nor Christ gave to them , it is , because ye have not faith ; For if yee had faith as a grain of mustard seed , yee might say unto your idols , depart from us , and they should obey you , and there should not be a mountain in the way between you and heaven , but if ye had faith , it should be rolled away and become a plain . And the ground why many are groaning under the captivity of their idols , is , That they are not much in the exercise of faith ; sometimes yee enter in the lists with your lusts in your own strength , then ye are carried captives , and if ye do enter in the lists having some faith , yet ye maintain not the war , il faith get but one stroke . I will tell you six things which if faith overcome , it keepeth the fields , and maketh the Christian sing a song of triumph , even before a compleat victory . First , Faith helpeth a Christian to overcome that idol of impatience and discontent , some never met with a discouragement , but they cry out , This evil is of the Lord , why should I wait any longer , they are soon put to the end of their patience : Now faith can overcome such an idol , and I will tell you three excellent things that faith performeth to the soul under impatience , or when it i● in hazard of it . 1. Faith telleth the Christian there is an end , and their expectation shall not be cut off ; Faith telleth that there is a morning as well as night , and this keepeth the soul from being overcome with disco●ragement , when they are brought to the midnight of trouble ; Faith can tell what hour of the night it is , and how near the approaching of the morning , when day shall break and all their clouds flee away . 2. Faith helpeth the Christian to see there is much in Christ to make up any losse or disadvantage that they have ; if ye losse your son , or your choisest contentment in the world , Faith will say such a word as Elkana said to Hannah , 1 Sam. 1.8 . Is not Christ better to thee then ten sons ? The choisest contentments ye can lose , ( that is faiths divinity ) Christ is worth an hundred of them : and so this maketh the ●oul be ashamed of their impatiency , and to ●ive over their fretting at the excellent and ●ise dispensations of God. 3. Faith letteth Christian see , that there is not a dispensati●n that hee meeteth with , but it hath these ●wo excellent ends , it hath our advantage as ●ne end , and the glory of the Lord as another 〈◊〉 : and there is not a dispensation that a Christia● meeteth with , but these are the glo●ious ends proposed in it . And therefore I would only give you this advice , evermore ●hen yee meet with a dark dispensation , let ●ith interpret it , for it is only the best inter●reter of dark dispensations ; for if yee meet with sense , this is its interpretation , he is not ●hastening me in love , but punishing me with ●he wound of an enemy , but faith will pro●hesy good things to you in the darkest night . The second next great idol that faith will ●ring low , is that idol of covetousnesse and ●esire to the things of the world . I think ●hat word , Eccles. 3.11 . was never so much ●ccomplished as it is in those dayes , and ●mongst you , Hee hath set the world in your ●●arts , that is the idol that dwelleth and ●●dgeth within you : yea , the world it hath ●our first thoughts in the morning , and your 〈◊〉 thoughts at night ; yea more , it hath ●our thoughts when yee are at Prayer , and ●hen ye are at Preaching ; yea , it hath such dominion over you , that it giveth you , as were , a new Bible , and in all the ten Com●ands s●rapeth out the Name of God , and ●●tteth down the world . And whereas ●od saith , Thou shalt have no other Gods but me , the world saith , Thou shalt have no other Gods but me , &c. But faith will bring thi● idol low , and soon let you see the vanity and emptinesse of it ; yea , faith would let you see a more noble object , and withall , discove● unto you how short your time is , and how few hours ye have to spend in following afte● lies : And I am perswaded of this , that if y●● could win to shake hands with cold death every day , and say , thou at last shall bee my prince , and shall be the king to whom I shal● bee a subject , and if ye believed that the day of Eternity were approaching , it would be ● mean to mortifie these pursuits after th● world : And I shall say , he is a blessed Christian that can maintain alwayes such thought● of the world , as he shall have when hee i● standing upon the outmost line between Time and Eternity . I shall say it , and believe it ▪ O worldling , and O thou that hast the Moo● upon thy head , and in thy heart , the day shall once come , that thou may preach a● much of the vanity of the world , as thos● that undervalued it never so much . The third great idol that faith will brin● low , is that idol of self love and self-indul●gence , that which is the great mother of al● other Idols . I think , if there were no mor● to bee said against that Idol of self love an● self indulgence , that which is in 2 Tim. 3.2 . were sufficient , that amongst all the grea● idols of the latter times , this is put in the first place , They shall be lovers of themselves we cannot take pains for Christ , we canno● go about the exercise of any duty , because that idol of self-indulgence forbiddeth us . I will tell you its counsel and great advice it giveth you , O person , pity thy self , that same counsel Peter gave his Master , it biddeth you pity your self : But if wee could rightly interpret that language , it would be this , destroy your self , for self indulgence , and self-love is that which will ruine you . O what blessed attainments of God ; what blessed fruitions of Jesus Christ , what advancement in mortification , what conformity to God hath that idol of self indulgence obstructed , and not only utterly ruined , even in the best ? I think , if once yee could set your foot upon that idol , the rest should fall apace ; that is the general of all the forces of your lusts , and it is as Saul , the head higher then the rest of all your idols within you . The fourth idol that faith will subdue , is self-righteousnesse , this is a great thing wee maintain , we will never renounce our own righteousness and submit to the righteousnes of Christ : and the great ground of it is ▪ That there is this principle within us all , 〈◊〉 love to go to heaven through a Covenant of Works , ●nd wee never desire to be much oblieged to ●ny other , we cannot submit our selves to the righteousnesse of Christ. The fifth great idol that faith can subdue , 〈◊〉 that of pleasure , the world , and the con●entments of it : Pleasure is the great idol ●hat many worship and adore , there are ●ome ●hat love the gain of the world , and ●her ●are others that love the pleasures of ●he world ; but faith hath a noble influence upon the bringing low of such an idol ; for faith discovereth to a so●l more excellent pleasures , more sweet delights nor is to hee found under the Sun ; Faith maketh a Christian lose his state unto all things that are here below ; Faith is that grace that maketh us grow blind , and not much to behold these passing vanities , those transient dilights of a present evil world . Our second conclusion is this , That as Faith helpeth Sanctification , so Sanctification helpeth Faith. I will tell yow three great advantages Faith hath by the growth and exercise of Sanctification . 1. It is a noble evidence of faith , and maketh a Christian to bee perswaded that hee is s●tled upon the Rock , and that his interest in God is made sure . Sanctification is that which will help a Christian dayly to read his interest in God : This is clear from Iam. 2.18 . I will shew thee my faith by my workes , where this is clearly holden forth , That a Christian much in the work of Sanctification , hee can upon all times give an extract of his Faith , and , as it were , discover it and shew it to the world . 2. Sanctification maketh faith perfect , according to that remarkable word , Iam. 2.22 . And by workes was faith made perfect . There is a noble perfection that redoundeth to faith through the exercise of the work of Sanctification ; for not only is it thereby made manifest , and receiveth such a shining luster and splendor , as that sometimes the eyes of carnal men are e●en dazled to behold a Believer , but it also receiveth strength and power : Faith is not of the nature of these things that spend themselves in bringing forth , but on the contrary ●f faith bring forth a hundred children ( I mean works of holinesse ) in one day , it groweth stronger : and this is further clear , 2 Pet. 1.8 . For if these things be in you , and abound , ye shall ●either bee barren nor unfruitfull . And from ●hat other word , Iam. 2. where it is said , That faith without works is dead , being alone : ●f faith be alone , it wants its spiritual life and ●igour ; but if yee were much in the exercise of the work of Sanctification , ye would , ●o doubt , attain to a noble and lively acting of that grace of Faith. And , lastly , if a Chri●tian be much in this work of Sanctification , ●here will be a comfortable exercise of faith , ●ometimes Faith is exercised with much ●●xiety , and sometimes with much doubting , 〈◊〉 faith and a pure conscience joyned toge●her , they make an excellent feast , and ●aketh a Christian rejoyce with joy unspeak●ble and full of glory . Thirdly , Wee may draw this conclusion , ●f faith have influence upon the work of ●anctification , and helpeth the producing of noble conformity to God , then I say , there ●re many that their faith is a delusion , and ●heir hope shall bee cut off as a spiders web . There are some that have faith , that have not ●anctification , nor knows not what it is . and ●hall not that faith unquestionably perish as a ●●eam , and evanish as the vision of the night ▪ ●nd therefore if ye would testifie the reality ●f your faith , then study more the work of ●a●ctification . I shall but from Ioh. 8.14 ▪ 15. give you these eight properties of a hypocrites faith and hope , which may make you try and examine your self . 1. Their hope and their faith is but an act of folly , yea , there is not such an act of foolishnesse under heaven , as a hypocrites hope ; because it is but a castle in the aire , and as writing to himself a charter on the sand : so that word yee have rendered , whose hope shall be cut off ; is in the Original , whose folly shall be cut off ; shewing this , that they build without a foundation , and so their faith must bee most unsure and uncertain , 2. The thing they hope for shall at last loath them : O hypocrites , yee hope for enjoyment of Christ , but be perswaded of it , Christ shall eternally loath you , and yee shall eternally ●●ath Christ : that is clear in that same wor● , Whose hope shall be cut off , or as the word may be read , Whose hope shall loath them , the thing he hoped ●or shall loath him , and Christ shall say , Depart , I know you not . 3. And though yee have now much delight and pleasure in the actings of your presumptuous hope , yet at the last , ye shall loath that hope : The word will carry that , not only the thing ye hoped for shall loath you , but ye likewise shall loath your hope . The day is coming , that yee shall cry forth , cursed be the day that ever I believed that I should get heaven . 3. It shall at last be the matter of his vexation ▪ from that word , whose hope shall be cut off ; or as the word may be rendered , whose hope shall vex him . O whe● the hypocrites shall meet with that anxious , that dreadull disappointment one day , they shall then put their hand on their head , being ashamed because of their confidence . 4. He studieth by all means to keep his hope , though it be but false , therefore have ye that word in the 15 verse , hee holdeth it fast , or is the word is , hee keepeth it with hand and arm , with all his strength hee keepeth his hope : so that if Christ would come from heaven and say , man , thou art a hypocrite , and thy hope shall be cut off , they would say , I will keep my hope Sir , and maintain it , and that is an evidence your hope is not built upon the foundation ; I love never a faith that in this side of time is unchangeable , and never knoweth what it is to have ups nor downs . 5. It is built alwayes upon a wrong foundation , which is imported in 〈◊〉 word , He shall lean upon his house , which we suppose may interpret thus , hee shall lean upon his , worldly ●njoyments , or upon these spiritual like enjoyments hee met with . The hope of a hypocrite is never built upon Christ , and so unquestionably that hope shall be cut off and evanish . 6. Let hypocrites hold fast their hope with both their arms , I will say these three words to them : First , 〈◊〉 all the Ministers should preach to you , and desire you to quite your hope , and yee will not , yet doth your hope and you shall bee separate : as it is in that word . Your hope shall depart from you , and yee shall quite it . Secondly , Your hope will bring you to death , and no further : according to that word , Iohn 18.14 . Whose hope shall bring them to the King of terrours : Will it bring m● no further say you , O no , The King of ter●rors shall separate you and your hope . Thirdly The day is coming when the foundation o● it shall be discovered , and there shall no● bee a delusion but it shall be unfolded . Th● day is approaching when Christ shall as● how you got your faith , and how you main●tained it . 7. The hypocrites hope is ● poor building , it is as a spiders web ; which I conceive ( without being critick ) is this ▪ The hope of hypocrites they spin it out o● their own bowels , they have it not from Christ , but as yee see a spider spin out o● it s own bowels , so do they out of them●selves , it is no better stuff then their ow●●otten righteousnesse , Christ never beg●● those unto a lively hope . Let mee beseech you therefore , that by all means ye would study to make sure your interest in God , an● to build your faith on him , whose name i● that munition of rocks ; For believe it , I may say it with much perswasion , I know ther● are many that shall once meet ( if God pre●vent it not ) with a dreadfull disappoint●ment : And therefore as ye would not incu● that eternal hazard that is attending thos● that presumptuously take hold of a hope before Christ take hold of them , study to search your hope what it is : I desire not to raze any foundation of their hope that i● laid by the hand of Christ , but would desir● and charge you to raze the foundation o● that hope which yee have laid from the be●ginning by your own hands , and hee knew i● not . I would presse these three things upon you . First , O yee that are strangers to Christ , and that know not what it is to imbrace the offers of the everlasting Gospel , obey that excellent counsel , 2 Chron. 3.8 . Give Christ your hand ; for that word which ye have rendered , Yeeld your self to the Lord , it is in the Original , Give your hand to God ; which is in short , Marry him , and be content to contract your s●lf to him ; for believe it , the day is coming , that either that contract between you and Christ , shall bee eternally confirmed , or that contract between the devil and you , shall be eternally ratified . And , I suppose , there is so much spoken to the commendation of that noble Plant of renown , that yee may take Christ ( if so wee may speak ) blindly , ye may close your eyes and take him , for hee shall never disappoint your hope ; for let you think of him to Eternity , hee shall alwayes be above your thoughts . Secondly , I would earnestly desire you once to search and try , what was the first rise of your faith in Jesus Christ : I am perswaded of it , there are many that take up their faith at their foot , they never travelled in pain , and yet faith is brought forth . Is not this a mystery ? shall it be said , before they travelled , they brought forth ? I do not question but there may be lesse and greater pangs of the new birth , but this is most certain , there is alwayes some either lesser troubles or greater , till that childe be brought forth : and yet I may condemn these that stay too long in the place of the breaking forth of children , Christ will never refuse you when ye do really come , because y● have not been so many years and dayes in prison to the Law : Thirdly , Let me desire you to go and ask , is there a grave between you and heaven , in all that way through which the Saints have travelled , upon which this is written , here lyeth a man that sincerely sought life from Christ , and he denyed him . I think without encroaching too much upon the searching forth of the exercise of the Saints in heaven , I think we may suppose , there may be in heaven some Queries and Interrogations : Christ shall ask ▪ O beloved , Did ye want any thing here below when ye was sent forth to travel in the world ? and yee shall be constrained to an●swer , No : Christ shall ask that question a● you . Did I not all things well ? and y● shall be constrained to answer , Yes : Christ shall propose that question , Are ye not well rewarded for all your pains ? and you shall be constrained to answer , Yes : O but to take him , He is the blessed and most excellent One in heaven and in earth , it is the best bargain ever ye made : O ye Merchants that have made many excellent bargains to your own apprehension , will ye come and make one excellent bargain yet , that will make you eternally up ? And what is that ? Come and buy Christ and take him for nothing , this is not your ordinary bargaining : there is few comes to you , and biddeth you buy excellent things without money ; but come in the Gospel , and ye shall get Christ without money : O niggards that are loath to spend your money in the world , will yee come to Christ and believe on him , take him freely : O say ye , if I could get three things of Christ , I would come . 1. I would have much gold and silver ; I say , come to Christ , and ye shall get much gold and silver : Is that true ? it is abundantly true : See Iob 22.25 , 26. where pressing that exhortation , Acquaint thy self with God ▪ and using many arguments , he saith . Thou shall lay up gold as dust , and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks . Is not that gold enough ? yea , ye shall have silver likewise , Thou shalt have plenty of silver . In the 26. verse , ye shall not only have gold and silver , but shall have plenty of it , and shall have the most excellent and refined gold . But O say ye , will that promise be literally accomplished to me if I come to Christ. I would only say these three things to thee : 1. Come to Christ , and if gold and silver be for thy advantage , thou shall have it literally accomplished . 2. I say , ye shall have as much contentment in Jesus Christ , as if yee had this house full of gold . 3. I will say this to thee , Christ shall be thy gold and thy silver : according to that word in the 26. verse , which is most remarkable ; yea , the Almighty shall be thy defence ; or as it is in the Original , shall be thy gold , speaking of the promise of gold before . Secondly , Ye say , I would have this that what I purpose might be accomplished : I say , come to Christ and yee shall have that likewise , Iob. 22.28 . Thou shalt decree a thing , and it shall be established unto thee ; which I conceive , doth not only take in these spiritual decrees ; but likewise these that relate to temporal enjoyments . But there is a third thing I would have ( say yee ) and I would come to Christ , and it is , that I might have all the desires of my heart : I say , O man ▪ and O woman , come to Christ , and thou shall have what thou desirest : This is clear from Psal. 37.4 . Delight thy self in God , and hee shall give thee the desires of thy heart : What can ye have man but it is there ? Would yee have any thing of Christ ? Hee putteth a blank in your hand , and saith that word which he said to Solomon , Ask ; What would yee have , and I shall give you , Christ , as it were , putteth his name to the foot of a clean sheet of paper , and hee desireth you to ask what ye would have , And is not this an excellent bargan ? O niggard , what would yee have which ye will not get in Christ ? And bee perswaded , that ye that refuse and will not take him , the eternal curse of all that is in heaven will return upon thy head , the eternall curse of all the expectants of heaven and heirs of life will return upon the head of that person that will not take Christ. And cursed , cursed shall that person be who will not take Christ , and one day all the Congregation in heaven and earth shall say , Amen . SERMON VII . 2 Cor. 13.5 . Examine your selves , whether ye be in the faith ? prove your own selves , know ye not your own selves , how that Iesus Christ is in you , except ye be reprobates ? ASsurance is a precious gift which many that live in these dayes do undervalue , and trode under foot ; do not the Christians of these times go halting between two opinions , being neither positive that they are received into the adoption of children , not positive that they are yet in a state of alienation , and enemies in their minds by wicked works ; yea , and ( that which is worse ) there are many among us that walk with much contentment under their uncertainty . I think it is a fault to be condemned in many , they pursue more to satisfie their sense for the present , nor to have a solide well grounded assurance for time to come : I could wish that all the debates and questions of these dayes , that take up so much of our time , and so much of our spirits from better things , were happily drowned in these four excellent questions , which without controversie are of greatest concernment for all to have resolved . 1. Where shall I rest all ●ight when the long shaddows of the everlasting evening shall be streatched out upon me and whither or not hath Christ gone befor● to take up a place for me in his Fathers house 2. It is a soul-concerning question , Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life ? to bee asking at him that can sweetly resolve you ▪ And 3. not to rest there , but to bee crying forth in the morning , What shall I do to be● saved , and to be crying out in the evening ▪ Lord what wilt thou have me to do . 4. It i● sweet to be asking seriously , Saw yee him whom my soul loveth : There is much of our time spent in asking news from Court ▪ and from abroad , concerning the revolutions of States and Kingdomes : But I suppose , it were better to ask , What news from heaven concerning thy self , and what news from within , and news of thy Bridegrooms comeing ? for these are great Courts , I mean the Court of heaven , and the Court of conscience , the affairs of which , a Christian should endeavour much to know . 5. It is a soul-concerning question , that a Christian should be much in proposing to himself , What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits . It is certain , we must say , that our faith and assurance , and all our other mercies are from him , and yet alas , we are negligent in praises , we may with Tamar rent our garments of divers colours , even the garments of the Kings daughters , because of spiritual whoredome against God , and our ingratitude to him . Now having spoken unto you at so great a length of that precious and fundamentall grace of Faith , wee have thought fit to shut up all in speaking a little upon these wo●ds we now have read , concerning the evidence and assurance of Faith. The Apostle in this Chapter is vindicating his Ministery and Apostleship , from the contempt that was cast upon it , he proveth he was a Minister of the New Testament , called and sent of God , by the blessing and successe he had among them , in that hee had not plowed nor threshed in vain ; and they being so much in censuring his way , and seeking an account of his Ministery : In these words , he doth ( as it were ) draw them off by a holy diversion unto another businesse , as if hee had said to them , O Corinthians , I will divert you from the exercise of judging me , and will lead you into an exercise that is more divine and profitable ; be much in judging and examining your selves : and indeed , it is a truth worth our observation , that if we were more in judging of our selves , wee would be lesse in judging others : but alas , there are some of us , wee are so much abroad , that we cannot be much at home . In the words , there is these six things considerable . First , That there is such a thing attainable by a Christian while hee is here , as a distinct perswasion and assurance that he is in the Faith , and hath an interest in Christ : by being in the faith ; here is not to be understood , a being in the doctrine of Faith only , but it is to be understood of principally , being indeed and really united to Christ by Faith. Secondly , That the seeking after assurance , is a necessary commanded duty , for ye see here the words very imperative , Examine your selves , prove your selves . Thirdly , That there are many mistakes and delusions among people , concerning that noble and excellent thing , Assurance , there being many that keep fast a hope which Christ shall once discountenance and sweep away , like a spiders web , and this is imported in these words , Examine your selves , or as the word may bee rendered , Take an acurate and an experimental search of your selves , try your selves , or prove your selves : it is a word that is borrowed from the Gold-smiths fineing and trying Gold. And so his putting of the Corinthians to so acurate a search of themselves , saith this clearly to us , there are many mistakes concerning this thing , many do passe a decreet in their own favours before Christ hath passed his approbation of them . Fourthly , Take notice of this from the word , that there is much and exceeding much advantage , by trying and searching whether we bee in the faith or no ; this is imported in his doubling the exhortation . Fifthly , That one most excellent and spiritual way of attaining assurance , whether we be in the faith or no , is self examination , and putting our self to the trial , as if he had said , would ye have a distinct perswasion that yee are in Christ , then bee much in the exercise of self-examination . For the rest of the words of the verse , wee intend not to handle . As to the first , That there is such a thing attainable : I shall only propose these reasons unto you to make it evident . 1. It is known in Scripture , that the Saints of old have in ordinary way attained to distinct perswasion of their interest in Christ , Song . 2. vers . 16. My beloved is mine , and I am his , and Rom. 8.38 . I am perswaded ( saith the Apostle ) that neither death nor life , &c. shall bee able to separate mee from the love of God in Christ. And 2 Cor. 5. ver . 1. For we know , if this our earthly tabernacle were dissolved , wee have a house with God not made with hands , eternal in the heavens . 2. It is the great scope of many Scriptures , to shew how Christians may attain to assurance , 1 Ioh. 1.13 . These things I write unto you , that yee may know that yee have eternal life . The great end and design of Iohn , writing in these Epistles , is , to make a soul acquaint with Christ , and to make them to accept of him , and to give them a distinct assurance that Christ hath accepted them . 3. There are many commands in Scripture for Christians to be serious in searching after assurance , 2 Pet. 1.10 . Wherefore brethren , give all diligence to make your calling and election sure . It is the blessed end of Gods oath in the everlasting Covenant , that a Christian might get assurance . What was the ground and great end that God confirmed his Covenant with an oath , was it not , Heb. 6.18 . That by two immutable things , wherein it was impossible for God to lie , ye might have strong consolation . 5. If assurance of our interest in Ch●●st were not attainable , then these precious graces of joy and love could not be well exercised : if a Christian were evermore in the dark concerning his interest in Christ , hee could not give obedience to that exhortation , Rejoyce evermore , again , I say , rejoyce , 6. The Scripture hath set down these means by which a Christian may win to assurance : as is clear , 1 Ioh. 3.18 , 19. 2 Pet. 4.5 . compared with vers 10. where the Apostle Peter pressing the Doctrine of making our calling and election sure , hee fetteth down these excellent means by which they may win to in , and doubtlesse the marks and evidences that are registrate in the Scripture of a gracious state , do assure us , that assurance is attainable . 7. What are the ends of the Sacraments , but that our assurance may bee confirmed , and that our faith may be strengthned , the two Sacraments are the two great Seals of heaven that are put to the Charter of the Covenant . Now as to the applitation , and the more full improvement of this first point , I shall only offer these considerations . 1. I would have it taken notice of , that though grace and assurance be two lovers , yet there is no such band of union between them , that the one cannot consist without the other : A Christian may have the real grace of God , and yet walk in darknesse and have no light : a Christian may be going to heaven , and yet that word oftentimes in his mouth , I am cut off from thy sight ; yea , are there not even some who have had assurance , and sometime a day have been admitted to draw that conclusion , I am my beloveds , and his desire is towards me , who are now under darknesse concerning their interest , and in much bitternesse of spirit , doe sometimes cry out , My hope and my strength is perished from the Lord. But therefore let me say this one word , both to weak ones who never had assurance , and deserted ones who have lost it ; when ye misse assurance , beware of drawing such negative conclusions concerning your graces , but when ye fit in darknesse and see no light , Trust in the Name of the Lord , and stay your selves upon your God ; that is when ye cannot reach the faith of assurance , be much in maintaining of adherence , remember Iobs divinity , Though thou should kill me , yet will I trust in thee , and consider that sweet word , He will keep them in perfect peace , whose hearts are stayed on him . My second consideration is , That since assurance is attainable , ye would study to finde out and remove these things that doth hinder you from attaining unto it . And that we may help you in this , we conceive , that the obstructions of a Christians assurance , are especially in these two . 1. Our mistaking of the Lords dealing towards us . And , 2. Our untender and unsuitable dealing towards him . Of the first sort we shall lay before you these five . The first is , want of favourable termes of prayer ; this often maketh a Christian to debate his interest ▪ and call in question his evidences , Lam. 3 8. compared with verse 18. I cry and shout , but he shutteth out my prayers : And this is the conclusion of that dispensation , verse 18. My hope and my strength is perished from the Lord ; and this i● especially occasioned when the Christian i● most serious and fervent in prayer , and the● he meeteth not with a return , this maketh them exceedingly debate their interest . And I confesse , it is a sad dispensation to meet with a silent Christ in prayer ; but yet that needeth not make a Believer question all , and debate the reality of his interest in God , since the dearest of all the children of the Kingdom have been so dealt with , even a David , Psal. 22. Cryed night and day without silence , and is not heard , but cryeth out , Why art thou so far from helping ▪ and from the words of my roaring ; yea , that passage may relate to him who was the root and off spring of David ; for even he was so dealt with , and had not presently a sensible return , when he had prayed thrice , that the cup might passe from him . Secondly , The want of sensible enlargement and liberty in prayer , that hee never got to his knees , but his heart beginneth to die like a stone within him , then hee cryeth forth that word , 2 Cor. 3.17 . Where the Spirit of the Lord is , there is liberty , and sure if I had the Spirit of the Lord , I would have liberty in the exercise of prayer , and that this is a rise of the disputing of our interest , is clear from Psal. 77.4 . compared with ver . 7.9 . saith David , I am sore troubled that I cannot speak , I have no liberty in prayer , I never go to God in prayer , but ( as it were ) my tongue sticketh to the roof of my mouth : he from hence draweth that conclusion , Hath God forgotten to bee gracious , and hath hee in wrath shut up his tender mercies for ever : I confesse , this also is a sad dispensation to meet with an absent and vailed Christ in prayer : so that we can never go to seek God in secret , but we may write this upon our prayers , He is gone , he is gone , especially when we have lost that liberty that formerly we have had : and therfore is Davids perplexity much heightened , ver . 5 , 6. from his remembring his song in the night , and his calling to mind the years of ancient times ; yet wee may remember how soon David wrote his retractions , as to that sad conclusion , I said , this is my infirmity , ver . 10. and so should we do when upon every straiting in prayer , wee begin to question all the Lords kindnesse towards us . A third obstruction of assurance , is a Christians wrestling with his corruptions painfully and seriously , and yet not meeting with any sensible victory over them , but upon the contrary , their corruptions seem to bee stronger , and they themselves seem to bee weaker , and then it is , they strengthen their misbelief , but that word , 1 Joh. 3 3. Every man that hath this hope in him , purifieth himself even as he is pure : And indeed , this is a knot that is not easily loosed , but when hee seeth his idols and corruptions prevailing over him , hee will cry out , I am gone , and there is no help in Israel concerning this thing , and yet this also is a word in haste , Paul hath registrate himself a standing witnesse , even after hee was a chosen vessel , Rom. 7. How strangely a childe of God may bee born down with a body of death even under most serious wrestlings against it : And there●fore if thou seriously maintain that combate though thou do not sensibly prevail , thou ha● no reason upon that ground to weaken th● assurance . Fourthly , When a Christian is put to mor● then ordinary outward affliction , when Go● doth dispence sadly unto them in outwar● things , they then begin to cal in question thei● interest , and dispute their assurance , this i● clear , by comparing Lament 3. vers . 18. wit● the preceeding words , where speaking of th● sad dispensations they meet with , he draweth that conclusion in verse 18. My hope and my strength is perished from the Lord , and Ion. 2.2 . where he draweth that conclusion from such a promise . I am now cast out of thy sight , the devil he taketh Eliphaz divinity and presents it to a Christian ; Call now if there be any to answer thee , and to which of the Saints wilt thou go : As if he had said , did thou ever know a Christian afflicted so as thou art afflicted , and so he would have Iob to quite his integrity ; But yet we know all these blessed ones for all their afflictions , were dear unto the Lord , and had their interest secure in him , yea , as many as he loveth , he doth rebuke and chasten , and it is bastards and not sons on whom he will not bestow a rod , and therefore we ought not to quarrel our interest because of afflictions . And lastly , The rise of a Christians discouragement , and that which hindereth their assurance , is ▪ when their former experience of the manifestations of God doth not relish to them , and when the promises upon which they have built become tastlesse unto ●hem as the white of an egge , and when they meet not with God in Ordinances , but these become lifelesse , when these three rise toge●her upon them , their case becomes very per●lexed oftentimes : and this also seemed to ●ave been Davids case , Psal. 77. When he remembered his song in the night ▪ and the dayes of ●ld , and yet had no sweetnesse in them , then he breaketh forth into these bitter complaints which are there expressed : but yet as we said before , this was his infirmity , and there is no reason for a Christian to question his interest upon such an account ; because the Ordinances are not at all times alike lively even to the best , and the Lord is not alwayes present , but though sometimes the candle of the Lord doth shine upon his head , yet at other times hee is necessitate to cry out , O that it were with me as in months past . The second sort of obstructions of a Christians assurance , I mean such as flow from our untender dealing towards God are , First , A guilty conscience ; that is a remarkable word , 1 Tim. 3 9. Holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience ; It telleth us , that this excellent grace of Faith cannot bide but in a cleanly lodging , even in a pure conscience , and when a Christian setteth about to believe hee will know how a guilty conscience will flee in his face , and cry out , O adventure not to believe , dare thou believe ; the guiltinesse of a Christians conscience maketh him oft to cry out , Touch not the mountain lest thou be thrust thorow : And I tell you three disadvantages of a guilty conscience . 1. It obstructeth a Christians boldnesse in making applications to Christ ; his heart saith close , and his necessity saith close ; but his guilty conscience cryeth out , O stand aback and do not close . 2. A guilty conscience oftentimes it hindereth the discoveries of Christ to the soul , and doth so affright and terrifie , yea , it will so sting and bite us , that when he revealeth himself , we cannot take notice , when he would lay on a plaster , our souls will tear it off , and refuse to be comforted . 3. It doth exceedingly obstruct our going about duty . O but our soul moves slowly in the paths of God when wee are under the power of a guilty conscience . The second obstruction is , That wee are not much in the exercise of tendernesse . O but if a Christian were tender , and if in every step of his life hee desired to set Christ before his eyes , he wold easily win to much assurance , according to that word , Isa. 64 5. Thou meetest him that rejoycest and worketh righteousnesse , and these that remember thee in thy wayes : Would yee know the assured Christian , it is the tender Christian ; the Christian that doth not crucifie convictions , the Christian that brea●eth not resolutions , the Christian that doth not sit calls and opportunities to prayer , the Christian that saith not of any sin it is a little one ; or the Christian that searcheth alwayes , watcheth alwayes , examineth alwayes , and is alwayes casting out sin , that is the assured Christian. The third obstruction is , The want of the ●●ercise of the grace of fear , we are not much ●●der this disposition , to fear the Lord and 〈◊〉 goodnesse ; this is clear from that word , ●sal . 25.14 . The secret of the Lord is with ●●em that fear him , and hee will shew to them 〈◊〉 Covenant . I think there are these two ●reat evidences that much of the power of ●odlinesse is gone from some of our hearts : ●ee fear God no more , nor if wee were his ●ompanion . And we fear our selves no more ●or if we had not a deceitfull heart within 〈◊〉 , we neither fear God nor our selves , and ●ut speaketh that much of the life of Religi●● is lost amongst us . The fifth thing that doth much astruct our ●ssurance , is , much worldly mindednesse , and 〈◊〉 eager pursuit after the things of a present 〈◊〉 : That is remarkable , 2 Cor. 4. ver . last , ●ompared with 2 Cor. 5.1 . We look not unto ●he things that are seen , that is , we are not much taken up with the things of a present world , which the men of the world seek ●nd delight themselves in : and it is subjoy●ed , For wee know , if this our earthly house ●f this tabernacle were dissolved , wee have a ●ouse not made with hands ; so we see assurance ●nd mortification to the world , are much 〈◊〉 together . Would yee know where to ●●nd our hearts , the most part of us are con●ersing with idols of the world ; Would ●ee know where to find our hearts , they are ●mong the vanities of the world O how true ●s that word , Psal. 39. Man walks in a vain ●hew : What is man in all his actings , but ●s one walking in a long gallery that is set about with pictures , gazing on these thing● and saluting them all , as if they were livin● Kings and Queens , and great persons tha● could do him good ; and so our pursuing a●●ter the world , is nothing else but a dead shad●dow pursuing after dead shaddows , a man tha● is but a short living shaddow pursuing afte● vanity and nothing , and thus he fools awa● his time , forgetting to make sure the one thin● necessary . Fifthly , Want of distinct apprehension of these three , the infinite love of Christ , th● infinite power of Christ , and the infinit wise●dome of Christ ; there is not an objection O Christians that yee have from the multitud● of your sins , but it may be drowned in infi●nit love ; there is not an objection that y●● have concerning the strength of your idols but it may be drowned in that immense ocea● of the infinit power of Christ ; there is no● an objection ye have from your wants , or abou● your evil nature , but ye may drown it in the infinit wisedom and goodnesse of Christ , and there can bee nothing against your assurance , but may be sweetly answered also from these rightly applied , taken up and rested on by the soul. The last thing which hindereth our assurance , is , the smalnesse of the measure of grace that we have attained ; for when grace is small , it is hard to be discerned , and therefore , if wee would have assurance , learn not to ly still and dispute , but to rise up and to increase our stock , and then you shall know ye are rich , Grow in Grace and the knowledge of God , and by this ye shall know if 〈◊〉 follow to know the Lord. The third consideration is , that assurance ●s not bestowed at all times , but there are some special times and seasons when God giteth a Christian a broad sight of his interest , and I shall but name these . The first is , when he is first converted , and Christ and he joyns hands together , even then ●ometimes the best robe is put on upon the prodigal son , and the farted calf is killed , and 〈◊〉 is put upon his hand , and shooes upon his feet , Act. 9.17 . Paul meeteth with 〈◊〉 immediately after his conversion , 1 Ioh. ● . 12 , ●4 . I write unto you little children , because ye have known the Father ; and before that , in the 12. vers . I write unto you little ●hildren , because your sins are forgiven you ; so that when a Christian is brought into Christ , 〈◊〉 will ( as it were ) lead them to the Registers of heaven , and say , friend come and see , 〈◊〉 is your name written from eternity . But do not mistake me ▪ I do not say , this is alwayes so , but these whom Christ converteth through the thunderings of the Law , these most frequently meet with intimation of the ●ardon of their sins and peace of God , even ●t their first acquaintance ? I know there are ●ome Christians , that if ye ask at them when ●hey were begotten to a lively hope , they would say that word that the blind man once ●id , One thing I know , I was once blind , and ●ow I see , but for the time and the day , I know ●ot when it was . The second 〈◊〉 is , when they are wresting with God like Princes in Prayer , and ●atching unto that exercise , Dan. 9.23 ▪ compared with the preceeding verse , hee being much and serious in prayer , doth meet with that word from heaven , O man greatly beloved , or as the word is , O man of desires , and Acts 10.2 , 3 , 4. when Cornelius is much in exercise of watching and prayer , hee set 〈◊〉 a vision , and getteth intimation of his peac● with God ; and Iacob when he● was wrestling with Christ , Gen. 32. he hath that testi●mony given him , Thou hast as a prince wrest●led with God , and prevailed . The third time is , when a Christian is p●●●sing through the gates of death , and is upo● the borders of Eternity : I desire not to b● mistaken in this neither ; I know some Chri●stians are led to heaven through a dark 〈◊〉 so as they never see a blink of the countenance of Christ , untill the day come th●● they get him in their arm● eternally withi● his Fathers house ; Some Christians whe● they go through the gates of death , they ma● be disputing of this question , Where am I go●ing , but this is certain , that sometimes , ye● oftentimes Christ will dispense a broad sight of a Christians interest unto him at the day o● death , 2 Sam. 25.5 . When was it that Davi● sang that song , which hath strengthned thou●sands in the very jaws of death , God hat● made with me an everlasting Covenant , was i● not when death was shaking hands with him and 2 Tim. 4.8 . When was it that Paul san● that song , I have fought the good fight of faith I have finished my course , henceforth is laid 〈◊〉 for me a crown of righteousnesse , was it 〈◊〉 even then when he was ready , to depart and 〈◊〉 be offered up ? And when was it when old Simeon did sing that blessed song , Luke 2.29 ▪ Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace , for my eyes have seen thy salvation , was it not within a step of death , as it were , he went to heaven with Christ in his arms , or rather in his heart hee carried Christ with him , and found Christ before him , and so death to Simeon was a change of his place , and not a change of his company . The fourth time is , when hee is to be put to some hard and difficult duty : Before Abraham be put to forsake his native land , and become a stranger and a wanderer , hee meeteth with sweet intimation of his interest , Gen. 12.2 . I will make of thee a great nation , and vers . 7. The Lord appeared unto Abraham , and before Ieremiah be sent a Preacher to a rebellious people , he will have that word spoken unto him , I know thee before thou wast brought forth . The fifth time is , when a Christian hath done some singular act of obedience , when Abraham had obeyed the Lord , and was content to offer up his Isaac , he meeteth with a sight of his interest and Covenant renewed to him with an oath , Gen. 22.16 . By my self I have sworn , because thou hast done this thing , and hast not witholden thy son , even thy only son , blessing , I will blesse thee , and multiplying , I will multiply thee as the stars of heaven . The sixth time is , when a Christian is to meet with hard trials , difficulties and afflictions in the world , then they usually meet with assurance , and so Gen. 28.14 , 15 , 16. before Iacob go to serve Laban , he meeteth with intimation of his peace with God. The seventh time is , when a Christian is under sad persecution and affliction , then will the Lord give a word from heaven to comfort him and assure him of his fatherly love and mercy : When was it that Christ left that noble Legacy to his Disciples , Ioh. 14. ver . 27. My peace I leave with you , my peace I give you , was it not when he himself was to leave them to troublesome and sorrowful dayes , in a persecuting world . The eighth time is at some solemn Ordinances and approaches to God , the dayes of a Communion to a tender Christian have been sweet dayes , when Christ hath come to the soul , and said , Behold me , behold me . I think the eleven Apostles met with much assurance of their interest in Christ at the Communion they were at with him : O what sweet intimations were these , This is my body which is broken for you , and this cup is the New Testament in my blood shed for you , and a little after , you are they which have continued with me in my tentation , and I appoint unto you a kingdom . We come now to the second point which we proposed from the words , viz. That a● assurance is a thing which may be attained so to seek after it , is a necessary duty : 〈◊〉 me not be mistaken , as if I said , the havin● of assurance were simply necessary to Salva●tion ; no , that were a Doctrine as comfor●●lesse upon the other hand , as the Popis● doctrine of the impossibility of assurance 〈◊〉 upon the other : But the thing I say , is , that the Christians seeking after assurance , and his real ( endeavouring to attain unto it , is a necessary command of God which hee hath bound upon the consciences of his children amongst other Gospel duties ; And certainly , we need go no further for the clearing of this then the Text it self ; what meaneth these peremptory injunctions , Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith or not : Prove your own selves ; Know yee not , &c. but if you will , you may add that word , 2 Pet. 1. vers . 5. and 10. compared , what can be more expresly commanded , and more strongly pressed , then that Christians should bend their utmost endeavours for attaining unto this blessed condition of assurance : Give diligence , yea , give all diligence , yea , the rather give all diligence to make your calling and election sure . From this , we shall only lay before you these Considerations . 1. If the seeking after assurance be a necessary duety , then these three things are most lamentable . First , That there are so many in this Generation who are pure in their own eyes , and yet are not washed from their iniquity ; they flatter themselves with a rotten assurance , that hath no other foundation but their own imagination : they never knew since the first day they were Baptized and did begin to professe Christ , what it was to mortifie one lust , nor seriously to wrestle against one temptation , and yet they want not a strong perswasion of their interest in Christ : But ah , will yee stand in awe , lest ye meet with such a dreadfull disppointment , as ( when ye think y● are in the very gate of heaven ) even then to fall backwards to the very bottome of hell , and when ye expect a kindly welcome from the Lord of Glory , as one who thinks you have been in Covenant with him this many years , ye meet with that dreadfull summons ▪ Depart from me ye cursed , I know you not . 2. How sad may we be upon this account ; that howbeit assurance be an attainable thing ▪ and a great many dare not say they have attained it ; yet so little diligence is used in pursuing after it : Is it not very lamentable ▪ that many of you to whom I am speaking , since first ye gave up your names to Christ 〈◊〉 a visible way , and were reputed amongst the generation of the seekers of his face , scare● ever set a day or an hour a part to examine whether ever indeed you were in Christ or not ▪ Alas , is heaven of so little moment , is the having or wanting all the enjoyments which are there of so small concernment to you , that y● will not be at the pains as once to enquire af●ter your interest in the matter : What if any of you were but possessors of a thousand pound , and your interest or right unto it un●certain and questionable , would not your slee● depart from you , and your rest be unquiet til● you had made it more secure ? What thin● you shall the men of this generation answe● in the day of the Lord for neglecting that on thing necessary , when they have been so vex●ing themselves about many things , and hav● been so serious in so many consultations t● make sure a worm eaten portion in a perishing world , that the whole wit of Men and Angels cannot secure for one moment : It is certain , the root of all this slothfulnesse is Atheism : It is not possible that we believe 〈◊〉 really there is a heaven as we believe there i● an earth , or that the world to come is as real as that which is present , or else it must be a strange power in these lusts that keep us captive , that we are never suffered to think upon Eternity , nor to ask where we must ●●dge when this cottage we carry about shall ●all about our ears . O will ye think upon it how serious and pressing that command is , 2 Pet. 1.10 . Give all diligence to make your ●alling and election sure , when the Lord saith , ●ive all diligence , will ye give no diligence , and when he saith , make your calling and election sure , will ye live upon uncertainty , I said to the foolish , deal not so foolishly . 3. It is most lamentable , that since assurance is attainable , yet men live so content●dly under the want thereof : how strange is it that many are so seldom on their knees complaining of their uncertainty , if Christ were precious unto you , would it be so , I am sure there are some of us here that have hade the name of Christians I know not how long , that never had one sad thought about the want of assurance : when we look upon the desolations , vastations and plunderings in the world , how many of us can cry out , They have taken away my gods , and what have I more ; but when we speak of heaven we care not who deprive us of our portion there . I will not limite the Lord , nor determine what he may do , but believe it , it is one to a thousand , if many Christians of this age have a pleasant night and comfortable closing of their eyes , they are such undervalue 〈◊〉 of assurance : I may fear , that lamentation shall be heard upon the death beds of many 〈◊〉 O poor wretched wandring Soul , where art thou going : and it is no wonder it come to this ▪ when we are so long in beginning to ask the question . And now I close with this one thing , that I think beyond all question the souls that live contentedly under the want of assurance , are the careless daughters that dwelleth at ease ; Christ and they are at a remarkable distance ; it must be a cold winter and a dark night ( at best ) as to their present fellowship with God , A second consideration from this point is ▪ that if the seeking after assurance be so necessary a duty , then let me beseech you to ponder with your selves what means are fit for you to use that ye may attain it , and if ye enquire what these means are , I shall onely lay before you some few . 1. That ye would be much in the exercise of Faith , I mean the direct acts of Faith , whereby the sinner from his sense and feeling of his wants , layeth hold on Jesus Christ ▪ closing with him , and leaning upon him for a full supply out of his fulnesse : for indeed there are two great faults amongst the Lord● people , some do seek assurance of Faith , before ever they seek to have Faith. 2. Some are much more taken up in debating their evidences , whether they be real or not , then they are in strengthening their evidences , so that most of their time is spent in questioning : O! is this a real evidence of assurance ; whereas more actual believing in Christ and gripping to the promises , and l●sse disputing , were the shorter and surer way , that word is most clear , Eph. 1.13 . After ye believed , yee were sealed with the Spirit of promise , that is , ye got assurance , but not before ye believed : and ye know it is said , Matth. 9 2. And when Iesus saw their Faith , he said , Son , be of good comfort , thy sinnes are forgiven thee ▪ so then it is clear , that to be much in believing , is the nearest way to assurance . 2. Ye would be much in believing the general truths and promises of the Gospel , and frequently meditatnig of them ; all assurance is by a practical sylogisme ; the first proposition whereof , must needs bee a Scripture ●ruth : and certainly , the firm assent to that truth , and the souls delightful meditation on it , is often blessed of the Lord as a special mean whereby the conscience is helped to make the assumption , and also to bring forth the conclusion : For instance , wee see with what strength of affection Paul acteth his faith on that word , 1 Tim. 1.15 . This is a faithful saying , and worthy of all acceptation , Christ Iesus came to save sinners ; and presently we see what followeth on it , of whom I am the chief , then is his assurance ; for doubtlesse he meaneth , that he was the chief of saved sinners ; yea , certainly , a sinner thus exercising himself , will often find so much sweetnesse in the general truths , that he cannot but put to his own name . 3. Be diligent in the exercise of all spiritual graces and Christian duties , that this i● among the best means of attaining to assurance , is manifest from 2 Pet. 1. Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure : for indeed it is very observable , that the diligence there mentioned , is not a diligence in disputing and questioning about our election , but a diligence in the practice of duties and graces ▪ as is clear from ver . 5. Give all diligence ( saith the Apostle ) Whereto ? in adding to your faith vertue , to your vertue knowledge , and to knowledge temperance , &c. and then vers . 8. If ye do these things , ye shall neither be barren no● unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ ; he doth not say in the knowledge of the Lord Iesus Christ simply , but of our Lord Jesus : importing that , that the result of diligence in these graces , shall be the knowledge of Christ as ours , and of our interes● in him : and then he addeth ( upon the othe● hand ) he that laketh these things , is blind and cannot see afar off , this is , he cannot see far i● any spiritual matter , and so not in the matte● of his interest . O therefore , think not tha● ye will get assurance by lying down with th●●●uggard upon your bed , or by your formal● prayer , or your anxious debates , but if eve● ye come to assurance , ye must be striving a● in an agony , for so the word importeth , which is used to expresse our diligence in Christia● duties . 4. As ye would be diligent , so if ever y● would come to assurance , ye would be tender and circumspect in your walking , that is a clear word , Psal. 50. last verse , To him that ordereth his conversation aright , will I shew the salvation of God , and Isa. 32. The effect of righteousnesse is peace and assurance for ever : Ah the untender walk that many of us have : it is no wonder to see us walk in darknesse , such stinking grosse vapors that ariseth off our conversation , cannot but engender clouds that hinder us from seeing God , and certainly such pearls as Assurance is not given to dogs and swine , lest they tread upon them . SERMON VIII . ● Cor. 13.5 . Examine your selves , whether ye be in the faith ? prove your own selves , know ye not your own selves , how that Iesus Christ is in you , except ye be reprobates ? THere are two great ballances into which men do weight themselves ; there are some that weight themselves in the ballance of deceit , who ●●ink that in all their labours there is no ini●uity to be found , yet God who is the weigher 〈◊〉 the spirit , when he shall weigh them will ●●grave this upon their forehead , Thou art ●eighed in the ballance , and are found light : but there are many who approve themselves , whom Christ shall never approve ▪ There are many that call God Father , whom he will not call Children , and many that call Christ Husband , whom he will not call Spouse . 2. There are some who weigh themselves in the ballance of the Sanctuary , who upon solide and most spiritual grounds do draw this conclusion , I am my beloveds and his desire is towards me , who can with boldness and confidence look Christ in the face , and say , thou art mine , and with much spiritual confidence , take him in their arms , and cry out , he shall bee eternally mine : and sure there is not a more pleasant life than to be taking him every day in our arms , and to be crying out , Am I not made up in him , am I not made up in him , Before I come to the words , there are three great and most soul-concerning errour● amongst the Christians of these dayes , that we desire ye may consider . 1. There are many that are more desirous to know what they are , then what they should do ; there are some are more taken up to know whether they be justified and sanctified , then to be indeed justified and sanctified ; and they are more desirous to know if they be in Christ , then indeed to be in him : and therefore we finde many who do spend a great deal more time disputing that question , Whether am I in Christ or not , then they do i● using of these means by which real union and communion with him may be attained : But oh , will ye once study more to be in him , and that shall be the shortest way to attain to the knowledge of your being in him . The second great errour is , that some are more desirous to know what they should do , then they are desirous to do what they know ; Are there not many of us that have this question , Wherewith shall I come before the Lord , and yet we do not know his Commandment is with us ; and that wee should do justly , love mercy , and walk humbly with our God. A third errour is , that we are more in talking of Christ , than in believing in him , or closing with him : Some of us think to win to heaven by discourses , if we can talk of Christ , wee think all is without debate or controversie ; but alas , there are many who were sweet talkers of Christ , that are cursing him this day in Hell. And I would only say this by the way , if there be any of you that have win to any soul perswasion of your interest in Christ , I intreat you if you can put the conclusion upon record , that in such a day of such a Month , and such a Year of God , you did then win to cry out , I am my beloveds and he is mine : It seemeth to have been Davids practice , Psal. 16.2 . O my soul thou hast said unto the Lord , thou art my Lord ; and it was Ierimiahs practice , Lam. 3.24 . The Lord is my portion , saith my soul , I say , yee should even mark that conclusion as they did , that when tentations come , and begin to assault you , ye may look to your record that yee have set down , and bee ashamed to misbelieve . It is true , that for a little while our assurance at best will be but ebbing and flowing , but I hope ere long , we shall bee above the reach of misbelief , and above the reach of fears , I hope ere long , we shall dispute no more , we shall be jealous no more , and we shall question our interest no more , when all our disputings and questionings shal be sweetly drowned in that infinit ocean of eternal delight and fruition of God. O expectants of heaven , expectants of heaven , are ye not looking after this day , are ye not looking after it : I know not what we do here , if we be not walking forward every day : he is upon his way ; O to see him , we will even stand and wonder at him : I hope the day is coming when we shall never lose our grips of Christ any more , he is coming , he is coming ; and I think if ▪ Christ would give a Passe , we would long to go hence : O what streets are these that are there , is there any here who is groaning for heaven , be of good comfort , I hope ere long he shall come , he shall come and wash all tears from our eyes . Now at the last occasion , when we spake upon these words , we told you that there was five or six things which we intended to consider in them . The first was , that such a thing as a distinct and well grounded perswasion of our interest in Christ was attainable ; and of this we have already spoken . The second thing is , That concerning this noble and excellent thing assurance , there are many mistakes among the people of God , and to make this evident , is is clear first in this Text , from that serious and acurate search in this matter , which the Apostle putteth these people unto , as we cleared unto you from the force of the words , and his doubling of these exhortations , Try your own selves , prove your own selves . 2. From the many commands which the Lord hath left upon record that we should not be mistaken concerning our assurance , 1 Cor. 3.18 . Let no man deceive himself , Gal. 6.3 . If a man think himself to be something , when he is nothing , he deceiveth himself , and therefore doth the Apostle adde , Let every one prove his own work , and verse 7. Be not deceived . 3. The point is clear from this , that we find in Scripture many who have been mistaken most dreadfully in the matter of their assurance , Hos. 8. Israel cryeth out , my God we know thee , and yet Israel was in a great mistake , for in the words following , verse 3. Israel had cut off the thing that was good , and Prov. 30. verse 12. we finde there , A generation that are pure in their own eyes , and yet are not washed from their iniquities . 4. It is clear from this , that it is a great design of Satan the great deceiver , that we might be mistaken about that noble and weighty point of our Assurance of being in Christ : Is there not a power given unto him from Christ to deceive the Nations ; I may say , that in no point doth he more prevail to deceive us then in this : If profanity kill its thousands , delusion kills ten thousands , & this delusion its twenty thousands . Lastly , Doth not this prove how much a Christian may be mistaken in the matter of his Assurance , even that came which is given to our hearts , Ier. 17. vers . 9. It is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked , and who can know it ; no doubt this may show us ( though there were no more ) how ready our hearts are to deceive us , making us to entertain a delusion in stead of truth , and imbrace a shadow in stead of substance . The next thing that wee have to speak to you upon this point , is to show you where these mistakes do lye , and what are these false grounds by which so many do deceive their own souls in this matter ; and here there are two sorts of persons whom we must inform . 1. There be some who upon most unwarrantable grounds do conclude that their interest in Christ is sure , when indeed it is not . 2. There be some ( upon the other hand ) who from sad mistakes of themselves , and the Lords dealing towards them , deny that they have an interest , when indeed they have . The first sort are the worst , and in the most dangerous condition , and they build upon these six false foundations , which wee beseech them to consider . The first is ▪ their supposed sensible enjoyments , some Christians in these times especially do meet with some flashes of light and joy which they have not been ( it may bee ) acquainted with before , or at least , not i● such a measure , or in such a sensible manner , and upon this they presently cry forth , My beloved is mine , and I am his . I shall not dispute with such about the reality of these enjoyments , or how they came to know that these are such as proceed from a saving work of the Spirit of Grace , but waving that debate , give me leave to say this much of all enjo●ments and sensible manifestions ( as in the point in hand ) they may bee sometime a good supporter to underprop a Christians assurance when i● 〈◊〉 , but never a good foundation whereon he may lay the first stone of that building : and therefore , ●ee is the wiser-Christian who first tryeth the reality of his interest in Christ by other blessed fruits of righteousnesse and holinesse before he ●●ust the reality of sensible enjoyments , how sweet or comfortable soever they may seem to be . 2. Some build their assurance upon the number and bulk of their duties , without considering the frame of their spirit , and the principle from which they flow , they use prayer , and reading , and conference , they wait upon Ordinances , and are alwayes there where the means is thought to bee ▪ most powerfull ▪ and upon this they take up themselves in their own arms , blessing themselves as that poor man , Luke 18. I fast twise a week , I pay tithes of all that I possesse : But alas , they do not consider that they ▪ do but build their house upon the sand , which the first blast of a temptation will overturn , because not only all our duties when weighed in the ballance , may be found light , but when put to the tryal may be found empty , dead , and lifelesse things , wherein the LORDS soul can have no pleasure . 3 ▪ Some are mistaken in the matter of their assurance , by judging themselves by the law , not knowing or not regarding the spiritual meaning thereof : Paul was a gallant man ( in his own apprehension ) when hee was without the Law , that i● ▪ when he knew not the spiritual meaning of the Law , he thought himself the most eminent 〈◊〉 in all his N●tion , and as he sheweth us , Phil ▪ ● . he could compare with any of them , but when the Lord opened his eyes , we see , he put himself last in the roll of Saints , and first in the roll of sinners , Rom. 7. He was alive without the Law , that is , thought himself living and reigning above his sinnes ; but when the commandement came , that is , when it came to his knowledge , and he saw the spirituality of it , sin revived , and he died , then hee saw how that hee had triumphed before the victory , he then saw all his sins alive , and , as it were , risen from the dead , and himself a dead man , lost and undone in the estate hee was in . O how many are there amongst us in Pauls first condition , alive without the Law : O how many destroy themselves with this , they think there is not a sin forbidden in all the Law of God but onely Ten , but alas , thou fool thou errest in this , not knowing the Scriptures ; should thou not judge thy self by that spiritual extent of the meaning of the Law , and that divine commentary which the Apostle Iames hath set forth upon it , wherein hee sheweth thee , That if thou bee guilty of the breach of one point , thou art guilty of all ; and by that infallible exposition which Christ himself the blessed Law giver hath set down , Mat. 6. whereby hee discovereth adultery in the heart and in the eye . O atheist , thou must take up the Ten Commands , and subscribe guilty to them all : And let mee tell you this , if yee will subscribe the Law to Christ , He will subscribe the Gospel to you ; if thou wilt sincerely say , I am guilty , Hee will as sincerely say , I have pardoned ; Son or daughter , be of good courage , thy sins are forgiven thee . Fourthly , Some build their assurance upon the apprehension of their hatred of some particular sin , that albeit it was sometimes as their right hand , or their eye , yet now they can pluck it out , or cut it off : But O! will thou but consider , some sin may be made weak , and the soul ( though not upon a right principle ) brought to hate it , and to cry unto it , get you hence , and yet the interest of Satan may be strong in the heart . The fifth mistake is of many who judge themselves , because they go a greater length then the former , and are kept free from all grosse outbreaking sin ; how many are there who go sleeping down to hell with this ? I am no drunkard , no adulterer , no murderer , no thief nor whore ; this long have I lived in the town , and they were never born that can say , I wronged them : and so they adventure their soul upon this , they never committed any grosse sin . But I beseech you bee not deceived , remember how that wretched man did speed , Luke 18.11 . I am no extortioner , nor adulterer , nor even as this publican , &c. poor creature that hee was , Christ giveth not a testimonial to every one who take it for themselves ; and I must tell some of you , that there may bee desperate atheists without God , and without Christ in the world , and yet be free of grosse outbreaking sins : I do not think , but many of these who crucified the Lord of Glory , were keeped from other grosse sins , What knowest thou O man that there is more favour shewed to thee , in that thou art keeped from some grosse sinnes , when yet thou hast a desperately wicked heart , then is shewed to the devil , when some links of his chai● are taken in , and restraining power , keeping him i● from his outmost bounds . God will sometimes restrain a hypocrite , or a heathen , as it was said of Abimelech , and God restrained him ▪ there may be a cord put upon thy jaws , when thou art far from having the power of conquering grace . It may be also that all that abstaining from outward out-breakings , proceedeth but from outward disadvantages , and not from any fear of God , or respect to him , yea , not so much as from the fear of any eternal punishment : Are the●e not many amongst us . I believe it , there are many , that take away shame , and Church ce●su●e , or civil punishment , and other inconveniences of that sort , and set a thousand hells before them , they would not be keeped back from one sinne , but would take their hazard of them all : Yea , is it not want of tentation , and nothing else that hindereth many from grosse out-breakings ? If Satan would come but with a kindled match , there wanteth no more to set tongue and hands and all on fire of hell , O wretched soul , do but ask thy self how often thou hast tempted Satan , when he would not tempt thee , and how often thou hast followed a tentation when it fled from thee ; yea , when the Lord hath hedged up thy wayes that thou could not overtake thy lovers , how many a long look hast thou sent after them , and what lustings of thy spirit within ; and do ye think that heart sins are nothing , although thou had no out-breakings what were the matter of that ; if thou had not a tongue thou would break the third command , and curse God in thy heart , if thou had not an eye , thou could commit adultery in thy heart ; if thou had not a hand , thou might commit murder in thy heart . O therefore build not thy assurance upon this , that thou hast made clean the outside of the platter , when yet all filthinesse it within . The sixth false foundation upon which I am sure too many build thir assurance ▪ is their gifts and pa●●s , and especially upon these two , the gift of prayer , and the gift of knowledge ; but believe it , it is not much to be a Christian in tongue , but it is much to be a Christian in heart ; know ye not that this will cast out many , We have prophesied in thy Name , and in thy name cast out devils . No doubt , these had been excellent flourishers , and if the tongue would have done it , they had been highly advanced ; but yet yee see these men meet with a depart from mee 〈◊〉 know you not . Ah , think upon it , he is not the best Christian that is the best Orator , Religion that is pure and undefiled , consisteth more in the affection , the● in the tongue , and more in practice , then in profession : I beseech you , when you cast up your evidences of assurance , consider how well yee have done , and not how well yee have spoken . The seventh false ground whereby many do misjudge themselves , is , their supposed peace of conscience : O saith one , my conscience doth not charge mee with any thing , I thank God I have a quiet mind , and nothing trouble me ; but a● , poor wretch , will thou tell me , may not the strong man be within , and therefore all is at peace ; a dumb conscience , and a s●ared conscience , is a dreadfull plague . Knowest thou not that many say , I shall have peace , though I walk in the imagination of my own heart , and because they say so , the Lord shall not spare them , but all the curses in his Book shall ly upon them . The eighth false ground , is , the approbation of other Christians , so that if they have the approbation of some such exercised Christians , or if they have the approbation of such a Minister , that is the way to silence all their disputings . O cursed bee the person that putteth his trust in men who are liars ; O man or woman , let me assure you this , if yee had a testimoniall to present to Christ , subscribed with all the hands of every Christian that ever yee we●e acquainted ●●th , this will be enough for Christ to reject you , and it both , I know you not , and therefore depart from me . There is an emphasis in that word , I know you not , as if he had said , it is not much though all others know you , If I know you not . The ninth false ground , is , their diligent observing all the Ordinances , their going to Preachings , and their going to Communions , and running to and fro , pretending this 〈◊〉 , that knowledge may be increased ; but know it , there are many that have sitten down at a Table with Christ here , that shall never sit down at the higher Table with him hereafter : Are there not many that shall say unto Christ in the great Day , Have we not ●aten and drunken in thy presen●e , unto whom Christ shall say , Depart from me , I know you not . The tenth false foundation , which is the strong delusion of Atheists ▪ of which no doubt there are many here to day : is the building of their eternall happinesse upon this , I 〈…〉 with a crosse , I never knew what it was to have a sad day ; but to thee I shall onely say , it may be thou never had a joyful day , neither in all ●hy sinful pleasures under the Sun ; but let me tell thee , it is ●ad Divinitie to conclude , therefore I am in the way to Heaven : It may be it were better reasoning ▪ ( and though I will not say it , yet it cometh nearer truth ) I had never a crosse , therefore I am going on in the way to Hell : O wilt thou but consider , what if Hee be heaping coals upon thy head , and fatting thee to the day of slaughter ? What if this word be your portion ? Eat , drink , and bee merrie while you are here , for to morrow thou must ●ternally die . What are all your pleasures ? and what are all your honours : and what are all your possessions ? What are they all ? Are there not a bone cast unto a 〈◊〉 ? the Lord valueth them not , What if they be the fa●ting of you to the day of slaughter ? Now as to these who deny they have any interest in Christ , when indeed they have , they commonly deceive themselves , and 〈◊〉 their own spirits upon some of these 〈◊〉 the like mistakes . 1. Some judge of their estate by their present frame and conditions , so that if they be in an evil frame , they begin and 〈◊〉 the foundations ; and to such I would onely say , That every change of condition doth not speak a change of estate ; 〈◊〉 childe of God may be in much darknesse , and under much deadnesse ▪ and ye● a childe of God still ▪ Psal. ●● . It was 〈◊〉 evil 〈…〉 be as a beast before God , and 〈…〉 then ●e keepeth grips ▪ and holdeth him by the right hand ▪ Iob was often in a very ill 〈◊〉 , and yet holdeth fast his integrity ▪ and why then should thou upon that account cast away thine . 2. Christians judge their estate by dispensations , they think every change of dispensations , speaketh a change of estate , and if Christ do not smile alwayes , we know not what it is to keep up the faith of our interest ; and indeed this is a great fault among Christians , that when they cannot read love in the beautifull face of Christ , they think it is not in his heart . What though he change his dispensation , doth that speak forth a change of thy estate . Christ cannot change his voice to us , but we think he changeth his heart , Christ he cannot speak to us in the whirle-wind ; but we cry out , Why art thou become unto me as an enemy ? Oh , shall precious Christ be thus mistaken . The third ground of mistake about our interest in Christ , is , that we judge of our estate by what we are in our selves , and not by what wee are in Christ. When a Christian beginneth to judge and search himself , he can finde nothing in himself ; but what is the matter of doubting , and therefore thinks it high presumption to think himself a Believer : But O fool , can thou not look to Christ , and cry out , though in my self I be nothing , yet in him I am all : O if Christians knew to judge of themselves be what they are in Christ , and not be what they are in themselves , that with one eye they might look to themselves , and cry out , I am undone , and with another look to Christ , and cry out , There is hope in Israel concerning me , that with one eye they might look to themselves , and blush , and with another eye they might look unto Christ , and hope , that with one eye they might look to themselves , and weep , and with another eye they might look to Christ and rejoyce . O Christian will thou judge alway of thy self , be what thou art in Christ , and not be what thou art in thy self ; yea , I would say this to thee by the way , when thou mee●est with tentations that put thee to dispute thy interest , do but send them to Christ to get an answer , and say , O precious Christ , answer this tentation , for this is Christs way with the soul , the Law must bring us back to Christ , and Christ must ●en● us back to the Law , and deliver us over to it , not to the condemning power of it as before , but the directing and guiding power of it as a rule of holinesse ; so that a Christians whole life must be a sweet and constant travelling between Christ and the Law : when thou hast broke the Law , flie unto Christ to take away thy guilt , and when thou hast closed with Christ , come running out again in his strength to perform the Law. The fourth mistake is , that Christians judge of their estate by the measure of their graces , more nor by the sincerity of them ; some Christians , if they finde not love in such a degree , and if they finde not repentance in such a degree , immediately they begin and raze the foundations , and do call their enjoyments delusions , and their faith presumption , and their mortification hypocrisie ; but I must say this to thee , we should not onely weigh our graces in the ballance , but try them also by the touch-stone , for the smallest piece of gold is gold , and the least degree of faith , is alike precious faith , with that the Apostles themselves had . The fifth ground of mistakes among Christians is this , That they compare themselves more unto the Saints , then they judge of themselves by the Word . O saith one , if I were like David , I would believe , but I am not like David , nor Iob , nor Hezekiah : and therefore there is none of the Saints to which I should go , and if I should call , there is none to answer , and why then should I believe : I would onely say to thee whose objection that is , it is even Davids objection , Psal. 22.5 , 6. Our father 's trusted in thee ; O they were excellent men ; But what a man am I ? A worme , and not a man , and yet , he was put from that objection : and I would say this , Are yee below him : In what ? I hope yee are not below David in necessity : Now though ye be below him in grace , if ye be not below him in necessity , yee have so much the more right to believe ; for as wee said before , necessity giveth you a right , and the more necessity , the greater right to believe . The sixth ground is , That Christians judge of their estate by Christs part of the Covenant , and not by their own , rather examining themselves by what Christ hath promised to do for them , then by what is left to them to do , which thing if it were headed , would put a close to many of our mistakes and disputings . Having now laid out some mistakes upon either hand , the next wee would do , i● to propose some considerations to presse you to guard against these mistakes , especially the first . And the first consideration is , That mistakes about one interest in Christ , and assurance , is a most universal and popular evil ; it is not one of a ●●y , nor two of a family , but many are mistaken in their interest in Christ : that word , Prov. 30.12 . There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes , and yet is not cleansed from their iniquity , it is not one or two that are under this mistake , but it is a generation : And I suppose , there are many of us , we are of this tribe and generation , Matth. 7.22 . Hee saith , many in that day shall say unto mee , Lord , Lord , and have wee not prophesied , and yet hee shall say unto them , I know you not : Since it is so universal a mistake , I intreat you be much in the search of your selves , search your own selves : Certainly I think , if there were but within this Church one that were under this mistake , it should put us all to this , Master is it I , Master is it I ; but how much mo●● since there is a generation of mistakers , should it not be our exercise every day to cry out , is it I. The second consideration is , That as it is a most universal , so also it is a most irrecoverable mistake ; if ye mistake about this your being in Christ , there is no making up of that mistake ; if once yee passe the borders of Time with this lie in your right hand , I am in Christ , there is no hope of recovery , eternity will cut off accesse to make up that mistake : I intreat you go not down to your grave with this , I am in Christ , when yet Christ may say , I know you not : I believe it , if ye could have a testimonial subscribed by the hands of all the most eminent and tender Christians that ye have known , that yee are indeed a Saint , a●d if all the Ministers that ever you spoke to should praise you in the gate , and declare you to be a son and daughter of Abraham ; yet when you shall bring up your testimoniall to Hevean , and the Father shall read it , and shall ask you where is my Sons Name , if that be not there , it will certainly be rejected , and cast over the bar . Thirdly , It is a soul destroying delusion , this mistake about ones interest in Christ , is the very ruine of their immortal soul , according to that word , Isa. 44.20 . A deceived heart hath led them aside , and what is the fruits of it , so that he cannot deliver his soul , and by consequence it may be said , that they destroy their soul ; I believe it , there are many that go to hell in a chariot of delusion ; we know some Christ guideth to Heaven by the gates of hell , and letteth them not see life till they be in sight of hell ; but it is true also ; there are others whom the devil guideth to hell , by the very borders of Heaven , he maketh them believe they are dwelling in the gate of Heaven all their dayes , and yet at last they are thrust down to these habitations that are prepared for the devil and his angels . Fourthly , If once a person be mistaken about their interest in Christ , they will have these three notable disadvantages attending upon them . 1. As long as he is under this mistake , he is without all reach of profiting by the Ordinances , for when he heareth preaching , he will apply promises , when he should apply threatnings , and upon the other hand , apply threatnings when he● should apply promises , and so that which should be his medicine , becometh poison to him . 2. As long as he is under this mistake , it maketh him that he cannot pity nor have compassion upon himself , that though he be the most suitable object of compassion , yet he knows not what it is to weep over his own ruine . 3. Readily all his graces are but delusions , all his good motions are but flashes , and all his mortification counterfeit , and all his tendernesse is but the mother of stupidity , and therefore guard against mistakes about your interest in Christ I intreat you . Fifthly , Consider , that mistakes about ones interest , is a most abiding and constant mistake , believe it , if once we mistake in this , it is one to a hundred if ever wee come right again : this is clear , Ier. 8.5 . They hold fast deceit , they keep it with both their hands : And , Isa. 44.20 . Their is a lie in their right hand , that is , they hold the lie and they keep it with all their power ; I say , if once one be mistaken concerning their interest in Christ , it is hard to put them from it , yea , delusion it is such an abiding thing , that we find Christ speaketh of it , as if it would wait upon one before the judgement seat of Christ , and as if some would never quite their hope of heaven , till Christ pronounce that word , Depart from me , I know you not , delusion may carry us over the borders of Time , and lead us in to Eternity . Sixthly , There is much counterfeit Religion that is in those dayes , their is a painted faith , there is a painted love , there is a painted mortification , and there is a painted tendernesse ; some they love shaddows and pictures , and yet they do not love the very shaddow of Christ , and are there not many who think they are imbracing Christ , and yet are imbracing a delusion and a fancy . That which thirdly wee would speak to from this poi● , is , to give you some evidences by which yee may know if the assurance ye have of your being in Christ , be right or no : Believe it , there are many that draw that conclusion , I am in Christ , which the devil and their own deceitfull heart hath drawn , and Christ never gave consent to it : And I shall propose these seven or eighth evidences of real assurance , by which ye may discern . First , A real assurance is a purifying and sanctifying assurance : this is clear , 1 Ioh. 3.3 . Every man that hath this hope in him , that is , perswaded of this that he shall come to heaven , He will purifie himself , as he is pure : And 2 Cor. 7.1 . Having therefore these promises , dearly beloved , let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh , and of the spirit . O! When a Christian getteth Christ in his arms , hee cannot but cry forth , What have I to do any more with idols : When he hath once gotten Christ in his arms , he will answer every tentation that he meeteth with this , I am not mine own , I am bought with a price , I cannot now dispose of my self : and if your assurance of going to heaven be not a purifying assurance ; be perswaded of it , it is but the devils pillow sowed under your arm holes : is it possible a person can be assured of heaven , and not study holinesse , can such a delusion at this overtake you . Secondly , A real assurance putteth the Christian to a pressing and earnest pursuit after communion and fellowship with God : is it possible for one to be assured , and not to ●e saying , he is sick of love : this is clear Song 2.16 , 17. My beloved is mine , and I am his ; and immediately ▪ followeth , Turn thee , O my beloved , and be like a roe , or a young har● upon the mountains of Bether : And it is clear , Song 7.10 , 11. I am my beloveds , and his desire is towards me : and what followeth upon that , She cometh and inviteth Christ , O come down with me to the fields , let us lodge in the villages . O when gave ye Christ such an invitation as this , O precious Christ , let us lodge in the villages , and go down to the secret places of the field : and Psal. 63.1 . My God , there is his assurance ; and immediately followeth upon that , Early will I seek thee , my soul thirsteth after thee as in a dry parched land where no water is . There is a pressing desire after communion . But I would ask you , Are there not many here who have the hope of heaven ( to their apprehension ) and yet the desire of communion with Christ was never with them : I desire to say to thee , ( be who thou will ) Be not deceived , God is not mocked , that which thou sowest , thou shall also reap . I think there are some of us , we would let Christ live in Heaven many dayes without giving him one visit , if He would let us alone : But O if we were within sight of our interest in Christ , how often would this be our complaint when he were absent , They have taken away my Lord , and I know not where they have laid him ; or my idol hath carried me away from Him , and I know not where to find Him. Thirdly , Assurance of our being in Christ , will put us to the exercise of praise ; believe it , I think this is one of the most searching evidences of assurance : There are some Christians they will be convinced for the neglect of the duty of prayer , but for the neglect of the duty of praise , they never have one conviction ; and I tell you the reason of it , prayer is a selfish grace , ( so to speak ) but praise it is a denying grace , prayer seeketh , but praise giveth , Exod. 15.2 . He is my God , I will prepare him an habitation , and he is my fathers God , I will exalt him , Psal. 118.28 . He is my God , I will praise him , he is my God , I will exalt him : What needeth David these repetitions , might not one serve ? No saith he , I would even spend my dayes in this , My God , my God , there is much of heaven in that word , My God , and love committeth many sweet batoligies : Now I say to thee , was thou ever put to the heart exercise of praise , by this assurance that thou hast , this is an evidence indeed , but alas , many of us cannot say it . Fourthly , A person that liveth within sight of his interest , Christ is match●esse unto him , as is clear , Song . 2.3 . I sat down under his shaddow , there is faith and assurance of it , and what accompanieth that , As the apple tree among the trees of the wood , so is my beloved among the sons : Christ hath not a match , saith the Spouse , in his sweetnesse , his power , his beauty ; and his usefulnesse is above all . Fifthly , Real assurance is a humbling thing , the assurance of a Christian maketh him to sit low in the dust : Was not Iacob low in his own eyes , when he cryed out , I am lesse then the least of all thy mercies ; What ? was not David low in his own eyes , when he spake that word , What am I , and what is my fathers house , that thou hast brought me hitherto ; and was not Paul a low man in his own eyes , Ephes. 3.8.16 . I am lesse then the least of all thy Saints , and when he cryed out , I am the cheif of sinners : The assurance that is real , it will make a Christian to sit down in the dust , and cry out , Wo is me , I 'am a man of polluted lips . Sixthly , Real assurance will put him to take much pleasure and delight in the going about of duties : that word , Psal. 40.8 . My God , saith he , that is his assurance , and presently he subjoyneth , I delight to do thy will , O Lord , this he speaketh of himself , as himself , and likewise as a type of Christ , Psal. 119.115 . Depart from me evil doers , for I will keep the commandements of my God ; I believe it , the love of Christ when it is much in exercise , it will constrain us to our duty : and therefore this proud transporting assurance in these dayes , that setteth men above all duties and Ordinances , and maketh them count the Gospel as well as the Law , but beggerly rudiments ▪ and cry out to their neighbours , Stand aback , for I am holier then thou , must needs be a delusion . Lastly , There are these three properties of a real assurance , it is a begotten assurance , it is a living assurance , and it is a constraining assurance . The first two properties of it are set down in that , 1 Pet. 1.2 . He hath begotten us to a lively hope ; Who begat that assurance in thee ? I suppose some have assurance , and it was begotten without travel ; but if Christ be not the father of thy assurance , it will evanish and passe away . And , secondly , it must be a living assurance , some hearts are dead as a stone , and yet they say they have the hope of heaven . And thirdly , it must be a constraining assurance , it will put the Christian to do what he commands , yea , if it were the most pleasant Isaac that we have , if he commandeth us to sacrifice it , we would put a knife to the throat of it , and be willing to offer it up . Now after all these evidences , I desire to have a report from you concerning your estate ; What think ye of your selves , are ye in Christ , or no ; I suppose , if Christ should come here to day , and put us all to the door but these that are in Christ , wee would have a thin assembly : I confesse , I wonder , that that word doth not make us to walk with sadnesse , Many are called , but few are chosen : Now I ask this question at you all , as in the sight of God , and as ye will one day answer unto him that will be your Judge ; What think ye of your selves ? Is there none here that can give a present positive answer to this , Are ye in Christ : I suppose this , if I were to go round them that are here , and ask , are ye in Christ , are ye , and ye in Christ , O! I doubt much if there should be many negative answers within the doors , we have so strong a faith some of us , that since we were born , we never doubted of it ; But I think ( without commending doubting ) I may say , the faith that thou never doubted of , is too like a delusion , and the faith that thou never took pains to keep , and yet it keeped it self , that is too like a delusion , the faith that never knew what it was to put thee to real seeking of Christ , is too like a delusion . But let me close with this , be your estate what it will , search and come away ; I think that is one of the most Gospel invitations that is in all the Scripture , Lam. 3.34 . Let us search and try our wayes , and turn again unto the Lord : When thou hast searched , come away , for I tell thee this , there will be nothing that will commend thee to Christ so much as necessity , and I hope there is none of you , but ye have enough of this , and know it , if ye will not come to Christ , hee will compell you to come , but it shall not be for your advan●age to stay away , till ye be compelled . O persons that are out of Christ , Come away ; O persons that are in Christ , Come away ; we must preach that word , Come away , unto you , as long as ye are here , till ye come and be fixed as a pillar in the house of God , and go no more ou● , O study to be near him : O Christian didst thou ever think upon this , and say with thy self , O when shall I have immediate imbraces of blessed Christ : When shall there be nothing between my heart and Him ? till then ▪ we never get Christ near enough , there is alway something between Him and us , till we be above the clouds : O these immediate soul infoldings and imbracings of Christ : Are ye never sending a messenger to heaven , desiring a passe to go away that ye may enjoy them , and are ye not longing for the day , when the waters of Iordan shall divide themselves , and the ransomed of the Lord shall passe thorow : Now let us sing praises to our King , sing praises , for he hath gone up with a shout , and shall come again , sing praises to our King , sing praises . SERMON IX . 2 Cor. 13.5 . Examine your selves , whether ye be in the faith ? prove your own selves , know ye not your own selves , how that Iesus Christ is in you , except ye be reprobates ? I Think ere long , there are many that passeth under the notion of Professors , that the veriest atheist when he beholdeth their walk , may cry out , Are thou also become like unto one of us : Are there not many here that are in a golden dream , and in a fools paradise , that dream they eat , and behold , when they awake , they shall be hungry ; therefore I think it is incumbent upon us , to search and examine our state , and condition ; profanity hath slain its thousands , but delusion and presumption hath slain their ten thousands . It was an ancient complaint of Christ , Luk. 12.57 . And why even of your selves judge ye not what is right ; I am perswaded of this , there are many decreets of peace past upon earth , that are never ratified in heaven , there are many that cry out , The bitternesse of death is past , whom yet God by the sword of his Justicee , shall hew in pieces before our eyes . We told you at the last occasion , that we spake upon these word ; there were six things we intended to speak from them , of the first three we have spoken . That which we intended to speak to at this time , is , that there is much soul advantage and spiritual gain , that doth redound to the Christian , by the distinct perswasion of his interest in Christ ; this we gathered from Paul's doubling the command of searching and trying themselves , as if he had said , it is a businesse that will be so much for your advantage , that it is incumbent for you to search and try diligently : And for further clearing of the point , I shall only give these three places , Rev 2.17 . I will give unto them a white stone , and in the stone a new name written , that no man knoweth , but he that hath received it : By the new name , and the white stone , is understood assurance , and the intimation of it to the soul : This indeed is such a mercy , that I defy any to make language of it , no man knoweth it , much lesse can he expresse it , but he that is the professor of it , and that place , Isa. 62.2 , 3. I will give unto them a new name , which the mouth of the Lord will name : O what a name must that be which the mouth of the Lord will name : I think , what he giveth , must be one of the noblest names that ever was given , all the stiles and titles under heaven cannot equal it . And , thirdly , we see David in the 18. Psal. found much sweetnesse and advantage in this , when nine times he hath that word , my : My strength , my rock , my fortresse and my deliverer , my strength and my buckler , the horn of my salvation , and my high tower , O David , what needeth all these Mys , David would answer us ; O! he is so sweet in himself , but O! much sweeter to me , when I put to that possessive note , My. Now to speak more particularly to these advantages of assurance , The fi●st is , That a person that is assured of his interest in Christ , he is much in desiring communion with Christ : Tell me , O thou whom my soul loveth , ( there is his assurance ) where thou feedest , and where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon , there is desire of communion , and Song 7.10 , 11. My beloved is mine , and his desire is towards me , there is her assurance , and immediately followeth , Come my beloved , let us go forth into the fields , let us lodge in the villages , there her desire of communion , Song 2.16 , 17. My beloved is mine , and I am his , and what followeth upon that , He feedeth among the lillies , untill the day break , and the shadows flie away , Turn my beloved , and be as a roe , or a wilde hart upon the mountains of Bether , that is in short , let me have sweet correspondency and fellowship with thee , till the day of Eternity shall come : I think the desires of an assured Christian , they are like the grave , the cry continually , Give , give , and they never say , it is enough : What is the reason , ye seek so little after fellowship with Christ , it is even this , ye are not perswaded of your interest in him ; believe it , if once ye had attained to this blest length , as to cry out , Christ is mine , it would be a hell upon earth for you to live at such a distance with him as ye do for the most part : O but assurance maketh absence from Christ an unsupportable burden , Psal. 22.1 . My God , my God , there is assurance , and immediately followeth his complaint , Why hidest thou thy self from me , Song 3.1 , 2 , 3. that word , Him whom my soul loveth , made her to weep so much under absence from Christ , and Ioh. 20.13 . when the Angels ask the question at Mary , Women why weepest thou ? I think she thought it a needlesse question , and she tells the cause of it , They have taken away my Lord : I think her heart was at her mouth when shee pronounced these two words , My Lord , she spake them with a great deal of emphasis and force , could ye resent absence with Christ so little , if ye were assured he were yours . I confesse , it is no wonder when persons losse that which is not their own , that they weep not much for the losse of it ; but O! to losse that which is our own , it maketh it a crosse and a burden to us . Secondly , It maketh the soul to have a high and matchless esteem of precious Christ , Song 5.10 . My beloved is white and ruddy , the chief among ten thousand : O saith the Spouse , I never saw his like , and I shall never see his like again ; there is much in that My ; interest maketh her look upon Christ with another eye nor she would have done , strangers look upon him but as a tree planted on the sand , 1 Pet. 2.7 . To you that believe Christ is precious , not to every one : And Song 2.2 . I sate down under his shaddow with great delight , the reason is , interest in the words going before , As the apple tree among the trees of the wood , so is my beloved among the sons ; yea , assurance will make every thing in Christ exceeding pleasant to the soul : as is clear , Song 5.16 . My beloved is altogether lovely , or , hee is all desires . I tell you what assurance will do , it will make Christs person pleasant and precious to the soul , it will make Christs Natures pleasant to the soul , it will make Christs Offices pleasant to the soul , it will make Christs Promises pleasant to the soul , it will make Threatnings pleasant to the soul , it will make the smell of Christs Garments pleasant to the soul , and it will make the kisses of His Mouth pleasant to the soul : O saith the assured Christian , there is nothing of Christ but it is most pleasant , and is all desires ; His Threatnings are pleasant , they are the wounds of a friend , and His kisses are pleasant , they are better then wine , His Name it is pleasant , it is as precious ointment powred , forth , His smellings are most delightsome , whose countenance is as Lebanon , excellent as the cedars : O to imbrace a married Christ , how pleasant is it to the soul ; What makeeth you to have so low thoughts of Christ ? even this , the want of assurance that Hee is your H●sband . Thirdly , Assurance will make the Christian patiently to submit to every crosse and sad dispensation he meeteth wi●h : this is clear , Heb. 10.34 . They took with joy the spoiling of their goods , and what made them do so , They hoped for a better inheritance , and a more induring substance : I tell you , assurance , it will answer all crosses with this , Christ is mine ; when they are afflicted , assurance will lift up its face , and cry out , Christ is mine , and when they are reproached , they will comfort themselves with this , Christ is mine , I can put on the Lord Iesus . Fourthly , Assurance will keep you from apostacy and defection from Christ , 2 Pet. 1.10 . Make your calling and election sure , and if ye do this ( saith he ) ye shall never fall , Heb. 3.11.12 . It is there set down as a fruit of the evil heart of misbelief , it maketh us depart from the living God , but on the contrary , assurance knitteth the soul to Christ by a threefold cord , which is not easily broken . Believe it , the assured Christian can cry out with much confidence of faith , My mountain standeth strong , I shall never be moved ; the assured Christian can cry out with much chearfulnesse : In God will I praise his word , in God have I put my trust , I will not be afraid what flesh can do unto me ; yea , he can sweetly sing in the very mouth of danger , The Lord is my light and my salvation , whom shall I fear ? the Lord is the strength of my life , of whom shall I be afraid , Psal. 27.1 . Fifthly , Assurance keepeth all the graces of the spirit green and flourishing , it is as a refreshing dew upon our branches , which maketh every grace sweetly to blossome in its season . 1. It stirreth up the exercise of love : O how vigorous are the actings of love , when a Christian can cry out , My beloved is mine , and I am his , Song 1.13 . My beloved , there is her assurance , He is a bundle of myrrhe , and shall lye all night between my breasts , that is , as long as time shall last , I shall never have Christ out of my my heart , there is love , 1 Ioh. 4.19 . We loved him , because he loved us first ; our hearts are naturally cold , but love kindleth love , the sense of his love to us , putteth our hearts into a heavenly flame towards him again . 2. Assurance keepeth up the exercise of prayer , it is the assured Christian that can p●ay best , and to best advantage , and in these three things especially , is prayer helped by assurance . First , It helpeth in the point of boldnesse : O but the assured Christian can go boldly to the Throne of Grace , Crying Abba father , and my Lord and my God. Secondly , It helpe●h our diligence in prayer , Psal. 63 1. O my God , there is assurance , early will I seek thee , there is his diligence as the fruit thereof . Thirdly , It helpeth the fervency of prayer , as in that same place , my soul thirsteth for thee , my flesh longeth for thee , there is his fervency as another fruit of his assurance . 3. Assurance keeepeth in exercise and life , the grace of mortification : ●s is clear by comparing , 2 Cor. 4. vers . last , with 2 Cor. 5.1 . We look not after the things that are seen : O Paul , what aileth you , may ye not take a look of the world , O saith Paul , and would ye know the ground of it , Wee know if this house of this tabernacle were dissolved , we have a house not made with hands , eternally in the heavens : my house and my treasure is in heaven , I must have my heart there , and my eyes also : Would yee know what would stay your pursuit after the world , study to have the assurance of your interest in Christ continually with you . And 4. It keepeth in exercise the grace of humility ; there is nothing will keep a Christian so humble as assurance , Gal. 2.20 . I live , yet not I , but Christ liveth in mee , Eph. 3.8 . there hee is all in exalting grace , and debasing himself : It is the misbeliever and discouraged person that dwelleth nearest pride ; Believe it , misbelief is big with childe of pride and apostacy , these are the two children which that fruitfull mother will bring forth . And , 5. It will help the grace of Repentance : Would yee know what would make the Christian to repent , it is even this , to take Christ in our arms and call him ours , Zech. 12.10 . They shall look unto him , that is , their faith , and and they shall mourn as one mourneth for his only Son : I think it is known by experience , the soul never weeps more tenderly under the conviction of sin , then whe● he hath Christ in his arms , and can see , Hee is mine : O how sweetly doth they then complain , there is not a sight of Christ as their own , when they have offended , but it breaketh all their heart in pieces , and it is as a sword piercing into the bones , when they cry out , O what a fool was I to offend such a precious One , in whom I had so much interest ; Was it not sense of interest that made Mary wash the feet of Christ with her tears . Lastly , It will keep in exercise the grace of Joy , 1 Pet. 1.8 . It is faith which maketh one to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory : Would yee know why your graces are withered ? would ye know why all the pleasant plants of God within your soul are decayed ? It is this , ye live without sight of your interest in Christ , believe it , ( if so I may speak ) assurance will be a watering to your graces every morning , and ●●fresh them every hour , it being as a ●hannel through which divine influence is conveighed to the increase of grace , and especially of joy . The sixth advantage that cometh in to the Christian by assurance of his interest in Christ , is , That it maketh death exceeding pleasant and comfortable to the soul ; what maketh death the king of terrours , and what maketh it so unto us ? Is it not this , wee go to heaven under a cloud : the assured Christian can take death in his arms , and cry out , welcome , O friend : the assured Christian , when he seeth the chariots his father sends for him , doth with old Iacob rejoyce , and Psal 23. When I walk through the valley of the shaddow of death , I will fear no evil : What brought you that length , David ? I tell you why , saith he , for God is with me , ver . 4. I think I need not feas any thing , when I have God in my company : It is the assured Christian that can cry out , Why should I fear death , should I not laugh at destruction : I think indeed , the assured Christian needeth no● fear death , because death to him is the death of all his lusts , the funerall of all his sorrows : and is not the day of death his coronation day , his marriage day , the day of his triumph , and of his entering into rest , and why then should he fear it . The seventh advantage is , That a Christian being in the state of assurance , can put the highest account upon the smallest mercy that hee meets with from God : the assured Christian looketh upon every mercy as a wonder ; it is the assured Christian that cryeth out , I am lesse then the least of all thy mercies : there is not a mercy he meets with , were it but a drop of cold water , but if hee can read this on it , that it came from my Husband , and from my Father , it will be better to him then the sweetest wine . Lastly , Assurance doth exceedingly help us to chearfulnesse in obedience : O that is a remarkable connexion that Paul hath , Act. 27.23 . The Lord whose I am , and whom I serve : That passage also , 2 Cor. 5.14 . is very observable , The love of Christ constrained us , &c. Why art thou so painfull a Minister Paul ? Why ? Knowest thou no man after the flesh , are not led by carnal interests , nor affections , art so busie and diligent as all the world counteth thee mad ? Why ? ( saith hee ) love will not let me rest if I would be lazie or carnal , or fold my hands to sleep : the love of Christ doth alwayes sound that in my ears , that I was dead , and he hath died for me , that henceforth I should not live unto my self , but to Him who died for me : Now to him who is the first and the last , who was dead , and is alive for evermore , Wee give praise . FINIS . 
A67397	----	The life of faith in two sermons to the university of Oxford, at St. Mary's Church there, on the 6th of January 1683/4 and June the 29th following / by John Wallis ... Wallis, John, 1616-1703. 1684 Approx. 96 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 23 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-08 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A67397 Wing W592 ESTC R18108 12212135 ocm 12212135 56326 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A67397) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 56326) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 904:18) The life of faith in two sermons to the university of Oxford, at St. Mary's Church there, on the 6th of January 1683/4 and June the 29th following / by John Wallis ... Wallis, John, 1616-1703. [2], 42 p. Printed by James Rawlins, for Thomas Parkhurst, and are to be sold by Amos Curteine ..., London : 1684. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- O.T. -- Hebrews X, 38 -- Sermons. Faith -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2004-04 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-05 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-06 Melanie Sanders Sampled and proofread 2004-06 Melanie Sanders Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-07 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Life of Faith. IN TWO SERMONS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD At S t. Mary's Church there ; On the 6 th . of January , 1683 / 4. and June the 29 th . following . By John Wallis , D. D. One of His Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary , and Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford . LONDON , Printed by James Rawlins , for Thomas Parkhurst : And are to be sold by Amos Curteine , Bookseller in Oxford , 1684. THE Life of Faith. Hebr. 10.38 . But the Just shall Live by Faith. LIfe is that of which we are all Fond. And on the contrary , Death is ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that which , of all , we most dread . ( Skin for Skin , and all that a man hath will he give for his Life . ) Insomuch that Life is commonly put for Happiness ; and Death for Misery . Behold I have set before you ( saith Moses ) Life and Good , Death and Evil : And again , I have set before you Life , and Death ; Blessing , and Cursing : Therefore choose Life , that thou and thy seed may live . That is , That you may be blessed . And Jeremy , much to the same purpose , ( but more literally : ) Behold I set before you the way of Life , and the way of Death . And , when God at first threatened , In the day that thou eatest thereof , thou shalt dy the Death : That which we commonly call Death ( though it were a part ) was but a small part , of that threatening . The whole of it , was , That he should be miserable . And , though he did not Dy the same day ( as to what we commonly call Death , ) yet he did , that day , become miserable . And so had He , and all His , continued to be ; if God had not found out a way to restore us , from that Death , to a Life of Happiness . And what that is , the Text tells us ; The Just shall live by Faith. True it is , that Death , in the proper sense , is a great Evil ; and it was so intended by God , when he did at first threaten it , as a part of that misery , which was to follow upon Sin. ) And even the Death of a Friend , as well as our Own , may justly be looked upon as a great Affliction . But , thus to Dy , is a much less Evil , than ( as the Apostle speaks ) to be Dead while we Live. And it is an Allay to our Sorrow , ( as well in reference to our own Death , as to that of those we Love , ) That , he who Believeth in the Lord , though he be Dead , yet shall he Live : And , who soever liveth and believeth in him , shall never Dy. You easily apprehend , that , when Christ saith , He shall never Dy ; he did not mean it of a natural Death ; For , thus , It is appointed to all men , once to Dy : ) But thus rather , He that hath part in the first Resurrection , on such the second Death hath no power . Or , if that expression may seem to be of a doubtfull sense , ( as being involved in the obscure phrase of a mystical Prophesy ; ) yet , that at least is plain , That , If we live after the Flesh , we shall Dy ; but if , through the Spirit , we mortifie the deeds of the Body , we shall Live. For , to be Carnally minded , is Death ; but , to be Spiritually minded , is Life and Peace . And this is the Life , which the Text speaks of . Which is Begun is Grace , and Perfected in Glory . And such a Life is that , which the Just shall Live by Faith. God so loved the World , that he gave his only begotten Son , that who so ever Believeth in him , should not perish , but have everlasting Life . ( That is , That he should be eternally Happy . ) He that Believeth on the Son , hath everlasting Life ; and he that Believeth not the Son , hath not Life ; but the Wrath of God abideth on him . For the Just shall Live by Faith. But , if any man draw-back , my Soul ( saith God ) shall have no pleasure in him . The first place where we meet with this , The Just shall Live by Faith , is in Habak . 2.4 . And we have it cited ( as a saying very considerable ) three times in the New Testament , Rom. 1.17 . Gal. 3.11 . and here Hebr. 10.38 . And , in all the Four places , we have the words just in the same order : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Justus ex Fide vivet ; ( that of Faith standing in the middle of the other two words , and capable of being referred to either ) The Just , by Faith , shall Live. And may therefore be indifferently read , The Just by Faith , or By Faith shall live . ( Justus ex Fide , or ex Fide vivet . ) Nor need we be much solicitous , whether of the ways we read it . For it may well enough have an aspect both ways . But though , in all these places , the words ly in the same Order , yet with a different Emphasis ; according as the Context , and the Scope of the place direct . In the first place ; the Emphasis seems to ly upon the word Just , or Righteous ; as contradistinguished from those who are otherwise . His Soul that is lifted up , is not upright in him ; ( and consequently , not pleasing to God : ) But the Just shall live by Faith. Where he shews the advantage that the Just or Righteous have ( as to the case there spoken of ; ) before those who are not so ; those who 's heart is lifted up , or standeth out , and refuseth to submit it self to God and Trust in him . And to the same purpose , in the place before us : where we have a like opposition , or contradistinction , between the Just or Faithful , and those who are not so . The Just shall live by Faith : But , if any man draw-back ( saith God ) my Soul shall have no pleasure in him . Where we have ( as in the other place ) a Promise to the Just and Faithful ; but with a direct exclusion of those who are otherwise ; who draw-back or Revolt from him , or stand-out against him , or believe not in him . ( Which come much to the same pass . And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of a like sense , in divers places of the New Testament , is by Interpreters indifferently expressed by Disobedience , or Vnbelief . ) And this place ( in the Epistle to the Hebrews ) though it may , in some words , seem to differ from that in Habakkuk ; yet is , by Expositors , generally supposed to have a particular respect thereunto . Nor need we ( as some would perswade us ) to change the reading of the Hebrew Text , to make it agree with the Greek ; but it might well enough be so rendered as the Greek hath it , though the Hebrew were then so read as now it is . As is well shewed , by a learned Writer of our own , in his Notes upon Maimonides's Porta Mosis . So that , how comfortable so ever the Text may be , or the Promise therein made , to those that are truly Righteous , and Believe in Christ : It affords small comfort to those that are Wicked and Unbelievers , who ( while they so continue ) are quite debarred from it . Much like to the Pillar of the Cloud , which was between the Israelites and Egyptians ; It gave light to the one , but to the other was a Cloud and Darkness . Or ( without such metaphor or mystical expression , ) as we are plainly told ( Isai. 3. ) Say ye to the Righteous , It shall be well with him ; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings : But , Wo to the wicked , it shall be ill with him ; for the reward of his hands shall be given him . In the other two places ; Rom. 1.17 . and Gal. 3.11 . the Emphasis seems to ly on the word Faith , The just , shall live , by Faith ; or , The just , by Faith , shall live . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For , here , the main point in Question was , ( in both Epistles ) concerning Justification to Life ; Whether by Works , or by Faith. And the Conclusion was , That , by the Deeds of the Law , shall no flesh be Justified in the sight of God ; ( for by the Law , cometh the knowledge of sin : ) But , being justified by Faith , we have peace with God , through our Lord Jesus Christ. In confirmation of which truth , the Apostle cites this testimony , out of Habakkuk , For it is written ( saith he ) The Just shall live by Faith. And proves it further , from the examples of Abraham and David . Who were Justified ( he tells us ) not , by Works ; but , by Faith : To whom God imputed Righteousness , with works . Thus in the Epistle to the Romans . And , in like manner , in that to the Galatians ; He argues , That Abraham's Believing was accounted to him for Righteousness : And , That , in him , the Gentiles also are Justified by Faith : And do , thereby , become the Children of faithful Abraham . And this he there also confirms by the same testimony : That no man is Justified by the Law , in the sight of God , is evident ( he tells us , ) For the Just shall live by Faith ; or , The Just by Faith , shall live . That is , Being justified by Faith , we shall obtain Life ; or , become Happy . ( Being Justified by Faith , we have Peace with God. ) So that the stress of the Proof from this Testimony , is laid upon those words By Faith. Not , of Works : but , by Faith. We have now therefore dispatched these two things from these Words : First , That this Happiness , whatever it be , belongs only to the Just , the Righteous , the Godly Person ; and to no other . That is , to those whom God , in favour , shall repute so . And therefore it concerns Us , if we would partake of this Happiness , to make sure to be of this number . That we be such as whom God will account Righteous . Otherwise , ( how ever we may flatter our selves , or what ever opinion others may conceive of us , ) God tells us , His Soul shall have no pleasure in us . Secondly , That it is by true Faith in Jesus Christ , and no other way , that we can be reputed Just or Righteous in Gods sight . Not , for any Righteousness of our own : not by works of Righteousness which we have done . Our Works perhaps may look glorious in the sight of Men ; but not in the eyes of God , ( that we should , in His sight , be justified by Them. ) Our Works may serve to justifie our Faith. ( We may shew our Faith by our Works ; and By Works is Faith made Perfect : ) But it is our Faith must justifie us . Abraham believed God ( as there is follows ) and it was imputed to him for Righteousness . If Abraham were Justified by Works ( saith S. Paul , ) he had whereof to Glory ; but , not before God : But Abraham's Believing God ( for so it follows ) was accounted to him for Righteousness . And this God would have so to be ; That Himself might have all the Glory of his Grace : And , That Man may have nothing to Glory in ; nothing to boast of . Now to him that worketh ( as there it follows ) the Reward is not reckoned of Grace , but of Debt : But , to him that worketh not , but Believeth on him that justifieth the Vngodly ; his Faith is counted to him for Righteousness . And David allso ( as he further argues ) describeth the Blessedness of that Man , to whom God imputeth Righteousness , without Works ; ( that is , not upon the account of Works : ) saying , Blessed are they , who 's Iniquities are forgiven , and who 's sins are covered : Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not Impute sin . Not , He that hath no sin , ( for then no man would be blessed ; ) but , to whom it is not Imputed . Who ever therefore would be thus accounted Righteous in Gods sight ; must be contented to Disclaim his Own Righteousness , as to any thing of Merit therein : and accept of this Imputed Righteousness , on the account onely of Christs Righteousness and Merits : to the benefit of which we are intituled by Faith in him . So far is the Doctrine of S. Paul , from the Popish Doctrine of Merits , and Supererogation ; as if we were able to do ; no onely as much as is sufficient ; but more than is necessary , to make us Just on the account of Works . But when we thus exclude the Merits of good Works , as to our Justification : We do not deny the Necessity of them , as to our Practice . For it is not every Faith , ( or every thing which a presumptuous wicked person shall call Faith , ) that will Justifie us in the sight of God : But , such a Faith as works by Love ; and By Works is Faith made perfect . Not , an Idle , Lazy Faith ; But , an Operative , a Working Faith ; a Faith that purifieth the Heart . A Living , a Lively Faith : ( But , Faith without Works is Dead : and can , in no other sense , be called Faith ; than as a Dead man , or the Picture of a man , may be called a man. ) A Faith in the Heart , which doth produce Holyness in the Life . ( For , without Holyness no man shall see God. ) For it was never the design of S. Paul , ( nor of our Church neither , when shee saith , Wee are Justified by Faith onely ; ) to derogate from the Necessity of Good Works : But he doth directly Assert it . And he doth ( not without some Indignation ) Disclaim that consequence , that some would ( slanderously ) fasten upon his Doctrine of Free Grace , and Justification by Faith onely . What shall we say then ? Shall we continue in Sin , that Grace may abound ! God forbid . And , as to those ( for some such there were ) who ( as a consequence of his Doctrine ) did affirm , that he said , Let us do evil that good may come thereof : He says , They do slanderously report it ; and , That their condemnation is just . But you will say , If we be Justified ( as our Church tells us ) by Faith onely ; what need is there of Holyness , or a Godly Life ? I say ; Much every way . For we must be Sanctified ( as well as Justified ) if ever we be saved . And though Justification and Sanctification go allways together ; ( For God Justifies none , whom he doth not also Sanctify : ) yet the Notions of the one and the other , are very different . And , whatever some would slanderously insinuate , of those who exclude Good Works from Justification ; as if they were Enemies to Good Works ; and held , That by Faith a man may be saved let his Life be never so Wicked : It will be found in experience , That they are not less zealous of good Works , who think that Holyness belongs to Sanctification , than those that do thus Calumniate them . And ( very often ) they who talk most , of being Justified by good Works , have least of them to shew . 'T is ( I know ) the business of the Papists , to confound the Notions of Justification and Sanctification ; to make way for their Justification by Inherent Righteousness ; that is , ( if they would speak out ) by Holyness . ( For , what else is Inherent Righteousness ? ) Now , That we are Sanctified by Holyness , no man denies : But is it by Holyness therefore that we are Justified ? or , is not this to make Justification and Sanctification , all one . And truly the Papists have some Reason so to do . For it is a Doctrine by which they get Money : As being the foundation of Indulgences and Popish Pardons ; upon purchasing , out of the Popes Treasury , somewhat of the Merits of other men ( who are supposed to have had enough and to spare ) for those who have none of their own . But , why any of Us , should be fond of that Doctrine , who have no such Bargains to drive , ( and that directly against the Doctrine of our own Church ) I do not see . And indeed the Papists themselves ( how much soever they talk of the Necessity of good Works for Justification , ) do rather hold , There is no necessity of them at all ; ( either to Justification , or Salvation . ) For there is no man so Wicked , and devoyd of Holyness and Good Works : but that , by virtue of their Priests Absolution , or at lest by the Popes Indulgence , he may go directly to Heaven , without any thing of Holyness of Good-works ( other than giving Money to a Priest , ) by their Doctrine ; ( without so much as touching at Purgatory by the way . ) 'T is but , by way of Commutation , paying so much Money ( in stead of Holyness and a Good Life ) and all is safe . However ; since it is ( amongst us ) agreed on all hands ( for I know of no Protestant that doubts it ) that there is a Necessity of Holyness , and the practice of Good Works and a Godly Life ; ( if not upon the account of Justification , at lest upon the account of Sanctification : ) Let us all make it our business , to be Fruitful therein . And if we cannot agree upon the punctilio , on what Account it is necessary ; Let us at lest agree upon the Practise , of Holyness and a Godly Life . In so doing ; we shall approve our selves to God , adorn his Gospel ; make our own Calling and Election sure ; obtain the testimony of a good Conscience in our own Breast ; and pass the more comfortably toward the Completion of that Happiness , which the Text promiseth ; That the Just , shall live , by Faith. And thus I have briefly run over the Doctrine of the Text ( with some consequents thereof ) according to the Two Empases allready mentioned . There is a third ( to be after mentioned ) but ( before I leave these , and come to it , ) I shall further amplify ( by way of Application ) on each of them . And first , as to that Emphasis on the word Just ; ( the Just shall live by Faith : ) Which restrains the benefit of this Promise ( whatever it be ) to the Just or Righteous person . Especially being attended with an Exclusive of those that be otherwise , as here it follows , But if any man draw-back , my Soul shall have no pleasure in him . And therefore , if we would be entituled to be Benefit , we must make sure of the Qualification ; that we be Just and Righteous persons . Where allso we are not to consider the word Just in a strict acceptation ; so as onely to denote Justice strictly taken , ( as contradistinguished to Holiness , Temperance , and other virtues ; ) But , as comprehensive of all that is necessary to denominate a person , a Just or Righteous man , a Good man , a man ( as here the phrase is ) in whom the Lord will have pleasure ; or whom he will be well pleased with . For , though a Good man , a Gracious man , an Holy man , a Just or Righteous man , a man after Gods own heart , are different Names in Scripture ; yet are they but as so many Inadequate Conceptions of the same Thing , and all denote the same Person ; and ( as other concretes ) are often predicated one of another , and one put for another . As in Mat. 1.19 . Joseph being a Just man , and not willing to make her a publick example , was minded to put her away privily . That is , a good man , a kind man , a merciful man. For the Moderation here intimated , ( as contradistinguished to what Severity might have been used , ) was rather an act of Mercy , than of strict Justice . But it was a just man , a good man , a vertuous man , that used this moderation . And so is the word Just , in the Text , to be understood ; as comprehensive of all those Graces and Virtues necessary to make a good man. And here , if ever , that saying will hold good , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Justice is comprehensive of all Virtue . So that it is not inough here to say , I do no man wrong , or , I live honestly among my Neighbours ; ( though that be Good : ) But , art thou endued with all Virtue ? and , all the Graces of Gods Spirit ? and dost accordingly live a Godly , Righteous , and Sober life ( as our Church phraseth it , ) or ( as St. Paul , more largely ) Denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts , live Soberly , Righteously , and Godly in this present World ? Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearance of the Great God , and our Saviour , Jesus Christ ; Who gave himself for us , that he might Redeem us from all Iniquity , and Purify to himself a Peculiar People , Zealous of Good Works ? If not : It is not the name of Christian , or a pretended Faith , that will secure against a Wicked Life . And he that lives a Vicious , Wicked Life ; whether he pretend to be saved by Faith , or to be saved by works ; he shall be saved by Neither , while he continues so . S. Paul reckons up a great Catalogue of such livers , 1 Cor. 6. ( under the title of Vnjust or Vnrighteous , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) Know ye not that the Vnrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God ? Be not deceived ; neither Fornicators , nor Idolaters , nor Adulterers , nor Effeminate , nor Abusers of themselves with mankind ; Nor Thieves , nor Covetous , nor Drunkards , nor Revilers , nor Extortioners , shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And , if any find himself within this Catalogue ( or other the like ; ) Let him take heed , to make sure of what follows : Such were some of you ; But ye are Washed , but ye are Sanctified , but ye are Justified , in the name of the Lord Jesus , and by the Spirit of our God. Observe ; they must be Sanctified , ( as well as Justified . ) No Vnclean thing may enter there . Secondly ; As to that Emphasis on the words By Faith , ( in contradistinction to Works ; ) which S. Paul principally pursues in the business of Justification , ( in the Epistles to the Romans , and to the Galatians , where this Text is cited : ) Our Church directs in a good even way ; between the Popish Doctrine of Merits , and the loose Practice of Licentious livers . That is ; We should so Practise Good Works ; as yet not to Trust in them , to be Justified by them ; either in Whole , or in Part. As to Justification ; she tells us , in the 11 th Article , (a) That we are Justified by Faith onely ; and that this is a Wholsome Doctrine , and full of Comfort . And , as to Good Works ; she tells us , in the 12 th Article (b) That , though they do not Justifie , ( but follow after Justification ; ) yet are they pleasing and acceptable unto God ; are the necessary fruit of a true and lively Faith ; and by which it s known as a Tree by its Fruit. And in the Homily or Sermon to which the Article refers , she tells us the same more fully . That there can no man , by his own acts , works , and deeds , ( seem they never so good ) be justified , and made righteous before God : But every man of necessity is constrained to seek for another righteousness or justification , to be received at Gods own hands : That is to say , the forgiveness of his sins and trespasses . — That this justification or righteousness , which we so receive of Gods Mercy and Christs Merits , embraced by Faith ; is taken , accepted , and allowed of God , for our Perfect and Full Justification . — That ( all the world being wrapped in sin , by breaking of the Law , ) God sent his onely Son our Saviour Christ into the World , to Fullfill the Law for Vs ; and , by shedding of his most pretious bloud , to make a Sacrifice , and Satisfaction , or ( as it may be called ) Amends , to his Father , for our sins ; to asswage his Wrath and Indignation , conceived against us for the same . — That sinners , ( when they turn again to God unfeignedly , ) are washed , by this Sacrifice , from their Sins in such sort , that there remaineth not any Spot of Sin , that shall be Imputed to their Damnation . That this is that Justification or Righteousness , which S. Paul speaketh of , when he saith , No man is justified by the Works of the Law , but freely by Faith in Jesus Christ ; And again he saith , We believe in Jesus Christ , that we be justified freely by the Faith of Christ , and not by the Works of the Law ; because that no man shall be justified by the Works of the Law. That , Although this Justification be Free to Vs ; Yet it cometh not So freely to us , that there is no Ransom paid therefore at all . But — God hath tempered his Justice and Mercy together ; that he would neither by his Justice condemn us to the Everlasting Captivity of the Devil , and his Prison of Hell , remedyless for ever without Mercy ; Nor , by his Mercy , deliver us clearly , without Justice , or payment of a Just Ransom . — And , whereas it lay not in us that to do ; He provided a Ransome for us ; that was , the most precious Body and Blood of his own most dear and best beloved Son Jesus Christ. Who , beside this Ransome , Fullfilled the Law , for us , Perfectly . With much more to the same purpose . Shewing , That Christ Alone , hath payd the Whole Ransome , and made Full Satisfaction , to God's Justice ; and , that our Righteousness or Good Works come not in for any Share or Part thereof ; as if , by them , we should , at lest in Part , be justified . This Doctrine , I know , is not pleasing to the Socinians , nor to the Papists . Not to the Socinians : Because they Deny that any such Satisfaction is made to Gods Justice at all . For , if they should allow , that , Christ alone were able to make , a sufficient Satisfaction , for the Sins of All : they must allow him to be more than Man. And therefore , in order to the Denying of his Divinity , they deny his Satisfaction too . Nor to the Papists : For , though they allow a Satisfaction to Justice ; Yet they would have this to be done , at lest in Part , by our selves : To make way for Purgatory ; and , consequently , for Popish Pardons . For , if we must pay , part of the Debt , our selves , ( Christ having not payd the Whole , ) and have not payed it in this Life ; we must either pay it in Purgatory ; or else ( by way of Commutation ) pay Money for the Popes Pardon , to be excused from it . But Wee , who are not concerned for either of these ; As neither denying Christs Divinity ; nor being obliged to maintain Purgatory : Have no reason to depart from the Language of our own Church . Now , to make this the more clear , our Church observes further , That there are Three things which must go together in our Justification . Vpon Gods part ; his great Mercy and Grace . Vpon Christs part ; Justice ; that is , the Satisfaction of Gods Justice , or the Price of our Redemption , by offering of his Body , and shedding of his Blood ; with fullfilling the Law , perfectly and throughly . And , upon Our part ; true and lively Faith in the Merits of Jesus Christ ; which yet is not ours , but by Gods working in us . So that , in our Justification , is not onely Gods Mercy and Grace ; but his Justice also : Which the Apostle calls , the Justice of God : And it consisteth , in Paying the Ransome , and fullfilling the Law. And so , the Grace of God , doth not shut out the Justice of God , in our Justification ; but onely shutteth out the Justice of Man ; that is to say , the Justice of our Works , as to be Merits of deserving our Justification . And therefore S. Paul declareth here , nothing upon the behalf of Man , concerning his Justification , but onely a true and lively Faith ; which nevertheless is the Gift of God , and not Mans onely working , without God. And yet that Faith , doth not shut out Repentance , Hope , Love , Dread , and the Fear of God , to be joyned with Faith in every man that is justified : But it shutteth them out from the Office of Justifying . So that , though they be all present together in him that is justified ; yet they justify not all together . Nor the Faith allso doth not shut out the Justice of our good Works , as necessary to be done afterwards , of Duty towards God ; ( for we are most bounden to serve God , in doing good deeds , commanded by him in his holy Scripture , all the days of our Life : ) But it excludeth them , so that we may not do them to this intent , to be made Good by doing them . For all the good Works that we can do , be unperfect , and therefore not able to deserve our Justifiction : But our Justification doth come freely , by the meer Mercy of God. And of so great and free Mercy ; that , whereas all the World was not able of their selves , to pay , Any Part , towards their Ransome ; it pleased our heavenly Father of his infinite Mercy , without any our desert or deservings , to prepare for us the most precious Jewels , of Christs Body and Blood ; whereby our Ransome might be fully payd , the Law fullfilled , and his Justice fully satisfied . So that Christ is now the Righteousness of all them that truly do believe in him . He , for them , payd the Ransome by his Death . He , for them , fullfilled the Law , in his Life . So that now , in him , and by him , every true Christian man may be called , a Fullfiller of the Law : For as much as that which their Infirmity lacked , Christs Justice hath supplied . I have recited these Words the more fully ; that you may clearly see , what is the Doctrine , and Language of the Church of England . And this , I hope , we All take to be good Doctrine . For my part , I think it is . I might add , if it were necessary , a great deal more : As that , where it tells us , That Man cannot make himself righteous by his own Works ; neither in Part , nor in Whole . For that were the greatest Arrogancy and Presumption of Man , that Antichrist could set up against God ; to affirm , that a man might by his own Works , take away and purge his own Sins , and so justifie himself . But Justification is the Office of God only ; and is not a thing which we Render unto him , but which we Receive of him ; — by his free Mercy , and by the only Merits of his most dearly beloved Son , and our only Redeemer , Saviour and Justifier , Jesus Christ. But I leave those , who would see more of it , to seek it , in the first , second , and third Parts of the Sermon of Salvation ; the first , second , and third parts of the Sermon of Faith ; and the first , second , and third parts of the Sermon of Good Works . And , indeed , the nature of the thing will not bear it ; that any Works of our own should , even in part , Justify us . For Justification being an Act of God , Remitting our Sins , for the Ransome and Satisfaction made to his Justice : It cannot be , that any thing which we can now do , can be ( any part of ) such Ransome or Satisfaction . For all that we can do , is but ( part of ) what is due for the present . ( As our Saviour tells us ; When we have done all ; we are unprofitable Servants ; we have done but what was our Duty to do . ) And there is nothing of Surplusage , which might accrew , toward Satisfaction for what is past . Like as a Tenant , who is run deep in Arrears of Rent ; cannot , by paying ( part of ) the Growing Rent for the future , make Satisfaction for the Arrears allready incurred . For , this growing Rent was due allso . If it be said , ( as perhaps it may , ) That , on this account , we must renounce our Faith allso . For neither doth Faith , Satisfie Gods Justice , or Deserve our Justification : I say so too ; That Faith as a Grace , or Faith as a Work , doth not justifie us . But onely as , by it , we embrace the Righteousness of Christ ; by which Righteousness alone ( so embraced ) we can be Justified . And I say so the rather ; because our Church says so too ; in these words : The true understanding of this Doctrine , We be justified freely by Faith without Works ; or , that we be justified by Faith in Christ onely ; Is not , that this our own Act , to Believe in Christ ; or , this our Faith in Christ , which is within us , doth Justify us ; ( for that were to count our selves to be justified by some Act or Vertue that is within our selves : ) but the true meaning thereof , is ; That , allthough we Hear Gods Word , and Believe it ; allthough we have Faith , Hope , Charity , Repentance , Dread and Fear of God within us ; and do never so many Works thereunto ; yet we must renounce the merit of all our said Vertues , of Faith , Hope , Charity , and all other Vertues and good Deeds , which we either have done , shall do , or can do ; as things that be far too weak ; and insufficient , and unperfect , to deserve Remission of our Sins and our Justification ; and therefore we must Trust onely in Gods Mercy , and that Sacrifice which our High-Priest and Saviour Jesus Christ the Son of God once offered for us on the Cross , to obtain thereby Gods Grace , and Remission of Sins , Original and Actual . — And , as great and as godly a Vertue as the lively Faith is , yet it putteth us from it self , and remitteth or appointeth us unto Christ , for to have , onely by Him , Remission of Sins , and Justification . So that our Faith in Christ ( as it were ) saith unto us thus ; It is not I that take away your sins , but it is Christ onely ; and , to him onely , I send you for that purpose ; forsaking therein all your good Vertues , Words , Thoughts , and Works , and onely putting your Trust in Christ. — Nevertheless , because Faith doth directly send us to Christ for Remission of our Sins ; and that , by Faith given us of God , we Embrace the Promise of Gods Mercy , and of the Remission of our sins , ( which thing no other of our Vertues or Works properly doth : ) therefore Scripture useth to say , That Faith without Works doth Justify . So that , according to the Doctrine of our Church , neither our other Works and Graces ; nor even Faith it self as a Work , or as an Habit or Grace in us , doth Justify us : But onely as it Accepteth and Embraceth the Righteousness of Christ , for which alone our Sins are Remitted , and We Justified ; not for any thing done by us . Which Accepting or Embracing the Promise of God , and Salvation by Christ therein offered ; is not so much an Act of the Understanding , Assenting to a Truth , ( for thus the Devils believe , and Wicked men ; ) as , an Act of the Will , Accepting of it , and Consenting to it , and Trusting in it ; which the Devils and Wicked men have not . This being the language of Our Church ; I would not willingly depart from it : or gratifie the Papists so far , as to join with them in reproching our Church , as Decrying good Works , because we say , We are not Justified by them . If any shall yet say , That , when they affirm , We are not Justified by Faith onely , but by Works allso ; they mean not , That either the one or the other doth Merit Gods Favour and the Remission of our Sins ; but onely , That both Faith and Works are necessary to the Party Justified : and , That , by Justification , they mean , all that is required to make one a Good Man , and one qualified for Heaven and Salvation ; which cannot be without these . I say : The meaning is good ; But , so to speak , is not to speak Distinctly ( and like a Scholar ) but to speak confusedly , and to Jumble together those things , which , in themselves , are very Distinct. For , in order to Salvation , there are many other things necessary , beside Justification . There is Election , Regeneration , Justification , Adoption , Sanctification , and ( as the fruits hereof ) a Holy Life , with Perseverance therein to the end . Of which Divines use to speak distinctly ; and consider , separately , what belongs to each . Election , is the Act of God ; which we are not curiously to pry into : nor can we know it otherwise , than as the Effect discovers it in time . Justification , is an Act of God allso ; and ( as to a person peccant ) it is the Remission of Sins ; upon which we are , in Gods account , reputed as Just or Innocent ; and this onely for the Satisfaction which Christ hath made , not for any Work of ours . And this Satisfaction of Christ , is ( by us ) embraced by Faith ( accepting this Salvation offered by Christ , ) not , by any other Grace . Adoption , is an Act of God likewise ; whereby he reputes us his Children , and Heirs of his Kingdom : which is , for the Merits of Christ , Purchasing Heaven for us ; whereby we are entituled to that Purchased Possession . And this , by us , is Accepted by Faith allso . And all those are Relative Acts , ( of God towards us ; ) rather then Works wrought in us . But Regeneration and Sanctification , are Works of God , wrought in us , by his Spirit ; ( and produce not one a Relative , but a Real change : ) Whereby is wrought in us a New Nature , ( or as the Scripture calls it ) the New Man , or the New Creature : ) whereby Holyness , and the Graces of Gods Spirit , are Begun , and Increased gradually ; till we come to that of the perfect man ; to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ ; to that Perfection which we shall attain in Glory . And the Practise of Holyness , and a Godly Life , ( toward God and toward Man , ) are the Fruit and Effects of such Holyness and Sanctification ; and necessary allso to Salvation . So that Holyness and a Good Life ; with the Works of Piety , Charity , and other good Deeds ; are indeed Necessary to Salvation ; but belong properly to Sanctification , rather than to Justification . And I would Ask those Men who choose to speak otherwise ; Whether they think that , beside Justification , there is such a thing as Sanctification ? The Papist ( if he would speak out ) must say roundly , There is not . For , when they say , we are justified by Inherent Righteousness ; that is , by Holyness : they leave nothing for Sanctification . But We , who think that Justification and Sanctification ( though of the same Person ) be different Notions : Why should we not rather refer Sanctify to Sanctification . If it be said , That the Justified and the Sanctified person , are the same : and therefore we need not so nicely distinguish between Justification and Sanctification . I say ; 'T is true , the Persons be the same : But the Notions be different . And , though we may truly say Justus est Sanctus , or Justificatus est Sanctificatus ; yet not , Justificatio est Sanctificatio . ( He that is Justified is Sanctified ; but not , that Justification is Sanctification . ) And a little Logick would teach a Fresh-man , That Concretes may be predicated one of another , when the Abstracts may not . We may say , that Homo est Animal , but not that Humanitas est Animalitas : Or , that Homo est Albus , but not Humanitas est Albedo . If , lastly , It be thought Advantageous to the Practise of Holyness and a Godly Life , to say , that we are Justified by it . I say ; Neither is this Necessary . For this is as well done by preaching the Necessity of Regeneration and Sanctification ; as without which we cannot hope for Salvation . And then , the Exercise of Holiness and a Godly Life , comes in properly in its own place ; as the necessary Effect of Sanctification . And in this capacity it is that our Church ( without derogating any thing from the necessity of them ) doth place Good Works ; as the necessary Fruits of that Faith which Justifies ; and a Pretense of Faith , without these , she esteems to be , not Faith , but Fancy . And therefore , though shee exclude them ( as hath been said ) from the Office of Justifying ; yet thinks them necessary to be joined with Faith in every Person that is justified . And makes it the Office and Duty of every Christian man unto God , — not to pass the time of this present life unfruitfully , and idly , ( not caring how few good Works we do , to the Glory of God , and the Profit of our Neighbours ; ) Much less , to live contrary to the same . — For that Faith ( she tells us ) which bringeth ( without Repentance ) either Evil Works , or no Good Works ; is not a right , pure , and lively Faith ; but a dead , devilish , counterfeit , and faigned Faith ; as S. Paul and S. James call it . For even the Devils Know , and Beleeve , That Christ was born of a Virgine ; That he fasted fourty days and fourty nights , without meat and drink ; That he wrought all kind of Miracles , declaring himself very God ; They beleeve also , that Christ , for our sake , suffered most painfull Death , to redeem from Everlasting Death ; And that he Rose again from Death the third day : They beleeve , that he Ascended into Heaven , and sitteth on the Right hand of the Father , and at the last end of this World , shall come again , and Iudge both the quick and the dead . These Articles of our Faith , the Devils Beleeve : And so they Beleeve all all things that be written in the New and Old Testament to be true : And yet , for all this Faith , they be but Devils , remaining still in their damnable state , lacking the very true Christian Faith. For the right and true Christian Faith is , not onely to believe that holy Scripture , and all the foresaid Articles of our Faith , are true : But also to have a sure Trust and Confidence in Gods merciful Promises , to be saved from everlasting Damnation by Christ : Whereof doth follow , a Loving heart to Obey his Commandements . And this true Christian Faith , neither any Devil hath : nor yet any man , which in the outward Profession of his Mouth , and in his outward Receiving of the Sacraments , in coming to the Church , and in all outward appearances , seemeth to be a Christian , and yet in his Living and Deeds sheweth the contrary . So that Our Church is far from allowing an Idle , Lasy Life ; much less a Sinful and Wicked Life , to accompany Faith : But tells us , that , where there are , Faith is not . There is indeed ( she tells us ) a Faith which in Scripture is called a Dead faith : which bringeth forth no good Works ; but is idle , barren and unfruitful ; which is , by S. James compared to the Faith of Devils . — And this is not properly called Faith : — ( as a Dead man , is not a Man. ) — But , as he thus readeth Caesar 's Commentaries , Beleeving the same to be True , hath thereby a Knowledge of Caesar 's Life , and notable Acts , because he beleeveth the History of Caesar : Yet is not properly sayd , That he Beleeveth In Caesar ; of whom he looketh for no help or benefit . Even so , he that Beleeveth , That , all that is spoken of God in the Bible , is True ; and yet liveth so Vngodly , that he cannot look to enjoy the Promises and Benefits of God : Although it may be sayd , that such a man hath a faith and belief To the Words of God ; yet it is not properly sayd , That he beleeveth In God ; or , hath such a Faith and Trust In God , whereby he may surely look for grace , mercy , and everlasting life at Gods hand ; but rather for indignation and punishment , according to the merits of his wicked life . If then they phantasy , that they be set at liberty from doing all good works , and may live as they list ; they trifle with God , and deceive themselves . And it is a manifest token , that they be far from having the true and lively Faith ; and allso far from knowledge , what true Faith meaneth . For the very sure and lively Christian Faith is , not onely to Beleeve all things of God , which are contained in holy Scripture ; but allso is an earnest Trust and Confidence in God. — This true , lively , and unfeigned Christian Faith , is not in the Mouth and outward Profession onely ; but it liveth and stirreth inwardly in the Heart . — This Faith doth not ly Dead in the Heart ; but is Lively and Fruitfull in bringing forth Good Works . — This true Faith , will shew forth it self ; and cannot long be Idle : For , as it is written , The Just man doth Live by his Faith. — Deceive not your selves therefore , thinking that you have Faith in God , — When you live in Sin : For then your Vngodly and Sinfull Life declareth the contrary , whatsoever you Say or Think . With much more to the same purpose . Shewing the Necessity , of Good Works , to our Salvation ; though we be not Justified by them . With many serious Exhortations to the Preacher of them . And this is that safe way , which ( I sayd ) our Church directs in this point . To be Fruitfull in Good Works : not , as to be Justified by them : But , as the Necessary Fruits of that Faith by which we are Justified . Thus have I considered the Words ( The Just shall live by Faith , ) according to both these Emphases allready mentioned . That on the word Just , or Righteous , as ( contradistinguished from the Wicked : ) And that on the word Faith ; as contradistinguished from Works , in the point of Justification . But ( beside those Two already mentioned ) there is yet a Third Emphasis , of which these words are capable : And which , I think , is principally intended in this place . By Life ( as is already shewed ) is meant Happyness , ( as , on the contrary , by Death is meant Misery . ) Now the Christians Life , of Happiness , is commonly distinguished into that of Grace , and that of Glory . That of Glory , is to be expected hereafter ; and is the Completion of our Hapyness , or ( as the Apostle calls it ) the End of our Hope , even the Salvation of our Souls . That of Grace , is the Exercise of our Faith , here : Which the Text calls Living by Faith. And S. Paul , elsewhere , The Life which I now live in the Flesh , I live by the Faith of the Son of God. And this , I think , ( though not Exclusive of the Life of Glory ) is that which is here principally ( and most emphatically ) intended , when he saith , The Just shall live by Faith. And this I judge , not barely from the Form of the Words themselves , ( which stand equally fair for all those Emphases already mentioned : ) but from the Scope of Content , which lookes this way . For such is the Richness of the Scripture language , That , comprehensive Words , are improvable to different Purposes , according as a different Accent or Emphasis may be putt upon them ; and all included within the general Scope of them . Now , if we look back to Vers. 19. ( and those that follow , ) we find the Apostle Paul , whom I take to be the Author of this Epistle , ( and so doth our Church of England , as appears by the Title which our Translators prefix to it ; ) Or , whoever else were the Author of it , ( of which we need not here be very solicitous ; ) After he had , before , cleared that Doctrine , That the Legal Offerings and Sacrifices , were but Types of that One Oblation of Christ ; And , This , the Accomplishment of what was Presignified in Them : Makes this Vse , or Inference from that Doctrine ; Having therefore Boldness to enter in the Holiest , by the Bloud of Jesus ; By a new and living way , which he hath consecrated for us ; through the Vail , that is to say , this Flesh : Let us draw near , with a true Heart , and full assurance of Faith ; having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience , and our Bodies washed with pure Water . Where , beside the Assurance of Faith ; he presseth allso for Holyness of Life ; both in Soul , and Body . And that , both Singly , and Jointly ; in Publike , and Private . As which we are not onely to Practise Our selves , but to Promote ( as we have opportunity ) in others allso . For so it follows ; And let us consider one another , to Provoke to Love and Good Works : Not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together , as the manner of some is . And , having then intimated the Dangers which hereby they might incur ; as Reproches , Afflictions , Spoiling of Goods , and the like ; of Themselves , and their Friends ; ( being made a Gazing-stock themselves , and Companions of those that were so used ; ) Enduring patiently the spoiling of their goods , &c. Not onely , from the common practise of Wicked and Profane men , who are ever prone to scoff at the Power of Godliness ; ( walking after their own Lusts ; having a Form of Godliness , but Denying the Power of it : ) But especially at a Time and Place wherein it was not countenanced by the Publike Authority ; ( the Government being the Heathen . ) And , that therefore they had need of Patience , that , after they had done the Will of God , they might receive the Promise . Their chief Reward not being in present Possession , but in Expectance onely . Yet should they not be Discouraged ; For , yet a little while , and he that shall come Will come , and will not Tarry . The Reward will certainly come , in due Season , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the appointed time , ) and not be put off beyond that : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it will not be Delayed too long , or ( as in Habakkuk ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will not come too late ; but , at the End , it shall speak , and not Ly. And , in the mean time , The Just shall live by Faith. But , if any man draw-back , my soul shall have no pleasure in him . So that the Words are , manifestly , a Direction and Encouragement , for the Exercise of our Faith , while we are yet but in Expectation of the Promised Reward ; which is , hereafter , to be completed . So to Live by Faith here , that we be not Disappointed of our Hopes hereafter . And the same he pursues in the following Chapter ; Giving us Great Examples , ( of Living by Faith , ) and the Advantages , ( of so doing : ) in Abel , Enoch , Noah , Abraham , Sarah , Isaac , Jacob , Joseph , Moses , and a many more ; throughout the whole Eleventh Chapter . And then Exhorts them ( in the beginning of the Twelfth Chapter ) That , being compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses they should themselves do , as those before had done . The great Doctrine of the Text therefore , is this , That it is our Duty , and it is our Privilege , to Live by Faith. That is , to Live in a constant Exercise , of that Grace , upon all occasions . It is our Duty , which we Ought to do ; And it is our Privilege , that we May do it . It is our Duty , to Trust in God : And it is our Privilege , that we have a God to trust in . Nor doth this Duty , and Privilege , concern these onely to whom this Epistle was particularly directed ; the Christian Hebrews . But it looks Backward ; to the First Ages of the World : and Wider , than the Jewish Nation . I say , first , It looks Backward to the first Ages of the World. Nor onely before the Coming of Christ ; but even before the Establishment of the Jewish Church . To Abel , Enoch , Noah , ( before Abraham ; ) and then , to Abrabraham , Isaac , Jacob , Joseph , ( before Moses . ) All which are sayd to Live by Faith. And even by the same Faith , to which he doth there exhort the Christian Hebrews . It was the same Christ , the same Gospel , ( though not so clearly reveiled : ) and the same Eternal Life which they expected , ( though they were more in the dark , as to the particulars ; and the distinct ways and methodes of bringing it to pass . ) And , as the first Threatening ( In the day that thou Eatest thereof , thou shalt surely Dy , ) extended to Spiritual and Eternal Death , as well as the Natural ; ( For we are not to suppose , that God Inflicts a greater Punishment than what he threatened : ) So the Life there Promised ( by way of Insinuation , ) and elsewhere Expressed , ( He that doth them , shall Live in them ; ) must be understood in a like sense ; ( not of Temporal Promises onely , but of Spiritual and Eternal . And the Apostle expounds it , if the same Life ( or what is equivalent ) to be obtained ( by the first Covenant ) upon condition of Obedience ; and ( by the second Covenant ) by Faith in Christ. That no man is Justified by the Law in the sight of God , is evident ; For the Just shall live by Faith : And the Law is not of Faith ; but , the Man that Doth them , shall live in them . The same Life , or Blessedness ; though by different ways attainable . And the Apostle , here , shews ; That it is the same Faith , by which We beleeve to the saving of our Souls ; and by which the Elders obtained a good Report . And by Faith Abraham ( with Isaac and Jacob , Heirs with him of the same promise , Sojourned in the Promised Land , as in a strange Countrey ; ( of which , though promised to them , they had no other Enjoyment , than mere Strangers : ) For he looked for a City , who 's Builder and Maker was God ; ( another kind of City , than those on Earth . ) All these Died in Faith , not having Received the Promises ; ( which were therefore such as were to be enjoyed , after Death ; ) but seeing them afar off , and were perswaded of them , and Embraced them , and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims upon Earth , ( this being not the Countrey they sought for : ) For they that say such things , declare plainly , that they seek a Countrey , ( such a Countrey as yet they had not . ) And truly , if they had been mindful of such a Countrey as that from whence they came ; they might have had opportunity to have returned ; But now ( 't is manifest ) they desire a Better Countrey ; that is , an Heavenly . Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called Their God , ( the God of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob ; ) For he hath prepared a City for them . By all which , the Apostle doth not only Declare ( that they expected an Heavenly Happiness , ) but Argues strongly , That it must needs be so . And , by Faith , Moses ( he tells us ) Esteemed the Reproches of Christ , greater Riches , than the Treasures of Egypt : For he had respect to the Recompense of Reward ; as Seeing him that is Invisible . Others were Tortured , not accepting Deliverance ; that they might obtain a better Resurrection . Others had Tryal of ( or did undergo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , expertisunt , ) Cruel Mockings ; of Bonds and Imprisonment ; Were Stoned , were Sawn asunder ; were Slayn with the Sword , &c. And all these having obtained a good Report through Faith ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) received not the Promise , ( their Faith was exercised on better Promises , than of what they here received ; ) God having provided for them Better things ; that they without us should not be perfect : ( the Promises to them , and those to us , being the same . ) Again ; As this Duty and Privilege ( of Living by Faith ) extended Backwards ( to the times before Christ ; ) So , it extends Wider than the Nation of the Jews . ( A Blessing which the Gentiles are particularly concerned in : and which we , this day , celebrate ; The Epiphany , or the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles . ) For the Blessing of Abraham is come upon the Gentiles also , through Jesus Christ : that We might receive the promise of the Spirit , through Faith. And the Scripture foreseeing ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that God would Justify the Heathen through Faith ; preached before ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did before hand preach the Gospell ) to Abraham , saying , In thee that all Nations be blessed . So then , they which are of Faith , the same are the Children of Abraham ; They which be of Faith , are Blessed with faithfull Abraham . And are therefore of the number of those ( as there it follows ) who shall Live by Faith. Now , if it be asked , What it is thus to Live by Faith : It is too large a Task , for one Sermon , to give a full account of it . For allmost the whole Bible , and the Practise of the Saints in all Ages , are but a Comment on it . I shall therefore content my self , to give a short account of some of the chief Heads thereof . To Live by Faith , therefore , is , First , to Beleeve the Word of God ; to give Credit to the Truthes of God , or things by him declared ; how unlikely soever they may seem to be , and however different from the common Sentiments of Natural men , or what the Light of Nature alone could teach us . For , though there be nothing in Divine Truths Contrary to what the Light of Nature ( truly understood ) may teach us : Yet there may be some things much above it ; which , without Revelation , cannot be known . Thus ; By Faith we Beleeve , That the Worlds were made , by the Word of God ; that things that are now seen were made , not of things that do appear . That is , that the now visible World was not made up of such things as we now see : or , that there was no praeexisting Matter ( such as we now see ) of which it was made ; but was indeed made of Nothing . Which however contrary to the sentiments of Philosophers ( Ex nihilo nihil , in nihilum nil posse reverti , ) That nothing can be made out of Nothing : Yet , when God hath told us , that it is so ; we are to give full credit to it . There is indeed nothing from the Light of Nature Contrary hereunto ; why we should Disbeleeve it , when it is Reveiled : But yet we are sayd to know it by Faith , because it is Above what Nature alone could have taught . For , when we see this glorious Fabrick of the World : we might well admire it ; but could never know , whence it was , if God had not told us . For though Naturalists have , with a great deal of Reason , talked of ( a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Causa prima ) a Common Maker , or First Cause ; which should give Original to all things else : Yet this was but , either from some faint Remains of an ancient Tradition , from Adam and Noah downward to after Ages : Or , atmost be Conjectural , and Groping in the dark ; and Guessing at this , as a more likely Supposition , than , That it had Allways been ; or , should take its beginning from a Fortuitous Concurse of Atomes . Which yet the Wits of this Age , as they would be thought , ( or the Fools rather , ) would now cry-up as the more Rational : Without considering , If they must at lest allow Eternity to Matter ; why not rather , to a Wise and Knowing Agent : ) Onely , because their Wickedness , hath made them think it their Interest , That there be no God ( to call them to account for it : ) And therefore would fain perswade themselves , That there is none . And think there is nothing so Absurd , which they would not rather Beleeve , than That there is a God. And , what is sayd of the Creation of the World ; may be equally applyed to the Immortality of the Soul ; the Resurrection of the Body , and the Eternal state of Bliss or Misery hereafter ( according as Men have , or have not , approved themselves to God ; ) and others of like nature . Of all which , what ever faint Conjectures , or doubtful Traditions , the Heathen might have from the Light of Nature : they were yet much in the dark , till Immortality was brought to Light , by the Gospel . Not that I take pleasure , to Decry , Disparage , Depreciate , or Invalidate , that Light which Nature and Reason afford us , toward Reveiled Truthes . For this , I think , we ought rather to Cherish , to Enforce , and Improve what we can , ( rather than to Enervate or Elude ; ) as of great subserviency to that of Faith. For , while we study to Elude these Arguments ; we are so far doing their Work , who would Elude the Scripture too . For , even where we cannot ( from Nature alone ) conclude an absolute Certainty ; so as to Stop the Mouths of those that love to Cavil , or ( as the Apostle speaks ) list to be Contentious : Yet , if this afford us ( from considerations Natural and Moral ) Probable Arguments , and a Multitude of them , all concurring to shew , That it is not Impossible , not Improbable , but very Likely , that these things May be so ; It is a great Preparative to the Beleeving of a Revelation , that says It is so . And such Arguments , we find , the Apostles did oft make use of , to very good Purpose , and with very good Success . A Cloud of Witnesses ( though each singly may seem but Cloudy , ) may afford a considerable Light ; ( like the Stellae Nebulosae in the via Lactea . ) And Probable Arguments , though not singly Demonstrative ; yet , where there be Many of them , and those Concurrent , ( and Nothing to the Contrary , ) Experience tells us , in affaires of all natures , create at lest Violent Presumption , and oft obtain a firm Assent . And 't is seldome we have a greater Evidence , either for Determining Civil Affairs , or for Stating the Hypotheses of Nature . There is none of us can Doubt , but that there is such a place as Rome : though we have not seen it , and though , of all those who have Told us so , there is no one who might not possibly have told a Ly. But , a Concurrence of many Probabilities , passeth for a sufficient Proof . And such Arguments , how ever we now look upon them as not Demonstrative ; were yet of such force with the Heathens ( who had no better Light to Determine them ) at lest with the Wisest of them ; that they judged it a matter , at lest , of great Probability , if not of absolute Certainty , That the Souls of men are Immortal , and , That there is a State of Rewards and Punishments after this Life . Who shall therefore rise up in Iudgement , with the men of this Generation , and Condemn them ; who disbeleeve it under a greater Light. But , when all is done ; the Fullest and Clearest Evidence , is from Revelation : Whereby , what , to Reason , was very Probable , is , to our Faith , made Certain . The Jews indeed had some better Knowledge of these things , than the Gentiles had . Not onely their great Rabbi's ; but even Ordinary persons , and those of the other Sex ; According to that of Martha , concerning Lazarus , I know that he shall Rise again in the Resurrection , at the last day . And the Sadduces ( before the Resurrection of Christ , and the full Discovery of the Gospell , ) expostulating with Christ , concerning the Resurrection ; is an Argument , that , though themselves did disbeleeve it , it was an Opinion commonly received by the rest of the Jews , That the Dead should rise again . But They had it by Revelation ; not , by Natural Light onely . Now these Great and Momentous Truthes , which God hath vouchsafed thus to make known , we are to Beleeve by Faith. And that not onely so as to give Credit to them , as matters of News ; for , thus , the Devils Beleeve ; and Tremble : ) But , so to Beleeve , as to Live sutably ; so to Live , as becomes those who Beleeve such things . Secondly ; As we are thus ( in general ) to beleeve the Word of God : So , particularly , to beleeve the Commands of God ; And , so to live , as becomes those that beleeve these to be God's Commands : That is , To Obey them , and Conform our selves unto them ; however contrary to our perverse Inclinations . If Christ command us , To Deny our selves ; To take up our Cross and follow him ; To sell all ( if need be ) and give to the Poor ; To Leave House , or Brethren , or Sisters , or Father , or Mother , or Wife , or Lands , for His sake and the Gospell ; yea , or Life it self ; To pull out a Right Eye , or Cut off a Right Hand , in case they Offend , ( or part with what is as dear to us as these : ) We must Obey it . Thus ( among the many Examples in the following Chapter , ) By Faith Abraham , being Called of God , Obeyed ; and went out he knew not whither , ( forsaking his Countrey , and his Fathers House , in Obedience to Gods Command ; ) and Sojourned in the Land of Promise , as in a Strange Land. By Faith Abraham , when he was Tryed , Offered up Isaac : And , he that had received the Promises , Offered-up his onely begotten Son ; Of whom it was sayd , That in Isaac shall thy Seed be Called . Without disputing , How this was consistent with the Bowels of a Father ; or , How unacceptable News it would be to Sarah , when she should hear it ; or , How consistent with that great Promise ( wherein all the Nations of the Earth were concerned , ) That in his Seed , ( that is , in Isaac , and what should proceed from him , ) all the Nations of the Earth should be Blessed : He presently addressed himself to this hard Task , to the Obedience of this unexpected Command : Leaving it to God ( who , he knew , was able , ) to Reconcile his own Promise , with his Command . By Faith , Moses , chose rather to suffer Affliction with the Children of God , than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a Season : Esteeming the Reproach of Christ , greater Riches , than the Treasures of Egypt . On the same account , the Three Children , would rather venture on a Firy Furnace ; and Daniel , on the Lyons Den ; than not Obey the Commands of God. Which here ( I suppose ) the Apostle intimates , when he tells us of those who ( by Faith ) stopped the mouths of Lyons , and Quenched violence of Fire . Others were Tortured ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) not accepting deliverance ; Endured cruell Mockings , and Scourgings , Bonds and Imprisonments ; Were Stoned , were Sawn-asunder , were Tempted , ( or Burned alive , * ) were Slain with the Sword ; they wandered about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins ; in Deserts , and Mountains , in Dens and Caves of the Earth ; were Destitute , Afflicted , Tormented , &c. rather than not Obey the Commands of God. And thus , through Faith , obtained a good Report . S. Paul allso , as to himself , I go bound ( sayth he ) in the Spirit to Jerusalem , not knowing the things that shall befall me there ; Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth , in every City , that Bonds and Afflictions abide me : But none of these things move me ; neither count I my Life dear unto me ; so that I may Fullfill my Course with joy , and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus . Nor would he be disswaded ( though he knew thus much ) from going thither ; Being ready ( he tells us ) not only to be Bound , but to Dy at Jerusalem , for the Name of the Lord Jesus . So great an Incentive there is in Faith , to the Obedience of Gods Commands . Thirdly ; As we are thus to give heed to the Commands of God ; So , to the Threatenings of God likewise , And this is a part of our Living by Faith allso . By Faith Noah , being moved with Fear , prepared an Ark , for the Saving of his House . He being warned of God , of things not yet seen , ( that the World should be destroyed by a Deluge , though as yet there appeared no Likelihood of it , ) Gave Credit to that Threatening ; ( while others , its like , Scoffed at it ; and at Him too , for giving Credit to it ; ) and accordingly ( by Gods direction ) took Care to Avoid it , as to himself and his family , while others perished in it : By which he Condemned the World , and became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith. And I choose to give Instances , all along , in such Examples as are here cited in the following Chapter ( Heb. 11. ) Because all that Cloud of Witnesses are there designedly brought-in as a Confirmation of what is here asserted , That the Just shall Live by Faith. Thus Solomon likewise tells us to the same purpose ; A Wise man Feareth , and Departeth from Evill , ( Forbears the evill of Sin , and Avoids the evill of Punishment ; ) But the Fool Rageth and is Confident , ( he runs-on without Fear or Wit ) A Prudent man Foreseeth the Evil , and Hideth himself : But the Simple pass on and are Punished . ( Like as it was , when Moses , from God , threatened the Plague of Hail in Egypt ; Who so feared the Lord , amongst the Servants of Pharaoh , made his Servants and his Cattell to flee into Houses : But who so regarded not the Word of the Lord , ( as not beleeving it , ) Left his Servants and Cattel in the Field ; which were destroyed by the Hail ; which Smote all that was in the Field , both Man and Beast . Now Solomon's Wise man , is the Good man ; and his Fool , is the Wicked man. He that makes a Mock of Sin ; to whom it is a Sport to do Mischief . Who goes on ( as Solomon speaks of the Wanton Young-man ) as an Ox to the Slaughter , and a Fool to the Correction of the Stocks : Till a Dart strike through his Liver ; as a Bird that hasteth to the Snare , and knoweth not that it is for his Life . Not , like the men of Niniveh ; who Repented at the Preaching of Jonas : Who , when Jonah preached , Yet forty days , and Niniveh shall be Destroyed ; Beleeved God , and proclaimed a Fast , and that Every one should turn from the Evill of his ways ; For who can tell ( say they ) if God will Turn and Repent , that we Perish not ? But rather , like Lot 's Sons in Law , when he warned them of the Destruction then coming on Sodome ; He seemed to them as one that Mocked ; ( and accordingly they mocked at him ; they looked upon him as one that talked idly , or but in jest ; ) till , in good earnest , God rain'd fire and brimstone on them , and destroyed them . Much at the same rate with those Scoffers who ( as S. Peter tells us ) should come in the last days ; walking after their own Lusts : Laughing at Gods Threatenings , and saying ( scoffingly ) Where is the Promise of his coming ? For , since the Fathers fell asleep , all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation : ( The grave Fathers , that talked of these things , be Dead and Gone ; and the World goes on , as it was wont to do , notwithstanding their Threats . ) Who if they be told , from God , by his Ministers , that , Except they Repent , they shall all likewise Perish : They look upon them ( as those did on Lot ) as a company of Brain-Sick men , that talk idly ; Till suddain Destruction come upon them ; as a Thief in the Night ( which they did not Expect ; ) and , as Pain on a Woman in Travail ; which they cannot Escape . Who first , Walk in the way of the Vngodly , and stand in the Way of Sinners ; and then Sit in the Seat of Scorners . Till at length ( when 't is too late ) they shall ( with those in Wisdome ) be convinced of their own Folly , and Value the Righteous , whom before they Despised : When , with Anguish of spirit , they shall say within themselves , ( of him , whom before they had in Derision , and a Proverb of Reproach , ) We Fools , accounted his Life Madness ; and his End without Honour . But , How is He numbred among the Children of God , and his Lot is among the Saints ! while , We have wearied our selves in the way of Wickedness and Destruction ; and have not known the Way of the Lord. Who , when they Hear the words of the Curse ; Bless themselves in their Heart , saying , I shall have Peace , though I walk in the Imagination of my Heart , adding Drunkenness to Thirst ; ( I shall do well enough , though I take my pleasure : ) But the Lord ( saith Moses ) will not Spare that man , ( he will shew him no mercy , ) His Jealousy shall Smoak against him , ( who sins thus Presumptuously , and Promiseth himself Peace , notwithstanding Gods Threatenings ; ) And all the Curses written in this Book , shall light upon him . The Lord will Separate him unto Evil , out of all the Cities of Israel , ( he will Single him out , to make him an Example : ) That others may Hear , and Fear , and do no more Presumptuously . These are those who Beleeve not the Threatenings of God ; nor fear to incur his Displeasure . But , Happy is the man that feareth allways : That so feareth , as to depart from Evill . He that so Feareth the Threatenings of God , as to Avoid his Judgments . And thus to fear , is to Live by Faith. Fourthly ; As we are to beleeve the Threatenings of God : So to Beleeve the Promises of God allso : And so to Beleeve them , as to Rest upon them ; to fetch Strength and Comfort from them . And this is one great part of a Christians Living by Faith. And of This also , we have Examples in the Chapter following . By Faith , Abraham , sojourned in the Land of Promise ( the Promised Land , ) as in a strange Countrey ; dwelling in Tabernacles as not taking up his Rest there , ) with Isaac and Jacob Heirs with him of the same Promise : Looking for a City which hath Foundations , ( a Firm and well Founded City , instead of tbose Flitting Tabernacles , ) who 's Maker and Builder is God. And his Trusting to these Promises made him so cheerfully to Obey those Commands . By Faith , Sarah , received Strength , and obtained a Child , when she was past Age : Because shee judged him Faithful who had Promised . By Faith in the Promise , she was the better qualifyed , to receive the Accomplishment of it . By Faith , Isaac , Blessed Jacob and Esau concerning Things to come . Himself Beleeving the Truthe of them . By Faith , Joseph , when he Died , made mention of the Departure of the Children of Israel out of Egypt , ( as Beleeving the Promise of the Land of Canaan , ) and gave Commandement concerning his Bones . With many more , whom I forbear to mention : Who all by Faith , Trusted to the Fullfilling of those Promises which God had made . And here allso ( as we said before ) we must so Beleeve , as to act accordingly . And what the Hebrews say of their Language , ( Verba Sensus connotant Affectum , ) is true of other Languages too : Words of Speculation , imply suitable Action . We must so Beleeve the Promises of God , as to Trust in him , to Rest upon him , to Depend on him , who hath so Promised . A Christian Faith , is not so much Fides , as Fiducia : Not barely an Act of the Vnderstanding , but of the Will and Affections . And 't is generally agreed ( by better Criticks , than those that Laugh at it , ) that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( which are the Scripture-phrases ) is somewhat more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And answers to what in the Old Testament , is called Trusting in God , or Putting our Trust in Him. It is not onely Deo Credere ; but Deo Fidere or Considere ; ( Deo se Credere : ) To Trust God , To Commit our selves to him ; as the phrase is ( Psal. 10. ) The Poor Committeth himself to thee ; or , ( as the Margin reads it , out of the Hebrew , ) Leaves himself to thee . Or ( to the same purpose ) Leanes upon thee ( innititur Deo , ) as we have it phrased elsewhere . Commit thy works unto the Lord : Trust in the Lord with all thy Heart ; and Leane not to thy own Vnderstanding . Commit thy way unto the Lord , Trust in him , and he shall bring it to pass : Or ( as the Margin tells us it is in the Hebrew ) Roll thy way upon the Lord , ( Devolve restuus in Deum : ) and ( as there it follows ) Rest on the Lord , and Wait patiently for him ; ( Roll thy self on the Lord , and Rest in him , and Wait patiently : ) For Evil-doers shall be cutt off ; But those that Wait on the Lord , shall inherit the Earth . If any Object ( as I find some have done ) against this Language ( as less Significative , and Improper to express the Nature of Faith , and the Workings thereof , ) Because , to Rest in God , and Rely on him , to Depend upon him , to Lean on him , to Commit or Leave our selves to him , to Roll our selves upon the Lord , ( and the like Scripture Expressions ) are but Metaphors . 'T is true , they are so . But so is allso the greatest part of Humane Discourse . And , if we Bar Metaphors , we must Exclude the greatest part of what is Sayd or Written . Whatever Author we look into ; we shall hardly find One Sentence , that hath not , in it , More Tropes than One. When the Psalmist says , The Lord is my Rock , my Fortress , my Strength in whom I will Trust ; my Bucler , my Horn of Salvation , and my High Tower : These are all Metaphors ; But their Meaning is easily understood . And when we Trust a Friend , upon his Word , to Help us in Distress ; and tell him , We Rest upon him , We Rely upon him , we Depend on him , we Commit our business to him , and Leave it with him ; Expecting that he will not Fail us , or Disappoint us , and suffer us to be Vndone , to be Overcome , to be Run-down , to be Ruined : These are all Metaphors ; But , of frequent Use , and as Easily Understood , and more Emphatically significative , than if we should Study for Proper Words , ( or Coin new ones , when we find none ready made to our hands , ) to signify the same , as Fully , without Trope . And , if we should , according to the Farsy of the Age , ( which affects Exotick words , of Latin or French Extraction , rather than good old English , though to the same Sense , ) instead of Resting and Relying , make use of Acquiescence and Recumbence ; the case is still the same ; At lest , the Modish and Romantick Speakers should not find fault with it . Nor should we look upon it , as Canting , to make use of such Language as the Wisdom of God thinks fit to Teach us in Holy Writ ; and which ( as is said ) we do commonly make use of ( without Scruple ) in all Humane Affaires . Bur further ; As Living by Faith on Gods Promises , implies a Trusting to him , or Resting on him : So it implies allso a Fetching Strength from him ; and a supply of Grace , for the performance of what Duties he requires of us . Our Saviour tells us , That , as the Branch cannot bear Fruit of it self , except it abide in the Vine , ( and receive supply of Sap , Juice , and Nourishment from it : ) So neither We , except we abide in Him , ( and accordingly receive Supply from him : ) For , without him , we can do Nothing . And S. Paul tells us , That the Life which he lives , he lives by the Faith of the Son of God ; and that it is not so much Himself that liveth , as Christ liveth in him . It is of His Fullness that We receive Grace for Grace . 'T is the Spirit which he giveth us , that is the Well of Water , Springing up to Everlasting Life . And it is , by Faith , that We Draw Water from these Wells of Salvation . When we know not what we should Pray for as we ought ; It is this Spirit that helps our Infirmities , and makes Intercession for us . When we cannot , of our selves , even Think as we ought : It is God worketh in us , both to Will , and to Do , of his good pleasure . Or ( as our Church phraseth it ) It is by his speciall Grace Preventing us , that he puts into our Minds good Desires ; and , by his Continual Help , we bring the same to good Effect . Or ( as S. Paul of himself ) I am Able to do all things , through Christ that strengtheneth mee . Now this Strength , from God , we fetch by Faith. If any man lack Wisdome ( and the like we may say of other Supplies , ) Let him ask of God , and it shall be given him : But let him ask in Faith , nothing wavering . Yee Have not , because Ye Ask not ; and Yee Ask and Have not , because yee Ask Amiss . And it is the Prayer of Faith , that saveth the Sick ; ( and the like of other Mercies . ) The Word Preached , did not Profit them ( who are there spoken of ) not being mixed with Faith , in them that heard it . And , for want of such Exercise of Faith , we may oft Loose those Mercies , which otherwise we might obtain . And , even in Miraculous Cures , there was somewhat of Faith requisite , to put them into a capacity of Receiving a Cure. S. Paul , at Lystra , seeing the Cripple , impotent in his feet , ( and perceiving that he had Faith to be Healed , ) sayd to him , Stand upright . And Christ , to Mary Magdalene ; Thy Faith hath saved thee . And again , to one of the ten Lepers ; Thy Faith hath made thee whole . And , to the Father of the Demoniack , praying him to have Compassion on them , and heal his Son ; If thou canst Beleeve , saith Christ , all things are possible to him that Beleeveth ; who thereupon replied , Lord , I Beleeve , help my Vnbelief ; and obtained the Cure. And , contrarywise , of his own Countrey-men , it is sayd , He did not ( or , could not do , ) many mighty works there ; Because of their Vnbelief . And , though Miracles be now ceased ; yet the Effects of Faith are not . And , in pursuance of Gods Promises , That Whatsoever we ask in Prayer , Beleeving , we shall Receive ; We may still expect a suitable Supply . Especially , if we take it with that Limitation , that , If we Ask any thing , according to his Will ; he Heareth us : And will , accordingly , Grant us the things we Ask ( in Faith ) or , at lest , what shall be Better for us . And , this is to Live by Faith. Now if thus ( as is sayd ) we can Live by Faith ; and , while we be Faithfull in the discharge of our Duty , Trust God upon his Promises ; and , from Him , Fetch a supply of Strength , and Grace ; Direction , and Consolation : This will naturally work in us . 1. An humble Submission to his Will. The Will of the Lord be done . Not , as I will ; but , as Thou wilt . 2. A quiet Contentment in every Condition . ( It is the Lord , let him do what seemeth him good . We are Less than the Lest of thy Mercies . Thou hast Punished us Less than our Iniquities deserve . Why doth the living man Complain ? It is the Lords Mercy , that we are not Consumed , because his Compassions Fail not . 3. A Patient Waiting Gods leisure . ( He that Beleeveth , maketh not Hast. The Vision is for an Appointed Time , and , in the end , it will not Ly : Though it Tarry , Wait for it , It will surely come . 4. An Acquiescence in Gods Wisdome , as to Events . ( Casting our Care upon the Lord ; who careth for us . ) Not , by a Supine Negligence , or Carelessness , as wholly unconcerned : But , while we are Carefull to do our Duties , leave the Care of Success to God ; who hath Promised , That , He will not leave us , nor forsake us ; And , that All things shall work together for Good , to them that love God. So that , if things be not just as we could wish ; they will at lest by so as God sees Better for us . And , if ( singly ) some things may seem , for our Hurt ; yet ( taken all together ) they will Work together for Good. 5. An assured Hope , that , in the End , All shall be well ; how contrary so ever things may seem at present . ( As Children of faithfull Abraham : Who , against Hope , Beleeved in Hope , That he might be the Father of Many Nations : Not considering his own Body , as now dead ; nor the Deadness of Sarah 's Womb ; Nor Staggered at the Promise of God , through Vnbelief : Being fully perswaded , that he who promised , was Able to perform . And this , both as to the Church of God in general , ( That the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it . ) And , as to Our selves in particular . As Knowing , whom we have Trusted ; and , that He is Able to Keep what we have Committed to him : That He who hath Begun a good Work , will perfect it , unto the day of Jesus Christ : That none is able to pluck us out of our Fathers hand : That Nothing shall be able to separate us from the Love of God , which is in Christ Jesus our Lord : That the Lord shall deliver us from Evill Work ; and will preserve us to his Heavenly Kingdome : To whom he Glory for ever and ever . Amen . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A67397-e180 Job 2.4 . Deut. 30.15 . Ver. 19. Jer. 21.8 . Gen. 2.17 . 1 Tim. 5.6 . Joh. 11.25 . Ver. 29. Hebr. 9.27 . Rev. 20.6 . Rom. 8.13 . Ver. 6. Joh. 3.15 , 16. Gal. 3.11 . Heb. 10.38 . Hab. 2.4 . Heb. 10.38 . Dr. Pecock . Exod. 14.19 , 20. Isa. 3.10 . Ver. 11. Rom. 3.20 . Rom. 5.1 . Rom. 1.17 . Rom. 4.2 , 5 , 6. Gal. 3.6 , 7. Ver. 11. Tit. 3.5 . Jam. 2.18 . Ver. 22. Ver. 23. Rom. 4.2 . Ver. 3. Ver. 4. Ver. 5. Ver. 6. Ver. 7. Ver. 8. Gal. 5.6 . Jam. 2.22 . Acts 15.5 . Jam. 2.20 . Heb. 12.14 . Artic. 11. Rom. 6.1 . Rom. 3.8 . Rom. 6.22 . Mat. 1.19 . Theognid . Tit. 2.12 . Ver. 13. Ver. 14. 1 Cor 6.9 . Ver. 10. Ver. 11. (a) Article II. ( Of the Justification of Man. ) We are accounted righteous before God , onely for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith , and not for our own Works or Deservings . Wherefore , that we are Justified by Faith onely , is a most Wholsome Doctrine , and full of Comfort ; as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification . (b) Article 12. ( Of Good Works . ) Allbeit that Good Works , which are the Fruits of Faith , and Follow After Justification , cannot put away our sins , and endure the severity of Gods Iudgement ; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ , and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith ; in so much that , by them , a lively Faith may be as evidently known , as a Tree discerned by the Fruit. Luk. 17.10 . Eph. 1.14 . Eph. 4.24 . Gal. 6.15 . Eph. 4.13 . 1 Pet. 1.5 . Gal. 2.17 . Heb. 10.19 . Ver. 20. Ver. 22. Ver. 24. Ver. 32 , 33 , 34. Ver. 33. Ver. 34. 2 Pet. 3.3 . 2 Tim. 3.5 . Heb. 10.36 . Ver. 37. Hab. 2.3 . Heb. 10.37 . Ver. 38. Heb. 11. Heb. 12.1 . Heb. 11.4 , 5 , 7. Ver. 8 , 9 , 20 , 21 22. Gen. 2.17 . Levit. 18.5 . Ezek. 20.11 . Gal. 3.11 , 12. Rom. 10.5 , 6. Heb. 10.39 . Heb. 11.2 . Ver. 8 , 9. Ver. 1$ . Ver. 13. Ver. 14. Ver. 15. Ver. 16. Ver. 26. Ver. 27. Ver. 35. Ver. 36. Ver. 37. Ver. 39. Ver. 4$ . January 6. Gal. 3.14 . Ver. 8. Ver. 7. Ver. 9. Ver. 11. Heb. 11.3 . Psal. 14.1 . 2 Tim. 1.10 . Tit. 1.11 . 1 Cor. 11.16 . Mat. 12.41 , 42. Luk. 11-31 , 32. Joh. 11.24 . Mat. 22 . 23-32 . Jam. 2.19 . Luk. 9.23 . Mat. 10.38 . Mar. 8.34 . Mat. 19.21 Mar. 10.19 . Joh. 12.25 Heb. 11.8 . Ver. 9. Ver. 17. Ver. 18. Ver. 19. Ver. 24 , 25. Ver. 26. Ver. 33. Ver. 34. Ver. 35. Ver. 36. Ver. 37. * Mr. Gataker , ( in his Adversaria , Cap. 44. ) thinks that , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , should rather be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Because Vivicumburium , or Burning alive , being a punishment then frequently inflicted on Christians ( of which in this Catalog of suffrings there is no other mention , ) he thinks it more likely that it should thus be here mentioned ( with such a Paronomasia , which the Apostle seems to affect ) than that in the Enumeration of their Torments ) should be here inserted , their being Tempted . And our Church seems to favour this Reading : which , in the second part of that Sermon of Faith ( where this place is cited at large ) hath it thus ; Some have been Racked , some Slain , some Stoned , some Sawn , some Rent in pieces , some Beheaded , some Brent without mercy , and would not be delivered , because they looked to Rise again to a better state . Ver. 38. Ver. 39. Act. 19.22 . Ver. 23. Ver. 24. Act. 21.13 . Heb. 11.7 . Prov. 14.16 . Prov. 22.3 . Prov. 27.12 . Exod. 9.20 . Ver. 21. Prov. 14.9 . Prov. 10.23 . Prov. 7.22 . Ver. 23. Mat 12.41 . Luk. 11.32 . Jonah . 2.4 . Ver. 5. Ver. 8. Ver. 9. Gen. 19.14 . Ver. 24 , 25. 2 Pet. 3.3 . Ver. 5. Luk. 13.3 , 5. 2 Pet. 3.10 . 1 Thes. 5.2 . Ver. 3. Psal. 1.1 . Wisd. 5.3 . Ver. 4. Ver. 5. Ver. 7. Deut. 29.19 . Ver. 20. Ver. 21. Deut. 17.13 . Heb. 11.9 . Ver. 10. Ver. 11. Ver. 20. Ver. 22. Psal 10.14 . Prov. 16.3 . Prov. 3.15 . Psal. 37.5 . Ver. 7. Ver. 9. Psal. 18.2 . Joh. 15.4 . Ver. 5. Gal. 2.20 . Joh. 1.16 . Joh. 7.37 , 38 , 39. Joh. 4.14 . Isa. 12.3 . Rom. 8.26 . Phil. 2.13 . Collect for Easter Week . Phil. 4.13 . Jam. 1.5 . Ver. 6. Jam. 4.2 . Ver. 3. Ver. 15. Heb. 4.2 . Act. 14.9 , 10. Luk. 7.50 . Luk. 17.19 . Mar. 9.22 . Ver. 23. Ver. 24. Mat. 13.58 . Mar. 6.5 , 6. Mat. 21.22 . 1 Joh. 5.14 . Act. 21.14 . Mat. 26.39 . 1 Sam. 3.18 . Gen. 32.10 . Ezr. 9.10 . Lam. 3.39 . Ver. 22. Isai. 28.16 . Hab. 2.3 . 1 Pet. 5.7 . Heb. 13.5 . Rom. 8.28 . Gal. 3.7 , 9. Rom. 4.18 . Ver. 19. Ver. 20. Ver. 21. Mat. 16.18 . 2 Tim. 1.12 . Phil. 1.6 . Joh. 10.29 . Rom. 8.39 . 2 Tim. 4.18 . 
A85434	----	Encouragements to faith Drawn from severall engagements both of Gods Christs heart to receive pardon sinners. By Tho: Goodwin, B.D. Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A85434 of text R200346 in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason E307_18). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 71 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 19 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A85434 Wing G1242 Thomason E307_18 ESTC R200346 99834910 99834910 171544 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A85434) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 171544) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2429:11) Encouragements to faith Drawn from severall engagements both of Gods Christs heart to receive pardon sinners. By Tho: Goodwin, B.D. Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680. [2], 34 p. printed for R. Dawlman, London : 1645. The words "Gods Christs" and "receive pardon" are enclosed in brackets on title page. Also bound with some copies of Wing G1229. Annotation on Thomason Collection copy: "Octob. 28th". Appears also at reel 1886 as part of Wing G1229. Reproduction of original in: New College (University of Edinburgh). Library. eng Faith -- Early works to 1800. Forgiveness of sin -- Early works to 1800. Sermons, English -- 17th century. A85434 R200346 (Thomason E307_18). civilwar no Encouragements to faith. Drawn from severall engagements both of Gods Christs heart to receive pardon sinners. By Tho: Goodwin, B.D. Goodwin, Thomas 1645 13758 4 5 0 0 0 0 7 B The rate of 7 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the B category of texts with fewer than 10 defects per 10,000 words. 2007-09 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-11 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-03 Elspeth Healey Sampled and proofread 2008-03 Elspeth Healey Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Encouragements TO FAITH . Drawn from severall Engagements Both of GODS CHRISTS HEART To Receive Pardon SINNERS . By THO: GOODWIN , B. D. LONDON , Printed for R. DAWLMAN , 1645. JOHN 6. 37 , 38. All that the Father giveth me , shall come to me ; [ and him that commeth to me , I will in no wise cast out . ] For I came down from heaven , not to do mine own will , but the will of him that sent me . A Preface . THere are two Persons whom Faith hath to deal withall in seeking of Forgivenesse , and laying hold of Salvation , God the Father , and God the Son ; the holy Ghost being that Person that sets the heart a work to seek out for salvation , and reveales the love of them both . And therefore it is , that Grace and Peace ( which are the object of Faiths inquest ) are still wisht from God the Father , and God the Son ; so generally in all Epistles , excepting that of the Revelation , given immediately by word of mouth from Christ himselfe . And accordingly when Faith comes to treat with these two about the great businesse of Salvation , the first and maine thing that it is inquisitive after , is , What their heart and mind is , and how they stand enclined towards the receiving and pardoning of sinners : it listens most to heare something of that : and when a mans heart , through faith is fully & throughly perswaded of it , then he is fully won . Hence , because the Scriptures were written for our comfort , and so , fitted to , and for the workings of faith ; therefore they were so written , as especially to bring down and lay before us the Heart of God and of Christ : and so the maine thing they hold forth , is , the full intent and purpose both of God and of Christ to pardon and receive sinners : This is a faithfull saying , ( sayes Paul with open mouth ) that Christ came into the world to save sinners ; and this Christ himself every where indigitates ; and to hold forth this , is the scope of these words uttered by Christ himself . And such speeches do containe the very heart , marrow , and pith of the Gospel . And though the heart of a sinner will never be fully satisfied , till a perswasion be wrought , that God and Christ are purposed and willing to save a mans own self in particular , ( which perswasion is that which we call Assurance ) yet when once there is a through perswasion setled upon the heart , but of so much indefinitely and in generall ; that God and Christ are willing and fully resolved to save some sinners ( so that the heart does truly beleeve that God is in earnest ) this draws on the heart to come to Christ , and is enough to work faith of adherence , such , as upon which Christ will never cast us out ( as the Text hath it . ) The great businesse then for the working faith in men , is to perswade them of Gods good will and gracious inclination unto sinners , to beget in them good opinions of God and Christ this way ; Men naturally having hard and suspitious thoughts of both , as that speech of Christ Iohn 3. 17. implies , [ God sent not His Son into the world to condemne the world , but that the world through him might be saved . ] Christ would never have hinted such a jealousie , nor suggested such thoughts to mens minds , had they not been in them before , and this , to prevent and take off such jealousies . Men are apt to think , that God had a designe upon them as upon enemies , and laid but an Ambushment for their further condemnation , in his treaty of peace tendred to them by his Son . An example of which we have in Luther , who fell into such suspitions as these , for he misunderstanding some words he met with in the Epistle to the Romans , as they were rendred by the vulgar translation then in use , namely , these , that God sent his Son to declare his righteousnesse ( as they are by us translated ) he thought the meaning of them to have been this , to declare and set forth his judgement on the world , ( so he interpreted [ adjustitiam suam . &c. ] ) The truth is , the jealousies of mens thoughts herein were those that have put God to his Oath , [ As I live , I will not the death of a sinner , &c. ] so also Heb. 6. 17. Men do not so usually question the power of God , he is able enough to save them they think ; he is able to engraft them in ( as the Apostle speakes to the Jewes , Rom. 11. 23. ) but all their doubts are about his Will . Gods will was the Fountaine and spring of our salvation , in the contriving of which he wrought all things according to the counsel of his own will , ( as the Apostle to the Ephesians speaketh ) and in another place it is said , He will have mercy on whom he will , &c. and therefore the great queries in our hearts are concerning the will of God towards us . The words of the Text opened . NOw these words of my Text do hold forth the full willingnesse of both these two persons , both of God and of Christ : 1. Of Christ , he here professeth himself willing to entertain all that will come to him , [ He that will come to me , I will in no wise cast out . ] Which words are not to be understood , as if spoken only of casting out them that are already come unto him , as if they were only a promise against being cast off after being received ; and so intended against feares of falling away : but they are chiefly intended as an invitement to all that are not yet come , that they would come to him , and so , to expresse how ready and willing he is to entertain all commers , as one who sets his doores open , keeps open house , and beats back none that would come in , [ Him that commeth to me , I will in no wise cast out . ] And though it may seem to be but a slender and sparing expression of his readines to entertain such , to say only [ I will not cast them out , ] yet though he speaks with the least , yet he will do with the most , he being abundant in goodnesse and truth , and one that is better then his word in the performance . As when he sayes , he will not despise a broken heart , is that all the esteem he will manifest to such a heart ? Oh no , it is the most welcome thing , and endeared frame of spirit that can be in any creature . His meaning is to shew what he elsewhere sayes of a meek spirit ( which is all one with a broken heart ) that , with God it is of great price , for so in Isaiah he expresseth himself , I that inhabit eternity , with whom will I dwell ? with a spirit that is broken and contrite . He useth also this expression of not casting them out , in relation , and for a more direct answer unto the feare which he knew usually possesseth the hearts of poor sinners when they are about to come to him ; they fear he may reject them , they know not their entertainment , their welcome . To meet with this Scruple , he sayes , [ I will not cast such out ] choosing rather thus to remove the doubt that is in their hearts , then to expresse the fulnesse of his own : the Scriptures speaking potius ad cor nostrum quam cor suum , rather unto our hearts , then fully what is in his own , ( which can never be done . ) And yet even in this diminutive expression , there is that inserted , which argues not only a willingnesse and readinesse , but a resolvednesse joyned with the greatest care and faithfulnesse that can be , [ {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ] I will [ in no wise ] cast out . We may see his heart through this little crevis : he doth herein as a faithfull man , who to give the more full assurance puts in some binding word into his promise , as [ I will at no hand , or in no wise faile you . ] Thus does God also in that known Promise , Heb. 12. 5. ( to the hornes of which sanctuary many a soule hath fled for refuge ) I will never leave thee , nor forsake thee , where there are no lesse then five negatives to bind and assure it , I will not , in no wise , ( &c. ) leave thee . Now this willingnesse of his , on his part , Christ shewes by two things : First , by that great journey he took , from heaven to earth , and that to no other purpose but to save sinners . For this ( sayes he ) did I come down from heaven . Great actions of one who is wise , must answerably have great ends ; now this was the greatest thing that ever was done , that the Son of God should come from Heaven . And when there can be but one end of an action so great ; that end must needs be accomplished , or else the action is wholly in vain . Now in comming down from heaven , he could have no other end but the saving of sinners , he could have no other businesse to do , that he did here ; therefore the Scriptures put his comming into the world wholly upon this , to seek and to save that which was lost , and do attribute his taking upon him the likenesse of sinfull flesh to have been [ for sin ] so Rom. 8. though other ends might be supposed , and were accomplisht by the assuming mans nature , yet he had no other end of taking fraile flesh , especially there could be no other end of his dying , but meerely and only for sin : Iohn 12. 24. he sayes , If he had not fallen to the ground and dyed , he had then remained in Heaven alone , and no sinners had come thither : that therefore they might ascend to heaven , he descends from heaven , I came down from heaven , &c. Secondly , He demonstrates his willingnesse by this , that his Father had sent him on purpose to receive and to save sinners : I come ( sayes he ) to do the will of him who sent mee : and Iohn 8. he sayes [ I came not of my self , but ( my Father ) he sent me ] And if he were sent by his Father to this end ( as he affirmes he was , and as by the coherence appeares , for he makes it the reason why he will cast none out ) then certainly he will faithfully do the work he was sent for : In Heb. 3. 1. he is called the Apostle of our profession [ Apostle ] that is , one sent , so the word signifies ; and what followes ? who was [ faithfull to him that appointed him . Now upon these considerations , Christ tells you that you may build upon him , that you shall certainly find him willing . 2. For his Fathers willingnesse , he tels us we may be much more confident of it : for he puts his own willingnesse and all upon that : Him ( sayes he ) that the Father gives me , shall come to me ; and him that commeth to me , I will in no wise cast out . For I came down from heaven , not to do my own will , but the will of him that sent me : and this is the Fathers will that hath sent me , &c. In which words you may observe both wherein he declares his Father to be engaged , and how much . First , Wherein : and that by two things : 1. That he sent him to that end , and so , it is his Fathers businesse more then his own . So also Luke 2. 49. he expresseth himself : [ Shall I not do my Fathers businesse ? ] as elsewhere in Isaiah he is called his Fathers Servant in it , and Iohn 5. 36. he makes it his Fathers work . Secondly , that he in a solemne manner gave unto him them whom he would have to be saved , with charge to lose none [ All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me : ] and this is his will , that I should lose none , but give him an account of every soul of them at the last day . They are given him as jewels , and as his Beniamins , to look to , and see to bring back and keep from destruction . Now whom he so solemnly gave to Christ to save , he will never cast away , when they shall come unto Christ . Then 2. he shewes how much , and how deeply , his Father is engaged , and makes it his Fathers will rather then his own : [ I come not to do my own will , but the will of him that sent me : ] The meaning whereof is , not to shew that he came unwillingly , or receives sinners unwillingly , but that his Fathers will was first in it ( as I shall shew anon , ) and so much in it , that ( if you will resolve it into its first principles Christs comming was principally to please his Father . It is such a speech , as that in Iohn 5. 22. [ The Father judgeth no man : but hath committed all judgement to the Son , &c. ] Not that God is not a Iudge as well as Christ , ( for Heb. 12. 23. he is termed the Iudge of all men ) but because all judgement is visibly committed unto Christ , therefore the Father is said to judge no man . So here , because the Fathers will is chiefe , and first in it , Christ therefore sayes , he came not to do his own will , but the will of him that sent him . And so you have the meaning of the words . The maine Observation out of the words : Demonstrations of Gods heart herein , from his engagements from everlasting : How his heart stood to sinners afore the world was . THE Observation , which I single out of these words to insist upon , is this , That Both God the Father , and Iesus Christ the Son are fully willing , and resolved to save sinners . 1. For God the Father , There are many Demonstrations of his will herein , that may be taken ab extra from his Oath , Word , Promise , &c. which I shall handle in another method : but those which I shall first hold forth , are more intimate and Intrinsecall , and homogeneall to the argument which Christ useth here in the Text , which we have seen ) to be these , that it was Gods will first , and Christs , but because it was his , ( I come not to do mine own will , ) and that it was he that dealt with Christ about it , and wrought him off to it , and made it his businesse ; ( but the will of him that sent me . ) So that the Demonstrations which I shall pitch upon , shall be drawn from Gods engagements , both from his transactions with Christ from everlasting , before he came into the world , and those that now lie upon him from Christs having fully performed what he sent him into the world for . And from either may be fetcht strong consolations , and confirmations to our faith , that Gods will must needs continue most serious and hearty to save sinners . Many other sorts of Demonstrations of this point might be fetcht and drawn from the riches of his mercy , lying by him to bestow on some great purchase : & on what greater purchase could they be bestowed , to shew forth the glory thereof , then upon the salvation & pardon of sinners ? But these also I shal at the present let lie by untold , having elsewere counted them up , and set them forth , such demonstrations being only proper to this Text , as argue an engagement of his will ; whereas all those riches of mercie that are in him ( although the moving cause of all ) might have for ever remained in him as his nature , without any determination of his will to save any man . When therefore a poor sinner shall heare ( besides the mercifull disposition of Gods nature ) that acts and resolutions of his will have past from him , about the pardoning of sinners , so as his will hath engaged all the mercies of his nature to effect it , this brings in strong consolation . Now the deepnesse of these engagements of his wil to pardon sinners , may be demonstrated , 1. From such transactions of his , as were held by him with Christ from everlasting ; which hath both put strong obligations upon him , and also argue him fully and firmly resolved to save sinners . Now all the particular passages of those treaties of his with Christ , about the reconciliation of sinners from everlasting , I have elsewhere also at large handled ; and therefore it is not my scope now to enumerate them . I shall now onely draw Demonstrations from some few of them , by way of Corollary , to help our faith in this point in hand , namely , Gods resolvednesse to pardon sinners . The first is drawn from this , That God the Father had the first and chiefe hand in this matter of saving sinners ( as I then shewed ) the project was his , and the first motion his . 1. The Project , he laid the plot of it , and contrived all about it , for the effecting of it . Therefore John 5. 19. Christ sayes the Son can do nothing of himself , but what he sees the Father do . 2. The first Motion was his , I came not to do my own will , ( sayes Christ ) but the will of him that sent him . Both which ( Project and first motion ) are shut up in that one sentence , Ephes. 1. He worketh all things by the [ counsaile ] of his own [ will . ] Now , for God thus to have the first hand in it , did put a great and deep engagement upon his Will in it . We see among men , the Projector and first motioner of a businesse is alwayes most forward in it ; because then it is most peculiarly his own ; and the greater will be his honour in the compassing of it . How many great affaires have been spoiled , because some men have not been the chiefe and first in them that affect the preheminence ? Now this honour God the Father may challenge , that he was the first in reconciling and saving sinners : It is therefore called Gods wisdome , Eph. 3. 10. and his purpose , Ephes. 1. 9. Gods righteousnesse , Rom. 1. 17. and the pleasure of the Lord , Isa. 53. Secondly , this Project and Motion did rise up in him unto a strong resolution and purpose , and to an unalterable decree to save sinners by Christ : so Eph. 1. 9. And 1. For his purposes , they are immutable . Would not Paul lightly alter purposes taken up by him , When I therefore was thus tamed ( sayes he , 2 Cor. 1 , 17. ) did I use lightnesse ? or the things that I purpose do I purpose according to the Flesh , that with me there should be yea , yea , and nay , nay ? Would not Paul ( I say ) alter his purpose because he preached the Gospel , and will God ( think you ) alter them who gave the Gospel ? no , it is the ete nall Gospel , Revel 14. 6. and God is of the same minde still , so it follows in that place to the Corinths , But as God is true ( or varies not ) so was our word to you , which yet is his more then Pauls , &c. 2. For Gods Decrees , ( whereof this was one , they are also immutable . The great Monarchs of the earth , the Persians , took to themselves the infallibility , that they would not alter the Decrees which they made : ( therefore when a thing was unalterable , it was said to be as the Lawes of the Medes and Persians ) which was to shew their greatnesse , and their wisdome , that they could so resolve , as no person or power whatsoever should be strong enough to cause them to change their resolutions : and yet , they were forced , though not to alter a former Decree , yet to give countermands unto it , ( as Ahasuerus did , and men do alter , because they cannot foresee all events , and so cannot make unalterable Decrees without prejudice . Therefore the Pope , who takes on him the style of Infallible , and so assumes to himself the highest prerogative that ever man did , yet of him it is said , Papa nunquam l●gat sibi manus , that he never binds his own hands by any Decree he makes , because he cannot fore see all inconveniences , notwithstanding what ever he assumes : But with God it is not thus , He is not a man that he should have cause to repent , for he knows and foresees all that can or will follow . Now 1. this immutability of his counsaile he shews by two oaths ; the first made to Christ , the second to us . 1. To Christ , Heb. 7. 21. This Priest ( Christ ) was made with an oath , by him that said unto him , The Lord sware and will not repent , Thou art a Priest for ever , &c. And this was from everlasting ; for then it was that Christ was first made Priest : Now then God foresaw that he could never have a relenting thought at the pardoning of sinners through him , this his Son would so satisfie and please him : and thereupon he sware . 2. To us , Heb. 6. 17 , 18. God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heires of promise the immutability of his counsaile , confirmed it by an oath : that by two immutable things ( in which it was impossible for God to lie ) we might have a strong consolation , &c. The thing I alledge this place for , and which I would have observed , is , that this oath is not mentioned as that now which makes God so immutable , ( though that be a truth ) But Gods oath is here made that whereby God did declare unto us the immutability of his purpose formerly and from everlasting taken up , and so that immutability of his counsaile was the cause of his oath , and that was to pardon sinners : for it is the Promise made to Abraham and his seed , that is there specified . Yea 3. God set his seale unto all , further to confirm it . He both sealed Christ to the work , Joh. 6. 27. and likewise sealed up in his Decrees the persons of those sinners that shall be saved . 2 Tim. 2. 19. The foundation of the Lord remains sure , having this seal , The Lord knoweth who are his . And if it were but a Kings seal , it could not be reversed , but this is Gods . Yea , he hath sealed up their sins also by and through Christ , Dan. 9. 24. never to be remembred or lookt upon more . Thirdly , God rested not in a Decree only , but entred into Covenant with Christ to save sinners by him , if he would die . This Covenant you have Dialogue-wise set out , Esay 49. Frist , Christ begins at the first and second verses , and shewes his Commission , telling God how he had called him , and fitted him for the work of Redemption , and he would know what reward he should receive of him for so great an undertaking : God answers him , ver. 3. and at first offers low , only the Elect of Israel . Christ who stood now a making his bargain with him , thought these too few , and not worth so great a labour and work , because few of the Jewes would come in , but would refuse him , therefore ver. 4. he sayes , he should labour in vain , if this were all his recompence : and yet withall he tels God , that seeing his heart was so much in saving sinners to satisfie him , he would do it however for those few , comforting himselfe with this , that his work was with the Lord . Upon this God comes off more freely , and openeth his heart more largely to him , as meaning more amply to content him for his paines in dying : It is a light thing ( sayes God to him ) that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob , that is not worth the dying for , I value thy sufferings more then so , I will give thee for a salvation unto the ends of the earth . Upon this he made a promise to Christ , 1 Tit. 2. and a promise is more then a purpose . A purpose may be in ones selfe , as Ephes. 1. 9. but a promise is made to another . Now God cannot lie in himselfe , but most of all , not to his Son . A second sort of Demonstrations . The engagements of Gods heart to sinners , from , and upon Christs having dyed at his request . A Second sort of Demonstrations are drawn from Christs having already come and performed all this : for 1. Christ is now to be satisfied for that his dying , as well as he by his death had satisfied God : he is now to have his reward . God never set any on work , but he gave them wages . Thus unto Nebuchadnezzar he gave Egypt as his hire for his service at Tyre , and to Cyrus he gave hidden treasure . Now it is not Christs own glory that will satisfie him , for that he could have had , and never have dyed : there remains therefore nothing that can or will satisfie him , but to have the end of his death , To see his seed and be satisfied , and to see of the travaile of his soule : and to justifie many , as it is Isa. 53. He dyed ( as himselfe speaks , Iohn 12. 24. ) that he might not be alone in heaven : his desire is , that those whom he dyed for might see his glory . 2. If we consider the act it self , of delivering Christ unto death , there was not , nor could there ever be any thing more abhorrent unto God ; no act ever went so much against his heart : for if he be afflicted in all our afflictions , and doth not willingly punish the sonnes of men , neither wils the death of a sinner that deserves it , much lesse would he will the death of his own Son . Now what was there to sweeten the death and sufferings of his Son unto him , except his end in it ? ( for it is the end that sweetens and facilitates the meanes tending unto it ) Now the end of Christs death could be no other but to take sinnes away , and to procure the pardon of sinners , and so it must needs be infinitely delightfull unto him , and his heart strongly set upon it , seeing it did sweeten unto him an act otherwise so abhorrent , and of this end therefore it is impossible he should ever repent . Now Ephes. 5. 2. the very offering of Christ is called a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour : and what was it that made it so , but even the end for which it was done , ( and which is there put upon it ) that it was out of love unto us , and out of a mind to have sinners pardoned ; for else in it selfe it must needs have been abominable unto him . Agai 3. if at any time he would have repented him of his purpose , it would have been at the time of Christs being crucified , when he came to bruise him : then his heart would have recoyled , and especially when Christ poured out his soule with such strong cries and teares as he did . At other times in punishing but his children , we find , that when he comes to do it , his heart as it were fails him , as Hos. 11. 8. [ How shall I give thee up ? ] the rod falls out of his hand , and his bowels yearn within him ; yet he relented not when he saw the soule of his Ioseph in bitternesse , but still made an impossibility of it for him to avoid suffering , because his purpose was thereby to take sinnes away . Therefore Christs request was , Father , if it be possible , let this cup passe : The necessity lay only in Gods will in reference to his end , to forgive sinnes . If God would ever have relented or repented him of this purpose , it would have been then : we read of his repenting him of other of his works , but his mind is so fully carried to take away sins , that he did not then , or can ever repent of putting his own Son to death , for the effecting of it : To pardon sinners is more naturall to him , then to kill his Son was unnaturall . Now his end and purpose being thus fully set to pardon and save sinners , if he should be frustrated of this his end , he would then indeed repent him of using his Son as he had done . Nay , it is not only said , that he repented not , but that it pleased him to bruise Christ , in respect to that his end , which was so pleasant to him : So you have it Isa. 53. 10. And therefore surely it pleaseth him much more , to pardon sinners , now he hath thus bruised him : and so indeed it followes there , The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand , It is spoken of his saving and justifying of sinners . It troubled God to heare a soul bemoan it self for its sin , Ier. 31. 20. but we read not that it did so , when Christ bemoaned himself in his sufferings ; and the reason was , because the work that Christ was about to do , was a sweet Sacrifice to him ; and it would trouble God more to condemn a sinner that Christ dyed for , then it did to sacrifice Christ for him . 4. Upon that ancient agreement between God and Christ : God pardoned millions of men under the Old Testament upon the bare word of Christ , before he came into the world , or had paid one peny of the debt he must needs therfore be supposed to be much more willing now to do it , when Christ has done all that was required , and failed not , and that at the due time , ( as it is said Rom. 5. ) If Christ had failed or come short but of a little of what he was to do , God might have denyed to let the world go upon trust any longer : But now Jesus Christ hath performed all , and is aforehand with him , and hath put in stock enough to pardon sinners to the end of the world . Yet 5. Now even Justice it self will call upon him to discharge sinners , it will not let him rest in quiet till he has pardoned and shewed mercy unto poor sinners that come to Christ , and hath given in their bond , and this , though we had no promise to shew for it , yea , though Christ himself had nothing to shew for it : Gods very justice would trouble him ( I may so speak with reverence , for he himself sayes , that he was troubled for Ephraim , Ier. 29. ) till he had given out an acquitance , because he knows the debt is paid , and also , that Christs and his own intent was , that when Christ had once dyed , sinners should thereby be justified : Even as if an honest man had a bond for a debt that is discharged , lying still in his hands , of which payment , he whose debt it is , knowes nothing , although he or they that paid this debt were dead , so that there were no one left that were able to challenge an acquaintance from him , and a cancelling of that bond ; yet meer honesty would cause him to give it in . Now Jesus Christ dyed , and God himselfe put him to death meerly to pay our debts , and says Christ at his death ; Let sinners require my blood , and the merits of it at thy hands , and have out in pardon . That was Christs will which he made at his death , ( as you have it Heb. 9. 16 , 17. where the Apostle calls it Heb. 9. 16 , 17. where the Apostle calls it a Testament confirmed by the death of the Testator ) now there is nothing so sacred as the performance of the will of the dead . And now Christ himself is alive again , and is ordained by God to be his own Executor , and so lives to claime an acquitance ; therefore certainly God will never withhold it : In justice he cannot , he will not , have a bond lie by him that is discharged . Hence it is said , that God is just to forgive our sinnes , 1 Iohn 1. There are three things which do cry for Justice , and all do meete in this . 1. The wages of a hireling ( if detained ) are said to cry . So in the 5. of Iames it is said , The wages of Hirelings detained , do crie in the eares of the Lord of Hosts : They cry wages being due in justice , and because Gods Justice is thereby provoked , and cannot be quiet till God hath avenged it . And so would Christs satisfaction having been made for us ; It would restlesly cry to God , and not suffer his Justice to be quiet , unles we were pardoned . For he was truly and indeed Gods hired Servant in this work : And God covenanted to give him the salvation of those he dyed for as his wages and reward , as Isaiah often represents it , Chap. 53. and elsewhere . So that if God be just , he must give forth salvation ; otherwise Christs obedience would cry as the work of an hireling doth for wages . A Second thing that cries for justice , is the will of one that is dead unperformed , who hath bequeathed legacies , & left wherewith to pay and discharge them . And this is yet a louder cry then the former . Now Christ before he dyed , did thus make his will , and bequeathed pardon of sin and justification , and that eternall inheritance in heaven , as legacies to those for whom he dyed , and to be given out by God after his death , as I observed even now out of Heb. 9. 15 , 16 , 17. where it is said that Christ was The Mediator of the New Testament , that by meanes of death they who are called might receive the promise ( or bequeathed legacie ) of eternall life . And thereupon ver. 16 , 17. the Apostle calls this a Testament , confirmed by his death , and which at his death began to be in force , so ver. 17. And of all things that in justice are held due , the performance of the will of the dead , hath ever been held most sacred . There is yet a third thing which cries for justice , and that is innocent blood spilt . And this cries lowder then all the rest . So Genes . 4. 10. And the Apostle Heb. 12. 24. sets forth the cry of Christs blood for us , by Abels blood crying against Cain . It may be notwithstanding this that God may put the bond in suit against a sinner to make him come to acknowledge the debt , ( as the Apostle there speakes [ If we confesse our sins ] ) But if any soul doth say , I have sinned and it profited me not ; God then cannot withhold from throwing down his bond canceld , saying , Deliver him , I have found a ransome , ( Iob 33. ) God will not have innocent blood , such as his Sons is , to ly upon him . If he should not pardon sinners , Christs blood would be upon him , for it was for them only that Christ dyed , being in himself innocent . 6. God mends not himself by damning those for whom Christ dyed : Now there were not only an injustice to Christ and us in it , but God himself also would prove a loser . For the end of Christs death was not simply to satisfie justice , so as without it justice could not have permitted a pardon , that might have been dispensed with , but it was chiefly to declare the glory of Gods justice , which required such a satisfaction , ( as the Apostle sayes Rom. 3. 25. ) To [ declare ] his righteousnesse for the remission of sins that are past , through Gods forbearance . Is was we see the manifestation or declaration of the glory of his justice that he aimed at in it . So as if any one mans sin satisfied for by Christ , should be left unforgiven , Gods justice should lose so much glory . And if justice should think to get a greater glory out of the sinners , that could never be : for the sinner is unable ever to satisfie , and so to glorify Gods justice by suffering as Christ hath done . Yea , and besides , God would be a further and a greater loser in the glory of his mercy also , which by his pardoning sinne is advanced . The second part of the Observation . Demonstrations of Christs willingnesse to receive sinners that come to him . First how his heart stood from everlasting . — AND so now I come to Christs willingnesse , which was the second thing propounded in the doctrine , to be demonstrated . Now though his will was not first in it , ( as was said ) yet we shall finde him to have been no lesse willing then his Father . As Christ in subsisting is the second person , and hath his personall subsistence from his Father , so he is second also in order of working , and consequently , of willing too , yet he is not second to him in heartinesse of willing : but as his Father and he are equall , so in all that his Father willeth , his will is equall with his Father , and so , is as much in this busines as his . In the demonstrating of this , I will take the same course that I did in the former : First , I will shew how hearty he was in this , To have sinners saved before he came into the world . And Secondly , How willing he was since he came into the world , and since his death and going out of the world . And as a generall introduction to either , I shall premise this , which shall be as the corner stone in this building , joyning both parts of this discourse together , and is a consequent of what hath formerly been delivered . The thing to be premised is this : That if God the Father be willing , then Jesus Christ must needs be willing also , and look how much the will of the one is in it , so much the will of the other must be in it also , for the Father and he are all one ; And this will serve for our further assurance of the wils of either ; and we may make use of it both wayes , either to argue to our faith , that if the Father be willing , Christ must needs be so also ; and that if Christ be willing , the Father is so also . That whereas some mens thoughts have been more taken up about , and so more taken with the consideration of how much the Fathers heart was in it , and how active and plotting he was about it : and again , others mens apprehensions have been carried more unto Christs heart in the work : this Demonstration which I have in hand shall be a help to the faith of either of these ; so that if your hearts have a door of Faith , ( as the Apostle speaks ) set open , or a window to see either into Gods heart , or Christs , you may raise a confidence of the one from the other , and so come to be sure of both . And this also I do first mention , because it is the most intrinsecall bottome-demonstration that can be made of Christs willingnesse , and is the utmost reason of it . This demonstration I found upon Joh. 10. 30. [ I and my Father are one ] That whereas in this my Text he shewes how his Fathers will and his agree in one , he there gives the reason of it , for ( sayes he ) we are one : and the words there , as they stand in their coherence , are proper to the purpose in hand . For Christ there alledgeth them , as the reason why his heart , and power , and all in him is so engaged for the salvation of his own , that if he have any power in him , and be able to do any thing , not one of them shall perish , because his Father and he are one . For mark the occasion upon which he speaks this , it is the same that here in my Text . He had been speaking of saving his sheep , and of his power and will to save them ; and concludes , that they shall never perish . And he sayes not only , that he will never cast them out , ( as here ) but that , neither shall any man pluck them out of his hand . And in that speech he shewes and utters the strength of his will , as much as of his power . For otherwise although his hand of power had been never so potent to have held them , against all opposition , yet if his will had not as strongly resolved to hold them in his hand , and so , if they were not as deep in his heart as they are fast in his hands , this speech of his had not been made good , That they shall never perish . And then he gives the reason both of this resoluteness of his will , and this prevalencie of his power , from his Fathers both will and power , engaged as much as his own , in this fulnesse : My Father ( sayes he ) that gave them me is greater then all , and none is able to pluck them cut of my Fathers hands . He pleads here first his Fathers will , [ He gave them me : ] And then secondly , his power , ( whom these Jewes he spake to acknowledged greater than all , though him they did not ) He is greater then all ; none can pluck them out of his hands : and then argues to himself , [ My Father and I are one : ] One in nature , therefore much more in will . Two persons that have distinct essence , may yet be one in will , as the Ten Kings are said to be of one minde when they agreed in one thing , Rev. 17. 13 , 17. so Act. 4. 32. it is said , that they that believed were of one heart , and of one soule , that is , in judgement and consent of minde . But Christ and God the Father are one yet neerer ; one in nature , and therefore much more entire in will , for by nature they have but one will between them . And that place speaks at once in relation to both their willingnesse to save , as to both their powers to save sinners . And this is not only an Argument that they did both agree , and were like to agree in it ; but that they can never disagree . Two that essentially have two wills , though for the present agreeing in one ; yet it may be supposed that they may come to disagree , and not will the same thing : but if they essentially have but one will , it is impossible then but that they must ever agree . This great security therefore doth Christ give for the salvation of sinners . You have not only two Persons engaged , Persons greater then all , but all that is in them engaged , both their Power and Will ; and what more can be desired ? And if the one holds his purpose , the other must also ; for they are one . You have the one-nesse of God and Christ given you for security ; so that if they can never be made two , and wrought asunder , then sinners must needs be saved . Till these two Persons do disagree , you are sure enough ; and they must cease to be , ere they can cease to agree ; for they are one , and one in being . We have another testimony as full as this , 1 John 5. 7. There are three that beare record in heaven , the Father , the Word , and the Holy Ghost , ( we are yet surer here is a third Person that comes in ) and these three are one . Now what is the thing that these do witnesse unto ? ver. 11. it followes , This is the record , that God hath given to us eternall life , and this life is in his Sonne . Here their truth is pawned , as in that other place their power was : for the Apostle alledgeth this as such a truth , as they all agree and stand in to make good . And to prove this , he sayes ( as in that other place , Joh. 10. ) that these three are one : that is , one in nature , therefore one in will ; and so also one in witnesse to this truth . He sayes not only , They agree in one ; for you shall observe , that whereas there are three other witnesses mentioned to be on earth , there is this difference put between their concurrencie in their testimonies and that of these , that they agree in one , ( so ver. 8. ) but there is more said of these , namely , that they are one ; that is , in Nature , and so in Will or Purpose ; and so must needs much more agree in one . Now that thing which their wils , and testimonies , and all agree in , is ( as hath been said ) that God hath given us eternall life ; and this life is in his Son , to all that shall come for it . So that for Demonstrations of this , I need go no further . If there be any Power , Will , or Truth in these Persons , Sinners shall be saved . This being premised , as the most bottome ground of Christs being at first , and his continuing to be for ever willing to pardon sinners ; let us more particularly see , first , how his heart stood to the salvation of them before he came into the world : and then secondly , how it stood enclined unto it after he was come ; and what confirmations our faith may have from both . So that the thing that I am herein to speak to , is not so much his willingnes to the work of Redemption it self , ( that I have elswhere handled apart ) but his willingnesse and readinesse to save sinners . 1. Let us see how his heart stood to this before the world was , and before he came into it . And for this we find , that his delights were set upon it ; so Prov. 8. 31. [ Rejoycing in the habitable parts of his earth ; and my delights were with the sons of men . ] Which words are more properly spoken of Christ , then of God the Father ; and therefore I produce them under this Head . For they are said to be spoken by Wisdome , that is , Christ himself , he therein shewing how his minde stood towards us before the world began : for he speaks what he and his Father did before the mountains were , &c. I was set up from everlasting , ver. 22. Then I was by him , &c. ver. 30. And how did they passe away that long aevum ? ( as the Apostle cals it ) in nothing but rejoycing and delights . He there speaks of nothing else that they did . And what was the matter of delight unto them ? 1. He and his Father delighted one in another , ver. 30. 2. In the salvation of men , My delights were with the sons of men , so ver. 31. And he speaks of men as falne ; for it is said in the beginning of the same verse , that he rejoyced in the habitable parts of his earth ; which is spoken not of the Jews only , but of the Gentiles too , and of men all the earth over . Now first , Delights arise out of the strongest and choicest desires . Men are pleased with many things in which they delight not . Christs heart and desires must needs have been most on that which his delights are in . Again , secondly , the greater the persons are , and the greater their minds are , the greater are their delights . Things of great concernment are usually the objects which are the delights of Kings , and which they take pleasure in . Now the great God and Jesus Christ singled out the pardon and reconciliation of sinners for their chiefe delights . 3. Their delight herein is mentioned , and in no other work of theirs : not the Angels , nor the World , nor any thing in it . 4 This their delight is mentioned next to their delighting in each other . And fiftly , this delight he took aforehand , whilst his heart was only in the expectation of it , and his mind but laying the plot of it . He delights in it ere he doth it . And if all this joy of his be only in the thoughts of it , how much more will it delight him when he comes to do it ? All this argues how great a matter this was in his esteem , and how much his heart was in it , and that from everlasting . Demonstrations from the disposition of Christs heart , and his carriage upon earth . As also some engagements since his death . IN the second place , when Christ had assumed our nature , and whilst he remained upon earth , how did this disposition of his abound in him ? It were endlesse to give all the instances that his story and Sermons do afford hereof . See but how welcome all sorts of sinners were at all times unto him : He cast out none that acknowledged him for the Messiah : he turned none away that gave up their soules unto him to be saved his own way . He was indeed most reserved unto that rich young man of any other , yet he used him courteously , the Text saith he loved him ; Christ turned him not away , but directed him the right way to follow him : And he went away of himself , undervaluing Christ to his possessions . And another time Christ indeed seems to discourage the Canaanitish woman , and put her away , calling her dog : But it was only in words ; for underhand he strongly drawes her heart to him by his Spirit , and suggests thereby to her heart by way of answer , a consideration of the highest Faith towards him , that dogs might partake of the crums that fall from their Masters table . I instance in these , because I would prevent and remove any exception which might be taken from them . For otherwise Christs professed entertainment of all sinners was so open and notorious , as it was turned into his disgrace and opprobry , That he was a friend to Publicans and Sinners ; which yet he ownes and glories in , professing that he came not to call the righteous , but sinners to repentance . And how glad he was when any such came in unto him , he sufficiently expresseth by those parables on purpose taken up , of the joy of the Prodigals father for his returne , and of the rejoycing for the finding of the lost groat , and likewise of the lost sheep more then of the 99. We read of Christs joy but seldome , and when it is at any time recorded , it is at the conversion of Soules . He had little else to comfort himself in , being a man of sorrows : and he had nothing else on earth which he took delight or pleasure in . When he was converting the poor woman of Samaria , ( which he doth as a pleasure and recreation to him ) he forgets his meat , ( although before he had been very hungry ) and tels his Disciples that he had meat which they knew not of , which was indeed the saving that poor womans soul . In Luke 10. 21. we read that Jesus rejoyced in his spirit ; but observe the occasion : He had sent out his Disciples to preach the Gospel , and they had in his Name and through his Power cast out Devils : He bids them not rejoyce in that , ver. 20. but shews them what they should rejoyce in , by his own example , and by what most comforted him . Father ( sayes he ) I thank thee , that thou hast revealed these things unto Babes . This in in the next words following recorded to be the matter of his rejoycing , he saw now an handsell , and an experiment of the fruit of his Disciples ministery , and comforted himselfe before-hand , in that as their souls had , so others of the poorer and meaner sort should thus come in unto him . We finde him at another time in like manner rejoycing , namely in the story of his raising Lazarus , Iohn 11. 15. And what was it for ? Not that himself should be glorified by so great a miracle , ( even the greatest that ever he wrought ) but ( sayes he ) I am glad for your sakes that I was not there , to the end that you might beleeve . He rejoyced if any of his got a little more or further degree of faith . And on the other side , as sorry was he when men came not in . Witnesse his tears over Jerusalem , and those speeches of his , Iohn 5. 34. These things I speake , that you might be saved . And thereupon in the ensuing verse he complainingly utters himself , You will not ( sayes he ) come to me , that you may have life . He speaks as one greedy of winning soules , and as sorry that any customers or hearers of his should passe by , and not turne in ; ( You will not come to me , &c. ) And he relieves himself with this , that there w●●e others that would , though they would not . So here in this place , when in the verse before my Text he had complained of them , that they would not beleeve , he comforts himself with this in the words of the Text , All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me . And the like you have , Ioh 5. 25 , 26. You beleeve not ; but my sheep , they heare my voice , &c. And then at his death , when he was upon the Crosse , he then converts a thiefe that was crucified with him , and prayes for those that crucified him . And after his Resurrection his last words recorded in Luke 24. 47. are [ That remission of sins should be preached in his name , beginning at Ierusalem , ] that so those whom he had prayed for ( though they had crucified him ) might be converted and saved . Thus stood his heart all the while he was on earth , both before and after his death . And then ( in the third place ) now that he hath dyed and laid down that price which was to purchase the salvation of sinners , he must needs be much more willing ( if it were possible he should be ) then ever . Many Demonstrations there are from those obligations , which Christs sufferings and death do put upon him , which I have already given in a Treatise upon this very argument , The heart of Christ in Heaven , Part 2. onely I have reserved one or two for this place . As , 1. It was the aim and utmost intent of Christs soul , in his being crucified to have sinners saved , and saved effectually . It was that travaile which his heart was then big with . And certainly , Christ would not that so many and so great sufferings , now that they are past and over , should be in vaine . The Apostle makes a motive of it unto the Galatians , Gal. 3. 34. Are ye so foolish , — have ye suffered so many things in vain ? To be sure Christs death shall not be in vain : He will not lose the end of his sufferings , ( as the same Apostle intimates but 4. verses before Chap. 2. ult. ) A businesse that a man hath praied for much , how doth he long to see it accomplished and fulfilled ? and how glad is he when it falls out as he hath prayed ? and why , but because it is the fruit of his Prayers ? Now much more glad is Christ to see the fruit of his death , The travaile of his soul , and thereby is satisfied , Isai. 53. 10. ( a place I often quote to this purpose . ) I will add but this to it . When a woman hath been in travaile , she forgets all her paines for joy that a man-childe is borne , ( which is the fruit of that her travail ) and so doth Christ . And then again , for that other word , that Christ is said to be satisfied . Satisfaction is the accomplishment of desire , or the fulfilling of ones longing . So in that speech of Christ , Blessed are those that hunger for they shall be satisfied . So that this doth argue and presuppose the most vehement desires and longings in Christ for the salvation of souls , and his having dyed must needs encrease them . And 2. Adde this engagement unto that former , That his death can be put to no other use then for the pardon of sinners . So as if he should not expend it that way , he should utterly lose the fruit of it , or let it lye uselesse by him . For divert it to any other use he cannot . And yet if he knew how to improve it to any other purpose ; yet his love ( he having intended it for the sons of men ) would not suffer him to do it . But besides , if it be not imployed and bestowed this way , it will be wholly in vaine ; for the good Angels , though they stand in need of his Personall mediation , to confirme them in grace ; yet his blood was not requisite thereunto . And for the bad Angels , they are utterly excluded the benefit of it . And then Christ himself he stands in no need of it , nor can he have any benefit by it ; all that Personall glory which now he hath in Heaven being due unto him by that Hypostaticall union . So that his death serves for no end , if not for this . Christ indeed hath an honour in Heaven , besides the glory of the personall union : but then it ariseth to him from the salvation of sinners through his death , which salvation is the purchase of his blood ; as you have it . Ephes. 1. which might afford a third engagement , In that Christ should not only lose the fruit of his death , but that glory that is ordained him by the salvation of men . So that he should be a loser not only of his sufferings by-past , but of all that glory that is to come from the salvation of believers ; which is no small thing unto him . As Officers in Courts of Law , or in Universities , get the more fees , the more Clients , and the more Commercers there are : so it is the more for Jesus Christs gain , that many sinners get out , and are received to grace and mercy . Some Extrinsecall demonstrations of Gods and Christs willingnesse to pardon sinners . ANd unto all these secret engagements both of God and Christ mutually to each other , and to us , we may adde all the professed publications of their minds herein unto us , which have been made upon all occasions and by all means possible . As , First , This newes hath been published by all three persons , first God the Father he began to preach it to Adam in Paradise , and hath renued it again and again , as with his own immediate voice from Heaven when Christ was baptized , This is my welbeloved Son in whom I am well pleased , heare him : which the Apostle Peter records and confirmes , as spoken a second time upon the Mount , as a matter of highest moment to be known by us , which voyce he heard ( sayes he ) and is no fable , 2 Pet. 1. 16 , 17. Secondly , Christ who is the faithfull and true witnes , Rev. 1. 5. he came from the bosome of his Father , and preached peace , Ephes. 2. 17. Yea and it was one of his first texts he preached upon , Luke 4. 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me , because he hath anoynted me to preach the Gospel , to preach deliverance to the captives . Thirdly , The Holy Ghost he also herewith bearing witnesse , that God hath exalted Christ to be a Prince and Saviour , to give repentance and forgivenesse of sinnes . Acts 5. 31 , 32. And so Heb. 2. 45. And these are these three witnesses in heaven , 1 John 5. 7. whose record as it followes is this , that there is life to be had in his Son Jesus Christ , v. 11. Secondly , God hath published this newes both by all creatures reasonable , and to all creatures reasonable . First , the Angels they came and preached it , singing , Peace on earth , good will towards men Luke 2. 13 , 14. Secondly , By men , and to that end he hath given gifts to men , powerfull and full of glory , Ephes. 4. 8. &c. And a commission with those gifts , a most large and gratious one , And he hath committed to us the ministery of reconciliation , to wit , that God was in Christ , reconciling the world to himself . 2 Cor. 5. 20. Yea and thirdly , he hath maintained this ministry in all ages , even to our times , all times have rung of the newes hereof , and the world is still full of his Embassadors to treat with men about this peace , and they are to proclaime that he is fully willing ; and upon that ground to beseech men to be reconciled , and so long as Leiger Embassadors reside uncalled home , or not sent for away , so long the treaty of peace holds . Fourthly , He hath proclaimed this by these this Embassadors in all places ; he bad them go and preach it to all the world , to every creature , Mark 16. 15. And his Disciples did accordingly . Now he would not have had it spoken so openly and generally , if he were not most serious in it . Fiftly , Adde to this , that he hath declared it by all wayes and meanes that do argue faithfulnesse and seriousnesse . First , Not by bare word of mouth , but we have it under his hand , he hath left his mind in writing . This book which is dropt from heaven , the title of it is , The word of reconciliation . 2 Cor. 5. 19. the main argument of it being reconciliation . In this book we find , proclamation sent forth after proclamation , book after book , line after line , all written to this end , that we sinners might have hope and strong consolation , as the Apostle witnesseth . Secondly , He hath added to this writing those seales of the Sacraments , and further an oath to both , and that made advisedly with the greatest earnestnesse and deliberation that might be , Heb. 6. 17. God willing ( the text sayes ) more abundantly to manifest this his intent , the immutability of his counsell , he confirmed that promise with an oath , that by two immutable things , his word and oath , we might have strong consolation . Thirdly , If this be not sufficient , he hath pawned heaven and earth , the Covenant of day and night in Mortgage to forgive iniquity and pardon sinners . Thus Jer. 31. 34 , 35 , 36. This is my Covenant ( sayes God there ) that I will forgive their iniquities , and remember their sinnes no more , so ver. 34. and then it follows ver. 35. Thus saith the Lord , who giveth the sun for a light by day , and the ordinances of the moon and stars for a light by night : If those ordinances depart from before me , then the seed of Israel , &c. The like you have , Chap. 33. 25 , 26. Day and night we see stand still , and therefore this Covenant holds good still ; but we have a greater pawn then this , the death of his Son . And lastly , Let his actions and courses , which he hath taken from the beginning of the world speak for all the rest , as satan hath been a murtherer from the beginning , so God hath been a Saviour from the beginning , and Christ is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world . God began with the first of mankind , even with Adam and Eve , the ringleaders , the heads of this rebellion , who drew all the rest of the world into that enmity , these were yet reconciled . Kings usually hang up the heads and chiefe in treasons , for examples of their justice , though they pardon others ; yet these did God save and pardon as examples of his mercy , to all that should come of them ; and it is observeable that the first thing he did , after the world was fallen , was this act of mercy , both in preaching this Gospel , and in pardoning them , he began to do that soon , which he meant to be alwayes a doing to the end of the world , it argues he delights in it , yea and according to Christ last promise on earth , ( that he would be with us to the end of the world , ) God is to this day reconciling the world of men to himself . Some that walk in your streets by you , live among you . And he will have thousands when you are gone , and what are these but as flags , and patternes of mercy , hung forth by God to toll and bring others in , as Ephes. 2. 7. Vse . WHat should the consideration of these things work in our hearts , but what the scope of the text it self puts men upon , even that they would come in unto Christ , and beleeve on him , and give up their souls unto him ? He that beleeves shall in no wise be cast out . As Christ therefore is willing : so should we , be a willing people . That which keepes men off , is , that they know not Christs minde and heart , think it not to be an indifferent thing to him whether you beleeve , or no ; as if he came into the world to do this duty of dying for sinners , singly in obedience to his Father , so that men might be rendred savable if they will : and that however , if they will not , he yet hath enough to satisfie and quiet himself with , even this that he shall be glorified in what he hath done , though few or none of the sons of men be saved . It is a prejudiciall doctrine this , to the salvation of men , and derogatory to Christs free love . What , do we think that Jesus Christ is gone to heaven , there to complaine unto Angels of the unkindnesse and hardnes of mens hearts , that will not turne to him notwithstanding he hath done so much , and to tell what he had done for them , and what they would not be perswaded to do for themselves ; and that so he can sufficiently please himself with such just complaints ? no surely ; our effectuall salvation concernes him more then so : and his heart is more fully bent upon it then thus to leave it , of what he hath bought he will lose nothing . The truth is , he is more glad of us then we can be of him . The Father of the Prodigall was the forwarder of the two to that joyfull meeting . Hast thou a minde ? he that came down from Heaven ( as himself saith , in the text ) to dye for thee , will meet thee more then half way ( as the prodigals father is said to do ) by his spirit ; he will send him from Heaven to thee , and at the latter day himself will come again to fetch thee and receive thee to himself . If among the Angels in Heaven there be joy at the conversion of a sinner , how much more joy is there in Christs heart ? If there be joy in the bed chamber men ( as Iohn speakes ) what joy is there in the bridgrooms hearts ? or if among the standers by , when a man-child is borne into the world , how much more doth the mother that was in travaile for it ( as Christs soul was , ) how much more doth she rejoyce ? O therefore come in unto him . If you knew his heart you would . As they that crucified him knew him not , so neither do those who beleeve not in him . If you had been on earth with him , or if he were now here , and had this day preacht these things unto you , and uttered these his own desires , and longings after you ; how would you in troopes go all thronging after him when the Sermon were done , and each of you come about him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that had diseases did ) and beseech him to pardon and save you ; and not leave him till you have obtained some word of comfort and favour from him ! Let me tell you , he had preacht this day , but that he had other busines to do for you in Heaven , where he is now praying and intereceding for you , even when you are sinning ; ( as on earth we see he did for the Jews when they were a crucifying him . ) Now because he could not for this other busines come himself , he therefore sends us his Ambassadours , and we in Christ stead do beseech you ; and it is as if Christ by us did beseech you : and we preach but such things as were first spoken by the Lord himselfe , ( as it in Heb. 2. ) And he sends his spirit , and continues to give gifts unto men to this very day : and in all these respects , when ever the Gospel is preacht , he is said to spe●k from heaven , Refuse not him that speaks from heaven , Heb. 12. 23. And though you have not his bodily presence as they had who heard himselfe preach here on earth ; yet you may by faith have as free an accesse unto him , and know as surely that he heares you , as if he were in the same roome with you . Retire therefore into your closet , and treat with him in private , and there presse these things on him ; say them all over again unto himself , and ask him if they be not true : get the match struck up between thy soule & him ; which if once made , will never be undone again . Say unto him , Lord , why may it not be made up now ? Only let me adde this ; see you come not to him without a wedding-garment , and wedding-affections . Take up a resolution to love him . For if thou comest to him , what dost thou come for ? pardon of sins ? and what is it in him that must procure that ? his having dyed for thee ; that was it . And what was it that moved him to die ? an infinite love ; such a love , as were the thing yet to be done , he would certainly do it , and die to satisfie God for thee . Now then , seeing he hath already done it out of such a love with what face canst thou ask pardon of him , as the effect of such a love , and not love him again , and obey him in all things ? But to make short work with you , know this ; that if thou wilt not come in to him , thou wilt be damned . So saith Christ , He that beleeves shall be saved ; but he that beleeves not shall be damned . And I could tell you another , and as large a story of Christs wrath against those that refuse him , as I have told you of his love : The Lamb can be angry ; for he is a Lion also , O consider this therefore , lest he teare you in pieces , and th●●… be none to deliver you . FINIS . 
A59221	----	Faith vindicated from possibility of falshood, or, The immovable firmness and certainty of the motives to Christian faith asserted against that tenet, which, denying infallibility of authority, subverts its foundation, and renders it uncertain Sergeant, John, 1622-1707. 1667 Approx. 245 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 106 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-08 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A59221 Wing S2566 ESTC R783 12305325 ocm 12305325 59230 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A59221) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 59230) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 926:3) Faith vindicated from possibility of falshood, or, The immovable firmness and certainty of the motives to Christian faith asserted against that tenet, which, denying infallibility of authority, subverts its foundation, and renders it uncertain Sergeant, John, 1622-1707. [24], 176, [6] p. [s.n.], Lovain : 1667. Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Attributed to John Sergeant. cf. NUC pre-1956. Errata: p. [6] at end. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Catholic Church -- Apologetic works. Catholic Church -- Infallibility. Faith. 2004-04 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-04 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-06 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2004-06 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-07 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion FAITH VINDICATED FROM Possibility of Falshood : OR , The Immovable Firmness and Certainty of the Motives to Christian Faith , Asserted , Against that Tenet , which , denying Infallibility of Authority , subverts Its Foundation , and renders It Uncertain . Desistes adversus alios dicere ; caeterùm ita pro Veritate loquêris , ut ea quae dicuntur argui refellique non possint . Dionys. Areopag . Epist. 6. LOVAIN , A. D. MDCLXVII . Introduction . THough nothing be more natural than that all , who deny the Certainty of the Rule of Faith , should deny also the Certainty of Faith it self , since the Certainty of this later depends on the Certainty of the former ; and , it is impossible the Conclusion should be held Certain , unless the Premisses be held so too , yet , the conceit which the Generality of those who call themselv's Faithful or Christian , have of their Faith , and , consequently , the nature of that kind of Assent , is such , that nothing can sound more horridly and blasphemously to their ears , than bluntly and without disguise to say , That all their Faith may possibly be a Ly for any thing any man living absolutely knows . For , a certain goodness of Rational Nature , has fixt this apprehension in them , that , since the World is made for the Salvation of Mankind , it is unsuitable to the Wisdom and Goodness of Providence , which has furnisht us with means of Certainty for our inferiour concerns , that the Principles on which Eternity depends , should fall short of that Certainty , and , consequently , of strength and efficacy to move & carry us on to a steady pursuit of that greatest , and , in comparison , onely Interest . Notwithstanding , so unresistible is the force of this evident truth , that , whoever has deserted the Catholick Church , and her Rule of Faith , Tradition , can have no absolute Certainty of Faith ; that is , indeed no true Faith ( for that truly is Faith which the Generality of those who use the Word mean by it ) that the more intelligent amongst them , conscious of the manifest weakness of their Grounds , are necessitated , in their Controversies , when they should defend their Faith , in plain terms to disgrace and betray it ; chusing rather candidly to confess it to be all a possible Falshood , than to undertake that impossible performance to maintain that it is an Absolute Truth . I cannot resemble this Natural Conceit of the perfect Certainty of Faith , inbred as it were in the Generality of those who have had even a glimmering of Christianity , to any thing so well as to the apprehension , the former World had of a Godhead . For , as natural Instinct forc't those , who had not light to know the True God , to affix the Notion of a Deity to some false one , as some eminent Heroe , the Sun , Thunder , Fire ; nay , there was nothing so ridiculous but they would make a God of it , rather than forgoe the tenet of a Soveraign Power so deeply rooted in them by Nature ; so , our modern Misbelievers , rather than they will relinquish their Opinion , that Faith and the means to know the way to Heaven is absolutely-Certain , springing naturally from the conceit they have that God has a Providence for the Salvation of Mankind , chuse to misplace the notion of the Certain means to know God's will , or Rule of Faith , in the most unlikely things imaginable ; as , in a ridiculous whimsy of Fancy little better than a Dream , nay sometimes in a dream it self , or in the motion of some hypocondriacal vapour , as do the Fanaticks ; others , in other things seemingly wiser ; as , in their opinions of some men they esteem Good and Learned ; in meerly their being educated thus by Parents who confess they have relinquish'd what themselves had been educated to ; in Interpretations of words by Grammatical skill which were writ long ago , and in dogmatical points , where every word is capable of equivocalness ; nay ( which is indeed as mad as the most extatick of them all ) to affirm that such words are so plain to every Reader that none can miss the right sense of them : All which , though plainly confuted by this Principle which Nature teaches the rudest , that , That can never be a way which many follow to their power and yet the greater part are misled , joyn'd to their plain Experience that many followers of these wayes exceedingly differ ; yet , so prevalent is the force of the other Truth , that they will wink at this later to embrace that ; insomuch that none of those ( I except Seekers , by what name soever they are call'd , as not being pretenders to Faith ) but , were they ask'd whether they be not as Certain of their Faith as that they live , would readily and heartily answer affirmatively ; I mean those of every sort who follow meerly the Guidance of uncorrupted nature in this affair . Notwithstanding , as in the Pa gan World There were found many Witty men , who , out of Unacquaintance with the True Godhead and the Unworthyness of the False Gods then in vogue , or out of a conceit of many misgovernments in the world , speculated themselves out of their natural notions and went about to deny absolutely there was any God at all ; so it happens that , amongst those who have deserted the Catholick Church , there are found diverse men of speculative and searching brains ; who , out of Unacquaintance with , or at least their sleightly penetrating the nature of the Catholick Rule of Faith , the Living Voice and Practice of the Church , or TRADITION , and , withal , seeing the Vanity and manifest Inability of their own pretended Rules to ascertain them absolutely their Faith is True , joyn'd with the experienc't Disagreement in Faith amongst diverse Pretenders to it , would speculate themselves out of their Natural Christianity , and deny any Absolute Certainty at all of Faith , or the way to Salvation ; contenting themselves with a Probability in the Grounds 't is built on , miscall'd by them Moral Certainty ; confessedly consistent with a Possibility of Falshood . Which kind of Grounds permits ▪ that perhaps all may chance to be shown to morrow a meer Illusion and a bold Lye ; and all the Christian World hitherto to have been possibly led by the nose by a False Impostùre ; nay , to have held that Imposture Most Sacred , and preferr'd the adhering to it before all the Goods , Life or Nature could bestow . How near this wicked Tenet approaches to Atheism appears hence , that 't is next to the Denial of a God-head , to deny that in proper speech we know Him , or the Way to Him ; Yet this is the very Position of those who put a Possibility of Falshood in Faith ; since none can truly be said to know that to be true ; which he sees and acknowledges may not be true at the same time . This Seed of Infidelity sown when the Rule of Faith was renounc'd , first dar'd to appear publickly above Ground in the writings of Mr. Chillingworth and the L. Falkland ; and , though , had it been propos'd barefac't , in another occasion , it could have hop'd for no welcome Reception even amongst the Generality of the Protestants themselves , who were made believe ever since their Breaking from the Church , their Faith had the Word of God for its Basis , which they honestly understood to have the same Certainty as if God himself had spoke it ; yet , being drest up by their plausible Rhetorick , and , advanc'd in a circumstance when they were confuting the Papists , the middle sort of Protestant Readers at unawares let it pass as meritorious to their party ; and the wiser sort embrac'd it both as a real Truth , and also as making best for the Interest of their Cause when they would oppugn us ; what disservice soever it did tot he Common Cause of Religionor Christianity . For , they were not at all sollicitous ( so strangely did faction transport them ) so they could in their conceit overthrow the Infallibility of the Catholick Church , though they reduc'd all Faith into Incertainty , and all the Grounds on which 't is built , into a tottering Contingency . It seem'd to threaten a Mischief considerable enough to Christianity , that such a pernicious Tenet should be publickly own'd in Controversy , to taint the wiser sort of Readers with Atheism , in which it hath been too successful ; but , it grew intolerable when it durst take the boldness to appear in Sermons pronounc'd in very Honourable Assemblies , and afterwards publish'd in Print ; where , under the Title of [ The Wisdom of being Religious ] and a great many seeming shows , and , I heartily think , very real Intentions of impugning Atheism , by an ill-principled , and ( in that circumstance ) imprudent and unnecessary confession in equivalent Terms of the possible falshood of Faith , nay even as to the chiefest and most Fundamental point , the Tenet of a Deity . Religion receives a deep wound , and Atheism an especial Advantage : as may perhaps more particularly be shown hereafter . I envy not that Sermon , and some other Productions of Mr. Tillotson their Authour , their due commendations , though he be my Adversary ; I acknowledge that in his clear Method , or disposition of his matter , and the cleanness of his style , which fit him for an Excellency in Preaching , he hath few Equals ; and that , had he good Principles , he would deliver them as intelligibly as any man I know ; onely I could wish he had right Principles to Ground his discourse , without which he can never make a Controvertist , but must needs undermine the solid Foundation of Christianity , if he undertake to meddle with the Grounds of it , even while he goes about to defend it . What I am on this occasion chiefly to reflect on , is my own obligation ; which is , the boldness of owning and publishing the Incertainty of Christian Faith , being come to the height , to assert it's Absolute Firmness and Certainty in the best manner God shall enable me : and his Providence seems to require it of me at present ; In regard 't is expected I should reply to Mr. Tillotson 's pretended Answer to Sure Footing ; whose first Principle in that Reply seems to be this , that , what he deems the Rule of Christian Faith , and , consequently , that Faith it self is possible to be False ; for , by virtue of this Position , which he defends p. 118 , and in diverse other places implies and builds on , he more oppugns my discourse than by any other Thesis whatever . The contrary to which if I evince , then the Protestants own confession , that they have no Absolutely-Certain Ground or Rule of Faith , confutes them without more ado , and concludes them to have relinquish'd its onely right , because its onely truly certain Rule , TRADITION . Yet , were it not my chief design to establish the Absolute Truth of Christian Faith in it self , by all the Arguments I can imagin , and not meerly to confute Protestant Controvertists , I needed not take the pains thus to multiply Demonstrations , or even alledg so much as one . For , since , whatever they pretend seemingly to Antiquity or Authority of Fathers by their voluminous quotations , yet they will finally and heartily stand to nothing in contests about Faith , as Conclusive , but their own Interpretations of Scripture ; Which being so weak a Ground that every dayes Experience shows it's Failings ; an ordinary Probability is abundantly enough to overthrow their Discourses , whose very Principle is not onely Improbable , but evidently a False one ; Whence , the meanest Catholick writer cannot fail to have the advantage over their Best in a Prudential man's Esteem ; because he cannot possibly miss of a Medium more probable than is their main Ground . I declare then that my Chief End in this Treatise is to settle Christian Faith , or to demonstrate that it must be truly or Absolutely Certain ; and that my applying it now and then to my Opposers , is onely a Secundary Intention , and meerly Occasional . Ere I fall close to my Proofs , that Faith cannot possibly be False , to avoid Equivocation in the words , I declare that by the word [ Faith ] I am not sollicitous whether be meant our Act of Faith or the Points of Faith , that is , the Object of that Act ; but judg that distinction wholly Impertinent in this present discourse ; and , the reason is , because I cannot affirm a Point True or False , but as it stands under Motives able to make me judge , assent or beleeve 't is such or such ; which Motives , if they be such as are able to convince that the Point cannot but be so , then my Iudgment or Assent tothose Points , thusconcluded , that is my Act of Faith cannot but be True ; because it depends intirely on Grounds Impossible to be False , viz. those Motives ; But , if those Motives are not of such a nature as is absolutely Conclusive the thing is , then both the Thing , Object , Point , or Proposition of Faith , as being onely Knowable by virtue of them , may be otherwise , and also my Act of Faith or Belief of those Points may be a wrong or erroneous Iudgment ; that is , both of them may be False . To ask then if Faith can possibly be False , is to ask whether the Motives laid by God's Providence for Mankind or his Church to embrace Christian Faith , must be such as of their own nature cannot fail to conclude those points True ; and , to affirm that Faith is not possible to be False , is equivalently to assert that those Motives or the Rule of Faith , must be thus absolutely Conclusive , Firm , and Immovable . Hence is seen , that I concern not my self in this discourse with how perfectly or imperfectly diverse persons penetrate those motives ; or how they satisfy or dissatisfy some particular Persons ; since , I onely speak of the Nature of those Motives in themselves , and as laid in Second Causes by Gods Providence to light Mankind in their way to Faith : to which the dimness of eye-sight , neglect to look at all , or looking the wrong way , even in many particular men , is Extrinsecal and Contingent . Lastly , to avoid Mistake and Confusion , I declare , that there being two sorts of Questions , one concerning the Existence of a thing , call'd An est , viz. whether there be any Certainly-Conclusive Rule of Faith , or no ; and the other about what is the Certain or truely-Conclusive Rule of Faith , call'd Quid est ; I am not now discoursing about the later ( that was the work of SURE FOOTING ) but the former onely . Indeed , in my first discourse there I endeavour'd to evince this Truth from par . 1. to par 17. by diverse Arguments ; but , because Mr. T. waves the speaking to those Premises as they tend to infer my Conclusion , and onely discourses a little ( Mistakingly ) against the Conclusions themselves , therefore , being resolv'd to write a Treatise to establish Christian Faith , I thought fit to apply it to his proceedure there ; that so I may both more forcibly invite him to that necessary though neglected Duty , and , withall that by settling the Existence & Nature of Faith and it's Rule first , I may clear the way methodically to discover what , and onely what , can be the right Rule of Faith. And , possibly in my next Treatise if Mr. T. and Mr. St. think fit to continue on this discourse forwards by answering this , they may , by denying that in true speech the Points of Faith are Truths , or Faith is True , oblige me to begin yet higher , and make use of such Mediums as are more direct and immediately fit to confute Atheism . The understanding Reader will easily pardon the Speculativeness of this Treatise in great part of it : if he reflects that discourses built on Intrinsecal Mediums and manag'd in the way of Severe Reason , do naturally , nay must necessarily , bear up to the First Principles ; yet , by the Harmony and Connexion of Truths with one another , there will be found also very many Proofs fairly Intelligible by the middle sort of Prudential men ; especially in those Arguments which are drawn from Practice ; and , if I flatter not my self , some Proofs , and those Convincing ones too , suitable to every Capacity . This comfort my Readers may expect to reap by this Procedure that it must forcibly shorten Disputes , and bring Controversies after a while to a period , unless our Adversaries be still obstinately bent to play the Drolls instead of soberly and pertinently disputing . For , hardly can Errour hide her deformity , when she is exposed naked to the view of Rational nature in the noon-day-light of FIRST-PRINCIPLES . Faith Vindicated FROM Possibility of Falshood . First Eviction . § 1. I Lay for the Basis of my present Discourse these two Propositions . 1. Christians are oblig'd to hold firmly , profess , and stand to it , even with the loss of their Lives , that Points of Faith are TRUTHS . 2. None can be thus oblig'd to hold , profess , and maintain that to be TRUTH which they know not to be so . The later of these is as certain , as that God , the Imposer of this Obligation , is Good : For how unworthy his Infinit Goodness were it , to will that rational Nature or Mankind should act irrationally by holding firmly what it has no firm Grounds to hold ; that is , what it knows not to be so ? Or to sacrifice its very Being to testifie the truth of those Points , concerning which , if it work according to right reason , the nature God has given it , and deviate not from that by a weak credulity , it can never be perfectly satisfy'd that they are indeed Truths ; which it can never be , if , notwithstanding all it knows , they yet may possibly be Falshoods . No man in true morality ought to say what he knows not , much less so asseverantly , as to seal it with his blood . As for the former Proposition , which I account most fundamental to the ensuing Discourse , I am to declare that by Holding , &c. a thing to be a Truth , I understand the holding that the thing absolutely , in reality , or indeed , is so as I judge . Whence to this Holding a Thing to be Truth , 't is not enough that a man hold it is so to the best of his judgment ; but 't is requir'd moreover , that he hold he is not deceiv'd in making such a judgment ; and this , because he holds his Thought conformable to the Thing . For , this settles Verity or Truth on its proper and firm Foundation , the thing ; and not on the unstable motions of his Judgment , as does the other . My first and chief Postulatum thus understood , I esteem to be self-evident to all that converse with Christianity taken in its largest sense , as I declar'd in my Introduction ; setting aside that sort of Speculaters ; I mean those of our modern Adversaries , against whom I dispute at present ; and of whom the Question is now agitated , whether they are indeed to be held right Christians or no. And I conceive that he who should deny it , must be bound to put the contradictory Position ; and to affirm , that Christians are not bound firmly to hold , profess , and maintain with the loss of their lives the TRUTH of their Faith , but its Likelihood onely . He that affirms this , if he would be held a Christian , is to be confuted by the contrary sentiment of the generality of Christians , from whom he dissents in so Fundamental a Point as is the rightly understanding the nature of Faith , which they profess , and which it so highly imports them to know ; that is , indeed , in rightly understanding the meaning of the word Faith. If he be no Christian , yet hold the Godhead , 't is to be demonstrated partly from the proper effects of Faith , and the nature of the great difficulties , both intellectual and moral , which 't is ordain'd to master : partly out of the nature of God and his Attributes , obliging him to lay means proportion'd to an intended end ; or to establish every thing according to the Concern that depends on it , which Concern in our case is the highest imaginable , to wit , the Salvation of Mankind , the End of creating those very Entities on which the Certitude of Science is built . Or , lastly , if he be an Atheist , the Deity and it's Attributes are first to be demonstrated : as also what is Man's summum bonum , and the immediate Disposition to it ; and then the nature and Certitude of Faith , and consequently of it's Rule are to be demonstrated . Supposing then my later Postulatum to be evident to all that know there is a wise and good Governour of the world , and who understand the common Principles of Morality ; and my former Postulatum to be clear and undeniable matter of Fact to those who converse with Christianity ; and therefore to have unavoidable force upon all that would be held Professors thereof , I shall be bold to proceed upon them . And , first , Logick , whose proper office 't is to look into the nature and actions of our Soul as Rational ; and as it were , to anatomize her Thoughts , takes up the discourse , and proceeds thus . § 2. Truths are found in Propositions ; a Proposition consists of two Notions called Subject , and Predicate , and a third , whose office 't is to connect them ; whence to know a thing to be Truth or true , is to see the Conn●xion between the two Notions spoken of , or to see that the third truly connects them . Now there are but two wayes imaginable ( abstracting from Experience ) how this may be seen : Either by seeing immediately that those two Notions are the same with one another out of the very Notions themselves ; or else by seeing that they are each of them the same with a Third ; whence follows , that , unless that Third Notion can fail to be the same with it self , those two Notions which are the same with it , cannot possible fail to be the same with one another . The former is called Self-Evidence ; this later , Evidence by deduction : Both are built immediately upon this grand Verity , that , The same is the same with it self ; wherefore , unless it be seen : that the Truth of that most Self-Evident Axiom is engag'd in their Patronage , they cannot be even known to be True ; and , if it be seen that it is thus engag'd , they must needs be known impossible to be false ; since 't is most manifestly impossible , that First Principles should be false , or that the same should not be the same with it self . Wherefore , either Points of Faith need not be known to be Truths , or else they must ( by Reflecte●s at least ) be known impossible to he false . § 3. The same is evinc't from the nature of the Subject in those Propositions which affirm the Truth of any point of Faith : For , if we look narrowly , we shall find that the Subject in those is , either formally , or in effect , a Proposition it self ; as when we say , This Proposition [ Christ is really in the Sacrament ] is true ; [ That God is one and three ] is true , &c. Where the Subjects are manifestly these ; Christ is really in the Sacrament ; God is one and three , or , a Trinity is . A Proposition then being a Speech apt to express Truth or Falshood , nay necessarily determin'd to do the one , ( excepting those which speak of a future Contingent ) it follows , that who ever is bound in reason to affirm that the Proposition expressing the point of Faith is True , is bound likewise to affirm 't is impossible to be false , if taken in the same sense he means it ; that is , indeed , if taken for the same Proposition , since 't is impossible Truth should be Falshood . Either then Christ's followers are not oblig'd to affirm the Points they profess are true , which thwarts the Sentiments of the Christian part of mankind ; or else , they must necessarily be oblig'd , withall , to affirm them impossible to be false . § 4. The same is concluded from the nature of the Copula , [ is ] whose office being to connect or identifie the notions of the Subject and Predicate , that is , to express that what is meant by those two notions is to be found in the same Thing , or that they have one common stock of Being , its proper signification is Being or Existence ; not absolutely , as if it meant that either of the Terms exists in Things ; but comparatively or conditionally as it were , that that Being which belongs to one of the Terms , is the same Being with that which belongs to the other ; or that by the same Being whereby one of the Terms is , the other is also . Now then , this kind of Expression or Signification being such as has no latitude between it and its utmost Opposit or Contradictory , [ is not ] it being the most uncompounded notion that is , and not capable to be mingled with any alloy or participation of its Opposit , as it happens in Contraries : it follows that who holds the Truth of the Proposition , or , which is all one , the Identification of the two Terms exprest by the Copula [ is ] must hold it absolutely , and the Opposite to be impossible to be false ; nothing being more impossible than that is and is not should both be true at once ; or that the same thing should be the same and not the same in the same respect , that is , should be true , and not be true : And hence it is , that though distinctions use to fall upon the Equivocalness of the two Terms , yet no man that knows what Logick meant , ever distinguisht the meer Copula , its simplest notion not admitting any possible division . § 5. Our Argument from the Copula is particularly strengthen'd from the nature of the Predicate in the Propositions we speak of ; I mean in such Speeches as affirm such and such Points of Faith to be True. For True means Existent , in Propositions which express onely the An est of a thing , as most Points of Faith do ; which speak abstractedly , and tell notwherein the nature of the Subject it speaks of consists , or the Quid est . So that most of the Propositions Christians are bound to profess , are fully exprest thus ; A Trinity is Existent , a Christ God-and-man is Existent , &c. and the like may be said of those Points which belong to a Thing or Action past ; as , Creation was , Christs Crucifying was , &c. For , Existent is the Predicate in these too , onely affixt to another difference of time ; and 't is equally impossible such Subjects should neither have been nor not have been , or have been and have not been at once , as it is that a thing should neither be nor not be at present , or both be and not be at present . Regarding then stedfastly the nature of our Predicate , [ Existent ; ] we shall find that it expresses the utmost Actuality of a Thing ; and , as taken in the posture it bears in those Propositions , that Actuality exercis'd ; that is , the utmost Actuality in its most actual state ; that is , as absolutely excluding all manner or least degree of Potentiality , and confequently all Possibility of being otherwise ; which is radically destroy'd when all Potentiality is taken away . This Discourse holding , which in right to Truth I shall not fear to affirm ( unconcern'd in the drollery of any Opposer ) to be more than Mathematically demonstrative , ( as shall be shown more particularly hereafter ) it follows inevitably , that who so is bound to profess a Trinity , Incarnation , &c. is or was Existent , is also bound to profess that 't is impossible they should be not-Existent ; or which is all one , that 't is impossible these points of Faith should be false . § 6. The same appears out of the nature of distinction or division apply'd to our Predicate Existent , as found in these Propositions : For , could that Predicate bear a pertinent distinction , expressing this and the other respect , or thus and thus , it might possibly be according to one of those respects , or thus consider'd , and not be according to another , that is , another way consider'd : But this evasion is here impossible ; for , either those distinguishing Notions must be more Potential or antecedent to the Notion of Existent , and then they neither reach Existent , nor supervene to it as its Determinations or Actuations , which Differences ought to do ; nor can any Notion be more Actual or Determinative in the line of Substance or Being , than Existent is ; and , so , fit to distinguish it in that line ; nor , lastly , can any determination in the line of Accidents serve the turn ; for , these suppose Existence already put , and so the whole Truth of the Proposition entire and compleat antecedently to them : 'T is impossible therefore that what is thus affirm'd to be True , should in any regard be affirm'd possible to be false ; the impossibility of distinguishing the Predicate pertinently , excluding here all possibility of divers respects . § 7. The same is demonstrated from the impossibility of distinguishing the Subjects of those Faith-Propositions ; for those Subjects being Propositions themselves , ( as was shown § 3. ) and accepted for Truths , as is suppos'd , they are incapable of Distinction , as shall be particularly shown hereafter , ( Evict . 3. § 5. ) Besides those Subjects being Points of Faith , and , so , standing in the Abstract , that is , not descending to subsuming respects , even in that regard too they are freed from all pertinent distinguishableness . § 8. The same is demonstrated from the nature of Truth , which consists in an Indivisible : Whence there is nothing of Truth had , how great soever the conceived approaches towards it be , till all may-not-bees , or Potentiality to be otherwise , be utterly excluded by the Actuality of Is or Existence : which put or discover'd , the Light of Truth breaks forth , and the dim twilights of may-not-bees vanish and disappear . § 9. The same is demonstrated out of the nature of Connexion found in the aforesaid Propositions . For , 't is evident their Truth consists in the connexion of those Notions which make the Subject and Predicate . Whoever therefore sees not the Connexion between those Notions in the Principle of Faith , sees not the truth of any of those Propositions ; that is , those Propositions are not to such a man True. Wherefore , Connexion excluding formally Inconnexion , so that 't is clearly impossible they should be found together in the self-same Subjects , and the falshood of such Propositions consisting in the Unconnectedness of their Terms , it follows that he who is oblig'd to profess those Faith-Propositions True , must see the Connexion between their Terms , and consequently that they cannot possibly be inconnected or false . Again , since all approaches or vicinity to Connexion , by how near degrees soever they are made , are not Connexion , it follows that all Connexion consists in an Indivisible , and can admit no Latitude for a Possibility to be otherwise , to be grounded on . Lastly , all Connexion being necessarily Immediate , or seen by virtue of Immediateness , and to see Immediate Connexion being the Producer of Certain Knowledg , or of Assurance the Thing cannot but be so ; it follows , that to see the Truth of such Propositions , or , which is all one , the Immediate Connexion of their Terms , is to see they cannot but be so , or that they are absolutely void of all Possibility of Falshood . § . 10. By this time we are brought orderly to look into the nature of Opinion . Which word I take not here in a large sense for any kind of Assent , however produc 't ; but for an Assent or Adhesion to a Tenet without sufficient Grounds to evince the Thing is so as the Opiner judges ; as it is taken in that Proverb , Turpe est opinari . Now , 't is most evident , that there would be sufficient Grounds to convince , in case , the Term or Point were seen to be deduc't by immediate steps , or a Train of immediate Connexions to that very Conclusion . 'T is manifest then , that 't is therefore Opinion , and blame-worthy , because its Grounds , as they are laid in the understanding of the Assenter , want or fall short of this immediate Connexion ; So that Opinion is a judgment upon remote or unimmediate Considerations . By which means it comes to pass , that the most necessary verity of that Grand Principle , [ The same is the same with it self ] upon which all Certainty both of first Principles and of Deduction is built , and whose perfect Self-Evidence and Interessedness in whatever belongs to right discourse , seem to make the very Light of Reason consist originally in It , is not engag'd in the Opiners discourse ; whence , wanting Immediateness , it becomes unconnected , incoherent , weak , and slack , or rather indeed null . No wonder then if all Opinion , how near soever it approaches seemingly to Immediate Connexion , and how strongly soever it be supported by an experienc'd seldomness of such Effects , or the conceiv'd unaptness and fewness of Causes fit to produce them , yet it admits Possibility of being otherwise ; in regard it fails in its very Root and Basis , by not relying on the main Principle and Foundation of all steadiness in humane Discourse , and which is of so necessary a Truth , that 't is impossible to falter or give way , to uphold and exempt it from a liableness to disconnexion of those Notions which it pretended , and ought to Identify ; that is , from a liableness to Errour . § 11. From this declaration of the nature of Opinion , it is render'd manifest out of what Fountain-head all Rational Assents flow ; namely , from seeing the Immediate Connexion of one Term with another ; or , which is all one , that this Principle [ The same is the same with it self ] stands engag'd for their verity : Also , that the Light of Reason consists fundamentally in this ; and formally in deriving the perfect Visibleness of this to make other Propositions also visible to the Eye of our Understanding . Likewise , that Assents not springing from this Light of Reason , must be , as such , Irrational ; and arise necessarily from the Will , taken as not following the Light of Understanding , but as prompted and put forward by some passion , viz. some irrational desire or inclination the thing should be so , which prest and precipitated the understanding into Assent before due motives forc't it . As likewise , that since none can be bound constantly to profess what he cannot steadily see to be true , a Christian who is thus bound to profess his Faith True , must see that the First Principle now spoken of , which gives all Steadiness to our Intellectual Sight , is interessed in the patronage of the Proposition he assents to : Whence , true Faith , by reason of its Immoveable Grounds , can bear an asserting the absolute Impossibility of its being False ; whereas , who ever affirms Faith may possibly be false , makes it built upon remote mediums , that is , such as are either not immediate ; or ( which is all one ) not seen to be immediate to the two Terms of the Proposition assented to ; and so , they become destitute of the Invincible strength of that first Principle which establishes all deduc't Truths , and legitimates all Assents to them . Whence follows inevitably , that he turns all Faith into Opinion ; makes Faith absurd , preternatural and irrational ; importing that 't is a thing which men must assent to or say interiorly 't is so , and yet see no solid Grounds why it must be so ; profess stoutly 't is true , and that they are sure of it ; and yet , if they will speak truly , profess with all , that it may be false , and that the whole world may be mistaken in it ; and lastly , he leaves all Christs Doctrine Indefensible , and utterly unmaintainable to have , absolutely speaking , either any solidity or steadiness in its Grounds , or one true word in it self . Second Eviction . § . 1. FRom this not-seeing the Connexion of the two Terms in the Conclusion by a Medium immediately connected to them both , but by distant Glances onely , which have not the power to make one see Intellectually the Thing is , or Assent ; joyn'd with this that , notwithstanding , 't is not seen those Terms are Opposit or Inconnectible ; the Soul becomes hereupon , as it were , invironed with a kind of Intellectual Darkness , and sees not which way to step forwards , without danger of harming hor Cognoscitive or Truth-affecting Nature by Errour . Whence , she remains in a kind of Neutral Condition , which we call Suspence . But , 't is to be well noted , that this Suspensive Condition of the Soul , not being a state of Actuality or Determination , ( much less of utmost Actuality , as is the seeing , by virtue of that main Principle before-nam'd , that a thing is ) but of Indetermination , Potentiality , and Confusedness ; its Nature admits consequently infinite degrees , according as the Appearances which incline her towards Assent or Dissent are greater or less . Moreover , as in the passing from Indetermination to Determination ( for example ) in a motion to a Terminus of Rest , there are diverse approaches of that Motions Quantity so very near the Terminus or End , that their distance is undiscernable to a vulgar eye , and needs exact skill to distinguish them : So it happens here , that there must necessarily be found divers Inclinations or Approaches towards Assent , which have so small a degree of Suspence in them , that they are hard to be distinguisht from absolute Assents , but by a learned Reflecter ; and the way he takes to distinguish them must be to observe whether the Understanding , acting reflectingly , that is , looking into the Nature of its own Act , finds there that it absolutely yields it self over to judg the thing is existent or true , or whether it onely judges it very probable or Truthlikely . For , any Assent to the greatest Likelihood of a thing is as far from being an Assent to the things Existence , as the Notion of Existent or True is from the Notion of very likely to be true . And if the Assent to the former be not actually an Assent to the later , yet tend towards it , as it does ; then 't is Potential in respect of it , and so includes some degree of Suspence ; which defect only can in our present case , hinder the other from being actually it , according to our former Discourse . Assent , then , to the meer Likelihood of a thing , is , or at least implies , Suspence of its Existence § 2. Another thing which inclines men to confound the Assent to the Likelihood of a thing , with the Assent to its Existence or Truth , is Habituation or Custom . For , men being us'd to proceed naturally to outward Action upon a very high Probability , without more adoe or examination , they are hence apt to apprehend that a Conceit , which had so little and so undiscernable a proportion of Suspence in it , was a perfect Assent : and that , because the Soul quite yielded to the Motive as to Exterior Action , therefore it yielded likewise as to Interior Assent . Whereas , by reflecting on the Nature of this Act in the Soul , and by retriving its Grounds , we come to discover that , however the Soul runs promptly and rationally to Outward Action upon such a Motive , when she is concern'd to act , even after deliberation ; yet , not so to Interiour Assent , if she acts rationally ; but , upon reflexion , finding in her self nothing to fix in her the Existence of the thing , or elevate it beyond the possibility of not-being or being False , she hangs back from assenting the thing is , and is constrain'd to say interiorly , or acknowledg in her own breast , she may possibly be mistaken , and the thing possibly be not-Existent , for ought she sees ; which restrains her from truly assenting that the thing is . § 3. An Instance will render our Discourse clearer . 'T is propos'd then ( for example ) to our Judging Power , whether America be or no ? And we 'l suppose ( to avoid a disputed case ) the Evidence of Authority has convinc'd the Understanding it once was , by the Impossibility the several Attesters should either be deceiv'd in a plain Object of Eye-sight , or have a common Motive able to make them conspire to bely their Eyes . But , the Question is , whether it be now or no. And , the uncouthness and unlikelihood that so vaste a place should be destroy'd , joyn'd with the Customariness of acting upon a very great probability , makes him who is to act in order to it , ( for example , send a ship thither ) proceed to his intended outward action fearlesly , and esteem him mad who desists upon a conceit of so unlikely a failure . For , since all Action is in particulars , and Particulars are the very Sphear of Contingency , it follows , that we must not act at all , if we expected Demonstrations of the several Objects and Adjuncts of our outward Action : Whence he deserves justly to be accounted frantick who should desist from Action where there is so high a Probability ; for this extravagant cautiousness were in effect to take away the Motives to any Exteriour Action in the world , and consequently all such Action it self . But now , let two Speculaters or Scholars meet together , who consider not the Practicableness , but meerly the Truth of things ; and aim not to better their Purse by Merchandizing or outward Endeavours , but their Understandings by rightly-made Judgments or Assents , that is , by Knowledges : and we shall see their working on the Point turns upon other hinges . In the other , there was Necessity of acting , without which the world could not subsist : but , here 's no necessity of Assenting , which we suppose onely aim'd at , at present ; nor can there be any , unless that Principle or Cause of all Assent [ The same is the same with it self ] comes to exercise its over-powering Virtue upon the Soul. There , it was enough that prudential considerations discover'd a betterness to act exteriourly , all things weigh'd ; to which needed not a severity of Principles forcing the Truth of the thing : but here , those Principles , which are the Maxims of Metaphysicks or Supreme Wisdom , are the only things to be consulted ; and the prudential weighing of Particulars avails little or nothing towards the secure establishment of the Truth aim'd at . There , some harm was likely to ensue , if they acted not exteriourly , and went not about their work : but , here , no harm at all could come by not acting interiourly ; I mean , by not-Assenting , but Suspending till the beams of Truth , by the Fountain-light of that First Principle , clear'd their Understandings : rather on the contrary , a great harm was certain to ensue upon assenting in that case , that is , an Injury to Reason , their true Nature ; by concluding , without seeing a middle Term connecting the two Extreams , on which every act of right Reason is built . These Scholars then , or Pursuers of Truth , consult with Speculative , not Practical Principles , to guide their Assents by . They are certain that such an Effect ( as is the destruction of America ) cannot be without a Cause ; and Experience tells them such Causes seldom or never happen : Yet , knowing that all material things have Contingency annext to their Natures , and not discovering any evident Principle in Nature hindering the vast Oceans on either side America to overswell the Continent , and so destroy it ; they are forc'd to confess interiourly America may , for any thing they know , possibly not be ; whence they are forc'd to suspend , as to its Existence , and only Assent to it's extream Likelihood of existing . § 4. The use I make of this discourse at present is this : that , though Likelyhoods have a great latitude ; yet Assent , ( being the terminus of those Inclinations towards it , which gradually exceed one another ) consists in an Indivisible , as does the notion of is , on which ( either seen , or deem'd to be seen ) 't is built , and to which it goes parallell . That , all Acts falling short of Assent to the Existence of a thing advance no farther than great Assents to it's Likelihood , and fall under the head of suspensive Acts ; as to that things Existence , as the Soul will discover upon reflexion : and that , when we mistake one for the other , 't is for not distinguishing well the great resemblance between assenting as to outward Action , and as to the speculative Truth ; as also between assenting to the extream Likelihood of a thing , and assenting to its Existence . That , whensoever we see the Possibility of a things being False or not-Existent ( which in our case is all one ) we cannot have an Assent to it's Existence , but to the likelihood of it only , and suspend as to its Existence or actual being : and that , therefore , they who acknowledg that , notwithstanding all the Means used and all the Grounds it has , Faith may possibly be false to us , cannot be held to assent to the Existence or Truth of those points ; but to suspend concerning their truth , and to assent only to their likelihood to be true , Which , whether it be a sufficient disposition to denominate such persons Christians , will easily and best be determin'd by the vulgar of Christianity , who possess the genuin and natural meaning of the word Faith , untainted with the frantick conceits sprung from such speculations as are taken out of Fancy ; not , as they ought , from the nature of the Thing . § 5. The same Argument may be made from the nature of firmly Holding , as was from Assent ; and the self-same discourse , mutatis mutandis : since 't is most Evident , none can firmly hold a thing to be true , which he sees and acknowledges , that is , holds may be False ; however he may hold it Very likely to be True. § 6. The same is evinc'd from the notion of knowing : which word I take here abstractedly , unconcern'd what kind of knowledg it be ; provided it be True and proper knowledg , and not abusively so call'd . For , since nothing can be known to be but what is , nor known to be such but what is such : again since Christians , if they have either Honesty or Wit in them , must , some way or other , know points of Faith to be true , whose truth they esteem themselves bound to profess and stand to even with the loss of their lives ; it follows , those points must be what they are known to be , that is True ; and consequently ( unless knowledg can be Ignorance ) impossible not to be or to be False . § 7. What hath been said of Assent and Holding and Knowing may also be discours'd from the notion of Certainty : for this has the same nature with the former , as it is a determination of the Understanding ; I mean , Intellectual determination is the common Genus to them all : and they differ only in this , that Knowledg and Certainty are proper Effects of Evidence , whether sprung from the thing or from the Attester , nor can they be where there is wanting the Intellectual Light issuing from that First Principle of all Evidence so oft spoken of ; whereas H●lding or Assenting can proceed from the Blindness of Passion , or from Ignorance , as well as from the clear Sight of the Understanding . Now that the Nature of Certainty consists in an Intellectual Determination thus originiz'd , and consequently , when put , excludes all possibility of being otherwise ( which is the point I aym to evince ) appears , partly from the Etymology , and most evidently from the Use of the Word . For , Certus signifies Determinate . As then , when the matter spoken of restrains that word to Volition , it signifies an Absolute Determination of Will or Resolution ; as , certus ●undi : so , when we are speaking of the Ground of Intellectual Certainty , and say the thing is Certain , we intend to express full as much as when we say , the thing is ; which speaks Ultimate Determination and Actuality in the Object , consider'd in it self : and , in like Manner , when the same word is intended to signifie Formal Certainty in Us , or that Disposition of the Understanding whereby it is said to be Certain , it must necessarily signifie ( unless , contrary to the nature of Words it's most formal Notion be less rigorous then those which are less formal ) a Determinate state of the Understanding , or an Intellectual Determination . Whence , as a thing is then Certain or Determinate when it is ; so the Understanding is then Determin'd according to it's Nature , or Certain , when the Thing is seen to be as it is , which immediate Effect of the other is impossible , but by virtue of the first Principle of Evidence making that clear discovery ; and , This engaged , all Intellectual Potentiality , or Possibility of not being seen to be , is totally and formally , that is , most absolutely excluded . The true and genuine Notion , then , of Certainty imports an absolute impossibility that that judgment which so fixes and determines the Understanding should be an Errour , or False : Since nothing can be seen to be , but what really is . § 8. Again , since Determination in any kind , is the Terminus of all Indetermination in the same kind , and so , beyond it : it follows , that Certainty or Intellectual Determination , is plac'd beyond all possible degrees of Indetermination of the mind , or Uncertainty . Certainty , therefore , is not attain'd till all possible degrees of Uncertainty , and , consequently , Possibility of Falshood to us , or Errour , be transcended and overcome . Faith , then , must be deny'd to be Certain , if it be put Possible to be False . §9 . And , as my former Discourse has endeavour'd to display the Nature of Certainty from its Genus and Difference , which compound it's Definition ; so the same will be still more satisfactorily evinc't from observing the Language of Mankind , when they use the word Certain . For , that being most evidently the signification of a word which the intelligent Users of that word intend to express by it : if by divers sayings of theirs we can manifest that they meant to signifie such a Conception by that Word , that will infallibly be the true meaning of it , and that Conception will have in it the true Nature of Certainty . Let us observe then attentively what is at the bottom of their hearts , when they use these and the like familiar Discourses , which naturally break from them . How frequent is it , when any one asks another , Is such a thing true ? and the other replies , I verily think it is ; he returns upon him with this pressing demand ; I , but are you certain of it ? may not you be mistaken ? Which clearly intimates that that Disposition call'd Certainty , is beyond all Inclinations , Motions , or indeterminate Tendencies of the Understanding , making it verily think 't is true , which speaks the next remove , as it were , from a certain Assent ; and , consequently , that 't is an absolute determination and fixure of the Soul that 't is true : As also , that Certainty elevates the Soul beyond hazard of mistake . Again , many times , when one is smartly questioned , if he be Certain of a thing ? not daring , upon better reflexion , pretend to Certainty , he replies warily ( in a moderate word which diminishes and falls short of the other ) that he is Morally certain of it ; which evidences that the Notion of Certainty is in point of fixing or determining the Understanding , beyond that counterfeit Certainty , call'd Moral Certainty : Wherefore , since all Moral Certainty ( as they call it ) how great soever , though it be penetrated perfectly according as 't is in its own Nature , is seen to consist with a Possibility to be otherwise ; True Certainty , which exceeds it , must needs include an Impossibility to be otherwise . Faith , then , is not , in true speech , Certain , unless it be Impossible to be False . § 10. Again , let an Overweener , after his mistake becomes Visible , be challeng'd with it ; we find that , in common speech , we use these or the like words , You said , or thought , You were Certain of it , but You see You are mistaken , Is it not Evident that the word Certain excludes a possibility of being otherwise ? since his being Certain of it formerly is deny'd purely upon this score , because he was mistaken : which shews that the true notion of Certain is inconsistent with mistake ; that is , that Certainty implyes Unmistakableness or , which is all one , Inerrability hîc & nunc in the present affair . Whereas , had the notion of Certainty admitted a Possibility not to be as he judg'd , he had not been so mistaken in judging that Certain which by actually happening not to be was shewn afterwards Possible not to be . To think to evade , by alledging that it was not meant his mistake consisted in judging that Certain or Impossible not to be , which was Possible not to be , but in judging that would be , which afterwards hap'd not to be , is meerly Childishness and Folly amongst Men , who hold that things are carry'd on by the course of Cause and Effect ; and that things therefore happen because a Cause puts them , or not happen because no Cause puts them . To judg , then , a thing would not be is the same , amongst Intelligent Men , as to judg there would be no Cause to make it be ; and , if there would be none such , 't is most evident it could not be , or was Impossible to be in this order of the world . Such answers are fit for men who are led more by Sounds than Sense ; and who think a different word will gain them an Escape , though that word signifies the same thing as the former . 11. The same will appear from the Absurdity , which palpably discovers it self in any Expression that modifies the true Notion of Certain with a Contingency : as if one should say , 't is Certain per adventure , or 't is fallibly Certain : The Nonsence of which shews that the true Notion of Certainty implies an Oppositness to all Contingency , or an Impossibility to be otherwise . You 'l ask , what then must be said of the Phrase , [ Moral Certainty ] where Certainty seems to admit an allay of Contingency ? I answer , 't is evident even hence and from all my former Discourse , that the word Certainty is there us'd Catachrestically or abusively , for some great Likelihood , and its Epithet means such a degree of it as is found generally in humane exteriour actions which depend on Free-will , and are contingent as being Particulars ; and speaks not proper Certainty , as 't is meant to signifie that perfect Intellectual Determination , whose Principles and Causes being high Truths , are unalterable . Whence , Moral Certainty , how high soever it be exalted and triumph in an empty name , is in reality Uncertainty ; and the highest degree of Moral Certainty is the lowest degree of Uncertainty , truly so call'd ; that is , of that which expresses an Intellectual Indetermination . § 12. Thus much from the use of the word ; which , when it falls naturally and unaffectedly from the tongue of the Speakers , is a proper Effect of the Notion or meaning in their Souls , that is , of the Signification of that word ; whence 't is an apt Medium to demonstrate that Notion , its proper Cause , à posteriori . § 13. From this Discourse follows , first , that , since , speaking of the present , ( and the same , in proportion , holds of other differences of time ) 't is the same to say , The thing is certain , as to say the thing is ; and to say the thing is speaks Indivisibility ; the Notion of Certainty too consists in an Indivisible . By which is not meant that one Certainty may not be greater than another , both from a greater Perfection in the Subject , and a greater certifying Power in the Object : but , that Certainty , in the way of being generated in the Soul , is either there all at once or not at all ; in the same sort as there is no middle between is and is not , ( or half-beings of them ) which are the formal Expressers of Certainty . Whence , again , appears that what we abusively call Moral Certainty , is indeed none at all ; because it reaches not that Indivisible or Determinative Point in which True Certainty consists . § 14. Secondly , since true Certainty is caus'd in us by seeing the thing is ; and this cannot be seen but by virtue of Principles ; ( especially that chief one , A thing is the same with it self ) which Principles being Truths , cannot possibly be False : it follows both that what is Certain cannot possibly be False , and that what can possibly be False subsists upon no Principles . Whence , all Moral Certainty , as they call it , as also all high Probabilities , which confessedly may possibly be false , are convinc'd to subsist upon no Principles : and they , who acknowledg they have but Moral Certainty and high Probabilities for their Faith or Opinion , confess they have no Principles , which in true Language deserve that name , to ground them ; but , at best , certain likely Topical Mediums that oft prove true , or hold for the most part : which may serve for a talking kind of Discourse , or Exteriour Action ; but are flat things and useless when Truth is to be concluded . § 15. Thirdly , it follows that true Certainty of any thing is the self-same with Infallibility or Inerrability , as to the same thing . For , Certainty is not had , till it be seen , that that First Principle , [ A thing is the same with it self ] is engag'd for the identification of the two Notions which make up the Proposition we are Certain of ; that is , for the Truth of that Proposition : Wherefore , since we can have Infallible Assurance of the Truth of that First Principle ; as also of this , that nothing can be seen to be , unless it be ; we can frame an Inerrable Judgment that , when we see that First Principle engag'd for the Identity of those two Notions , 't is engag'd for it , and so they identify'd ; that is , we must know Infallibly that that Proposition is true . This I say in case it be a True Certainty , and not an only deem'd or mistaken one : yet even then there is a deem'd Infallibility , and the person that mistakingly judges himself certain of a thing , judges withall that he cannot be mistaken , hic & nunc , in that particular , which manifests that the Notion of Certainty is the same with that of Infallibility , however it may be misapply'd . Again , since the natural use of words gives it not to be nonsence to say , [ I am Infallibly Certain of such a thing ] 't is plain that the Notion of Infallibly is not disparate from the Notion of Certain , or incompetent to it : it must then be either Tautological , or else be a different yet appliable Notion , and so apt to difference or distinguish it ; but it cannot be this later , for then the Notion of Certain ought in all Reason and Logick admit with equal sense the opposit difference [ Fallibly ] which we experience it does not ; nothing being more absurd and foolish than to say , [ I am fallibly certain of a thing ] 'T is clear then that infallibly is not fit to difference the Notion of Certain , or not a different Notion from it ; but the same sense reiterated in another word for aggravations sake , as when we say , I saw it with mine own eyes ; or such like ; that is , if we consider it calmly , we shall find that that malignant word Infallibility which so bewonders our Opposers , amounts to no more but true Certainty , and has the self-same Notion with it . § 16. Fourthly , it appears that , seeing what may be otherwise , how unlikely soever , needs but a lucky chance to be so ; they who say Faith may possibly be False , instead of establishing it , subject it to Chance and Contingency ; and confess it has no Grounds so to secure it but a greater Wit than has been formerly , may possibly shew it to be False ; that is , may subvert all the Grounds it now stands on . So that these men are convinc'd not to settle Faith upon any firm Grounds , or on the Nature of the thing : but to hang it on Humane Wit , that is , on the Wit of the present Christians maintaining its Plausibility ; and , possibly , on the fortunate want of an acuter Wit than any now extant ; who , when he shall arise , may perhaps outwit them , and shew all their Faith to be a ridiculous foolery . § 17. Lastly , speaking of Truths , 't is perfect Nonsense to say they can possibly be False ; since 't is a direct contradiction Truth should be Falshood ; as is evident in Predications of past or future things , viz. in these , Christ has dy'd , the Resurrection will be : the former of which , if once True , has been , and so cannot have not been , the Circumstance of Time being gone in which only it could not have been ; and the later , if once put to be true , that is , to stand under certain or unimpedible Causes , is Impossible to be False , or not to succeed . So that 't is the greatest madness and folly in the world to put either of these possible to be False . if they be once rightly judg'd Truths : and indeed I fear rather that they who judg the later possible not to be , subject them to impedible Causes ; and so make them , or at least their Grounds as to our knowledg , Future Contingents , which have neither determinate Truth nor Falshood . Speaking then of those Propositions or Points of Faith which predicate de praesenti , it will be found by the Considerer , that they are all in a matter which is unalterable , and above Contingency ; and , in case this were not , their very Determination to the present frees them from being other than they are for the present : Every thing while it is being necessarily what it is . There is no shadow , therefore , of Ground , for a man , who affirms Points of Faith to be Truths , to affirm withall they may possibly be False . All I can imagine in their behalf , to excuse them from speaking palpable Contradictions , is this ; that perhaps they may mean our Discourse , while in viâ to find out these Truths , was impedible , and so there was then a possibility they might not become seen to be True , that is , might be no Truths to us . But , the Question returns , Whether , in the end of our weighing their Motives , we discover them to be Truths or no ? If not , why do we so asseverantly affirm they are ? and why are we bound by Religion to profess them to be so ? or , if we come to discover they are Truths , how are we so stupid as not to discover withall , that they cannot possibly be Falshoods ? § 18. My last Argument from Logick shall be this , that there is no way left to prove Faith , or perswade it to another that acts according to perfect Reason , in case it , that is , its Grounds as to our knowledg , can possibly be False . And , that this is so , is not so much evident from any particular Consideration in Logick , as from the whole Nature of Artificial Discourse , or Disputation . For , in case the Premisses be but Morally Certain , ( as they call it ) or possible to be false , that is , if the two Terms be not seen to be connected , these Propositions may , nay ought to be deny'd by the Respondent ; whose Office and Right it is to grant nothing but what is Evident , lest he ensnare himself ; but to put the Arguer to prove them . What then must the Opponent or Arguer do ? Must he bring a Syllogism consisting of Premisses only morally Certain or possible to be false , to make the other good ? What will it avail ? since these Premisses are also deniable for the same reason , and so in infinitum ; that is , nothing at all can possibly be concluded finally , till Grounds impossible to be false be produced ; which put , the Conclusion may be such also . Wherefore , unless Faith have Grounds impossible to be False , ( and , consequently , able to shew It such also ) none can Rationem reddere Fidei , give a true Reason of their Faith ; but such an one at best as , in due right of Dispute , is ●●deniable at pleasure : Whence Faith is rendred both unmaintainable or indefensible in it self , and unperswadable to others that guide themselves by perfect Reason . For , however all who discourse of Religion , when they would convert any to Faith , use not to pin their Motives to Syllogistical Form : Yet , since no Reason in the case of convincing the Understanding , is allowable , but what will bear the test of true Logick ; and this assures us there 's no concluding any thing at all , without relying finally on Premisses or Grounds impossible to be False : it follows that , how finely and quaintly soever these men talk , unless they produce such Grounds , they can conclude nothing at all ; and all their importunate Perswasions , which are not reducible to these Grounds , ( nay , are made use of by Persons who declare against having any such Grounds for Faith ) signifie just as much as if they should say , I beseech you , Sir , be so good natur'd as to believe me ; though to tell you true , I acknowledg sincerely neither can I bring , nor can there possibly be brought any Ground able to make good what I say , or any undeniable Premisses to force my Conclusion . Third Eviction . § 1. THus far Logick : Let 's see next what Nature and Metaphysicks say to the Point , in which Quest yet we must not leave Logick's Assistance . And , first , these Sciences assure us , that as all Capacity of different Beings springs from First Matter , so all Capacity of contrary Determinations arises from what we call Potentiality or Indifferency in the Subject . Now the Subject in our present case is not so much our meer Faculty of Understanding , as the Points of Faith it self in our Soul , or the judging Power of our Soul consider'd precisely as affected with these Points ; for , 't is these , or our judging Power taken meerly as conversant about These , that is , our Judgments , which our Opponents must affirm True , yet Possible to be False . Since therefore both the Points themselves and our Judgments consist formally in Affirmation and Negation , that is , in is and is not , which are indivisible , and constituted such by a Formality the most formal and actual that can be , ( as hath been shown ) they can have , as such , no Indifferency or Potentiality in them to the contrary , neither Natural nor Metaphysical ; nor , consequently , Possibility of Falshood . § 2. The Position of our Adversaries is still render'd more absurd by this Consideration , that even in Nature where there is the greatest Potentiality that is , viz. First Matter , the Subject is not yet capable of opposit Qualities at once , but successively ; at least in the same part : Whereas , their Position is not that Faith which is now True is possible to be False afterwards upon the Alteration of some Contingent Matter ; but , that 't is Possible now to be False , or possible to be now False , for any thing any man knows ; that is , the understanding may have possibly Truth and Falshood in it at once , and as to the same Part or Point . § 3. But 't is still far more irrational , in regard these seeming Contraries , ( True ) and ( False , ) apply'd to the Propositions we speak of , have in them the perfect nature of Contradictories ; it being necessary that in those which speak de praesenti , one should be exprest by [ is existent ] the other by [ is not existent ] as 't is in those which speak preteritly and futurely , that one should be exprest by ( hath been ) or ( shall be , ) the other by ( hath not been ) or ( shall not be : ) To think then they can at once be True and False , is to judg that Contradictories may be verified of the same , or that both sides of the Contradiction may be true . § 4. Again , Truth being a Conformity of the mind to the Thing , and Falshood a Disconformity ; to say , a Proposition is True , and yet possible to be False , is to say , that the mind , consider'd as judgingly conversant about that Proposition , may be at once Conformable and Disconformable to the same thing . Too wild a Position to be introduc'd into a rational nature , by any thing but such a wilful and blind passion , as must first actually corrupt , and , in fine , tend to destroy the very nature it self . § 5. And , to void this Thesis from all possible evasion , here can be no different Respects according to which these Affirmations and Negations may be made , so to avoid Contradiction ; but all such Respects are excluded , both out of the nature of the Predicate in most of those Propositions , as hath been shewn ( Evict . 1. § 5. ) as also out of the nature of the Points of Faith ; which , standing in the abstract , descend nor to , nor meddle with subsuming Respects , but have their Notions compleated in the common words which express them . And , lastly , because Truths and Falshoods are not capable of Distinctions and Respects : For , however a Proposition taken into Consideration and scanning whether it be true or no , may admit Respects and Distinctions , and so be affirm'd to be in this regard True , in that False ; yet , what is once accepted to be True , cannot in any Respect afterwards be affirm'd possible to be not True , or False . For example , this Proposition [ An Ethiopian is white ] is distinguish'd by Respects to several parts , and in regard to his Teeth 't is true ; to his skin , 't is false : But after those Respects have distinguish'd the Ambiguity of it , and so , by dividing it into two Propositions , settled one to be True , the other to be False , there can be no further use of Respects or Distinctions , which are to antecede to Truth and Falshood by clearing the doubtfulness of Propositions , and can have no place after the Truth is once acknowledg'd , or supervene to it . He then that once acknowledges Points of Faith to be Truths , can have no Assistance from recourse to this and the other Respect , to evade a Contradiction when he affirms they may be False . § 6. Again , 't is particularly opposite to the nature of a Soul to have such an Act in her as to judg a thing True yet possible to be False at the same time . For , our Soul as to her Judging Power is essentially a Capacity of Truth ; whence the First Principles which ground all Truths are so connatural to her , that she cannot but embrace them and judg them true . Nothing therefore being more opposit to Truth than a Contradiction , it follows that nothing is more impossible to be receiv'd or subjected in the Soul according to her Judging Power than a Contradiction ; that is , no implicatory or contradictory Act can settle there . Now , to judg a Proposition or Point to be true , is to judg the thing to exist just as it affirms ; and , to judg it Possible to be False , is to judg it Possible not to exist as it affirms ; and this , not in order to different times but the same ; that is , to judg a Proposition or Point true yet possible to be false , is the same , as to judg the thing actually is , and yet perhaps is not at the same time ; and this , as appears by our former Discourse , not to be avoided in our case by difference or diversity of Respects . Wherefore , since such an Act is not possible to be in the Judging Power of the Soul , 't is most manifest , that he who holds one side of the Contradiction , cannot possibly hold the other ; that is , he who holds Faith may be False , cannot hold that 't is True ; and that , if it be held and profest to be True , it ought also to be held and profest Impossible to be false . § 7. Moreover , the Soul , antecedently , to its being inform'd by the Object , was indifferent and undetermin'd to judg it True or False , that is , to be or not to be ; but , when it came afterwards through consideration of the Thing or Object to judg it True , it became determin'd ; and how , but by a Notion the most determinative of any other , viz. that of being or is : wherfore , since to put in her at the same time a Judgment of its possibility to be False , puts her to be indetermin'd , and this in order to the same , This Position puts the Soul to be at once determinate and indeterminate as to the same ; which states are as vastly distant as actual Being and not-actual Being can remove them . Nay , this monstrous Thesis makes the Soul Indeterminate to either side , that is to Truth as well as to Falshood , even after it had suppos'd her determin'd to Truth ; For , to judg a Point possible to be False , puts the Judgment Potential or Indetermin'd as to the Falshood of it ; and False signifying not-true , possible to be False must signifie possible to be not True , and so include Potentiality or Indetermination to Truth also : in regard , were it actually True , it could not be Possible to be not True , or not it self . The Soul must then be Indeterminate to either , that is , neither judg it true nor false , even after she was supposed to judg it true , in case she can then judg it possible to be false : and , consequently , this Position of Faith's possibility to be false , cannot , without highest contrad●ction , stand with a hearty conceit that Faith is True. To think to escape the force of this Argument by alleadging the respect to different Motives , or , that the Understanding was not perfectly but partly determin'd , is in our case frivolous . For I ask , was it determin'd enough by any Intellectual or Rational Motives to judg the thing is ? if not , what made it judg so when those Motives could not ? Is it not evident it must be some weakness or some blind motive in the Will , not Light of Understanding ? But , if it were determin'd enough to judg the thing is or is true , 't is also enough for my Argument and Purpose . § 8. Especially the force of this Argument will be better penetrated when it shall be well consider'd in what Truth and Falshood formally consist ; and that , taken rightly , they are certain Affections or Dispositions of our Understanding . For , that is not to be called True by me which is not True to me ; not is any thing True to me , but when 't is seen by me to be so in the Object ; and to be thus seen by me , is the Object to inform and actuate my Understanding Power as 't is Judicative ; whence that Power , as 't is thus actuated , gains a Conformity to the thing it self , in which consists the precise nature of Truth . However then Truth come from the Object which is the ground or cause of it , yet 't is formally no where but in the Understanding or Judgment ; as appears evidently from this , that Truth is found in Propositions : now Propositions are not in the thing formally , ( though , when true , they are deriv'd hence ) but in the mind only , and significatively in words . Truth then is that whereby I am true or veracious when I say interiourly , the Thing is , or is thus and thus ; wherefore the Truth of any Point is not had till this Actuation or Determination of my Power by the Object , which as it's Formal Cause makes this Conformity to it , be put : And , this put , to think that at the same time or at once the mind can be unactuated , undetermin'd , potential or disconformable to it , is too gross a conceit to enter into the head of any man endued with the common Light of Reason . Whoever then affirm's Faith or those Propositions which express Faith possible to be false , he is convinc't by the clearest Light of Reason ( in case the desperation of maintaining the Truth of Faith , for want of grounds , drives him not to say any thing , but that he speaks candidly what he thinks ) not to judg or say from his heart , His Faith is indeed True , having never experienc't in his Soul , for want of Principles to put it there , that the Object or Ground of his Faith hath wrought in it that Conformity to the thing , in which Truth consists ; and , consequently , that , when he professes Points of Faith to be Truths , he either by a fortunate piece of folly understands not what he sayes , or collogues and dissembles with God and the world for honour or some other Interest . § 9. 'T is hence farther demonstrated that the Position we impugn destroys the Notion of Metaphysical Unity , consisting in an Indivision or Indistinction of any Notion , Nature or Thing in it self , and a Division or Distinction of it from all other : For , according to this Tenet , Truth or the Conformity of our Understanding to the Object , put by our joynt supposition that the Proposition of Faith is true , may possibly be Disconformity or Falshood , and this Determinate State , Indeterminate ; which makes the mind as having in it One Notion , that is indeed that One Notion , capable to admit into its bowels Another , not only disparate , but Opposit , that is , One possible to be not One , but Another . § 10. The same is demonstrated concerning Metaphysical Verity . For this Position makes the self-same mental Proposition or Disposition of the Understanding we call Truth , possible to be Falshood ; that is , Possible not to be the same with it self , which subverts all Metaphysical Verity ; that is , the Foundation or ground of all Formal Verity or Truth in the World. § 11. The same injury demonstratively accrues to Metaphysical Bonity or Goodness . For , it makes that Conformity of the mind to the thing which is Truth , and so the Good or Perfection of the Understanding , to be at once possible to be Falshood , that is , possible to be not good but harmful and destructive to it . § 12. I make no question but my Adversaries will think to elude the force of these three last Demonstrations , and perhaps of some others by alleadging that they deny absolutely Truth can possibly be Falshood , and that they mean only that though the Points of Faith appear now upon considerable Motives to be True , yet those Motives secure it not from being absolutely False ; but not so that they can really be both . And I grant this would be a good Answer , in case they did not affirm Points of Faith to be really True , ( upon which Supposition taken from the common Language and Sentiments of all that profess Christianity , even theirs too as Christians I proceed ) but only profest they were Likely to be True ; for then it would be so far from following that Truth could be Falshood , or that the same Points could be both true and not true at once , that , in that case , it would follow they ought to affirm they were neither True nor False ; since likely to be True and True indeed are no more the same , than a Statue which is like a man is the same with a man. But , if all Christians be bound to profess , and themselves actually do so , that their Faith is indeed True , then let us see how they will avoid the consequences of my former discourse , when they assert it withall Possible to be False . For it is that very individual judgment they make concerning a Point of Faith , or an Act of Faith , which they must affirm to be True or a Truth , that is conformable to the thing ; and 't is of the self-same Judgment , though call'd by them a Truth , of which they affirm that 't is possible to be False , or disconformable to the Object : And , this is not so meant as if it should become so afterwards , either by some Alteration of that Judgment into another , or of the thing to which it is Conformable ; but that even that very self-same Judgment , while they speak and hold it after their Fashion True , may even then possibly be False ; from which 't is evident , that for want of solid Grounds to settle Poin●s of Faith in their Soul as Truths , they hold them indeed only Likelihoods , whose Nature 't is to be Possible to be F●lse ; and yet , forc't by the natural sense and language of Christianity , which 't is dishonourable to them too palpably to contradict , they become oblig'd to profess them Truths , whose firm Grounds make them Impossible to be False ; though at the same time they affix to them the proper badg of Likelihoods , Possibility of Falshood . Whence by confounding the purest and solidest nature of Truth 's Gold , with other Notions of so base an alloy that it cannot admit any mixture with them , all Principles which are to support the true Natures or Beings of things , are by consequence attacqu't ; and , could their Position stand , would quite be overthrown . Fourth Eviction . § 1. THe very first Principle of all Truth cannot escape the pernicious Attempts of this Erroneous Tenet . 'T is this Quicquid est , dum est , impossibile est non esse , or , The same thing cannot both be and not be at once . For in Faith-Propositions , especially those in which Existent is the Predicate , [ as the Trinity is , &c. ] 't is the same to say the Proposition is True , as to say the Subject is Existent ; and the same to say it may be False , as to say 't is Possible to be not Existent , or that it may not be ; and our Adversaries relate not this to a several circumstance of time in which they may be conceiv'd to agree to the Subject successively , for their sense is that this Proposition [ a Trinity is , &c. ] may ( for any thing they know ) even now possibly be False while they pronounce it true . Since then to affirm a thing Existent , and yet Possible to be not Existent at the same time , is to say directly , that it may be and may not be at once , 't is most manifest that either they must not say a Trinity is Existent , or else 't is not possible not to be Existent at the same time ; that is , if indeed that Point of Faith be True , they must withall affirm it Impossible to be False ; as also that they who affirm both , profess to hold direct Contradictories . So that while these men go about to violate the Sanctuary of Faith , whose solid Nature is so built that 't is intrinsecally repugnant to Falsity , they by consequence subvert the Ground-work and Bottom-Principles of all Truth . So wisely did that best Master of Mankind settle his Doctrin , that we cannot call into question that which makes us Christians , without renouncing all that makes us Men. § 2. I foresee my Adversaries will still object that I mistake them and impose upon them to relate their Discourse to the real Being of the thing as it stands in the thing it self , whereas they intend it only to mean the thing as standing under Notion , or consider'd according to divers Motives they either have or may have to perswade or disswade them as to the Verity of it ; and in plain terms that they mean only this ; that Faith is not so conveniently proposed to them but that the grounds of it for any thing appears evidently are possible to be False . I answer , that I also speak of the thing as standing under Notion , else how could I put it in Propositions , and discourse from the nature and contradictoriness of those Propositions as I do all along ? But yet , lest my Notions should be aiery and empty , I am careful to take them from the nature of the thing , and to rate the Truth of my Propositions from the Conformity they have to the Object as in it self ; and the force of my Motives from the relation they have to First Principles ; and then I am sure to discourse and speak solidly . The same I expect from them : Whence I ask them , whether they assent to this Proposition , [ A Trinity is Existent ] that is , judg it really and indeed True , or not ? If not , I argue not against them at present , but leave them to be confuted by the natural Sentiments , and punsh'd by the abhorrence of all that profess themselves Christians , even their own party ; of whom I have so good an Opinion that they will heartily abominate that man who shall make any difficulty to profess and maintain that there is indeed a Trinity , or that his Faith is True. But , in case they do assent indeed to this Proposition , [ A Trinity is ] or judg it True , then I contend farther that they must be forc't likewise to affirm it to be so in the thing in it self as they predicate ; that is , there is found in the same Thing or Being what corresponds to the Notion of Trinity and the Notion of Existent ; which put , and that they thus judg it to pass in the Thing , I affirm that , out of the formal Opposition between Existent and not-Existent , and their Incompossibility in the same subject , which they cannot but know , it follows necessarily that they must judg it Impossible it should be not-Existent , or that that Proposition should be false at the same time they judg it true and the thing existent ; nor ever afterwards , unless the thing whence it 's Truth is taken be Alterable . I will endeavour to explain my self a little clearer if I can . As real existence so ultimately determines and actuates the Thing in which it is , that it excludes , while there , all possibility of real non-Existence : so Intellectual or Iudg'd Existence exprest by the word [ is ] so ultimately determines and actuates the Soul as to its Judging Power , that it excludes , whiles there , all Possibility of judg'd non-Existence ; in such sort , that ( the Soul being by Nature fram'd a Capacity of Truth ) 't is no less Impossible it can judg a thing may be and may not be at once , than 't is that a thing should at once be and not be in reality . Again , I affirm that , 't is equally impossible the Motive , which ( in case she acts rationally ) convinces the Soul the Thing is , should consist with a Possibility of it 's not Being , as 't is that the Soul can at once judg it to be and not to be , or that the thing can both be and not be really ; since this Motive was the Cause of the other Iudgment , and an Effect of the Thing 's Being so in reality ; and depends on the same Incompossibility of Being and not-Being , or on the simplicity of the Notion is ; and , lastly , on a Maxim as evident as what is most ; namely , that the same is the same with it self . Whence I make account whoever has sufficient Grounds to affirm a Point of Faith is , or is true , that is , is more than Likely to be True , has withall true Grounds to affirm it Impossible to be False ; and that , who confesses it Possible to be False , disclaims any true Grounds of judging or professing it is , or is True ; and so judges it in his heart to be but a high Probability or a good Likelihood at most , which is enough for plausible Talkers , but falls far short of making a man a true Christian. § 3. And , hence , we may with horrour and pitty reflect upon the perniciousness of Heresy , in corrupting the Understanding , that eye whose defect fills ( as our Saviour discourses it ) the whole Body with darkness ; by subverting fundamentally all those Principles in which the Common Light of all Knowledg consists ; and perverting ( as much as the Goodness of Nature establish't by our Creator will suffer it ) that very Faculty which makes us Men in what is most Intrinsecal and Essential to it , the knowledg of the first Principles , that is , despoiling it quite of all Intellectual Perfection due to it's nature : But to return to our Arguments . § 4. Can any discourse be taken higher than from first Principles ? Yes , in some sort there can ; that is , from the First Cause or Being , or , à Patre Luminum , the Father of lights , from whom all created Natures , whence those Principles are borrowed , and the very nature of our Understanding it self , where they are found , derive their Origin . This First Being Metaphysicks demonstrate to be Self Existent , that is , Infinit and Unlimited in Existence , and consequently in all perfections ; amongst which , since to be a Self-determination to act according to right Reason is one , God has or rather is that too . It being then according to right Reason to do what is seen clearly to be best , all things consider'd ; God , seeing what is absolutely Best , must therefore be Self-determin'd to do still what is Best . This put , looking into the notions of Good and Best , we find them to be both relative , and that what is good to none is is not good at all : Applying which to God's Perfection every way Infinit and no way farther perfectible , 't is seen manifestly that when he is said to operate exteriourly in this world what is Best , it cannot mean what is Good or Best to Himself , or any thing which is His own Good , or Perfection , but , what is good or best to his Creatures . And hence we settle this most comfortable , most evident and most enlightning Conclusion , that God does what 's best for his Creatures . And , it being evidently Best for them to be guided or govern'd according to the true natures which he has given them , it follows also that God governs his Creatures connaturally , or sutably to their right natures . § 5 Hence it follows that , if we can once demonstrate that to Act thus or thus is most Connatural to such a Species or Nature , we can demonstrate from the Highest , First , Best and most Immutable Cause , that , however Contingency finds place in divers particulars , yet that kind , as 't is subjected to Gods guidance , is govern'd most agreeably to its true and right nature , which his Creative Wisdom and Goodness had at first given it . § 6 Particularly , 't is consequent that it cannot be God should command or expect from his Creatures what is opposit to the true Nature he had given them . For , since their being what they are , or their Metaphysical Verity is fixt by the Idea's in his own divine Understanding , from which in their Creation they unerringly flow'd , hence , as to put them at first was to act conformably to himself or his own Wisdom , so , to violate them , is to work Disconformably and unlike to himself ; which it cannot be thought God should do through Inclination or Choice , and as little be made to do it through force . § 7. Again , since we can no otherwise discourse of God but by such Notions as we gather here from Creatures ; which , however improper , yet all grant to be truly pronounc't of him if they signify Perfection ; Hence , if we can demonstratively evince that such an Action is truly agreeable to Wisdom , Goodness , Mercy , &c. and such others disagreeable , we can know Demonstratively that those are worthy to proceed from him , These Impossible to have so infinitely perfect an Author . § 8. What use may be made of this Principle of Supream Wisdom [ God does what is best for his Creatures ] will be seen hereafter . The use we make of it at present , is to adde a new degree of establishment to our former Discourses by applying it to them . I argue then thus : Since 't is agreeable to rational Nature , or rather since 't is the very Nature it self , not to hold any thing but upon the tenure of Immediate Connexion , or seeing that the first Principle of all rational discourse , [ The same is the same with it self ] is engag'd for the Truth both of the Premisses and Consequence ; since Assents not thus abetted are but Opinions , and , as such , deprave Humane Nature ; since nothing but true Certainty can fix the Understanding in a steadness of Judgment ; since 't is connatural to Rational Nature to proceed upon Principles , which is not to be had where there is Possibility of Falshood ; since this Possibility renders Faith unmaintainable ; and so , contrary to rational nature , makes Christians hold and profess what they cannot make good ; since the putting Points of Faith to be Truths , yet possible to be False , puts the Soul in violent and Incompossible States , as of Indetermination and Determination , Conformity and Disconformity to the Object ; nay subjects her to the judging Contradictions True , which is most repugnant to her Nature ; since it subverts all the Principles of our Understanding , both Logically and Metaphysically consider'd , that is radically and fundamentally destroys all possible Rationality ; since it destroys the Nature of Faith it self , and by consequence the stability of all the Natures in the world ; since , I say , these things are so , as hath been particularly prov'd in my precedent Discourses , it follows that 't is the greatest Impossibility that God , who does the best for his Creatures , can govern or manage his Darling-Creature , Mankind , on this preternatural fashion : But , 't is Certain that the way to arrive at Faith is particularly laid by Gods Providence , and so is an especial part of his Government of Mankind ; 't is known also and acknowledg'd that he has commanded us to profess the Truth of our Faith in due occasions ; Therefore , 't is Impossible the Means , Grounds or Rule of Faith , and , consequently , Faith it self , should be capable to be False ; Seeing this last Position , joyn'd to the other immediately foregoing , induces all the Absurdities mentioned in my former Discourse , and pins them upon the Deity as on their first Cause . So horrible and Diabolical a Tenet is this of the Possible Falshood of Faith , that it calumniates Heaven it self ; nor can any thing but an Invincible Ignorance in the Maintainers of it , excuse them from highest Blasphemy , & from making the unenvious Fountain of all Goodness like our own narrow and crooked Selves . Fifth Eviction . § 1. LEt us hear next what the Science of Divinity both Speculative and Moral will award concerning the Point in Question . § 2. The Wisdom of the Eternal Father having been pleas'd to take our Nature upon him , and , amongst his other Offices he perform'd towards Mankind , that of a Master being manifestly one ; we cannot doubt but that he both would and could , that is , did accomplish what belong'd to that Office. Again , true D●vinity assigning one main , if not the chiefest , Reason why the Second Person was made Man , to be this , that , it being requisite God should come and converse with us visibly , to cause in us Knowledg of his heavenly Doctrine , or be our Master , and Knowledg or Wisdom being appropriated to the Second Person , it was therefore most fit that Person should be Incarnate ; it follows that the Office of a Master in our Saviour Christ springs peculiarly out of the nature of his Divine Personality , and not of his Humanity precisely , as does his Suffering and Dying for us , &c. Wherefore the Proper Agent of Instructing and Teaching Mankind being , as such , Infinitely Perfect , 't is evidently consequent Christ perform'd the Office of a Master , or wrought the effects proper to a Teacher as such , with all imaginable Perfection . § 3. It being then the proper Office or Effect of a Master or Teacher to make his Schollers know his Doctrin is True , we cannot think but that this Divine or Infinitely-perfect Master made them absolutely or perfectly know the Truth of his Doctrine . § 4. And , because the end of this Teaching was not terminated in those few himself convers'd with , nor in the Christians of the First Age , but was principally intended for the Body of Mankind , which was future in respect of them ; it follows that this Enlightning and Instructing now spoken of , was to be equally extended to the following World of Christians : they being all Sectators or Followers of his Doctrin ; that is , his Scholars , and He their Master . Unless then he had taken order that succeeding Ages also should have perfect Assurance or know his Doctrine was absolutely True , he would have set up a School and laid no means to preserve the far greater part , and in a manner the whole Body of his Scholars ( or Christians ) from Ignorance and Errour . § 5. All Christians then both the Primitive and their Successors had and will have means to Know absolutely Christian Doctrine is True. This means we call the Rule of Faith : Both the Rule of Faith then must be known to be veracious , and Faith which is built on it to be absolutely T●ue , and by consequence to be absolutely Impossible to be False . § 6. Besides Man being an Intellectual Creature , 't is evident the true Perfection of his Nature consists in Knowing ; and this , whether we consider him as a Speculater , or as an Acter . For if the thing may Possibly be False for any thing he knows , then he is most evidently Ignorant whether it be False or no ; that is , whether it be True or no ; which speaks Imperfection in his Nature as 't is a Capacity of Knowledg ; And , if he be to Act about it , 't is evidently a less Perfection and worse for mankind to go to work unassuredly than assuredly ; Faith then being Gods Ordinance , and God doing what is best for Mankind , it follows Faith is perfectly secure to him ; that is , he must know it to be such ; and , consequently , 't is not subject to the Contingency of being False . § 7. But , leaving Man , the Subject of Faith , and reflecting upon Faith it self in us , the first thing that offers it self to our Consideration is , that it's Habit is a Virtue , and consequently Rational . Also that it's Act is an Assent upon Authority ; since then 't is demonstrated formerly that there can be in reason no Assent without Certain Grounds , and that what is Certain is Impossible to be False , it follows that the Grounds of Faith , and , consequently Faith it self is not possible to be False . § 8. Next , Faith is an Intellectual Virtue , that is , apt to perfect mans understanding as such ; that is , 't is to him a Knowledg , and so informs his mind with Truths . The Nature of Faith then forces that Points of Faith must be Truths , and , so , as is manifoldly demonstrated , Faith it self is not possible to be False . § 9. Again , this Intellectual Virtue call'd Faith is also a Supernatural one ; and , therefore , as such , proceeds from an Agent infinitely more perfect than any can be found in Nature ; therefore the immediate effect aim'd at by Faith , that is , the informing the Understanding , would be perform'd with infinite advantage as far as concerns that Supernatural Agent 's or God's part ; and , if it be not so exquisitely perform'd , it must spring from some Incapacity in the Subject . There being then in this Effect of informing the Understanding two Considerations , viz. Evidence , which is had either by Experience of our Senses , ( of which Spiritual Natures , the chief Objects of Faith are incapable ) or by intrinsecal Mediums , that is Demonstration of those Spiritual things ; of which , taking the Generality of mankind , the Subject of Faith , very few are capable ; And that other of Certainty , attainable both by those Intrinsecal and also Extrinsecal Mediums , or Authority ; which Authority , by means of the Practicableness of it's Nature , all are to a great degree able to understand ; it follows that , here being no violence or unsuitableness to Humane Nature consider'd in it's Generality , the ●upernatural Agent or Cause of Faith will effect here a greater Certainty than meer natural Impressions could produce ; that is , ( all Extrinsecal Arguments being finally resolv'd into Intrinsecal ones ) the Best and Chief Nature in the world will be made use of , and most strongly supported to make up the greatest Authority that is possible , and so to establish this Certainty of Faith and it's Principles beyond that of any Humane Sciences . But divers pieces of Humane Science , nay the least particle of true Science is acknowledg'd impossible to be False ; Faith therefore à fortiori must be such also . § 10. This Supernaturality of Faith , ( by which word we mean Divine Faith ) convinces that it ought to exceed all other Faith 's according to the Notion of Faith in common ; that is , it ought to partake whatever Perfection truly belongs to Faith or Belief , as such , in an especial manner ; and far above what is found in Humane Faiths ; in a word , it ought to have as much in it as can elevate it under the Notion of Faith , without wronging that Notion or Nature : Faith then in common , as distinguisht from Science and Opinion , being an Assent upon Authority , and Firmness being evidently a Perfection in an Assent , Divine Faith ought to have a far greater degree of firmness in it than any Humane Faith whatsoever ; Wherefore , since Humane Faith can rise to that Degree of Stability , that Mankind would think him mad , that is , a Renouncer of evident Reason , who can think seriously it can be an Errour or possible to be False , ( for example , the Belief of this present Age concerning the Existence of France or K. Iames ) Divine Faith being Supernatural , ought to be more firmly grounded ; and consequently more highly Impossible to be False . § 11. Again , we find that the more we are ascertain ' that a Convictive Authority is engag'd for the Truth of any thing , the more strongly that Authority is apply'd to our Understanding ; and consequently , more forcibly works its effects there , or subducs it to Assent ; whence this Certitude is so far from being against the nature of Belief , that 't is most manifest it strengthens and perfects it under that Notion . Divine Faith then being Supernatural , has a peculiar right to have such an Application of the Divine Authority to the understanding , as may be truly Certain or Impossible to be False ; since by such an Application 't is most evident that not less but more Belief is given to the said Authority , and the understanding becomes more humbled and subjected to it ; that is , by such an Application , how scientifically evident soever it be , the Act of Faith is never the nearer being an Act of Science , but is perfecter under the very Notion of an Act of Faith ; being still a steadier , heartier , and firmer Assent for the Authority's sake , which is thus strongly and closely apply'd , and a greater Reliance on it . § 12. Moreover , Faith being to work through Charity , and to guide our actions as we are Christians ; and rational actions being so much more perfect by how much more knowingly they proceed from the Agent ; unless Faith were truly Certain , that is , Impossible to be false , Christian action would fall short of the Perfection found in most ordinary Humane Actions of an inferiour and ( in comparison ) trifling concern ; and a Christian would go to work with less assuredness and steadiness than a Carpenter and Cobler ; and this , not out of the Impediments of Original Sin , ( which is Contingent and Extrinsecal to Faith or Religion ) but meerly out of a defect of Certainty in the Intrinsecals of Faith it self and it's Grounds ; which beyond all evasion , affixes the Imperfection upon Christianity it self . § 13. I may add , that Arts and Sciences , ev'n the most slight and inconsiderable ones , and which are most lyable to Contingency in their Effects or the Actions springing from them , have yet all of them Certainty in their Principles . Religion then being the Art of carrying or guiding Souls to Bliss , and the Points of Faith its Principles , in virtue of which 't is to perform this Effect ; and the Ground of Faith the main and supream Principle , whose Firmness is to establish the rest , and , so , render them efficacious : unless Faith it self and its Grounds were truly Certain , the Principles of all Religion would be exceedingly more defective and inefficacious than those of any petty Mechanical Trade , and indeed no Principles . Sixth Eviction . § 1. THe foregoing Considerations are more enforc'd by this , that Faith is the Light which discovers to us our Last End and the Way to it ; that is , which is to guide us in that to which all our other Concerns are subservient , and all our Actions directed . Unless therefore this Knowledg or Light of Faith be steady and firm , all our whole Life , as Christians , would be feeble , tott'ring and uneven : as wanting Certainty of the First Practical Principles which are to ground our Christian Behaviour ; nay , Certainty of the End we should aim at , without which the whole Course of our Life must needs be staggering and inconstant , and it self but a blind groping in the dark . § 2. Moreover , since all Mankind , even the Heathens themselves , had perfect Evidence and Certainty of the Practical Principles of Natural Morality , which grounded their Moral ( seeming ) Virtues , as is confest ; which Virtues yet , for want of the Light of Faith teaching them to know their true last End , and so perform the Acts of those Virtues for it's sake , or order them to Heaven , fell short of elevating them towards it and bringing them thither : It follows that , had there not been provision made that Points of Faith , the Principles of Christian Morality , should be as Certain as were the other , things would have been perversly order'd ; that is , greater care would have been taken to create those imperfect Dispositions of the Soul , which alone were not able to secure one man from the State of Eternal Misery , than for those Sublime Perfections , call'd Christian Virtues , which are the direct steps for man to arrive at Eternal Bliss , and the Immediate means to attain the End he was created for , the Sight of God. § 3. Especially , since this Last End and Chief Good of Mankind is not attainable by External Actions or Local Motions ; but Intellectually , or by Interiour Acts of the Soul ; by which he is promoted forwards even to the very assecution of it ; that is , by force of Knowledg or Truth exciting him to act , and guiding him in those actions : 'T is manifest , the Points of Faith must be Truths , and so , as has been manifoldly prov'd above , Impissible to be false . § 4. Again , Virtues spring connaturally from Truths , and Vice from Falsehoods : If Faith then be Possibly False , the Practises springing thence are Possibly no Virtues but Vices ; and , so , they , and consequently , Faith , whence they proceed , possibly would not dispose , but indispose us towards our last End ; which destroyes perfectly the Notion of Faith and Virtues too . Faith , therefore , would be no Faith , were it possible to be False . § 5. You 'l object , a Reason merely Probable or Morally-Certain is sufficient to make Us act for a Temporal Good ; much more , then , for an Eternal and Infinite one ; since the greater Goodness is in the Object , the less is the hazard ; and consequently the more the Reasonableness to act for it . I answer , though , if all other things corresponded , the Objection would be Valid , and the reason given for it , speaking abstractedly , be really Conclusive : Yet , in our present case , there are so many things which make it Unparallel that no Shadow of Consequence can be made from the one to the other . First , for the reason lately given ; Viz. because our Last End being in it self Spiritual and most Perfect , is not attainable but by Means of Best Spiritual Perfections or Virtues ; and the more knowingly these proceed from Us the better they are ; according to that saying , None is cordially and solidly good , who knows not why he ought to be good : whence they cannot be Best in their kinde , nor , consequently , Means fit to attain that End , Unless they proceed at least , from True Knowledg ; which cannot be had by a mere Probability , how high soever it be . Whereas , Material and Temporary Goods depend not on a constant course of Causes or Dispositions towards them knowable by us : but very frequently , if not equally on a Chanceable or Contingent cast of Things ; whence we use to say , Fools have the best Fortune . Hence , the intending and directing part in such Actions depends on the Knowledg of some particulars ; but the Attainment is carry'd on by Material Means : nay , very frequently , there is no knowledg at all requisit in any respect . For Example , He that , by the death of a hundred Relations in a Plague-time should alone survive and so inherit their Estates , would be really rich , whither any interiour Act of his minde in the least contributed to it or not ; that is , though he never desir'd , aim'd at , or even thought of it . But , if a Man in time of persecution and Martyrdom should say within himself , I cannot believe there is a God or a Next World ; Yet I le venture to dye rather then deny them ; in hopes that , if perhaps there be such a thing or state , he will give me a far greater reward : such a Man I dare affirm to be no nearer gaining Heaven by this Act no better principled , than if he had never had any such Act at all ; in regard he wanted that First necessary disposition which St. Paul and Connaturality require ; Accedentem ad Deum oportet credere quia Deus est . Heb. 11. v. 6. 6. Again , Faith is intended for a Spiritual Armour to rebeat all the assaults and temptations of our three Ghostly Enemies , Original Corruption in us , the Vanity of the World about us , and the Cruelty of the Devil and Wicked men over us . Hence the Advice of the Apostle , cui resistite fortes in Fide ; hence his recommending to us above all things to take Scutum Fidei ; hence the Contempt of all Worldly Honours , Pleasures , and Riches in Gods choice Saints , and their suff'ring Persecution gladly for Conscience sake ; hence , lastly , their embracing and ev'n courting Torments and Death it self with such Alacrity and Constancy . But , alas , how unactive had their Charity and Zeal been : how dull their desire to forego all present Goods , ev'n life too among the rest ; if this wicked Doctrine had been in their hearts , that perhaps all was a lye , which they profest , suff'red , and dy'd for ! And , how coldly and timorously would they have look'd Death in the face , having perfect Certainty on one side that they were about to lose all the known Goods they possest , for others unknown and uncertain ? Well may a Natural sincerity preserve diverse persons who are out of the Church morally honest and innocent : but we must not hope for any eminent Sanctity or Heroick Act of Virtue from any Professors of such a Faith , if they follow their Teachers , maintaining there are no stronger Motives for the Truth of Christianity , to comfort and establish the Souls of the Faithful . And 't is to be feared that , though their highly-conceited Probability or Moral Certainty ( as they call it ) be enough to Exclude Actual Doubt , while Men are in a state of Security and all things go well with them ; Yet it will scarce be able to preserve them from doubting Actually , when they are upon the point of foregoing all the Goods they at present enjoy , and are so highly concern'd to be Certain of the Existence of those Future ones they hope for in lieu of them . § 7. Moreover , we are perfectly Certain by manifest Experience , of the Existence of Temporal Goods , viz. Honours , Pleasures , Riches , &c. or , that such things are in the world ; whereas , unless Faith be truly Certain , that is , Impossible to be false , the Generality of Mankind cannot be perfectly assur'd ev'n of the Existence of Heaven , or those Future Goods for which they are to relinquish all present ones . Wherefore , the Existence of the thing being the first and main Basis of all Humane Action , and the Ground of all the other Motives : 't is clear there 's a manifest difference between acting for Heaven and for Temporal Goods , ev'n in this respect , whatever Parallel may be pretended in some other Considerations . Besides , all acting ev'n for Temporal Goods were unjustifyable , unless those Goods be held Attainable ; and de facto we are perfectly certain that Honours , Pleasures , Riches , &c. not only exist , but are of such a nature also as they may be attained to , due means us'd ; since we experience multitudes of men have and do daily arrive at them . But , ev'n , though Heav'n be held to be , yet it cannot be held to be attainable , unless the Proposals of Faith be Certain ; since neither have those who are to come to Faith seen nor experienc'd any man get Heav'n , nor discours'd with any whom they know to have come thence and seen it . So that I fear , were the Objection , concerning the Sufficiency of Probable Motives to make us act for Inferiour or Humane Goods , distinctly clear'd , it would be found not to mean that Probability of those Humane Good 's Existence or Attainableness suffices ; for example , that there are Riches in common , or that they may be gotten one way or other , both which are presupposed to the Action as certainly known : but it seems to mean only this , that men ought to proceed to Action though there be but Moral Certainty or great Likelihood that those Goods are actually to be attain'd in this or that circumstance of Time or Place , or by such or such means , as , by sending Ships to the Indies , inventing Water-works , Husbandry , Souldiery , and the like : which assertion held within its bounds will break no squares ; seeing ev'n in the actual attainment of Heav'n by me or by this particular way or means , when those means depend on material Circumstances , there is found the same room for failure and contingency , notwithstanding the Certainty of Heav'ns Existence and Attainableness in common , secur'd to us perfectly by Faith. For , though Virtue practic'd is an Infallible Way to bring Souls to Bliss ; yet no man has Certainty that any Extrinsecal State he puts himself into , or material means he uses , will make him truly vertuous , or finally get him the end he aims at : but must content himself with Likelihoods , or the seeming-betterness of his putting himself in that State or Circumstance , or his using this or that means ; in the same manner as it happens when he acts for Temporary Goods ; and , for the success , leave it humbly in the hands of Divine Providence , or miserentis Dei , acknowledging with David , that in manibus tuis Domine sortes meae , and working out his Salvation with fear and trembling . § 8. Besides , to act Externally is in the power of the Will ; but , to act Internally , at least as is requisite for each Effect , is not so . For , however the Will may set the Understanding to consider the Motive ; yet it must be the Truth of the Object 's Goodness , or the clearness of the Proposal of it , which only can oblige connaturally the Understanding to conceit it as it ought , and consequently the Will to love it accordingly : in which conceiting and heartily loving not onely the Intending and Commanding part of the Action is plac'd in our case , as it happens in our acting for material Goods ; but also the Executive and Assecutive Parts of it . Not the same sleightness of Motive ; therefore , or Moral Certainty , will here serve the turn ; but true Certainty or Impossibility of Falshood is requir'd : this being the best and properest to beget a hearty , lively , steady , and all-over-powering Affection for Heav'n ; and such as may ( as it ought ) make Christians practically repute all other things as Dung in comparison of That . § 9. But , the main consideration which forces the Certainty of Faith and the Motives which are to beget it , ( that is , of the Rule of Faith ) above those which ground our Action of pursuing Temporary Goods , is the unconceivable Mysteriousness of the Points of Faith : Truths exalted above the ordinary Course of Nature as far as Heav'n is above the Earth : Many of them looking so odd and uncouth to our course Humane Reason unrefin'd by Faith , that , as they seem'd of old to the Greeks Foolishness , so still they are acknowledgedly most unsuitable to the grossness of Fancy , by which the Generality of the world , especially those who are yet unelevated by Christian Principles , are led ; and confessedly above Reason ; insomuch as it costs the best Wits of Christianity no small pains to maintain them not to be Contradictory or Impossible to be True. Putting , then , the Motives of Faith , and consequently Faith it self , Possible to be False ; the only seeming Certainty ( I might say , the confest want of Certainty ) of the Motives to believe would be so counterballanc'd by the Incredibleness and seeming Contradict●riness of the Thing or Object , or rather indeed overballanc'd in the Conceit of all those who are yet to embrace Faith ; that there would be no over-plus of weight left to incline them to hold those Points True rather than False : much less to make them absolutely hold they are Certain Truths . And , he that sh●uld assert the contrary , I wonder how he would go about to prove it , or by what Standard he would measure whether is the greater of the two counterpos'd Unlikelihoods , viz. that the possibly false Motive of Faith should hap to be actually such , or that the seeming-Impossibility in the Objects should chance to be a real one . For , 't is not enough to say here that we are in reason to expect the Divine Nature should be exceedingly exalted above its Creatures , and incomprehensible ; and therefore we are not to measure his Perfections by the ordinary Rules found in Creatures , but think it reasonable he should infinitely exceed them : For , however this has weight in Points of Faith which concern the Divine Nature and its Perfections as in it self , yet here it will not serve the turn , in regard Faith teaches us many other Points seemingly repugnant to the Divine Nature it self , and most strangely debasing and vilifying it ; as , that God , infinitely happy in himself , should be expos'd to injurious Bufferings , Scourgings , and an ignominious Death , for a Creatures sake that , in comparison of him , is a meer Nothing ; and that Omniscience and Omnipotence could not invent and practice some easier and more honorable way to work the End they intended ; and , lastly , that it should beseem Infinite Goodness that a Person superlatively innocent should be so severely punisht , to do an undue favour to those who were enormously wicked , This consideration , then , necessitates plainly the Impossibility of Faith's being false ; for else 't would be irrational to believe it . And lastly , it shews the case of Christian Interiour Acts utterly unparallel to that of Acting Exteriourly for sensible and material Goods ; which one may apprehend to be attainable ; and also comprehend the Way to attain them , without puzz'ling his Understanding with any unconceivable mysteriousness in the business to check his Assent . E're I leave this Point , I must desire the Reader to reflect well on the condition those persons are in who are yet to embrace Faith. They have no Light but their pure Natural Reason , and to this are propos'd for Objects to the one side the Motives to Faith , or the Authority ( in our case ) that God has spoke it ; on the other the strangeness of the Mysteries . Let then those persons understandings no better elevated , go about to scan the profound Mysteries of Faith , 't is clear , and I think confest by all , they must needs seem to them Impossible to be True ; which therefore nothing but a Motive of its own nature seemingly Impossible to be false , can conquer so as to make them conceit them really True. But this Motive or this Rule of Faith is confest by our Adversaries Possible to be false ; nor ( it being a fit and proportion'd Object for Humane Reason ) is there any thing to make it seem better than it is , or Impossible to be false ; 't is then against all reason to believe , were Faith and its Grounds Possible to be false ; the Motives of Dissent being in that case evidently greater than are the Motives of Assent . § 10. Again , since 't is incomparably more easie to throw down than to build , or less difficult for the Understanding to comprehend an Objection , than 't is to lay orderly in the Soul a severely-connected frame of Discourse forcing the Truth of a Point ; particularly , when those Points are utterly unsuitable to Fancy , and even exalted above Reason ; and so lie open to very plausible and easily penetrable Objections , on which disadvantage or disproportion to weak Judgments , ( that is , indeed , a high excellency on the Object 's side ) Atheists ground their drollery against the Mysteries of our Faith : It follows , that were not the chief motives to Faith , or Rule of Faith practically self-evident , and , so , Impossible to be False ; there would be , considering the rudeness and unelevatedness of the Generality of those who are to come to Christian Faith , and the unsuitableness of the Mysteries to their fancyled Understandings , greater Temptations and more plausible , ( that is , to them stronger ) motives laid to make them dissent to those Mysteries , than to make them assent . The motives to Faith , then , must be Practically self-evident , and , so , Faith it self must be Impossible to be False . Seventh Eviction . § 1. PErhaps the Language and Practise of Christianity , expressing most manifestly their sentiments , may give to some a more natural and penetrable satisfaction , that 't is Impossible Faith should be false ; than all the Speculative and Scientifical Proofs hitherto deduc'd . § 2. For their Language , then , I onely hint to the memory of my prudential Readers , ( for , to transcribe them were endless ) all those Expressions so frequent in Scriptures , Fathers , Councils , and the mouths of the Faithful to these very days , viz. That Faith is the Knowledg of God , his Will , and of revealed Truths . Nor will I streighten the signification of the word Knowledg , to mean Scientifical Knowledg , ( 't is neither my Tenet nor Interest ; ) but will leave it at large for any that are concern'd , to explicate how this Knowledg is bred : provided they leave the true Nature of Knowledg , and do not abusively call that Knowledg , which in reality is ( when look'd into ) no Knowledg . Hence I argue ; Since 't is impossible any one should know what is not to be known ; and what is not , is not to be known ; it follows , that the Object of Faith is , and so , ( here being no contingency in the Matter ) Impossible not to be ; and consequently Faith , or the Belief of it , impossible to be False . § 3. Nor am I affraid of those canting Distinctions without sense , that 't is Morally a Knowledg , or that they know it to be True , morally speaking . For , if it be expended what is meant by these words [ Morally a Knowledg ; ] it will quickly appear , that , as True Knowledg can onely be an Effect of the Thing 's Being : so this Counterfeit Knowledg , call'd Moral , falling short of the other , can onely be the Product of the Thing 's Likelihood to be , and so can onely have for its Object the Thing 's Likelihood : which , whether it be enough to specifie and terminate an Act of Christian Faith , I appeal to the constant Expressions of all who are generally call'd and reputed Christians ; and challenge my Adversaries to produce one Expression of theirs , which sounds thus dwindlingly and feebly , as if it meant onely some high likelihood , or their apprehension of it as no more but such . Observe but the Life and Energie of their words in such occasions : as that of Iob : Scio quod Redemptor meus vivit ; and that of S. Paul : Scio cui credidi , & certus sum &c. and we shall find their Understandings so perfectly possest of the Object 's Existence , & not deeming onely its Likelihood ; that they seem rather to want words to express their Absolute Certainty of it . Oftentimes indeed they deny Faith to be Evidence or Science , and affirm it to be Obscure : but what 's this to the purpose ? while all Relyance on Authority is obscure ; and Certain Knowledg can be had by means of Authority , as appears in diverse Instances of Humane Faith. § 4. Particularly , waving the former , we will reflect on some places more expresly assertive of our Position ; as , that of the Prince of the Apostles , Acts 2. 36. Certissimè sciat ergo omnis Domus Israel , &c. Where , about to bring them to Faith , he exprest it to be A most certain Knowledg , and this Attainable by the whole House of Israel , which must mean the Generality at least . § 5. I add , ( omitting many others ) two of his Fellow-Apostle Paul. The first , Col. 1. 23. Si tamen permanetis in Fide fundati , & stabiles et immobiles à spe Evangelii : Now , how any one can be founded or grounded in Faith , if Faith be Possible to be False , that is ( Eviction . 2. § 14. ) have no Foundation , Principles or Grounds it self ; how any one can be Stable and Immoveable in a Persuasion , which very Persuasion and its Grounds may not only be moved but overthrown & subverted ( as must inevitably follow , if it be possible to be False . ) I expect to be inform'd by Mr. Tilletson and Mr. Stillingfleet . Do these words sound onely an Exclusion of Actual Doubt , or Suspicion of it at present , which Protestant Writers make sufficient to an Act of Faith ? or rather does it not mean that which of its own nature is such as can admit no Possible Cause of Doubt at any time for the future ? Let them dispense a while with pursuing their affected Gaynesses in the Out-sides of words , and take the pains to look into their Meanings ; and then , if they can make out that Groundedness , Stability and Immobility can consist with Possibility of falshood , I shall promise them my utmost endeavour to hold Contradictions with them ; for , in that case , those would be the onely Truths . § 6. The second shall be that most emphatical one of the same Apostle . Licèt nos aut Angelus de coelo annuntiaverit vobis praeter id quod accepistis , Anathema sit . Though we or an Angel from heaven should preach to you otherwise than you have receiv'd , let him be Accursed . Which were a very rude and unreasonable carriage ( especially for us Christians now adays ) were Faith Possible to be False , and so , short of the credit due to so Incomparable Authorities : For since 't is known that many things which have seem'd , ( that I may use Mr. T 's words ) morally impossible to be False , have prov'd to be actually and indeed False , and 't is granted that 't is always possible to be so : but it was never heard that an Apostle of Iesus Christ , or an Angel from heaven could , or at least did at any time preach False : 't is most manifest that nothing which was Possible to be false , can with any reason sustain it self against the force of their Authority ; and that Faith , which ought to do so , must be Impossible to be False . § 7. From the Language and Sense of the Saints and Christians of former times , let us come nearer home , and see how unsuitable 't is to the Notions and Expressions of present Christianity , to say , Faith is possible to be False . Now , the Possibility of Faith's Falshood , is built on the Contingency of the Motives which are to ground it : for , were there no Contingency in them , but that their Causes were so laid , that 't were impossible they should not be Conclusive , they could not possibly fail of being able to conclude ; and so Faith would of its own nature be Impossible to be False . Considering , then , the Nature of Contingency , whether Speculatively in it self , or Practically in Instances wherein 't is found , we may observe that it implies a certain kind of Proportion between the frequency of Effects on the one side , and the Seldomness on the other : which we usually express by Ten to one , a Thousand to one &c. If then Faith be Possible to be False , its Nature will bear , nay oblige us to express the probable degree of its Likelihood in such kind of Language ; and that we assert it to be likely in such a proportion , but not-likely in a higher : for example , it would be perhaps wise and agreeable to the Nature of the Thing , as thus propos'd , to say , v. g. 'T is a hundred to one there is a Trinity , a Heaven or a Hell ; but 't is not a Thousand to one that there are any such things . Or , if any contend I have assign'd too-small an over-proportion to Faiths Likelihood ; yet at least he must grant that , in a greater , it would inevitably follow , that such language ought , in True speaking , be used , when we are to express the degree of Faith's Firmness . Wherefore , it being experientially manifest , that nothing sounds more ugly to a Christian ear , than to say , that 't is so many to one Faith is True , but not so many more : 't is evident that the Nature of Faith is plac'd beyond all Proportions of its failing to its standing , and all degrees of Contingency ; that is , 't is Impossible to be False . § 6. Moreover , to say , 'T is a thousand to one Faith is True , or there is a Trinity , is not to say , 'T is True , or There is a Trinity ; Christians , therefore , ought in due candor , then when they are to profess their Faith , express onely how much over-proportion , in a Moral Estimation , its Likelihood bears to its Unlikelihood ; and not to stand telling a Lie , when they are to make Profession of their Faith ; saying , 'T is True , when 't is onely to such a degree Likely to be True ; that is , Lying , when they should be doing a chief duty of Religion . And , which is worst of all , as being not onely most unwise and imprudent , but most diabolically wicked and impudent , to stand stiff in the Profession of that Ly , though they hazard the loss of their Estates , and even Lives too , by the bargain . Yet , this imputation of such a most foolish and most damnably-dishonest Obstinacy is Unavoidably to be affixt upon Christians , if they thus profess their Faith True , in case it be Possible to be false ; that is , in case it be onely a thousand to one ( for example ) that 't is True. If it be said , they saw not perhaps this possibility of Falshood , and so acted virtuously in that Absolute Profession of its Truth , because of their good meaning ; the Answer is ready : First , that Mr. Tillotson , Mr. Stillingfleet , and such who maintain , and , so , if they write what they think , see Faith Possible to be False , are bound not to profess Faith to be True , and to forewarn others not to make such a Lying Profession : Next , that if God have commanded us to make such a Profession , as all Christians grant he has ; then , not onely their Meaning , but the Act it self is good and laudable . Which , joyn'd to these mens Principles , and their Natural Consequences laid open in our former Discourse , signifies that Dishonesty is Honesty , and a most foolish and wicked Obstinacy a high Virtue , as being commanded by God : Nay , that God is the Author of Sin , commanding them to tell a Ly in Professing their Faith True. Positions most abominable , as well as contradictory ; but 't is most fit the Nature of all Goodness should go to wrack , when the Nature of Truth is once violated . § 7. Again , if Contingency have place in Faiths Basis , there must be some stint of this Contingency , according to the moral estimation of things : be it then , for Example , a thousand to one , or what other proportion you please , for it alters not the present case : If then it be but a thousand to one Faith is True , then 't is One to a thousand 't is not-true , that is , it will bear a Wager that Faith is a Ly ; and a Christian , according to these Principles may , without injury to his Faith or its Grounds , and with a great deal of Honesty , lay a wager that his Faith is actually False . Nay , if he get any one to cope with him at excessive odds ; he is bound in Reason and Prudence to undertake him , and lay a wager all Christian Faith is a Ly. Which sounding highest Impiety in the ears of all reputed Christians , of what Sect soever , that govern themselves by the Natural conceit they have of Faith ; 't is plain that the Nature of Faith is plac'd beyond all Contingency of failing , that is , all Possibility of Falshood . If it be objected , such a Wager could never be try'd , and so , it could never in Prudence come to be layd : I reply , my Discourse is unconcern'd how able or unable mans Understanding is to decide it , and onely contends that the Nature of the thing , that is , of Faith no better settled , would bear or justify it ; which is unavoidably consequent . § 8. Particularly , 't is strange that none of the Christian Martyrs , who from time to time have dy'd for their Faith , should when their life lay at stake , endeavour to mitigate the fury of their Persecutors with such like language . I beseech you , ( Great Nero ; or Dioclesian ! ) understand us Christians right : we deny not absolutely the possibility of your opposit Tenets being true , nor assert our own Faith so far as to say it may not possibly be False . What we profess is onely this , that it seems to us so highly probable , or Morally-Certain , that we have no Actual Doubt of it at present ; though we cannot absolut●ly say but we may come to discover it to be false hereafter , and your opposit Tenets true , and so renounce Christianity and joyn with you : Indeed we dare venture a thousand to one ( or perhaps something more ) that our Faith is true ; yet for all that we shall not stick to lay one to a thousand 't is false . These had been moderate and mollifying Expressions , and questionless might have sav'd the lives of very many : which why they should not have used , they being ( according to our Adversaries Principles ) true , and honest to profess them , and highly prudent to do it , their lives being concern'd ; nay , Consciencious too , ( for there is none but holds it highly sinful to conceal any Truth which may save another mans life ) no other reason can be given but this , that the Possibility of Faiths falshood had never enter'd into their hearts ; but they held Gods promises of a better life full as Certain , as was their present possession of this , or present determination of losing it for Christ's Name . All their Expressions sounded the Certainty of the Truth they profest , and their most comfortable Hopes grounded upon that Certainty . Nor did any of the circumstant Faithfull ever judg them too lavish of their bloud , for standing so stiff upon their avowing the rigorous Truth of their Faith , and the Falshood of its Contradictory ; but always esteem'd their Action no less Wise and Honest , than it was Undaunted . What kind of Profession of his Faith a Protestant , thus principled , would make , in case of imminent Martyrdom , I know not ; but I should esteem my self the foolishest Knave living to tell aly to hang my self , by professing my Faith true , which I could never heartily judg it to be , whilst I held it Possible to be False ; and so , at best , onely Likely to be True. § 9 Note here , that I have conceded very much in yeilding a thousand to one of the Likelyhood of Christian Faith in the Protestant Grounds without Traditions Certainty , which they deny : rather , taking in the Incredibleness of the Mysteries , it would be ( in that Hypothesis ) above five to one , speaking modestly , that all Faith is False . For , since 't is Evident the Certainty of Books cannot be had at all without the Certainty of Tradition ; and Protestants deny the Certainty of Tradition , and bring multitudes of exceptions against it ( as may be seen in Mr. Tillotson's Answer , or rather Abuse of Sure Footing ) there is some degree of Incredibleness in the right Conveyance of Christ's Doctrine hitherto : to which difficulty add the Incredibleness of the Mysteryes themselves , exceedingly enhauncing the other ; 't is manifest there would be a high disadvantage on Faith's side . Nay , granting a pretty high Probability ( which is perhaps as much , as they care for ) yet , the not-onely Improbability , but seeming-Impossibility of the Mysteries of Faith , if taken , not as standing under Authority , but as Objects of our Humane Reason ( as in this counter-ballancing case they ought to be ) would quite overpoise the Probable motive , and incline the Soul strongly towards Dissent , unless Interest , Custom , or some other Affection come in to the Assistance of the weaker Motive , Printing it in a bigger Letter , and diminishing the difficulty in the Object by not letting it be considered or penetrated , that is , by hindring the working of Right Reason . Now , in this case , if this Discourse holds , a Protestant may with a safe Conscience lay odds , and wager two to one at least , his Faith is all a F●lshood : A strange Impiety , but yet the natural Consequence of that impious Tenet [ Faith is possible to be False ] as this is the genuine Sequel of denying the right Rule of Faith. § 10. The same is deduc'd from the very notion of a Martyr and the proper signification of that word , which is to be a witness ; and this , as appears by his Circumstances , of all witnesses the most Solemn and serious , and the perfectest under that Notion that can be imagin'd ; as engaging not onely his word , but his Life and dearest Bloud for what he testifies . Now all witnessing or Attestation being most evidently of what the Witnesser knows to be True , and nothing sounding more unnaturally , or being more disagreeable to the nature of that kinde of Action than to have a Likelyhood for its object , or to witness what he knows not , ( as will appear by the constant practice of it in all other occasions ) it follows that a Martyr or Witness of the Truth of Christs Faith , must know it to be True , that is , he must know it to be more than likely to be True ; and , consequently , ( nothing being more Impossible than that one can know what is not ) Impossible not to be True , or to be False . § 11. No less unnaturally would it sound should we gather together , and make use of all the Equivalent Speeches to this Proposition , [ Faith is Possible to be False ] such as are , There is no Certain way to Heaven . No man knows there is a Heaven , a Hell , a Iesus Christ , a Trinity , &c. No man sees any reason securing Faith from being a lye . The Ground of all our Hope is unstable and may be overthrown . Absolutely speaking it may be there is no such thing as that which Christians are to profess , and ought to dye for . It may be Points of Faith are so many lyes , and false as so many old-Wives Tales . The Light of Faith may be Spiritual Darkness and Errour . What we hold to come from God , the Author of all Truth , may perhaps come from the Devil , the Author of all Lyes . All our Supernatural Truths may be Diabolical Falshoods . Faith has no Principles . The Points of Faith are not Truths , but Likelihoods onely . These and innumerable such others , are all Equivalent Periphrases to this Proposition [ Faith is Possible to be False ] as in this Treatise has been manifested ; but , how horrid and blasphemous , needs no proof but thebare rehearsing of them . § . 12. From the Language and Practise of the Generality of the Faithful professing Faith , we come next to the Practise of the Wits of Christianity ; not proceeding as Speculaters and Scholars ( a most trifling impertinent Topick when we are speaking of Faith , yet most frequently us'd by our Adversaries , especially Mr. Stillingfleet , and Mr. Pool , who are obstinately bent to practise that wilful mistake ) but as Christians or Faithful : and this , not only acting or speaking in Abstraction from Humane Knowledg , but as in direct Opposition to it , and ( as it were ) in defiance and despight of it . Now , with these intelligent Persons 't is very solemn , after , by penetrating the Grounds of Faith , they have come to embrace Faith itself , immediately to discard & renounce all Tenets opposit to the said Faith , how Certain soever they held them formerly : Nay , to stand with a mind prepared to disassent to anypiece of Humane Learning , how Scientifical soever it look't , which they saw evidently to thwart any of those Believed Truths . Making account it was their duty captivare Intellectum in obsequium Fidei , to captivate their Understandings to the Obedience of Faith , or , to yeild them totally up , by an absolute and perfect Assent to the Truth of those Mysteries ; and not to heed or credit any objections or Proposals of Humane Reason to the contrary , when once the stable and immovable Grounds or Motives of Divine Belief , that is , the Rule of Faith , had subdu'd their Judgments to that invincible Assent ; but to rest well assur'd that all reasons were fallacious , and all Positions False which went against those Sacred and Establish't Truths . This was ever their unanimous and constant Profession ; particularly the Fathers are full of Expressions of that kind : An Evident Argument that , as Christians , they ever held Faith and it's Grounds Impossible to be False ; for , otherwise , they had bin oblig'd , by Honesty and their love of Truth , not to have so readily rejected their formerly-conceited Truths , nor to have stop'd their ears so obstinately to new Reasons against Faith ; but , as long as Faith was possible to be False , they ought in due candor to have still weigh'd the Opposit Thesis and the Objections perpetually alledg'd , against the strength of Faith and it's Rule , and consider'd which was more likely to be true ; and not have still concluded so partially on Faiths side , and obstinately resolv'd to hear nothing against it ; bearing themselves as if all must needs be True which Faith's Rule teacheth us , that is , indeed , as if Faith could not possibly be false . § . 13. Whence follows , that all who hold Faith is possible to be false ought , in Conscience and their natural duty or love to Truth , remain Seekers all their Lives : For , however they may hope at present that what they adhere to is true , yet , since they hold 't is possible to be false for any thing they know , they ought , the affair and its concern being so weighty , to be still examining it's Grounds , and casting about to see whether this Possibility of Falshood , which they already see , be not indeed Actually such , though as yet they see it not ; or at least , whether some other Profession may not , after long consideration , appear less possible to be False , and another still less than that ; that so they may go as near Truth as they can : weighing discreetly and impartially what Deism , Paganism , Turcism , and such others , wisely represented without their Poetical Fancyes , and Fooleries , can say for themselves . Or , lastly , if they come to such a Scepticism in Religion ( which I doubt is the true case ) as to judg such a quest lost labour ; because , when all 's done , the sullen Dame [ Truth ] will never the sooner discover her face , nothing being to be found but what will still appear Possible to be False : the Practical Conclusion naturally following hence will be this , to fix there where it lights most advantageous to their temporal Interest ; in the same manner as men addict themselves to this or that Trade ; cry it up and maintain it stoutly to be Truth , because 't is Creditable to the Profession , though they judg all the while it may be a falshood ; and , because they see their Faith can have no Certain or Firm Grounds , undertake to make it good that Faith it self needs have none , by the best assistances plausible Rhetorick , seemingly-probable reasons , weak or mis-us'd Testimonies and voluntary Cavils and Mistakes can lend them . And , in a word , since they are not in circumstances to settle any thing , to laugh heartily at those who go about it , and to endeavour very politickly to pull down every thing ; which any Intelligent Reader will manifestly see by this establishing Treatise , compar'd to their performances , to have been the Effects of my Adversaries labours . § 14. The Unnaturalness of this Tenet will perhaps be brought nearer home , and so be better penetrated even by our Opposers themselves , if we reflect how wickedly it would sound from the mouth of Preachers ; if , after a Sermon , exhorting and pressing the Faithful to the Love of Heaven , or particularly , to stand stedfast in their Faith , they should in the close , to prevent in their Auditors the misunderstanding some overstraining Expressions , add an ingenuous caution , That they should not , for all that , adhere to Faith as if it could not be False , nor work for Heaven as if there were any absolute Certainty of the being of any such a Thing . Is it not manifest , this ( in our case ) honest-dealing Profession would enervate the force of all the Motives they had proposed and prest ? And , if so , is it not as evident , that all the efficacy of Christian Preaching springs naturally from the Impossibility that Faith should be False ? For , 't is not only the Unseasonableness of this Profession , but the Impiousness of it , which would so scandalize the Hearers ; and either avert them from the Preacher , or make them cold in Virtue . 'T is clear , then , that all the forceable Application of Christian Motives to the hearts of the Generality of the Faithful , is grounded on the Impossibility of Faith's Falshood : and that , therefore , he who holds the opposite Tenet , and would be honest , should either leave off Preaching , for which this Tenet makes him unfit ; or else use much caution while he preaches , least , by implying the perfect Certainty of Faith , while he practises Assentation to That , he becomes Injurious to Truth , and consequently to It too , if it be True. § . 15. But , to conclude ; it has bin no less the Practice of the Governours of the Church , or Ecclesia docens , to oblige the Faithfull to beleeve what they recommended to them as the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles , ( Nay Mr. whitby , in his late Treatise [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] page 53 , 54. asserts the same of the Church of England , as to their Creed or Fundamentals ) Which , had Faith been held by the Governors and the Governed Possible to be False , had signify'd just thus much , as if the Governours should say , You shall believe it , though we know it may be false ; or , You shall believe us telling you the Apostles taught it , though both we and the Authority we trusted for it may be deceiv'd , for any thing we know : And as if the persons governed should answer , We will believe you , though we know you may be in the wrong , and the Point it self false ; which is in effect the same as if they should profess they are resolv'd to believe them , let it prove what it will , right or wrong , True or False . So strange a Tyranny in the Imposers or Commanders , and Slavery in the Believers or Obeyers , as is impossible in either to consist with Humane Nature , had not both of them ( the Obeyers at least ) been verily perswaded those Commanders had such Motives to propose as should have been able to oblige Assent ; without which all Command of an Interiour Act of the Soul is Nonsence and Folly. Oh , but ( will a witty Atheist say ) Humane Policy might have made the Governours conceal the Cheat , by which means the ignorant govern'd were frighted into a belief of any thing ! Very likely , indeed , that amongst so many millions , and of those , many Saints by our Adversaries own Confession , all should persist and be true Conspirators in so unnatural a Confederacy : or that , in so free an admission of all sorts of prudent people to any kind of knowledg , as is practic'd in Christendom , insomuch that there are found many thousands of the Governed equal in Parts and Learning to divers of the chief Governours , and superiour to very many of them , all should so camely permit themselves and the world to be abus'd in a Point no less important than their very Manhood . 'T is then above Policy and Force , and only atchievable by the Natural strength of the Motives , to oblige such Multitudes , and so qualify'd , to Christian Faith : and these Motives must have been Impossible to be False ; none else being able to subdue the Understandings of such a great portion of Mankind to hold their Proposals true , or justifie all the Church-Governours in all Ages from a most unjust and most unnatural Tyranny . Divers Principal Objections Answer'd . TO mistake every passage voluntarily is so in fashion , and so continually pursu'd , as the best method to answer Discourses which proceed by the way of Principles , that , perhaps , it were not imprudent to forestall such Blinds , and prevent such mis-representers from raising their light and aiery dust , by acting our selves , if we can , the part of an Opponent after a solider manner than we are to expect from those prevaricating Discoursers : besides , nothing more clears a Point than to manifest that such Objections which aim at the Root of it , quite lose their force while levell'd against it . I recommended this foregoing Discourse , when I had finisht it , to the perusal of divers of the most judicious and impartial Friends I could pick out ; courting their severest candour to acquaint me with its defects . Their most pertinent and most fundamental Exceptions , I present the Reader with ; which I have strengthen'd as well as I could , and added divers of mine own ; protesting , that , did I know my self , or knew where to learn of others , more forcible and efficacious ones , I should not have declin'd the proposing them ; nor have fear'd to oppose the Invincibleness of the Truth I here defend against the strongest Assaults of the most Ingenious , most rational , and most acute Discoursers . Objection I. The word Truth is both in the Postulata , and all over this Treatise taken in too Metaphysical a Rigour : in which sense it may , perhaps , be deny'd that Faith is True , or that the Generality of Christians do so esteem it . Answer . I take that word in the plain natural , and proper sense , in which all mankind takes it , for what in reality and indeed is so ; which I affirm to be sufficient for my purpose , or to ground all those Arguments which I bring thence to evince the Impossibility of Faith's Falshood . But , I fear the Objecter confounds the First operation of our understanding with the Second , that is , our simple Apprehension or Meaning of the word Truth or True with the Propositions or Judgments made concerning it . For , not only weak people judg many things True which stand under no Certain Grounds ; but even solid men , when the Concern of the Point is sleight , and no circumstance awakes them into a heedfulness , and , as it were , engages their Honesty to speak rigorous Truth ; oftentimes carelesly and unconcernedly admit Things for Truths which are far short of having Grounds elevating them to an Impossibility of Falshood ; and , indeed , are far from being judg'd Truths even by themselves while they seem to admit them for such ; nay more , though they sometimes use them as Truths , when the weight is not much whether they be so or no ; as when in a Rhetorical Discourse , ( or even in a solid one for Illustration sake ) we make use of the Story of the Phoenix , or such like ; or when in ordinary conversation we relate many passages abetted by no certain Authority , but taken upon the account of rumour , perhaps invented by witty humour ; the Truth of which it were in those circumstances Imprudent and Impertinent to discountenance , but to let them go with a kind of Transeat , or a valeant quantum valere possunt ; Yet , in both cases , what the solid man out of unconcernedness passes , and what the vulgar man out of weakness judges as a Truth , both the one passes the other judges to be in reality and indeed so : whence both of them have the genuine simple Apprehension or meaning of the word [ Truth ] and the same all other men have , however the one misapplies it , the other permits it to be misapply'd in Propositions . Nor will any distinction of Truths morally speaking , probably Truths , &c. serve the turn ; for Truth ( as was said ) speaks the Conformity of the Judging Power to the Thing ; that is , a Real disposition of the mind : which therefore either is or is not , in the same manner as the Wall is either white or not white ; not admitting for it's difference probably or not-probably , any more than Being does : But , as it is impossible but the Wall if it be not white , must necessarily be not-white , or have some other disposition in it which is not-whiteness ; so 't is impossible but the minde , if not Conformable to the Thing or True , must be Un-conformable or not-True ; ( meaning not-True negatively , not privatively so as to signify False ) and , consequently in stead of that Conformity , it must have some other Disposition in it ; whatever that Disposition be . Objection II. In some places of this foregoing Treatise Objective Truth is confounded with that disposition of the understanding or Conformity of it to the Thing call'd Formal Truth or , Truth in us . Answer . The clearing this requires the making an exacter discovery into the nature of Truth . To do which we will begin our explication with noting that our understanding hath two Operations ( omitting the third , Discourse as not pertinent to our present purpose ) viz. Simple Apprehension and Iudgment . The result or Effect of the first is call'd a Notion ; Concerning which Philosophers discourse thus : that , when I apprehend what is meant by the word Man , or have that Notion in me , Mans nature is both in the Thing , and in my Conception ; for 't is impossiole ( my Conception being an imminent Act ) I should conceive what is not in my Conception , or that my Act of conceiving should be intrinsecally determin'd to be this , but by what is intrinsecal or in it . What is meant then by the word [ Man ] has two states : one in the thing as existent out of me ; the other in the thing as existent in me : as the self-same figure is in the Seal and the Wax . Yet , neither of these different States enters into the Notion I have of Man , but meerly what is common to the Thing , under either State , which is what answers to the definition ; for , both Man , taken as in himself , is a rational Creature ; and also what I conceive , or mean by the word [ Man ] is rational Creature ; though the words [ rational Creature ] express neither the being in my Minde nor out of it , but abstract from either . By this means my Mind concieving Man gains an Unity of form with the Thing out of it , or a Conformity to it : which Disposition wants nothing to be call'd Truth , but that 't is incapable of grounding Affirmation or Negation ; the bare meaning of the word [ Man ] neither implying [ is ] nor [ is not ] Whence Truth and Falshood are usuall said to be incompetent to the first Operation of our Understanding , We will make way to the Second Operation of our Understanding by another Instance of the first . Imagin then there is propos'd to my Eye a Round Pillar ; which it affects , and by it my Brain , and , so , my Understanding ; it cannot fail to beget there a simple Apprehension , and consequently a Notion of what is directly imprinted ; which is , that Thing with as many of its qualifications as were apt to be convey'd in by means of that sense , confusedly blended together ; as also ( by my Experience that it affects or is affecting me ) of it's Existence . Moreover , as Occasion , or indeed Nature guides me , I may have distinct or abstracted notions of Pillar , Roundness and Existence , nay more of Pillar and Roundness as exercising or actually having the same existence ; or , which is all one , of what is meant by this Proposition , [ the Pillar is round ] that is , of what corresponds to those three distinct notions , put now in a frame of a Proposition , and , so immediately apt to express Truth or Falshood ; and yet not proceed to behave my self affirmingly or denyingly , or judg any thing concerning them , but meerly to conceive what is meant by those words . Way being thus orderly made towards the Second Operation of the Understanding by disposing the separate notions in a fitting posture by the First ; nature seems to require It should supervene ; and , so , the Understanding sets it self to judg whether those Extream or distant notions , exhibited by the First in the posture of Connexion , be indeed connected or no ; the standard or measure of which is to be taken from the Thing . Now in self-evident Propositions and First Principles the Understanding guides it self by that imbred or nature-taught Principium Intellectûs ; [ The same is the same with it's self ] In deduc't Propositions ; by the same Principle fundamentally , or originally , and immediately by this , [ Those notions which are the same with a Third , are the same with one another , ] But , in our present Instance , Experience alone suffices to inform the understanding , supposing the obvious knowledg of what Pillar and Roundness are , and that a Pillar is a Thing , whereas Roundness without Pillar is none , but onely an Affection or determination of a Thing ; both known by plain Nature , whatever som Schoolmen speculate . For , these put , meer Experience teaches us that that thing which is call'd Pillar , is the same thing which is call'd Round , or , which is all one , that in this Proposition , [ The Pillar is round ] the two extream notions are indeed , ( that is , with a Conformity to the Thing ) identifi'd , or that that Proposition is True. But to return home to our purpose : 'T is clear that Pillar and Roundness Existing by the same existence or in the same Thing , are found in the thing after it's manner , and in my Judgment ( or Soul as apt to judg ) after it 's , that is judgingly : But Truth hath nothing to do with either of these manners of Being ( as was discourst formerly in the parallel case of Notions ) but purely and adequately consists in the Unity or Community of Form which my Judgment has with the Thing ; by having which in her , the Soul gains a Conformity to it . In this Common Form consider'd as in the Thing , consists it's Metaphysical Verity , or it 's Being what it is ; and this Verity , consider'd as apt to stamp or imprint it self on my Iudging Power , is call'd Objective Truth ; as receiv'd in me , and fashioning or conforming my said Power to the Thing as in it self , and so making my Judgment True ; 't is call'd Formal Truth . This declar'd , I deny that I any where confound Objective Truth with Formal , or what 's in the Thing , with what 's in me as in me ; for , that were to identifie those two most vastly and most evidently different States : A Supineness too gross for any attentive Discourser to fall into I conceive then what the Objecter would alledge is , that I confound those Truths spoken of with Truth to us , or quoad nos , as the Schools speak . For , though what 's Truth to us must needs be Truth in it self , and in us , in regard we cannot know that to be which is not ; yet what 's Truth in it self , or Truth in us , is not therefore Truth to us , in regard one may upon probable , nay improbable , or even False Grounds , light upon a right judgment ; in which case his mind as judging , is conformable to the thing or True : yet , still , that thing is not true to him , in regard he hath no reason able to conclude it such , or to make him see it to be true . Truth then to us , is the same with our Sight of it ; that is , with Certainty or Determination of our Understanding by force of Intellectual Motives ; and , this indeed I often seem to confound with Truth in the two former Acceptions ; but I therefore seem to do it because I am loath to transcribe and apply so often my Postulata , and suppose my Judicious Reader bears them in mind . Which if he pleases to understand as subjoyn'd to those Discourses , it will follow that what is so in the thing it self , or perhaps in us , if it be so severely obligatory to be thus constantly profest and held so , and consequently ( by my later Postulatum ) necessary to be known to be so , all my mistaken proofs will be brought to conclude it True to us , that is , Certain . You will say , why is it not enough for God to provide that our Acts of Faith be indeed True in us , since , so , they would perfect our Understandings by conforming them to the thing ; and guide us right ; but they must also be True to us , or be known to be True. I answer , for two Reasons . One , because God's Government of Mankind would by this means be preternatural , obliging him to hold , profess , and dye for professing the Truth of those Points which he knows not to be such . The other Reason is , because every Act of Faith as exercis'd would perpetually involve an Errour , in case the Motives to those Assents were not conclusive of the Truth of those Points : For , however one may light by hap-hazard , or through weakness on a Truth from an Inclusive Motive , yet , since 't is impossible a rational Creature should assent but upon some Motive , good or bad ; hence , every Assent practically implies [ 'T is true for this reason ] Wherefore , if the Reason grounding such Assents be unapt to conclude the Truth of the thing , that Judgment necessarily involves a Falshood or Errour ; however it be , otherwise , conformable to the thing abstractedly consider'd . Truths then being bastard , illegitimate and monstrous , both the Intellectualness and Supernaturalness of that Virtue call'd Faith , make it scorn to own such defective Pr●ductions . Objection III. The Meanings of Words are indeed to be taken from the Vulgar , but the Truth of Propositions is to be taken onely from the Judgments of Learned Men : though then that be indeed the meaning of the word [ Faith ] which the Generality of Christians mean by it , yet the Truth of this Proposition [ Faith is possible to be False ] must be judg'd of by the Sentiments of the most Learned Divines ; the Generality ( at least the Best ) of which , and Catholicks amongst the rest , grant the Grounds of Faith as to our Knowledg , and consequently Faith it self , to be Possible to be False . Answer . That Maxim is to be understood of those Propositions which require some Speculation to infer them ; in which case also even the Unlearned are not bound to Assent upon the Authority of Learned men , taken precisely as men of Skill , because generally 't is Practically-self-evident to them , that such Speculative men differ oft times in their Sentiments , and they are unfurnisht of due means to discern which is in the right : yet , if they are to act in such affairs , they are bound in Prudence to proceed upon the Judgments of that part which is generally reputed most and ablest ; and then their proceedure is laudable , because they do the best secundum ultimum potentiae , or that lies in the power . Whence Learned men who have ability to judg of the Reasons those Speculaters give , behave themselves imprudently and blameably if they even proceed to outward action , meerly upon their Judgments without examining the Reasons they alleadge , in case they have leasure and opportunity to do so . But now the Maxim holds not all for those Propositions in which 't is either self-evident , or evident to common and uncultivated Reason that the Predicate is to be connected with the Subject : as 't is , for example , in this , [ Man is a rational Creature ] or this , which is palpably consequent from the former , [ Man is capable of gaining Knowledg ] for in such as these the natural Sentiments of the Vulgar are full as Certain as those of Speculaters ; perhaps Certainer . And with the same Evidence the Predicate [ Possible to be False ] must necessarily be seen to be connected with [ Faith ] by all those who esteem themselves oblig'd by Gods Command to profess and dye for the Truth of those Points they believe . Besides , they hold that Faith makes them know God and his Will , that their Assent of Faith is to be Immoveable , or adher'd to all their lives ; that is , such as cannot be overthrown or shown False by any Reasons brought against it ; both which equivalently imply Impossibility of Falshood . Again , 't is deny'd that Catholick Divines , even as Speculaters , hold Faith Possible to be False ; since they all , to a man , ( whatever they hold besides ) hold the Catholick Church Infallible ; and that we ought to receive our Faith from her Living Voice and Practice : Now the Tenet of Infallibility in the Proposer necessarily draws after it the Tenet of Impossibility of Falshood in what is propos'd , that is , in Faith , But , because it may be said this is their Sentiment as Catholicks , not as Schoolmen , let the Angel of the Schools speak for the Schools themselves ; his Expressions are common , and so reach all . Scientia ( saith he , Sum. Theol. 2â 2e q. 1â a. 50 ad 4m . ) cum opinione simul esse non potest simpliciter de eodem ; quia de ratione scientiae est , quòd id quod scitur ex ●stimetur Impossibile esse aliter se habere ; de ratione autem opinionis est quod id quod est opinatum existimetur possibile aliter se habere : sed id quod fide ten●tur , propter fidei certitudinem , existimatur etiam Impossibile aliter se habere . And again in the same Question , ao . 4o. ad 2o. Ea quae subsunt Fidei dupliciter considerari possunt : uno modo in speciali , & sic non possunt esse simul visa & credita ; alio modo in generali , scilicet sub communi ratione credibilis ; et sic sunt VISA ab eo qui credit ; non enim crederet nisi VIDERET ea esse credenda , vel propter EVIDENTIAM ▪ signorum , vel propter aliquid hujusmodi . It were easie for me to avail my self by these Testimonies to confirm the main of my Doctrine ; but , what method will permit me , and leads me to at present , is only this , to show that this Great Father of the Church , and Doctour of all Schools , declares the common Sentiment , drawn out of the conceit of Faith's Certainty , to be this , that 't is Impossible that Points of Faith should be otherwise , or false ; and that we must , e're we believe , have Evidence of the Grounds of our Belief , which amounts to the same . All then that can be objected from some of our Divines is this , that they explicate their Tenet so , as by consequence Faith is left possible to be false ; but , what is this to the purpose ; since 't is one thing to hold a Tenet , and another thing to make it out . In the former they all agree , in the later ( as is the Genius of Humane Understandings where our heavenly Teacher has not settled them ) they disagree with one another , sometimes with themselves . Nor , can it bear any Objection , nor breed scandal , that the Ground of Faith should be more particularly and distinctly explicated now than formerly ; for , since Controversie is a Skill , why should it be admir'd , nay , why should it not be expected that it should receive Improvement , that is , better explain its proper object the Rule of Faith , than formerly ▪ since we experience a progress in all other Arts and Sciences which are frequent in use , as this has been of late dayes : Objection IV. A great part of the First Eviction , in case it proceed concerning Truth in us , as it ought , supposes the vulgar Skilful in Logick , and to frame their Thoughts and Assents in the same manner as Artificial Discoursers do . Answer . It supposes no Skill or Art in the vulgar or Generality of Christians , but onely declares artificially what naturally passes in rational Souls when they Assent upon Evidence . And this it ought to do ; For the Art of Logick frames not it's Rules or Observations at randome , but takes them from the Thing or it's Object ( as all other Skills do ) that is , from what is found in rational Souls as rational , or apt to discourse : by observing the motions of which when it behaves it self rationally , the Logicians set down Rules how to demean our Thoughts steadily and constantly according to right Reason : So that the manner of working in Artificial discoursers in this onely differs from that of Natural ones , that the one acts directly the other reflectingly . For example , a vulgar Soul when it assents interiourly a thing is , or affirms , has truly in it what a Logician call's a Proposition ; and that Proposition has truly in it what corresponds to the notions of Subject , Copula , and Predicate ; though he reflects not on it , as does a Logician . In the same manner when he gathers the Knowledg of some new Thing , he has truly in that discourse of his what corresponds to Major , Minor and Conclusion , nay he has practically in him what necessitates the Consequence or that Maxim [ The same is the same with it self ] of whose Truth , it being a Principle of our Understanding , he cannot possibly be ignorant . Though all this while he reflects not how or by virtue of what he acquires this Knowledg . And hence Light is afforded us to understand in common how the vulgar come to have Practical Self-Evidence of divers Truths : For , the Maxims which even scientifical men have of the Objects of several Sciences , being taken from the Things or the Objects of those Sciences ; and ( those Maxims being Common or General ones ) from the obvious or common Knowledg of those things , which the vulgar who convers with them cannot chuse but have ; Again , nature imbuing them with the Knowledg of that Principle on which the force of all Consequences is Grounded , as also with the knowledg of all those we call Principia Intellectûs , or Principles of our Understanding , hence their rational nature is led directly by a natural course to see evidently and assent to divers Conclusions , without any Reflexion or Speculation ; which rude but unerring draught of Knowledg is call'd by me in Sure Footing and elswhere Practical Self-evidence , because 't is a natural Result of Practice or ordinary converse with those things ; An Instance would at once clear this , and , if rightly chosen , be serviceable to the Readers of Sure Footing . An unlearned person that cannot read a word believes fully there was such a man as K. Iames ; and that we may not mistake the Question , we will put him to be one that has a handsom degree of conversation in the world . We finde him assent to the Affirmative heartily ; But the point is how he is led into that Assent , and whether rationally ? To ask him a reason why , is bootless ; for this puts him to behave himself like a Reflecter on his own Thoughts , which he is not : whence we shall find him , upon such a question , at a puzzle to give the particular reason ; though , as taught by Experience , he will stand stiffly to it in common that he has a reason for it , and a good one too . To help him out then , the way is to suggest the true reason to him , for then he will easily acknowledg it , finding it experimentally in himself ; which done , deny the Goodness of it , and you shall find , he will , as taught by nature stand to it , and deliver himself in some rude saying or other in behalf of it . For example , tell him he believes there was a K. Iames because those who pretended to live then have told us so ; but what if they were mistaken ? His answer would in likelihood be to this purpose ; what a God's name were they blind in those dayes , that they could not see who was King then ? Which expresses naturally his conceit of their Inerrableness in such a point , in case they had eyes , which nature taught him men generally have . Insist farther ; Perhaps they were not mistaken , but had a mind to cozen all England that came after them . Nature will lead him to this or some such kind of Reply ; To what purpose should they all make fools of every body ? Which words , though rudely exprest , yet couch in themselves the full reason given in Sure Footing , as far as 't is built on Nature . For , first , it implies that man's nature with which he hath a fair acquaintance in common is to do a thing for a purpose , end or reason . Next , his Interrogatory way is in his rude style , equivalent to a Negative , and so it signifies there could be no reason for it ; and , lastly , his standing to his former Tenet implies virtually a Conclusion from the reason given , that the thing could not be done ; which involves necessarily a knowledg of that First Principle on which all force of consequence is grounded ; and also of that Principle , no Effect can be without a due Cause ; both perfectly suppos'd and held by him , though not exprest in his rude Enthymeme . From this discourse is collected what this Practical Self-evidence is ; and , that 't is distinguish'd from Experience in this , that Experience is onely found of what uses to make the Minor in this virtual discourse , but Practical Self-evidence is of Conclusions deduc't ( as it were ) from a common maxim naturally known , as the Major ; and a Minor ( for the most part ) experientially , or else Practically known ; which , joyn'd with the Self-evident Principle in which the force of Consequence consists , make up that virtual discourse . Again , it differs from Science , in that a man of Science reflectingly sees a Medium identifying the two Extreames , and is aware of the virtue of those Causes which beget Evidence ; whereas the other is rather Passive from Natural Impressions than Active by any Self-industry in these Knowledges , and rather feels the force of those Causes in his own Adhesion , than sees it . Secondly , 'T is collected that this Practical Self-evidence is notwithstanding , True Knowledge ; though , perhaps , it be the sleightest kind of it ; in which 't is differenc't from Opinion built on probabilities . For , seeing such Assenters have both by Experience or by Common Conversation true Knowledg of the natures of diverse things in common , which make the Minor , as also by Nature of all the Principles of our Understanding , which countervail the major , and force the Consequence ; it comes to pass that this Practical Self-evidence is intirely and adequately grounded on true Knowledges both as to Premises and Consequence ; and cossequently 't is it self a True Knowledg likewise . Which consideration will help to explain my later Postulatum , and shew by what means 't is possible all Christians may know their Faith to be True , or the same the Apostles taught , by the Churches Testimonie , because they know the Inerrableness and Veracity of vast and grave multitudes in open matters of Fact which are practiceable daily . And lastly , 't is collected that what is Practically Self-evident to the Unlearned , is Demonstrable to the Learned : in regard These are capable of seeing by what virtue the causes of this Self-evidence bred that Knowledg , which the other 's incultivated Reason would give no account of . Objection V. That first Principle [ Every thing while it is , is necessarily what it is ] seems to be often times misapply'd , particularly Evict . 2. § 11. & 13. to Truth at present ; whence the Arguer would conclude that 't is Impossible that a thing should be also at present False . Which is true , if it be meant of Objective Truth ; but then it seems to miss the Question . But , the consequence holds not , in case the Discourse be of Formal Truth ; that is , of Truth in us , or of Truth to us , that is , of Certainty ; for none pretends that his Judgment can at the same time be Conformable and Disconformable to the thing , which speaks those inrintsecall Dispositions , call'd Truth and Falshood in us ; or that himself can be Cetrain or Uncertain of it at once , which expresses Truth and Falshood to us ; this being put those Motives which only he had at present in his Understanding , able to prove the Point true and false both or at once : whereas , what is pretended by the Objecter is only this , that , though upon present Motives he now judges it True and Certain , yet , afterwards , upon other Motives he may come to see it False . Answer . I mean in those places Truth to us , or Certainty : But , the Objection proceeds as if there were but one man in the world , or as if True , False , Certain and Uncertain could be relative to one person only . First , then , my Position is that , whoever puts a thing True to himself , yet possible to be False to another , puts no less a capacity of the thing 's being at once thus True and False though in several Subjects , than as if it were in one Subject onely . Next , he supposes each of those different Judgers to have possibly just Grounds for so judging , since he puts in one Motives sufficient to evince the Truth of the thing , in the other , possible ones to conclude it's Falsehood . For our Question is not , to what degree weak Souls can miscarry in assenting , but what degree of strength is found in the Motives to Faith ; which , the Objecter , as a Christian , that is , as a Holder that Points of Faith are Truths , must affirm to be sufficient to conclude it True ; and yet , as himself contends , leaves it still Possible to be False ; that is , proveable by other Grounds to be so ; for , else , the word False , cannot mean False to us , or in the Subject , as is pretended ; that is , he must make it possible to be justly or in right reason , held by one True , by the other False . Now 't is the Impossibility of such opposite Grounds I constantly maintain ; or that the Grounds of Faith are Impossible to be False . Thirdly , hence I go farther and urge , that , if those different Motives can oblige justly one man to hold Faith True , the other to hold it False , then , putting them in the same man , it ought to oblige him to hold both sides of the Contradiction : and this enforces my proofs of this nature in my Third Eviction . I know it will be readily answe'rd , that this will not follow ; because , the Motives being disparate , the more probable one would , when in the same subject , over-power the other , and so hinder the opposite Assent . But I desire it may be consider'd that Intellectual Motives or Reasons have their power to bind the Understanding to Assent , not from their relation to other extrinsecall Proofs corresponding or discorresponding with them , but from the Truth of the Premisses on which they intrinsecally depend , and the Goodness of the Consequence ; and , finally , by virtue of their being built on first or self-evident Principles . If then the Motives one man has at present be sufficient of their own nature to oblige him , acting according to right reason , to judg Faith True ; who ever has humane Reason ought to assent upon them : and , if Faith be still possible to be False , that is , False to us ; that is , be possible to be shown False , or possible that others may have just ground to hold it so , put those Grounds also in the same man , and , since they must be convictive of humane understanding , they ought to have their formal Effect where they are ; that is , convince it of Faith's Falshood too ; which however absurd , yet 't is the genuine and necessary sequel of this Source of Absurdities , viz. That Faith and its Rule may possibly be False . How the force of this Discourse is avoidable but by alledging that no man acting according to right reason has just grounds to hold his Faith True to us , or can ever have just Grounds to hold it False to us , ( which is to deny the Possibility of Faith's Falshood to us , the Opposers own position ) I profess my self utterly unable to discern . Now , he that holds these Positions is a perfect Sceptick or a Pyrrhonian as to matters of Religion ; since he puts an absolute desperateness of knowing the Truth on either side , in that matter or subject . Objection VI. When 't is said that Faith and its Rule may be False , the Arguer misunderstands it to mean that we assert it may actually and indeed be shown so , whereas 't is only meant by those words , that 't is Possible to be False for any thing we know ; or , for any thing the Grounds of Faith as to our knowledg , evince or force to the contrary . Answer . I know not what Possibility to any thing means , if it be not a relation to its being actually and indeed : nor a Possibility of being False to us , but a Possibility of being actually and indeed such ; that is , of being actually shown so to us . And all this must be forcibly admitted by him who puts no proper or necessary Causes in the Thing , nor consequently Conclusive Motives in mens Understandings why this Faith now profest should necessarily be the same Christ and his Apostles taught . 'T is indeed a different thing to say , it may be so , and to say , I do not know but it may be so . But , he who maintains that Faith may possibly be False , if he be honest , knows what he maintains to be True ; otherwise , certainly he were very wicked who would thus disgrace or diminish Faith , if he did not know his Position to be a Truth ; whence follows that such a man must not onely say , I know not but it may be False ; but he must , if he will speak out what he thinks , be oblig'd to say , I know it may be False ; however he be loath to declare Categorically and sincerely his Tenet in so odious a Point , or hazard his credit with the Generality of Christians , whose Sentiment he contradicts so expresly . Objection VII . 'T is enough that Faith be as Certain as that the Sun will rise to morrow , that America will not be drown'd , as that there was a Henry the Eighth , &c. which are onely Morally Certain , and enough for humane action , since they exclude Actual Doubt , or leave no suspicion of doubt behind them ; which as Mr. Stilling fleet tells us , App. p. 76. is the highest actual Certainty which the mind of any reasonable man can desire . In the same manner as it is Certainty enough for me to use my house that I am morally certain it will not fall on my head , though I have no Absolute Security but it may . And this kind of Certainty seems more suitable to Mankind , being more easily penetrable by the Generality than the other rigorous and over-straining Certainty ; which seems more fit and proper for the higher sort of Speculaters , than for a world of men , which comprehends capacities of all degrees and sorts , and the greatest part of them , perhaps , of little Learning . Answer . The Objecter must prove that all those Instances are only-Morally-Certain or Possible to be False , e're he alleadge them for such : That of Henry the Eighth , which does indeed oblige the understanding to belief , I affirm to be Practically Self evident and demonstrable , and so Impossible to be False . As for the rest , they are utterly unfit to parallel Faith's Certitude , being all of material things , whose very Essence is to be mutable ; whereas Points of Faith , being Truths , and in matters not subject to Contingency , are essentially incapable of being otherwise than they are , that is , still Truths : So that far easier is it that all material nature should undergo all the Changes imaginable , than that any such Truth can not be it self , or the Principles on which 'c is built in us desist to be True or Conclusive . In particular , I would ask● whether it be enough for Faith to be as Certain to us Christians , as it was to those immediately before the Flood , that the whole world should not be drown'd , which exceeds the case of America's possible destruction ; or , as it was to those after the Flood , that the Sun should never stand still or go back ; or , lastly , as it is that a house , of whose Firmness none had actual doubt , should fall ? If so , then the Standing of the Sun in Ioshuah's time , and it's Retrogradation in Ezekiah's , show the unparallelness of these Instances . You 'l say these were both miraculous . But , this alters not the case ; first , because it was never heard , nor can it be held by any sober man , that even Miracle can make such Truths , Falshoods ; or those Motives , which are of their own nature able to conclude the Truth of any such Points , Inconclusive or Invalid . Next , because , if the Motives to Faith , and so Faith it self are Possible to be false for any thing we know , 't is Impossible to give a satisfactory Answer to a Deist , demanding how , in case they should prove indeed False , we can be assur'd Gods Goodness to Mankind will not step in even miraculously to discover the vanity of so universal an Illusion , and the Abuse of Falshoods so absurdly imposing upon the world , as to obtain the highest repute of Sacred and Divine Truths . Concerning the last Instance of the Moral Certainty of a houses standing , which hath been objected to me by learned Protestants , as sufficient to make me act as steadily and heartily as if I had a Demonstration that it would not possibly fall , besides the General Answer that Points of Faith are Truths , which renders the case unparallel ; I reply , that the two houses , the one in Holborn , the other in Kings Street , which of late years , & a third in Cock Lane , which of late days fell , when none had the least actual doubt or suspicion of doubt of it , else surely they would never have staid in them , inform us sufficiently to what a changeable , tottering and ruinous condition Christian Faith would be reduc'd by these Principles and Parallels : No fewer than three Houses fell in the compass of a short time , and none had the least suspicion of doubt beforehand of such an Event ; therefore , may an Atheist say , Down falls Christian Faith too , whose Foundation was ( by this Doctrin ) but Parallel for strength to the other ; or , if it fall not in so long time , it has only something better luck , not better grounds than had the three Houses . As for the objected Unsuitableness of such a Certainty as I require , 't is reply'd , that nothing is more natural for the Generality of Mankind , than to be led by Authority ; nothing more penetrable by those of all sorts than the Infallibleness and Veracity of exceedingly vast and grave Authorities relating matter of Fact , as we experience in their beleef that there was a Q. Elizabeth and such like ; to comprehend and assent immovably to which costs them not the least over straining , as the Obiecter imagins . Which being so , I make account that God both in his power and wisdom could , & in his Goodness would render the Authority of his Church , the Ground and Pillar of Truth , as evident to all her Children , both as to its Inerrableness and Veracity as the other ; nay incomparably more , it being in every regard so requisit . Objection VI. If the Motives to Faith must be Impossible to be False to us , they would necessarily conclude the Truth of Faith ; wherefore they would , of themselves , oblige the Understanding to assent , and so there would need no precedent pious affection of the Will ; which yet both Councils , Fathers , and Catholick Divines with one consent require . Nay , more , were not such a pious affection put , Acts of Faith would not be Free. Answer . If Experience teaches us that even assent to Humane Sciences , though Evident from Intrinsecal reasons , Comprehensible by our Understanding , and purely Speculative , is not to be acquir'd without an affection to see Truth ; as is evident from the carriage of meer Scepticks , who having entertain'd a conceit of it's hopelesness , come thence to want Love or Affection for it , and so never come to see it , how Conclusive soever the reasons be . Much more by far must some good affection be pre-requisit to assent to Divine and Supernatural Truths , which are Obscure in themselves , as depending upon Authority ; Incomprehensible to our natural reason ; and Practical , that is obligingly-Efficacious to break out into Christian Action or Love of Heaven above all sublunary things , as True Faith must be . The First obstacle of the three mention'd has this difficulty , that the beams of Truth , which come directly from the things themselves are generally apt to strike our Understanding more naturally , penetrate it more deeply , and to stick in it more immovably , than those which are reflected to us from the Knowledg of another , such as are Points of Faith ; besides the new difficulty of seeing the Veracity of the Attester , which , how evident soever it be , yet it puts the Understanding to double pains ; whereas , Evidence had from the Thing is but a single labour , and so less confounding and distracting the thought . The Second Obstacle , Incomprehensibleness is apt to stupify the Understanding and retard Assent ; nay even to deter it from considering them as Truths ; The Atheistical temper of the world ( which could not subsist were Metaphysicks duly advanc'd ) sufficiently informs us how difficult it is for men to apply and fix their thoughts upon those considerabilities in things and those natures which are abstracted from matter ; the reason whereof is , because it being natural that our Fancy be in act while our Understanding is so , and there being not Proper Phantasms , ( the onely agreeable ones to material men , who are not strong enough to guide their Judgments purely by Principles and Connexions of Terms ) which sute to such abstracted Conceptions , but Metaphorical ones onely , which the Understanding must in rigour deny to be right ones , even while by necessity 't is forc't to make use of them ; Hence the life of a Christian , as such , being to serve God in Spirit and Truth , and , so , the Objects and Principles of his new Life for the most part and principally Spiritual ones , it comes to pass that for this very regard alone , there will need a great love of Truth and Spiritual Goods to make the Understanding appliable to them , or even admit a consideration of them . I was told by a worthy Friend of mine that discoursing with an acute man , but a great hater of Metaphysicks , and mentioning a Spirit , he in a disgust broke out into these words [ Let us talk of what we know . ] By which expression 't is manifest that he mistook the Question An est , for Quid est ; But what makes for my purpose is , that the unknowableness of the Essence or nature of a Spirit to us in this State , obstructed even his desire to consider whether there were any such thing or no ; & consequently that there needs a contrary desire or affection to know Spiritual things , to make us willing even to entertain a thought of their being , much more to conceit it . But incomparably more needful is such an Affection , when to the Spirituality of those points there shall be added an Incomprehensibleness , nay , if onely those points be consider'd , an Incredibleness ; when no Parallel can be found in Nature , nor scarce any similitude weakly to shadow out the thing and it's possibility ; nay , when some of those points directly thwart the course of natural Causes , whence all our other Knowledges have their Stability . Then , I say , if ever there is requisit an Affection for the Nobleness and Excellency of those high Spiritual Objects , to make us willing to hearken to any Authority proposing them , how evident soever the Motives be for the Credibleness of that Authority . The third Obstacle follows , taken from the End for which Faith is essentially ordain'd , that is , from what it essentially is , viz. a mover of the Will to Virtue and Goodness , or a Practical Principle . Now , nothing is more evident than this Truth , that by-affections and contrary inclinations are apt to hinder the understanding from assenting , or even attending candidly and calmly to these Reasons , ( how clear soever they be ) which make against any beloved Interest ; whence , there needs a contrary affection to these other , to remove the mists those passions had rais'd , and purge the Eye of the Mind , that so it may become capable of discerning what it could not before , though in it self most visible . How much more , ( not only requisite but even ) necessary must some pious affection be to permit the mind freely to embrace the doctrin of Christian Faith , containing Principles which enjoyn a disregard and posthabition of all that is sweet to Flesh and Blood , nay even of Livelihood and Life it self . 'T is most manifest then that a Plous Affection pre-requisit to Faith , derogates nothing from it's Certainty , but is perfectly consistent with the Evidence of those Motives which are to generate it ; and that the Governours and Officers of the Church , though proposing the most convincing reasons in the world for the Authority conveying down Faith to us , can prevail nothing , unless the Great Governour of the world and Giver of every good gift , by his peculiar Power , plant antecedently in their hearts this good disposition , and prepare terram bonam , that their endeavours may take effect , and the Sowers Seed take root ; no more than Paul , though miraculous , could convert all that saw his Miracles or heard his Preaching , but only such whose hearts God open'd as he did Lydia's . It appears also by the same discourse how the Acts of Faith are free , that is , as depending on this pious disposition of the Will , which sets the Understanding on work to consider the Motives , and so produce them . The whole Humane Action is free , because the Will orders it ; though she do not produce it all , or though freedom be not formally in the Body : so the Act of Faith is free , because it is order'd by the Will which is free ; though no freedom be found in the Understanding , which is incapable of such a qualification , but pure necessity of assenting when the Motives are seen to be Conclusive . No need then is there upon any account of a pious disposition of the Will to peece out the defect of the Reasons why we believe , and to oblige the Understanding to assent beyond the Motive ; that is , assent , to a degree , beyond what it had reason to do . An Impossibility in Humane Nature rightly and connaturally govern'd , and ( I much fear ) no small disgrace to Christian Faith ; considering the obstinate bent of the Church's Adversaries to confound the Speculative Thoughts of Divines , explaining Faith and its Grounds less carefully , with their Sentiments issuing naturally from them as Christians , nay with the Doctrin of the Catholick Church it self . What can revincingly be reply'd to an Atheist , objecting on this occasion that Christians make the Evidence of Faith's grounds stand need to be pecc'd out by Obscurity ; our Knowledg of them by Ignorance , and the Rationality of them by Will without Reason , that is , Willfulness . Wherefore I carnestly obtest and beseech , even per viscera Christi , all who shall read this Treatise , and yet have Speculatively held and maintain'd this Opinion I here impugn , ( for practically , and as Christians , they hold the contrary Conclusion ) seriously to weigh the Point once more , and not to obstruct the Resolving Christian Faith into immoveable Principles , or absolutely Certain Grounds , by an Opinion onely sprung from the conceited difficulty in making out those Grounds to be Impossible to be False ; which yet themselves to a man profess and hold , as they are Christians . I humbly beg leave to propose to them these few Considerations : First , 'T is Certain Faith is no less Faith , or an Assent upon Authority , though that Authority be demonstrated to be Infallible : but on the contrary , that 't is both firmer and more rational even for that very regard . Secondly , 'T is Certain that the Generality of Christians hold their Faith to be True , or Impossible to be False , ( that is , 't is True to us ) and withall perfectly Rational , and consequently that its Grounds or Principles are so able to ascertain it that they place it beyond Possibility of Falshood . Thirdly , 'T is no less evident that , an inclination or motion of the Will , being of such a nature that it can have neither Truth nor Falshood in it , can be no Rational Principle or Ground of our Assents or Acts of Faith ; that is , apt to ascertain them , or indeed apt to establish the Truth of any Tenet . Fourthly , That 't is most evident from my foregoing Discourse , that an antecedent pious disposition of the Will is still requisite to Faith , notwithstanding the perfect Conclusiveness of the Grounds on which 't is built ; and , that all Acts of Faith depend on this quoad exercitium at least , ( as the Schools speak ) which in the Judgment of many Divines is sufficient . Fifthly , That 't is the common Opinion of the solidest Divines , that Faith consists with Evidence in the Attester . Sixthly , That Faith or a firm and immoveable Assent upon Authority , is not thoroughly rational , and by consequence partly faulty , if the Motives be not alone able to convince an Understanding rightly dispos'd , without the Will 's Assistance ; for , what can be said for that degree of Assent which is beyond the Motive or Reason ? Is it not evident from the very Terms that 't is Irrational or without any Reason ? But , the worst is , that , whereas all good Christians hold their Faith Impossible to be False , or judge their Acts of Faith Immoveable Assents , these Authors as Speculaters put all the Reasons for Faith to leave it still Possible to be False , and make this pious Affection the onely thing which elevates it to Impossibility of Falshood , which is vastly higher in point of Certainty ; as if a rational Creature , not deviating totally from its nature , but acting according to right Reason , ought therefore to hold a Point Impossible to be False , because it self has an Affection , or ( as we say ) a great mind it should be so . Seventhly , This Assertion renders the Impossibility of Faith's Falshood , not only unmaintainable , ( as hath been now shown ) but also unperswadable to others ; for , how shall I be able to give account to others that my Affection which works this Perswasion in me is rational , and not apt to mislead me , when as the very Position obliges me to profess the contrary , and to grant that this Affection pushes forward my Understanding to assent beyond the reason it has , that is , as to this degree in my Assent , ( which is no small one since it raises it from judging Faith possible to be false , to judge it Impossible to be such ) without reason ? Or , will not this Speculative Tenet seem to force this Inference , that the Grounds of Faith , as to its most intrinsecal consideration , viz. the Impossibility of its Falshood , is made by this Doctrin full as dark a hole as 't is to alledge the private Spirit ? Nor can the Reverence due to the Divine Authority suffice for such an Effect ; both , because 't is Impossible God should will that Mankind for his sake should act irrationally ; as also , because there is no poison in the world so pestilent as an Errour abetted by the most Sacred Patronage of God's Authority , as the Histories of the Fanaticks in all ages , and our home-bred experience testifies . Whence , that very Reverence to the Divine Authority obliges us to be so sure 't is engag'd for a Truth e're we admit it for such , that we may securely though with an humble truth say with Richardus de Sancto Victore , Domine , si error est quod credimus , à te decepti sumus ; so that there is indeed no greater injury and abuse to the Divine Name imaginable , than to hazard the making it patronize Falshoods : against this deceit our Saviour hath fore-arm'd us , by his fore-warning us with a Nolite credere , when any one pretends , Loe here is Christ , or there is Christ. Lastly , 't is visible to any indifferent understanding , that those Divines who defend this influence of the pious Affection upon the settling of Faith's Certainty , though in other Points very rational and acute , yet when they come to this , they are at an utter loss , and can make nothing cohere . Philippus de Sancta Trinitate contradicts himself twice or thrice in one leaf while he attempts to defend it . But , I instance in one for all , that is , Father Vincentius Baronius , a Doctour of Tholouse , and of the Holy Order of S. Dominick ; a Person of as much Eminency , Gravity and Learning as any of late dayes . This Great Writer in his Manuductio ad Moralem Theologiam , p. 130 , 131. falls upon Caramuel in these words , Distinguit Caramuel duplicem honestatis Certitudinem seu veritatem ; formalem unam vocat , alteram objectivam ; istam negat cuilibet opinioni probabili , ill am concedit , &c. — Sed hoc nobis ignorantiae prodiglum est aut temeritatis , dari veritatem aut falsitatem , certitudinemque cui nulla Objectiva correspondeat ; Hoc ne deo quidem concessum est , ut Scientiam habeat rei non scibilis , i. e. veritatem formalem rei quae objectivâ careat . Yet the same Authour , p. 271 is forc't , by the defence of this ill grounded Tenet which he had espous'd , into the same paralogysm which he had so gravely , severely and learnedly reprehended in another . Where putting the Objection very home , he asks , Si praevium illud ad Fidem Iudicium sit intra probabilitatis fines , quâ ratione poterit mens assurgere in assensum illo seu opinione firmiorem ? ergo fidei Certitudo nutlat si ab illo Iudicio , quod prudenter probabile dixi , pendeat , nec aliunde repetatur : This done acknowledging that tota Controversia & fidei summa is contain'd ( as indeed it is ) in this argument , he addresses himself to answer it . First sleightly by an example , that this precedent Judgment is to Faith as Accidental Alteration to the Substantial Form , and so being onely a disposition to it may be less noble or Certain than Faith is it self ; whereas , if our Assent of faith ought to be thoroughly rational , this previous Judgment being that on which this Assent is built , as to us or as to our knowledg , must at least be Firm and Immovable it self , since the Assent of Faith built on it ought to be such , and consequently beyond Probability ; whence the example is most unsuitable ; signifying that as Nature disposes matter by imperfect degrees towards a perfect and ultimate Effect , so infirm Principles may rationally beget a firm Assent . After this , he alledges that the Certainty of Faith is to be fetch 't from God the Authour of it , who infuses Light and gives most efficacious strength to beleeve . But the question is whether God ordinarily and abstracting from Miracle infuses Light into rational Creatures , but by means of motives or reasons ; and whether it requires such strength , or rather be not an unwise Credulousness , that is a great weakness , to beleeve beyond what we have reason to do , and so unworthy God the giver of every good and perfect gift . Lastly , he affirms that the Certainty of Faith is to be fetch 't from the pious Affection of the will , qui mentem rebus credendis indubitato & immoto assensu alligat quasi nodo indissolubili ; Which , as it were by an indissoluble Knot , ties the mind to the things to be believ'd with an undoubted and unmov'd Assent . But , the question is how this knot is indissoluble , in case the probable reason prove false , unless the Soul be wilfully blind ; or why a resolvedness in the will can rationally establish a true Intellectual Certainty . What I chiefly conclude from these answers of his is , that he perpetually waves Certainty had from the Object , and so unavoidably is forc't to put a formal Certainty in as , to which no Objective Certainty corresponds ; which his excellent wit in another circumstance saw to be prodigiously faulty , and a Certainty ( that is a perfection ) not competent even to God himself . So Impossible 't is that Errours prejudicing the Rule of Faith should not either by Opposition to First Principles be discover'd to be Falshoods , or , by self-contradictions in their maintainers , confess it themselves . Objection VII . 'T is manifest that diverse weak people assent upon very Inconclusive , nay silly , or less than probable Motives ; whom yet no sober man will deny have saving Faith ; the true nature of Faith then requires not necessarily motives Impossible to be False , or that Faith be True to us , but may be without any such qualification . Answer . When we say Faith is Impossible to be False , we take the word [ Faith ] in its proper and primary signification ; now , that being the proper signification of a word that is most usual , and that most usual which is found in the Generality of the users of it , the proper signification ( that is the true nature ) of Faith is that which is found in the generality of Christians ; which being evidently an Assent to be adher'd to all one's life , to be dy'd in , and dy'd for , and the Object , or Form of that Assent being Truths ; and , so , it self True ; 't is most manifestly , in each of those regards , imply'd that it must be Impossible to be False to us , or to the Generality of Christians ; that is , it must have Grounds able to show it , nay actually showing it so to them , whatever Contingency may happen in a few particulars for want of applying to them the right Rule of Faith. Besides , Faith must be a Knowledg of Divine things , a virtuous Act , and , so , rat●onal ; and a most efficacious Cause of working for Heaven : Also , its Grounds must be apt to establish the most Speculative Faithful , to convert or confound the most acute Witts denying or opposing it , &c. all which and much more is prov'd in the First discourse of Sure Footing by arguments as yet not attempted to be invalidated by any ; however something hath been offer'd against those Conclusions : Which Attributes it cannot possibly justify , nor yet perform those Offices , without being True to us , or having Grounds Impossible to be False . The word [ Faith ] then , apply'd to those weak persons now spoken of , signifies not the same as when 't is found in the Generality of Assenters ; but , meerly , a simple credulity of any thing told them by a person that looks seriously when he speaks it , and is conceited by the Beleever to be wiser , or to have heard more than himself . Which kind of Assent , if it be seconded by favourable circumstances laid by God's Providence , especially by such means as are found in the Discipline of the Church , so as it begets a love of Heaven above all things , may suffice to save those weak and well meaning Catholicks . But , how incompetent an Assent no better grounded were for the establishment or propagation of Christianity ; that is , how insufficient for the Body of the Faithful or the Church ; how unfit for the Ends , and unable to produce the Effects true Faith ( or the Faith found in the Generality of the Faithful ) ought to do , needs no declaration to manifest it ; since no person of ordinary capacity can without difficulty refrain from smiling at the ridiculous levity of such kind of Assenters . INFERENCES From the foregoing Discourses concluding all Controversy . 1. IT rests , then , evinc'd and demonstratively concluded , with as great Firmness , as First Principles made use of for Premisses , and Immediate Consequences from those Principles can establish it , that , that most firm or Unchangeable Assent call'd Christian Faith , laying an obligation on its Prof●ssors to assert it with the greatest Seriousness , Constancy and Pledges imaginable , to be TRUE , and its Object , Points of Faith , to be TRUTHS , is not ▪ possible to be False to us , that is , to be an Erroneous Iudgment , or a Mistake of our Understanding , 2. 'T is with the same Certainty concluded , that the Ground of Faith as to our Knowledge , and , so , the Rule of Faith , must be likewise Impossible to be False . For , since nothing can or ought in true Reason be stronger than the Ground it stands on , if This be not Impossible to be False , it can be no Rule of Faith ; because it would weaken Faith it self , which is built on it , into a Possibility of Falshood , inconsistent with its nature . 3. It follows with the same Clearness , that , if the Rule of Faith , or the Immediate Means to convey the Knowledg of Christ's Doctrin to us , be any Living Authority , that Authority must be Infallible , as to that Effect . For , if Fallible , Faith which is built on it would still be Possible to be False . As , Likewise , that , if it be any Book , both the Letter of that Book must be known to be Imposs●ble to have been corrupted , as to what concerns Faith built on it ; and withall , the Sense known to be Impossible to be ●istaken . For , in case either of these ( all the Causes being put to preserve them such as we have said ) be truly judg'd or found to be Possible , Faith , which is to depend on them , will still be left possible to be False . 4. It follows immediately , that those pretended Faithfull , who have not Grounds of Faith thus qualify'd , have no true Faith ; that is , no Act of Belief , but what , notwithstanding all that they know , or can know of it , may possibly be False : nor , consequently , are they to be accounted truly Faithfull , as not having true Faith ( that is , in our case , an Assent built either on Infallible Living Authority , or on unmistakeable Letter and Sense of a Book , § 3. ) but Opinion onely . 5. It follows with like Evidence , that , a Controvertist being one who is to assert Faith , not by looking into the Mysteries of Faith and explaining them , ( this being the Office of a School-Divine ) but into the Motives to it or Rule of Faith , if he goes not about to bring Proofs which he judges and is ready to maintain , nay , which are of their own nature apt to shew Faith and its Rule Impossible to be False , he does not the duty he ows to Faith , nor behaves himself like a Controvertist ; but he betrays Faith by his Ineffectual and Probable managery of it , making it seem a sleight Opinion or lightly grounded Credulity . Especially , if he professes that all Proofs which can be produc'd in this matter , are Possible to be False : For , then , 't is a plain and open Confession all his Endeavours are to no purpose ; because he is to shew Faith , the Subject of his Discourse , to be what in reality it is ; that is , Impossible to be false . Nay , since Faith must be thus Certain , he manifestly destroys Faith , when he should defend and establish it , by professing all its Proofs or Grounds possible to be false . 6. It follows immediately , that unless some other Medium can be found , or way taken , in that Skill or Science call'd Controversie , which is able to show Faith Impossible to be false , than what is laid down in Sure-footing , which partly by our Adversaries confession of the Inability of theirs to reach Infallible Certainty , partly out of the nature of the Thing ( as is seen Sure-footing , Corol. 16 and 40. ) is evidently impossible ; nor was it ever yet attempted by any other Means , except by looking into the nature of Tradition : It follows , I say , that as it is Certain that Faith and its Grounds are Impossible to be false , that is , false to us , or may be shown thus Impossible to be False : So 't is by consequence Certain , likewise , that the main Doctrin there deliver'd will stand , whatever particular miscarriages may have happen'd in the managing it ; which are to be judg'd of by the strength of my Reasons there given , and the force of my Adversaries Objections . 7. 'T is necessarily consequent from the foregoing Paragraphs , that , if I have discours'd right in this small Treatise of mine , and have prov'd that Faith , and , consequently its Grounds , must be Impossible to be False ; then Mr. Tillotson's Confession p. 118. ( to which M. Stillingfleet's Doctrin is consonant ) that [ It is Possible to be otherwise ( that is , to be False ) that any Book is so antient as it pretends to be , or that it was written by him whose name it bears , or that this is the sense of such and such passages in it ] is a clear Conviction that neither is the Book-Rule he maintains the True Rule of Faith , ( § 3. ) nor have he and his Friends True Faith , ( § 4. ) and , consequently , there being no other Rule owned ( taking away Private Spirit ) but Tradition , that Tradition is the onely-true-Rule of Faith , ( § 6. ) and , so , the main of Sure-Footing stands yet firm ; and , lastly , 't is evinc'd , that his own Book which opposes it , opposes the onety-true , ( because the onely-impossible-to-be-False ) Ground of Faith : that is , he is convinc't in that Supposition , to go about to undermine all Christian Faith : Whence the Title of his Probable-natur'd Book is manifested to be an improper * Nick-name , and the Book it self to merit no Reply . 8. This last point is hence farther confirm'd because Mr T. ( and Mr. St. ) can claim no admittance into a dispute whether this or the other be the True Rule of Faith , till they approve themselves to be Christians and show they hold there is such a thing as Faith , or that it can bear the having any Rule at all ; since an Assent to a point seen and acknowledg'd Possible to to be False , can never rise to be more than an Opinion ; nor can the Motive of assenting to what may possibly be False , in true speech be call'd The Rule of Faith ; both , because there is in that case no Faith , ( Infer . 1. ) and , so , it cannot be a Rule to what is not ; as also , because what we see Possible to be False , cannot with any propriety be cal'd a Rule to the Understanding directing it to Truth , in regard , for any thing it sees , 't is a crooked path and a False Light leading it into Errour . What therefore they are to do , in the circumstances they have brought themselves into , is , to show that they destroy not the Truth of Faith , that is , the Nature of Faith it self , and the Nature of the Way to that Truth or the Rule of Faith , by putting them both possible to be False . I saw they did ; and therefore was oblig'd to begin my discourse higher , and to Settle the Existence of Faith by removing the possib●l●ty of it's Falshood ; that , so , it might be shown able to bear the having a Rule ; which , while it was in the tottering and uncertain condition to which Mr. T. and Mr. St. had reduc't it , that is , in a Possibility of being all a Ly , and indeed is an Actuality of being as to us not-Truth , but at most a great Likelihood , it was utterly incapable of . Since therefore in the right method of discoursing An est ought to antecede Quid ests they have lost their right to be discours't with about the Quid est of the Rule of Faith , or what is that Rule , till they can justify themselves not to have destroy'd the very An est or Existence of Rule and Faith both , with which Mr. T. is now challeng'd from his own words , and Mr. St. from his abetting him and espousing his Patronage . Both Nature , therefore , and Art excuse me from replying to Mr T. and Mr. St. where the just Laws of severe and rigorous Reason exactly obseru'd ; and , so , 't is onely a voluntary Courtesy not an obligatory duty to afford them or any other Writers thus Principled any Answer at all , or to admit them to a dispute about this Point , What is the Rule of Faith. Lastly , hence is inferr'd that a Conclusive Method or short way of ending all Controversies between the Catho lik Church and all her relinquishers , is settled by this Doctrin . For , if right Faith must be Impossible to be False to us , or to the Generality of Christians , that is , if the Motives to embrace Christianity , must be thus firm ; then 't is Evident that that Party whose Writers renounce the having any such Motives , in case those writers speak the sense of that Party , is not rightly Christian or truly Faithfull , * but a distinct Sect from the body of right Christians : or , it being most unjust that the discourses of private Speculaters should be pinn'd upon the whole party , if they write things deniable by that party ; in case any such Party should think fit to disclaim such Writers as private discoursers and their Tenet of Christian Faith's not being Absolutely Certain , which they are at liberty to do , and set some other writers to maintain the opposit Thesis , it will quickly be seen whether they are able to bring Infallible Grounds of Faith , I mean any Authority conveying Christ's Faith down to us infallibly ( which they must bring * if they will prove Faith Impossible to be False ) distinct from what the Catholik Church holds to , and which themselves renounc't when they forsook her Communion . But that there are , any such Grounds as these , that is Grounds Inerrably bringing down the Knowledg of Christs Faith to us , that is a , Rule of Faith Impossible to be False to us , I could never yet discern by the carriage , writings or Discourse of any Party that dissented from the Catholick Church , to be their Tenet : If , then , it be a most Certain Truth , that Faith must be Impossible to be false , as , I hope , I have abundantly concluded ; 't is , also , most Certain , that those who deny they have such a Faith , do , by that very denyal , confess they have no True Faith , nor are truly Faithfull , nor of the True Catholick Church . Postscript . THus , Reader , thou seest I still endeavour candidly to put Controversy home as far as my discourse can carry it ; and that I have resum'd here all the scatter'd ends of voluminous disputes into one point . By which means the sincere Protestant , and all others out of the Church , may see at a short view what they are to do . If they look into their own breasts , as they are Professors of Christianity , they will find it writ there in Capitals , That CHRISTIAN FAITH CANNOT BE AN ILLUSION ' OR FALSHOOD ; Also , that Faith is to be held by them True , and that they ought to suffer all Persecutions and Death it self for the professing it to be such : This found , and duly reflected on , the next thing to be done is , that they press their Learned men , by whom they are led , to shew them by such Grounds as their separation from the Catholick Church permits them to hold , that is , by their Grounds , that Christian Faith is Impossible to be False ; If they can ; ( as hitherto they have told us they cannot ) then their Adherents may in reason hope well of their own condition till they see those attempts evidently shown invalid . But , if they profess still they cannot ; and that Faith needs no such Certainty ; then , not onely the natural dictamen of Christianity in their own breasts ought to make them distrust the Principles of their Party , found to be so destructive to Christian Faith , but also I shall hope there are some Proofs in this foregoing Treatise which they will judg require an Answer . I expect my Answerer will sow together many thin Rhetorical fig-leaves to cover the Deformity of that abominable Thesis , that Faith may be False ; which to propose undisguiz'd were too openly shameful : But , I hope thou wilt be able to discern their sense through their Rhetorick , and heedfully to mark with a stedfast Eye , that , in how quaint and elegant phrases soever they cloak their Tenet , yet the genuin , downright and natural sense of the position they go about to defend , will still be this , [ The mysteries of Christian Faith may all be so many Lies , for any thing any man living absolutely knows , and the whole Body of Christian Doctrine a Bundle of Falshoods . I expect also many plausible Instances and pretended Parallels of the sufficiencie of inferiour degrees of Certitude for such and such particular ends . But , what thou art to consider , is , whether those Ends be Parallel or equal to that highest End and Concern of Christian Faith. These things I expect ; but I expect not that so much as one Principle , that will be found to deserve that name , will ever be thought prudent to be produc't to justify a Tenet every way so Irrational , and unprincipled ; or rather destroying the Certainty , and consequently the Essence and Nature , of the Best Body of Principles that either Nature , or the Author of Nature and Grace himself ever instill'd into Mankind . Lastly , I beseech thee to obtain for me if thou canst , that , if any think fit to reply to this Treatise , they would be perswaded to set aside all WITTY PREVARICATION and ELEGANT DROLLERY , ( the two chief , and in a manner onely , Sticklers in the pretended Answer to Sure-Footing ) and , beginning with First Principles , to draw thence Immediate Consequences , as I have constantly endeavour'd in this Discourse . By their attempting or neglecting to do this , and onely by that Test , it will be seen whether my Evictions stand or fall ; whereas from flashy wit so little is gain'd , that even what 's solid suffers disgrace by such a managery . And , I here very penitently beg pardon of my Readers that I have sometimes heretofore spent my precious time and less-fruitful labour which might have been better employd , in pursuing that way of Folly. For such my more deliberate Thoughts now discover it , however the reputed profoundness , but , indeed , real shallowness of my Adversaries , made it at that season seem most convenient . FINIS . Corrections of the Press . PAge 6. line 5. built upon . p. 14. l. 13. the Ten et . p. 25. l. 10. Acts. as p. 33. l 5. not be , is . p. 43. l. 9 is deniable p. 89. l 25. Objects on : p. 112. l. ult . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 121. l. 2. 't is neither Affirmation nor . l. 9 usually . p. 126. l. 26. Such Truths . p. 128. l. 9. their power . l. 18. at all . p. 130. l. 25. of the Schools . p. 134. l. 26. find . p. 139. l. 18. being to . l. 21. both at . p. 149. Objection VIII . p. 161. l. 13. parologysm . l : 21 : nut at . p. 164 l. 1. Objection IX . l. 5. to have . p. 171. l. 22. onely-true . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A59221-e3650 Postulata . The Thesis demonstrated from the nature of Evidence . From the nature of the Subject in Faith-Propositions . From the nature of the Copula From the nature of the Predicat● in most of those Propositions , From the nature of Distinction , as apply'd to the Predicate . From the impossibility of distinguishing the subjects of Faith-propositions . From the nature of Truth , consisting in an Indivisible . From the nature of Connexion From the nature of Opinion . Notes for div A59221-e5900 The Origin and Natures of Suspence and Assent . The Point evinc't from the natures of Suspence and Assent From the nature of Holding . From the nature of Knowing . From the nature of Certainty , in many regards . From the Impossibility that what may be false can have any Principles . From the Identity of Certainty with Infallibility . From the contrary opinion's unavoidably subjecting Faith to Chance and Contingency . From the Incompossibility of Truth with Falsehood . From the nature of Disputation , and the Impossibility otherwise to evince the Truth of faith . Notes for div A59221-e9540 The main Thesis demonstrated from the want of Potentiality in the Subject . From the , otherwise , necessity of putting a consistency of Truth with Falshood . From the , otherwise , necessity of putting Contradictories to be true . From the , otherwise , necessity of putting it possible the minde should be at once conformable and disconformable to the thing . From the Impossibility of different Respects here so to avoid a Contradiction . From the nature of the Soul. From the necessity of putting the Soul at once determin'd and indetermin'd in order to the same Point . From the Formal Natures of T●uth and Falshood . From the notion of Metaphysical Unity From the notion of Metaphysical Verity . From the notion of Metaphysical Bonity or Goodness . Notes for div A59221-e11270 From the contrary Thesis being destructive to the Fi●st Principle in all Metaphysicks . From the Impossibility of a sufficient Motive to judg a thing True , with a Motive to judg it possible to be False . From the nature of the First Cause , or the Deity . Notes for div A59221-e12530 From the nature of the proper Agent in instructing Mankind . From the nature of the Persons instructed . From Faith's being a Virtue . From Faith's being an Intellectu . al Virtue . From Faith's being a Supernatural Virtue . From the firmness Supernatural Faith ought to h●v●●bove Natural . Another Proof from the same head . From the requisiteness ▪ that Christian Action should proceed from the Acters in the perfectest manner . That otherwise Christian Religion would be more defective in point of Principles than any other Art or Science . Notes for div A59221-e13940 From Faith's being the Knowledg of our last End , and of the way to it . From the Certainty the Heathens had of the Principles of their imperfect Morality . From mans last End being only attainable by Intellectual means . From Virtue 's being the connatural Effect of Truth , and Vice of Falsehood . From the otherwise Inability of Fai●h , to resist & overcome Temptations . From the , otherwise , Uncertainty of the Existence of Spiritual Goods , or the Attainableness of them in the next life . From the , otherwise , preternaturali●y in producing a due love of Heaven From the Incredibleness of the Mysteries nor superable by any Motive possible to be False . From the otherwise greater plausibility of Objections against Faith. Notes for div A59221-e15330 From Faith's being a Knowledg of God , & of his Will From Faith's being plac'd beyond Contingencie . From the manner in which Christians express themselves when they profess their Faith From this , that otherwise it were lawful to lay a wager Christian Faith is a Ly. From the Carriage of the Martyrs , if suppos'd Honest & Prudent . From the Blasphemousnes of the Equivalencies to this Proposition Faith is Possible to be False . From the Practice of Learnedst Christians in captivating their understandings to Faith. From the Duty incumbent on the maintainers of the impugn'd Tenet to remain Seekers all their lives . From the inefficaciousness it brings to Christian Preaching and Exhortation . From the Churches constant Practice of Obliging to Belief . Notes for div A59221-e18110 * Rule of Faith. * Infer . 4 * Infer . 2. 
A28966	----	The excellency of theology compar'd with natural philosophy (as both are objects of men's study) / discours'd of in a letter to a friend by T.H.R.B.E. ... ; to which are annex'd some occasional thouhts about the excellency and grounds of the mechanical hypothesis / by the same author. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1674 Approx. 344 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 156 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28966 Wing B3955 ESTC R32857 12774707 ocm 12774707 93740 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28966) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 93740) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1521:12) The excellency of theology compar'd with natural philosophy (as both are objects of men's study) / discours'd of in a letter to a friend by T.H.R.B.E. ... ; to which are annex'd some occasional thouhts about the excellency and grounds of the mechanical hypothesis / by the same author. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [32], 232, [6], 40 p. Printed by T.N. for Henry Herringman ..., London : 1674. "About the excellency and ground of the mechanical hypothesis" has special t.p. and separate paging. "T.H.R.B.E." is the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. Errata: p.[8] at beginning; p. [1] before About the excellency and ground of the mechanical hypothesis. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminiary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith and reason. Matter -- Constitution. Physics -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-11 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-05 Robyn Anspach Sampled and proofread 2007-05 Robyn Anspach Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE EXCELLENCY OF THEOLOGY , COMPAR'D WITH NATURAL PHILOSOPHY , ( as both are Objects of Men's Study . ) Discours'd of In a LETTER to a Friend . By T. H. R. B. E. Fellow of the Royal Society . To which are annex'd Some Occasional Thoughts about the EXCELLENCY and GROUNDS Of the MECHANICAL HYPOTHESIS . By the same Author . Felicitatem Philosophi quaerunt ; Theologi inveniunt ; soli Religiosi possi●ent . LONDON , Printed by T. N. for Henry Herringman , at the Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange . 1674. The PUBLISHER's Advertisement to the Reader . WHen I shall have told the Reader , that the following Discourse was written in the year 1665 , while the Authour , to avoid the great Plague that then rag'd in London , was reduc'd with many others to go into the Countrey , and frequently to pass from place to place , unaccompanied with most of his Books ; it will not , I presume , be thought strange , that in the mention of some things taken from other Writers , as his memory suggested them , he did not annex in the Margent the precise places that are referr'd to . And , upon the same score , it ought not to seem strange , that he has not mention'd some late Discoveries and Books that might have been pertinently taken notice of , and would well have accommodated some parts of his Discourse ; since things that may thus seem to have been omitted , are of too recent a Date to have been known to him when He writ . But if it be demanded , why then a Discourse finished so long ago , did not come abroad much sooner ? I must acquaint the Reader , That 't was chiefly his real Concern for the welfare of the Study he seems to depreciate , that kept these Papers so long by him . For he resisted for several years the desires of Persons that have much power with him , and suppress'd the following Discourse , whilst he fear'd it might be misapply'd by some Enemies to Experimental Philosophy , that then made a noise against it , without suffering these Papers to come abroad , till the Addresses and Encomiums of many eminent Forreign Virtuosi , and their desire to be admitted into the Royal Society , had sufficiently manifested , how little its Reputation was prejudic'd , or like to be endanger'd , by the attempts of some envious or misinform'd Persons . And to this Reason must be added the Authors backwardness to venture abroad a Discourse of an unusual Nature , on which account , among others , he declin'd to have his Name prefix'd to it ; though , now the Book is Printed , he finds cause to fear , that 't will not be long conceal'd ; since he meets with some Marginal References to other Tracts of His , which ( these Papers having long lain by him ) he forgot to have been set down for private use , and which should not have been expos'd to publick view . ERRATA . IN the Author's Preface , p. 13. l. 7 , 8. for somewhat , r. much . In the Introduction , p. 2. l. 18. point thus , else ; our . In the Book , p. 51. l. 17. for Corpuscularium , r. Corpuscularian . p , 75. l. 2. for he , r. we . p. 114. l. 3. r. Theology for Philosophy . p. 133. l. 10. r. yet many of . ibid. l. 19. r. else do but. p. 171. l. ult . for of . r. or . p. 172. l. 28. for indeed , r. 't will perhaps he said that . p. 201. l. 12. point thus ; Predecessors , did unanimously teach . The Author's PREFACE . I Am not so little acquainted with the Temper of this Age , and of the Persons that are likeliest to be Perusers of the following Tract , as not to foresee it to be probable enough , that Some will ask , For what Reason a Discourse of this Nature was written at all ; and that Others will be displeas'd that it has been written by Me. Those that would know , by what Inducements my Pen was engag'd on this Subject , may be in great part inform'd by the Epistle it self , in divers places whereof , as especially about the Beginning , and at the Close , the Motives that invited me to put Pen to Paper are sufficiently express'd . And though several of those Things are peculiarly apply'd , and ( if I may so speak ) appropriated to the Person the Letter is address'd to ; yet that Undervaluation , I would disswade Him from , of the Study of Things Sacred , is not His fault alone , but is grown so rise among many ( otherwise Ingenious ) Persons , especially Studiers of Physicks , that I wish the ensuing Discourse were much less seasonable than I fear it is . But I doubt , that some Readers , who would not think a Discourse of this Nature Needless or Useless , may yet not be pleased at its being written by One , whom they imagine the Acceptance his Endeavours have met with , ought to oblige to spend his whole Time in Cultivating that Natural Philosophy , which in this Letter he would perswade to quit the Precedency , they think it may well challenge , before all other sorts of Learning . I am not unsensible of the favourable Reception that the Philosophical Papers I have hitherto ventured Abroad , have had the Happiness to receive from the Curious : But I hope , they will not be displeas'd , if I represent , that I am no Lecturer or Professor of Physicks , nor have ever engag'd my self by any Promise made to the Publick , to confine my self , never to write of any other Subject ; nor is it Reasonable , that what I did or may write , to gratifie other mens Curiosity , should deprive me of mine own Liberty , and Confine me to One Subject ; especially since there are divers Persons , for whom I have a great Esteem and Kindness , who think they have as much Right to solicit me for Composures of the Nature of this , that They will now have to go abroad , as the Virtuosi have to exact of me Physiological Pieces . And though I be not ignorant , that ( in particular ) the following Discourse , which seems to depreciate the Study of Nature , may at first sight appear somewhat improper for a Person , that has purposely written to show the Excellence and Usefulness of it ; yet I confess , that , upon a more Attentive Consideration of the Matter , I cannot Reject , no , nor Resist , Their Reasons , who are of a quite differing Judgment . And 1. My Condition , and my being a Secular Person ( as they speak ) are look'd upon as Circumstances that may advantage an Author that is to write upon such a Subject as I have handled . I need not tell you , that as to Religious Books in general , it has been observ'd , that those penn'd by Lay-men , and especially Gentlemen , have ( caeteris paribus ) been better entertain'd , and more effectual than those of Ecclesiasticks : And indeed 't is no great wonder , that Exhortations to Piety , and Disswasions from Vice , and from the Lusts and Vanities of the World , should be the more prevalent for being press'd by Those , who have , and yet decline , the Opportunities to enjoy plentifully Themselves the pleasures They disswade Others from . And ( to come yet closer to our present purpose ) though I will not venture to say with an excellent Divine , That what ever comes out of the Pulpit , does with many pass but for the foolishness of Preaching ; yet it cannot well be deni'd , but that if all other Circumstances be equal , He is the fittest to commend Divinity , whose Profession It is not ; and That it will somewhat add to the Reputation of almost any Study , and consequently to that of things Divine , That 't is prais'd and preferr'd by Those , whose Condition and Course of Life exempting them from being of any particular Calling in the Common-wealth of Learning , frees Them from the usual Temptations to Partiality to this or that sort of Study , which Others may be engag'd to magnifie , because 't is their Trade or their Interest , or because 't is Expected from them ; whereas these Gentlemen are oblig'd to commend it , onely because they really Love and Value it . But there is another thing that seems to make it yet more fit , that a Treatise on such a Subject should be Penn'd by the Authour of This : For profess'd Divines are suppos'd to be busied about Studies , that even by their being of an Higher , are confess'd to be of Another , Nature , than those that treat of things Corporeal . And since it may be observ'd , that there is scarce any sort of Learned men , that is more apt to undervalue those that are vers'd onely in other parts of Knowledge , than many of our Modern Naturalists , ( who are conscious of the Excellency of the Science they Cultivate , ) 't is much to be fear'd , that what would be said of the Preeminences of Divinity above Physiology by Preachers ( in whom the Study of the Latter is thought either but a Preparatory thing , or an Excursion ) would be look'd upon as the Decision of an Incompetent , as well as Interressed , Judge ; and their undervaluations of the Advantages of the study of the Creatures , would be ( as their depreciating the Enjoyment of the Creatures too often is , ) thought , to proceed but from their not having had sufficient opportunities to relish the pleasures of them . But these Prejudices will not lie against a Person , who has made the Indagation of Nature somewhat more than a Parergon , and having by a not-lazie nor short Enquiry manifested , how much He loves and can relish the Delight It affords , has had the good Fortune to make some Discoveries in it , and the Honour to have them Publickly , and but too Complementally , taken notice of by the Virtuosi . And it may be not Impertinent to add , that those who make Natural Philosophy their Mistris , will probably be the less offended to find her in this Tract represented , if not as an Handmaid to Divinity , yet as a Lady of a lower Rank ; because the Inferiority of the Study of Nature is maintain'd by a Person , who , even whilst he asserts it , continues ( if not a Passionate ) an Assiduous Courter of Nature : So that , as far as his Example can reach , it may show , that as on the one side a man need not be acquainted with , or unfit to relish , the Lessons taught us in the Book of the Creatures , to think them less Excellent than those , that may be learned in the Book of the Scriptures ; so on the other side , the Preference of this last Book is very consistent with an high Esteem and an Assiduous Study of the first . And if any should here object , that there are some Passages , ( which I hope are but very few ) that seem a little too unfavourable to the Study of Natural things ; I might alledge for my excuse the great difficulty that there must be in comparing two sorts of Studies , both of which a man much esteems , so to behave ones self , as to split a hair between them , and never offend either of them : But I will rather represent , that in such kind of Discourses as the ensuing , it may justly be hop'd , that equitable Readers will consider , not onely what is said , but on what occasion , and with what design 't is delivered . Now 't is plain by the Series of the following Discourse , that the Physeophilus , whom it most relates to , was by me look'd upon as a Person , both very partial to the study of Nature , and somewhat prejudic'd against that of the Scripture ; so that I was not always to treat with him , as with an indifferent man , but , according to the Advice , given in such cases by the Wise , I was ( to use Aristotle's expression ) to bend the crooked stick the contrary way , in order to the bringing it to be straight , and to depreciate the study of Nature somewhat beneath its true value , to reduce a great Over valuer to a just Estimate of it . And to gain the more upon Him , I allow'd my self now and then to make use of the contempt he had of the Peripatetick and Vulgar Philosophy , and in some passages to speak of them more slightingly , than my usual Temper permits , and than I would be forward to do on another occasion ; that , by such a Complaisance for his Opininions , I might have Rises to Argue with him from them . But to return to the Motives that were alledg'd to induce me to the Publication of these Papers , though I have not nam'd them all , yet all of them together would scarce have prov'd effectual , if they had not been made more prevalent by the just Indignation I conceived , to see even Inquisitive Men depreciate that kind of Knowledge , which does the most Elevate , as well as the most Bless , Mankind , and look upon the Noblest and Wisest Employments of the Understanding , as Signs of weakness in it . 'T is not that I expect , that whatever can be said , and much less what I have had occasion to say Here , will make Proselytes of those that are resolved against the being made so , and had rather deny themselves the Excellentest kinds of Knowledge , than allow that there can be any more Excellent , than what they think themselves Masters of : But I despair not , that what is here represented , may serve to fortifie in a high Esteem of Divine Truths those that have already a just Veneration for them , and preserve Others from being seduc'd by Injurious , though sometimes Witty , Insinuations , to undervalue that kind of Knowledge , that is as well the most Excellent in it self , as the most Conducive to Man's Happiness . And for this Reason I am the less displeas'd to see , that the following Letter is swell'd to a Bulk far greater than its being but a Letter promises , and then I first intended . For I confess , that when the Occasion hapned that made me put Pen to Paper , as I chanc'd to be in a very unsetled Condition ( which I fear has had too much influence on what I have written , ) so I did not design the insisting near so long upon my Subject as I have done ; but new things springing up ( if I may so speak ) under my Pen , I was content to allow them room in my Paper , because writing as well for my own satisfaction , as for that of my Friend , I thought it would not be useless to lay before my own Eyes , as well as His , those Considerations that seem'd proper to justifie to My self as well as to Him , the Preference I gave Divine Truths ( before Physiological ones ) and to confirm my self in the Esteem I had for them . And though I freely confess , that the following Discourse doth not consist of nothing but Ratiocinations , and consequently is not altogether of an Uniform Contexture ; yet that will , I hope , be thought no more than was fit in a Discourse , design'd not onely to Convince , but to Perswade : Which if it prove so happy as to do , as I hope the Peruser will have no cause to regret the trouble of Reading it , so I shall not repent that of Writing it . THE INTRODUCTION . SIR , I Hop'd you had known me better , than to doubt in good earnest , how I relish'd the Discourse your Learned Friend entertain'd us with yester-night . And I am the more troubled at your Question , because your way of inquiring , how much your Friends Discourse obtain'd of my Approbation , gives me cause to fear , that you vouchsafe it more of yours then I could wish it . But before I can safely offer you my sense of the Discourses , about which you desire to know it , I must put you in mind , that they were not all upon one Subject , nor of the same Nature : And I am enough his Servant to acknowledge , without the least reluctancy , that he is wont to shew a great deal of wit , when he speaks like a Naturalist , onely of things purely Physical ; and when he is in the right , seldom wrongs a good cause by his way of managing it . But as for those passages , wherein he gave himself the liberty of disparaging the learned Dr. N. onely because that Doctor cultivates Theological as well as Physical Studies and does both oftentimes read Books of Devotion ▪ and sometimes write them ; I am not so much a Courtier , as to pretend that I liked them . 'T is true , he did not deny the Doctor to be a learned and a witty Man , as indeed the wise providence of God has so ordered it , That to stop the bold mouthes of some , who would be easily tempted to imagine , and more easily to give out , that none are Philosophers , but such as , like themselves , desire to be nothing else . Our Nation is happy in several men , who are as eminent for Humane , as studious of Divine Learning ; and as great a veneration as they pay to Moses and St. Paul , are as well vers'd in the Doctrine of Aristotle , and of Euclid ; nay , of Epicurus and Des Cartes too , as those that care not to study any thing else . But though for this reason Mr. N. had not the confidence to despise the Doctor , and some of his Resemblers , whom he took occasion to mention ; yet he too plainly disclos'd himself to be one of those , who though they will not deny , but that some , who own a value for Theology , are men of parts ; yet they talk , as if such persons were so , in spight of their being Religiously given ; That being , in their opinion , such a blemish , that a man must have very great Abilities otherwise , to make amends for the disadvantage of valuing Sacred Studies , and surmount the disparagement it procures him . Wherefore since this disdainful humour begins to spread much more than I could wish it did among differing sorts of men , among whom I should be glad not to find any Naturalists ; and since the Question you ask'd me , and the esteem you have for your Friend , makes me fear you may look on it with very favourable eyes : I shall not decline the Opportunity you put into my hands of giving you , together with a profession of my dislike of this practice , some of my Reasons for that dislike ; and the rather , because I may do it without too much exceeding the limits of an Epistle , or those which the haste , wherewith I must write this , does prescribe to me . For your Friend does not oppose , but onely undervalue Theology ; and professing to believe the Scriptures ( which I so far credit , as to think he believes himself when he says so ) we agree upon the principles : So that I am not to dispute with him as against an Atheist , that denies the Authour of Nature , but onely against a Naturalist , that over-values the study of it . And the Truths of Theology are things , which I need not bring Arguments for , but am allowed to draw Arguments from them . But though , as I just now intimated , I design brevity ; yet for fear the fruitfulness and importance of my Subject should suggest things enough to me to make some little method , requisite to keep them from appearing confused ; I shall divide the following Epistle into two distinct parts . In the former of which I shall offer you the chief positive Considerations , by which I would represent to you the study of Divinity , as preferable to that of Physicks : And in the second part I shall consider the Allegations , that I foresee your Friend may interpose : in favour of Natural Philosophy . From which distribution you will easily gather , that the Motives on the one hand , and the Objections on the other will challenge to themselves distinct Sections in the respective parts whereto they belong . So that of the Order of the particulars you will meet with , I shall not need to trouble you with any further Account . THE EXCELLENCY OF THEOLOGY : OR , The Preeminence of the Study of Divinity , above that of Natural Philosophy . THE FIRST PART . TO address my self then , without any farther Circumstance or Preamble , to the things themselves , that I mainly intend in this Discourse , I consider in the General , That as there are scarce any Motives accounted fitter to engage a Rational man in a study , than That the Subject is Noble , That 't is his Duty to apply himself to it , and That his Proficiency in it will bring him great Advantages ; So there is not any of these three Inducements , that does not concur in a very plentiful measure to recommend to us the Study of Theological Truths . THE FIRST SECTION . ANd first , The Excellency and Sublimity of the Object we are invited to contemplate , is such , that none that does truly acknowledge a Deity can deny , but that there is no Speculation , whose Object is comparable in point of Nobleness , to the Nature and Attributes of God. The Souls of inquisitive men are commonly so curious , to learn the Nature and Condition of Spirits , as that the over-greedy desire to discover so much as That there are other Spiritual Substances besides the Souls of Men , has prevail'd with too many to try forbidden ways of attaining satisfaction ; and many have chosen rather to venture the putting themselves within the power of Daemons , than remain ignorant whether or no there are any such Beings : As I have learned by the private acknowledgments made me of such unhappy ( though not unsuccessful ) Attempts , by divers learned men ( both of other Professions , and that of Physick , ) who themselves made them in differing places , and were persons neither Timerous nor Superstitious : ( But this onely upon the By. ) And certainly that man must have as Wrong as Mean a Notion of the Deity , and must but very little consider the Nature and Attributes of that infinitely perfect Being , and as little the Nature and infirmities of Man , who can imagine the Divine Perfections to be Subjects , whose investigation a man may ( inculpably ) despise , or be so much as fully sufficient for . Not onely the Scripture tells us , That his Greatness is incomprehensible , and his wisdom is inscrutable ; That he humbles himself to look into ( or upon ) the Heavens and the Earth ; and , That not onely this or that man , but all the Nations of the World are , in comparison of him , but like the small Drop of a Bucket , or the smaller Dust of a Ballance : But even the Heathen Philosopher , who wrote that eloquent Book De Mundo , ascrib'd to Aristotle in his riper years , speaks of the Power , and Wisdom , and Amiableness of God , in terms little less lofty , though necessarily inferiour to so infinitely Sublime a Subject ; which they that think they can , especially without Revelation , sufficiently understand , do very little understand themselves . But perhaps your Friend will object , That to the knowledge of God there needs no other then Natural Theology ; and I readily confess , being warranted by an Apostle , that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , was not unknown to the Heathen Philosophers ; and that so much knowledge of God is attainable by the light of Nature , duly employ'd , as to encourage men to exercise themselves more than most of them do in that noblest of Studies , and render their being no Proficients in it , injurious to themselves as well as to their Maker . But notwithstanding this , as God knows Himself infinitely better then purblind Man knows Him , so the Informations He is pleased to vouchsafe us , touching His own Nature and Attributes , are exceedingly preferable to any account , that we can give our selves of Him , without Him. And methinks , the differing Prospects we may have of Heaven , may not ill adumbrate to us the differing Discoveries that may be made of the Attributes of its Maker . For as , though a man may with his naked eye see Heaven to be a very glorious Object , enobled with radiant Stars of several sorts ; yet when his eye is assisted with a good Telescope , he can not onely discover a number of Stars ( Fix'd and Wandring ) which his naked eye would never have shown him ; but those Planets which he could see before , will appear to him much bigger , and more distinct : So , although bare Reason well improv'd will suffice to make a man behold many glorious Attributes in the Deity ; yet the same Reason , when assisted by Revelation , may enable a man to discover far more Excellencies in God , and perceive them , he contemplated before , far greater and more distinctly . And to shew how much a dim Eye , illuminated by the Scriptures , is able to discover of the Divine Perfections , and how unobvious they are to the most piercing Philosophical Eyes , that enjoy but the dim light of Nature ; we need but consider , how much more suitable Conceptions and Expressions concerning God are to be met with in the Writings of those Fishermen and others , that penn'd the New Testament , and those illiterate Christians that received it , than amongst the most Civiliz'd Nations of the World ( such as anciently the Greeks and Romans , and now the Chineses and East-Indians ) and among the eminentest of the Wise-men and Philosophers themselves , ( as Aristotle , Homer , Hesiod , Epicurus , and others . ) Besides that the Book of Scripture discloses to us much more of the Attributes of God , than the Book of Nature ; there is another Object of our Study , for which we must be entirely beholding to Theology : For though we may know something of the Nature of God by the Light of Reason , yet we must owe the knowledge of His Will , or Positive Laws , to His own Revelation . And we may ghess , how curious great Princes and wise Men have been to inform themselves of the Constitutions established by wise and eminent Legislators ; partly by the frequent Travels of the Ancient Sages and Philosophers into Forreign Countries , to observe their Laws and Government , as well as bring home their Learning ; and partly by those Royal and Sumptuous Expences , at which that Great and Learned Monarch Ptolomeus Philadelphus stuck not to procure an Authentick Copy of the Law of Moses , whom he considered but as an eminent Legislator . But certainly That , and other Laws recorded in the Bible , cannot but appear more noble and worthy Objects of Curiosity to us Christians , who know them to proceed from an Omniscient Deity , who being the Authour of Mankind , as well as of the rest of the Universe , cannot but have a far perfecter knowledge of the Nature of Man , than any other of the Law-givers , or all of them put together can be conceived to have had . But there is a farther Discovery of Divine Matters , wherewith we are also gratified by Theology : For besides what the Scripture teaches us of the Nature and the Will of God , it contains divers Historical Accounts ( if I may so call them ) of His Thoughts and Actions . The Great Alexander thought himself nobly employ'd , when he read of the Grecian Actions in Homer's Verses ; and , To know the Sentiments of great and wise Persons , upon particular occasions , is a curiosity so laudable , and so worthy of ▪ an Inquisitive Soul , that the Southern Queen has been more prais'd than admir'd , for coming from the remoter parts of the Earth , to hear the Wisdom of Solomon . Now the Scripture does in many places give our Curiosity a nobler Employment , and thereby a higher Satisfaction , than the King of Macedon , or the Queen of Sheba could enjoy ; for in many places it does , with great clearness and ingenuity , give us accounts of what God Himself hath declar'd of His own Thoughts , of divers particular Persons and Things , and relates , what He that knows and commands all things , was pleas'd to say & do upon particular Occasions . Of this sort of Passages are the things recorded to have been said by God to Noah , about the sinful Worlds ruine , and that Just Man's preservation ; and to Moses in the case of the Daughters of Zelophehad . And of this sort are the Conferences , mentioned to have pass'd betwixt God and Abimelech , concerning Abraham's Wife ; betwixt God and Abraham touching the destruction of Sodom ; betwixt God and Solomon , about that Kings happy choice ; betwixt God and Jonah , about the Fate of the greatest City of the World : And above all these , those two strange and matchless Passages , the one in the first Book of Kings , touching the seducing Spirit that undertook to seduce Ahab's Prophets ; and the other , that yet more wonderful Relation of what pas'd betwixt God and Satan , wherein the Deity vouchsafes not onely to Praise , but ( if I may so speak with reverence ) to Glory in a Mortal . And the being admitted to the knowledge of these Transactions of another World ( if I may so call them ) wherein God has been pleased to disclose himself so very much , is an advantage afforded us by the Scripture , of so noble a Nature , and so unattainable by the utmost improvement we our selves can make of our own Reason , that , did the Scripture contain nothing else that were very Considerable , yet that Book would highly deserve our Curiosity and Gratitude . And on this occasion , I must by no means leave unobserv'd another Advantage that we have from some Discourses made us in the Bible ; since it too highly concerns us , not to be a very Great one ; and it is , That the Scripture declares to us the Judgment , that God is pleas'd to make of some particular Men , upon the Estimate of their Life and Deportment . For though Reason alone , and the Grounds of Religion in general , may satisfie us in some measure , that God is Good and Merciful , and therefore 't is likely he may Pardon the sins and frailties of Men , and accept of their Imperfect Services ; yet , besides that we do not know , whether He will Pardon , unless we have His Promise of it ; besides this ( I say ) though by vertue of general Revelation , such as is pretended to in divers Religions , we may be assured , that God will accept , forgive , and reward those that sincerely obey him , and perform the Conditions of the Covenant , whether it be Express , or Implicite , that he vouchsafes to make with them ; yet since 't is He that is the Judge of the Performance of the Conditions , and of the sincerity of the Person ; and since He is Omniscient , and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and so may know more Ill of us , than even we know of our selves ; a concerned Conscience may rationally doubt , whether in Gods Estimate any particular man was so sincere as to be accepted . But when He Himself is pleas'd to give Elogiums ( if I may with due respect so style them ) to David , Job , Noah , Daniel , &c. whilst they were alive , and to others after they were dead , ( and consequently having finished their Course , were pass'd into an Irreversible state ) we may learn with Comfort , both that the Performance of such an Obedience as God will accept , is a thing really Practicable by Men ; and that even great sins and misdemeanors are not ( if seasonably repented of ) certain evidences , that a man shall never be Happy in the future Life . And it seems to be for such an use of consolation to Frail men ( but not at all to encourage Licentious ones ) that the Lapses of holy Persons are so frequently recorded in the Scriptures . And bating those Divine Writings , I know no Books in the world , nor all of them put together , that can give a considering Christian , who has due apprehensions of the Inexpressible Happiness or Misery of an Immortal state in Heaven or in Hell , so great and well grounded a Consolation , as may be deriv'd from three or four lines in St. John's Apocalypse , where he says , That he saw in Heaven a great multitude , not to be numbred , of all Nations , and Tribes , and People , and Tongues , standing before the Throne , and before the Lamb , clothed in white Robes , with Palms ( the Ensigns of Victory ) in their hands ; and the Praises of God and of the Lamb in their mouthes . For from thence we may learn , that Heaven is not reserv'd onely for Prophets , and Apostles , and Martyrs , and such extraordinary Persons , whose Sanctity the Church admires , but that through Gods goodness , multitudes of his more Imperfect Servants have access thither . Though the Infinite Perfections and Prerogatives of the Deity be such , that Theology it self can no more than Philosophy afford us another Object for our Studies , any thing near so Sublime and Excellent , as what it discloses to us of God ; yet Divinity favours us with some other Discoveries , namely , about Angels , the Universe , and our own Souls , which though they must needs be inferiour to the knowledge of God Himself , are , for the nobleness of their Objects , or for their Importance , highly preferable to any that Natural Philosophy has been able to afford its Votaries . But before I proceed to name any more particulars , disclos'd to us by Revelation , 't will be requisite , for the prevention or removal of a Prejudice , to mind you , that we should not make our Estimates of the worth of the things we owe to Revelation , by the Impressions they are wont now to make upon Us Christians , who learned divers of them in our Catechisms , and perhaps have several times met with most of the Rest in Sermons , or Theological Books . For 't is not to be admir'd , that we should not be strongly affected at the mention of those Truths , which ( how valuable soever in themselves ) were for the most part taught us when we were either Children , or too Youthful to discern and prize their Excellency and Importance . So that though afterwards they were presented to our riper understanding , yet their being by that time become familiar , and our not remembring that we ignor'd them , kept them from making any vigorous Impressions on Us. Whereas if the same things had been ( with Circumstances evincing their Truth ) discover'd to some Heathen Philosopher , or other vertuous and inquisitive Man , who valu'd important Truths , and had nothing but his own Reason to attain them with , he would questionless have receiv'd them with wonder and joy . Which to induce us to suppose we have sundry Instances , both in the Records of the Primitive Times , and in the recent Relations of the Conversion of men to Christianity among the People of China , Japan , and other Literate Nations . For though bare Reason cannot discover these Truths , yet when Revelation has once sufficiently propos'd them to Her , she can readily embrace , and highly value divers of them ; which being here intimated once for all , I now advance to name some of the Revelations themselves . And first , as for Angels , I will not now question , whether bare Reason can arrive at so much as to assure us , That there are such Beings in Rerum Naturâ . For though Reason may assure , that their Existence is not Impossible , and perhaps too not improbable ; yet I doubt , whether 't were to meer Ratiocination , or clear Experience , or any thing else but Revelation , convey'd to them by imperfect Tradition , that those Heathen Philosophers , who believ'd that there were separate Spirits other than Humane , ow'd that perswasion . And particularly as to Good Angels , I doubt , whether those Antient Sages had any cogent Reasons , or any convincing Historical Proofs , or , in short , any one unquestionable Evidence of any kind , to satisfie a wary person so much as of the being ( much less to give a farther account ) of those Excellent Spirits . Whereas Theology is enabled by the Scripture to inform us , that not onely there are such Spirits , but a vast multitude of them ; That they were made by God and Christ , and are Immortal , and propagate not their Species ; and that these Spirits have their chief Residence in Heaven , and enjoy the Vision of God , whom they constantly praise , and punctually obey , without having sinn'd against him ; That also these Good Angels are very Intelligent Beings , and of so great power , that One of them was able in a night to destroy a vast Army ; That they have Degrees among themselves , are Enemies to the Devils , and fight against them ; That they can assume Bodies shap'd like ours , and yet disappear in a trice ; That they are sometimes employ'd about Humane affairs , and that not onely for the welfare of Empires and Kingdomes , but to protect and rescue single Good men . And though they are wont to appear in a dazling Splendor , and an astonishing Majesty , yet they are All of them ministring Spirits , employ'd for the good of the designed Heirs of Salvation . And they do not onely refuse mens Adoration , and admonish them to pay it unto God ; but , as they are in a sense made by Jesus Christ , who was true Man as well as God ; so they do not onely worship him , and call him simply , as his own Followers were were wont to do , The Lord , but stile themselves Fellow servants to his Disciples . And as for the other Angels , though the Gentiles , as well Philosophers as others , were commonly so far mistaken about them , as to adore them for true Gods , and yet many of them to doubt whether they were immortal ; the Scripture informs us , that they are not Self-originated , but created Beings ; That however a great part of Mankind worships them , they are wicked and impure Spirits , Enemies to Mankind , and Seducers of our first Parents to their Ruine ; That though they beget and promote confusion among men , yet they have some Order among themselves , as having one Chief , or Leader ; That they are evil Spirits , not by Nature , but Apostacy ; That their power is very limited , insomuch that a Legion of them cannot invade so contemptible a thing as a Herd of Swine , without particular leave from God ; That not onely Good Angels , but Good Men , may , by resisting them , put them to flight , and the sincere Christians that worsted them here , will be among those that shall judge them hereafter ; That their being immortal , will make their misery so too ; That they do themselves believe and tremble at those Truths , they would perswade men to reject ; and That they are so far from being able to confer that Happiness , which their Worshippers expect from them , that themselves are wretched creatures , reserv'd in chains of darkness to the judgment of the great Day ; at which they shall be doom'd to suffer everlasting torments , in the company of those wicked men that they shall have prevail'd on . We may farther consider , That as to things Corporeal themselves , which the Naturalist challenges as his peculiar Theme , we may name particulars , and those of the most comprehensive nature , and greatest Importance , whose knowledge the Naturalist must owe to Theology . Of which Truths I shall content my self to give a few instances in the World it self , or the universal Aggregate of things Corporeal ; that being look'd upon as the noblest and chiefest Object , that the Physicks afford us to contemplate . And first , Those that admit the Truths reveal'd by Theology , do generally allow , that God is not onely the Author , but Creator of the World. I am not ignorant of what Anaxagoras taught , of what he call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — ( and Tully mentions ) in the production of the World ; and that what many other Grecians afterwards taught of the Worlds Aeternity , is peculiarly due to Aristotle , who does little less then brag , that all the Philosophers that preceded him were of another mind . Nor will I here examine ( which I else-where do ) whether , and how far by Arguments meerly Physical , the Creation of the World may be evinc'd . But whether or no meer Natural Reason can reach so sublime a Truth ; yet it seems not that it did actually , where it was not excited by Revelation-Discovery . For though many of the antient Philosophers believ'd the World to have had a Beginning , yet they all took it for granted , that Matter had none ; nor does any of them , that I know of , seem to have so much as imagin'd , that any Substance could be produced out of Nothing . Those that ascribe much more to God than Aristotle , make Him to have given Form onely , not Matter , to the World , and to have but contriv'd the pre-existent Matter into this orderly Systeme we call the Universe . Next , whereas very many of the Philosophers that succeeded Aristotle , suppose the World to have been Aeternal ; and those that believ'd it to have been produc'd , had not the confidence to pretend to the knowing how old it was ; unless it were some extravagant ambitious People , such as those fabulous Chaldaeans , whose fond account reach'd up to 40000 or 50000 years : Theology teaches us , that the World is very far from being so old by 30 or 40 thousand years as they , and by very many Ages , as divers others have presum'd ; and does , from the Scripture , give us such an account of the age of the World , that it has set us certain Limits , within which so long a Duration may be bounded , without mistaking in our Reckoning . Whereas Philosophy leaves us to the vastness of Indeterminate Duration , without any certain Limits at all . The Time likewise , and the Order , and divers other Circumstances of the Manner , wherein the Fabrick of the World was compleated , we owe to Revelation ; bare Reason being evidently unable to inform us of Particulars that preceded the Origine of the first Man ; and though I do not think Religion so much concern'd , as many do , in their Opinion and Practise , that would deduce particular Theorems of Natural Philosophy from this or that Expression of a Book , that seems rather design'd to instruct us about Spiritual than Corporeal things . I see no just reason to embrace their Opinion , that would so turn the two first Chapters of Genesis into an Allegory , as to overthrow the Literal and Historical sense of them . And though I take the Scripture to be mainly design'd to teach us nobler and better Truths , than those of Philosophy ; yet I am not forward to condemn those , who think the beginning of Genesis contains divers particulars , in reference to the Origine of things , which though not unwarily , or alone to be urg'd in Physicks , may yet afford very considerable Hints to an attentive and inquisitive Peruser . And as for the Duration of the World , which was by the old Philosophers held to be Interminable , and of which the Stoicks Opinion , that the World shall be destroyed by fire ( which they held from the Jews ) was Physically precarious ; Theology teaches us expresly from Divine Revelation , that the present course of Nature shall not last always , but that one Day this world ( or at least this Vortex of ours ) shall either be Abolished by Annihilation , or ( which seems far more probable ) be Innovated , and , as it were , Transfigur'd , and that by the Intervention of that Fire , which shall dissolve and destroy the present frame of Nature : So that either way , the present state of things ( as well Naturall as Political ) shall have an end . And as Theology affords us these Informations about the Creatures in general ; so touching the chiefest and noblest of the visible ones , Men , Revelation discovers very plainly divers very important things , where Reason must needs be in the dark . And first , touching the Body of Man ; The Epicureans attributed its Original , as that of all things else , to the Casual Concourse of Atoms ; and the Stoicks absurdly and injuriously enough ( but much more pardonably than their follower herein , Mr. Hobbs ) would have Men to spring up like Mushrooms out of the ground ; and whereas other Philosophers maintain conceits about it , too wild to be here recited ; the Book of Genesis assures us , that the Body of Man was first form'd by God in a peculiar manner , of a Terrestrial Matter ; and 't is there described , as having been perfected before the Soul was united to it . And as Theology thus teaches us , how the Body of Man had its first beginning ; so it likewise assures us , what shall become of the Body after death , though bare Natural Reason will scarce be pretended to reach to so abstruse and difficult an Article as that of a Resurrection ; which , when propos'd by St. Paul , produc'd among the Athenian Philosophers nothing else but wonder or laughter . Not to mention , that Theology teaches us divers other things about the Origine and Condition of Mens Bodies ; as , That all Mankind is the Off-spring of One Man and one Woman ; That the first Woman was not made of the same Matter , nor after the same Manner as the first Man , but was afterwards taken from his side ; That both Adam and Eve were not , as many Epicureans and other Philosophers fanci'd that the first men were , first Infants ; whence they did , as we do , grow by degrees to be mature and compleat Humane Persons , but were made so all at once ; and , That hereafter , as all mens Bodies shall rise again , so they shall all ( or at least all those of the just ) be kept from ever dying a second time . And as for the Humane Soul , though I willingly grant , that much may be deduc'd from the Light of Reason onely , touching its Existence , Properties , and Duration ; yet Divine Revelation teaches it us with more clearness , and with greater Authority ; as , sure , he that made our Souls , and upholds them , can best know what they are , and how long he will have them last . And as the Scripture expresly teaches us , that the Rational Soul is distinct from the Body , as not being to be destroy'd by those very Enemies that kill the Body ; so about the Origine of this Immortal Soul ( about which Philosophers can give us but wide and precarious conjectures ) Theology assures us , that the Soul of man had not such an Origination , as those of other Animals , but was Gods own immediate Workmanship , and was united to the Body already form'd : And yet not so united , but that upon their Divorce , she will survive , and pass into a state , in which Death shall have no power over her . I expect you will here object , that for the knowledge of the Perpetual Duration of separate Souls , we need not be beholding to the Scripture , since the Immortality of the Soul may be sufficiently prov'd by the sole Light of Nature , and particularly has been demonstrated by your great Des Cartes . But you must give me leave to tell you , that , besides that a matter of that weight and concernment cannot be too well prov'd , and consequently ought to procure a welcome for all good Mediums of Probation ; besides this , I say , I doubt many Cartesians do , as well as others , mistake , both the difficulty under consideration , and the scope of Des Cartes's Discourse . For I grant , that by Natural Philosophy alone , the Immortality of the Soul may be prov'd against its usual Enemies , Atheists and Epicureans . For the ground , upon which these men think it mortal , being , That 't is not a true substance , but onely a modification of Body , which consequently must perish , when the frame or structure of the Body , whereto it belongs , is dissolv'd : Their ground being this , I say , if we can prove by some Intellectual Operations of the Rational Soul , which Matter , however modifi'd , cannot reach , That it is a Substance distinct from the Humane Body , there is no reason , why the Dissolution of the Latter should infer the Destruction of the Former , which is a simple Substance , and as real a Substance as Matter it self , which yet the Adversaries affirm to be Indestructible . But though by the Mental Operations of the Rational Soul , and perhaps by other Mediums it may , against the Epicureans , and other meer Naturalists , who will not allow God to have any thing to do in the case , be prov'd to be Immortal in the sense newly propos'd ; yet the same Proofs will not evince , that absolutely it shall never cease to be ▪ if we dispute with Philosophers , who admit , as the Cartesians and many others do , that God is the sole Creator and Preserver of all things . For how are we sure but that God may have so ordain'd , That , though the Soul of Man , by the continuance of his ordinary and upholding Concourse , may survive the Body , yet , as 't is generally believ'd , not to be created till it be just to be infus'd into the Body ; so it shall be annihilated when it parts with the Body , God withdrawing at death that supporting influence , which alone kept it from relapsing to its first Nothing . Whence it may appear , that notwithstanding the Physical proofs of the Spirituality and separableness of the Humane Soul , we are yet much beholding to Divine Revelation for assuring us , that its Duration shall be endless . And now to make good what I was intimating above , concerning the Cartesians , and the scope of Des Cartes's Demonstration , I shall appeal to no other than his own Expressions to evince , that he consider'd this matter for the main as we have done , and pretended to demonstrate , that the Soul is a Distinct Substance from the Body ; but not that absolutely speaking it is Immortal . Cur ( answers that excellent Author ) de immortalitate Animae nihil scripserim , jam dixi in Synopsi mearum Meditationum . Quod ejus ab omni corpore distinctionem satis probaverim , supra ostendi . Quod vero additis , Ex distinctione Animae á corpore non sequi ejus Immortalitatem , quia nihilominus dici potest , illam à Deo talis naturae factam esse , ut ejus Duratio simul cum Duratione vitae corporeae finiatur , fateor á me refelli non posse . Neque enim tantum mihi assumo ut quicquam de iis quae à libera Dei voluntate dependent , humanae rationis vi determinare aggrediar . Docet Naturalis cognitio , &c. Sed si de absoluta Dei potestate quaeratur , an forte decreverit , ut humanae animae iisdem Temporibus esse desinant , quibus Corpora quae illis adjunxit ; solius Dei est , respondere . And if he would not assume to demonstrate by Natural Reason , so much as the Existence of the Soul after death , unless upon a supposition ; we may well presume , that he would less take upon him to determine , what shall be the condition of that Soul after it leaves the Body . And that you may not doubt of this , I will give you for it his own confession , as he freely writ it in a private Letter to that Admirable Lady , the Princess Elizabeth , first Daughter to Frederick King of Bohemia , who seems to have desir'd his Opinion on that important Question , about which he sends her this Answer , Pour ce qui , &c. i. e. As to the State of the Soul after this Life , my knowledge of it is far inferiour to that of Monsieur ( he means Sir Kenelm ) Digby . For , setting aside that which Religion teaches us of it , I confess , that by mee● Natural Reason we may indeed make many conjectures to our own advantage , and have fair Hopes , but not any Assurance : And accordingly in the next clause he gives the imprudence , of quitting what is certain for an uncertainty , as the cause why , according to Natural Reason , we are never to seek Death . Nor do I wonder he should be of that mind . For all that meer Reason can demonstrate , may be reduced to these two things ; One , that the Rational Soul , being an Incorporeal Substance , there is no necessity that it should perish with the Body ; so that , if God have not otherwise appointed , the Soul may survive the Body , and last for ever : The other , that the Nature of the Soul , according to Des Cartes , consisting in its being a Substance that thinks , we may conclude , that , though it be by death separate from the Body , it will nevertheless retain the power of thinking . But now , whether either of these two things , or both , be sufficient to endear the state of separation after death , to a considering man , I think may be justly question'd . For , Immortality or Perseverance in Duration , simply consider'd , is rather a thing presuppos'd to , or a requisite of , Felicity , than a part of it ; and being in it self an adiaphorous thing , assumes the nature of the state or condition to which 't is joyn'd , and does not make that state happy or miserable , but makes the possessors of it more happy or more miserable than otherwise they would be . And though some School-men , upon Aery Metaphysical Notions , would have men think it is more eligible to be wretched , than not to be at all ; yet we may oppose to their speculative subtilties the sentiments of Mankind , and the far more considerable Testimony of the Saviour of Mankind ▪ who speaking of the Disciple that betray'd him , says , That it had been good for that man if he had never been born . And Eternity is generally conceived to aggravate no less the miseries of Hell , than it heightens the joys of Heaven . And here we may consider , first , That meer Reason cannot so much as assure us absolutely , that the Soul shall survive the Body : For the Truth of which we have not onely Cartesius's Confession , lately recited , but a probable Argument , drawn from the nature of the thing , since , as the Body and Soul were brought together , not by any meer Physical Agents , and since their Association and Union whilst they continued together , was made upon Conditions that depended solely upon Gods free and arbitrary Institution ; so , for ought Reason can secure us of , one of the Conditions of that Association may be , That the Body and Soul should not survive each other . Secondly , supposing that the Soul be permitted to outlive the Body , meer Reason cannot inform us what will become of her in her separate state , whether she will be vitally united to any other kind of Body or Vehicle ; and if to some , of what kind that will be , and upon what terms the Union will be made . For possibly she may be united to an unorganiz'd , or very imperfectly organiz'd , Body , wherein she cannot exercise the same Functions she did in her Humane Body . As we see , that even in this Life the Souls of Natural Fools are united to Bodies , wherein they cannot discourse , or at least cannot Philosophize . And 't is plain , that some Souls are introduc'd into Bodies , which , by reason of Paralytical and other Diseases , they are unable to move , though that does not always hinder them from being obnoxious to feel pain . So that , for ought we naturally know , a Humane Soul , separated from the Body , may be united to such a portion of Matter , that she may neither have the power to move it , nor the advantage of receiving any agreeable Informations by its interventions , having upon the account of that Union no other sense than that of pain . But let us now consider what will follow , if I should grant that the Soul will not be made miserable , by being thus wretchedly matched . Suppose we then , that she be left free to enjoy what belongs to her own nature : That being onely the Power of always thinking , it may well be doubted , whether th'exercise of that Power wil suffice to make her happy . You will perchance easily believe , that I love as well as another to entertain my self with my own thoughts , and to enjoy them undisturbed by visits , and other avocations ; I would , onely accompanied by a Servant and a Book , go to dine at an Inn upon a Road , to enjoy my thoughts the more freely for that day . But yet , I think , the most contemplative men would , at least in time , grow weary of thinking , if they received no supply of Objects from without , by Reading , Seeing , or Conversing ; and if they also wanted the opportunity of executing their thoughts , by moving the Members of their Bodies , or of imparting them , either by Discoursing , or Writing of Books , or by making of Experiments . On this occasion I remember , that I knew a Gentleman , who was , in Spain , for a State-crime , which yet he thought an Heroick action , kept close prisoner for a year in a place , where though he had allowed him a Diet not unfit for a Person of Note , as he was ; yet he was not permitted the benefit of any Light , either of the Day or Candles , and was not accosted by any humane creature , save at certain times by the Jaylor , that brought him meat and drink , but was strictly forbidden to converse with him . Now though this Gentleman by his discourse appear'd to be a man of a lively humour , yet being ask'd by me , how he could do to pass the time in that sad solitude , he confessed to me , that , though he had the liberty of walking too and fro in his Prison , and though by often recalling into his mind all the adventures and other passages of his former life , and by several ways combining and diversifying his Thoughts , he endeavoured to give his mind as much variety of employment as he was able ; yet that would not serve his turn , but he was often reduc'd , by drinking large draughts of Wine , and then casting himself upon his bed , to endeavour to drown that Melancholly , which the want of new objects cast him into . And I can easily admit , he found a great deal of difference between the sense he had of thinking when he was at liberty , and that which he had when he was confin'd to that employment , whose delightfulness , like fire , cannot last long , when it is , as his was , denied both fuel and vent . And , in a word , though I most readily grant , that Thinking interwoven with Conversation and Action , may be a very pleasant way of passing ones Time , yet Man being by nature a sociable creature , I fear , that alone would be a dry and wearisome Imployment to spend Eternity in . Before I proceed to the next Section , I must not omit to take notice , That though the brevity I propos'd to my self , keeps me from discoursing of any Theological Subjects , save what I have touch'd upon about the Divine Attributes , and the things I have mention'd about the Universe in general , and the Humane Soul ; yet there are divers other things , knowable by the help of Revelation , and not without it , that are of so noble and sublime a Nature , that the greatest Wits may find their best Abilities both fully exercis'd , and highly gratifi'd by making Enquiries into them . I shall not name for proof of this the Adorable Mystery of the Trinity , wherein 't is acknowledg'd , that the most soaring Speculators are wont to be pos'd , or to loose themselves : But I shall rather mention the Redemption of Mankind , and the Decrees of God concerning Men. For though these seem to be less out of the Ken of our Natural Faculties ; yet 't is into some things that belong to the former of them , that the Scripture tells us , The Angels desire to pry ; and 't was the consideration of the latter of them , that made one that had been caught up into the Mansion of the Angels , amazedly cry out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Not are these the onely things that the Scripture it self terms Mysteries , though , for brevities sake , instead of specifying any of them , I shall content my self to represent to you in general ; that , since Gods wisdom is boundless , it may , sure , have more ways than one to display it self . And though the material World be full of the Productions of his Wisdom ; yet that hinders not but that the Scripture may be enobled with many excellent Impresses , and , as it were , Signatures of the same Attribute . For , as I was beginning to say , it cannot but be highly injurious to the Deity , in whom all other True Perfections , as well as Omniscience , are both united and transcendent , to think , that he can contrive no ways to disclose his Perfections , besides the ordering of Matter and Motion , and cannot otherwise deserve to be the Object of Mens studies , and their Admiration , than in the capacity of a Creator . And I think , I might safely add , that besides these Grand and Mysterious Points I came from mentioning , there are many other noble and important things , wherein unassisted Reason leaves us in the dark ; which though not so clearly reveal'd in the Scripture , are yet in an inviting measure discover'd there , and consequently deserve the indagation of a Curious and Philosophical Soul. Shall we not think it worth enquiring , whether the Satisfaction of Christ was necessary to appease the Justice of God , and purchase Redemption for Mankind ? Or whether God , as Absolute and Supreme Governour of the World , might have freely remitted the Penalties of sin ? Shall we not think it worth the inquiring , upon what Account , and upon what Terms , the Justification of Men ●●wards God is transacted , especially considering how much it imports us to know , and how perplexedly a Doctrine , not in it self abstruse , is wont to be delivered ? Shall not we inquire , whether or no the Souls of Men , before they were united to their Bodies , pre-existed in a happier state , as many of the Ancient and Modern Jews and Platonists , and ( besides Origen ) some Learned Men of our times do believe ▪ And shall not we be curious to know , whether , when the Soul leaves the Body , it do immediately pass to Heaven or Hell ( as 't is commonly believed , ) or for want of Organs be laid , as it were , asleep in an insensible and unactive state , till it recover the Body at the Resurrection ? ( as many Socinians and others maintain : ) Or whether it be conveyed into secret Recesses , where , though it be in a good or bad condition , according to what it did in the Body , 't is yet repriev'd from the flames of Hell , and restrain'd from the Beatifick Vision till the Day of Judgment ? ( which seems to have been the opinion of many , if not most of the Primitive Fathers and Christians . ) Shall not we be curious to know , whether at that great Decretory Day , this vast Fabrick of the World , which all confess must have its frame quite shatter'd , shall be suffer'd to relapse into its first Nothing , ( as several Divines assert ; ) or shall be , after its Dissolution , renew'd to a better state , and , as it were , Transfigur'd ? And shall not we inquire , whether or no in that future state of things , which shall never have an end , we shall know one another ? ( as Adam , when he awak'd out of his profound sleep , knew Eve whom he never saw before ; ) and whether those Personal Friendships and Affections , we had for one another here , and the pathetick Consideration of the Relations ( as of Father and Son , Husband and Wife , Chaste Mistris and Virtuous Lover , Prince and Subject , ) on which many of them were grounded , shall continue ? Or whether all those things , as antiquated and slight , shall be obliterated , and , as it were , swallowed up ? ( as the former Relation of a Cousin a great way off , is scarce at all consider'd , when the Persons come so to change their state , as to be united by the strict Bonds of Marriage . ) But 't were tedious to propose all the other Points , whereof the Divine takes cognizance , that highly merit an inquisitive mans curiosity ; and about which , all the Writings of the old Greek and other Heathen Philosophers put together , will give us far less information , than the single Volume of Canonical Scripture . I foresee indeed , that it may nevertheless be objected , that in some of these Inquiries , Revelation incumbers Reason , by delivering things , which Reason is obliged to make its Hypothesis consistent with . But , besides that this cannot be so much as pretended of all ; if you consider how much unassisted Reason leaves us in the dark about these matters , wherein she has not been able to frame so much as probable determinations , especially in comparison of those probabilities that Reason can deduce from what it finds one way or other delivered in the Scripture : If you consider this , I say , you will , I presume , allow me to say , That the revealed Truths , which Reason is obliged to comply with , if they be burdens to it , are but such Burdens as Feathers are to a Hawk , which instead of hindring his flight by their weight , enable him to soar toward Heaven , and take a larger prospect of things , than , if he had not feathers , he could possibly do . And on this occasion , Sir , the greater Reverence I owe to the Scripture it self , than to its Expositors , prevails upon me to tell you freely , that you will not do right , either to Theology , or ( the greatest Repository of its Truths ) the Bible ; if you imagine that there are no considerable Additions to be made to the Theological Discoveries we have already , nor no clearer Expositions of many Texts of Scripture , or better Reflections on that matchless Book , than are to be met with in the generality of Commentators , or of Preachers , without excepting the Antient Fathers themselves . For , there being in my opinion two things requisite , to qualifie a Commentator to do right to his Theme , a competency of Critical Knowledge , and a Concern for the Honour and Interest of Christianity in general , assisted by a good Judgment to discern and select those things that may most conduce to it ; I doubt , there are not many Expositors , as they are call'd , of the Scripture , that are not deficient in the former or the latter of these particulars , and I wish there be not too many that are defective in both . That the knowledge of at least Greek and Hebrew is requisite to him , that takes upon him to expound Writings penn'd Originally in those Languages , if the nature of the thing did not manifest it , you might easily be perswaded to believe , by considering with what gross mistakes the Ignorance of Languages has oftentimes blemish'd not onely the Interpretations of the School-men and others , but even those of the Venerable Fathers of the Church . For though generally they were worthy men , and highly to be regarded , as the grand Witnesses of the Doctrines and Government of the antient Churches ; most of them very pious , many of them very eloquent , and some of them ( especially the two Criticks , Origen and Jerom ) very Learned ; yet so few of the Greek Fathers were skill'd in Hebrew , and so few of the Latin Fathers either in Hebrew or Greek , that many of their Homilies , and even Comments , leave hard Texts as obscure as they found them ; and , sometimes misled by bad Translations , they give them senses exceeding wide of the True : So that many times in their Writings they appear to be far better Divines then Commentators , and in an excellent Discourse upon a Text , you shall find but a very poor Exposition of it . Many of their Eloquent and devout Sermons being much better Encomiasts of the Divine Mysteries they treat of , than Unvailers . And though some Modern Translations deserve the Praise of being very useful , and less unaccurate than those which the Latine Fathers us'd ; yet when I read the Scriptures ( especially some Books of the Old Testament ) in their Originals , I confess I cannot but sometimes wonder , what came into the mind of some , even of our Modern Translators , that they should so much Mistake , and sometimes Injure certain Texts as they do ; and I am prone to think , that there is scarce a Chapter in the Bible ( especially that part of it which is written in Hebrew ) that may not be better Translated , and Consequently more to the Credit of the Book it self . This Credit it misses of , not onely by mens want of sufficient Skill in Critical Learning , but ( to come to the second Member of our late Division ) for want of their having Judgment enough to observe , and Concern enough to propose those things in the Scripture , and in Theology , that tend to the Reputation of either . For I fear there are too many , both Commentators and other Divines , that ( though otherwise perhaps pious men ) having espous'd a Church or Party , and an Aversion from all Dissenters , are solicitous when they peruse the Scripture , to take notice chiefly , if not onely ( I mean in points Speculative ) of those things , that may either suggest Arguments against their Adversaries , or Answers to their Objections . But I meet with much fewer than I could wish , who make it their Business to search the Scriptures for those things ( such as unheeded Prophecies , over-look'd Mysteries , and strange Harmonies ) which being clearly and judiciously proposed , may make that Book appear worthy of the high extraction it challenges ( and consequently of the veneration of Considering men ) and who are sollicitous to Discern and Make out , in the way of Governing and of Saving Men , reveal'd by God , so excellent an Oeconomy , and such deep Contrivances , and wise Dispensations , as may bring credit to Religion , not so much as 't is Roman , or Protestant , or Socinian , but as 't is Christian . But ( as I intimated before ) these good affections for the repute of Religion in general , are to be assisted by a deep Judgment . For men that want either That , or a good Stock of Critical Learning , may easily over-see the best Observations ( which usually are not Obvious ) or propose as Mysteries , things that are either not Grounded , or not Weighty enough ; and so ( notwithstanding their good meaning ) may bring a Disparagement upon what they desire to Recommend . And I am willing to grant , that 't is rather for want of good Skill and good Judgment , than good Will , that there are so few that have been careful to do right to the Reputation of the Scripture , as well as to its Sense . And indeed when I consider , how much more to the Advantage of those Sacred Writings , and of Christian Theology in general , divers Texts have been explain'd and discours'd of by the Excellent Grotius , by Episcopius , Masius , Mr. Mede , and Sir Francis Bacon , and some other Late great Wits ( to name now no Living ones ) in their several kinds ; than the same places have been handled by vulgar Expositors , and other Divines : And when I remember too , that none of these newly named Worthies was at once a great Philosopher , and a great Critick ; ( the three first being not so well vers'd in Philosophical Learning , and the last being unacquainted with the Eastern Tongues : ) I cannot but hope , that when it shall please God to stir up persons of a Philosophical Genius , well furnish'd with Critical Learning , and the Principles of true Philosophy , and shall give them a hearty Concern for the Advancement of his Truths ; these men , by exercising upon Theological matters , that Inquisitiveness and Sagacity that has made in our Age such a happy Progress in Philosophical ones , will make Explications and Discoveries , that will justifie more than I have said in praise of the study of our Religion and the Divine Books that contain the Articles of it . For these want not Excellencies , but onely skilful Unvailers . And if I do not tell you , that you should no more measure the Wisdom of God couch'd in the Bible , by the Glosses or Systems of common Expositors and Preachers , than Estimate the Wisdome he has express'd in the contrivance of the World by Magirus's or Eustachius's Physicks ; yet I shall not scruple to say , That you should as little think , that there are no more Mysteries in the Books of Scripture , besides those that the School-Divines and Vulgar Commentators have taken notice of , and unfolded ; as that there are no other Mysteries in the Book of Nature , than those which the same School-men ( who have taken upon them to interpret Aristotle and Nature too ) have observ'd and explain'd . All the fine things , that Poets , Orators , and even Lovers have Hyperbolically said in praise of the Beauty of Eyes , will nothing near so much recommend them to a Philosophers esteem , as the sight of one Eye skilfully dissected , or the unadorn'd Account given of its Structure , and the admirable uses of its several parts , in Scheiner's Oculus , and Des-Cartes's Excellent Dioptricks . And though I do not think my self bound to acquiesce in , and admire every thing that is propos'd as Mysterious and Rare by many Interpreters and Preachers ; yet I think , I may safely compare several things in the Books we call the Scripture , to several others in that of Nature , in ( at least ) one regard . For , though I do not believe all the Wonders , that Pliny , Aelian , Porta , and other Writers of that stamp , relate of the Generation of Animals ; yet by perusing such faithful and accurate accounts , as sometimes Galen , De usu Partium , sometimes Vesalius , sometimes our Harvey ( de Ovo ) and our later Anatomists , and sometimes other true Naturalists , give of the Generation of Animals , and of the admirable Structure of their Bodies , especially those of Men , and such other parts of Zoology , as Pliny , and the other Writers I nam'd with him , could make nothing considerable of ; by perusing these ( I say ) I receive more pleasure and satisfaction , and am induc'd more to admire the works of Nature , than by all their Romantic and Superficial Narratives . And thus ( to apply this to our present Subject ) a close and critical account of the more vail'd and pregnant parts of Scripture , and Theological Matters , with such Reflections on them , as their Nature and Collation would suggest to a Philosophical , as well as Critical , Speculator , would far better please a Rational Considerer , and give him a higher , as well as a better grounded , Veneration for the things explain'd , than a great many of those sleighter or ill-founded Remarks , wherewith the Expositions and Discourses of Superficial Writers , though never so florid or witty , gain the applause of the less discerning sort of men . And here , on this occasion , I shall venture to add , that I despair not , but that a further use may be made of the Scripture , than either our Divines or Philosophers seem to have thought on . Some few Theologues indeed have got the name of Supralapsarians , for venturing to look back beyond the Fall of Adam for God's Decrees of Election and Reprobation . But , besides that their boldness has been dislik'd by the generality of Divines , as well as other Christians , the Object of their Speculation is much too narrow to be any thing near and adequate to such an Hypothesis as I mean. For me-thinks , that the Encyclopedia's and Pansophia's , that even men of an elevated Genius have aimed at , are not diffus'd enough to comprehend all that the Reason of a Man , improv'd by Philosophy , and elevated by the Revelations already extant in the Scripture , may , by the help of free Ratiocination , and the hints contain'd in those pregnant . Writings ( with those assistances of God's Spirit , which he is still ready to vouchsafe to them that duly seek them , ) attain unto in this life . The Gospel comprises indeed , and unfolds the whole Mystery of Man's Redemption , as far forth as 't is necessary to be known for our Salvation : And the Corpusculariùm or Mechanical Philosophy , strives to deduce all the Phoenomena of Nature from Adiaphorous Matter , and Local Motion . But neither the Fundamental Doctrine of Christianity , nor that of the Powers and Effects of Matter and Motion , seems to be more than an Epicycle ( if I may so call it ) of the Great and Universal System of God's Contrivances , and makes but a part of the more general Theory of things , knowable by the Light of Nature , improv'd by the Information of the Scriptures : So that both these Doctrines , though very general , in respect of the subordinate parts of Theology and Philosophy , seem to be but members of the Universal Hypothesis , whose Objects , I conceive , to be the Nature , Counsels , and Works of God , as far as they are discoverable by us ( for I say not to us ) in this Life . For those , to whom God has vouchsafed the priviledge of mature Reason , seem not to enlarge their thoughts enough , if they think , that the Omniscient and Almighty God has bounded the Operations of his Power , and Wisdom , and Goodness , to the Exercise that may be given them for some Ages , by the Production and Government of Matter and Motion , and of the Inhabitants of the Terrestrial Globe , which we know to be but a Physical Point in comparison of that Portion of Universal Matter , which we have already discover'd . For I account , that there are four grand Communities of Creatures , whereof things meerly Corporeal make but one ; the other three , differing from these , are distinct also from one another . Of the first sort are the Race of Mankind , where Intellectual Beings are vitally associated with Gross and Organical Bodies . The second are Daemons , or evil Angels ; and the third , good Angels ; ( whether in each of those two kinds of Spirits , the Rational Beings be perfectly free from all union with Matter , though never so fine and subtile ; or whether they be united to Vehicles , not Gross , but Spirituous , and ordinarily invisible to Us. ) Nor may we think , because Angels and Devils are two names quickly utter'd , and those Spirits are seldome or never seen by us , there are therefore but few of them , and the Speculation of them is not considerable . For , as their Excellency is great , ( as we shall by and by shew ) so for their number , they are represented in Scripture as an Heavenly Host , standing on the right and left hand of the Throne of God. And of the good Angels , our Saviour Speaks of having more than twelve Legions of them at his command . Nay , the Prophet Daniel saith , that to the Antient of days , no less than millions ministred unto him , and hundreds of millions stood before him . And of the evil Angels the Gospel informs us , that enough to call them a Legion ( which you know is usually reckon'd , at a moderate rate ▪ to consist of betwixt six and seven thousand ) possess'd one single man. For my part , when I consider , that matter , how vastly extended , and how curiously shap'd soever , is but a brute thing , that is onely capable of Local motion and its effects and consequents on other Bodies , or the Brain of man , without being capable of any True , or at least any Intellectual , Perception , or true Love or Hatred ; and when I consider the Rational Soul as an immaterial and immortal Being , that bears the Image of its Divine Maker , being indow'd with a capacious Intellect , and a Will that no Creature can force : I am by these Considerations dispos'd to think the Soul of Man a nobler and more valuable Being , than the whole Corporeal World ; which though I readily acknowledge it to be admirably contriv'd , and worthy of the Almighty and Omniscient Author , yet it consists but of an Aggregate of Portions of brute Matter , variously shap'd and connected by Local Motion ( as Dow , and Roles , and Loves , and Cakes , and Vermicelli , Wafers , and Pie-crust , are all of them diversified Meal ; ) but without any knowledge either of their own Nature , or of that of their Author , or of that of their Fellow-creatures . And as the Rational Soul is somewhat more noble and wonderful , than any thing meerly Corporeal , how vast soever it can be , and is of a more excellent Nature , than the curiousest piece of Mechanism in the world , the Humane Body ; so to enquire what shall become of it , and what Fates it is like to undergo hereafter , does better deserve a man's Curiosity , than to know what shall befall the Corporeal Universe , and might justly have been to Nebuchadnezzar a more desirable part of knowledge , than that he was so troubled for want of , when it was adumbrated to him in the mysterious Dream , that contain'd the Characters and Fates of the four Great Monarchies of the World. And as man is intrusted with a Will of his own , whereas all material things move onely as they are mov'd , and have no self-determining power , on whose account they can resist the Will of God ; and as also of Angels , at least some Orders of them , are of a higher Quality ( if I may so speak ) than Humane Souls ; so 't is very probable , that in the Government of Angels , whether good or bad , that are Intellectual Voluntary Agents , there is requir'd and employ'd far greater displays of Gods Wisdom , Power , and Goodness , than in the guidance of Adiaphorous Matter ; and the method of God's Conduct in the Government of these , is a far nobler Object for men's Contemplation , than the Laws , according to which the parts of Matter hit against , and justle , one another , and the effects or results of such Motions . And accordingly we find in Scripture , that , whereas about the production of the material World , and the setting of the frame of Nature , God employ'd onely a few commanding Words , which speedily had their full effects ; to govern the Race of Mankind , even in order to their own Happiness , he employ'd not onely Laws and Commands , but Revelations , Miracles , Promises , Threats , Exhortations , Mercies , Judgments , and divers other Methods and Means ; and yet oftentimes , when he might well say , as he did once by his Prophet , What could I have done more to my Vineyard that I have not done it ? he had just cause to expostulate as he did in the same place , Wherefore , when I looked that it should bring forth grapes , brought it forth wild grapes ? and to complain of men , as by that very Prophet he did even of Israel , I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people . But not to wander too far in this digression ; what we have said of Men , may render it probable , that the grand Attributes of God are more signally exercis'd , and made more conspicuous in the making and governing of each of the three Intellectual Communities , than in the framing and upholding the Community of meer bodily things . And since all Immaterial Substances are for that reason naturally Immortal , and the Universal Matter is believ'd so too , possibly those Revolutions , that will happen after the Day of Judgment , wherein though probably not the Matter , yet that state and constitution of it , on whose account it is This World , will be destroyed , and make way for quite new Frames and Sets of things corporeal , and the Beings that compose each of these Intellectual Communities , will , in those numberless Ages they shall last , travel through I know not how many successive changes and adventures ; perhaps , I say , these things will no less display , and bring glory , to the Divine Attributes , than the Contrivance of the world , and the Oeconomy of Man's Salvation , though these be ( and that worthily ) the Objects of the Naturalists and the Divines Contemplation . And there are some passages in the Prophetical part of the Scripture , and especially in the Book of the Apocalypse , which , as they seem to intimate , that as God will perform great and noble things , which Mechanical Philosophy never reach'd to , and which the generality of Divines seem not to have thought of ; so divers of those great things may be , in some measure , discover'd by an attentive Searcher into the Scriptures , and that so much to the advantage of the devout Indagator , that St. John , near the beginning of his Revelations , pronounces them happy , that read the matters contain'd in this Prophecy , and * observe the things written therein . Which implies , that by heedful comparing together the Indications couched in those Prophetick Writings , with Events and Occurrences in the Affairs of the World , and the Church , we may discover much of the admirable Oeconomy of Providence in the Governing of both : And I am prone to think , the early discoveries of such great and important things , to be in Gods account no mean vouchsafements , not onely because of the title of Happy is here given to him that attains them , but because the two persons , to whom the great discoveries of this kind were made , I mean , the Prophet Daniel and St. John , the first is by the Angel said to be , on that account , a person highly favour'd ; and the other is in the Gospel represented as our Saviour's beloved Disciple . And you will the more easily think the foreknowledge of the Divine Dispensations gatherable from Scripture to be highly valuable , if you consider , that , according to St. Paul , those very Angels that are call'd Principalities and Powers in heavenly places , learnt by the Church some abstruse points of the manifold wisdom of God. But I must no longer indulge Speculations , that would carry my Curiosity beyond the bounds of time it self , and therefore beyond those that ought to be plac'd to this occasional excursion . And yet , as on the one side , I shall not allow my self the presumption of framing conjectures about those remote Dispensations , which will not , most of them , have a beginning before this world shall have an end ; so on the other side I would not discourage you , or any pious Inquirer , from endeavouring to advance in the knowledge of those Attributes of God , that may successfully be studied , without prying into the Secrets of the future . And here , Sir , let me freely confess to you , that I am apt to think , that , if men were not wanting to Gods glory , and their own satisfaction , there would be far more Discoveries made , than are yet attain'd to , of the Divine Attributes . When we consider the most simple or uncompounded Essence of God , we may easily be perswaded , that what belongs to Any of His Attributes ( some of which thinking men generally admire ) must be an Object of Enquiry exceeding Noble , and worthy of our knowledge . And yet the abstruseness of this knowledge is not in All particulars so invincible , but that I strongly hope , a Philosophical Eye , illustrated by the Revelations extant in the Scripture , may pierce a great deal farther than has yet been done , into those mysterious Subjects , which are too often ( perhaps out of a mistaken Reverence ) so poorly handled by Divines and Schoolmen , that not onely what they have taught , is not worthy of God ( for that 's a necessary , and therefore excusable , deficiency ) but too frequently it is not worthy of Men , I mean , of Rational Creatures , that take upon them to treat of such high Points , and instruct others about them . And I question not but your Friend will the less scruple at this , if he call to mind those new and handsome Notions about some of the Attributes of God , that his Master Cartesius , though but moderately vers'd in the Scriptures , has presented us with . Nor do I doubt but that a much greater progress might be made in the Discovery of Subjects , where , though we can never know all , we may still know farther , if Speculative Genius's would propose to themselves particular Doubts and Enquiries about particular Attributes , and frame and examine Hypotheses , establish Theorems , draw Corollaries ; and ( in short ) apply to this study the same sagacity , affiduity , and attention of mind , which they often imploy about Inquiries of a very much inferiour nature ; insomuch as Des-Cartes ( how profound a Geometrician soever he were ) confesses in one of his Epistles , that he employ'd no less then six weeks to find the solution of a Problem or question of Pappus . And Pythagoras was so addicted to , and concern'd for Geometrical Speculations , that when he had found that famous Proposition , which makes the 47 th . in Euclid's I. Book , he is recorded to have offer'd a Hecatomb , to express his joy and gratitude for the Discovery : which yet was but of one Property of one sort of Right-lin'd Triangles . And certainly if Christian Philosophers did rightly estimate , how noble and fertile Subjects the Divine Attributes are , they would find in them wherewithall to Exercise their best parts , as well as to Recompence the Imployment of them . But because what I would disswade , does not perhaps proceed onely from Laziness , but from a Mistake ; as if there were little to be known of so Incomprehensible an Object as God , save that in General all his Attributes are like himself , Infinite , and consequently not to be fully Known by Humane Understandings , because They are Finite ; I shall add , that though it be true , that by Reason of God's Infinity , we cannot Comprehend him , that is , have a full and adequate knowledge of him ; yet we may not onely know very many things concerning him , but , which is more , may make an Endless Progress in that Knowledge . As , no doubt , Pythagoras ( newly mention'd ) knew very well what a Triangle was , and was acquainted with divers of its Properties and Affections before he discover'd that famous One. And though since him , Euclid , Archimedes , and other Geometricians have demonstrated , I know not how many other Affections of the same Figure , yet they have not to this day Exhausted the Subject : And possibly , I , ( who pretend not to be a Mathematician ) may now and then in managing certain Aequations I had occasion for , have lighted upon some Theorems about Triangles , that occurr'd not to any of them . The Divine Attributes are such fruitful Themes , and so worthy of our Admiration , that the whole Fabrick of the Universe , and all the Phenomena exhibited in it , are but Imperfect Expressions of Gods Wisdom , and some few of his other Attributes . And I do not much marvel , that the Angels themselves are represented in Scripture as imploy'd in Adoring God , and Admiring his Perfections . For even they being but Finite , can frame but inadequate Conceptions of Him ; and consequently must Endeavour by many of them to make amends for the Incompleatness of every one of them ; which yet they can never but Imperfectly do . And yet Gods Infinity can but very improperly be made a Discouragement of our Enquiries into his Nature and Attributes . For ( not now to examine whether Infinity , though express'd by a Negative word , be not a Positive thing in God ) we may , notwithstanding his Infinity , discover as much of him as our Nature is capable of knowing : And what harm is it to him that is drinking in a River , that he cannot drink up all the water , if he have liberty fully to quench his thirst , and take in as much Liquor as his stomack can contain . Infinity therefore should not hinder us from a Generous Ambition to learn as much as we can of an Object , whose being Infinite does but make our knowledge of it the more noble and desirable , which indeed it is in such a degree , that we need not wonder that the Angels are represented as never weary of their Employment of contemplating and praising God. For , as I lately intimated , that they can have but inadequate Idea's of those boundless Perfections , and by no number of those Idea's can arrive to make amends for the Incompleatness of them ; so it need not seem strange that in fresh Discoveries of new Parts ( if I may so call them ) of the same Object , it being such a one , they should find nobler and happier Entertainments than any where else variety could afford them . The second Section . HAving thus taken notice of some Particulars of those many which may be employ'd to shew , how Noble the Objects are , that Theology proposes to be contemplated ; I now proceed to some Considerations that may make us sensible how great an Obligation there lies on us , to addict our selves to the study of them . Yet of the Particulars whereon this Obligation may be grounded , I shall now name but two , they being indeed comprehensive ones , Obedience , and Gratitude . And first let me represent , that it needs not , I suppose , be solicitously proved , That 't is the Will and Command of God , that men should learn those Truths that he has been pleased to teach , whether concerning his Nature or Attributes , or the way wherein he will be Served and Worshipped by Man. For if we had not Injunctions of Scripture to that purpose , yet your Friend is too Rational a Man to believe , that God would so solemnly cause his Truths to be published to Mankind , both by Preaching and Writing , without Intention to Oblige , those ( at least ) that have the capacity and opportunity to enquire into some of them ; and if it appear to be His will , that a person so qualified , should search after the most important Truths that he hath reveal'd , it cannot but be their duty to do so . For though the nature of the thing it self did not lay any Obligation on us , yet the Authority of Him that Commands it , would : since being the Supreme and Absolute Lord of all His Creatures , he has as well a full right to make what Laws he thinks fit , and enjoyn what service he thinks fit , as a power to punish those that either violate the one , or deny the other ; and accordingly 't is very observable , that before Adam fell , and had forfeited his happy state by his own transgression , he not onely had a Law Impos'd upon him , but such a Law , as , being about a matter it self Indifferent ( for so it was to eat or not to eat of the Tree of Life as well as of any other , ) derived its whole power of obliging from the meer will and pleasure of the Law-giver . Whence we may learn , that Man is subject to the Laws of God , not as he is Obnoxious to him , but as he is a Rational Creature , and that the thing that is not a duty in its own nature , may become an indispensible one barely by its being commanded . And indeed , if our first Parent in the state of Innocency and Happiness , wherein he tasted of Gods Bounty , without , as yet , standing in need of his Mercy , was most strictly obliged out of meer Obedience to conform to a Law , the matter of which was indifferent in it self ; sure we , in our laps'd condition , must be under a high Obligation to obey the declared will of God , whereby we are enjoyned to study his Truths , and perform that which has so much of intrinsick Goodness in it , that it would be a duty , though it were not commanded ; and has such Recompences proposed to it , that it is not more a Duty , then it will be an Advantage . But it is not onely Obedience and Interest that should engage us to the study of Divine things , but Gratitude , and that exacted by so many important Motives , that he who said , Ingratum si dixeris , omnia dixeris , could not think Ingratitude so much worse than ordinary Vices , as a contempt of the Duty I am pressing , would be worse than an ordinary Ingratitude . It were not difficult on this occasion to manifest , that we are extremely great Debtors unto God , both as he is the Authour and the Preserver of our very Beings ; and as he ( immediately or mediately ) fills up the measure of those continual Benefits with all the Prerogatives and other Favours we do receive from him as Men ; and the higher Blessings , which ( if we are not wanting to our selves ) we may receive from him as Christians . But to shew , in how many Particulars , and to how high a Degree , God is our Benefactor , were to lanch out into too Immense a Subject ; which 't were the less proper for me to do , because I have in other Papers discours'd of those matters already . I will therefore single out a Motive of Gratitude , which will be peculiarly pertinent to our present purpose . For whereas your Friend does so highly value himself upon the Study of Natural Philosophy , and despises not onely Divines , but States-men , and even the Learned'st Men in other parts of Philosophy and Knowledge , because they are not vers'd in Physicks ; he ows to God that very Skill , among many other Vouchsafements . For it is God who made Man unlike the Horse and the Mule , who have no understanding , and endow'd him with that noble power of Reason , by the exercise of which he attains to whatever knowledge he has of Natural things above the Beasts that perish . For , that may justly be applied to our other Acquisitions , which Moses , by Gods appointment , told the Israelites concerning the Acquists of Riches ; where he bids the people beware , That when their Herds , and their Flocks , and other Treasures were multipli'd , their heart be not lifted up , and prompt them to say , My power , and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth . But , ( subjoyns that excellent Person , as well as Matchless Law-giver ) Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God , for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth . But to make Men Rational Creatures , is not all God has done towards the making them Philosophers . For , to the knowledge of particular things , Objects are as well requisite as Faculties ; and if we admit the probable Opinion of Divines , who teach us , that the Angels were created before the Material World , as being meant by those Sons of God , and Morning Stars , that with glad Songs and Acclamations celebrated the Foundations of the Earth ; we must allow , that there were many creatures endowed with at least as much Reason as your Friend , who yet were unacquainted with the Mysteries of Nature , since She her self had not yet receiv'd a Being . Wherefore God having as well made the World , as given Man the Faculties whereby he is enabled to contemplate it ; Naturalists are as much obliged to God for their Knowledge , as we are for our Intelligence to those that write us Secrets in Cyphers , and teach us the skill of decyphering things so written ; or to those who write what would fill a Page in the compass of a single Peny , and present us to boot a Microscope to enable us to read it . And as the Naturalist hath peculiar Inducements to Gratitude for the Endowment of Knowledge ; so Ingenuity lays this peculiar Obligation on him to express his Gratitude in the way I have been recommending , That 't is one of the acceptablest ways it can be express'd in ; especially since by this way , Philosophers may not onely exercise their own gratitude towards God , but procure him that of others . How pleasing mens hearty Praises are to God , may appear among other things , by what is said and done by that Royal Poet , whom God was pleased to declare a man after his own heart ; for he introduces God pronouncing , Whoso offereth Praise , glorifieth me ; where the word our Interpreters render offereth , in the Hebrew signifies to Sacrifice ; with which agrees , that else-where those that pay God their Praises , are said to Sacrifice to him the calves of their lips . And that excellent Person , to whom God vouchsafed so particular a Testimony , was so assiduous in this Exercise , that the Book which we , following the Greek , call Psalms , is , in the Original , from the things it most abounds with , called Sepher Tehillim , i. e. The Book of Praises . And to let you see , that many of his Praises were such , as the Naturalist may best give , he exclaims in one place , How manifold are thy works , O Lord ? how wisely hast thou made them , ( as Junius and Tremellius render it , and the Hebrew will bear ) and else-where , The Heavens declare the glory of God , and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work , &c. Again , in another place , I will praise thee , because I am fearfully and wonderfully made . Marvellous are thy works , and that my soul knoweth right well . And not content with many of the like Expressions , he does several times in a devout Transport , and Poetical strain , invite the Heavens , and the Stars , and the Earth , and the Seas , and all the other Inanimate Creatures , to joyn with him in the celebration of their common Maker . Which though it seem to be meerly a Poetical Scheme , yet in some sort it might become a Naturalist , who by making out the Power , Wisdom , and Goodness of the Creator , and by reflecting thence on those Particulars wherein those Attributes shine , may , by such a devout Consideration of the Creatures , make them , in a sense , joyn with him in glorifying their Author . In any other case , I dare say , your Friend is not so ill natur'd , but that he would think it an unkind piece of Ingratitude , if some great and excellent Prince , having freely and transcendently obliged him , he should not concern himself to know what manner of Man his Benefactor is ; and should not be solicitous to inform himself of those particulars , relating to the Person and Affairs of that obliging Monarch , which were not onely in themselves worthy of any mans Curiosity , but about which the Prince had solemnly declar'd he was very desirous to have men Inquisitive . And sure 't is very disingenious , to undervalue or neglect the knowledge of God Himself for a Knowledge which we cannot attain without him , and by which he design'd to bring us to that study we neglect for it : which is not onely not to use him as a Benefactor , but as if he meant to punish him ( if I may so speak ) for having oblieged us , since we so abuse some of his Favours , as to make them Inducements to our Unthankful Disregard of his Intentions in the rest . And this Ingratitude is the more culpable , because the Laws of Ingenuity , and of Justice it self , charge us to Glorifie the Maker of all things visible , not onely upon our own account , but upon that of all his other works . For by Gods endowing of none but Man here below with a Reasonable Soul , not onely he is the sole visible Being that can return Thanks and Praises in the World , and thereby is oblieged to do so , both for himself , and for the rest of the Creation ; but 't is for Mans advantage , that God has left no other visible Beings in the World , by which he can be studied and celebrated . For , Reason is such a Ray of Divinity , that , if God had vouchsafed it to other parts of the Universe besides Man , the absolute Empire of Man over the rest of the World must have been shar'd , or abridg'd . So that he , to whom it was equally easie to make Creatures Superior to Man ( as the Scripture tells us of Legions , and Myriads of Angels ) as to make them Inferiour to him , dealt so obligingly with Mankind , as rather to Trust ( if I may so speak ) our Ingenuity , whether he shall reap any Celebrations from the Creatures we converse with , than Lessen our Empire over them , or our Prerogatives above them . But I fear , that , notwithstanding all the Excellency of reveal'd Truths , and consequently of that onely Authentic Repository of them , the Scripture , you , as well as I , have met with some ( for I hope there are not many ) Virtuosi , that think to excuse the neglect of the study of it , by alledging , that to them who are Lay-men , not Ecclesiasticks , there is requir'd to Salvation the Explicit knowledge but of very few Points , which are so plainly summ'd up in the Apostles Creed , and are so often and conspicuously set down in the Scripture , that one needs not much search or study it to find them there . In answer to this Allegation , I readily grant , that through the great goodness of God , who is willing to have all men saved , and come to the knowledge of the Truth , that is necessary to be so , there are much fewer Articles absolutely necessary to be by all men distinctly believed , than may be met with in divers long Confessions of Faith , some of which have , I fear , less promoted Knowledge than impair'd Charity . But then it may be also consider'd , 1. That 't is not so easie for a Rational Man , that will trouble himself to enquire no farther than the Apostles Creed , to satisfie himself upon good grounds , that all the Fundamental Articles of Christianity are contain'd in it . 2. That the Creed proposes onely the Credenda , not the Agenda of Religion ; whereas the Scriptures were designed , not onely to teach us what Truths we are to believe , but by what Rules we are to live ; the obedience to the Laws of Christianity being as necessary to Salvation , as the belief of its Mysteries . 3. That besides the things which are absolutely necessary , there are several that are highly useful , to make us more clearly understand , and more rationally and firmly believe , and more steadily practise , the points that are necessary . 4. And since , whether or no those words of our Saviour to the Jews , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be to be rendred in the Imperative or the Indicative Mode ; St. Paul would have the word of Christ to dwell richly in us , ( by which , whether he mean the holy Scriptures then extant , or the Doctrine of Christ , is not here material ; ) thereby teaching us , that searching into the matters of Religion may become necessary as a Duty , though it were not otherwise necessary as a Means of attaining Salvation . And indeed 't is far more pardonable to want or miss the knowledge of Truths , than to despise or neglect it . And the goodness of God to illiterate or mistaken persons , is to be suppos'd meant in pity to our Frailties , not to encourage our Laziness ; nor is it necessary , that he that pardons those Seekers of his Truths that miss them , should excuse those Despisers that will not seek them . But whether or no by this design'd neglect of Theology the persons , I deal with , do sufficiently consult their own safety , I doubt they will not much recommend their Ingenuity . For to have received from God a greater measure of Intellectual Abilities than the generality of Christians , and yet willingly to come short of very many of them , in the knowledge of the Mysteries and other Truths of Christianity , which he often invites us , if not expresly commands , to search after , is a course that will not relish of over-much gratitude . Is it a piece of That , and of Ingenuity , to receive ones Understanding and ones Hopes of Eternal Felicity from the Goodness of God , without being sollicitous of what may be known of his Nature and Purposes by so excellent a way as his own Revelation of them ? To dispute anxiously about the Properties of an Atome , and be careless about the Inquiry into the Attributes of the great God , who formed all things ; to investigate the spontaneous generation of such vile Creatures as Insects , than the Mysterious Generation of the Adorable Son of God ; and , in a word , to be more concern'd to know every thing that makes a Corporeal part of the World , than the Divine and Incorporeal Authour of the whole ? And then , is it not , think you , a great piece of respect , that these men pay to those Truths , which God thought fit to send sometimes Prophets and Apostles , sometimes Angels , and sometimes his onely Son himself to reveal , that such Truths are so little valued by them , that rather than take the pains to study them , they will implicitly , and at adventures believe , what that Society of Christians , they chance to be born and bred in , have ( truly or falsly ) delivered concerning them ? And does it argue a due regard to points of Religion , that those , who would not believe a Proposition in Staticks , perhaps about a meer Point , the Centre of Gravity , or in Geometry , about the Properties of some nameless curve Line , or some such other things , ( which to ignore , is usually not a blemish , and about which , to be mistaken , is more usually without danger , ) should yet take up the Articles of Faith , concerning matters of great and everlasting Consequence , upon the Authority of Men , Fallible as themselves , when satisfaction may be had without them from the Infallible Word of God ? In this very unlike those Bereans , whom the Evangelist honours with the Title of Noble , that when the Doctrines of the Gospel were proposed to them , they searched the Scriptures daily , whether those things were so . Again , if a man should refuse to learn to read any more , than just as much as may serve his turn , by intituling him to the benefit of the Clergy , to save him from hanging , would these men think so small a measure of Literature , as he had acquir'd on such an account , could prove that man to be a Lover of Learning ; and yet a neglecter of the study of all not absolutely necessary-Divine Truths , during ones life , because the belief of the Articles of the Creed may make a shift to keep him from being doom'd to Hell for Ignorance after his death , will not by ( what in a Learned man must be ) so pitiful a degree of knowledge be much better intitled to that Ingenuous Love of God and his Truths , that becomes a Rational Creature and a Christian . The antient Prophets , though honour'd by God with direct Illuminations , were yet very solicitous to find out and learn the very Circumstances of the Evangelical Dispensations , which yet they did not know . And some of the Gospel Mysteries are of so noble and excellent a nature , that the Angels themselves desire to look into them . And though all the Evangelical Truths are not precisely necessary to be known , it may be both a Duty not to despise the study of them , and a Happiness to employ our selves about it . It was the earnest Prayer of a great King , and no less a Prophet , that his eyes might be opened to behold ( not the obvious and necessary Truths , but ) the wondrous things of Gods Law. He is pronounced Happy in the beginning of the Apocalypse , that reads and observes the things contain'd in that dark and obscure part of Scripture . And 't is not onely those Truths that make Articles of the Creed , but divers other Doctrines of the Gospel , that Christ himself judged worthy to be concluded with this Epiphonema , He that hath ears to hear , let him hear ; on which the excellent Grotius makes this just Paraphrase , Intellectus nobis à Deo potissimum datus est , ut eum intendamus documentis ad pietatem pertinentibus The third Section . I Come now to our third and last Inducement to the study of Divine things , which consists in , and comprises the Advantages of that study , which do as much surpass those of all other Contemplations , as Divine things transcend all other Objects . And indeed , the utility of this study is so pregnant a Motive , and contains in it so many Invitations , that your Friend must have as little sense of Interest as of Gratitude , if he can neglect such powerful and such ingaging Invitations . For , in the first place , Theological studies ought to be highly endeared to us by the Delightfulness of considering such noble and worthy Objects as are therein propos'd . The famous Answer given by an excellent Philosopher , who being ask'd what he was born for , repli'd , To contemplate the Sun , may justly recommend their choice , who spend their time in contemplating the Maker of the Sun , to whom that glorious Planet it self is but a shadow . And perhaps that Philosopher failed more in the Instance than in the Notion : For his Answer implies , That Man's End and Happiness consists in the exercise of his noblest Faculties on the noblest Objects . And surely the seat of Formal Happiness being the Soul , and that Happiness consequently consisting in the Operations of her Faculties ; as the Supreme Faculty of the Mind is the Understanding , so the highest Pleasures may be expected from the due Exercise of it upon the sublimest and worthiest Objects . And therefore I wonder not , that though some of the School-men would assign the Will a larger share in Mans Felicity , than they will allow the Intellect ; yet the generality of them are quite of another mind , and ascribe the Preheminence in point of Felicity to the Superiour Faculty of the Soul. But , whether or no this Opinion be true in all Cases , it may at least be admitted in ours : For , the chief Objects of a Christian Philosophers Contemplation , being as well the Infinite Goodness , as the other boundless Perfections of God , they are naturally fitted to excite in his mind an ardent love of that adorable Being , and those other joyous Affections and virtuous Dispositions , that have made some men think Happiness chiefly seated in the Will. But having intimated thus much by the way , I pass on to add , That the contentment afforded by the assiduous discovery of God and Divine Mysteries , has so much of affinity with the Pleasures , that shall make up mens Blessedness in Heaven it self , that they seem rather to differ in Degree than in Kind . For , the happy state even of Angels is by our Saviour represented by this Imployment , that they continually see the face of his Father who is in Heaven . And the same infallible Teacher , intending elsewhere to express the Celestial Joys that are reserv'd for those , who for Their sake deny'd themselves sensual Pleasures , imploys the Vision of God as an Emphatical Periphrase of Felicity , Blessed , said he , are the pure in heart , for they shall see God. And as Aristotle teaches , that the Soul doth after a sort become that which it Speculates , St. Paul and St. John assure us , that God is a transforming Object , and that in Heaven we shall be like him , for ( or , because ) we shall see him as he is . And though I readily admit , that this Beatisick Vision of God , wherein the Understanding is the proper Instrument , includes divers other things which will concur to the compleat Felicity of the future Life ; yet I think , we may be allowed to argue , that that ravishing Contemplation of Divine Objects , will make no small part of that happy Estate , which in these Texts take its Denomination from it . I have above intimated , that the Scripture attributes to the Angels themselves Transports of Wonder and Joy upon the Contemplation of God , and the Exercises they consider of his Wisdom , Justice , or some other of his Attributes . But least in referring you to the Angels , you should say , that I do in this Discourse lay aside the Person of a Naturalist , in favour of Divines ; I will refer you to Des Cartes himself , whom I am sure your Friend will allow to have been a rigid Philosopher , if ever there were any . Thus then speaks he in that Treatise , where he thinks he imploys a more than Mathematical Rigor ; and where he was obliged to utter those ( I had almost said Passionate ) words , I am going to cite from him , onely by the Impressions made on him by the transcendent Excellency of the Ob●●… he Contemplated ; Sed priusquam ( says he ) hoc diligentius examinem , simulque in alias veritates quae inde colligi possunt , inquiram , placet hic aliquandiu in ipsius Dei contemplatione immorari , ejus attributa apud me expendere , & immensi hujus Luminis pulchritudinem , quantum caligantis Ingenii mei acies ferre poterit , intueri , admirari , adorare . Ut enim in hac sola Divinae Majestatis Contemplatione summam alterius vitae felicitatem ex consistere fide credimus ; ita etiam jam ex eadem , licet multo minus perfecta , maximam , cujus in hac vita capaces simus , voluptatem , percipi posse experimur . But as high a satisfaction as the study of Divine things affords by the Nobleness of its Object , the Contentment is not much Inferiour that accrues from the same study upon the score of the Sense of a mans having in it performed his Duty . To make actions of this nature satisfactory to us , there is no need , that the things we are employ'd about , should in themselves be Excellent or Delightful ; the inward gratulations of Conscience for having done our Duties is able to ●●…d the bitterest Pills , and , like the Wood that grew by the Waters of Marah , to correct and sweeten that Liquor , which before was the most distastful . Those antient Pagan Heroes , whose Vertues may make us blush , being guided but by natural Reason , and innate Principles of Moral Virtues , could find the most difficult and most troublesome Duties , upon the bare account of their being Duties , not onely Tolerable but Pleasant . And though to deny some Lusts be , in our Saviours esteem , no less uneasie , then for a man to pluck out his right eye , or cut off his right hand ; yet even Ladies have with satisfaction chosen , not onely to deny themselves the greatest Pleasures of the Senses , but to Sacrifice the Seat of them , the Body it self , to preserve the Satisfaction of being Chaste . Nor are they onely the Dictates of Obedience that we comply with in this study , but those of Gratitude ; and that is a Vertue that has so powerful an Ascendant upon Ingenuous Minds , that those , whose Principles and Aims were not elevated by Religion , have , in acknowledgment to their Parents and their Countrey , courted the greatest Hardships , and Hazards , and Sufferings , as if they were as great Delights and Advantages . And a gratefull Person spends no part of his Life to his greater satisfaction , than that which he ventures or imploys for those to whom he is oblieged for it ; and oftentimes finds a greater Contentment even in the difficultest Acknowledgments of a favour , than he did in Receiving of it . Another Advantage , and that no mean one , that may accrue from the Contemplation of Theological Truths , is , the Improvement of the Contemplator himself in point of Piety and Virtue . For , as the Gospel is styl'd , The mystery of godliness ; and St. Paul elsewhere calls what it teaches , The truth which is according to godliness , that is , a Doctrine fram'd and fitted to promote the Interest of Piety and Virtue in the World : so this Character and Encomium belongs ( though perhaps not equally ) to the more Retir'd Truths discover'd by Speculation , as well as to those more Obvious ones , that are familiarly taught in Catechisms and Confessions of Faith. I would by no means lessen the Excellency and Prerogatives of Fundamentals ; but , since the grand and noblest Engagements to Piety and Virtue , are a high Veneration for God and his Christ , and an ardent Love of them ; I cannot but think , that those particular Inquiries , that tend to make greater Discoveries of the Attributes of God , of the Nature , and Offices , and Life of our Saviour , and of the Wisdom and Goodness they have display'd in the Contrivance and Effecting of Man's Redemption ; do likewise tend to Increase our Admiration , and Inflame our Love , for the Possessors of such Divine Excellencies , and the Authors of such invaluable Benefits . And as the Brazen Serpent , that was but a Type of one of the Gospel Mysteries , brought Recovery to those that look'd up to it ; so the Mysteries themselves , being duly consider'd , have had a very Sanative Influence on many that contemplated Them. Nor is it likely , that he that discerns more of the depth of Gods Wisdom and Goodness , should not , caeteris paribus , be more disposed than others to Admire him , to Love him , to Trust him , and so to resign up himself to be Governed by him : Which frame of mind both is it self a great Part of the Worship of God , and doth directly tend to the Production and Increase of those Vertues , without the practise of which , the Scripture plainly tells us , that we can neither Obey God , nor express our Love to him . And from this Bettering of the mind by the study of Theology , will flow ( to add that upon the by ) another Benefit , namely , that by giving us a higher value for God and his Truths , it will endear Heaven to us , and so not onely assist us to come Thither , but heighten our Felicity There . I know it may be said , that the Melioration of the mind is but a Moral Advantage . But give me leave to Answer , that , besides that 't is such a Moral Advantage as supposes an Intellectual Improvement whose fruit it is , a Moral Benefit may be great enough , even in the Judgment of a meer Philosopher , and an Epicurean , to deserve as much study as Natural Philosophy it self . And that you may not think that I speak this onely , because I write in this Epistle as a Friend to Divines , I will tell you , that Epicurus himself , who has now adays so numerous a Sect of Naturalists to follow him , studied Physicks , and writ so many Treatises about them for this End , that by knowing the Natural Causes of Thunder , Lightning , and other dreadful Phaenomena , the Mind might be freed from the disquieting Apprehensions Men commonly had , that such strange and formidable things proceeded from some incensed Deity , and so might trouble the Mind , as well as the Air. This account I have been giving of Epicurus his Design , is but what seems plainly enough intimated by his own words , preserved us by Laertius , near the end of his Physiological Epistle to Herodotus , where recommending to him the consideration of what he had delivered about Physical Principles in general , and Meteors in particular , he subjoyns , Si enim ab istis non discesserimus , tum id unde oritur perturbatio , quodque metum ingerit , recta cum ratione edisseremus , nosque ab ipsis eximemus . And to this in the close of his Meteorological Epistle to Pythocles , his best Interpreter , Gassendus , makes him speak consonantly , in these words , Maxime veró dede teipsum speculationi Principiorum , ex quibus constant omnia , & Infinitatis Naturae , aliorumque his cohaerentium Insuper veró & Criteriorum , affectuumque animi , & scopum illius in quem ista edisserentes collineavimus , attende , Tranquillitatem intelligo statumque mentis imperturbatum . But this is not all the Testimony I can give you from Epicurus himself to the same purpose , for among his Ratae Sententiae , preserved us by Laertius , ( himself reputed an Epicurean ) I find one that goes further ; Si nihil ( says he ) conturbaret nos quod suspicamur , veremu que ex rebus sublimibus , neque item quod ex ipsa morte , ne quando nimirum ad nos pertine at aliquid , ac nosse praeterea possemus , qui Germani fines dolorum atque cupiditatum sint ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) nihil Physiologiâ indigeremus . Thus far the testimony of Epicurus , of whose mind though I am not at all , as to what he would intimate , That Physiology is either proper to free the Mind from the Belief of a Provident Deity , and the Souls Immortality , or fit for no other considerable purposes ; yet this use we may well make of these Declarations , that , in Epicurus's opinion , a Moral Advantage that relates to the Government of the Affections , may deserve the pains of making Inquiries into Nature . And since it hence appears , that a meer Philosopher , who admitted no Providence , may think it worth his pains , to search into the abstrusest parts of Physicks , and the difficultest Phaenomena of Nature , onely to ease himself of one troublesome Affection , Fear ; it need not be thought Unphilosophical , to prosecute a Study , that will not onely Restrain One undue Passion , but Advance All Vertues , and free us from all Servile Fears of the Deity ; and tend to give us a strong and well-grounded Hope in Him ; and make us look upon Gods greatest Power , not with Terrour , but with Joy. There is yet another Advantage belonging to the study of Divine Truths , which is too great to be here pretermitted . For whereas there is scarce any thing more incident to us whilst we inhabit our ( Batté Chómer ) Cottages of Clay , and dwell in this vale of tears , than Afflictions ; it ought not a little to endear to us the newly mention'd Study , that it may be easily made to afford us very powerful Consolations in that otherwise uneasie state . I know it may be said , that the Speculations about which the Naturalist is busied , are as well pleasing Diversions , as noble Imployments of the Mind . And I deny not that they are often so , when the Mind is not hinder'd from applying it self attentively to them ; so that Afflictions slight and short may well be weather'd out by these Philosophical Avocations ; but the Greater and Sharper sort of Afflictions , and the approaches of Death , require more powerful Remedies , than these Diversions can afford us . For in such cases , the Mind is wont to be too much discompos'd , to apply the attention requisite to the finding a pleasure in Physical Speculations ; and in Sicknesses , the Soul is oftentimes as indispos'd to relish the Pleasures of meerly Humane Studies , as the languishing Body is to relish those Meats , which at other times were delightful : And there are but few that can take any great pleasure to study the World , when they apprehend themselves to be upon the point of being driven out of it , and in danger of losing all their share in the Objects of their Contemplation . It will not much qualifie our Sense of the burning heat of a Feaver , or the painful gripes of the Cholick , to know , That the three Angles of a Triangle are equal to two Right ones ; or that Heat is not a real Quality ( as the Schools would have it , ) but a Modification of the Motion of the Insensible parts of Matter ; and Pain not a Distinct , Inherent Quality in the things that produce it , but an Affection of the Sentiment . The Naturalists Speculations afford him no Consolations that are extraordinary in , or peculiar to , the state of Affliction ; and the Avocations they present him with , do rather Amuse the mind from an Attention to lesser Evils , than bring it any Advantages to Remove or Compensate them ▪ and so work rather in the nature of Opiates , than of true Cordials . But now , if such a Person as Dr. N. falls into Adversity , the case is much otherwise ; for we must consider , that when the study of Divine things is such as it ought to be , though , That in it self , or in the Nature of the Imployment , be an act or exercise of Reason ; yet being apply'd to , out of Obedience , and Gratitude , and Love to God , it is upon the account of its Motives , and its Aim , an act of Religion ; and as it proceeds from Obedience , and Thankfulness , and Love to God , so it is most acceptable to him ; and upon the account of his own Appointment , as well as Goodness , is a most proper and effectual means of obtaining his Favour ; and then I presume , it will easily be granted , that he who is so happy as to enjoy That , can scarce be made miserable by Affliction . For not now to enter upon the Common-place of the Benefits of Afflictions to them that love God , and to them that are lov'd by him , it may suffice , that he who ( as the Scripture speaks ) knows our frame , and has promised those that are his , that they shall not be Over-burden'd , is dispos'd and wont to give his afflicted Servants , both extraordinary Comforts in Afflictions , and Comforts appropriated to that state . For though Natural Philosophy be like its brightest Object , the Stars , which , however the Astronomer can with pleasure Contemplate them , are unable , being meer Natural Agents , to afford him a kinder Influence than usual , in case he be cast upon his Bed of Languishing , or into Prison ; yet the Almighty and Compassionate Maker of the Stars , being not onely a Voluntary , but the most Free , Agent , can suit and proportion his Reliefs to our Necessities , and alleviate our heaviest Afflictions by such supporting Consolations , that not onely they can never surmount our Patience , but are oftentimes unable so much as to hinder our Joy ; and when Death , that King of Terrours , presents it self , whereas the meer Naturalist sadly expects to be depriv'd of the pleasure of his knowledge by losing those Senses and that World , which are the Instruments and the Objects of it ; and perhaps ( discovering beyond the Grave nothing but either a state of Eternal Destruction , or of Eternal Misery , ) fears either to be Confin'd for ever to the Sepulchre , or expos'd to Torments that will make even such a Condition desirable ; the pious Student of Divine Truths , is not onely freed from the wracking Apprehensions of having his Soul reduc'd to a state of Annihilation , or cast into Hell , but enjoys a comfortable expectation of finding far greater Satisfaction than ever in the Study he now rejoyces to have pursu'd ; since the change , that is so justly formidable to others , will but bring him much nearer to the Divine O●jects of his devout Curiosity , and strangely Elevate and Inlarge his Faculties to apprehend them . And this leads me to the mention of the last Advantage belonging to the study I would perswade you to ; and indeed , the highest Advantage that can recommend Any Study , or invite Men to any Undertaking ; for this is no less than the Everlasting fruition of the Divine Objects of our Studies hereafter , and the comfortable Expectation of it here . For the employing of ones time and parts , to admire the Nature and Providence of God , and contemplate the Divine Mysteries of Religion , as it is one of the chief of those Homages and Services , whereby we Venerate and Obey God ; so it is one of those , to which he hath been pleased to apportion no less a Recompence , than ( that which can have no greater ) the Enjoyment of Himself . The Saints and Angels in Heaven have divers of them been employ'd to convey the Truths of Theology , and are sollicitous to look into those Sacred Mysteries ; and God hath been pleased to appoint , that those men who study the same Lessons that they do here , shall study them in their company hereafter . And doubtless , though Heaven abound with unexpressible Joys , yet it will be none of the least that shall make up the Happiness even of that Place , that the Knowledge of Divine things , that was here so zealously Pursu'd , shall there be compleatly Attain'd . For those things that do here most excite our Desires , and quicken the Curiosity and Industry of our Searches , will not onely there Continue , but be Improv'd to a far greater measure of Attractiveness and Influence . For all those Interests , and Passions , and Lusts , that here below either hinder us from clearly Discerning , or keep us from sufficiently Valuing , or divert us from attentively enough Considering , the Beauty and Harmony of Divine Truths , will there be either abolish'd , or transfigur'd : And as the Object will be Unveil'd ; so our Eye will be Enlighten'd , that is , as God will there disclose those worthy Objects of the Angels Curiosity , so he will Inlarge our Faculties , to enable us to gaze without being dazl'd upon those sublime and radiant Truths , whose Harmony as well as Splendor we shall be then qualifi'd to Discover , and consequently with Transports to Admire . And this Enlargement and Elevation of our Faculties , will , proportionably to its own measure , Increase our Satisfaction at the Discoveries it will enable us to make . For Theology is like a Heaven , which wants not more Stars than appear in it , but we want Eyes , quick-sighted and piercing enough to reach them . And as the Milky Way , and other Whiter parts of the Firmament , have been full of Immortal Lights from the beginning , and our new Telescopes have not plac'd , but found them , there ; so , when our Saviour , after his glorious Resurrection , instructed his Apostles to teach the Gospel , 't is not said that he alter'd any thing in the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets , but onely open'd and enlarg'd their Intellects , that they might understand the Scriptures : And the Royal Prophet makes it his Prayer , That God would be pleased to open his eyes , that he might see wonderful things out of the Law ; being ( as was above intimated ) so well satisfi'd , that the Word of God wanted not Admirable things , that he is onely sollicitous for the Improvement of his own Eyes , that they might be qualifi'd to discern them . I had almost forgotten one particular , about the Advantages of Theological Studies , that is too considerable to be left unmention'd : For as great as I have represented the Benefits accruing from the Knowledge of Divine Truths ; yet to endear them to us , it may be safely added , that , to procure us these Benefits , the actual Attainment of that Knowledge is not always absolutely Necessary , but a hearty Endeavour after it may suffice to entitle Us to them . The patient Chymist , that consumes himself and his Estate in seeking after the Philosophers Stone , if he miss of his Idoliz'd Elixir , had as good , nay better , have never sought it , and remains as poor in Effect , as he was rich in Expectation . The Husbandman that employs his Seed and Time , to obtain from the Ground a plentiful Harvest , if , after all , an unkind Season happen , must see his toil made fruitless ; — longique perit labor irritus Anni . Too many Patients , that have punctually done and suffer'd for Recovery all that Physicians could prescribe , meet at last with Death in stead of Health . You know what entertainment has been given by skilful Geometricians to the laborious endeavours , even of such famous Writers as Scaliger , Longomontanus , and other Tetragonists ; and that their Successor Mr. Hobbs , after all the ways he has taken , and those he has propos'd , to Square the Circle , and Double the Cube , by missing of his end , has , after his various attempts , come off , not onely with Disappointment , but with Disgrace . And ( to give an Instance even in things Celestial ) how much pains has been taken to find out Longitudes , and make Astrological Precictions with some certainty , which for want of coming up to what they aimed at , have been useless , if not prejudicial to the Attempters . But God ( to speak with St. Paul on another occasion ) that made the world , and all things therein , and is Lord of heaven and earth , seeks not our Services , as though He needed any thing , seeing he giveth Life , and Breath , and all things : His Self-sufficiency and Bounty are such , that He seeks in our Obedience the Occasions of rewarding it , and prescribes us Services , because the Practise of them is not onely sutable to our Rational Nature , but such as will prevail with his Justice , to let His Goodness make our Persons happy . Agreeably to this Doctrine we find in the Scripture , that Abraham is said to have been justified by faith , when he offered his son Isaac upon the Altar , ( though he did not Actually sacrifice him ) because he endeavour'd to do so ; although , God graciously accepting the Will for the Deed , accepted also of the bloud of a Ram instead of Isaac's . And thus we know , that 't was not David , but Solomon that built the Temple of Hierusalem , and yet God says to the former of those Kings ( as we are told by the latter ) For asmuch as it was in thine heart to build an House for my name thou didst well in that it was in thine heart ; notwithstanding thou shalt not build the House , &c. And if we look to the other Circumstances of this Story , as they are delivered in the Second Book of Samuel , we shall find , that upon David's declaration of a design to build God an house , God himself vouchsafes to honour him , as he once did Moses , with the peculiar Title of His Servant ; and commands the Prophet to say to him , Also the Lord tells thee , that He will make Thee an House : To which is added one of the graciousest Messages that God ever sent to any particular man. By which we may learn , that God approves and accepts even those Endeavours ( of his Servants ) if they be real and sincere , that never come to be actually accomplished : Good Designs and Endeavours are our part , but the events of those , as of all other things , are in the All-disposing hand of God , who , if we be not wanting to what lies in us , will not suffer us to be Losers by the defeating Dispositions of his Providence ▪ but crown our endeavours either with Success , or with some other Recompence , that will keep us from being Losers by missing of that . And indeed , if we consider the great Elogies that the Scripture , as well frequently as justly , gives God's Goodness ( which it represents as Over , or as Above , all his Works ) and that his purer eyes Punish , as well as See , the Murder and Adultery of the heart , when those Intentional sins are hinder'd from advancing into Actual ones ; we can scarce doubt but He , whose Justice punishes sinful Aims , will allow his Infinite Goodness to recompense pious Attempts : And therefore our Saviour pronounces them blessed , that hunger and thirst after righteousness , assuring Them that they shall be satisfi'd , and thereby sufficiently intimating to us , That an earnest Desire after a Spiritual Grace ( and such is the knowledge of Divine things ) may entitle a man to the complete Possession of it , if not in This life , yet in the Next , where we shall not any more walk by Faith , but by Sight , and obtain as well a Knowledge as other Endowments , befitting that Glorious state , wherein the Purchaser of it for Us , assures us , that we shall be [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] equal , or like to the Angels . The Considerations , Sir , I have hitherto laid before you , to recommend the Study of Divine Truths , have , I hope , perswaded you , That 't is on many accounts both noble and eligible in it self ; and therefore I shall here conclude the First Part of this Discourse . And in regard that the Undervaluation Physiophilus expresses for that excellent Imployment , seems to flow ( chiefly at least ) from his fondness and partiality for Natural Philosophy ; it will next concern us to compare the study of Theology with that of Physicks , and show , that the Advantages which your Friend alledges in favour of the Latter , are partly much lessen'd by disadvantageous Circumstances , and partly much out-weigh'd by the Transcendent Excellencies of Theological Contemplations : The study whereof will thereby appear to be not onely Eligible in it self , but Preferrible to its Rival . And I must give you warning to expect to find the Second Part , which the making this Comparison challenges to it self , a good deal more Prolix than the First ; not onely because it often requires more trouble , and more words to detect and disprove an Errour , than to make out a Truth ; but also because that divers things tending to the Credit of Divinity , and which consequently might have been brought into the First Part of this Discourse , were thought more fit to be interwoven with other things , in the Answers made to the Objections examin'd in the Second . THE EXCELLENCY OF THEOLOGY : OR , The Preeminence of the Study of Divinity , above that of Natural Philosophy . THE SECOND PART . I Shall , without Preamble , begin this Discourse , by considering the Delightfulness of Physicks , as the main thing that inveigles your Friend , and divers other Virtuosi , from relishing , as they ought , and otherwise would , the pleasantness of Theological Discoveries . And to deal ingenuously with you , I shall not scruple to acknowledge , that though the Address I have made to Nature has lasted several years , and has been toilsome enough , and not unexpensive ; yet I have been pleas'd enough with the favours , such as they are , that she has from time to time accorded me , not to complain of having been unpleasantly imploy'd . But though I readily allow the attainments of Naturalists to be able to give Philosophical Souls sincerer Pleasures , than those that the more undiscerning part of Mankind is so fond of ; yet I must not therefore allow them to surpass , or even equal , the Contentment , that may accrue to a Soul qualified by Religion , to relish the best things most from some kind of Theological Contemplations . This , I presume , will sufficiently appear , if I shew you , that the Study of Physiology is not unattended with considerable Inconveniencies , and that the pleasantness of it may be , by a Person studious of Divinity , enjoy'd with endearing Circumstances . But before I name any of the particular Reasons that I am to represent , I fear it may be requisite to interpose a few words , to obviate a mistake , which , if not prevented , may have an ill aspect , not onely upon the first Section , but upon a great part of the following Discourse . For I know that it may be said , that whereas I alledge divers things , to lessen the lately mentioned delightfulness of the study of Physic , and to depreciate some other advantages , by which the following Sections would recommend it , some of the same things may be objected against the delightfulness of the study of Divinity . But this Objection will not , I presume , much move you , if you consider the argument and scope of the two parts of this Letter . For in the former I have shewn by positive Proofs , that the study of Theology is attended with divers advantages , which belong to it , either onely as some of them do , or principally as others . And now in the second part I come to consider , whether what is alledged in behalf of the study of Philosophy , deserve to counter-ballance those Prerogatives or Advantages ; and therefore it neither need be , nor is my design , to compare , for instance , the delightfulness of the two studies , Philosophy and Physicks , but by shewing the Inconveniences that allay the latter , to weaken the Argument that is drawn from that delightfulness , to conclude it preferrable to the study of Theology . So that my work , in this and the following Sections , is , not so much to institute Comparisons , as to obviate or answer Allegations . For since I have in the past Discourse grounded the Excellency of the study of Divinity , chiefly upon those great advantages that are peculiar to it ; my Reasonings would not be frustrated , though it should appear , that in point of Delightfulness , Certainty , &c. that Study should , in many cases , be liable to the same Objections with the Study of Nature , since 't is not mainly for these Qualities , but , as I was saying , for other and peculiar Excellencies that I recommended Divinity , And therefore , supposing the Delightfulness , &c. of that and of Physicks , to be allayed by the same , or equal Inconveniences or Imperfections ; that Supposition would not hinder the Scales to be swayed in favour of Divinity , upon the score of those Advantages that are unquestion'd , and peculiarly belong to it . I know not whether I need add , that , notwithstanding this , you are not to expect , that I should give Philosophy the wounds of an Enemy . For my design being not to discourage you , nor any Ingenious man , from courting Her at all , nor from courting Her much , but from courting her too much , and despising Divinity for her , I employ against her not a Sword to wound her , but a Ballance , to shew , that her Excellencies , though solid and weighty , are less so , than the preponderating ones of Theology . And this temper and purpose of mine renders my Task difficult enough to have , perhaps , some right to your pardon ▪ as well as some need of it , if I do not every where steer so exactly , as equally to avoid injuring the Cause I am to plead for , and disparaging a Study , which I would so little depreciate , that I allow it a great part of my Inclinations , and not a little share of my Time. And having said this , to keep the Design of this Discourse from being misunderstood , I hope we may now proceed to the particulars , whose scope we have been declaring . Returning then to what I was about to say before this long , but needful , Advertisement interrupted me , I shall resume my Discourse of the Delightfulness of the Study of Physicks , about which I was going in the first place to tell you , that I know you and your Friend will freely grant me , that the knowledge of the empty and barren Physiology , that is taught in the Schools , as it exacts not much pains to be acquir'd , so it affords but little satisfaction when attain'd . And as I know you will give me leave to say this ; so , being warranted by no slight experience of my own , I shall take leave to say also , that the study of that Experimental Philosophy , which is that whereof your Friend is so much enamour'd , is , if it be duly prosecuted , a very troublesome and laborious Imployment . For , ( to mention at present but This ) that great variety of Objects the Naturalist is not onely by His Curiosity , but by Their secret dependances upon one another , engag'd to consider , and several ways to handle , will put him upon needing , and consequently upon applying himself to such a Variety of Mechanick People , ( as Distillers , Drugsters , Smiths , Turners , &c. ) that a great part of his time , and perhaps all his Patience , shall be spent in waiting upon Trades-men , and repairing the losses he sustains by Their disappointments , which is a Drudgery greater than any , who has not try'd it , will imagine , and which yet being as inevitable as unwelcome , does very much counter-ballance and allay the Delightfulness of the Study we are treating of . In which so great a part of a mans care and time must be laid out in providing the Apparatus'es necessary for the trying of Experiments . But this is not all . For when you have brought an Experiment to an Issue , though the Event may often prove such as you will be pleas'd with ; yet it will seldome prove such as you can acquiesce in . For it fares not with an Inquisitive mind in studying the Book of Nature , as in reading of Aesop's Fables , or some other collection of Apologues of differing sorts , and independant one upon another ; where when you have read over as many at one time as you think fit , you may leave off when you please , and go away with the pleasure of understanding those you have perus'd , without being sollicited by any troublesome Itch of Curiosity to look after the rest , as those which are needful to the better understanding of those you have already gone over , or that will be explicated by them , and scarce without them . But in the Book of Nature , as in a well contriv'd Romance , the parts have such a connection and relation to one another , and the things we would discover are so darkly or incompleatly knowable by those that precede them , that the mind is never satisfied till it comes to the end of the Book ; till when all that is discover'd in the progress , is unable to keep the mind from being molested with Impatience to find that yet conceal'd , which will not be known till one does at least make a further progress . And yet the full discovery of Natures Mysteries , is so unlikely to fall to any mans share in this Life , that the case of the Pursuers of them is at best like theirs , that light upon some excellent Romance , of which they shall never see the latter parts . For indeed ( to speak now without a Simile ) there is such a Relation betwixt Natural Bodies , and they may in so many ways ( and divers of them unobserv'd ) work upon , or suffer from , one another , that he who makes a new Experiment , or discovers a new Phaenomenon , must not presently think , that he has discover'd a new Truth , or detected an old Error . For , ( at least if he be a considering man ) he will oftentimes find reason to doubt , whether the Experiment or Observation have been so skilfully and warily made in all circumstances , as to afford him such an Account of the matter of fact , as a severe Naturalist would desire . And then , supposing the Historical part no way defective , there are far more Cases than are taken notice of , wherein so many differing Agents may produce the exhibited Phaenomenon , or have a great Influence upon the Experiment or Observation , that he must be less jealous than becomes a Philosopher , to whom Experiments doe not oftentimes as well suggest new doubts , as present new Phaenomena . And even those Trials , that end in real Discoveries , do , by reason of the connection of Physical Truths , and the relations that Natural Bodies have to one another , give such hopes and such desires of improving the Acquists we have already made , to the explicating of other Difficulties , or the making of further Discoveries , that an Inquisitive Naturalist finds his work to increase daily upon his hands , and the event of his past Toils , whether it be good or bad , does but engage him into new ones , either to free himself from his scruples , or improve his successes . So that , though the pleasure of making Physical Discoveries , is , in it self consider'd , very great ; yet this does not a little impair it , that the same attempts which afford that delight , do so frequently beget both anxious Doubts , and a disquieting Curiosity . So that , if knowledge be , as some Philosophers have styl'd it , the Aliment of the Rational Soul , I fear I may too truly say , that the Naturalist is usually fain to live upon Sallads and Sauces , which though they yield some nourishment , excite more appetite than they satisfie , and give us indeed the pleasure of eating with a good stomach , but then reduce us to an unwelcome necessity of always rising hungry from the Table . Of divers things , that lessen the Delightfulness of Physiological Studies , I do so amply discourse in other Papers , that I might well remit you thither ; but indeed it is not necessary that I should insist on this Argument any further . 'T is true , that such a Reference might be very proper , if the Mysteries of Theology and Physick were like those of Theology and Necromancy , or some other part of unlawful Magick , whereof the former could not be well relish'd without an abhorrence of the latter . But as the two great Books , of Nature and of Scripture , have the same Authour ; so the study of the latter does not at all hinder an Inquisitive man's delight in the study of the former . The Doctor I am pleading for , may as much relish a Physical Discovery , as Physiophilus ; nay , by being addicted to Theology and Religion , he is so far from being uncapable of the contentments accruing from the study of Nature , that beside those things that recommend it to others , there are several things that peculiarly endear it to Him. For I. he has the contentment to look upon the wonders of Nature , not onely as the Productions of an admirably wise Author of things , but of such an one as he intirely honours and loves , and to whom he is related . He that reads an excellent Book , or sees some rare Engine , will be otherwise affected with the sight or the perusal , if he knows it to have been made by a Friend , or a Parent , than if he considers it but as made by a stranger , whom he has no particular reason to be concern'd for . And if Rehoboam did not as well degenerate from the sentiments of Mankind , as from his Family , he could not but look upon that Magnificent Temple of Solomon with another Eye , than did the throngs of Strangers that came onely to gaze at it , as an admirable piece of Architecture , whilst he consider'd that 't was his Father that built it . And if ( as we see ) the same Heroick Actions , which we read in History , of some great Monarch , that strangers barely and unconcernedly admire , the Natives of his Countrey do not onely venerate , but affectionately interest themselves therein , because they are his Countrey-men , and their Ancestors were his Subjects : How much may we suppose the same Actions would affect them , if they had the honour to be that Prince's Children ? We may well therefore presume , that 't is not without a singular satisfaction , that the Contemplator , we are speaking of , does in all the Wonders of Nature discover , how wise , and potent , and bountiful that Author of Nature is , in whom he has a great Interest , and that so great an one , as both to be admitted into the number of his Friends , and adopted into the number of his Sons , and is thereby in some measure concern'd in all the Admirations and Praises , that are paid either by himself or others , to those Adorable Attributes that God has displayed in that great Master-piece of Power and Wisdom , the World. And when he makes greater discoveries in these Expresses and Adumbrations of the Divine Perfections , the delightfulness of his Contemplation is proportionably increas'd upon such an Account , as that , which indears to the passionate Lover of some charming Beauty an Excellent , above an Ordinary , Picture of her ; because that the same things that make him , as it does other Gazers , look upon it as a finer piece , make Him look upon it as the more like his Mistress , and thereby entertain him with the sublimer Idea's of the belov'd Original ; to whose transcendent Excellencies he supposes that the Noblest Representations must be the most resembling . And there is a farther Reason , why our Contemplator should find a great deal of contentment in these Discoveries . For we have in our nature so much of Imperfection , and withall so much of Inclination to self-love , that we do too confidently proportion our Idea's of what God can do for us , to what we have already the knowledge or the possession of . And though , when we make it our business , we are able with much ado somewhat to enlarge our apprehensions , and raise our expectations beyond their wonted pitch ; yet still they will be but scantly promoted and heightned , if those things themselves be but mean and ordinary , which we think we have done enough if we make them surpass . A Countrey Villager , born and bred in a homely Cottage , cannot have any suitable apprehensions of the Pleasures and Magnificence of a great Monarchs Court. And if he should be bid to scrue up his Imagination to frame Idea's of them , they would be borrow'd from the best Tiled House he had seen in the Market-towns where he had sold his Turnips or Corn , and the Wedding-feast of some neighbouring Farmers Daughter . And though a Child in the Mother's womb had the perfect use of Reason , yet could it not in that dark Cell have any Idea's of the Sun or Moon , or Beauties or Banquets , or Algebra or Chymistry , and many other things , which his Elder Brothers , that breath fresh Air , and freely behold the Light , and are in a more mature Estate , are capable of knowing and enjoying . Now among Thinking men , whose thoughts run much upon that future state which they must shortly enter into , but shall never pass out of ; there will frequently and naturally arise a distrust , which though seldome own'd , proves oftentimes disquieting enough ! For such men are apt to question , how the future condition which the Gospel promises , can afford them so much happiness as it pretends to ; since they shall in Heaven but Contemplate the Works of God , and praise him , and converse with him , all which they think may , though not immediately , be done by men here below , without being happy : But he that by Telescopes and Microscopes , dexterous Dissections , and well imploy'd Furnaces , &c. discovers , the wondrous power and skill of him that contriv'd so vast and immense a Mass of Matter , into so curious a piece of Workmanship as this World , will pleasingly be convinc'd of the boundless power and goodness of the great Architect . And when he sees how admirably every Animal is furnish'd with parts requisite to his respective nature ; and that there is particular care taken , that the same Animal , as for example , Man , should have differing provisions made for him according to his differing states within the womb , and out of it , ( a humane Egg , and an Embrio , being much otherwise nourished and fitted for action , than is a ( compleat ) Man ; ) He , I say , who considers this , and observes the stupendious Providence , and excellent Contrivances , that the curious Priers into Nature ( and none but they ) can discover , will be as well enabled as invited to reason thus within himself : That sure God , who has with such admirable Artifice fram'd Silk-worms , Butterflies , and other meaner Insects , and with such wonderful providence taken care , that the nobler Animals should as little want any of all the things requisite to the compleating of their respective Natures ; and who , when he pleases , can furnish some things with Qualifications , quite differing from those which the knowledge of his other works could have made us imagine , ( as is evident in the Load-stone and in Quick-silver among Minerals , and the Sensitive Plant among Vegetables , the Camelion among Animals , &c. ) This God , I say , must needs be fully able to furnish those he delights to honour ▪ with Objects suitable to their improv'd . Faculties , and with all that is requisite to the Happiness he intends them in their glorifi'd state ; and is able to bring this to pass by such amazing contrivances , as perhaps will be quite differing from any , that the things we have yet seen suggest to us any Idea's of . And sure he , that has in so immense , so curious , and so magnificent a Fabrick , made such provision for Men , who are either desperately wicked , or but very imperfectly good , and in a state where they are not to Enjoy happiness , but by Obedience and Sufferings to Fit themselves for it , may safely be trusted with finding them in Heaven Imployments and Delights becoming the Felicity he designs them There ; as we see that here below , he provides as well for the soaring Eagle , as for the creeping Caterpillar , ( and is able to keep the Ocean as fully supply'd with Rivers , as Lakes or Ponds are with Springs and Brooks . ) And as a state of Celestial happiness is so great a Blessing , that those things that afford us either greater assurances , or greater foretastes of it , are of the number of the greatest Contentments and Advantages , that short of It we can enjoy ; so 't is hard for any Divine to receive so much of this kind of satisfaction , as he who by skilfully looking into the Wonders of Nature , has his apprehensions of God's power and manifold wisdom ( as an Apostle calls it ) elevated and enlarg'd . As when the Queen of Sheba had particularly survey'd the astonishing Prudence that Solomon display'd in the ordering of his Magnificent Court ; she transportedly concluded those Servants of his to be happy enough to deserve a Monarchs Envy , that were allowed the Honour and Priviledge of a constant and immediate Attendance on him . The second Section . I Doubt not but you have too good an Opinion of your Friend , not to think that you may alledge in his favour , that the chief thing which makes him prefer Physiology to all other kind of knowledge , is , That it enables those who are Proficients in it to do a great deal of good , both by improving of Trades , and by promoting of Physick it self . And I am too mindful of what I writ to Pyrophilus , to deny , either that it can assist a man to advance Physick and Trades , or that , by so doing , he may highly advantage Mankind . And this , I , ( who would not lessen your Friends Esteem for Physicks , but onely his Partiality ) willingly acknowledge to be so allowable an Endearment of Experimental Philosophy , that I do not know any thing , that to men of a Humane , as well as Ingenious Disposition , ought more to recommend the study of Nature ; except the opportunity it affords men to be Just and Grateful to the Author both of Nature and of Man. I do not then deny , that the true Naturalist may very much benefit Mankind ; but I affirm , that , if men be not wanting to themselves , the Divine may benefit them much more . It were not perchance either unseasonable , or impertinent to tell you on this occasion , that he who effectually teaches men to subdue their Lusts and Passions , does as much as the Physician contribute to the preservation of their Bodies , by exempting them from those Vices , whose no less usual than destructive Effects are Wars , and Duels , and Rapines , and Desolations , and the Pox , and Surfets , and all the train of other Diseases that attend Gluttony and Drunkenness , Idleness and Lust ; which are not Enemies to Mans Life and Health barely upon a Physical account , but upon a Moral one , as they provoke God to punish them with Temporal as well as Spiritual Judgments ; such as Plagues , Wars , Famines , and other publick Calamities , that sweep away a great part of Mankind ; besides those personal afflictions of Bodily Sickness , and disquiets of Conscience , that do both Shorten mens Lives , and Imbitter them . Whereas Piety having ( as the Scripture assures us ) Promises both of this Life , and of that which is to come , those Teachers that make men Virtuous and Religious , by making them Temperate , and Chaste , and Inoffensive , and Calm , and Contented , do not onely procure them great and excellent Dispositions to those Blessings , both of the Right hand and of the Left , which God's Goodness makes him forward to bestow on those , who by Grace and Virtue are made fit to receive them ; but do help them to those Qualifications , that by preserving the Mind in a calm and cheerful temper , as well as by affording the Body all that Temperance can confer , do both Lengthen their Lives , and Sweeten them . These things , I say , 't were not impertinent to insist on , but I will rather chuse to represent to you , That the Benefits which men may receive from the Divine , surpass those which they receive from the Naturalist , both in the Nobleness of the Advantages , and in the Duration of them . Be it granted then , that the Naturalist may much improve both Physick and Trades ; yet since these themselves were devised for the service of the Body , ( the one to preserve or restore his Health , and the other to furnish it with Accommodations or Delights ; ) the boasted use of Natural Philosophy , by its advancing Trades and Physick , will still be to serve the Body ; which is but the Lodging and Instrument of the Soul , and which , I presume , your Friend , and which I am sure your self , will be far from thinking the noblest part of Man. I know it may be said , nor do I deny it , that divers Mechanical Arts are highly Beneficial , not onely to the Inventors , but to those Places , and perhaps those States , where such Improvements are found out and cherish'd . But though I most willingly grant , that this Consideration ought to recommend Experimental Philosophy , as well to States as to private Persons ; yet , besides that many of these Improvements do rather Transfer than Increase Mankind's goods , and prejudice one sort of Men as much as they Advantage another , ( as in the case of the Eastern Spices , of whose Trade the Portugals and Dutch by their later Navigations , did , by appropriating it to themselves , deprive the Venetians ) or else does but increase that , which , though very Beneficial to the Producers , is not really so to Mankind in general : Of which we have an Example in the Invention of Extracting Gold and Silver out of the Oar , with Mercury . For though it have vastly enrich'd the Spaniards in the West Indies , yet 't is not of any solid advantage to the World ; no more than the Discovery of the Peruvian and other American Mines ; by which , ( especially reckoning the multitudes of unhappy men that are made miserable , and destroyed in working them , ) Mankind is not put into a better condition than it was before . And if the Philosopher's Stone it self , ( supposing there be such a thing ) were not an Incomparable Medicine , but were onely capable of transmuting other Metalls into Gold , I should perhaps doubt , whether the Discoverer of it would much advantage Mankind ; there being already Gold and Silver enough to maintain Trade and Commerce among men ; and for all other purposes , I know not , why a plenty of Iron , and Brass , and Quick-silver , which are far more useful Metalls , should not be more desirable . But not to urge this ; we may consider , that these Advancements of inriching Trades do still bring Advantages but to the outward man , and those many Arts and Inventions that aim at the heightning the pleasures of the Senses , belong but to the Body ; and even in point of gratifying That , are not so requisite and important , as many suppose : Education , Custome , &c. having a greater Interest than most imagine in the rellish men have even of Sensitive pleasures . And as for Physick , not to mind you , that it has been Lowdly ( how Justly , I here examine not , ) complain'd of , that the new Philosophy has made it far greater promises than have yet been perform'd ; I shall onely take notice , that since all that Physick is wont to pretend to , is , to preserve health , or restore it , there are multitudes in the world that have no need of the assistance the Naturalist would give the Physician ; and a healthy man , as such , is already in a better condition , than the Philosopher can hope to place him in , and is no more advantag'd by the Naturalist's contribution to Physick , than a sound man that sleeps in a whole skin , is by all the fine Tools of a Chirurgeons Case of Instruments , and the various Compositions of his Chest . And as the Benefits that may be derived from Theology , much surpass those that accrue from Physicks , in the Nobleness of the Subject they relate to ; so have they a great advantage in point of Duration . For all the service that Medicines , and Engines , and Improvements can do a man , as they relate but to this Life , so they determine with it . Physick indeed and Chymistry do , the one more faintly , and the other more boldly , pretend sometimes not onely to the Cure of Diseases , but the Prolongation of Life : But since none will suspect , but that the Masters of those parts of knowledge would employ their utmost skill to protract their own Lives , those that remember , that Solomon and Helmont liv'd no longer , than millions that were strangers to Philosophy ; and that even Paracelsus himself , for all his boasted Arcana , is by Helmont and other Chymists confessed to have died some years short of 50 ; we may very justly fear , that Nature will not be so kind to her greatest Votaries , as to give them much more time than other men , for the payment of the last Debt all men owe her . And if a few years respite could by a scrupulous and troublesome use of Diet and Remedies be obtain'd ; yet that , in comparison of the Eternity that is to follow , is not at all considerable . But , whereas within no great number of years , ( a little sooner , or a little later ) all the Remedies , and Reliefs , and Pleasures , and Accommodations , that Philosophical Improvements can afford a man , will not keep him from the Grave , ( which within very few days will make the body of the greatest Virtuoso as hideous and as loathsome a Carcase as that of any ordinary man ; ) the Benefits that may accrue to us by Divinity , as they relate Chiefly , though not Onely , to the other World ; so they will follow us out of this , and prove then incomparably greater than ever , when they alone shall be capable of being enjoy'd . So that Philosophy , in the capacity we here consider it , does but as it were provide us some little Conveniences for our passage ( like some Accommodations for a Cabbin , which out-lasts not the Voyage , ) but Religion provides us a vast and durable Estate , or , as the Scripture styles it , an unshaken Kingdom , when we are arriv'd at our Journeys end . And therefore the Benefits accruing from Religion , may well be concluded preferible to their Competitors , since they not onely reach to the Mind of Man , but reach beyond the End of Time it self ; whereas all the variety of Inventions that Philosophy so much boasts of , as whilst they were in season they were devis'd for the service of the Body , so they make us busie , and pride our selves about things , that within a short time will not ( so much as upon Its score ) at all concern us . The third Section . I Expect you should here urge on your Friends behalf , That the study of Physicks has one Prerogative , ( above that of Divinity , ) which , as it is otherwise a great Excellency , so does much add to the Delightfulness of it . I mean , the Certainty , and Clearness , and the thence resulting Satisfactoriness of our Knowledge of Physical , in comparison of any we can have of Theological matters , whose being Dark and Uncertain , the Nature of the things themselves , and the numerous Controversies of differing Sects about them , sufficiently manifest . But upon this Subject , divers things are to be consider'd . For first , as to the Fundamental and Necessary Articles of Religion , I do not admit the Allegation , but take those Articles to be both Evident , and capable of a Moral Demonstration . And if there be any Articles of Religion , for which a Rational and Cogent Proof cannot be brought , I shall for that very reason conclude , that such Articles are not absolutely Necessary to be believ'd ; since it seems no way reasonable to imagine , that God having been pleased to send not onely his Prophets and his Apostles , but his onely Son into the World , to promulgate to Mankind the Christian Religion , and both to cause it to be consign'd to writing , that it may be known , and to alter the course of Nature by numerous Miracles , that it might be believ'd ; it seems not reasonable , I say , to imagine , that he should not propose those Truths , which he in so wonderful and so solemn a manner recommended , with at least so much Clearness , as that studious and well-dispos'd Readers may certainly understand such as are necessary for them to believe . 2. Though I will not here engage my self in a Disquisition of the several kinds , or , if you please , Degrees , of Demonstration , ( which yet is a Subject that I judge far more considerable than cultivated , ) yet I must tell you , that as a Moral certainty ( such as we may attain about the Fundamentals of Religion ) is enough in many cases for a wise man , and even a Philopher to acquiesce in ; so that Physical Certainty , which is pretended for the Truths demonstrated by Naturalists , is , even where 't is rightfully claim'd , but an inferiour kind or degree of certainty , as Moral certainty also is . For even Physical Demonstrations can beget but a Physical Certainty , ( that is , a Certainty upon supposition that the Principles of Physick be true , ) not a Metaphysical Certainty , ( wherein 't is absolutely impossible , that the thing believ'd should be other than true . ) For instance , All the Physical Demonstrations of the Antients about the causes of particular Phaenomena of Bodies , suppose , that ex nihilo nihil fit ; and this may readily be admitted in a Physical sense , because according to the course of Nature , no Body can be produc'd out of Nothing , but speaking universally it may be false , as Christians generally , and even the Cartesian Naturalists , asserting the Creation of the World , must believe , that , de facto , it is . And so whereas Epicurus does , I remember , prove , that a Body once dead cannot be made alive again , by reason of the dissipation and dispersion of the Atoms , 't was , when alive , compos'd of ; though all men will allow this assertion to be Physically demonstrable , yet the contrary may be true , if God's Omnipotence intervenes , as all the Philosophers that acknowledge the Authority of the New Testament , where Lazarus and others are recorded to have been raised from the dead , must believe , that it actually did appear , and even all unprejudic'd Reasoners must allow it to be Possible , there being no Contradiction impli'd in the Nature of the thing . But now to affirm , that such things as are indeed Contradictories cannot be both true , or , that factum infectum reddi non potest , are Metaphysical Truths , which cannot possibly be other than true , and consequently beget a Metaphysical and absolute Certainty . And your Master Cartesius was so sensible of a dependance of Physical Demonstrations upon Metaphysical Truths , that he would not allow any certainty not onely to them , but even to Geometrical Demonstrations , till he had evinc'd , that there is a God , and that he cannot deceive men that make use of their Faculties aright . To which I may add , that even in many things that are look'd upon as Physical Demonstrations , there is really but a Moral Certainty . For when , for instance , Des-Cartes and other Modern Philosophers , take upon them to demonstrate , That there are divers Comets that are not Meteors , because they have a Parallax lesser than that of the Moon , and are of such a bigness , and some of them move in such a Line , &c. 't is plain , that divers of these Learned men had never the opportunity to observe a Comet in their Lives , but take these Circumstances upon the credit of those Astronomers that had such Opportunities . And though the Inferences , as such , may have a Demonstrable Certainty ; yet the Premisses they are drawn from having but an Historical one , the presumed Physico-Mathematical Demonstration can produce in a wary mind but a Moral Certainty , and not the greatest neither of that kind that is possible to be attain'd ; as he will not scruple to acknowledge , that knows by experience , how much more difficult it is , than most men imagine , to make Observations about such nice Subjects , with the exactness that is requisite for the building of an undoubted Theory upon them . And there are I know not how many things in Physicks , that men presume they believe upon Physical and Cogent Arguments , wherein they really have but a Moral assurance ; which is a Truth heeded by so few , that I have been invited to take the more particular notice of them in other Papers , written purposely to show the doubtfulness and incompleatness of Natural Philosophy ; of which Discourse , since you may command a sight , I shall not scruple to refer you thither for the Reasons of my affirming here , that the most even of the modern Virtuosi are wont to fancy more of Clearness and Certainty in their Physical Theories , than a Critical Examiner will find . Onely that you may not look upon this as a put off , rather than a reference , I will here touch upon a couple of Subjects , which men are wont to believe to be , and which indeed ought to be , the most throughly understood ; I mean the Nature of Body in general , and the Nature of Sensation . And for the first of these , since we can turn our selves no way , but we are every where environ'd , and incessantly touch'd by Corporeal Substances , one would think that so familiar an Object , that does so assiduously , and so many ways affect our Senses , and for the knowledge of which we need not inquire into the distinct Nature of particular Bodies , nor the properties of any one of them , should be very perfectly known unto us . And yet the Notion of Body in general , or what it is that makes a thing to be a Corporeal Substance , and discriminates it from all other things , has been very hotly disputed of , even among the modern Philosophers , & adhuc sub judice lis est . And though your Favourite Des-Cartes , in making the nature of a Body to consist in Extension every way , has a notion of it , which 't is more easie to find fault with , than to substitute a better ; yet I fear , 't will appear to be attended , not onely with this Inconvenience , That God cannot , within the compass of this World , wherein if any Body vanish into Nothing , the place or space left behind it must have the three Dimensions , and so be a true Body , annihilate the least particle of Matter , at least without , at the same instant and place , creating as much , ( which agrees very ill with that necessary and continual dependance , which he asserts Matter it self to have on God for its very Being ; ) but with such other inconveniences , that some Friends of yours , otherwise very inclinable to the Cartesian Philosophy , know not how to acquiesce in it : and yet I need not tell you , how Fundamental a Notion the deviser of it asserts it to be . Neither do I see , how this Notion of a Corporeal Substance will any more , than any of the formerly received Definitions of it , extricate us out of the Difficulties of that no less perplexed , than famous Controversie , de Compositione Continui . And though some ingenious men , who perhaps perceive better than others , how intricate it is , have of late endeavoured to shew , that men need not be sollicitous to determine this Controversie , it not being rightly propos'd by the Schoolmen that have started it ; and though I perhaps think , that Natural Philosophy may be daily advanc'd without the decision of it , because there is a multitude of considerable things to be discover'd and perform'd in Nature , without so much as dreaming of this Controversie ; yet still , as I would propose the Question , the Difficulties , till removed , will spread a thick night over the Notion of Body in general . For , either a Corporeal and extended Substance is ( either really or mentally ) divisible into parts endow'd with Extension , and each of these parts is divisible also into other Corporeal parts , lesser and lesser , in infinitum ; or else this subdivision must stop somewhere , ( for there is no mean between the two members of the Distinction ; ) and in either case the Opinion pitch'd upon will be liable to those Inconveniences , not to say Absurdities , that are rationally urg'd against it by the maintainers of the Opposite ; the Objections on both sides being so strong , that some of the more Candid , even of the Modern Metaphysicians , after having tir'd themselves and their Readers with arguing Pro and Con , have confess'd the Objections on both sides to be insoluble . But though we do not clearly understand the Nature of Body in general ; yet sure we cannot but be perfectly acquainted with what passes within our selves in reference to the particular Bodies we daily See , and Hear , and Smell , and Taste , and Touch. But alas , though we know but little , save by the Informations of our senses ; yet we know very little of the manner by which our Senses informs us . And to avoid prolixity , I will at present suppose with you , that the Ingenious Des Cartes and his followers have given the fairest account of Sensation , that is yet extant . Now according to him , a Man's Body being but a well organiz'd Statue , that which is truly called Sensation is not perform'd by the Organ , but by the Mind , which perceives the motion produc'd in the Organ ; ( for which reason he will not allow Brutes to have Sense properly so call'd ; ) so that if you ask a Cartesian , how it comes to pass that the Soul of Man , which he justly asserts to be an immaterial Substance , comes to be wrought upon , and that in such various manners , by those external Bodies that are the objects of our Senses , he will tell you , that by their Impressions on the Sensories , they variously move the Fibres or Threds of the Nerves , wherewith those parts are endow'd , and by which the Motion is propagated to that little Kernel in the Brain , call'd by many Writers the Conarion , where these differing motions being perceiv'd by the there residing Soul , become Sensations , because of the intimate union , and , as it were , Permistion ( as Cartesius himself expresses it ) of the Soul with the Body . But now , Sir , give me leave to take notice , that this Union of an Incorporeal with a Corporeal Substance , ( and that without a Medium ) is a thing so unexampled in Nature , and so difficult to comprehend , that I somewhat question , whether the profound Secrets of Theology , not to say the adorable Mystery it self of the Incarnation , be more abstruse than this . For how can I conceive , that a Substance purely immaterial , should be united without a Physical Medium , ( for in this case there can be none , ) with the Body , which cannot possibly lay hold on It , and which It can pervade and flie away from at pleasure , as Des-Cartes must confess the Soul actually does in Death . And 't is almost as difficult to conceive , how any part of the Body , without excepting the Animal Spirits , or the Conarion , ( for these are as truly Corporeal as other parts of the Humane Statue , ) can make Impressions upon a Substance perfectly Incorporeal , and which is not immediately affected by the motions of any other parts , besides the Genus Nervosum . Nor is it a small difficulty to a meer Naturalist ( who , as such , does not in Physical matters take notice of Revelations about Angels , ) to conceive how a finite Spirit can either move , or , which is much the same thing , regulate and determine the motion of a Body . But that which I would on this occasion invite you to consider , is , that supposing the Soul does in the Brain perceive the differing motions communicated to the outward Senses ; yet this , however it may give some account of Sensation in general , will not at all show us a satisfactory Reason of particular and distinct Sensations . For if I demand , why , for Instance , when I look upon a Bell that is ringing , such a motion or impression in the Conarion produces in the mind that peculiar sort of perception , Seeing , and not Hearing ; and another motion , though coming from the same Bell at the same time , produces that quite differing sort of perception that we call Sound , but not Vision ; what can be answered , but that it was the good pleasure of the Author of Humane Nature to have it so ? And if the question be ask'd about the differing Objects of any one particular Sense ; as , Why the great plenty of unperturbed Light that is reflected from Snow , Milk , &c , does produce a Sensation of whiteness , rather than redness or yellowness ? Or why the smell of Castor , or Assa foetida , produces in most persons that which they call a Stink , rather than a Perfume ? ( especially since we know some Hysterical Women , that think it not onely a wholesome , but a pleasing smell . ) And if also you further ask , why Melody and sweet things do generally delight us ? and discords and bitter things do generally displease us ? Nay , why a little more than enough of some Objects that produce pleasure , will produce pain ? ( as may be exemplifi'd in a cold hand , as it happens to be held out at a just , or at too near a distance from the fire : ) If , I say , these , and a thousand other questions of the like kind , be ask'd , the Answer will be but the general one , that is already given , that such is the nature of Man. For to say , that moderate Motions are agreeable to the nature of the Sensory they are excited in , but violent and disorderly ones , ( as j●ring Sounds , and scorching Heat ) do put it into too violent a motion for its Texture ; will by no means satisfie . For , besides that this Answer gives no account of the variety of Sensations of the same kind , as of differing Colours , Tastes , &c. but reaches onely to Pleasure and Pain ; even as to these , it will reach but a very little way ; unless the Givers of it can show , how an Immaterial Substance should be more harm'd by the brisker motion of a Body , than by the more languid . And as you and your Friend think , you may justly smile at the Aristotelians , for imagining that they have given a tolerable account of the Qualities of Bodies , when they have told us , that they spring from certain substantial Forms , though when they are ask'd particular Questions about these Incomprehensible Forms , they do in effect but tell us in general , that they have such and such Faculties , or Effects , because Nature , or the Author of Nature , endow'd them therewith ; so I hope you will give me leave to think , that it may keep us from boasting of the Clearness and Certainty of our knowledge about the Operations of sensible Objects , whilst , as the Aristotelians cannot particularly show , how their Qualities are produc'd , so we cannot particularly explicate , how they are perceiv'd ; the principal thing that we can say , being , in substance , this , that our Sensations depend upon such an union or permistion of the Soul and Body , as we can give no Example of in all Nature , nor no more distinct account of , than that it pleased God so to couple them together . But I beg your pardon for having detain'd you so long upon one Subject , though perhaps it will not prove time mis-spent , if it have made you take notice , that in spight of the clearness and certainty , for which your Friend so much prefers Physicks before Theology , we are Yet to seek , ( I say Yet , because I know not what Time may Hereafter discover ) both for the Definition of a Corporeal Substance , and a satisfactory account of the manner of Sensation : though without the true Notion of a Body we cannot understand that Object of Physicks in general , and without knowing the Nature of Sensation , we cannot know That , from whence we derive almost all that we know of any Body in particular . If after all this your Friend shall say , That Des-Cartes's account of Body , and other things in Physicks , being the best that men can give , if they be not satisfactory , it must be imputed to Humane Nature not to the Cartesian Doctrine , I shall not stay to dispute how far the allegation is true ; especially since , though it be admitted , it will not prejudice my Discourse . For , whatsoever the Cause of the imperfection of our Knowledge about Physical matters be , that there is an Imperfection in that Knowledge is manifest ; and that ought to be enough to keep us from being puffed up by such an imperfect Knowledge , and from undervaluing upon its account the study of those mysteries of Divinity , which , by reason of the Nobleness and Remoteness of the Objects , may much better than the Nature of Corporeal things , ( which we see , and feel , and continually converse with , ) have their obscurity attributed to the weakness of our humane Understandings . And if it be a necessary Imperfection of Humane Nature , that , whilst we remain in this mortal condition , the Soul being confin'd to the dark prison of the Body , is capable ( as even Aristotle somewhere confesses ) but of a dim knowledge ; so much the greater value we ought to have for Christian Religion , since by its means ( and by no other without it ) we may attain a condition , wherein , as our Nature will otherwise be highly blessed and advanced ; so our Faculties will be Elevated and Enlarged , and probably made thereby capable of attaining degrees and kinds of knowledge , to which we are here but strangers . In favour of which I will not urge the received Opinion of Divines , that before the Fall ( which yet is a less noble condition than is reserved for us in Heaven , ) Adam's knowledge was such , that he was able at first sight of them to give each of the Beasts a name expressive of its Nature ; because that in spight of some skill ( which my Curiosity for Divinity , not Philosophy , gave me ) in the holy Tongue , I could never find , that the Hebrew names of Animals , mention'd in the beginning of Genesis , argued a ( much ) clearer insight into their Natures , than did the names of the same or some other Animals in Greek , or other Languages ; wherefore , ( as I said ) I will not urge Adam's knowledge in Paradise for that of the Saints in Heaven , though the notice he took of Eve at his first seeing of her , ( if it were not convey'd to him by secret Revelation ) may be far more probably urg'd , than his naming of the Beasts : But I will rather mind you , that the Proto-martyr's sight was strengthened so , as to see the heavens open'd , and Jesus standing at the right hand of God ; and when the Prophet had pray'd , that his Servant's Eyes might be open'd , he immediately saw the Mountain , where they were , all cover'd with Chariots and Horsemen , which , though mention'd to be of Fire , were altogether invisible to him before . To which , as a higher Argument , I shall onely add a couple of passages of Scripture , which seem to allow us even vast Expectations as to the knowledge our glorifi'd Nature may be advanc'd to . The one is that which St. Paul says to the Corinthians , For now we see through a glass darkly , but then face to face : Now I know in part , but then shall I know even as also I am known . And the other , where Christ's Favourite-Disciple tells Believers , Beloved , now we are the Sons of God , and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know , that when he shall appear , we shall be like him : for we shall see him as he is . What has hitherto been discours'd , contains the first Consideration , that I told you might be propos'd about the Certainty ascrib'd to the knowledge we are said to have of Natural things ; but this is not all I have to represent to you on this Subject . For I consider further , that 't is not onely by the Certainty we have of them , that the knowledge of things is endear'd to us , but also by the Worthiness of the Object , the Number of those that are unacquainted with it , the Remoteness of it from common Apprehensions , the Difficulty of acquiring it without peculiar Advantages , the Usefulness of it when attain'd , and other particulars , which 't is not here necessary to enumerate . I presume , you doubt not but your Friend does very much prefer the knowledge he has of the Mysteries of Nature ( at many of which we have as yet but Ingenious Conjectures ) to the knowledge of one that understands the Elements of Arithmetick , though He be Demonstratively sure of the Truth of most of his Rules and Operations . And questionless Copernicus received a much higher satisfaction in his Notion about the Stability of the Sun , and the Motion of the Earth , though it were not so clear but that Tycho , Ricciolus , and other eminent Astronomers have rejected it , than in the knowledge of divers of the Theorems about the Sphere , that have been demonstrated by Euclid , Theodosius , and other Geometricians . Our discovering that some Comets are not , as the Schools would have them , Sublunary Meteors , but Celestial Bodies , and the Conjectural Theory , which is all that hitherto we have been able to attain of them , do much better please both your Friend , and you , and me , than the more certain knowledge we have of the time of the Rising and Setting of the Fixed Stars . And the Estimates we can make , by the help of Parallaxes , of the Heights of those Comets , and of some of the Planets , though they are uncertain enough , ( as may appear by the vastly different distances that are assigned to those Bodies by eminent Astronomers ; ) yet these uncertain measures of such Elevated and Celestial Lights do far more please us , than that we can by the help of a Geometrical Quadrant , or some such Instrument , take with far greater Certainty the height of a Tower or a Steeple . And so a Mathematician , when he probably conjectures at the compass of the Ter●estrial Globe , and divides , though but unaccurately , its Surface , first , into proportions of Sea and Land , and then into Regions of such Extents and Bounds , and , in a word , skilfully plays the Cosmographer ; thinks himself much more nobly and pleasantly imploy'd , than when , being reduc'd to play the Surveyor , he does with far more certainty measure how many Acres a Field contains , and set out with what Hedges and Ditches it is bounded . Now , that the knowledge of God , and of those Mysteries of Theology , that are ignor'd by far the greatest part of Mankind , has more sublime and excellent Objects , and is unattain'd to by much the greatest part even of Learned men , and nevertheless is of unvaluable Importance , and of no less Advantage towards the purifying and improving of us here , and the making us perfect and happy hereafter , the past Discourse has very much miscarried if it have not evinc'd . Wherefore , as to be admitted into the P●ivy-Council of some Great Monarch , and thereby be enabled to give a probable ghess at those thoughts and designs of his , that Govern Kingdoms , and make the Fates of Nations , is judged preferrable to that clearer knowledge that a Notary can have of the dying thoughts and intentions of an ordinary Person whose Will he makes : And as the knowledge of a skilful Physician , whose Art is yet conjectural , is preferrable to that of a Cutler that makes his Dissecting Knives , though this man can more certainly perform what he designs in his own profession , than the Physician can in his : And ( in fine ) as the skill of a Jeweller , that is conversant about Diamonds , Rubies , Saphires , and some other sorts of small Stones , which being for the most part brought us out of the Indies , we must take many things about them upon report , is , because of the Nobleness of the Object , preferr'd to that of a Mason that deals in whole Quarries of common Stones , and may be sure upon his own Experience of divers things concerning them , which as to Jewels we are allowed to know but upon Tradition : So a more dimm and imperfect knowledge of God , and the Mysteries of Religion , may be more desirable , and upon that account more delightful , than a clearer knowledge of those Inferior Truths that Physicks are wont to teach . I must now mention one particular more , which may well be added to those that peculiarly indear Physicks to the Divine that is studious of them . For , as he contemplates the works of Nature not barely for themselves , but to be the better qualified and excited to admire and praise the Author of Nature ; so his Contemplations are delightful to him , not barely as they afford a pleasing Exercise to his Reason , but as they procure him a more welcome approbation from his Conscience , these distinct satisfactions being not at all inconsistent . And questionless , though Esau did at length miss of his aim , yet , while he was hunting Venison for the good old Patriark that desired it of him , besides the pleasure he was us'd to take in pursuing the Deer he chas'd , he took a great one in considering , that now he hunted to please his Father , and in order to obtain of him an inestimable Blessing . So , when David imployd his skilful Hand and Voice in praising God with Vocal and Instrumental Musick , he receiv'd in one Act a double satisfaction , by exercising his Skill and his Devotion ; and was no less pleas'd with those melodious sounds , as they were Hymns , than as they were Songs . And this Example prompts me to add , that as the devout Student of Nature we were speaking of , does Intentionally refer the knowledge he seeks of the Creatures to the glory of the Creator ; so in his Discoveries , that which most contents him , is , that the Wonders he observes in Nature , heighten that Admiration he would fain raise to a less disproportion to the Wisdom of God ; and furnish him with a nobler Holocaust for those Sacrifices of Praise he is justly ambitious to offer up to the Deity . And as there is no doubt to be made , but that , when David invented ( as the Scripture intimates that he did ) new Instruments of Musick , there was nothing in that Invention that pleas'd him so much , as that they could assist him to praise God the more melodiously ; go the pious Student of Nature finds nothing more welcome in the Discoveries he makes of her Wonders , than the Rises and Helps they may afford him , the more worthily to celebrate and glorifie the Divine Attributes adumbrated in the Creatures . And as a Huntsman or a Fowler , if he meets with some strange Bird or Beast , or other Natural Rarity , thinks himself much the more fortunate if it happen to be near the Court , where he may have the King to present it to , than if he were to keep it but for himself or some of his Companions ; So our Devout Naturalist has his Discoveries of Natures Wonders indear'd to him , by having the Deity to present them to , in the Veneration they excite in the Finder , and which they inable him to ingage others to joyn in . The fourth Section . BUt I confess ( Sir ) I much fear , that That which makes your Friend have such detracting thoughts of Theology , is a certain secret Pride , grounded upon a Conceit , that the Attainments of Natural Philosophers are of so noble a kind , and argue so transcendant an Excellency of Parts in the Attainer , that he may justly undervalue all other Learning , without excepting Theology it self . You will not , I suppose , expect , that a person , who has written so much in the praise of Physiques , and laboured so much for a little skill in it , should now here endeavour to depretiate that so useful part of Philosophy . But I do not conceive , that it will be at all injurious to it , to prefer the knowledge of Supernatural , to that of meer Natural things , and to think , that the Truths , which God indiscriminately exposes to the whole Race of Mankind , and to the bad as well as to the good , are inferiour to those Mysterious ones , whose Disclosure he reckons among his peculiar Favours , and whose Contemplation employs the Curiosity , and , in some points , exacts the wonder of the very Angels . That I may therefore repress a little the overweening Opinion your Friend has of his Physical Attainments , give me leave to represent a few particulars conducive to that purpose . And first , as for the Nobleness of the Truths taught by Theology and Physicks , those of the former sort have manifestly the Advantage , being not onely conversant about far nobler Objects , but discovering things that Humane Reason of it self can by no means reach unto ; as has been sufficiently declared in the foregoing part of this Letter . Next , we may consider , that , whatever may be said to excuse Pride ( if there were any ) in Moscus the Phoenician , who is affirmed to have first Invented the Atomical Hypothesis , and in Democritus and Leucippus , ( for Epicurus scarce deserves to be named with them , ) that highly Advanc'd that Philosophy ; and in Monsieur Des-Cartes , who either Improv'd , or at least much Innovated the Corpuscula●ian Hypothesis : Whatever ( I say ) may be alledged on the behalf of these Mens pride ; I see no great Reason , why it should be allowed in such as your Friend ; who , though Ingenious Men , are neither Inventors , nor eminent Promoters of the Philosophy they would be admir'd for , but content themselves to Learn what others have Taught , or at least to make some little further Application of the Principles that others have Established , and the Discoveries they have made . And whereas your Friend is not a little proud of being able to confute several Errours of Aristotle and the Antients , it were not amiss if he consider'd , that many of the chief Truths that overthrow those Errours , were the Productions of Time and Chance , and not of his daring Ratiocinations : For , there needs no great Wit to disprove those that maintain the Uninhabitableness of the Torrid Zone , or deny the Antipodes , since Navigators have found many Parts of the former well Peopl'd , and Sailing round the Earth , have found men living in Countreys Diametrically opposite to Ours . Nor will it warrant a man's Pride , that he believes not the Moon to be the onely Planet that shines with a borrowed Light , or the Galaxy to be a Meteor ; since that now the Telescope shows us , that Venus has her Full and Wain like the Moon , and that the Milky way is made up of a vast multitude of little Stars , inconspicuous to the naked Eye . And indeed of those other Discoveries that overthrow the Astronomy of the Antients , and much of their Philosophy about the Celestial Bodies , few or none have any cause to boast , but the excellent Galileus , who pretends to have been the Inventor of the Telescope : For that Instrument once discover'd ; to be able to reject the Septenary number of the Planets by the Detection of the four Satellites of Jupiter , or talk of the Mountains and Valleys in the Moon , requires not much more excellency in your Friend , than it would to descry in a Ship , where the naked Eye could discern but the Body of the Vessel , ( to descry , I say ) by the help of a Prospective Glass , the Masts , and Sails , and Deck , and perceive a Boat tow'd at her Stern : Though indeed Galileo himself had no great cause to boast of the Invention , though we are much oblig'd to him for the Improvement of the Telescope , since no less a Master of Dioptricks than Des-Cartes , does acknowledge with other Writers , that Perspective-Glasses were not first found out by Mathematicians or Philosophers , but casually by one Metius , a Dutch Spectacle-maker . On which occasion I shall mind you , that to hide Pride from Man , divers others of the chief Discoveries that have been made in Physicks , have been the Productions , not of Philosophy , but Chance , by which Gunpowder , Glass , and , for ought we know , the Verticity of the Load-stone , ( to which we owe both the Indies ) came to be found in these later Ages ; as ( more recently ) the Milky Vessels of the Mesentery , the new Receptacle of the Chyle , and that other sort of Vessels which most men call the Lymphae-ducts , were lighted on but by Chance , according to the Ingenious Confession of the Discoverers themselves . We may farther consider , that those very things which are justly are alledg'd in the praise of the Corpuscularian Philosophy it self , ought to lessen the pride of those that but make use of it . For that Hypothesis , supposing the whole Universe ( the Soul of Man excepted ) to be but a great Automaton , or self-moving Engine , wherein all things are perform'd by the bare motion ( or rest ) the size , the shape , and the scituation or texture of the parts of the Universal Matter it consists of ; all the Phaenomena result from those few Principles , single or combin'd , ( as the several Tunes or Chimes that are rung on five Bells , ) and these fertile Principles being already establish'd by the Inventors and Promoters of the Particularian Hypothesis ; all that such Persons as your Friend , are wont farther to do , is but to investigate or guess , by what kind of Motions the three or four other Principles are varied . So that the World being but , as it were , a great piece of Clock-work , the Naturalist as such , is but a Mechanitian ; however the parts of the Engine , he considers , be some of them much larger , and others much minuter , than those of Clocks or Watches . And for an ordinary Naturalist to despise those that study the Mysteries of Religion , as much inferiour to Physical Truths , is no less unreasonable , than it were for a Watch-maker , because he understands his own Trade , to despise Privy-Counsellers , who are acquainted with the secrets of Monarchs , and Mysteries of State ; or than it were for a Ship-carpenter , because he understands more of the Fabrick of the Vessel , to despise the Admiral , that is acquainted with the secret Designs of the Prince , and imploy'd about his most important affairs . That great Restorer of Physicks , the illustrious Verulam , who has trac'd out a most useful way to make Discoveries in the Intellectual Globe , as he calls it , confesses , that his work was ( to speak in his own terms ) partus temporis potius quám ingenii . And though I am not of his opinion , where he says in another place , that his way of Philosophizing does exaequare ingenia ; yet I am apt to think , that the fertile Principles of the Mechanical Philosophy being once setled , the Methods of inquiring and experimenting being found out , and the Physico-mechanical Instruments of working on Natures and Arts Productions being happily invented , the making of several lesser improvements , especially by rectifying of some almost obvious or supine Errours ▪ of the Schools , by the assistance of such facilitating helps , may fall to the lot of persons not endow'd with any extraordinary Sagacity , or acuteness of parts . And though the Investigation and clear establishment of the true Principles of Philosophy , and the devising the Instruments of Knowledge , be things that may be allowed to be the proper work of sublimer Wits ; yet , if a man be furnish'd with such assistances , 't is not every Discourse that he makes , or thing which he does by the help of them , that is difficult enough to raise him to that illustrious rank . And indeed , divers of the vulgar Errours , as well as of Scholars as other men , being mainly grounded upon the meer , and often mistaken , Authority of Aristotle , and perhaps some frivolous Reasons of his Scholastic Interpreters of such precarious and ungrounded things , that to ruine them , does oftentimes require more of boldness than skill ; it may perhaps be said of your Friend , in relation to his Philosophical Successes against such vulgar Errours , as I am speaking of , what a Roman said of Alexander's Triumph over the effeminate Asiaticks , Quod nihil aliud quám bene ausus sit Vana contemnere . And in some cases it happens , that , when once a grand Truth , or a happy way of Experimenting has been found , divers Phaenomena of Nature , that had been left unexplain'd , or were left mis-explain'd by the Schools , did , in my opinion , require a far less straining Exercise of the mind to unriddle and explain them , than must have been requisite to dispel the darkness that attended divers Theological Truths that are now clear'd up , and perhaps than I have my self now and then imploy'd in some of those Attempts , to illustrate Theological Matters , that you may have met in some Papers that I have presum'd to write on such Subjects . And indeed the Improvements , that such Virtuosi as your Friend are wont to make of the fertile Theorems and Hints , that have been presented them by the Founders or prime Benefactors of true Natural Philosophy , are so poor and slender , and do so much oftner proceed from Industry and Chance , than they argue a transcendent sagacity , or a sublimity of Reason , that , though such persons may have cause enough to be Delighted with what they have done , yet they have none to be Proud of it ; and their Performances may deserve our Thanks , and perhaps some of our Praise , but reach not so high as to merit our Admiration ; which is to be reserv'd for Those , that have been either Framers , or Grand Promoters , of True and Comprehensive Hypotheses , or ( else ) the Authors of other noble and useful Discoveries , many ways applicable . It will not perhaps be improper to add on this occasion , that , as our knowledge is not very deep , not reaching with any certainty to the bottom of Things , nor penetrating to their intimate or innermost Natures ; so its Extent is not very large , not being able to give us , with any Clearness and particularity , an account of the Celestial and deeply Subterraneal parts of the World , of which all the others make but a very small ( not to say contemptible ) portion . For , as to the very Globe that we inhabit , not to mention , how many Plants , Animals , and Minerals , we are as yet wholly ignorant of , and how many others we are but slenderly acquainted with ; I consider , that the objects about which our Experiments and Inquiries are conversant , do all belong to the Superficial parts of the Terrestrial Globe , of which the Earth , known to us , seems to be but as it were the Crust or Scurf . But what the Internal part of this Globe is made up of , is no less disputable than of what Substance the remotest Stars we can descry , consist : For even among the modern Philosophers some think , the internal Portion of the Earth to be pure and Elementary Earth , which ( say they ) must be found there , or no where . Others imagine it to be Fiery , and the Receptacle either of Natural or Hellish Flames . Others will have the Body of the Terrestrial Globe to be a great and solid Magnet . And the Cartesians on the other side , ( though they all admit store of Subterraneal Loadstones ) teach , that the same Globe was once a Fix'd Star , and that , though it have since degenerated into a Planet , yet the Internal part of it is still of the same Nature that it was before ; the change it has received proceeding onely from having had its outward parts quite cover'd over with thick spots ( like those to be often observ'd about the Sun , ) by whose Condensation the firm Earth we inhabit was form'd . And the mischief is , that each of these jarring Opinions is almost as difficult to be demonstratively prov'd False as True. For , whereas to the Centre of the Earth there is , according to the modestest account of our late Cosmographers , above three thousand and five hundred miles ; my Inquiries among Navigators and Miners have not yet satisfi'd me , that mens Curiosity has actually reached above one mile or two at most downwards , ( and that not in above three or four places , ) either into the Earth or into the Sea. So that as yet our Experience has scarce grated any thing deep upon the Husk , ( if I may so speak ) without at all reaching the Kernel of the Terraqueous Globe . And alas ! what is this Globe of ours , of which it self we know so little , in comparison of those vast and Luminous Globes that we call the Fix'd Stars , of which we know much less ? For , though former Astronomers have been pleased to give us , with a seeming accurateness , their Distances and Bignesses , as if they had had certain ways of measuring them ; yet Later and Better Mathematicians will ( I know ) allow me to doubt of what Those have deliver'd . For since 't is confess'd , that we can observe no Parallax in the Fix'd Stars ( nor perhaps in the highest Planets , ) men must be yet to seek for a Method to measure the distance of those Bodies . And not onely the Copernicans make it to be I know not how many hundred thousands of miles greater than the Ptolomeans , and very much greater than even Tycho ; but Ricciolus himself , though a great Anti-Copernican , makes the distance of the Fix'd Stars vastly greater , than not onely Tycho , but ( if I mis-remember not ) than some of the Copernicans themselves . Nor do I wonder at these so great Discrepances , ( though some amount perhaps to some millions of miles , ) when I consider , that Astronomers do not measure the distance of the Fix'd Stars by their Instruments , but accommodate it to their particular Hypotheses . And by this uncertainty of the remoteness of the Fix'd Stars you will easily gather , that we are not very sure of their Bulk , no not so much as in reference to one another ; since it remains doubtful , whether the differing Sizes , they appear to us to be of , proceed from a real Inequality of Bulk , or onely from an Inequality of Distance , or partly from one of those causes , and partly from the other . But 't is not my design to take notice of those Things , which the famous Disputes among the Modern Astronomers manifest to be dubious . For I consider , that there are divers things relating to the Stars , which are so remote from our knowledge , that the Causes of them are not so much as disputed of , or inquired into , such as may be among others , Why the number of the Stars is neither greater nor lesser than it is ? Why so many of those Celestial Lights are so plac'd , as not to be visible to our naked eyes , nor even when they are help'd by ordinary Telescopes ? ( which extraordinary good ones have assured me of . ) Why among the familiarly visible Stars , there are so many in some parts of the Sky , and so few in others ? Why their Sizes are so differing , and yet not more differing ? Why they are not more orderly plac'd , so as to make up Constellations of regular or handsome Figures ( of which the Triangle is , perhaps , the single Example ) but seem to be scatter'd in the Skie as it were by Chance , and have as confus'd Configurations , as the Drops that fall upon ones Hat in a shower of Rain ? To which divers other Questions might be added , as about the Stars , so about the Interstellar part of Heaven , which several of the Modern Epicureans would have to be empty , save where the beams of Light ( and perhaps some other Celestial Effluvia ) pass through it ; and the Cartesians on the contrary think to be full of an Aethereal matter , which some , that are otherwise favourers of their Philosophy , confess they are reduc'd to take up but as an Hypothesis . So that our knowledge is much short of what many think , not onely if it be consider'd Intensively , but Extensively , ( as a Schoolman would express it . ) For there being so great a disproportion between the Heavens and the Earth , that some Moderns think the Earth to be little better than a Point in comparison even of the Orb of the Sun ; and the Cartesians , with other Copernicans , think the great Orb it self , ( which is equal to what the Ptolomeans call'd the Sun's Orb ) to be but a Point in respect of the Firmament ; and all our Astronomers agree , that at least the Earth is but a Physical Point in comparison of the Starry Heaven : Of how little extent must our knowledge be , which leaves us ignorant of so many things , touching the vast Bodies that are above us , and penetrates so little a way even into the Earth that is beneath us , that it seems confin'd to but a small share of the superficial part of a Physical Point ! Of which consideration the natural result will be , that , though what we call our Knowledge , may be allowed to pass for a high Gratification to our minds , it ought not to puff them up ; and what we know of the System , and the Nature of things Corporeal ▪ is not so perfect and satisfactory , as to justifie our despising the Discoveries of Spiritual things . One of the former parts of this Letter may furnish me with one thing more , to evince the Excellencies and Prerogatives of the knowledge of the Mysteries of Religion ; and that One thing is such , that I hope I shall need to add nothing More , because it is not possible to add any thing Higher ; and that is , That the Preeminence above other Knowledge , adjudg'd to that of Divine Truths by a Judge above all Exception , and above all Comparison , namely , by God himself . This having been but lately shown , I shall not now repeat it , but rather apply what hath been there evinc'd , by representing , that if He , who determines in favour of Divine Truths , were such an one , as was less acquainted , than our over-weening Naturalists with the secrets of their Idoliz'd Physicks ; or if he were , though an Intelligent , yet ( like an Angel ) a Bare Contemplator of what we call the Works of Nature , without having any Interest in their Productions , your Friends not acquiescing in his estimate of things might have , though not a fair Excuse , yet a stronger Temptation . But when he , by whose direction we prefer the higher Truths revealed in the Scripture , before those which Reason alone teaches us concerning those comparatively mean Subjects , things Corporeal , is the same God that not onely understands the whole Universe , and all its parts , far more perfectly , than a Watch-maker can understand one of his own Watches , ( in which he can give an account onely of the Contrivance , and not of the Cause of the Spring , nor the Nature of the Gold , Steel , and other Bodies his Watch consists of , ) but did make both this great Automaton , the World , and Man in it : We have no colour to imagine , that he should either be ignorant of , or injuriously disparage , his own Workmanship , or impose upon his Favourite-Creature , Man , in directing him what sort of Knowledge he ought most to covet and prize . So that since 't is He who fram'd the World , and all those things in it we most admire , that would have us prefer the knowledge he has vouchsafed us in his Word , before that which he has allow'd us of his Works , sure 't is very unreasonable and unkind to make the Excellencies of the Workmanship a disparagement to the Author , and the Effects of his Wisdom a Motive against acquiescing in the Decisions of his Judgment ; as if , because he is to be admir'd for his Visible Productions , he were not to be believ'd , when he tells us , that there are Discoveries that contain Truths more valuable than those which relate but to the Objects , that he has expos'd to all men's Eyes . The fifth Section . I Doubt , I should be guilty of a most important Omission , if I should here forget to consider One thing , which I fear has a main stroak in the Partiality your Friend expresseth in his preference of Physicks to Theology ; and that is , That he supposes he shall by the Former acquire a Fame , both more Certain and more Durable , than can be hop'd for from the Latter . And I acknowledge , not onely with readiness , but with somewhat of Gratulation of the felicity of this Age , That there is scarce any sort of Knowledge more in request , than that which Natural Philosophy pretends to teach ; and that among the awaken'd and inquisitive part of Mankind , as much Reputation and Esteem may be gain'd by an insight into the Secrets of Nature , as by being intrusted with those of Princes , or dignifi'd with the splendid'st marks of their favour . But though I readily confess thus much , and though perhaps I may be thought to have had , I know not by what fate , as great a share of that perfum'd Smoak , Applause , as ( at least ) some of those , which among the Writers that are now alive , your Friend seems most to Envy for it ; yet I shall not scruple to tell you , partly from observation of what has happen'd to others , and partly too upon some little Experience of my own , that neither is it so easie as your Friend seems to believe it , to get by the study of Nature a sure and lasting Reputation , neither ought the Expectation of it , in reason , make men undervalue the study of Divinity . Nor would it here avail to object ( by way of prevention ) that the Difficulties and Impediments of acquiring and securing Reputation , lie as well in the way of Divines as Philosophers , since this Objection has been already consider'd at the beginning of this Second Part of our present Tract . Besides , that the progress of our Discourse will shew , that the Naturalist , aspiring to fame , is liable to some Inconveniences , which are either not at all , or not near equally incident to the Divine . Wherefore without staying to take any further notice of this preventive Allegation , I shall proceed to make good the first part of the Assertion that preceded it ; which that I may the more fully do , give me leave ( after having premised , That a man must either be a Writer , or forbear to Print what he knows ; ) to propose to you the following Considerations . And first , if your Physeophilus should think to secure a great Reputation , by forbearing to couch any of his Thoughts or Experiments in Writing , he may thereby find himself not a little mistaken . For if once he have gain'd a repute ( upon what account soever ) of knowing some things that may be useful to others , or of which studious men are wont to be very desirous , he will not avoid the Visits and Questions of the Curious . Or , if he should affect a Solitude , and be content to hide himself , that he may hide the things he knows ; yet he will not escape the sollicitations that will be made him by Letters . And if these ways of tempting him to disclose himself , prevail not at all with him to do so , he will provoke the Persons that have employ'd them ; who finding themselves disoblieg'd by being defeated of their Desires , if not also their Expectations , will for the most part endeavour to revenge themselves on him , by giving him the Character of an uncourteous and ill-natur'd person ; and will endeavour , perhaps successfully enough , to decry his parts , by suggesting , That his affected Concealments proceed but from a Conscientiousness , that the things he is presum'd to possess , are but such , as , if they should begin to be known , would cease to be valu'd . You will say ( perchance , ) that so much reservedness is a fault : Nor shall I dispute it with you , whether it be or not ; but , if he be open and communicative in Discourse to those Strangers that come to pump him , such is the disingenious temper of too too many , that he will be in great danger of having his Notions or Experiments arrogated by those to whom he imparts them , or at least by others , to whom those may ( though perchance designlessly ) happen to discourse of them . And then , if either Physeophylus , or any of his Friends that know him to be Author of what is thus usurp'd , should mention him as such , the Usurpers and their Friends would presently become his Enemies ; and , to secure their own Reputation , will be sollicitous to lessen and blemish his . And if you should now tell me , that your Friend might here take a Middle way , as that which in most cases is thought to be the best , by discoursing at such a rate of his Discoveries , as may somewhat gratifie those that have a Curiosity to learn them , and yet not speak so clearly as divest himself of his Propriety in them ; I should reply , That neither is this Expedient a sure one , nor free from Inconveniences . For most men are so self-opinionated , that they will easily believe themselves Masters of things , if they do but half understand them . And however , though the Persons to whom the Discourse was immediately made , should not have too great an Opinion of themselves , no more than too great a Sagacity ; yet they may easily , by repeating what they heard and observ'd , give some more piercing Wit a hint sufficient to enable him to make out the whole Notion , or the Discovery , which he will then without scruple , and without almost any possibility of being disprov'd , assume for his own . But if it happen , ( as it often will in Extemporaneous Discourse ) that a Philosopher be not rightly understood ; either because he has not the leisure , no more than a design , to explain himself fully , or because the Persons he converses with bring not a competent Capacity and Attention , he then runs a greater danger than before . For the vanity most men take in being known to have convers'd with eminent Philosophers , makes them very forward to repeat what they heard such a famous Wit say ; and oftentimes being secure of not being contradicted , ignorantly to misrecite it , or wittingly to wrest it in favour of the Opinion they would countenance by it . So that , whereas by the formerly mention'd franckness of Discourse he is onely in danger to have the Truths he discover'd arrogated by Others , this reservedness exposes him to have Opinions and Errours that he never dream'd of , father'd on Him. And when a man's Opinions or Discoveries come once to be publickly discours'd of , without being propos'd by himself , or some Friend well instructed by him , he knows not , what Errours or Extravagancies may be imputed to him ( and that without a Moral possibility left to most men to discern them , ( by the mistake of the Weak , or the disingenuity of the Partial , or the Artifices of the Malitious . And even the greatness of a mans Reputation does sometimes give such countenance to vain Reports and Surmises , as by degrees to shake , if not ruine , it . As we see , that Fryer Bacon , and Trithemius , and Paracelsus , who for their times were knowing as well as famous men , had such feats ascrib'd to them , as by appearing Fabulous to most of the Judicious , have tempted many to think , that all the great things that were said of them were so too . These are some of the Inconveniences that a Naturalist may be liable to , if he forbear the communicating of his Thoughts and Discoveries himself : But if Physeophilus should , to shun these , aspire to Fame by the usual way of writing Books , he may indeed avoid these , but perhaps not without running into other inconveniences and hazards , very little inferiour to them . First then , we may consider , that whether a man writes in a Systematical way , as they have done who have publish'd entire Bodies of Natural Philosophy , or Methodical Treatises of some considerable part of it , or whether he write in a more loose and unconfin'd way , of any particular Subject that belongs to Physicks ; whichsoever , I say , of these two ways of writing Books he shall make choice of , he will find it liable to Inconvenience enough . For if he write Systematically , first , he will be obliged ( that he may leave nothing necessary undeliver'd ) to say divers things that have been said ( perhaps many times ) by others already , which cannot but be unpleasant , not onely to the Reader , but ( if he be Ingenious ) to the Writer . Next , there are so many things in Nature , whereof we know little or Nothing , and so many more of which we do not know Enough , that our Systematical Writer , though we should grant him to be very Learned , must needs , either leave divers things that belong to his Theme untreated of , or discourse of them slightly , and oftentimes ( in likelihood ) Erroneously . So that in this kind of Books there is always much said that the Reader did know , and commonly not a little that the Writer does not know . And to this I must add in the third place , that Natural Philosophy , being so vast and pregnant a Subject , that ( especially in so Inquisitive an Age as this ) almost every day discovers some new thing or other about it , 't is scarce possible for a Method , that is adapted but to what is Already known , to continue Long the most proper ; as the same Clothes will not long fit a Child , whose Age will make him quickly out-grow them . And therefore succeeding Writers will have a fair pretence to compile new Systems , that may be more adequate to Philosophy improv'd since the publication of the former . And though there were little of New to be added , and it were more easie to Alter than to Mend the Method of our supposed Authour ; yet Novelty it self is a thing so pleasing and inviting to the generality of men , that It often recommends things that have nothing else to recommend them ; and we may apply to a great many other things , what I remember a famous Courtier of my acquaintance used to say of Mistresses , That Another was preferable to a Better , ( the Better being but the same . ) But now if , declining the Systematical way , one shall choose the other of writing loose Tracts and Discourses , he may indeed avoid some of the lately mention'd Inconveniences , but will scarce avoid the being plunder'd by Systematical Writers : For these will be apt to cull out those things that they like best , and insert them in their Methodical Books , ( perhaps much curtal'd , or otherwise injur'd in the repeating , ) and will place them , not as their own Authour did , where they may best confirm or adorn his Discourse , and be illustrated or upheld by it ; but where it may best serve the turn of the Compiler : And these Methodical Books promise so much more Compendious a way than others to the Attainment of the Sciences they treat of , that though really for the most part they prove greater helps to the Memory , than the Understanding ; yet most Readers , being , for want of Judgment or of Patience , of another mind , they are willing to take it for granted , that in former Writers , if there have been any thing considerable , it has been all carefully extracted , as well as orderly digested by the later Compilers : And though I take this to be a very Erroneous and Prejudicial Conceit , yet it obtains so much , that as Gol●smiths that onely give shape and lustre to Gold are far more esteem'd , and in a better Condition , than Miners , who find the Ore in the bowels of the Earth , and with great pains and industry dig it up , and refine it into Metall ; so those that with great study and toil successfully penetrate into the hidden Recesses of Nature , and discover latent Truths , are usually less regarded or taken notice of by the Generality of Men , than those who by plausible Methods and a neat Style reduce the Truths , that others have found out , into Systems of a Taking Order and a Convenient Bulk . I consider in the second place , That as the Method of the Books one writes , so the Bulk of them may prove prejudicial to the Naturalist that aspires to Fame : For if he write large Books , 't is odds but that he will write in them many things unaccurate , if not impertinent , or that he will be oblig'd to repeat many things that others have said before ; and if he write but small Tracts , as is the custome of the Judiciousest Authors , who have no mind to publish but what is New and Considerable , as their Excellency will make them to be the sooner dispers'd , so the smallness of the Bulk will endanger them to be quickly lost ; as Experience shows us of divers Excellent little Tracts , which , though publish'd not many years ago , are already out of Print , ( as they speak ) and not to be met with , save by chance , in Stationers Shops . So that these Writings ( which deserve a better fate ) come , after a while , either to be lost , ( which is the case of divers , ) or to have their Memory preserv'd onely in the larger Volume of some Compiler , whose Industry is onely preferable to his Judgment ; it being observable , that ( by I know not what unlucky fate ) very few ( for I do not say , None ) that addict themselves to make Collections out of others , have the Judgment to cull out the choisest things in them ; and the small Tracts , we are speaking of , being preserv'd but in such a Quoter or Abridger , will run a very great danger of being convey'd to posterity but under such a Representation as it pleases the Compiler . And This ( that I may proceed to my third Consideration ) may make the Naturalists Fame very uncertain , not onely because of the want of Judgment , that ( as I newly said ) is too often observable in Compilers , whereby they frequently leave far better things than they take , but for the want of skill to understand the Author they Cite and Epitomize , or Candor to do him right . For sometimes mens Physical Opinions , and several Passages of their Writings , are so misrepresented by Mistake or Design , especially if those that recite their Opinions be not Of them , that men are made to teach or deliver things quite differing from their Sense , and perhaps quite contrary to it ; of which , I my self have had some unwelcome Experience , a Learned Writer pretending , I know not how often , that I asserted an Opinion , about which I did expressly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And another noted Writer having ( not out of design , but unacquaintedness with Mechanicks , and the Subject I writ of , ) given me commendations for having , by a new Experiment , prov'd a thing , the quite contrary whereof I intended thereby to evince , and am not Alone mistaken , if I did not do it . Other Naturalists I have met with , whose Writings Compilers have traduc'd out of hatred to their Persons , or their Religion ; as if Truth could in nothing be a Friend to one that is the Traducers's Enemy ; or as if a man that falls into an Errour in Religion , could not light upon a good Notion in Philosophy , in spite of all the Truths we owe to Aristotle , Epicurus , and the other Heathen Philosophers . Nay , some there are , that will set themselves to decry a man's Writings , not because they are directly His Enemies , but because He is esteem'd by Theirs ; as you may remember an Instance in a Servant of yours , who had divers things written against Him upon this very Account . Nor is it onely by the Citations of profess'd Adversaries or Opponents , that a worthy Writer's Reputation may be prejudic'd , since 't is not unfrequently so by those , that mention him with an Encomium , and seem dispos'd to honour him . For I have observ'd it to be the Trick of certain Writers , to name an Author with much Complement , onely for some one or few of the least considerable things they borrow of Him ; by which artifice they endeavour to conceal their being Plagiaries of more and better ; which yet is more excusable than the Practise of some , who proceed to that pitch of disingenuity , that they will rail at an Author , to whom indeed they owe too much , that they may not be thought to be beholden to him . But ( 4. ) I must add , that besides these dangers that a Naturalists Reputation with posterity may run through the Ignorance or Perversness of men , it is liable to divers other hazards , from the very Nature both of Men , of Opinions , and of Things . For , as men's Genius's and Inclinations are naturally various in reference to Studies , one man passionately affecting one sort of them , and another being fond of quite differing ones ; so those Inclinations are oftentimes variously and generally determin'd by external and accidental Causes . As when some great Monarch happens to be a great Patron , or a Despiser , and perhaps Adversary , of this or that kind of Learning : And when some one man has gain'd much applause for this or that kind of Study ; Imitation , or Emulation oftentimes makes many others addict themselves to it . Thus though Rome under the Consuls was inconsiderable for Learning , yet the Reputation of Cicero , and Favour of Augustus , brought Learning into request there ; where the small countenance it met with among most of the succeeding Emperours , kept it far inferiour to what it had been among the Greeks about Alexander's Age. And the Age of the same Augustus was enobled with store of Poets , not onely by the countenance which He and Maecenas afforded them , but probably also by the Examples they gave to , and the Emulation they excited in , one another . And after the decay of the Roman Empire , in the Fourth Century , Natural Philosophy and the Mathematicks being very little valued , and less understood , by reason that mens Studies were , by the Genius of those Ages apply'd to other Subjects , every hundred years scarce produc'd One Improver , ( not to say one Eminent Cultivator ) either of Mathematicks or of Physicks : By which you may see , how little Certainty there is , that , because a man is skill'd in Natural Philosophy , and that Science is now in Request , his Reputation shall be as great as now , when perhaps the Science it self will be grown out of Repute . But besides the Contingencies that may happen to a Naturalist's Fame upon this Account , That the Science He cultivates , is , as well as others , subject to Wanes and Eclipses in the general esteem of men ; there is another uncertainty arising from the Vicissitudes that are to be met with in the Estimates men make of differing Hypotheses , Sects , and ways of Philosophizing about the same Science , and particularly about Natural Philosophy . For during those Learned Times , when Physicks first and most flourish'd among the Grecians , Democritus , Leucippus , Epicurus , Anaxagoras , Plato , and almost all the Naturalists that preceded Aristotle , were Corpuscularians , endeavouring , though not all by the same way , to give an account of the Phaenomena of Nature , and even of Qualities themselves , by the Bigness , Shape , Motion , &c. of Corpuscles , or the minutest active parts of Matter : Whereas Aristotle , having attempted to deduce the Phaenomena from the four first Qualities , the four Elements , and some few other barren Hypotheses , ascribing what could not be explicated by them , ( and consequently far the greatest part of Natures Phaenomena ) to Substantial Forms and Occult Qualities ; ( Principles that are readily nam'd , but scarce so much as pretended to be understood , ) and having upon these slight and narrow Principles reduc'd Physicks into a kind of System , which the judicious Modesty of the Corpuscularians had made them backward to do ; the Reputation that his great Pupil Alexander , as well as his Learning gave him ; the Easiness of the way he propos'd to the attainment of Natural Philosophy ; the good luck his Writings had to survive those of Democritus , and almost all the rest of the Corpuscularians , when Charles the Great began to establish Learning in Europe : These , I say , and some other lucky Accidents that concurr'd , did for about seven or eight hundred years together , make the Corpuscularian Philosophy not onely be Justled , but even Exploded out of the Schools by the Peripatetick ; which in our Times is , by very many , upon the Revival of the Corpuscularian Philosophy , rejected , and , by more than a few , derided as precarious , unintelligible , and useless . And to give an instance in a particular thing , ( which , though formerly named , deserves to be again mention'd to our present purpose , ) Aristotle himself somewhere confesses , ( not to say brags ) that the Greek Philosophers , his Predecessors did , unanimously teach , that the World was ( I say not Created , but ) Made , and yet He , almost by his single Authority , and the subtile Arguments ( as some have been pleased to think them , ) that he employ'd , ( though divers of them were borrow'd of Ocellus Lucanus , ) was able for many Ages to introduce into the Schools of Philosophers that Irreligious and Ill-grounded Opinion of the Eternity of the World , which afterwards the Christian Doctrine made men begin to question , and which now both that and Right Reason have perswaded most men to reject . And this invites me to consider farther , That the present success of the Opinions that your Physeophilus befriends , ought not to make him so sure as he thinks he is , that the same Opinions will be always in the same , or greater Vogue , and have the same Advantages , in point of General Esteem that they now have , over their Corrivals . For , Opinions seem to have their Fatal Seasons and Vicissitudes , as well as other things ; as may appear , not onely by the Examples of it newly given , but also by the Hypothesis of the Earths Motion , which having been in great request before Pythagoras , ( who yet is commonly thought the Inventor of it , ) had its Reputation much increas'd by the suffrage of the famous Sect of the Pythagoreans , ( whom Aristotle himself takes notice of as the Patrons of that Opinion ; ) and yet afterwards for near 2000 years it was laugh'd at , as not onely false , but ridiculous . After all which time , this so long antiquated Opinion being reviv'd by Copernicus , has in a little time made so great a progress among the modern Astronomers and Philosophers , that if it go on to prevail at the same rate , the Motion of the Earth will be acknowledg'd by all its Mathematical Inhabitants . But though it be often the Fate of an oppress'd Truth , to have at length a Resurrection , yet 't is not always its peculiar priviledge ; for , Obsolete Errours are sometimes reviv'd , as well as discredited Truths : So that the general disrepute of an Opinion in one Age will not give us an absolute security , that 't will not be in as general Request in another , in which it may perhaps not onely Revive , but Reign . Nor is it onely in the Credit of mens Opinions about Philosophical Matters , that we may observe an Inconstancy and Vicissitude , but in the very Way and Method of Philosophizing ; for Democritus , Plato , Pythagoras , and others , who were of the more sincere and ingenious Cultivators of Physicks among the Greeks , exercis'd themselves chiefly either in making particular Experiments and Observations , as Democritus did in his manifold Dissections of Animals ; or else apply'd the Mathematicks to the Explicating of a particular Phaenomenon of Nature , as may appear ( not to mention what Hero teaches in his Pneumaticks , ) by the Accounts , Democritus , Plato , and others , give of Fire and other Elements , from the Figure and Motion of the Corpuscles they consist of . And although this way of Philosophizing were so much in request before Aristotle , that ( albeit he unluckily brought in another , yet ) there are manifest and considerable footsteps of it to be met with in some of his Writings , ( and particularly in his Books of Animals , and his Mechanical Questions ; ) yet the Scholastick followers of Aristotle did , for many Ages , neglect the way of Philosophizing of the Antients , and ( to the great prejudice of Learning ) introduc'd every where in stead of it a quite contrary way of Writing . For , not onely they laid aside the Mathematicks , ( of which they were for the most part very ignorant , ) but instead of giving us Intelligible and Explicite ( if not Accurate ) Accounts of particular Subjects , grounded upon a distinct and heedful Consideration of them , they contented themselves with hotly disputing , in general , certain unnecessary , or at least unimportant questions about the Objects of Physicks , about Materia Prima , Substantial Forms , Privation , Place , Generation , Corruption , and other such general things , with which when they had quite tyr'd themselves and their Readers , they usually remain'd utter strangers to the particular Productions of that Nature , about which they had so much wrangled , and were not able to give a man so much true and useful Information about Particular Bodies , as even the meanest Mechanicks , such as Mine-diggers , Butchers , Smiths , and even Dary-maids , could do . Which made their Philosophy appear so Imperfect and Useless , not onely to the Generality of Men , but to the more Elevated and Philosophical Wits , that our great Verulam attempted with much Skill and Industry , ( and not without some Indignation ) to restore the more modest and useful way practis'd by the Antients , of Inquiring into particular Bodies , without hastening to make Systems , into the Request it formerly had ; wherein the admirable Industry of two of our London Physicians , Gilbert and Harvey , has not a little assisted him . And I need not tell you , that since Him , Des-Cartes , Gassendus , and others , having taken in the Application of Geometrical Theorems , for the Explication of Physical Problems ; He , and They , and Other Restorers of Natural Philosophy , have brought the Experimental and Mathematical way of Inquiring into Nature into at least as high and growing an Esteem , as ever it possess'd when it was most in Vogue among the Naturalists that preceded Aristotle . To the Considerations I have hitherto deduc'd , which ( perhaps ) might alone suffice for my purpose , I shall yet subjoyn one that I take to be of greater weight than any of them , for the manifesting how difficult it is to be sure , that the Physical Opinions , which at present procure a Champion or Promoter of them Veneration , shall be still in request . For besides that inconstant Fate of applauded Opinions , which may be imputed to the Inconstancy of Men , there is a greater danger that threatens the Aspirers Reputation from the very Nature of things : For the most general Principles of all , viz. the Figure , Bigness , Motion , and other Mechanical Affections of the small parts of Matter , being ( as your Friend believes ) sufficiently and clearly establish'd already ; he must expect to raise his Reputation from subordinate Hypotheses and Theories ; and in these I shall not scruple to say , that 't is extremely difficult , even for those that are more exercis'd than He , in framing Them and in making of Experiments to have so reaching and attentive a prospect of all things fit to be known , as not to be liable to have their Doctrine made doubtful , or disprov'd by something that He did not discover , or that After-times may . This , I doubt not , but you would easily be prevail'd with to allow , if I had leisure and conveniency to transmit to you my Sceptical Naturalist . And without having recourse to that Tract , it may possibly suffice , that we consider , that one of the Conditions of a good * Hypothesis is , that It fairly comport not onely with all other Truths , but with all other Phaenomena of Nature , as well as those 't is fram'd to explicate . For this being granted , ( which cannot be deny'd , ) He that establishes a Theory , which he expects shall be acquiesc'd in by all succeeding Times , and make Him famous in them , must not onely have a care , that none of the Phaenomena of Nature , that are already taken notice of , do contradict his Hypothesis at the present , but that no Phaenomena that may be hereafter discover'd , shall do it for the future . And I very much question , whether Physiophilus do know , or , upon no greater a number and variety of Experiments than most men build upon , can know , how incompleat the History of Nature we yet have , is , and how difficult it is to build an Accurate Hypothesis upon an Incompleat History of the Phaenomena 't is to be fitted to ; especially considering that ( as I was saying ) many things may be discover'd in After-times by Industry or Chance , which are not now so much as dream'd of , and which may yet overthrow Doctrines speciously enough accommodated to the Observations that have been hitherto made . Those Antient Philosophers , that thought the Torrid Zone to be uninhabitable , did not establish their Opinion upon wild Reasonings ; and as it continu'd uncontrol'd for many Ages , so perhaps it would have always done , if the Discoveries made by Modern Navigations had not manifested it to be Erroneous . The Solidity of the Celestial Orbs was , for divers Centuries above 1000 years , the general opinion of Astronomers and Philosophers , and yet in the last Age and in Ours , the free Trajection , that has been observ'd in the Motion of some Comets from one of the supposed Orbs to another , and the Intricate Motions in the Planet Mars , ( observ'd by Kepler and others , to be sometimes nearer , as well as sometimes remoter from the Earth than is the Sun ; ) these , I say , and other Phenomena undiscover'd by the Antients , have made even Tycho , as well as most of the recent Astronomers , exchange the too long receiv'd Opinion of solid Orbs for the more warrantable belief of a Fluid Aether . And though the Celestial part of the World , by reason of its remoteness from us , be the most unlikely of any other to afford us the means of overthrowing old Theories by new Discoveries ; yet even in that we may take notice of divers Instances to our present purpose , though I shall here name but this One , viz. That , after the Ptolemaick Number and Order of the Planets had past uncontradicted for very many Ages ; and even the Tychonians and Copernicans , ( however they did by their differing Hypotheses dissent from the Ptolemaick System ( as to the Order , ) did ( yet ) acquiesce in it as to the number of the Planets ; by the happy Discoveries , made by Galilaeo of the Satellites of Jupiter , and by the excellent Hugenius , of the New Planet about Saturn , ( which I think I had the luck to be the first that observ'd and shew'd Disbelievers of it in England , ) the Astronomers of all perswasions are brought to add to the old Septenary number of the Planets , and take in Five others that their Predecessors did not dream of . That the Chyle prepar'd in the Stomach pass'd through the Mesaraick Veins to the Liver , and so to the Heart , was for many Ages the unanimous Opinion , not onely of Physicians , but Anatomists , whose numerous Diffections did not tempt them to question it ; and yet , since the casual , though lucky , Discoveries made of the Milky Vessels in the Thorax by the dextrous Pecquet , those that have had with you and I the curiosity to make the requisite Experiments , are generally convinc'd , that ( at least ) a good part of the Chyle goes from the Stomach to the Heart , without passing through the Mesaraick Veins , or coming at all to the Liver . 'T were easie to multiply Instances of this kind , but I rather choose to add , that 't is not onely about the Qualities , and other Attributes of things , but about their Causes also , that New and oftentimes Accidental Discoveries may destroy the credit of Long and generally approv'd Opinions . That Quick-lime exceedingly heats the Water that is pour'd on to quench it , on the account of Antiperistasis , has been very long and universally receiv'd by the School-Philosophers , where 't is the grand and usual Argument , urg'd to Establish Antiperistasis ; and yet I presume you have taken notice , that this Proof is made wholly Ineffectual in the judgment of many of the Virtuosi , by some contrary Experiments of mine , and particularly that of exciting in Quick-lime full as great an Effervescence by the Affusion of Hot water in stead of Cold ▪ So it has been generally believ'd , that in the Congelation of Water , that Liquor is condens'd into a narrower room ; whereas our late Experiments * have satisfied most of the curious , that Ice is Water expanded , or ( if you please ) that Ice takes up more room than the Water did , whilst it remain'd unfrozen . And whereas the Notion of Natures abhorrence of a Vacuum , has not onely ever since Aristotle's time made a great noise in the Schools , but seems to be Confirmable by a multitude of Phaenomena ; the Experiments of Torricellius , and some of * Ours , evidencing , that the Air has a great Weight and a strong Spring , have , I think , perswaded almost all , that have impartially consider'd them , that , whether there be or be not such a thing as they call Fuga Vacui , yet Suction , and the Ascension of Water in Pumps , and those other Phaenomena that are generally ascrib'd to It , may be very well Explicated without it , and are indeed caus'd by the Weight of the Atmosphere , and the Elastical power of the Air. And this puts me in mind to take notice , that even practical Inventions , where one would think the Matter of Fact to be Evident , may by undream'd of Discoveries be brought to lose the general Reputation they had for compleatness in their kind . For to endear the Invention of Sucking Pumps and of Syphons , it has been generally presum'd , that by means of either of these , Water and any other Liquor may , ob fugam vacui , be rais'd to what height one pleases ; and accordingly ways have been propos'd by famous Authors , to convey Water from one side of an high Mountain to the other : Whereas first the unexpected Disappointments that were met with by some Pump-makers , and afterwards Experiments purposely made , sufficiently evince , that neither a Pump nor a Syphon will raise Water to above 35 foot or thereabouts , nor Quicksilver to so many Inches . And as to the Invention of Weather-glasses , which has been so much and justly applauded and us'd , as it has been generally receiv'd for the truest Standard of the Heat and Cold of the Weather ; so it seems to be liable to no suspition of deceiving Us : For not onely 't is evident , that in Winter , when the Air is very Cold , the Water rises much higher than in Summer and other Seasons , when 't is not so ; but if you but apply your warm hand to the Bubble at the top , the Water will be visibly depress'd by the rarifi'd Air , which upon the removal of the Hand returning to its former Coldness , the Water will forthwith as manifestly ascend again . And yet by finding , that , as the Atmosphaere has a considerable weight , so this weight is not always the same , but varies much , and that , as far as I can yet discover , uncertainly enough ; I have had the luck to satisfie many of the Curious , that these Open Thermometers are not to be safely rely'd on , since in them the Liquor is made to rise and fall , not onely , as men have hitherto suppos'd , by the Cold and Heat of the Ambient Air , but ( as I have shewn by divers new Experiments ) according to the varying Gravity of the Atmosphaere ; which Variation has not onely a Sensible , but a very Considerable Influence upon the Weather-glass . To these Instances I shall annex onely one more , from which we may learn , that notwithstanding a very heedful survey of all that at present a man can take notice of , or well suspect that he ought to take into his Consideration , the Case may be such , that having devis'd an Instrument , He may use it many years with good success ; and yet , unless he were able to live very many more , he shall not be sure to out-live the danger of finding the same Instrument ( though to sense as well condition'd as ever ) fallacious : As he that first appli'd a Magnetick Needle to the finding of the Meridian Line , might very probably conclude , that his Needle pointing directly N. and S. or declining from it just two or three , or some other determinate number of Degrees , he had discover'd a certain and ready way , without the help of Sun or Stars , or Astronomical Instruments , to describe a Meridian Line , and if he liv'd but an ordinary number of years after his Observation , he might probably have found his Instrument not deceitful ; which yet it may now be , the Magnetick Needle not onely declining in many places from the true points of N. and S. but ( as later Discoveries inform us ) varying in tract of time its Declination in the self same place . The Considerations hitherto propos'd might easily enough be encreas'd by more of the same tendency , especially if I thought fit to borrow from a Discourse ( of mine ) purposely written about the Partiality and Uncertainty of Fame ; but in stead of adding to their Number , I should think my self oblieged to excuse my having already mention'd so many , and insisted so much upon them , if I did not vehemently suspect , that in your Physiophilus , ( as well as in many other modern Naturalists , ) scarce any thing does more contribute to an Undervaluation of the study of Divinity , than that being eagerly ambitious of a Certain , as well as a Posthume Fame , he is confident that Physiologie will help to it ; and therefore the design of his Discourse made me think it expedient to spend some time to manifest , That 't is far less easie than he thinks , to be as sure that he shall have the praises of Future Ages , as that ( though he have them ) he shall not hear them . The past Considerations have , I presume , convinc'd you , that 't is no such easie matter for a Naturalist to acquire a great reputation and be sure it will prove a lasting one . Wherefore , that I may also confirm the second Part of what formerly I propos'd , I now proceed to show , that , though the case were otherwse , yet he would have no reason to slight the study of Divinity . 1. For , in the first place , nothing hinders , but that a man who values and inquires into the Mysteries of Religion , may attain to an Eminent degree in the knowledge of those of Nature . For frequently men of great parts may successfully apply themselves to more than one Study ; and few of them have their thoughts and hours so much ingross'd by that one Subject or Imployment , but that , if they have great Inclinations as well as Fitness for the study of Nature , they will find time , not onely to Cultivate it , but to Excel in it . You need not be told , That Copernicus , to whom our late Philosophers owe so much , was a Churchman ; That his Champion Lansbergius was a Minister , and that Gassendus himself was a Doctor of Divinity . Among the Jesuites you know , that Clavius and divers others have as prosperously addicted themselves to Mathematicks as Divinity . And as to Physicks , not onely Scheiner , Aquilonius , Kircher , Schottus , Zucchius , and others , have very laudably cultivated the Optical and some other Parts of Philosophy ; but Ricciolus himself , the Learned Compiler of that Voluminous and Judicious Work of the Almagestum novum , wherein he has inserted divers accurate Observations of his own , is not onely a Divine , but a Professor of Divinity . And without going out of our own Countrey , I could , if I durst for fear of offending the modesty of those I should name , or injuring the merit of those I should omit ; I could ( I say ) if it were not for this , among our English Ecclesiasticks name you divers , who though they apply themselves so much to the study of the Scripture , as to be not onely solid Divines , but Excellent Preachers , have yet been so happily conversant with Nature , that , if they had liv'd in the Learned times of the Greeks , they would have rivall'd , if not eclips'd , some of them , Pythagoras and Euclid ; others of them , Anaxagoras and Epicurus ; and some of them , even Archimedes and Democritus themselves . And certainly , provided there be Curiosity and Industry enough imploy'd in the study of Nature , it is not Necessary , that the knowledge of Nature should be the ultimate End of that Study ; a Fondness of the Object being requir'd onely in order to the Engaging the mind to such a serious Application , as a higher aim May sufficiently invite us to ; and Will rather promote than discourage . David became no less skilful in Musick , than those that were addicted to it onely to please themselves in it ; though we may reasonably suppose , that so pious an Authour of Psalms and Instruments aspired to an Excellency in that delightful Science , that he might Apply and Prefer it to the Service of the Temple , and promote the Celebration of God's Praises with it . And as Experience has manifested , that the Heathen Philosophers , that courted Moral Vertue for her self , did not raise it to that pitch , to which 't was advanc'd by the Heroick Practises of those true Christians , that in the highest Exercise of Vertue had a Religious aim at the pleasing and injoying of God ; so I see not , why Natural Knowledge must be more prosperously cultivated by those selfish Naturalists , that aim but at the pleasing of themselves in the attainment of that Knowledge , than those Religious Naturalists , who are invited to Attention and Industry , not onely by the pleasantness of the Knowledge it self , but by a higher and more ingaging Consideration ; namely , that by the Discoveries they make in the Book of Nature , both themselves and others may be excited and qualifi'd the better to admire and praise the Authour , whose Goodness does so well match the Wisdom they celebrate , that he declares in his Word , That those that honour him , he will honour . And as a man that is not in love with a fair Lady , but has onely a respect for her , may have as true and perfect , though not as discomposing an Idea of her face , as the most passionate Inamorato ; so I see not , why a Religious and Inquisitive Contemplator of Nature may not be able to give a good account of her , without preferring her so far to all other Objects of his study , as to make her his Mistress , and perhaps too his Idol . II. And now I proceed to consider in the second place , That matters of Divinity may , as well as those of Philosophy , afford a Reputation to Him that discovers , or illustrates them . For though the Fundamental Articles of Christian Religion be , as I have formerly declar'd , little less Evident than Important ; yet there are many other points in Divinity , and passages in the Scripture , which ( for Reasons that I have elsewhere mention'd ) are exceeding hard to be clear'd , and do not onely pose ordinary Readers , and the common sort of Scholars , but will sufficiently exercise the Abilities of a Great Wit , and give him opportunity enough to manifest that He is One. For divers of the points I speak of are much benighted upon the score of the Sublimity of the Things they treat of ; such as are the Nature , Attributes , and Decrees of God , which cannot be easie to the dimm understandings of Us that are but Men : And many other particulars that are not Abstruse in their own Nature , are yet made Obscure to us by our Ignorance , ( or at least Imperfect Knowledge , ) of the disus'd Languages wherein they are deliver'd , and the great remoteness of the Ages when , and the Countreys where , the things recorded were done or said . So that oftentimes a man may need and show as great Learning and Judgment to dispel the Darkness , wherein Time has involv'd Things , as that which Nature has cast on them : And in effect we see , that St. Augustine , St. Hierom , Origen , and others of the Fathers , have acquir'd no less a Reputation , than Empedocles , Anaxagoras , or Zeno ; And Grotius , Salmasius , Mr. Mede , Dr. Hamond , and some other Critical Expounders of difficult Texts of Scripture , have thereby got as much Credit , as Fracastorius by his Book De Sympathia & Antipathia ; Levinus Lemnius by his De Occultis rerum Miraculis ; or Cardanus ( and his Adversary Scaliger ) by what they writ De Subtilitate ; or even Fernelius himself by his Book De Abditis Rerum Causis . And it will contribute to the Credit which Theological Discoveries and Illustrations may procure a Man , that the Importance of the Subjects , and the earnestness wherewith men are wont to busie themselves about them , some upon the score of Piety , and others upon that of Interest , some to Learn Truths , and others to Defend what they have long or publickly taught for Truth , does make greater numbers of Men take notice of such Matters , and concern themselves far more about them , than about almost any other things , and especially far more , than about matters purely Philosophical , which but few are wont to think themselves fit to judge of , and concern'd to trouble themselves about . And accordingly we see , that the Writings of Socinus , Calvin , Bellarmine , Padre Paulo , Arminius , &c. are more famous , and more studied , than those of Telesius , Campanella , Severinus Danus , Magnenus , and divers other Innovators in Natural Philosophy . And Erastus , though a very Learned Physician , is much less famous for all his Elaborate Disputations against Paracelsus , than for the little Tract against particular Forms of Church-Government . And I presume You have taken notice , as well as I , that there are scarce any Five new Controversies in all Physicks , that are known to , and hotly contended for by so many , as are the Five Articles of the Remonstrants . III. My second Consideration being thus dispatch'd , it remains , that I tell you in the Third place , that Supposing , but not Granting , that to prosecute the Study of Divinity , one must of necessity neglect the Acquist of Reputation ; yet this Inconvenience it self ought not to deter us from the Duty it would disswade . For in all Deliberations , wherein any thing is propos'd to be quitted or declin'd , to obey or please God ; me thinks , we may fitly apply that of the Prophet to the Jewish King , who being perswaded ( to express his Concern for God's Glory ) to decline the Assistance of an Idolatrous Army of Israelites , and objecting , that by complying with the Advice given Him , he should lose a Sum of Money , amounting to no less than the Hire of a Potent Army ; receiv'd from the Prophet this brisk , but rational , Answer , The Lord is able to give thee far more than this . The Apostle Paul , who had been traduc'd , revil'd , buffetted , scourg'd , imprison'd , shipwrack'd , and ston'd for his Zeal to propagate the Truths , whose study I plead for ; after He had once had a Glimpse of that great Recompense of Reward that is reserved for us in Heaven , scruples not to pronounce , that he finds upon casting up the Account ( for He uses the Arithmetical term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that is to be reveal'd in us . And if all that the Persecuted Christians of his time could suffer were not suitable ( for so I remember the same Greek word to signifie elsewhere ) or proportionable to that Glory ; it will sure far out-weigh what we can now forego or decline for it . The loss of an Advantage , and much more the bare missing of it , being usually but a Negative Affliction , in comparison of the Actual sufferance of Evil. Christ did not onely tell his Disciples , that He who should give the least of his Followers so much as a cup of cold water upon the score of their relation to Him , should not be unrewarded ; but when the same persons asked Him , what should be done to Them , who had left All to follow Him ; He presently allots Them Thrones , as much outvaluing that All they had lost , as an ordinary Recompense may exceed a cup of cold water . And indeed God's Goodness is so Great , and his Treasures so Unexhausted , that as He is forward to recompence even the least Services that can be done Him , so He is able to give the Greatest a proportionable Reward . Solomon had an Opportunity , such as never any Mortal had , ( that we know of , ) either before or since , of satisfying his Desires , whether of Fame , or any other Thing that he could wish ; Ask what I shall give thee , was the proffer made him by Him , that could give All things worth Receiving ; and yet the Wisdom even of Solomon's choice , approv'd by God Himself , consisted in declining the most ambition'd things of this Life , for those things that might the better qualifie him to serve and please God. And to give you an example in a Greater than Solomon , we may consider , that He who being in the form of God , thought it not robbery to be equal with God ; and who by leaving Heaven , did , to dwell on earth , quit more than any Inhabitant of the Earth can to gain Heaven , and deny'd more to become Capable of being tempted , than he did when he was tempted with an offer of All the Kingdoms of the world , and the Glory of them : This Saviour , I say , is said in Scripture to have , for the joy that was set before him , endured the Cross , and despised the shame ; as if Heaven had been a sufficient Recompence for even His Renouncing Honours , and Embracing Torments . He that declines the Acquist of the Applause of men for the Contemplation of the Truths of God , does but forbear to gather that whilst 't is immature , which by waiting God's time he will more seasonably gather when 't is full ripe , and wholesome , and sweet . That immarcescible Crown ( as St. Peter calls it ) which the Gospel promises to them , who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour , will make a rich amends for the declining of a Fading Wreath here upon Earth , where Reputation is oftentimes as undeservedly acquir'd , as lost : Whereas in Heaven , the very having Celestial Honours argues a Title to them . And since 't is our Saviour's Reasoning , That His Disciples ought to rejoyce when their Reputation is pursued by Calumny , as well as their Lives by Persecution , because their reward is great in Heaven , we may justly infer , That the Grounded Expectation of so illustrious a Condition may bring us more Content , even when 't is not attended with a present Applause , than this Applause can give those who want that comfortable Expectation . So that , upon the whole matter , we have no reason to despond , or to complain of the Study of Theology , for but making Us decline an empty and transitory Fame for a solid and eternal Glory . The Conclusion . BY this time , Sir , I have said as much as I think fit ( and therefore , I hope , more than upon your single account was necessary ) to manifest , that Physeophilus had no just cause to undervalue the study of Divinity , nor our Friend the Doctor , for addicting himself to it . I hope you have not forgotten what I expressly enough declar'd at the beginning of this Letter , That both your Friend and you admitting the holy Scriptures , I knew my self thereby to be warranted to draw Proofs from their Authority . And if I need not remind you of this , perhaps I need not tell you by way of Apology , that I am not so unacquainted with the Laws of Discoursing , but that , if I had been to argue with Atheists or Scepticks , I should have forborn to make use of divers of the Arguments I have imploy'd , as fetch'd from unconceded Topicks , and substituted others for such as yet I think it very allowable for me to urge , when I deal with a Person , that , as your Friend does onely undervalue the study of the Scriptures , not reject their Authority . And if the prolixity I have been guilty of already did forbid me to increase it by Apologies not absolutely necessary , I should perchance rather think my self obliged to excuse the plainness of the Style of this Discourse ; which both upon the Subject's score , and yours , may seem to challenge a richer Dress . But the matter is very serious , and you are a Philosopher , and when the things we treat of are highly important , I think Truths clearly made out to be the most perswasive pieces of Oratory . And a Discourse of this Nature is more likely to prove Effectual on Intelligent Perusers , by having the Reasons it presents perspicuously propos'd , and unprejudic'dly entertain'd , than by their being pathetically urg'd , or curiously adorn'd . And I have the rather forborn expressions that might seem more proper to move than to convince ; because I foresee , I may very shortly have occasion to employ some of the former sort in another Letter to a Friend of yours and mine , who will , I doubt , make you a sharer in the trouble of reading it . But writing this for you and Physeophilus , I was far more sollicitous to give the Arguments I imploy a good temper , than a bright gloss . For even when we would excite Devotion , if it be in rational men , the most effectual pieces of Oratory are those , which like Burning-glasses inflame by nothing but numerous and united Beams of Light. If this Letter prove so happy as to give you any satisfaction , it will thereby bring me a great one . For prizing you as I do , I cannot but wish to see you Esteem those things now , which I am confident we shall always have cause to esteem ; and then most , when the Light of Glory shall have made us better Judges of the true worth of things . And it would extremely trouble me to see you a Disesteemer of those Divine things , which as long as a man undervalues , the Possession of Heaven it self would not make him happy . And therefore , if the Blessing of Him whose Glory is aim'd at in it , make the Success of this Paper answerable to the Wishes , the Importance of the Subject , will make the Service done you by it suitable to the Desires of , SIR , Your most Faithful , most Affectionate , and most Humble Servant . FINIS . ERRATA . IN the Introduction , p. 2 l. 18. point thus ; else ; our . p. 51. l. 17. r. Corpuscularian . p. 114. l. 3. r. Theology for Philosophy . p. 133. l. 10. r. yet many of . ibid. l. 19. r. else do but. p. 201. l. 12. point thus , predecessors , did unanimously teach . ABOUT THE EXCELLENCY AND GROUNDS Of the MECHANICAL HYPOTHESIS , Some Considerations , Occasionally propos'd to a Friend . By T. H. R. B. E. Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed by T. N. for Henry Herringman , at the Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange . 1674. The Publisher's ADVERTISEMENT . THe following Paper having been but occasionally and hastily pen'd , long after what the Author had written ( by way of Dialogue ) about the Requisites of a good Hypothesis , it was intended , that if it came forth at all , it should do so as an Appendix to that Discourse ; because though one part of it does little more than name some of the Heads treated of in the Dialogue , yet , according to the exigency of the Occasion , the other part contains several things , either pretermitted , or but more lightly touched on in the Discourse . But , although the Author's design were to reserve these thoughts , as a kind of Paralipomena to his Dialogue ; yet , since he is not willing to let that , at least quickly , come abroad , and these are fallen into my hands ; I will make bold , with his good leave , to annex them to the fore-going Treatise , not onely to compleat the Bulk of the Book , but because o● some affinity between them , since both aim at manifesting the Excellency of the Studies they would recommend . And perhaps 't will not be unwelcome to some of the Curious to find , that our Noble Author in the same Book , wherein he prefers the Study of Divine things to that of Natural ones , does himself prefer the Mechanical Principles before all other Hypotheses about Natural things ; they being in their own Nature so accommodate to make considering men understand , rather than dispute of , the Effects of Nature . Of the Excellency and Grounds Of the CORPUSCULAR Or MECHANICAL Philosophy . THe importance of the Question , you propose , would oblige me to refer you to the Dialogue about a good Hypothesis , and some other Papers of that kind , where you may find my thoughts about the advantages of the Mechanical Hypothesis somewhat amply set down , and discours'd of . But , since your desires confine me to deliver in few words , not what I believe resolvedly , but what I think may be probably said for the Preference or the Preeminence of the Corpuscular Philosophy above Aristotles , or that of the Chymists , you must be content to receive from me , without any Preamble , or exact Method , or ample Discourses , or any other thing that may cost many words , a succinct mention of some of the chief Advantages of the Hypothesis we incline to . And I the rather comply , on this occasion , with your Curiosity , because I have often observ'd you to be allarm'd and disquieted , when you hear of any Book that pretends to uphold , or repair the decaying Philosophy of the Schools , or some bold Chymist , that arrogates to those of his Sect the Title of Philosophers , and pretends to build wholly upon Experience , to which he would have all other Naturalists thought strangers . That therefore you may not be so tempted to despond , by the Confidence or Reputation of those Writers , that do some of them applaud , and others censure , what , I fear , they do not understand , ( as when the Peripateticks cry up , Substantial Forms , and the Chymists , Mechanical Explications ) of Nature's Phaenomena , I will propose some Considerations , that , I hope , will not onely keep you kind to the Philosophy you have embrac'd , but perhaps , ( by some Considerations which you have not yet met with , ) make you think it probable , that the new Attempts you hear of from time to time , will not overthrow the Corpuscularian Philosophy , but either be foiled by it , or found reconcilable to it . But when I speak of the Corpuscular or Mechanical Philosophy , I am far from meaning with the Epicureans , that Atoms , meeting together by chance in an infinite Vacuum , are able of themselves to produce the World , and all its Phaenomena ; nor with some Modern Philosophers , that , supposing God to have put into the whole Mass of Matter such an invariable quantity of Motion , he needed do no more to make the World , the material parts being able by their own unguided Motions , to cast themselves into such a System ( as we call by that name ) ; But I plead onely for such a Philosophy , as reaches but to things purely Corporeal , and distinguishing between the first original of things , and the subsequent course of Nature , teaches , concerning the former , not onely that God gave Motion to Matter , but that in the beginning He so guided the various Motions of the parts of it , as to contrive them into the World he design'd they should compose , ( furnish'd with the Seminal Principles and Structures or Models of Living Creatures , ) and establish'd those Rules of Motion , and that order amongst things Corporeal , which we are wont to call the Laws of Nature . And having told this as to the former , it may be allowed as to the latter to teach , That the Universe being once fram'd by God , and the Laws of Motion being setled and all upheld by His incessant concourse and general Providence ; the Phaenomena of the World thus constituted , are Physically produc'd by the Mechanical affections of the parts of Matter , and what they operate upon one another according to Me●hanical Laws . And now having shewn what kind of Corpuscular Philosophy 't is that I speak of I p●oceed to the particulars that I thought the most proper to recommend it . I. The first thing that I shall mention to this purpose , is the Intelligibleness or Clearness of Mechanical Principles and Explications . I need not tell you , that among the Peripateticks , the Disputes are many and intricate about Matter , Privation , Substantial Forms , and their Eduction , &c. And the Chymists are sufficiently puzled , ( as I have elsewhere shewn , ) to give such definitions and accounts of their Hypostatical Principles , as are reconcileable to one another , and even to some obvious Phaenomena . And much more dark and intricate are their Doctrines about the Archeus , Astral Beings , Gas , Blass , and other odd Notions , which perhaps have in part occasion'd the darkness and ambiguity of their expressions , that could not be very clear , when their Conceptions were far from being so . And if the Principles of the Aristotelians and Spagyrists are thus obscure , 't is not to be expected , the Explications that are made by the help onely of such Principles should be clear . And indeed many of them are either so general and slight , or otherwise so unsatisfactory , that granting their Principles , 't is very hard to understand or admit their applications of them to particular Phaenomena . And even in some of the more ingenious and subtle of the Peripatetick Discourses upon their superficial and narrow Theories , me thinks , the Authors have better plaid the part of Painters than Philosophers , and have onely had the skill , like Drawers of Landskips , to make men fancy , they see Castles and Towns , and other Structures that appear solid and magnificent , and to reach to a large extent , when the whole Piece is superficial , and made up of Colours and Art , and compris'd within a Frame perhaps scarce a yard long . But to come now to the Corpuscular Philosophy , men do so easily understand one anothers meaning , when they talk of Local Motion , Rest , Bigness , Shape , Order , Situation , and Contexture of Material Substances ; and these Principles do afford such clear accounts of those things , that are rightly deduc'd from them onely , that even those Peripateticks or Chymists , that maintain other Principles , acquiesce in the Explications made by these , when they can be had , and seek not any further , though perhaps the effect be so admirable , as would make it pass for that of a hidden Form , or Occult Quality . Those very Aristotelians , that believe the Celestial Bodies to be mov'd by Intelligences , have no recourse to any peculiar agency of theirs to account for Eclipses . And we laugh at those East-Indians , that , to this day , go out in multitudes , with some Instruments that may relieve the distressed Luminary , whose loss of Light they fancy to proceed from some fainting fit , out of which it must be rouz'd . For no Intelligent man , whether Chymist or Peripatetic , flies to his peculiar Principles , after he is informed , that the Moon is Eclipsed by the interposition of the Earth betwixt her and it , and the Sun by that of the Moon betwixt him and the Earth . And when we see the Image of a Man cast into the Air by a Concave Spherical Looking-glass , though most men are amaz'd at it , and some suspect it to be no less than an effect of Witchcraft , yet he that is skill'd enough in Catoptricks , will , without consulting Aristotle , or Paracelsus , or flying to Hypostatical Principles and Substantial Forms , be satisfied , that the Phaenomenon is produc'd by the beams of Light reflected , and thereby made convergent according to Optical , and consequently Mathematical Laws . But I must not now repeat what I elsewhere say , to shew , that the Corpuscular Principles have been declin'd by Philosophers of different Sects , not because they think not our Explications clear , if not much more so , than their own ; but because they imagine , that the applications of them can be made but to few things , and consequently are insufficient . II. In the next place I observe , that there cannot be fewer Principles than the two grand ones of Mechanical Philosophy , Matter and Motion . For , Matter alone , unless it be moved , is altogether unactive ; and whilst all the parts of a Body continue in one state without any Motion at all , that Body will not exercise any action , nor suffer any alteration it self , though it may perhaps modifie the action of other Bodies that move against it . III. Nor can we conceive any Principles more primary , than Matter and Motion . For , either both of them were immediately created by God , or , ( to add that for their sakes that would have Matter to be unproduc'd , ) if Matter be eternal , Motion must either be produc'd by some Immaterial Supernatural Agent , or it must immediately flow by way of Emanation from the nature of the matter it appertains to . IV. Neither can there be any Physical Principles more simple than Matter and Motion ; neither of them being resoluble into any things , whereof it may be truly , or so much as tolerably , said to be compounded . V. The next thing I shall name to recommend the Corpuscular Principle , is their great Comprehensiveness . I consider then , that the genuine and necessary effect of the sufficiently strong Motion of one part of Matter against another , is , either to drive it on in its intire bulk , or else to break or divide it into particles of determinate Motion , Figure , Size , Posture , Rest , Order , or Texture . The two first of these , for instance , are each of them capable of numerous varieties . For the Figure of a portion of Matter may either be one of the five Regular Figures treated of by Geometricians , or some determinate Species of solid Figures , as that of a Cone , Cylinder , &c. or Irregular , though not perhaps Anonymous , as the Grains of Sand , Hoops , Feathers , Branches , Forks , Files , &c. And as the Figure , so the Motion of one of these particles may be exceedingly diversified , not onely by the determination to this or that part of the world , but by several other things , as particularly by the almost infinitely varying degrees of Celerity , by the manner of its progression with , or without , Rotation , and other modifying Circumstances ; and more yet by the Line wherein it moves , as ( besides Streight ) Circular , Elliptical , Parabolical , Hyperbolical , Spiral , and I know not how many others . For , as later Geometricians have shewn , that those crooked Lines may be compounded of several Motions , ( that is , trac'd by a Body whose motion is mixt of , and results from , two or more simpler Motions , ) so how many more curves may , or rather may not be made by new Compositions and Decompositions of Motion , is no easie task to determine . Now , since a single particle of Matter , by vertue of two onely of the Mechanical affections , that belong to it , be diversifiable so many ways ; how vast a number of variations may we suppose capable of being produc'd by the Compositions and Decompositions of Myriads of single invisible Corpuscles , that may be contained and contex'd in one small Body , and each of them be imbued with more than two or three of the fertile Catholick Principles above mention'd ? Especially since the aggregate of those Corpuscles may be farther diversifi'd by the Texture resulting from their Convention into a Body , which , as so made up , has its own Bigness , and Shape , and Pores , ( perhaps very many , and various ) and has also many capacities of acting and suffering upon the score of the place it holds among other Bodies in a World constituted as ours is : So that , when I consider the almost innumerable diversifications , that Compositions and Decompositions may make of a small number , not perhaps exceeding twenty of distinct things , I am apt to look upon those , who think the Mechanical Principles may serve indeed to give an account of the Phaenomena of this or that particular part of Natural Philosophy , as Staticks , Hydrostaticks , the Theory of the Planetary Motions , &c. but can never be applied to all the Phaenomena of things Corporeal ; I am apt , I say , to look upon those , otherwise Learned , men , as I would do upon him , that should affirm , that by putting together the Letters of the Alphabet , one may indeed make up all the words to be found in one Book , as in Euclid , or Virgil ; or in one Language , as Latine , or English ; but that they can by no means suffice to supply words to all the Books of a great Library , much less to all the Languages in the world . And whereas there is another sort of Philosophers , that , observing the great efficacy of the bigness , and shape , and situation , and motion , and connexion in Engines , are willing to allow , that those Mechanical Principles may have a great stroke in the Operations of Bodies of a sensible bulk , and manifest Mechanism , and therefore may be usefully imploy'd in accounting for the effects and Phaenomena of such Bodies , who yet will not admit , that these Principles can be apply'd to the hidden Transactions that pass among the minute Particles of Bodies ; and therefore think it necessary to refer these to what they call Nature , Substantial Forms , Real Qualities ▪ and the like Un-mechanical Principles and Agents . But this is not necessary ; for , both the Mechanical affections of Matter are to be found , and the Laws of Motion take place , not onely in the great Masses , and the middle-siz'd Lumps , but in the smallest Fragments of Matter ; and a lesser portion of it , being as well a Body as a greater , must , as necessarily as it , have its determinate Bulk and Figure : And he that looks upon Sand in a good Microscope , will easily perceive , that each minute Grain of it has as well it s own size and shape , as a Rock or Mountain . And when we let fall a great stone and a pibble from the top of a high Building , we find not but that the latter as well as the former moves conformably to the Laws of acceleration in heavy Bodies descending . And the Rules of Motion are observ'd , not onely in Canon Bullets , but in Small Shot ; and the one strikes down a Bird according to the same Laws , that the other batters down a Wall. And though Nature ( or rather its Divine Author ) be wont to work with much finer materials , and employ more curious contrivances than Art , ( whence the Structure even of the rarest Watch is incomparably inferiour to that of a Humane Body ; ) yet an Artist himself , according to the quantity of the matter he imploys , the exigency of the design he undertakes , and the bigness and shape of the Instruments he makes use of , is able to make pieces of work of the same nature or kind of extremely differing bulk , where yet the like , though not equal , Art and Contrivance , and oftentimes Motion too , may be observ'd : As a Smith , who with a Hammer , and other large Instruments , can , out of masses of Iron , forge great Bars or Wedges , and make those strong and heavy Chains that were imploy'd to load Malefactors , and even to secure Streets and Gates , may , with lesser Instruments , make smaller Nails and Filings , almost as minute as Dust ; and may yet , with finer Tools , make Links of a strange Slenderness and Lightness , insomuch that good Authors tell us of a Chain of divers Links that was fastned to a Flea , and could be mov'd by it ; and , if I mis-remember not , I saw something like this , besides other Instances that I beheld with pleasure of the Littleness that Art can give to such pieces of Work , as are usually made of a considerable bigness . And therefore to say , that , though in Natural Bodies , whose bulk is manifest and their structure visible , the Mechanical Principles may be usefully admitted , that are not to be extended to such portions of Matter , whose parts and Texture are invisible ; may perhaps look to some , as if a man should allow , that the Laws of Mechanism may take place in a Town-Clock ; but cannot in a Pocket-Watch ; or ( to give you an instance , mixt of Natural and Artificial , ) as if , because the Terraqueous Globe is a vast Magnetical Body of seven or eight thousand miles in Diameter , one should affirm , that Magnetical Laws are not to be expected to be of force in a spherical piece of Loadstone that is not perhaps an inch long : And yet Experience shews us , that notwithstanding the inestimable disproportion betwixt these two Globes , the Terrella , as well as the Earth , hath its Poles , Aequator , and Meridians , and in divers other Magnetical Properties , emulates the Terrestrial Globe . They that , to solve the Phaenomena of Nature , have recourse to Agents which , though they involve no self-repugnancy in their very Notions , as many of the Judicious think Substantial Forms and Real Qualities to do ; yet are such that we conceive not , how they operate to bring effects to pass : These , I say , when they tell us of such indeterminate Agents , as the Soul of the World , the Universal Spirit , the Plastic Power , and the like ; though they may in certain cases tell us some things , yet they tell us nothing that will satisfie the Curiosity of an Inquisitive Person , who seeks not so much to know , what is the general Agent , that produces a Phenomenon , as , by what Means , and after what Manner , the Phenomenon is produc'd . The famous Senner●us , and some other Learned Physicians , tell us of Diseases which proceed from Incantation ; but sure 't is but a very slight account , that a sober Physician , that comes to visit a Patient reported to be bewitch'd , receives of the strange Symptoms he meets with , and would have an account of , if he be coldly answer'd , That 't is a Witch or the Devil that produces them ; and he will never sit down with so short an account , if he can by any means reduce those extravagant Symptoms to any more known and stated Diseases , as Epilepsies , Convulsions , Hysterical Fits , &c. and , if he can not , he will confess his knowledge of this Distemper to come far short of what might be expected and attain'd in other Diseases , wherein he thinks himself bound to search into the Nature of the Morbific Matter , and will not be satisfi'd till he can , probably at least , deduce from that , and the structure of an Humane Body , and other concurring Physical Causes , the Phaenomena of the Malady . And it would be but little satisfaction to one , that desires to understand the causes of what occurrs to observation in a Watch , and how it comes to point at , and strike , the hours , to be told , That 't was such a Watch-maker that so contriv'd it : Or to him that would know the true cause of an Eccho , to be answer'd , That 't is a Man , a Vault , or a Wood that makes it . And now at length I come to consider that which I observe the most to alienate other Sects from the Mechanical Philosophy ; namely , that they think it pretends to have Principles so Universal and so Mathematical , that no other Physical Hypothesis can comport with it , or be tolerated by it . But this I look upon as an easie indeed , but an important , mistake ; because by this very thing , that the Mechanical Principles are so universal , and therefore applicable to so many things , they are rather fitted to include , than necessitated to exclude , any other Hypothesis that is founded in Nature , as far as it is so . And such Hypotheses , if prudently consider'd by a skilful and moderate person , who is rather dispos'd to unite Sects than multiply them , will be found , as far as they have Truth in them , to be either Legitimately , ( though perhaps not immediately , ) deducible from the Mechanical Principles , or fairly reconcilable to them . For , such Hypotheses will probably attempt to account for the Phaenomena of Nature , either by the help of a determinate number of material Ingredients , such as the Tria Prima of the Chymists , by participation whereof other Bodies obtain their Qualities ; or else by introducing some general Agents , as the Platonic Soul of the World , or the Universal Spirit , asserted by some Spagyrists ; or by both these ways together . Now to dispatch first those , that I named in the second place ; I consider , that the chief thing , that Inquisitive Naturalists should look after in the explicating of difficult Phaenomena , is not so much what the Agent is or does , as , what changes are made in the Patient , to bring it to exhibit the Phaenomena that are propos'd ; and by what means , and after what manner , those changes are effected . So that the Mechanical Philosopher being satisfied , that one part of Matter can act upon another but by vertue of Local Motion , or the effects and consequences of Local Motion , he considers , that as , if the propos'd Agent be not Intelligible and Physical , it can never Physically explain the Phaenomena ; so , if it be Intelligible and Physical , 't will be reducible to Matter , and some or other of those onely Catholick affections of Matter , already often mentioned . And , the indefinite divisibility of Matter , the wonderful efficacy of Motion , and the almost infinite variety of Coalitions and Structures , that may be made of minute and insensible Corpuscles , being duly weighed , I see not why a Philosopher should think it impossible , to make out by their help the Mechanical possibility of any corporeal Agent , how subtil , or diffus'd , or active soever it be , that can be solidly proved to be really existent in Nature , by what name soever it be call'd or disguis'd . And though the Cartesians be Mechanical Philosophers , yet , according to them , their Materia Subtilis , which the very name declares to be a corporeal Substance , is , for ought I know , little ( if it be at all ) less diffus'd through the Universe , or less active in it than the Universal Spirit of some Spagyrists , not to say , the Anima Mundi of the Platonists . But this upon the by ; after which I proceed , and shall venture to add , That whatever be the Physical Agent , whether it be inanimate or living , purely Corporeal , or united to an Intellectual Substance , the above mention'd changes , that are wrought in the Body that is made to exhibit the Phaenomena , may be effected by the same or the like means , or after the same or the like manner ; as , for instance , if Corn be reduc'd to Meal , the Materials and shape of the Milstones , and their peculiar Motion and Adaptation , will be much of the same kind , and ( though they should not , yet ) to be sure the grains of Corn will suffer a various contrition and comminution in their passage to the form of Meal ; whether the Corn be ground by a Water-mill , or a Wind-mill , or a Horse-mill , or a Hand-mill ; that is , by a Mill whose Stones are turned by Inanimate , by Brute , or by Rational , Agents . And , if an Angel himself should work a real change in the nature of a Body , 't is scarce conceivable to us Men , how he could do it without the assistance of Local Motion ; since , if nothing were displac'd or otherwise mov'd than before , ( the like hapning also to all external Bodies to which it related , ) 't is hardly conceivable , how it should be in it self other , than just what it was before . But to come now to the other sort of Hypotheses formerly mention'd ; if the Chymists , or others that would deduce a compleat Natural Philosophy from Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury , or any other set number of Ingredients of things , would well consider what they undertake , they might easily discover , That the material parts of Bodies , as such , can reach but to a small part of the Phaenomena of Nature , whilst these Ingredients are consider'd but as Quiescent things , and therefore they would find themselves necessitated to suppose them to be active ; and That things purely Corporeal cannot be but by means of Local Motion , and the effects that may result from that , accompanying variously shap'd , siz'd , and aggregated parts of Matter : So that the Chymists and other Materialists , ( if I may so call them , ) must ( as indeed they are wont to do ) leave the greatest part of the Phaenomena of the Universe unexplicated by the help of the Ingredients , ( be they fewer or more than three , ) of Bodies , without taking in the Mechanical and more comprehensive affections of Matter , especially Local Motion . I willingly grant , that Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury , or some Substances analogous to them , are to be obtain'd by the action of the Fire , from a very great many dissipable Bodies here below ; nor would I deny , that , in explicating divers of the Phaenomena of such Bodies , it may be of use to a skilful Naturalist to know and consider , that this or that Ingredient , as Sulphur , for instance , does abound in the Body propos'd , whence it may be probably argu'd , that the Qualities , that usually accompany that Principle when Predominant , may be also , upon its score , found in the Body that so plentifully partakes of it . But not to mention , what I have elsewhere shown , that there are many Phaenomena , to whose explication this knowledge will contribute very little or nothing at all ; I shall onely he●e observe , that , though Chymical Explications be sometimes the most obvious and ready , yet they are not the most fundamental and satisfactory : For , the Chymical Ingredient it self , whether Sulphur or any other , must owe its nature and other qualities to the union of insensible particles in a convenient Size , Shape , Motion or Rest , and Contexture ; all which are but Mechanical Affections of convening Corpuscles . And this may be illustrated by what happens in Artificial Fire-works . For , though in most of those many differing sorts that are made either for the use of War , or for Recreation , Gunpowder be a main Ingredient , and divers of the Phaenomena may be deriv'd from the greater or lesser measure , wherein the Compositions partake of it ; yet , besides that there may be Fire-works made without Gun-powder , ( as appears by those made of old by the Greeks and Romans , ) Gun-powder it self owes its aptness to be fir'd and exploded to the Mechanical Contexture of more simple portions of Matter , Nitre , Charcoal , and Sulphur ; and Sulphur it self , though it be by many Chymists mistaken for an Hypostatical Principle , owes its Inflammability to the convention of yet more simple and primary Corpuscles ; since Chymists confess , that it has an inflammable Ingredient , and experience shews , that it very much abounds with an acid and uninflammable Salt , and is not quite devoide of Terrestreity . I know , it may be here alledg'd , that the productions of Chymical Analyses are simple Bodies , and upon that account irresoluble . But , that divers Substances , which Chymists are pleased to call the Salts , or Sulphurs , or Mercuries of the Bodies that afforded them , are not simple and homogeneous , has elsewhere been sufficiently proved ; nor is their not being easily dissipable or resoluble a clear proof of their not being made up of more primitive portions of matter . For , compounded and even decompounded Bodies , may be as difficultly resoluble , as most of those that Chymists obtain by what they call their Analysis by the Fire ; witness common green Glass , which is far more durable and irresoluble than many of those that pass for Hypostatical Substances . And we see , that some Amels will be several times even vitrified in the Fire , without losing their Nature , or oftentimes so much as their colour ; and yet Amel is manifestly not onely a compounded , but a decompounded Body , consisting of Salt and Powder of Pebbles or Sand , and calcin'd Tinn , and , if the Amel be not white , usually of some tinging Metall or Mineral . But how indestructible soever the Chymical Principles be suppos'd , divers of the Operations ascrib'd to them will never be well made out , without the help of Local Motion , ( and that diversified too ; ) without which , we can little better give an account of the Phaenomena of many Bodies , by knowing what Ingredients compose them , than we can explain the Operations of a Watch , by knowing of how many and of what Metalls the Balance , the Wheels , the Chain , and other parts , are made ; or than we can derive the Operations of a Wind-mill from the bare knowledge , that 't is made up of Wood , and Stone ; and Canvas , and Iron . And here let me add , that 't would not at all overthrow the Corpuscularian Hypothesis , though either by more exquisite Purifications , or by some other Operations than the usual Analysis of the Fire , it should be made appear , that the Material Principles or Elements of mixt Bodies should not be the Tria Prima of the vulgar Chymists , but either Substances of another nature , or else fewer , or more in number ; as would be , if that were true , which some Spagyrists affirm , ( but I could never find , ) that from all sorts of mixt Bodies , five , and but five , differing similar Substances can be separated : Or , as if it were true , that the Helmontians had such a resolving Menstruum as the Alkahest of their Master , by which he affirms , that he could reduce Stones into Salt of the same weight with the Mineral , and bring both that Salt and all other kind of mixt and tangible Bodies into insipid Water . For , what ever be the numnumber or qualities of the Chymical Principles , if they be really existent in Nature , it may very possibly be shewn , that they may be made up of insensible Corpuscles of determinate bulks and shapes ; and by the various Coalitions and Contextures of such Corpuscles , not onely three or five , but many more material Ingredients , may be compos'd or made to result : But , though the Alkahestical Reductions newly mention'd should be admitted , yet the Mechanical Principles might well be accommodated , even to them . For , the Solidity , Taste , &c. of Salt , may be fairly accounted for , by the Stifness , Sharpness , and other Mechanical Affections of the minute Particles , whereof Salts consist ; and if , by a farther action of the Alkahest , the Salt or any other solid Body , be reduc'd into insipid Water , this also may be explicated by the same Principles , supposing a further Comminution of the parts , and such an attrition , as wears off the edges and points that inabled them to strike briskly the Organ of Taste : For , as to Fluidity and Firmness , those mainly depend upon two of our grand Principles , Motion and Rest . And I have else-where shewn , by several proofs , that the Agitation or Rest , and the looser contact , or closer cohaesion , of the particles , is able to make the same portion of Matter , at one time a firm , and at another time , a fluid Body . So that , though the further Sagacity and Industry of Chymists ( which I would by no means discourage ) should be able to obtain from mixt Bodies homogeneous substances differing in number , or nature , or both , from their vulgar Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury ; yet the Corpuscular Philosophy is so general and fertile , as to be fairly reconcilable to such a Discovery ; and also so useful , that these new material Principles will , as well as the old Tria Prima , stand in need of the more Catholick Principles of the Corpuscularians , especially Local Motion . And indeed , what ever Elements or Ingredients men have ( that I know of ) pitched upon , yet if they take not in the Mechanical Affections of Matter , their Principles have been so deficient , that I have usually observ'd , that the Materialists , without at all excepting the Chymists , do not onely , as I was saying , leave many things unexplain●d , to which their narrow Principles will not extend ; but , even in the particulars they presume to give an account of , they either content themselves to assign such common and indefinite Causes , as are too general to signifie much towards an inquisitive mans satisfaction ; or if they venture to give particular Causes , they assign precarious or false ones , and liable to be easily disproved by Circumstances , or Instances , whereto their Doctrine will not agree , as I have often elsewhere had occasion to shew . And yet the Chymists need not be frighted from acknowledging the Prerogative of the Mechanical Philosophy , since that may be reconcileable with the Truth of their own Principles , as far as these agree with the Phaenomena they are apply'd to . For these more confind Hypotheses may be subordinated to those more general and fertile Principles , and there can be no Ingredient assign'd , that has a real existence in Nature , that may not be deriv'd either immediately , or by a row of Decompositions , from the Universal Matter , modifi'd by its Mechanical Affections ▪ For , if with the same Bricks , diversly put together and rang'd , several Walls , Houses , Furnaces , and other Structures , as Vaults , Bridges , Pyramids , &c. may be built , meerely by a various contrivement of parts of the same kind ; how much more may great variety of Ingredients be produc'd by , or , according to the institution of Nature , result from , the various coalitions and contextures of Corpuscles , that need not be suppos'd , like Bricks , all of the same , or near the same , size and shape , but may have amongst them , both of the one and the other , as great a variety as need be wish'd for , and indeed a greater than can easily be so much as imagin'd . And the primary and minute Concretions that belong to these Ingredients , may , without Opposition from the Mechanical Philosophy , be suppos'd to have their particles so minute and strongly coherent , that Nature of her self does scarce ever tear them asunder ; as we see , that Mercury and Gold may be successively made to put on a multitude of disguises , and yet so retain their nature , as to be reducible to their pristine forms . And you know , I lately told you , that common Glass and good Amels , though both of them but factitious Bodies , and not onely mix'd , but decompounded Concretions , have yet their component parts so strictly united by the skill of illiterate Tradesmen , as to maintain their union in the vitrifying violence of the Fire . Nor do we find , that common Glass will be wrought upon by Aqua fortis , or Aqua Regis , though the former of them will dissolve Mercury , and the later Gold. From the fore-going Discourse it may ( probably at least ) result , That if , besides Rational Souls , there are any Immaterial Substances ( such as the Heavenly Intelligences , and the Substantial Forms of the Aristotelians ) that regularly are to be numbred among Natural Agents , their way of working being unknown to us , they can but help to constitute and effect things , but will very little help us to conceive how things are effected ; so that , by what ever Principles Natural things be constituted , 't is by the Mechanical Principles that their Phaenomena must be clearly explicated . As for instance , though we should grant the Aristotelians , that the Planets are made of a quintessential matter , and moved by Angels , or Immaterial Intelligences ; yet , to explain the Stations , Progressions , and Retrogradations , and other Phaenomena of the Planets , we must have recourse either to Eccentricks , Epicycles , &c. or to motions made in Elliptical or other peculiar Lines ; and , in a word , to Theories , wherein the Motion , and Figure , Scituation , and other Mathematical or Mechanical Affections of Bodies are mainly employ'd . But if the Principles propos'd be corporeal things , they will be then fairly Reducible , or Reconcilable , to the Mechanical Principles ; these being so general and pregnant , that , among things corporeal , there is nothing real , ( and I meddle not with Chymerical Beings , such as some of Paracelsus's , ) that may not be deriv'd from , or be brought to , a subordination to such comprehensive Principles . And when the Chymists shall shew , that mix'd Bodies owe their qualities to the predominancy of this or that of their three grand Ingredients , the Corpuscularians will shew , that the very Qualities of this or that Ingredient flow from its peculiar Texture , and the Mechanical affections of the Corpuscles 't is made up of . And to affirm , that , because the Furnaces of Chymists afford a great number of uncommon Productions and Phaenomena , there are Bodies or Operations amongst things purely Corporeal , that cannot be deriv'd from , or reconcil'd to , the comprehensive and pregnant Principles of the Mechanical Philosophy , is , as if , because there are a great number and variety of Anthems , Hymns , Pavins , Threnodies , Courants , Gavots , Branles , Sarabands , Jigs , and other ( grave and sprightly ) Tunes to be met with in the Books and Practises of Musitians , one should maintain , that there are in them a great many Tunes , or at least Notes , that have no dependence on the Scale of Music ; or , as if , because , besides Rhombusses , Rhomboids , Trapeziums , Squares , Pentagons , Chiliagons , Myriagons , and innumerable other Polygons , Regular and Irregular , one should presume to affirm , that there are among them some Rectilinear Figures , that are not reducible to Triangles , or have Affections that will overthrow what Euclid has taught of Triangles and Polygons . To what has been said , I shall add but one thing more ; That , as , according to what I formerly intimated , Mechanical Principles and Explications are for their clearness preferr'd , even by Materialists themselves , to others in the cases where they can be had ; so , the Sagacity and Industry of modern Naturalists and Mathematicians , having happily apply'd them to seueral of those difficult Phaenomena , ( in Hydrostaticks , the practical part of Opticks , Gunnery , &c. ) that before were , or might be referr'd to 〈◊〉 Qualities , 't is probable , that , when this Philosophy is deeplier searched into , and farther improv'd , it will be found applicable to the solution of more and more of the Phaenomena of Nature . And on this occasion let me observe , that 't is not always necessary , though it be always desirable , that he that propounds an Hypothesis in Astronomy , Chymistry , Anatomy , or other part of Physicks , be able , à priori , to prove his Hypothesis to be true , or demonstratively to shew , that the other Hypotheses propos'd about the same subject must be false . For as , if I mistake not , Plato said , That the World was God's Epistle written to Mankind , & might have added , consonantly to another saying of his , 't was written in Mathematical Letters : So , in the Physical Explications of the Parts and System of the World , me thinks , there is somewhat like what happens , when men conjecturally frame several Keys to enable us to understand a Letter written in Cyphers . For , though one man by his sagacity have found out the right Key , it will be very difficult for him , either to prove otherwise than by trial , that this or that word is not such as 't is ghess'd to be by others according to their Keys ; or to evince , à priori , that theirs are to be rejected , and his to be preferr'd ; yet , if due trial being made , the Key he proposes , shall be found so agreeable to the Characters of the Letter , as to enable one to understand them , and make a coherent sense of them , its suitableness to what it should decipher , is , without either confutations , or extraneous positive proofs , sufficient to make it be accepted as the right Key of that Cypher . And so , in Physical Hypotheses , there are some , that , without noise , or falling foul upon others , peaceably obtain discerning mens approbation onely by their fitness to solve the Phaenomena , for which they were devis'd , without crossing any known Observation or Law of Nature . And therefore , if the Mechanical Philosophy go on to explicate things Corporeal at the rate it has of late years proceeded at , 't is scarce to be doubted , but that in time unprejudic'd persons will think it sufficiently recommended by its consistency with it self , and its applicableness to so many Phenomena of Nature . A Recapitulation . PErceiving , upon a review , of the foregoing Paper , that the difficulty and importance of the Subject , has seduc'd me to spend many more words about it that I at first design'd ▪ t will not now be amiss to give you this short Summary of what came into my mind to recommend to you the Mechanical Phelosophy , and obviate your fears of seeing it supplanted ; having first premis'd once for all , that presupposing the Creation and general Providence of God , I pretend to treat but of things Corporeal , and do abstract in this Paper from Immaterial Beings , ( which otherwise I very willingly admit , ) and all Agents and Operations Miraculous or Supernatural . I. Of the Principles of things Corporeal , none can be more few , without being insufficient , or more primary than Matter and Motion . II. The natural and genuine effect of variously determin'd Motion in portions of Matter , is , to divide it into parts of differing sizes , and shapes , and to put them into different Motions , and the Consequences , that flow from these , in a World fram'd as ours is , are , as to the separate fragments , posture , order , and situation , and , as to the Conventions of many of them , peculiar Compositions and Contextures . III. The parts of Matter endow'd with these Catholick affections are by various associations reduc'd to Natural Bodies of several kinds , according to the plenty of the Matter , and the various Compositions and Decompositions of the Principles ; which all suppose the common matter they diversifie : And these several kinds of Bodies , by vertue of their Motion , Rest , and other Mechanical Affections , which fit them to act on , and suffer from , one another , become indow'd with several kinds of Qualities , ( whereof some are call'd Manifest , and some Occult , ) and those that act upon the peculiarly fram'd Organs of Sense , whose Perceptions by the Animadversive faculty of the Soul are Sensations . IV. These Principles , Matter , Motion , ( to which Rest is related ) Bigness , Shape , Posture , Order , Texture , being so simple , clear , and comprehensive , are applicable to all the real Phaenomena of Nature , which seem not explicable by any other not consistent with ours . For , if recourse be had to an Immaterial Principle or Agent , it may be such an one , as is not intelligible ; and however it will not enable us to explain the Phaenomena , because its way of working upon things Material would probably be more difficult to be Physically made out , than a Mechanical account of the Phaenomena . And , notwithstanding the Immateriality of a created Agent , we cannot conceive , how it should produce changes in a Body , without the help of Mechanical Principles , especially Local Motion ; and accordingly we find not , that the Reasonable Soul in Man is able to produce what changes it pleases in the Body , but is confin'd to such , as it may produce by determining or guiding the Motions of the Spirits , and other parts of the Body , subservient to voluntary Motion . V. And if the Agents or active Principles resorted to , be not Immaterial , but of a Corporeal Nature , they must either in effect be the same with the Corporeal Principles above-nam'd ; or , because of the great Universality & Simplicity of ours , the new ones propos'd must be less general than they , and consequently capable of being subordinated or reduc'd to ours , which by various Compositions may afford matter to several Hypotheses , and by several Coalitions afford minute Concretions exceedingly numerous and durable , and consequently fit to become the Elementary Ingredients of more compounded Bodies , being in most Trials Similar , and as it were the Radical parts , which may , after several manners , be diversified ; as in Latin , the Themes are by Prepositions , Terminations , &c. and in Hebrew , the Roots by the Haeemantic Letters ▪ So that the fear , that so much of a New Physical Hypothesis , as is true , will overthrow or make useless the Mechanical Principles , is , as if one should fear , that there will be a Language propos'd , that is discordant from , or not reducible to , the Letters of the Alphabet . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28966-e970 Ps . 145. Ps . 147.5 . Ps . 113.6 . Isa . 40.15 . Rom. j. 19 . Genes . vj. Numb . xxvij . 7 . Genes . xx . Genes . xviij . 1 Kings iij. Jonah iv . 1 Kings ▪ xxij . from ver . 19. to ver . 24. Job j. 6 , 7 , &c. Job ij . 3 . See Heb. v. 9 . Psal . ciij. 17 , 18. Acts j. 21 . 1 Joh. iij. 20 . Revel . vij . 9 . Matth. xxvj . 53. Dan. vij . 10 . Joh. j. 3 . Heb. j. 7 . Luke xx . 35 , 36. Col. j. 16 . Matth. xxiv . 36 . Mark xiij . 32 . Matth. xviij . 10 . Isa . vj. 2 , 3 Matth. vj. 10 . 2 Sam. xiv . 20 . Mark xiij . 32 . 2 King. xix . 35 . 1 Thess . iv . 16 . Jude ix . Dan. x. 13 , 21. Col. j. 16 . Revel . xij . 7 . Acts xij . 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. Dan. x. 13 . Acts xij . 11 . 2 Kings vj. 17 . Luke xxiv . 4 . Judg. xiij . 6 . Heb. j. 14 . Revel . xix . 10 . Revel . xxij . 9 . Matth. xxviij . 6 . Revel . xix . 10 . Joh. j. 3 Coloss . j. 16 . Matth. viij . 7 . Luke iv . 33 . Joh. viij , 34. 1 Pet. v. 8 . 2 Cor. xj . 3 . Revel . xij . 9 . Revel . xij . 7 . Matth. xxv . 41 . 1 Joh. iij. 8 . Jude 6. Mark v. 9 , 10 , 13. Jam. iv . 7 . 1 Pet. v. 9 . 1 Cor. vj. 3 . Matth. xxv . 41 . Jam. ij . 19 . 2 Pet. ij . 4 . Jude 6 , 13. Matth. xxv . 41 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Jam. iij. 6 . 2 Pet. iij. ● , 10 , 13. Gen. ij . 7 . Acts xxiv . 15 . Acts xvij . 20 , 32. Gen. ij . Acts xvij . 26 . Gen. ij . 21 , 22. Acts xxv . 15 . Luke xx . 35 , 36. Matth. x. 28 . Gen. ij 7. Zek. xij . 1 . Luke xx . 35 , 36. Matt. xxv . 46 . D●s Cartes Responsione ad Objectiones secundas , pag. m. 95. Mark xiv . 21 . 1 Pet. j. 12 . Rom. xj . 33 . Gen. ij . 21 , 22 , 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Joh. v. 39 . Acts xx . 27 . Matth. xxvj . 53 . Dan. vij . 10 . Mark v. 9 . Luke viij . 30 . Dan. ij . 31 , 32 , &c. Isa . v. 4 . Isa . lxv . 2 . * * Rev. j. 3 . To render the Original word ( observe , or ) watch , rather than keep , seems more congruous to the sense of the Text , and is a Criticism suggested to me by an eminent Mathematician as well as Divine , who took notice , that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is us'd by the Greeks as a term of Art , to express the Astronomical Observation of Eclipses , Planetary Conjunctions , Oppositions , and other Celestial Phaenomena . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ephis . iij. 10 ▪ Isa . vj. 2 , 3. Luke ij . 13 , 14. Revel . v. 11 , 12. Gen. ij . 16 , 17. Seraph . Love. Psal . xxxij . 9 . Deut. viij . 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 18 , Job xxxviij . 5 , 6 , 7. Psa . L.23 . Hos . xiv . 2 . Psal . civ . 24 . Psal . xix . 1 . Psal . cxxxix . 14 . 1 Tim. ij . 4 . Joh. xiij . 7 . Heb. v. 9 . Joh. v. 39 . Search , or , You search the Scriptures . Coloss . iij. 16 . Prov. xxvj . 10 . Acts xvij . 11 . 1 Pe● . j. 10 , 11. 1 Pet. j. ●2 . Psal . cxix . 18 . Revel . j. Matth. xj . 15 . Mark iv . ● , 23. Luke viij . 8 . Matth. v. 8 . 1 Joh. iij. 2 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Medit. tertia sub finem . Exod. xv . 25 . Matth. v. 29 , 30. 1 Tim. iij. 16 . Tit. j. 1 . Numb . xxj . 9 . Diogenis Laertii libr. 10. Iob iv . 19 . Psal . ciij. 14 . 1 Cor. 10.13 . Job xviij . 14 . Dan. ix . 21 , 22. Luke j. 11 , 26. Acts x. 4 , 5 , 6. 1 Pet. j. 12 . Luke xxiv . 45 . Psal . cxix . 18 . Acts xvij . 24 , 25. Jam. ij . 21 . 2 Chron. vj. 8 , 9. 2 Sam. vij . ver . 5. ver . 11. Hab. j. 13 . Matth. v. 6 . 2 Cor. v. 7 . Luke xx . 36 . Notes for div A28966-e7520 Ephes . iij. 10 . See Examples of this in my Notes about Sensation and Sensible Qualities . Acts vij . 56 . 2 Kings vj. 17 . 1 Cor. xiij . 12 . 1 Joh. iij. 2 . Gen. xxxvij . Amos vj. 5 . * * See the Requisites of a good Hypothesis . See this Subject handled at large in an Appendix to the Author's Ex●men of Antiperistasis . * * In the History of Cold. * * Now publish'd in the Book of New Physico-Mechanical Experiments . See a Tract on this Subject , premis'd by the Authour to his Book of Cold. Amos vj. 5 . 1 Sam. ij . 30 . 2. Chron. xxv . 9 . Rom. viij . 18 . Luke xxiij . 15 . ● Kings iij. 5 . Phil. ij . 6 . Heb. xij . 2 . Rom. ij . 7 . Matth. v. 11 , 12. Notes for div A28966-e12720 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 
A41843	----	The mystery of faith opened up, or, Some sermons concerning faith (two whereof were not formerly printed) wherein the nature, excellency, and usefulnesse of that noble grace is much cleared, and the practice thereof most powerfully pressed : whereunto are added other three sermons, two concerning death / by Mr. Andrew Gray ...; all these sermons being now carefully revised, and much corrected. Gray, Andrew, 1633-1656. 1669 Approx. 342 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 116 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-08 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A41843 Wing G1617 ESTC R39450 18419754 ocm 18419754 107527 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A41843) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 107527) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1634:15) The mystery of faith opened up, or, Some sermons concerning faith (two whereof were not formerly printed) wherein the nature, excellency, and usefulnesse of that noble grace is much cleared, and the practice thereof most powerfully pressed : whereunto are added other three sermons, two concerning death / by Mr. Andrew Gray ...; all these sermons being now carefully revised, and much corrected. Gray, Andrew, 1633-1656. [12], 216 p. Printed by George Swintown and James Glen ..., Edinburgh: 1669. Errors in paging: p. 78 misnumbered 76. Imperfect: tightly bound, with print show-through and some loss of print. Reproduction of original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Church of Scotland -- Sermons. Faith -- Sermons. Salvation -- Sermons. Death -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2004-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-03 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-05 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2004-05 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-07 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Mystery of FAITH Opened up : Or some SERMONS concerning Faith ( two whereof were not formerly Printed ) Wherein the Nature , Excellency , and Usefulnesse of that noble Grace is much cleared , and the practice thereof most powerfully pressed . Whereunto are added other three Sermons , two concerning the Great Salvation , ( one of these not formerly Printed ) and a third concerning Death . By Mr. ANDREW GRAY , late Minister of the Gospel in Glasgow . All these Sermons being now carefully Revised , and much Corrected . Joh. 3. 18. He that believeth not , is condemned already , because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. Edinburgh , Printed by George Swinton and Iames Glen , Anno 1669. Mr. GRAY'S Mystery of Faith. Christian Reader . AMong many weighty and soul pierceing Sentences that you will find in these following Sermons , this is one● ; That the Professors of this ●ge , whether they go to heaven or hell , they will be the greatest debtors that shall be in ●ither place● : the 〈◊〉 to the free grace of God , and the other to his Justice : And certainly , if we speak of those in this time , whose ●lessed lot it shall be to inherit the Kingdom , ●hey cannot but acknowledge themselves in●ebted to his love , above all that have gone ●efore them ▪ for w●shing them from such ugly ●●llutions , ●● this generation hath been defiled ●ith ; for bringing them through so great tri●●ilations , preserving them in the midst of so ●●eat ten●ations , and dangerous s●ares as have ●compassed them ; yea , and still keeping in the ●●ght before them , notwithstanding of so many ●asts ( if we may so speak ) from all the four ●inds of , hell to blow it out . And on the other ●nd , if we speak of these whom in this ge●●ration shall perish ▪ assuredly their debt unto ●ivine Iustice must be exceeding great , above ●●l who are gone down to the pit before them ; ●●cause the Roll of their mercies will be found have been many ●●bits longer ▪ and many cu●s broader , than theirs who lived in the pre●ding ages ; and the great things that the ●●rd hath wrought in our dayes , have born a greater testimony against the wickednesse , hardnesse and atheism of this time , then of many former . But above all , the great measure of Gospel-light that he hath no lesse plentifully offered , then wonderfully preserved to this generation , beyond all our Ancestors ; hath undoubtedly made the sin of these who shall utterly reject their own mercy , so out of measure sinfull , and their unbelief so exceedingly inexcusable , that their guilt must needs justifie Corazin and Bethsaida , or Sodom and Gommorrah in that day when every man shall give account of himself to God : And amongst the many preaching witnesses that ( al as we are afraid ) shall compear in that day against many yet living in their pleasures , and dead while they live : This now glorified Author cannot but be one , whose testimony must be very condemning , especially to the vain , loose , negligent and time-wasting youth in this age : For when h● was first drawn to the Ministry , he was but youth indeed , scarce twenty years compleat ; f●● within that age , that by the constitutions o● this Church ( except in case of more then common abilities which indeed he had ) is required for entring to that great and holy Calling . And for the space of two years after ( whic● was all the time that the Church enjoyed his Labour , he was helped to presse the Truths an● Threatnings of God so home upon the Conscience of his hearers , that as it was observed of him , b● one of his most Learned and pious Colleagu● Master Durham , who is now in glory with him he did many times cause the hair of their head stand up : The Lord not only hereby verifying his Word , that he can take the weak things of the world to confound the strong , and out of the mouth of Babes can perfect his own praise , but designing also ( as would seem of purpose ) to send a Boy out of the School for a reprover of the sluggishnesse of his People , that thereby the aged might be the more ashamed , and the younger more afraid : Neither do wee think that this was all ; but truely when we consider what measure of Graces , Gifts and Experiences the Lord did bestow upon so young a person , and then with what humility , self-denial , gravity , prudence , diligence , authority and moderation he was helped to manage these Talents during that short time of his Ministry ; It may be justly conceived that the Lord brought him forth to be a great conviction even to many of us in the Ministery who came into our Masters vineyard long before him , and will go out behind him : And indeed to us it looketh somewhat like the Lords taking up of the little Childe and setting him amongst the midst of his contending Disciples in these times , that even they who would be greatest amongst us , might be least , and see somewhat of their own weaknesse . As to this little Peece , whatever yee shall finde in it : It hath this to say for its self , that whereas many Writings in the world , do intrude themselves upon the Presse , yet this the Presse hath violently thrust into the world : For some young Student , from his good affection to the edification of the Lords People , and ( no doubt ) from his high esteem of the precious Author his memory , having given in to the Presse a Copie of some of these Sermons , being only Notes taken from his mouth when he preached them , no sooner were they seen abroad , but all the Presses in the Nation fell a labouring about them , so that ▪ ( if we mistake not ) in lesse no● two or three Months time , three or four Impressions were cast off , yet all of them so imperfect and maimed , that howbeit the excellency of the matter , and the fresh remembrance of the worthy Author his name , made them very sweet to many ( especially those who had heard him Preach ) yet the unsuitable dresse wherein they appeared and their mistakes of the first Writers ( they being hardly able to take up every thing as it was spoken ) occasioning diverse material failings in the sense , besides lesser faults , could not but be a trouble to those who were acquainted not only with the singular graces , but parts also of that eminent Youth . This gave occasion to some friends to speak a little what way these prejudices which both the Truth and the Authors name might ●ly under , by these uncorrect Impressions might be taken off . And finding that the Copie ▪ which by providence the worthy young Gentlewoman who was his wife , had lying by her though it was but Notes taken from his mouth , yet was the most correct that could be found : And that it also did contain the whole purposes that he had preached upon these Texts ; yea , the whole purposes concerning Faith , that he had preached according to that method , proposed in the first of the Sermons formerly published . This was undertaken to be revised by some , who albeit none of the fittest for these imployments , yet rather or nothing should be done in the businesse , were con●tent to bestow some hours upon it , according a● other necessary imployments would permit . And now having sought out all the Notes of these Sermons which we could finde from other hands , and compared them with the Copie abovementioned , wee do again present them unto the Lords People , not with any confidence that our pains hath put any new lustre upon them ; only wee have some hopes that the whole subject being now before them , and these things in the way of expression helped , which either might seem to be somewhat unpleasant , or liable to mistakes , they shall not n●w be lesse edifying , nor lesse acceptable then formerly they were . We did not think fit to make any considerable alterations ●●●o the method , or other things of that kind , lost ●aply by straining his excellent purposes too much , to shape them to the ordinary Rules , or to reduce them to that order which might best have pleased our selves we should have wronged the matter it self , at least , have put these to a losse who did hear him Preach , and it may be ●ow upon their reading things in that same order as they heard them , will be the more readily brought under the impressions of that livelinesse , power and weight which ( it may be ) formerly they felt upon their hearts when he was speaking . If the method do not altogether satisfie some spirits , or the explication seem not so fult , or ●f they finde some introductions which possibly ●ead not in so close , or seem not so sib to the subject of the Sermon , or happly now and then , there bee some little digressions from the main purpose , wee shall desire that this may not at all bee constructed to bee the Authors ignorance of Rules and Method , or his want of abilities in humane Learning : it being known to these who were best acquaint with him , that hee had indeed a Scholastick spirit , and was in reading far beyond his age and opportunities for Studying . But as to all these , wee shall intreat you rather to consider , 1. His age , and that his gift was but in the very moulding and breaking ( as wee speak ) in the point of order and method , when the Lord was pleased to call him home from his work . 2. That every man hath his proper gift of God , wh● in his great wisdom ( and certainly for the good of His Church ) doth so order , that there is somewhat singular and peculiar almost in every mans way , as to these things . 3. For any thing we know , hee had never that high esteem of this or any other of his labours , as to design an● of them for publick view : and these are bu● Notes taken from his mouth . 4. We are perswaded hee studied more his hearers than himself . Ye will easily perceive , when ye have bu● read a little , that hee hath been a man of a ver● zealous temper ; that the great ●ensil of hi● spirit , and that which hee did wholly spend himself about , was to make people know their dangerous condition by nature , and by all means t● perswade them to believe , and lay hold upo● the Great salvation : And truely that a ma● in such a frame should lesse attend to these lesse things is not to be wondered at . And indeed , though these things be good in themselves , and worthy to be looked to in their own place , yet for a Minister of the Gospel , in all Auditories , and upon all occasions , to pin up every purpose to such a method , and insist into such a measure of Explications and Criticismes upon words , it is but to ●etter himself , and to starve his people . 5. Consider the dulnesse of the most part of hearers in this age , and how hard a thing it is to awake a sleeping world , and to get them but to think that it doth concern them to hear in earnest ; And possibly it was not a small piece of spiritual wisedome in him , ( and it may be not unfit to be imitated by others ) to begin or end all his Sermons with an awakening word concerning Heaven , or Hell , or Iudgement , and the danger of choising the evil , and refusing the good . 6. For digressions , the truth is , that his soul was so filled with such longings after Heaven , and Glory , and so inflamed with the love of Christ , ( especially towards the latter end of his race ) that when he fell upon these subjects , upon which ( ye will see ) most of these digressions are , he could not well contain himself , nor easily bring off his own spirit ! A thing not unusual to the Saints in Scripture . And howbeit such things might seem somewhat singular ( in the time ) and not so coherent ; yet now we have grounds to apprehend that they were often strong influences of the Lords Spirit , stirring up a lamp ( as it were ) into a sudden blaze , that was not to burn long in his Church . But now we shall detain you no longer , only this we may assure you of , That although these Sermons are neither so exact , nor so full as doubtlesse they would have been , if they had come from the Authors own pen , yet as we dare say , they were studied with Prayer , Preached with Power , and backed with Successe ; so also , if ye shall read them with consideration , meditate with Prayer , and Practise with diligence , ye shall neither find your time nor pains ill bestowed , but shall have cause to blesse the Lord for this amongst other helps that he hath given , for making you meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light . That it may be blest to this end , is the earnest desire and prayer of your servants in the work of the Lord , Ro. Trail . Jo. Stirling . The Mystery of Faith Opened up . SERMON I. 1 Joh. 3. 23. This is his Commandment that ye should believe on the Name of his Son Iesus Christ , &c. THis everlasting Gospel ( in which there are drawn so many precious draughts and divine lineaments of the transcendent beauty of a crucified Saviour , and of the riches of his unsearchable grace ) is a most precious and excellent thing , not onely because it doth contain most absolute and sublime precepts and commands , in the exercise and obedience of which , we do not only attain unto the highest pitch in holinesse , but likewise , because it containeth most rich and precious promises , in the possession and fruition of which wee are advanced to the highest pinacle of eternal blessedness , this is clear in the grace of Faith ; for what doth more purifie the heart and stamp it with the Image of the invisible God then this grace of Faith ? And what richer promises are annexed to any duty then to this duty of believing , to wit , everlasting life , and fruition of God. So that if we have dwelt fourty dayes at the foot of Mount Sinai , and had been under the greatest discovering and condemning power of the Law , we may yet come with boldnesse to mount Sion , and there imbrace Jesus Christ , who is the end of the Law for righteousnesse to such as believe ; Upon which Mount hee standeth holding forth the golden Scepter of his peace , desiring us to imbrace him , and is crying out that word in Isa. 65. 1. Behold me , behold me . O may wee not summond Angels , and these twenty four Elders about the Throne , to help us to wonder , that ever such a command as this came forth , that wee should believe on the Name of the Son of God , after that wee had broken that first and primitive command , That we should not eat of the forbidden tree : Was not this indeed to make mercy rejoyce over judgement ? And O may wee not wonder at the precious oath of the everlasting Covenant , whereby he hath sworn , That hee delighteth not in the death of sinners ? What ( suppose yee ) were poor Adams thoughts when at first the Doctrine of Free-grace , and of a crucified Christ Jesus a Saviour , was preached unto him in Paradise ? What a divine surprisal was this , that heaven should have preached peace to earth , after that earth had proclaimed war against heaven ? Was not this a low step of condescendency ? to behold an offended God preaching peace and good will to a guilty sinner ; What could self-destroying Adam think of these morning and first discoveries of this everlasting Covenant ? Christ , as it were , in the morning of time giving vent to that infinite love , which was resting in his bosome and precious heart , before the foundation of the world was laid . Wee know not whether the infinitenesse of his love , the eternity of his love , or the freedom of it , maketh up the greatest wonder ; But sure , these three joyned together , make up a matchlesse and everlasting wonder . Would any of you ask the Question , What is Christ worth ? Wee could give no answer so suitable as this , it is above all the Arithmetick of all the Angels in heaven , and all the men on earth , to calculate his worth , all men here must be put to a divine non plus ; This was Iobs divinity , Iob 28. 13. Man knoweth not the price of wisedome . And must not Jesus Christ who is the precious object of Faith , and wisedome of the Father , bee a supereminent and excellent One , who hath that Name of King of kings , and Lord of lords , not onely ingraven on his vesture , ( which pointeth out the conspicuousnesse of his Majesty ) but even also upon his thigh , to point out that in all his goings and motions , hee proveth himself to bee higher then the Kings of the earth ? And howbeit the naked proposing of the object doth not convert , yet if once our souls were admitted to behold such a sight as Christ in his Beauty and Majesty , and to bee satisfied with the divine rayes of his transcendent glory , then certainly wee should finde a blessed necessity laid upon us , of closing with him ; for Christ hath a sword proceeding out of his precious mo●●h , by which hee doth subject and subjugate his own to himself , as well as hee hath a sword girded upon his thigh , by which hee judgeth and maketh war with his enemies . Wee confesse it is not only hard , but simply impossible to commit a Hyperbole in commending of him ; His worth being alwayes so far above our expressions , and our expressions alwayes so far beneath his worth , therefore wee may be put to propose that desire unto him , Exalt thy self , O Lord , above the Heavens . But now to our purpose , being at this time to begin our discourse upon that radicall and precious grace of Faith , wee intend to speak of it under this twofold notion and consideration : First , We shall speak of it as it is justifying , or as it doth lay hold upon the righteousnesse of a crucified Saviour , makeing application of the precious promises in the Covenant of free grace , which wee call justifying Faith. And in the second place , we shall speak a little-unto Faith , as it doth lay hold upon Christs strength , for advancing the work of mortification , and doth discover the personal excellencies of Iesus Christ , by which wee advance in the work of holinesse and divine consormity with God , which wee call sanctifying Faith. However , it is not to bee supposed , that these are different habits of Faith , but different acts flowing from the same saving habit , laying hold and exercising themselves upon Christ in different respects , and for diverse ends . Now to speak upon the first , we have made choice of these words . The Apostle Iohn , in the former verse , hath been pointing out the precious advantages of the grace of obedience , and of keeping of his commands ; that such a one hath , as it were , an arbitrary power with God , and doth receive many precious returns of prayer : As likewise , that one who is exercised in the grace of repentance , is Gods delight : which is included in this , that he doth these things that are well pleasing in his sight . And now in these words hee doth , as it were , answer an objection that might bee proposed , about the impossibility of attaining these precious advantages , seeing his commands were so large , and that hardly could they bee remembered . This hee doth sweetly answer , by setting down in this one verse a short compend or breviary both of Law and Gospel , viz. That wee should love one another , which is the compend of the Law : and , The we should believe on the Name of His Son ; which is the compend of the Gospel ; And by this he sheweth the Christian , that there are not many things required of him , for attaining these excellent advantages ; but if he exercise himself in the obedience of these two comprehensive commandments , he shall find favour both with God and man. And as concerning this precious grace of Faith , Wee have , 1. the advantages of it implied in the words , and clear also from the scope , as ( no doubt ) all the commands have infinit advantages infolded in their bosome , which redounds to a Believer , by his practising of them . And , 2. the excellency of it holden forth in the words , in that it is called , His command , as if hee had no other command but this . ( And the Greek particle is here prefixed , which hath a great deal of emphasis and force in it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) But , 3. There is this also , the absolute necessity of this grace , holden forth here in this word , His Commandment : as if he would have said , by proposing of this command , I do set life and death before you , and that ye would not conceive that it is an arbitrary and indifferent thing for you to believe , or not : But be perswaded of this , that as an infinite advantage may constrain you to the obedience of it , so absolute necessity must perswade you to act that which is of your everlasting concernment . And lastly , Yee have the precious Object ▪ upon which Faith ( which is justifying ) doth exercise it self , and that is upon the Name of the Son of God ; And ( no doubt ) Faith is that excellent grace , which doth elevate the soul unto a sweet and inseparable union with Christ ▪ and is that golden and precious knot , that doth eternally knit the hearts of these precious friends together . Faith is that grace that draweth the first draughts of Christs precious Image on our hearts , and by love doth accomplish and perfire them . Now Faith taketh hold not onely on the faithfulnesse of God , that hee is a God of truth , and that in him there is no lie : but likewise it taketh hold on the omnipotency of God , that hee is one to whom nothing is too hard : and on the infinite mercy and love of God , that hee is one who doth delight to magnifie this Attribute above all his works : And these are the three great pillars of justifying Faith. From the first , it answereth all these objections of sense , which do ordinarily cry forth , Doth his promise fail for evermore ? And that with this one word , If hee hath once purposed it , hee will also do it , and if hee hath once spoken it , hee will also make it come to passe . From the second , it answereth all these objections that may arise from carnal reason and probability , which tend to the weakning of his confidence ; And these do oftemtimes cry out , How can these things be ? But Faith laying hold upon the omnipotency of God , it staggers not at the promise , but is strong in the Faith , giving glory to God. And it is the noble and divine exercise of this Heroick grace of Faith , that these objections of reason and probability , which it cannot answer , it will lay them aside , and yet close with the promise . Which was the practice of believing Abraham , who considered not his own body being weak , nor the barrennesse of Sarahs womb . As likewise , it was the commendable practice of that woman , Matth. 15. who not being able to answer the second trial of her faith from reason , yet notwithstanding , Faith made her cry out , Have mercy upon mee , O Son of David . And from the last , a Christian doth answer all the arguments of misbelief , which do arise from the convictions of our unworthinesse and sinfulnesse , which makes us oftentimes imbrace that divinity of Peters , Luk. 5 ▪ 8. Depart from me , for I am a sinful man. But Faith taking hold on the infinite mercy and love of Christ , it answereth all with this , He walks not with us according to that rule of merit , but according to that precious and golden rule of love and boundlesse compassion . But before we shall speak any thing unto you of these things , wee would a little point out some few things to be known as previous to these : we shall not dwell long in pointing out the nature of justifying Faith , it is that grace whereby a Christian being convinced of his lost estate , and of an utter impossibility to save himself , he doth flee to the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ ; and unto him who is that precious City of refuge , and there doth abide till our High Priest shall die , which shall not be for ever . Or if ye will , it is a sweet travelling of the immortall soul , betwixt infinite misery , and infinite mercy , betwixt an utter impossibility to save our selves , and a compleat ability in him to save to the uttermost , betwixt abounding sin , and superabounding mercy . Hence Faith is often holden forth to us in Scripture , under that notion of coming , Isa. 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters . Rev. 22. 17. Whosoever will , let him take the water of life freely , Heb. 7. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him . And we may say by the way , that if once a sinner could be brought to this , to count all his own righteousnesse but filthy rags , and to belive that a man is as really justified before God , by imputed righteousnesse , as if it were by inherent holinesse ; surely such an one were not far from the Kingdom of God. Neither shall we stand long to point out this unto you , that it is your duty to believe , for it is clear , not only from this place , but likewise from Isa. 45. 22. Look unto me , and be ye saved , all the ends of the earth . Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden , and I will give you rest . Joh. 14. 1. Ye believe in God , belive also in me . Isa. 55. 1. Ho , every ▪ one that thirsteth , come ye to the waters ▪ and he that hath no money , Come , buy without money and without price . But Oh! it 's a great misery of many ( and that which may be a subject of perpetuall lamentation ) that we can neither be subject to the Law , as commanding , to obey it , or as threatning , to believe it ; Nor , to the Gospel as promising , to imbrace it , and sweetly to receive it . O but that primitive temptation and delusion whereby Sathan did deceive our first father , is that whereby he yet seeks to catch and delude many souls , viz. That though we eat of the forbidden fruit , and walk in the vain imaginations of our own hearts , yet he doth suggest this to us , that we shall not die , but shall once be as God. This is Sathans great and de●●ding divinity ; And therefore , to inforce his great and precious Command a little further , wee shall propose these considerations , First , That the Gospel hath laid no obstruction in our way of closing with Christ ▪ and partaking of the effects of the Gospel ▪ but on the contrary , sheweth that the great impediment is our want of willingnesse , which wee lay in our own way : as is clear from ▪ Ioh. 5. 40. Yee will not come to mee that yee may get life : as likewise from Rev. 22. 17. where the gates of the Gospel are cast open , and whosoever will , are commanded to enter ▪ in : So that , although you may father your misbelief upon your inability , or that your spot is not the spot of his people , yet know , that the rise and original of it is , the want of willingnesse . But , to make this more clear , wee would have you knowing this , that all the qualifications annexed to this Commandement of Faith as that in Matth. 11. 28. speaketh out the qualifications rather of these that will come than of all these that ought to come ; O● hee inviteth these , that through the spiri● of discouragement and misbelief , have the greatest reluctancy to come . And may no● that ▪ cardinal and soul-refreshing promise Ioh. 6. 37. stop the mouth of misbelief so that it should have nothing to say ? H● that cometh unto mee , I will in no wayes cas● out . Yee may reduce your misbelief rather to the sinfulnesse of your will , than to the sinfulnesse of your walk ; And if once yee could come the length of willingnesse to imbrace Jesus Christ , all other objectio● and knots should be sweetly loosed and dissolved . Secondly , Consider , that though we should pray the on half of our time , and weep the other , yet if we want this noble grace of Faith , the wrath of God shall abide on us . What are all the works of these hypocrites , and these g●●string acts of Law-sanctification , but a plunging of our selves in the ditch , untill our own cloaths abhorre us ; Therefore it is , that after the Prophet Zachary ▪ hath made mention , in the 12. Chapter of his Prophesie , of making bitter lamentation for him whom wee have pierced , as for an only Son ; Yet in the beginning of the 13. Chapter , he maketh mention of a Fountain opened to the house of David , for sin and for uncleannesse : Which may intimate unto us , that , although we have washed our selves with our own tears , yet there is use of the bloud of Christ , and that we must bee washed in that fountain , even from our own righteousnesses , which are but as filthy rags . Thirdly , Consider that great and monstrous sinfulness that is in this sin of unbeleif , we will strain at a g●at , but many will easily swallow down this Camel : we will tith Mint and Anise , and fast twice in the week , but neglect faith and love , and judgment , which are the weightier things of the Law. And indeed , there are these things which speak out the sinfulnesse of unbelief . 1. That when the holy Ghost is sent to convince the world of sin , Ioh. 16. 9. he pitched upon this sin , as though there were no other sin of which the world had need to be convinced ; He will convince the world of sin , because they believe not on the Son of God : and ( no doubt ) there is more sinfulnesse in that sin , than in many breaches of the Morall Law , it being a sin against matchlesse love , and against that which is the remedy of sin . 2. That it is called by way of eminency , disobedience , as is clear from Heb. 4. 11. Lest any of you fall after the same example of unbelief : or as the word may be rendered , Lest any of you fall after that example of disobedience , Eph. 2 ▪ 2. 3. That among all these that shall be eternally excommunicate from the presence of the Lord , and from the glory of his power , these that are guilty ▪ of this sin of unbelief , they are put in the first place , Rev. 21. 8. And , 4. that unbelief doth contradict and deny these three precious and cardinall Attributes of God. 1. Doth not unbelief contradict his faithfulnesse , and make him a liar ▪ 1 Ioh. 5. 10 ▪ 2. Doth it not contradict the infinitenesse of his power . And , 3 ▪ the infinitenesse of his love : and supposeth that there is something too hard for him , which his power cannot reach , nor his infinite love overcome . We may reduce many of our questions , and disputings of his good will , to this original , viz. to the disputing of his power . No doubt , if we belong to him , we shall once sing that note of lamentation over ▪ our unbelief , This is our infirmity , for changes are from the right hand of the most High. And lastly , to enforce this precious command of Faith , consider that it is His Command which speaketh forth this , that we must not take an indulgence or dispensation to our selves , to believe , or not to believe at our pleasure . And is it not a strange thing , that Christians are lesse convinced of the breaches of the Commandements of Faith , then of other commands ? They think misbelief to be but a Zoar , a little sin . And it proceedeth either from this , that the convictions of other sins ( as the neglect of prayer , or the sin of swearing , or committing adultery ) do arise from a natural conscience : ( for there is somewhat of natures light to make us abominate and hate them , when yet the light of nature will not lead us to the convictions of the sinfulnesse of misbelief , it being a Gospel and more spiritual sin ) Or it proceedeth from this , that unbelief doth ordinarily passe vail'd under the vizard of some refined vertue , as humility and tendernesse , though that rather it may be said , that it is pride and ignorance , cloathed with the garments of humility . And no doubt , Christ doth account it obedience to this Commandement of Faith , the greatest act of humility , as is clear from Rom. 10. 3. where it is called submission , they submitted not to the righteousnesse of God , Or else it proceedeth from this , that we conceive that the commandment of Faith , is not of so large extent as other commands , and so doth not bind us to the obedience of ●t . But know this , that it shall be the condemnation of the world , that they have not believed on the Name of the Son of God : And no doubt , but it is Sathans great design and cardinall project , to keep us back from obedience to the commandement of Faith , and that we should not listen to the precious promises of this everlasting Gospel , but should reject the counsel of God against our selves , and refuse his precious and divine call . The second previous consideration that we would give , shall bee to show you what are the causes that there is so much disputing of our interest , and so little beleiving , that we are unstable as water , marring our own excellency , spending so much of our time in walking under a cloud and are so seldom admitted to read our names i● these precious and eternall records of heaven ? No doubt , these things have influence upon it ▪ viz. 1. That we are more judging of God by his dispensations , then by Hi● word , supposing ever the change of his dispensations to speak forth the change of ou● state ▪ This is misbeliefs divinity , that whe● sense cannot read love in his face , but he appeareth to frown , and to cast a cloud ove● it , then it is presumption ( saith sense ) t● read love in his heart , or in his word . Bu● know it was a self denying practice of , Believing Iob , to cry out , Though he shoul● kill me , I will believe in him . Therefor● make not dispensations your Bible , other ▪ wise ye will stumble at the noon-ride of th● day , and shall halt in your way . Knew y● never what such a thing as this meaned , to ascend in overcoming thoughts of his love , notwithstanding any thing that his dispensations might preach ? We conceive , that if the eyes of our faith were opened , we might see infinite love engraven on the darkest acts and most dismal-like dispensations of his to us , though it bee oftentimes written in dark and ●im characters of sense . 2 ▪ There is this likewise which hath in●●uence upon our so much disputing and misbelieving , viz. a guilty conscience , and the ●ntertainment of some predominant lust , which oftentimes occasioneth our walking in darknesse , and having no light : This is ●lear from 1 Tim. 1. 19. where that precious ●ewel of Faith can bee holden in no other place but in a pure conscience , that is that ●oyal palace wherein it must dwell ; And ●o doubt , if once wee make shipwrack of a ●ood conscience , wee will erre concerning our ●aith . A bosome idol , when it is intertained ●oth exceedingly mar the vigorous exercise ●f these graces , which are evidences of our faith . And certainly , grace rather in its ●egrees , than in its sincerity or simple being onely , is that which giveth the clear evidence of Faith. Therefore when we find not love ●● its high and eminent actings , wee hardly win to make it any clearly concluding demonstration of our Faith. 3. As likewise , a bosome idol , when it is ●ntertained , maketh use to lose much of our ●igh esteem and reputation of Jesus Christ ; which doth exceedingly interrupt the sweet and precious actings of Faith. For it is certain , that if once the immortal soul be united to Jesus Christ by the bond of love and respect , then our Faith will increase with the increase of God. Our intertainment of a bosom idol is ordinarily punished with the want of the sensible intimations of his peace , and of our interest in him ; So that sometimes his own are constrained to cry out , God hath departed from mee , and he answereth mee not , neither by dreams nor visions . 4. There is that likewise that hath influence upon it , our not closing absolutely with Jesus Christ , but upon conditions and suppositions . We make not an absolute and blank resignation of our selves over unto Christ , to hold fast the Covenant , notwith ▪ standing hee should dispense both bitter and sad things to us ; But wee conceive that Christs Covenant with believers , is like tha● Covenant that God made with Noah , tha● there should bee summer and winter , seed● time and harvest , night and day , unto Christian. A Christian must have his nigh● as well as his day : hee must once sowe i●● tears , before hee reap in joy ; and hee mus● once go forth , bearing his precious seed , b●fore hee can return bearing his sheaves in hi● bosome : and that this hath influence upo● our instability , may bee seen from this , Th●● often a Christian , after his first closing wit● Christ , hee meeteth with desertion in poi●● of tendernesse , in point of joy , and in poi●● of strength , so that his corruptions see● now to be awaked more then formerly , th● hee wants those seeming injoyments of him which formerly he had : And that much of ●is softnesse of heart hath now evanished , which is clear somewhat from Heb. 10. 32. That after they were enlightened , they ondured great fight of afflictions , For the word that ●● there rendered afflictions , signifieth inward ●roubles through the motions of sinne , as well as outward afflictions , Gal. 5. 24. And God useth to dispense this way to his own , ●ot only to take trial of the sincerity of our ●losing with him , but to make our faith ●ore stedfast and sure . And no doubt , if we ●ose not absolutely with Christ ( when ●nder these ▪ temptations and trials ) we will ●eject our confidence as a delusion , and sup●ose it to bee but a morning dream ; there●ore it were a noble and divine practice of a ●hristian to close with Christ without re●ervation , seeing hee doth dispence nothing ●●t that which may tend to our advantage . ●nd we would say to such as are under these ●emptations , that if yee endeavour to resist ●●em , it is the most compendious and excel●●nt way to make your hearts , which now ●●e dying as a stone , to bee as a watered Gar●●n , and as springs of water , whose waters fail ●●t , and to make you strong as a Lion , so that 〈◊〉 temptation can rouse you up , but you all bee enabled to tread upon the high places the earth , and to sing songs of triumph over ●●ur Idols . 5. There is this likewise which hath in●●ence on it , or building of our faith more ●●on sense then upon Christ or his Word ; and therefore it is , that Faith is so unconstant and changeable as the Moon , we not knowing what such a thing meaneth , To hope against hope , and to bee strong in faith , giving glory to God : And we would onely say unto you , that erect your confidence upon so sandy a foundation , that when the storm and wind of tentation shall blow , That house shall fall to the ground . As likewise , building of your faith upon sense , doth abate much of your joy , and much of your precious esteem of Jesus Christ , it being faith exercising it self upon an invisible object , that maketh the Christian , to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory , 1 Pe● . 1. 8. 6. There is this last that hath influence upon it , even our sloathfulnesse in the exercise of our spiritual duties , by which Faith should bee entertained . Faith is a tender grace and a plant that must not be ruffled , bu● nourished through the sap of other precious graces ; but wee grow remisse in ou● spiritual duties , and do turn our selves upo● the bed of security , as the door upon th● hinges . And doth not our drowsinesse cloath us with rags , and make us fall into a deep sleep ; while as , if wee were diligent , O● souls should bee made fat and rich ? Yea slothfulnesse doth not only impede assuranc● in this , that it hindereth the divine communications of his love and respect , by which assurance may bee keeped in life , Cant. 5. 2 ▪ But also , it maketh our poverty come on us an armed man , and our want as one that travelleth . And withall , it letteth loose th● chain by which our corruptions are tyed , and maketh them to lift up their head , by which our assurance is much darkned and impared , and our hope is much converted into diffidence and dispair : And we would only say this , it is the diligent Christian that is the believing Christian ; and it is the believing Christian , that is the diligent Christian ; there being such a sweet reciprocation betwixt these two precious graces , that they die and live together . Now thirdly , we shall shut up our discourse with this , in pointing out a little what are those things that do obstruct a Christians closing with Christ , and believing in his precious Name . I. We conceive that this wofull evil doth ●pring and rise from that fundamentall igno●ance of this truth , that there is a God : as ●● clear from Heb. 11. 6. where that is re●uired as a qualification of a Comet , That he ●hould believe that God is : And assuredly ▪ ●ill once this precious truth be imprinted ●pon our souls , as with a pen of iron , and ●oint of a diamond , we will look upon the ●ospel as an U●opian fancy , and a deluding ●otion , to teach unstable souls , who know ●ot the way to attain unto real blessednesse . ●nd truly it is a fault in many , that they ●egin to dispute their being in Christ , before ●hey know there is a Christ : and to dispute ●heir interest in him before they believe his ●eing , and that there is such a one as is cal●●d Christ. II. Our coming unto Christ is obstructed from the want of the real and spiritual convictions of our desperate and lost estate without Jesus Christ , and that our unspeakable misery is the want of him ; which is clear from Ier. 2. 31. We are Lords , we will come no more to thee : And it is evident from Rev. 3. 16 , 18. That such a delusion as this doth overtake many , that they can reign as Kings without Jesus Christ , and that they can build their happinesse , and establish their eternal felicity upon another foundation . But , O that we could once win to this , to believe what we are without Christ , and to believe what we shall be in the enjoyment of him ; with the one eye to descend and look upon these deep draughts , that the mystery of iniquity hath imprinted upon your immortal souls , and withall to reflect upon the wages of sin , which is death ; and be constrained to cry out , Wo is me , for I am undone : And with the other eye to ascend and look to that help that is laid upon One that i● mighty , and to make use of the righteousnesse of a crucified Saviour , that so what we want in our selves , we may get it abundantly made up in him . III. There is this likewise that obstructeth our closing with Christ , our too much addictednesse to the pleasures and carnal delights of a passing world ; which is clea● from Luk. 14. 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22. Matth. 22 5 , 6. where these that were invited to com● to the feast of this Gospel , they do mak● their apologie , and with one consent do refuse it : some pretending an impossibility t● come , and some pretending an unavoidable inconveniency in coming : And O! What a rediculous thing is that poor complement , that these deluded sinners used to Christ , I pray you have us excused ? And is it not the world the great plea and argoment , that they make use of , When they will not come and make use of Christ ? IV. There is this lastly , which doth obstruct ones coming to Christ , their unwillingness to be denyed to their own righteousness : Which is clear from Rom. 10. 23. And wee conceive if once these two were believed ( which are the great Tropicks , out of which all these arguments may be brought to perswade you to imbrace Christ ) to wit , the infinite excellency of His person on whom we are to believe , and the infinite losse that these do sustain , who shall be eternally rejected of him . We might be persuaded to entertain a divine abstractednesse and holy retirement from all things that are here below , and to pitch our desires alone upon him , who is the everlasting wonder of Angels , and the glory of the higher House . O did we once suppose the unspeakable happinesse of these whose Faith is now advanced unto everlasting felicity and fruition , and hath entered into that eternal possession of the promises : might we not he constrained to cry out , It is good for us once to be there ? Christ weepeth to us in the Law , but we do not lament : and he pypeth to us in the Gospel , but we do not dance : He is willing to draw us with the cords of men , and with the bonds of love , and yet we will not have him to reign over us . May not Angels laugh at our folly , that wee should so undervalue this Prince of love , and should contemn him who is holden in so high esteem and reverence in these two great Assemblies that are above , of Angels , and of the spirits of just men made perfect ? Christ hath now given us the first and second Summonds , the day is approaching when the sad and wofull summonds shall be sent against us , of departing from him , into these everlasting flames , out of which there is no redemption : and this shall be the capestone of our misery , that we had once life in offer , but did refuse it ; And though there were four gates standing open toward the north , by which we might have entered into that everlasting rest , yet we choosed rather to walk in the paths that lead down to death ▪ and take hold of the chambers of hell . O but there are many that think the Gospel cunningly devised fables and foolishnesse , ( they being unwilling to believe that which sense cannot comprehend , nor reason reach ) and this is the reason why the Gospel is not imbraced , but is rejected as a humane invention ▪ and as a morning dream , &c. SERMON II. 1 Joh. 3. 23. This is his Commandment that ye should believe on the Name of his Son Iesus Christ , &c. THere are three great and cardinall mysteries , in the unfolding of which , all a Christians time ought to be spent . First , There is that precious and everlasting mystery of Christs love and condiscendency , which those intellectual spirits , the Angels , are not able fully to comprehend . Secondly , There is that woefull mystery of the desperate deceitfulnesse and wickednesse of the heart , which no man was ever yet able fully to fathom and comprehend . And , thirdly , there is that precious mystery of that eternal felicity and blessednesse that is purchased unto the Saints , that once they shall reign with Christ , not a thousand years only , but throughout all the ages of everlasting and endless eternity : so that there is this difference betwixt the Garden of everlasting delights , that Christ hath purchased to the Saints , and that first Paradise and Eden wherein man was placed : There was a secret gate in the first , thorow which a man that had once entered in , might go out again ; But in this second and precious Eden , there is no accesse for going out . And all that is to be known of these three mysteries , is much comprehended in this , to know that they cannot fully be known ; Paul was a blessed proficient in the study of the first mystery , and had almost attained to the highest Classe of knowledge , and yet he is constrained to professe himself to bee ignorant of this : Hence is that word , Eph. 3. 19. That ye may know the love of Christ , which passeth knowledge . And is it not a mysterious command , to desire people to know that which cannot be known ? The meaning whereof we conceive to be this in part , that Paul pressed this upon them , that they should study to know that this mystery of Christs love could not be known . Ieremiah was a blessed proficient in the knowledge and study of the second mystery , he had some morning and twilight discoveries of that , and yet though in some measure he had fat homed that deep ; yet he is constrained to cry out , chap. 17. vers . 9. The heart is deceitful above all things , and desperately wicked , who can know it ? And indeed , that which Solomon saith of Kings , Prov. 25. 3. may well be said of all men in this respect , The heavens for heighth , and the earth for depth , and the heart of man is unsearchable . The Apostle Paul also was a blessed proficient in the study of the third mystery , having some morning and twilight discoveries of that promised rest , and was once caught up to the third heavens , and yet when he is beginning to speak of it , 1 Cor. 2. 9. he declareth all men to be ignorant of the knowledge of this profound mystery of mans blessednesse , and cryeth out , Eye hath not seen , nor ear heard , neither have entered into the heart of man , the things which God hath prepared for them that love him . And if there bee any thing further to bee known of these mysteries , the grace of Faith is found worthy among all the graces of the Spirit , To open the seven seals of these great deeps of God. Is not the grace of Faith that whereby a Christian doth take up the invisible excellency and vertue of a dying Christ ? Is not Faith that precious grace by which a Christian must take up the sports and blemishes that are within himself ? And is not the grace of Faith , that precious grace that placeth a Christian upon the top of mount Pisga , and there letteth him see a sight of the promised Land ? And doth open a door in Heaven , thorow which a Christian is admitted to see Christ sitting upon His Throne ? And Faith hath not only a kind of Omnipotency ; as is clear , That all things are possible to them that believe : but it hath a kind of Omnisciency , and all knowledge that it can take up and comprehend the greatest mysteries of heaven , according to that word , Prov. 28. 5. He that seeketh the Lord shall understand all things , As if hee said , there is nothing dark to a believing Christian , as there is nothing impossible to ● believing Christian. As likewise , Faith ●s that grace that must take aside the vail that is spread over the face of a crucified Christ. And Faith is that precious spy that goeth forth , and taketh up these wonderfull excellencies , that are in him . The grace of love , as it were , is born blind , and it hath nothing wherewith to solace it self , but that which is presented unto it by this noble and excellent grace of Faith. Now before wee shall speak any thing to these things that wee did propose to speak of it at the last occasion : wee shall yet speak a little unto some things which are necessary to be known , for the distinct up taking of the nature of justifying Faith ; which is the great commandement of this everlasting Gospel : and that which wee would first speak to shall be this . What is the reason and ground that the Gospel conveyance of righteousnesse and life , ( and of the excellent things of this everlasting Covenant ) should be through the exercise of the grace of Faith ? For it is not said in the Scripture that repentance justifieth , that love justifieth , or that mortification justifieth ; but it is Faith only that justifieth , and it is Faith by which a Christian inheriteth the promises , so that is clear , that Faith is that Conduit-pype , through which are conveyed to us the great blessings of this everlasting Covenant . I. And the first ground of it is this , it is through Faith , that all our blessings may be known to be by love , and by free and unsearchable grace ; as is clear , Rom. 4. 16. While the Apostle is giving a reason why the inheritance is conveyed to a Christian through Faith ; It is of faith ( saith he ) that it might be of grace : for if the inheritance were conveyed to a Christian through a Covenant of Works , then these spotlesse draughts of infinite love , and of unsearchable grace , should not be written on our inheritance , as is clear , Rom. 4. 25. And it is that great designe of Christ , to make his grace conspicuous in conveying salvation to us through Faith. II. There is this second ground likewise of it , that all the promises and blessings of this everlasting Covenant might be sure and stedfast to us , therefore they are conveyed to us through the exercise of the grace of Faith ; as is clear , Rom. 4. 16. They are of Faith ( saith he ) that they might be sure : or as the word is , that they might be settled , when the promises of life and of eternal salvation were conveyed to us through mans obedience , were they not then most uncertain and unstable ? But is not heaven your everlasting crown now , stedfast unto you , seeing you have that golden pillar of Christs everlasting righteousnesse to be the foundation of your Faith , and the strength of your confidence in the day of need ? III. There is this third ground why the promises and excellent things of this Gospel are conveyed to a Christian through the exercise of Faith , that all boasting and gloriation might be excluded , according to that word , Rom. 3. 27. By what law is boasting excluded ? Not by the law of works , but by the law of Faith. And certainly , seeing Christians have all the great things of heaven conveyed to them through the exercise of Faith ; think yee not , that this shall be your first song when yee shall be within the gates of that new Jerusalem ? Not unto us , not unto us , but unto thee doth belong the glory of our salvation . O what a precious dignity were it , but for one half hour to be admitted to hear these spotlesse songs that are sung by these thousand times ten thousand , and thousands of thousands of holy Angels , that are round about His Throne ! Doth not David that sweet singer of Israel , now sing more sweetly no● he did while he was here below ? Doth not deserted Heman now chaunt forth the praises and everlasting song of him that sitteth upon the Throne ? And doth not afflicted Iob now sing sweetly after his captivity is reduced , and he entered within that land , where the voice of joy and gladnesse is continually heard ? Would ye have a description of Heaven ? I could give it no tearm so suitable as this , Heaven is a rest , without a rest , for though there remain a rest for the righteous , yet Rev. 4. 8. These four beasts that stand before the Throne , they rest not night nor day , crying , holy , holy , holy , is the Lord God Almighty ; yet there is much divine quietnesse in that holy unquietnesse that is above . IV. There is this last ground why the blessings of the Gospel , and life and righteousnesse are conveyed to us thorow the exercise of Faith , that the way to attain to these things might be pleasant and easie ; we are certainly perswaded , that the way of winning to Heaven by a Covenant of Works was much more unpleasant and difficult . But is it not an easie way of entring into the holy of Holies , to win unto it through the exercise of Faith ? Are not all wisdoms wayes pleasantnesse , and are not all her paths peace ? Was not that just self-denial in one , that said , he would not take up a Crown though it were lying at his foot . But oh that cursed self-denial doth possesse the breasts of many ; so that though that Crown of immortal Glory and eternal blessednesse be lying at your feet , yet ye will not imbrace it , nor take it up . Is not the hatred of many to Christ covered with deceit , and therefore , Your iniquity shall be declared before the Congregation . Now that what we have spoken upon this , might be more clear , and that the nature of ●ustifying Faith be not mistaken , We would have you taking notice of these things . 1. That the grace of Faith doth not justifie Christian , as it is a work ; or because of any inherent excellency and dignity that is in this grace , above any other graces of the Spirit ; ●ut Faith doth alone justifie a Christian instrumentally and objectively ; that is , it is ●hat by which a Christian is just , by laying hold ●n the precious object of it , the righteousness of Christ. And to clear this , we would only have you knowing this , That Faith doth juifie , as it closeth with Christ ; but not because 〈◊〉 closes with Christ , which some vainly are ●old to assert ; because there is not any dig●ity or worth in the act of Faith , in closing with Christ that can be the foundation of our ●ustification , else it were to confound that precious decreet of free grace . 2. There is this that we would have you all knowing ; That Faith is not the instrument of Justification , ( as Justification is taken in an active sense , ) though it is the instrument of Justification , as it is taken in a passive sense : and the ground of this conclusion is this , because it is impossible that any action in man can be an instrument of any action in God : And therefore that phrase that you have so ordinarily spoken of , That Faith justifieth , it is thus to be resolved , That we are justified by Faith. 3. There is this that we would have you knowing , that betwixt a Christians closing by Faith with the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ , and the justification of a sinner , I say , there is no natural and indispensible connexion betwixt these two : but onely there is a connexion of divine appointment , and of free grace , though we conceive there is a natural aptitude in the grace of Faith , to lay hold on the righteousnesse of Christ , more then there is in any other grace of the Spirit , as ye may see there is a more natural aptitude and fitnesse in the hand to receive then in any other organ of the body . 4. There is this also that we would have you knowing , that a Christian in his first closing with Christ , Christ ( considered as crucified ) is the immediate object of his Faith , and not Christ considered in his personal excellencies . Hence it is often in Scripture , that Christ as crucified , is holden forth as the immediate object of justifying Faith ; as is clear , Rom. 3. 5 , 24 , 25. And the ground of this assertion is this , because that it is the formall object of justifying Faith , which doth formally justifie the sinne● ; and on which Faith doth immediately lay hold as a ransome to satisfie justice , and as a righteousnesse in which the soul dare venture to be found when it shall stand before the Judgement seat of God ; And certainly , this is Christ as obedient to the death of the crosse . And it is likewise clear , that the thing which doth engage the soul to Christ , is not onely because he is good in himself , but because he is good to us . 5. And there is this lastly , that we would have you knowing , That though faith doth alone justifie , yet Faith doth not justifie being alone : Hence is that which we have so often in Schooles , Fides justificat solum , licet non solitariè , that Faith justifieth alone , though not being alone ; as Iames doth speak , Faith without works is dead , and is of no effect . Now that which secondly we shall speak to , shall be this ; To point out to you some differences betwixt justifying Faith , which is in a real Believer , and temporary Faith which is in an Hypocrite , and one that is destitute of that everlasting hope , though he do pretend to have it . And first , That there is such a thing as temporary Faith , is clear from Luk. 8. 13. It is said there of some ▪ That they believed for a season , yea , in Acts 8. 13. It is said of Simon Magus ( who was in the gall of bitternesse , and in the bond of iniquity ) he believed . And these in Ioh 2. 23. When they did behold the miracles , they believed on Iesus Christ : and yet we conceive , that their faith was not sincere , and so this was not saving Faith. And indeed ye may see a difference betwixt these two in the very name temporary ; for this is such a Faith as doth not continue long with him that hath it , but doth evanish and passe away ; for as this is certain , that an hypocrite will not always call upon God , Iob 27. 10. So that is also certain , that a hypocrite will not alwayes believe in God. I tell you , that the longest time a hypocrite doth keep his Faith , Iob hath set down in his 18. Chap. vers . 14. Their hope ( saith he ) shall bring them to the king of terrours , and then it shall be rooted out of them and their tabernacle ; their faith will bring them no further then the gates of death , and then their faith will flee away as a dream , and evanish as a vision of the night . II. There is this difference likewise betwixt them , That temporary Faith , it closeth with Christ as a Saviour , and for righteousnesse , but it closeth not with Christ as a Prince , and for Sanctification ; but justifying Faith taketh Christ as well for a Prince , as it taketh him for a Saviour : and if Solomon did discern who was the true Mother of the childe by that , that she who would have the childe divided , was not the mother of the childe ; so we may say ▪ that they who would divide Christ in his Offices , it is an evidence that they are not among these who are actually made partakers of the Adoption of children ; there is somewhat of this pointed at in Ioh. 6. 66. where that which made many who were his disciples ( and did once believe ) desert him , was because of the hardnesse of his command , This is an hard saying , who can hear it ? And it is certain that it is a greater difficulty for a Christian to take Christ as a Prince , then as a Saviour : for by that he must make an absolute resignation of himself over to Chrrst , never to be reduced . O when saw you such a sight of Christ , that ye were constrained to cry our ( without a complement ) to him ; Truly I am thy servant ▪ I am thy servant ? O were ye never ravished with one of his eyes , nor overtaken with one chain of his neck ? Believe me , they who see him thus , do believe that His commands are not grievous . III. There is this difference , that temporary Faith is attained unto , without the exercise of the Law , but justifying Faith is not attained to without some measure of the exercise of the Law : this is clear , Mark 4. 5. where speaking of these temporary believers , it is said of them , that the fruit did immediately spring up , &c. Are there not some ( it may be here ) who think they do believe , and yet were never in any measure trembling under the discovering & condemning power of the Law ? Is not that a mystery , that one should bring forth without travelling ? And is not this a mystery in Christianity , that one should believe before he hath found the pa●gs of the New ▪ birth . I am afraid of this , that many of us have taken up our Religion at our foot : for there are many who take up Religion before Religion take them up . But would ye know the properties of a Christians Faith ? It is a begotten Faith , 1 Pet. 1. 2. and not a Faith that is taken up at our pleasure : And I would only say these two things to you , be perswaded of this , that hypocrisie may be spun with a ve●p small threed : so that the most discerning Christian cannot take up that desperate enmity that is in them . How long did Iudas lu●k under the name of a Saint , even with these that were most discerning ? And there is this that we would say , that among all these that shall be eternally excommunicate from the presence of the Lord , and from the glory of his power , Hypocrites in Sion shall have the bitterest cup of Divine indignation presented unto them . Hence it is , that Christ , when he would tell the worst company that one shall have in hell , it is alwayes this : ye shall go to that place where hypocrites and sinners are : and so it would be of your concernment , that by the candle of the Lord ye would search the inward parts of the belly , before ye go down to the grave with a lie in your right hand ; a deceiving heart having turned you aside . We confesse it is sad to consider these anxious disappointments that many in those dayes shall once meet with . IV. But there is this last difference betwixt justifying Faith , and temporary Faith , That there are three precious effects of justifying Faith , which a temporary believer cannot win to . 1. To be denyed to all his enjoyments and attainments , and walk humbly under them , for we may say , that it is impossible for an hypocrite to be denyed to his enjoyments , he maketh such a deity of them , and worships them , or rather he worshippeth himself in them . There are three great graces that a hypocrite doth pursue after , ( though he rather seeketh them as gifts than as graces : ) Knowledge , Prayer , and Humility : And though it be but little that he can attain of any of the three , ( or rather nothing in a saving way ) yet least of all can he attain to the last , yea , we may judge that there is alwayes within his bosome a standing conviction , that he could never win unto that gracious grace of humility . O could ye never win to this , to count your own righteousnesse as filthy rags , and to rejoice alone in the righteousnesse of a crucified Saviour ? I would press this upon you by the way ( O Christians of this generation ) forget your perfections ; and remember your imperfections ; have a holy oblivion of your attainments , but have a Divine remembrance of your short comings , look more to what is before unperfected , nor to what is behind , and thus shall you evidence true justifying Faith. 2. It is an effect of justifying Faith to be under some constant and Divine impression of the preciousnesse of Jesus Christ , according to that word , 1 Pet. 2. 7. To you who believe , Christ is precious ; It is not said , that Christ was precious , or shall be precious , but it is said , He is precious , which doth import , ( as we use to speak ) a continued act ; Did ye never know what it was to dwell twenty four hours under the impression of the matchlesse excellency and precious worth of a crucified Saviour ? I will pose you with this . Are there not some here ( and elsewhere ) that passe under the notion of Saints , that never knew what it was to dwell half an hour under these high and elevaring thoughts of the preciousnesse of Jesus Christ ? So that wee professe we cannot tell whether we shall call him precious or undervalued : but wee may conjoyn these two names together ; that he is precious ( and yet ) undervalued Christ. 3 ▪ By true justifying Faith , a Christian winneth to mortification of his invisible and predominant lusts , which is impossible for a temporary Believer to win to . And is there not a great difference betwixt an Idol when it is cast out , and an Idol when it goeth out ? I will tell you the great mortification of hypocrites , the devil was living in them as one that was a black one , and now hee cometh again and transformeth himself into an Angel of light : He was living in them before by his spirit of prosanity , and now hee liveth in them by the spirit of hypocrisie , and counterfeiting of these things that were never clear attainments , while it is the noble dignity of Faith , Act. 15. 9. To purifie the heart . But are there not many here who never knew what it was to mortifie one lust for Christ ? Can such a delusion overtake you O●athiests ▪ That ye shall reign with Christ , if ye die not with him ? There is an opinion vented in these dayes , that there may be repentance in heaven , and I think it would seem that the Christians of this age have much of that opinion , we are so little in repentance while we are here below : but know that Faith and Sanctification are two inseparable companions : And let me tell you , if ye would know the compend of the precious exercise of Faith ? It is this , Faith hath three great things , that it perpetually contemplates and views . 1. Faith looketh to the promise , and there it doth rejoyce and rest upon it . 2. Faith looketh to the duties that are commanded , and there it cryeth out , Here am I , I will obey and hearken unto the voice of the word . And , 3. Faith looketh to the crown , and there it doth exult and sweetly rejoyce in divine expectation . And O what a sight is that , to behold that everlasting Prince standing at the end of our race , having a crown in his right hand , with this Motto ingraven on it , Hee that persevereth to the end shall be saved ? And what a Faith suppose yee shall it be thought when wee shall get on that immortal Crown of blessednesse ? What think ye is the exercise of these that are above ? O heaven , heaven , if we did know it , would we not be in a holy extasie of desire , till we were there ! And blessed be he eternally , that hath purchased that precious felicity to us . Now we shall at this time shut up our discourse , by speaking a little to these things , in which a Christian doth ordinarily meet with assurance of his interest in God , and is put to the divine actings of the grace of Faith , for there are some sealing times to a Christian. I. The first time of the sealing is , after the mortification of some predominante lust and idol , then they are admitted to read their names in these precious and ancient records of heaven , and to see ( in these Books ) their unworthy names written by the hand of that everlasting Prince . This is clear , Rev. 2. 17. To him that overcometh will I give a white stone , and in the stone a new name written , that no man knows , saving he that receiveth it . And from that 2 Tim. 4. 8. Believe mee , more mortification would make more believing , but would ye know the original of misbelief ? It is the want of exercise of spiritual mortification of our lusts . I know not where the most part of us intendeth to lodge at night , but this is certain , that wee live with much contentment with our lusts , and these predominant idols that doth so much possesse us . II. It is readily a sealing time to a Christian , when hee is admitted to the divine enjoyment of these satisfying delights that are to be found in Christ : When was it that the Spouse cryed out so often , My beloved is mine , and I am his ? Was it not when she was brought to the banqueting house , and his banner over her was love ? Believe mee , more communion with an absent Christ , would make more intimation ( in a divine manner ) of our peace with him : wee desire to blesse these that are above the reach of all these disputings , and questionings that wee are so much subject unto . III. This is a sealing time to a Christian , when hee is much in the exercise 〈◊〉 secret Prayer , and of much conversing , and corresponding with God in that duty , as is clear from that word in Dan. 9. 21. when Daniel was praying at the evening oblation , in the ●3 . verse he meets with a divine intimation of his peace with God , O man greatly beloved of God ; as the Original hath it , O man of great desires ; for he was desirable indeed , and precious to him who holdeth the Saints in his ●ight hand . IV. This is also a sealing-time to a Christian , when hee is called to the exercise of some great work , and is to be put upon some eminent holy employment , this is clear , Ier. ● 5. Where Ieremiah being called to preach the Gospel unto such a rebellious people , ●hen hee hath this eternal election declared ●nto him : Before thou wast formed in the womb , I knew thee ; Christ , as it were , giveth them that , to be meat to them for fourty dayes , and that in the strength of it , they may go many a dayes journey . V. There is also another sealing time : When ● Christian is first begotten to a precious and everlasting hope : for when at first Christians begin to be acquaint with Christ , even then sometimes he declareth to them his boundless and everlasting love : And that is the ground why some of those who are but babes in Christ , ●re so much in the exercise of diligence , so much in the exercise of the grace of love , and ●o much in the exercise of the grace of tendernesse , it is even because of the solemn impression of their interest in Christ , that , as it ●ere , they are daily taken in to read their own names in legible letters , in the Lambs book of life . VI. And there is this last time , that is ● sealing time to a Christian , and that is , when he is put under some sad and afflicting dispensation : When the furnace is hot seven times more then ordinary , Then doth God condescen●●o manifest himself to his own : When was it that Iohn met with most of the revelation● of Heaven ? Was it not when hee was in the Isle of Patmos , for the testimony of Jesus Christ● Kingdom , and patience of our blessed Lord ? Rev. 1. 9. And in that place , 2 Cor. 4. 16. Though our outward man decay , yet our inward man is renewed day by day . Now wee would presse you to bee more serious in the exercise of this precious grace ▪ And I shall tell you the compend of Christianity in these few words . 1. By faith to solace your selves in Christs invisible vertues and excellencies . And , 2. by hope , to be● viewing that precious Crown , and these everlasting dignities that are to bee given to the Saitns . And , 3 ▪ by mortification , to be crucifying your idols . And , 4. by patience ▪ to bee possessing your souls , untill once ye● shall passe through that dark land , to tha● valley of everlasting delight . And as fo● those that contemne , and undervalue th● bloud of this everlasting Covenant ( and 〈◊〉 would have all these that delight not in closing with Christ , and these who have no● misbelief as their crosse , to consider this ) The wrath of the living and eternal God do●● abide upon them who do not believe , according ●● that word , Ioh. 3. 36. He that believeth ●●ot , the wrath of God abideth on him . It is a remarkable phrase ; because of this the wrath of God will not bee a Pilgrime to a mishbe●ever , that will turn aside to tarry but for 〈◊〉 night , but the wrath of God ( to them who will not believe ) shall bee their houshold ●ompanion , and shall dwell with them ; and ●o , wo to them eternally , who have this sad ●nd everlasting companion to abide with ●hem , the wrath of a living God. There is ●ne thing we would have these knowing , that among all these who are eternally to bee dearted from Jesus Christ , misbelievers are put ●● the foremost rank , Rev. 21. 8. There he is to ●ut away the fearful and unbelieving . And ●om 2 Thess 1. 18. When Christ shall come from heaven with ten thousand of his Saints , ( What ●o do ) It is even to execute vengeance on th●se ●hat obey not the truth of the Gospel ▪ that is , who do not believe . And I pose your own hearts with this , whether or not your names ●ee written there in that ●oll , among these sho shall be cut off ? And that word , 2 Thes. ● . 12. That they might be damned who believed ●ot , but took pleasure in unrighteousnesse . O but ●he wrath of a dying Christ , and of a crucifi●d Saviour is dreadful ! It is more sad and ter●ible then the wrath of God should have been 〈◊〉 Christ had not died . I will tell you ( O ●ypocrites in Sion ) the worst news that ever were published in your e●●s , and it is this , Christ died and rose again , ( and to those that ●re begotten to a lively hope , they are glad ●●dings of great joy , and therein they may comfort themselvs ) but ye may wear a rough garment to deceive , and go to heaven in your own apprehension : But , O the sad disappointment that is waiting on many such ▪ And to close with this , we would obtest you ▪ as ye would answer to your terrible & dreadfull Judge , that shall stand one day upon his Throne , which he shall fix in the clouds , we obtest you by all the joyes of heaven , and we obtest you by all the everlasting pains of hell ▪ and we obtest you by all the curses that are written within the volume of this Book , and by all the sweet & comfortable promises that are in this everlasting Gospel , and by the love that ye owe to your immortal souls , and as ye would not crucifie Christ afresh , believe , and imbrace the offers which are presented now unto you . Know ye whether or not this shall be the last summonds that ye shall get to believe ? That so , if ye do reject it , Christ shall come from heaven , and pronounce that sad and lamentable sentence to you , Depart from me 〈◊〉 cursed , I know you not . Now , to him that ca● blesse these things to you , we desire to give praise . SERMON III. 1 Joh. 3. 23. This is his Commandment that ye should believe on the Name of his Son Iesus Christ , &c. IT was a command that Solomon gave unto his Son , Prov. 22. 26. That he should not be surety for debt , nor should be one of those that stricketh hands ; But , O! what spotlesse breaches of that Command hath our blessed Lord Jesus committed , when he did condescend to be surely for our debt , and to pay that , that was impossible for us to satisfie ? Hath not Christ made a precious exchange with sinners ? He wreathed about his own precious neck , that bond and yoke of our iniquities , and hath given to us that unweariable , easie , and portable yoke of his Commandements ; among which this is ●ne , That wee should believe on him . Spotlesse Christ was made sin for us ▪ that sinful we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him : And is not this the condemnation of the world , that we will not believe in him ? that wee will not delight ourselves in loving of Him ( And I would say this to you , that though you should weep the one half of your dayes , and pray the other half , yet , if ye want this noble grace of Faith ▪ Your righte●usnesse shall be but like a menstruous cloath and filthy rags before him : for what is pray●ng without believing , but a taking of His ●lessed Name in vain ? What is our confer●ing upon the most divine and precious Truths of God , without believing ? Is it not ● lying to the holy Ghost , and a flattering of God with our mouth ? And we would have you knowing this , that there is a sweet harmony that is now madeup betwixt Moses and Christ , betwixt the Law and the Gospel . The Law bringeth us to Christ as a Saviour , and Christ bringeth us back again ●o the Law to be a rule of our walk , to which we must subject our selves . So then , would ye know the compend of a Christian● walk ? It is a sweet travelling betwixt mount Sinai and mount Sion , betwixt Moses and Christ , betwixt the Law and the Gospel . And we conceive that the more deep that the exercise of the Law be in a Christians conscience , before his closing with Christ , there is so much the more precious and excellent advantages waiting for him . I. There is this advantage that waiteth on the deep exercise of the Law : that it is the way to win to much establishment in the Faith , when once we begin to close with Christ. O Christians , would ye know that which maketh the superstructure and building of grace to be within you , as a bowing wall and as a tottering fence ? ( So that oftentimes y● are in hazard to raze the foundation ) it is this , Yee were not under the exercise of the Law before your believing in Jesus Christ. There are some who do not abide three dayes at mount Sinai , and these shall not dwel● many dayes at mount Sion . II. There is this advantage that waiteth on the deep exercise of the Law , it maketh Christ precious to a mans soul. What is that which filleth the soul of a Christian● with many high and excellent thoughts of Christ ? Is it not this , to have the Law registrating our Band , and putting us ( as we use to speak ) to the horn ? that is , to have the Law cursing us , and using the sentence of condemnation against us . That which maketh us have such low and undervaluing thoughts of precious Christ , is , because the most part of us are not acquainted with the deep and serious exercise of the Law : that is a mystery to the most part of Christians practice . Ye know that there were four streams which went out from the Paradise of God , into which man was first placed : And so we may say , that there are four golden streams , by which lost and destroyed man is brought back again to this Eden and Paradise of everlasting delights . First , there is the precious stream of Christs righteousnesse , by which we must be justified . And secondly , There is that stream of his Sanctification , by which we must be purified . Thirdly , There is that stream of the Wisedom of Christ , by which we must be conducted through this wildernesse wherein we have lost our way . And fourthly , There is that stream of Christs Redemption , by which we must be delivered from the power of our enemies , and must turn the Battel in the gate . It is by the Redemption of Christ that we shall once sing that triumphant song , O Death , where is thy sting ? O Grave , where is thy victory ? O but all these streams will be sweat and refreshing to a soul that is hotly pursued by the Law. So long as we see not the uglinesse of our leprosie in the glasse of the Law , we have our own Abana and Parphar , that we think may do our turn : but when once our case is truly laid open to us , then will we be content to wash our selves in Iordan seven times . III. There is this advantage that waiteth on the deep exercise of the Law , that it maketh a Christian live constantly under the impression of the sinfulnesse of sin . What is it that maketh sin exceeding sinfull to a Christian ? Is it not this , He hath been fourty dayes in Moses School ? And we conceive that the ground why such fools as we make a mock of sin , is , because we know not what it is to be under the power of his wrath and the apprehensions of the indignation of God. But now to come to that which we intend to speak of : We told you , at the first occasion that we spake upon these words , that there were many excellent things concerning the grace of Faith , holden forth in them . The first thing ( which was holden forth concerning this radicall grace of Faith ) was the infinite advantage that redoundeth to a Christian through the exercise of Faith , and giving obedience to this command : which we cleared to be holden forth , not onely from the scope , but also from the nature of this command . And now to speak a little to the point , we shall propose these considerations , that may abundantly shew how advantagious ● thing this excellent grace of Faith is . I. The first Consideration , that speaketh it , is this , That Faith maketh Christ precious to a soul , according to that word , 1 Pet. 2. 7. To you that believe , Christ is precious . And we would have you knowing this , that Faith maketh Christ more precious to a soul , nor sense , or any other thing can make him . And first , Faith maketh Christ more precious nor sense , because the estimation which the grace of Faith hath of Christ , it is builded upon the excellency of his Person : but the estimation of sense it is builded upon the excellency of his actings : so that , because he is such to them , therefore they love and esteem him . But that Heroick grace of Faith , it taketh up the excellency of Christs person , and that maketh him precious to them . Secondly , Faith makes Christ more precious then sense , because sense looketh to that love which Christ manifesteth in his Face , and in his Hands , and in his Feet : but Faith looketh to that love which is in his heart . Sense will cry forth , Who is like to thee ? whose countenance is like Lebanon , excellent as the Cedar : whose hands are as gold rings , set with Beryl , and whose legs are like pillars of Marble set in sokets of Gold. Sense will look to the smylings of Christ , and will wonder ; it will look to his dispensations and actings , and will be constrained to cry out , Who is like unto thee ▪ But the grace of Faith solaceth it self in the Fountain from whence all these springs and sweet inundations of love do flow . Thirdly , Faith maketh Christ more precious then Sense ; because Faith looketh not only to what Christ is presently , but unto what Christ is from eternity before time , and what Christ shall be unto eternity after time ; But sense onely doth look to what Christ is presently . And ye must conceive , that the sweet travelling of Faith betwixt infinite love from eternity before , and infinite love unto eternity after , must make Faith to fall in a sea of wondering , and raiseth the thoughts to the highest pito● of desire and estimation . Fourthly , We may likewise adde , that the impression of the preciousnesse of Christ , which sense maketh upon the soul , it is not so constant , not so single , as that which faith doth make . O but the grace of Faith giveth the Christian a broad look of Christ , and letteth him see Christ cloathed with ornaments of Glory , and divine Majesty . Sense followeth Christ rather that it might see his Miracles ; and Love , that it may be fed with Loaves ; but Faith follows Christ for himself above all . II. The second consideration to speak the advantage of it , is , that the grace of Faith , it hath , as it were , an arbitrary power with God ; so that whatsoever a Christian shall seek in Faith , hee shall receive it . It is the noble gift that was once given to Faith , that it should never seek any thing and bee denyed , according to that word in Matth. 21. 22. And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer , believing , ye shall receive it : And that word in Joh. 15. 7. Abide in me , that is , believe , and the promise is annexed to this , whatsoever ye shall ask , yee shall receive : And it is clear likewise from the preceeding verse to our Text , that if we obey this command of Faith , Whatsoever we shall ask of God , we shal receive it . And I would speak these two things to you from this . First , That oftentimes Christ putteth a blank in a Christians hand , who is much in the exercise of Faith , according to that in Matth. 20. 32. Is there not an ample blank put into that mans hand , What wilt thou that I should do unto thee ? Christ desireth him to fill up that blank with what he would ; And secondly , There is this which is one of the greatest steps of Christs matchlesse condescendency , that oftentimes when his own have sought in their presumption a blank to be put in their hand , Christ condescendeth to give it , according to that strange passage in Mark 10. 35 , 36. The two disciples who present this desire to Christ , We desire , say they , That whatsoever we ask , thou shall give it unto us , and presently that is answered , What will ye that I should do for you ? Christ hath an infinite good will to satisfie the desires of his own : and that which yet more speaketh out Christs boundlesse good will , to satisfie the desires of all that belong to him ; It may be cleared in that word , Ioh. 16. 24. Where he chargeth his Disciples with this , Hitherto ( saith he ) have ye asked me nothing ; ye must not suppose that Peter , Iames and Iohn never sought a sui● of Christ , but the meaning of that expression is this , ye sought nothing in comparison of that , which I was willing to give , and which your necessity did call for at my hands , which ye should have sought . III. There is this third consideration to point out the advantage of Faith , It is that grace , that keepeth all the graces of the spirit in life and exercise ; Faith is that higher wheel , at the motion of which , all the lower wheels do move ; If so wee may speak , Faith is that Primum mobile , that first moves and turns about all these lower graces of the Spirit , according to that , 2 Pet. 1. 5. Adde to your faith , vertue , and to your vertue , patience , and to your patience , brotherly kindnesse . First , The grace of Faith keepeth in exercise the grace of Love , as is clear , Eph. 3 17. where these two Graces are conjoyned : As likewise from Rom. 5. 1. compared with verse 5. Being justified by faith . Then this effect followeth upon it , The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts : And so it is certain , that Faith keepeth Love in Life . Faith ( being the Spy of the soul , and that Intelligencer , and precious Messenger ) it goeth out , and bringeth in objects unto Love , Faith draweth aside the vail , and love sitteth down and solaceth it self in the discoveries of Faith. Secondly , The grace of Faith likewise , it keepeth the grace of Mortification in exercise : as is clear not only from Ephes. 6. 6. but from 1 Ioh. 5. 4. This is our victory whereby we overcome the world , even our faith ; And it is certain , that Faith keepeth mortification in exercise , and advanceth holinesse , not only because of this , that Faith is that grace that presenteth to a Christian the absolute purity and spotlesse holinesse of Jesus Christ : but also because it maketh them esteem their idols tastlesse as the white of an egge , and they become unto them as their sorrowfull meat . The best principle of mortification is this , the discoveries of the invisible vertues of Jesus Christ. That mortification which a●iseth from the lovely discoveries of the excellency of Jesus Christ , is most real and abiding , as these waters which riseth from the highest springs are not onely constant , but likewise most deep and excellent . Thirdly , Faith likewise hath influence upon mortification , as it doth take hold of that infinit strength that is to Christ , by which a Christian is inabled to mo●●ifie his corruptions . Fourthly ▪ Faith likewise maketh application of the bloud of sprinkling , by which wee are purified from dead works . Fifthly , Likewise the grace of Faith keepeth in exercise the grace of Humility , as is clear ▪ Rom. 3. 27. By what Law , saith he , is boasting excluded ? It is not by the Law of Works , but by the Law of Faith. Sixthly , Faith keepeth in exercise the grace of joy , as is clear , Rom. 15. 13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy , and peace in believing : So that ye see the proper fruit of Faith is , joy in the Holy Ghost . And certainly , did wee believe more , wee should rejoyce more . Seventhly , and lastly , Faith keepeth in exercise the grace of hope : for it is impossible for hope to bee in lively exercises , except Faith once bee exercised : which may bee a shame unto you ; For how can wee hope to attain the thing that is promised , except our faith first close with the promise ? So there is this difference betwixt the grace of Faith , and the grace of Hope : the grace of Faith closeth with the promises , but the grace of Hope , it closeth with the thing that is promised . IV. There is this fourth Consideration , that may speak out the excellency of the grace of Faith ; It is that grace , by which a Christian doth attain to most divine fellowship , and constant correspondency with Heaven . Would yee have that question resolved and determined , What is the best way , Not to stir up our beloved , nor awake him untill he please ? It is this , be much in the grace of Faith : this is clear from Eph. 3. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith : By the exercise of all other graces , Christ is but a sojourner , That turneth aside to tarry but for a night ; but by the exercise of this grace , he cometh to take up house with us . I will tell you what faith is , It is a ladder that reacheth betwixt heaven and earth : by the steps of which , a Christian doth daily go up to heaven , and converse with the higher House . Faith is that grace , ( as the Apostle speaketh ) by which wee have accesse to the Throne of his grace . Faith ushers in the Believer to the Throne : and without it hee cannot have accesse there , nor joy when he is there . V. Here is this advantage that attendeth the exercise of Faith ; A believing Christian is a praying Christian : according to that word in Mark 9. 24. where these two are conjoyned together , Lord , I believe : and then hee falleth to his prayer presently after that confession , Help thou my unbelief . And it is clear from Psal. 63. 1. O God ▪ thou art my God , early will I seek thee , my soul thirsteth for thee . And sometimes Faith is a most impatient grace : but we may alwayes say of it , that it is a most diligent grace . Oh is it not the neglect of this precious exercise of faith and of the duty of secret Prayer , that makes our leannesse testisie to our Face , and maketh our souls as a barren wildernesse ? I am perswaded of this , ( that since Christ had any followers , and since ever this everlasting Go●pel was preached in Paradise ) the exercise of secret prayer was never so much neglected . Wee have turned over all our prayers into complements with God. We know not what ●t is to rise at mid-night and call upon God , and to inquire after our Maker under the silent watches of the night . O but it is a sweet di●ersion from sleep , to retire our selves ( in the ●ilent seasons of the night ) from all thoughts ●bout ▪ worldly matters , and to converse with ●hat invisible Majesty . VI. There is this sixth consideration to ●oint out the advantage of Faith : That Faith ●s that grace that doth facilitate a Christians obedience , and maketh it most pleasant and ●asie ; This is clear from Heb. 11. 8. By faith Abraham , when commanded to go to a strange land , obeyed , and went out , not knowing whether ●e went : The word may be rendered , He did ●hearfully obey . And ver . 17. By faith he of●ered up his only Son. Would ye know the rea●on why his commands are your burden , and why his precepts are your crosses ? It is be●ause of this , Yee do not believe : And so it is most certain , that it is impossible for a Chri●tian to attain to a pleasant way of obedience , ●ithout the exercise of Faith. Faith holdeth ●p the Crown to a Christian , and this crown ●aketh him to obey . Faith gathereth strength ●rom Christ , and that strength maketh obe●ience very easie . Faith ●aketh up the excellency of Christ , and this maketh a Christian to look upon his duty , more as his dignity , then his duty . And we are perswaded of this , that our chariot wheel should move more swiftly , ( like the chariots of Aminadab ) if we were more in the exercise of the grace of Faith. Would ye know an answer to that question . What is the first most requisit for a Christian while here below ? Faith ; And what secondly is most requisit ? Faith ; And what thirdly is most requisit for a Christian ? even Faith. Faith above all things , and above all things , Faith. VII . There is another advantage of it , that by Faith our service and prayers are accepted of God. Would ye know what is the prayer of a Christian that is not in Faith ? I● is a smoak in his nostrils , and a fire that burneth all the day . The unbelievers sacrifice is an abomination to the Lord. This is clear from Heb. 11. 4. By faith Abel offered up unto God a more acceptable sacrifice then Cain ; and we conceive that there are many unanswered prayers which we do put up , because we want that noble exercise of Faith. VIII . And lastly , we shall likewise add● this , that Faith is the gra●e by which a Christian hath that perfect and immediate sight ( as it were ) of great things that are promised to him ; Faith bringeth a Christian withi● sight of Heaven , and Faith bringeth a Christian within sight of God ; according to tha● word , Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the evidence ● things not seen , and that noble pa●adox , th●● is said of Faith , Heb. 11. 27 ▪ By faith Mos●● saw him that is invisible . Is it not an impossible thing , to see that , which cannot be seen ? But the meaning of it is this , That Faiths discoveries of God , are as certain and sure , as the discoveries of our bodily eyes are : Faith is an intelligent grace , yea , it is a most sure and infallible grace ; What will Faith not do ? And what can yee do who want Faith ? Now to enforce the advantages and excellencies of Faith a little more , wee shall propose to you the disadvantages of that wofull sin of unbelief . I. There is this disadvantage of the sin of unbelief , that all the actions that proceed from an unbeliever , they are impure and defiled , according to that in Tit. 1. 15. But unto them that are defiled , and unbelieving is nothing pure ; but even their mind and conscience is defiled . Their prayer is unclean : yea , ( as Solomon speaketh ) their plowing is sin : yea their going about the most excellent duties ( for matter ) is an abomination to God , according to that word , Rom. 14. 23. What ever is not of faith , is sin . So the want of Faith is the great polluter of all our actions and of all our performances . II. There is this second disadvantage of misbelief , that it is impossible for one in the exercise of unbelief , to mo●tifie a lust or idol : and wee may allude unto these words in Matth. 17. 20. When his disciples came to him and asked this question , Why could wee not cast out this devil ? That was given as an answer , because of your unbelief : Unbelief is that , which taketh up arms for our idols ; and doth most strongly defend them : for there is nothing that will kill corruption so much , as the exercise of faith : and when that is laid aside , we have laid by our weapons , and have in a manner concluded ● treaty of peace with our idols , that we shall not offend them , if they offend not us . III. There is this disadvantage that waiteth upon the sin of unbelief , that such an one cannot win nor attain to the grace of establishment , but is alwayes as the waves of the sea , tossed to and fro , untill once hee win to the exercise of Faith , as is clear from Isa. 7. 9 ▪ Except ye believe , ye shall not be established . IV. There is this disadvantage that waiteth on it ; it is the mother of hardnesse and stupidity of heart , according to that word in Mark 16. 14. Where he upbraideth then because of their unbelief , and then that danger followeth , to wit , hardnesse of heart , this is clear also from Act. 19. 9. Where these two sister ▪ devils are conjoyned and locked together , unbelief and hardnesse of heart , because it is unbelief indeed , that hindereth all the graces , by which the grace of tendernesse must be maintained . V. There is this disadvantage in the sin of unbelief , that it is big with childe of apostacy from God , and of defection from him , according to that word , Heb. 3. 12. Beware lest there be in any of you , an evil heart of unbelief ( and there the fruit of it ) to depart from the living God. And certainly it is no wonder , that unbelief travel in birth , till that cursed childe of Apostacy be brought forth ; not onely because of this , that an unbelieve● loseth the thoughts of the excellency of Christ , but also because he increaseth in his thoughts of love towards his idols ; for Christ doth decrease in those who misbelieve , and their idols do increase in their love , and in their desires , and in their estimation . VI. There is this sixth disadvantage in the sin of unbelief , it hindereth the communication of many signall workings and tokens of the love and favour of the most High , according to that sad word that is in Mat. 13. 58. at the close , He could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief . Unbelief , as it were , laid a restraint on Christ , that he could not effectua●e these things which he was willing to perform . And ( to shut up our discourse at this time ) I would only adde these two aggravations , which may somewhat enforce what we have spoken ; ( I say ) there are these two aggravations in the sin of unbelief , even in his own who have a right ( and also his call ) to believe : 1. That after Christ hath given most sensible discoveries of himself , Wherein yee have seen him , as it were , face to face , yet wee will not believe : this is clear from Ioh. 6. 36. Though ye have seen me , saith Christ , yet yee do not believe in me . There is not a manifestation of Christs presence , but it is a witnesse against you , because of your unbelief . Would ye heat the voice of sense , that is rectified ? It is this , believe on the Son of God. Secondly , That notwithstanding of the signal demonstrations of the power of Christ , yet , though it were the mortifying of some lust and idol within them , yet they will not believe , but upon new temptations will doubt of his love to them . Christ preacheth faith by his Word , He preacheth faith by His fufferings , He preacheth faith by his dispensations , He preacheth faith by his promises , he preacheth faith by his rods , and if these five instruments will not ingage your hearts to believe , what can move them ? Do not his two wounds in his precious hands , preach out this point of Faith , believe him ▪ Doth not that hole opened in his side , preach this Doctrine , That we should believe in him . And these two wounds , that he received in his precious feet , do they not preach this , That we should believe on a crucified Saviour ? And we would only say this , that sometime it is the case of his own , that after the convictions of this , that it is their duty to believe , and also after some desires to close with Christ , yet they find inability to close with him . Is it not certain that to will ( to believe ) is sometime present with you : but how to perform ye know not ? And I would have a Christian making this foursold use of such a dispensation as that , ( which is most ordinarily ) when convictions of our duty to believe , and some desires to close with Christ , is not followed with actual performances . 1. To study to have your convictions more deeply rooted within you ; for it doth sometimes follow , that resolutions and min●s to believe , are not blest with actual believing ; because the conviction of our duty to believe , is not deeply imprinted upon your conscience . 2. Be convinced of that desperate enimity ( and that mystery of iniquity ) that is within you , that yee can have some will to do , without ability to perform . Wee confesse , it is not an ordinary disease in these days , to have such a contrariety betwixt a Christians will and his practice , our will for the most part being no better then our practice ; But sometime it is , which may make you cry forth , O wretched man that I am , who shall deliver me from this body of death . 3. That ye would be much in the imploying of Christ , that as hee hath given you to will , so also hee might make you to do . Christ is about to convince his own in such a dispensation as that , That faith is the gift of God : Faith is so noble a grace , that it cannot be spinned out from our resolutions , nor from our endeavours ; Faith is such a divine plant , as the Fathers right hand must plant in our souls . 4. Let it convince you of the excellency of the grace of Faith ( for the difficulty of attaining to any thing may speak out the excellency of that thing ) there is no sin but it may be easily win at ; There is an easinesse and facility to overtake the paths of our idols : but the graces of the Spirit are so excellent things , that wee must fight before we attain them . And you who are strangers to Christ Iesus ( and have never known what ●t is to close with him ) wee would request you in Christs Name to be reconciled to him . What know ye , O men , ( or rather Atheists ) but this shall bee the last summonds that yee shall get to believe ? And that because yee disobey this precious summonds , there shall be one presented to you that yee cannot sit . I remember of one man , who looking upon many thousands that were under his command , weeped over them , when he considered how that within a few years all these should be laid in their graves , and should be in eternity . O but it were much of our concernment , to bee trying our selves how it is with us . We are not afraid that it is a breach of charity , to wish that but one of each ten that are within these doors , were heirs of the grace of life , and had the solide and spiritual expectation of heaven . I think , if Christ were to come presently to speak to us ; hee might not onely say to each twelve that are here , One of you shall betray me : but wee are afraid , that hee would say to each twelve that are here , Eleven of you shall betray mee , and but one only shall passe free . O doth it not concern you , to enquire where ye shall rest at night , when the long shadows of the everlasting evening shall be stretched out upon you ? I think there are some , that are so settled upon their lies , that if they were one day in hell , and saw all the torments that are there , and were brought from it the next day to live on earth , they would not repent . And more , there are some , that take them up one day to see the joyes of heaven , and bring them back again , they would ●ot pursue after these blessed and everlasting ●njoyments . O is not Christ much underva●ued by us ? But I must tell you this , One wo ● past , but behold another wo is fast coming . O ●he s●reighing of these spirits that are enter●d into their everlasting prison-house , out of which there is no redemption . What shall ●e your choise , when Christ shall come in the ●louds ? I am perswaded , there are many , ●o whom , at that day , this Doctrine would be ●avishing , viz. That there were not a death , ●hat there were not a God , and that there were ●ot an eternity . Oh! will yee believe , That ●he sword of the Iustice of God is bathed in hea●en , and shall come down to make a sacrifice , ●ot ▪ in the land of Idumea , nor in the land of Bozra ; but hee is to make a sacrifice among his ●eople , who seemed to make a Covenant with ●im by sacrifice . Ah , ah , shall we say that ? ●f that argument were used to many ▪ , that within fourty dayes they should bee at their ●ong and everlasting home , they would yet ●pend thirty nine of these days in taking plea●ure upon their lusts ▪ I am perswaded of ●his , that there are many who think that the ●ay betwixt heaven and earth is but one days ●ourney ; they think they can believe in one day , and triumph at night : But O! it shall ●e a short triumphing that such believers as ●hese shall have . Therefore , O study to close with a crucified Saviour , rest on him by faith , delight your selves in him with love , and let your souls be longing for the day when your ●oice shall bee heard in heaven ( and O how ●weet shall it be sung ) Arise , arise , arise , my love , my dove , my fair one , and come away : fo● behold your winter is past , your everlasting summer is come , and the time of the singing of birds is near : When Christ shall come over these mountains of Bether , hee shall cry , Behold I come : and the soul shall sweetly answer , Come Blessed Lord Iesus , Come . O what a life shall it be ! that with these two arms yee should eternally incircle Christ , and hold him in your arms , or rather be incircled by him ? Wait f●● him , for he shall come , and his reward is with him , and he shall once take home the wearied travellers of hope . SERMON IV. 1 Joh. 3. 23. This is his Commandment that ye should believe on the Name of his Son Iesus Christ , &c. THere are two great and excellent gifts , which God in the depth of his boundlesse love hath bestowed on his own . First , There is that infinit gift and royal donation , his own beloved Son , Jesus Christ , which is called , The gift of God , Ioh. 4 10. And secondly , There is that excellent gift of the grace of Faith , which God hath bestowed upon his own , which is also called ▪ The gift of God , Ephes. 2. 8. Faith is the gift of God. And is it not certain , that these two gracious gifts ought to ingage ou● souls and hearts much unto him ? Infini●e Majesty could give no gift greater nor his S●● , and infinite poverty could receive , no ●●her gift so suitable as Christ ; It was the most noble gift that heaven could give , and it is the greatest advantage for earth to receive it . And wee could wish that the most part of the study and practice of men ( that is spent in pursuit after these low and transient vanities ) might bee once taken up in that precious pursuit after Christ. We could wish that all the questions and debates of the time were turned over into that soul concerning question , What shall we do to be saved ? And that all the questions , controversies , and contentions of the time were turned over into that divine contention and heavenly debate ▪ Who should be most for Christ , who should be most for exalting of the noble and excellent plant of ●enown ; and that all our judgings and searchings of other mens practices and estate might ●e turned over into that useful search , ●ro ●rove and examine our selves whether we be in ●he faith or not . And I would ask you this question , what are your thoughts concern●ng precious Christ , seeing he is that noble ●bject of Faith ? We would only have you ●aking along these things , by which Christ may be much commended to your hearts : First , There was never any that with the ●yes of Faith did behold the ma●ehlesse beau●y and transcendent worth of that crucified ●aviour , that returned his enemy . There is ●oul conquering vertue in the face of Christ , ●nd there is a heart captivating and over●oming power in the beau●y of Jesus Christ. ●his first sight that ever persecuting Saul got of Christ , it brought him unto an endless● captivity of love . Secondly , There is th● that we would say of precious Christ , whic● may engage our souls unto Him , that for al● the wrongs Believers do to Christ , yet hat● He never an evil word of them to His Fatthe● but commends them : which is clear fro● that of Ioh. 17. 6. where Christ doth con●mend the Disciples to the Father for th● grace of obedience , They have keeped th● Word : and for the grace of Faith , verse 8 ▪ They have believed that thou didst send me and yet were not the Disciples most defecti●● in obedience , both in this , That they did no●● take up their crosse and follow Christ : and al●● in that , they did not adhere to Him in th● day that He was brought to Cajaphas hall and were they not most defective in the gra●● of Faith ? as is clear from Matth. 17. 17. a●● likewise from Ioh. 14. 1. He is pressing the● to believe in Him , and yet He doth comme●● them to the Father , as most perfect in th● things . Thirdly , There is this that w● would lastly say of Him who is the noble o● ject of Faith , look to the eminent depth● Christs condescendency , and then ye will provoked to love Him. Was it not infi●●●● love that made Christ to ly three dayes in t●● grave , that we might be through all the ag● of Eternity with Him ? Was it not in f●●●● condescendency that made His precious he wear a crown of thorns , that we mig●● eternally wear a crown of Glory ? Was not infinite condescendency that made Chr●●● wear a purple robe , that so we might w●● that precious robe of the righteousnesse of ●he Saints ? And was it not matchlesse condescendency , that Christ , who knew no sin , was made sin for us , and like unto us , that so we might become like unto him , and be made the righteousnesse of God in Him. But to come to that which we intend main●y to speak upon at this time , which is that ●econd thing that we proposed to speak of ●rom these words : and that is concerning the excellency of this grace of Faith , which we cleared was holden out in that , that faith was called his commandment , which is so ●alled by way of eminency and excellency . There are many things in Scripture , which may sweetly point out the precious excel●ency of this grace of Faith , and we shall only ●peak to these things . I. The first thing that speaketh out the ●xcellency of Faith is this , it exerciseth it ●elf upon a most noble Object ( to wit ) Jesus Christ : Faith and love being the two arms ●f the immortal soul , by which we do im●race a crucified Saviour , which is often ●ointed at in Scripture : and we shall point ●t these three principall acts of Faith , which ●t exerciseth on Jesus Christ as the Object fit . 1. The first is , to make up an Union be●wixt Christ and the Believer ( Faith being ●ndeed an uniting grace , and that which ●nitteth the members to the head ) and to ●ake this more fully appear , we would point ●ut a little what sweet harmony and cor●espondency there is betwixt these two sister graces , ( to wit ) faith and love . Faith i● that nail , which fasteneth the soul to Chri●● and love is that grace which driveth that nai● to the head ; Faith at first taketh but a tender grip of Christ , and then love cometh i● and maketh the soul take a more sure grip o● him . Secondly , Ye may see that harmon● in this ; Faith is that grace which take● hold ( as it were ) of the garments of Chris● and of his words : but love ( that ambitio●● grace ) it taketh hold of the heart of Chris● and , as it were , his heart doth melt in th● hand of love . Thirdly , It may be seen i● this , Faith is that grace , which draweth th● first draught of the likenesse and image Christ upon a soul , but that ( accomplishin● grace of love , it doth compleat these fi●… draughts and these imperfect lineaments 〈◊〉 Christs Image , which were first drawn on th● soul. Fourthly , By faith and love the hea●● of Christ and of the Believer are so unite● that they are no more two , but one Spirit . 2. There is this second act that Faith 〈◊〉 exciseth on Christ , and it is in discovering t●● matchlesse excellencies , and the transce●dent properties of Jesus Christ , O wh●● large and precious commentaries doth fai●● make upon Christ ? It is indeed that faith ●●spy , which doth alwayes bring up a go●● report of him . Hence it is , that faith is c●●led understanding , Colos. 2. 2. Because it ●● that grace , which revealeth much of the pr●cious truth of that noble Object . 3. And there is this third noble act 〈◊〉 Faith , exercising it self upon Christ , 〈◊〉 maketh Christ precious to the soul , accor●ing to that word , 1 Pet. 2. 7. Unto you which ●elieve , hee is precious . And if there were ●o other thing to speak forth its worth , but ●●at , it is more then sufficient : for no doubt ●●is is the exercise of the higher House , to be ●welling on the contemplation of Christs ●eauty , and to have their ●ouls transported ●ith love towards him ; and with joy in ●im . Reason and amazement are seldome ●ompanions , but here they do sweetly joyn ●ogether ; First , a Christian loveth Christ , ●ecause of Christs actings , and then hee lo●eth all these actings because they come from Christ. II. Now secondly , this pointeth out the ●recious excellency of the grace of Faith , it ●● that grace which is most mysterious and ●ublime in its actings , it hath a more divine ●nd sublime way of acting then any other ●race ; Hence it called , The mystery of faith . ●hich speaketh this , that the actings of ●aith are mysteries to the most part of the world , and I shall only point at these things which may speak out the mysterious actings ●f the grace of Faith. 1. Faith can believe , and fix it self on a word of promise , although sense , reason and ●robability , seem to contradict the accom●lishment of that promise ▪ Faith it walketh ●ot by the low dictates of sense and reason ; ●ut by a higher rule , ( to wit ) The sure word ●f prophecie , which is clear from Rom. 4. 19. ●here Abraham believed the promise , notwith●anding that sense & reason seemed to contradict it : Hee considered not the deadnesse of his own body , neither the barrennesse of Sarahs womb , but was strong in the faith , giving glory to God : As it is clear from Heb. 11. 29 , 34. Where Faith believed their passing through the red sea , as through dry ground , which wa● most contrary to sense and reason : Faith believed the falling down of the walls of Iericho , by the blowing of rams horns . Which thing● are most impossible to sense and reason ; for sense will oftentimes cry out , All men are ●iars ; And reason will say , How can such a thing be ? And yet that Heroick grace of Faith cryeth out , Hath he spoken it : He will also do it , Hath he said it ? Then it shall come to passe . 2. Faith can believe a word of promise , notwithstanding that the dispensations of God seem to contradict it ; as was clear in Iob , who professed , Hee would trust in God , though he should kill him . And no doubt , but this was the practice of believing Iacob , hee trusted that that promise should bee accomplished , That the elder should serve the younger ; though all the dispensations of God , ( which he did meet with ) seemed to say , that promise should not be accomplished . 3. Faith can believe a word of promise , even when the Commands of God seem to contradict the accomplishment of that promise : This is clear in that singular instance of Abrahams faith , that notwithstanding hee was commanded to kill his promised seed , ( upon whom he did depend the accomplishment of the promises ) yet hee believed that ●e promises should bee performed . And ●●ough there were indeed extraordinary and ●range trials of his faith , as he had natural ●ffections to wrestle with ; yet over the bel● of all these , believing Abraham , he giveth ●aith to the promise , and bringeth his Isaac ●o the Altar ( though hee did receive him ●ack again ) this is clear from Heb. 11. 17 , ●8 , 19. 4. Faith can exercise it self upon the promise , notwithstanding that challenges and convictions of worthinesse and guilt do wait on the Christian ; This is clear , 2 Sam. 23. 5. That although his house was not so with God as did become , yet he believed the promise : As ●ikewise it is clear from Psal. 65. 3. Iniqui●ies prevail against mee : and yet that doth not interupt his Faith , but he saith , As for our ●●●●gressions thou shalt purge them away . And ●ertainly , i● were a noble and precious act of Faith to believe , notwithstanding of un●nswerable challenges of guilt ; the best way ●oth to crucifie our Idols , and to answer ●hese challenges , is believing And hoping a●ainst hope , and closing with Christ : This is most clear from Isa. 64. 6 , 7. compared with ●ers . 8. where after strange challenges , the prophet hath a strange word , But now , O Lord , ●hou art our Father . There is an Emphasis in ●he word ( now ) for all this , Yet thou art ( now ) our Father . 5. And lastly , this pointeth out the mysterious acting of the grace of Faith , that it exerciseth it self upon an invisible object , even upon Christ not yet seen , according to that word , 1 Pet. 5. 8. Whom having not seen , yet ye love , in whom though now ye see him not , yet believing , &c. I pose the greater part of you who are here , whether or not these bee two of the greatest Paradoxes and mysteries unto you ? For , is not this a mystery , to love him whom wee never saw ? Whom having not seen , yet ye love : To love an absent and unseen Christ , is a mystery to the most part of the world : and is not this a mystery , to believe on him whom we never saw ? In whom , though ye see him not , yet believing . And I shall adde this , that Faith can hold fast its interest with God , notwithstanding the most precious Christian should call us hypocrites , and not acknowledge us , this is clear in the practice of Iob ; And most clear from that word , Isa. 63. 16. Doubtlesse thou art our Father , though Abraham bee ignorant of us , and Israel acknowledge us not . III. Thirdly , this pointeth out the excellency of the grace of Faith , that Faith , ( when it is in exercise ) is that grace by which a Christian doth at●ain unto most sensible enjoyments . There is a great question that is much debated among Christians , what is the way to win this happy length , to bee alwayes under the sweet and refreshing influence of heaven , and to have his dew alwayes coming down upon our branches ? I can give no answer to it , but this , be much in the exercise of Faith : This is clear from that notion and name put upon Faith , Isa. 45. 22. It is called a look to Christ , which is a most sensible act . If yee would know a description of Faith , It is this , The divine contemplation of the immortal soul , upon that divine , excellent , and precious object , Iesus Christ. For God never made Faith a liar , and therefore its eve is never off him that is the noble object of Faith , Jesus Christ manifested in the Gospel : as it is clear , Ephes. 1. 13. After ye believed , ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise , which preacheth out the excellent enjoyments these had after their closing with Christ who is invisible . Our Faith is called a seeing , which speaketh out this , that Faiths sight of God , is as certain as if we did behold him with our eyes , as is clear , Heb. 11. 27. Moses saw him by Faith who is invisible . And we conceive that the ground which maketh the most part of us have such complaints , How long wilt thou forget us for ever ? It is this ; the want of the Spiritual exercise of Faith : and are there not some here who may cry out , It is more then thirty dayes since I did behold the King ; Yea , there are some who may go a greater length , and cry out , I have lived these two years at Ierusalem , and yet I have not seen the Kings face ? Yea , there are some here whose complaint may go a little higher , and cry forth , These three years and six moneths it hath not rained on me , but the clouds have been restrained and bound up , and the heavens have become brasse . And would you know the rise of these complaints , it is this , ye are not much in the Spiritual exercise of Faith. And to you , I would only say these two words , First , It is easier to perswade a reprobate that he is defective in the fear of God , and in his love to God , then to perswade some such , that they are wanting to God in their Faith ; for they hold fast that peece of desperate iniquity till they die , Secondly , We would say to these of you who have the valley of Achor for a door of hope , and have tasted of the sweetnesse of Christ , some of you will be lesse convinced ; for the neglect of the duty of Faith , then for neglect of the duty of Prayer , or of the duty of keeping the Sabbath day . But I am perswaded of this , that if the noble worth of that transcendant object were known , we would have a holy impatience , untill once we did believe . IV. Fourthly , This also pointeth out the excellency of the grace of Faith , It is that grace by which a Christian is advanced to the highest and most inconceivable pitch of dignity , and that is , To be the child of the living God : As is clear , Ioh. 1. 12. To as many as received ( or believed in him ) he gave power or prerogative to become the sons of God. And certainly that noble prerogative of Adoption is much undervalued by many : And I will tell you two grounds whereon the most part of men undervalue that excellent gift of Adoption : First , They do not take up the infinit highnesse of God ( and what a one He is ) otherwise they would cry out with David , Seemeth it a small thing in your eyes to bee a son to the King of Kings ? Secondly , We do not take up , nor understand these matchlesse Priviledges which are given to them who are once in this estate , I am perswaded , if this were believed , that he who is a servant doth not abide in the house for ever , ( though he that is a Son doth ) it would stir us up to more divine zeal in our persuit after faith . V. Fifthly , This likewise pointeth out the excellency of the grace of Faith , It is that grace , by which all other actions are pleasant to God , and are taken off our hand , as is clear , Heb. 11. 4. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice then Cain , which must be understood even of all other duties . And that word , vers . 6. Without faith it is impossible to please God , speaketh this also , That by faith we do exceedingly please him . And this is a most sad and lamentable repoof unto many who are here , that their actions do not please God , because they are not in Faith. Would ye know a description of your prayers ? ( ye who are hypocrites , and destitute of the knowledge of God ) It is this , Your prayers are the breach of the third Command , In taking the name of the Lord in vain ; for which he will not hold you guiltlesse . And would ye know what is your hearing of Sermon ? It is an abomination to the Lord , according to that word in Tit. 1. 15. To the unbelieving and impure , nothing is clean . And as Solomon doth speak , The plowing of the wicked is sin : So that all your actions that ye go about , are but an offence to the Majesty of the Lord. Now we would speak to these two things before we proceed to the evidences of faith : ( to wit ) First , That there is a difference betwixt the direct act of Faith , and the reflecting act of Faith. For there may be a direct act of faith in a Christian , when he is not perswaded that he doth believe ; but the reflecting acts of faith are these which a Christian hath , when he is perswaded in his conscience that he doth believe . And we would secondly say , that there are many that go down to there grave under that soul destroying delusion , that they are in faith , and yet never did know what faith is : I am perswaded , there are many whom all the preachings in the world will never perswade , that they did never believe , their faith being born with them , and it will die with them , without any fruit . But faith being such an excellent grace , and so advantagious , ( whereof we have spoken a few things ) we shall speak a little further of it , First , in pointing out some evidences , by which a Christian may know , whether or not he be indeed in the Faith. Secondly , I shall give you some helps whereby Faith may be keeped in exercise . I. Now there is this first evidence of faith , that a Christian who doth believe , he accounteth absence and want of fellowship with Christ , and communion with him , one of the greatest and most lamentable crosses that ever he had : as is clear , Psalm 13. 3. Lighten mine eyes , saith David , that is , Let me behold , and be satisfied with thy face ; and the mo●ive that he backeth it with , is this , Lest I sleep the sleep of death . David thought himself a dead man , if Christ did withdraw his presence from him . Also it is clear , Cant. 3 , 1. ( compared with the following verses ) where absence from Christ , and want of communion with him , was the greatest crosse the Spouse had : and it is clear from Ioh. 20. 11 , 12 , 13. where Mary had a holy disdain of all things in respect and comparison of Christ. But I will tell you what a hypocrite doth most lament , and that is , the want of reputation among the Saints : that is the great god , and idol among hypocrites , and that which ( when not enjoyed ) hypocrites and ●theists lament most , the world , and the lust of their eyes : when they want these , ●hen they cry out , They have taken away my gods , and what have I more ? They think heaven can never make up the losse of earth . And certainly , if many of us would examine our selves by this , we would finde our selves most defective . I would pose all you who are here , who have taken on a name to be followers of Christ , whether or not ye have been content to walk thirty dayes in absence from Christ , and yet never to lament it ? Hath not Christ been thirty dayes and more in heaven , without a visit from you ? And yet for all this , ye have not cloathed your selves with sackcloath . I will not say , that ●his is an undeniable evidence of the totall ●a●t of the grace of Faith ; but it doth eminently prove this , that the person who hath ●ome this length , hath losed much of his primitive love , and much of that high esteem which he ought to have of matchlesse Christ : what can you find in this world , that maketh you converse so little with heaven ? I think that it is the noble encouragement of a Christian , when hee is going down to his grave , that he hath this wherewith to comfort himself , I am to change my place , but not my company : death to the believing Christian being a blessed transition and transportation to a more immediate , constant and uninterrupted enjoyment of God. But I believe , that if all who have the name of Believers in this generation , should go to heaven , they might have this to say , I am now not only to change my place , but also my company ; For these seventy years I have been conversant with my idols , but now I am to converse with more blessed , divine , and excellent company . O that yee might be perswaded to pursue much after an absent Christ. Were it not a sweet period of our life , to breath out our last breath in his armes , and to be living in the faith of being eternally with him , which might be founded upon his Word . II. There is this second evidence of one that is in the Faith : They do endeavour to advance that necessary work of the mortification of their idols , according to that word , 1 Ioh. 3. 4. Every man that hath this hope in him , purifieth himself even as he is pure , Act. 15. 9. Faith it purifieth the heart . And concerning this evidence ( lest any should mistake it ) I would say these things to you . First , The mortification of a Christian , as long as he is here below , it doth more consist in resolutions then attainments . It is certain , that there are high attainments of a Christian , in the mortification of his idols , but his resolutions go far above his performances . Secondly , Wee would say this , That those Christians who never came this length in Christianity , to make that an universal conclusion , and full resolution , What have I to do any more with idols ? They may suspect themselves , that they are not in the Faith : for a Christian that is in Christ , he is universal in resolutions , though he be not so in practice , but defective in performances . A Christian may have big resolutions with weak performances ; for resolution will be at the gate of heaven , before practice come from the borders of hell ; there being a long distance betwixt resolution and practice ; and the one much swifter then the other . And thirdly , Wee would likewise say , That yee who never did know what it was to endeavour ( by prayer and the exercise of other duties ) the mortification of your lusts and idols ; yee may bee afraid , that ye have not yet the hope of seeing him as he is , And I would say this to many , who are settled upon their lies , and who never did know what it was to spend one hour in secret prayer for mortifying an idol , that they would beware lest that curse bee past in heaven against them ; I would have purged you , and yee would not be purged , therefore yee shall not bee purged any more till you die ; that iniquity of refusing to commune with Christ in the work of secret mortification , I say , that iniquity shall not be purged away . And we would once seriously desire you , by that dreadful sentence that Christ shall passe against you , and by the love ye have to your immortal souls , and by the pains of these everlasting torments of hell , that ye would seriously set about the work of spirituall mortification ; that so ye may evidence that ye have believed , and that ye have the soul-comforting hope of eternal life . I would onely speak this one word to you , ( and desire you seriously to ponder it , ) What if within twelve hours hereafter a summonds were given to you ( without continuation of dayes ) to compear before the solemn and dreadfull Tribunal of that impartial Judge , Jesus Christ : What suppose ye , would be your thoughts ? Will ye examine your own conscience , what ye think would be your thoughts , if such summonds were given unto you . I am perswaded of this , That your knees would smite one against another , and your face should gather palenesse , seeing your conscience would condemn you , That ye had been weighed in the ballance and found light : O think ye that ye can both fight and triumph in one day ? Think ye that ye can fight and overcome in one day ? Think ye your lusts and unmortified corruptions so weak and faint hearted an enemy , that upon the first appearance of such imaginary champions ( as most part of us are in our own eyes ) that your idols would lay down arms and let you trample on them ? Believe me , mortification is not a work of one day , or one year , but it is a work will serve you all your time , begin as soon as ye will : And therefore seeing you have spent your dayes in the works of the flesh , it is time that now yee would begin and pursue after him , whose works is with him , and whose reward shall come before him . III. Now there is this third evidence , by which a Christian may know whether he bee in the Faith or not , and it is , that Christ is matchlesse and incomparable unto such an one , according to that word , 1 Pet. 2. 7. To you that believe Christ is precious , and that word that Luke hath in his 7. Chap. at the close , That shee to whom much was forgiven , loved much . Now lest this likewise should prove a discouragement to any , I would only have you taking notice of this , that a Christian may bee a Believer , and yet want the sensible discoveries of this , that Christ is matchlesly precious to him : but this is certain , that they which are in the lively exercise of Faith , it is impossible then for them not to esteem Christ matchlesse , and I would speak this likewise to many who are here ; Have yee not been living these ten years in Faith , and I would pose you with this , Esteem yee not your idols more matchlesse then Christ , and more of worth then hee ? It is impossible that there can bee any lively exercise of Faith , and not esteem CHRIST matchlesse , It is not to say it with your mouth , and contradict it with your heart will do the businesse : For if your hearts could speak● , it would say , I would sell Christ for thirty pieces of silver : But my idols would I sell at no rate ▪ Are there not many of you who love the world and its pleasures , better nor the eternity of joy ? Oh , know yee not that word ( O yee desperately ignorant of the Truths of God , ) That he who loveth the world , the love of the Father is not in him : And yet notwithstanding of the light of the word , yee would sell your immortal souls ( with Esau ) For a messe of po●tage : O but it is a poor bargain when yee have sold the eternity of joy for a passing world , and for its transitory delights ! I would earnestly know what shall be your thoughts in that day , when ye shall be standing upon the utmost line betwixt time and eternity . O what will bee your thoughts at that day ? but you are to follow on to an endlesse pain , ( by appearance ) and then yee are to leave your idols . I shall only desire , that ye may read the word , Isa. 10. 3. What will ye do in the day of visitation , and in the desolation which shall come from far ? To whom will ye flee for help ? and where will ye leave your glory ? Ye shall then preach mortification to the life , though all the time of mortification shall be then cut off . O but to hear a worldly minded man , when eternity of pain is looking him in the face , ( preach out concerning the vanity of this world ) might it not perswade you that the world is a fancy and a dream that shall flee away , and shall leave you in the day of your greatest strait . IV. And there is the fourth evidence of Faith , That a Christian , who doth truely believe , hee is that Christian who intertaineth a divine jealousie and a holy suspition of himself , whether or not he doth believe ; I love not that faith which is void of fear , this was clear in the practice of believing Noah , that though by faith he built the Ark , yet hee had fear mixed with his Faith. I know that there are some who are ignorant concerning this , what it is to doubt concerning eternal peace ; and more , it is not every one that doubteth , that certainly shal get heaven ; for I think an hypocrite may doubt concerning his eternal salvation ; however I think the exercise of a hypocrite under his doubtings , it is more the exercise of his judgement , then the exercise of his conscience : And I may say , That if all the exercise of the Law which is preached in these dayes were narrowly searched , it would bee more the exercise of light , then the exercise of conscience , We speak these things as our doubt , which never was our exercise ; and we make these things our publick exercise which was never our private and chamber exercise . And I think that if all that a Christian did speak to God in prayer , were his exercise , he would speak lesse , and wonder more . We would be speechlesse when wee go to God ; for often if we did speak nothing but our exercise , we would have nothing to say . And certainly it is true , that often wee fall into that wofull sin , of desperate lying against the holy Ghost , by ●lattering God with our mouth , and lying unto him with our tongue . And I shall only say these two words ; There are some who have this for their great designe , viz. they would bee at peace with their conscience , and also they would bee at peace with their idols , they would gladly reconcile conscience and their idols together , that is their great designe . And there are some whose designe is a little more refined , they study rather to be reconciled with their conscience , then to be reconciled with God ; Their great aim they shoot at , is this , to get their conscience quieted , though they know not what it is , to have the soul comforting peace of God to quiet them . V. Now , There is this last evidence of Faith , That justifying Faith is a Faith which putteth the Christian to bee much in the exercise of these duties , by which it may bee maintained , for wee must keep Faith as the apple of our eye : Aod for that end , I would only give you these three things , by which Faith must be keeped in exercise ; aud a real Christian will bee endeavouring in some measure to attain unto these . I. It keepeth Faith much in exercise , to bee much in marking and taking notice of the divine exercise and proofs of the love of God , wherewith a Christian doth meet , as is clear from that word in Rom. 5. 4. Experience worketh hope . I durst be bold to charge the most part that are indeed in Christ with this , that they are too little in remarking and taking notice of the experiences of his love . Yee should mark the place of your experience , and much more yee should mark the experience it self : as is clear from Scripture , that the very place where Christians did meet with experience , in such ane enjoyment of God , they marked it , Ezek. 1. 1. By the rivers of Chebar the heavens were opened , and I saw the visions of God : And Gen. 32. 30. Iacob called the place Peniel , the place of living , after seeing of the face of God : it was so remarkable unto him . And we conceive , that ye would mark these two things mainly in your practice . First , Ye would mark ( if ye can possibly ) the first day of your closing with Christ , and of your coming out of Egypt : and we may allude unto that command ( if not more then allude unto it ) in . Dent. 16. 1. Observe the month of Abib , and keep the passeover unto the Lord thy God : For in the moneth of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee out of the land of Egypt . And secondly , We would have you much in marking these experiences which have increased your Faith , and which have strengthned your love , and which have made you mortifie your idols . These are experiences especially to be marked . 2. Faith is keeped in exercise , and we win to the lively assurance of our interest in God : which we would presse upon you , by being much in the exercise of secret prayer . O but many loveth much to pray when abroad , who never loved to pray when alone . And that is a desperate sign of hypocrisie , according to that , Matth. 6. 5. It is said of hypocrites , They love to pray , standing in the Synagogues , and in the corner of the street ▪ s , that they might be seen of men : But it is never said of these persons , that they love to pray alone , onely they loved to pray in Synagogues : but it is secret , and retired prayer , by which Faith must be keeped in exercise . 3. And there is this likewise that we would presse , upon you , that ye would be much in ▪ studying communion and fellowship with God , that so your Faith may be keeped in life . And O what a blessed life were it , each day to be taken up to the top of the mount Pisga , and there to behold that promised land , to get a refreshfull sight of the Crown every morning , which might make us walk with joy all alongs that day ! The heart o● a Christian ought to be in heaven , his conversation ought to be there , his eyes ought to be there : And I know not what of a Christian ought to be out of heaven ( even before his going there ) save his lumpish ●abernacle of clay , which cannot inherite incorruption till he be made incorruptible . And I shall say no more but this , many of us are readi●● to betray him with a kisse , and crucifie him afresh , then to keep communion with him : but wo eternally be to him by whom the Son o● man is betrayed : and that doth crucifie Christ afresh : it were better that a milstone were hanged about his neck , and he were cast into th● depth of the sea . I remember an expressio● of a man , not two dayes ago , who ( upo● his death bed ) being asked by one what h● was doing : did most stupidly , though mos● truly reply , That he was fighting with Christ and I think that the most part of us ( if he prevent us not ) shall die fighting with Christ. But know , and be perswaded , that he is too sore a party for us to fight with : He will once tread you in the wine presse of his fury , and he shall return with dyed garments from treading such of you as would not imbrace him : He shall destroy you with all his heart . Therefore be instructed , lest his soul be disjoynted from you ( as that word in Ier. 6. 8. ) And lest your soul eternally be separted from him : Be instructed , I say , to close with him by ●aith . Now to him who can make you to do so , we desire to give praise . In the two Sermons next following , you have the rest of these sweet Purposes , which the worthy Author Preached upon the same Text ; Never before Printed . SERMON V. 1 Joh. 3. 23. This is his Commandment that ye should believe on the Name of his Son Iesus Christ , &c. THere are two great rocks , upon which a Christian doth ordinarily dash i● his way and motion toward his rest 1. The rock of presumption and carnal confidence ; so that when Christ dandleth them upon his knees , and satisfieth them with the breasts of his consolations , and maketh their cup to overflow , then they cry out , My mountain standeth strong , I shall never be moved And , 2. The rock of misbelief and discouragement ; So that , when he hideth his face and turneth back the face of his Throne , the● they cry out , Our hope and our strength is perished from the Lord : we know not what i● is to bear our enjoyments by humility , no● our crosses by patience and submission . ●● but misbelief and jealousie are bad interpre ▪ ters of dark dispensations : they know no● what it is to read these mysterious character of divine Providence , except they be writ●●● in the legible characters of sense ; misbelie●● is big with childe of twins , and is travelli●● till it bring forth apostacy and security ; an● no doubt , he is a blessed Christian that ha●● overcome that woful idol of mi●belief , an● doth walk by that Royal Law of the Wor● and not by that changeable rule of dispensat● ▪ on s . We conceive that there are three gre●● Idols and Dagons of a Christian , that hindere●● him from putting a blank in Christs hand concerning his guiding to heaven , there is pride , self-indulgence , and security . Do we not covet to be more excellent then our neighbour ? Do we not love to travell to heaven through a valley of Roses ? And doe we not ambitiously desire to walk toward Sion , sleeping ( rather then weeping ) as we go ? Are there not some words that we would have taken out of the Bible ? That is sad divinity to flesh and bloud , Through many tribulations must we enter into the Kingdome of Heaven : we love not to be changed from vessel to vessel , that so our scent may be taken from us . There are three great enemies of Christ : Misbelief , Hypocrisie , and Profanity . Misbelief is a bloudy sin , hypocrisie is a silent sin , profanity is a crying sin . Those are mother evils , and I shall give you these differences betwixt them : Misbelief crucifieth Christ under the vail of humility , hypocrisie crucifieth Christ under the vail of love , and profanity putteth him to open shame . Misbelief denyeth the love and power of God , hypocrisie denieth the omnisciency of God , ●nd profanity denyeth the justice of God. Misbelief is a sin that looketh after inherent ●ighteousnesse , hypocrisie is a sin that look●th after external holinesse onely , and pro●anity is a sin that looketh after heaven without holinesse : making connexion between ●hese things that God hath alwayes sepa●ate , and separating these things which he ●ath alwayes put together ; So that their faith shall once prove a delusion , and flie away as a dream in the night . But let us study this excellent grace of true and saving Faith , which shall be a precious remedy against all those Christ-destroying and soul-destroying evils . But now to come to that which we did propose thirdly to be spoken of from the words , which was the sweetnesse of this grace of Faith ; no doubt , it is a pleasant command , and it maketh all commands pleasant , it is that which casteth a divine lustre upon the most hard sayings of Christ , and maketh the Christian to cry forth , God hath spoken in his holinesse , I will rejoyce . Wee need not stand long to clear that Faith is a sweet and refreshing command ; for it is oftentimes recorded in Scripture to the advantage of this grace , and unspeakable joy and heavenly delight are the hand-maids that wait upon it . But more particularly to make it out , we shall speak to these things . The first is , That this grace giveth a Christian a broad and comprehensive sight of Christ , and maketh him to behold not only the beauty of his actings , but the beauty of his person : and there are these three precious sights that Faith giveth to ● Christian of Christ. First , It letteth the Christian see Christ in his absolute and personal● excellency , taking him up as the eternal So● of God , as the Ancient of Dayes , as the Father of Eternity , as the expresse Image of Hi● Fathers person , and the brightnesse of his glory ▪ and this filleth the so●l with divine fear an● admiration ▪ Hence is that word , Heb. 11. 27 ▪ That we see by Faith him that is invisible . As if he had said , Faith is that grace that maketh things that are invisible , visible unto us . Secondly , It letteth the soul see Christ in his relative excellencies , that is , what he is to us ; Faith taketh up Christ as a Husband , and from thence we are provoked to much boldnesse and divine confidence , and withall , to see these rich possessions that are provided for us by our elder Brother , who was born for adversity : Faith taketh up Christ as a blessed Days man that did lay his hand upon us both : And from thence it is constrained to wonder at the condescendency of Christ , it taketh him up as dying , and as redeeming us from the power of the grave , and from the hands of our enemies ; and this provoketh Christians to make a totall and absolute resignation of themselves over unto Christ , To serve him all the dayes of our life in righteousnesse and holinesse . And , thirdly , Faith maketh the soul behold these mysterious draughts of spotlesse love , those divine emanations of love that have flowed from his ancient and everlasting love since the world began . Would you know the great ground why we are so ignorant of him , who is the study of Angels , and of all that are about the Throne , it is this , we are not much in the exercise of faith . And if we would ask that question , What is the way to attain to the saving knowledge of God in Christ ? We could give no answer to it but this , Believe , and again believe , and again believe : Faith openeth these mysterious seals of his boundlesse perfection , and in some way teacheth the Christian to answer that unanswerable question , What is His Name , and what is his Sons Name . There is this secondly that pointeth out the sweetnesse of Faith , that it giveth an excellent relish unto the promises , and maketh them food to our soul. What are all the promises without faith ( as to our use ) but as a dead letter that hath no life : But faith exercised upon the promises , maketh a Christian cry out , The words of his mouth are sweeter unto mee then the honey and the honey comb : as is clear from Heb. 11. 12 , 13. It is by Faith that wee imbrace the promises , and do receive them . Thirdly , The sweetnesse of Faith may appear by this , that it enableth a Christian to rejoyce under the most anxious and afflicting dispensations that hee meeteth with while hee is here below ; as is clear from Rom. 5. 1 , 5. where his being justified by Faith hath this fruit attending it , to joy in ●ribulation ; And likewise from Heb. 10. 34 , 35. Doth not Faith hold the crown in its right hand , and letteth a Christian behold these infinit dignities that are provided unto them , after they have , as a strong man , run their race ; And when a Christian is put into a furnace , hot seven times more then ordinary , it bringeth down the Son of man Jesus Christ , to walk with them in the furnace : So that they walk safely , and with joy through fire and water , and ( in a manner ) they can have no crosse in his company . For would yee know what is the description of a crosse ? It is to want Christ in any estate , And would ye know what is the description of prosperity ? It is to have Christ in any condition or estate of life ; What can ye want that have him , and what can he have that want him ? He is that All ; so that all things besides him are bu● vanity . But beside this , Faith doth discover unto a Christian , that there is a sweet period of all his trials and afflictions that he can be exposed unto : so that he can never say that of faith which Ahab spake of Micajah , He never prophesieth good things to me ; But rather he may say alwayes the contrary , Faith never prophesieth evil unto me ▪ it being a grace that prophesieth excellent things in the da●kest night , and sweetly declareth , that though weeping do endure for the evening yet joy cometh in the morning ; And that , though now they ●o forth weeping bearing precious seed , yet at last they shall return rejoycing , having sheaves in their bosome . And this may bring in the fourth consideration to point out the sweetnesse of Faith , That it giveth a Christian a refreshing sight of that ●and that is a far off , and maketh him to behold that inheritance that is provided for the Saints in light : it goeth forth to the brook Eshcol , and there doth pluck down those grapes that grow in Emanuels land , to bring up a good report upon that noble Countrey we are sojourning towards , and the City the streets whereof are paved with transparent gold . And howbeit it may be a perplexing deba●e between many and their own souls , whether or not these eyes that have been the windows through which so much uncleannesse hath entered , and these species of lust have been conveyed into the heart , shall once be like the eyes of a dove washed with milk and fitly set , and be admitted to see that glorious object , the Lamb that sitteth upon the Throne : Or whether ever these tongues that have been set on fire of hell , and these polluted lips that have spoke so much against God , and Heaven , and all his People , and Interests , shall ever be admitted to sing these heavenly Halelujahs amongst that spotlesse queer of Angels , and that assembly of the first born ; or if these hands or feet that have been so active to commit iniquity , and so swift to run after vanity , shall even bee admitted hereafter to carry these Palme Branches , and to follow the Lamb where ever hee goeth ; and whether ever these hearts that have been indeed a Bethaven , and house of idols , may yet notwithstanding , bee a dwelling for the Holy Ghost : Though these things ( wee say ) and such like may bee the subject of many sad debates to some weary souls , and cause many tossings to and fro till the morning : yet faith can bring all these mysteries to light , and looking within the vail , can let us see thousands of thousands who were once as ugly as our selves , yet now having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb , are admitted to stand before the Throne of God , and serve him day and night . Now there is that fourthly , which we● promised to speak of concerning this grace of Faith from these words , and it is the absolute necessity that is of the exercise of this grace , which is holden forth in that word , his Commandment ; which doth import these three things . 1. That all the Commands that wee can obey without this Commandement of Faith , it is but a polluting of our selves , and a plunging of our selves in the ditch till our own cloa●hs abhor us . 2. That God taketh greater delight in the exercise of that grace of Faith , then in the exercise of any other . And lastly , that as to the many imperfections which wee have in our obedience , there is a sweet act of oblivion past of them all ; if we make conscience seriously to obey this command of Faith , which is indeed , the sweet compend of the Gospel , all these things do most clearly appear , in that believing , here is called , His Commandement , by way of excellency , as if this were his only Commandement . But that we may yet a little more particularly point out the absolute necessity of Faith ; there are these things that speaketh it forth to the full . 1. That though rivers of tears should run down our eyes , because we keep not his Law , though we should never rise off our knees from prayer , and should all our life time speak to God with the tongue of Angels ; and though we should constantly obey his Commands ▪ yet without Faith we should never escape that eternal sentence of excommunication from the presence of the Lord ; there being no action that doth proceed from us which can please the majesty of the Lord , unlesse it hath its rise from this principle of Faith : as is clear from Heb. 11. 6. Without Faith it is impossible to please God. And though we should offer unto him ten thousand rivers of oyl , and thousands of rams , and should offer up in a burnt sacrifice all the beasts that are upon the mountains , and the trees that are upon hills , this should be the answer that God should return to us , Who hath required these things at your hands ? I take no pleasure in these solemn sacrifices ; Because there is no way of attaining peace with God , but through the exercise of Faith , making use of the spotlesse righteousnesse of ●esus Christ. 2. Let us do ou● outmost , by all the inventions we can , to bring down our body , and let us separate our selves from all the pleasures of the flesh : yet all our idols shall reign without much contradiction , except once we do attain unto this grace of Faith , which is that victory whereby we must overcome the world , and the hand that maketh use of infinite strength for subduing of corruption , making the Christian sweetly to take up that song , Stronger is he that is with us , than he that is in the world . From all this that we have said , both of the sweetnesse of Faith , and the necessity thereof , we would propose these few considerations , to two or three sorts of persons . 1. There are some who live in that vain imaginary delusion of attaining heaven through a Covenant of Works , and do neglect to seek salvation by Faith in the righteousnesse of Christ. And to these who build upon this sandy foundation , I shall say but these two words . First , How long shall ye labour in the fire of very vanity , do ye ever think to put on the capestone , know ye not that the day is approaching , when your house shall fall about your ears , your confidence shall be rejected , and your hope shall evanish as a dream , and flee away as a vision of the night . Secondly , What a monstrous blindnesse , and what an unspeakable act of folly must it ●e●● to say , that Christ was crucified in vain , which yet ye do practically assert , when ye go about to purchase a righteousnesse through the works of the Law. 2. There are some who are secure in their own thoughts concerning their ●aith : they never questioned the realty of it , they never examined it . O ye whose faith is as old as your selves , ye say ye never knew what it was to dispute : and I may say , ye never knew what it was to believe . Thou profane hypocrite , let me tell thee , a strong faith , and ye● strong idols , must needs be ● strong delusion ; Thou wilt not obey the Lord , thou wilt not pray , thou wilt not believe a threatning in all the Word , thou wilt count all Religion madnesse and foolishnesse , and yet thou wilt perswade thy self , thou Believest in Christ. O be not deceived , God is not mocked , and why will ye mock your selves ? Shall I tell you that reprobates have a sa● Religion , one day they must believe , and obey , and pray , and give a testimony to Godlinesse : but alas too late , and little to their advantage . Shall not he whom all the Ministers on earth could scarce ever perswade to believe so much , as a heaven o● hell , or one threatning in all the Book o● God , at last be forced to believe their ow● sense , when they shall see the Ancient of Days upon the Throne , and shall hear the cryes of so many thousand living witnesses , come ou● both from heaven and hell , bearing testimony to the truth of threatnings and promises , that not one jot of them is fallen to the ground , and he who would never be perswaded to bow a knee to God in earnest all his life , shall he not then pray with greatest fervency , that hills and mountains might fall upon him , to cover him from the face of the Lamb : And h● that would never submit to a Command of God , must he not at last obey that dreadfull Command , Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting torment , &c. Yea , he who was the greatest mocker in the world , shall then confesse , that they are blest who put their trust in the Lord , as they are excellently brought in , though in an Apocriphal Book , Wisd. c. 5. 4 ▪ Crying out with great terror , while they behold that unexpected sight of the glorious condition of the Godly . O here is the me● say they , whom we mocked , whose life w● accounted madnesse , and their end dishonourable : Be wise therefore in time , and do that willingly , which ye must do by constrain● , and do that with sweetnesse and advantage that ye must do at length with losse and sorrow . Thirdly , There are some who certainly have some hope of eternal life , but contenteth themselves with a small measure of assurance , and these I would beseech , that ye would be more endeavouring to make your calling and election sure , and would be endeavouring to see your names written in the ancient Records of Heaven : And this we shall presse upon you by several Arguments . 1. Those strong and subtil , and soul destroying delusions that are amongst many , who conceive they do believe ( as we were saying ) and are pure in their own eyes , who yet are not purged from their iniquities . O● are there not many of us that are in a golden dream , that suppose we are eating but when we awake our soul is empty , whose faith is a metaphysick notion , that hath no foundation , but mans apprehension ; and this shall never bear us through the gates of death , nor convey us in into eternity of joy . 2. May not this presse you to follow after assurance , that it is the compendious way to sweeten all your crosses : As is clear from Hab. 3. 17 , 18. where the convictions of this made Habbakuk to rejoyce in the God of his salvation ; Though the fig tree did not bear fruit , and the labour of the olive did fail , and there were no sweetnesse to be found in the vine , and from Heb. 10. 34. where they took joy●ully the spoiling of their goods , knowing within themselves that they had a better and an enduring substance : This is indeed that tree which if wee cast into the waters of Marah , they will presently become sweet : for it is not below the child of hope to be much anxious about these things that he meets with here , when he sincerely knoweth that Commandement shall come forth , Lift up your head , for the day of your eternal redemption draweth near , even the day when all the rivers of his sorrow shall sweetly run into the ocean of everlasting deligh●s . 3. A Christian that is much in assurance , he is much in communion and fellowship with God , as is clear from the Song 1. 13 , 14. and Song . 2. 3. where , when once she cometh to that , to be perswaded that Christ was her beloved , then she sat down under his shaddow , and his fruit was pleasant ●nto her taste ; for the assured Christian doth taste of these crums that ●all from that higher Table , and no doubt , these that have tasted of that old wine will not straight way desire the new , because the old is better . And then 4. It is the way to keep you from Apostacy , and making defection from God : Faith is that grace that will make you continue with Christ in all his tentations , as is clear from 2 Pet. 1. 10. where this is set down as a fruit of making our calling and election sure , that if we no these things we shall never fail : Faith makes a Christian to live a dependent life ▪ for would you know the motto of a Christian ? It is this , self diffidence , and Christ dependence , as is clear from that word in the Song 8. 5. that while we are walking through this wildernesse , we are leaning upon our welbeloved ▪ 5. This assurance will help a Christian to overcome many tentations . There are four sorts of tentations that ass●ult the Christian ; there are temptations of desire , temptations of love , temptations of hope , and temptations of anxiety , all which a Christian through this noble grace of Assurance , may sweetly overcome : he that hath once made Christ his own , what can he desire but him ? As Psal. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord : What can he love more then Christ , or love beside Christ , all his love being drowned ( as it were ) in that O●ean of his excellencies , and a sweet complacency found in the enjoyment of him ? And as to hope ; will not assurance make a Christian 〈◊〉 forth , Now , Lord , what wait I for ? my hope is in thee ? And when the heart is anxious , doth not assurance make a Christian content to bear the indignation of the Lord , and patiently submit unto the crosse , since there is a sweet connexion betwixt his crosse and his Crown , Rom. 8. 35 , 36. If he suffer with him , he shall also reign with him . And lastly , There is this argument to presse you to assurance , that it sweemeth the thoughts of death ; it maketh death unto a Christian , not the king of terrours , but the king of desires : and it is upon these grounds that assurance maketh death refreshfull unto a Christian. 1. He knoweth that it is the funerall of all his miseries , and the birth-day of all his blessed and eternal enjoyments . 2. That it is the Coronation day of a Christian , and-the day when he shall have that Marriage betwixt Christ and him sweetly solemnized : And that when he is to step that last step , hee knoweth that death will make him change his place , but not his company : And O that we could once win unto this , to seal that conclusion without presumption , My beloved is mine , and I am his : We might without presumption , sing one of the songs of Sion , even while we are in this strange land , and taking Christ in our arms , might sweetly cry forth , Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace , for my eyes have seen thy salvation . Comfort your selves in this , that all your clouds shall once passe away , and that that truth shall once come to passe which was confirmed by the oath of an Angel , with his hand lifted up towards Heaven , That time shall be no more . Time shall once sweetly die out in eternity , and ye may be looking after new heavens , and a new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousnesse . O long to be with him , for Christ longeth to have you with him . SERMON VI. 1 Joh. 3. 23. This is his Commandment that ye should believe on the Name of his Son Iesus Christ , &c. THere are three most precious and cardinal graces , which a Christian ough● mainly to pursue : There is that exalting grace of Faith , that comforting grac● of Hope , and that aspiring grace of Love ▪ and if once a Christian did take up that heavenly difference that is between those sister-graces , hee might be provoked to move after them most swiftly , as the chariots of Aminadab . And there is this difference between those graces ; Faith is a sober and silent grace , Hope is a patient and submissive grace , Love is an ambitions and impatient grace . Faith cryeth out , O my soul be silent unto God : Hope cryeth out , I will wait patiently for the Lord , untill the vision shall speak ; but Love it cryeth out , How long art thou a coming ? and it is waiting to hear the sound of his feet coming over the mountains of separation . That is the Motto of Hope , Quod defertur non aufertur , that which is delayed ( saith Hope ) is not altogether taken away and made void : and that may be the divine embleme of the grace of Love. It is sight infolding desire in its armes , and it is desire cloathed with wings , ●reading upon delay and impediments . There is this second difference between these graces : the grace of Faith , it embraceth the truth of the promises : the grace of Hope , it embraceth the goodnesse of the thing that is promised ; but that exalting grace of Love , it embraceth the Promiser : Faith cryeth out , Hath hee spoken it , Hee will also do it : Hope ●ryeth out , Good is the Word of the Lord , be ●● unto thy servant according to thy promise : And Love , it cryeth out in a higher note , As is the apple tree amongst the trees of the ●ood , so is my well-beloved amongst the sons . ●hirdly , There is that difference between ●hese graces , Faith it overcometh temptations ; Hope , it overcometh difficulties ; but Love stayeth at home and divideth the spoil : There is a sweet correspondence between those graces in this : Faith it fighteth and conquereth ; and Hope it fighteth and conquereth ; but Love it doth enjoy the Trophies of the victory . And , Fourthly , there is this difference , the noble grace of Faith , it shall once evanish into sight ; That noble grace of Hope , it shall once evanish into possession and enjoyment ; But that constant grace of Love ; it shall be the eternal companion of a Christian , and shall walk in with him unto the streets of the New Ierusalem . And I would ask you that question , What a day shall it be when Faith shall ced● to sight ? What a day shall it be when Hope shall yeeld its place to Love , and love and sight shall eternally sit down and solace themselves in these blessed mysteries , these everlasting consolations of Heaven world without end . And fifthly , there i● this difference , lesse will sa●isfie the grac● of Faith , and the grace of Hope , tha● will satisfie the grace of Love ; Faith , i● will be content with the promise , and Hop● will be content with the thing that is promised ; but that ambitious grace of Love , i● will be onely content with the promiser Love glaspeth its arms about that Preciou● and noble object Jesus Christ ; Love is a ●● spicious grace , It oftentimes cryeth forth● They have taken away my Lord , and I kno● not where they have laid him ; So that Fai●● is oftentimes put to resolve the suspicions ●● love . I can compare these three graces to nothing so fitly , as to those three great Worthies that David had , These three graces , they will break thorow all difficulties , were it a host of Philistines , that so they may pleasure Christ , and may drink of that Well of Bethlehem , that Well of everlasting ●onsolation that ●loweth from beneath the ●hrone of God : Love is like Noah's dove , ●t never findeth rest for the sole of its foot , ●ntill once it be within that Ark , that place ●f repose Jesus Christ. And sixthly , There is this last difference between them , Faith taketh hold upon the ●●ithfulnesse of Christ ; Hope taketh hold ●pon the goodnesse of Christ ; but Love , it ●●keth hold upon the heart of Christ. And ●hink yee not it must be a pleasant and soul●●freshing exercise , to be continually taken ●● in imbracing him , that is that eternal ad●iration of Angels . Must it not be an ex●ellent life , dayly to bee feeding on the finest the wheat , and to bee satisfied with honey ●● of the rock . O but Heaven must be a plea●●n● place ! And if once we would but taste ●● the first ripe grapes , and a cluster of wine ●●a● groweth in that pleasant land , might not ●●e be constrained to bring up a good report it . But now to come to that which wee pur●●se mainly to speak of at this time . The 〈◊〉 thing concerning Faith , that wee pro●●sed from the words , was the object up●● which Faith exerciseth itself , which is 〈◊〉 set down to bee the Mame of his Son Iesus Christ. And that we may speak to this more clearly , wee shall first speak a little to the negative , what things are not the fit object of Faith , and then to the positive , shewing you how this Name of God , and of His Son Christ , is the sure ground upon which a Christian may pitch his Faith : For the first , yee must know that a Christian is not to build his faith upon sense , nor sensible enjoy ments : Sense may bee an evidence of Faith but it must not bee the foundation of Faith I know there are some that oftentimes cry out , Except I put my fingers into the print ●● the nails , and thrust my hand into the hole ●● his side , I will not believe ; and indeed it is 〈◊〉 mystery unto the most part of us , to bee exercising Faith upon a naked word of promise , abstracted from sense ; to love an absent Christ , and to believe on an absent Christ , are the two great mysteries of Christianity . But that sense is no good foundation for Faith , may appear . 1. That Fait● which is builded upon sense , is a most unconstant , a most fluctuating and transient Fait● I know sense hath its fits of love , and as were , hath its fits of Faith : Sometim●● sense is sick of love , and sometimes sense 〈◊〉 strong in Faith , but ere six hours go about sense may bee sick of jealousie , and sick 〈◊〉 misbelief , as yee will see from Psal. 30. 6 , 〈◊〉 sense , that bold thing , it will instantly 〈◊〉 out , My mountain standeth strong , I will ●●ver be moved ; but behold how soon it chan●eth its note , Thou hides thy face , and I 〈◊〉 troubled . At one time it will cry for●●● Who is like unto him that pardoneth iniquity , and that passeth over transgressions ; but ere many hours go about , it will sing a song upon another key , and cry out , Why art thou ●ecome unto mee as a liar , and as waters that ●ail ? 2. That Faith which is built upon ●ense , it wan●eth the promise of blessednesse , ●● this is annexed to believing , that is founded upon the Word , according to that in ●oh . 20. 29. Blessed are these that have not ●en , and yet have believed : nor hath that ●ith that is built upon sense such a solide ●y waiting on it , as faith that is built upon ●he naked word of promise , as may be cleared from that word , 1 Pet. 1. 8. where faith exercising it self upon Christ not seen , maketh a Christian to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory , a joy that doth not at●●nd believing , founded upon sense . 3. That ●ith that is built upon sense , it giveth not ●uch glory to God , for faith that is built ●●on sense , it exalteth not the faithfulnesse 〈◊〉 God , it exalteth not the omnipotency of ●od . I will tell you what is the divinity 〈◊〉 sense ; let me see , and then I will believe ; 〈◊〉 it knoweth not what it is to believe ●●on trust , and because the Lord hath spoken 〈◊〉 his holinesse : And in effect , Faith that is ●●ilt upon sense , is no Faith , even as ●●m . 8. Hope that is seen , is no hope ; And therefore , when the Lord seeth a Christian ●●king sense an idol , that hee will not be●●ve but when hee seeth or feeleth , this doth ●●en provoke the Majesty of the Lord to withdraw himself from that Christian , and to deny him the sweet influences of heaven and these consolations that are above , so that in an instant hee hath both his sense and hi● faith to seek . 2. A Christian is not to make his grace the object of his Faith , that is when a Christian doth behold love burning within him when hee doth behold influences to p●ay●● encreasing , and mortification waxing stro●● hee is not to build his faith upon them , thi● was condemned in the Church , in Ezek. 16 ▪ 14. compared with the 15 verse , I m●● thee perfect with my comlinesse : but the us● that thou didst make of it , thou didst put 〈◊〉 trust in thy beauty , and then thou didst pla● the harlot . It is certain , that grace when 〈◊〉 is the object of our Faith , it doth provoke God to blast the lively exercise thereof , and to make a Christian oftentimes have th●● complaint : Wo to me , my leannesse ▪ my lea●●es●● testifieth to my face . I will tell you thr●● great mysteries of Christianity , about grace The first is , to ride marches between the●● two , not to deny what they have , an● yet to bee denyed to what they have ; ma●● times , there is grace-denying , and not sel● denying ; but this is that wee would pres●● upon you to bee denyed to grace , according to that which is recorded of Moses , his fa●● did shine and he knew it not , hee did mis●e●● ( as it were ) and did not at all bee puffed ●● with it ; for so the words wee conceive m●● run . Secondly , it is a great difficulty f●● a Christian to bee denied to his self denial , 〈◊〉 ●ee humble in ●his being humble : for if pri●● ●●n have no other foundation , it will build ●● self upon humility ; and a Christian will ●●ow proud in this , that hee is growing humble . Thirdly , It is a difficultie for a Christian to examine his growing in grace , and not bee puffed up ; It is certain a Christian ought to examine his growth in grace humbly , according to that , Psal. 63. 8. My ●●ul followeth hard after thee , thy right hand ▪ ●●holdeth mee : Hee doth not only take notice ●f this , that his soul did follow after God , ●ut of the measure of that pursuit , my soul ●●lloweth hard after thee , and yet sweetly acknowledgeth , it was not his own feet which ●●rried him , nor his own hand that kept him ●●om falling . 3. Yee are not to build your Faith upon ●our works ; and upon the righteousnesse ●f the Law : I need not stand long to re●ure ●●at practicall Popery that is amongst us , ●●at thinketh wee can go to heaven through 〈◊〉 Covenant of Works . I told you not long ●●●e , what your going to heaven through Covenant of Works speaketh ; even this ●●r●id blasphemy ; That it was an act of ●onstruous folly to send Christ to die for ●●ers ; for , if you can go to heaven with●●t him , was not Christ then crucified in 〈◊〉 . And I would tell you now , that ●● is speaketh out your damnable ignorance 〈◊〉 the weaknesse and deceitfulnesse of your ●●n hearts . O yee that are so great de●●ders of Salvation by the Covenant of ●orks , I beseech you , What is the rea●●● that yee break the Covenant of Works oftner then any ; for there is none th● thinketh they will go to heaven this way but these that are the greatest breakers of th● Covenant of Works . And is not that inconsistent , and most contradictory divinity , yo●● faith contradicting your practice , and you● practice telling you that your faith is a lie . Fourthly , We must not mix our ow● righteousnesse with Christ , as the object o● our believing : This is indeed an evill tha● often lodgeth in the bosome of the most refined hypocrite , when Satan cannot preva●● to exclude Christ altogether , then he is content with that whorish woman , to divide th● childe , and let the object of our faith be ha● Christ , and half of self ; And the truth i● many of these poor unwise sons , who st●● long in the place of the breaking forth ●● children , do willingly hearken to this ove●ture , for fear it be presumption for such po●● wretches to meddle too boldly with the righteousnesse of Christ ; but it were good suc● weak ones would consider that word , R●● 10. 2. where the Holy Ghost calleth th● making use of His righteousnesse , an act ●● submission , They have not submitted ( saith h●● unto the righteousnesse of Christ. O will y●● not lay this to heart , that our Lord will ta●● your believing , or your putting on his righteousnesse for an act of great humility , a●● will take your misbelief as a marvelous act 〈◊〉 the highest pride and presumption . Fifthly , We are not to make providenc● the object of our faith . I know there ●● some that ask the ground of their right 〈◊〉 heaven , they will tell us , that God hath been ●ind to them all their dayes . I would only ●ay to such , He may be feeding you unto the day ●f slaughter , and no man knoweth love or hatred ●●y any thing that is before him . This much of ●he object of Faith negatively . And now to speak to it positively , we see ●he Text holdeth out Christ himself as that excellent and compleat object of Faith , This ●s his Commandement , that we believe on the ●ame of his Son : and thus Faith closeth with Christ in a fourfold consideration . First , It ●oseth with God in Christ , not with God immediatly and nakedly ; for , hee dwelleth in ●●ght inaccessible , that no man can approach unto : He is higher then the heaven , what can we do ? ●nd deeper then hell what can we know ? Job 11. ●herefore wee must approach unto Him ●hrough a vail , even the vail of Christ His ●esh , Heb. 10 God is a consuming fire , and of ●●rer eyes then that he can behold iniquity : and therefore we must first cast our eye upon that ●essed Days-man , that laid his hand upon us ●●th ; and look upon God as in Christ recon●ling the world to himself , and so draw near ●nto him through a Mediator , who is the first ●●d the last , and he that liveth and was dead , ●●d is alive for evermore , able to save to the ●termost all that come unto God by Him , ●eing he liveth for ever to make intercessi●n for them . Secondly , Faith closeth with ●hrist , as tendered freely in a Covenant of ●omise . We could have had nothing to do ●●th Christ , if he had not been given of the ●ther , and offered himself in a free Covenant of promise ; but he being thus holde● forth upon tearms of free love ( which dot● utterly abominat hyre ) and so nodle a proclamation issued forth under the great se● of Heaven , That whosoever will , may come an● drink of the water of life freely ; Upon th●● the poor creature draweth near by vertue 〈◊〉 a right , and stretching out the armes of mo●● enlarged affections , doth run upon him wit● that joyful shout , My Lord and my God ; an● then maketh an absolute resignation of it se● unto him ; which is holden out in the Scripture by that sweet expression of kissing 〈◊〉 the Son. And there are three parts of Chris● blessed Body that the Christian must endeavour to kisse and imbrace : the mouth ●● Christ , the hand of Christ , and the feet ●● Christ : the kissing of his feet importing th● exercise of love , the kissing of his hands th● exercise of subjection , and the kissing of h●● mouth the exercise of communion and fellowship with him . Thirdly , Faith close● with Christ as the purchaser and meritorious cause of all the good we receive : He is the person that hath purchased all these thi●● unto us , and there is not one blink of lov● there is not the smallest enjoyment that Christian meeteth with , but it is the price the blood of Christ ; Christs precious blo● was laid down for it . Fourthly , Faith ●●seth with Christ as the efficient and work● of all our mercies ; all our enjoyments th●● are far from him as the efficient cause , that ▪ He is the worker of all these things in 〈◊〉 it is his precious fingers that must accomplish that blessed work of grace , and they are from Christ as the dispenser of these things ; Christ is the great Steward of Heaven that doth communicate unto Believers all the Treasures of the Higher House ; For Him hath God the Father sealed . O but that word that Christ once spake , is much verified by Himself , It is more blessed to give , then to ●eci●ve ; Christ is that fountain and treasure 〈◊〉 whom all our gifts and graces are treasured ●p ; for , before the blessing come to Believers , ●hey come to Christ as the Head , according ●o that word , 2 Tim. 1 9. Which grace was ●iven to us in Him , before the foundations of the ●orld were laid : It was given to Christ be●●e the world was made , and for that end , ●●at it might be communicate unto all his ●embers , and so out of His fulnesse we all ●eive , and grace for grace . But , secondly , The Text holdeth forth ●ore particularly this excellent object of ●●th , to be the Name of his Son , That ye ●●ieve in the Name of his Son. And here ●●eed we may be at a stand . It is long ●●ce Agur did non plus all the world ●●th that question , What is his Name ? and ●●at is his Sons Name , if thou canst tell ? ●●ow little a thing can be known of Him ! ●●d O how brutish is this generation ! that ●●w so much lesse then might be known Him in such a day of the Gospel . But ●t we may speak a little , according to our ●●k measure of Faith , as closing with the ●●e of Christ. His Name is His glorious ●●●u●es , by which he revealeth so much of Himself in the Scriptures , as poor mortals can take up . Wee did shew you before , that there was three of these that were the main pillars of justifying Faith , Faithfulnesse , Omnipotency , and His infinite Love and Mercy : And how from these may bee answered all the objections of sense , of c●rnall reason , and of misbelief , arising from convictions of unworthinesse . And certain it is , that Faith in all its conflicts , maketh much use of the Names of Christ. And there is not an objection that a poor tempted soul can make , but Faith can frame an answer to it , out of some of these excellent Name● of God , or of his Son Christ. It would bee a more longsome work then I intend to let you see this in all ; But I shall onely instance in that One glorious Name of God , by which he proclaimeth his glory , Exod. 34. The Lord ▪ the Lord God , mercifull and gracious , long suffering , and abundant in goodnesse and truth● Keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving iniquit● transgression and sin , and that will by no mean● clear the guilty , &c. I think there are seve● ordinary objections which may bee answere● from that place . First , It is an ordinar● objection which misbelievers do make , th●● they are under the strength of their corruption , that they are black as the Tents of Keda● and not beautifull a● the Curtains of Solomon And doth not the first letter of that Nam● answer this , that he is a mercifull Lord : th● one importing his ability to save , and 〈◊〉 bring down every high imagination ? Th● other importing , his infinite delight to h●● those who have no strength , and are under the power of their adversaries , the power of God being of no larger extent then his love . There is that second objection of misbelief , that wee have nothing to commend us to Christ : But all that wee have to boast of , are infirmities and imperfections : And this is abundantly answered from that second letter of his Name , that he is Gracious : which importeth the freedom of the dispensations of his love that hee walketh nor with us , according to that rule of merit , but according to that golden and excellent rule of Love. It is a great dispute whether Mercy or Grace be the greatest wonder , Whether the love of Christ , or the freedom of it bee the greatest mystery : Sure both these put together make up a matchlesse wonder ? Thirdly , Misbelief will object , that wee have forsaken him dayes without number , and that wee cannot trace back our apostasie unto the first day of its rise : And is not that abundantly answered from that letter of his Name , that hee is long suffering ? This being that Glorious attribute in God , the glory of which hee desireth to magnifie above all his Name . Fourthly , Misbelief doth ordinarily propose this objection , that wee have multiplied our transgressions , and have committed whoredoms under every green tree , and have given gifts to our lovers , even hyring our idols : So that wee may take up that lamentation , is not our sin great , and our transgression infinit : And is not that also answered from that letter of his Name , that hee is abundant in goodnesse ? That though sin abound in us , yet grace doth much more superabound in him . Wee confesse indeed , that there are some that may walk under that condition , that if they had no other exercise throughout eternity , but to make confession , they might confesse and never make any needlesse repetition : And truely in some respect , it is a mercy that we are mysteries unto our self : for , if wee did know compleatly the seven abominations of our hearts , and those mysterious actings of the body of death , we would be in hazard to choise strangling and death , rather then life : Yet may not one glimpse of that abundant goodnesse satisfie us , and calm the storm . Fifthly , Saith misbelief , wee know that we have broken our Vowes and Covenants with God , and that all these things that wee have taken on , have been but as flax before the fire of tentation ; so that wee have no hope that he will have mercy upon these that have broken wedlock , and have not been stedfast in his Covenant . But is not that abundantly answered from that letter of His Name , That hee is abundant in truth : which speaketh , That though wee deny our selves , yet he abideth faithfull , and doth not alter the word that hath gone out of his mouth . It is the infinite blessednesse of man that though hee bee changeable , yet they have to do with one that is an unchangeable being . Sixthly ; There is that objection : That notwithstanding all these things are matters of encouragement to some , yet they know not whether or not the lot of everlasting love have fallen upon them : And whether their names be in the ancient records of Heaven . But this is answered from that letter of His Name , hee keepeth mercy for thousands ? which sheweth us that great number of those upon whom the lot of everlasting love shall fall : And if there were no other sentence in all the Scripture , ●his might be a sufficient matter of a Song , and might make us cry out , Who is like un●o him , whose compassions have no end , And who desires to magnifie his mercy above all his works ? And lastly , Misbelief maketh this objection , They have sinned not onely against light , not onely against vowes , not onely after much enjoyment of God , but even after the application of threatnings : So that they conceive , that their Maker will ●ot have mercy upon such . Yet this is fully answered likewise from that letter of His Name , He forgiveth iniquity , transgression ●nd sin : which three words doth abundantly speak forth ; That there is no transression which he will not pardon , there being but one particular amongst all that ●●nu●etable number of sins which lodgeth 〈◊〉 the heart of fallen man , that he declared ●●pardonable : And there is none of our ●iseases that is above the infinit a●●e of love , ●nd concerning which we can take up that ●omplaint , There is no balm in Gilead , and ●●ere is no Physician there . And though pro●idence may master up many impossibilities , ●et let Faith take the promise in the one ●nd , and impossibilites in the other , and desire God to reconcile them ; that if we cannot see any connexion between Providence and the Word , yet may we reflect upon the omnipotency of God , that can make thing● that are seeming contrary sweetly to agree together , the Comment●●y will never destroy the Text , nor Providence will never destroy the faithfulnesse of God : And let me give you this advice , that those objections of misbelief which you cannot answer , and , in ● manner putteth you to a non plus , and whe● ye have looked over all the Names of God , y● cannot finde an answer to them , sleight them and cover them , as we have often told you was the practice of believing Abraham , Rom ▪ 4. 19. where that strong objection of misbelief appearing before his eyes , the deadness● of his body , and the barrenesse of Sarahs womb ▪ It is recorded of him , he considered not thes● things : as it were , he had a divine transitio● from the objections of misbelief to the actin● of Faith : and this is clear from Matth. 15 ▪ 25 , 26. Where that strong objection of misbelief being proposed against that woman the she was not within the compasse o● Christs Commission , she hath a noble way o● answering with this , Lord have mercy upon m● And ( if so we may speak ) Faith hath a kin● of divine impertinency in answering the objections of misbelief ; or rather a holy sleighting of them that gaineth the victory , whe● cavilling with tentations will not do it . The like also may be instanced in His So● Name : O how glorious titles are given t● that Prince of the Kings of the earth , and 〈◊〉 that Plant of renown , upon which the weakest faith may cast anchor , and ride out the greatest storm ; I shall not detain you long on this subject , but this we would have you know , that there is no strait nor difficulty that a Christian can be exposed unto , but there is some name or a●tribute of Christ that may sweetly answer that difficulty , and make up that disadvantage . Is a Christian exposed unto afflictions and troubles in a present world ? Let him comfort himself in this , that Christ is the shadow of a great rock in a wearied land ; Is a Christian under inward anxiety and vexation of mind ? Let him comfort himself in this , That Christ is the God of peace , and of all consolation ; Is a Christian under darknesse and confusion of spirit ? Let him comfort himself in this , That Christ is the Father of lights , and is the eternal wisdom of God ; Is a Christian under the convictions of this , that he is under the power and dominion of his lusts ? Let him comfort himself in this , that Christ is Redemption ; yea ( that I stay no longer ) if it were possible that a Christian could have a necessity that he could not find a name in Christ to answer it , he may lawfully frame a name to Christ out of any promise in all the Book of God , and he should find it forth-coming for the relieving and making up of that necessity , God would not disappoint his expectation . There is yet one thing further , in reference to the object of Faith , which we shall desire you to tale notice of ; and it is the way of Faiths closing with its noble object , and its testing on him : and this we conceive may be excellently taken up by our considering of the many several names that Faith getteth in Scripture , beyond any other of ●he graces of the Spirit . It is called looking , Isa. 45 22. Look unto me : It is called abiding in Christ , Joh. 15. 4. Abide in mee : It is called a keeping silence unto God , Psal. 37. 7. My soul trust in God ; Or as the word is in the Original , My soul be silent unto God ; and that in Psal. 62. 1. My soul waiteth ; Or as the word is , Truly my soul is silent unto God. Likewise Faith is called a leaning , Psal. 7. 15. I have leaned upon thee from my mothers womb . Faith is called an eating of Christs flesh , John 6. 53. Faith is called a casting of our burden upon God , Psal. 55. 22. Cast your burden upon God : and Faith it is called a coming unto God , Matth. 11. 28. And according to these different names , there are these seven noble properties & ma●chless differences of this grace of Faith. The first is , That this is this grace by which a Christian doth enjoy much communion with God : Hence it is called a looking : which importeth , that Faith is a continuall contemplation of the immortal Soul upon that precious and excellent object Jesus Christ. There is that second property of saith , That it is that grace by which a communion with God is maintained : Hence it is called an abiding in God. It is that grace whi●h maketh Christ and the believer to dwell together . The third property of Faith is , that it is a most submissive grace : Hence it is called a keeping silence unto God : Faith as it were , it knoweth not what it is to ●epine . It is the noble excellency of Faith , it never knew what it was to misconstruct Christ. It is the noble excellency of Faith , it never knew what it was to passe an evil report upon Christ. Faith it will promise good things to a Christian in the darkest night ; for , when Love asketh Faith that question , Isa. 21. 11 , 12. Watchman , what of the night ? Watchman , what of the night ? Or , when shall the morning break ? Faith answereth it with the words that follow , ( onely a little inverting the order ) The night cometh , and also the morning ; the morning is approaching , that admitteth of no following night . There is that fourth property of Faith , It is the grace which keep●th a Christian in ●e severance , by its ●uilding upon the rock . Hence it is called a ●eaning upon God ; for a Christian by Faith doth perpe●ually joyn himself to Christ , so ●hat what ever trouble hee be cast into , by Faith hee come●h up out of that wildernesse , ●eaning upon his beloved , and by Faith hee is ●ed up to the Rock that is higher then hee , ●here he may sit in safety , and even ●augh at ●eath and destruction when assailing him . ●here is that fifth property of Faith , That ●●s the grace that bringeth satisfaction un●● the spirituall senses of a Christian , by a ●ose and particular application of Christ 〈◊〉 the nou●●ishment of the soul. Hence it is ●lled an eating of the fl●sh of Christ. There are ●ree senses that Faith satisfieth , Faith satisfieth the sense of sight , it satisfieth the sense of taste , and it satisfieth the sense of touch : Faith will make a Christian handle that eternall word of life : Faith will make a Christian see that noble plant of renown ; And Faith will make a Christian taste and see how gracious the Lord is . And no doubt , these tha● have once satisfied their sight , they will b● longing to satisfie their taste . There is tha● sixth property of Faith , It is that grace which giveth rest unto a Christian : Hence i● is called a casting of our burden upon him : I● is , as it were , the soul giving unto Christ tha● unsupportable yoke of our iniquities , an● taking from Christ that easie and portabl● yoke of his Commandements . And seventhly , There is that last property of Faith , I● is that grace by which Sanctification is pro ▪ moved : Hence it is called a coming to Christ ▪ It is the soul in a divine motion and travelling from the land of Egypt unto the land o● Canaan : Faith it is the soul in a pleasant motion from the land of the north , the land o● our captivity , unto that land of perfect liberty , all along going out by the footsteps of t●● flock , and walking in that new and living wa● even in Him who is the Way , the Truth and t●● Life . And now for a more full application 〈◊〉 this , we shall speak but to two things further . 1. We would have it considered , th● there are some that come unto the Covena● of Promise with lesse difficulty , and after ▪ more divine and evangelick way ; and the● are some that close with Christ , in a mo●● difficult and legall way ; there are some that before they can come to mount Sion , they must dwell fourty dayes at mount Sinai . There are some , before the decreet of heaven shall be given to them , they must roa● as an ox , and must cover themselvs with sackcloath , having ashes upon their heads , we must be a Benoni before we be Benjamin , that is , we must be a son of sorrow , before we can be a son of consolation . But this is certain , that Christ leadeth sometimes some to himself through a valley of roses : And I would only have you taking notice of these two , which though we conceive they b● not infallible in the rule , yet oftentimes experience maketh them out to be truth . 1. That there are three sorts of persons who are most ordinarily brought under great terrour , ●ere they close with Christ. First , These who have committed some grosse and abominable sin that is most contradicting unto the light of nature . Secondly , That person that sinneth much against light , before conversion : Hence it is observed in all the Books of the Gospel , and in the book of the Acts , there was a more Gospel and love way of converting the Gentiles , then was of converting the Jews , see Act. 2. 37. there is a sharp Law exercise among them who had crucified the Lord of Life , and Act. 9. Paul that had been a grievous persecuter , at his conversion , he is first stricken dead to the ground before he be made a captive of the love of Christ , and constrained to cry out , What wilt thou have me to do : but look to Act. 8. and chap. 19. and there ye will find a more fair and smooth way of begetting sons to Christ. And , thirdly , that person that is much in conceit of his own righteousnesse , he useth to be brought to Christ through much terrour and exercise of the Law : that is clear in Paul , his condition also , Phil. 3. and Act. 9. compared , and certainly , who ever thinketh to come that length in self abasement , and will count as the Apostle doth in that Chapter , must dwell many dayes at mount Sinai , and learn his Arithmethick there . 2. We would have you taking notice of this , that though the person that is brought in to Christ in a more smooth and evangelick way may have the preheminency of the person that is brought to Christ after a more legall and terrible way in some things . Yet we conceive , that a Christian that is brought to Christ through much of the exercise of the Law , and through many of the thunderings of mount Sinai , after he hath wone to see his right of Christ , he is more constant in the exercise of Faith ; and the reason of it is , because that an ordinary ground of misbelief is our not distinct uptaking either of the time of our conversion , which is oftentimes hid from these persons that are converted in a more evangelick way , as likewise this , that those persons that are brought to Christ in a more Gospelchariot , are sometimes put to debates , whether ever they were under the exercise of the Law , and this maketh them often ( as it were ) to raze the foundation , and to cry forth , My hope , and my strength is perished from the Lord. And now to shut up our discourse , we shall adde this one word of exhortation ; that ye would carefully lay hold upon that noble object , and exercise your faith upon him ; and I shall say but this , that all these that have this noble grace of Faith , and that are he●●s of that everlasting inheritance : There is a fourfold Crown prepared for you ; There is a Crown of life that is prepared for him that shall sight the good fight of Faith ; ●ut what may you say is a Crown of Life , except we have joy waiting upon that life ; ●or what is life without joy , but a bitternesse , and a burthen to it self ; Therefore ●e shall have a crown of joy ; but what were ● crown of Life , and a crown of ●oy , except we had the grace of Holinesse , and were compleat in that ; Therefore , ye shall have ●lso a crown of Righteousnesse : But , what were Life Joy and Righteousnesse , without Glory ; Therefore ye ●hall have likewise a ●●own of Glory ▪ But what of all these , if that Crown should once fall from our head , 〈◊〉 we should be deprived of our King●om ? Therefore , take this to make up all ●he rest , it is an eternal crown of Glory . ●hat word in Prov. 27. n●a● the close , The ●●own ▪ saith Solomon , doth not endure for ever : ●ut this precious Crown that the hands of ●hrist shall fix upon the head of an over●oming Christian , this is the mot●o that is ●●grav●n upon it , Unchangeable and Eter●all , Eternal and unchangeable , and O what a day suppose ye shall that be , when tha● precious Crown shall be put upon our heads ▪ What think you will be the difference betwix● Christ and the Believers in heaven . They shall have these four crowns which are indeed one ; but Christ shall have upon hi● head many Crowns , according to that word Rev. 19. 12. But let me say one word also to you who are strangers from God , and ar● destitute of the grace of Christ , and will no● by faith close with this excellent Object ▪ There is a fourfold crown that once shall b● put upon your heads ; but do not misinterpret the vision : There is a difference betwix● the Butler and the Baker ; ye may prophesi● good things to your self , but there is a crow● of death which ye shall once have put upo● your heads ; ye shall be alwayes dying , an● never able to die : there is a crown of sorrow that ye shall have put upon your head when ye shall eternally sigh forth that lamentation , O to be anihilat , and reduced unto nothing ; when the reduction of you into nothing would be a heaven , when ye shall b● tormented in those everlasting flames . An● I would say this by the way , ye will be al● miserable , comfortlesse one to another , ther● will be no ground of consolation that ye shal● reap , for the community of your sorrow shall increase the degrees of that sorrow And there is another crown also that ye shal● put on , and that is a crown of sin , instead o● that crown of righteousnesse : would you kno● your exercise , O ye that are predestinate u● to these everlasting pains ? Would ye kno● your exercise ? It is this , ye shall eternally blaspheme , and curse the God that made you . I am perswaded of this , that the terrours of hell will afflict you more , and doth , then that of the sinning perpetually in hell : Ye would think nothing many of you to be in hell , if there were no pain there ; for the exercise of sin it will be your delight and life : but be perswaded of it , that when your conscience is awakened , the exercise of sinning shall exceedingly aggreage your pain . And there is this crown lastly , that ye shall put on , and that is the crown of shame : The Prophet Isaiah maketh mention of a crown of pride ; but ye that have put on that crown of pride , ye shall once put on that crown of everlasting confusion and shame , when ye shall not be able to lift up your eyes to him whom ye have peirced : I would fain desire you to know , what will be your exercise at these three dayes ; what will be your exercise when death shall be summonding you to remove , and ye shall first be entered heirs unto these everlasting pains ; I am perswaded ye will reflect much ? Will ye not reflect upon many Sermons that ye have heard , wherein ye have been invited to partake of the sweet offers of Salvation . I remember of one , that upon his death bed cryed forth , A world for time , a world for one inch of time , one that perhaps did hold his head high , and no doubt was greater than the greatest here , his Crown could not purchase on inch of time , but dying with this , Call time again , call time again ; that petition was denyed , and so it shall be , I fear , to the most part that are here . I think it was a pretty Hieroglyph●ck of the Egyptians , they painted Time with three hea●s ; The first head that painted out time that was past , Was a greedy Wolfe gaping , which importeth this , That our time past was mispent , and there was nothing left , but like a Wolfe to gape for it again : And there was that second head of a roaring Lyon , round , which import the time pr●sent , and for this end was so painted , that people might lay hold upon their present opportunities ; otherwise , it would be the matter of their ruine , and of their eternall undoing . And there was that last head , which was of a deceitfull Dog , fawning ; which signified , that people they ●eceive themselves with the time to come , thinking they will be religious at their dea●h , and that they will overcome at their death , but this is ●●attery , no better then the fawning of a mad Dog. I think wee may learn much of this , even to be provoked to lay hold upon ou● gol●●n opportunities , that wee sell not ●ur time but that wee buy it . There are two thi●●gs that a Christian must not sell , that is , sell not the truth but buy it , and sell not your time but buy it . I am perswaded of this , that one moment of time is worth ten thousand worlds , if improven : And I would ask you , what advantage shall yee have of all things that yee have ●o●mented your selves about , when time shall be no more ? I suppose indeed , this is an ordinary evil amongst the people of this age , of which we have our own share and proportion . There are many that envy Godlinesse , and the Godly , The excellent ones that are in the earth , that think it a pleasure to vent their malice against such : I know that ordinary practice it is older by a thousand years then themselves , that they persecure Godlinesse under the name of hypocrisie : They call Godliness hypocrisie , and upon that account they begin and speak maliciously against it : onely ● would ask you this question , What will ●e say in that day when Christ will ask that question at you , that Gideon asked at Zeba ●od Zalmuna , who are these that ye killed with your tongue ? Most it not be answered , Every one did resemble the person of a King ? ● will ye not believe ! will ye not close with Christ ? I know it is ordinary that we run ●pon these two extreams , Sometimes we ●o not believe the threatnings of the Law , ●nd sometimes we will not believe the pro●ises of the Gospel . But I would only de●e to know , what if it had been so order●● in the infinite wisdome of God , that all ●●e letters of this Book should have been ●●earnings ? what should have been our lot , ●●all the promises should have been s●raped ●t of it . But certainly this must be your ●t ▪ all ●he promises of the Book of this Co●nant shall be taken from you , and all the ●●ses thereof shall be a flying roll that shall ●●er within your houses , and shall there ●●●rnally remain . Know this , O ye that are ●●emies to Christ , know it and think upon it , Every battel of the warriour is with confused noise , and with garments rolled in blood ▪ But that war that Christ shall have against the hypocrites in Zion , and those that are ignorant of him , and will not close with him it shall be with fewell of fire , and eternal i●dignation . O what will be your though●● suppose you , when Christ shall come wi●● that two edged sword of the ●ury of th● Lord , to enter to fight with you ? It i●●● delightsome exercise . Oh that ye were n●● almost , but altogether perswaded to be Christians , and that once Christ might conq●● you with that two edged sword that proceedeth out of his mouth , that so ye might subject your selves to Him , and make Him t●● object of your Faith. Now to Him th●● hath engraven upon His vesture , and on 〈◊〉 thigh , that He is the King of kings , and 〈◊〉 Lord of lords , we desire to give praise . A SERMON Concerning the Great-Salvation . Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation , which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord , and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him . THis everlasting Gospel , which is preached unto you , is that glorious Star , which must lead us to the place where blessed Christ doth ●ly . This Gospel and glad tydings of the Great Salvation is come near unto you : And Christ is standing at the everlasting doors of your hearts , desiring that ye would open unto him . There is that one great request which heaven , this day , hath to present unto you , and it is , That ye would at last imbrace this Great Salvation freely offered by him . It is the thing for which ye are called to mourn this day , that since the dayes of your fathers , and since the beginning of your own dayes , ●e have stopped your ears from that sweet and chaunting voice of this blessed Charmer . Ye would never dance to Christ when he pyped , neither would ye weep to him when he lamented . But to come to the words which we have read unto you : The Apostle in the forme● Chapter hath been discoursing most divinely , of the matchless and incomparable excellencies which are in our blessed Lord Jesus ; And in the first verse of this second Chapter , h● draweth forth an exhortation from his former Doctrine , which in short is this , That they would take heed to the blessed Doctrine of the Gospel : And not at any time to let it slip out of our minds , and that they would keep thi● Gospel as a Jewel of great price , and would not sell it , but that they would be induced to buy it . And this exhortation he presseth by two Arguments . The first Argument is in the second verse where he saith , If the word spoken by Angel● was stedfast , and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward , &c. That is , if the transgression of the Law , which was delivered but by the Ministry of Angels , and every disobedience to i● was so severely punished ; Let that provoke you to take heed , that ye transgresse no● the precious Gospel which was spoken by the Lord himself . The second Argument is in the word which we have read unto you , and it i● taken from the certain and infallible stroa● of the Justice of God , which shall com● upon those who slight this Great Salvation ●t is impossible ( saith he ) that there can be a ●●ity of refuge for these who slight this Great Salvation . Now in the words which wee have read , here are these six things to be considered . I. First , That it is an evil incident to the ●●earers of this precious Gospel and Great ●●lvation , to slight and undervalue it ; This is early presupposed in the words , otherwise here had been no ground or accesse for the postle to threaten so terrible things against ●●e slighters of it . II. The second thing to bee considered in 〈◊〉 words , is , That the stroak and ruine of ●●ose who slight this Great Salvation , is ●●●tain , and infallible , it will surely come ●●on them : This is clear from these words , ●●w shall we escape ? As if he had said , there ●●no imaginable way for us to escape , if wee ●●glect ( this ) so Great Salvation : wee may ●●●e a city of refuge when wee are pursued the Law ; or , when wee are pursued by ●●ictions , and wee may escape when wee 〈◊〉 pursued otherwayes by the Justice of ●●d ; but if once wee slight this Great ●●●vation , there remaineth no city of refuge ●●o door of escape left open ) unto us : for ●ere will the person flee that slighteth this ●●at Salvation ? II. There is this third thing whereof we ●●●l take notice from the words , That the ●●ak of the Justice of God cometh justly ●n them who slight this Great Salvation ; truely it is a most equal and reasonable ●●●k , which is also clear from the words , How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ! where he puts it home to their consciences , as if he had said , think yee not tha● it is just and righteous that ( if yee slight the Great-Salvation ) there should not be a doo● of escape left open unto you ? Hee putteth the question home to their conscience to answer , yea , or no. IV. The fourth thing to bee considered i● the words , is this , That the slighting thi● Great-Salvation is a sin that hath many aggravations which attend and wait upon i● . And it hath two great aggravations from th● words which I have read ; The first great aggravation in that word of the Text , Great Salvation , as if he had said , if it were not Great Salvation , yee might have some clo●● or excuse for your slighting of it : but se●ing it is such a great and eternal Salvation● there is now no cloak left for your sin . The second aggravation is from the certainty 〈◊〉 this Salvation : in these words , Which at fi●● began to be spoken by the Lord : and was conf●●med unto us by those that heard him , viz. 〈◊〉 Apostles , whereby he telleth them , this Great Salvation is no notion no● fancy ; but a m●● certain , sure , and real Salvation , which y●● they slight . V. The fifth thing whereof wee shall ●a●● notice from the words , is this , That the● are no persons ( be who they will , Minister 〈◊〉 people ) who slight this Great-Salvatio● that shall have a door of escape . Hence is , that the Apostle putteth himself amo●● the rest , saying , How shall wee escape ; if 〈◊〉 neglect so great salvation ; That is , How shall Paul , escape , if I neglect so great salvation ; ●nd so frustrat the grace of God ? VI. Sixthly , We would take notice of this ●●om the words , That not only heart despi●●ng of this Great Salvation , but even also ●he very neglecting of it , hath a certain infallible and unspeakable ruine attending upon it 〈◊〉 Now before wee begin to speak to any of ●hese six things ( which we have observed from ●●e words ) There are these two things where●●to we shall speak a little for clearing of the ●ords . First , What is meaned here by Great ●alvation ; Secondly , How it is said , that Christ was the first preacher of it . First , Wee conceive , that by the Great-sal●ation , is understood the Gospel , as is clear , ●ph . 1. 13. Where it is called , the Gospel of ●●r salvation , and Act. 13. 26. it it called the ●ord of this salvation ; So that by the word of this Salvation , is understood the Gospel , ●●d these precious offers which are contained in it . And we conceive , it may be called 〈◊〉 Great-Salvation , in these eight respects . I. First , It is called the Great-Salvation , ●● respect of the price that was laid down ●or it : There being no lesse price laid down ●● purchase this Great-Salvation , then the ●loud of the Son of God. From whence then ●oth Salvation flow unto you ? It comes ●●nning to you in a stream of the blood of the 〈◊〉 of God. This is clear , Heb. 9. 12. Nei●●er by the blood of Goats and Calves ; but by ●is own blould he entered in once into the holy ●lace , having obtained eternal redemption for us . II. Secondly , It is called a Great Salvation , in respect of the many difficulties and oppositions which ly in the way of bringing it about . What great impediments ( suppose ye ) lay in Christs way , before he could accomplish and bring about this Great Salvation ? Was not the Justice of God to be satisfied ? Was he not to die , and be made like unto one of us ? Was he not to●ly in the grave ? And was he not to bear the to●ments of hell , before this Great-Salvatio● could be accomplished , and brought to passe 〈◊〉 There were such impediments in the way o● bringing about this Great Salvation , that ●● all the Angels in Heaven had been set to the work , they had been all crushed under 〈◊〉 had it been but that one great impediment● to satisfie the Iustice , and pacifie the wra●●● of God , even that was a passe , through which none could go , but the eternal Son of God. It was so guarded that none durst adventure to enter it ( much lesse could any win through it ) save he only , who was mighty to save . III. Thirdly , It is called a Great Salvation in respect of that high estimation which the Saints have of it . O what an high estimation have the Saints of this Gospel Salvation ! There is no mercy which they think comparable to this , all other mercies are but little Zoars in comparison of this great Mercy , and Gospel Salvation . IV. Fourthly , It is called a Great Salvation , in respect of these noble effects which this Salvation bringeth about , and produceth● Some of the great effects of the Gospel ? David hath cleared , Psal. 19. 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. Is not this ● great effect ( of this Gospel Salvation ) to ●ring us out of nature into an estate of grace ? And that is an effect of this Great Salvation ? ●s not this a great effect , to make us who were enemies , become friends ? And that is ●● effect of this Great Salvation ? Is not this ● great effect , to make us who were moving ●● the way to hell , move in the way to hea●●n ? And that is an effect of this Great Salvation . Is not this a great effect , to make us who were far off , to be now made near ? And ●●t that is an effect of this Great Salvation . And is not this a great effect , to make us who were darknesse , become light in the Lord ? and ●●at is the great effect of this Gospel Salvation : Yea , I may say , time would fail me to tell ●f all the great effects of this Great Salvation ; ●ut O will yee come and see , and that will ●est resolve the question unto you , what the ●ble effects of this Great Salvation are . V. Fifthly , It is called a Great Salvation , 〈◊〉 respect of the great advantages which ●oth redound to the person who imbraceth 〈◊〉 First , Is not Heaven a noble advantage ? ●●d that is the gain , which attendeth the ●●bracers of this Great Salvation . Secondly , 〈◊〉 not Jesus Christ a notable advantage ? ●●d yet hee is the advantage which attendeth ●● imbracers of this Great Salvation ▪ ●●irdly , Is not eternall communion with ●●d a notable advantage ? And that advantage attendeth the imbracers of this Great ●●vation . Fourthly , Is not eternal liberation from the body of death , a great advantage ? and that attendeth the imbracers o● this Great Salvation . Fifthly , Is not eternall singing in the enjoyment of God a grea● advantage ? and that attendeth the imbracer● of this Salvation . Sixthly , Is not eternal seeing of God as he is , a great and noble advantage ? And yet this ( as all the former ) attendeth the imbracers of this Great Salvation ▪ Ye● , would ye be rich ? O then imbrace thi● Great Salvation . Would ye be honourable Come and imbrace this Great Salvation Would ye be eternally happy ? O then com● and partake of this Great Salvation . VI. Sixthly , It is called a Great Salvatio● in respect of all other Salvations that eve● were accomplished . There was never a salvation , or victory obtained by any General 〈◊〉 Captain ( unto a Land or People ) that coul● have the name of Great Salvation in comp●rison of this . VII . Seventhly , It is called a Great-Salvation , in respect of the authority of it . W● have spoken of the greatnesse ( as to the m●ritorious cause ) of it , and how great things doth effectuate : and also in respect of t●● authority of it , it is a Great-Salvatio● Would ye know who is the Author of th● Great-Salvation ? It is Christ , Heb. 5. 9. 〈◊〉 became the Author of eternal Salvation to 〈◊〉 them that obey him . And must not this Salvation be suitable to him who is the Author it . This is one of the most noble and irra●●ant beams of the Majesty of the Son of G●● the Mediator , that he is the Author of 〈◊〉 Great Salvation . VIII . Eighthly , It is called a Great Salvation , in respect of the continuance and duration of it . It is not a salvation which is but 〈◊〉 a day : but it is an eternal Salvation , Heb. 〈◊〉 . 12. He obtained eternal redemption for us . Now the second thing whereunto we shall ●peak , for clearing of the words , is this , viz. How it is said , That Christ was the first ●reacher of this eternal Salvation . We do ●ot think that the words are thus to be understood , that the Gospel , and this Great Salvation was never preached before Christ came ●● the flesh ; but we think the meaning of the ●ords may be one of these three , if not all ●f them . I. First , That all the preaching of this Great Salvation under the Law , did come ●ery far short in the point of fulnesse , in ●omparison of Christs preaching of it ; There●ore is Christ said to be the first Preacher of his Great Salvation : As if he had said , I ●now Adam , he preached of this Great Salvation : and Enoch , he preached of this Great Salvation : And the twelve Patriarchs , they ●reached of this Great Salvation : And all ●he Prophets who went before Christ , and 〈◊〉 now in heaven , they preached of this Great Salvation ; But all their preaching de●erved not the name of preaching in compa●ison of Christs ; for , Never man spake as he ●pake . Thus Christ was the first great preach●r of this Great Salvation . II. Secondly , This may be the meaning ●f it , that Christ was the first Preacher of ●●is Great Salvation , in respect of his clear way of preaching of it : for hee was the first Preacher of it without Types and Shadows , hee was the first Preacher of it clearly and fully , with so much demonstration and power of the Spirit . III. Thirdly , The meaning of this ( that Christ was the first Preacher of this Great Salvation ) may relate to his appearing to Adam in Paradise , when he became the first and great Preacher of this Salvation , whe● hee did speak that word unto him , The See● of the Woman shall tread down the head of the Serpent . The first glorious preaching of thi● Great Salvation was , when Christ preached i● to Adam in Paradise . And that was the firs● and glorious morning of this blessed Gospel ▪ Now we shall speak a little to the first o● these six things which we have observed fro● the words , viz. That there are many within the visibl● Church , who are neglecters and slighters o● this Great Salvation ; ( do yee not all tak● with it ? ) It is clear , Matth. 23. toward● the close , and chap. 22. 5. Where these persons being invited to come to the marriage or feast of the Gospel , It is said of them They made light of it . Which are the sam● words in our Text. And Luke 14. 18 ▪ When they were invited to come , it is said They all with one consent began to make thei● excuse . And Isa. 28. 2. This is the rest where with yee shall make them weary to rest , this i● the refreshing , yet they will not hear . No● is there a person here who dare deny thi● charge , that hee is a slighter of thi● Grea● Salvation ? I confesse I am afraid , that ye will ●ot take with it ; Therefore I shall propose eighth sorts of persons who are slighters of this Great Salvation . And I charge you , as ye will answer to God one day , that ye search your hearts , whether ye be among the number ( in the Catalogue ) of the slighters of this Great Salvation . I , The first sort of persons , who are slighters of this Great Salvation , are these per●ons who go about to establish their own ●ighteousnesse , and will not submit to the ●ighteousnesse of Christ : ( in a word ) it is ●hat sort of persons , who think they may win to heaven by a Covenant of Works , and will not take the Gospels way of travelling ●o heaven in the Covenant of Grace . And ●orely there is not a person here , who hath ●ot that cursed inclination to be as little ob●ieged to Christ ( for his Salvation ) as he can . We would go to Heaven without the Way , which is Christ. And ( believe me ) there are ●any in this congregation , who go thus a●out to establish their own righteousnesse . And I shall propose six sorts of persons who ●●ll under the first rank . 1. The first sort are these who trust on ●heir own civility , and think these will car●y them to heaven ; These are the persons ●ho go about to establish their own righteousnesse . Say they , I defy the world to ●●y any thing to me , I was evermore an ho●est man , and I trust therefore that I shall ●o to heaven ; But I say to thee , ( O atheist ●●at thou art ) thou shal● never win to heaven by these means , till thou come to Christ with this , All my righteousnesse is lik● filthy rags . 2. The second sort are these , who buil● their confidence upon their denial of thei● good works , but yet come never this lengt● to make use of Jesus Christ. 3. The third ●ort are these , who buil● their confidence upon their duties ; The● think they will come to heaven by their goo● prayers , by their reading , and by their fasting ( like unto that Pharisee , Luk 18. 11 ) I than● God I am not like other men ▪ for I fast twi●● in the week : I pay tiths of all that I possesse● But I say unto thee , thy duties will neve● bring thee to heaven , if Christ be not th● end of all thy duties , nor can ye perform an● duty without him . 4. The fourth sort of persons , who ●a● under this first rank of slighters of the Gre●● Salvation , are those who trust on their co●victions . If they have once been convinc● of their sin and miserable estate , they thi● their is no more to do , Christ will never ●●ject them , so they sit down and build the hope upon these convictions . 5. The fifth sort of persons are these w● build their confidence upon their resolution ▪ Say they , oftentimes I have resolved to be better man than I am : therefore I thi●● ( which is the fearfull delusion of many that God will accept the will for the deed : B●● it had been good for many , such a word h●● not been in the Bible ; or that their cu●s●● eyes had never read it . But know this , t●● though thou had as strong resolutions as Peter , or as good wishes as Balaam had , if thou never labour to bring them to practice , God shall say to thee , Depart from me , I know you not . And of you who build upon your resolutions , ye build upon a sandy foundation , these being many times a goodnesse but like the morning dew . 6. And the sixth sort of persons who fall under this first rank of slighters of the Great Salvation ( and wherein the evil is most subtill ) are these who build their Salvation upon their graces ; these also go about to establish their own righteousnesse : But I say to thee , Thy grace cannot be the foundation of thy hope , though they may be as evidences to strengthen thy hope . Now are there none here who fall under this first rank of slighters of the Great Salvation ; or are there none here who will confesse that they have gone about to establish their own righteousnesse ? I say to thee , who will confesse , put a rope about thy neck , and come to Christ ; for he is a mercifull King : I say to thee , come to Christ with this , All my righteousness is like filthy rags : And if thou wilt come with this in sincerity , he shall say , Bring forth the white robe and put it upon him : If thou can be brought to speak that in sincerity to Christ , there shall be no more betwixt Christ and thee , But , Come and cloath him with the white robe . II. Secondly , These persons slight the Great Salvation , who delay their taking hold of the precious offers of the Gospel : For there are many ( when we preach thi● Gospel , and when we hold out the Great Salvation to them ) who say , I will follow Christ : But I must first go home and bury m● father ; ( and so they delay to take hold o●●his Great Salvation ) But I say to you tha● ( who ever you be ) that thus delay to tak● hold on this Great Salvation , ye are the sligh● of it . Is there a person within these doors , who dare , but acknowledge that he hath slighted this Great Salvation , and delayed to imbrace it ? O tell me ? What d● your consciences speak ? Are there any bu● they must acknowledge they come unde● this second rank ? And I say to you , who have thus delayed , will ye yet imbrace it ? 〈◊〉 say even unto you who are old men ( now past sixty years , and have slighted this Great Salvation so long ) yet this day this grea● Great Salvation is offered unto you : Wha● say ye to it ? O what do ye say to this offer ▪ Are ye saying , I must now delay ( and not receive this Great Salvation ) till my Harvest b● by , and over ? I say unto thee , that the Harvest of the wrath of God is ripe , and he shal● put in his sickle , and cut thee down . I wil● say no more to these who thus slight thi● Great Salvation , but this , Why stand ye all th● day in the Market place idle , and doing nothing . O will ye at last be induced to tak● and imbrace this Great Salvation , before ●● be hid from your eyes . III. Thirdly , These persons are th● slighters of this Great Salvation , who complement with Christ , when they are invite● to come and partake of it : And say silently ●o the Minister , ( or rather to their own con●ciences ) I pray you have me excused at this ●ime , as these Luk. 14. 18. But I would only ask at such , have ye any lawfull excuse , why ye will not come and partake of this Great Salvation ? Is there any person here , that hath any lawfull excuse to present ? I shall never take that off your hand , Have me excused : But be sure of this , I shall never excuse you , but accuse you : Therefore I desire that these persons , who have slighted the Great Salvation , by complementing with Christ , that they would complement no more wi●h Him at all : But now imbrace it . IV. The fourth sort of persons who slight this Great Salvation , are these who give way to discouragements and unbelief , so that they will not come and partake of this Great Salvation : I say , such of you are slighters of it , and Christ will esteem you such . Oh if ye knew the worth and vertue of this Great Salvation , there would not be a tentation ( you could meet with ) ●hat would hinder you from imbracing it , but if thou could not answer these ●emptations , thou would not own them . I say unto such undervaluers and slighters of the Great Salvation as discouraged persons ( And these who stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children ) tha● when ye cannot answer your objections , which hinder you from closing with Christ , I intrea● you disown them , as if you heard them not : Say ●●e , Think ye this lawfull ? I say , it is both lawfull and expedient : for it was the practic● of believing Abraham , Hee considered not 〈◊〉 own body , being dry as an old stick , Nor th● deadnesse of Sarahs womb . Hee did not cons●der these things which might have been objections to keep him from believing . He● might have started at these two objections ▪ Alas , I am old , and that objection could he● not answer : And my wife is past child hea●● , neither could hee answer that objection● What then did hee with them ? Hee slighte● them both , and considered them not . Secondly , I would say this to you , who thu● slight it because of discouragements : If ye● did know the worth of the Great Salvatio● which is in this Gospel redemption that is offered unto you , although ye had an Army o● objections to go through , yee would go through them all , To get a drink of the wate● of this well of Bethlehem . V. The fifth sort of persons who sligh● this Great Salvation , are these who wil● not do so much as take care , and give pain● to hear this Great Salvation offered unto them ; for there are some persons who ( i● they come to the Church ) desire to sit farrest off , and so never take care to hear a wor● of this Great Salvation : And such are dreadfull slighters of it . Like unto these mentioned , Ier. 6. 10. To whom shall I speak an● give warning , that they may hear ? Behold their ear is uncircumised , and they cannot hearken , Isa. 28. 12. But they would not hear , Je●● 7. 10. Who say , we are delivered to do all thes● abominations : yet they did come and stan●● before him , in the House which was called by his Name . VI. Sixthly , These persons are slighters of this Great Salvation , ( who when they hear it ) are no more ( nay not so much ) affected with it , ●hen if they were telling unto them the most senslesse history of Thomas the Rymer , or some other old fable ; Like unto these mentioned , Ier. 6. 10. The word of the Lord is unto them a reproach , they have no delight in it . I would pose you all as in the sight of the Author of this Great Salvation , ( men or women ) did you ever set your selves ( or took ye ever pains ) to bring up your hearts to the love of this Great Salvation ? Was it ever the rejoycing of your hearts that Christ dyed and rose again ? I do certainly believe it , ( and I am perswaded ) that there are decrees past in Heaven against many of you . That in hearing ye shall hear , but not understand ; and in seeing ye shall see , and shall not perceive , For God hath made your hearts harder then the Flint or Adamant ; so that ye shall refuse to return when he doth exhort you . Believe me , ( if I may so speak ) I think there is as much probability that the stones in the wall would hear ( if we would speak to them ) as soon as many of you . VII . Seventhly , These persons are slighters of the Great Salvation , who did never complain that they wanted a right to this Great Salvation . I hope some of you are now convinced that ye never came within the compasse of this Great ▪ Salvation : I say yet unto you , if ye did never spend one hou● in secret weeping and lamenting , because y● had not a righ● to this Gospel Redemption● it is but too probable you never ha● yet ● right to it . Yea , know it , that such of you would little care to let precious Christ depar●● without any grief of heart ; I think if thi● were voiced within this house to ▪ day , whether or not shall Christ go and depart , I doub● if there would be many Heart diss●nters , though many Tongue dissenters : Oh , I fear there would be many hearts here , saying , O Christ depart and go thy way : yea , there are many Gadarens here , who prefer their ●ine and swine to precious Christ , and would be●eech him to go out of their coasts . VIII . Eightly , These persons sligh● the Great ▪ Salvation , who never took pain● to engage their hearts to take hold of Christ and the Gospel . Christ is near to you this day : The Great salvation is near to you , and is now , even now offered unto you : Therefore are there any who will take pains to lay hold on it ? I obtest you all who are here , by the beauty and excellency of him who is the Author of this Great salvation , that ye come and partake of it ; I obtest you by all the joyes of heaven that ye imbrace this Great salvation , I obtest you by all the ●errous in hell , that ye imbrace it , I obtest you by the promises of the everlasting Covenant , that ye imbrace it , I obtest you by all the curses which are written in this Book of the Covenant , that ye imbrace it , I obtest you by the love ye owe to your immortall souls , that ye would once be wise , and come and partake of the Great salvation . May I now have it , saith thou ? Yea , I say unto you all , ye may have it to day , ye may be partakers of it before ye go hence : And so before I proceed any further , I do in the Name and Authority of him who sent me here to day , ( and is the Author of this Great Salvation ) freely offer it unto you ; Therefore take it off my hand , embrace this Great Salvation offered to you to day ; But I know there will be eight sorts of humors ( within this house to day ) in relation to this Great Salvation , which now is offered unto you . 1. I think there will be some of Gallio's disposition here to day , that will care for none of these things ; Yea , there are many here who will not give a fig for this rich offer of the Great Salvation . But , I say , cursed be that person who puts on Gallio's temper ( to day ) that will care for none of these things . 2. I fear there will be many of Pilat's humor here ( to day ) who will say , they find nothing against the man ; yet will cry forth , Take him and crucifie him . They find no fault with Christ , and yet will be con●ent that he be crucified . Now can ye say any thing against Christ , who is the Author of this Great Salvation ? Produce your strong arguments ; are there any here who have any thing to say against Him ? I am here to answer in His Name : I hope there ●s not one here who hath any thing to say against the Author of this Great Salvation . And why then do ye not take Him ? See unto your selves , that there be none of Pilats humor here to day , that will cry out , Yee find nothing in Christ why he should not be received and yet will bee content , that hee bee crucified . 3. There will bee many of the Jews humor here to day , who cry forth , Away with Christ , away with Christ , and give me Barrabas . But oh what a hellish word is that , Away with spotlesse Christ , away with transcenden● Christ , and give us the world ? Now are there any here who will be so gross slighters of this Great Salvation ? Will ye slight this Great Salvation , and imbrace your idols , which shal● once prove a crown of thorns unto you ? 4. There will bee some of Felix humor found here to day , that will say , O Christ , g● away at this time , and I will hear thee at a mos● convenient season ; But I say unto you wh● will not hear mee to day , nor imbrace th●● Great Salvation , I shall defy all the Ministe●● in Scotland to assure you , that ye shall get another offer , if ye send me away to day . Ther● is not one that can , or dare , engage , that th● Great Salvation shall bee in your offer and more . Therefore I say , let none of Fel●● temper be here to day , that will say , They wi●● hear Christ at a more convenient season . 5. There will bee some of Balaams temper ( to day ) who will desire To die the deat● of the righteous , and to have their last 〈◊〉 like his ; yet they desire not to live the li●● of the righteous . But I say unto you , ye sha●● never die the death of the righteous , if ye live not the life of the righteous . 6. There will bee some of you here ( to day ) who ( I hope ) at least , will bee of Agripa's humour , that will say , Thou hast almost perswaded me to be a Christian : I say unto thee , O wilt thou quickly out with that word almost , and put in that word altogether , and say , O precious Christ , Thou hast altogether perswaded me to be a Christian : However , if thou come no greater length , I intreat thee come this length , that so thou may cry out , I am almost perswaded to imbrace Christ the Great Salvation , and may be ere long ye will come further . 7. There will bee some of Iudas temper here ( to day ) Who will betray Christ for thirty pieces of silver ; Yea , some would sell Christ , Heaven , their idols and all , for lesse then thirty pieces of silver . 8. I think there will be many of Esaus pro●ane temper here ( to day ) Who will sell their birth-right for a messe of pottage . Now will ye enquire at your selves , am I the person that will give my birth-right for a messe of pottage ? Doth my heart say , I will sell my birth-right , because I am hungered and ready to die : what will it profit me ? Give mee a messe of pottage , and I will quite my birth-right . I know it , there are not a few such here to ●ay ; Therefore I intreat you , enquire at your selves what is your humour . Oh shall the Great Salvation , that yee have slighted ●o long , bee slighted this day also , and shall there bee none to imbrace it ? Oh inquire , and stand inlaw , lest the wrath of the most High pursue you . Now I shall give you these seven considerations , which may provoke you not to slight ( but imbrace ) this Great Salvation . 1. The first Consideration , That the not imbracing of this Great Salvation is one of the greatest acts of folly that can be , Ier. 8 : 9. They have rejected the word of the Lord , ( and immediatly is subjoyned ) . And , what wisedom is in them ? And so Solomon doth assure you they cannot be wise who neglect this Great Salvation , Prov. 1. 7. Fools despise wisedom and instruction ; Therefore , may not I say unto you , be who ye will ( though ye were the greatest heads of wit in all this place ) ye are but stark fools as long as ye neglect this . But would ye be wise indeed , and wise unto eternal life ? then I intreat you come and imbrace this Great Salvation . II. The second Consideration , to provoke you not to slight the Great Salvation , is this ▪ that the ruine and destruction of the slighters of it , is most certain and infallible , Ier. 11. 11. Where ( speaking of slighting the Covenant ▪ which is indeed this same Great Salvation ) there is a therefore put to the threatning . Therefore thus saith the Lord , I will bring evil upon them which they shall not be able to escape I defy you all who are the slighters of this Great Salvation , to finde a back door , when justice shall pursue you : For there is n● door to escape if ye imbrace not this Great Salvation : But the earth will disclose your iniquity , and heaven will declare your sin . III. Thirdly , Let this Consideration provoke you not to slight this Great Salvation , that Christ is exceeding serious , and earnest that ye would imbrace it . And I think that , Isa. 28. 23. speaketh out his exceeding seriousnesse : where four times hee beggeth of his hearers , that they would give ear and hear his voice ( saying ) Give ear and hear my voice , ●earken and hear my speech . What needeth all these exhortations ? But that Christ is most serious , that they would imbrace the Great Salvation . And O that there were a person here ( to day ) as serious to the bargain as Christ is ! But , be who yee will that slight this Great Salvation , ( believe me ) the day is coming wherein ye shall cry out , alas for my slighting of it . Wilt thou therefore think presently with thy self ( O thou slighter of this Great Salvation ) what wilt thou say of thy slighting of it , when the devil shall be leading thee in thorow these dark gates of hell ? O slighter of the Gospel , how many alaces wilt thou cry , when thou shalt be passing thorow these dark gates into thy everlasting prison ? Wilt thou not then cry out . ( O me slighter of the everlasting Salvation ) whither am I now going ? Alas , now for my slighting the Gospel : And as thou passest thorow , thou shalt meet with numbers of miserable comforters . There is not one in that prison who can comfort thee : But many dreadfull alaces shalt thou then both cry and hear , if thou imbrace not this Great Salvation . IV. Fourthly , Let this provoke you no● to slight the Great Salvation , that ye will get it for a very look . O ye within this house to day , ye will get this Great Salvation for one look , Isa. 45. 22. Look unto me , and b● saved , all the ends of the earth . For a very look ye will get this Great salvation : and do y●● ever think to get Heaven at a lower rate ? V. The fifth Consideration , to provoke you not to slight this Great Salvation and more , is this , There is not one of you wh● is a slighter of it , but your slighting it shall increase your immortall bonds . Man or Woman , be who thou wilt , when thou art slighting this Great Salvation ; thou art but pla●ing a cord wherewith to bind thy soul eternally in these unquenchable flames , Isa. 2● 22. Be ye not mockers , lest your bonds be ma● strong ; I say therefore unto you , old me● mock not , lest your bonds be made strong : o● women , near unto your graves , mock not , l●● your bonds be made strong : Young men , be 〈◊〉 not mockers , lest your bonds be made strong● Young women , who are in the flower of yo●● time , mock not , lest your bonds be made strong ▪ But now alas , will there ( for all this ) ●e● person here to day who will be a mockers this Great Salvation ? VI. The sixth Consideration , to provoke you not to slight this Great Salvation a●● more , is this , Ye know not but that yo●● dayes may be near a close ; I say , ye kno● not , but the day of the preaching of this Great Salvation may be near unto a close . Wh● knowest thou , O man or woman , but t●● shall be the last Sermon that ever thou shalt ●ear concerning this Great Salvation ? And yet for all this , shall we be sent away without one consent to imbrace or receive it ? O will ye be perswaded to look to Christ , and so to take him . VII . The seventh consideration , to provoke you not to slight the Great Salvation , is this , that there is a five fold Salvation comprehended under this Great Salvation . I. The first is this , come and partake of this Great Salvation , and thou shalt have Salvation from thy idols : and hereby I do proclaim liberty ( this day ) unto captives . I am sent forth ( this day ) with the keyes of your prison house , to open your prison doors unto you , if ye will imbrace this Great Salvation . I say unto you . O ye prisoners come forth and shew your selves ; for the keyes of your prison house are with us to open your prison doors unto you , therefore O come forth and embrace this Great Salvation . Will there be any ( shall I think ) here that will refuse to come forth , O go forth and slee from the land of your captivity , and from the house of your bondage . II. Thou shalt have Salvation from thy darknesse , and from thy ignorance ? I say unto you who understand no more of God then the stones in the wall , I command you to come forth , and partake yet of this Great Salvation ; and unto you shall light arise , even the Day Spring from on high shall visit you . III. If ye will come and partake of this Great Salvation , ye shall have deliverance from all your fears . Dost thou fear that thou shalt be poor : Come and partake of this Great Salvation ; and thou shalt be delivered from it ? Art thou afraid of hell ? Come and partake of this Great Salvation , and thou shalt be delivered from that fear . Art thou afraid at the wrath of God ? Then come ( ● say ) and partake of this Great Salvation , and thou shalt have redemption from that and al● thy fears , With him is plenteous redemption and hee can make thee quiet from the fear o● evil . IV. If thou wilt come and partake of this Salvation , thou shalt have deliverance from all thy anxieties , and from all thy cares : y●● are now carefull and anxious about many things ; Come and partake of this Great Salvation , and it will make you carefull but only for the one thing necessary . V. If yee will come and embrace the Great Salvation offered unto you this day , yee shall be helped before yee go hence to sing that song , O death where is thy sting ? O grave where is thy victory ? Now O will ye come and imbrace this Great Salvation , And yee shall b● more then conquerours thorow Christ who love●● you Are there therefore any here to day that would have victory over the devil , and over their own hearts ? Then come and embrace this Great Salvation , and then your victory i● certain . But now to presse home this Great Salvation upon you a little further , there are nin● sorts of persons , who are invited to come and partake of this Great Salvation offered this day : And I charge you answer to your names when ye are called , and delay not to come . I. First , I invite and call here to day , all who are willing to come and embrace this Great Salvation . Now , are there any of ●ou here to day , who are called willing ? ●hen I invite you to come , and imbrace this Great Salvation , Rev. 22. 17. Whosoever will , ●et him come : But oh , are there none here 〈◊〉 day who are named willing ? I intreat ●on , if there be any , do not deny your name , ●●t come when you are called and embrace this Great Salvation . II. Secondly , These persons who thirst ●●r it , are invited to come , and partake of ●●●s Great Salvation , Rev. 22. 17. Let him ●●t is a thirst , come . Now if there be any ●ere who are named thirsty , let them come and partake of this Salvation , and they shall ●e satisfied . III. Thirdly , Are there any money-lesse ●●lk here to day ? Let them come and partake of this Great Salvation ; Are there no money-lesse folk here to day ? I mean not that money or coin in your purses , but want ●●e money ? That is , want ye righteousnesse ? ●hen I pray you , come and partake of this Great Salvation . I say , are ye so poor , that ●e have nothing but the fear of hell ? Then I ●ay you come . If there be any here who have nothing to commend them to Christ , but necessity : I say unto all such , O come , come , ●●me , and partake of this Great Salvation . IV. Fourthly , These persons are invited ●o come ( and I wish there were many such ) who are weary : But Oh! are there none here to day , who are called weary ? Are y●● not weary in pursuit of yours ? If there be any such here to day , I say unto you , O weary folk , come , come , come , and partake of this Great Salvation , and of this excellent Gospel Redemption that was purchased at so dear 〈◊〉 rate . V. Fifthly , These who are heavy loadened are invited to come , ( and I think all of you may answer to this name ) are ye heavy loaden●● O then come . But are there none here who are heavy loaden with sin , with misery , and estrangement from God ? If there be any such here , I say unto thee , old man , or young man , be who thou wilt , O come , and partake of this Great Salvation . VI. Sixthly , Are there any here to day who are called blind ? I say , if there be any o● you who think ye want eyes to see the precious excellencies of Christ , I invite you to come and partake of this Great Salvation . VII . Seventhly , Are there any who are called lame here to day ? I say unto such , ● come , come , come , and partake of this Great Salvation : For we are sent forth to day , to call in the blind & the maimed , and the lame that they may come and imbrace this Great Salvation : Therefore are there none he●● to day who may be called such : Are ye neither blind nor lame ? I hope many of you will not deny that ye are such ; Therefore say unto you ; O blind , halt and maimed com● come , and partake of this Great Salvation . VIII . The eighth sort of persons invit●● are these who are sick , therefore if there be ●y sick folk here to day , be who ye will , I say ●●to you , O come and partake of this Great salvation , For the whole need not the Physician , ●●t the sick . IX . Ninthly , Are there any here to day who know not their name , or their conditi●● , I say unto you , O namelesse folk , come and partake of this Great salvation , come to Christ or the knowledge of your souls condition , ●ome as a namelesse one , and he shall not re●●ct thee , though thy case were so evil that thou could not give it a name ; for , Of all ●●at come unto him he sendeth none away . Now where do you find your name and ●●name ? O do ye not know it ? I hope now ●e may know ; therefore I intreat you answer to it , and so come away and partake of this Great Salvation . But I am afraid there be many strong iron●●rs in the way of some of you , which ye can●t win over . Ah , how fast are some souls ●●cked in Satans snare ; And therefore I shall ●eak a little for discovering of these bars , ●hat hinder from imbracing this Great Salvation , that so ye may be the better helped to remove them . I. The first great iron ▪ bar which keepeth ●olk from imbracing this Great Salvation , is ●he bar of ignorance ; and I am afraid that ●●is ( as a mighty bar ) hindereth many of you : Ye are ignorant of your selves , and of ●he condition of your souls , ye are ignorant ●f the Law and of its severity , and ye are ignorant of the precious Gospel in its condescendency . O pray unto God that for Christ sake , hee would break that great bar of ignorance ; for till that be done , Christ may take up that complaint , Ier. 5. 4. Surely they are foolish , they know not the way of the Lord , not the judgement of their God. I say , this bar o● ignorance keepeth you from embracing this Great Salvation . II. The second bar which keepeth many from closing with Christ , is the bar of presumption , for some will cry out , what nee● have I to embrace the Great Salvation ? Have I it not already ? But I say unto thee , O fool thou art ( by all appearance ) yet in bondage ▪ O that this evil bar of presumption were put away ; for it is one of the greatest impediments which lyeth in the way of your imbracing this Great Salvation that is in your offer to day : Therefore I say unto you , i● you will come no further ; I intreat you come this length , to confesse that ye want this Gospel Salvation and that yee are indeed strangers to this Redemption purchased by Christ. III. The third bar that keepeth persons from imbracing this Great Salvation , is the bar of unbelief , yee believe not what wee say to you anent this Great Salvation , I know that some of you are of the Stoicks and Epicures humor , who cry out , What meaneth this man ? He seemeth to be the setter forth of some strange God. But I say unto you , I am no● the setter forth of any strange God , but it is Jesus of Nazareth whom I preach unto you ▪ Alas , some of you thinketh this Great Salvation to bee some morning dream , or some golden fancy : but I say unto you , it is neither a dream nor fancy ; but a real truth that we preach unto you . IV. The fourth bar that keepeth persons from imbracing of this Great Salvation , is the bar of discouragement : This strong bar keepeth many so fast , that they cannot imbrace this Great Salvation though it bee freely offered unto them . I shall say no more to you , who are such , but counsell you to do as these four lepers did , 1 King. 7. 4. Who sat at the gate of Samaria : who said , Why sit wee here till we die , if wee say we will ●nter ▪ into the City , then the famine is in the City , and we shall die there : and if we sit still ●●re ▪ we die also . Now therefore come , and let us fall into the host of the Syrians , if they save us alive , we shall live , and if they kill us , we ●●all but die . Even so say I unto you , that if ●t abide in the state of unbelief , yee shall surely bee undone ; therefore go forth , for yee ●now not but God may work a Great Salvation for you : and if yee will quite your unbelief and close with Christ in the offer of this Great salvation ( by saith ) ye shal have no more to do , but eat and drink , and divide the spoil . V. The fifth bar which withholdeth persons from imbracing of this Great Salvation , 〈◊〉 the bar of unwillingnesse , Yee will not ●me to thee , that yee may have life . And alas , that is an iron bar indeed , by which all that ●e in hell have barred themselves out of ●eaven . Alace , shall yee bee such wretches ●lso . O what a dreadfull sound is that , Wo ●nto thee , O Jerusalem , wilt thou not be made clean ? When shall it once be ? Ah , Turn you ▪ turn you , why will ye die ? Why will ye slight this Great Salvation ? O will none of you this day imbrace it ! VI. The sixth bar that withholdeth persons from imbracing this Great Salvation , i● the bar of worldly mindednesse : many of you are so fixed to the world , that yee cannot come and close with this Great Salvation . I may allude to that word spoken of Saul . 1 Sam. 10. 22. that hee hid himself among the stuffe : for many have buried and nested themselves in the midst of the world , that they cannot imbrace this Great Salvation . VII . The seventh bar which keepeth many from imbracing this Great Salvation , is the bar of hard heartednesse : there hath such 〈◊〉 stupidity and hardnesse of heart seised upon many , that , let Christ preach as hee will to them ( by his Word , or by other dispensations ) they are no more moved , then if his Word and dispensations were a thousand miles from them . O that strong bar of hardnesse of heart , when shall the omnipoten hand of God break it ? VIII . The eighth bar that hindereth many from imbracing this Great Salvation , is the bar of slothfulnesse . Many of you cannot be at the pains to imbrace it : but I say unto you , there is but small pains in the way o● Godlinesse : I say unto you , it may so easil● be had , that it is in your offer to day ; and 〈◊〉 ye will , ye may put forth your hand and take it . Consider therefore what yee will do O will ye despise it ! I say will ye still negle● and despise it ( will ye but read that dread●●ll word , Act. 13. 40. 41. Behold ye despi●●s , and wonder and perish . Tell me freely , would ye have us to return this answer to him who sent us , that ye are despisers of the Great Salvation ? Say to it , Are there none of you , who ( for all this ) will consent to partake of this Great Salvation ? O captives and prisoners , and ye who are in the bonds of ●atan , will ye come and partake of this Great salvation , and you shall be made free . I have 〈◊〉 act of release for you to day ; If ye will ●ome , and make use of it , ye shall be set at ●●berty . But , Oh shall the prison doors be ●st open , and yet none come forth ? But that ( I may come to a close ) I say yet unto ●●on , O poor prisoners go forth , go forth , and partake of this Great Salvation . Oh , will ●e not come forth ? What holdeth you in ? The foundation of your prison house is taken to day , therefore if ye will but come ●orth and cast a look to Christ , your very ●●kels shall fall off your hands , and ye shall ●● as those who were never bound . Now I ●ave this with you : and to make you think ●pon it , I shall speak these five words unto ●ou , and I intreat you think upon them . 1. First , I have excellent tidings to tell ●●u ( I hope some of you will give ear to ●●em ) viz. There is a great Person come ●ere to day , and that is the mighty Author ●f this Great Salvation , who hath brought ●erlasting righteousnesse with him , desiring ●ou to make use thereof ; It is his desire that yee would take his excellent Gift at his hand . These , I say , are the tiding● that have to preach unto you : and I hope never to be declared a liar for what I preach unt● you : I say yet unto you , that Christ , th● Author of the Great Salvation , desi●eth to give it freely unto you , if ye will but take it . But O will yee not take it ? I think , ●● yee did see an hundreth men lying in prison or dungeon , without all light , bread , o● water , and a great Prince coming to them saying , I desire you all to come forth , an● partake of this Great liberty which I bring unto you : and every one of them should answer , I scorn to come forth at this time ▪ would yee not think them exceeding grea● fools ? And yet I fear this act of great foll fall out in many of your , hands to day : tha● when Christ hath given us the keyes , of you● prison doors , and they are opened , yee wi●● not come forth . But I must intreat you y●● to come forth and shew your selves ; Fo● who knoweth , but wee may bee commande● to shut your prison doors again , and to se● them with seven seals : with an unalterab●● decree from heaven , never to bee recalled ▪ Wherefore , O ye prisoners , go forth , go for● from your prison house . 2. Secondly , I would say this to you that it is not without much ground th● this Salvation ( offered to you ) is called Great Salvation . ( I know a little Paper two or three sheets , might contain all t●● salvations that ever any man obtained : b● the world would not bee able to contain 〈◊〉 the Books which might be written to the commendation of this Great Salvation ; yea , ( unto any who will imbrace it ) I say , First , If thou finde not this Salvation above thy ●aith , then go thy way when thou art come ; But I know thou wilt finde it both above thy ●aith and hope . Secondly , If thou finde it not above thy desires when thou a●● come ●nto it , then go thy way again : but were thy desires as the sand upon the sea shoare , thou shalt alwayes finde more in this Salvation then ever thou could desire . Thirdly , If this Salvation be not above what thou can conceive , then go thy way when thou art come to it ; But think of it as thou can , it shall alwayes be above thy thoughts of it : Fourthly , If this Salvation be not above thy opinion of it , then go thy way when thou ●●it come unto it ; but I know thou wilt ●●nd it far above thy opinion of it . Therefore seeing it is so Great a Salvation , as that all the world could not contain all the Books ●ight be written in the commendation of it . O will ye imbrace it , even to day , while it is ●o your offer . 3. Thirdly , I would say this unto you , 〈◊〉 perswaded , that there is no sin that will more provoke the Majesty of God to punish you , then the sin of slighting the Great-salvation . Bring forth these murtherers saith the Lord ( of the slighters of this invitation ) and slay them before me . I intreat ●●en enquire at your own hearts , what ye will answer when ye are reproved for slighting of it ( Old men , will ye ask at your own hearts , what ye will answer to Christ when he shall propose that question to you Why slighted ye the Great Salvation ? Old woman , what will ye answer , when he shall say to you , why slighted ye the Great Salvation ? Young men , and young women , inquire at your own hearts what ye will answer when Christ shall say to you , why slighted ye th● great Salvation ? Can ye imagine any answer unto that question ? O dreadfull shall the wrath of God be , that shall be executed upon the slighters of this Great Salvation ? 4. Fourthly , I would say this unto you that heaven is waiting to hear , what acceptation the offer of this Great Salvation doth get among you . Here is the Great Salvation , here is the offer of it , and here is th● commendation of it ; what say ye to it ? i● it not an excellent Salvation ? Is it not 〈◊〉 free Salvation ? Is it not a Great Salvation ▪ Is it not an eternal Salvation ? Why then d● ye not welcome it ? Can any of you say an●thing to the discommendation of it ? I know you cannot ? Yea I da● say your own heart are admiring it as most excellent ; An● therefore O will ye accept it . Alas shal the● be none here who will be found accepters 〈◊〉 this Great Salvation ▪ so freely offered to day ▪ 5. Fifthly , I would say this to you , let a the Angels praise him who the Author 〈◊〉 this Great Salvation . All the Saints roun● about the Throne praise him who is the A●thor of this Great Salvation . All these wh● are expectants of heaven praise Him who 〈◊〉 the Author of this Great Salvation : All y●● to whom this offer is made , praise him who is the Author of this Great Salvation . O heaven praise him who is the Author of this Great Salvation , O all ye fowls of the air , praise him who is the Author of this Great Salvation , O fire , hail , snow , vapors , stormy winds and tempests , praise Him who is the Author of this Great Salvation . All the tribes of the earth , praise him who is the Author of this Great Salvation . Our own soul praise him who is the Author of this Great Salvation , and all that is within us blesse him who is the Author of this Great Salvation . O who would not praise Him , who is the Author of this Great Salvation ? Are there any here that will refuse to commend him ? O think upon him , and let not this be a day of slighting him ? Now where are your hearts at this time ? I will tell you where many of your hearts are , they are thinking upon the world : but I am sure there are not many of them thinking upon this Great Salvation . Now what resolution mind ye to go away with to day ? Oh , have ye no resolution beyond what ye had when ye came hither to day ? Are there any here who have this resolution , To whom shall we go , but to him who is the Author of this Great Salvation , who alone hath the words of eternal life ? Even the Lord breath it upon you . Or is this your resolution , that through Christs strength ( forsake him who will ) ye will never forsake him ? Or , have ye this resolution ▪ That ye will esteem more highly of the Great Salvation then ever ye did ? O that the Lord may keep these in the imaginations of the thoughts of your hearts for ever . But as for you who have no resolutions to imbrace this Great-Salvation , O wherewith shall I commend it unto you ? Do not your own necessities commend it ? But if nothing can perswade you to come away and imbrace it , then this place shall be a heap of witnesses against you : For it hath heard all the words of the Law which he hath spoken unto you , Josh. 24. Oh cast your eyes upon these pillars of the house , and stones in the walls : I take them as so many witnesses , that they may speak , and testifie against you in the great day of the Lord , if ye neglect this Great Salvation to day . Therefore as ye go away , be thinking upon it , and whether or not ye minde to imbrace it , now while you may have it . This day I have set life and death before you : I have set before you both the Great Salvation and the great damnation ; And O that ye had understanding in all these things ; that y●● being wise might be provocked at last to imbrace this Great Salvation , the which we do yet again intreat you to think upon . Is not heaven looking upon you at this time ▪ to see what ye will do with this great offe● of Salvation which I have this day ( from the Lord ) presented unto you ? Now , ●● Him , that can perswade you to imbrace thi● Great Salvation , this Gospel Redemption this blessed mystery into which the Angel desire to pry , to Him , Who can bring yo● back from the pit ; and can enlighten you wit● the light of the living ? To Him who hath th● keye● of your prison , Who can open and none can shut , and can shut and none can open ; To Him , who hath all power in Heaven and in Earth communicate to Him , who can deliver you from the power of the Grave , and can set you free from all your enemies , wee desire to give praise , Amen . SERMON II. Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation , which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord , and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him . THere are two great and most ordinary complaints in these dayes . 1. There are many who complain , that their Estates and Persons are in bondage , and that they are sold for slaves to the hands of strangers : But , O that wee could also turn over the complaint to this , that our souls are in bondage , and that we are yet in the gall of bitternesse , and in the bond of iniquity , that so we might be provoked to long for the Great Salvation that is in our offer . 2. There are many complaining ( and not without much cause ) that there is now such a tolleration of Errours : But , O will thou complain also of this , that within thy heart there is a tolleration of lusts ; is there no● an act of tolleration concluded within thy breast , that the devil and all his company may reign in thee at pleasure : Oh have ye not need of Great Salvation ; Shall I tell you , that Christ is cou●ting you to imbrace it , and that he putteth on all his most glorious robes , and manifesteth himself unto you , as a suiter making offer of himself and of his Great Salvation . O tell me , have ye seen him ? Or do ye think to see him this day ? What robes had he on . There are five glorious Robes wherewith he cloaths himself when he condescendeth to manifest himself to his people ▪ First , He cometh to his own with the garments of Salvation , according to that word , Zech. 9. verse . 9. Rejoyce , O daughter of Sion greatly , shout O daughter of Ierusalem ; fo● behold , thy King cometh unto thee , he is just and having Salvation ; ay , your King is come here to day , and will you not fall in love with him when he is cloathed with the garments of Salvation , can ye ever have a more conque●ing sight of Christ , then when he is cloathed with such an excellent Robe , and offering you Salvation . Secondly , He appeareth to his own sometimes in garmenes dyed in blood , according to that word , Isa ▪ 6. 3. verse 1 , 2. Who is this that cometh up from Edom with dyed garments in bloud , as one that treadeth the wine fat : And now I say to thee that will not look to Christ when he appears in the garments of Salvation , have ye a heart to refuse him , that have fought such a comba●e for you , who hath trode the wine-presse alone , and hath stained all His garments with the bloud of his enemies ; o● is there any here who dare refuse this Salvation , when they see how he treade●h his enemies in anger , and trampleth them in his fury , and thus sprinkleth their bloud upon his garments . O tremble at this sight , and seek quarter from him in time , or he shall dy his garments with the blood of thy immortall soul. Thirdly , Christ appeareth unto his own , being cloathed with these humble Robes of condescendency . when he came in the simititude of sinfull flesh : O what a sight wa● that ; to behold the Prince of Heav●n cl●ath●d with our nature ; What a sight was that to b● hold him that was cloathed with light as with a garment , to be cloathed with our infirmities , yet he condescended to cloath himself thus , that we might have accesse unto Him and be partake●● of His gifts : O can we refuse Him , when love hath thus pressed him to put on the beggar weed , that he might say to worms y● are my brethren , and my sisters . Fou●thly , Christ somtimes manifesteth Himself , being cloathed with the garments of beauty , and ravishing Majesty ; such was the sight that the Spouse go● of Christ , Song . 2. vers . 8. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood , so is my beloved among the sons ; and Song . 5. when she saw him , White and rudy , and the standard bearer of ten thousand , and such was that joyfull sight of Him ▪ when his garments were as the light , and white as the snow which he had at the Transfiguration , when these glorified ones did come ( as it were ) Ambassadors from that higher house to make him a visit . And , fifthly , Christ he sometimes appeareth to his own , in Robes of dreadfull Majesty , and terrible highnesse and loftinesse , when the soul upon the first sight of him remains dead , add there remains no more life in them ; Such was the sight Daniel got , in his 10. Chapter , and such was the sight that Iohn got of Christ , Rev. 1 verse . 17. And I would ask at all that are here , what a sight have ye gotten of Christ to day , in which of all these robes have ye seen Him in : It is true , we are not now to look for the extraordinary sights of Him ; But yet if ever thou hast seen him in any of his wooing Robes , sure he hath appeared matchlesse , and how shall ye then refuse him . But now to come to the words I was speaking unto you o● ; The first thing in the words , to wit , That there are many who live under the offer of this Great Salvation that do slight it , and do not imbrace it ; And now I shall only add a few things further unto you . 1. Let me propose a few Considerations to perswade you to imbrace the Great Salvation : God forbid we go a way before we imbrace this Gospel Salvation : And therefore , I charge you in his Name , go not away before ye imbrace it . And to presse it home upon you , there are these eight or nine properties of this Great Salvation , that is offered unto you this day . And first , It is a free Salvation , ye have no more a do , but to put forth your hand and take it : O come and take it : Christ hath foughten for this Salvation , and there is no more required of you , but ●o come and ●eap the fruits of his victory ; Who ever will let him come , there is nothing that should move you to stay away , O captives bond slaves to Satan , O prisoners of hope , will yee come and partake of the Great Salvation , what holds you from coming away and partaking of it , it is freely offered unto you : ●●y , believe it , Christ requires no more of you , but that ye should come and take it out of his hand ; If yee consent to ob●y , the bargain is ended ; Yee shall ea● the good of the land , Isa. 1. Secondly , This Great Salvation , is a compleat Salvation , that is offered unto you to day , this is clear , Luk. 1. vers . 17. That we might bee saved from our enemies , and from the hand of all that hate us , there is not any enemy that is in thy way , but if thou will come and partake of the Great Salvation , thou may have victory over it , so compleat a Salvation is it that is in your offer this day ▪ O shall wee passe away , and not imbrace it : O shall our cursed hearts undervalue this compleat Salvation that is come to your door , believe it , Salvation is near unto you , if yee will take it . Thirdly , It is a wonderfull Salvation , it 〈◊〉 such a Salvation as the Angels desireth ●o pry into it , and it is such a Salvation , ●hat all the Prophets desire to pry into it ; ●t is almost six thousand years since all the ●ngels in heaven fell into a Sea of wonder ●t this Great Salvation ; It is almost six thousand years since Abel fell into a Sea of wonder at this Great Salvation : And what think ye is his exercise this day ? He is even wondering at this Great salvation : Would ye ask at all the Angels in heaven , would they not all say , O imbrace the Great Salvation ; Would ye ask at all the Saints that are above , would they not advise you to imbrace the Great Salvation : Would ye ask at Adam would he not say , O imbrace this Great Salvation : Could ye ask at Abel , would he not say , O imbrace this Great Salvation : And would not all the Patriarchs say unto you ▪ O imbrace the Great Salvation : And do not all that have tasted of the sweetnesse of i● cry out unto you , Come and imbrace the Great Salvation . The fourth property of His salvation is that it was bought at an exceeding dear rate it is a dear Salvation . Would ye know the difference between Christs coming to thi● Salvation , and your coming to it , it is this Christ was forced to travell through all th● armies of the Justice of God ; He was forced to drink of the cup of the warth of Go● before he could come to purchase this Grea● Salvation ; and now what is required of yo● to obtain this , we may say no more , but pu● out your hands and take it ; will ye look t● the price that was laid down for this Salvation , there is not a wound in the body o● Christ , but it saith , This is a dear Salvation There is not a reproach Christ met with b●● it saith , O is not this a dear Salvation : The●● is not a buffeting Christ met with , but it sai● O is not this a dear Salvation : There is not a necessity that he is put into , but it saith ▪ Is not this a great and dear Salvation . O Sirs , will ye not come and take this Great Salvation , this dear Salvation . What must I give for it say ye , I say , ye must give nothing for it ▪ come and take it without money , and without price ; it was dear to Christ , but it shall be cheap unto you , O! is it not cheap to you , I assure you , if you will come to the market to buy the Great Salvation , there is none of you that needeth to stand for the price of it . O come and take it , and have it , and there shall be no more priging . Fifthly , It is an everlasting Salvation , that ye shall enjoy the fruits of throughout eternity , as is clear , Heb. 9. 13. He became the author of eternal redemption unto us , it is a Salvation that the devil can never be able to take out of your hand , if ye take it , ye shall never be robbed of it again . O come and partake of this Great Salvation , whereby the gates of hell shall never prevail against you . Sixthly , It is an noble and honourable Salvation , it is not to be taken out of one slavery to another , but it is to be taken out of prison that we may raign : Luk. 1. verse 71. compared with vers . 74 it is , That we being saved , may serve him without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse , all the dayes of our life . I say , Come , come , and partake of this Great Salvation , that your glory may be increased , and that ye may be exalted above the Kings of the earth . Seventhly , It is a most advantagious Salvation : What are the advantages of any Salvation that are not to be found in this : is there not peace to be found through this Salvation , is there not liberty to be found through this Salvation , is there not eternal enjoyment of God to be found through this Salvation ; yea , all Salvations are in this one Salvation . Lastly , It is a royal Salvation , for it cometh to us from and through the Son of God : Christ is the Author of it , and we conceive , Christ may be said to be the Author of this Salvation , in these respects , 1. He is the meritorious cause that did procure it , it was the price of his bloud that was laid down for to purchase this Great Salvation . 2. He is the fountain from whence it floweth , according to that word which we have cited . Heb. 5. 9. He became the Author of eternal Salvation . 3. He is the person that fitteth our spirits for partaking of it , and it is he that removeth mountains out of the way , that we may have fair accesse unto the Great Salvation . 4. It is he that must perswade our hearts to imbrace and take hold of it . He standeth without , and cryeth in to the heart , to imbrace the Great Salvation ; And he standeth within , making thy heart cry out , Content , I will imbrace the Great Salvation ; He is indeed the person that commendeth 〈◊〉 and doth point forth this Great Salvation unto us , He is the noble Minister of it , it began first to be preached by him . Now , Is there any of you that have fallen in love with the Great Salvation : that ye may try your selves , I shall give you some evidences of the persons that are near unto this Great Salvation . 1. Is thy estimation of the Great Salvation increased , be what it was in the morning when thou came hi●her ; Is thy estimation of the great Gospel Salvation a foot higher then it was in the morning , I say unto thee , thou are not far from the Great Salvation ▪ Come away . 2. Is thy desire after the Great Salvation increased be what it was in the morning ; Hath thou stronger desires after the Great Salvation , then before thou came hither , that is an evidence thou art not far from it . 3. Is thy thoughts of thy necessity of the Great Salvation greater then they were : Thinketh thou that thou hast more need of the Great Salvation then ever thou thought●st before : And is thy opinion and thoughts of saving thy self , lesse then they were before thou camest hithe● ? Art thou forced to cry out , none but Christ can save me ? I say thou art not far from the Great Salvation : Will thou come away . O that ye would once seal this conclusion with much heart ●eswasion . I am undone without Christ ▪ I am undone without Christ , who is the Author of the Great Salvation . Are there any of you that are sensible that ye are in the fetters of sin , and in the bonds of iniquity ? Are ye brought to the conviction of this , that ye are yet in the gall of bitternesse ? I say , if thou be brought to this length , to be sensible of thy bonds , and art crying out , O Redeemer , hasten and come away ; I say , If thou be sensible of thy bonds and imprisonment , and crying out , O thou that was anointed from eternity , to proclaim liberty to the captives , and the opening of the prison to them that are bound , O hasten and come away and redeem me , even poor me , sinking , sinning , perishing , self destroying me , thou art not far from the Great Salvation . 4. Art thou a person who beginneth to weep because thou hast been so long a stanger to Christ , and the Great Salvation : Old men , that are here , how long have ye been strangers to the Great Salvation , and to the Author of it ? Now will ye shed one tear for your estrangement , and cry out , Wo is me that Christ and I have been so long asunder ▪ I say , if thou hast come that length , thou art not far from the Great Salvation , Come away ▪ O pity your selves , make hast , make hast , and come away . But now in the third place , let me give you some evidence● by which ye may know more clearly , whither or no ye have imbraced this Great Salvation , that ye may know your selves , and that ye walk not down to your grave with a lie in your right hand ▪ The first evidence of a person that hath imbraced the Great Salvation , is , that he wil● have a high esteem of the Saviour and Author of the Great Salvation : Hast thou ●● matchlesse esteem of matchlesse Christ th● Saviour of the world , that is a speaking evidence unto thee , thou art a partaker of th● Great Salvation : Art thou come this length that thou cryeth out , none but Christ , non but Christ : It is a speaking evidence , that thou art come to be a partaker of the Great Salvation , when thou can cry out that word , Ex●d . 15. 2. The Lord is my strength and my song , ●he alone is become my salvation : if Christ hath become thy Salvation , then it is like he hath become thy Song . I would ask this at you , Were ye ever brought this length , that ye durst no● adventure to praise Christ your alone , but was forced to call in all the creatures , and say , O magnifie the Lord with me ? O that is an evidence that ye have imbraced his Salvation . Secondly , These who have imbraced the Great Salvation , will study to maintain and keep their grips of it : they will study to hold , fast so precious a Jewel ; this is prest , Gal. 5. ver . 1. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free ; yea they will study to walk suitably to this noble mercy , at least , they will strive and endeavour to do it , as is also prest , in that same verse . I say , if thou hast been made a partaker of the Gospel of Salvation , thou wilt strive to keep thy self from the power of these things that once triumphed over thee . Thirdly , A person that is a partaker of the Great Salvation , will have a high esteem of this mercy and Salvation ; so Paul , when he speaketh of it here , he cannot but put some note of excellency to it , calling it the Great Salvation ; Therefore , I say , if thou hast imbraced the Great Salvation , thou wilt have so high esteem of it , that not to be so subjected to it as thou should : or to be in subjection to the power of thy lust in any measure , will be his burden and affl●ction . The man will be sorry when he is brought forth from the house of his bondage , unto the Red sea ; he will be sorry , that when he should have songs of triumph over his idols put in his mouth , that they should sing songs of triumph over him . Fourthly , A person that hath imbraced the Great Salvation , he will be longing sometimes for the day when this Salvation shall be compleat , when he shall sing that song with tha● numerous multitude which cannot be numbered , Rev. 7 vers 9. O what a day shall it be , when thou shall begin to sing that song : After this , ( saith he ) I beheld , and lo , a great multitude of all people which ●o man could number , of all people , nations and languages stood before the throne , and before the Lamb , cloathed with white robes , and palms in their hands , and they cried ; And how cryed they ? They cryed with a loud voice : They would not mutter the song , no● sing silently , but cryed with a loud voice : And what did they cry ? They cryed with a loud voice , Salvation unto our God , who sitteth upon the throne , and to the Lamb. I would onely ask at you that are partakers of the Great Salvation , what songs shall be put into thy mouth , when the waters of Iordan shall divide themselves , that the ransomed of the Lord must passe thorow : when thou shalt sing that song , Psal 115. ver . 1. Not unto us , not unto us , but unto thee belongs the glory of our salvation : O what a day shall that be , when that excellent song shall be put in thy mouth ; yea , what a day shall it be , when thou shal the cloathed with these excellent garments that are made mention of Isa. 6. ver . 10. for hee hath cloathed thee with the garments of Salvation , and hee hath covered thee with the robe of righteousnesse : O what robes are these ? Did yee ever see such excellent robes at these must bee ? I think wee will misken our selves ; O do yee not think wee will misken our selves , when wee shall put on these excellent robes ? Now therefore , is the bargain closed : Or will yee go away before yee take this Great Salvation ? Dare yee go out at these doors , and neglect ●he Great Salvation ? I would ask this at you , Think yee it will not be most sad , that Christ should tell this in heaven of you to night , I was preached to a pack of stones , that none of them would love me : Will yee not bee feared that this report shall be carried back to heaven of you ? For what report can Christ carry back but this ? Now is the cord of this Great Salvation let down unto you : Is there none of you that will take a grip of it ? O will ye flighter after it ! Will yee make this a rejoycing day in heaven , that is a fasting day unto you , and the way to make it so , is to imbrace the Great Salvation . Now what say yee to it old men , let mee speak to you , and ask your thoughts of the Great Salvation , gray hairs should bee a Crown of Glory , if it bee found in the way of Righteousnesse , old men speak your minds , that young men may not have your bad example ; What say ye of this Salvation ? Is it not a most glorious Salvation , is it not a most excellent Salvation that is in your offer ; I intreat you speak your minds , tell Christ ye are content to take the Great Salvation ; otherwise , who ever he be that will not partake of this Gospel Salvation ; I in the Name and Authority of Christ our Master , denounce eternal and irrevockable war against him ; put on your harnesse , ye shall not boast when you put it off again , the wrath and fury of God shall come upon thee to the uttermost if ye imbrace not this Great Salvation . Other Wars are but for a time ; the greatest Captains that ever the earth did carry , are now laid down in the sides of the pit , and their swords broken under their heads . Armies of ten hundreth thousand , a hundreth years time have laid them all in their graves , and ended all their contests , but there is no discharge of his war that shall be concluded betwixt Christ and you , it shall become an eternal and most terrible War , which shall be but beginning when time is ended : Now Peace or War , which of them will ye choise ? Dare ye send a charge to Christ , and say ye will defy him ? I am afraid there shall be two things that many of us shall report to day . First , I am afraid there will be many that will give Pharaohs report to the offer of the Great Salvation , and say , Who is the Lord that I should obey him ? I tell you who he is , He is glorious in Holinesse , fearfull in Praises , doing wonders ; O imbrace him before he go hence , and give not Pharaohs report , lest yee bee drowned in the sea of His wrath , whence there shall be no recovery . Secondly , I fear there will be many here to day , that will give Demas report to this precious offer ; I will go and for sake Christ ; and ●mbrace this present world : O bad exchange ; ●ursed be he that shall make it , will ye be of Demas humor ; I fear there hath been many of that humor of a long time ; but I intreat you once be wise before you die . I confesse that proverb , old fools , are twice fools : I think old men that will not imbrace the Great Salvation , I think ye are triple fools ; What wait ye for , is there any thing can afford you any satisfaction but this Great Salvation . Now are ye convinced old men , that Christ is waiting for your answer ; I intreat you before ye go hen●e , speak your minds , what ye think of the Great Salvation ; ●s it not a lovely Salvation , Is it not lovely ●ow ? What say ye to it ; I am to go away , and the offer is to be taken up at this time , and it is hard to say , if ever ye shall have an offer again . I would only say this to you , and be sure of it , though I should never be ● partaker of this Great Salvation , yet I shall be a witnesse against you that are not partakers of it : I tell and declare unto yon , shall be a witnesse against you if ye imbrace not the Great Salvation . Now , old ●en are ye perswaded to imbrace it ? Let ●e ob●est you by the beauty of Christ , come and partake of the Great Salvation , ye that ●●e travelling upon the borders of erernity . ●ow , if ye will give no more , give this , will ye go home and think upon it . I shall not bee uncharitable , nor enter to judge your thoughts ; I fear there shall bee many declared and found guilty among us , that we have declared unto heaven wee will not imbrace the Great Salvation , but have trod the bloud of the Son of God under foot . Now I intreat you , every one of you , ask at your selves if yee be the persons that will presume in your hearts to do so . Now I shall leave it with you , let it not bee a witnesse against you . I shall leave it with this : O come away , Old men , Young men , Old women and Maids , come and imbrace this precious Gospel Salvation . Yee may say , Ye bid us come : but we cannot come . I desite no more of you● but to come with this : Lord , I am content to come , but I cannot come . Come once to that : for if once yee bee content to receive it , it will not bee long befor yee bee able to receive it . Now shall Christ depart , and will none of you say , yet are content to take him ? Will yee charge your own Consciences with this : Am I content to take Christ and the Great Salvation ? O blest , blest , blest be● He that is the Author of this Great Salvation and bles● be hee that gets any of the ends of the cord of the Great Salvation , that we sink not under the wrath and fury of the Lord Come and imbrace this Great Salvation : and again I say , come and imbrace it ; for what can yee have if yee want it ? and what can y●● want if yee have it ? I shall say no more but close with that word , Isa. 62. vers . 21 Behold , the Lord hath proclaimed to the end of the world , to those that are far off ; What hath hee proclaimed ? Say yee to the daughter of Sion , behold thy Salvation cometh , behold it cometh . I say to you that are the ends of the world , Salvation is brought near unto you : Stout hearted and far from righteousnesse , the Great Salvation is brought near unto you , and will you send it away ? O consider what ye are doing : And to him that can perswade you to imbrace the Great Salvation , we desire to give praise . A SERMON Concerning DEATH . Psal. 89. 48. What man ( is he that ) liveth and shall not see death , &c. IT is very hard to determine , where all that are here shall be within thirty years : for even ere that time come , many ( if not all ) of us who are here ●all have taken up our eternall lodging . ●nd whether we shall take it up in the eternity of joy , or the eternity of pain , is also hard to determine : onely this one thing I am sure of , that all of us shall shortly hee gone ; And ere long the shadows of death shall bee sitting upon our eye lids , and our eye strings shall begin to break , Therefore I would the more seriously inquire at you ; what would ye think if death were approaching this night unto you ? Think yee that Jesus Christ is gone up to prepare a place for you ? even for you ? Surely I think wee are all near to eternity ; and there are some hearing mee to day , whom I defy the whole world to assure , that ever they shall hear another Sermon ▪ Therefore , I intreat ▪ you all to hear this preaching , as if it were the last preaching that ever yee should hear ; and O that we● could speak it as if were the last Sermon that ever wee would preach unto you . Believe me , death is another thing then we take it to b●t : Oh what will many of us do in the day of our visitation : when desolation shall come from a far ; where will we flee for rest , and where will we leave our glory ? Old rich men where will ye flee when death assaults you ? Old poor men , where will ye flee when death assaults you ? Old women , where will ye flee when death assaults you ? Young women , where will yee flee when death assaults you ? It was an ancient observation of David , Psal. 39. 5. that God had made his daye● as an hand breadth ; which either may relate to the four fold estate of man , viz ▪ hi● infancy , his child-hood , his man-hood , and his old age : O it may relate to the four-fold time of his life , viz. his morning , his forenoon , his afternoon , and his evening , yet all our lifetime is but a day . And O think ye not that our day is near unto a close ? Now before that I begin to speak any thing from the words ; I shall speak a few things to these two questions ; which I conceive , may not altogether be unprofitable . Quest. 1. Whether is it lawfull for any to desire to die and to return unto their long and endlesse home ? whether it be lawfull for one to cry out , O time , time , flee away ( and all my shadows let them be gone ) that so long eternity may come ? Answ. I say , it is lawfull in some cases for one to desire to die : for it was Pauls desire , Philip. 1. 23. I am in a strait betwixt two ▪ having a desire to depart , and to be with Christ which is far better . And 2 Cor. 5. 2. We groa●●arnestly , desiring to be cloathed with our house which is from heaven . I long greatly till the twentieth one year of my age come , when my minority shall be overpast , that I may be entered heir to that matchlesse inheritance . But to clear in what cases it is lawfull to desire to die . 1. I say , it is lawfull to desire to die , when it floweth from a desire of uninterupted fellowship and communion with Christ , and conjunction with him : this is clear , 2 Cor. 5 , 6. Knowing that while we are present in the body , we are absent from the Lord. Therefore vers . 8. We are willing rather to be absent from the body , and to be present with the Lord. Also it is clear , Philip. 1. 23. I am in a strait betwixt two , having a desire to depart , and to be with Christ , which is far bettter . It was his great end to have neat and unmixed communion with Christ. What aileth you Paul ( might one have said ) may ye not be content to stay a while here ? Nay , saith Paul , I desire to be gone , and to be with Christ ; Wast thou never with him here Paul ? 〈◊〉 have been with him , saith he , but what is all my being with him here , in comparison of my being with him above ? While I am present in the body , I am but absent from the Lord. Therefore I will never be at rest ( saith he ) get what I will , untill I get Christ ▪ untill I get these naked and immediate imbracements of that noble Plant of renow● the flour of the stalk of Iesse , who is the light of the higher house , the eternal admiration of Angels ? II. It is lawfull to desire to die when it floweth from the excellencies of heaven , and from a desire to partake of these excellen● things that are there , this is clear , 2 Cor. 5. 4 ▪ We groan being burdened , or as the word is We groan , as they who are pressed under a heavy burden , that we may be cloathed upon , &c ▪ What aileth you to groan so Paul ? O saith he , I groan that mortality may be swallowe● up of life . III. It is lawfull to desire to die , when it floweth from a desire to be freed from the body of death : and from these ●entations that assault us ; and from these oppressions whereunto we are subject by it . Doubtlesse , Paul desired to die on this account , when he cryed out ▪ Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am , who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? He longeth greatly for the day , Wherein hee should be made white like the wings of a dove , covered with silver , whose feathers are of yellow gold . O saith Paul , I am as one impatient till I be above , where I shall be cloathed with these excellent and cleanly robes , The righteousnesse of Christ. Oh , saith Paul , I think every day as a year , till I be possessed of that Kingdom where Sathan cannot tempt , and the creature cannot yeeld , and where I shall be free from all my sears of sinning . Now in all these respects , who would not desire to die ? But to guard all these , I would give you these four Cautions . 1. Caution . Your desires to die should not be peremptory , but yee should desire to die with submission to the will of God , so that although he would fill up fifteen years more to your life , yee should be content to live it out . 2. Caution . When your desires are hasty , and off hand , suspect them ; for some when they meer with an outward crosse ( without all deliberation ) will cry our , O to be gone , O that I were dead . But your desires to die , should be deliberate , but not hasty , or rash . 3. Caution . It is not lawful to desire to die , because of personal affliction . Many , when they meet with bitter afflictions , will cry out , O to be gone : They long for death , even upon that account , such were Iobs desires , Iob 20. 21 , 22. and chap. 6. ver . 7. 8. O that I might have my request , even that it would please God to destroy me , &c. This desire was very unlawfull . 4. Caution . It is not lawfull to desire to die , when thy predominant idol is taken away from thee ; yet such was Ionahs desire , chap. 4. 23. Ionah thought his credit and reputation ( which was his idol ) was gone , and could never be regained : therefore he wished to die . But I would say this to you , that some will have ten desires for death , when they have not one desire for heaven . And what moveth Christians to be so desirous to die ? It is not so much because of their hope , as because of their anxiety ; it is not so much because of their confidence , as because of their impatience . But I say unto you , when your desires of death are not accompanied with desires of heaven , suspect them . 2. I would say this , that there are some who will have ten desires for death ▪ when they will not have one for the death of the body of death ; But it were good for thee ( who are such ) to be desiring the death of the body of death , then should thou be in a more suitable ●rame to desire to die . 3. Some will have hearty desires to die , and ye● when death cometh , they will be as unwilling to die as any . It hath been observed , that some who have much desired to die , when death came , have cryed out , O spare a little that I may recover strength , &c. 4. There is a great difference between a desire to die , and death it self . It is an easie thing to desire to die , but it is a very great business to meet with death , and to look it in the face , when it cometh . We think death ( ere it come near to us ) to be but childrens play , but when we meet with it , it maketh us change our thoughts . For it is a great businesse to die . Quest. 2. Is it lawfull for a Christian to desire to live , when he is summoned to die ? Answ. In some cases it is lawfull for a Christian to desire to live , even when he is summoned to die ; which is clear from the practice of David , Psal. 39. 13. where he prayeth , That the Lord would spare him a little . It is also clear from the practice of good Hezekiah , Isa. 38. 3. when he was commanded to set his house in order , for he should die , and not live , he cryeth forth , Remember now , O Lord , how I have walked before thee in truth , and with a perfect heart : and have done , that which is good in thy sight , and Hezekiah wept sore ; Or as the word in the Original , he wept with great weeping : But to guard this , take these two Cautions . Caution 1. Thy desires to live ( when thou are summoned to die ) should not be peremptory , but with submission to the will of God , that if it bee his pleasure to remove thee presently out of time , thou should bee content to die . Caution 2. Thy desires to live should have gracious principles , and also a very gracious end , as is most clear from David , Psal. 39. 13. where hee saith , O spare a little that I may recover my strength , before I go from hence and bee no more : his desire to live was th●● hee might have more victory over his Idols , as if hee had said , my desire to live is , that I may have strength to wrestle with , and overcome my Idols : and without all controversie , Hezekiahs desire was a most precious and well grounded desire : However , I would say this unto thee , that thou shouldest examine thy desires to live , as much ( if not more ) as thy desires to die : for wee are ready to shun death if wee could , but hee is that universall King , unto whom all of us must be subject ere long . Now in the words which are read unto you , there are these six things which may be clearly observed from them . I. First , That it is a most clear and infallible truth , ●at all persons shall once see death : as is 〈◊〉 in these words , Who is hee that liveth an shall not see death . II. Secon●●● , That this truth ( that wee shall once see death ) is not much believed or thought upon by many , therefore it is that the Psalmist doubleth the Assertion . Who is he that liveth , and shall not see death ? Shall he deliver his soul ( that is his life ) from the hand ( that is ) from the power of the grave . III. Thirdly , That sometimes a Christian may win to the solide Faith of this truth , that once he must die , this the Psalmist wan unto , as it is also clear in that word ( who ) Who is he that liveth and shall not see death ? IV ▪ Fourthly , That the certainty of this , that once we shall die should be still keeped in our minde , therefore that note of attention Selah , is put to it ; as if he had said , take heed that there is none living that shall no● die ▪ V. Fifthly , That howbeit some persons put the evil day far away , as if they were not to see death , yet is the day coming when they shall see death , and death shall take them by the hand . VI. Sixthly , We shall take notice of this from the context , that the Christian who is much in minding the brevity of his life , will believe the certainty of his death , the Psalmist was speaking of the shortnesse of his life in the preceeding verse , and in this verse , he speaketh of the certainty of death ▪ Now as for the first of these things observed , viz. That it is certain and most sure that we must all once die ; I hope there are none of you here who will deny it ; although I confesse few of you beleeveth it , yet said the woman of Tek●ah , 2 Sam. 14. We must all die and be like water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again , &c. God doth not accept the person of any , and Iob 30. 32. I know thou wilt bring me to death , and to the house appointed for all living . And it is very clear , Eccles. 8. 8. There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the Spirit , neither hath he any power in the day of death , and there is no discharge in that War ; neither shall wickednesse deliver those that are given to it : It is also clear , Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed unto all men once to die . So it is most clear that we must die . I remember of one Philip King of Macedonia , who had one substitute for this very end , to cry at his Chamber door every morning , Memento mori , Memento mori , Memento mori , Remember thou art to die , and it is reported to have been the practice of the Nobles of Greece , and in the day wherein their Emperour was Crowned , that they presented a Marblestone unto him , and he was inquired after what fashion he would have his Tomb stone made : which practices speak forth this unto us , that although these were most destitute of light of the Scriptures , yet were very mindfull of death . Believe me , death may surprise us before we be aware , for it is most certain that we must die , but there is nothing more uncertain then the way how , and the time when we shall die . Death will surprise some , as it did Abel , in the open field , Gen. 4. 8 , Death will surprise some , as it did Eglon in his parlour , Iudg. 3. 21. And death will surprise some , as it did Saul and Ionathan in the flight , 1 Sam. 31. Now in speaking to this point , I shall first speak a little to these advantages which attend those that live within continuall sight of death . Secondly , I shall give you some Considerations to presse you to prepare for death . Thirdly , I shall give you some Directions to help you to prepare for Death : And then we shall proceed unto the second point of doctrine which we observed from the Text , and shall speak a few things from it unto you , and so come unto a close for this time . First then , we conceive there are these seven advantages which attend those who live within the continual ●ight of this truth , that they must die . I. First , The Faith of approaching death will make a soul exceeding diligent in duty : this was our blessed Lords divinity , Ioh. 9. 4. I must work the work of him that sent me , while it is day : The night cometh , when no man can work ; That is , death is approaching , therefore I must work . It is clear also , 2 Pet. 1. 12. compared with vers . 14. In the 12. vers . Peter is exceeding diligenc● in his duty , and the ground of his diligence is in the 14. vers . Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle , &c. Yea , it is even the Epicures argument , Let us eat and drink , for to morrow we shall die ; and should not the Christian much more cry out , Let mee watch and pray , for to morrow I may die ? I say , if the Epicures did make use of this notion , to make them vigorous in the pursuit of their pleasures : O how much more should a Christian improve i● , for making him vigorous in the pursuit of his duty ? Therefore I say unto you all , O bee diligent , for your night is drawing near . O Christians , and expectants of heaven , are ye not afraid lest yee be nighted before ye have walked the half of your journey ? For if yee bee nighted on your journey to heaven , before ye come to the end of your race , there is no retiring place whereunto yee may turn aside to lodge : therefore , O work , work , work , while it is day ; for behold death is approaching , and then shall we all bee called to an account . II. The Faith of approaching death , will make a Christian exceeding active in duty : hee will not only bee diligent , but also exceeding serious and zealous in the exercise of his duty : This is clear from that notable exhortation , Eccles. 9. 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do , do it with thy might : and the reason is , For there is no work , nor device , nor knowledge , nor wisdom in the grave whether thou goest . Wherefore O bee active while yee are alive , for ye shall never work any more after ye are dead ; and if ye leave but one work undone , there is no doing of it after death . There is no work ( saith Solomon ) in the grave ; therefore , O be active . III. The faith of this Truth , that we must all die , will help a Christian to be exceeding mortified to the things of a present world . Oh , covetous men and women , would ye shake hands with cold death but once every morning , I should defy you to pursue the world so much as ye do . Paul was much in the meditation of his change , which made him , 2 Cor. 4. 18. to overlook these things that are temporary , while we look not ( saith he ) to the things that are seen , which are temporal , but to the things which are not seen , which are eternal , therefore , chap. 5. 1. Knowing that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved , we have a building of God , an house not made with hands , eternal in the heavens , Therefore in this we groan , earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven . What aileth you Paul ( might one have said ) may ye not take a look of the world ( no saith he ) For I know that if this earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved , I have a house with God , not made with hands , but eternal in the heavens : That is , I know that ere long , the pins of my tabernacle will be loosed , and it will fall down about my ears , therefore I must look for another dwelling house : And , 1 Cor. 7. 24. The fashions of this world passe away , Therefore , ●aith he , vers . 32. I would have you without carefulnesse , caring how to please the Lord. And Phil. 4. 5. Let your moderation be known to all men , The Lord is at hand . As if he had said , Death is approaching and at hand , therefore I intreat you be sober : But I think many of us will be found like Saul hid among the stuffe , that is , we will be lying amongst the middest of the pleasures of this passing world : But I say unto thee who are such an one , that death will break the strings of thy harp , and thy musick will quickly cease . O but death will make thee have a low esteem of the world . O blessed is the person who hath these thoughts of the world all along his way , which he shall have of it at death ? Have not the most cursed wretches been forced to cry forth , Oh , I would give ten thousand worlds for Christ ? Have not some persons ( who have had the Moon upon their head , and that have made their belly their god ) being forced to cry forth at death ; O cursed person that I am that ever made the world my god ? Alas that I contented my self with the world . Therefore I say unto thee who art such an one , O stay thy pursuit after the world , for death is approaching that will cause all thy worldly comforts evanish . IV. When a Christian believeth this Truth , that he must die , it will be an exceeding great ●estraint to keep him from sinning , as is clear , Iob 31. 13. compared with vers . 14. where Iob reckoning over many good deeds done by himself , saith , What then shall I do when God riseth up ? and when he visiteth , what shall I answer him ? As if he had said , Sirs mistake me not , I am not boasting much of my self , for I could not have done otherwise , else what should I do when God riseth up ? How could I answer to God if I had done otherwise ? I think it were a notable practice for each of you , when temptations begin to assault you , to say , O temptation , what will I answer to God , when he riseth up to reprove me , if I should yeeld unto thee ? Likewise , Eccles 11. 9. Where Solomon , disswading young men to pursue after vanity , bringeth this as a reason . Know thou , that for all , these things , God will bring thee to judgement ; Therefore I say unto thee , who art often tempted to sin . let 〈◊〉 and reckoning with God be still in thy sight , and I defy thee then to imbrace half so many temptations as now thou dost . I intreat you to answer all your temptations with that word , What shall I do when he riseth up ? And what shall I answer when he visiteth me ? V. When a Christian liveth within the sight of this Truth , that he shall once see death , it shall make him exceeding patient under every crosse wherewith he meeteth ; Such a Christian will hardly meet with a crosse , but he will quiet himself with this , Death will put me beyond this crosse : this is but a cloud that will quickly passe away . And for this cause did Divid so composedly put up that desire , Psal. 39 4. Lord make me to know my end , and the measure of my dayes : He was sure that the knowledge of his end would put him in a sober and patient frame . VI. The sixth advantage is this , The faith of approaching death , will teach the the person that hath it , to study saving wisedome , This is clear , Psal. 90. 12. Where David putteth up this request , So teach us to number our dayes , that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome . As if he had said , I will never think my self wise , till I know that blessed peece of Arithmetick , How to number my dayes . I would desire every one of you all to think with your self every morning when ye arise , now I am a day nearer unto eternity then I was before : and at the end of every hour , now I am an hour nearer unto eternity then I was before . I say , think often , yea alwayes thus , I was never so near my death as I am now ; For , oh ! are we not all nearer to eternity to day , then we were yesterday ? VII . The seventh advantage , attending the faith of approaching Death , is this , That it will make a Christian very carefull in preparing for Death . It is impossible for one to believe really that Death is approaching , and not to prepare for it . Say what ye will , if ye be not carefull in preparing for death , ye have not the solide faith of this truth , that ye shall die . Believe me , it is not every one that thinketh he believeth this truth , that believeth it indeed . And O how dreadfull is it for an unprepared man to meet with death ? He desireth not to die , yea he would give a world for his life . but die must he whether he will or not : for death will not be requested to spare a little when he cometh ; And therefore I say unto you all , Set your house in order , for ye shall surely die ; Old men and women , set your house in order , for surely ye must die ; Young men and women , set your house in order , for to morrow . ye may die , and be cut off in the flower of your age , Think not that there are any who can sell time : for I say , ye shall never get time sold unto you . Alas , I fear the most part of persons that dieth now , death findeth them at unawars ; for indeed the persons that die among us , when we come to visit them , we may give you a sad account of them , for we think they are comprehended under these four sorts . 1. First , When we go to visit some persons on their death bed , they are like unto Nabal , their heart is dying and sinking ( like unto a stone ) within them ; they are no more affected with death , then if it were a fancy ; ( alas for the great stupidity that hath overtaken many ) therefore I intreat you delay not your repentance till death , left the Lord take away your wit , so that ye cannot then repent for your senslesnesse and stupid frame of spirit . 2. A second sort we find in a presumptuous frame , saying they have had a good hope all their dayes , and they will not quite it now ; they will go down to the grave with their hope in their right hand : or rather they will go down to the grave with a lie in their right hand ; they live in a presumptuous frame , and they die in the same delusion . For when we tell them that by all probability they are going down to hell , they answer , God forbid , I was all my time a very honest man , or woman . But I love not that confession , for there are many such honest men and women in hell this day . 3. The third sort we find , having some convictions that they have been playing the fool all their dayes ; but we can get them no further : I shall only say to such , to go down to the gr●ve with convictions in their breast , not making use of Christ , is to go down to hell 〈◊〉 a ca●●●e in their hand to let them see the way : and truly the greater part that die , die in this manner . 4. Fourthly , There are some whom we find in a self righteous frame , trusting upon the Covenant of Works , and their own merits , and trusting by these to go to heaven : yet neglecting the offer of Christs righteousnesse . But , alas , we find not one of a thousand in this frame , I desire to be dissolved , and be with Christ , that 's best of all : And scarce do we find any in such a frame , O wretched man that I am , who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? Therefore I say unto you all who are here , O will ye mind death before it take hold on you . Oh mind your work now ; for ye will find that death shall be work enough for it self , though ye leave no work till then . VIII . The eight advantage that attendeth the Christian believing this truth , that once he must die , is this , death will not be so terrible to him as it is unto many when it cometh . What ( think ye ) maketh death a king of terrours ? What maketh many to shake like the leaf of a tree , when they are summoned to appear before Gods Tribunal ? It is even because of this , they have not been thinking on death before it came , so as to prepare for it , and I fear many in this place may be feared for death , and that when it cometh to them ; they will say unto death , at Ahab said to Elijah Hast thou found me , O mine enemy ? Surely , ●●ath will take you and bring you to the judgement seat of Christ ; Therefore study by all means to think often upon it ; and make ready for it : For ( believe me ) death is a very big word , for it will once make you stand with horrour in your souls , if your peace be not made up with God : I know not a more dreadfull dispensation then death and a guilty conscience meeting together . The second thing that I shall speak unto from this first observation ( viz. That it is a most certain and infallible truth , and all persons shall once see death ) shall be to give you some considerations for pressing you to prepare for death . I. The first consideration is this , That to die well , and in the Lord , is a most difficult work ; therefore I intreat you prepare for death . It is a difficult work to communicate aright , it is a difficult work to pray aright , and it is a difficult work to con●er aright : But I must tell you , it is a more difficult work to die aright , then any of these . It is true , it is more difficult to communicate aright , then to pray aright , yet it is much more difficult to die aright , then to communicate aright : For it is a most difficult work to die in the Lord. Death will put the most accurate Christian that is here , to a wonderfull search : and therefore I will tell you nine things that death will try in thee . 1. Death will try both the reality and strength of thy Faith. It may be easie for thee to keep up Faith under many difficulties , but death shall put thy Faith to the greatest stresse that ever it did meet with . Yea , know this that the Faith of the strongest Believer may get ( and ordinarily doth get ) a set at death , the like whereof it never got before : therefore prepare for death . 2. Death will try thy love to God , some persons pretend much love to him : but death will propose this question to such a person , Lovest thou him more then these ? Lovest thou him more then thy wife ? More then thy house ? More then thy friends ? But your unwillingnesse to die , giveth us much ground to fear that many have little love to Christ , but much to the world , and so dare not answer the question , Lord thou knowest I love thee . 3. Death will try thine enjoyments , some of you may be ready to think that ye met with many enjoyments , so that ye might reckon ( as you think ) to fourty enjoyments and sweet out lettings : but beware that death bring them not down to twenty . I have known some , who thought they had met fourty times with God ; but when death came , it made them take down the count to the half , therefore seeing death will try the reality of thine enjoyments , O prepare for it . 4. Death will try thy patience . Thou may seem to have much patience now , but when death cometh ( and thou art put to die ) it will put thy patience to a great tryall , therefore prepare fore it . 5. Death will try the reality of thy duties , yea even these duties wherein thou had most satisfaction , as thy communicating aright in such a place , thou hopest that is sure : thy reading the Scripture at such a time aright , thou hopest that is sure : thou prayed at such a time aright , and hopest that is sure : thou meditated in such a place aright , and hopest that is sure . But ( believe me ) death may make thee change thy thoughts : for there are some persons who have communicated and prayed , &c. as right as any in this generation , who ( for all that ) will not find six duties wherein they can find satisfaction at death : Therefore our need is great to prepare for it . 6. Death will exceedingly try thy sincerity when it cometh : An hypocrite may go all alongs his whole way undiscovered , yet death may bring him to light , and make it appear what man he it . 7. Death will discover unto thee many hid and secret sins , of which thou never had a thought before , yea , albeit thou thought these had been forgotten , death will let thee see them standing between thee and the light of his countenance . 8. Death will accurately try thy Mortification : Some think they have come a great length in Mortification ; but ( believe me ) death will try it and put it to the touch-stone . 9. Death will try thy hope , whether it bee real or not . I shall onely say this , that all the other graces must low their sails to Faith , and so it is Faith must carry us thorow , being that last triumphing grace ▪ which must fit the field for us , when all the other graces will faint and ly by . It is Faith that must enter us fairly within the borders of eternity , It is Faith must gainstand all the temptations of death , yea , all the other graces must ( as it were ) stand by , and see Faith strike the last stroak in this war. II. The second consideration to presse you to mind death , is this , that yee are to die but once . O labour to do that well , which yee are to do but once , and the wrong doing of which can never bee helped . If yee pray not aright , ye may get that mended : if yee meditate not aright , yee may get that mended : and if ye communicate not aright , ye may get that also mended : but alas , if ye die not aright , there is no mending of that : Therefore , O prepare for death , that ye may die well , seeing ye are to die but once . III. The third consideration to presse you to mind death , is this , That they are pronounced blessed who die in the Lord , Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord , O let that provoke you to prepare for death , that so you may die in the Lord , that is the only way to make you eternally happy . I confesse it is a question difficult to determine whether it be more difficult to die well , or to live well ; I shall not answer it , but rather desire you to study both . IV. The fourth consideration to presse you to prepare for death , is this , viz. That though thou put all thy work by thy hand before death , yet shalt thou finde that death shall have work enough for it self , yea , as much as thou shalt get done . It will then be much for thee to win to patience , it will be much for thee to win to the sight of thy Justification : and it will then be much for thee to win to assurance : O then is it not needfull for thee , to put all thy work by thy hand before thy latter end come ? Wherefore I may say to you as Moses said in his Song , Deut. 32. 29. O that they were wise , that they understood this , that they would consider their latter end . O that ye had this piece of divine wisdome . I pray you consider that sad word , Lament . 1. 9. She remembereth not her last end , And what of it ? Therefore she came down wonderfully : So will the down coming of many in this generation be wonderfull , who consider not their last end . V. The fifth Consideration , for pressing you to prepare for death , is this , viz. That their labour shall end , but their works shall not be forgotten , as is clear from that forecited place , Revel . 14. 13. They rest from their labours , and their works follow them : and is not that a glorious advantage ? VI. The sixth consideration to presse you to prepare for death , is this , viz. That death may come upon you ere ye be awar : ye know not but death may surprise you this night , before you go home to your houses : and therefore let that presse you to study a constant preparation for death . VII . The seventh Consideration to presse you to prepare for death , is this , viz. That as death leaveth you , so will judgement find you , If death shall leave you strangers to Christ , ye shall appear before his judgement seat strangers unto him : Therefore I intreat you all to prepare for it . I think that noble practice of Paul exceeding worthy of imitation , 1 Cor. 15. 13. I die dayly , which ( I think ) doth comprehend these three things . 1. That Paul had death alwayes in his sight . 2. It comprehendeth this , that he endeavoured to keep such a frame , as that every moment he should be ready to die , so that whensoever death should put the summonds in his hand , he should be content to answer . 3. It comprehendeth this , that he laboured to lay aside and remove all things out of the way , that might detain him from laying down his tabernacle . O saith Paul , I labour so to clear my self of all hinderances , as that when ever I shall be summoned to remove out of time , I may willingly lay down my life . Thus Paul desired alwayes to have his Latter Will clear ; Therefore I would ask you this question , viz. when did you make your last testament ? I think it were suitable for us to be renewing our latter will every day ; for in so doing , Paul made an excellent testament , the better of which , none that died since have made , 2 Tim. 4. 7 , 8. I have fought a good fight , I have finished my course , I have keeped the faith ; These are very sweet articles , and then he addeth , Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse , which the Lord , the righteous Iudge shall give me at that day : And think ye not that very sweet ? And he would leave some thing unto you in Christs Name , viz. And not for me only , but for all them that wait for his appearance . Now I come to the third thing proposed , viz. To give you some directions for helping you to prepare for death . Direct . 1. I intreat you , be much in preparation for death every day , for it is even a preparation for heaven , to be taking a sight of your grave and latter end every day . Direct . 2. I intreat you , he much in these duties . First , In Self examination , that your compts may be clear with God : for many a ragged compt will we have , when death and we shall meet . Secondly , Be much in the exercise of Repentance , that so ye may have every fault of corruption in you mourned for , before death and you meet . Thirdly , Be much in the exercise of Faith , making your calling and election sure ? Fourthly , Be much in the exercise of Mortification , and that will help you to keep a loose grip , not only of the world , but also of your other idols ; And if ye be much in these , ye shall undoubtedly be prepared for death . Direct . 3. Be much in minding the excellent things of heaven . A Christian that would be prepared for death , would have all his thoughts and conversation there . I think , it would be an excellent help ( in preparation for death ) to take a sight of the Crown every day . Direct . 4. Labour alwayes to keep a good conscience void of offence towards God and men 〈◊〉 I say , labour to keep thy conscience clear , and that shall be a continual feast unto thee . Direct . 5. Slight not thy known duty , do not crucify any conviction , neither break any resolution : put these three together , and that will exceedingly help you to prepare for death : I say , see that ye adventure not to slight any known duty , see that ye adventure not to crucifie any conviction , and see that ye adventure not to break your resolutions Now we come to the second thing which we observed from the words , viz. That this truth , that we shall once see death , is not much believed by many of us . And to make this appear , we shall only give some Evidences unto you , to prove that we are not as yet prepared for death . I. Evidence , Doth not the unspeakable stupidity that have overtaken many , say , that we are not a people prepared for death ? Alas , many of us would find our selves in a most stupid temper if we were presently to die ; for many of us are no more moved with the threatnings and terrouts of God , then if they did not belong unto us ; and this saith we are not as yet prepared for death . II. Evidence , That we are not prepared for death , is our pursuing so much after the vain and passing delights of a present world . Many of us , Rise up early , and go late to bed at night , and eateth the bread of sorrow all the day , and loading themselves with thick clay ; And I am sure , that such a person , ( being night and day taken up with the world ) is not prepared for death . I remember a word recorded of such a wretched one , who was exceedingly rich ; said he , I would give so many thousands of money , if death would give me but one day : yet he got it not . And O how suddenly will death surprise many of you as it did him ? III. Evidence , which speaketh forth our unpreparednesse for death , is our impatience under every petty crosse that we meet with , for the prepared Christian will be patient under very sharp crosses . IV. Evidence , That we are not prepared , is our not endeavouring to live within sight of our interest in God ▪ Oh if wee were prepared for death , durst we live in so much uncertainty of our interest in God , and of our assurance of heaven ? V. Evidence ▪ Some of us can let our Idols ly in our brest six years without repentance , and will never study to mortifie them , nor to repent for them ; and surely such are not prepared for death . Now I intreat you seriously to minde what hath been said . And that yee may the more seriously think upon it , I will tell you some materiall challenges that your consciences at death will present unto you , therefore take heed , that yee may know how yee will answer . I. Challenge . Is the slighting of much precious Time , and sinning away the precious offers of Grace . O what will yee answer to that Challenge , when Death shall present it to you ? Death will say ( or rather thine own Conscience at Death ) what ailed thee to sin away so many hours , without either Praying , Reading , or Meditating● ? Now have yee any thing to answer when Death shall present this Challenge to you ? I intreat you premedita●e what ye will say : I intreat you prevent death by presenting it first seriously to your selves . II. Challenge , That Death will present unto you , will be , for the killing of many precious Convictions which we have had . What will each of you answer at death , when your conscience proposeth this challenge to you ? thou met with such a challenge at such a time , and went home and crucified it , when at another time thou met with another challenge , and went home and crucified it : These challenges will be laid home to thy door , therefore think on them . III. Challenge , Death will charge you for a formal hypocriticall way of going about duties : I say your Conscience will then tell you , that ye went to such a Communion with a selfish end : and a● another time ye prayed hyporritically and formally : and what will ye have to answer when ye meet with these challenges ? I confesse I know not what ye can answer to these ; but I charge you , be thinking what ye will answer , for it may be that these convictions shall ly on your consciences , that even this day ye have heard two searching Sermons , and did meet with some convictions ; but made no good use of them ; yea , and ●● may be ye did sleep all the time . O what will ye answer , when it will be said to you , ye went to such a Sermon and sleeped all the time : and ye went to such a Communion , but had no other end before your eyes but to be seen of men ? I intreat you consider presently what ye will answer to these . IV. Challenge , Will be for your breaking of many precious resolutions . It will be said to some of you , that at the Communion in this place , ye took on vowes , and did break them : I am sure ye cannot question the justice of this challenge : therefore see what ye will answer ? V. Challenge , Ye slighted many precious offers of the Gospel ; O men and women in this city , what will ye answer to this ? I was often exhorted to take Christ , and yet would never take him ; What will Conscience say to that , when death shall table it before you ? I tell you what ye must then answer , O cursed I , that ever refused Christ in the Gospel , and ye shall then be confounded because this is your sin . ( Believe me ) there was never an offer of this everlasting Gospel , and of Christ in it made unto you , that shall not at death ( before or after ) be brought to your remembrance ; and O how sad and doleful will it be to you , when Christ shall open the book where your sins are written , and begin with the sin of slighting the Great Salvation ? thus I invited you when you were twelve years old , and ye would not come , I invited you when ye were thirty years old , and ye would not come , I invited you when sixty years old , and ye would not come : What will ye answer to this ? Have ye any thing to say ? Or must ye not stand speechlesse before your Judge , when he shall put home this challenge unto you , therefore think seriously upon it , how ye will answer to it . VI. Challenge , will be for your sinning oftentimes against Light , and O how sad and painfull a challenge will that be at the day of Death ! when it will be said , thou sinned with a witnesse in thy bosome that thou wast doing wrong : thy Conscience will say , oftentimes did I tell thee this is sinfull , yet wouldest thou not abstain from it : And what will ye answer from this ? VII . Challenge , Oftentimes ye sinned upon every small temptations , and what will ye answer to that ? Must ye not then confesse it , and say , O how often have I deserted Christ and imbraced my idols upon a small temdtation ? Now I intreat you be thinking what ye will answer to these seven most material Challenges which certainly shall be presented to you at death . I assure you , ye must either answer all your challenges in Christ , else ye will not get them well answered . Therefore I would exhort you to imbrace the Gospel and Christ in it : that so let death propose never so many challenges unto you ▪ ye may answer them all as David did , viz. God hath made with me an everlasting Covenant , ( and that will answer all your challenges ) though my house be not so with God , yet I have the everlasting Covenant to build my salvation upon . Now to presse you to make use of Christ , I shall give you these four Considerations . Consideration 1. If ye imbrace not Christ now , Death will be very unpleasant to you . O what else can comfort thee , when going through the region of the shadow of Death , but this , I am Christs , I am Christs ? is there any other thing can comfort thee in that day , but only this , I am Christs , and He is mine ? Consideration 2. If ye imbrace not Christ and the Great Salvation now , It will be an hundred to one , if ever ye get time or libertie to do it , when ye are going to die . For although many delay their closing with Christ till death , yet scarcely one of a hundred getteth favour to grip Christ at death : therefore think on it , for ye will not get your mind so composed at death as ye imagine , nor all things done as ye suppose : therefore now imbrace the Great Salvation . Consideration 3. If ye delay your closing with Christ , till death seise upon you , ye shall never be able to make up that losse , For will the dead rise and praise God ? Or shall any come from the land of forgetfulnesse , to take hold upon a crucified Saviour ? Therefor , O will ye take him for your Salvation . Consideration 4. If ye will take Christ now , he shall be your guide , When ye are going through the valley and shadow of death . And O how blessed is the person that can sing that word , Psal. 48. 14. This is my God , he will be my guide even unto death . If ye can sing that pleasant song , O how may ye be comforted , when your eye strings shall begin to break ? O how happy is hee who can say , Though I walk through the shadow of death , yet will I fear no ill ▪ 〈◊〉 I know that the Lord is with mee . Now this is the acceptable day , and the year of salvation , therefore do not delay , but imbrace Christ , lest death surprise you ere yee be aware , and so the acceptable day be lost . But unto these who think they may delay till death , I say , surely there are many damned atheists in hell that ( sometime ) did think as yee think : I will make all wrongs right when death and I shall meet : I hope that three dayes repentance will satisfie for all my wrongs : for I am sure there are many in hell , who did never get three dayes to think upon their former wayes ; Therefore , O come , come , and imbrace Christ presently : Now are yee all perswaded of this truth , that yee shall once see death ? Then study a tender walking ; for ( believe me ) there are many of us who shall go thorow death with many bruised bones , because of untender walking before God. We know it is not the multitude of words can perswade you to imbrace Christ , for many of you never minded the thing : but ( believe mee ) death will p●each these things to you in a more terrible manner then wee can do at this time . Therefore I say ●o each of you , O prepare to meet thy God ; for , if death finde you in an estranged estate from God , I defy the Angels in Heaven to free you out of that estate . And the day is coming wherein thou shalt cry out , O slighter of the Great Salvation that I am , I would give ten thousand worlds for one Sermon again that I once heard , wherein Christ was freely offered to me , when thou shalt bee tormented without hope of remedy ; Therefore , While it is to day , harden not your hearts , for your late wishes shall not bee granted ( when yee are gone ) if yee make not haste . O therefore Haste , haste in time , and come out from the land of your captivity , and from the house of your bondage , and take Christ for your Redeemer , the guide of your youth and old age . Now unto him , who can lead you thorow all these steps betwixt you and heaven , be eternal praise . Amen . FINIS . 
A53726	----	The reason of faith, or, An answer unto that enquiry, wherefore we believe the scripture to be the word of God with the causes and nature of that faith wherewith we do so : wherein the grounds whereon the Holy Scripture is believed to be the word of God with faith divine and supernatural, are declared and vindicated / by John Owen ... Owen, John, 1616-1683. 1677 Approx. 344 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 107 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A53726 Wing O801 ESTC R38888 18186032 ocm 18186032 106952 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A53726) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 106952) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1128:15) The reason of faith, or, An answer unto that enquiry, wherefore we believe the scripture to be the word of God with the causes and nature of that faith wherewith we do so : wherein the grounds whereon the Holy Scripture is believed to be the word of God with faith divine and supernatural, are declared and vindicated / by John Owen ... Owen, John, 1616-1683. [8], 192 p. Printed for Nathaniel Ponder ..., London : 1677. Reproduction of original in the Bristol Public Library, Reference Libraries. Central Library, College Green, Bristol, England. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible -- Inspiration. Faith. 2005-03 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-04 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-05 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2005-05 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Reason of Faith. OR AN Answer unto that Enquiry , Wherefore we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God. WITH The Causes and Nature of that Faith wherewith we do so . WHEREIN The Grounds whereon the Holy Scripture is believed to be the Word of God with Faith Divine and Supernatural , are declared and vindicated . By JOHN OWEN , D. D. If they hear not Moses , and the Prophets , neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead , Luk. 16. 51. LONDON , Printed for Nathaniel Ponder , at the Peacock in the Poultry , near Cornhill . 1677. TO THE READER . HAving added a brief Account of the Design , Order , and Method of the ensuing Discourse in an Appendix at the Close of it ; I shall not here detain the Reader with the Proposal of them . Yet some few things remain , which I judge it necessary to mind him of . Be he who he will , I am sure we shall not differ about the weight of the Argument in hand ; for whether it be the Truth we contend for , or otherwise , yet it will not be denied , but that the Determination of it , and the setling of the minds of Men about it , are of the highest concernment unto them . But whereas so much hath been written of late by others on this Subject , any further Debate of it may seem either needless or unseasonable . Something therefore may be spoken to evidence that the Reader is not imposed on by that , which may absolutely fall under either of those Characters . Had the End in and by these Discourses been effectually accomplished , it had been altogether useless to renew an indeavour unto the same purpose . But whereas an Opposition unto the Scripture , and the Grounds whereon we believe it to be a Divine Revelation , is still openly continued amongst us ; a continuation of the Defence of the one and the other cannot reasonably be judged either needless or unseasonable . Besides , most of the Discourses published of late on this Subject have had their peculiar Designs , wherein that here tendred is not expresly ingaged . For some of them do principally aim to prove , that we have sufficient Grounds to believe the Scripture , without any recourse unto , or reliance upon the Authoritative Proposal of the Church of Rome ; which they have sufficiently evinced beyond any possibility of rational Contradiction from their Adversaries . Others have pleaded & vindicated those rational Considerations , whereby our Assent unto the Divine Original of it , is fortified and confirmed against the Exceptions and Objections of such whose Love of Sin , and Resolutions to live therein , tempts them to seek for shelter in an Atheistical Contempt of the Authority of God , evidencing it self therein . But as neither of these are utterly neglected in the ensuing Discourse , so the peculiar Design of it is of another nature . For the Inquiries managed therein , namely , what is the Obligation upon us to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God ? what are the Causes , and what is the Nature of that Faith whereby we do so ? what it rests on , and is resolved into , so as to become a Divine and Acceptable Duty ? do respect the Consciences of Men immediately , and the Way whereby they may come to Rest and Assurance in Believing . Whereas therefore it is evident , that may are often shaken in their Minds , with-those Atheistical Objections against the Divine Original and Authority of the Scripture , which they frequently meet 〈◊〉 ; that many know not how to extricate themselves from the ensnaring Questions that they are often attaqued withal about them ; not for want of a due Assent unto them , but of a right Understanding what is the true and formal Reason of that Assent ; what is the firm Basis and Foundation that it rests upon ; what Answer they may directly and peremptotily give unto that Enquiry , Wherefore do you believe the Scripture to be the Word of God ? I have endeavoured to give them those Directions herein , that upon a due Examination they will find compliant with the Scripture it self , right Reason , and their own Experience . I am not therefore altogether without hopes that this small Discourse may have its use , and be given out in its proper season . Moreover , I think it necessary to acquaint the Reader , that as I have allowed all the Arguments pleaded by others to prove the Divine Authority of the Scripture , their proper place , and force ; so where I differ in the Explication of any thing belonging unto this Subject from the Conceptions of other Men , I have candidly examined such Opinions , and the Arguments wherewith they are confirmed , without straining the Words , cavilling at the Expressions , or reflections on the Persons of any of the Authors of them . And whereas I have my self been otherwise dealt withal by many , and know not how soon I may be so again , I do hereby free the Persons of such Humours and Inclinations from all fear of any Reply from me , or the least notice of what they shall be pleased to write or say . Such kind of Writings are of the same consideration with me , as those multiplied false Reports which some have raised concerning me , the most of them so ridiculous and foolish , so alien from my Principles , Practice , and Course of life , as I can not but wonder how any Persons pretending to Gravity and Sobriety , are not sensible how their Credulity and Inclinations are abused in the hearing and repetition of them . The Occasion of this Discourse is that which in the last Place I shall acquaint the Reader withal . About three years since I published a Book about the Dispensation and Operations of the Spirit of God. That Book was one Part only of what I designed on that Subject . The Consideration of the Work of the Holy Spirit , as the Spirit of Illumination , of Supplication , of Consolation , and as the Immediate Author of all Spiritual Offices , and Gifts extraordinary and ordinary , is designed unto the second Part of it . Hereof this insuing Discourse is concerning one Part of his Work , as a Spirit of Illumination , which upon the earnest Requests of some acquainted with the Nature and Substance of it , I have suffered to come out by it self , that it might be of the more common use , and more easily obtained . May , 11th . 1677. The Reason of Faith. OR The Grounds whereon the Scripture is believed to be the Word of God with Faith Divine and Supernatural . THe principal design of that Discourse , whereof the ensuing Treatise is a part , is to declare the Work of the Holy Ghost in the Illumination of the minds of Men. For this Work is particularly and eminently ascribed unto him ; or the Efficacy of the Grace of God by him dispensed , Ephes. 1. 17 , 18. Heb. 6. 4. Luke 2. 32. Acts 13. 47. Chap. 24. 45. Chap. 26. 18. 2 Cor. 4. 4. 1 Pet. 2. 9. The objective Cause and outward Means of it , are the Subjects at present designed unto Consideration . And it will issue in these two Enquiries . 1. On what Grounds , or for what Reason , we do believe the Scripture to be the Word of God with Faith Divine and Supernatural , as it is required of us in a way of Duty . 2. How or by what means we may come to understand aright the Mind of God in the Scripture , or the Revelations that are made unto us of his Mind and Will therein . For by Illumination in general , as it denotes an Effect wrought in the minds of Men , I understand that Supernatural Knowledg that any Man hath , or may have of the Mind and Will of God , as revealed unto him by Supernatural Means , for the Law of his Faith , Life , and Obedience . And this so far as it is comprised in the first of these Inquiries , is that , whose Declaration we at present design , reserving the latter unto a distinct Discourse by it self also . Unto the former some things may be premised . First , Supernatural Revelation is the only Objective cause and means of Supernatural Illumination . These things are commensurate . There is a natural knowledg of Supernatural things , and that both Theoretical , and Practical , Rom. 1. 19. Chap. 2. 14 , 15. And there may be a Supernatural knowledg of Natural things , 1 Kings 4. 31 , 32 , 33 , 34. Exod. 31. 3 , 4 , 5 , 6. But unto this supernatural Illumination , it is required , both that its Object be things only supernaturally revealed , or as supernaturally revealed , 1 Cor. 2. 9 , 10. and that it be wrought in us by a supernatural Efficiency , or the immediate Efficacy of the Spirit of God , Ephes. 1. 17 , 18 , 19. 2 Cor. 4. 6. This David prays for , Psal. 119. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reveal , or Vncover mine eyes , bring light and spiritual understanding into my mind , that I may behold ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with open face , or as in the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with a revealed , or uncovered face , the vail being taken away , 2 Cor. 3. 18. ) Wondrous things out of thy Law. The Light he prayed for within , did meerly respect the Doctrine of the Law without . This the Apostle fully declares ; Heb. 1. 1 , 2. The various Supernatural Revelations that God hath made of himself , his Mind and Will from first to last , are the sole and adequate Object of Supernatural Illumination . Secondly , This Divine external Revelation , was originally by various ways , ( which we have elsewhere declared ) given unto sundry persons immediately , partly for their own Instruction and Guidance in the Knowledg of God and his Will , and partly by their Ministry to be communicated unto the Church . So was it granted unto Enoch the seventh from Adam , who thereon prophesied to the warning and instruction of others : Jude 14 , 15. And to Noah , who became thereby a Preacher of Righteousness , 2 Pet. 2. 5. And to Abraham , who thereon commanded his Children and Houshold to keep the way of the Lord , Gen. 18. 19. And other instances of the like kind may be given : Gen. 4. 26. Chap. 5. 28. And this course did God continue a long time , even from the first promise to the giving of the Law , before any Revelations were committed to writing , for the space of 2460 years . For so long a season did God enlighten the minds of Men by Supernatural external immediate occasional Revelations . Sundry things may be observed of this divine dispensation , As 1. That it did sufficiently evidence its self to be from God , unto the minds of those unto whom it was granted , and theirs also unto whom these Revelations were by them communicated . For during this season Satan used his utmost endeavours to possess the minds of men with his delusions under the pretence of divine Supernatural Inspirations . For hereunto belongs the Original of all his Oracles , and Enthusisasmes among the Nations of the World. There was therefore a divine Power and Efficacy attending all Divine Revelations ascertaining and infallably assuring the minds of men of their being from God. For if it had not been so , men had never been able to secure themselves , that they were not imposed on by the crafty deceits of Satan , especially in such Revelations as seemed to contain things contrary to their Reason , as in the command given to Abraham for the sacrificing his Son , Gen. 22. 2. Wherefore these immediate Revelations had not been a sufficient means to secure the Faith and Obedience of the Church , if they had not carried along with them their own evidence that they were from God. Of what nature that Evidence was , we shall afterwards enquire . For the present I shall only say , that it was an Evidence unto Faith and not to Sense ; as is that also which we have now by the Scripture . It is not like that which the Sun gives of it self by its Light , which there needs no exercise of Reason to assure us of ; for Sense is irresistibly affected with it . But it is like the Evidence which the Heavens and the Earth give of their being made and created of God , and thereby of his Being and Power . This they do undeniably and infallibly . Psal. 19. 1 , 2. Rom. 1. 19 , 20 , 21. Yet is it required hereunto , that men do use and exercise the best of their rational Abilities in the consideration and contemplation of them . Where this is neglected , notwithstanding their open and visible Evidence unto the contrary , men degenerate into Atheism . God so gave out these Revelations of himself , as to require the exercise of the Faith , Conscience , Obedience , and Reason of them unto whom they were made , and therein they gave full Assurance of their proceeding from him . So he tells us that his Word differeth from all other pretended Revelations , as the Wheat doth from the Chaff , Jer. 23. 28. But yet it is our duty to try and sift the Wheat from the Chaff , or we may not evidently discern the one from the other . 2. The things so revealed were sufficient to guide and direct all persons in the Knowledg of their duty to God , in all that was required of them in a way of Faith or Obedience . God from the beginning gave out the knowledg of his Will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by sundry parts and degrees ; yet so that every Age and Season had Light enough to guide them in the whole Obedience required of them , and unto their Edification therein . They had knowledg enough to enable them to offer Sacrifices in Faith , as did Abel ; to walk with God , as did Enoch ; and to teach their Families the fear of the Lord , as did Abraham . The World perished not for want of sufficient Revelation of the mind of God at any time . Indeed when we go to consider those divine Instructions which are upon Record that God granted unto them , we are scarce able to discern how they were sufficiently enlightned in all that was necessary for them to believe and do . But they were unto them as a Light shining in a dark place . Set up but a Candle in a dark room , and it will sufficiently enlighten it , for men to attend their necessary occasions therein . But when the Sun is risen and shineth in at all the Windows , the light of the Candle grows so dim and useless , that it seems strange that any could have advantage thereby . The Sun of Righteousness is now risen upon us , and Immortality is brought to light by the Gospel . If we look now on the Revelations granted unto them of old , we may yet see there was light in them , which yields us little more advantage than the light of a Candle in the Sun. But unto them who lived before this Sun arose , they were a sufficient Guide unto all Duties of Faith and Obedience . For 3. There was during this season a sufficient Ministry , for the declaration of the Revelations , which God made of Himself and his Will. There was the natural Ministry of Parents , who were obliged to instruct their Children and Families in the knowledge of the Truth which they had received . And whereas this began in Adam , who first received the Promise , and therewithal whatsoever was necessary unto Faith and Obedience ; the knowledg of it could not be lost without the wilful neglect of Parents in teaching , or of Children and Families in learning . And they had the extraordinary Ministry of such as God entrusted new Revelations withal , for the confirmation and inlargment of those before received , who were all of them Preachers of Righteousness unto the rest of Mankind . And it may be manifested , that from the giving of the first Promise , when divine external Revelations began to be the Rule of Faith and Life unto the Church , to the writing of the Law ; there was always alive one or other , who receiving divine Revelations immediatly , were a kind of infallible Guides unto others . If it was otherwise at any time , it was after the death of the Patriarks , before the Call of Moses , during which time , all things went into Darkness and Confusion . For oral Tradition alone would not preserve the Truth of former Revelations . But by whom these Instructions were received , they had a sufficient outward means for their Illumination , before any divine Revelations were recorded by Writing . Yet , 4. This way of Instruction , as it was in it self imperfect , and liable to many disadvantages , so through the weakness , negligence and wickedness of men , it proved insufficient to retain the knowledg of God in the World. For under this Dispensation the Generality of Mankind fell into their great Apostacy from God , and betook themselves unto the conduct and service of the Devil ; of the ways , means , and degrees whereof I have discoursed* elsewhere . Hereon God also regarded them not , but suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways , Acts 14. 16. giving them up to their own hearts lusts to walk in their own Counsels ; as it is expressed , Psal. 81. 12. And although this fell not out without the horrible wickedness and ingratitude of the World ; yet there being then no certain Standard of divine Truth , whereunto they might repair , they brake off the easier from God through the imperfection of this Dispensation . If it shall be said , that since the Revelation of the Will of God hath been committed unto Writing , men have Apostatized from the Knowledge of God , as is evident in many Nations of the World , which sometimes professed the Gospel , but are now over-run with Heathenism , Mahometism , and Idolatry : I say , this hath not come to pass through any defect in the way and means of Illumination , or the Communication of the Truth unto them ; but God hath given them up to be destroyed for their wickedness and ingratitude , and unless we repent , we shall all likewise perish , Rom. 1. 18. 2 Thes. 2. 11 , 12. Otherwise where the Standard of the Word is once fixed , there is a constant means of preserving divine Revelations . Wherefore , Thirdly , God hath gathered up into the Scripture all divine Revelations given out by himself from the beginning of the World , and all that ever shall be so to the end thereof , which are of general use unto the Church , that it may be throughly instructed in the whole mind and will of God , and directed in all that Worship of Him , and Obedience unto Him , which is necessary to give us acceptance with Him here , and to bring us unto the eternal enjoyment of him hereafter . For ( 1. ) When God first committed the Law to writing , with all those things which accompanied it , he obliged the Church unto the use of it alone , without Additions of any kind . Now this he would not have done , had he not expressed therein , that is the Books of Moses , all that was any way needful unto the Faith and Obedience of the Church . For he did not only command them to attend with all diligence unto his Word , as it was then written for their instruction and direction in Faith and Obedience , annexing all sorts of Promises unto their so doing , Deut. 6. 6 , 7. but also expresly forbids them , as was said , to add any thing thereunto , or to conjoyn any thing therewith , Deut. 4. 2. chap. 12 , 32. which he would not have done , had he omitted other divine Revelations , before given , that were any way necessary unto the use of the Church . As he added many new Ones , so he gathered in all the old from the unfaithful Repository of Tradition , and fixed them in a Writing , given by divine Inspiration . ( 2. ) For all other divine Revelations , which were given out to the Church , for its use in general under the Old Testament , they are all comprised in the following Books thereof ; Nor was this ( that I know of ) ever questioned by any Person pretending to Sobriety ; though some , who would be glad of any pretence against the Integrity and Perfection of the Scripture , have fruitlesly wrangled about the loss of some Books , which they can never prove concerning any one , that was certainly of a divine Original . ( 3. ) The full Revelation of the whole mind of God , whereunto nothing pretending thereunto is ever to be added , was committed unto , and perfected by Jesus Christ , Heb. 1. 1 , 2. That the Revelations of God , made by him , whether in his own Person , or by his Spirit unto his Apostles , were also by divine Inspiration committed to Writing , is expressly affirmed concerning what he delivered in his own personal Ministry , Luk. 1. 4. Acts 1. 1. John 20. 31. and may be proved by uncontroulable Arguments concerning the rest of them . Hence , as the Scriptures of the old Testament were shut up with a Caution and Admonition unto the Church , to adhere unto the Law and Testimony , with threatning of a Curse unto the contrary , Mal. 4. 4 , 5 , 6. So the Writings of the New Testament are closed with a Curse on any that shall presume to add any thing more thereunto , Rev. 22. 18. Wherefore , Fourthly , The Scripture is now become the only external means of divine supernatural Illumination , because 't is the only Repository of all divine supernatural Revelation , Psal. 19. 7 , 8. Isa. 8. 20. 2 Tim. 3. 15 , 16 , 17. The Pretences of Tradition , as a collateral means of preserving and communicating supernatural Revelation , have been so often evicted of falsity , that I shall not further press their impeachment . Besides , I intend those in this Discourse by whom it is acknowledged , that the Bible is , as a sufficient and perfect , so the only Treasury of divine Revelations : And what hath been offered by any to weaken or impair its esteem , by taking off from its credibility , perfection and sufficiency as unto all its own proper ends , hath brought no advantage unto the Church , nor benefit unto the Faith of Believers . But yet , Fifthly , In asserting the Scripture to be the only external means of divine Revelation , I do it not exclusively unto those Institutions of God which are subordinate unto it , and appointed as means to make it effectual unto our souls , As 1. Our own personal endeavours in reading , studying and meditating on the Scripture , that we my come unto a right Apprehension of the things contained in it , are required unto this purpose . It is known to all , how frequently this Duty is pressed upon us , and what Promises are annexed to the performance of it ; see Deut. 6. 6 , 7. chap. 11. 18 , 19. Josh. 1. 8. Psal. 1. 2. Psal. 119. Col. 3. 16. 2 Tim. 3. 15. Without this it is in vain to expect Illumination by the Word . And therefore we may see multitudes living and walking in extreme darkness , when yet the Word is every-where nigh unto them ; Bread , which is the Staff of life , will yet nourish no man who doth not provide it , and feed upon it ; no more would Manna , unless it was gathered and prepared . Our own Natures , and the Nature of divine Revelations considered , and what is necessary for the application of the one to the other , makes this evident . For God will instruct us in his mind and will , as we are men , in and by the rational faculties of our souls . Nor is an external Revelation capable of making any other impression on us , but what is so received . Wherefore , when I say , that the Scripture is the only external means of our Illumination , I include therein all our own personal endeavours to come to the knowledge of the mind of God therein , which shall be afterwards spoken unto . And those , who under any pretences do keep , drive , or perswade men from reading and meditating on the Scripture , do take an effectual course to keep them in and under the power of Darkness . 2. The mutual Instruction of one another in the mind of God out of the Scripture , is also required hereunto . For we are obliged by the Law of Nature to endeavour the good of others in various degrees , as our Children , our Families , our Neighbours , and all with whom we have Conversation . And this is the principal Good absolutely considered , that we can communicate unto others , namely , to instruct them in the knowledge of the mind of God. This whole Duty in all the Degrees of it is represented in that Command , Thou shalt teach my Words diligently unto thy Children , and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house , and when thou walkest by the way , and when thou lyest down , and when thou risest up . Deut. 6. 7. Thus when our Saviour found his Disciples talking of the things of God by the way side , he bearing unto them the person of a private man , instructed them in the sense of the Scripture , Luk. 24. 26 , 27 , 32. And the neglect of this Duty in the World , which is so great that the very mention of it , or the least attempt to perform it , is a matter of scorn and reproach , is one cause of the great ignorance & darkness , which yet abounds among us . But the nakedness of this folly , whereby men would be esteemed Christians in the open contempt of all Duties of Christianity , will in due time be laid open . 3. The Ministry of the Word in the Church is that which is principally included in this Assertion . The Scripture is the only means of Illumination , but it becometh so principally by the application of it unto the minds of men in the Ministry of the Word , see Mat. 5. 14 , 15. 2 Cor. 5. 18 , 19 , 20. Eph. 4. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15. 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Church , and the Ministry of it , are the Ordinances of God unto this end , that his Mind and Will as revealed in the Word , may be made known to the Children of Men , whereby they are enlightned . And that Church and Ministry , whereof this is not the first principal design and work , is neither appointed of God , nor approved by him . Men will one day find themselves deceived in trusting to empty Names , it is Duty alone , that will be Comfort and Reward , Dan. 12. 3. Sixthly , That the Scripture , which thus contains the whole of divine Revelation , may be a sufficient external cause of Illumination unto us , two things are required . 1. That we believe it to be a divine Revelation , that is the Word of God , or a Declaration of Himself , his Mind and Will , immediatly proceeding from Him ; or that it is of a pure divine Original , proceeding neither from the folly or deceit , nor from the skill or honesty of men ; so is it stated , 2 Pet. 1. 19 , 20 , 21. Heb. 1. 1. 2 Tim. 3. 16. Isa. 8. 20. It tenders no light or instruction under any other notion , but as it comes immediatly from God ; not as the Word of Man , but as it is indeed the Word of the Living God , 1 Thes. 2. 13. And what ever any one may learn from or by the Scriptures under any other consideration , it belongeth not unto the Illumination we enquire after . Nehem. 8. 8. Isa. 28. 9. Hos. 14. 9. Prov. 1. 6. Psal. 119. 34 : Mat. 15. 16. 2 Tim. 2. 7. 1 John 5. 20. 2. That we understand the things declared in it , or the Mind of God as revealed and expressed therein . For if it be given unto us a sealed Book , which we cannot read , either because it is sealed , or because we are ignorant and cannot read , whatever Visions or means of Light it hath in it , we shall have no advantage thereby , Isa. 29. 11 , 12. It is not the Words themselves of the Scripture only , but our understanding them that gives us light , Psal. 119. 130. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , — the opening the Door , the entrance of thy Word giveth light . It must be opened , or it will not enlighten . So the Disciples understood not the Testimonies of the Scripture concerning the Lord Christ , they were not enlightned by them , until he expounded them unto them , Luk. 24. 27 , 45. As we have the same instance in the Eunuch and Philip , Acts 8. 31 , 35 , 36. To this very day the Nation of the Jews have the Scriptures of the old Testament , and the outward Letter of them in such esteem and veneration , that they even adore and worship them , yet are they not enlightned by it . And the same is fallen out among many that are called Christians , or they could never embrace such foolish opinions , and practise such Idolatries in worship as some of them do , who yet enjoy the Letter of the Gospel . And this brings me to my design , which we have been thus far making way unto ; and it is to shew that both these are from the Holy Ghost ; namely that we truly believe the Scripture to be the Word of God ; and that we understand savingly the mind of God therein , both which belong unto our Illumination . That which I shall first enquire into , is , the way how , and the ground whereon we come to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God in a due manner . For that this is required of us in a way of duty , namely , that we should believe the Scripture to be the Word of God with Faith Divine and Supernatural , I suppose will not be denyed , and it shall be afterwards proved . And what is the work of the Spirit of God herein , will be our first enquiry . Secondly , Whereas we see by experience , that all who have or enjoy the Scripture , do not yet understand it , or come to an useful saving Knowledg of the Mind and Will of God therein revealed ; our other enquiry shall be , how we may come to understand the Word of God aright , and what is the work of the Spirit of God in the assistance which he affordeth us unto that purpose . With respect unto the first of these Enquiries , whereunto the present discourse is singly designed , I affirm that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , or the supernatural immediate Revelation of his mind unto us , and infallibly to evidence it unto our minds , so as that we may spiritually and savingly acquiesce therein . Some upon a mistake of this Proposition do seem to suppose that we resolve all Faith into private suggestions of the Spirit , or deluding pretences thereof ; and some ( it may be ) will be ready to apprehend that we confound the efficient Cause , and formal Reason of Faith or believing , rendring all rational Arguments and external Testimonies useless . But indeed there neither is nor shall be any occasion administred unto these fears or imaginations . For we shall plead nothing in this matter but what is consonant to the Faith and Judgment of the Ancient and present Church of God , as shall be fully evidenced in our progress . I know some have found out other ways whereby the minds of men as they suppose may be sufficiently satisfied in the Divine Authority of the Scripture . But I have tasted of their new Wine and desire it not , because I know the Old to be better , though what they plead is of use in its proper place . My Design requires that I should confine my discourse unto as narrow bounds as possible , and I shall so do ; shewing , 1. What it is in general , infallibly to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , and what is the Ground and Reason of our so doing ? Or , what it is to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , as we are required to believe it so to be in a way of Duty . 2. That there are external Arguments of the divine Original of the Scripture , which are effectual Motives to perswade us to give an unfeigned assent thereunto . 3. That yet moreover God requires of us , that we believe them to be his Word with Faith divine , supernatural , and infallible . 4. Evidence the Grounds and Reasons whereon we do so believe , and ought so to do . Unto these Heads most of what ensues in the first part of this Discourse may be reduced . It is meet that we should clear the Foundation whereon we build , and the Principles whereon we do proceed ; that what we design to prove may be the better understood by all sorts of Persons , whose edification we intend . For these things are the equal concernment of the learned and unlearned . Wherefore some things must be insisted on , which are generally known and granted . And our first Enquiry is , What it is to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God with Faith divine and supernatural , according as it is our duty so to do . And in our Believing or our Faith , two things are to be considered . ( 1. ) What it is that we do believe . And ( 2. ) Wherefore we do so believe it ? The first is the material Object of our Faith , namely , the things which we do believe ; the latter the formal Object of it , or the Cause and Reason why we do believe them ; and these things are distinct . The Material Object of our Faith , is the things revealed in the Scripture , declared unto us in propositions of Truth . For things must be so proposed unto us , or we cannot believe them . That God is one in three Persons , that Jesus Christ is the Son of God , and the like propositions of Truth , are the material Object of our Faith , or the things that we do believe ; And the Reason why we do believe them , is , because they are proposed in the Scripture . Thus the Apostle expresseth the whole of what we intend , 1 Cor. 15. 3 , 4. I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received , how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures , and that he was buried , and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures . Christs Death and Burial and Resurrection are the things proposed unto us to be believed , and so the Object of our Faith. But the Reason why we believe them is , because they are declared in the Scriptures , see Acts 8. 28 , 29 , 30. Sometimes indeed this Expression of believing the Scriptures by a Metonymy , denotes both the formal and material Objects of our Faith , the Scriptures themselves as such , and the things contained in them , so John 2. 22. They believed the Scripture and the Word that Jesus said , or the things delivered in the Scripture , and further declared by Christ , which before they understood not . And they did so believe what was declared in the Scriptures , because it was so declared in them ; both are intended in the same Expression , they believed the Scripture , under various considerations , so Acts 26. 27. The material Object of our Faith therefore are the Articles of our Creed , by whose Enumeration we answer unto that question , what we believe ? giving an account of the hope that is in us , as the Apostle doth , Acts 26. 22 , 23. But if moreover we are asked a Reason of our Faith or Hope , or why we believe the things we do profess , as God to be One in three Persons , Jesus Christ to be the Son of God ? we do not answer , because so it is , for this is that which we believe , which were senseless . But we must give some other Answer unto that Enquiry , whether it be made by others or our selves . The proper Answer unto this Question contains the formal Reason and Object of our Faith , that which it rests upon and is resolved into . And this is that which we look after . 2. We do not in this Enquiry intend any kind of Perswasion or Faith but that which is divine and infallible , both which it is from its formal Reason or objective Cause . Men may be able to give some kind of Reasons , why they believe what they profess so to do , that will not suffice or abide the trial in this case , although they themselves may rest in them . Some it may be can give no other Account hereof , but that they have been so instructed by them whom they have sufficient reason to give credit unto ; or that they have so received them by Tradition from their Fathers . Now whatever Perswasion these Reasons may beget in the minds of men , that the things which they profess to believe are true , yet if they are alone , it is not divine Faith whereby they do believe , but that which is meerly humane , as being resolved into humane Testimony only , or an Opinion on probable Arguments ; for no Faith can be of any other kind , than is the Evidence it reflects on , or ariseth from . I say , it is so where they are alone : for I doubt not but that some who have never further considered the reason of their believing than the teaching of their Instructors , have yet that Evidence in their own souls of the Truth and Authority of God in what they believe , that with respect thereunto their Faith is divine and supernatural . The Faith of most hath a beginning and progress not unlike that of the Samaritans , John 4. 40 , 41 , 42. as shall be afterwards declared . 3. When we enquire after Faith that is infallible , or believing infallibly , which , as we shall shew hereafter , is necessary in this case , we do not intend an inherent quality in the Subject , as though he that believes with Faith infallible must himself also be infallible ; much less do we speak of Infallibility absolutely , which is a property of God , who alone from the perfection of his Nature can neither deceive nor be deceived . But it is that Property or Adjunct of the Assent of our Minds unto divine Truths or supernatural Revelations , whereby it is differenced from all other kinds of Assent whatever . And this it hath from its formal Object , or the Evidence whereon we give this Assent . For the nature of every Assent is given unto it by the nature of the Evidence which it proceedeth from , or relyeth on . This in divine Faith is divine Revelation , which being infallible , renders the Faith that rests on it , and is resolved into it , infallible also . No man can believe that which is false , or which may be false , with divine Faith , for that which renders it divine , is the divine Truth and Infallibility of the Ground and Evidence which it is built upon . But a man may believe that which is true , infallibly so , and yet his Faith not be infallible ; That the Scripture is the Word of God is infallibly true , yet the Faith whereby a man believes it so to be , may be fallible , for it is such as his Evidence is , and no other ; He may believe it to be so on Tradition , or the Testimony of the Church of Rome only , or on outward Arguments , all which being fallible , his Faith is so also , although the things he assents unto be infallibly true . Wherefore unto this Faith divine and infallible , it is not required that the Person in whom it is , be infallible ; nor is it enough that the thing it self believed be infallibly true , but moreover that the Evidence whereon he doth believe it be infallible also . So it was with them who received divine Revelations immediately from God : It was not enough that the things revealed unto them were infallibly true , but they were to have infallible Evidence of the Revelation it self ; then was their Faith infallible , though their persons were fallible . With this Faith then a man can believe nothing but what is divinely true , and therefore it is infallible ; and the reason is , because Gods Veracity , who is the God of Truth , is the only Object of it ; Hence saith the Prophet , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 2 Chron. 20. 20. Believe in the Lord your God , and you shall be established ; or that Faith which is in God and his Word is fixed on Truth , or is infallible . Hence the Enquiry in this case is , what is the Reason why we believe any thing with this faith divine or supernatural ? or what it is the believing whereof makes our Faith divine , infallible and supernatural ? Wherefore , 4. The Authority and Veracity of God revealing the material Objects of our Faith , or what it is our Duty to believe , is the formal Object and Reason of our Faith , from whence it ariseth and whereinto it is ultimately resolved . That is , the only Reason why we do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God , that God is one single Essence subsisting in three Persons , is because that God who is Truth , the God of Truth , Deut. 32. 4. who cannot lye , Tit. 1. 2. and whose Word is Truth . John 17. 17. and the Spirit which gave it out is Truth , 1 John 5 6. hath revealed these things to be so ; and our believing these things on that ground renders our Faith divine and supernatural . Supposing also a Respect unto the subjective Efficiency of the Holy Ghost , inspiring it into our minds , whereof afterwards . For to speak distinctly , our Faith is supernatural , with respect unto the production of it in our minds by the Holy Ghost ; and infallible , with respect unto the formal Reason of it , which is divine Revelation ; and is divine , in opposition unto what is meerly humane on both accounts . As things are proposed unto us to be believed as true , Faith in its Assent respects only the Truth or Veracity of God ; but whereas this Faith is required of us in a way of Obedience , and is considered not only physically in its nature , but morally also as our Duty , it respects also the Authority of God , which I therefore joyn with the Truth of God , as the formal Reason of our Faith , see 2 Sam. 7. 28. And these things the Scripture pleads and and argues , when Faith is required of us in the way of Obedience . Thus saith the Lord , is that which is proposed unto us as the Reason why we should believe what is spoken , whereunto often times other divine Names and Titles are added , signifying his Authority who requires us to believe ; Thus saith the Lord God , the Holy One of Israel , Isa. 30. 15. Thus saith the High and Lofty One , who inhabiteth Eternity , whose Name is Holy , Isa. 57. 15. Believe the Lord your God , 2 Chron. 20. 20. The Word of the Lord precedeth most Revelations in the Prophets , and other Reason why we should believe , the Scripture proposeth none , Heb. 1. 1 , 2. yea the Interposition of any other Authority between the things to be believed and our Souls and Consciences , besides the Authority of God , overthrows the nature of divine Faith ; I do not say , the Interposition of any other means whereby we should believe , of which sort God hath appointed many , but the interposition of anyother Authority , upon which we should believe , as that pretended in and by the Church of Rome . No men can be Lords of our Faith , though they may be helpers of our Joy. 5. The Authority and Truth of God , considered in themselves absolutely , are not the immediate formal Object of our Faith , though they are the ultimate whereinto it is resolved . For we can believe nothing on their Account unless it be evidenced unto us ; and this Evidence of them is in that Revelation which God is pleased to make of himself ; for that is the only means whereby our Consciences and Minds are affected with his Truth and Authority . We do therefore no otherwise rest on the Truth and Veracity of God in any thing than we rest on the Revelation which he makes unto us , for that is the only way whereby we are affected with them ; Not the Lord is true absolutely , but , Thus saith the Lord , and the Lord hath spoken , is that which we have immediate regard unto . Hereby alone are our minds affected with the Authority and Veracity of God , and by what way soever it is made unto us , it is sufficient and able so to affect us . At first , as hath been shewed , it was given immediately to some Persons , and preserved for the use of others , in an oral Ministry ; but now all Revelation , as hath also been declared , is contained in the Scriptures only . 6. It follows that our Faith whereby we believe any divine supernatural Truth , is resolved into the Scripture , as the only means of divine Revelation , affecting our Minds and Consciences with the Authority and Truth of God ; or the Scripture , as the only immediate , divine , infallible Revelation of the Mind and Will of God , is the first immediate formal Object of our Faith , the sole Reason why , and ground whereon we do believe the things that are revealed , with Faith Divine , Supernatural and Infallible . We do believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. Why do we so do , on what ground or reason ? It is because of the Authority of God commanding us so to do , and the Truth of God testifying thereunto . But how or by what means are our Minds and Consciences affected with the Authority and Truth of God , so as to believe with respect unto them , which makes our Faith Divine and Supernatural ? It is alone the Divine , Supernatural , Infallible Revelation that he hath made of this sacred Truth , and of his Will , that we should believe it . But what is this Revelation , or where is it to be found ? It is the Scripture alone which contains the entire Revelation that God hath made of himself in all things which he will have us to believe or do . Hence , 7. The last Enquiry ariseth , how , or on what ground , for what Reasons do we believe the Scripture to be a divine Revelation proceeding immediately from God ; or to be that Word of God which is Truth divine and infallible ? Whereunto we answer , it is solely on the Evidence that the Spirit of God in and by the Scripture it self , gives unto us that it was given by immediate Inspiration from God. Or the Ground and Reason whereon we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , are the Authority and Truth of God evidencing themselves in and by it unto the Minds and Consciences of Men. Hereon as whatever we assent unto as proposed in the Scripture , our Faith rests on and is resolved into the Veracity and Faithfulness of God , so is it also in this of believing the Scripture it self to be the infallible Word of God , seeing we do it on no other Grounds but its own Evidence that so it is . This is that which is principally to be proved , and therefore to prepare for it , and to remove prejudices , something is to be spoken to prepare the way thereunto . 1. There are sundry cogent Arguments which are taken from External considerations of the Scripture , that evince it on rational Grounds to be from God. All these are motives of credibility , or effectual perswasives to account and esteem it to be the Word of God. And although they neither are , nor is it possible they ever should be , the Ground and Reason whereon we believe it so to be with Faith Divine and Supernatural ; yet are they necessary unto the confirmation of our Faith herein against Temptations , Oppositions , and Objections . These Arguments have been pleaded by many and that usefully , and therefore it is not needful for me to insist upon them . And they are the same for the substance of them in antient and modern Writers , however managed by some with more Learning , Dexterity , and force of Reasoning than by others . It may not be expected therefore that in this short discourse , designed unto another purpose , I should give them much improvement . However I shall a little touch on those which seem to be most cogent , and that in them wherein in my Apprehention their strength doth lye . And I shall do this to manifest that although we plead that no Man can believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God with Faith Divine , Supernatural and Infallible , but upon its own internal Divine Evidence and Efficacy , yet we allow and make use of all those external Arguments of its sacred Truth and divine Original which are pleaded by others , ascribing unto them as much weight and cogency as they can do , acknowledging the perswasion which they beget and effect to be as firm as they can pretend it to be . Only we do not judg them to contain the whole of the Evidence which we have for Faith to rest in , or to be resolved into ; yea not that at all , which renders it Divine , Supernatural , and Infallible . The Rational Arguments we say which are , or may be used in this matter , with the humane Testimonies whereby they are corroborated , may and ought to be made use of and insisted on ; And it is but vainly pretended that their use is superseded by our other Assertions ; as though where Faith is required , all the subservient use of Reason were absolutely discarded , and our Faith thereby rendred irrational ; And the assent unto the divine Original and Authority of the Scriptures , which the mind ought to give upon them , we grant to be of as high a nature as is pretended to be , namely , a moral certainty . Moreover , the Conclusion which unprejudiced Reason will make upon these Arguments , is more firm , better grounded , and more pleadable , than that which is built meerly on the sole Authority of any Church whatever . But this we assert , that there is an assent of another kind , unto the divine Original and Authority of the Scriptures required of us ; namely , that of Faith divine and supernatural . Of this none will say that it can be effected by , or resolved into the best and most cogent of rational Arguments and external Testimonies , which are absolutely humane and fallible . For it doth imply a contradiction to believe infallibly upon fallible evidence . Wherefore I shall prove , that beyond all these Arguments and their effect upon our minds , there is an Assent unto the Scripture as the Word of God required of us with Faith divine , Supernatural and Infallible ; and therefore there must be a divine Evidence which is the Formal Object and Reason of it , which alone it rests on , and is resolved into , which shall also be declared and proved . But yet , as was said in the first place , because their property is to level the ground , and to remove the rubbish of Objections out of the way , that we may build the safer on the sure Foundation , I shall mention some of those which I esteem justly pleadable in this cause . And , 1. The Antiquity of these Writings , and of the divine Revelation contained in them , is pleaded in Evidence of their divine Original . And it may be so deservedly . For where it is absolute , it is unquestionable : that which is most antient in any kind is most true ; God himself makes use of this plea against Idols , Isa. 43. 10 , 11 , 12. Ye are my witnesses saith the Lord , I even I , am the Lord , and besides me there is no Saviour ; I have declared and have saved , and I have shewed when there was no strange God amongst you : therefore ye are my witnesses , saith the Lord , that I am God. That which he asserts is , that he alone is God , and no other . This he calls the people to testify by this Argument , that he was among them as God , that is , in the Church , before any strange God was known or named . And so it is justly pleaded in the behalf of this Revelation of the Mind of God in the Scripture ; it was in the World long before any other thing or writing pretended to be given unto the same end . Whatever therefore ensued with the like design , must either be set up in competition with it , or opposition unto it , above which it hath its advantage meerly from its Antiquity . Whereas therefore this Writing in the first books of it , is acknowledged to be antienter than any other that is extant in the World , or indeed that ever was so , and may be proved so to be : it is beyond all reasonable apprehension that it should be of humane Original . For we know how low , weak , and imperfect all humane Inventions were at the first , how rude and unpolished in every kind , until Time , Observation , following Additions and Diminutions had shaped , formed , and improved them . But this Writing coming forth in the World , absolutely the first in its kind , directing us in the Knowledg of God and our selves , was at first and at once so absolutely compleat and perfect , that no Art , Industry or Wisdom of Man , could ever yet find any just defect in it , or was able to add any thing unto it whereby it might be bettered or improved . Neither from the beginning would it ever admit of any Additions unto it , but what came from the same Fountain of divine Revelation and Inspirarion , clearing it self in all Ages from all addition and superfetation of Men whatever . This at least puts a singular character upon this Book , and represents it with that reverend Awe and Majesty , that it is the highest petulancy not to pay it a sacred respect . This Argument is pursued by many at large , as that which affordeth great variety of Historical and Chronological Observations . And it hath been so scanned and improved , that nothing but the giving of it a new dress remains for present or future Diligence . But the real force of it lies in the consideration of the People , by and amongst whom this Revelation first commenced in the World , and the time wherein it did so . When some Nations had so improved and cultivated the light of Nature as greatly to excel others in Wisdom and Knowledg , they generally looked upon the people of the Jews as ignorant and barbarous . And the more wise any of them conceived themselves , the more they despised them . And indeed they were utter Strangers unto all those Arts and Sciences , whereby the faculties of mens Minds are naturally enlightned and enlarged . Nor did they pretend unto any Wisdom whereby to stand iu competition with other Nations , but only what they receiv'd by divine Revelations . This alone God himself had taught them to look upon & esteem as their only Wisdom before all the World , Deut. 4. 6 , 7 , 8. Now we shall not need to consider what were the first Attempts of other Nations , in expressing their conceptions concerning things Divine , the Duty , and Happiness of Man. The Egyptians and Grecians were those who vied for Reputation in the improvement of this Wisdom . But it is known and confessed that the utmost production of their endeavours , were things foolish , irrational and absurd , contrary to the Being and Providence of God , to the light of Nature , leading mankind into a maze of folly and wickedness . But we may consider what they attained unto in the fulness of time by their utmost improvement of Science , Wisdom , mutual Intelligence , Experience , Communication , laborious Study and Observation . When they had added and subducted to and from the Inventions of all former Ages from Time immemorial , when they had used and improved the Reason , Wisdom , Invention , and Conjectures of all that went before them in the study of this Wisdom , and had discarded whatever they had found by experience unsuited to natural Light and the common Reason of mankind , yet it must be acknowledged that the Apostle passeth a just censure on the utmost of their Attainments , namely , that they waxed vain in their Imaginations , and the World in Wisdom knew not God. Whence then was it that in one Nation , esteemed barbarous , and really so with respect unto that Wisdom those Arts and Sciences which enobled other Nations , from that Antiquity wherein it is not pretended that Reason and Wisdom had received any considerable improvement ; without Converse , Communication , Learning or Experience , there should at once proceed such a Law , Doctrine and Instructions concerning God and Man , so stable , certain , uniform , as should not only incomparably excel all products of humane Wisdom unto that purpose , however advantaged by Time and Experience , but also abide invariable throughout all Generations , so as that whatever hath been advanced in opposition unto it , or but differing from it , hath quickly sunk under the weight of its own unreasonableness and folly ? This one consideration , unless Men have a Mind to be contentious , gives sufficient satisfaction , that this Book could have no other Original , but what it pleads for it self , namely , an immediate Emanation from God. 2. It is apparent that God in all Ages hath had a great Regard unto it , and acted his Power and Care in its preservation . Were not the Bible what it pretends to be , there had been nothing more suitable to the Nature of God , and more becoming divine Providence , then long since to have blotted it out of the World. For to suffer a Book to be in the World , from the beginning of times , falsly pretending his Name and Authority , seducing so great a portion of Mankind into a pernitious and ruinous Apostacy from him , as it must do , and doth , if it be not of a divine Original , and exposing unconceivable multitudes of the best , wisest , and soberest amongst them , unto all sorts of bloody miseries which they have undergone in the behalf of it , seems not consonant unto that infinite Goodness , Wisdom , and care wherewith this World is govern'd from above . But on the contrary , whereas the malitious craft of Satan , and the prevalent power and rage of Mankind , hath combined and been set at work to the ruine and utter Suppression of this Book , proceeding sometimes so far as that there was no appearing way for its escape ; yet through the watchful care and Providence of God , sometimes putting it self forth in miraculous Instances , it hath been preserved unto this day , and shall be so to the consummation of all things . The event of that which was spoken by our Saviour , Matth. 5. 18. doth invincibly prove the divine Approbation of this Book , as that doth its divine Original ; Till Heaven and Earth pass away , one Jot or one Tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law. Gods perpetual care over the Scriptures for so many Ages , that not a letter of it should be utterly lost , nothing that hath the least tendency towards its end should perish , is evidence sufficient of his regard unto it . Especially would it be so , if we should consider with what remarkable Judgments and severe Reflections of Vengeance on its opposers , this care hath been managed , instances whereof might be easily multiplyed . And if any will not ascribe this preservation of the Books of the Bible , not only in their Being , but in their purity and Integrity free from the least just suspition of corruption , or the intermixture of any thing humane or heterogeneous , unto the care of God ; it is incumbent on him to assign some other cause proportionate to such an effect , whilst it was the interest of Heaven , and the Endeavour of the Earth and Hell to have it corrupted and destroyed . For my part I cannot but judg that he that seeth not an hand of divine Providence stretched out in the preservation of this Book , and all that is in it , its Words and Syllables for thousands of years , through all the overthrows and deluges of Calamities that have befallen the World , with the weakness of the means whereby it hath been preserved , and the interest in some Ages of all those in whose power it was to have it corrupted , as it was of the Apostate Churches of the Jews and Christians , with the open opposition that hath been made unto it , doth not believe there is any such thing as divine Providence at all . It was first written in the very infancy of the Babylonian Empire , with which it afterwards contemporized about 900 years . By this Monarchy that people which alone had these Oracles of God committed unto them , were oppressed , destroyed , and carried into captivity . But this Book was then preserved amongst them whilst they were absolutely under the power of their Enemies , although it condemned them and all their Gods and Religious Worship , wherewith we know how horribly mankind is inraged . Satan had enthroned himself as the Object of their Worship , and the Author of all ways of divine veneration amongst them . These they adhered unto as their principal interest , as all People do unto that they esteem their Religion . In the whole World there was nothing that judged , condemned , opposed him or them , but this Book only , which was now absolutely in their power . If that by any means could have been destroyed , then when it was in the hands but of a few , and those for the most part flagitious in their lives , hating the things contained in it , and wholly under the power of their Adversaries , the Interest of Satan , and the whole World in Idolatry , had been secured . But through the meer provision of divine care it out-lived that Monarchy , and saw the ruine of its greatest Adversaries . So it did also during the continuance of the Persian Monarchy which succeeded , whilst the people was still under the power of Idolaters , against whom this was the only Testimony in the World. By some branches of the Grecian Monarchy a most fierce and diligent attempt was made to have utterly destroyed it ; but still it was snatched by divine Power out of the Furnace , not one hair of it being singed , or the least detriment brought unto its perfection . The Romans destroyed both the people and place designed until then for its preservation , carrying the antient coppy of the Law in triumph to Rome on the conquest of Jerusalem ; And whilst all absolute power and dominion in the whole World , where this Book was known or heard of , was in their hands , they exercised a rage against it for sundry Ages , with the same success that former enemies had . From the very first ; all the Endeavours of Mankind that professed an open enmity against it have been utterly frustrate . And whereas also those unto whom it was outwardly committed , as the Jews first , and the Antichristian Church of Apostatized Christians afterwards , not only fell into Opinions and Practices absolutely inconsistent with it , but also built all their present and future Interests on those Opinions and Practices ; yet none of them durst ever attempt the corrupting of one Line in it , but were forced to attempt their own Security , by a pretence of Additional Traditions , and keeping the Book it self , as much as they durst , out of the hands and knowledge of all not engaged in the same Interest with themselves . Whence could all this proceed but from the watchful Care and Power of divine Providence ? And it is bruitish folly not to believe , that what God doth so protect did originally proceed from Himself , seeing it pleads and pretends so to do : For every wise Man will take more Care of a Stranger , than a Bastard falsly imposed on him unto his Dishonour . 3. The Design of the whole and all the parts of it hath an impress on it of divine Wisdom and Authority . And hereof there are two parts , First , to reveal God unto men , and Secondly , to direct men to come unto the enjoyment of God. That these are the only two great Concerns of our nature , of any rational Being , were easy to prove , but that it is acknowledged by all those with whom I treat . Now never did any Book or Writing in the World , any single or joynt endeavours of mankind , or invisible Spirits , in the way of Authority , give out a Law , Rule , Guide , and Light for all mankind universally in both these , namely , the Knowledge of God , and our selves , but this Book only ; and if any other , it may be , like the Alcoran , did pretend in the least thereunto , it quickly discovered its own folly , and exposed it self to the contempt of all wise and considerate men . The only Question is , how it hath discharged it self in this Design ? for if it hath compleatly and perfectly accomplished it , it is not only evident that it must be from God , but also that it is the greatest Benefit and Kindness , that divine Benignity and Goodness ever granted unto Mankind ; for without it all men universally must necessarily wander in an endless Maze of uncertainties , without ever attaining Light , Rest , or Blessedness , here or hereafter . Wherefore , 1. As it takes on it self to speak in the Name and Authority of God , and delivers nothing , commands nothing , but what becomes his infinite Holiness , Wisdom , and Goodness ; so it makes that Declaration of him in his Nature , Being , and Subsistence , with the necessary Properties and Acts thereof , his Will , with all his voluntary Actings or Works , wherein we may be or are concerned , so as that we may know him aright , and entertain true Notions and Apprehensions of him , according to the utmost capacity of our finite , limited Understanding . Neither do we urge his Authority in this case , but here and elsewhere resort unto the Evidence of his Reasonings compared with the Event or Matter of Fact. What horrible Darkness , Ignorance and Blindness was upon the whole World with respect unto the Knowledge of God ? what confusion and debasement of our Nature ensued thereon , whilst God suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways , and winked at the times of their Ignorance , the Apostle declares at large , Rom. 1. from the 19th verse to the end of the Chapter . The Sum is , That the only true God being become unknown to them , as the wisest of them acknowledged , Acts 17. 21. and as our Apostle proved against them ; the Devil that Murderer from the Beginning , and Enemy of Mankind , had under various pretences substituted himself in his Room , and was become the God of this World , as he is called , 2 Cor. 4. 4. and had appropriated all the religious Devotion and Worship of the Generality of Mankind unto himself ; For the things which the Gentiles sacrificed , they sacrificed unto Devils , and not unto God , as our Apostle affirms , 1 Cor. 10. 20. and as may easily be evinced ; and I have abundantly manifested it ‖ elsewhere . It is acknowledged that some few speculative Men among the Heathens did seek after God in that horrid Darkness wherewith they were encompassed , and laboured to reduce their Conceptions and Notions of his Being , unto what Reason could apprehend of infinite Perfections , and what the Works of Creation and Providence could suggest unto them ; but as they could never come unto any certainty or consistency of Notions in their own minds , proceeding but a little beyond Conjecture , as is the manner of them who seek after any thing in the dark , much less with one another , to propose any thing unto the World for the use of Mankind in these things by common consent ; so they could none of them either ever free themselves from the grossest practical Idolatry in worshipping the Devil , the Head of their Apostacy from God ; nor in the least influence the minds of the Generality of Mankind with any due Apprehensions of the divine Nature : This is the Subject and Substance of the Apostles Disputation against them , Rom. 1. In this state of things , what misery and confusion the World lived in for many Ages , what an endless Labyrinth of foolish slavish Superstitions and Idolatries it had cast it self into , I have in another * Discourse particularly declared . With respect hereunto the Scripture is well called by the Apostle Peter , a Light shining in a dark place , 2 Pet. 11. 9. It gives unto all men at once a perfect , clear , steady , uniform Declaration of God , his Being , Subsistence , Properties Authority , Rule and Actings , which evidenceth it self unto the Minds and Consciences of all whom the God of this World hath not absolutely blinded by the power of prejudices and lusts , confirming them in an Enmity unto , and hatred of God himself . There is indeed no more required to free Mankind from this horrible darkness , and enormous conceptions about the Nature of God , and the Worship of Idols , but a sedate unprejudiced Consideration of the Revelation of these things in the Book of the Scripture . We may say therefore to all the World with our Prophet , When they say unto you , Seek unto them who have familiar Spirits , and unto Wizards that peep and mutter ; Should not a people seek unto their God ? for the living , to the dead ? To the Law , and to the Testimony ; if they speak not according to this Word , it is because there is no light in them , Isa. 8. 19 , 20. And this also plainly manifests the Scripture to be of a divine Original . For if this Declaration of God , this Revelation of Himself and his Will , is incomparably the greatest and most excellent Benefit that our Nature is capable of in this World , more needful for , and useful unto Mankind than the Sun in the Firmament , as to the proper end of their Lives and Beings ; and if none of the wisest men in the World neither severally nor joyntly could attain unto themselves , or make known unto others this Knowledge of God , so that we may say with our Apostle , that in the Wisdom of God , the World by Wisdom knew not God , 1 Cor. 1. 21. And whereas those who attempted any such things , yet waxed vain in their Imaginations and Conjectures , so that no one person in the World dares own the Regulation of his Mind and Understanding by their Notions and Conceptions absolutely , although they had all advantages of Wisdom , and the Exercise of Reason above those , at the least the most of them , who wrote and published the Books of the Scripture ; it cannot with any pretence of Reason be questioned whether they were not given by Inspiration from God as they pretend and plead . There is that done in them which all the World could not do , and without the doing whereof all the World must have been eternally miserable , and who could do this but God ? If any one shall judge , that that Ignorance of God , which was among the Heathens of old , or is among the Indians at this day , is not so miserable a matter as we make it ; or that there is any way to free them from it but by an Emanation of Light from the Scripture , he dwells out of my present way upon the Confines of Atheism ; so that I shall not divert unto any Converse with him : I shall only add , That whatever Notions of Truth conc●rning God and his Essence there may be found in those Philosophers who lived after the Preaching of the Gospel in the World , or are at this day to be found among the Mahumetans , or other false Worshippers in the World , above those of the more ancient Pagans , they all derive from the Fountain of the Scripture , and were thence by various means traduced . 2. The second End of this Doctrine is to direct Mankind in their proper Course of living unto God , and attaining that Rest and Blessedness whereof they are capable , and which they cannot but desire . These things are necessary to our Nature , so that without them it were better not to be ; for it is better to have no Being in the World , than whiles we have it always to wander , and never to act towards its proper end , seeing all that is really good unto us consists in our Tendency thereunto , and our Attainment of it . Now as these things were never stated in the minds of the Community of Mankind , but that they lived in perpetual confusion ; so the Enquiries of the Philosophers about the chief end of Man , the Nature of Felicity or Blessedness , the ways of attaining it , are nothing but so many uncertain and fierce Digladiations , wherein not any one Truth is asserted , nor any one Duty prescribed , that is not spoiled and vitiated by its Circumstances and Ends ; besides they never rose up so much as to a Surmise of or about the most important matters of Religion , without which it is demonstrable by reason , that it is impossible we should ever attain the End for which we are made , nor the Blessedness whereof we are capable . No account could they ever give of our Apostacy from God , of the Depravation of our Nature , of the Cause , or necessary Cure of it . In this lost and wandring Condition of Mankind the Scripture presenteth it self as a Light , Rule and Guide unto all , to direct them in their whole Course unto their end , and to bring them unto the enjoyment of God ; and this it doth with that clearness and evidence as to dispel all the Darkness , and put an end unto all the Confusions of the minds of Men , as the Sun with rising doth the shades of the Night , unless they wilfully shut their eyes against it , loving Darkness rather than Light , because their deeds are evil . For all the Confusion of the minds of men to extricate themselves from , whence they found out and immixed themselves in endless Questions to no purpose , arose from their Ignorance of what we were originally , of what we now are , and how we came so to be , by what way or means we may be delivered or relieved , what are the Duties of Life , or what is required of us in order to our living to God as our chiefest end , and wherein the Blessedness of our Nature doth consist : All the World was never able to give an Answer tolerably satisfactory unto any one of these Enquiries , & yet unless they are all infallibly determined , we are not capable of the least Rest or Happiness above the Beasts that perish . But now all these things are so clearly declared and stated in the Scripture , that it comes with an Evidence like a Light from Heaven on the Minds and Consciences of unprejudiced Persons . What was the Condition of our Nature in its first Creation and Constitution , with the Blessedness and Advantage of that Condition ; how we fell from it ; and what was the Cause , what is the Nature , and what the Consequents and Effects of our present Depravation and Apostacy from God ; how Help and Relief is provided for us herein by infinite Wisdom , Grace and Bounty ; what that Help is ; how we may be interested in it , and made partakers of it ; what is that System of Duties , or Course of Obedience unto God which is required of us ; and wherein our eternal Felicity doth consist : are all of them so plainly and clearly revealed in the Scripture , as in general to leave Mankind no ground for Doubt , Enquiry , or Conjecture ; set aside inveterate Prejudices from Tradition , Education , false Notions into the Mould whereof the mind is cast , the Love of Sin , and the Conduct of Lust , which things have an inconceivable power over the Minds , Souls , and Affections of Men ; and the Light of the Scripture in these things is like that of the Sun at Noon-day , which shuts up the way unto all further Enquiry , and efficaciously necessitates unto an Acquiescency in it . And in particular in that Direction which it gives unto the Lives of Men , in order unto that Obedience which they ow to God , and that Reward which they expect from him , there is no instance conceivable of any thing conducing thereunto , which is not prescribed therein , nor of any thing which is contrary unto it that falls not under its Prohibition . Those therefore whose Desire or Interest it is , that the Bounds and Differences of Good and Evil should be unfixed and confounded , who are afraid to know what they were , what they are , or what they shall come unto ; who care to know neither God nor themselves , their Duty nor their Reward , may despise this Book , and deny its divine Original : others will retain a sacred Veneration of it , as of the Off-spring of God. 4. The Testimony of the Church may in like manner be pleaded unto the same purpose : and I shall also insist upon it , partly to manifest wherein its true Nature and Efficacy doth consist , and partly to evince the vanity of the old Pretence , that even we also who are departed from the Church of Rome do receive the Scripture upon the Authority thereof ; whence it is further pretended , that on the same Ground and Reason we ought to receive whatever else it proposeth unto us . 1. The Church is said to be the Ground and Pillar of Truth , 1 Tim. 3. 15. Which is the only Text pleaded with any Sobriety , to give countenance unto the Assertion of the Authority of the Scripture with respect unto us , to depend on the Authority of the Church . But the Weakness of a Plea to that purpose from hence hath been so fully manifested by many already , that it needs no more to be insisted on . In short , it cannot be so the Ground and Pillar of Truth , that the Truth should be as it were built and rest upon it as its Foundation ; for this is directly contrary to the same Apostle , who teacheth us , that the Church it self is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles , Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone , Eph. 2. 20. The Church cannot be the Ground of Truth , and Truth the Ground of the Church in the same sense or kind . Wherefore the Church is the Ground and Pillar of Truth , in that it holds up and declares the Scriptures , and the things contained therein , so to be . 2. In receiving any thing from a Church , we may consider the Authority of it , or its Ministry . By the Authority of the Church in this matter we intend no more but the weight and importance that is in its Testimony , as Testimonies do vary according to the Worth , Gravity , Honesty , Honour , and Reputation of them by whom they are given . For to suppose an Authority , properly so called , in any Church , or all the Churches of the World , whereon our Reception of the Scripture should depend , as that which gives its Authority towards us , and a sufficient Warranty to our Faith , is a nice Imagination : For the Authority and Truth of God stand not in need , nor are capable of any such Attestation from Men ; all they will admit of from the children of Men is , that they do humbly submit unto them , and testify their so doing with the Reasons of it . The Ministry of the Church in this matter is that Duty of the Church , whereby it proposeth and declareth the Scripture to be the Word of God , and that as it hath occasion to all the World. And this Ministry also may be considered either formally , as 't is appointed of God unto this End , and blessed by him ; or materially , only as the thing is done , though the Grounds whereon it is done , and the manner of doing it be not divinely approved . We wholly deny that we receive the Scripture , or ever did , on the Authority of the Church of Rome in any sense whatever , for the Reasons that shall be mentioned immediately . But it may be granted , that together with the Ministry of other Churches in the World , and many other Providential Means of their Preservation , and successive Communication , we did de Facto receive the Scriptures by the Ministry of the Church of Rome also , seeing they also were in the possession of them : But this Ministry we allow only in the latter sense , as an actual means in subserviency unto God's Providence , without respect unto any especial Institution . And for the Authority of the Church in this case , in that sense wherein it is allowed , namely , as denoting the Weight and Importance of a Testimony , which being strengthened by all sorts of Circumstances , may be said to have great Authority in it , we must be careful unto whom or what Church we grant or allow it . For let men assume what Names or Titles to themselves they please , yet if the Generality of them be corrupt or flagitious in their lives , and have great secular Advantages , which they highly prize and studiously improve , from what they suppose and profess the Scripture to supply them withall , be they called Church , or what you please , their Testimony therein is of very little value ; for all men may see that they have an earthly worldly Interest of their own therein . And it will be said , that if such Persons did know the whole Bible to be a Fable ( as one Pope expressed himself to that purpose ) they would not forego the Profession of it , unless they could more advantage themselves in the World another way . Wherefore , whereas it is manifest unto all , that those who have the Conduct of the Roman Church have made and do make to themselves great earthly temporal Advantages , in Honour , Power , Wealth , and Reputation in the World , by their Profession of the Scripture , their Testimony may rationally be supposed to be so far influenced by self interest , as to be of little Validity . The Testimony therefore which I intend , is that of multitudes of persons of unspotted Reput●●ion on all other accounts in the World , free from all possibility of impeachment as unto any designed evil or conspiracy among themselves , with respect unto any corrupt end , and who having not the least secular Advantage by what they testified unto , were absolutely secured against all Exceptions , which either common Reason or common Vsage among Mankind can put in unto any Witness whatever . And to evidence the force that is in this Consideration , I shall briefly represent , ( 1. ) Who they were that gave and do give this Testimony in some especial Instances . ( 2. ) What they gave this Testimony unto . ( 3. ) How or by what means they did so . And in the first place , The Testimony of those by whom the several Books of the Scripture were written , is to be considered : They all of them severally and joyntly witnessed , that what they wrote was received by Inspiration from God. This is pleaded by the Apostle Peter in the Name of them all , 2 Pet. 1. 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21. For we have not followed cunningly devised Fables , when we made known unto you the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ , but were eye witnesses of his Majesty . For he received from God the Father , honour and glory , when there came such a voice to him from the excellent Glory , This is my beloved Son , in whom I am well pleased . And this voice which came from Heaven we heard , when we were with him in the holy Mount. We have also a more sure word of Prophecy , whereunto ye do well that ye take heed , as unto a light that shineth in a dark place , until the day dawn , and the day star arise in your hearts . Knowing this first , that no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation . For the Prophecy came not in old time by the Will of Man : but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost . This is the concurrent Testimony of the Writers both of the Old Testament and the New ; Namely , that as they have certain knowledg of the things they wrote , so their writing was by Inspiration from God. So in particular John beareth witness unto his Revelations , Chap. 19. 9. Chap. 22. 6. These are the true and faithful sayings of God. And what weight is to be laid hereon , is declared ; Joh. 21. 24. This is that Disciple which testifyeth of these things , and wrote these things , and we know that his testimony is true . He testifyed the Truth of what he wrote ; but how was it known to the Church there intended , ( we know that his Testimony is true ) that so it was indeed ? He was not absolutely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or one that was to be believed in meerly on his own account ; yet here it is spoken in the name of the Church with the highest Assurance ; and we know that his Testimony is true . I answer : this assurance of theirs did not arise meerly from his moral or natural endowments or holy Counsels , but from the Evidence they had of his divine Inspiration , Whereof we shall treat afterwards . The things pleaded to give force unto this Testimony in particular , are all that such a Testimony is capable of , and so many as would require a large discourse by it self to propose , discuss , and confirm them . But supposing the Testimony they gave , I shall in compliance whith my own design reduce the Evidences of its Truth unto these two considerations : ( 1. ) of their Persons , and ( 2. ) of the Manner of their Writing . 1. As to their Persons they were absolutely removed from all possible suspition of deceiving or being deceived . The Wit of all the Atheistical Spirits in the World is not able to fix on any one thing , that would be a tolerable ground of any such suspition concerning the integrity of witnesses , could such a Testimony be given in any other case . And surmises in things of this nature which had no pleadable ground for them , are to be looked on as Diabolical suggestions , or Atheistical Dreams , or at best the false Imaginations of weak and distempered Minds . The nature and design of their work , their unconcernment with all secular interests , their unacquaintance with one another , the Times and Places wherein the things reported by them were done and acted , the facility of convincing them of falshood , if what they wrote in matter of fact , which is the Fountain of what else they taught , in case it were not true , the evident certainty that this would have been done arising from the known Desire , Ability , Will and Interest of their Adversaries so to do , had it been possible to be effected , seeing this would have secured them the Victory in the conflicts wherein they were violently ingaged , and have put an immediate issue unto all that difference and uproar that was in the World about their Doctrine ; their Harmony among themselves without conspiracy or antecedent Agreement , the miseries which they underwent , most of them without hope of releif or recompence in this World , upon the Sole Account of the Doctrine taught by themselves , with all other circumstances innumerable that are pleadable to evince the sincerity and integrity of any witnesses whatever , do all concur to prove that they did not follow cunningly devised Fables in what they declared concerning the Mind and Will of God as immediately from himself . To confront this evidence with bare Surmizes , incapable of any rational Countenance or Confirmation , is only to manifest what bruitish impudence Infidelity and Atheism are forced to retreat unto for shelter . 2. Their Stile and Manner of Writing deserves a peculiar consideration . For there are impressed on it all those Characters of a divine Original , that can be communicated unto such an outward Adjunct of divine Revelation . Notwithstanding the distance of the Ages and Seasons wherein they lived , the difference of the Languages wherein they wrote , with the great variety of their Parts , Abilities , Education and other circumstances , yet there is upon the whole and all the parts of their writing , that Gravity , Majesty , and Authority , mixed with plainness of speech and absolute freedom from all appearance of affectation of esteem or applause , or any things else that derive from humane frailty , as must excite an Admiration in all that seriously consider them . But I have at large * elsewhere insisted on this consideration . And have also in the same place shewed that there is no other writing extant in the world that ever pretended unto a divine Original , as the Apocriphal Books under the Old Testament , and some fragments of spurious pieces pretended to be written in the days of the Apostles , but they are , not only from their matter , but from the manner of their writing , and the plain footsteps of humane Artifice and Weakness therein sufficient for their own conviction , and do openly discover their own vain pretensions . So must every thing necessarily do , which being meerly humane , pretends unto an immediate derivation from God. When men have done all they can , these things will have as evident a difference between them , as there is between Wheat and Chaff , between real and painted Fire , Jer. 23. 28 , 29. 2. Unto the Testimony of the Divine Writers themselves , we must add that of those who in all Ages have believed in Christ through their Word , which is the description which the Lord Jesus Christ giveth of his Church . Joh. 17. 20. This is the Church , that is , those who wrote the Scripture ; and those who believe in Christ through their word through all Ages , which beareth witness to the divine Original of the Scripture , and it may be added , that we know this witness is true . With these I had rather venture my Faith and eternal condition , then with any Society , any real or pretended Church whatever . And among these there is an especial consideration to be had of those innumerable multitudes who in the primitive times witnessed this confession all the World over . For they had many advantages above us , to know the certainty of sundry matters of fact which the verity of our Religion depends upon . And we are directed unto an especial regard of their Testimony , which is signalized by Christ himself . In the great Judgment that is to be passed on the World , the first Appearance is of the Souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus Christ , and for the Word of God. Rev. 20. 4. And there is at present an especial regard unto them in Heaven upon the account of their Witness and Testimony . Rev. 6. 9 , 10 , 11. These were they who with the loss of their lives by the Sword , and other ways of violence gave testimony unto the Truth of the Word of God. And to reduce these things unto a rational consideration , who can have the least occasion to suspect all those persons of folly , weakness , credulity , wickedness , or conspiracy among themselves , which such a diffused multitude was absolutely uncapable of ? Neither can any man undervalue their Testimony , but he must comply with their Adversaries against them , who were known generally to be of the worst of Men. And who is there that believes there is a God , and an eternal future State , that had not rather have his Soul with Paul than Nero , with the Holy Martyrs than their bestial Persecutors ? Wherefore this Suffrage and Testimony , begun from the first writing of the Scripture , and carried on by the best of Men in all Ages , and made conspicuously glorious in the primitive times of Christianity , must needs be with all wise men unavoidably cogent , at least unto a due and sedate consideration of what they bare witness unto , and sufficient to scatter all such prejudices as Atheism or prophaneness may raise or suggest . Secondly ; What it was they gave Testimony unto is duly to be considered . And this was not that the Book of the Scripture was Good , Holy , and True in all the contents of it only , but that the whole and every part of it was given by divine Inspiration , as their Faith in this matter is expressed , 2 Pet. 1. 20 , 21. On this account and no other did they themselves receive the Scripture , as also believe and yeild Obedience unto the things contained in it . Neither would they admit that their Testimony was received , if the whole World would be content to allow of , or obey the Scripture on any other , or lower terms . Nor will God himself allow of an Assent unto the Scripture under any other conception , but as the Word which is immediately spoken by himself . Hence they who refuse to give credit thereunto , are said to bely the Lord , and say it is not he , Jer. 5. 2. Yea to make God a liar ; 1 Joh. 5. 10. If all mankind should agree together to receive and make use of this Book , as that which taught nothing but what is Good , useful , and profitable to humane Society ; as that which is a compleat Directory unto men in all that they need to believe or do towards God , the best means under Heaven to bring them to setlement , satisfaction , and assurance in the Knowledg of God and themselves , as the safest Guide to eternal blessedness , and therefore must needs be written and composed by persons , Wise , Holy , and Honest above all comparison , and such as had that Knowledg of God and his Will as is necessary unto such an undertaking , yet all this answers not the Testimony given by the Church of Believers in all ages unto the Scriptures . It was not lawful for them , it is not for us , so to compound this matter with the World. That the whole Scripture was given by Inspiration from God , that it was his Word , his true and faithful sayings , was that which in the first place they gave Testimony unto , and we also are obliged so to do . They never pretended unto any other Assurance of the things they professed , nor any other Reason of their Faith and Obedience , but that the Scripture wherein all these things are contained was given immediately from God , or was his Word . And therefore they were always esteemed no less Traytors to Christianity who gave up their Bibles to Persecutors than those who denyed Jesus Christ. 3. The manner wherein this Testimony was given , adds to the importance of it . For ( 1. ) Many of them , especially in some seasons , gave it in , and with sundry miraculous operations . This our Apostle pleadeth as a corroboration of the witness given by the first preachers of the Gospel unto the Truths of it ; Heb. 2. 4. as the same was done by all the Apostles together ; Act. 5. 32. It must be granted that these Miracles were not wrought immediately to confirm this single Truth , that the Scripture was given by inspiration of God. But the end of miracles is to be an immediate witness from Heaven , or Gods attestation to their Persons and Ministry by whom they were wrought . His Presence with them , and Approbation of their Doctrine , were publickly declared by them . But the miracles wrought by the Lord Christ and his Apostles , whereby God gave immediate Testimony unto the divine Mission of their Persons , and infallible truth of their Doctrine , might either not have been written as most of them were not , or they might have been written and their doctrine recorded in Books not given by inspiration from God. Besides , as to the miracles wrought by Christ himself , and most of those of the Apostles , they were wrought among them by whom the Books of the Old Testament were acknowledged as the oracles of God , and before the writing of those of the New ; So that they could not be wrought in the immediate confirmation of the one or the other . Neither have we any infallible Testimony concerning these Miracles , but the Scripture it self , wherein they are recorded : whence it is necessary that we should believe the Scripture to be infallibly true before we can believe on grounds infallible the miracles therein recorded to be so . Wherefore I grant that the whole force of this consideration lyeth in this alone , that those who gave Testimony to the Scripture to be the Word of God , had an Attestation given unto their Ministry by these miraculous operations ; concerning which we have good collateral security also . 2. Many of them confirmed their Testimony with their Sufferings , being not only witnesses but Martyrs in the peculiar Church notion of that word , grounded on the Scripture , Act. 22. 20. Rev. 2. 13. Chap. 17. 7. So far were they from any Worldly advantage by the Profession they made , and the Testimony they gave , as that in the confirmation of them they willingly and cheerfully underwent whatever is evil , dreadful , or destructive to humane nature in all its temporary concerns . It is therefore unquestionable that they had the highest Assurance of the Truth in these things which the Mind of Man is capable of . The management of this Argument is the principal design of the Apostle in the whole 11th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews . For having declared the nature of faith in general , namely , that it is the subsistence of things hoped for , and the evidence of things not seen , ver . 1. That is such an ●ssent unto and confidence of invisible things , things capable of no demonstration from Sense or Reason , as respects divine Revelation only , whereinto alone it is resolved : for our encouragement thereunto and establishment therein , he produceth a long Catalogue of those who did , suffered , and obtained great things thereby . That which he principally insists upon is the Hardships , Miseries , Cruelties , Tortures , and several sorts of Deaths which they underwent ; especially from ver . 35. to the end . These he calleth a Cloud of Witnesses wherewith we are compassed about , Chap. 12. 1. giving Testimony unto what we do believe , that is , divine Revelation ; and in an especial manner the promises therein contained , unto our encouragement in the same duty , as he there declares . And certainly what was thus testified unto by so many Great , Wise , and Holy Persons , and that in such a way and manner , hath as great an outward evidence of its Truth , as any thing of that nature is capable of in this World. 3. They gave not their Testimony casually , or on some extraordinary Occasion only , or by some one solemn act , or in some one certain way , as other Testimonies are given nor can be given otherwise ; but they gave their Testimony in this cause , in their whole course , in all that they thought , spake , or did in the World , and in the whole disposal of their ways , lives and actions , as every true Believer continueth to do at this day . For a man when he is occasionally called out to give a verbal Testimony unto the divine original of the Scripture , ordering in the mean time the whole course of his conversation , his hopes , designs , ayms and ends without any eminent respect or regard unto it , his Testimony is of no value , nor can have any influence on the minds of sober and considerate men . But when men do manifest and evince that the Declaration of the mind of God in the Scripture hath a Sovereign divine Authority over their Souls and Consciences absolutely and in all things , then is their Witness cogent and efficacious . There is to me a thousand times more force and weight in the Testimony to this purpose of some holy persons , who universally and in all things with respect unto this World , and their future eternal condition , in all their thoughts , words , actions and ways do really experiment in themselves and express to others , the power and Authority of this Word of God in their Souls and Consciences , living , doing , suffering , and dying in peace , assurance of mind and consolation thereon , then in the verbal declaration of the most splendid numerous Church in the World , who evidence not such an inward sense of its power and Efficacy . There is therefore that force in the real Testimony which hath been given in all Ages , by all this sort of persons , not one excepted , unto the divine Authority of the Scripture , that it is highly arrogant for any one to question the Truth of it , without evident convictions of its imposture , which no person of any tolerable Sobriety did ever yet pretend unto . I shall add in the last place the consideration of that Success which the doctrine derived solely from the Scripture , and resolved thereinto , hath had in the World upon the Minds and Lives of Men , especially upon the first preaching of the Gospel . And two things offer themselves hereon immediately unto our consideration ; First the Persons by whom this doctrine was successfully carried on in the World , and Secondly the Way and Manner of the propagation of it . Both which the Scripture takes notice of in particular , as evidences of that divine power which the Word was really accompanied withal . For the persons unto whom this work was committed , I mean the Apostles and first Evangelists , were , as to their outward condition in the World , Poor , Low , and every way despised ; and as unto the endowments of their minds , destitute of all those Abilities and Advantages which might give them either Reputation or Probability of Success in such an undertaking . This the Jews marked in them with contempt ; Act. 4. 13. And the Gentiles also generally despised them on the same account . As they afforded our Apostle no better title than that of a Babler , Act. 17. 18. So for a long time they kept up the Publick Vogue in the World , that Christianity was the Religion of Ideots and Men Illiterate . But God had another design in this order of things , which our Apostle declares upon an admission of the inconsiderable meanness of them unto whom the dispensation of the Gospel was committed ; 2 Cor. 4. 7. We have this treasure in Earthen Vessels , that the excellency of the power may be of God , and not of us . The Reason why God would make use of such Instruments only in so great a work was , that through their meanness his own glorious power might be more conspicuous . There is nothing more common among men , nor more natural unto them , than to admire the excellencies of those of their own Race and Kind , and a willingness to have all evidences of a divine Supernatural power clouded and hidden from them . If therefore there had been such persons employed as Instruments in this work , whose Powers , Abilities , Qualifications , and Endowments might have been probably pretended as sufficient , and the immediate causes of such an effect , there would have been no observation of the divine power or glory of God. But he who is not able to discern them in the bringing about of so mighty a work by means so disproportionate thereunto , is under the power of the unrelievable prejudices intimated by our Apostle in this case , 2 Cor. 4. 4 , 5 , 7. Secondly , The Means which were to be used unto this end , namely , the subduing of the World unto the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel , so erecting the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ in the minds of men , who before were under the Power and Dominion of his Adversary , must either be Force and Armes ; or Eloquence , in plausible perswasive reasonings . And mighty works have been wrought by the one and the other of them . By the former have Empires been set up and established in the World ; and the superstition of Mahomet imposed on many Nations . And the latter also hath had great effects on the minds of many . Wherefore it might have been expected that those who had engaged themselves in so great a design and work as that mentioned , should betake themselves unto the one or other of these means and ways ; For the Wit of Man cannot contrive any way unto such an end , but what may be reduced unto one of these two ; seeing neither upon the principles of nature , nor on the Rules of humane Wisdom or Policy can any other be imagined . But even both these ways were abandoned by them , and they declared against the use of either of them . For as outward Force , Power , and Authority they had none , the use of all carnal weapons being utterly inconsistent with this Work and Design , so the other way of perswasive Orations , of enticing words , of Alluring Arts and Eloquence , with the like effects of humane Wisdom and Skill , were all of them studiously declined by them in this work , as things extremely prejudicial to the success thereof , 1 Cor. 2. 4 , 5. But this alone , they betook themselves unto ; they went up and down preaching to Jews and Gentiles , that Jesus Christ died for our sins , and rose again according to the Scriptures , 1 Cor. 15. 3 , 4. And this they did by Vertue of those Spiritual Gifts , which were the hidden Powers of the World to come , whose Nature , Virtue and Power others were utterly unacquainted withal . This Preaching of theirs , this Preaching of the Cross , both for the Subject , Matter , and Manner of it , without Art , Eloquence or Oratory , was looked on as a marvellous foolish thing , a sweaty kind of babling , by all those who had got any Reputation of Learning or Cunning amongst men . This our Apostle at large discourseth , 1 Cor. 1. In this State of things , every thing was under as many improbabilities of Success unto all rational Conjectures as can be conceived . Besides , together with the Doctrine of the Gospel that they preached , which was new and uncouth unto the World , they taught Observances of Religious Worship in Meetings , Assemblies , or Conventicles to that end , which all the Laws in the World did prohibit , Acts 18. 13. c. 16. 21. Hereupon no sooner did the Rulers and Governours of the World begin to take notice of them , and what they did , but they judged that it all tended to Sedition , and that Commotions would ensue thereon . These things enraged the Generality of Mankind against them and their Converts , who therefore made havock of them with incredible fury . And yet notwithstanding all these Disadvantages , and against all these Oppositions , their Doctrine prevailed to subdue the World to the Obedience thereof . And there may be added unto all these things one or two Considerations from the State of Things at that time in the World , which signalize the quality of this Work , and manifest it to have been of God. As ( 1. ) That in the New Testament the Writers of it do constantly distribute all those with whom they had to do in this World , into Jews and Greeks , which we render Gentiles , the other Nations of the World coming under that Denomination because of their Preeminence on various Accounts . Now the Jews at that time were in solidum , possessed of all the true Religion that was in the World ; and this they boasted of as their Priviledge , bearing up themselves with the Thoughts and Reputation of it every where and on all occasions ; it being at that time their great Business to gain Proselytes unto it , whereon also their Honour and Advantage did depend . The Greeks on the other side were in as full a possession of Arts , Sciences , Literature , and all that which the World calls Wisdom , as the Jews were of Religion ; and they had also a Religion received by a long Tradition of their Fathers from time immemorial , which they had variously cultivated and dressed with Mysteries and Ceremonies unto their own compleat satisfaction . Besides the Romans , who were the ruling Part of the Gentiles , did ascribe all their Prosperity , and the whole Raising of their stupendous Empire to their Gods , and the religious Worship they gave unto them ; so that it was a fundamental Maxim in their Policy and Rule , that they should prosper or decay , according as they observed or were negligent in the Religion they had received . As indeed not only those who owned the true God and his Providence , but before Idolatry and Superstition had given place unto Atheism , all people did solemnly impute all their Atchievements and Successes unto their Gods , as the Prophet speaks of the Caldeans , Mal. 1. 11. And he who first undertook to record the Exploits of the Nations of the World , doth constantly assign all their Good and Evil unto their Gods , as they were pleased or provoked . The Romans in especial boasted that their Religion was the cause of their Prosperity ; Pietate & Religione atque hâc una Sapientia , quòd Deorum immortalium Numine omnia regi gubernarique prospeximus , omnes Gentes Nationesque superamus , says their great Oracle , Orat. de Har. Resp. And Dionysius of Halicarnassus , a great and wise Historian , giving an account of the Religion of the Romans , and the Ceremonies of their Worship , affirms , that he doth it unto this end , That those who have been ignorant of the Roman Piety , should cease to wonder at their Prosperity and Successes in all their Wars , seeing by reason of their Religion they had the Gods always propitious and succourable unto them . Antiq. Rom. lib. 2. The Consideration hereof made them so obstinate in their Adherence unto their present Religion , that when after many Ages and hundreds of Years , some Books of Numa their second King , and principal Establisher of their Common-Wealth , were occasionally found , instead of paying them any respect , they ordered them to be burnt , because one who had perused them , took his Oath that they were contrary to their present Worship and Devotion . And this was that , which upon the Declension of their Empire after the Prevalency of the Christian Religion , those who were obstinate in their Paganism reflected severely upon the Christians ; the Relinquishment of their old Religion they fiercely avowed to be the Cause of all their Calamities . In answer unto which Calumny principally Austin wrote his excellent Discourse , De Civitate Dei. In this state of things the Preachers of the Gospel come among them , and not only bring a new Doctrine , under all the Disadvantages before mentioned , and moreover that he who was the Head of it was newly crucified by the present powers of the Earth for a Malefactor ; but also such a Doctrine as was expresly to take away the Religion from the Jews , and the Wisdom from the Greeks , and the principal Maxim of Polity from the Romans , whereon they thought they had raised their Empire . It were easy to declare how all those Sects were ingaged in worldly Interest , Honour , Reputation , Principles of Safety , to oppose , decry , condemn , and reject this new Doctrine . And if a Company of sorry Craftsmen were able to fill a whole City with Tumult and Uprore against the Gospel , as they did when they apprehended it would bring in a decay of their Trade , Acts 19. what can we think was done in all the World , by all those who were ingaged and enraged by higher Provocations ? It was as death to the Jews to part with their Religion , both on the account of the Conviction they had of its Truth , and the Honour they esteem'd to accrew to themselves thereby . And for the Greeks to have all that Wisdom , which they and their Forefathers had been labouring in for so many Generations , now to be all rejected as an impertinent Foolery by the sorry Preachments of a few illiterate Persons ; it raised them unto the highest Indignation . And the Romans were wise enough to secure the Fundamental Maxim of their State. Wherefore the World seemed very sufficiently fortified against the Admission of this new and strange Doctrine , on the Terms whereon it was proposed . There can be no Danger sure that ever it should obtain any considerable Progress : But we know that things fell out quite otherwise ; Religion , Wisdom and Power , with Honour , Profit , Interest , Reputation , were forced all to give way to its Power and Efficacy . 2. The World was at that time in the highest Enjoyment of Peace , Prosperity and Plenty , that ever it attained from the entrance of sin ; and it is known how from all these things are usually made Provision for the Flesh , to fulfil the Lusts thereof . Whatever the Pride , Ambition , Covetousness , Sensuality of any Persons could carry them forth to lust after , the World was full of satisfactions for . And most men lived as in the eager pursuit of their Lusts , so in a full supply of what they did require . In this Condition the Gospel is preached unto them , requiring at once , and that indispensibly , a Renunciation of all those worldly Lusts , which before had been the Salt of their Lives . If men designed any Compliance with it , or Interest in it , all their Pride , Ambition , Luxury , Covetousness , Sensuality , Malice , Revenge , must all be mortified and rooted up . Had it only been a new Doctrine and Religion , declaring that Knowledge and Worship of God which they never heard of before , they could not but be very wary in giving it entertainment ; but when withal it required at the first Instant , that for its sake they should pull out their right eyes , and cut off their right hands , to part with all that was dear and useful unto them , and which had such a prevalent Interest in their Minds and Affections , as corrupt Lusts are known to have ; this could not but invincibly fortify them against its Admittance . But yet this also was forced to give place , and all the Fortifications of Satan therein was by the Power of the Word cast to the Ground , as our Apostle expresseth it , 2 Cor. 10. 4 , 5. Where he gives an Account of that Warfare , whereby the World was subdued to Christ by the Gospel . Now a man , that hath a mind to make himself an Instance of conceited Folly and Pride , may talk as though there was in all this no Evidence of divine Power giving Testimony to the Scripture , and the Doctrine contained in it , but the Characters of it are so legible unto every modest and sedate Prospect , that they leave no room for Doubt or Haesitation . But the force of the whole Argument is liable unto one Exception of no small Moment , which must therefore necessarily be taken notice of and removed . For whereas we plead the Power , Efficacy and Prevalency of the Gospel in former days , as a Demonstration of its divine Original , it will be enquired , Whence it is , that it is not still accompanied with the same Power , nor doth produce the same Effects . For we see the Profession of it is now confined to narrow Limits , in comparison of what it formerly extended it self unto ; neither do we find that it gets Ground any where in the World , but is rather more and more straitned every day . Wherefore either the first Prevalency that is asserted unto it , and argued as an Evidence of its Divinity , did indeed proceed from some other accidental Causes in an efficacious though unseen Concurrence , and was not by an Emanation of Power from it self ; or the Gospel is not at present what it was formerly , seeing it hath not the same Effect upon , or Power over the Minds of Men , as that had of old . We may therefore suspend the pleading of this Argument from what was done by the Gospel formerly , lest it reflect disadvantage upon what we profess at present . Answ. 1. Whatever different Events may fall out in different Seasons , yet the Gospel is the same as ever it was from the Beginning . There is not another Book , containing another Doctrine , crept into the World instead of that once delivered unto the Saints . And whatever various Apprehensions men may have through their Weakness or Prejudices concerning the things taught therein , yet are they in themselves absolutely the same that ever they were , and that without the loss or change of a material Word or Syllable in the manner of their Delivery . This I have proved elsewhere , and it is a thing capable of the most evident Demonstration . Wherefore whatever Entertainment this Gospel meets withal at present in the World , its former Prevalency may be pleaded in Justification of its divine Original . 2. The Cause of this Event lyeth principally in the Soveraign Will and Pleasure of God. For although the Scripture be his Word , and he hath testified it so to be by his Power , put forth and exerted in Dispensations of it unto men , yet is not that divine Power included or shut up in the Letter of it , so that it must have the same Effect where ever it comes . We plead not that there is absolutely in its self , its Doctrine , the Preaching or Preachers thereof , such a Power , as it were naturally and physically to produce the Effects mentioned . But it is an Instrument in the Hand of God unto that work which is his own , and he puts forth his Power in it , and by it , as it seems good unto him . And if he doth at any time so put forth his divine Power in the Administration of it , or in the use of this Instrument , as that the great Worth and Excellency of it shall manifest it self to be from him , he giveth a sufficient Attestation of it . Wherefore the Times and Seasons of the Prevalency of the Gospel in the World are in the Hand and at the Sovereign Disposal of God. And as he is not obliged ( for who hath known the Mind of the Lord , or who hath been his Counsellor ? ) to accompany it with the same Power at all times and seasons ; so the Evidence of his own Power going along with it at any time whiles under an open Claim of a divine Original , is an uncontroulable Approbation of it . Thus at the first Preaching of the Word , to fullfil the Promises made unto the Fathers from the Foundation of the World , to glorify his Son Jesus Christ , and the Gospel it self which he had revealed , he put forth that effectual divine Power in its Administration , whereby the World was subdued unto the Obedience of it . And the Time will come when he will revive the same Work of Power and Grace to retrieve the World into a subjection to Jesus Christ. And although he doth not in these latter Ages cause it to run and prosper among the Nations of the world , who have not as yet received it as he did formerly , yet considering the state of things at present among the Generality of Mankind , the Preservation of it in that small Remnant by whom it is obeyed in sincerity , is a no less glorious Evidence of his Presence with it , and Care over it , than was its eminent Propagation in days of old . 3. The Righteousness of God is in like manner to be considered in these things . For whereas he had granted the inestimable Priviledge of his Word unto many Nations , they through their horrible ingratitude and wickedness detained the Truth in Vnrighteousness ; so that the continuance of the Gospel among them was no way to the Glory of God , no nor yet unto their own Advantage . For neither Nations nor Persons will ever be advantaged by an outward Profession of the Gospel , whilst they live in a Contradiction and Disobedience to its Precepts ; yea nothing can be more pernicious to the Souls of Men. This Impiety God is at this day revenging on the Nations of the World , having utterly cast off many of them from the Knowledg of the Truth , and given up others unto strong Delusions , to believe Lies , though they retain the Scriptures and outward Profession of Christianity . How far he may proceed in the same way of Righteous Vengeance towards other Nations also , we know not , but ought to tremble in the Consideration of it . When God first granted the Gospel unto the World , although the Generality of Mankind had greatly sinned against the Light of Nature , and had rejected all those supernatural Revelations that at any time had been made unto them ; yet had they not sinned against the Gospel it self , nor the Grace thereof . It pleased God therefore to wink at , and pass over that Time of their Ignorance , so as that his Justice should not be provoked by any of their former sins , to with-hold the Efficacy of his divine Power in the Administration of the Gospel from them , whereby he called them to Repentance . But now after that the Gospel hath been sufficiently tendred unto all Nations , and hath , either as unto its Profession , or as unto its Power with the Obedience that it requires , been rejected by the most of them ; things are quite otherwise stated . It is from the Righteous Judgment of God , revenging the sins of the World against the Gospel it self , that so many Nations are deprived of it , and so many left obstinate in its Refusal . Wherefore the present state of things doth no way weaken or prejudice the Evidence given unto the Scripture by that mighty Power of God , which accompanied the Administration of it in the World. For what hath since fallen out , there are secret Reasons of Sovereign Wisdom , and open Causes in Divine Justice , whereunto it is to be assigned . These things I have briefly called over , and not as though they were all of this kind that may be pleaded , but only to give some Instance of those external Arguments , whereby the divine Authority of the Scripture may be confirmed . Now these Arguments are such as are able of themselves to beget in the Minds of Men , sober , humble , intelligent , and unprejudiced , a firm Opinion , Judgment and Perswasion , that the Scripture doth proceed from God. Where Persons are prepossessed with invincible Prejudices contracted by a Course of Education , wherein they have imbibed Principles opposite and contrary thereunto , and have increased and fortified them by some fixed and hereditary Enmity against all those whom they know to own the Divinity of the Scripture , as it is with Mahometans , aud some of the Indians ; these Arguments it may be will not prevail immediately to work nor effect their Assent . It is so with respect unto them also , who out of Love unto , and Delight in those ways of Vice , Sin , and Wickedness , which are absolutely and severely condemned in the Scripture , without the least hope of a Dispensation unto them that continue under the Power of them , who will not take these Arguments into due Consideration . Such Persons may talk and discourse of them , but they never weigh them seriously according as the Importance of the Cause doth require . For if men will examine them as they ought , it must be with a sedate Judgment , that their eternal Condition depends upon a right Determination of this Enquiry . But for those who can scarce get Liberty from the Service and Power of their Lusts , seriously to consider what is their Condition , or what it is like to be ; it is no wonder if they talk of these things after the manner of these days , without any Impression on their Minds and Affections , or Influence on the practical Understanding . But our Enquiry is after what is a sufficient Evidence for the Conviction of rational and unprejudiced Persons , and the Defeating of Objections to the contrary , which these and the like Arguments do every way answer . Some think fit here to stay , that is , in these or the like external Arguments , or rational Motives of Faith , such as render the Scriptures so credible , as that it is an unreasonable thing not to assent unto them . That Certainty which may be attained on these Arguments and Motives , is ( as they say ) the highest which our Minds are capable of with respect unto this Object , and therefore includes all the Assent which is required of us unto this Proposition , that the Scriptures are the Word of God ; or all the Faith whereby we believe them so to be . When I speak of these Arguments , I intend not them alone which I have insisted on , but all others also of the same kind , some whereof have been urged and improved by others with great Diligence ; for in the Variety of such Arguments as offer themselves in this Cause , every one chooseth out what seems to him most cogent , & some amass all that they can think on . Now these Arguments with the Evidence tendred in them are such , as nothing but perverse Prejudice can detain men from giving a firm Assent unto . And no more is required of us , but that according to the Motives that are proposed unto us , and the Arguments used to that purpose , we come unto a Judgment and Perswasion , called a moral Assurance of the Truth of the Scripture , and endeavour to yield Obedience unto God accordingly . And it were to be wished that there were more than it is feared there are , who were really so affected with these Arguments and Motives . For the Truth is , Tradition and Education practically bear the whole sway in this matter . But yet when all this is done , it will be said , that all this is but a meer natural Work , whereunto no more is required , but the natural exercise and acting of our own Reason and understanding ; that the Arguments and Motives used , though strong , are humane and fallible , and therefore the Conclusion we make from them is so also , and wherein we may be deceived ; that an Assent grounded and resolved into such rational Arguments only , is not Faith in the sense of the Scripture ; in brief , that it is required that we believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God with Faith divine and supernatural , which cannot be deceived . Two things are replyed hereunto . 1. That where the Things believed are divine and supernatural , so is the Faith whereby we believe them , or give our Assent unto them . Let the Motives and Arguments whereon we give our Assent be of what kind they will , so that the Assent be true and real , and the Things believed be divine and supernatural , the Faith whereby we believe them is so also . But this is all one , as if in things natural a man should say , our Sight is green when we see that which is so , and blew when we see that which is blew . And this would be so in things moral , if the Specification of Acts were from their material Objects ; but it is certain that they are not of the same Nature always with the Things they are conversant about , nor are they changed thereby from what their Nature is in themselves , be it natural or supernatural , humane or divine . Now things divine are only the material Object of our Faith , as hath been shewed before ; and by an Enumeration of them do we answer unto the Question , What is it that you do believe ? But it is the formal Object or Reason of all our Acts from whence they are denominated , or by which they are specified . And the formal Reason of our Faith , Assent or Believing , is that which prevails with us to believe , and on whose Account we do so , wherewith we answer unto that Question , Why do you believe ? If this be humane Authority , Arguments highly probable , but absolutely fallible , Motives cogent , but only to beget a moral Perswasion , whatever we do believe thereon , our Faith is humane , fallible , and a moral Assurance only . Wherefore it is said ▪ 2. That this Assent is sufficient , all that is required of us , and contains in it all the Assurance which our minds are capable of in this matter . For no further Evidence nor Assurance is in any case to be enquired after than the subject matter will bear . And so is it in this Case , where the Truth is not exposed to Sense , nor capable of a scientifical Demonstration , but must be received upon such Reasons and Arguments , as carry it above the highest Probability , though they leave it beneath Science or Knowledge , or infallible Assurance ; if such a Perswasion of Mind there be . But yet I must needs say , that although those external Arguments , whereby learned and rational Men have proved or may yet further prove the Scripture to be a divine Revelation given of God , and the Doctrine contained in it to be a heavenly Truth , are of singular Use for the strengthening of the Faith of them that do believe , by relieving the mind against Temptations and Objections that will arise to the contrary , as also for the Conviction of Gainsayers ; yet to say that they contain the formal Reason of that Assent , which is required of us unto the Scripture as the Word of God , that our Faith is the Effect and Product of them , which it rests upon and is resolved into , is both contrary to the Scripture , destructive of the Nature of divine Faith , and exclusive of the Work of the Holy Ghost in this whole matter . VVherefore I shall do these two things before I proceed to our principal Argument designed . ( 1. ) I shall give some few Reasons , proving that the Faith whereby we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God is not a meer firm moral Perswasion , built upon external Arguments and Motives of Credibility ; but is divine and supernatural , because the formal Reason of it is so also . ( 2. ) I shall shew what is the Nature of that Faith , whereby we do or ought to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God ; what is the work of the holy Spirit about it , and what is the proper Object of it . In the first I shall be very brief , for my design is to strengthen the Faith of all , and not to weaken the Opinions of any . Divine Revelation is the proper Object of divine Faith. With such Faith we can believe nothing but what is so , and what is so can be received no otherwise by us . If we believe it not with divine Faith , we believe it not at all . Such is the Scripture as the Word of God every where proposed unto us ; and we are required to believe , that is , first to believe it so to be , and then to believe the things contained in it . For this Proposition , that the Scripture is the Word of God , is a divine Revelation , and so to be believed . But God no where requires nor ever did , that we should believe any divine Revelation upon such Grounds , much less on such Grounds and Motives only . They are left unto us as consequential unto our Believing , to plead with others in behalf of what we profess , and for the Justification of it unto the World. But that which requires our Faith and Obedience unto in the receiving of divine Revelations , whether immediately given and declared , or as recorded in the Scripture , is his own Authority and Veracity , I am the Lord , the High and Lofty One. Thus saith the Lord. To the Law and to the Testimony . This is my Son , hear him . All Scripture is given by Inspiration from God. Believe the Lord and his Prophets . This alone is that which he requires us to resolve our Faith into . So when he gave unto us the Law of our Lives , the eternal and unchangeable Rule of our Obedience unto him in the ten Commandments , he gives no other Reason to oblige us thereunto , but this only , I am the Lord thy God. The sole formal Reason of all our Obedience is taken from his own Nature and our Relation unto him . Nor doth he propose any other Reason why we should believe him , or the Revelation which he makes of his Mind and Will. And our Faith is part of our Obedience , the Root , and principal Part of it ; therefore the Reason of both is the same . Neither did our Lord Jesus Christ nor his Apostles ever make use of such Arguments or Motives for the ingenerating of Faith in the minds of men ; nor have they given Directions for the use of any such Arguments to this End and Purpose . But when they were accused to have followed cunningly devised Fables , they appealed unto Moses and the Prophets , to the Revelations they had themselves received , and those that were before recorded . It is true they wrought Miracles in confirmation of their own divine Mission , and of the Doctrine which they taught . But the Miracles of our Saviour were all of them wrought amongst those who believed the whole Scripture then given to be the Word of God ; and those of the Apostles were before the Writings of the Books of the New Testament . Their Doctrine therefore materially considered , and their Warranty to teach it , was sufficiently yea abundantly confirmed by them . But Divine Revelation formally considered , and as written , was left upon the old Foundation of the Authority of God who gave it . No such Method is prescribed , no such Example is proposed unto us in the Scripture , to make use of these Arguments and Motives for the Conversion of the Souls of men unto God , and the ingenerating of Faith in them . Yea in some Cases the use of such means is decryed as unprofitable , and the Sole Authority of God , putting forth his Power in and by his Word , is appealed unto , 1 Cor. 2. 4 , 5 , 13. chap. 14. 26 , 27. 2 Cor. 4. 7. But yet in a way of Preparation subservient unto the receiving the Scripture as the Word of God , and for the Defence of it against Gainsayers and their Objections , their use hath been granted and proved . But from first to last in the Old and New Testament the Authority and Truth of God are constantly and uniformly proposed as the immediate Ground and Reason of Believing his Revelations ; nor can it be proved that he doth accept or approve of any kind of Faith or Assent , but what is built thereon and resolved thereinto . The Sum is , We are obliged in a way of Duty , to believe the Scriptures to be a Divine Revelation , when they are ministerially or providentially proposed unto us , whereof afterwards . The Ground whereon we are to receive them is the Authority and Veracity of God speaking in them ; we believe them because they are the Word of God. Now this Faith whereby we so believe is Divine and Supernatural , because the mal Reason of it is so , namely Gods Truth and Authority . Wherefore we do not , nor ought to believe the Scripture as highly probable , or with a moral Perswasion and Assurance built upon Arguments absolutely fallible , and humane only . For if this be the formal Reason of Faith , namely , the Veracity and Authority of God , if we believe not with Faith divine and supernatural , we believe not at all . 2. The moral Certainty treated of , is a meer Effect of Reason . There is no more required unto it , but that the Reasons proposed for the Assent required , be such as the mind judgeth to be convincing and prevalent ; whence an inferiour Kind of Knowledge , or a firm Opinion , or some kind of Perswasion , which hath not yet gotten an intelligible Name , doth necessarily ensue . There is therefore on this Supposition no need of any Work of the Holy Ghost , to enable us to believe , or to work Faith in us ; for no more is required herein but what necessarily ariseth from a naked Exercise of Reason . If it be said , that the Enquiry is not about what is the Work of the Spirit of God in us ; but concerning the Reasons and Motives to Believing that are proposed unto us . I answer , it is granted ; but that we urge herein is , that the Act which is exerted on such Motives , or the Perswasion which is begotten in our minds by them is purely natural , and such as requires no especial Work of the Holy Ghost in us for the effecting of it . Now this is not Faith , nor can we be said in the Scripture sense to believe thereby , and so in particular not the Scriptures to be the Word of God. For Faith is the Gift of God , and is not of our selves , Ephes 2. 8. It is given unto some on the behalf of Christ , Phil. 1. 29. and not unto others , Mat. 11. 29. chap. 13. 11. But this Assent on external Arguments and Motives is of our selves , equally common and exposed unto all . No man can say that Jesus is the Lord , but by the Holy Ghost , 1 Cor. 12. 3. But he who believeth the Scripture truly , aright , and according to his Duty , doth say so . No man cometh to Christ , but he that hath heard and learned of the Father , John 6. 45. And as this is contrary to the Scripture , so it is expresly condemned by the ancient Church ; particularly by the second Arausican Council , Can. 5. 7. Si quis sicut augmentum ita etiàm initium Fidei , ipsumque credulitatis affectum , non per gratiae donum , id est , per inspirationem Spiritus Sancti , corrigentem voluntatem nostram ab infidelitate ad fidem , ab impietate ad pietatem , sed naturalitèr nobis inesse dicit , Apostolicis Dogmatibus adversarius approbatur . And plainly , Can. 7. Si quis per naturae vigorem bonum aliquod quod ad Salutem pertinet vitae eternae cogitare ut expedit , aut eligere , sive salutari , id est , evangelicae Praedicaiioni consentire posse affirmat absque illumi natione et inspiratione Spiritus Sancti , qui dat omnibus suavitatem consentiendo et credendo veritati , haeretico fallitur Spiritu . It is still granted that the Arguments intended ( that is all of them which ar true indeed , and will endure a strict Examination , for some are frequently made use of in this Cause which will not endure a Trial ) are of good use in their place and unto their proper end ; that is to beget such an Assent unto the Truth as they are capable of effecting . For although this be not that which is required of us in a way of Duty , but inferior to it , yet the mind is prepared and disposed by them unto the receiving of the Truth in its proper Evidence . 3. Our Assent can be of no other Nature than the Arguments and Motives whereon it is built , or by which it is wrought in us , as in Degree it cannot exceed their Evidence . Now these Arguments are all humane and fallible ; exalt them unto the greatest esteem possible , yet because they are not Demonstrations , nor do necessarily beget a certain Knowledg in us ( which indeed if they did , there were no room left for Faith or our Obedience therein ) they produce an Opinion only , though in the highest kind of Probability , and firm against Objections . For we will allow the utmost Assurance that can be claimed upon them . But this is exclusive of all divine Faith as to any Article , Thing , Matter or Object to be believed . For Instance ; a man professeth that he believes Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. Demand the Reason why he doth so , and he will say ; because God who cannot lie , hath revealed and declared him so to be , proceed yet further and ask him , where or how God hath revealed and declared this so to be ? and he will answer , in the Scripture , which is his Word ; enquire now further of him , which is necessary , wherefore he believes this Scripture to be the Word of God , or an immediate Revelation given out from him ; for hereunto we must come and have somewhat that we may ultimately rest in , excluding in its own Nature all further Enquiries , or we can have neither certainty , nor stability in our Faith. On this Supposition his answer must be , that he hath many cogent Arguments that render it highly propable so to be , such as have prevailed with him to judg it so to be , and whereon he is fully perswaded , as having the highest Assurance hereof that the matter will bear , and so doth firmly believe them to be the Word of God. Yea but it will be replied , all these Arguments are in their kind or Nature humane , and therefore fallible , such as it is possible they may be false ; for every thing may be so that is not immediately from the first essential Verity . This Assent therefore unto the Scriptures as the Word of God is humane , fallible , and such as wherein we may be deceived . And our Assent unto the things revealed , can be of no other kind than that we give unto the Revelation it self . For thereinto it is resolved , and thereunto it must be reduced ; these waters will rise no higher than their Fountain . And thus at length we come to believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God with a Faith humane and fallible , and which at last may deceive us ; which is to receive the Word of God as the Word of Men , and not as it is in truth the Word of God , contrary to the Apostle , 1 Thes. 2. 13. Wherefore , 4. If I believe the Scripture to be the Word of God with an humane Faith only , I do no otherwise believe whatever is contained in it , which overthrows all Faith properly so called . And if I believe what is contained in the Scripture with Faith divine and supernatural , I cannot but by the same Faith believe the Scripture it self , which removes the moral Certainty treated of out of our way . And the Reason of this is , that we must believe the Revelation , and the things revealed with the same kind of Faith , or we bring confusion on the whole work of believing . No man living can distinguish in his Experience between that Faith , wherewith he lieves the Scripture , and that wherewith he believes the Doctrine of it , or the things contained in it ; nor is there any such Distinction or Difference intimated in the Scripture it self ; but all our believing is absolutely resolved into the Authority of God revealing . Nor can it be rationally apprehended that our Assent unto the things revealed , should be of a kind and nature superior unto that which we yield unto the Revelation it self . For let the Arguments which it is resolved into be never so evident and cogent , let the Assent it self be as firm and certain as can be imagined , yet is it humane still , and natural , and therein is inferior unto that which is divine and supernatural . And yet on this Supposition that which is of a superior kind and nature is wholly resolved into that which is of an inferior , and must be take it self on all occasions thereunto for relief and confirmation . For the Faith whereby we believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God , is on all occasions absolutely melted down into that whereby we believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God. But none of these things are my present especial Design , and therefore I have insisted long enough upon them . I am not enquiring what Grounds men may have to build an Opinion , or any kind of humane Perswasion upon , that the Scriptures are the the Word of God , no nor yet how we may prove or maintain them so to be unto Gainsayers ; but what is required hereunto that we may believe them to be so with Faith divine and supernatural , and what is the Work of the Spirit of God therein . But it may be further said , that these external Arguments and Motives are not of themselves , and considered separately from the Doctrine which they testify unto , the sole Ground and Reason of our Believing . For if it were possible that a thousand Arguments of a like cogency with them were offered to confirm any Truth or Doctrine , if it had not a divine Worth and Excellency in it self , they could give the mind no Assurance of it . Wherefore it is the Truth it self , or Doctrine contained in the Scripture which they testify unto , that animates them and gives them their Efficacy . For there is such a Majesty , Holiness , and Excellency in the Doctrine of the Gospel , and moreover such a Suitableness in them unto unprejudiced Reason , and such an Answerableness unto all the rational Desires and Expectations of the Soul , as evidence their Procedure from the Fountain of infinite Wisdom and Goodness . It cannot but be conceived impossible that such excellent , heavenly Mysteries , of such use and benefit unto all Mankind , should be the Product of any created Industry . Let but a man know himself , his State and Condition in any measure , with a desire of that Blessedness which his nature is capable of , and which he cannot but design ; when the Scripture is proposed unto him in the Ministry of the Church , attested by the Arguments insisted on , there will appear unto him in the Truths and Doctrines of it , or in the things contained in it , such an Evidence of the Majesty and Authority of God , as will prevail with him to believe it to be a divine Revelation . And this Perswasion is such , that the mind is established in its Assent unto the Truth , so as to yield Obedience unto all that is required of us . And whereas our Belief of the Scripture is in order only to the right Performance of our Duty , or all that Obedience which God expecteth from us , our minds being guided by the Precepts and Directions , and duly influenced by the Promises and Threatnings of it thereunto , there is no other Faith required of us but what is sufficient to oblige us unto that Obedience . This being , so far as I can apprehend , the Substance of what is by some learned men proposed and adhered unto , it shall be briefly examined . And I say here as on other occasions , that I should rejoyce to see more of such a Faith in the World , as would effectually oblige men unto Obedience out of a Conviction of the Excellency of the Doctrine & the Truth of the Promises and Threatnings of the Word , though learned men should never agree about the formal Reason of Faith. Such Notions of Truth , when most diligently inquired into , are but as sacrifice compared with Obedience . But the Truth it self is also to be enquired after diligently . This Opinion therefore either supposeth what we shall immediatly declare , namely , the necessity of an internal effectual Work of the Holy Spirit in the Illumination of our minds , so enabling us to believe with Faith divine and supernatural , or it doth not . If it doth , it will be found , as I suppose , for the Substance of it to be co-incident with what we shall afterwards assert and prove to be the formal Reason of Believing . However as it is usually proposed , I cannot absolutely comply with it , for these two Reasons among others . 1. It belongs unto the Nature of Faith , of what sort soever it be , that it be built on and resolved into Testimony . This is that which distinguisheth it from any other Conception , Knowledge , or Assent of our minds , on other Reasons and Causes . And if this Testimony be divine , so is that Faith whereby we give assent unto it , on the part of the Object . But the Doctrines contained in the Scripture , or the subject Matter of the Truth to be believed , have not in them the Nature of a Testimony , but are the material not formal Objects of Faith , which must always differ . If it be said that these Truths or Doctrines do so evidence themselves to be from God , as that in and by them we have the Witness and Authority of God himself proposed unto us , to resolve our Faith into , I will not further contend about it ; but only say that the Authority of God , and so his Veracity , do manifest themselves primarily in the Revelation it self , before they do so in the things revealed , which is that we plead for . 2. The Excellency of the Doctrine or things revealed in the Scriptures respects not so much the Truth of them in speculation , as their Goodness and Suitableness unto the Souls of Men , as to their present Condition and eternal End. Now things under that Consideration respect not so much Faith , as spiritual Sense and Experience . Neither can any man have a due Apprehension of such a goodness suitable unto our Constitution and Condition , with absolute usefulness in the Truth of the Scripture , but on a Supposition of that antecedent Assent of the mind unto them , which is Believing ; which therefore cannot be the Reason why we do believe . But if this Opinion proceed not upon the aforesaid Supposition ( immediately to be proved ) but requires no more unto our satisfaction in the Truth of the Scripture and Assent thereon , but the due Exercise of Reason , or the natural Faculties of our Minds about them when proposed unto us , then I suppose it to be most remote from the Truth , and that amongst many other Reasons , for these that ensue . 1. On this Supposition the whole Work of Believing would be a Work of Reason . Be it so , say some , nor is it meet it should be otherwise conceived . But if so , then the Object of it must be things so evident in themselves and their own Nature , as that the Mind is as it were compelled by that Evidence unto an Assent , and cannot do otherwise . If there be such a Light and Evidence in the things themselves with respect unto our Reason in the right use and exercise of it , then is the Mind thereby necessitated unto its Assent ; which both overthrows the Nature of Faith , substituting an Assent upon natural Evidence in the room thereof , and is absolutely exclusive of the necessity or use of any Work of the Holy Ghost in our Believing , which sober Christians will scarce comply withal . 2. There are some Doctrines revealed in the Scripture , and those of the most Importance that are so revealed , which concern and contain things so above our Reason , that without some previous supernatural Dispositions of Mind , they carry in them no Evidence of Truth unto meer Reason , nor of Suitableness unto our Constitution and End. There is required unto such an Apprehension both the spiritual Elevation of the Mind by supernatural Illumination , and a divine Assent unto the Authority of the Revelation thereon , before Reason can be so much as satisfied in the Truth and Excellency of such Doctrines . Such are those concerning the Holy Trinity , or the Subsistence of one singular Essence in three distinct Persons ; the Incarnation of the Son of God ; the Resurrection of the dead and sundry other that are the most proper Subjects of divine Revelation . There is an heavenly Glory in some of these things , which as Reason can never throughly apprehend because it is finite and limited , so as 't is in us by Nature , it can neither receive them , nor delight in them as doctrinally proposed unto us , with all the Aids and Assistance before mentioned . Flesh and Blood reveals not these thisgs unto our minds , but our Father which is in Heaven . Nor doth any man know these Mysteries of the Kingdom of God , but he unto whom it is given ; nor do any learn these things aright , but those that are taught of God. 3. Take our Reason singly without the Consideration of divine Grace and Illumination , and it is not only weak and limited , but depraved and corrupted . And the carnal mind cannot subject it self unto the Authority of God in any supernatural Revelation whatever . Wherefore the Truth is , that the Doctrines of the Gospel , which are purely and absolutely so , are so far from having a convincing Evidence in themselves of their divine Truth , Excellency and Goodness , unto the Reason of men as unrenewed by the Holy Ghost , as that they are foolishness and most undesirable unto it , as I have elsewhere proved at large ▪ We shall therefore proceed . There are two Things considerable with respect unto our Believing the Scriptures to be the Word of God in a due manner , or according to our Duty . The first respects the Subject , or the mind of man , how it is enabled thereunto ; the other the Object to be believed , with the true Reason why we do believe the Scripture with Faith divine and supernatural . The first of these must of necessity fall under our Consideration herein , as that without which , what ever Reasons , Evidences or Motives are proposed unto us , we shall never believe in a due manner . For whereas the mind of man , or the minds of all men are by nature depraved , corrupt , carnal , and enmity against God ; they cannot of themselves , or by virtue of any innate Ability of their own , understand or assent unto spiritual things in a spiritual manner , which we have sufficiently proved and confirmed before . Wherefore that Assent which is wrought in us by meer external Arguments , consisting in the rational Conclusion and Judgment which we make upon their Truth and Evidence , is not that Faith wherewith we ought to believe the Word of God. Wherefore that we may believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God according to our Duty , as God requireth it of us , in an useful , profitable , and saving manner , above and beyond that natural humane Faith and Assent which is the Effect of the Arguments and Motives of Credibility , before insisted on , with all others of the like kind , there is and must be wrought in us by the power of the Holy Ghost Faith supernatural and divine , whereby we are enabled so to do , or rather whereby we do so . This Work of the Spirit of God , as it is distinct from , so in order of Nature it is antecedent unto all divine objective Evidence of the Scriptures being the Word of God , or the formal Reason moving us to believe it ; wherefore without it whatever Arguments or Motives are proposed unto us , we cannot believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God in a due manner , and as it is in duty required of us . Some , it may be , will suppose these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and impertinent unto our present purpose . For while we are enquiring on what Grounds we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , we seem to fly to the Work of the Holy Ghost in our own minds , which is irrational . But we must not be ashamed of the Gospel , nor of the Truth of it , because some do not understand , or will not duly consider what is proposed . It is necessary , that we should return unto the Work of the Holy Spirit , not with peculiar respect unto the Scriptures that are to be believed , but unto our own Minds and that Faith wherewith they are to be believed . For it is not the Reason , why we believe the Scriptures , but the Power whereby we are enabled so to do , which at present we enquire after . 1. That the Faith whereby we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost , can be denied only on two Principles or Suppositions . ( 1. ) That it is not Faith divine and supernatural whereby we believe them so to be , but only we have other moral Assurance thereof . ( 2. ) That this Faith divine and supernatural is of our selves , and is not wrought in us by the Holy Ghost . The first of these hath been already disproved , and shall be further evicted afterwards ; and it may be they are very few who are of that Judgment . For generally whatever men suppose the prime Object , principal Motive , and formal Reason of that Faith to be , yet that it is Divine and Supernatural they all acknowledg . And as to the second what is so , 't is of the Operation of the Spirit of God. For to say it is divine and supernatural , is to say that it is not of our selves , but that it is the Grace and Gift of the Spirit of God , wrought in us by his divine and supernatural Power . And those of the Church of Rome , who would resolve our Faith in this matter objectively into the Authority of their Church , yet subjectively acknowledge the Work of the Holy Spirit ingenerating Faith in us , and that Work to be necessary to our Believing the Scripture in a due manner . Externae omnes & humanae persuasiones non sunt satis ad credendum , quantumcunque ab hominibus competenter ea quae sunt fidei proponantur . Sed necessaria est insuper causa interior , hoc est divinum quoddam lumen incitans ad credendum , & oculi quidam interni Dei beneficio ad videndum dati , saith Canus , Loc. Theol. lib. 2. cap. 8. Nor is there any of the Divines of that Church which dissent herein . We do not therefore assert any such divine formal Reoson of Believing as that the mind should not stand in need of supernatural Assistance enabling it to assent thereunto . Nay we affirm that without this there is in no man any true Faith at all , let the Arguments and Motives whereon he believes be as forcible and pregnant with Evidence as can be imagined . It is in this Case as in things natural ; neither the the Light of the Sun , nor any perswasive Arguments unto men to look up unto it , will enable them to discern it , unless they are endued with a due visive Faculty . And this the Scripture is express in beyond all possibility of Contradiction . Neither is it that I know of , by any as yet in express terms denied . For indeed that all which is properly called Faith with respect unto divine Revelation , and is acceptted with God as such , is the Work of the Spirit of God in us , or is bestowed on us by him , cannot be questioned by any who own the Gospel . I have also proved it elsewhere so fully and largly as that I shall give it at present no other Confirmation , but what will necessarily fall in with the Description of the Nature of that Faith whereby we do believe , and the Way or Manner of its being wrought in us . The Work of the Holy Ghost unto this purpose consists in the saving Illumination of the Mind , and the Effect of it is a supernatural Light , whereby the Mind is renewed , see Rom. 12. 1. Ephes. 1. 18 , 19. chap. 3. 16 , 17 , 18 , 19. It is called an Heart to understand , Eyes to see , Ears to hear , Deut. 29. 4. The opening of the Eyes of our Vunderstanding , Ephes. 1. 18. The giving of an Vnderstanding , 1 John 5. 20. Hereby we are enabled to discern the Evidences of the divine Original and Authority of the Scripture that are in it self , as well as assent unto the Truth contained in it ; and without it we cannot do so . For the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God , for they are foolishness unto him , neither can be know them because they are spiritually discerned , 1 Cor. 2. 14. And unto this end it is written in the Prophets , that we shall be all taught of God , John 6. 45. That there is a divine and heavenly Excellency in the Scripture , cannot be denied by any , who on any Grounds or Motives whatever do own its divine Original . For all the Works of God do set forth his Praise , and it is impossible that any thing should proceed immediately from Him , but that there will be express Characters of divine Excellencies upon it ; and as to the Communication of these Characters of Himself , he hath magnified his Word above all his Name . But these we cannot discern be they in themselves never so illustrious , without the effectual Communication of the Light mentioned unto our Minds ; that is without divine supernatural Illumination . Herein he who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness , shineth into our Hearts the Knowledg of the Glory of God , in the face of Jesus Christ , 2 Cor. 4. 6. He irradiates the Mind with a spiritual Light , whereby it is enabled to discern the Glory of spiritual Things : This they cannot do in whom the God of this World hath blinded the eyes of them that believe not , lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ , who is the Image of God should shine into them , v. 6. Those who are under the Power of their natural Darkness and Blindness , especially where there are in them also superadded Prejudices begotten and increased by the craft of Satan , as there are in the whole World of Unbelievers , cannot see nor discern that divine Excellency in the Scripture , without an Apprehension whereof no man can believe it a right to be the Word of God. Such Persons may assent unto the Truth of the Scripture and its divine Original , upon external Arguments and rational Motives , but believe it with Faith Divine and Supernatural on those Arguments and Motives only , they cannot . There are two things which hinder or disenable men from believing with Faith divine and supernatural , when any Divine Revelation is objectively proposed unto them . First , The natural Blindness and Darkness of their Minds , which are come upon all by the Fall , and the Depravation of our Nature that ensued thereon . Secondly , The Prejudices that through the Crafts of Satan the God of this World , their minds are possessed with , by Traditions , Educations , and Converse in the World. This last Obstruction or Hinderance may be so far removed by external Arguments and Motives of Credibility , as that men may upon them attain unto a moral Perswasion concerning the Divine Original of the Scripture . But these Arguments cannot remove or take away the native Blindness of the mind , which is removed by their Renovation and Divine Illumination alone . Wherefore none ( I think ) will positively affirm that we can believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , in the way and manner which God requireth , without a supernatural Work of the Holy Spirit upon our minds in the Illumination of them ; So David prays that God would open his eyes , that he might behold wonderous things out of the Law , Psal. 119. 10. That he would make him understand the way of his Precepts , v. 27. That he would give him understanding and he should keep the Law , v. 34. So the Lord Christ also opened the understandings of his Disciples , that they might understand the Scriptures , Luk. 24. 45. As he had affirmed before that it was given unto some to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God , and not unto others , Mat. 11. 25. chap. 13. 11. And neither are these things spoken in vain , nor is the Grace intended in them needless . The Communication of this Light unto us the Scripture calleth Revealing and Revelation , Mat. 11. 25. Thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent , and hast revealed them unto Babes ; that is giving them to understand the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven when they were preached unto them . And no man knoweth the Father but he to whom the Son revealeth him , v. 27. So the Apostle prayeth for the Ephesians , that God would give them the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledg of Christ , that the eyes of their understandings being enlightned , they might know &c. chap. 1. v. 17 , 18 , 19. It is true , these Ephesians were already Believers , or considered by the Apostle as such ; but if he judged it necessary to pray for them , that they might have the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation to enlighten the eyes of their Vnderstanding , with respect unto further Degrees of Faith and Knowledge ; or as he speaks in another place , that they might come unto the full Assurance of Vnderstanding , to the acknowledgment of the Mystery of God , Col. 2. 2. Then it is much more necessary to make them Believers , who before were not so , but utter strangers unto the Faith. But as a Pretence hereof hath been abused , as we shall see afterwards , so the pleading of it is liable to be mistaken . For some are ready to apprehend , that this Retreat unto a Spirit of Revelation , is but a pretence to discard all rational Arguments , and to introduce Enthusiasm into their room . Now although the Charge be grievous , yet because it is groundless , we must not forego what the Scripture plainly affirms and instructs us in , thereby to avoid it . Scripture Testimonies may be expounded according to the Analogy of Faith , but denied or despised , seem they never so contrary unto our Apprehension of things , they must not be . Some ( I confess ) seem to disregard both the objective Work of the Holy Spirit in this matter , whereof we shall treat afterwards , and his subjective Work also in our minds , that all things may be reduced unto Sense and Reason . But we must grant that a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation to open the eyes of our Understanding , is needful to enable us to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God in a due manner , or forgo the Gospel . And our Duty it is to pray continually for that Spirit , if we intend to be established in the Faith thereof . But yet we plead not for external immediate Revelations , such as were granted unto the Prophets , Apostles , and other Penmen of the Scripture . The Revelation we intend differs from them both in its especial Subject and formal Reason , or Nature , that is in the whole kind . For , ( 1. ) The subject matter of divine Prophetical Revelation , by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or immediate divine Inspiration , are things not made known before . Things they were , hid in God , or the Counsels of his Will , and revealed unto the Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit , Ephes. 2. 5 , 9 , 10. Whether they were Doctrines or Things , they were at least as unto their present Circumstances made known from the Counsels of God by their Revelation . But the Matter and Subject of the Revelation we treat of , is nothing but what is already revealed . It is an internal Revelation of that which is outwardly and antecedent unto it ; beyond the Bounds thereof it is not to be extended . And if any pretend unto immediate Revelations of things not before revealed , we have no concernment in their Pretences . ( 2. ) They differ likewise in their Nature or Kind . For immediate , divine , prophetical Revelation consisted in an immediate Inspiration , or Afflatus , or in Visions and Voices from Heaven , with a Power of the Holy Ghost transiently affecting their Minds , guiding their Tongues and Hands to whom they were granted , whereby they received and represented divine Impressions , as an Instrument of Musick doth the Skill of the Hand whereby it is moved ; the Nature of which Revelation I have more fully discoursed elsewhere . But this Revelation of the Spirit consists in his effectual Operation , freeing our Minds from Darkness , Ignorance , and Prejudice , enabling them to discern spiritual Things in a due manner . And such a Spirit of Revelation is necessary unto them who would believe aright the Scripture , or any thing else that is divine and supernatural contained therein . And if men who through the Power of Temptations and Prejudices are in the dark , or at a loss as to the great and fundamental Principle of all Religion , namely , the Divine Original and Authority of the Scripture , will absolutely lean unto their own understandings , and have the whole Difference determined by the natural Power and Faculties of their own Souls , without seeking after divine Aid and Assistance , or earnest Prayer for the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation to open the eyes of their understandings , they must be content to abide in their Uncertainties , or to come off from them without any Advantage to their Souls . Not that I would deny unto men , or take them off from the Use of their Reason in this matter ; for what is their Reason given unto them for , unless it be to use it in those things which are of the greatest importance unto them ? Only I must crave leave to say , that it is not sufficient of it self to enable us to the performance of this Duty , without the immediate Aid and Assistance of the Holy Spirit of God. If any one upon these Principles shall now ask us , Wherefore we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God ? We do not answer , It is , because the Holy Ghost hath enlightned our minds , wrought Faith in us , and enabled us to believe it . Without this we say indeed , did not the Spirit of God so work in us , and upon us , we neither should nor could believe with Faith divine and supernatural . If God had not opened the Heart of Lydia , she would not have attended unto the things preached by Paul so as to have received them ; and without it the Light oftentimes shines into Darkness , but the Darkness comprehends it not . But this neither is nor can be the formal Object of our Faith , or the Reason why we believe the Scripture to be of God , or any thing else ; neither do we , nor can we rationally answer by it unto this Question , why we do believe . This Reason must be something external and evidently proposed unto us . For whatever Ability of spiritual Assent there be in the Understanding which is thus wrought in it by the Holy Ghost , yet the Understanding cannot assent unto any thing with any Kind of Assent natural or supernatural , but what is outwardly proposed unto it as true , and that with sufficient Evidence that it is so . That therefore which proposeth any thing unto us as true , with Evidence of that Truth , is the formal Object of our Faith , or the Reason why we do believe . And what is so proposed must be true , and must be evidenced to be true , or we cannot believe it ; and according to the Nature of that Evidence such is our Faith ; Humane if that be Humane ; and Divine if that be so . Now nothing of this is done by that saving Light which is infused into our minds , and is therefore not the Reason why we believe what we do so . Whereas therefore some who seem to conceive that the only general Ground of believing the Scripture to be the Word of God , doth consist in rational Arguments and Motives of Credibility , do grant that private Persons may have their Assurance hereof from the Illumination of the Holy Ghost , though it be not pleadable to others ; they grant what is not , that I know of , desired by any , and which in it self is not true . For this Work consisting solely in enabling the mind unto that Kind of Assent which is Faith divine and supernatural , on supposition of an external formal Reason of it duely proposed , is not the Reason why any do believe , nor the Ground whereunto their Faith is resolved . It remains only that we enquire whether our Faith in this matter be not resolved into an immediate internal Testimony of the Holy Ghost , assuring us of the divine Original and Authority of the Scripture , distinct from the Work of spiritual Illumination , before described . For it is the common Opinion of Protestant Divines , that the Testimony of the Holy Ghost is the Ground whereon we believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God , and in what sense it is so shall be immediately declared . But hereon are they generally charged by those of the Church of Rome and others , that they resolve all the Ground and Assurance of Faith into their own particular Spirits , or the Spirit of every one that will pretend thereunto . And this is looked upon as a sufficient Warranty to reproach them with giving countenance unto Enthusiasms , and exposing the minds of men to endless delusions . Wherefore this matter must be a little further enquired into . And , By an internal Testimony of the Spirit , an extraordinary Afflatus , or new immediate Revelation may be intended . Men may suppose they have , or ought to have an internal particular Testimony that the Scripture is the Word of God , whereby , and whereby alone they may be infallibly assured that so it is . And this is supposed to be of the same nature with the Revelation made unto the Prophets and Penmen of the Scripture ; for it is neither an external Proposition of Truth , nor an internal Ability to assent unto such a Proposition . And besides these there is no divine Operation in this kind , but an immediate Prophetical Inspiration or Revelation . Wherefore as such a Revelation or immediate Testimony of the Spirit is the only Reason why we do believe , so it is that alone which our Faith rests on and is resolved into . This is that which is commonly imputed unto those who deny either the Authority of the Church , or any other external Arguments or Motives of Credibility , to be the formal Reason of our Faith. Howbeit there is no one of them that I know of , who ever asserted any such thing . And I do therefore deny that our Faith is resolved into any such private Testimony , immediate Revelation or Inspiration of the Holy Ghost . And that for the ensuing Reasons . 1. Since the finishing of the Canon of the Scripture , the Church is not under that Conduct , as to stand in need of such new extraordinary Revelations . It doth indeed live upon the internal gracious Operations of the Spirit , enabling us to understand , believe , and obey the perfect compleat Revelation of the Will of God already made , but new Revelations it hath neither need nor use of . And to suppose them , or a necessity of them , not only overthrows the Perfection of the Scripture , but also leaveth us uncertain whether we know all that is to be believed in order unto Salvation , or our whole Duty , or when we may do so . For it would be our Duty to live all our days in expectation of new Revelations , wherewith neither Peace , Assurance , nor Consolation are consistent . 2. Those who are to believe , will not be able on this Supposition to secure themselves from Delusion , and from being imposed on by the Deceits of Satan . For this new Revelation is to be tryed by the Scripture , or it is not . If it be to be tried and examined by the Scripture , then doth it acknowledge a superiour Rule , Judgment and Testimony , and so cannot be that which our Faith is ultimately resolved into . If it be exempted from that Rule of trying the Spirits , then ( 1. ) It must produce the Grant of this Exemption , seeing the Rule is extended generally unto all Things and Doctrines that relate unto Faith or Obedience . ( 2. ) It must declare what are the Grounds and Evidences of its own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or self-credibility , and how it may be infallibly or assuredly distinguished from all Delusions , which can never be done . And if any tolerable Countenance could be given unto these things , yet we shall shew immediatly that no such private Testimony though real , can be the formal Object of Faith , or Reason of Believing . 3. It hath so fallen out in the Providence of God , that generally all who have given up themselves in any things concerning Faith or Obedience unto the pretended Conduct of immediate Revelations , although they have pleaded a respect unto the Scripture also , have been seduced into Opinions and Practices directly repugnant unto it . And this with all Persons of Sobriety is sufficient to discard this Pretence . But this internal Testimony of the Spirit is by others explained quite in another way . For they say , that besides the Work of the Holy Ghost before insisted on , whereby he takes away our natural blindness , and enlightning our minds enables us to discern the divine Excellencies that are in the Scripture ; there is another internal Efficiency of his , whereby we are moved , perswaded and enabled to believe : Hereby we are taught of God , so as that finding the Glory and Majesty of God in the Word , our Hearts do by an ineffable Power assent unto the Truth without any Hesitation . And this Work of the Spirit carrieth its own Evidence in it self , producing an Assurance above all humane Judgment , and such as stands in need of no further Arguments or Testimonies ; this Faith rests on and is resolved into . And this some learned men seem to embrace , because they suppose that the objective Evidence which is given in the Scripture it self , is only moral , or such as can give only a moral Assurance . Whereas therefore Faith ought to be divine and supernatural , so must that be whereinto it is resolved , yea it is so alone from the formal Reason of it . And they can apprehend nothing in this Work that is immediately divine , but only this internal Testimony of the Spirit , wherein God himself speaks unto our Hearts . But yet neither , as it is so explained , can we allow it to be the formal Object of Faith , nor that wherein it doth acquiesce . For , 1. It hath not the proper Nature of a divine Testimony . A divine Work it may be , but a divine Testimony it is not ; but it is of the nature of Faith to be built on an external Testimony . However therefore our minds may be established and enabled to believe firmly and stedfastly by an ineffable internal Work of the Holy Ghost , whereof also we may have a certain experience ; yet neither that Work nor the Effect of it can be the Reason why we do believe , nor whereby we are moved to believe , but only that whereby we do believe . 2. That which is the formal Object of Faith , or Reason whereon we believe , is the same , and common unto all that do believe . For our Enquiry is not how or by what means this or that man came to believe , but why any one or every one ought so to do , unto whom the Scripture is proposed . The Object proposed unto all to be believed is the same ; and the Faith required of all in a way of Duty is the same , or of the same kind and nature , and therefore the Reason why we believe must be the same also . But on this Supposition there must be as many distinct Reasons of believing as there are Believers . 3. On this Supposition , it cannot be the Duty of any one to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , who hath not received this internal Testimony of the Spirit . For where the true formal Reason of believing is not proposed unto us , there it is not our duty to believe . Wherefore although the Scripture be proposed as the Word of God , yet is it not our duty to believe it so to be , until we have this Work of the Spirit in our hearts , in case that be the formal Reason of believing . But not to press any further , how it is possible men may be deceived and deluded in their Apprehensions of such an internal Testimony of the Spirit , especially if it be not to be tried by the Scripture ; which if it be , it loseth its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-credibility , or if it be it casteth us into a Circle which the Papists charge us withal ; it cannot be admitted as the formal Object of our Faith , because it would divert us from that which is publick , proper , every way certain and infallible . However that Work of the Spirit which may be called an internal real Testimony is to be granted , as that which belongs unto the Stability and Assurance of Faith. For if he did no otherwise work in us , or upon us , but by the Communication of spiritual Light unto our minds , enabling us to discern the Evidences that are in the Scripture of its own Divine Original , we should often be shaken in our Assent , and moved from our Stability . For whereas our spiritual darkness is removed but in part , and at best whilst we are here we see things but darkly , as in a Glass , all things believed having some sort of Inevidence or Obscurity attending them ; and whereas Temptations will frequently shake and disturb the due respect of the Faculty unto the Object , or interpose Mists and Clouds between them , we can have no Assurance in Believing unless our minds are further established by the Holy Ghost . He doth therefore three ways assist us in believing , and ascertain our minds of the things believed , so as that we may hold fast the beginning of our Confidence firm and stedfast unto the end . For , 1. He gives unto Believers a spiritual Sense of the Power and Reality of the things believed , whereby their Faith is greatly established . And although the divine Witness , whereunto our Faith is ultimately resolved , doth not consist herein , yet it is the greatest corroborating Testimony whereof we are capable . This is that which brings us unto the Riches of the full Assurance of Vnderstanding , Col. 2. 2. as also , 1 Thes. 1. 5. And on the Account of this Spiritual Experience is our perception of Spiritual Things , so often expressed by Acts of Sense , as tasting , seeing , feeling , and the like means of Assurance in things natural . And when Believers have attained hereunto , they do find the divine Wisdom , Goodness , and Authority of God so present unto them , as that they need neither Argument , nor Motive , nor any thing else to perswade them unto , or confirm them in believing . And whereas this spiritual Experience which Believers obtain through the Holy Ghost , is such as cannot rationally be contended about , seeing those who have received it , cannot fully express it , and those who have not , cannot understand it , nor the Efficacy which it hath to secure and establish the mind ; it is left to be determined on by them alone , who have their Senses exercised to discern Good aad Evil. And this belongs unto the internal subjective Testimony of the Holy Ghost . 2. He assists , helps , and relieves us against Temptations to the contrary , so as that they shall not be prevalent . Our first prime Assent unto the divine Authority of the Scripture upon its proper Grounds and Reasons , will not secure us against future Objections and Temptations unto the contrary , from all manner of Causes and Occasions . David's Faith was so assaulted by them , as that he said in his hast , that all men were liars . And Abraham himself , after he had received the Promise , that in his Seed all Nations should be blessed , was reduced unto that anxious Enquiry , Lord God what wilt thou give me , seeing I go childless ? Gen 15. 2. And Peter was so winnowed by Satan , that although his Faith failed not , yet he greatly failed and fainted in its Exercise . And we all know what fears from within , what fightings from without we are exposed unto in this matter . And of this sort are all those Atheistical Objections against the Scripture , which these Days abound withal ; which the Devil useth as fiery Darts to enflame the Souls of men , and to destroy their Faith ; and indeed this is that Work which the Powers of Hell are principally ingaged in at this day . Having lopt off many Branches , they now lay their Ax to the Root of Faith , and thence in the midst of the Profession of Christian Religion , there is no greater Controversy than whether the Scriptures are the Word of God or not . Against all these Temptations doth the Holy Ghost give in such a continual supply of spiritual Strength and Assistance unto Believers , as that they shall at no time prevail , nor their Faith totally fail . In such cases the Lord Christ intercedes for us , that our Faith fail not , and Gods Grace is sufficient against the buffetings of these Temptations . And herein the Truth of Christs Intercession , with the Grace of God , and its Efficacy , are communicated unto us by the Holy Ghost . What are those internal Aids whereby he establisheth and assureth our Minds against the Force and Prevalency of Objections and Temptations against the Divine Authority of the Scripture , how they are communicated unto us , and received by us , this is no place to declare in particular . It is in vain for any to pretend unto the name of Christians , by whom they are denied . And these also have the nature of an internal real Testimony , whereby Faith is established . And because it is somewhat strange , that after a long quiet Possession of the professed Faith , and Assent of the Generality of the Minds of Men thereunto , there should now arise among us such an open Opposition unto the divine Authority of the Scriptures , as we find there is by Experience ; it may not be amiss in our passage to name the principal Causes or Occasions thereof : For if we should bring them all into one Reckoning , as justly we may , who either openly oppose it and reject it , or who use it or neglect it at their pleasure , or who set up other Guides in Competition with it or above it , or otherwise declare that they have no sense of the immediate Authority of God therein ; we shall find them to be like the Moors or Slaves in some Countries or Plantations , they are so great in number and force above their Rulers and other Inhabitants , that it is only want of Communication , with Confidence , and some distinct Interests , that keep them from casting off their Yoak and Restraint . I shall name three Causes only of this surprizing and perillous Event . 1. A long continued outward Profession of the Truth of the Scripture , without an inward Experience of its Power , betrays men at length to question the Truth it self , at least not to regard it as divine . The Owning of the Scriptures to be the Word of God bespeaks a divine Majesty , Authority , and Power to be present in it and with it . Wherefore after men , who have for a long time so professed , do find that they never had any real Experience of such a divine Presence in it by any Effects upon their own Minds , they grow insensibly regardless of it , or to allow it a very common place in their thoughts . When they have worn off the Impressions that were on their mind from Tradition , Education , and Custom , they do for the future rather not oppose it than in any way believe it . And when once a Reverence unto the Word of God on the Account of its Authority is lost , an Assent unto it on the Account of Truth will not long abide . And all such Persons , under a Concurrence of Temptations and outward Occasions , will either reject it , or prefer other Gnides before it . 2. The Power of Lust rising up unto a Resolution of living in those Sins , whereunto the Scripture doth unavoidably annex eternal Ruine , hath prevailed with many to cast off its Authority . For whilst they are resolved to live in an Outrage of Sin , to allow a divine Truth and Power in the Scripture is to cast themselves under a present Torment , as well as to ascertain their future Misery : for no other can be his Condition who is perpetually sensible that God always condemns him in all that he doth , and will assuredly take vengeance of him , which is the constant language of the Scripture concerning such Persons . Wherefore although they will not immediately fall into an open Atheistical Opposition unto it , as that which it may be is not consistent with their Interest and Reputation in the World , yet looking upon it as the Devils did on Jesus Christ , as that which comes to torment them before their time , they keep it at the greatest distance from their thoughts and minds , until they have habituated themselves unto a Contempt of it . There being therefore an utter impossibility of giving any pretence of Reconciliation between the Owning of the Scriptures to be the Word of God , and a Resolution to live in an excess of known Sin ; Multitudes suffer their Minds to be bribed by their corrupt Affections to a Relinquishment of any Regard unto it . 3. The scandalous Quarrels , and Disputations of those of the Church of Rome against the Scripture and its Authority , have contributed much unto the ruine of the Faith of many . Their great Design is by all means to secure the Power , Authority , and Infallibility of their Church . Of these they say continually , as the Apostle in another case of the Mariners , unless these stay in the Ship we cannot be saved ; Without an Acknowledgment of these things they would have it , that men can neither at present believe , nor be saved hereafter . To secure this Interest , the Authority of the Scripture must be by all means questioned and impaired . A divine Authority in it self they will allow it , but with respect unto us it hath none but what it obtains by the Suffrage and Testimony of their Church . But whereas Authority is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and consists essentially in the Relation and Respect which it hath unto others , or those that are to be subject unto it ; to say that it hath an Authority in it self , but none towards us , is not only to deny that it hath any Authority at all , but also to reproach it with an empty name . They deal with it as the Souldiers did with Christ , they put a Crown on his Head , and cloathed him with a purple Robe , and bowing the Knee before him mocked him , saying , Hail King of the Jews . The ascribe unto it the Crown and Robe of Divine Authority in it self , but not towards any one Person in the World. So , if they please , God shall be God , and his Word be of some Credit among men . Herein they seek continually to entangle those of the weaker Sort , by urging them vehemently with this Question , How do you know the Scripture to be the Word of God ? and have in continual readyness a number of sophistical Artifices to weaken all Evidences that shall be pleaded in its behalf . Nor is that all ; but on all Occasions they insinuate such Objections against it from its Obscurity , Imperfection , want of Order , Difficulties , and seeming Contradictions in it , as are suited to take off the minds of men from a firm Assent unto it , or Reliance on it . As if a Company of men should conspire by crafty multiplied Insinuations , divulged on all advantages , to weaken the Reputation of a chast and sober Matron ; although they cannot deprive her of her Vertue ; yet unless the World were wiser than for the most part it appears to be , they will insensibly take off from her due esteem . And this is as bold an Attempt as can well be made in any Case . For the first Tendency of these Courses is to make men Atheists , after which success it is left at uncertain hazard whether they will be Papists or no. Wherefore as there can be no greater nor more dishonourable Reflection made on Christian Religion , than that it hath no other Evidence or Testimony of its Truth , but the Authority and Witness of those by whom it is at present professed , and who have notable worldly advantages thereby ; so the minds of multitudes are secretly influenced by the Poison of these Disputes , to think it no way necessary to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God ; or at least are shaken off from the Grounds whereon they have professed it so to be . And the like Dis-service is done unto Faith and the Souls of Men , by such as advance a Light within , or immediate Inspiration into Competition with it , or the Room of it . For as such Imaginations take place and prevail in the minds of men , so their Respect unto the Scripture , and all Sense of its divine Authority doth decay , as Experience doth openly manifest . It is , I say , from an unusual Concurrence of these and the like Causes and Occasions , that there is at present among us such a Decay in , Relinquishment of , and Opposition unto the Belief of the Scripture , as it may be former Ages could not parallel . But against all these Objections and Temptations , the Minds of true Believers are secured by Supplies of spiritual Light , Wisdom , and Grace from the Holy Ghost . There are several other especial gracious Actings of the Holy Spirit on the minds of Believers , which belong also unto this internal real Testimony , whereby their Faith is established . Such are his anointing and sealing of them , his witnessing with them , and his being an Earnest in them , all which must be elsewhere spoken unto . Hereby is our Faith every day more and more increased and established . Wherefore although no internal Work of the Spirit can be the formal Reason of our Faith , or that which it is resolved into ; yet is it such , as without it we can never sincerely believe as we ought , nor be established in believing against Temptations and Objections . And with respect unto this Work of the Holy Ghost it is , that Divines at the first Reformation did generally resolve our Faith of the divine Authority of the Scripture into the Testimony of the Holy Spirit . But this they did not do exclusively unto the proper use of external Arguments and Motives of Credibility , whose Store indeed is great , and whose Fountain is inexhaustible . For they arise from all the indubitable Notions that we have of God or our selves , in reference unto our present Duty or future Happiness . Much less did they exclude that Evidence thereof which the Holy Ghost gives unto it in and by it self . Their Judgment is well expressed in the excellent Words of one of them . Maneat ergo ( saith he ) hoc fixum , quos Spiritus intus docuit solidè acquiescere in Scripturâ , & hanc quidem esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , neque demonstrationi & rationibus subjici eam fas esse ; quam tamen meretur apud nos certitudinem Spiritus testimonio consequi ; eisi enim Reverentiam sua sibi ultro Majestate conciliat , tunc tamen demum serio nos afficit , quum per Spiritum obsignata est cordibus nostris . Istius ergo veritate illuminati , jam non aut nostro , aut aliorum judicio credimus a Deo esse Scripturam ; sed supra humanum judicium certo certius constituimus , non secus ac si ipsius Dei numen illic intueremur hominum ministerio , ab ipsissimo Dei ore ad nos fluxisse . Non Argumenta , non veri Similitudines quaerimus , quibus judicium nostrum incumbat ; sed ut rei extra estimandi aleam positae judicium ingeniumque nostrum subjicimus . Non qualiter superstitionibus solent miseri homines captivam mentem addicere ; sed quia non dubiam vim Numinis illic sentimus vigere & spirare , quam ad parendum scientes ac volentes , vividius tamen & efficacius quam pro humana aut voluntate aut scientia trahimur & accendimur . Talis ergo est Persuasio quae rationes non requirat , talis notitia cui optima ratio cosnstet , nempe , in qua securius constantiusque mens qui scat , quam in ullis rationibus ; talis denique sensus , qui nisi ex caelesti Revelatione nequeat . Non aliud loquor quam quod apud se experitur fidelium unusquisque nisi quod longe infra justam rei explicationem verba subsidunt . Calv. Instit. lib. 2. cap. 7 , 8 , 9. And we may here briefly call over what we have attained or passed through . For , ( 1. ) We have shewed in general both what is the Nature of divine Revelation , and divine Illumination , with their mutual Respect unto one another . ( 2. ) What are the principal external Arguments or Motives of Credibility , whereby the Scripture may be proved to b● of a divine Original . ( 3. ) What kind of Perswasion is the Effect of them , or what is the Assent which we give unto the Truth of the Scriptures on their Account . ( 4. ) What objective Evidence there is unto Reason in the Doctrine of the Scriptures to induce the mind to assent unto them . ( 5. ) What is the Nature of that Faith whereby we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , and how it is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost . ( 6. ) What is that Internal Testimony which is given unto the divine Authority of the Scriptures by the holy Spirit , what is the Force and Use thereof . The Principal Part of our Work doth yet remain . That which we have thus far made way for , and which is now our only remaining Enquiry , is , What is the Work of the Holy Ghost with respect unto the objective Evidence which we have concerning the Scripture , that it is the Word of God , which is the formal Reason of our Faith , and whereinto it is resolved , that is , we come to enquire and to give a direct Answer unto that Question , Why we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God ? what it is that our Faith rests upon herein ? and what it is that makes it the Duty of every man to believe it so to be , unto whom it is proposed . And the Reason why I shall be the briefer herein is , because I have long since in another Discourse cleared this Argument , and I shall not here again call over any thing that was delivered therein , because what hath been unto this day gainsaid unto it , or excepted against it , hath been of little Weight or Consideration . Unto this great Enquiry therefore I say , We believe the Scripture to be the Word of God with divine Faith for its own sake only ; or our Faith is resolved into the Authority and Truth of God only , as revealing himself unto us therein and thereby . And this Authority and Veracity of God do infallibly manifest or evince themselves unto our Faith , or our Minds in the exercise of it , by the Revelation it self in the Scripture , and no otherwise Or , Thus saith the Lord , is the Reason why we ought to believe , and why we do so ; why we believe at all in general , and why we believe any thing in particular . And this we call the formal Object or Reason of Faith. And it is evident that this is not God himself absolutely considered ; for so he is only the material Object of our Faith ; He that cometh unto God must believe that he is , Heb. 11. 6. Nor is it the Truth of God absolutely , for that we believe as we do other essential Properties of his Nature : But it is the Truth of God revealing himself , his mind and will unto us in the Scripture . This is the sole Reason why we believe any thing with Divine Faith. It is , or may be enquired , wherefore we do believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God , or that God is one in Nature , subsisting in three Persons , the Father , Son , and Holy Spirit ? I answer , it is , because God himself , the first Truth , who cannot lie , hath revealed and declared these things so to be , and he who is our All , requireth us so to believe . If it be asked how , wherein , or whereby God hath revealed and declared these things so to be , or what is that Revelation which God hath made hereof ? I answer , It is the Scripture , and that only . And if it be asked , how I know this Scripture to be a Divine Revelation , to be the Word of God ? I answer , ( 1. ) I do not know it demonstratively , upon rational scientifical Principles , because such a Divine Revelation is not capable of such a Demonstration , 1. Cor. 2. 9. ( 2. ) I do not assent unto it , or think it to be so upon Arguments and Motives highly probable , or morally uncontroulable only , as I am assuredly perswaded of many other things whereof I can have no certain Demonstration , 1 Thes. 2. 15. But I believe it so to be with Faith divine and supernatural , resting on , and resolved into the Authority and Veracity of God himself , evidencing themselves unto my Mind , my Soul and Conscience by this Revelation it self , and not otherwise . Here we rest , and deny that we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God formally for any other Reason but it self , which assureth us of its Divine Authority . And if we rest not here , we must run on the Rock of a moral Certainty only ; which shakes the Foundation of all Divine Faith , or fall into the Gulf and Labyrinth of an endless Circle in proving two things mutually by one another , as the Church by the Scripture , and the Scripture by the Church in an everlasting Rotation . Unless we intend so to wander we must come to something wherein we may rest for its own sake , and that not with a strong and firm Opinion , but with Divine Faith. And nothing can rationally pretend unto this Priviledge , but the Truth of God manifesting it self in the Scripture . And therefore those , who will not allow it hereunto , do some of them wisely deny that the Scriptures being the Word of God is the Object of Divine Faith directly , but only of a moral Perswasion from eternal Arguments and Considerations . And I do believe that they will grant , that if the Scripture be so to be believed , it must be for its own sake . For those who would have us to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God upon the Authority of the Church , proposing it unto us , and witnessing so to be , though they make a fair appearance of a ready and easy way for the exercise of Faith , yet when things come to be sifted and tried , they do so confound all sorts of things , that they know not where to stand or abide . But it is not now my Business to examine their Pretences , I have done it elsewhere . I shall therefore prove and establish the Assertion laid down , after I have made way to it by one or two previous Observations . 1. We suppose herein all the Motives of Credibity before mentioned , that is , all the Arguments ab extra , which vehemently perswade the Scripture to be the Word of God , and wherewith it may be protected against Objections and Temptations to the contrary . They have all of them their Use , and may in their proper place be insisted on . Especially ought they to be pleaded when the Scripture is attacked by an Atheism , arising from the Love and Practice of those Lusts and Sins which are severely condemned therein , and threatned with the utmost Vengeance . With others they may be considered as previous inducements unto believing , or concomitant means of strengthning Faith in them that do believe . In the first way , I confess , to the best of my Observation of things past and present , their Use is not great , nor ever hath been in the Church of God. For assuredly the most that do sincerely believe the divine Original and Authority of the Scripture , do it without any great Consideration of them , or being much influenced by them . And there are many who , as Austin speaks , are saved simplicitate credendi , and not subtilitate disputandi , that are not able to enquire much into them , nor yet to apprehend much of their Force and Efficacy , when they are proposed unto them . Most Persons therefore are effectually converted to God and have saving Faith whereby they believe the Scripture , and virtually all that is contained in it , before they have ever once considered them . And God forbid we should think that none believe the Scripture aright , but those who are able to apprehend and manage the subtil Arguments of learned men produced in their Confirmation . Yea we affirm on the contrary , that those who believe them on no other Grounds have indeed no true Divine Faith at all . Hence they were not of old insisted on for the ingenerating of Faith in them to whom the Word was preached , nor ordinarily are so to this day by any who understand what is their Work and Duty . But in the second way , wherever there is occasion from Objections , Oppositions , or Temptations , they may be pleaded to good use and purpose . And they may do well to be furnished with them , who are unavoidably exposed unto trials of that Nature . For as for that Course which some take in all places and at all times to be disputing about the Scriptures , and their Authority ; it is a Practice giving countenance unto Atheism , and is to be abhorred of all that fear God , and the Consequents of it are sufficiently manifest . 2. The Ministry of the Church , as it is the Ground and Pillar of Truth , holding it up and declaring it , is in an ordinary way previously necessary unto Believing . For Faith cometh by hearing , and hearing by the Word of God. We believe the Scripture to be the Word of God for it self alone , but not by it self alone . The Ministry of the Word is the means which God hath appointed for the Declaration and making known the Testimony which the Holy Spirit gives in the Scripture unto its Divine Original . And this is the ordinary way whereby men are brought to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God. The Church in its Ministry , owning , witnessing , and avowing it so to be , instructing all sorts of Persons out of it , there is together with a sense and apprehension of the Truth and Power of the things taught and revealed in it , Faith in it self as the Word of God , ingenerated in them . 3. We do also here suppose the internal effectual Work of the Spirit begetting Faith in us as was before declared ; without which we can believe neither the Scripture nor any Thing else with Faith divine , not for want of Evidence in them but of Faith in our selves . These things being supposed we do affirm , that it is the Authority and Truth of God , as manifesting themselves in the supernatural Revelation made in the Scripture , that our Faith ariseth from and is resolved into . And herein consists that Testimony which the Spirit gives unto the Word of God that it is so ; for it is the Spirit that beareth witness , because the Spirit is Truth . The Holy Ghost being the immediate Author of the whole Scripture doth therein and thereby give Testimony unto the Divine Truth and Original of it , by the Characters of Divine Authority and Veracity impressed on it , and evidencing themselves in its Power and Efficacy . And let it be observed , that what we assert respects the Revelation it self , the Scripture , the Writing , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and not meerly the things written or contained in it . The Arguments produced by some to prove the Truth of the Doctrines of the Scripture , reach not the Cause in hand . For our Enquiry is not about believing the Truths revealed , but about believing the Revelation it self , the Scripture it self to be Divine . And this we do only because of the Authority and Veracity of the Revealer , that is of God himself , manifesting themselves therein . To manifest this fully , I shall do these things . 1. Prove that our Faith is so resolved into the Scripture as a Divine Revelation , and not into any thing else , that is , we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God for its own sake , and not for the sake of any thing else , either external Arguments , or authoritative Testimony of men whatever . 2. Shew how or by what means the Scripture doth evidence its own divine Original , or the Authority of God is so evidenced in it and by it , as that we need no other formal Cause or Reason of our Faith , whatever Motives or Means of Believing we may make use of . And as to the first of these . 1. That is the formal Reason whereon we do believe , which the Scripture proposeth as the only Reason why we should so do , why it is our Duty to do so , and whereunto it requireth our Assent . Now this is to it self as it is the Word of God , and because it is so . Or it proposeth the Authority of God in it self , and that alone , which we are to acquiesce in , and the Truth of God and that alone which our Faith is to rest on , and is resolved into . It doth not require us to believe it upon the Testimony of any Church , or on any other Arguments that it gives us to prove that it is from God ; but speaks unto us immediately in his name , and thereon requires Faith and Obedience . Some it may be , will ask , Whether this prove the Scripture to be the Word of God , because it says so of it self , when any other Writing may say the same ? But we are not now giving Arguments to prove unto others the Scripture to be the Word of God , but only proving and shewing what our own Faith resteth on , and is resolved into , or at least ought so to be . How it evidenceth it self unto our Faith to be the Word of God we shall afterwards declare . It is sufficient unto our present purpose , that God requires us to believe the Scripture for no other Reason but because it is his Word , or a Divine Revelation from him ; and if so , his Authority and Truth are the formal Reason why we believe the Scripture or any thing contained in it . To this purpose do Testimonies abound in particular , besides that general Attestation which is given unto it in that sole Preface of divine Revelations , Thus saith the Lord ; and therefore they are to be believed . Some of them we must mention . Deut. 31. 11 , 12 , 13. When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall chuse , thou shalt read this Law before all Israel in their hearing ; Gather the people together , Men , Women , and Children , and the Stranger that is within thy Gates , that they may hear , and that they may learn , and fear the Lord your God , and observe to do all the Works of this Law , and that their Children which have not known any thing may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God. It is plain that God here requireth Faith and Obedience of the whole people , Men , Women and Children . The Enquiry is what he requireth it unto ? It is to this Law , to this Law written in the Books of Moses , which was to be read unto them out of the Book , at the hearing of which they were obliged to believe and obey . To evidence that Law to be his , he proposeth nothing but it self . But it will be said , that Generation was sufficiently convinced that the Law was from God , by the Miracles which they beheld in the giving of it . But moreover it is ordered to be proposed unto Children of future Generations , who knew nothing , that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord. That which by the Appointment of God is to be proposed unto them that know nothing that they may believe , that is unto them the formal Reason of their Believing . But this is the written Word , Thou shalt read this Law unto them who have known nothing , that they may hear and learn , &c. Whatever use therefore there may be of other Motives or Testimonies to commend the Law unto us , of the Ministry of the Church especially , which is here required unto the Proposal of the Word unto men , it is the Law it self , or the written Word which is the Object of our Faith , and which we believe for its own sake ; see also chap. 29. 29. where revealed things are said to belong unto us and our Children that we might do them , that is receive them on the Account of their Divine Revelation . Isa. 8. 19 , 20. And when they shall say unto you , Seek unto them that have familiar Spirits , and unto Wizards , that peep and mutter ; should not a people seek unto their God ? for the living to the dead ? To the Law , and to the Testimony ; if they speak not according to this Word , it is because there is no Light in them . The Enquiry is by what means men may come to satisfaction in their Minds and Consciences , or what their Faith and Trust is in . Two Things are proposed unto this end . ( 1. ) Immediate diabolical Revelations , real or pretended . ( 2. ) The written Word of God , the Law and the Testimony . Hereunto are we sent , and that upon the Account of its own Authority alone , in opposition unto all other pretences of Assurance or Security . And the sole Reason why any one doth not acquiesce by Faith in the written Word , is because he hath no Mornings , or Light of Truth shining on him . But how shall we know the Law and Testimony , this written Word , to be the Word of God , and believe it so to be , and distinguish it from every other pretended Divine Revelation , that is not so ? This is declared ; Jerem. 23. 28 , 29. The Prophet that hath a Dream , let him tell a Dream ; and he that hath my Word , let him speak my Word faithfully . What is the Chaff to the Wheat , saith the Lord ? Is not my Word like as fire , saith the Lord ? and like an Hammer that breaketh the Rock in pieces ? It is supposed that there are two Persons in Reputation for Divine Revelations esteemed Prophets ; one of them only pretends so to be , and declares the Dreams of his own Fancy , or the Divinations of his own Mind , as the Word of God. The other hath the Word of God and declares it faithfully from him . Yea but how shall we know the one from the other ? Even as men know Wheat from Chaff , by their different Natures and Effects . For as false pretended Revelations are but as Chaff which every Wind will scatter ; so the true Word of God is like a Fire , and like an Hammer , is accompanied with that Light , Efficacy , and Power , that it manifests it self unto the Consciences of men so to be . Hereon doth God call us to rest our Faith on it in opposition unto all other Pretences whatever . But is it of this Authority and Efficacy in it self ? See Luk. 16. 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31. Then said he , [ the rich Man in Hell , ] I pray thee therefore Father , that thou wouldest send him [ Lazarus who was dead , ] unto my Fathers house , for I have five Brethren , that he may testify unto them lest they also come into this place of torment . Abraham saith unto him , they have Moses and the Prophets , let them hear them . And he said , Nay Father Abraham , but if one went unto them from the dead they would repent ; and he said unto him , if they hear not Moses and the Prophets , neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead . The Question here between Abraham and the rich Man in this Parable , indeed between the Wisdom of God and the superstitious Contrivances of Men , is about the way and means of bringing those who are Unbelievers and impenitent unto Faith and Repentance . He who was in Hell apprehended that nothing would make them believe but a Miracle , one rising from the dead and speaking unto them ; which or the like marvellous Operations many at this day think would have mighty power and influence upon them to settle their minds and change their lives ; should they see one rise from the dead , and come and converse with them , this would convince them of the Immortality of the Soul , of future Rewards and Punishments , as giving them sufficient Evidence thereof , so that they would assuredly repent and change their Lives ; but as things are stated they have no sufficient evidence of these things , so that they doubt so far about them as that they are not really influenced by them ; give them but one real Miracle and you shall have them for ever . This I say , was the Opinion and Judgment of him who was represented in Hell , as it is of many who are posting thither apace . He who was in Heaven thought otherwise , wherein we have the immediate Judgment of Jesus Christ given in this matter , determining this Controversy . The Question is about sufficient Evidence and Efficacy to cause us to believe Things divine and supernatural ; and this he determines to be in the written Word , Moses and the Prophets . If he that will not believe on the single Evidence of the written Word to be from God , or a Divine Revelation of his Will , will never believe upon the Evidence of Miracles nor any other Motives , then that written Word contains in it self the entire formal Reason of Faith , or all that Evidence of the Authority and Truth of God in it , which Faith divine and supernatural rests upon ; that is , it is to be believed for its own sake . But saith our Lord Jesus Christ himself , if men will not hear , that is , believe Moses and the Prophets , neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead , and come and preach unto them , a greater Miracle than which they could not desire . Now this could not be spoken , if the Scripture did not contain in it self the whole entire formal Reason of Believing ; for if it have not this , something necessary unto believing would be wanting , though that were enjoyed . And this is directly affirmed , John 20. 30 , 31. And many other Signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his Disciples , which are not written in this Book . But these are written , that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God , and that believing you might have life through his Name . The Signs which Christ wrought did evidence him to be the Son of God. But how come we to know and believe these Signs ? what is the way and means thereof ? Saith the blessed Apostle , these things are written that you may believe ; this writing of them by Divine Inspiration is so far sufficient to beget and assure Faith in you , as that thereby you may have eternal life through Jesus Christ. For if the writing of Divine Things and Revelations be the means appointed of God to cause men to believe unto eternal life , then it must as such carry along with it sufficient Reason why we should believe , and Grounds whereon we should do so . And in like manner is this matter determined by the Apostle Peter , 2 Pet. 1. 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21. For we have not followed cunningly devised Fables , when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ , but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty . For he received from God the Father honour and glory , when there came such a Voice to him from the excellent Glory ; This is my beloved Son , in whom I am well pleased . And this Voice which came from Heaven we heard , when we were with him in the holy Mount. We have also a more sure Word of Prophecy , whereunto ye do well that ye take heed , as unto a Light shining in a dark place , until the day dawn , and the day-star arise in your hearts . Knowing this first , that no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation . For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost . The Question is about the Gospel , or the Declaration of the powerful Coming of Jesus Christ , whether it were to be believed or no ? and if it were , upon what Grounds ? Some said it was a cunningly devised Fable ; others , that it was a fanatical Story of mad men , as Festus thought of it when preached by Paul , Acts 26. 24. and very many are of the same mind still . The Apostles on the contrary averred that what was spoken concerning him were Words of truth and soberness , yea faithful Sayings , and worthy of all acceptation , 1 Tim. 1. 15. that is , to be believed for its Worth and Truth . The Grounds and Reasons hereof are two . ( 1. ) The Testimony of the Apostles , who not only conversed with Jesus Christ , and were eye Witnesses of his Majesty , beholding his Glory , the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father , full of Grace and Truth , John 1. 14. which they gave in Evidence of the Truth of the Gospel , 1 John 1. 1. But also heard a miraculous Testimony given unto him immediately from God in Heaven , ver . 17. 18. This gave them indeed sufficient Assurance ; but whereinto shall they resolve their Faith who heard not this Testimony ? Why they have a more sure , that is , a most sure Word of Prophecy , that is , the written Word of God , that is sufficient of it self to secure their Faith in this matter , especially as confirmed by the Testimony of the Apostles , whereby the Church comes to be built in its Faith on the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles , Ephes. 2. 20. But why should we believe this Word of Prophecy ? may not that also be a cunningly devised Fable , and the whole Scripture be but the Suggestions of mens private Spirits , as is objected ? Ver. 20. All is finally resolved into this , that the Writers of it were immediately moved and acted by the Holy Ghost , from which Divine Original it carrieth along its own Evidence with it . Plainly that which the Apostle teacheth us is , that we believe all other Divine Truths for the Scriptures sake , or because they are declared therein ; but the Scripture we believe for its own sake , or because holy men of God wrote it as they were moved by the Holy Ghost . So is the whole Object of Faith proposed by the same Apostle , 2 Pet. 3. 2. The Words that were spoken before by the holy Prophets , and the Commandments of the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour . And because our Faith is resolved into them , we are said to be built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles , as was said Eph. 2. 20. that is , our Faith rests solely , as on its proper Foundation which bears the weight of it , on the Authority and Truth of God in their Writings . Hereunto we may add that of Paul. Rom. 16. 25 , 26. According to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began , but now is made manifest , and by the Scriptures of the Prophets , according to the Commandment of the everlasting God , made known unto all Nations for the Obedience of Faith. The matter to be beleived is the Mystery of the Gospel , which was kept secret since the World began , or from the giving of the first Promise , not absolutely , but with respect unto that full manifestation which it hath now received . This God commands to be believed , the everlasting God , he who hath sovereign Authority over all , requires Faith in a way of Obedience hereunto . But what Ground or Reason have we to believe it ? This alone is proposed , namely , the Divine Revelation made in the Preaching of the Apostles , and Writings of the Prophets ; for Faith cometh by hearing , and hearing by the Word of God , Rom. 10. 17. This Course and no other did our Saviour , even after his Resurrection , take to beget and confirm Faith in the Disciples , Luk. 24. 25 , 26 , 27. That great Testimony to this purpose ; 2 Tim. 3. 14 , 15 , 16 , 17. I do not plead in particular , because I have so fully insisted on it in another Discourse . From these and many other Testimonies to the same purpose , which might be produced , it is evident , 1. That it is the Scripture it self , the Word or Will of God as revealed or written , which is proposed unto us as the Object of our Faith and Obedience , which we are to receive and believe with Faith divine and supernatural . 2. That no other Reason is proposed unto us either as a Motive to encourage us , or as an Argument to assure us that we shall not be mistaken , but only its own Divine Original and Authority , making our Duty necessary , and securing our Faith infallibly . And those Testimonies are with me of more weight a thousand times than the plausible Reasonings of any to the contrary . With some indeed it is grown a matter of contempt to quote or cite the Scripture in our Writings , such Reverence have they for the Ancient Fathers , some of whose Writings are nothing else but a perpetual Contexture of Scripture . But for such who pretend to despise those Testimonies in this Case , it is because either they do not understand what they are produced to confirm , or cannot answer the Proof that is in them . For it is not unlikely but that some Persons well conceited of their own Understanding in things wherein they are most ignorant , will pride and please themselves in the Ridiculousness of proving the Scripture to be the Word of God by Testimonies taken out of it . But as was said , we must not forgo the Truth because either they will not or cannot understand what we discourse about . 2. Our Assertion is confirmed by the uniform Practice of the Prophets and Apostles , and all the Penmen of the Scripture , in proposing these Divine Revelations which they received by immediate Inspiration from God. For that which was the Reason of their Faith unto whom they first declared those Divine Revelations , is the Reason of our Faith now they are recorded in the Scripture . For the writing of it being by God's Appointment , it comes into the room and supplies the place of their Oral Ministry . On what Ground soever men were obliged to receive and believe Divine Revelations , when made unto them by the Prophets and Apostles , on the same are we obliged to receive and believe them now they are made unto us in the Scripture , the VVriting being by divine Inspiration , and appointed as the Means and Cause of our Faith. It is true , God was pleased sometimes to bear witness unto their personal Ministry by Miracles , or Signs and Wonders , as Heb. 2. 4. God bearing them witness . But this was only at some seasons , and with some of them . That which they universally insisted on , whether they wrought any Miracles or no , was , that the Word which they preached , declared , wrote , was not the Word of man , came not by any private Suggestion , or from any Invention of their own , but was indeed the Word of God , 1 Thes. 2. 13. and declared by them as they were acted by the Holy Ghost . 2 Pet. 1. 21. Under the Old Testament , although the Prophets sometimes referred Persons unto the Word already written , as that which their Faith was to acquiesce in , Isa. 8. 20 , Mal. 4. 4. setting out its Power and Excellency for all the ends of Faith and Obedience , Psal. 19. 7 , 8 , 9. Psal. 119. and not to any thing else , nor to any other Motives or Arguments to beget and require Faith , but it s own Authority only ; yet as to their own especial Messages and Revelations , they laid the Foundation of all the Faith and Obedience which they required , in this alone , Thus saith the Lord , the God of Truth . And under the New Testament , the infallible Preachers and Writers thereof do in the first place propose the Writings of the Old Testament to be received for their own sake , or on the Account of their Divine Original ; see John 45. 46 , 47. Luk. 16. 29 , 31. Mat. 21. 42. Acts 18. 24 , 25 , 28. Acts 24. 14. chap. 26. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 21. Hence are they called the Oracles of God , Rom. 3. 2. And Oracles always required an Assent for their own sakes , and other Evidence they pleaded none . And for the Revelations which they superadded , they pleaded that they had them immediately from God by Jesus Christ , Gal. 1. 1. And this was accompanied with such an infallible Assurance in them that received it as to be preferred above a Supposition of the highest Miracle to confirm any thing to the contrary ; Gal. 1. 8. For if an Angel from Heaven should have preached any other Doctrine than what they revealed and proposed in the Name and Authority of God , they were to esteem him accursed . For this Cause they still insisted on their Apostolical Authority and Mission , which included infallible Inspiration and Directions as the Reason of the Faith of them unto whom they preached and wrote . And as for those who were not themselves divinely inspired , or wherein those that were so did not act by immediate Inspiration , they proved the Truth of what they delivered by its consonancy unto the Scriptures already written , referring the Minds and Consciences of Men unto them for their ultimate Satisfaction ; Acts 18. 28. chap. 28. 33. 3. It was before granted , that there is required as subservient unto believing , as a means of it , or the Resolution of our Faith into the Authority of God in the Scriptures , the ministerial Proposal of the Scriptures and the Truths contained in them , with the Command of God for Obedience unto them , Rom. 16. 25. 26. This Ministry of the Church , either extraordinary or ordinary , God hath appointed unto this End , and ordinarily it is indispensible thereunto , Rom. 10. 14 , 15. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a Preacher , and how shall they preach unless they are sent ? Without this ordinarily we cannot believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , nor the things contained in it to be from him , though we do not believe either the one or the other for it . I do grant that in extraordinary cases outward Providences may supply the room of this Ministerial Proposal ; for it is all one as unto our Duty by what means the Scripture is brought unto us . But upon a Supposition of this Ministerial Proposal of the Word , which ordinarily includes the whole Duty of the Church in its Testimony and Declaration of the Truth , I desire to know whether those unto whom it is proposed are obliged without further external Evidence to receive it as the Word of God , to rest their Faith in it , and submit their Consciences unto it ? The Rule seems plain , that they are obliged so to do , Mark 16. 16. We may consider this under the distinct ways of its Proposal extraordinary , and ordinary . Upon the Preaching of any of the Prophets by immediate Inspiration of the Holy Ghost , or on their Declaration of any new Revelation they had from God , by preaching or writing , suppose Isaiah or Jeremiah , I desire to know whether or no all Persons were bound to receive their Doctrine as from God , to believe and submit unto the Authority of God in the Revelation made by him , without any external Motives or Arguments , or the Testimony or Authority of the Church witnessing thereunto ? If they were not , then were they all excused as guiltless , who refused to believe the Message they declared in the Name of God , and in despising the Warnings and Instructions which they gave them . For external Motives they used not , and the present Church mostly condemned them and their Ministry ; as is plain , and the Case of Jeremiah . Now it is impious to imagine that those to whom they spake in the Name of God were not obliged to believe them , and it tends to the overthrow of all Religion . If we shall say that they were obliged to believe them , and that under the Penalty of divine Displeasure , and so to receive the Revelation made by them , or their Declaration of it , as the Word of God ; then it must contain in it the formal Reason of believing , or the full and entire Cause . Reason and Ground why they ought to believe with Faith divine and supernatural . Or let another Ground of Faith in this Case be assigned . Suppose the Proposal be made in the ordinary Ministry of the Church . Hereby the Scripture is declared unto Men to be the Word of God ; they are acquainted with it , and what God requires of them therein , and they are charged in the Name of God to receive and believe it . Doth any Obligation unto believing hence arise ? It may be some will say that immediately there is not ; only they will grant that men are bound hereon to enquire into such Reasons and Motives , as are proposed unto them for its Reception and Admission . I say , there is no doubt but that Men are obliged to consider all things of that Nature which are proposed unto them , and not to receive it with brutish implicit Belief . For the receiving of it is to be an Act of Mens own Minds or Understandings , on the best Grounds and Evidences which the Nature of the thing proposed is capable of . But supposing Men to do their Duty in their diligent Enquiries into the whole Matter , I desire to know , whether by the Proposal mentioned there come upon Men an Obligation to believe ? If there do not , then are all Men perfectly innocent , who refuse to receive the Gospel in the preaching of it , as to any respect unto that preaching ; which to say , is to overthrow the whole Dispensation of the Ministry . If they are obliged to believe upon the preaching of it , then hath the Word in it self those Evidences of its Divine Original and Authority , which are a sufficient Ground of Faith , or Reason of Believing ; For what God requires us to believe upon , hath so always . As the Issue of this whole Discourse , it is affirmed , that our Faith is built on and resolved into the Scripture it self , which carries with it its own Evidence of being a Divine Revelation . And therefore doth that Faith ultimately rest in the Truth and Authority of God alone , and not in any Human Testimony , such as is that of the Churh , nor in any rational Arguments or Motives that are absolutely fallible . It may be said that if the Scripture thus evidence it self to be the Word of God , as the Sun manifesteth it self by Light , and Fire by Heat , or as the first Principles of Reason are evident in themselves without further Proof or Testimony ; then every one , and all men , upon the Proposal of the Scripture unto them , and its own bare Assertion , that it is the Word of God , would necessarily on that Evidence alone assent thereunto , and believe it so to be . But this is not so , all Experience lyeth against it ; nor is there any pleadable Ground of Reason that so it is , or that so it ought to be . In Answer unto this Objection I shall do these two things . 1. I shall shew what it is , what Power , what Faculty in the Minds of Men , whereunto this Revelation is proposed , and whereby we assent unto the Truth of it , wherein the Mistakes whereon this Objection proceedeth will be discovered . 2. I shall mention some of those things , whereby the Holy Ghost testifieth and giveth Evidence unto the Scripture in and by it self , so as that our Faith may be immediately resolved into the Veracity of God alone . 1. And in the first place we may consider , that there are three Ways whereby we assent unto any thing that is proposed unto us as true , and receive it as such . 1. By inbred Principles of natural Light , and the first rational Actings of our Minds . This in Reason answers Instinct in irrational Creatures . Hence God complains that his People did neglect and sin against their own natural Light , and first Dictates of Reason , whereas brute Creatures would not forsake the Conduct of the Instinct of their Natures , Isa. 1. 3. In general , the Mind is necessarily determined to an Assent unto the proper Objects of these Principles ; it cannot do otherwise . It cannot but assent unto the prime Dictates of the Light of Nature , yea those Dictates are nothing but its Assent . Its first Apprehension of the things which the Light of Nature embraceth , without either express Reasonings or further Consideration , are this Assent . Thus doth the Mind embrace in it self the general Notions of moral Good and Evil , with the Difference between them , however it practically complies notwith what they guide unto ; Jude v. 10. And so doth it assent unto many Principles of Reason , as that the whole is greater than the part , without admitting any debate about them . 2. By rational Considerations of things externally proposed unto us . Herein the Mind exerciseth its discursive Faculty , gathering one thing out of another , and concluding one thing from another . And hereon is it able to assent unto what is proposed unto it in various Degrees of Certainty , according unto the nature and degree of the Evidence it proceeds upon . Hence it hath a certain Knowledg of some things ; of others an Opinion or Perswasion prevalent against the Objections to the contrary , which it knows , and whose Force it understands ▪ which may be true or false . 3. By Faith. This respects that Power of our Minds , whereby we are able to assent unto any thing as true , which we have no first Principles concerning , no inbred Notions of , nor can from more known Principles make unto our selves any certain rational Conclusions concerning them . This is our Assent upon Testimony , whereon we believe many Things , which no Sense , inbred Principles , nor Reasonings of our own , could either give us an Acquaintance with , or an Assurance of . And this Assent also hath not only various Degrees , but is also of divers Kinds , according as the Testimony is which it ariseth from , and resteth on ; as being Humane if that be Humane , and Divine if that be so also . According to these distinct Faculties and Powers of our Souls , God is pleased to reveal or make known himself , his Mind or Will three ways unto us . For he hath implanted no Power on our Minds , but the principal Use and Exercise of it are to be with respect unto himself , and our living unto him , which is the end of them all . And a neglect of the improvement of them unto this end , is the highest Aggravation of Sin. It is an Aggravation of Sin , when men abuse the Creatures of God otherwise than he hath appointed , or in not using them to his Glory ; when they take his Corn , and Wine and Oil , and spend them on their Lusts , Hos. 2. 8. It is an higher Aggravation when men in sinning abuse and dishonour their own Bodies ; for these are the principal external Workmanship of God , being made for Eternity , and whose Preservation unto his Glory is committed unto us in an especial manner . This the Apostle declareth to be the peculiar Aggravation of the Sin of Fornication and Uncleanness in any kind , 1 Cor. 6. 18 , 19. But the Height of Impiety consists in the Abuse of the Faculties aud Powers of the Soul , wherewith we are endowed purposely and immediately for the glorifying of God. Hence proceed Unbelief , Prophaness , Blasphemy , Atheism , and the like Pollutions of the Spirit of Mind . And these are Sins of the highest Provocation . For the Powers and Faculties of our Minds being given us only to enable us to live unto God , the diverting of their principal Exercise unto other Ends , is an Act of Enmity against him , and Affront unto him . 1. He makes himself known unto us by the innate Principles of our Nature , unto which he hath communicated as a Power of apprehending , so an indelible Sense of his Being , his Authority and his Will , so far as our natural Dependance on him , and moral Subjection unto him do require . For whereas there are two things in this natural Light and first Dictates of Reason ; first , a Power of Conceiving , Discerning , and Assenting ; and secondly , a Power of Judging and Determining upon the things so discerned and assented unto : by the one God makes known his Being , and Essential Properties ; by the other his Sovereign Authority over all . As to the first , the Apostle affirms , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Rom. 1. 19. That which may be known of God , ( his Essence , Being , Subsistence , his natural , necessary , essential Properties ) is manifest in them ; that is , it hath a self evidencing Power , acting it self in the Minds of all Men indued with natural Light and Reason . And as unto his Sovereign Authority , he doth evidence it in and by the Consciences of men , which are the Judgment that they make , and cannot but make , of themselves and their Actions , with respect unto the Authority and Judgment of God , Rom. 2. 14 , 15. And thus the Mind doth assent unto the Principles of God's Being and Authority , antecedently unto any actual Exercise of the discursive Faculty of Reason , or other Testimony whatever . 2. He doth it unto our Reason in its Exercise , by proposing such things unto its Consideration , as from whence it may and cannot but conclude in an Assent unto the Truth of what God intends to reveal unto us that way . This he doth by the Works of Creation and Providence , which present themselves unavoidably unto Reason in its Exercise , to instruct us in the Nature , Being , and Properties of God. Thus the Heavens declare the Glory of God , and the Firmament sheweth his handy-Work . Day unto Day uttereth Speech , and Night unto Night sheweth Knowledge . There is no Speech nor Language where their Voice is not heard , Psal. 19. 1 , 2 , 3. But yet they do not thus declare , evidence and reveal the Glory of God unto the first Principles and Notions of natural Light , without the actual Exercise of Reason . Only they do so when we consider his Heavens the Work of his Fingers , the Moon and the Stars which he hath ordained , as the same Psalmist speaks Psal. 8. 3. A rational Consideration of them , their Greatness , Order , Beauty , and Use , is required unto that Testimony and Evidence which God gives in them and by them unto Himself , his glorious Being , Power . To this purpose the Apostle discourseth at large concerning the Works of Creation , Rom. 1. 20 , 21 , 22. as also of those of Providence , Acts 14. 15 , 16 , 17. chap. 17. 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28. and the rational Use we are to make of them , verse 29. So God calls unto Men for the Exercise of their Reason about these Things , reproaching them with Stupidity and Brutishness where they are wanting therein ; Isa , 46. 7 , 8 , 9. chap. 44. 18 , 19. 20. 3. God reveals himself unto our Faith , or that Power of our Souls whereby we are able to ass●nt unto the Truth of what is proposed unto us upon Testimony . And this he doth by his Word , or the Scriptures proposed unto us in the manner and way before expressed . He doth not reveal himself by his Word unto the Principles of natural Light , nor unto Reason in its Exercise . But yet these Principles , and Reason it self , with all the Faculties of our Minds , are consequentially affected with that Revelation , and are drawn forth into their proper Exercise by it . But in the Gospel the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith , Rom. 1. 17. not to natural Light , Sense or Reason in the first place . And it is Faith that is the Evidence of things not seen , as revealed in the Word , Heb. 11. 1. Unto this kind of Revelation , Thus saith the Lord , is the only Ground and Reason of our Assent ; and that Assent is the Assent of Faith , because it is resolved into Testimony alone . And concerning these several ways of the Communication or Revelation of the Knowledge of God , it must be always observed , that there is a perfect consonancy in the things revealed by them all . If any thing pretends from the one what is absolutely contradictory unto the other , or our Senses as the means of them , it is not to be received . The Foundation of the whole , as of all the actings of our Souls , is in the inbred Principles of natural Light , or first necessary Dictates of our intellectual rational Nature . This , so far as it extends , is a Rule unto our Apprehension in all that follows . Wherefore if any pretend in the Exercise of Reason , to conclude unto any thing concerning the Nature , Being , or Will of God , that is directly contradictory unto those Principles and Dictates , it is no Divine Revelation unto our Reason , but a Paralogism from the defect of Reason in its Exercise . This is that which the Apostle chargeth on , and vehemently urgeth against the Heathen Philosophers . Inbred Notions they had in themselves of the Being and Eternal Power of God ; and these were so manifest in them thereby , that they could not but own them . Hereon they set their rational discursive Faculty at work in the Consideration of God and his Being . But herein were they so vain and foolish , as to draw Conclusions directly contrary unto the first Principles of natural Light , and the unavoidable Notions which they had of the Eternal Being of God , Rom. 1. 21 , 22 , 23 , 24. And many upon their pretended rational Consideration of the promiscuous Event of things in the World , have foolishly concluded that all things had a fortuitous Beginning , and have fortuitous Events , or such as from a Concatenation of antecedent Causes are fatally necessarily , and are not disposed by an infinitely Wise , Unerring , Holy Providence . And this also is directly contradictory unto the first Principles and Notions of natural Light , whereby it openly proclaims it self not to be an Effect of Reason in its due Exercise , but a meer Delusion . So if any pretend unto Revelations by Faith , which are contradictory unto the first Principles of natural Light , or Reason in its proper Exercise about its proper Objects , it is a Delusion . On this Ground the Roman Doctrine of Transubstantiation is justly rejected ; for it proposeth that as a Revelation by Faith , which is expresly contradictory unto our Sense and Reason in their proper Exercise about their proper Objects . And a supposition of the possibility of any such thing , would make the ways whereby God reveals and makes known himself , to cross and enterfere one with another ; which would leave us no certainty in any thing Divine or Humane . But yet as these means of Divine Revelation do harmonize and perfectly agree one with the other ; so they are not objectively equal , or equally extensive , nor are they coordinate , but subordinate unto one another . Wherefore there are many things discernable by Reason in its Exercise , which do not appear unto the first Principles of natural Light. So the Sober Philosophers of old attained unto many true and great Conceptions of God , and the Excellencies of his Nature , above what they arrived unto , who either did not or could not cultivate and improve the Principles of natural Light in the same manner as they did . It is therefore Folly to pretend that things so made known of God are not infallibly true and certain , because they are not obvious unto the first Conceptions of natural Light , without the due Exercise of Reason , provided they are not contradictory thereunto . And there are many Things revealed unto Faith that are above and beyond the Comprehension of Reason , in the best and utmost of its most proper Exercise . Such are all the principal Mysteries of Christian Religion . And it is the height of Folly to reject them , as some do , because they are not discernable and comprehensible by Reason , seeing they are not contradictory thereunto . Wherefore these Ways of Gods Revelation of Himself , are not equally extensive , or commensurate , but are so subordinate one unto another , that what is wanting unto the one is supplied by the other , unto the Accomplishment of the whole and entire end of Divine Revelation ; and the Truth of God is the same in them all . The Revelation which God makes of Himself in the first way , by the inbred Principles of natural Light , doth sufficiently and infallibly evidence it self to be from Him ; it doth it in , unto , and by those Principles themselves . This Revelation of God is infallible , the Assent unto it is infallible , which the infallible Evidence it gives of it self makes to be so . We dispute not now what a few Atheistical Scepticks pretend unto , whose Folly hath been sufficiently detected by others . All the Sobriety that is in the World consents in this , that the Light of the Knowledge of God , in and by the inbred Principles of our Minds and Consciences , doth sufficiently , uncontroulably , and infallibly manifest it self to be from him , and that the Mind neither is , nor can be possibly imposed on in its Apprehensions of that Nature . And if the first Dictates of Reason concerning God do not evidence themselves to be from God , they are neither of any Use nor Force ; for they are not capable of being confirmed by external Arguments ; and what is written about them is to shew their Force and Evidence , not to give them any . Wherefore this first Way of Gods Revelation of himself unto us is infallible , and infallibly evidenceth it self in our Minds according to the Capacity of our Natures . 2. The Revelation that God maketh of Himself by the Works of Creation and Providence , unto our Reason in Exercise , or the Faculties of our Souls as discursive , concluding rationally one thing from another , doth sufficiently , yea infallibly evidence and demonstrate it self to be from him , so that it is impossible we should be deceived therein . It doth not do so unto the inbred Principles of natural Light , unless they are engaged in a rational exercise about the means of the Revelation made ; that is , we must rationally consider the Works of God , both of Creation and Providence , or we cannot learn by them what God intends to reveal of himself ; and in our doing so we cannot be deceived . For the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen , being understood by the things that are made , even his eternal Power and Godhead , Rom. 1. 20. They are clearly seen , and therefore may be perfectly understood as to what they teach of God without any possibility of Mistake . And wherever men do not receive the Revelation intended in the Way intended , that is , do not certainly conclude that what God teaches by his Works of Creation and Providence , namely , his Eternal Power and Godhead , with the essential Properties thereof , Infinite Wisdom , Goodness , Righteousness , and the like , is certainly and infallibly so , believing it accordingly ; it is not from any defect in the Revelation , or its self-evidencing Efficacy , but only from the depraved , vitious Habits of their Minds , their Enmity against God , and Dislike of him . And so the Apostle saith , that they who rejected or improved not the Revelation of God , did it , because they did not like to retain God in their Knowledg , Rom. 1. 28. For which Cause God did so severely revenge their natural Unbelief , as is there expressed . See Isa. 46. 8. chap 44. 15 , 19 , 20. That which I principally insist on from hence is , that the Revelation which God makes of himself by the Works of Creation and Providence , doth not evidence it self unto the first Principles of natural Light , so as that an Assent should be given thereunto without the Actual Exercise of Reason , or the discursive Faculty of our Minds about them ; but thereunto it doth infallibly evidence it self . So may the Scripture have and hath a self evidencing Efficacy , though this appear not unto the Light of first natural Principles , no nor to bare Reason in its Exercise . For , 3. Unto our Faith God reveals himself by the Scripture , or his Word which he hath magnified above all his Name , Psal. 138. 2. that is , implanted on it more Characters of Himself , and his Properties , than on any other Way whereby he revealeth or maketh himself known unto us . And this Revelation of God by his Word , we confess , is not sufficient nor suited to evidence it self unto the Light of Nature , or the first Principles of our Understanding , so that by bare Proposal of it to be from God , we should by virtue of them immediately assent unto it , as men assent unto self-evident natural Principles , as that the part is lesser than the whole , or the like . Nor doth it evidence it self unto our Reason in its meer natural Exercise , as that by virtue thereof we can demonstratively conclude that it is from God , and that what is declared therein is certainly and infallibly true . It hath indeed such external Evidences accompanying it , as makes a great Impression on Reason it self . But the Power of our Souls whereunto it is proposed is that whereby we can give an Assent unto the Truth upon the Testimony of the Proposer , whereof we have no other Evidence . And this is the principal and most noble Faculty and Power of our Natures . There is an Instinct in brute Creatures , that hath some Resemblance unto our inbred natural Principles ; and they will act that Instinct , improved by Experience , into a great likeness of Reason in its Exercise , although it be not so . But as unto the Power or Faculty of giving an Assent unto Things on Witness or Testimony , there is nothing in the Nature of irrational Creatures that hath the least Shadow of it or Likeness unto it . And if our Souls did want but this one Faculty of assenting unto Truth upon Testimony , all that remains would not be sufficient to conduct us through the affairs of this natural Life . This therefore being the most noble Faculty of our Minds , is that whereunto the highest Way of Divine Revelation is proposed . 4. That our Minds in this especial Case to make our Assent to be according unto the Mind of God , and such as is required of us in a way of Duty , are to be prepared and assisted by the Holy Ghost , we have declared and proved before . On this Supposition the Revelation which God makes of himself by his Word , doth no less evidence it self unto our Minds in the Exercise of Faith to be from him , or gives no less infallible Evidence as a Ground and Reason why we should believe it to be from him , than his Revelation of himself by the Works of Creation and Providence doth manifest it self unto our Minds in the Exercise of Reason to be from him , nor with less Assurance that what we assent unto in and by the Dictates of natural Light. And when God revealeth himself , that is , his Eternal Power and Godhead , by the things that are made , the Works of Creation , the Heavens declaring his Glory , and the Firmament shewing his handy-work ; the Reason of Men stirred up and brought into Exercise thereby , doth infallibly conclude upon the Evidence that is in that Revelation , that there is a God , and he eternally Powerful and Wise , without any further Arguments to prove the Revelation to be true . So when God by his Word reveals himself unto the Minds of Men , thereby exciting and bringing forth Faith into Exercise , or the Power of the Soul to assent unto Truth upon Testimony , that Revelation doth no less infallibly evidence it self to be Divine or from God , without any external Arguments to prove it so to be . If I shall say unto a man that the Sun is risen and shineth on the Earth ; if he question or deny it , and ask how I will prove it ; it is a sufficient Answer to say , that it manifesteth it self in and by its own Light : and if he add , that this is no proof to him for he doth not discern it ; suppose that to be so , it is a satisfactory Answer to tell him that he is blind ; and if he be not so , that it is to no purpose to argue with him who contradicts his own Sense , for he leaves no Rule whereby what is spoken may be tried or judged on . And if I tell a Man that the Heavens declare the Glory of God , and the Firmament sheweth his Handy-Work , or that the Invisible Things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen , being understood by the Things that are made ; and he shall demand how I prove it ; it is a sufficient Answer to say , that these things in and by themselves do manifest unto the Reason of every man in its due and proper Exercise , that there is an Eternal , infinitely Wise and Powerful Being , by whom they were caused , produced and made ; so as that whosoever knoweth how to use and exercise his reasonable Faculty in the Consideration of them , their Original , Order , Nature and Use , must necessarily conclude that so it is . If he shall say , that it doth not so appear unto him that the Being of God is so revealed by them ; It is a sufficient Reply , in case he be so indeed , to say he is Phrenetick , and hath not the Use of his Reason ; and if he be not so , that he argues in express Contradiction unto his own Reason , as may be demonstrated . This the Heathen Philosophers granted . Quid potest ( saith Cicero ) esse tam apertum tamque perspicuum , cum Coelum suspeximus , coelestiaque contemplati sumus , quam esse aliquod Numen praestantissimae mentis , quo haec reguntur ; quod qui dubitat haud sane intelligo cur non idem Sol sit , an nullus sit dubitare possit . De Natura Deor. lib. 2. And if I declare unto any one , that the Scripture is the Word of God , a Divine Revelation , and that it doth evidence and manifest it self so to be . If he shall say , that he hath the Use and Exercise of his Sense and Reason as well as others , and yet it doth not appear unto him so to be ; it is as unto the present Enquiry , a sufficient Reply for the Security of the Authority of the Scriptures ( though other means may be used for his Conviction ) to say , that all men have not Faith ; by which alone the Evidence of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures is discoverable ; in the Light whereof alone we can read those Characters of its Divine Extract , which are impressed on it , and communicated unto it . If it be not so , seeing it is a Divine Revelation , and it is our Duty to believe it so to be , it must be either because our Faith is not fitted , suited , nor able to receive such an Evidence , suppose God would give it unto the Revelation of himself by his Word , as he hath done unto those by the Light of Nature and Works of Providence ; or because God would not or could not give such an Evidence unto his Word as might manifest it self so to be . And neither of these can be affirmed without an high Reflection on the Wisdom and Goodness of God. That our Faith is capable of giving such an Assent is evident from hence , because God works it in us , and bestows it upon us for this very End. And God requireth of us that we should infallibly believe what he proposeth unto us , at least when we have infallible evidence that it is from him . And as he appointeth Faith unto this end , and approveth of its Exercise , so he doth both judg and condemn them who fail therein , 2 Chron. 20. 20. Isa. 7. 9. Mark 16. 16. Yea our Faith is capable of giving an Assent , though of another kind , more firm and accompanied with more Assurance , than any is given by Reason in the best of its Conclusions . And the Reason is , because the Power of the Mind to give Assent upon Testimony , which is its most noble Faculty , is elevated and strengthned by the Divine Supernatural Work of the Holy Ghost , before described . To say that God either could not or would not give such a Power unto the Revelation of himself by his Word , as to evidence it self to be so , is exceedingly prejudicial unto his Honour and Glory , seeing the everlasting Welfare of the Souls of Men is incomparably more concerned therein than in the other ways mentioned . And what Reason could be assigned why he should implant a less Evidence of his Divine Authority on this than on them , seeing he designed far greater and more glorious Ends in this than in them . If any one shall say the Reason is , because this kind of Divine Revelation is not capable of receiving such Evidences ; it must be either because there cannot be evident Characters of Divine Authority , Goodness , Wisdom , Power , implanted on it or mixed with it ; or because an Efficacy to manifest them cannot be communicated unto it . That both these are otherwise , shall be demonstrated in the last Part of this Discourse , which I shall now enter upon . It hath been already declared , that it is the Authority and Veracity of God , revealing themselves in the Scripture and by it , that is the formal Reason of our Faith , or Supernatural Assent unto it as it is the Word of God. It remains only that we enquire in the Second Place into the Way and Means whereby they evidence themselves unto us , and the Scripture thereby to be the Word of God , so as that we may undoubtedly and infallibly believe it so to be . Now because Faith , as we have shewed , is an Assent upon Testimony , and consequently Divine Faith is an Assent upon Divine Testimony . There must be some Testimony or Witness in this case whereon Faith doth rest . And this we say is the Testimony of the Holy Ghost , the Author of the Scriptures , given unto them in them and by them . And this Work or Testimony of the Spirit may be reduced unto two Heads , which may be distinctly insisted on . 1. The Impressions or Characters which are subjectively left in the Scripture and upon it , by the Holy Spirit its Author , of all the Divine Excellencies or Properties of the Divine Nature , are the first Means evidencing that Testimony of the Spirit which our Faith rests upon ; or they do give the first Evidence of its Divine Original and Authority , whereon we do believe it . The Way whereby we learn the eternal Power and Deity of God from the Works of Creation , is no otherwise but by those Marks , Tokens and Impressions of his Divine Power , Wisdom and Goodness that are upon them . For from the Consideration of their Subsistence , Greatness , Order , and Use , Reason doth necessarily conclude an Infinite Subsisting Being , of whose Power and Wisdom these things are the manifest Effects . These are clearly seen and understood by the Things that are made ; we need no other Arguments to prove that God made the World , but it self . It carrieth in it and upon it the infallible Tokens of its Original . See to this purpose the blessed Meditation of the Psalmist , Psal. 104. throughout . Now there are greater and more evident Impressions of Divine Excellencies left on the written Word from the Infinite Wisdom of the Author of it , than any that are communicated unto the Works of God , of what sort soever . Hence David comparing the Works and the Word of God , as to their instructive Efficacy in declaring God and his Glory , although he ascribe much unto the Works of Creation , yet doth he prefer the Word incomparably before them , Psal. 19. 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 , 8 , 9. and Psal. 146. ver . 8 , 9. &c. and 19. 20. And these do manifest the Word unto our Faith to be his more clearly , than the other do the Works to be his , unto our Reason . As yet I do not know that it is denied by any , or the contrary asserted , namely , that God , as the immediate Author of the Scripture , hath left in the very Word it self Evident Tokens and Impressions of his Wisdom , Prescience , Omniscience , Power , Goodness , Holiness , Truth , and other Divine , Infinite Excellencies , sufficiently evidenced unto the enlightned Minds of Believers . Some I confess speak suspitiously herein ; but until they will directly deny it , I shall not need further to confirm it , than I have done long since in another Treatise . And I leave it to be considered , whether ( morally speaking ) it be possible that God should immediately by himself from the eternal Counsels of his Will reveal Himself , his Mind , the Thoughts and Purposes of his Heart , which had been hidden in Himself from Eternity , on purpose that we should believe them , and yeild Obedience unto him according to the Declaration of Himself so made , and yet not give with it , or leave upon it any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , any infallible Token , evidencing him to be the Author of that Revelation . Men who are not ashamed of their Christianity , will not be so to profess and seal that Profession with their Blood , and to rest their eternal Concernments on that Security herein which they have attained , namely , that there is that Manifestation made of the glorious Properties of God in and by the Scripture , as it is a Divine Revelation which incomparably excells in Evidence all that their Reason receives concerning his Power from the Works of Creation . This is that whereon we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God with Faith Divine and Supernatural , if we believe it so at all . There is in it self that Evidence of its Divine Original from the Characters of Divine Excellencies left upon it by its Author the Holy Ghost , as Faith quietly rests in , and is resolved into . And this Evidence is manifest unto the meanest and most unlearned no less than unto the wisest Philosophers . And the Truth is , if Rational Arguments and External Motives were the sole Ground of receiving the Scripture to be the Word of God , it could not be , but that learned Men and Philosophers would have always been the forwardest and most ready to admit it , and most firmly to adhere unto it , and its Profession . For whereas all such Arguments do prevail on the Minds of Men according as they are able aright to discern their Force and judge of them , learned Philosophers would have had the Advantage incomparably above others . And so some have of late affirmed , that it was the wise , rational , and learned Men , who at first most readily received the Gospel ; an Assertion which nothing but gross Ignorance of the Scripture it self , and all the Writings concerning the Original of Christianity , whether of Christians or Heathens , could give the least Countenance unto ; see 1 Cor. 1. 23 , 26. From hence is the Scrip●ure so often compared unto Light , called Light , a Light shining in a dark place , which will evidence it self unto all who are not blind , or do wilfully shut their Eyes , or have their Eyes blinded by the God of this World , lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ , who is the Image of God , should shine unto them ; which Consideration I have handled at large elsewhere . 2. The Spirit of God evidenceth the Divine Original and Authority of the Scripture , by the Power and Authority which he puts forth in it and by it over the Minds and Consciences of Men , with its Operation of Divine Effects thereon . This the Apostle expresly affirms to be the Reason and Cause of Faith , 1 Cor. 14. 24 , 25. If all prophesy , and there comes in one that believeth not , or one unlearned , he is convinced of all , he is judged of all . And thus are the Secrets of his Heart made manifest , and so falling down on his Face , he will worship God , and report that God is in you of a Truth . The Acknowledgment and Confession of God to be in them or among them , is a Profession of Faith in the Word administred by them . Such Persons assent unto its Divine Authority , or believe it to be the Word of God. And on what Evidence or Ground of Credibility they did so , is expresly declared . It was not upon the Force of any external Arguments produced and pleaded unto that Purpose . It was not upon the Testimony of this or that , or any Church whatever ; nor was it upon a Conviction of any Miracles which they saw wrought in its Confirmation . Yea the Ground of the Faith and Confession declared , is opposed unto the Efficacy and Use of the Miraculous Gift of Tongues , v. 23 , 24. Wherefore the only Evidence whereon they received the Word , and acknowledged it to be of God , was that Divine Power and Efficacy , whereof they found and felt the Experience in themselves . He is convinced of all , judged of all , and thus are the Secrets of his Heart made manifest , whereon he falls down before it with an Acknowledgment of its Divine Authority , finding the VVord to come upon his Conscience with an irresistible Power of Conviction and Judgment thereon [ He is convinced of all , judged of all , ] He cannot but grant that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Divine Efficacy in it , or accompanying of it . Especially his Mind is influenced by this , that the Secrets of his Heart are made manifest by it . For all Men must acknowledge this to be an Effect of Divine Power ; seeing God alone is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he who searcheth , knoweth , and judgeth the Heart . And if the VVoman of Samaria believed that Jesus was the Christ , because he told her all things that ever she did , John 4. 29. there is Reason to believe that VVord to be from God , which makes manifest even the Secrets of our Hearts . And although I do conceive that by the Word of God , Heb. 4. 12. the Living and Eternal Word is principally intended , yet the Power and Efficacy there ascribed to him is that which he puts forth by the VVord of the Gospel . And so that VVord also , in its Place and use , pierceth to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit , of the Joynts and Marrew , and is a Discerner , or passeth a critical Judgment on the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart , or makes manifest the Secrets of mens Hearts , as it is here expressed . Hereby then doth the Holy Ghost so evidence the Divine Authority of the Word , namely , by that Divine Power which it hath upon our Souls and Consciences , that we do assuredly acquiesce in it to be from God. So the Thessalonians are commended that they received the Word not as the Word of Men , but as it is in truth the Word of God , which effectually works in them that believe , 1 Thess. 2. 15. It distinguisheth it self from the Word of Men , and evidences it self to be indeed the Word of God by its effectual Operation in them that believe . And he who hath this Testimony in himself hath a higher and more firm Assurance of the Truth than what can be attained by the Force of external Arguments , or the Credit of Humane Testimony . VVherefore I say in general , that the Holy Spirit giveth Testimony unto , and evinceth the Divine Authority of the Word , by its Powerful Operations and Divine Effects on the Souls of them that do believe . So that although it be weakness and foolishness unto others , yet as is Christ himself unto them that are called , it is the Power of God , and the VVisdom of God. And I must say , that although a Man be furnished with external Arguments of all Sorts concerning the Divine Original and Authority of the Scriptures ; although he esteem his Motives of Credibility to be effectually perswasive , and have the Authority of any or all the Churches in the VVorld to confirm his Perswasion , yet if he have no Experience in himself of its Divine Power , Authority and Efficacy , he neither doth nor can believe it to be the Word of God in a due manner , with Faith Divine and Supernatural . But he that hath this Experience hath that Testimony in himself which will never fail . This will be the more manifest , if we consider some few of those many Instances , wherein it exerts its Power , or the Effects which are produced thereby . The Principal Divine Effect of the Word of God is in the Conversion of the Souls of Sinners unto God. The Greatness and Glory of this Work we have elsewhere declared at large . And all those who are acquainted with it as it is declared in the Scripture , and have any Experience of it in their own Hearts , do constantly give it as an Instance of the exceeding Greatness of the Power of God. It may be they speak not improperly , who prefer the Work of the New Creation before the Work of the Old , for the express Evidences of Almighty Power contained in it , as some of the Ancients do . Now of this Great and Glorious Effect the Word is the only Instrumental Cause , whereby the Divine Power operates and is expressive of it self . For we are born again , born of God , not of Corruptible Seed , but of Incorruptible by the Word of God , which abideth for ever , 1 Pet. 1. 21. For of his own Will doth God beget us with the Word of Truth , Jam. 1. 18. The Word is the Seed of the New Creature in us , that whereby our whole Natures , our Souls and all their Faculties are changed and renewed into the Image and Likeness of God. And by the same Word is this new Nature kept and preserved , 1 Pet. 2. 2. and the whole Soul carried on unto the Enjoyment of God. It is unto Believers an Ingrafted Word , which is able to save their Souls ; James 1. 21. The Word of God's Grace , which is able to build us up , and give us an Inheritance among them that are sanctified , Acts 20. 32. And that because it is the Power of God unto Salvation unto them that do believe , Rom. 1. 16. All the Power which God puts forth and exerts in the Communication of that Grace and Mercy unto Believers , whereby they are gradually carried on and prepared unto Salvation , he doth it by the Word . Therein , in an especial manner , is the Divine Authority of the Word evidenced by the Divine Power and Efficacy given unto it by the Holy Ghost . The VVork which is effected by it in the Regeneration , Conversion , and Sanctification of the Souls of Believers , doth evidence it infallibly unto their Consciences , that it is not the VVord of Man , but of God. It will be said , this Testimony is private in the Minds only of them on whom this VVork is wrought . And therefore do I press it no further ; but he that believeth hath the Witness in himself , 1 John 5. 10. Let it be granted , that all who are really converted unto God by the Power of the VVord , have that infallible Evidence and Testimony of its Divine Original , Authority , and Power in their own Souls and Consciences , that they thereon believe it with Faith Divine and Supernatural , in Conjunction with the other Evidences before mentioned , as Parts of the same Divine Testimony , and it is all I aim at herein . But yet although this Testimony be privately received ( for in it self it is not so , but common unto all Believers ) yet is it ministerially pleadable in the Church , as a Principal Motive unto Believing . A Declaration of the Divine Power which some have found by Experience in the VVord , is an Ordinance of God to convince others , and to bring them unto the Faith. Yea of all the external Arguments that are or may be pleaded to justify the Divine Authority of the Scripture , there is none more prevalent nor cogent , than this of its mighty Efficacy in all Ages on the Souls of Men , to change , convert , and renew them into the Image and Likeness of God , which hath been Visible and Manifest . Moreover there are yet other particular Effects of the Divine Power of the Word on the Minds and Consciences of Men , belonging unto this general Work , either preceding or following of it , which are clearly sensible and enlarge the Evidence . As , 1. The Work of Conviction of Sin on those who expected it not , who desired it not , and who would avoid it if by any means possible they could . The VVorld is filled with Instances of this Nature ; whilst Men have been full of love to their Sins , at Peace in them , enjoying Benefit and Advantage by them , the VVord coming upon them in its Power , hath awed , disquieted , and terrified them , taken away their Peace , destroyed their Hopes , and made them , as it were whether they would or no , that is , contrary to their Desires , Inclinations and carnal Affections , to conclude that if they comply not with what is proposed unto them in that Word , which before they took no notice of , nor had any regard unto , they must be presently or eternally miserable . Conscience is the Territory or Dominion of God in Man , which he hath so reserved unto himself , that no Human Power can possibly enter into it , or dispose of it in any wise . But in this VVork of Conviction of Sin , the VVord of God , the Scripture , entreth into the Conscience of the Sinner , takes possession of it , disposeth it unto Peace or Trouble by its Laws or Rules , and no otherwise . VVhere it gives Disquietments , all the VVorld cannot give it Peace ; and where it speaks Peace there is none can give it Trouble . VVere not this the Word of God , how should it come thus to speak in his Name , and to act his Authority in the Consciences of Men as it doth ? when once it begins this VVork , Conscience immediately owns a new Rule , a new ▪ Law , a new Government , in order to the Judgment of God upon it and all its Actions . And it is contrary to the Nature of Conscience to take this upon it self , nor would it do so , but that it sensibly finds God speaking and acting in it , and by it ; see 1 Cor. 14. 25 , 26. An Invasion may be made on the outward Duties that Conscience disposeth unto ; but none can be so upon its internal Actings . No Power under Heaven can cause Conscience to think , act , or judge otherwise than it doth by its immediate Respect unto God. For it is the Minds self-judging with respect unto God ; and what is not so , is no Act of Conscience . VVherefore to force an Act of Conscience implies a Contradiction . However it may be defiled , bribed , seared , and at length utterly debauched ; admit of a Superiour Power , a Power above or over it self under God it cannot . I know Conscience may be prepossessed with Prejudices ; and by Education , with the Insinuation of Traditions , take on it self the Power of False , Corrupt , Superstitious Principles and Errors , as Means of Conveying unto it a Sense of Divine Authority ; So is it with the M●humetans , and other false Worshippers in the World. But the Power of those Divine Convictions , whereof we treat , is manifestly different from such prejudicate Opinions . For where these are not imposed on Men by Artifices and Delusions easily discoverable , they prepossess their Minds and Inclinations by Traditions , antecedently unto any right Judgment they can make of themselves or other things ; and they are generally wrapt up and condited in their secular Interests . The Convictions we treat of come from without , upon the Minds of Men , and that with a sensible Power , prevailing over all their previous Thoughts and Inclinations . Those first affect , deceive and delude the notional Part of the Soul , whereby Conscience is insensibly influenced and diverted into improper Respects , and is deceived as to its judging of the Voice of God ; these immediately principle the Practical Understanding and self-judging Power of the Soul. Wherefore such Opinions and Perswasions are gradually insinuated into the Mind , and are admitted insensibly without Opposition or Reluctancy , being never accompanied at their first Admission with any secular Disadvantage . But these Divine Convictions by the Word befall Men , some when they think of nothing less , and desire nothing less ; some when they design other Things , as the Pleasing of their Ears , or the Entertainment of their Company ; and some that go on purpose to deride and scoff at what should be spoken unto them from it . It might also be added unto the same purpose , how confirmed some have been in their carnal Peace and Security , by Love of Sin , with innumerable inveterate Prejudices ; what Losses and Ruine to their outward Concernments many have fallen into by admitting of their Convictions ; what Force , Diligence , and Artifices have been used to defeat them , what Contribution of Aid and Assistance hath there been from Satan unto this purpose ; and yet against all hath the Divine Power of the Word absolutely prevailed , and accomplished its whole designed Effect . See 2 Cor. 10. 4 , 5. Jerem. 23. 29. Zach. 1. 6. 2. It doth it by the Light that is in it , and that Spiritual Illuminating Efficacy wherewith it is accompanied . Hence it is called a Light shining in a dark Place , 2 Pet. 1. 19. That Light whereby God shines into the Hearts and Minds of Men , 2 Cor. 4. 4 , 6. Without the Scripture all the World is in Darkness . Darkness covers the Earth , and thick Darkness the People , Isa ▪ 60. 2. It is the Kingdom of Satan filled with Darkness and Confusion . Superstition , Idolatry , lying Vanities , wherein Men know not at all what they do , nor whither they go , fill the whole World ; even as it is at this Day . And the Minds of Men are naturally in Darkness ; there is a Blindness upon them that they cannot see nor discern Spiritual Things , no not when they are externally proposed unto them , as I have at large evinced elsewhere . And no Man can give a greater Evidence that it is so , than he who denies it so to be . With Respect unto both these Kinds of Darkness the Scripture is a Light , and accompanied with a Spiritual Illuminating Efficacy , thereby evidencing it self to be a Divine Revelation . For what but Divine Truth could recall the Minds of Men from all their wandrings in Error , Superstition , and other Effects of Darkness , which of themselves they love more than Truth ? All Things being filled with Vanity , Error , Confusion , Misapprehensions about God and our selves , our Duty and End , our Misery and Blessedness ; the Scripture , where it is communicated by the Providence of God , comes in as a Light into a Dark Place , discovering all Things clearly and steadily , that concern either God or our selves , our present or future Condition ; causing all the Ghosts , and false Images of Things which Men had framed and fancied unto themselves in the Dark , to vanish and disappear . Digitus Dei ! this is none other but the Power of God. But principally it evidenceth this its Divine Efficacy , by that Spiritual Saving Light , which it conveighs into and implants on the Minds of Believers . Hence there is none of them who have gained any Experience by the Observation of God's Dealings with them , but shall , although they know not the Ways and Methods of the Spirits Operations by the Word , yea can say with the Man unto whom the Lord Jesus restored his Sight , One thing I know , that whereas I was born blind , now I see . This Power of the Word , as the Instrument of the Spirit of God for the Communication of Saving Light and Knowledge unto the Minds of Men , the Apostle declares , 2 Cor. 3. 18. chap. 4. 4 , 6. By the Efficacy of this Power doth he evidence the Scripture to be the Word of God. Those who believe , find by it a Glorious Supernatural Light introduced into their Minds , whereby they who before saw nothing in a distinct affecting manner in Spirituals , do now clearly discern the Truth , the Glory , the Beauty , and Excellency of Heavenly Mysteries , and have their Minds transformed into their Image and LikeLineness . And there is no Person who hath the Witness in himself of the kindling of this Heavenly Light in his Mind by the Word , but hath also the Evidence in himself of its Divine Original . 3. It doth in like manner evidence its Divine Authority by the Awe , which it puts on the Minds of the Generality of Mankind unto whom it is made known , that they dare not absolutely reject it . Multitudes there are unto whom the Word is declared , who hate all its Precepts , despise all its Promises , abhor all its Threatnings , like nothing , approve of nothing of what it declares or proposes , and yet dare not absolutely refuse or reject it . They deal with it as they do with God Himself , whom they hate also , according to the Revelation which he hath made of Himself in his Word . They wish he were not , sometimes they hope he is not , would be glad to be free of his Rule , but yet dare not , cannot absolutely deny and disown Him , because of that Testimony for Himself , which he keeps alive in them whether they will or no. The same is the Frame of their Hearts and Minds towards the Scripture , and that for no other Reason but because it is the Word of God , and manifesteth it selfsso to be . They hate it , wish it were not , hope it is not true , but are not by any Means able to shake off a Disquiet in the Sense of its Divine Authority . This Testimony it hath fixed in the Hearts of Multitudes of its Enemies ; Psal. 45. 5. 4. It evidences its Divine Power in administring strong Consolations in the deepest and most unrelievable Distresses . Some such there are , and such many Men fall into , wherein all Means and Hopes of Relief may be utterly removed and taken away . So is it when the Miseries of Men are not known unto any that will so much as pity them , or wish them Relief ; or if they have been known , and there hath been an Eye to pity them , yet there hath been no Hand to help them . Such hath been the Condition of innumerable Souls , as on other Accounts , so in particular under the power of Persecutors ; when they have been shut up in filthy and nasty Dungeons , not to be brought out but unto Death by the most exquisite Tortures that the Malice of Hell could invent , or the bloody Cruelty of Man inflict . Yet in these and the like Distresses doth the Word of God by its Divine Power and Efficacy break through all interposing Difficulties , all dark and discouraging Circumstances , supporting , refreshing , and comforting such poor distressed Sufferers , yea commonly filling them under overwhelming Calamities with Joy unspeakable , and full of Glory . Though they are in Bonds , yet is the Word of God not bound ; neither can all the Power of Hell , nor all the Diligence or Fury of Men keep out the Word from entring into Prisons , Dungeons , Flames , and to administer strong Consolations against all Fears , Pains , Wants , Dangers , Deaths , or whatever we may in this mortal Life be exposed unto . And sundry other Instances of the like Nature might be pleaded , wherein the Word gives evident Demonstrations unto the Minds and Consciences of Men of its own Divine Power and Authority ; which is the second Way whereby the Holy Ghost its Author gives Testimony unto its Original . But it is not meerly the Grounds and Reasons whereon we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , which we designed to declare . The whole Work of the Holy Spirit enabling us to believe them so to be was proposed unto Consideration . And beyond what we have insisted on , there is yet a further peculiar Work of his , whereby he effectually ascertains our minds of the Scriptures being the Word of God , whereby we are ultimately established in the Faith thereof . And I cannot but both admire and bewail that this should be denied by any that would be esteemed Christians . Wherefore if there be any Necessity thereof , I shall take Occasion in the Second Part of this Discourse further to confirm this Part of the Truth thus far debated , namely , that God by his Holy Spirit doth secretly and effectually perswade and satisfy the Minds and Souls of Believers in the Divine Truth and Authority of the Scriptures , whereby he infallibly secures their Faith against all Objections and Temptations whatsoever ; so that they can safely and comfortably dispose of their Souls in all their Concernments , with respect unto this Life and Eternity , according unto the undeceivable Truth and Guidance of it . But I shall no further insist on these Things at present . Three Things do offer themselves unto Consideration from what hath been discoursed . 1. What is the Ground and Reason why the meanest and most unlearned Sort of Believers do assent unto this Truth , that the Scriptures are the Word of God , with no less Firmness , Certainty , and Assurance of Mind , than do the wisest and most Learned of them . Yea ofttimes the Faith of the former Sort herein is of the best Growth , and firmest Consistency against Oppositions and Temptations . Now no Assent of the Mind can be accompanied with any more Assurance , than the Evidence whose Effect it is , and which it is resolved into , will afford . Nor doth any Evidence of Truth beget an Assent unto it in the Mind , but as it is apprehended and understood . Wherefore the Evidence of this Truth , wherein soever it consists , must be that which is perceived , apprehended and understood by the meanest and most unlearned Sort of true Believers . For , as was said , they do no less firmly assent and adhere unto it , than the Wisest and most Learned of them . It cannot therefore consist in such subtil and learned Arguments , whose Sense they cannot understand or comprehend . But the Things we have pleaded are of another Nature . For those Characters of Divine Wisdom , Goodness , Holiness , Grace , and Sovereign Authority , which are implanted on the Scripture by the Holy Ghost , are as legible unto the Faith of the Meanest , as of the most Learned Believer . And they also are no less capable of an Experimental Vnderstanding of the Divine Power and Efficacy of the Scriptures in all its Spiritual Operations , than those who are more Wise and Skillful in discerning the Force of External Arguments and Motives of Credibility . It must therefore of necessity be granted , that the formal Reason of Faith consists in those Things , whereof the Evidence is equally obvious unto all Sorts of Believers . 2. Whence it is that the Assent of Faith , whereby we believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God , is usually affirmed to be accompanied with more Assurance than any Assent which is the Effect of Science upon the most demonstrative Principles . They who affirm this , do not consider Faith as it is in this or that Individual Person , or in all that do sincerely believe ; but in its own Nature and Essence , and what it is meet and able to produce . And the Schoolmen do distinguish between a Certainty or Assurance of Evidence , and an Assurance of Adherence . In the latter they say the Certainty of Faith doth exceed that of Science ; but it is less in respect of the former . But it is not easily to be conceived how the Certainty of Adherence should exceed the Certainty of Evidence , with respect unto any Object whatsoever . That which seems to render a Difference in this Case is , that the Evidence which we have in Things scientifical is Speculative , and affects the Mind only ; but the Evidence which we have by Faith effectually worketh on the Will also , because of the Goodness and Excellency of the Things that are believed . And hence it is that the whole Soul doth more firmly adhere unto the Objects of Faith upon that Evidence which it hath of them , than unto other Things whereof it hath clearer Evidence , wherein the Will and the Affections are little or not at all concerned . And Bonaventure giveth a Reason of no small weight , why Faith is more certain than Science , not with the Certainty of Speculation , but of Adherence ; Quoniam fideles Christiani , nec Argumentis , nec Tormentis , nec Blandimentis adduci possunt , vel inclinari , ut Veritatem quam credunt ▪ vel ore tenus negent ; quod nemo peritus alicujus scientiae faceret , si acerrimis Tormentis cogeretur scientiam suam de conclusione aliqua Geometrica vel Arithmetica retractare . Stultus enim & ridiculus esset Geometra , qui pro sua scientia in Controversiis Geometricis mortem anderet subire , nisi in quantum dictat Fides , non esse mentiendum . And whatever may be said of this Distinction , I think it cannot modestly be denied , that there is a greater Assurance in Faith , than any is in scientifical Conclusions ; until as many good and wise Men will part with all their worldly Concernments , and their Lives , by the most exquisite Tortures , in the Confirmation of any Truth which they have received meerly on the Ground of Reason acting in Humane Sciences , as have so done on the Certainty which they had by Faith , that the Scripture is a Divine Revelation . For in bearing Testimony hereunto , have innumerable Multitudes of the Best , the Holiest and the VVisest Men that ever were in the VVorld , chearfully and joyfully sacrificed all their Temporal , and adventured all their Eternal Concernments . For they did it under a full Satisfaction that in parting with all temporary things , they should be eternally Blessed , or eternally Miserable , according as their Perswasion in Faith proved true or false . VVherefore unto the Firmitude and Constancy which we have in the Assurance of Faith , three Things do concur . 1. That this Ability of Assent upon Testimony , is the highest and most noble Power or Faculty of our rational Souls ; and therefore where it hath the highest Evidence whereof it is capable , which it hath in the Testimony of God , it giveth us the highest Certainty or Assurance , whereof in this VVorld we are capable . 2. Unto the Assent of Divine Faith there is required an especial internal Operation of the Holy Ghost . This rendreth it of another Nature than any meer natural Act and Operation of our Minds . And therefore if the Assurance of it may not properly be said to exceed the Assurance of Science in Degree , it is only because it is of a more excellent kind , and so is not capable of Comparison unto it as to Degrees . 3. That the Revelation which God makes of Himself , his Mind and Will by his Word , is more excellent , and accompanied with greater Evidence of his infinitely Glorious Properties , wherein alone the Mind can find absolute Rest and Satisfaction ( which is its Assurance ) than any other Discovery of Truth of what sort soever is capable of . Neither is the Assurance of the Mind absolutely perfect in any thing beneath the Enjoyment of God. Wherefore the Soul by Faith making the nearest Approaches , whereof in this Life it is capable , unto the Eternal Spring of Being , Truth and Goodness , it hath the highest Rest , Satisfaction and Assurance therein that in this Life it can attain unto . 3. It followeth from hence , that those that would deny either of those two Things , or would so separate between them , as to exclude the Necessity of either unto the Duty of Believing , namely , the internal Work of the Holy Spirit on the Minds of Men , enabling them to believe , and the external Work of the same Holy Spirit giving Evidence in and by the Scripture unto its own Divine Original ; do endeavour to expell all True Divine Faith out of the World , and to substitute a probable Perswasion in the room thereof . For a Close unto this Discourse , which hath now been drawn forth unto a greater Length than was at first intended , I shall consider some Objections that are usually pleaded in Opposition unto the Truth asserted and vindicated . It is therefore objected in the first Place , that the Plea hitherto insisted on cannot be managed without great Disadvantage to Christian Religion . For if we take away the Rational Grounds , on which we believe the Doctrine of Christ to be True and Divine , and the whole Evidence of the Truth of it be laid on things not only derided by Men of Atheistical Spirits , but in themselves such as cannot be discerned by any but such as do believe , on what Grounds can we proceed to convince an Unbeliever ? Answer 1. By the way , it is one thing to prove and believe the Doctrine of Christ to be True and Divine ; another to prove and believe the Scripture to be given by Inspiration of God , or the Divine Authority of the Scripture , which alone was proposed unto Consideration . A Doctrine True and Divine may be written in and proposed unto us by Writings that were not divinely and infallibly inspired ; and so might the Doctrine of Christ have been , but not without the unspeakable Disadvantage of the Church . And there are sundry Arguments which forcibly and effectually prove the Doctrine of Christ to have been True and Divine , which are not of any Efficacy to prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures ; though on the other hand , whatever doth prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures , doth equally prove the Divine Truth of the Doctrine of Christ. 2. There are two Ways of convincing Vnbelievers ; the one insisted on by the Apostles and their Followers , the other by some learned Men since their Days . The Way principally insisted on by the Apostles was by preaching the Word it self unto them in the Evidence and Demonstration of the Spirit , by the Power whereof manifesting the Authority of God in it , they were convinced ; and falling down acknowledged God to be in it of a Truth ▪ 1 Cor. 2. 4 , 5. ch . 14. 25 , 26. It is likely that in this their Proposal of the Gospel , the Doctrine and Truths contained in it unto Unbelievers , that those of Atheistical Spirits would both deride them and it ; and so indeed it came to pass , many esteeming themselves to be Bablers and their Doctrine to be errant Folly. But yet they desisted not from pursuing their Work in the same way , whereunto God gave success . The other VVay is to prove unto Vnbelievers that the Scripture is True and Divine by rational Arguments , wherein some learned Persons have laboured , especially in these last Ages , to very good purpose . And certainly their Labours are greatly to be commended , whilst they attend unto these Rules . ( 1. ) That they produce no Arguments but such as are cogent , and not liable unto just Exceptions . For if to manifest their own Skill or Learning they plead such Reasons as are capable of an Answer and Solution , they exceedingly prejudice the Truth by subjecting it unto dubious Disputations , whereas in it self it is Clear , Firm , and Sacred . ( 2. ) That they do not pretend their rational Grounds and Arguments to be the Sole Foundation that Faith hath to rest upon , or which it is resolved into . For this were the ready way to set up an Opinion instead of Faith Supernatural and Divine . Accept but of these two Limitations , and it is acknowledged that the rational Grounds and Arguments intended may be rationally pleaded , and ought so to be , unto the Conviction of Gainsayers . For no Man doth so plead the self-evidencing Power of the Scripture , as to deny that the Use of other external Motives and Arguments is necessary to stop the Mouths of Atheists , as also unto the further Establishment of them who do believe . These Things are subordinate , and no way inconsistent . The Truth is , if we will attend unto our own and the Experience of the whole Church of God , the way whereby we come to believe the Scripture to be the Word of God ordinarily is this and no other . God having first given his Word as the Foundation of our Faith and Obedience , hath appointed the Ministry of Men , at first extraordinary , afterwards ordinary , to propose unto us the Doctrines , Truths , Precepts , Promises , and Threatnings contained therein . Together with this Proposition of them , they are appointed to declare that these things are not from themselves , nor of their own Invention , 2 Tim. 3. 14 , 15 , 16 , 17. And this is done variously . Unto some the VVord of God in this Ministry thus comes , or is thus proposed , preached or declared , whilst they are in a Condition not only utterly unacquainted with the Mysteries of it , but filled with contrary Apprehensions and consequently Prejudices against it . Thus it came of old unto the Pagan World , and must do so unto such Persons and Nations as are yet in the same state with them . Unto these the first Preachers of the Gospel did not produce the Book of the Scriptures , and tell them that it was the Word of God , and that it would evidence it self unto them so to be . For this had been to despise the Wisdom and Authority of God in their own Ministry . But they preached the Doctrines of it unto them , grounding themselves on the Divine Revelation contained therein . And this Proposition of the Truth or Preaching of the Gospel was not left of God to work it self into the Reasons of Men by the Suitableness of it thereunto ; but being his own Institution for their Illumination and Conversion , he accompanied it with Divine Power , and made it effectual unto the Ends designed , Rom. 1. 16. And the Event hereof among Mankind was , that by some this new Doctrine was derided and scorned , by others whose Hearts God opened to attend unto it , it was embraced and submitted unto . Among those who after the Propagation of the Gospel are born , as they say , within the Pale of the Church , the same Doctrine is variously instilled into Persons according unto the several Duties and Concerns of others to instruct them . Principally the Ministry of the Word is ordained of God unto that End wheron the Church is the Ground and Pillar of Truth . Those of both Sorts unto whom the Doctrine mentioned is preached or proposed , are directed unto the Scriptures as the Sacred Repository thereof . For they are told that these things come by Revelation from God , and that Revelation is contained in the Bible , which is his Word . Upon this Proposal with Enquiry into it and Consideration of it , God co-operating by his Spirit , there is that Evidence of its Divine Original communicated unto their Minds through its Power and Efficacy , with the Characters of Divine Wisdom and Holiness implanted on it , which they are now enabled to discern , that they believe it and rest in it as the immediate Word of God. Thus was it in the Case of the Woman of Samaria , and the Inhabitants of Sychar , with respect unto their Faith in Christ Jesus , John 4. 42. This is the way whereby Men ordinarily are brought to believe the Word of God , Rom. 10. 14 , 15. and that neither by external Arguments or Motives , which no one Soul was ever converted unto God by , nor by any meer naked Proposal and Offer of the Book unto them , nor by Miracles , nor by Immediate Revelation or private subjective Testimony of the Spirit ; nor is their Faith a Perswasion of Mind , that they can give no Reason of , but only that they are so perswaded . But it will be yet further objected , that if there be such clear Evidences in the thing it self , that is , in the Divine Original and Authority of the Scriptures , that none who freely use their Reason can deny it ; then it lies either in the naked Proposal of the Things unto the understanding ; and if so , then every one that assents unto this Proposition , that the whole is greater than the part , must likewise assent unto this that the Scripture is the Word of God ; or the Evidence must not ly in the naked Proposal , but in the Efficacy of the Spirit of God in the minds of them unto whom it is proposed . Answ. 1. I know no Divine , Ancient or Modern , Popish or Protestant , who doth not assert that tere is a work of the Holy Ghost on the minds of men necessary unto a due Belief of the Scriptures to be the VVord of God. And the Consideration hereof ought not by any Christian to be excluded . But they say not that this is the Objective Testimony or Evidence on which we believe the Scripture to be the VVord of God , concerning which alone is our Enquiry . 2. We do not dispute how far or by what means this Proposition , the Scripture is the Word of God , may be evidenced meerly unto our Reason ; but unto our understanding as capable of giving an Assent upon Testimony . It is not said that this is a first Principle of Reason , though it be of Faith , nor that it is capable of a Mathematical Demonstration . That the whole is greater than the part , is self-evident unto our Reason upon its first Proposal ; but such none pretends to be in the Scripture , because it is a Subject not capable of it . Nor do those who denying the self-evidence of the Scripture , pretend by their Arguments for its Divine Authority to give such an Evidence of it unto Reason , as is in first Principles , or Mathematical Demonstrations , but content themselves with that which they call a Moral Certainty . But it is by Faith we are obliged to receive the Truth of this Proposition , which respects the Power of our Minds of assent unto Truth upon Testimony , infallibly on that which is infallible . And hereunto it evidenceth its own Truth , not with the same , but with an Evidence and Certainty of an higher nature and nobler kind than that of the strictest Demonstration in things natural , or the most forcible Argumens in things moral . 3. It will be objected , that if this be so , then none can be obliged to receive the Scripture as the Word of God who hath not Faith , and none have Faith but those in whom it is wrought by the Spirit of God , and thereinto all will be resolved at last . Answ. 1. Indeed there is no Room for this Objection ; for the whole Work of the Spirit is pleaded only as he is the efficient Cause of Believing , and not the objective , or Reason why we do believe . But 2. We must not be ashamed to resolve all we do well , spiritually and in obedience to the Command of God , unto the Efficacious Operation of the Holy Ghost in us , unless we intend to be ashamed of the Gospel . But this still makes his internal Operation to be the efficient , and not his internal Testimony to be the formal Reason of our Faith. 3. It is another Question , whether all Obligation unto Duty is and must be proportionate unto our own Strength without Divine Assistance ; which we deny : and affirm that we are obliged unto many things by virtue of Gods Command , which we have no power to answer but by virtue of his Grace . 4. Where the Proposal of the Scripture is made in the way before described , those unto whom it is proposed are obliged to receive it as the Word of God , upon the Evidence which it gives of it self so to be . Yea every Real , True , Divine Revelation made unto Men , or every Proposal of the Scripture by Divine Providence , hath that Evidence of its being from God accompanying of it , as is sufficient to oblige them unto whom it was made to believe it , on pain of his Displeasure . If this were otherwise , then either were God obliged to confirm every particular Divine Revelation with a Miracle ( which as to its Obligation unto Believing wants not its difficulty ) which he did not , as in many of the Prophets ; nor doth at this day at the first Proposal of the Gospel to the Heathen ; or else when he requires Faith and Obedience in such ways as in his Wisdom he judgeth meet , that is in the ordinary Ministry of the Word , they are not obliged thereby , nor is it their Sin to refuse a Compliance with his Will. 5. If this Difficulty can be no otherwise avoided , but by affirming that the Faith which God requires of us with respect unto his VVord , is nothing but a natural Assent unto it upon rational Arguments and Considerations which we have an Ability for , without any spiritual Aid of the Holy Ghost , or respect unto his Testimony , as before described ; which overthrows all Faith , especially that which is Divine . I shall rather ten thousand times allow of all the just Consequences that can follow on the Supposition mentioned , than admit of this Relief . But of those Consequences this is none , that any unto whom the Scripture is proposed are excepted from an Obligation unto Believing . In like manner there is no difficulty in the usual Objection which respects particular Books of the Scripture , why we receive them as Canonical , and reject others ; as namely , the Book of Proverbs , and not of Wisdom ; of Ecclesiastes , and not Ecclesiasticus . For , 1. As to the Books of the Old Testament , we have the Canon of them given us in the New , where it is affirmed , that unto the Church of the Jews were committed the Oracles of God : which both confirms all that we receive , and excludes all that we exclude . And unto the New , there are no Pretenders , nor ever were to the least Exercise of the Faith of any . 2. All Books whatever that have either themselves pretended unto a Divine Original , or have been pleaded by others to be of that Extract , have been and may be from themselves , without further help , evicted of falshood in that pretence . They have all of them hitherto in matter or manner , in plain Confessions , or other sufficient Evidence , manifested themselves to be of an human Original . And much Danger is not to be feared from any that for the future shall set forth with the same pretence . 3. VVe are not bound to refuse the Ministry of the Church , or the Advantages of Providence whereby the Scripture is brought unto us , with the Testimonies which either directly or collaterally any one Part of it gives unto another . Although the Scripture be to believed for it self , yet it is not ordinarily to be believed by it self , without the help of other means . 4. On these Suppositions I fear not to affirm that there are on every Individual Book of the Scripture , particularly those named , those Divine Characters and Criteria , which are sufficient to difference them from all other VVritings whatever , and to testify their Divine Authority unto the Minds and Consciences of Believers . I say of Believers ; for we enquire not on what Ground unbelievers , or those who do not believe , do believe the VVord of God , nor yet directly on what outward Motives such Persons may be induced so to do . But our sole Enquiry at present is , what the Faith of them who do believe is resolved into . It is not therefore said that when our Lord Jesus Christ ( for we acknowledg that there is the same Reason of the first giving out of Divine Revelations , as is of the Scripture ) came and preached unto the Jews , that those meer VVords , I am the Light of the World , or the like ▪ had all this Evidence in them or with them ; for nothing he said of that kind may be separated from its Circumstances ; but supposing the Testimonies given in the Scripture before hand to his Person , Work , Time , and Manner of Coming , with the Evidence of the Presence of God with him in the declaration that he made of his Doctrine , and himself to be the Messiah , the Jews were bound to believe what he taught , and himself to be the Son of God the Saviour of the World , and so did many of them upon his Preaching only , John 4. 42. And in like manner they were bound to believe the Doctrine of John Baptist , and to submit unto his Institutions although he wrought no Miracle , and those who did not , rejected the Counsel of God for their Good , and perished in their unbelief . But although our Lord Jesus Christ wrought no Miracles to prove the Scripture then extant to be the VVord of God , seeing he wrought them among such only as by whom that was firmly believed ; yet the VVisdom of God saw it necessary to confirm his Personal Ministry by them . And without a Sense of the Power and Efficacy of the Divine Truth of the Doctrine proposed , Miracles themselves will be despised ; so they were by some who were afterwards converted by the Preaching of the VVord , Acts 2. 13. chap. 3. 7 , 8. or they will produce only a false Faith , or a ravished Assent upon an Amazement , that will not abide , Acts 8. 13 , 21. APPENDIX . A Summary Representation of the Nature and Reason of that Faith wherewith we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , with some Attestations given unto the Substance of what hath been delivered concerning it , shall give a Close to this Discourse . As to the first Part of this Design , the Things that follow are proposed . I. Unto the Enquiry , on what Grounds or for what Reason we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , many Things are supposed , as on all hands agreed upon , whose Demonstration or Proof belongs not unto our present Work. Such are , 1. The Being of God , and his Self-subsistence , with all the Essential Properties of his Nature . 2. Our Relation unto him and Dependance on him , as our Creator , Benefactor , Preserver , Judge , and Rewarder , both as unto Things Temporal , and Eternal . Wherefore , 3. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whatever may be known of God by the Light of Nature , whatever is manifest in or from the Works of Creation or Providence , and necessary Actings of Conscience , as to the Being , Rule and Authority of God , is supposed as acknowledged in this Enquiry . 4. That beyond the Conduct and Guidance of the Light of Nature , that Men may live unto God , believe and put their Trust in him , according to their Duty , in that Obedience which he requireth of them , so as to come unto the Enjoyment of Him , a Supernatural Revelation of his Mind and Will unto them , especially in that Condition wherein all Mankind are since the Entrance of Sin , is necessary . 5. That all those unto whom God hath granted Divine Revelations immediately from Himself , for their own use , and that of all other Men unto whom they were to be communicated , were infallibly assured that they came from God , and that their Minds were no way imposed on in them . 6. That all these Divine Revelations , so far as they are any way necessary to guide and instruct Men in the true Knowledg of God , and that Obedience which is acceptable unto him , are now contained in the Scriptures , or those Books of the Old and New Testament which are commonly received and owned among all Sorts of Christians . These Things I say are supposed unto our present Enquiry , and taken for granted ; so as that the Reader is not to look for any direct Proof of them in the preceding Discourse . But on these Suppositions it is alledged and proved , 1. That all Men unto whom it is duly proposed as such , are bound to believe this Scripture , these Books of the Old and New Testament , to be the Word of God ; that is to contain and exhibit an Immediate ▪ Divine , Supernatural Revelation of his Mind and Will , so far as is any way needful that they may live unto him ; and that nothing is contained in them , but what is of the same Divine Original . 2. The Obligation of this Duty of thus Believing the Scripture to be the Word of God , ariseth partly from the Nature of the Thing it self , and partly from the especial Command of God. For it being that Revelation of the Will of God , without the Knowledg whereof , and Assent whereunto , we cannot live unto God as we ought , nor come unto the enjoyment of him ; it is necessary that we should believe it unto those Ends ; and God requireth it of us , that so we should do . 3. We cannot thus believe it in a way of Duty , but upon a sufficient Evidence and prevalent Testimony that so it is . 4. There are many cogent Arguments , Testimonies , and Motives to perswade , convince , and satisfy unprejudiced Persons , that the Scripture is the Word of God , or a Divine Revelation , and every way sufficient to stop the Mouths of Gain-sayers , proceeding on such Principles of Reason , as are owned and approved by the Generality of Mankind . And Arguments of this Nature may be taken from almost all Considerations of the Properties of God , and his Government of the World , of our Relation unto him , of what belongs unto our present Peace , and future Happiness . 5. From the Arguments and Testimonies of this Nature , a firm Perswasion of Mind defensible against all Objections , that the Scripture is the Word of God , may be attained ; and that such , as that those who live not in Contradiction unto their own Light and Reason through the Power of their Lusts , cannot but judg it their Wisdom , Duty , and Interest to yield Obedience unto his VVill as revealed therein . 6. But yet that Perswasion of Mind which may be thus attained , and which resteth wholly upon these Arguments and Testimonies , is not entirely that Faith wherewith we are obliged to believe the Scripture to be the VVord of God in a way of Duty . For it is not to be meerly Human , how firm soever the Perswasions in it may be , but Divine and Supernatural , of the same kind with that whereby we believe the things themselves contained in the Scripture . 7. VVe cannot thus believe the Scripture to be the VVord of God , nor any Divine Truth therein contained , without the effectual Illumination of our Minds by the Holy Ghost . And to exclude the Consideration of his VVork herein is to cast the whole Enquiry out of the Limits of Christian Religion . 8. Yet is not this VVork of the Holy Spirit in the Illumination of our Minds , whereby we are enabled to believe in a way of Duty with Faith Supernatural and Divine , the Ground and Reason why we do believe , or the Evidence whereon we do so , nor is our Faith resolved thereinto . 9. VVhereas also there are sundry other Acts of the Holy Spirit in and upon our minds , establishing this Faith against Temptations unto the contrary , and further ascertaining us of the Divine Original of the Scripture , or testifying it unto us ; yet are they none of them severally , nor all of them joyntly , the formal Reason of our Faith , nor the Ground which we believe upon . Yet are they such as that as without the first VVork of Divine Illumination we cannot believe at all in a due manner ; so without his other consequent Operations we cannot believe stedfastly against Temptations and Oppositions . VVherefore , 10. Those only can believe the Scripture aright to be the VVord of God in a way of Duty , whose minds are enlightned , and who are enabled to believe by the Holy Ghost . 11. Those who believe not are of two Sorts , for they are either such as oppose and gainsay the VVord as a cunningly devised Fable ; or such as are willing without prejudice to attend unto the consideration of it . The former Sort may be resisted , opposed , and rebuked by external Arguments , and such moral Considerations as vehemently perswade the Divine Original of the Scripture , and from the same Principles may their mouths be stopped as to their Cavils and Exceptions against it . The other Sort are to be led on unto believing by the Ministry of the Church in the dispensation of the VVord it self , which is the Ordinance of God unto that purpose . But , 12. Neither sort do ever come truly to believe , either meerly induced thereunto by force of moral Arguments only , or upon the Authority of that Church by whose Ministry the Scripture is proposed unto them to be believed . VVherefore , 13. The formal Reason of Faith Divine and Supernatural whereby we believe the Scripture to be the VVord of God in the way of Duty , and as it is required of us , is the Authority and Veracity of God alone , evidencing themselves unto our Minds and Consciences in and by the Scripture it self . And herein consisteth that Divine Testimony of the Holy Ghost , which as it is a Testimony gives our Assent unto the Scriptures the general nature of Faith , and as it is a Divine Testimony gives it the especial nature of Faith Divine and Supernatural . 14. This Divine Testimony given unto the Divine Original of the Scripture in and by it self whereinto our Faith is ultimately resolved , is evidenced and made known , as by the Characters of the infinite Perfections of the Divine Nature that are in it and upon it ; so by the Authority , Power and Efficacy over and upon the Souls and Consciences of Men , and the Satisfactory Excellency of the Truths contained therein , wherewith it is accompanied . 15. Wherefore although there be many cogent external Arguments whereby a moral stedfast Perwasion of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures may be attained , and it be the principal Duty of the true Church in all Ages to give Testimony thereunto , which it hath done successively at all all times since first it was intrusted with it ; and so although there be many other Means whereby we are induced , perswaded , and enabled to believe it , yet is it for its own sake only , efficaciously manifesting it self to be the Word of God , or upon the Divine Testimony that is given in it and by it thereunto , that we believe it to be so with Faith Divine and Supernatural . Corel . Those who either deny the necessity of an internal subjective Work of the Holy Ghost enabling us to believe , or the objective Testimony of the Holy Spirit given unto the Scripture in and by it self , or do deny their joynt concurrence in and unto our Believing , do deny all Faith properly Divine and Supernatural . This being the Substance of what is declared and pleaded for in the preceding Treatise ; to prevent the Obloquy of some , and confirm the Judgment of others , I shall add the Suffrage of Antient and Modern Writers given unto the principal Parts of it , and whereon all other things asserted in it do depend . Clemens Alexandrinus discourseth at large unto this purpose , Stromat . 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We have the Lord himself for the Principle or Beginning of Doctrine , who by the Prophets , the Gospel , and blessed Apostles , in various manners and by divers degrees goeth before us , or leads us unto knowledg . [ This is that which we lay down as the Reason and Ground of Faith , namely , the Authority of the Lord himself instructing us by the Scriptures . ] So he adds ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And if any one suppose that he needeth any o●her Principle , the Principle will not be kept . [ that is , if we need any other Principle whereinto to resolve our Faith , the Word of God is no more a Principle unto us . ] But he who is faithful from himself is worthy to be believed in his Sovereign Writing and Voice , which as it appeareth is administred by the Lord for the benefit of men . And certainly we use it as a Rule of judging for the invention of things . But whatever is judged , is not credible or to be believed until it is judged ; and that is no Principle which stands in need to be judged . The Intention of his Words is , that God who alone is to believed for himself , hath given us his Word as the Rule whereby we are to judg of all things . And this Word is so to be believed , as not to be subject unto any other Judgment ; because if it be so it cannot be either a Principle or a Rule . And so he proceeds ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Wherefore it is meet that embracing by Faith the most sufficient indemonstrable Principle , and taking the Demonstrations of the Principle from the Principle it self , we are instructed by the Voice of the Lord himself unto the acknowledgment of the Truth . In few Words he declares the Substance of what we have pleaded for . No more do we maintain in this Cause , but what Clemens doth here assert ; namely , that we believe the Scripture for it self , as that which needeth no antecedent or external Demonstration ; but all the Evidence and Demonstration of its Divine Original is to be taken from it self alone ; which yet he further confirms , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For we would not attend or give credit simply to the definitions of Men , seeing we have right also to define in contradiction unto them . And seeing it is not sufficient meerly to say or assert what appears to be Truth , but to beget a belief also of what is spoken , we expect not the Testimony of Men , but confirm that which is enquired about with the voice of the Lord , which is more full and firm than any Demonstration , yea which rather is the only Demonstration . — Thus we taking our Demonstrations of the Scripture out of the Scripture , are assured by Faith , as by Demonstration . And in other places , as Strom. 4. he plainly affirms that the way of Christians was to prove the Scripture by it self , and all other things by the Scripture . Basilius speaks to the same purpose on Psal. 115. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Faith which draws the Soul to assent above all methods of Reasonings , Faith which is not the Effect of Geometrical Demonstrations , but of the Efficacy of the Spirit . The Nature , Cause , and Efficacy of that Faith whereby we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God , are asserted by him . Nemesius de Homin . cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Doctrine of the Divine Oracles hath its credibility from it self , because of its Divine Inspiration . The Words of Austin , though taken notice of by all , yet may here be again reported . Confess . lib. II. cap. 3. Audiam & intelligam quo modo fecisti Coelum & Terram . Scripsit hoc Moses , scripsit & abiit , transivit hinc ad te ; neque enim nunc ante me est . Nam si esset , tenerem eum , & rogarem eum , & per te obsecrarem , ut mihi ista panderet , & praeberem aures corporis mei , sonis erumpentibus ex ore ejus . At si Hebraea voce loqueretur , frustra pulsaret sensum meum , nec inde mentem meam quicquam tangeret . Si autem Latinè , scirem quid diceret , sed unde scirem an verum diceret ? quod etsi hoc scirem num & ab illo scirem ? Intus utique mihi , intus in domicilio cogitationis , nec hebraea , nec graeca , nec latina , nec barbara veritas , sine oris & linguae organis , sine strepitu syllabarum diceret , verum dicit ; at ego statim erectus confidenter illi homini tuo dicerem , verum dicis ; Cum ergo illum interrogare non possim , te quo plenus vera dixit , Veritas , te Deus meus rogo , parce peccatis meis , & qui illi servo tuo dedisti haec dicere , da & mihi haec intelligere . I would hear , I would understand how thou madest the Heaven and the Earth . Moses wrote this , he wrote it , and is gone hence to thee ; for he is not now before me ; for if he were , I would hold him , and ask him and beseech him for thy sake , that he would open these things unto me , and I would apply the ears of my body to the sounds breaking forth from his mouth . But if he should use the Hebrew Language , in vain should he affect my sense , for he would not at all touch my mind ; if he should speak Latin , I should know what he said ; but whence should I know that he spake the Truth ? and if I should know this also , should I know it of him ? Within me , in the habitation of my own thoughts , Truth neither in Hebrew , Greek , Latin , nor any barbarous Language , without the Organs of mouth or tongue , without the Noise of syllables , would say , he speaks the Truth ; and I being immediately assured or certain of it , would say unto that servant of thine , thou speakest Truth . Whereas therefore I cannot ask him , I ask thee , O Truth , with which he being filled spake the things that are true ; O my God , I ask of thee ; pardon my sins , and thou who gavest unto this thy servant to speak these things , give unto me to understand them . That which is most remarkable in these Words is , that he plainly affirms that Faith would not ensue on the declaration of the Prophets themselves if they were present with us , unless there be an internal Work of the Holy Spirit upon our minds to enable us , and perswade them thereunto . And indeed he seems to place all Assurance of the Truth of Divine Revelations in the inward Assurance which God gives us of them by his Spirit ; which we have before considered . The second Arausican Council gives full Testimony unto the necessity of the internal Grace of the Spirit , that we may believe . Can. 7. Siquis Evangelicae proedicationi consentire posse confirmat , absque Illuminatione & Inspiratione Spiritus Sancti , haeretico fallitur Spiritu . To descend unto later times wherein these things have been much disputed , yet the Truth hath beam'd such Light into the eyes of many , as to enforce an Acknowledgment from them , when they have examined themselves about it . The Words of Baptista Mantuanus are remarkable ; de Patient . lib. 3. cap. 2. Saepe mecum cogitavi , unde tam suadibilis sit ipsa Scriptura , unde tam potenter influat in animos auditorum , unde tantum habeat Energiae , ut non ad opinandum tantum , sed ad solide credendum omnes inflectat ? Non est hoc imputandum rationum evidentiae quas non adducit ; non artis industriae aut verbis suavibus ad persuadendum accomodatis quibus non utitur ; sed vide an id in causa sit quod persuasi sumus eam a prima veritate fluxisse ? sed unde sumus ita persuasi nisi ab ipsa ? quasi ad ei credendum nos suiipsius contrahat authoritas . Sed unde oro hanc authoritatem sibi vendicavit ? neque enim vidimus nos Deum concionantem , scribentem , docentem , tamen ac si vidissemus , credimus & tenemus a Spiritu Sancto fluxisse quae legimus ; forsan fuerit haec ratio firmiter adhaerendi , quod in ea veritas sit solidior quamvis non clarior ; habet enim omnis veritas vim inclinativam , & major majorem , & maxima maximam ; sed cur ergo non omnes credunt Evangelio ? Respond ▪ quod non omnes trahuntur a Deo. Sed longa opus est disputatione ? firmiter sacris Scripturis ideo credimus quod divinam Inspirationem intus accipimus . I have often thought with my self whence the Scripture it self is so perswasive , from whence it doth so powerfully influence the minds of its hearers , that it inclines or leads them not only to receive an Opinion , but surely to believe . This is not to be imputed to the Evidence of Reasons which it doth not produce , nor unto the Industry of Art , with words smooth and fit to perswade , which it useth not ; see then if this be not the cause of it , that we are perswaded that it comes from the first Truth or Verity . But whence are we so perswaded but from it self alone ? as if its own Authority should effectually draw us to believe it . But whence I pray hath it this Authority ? we saw not God preaching , writing , or teaching of it ; but yet as if we had seen him , we believe and firmly hold , that the things which we read proceeded from the Holy Ghost . It may be this is the Reason why we so firmly adhere unto it , that truth is more solid in it , though not more clear than in other writings ; for all Truth hath a perswasive power , the greater Truth , the greater power , and that which is greatest the greatest Efficacy of all . But why then do not all believe the Gospel ? Answ. Because all are not drawn of God. But what need is there of any long disputation ? we therefore firmly believe the Scriptures , because we have received a Divine Inspiration assuring of us . And in what Sense this is allowed hath been declared in the preceding Discourse . I shall close the whole with the Testimony of them , by whom the Truth which we assert is most vehemently opposed , when it riseth in opposition unto an especial interest of their own . Two things there are which are principally excepted against in the Doctrine of Protestants , concerning our belief of the Scripture . The first is with respect unto the Holy Spirit as the efficient cause of Faith , for whereas they teach that no man can believe the Scripture to be the Word of God in a due manner and according unto his duty , without the real internal Aid and Operation of the Holy Ghost , however it be proposed unto him , and with what Arguments soever the Truth of its Divine Original be confirmed ; this is charged on them as an Error and a Crime . And secondly , whereas they also affirm that there is an inward Testimony or Witness of the Holy Spirit , whereby he assures and confirms the minds of men in the Faith of the Scriptures with an Efficacy exceeding all the perswasive Evidence of outward Arguments and Motives ; this also by some they are traduced for . And yet those of the Roman Church who are looked on as most averse from that Resolution of Faith which most Protestants acquiesce in , do expresly maintain both these Assertions . The Design of Stapleton , de principiis Fidei , controver . 4. lib. 8. cap. 1. is to prove , impossibile esse sine speciali gratia , ac dono fidei divinitùs infuso , actum verae fidei producere , aut ex veri nominis fide credere . Which he there proves with sundry Arguments , namely , that it is impossible to produce any act of Faith , or to believe with Faith rightly so called , without special Grace , and the Divine Infusion of the Gift of Faith. And Bellarmin speaks to the same purpose ; Argumenta quae articulos fidei nostrae credibiles faciunt , non talia sunt ut fidem omnino indubitatam reddant , nisi mens divinitùs adjuvetur . De Grat. & lib. Arbit . lib. 6. cap. 3. The Arguments which render the Articles of our Faith credible , are not such as produce an undoubted Faith , unless the mind be divinely assisted . Melchior Canus , loc . Theol. lib. 2. cap. 8. disputes expresly to this purpose ; Id statuendum est , authoritatem humanam & incitamenta omnia illa praedicta , sive alia quaecunque adhibita ab eo qui proponit fidem , non esse sufficientes causas ad credendum ut credere tenemur , sed praeterea opus esse interiori causa efficiente , id est , Dei speciali auxilio moventis ad credendum . This is firmly to be held , that human Authority , and all the Motives before mentioned , nor any other which may be used by him who proposeth the Object of Faith to be believed , are not sufficient causes of believing as we are obliged to believe ; but there is moreover necessary an internal efficient Cause moving us to believe , which is the especial Help or Aid of God. And a little after he speaks yet more plainly . Externae igitur omnes & humanae persuasiones non sunt satis ad credendum , quantumcunque ab hominibus competenter ea quae sunt fidei proponantur ; sed necessaria est insuper causa interior , hoc est , divinum quoddam lumen incitans ad credendum , & oculi quidam interiores Dei beneficio ad videndum dati . Wherefore all external human Perswasions or Arguments are not sufficient Causes of Faith , however the things of Faith may be sufficiently proposed by Men ; there is moreover necessary an internal Cause , that is , a certain Divine Light , inciting to believe , or certain internal Eyes to see , given us by the Grace of God. Yea all other learned men of the same Profession do speak to the same purpose . The other Assertion also they do no less comply withal ; Arcanum divini Spiritus Testimonium prorsus necessarium est , ut quis Ecclesiae Testimonio ac Judicio circa Scripturarum approbationem credat , ( saith Stapleton ) . The secret Testimony of the Spirit is altogether necessary that a Man may believe the Testimony and Judgment of the Church about the Scriptures . And the Words of Gregory de Valentia are remarkable . Cum hactenus ejusmodi Argumenta pro authoritate Christianae Doctrinae fecerimus , quae per seipsa satis prudentibus esse debeant , ut animum inducant velle credere ; tamen nescio an non sit argumentum iis omnibus majus , quod qui vere Christiani sunt , ita se animo affectos esse , quod ad fidem attinet , sentiunt , ut praecipue quidem propter nullum Argumentum , quod vel hactenus fecimus vel ratione similiter excogitari possit , sed propter aliud nescio quid , quod alio quodam modo & longe fortius quam ulla Argumenta persuadet , at ad firmiter credendum se intelligant . Tom. 3. in Thom. Disp. 7. Qu. 1. punc . 4. §. 2. Let any man compare these Words with those of Calvin . Institut . lib. 1. cap. 7. sect . 5. which as I remember I have cited before , and he will know whence the sense of them was taken . Whereas ( saith he ) we have hitherto pleaded Arguments for the Authority of Christian Doctrine , which even by themselves ought to suffice prudent persons to induce their minds to belief , yet I know not whether there be not an Argument greater than they all , namely , that those who are truly Christians do find or feel by experience their minds so affected in this matter of Faith , that they are moved ( and obliged ) firmly to believe , neither for any Argument that we have used , nor for any of the like sort that can be found out by Reason , but for somewhat else which perswades our minds in another manner , and far more effectually than any Arguments whatever . And to shew what he means by this internal Argument and Perswasion , he affirms elsewhere , that , Deus ipse imprimis est , qui Christianam Doctrinam atque adeo Scripturam sacram veram esse , voce Revelationis suae & interno quodam instinctu & impulsu , humanis mentibus contestatur . It is God Himself who by the voice of his Revelation , and by a certain internal Instinct and Impulse witnesseth unto the minds of Men the Truth of Christian Doctrine , or of the Holy Scripture . These few Testimonies have I produced amongst the many that might be urged to the same purpose , not to confirm the Truth which we have pleaded for , which stands on far surer foundations ; but only to obviate Prejudices in the minds of some , who being not much conversant in things of this Nature , are ready to charge what hath been delivered unto this purpose with Singularity . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A53726-e280 De Naturae Theologiae , lib. 3. ‖ De Naturae Theologiae lib. cap. * Vbi supra de Origine & Progressu Idololatriae . * Exercitat . on the Epist. to the Heb. Exer. 1. 
A52412	----	An account of reason & faith in relation to the mysteries of Christianity / by John Norris. Norris, John, 1657-1711. 1697 Approx. 379 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 185 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A52412 Wing N1243 ESTC R17698 11863318 ocm 11863318 50055 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A52412) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 50055) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 503:6) An account of reason & faith in relation to the mysteries of Christianity / by John Norris. Norris, John, 1657-1711. [14], 346, [1] p. Printed for S. Manship ..., London : 1697. First edition. Written in reply to John Toland's Christianity not mysterious. Reproduction of original in Bristol Public Library, Bristol, England. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Toland, John, 1670-1722. -- Christianity not mysterious. Deism -- Controversial literature. Christianity -- Philosophy. Faith and reason. 2002-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2002-08 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-09 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2002-09 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion AN ACCOUNT OF Reason & Faith : In RELATION to the MYSTERIES OF CHRISTIANITY . By JOHN NORRIS , M. A. Rector of Bemerton near Sarum . Holding Faith , and a good Conscience ; which some having put away , Concerning Faith have made Ship-wrack . 1 Tim. 1. 19. LONDON , Printed for S. Manship , at the Ship near the Royal Exchange in Cornhil , 1697. To the Right Honourable Henry Lord of Colerane . My Lord , YOur Lordships Learning and Knowledge in Matters of Religion , and Sincerity in the Belief and Profession of its Sacred Articles are both so well known , that I cannot be supposed to Present this Book to your Lordship with a Design to instruct you in the Former , or to Settle and Confirm you in the Latter . There are indeed but too many in the World to whom it may be necessary upon those Accounts , but all that I intend in reference to your Lordship by it is only to express my Reverence and Respect for your great Worth and Goodness , and my grateful Acknowledgments for that particular Share and Interest I have had in your Favours . Which give me further Occasion to hope that you will be as kind to the Book a● you have been to the Author , and that as you were pleas'd to incourage the Undertaking , so you will now favour the Performance , which with all deference and Submission is humbly presented to your Lordship by My Lord , Your Lordships most Obliged and very humble Servant , J. Norris . THE PREFACE . COntroversies of Religion , and particularly this , have been managed of late with that Intemperance of Passion and Indecency of , Language , after such a Rude Bear-Garden way , so much more like Duelling or Prizing than Disputing , that the more good Natured and better Bred part of the World are grown almost Sick of them and Prejudic'd against them , not being able to see Men Cut and Slash and draw Blood from one another after such an inhuman manner only to vent their own Spleen , and make diversion for the Savage and brutalized Rabble , without some troublesom resentments of Pity and Displacency . And truly 't is hard for a Man to read some certain things of this Character without being disturb'd , and growing out of humour upon 't , and being even out of Conceit with Mankind , such an Idea do they raise of the Malignity of Human Nature , and so do they ruffle an● Chagrine the Mind of the Reader : From which impressions he will hardly recover himself till he meets with some Book or other of a Contrary Spirit ( whereof the Bishop of London-Derry's Excellent Discourse of the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God is a very eminent Instance ) which may serve to recompose the One , and give him a better Opinion of the Other . I have endeavour'd in the Management of the present Argument to use such Christian Temper and Moderation as becomes the Search of Truth , and may argue a Mind Concern'd only for the finding it . For of all the ill-sorted things in Nature I think it the most improper and disagreeable , to reason in a Passion , especially when 't is in defence of that Religion which neither needs at nor allows it . And therefore laying aside all Anger and Disaffection ( which even for the advantage of well reasoning ought to be laid aside ) I have set my Self to observe the Laws of Decency as well as those of good Discourse , to Consider things as they really are in their own Natures , to represent them as I find them with all Calmness and Sedateness , to regard nothing but the pure Merits of the Cause , and to treat that Party of Men I write against with that Candour and Respect as may the better dispose them to lend Attention to my Arguments , Considering it as one of the Principal Rules of the Art of Perswasion to gain upon the Affections of Men in order to the Conviction of their Iudgments . And I do not know that I am guilty of any incivility towards the Men I deal with , unless it be that of Contradicting them . Wherein as they are even with me , so I hope they will not be less so in the other part , but will treat me with the like return of Civility and good Temper , in Case they shall think fit to make any . The Occasion of this undertaking was a Certain late Book call'd Christianity Not Mysterious , one of the most Bold , daring and irreverent pieces of Defiance to the Mysteries of the Christian Religion that even this Licentious Age has produced , and which has been supposed to have done great Battery and Execution upon them , and to be indeed a very shrewd and notable Performance even by people of competent Sense and Learning , not excluding the Author himself who to shew his good Opinion both of his Cause and of his Management of it , has since publish'd a Second Edition of his Book , with inlargements , and with his Name . To which I thought once to have return'd a direct and Formal Answer by way of Solution of his Objections , till upon further Consideration I judg'd it better to give an Absolute Account of the Positive Side of the Question ; and after having laid such grounds in it as might be made use of for the Confutation of his Book , to make a short Application of them in a few Strictures upon it at the End of Mine . But after I had laid those Grounds in the Absolute part , I found the Application of them was so easie to the Author's Objections , that they might as well be made by my Reader , who might with such readiness out of the Principles here establish'd form an Answer to all that deserves one in that Book , that I thought there was no need of inlarging the Bulk of mine upon that account . Which accordingly tho' I do not call by the Name of an Answer to Christianity Not Mysterious , I cannot but reckon to have all the Substance ( though not the Formality ) of a Reply to that Treatise , it being much the same thing in effect either to unlock a door for a Man , or to put into his hands a Key that will. I write neither for Favour nor for Preferment , but only to serve the Cause of Christianity ( for so I call that of its Mysteries ) and the interest of that Church which is so great a Friend to it and Maintainer of it according to its purest and most Primitive State of Apostolical and Evangelic Perfection . Of whose Communion 't is my Happiness to be a Member , my Glory to be a Priest , and that I had better Abilities to do her Service , my highest Ambition . However such as they are I humbly devote and imploy them to that purpose , as I do this and all other my Labours . I hope what I have written may do some Service to the Cause whose Defence it Undertakes , and if it does , I shall not much regard the resentments of any Designing or not so well affected Persons , Great or Little , whose displeasure it may provoke , tho' I have taken all due Care not to give any body any reasonable Offence . And so I Commit the following Papers to the attentive Perusal of the Candid and Considerate Reader , and to the Blessing of God. THE CONTENTS . Chapter I. OF Reason . Page 18. Chapter II. Of Faith. p. 53. Chapter III. The Distinction of things Contrary to Reason , and above Reason , Consider'd . p. 100. Chapter IV. That Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth . p. 137. Chapter V. That therefore a things being Incomprehensible by Reason , is of it self no Concluding Argument of its not being true . p. 230. Chapter VI. That if the Incomprehensibility of a thing were an Argument of its not being True , Human Reason would then be the Measure of Truth . p. 243. Chapter VII . That therefore the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no just Objection against the Belief of it . With an Account of the Cartesian Maxim , that we are to Assent only to what is Clear and Evident . p. 251. Chapter VIII . Wherein is shewn what is the true Vse of Reason in Believing . p. 282. Chapter IX . An Application of the foregoing Considerations to the Mysteries of Christianity . p. 294. Chapter X. The Conclusion of the Whole , with an Address to the Socinians . p. 307. Post-script . p. 339. The Introduction . 1. AMong the various Conjectures Men of a Prophetic Spirit have fall'n into Concerning the last events , we have had * this Opinion not long since advanc'd for one , that as God formerly by rejecting the Iews made way for the Gentiles , so in the latter days he will in like manner by rejecting the Gentiles make way for the Iews to enter into the Christian Church . That the state of Christianity being become intirely Corrupt , and all over Anti-christianiz'd , the First of those Viols of the Divine Wrath that are to exterminate the Wicked , and usher in the Terrours of the Great Day , shall fall upon the Christian World , that Christendom shall be utterly dissolv'd , broken in pieces , and destroy'd , and that the Iews shall be replaced and re●establish'd upon its Ruins . And , to render it Worthy of so Sore a Calamity , that the generality of its Professors shall not only greatly depart from the Primitive Power of the Evangelic Spirit , by Apostatizing from the Purity and Perfection of both Christian Faith and Life ( which we have already seen come to pass ) but shall even lay down their Holy Profession , renounce their very Faith and Religion , and turn Infidels . Upon the latter part of which Opinion those Words of our Saviour seem to cast a very suspicious Aspect , VVhen the Son of Man cometh , shall be find Faith upon the Earth ? As upon the Former do also those words of St. Paul , Thou wilt say then , The Branches were broken off , that I might be graffed in . VVell ; because of unbelief they were broken off , and thou standest by Faith. Be not high-minded , but fear . For if God spared not the Natural Branches , take heed lest he also spare not thee . Behold therefore the Goodness and Severity of God : On them which fell , Severity ; but towards thee , Goodness , if thou continue in his Goodness . Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off : that is , as a dead , wither'd and unfruitful Branch , as were the Iews for the same Reason before , and as our Saviour tells us every unfruitful Branch shall be . 2. And truly if one were to judge of these Mens Opinion by the present face and state of things , one would be inclined to think it true , and that they had the right Key of Prophecy in their hands . For sure by all Signs and Appearances , the Course of the World seems to drive this way ; and if there be such a Fatal Revolution to come , no doubt but that we are with large steps hastening to it . For how are the Vitals of Religion continually struck at , the Foundations of it unsettled and undermined , its venerable Articles disputed and ridiculed , and by what a slender thread does Christianity hang ! The great Complaint for a long while has been of the Decay of Christian Piety , and the Universal Corruption of Manners . But now our Religion is corrupted as well as our Manners , and we every day make shipwrack of our Faith as well as of a good Conscience . So that we have now fill'd our measure , and are every way ripe for Destruction . Some deny all Reveal'd Religion , and consequently the Christian ; others allowing the Divinity of the Religion deny that of its Author , together with the Doctrines of the Trinity , Incarnation and Satisfaction ; others again owning his Divinity deny the necessity of Believing it ; others again granting that , and the other Points , deny the necessity of his Satisfaction , which is not only resolv'd into mere Prudential Reasons ( as formerly ) instead of being grounded upon the Essential Order and Iustice of God , but is brought down so low of late as to be made an Accommodation and Condescension to , and a gracious Compliance with the common Weaknesses and Prejudices of Mankind . Thus is the Christian Religion so mangled and dismember'd by some , and so odly and insidiously represented by others , that between them both the general Faith of the thing is indanger'd , and a ready way prepared to Scepticism and Infidelity . 3. Not that I think it ought to be any just matter of Scandal to any considering Christians , or Prejudice to their Holy Religion to see so many Corruptions of it , and Apostacies and Revoltings from it ; since this is no more than what the Holy Spirit of God has often forewarn'd us shall come to pass in the latter days ; wherein we are expresly told , that perillous times shall come , and that Men shall resist the Truth , be proud and high-minded , of corrupt minds , and reprobate concerning the Faith. And moreover that they shall privily bring in damnable Heresies , even denying the Lord that bought them . This therefore I say ought in reason to be no matter of scandal to any Christians . And so neither ought the poor , humble , suffering condition of Jesus Christ to have been any to the Iews , since this also was plainly foretold of the Messias , and made a notable part of his Character . And yet we find that the Cross of Christ was a stumbling-block to the Iews , and so no doubt are the present sufferings , I may say Crucifixion , of his Religion to many Christians ; the generality of which measure the certainty of their Faith by the firmness and constancy of its Professors , and are apt more to stagger and take offence at the untoward appearance of any Event , than to be confirm'd in their belief from its agreement with Antient Prophecies . 4. In the mean time what do those without think of us ! Particularly the Heathens , among whom no doubt there are some that neither want Intelligence nor Curiosity to acquaint themselves with the present state of Christendom . What a confirmation must it be to these Men in their Infidelity , to see Christians grow weary of their own Religion , and willing to part with those great and weighty Articles of it for which the holy Martyrs shed their Blood , and which could not be extorted from them by all the might and power of their cruel Emperours . Can it be expected that these Men should embrace a Religion which they see thus continually deserted by its own Disciples ! Or rather instead of converting themselves to Christianity will they not look every day when the Christians shall come over to them ! For truly this seems to be the state of the Christian World at this time . We are posting as fast as we can into Heathenism , and stand even upon the brink of Infidelity . The great Articles of our Religion are giving up every day , and when Men have parted with these , we are very much beholden to them if they retain any of the rest , there being nothing in Christianity considerable enough , when the great Mysteries of the Trinity , Incarnation &c. are taken away , to make it appear an Institution worthy of God , or to challenge the Assent of any thinking and considering● Man But why do I talk of running into Heathenism ? I am afraid we are tending further . For as from a Socinian 't is easie to commence a Deist ; so he that is once a Deist is in a hopeful way to be an Atheist whenever he please . 5. I do not speak these things out of a Spirit of Peevishness and Dissatisfaction , as some who being full of a Querulous Splenetick Humour , and knowing not how better to dispose of it to their ease , give it vent upon the Times , of which they are always complaining right or wring . No , the deplorable and dangerous state of Christianity , and the too visible growth of Socinianism and Deism among us extort these Reflections from me , and have given me many a troublesome and uneasie Thought in my private Retirements . For my Satisfaction under which , my best Salvo has been to consider that God governs the World , and that Jesus Christ , who is the Head of his Church , will preserve it from all the Powers of Earth , and even from the Gates of Hell. And that tho' now he seems to be asleep in this Sacred Vessel while the Tempest rages , and the Waves beat against it , and almost cover it , yet 't is to be hoped he will awake , and rebuke the Winds and the Sea , and make all calm and quiet again . However in the mean time 't is fit the Mariners should work , and neglect the use of no means that are necessary to the safety of their Ship ; some by Writing , others by private Discourse , and all by Prayers and a good Life . 6. But now whereas all Rational Method of Cure is founded upon the knowledge of the Cause of the Distemper , he that would contribute any thing to the stopping this Contagion of Religious Scepticism , that now reigns among us , ought in the first place to consider the Reason of it , what it is that makes Men so disposed to waver in their Religion , and so ready to part with the great Articles and Mysteries of it . Now to this purpose I call to mind a very considerable Observation of Descartes concerning Atheism , which I take to be equally applicable to Infidelity , particularly to this of the Mysteries of the Christian Faith : The Observation is this , That those things which are commonly alledged by Atheists to impugne the Existence of God , do all turn upon this , that either we attribute some Humane Affection to God , or else arrogate so great force and penetration to our own minds as to go about to comprehend and determine what God can , and ought to do . So that if we would but carry about us this Thought , that our Minds are to be consider'd as Finite , but God as Incomprehensible and Infinite , there would be no further difficulty in and of their Objections . Thus that very Acute and Judicious Person concerning the Grounds of Atheism . And in like manner I think it may be said of Infidelity as to the Mysteries of Christianity , That the great Reason why so many that call themselves Christians do so obstinately cavil at them and dispute them , is , that either they think too meanly of God , or too highly of themselves ; that either they ascribe something Humane to his Nature , or something Divine to their own ; that either they set too narrow limits to the Divine Power and Greatness , or carry out too far those of their own understandings ; in one word , that either they Humani●e God , or Deify themselves and their own Rational Abilities . 7. And they confess in effect as much themselves . For the Reason that these Men commonly give out and pretend for their not allowing the Mysteries of the Christian Religion any room in their Creed , is , that they are above the reach of their Understandings . They cannot comprehend them , or conceive how they can be , and therefore will not believe them ; having fix'd it as a Law in the general to believe nothing but what they can comprehend . But now where does the Ground of this Consequence rest at last , or upon what Principle does it ultimately depend ? How comes the Incomprehensibility of a Point of Faith to be a presumption against it ; why is its being above their Reason in Argument that it is not true ? Why I say , but only because in the first place they attribute so much to their Reason ( at least by a Confuse Sentiment ) as to presume it to be the Measure and Standard of all Truth , and that nothing that is True can really be above it . Here I say the stress of the matter will rest at last . For should the Argument of these Men be reduced to a Syllogistical Form , it must necessarily proceed thus , Whatever is above our Reason is not to be believ'd as true ; But the Reputed Mysteries of Christianity are above our Reason : Therefore the Reputed Mysteries of Christianity are not to be believ'd as true . Now the only contestable Proposition in this Syllogism is the Major , which can be prov'd by no other Principle than this , That our Reason is the Measure of all Truth , and whose Proof must be in this Form , Whatever is above the Measure of all Truth is not to be believ'd as true ; But our Reason is the Measure of all Truth : Therefore whatever is above our Reason is not to be believ'd as true . By this Analysis of their Argument into its Principle it is plain , that this their Reason of disbelieving the Mysteries of the Christian Religion , viz. Because they are above their Reason , does at last resolve into this , That their Reason is the Measure of all Truth , and that they can comprehend all things . For otherwise how should their not being able to comprehend a thing , be an Argument that it is not true ? This I presume is a Principle our Adversaries would be loth to own , and indeed with good Reason , it being the most extravagantly absurd and self-arrowgating one that can possibly enter the Thought , or proceed from the Mouth of a Man. And accordinly I do not know any Socinian that had the immodesty in terms openly to assert it . But this is what they must come to if they will speak out , and what in the mean time they do vertually and implicitly say . So then their procedure in short seems to be this , They first set their Reason above all things , and then will believe nothing that is above their Reason . And if this be not in an unreasonable measure to exalt that Faculty , to carry it beyond its due bounds , nay to set it no bounds at all , but strictly to make it Infinite , and so to ascribe to it no less than a Divine Perfection , I must profess my despair ever to know what is . 8. To be the adequate Measure of all Truth , so as to have no one Truth above the comprehension of it , is as much as can be said of the Reason and Understanding of God himself . His Infinite Understanding is indeed truly and necessarily so , and whatever is above his Reason is for that very reason most certainly not true . Because he essentially comprehending all that truly is , it must necessarily follow that whatever he does not comprehend must be nothing . But to say the same of the Reason of a Man , or of the Intelligence of the most illuminated Angel , would be to confound all distinction between Finite and Infinite , God and Creature , and to advance the most absurd , and withal the most impious and blaspemous Proposition imaginable . And yet this is the general Principle upon which the Body of Socinianism turns , and by which it would be most directly and most compendiously confuted . 9. I shall therefore take hold of it by this handle : And since that which is a Principle one way , as we argue forwards from the Cause to the Effect , may be considered as a Consequence another way , as we argue backwards from the Effect to the Cause ; and since there are these two general ways of Reasoning , I shall therefore proceed both these wayes in the management of the present Argument , which accordingly shall turn chiefly upon this double Hinge . First , I shall overturn their Principle ( I call it theirs , because 't is what they must at last necessarily come to ) by shewing that Humane Reason is not the measure of Truth , or that there may be some things True which are above the comprehension of Humane Reason , and that therefore a things being above Reason is no concluding Argument of its not being True. Secondly , I shall argue ab Absurdo , by shewing that if a things being above Reason were an Argument of its not being True , then it will follow that Humane Reason is the Measure of all Truth , which if I bring them to , I shall think them reduced to a sufficient Absurdity . These I intend as the two great Pillars of this Work , which like the sides of an Arch will strengthen and bear up one another , that which is liable to exception in the former part being made out in the latter , and that which is liable to exception in the latter being made out in the former . For if it be questioned in the First Part whether this be indeed their Principle , That Humane Reason is the Measure of all Truth , that will appear in the Second , wherein it will be shewn to follow from their supposition . And if it be question'd in the Second Part , whether this their Principle be absurd , and so whether they are reduced to an Absurdity , that will appear in the First , wherein this Principle is shewn to be False . 10. And when by this Method I have shewn in general both a Priori and a Posteriori , that a things being above Humane Reason is of it self no sufficient Argument of its not being true , I shall then make application of all to the Mysteries of the Christian Religion , which I shall shew may be true notwithstanding their being above Humane Reason , and so that their being above it is no just ground to conclude them False , and that therefore they ought to be believed notwithstanding their being above our Reason , which in this case ought to be no prejudice to our Faith , supposing them otherwise sufficiently revealed . Which whether they are or no I shall not discuss , my design at present not being to enter into the detail of the Controversie , to prove the particular Mysteries of the Christian Faith , such as the Trinity , Incarnation , or the like , but only to lay a general ground and foundation for the belief of those Articles , and to destroy that upon which the Body of Socinianism stands . The Great and General Principle of which I take to be , That nothing is to be believ'd as reveal'd by God , that is above the comprehension of Humane Reason ; or , That a Man is to believe nothing but what he can comprehend . Which Principle I hope by the help of God , with the utmost Evidence and Demonstration to overthrow . And because in order to this I must first give a direct and profess'd Account of Reason and Faith , besides what will be said Incidentally and Occasionally of them in the Course of the Treatise , whose main design is so to adjust and accommodate the Natures and Properties of these two things together , as to shew the Reasonableness of believing the Mysteries of the Christian Religion ; thereupon it is that I intitle the whole , An Account of Reason and Faith , in relation to the Mysteries of Christianity . This is the Gross of what I design , the Particulars of which will be more distinctly laid down and accounted for in the following Chapters . CHAP. I. Of Reason . 1. AMbiguity of Words being one great occasion of Confusion of Thoughts ; whoever will Discourse clearly and distinctly of any Subject , must in the first place fix and settle the signification of his Terms , in case they are Ambiguous ; that is , if one and the same Term be applyed to different Ideas . In this case , Definition of the Name is to go before the Definition of the Thing ; between which two I conceive the difference to be this , That in a Nominal Definition the word is only determin'd to such a certain Idea , whereas in a Real one , the Idea it self is opened and explained by some other Ideas that are supposed to be contain'd and involv'd in it . Upon which account it is that Nominal Definitions are Arbitrary , and therefore incontestable , and therefore may be used as Principles in Discourse , as they are in Geometry ; whereas Real Definitions are not Arbitrary , but must be conform'd to the Nature of things , and so are not to be taken for Principles , whose Truth is to be supposed , but for disputable Propositions , whose Truth is to be proved . 2. Reason therefore being an ambiguous word , and of various acceptation , before I proceed to give an account of the Nature of the thing it will be necessary that I define the Name ; which will also be the better defined , if it be first distinguisht . Now all Distinction being a sort of Division , in which , according to the Rules of Logick , the Distribution ought to be into the most general , and most immediate Members , I shall accordingly distinguish of the several meanings of this word , Reason , by the same measure as I would divide any whole into its parts . 3. I consider therefore that the most general distribution of Reason is into that of the Object and that of the Subject ; or , to word it more Intelligibly , though perhaps not altogether so Scholastically , into that of the Thing , and that of the Understanding . Reason objective , or of the Thing , is again very various : Sometimes it is taken for Truth , and that both for Truth of the Thing , namely the Essential relations that are between Ideas , and for Truth of the Proposition which is its conformity to those Ideal Relations . Thus it is taken the first way for the Ideal Relations themselves , when we inquire whether the Reasons of Good and Evil are ab Eterno , meaning by Reasons the Essential Relations or Differences . Thus again it is taken the second way , for the agreement or conformity of a Proposition with those Essential Relations ; as when we say , This is Sense and Reason ; meaning that the Proposition is true , and conformable to the Nature of things . Sometimes again it is taken for the Medium , Argument , or Principle whereby as Truth is proved ; as when we say , Do you prove this by Reason or by Authority ? Sometimes again for the Rules and Measures of Reasoning ; as suppose I should say , That Reason is the ●ittest Study for a Rational Creature , I should be supposed to mean those Rules and Measures whereby we ought to reason , and so to intend a commendation of Logick . Sometimes again it is taken for Moderation ; as when we say , There is Reason in all things . Sometimes for Right , Equity or Justice ; the observation of which is commonly call'd . Doing a Man Reason . It is also taken for the End or Motive of an Action ; as when we say , For what Reason do you this or that ; in which sense it is used by the Poet ; — stat pro Ratione voluntas . 4. Come we now to the Consideration of Reason , as 't is taken subjectively , the other general part of its distinction , in which also there is some variety of Acceptation . For it is sometimes taken for the Act , sometimes for the Habit , and sometimes for the Natural Power or Faculty of Reasoning . For the Act ; as when we say of a Man asleep , that he is deprived of his Reason . For the Habit ; as when we say of a Man , that he has lost his Reason , when his Intellectuals are mightily disorder'd and impair'd by a Disease . For the Natural Power or Faculty of Reasoning ; as when we say ▪ That Man is a Creature indued with Reason . Which being a Proposition of Universal Truth , and that proceeds of Man as Man , must necessarily be verified of every Man , and consequently must not be meant of the Act or Habit of Reason , ( for these are not at all times in every Man ) but of the Natural Power or Faculty of it , which is not lyable to be suspended as the Act , nor lost as the Habit , but is Essential to the Nature of Man , that which constitutes him what he is , and distinguishes him from other Creatures , and consequently is inseparable from him , whether asleep or awake , whether sick or well . 5. Reason thus consider'd as it stands for a Power or Faculty in Human Nature , may be taken again either largely or strictly . Largely , for the Power of Thinking or Perception in general , whereby a Man is capable of knowing or understanding any Truth , let it be by what means , or in what order or method soever . Strictly , for the same Power proceeding after a certain special manner , and according to a peculiar order and method , namely , from the knowledge of one thing to that of another , or to the knowledge of what is , as yet , obscure and unknown , by the knowledge of what is more clear and better known ; concerning which a fuller account by and by . 6. After having thus distinguisht , with what exactness of order I could , the several Acceptations of the word Reason , I shall in the next place define in which of these Senses I now use it . By Reason then in this place , I intend not Reason of the Object , but that of the Subject ; and that not as to the Act or Habit , but as to the Natural Power or Faculty of Reasoning . And that again not as it is taken strictly , as it uses a certain particular process in its operation , but as it is taken more at large for the power of perceiving or knowing in general . According to which Sense Reason is here the same with Vnderstanding . And so it is often used ; as when we say , The Reason of a Man teaches him this or that ; meaning his Understanding at large , or the general Power whereby he understands . For if Science , which strictly taken is that particular kind of Knowledge which is acquired by Demonstration , be yet often used more largely for Knowledge in general , why may not Reason , the great Principle and Faculty of Science , which strictly taken signifies a Power of Knowing by such a certain way and in such a certain manner of proceeding , be taken as well in a greater latitude , for the Power of Knowing or Understanding in general ? 7. And the Nature of the Subject and Question now under Consideration requires that it should be thus used here . For when 't is inquired whether there be any thing in Religion above Reason , the meaning certainly can be no other than whether there be any thing which surpasses the Power and Capacity of a Mans Understanding to comprehend or account for ? And he that says there is nothing in Religion above Reason , is supposed to mean , that there is nothing in it beyond the comprehension of a Mans Natural Understanding , nothing but what he can profound and fathom . And so also he that says , that there are Mysteries in Christianity , or things above our Reason , must be presumed to mean , that there are Reveal'd Truths that so far exceed the measure of our Intellectual Faculties and are of a size so disproportionate to our Minds , that with all the force and penetration of Spirit , and the utmost application of Thought , we cannot possibly comprehend them , be our method of proceeding what it will. I do not intend by this to state the Question ( which shall be done more fully in its due place ) but only to give an account of one of its Terms , and to shew that by Reason I both do and should here mean , A Mans Natural Power of Knowing or Understanding in general . In which use of the word , 't is no 〈◊〉 Authority to me that the Excellent and most Accurate Author of L' Art de Penser , defines Log●ck to be an Art of well conducting ones Reason in the knowledge of things : Where by Reason 't is plain he must mean the same as Vnderstanding , 8. What this Power or Principle of Understanding is in its self , or in its own Nature and Essence , I do not pretend to know , as not having any clear Idea of my own Soul , and indeed as not knowing my self at all by Idea , but only by a confuse Sentiment of internal Consciousness . And therefore I shall not go about to examine what it is . For the same reason also I shall not set my self to consider whether the Understanding be any Power or Faculty really distinct from the Soul , or only the Soul it self acting after a certain manner , this being almost as obscure as the other ; and I care not to employ either my own Thoughts , or my Readers , upon things whereof I have not any clear Conception . All that I shall therefore further treat of concerning the Understanding ( for so I now call our Reason ) shall be with respect to its Operations , by which the Nature of it is best known , and whereof we are not only Conscious by way of Sentiment , but have also , or at least by self-reflexion may have , some Notion and Conception by way of Idea . 9. Now these are ordinarily supposed to be three , Apprehension , Iudgment and Discourse : By Apprehension , meaning the simple view or perception of a thing ; by Iudgment , the joining or separating of Ideas by Affirmation or Negation ; by Discourse , the collecting of one thing from another . And upon this threefold ground our Systems of Logick have for a great while proceeded with great Agreement . But as Authentick as Time and Consent have made this Division , I cannot think it right , when I compare it with what by self-reflexion I find to pass within my own Mind . For supposing it were true as to the matter of it ; that is , I mean , that Judgment and Discourse did really belong to the Understanding ( which yet the Philosophers of the Carcesian way will by no means allow ) yet the Form of it must needs be very unartificial and inaccurate . For Truth being the general Object of the Understanding , and there being nothing in Truth but Ideas and the Relation that is between them , 't is impossible there should be any more operations of the Understanding than Perception and Iudgment ; Perception as to the Ideas themselves , and Judgment as to their Relation . Which Judgment 't is true may be either Immediate or Mediate ; Immediate when the Relations of Ideas are judg'd of by the very Ideas themselves , or Mediate when they are judg'd of by the help and means of some other Idea , but then all this is but Judgment still , though in two different ways , the difference between them being the same as between judging of a thing under the Formality of a Proposition , and judging of the same thing under the Formality of a Conclusion . These indeed are different ways of judging , but still they are both but Judgments , and one as much as the other . So that in reality that which these Men call Discourse is but a species of Iudgment ; and if for that reason they will consider it as distinct from Judgment and make it a third Operation , they might as well have put in the other species too ( Judgment immediate ) and so made a fourth . But then this is against the great Fundamental Law of Division which requires that one of the Members ought not to be so included in the other , as that the other may be affirm'd of it . Which is plainly the Case here , this being such a kind of Division , as if one should divide a Living Creature into a Plant , an Animal and a Man , and that because Discourse is as much a Species of Judgment as Man is of Animal . And herein ( though the matter be so clear that I need it not ) yet I happen to have the Authority of a considerable Philosopher on my side , Monsieur Derodon , who in these few words expresses his Sense full and home to this purpose ; The third Operation of the Mind , says he , is commonly call'd Discourse , but is properly the Iudgment of the Consequent , as inferr'd from the Iudgment of the Antecedent . 10. By this it is evident , that supposing the matter of this Division never so true , that is , that Judgment and Discourse do appertain to the Understanding , yet the Form of it is wrong ; Discourse , which is here made a third member of the Division , being contain'd under Judgment , which is the second , as the Species of it . But neither is the matter of it true . For Judgment and Discourse , or to speak more accurately , Iudgment , whether immediate or mediate , does indeed not belong to the Understanding , but ( as will by and by appear ) to the Will. There is but one general Operation that belongs to the Understanding , and that is Perception . For as I said before , Truth being the general Object of the Understanding , and there being nothing in Truth but Ideas and their Relations , all that the Understanding can here have to do will be only to perceive these Ideas , and the several Relations that are between them . For when this is done , then is a thing sufficiently understood , to understand a thing being no more than to perceive its Ideas , and how they stand related to one another . Here is the whole compass and full extent of the Understanding , and all that we can possibly conceive by it ; and he that perceives Ideas and their Relations understands as much of them as is to be understood . Whereby it is evident , that Perception is the only operation of the Understanding , and that it can have no other . 'T is true indeed there is variety in this Perception , it being either Simple or Complex ; Simple of the Ideas themselves , and Complex of their Relations ; which latter again is either Immediate or Mediate , ( as was said before of Iudgment ) but still 't is all but Perception , though differently modified ; which therefore I conclude to be the only Operation that properly belongs to the Understanding . 11. But now if all that of right belongs to the Understanding be Perception , then 't is most certain that Judgment cannot belong to the Understanding , and that because Judgment is not Perception . For we are said to judge as we perceive , and some are so much in haste that they will judge before they perceive , which plainly shews them to be two different things . And that they are so this one Argument well considered is a Demonstration , that Judgment is a Fallible thing , that may be true or false as it happens ; whereas Perception is always true , it being a Contradiction that it should be otherwise : For what a Man does not truly perceive he does not perceive at all . I conclude therefore that Judgment is not Perception ; and since Perception is ( as has been shewn ) the only opera●ion of the Understanding , I conclude again that Judgment does not belong to the Understanding . It must therefore belong to the Will , which is the proper seat both of Judgment and of Errour too . And it is nothing else but the Will 's consenting to and acquiescing in the Representations that are made by the Understanding . Which agrees well with those weighty and very fruitful Maxims , That the Will is the Subject and Principle of all Errour as well as Sin ( which indeed ought to be voluntary to make it culpable ) . That 't is in our Power to avoid Errour by suspending our Judgment till the Evidence be clear , though 't is not in our Power to avoid Ignorance or Non-Perception of many things by reason of the limitedness of our Faculties . That the fault of those that err is , that their Wills run before their Understandings , that they judge and pronounce before they perceive , or of things whereof they have really no Perception , which indeed is a great fault , and the cause of all our disorders . That we are accountable for our Judgments as well as for any of our other Actions . And lastly , That God is not the Cause of any of our Errours , which with respect to him are only Negations , occasioned only by his not having given us larger Capacities ; but with respect to our selves are Privations , proceeding from the ill use we make of those Natural Capacities he has indued us with . All which great and momentous Truths are grounded upon the very Principle now laid down , ( which by this may appear to be something more than a Curiosity ) That Judgment however commonly ascribed to the Understanding , does yet really belong to the Will , and not to the Understanding , whose operations are all terminated within the limits of Perception . So well do these things cohere together , and so aptly does one Truth hang and depend upon another . 12. But as right as I think this Account of the matter to be , yet considering what an innovation it is from the Scholastic Measures , and how like a Paradox it looks , I think a little Countenance from Authority may do well to counterpoise the Prejudice of Singularity . And because this is a greater Innovation than the precedent one , I shall back it with an Authority proportionably greater than what was used upon the other occasion . It may be well concluded from what has been said ( says a Modern Writer , and whom I think I may venture to call a Philosopher ) that the Vnderstanding never judges , since it only perceives , or since Iudgments and even Reasonings , with respect to the Vnderstanding , are only pure Perceptions . That 't is the Will alone which truly judges in acquiescing in that which the Vnderstanding represents to it , and in voluntarily reposing it self therein . And that also 't is that alone which leads us into Errour . Again ; I say then that there is no other difference on the part of the Vnderstanding between a simple Perception , Iudgment and Discourse , but that the Vnderstanding perceives a simple thing without any relation to any thing whatsoever , by a simple Perception . That it perceives the Relations between two or more things in Iudgment . And that in fine , it perceives the Relations that are between the Relations of things in Discourse . So that all the Operations of the Vnderstanding are no other than pure Perceptions . All which he further explains and confirms by an Illustration taken from Numbers , with some other very considerable Reflections upon it ; which for brevity's sake I leave the curious Reader to consult in order to his better satisfaction . 13. To this Account of this most excellent Person I fully agree as to the substance and matter of it , only would by his leave make some little Alteration in the Form of it ; concerning which he had no occasion to be sollicitous , as not designing a formal and exact division of the Operations of the Understanding ; but only to shew that they were all no other than pure Perceptions . And so far his representation of the Matter is right , and so , I suppose , will the Form of it be too if it run thus . The only operation of the Understanding is Perception : Which Perception is either Simple or Complex . Simple of the Ideas themselves , and Complex of their Relations . Which Complex Perception is again twofold , Immediate or Mediate . Immediate when the Relations of Ideas are perceiv'd by the perception and collation of the very Ideas themselves whose Relations they are ; Mediate when those Relations are perceiv'd by the help or mediation of some third Idea , made use of as a common measure of comparing those Ideas which could not be so collated together as to have their Relations perceiv'd by themselves . And in this , I think , we have a right Account of the Operations of the Understanding , both as to Matter and Form ; the knowledge of which , considering how much Spirit is above Body , though it were only a piece of Speculation and Curiosity , I should think of greater worth and consideration than that of the Properties of Lines and Figures , or any of the Phenomena's of Nature . 14. This Complex Perception , or the Perception of the Relations that are between Ideas , I take to be the same with what we commonly call Knowledge : Which is usually defined by an evident Assent , but I think not rightly . For an evident Assent is the same as an Assent upon Evidence ; that is , an Assent to an evident thing , or to a thing whereof we have an evident Perception . But now Perception and Assent are two things , ( the former being the ground of the latter ) and 't is in the Perception , not in the Assent , that Knowledge properly consists . For Knowledge is most certainly an Act of the Understanding ; and it was shewn before , that the only Operation of that is Perception . As for Assent , that will be found to belong to another Principle . For Assent is no other than an Affirmative Iudgment ; ( for then a Man is said to assent to a thing when he judges it to be so or so , and then to dissent when he judges it not to be so ) ; and Judgment , as was shewn before , belongs to the Will. Nor is it any thing to the contrary that we necessarily assent to whatsoever we clearly perceive . This neither proves Assent and Perception to be one and the same , nor that Assent does not belong to the Will , but only that the Will necessarily follows , and cannot possibly resist the clear Light of the Understanding ; which is a great Truth , but no Objection . Assent therefore is always voluntary , tho' not always free ; and whether voluntary or free is a plain Act of the Will imbracing and acquiescing in what is represented to it by the Understanding . And therefore though we do always assent to what we evidently perceive , yet Knowledge does not consist in the Assent , but in the Perception , which is the ground of that Assent . 15. For , to push the matter a little further , though Assent necessarily follows upon clear Perception , and cannot be separated from it , yet sure we may use Abstraction here , and consider Perception without considering Assent , the Idea of the one not including the Idea of the other . But now I would fain know whether he that clearly perceives the Relations of things one to another , may not be truly said to understand or know those things ? Or whether there be any thing further requisite to the understanding or knowledge of a thing after a full and clear perception of it ? If not , ( as I think no Man that considers what he speaks will say that there is ) then Knowledge is supposed to be in its compleat and perfect act of being by Perception alone , and that before any Assent be given ; which Assent therefore cannot go to the making up of its Nature , since it was supposed to be compleat without it . To which I add , That let our Assent be join'd with never so much Evidence , still we are said to assent because we know , and to what we know . So that our Knowledge is here presupposed to our Assent , and consequently is in order of Nature at least before it , and therefore cannot consist in it . I conclude therefore that Knowledge is not evident Assent , but Perception , particularly that Perception which I call Complex , the perception of the Relations that are between Ideas , whether as to Agreement or Disagreement . Which , I think , till we can meet with a better , may serve for a tolerable Definition of Knowledge . 16. But now whereas this Complex Perception ( as was noted above ) is either Immediate or Mediate ; hence it is that our Knowledge also admits of the same division , being either Immediate or Mediate , or if you please , Intuitive or Demonstrative . Between which two the difference usually made is , that in Intuitive Knowledge we have an intire and simultaneous view of things , and see all at once ; whereas in Demonstrative Knowledge our prospect opens by degrees and we proceed step by step , advancing from the knowledge of one thing to that of another . This account indeed is true , but not explicit enough to make it clear : For 't is Characterising from the effect only , and does not explain how our view in Intuitive Knowledge comes to be so intire , and in Demonstrative so gradual and progressive . This therefore must be deduced higher , and explained by a more distinct Principle . And I think we shall distinguish them more clearly and exactly by saying , That Intuitive Knowledge is when we perceive the agreement or disagreement of one Idea with another immediately and by themselves , without the mediation or intervention of any other Idea . Demonstrative , when this agreement or disagreement is perceiv'd not immediately , by comparing the Ideas with themselves , but mediately , by comparing them with a third ; that is , when we perceive them to agree or disagree with themselves , as we find them to do so with some third Idea , which we are oftentimes forced to make use of as a common measure , because we cannot always , by reason of the narrowness of our Faculties , so collate and confront our other Ideas together , as to see whether they agree or no by their mere comparison . 17. This Demonstrative Knowledge is what in the Schools is call'd Science , concerning which great stir is made , and variety of Definitions given , but which by the measures already laid down , appears to be nothing else but a Mediate Perception , or the perception of the Relations of Ideas by the mediation of some other Idea . This other Idea is what we usually call a Medium or Proof , because it is the common measure whereby our Ideas are compared , and the Relations between them perceiv'd . And 't is the form and process of the Understanding using this middle Idea as a measure whereby to perceive the agreement or disagreement of the others , according as they agree or disagree with this , that I would call Reasoning , which is not the very same with Science , but the way and method to it . For we are said to reason in order to know , and Science is the effect of Demonstration , according to that known saying in Logic , Demonstratio est Syllogismus scientiam pariens . 18. If this Account of Reasoning be not clear enough to make it intelligible in it self , or to distinguish it from Science , I would further explain it thus , by saying that Reasoning ( as I here consider it with respect to the Understanding ) is nothing else but the successive Perception of each of the extream Ideas with the middle one , in order to perceive the union that is between them by the union that they have with the middle Idea . As for Example : I am to perceive that Space is Body ; and not being able to perceive this by the immediate inspection of these two Ideas , I call in a third to my assistance , and proceed to the perception of it thus : Whatever is extended is Body ; Space is extended , therefore Space is Body . Here 't is plain that I perceive the union of the two extream Ideas Space and Body , by the successive Perception of the union that each of them have with the middle Idea , extended . Now the very Perception it self of the union of the two extream Ideas , Space and Body , by the mediation of the third and middle one , is what I would call Science : For 't is in the Formality of this Mediate Perception that I am said to know that Space is Body . But the successive Perception that I have of the union of each of these two extream Ideas with the middle Idea in order to perceive the union they have among themselves , is what I would call Reasoning . Which certainly cannot be the very Perception of the conclusion it self ( for that would confound it with Science ) and ●et must be Perception too , ( or else it would not belong to the Understanding ) and therefore can be no other than this successive Perception that I speak of . Whereby it may appear that the Reasoning here specified is not only distinct from Science , but also from that Reasoning which consists in illative Affirmations and Negations , and so is a Species of Judgment , and accordingly belongs to the Will , not to the Understanding ; as was both remark'd and accounted for before . 19. Those things which are known or perceiv'd by Intuitive Knowledge we call Principles , and those things which are perceiv'd by Demonstrative Knowledge we call Conclusions : Which though equally certain ( because the Objects of Knowledge ) are yet not so clear as Principles , which serve indeed to the demonstration of other things , but need none themselves , as being visible by their own Light , and sometimes are so evident that they are not so much as capable of any , but are strictly indemonstrable , there being nothing more clear than themselves whereby they may receive further Evidence . We say of such Propositions , That they are as clear as the Light ; and there is more aptness in the comparison than all that use it , I believe , are aware of . For Light is seen immediately and by it self , and not by the mediation of any thing else ; whereas all other things are seen by Light. The Light that is thus seen by it self answers to Principles , and those other things which are seen by Light answer to Conclusions . And the resemblance holds as well on the part of the Act as of the Object : For the first of these ways of seeing answers to Intuition , and the last to Demonstration . So surprising is the agreement between Vision and Knowledge , and so strange and wonderful the proportion in this as well as in some other things between the Sensible and the Intellectual World. 20. Intuition is by far the most perfect and excellent way of Knowledge , as being more clear , more simple , and more intire . More clear , for here we have all Light without any mixture of Darkness , whereas in the other there is one dark side . More simple , for here the Mind perceives the Truth by one single View , whereas in the other it is fain to multiply its Perception . More intire , for here again we have the prospect lying altogether before us in its full and whole extent , whereas in the other it opens gradually and successively , the Light stealing in upon us more and more as we go further and further , as it does upon . Men that travel toward the East . To which may be further added , that Intuitive Knowledge supposes and proceeds from perfection of the Understanding , whose Perceptive Faculty is hereby argued to be very bright and clear . For it must be a very clear Perception to perceive the Relations of Ideas by the very Ideas themselves . Whereas Demonstrative Knowledge , and the necesslty of Reasoning in order to it , is founded upon the narrowness of our Intellectual Capacities , which not being able to perceive the Truth or Falshood of a Proposition by the single collation of the two Ideas that compose it , are fain to make use of a third as a common measure between them ; and so from the consideration of something more clear and better known , to proceed in the search of what is more obscure and less known . Accordingly we attribute the way of Intuition to the most Perfect Beings , God and Angels . Though as to Angels , I make no great doubt but that in the Consideration of very compounded Questions , and such as include a multiplicity of Relations they are fain to use Reasoning as well as we ( as in the more simple ones we use Intuition as well as they ) though perhaps after a much more perfect manner , and by such compendious and facilitating Rules as we know nothing of . And as they may be supposed when they do reason , to reason better and more expeditely than we , so with equal probability it may be presumed , considering the great disproportion of Natures and States between us , that they use Intuition in very many things wherein we are forc'd to have recourse to Reasoning . 21. Hereafter indeed when , as the Scripture tells us , all that is imperfect about us shall be done away , and we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not only like but equal to the Angels , we shall be able to see ( 't is to be hoped ) by Intuition too ; and that many things which we here not only were ignorant of , but thought impossible ; things that were not only above our Reason , but , as we thought , contrary to it . We shall not only be able to reason better than we do now , but shall in most things not stand in need of any Reasoning at all , but shall with one simple View glance over and through the Relations of Ideas , and so have an intire prospect of the fair Field of Truth . But at present we must travel it over , and that with many a weary step , there being but very few things that we know by Intuition , no more than just to give us a taste of the great Priviledge of Heaven ; and to incourage both our Desires and our Hopes of that perfect State , when we shall be so far from needing any Logic to direct us in our reasoning , that we shall have ( in comparison ) but little need or use even of Reason it self . But in this present state of our Nonage and Infirmity our Necessity of it is very great . For our Intuition is so short-sighted , and reaches so very little a way , that , as , if we knew no more than what we can by this Means attain to , the Compass of our Knowledge would be so very Scanty that we should not have near light enough to direct us in our journey through the World. So if we would Know more , and see to a further distance from us , we must assist our Feeble Eye by the Advantage of a Glass . Now Reason is this Glass , Naturally indeed a very good Prospective , but which Logic , and especially Algebra , has improved into a Telescope . But yet still 't is but an Artificial way of seeing , and all Art supposes and argues a Defect in Nature . And though it be a great help , yet we know 't is no very great Commendation to a man's eye-sight to see with Spectacles . 22. And why then are we Proud ? And why proud of that which should rather deject us , and make us Humble , of our Imperfections and our Defects ? Our Natural Reason is a Mark of our Limitation as Creatures , and our Artificial one of our Infirmity as Men , and both together give us but little Light , and help us to see but a very little way off , and that after the most imperfect and defective Manner , such as upbraids our Ignorance at the very same time that it increases our Knowledge , our Reason not so much inlightning , as betraying the Darkness of our Understandings . Some few things indeed we know as Angels do , by Intuition ( or else we could not so much as reason like Men ) but still the main Fund of our Knowledge lies in the Rational and Demonstrative kind , and we are fain to use Clues and Chains to Conduct our Thoughts through the infinite Mazes and Labyrinths of Truth , to proceed in a Train from one thing to another , to walk step by step , and feel out our way with wariness and Caution like Men that go in the Dark . And such indeed is our state in this Body and in this World. 'T is now a kind of Night with us , as having for the Most part only the Lesser Light , Reason , for our Difection . As for the Greater , Int●ition , we have little more of that than of the refracted Beams of the Sun a little before its rising , and after its setting , enough to make a Twilight , a Mixture of Light and Darkness , but such a Mixture as is very unequal , Darkness making the far greater part of the Composition . And is not this Consideration sufficient ( if there were nothing else ) to take down our Pride , and inspire us with a Sentiment of the profoundest Humility and Self-dejection . If not , let us Consider that even this Lesser Light that is to govern our present Night and Darkness , does oftentimes fail us , and suffer an Eclipse . Let us Consider that we have a darker side yet , and are subject to a Much lower Dispensation . There being many things , and those of the highest Nature , and greatest importance , wherein our Reason is utterly at a loss , and cannot help us out , and with respect to which being destitute of Sight , we must be Content to walk altogether by Faith. Concerning which in the following Chapter . CHAP. II. Of Faith. 1. FAith is a Term of great Ambiguity as well as Reason , but not to insist upon the several Acceptations of it as it is used either in Divine or in Humane Writings , I shall only define in what sense I here take it , and then proceed to such Considerations upon it as may serve to lay open its Nature so far as is requisite to the Present Design . 2. I do not take Faith here for the Object of Faith , but for the Act or Habit of Faith , and that not Ethically consider'd , as it denotes the Moral Vertues of Veracity , Fidelity , Honesty and the like , but Logically , as it signifies a certain Assent , Judgement or Perswasion of the Mind , particularly that which is founded upon Testimony or Authority . So that the Generical and Common Part of Faith is Assent , wherein it agrees with some other Acts of the Mind , and the more special and peculiar part that limits and Contracts the General , and whereby the whole is differenc'd and distinguish'd , is the Motive and ground of this Assent . 'T is it seems an Assent grounded not upon the internal Reason and Evidence of the thing , but upon the bare Testimony and Authority of the Speaker . 3. For I consider that there are two general grounds of Assent , Reason and Authority . That is , we assent to a thing either because we have some Perception or Knowledge of it our selves , or because its Truth is declared to us by another upon whose Knowledge and Veracity we think we may safely depend . If the Reason or evidence of the thing be imperfect and incomplete , that is , if we perceive only in part , then we yeild a partial and imperfect Assent , mix'd with some Fear or Suspicion of the Contrary , which is what we call Opinion . But if the Evidence be full and perfect , then we yield a firm and most assured Assent , which is generally distinguish'd from the other by the Name of Knowledge , which according to the common Notion and Definition of it is an Evident Assent . But it was shewn before that Knowledge does not Formally Consist in the Assent , but in the Perception which is the Ground of the Assent . And indeed how is it possible it should consist in any thing else ? For ( to give yet a further Confirmation to what has been already offer'd upon this Occasion ) let Assent be never so evident , the evidence lies in the Perception , not in the Assent , which of it self is a blind dark Act of the Mind , and can be said no otherwise to be Evident , than as 't is an Assent to an Evident thing , that is , to what we perceive . But now Perception and Assent are not only two things , but such as belong also to two different and distinct Faculties , and therefore can never joyn together to make up Knowledge , which is an Act only of one . And indeed to speak the truth , Evident Assent ( as 't is here applied ) seems to me a mere jumble of Words confusely uniting together in one Idea Operations that belong to distinct Faculties , one belonging to the Will and the other to the Understanding . And how the result of this heterogeneous Composition should be Knowledge , I must confess to be indeed a Mystery above my Comprehension . And besides , after all , an Evident Assent when resolv'd into more words will amount to the same as an Assent to what we know , and would it not be a Notable Definition of Knowledge , to say , that it is an Assent to what we know ? 4. If then Knowledge be not an Evident Assent , and indeed as to the Formality of it has nothing of Assent in it , as consisting purely and wholely in Perception , 't is plain that this Assent to an evident thing ought not to be call'd Knowledge . For 't is necessary that the several Species of Assent should all have the general Nature of Assent in them , and consequently this being a certain Species of Assent must partake of the nature of Assent in general , which it cannot do if it be Knowledge , for that were to pass over into another Kind , Knowledge not being Assent , but Perception . 'T is therefore most clear and evident that our Common Systemes have here also gone upon a wrong ground , and that Knowledge ought not to be put into the Number of the Three Assents ( which are usually reckon'd to be Faith , Opinion and Science ) since the Assent whose ground is full Evidence , and which is the only one that may pretend and is commonly presumed to be Knowledge , is most apparently not so , as differing from it no less than in the whole kind . 5. If then it be demanded by what Name I would distinguish this Second Assent to a thing when the Evidence is full and complete from the former wherein the Evidence is supposed not to be so perfect , I answer that indeed ( so little have these things been Consider'd as they ought ) there is no proper Name , that I know of , for it . When we assent to a thing of incomplete Evidence we call it Opinion , and when we assent to a thing whose Evidence is complete this has been usually call'd Knowledge , but certainly with the utmost impropriety , knowledge , as appears , being quite another thing . But by what name to call it , or how to distinguish it , I pro●ess I know not . Not for want of real difference and distinction in the thing ( for my Thought of it is very distinct ) but merely because we want a word for it . As we do in like manner for Assent upon Reason in general to distinguish it from Assent upon Authority in general . For as Assent upon Authority in general Abstracting from Humane or Divine is call'd Faith , so also Assent upon Reason in general abstracting from complete or incomplete should be call'd somewhat , if one could tell what , as every generical Idea ought to be distinguish'd by a generical Name . But since our Language affords not any one word that will serve to either of these purposes we must be content with the De●initio instead of the Definitum , and express the things at large , by saying Assent upon Reason or Evidence , and Assent upon such Evidence as is full and complete , which is sufficient to distinguish it from Assent upon evidence incomplete , though we have no one proper word for this as we have for the other , which is fitly call'd Opinion , whereby we denote the imperfection both of the Evidence and of the Assent . 6. But now if the Assent he not grounded upon any internal Reason or Evidence of the thing at all , but only upon Testimony or Authority , then we call it Faith. Which appears to be an Assent of a quite different Nature from the other two . For they both agree in the general Nature of Assent upon Evidence , and differ only as the Evidence differs , and that is gradually , as complete differs from incomplet● . But Faith differs from them both in the whole Kind , as having no Evidence at all , but only Authority for its Ground . And thus we have here a Threefold Assent , ( though not such as is taught us in the Schools ) the Account of which in short proceeds thus . All Assent in general is either upon Reason or Authority . If the Reason be incomplete then 't is Opinion . If complete , then 't is another kind of Assent for which as yet there wants a Name , as also there does for Assent upon Reason in General . But if the Assent be upon Authority only , then 't is Faith. 7. Now this Authority may be either of God or of Man. If the Authority whereupon our Assent is grounded be of Man , then the Assent that is so grounded is Human Faith. If of God , then 't is Divine Faith. Between which two there is this in Common , that they both proceed not upon the internal Light and Evidence of the thing but upon Authority , and so agree in the general Nature of 〈◊〉 ▪ only as the Authority differ 〈…〉 Faith also varies , and Human Authority differing from Divine just as much as Fallible differs from Infallible ▪ the same in proportion will also 〈…〉 between Human and Divine ●aith . That is , the former will always be a Fallible , and the latter an Infallible Assent . 8. Human Faith ( though sometimes as actually undeceiv'd as Divine ) is yet always liable to Error and Deception , and so doubtful , hazardous and uncertain even when actually true , like a Conclusion drawn from uncertain Premisses ; in which respect it resembles Opinion , and that so much that some have confounded it with it , though I think illogically enough , since though there be a like uncertainty in both Assents , yet they differ extremely in their Formal Motives , one being grounded upon Reason , and the other upon Authority . And the Distinction of these Assents is not taken from the degree of Certainty wherein they agree , but from the Quality of the Motive wherein they differ . However tho' this makes a great difference in Notion , it makes None in the Affairs of Civil Life , and the Faith of him that believes the Testimony of a Man will as to all real intents and purposes go for no more than his Opinion . And that because though different Assents as to the Formality of their Motives , they are yet Much at one rate for Certainty , being both Fallible in their Grounds , and so subject to Error and Deception . 9. But the Case is quite otherwise as to Divine Faith whose Foundation stands too sure not only to be overturn'd , but even so much as shaken . This Faith is strictly and Absolutely infallible , not subject to the least Error , or Possibility of Erring , as having the very Ground and Pillar of Truth it self , the Omniscience and Veracity of God for its Security , than which there neither Needs , nor Can be Greater . 'T is Most Certain that God is both Actively and Passively Infallible , his Omniscience will not suffer him to be deceiv'd himself , and his infinite Veracity and Truth will not suffer him to deceive us . And therefore he that builds his Faith upon his Authority , goes upon the Most sure Grounds , and cannot possibly Err in his Assent . And as he is secure from Error , so he is also from all just reason of Scruple or Fear , and leaning upon a firm and indefectible Support , may stay and repose himself upon it with full Acquiescence . So that there is all the Certainty that can be in this Faith , both Objective and Subjective , that of the Thing , and that of the Person . The thing assented to is most undoubtedly true in it self , and he that assents to it may be most firmly assured and perswaded of the Truth of it in his own Mind , and among all Temptations to Doubt and Distrust may with great Triumph and Confidence say with the Apostle , I know whom I have believ'd . 10. It was observ'd a little before of Humane Faith that it resembles Opinion , in as much as they are both dubious and uncertain Assents , as proceeding upon grounds of like uncertainty , though otherwise of different Natures . Now as this Faith resembles Opinion , so in like manner it may be observ'd of Divine Faith that it resembles Science , or rather that Second Assent ( for so I am forc'd to call it for want of a better Name ) which we lately discours'd of , and plac'd between Opinion and Faith. The Comparison here bears the same proportion as to Certainty , as it did in the other Case as to uncertainty . Divine Faith has all the Certainty that is possible , and therefore to be sure as much as Science or that Second Assent can have . There is as much Certainty in the thing assented to , and there may be as much Assurance and firmness of Perswasion in the Assent it self , or in other words what a man believes upon the Authority of God is in it self as certain as what he knows , and he may also be as Certain of it . For he that assents to a thing upon full evidence can but assent fully and perfectly without suspense or hesitation , and so also can he that assents to a thing upon Divine Authority only . His Ground is every whit as Firm and Sure as the others , and why then should the Measure of his Assurance be less ? It cannot possibly be if he Knows and Considers upon what Ground he stands . So that thus far , both in regard of the Certainty of the Object , and the Firmness of the Perswasion , Divine Faith may be justly placed upon a level with the Most Evident Assent whatever . 11. Nor I suppose will this be thought an undue Elevation of Divine Faith. On the Contrary I expect to be Complain'd of for setting the Dignity of it at too low a Pitch by those who say that Divine Faith is Firmer than Science . But 't is for want of the Latter that these Men so excessively ex●ol the Former . I call it excessively , because 't is what strictly and exactly speaking cannot be . For what I Perceive or Know is even by that very supposition unquestionably true , ( or else I cannot be said to Know it ) and what I believe upon the highest Authority can be no more . To say therefore that Faith is Firmer than Science , is like saying that one streight Line is streighter than another . But perhaps their Meaning only is , that 't is safer relying upon the Aut●ority of God than upon our own Rational Faculties , which indeed is right , and I heartily wish all Men were convinc'd of it . For though what I do actually and really Know be to the full as true and certain as what I Believe , and I can no more be out in one than in the other , yet it is More Certain in the general that God cannot deceive me , than that my Reason cannot be deceiv'd . Not that what I assent to by Divine Faith can have a greater Objective Certainty than what I clearly and distinctly Perceive or Know , but only that there is a Possibility , not to say Danger , of my taking that for a clear and distinct Perception which ●ndeed is Not so , and so though I cannot be deceiv'd in what I do truly know , yet I may be deceiv'd in thinking that I know when I do not . So that Divine Faith though not more Certain than Knowledge it self , is yet of greater Certainty than our Knowing Faculties , and generally speaking the Believer goes upon surer grounds than the Man of Reason and Demonstration . Because his Reason may possibly lead him into Error , whereas the Other 's Authority cannot . And when they are both in the right , yet still there will be this difference between them , that his Reason is only not Deceiv'd , whereas the Other 's Faith is Infallible . 12. And thus far we have taken a view of the more bright and perfect side of Divine Faith , I mean that of its Firmness and Certainty , in respect of which it stands upon a just level with Science . But it has also a more dark side , in which respect it comes short of it , and must give it the Precedency . And I think it may be very properly call'd a Dark side , because it consists in Darkness and Obscurity , and which is still so much the darker , because 't is so peculiar to Faith , and makes so great a part of its Character , being the Main Difference that distinguishes it from Science , or that Second Assent before spoken of . For as to Firmness and Certainty , therein they agree . For Faith may be Firm , because he that believes in God may be supposed not in the least to hesitate or doubt of the truth of what he reveals . And 't is also certain , because it relies upon the most certain Foundation , the Testimony of God , who is Infallible himself , and cannot deceive . And hitherto they run parallel one to the other . But here begins both the difference and the disproportion , that there is Clearness and Evidence on the side of Science , and that Second Assent , whereas there is none on the side of Faith , which walks indeed upon firm Ground , but altogether in the dark . For he that Believes does not give his Assent because either by Sense or Reason he perceives the Object of his Faith to be thus or thus , but merely because he has the Word and Authority of God for it . Which though it be sufficient to found a Firm and Certain , is yet however not enough to beget a Clear and Evident Assent . So that the great and distinguishing Character of Science and the Second Assent , is Light and Evidence , and that of Faith inevidence and Obscurity , which accordingly is commonly said to be an inevident Assent . But how and in what sense it is so seems not commonly to be so well understood , and for the Consequence of what depends upon the right stating of it , deserves to be explain'd with all possible exactness . 13. In order to which we are carefully to distinguish between the thing believ'd , and the Reason or Motive that induces us , to believe it ; even as in Knowledge we distinguish between the thing Known , and the Argument or Medium by which it is Known , the Scitum and the Formalis ratio Sciendi . The thing Believ'd I would call the Matter or the Object of Faith , and the Motive that induces me to believe it I would call the Formal Reason of Faith. Aquinas I know calls them both Objects , and then after distinguishes them by calling the Former the Material Object , and the latter the Formal Object of Faith. Accordingly he says that the Formal Object of Faith is the First Truth , meaning ( as he afterward explains himself ) that Faith relies upon the Truth of God as its Medium , or Argument . Which Medium I chuse rather to call ( and I think more intelligibly ) the formal Reason , than the formal Object of Faith. Since the Term ( Object ) seems more properly to design the Matter of Faith , or the thing Believ'd , and is hardly applicable to the Motive or Reason of Believing . However since we both mean one and the same thing , there need be no debate upon the different manner of expressing it , especially since if any one think his Term more intelligible and expressive of the Notion intended by it , or has any reverence for it upon any other Consideration , he is at liberty to substitute it in the room of the other . 14. This necessary Distinction being premised , 't is in the first place to be well heeded that when Faith is said to be an obscure and inevident Assent , this Obscurity or inevidence is not to be applied to the formal Reason or Motive of Faith , but only to the Matter or Object of it . I say not to the formal Reason of it . For as there may be in general a clear Reason why a Man should believe an Obscure thing , so 't is most Certain that the formal Reason for which we assent to the things of Faith is very clear . For this formal Reason is no other than the Authority of God , Or rather , since this includes the Truth of the Revealer as well as the Revelation it self ( for otherwise of what Authority would be the Revelation : ) I would chuse to say that the Truth and Revelation of God do jointly make up the formal Reason of Divine Faith , which accordingly proceeds upon this double Principle , 1. That whatever God reveals is true , 2. That this or that thing in particular is reveal'd by God. For Faith has its Reasons as well as Science ( though of another Nature ) and its Reasons are these two , as will more distinctly , appear by disposing the Process of Faith into a Syllogistical Form , which will be this . Whatever is reveal'd by God is true , This is Reveal'd by God , Therefore this is true . The Conclusion of this Syllogism contains both the Matter and the Act of Faith , as it is an Assent to such a thing upon such a ground , which is implied by the Illative Particle , Therefore . The two other Propositions contain the Ground it self or the formal Reason of Faith , which you see consists of the double Principle before-mention'd . Now 't is most apparent that these two Principles are both of them sufficiently clear , or at least may be so . 'T is clear in the first place that whatever is reveal'd by God is true . This is either self-evident , or may be proved from the Idea of God , and so has either the Light of a Principle , or of a Conclusion , either an immediate or a Mediate Evidence . And it may be also clear ( and to be sure is so whenever our Faith is well-grounded ) that such a thing in Particular is reveal'd by God. And in both these respects it is true ( what is commonly said ) that Faith is the Highest Reason . For you see it is perfectly reasonable in its Fund and Principle , and does at last resolve , as much as any Mathematical Conclusion , into a rational ground of unquestionable Light and Evidence . With this only difference that a Conclusion in Geometry is founded upon a Ground taken from within , from the intrinsic Nature of the thing , whereas our Conclusion of Faith proceeds upon a ground taken from without , viz. from the Authority of God , but such as however in Light and Evidence is no way inferiour to the other . 15. This by the way may serve to shew the vanity and impertinence of those who when they are to prove that there is nothing in Christianity above Reason , run out into a Popular Ve●● of Harangue about the Reasonables of the Christian Religion and its great Accommodation to Human Nature , crying out with repeated importunity that Man is a Reasonable Creature , Christianity a reasonable Service , and Faith a Rational Act , nay even the Highest Reason , and the like . As if we were for a Blind and unaccountable Faith , and denied the use of Reason in Religion , or that Faith was founded upon Reason . Or as if because there is a Reason from without for Believing , therefore the thing Believ'd might not from within , and as to the inward Matter of it be above Reason , so as not to be comprehended or accounted for by it . But this will cross my way again in another place , and therefore I shall not anticipate here what further Considerations I may have occasion to bestow upon it there . 16. To return therefore , I say that this Obscurity and inevidence that is in Faith , and upon whose account it is commonly said to be an inevident Assent , does not belong to its formal Reason ( which you see may be clear enough , as clear as any Principle of Natural Science ) but only to the Matter or Object of it . That is , in other words the inevidence does not lie in the Reason of Believing , but in the Nature of the thing Believ'd . Not that the matter of Faith again is wholy and all over without Evidence ( for then there would be no reason to believe it ) but only that it has no evidence from within , and from the Nature of the thing it self , as was remarqu'd before . Not that this again is so to be understood neither as if the Proposition to be believ'd were not so much as simply intelligible as to the very litteral sense and direct signification of its Terms . No , we are no more to believe we Know not what , than to believe we Know not why , and whatever Darkness there may be in Faith , it is still so much a Luminous Assent , and an Act of Reason , as to require that we understand the simple Meaning of the Proposition we are to believe , as well as the Grounds of Credibility upon which it Challenges our Assent . For the general Object of Faith is Truth , and Truth is the relation of Connexion between Ideas , I say Ideas , for Truth does not lie in Sounds or Words but in Things . Therefore to believe such a Thing to be True is the same as to believe that there is a Connexion between such Ideas . But then a Man must know what those Ideas are , or else how can he believe they are connected . Therefore he must understand something more than the Terms themselves , he must also have the Ideas of those Terms , which is the same as to under stand the Meaning and Signification of them . And indeed he that has no Idea or Conception of what he believes , believes he knows not what , and he that believes he knows not what cannot be properly said to believe any thing . In all Faith therefore the Proposition Must be simply intelligible , and though the Truth of it be to be Believ'd , yet the Meaning of it must be understood . 17. For we are again Carefully to distinguish between the Meaning of a Proposition , and the Truth of a Proposition . The meaning of a Proposition is only the Determination of the Ideas that are signified by such Terms ; the Truth of it is the Union or Connexion that is between those Ideas . Now though a Man does not see the Connexion that is between the Ideas of that Proposition he is said to Believe , yet he must in some measure perceive the Ideas themselves , because in believing the Proposition he is supposed to believe that such Ideas are so related and Connected together . When therefore 't is said that the Matter of Faith is inevident as to the intrinsic Nature of the thing , the inevidence must not be thought to lie in the Ideas whereof the Proposition to be Believ'd Consists , but in the Connexion of those Ideas , that is , not in the Meaning of the Proposition , but in the Truth of it , which is properly the Object of Faith , as the Ideas themselves are of Perception . Which again by the way may serve to discover another Instance of Impertinency in the Reasoning of those , who when they are Maintaining that there can be no Article of Faith above Reason , divert into pompous Flourishes and Declamations about the Intelligibility of the Objects of Faith , and the utter impossibility of Believing what is not intelligible . As if we denied the simple intelligibility of the Proposition , or would have Men believe they know not what ( which certainly would be a strange degree of Implicit Faith , and more Nonsensical than that of the Collier ) or , as if that Proposition which is clear enough as to its simple Meaning might not be inevident , and so above Reason , as to its Truth , or in other words , as if Clearness of Ideas might not consist with Obscurity of their Connexion . 18. But then it must be observ'd again that when we say that the Inevidence that is in the Matter of Faith respects the Truth of the Proposition not the Meaning of it , or the Connexion of the Ideas , and not the very Ideas themselves , this is not so to be understood neither as if the Matter of Faith even thus consider'd , were Absolutely , and in its self necessarily inevident , and such as could not possibly be known without altering its Nature , and ceasing to be any longer the Object of Faith. I know the contrary Supposition has prevail'd in some Schools , where it passes almost for Principle and Maxim that Knowledge and Faith are mutually Exclusive of each other , that the same thing cannot be at once the Object of both , and that therefore if a thing be believ'd it cannot be known , and if known that it cannot be believ'd . St. Austin was of this Opinion , and has in many places declared his mind to this purpose , particularly in his XL Treatise of his Exposition upon St. Iohn's Gospel . And his Authority has recommended it ( as it did most other things ) to several of the Schoolmen , particularly Aquinas , whence it has been transmitted down among many Modern Writers of the Systematical way , both Philosophers and Divines . But we must follow Reason before Authority , and whoever can be prevail'd with to lay the latter quite aside , and to use the other as he ought , will I believe clearly perceive that nothing hinders but that the same Proposition may be at once the Object of both Faith and Science , or that the Same thing may be at the same time both Known and Believ'd , provided it be by different Mediums , according to the diversity of the respective Acts. 19. For , not to enter into the wrangle and Dust of the Schools upon this Occasion , it may be sufficient to consider that there is no manner of Opposition between Faith and Knowledge , or the Most evident Assent as to the Essence of the Proposition ( that being not supposed to be denied in the one which is Affirm'd in the other , or the contrary ) but only as to the Medium of the Act. And that 't is not the Absolute Nature of the thing Believ'd , but the Quality of the Motive that specifies Faith , and distinguishes it from other Assents . So that 't is no matter what the Absolute Nature of the thing be in it self , whether it be evident or not evident , Knowable or not Knowable , provided it be assented to upon the proper Medium and Motive of Faith , that is upon Authority , without any respect had to the Natural evidence of the thing , though otherwise never so evident in its own Absolute Nature , so as to be the Object of Science ( though upon a different Medium ) at the same time . For as I said before , 't is not the Nature of the thing , but the Quality of the Medium that specifies Faith , and tho' the same thing cannot have two Natures , or be in it self at once evident and not evident , yet why may it not sustain two different Relations , or be consider'd in two different Mediums , so as to be said to be known when perceiv'd by its Evidence , and to be believ'd when assented to upon Authority ? Which certainly may be done as fully , and with as little regard to its evidence , as if there were no evidence in the thing at all . So that the Evidence of the thing does not hinder the Belief of it , supposing the Belief not to proceed upon that Evidence , but upon its own proper Medium , Authority . 20. But to use a way of Arguing less Abstract , though it may be with some more pressing and convincing . Suppose God should reveal to me a Geometrical Truth , as that two Triangles having the same Base , and being within the same Parallels , are equal , and I who at first receiv'd it upon his bare Authority should come afterwards to be able to demonstrate it my self upon the known Principles of Art , who that well considers the Natures of these things would say that my Science evac●●ted my Faith , and that I ceas'd to be a Believer assoon as I became a Mathematician ? For though I am now supposed to Know what before I only Believ'd , yet why should this Knowledge destroy my Faith , since I may still have as much regard for the Authority of God , and as little to the Evidence of the thing as I had before the Demonstration , and would still be ready to assent to it though there were no evidence to be produced for it , only upon the Ground of Divine Authority . And , to use another Sensible though not so Artificial way of arguing , I would fain know whether any one of those who are of the Contrary Sentiment would refuse a Demonstrative Account of a Reveal'd Truth , suppose the Creation of the World , merely for fear of injuring or destroying his Faith , which yet he were bound in Conscience to do , if Knowledge and Faith were so exclusive of each other , and inevidence and Obscurity were so absolutely of the Essence of Faith as some pretend . For then it would not be lawful to acquire the Natural Knowledge of any reveal'd Truth , because 't is unlawful to destroy one's Faith , and every Believer would have just reason to fear all further Light and Information about what he believes , which yet I think would be acknowledg'd by all an extravagant Scruple , such as can hardly enter , much less stay long in any Considering head ; And is withal Contrary to a plain Exhortation of the Apostle , who bids us add to our Faith Knowledge . 21. When therefore the Matter of Faith , as it is taken for the Truth of the Proposition Believ'd , is charged with Obscurity , and Faith it self upon that account is said ( as it commonly is ) to be of inevident things , the Meaning ought not to be of an Absolute , but of a Relative inevidence . Not that what is Believ'd is so all over dark and obscure that it cannot ( while Believ'd ) absolutely be known , but only that it cannot under that Formality , and so far as it is Believ'd , being necessarily in that respect inevident , how bright or clear soever it may be in other respects . That is in other words , though the thing Believ'd absolutely consider'd may be Evident , yet it is not so as Believ'd , or in relation to Faith , because that has no regard to the Evidence how bright soever it may shine , but proceeds wholy upon another Argument , between which and the Evidence of the thing there is not the least Affinity or Communication . The short is , the Object of Faith simply and absolutely speaking may admit of Evidence , but then though it be never so evident and demonstrable in it self , yet as Believ'd it is always Obscure , Faith having no regard to the proper light and Evidence of the thing , but only to the Testimony of the Revealer , whose bare Authority is the only Motive that determines her Assent , and the only Ground upon which she lays the whole weight of it , though the Truth of the thing in it self absolutely Consider'd , may also stand upon other Foundations , be rationally accounted for by Arguments from within , and so be seen by its own Light. But let the Light shine never so bright upon the Object from other sides , Faith lets in none , nor has any regard to that which she finds there , but connives at it , and walks ( as I may say ) with her eyes shut , contenting her self with the certainty of Revelation , and leaving to Science ( if there be any ) the Evidence of the thing . So that the Object is always dark to her , how clear and bright soever it may be in it self , or appear , when absolutely consider'd , to a Philosophic Eye . In which respect it falls very short of the Perfection of Science , though in respect of Firmness and Certainty it be equal to it , as was said before . All which is briefly couch'd in that excellent Account of Faith given by the Author to the Hebrews , when he says , that it is the Substance of things hoped for , and the Argument of things not seen . Where by Substance and Argument he equals it with Science in regard of the Firmness and Certainty of the Assent , but by saying that 't is of things not seen he makes it vail and stoop to it in point of Evidence , in which respect indeed Faith , as Firm and as Certain as it is , is as much inferiour to Science , as Darkness is to Light. 22. To gather up then what has been here discours'd at large concerning the inevidence of Faith into one view . When we say that Faith is an inevident Assent we are not to understand this inevidence of the formal Reason of Faith , but of the Matter of it . And when we say that the Matter of it is inevident , we should not intend by it that it is wholy and all over without Evidence , but only that it has none from within or from the intrinsic Nature of the thing . And when we say that the Matter of Faith is inevident from within , this again is not to be intended of the simple Meaning of the Proposition , but of the Truth of it . And when we say that the Truth of it is inevident , this again lastly is not to be understood , as if it were always and necessarily so in its own Absolute Nature , but only so far forth as it is Believ'd , or as 't is consider'd under the formality of an Object of Faith. Or in other words , the inevidence of the Matter of Faith in respect of the Truth of the Article is not an Absolute but a Relative inevidence . Not that the Matter of Faith is Never Absolutely and in the Nature of the thing inevident ( for it may be so too as will be seen afterwards ) but only that it is not necessarily so , there being no reason from the Nature of Faith that requires it should , which may consist with Evidence , though it proceeds not upon it , and has no regard to it as a Motive . So then the formal Reason of Faith is always Clear , the Matter of it Absolutely consider'd may be clear or not clear , as it happens , according as the Nature of the thing is , but as Believ'd , or as Consider'd under the formality of being the Object of Faith so it is always inevident and Obscure , as being not supposed to be assented to for the sake of its Evidence ( even when it has any ) but wholy upon another Account , already sufficiently represented . 23. And thus having struck some Light into the Darkness of Faith , by stating and explaining with what exactness I could in what Sense it is an inevident Assent , I cannot forbear Observing by the way ( though a little of the soonest ) of what Service this Account may be towards the grand Question of Believing things above Reason . For if Faith be an inevident Assent so far at least as not to respect the Evidence of its Object , why may not a thing be believ'd though it be above Reason ? For what though it be above Reason , is it therefore above Faith ? Has Faith any regard to Evidence ? Or is it determin'd by any Rational Motive , I mean that is taken from the Nature of the Object ? Even when a thing is evident , Faith is not supposed to assent to it because of its Evidence , and why then may not a thing be believ'd though it be not evident ? Some Contend that Faith and Evidence cannot possibly consist together , and according to them Not only what is inevident may be believ'd , but whatever is believ'd must be inevident . But this I look upon , and have already shewn to be a Mistake . And 't is a Mistake in the Extremity too . For I take it to be every whit as much an Extreme to say that the Object of Faith is always inevident , as to say that it is always evident . However , it is always inevident so far as Believ'd , which is the Middle Point between the two extremes . The Nature of Faith requires at least this Relative inevidence of the Object , whatever it be in its own Nature , and we need no More . For if the Object of Faith be alwayes inevident so far as Believ'd , then will it not follow that it May be believ'd though inevident ? For my part I see nothing that should hinder this Consequence , if the Principle it proceeds upon be right . The Principle is ( and a very moderate one sure , the generality of Writers straining the Matter a great deal higher ) that the Object of Faith is inevident as far as Believ'd . The Consequence is , that therefore a thing may be believ'd , though inevident . 'T is true indeed one of these is an Absolute , and the other only a Relative inevidence . But this signifies Nothing to the Argument . For why may not a thing really and in it self inevident be believ'd , when even that which is Evident is Consider'd by Faith as inevident ? Why , then 't is all one ( as to Faith ) as if it were so indeed ; For what does the Evidence signify , or what real alteration does it make , if Faith has no regard to it , nor Consideration of it ? And what should hinder then but that a thing really inevident may be believ'd , especially if reveal'd by God himself , and concerning himself . The short is , Faith as Faith has no regard to Evidence ( I mean that of the thing ) and Faith as Divine has no need of it , and therefore why an inevident thing may not be believ'd is what I do not understand , and would be glad to Learn . 24. But to return ( for I look upon this as too much a digression from the present , and too much a Prevention of what is to follow to be further pursued ) after having thus discours'd of the Nature of Faith in General , and the double Distribution of it into Humane and Divine , with proper Considerations upon each of them , it remains that it be now further consider'd that each of these may be either Explicit or Implicit . Then we are said to believe Explicitly , when we believe determinately such or such a thing in particular , distinctly knowing what that Particular thing is . And then Implicitly , when we believe indeterminately and at large whatever is proposed to us by such an Authority , not knowing what in particular is proposed , or what it is we Believe . Which though it seems to carry the Appearance of an Assent too blind and hood-winkt to be the act of a Reasonable Creature , may yet in its proper place become him as much as the other , and indeed is every whit as rational an Assent in its Ground and Principle . For all Explicit Faith is founded upon Implicit , and has Implicit Faith in it . 25. To understand both this and the Nature of Implicit Faith the better we are to Consider ( what has been already intimated ) that Faith proceeds upon Premisses , as well as Science , and is the Conclusion of a Syllogism . And I further Note ( what perhaps may not be unworthy the Observation of the Curious ) that the Major Proposition in Faith Explicit is the Conclusion in Faith Implicit , as may be seen in the Syllogism before set down . Whatever is reveal'd by God is true , This is Reveal'd by God , Therefore this is true . The Major Proposition here ( whatever is reveal'd by God is true ) is the Conclusion of Implicit Faith , whose act is as much to believe to be true whatever God reveals , as the act of Explicit Faith is to believe that this or that in particular is so . So that Explicit Faith proceeds upon Implicit , borrows from it its Conclusion for its Principle , and begins where the other leaves off . Just as in the Subalternation of Sciences , that which is a Conclusion in one is a Principle in the other , so 't is here in the Subalternation of these two Faiths , whereof that which is Explicit may be said to be Subalternated to that which is Implicit . Let not any therefore vilify or disparage Implicit Faith as a blind and irrational Assent , since it lays a ground for Explicit , which serves it self of it , using its Conclusion as a Principle , even as what is a Conclusion in Geometry is a Principle in Perspective . And as Geometry is therefore accounted the Superiour Science , so ought implicit Faith to be reckon'd as the Superiour Faith , upon whose Conclusion the other proceeds , and which it self proceeds thus , Whatever is reveal'd by him that is Infallible is true , God is Infallible , Therefore whatever is reveal'd by God is true . Here besides that 't is plain to be seen that the Conclusion of this last Syllogism is the Principle of the precedent One , and that Explicit Faith supposes what is proved in Implicit , it may be further noted that Implicit Faith ( as being the highest degree of Faith ) is due only to the highest , that is , to an Infallible Authority , the reason why whatever is reveal'd by God is here Concluded to be true , being , because he is infallible . Infallibility then is the proper ground of Implicit Faith , and accordingly the Church of Rome assuming to her self the Character of Infallible , does upon that Supposition rightly require it . I say upon that supposition , for she is right enough in her Consequence , supposing her Principle to be true . But the truth of it is , that is Most Extravagant , and such as carries in it such matchless Arrogance and Presumption as befits only him who as God sitteth in the temple of God , shewing himself that he is God. For God only is Infallible , and therefore he only has right to require Implicit Faith. And to him indeed it is due from every one of his Creatures in the highest Measure imaginable , as is also Implicit Obedience upon the same Ground . Of both which we have a signal Example in Abraham , who when he was call'd by God to go out into a place which he should after receive for an Inheritance , is said by Faith to have Obey'd , and to have gone out , not knowing whither he went. 26. But now what can be more dark and inevident than this Implicit Faith ? It s Formal Reason indeed is sufficiently clear , and it resolves at last into a Ground highly Rational , and so may be said in that respect to be the highest Reason . For certainly nothing can be more Reasonable than to believe whatever God ( who is Infallible ) reveals . There is therefore no Darkness on this Side . Nay even the Light it self does not shine more Clear. But as for the Matter of it ( if I may call it so where nothing distinctly is believ'd ) that is sure as dark and obscure as can well be conceiv'd , so dark as even to be Invisible . For a Man to believe at large without any restriction or limitation whatever God shall propose to him , let it be what it will , not Knowing what that is ( like Abraham's going , not knowing whither he went ) is such a dark and obscure act of Faith as has nothing clear in it but the Humility and Devotion of him who so believes . This is a Faith Worthy of God , as well as peculiar to him , and 't is the great inevidence and obscurity of it that makes it so . For so far is the Matter of it from having any Evidence in it , that it is not so much as Evident what the Matter of it is . Here then is the very Blackness of Darkness , and he that has this infolded Faith ( as every true Believer has ) and can thus trust God in the Dark , where he sees nothing but only the general Reason of his so doing , is not likely in any of the more explicit instances of it to plead the inevidence of the Article to excuse his Infidelity , or to deny his Faith to an otherwise sufficiently clear Revelation , merely because it is above his shallow Reason . 27. Upon what has been hitherto discours'd it will not be difficult to give in few words a Satisfactory Resolution of a Celebrated Question which among the Schoolmen has made a great many , and that is , whether Faith belongs to the Vnderstanding or to the Will : It is plain by the Measures already laid down that it belongs to the Latter . For Faith ( as all acknowledge ) is an Assent , and Assent is a Species of Judgement , and Judgement ( as has been shewn already ) is an act of the Will , not of the Understanding , whose only Operation is Perception , and consequently Faith is an act of the Will consenting to , imbracing , acquiescing and reposing it self in what the Understanding represents as proposed and reveal'd by God. And indeed unless Judgment and consequently Faith did belong to the Will as their proper and immediate Principle , 't is impossible to Conceive how a Man should be blame-worthy for any of his Opinions , or how he should stand accountable either for Error on the one hand , or for Infidelity and Heresy on the other . For if Faith be an act of the Understanding then since the only Operation of the Understanding is Perception , the greatest Fault of an Infidel or a Heretic will be Non-Perception , which indeed is not Error but Ignorance , whereas Infidelity and Heresie are always supposed to include Error , and to be also the worst of Errors . And this Non-perception is only a Negation , and such as resolves into want of Parts , which is not a Moral but a Natural defect , whereas Infidelity and Heresie ( as indeed all that is Faulty ) are understood to be Privations , and Defects of a Moral Nature . But then to make them so they must be voluntary ( nothing being faulty but what is so ) that is again they must be Wilful , that is , they must be acts of the Will , and Consequently Faith which is the Habit whereof those Sins are Privations , must also belong to the same Principle , or else in short there would be neither Vertue in having it , nor Vice in being without it . And accordingly our Saviour in upbraiding the Iews with Infidelity does all along not only by Confequence , but directly and expresly , Charge it upon their Wills : Ye will not come to me , that ye may have Life . 28. And thus I have gone thorough what I intended , and what indeed is of greatest Consideration , upon this Subject of Faith. In the account of which if I differ from any Authors of the better Character that have either professedly or occasionally written upon it , particularly Baronius and Dr. Pearson , 't is not that I love to lay aside great Authorities , or affect to be by my self , but because I follow the best Light of my Understanding , write with Freedom and Ingenuity what I think , and endeavour to represent things as they are , without having regard to Authority any further than I think it joyn'd with Truth and Reason . Which shall also be my Rule in what remains of this Treatise . In the Mean time what has been hitherto discours'd concerning Reason and Faith may serve as a good Preparation in order to an Account of the Great Question Concerning the Belief of things above Reason . But before we enter upon any thing of that Nature , 't is fit the Distinction of Above Reason , and Contrary to Reason be Consider'd and rightly Stated , which is the task allotted for the next Chapter . CHAP. III. The Distinction of things Contrary to Reason , and above Reason , Consider'd . 1. THere are some Distinctions in the World that are without a Difference , though Difference be the Ground of all Distinction , and this by some is pretended to be of that Number , who will have the Parts of it to be Coincident , and that Contrary to Reason and above Reason signifie in reality alike , and are but different Expressions for one and the same thing . And though they may be reasonably suspected to do this to serve the interest of a Cause for whose advantage it would be to have this Distinction taken away , yet they have the Confidence to Charge the same upon those that hold it , pretending that it is only a dextrous Shift and Evasion invented by Subtile Men as an Expedient to relieve the Distress of a desperate Argument , when there is nothing else to be said for it . 2. Which of these is the Evasion , either the denying or the allowing this Distinction , will best appear by the Examination of it , which , besides its Serviceableness to our Clearer proceeding in what we are now upon , I am the rather induced to undertake , because ( as Mr. Boyle Observes in a little Treatise upon this Subject ) there are divers that employ this Distinction , few that have attempted to explain it , and none that has taken care to justifie it . Indeed He himself is the only Person that I know of that has written professedly about it ( and I cannot but wonder that a thing of such Curiosity and Importance should be so little Consider'd ) though I think he has not gone to the Bottom of the Subject , nor is sufficiently clear even as far as he goes . However because he has some Considerable Observations upon it ( as indeed his Thoughts are generally very good ) and there is no reason why we should refuse any additional Light in so dark and untrodden a way , I shall for the further advantage and illustration of the Matter first draw up into a short view what that Excellent Person has Meditated concerning it , with such Occasional Remarques as I shall think necessary , and then proceed to state the thing according to my own Conceptions , hoping that between us both it will be sufficiently clear'd , and that nothing of any Consequence will be overlook'd that belongs to the Consideration of this so little consider'd , and almost Virgin Subject . 3. To give you then in the first place the Sum of Mr. Boyle's Account , He proposes in general two things . 1. To declare in what sense the Distinction is to be understood . 2. To prove that it is not an Arbitrary or illusory Distinction , but grounded upon the Nature of things . As to the first he tells you that by things Above Reason he Conceives such Notions and Propositions as Mere Reason , that is , unassisted by Revelation would never have discover'd to us , whether those things be to our Finite Capacities clearly comprehensible or not . And that by things Contrary to Reason he understands such Conceptions and Propositions as are not only undiscoverable by mere Reason , but such as when we do understand them do evidently appear repugnant to some Principle , or to some Conclusion of right Reason . 4. Now before I go any further I would here by this great Man's leave , and with due deference to his high Character , remarque , that though things undiscoverable by mere Reason without Revelation may in a Certain sense be said to be above Reason , in as much as they surpass the Natural ability of the Understanding to make the first Discovery of them , yet this is not what Divines mean by Above Reason as they use the Phrase in this Distinction , opposing it to Contrary to Reason . For this Distinction was intended against the Socinians , who generally reject the Mysteries of Faith as contrary to Sense and Reason , to which we reply that they are not Contrary to Reason but only Above it . They cry out that this is no Distinction , but a mere Shift and Evasion , pretending that the I arts of it fall in together , and that what is above Reason is also contrary to it , and therefore not to be believ'd . Now 't is most plain that both they that use this Distinction , and they against whom it is used do not . Mean by things Above Reason such as are beyond the first invention or Discovery of it . For besides that to mean that our Mysteries are only undiscoverable when we say they are above Reason , would be too little a thing to oppose to Contrary to Reason , it is also too little a thing to intend by Mystery , since though the undiscoverableness of them by Reason might be a sufficient ground of their being so call'd before their Revelation , it can be none now after they are reveal'd . And therefore if we say of these Mysteries now that they are above Reason , we cannot be presumed to intend it in respect of their undiscoverableness . And 't is as plain that that our Adversaries do not so understand us . For they deny that things above Reason are to be believ'd , and that because ( according to them ) above Reason and contrary to Reason are all one . But now no Socinian that understands his own Principle would deny the Credibility of things above Reason , as that signifies only undiscoverable by Reason alone , much less would he say that what is above Reason ( in that Sense ) is also contrary to it . No , without doubt they will in this sense both allow us the Distinction , and the Mysteries ( if they may be so call'd ) that are built upon it . But then this plainly shews that they do not understand it in this Sense , any more than we . 5. Instead therefore of saying undiscoverable , he should have said incomprehensible by Reason . Into which he slips unawares in the account of the other part of the Distinction , things Contrary to Reason , by saying that they are such as when we do understand them do appear repugnant , &c. which plainly implies that the former things that were said to be above Reason are such as we do not understand , even when discover'd , and not such as we are not able only to Discover , since otherwise there will be no Antithesis in the Second part , in which there is nothing amiss except those words as are not only undiscoverable , which in my judgment ought to be expung'd as the Production of the first Mistake . 6. Mr. Boyle proceeds to illustrate his Explanation of this Distinction by a Comparison drawn from Sight . He supposes a Man to be askt by a Diver what he could see in a deep Sea. To which the Man is supposed to reply that he could see into a Sea-green Liquor to the depth of some yards and no further . So that if further ask't if he could see what lies at the Bottom of the Sea , his Answer no doubt would be in the Negative . But then if the Diver should let himself down to the Bottom and bring up thence and shew him Oysters or Muscles with Pearls in them , he would easily acknowledge both that they lay beyond the reach of his Sight , and that the Pearls were Genuin and Good. But if the Diver should further pretend that each of these Pearls was bigger than the Shells they were contain'd in , this would be thought not only undiscernible by the Eyes , but contrary to their Informations , and to admit this would argue the Sight not only to be imperfect , but false and delusory , and accordingly 'tis presum'd that this he would not admit . 7. Now I not only allow this Comparison , but even admire it for the singular Aptness and Pertinency of it to illustrate , even to the Sense , the difference between things above and things contrary to Reason , only I think it seems to proceed upon the supposition that by things above Reason are meant such only as are incomprehensible by it , which certainly would make the Comparison much more Apposite and Exact . Whereof he himself appears sensible at the end of it , where offering to consider the Matter more distinctly , he tells you that the things above Reason are not all of one sort , but may be distinguish'd into two kinds sufficiently differing from each other . which he makes to be these , that there are some things that Reason by its own Light cannot Discover . And others , that , when proposed it cannot Comprehend . This indeed is true , but then he should have said so sooner , and have told us withal that by things above Reason ( as the Phrase is used in this Distinction ) he meant the Latter Sort only , the Former not being to the Purpose . 8. However he proceeds upon that part First , that is , to shew that there are divers Truths in the Christian Religion that Reason left to it self would never have been able to find out . Of which he gives several Instances , which as not being to the Point , I pass over , and come to his other Consideration of things above Reason , meaning such as when proposed do surpass our Comprehension , and that ( as he well observes ) upon one or other of these three Accounts , either as not clearly Conceivable by our understanding , such as the Infiniteness of the Divine Nature , or as inexplicable by us , such as the Manner how God can Create a Rational Soul , or how this being an Immaterial Substance can act upon a Human Body , or be acted upon by it , &c. Or else lastly as Asymmetrical or unsociable , that is , such , as we see not how to reconcile with other things evidently and confessedly true , whereof he gives an instance in the Case of Prescience and Contingency . 9. He further observes ( and I think rightly ) that there may be difference of degree in things above Reason , as to their Abstruseness . That some things appear to surpass our understandings immediately , even before attentively lookt into . And other things only when a narrow inspection is made into them , being intelligible enough in the 〈◊〉 ▪ and as imploy'd in common Discourse . Whereof he gives instances in Place , Time , and Motion . And he makes use of this Observation to solve a Difficulty wherein it is pretended that we cannot profess to believe things which we acknowledge to be above our Reason , without discovering that we do not well consider what we say , and that we then talk like Parrots . To which the substance of his Answer is , that we may talk of those things according to that Notion of them which is more Obvious and Superficial , though not according to that which is Philosophical and Accurate . 10. After this Explanation of what is meant by Above Reason and contrary to Reason he comes in the Second place to justify the Distinction by shewing that it is grounded upon the Nature of things . And that he does by shewing that there is no Necessity that things above Reason should be also Contrary to Reason . This he shews first of things above Reason in the first Sense , viz. those that are undiscoverable by Reason alone , but this being not the sense of Above Reason as it is used in this Distinction , and since things according to this sense above Reason are not affirm'd by our Adversaries to be contrary to it , I pass over all that he says upon this part , and strike in with him again where he shews the same of things above Reason in the Second sense . I cannot meet with any thing directly under that Head , but only a few Passages here and there scatter'd up and down . As when he says of Galileo , that when he first made his Discoveries with the Telescope and said that there were Planets that mov'd about Iupiter , He said something that other Astronomers could not discern to be true , but nothing that they could prove to be false . And again when he says that for a thing to be above Reason is Extrinsecal and Accidental to its being true or false . Because to be above our Reason is not an Absolute thing , but a Respective One , importing a Relation to the Measure of Knowledge that belongs to Human understanding . And therefore it may not be above Reason in reference to a more inlightned Intellect &c. which indeed is rightly and very judiciously remarqu'd in it self , and no less pertinently to the present business . And again when he says that there are some things true which yet are liable to Objections not directly answerable , and so above Reason . He instances in the Controversie of the Divisibility of Quantity , where each side of the Contradiction is press'd with unanswerable Objections , and yet as parts of a Contradiction , one of them must necessarily be true . And yet take which you will you run into invincible Difficulties . Which indeed well concludes that a thing that is above Reason may yet be true , and if true then not contrary to Reason , it being impossible that what is so should be true . Which one Consideration is indeed enough to justifie the Distinction beyond all exception . 11. Mr. Boyle has yet a further Observation concerning this Distinction too Considerable to be pass'd over , and that is , that he looks upon it to be of Importance not only to the defence of some Mysteries of the Christian Religion , but even of some important Articles of Natural Theology , in which ( as he shews by several Instances ) there are many Doctrins which must be acknowledg●d to be true , and yet whose Modus is not explainable . 12. After this he Considers an Objection wherein it is pretended that the granting this Distinction would be of bad Consequence , as affording shelter to any unintelligible stuff that a bold Enthusiast may obtrude under the venerable Title of a Mystery , that is above Reason . To which he answers very judiciously , that he does not deny but that the Distinction is liable to be ill imploy'd , but that this is no other than what is common to it with divers other Distinctions , which are without Scruple Admitted because useful , and not rejected because they have not the Priviledge that they can never be Misapplied . And that therefore both in reference to those other Distinctions , and that he had been treating of , it becomes Men to stand upon their Guard , and strictly examine how far the Doctrine proposed as a Mystery , is intitled to the benefit of this Distinction . Which if it should be employ'd to justifie any thing , that , though styl'd a Mystery , is but a pretended one , the Errour ( as he well observes in the Close of all ) will lye , Not in the Groundlesness of the Distinction , but in the Erroneousness of the Application . 13. In this you have the Sum and Substance , as briefly and as clearly as I could represent it , of Mr. Boyle's Thoughts concerning things above Reason and contrary to Reason , which , like all his , are great and strong , and ( allowing only for those inaccuracies taken Notice of ) just and true . And now though what this Excellent Person has offer'd may serve to let in a great deal of Light into the Distinction , yet since a thing of such Consequence if true , and so much Contested whether true or no , can never be made too Clear , and sometimes a different , though not better , Representation of a thing may contribute to its further Illustration , every Reader having his particular Point of View , so as that the very ●ame Notion or Truth that does not Meet with him in one Posture , may shine full in his Face and strike him with success in another , I shall therefore under the Shelter of Mr. Boyle's Authority , and by the advantage of his Light , venture to set down my own Thoughts concerning this weighty Point , applying my self chiefly to that part of it , wherein I think the other Account Most defective . 14. And first though it should be true that to be above Reason is to be Incomprehensible , and to be Contrary to Reason is to appear repugnant to some Principle or Conclusion of Right Reason , yet I do not think this of it self sufficient either to Clear or to Justifie the Distinction , since it may be both again demanded what it is to be incomprehensible , and what repugnant , and again disputed whether incomprehensible and repugnant be not the same , as well as whether that which is above Reason be not also Contrary to it . And then we are but where we were before . This Account of the Matter is then too Gross and General to be rested in , and we must be therefore more minute and particular in our Explanation of it , if we would be more Clear. 15. However since Generals are to go before , and do also prepare the way for Particulars , I shall first propose the general Idea of things above Reason and contrary to Reason , and then particularize upon that Idea , by opening and unfolding more distinctly and explicitly what is contain'd in it , and by so comparing and collating together the two parts of the Notion as to shew the real Difference that is between them . So that I shall make but one work of the Explanatory and Iustificatory parts , supposing that there needs no more to the Justification of the Distinction , than only to have the Members of it well explain'd . For if the Idea of Above Reason be distinct from the Idea of Contrary to Reason ( as the Explanation of them will shew that it is ) then the Distinction proceeds upon a real Difference , is grounded upon the Nature of things , and has all that is necessary to a true and good Distinction . 16. By things above Reason then ( as the Expression is used in this Distinction ) I conceive to be Meant , Not such as Reason of it self cannot Discover , but such as when proposed it cannot Comprehend . And by things Contrary to Reason I conceive such as it can and does actually comprehend , and that to be absolutely Impossible . Or in other words , a thing is then above Reason when we do not comprehend how it can be , and then Contrary to Reason when we do positively comprehend that it cannot be . Thus in the General . 17. But to be a little more Particular , we are to Consider upon the first Part , that when we speak of things above Reason , the word Reason here ( as was shewn in the first Chapter ) signifies the same as Vnderstanding , and there being but one only Operation of that , namely Perception , by Comprehend here must be meant the same as by Perceive . So that when we say of things above Reason that they are such as Reason cannot Comprehend , 't is the same as to say they are such as the Understanding cannot Perceive . But then when we say , Cannot Perceive , 't is to be carefully noted that this is not to be understood of the literal and Grammatical Meaning of the Proposition , as if the thing said to be Above Reason were perfectly unintelligible , but only of the Truth of it , as was observ'd before concerning Faith. And then again when we say that Above Reason is when we do not Comprehend or Perceive the Truth of a thing , this must not be meant of not Comprehending the Truth in its whole Latitude and Extent , so that as many Truths should be said to be above Reason as we cannot thus thorougly comprehend and pursue throughout all their Consequences and Relations to other Truths ( for then almost every thing would be Above Reason ) but only of not comprehending the Union or Connexion of those immediate Ideas of which the Proposition supposed to be above Reason consists . And which is therefore said to be above Reason not because the simple and direct Meaning of its Terms is unintelligible , or because the Truth of it is not comprehensible in its remotest and utmost Extent , but purely because the Connexion of its Ideas , or the manner of it , is not discernible , and that partly for want of sufficient clearness of the Ideas themselves so as to be able to perceive their Union Intuitively , and partly for want of a due and proper Medium whereby to compare them , so as to discern their Union in the way of Science and Demonstration . 18. 'T is also to be Observ'd upon the Second part of the Explanation , that I chuse rather to say that things contrary to Reason are such as we Perceive to be Impossible , than such as appear contrary to some Principle , or some Conclusion of Right Reason . This being the more General and Absolute Idea , whereof the two other are but Instances and Specifications . For then is a thing said to be Impossible when its Ideas cannot stand together or be united . Which may be either because of the immediate Opposition and Inconsistency of the Ideas themselves with themsel●●s so as Mutually to Exclude each other ( as in a Contradiction ) or because of their inconsistency with some other Truth , with which it cannot Comport . Or in other words , either because one of the Ideas cannot consist with the other , by reason of the immediate opposition that is between them , or because the Union of both is inconsistent with some Truth or other , which therefore will not suffer them to be United . Which Truth will be indeed either a Principle or a Conclusion of right Reason . And then we are said to Perceive a thing to be Impossible when we perceive that its Ideas cannot stand together , and that either immediately by the very inconsistency of the Ideas themselves , or mediately by the Repugnance that they carry to some other Truth , whether Principle or Conclusion . Which Repugnance I take to consist in this , that the supposed Principle or Conclusion cannot stand with the Union of such Ideas , and that therefore if such a Principle or such a Conclusion be true ( as is supposed ) then such Ideas are not United , and indeed are as uncapable of Union , that is as impossible , as if there were an immediate inconsistency between the Ideas themselves . So that for a thing to be Contrary to Reason , is , in short , for the Understanding to perceive the Absolute impossibility of it , or that its Ideas cannot stand together , which it does either Immediately by perceiving the direct inconsistency of those Ideas , or Mediately by perceiving their inconsistency with some evident and incontestable Truth or other , whether Principle or Conclusion . For the way and method is the same in knowing a thing to be False or impossible as in knowing it to be True , and accordingly as the Process of the Understanding is either Immediate or Mediate in the latter , so is it also in the Former . But though there are these different ways of perceiving the impossiblity of a thing , 't is in the General Perception of its Impossibility and not in the several ways of it that its contrariety to Reason must be made Formally to consist ; Even as it was shewn before of Knowledge , which is made to consist in the Perception of the Relation of Ideas , and not in this or that determinate manner of perceiving it , which indeed serve afterwards to distinguish Knowledge into its kinds ( as suppose Intuitive and Demonstrative ) but do not enter into its First and General Idea . For which Consideration I think the Perception of a things impossibility does better express its Contrariety to Reason than the Repugnance it appears to have to some Principle or Conclusion of it , that being only ( as I said before ) an instance and specification ( and but one single one too ) of its Impossibility . 19. So Now we are arrived to a Clear and Distinct Conception of things Above Reason and things Contrary to Reason . A thing is then above Reason when we do not Perceive or Comprehend how it can be . And then Contrary to Reason when we do Perceive that it Cannot be , or is Impossible . As to give a plain and sensible Instance of each of these . That the sides of an Hyperbola should be always approaching to each other and yet never meet , though continued to infinity ; is a Proposition of unquestion'd Certainty in Geometry , and yet such as passes the Reason of a Man to Comprehend how it can be , and therefore may properly be said to be one of those things that are above Reason . But now that a Triangle should have Parallel Sides , is not only above Reason , but directly Contrary to it . For here the Understanding is not only at a loss to Comprehend how it may be , but does positively and evidently perceive that it cannot be , it being utterly impossible that a Figure of Three Lines should have its sides Parallel to each other . 20. Now though by this Explanation of things above Reason and contrary to Reason the Difference between them is already obvious even to the eye , and stares a Man in the very Face , like things of great inequality whose Disproportion appears at View , without Measuring them , yet for further Satisfaction 's sake , and to make the matter as plain as any thing in Nature to all but those who either have not , or will not use their Understandings , let us a little Compare these Ideas together , thereby the better to illustrate their Difference . 21. It is most Evident that the Idea of things above Reason and the Idea of things contrary to Reason are two really distinct Ideas , and that One is Not the Other . This immediately appears from the very direct View of the Ideas themselves . For what can be More plain than that Not to Comprehend how a thing may be , and to Comprehend that it cannot be , are two different things ? And what better way have we to know the Distinction of things , but only that the Idea of one is not the Idea of another ? But then besides , the Ideas of these things are not only Formally different from each other , but have also different Properties and Characters belonging to them , and such too as are exclusive of each other , and which therefore do manifestly shew the Ideas to which they belong to be distinct . For , for a thing to be above Reason implies only a Negation , the Not Comprehending how a thing can be , but for a thing to be Contrary to Reason implies the Position of an Intellectual act , the Comprehending that it cannot be . Again , in things above Reason the Proposition is supposed not to be understood , whereas in things Contrary to Reason , it is supposed to be well understood , and that to be false and impossible . Again , in things above Reason the Mind determines nothing concerning the Object proposed , whether it be true or whether it be false , whether it be Possible , or whether it be Impossible . All that she determines is concerning her own Act , that she does not Comprehend how it can be . But whether it be or not , that she does not affirm , but holds herself in a perfect Suspence . But now in things Contrary to Reason the Mind is every whit as positive and decisive , and does determine as boldly and freely as in those things that are most according to it . Whereby it plainly appears that to be Contrary to Reason is something more than to be above it , and that the Mind proceeds a great deal further in the former than in the latter , the Language of the Soul in things above Reason being only , How can these things be ! But in things Contrary to Reason she is Positive and Dogmatical , roundly pronouncing , This cannot be . So that unless there be no difference between a Negation and a Positive Act , between the Ignorance or Non-Perception of a thing , and the knowing it to be False , between Suspension and a peremptory Determination , between a greater and a less , 't is most undeniably evident that the Parts of this Distinction are not only really but widely different , and that to be above Reason is one thing , and to be contrary to Reason is another . 22. If it be pretended ( as some perhaps may be likely to Object ) that to be Contrary to Reason implies a Negation , as well as to be above Reason , because it is there supposed to be Comprehended that the thing is False and cannot be , and that therefore they agree in one of the Main instances of their Difference , to this the Answer is Clear and Full. I grant there is a Negation in one as well as the other , but then I distinguish of Negation . There is a Negation of the Act , and a Negation of the Object . Contrary to Reason does indeed imply a Negation of the Object , that is , it implies a Separation and dis-union of certain Ideas , as inconsistent and incompatible one with another . But it does not imply a Negation of the Act , but the quite Contrary , because the understanding is here supposed positively to comprehend the thing , and withal the Impossibility of it , which is not done in things Above Reason , wherein the Negation is that of the Act. So that this first and great difference between them stands firm and good . 23. And now having thus far justified the reality of this distinction of things Above Reason and Contrary to Reason both by the Explanation and Collation of the Parts of it , which thereby appear to consist of Ideas as different as can well be conceiv'd , I might further proceed to do the same by producing some Instances of things confessedly Above Reason that are also notwithstanding as confessedly True. For if any one thing that is Above Reason be yet found to be true , this plainly demonstrates the thing in Question ( if there can be yet any Question about it ) most evidently shewing that what is Above Reason is not as such Contrary to Reason , it being impossible that what is Contrary to Reason should be true , whatever is Contrary to Reason being also as Contrary to Truth . I might also further alledge that to be Above Reason does equally abstract from True and False ( which Contrary to Reason does not ) and that not only because , as I observed before , it determines nothing concerning its Object , but also because 't is a thing not of an Absolute , but of a Relative Importance , as being an extrinsecal Denomination taken not from the Nature of the Object as it is in it self , but only as it is to us , and in relation to our not only Finite , but very Limited Capacities . For to be Above Reason is not to be Above Reason in general or all Reason , so as to be absolutely incomprehensible , but only Human Reason . But then that which is Above the Reason of a Man may not be Above the Reason of an Angel ( as indeed what is Above the Reason of one Man may not transcend that of another ) and what is above the Reason of an Angel may yet be perfectly comprehended by God , the Supream and Soveraign Reason . So that to be Above Reason here is of a respective signification , such as does not express the quality of the Object as it is in its own Nature , but only as it is in reference to such a particular Faculty , whereas to be Contrary to Reason is not a Relative but an Absolute thing , and whatever is Contrary to Reason , is Contrary to all Reason , and so consequently to Truth . I say I might further insist on these and some other Considerations , but being partly prevented here by Mr. Boyle ( whose Account I would have used to supply the defects of Mine , as Mine is intended to supply some of his ) and having so abundantly clear'd the difference of these things already , I shall not so far distrust either the Strength of the Argument , or that of my Reader 's Understanding , as to prosecute this Matter any further than only to shape an Answer out of what has been laid down , to an Objection which I meet with in a Modern Writer against Monsieur Iurieu , and which , to do it the utmost Justice , I will set down in his own words . 24. I have Consider'd ( says he ) the Distinction which they use between being Contrary to Reason , and being above Reason . 'T is agreed that 't is not possible to believe what is Contrary to Reason . But 't is said that we can well believe what is above Reason . This Distinction seems to me of no use , or else I do not comprehend it . For if by being above Reason it be meant that we do not comprehend a Truth in its whole Extent , though what we conceive of it be clear and certain , I own that in this sense one ought to believe what is above Reason . But if by being above Reason be meant a Doctrine , wherein we see nothing Clear , a Doctrine which our Reason loses the sight of on all its sides , I mean that all the Propositions which may be extracted from it appear incomprehensible , such a one as this for example , that the three Divine Persons make but one God , &c. It seems that to be above Reason in this sense , is the same as to be intirely inaccessible to Reason , which differs nothing , but in words , from being Contrary to Reason . 25. I suppose whoever has duely consider'd and well comprehended the Tenour of the foregoing Discourse , can neither be insensible of the Deficiency of this Allegation , nor be long at a loss what Answer to return to it . But to spare my Reader this Trouble , My Reply is , that this Author's Argument proceeds upon a wrong Supposition . He supposes here that to be Above Reason must be either the Not Comprehending a thing in its whole Latitude and extent , or the Comprehending Nothing at all of it . Whereas I have shewn before that 't is neither of them ; That we do not mean by Above Reason what is all over unintelligible , even as to the very Meaning of the Proposition , nor what is not to be Comprehended in its utmost extent , but only what is incomprehensible to us as to the Truth of the thing , or the Manner of it . 'T is true indeed if the Proposition were perfectly unintelligible , so that ( as he says ) we could see nothing clear in it , even as to the very Sense and Meaning of it , we could no more believe it than what is Contrary to Reason , though even then it would not ( as this Author confusely enough pretends ) be the same with it , because what is Contrary to Reason is supposed to be well understood . But 't is much otherwise if it be incomprehensible only as to the Truth or Manner of the thing . This as I shall shew hereafter may very well be Beleiv'd , though what is Contrary to Reason cannot , and what is utterly unintelligible cannot . And I have sufficiently shewn already that what is thus only inaccessible to Reason differs , a little more than in words , from being contrary to it . 26. And now if Humane Nature were not a very unaccountable thing , I should stand greatly amazed at either the Natural or wilful Blindness of those who are for confounding things so vastly different as the parts of this Distinction , of things above Reason and contrary to it , most apparently are . There are indeed some things which we are ordinarily taught to distinguish , and yet when strictly examin'd and compared , will be found to have no real ground of Distinction in them . And 't is every whit as great ( and almost as Common ) a Fault to distinguish things that do not differ , as to confound those that do . And there are also other things of such near Resemblance and Cognation to each other that there needs a great deal of Art , Subtlety and nice Inspection to discern their Difference . So Fine and Minute and almost imperceptible are the Lines that terminate their Natures , and divide them from one another . But the Ideas of these things are as different as those of a Man and a Tree , a Triangle and a Square , so that a Man must wink hard not to perceive it , or be very insincere not to acknowledge it . And I cannot imagine why those especially who are known to serve themselves upon occasion of Distinctions which have no other Foundation than the mere Will and Pleasure ( unless you will say Interest ) of those that use them , should yet reject such a Solid and well-grounded , as well as well Authorized , one as this , but only because it is not for their turn , and , if admitted , would like a Bomb thrown into their Garrison , blow up and lay wast their Main Strength , and force them to desert and give up a Cause which they are ( now especially ) most Zealously Fond of , and seem resolv'd even against Reason to Maintain . 27. For I must further remarqu● ( and 't is an Observation not lightly to be pass'd over ) that if this One Distinction of things above Reason , and things contrary to Reason be once admitted , or shewn to be real , Solid and well-grounded , the main part of the Socinian Controversie is immediately , or at least in the very next Consequence , at an end . For the Reason why they will not believe things above Reason is because ( as they pretend ) Above Reason differs nothing in reality from Contrary to Reason , and so those things that are above Reason are also as much contrary to it as above it , and what is Contrary to Reason is on both sides acknowledg'd impossible to be believ'd . Well , but then if it be made appear ( as I think by this time is sufficiently done ) that these two are quite different things , and that to be above Reason is not the same as to be contrary to it , then even by their own Confession there can be no pretence why what is above Reason may not be Believ'd . Which I take to be the true inducement that makes these Men stand out so fiercely and obstinately against this Distinction ( for they are aware what mischief it will do 'em ) as it is also the reason why I have bestow'd so much care and pains to clear and justifie it . 28. And thus having given an Account of these great and Fundamental things , what Reason is , what Faith is , and what it is to be Above , and what Contrary to Reason , we have now prepared the way to the more full and direct Consideration of the Belief of things above Reason , the true state of which Question by what has been hitherto discours'd appears to be this , Whether we may not Assent upon the Authority of Divine Revelation to such things as our Understanding or Reason cannot perceive or Comprehend as to the Truth or Manner of them . Or , whether our not being able thus to Comprehend them , be a sufficient Reason why we should not believe them . For the Resolution of which we have already laid the Grounds , and shall now proceed more directly to build upon them in the following Chapter . CHAP. IV. That Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth . 1. WE have gain'd a most wonderful Point in the foregoing Chapter , by proving the Distinction between things Above and things Contrary to Reason , and such as of it self alone is sufficient Not only immediately to decide , but even forever to Silence the Controversie between us and our Socinian Adversaries concerning the Belief of things above Reason . For the only Objection that is or can possibly be pretended against the Belief of things above Reason being the supposed Contrariety of the same things to Reason , if it be shewn that to be above Reason involves no such Contrariety , then the Objection against the belief of such things is fairly and wholly removed , and consequently there remains no Reason why they may not be Believ'd . So that I cannot but look upon the Substance of my Work as most effectually done already , and those of our Adversaries that have any reasonable Measure of Penetration and Sincerity must needs be sensible of it . And I dare appeal even to their own Consciences whether they are not . However considering the importunity of those I have to deal with , as well as the weight of the Cause it self , I shall endeavour the further establishment of it upon some other Considerations , whereby I shall also give further Confirmation , and so repay what I am endebted to the Point contended for in the preceding Chapter , since we may as well argue backwards from the Believableness of things above Reason to their not Contrariety , as forwards from their not Contrariety to their Believableness , the Consequence being full as good , thus , Above Reason Believable , therefore not Contrary , as thus , Above Reason not Contrary , therefore Believable . Now in order to the fuller Conviction and demonstration of the Believableness of things above Reason I set out upon this Ground , that Humane Reason is not the Measure of Truth . 2. 'T is agreed among the Masters of Reason that as all Proof ought to be only of such things as need it , so there are Propositions so Clear and Evident of themselves that they have no need of being demonstrated , and that there are some again that are not capable of Demonstration , the Fulness and immediateness of their Evidence rendring them strictly indemonstrable . And it has been charged by one of the most Considerable of them as a Fault in the Method of the Geometricians that they set themselves to prove things that have no need of Proof , whereof he gives an Instance in Euclid , who goes formally to work to prove that two sides of a Triangle taken together are greater than one , although this be most Evident even from the Notion only of a Right Line , which is the shortest that can possibly be between two Points , and the Natural Measure of Distance from one Point to another , which it could not be if it were not also the shortest of all Lines that can be drawn from Point to Point . 3. Now though I cannot say that the Proposition of this Chapter is so Evident of it self as not to be capable of Demonstration , yet I must Confess I cannot but think it of the Number of those that do not need any , that is I mean , to those who will but take the Pains to consider it with Attention , and are withal so sincere as to say ingenuously what they inwardly think . For to unattentive or Captious Persons nothing is plain ( since there is Nothing but what some will contradict , and there are those who profess to doubt of every thing ) and even the Sun it self can't make a Man see , if either he want eyes , or will shut ' em . I cannot therefore say that to such men either this or any other Proposition is plain , but I would venture to be tried by any competent and indifferent Considerer whether this be not indeed a very plain and certain Proposition , as plain as most of those which pass for Principles and Maximes in Discourse , that Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth . And accordingly I should justly fear incurring the same Censure that is charged upon the Geometricians , of going to prove what is evident , were there not something peculiar in the present Case that makes it very different from theirs . For they dealing in Matters of an Abstract and indifferent Nature , and such wherein the Lusts and Passions of men are altogether uninteressed , have no real need to prove evident things , because for that very reason their Evidence is never Contested ; whereas the Point I have now in hand being of a Moral Concernment and such as incounters the Partialities and false Biasses of Humane Nature , particularly that great and governing one of Self-Love , though it should be of equal evidence with some of their Maxims , will yet not be equally secure from Opposition , and pass alike uncontested . And so there may be need of proving it , if not to do any necessary Service to the Proposition it self , yet to satisfie the importunity of the Men I argue with . Which indeed is the present Case , since ( as was intimated in the Beginning ) the Sentiment of these Men concerning the disbelief of things above Reason resolves at last into this Principle , that Human Reason is the Measure of Truth . Which therefore both for their Satisfaction and Refutation must be shewn to be False . 4. Now when I say that Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth , my meaning is , that it is not that Common Standard whereby Truth in the General is to be Measured , so that of every thing it may be safely Concluded that it is either true or not true according as it accords with this Measure , as 't is comprehensible or not Comprehensible by Human Reason . 'T is true indeed there is a certain Sense in which Human Reason sometimes is , and may be truely said to be the Measure of Truth , in as much as whatever the Understanding does clearly and distinctly Perceive may be concluded as most certainly true , it being impossible that a thing should be otherwise than as we clearly perceive it to be , without supposing our Perceptive Faculties to be in themselves Naturally False , and without supposing it also necessary that we should fall into Errour even in the right use of these Faculties ( it being impossible to conceive a More right use of them than to Assent only to what we clearly Perceive ) which are not only in themselves manifest Absurdities , but such also as would necessarily infer the Authour of our Natures to be also the Authour of our Errours and Deceptions . It must therefore be admitted by all what the Philosophers of the Cartesian way so earnestly stand and Contend for , that Clearness of Perception is the great Rule and Criterion of Truth , so far that whatever we do clearly and distinctly perceive to be true is really in it self True. But then this is only to be a Partial and inadequate Rule , and in some certain limited respect only , not absolutely and in general . For though I grant that whatever we clearly perceive is true , yet I deny that it follows likewise Backwards , that whatever is true we do also clearly Perceive , and so consequently that whatever we do not clearly Perceive is therefore not True. By which it is plain that this Cartesian Maxim must be very much abused to prove that Human Reason is the Common and General Measure of Truth , and I dare say the Great Authors of it never intended it to that purpose . 5. Reason or Understanding in general may be safely said , and must necessarily be allow'd to be the Measure of Truth . For Truth in general carries a necessary Relation to understanding in general , as fully adequate and commensurate to it . So that all Truth is simply and absolutely intelligible , the greatest and sublimest Truths as much as the least and meanest , those which the Angels study and desire to look into , as much as those which employ the narrow Thoughts of the poorest Rustic . The Former are in themselves as intelligible as the latter , and if not actually so well understood 't is not because of any incapacity in the Objects , but by reason of the Disproportion of the Faculties that are Conversant about them . But this disproportion must not be Universal , nor extend throughout the whole Order of Being . For what is intelligible must be so to some Understanding ( since what no Understanding can Comprehend is the same as not to be intelligible ) and consequently there must be an Understanding that Comprehends all that is truly intelligible , that is , all Truth . And accordingly it may be truly said of this All-Comprehensive Understanding , that it is the Measure of Truth , so that whatever this perfect Understanding does not understand is not intelligible , and if not intelligible , then also not True. Besides that it might be further Consider'd ( were this a proper place for so Abstract and Metaphysical a Speculation ) that Truth it Self , as to the real Nature and Essence of it , is one and the same with the Divine Ideas as they are related to one another , and does therefore exist Originally and intirely in the Mind of God , who is Substantial Truth , and accordingly does Comprehend all Truth , and so consequently is the Measure of it . And because this All-comprehensive Understanding is contain'd within the Extent of Reason or Understanding in General , therefore it may be truly said also of Reason or Understanding in General that it is the Measure of Truth , it being most certain that what is above all Reason , or what no Reason whatsoever can Comprehend is as much above Truth too , and cannot possibly be true . 6. But though it be thus necessary to allow this of Reason in General , the same cannot be allow'd of Human Reason . For whatever is the Measure of Truth must be fully adequate and Commensurate to Truth . That 's Certain . And therefore if Human Reason be the Measure of Truth it must have the same compass and extent with Truth , and possess it whole and intire , if not Essentially and Substantially as God does , yet at least Noetically and by way of Theory , so as to be able thoroughly to Perceive and Comprehend all Truth . But now that this Qualification cannot possibly agree to Human Reason ( though it be somewhat unreasonable that I should be put to prove such a Proposition as this ) I hope fully to demonstrate upon a Double Consideration , one taken from the Nature of Human Reason , and the other from the Nature of Truth . 7. And first to begin with Truth . This , as the Most thinking and Metaphysical Persons Conceive of it , is supposed to consist in the Relations of equality or inequality , or Agreement or Disagreement . Now we are to Consider that these Relations may be of Three Sorts , either such as are between Created Beings , or such as are between Intelligible Ideas , or such as are between Created Beings and their Ideas . And we are also to Consider that there are two General Sorts of Truths extremely different one from another , and therefore carefully to be distinguish'd . Those that regard only the Abstract Natures of things , and their immutable Essences , independently on their actual Existence . And others again that do regard things that do actually Exist . The former of these Constitute that Order of Truths which we call Necessary , the latter that which we call Contingent . And this double order of Truths results from that threefold Relation before-mention'd . From the first and third Relations arise Contingent Truths , which are nothing else but the Relations of agreement of disagreement that are either between Created Beings themselves , or between Created Beings and their Ideas . And these I call Contingent Truths in opposition to those that are Necessary and Eternal , partly because these Relations could not begin to exist before those Beings were produced ( it being impossible that there should be Relations between things that are not ) and partly because these Relations might not have existed , because those Beings might not have been produced . And as Contingent Truths arise from the first and third , so from the second and middle Relations result those Truths which are Necessary , Eternal , and Immutable , and which I understand to be nothing else but the Relations of Agreement or Disagreement that are between Ideas . 8. I go here upon the common and allow'd Distinction between Necessary and Contingent Truths , and upon the as much allow'd Supposition that there is such an Order of Truths as are Necessary and Eternal , which therefore I take for granted as a Principle , not to decline the trouble of proving it , but because it is a Confess'd as well as Evident thing , and I care not for proving any more evident things than I needs must . And that these Necessary and Eternal Truths are in this precisely distinguish'd from those that are Contingent , that they are the Relations that are between Ideas , I think is plain from the very Notion and Nature of them , because they are supposed to be such Truths as regard the Abstract Natures and Essences of things as they are in Idea , and not as they have an actual Existence in rerum Naturâ , since then they would not be necessary , but Contingent Truths , which would be contrary to the Supposition . And Because these Necessary Truths are the most considerable and principal sort of Truths , as being the Ground and Foundation of all Science , and the true and proper Objects of our Theory and Contemplation , and because for the same Reason whenever we speak of Truth Absolutely and in General we are presumed to mean necessary and immutable Truth , hence it is that Truth is commonly said by Metaphysical Writers to consist in the Relations that are between Ideas , though indeed this be strictly true only of Necessary Truth . But it is sufficient to the present purpose that it is true of this . And so much I suppose will readily be granted me at least , that the general Nature and Reason of Necessary and Eternal Truths consists in the Relations that are between Ideas . 9. I further add that these Ideas must be the same with the Divine Ideas . 'T is true indeed that exactly speaking all Ideas are Divine Ideas , even those which we use to call our own , it being most Certain ( as might easily and with the greatest Evidence be shewn ) that the immediate Objects of our Understandings are no other than the Ideas of the Divine Intellect , in which we see and contemplate all things . But not to enter into this sublime Speculation at present , it will be sufficient to consider that unless the Ideas whose Relations Constitute those Truths which are Necessary and Eternal be the Divine Ideas , it will be impossible that Necessary and Eternal Truths should be what we suppose they are , that is Necessary and Eternal . For Necessary and Eternal Truths must be Necessary and Eternal Relations , and it being impossible that Relations should be more Necessary or Eternal than the Subjects from which they result , unless these Ideas the Subjects of these Relations be Necessary and Eternal , how can their Relations be so ? 'T is plain therefore that these Ideas must be Necessary and Eternal . But now I pray what Ideas are so but the Divine ? What is there in the whole Compass of Being that is Necessary , Eternal and Immutable but God and his Divine Perfections ? As therefore we say that these Necessary and Eternal Truths are Relations between Ideas , and not such as are between either Created Entities themselves , or between them and their Ideas , because then they would be of the Order of Contingent , not of Necessary Truths , For the same reason we must say that they are the Relations that are between the Divine Ideas , those only being sufficiently steddy and Permanent Subjects to sustain such Stable and Immutable Relations . And indeed were it not for those Representative Perfections of the Divine Nature which we call Ideas , there would be no Necessary and Eternal Essences to support these Necessary and Eternal Relations , and then there could be no such Relations , and if no such Relations , then there could be no Necessary Truths , and is no Necessary Truths then no Science Which by the way would most Convineingly prove to any Capable and Attentive Understanding the absolute Necessity and Certainty of a God , as the most inmost Ground and Central Support of the whole Intellectual World. 10. Well then it can no longer be doubted but that these Necessary and Eternal Truths are the Relations that are between the Divine Ideas . But now as these Ideas are Infinite as being the Essential Perfections of God , and really identify'd with his Divine Nature and Substance , so it must necessarily follow that the Relations that result from them , and subsist between them must also be Infinite . And then since these Truths do essentially Consist in , and in their Reason and Formality are no other than these Ideal Relations , it no less evidently follows that Truth also must be Infinite too . 11. Which also will be necessary to Conclude upon another Account . For I confider again that since Relations do not in reality differ as distinct Entities from their Subjects and Terms ( as the Relations of two Circles supposed to be equal to each other do not really differ from the Circles themselves so related ) these Ideal Relations must in the reality of the thing be one and the same with the Divine Ideas themselves , and consequently with the Divine Nature with which these Ideas are identified . And accordingly Truth which is the same with these Ideal Relations must also as to the real Essence and Substance of it be one and the same with the Divine Nature . 12. And that indeed it is so may be further , and somewhat more directly , demonstrated thus . That God is the Cause of whatever is besides himself , or , that whatever is , is either God or the Effect of God is a clear and acknowledg'd Principle . Necessary Truth then is either God or the Effect of God. But it is not the Effect of God , and therefore it can be no other than God himself . Now that it is not the Effect of God , the many gross Absurdities which that supposition draws after it I think will oblige him that Considers them to acknowledge . For First , if Necessary Truth be the effect of God either it would not be necessary , which is against the Supposition ; or if it be , then as being a necessary Effect it must have a necessary Cause , that is a Cause necessarily determin'd to act , and so God would be a necessary Agent , even ad extra . He would also be an unintelligent Agent . The Consequence is not to be avoided . For if Truth be the effect of God then antecedently to the effecting of it , there was no Truth , and consequently no Knowledge , because there could be nothing known ; and so God in the production of Truth ( if indeed he did produce it ) must be supposed to act altogether in the dark , and without any Intelligence . Again , if Truth be the Effect of God , then the Perfection of the Divine Understanding must be supposed to depend upon something that is not God , nay upon something created by God , whereas God is the true perfective Object of all his Creatures , and is himself completely Happy in the sole Contemplation of himself . ' T●will follow again that God has constituted an Order of Realities which he has not ●ower to abolish ; that he has made some things which he cannot unmake again . And lastly to add no more , If Truth be the Effect of God then it cannot be God , ( because God cannot produce what is Himself ) and if it be not God , then by the Supposition there will be something Necessary , Immutable , Eternal and Independent , &c. that is not God. Which last Consequence as it contradicts the Common and Natural Sentiment of Mankind , so it struck so hard against a certain very Thoughtful and Metaphysical Head , that he could not forbear urging this as One Argument against the very Being of Necessary Truth ; because then ( as he pretends ) there would be something Necessary besides God , not considering that this Necessary Truth is really one and the same with the Divine Substance . Which one Consideration puts by the whole force of his Argument against the Being of Necessary Truth , though however it be sufficiently conclusive of the Point we now contend for , that this Truth is not the Effect of God. For if it were then his Allegation would take place ; that is , there would indeed be something Necessary besides God , which though it does not follow from the Supposition of the Being of Necessary Truth , is yet plainly inseparable from the other Supposition , that of its being the Effect of God. For then the very next Consequence is , that there would be something Necessary besides God , which no Religious , nor indeed Rational Ear can bear . 'T is plain therefore that Truth is not the Effect of God ; and since it is not , it remains by vertue of the premised Disjunction that it can be no other than the very Substance and Essence of the Deity . 13. And to this purpose I further consider , That the whole Perfection of the Mind does consist in its union with God , who is her only true Good. This seems to me a Proposition of a very shining Evidence . For the good of the Mind must of necessity be something Spiritual , otherwise it would be of a Nature inferiour to herself , and so not capable of being her Perfection . But neither is that enough Whatever is the good of the Mind must not be only of a like Nature with the Mind , that is , of a Spiritual , but of a superiour Nature too . It must be something above the Mind that can be its Perfection , and that can act upon it , and inlighten it , and affect it with pleasing Sensations , otherwise how can it be able to add any thing to its better Being or Perfection ? And in order to all this it must also be intimately present to it , and united with it , otherwise how can it so act upon it ? But now God is the only Spiritual Being whom we can possibly conceive thus qualified to be the good or perfective Object of our Minds . Whence it follows that he only is so , and that we cannot become either more Perfect or more Happy in any Kind or Degree but by our Union with , and Possession of God. And hence it further follows , that Truth could not be any Perfection of our Understandings if it were not the same with the Divine Essence ( since that is our only perfective and beatifying Object ) and that therefore since it really is perfective of our Understandings , and that in the very highest measure ( the Understanding being then most Perfect when it has the clearest and the largest view of Truth ) it can be no other than the very Essence of that Infinite Mind who is the only true Good and Objective Perfection of all Spirits . 14. 'T is true indeed Des Cartes makes all Truth , even that which is Eternal to have been positively instituted and establish'd by God , to depend upon him as the Summus Legislator , to be the effect of his Will and Pleasure , and by Consequence to be Absolutely and Originally Arbitrary and Contingent . So that according to him 2 and 2 might not have been 4 , or 3 Angles of a Triangle might not have been equal to 2 Right ones if God had pleas'd so to Order it . But this Notion of this Great Man does so rudely Shock the Natural Sense of Mankind that it cannot find Admission even where the rest of his Philosophy does , but is generally exploded notwithstanding the eminency of its Author , and that even by one of his greatest Admirers , and ( as I think ) by far the Most Considerable of his Disciples . And truly I think this Opinion is treated no worse than it deserves , since besides the Absurdities already Mention'd , it shakes the Foundations of Science , yea and of Morality too , by supposing the Natures not only of Metaphysical and Mathematical Truth , but even of Moral Good and Evil to be of a Positive and Arbitrary , and Consequently of a Contingent Ordination . It is therefore deservedly as well as generally rejected , but then let those that reject it have a Care that they fall not into a worse Absurdity . As they would not suppose Truth to be of a Positive and Alterable Nature and that the Relations of Ideas might have been otherwise than they are , so let them have a Care how they make any thing Necessary and Immutable that is Not God. Let them be Consistent with themselves , and as they justly reject the Opinion that makes Truth the Effect of God's Free and Arbitrarious Constitution , and consequently of a Mutable and Variable Nature , so let them own and Confess ( as they are Obliged to do ) that it is no other than God himself . For there is no other way of avoiding Des Cartes's Absurdity . For if Truth be not God then 't is the Effect of God , and if the Effect of God then since the Constitutions of God are Free and Arbitrary , the Natures and Relations of things might have been quite otherwise than they are , the whole Science of Geometry might be transposed , a Circle might have the Properties of a Square , and a Square the Properties of a Circle , 2 and 2 might not have been 4 , or what else you will instance in . And so in Morality too ( which is of far worse Consequence ) there might have been the like transposition , what is Vertue might have been Vice , and what is Vice might have been Vertue . These are the Natural Consequences of Truth 's being the Effect of Divine Constitution , and they are intolerable ones too , and therefore the Principle from which they flow is by the general Current of Writers well denied . But then unless they proceed , and acknowledge Truth to be one with the Divine Essence they cannot help relapsing into the same or worse Absurdities . For whoever says that Truth is not God must say that it is the Effect of God , and whoever says that , must either say that 't is Arbitrary and Contingent , or if he says it is Necessary and Immutable , he must allow of something Necessary and Immutable that is not God. But now it being most Evident that there is nothing Necessary that is not God , if Truth be not God then 't is plain that it cannot be Necessary ( which presently runs us into the Cartesian Absurdity of the Arbitrary Position of Truth ) or if it be Necessary then 't is as plain that it must be God. The short is , Truth is either God or the Effect of God. If it be not God , then 't is the Effect of God as Des Cartes says . But if not the Effect of God ( as the Consequent Absurdities from that Principle demonstrate , and as is generally granted ) then 't is God himself as we say . It must be one or the other , there is no Medium . To say that Truth is God , or to say that 't is the Effect of God are each of them Consistent Propositions , though from the gross Absurdities of the Latter the Former only appears to be the right , but to deny that 't is the effect of God and yet not to say that it is God , that is to affirm that 't is neither the Effect of God nor yet God , is all over unmaintainable and inconsistent . If it be not the Effect of God ( as is both generally and justly acknowledg'd ) then it must of Necessity be God , since whatever is , is either God or the Effect of God. 15. And indeed if Truth be not God how comes it to be Cloath'd with the Glorious Ensigns of his Majesty , to wear the Characters of his Divinity , and to have so many of his peculiar and incommunicable Attributes ? How comes it to be Necessary , Immutable , Eternal , Self-existent , Increated , Immense , Omni-present and Independent , and that not only upon the Conceptions of any Minds whether Human or Angelical , but even all things whatsoever , which might never have been made , or might now be annihilated without any Prejudice to the being of Truth , which does not respect the natural and actual Existencies but only the Abstract Essences of things . For were there no such thing as any real Circle or Triangle in Nature it would still be never the less true that their Abstract Essences would be determinate and invariable , and that such and such distinct Properties would belong to them . Which by the way plainly Convinces that Truth is none of the Effects , Works , or Creatures of God , since it did exist before them , does not now depend on them , and would remain the self-same Immutable thing without them . But then I demand whence has it this Self-subsistence and Independency of Being ? Whence again has it its fix'd and unalterable Nature , such as we can neither add any thing to , nor diminish ought from ? How is it that it is Present in all Places , and to all Minds , so as to be Contemplated by them all at the same time , and after the same Manner ? How comes it to pass that we cannot so much as dis-imagine it , or by way of Fiction and Supposition remove it out of Being ; but it still returns upon us with a strong and invincible Spring , since even the very Supposition that there is no Truth carries a Formal Proposition in it whose Ideas have a certain Habitude to each other , and so Contradicts it self . Besides how comes it to be a Perfection of the Divine Understanding ? Is any thing a Perfection to God but himself ? How comes it also to be the Rule and Measure of his Will , which can be determin'd by nothing but what is just Reasonable and True ? Can any thing be a Rule to God that is not himself ? Does he Consult or Follow any thing but what is One with his own Divine Nature and Essence ? And yet God consults and follows Truth , and cannot act but according to its Immutable Laws and Measures . It is not therefore really distinguish'd from him , but Coeternal and Consubstantial with him , and so in Consulting Truth he Consults his own Essence * , even the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Eternal and Increated Wisdom , the true intelligible Light , in whom are all the Ideas and Essences of things , the Fulness of Being and Truth , who in the Beginning was with God , and was God , who is Eternally Contemplated by him with Infinite Joy and Complacency , and who said of himself Incarnate , I am the Way , the Truth , and the Life . I would fain know how all these incommunicable Attributes of God should agree to Truth if it be any thing less than a Divine Nature . Particularly I demand , whence has it that unshakeable Firmness and Stability , that invincible Permanency and Sted●astness , that Necessity of Existence , that utter repugnance to Not Being , but only because it is really Coessential and Consubstantial with him whose Name is Iehovah , and who is Being it self , to whom it is Essential to Exist , or rather , whose very Essence is Existence . 16. But now from this Coessentiality and Consubstantiality of Truth with the Divine Nature ( a Noble and Sublime Theory , but which I do but lightly touch over , having not room here to pursue it at large ) it evidently and necessarily follows again that Truth is Infinite . There cannot be a more immediate , nor a more necessary , nor a more inseparable Connexion between any two things than between this Consequence and that Principle . And indeed if Truth were not Infinite how can the Knowledge of God be so ? Not sure as Concretely and Objectively Consider'd , for that manifestly implies the Infinity of its Object . And what is the Object of the Divine , or of any other Understanding , but Truth ? And should Knowledge here be taken for the Power or Faculty of Knowing , to what purpose is an Infinite Power of Knowing unless there be an Infinite to be Known ? And would not such a Power be uneasie and afflictive , as well as useless , to him that had it , unless the Object be supposed to carry due Proportion to it : For if it be so uneasie a Reflexion to some of us to have such short and narrow Faculties when the Compass of Truth has so large and spatious an extent , to be able to know so little when there is so much to be known , how much more troublesom and painful would it be to the Supreme Intelligence to have an Infinite Understanding when all that is intelligible is but Finite ? Would not that Infinity of his Capacity serve to vex and disquiet him more than the Narrowness of ours does us , the difference being as much as between having a great Stomach and but little Meat , and a little Stomach when there is a great deal of Meat , whereof which is the greatest Punishment is Obvious to imagine . And we may judge of this in some measure by our selves . We have in us a Capacity boundless and unlimited . For tho' our Understandings be Finite , our Wills know no Measure , and are in a manner Infinite . As God has made us capable of enjoying an Infinite Good , so Nothing less than that can satisfie our Desires . For we desire Good as Good , and consequently all possible Good. Now we find this to be a great Pain to us at present to desire an Infinite Good when all that we can enjoy here is Finite . The greatest part of the Uneasiness , the Melancholy , the Disconsolateness , the Aridity that accompanies Human Life will be found , if traced to the Original , to proceed from hence , viz. from the little proportion that is between our Capacities and our Gratifications , between what is desired and what is enjoy'd . And this Desire of an Infinite Good will be a far greater Punishment to us Hereafter when the Activity of our Faculties shall be more invigorated and inlarg'd , if we have not then an Infinite Good to enjoy . ●Twill be at least the worst ingredient of Hell and Damnation , if not all that is to be understood by it . And yet we are still to Consider that our Will is In●●nite only Ex parte Objecti , because it desires an Infinite Good , and not Ex parte Actûs because it desires it infinitely or with an unlimited Force and Activity . For 't is impossible that a Finite Nature should have any Power or Force in it that is strictly infinite , or that any such Act or Operation should proceed from it . But then what would the Affliction be if the Act were Infinite as well as the Object , and we were to aspire after an Infinite Good with an Infinite Desire ! What Conception can Frame a just Idea of the Misery of such a State ! And can it be much less for an Infinite Intelligence to have only a Finite Intelligible for its Object ? But there is Nothing Painful or Afflictive in the Condition of the Supremely and Completely Blessed . And therefore we must Conclude that as the Infinite Will of God has a Good fully Commensurate and Adequate to its unlimited Activity , whereon it may Center and Repose its Weight , so the Infinite Understanding of God has also an Infinite Intelligible for its Object . And since the Formal Object of Understanding in General , and Consequently of the Divine , is Truth ( as that of the Will is Good ) hence it follows again that Truth must needs be of an Infinite Nature . 17. And do we not find it so when we Convert our selves to it by Study and Meditation ? When we apply our Minds to the Contemplation of Truth , and set our selves to muse and think , do we not find that we launch forth into a vast intelligible Sea , that has neither Bottom nor Shore ? And the more we think and the more we Meditate are we not still more and more convinc'd of this , and do we not discover the further we go in our Intellectual Progress , that there still lies more and more beyond us , so that the more we advance in the Knowledge of Truth the more we inlarge Our Idea of it , as the greatest Travellers think most Magnificently of the World ? Do we not find as in a Spatious Campaigne , so in the immense Field of Truth , that our Eye wearies , and our Sight loses it self in the boundless Prospect , and that besides the clear view which we have of a few things at a little distance from us , there lie all round us vast Tracts unmeasurably diffused , whereof we have only Confuse and indistinct Images , like the Faint Blew of the far distant Hills ? Are not the Relations and Combinations of things with one another Infinite , and should but one link in this Endless Chain be alter'd would not innumerable Alterations ensue upon it ? Should but One Proposition that is False be supposed True , or One that is True be supposed False , what Understanding but the Divine could go on with the Train of New Consequences that would result from such a Supposition ? I say New Consequences , For we are to consider that besides the Absolute Systeme of Truth which contains the Relations of Ideas with their settled Coherencies and Dependencies one upon another according as they really stand in their Natural Order , there is a Secondary Systeme of Truth which I may call Hypothetical , that results from any supposed Change made in the Absolute Systeme , whence will still arise new and new Consequences even to Infinity . But not to consider Hypothetical Truth , can the Bounds of that which is Absolute be ever fix'd , or its Stock ever Exhausted ? Does it not after all the Study that has been employ'd about it , and the Numberless Number of Volumns that have been written upon it furnish perpetual matter for our Contemplation , and is it not a Subject for everlasting Thoughts and Considerations ? Has it not been the great Research of the Thoughtful and Inquisitive for many Ages , and yet does not every Age refine upon its Predecessour , and produce New Discoveries ? Are not the Sciences continually improved , and yet are there not still Depths in every Science which no Line of Thought can ever Fathom ? What a vast Fecundity is there in some plain simple Propositions , nay who can number the Conclusions that may be drawn from any one Principle ! Take the most simple Figure in Geometry , and where is the Mathematician who after a Thousand Years Study can reckon up all the Properties that may be affirm'd of it , both as Absolutely Consider'd , and as it stands in relation to other Figures ? And what then shall we think of the whole Science in all its Branches and Dependencies , Particularly of Algebra , the Main Ocean of this Bottomless Sea ? And what shall we say of Metaphysick's , another unmeasurable Abysse , and what of the endless Circle of Truth , if not the same which one of Iob's Friends says of God , Canst thou by searching ●ind out Truth , Canst thou find her out unto Perfection ? It is as high as Heaven , what canst thou do ? deeper than Hell , what canst thou know ? The Measure thereof is longer than the Earth , and broader than the Sea. And that because they after all are Finite , whereas this is truly and strictly Infinite . Which by the way sufficiently proves a God , and that this God is Truth , whose Eternal and Glorious Majesty be Blessed for Ever . 18. But then let us Consider , if Truth be indeed ( as you see ) of an Infinite Nature , then to prove that Human Reason is not fully adequate to it , does not intirely possess it , nor all over and wholly comprehend it , and consequently cannot be the Measure of it , there will be no need of laying open the great Weakness and Deficiency of our Understanding : I need not represent the Imperfection of its Light , nor the Shortness of its Views , nor the Slenderness of its Attainments , nor the very Narrow Extent of its Knowledge , nor the very little Progress it is able to make in the Contemplation and Comprehension of Truth ; That there are a great many things whereof we have no Ideas ( for which we need go no further for an Instance than our own Souls ) and that even where we have Ideas of things we cannot always discern the Relations and Connexions that are between them , and that either for want of sufficient Clearness in the Ideas themselves to have their Relations perceived immediately without comparing them with other mediate Ideas , or else for want of such due and proper Mediums wherewith to compare them , and that therefore the extent of our Knowledge is not only vastly exceeded by the Natures of things , but also very Considerably even by our own Ideas , there being many things whereof we have Ideas , and sometimes very clear ones too , and yet which we know no more how to reason upon or discourse of intelligibly , or with any Certainty , than we do of those things whereof we have no Ideas at all , being , for Example , no more able to tell what proportion such a Circle bears to such a Square though we have clear Ideas of both , than we are to tell what proportion there is between Angels and our own Souls , things whereof we have no Ideas . A very remarkable Instance of the Shortness and Contractedness of our Understandings , which it seems are not only destitute of the Ideas of many things , and Consequently of the knowledge of them ( it being impossible that the extent of our knowledge should exceed that of our Ideas ) but are also Blind to those very Ideas which they have , and cannot see even when they have the advantage of the Light. But I say I need not present my Reader with a Night-piece of Human Reason , describe great Blindness and gross Darkness , how ignorant she is when she does not adventure to judge , and how Erroneous when she does , stumbling and falling ( as is usual in the dark ) out of one mistake into another , out of one Errour into another , either by im●racing false Principles , or by drawing wrong Conclusions from true ones , so that Ignorance seems her safest Retreat , and to suspend her best Wisdom ; These I say and such other of our intellectual Infirmities I need not insist upon or make any advantage of , it being sufficient to conclude the Point in hand that Human Reason in its largest Capacity and Extent and with all the advantages of both Nature and Artificial improvement is after all but a Finite thing ( and that to be sure the most Zealous of its Votaries and Advocates must confess that it is ) since 't is impossible that what has Bounds should be able totally and adequately to Comprehend what has None , or that Finite should be the Measure of Infinite . 19. I know but of one thing that can with any Pertinency be replied to this Argument , and that is , that though Human Reason ( as Finite ) be not able to comprehend all Truth ( as being Infinite ) yet however there may perhaps be no one Truth in Particular but what , when presented to it , may be comprehended by it , and so Human Reason may be rightly said to be Adequate and Commensurate to Truth as Distributively , though not as Collectively consider'd . But to this I have several things to return . First of all I say that such is the reciprocal dependence and concatenation of Truth that the want of a thorough and intire Comprehension of all Truth in its widest and most diffused Extent must needs very much Eclipse the view and darken the Perception of any one Solitary Truth in particular , so that however we may have some tolerable Perception of it , and such as we may call Clear in Comparison of some other Truths which we do not see so clearly , yet it cannot be near so clear and Distinct a Perception , as that Infinite Being has of it who sees not only the Truth it self , but also the Manifold Relation , Connexion , and Combination that it has with all other Truths . The difference between these two ways of Perception being of a like Nature with that which is between seeing a Proposition as it stands singly by it self , and seeing the same Proposition with all its Relations and Dependencies , and in conjunction with the whole Context and Coherence of the Discourse whereof it is a Part. I say again Secondly , that though we may have a competent Perception of some plain and simple Truths without pursuing them thorough all the Relations and Dependencies that they have with other Truths ( since otherwise , as I have hinted already , we should be able to understand nothing , and every thing would be above Reason ) yet however we do not know but that there may be some Truths of such a Nature as not to be understood without the adequate Comprehension of those Relations and Dependencies ; which since we have not , we do not nor can ever know but that there may be some Truths that are so above us as to be out of our Reach , and to lie beyond all possibility of Comprehension , and consequently that Human Reason is not adequate and commensurate to Truth even Distributively consider'd . I say we do not know , and 't is impossible we should ever know but that thus it may be . For how should we be able to know it , or upon what shall we ground this our Knowledge ? It must be either upon the Natural Force and Penetration of our Understandings , or upon our Actual Views and Perceptions , or upon the Nature of Truth it self . As for the Capacity of our Understandings though we do not know the precise and exact Bounds and Limits of it , yet we know in the general that it is Finite , and has its fix'd and determinate Measure , which it would strive in vain to exceed . As for the Nature of Truth , that we both experiment , and from the foregoing Considerations must of necessity conclude to be Infinite . And what Ground of Assurance can we have from either or both of these , which are apt rather to lay a Foundation of Diffidence and Distrust ? And then as for our actual Views and Perceptions , though we should suppose them to have been hitherto never so clear and distinct , never so numerous and extensive , and never so fortunate and successful , so that our Victorious Understandings never yet met with a Baffle , nor sounded a retreat from a too difficult and impregnable Theory , suppose in one word , that we never yet applied our minds to the consideration of any one Truth but what we fully comprehended and were perfect Masters of ( which yet he must be a very Presumptuous , or a very little experienc'd Thinker that shall affirm of himself ) how notwithstanding do we know , considering the Finiteness of our Intellect , and the Infiniteness of Truth , but that there may be Other Truths of a Nature so far above us , and so disproportionate to us , as not possibly to be Comprehended by us . For we cannot argue here from the past Successes and Atchievements of our Understandings to the Future , or because there has been nothing hitherto proposed to us but what we Comprehended , that therefore there can be nothing proposed but what we can Comprehend . If we conclude thus , we forget the vast disproportion between Truth and Human Reason , that the one is Finite and the other Infinite , the due and attentive Consideration of which would convince us that tho' we have thought never so much , and never so well , and comprehended never so many Truths , yet for ought we know there may be Truths which our intellectual Sight though aided with all the advantages of Art , that may help the Mind as much as a Telescope does the Eye , can yet never penetrate , and which ( by the way ) it may be Worthy of God to reveal to us if 't were only to Check and Controle the daring Progress of our Understanding , to make us understand our Measure and remember that we are but Men , to be sensible of the defects of that part upon which we most value our selves and despite others , and that even the Light that is in us is but Darkness . Whether there be any such Truths I do not now say , but only that upon the Supposition of the Infinity of Truth 't is impossible for us to be sure but that there may be such , which is enough to hinder Our Reason from being ( at least as to us ) the Measure of Truth , since if it be so 't is more than we know , or can possibly be assured of , which makes it all one ( to us ) as if it were not . For we cannot make use of it as a Measure , or draw any Consequence from it to the Falsehood , Impossibility , or Incredibility of things Incomprehensible , since for ought we know or can know to the Contrary , there may be Truths which we cannot Comprehend . 20. But then I say further Thirdly , that the Infinite Nature of Truth will Oblige us to acknowledge that there actually are and must be such . For if Truth be Infinite then 't is plain that we cannot Comprehend it in its full and intire Extent , and so much the very Objection supposes . But then I say that as the want of a perfect Comprehension of all Truth does very much shade and darken the perception of any one single Truth in particular , and that because of the mutual connexion and dependence of things one upon another ( as was before observ'd ) so it must needs quite Eclipse and totally Abscond some Truths from our View . For there are some Truths so very Complex and Abstruse , and that lie so deep , and , as I may say , so far within the Bowels of the Intellectual Systeme , that include such a Multitude of Relations , depend upon so many Suppositions , are the Conclusions of so many Premisses , presuppose and require the knowledge of so many things ( of some of which it may be we have not so much as the simple Ideas ) have such a Train of Principles Planted and Intrench'd as a Guard before 'em , and draw such an immense Retinue of Consequences after them , and are every way so mingled , involv'd and combined with other Truths that they cannot possibly be understood without an intire and all-comprehensive view of the whole Rational Systeme . Instances of such Truths abound in every Science . But there is nothing that may furnish us with so sensible and palpable an Illustration of this Matter as th● Order and Measure of Divine Providence . We are all fully assured from the very Notion and Idea of God as involving all possible Excellency and Perfection in it , that he is a Being infinitely Wise , Good , Just and Holy , and Consequently that his whole Conduct in the Government of the World must necessarily carry the Character of all these Attributes , and that he cannot possibly do any thing contrary or repugnant to any of them any more than he can deny himself , or depart from the Essential Perfections of his Infinite Nature . And upon this Consideration is founded the best Argument we have for Submission and Resignation to the Will of God , and Acquiescence in his Providential Dispensations . Thus far then we are all satisfied and agreed . And yet it cannot be denied when we come to Particulars , but that there are Phenomena in the Moral as well as in the Natural World which are utterly insolvible , and that a great many of these Dispensations of Providence are accompanied with desperate and invincible Difficulties , such as have at once exercised and puzzled the thoughts of the most inquisitive in all Ages , and still remain Obstinate and Unmoveable Objections not only to the Atheists and Libertines , but even to the most sober and intelligent of both Philosophers and Divines , Men of the greatest Light and Piety , those who best understand , and do most reverence and adore the ways of God. And adore them after all they must , for so intricate and intangling are the Difficulties , or ( by the leave of some ) I would say Mysteries of Providence , especially in those dark Scenes of it that relate to the Divine Concourse and Cooperation with the Will of Man , the Ordination of his Final State , the Order and Distribution of Grace , the Permission , Direction and Nice Conduct of Sin , &c. that the Capacity of our Understanding will not serve us to give a clear and unobnoxious account of them . Indeed the diligent and curious Wit of Man has gone a great way in this as well as in Other Matters , and several Systemes and Hypotheses have been invented about these things by Contemplative Spirits , among whom the two very particular Authors of the Treatise of Nature and Grace , and of L'Oeconomie Divine have I think gone the furthest of any . But though some of these Accounts bid fairer for reception than others , by striking some glimmering Light into these Abstrusities , yet still they all agree in this , that they leave a great deal more in the Dark , and labour with Difficulties even where they do Explain : So that after all they discover nothing so much as their own Shortness and Deficiency . In the mean while we know and are most certain in the General , that all is right and as it should be in the Conduct of God towards his Creatures , and that he cannot make one false Step in the Government of the World. So much we understand without Systemes , and truly not much more with them . For as for the Particular Scenes of Providence we know not what to make of them ; and when we have consider'd the Dispensations of God as much as we can or dare , we find our selves after all obliged to confess , that though Righteousness and Iudgment are the Habitation of his Seat , yet Clouds and Darkness are round about him . 21. But now how comes it to be so Dark and Cloudy ? How come we to be so little able to see the particular Wisdom , Goodness , Justice and Holiness of those ways of God , which in the general we are convinc'd to be so Wise , Good , Just and Holy ? Why can we not enter into the Detail of Providence ? Why even because we do not see it throughout , and have not a Comprehension of its Universal Systeme . For the Passages of Providence 〈◊〉 of such a Relative and Complicated Nature , there is such a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mutual in-being or indwelling in them , ( if I may transfer an Expression hither , commonly applyed to a higher Mystery ) they are so interwoven with , and have so common a dependance upon one another , that without a Comprehensive View of the whole Drama , we can hardly make any thing of any one Particular Scene . Indeed if we could have such a View as that , a View that went round and through , and grasp'd the whole Area of that immense Circle , we should quickly see the Regularity of the most uneven and odd-figured Parts , and how wonderfully they conspired ( like the Flats and Sharps of Musick ) to the Order and Harmony of that excellent and surprizing Beauty that results from them . But being not able to reach this , we are not competent Judges of the rest , ( which by the way should repress our forwardness to fit in Judgment upon things so far above the Cognizance of our Court ) ; and though we know the Measures of God to be all Wise , Good , Just and Holy , yet this is only an implicit Knowledge , founded upon an External Evidence only ( much after the same manner as it is in Faith ) even the general Conception we have of the Divine Perfection , without any clear and immediate discernment of the Internal Connexion that is between the things themselves . We believe 't is all well and right because the Infinitely Wise God sits at the Helm ; but then again , because he is so Infinitely Wise we cannot found the Depths of his Wisdom , ( as indeed it would be very strange if an Infinitely Wise Agent should not be able to do things Wisely , and yet beyond our Understanding ) nor reconcile all his particular proceedings to the Laws of Reason and Equity ; but the more we study about these things the more we are at a loss , the further we wade into this Sea the deeper we find it , till at last we find our selves obliged to cry out with the most inspired Apostle , O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God , how unsearchable are his Iudgments , and his Ways past finding out ! And all for want of an Intire and Comprehensive View of them . For if the Knowledge of some very Compounded Truths be impossible without the Clear Perception of the Simple Principles upon which they depend ; and a Man would to no purpose beat his Brains about the Consideration of Conical Sections , till he has first well possessed himself of Ordinary Geometry ; how much less then ( may we conclude ) are the Intricate and very Complicated Events of Divine Providence to be unravel'd without a Collected and Simultaneous Idea of the Universal Systeme whereof they are parts , to which they relate , and from their Concentricity with which they receive all their Order and Beauty , but which is in a manner lost to us for want of Compass enough in our Prospect . By which single Instance it appears ( among many others that might have been given ) how the Incapacity of Comprehending Truth in its whole Extent may disable us from Comprehending many Particular Truths ; and consequently , that the same Infinity of Truth which hinders us from Comprehending it according to that Extent , must also hinder us as much from being able to comprehend every Particular Truth . So then there will be Particular Truths which are Incomprehensible by us , and consequently Human Reason is not Commensurate to all Truth , not only as Collectively , but even as Distributively Consider'd . And therefore not as Distributively , because not as Collectively . 22. But then to raise our Speculation a little higher , I consider yet further , that the Infinity of Truth is not only an Infinity of Extent , but also an Infinity of Nature , that is , that the Compass of Truth is not only Boundless and illimited , and that it has in it an inexhaustible Spring , which like the Source of Light , is never to be drawn dry by the most thirsty draught of the whole Intellectual World , but also that there are Particular Truths of a Nature truely infinite , and by consequence incomprehensible to any Understanding that is not so . For we are here to recollect , what has been already shewn , that Truth is Consubstantial and Coessential with God and with the Divine Ideas . Now though these Ideas are all equally of the Essence and Nature of God , and so far equally Divine ( it being impossible that there should be any thing in God that is not God ) yet there is this general and very remarkable Difference between them , that some of these Divine Ideas are Absolute , and some Relative . That is , some are of the Essence of God Simply and Absolutely as He is in Himself , without any Relation to any thing out of Himself . And others again are of the Essence of God consider'd purely in Relation to things without Him either in Act or in Possibility , and only so far forth as the Divine Essence is representative of Creatures . Or if you will , thus : We may consider a twofold Being in Ideas , Esse Reale , and Esse Ideale or Repraesentativum . Some Ideas are Divine , not only according to their Esse Reale ( for so they are all ) but also according to their Esse Repraesentativum , as representing God to the Mind that Contemplates them . Others again are Divine only according to their Esse Reale , being indeed of the Substance of God , but not representing him , but his Creatures , and so are Divine in the same sense as the Idea of a Body is Spiritual , viz. Essentially only , not Representatively . Which Diversity indeed resolves into the former , because they are of the Essence of God , not as it is absolutely in itself , but only as it is representative of Creatures , according to such a certain Modality and Limitation of Perfection . And accordingly though they are truly Divine Ideas as well as the other , yet they are not said to be Ideas of God , as not representing him , but his Creatures . The short is , The Essence of God may be consider'd either as it is absolutely in it self according to its Infinite Simplicity , or as it is in relation to , and representative of things without , either of an Actual , or of a Possible Existence . And so the Ideas or Essential Perfections of God are of two sorts : Either such as are of the Essence of God consider'd in the first sense , as it is in it self , or else such as are of the same Divine Essence only in the second sense , as far forth as that Essence is representative of things out of it self ; upon which by the way , I suppose , must be grounded ( if we will resolve things into their last Principle ) the common distinction of the Attributes of God into Communicable and Incommunicable . The Incommunicable Attributes of God being those Perfections that are of the Divine Essence Simply and Absolutely consider'd as it is in it self ; and the Communicable those that belong to the Divine Essence Relatively consider'd , and as representative of Creatures , to whom accordingly they are in their Measure truly applicable ; whereas the former are not , but are peculiar to God alone ; which sufficiently shews the difference between this double order of Divine Ideas . But to make it yet more intelligible by an Instance . The Idea of the Divine Immensity , or that Perfection in God which we call his Immensity , is of the Essence of God according to the first sense , as it is simply and absolutely in it self ; being no other than the Substance of God as it is universally diffused , intirely present in , and filling all places without being circumscribed by any , yet without any Local Extension . But now the Idea of Extension , or that Perfection in God which vertually , eminently , and modo intelligibili , answers to Extension ( and is therefore frequently called by Mr. Malebranch , L' ètendue intelligibl● ) is of the Substance of God , not as it is in it self simply and absolutely , but only as far forth as it is representative of Matter , or Body , and imitable or participable by it , according to those Limitations and Imperfections which belong to that kind of Being , and which are represented by this its Idea . I know not whether I express my self to the Conception of every Reader , but I am sufficiently Clear and Intelligible to my self ; and whoever is not much wanting either in Metaphysics , or in Attention , cannot I think well miss my Meaning . 23 Now the use that I make of this Speculation to the present purpose is this : Those Ideas which are of the Essence of God only as that Divine Essence , according to some certain Limitations and inadequate Considerations of it , is representative of Creatures , must be consider'd by us as of a Finite Nature . Because however truly Divine and of the Essence of God , yet not as it is absolutely and simply in it self , but only as it is in relation to Creatures ; that is , as partially and inadequately consider'd , according to certain Abstractions and Limitations of Entity and Perfection , such as the things whereof they are Ideas do require . And accordingly such Ideas are ordinarily said , not to be the Ideas of God who is Infinite ( for they do not represent him , though Essential to him ) but to be the Ideas of Creatures , who are Finite . They are indeed Divine Ideas , because Essential to God ; but they are not Ideas of God , because they are of the Divine Essence only as it relates to Creatures , and is representative of them . Of Creatures therefore they are the Ideas , and God in seeing them is not properly said to see himself , ( though they are of himself ) but to see Creatures ; because though they are of his Divine Essence , yet 't is only according to such Precisions , Limitations and Inadequations of it as to be expressive and representative of their Finite Perfections . As therefore the Realities which these Ideas represent are Finite , so these Ideas must be conceiv'd by us as Finite too ; it being impossible that Infinite consider'd as Infinite , should be representative of what is Finite . And as these Ideas are Finite , so are they also by Consequence so Proportionate , and of a Measure so adjusted to Finite Understandings , as to be Intelligible by them , and within the Possibility of their Comprehension ; which must also in like manner be concluded of all those Truths which are Consubstantial to them . And accordingly the Experiment answers the Theory . We find that not only contingent Truths that regard only the Actualities and Existencies of Things , such as matters of Fact , Human Events , &c. but even a great many of those which are Ideal and Necessary , and concern only the Abstract Reasons and Essences of Things independently on their Actual Existence , are Comprehensible by us , as in Metaphysics and Geometry , in the Contemplation of which Sciences we meet with a great many things which we well understand , and whereof we have Clear Ideas and Conceptions . 24. But now it is not thus with the Ideas of the first Order , nor with their Truths , Though those Divine Ideas which appertain to the Essence of God only as representative of Creatures , be both Finite and Comprehensible by limited Understandings , ( which indeed otherwise would not be capable of any Science ) yet these Absolute Ideas which I now speak of , are neither Finite nor Comprehensible . For these Ideas are of the very Essence and Substance of God as it is in it self purely and separately consider'd according to its simple and absolute Nature , and not as it is in relation to Creatures , or as representative of any Reality out of it self . And accordingly God in contemplating these Ideas of his may be truly and strictly said to contemplate himself ; and we also in the Contemplation of them do as really contemplate God , and that because they are of his Divine Essence simply and absolutely consider'd as it is in it self , and not as it is in reference to any thing besides , or out of it self . These Ideas therefore are strictly Infinite ( because the Divine Essence , as it is in it self simply and absolutely consider'd is so ) and consequently Incomprehensible by any Finite , and consequently by Human Understanding . God only can Comprehend these Ideas , and that because he only can Comprehend himself . Human Reason indeed has Light enough to discover that there are such Ideas and Perfections in God , and is withal able to discern enough of them to raise her greatest Wonder and Devotion , and to make her despise all other Intelligible Objects in comparison of these Infinite Grandeurs ; and the Angelic Spirits that wait about the Throne of his Majesty , and stand in a better Light , are able to see yet more of them ; but neither the one nor the other can Comprehend them fully any more than they can God himself , and that because they are God. So that though the other Ideas are Finite and Comprehensible , these are truly Infinite and Incomprehensible . And of this we have sufficient Evidence in the Instances above proposed of each . The Idea of Extension is very Clear and Intelligible to our Minds , as Finite and as Narrowly bounded as they are . We have a very distinct View of it , we Perceive it , we Comprehend it . Among all Intelligible Objects there is none that is more clear , nor whereof we have a more adequate and exact Notion . And upon this is founded all that peculiar Clearness , Evidence and Certainty that is in the Geometric Sciences , which alone have the happiness to be free from Disputes , and without Contestation to find that Truth which the others seek after , and that for no other Reason but because we have so clear and distinct a Notion of its general Subject , Extension . But now as to the * Divine Immensity , so far are we from having a Clear Conception of that , that no sooner do we set our selves to contemplate this vast Idea , but we enter into Clouds and Darkness , or rather into such an over-shining and insupportable Light as dazzles and blinds our Eyes , yea hurts and pains them , till they can no longer indure to gaze , but are forc'd to refresh themselves either by letting down their wearied Lids ( suspense of Thought ) or by turning their view upon less glorious Objects . In the Meditation of the other Idea we are like Men that wade in a River where we both see and feel the Bottom , and go on for a pretty way together smoothly and without much difficulty , only now and then meeting with an intangling Weed that lets and incumbers our progress . But in the Contemplation of the Infinite Idea of the Divine Immensity we are like men that commit themselves to the Main Sea , at the very first Plunge out of our depth , and ready to be overwhelm'd , swallow'd up and lost in an Abyss that knows no bottom . 25. I use a little Figure and Imagery here the better to impress this upon the Imagination of those who are not so well habituated to the Conception of things by Pure Intellection , but the thing it self needs none of the advantages of the Metaphorical way , being strictly and severely true . And by these two Instances it may appear what a vast difference there is between these two sorts of the Divine Ideas , the Absolute and the Relative , those that are of the Essence of God as in himself , and those that are of the same Divine Essence as it is in relation to Creatures . The First , Infinite and Incomprehensible , the Second , Finite and Comprehensible . For you see here the Idea of Extension is clear and distinct , and such as we can fully and adequately Conceive , but the Idea of the Divine Immensity , has nothing clear and distinct in it , but is all over Darkness and Obscurity , and such as quite astonishes and confounds us with a Thousand difficulties upon the first application of our Thoughts to it , as indeed do all the Absolute Attributes and Perfections of God , which are all equally Infinite , and equally incomprehensible to Finite Spirits , however they may be able to Comprehend that which in the Essence of God is representative of , and carries a Relation to those Realities which either actually do , or possibly may exist out of it . And in this I say no more ( setting aside only the Rationale of the thing ) than those who tell us that the Incommunicable Attributes of God are Infinite and Incomprehensible . They are so . But what is it that makes them Infinite and Incomprehensible ? Even the same that makes them Incommunicable , viz. their being of the Essence of God as it is in it self according to its Absolute Simplicity , and not as it is in Relation to Creatures . For 't is most evident that the Essence of God as it is simply and Absolutely in it self is every way Infinite and Incomprehensible , and therefore all those Ideas and Perfections of his which are in this Absolute Sense Essential to him must be also of an alike Infinite and Incomprehensible Nature . Which by the way may serve to Silence the presumptuous Cavils of those who draw Objections against the Existence of God from the incomprehensibility of his Attributes , since if there be a God he must have incomprehensible Attributes , which unless we ascribe to him we do not think either rightly or worthily of him . 26. But to resume our Point , we see then here what a large Field is now open'd to our Prospect of Infinite and Incomprehensible Truths , even of a Compass as large as the Absolute Ideas and Perfections of the Divine Essence . For though all Created things are of a Finite Nature , and though even the Divine Ideas that represent them , as far as representative of them , must fall under the same limited Consideration , yet those Absolute Ideas and Perfections of God that have no such external Reference , but are of the Divine Essence as it is in its pure , simple , abstracted Self , must necessarily partake of the Divine Infinity , and be as unbounded as God himself . And since Truth ( as was before observ'd ) is Coessential and Consubstantial with the Divine Ideas , I further Conclude , that though those Truths which regard the Actualities and Existencies of things , or if you please , things that do actually exist , be Finite , because the things themselves are so , and though even those that regard the Divine Ideas themselves are also Finite supposing the Ideas to be of the inferiour Order , such as are of the Divine Essence only as it is representative of , and in relation to Creatures , yet those Truths which respect those Divine Ideas of the Superiour Order , that are of the Absolute Essence of God as it is in it self purely and simply Consider'd , and so are not only Essentially , but even Representatively Divine , as truly representing God , and being in a strict and proper sense his Ideas , I say the Truths of this Order and Character must necessarily be of a Nature far exalted above all Creatures , yea above all other Ideal Truths , even as far as what is of the Simple and Absolute Essence of God transcends that which in the same Essence is only Relative to things without , and can therefore be no less than Infinite . We have here then an Order of Infinite Truths , even allthose which regard the Absolute Ideas and Perfections of God. These Divine Ideas and Perfections are all Infinite , as that Glorious Essence whose Ideas they are and whom they represent , and so also are the Sublime Truths which result from them . They are of a Nature strictly Infinite , and if Infinite then by Consequence Incomprehensible , I mean to all understandings that are not so . For as Nothing Finite has Reality enough to represent Infinite , so neither can any thing Finite have Capacity enough to Comprehend it . For as the actual knowledge of any intelligent Being can never exceed its intellectual Power , so neither can its Power exceed the measure of its Essence . A Finite Being therefore must have a Finite Understanding , and a Finite Understanding must have a Finite Perception . Since then our Understandings are Finite , 't is plain that our Perception of Infinite must also be Finite . 'T is true indeed that Objective Reality which we contemplate when we think upon Infinite has no Limits , and so we may be said in some respect to have an Infinite Thought , as far as the Operation of the Mind may be denominated from the quality of the Object , but yet still we think according to the Measure of our Nature , and our Perception of Infinite can be no more at the most than Finite . But now a Finite Perception bears no proportion to an Infinite Intelligible , besides that to perceive such an Object after a Finite manner is not to perceive it as it is , but only Partially and inadequately . But now a Partial and inadequate Perception of a thing can never be said to be a Comprehension of that thing , even though the thing be Finite , much less then when it is Infinite . Whereby it plainly appears that if there be an Order of Infinite Truths the same will also be Incomprehensible Ones , and since again as I have shewn there is an Order of such Truths , even all those that regard the Absolute Ideas and Perfections of the Divine Essence , it clearly follows that there is an Order of Incomprehensible Truths , and Consequently that Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth , even Distributively consider'd , since there are Particular Truths which it cannot Comprehend ; which was the thing to be proved . 27. And of all this we may have a plain and visible illustration in the foremention'd Instance of the Divine Immensity . This is an Idea or Perfection of God that is truely Insinite , as being of his Divine Essence as it is Absolutely in it self , and not as in Order to , or representative of Creatures ; And as Infinite 't is also Incomprehensible by any but God himself . Accordingly the Complex Truth that regards this Absolute Idea of God is also Infinite , and as such Incomprehensible . As appears in this Proposition , God is Immense ; which is an Infinite and Incomprehensible Truth . We find it is so a Posteriori by casting the view of our Understandings upon it . And we find it must be so a Priori by reasoning upon the Principles already laid down and establish'd . And to prevent all vain cavilling in this matter I further add , that though we could suppose the Truths that result from Infinite Ideas not to be Infinite ( which yet we cannot by reason of their real Identity and Coessentiality with those Ideas ) yet however they must upon another account be incomprehensible , even upon the Incomprehensibility of those Ideas . For if the Ideas whereof a Truth consists be incomprehensible , as they must be if they are Infinite , that alone would be enough to hinder us from being able to Comprehend such a Truth , it being impossible we should thoroughly understand the Relations or Habitudes between those Ideas whose Simple Natures ( the Foundation of those Habitudes ) we do not Comprehend . For if in Finite things the not having a clear and adequate Idea of a thing makes us unable to judge of the Truth or Falshood of many Propositions concerning that thing ( whereof there are a multitude of Instances in Morality , especially in Questions relating to the Soul of Man , which must for ever lie undetermin'd merely for want of our having a clear Idea of that Noble Essence ) much more then in things Infinite will the not having a Comprehension of the Ideas incapacitate us from Comprehending the Truths that Result from them , which will therefore be as incomprehensible as if they were ( what indeed they are ) in themselves Infinite . 28. I have hitherto shewn the Incomprehensibility of Truth by Human Reason , and consequently that Human Reason , is not the Measure of Truth , from the joynt Consideration of each . Only with this difference . I have consider'd and represented Truth Absolutely as it is in it self , according to its own Infinite and unmeasurable Nature . But as for Human Reason I have consider'd that only as Finite , as supposing that sufficient to my present Purpose , and that there was no need of placing it in any other Light. For after it hath been shewn that Truth is Infinite , to prove that Human Reason cannot be the Measure of it , it is certainly enough to Consider it as a Bounded Power , without representing how very strait and narrow its Bounds are , since whatever is Finite can never measurer Infinite . But then it so , what if we add the other Consideration to it ? If the bare Finiteness of Human Understanding ( a defect common to it with all Created Intelligencies ) renders it uncapable of Comprehending Truth , and Consequently of being the Measure of it , how much more then does the littleness and narrowness of its Bounds contribute to heighten that incapacity ? If the having any limits does so unqualifie it for the adequate Comprehension of Truth , how then does the having so very short and strait ones ? Strait indeed by Natural and Original Constitution , but much more yet retrench'd by Sin , and by all those Passions , Prejudices , deordinate Affections and Evil Customs which are the Effects and Consequences of Sin , and which have now so darken'd our Minds , and drawn such a gross Film over our Intellectual Sight that we can hardly distinguish Day from Night , Clearness from Obscurity , Truth from Falshood , and are able to see but so very little a way into the Works of God ( much less into the Nature of God himself ) that we need nothing else to depress and humble our Pride and Vanity than that very Knowledge of ours which puffs us up . So very narrow in its Compass and Extent , so very Shallow and Superficial in its Depth , so very Confuse and Obscure in its Light , so very uncertain and conjectural in its Ground , and so every way defective and imprerfect is it . But how then can we found the Depth of Truth with so short a Line ? A Bottomless Depth with ( I will not say a Finite , but ) so very scanty a Measuer ? And what an extravagant Folly and Weakness , not to say Pride and Vanity is it to fancy that we can ? It would be a Vain Presumption in an Angel , but sure the very Madness and Distraction of Impudence in Man , who may with less defiance to Sence and Reason think to grasp the Ocean within the hollow of his hand , than to Comprehend and Measure Truth , Infinite Boundless Truth , not only with Finite , but so very limited Capacities . 29. But suppose Truth were not ( what we have shewn it to be ) Infinite , but had Bounds as well as our Reason , yet unless it had the Same , our Reason cannot be Commensurate to it , or the Measure of it . But does the supposition of its having Limits infer that it has the same ? No , For though Finite , its Bounds may possibly be extended further than those of our Understandings , and how can we be sure that they are not ? We cannot then even upon this supposition be sure that our Reason is the Measure of Truth , and therefore it is all one as to us ( as I said before ) as if it were not so , forasmuch as we cannot use it as a Measure by drawing any Consequences from it concerning the Falshood or impossibility of things upon the account of our inability to Comprehend them , since for ought we know the Limits of Truth though we should suppose it Finite , may yet exceed , and that very greatly too , those of our Rational Faculties . And Considering both the Natural and the Superaccessory defects of them it is very reasonable to think that they do . 30. Some Essences perhaps there may be ( though even this again is more than we know ) that sit so high in the Intellectual Form as to be able to Comprehend all that is Finite , so that the only reason why they have not an adequate Comprehension of Truth at large is because it is indeed Infinite . But there is no Necessity , nor so much as Probability that Human Reason should be of so rais'd an Order that nothing but Infinity should transcend its Comprehension . And it must be a strange Composition of Pride and Self-love that can make us fancy that it is ; something like that , only much more extravagant , which possesses the disturb'd Heads of some in Bedlam , and makes them Conceit themselves Kings and Emperours in the midst of their Irons , Rags , and Straw . What though Truth were Finite , and some Understandings too that are so were able to measure it , why must this needs be concluded of Human Understanding ? If a Finite Being were able to Comprehend Truth , why must Man be that Being ? The Scripture tells us he is made lower than the Angels , and how many Orders and Degrees there may be among them we know not , nor indeed how many Ranks of Spiritual Beings there may be in the Universe whose Understandings go beyond ours . For who can define the Out-flowings of the Divine Fecundity , or Number the Rounds of the Intellectual Scale ? In the mean while though man knows not how many Orders of Intelligent Creatures there are above him , yet 't is with great Reason and Consent presumed that there are none below him , so that he is placed even by his own Confession in the lowest Form of the Intellectual Order . And why then may not his Understanding ( as much as he values himself upon it ) be of so Shallow a Depth , and so low a Size that even Finite Objects may be disproportionate to him ? Especially since we find him so often puzzl'd and gravell'd in Natural things , as also in those Ideal Truths that have relation to the Natural and Ectypal World , such as Philosophical and Mathematical Problems . Or if the Reason of any Creature could be the Measure of Truth , why should he be that Creature , who is seated in the very Confines of the Material and Immaterial World , and is as it were the Common-Point where Matter ends and Spirit begins , who brings up the rear of the Intellectual kind , and is both the youngest and the least indow'd among the Sons of God. 31. These Considerations sufficiently shew that there is no Necessity , nor so much as Probability , that Human Reason should be the Measure of Truth even upon the Supposition of its being Finite . Which indeed is enough of it self to carry the Point Contended for as far as the Design of the present Argument is Concern'd . For if it be not necessary that Human Reason should be the Measure of Truth , then it is Possible that it may not be , and if it is Possible that it may not , then we can be never Sure that it is , and if we cannot be Sure that it is , then we cannot Use it as a Measure , which ( as I have remarqu'd already and for the Moment of it do here reinculcate ) makes it the same to all intents and purposes as if it were not such at all . But yet to carry our Plea a little highter I further Contend that as the foregoing Considerations suffice to shew that Human Reason may not , so there is One behind that very positively Demonstrates that it Cannot be the Measure of Truth , even tho' we should allow it to be of a Finite and bounded Nature as well as our own understandings . 32. As there are many things whereof our Ideas are very Confuse and Obscure , so 't is most 〈◊〉 that there are some things 〈◊〉 we have no Ideas at all , it 〈◊〉 not pleas'd the Eternal and 〈◊〉 Intelligence to Exhibit that in Himself which is Representative of those things to our Understandings . But now besides the Difficultys and disadvantages we shall always ly under in the Comprehension of things from the Confuseness and Obscurity of our Ideas , which of it Self will many times render those things , and also whatever nearly relates to those things incomprehensible by us , and besides that our not having any Ideas of Certain things , is an invincible Bar to all Knowledge and Comprehension of those things ( unless we could be supposed to be able to see without Light ) 't is also further Considerable that possibly the Knowledge of that Truth which we set our Selves to Comprehend , and whereof we have the Ideas , may depend upon the truth of another thing whereof we have no Idea . If it should be so tho Truth in general be never so Finite , or the Particular Truth we would Contemplate be never so Finite , 't is plain we shall be no more able to Comprehend it than if it were Infinite . Now I say that 't is not only Possible that this may be the Case ( which yet of it Self as I have again and again Noted is sufficient to debar us from using our Reason as the Measure of Truth ) but there are also some Instances wherein it appears actually to be so . We know well enough what we mean by Liberty and Contingency , and are withal well assured that we are Free Agents . We have also a Sufficient Notion of Prescience , and are also no less assured of the Reality of it , And because both these are true , and there can be no real repugnance between one Truth and another we are also by Consequence assured that there is a good Harmony and Agreement between them , and that they are Consistent with each other . But now how to adjust their apparent Opposition , or reconcile those Instances of seeming Contradiction and inconsistency wherewith they press us , this we neither Know nor are able with all our Meditation to Comprehend , and that because we have not an Idea of the Human Soul , without which there is no possibility of Comprehending how its Free Workings may be the Objects of Prescience , tho our Ideas of Prescience and Liberty were never so Clear. Or if this Instance shall not be thought so proper because the Men with whom our present Concern lies are pleas'd to disown the Doctrine of Prescience , let me desire them to Consider whether there be not many other Difficulties concerning Human Liberty , besides that taken from , Prescience , which they are no more able to get over then they are that . And that for the very same Reason , even because they ahve not an Idea of the Soul , upon the Knowledge of which the Solution of those , as well as some other Difficulties in Morality , does Necessarily depend . Or if they please let them take an Instance of a Physical Nature . We know well enough what it is to be in a Place , and we know also as well what it is to be Coextended to a Place . But now how Being in a Place may be without Coextension to a Place , this is what we cannot Comprehend ( tho as to the thing it Self , upon other Considerations constrain'd to grant it ) and that because we are ignorant of the general Nature of Spirit , upon the clear Conception of which the Comprehension of the other does so depend that it cannot be had without it . And indeed we may concluded in general that when ever we have clear Ideas of things , and yet are not able to Comprehend the Truth of them , 't is because the Knowledge of those things depends upon the Truth of something else whereof we have either no Idea , or not such as is sufficiently Clear. Which must be the true Reason of the hitherto presumed impossibility of finding out the exact Proportion between a Circle and a Square . Why , Circle and Square are very Intelligible things , and how come we then not to be able to determin the precise and just Proportion that is between them : It cannot be from any Obscurity in the things themselves , much less from our want of having Ideas of them , for we have as clear and exact Ideas of these Figures as we can have of any thing in the World. It must be therefore because the Knowledge of their Proportion depends upon the Knowledge of some other thing whereof the Idea fails us , which till we are posses'd of we shall in vain endeavour to discover the other . Whereby it plainly appears that we are not only uncapable of Comprehending those Truths that relate to things whereof we have no Ideas , but that even where we have Ideas , and those very Clear ones too we may be as far from Comprehending a Truth as if we had none merely upon the account of the Dependence which that Truth has upon some other thing whereof we have not , at least a just , Idea . Which single Consideration is enough for ever to spoil Human Reason for setting up for the Measure of Truth , even upon the Supposition of its being Finit . So very False is that arrogant Assertion of a Modern Philosopher , . Quaecunque existunt humanae Menti pervestigabilia , praeterquam In●initum . Whatever is may be thoroughly Comprehended by the Mind of Man , except Infinite . And again . Vnum duntaxat est quod omnem mentis nostrae vim longissime excedit , ipsâque suâ Naturâ , ut in se est , ab eâ Cognosci nequit , In●initum puta . There is but one only thing that far exceeds the Force and reach of our Mind , and that cannot of its own very Nature be known by it as it is in it self , namely Infinite . What but One thing excepted from the Verge , and placed beyond the reach of Human Knowledge ? 'T is well that One thing is a pretty large one , but sure the Authour was ignorant of something else , that is Himself , or else he could never have advanc'd such a Crude and ill-consider'd a Proposition . 33. And thus I have shewn at large in a rational way by arguing a Priori , and from the Nature of things , that Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth , and that even upon the most Liberal Supposition of its being Finite ; And if it be not so supposing Truth to be Finite , much less is it supposing it ( what it has been prov'd to be ) of an Infinite Nature . If upon the Former Supposition it exceeds the Proportion of our Reason , certainly upon the latter there will be no Proportion between them . But whether our Reason bears no Proportion to Truth , or whether it be only Disproportionate to it , either way it follows that it cannot be the Measure of it , which I cannot but now look upon as a Proposition sufficiently demonstrated . And in all this I contend for no more than what is implied in that Common and universally approv'd Maxim even among those of the Rational way , that we ought not to deny what is Evident for the sake of what is Obscure , or depart from a Truth which we see a Necessity to admit because of some Difficulties attending it which we cannot solve ; which they say is an Argument only of our Ignorance , and not of the Falshood of the thing . This indeed is a true Rule , and such as must be allow'd to hold good in all our Reasonings , let the Matter of them be what it will. Only I wish that the Implication of the Rule were as much minded , as the Rule it self is generally receiv'd . For it plainly implies that there are some things which though plain and certain as to their Existence , are yet incomprehensible and inexplicable as to their Manner . But then as the Incomprehensibility of the Manner should not make us reject the Truth of the thing when otherwise Evident , so neither should the Evidence we have of the Truth of the thing make us disown the Incomprehensibility of the Manner , since it is so far from being against the Nature of Truth that it should be incomprehensible , that you see we have discover'd even from the Contemplation of its Nature that there are incomprehensible Truths . Of which I might now subjoyn some particular Examples , but that I should fall very deep into a Common Place , being herein prevented by many other Writers , particularly by the admirable one of L' Art de Penser , to the First Chapter of whose Fourth Book I refer my Reader ; where he shews by several , and some of them uncommon Instances that there are things which the Mind of Man is not capable of Comprehending . After which he Concludes with a very grave and useful Reflection , which for the great advantage and Pertinency of it to the present Affair , though I refer my Reader to the rest of the Chapter , I shall here set down . The Pro●it ( says he ) that one may draw from these Speculations is not barely to acquire the knowledge of them , which of it self is barren enough , but it is to learn to know the Bounds of our understanding , and to force it to confess that there are things which it cannot Comprehend . And therefore it is good to fatigue the mind with these kind of Subtilties , the better to tame its Presumption , and abate its confidence and daringness in opposing its Feeble Lights against the Mysteries of Religion , under the Pretence that it cannot comprehend them . For since all the Force of Human Vnderstanding is constrain'd to yield to the least Atom of Matter , and to own that it sees Clearly that it is infinitely divisible without being able to Comprehend how this may be . Is it not apparently to transgress against Reason to refuse to believe the wonderful effects of the Divine Onnipotence , Merely for this Reason , that our Vnderstanding cannot Comprehend them ? Yes without doubt it is , as will better appear in the sequel of this Discourse . In the mean while before I take leave of the Subject of this Chapter , I have a double Remarque to make upon it . 34. The First is , that since Truth in its full extent is Incomprehensible , we should not vainly go about to Comprehend it , but be contented to be ignorant in many things . And since there are some special Truths in particular that are incomprehensible we should not apply our Thoughts to the Comprehension of all things at a Venture , as some who are for understanding every thing , but sit down first and Consider whether they are proportionate to our Capacities or No , and , as far as we can learn to distinguish what Truths may , and what may not be Comprehended by us , that so we may not lose that Time and Pains in the Contemplation of them , which might be profitably imploy'd in the Consideration of other things , better suted to our Capacity . As a great many do , who busie themselves all their Lives long about such things which if they should study to Eternity they would not Comprehend , and that indeed because they require an Infinite Capacity to Comprehend them . Whereas the shortest Compendium of Study , and the best way to abridge the Sciences is to study only what we can Master , and what is within the Sphere of our Faculties , and never so much as to apply our selves to what we can never Comprehend . 35. The other Remarque is that the Conclusion prov'd in this Chapter does very much Fortifie and Confirm that which was undertaken to be made out in the last Concerning the Distinction of Things Above , and Things Contrary to Reason . For if there are Truths which we cannot Comprehend , then it seems what is above our Comprehension may yet be True , and if True then to be sure not Contrary to Reason , since whatever is Contrary to Reason is no less Contrary to Truth , which though sometimes above Reason is yet never Contrary to it . CHAP. V. That therefore a things being Incomprehensible by Reason is of it self no Concluding Argument of its not being True. 1. AS there is nothing in Man that deserves his Consideration so Much , and Few things without him that deserve it More than that part of him wherein he resembles his Maker , so there is Nothing more worthy of his Consideration in that part , or that is at least more necessary to be Consider'd by him , than the Defects of it , without a due regard to which it would not be very safe for him to dwell much upon the Consideration of the other , as being apt to seduce him into ● ride and Vanity , to blow him up with Self-Conceit , and so by an imaginary Greatness to spoil and corrupt that which is Genuine and Natural . 2. Now the Defects of our Intellectual part Consider'd in their general Heads are I suppose Sin , Ignorance , and Errour . And though Sin in it self must be allow'd to be of a worse Nature and Consequence than either Ignorance or Errour ( however some may fancy it a greater Reproach to 'em to have their Intellectuals question'd than their Morals ) and so upon that score may require more of our Consideration , yet upon another account the Defects of the Understanding seem to need it more than those of the Will , since we are not only apt to be more proud of our Intellectuals than of our Morals , but also to Conceit our selves more Free and Secure from Errour than we are from Sin , though Sin in the very Nature and Principle of it implies and supposes Errour . 3. Pride the presumed Sin of the Angels is also the most Natural and Hereditary one of Man , his dominant and most cleaving Corruption , the Vice as I may call it of his Planet and Complexion . And that which we are most apt to be proud of is our Vnderstandings , the only Faculty in us whose limits we forget . In other things we are Sensible not only of the general Bounds of our Nature , but also of the particular narrowness of them , and accordingly do not attempt any thing very much beyond our Measure , but contain our Selves pretty reasonably within Our Line , at least are not such Fools as to apply our Strength to Move the Earth out of its place , or to set our Mouths to drink up the Sea , or to try with our Eyes to look into the Regions beyond the Stars . But there is hardly any Distance but to which we fancy our Intellectual Sight will reach , scarce any Object too bright , too large , or too far remov'd for it . Strange that when we Consider that in us which makes us Men , we should forget that we are so . And yet thus it is ; when we look upon our Understandings 't is with such a Magnifying Glass that it appears in a manner boundless and unlimited to us , and we are dazzled with our own Light. 4. Not that it is to be presumed that there are any who upon a deliberate Consideration of the Matter have this Form'd and express Thought that their Understandings are Infinite Human Nature seems hardly capable of such Excess . But only as the Psalmist says in another Case of some Worldly Men , that their Inward Thought is that their houses shall continue for ever , Not meaning that any could be so grossely absurd as positively and explicitly to Conceive that their Houses any more than their own Bodies , should last always , and never decay , but only that they had such a kind of a wandring and Confuse Imagination secretly lurking in their Minds , and loosely hovering about them ; so in like manner there are a sort of People who are Parturient and teeming with a kind of Confuse and unform'd Imagination tho' perhaps they never bring it to an express and distinct Thought , that their Understandings have no bounds or limits belonging to them , tho' they cannot deny but that they have , if directly put to the Question . 5. Accordingly you shall find those whose Conduct betrays this inward Sentiment , who venture at all in their Studies , stick at nothing , but will undertake to give a Reason for every thing , and positively decide whatever Comes in their way without Suspense or Reserve , imagining ( confusely at least ) they have a Comprehension of all things , and that there is nothing too hard or knotty for them , nothing but what they either actually do , or are capable of Comprehending , if they once set themselves to it . And from hence they roundly Conclude that whatever they are not able to Comprehend is not true , and accordingly deny their Belief to whatever transcends their Comprehension . 6. Now I confess there is no fault to be found with the Consequence of these Men , nor with their Practice as it relates to that Consequence , which are both ( as far as I can see ) exceeding right if their Principle be once admitted : For if indeed it be really so that Human Reason is adequate and Commensurate to Truth , so that there is no Truth but what it is able to Comprehend , then it will certainly follow that whatever it cannot Comprehend is not True , and there will need no other , nor better Argument of the falshood of any thing than the Incomprehensibility of it . For their Reasoning resolves into this Form. Whatever is true we can Comprehend . This we do not Comprehend , Therefore this is not true . Or thus , If whatever is true we can Comprehend , then what we cannot Comprehend is not true , But whatever is true we can Comprehend , Ergo &c. Where 't is plain that if the Major of the First , or the Minor of the Second Syllogisin ( wherein the Principle of these Men is Contain'd ) be allow'd , there will be no avoiding the Conclusions of them . So that if we admit that Human Reason is Comprehensive of all Truth we are not Consistent with our Selves if we do not also grant that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is a just Warrant to Conclude it not True. 7. But then on the other side if this Mighty Principle upon which such a Weight is laid , and such great things built be false , if Human Reason be not the Measure of Truth ( as I think is with great Evidence Demonstrated in the last Chapter ) then is not the Consequence as good this way , that therefore a thing 's being Incomprehensible by Reason is no Concluding Argument of it 's not being True ? For how are we inconsistent with our Selves , if granting Human Reason to be Commensurate to Truth we deny that the Incomprehensibility of a thing argues it not to be True , but only because in denying that we Contradict our Principle ; or , which is all one , Suppose the Contradictory Proposition to it to be true , viz. that Human Reason is not Commensurate to Truth . But now if in saying that the Incomprehensibility of a thing does not argue it not to be true we in the Consequence of what we affirm Suppose that Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth , then 't is as plain that the Supposition of Reason's not being the Measure of Truth will also Oblige us to say that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument of it 's not being True. Whereby it is plain that the Consequence is every whit as good thus , Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth , therefore the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument that it is not True ; as thus , Human Reason is the Measure of Truth , therefore the Incomprehensibility of a thing is an Argument that it is not True. The only Reason why he that denies this latter Consequence upon the Supposition or Concession of this latter Principle is inconsistent with himself , being this , because in denying the latter Consequence he Supposes the Former Principle , which Principle therefore must as much inter the Consequence that Supposed it , viz. That a things being Incomprehensible by Reason is no Warrant to Conclude that it is not true . 8. And because this Principle that Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth has been already proved at large , I look upon the grounds of this Consequence as already laid , and therefore to shew the Connexion that is between the one and the other ( besides what I have even now said to that purpose ) need only add this further Remarque . That since Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth , or since there are Incomprehensible Truths , then it seems the Incomprehensibility of a thing and the Truth of a thing may Consist together ; or in other words , the same thing may be at once True and Incomprehensible . But now there cannot be in the whole Compass of Reasoning a more certain , or more evident Maxim than this , That that which is when a thing is , or would be supposing it were , is no Argument that it is not . As for Instance , Suppose it should be Objected against the Copernican Hypothesis of the Motion of the Earth that it is repugnant to Sense , since we see the Sun and the Stars Rise and Set , and Move round about us . It is thought a sufficient Answer to this to say , That supposing the Earth and not the Sun did really Move these Appearances would yet be the same as they are now , since Sailing , as we do , between the Sun and the Stars ( as a late Writer expresses it ) not the Ship in which we are , but the Bodies which surround us would seem to Move . And 't is most Certain that if supposing the Earth did ) really Move the Motion would yet seem to be in the Sun and Stars ; then the seeming Motion of those Bodies is no Argument that the Earth does not Move . 9. Why just so it is in the present Case , when 't is Objected against the Truth of a thing that 't is Incomprehensible by Human Reason , 't is a sufficient Answer to say that this argues nothing , since if the thing were true it might yet be Incomprehensible . And 't is most certain that if supposing a thing to be True it might yet be Incomprehensible , then the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no good Objection against the Truth of it . And therefore since we have proved that there are Incomprehensible Truths , and Consequently that the Truth of a thing and the Incomprehensibility of the same thing may Consist together , we may now with all Rational assurance Conclude that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument that it is not True , any more than the seeming Motion of the Sun is an Argument against the real one of the Earth , since the Former would be even Supposing the Truth of the Latter . And both by Vertue of this most Evident and incontestable Principle , That what may Consist with the Truth of any thing , can be no good Argument that it is not True. 10. And indeed when it shall be Consider'd how many things surpass our Conception when we are Children which yet we are able well to Comprehend when we are Men , how many things again are beyond the Ken of Ignorant and Illiterate Men which yet are very Intelligible and Shine forth with full Light to the Men of Art and Learning , and how many things again even among the Learned are now discover'd and well understood by the help of Algebra which were Mysteries to former Ages , and are still beyond even the Imagination of those who have not that Noble and Wonderful Key of Knowledge . When again it shall be further Consider'd how many of those things which we cannot even with the Assistance of that Commanding Key unlock in this state of Mortality , we may yet have a clear view of in that of Separation , when deliver'd from the Burthen of our Flesh , and that many of those things which are too high for us then may yet be of a level with the Understanding of Angels , and that what is above their Capacity may yet be most clearly and distinctly perceiv'd by the Infinitely penetrating and All-Comprehensive Intellect of God , I say he that shall but seriously enter into this single Reflection must needs discover himself much wanting in that Stock of Sense and Reason he pretends to , if he still continue to Measure the Possibilities of things by their Proportionableness to his Understanding , or Conclude any thing False or Impossible , when he has no better Reason for it but only because he cannot Comprehend it . CHAP. VI. That if the Incomprehensibility of a thing were an Argument of its not being true , Human Reason would then be the Measure of Truth . 1. AS there is Nothing more Common than for people to hold Certain Principles that have an inseparable Connexion with very bad Consequences , and yet not professedly to hold those Consequences , because either they do not attend to them , or are not sensible that they do indeed follow from such Principles , whereof we have two very pregnant Instances in the Maintainers of the Predestinarian and Soli●idian Systemes , so on the other hand , and for the same Reason there are those who take up , and with great Fixedness adhere to certain Consequences without Professedly holding those Principles from which they truly flow , and to which ( if traced to the Head ) they will infallibly lead them . 2. Of this we have a very particular Instance ( where I confess one would not expect to find it ) in those of the Socinian Perswasion . The Reason these Men of Reason give why they will not believe the Mysteries of the Christian Faith , is because they are above their Reason , they cannot Comprehend them . Whereby they plainly imply , that they will believe Nothing but what they can Comprehend , or that Nothing is to be believ'd that is Incomprehensible , which is also a common Maxim among them , who accordingly make Above Reason and Contrary to Reason to be one and the same thing . And whereas 't is only the untruth of a thing that can make it unfit to be the Object of Faith , in saying they will not believe what they cannot Comprehend , they do as good as say that what they cannot Comprehend is not True , and so that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is a just warrant to conclude it False . And all this they own and expresly declare , if not in these very terms , yet at least in such as are equivalent to them as is too Notorious and well known to need any Citations for the proof of it . But now though they do thus profess●dly own that the Incomprehensibility of a thing by Reason is an Argument of its not being true , yet that Human Reason is the Measure of Truth , or that all Truth is Comprehensible by it , are ( as I take it ) Propositions which they do not openly and professedly avow . For as I noted in the Introduction 't is such an Odious and Arrogant Assertion that they cannot with any Face of Modesty or common Decency make a plain and direct Profession of it , though at the same time 't is most Certain , that this is the true Principle of that Consequence which they do professedly hold , viz. that the Incomprehensibility of a thing argues it not to be true , and that this Consequence does as necessarily lead back to that Principle . 3. For as if Human Reason be the Measure of Truth it follows in the descendintg line as a direct Consequence that the Incomprehensibility of a thing argues it not to be true , so it follows as well Backwards & per viam ascensûs , that if the Incomprehensibility of a thing argues it not to be True , then Human Reason is the Measure of Truth . Since if it were not , the Incomprehensibility of a thing ( as is shewn in the Preceding Chapter ) would then not argue it not to be True. If therefore it does , 't is plain that Human Reason is the Measure of Truth . Which Principle whoever disowns ought also to renounce the other Proposition , viz. That the Incomprehensibility of a thing is an Argument of its untruth , which if yet he will imbrace notwithstanding , 't is plain he holds the Consequence without its Principle , and has indeed no Reason for what he Affirms . 4. For as he who granting Human Reason to be the Measure of Truth , denies yet that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is an Argument of its not being true is therefore inconsistent with himself , because in so doing he supposes the Contradictory to what he had before granted , viz. that Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth . So he that Affirms that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is an Argument of its not being True , and yet denies that Human Reason is the Measure of Truth , is also as inconsistent with himself , because in so doing the supposes the Contradictory to his own Assertion , and does in effect say that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is not an Argument of its not being True , as most Certainly it would not be in case Human Reason be not the Measure of Truth , as the foregoing Chapter has sufficiently shewn . The short is , if the Not being of A proves that C is not , then the being of C proves that A is , since if it were not , according to the First Supposition C could not be . And so here if Reason's not being the Measure of Truth proves that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is not an Argument of its not being True , then if the Incomprehensibility of a thing be an Argument of it 's not being True 't is plain that Reason is the Measure of Truth , since if it were not then according to the first Supposition the Incomprehensibility of a thing would not be an Argument of its not being True. 5. For how I pray comes the Incomprehensibility of a thing to conclude the untruth of it ? I cannot Comprehend such a thing , therefore it is not True , where 's the Consequence ? By what Logic does this Latter Proposition follow from the Former ? why we have here the Minor Proposition and the Conclusion , and to make a Complete Argument of it we must add another , thus ; If it were true I should Comprehend it , but I do not Comprehend it , therefore it is not true . Whereby it appears to the eye that my not being able to Comprehend a thing is no otherwise an Argument of the ●●truth of it , than as it is first pre●●pposed that if it were true I should 〈◊〉 ●ble to Comprehend it . Which again resolving into this Absolute ●●●●osition , that I am able to Comprehend all Truth , it plainly follows that if my inability to Comprehend a thing be an Argument that it is not true , then I am able to Comprehend all Truth , and that my Reason is the Measure and Final Standard of it . 6. I Conclude therefore that if the Incomprehensibility of a thing were an Argument of it 's not being true then Human Reason will be the Measure of Truth , and that they that hold the Former ought also if they will be Consistent with themselves to admit the Latter . But because this is a False Principle , that Human Reason is the Measure of Truth , therefore , I Conclude again that the Consequence that Resolves into this Principle is also False , since we may as well Conclude a Consequence to be False because it leads back to a False Principle , as a Principle to be False because it is productive of a bad Consequence . Which still further Confirms and Establishes the Conclusion of the last Chapter , viz. That the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument of its untruth , which you see is now proved both Backwards and Forwards , and so made impregnable on all sides . We have proved it Forwards by shewing the Falseness of that Principle that Human Reason is the Measure of Truth , and by thence arguing the said Conclusion ; and we have also proved it Backwards by shewing that the Contrary Supposition Resolves into that False and already Confused Principle . And I do not see how any Conclusion can be better proved . CHAP. VII . That therefore the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no just Objection against the Belief of it . With an Account of the Cartesian Maxim , that we are to Assent only to what is Clear and Evident . 1. T Is a Wonderful thing to Consider the Caprice of Human Nature , by what unaccountable Springs it's Movements are ordered , and how odly and unsteddily Men act and manage themselves even in the same Circumstances , and in Relation to the same Objects . Sometimes the Obscurity and Mysteriousness of a thing shall be a Motive of Credibility , and recommend it the rather to their Belief . Thus you shall have a great many reject that Philosophy as idle and Chimerical which undertakes to explain the Effects of Nature by insensible Particles , their different Bigness , Figure , Contexture , Local Motion , Rest , &c. Merely because this is a plain Simple and Intelligible Account , such as they can easily and well Conceive . The very easiness and clearness wherewith they Conceive these Principles is Made an Objection against them ( though indeed it be a good Presumption for them ) and for that very Reason they will not believe them to be the true Principles of Nature , whose Effects they fancy must be Resovled into Causes more hidden and Abstruse . And accordingly they find in themselves a greater inclination to lend attention to those that shall undertake the Solution of them by the real Chimeras of Substantial Forms , Qualities , Sympathys , Antipathys , &c. or that shall go to account for them by the yet more Obscure Principles of the Chymists , striking and filling their Ears with those great but empty Sounds , Archeus , Seminal Spirit , Astral Beings , Gas , Blas , &c. which they receive with great satisfaction not for their Scientific Light ( for they are dark as may be , mere Philosophic Cant ) but only because they are Mysterious and Abstruse , and therefore they fancy there must be somewhat more than Ordinary in them , tho they know not , nor , it may be , never Consider'd , what . And herein , as in some other Instances , Men love Darkness better than Light. 2. But then at another time you shall have them inquiring after Truth as Diogenes did after an Honest Man , with a Candle in their hands , and not caring to go a step any further than they can see their way . Now upon a sudden they are all for Clear and distinct Ideas , Full and adequate Perceptions , Demonstrative Proofs and Arguments , and nothing will serve or Content them but Light and Evidence , and they will believe nothing but what they can Comprehend . Strange diversity of Conduct ! Who would think two such vastly distant extreams should meet together , I will not say in the same Man , but in the same Human Nature , and that the very same Creature ( and such a One as Stiles it self Rational too ) should proceed by such uncertain Measures , and act so inconsistently with it Self ; sometimes embracing a thing for the sake of it's Obscurity , and sometimes again in another Fit making that alone an Invincible Objection against the Belief of it . 3. But it is plain by the foregoing Measures that it is not . For since Truth is the general Object of Faith , 't is evident that nothing can argue a thing to be absolutely incredible , or not reasonable to be beleiv'd , but that which at the same time argues it not to be True. For if true , then 't is still within the Compass of the general Object of Faith. But now we have shewn already that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument of it 's not being true , whence it clearly and closely follows that 't is no Argument neither against it's Credibility . And if so , then we may believe it Notwithstanding it's Incomprehensibility , because we may believe whatever is not Absolutely incredible . So that there is no Necessity that we should discard every thing we cannot Conceive as unworthy of a Rational Belief , or that what is Above our Reason should be therefore above our Faith too . 4. It is true indeed that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is in it Self no proper and direct Argument why it should be believ'd , and he would be thought to give but an ordinary account of his Faith , who being ask●d why he believ'd , such an Incomprehensible thing , should answer because it is Incomprehensible . which at best could pass only for a Religious Flourish , much such another as , Credo quia impossibile . And that because the Incomprehensibility of a thing is not directly and per se a Criterion of Truth ( whether it may be per Accidens , may be Consider'd afterwards ) whose Natural and genuin Character is not Obsecurity , but Light and Evidence . Not that nothing is True but what has this Character ( for we have already shewn the Contrary in proving Incomprehensible Truths ) but that as whatever we clearly perceive is True , so our Clear perceiving of a thing is the only sign from the Intrinsic Nature of the thing it Self of the Truth of it . Incomprehensibility therefore is none , but as such abstracts from true and not true , and is equally Common to both . But now that which may Consist with a thing supposing it false , can no more prove it True , than that which may Consist with a thing supposing it True , can prove it false , according to the Tenour of the Fifth Chapter . The Incomprehensibility therefore of a thing is no proper Argument of the Truth of it , and Consequently no Reason of it Self , why it should be believ'd , and that because it abstracts as such from True and False , and is too Common to Both to prove either . 5. And because it is so , it is also further granted that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is not only in it Self no proper Reason why it should be believ'd , but has also so far the Nature of a Disswasive from believing , as to be a Caution against a too hasty Belief , till there appear some other Motive from without either from Reason or Authority that shall determin the Assent . In the mean while it advises to Suspend . For the Incomprehensibility of a thing being as such No Reason why a Man should believe it , 't is plain that if he did believe it Consider'd only as in that State he would believe it . without Reason . That therefore is a Reason why he should suspend , a Negation of Reason being enough to with-hold ones Assent , though to give it one had need have a positive Reason . When therefore a thing appears Incomprehensible , that indeed is sufficient Reason to suspend our Belief , till some prevailing Consideration from without shall over-rule that Suspension , by requiring our Assent . But when it does so , then the Incomprehensibility ought to be No Argument to the Contrary , and it would be every whit as absurd to reject a thing now because of its Incomprehensibility , as to believe it before for that Reason . And that because as the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no reason for Believing it , so it is no Absolute Reason against it . 6. If it were so it would be in Natural things , the objects of Human and Philosophic Science , such as belong properly and immediately to the Province and Jurisdiction of Reason . Here , if any where , the Incomprehensibility of a thing would forbid all Assent to it . And so it is supposed to do by some who though far from denying the Belief of Incomprehensible things in Religion , will yet tell you that in Physical Contemplations , Clearness and Evidence is to lead the way , and we are to proceed with our Light before us , assenting to nothing but what we well Comprehend . In Matters of Faith indeed they will allow that Reason is to be submitted to Revelation , and that we are to believe many things which pass our Comprehension ; but in Matters of pure Reason they will have us go no further than Reason can carry us . Which indeed is right enough it their Meaning be that we are to Assent to Nothing but what upon the whole Matter all things Consider'd from without as well as from within , we have reason to believe true , and that we are never to proceed to judge or determin without some Evidence or other , but then this will equally hold in Matters of Faith too , which is too rational an Assent to be given at a Venture , and we know not why , and whose Formal Reason ( as has been already discours'd ) is always Clear. But if their Meaning be that in Matters of Reason we must Assent to nothing but what has an internal Evidence , and what in its self , and by its own Lights is Comprehensible by us ( as they seem to mean , or else their distinction of the Case of Reason and the Case of Revelation is here impertinent ) then I conceive that they set too narrow limits to our Assent in Matters of Reason when they allow it to be given only to things which in this sense are Evident to us . For 't is plain that there are many things in Nature which we fee are True , and must be True , and so not only may , but cannot help Assenting to them , though at the same time we are not able to Comprehend how they are , or can possibly be . 7. Not that our Assent is then Blind and wholly without Evidence , ( for then we might as well Assent to the contrary as to what we do , and would do better not to Assent at all ) but only that it has none from within , and from the intrinsic Nature of the Object , but only from some External Consideration , much after the same manner as it is in ●atch . In both which there may be a Clear Reason , why we should Assent to an Obscure thing . But then as the internal Obscurity does not destroy the External Evidence , so neither does the External Evidence strike any Light into the internal Obscurity ; or in other words , as the Reason for Assenting is never the less Clear because the Matter assented to is Obscure , so neither is the Matter assented to ever the less Obscure because the Reason for assen●ing to it is Clear. And yet notwithstanding this internal Obscurity of the Matter we assent to it because of the prevailing Light of the External Evidence . And this we do , not only in Matters of Faith ( according to the Restriction of some ) but in the things of Nature and Reason too , where we are oftentimes forced by the pressing urgency of certain External and Collateral Considerations to assent to things internally obscure and whose very possibility we cannot Comprehend , as is plain in the great Question of the Divisibility of Quantity , and other Instances , whereof every Thinking Man's Obse●●ation cannot but have already furnish'd him with variety . The Incomprehensibility then of a thing is non just Objection against our Assent to it even in Matters of a Rational Nature , much less then is it in Matters of Faith For if not in Matters that belong to the Court of Reason , and where she sits as Judge , then much less in things that are not of her proper Jurisdiction , and if notwithstanding the internal inevidence of an Object we think fit to assent to it upon Rational Considerations , much more may we , and ought we upon the Authority of the Infallible God. 8. Indeed if whatsoever is Above our Reason were also ( as some pretend ) as Contrary to it , and there were nothing true but what was also Comprehensible , and so the Incomprehensibility of a thing were an Argument of its not being true , then I con●ess we could not as Rational Creatures assent to an incomprehensible Proposition upon any Consideration whatsoever , No not even that of Divine Authority . 'T is true indeed there could then be no such Authority for Incomprehensible things . But if there were , 't is impossible we should regard it , because we could not have greater assurance either of the Existence or of the Truth of it , than we have already ( upon this Supposition ) that the things reveal'd are not true . But now if this Supposition be no more than a Supposition , if to be above Reason does not involve any Contrariety to it , if there are incomprehensible Truths , and Consequently the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument o● it s not being true ( all which has been already proved ) then 't is plain that what is an incomprehensible may yet be a Believable Object ( because within the Possibility of Truth ) and then to render it actually believ'd there needs only some External Evidence either from Reason or Authority . For what should hinder our Assent to an Incomprehensible thing when we have plain Evidence from without for it , and its own internal Obscurity is no Argument against it ! 'T is plain therefore that we ought to give our Assent . And since we do so oftentimes upon a Ground of Reason , much more ought we upon that more Firm and Immoveable ground of Revelation . The short is , whatever is no Objection against the Truth of a thing is none against the Credibility of it , since Truth is the General Object of Faith ( unless you will say that a thing is unfit to be believ'd upon any other account besides want of Truth ) and therefore since we have already shewn that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument against the Truth of it , it visibly follows that it is no Argument against the Belief of it neither . Therefore an Incomprehensible thing may be believ'd , and accordingly he that refuses to believe any thing is bound to give a better Reason for it than because it is Incomprehensible . 9. If it be said that this is reason enough , because Faith is a Rational Act , and therefore what is above the Comprehension of Reason is as much above a Rational Belief , to this , besides what I have already remarqu'd upon this Occasion in the Chapter of Faith , I here further reply , that it is true indeed and on both sides agreed that Faith is a Rational Act , but in what Sense is the Question . There are two very different Senses according to which it may be said to be so either in regard of the Clearness of its Formal Reason , or in regard of the Clearness of its Object . Either because it is founded upon an External Evidence , or Argument for believing , or because it proceeds upon an Internal Evidence , that appears in the very Nature of the thing Believ'd . I● Faith be said to be a Rational Act in the latter Sense , the Assertion is then False , for so ( that ●s in respect of the Object ) we have sh●wn it to be an inevident Assent . But i● 〈◊〉 be said to be a Rational Act in the former Sense , then indeed it is true , but nothing to the purpose , since nothing hinders but that this External Evidence may well consist with an Internal Inevidence , or in other words , that the Clearness of the Reason for Believing may stand with the Obscurity of the Object Believ'd . And therefore though Faith be a Rational Act yet it does not hence ●ollow that what is Above Reason is also above Faith and cannot rationally be believ'd , because the Act of Faith is said to be Rational , Not in respect of the Evidence of the Object , but only that of its Formal Reason or Motive . And therefore though there be no Evidence in the Object , yet it is not thereby render'd uncapable of being the Matter of Faith , because the Evidence which Faith as a Rational Act supposes , is wholly of another kind . There seems indeed a kind of opposition as to the Sound between Faith's being an Act of Reason , and the believing what is Above Reason . And this it may be is that which imposes upon the Minds , or the Ears shall I say , of them that urge it as an Objection . I cannot imagine what else should , for I 'm sure there is no Contradiction in the Sense . 'T is true indeed Evidence in the Act and not Evidence in the Act are Contradictories , because ad Idem , and so are Not Evidence in the Object and Evidence in the Object , for the same reason . But there is no Contradiction between Evidence in the Act and No Evidence in the Object , and therefore these may stand together , though the other cannot 10. But to lay open the Fallacy of this great and very popular Objection yet a little more to the Eye ( though it must be a very blind one that does not see it already ) I will put it into Form , and give it a Formal Answer . If Faith be a Rational Act , then what is Above Reason cannot rationally be Believ'd . But Faith is a Rational Act , Ergo. For Answer to this I distinguish . If by Rational Act be meant an Act founded upon Internal Evidence , or the Evidence of the Object , then I deny the Minor , Faith is not so a Rational Act. But if by Rational Act be meant an Act founded upon External Evidence or the Evidence of its Formal Reason or Motive , then indeed I grant the Minor , but deny the Consequence , which is none at all , for it does not at all follow because Faith is a Rational Act , meaning by it that it proceeds upon External Evidence , and that there is a clear Reason for Believing , that therefore the thing Believ●d may not from within and in its own Nature be altogether inevident and so above the Comprehension of Reason . For though Evidence be Contradictory to Not Evidence in the ●ame , yet Evidence in the Act is no way Contradictory to inevidence in the Object , and Consequently does not at all exclude it . They may therefore both stand together , and Consequently what is above Reason may be believ'd for any thing that this Celebrated Objection from Faith's being a Rational Act makes to the Contrary ; which truly is so gross and palpable a Sophism , that I cannot but wonder how it could ever impose upon so many Learned Men as it has done , and some of them very acute and nice Considerers of things . But I hope the Fallaciousness of it is by this so plainly and fully detected , that I shall not think those Heads worth much informing that shall be further imposed on by it . 11. But what then shall we say to that Great and Fundamental Maxim so pressingly inculcated by Des Castes and his Followers , and not disallow'd of by others , that we are to assent to not●ing but what is Clear and Evident ? If to nothing but what is Clear and Evident , how then to what is Obscure and Inevident ? Or if to what is Obscure and Inevident , how then to nothing but what is Clear and Evident ? Do not these seem flat Contradictions one to the other , and how then shall we adjust the Matter between them ? It must be either by denying that Cartesian Maxim to be true , or by shewing that though it be true it does not Contradict the Assertion here maintain'd , but is Consistent with it . The First way I shall not take . I allow the Maxim to be true , and not only so , but to be withal of the greatest importance of any that can be given for the direction of the Mind of Man in order to the avoiding of Errour . The only Remedy and Caution against which is never to let our Judgments prevent our Conceptions , or to Assent to any thing that we have only a Confuse Notion of , and where we see only by halves and with an imperfect Light , or perhaps do not see at all , but to have a Clear Understanding of the Matter before we adventure to judge of it , and to Maintain an Evidence in all our Reasonings . Which accordingly is made by M. Malebranche the First of those Rules which in his Treatise of Method he lays down to be observ'd in the inquiry after Truth . And indeed to do otherwise is to make a wrong use of our Intellectual Powers , particularly of that Liberty we have to suspend Judgment till the fulness of Evidence requires it , and the want of Observing this Rule is also the Occasion of most of our Errours and Wrong Assents , as the same Excellent Person shews it to have been in particular to the Authors of the Scholastic Philosophy . 12. I shall not therefore go about to salve my own Assertion by denying Des Cartes's Maxim , but rather by shewing that according to the true Sense and intendment of it , it does not Contradict it . But first we must see what the true Sense of it is , or rather in what Sense it is true , though this may be without much difficulty Collected by any attentive Reader from what has been already said in several places of this Chapter , wherein I have in great Measure prevented this Objection . But to Consider it more directly ; To verifie this Maxim that we are to Assent to nothing but what is Clear and Evident , the usual way has been to distinguish between Matters of Faith , and Matters of Reason . In Matters of Faith , say they , we are to believe many things which we cannot Comprehend . And here then it seems this Rule must be laid aside . But in Matters of Reason we must Assent to nothing but what is Clear and Evident . And here then it seems it holds . Accordingly when 't is Objected against certain Articles of Faith that they are not to be comprehended by Reason , 't is usual to reply that these things do not belong to Reason &c. implying that if they did , then indeed the Objection would be good , and the incomprehensibility of such things would be an Argument against assenting to them , which implies again that in Matters of Reason we must not Assent to any thing but what is Clear and Evident , though in Matters of Faith we may . But we have remarqu'd already that even in Matters of Pure Reason we are forc'd to Assent to many things which we cannot comprehend , and that even in Matters of Faith we do in a Certain Sense Assent upon Clear Evidence . This Distinction therefore will not do . 13. In stead therefore of distinguishing between Matters of Faith and Matters of Reason , I think it will be better to distinguish of Evidence . We are to Assent to Nothing save what is Clear and Evident , says our Maxim. Very Good. Now if by Evidence here be meant internal Evidence , and the Sense be that are to assent to nothing but what in its own Nature , and by a Light intrinsic to it , is Evident , then the Maxim is False ; and that not only in Matters of Faith , but also in Matters of Reason too , wherein we find our selves often Constrain'd to assent to things that have not this internal Evidence , but are ( as to what respects the Nature of the things themselves ) altogether Obscure and Incomprehensible . But if by Evidence here be Meant Evidence at large , abstracting from Internal or External , and the Sense be that we are to assent to nothing but what has some Evidence or other , either Internal or External , or what is some way or other evident to us , and what we see plainly to be true by a Light shining from within or from without , in short , what we have one way or other sufficient ground or Reason to assent to , then the Maxim is undoubtedly true , and will hold Universally , not only in Matters of Reason , but also in Matters of Faith too , which ( as was shewn in the Chapter of Faith ) is the Conclusion of a Syllogism , and so a Rational Act , and proceedt upon as Much , though not the Same kind of Evidence , as any other Conclusion does , And that even in the Belief of Incomprehensible things , which it would be absurd , nay impossible to believe , if there were no Reason to believe things above Reason . According to a saying , as I take it of St. Austin , in one of his Letters to this purpose , That we could not bring our selves to believe what is Above our Reason , if Reason it self did not perswade us that there are things which we should do well to believe , although we are not capable of Comprehending them . So then in ●hort , if this Maxim that we are to assent to nothing but what is Evident , be understood of Internal Evidence , then 't is False , not only in Matters of Faith but also in Matters of Reason , wherein things intrinsecally inevident are assented to . But if it be understood of Evidence at large then ●tis true , not only in Matters of Reason , but also in Matters of Faith , which ( as has been often noted ) is reasonable in its Fund and Principle , and whose Evidence must be Clear , though its Object may be Obscure . 14. In this large therefore and indefinite Sense of the Word Evidence the Maxim is to be understood . We are to assent to nothing but what is Clear and Evident , that is , we ought to make use of our liberty of Suspension so far as not to give our Assent to any thing but what all things Consider'd and upon the whole appears Evident to us , what by some Light or other we see and plainly perceive to be true , and what in one word we find sufficient Reason either from within or from without to Assent to . According to that well known Sentence wherewith Des Cartes Concludes his wonderful System , Nihilque ab ullo Credi velim , nisi quod ipsi Evidens & invicta ratio persuadebit . I would have nothing believ'd by any one but what by evident and irresistible reason he shall be Convinc'd of . And certainly he would be very unreasonable that should desire more . For to assent without Evidence of one sort or other that the thing assented to is true , is to assent without a why or wherefore , and to assent so is to assent without Reason , which again is to assent not as a Rational Creature ; and as Man ought not , so to be sure God cannot require such an Assent . To assent therefore to nothing but what upon some Consideration or other is Clear and Evident to us , and what we have good reason to imbrace , as true , is certainly a Maxim of unquestionable Truth , and of universal Extent , that holds in all Matters whatsoever , whether of Reason or of Faith , in the former of which an Assent without Evidence would be the Act , and in the latter the Sacrifice of a Fool. 15. And that this is the true Sense wherein Des Cartes intended his Maxim , as well as the true Sense of the Maxim it self , is plain from the Occasion of it which as all know who are not utter Strangers to , or very Negligent Readers of his Books , was the bringing in and obtruding so many things in the Vulgar Philosophy whereof the Introducers of them had such Confuse Notions and of whose reality and Existence they had no Firm and Solid Reasons to assure them , such as Substantial Forms , really inhering Accidents and Qualities and the like , which served rather to darken than clear up the Science of Nature , and were the Occasions of a thousand Errours in the Superstructures that were rais'd upon those Imaginary and Chimerical Principles . In Opposition to , and as a Remedy for which , he lays down this Fundamental Maxim , to be Carefully observ'd by all the Disciples of Truth in their whole Intellectual Progress , never to assent to any thing but what is Clear and Evident , that is , to nothing but of Whose Truth and Reality they are fully assured , and have sufficient Reason to assent to . This is the true Sense of the Maxim , this is the Sense of its Author , and in this Sense it is undeniably true . And that without any prejudice to our present Conclusion , with which ( as thus explain'd ) it is very Consistent . For 't is now very easie to discern that we may believe an Incomprehensible thing , and yet at the same time according to this Cartesian Maxim assent to nothing but what is Clear and Evident , because the Evidence of Faith is External , and that there may be an External Evidence to assent to a thing Internally Inevident is no Contradiction . 16. Which by the way may serve to discover as well the Injustice as the Impertinence , 1. Of those who make use of this Maxim as an Objection against the Belief of things above Reason . 2. Of those who take occasion from hence to traduce the Cartesian Philosophy as favourable to , and looking with a very propitious Aspect upon Sociniani●● , and indeed as little better than an Introduction to it , only because it talks so much of clear and distinct Ideas and Conceptions , and of assenting to nothing but what is Clear and Evident . But Most of all 3dly . Of those who proceed even to traduce the Author himself as a secret Friend to the Cause , and no better than a Socinian in Disguise . It would have been indeed a Considerable Glory and Advantage to that , ( or any other Interest ) to have had so great a Master of Reason a Friend to it . But he Certainly was not , if with his Words he has transmitted to us his real Thoughts , which would be great uncharity to question , and , with a witness , to Assent to what is not Evident . 17. He was indeed a great Master in the Rational way , but no Magnifier or Exalter of Human Reason . So far from that , that he seems to have had the most inward and feeling Sense of its Infirmities and Defects , and the best to have understood what a poor little thing 't is to be a Man , of any one in the World. As may be abundantly Collected from several passages in his Writings ( besides that the whole vein of them runs that way ) particularly those two final Sentences wherewith he shuts up his Principles and his Metaphysics , At Nihilominus memor meaetenuitatis , nihil affirmo &c. and , Naturae nostrae infirmitas est agnoscenda . Which plainly shew what a low debasing Sense he had both of Himself and of Human Nature in general , as ●tis Natural for every man to have more and more , the wiser he grows , and the further he advances in Knowledge , which when all 's done ( provided you take a good Dose of it ) is the best Cure of Pride and Vanity . 18. And as he had thus slender an Opinion both of Human Reason and his Own , so he appears to have had also at the same such an high-raised and elevated Sense of the immense Grandeur of God , and of the Magnificence of his Works , and how inscrutable the Profundities of both are to such Finite and Contracted Minds as ours , as can scarce any where be parallel'd . Two Characters certainly of Spirit , that are none of the aptest to dispose a Man to Socinianism . But not to dwell any longer upon Rational Presumptions , there is a certain plain and deciding place in the Writings of this Great Man ( which one would think had escaped the Eyes of some ) that is enough forever to silence the Calumny of his being even in the least Socinianiz'd , and to shame those that have so little Conscience or Judgment as to stain his Memory with it . For who can suspect him in the least infected with that Head-seizing Disease , which is now become so Popular and Epidemic , when he shall hear him still Purging and Apologizing for himself in these Vindicatory words , Credenda esse Omnia quae a Deo revelata sunt , quamvis Captum Nostrum Excedant . And again , Ita si soriè nobis Deus de seipso , vel aliis aliquid revelet , quod Naturales ingenii Nostri vires excedat , qualia jam sunt Mysteria Incarnationis & Trinitatis , non recasabimus illa Credere , quamvis non Clare intelligamus . Nec ullo modo mirabimur multa esse , tum in immensâ ejus Naturâ , tum etiam in r● bus ab ●o Creatis , quae Captum Nostrum excedant . Now how glad should I be to see all the Socinians in Christendom Subscribe to this Form of Words , and is it not strange then that he whose Originally they are should be suspected of Socinianism , and that his Philosophy too should be thought to lead to it . But the Truth is , the Cartesian Philosophy leads just as much to Socinianism , as Philosophy in general does to Atheism , and I will venture to say , and be bound to make it good , that as no good Philosopher can be an Atheis● , so no good Cartesian can be a Socinian . CHAP. VIII . Wherein is shewn what is the true Use of Reason in Believing . 1. REason being the great Character and Principle of Man , that makes him like to the Angels above him , and distinguishes him from the Beasts that are below him , and which therefore only are below him for want of the Rational Power ( being many of them in regard of their Bodily Endowments upon a level with him , and some beyond him ) 't is but Just and Natural it should appear in all that he does , and pre●ide and govern in all his Actions . For as the Conduct of the Infinitely Wise and All-knowing God does always carry in it the Characters of his Essential and Consubstantial Reason , even of him who is the Wisdom of the Father , the true intelligible Light , so should also the Conduct of Man express in Proportion the Signatures of his Reason , and though he cannot act by such exact and unerring Measures as his Glorious Maker , nor yet with all that Perfection of Wisdom that even some Created Intelligences express , yet at least he should act like Himself , and not by doing any thing absurd or unaccountable deny his Reasonable Nature . 2. This has serv'd for a Principle to some Scholastic and Moral Writers whereon to build a very high , and ( as some think ) very Severe Conclusion , viz. that there is no individual Action of Man purely indifferent . Which I suppose may be true enough of those Actions of his which are properly Humane , I mean that are done deliberately , with fore-thought and Consideration , every one of which must , as far as I can see , be either good or Bad according to the Circumstances wherewith they are Cloath'd , however specifically Consider'd in relation to their Objects only , and as abstracted from those Circumstances , some of them may be Indifferent . And certainly we cannot suppose any Action of a more Neutral and adiaphorous Nature than an unprofitable Word , and yet of such He that is to be our Judge tells us we shall render an Account in the Day of Judgment . Which plainly shews that there is no such thing as Indifferency in the Actions of Man as Individually and Concretely Consider'd , but that all of them are either good or bad according as the Principle , Manner , End , and other Circumstances are that attend the doing of them . And that because Man being a Rational Creature the Order of Reason is due at least to all his deliberate Actions , which accordingly ought to carry the Characters of a Rational Nature in them , the want of which will be enough to render any of them evil and imperfect . 3. But then if Reason ought to pre●ide and direct in all the deliberate Actions of Man much more ought it in things of the greatest Moment and Consequence , wherein his Interest and Welfare is more nearly Concern'd , and which accordingly require his greatest Consideration , and the use of the best Light that he has . And because there cannot be a thing of greater Consequence and Concernment to him than Religion , upon which both his Present and his Future , his Temporal and his Eternal Happiness does intirely depend , hence it follows that the Principal Use he ought to make of his Rational Faculty is in Religion , that here if any where he ought to Think , Consider , Advise , Deliberate , Reason and Argue , Consult both his own Light and that of others , neglect no advantage that may be had from Nature or Art , from Books or Men , from the Living or the Dead , but imploy all possible Means for his direction and Information , and not be as the Horse and Mule which have no Vnderstanding . For 't was for this great End and Purpose that his Reason was given him , and this is the best Use he can make of it . As for the Study of Nature , that turns to too little an Account , and as for the Affairs of Civil Life they in themselves and without relation to another World , are too little and inconsiderable for us to suppose that our Reason was given us for the Management of them . Religion only bears proportion to so Noble a Faculty , is most worthy of its Application , and can also best reward the due Exercise and Use of it , and accordingly 't is upon Religion that it will be best bestow'd . 4. Nor is there any thing in Religion that may justly fear to be brought before the Bar of Human Reason , or to undergo the Test of its severest Discussion . The Heathen Religion indeed Might , for which Cause those that drew its Picture cast a Shade upon a great part of it , and would not Venture to expose it to Common View . And the too much Heathenized Religion of some Christians may also very deservedly retire behind the Curtain , and decline coming to the Light , for fear the Absurdities and Monstrous Inconsistencies of it should be laid open . But certainly there is not any thing , neither Doctrine nor Precept in that true Religion that is reveal'd by God , in Evangelical Christianity , that need fly the Light of Reason , or refuse to be tried by it . Christian Religion is all over a Reasonable Service , and the Author of it is too reasonable a Master to impose any other , or to require ( as his Vicar does ) that Men should follow him blindfold , and pull out their eyes to become his Disciples . No , he that Miraculously gave Sight to so many has no need of , nor pleasure in the Blind , nor has his Divine Religion any occasion for such Judges or Professors . For it is the Religion of the Eternal and uncreated Wisdom , the Divine Word , the true Light of the World , and the Universal Reason of all Spirits , and 't is impossible that he should reveal any thing that Contradicts the Measures of sound Discourse , or the immutable Laws of Truth , as indeed it is that any Divine Revelation should be truly Opposite to Right Reason ( hower it may sometimes be Above it ) or that any thing should be Theologically true , which is Philosophically False , as some with great profoundness are pleas'd to distinguish . For the Light of Reason is as truly from God as the Light of Revelation is , and therefore though the latter of these Lights may exceed and out-shine the former , it can never be Contrary to it . God as the Soveraign Truth cannot reveal any thing against Reason , and as the Soveraign Goodness he cannot require us to believe any such thing . Nay to descend some degrees below this , he cannot require us to believe , not only what is against Reason , but even what is without it . For to believe any thing without Reason is an unreasonable Act , and 't is impossible that God should ever require an unreasonable act , especially from a Reasonable Creature . 5. We therefore not only acknowledge the use of Reason in Religion , but also that 't is in Religion that 't is chiefly to be used ; so far are we from denying the Use of it there . And it is a little unfairly done of our Adversaries so much to insinuate the Contrary as they do . For I cannot take it for less than such an Insinuation , when they are arguing with us against the Belief of the Christian Mysteries to run out as they usually do into Harangues and Flourishes ( whereof , by the way , I know none more guilty than the Author of Christianity not Mysterious ) about the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion , and the Rational Nature of Faith , what a Reasonable Act the One is , and what a Reasonable Service the Other is , &c. as if we were against the Use of Reason in Religion , or were for a Blind , Groundless , and Unaccountable Faith , or if because we hold the Belief of things above Reason , therefore we are for having no Reason for our Belief . This I say is an unfair Insinuation , and such as argues some want either of Judgment or Sincerity ( I don't know which ) in those that suggest it . For they seem plainly by running so much upon this Vein to imply as if it were part of the Question between us , whether there be any Use of Reason in Religion , or whether Faith is to be Founded upon Reason or No. But Now this is no part of the Controversie that lies between us , we acknowledge the Use of Reason in Religion as well as they , and are as little for a Senseless and Irrational Faith as they can be . This therefore being Common to us both is no part of the Question , and they do ill to insinuate that it is by so many Popular Declamatory Strains upon the Reasonableness of Religion , and in particular of Faith , whereas they do , or should know , that the thing in Question between us is not whether there be any Use of Reason to be made in Believing , but only what it is , or wherein the true Use of it does Consist . 6. Now this we may determine in a few words , having already laid the grounds of it . For since the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Concluding Argument against the Truth of it , nor Consequently against the Belief of it ( as is shewn in the three foregoing Chapters ) it is plain that the proper Office and Business of a Believers Reason is to Examin and Inquire ▪ Not whether the thing proposed be Comprehensible or not , but only whether it be Reveal'd by God or No , since if it be , the Incomprehensibleness of it will be no Objection against it . That therefore ought to be no part of its Questistion or Deliberation , because indeed it is not to the purpose to Consider whether such a thing be , when if it were it would be no just Objection . The only Considerable thing then here is whether such a Proposition be indeed from God , and has him for its Author or no. And here Reason is to clear her Eyes , put the Matter in the best Light , call in all the Assistance that may be had both from the Heart and the Head , and determine of the thing with all the Judgement , and all the Sincerity that she can . But as to the Comprehensibility or Incomprehensibility of the Article , this is quite besides the Question , and ought therefore to be no part of her scruting or debate , since if it were never so much above her Comprehension it would be never the less proper Object for her Belief . 7. The Sum is , the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument against the Belief of it , therefore in the believing of a thing , the proper work of my Reason is not to Consider whether it be incomprehensible . But when a thing is proposed to me as from God , all that my Reason has to do in this Case is Seriously , Soberly , Diligently , Impartially , and ( I add ) Humbly to Examine whether it comes with the true Credentials of his Authority , and has him for its real Author or no. This is all that Reason has to do in this Matter , and when she has done this , she is to rise from the Seat of Judgement , and resign it to Faith , which either gives or refuses her Assent , Not as the thing proposed is Comprehensible or not Comprehensible , but as 't is either Reveal●d or not Reveal'd . CHAP. IX . An Application of the foregoing Considerations to the Mysteries of Christianity . 1. HAving thus raised the Shell of our Building to its due ●itch , we have now only to Roof it by making a Short Application of the Principles laid down and set●led in the Former Chapters to the Mysteries of the Christian Religion , against the Truth and Belief of which it plainly appears from the Preceding Considerations that there lies now no Reasonable Objection . For if Human Reason be not the Measure of Truth , and if therefore the Incomprehensibility of a ●hing to Human Reason be no Argument of its 〈◊〉 being True , nor Consequently against its being Believ'd , and if the only Use and Imployment of Reason in Believing be to Consider , not the Internal Evidence of the thing , whether the Article be Comprehensible or no , but whether it be truly reveal'd by God , I say if these things are so , as we have abundantly prov'd them to be , then from these Premises the Clear and undeniable Consequence is that the Incomprehensibility of the Christian Mysteries is no just reason why they should not be Believ'd , and so tha● we may Believe them though we should suppose them ( what yet some deny ) to be Incomprehensible . 2. Nay so far is the Incomprehensible Sublimity of these Mysteries from being a sufficient Objection against the Belief of them , that Accidentally and indirectly it may be improved into a Considerable Argument for them , and such as may serve to recommend them to our Faith , inasmuch as it is a very strong Presumption that they are of no Human Origin , but have God for their Authour , it being reasonable to suppose that what does so very much transcend the Capacity of Man to Comprehend , does no less exceed his Ability to invent . And accordingly the Incomprehensibility of our Mysteries for which some will have them to be false , is made use of by a very Rational Authour as an Argument of their Truth . And it may be worth while to let the Reader see how he Manages it in relation to One of the Most Sublime of them . The more Obscure are our Mysteries . Strange Paradox ! the more Credible they now appear to me . Yes , I find even in the Obscurity of our Mysteries , receiv'd as they are by so many different Nations , an invincible Proof of their Truth . How , for instance , shall we accord the Vnity with the Trinity , the Society of three different Persons in the perfect Simplicity of the Divine Nature ? This without doubt is Incomprehensibl● , but not Incredible . It is indeed above us , but let us Consider a little and we shall believe it , at least if we w●ll be of the same Religion with the Apostles . For supposing they had not known this ineffable Mystery , or that they had not taught it to their Successours , I maintain that it is not Possible that a Sentiment so extraordinary should find in the Minds of Men such an Vniversal Belief as is given to it in the whole Church , and among so many different Nations . The More this Adorable Mystery appears Monstrous ( suffer the Expression of the Enemies of our Faith ) the More it Shocks Human Reason , the More the Imagination Mutinies against it , the more Obscure , Incomprehensib●● and Impenetrable it is , the less Credible is it that it should Naturally insi●●ate it self into the Minds and 〈◊〉 of all Christians of so many and so distant Countries . Never do the same Errours spread universally , especially such sort of Errours which so strangely offend the Imagination , which have nothing sensible in them , and which seem to Contradict the most Simple and Common Notions . If Iesus ●hrist did not Watch over his Church , the Number of the 〈…〉 would quickly exceed that of 〈◊〉 ●●●hodox Christians ▪ For 〈…〉 in the Sentimen● 〈…〉 that does not 〈…〉 the Mind . And 〈…〉 that 〈…〉 to our Vnderstandings may establish themselves in time . But that a Truth so Sublime , so far removed from Sense , so Cross to Human Reason , so Contrary in short to all Nature as is this great Mystery of our Faith , that a Truth I say of this Character should spread it self Vniversally , and Triumph over all Nations where the Apostles had Preach'd the Gospel , supposing that these First Preachers of our Faith had neither known any thing , nor ●aid any thing of this Mystery , this Certainly is what cannot be Conceiv'd by any one that has never so little knowledge of Human Nature . That there should be Heretics that should oppose a Doctrine so Sublime is nothing strange , nor am I surprized at it . On the Contrary I should be very much if never any body had opposed it . This Truth wanted but little of being quite oppress'd . 'T is very possible . For 't will be always reckon'd a Commendable Vndertaking to attaque that which seems to Clash with Reason . But that at length the Mystery of the Trinity should prevail , and should establish it self Vniversally wherever the Religion of Iesus Christ was receiv'd , without its being known and taught by the Apostles , without an Authority and a Force Divine , there needs methinks but an Ordinary Measure of good Sense to acknowledge that nothing in the World is less Probable . For it is not in the least likely that a Doctrine so Divine , so above Reason , so remov'd from whatever may strike the Imagination and the Senses , should Naturally Come into the Thought of Man. 3. You see here how this Excellent Person strikes Light out of Darkness , by improving even the Incomprehensibility of the Christian Mysteries into an Argument for the Truth and Credibility of them , and so turning the Artillery of our Adversaries against themselves . This indeed is a bold Atchievement , an● as Fortunate a one too , for I think there is a great deal of Force and Weight in his Reasoning . But I need not push the Matter so far , nor follow so home into the Enemies Camp , as to plant their own Cannon against them . 'T is sufficient to the design of the present undertaking , and as much as I am led to by the Principles before Establish'd , to Conclude that the Incomprehensibility of the Christian Mysteries is no Argument against them . This therefore I insist upon , and ( if my Reason mightily deceive me not ) dare ingage finally to stand to . For if ( as it has been shewn ) the Incomprehensibility of a thing in general be no Conclusive Argument against either the Truth or the Credibility of it , then since Negative Propositions do separate the Attribut from the Subject according to all the Extent which the Subject has in the Proposition , what Consequence can be more Clear than that the Incomprehensibility of our Mysteries is no Argument against the Belief of them ? I Conclude therefore that it is None , and that they ought never the less to be believ'd for their being Incomprehensible , supposing them otherwise sufficiently Reveal'd . 4. Whether they are so or no is besides my Undertaking at present to examin , nor need I ingage my Pen in this Question , since the Affirmative side of it is so Obvious to every Eye that can but read the Bible , and has been withal so abundantly and convincingly made good by those abler hands which have gone into the Detail of the Controversie , and undertaken the particular defence of the Christian Mysteries . This part of the Argument therefore being so well discharged already , I shall Concern my self no further with it than only in Consequence and Pursuance of the Former Principles to bestow upon it this one single Necessary Remarque , viz. That as the Incomprehensibility of the Christian Mysteries is no just Objection against the Belief of them supposing them otherwise sufficiently Reveal'd , so neither is it a just Objection against their being so Reveal'd , supposing the plain , obvious and literal Construction of the Words does naturally and directly lead to such a Sense . And that it does so is not I think offer'd to be denied , and the thing it self is plain enough to extort an acknowledgement , but then 't is pretended that there is a Necessity of having recourse to a different Construction , and to understand the words in another Sense , because of the unconceivableness and incomprehensibleness of that which their proper and Grammatical Scheme does Exhibit . But by the Tenour of this whole Discourse it evidently appears that there is no such Necessity , since to admit an incomprehensible Sense has nothing absurd or inconvenient in it , and that because the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument of the Untruth of it . From whence it plainly follows that 't is no more an Objection against its being Reveal'd than 't is an Objection against the Belief of it supposing it were Reveal'd , there being nothing but the untruth of a thing that can be a reasonable Obstruction against either . 5. We are therefore to take the Words of Scripture according to their proper and most Natural Sense , and not seek out for Forc'd and Strain'd Interpretations upon the account of the Incomprehensibility of that which is apparently Genuin and Natural . And if the Revelation be otherwise plain , and such as we would accept of in another Case , and about matters which we can well Comprehend , we ought not to think it the less so because the Sense of it so understood is such as we cannot reconcile to our Apprehensions and Conceptions of things . For notwithstanding that it may be true , since by this time we may be sufficiently satisfied that there are many Incomprehensible Truths . The Incomprehensibility of a thing is therefore no Argument against its being Reveal'd , any more than 't is against the Belief of it supposing it were . Which opens an immediate Entrance to the Christians Mysteries , which I doubt not would be thought sufficiently Reveal'd were it not for the incomprehensibility of them , the only Objection that can be pretended against their Revelation . 6. I have hitherto argued upon the Supposition that the Mysteries of Christianity ( those Doctrines I mean that are so call'd ) are above Reason , and such as do transcend our Comprehension , and have shewn that even upon that Supposition there is no reasonable Objection against the Belief of them , that they are never the less Believable for their being Incomprehensible . But what if I should recall this Concession , and put our Adversaries to the proof that they are indeed above Human Reason and Comprehension . They cannot be ignorant that there are those that Contend they are not , and with great shew of reason offer to prove it , by endeavouring to render a Conceivable and Intelligible Account of them . If these Men should be in the right ( which I do not think necessary at present to inquire into ) it would be a further Advantage to our Cause , and such as though I do not now insist upon it , I need not lose the Benefit of . But if it should prove that they are not in the right , the Cause of our Christian Mysteries is not much Concern'd in the loss of that Pillar , but can support it self well enough without it , as having another that is sufficient to bear its weight , since though we should suppose these Sacred Doctrines to be never so Incomprehensible to our Reason , it does by no Consequence follow ( as from the Argument of this whole Discourse is apparent ) that therefore they may not be due Objects of our Faith. 7. Should any one now be so fond of Objection as to draw one against the Mysteries of Christianity from the use of the Word Mystery in Scripture , which knows no other Mysteries but such as before the Revelation of them were undiscover'd , not Considering whether they were in themselves Conceivable or no , I must tell him that I do not know that ever I met in any Controversie with a less pertinent Objection , as much as it is made of by a late Bold Writer , who heaps together a great many Texts to shew the signification of the Word Mystery in the New Testament , that it signifies not things in themselves inconceivable , but only such as were not known before they were Reveal'd . Well , be it so as this Gentleman pretends ( though I believe upon Examination it would appear otherwise ) yet what is this to the purpose ? For do we Dispute about Names or Things ? The Question is not whether the Scripture expresses inconceivable things by the Name of Mysteries , but whether there be not things in Scripture above our Conception ( call them by what Name you will ) and if there be , whether their being so above our Conception be an Argument why they should not be Believ'd . Now to these inconceivable things it has been the Common Use of Church-Writers to apply the Name of Mysteries , which , if the thing be granted , he must be a great Lover of Cavil and Wrangle that will Contend about it . But the Learned Bishop of Worcester has already prevented me in the Consideration of this Objection , for which reason , together with the Frivolousness of it , I shall pursue it no further . CHAP. X. The Conclusion of the whole , with an Address to the Socinians . 1. AND thus I have led my Reader through a long Course of Various Reasoning , and perhaps as far as he is willing to follow me , though I hope his Journey has not been without some Pleasure that may deceive , and some Profit that may in part reward the Labour of it . I have shewn him what Reason is , and what Faith is , that so he may see from the Absolute Natures of each what Habitude and Relation they have to one another , and how the Darkness and Obscurity of the Latter may Consist with the Light and Evidence of the Former . I have also Consider'd the Distinction of things Above Reason and things Contrary to Reason , and shewn it to be real and well-grounded , and to have all that is requisite to a good Distinction . And for the further Confirmation of it , I have also shewn that Human Reason is not the Measure of Truth . From which Great Principle ( which I was the more willing to discourse at large and thoroughly to settle and establish because of its Moment and Consequence to the Concern in hand ) I have deduced that weighty Inference , that therefore the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Concluding Argument of its not being true , which Consequence for the greater Security of it , because it is so Considerable in the present Controversie , I have also proved Backwards , by shewing that if the Incomprehensibility of a thing were an Argument of its not being true , then Human Reason ( contrary to what was before demonstrated ) would be the Measure of Truth . Whence I infer again ex Absurdo , that therefore the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument of its not being true . From this last Consequence I infer another of no less Moment and Consideration , viz. That therefore the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument against the Belief of it neither , where also I Consider that seemingly Opposite Maxim of Des Cartes , that we are to Assent to nothing but what is Clear and Evident , and reconcile it to the other Position . Whence my next step was to state the true use of Reason in Believing , which I shew'd to Consist not in examining the Credibility of the Object , but in taking account of the Certainty of the Revelation , which when once resolv'd of we are no longer to Dispute , but Believe . In fine , I have made an Application of these Considerations to the Mysteries of the Christian Faith , by shewing that they are never the less to be Believ'd for being Mysteries , supposing● them otherwise sufficiently Reveal'd , against which also I have shewn their Incomprehensibility to be no Objection . So that every way the Great Argument against the Mysteries of the Christian Faith taken from the Incomprehensibility of them vanishes and sinks into nothing . In all which I think I have effectually overthrown the General and Fundamental Ground of Socinianism , and truely in great Measure that of Deism too , whose best Argument against Reveal'd Religion in general , is , because the Christian , upon all Accounts the most preferable of those that pretend to be Reveal'd , Contains so many things in it which transcend the Comprehension of Human Understanding . But whether this Best Argument be really a good one or no , the whole Procedure of this Discourse may sufficiently shew , and whoever knows how to distinguish Sophistry from good Reasoning , may easily judge . 2. And now you Gentlemen for whose sakes I have been at the pains to write this Treatise , give me leave in a few words to Address my self a little more particularly to you , and to Expostulate with you . Whether it be the good opinion you have of your Cause , or the present Opportunity you have to appear in the behalf of it that invites you so freely to Come abroad as you have done of late , you have certainly ( to give your Courage its due ) taken a very rational and Polite Age for it , and I hope the Wise Conduct of Providence may turn this juncture to the Advantage of the Truth , and that the Light to which you have adventur'd to expose your Novel Opinions may serve to make you see their Absurdities , if you do not too Obstinately shut your Eyes against it . Some of you are Considerable Masters of Reason ( otherwise truly I should not think it worth while to argue with you ) and you all profess great Devotion to it ( I wish you do not make it an Idol ) and to be very Zealous and Affectionate Disciples of it . Reason is the great Measure by which you pretend to go , and the Judge to whom in all things you appeal . Now I accept of your Measure , and do not refuse to be tried in the Court of your own Chusing . Accordingly you see I have dealt with you all along upon the Ground of Logic , and in a Rational way , being very Confident that Reason alone will discover to you your undue Elevations of it , and the Errours you have been misled into by that Occasion , if you do but Consult even this Oracle of yours as you ought , and make a right use of its Sacred Light. 3. But I am afraid you do not . Instead of imploying your Reason in the first place to examin the Certainty of the Revelation , whether such a thing be truly Reveal'd , and if so , to believe it notwithstanding its being incomprehensible , your Method is to begin with the Quality of the Object , to Consider whether it be Comprehensible or no , and accordingly to proceed in your Belief or Disbelief of its being Reveal'd . 'T is true indeed you are not so gross as to argue thus , this is Comprehensible therefore 't is Reveal'd . But you cannot deny but that you argue thus , this is Incomprehensible , therefore 't is not Reveal'd , proceeding upon this general Principle that though whatever is Comprehensible is not therefore presently Reveal'd , yet whatever is Reveal'd must be Comprehensible . But now judge you whether this be not to make your Reason the Rule and Measure of Divine Revelation , that is , that God can reveal nothing to you but what you can Comprehend , or , that you are able to Comprehend all that God can possibly Reveal ( for otherwise how is your not being able to Comprehend any thing an Argument of its not being Reveal●d ) I say Consider whether this be not to set up your Reason as the Rule of Revelation , and Consider again whether this does not resolve either into a very low Opinion you have of God and his Infinite Perfections , or an extravagantly high one you have of your selves and your own Rational indowments . 4. And yet as if this were not Presumption enough , do you not also make your Reason the Rule of Faith , as well as of Revelation ? To be the Rule of Faith is a very Great thing , and yet so far 't is plain that you make your Reason the Rule of Faith that you will allow nothing to be believ'd but whose Bottom you can Sound by that Line , this being an avow'd Principle with you that you are to believe nothing but what you can Comprehend . But hold a little , before your Reason can be the Measure of Faith , must it not be the Measure of Truth ? And I pray Consider seriously , and tell me truly , do you verily think in your Consciences that your Reason is the Measure of Truth ? Do you think your Rational Faculties proportion'd to every intelligible Object , and that you are able to Comprehend all the things that are , and that there is nothing in the whole extent of Science too high , too difficult , or too abstruse for you , no one part of this vast Intellectual Sea but what you can wade through ? If you say yes , besides the Blasphemous Presumptions and Luciferian Arrogance of the Assertion , and how little it falls on this side of Similis ero Altissimo , which banish'd the vain-glorious Angel from the Court of Heaven , because nothing less would Content his Aspiring Ambition than to be as God there ( though by the way there is more Sense and Congruity of Reason in pretending to be a God in Heaven , than to be a God upon Earth ) I say besides this , I would put it to your more sober thought to Consider whether it be not every whit as great an Extremity in the way of Rational Speculation to Dogmatize so far as to pretend to Comprehend every thing , as to say with the Sceptics and Pyrrhonians that we know nothing : The latter of which however in regard of its Moral Consequences may be more innocently and safely affirm'd than the Former , since in that we only humbly degrade our selves , and are Content to sink down into the Level of Brutes , whereas in this we aspire to what is infinitely above us , and advance our selves into the Seat of God. And you know an Excess of Self-dejection is of the two the more tolerable Extreme . But if you say that your Reason is not the Measure of Truth ( as upon this , and the other Considerations there lies a Necessity upon you to Confess ) how then I pray comes it to be the Measure of your Faith , and how come you to lay down this for a Maxim that you will believe Nothing but what you can Comprehend ? Why , if your Reason be not the Measure of Truth ( and you your selves Care not , and I believe are asham'd in terms to say that it is ) then do you not evidently discern that there is no Consequence from the Incomprehensibility of a thing to the incredibility of it , and that you have no reason to deny your Belief to a thing as true merely upon the account of its incomprehensibility . And do you not then plainly see that your great Maxim falls to the ground , that you are to believe nothing but what you can Comprehend ? But if yet notwithstanding this you will still adhere to your beloved Maxim , and resolve to believe Nothing but what you can adjust and clear up to your Reason , then I pray Consider whether this will not necessarily lead you back to that Absurd , and withal Odious and Invidious Principle , and which therefore you your selves care not to own , viz. That your Reason is the Measure of Truth . 5. But why do you not care to own it ? Do you not see at the first cast of your Eye that you are unavoidably driven upon it by your profess'd Maxim ? Or if you do not think fit to own it ( as indeed it is a good handsom Morsel to swallow ) why do you not then renounce that Maxim of yours which is the immediate Consequence of it , and necessarily resolves into it ? Why will you whose Pretensions are so high to Reason act so directly against the Laws of it , as to own that implicitly and by Consequence which neither your Head nor your Heart will serve you to acknowledge in broad and express Terms ? Be a little more Consistent with your own Sentiments at least , if not with Truth , and be not your selves a Mystery , while you pretend not to believe any . If you do not care to own the Principle , then deny the Consequence , or if you will not let go the Consequence , then stand by and own the Principle . Either speak out boldly and roundly that your Reason is the Measure of Truth , or if you think that too gross a defiance to Sense , Experience , Religion and Reason too to be professedly maintain'd , then be so ingenuous to us , and so Consistent with your selves as to renounce your Maxim of Believing Nothing but what you can Comprehend , since you cannot hold it but with that Absurd Principle ; And which is therefore a Certain Argument that you ought not to hold it . 6. And are you sure that you always do , I mean so as to act by it , that you hold it in Hypothesi as well as in Thesi ? Do you never assent to any thing but what you can Comprehend ? Are there not many things in the Sciences which you find a pressing Necessity to Subscribe to , though at the same time you cannot conceive their Modus , or account for their Possibility ? But you 'l say perhaps these are things of a Physical and Philosophical Consideration , and such as have no relation to Religion . True , they are so , but then besides that this visibly betrays the weakness of your ground , since if the incomprehensibility of a thing were a good Argument against assenting to the Truth of it , it would be so throughout , in the things of Nature , as well as in the things of Religion , I would here further demand of you why you are so particularly shy of admitting incomprehensible things in Religion , why is it there only that you seem so stiffly and zealously to adhere to your Maxim of Believing nothing but what you can Comprehend ? Since there are so many inconceivable things , or if you please , Mysteries , in the Works of Nature and of Providence , why not in Religion ? Nay where should one expect to find Mysteries if not there , where all the things that are Reveal'd are Reveal'd by God himself , and many of them concerning Himself and his own Infinite Perfections ? And what deference do we pay to God more than Man , if either we suppose that he cannot reveal Truths to us which we cannot Comprehend , or if we will not believe them if he does ? Nay may it not be rather said that we do not pay him so much , since we think it adviseable to receive many things from our Tutours and Masters upon their Authority only though we do not Comprehend them our selves , and justifie our doing so by that well known and in many Cases very reasonable Maxim , Discentem oportet Credere . But as there is no Authority like the Divine , so if that Motto become any School , 't is that of Christ. 7. Now 't is in this School that you profess to be Scholars , and why then will you be such Opiniative and uncompliant Disciples as to refuse to receive the Sublime Lectures read to you by your Divine and Infallible Master , merely because they are too high for you , and you cannot Conceive them , when at the same time any one of your that is not a Mathematician ( pardon the Supposition ) would I doubt not take it upon the word of him that is so that the Diameter of a Square is incommensurable to the Side , though he did not know how to demonstrate , or so much as Conceive it himself . Since then you would express such implicit regard to the Authority of a fallible , though Learned , Man , shall not the Divine weigh infinitely heavier with you , and since you would not stick to assent to things above your Conception in Human and Natural Sciences , why are you so violently set against Mysteries in Religion , whereof God is not only the Authour , but in great Measure the Object too . 8. You know very well that in the great Problem of the Divisibility of Quantity there are Incomprehensibilities on both sides , it being inconceivable that Quantity should , and it being also inconceivable that it should not be divided infinitely . And yet you know again that as being parts of a Contradiction one of them must necessarily be true . Possibly you may not be able with the utmost Certainty and without all hesitation to determine which that is , but however you know in the general that One of them , indeterminately , must be true ( which by the way is enough to Convince you that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is no Argument against the truth of it ) and you must also further grant that God whose Understanding is infinite does precisely and determinately know which of them is so . Now suppose God should Reveal this , and make it an Article of Faith. 'T is not indeed likely that he will , it being so much beneath the Majesty , and besides the End and Intention of Revelation , whose great Design is the direction of our Life and Manners , and not the improvement of our Speculation . But suppose I say he should , would you not believe it ? If not , then you must suppose either that there is no Necessity that either of the two parts ( which yet are Contradictory ) should be true , or that though one of them be true yet that God does not known which is so , or that though he does know which is so , yet he does not deal faithfully in revealing that which is the Right , all which are extravagant Suppositions , and such as Men of your Sense and Reason can never allow . But then if you say ( as you must ) that you would believe it , then I pray what becomes of your Maxim of believing nothing but what you can Comprehend , and why do you so stiffly plead the incomprehensibility of an Article of Faith against the Belief of it , and why must there be no Mysteries in Religion ? I say in Religion , where if any where our Reason might expect to find things above its Measure , unreachable Heights , and unfathomable Depths , and where God is not only the Revealer ( as in the Case now supposed ) but also the Object Reveal'd . For is it not reasonable to suppose that there are things more incomprehensible in God than in Nature , and if you would receive an Incomprehensible Revelation of his concerning his Works , how much rather ought you to admit the same concerning Himself ? 9. And this gives me occasion to say something to you concerning the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity . This great Article of the Christian Faith you have a particular Prejudice against and will not believe , and that because it so utterly transcends the Force of Reason to Conceive how the same undivided and Numerically One Simple Essence of God should be Communicated to Three really distinct Persons , so as that there should be both a Unity in Trinity , and a Trinity in Unity . This however , as inconceivable as it seems , some will not yield to be so far Above Reason but that a Rational and Intelligible Account may be given of it , which accordingly they have essay'd to do by several Hypotheses . But I decline at present all advantage that may be had from them , or any other that may be invented to render this an intelligible Article . You know I Reason all along upon the Contrary Supposition , that those Articles of the Christian Faith which we call Mysteries are really incomprehensible , and only go to invalidate the Consequence that is drawn from thence in prejudice of their Belief . Well then for once we will give you what you stand for , that the Doctrine of the Trinity is indeed utterly above Reason . You have our leave to suppose it as incomprehensible as you please . But then you are to Consider ( besides what has hitherto been discours'd concerning the Nullity of the Consequence from the incomprehensibility of a thing to its incredibility ) that this is a Revelation of God concerning Himself , and do you pretend to Comprehend the Nature and Essence of God ? If you do , then your Understanding is as infinite as the Divine . But if you do not , then the incomprehensibility of this Mysterious Article ought to be no Objection with you against the Belief of it , since if it be , you must be driven to say that you Comprehend the Nature of God , which I hope you have too much Religion as well as Reason to affirm . 10. And indeed if we meet with so many insuperable Difficulties in the Search of Nature , much more may we in the Contemplation of its Author , if the Works of God do so puzzle and baffle our Understandings , much more may they Confess their Deficiency when God himself is their Object , and if we are not able to explain Creation , or give an Account how the Material World issued in time from the great Fountain of Being , much less may we be supposed able to explain the Eternal and ineffable Generation of his Divine and Consubstantial World. But what then , shall we not Believe it ? Or rather shall we not say upon this Occasion with the Pious and Ingenious Mr. Wesley , Ineffable the way , for who Th' Almighty to perfection ever knew ? But He himself has said it , and it must be true . Nay to go lower yet , if there be so many things relating to Extension , Motion and Figure ( of all which we have Clear Ideas ) which we cannot Comprehend , and there result from them Propositions which we know not what to make of , with how much greater reason may we expect to find what we cannot Understand in the Nature of an Infinite Being , whereof we have no adequate Idea . And indeed we meet with so many Incomprehensibles in the School of Nature that one would think we should be too much familiarized to 'em to think them strange in that of Religion , and God seems on purpose to exercise and discipline our Understandings with what is above them in Natural things , that so we might be the less surprized to find what passes our Conception in his own Infinite Essence . Here then at least you may Confess your Ignorance , and that without any reproach to your Understandings , which were indeed intended for the Contemplation , but not for the Comprehension of an Infinite Object . You need not therefore here be backward to own that you meet with what you cannot Comprehend ( it would indeed be a Mistery if you should not ) nor think it any disgrace to have your Eyes dazzl'd with that Light at the insupportable Glory of which even the Seraphin Veil and Cover theirs . 11. You may perceive by this that your Denial of the Doctrine of the Trinity because of the Incomprehensibility of it proceeds upon no good Consequence , but you are also further desired to Consider the very Bad one that it Naturally leads to . You refuse to receive this Article because you cannot Comprehend it , but besides that your Reason for this your refusal is not good unless you could be supposed to Comprehend every thing , even the Deep things of God. Pray Consider what the Consequence will be if you pursue your Principle to the utmost , and Conduct your selves intirely by its Measures . Will it not inevitably lead you to the denial of all Religion ? This perhaps may startle you , but think again . Will not this necessarily lead you to the denial of God the Foundation of all Religion ? For if you will not believe the Trinal Distinction of Persons in the Divine Essence because you cannot conceive how such a thing can be , then may you not for the same reason refuse as well to believe the Divine Essence it self , some of whose incommunicable Attributes , such as his Self Existence , Eternity , Immensity , &c. are as Incomprehensible as any thing in the Notion of the Trinity can be . So that if you will but follow your Measure from the denial of Three you may be quickly brought to deny even One. So directly does your Principle of Believing nothing but what you can Comprehend lead to Atheism , and that with such swift and wide strides , that were it not for the assistance of the same expedient , your Friends the Deists would hardly be able to follow you . 12. And now Sirs what do you think of your Principle ? Is it not a goodly one , and richly worth all the Passion and Zeal you have express'd for it ? You know very well that M. Abbadie in his Excellent Treatise of the Divinity of Christ has shewn you that upon one of your grounds ( viz. the denial of that Article ) the Mahumetan Religion is preferable to the Christian , and indeed that you are Obliged by it to renounce Christianity and turn Mahumetans . This truly was a home-thrust . But yet you see the Consequence of your general Principle reaches further , as leading your not only out of Christianity , but out of all Religion whether Natural or Reveal'd , even beyond Deism , even into Atheism it self . If it does not actually lead you thither the fault is not in the Principle , whose Connexion with that Consequence is natural enough , but 't is because you are not so Consistent with your selves as to follow it . And indeed 't is a great Happiness that you do not , ( since if you were here better Logicians you would be worse Men ) though it would be a much greater , if for the danger of being more Consistent with it you would be perswaded to lay it down . 13. And that you may be so be pleased further to Consider , that though this Principle of yours does not eventually carry you as far as Atheism , because perhaps the Horridness of the Conclusion may be a Counterweight against the Force of the Premises ( though you see it Naturally tends that way ) yet there is very great danger of its leading you Effectually into Deism , that not being not accounted now-a-days such a very frightful thing . For as long as you hold that what is above Human Reason is not to be Believ'd , and upon that Account reject the Christian Mysteries , because they are above Reason , you lie at the Mercy of that Argument that shall prove to you that these Mysteries are indeed Reveal'd , and that the Genuin and Natural Sense of the Sacred Text declares for them . For if you once come to be convinc'd of that , you will then be Obliged in Consequence of your Principle to renounce that Religion which reveals such incredible things , that is the Christian , which will be a shrew'd ( indeed an invincible ) Temptation to you to throw up all Reveal'd Religion , and so to turn perfect Deists . And I pray God it may not have that Effect upon you . 14. But as to the parting with Christianity that you will be further tempted to do upon another account . For when you have by your Principle stript it , or I may say rather unbowell'd it of its great and adorable Mysteries , it will appear such a poor , lank , slender thing to you that you will hardly think it Considerable enough to be reveal'd as a New and more perfect , Institution by God , or to be receiv'd as such by thinking and Considering Men. For what will such find so considerable in Christianity ( especially as a new Institution ) what so visibly peculiar and assuredly distinguishing , what that may infallibly set it above an Humane Institution , if it be once robb'd of its Mysteries ? They may indeed think it a good plain piece of Morals , and such as exceeds any other of a known Humane Composure , but how are they sure but that the Invention of Man may be able to rise so high , as to Compose such a System as this , if you set aside its Mysteries ? Which therefore I cannot but look upon of all the things that are intrinsic to it ( for I do not here Consider Miracles ) as the greatest Characters of its Divinity . And some perhaps would be apt to think them such as without which it would hardly be thought worthy of reception ( especially as a New Institution ) even with the help of Miracles , which Men are always ready , and not without reason , to suspect , when the Matters for whose sake they are wrought bear not sufficient Proportion to them . Which they would also perhaps be inclined to think to be the present Case . For what ( would they say ) is there in the Christian Religion that deserves so great ado , what that should ingage an Omnipotent Arm to introduce it into the World , by such mighty Signs and Wonders , if there be indeed nothing Wonderful in it , that is , if you take away its Mysteries . What cannot a good System of Morality ( especially if only a Second , and a little more Correct Edition of a Former ) be Communicated to the World without Alarming Heaven and Earth , and giving disturbance to the Course of Nature ? And if Christianity be no More , what Proportion ( say they ) will it bear to its Miraculous Introduction ? And what will it be found to have so very Considerable as either to deserve or justifie such an Apparatus ? It must indeed be allow'd by all to be a good wholsom Institution for the Direction of Manners , but what is there so very Great and Admirable in it , what that either deserves or answers to so many Types and Figures and Prophetical Predictions , what that so Copiously sets forth the Manifold Wisdom of God , and the Glory of his Attributes , and the Nothingness of the Creature , and where are those Deep things of God , that Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard , nor have enter'd into the Heart of Man ( a place which the Apostle applies out of the Prophet Isaiah to the Revelations of the Gospel ) where I say are those profound things which the Spirit of God only that Searches all things could reveal , and which even now they are Reveal'd the Angels desire to look into . You 'l hardly find any thing of so rais'd a Character in Christianity if you devest it of its Mysteries , which therefore may justly be reckon'd as the Main Pillars of it , without which it will have much ado to support it self . So that in short Christianity Not Mysterious ( how fond soever a Certain Author is of such a Religion ) will make but a very little Figure in Proportion to its Pomp and External Splendor , and indeed will almost dwindle down into Nothing . 15. It may indeed even without the Mysteries make a shift to subsist as a mere System of Precepts , and Rule of Life , though even thus Consider'd it will be greatly impair'd and suffer much disadvantage ( as wanting those Convincing Demonstrations of God's hatred of Sin , and of his Love towards Mankind , and withal those indearing and perswasive Arguments for their returns of Love , Gratitude and Obedience towards him , which can only be deriv'd from the Redemption of the World by the Death and Satisfaction of its Divine Undertaker ) but as a Covenant of Grace establish'd betwixt God and his Offending and Estranged Creature it cannot possibly stand , but must fall to the ground . So that though the Moral or Legal part ( as I may call it ) of Christianity may at a hard rate Continue after the downfall of its Mysteries , yet its Federal part , and all that is properly Gospel in it must needs be involv'd in the Ruin and Fall with them , that being all built upon the Satisfaction of Christ , as that again upon his Divinity , which is therefore the very Foundation of the Christian Religion , as M. Abbadie has by Variety of Demonstration proved it to be . If then you would have that Divine Institution stand , and if you would stand fast in it ( both which I am willing to suppose ) have a care how you remove its Mysteries , Considering how Fundamental they are to the Building , and how great a share of its Sacred Weight rests upon them . But endeavour rather to remove your own Prejudices , to Mortifie your Understandings , to study Humility , and to restrain the too free Sallies of your too curious and over venturous Reason by still and silent Reflections upon God's Infinite Greatness , and your own almost as great Infirmities , by which one Thought well pursued you will ( by the Grace of God ) come to a better Understanding of your selves than to reject any of his plain Revelations merely because you cannot Conceive them , and so leaving Light and Vision to the other Life , will be Content with other good Christians humbly to Believe and Adore in this . 16. Gentlemen , I beseech you seriously to Consider what with Christian Charity and all due Civil Respect I have here laid before you , and if upon Consideration of it you find any weight in it , to let it have its full Force and Effect upon you . Which if you do I hope it may serve by the Blessing of God ( to whom for that end I humbly devote this Labour ) to Convince you , or at least to put you upon such better Considerations of your own as May. For I pretend not here to have said all , but to have left many things to the inlargement and improvement of your own Meditation , Considering the impropriety of doing otherwise to Persons of your Parts and Learning , which I pray God to Sanctifie and Increase to you . Whereby you may perceive that I am not against your making use of your Reason . No , I would only have you reason rightly , and that you may do so would have you by all Human Methods to improve and Cultivate your Reason as much as you can , being well perswaded that as a half-view of things makes men Opiniative , Disputatious and Dogmatical , so a Clear and thorough Light makes them Humble and distrustful of themselves , and that the more Cultivated and Improved any Man's Natural Reason is , the easier it will be for him to Captivate it to the Obedience of Faith. POST-SCRIPT . SInce the Committing of these Papers to the Press I have had the pleasure to peruse Mr. Whiston's New Theory of the Earth , for which extraordinary and truly great Performance I return him all due Thanks , and am very glad to see so great a Master of Reason and Philosophy express so awful and reverential a regard to Religion in general , and in particular to the Sacred Mysteries of it , against which both Human Reason and Natural Philosophy have been of late so abusively and profanely imploy'd . How far this Ingenious and Learned Author makes good his great undertaking , or whether this or the Former Theorist be most likely to be in the right . I shall not take upon me to examin . I only make this Observation from both their wonderful Attempts that whether they are in the right or no , as to their respective Accounts of things , yet they have at least gone so far and offer'd so fairly towards a true Explanation of them , as to Convince any Competent and indifferent Reader that the Mosaiek Records concerning the greater Phenomena of Creation and Providence are not really of so desperate a Nature as they were once presumed to be , but are in themselves Capable of , and may perhaps in time actually have ( if they have not already ) a true natural Solution . As for Instance , a Universal Flood without a Miracle , or that the World should be wholly Drown'd in a Natural way , or according to the Laws of Motion already settled , and by a Train of Causes already laid in Nature , has been hitherto thought an Incomprehensible , and accordingly an Impossible thing . But now if these two Mighty Genius's who have undertaken to give a Natural Account of this stupendous Revolution have neither of them pitch'd upon the very precise way and Manner whereby it was brought to pass , yet I think it cannot be denied but that they have said enough between them to Convince that the thing was naturally Possible , and that a true Natural Account may be given of it , though they should be supposed not to have hit directly upon that which is so . That is , I mean , they have represented it at least as a Conceivable thing , whether they themselves have had the good fortune to Conceive of it exactly as it was or no. Upon which it is very Natural and no less pertinent to the Concern in hand to make this further Reflexion , that we should not be Overhasty to pronounce any thing ( even of a Physical , much less of a Religious Nature ) to be Impossible , only because it appears to us to be Incomprehensible . For besides that the Incomprehensibility of a thing is ( as this whole Discourse shews ) no certain Argument of its Impossibility , and that what appears incomprehensible to our Understandings may at the same time be well Comprehended by those of Angels , not to say of wiser Men , perhaps that which appears to us at present to be above all Comprehension may in process of time and upon further Reflexion and Experience so brighten and clear up to our Minds , as to be Comprehended , or at least to be thought of a Comprehensible and Possible Nature even by our more improved selves . For the Incomprehensibility of a thing as such being no Absolute Affection or Intrinsic Denomination of the thing it self from its own Nature , but only such as affects it from without and in relation to the present Capacity of our Understandings , there needs no alteration in the Nature of the thing to make that Comprehensible , which was before incomprehensible , a Change in our Understandings is sufficient , upon whose greater improvement alone an incomprehensible may become a Comprehensible Object . So that besides the Nullity of the Consequence from the Incomprehensibility of a thing to its Impossibility , even the Principle it self from which that Consequence is pretended to be drawn may be remov'd , by the present Comprehension of what pass'd before with us for an incomprehensible Proposition . Upon both which Considerations we are admonish'd to be very Cautious how we Conclude any thing in Nature , much more in Scripture , to be impossible , because to us incomprehensible . And 't is the very use Mr. Whiston himself makes of the latter of them in the Conclusion of his excellent Work , from which I think it worth while to transcribe a Passage both for the Advantage of the present Argument , and the greater Conviction of the Reader , to whom , as well as to my self , it must be no little Satisfaction to see the Sentiments of so great an Author concur with mine . The Measure of our present knowledge ( says he ) ought not to be esteem'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of Truth ( the very Proposition almost in Terms of my Fourth Chapter ) or to be opposed to the Accounts receiv'd from profane Antiquity , much less to the inspired writings . For notwithstanding that several particulars relating to the eldest Condition of the VVorld and its great Catastrophe's , examine'd and compared with so much Philosophy as was till lately known , were plainly unaccountable , and , naturally speaking , impossible ; yet we see now Nature is more fully , more certainly , and more substantially understood , that the same things approve themselves to be plain , easie , and rational . 'T is therefore Folly in the highest degree to reject the Truth or Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures because we cannot give our Minds particular satisfaction as to the Manner , may or even possibility of some things therein asserted . Since we have seen so many of those things , which seem'd the most incredible in the whole Bible , and gave the greatest Scruple and Scandal to Philosophic Minds , so fully and particularly attested , and next to demonstrated from Certain Principles of Astronomy and natural Knowledge ; 't is but reasonable to expect in due time a like Solution of the other Difficulties . 'T is but just sure to depend upon the Veracity of those Holy VVriters in other Assertions , whose Fidelity is so intirely establish'd in these hitherto equally unaccountable ones . The obvious , plain , or literal Sense of the Sacred Scriptures ought not without great reason to be eluded or laid aside : Several of those very places which seem'd very much to require the same hitherto , appearing now to the Minutest Circumstances , true and rational , according to the strictest and most literal Interpretation of them . VVe may be under an Obligation to believe such things on the Authority of the Holy Scriptures as are properly Mysteries ▪ that is , though not really Contradictory , yet plainly unaccountable to our ( present degree of ) Knowledge and Reason . Thus the Sacred Histories of the Original Constitution , and great Catastrophe's of the VVorld have been in the past Ages the Objects of the Faith of Iews and Christians , though the Divine Providence had not afforded so much light as that they could otherwise Satisfie themselves in the Credibility of them , till the new improvements in Philosophy . And this is but just and Reasonable . For sure the Ignorance or Incapacity of the Creature does by no Means afford sufficient ground for Incredulity , or justifie Men in their rejecting Divine Revelation , and impeaching the Veracity or Providence of the Creator . With which weighty , and to the present purpose very pertinent words of this worthy Author I Seal up my own , and leave them both to the Consideration of the Reader . FINIS . Corrections . PAge 176. line 22. after describe read its . p. 250. l. 11. r. confuted . p. 206. l. 17. after Perfections , r. are as . p. 273. l. 1. r. proceeds . p. 287. l. 12. for as his Vicar does , r. whatever his Vicar may do . p. 289. l. 23. after or , r. as . p. 292. l. 9. r. Scrutiny . p. 303. l. 17. r. Christian. Books Printed for , and Sold by S. Manship at the Ship in Cornhil , near the Royal Exchange . A Collection of Miscellanies , consisting of Poems , Essays , Discourses and Letters ; in large 8 o. Theory and Regulation of Love ; a Moral Essay in two Parts : To which is added , Letters Philosophical and Moral , between the Author and Dr. More . The 2 d. Edition in 8 o. Practical Discourses upon the Beatitudes of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To which are added , Reflections upon a late Essay concerning Humane Understanding . Vol. I. the third Edition , in 8 o. Practical Discourses upon several Divine Subjects . Vol. II. Practical Discourses upon several Divine Subjects . Vol. III. Letters Philosophical , Moral , and Divine , to the Reverend Mr. Iohn Norris , with his Answers in 8 o. Treatises upon several Subjects : Formerly Printed singly , now collected into one Volume , in 8 o. large . An Account of Reason and Faith , in relation to the Mysteries of Christianity , in 8 o. large . These eight writ by the Reverend Mr. John Norris , Rector of Bemerton near Sarum . A Treatise of Sacramental Covenanting with Christ. Shewing the Ungodly their Contempt of Christ , in their Contempt of the Sacramental Covenanting : With a Preface chiefly designed for the satisfaction of Dissenters ; and to exhort all Men to Peace and Unity ; in 8 o. An Explication of the Creed , the 10 Commandments and the Lord's Prayer , with the Addition of some Forms of Prayer , Price 1s . 6d . A Dialogue betwixt two Protestants ( in answer to a Popish Catechism , called , a short Catechism against the Sectaries ) plainly shewing , that the Members of the Church of England are no Sectaries , but true Catholicks , in 8 o. price 2s . Poetick Miscellanies , in 8 o. price 1s . 6d . The Christian Monitor , the Nineteenth Edition , price 3d. having already sold 95 Thousand ; and those that are charitably disposed may have them for 20s . the hundred , and so proportionably for a smaller quantity . These five writ by the Reverend Mr. Jo. Rawlet . An Essay concerning Humane Understanding , in four Books , the third Edition , with large Additions , by Io. Locke Gent. Folio . Malebranch's Search after Truth , compleat in 2 Vol. 8 o. to the 2 d. is added the Author's Defence against the Accusations of M. de la Ville . Also the Life of F : Malebranch . Done out of French by Mr. Sault . Christian Conferences , demonstrating the Truth of the Christian Religion and Morality . By F. Malebranch . Practical Discourses on the Pararables of our blessed Saviour . By F. Bragge Vicar of Hitchin in Hertfordshire . A New Voyage into Italy , with necessary Instructions for those who undertake the same , by Max. Misson , in 2 Vol. Done out of French , and illustrated with Sculp . The Roman History , from the building of the City to the perfect ●ettlement of the Empire by Augustus Caesar. By Sa. Echard , the 2 d. Edition with Amendments . A full , large and general Phrase Book . By VV. Robertson A. M. price 5s . bound . Reflections on the good Temp● and fair Dealing of the Animadve●ter upon D. Sherlock's Vindication or the Holy Trinity , 4 o. price 6d . Essays of Michael Seignieur de Montaigne , in 3 Books . Done into English by C. Cotton Esq in three Vol. A Sermon concerning the Excellency and Usefulness of the Common Prayer . By VV. Beveridge , D. D. the Eleventh Edition , price 3d Those that are Charitably disposed may have them for 20s . the hundred . — His Sermon before the Queen , price 6d . A new Voyage to the Levant , containing remarkable Curiosities in Germany , France , Italy , Malta & Turkey , by the Sieur de Mont. The second Edition , price 5s . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A52412-e850 * See Mrs. Bourignon 's Works at large ▪ particularly Vol. 7. Part 2d . pag. 193. As also Mr. Poiret 's Oeconomic Divine Vol. 5. p. 338. Luk. 18. 8. Rom. 11. 19 , 20 , 21 , 22. Ioh. 15. 2. 2 Tim. 3. 2 Pet. 2. In the Preface to his Metaphysical Meditat. Notes for div A52412-e1770 Philoso . contract . p. 242. Recherche de la Veritè . Liv. 1. p. 10. Notes for div A52412-e3300 2 Tim. 1. 12. 22 ● . Q. 1. Art. 1. Chap. 7. Artic. 9. Tom. 9. p. 107. 2 Pet. 5. Heb. 11. 1. 2 Thes. 2. 4. Heb. 11. 8. Joh. 〈◊〉 40. Notes for div A52412-e5250 Avis Stir le Table●● du Socinianisme . Traité 1. pag. 14 ▪ Notes for div A52412-e6500 L' Art de Penser . p. 432. Cogit . Rational . de Deo , p. 296. Mr. Malebranche . * Veritas immortalis est , veritas incommutabilis est , veritas illud verbum est de quo dicitur in principio erat verbum , & verbum erat apud Deum & Deus erat verbum . S. Austin in Psal. 123. Iob 11. 7. Psal. 97. 2. Rom. 11. 33. * I the rather Instance in the Divine Immensity , because the D●vout Psalmist does herein parti●ularize his Ignorance , making it the Subject of his Astonishment rather than his Curiosity . Such Knowledge is too wonderful for me , it is high , I cannot attain unto it , Psal. 139. ●erardi de Vries Prasessoris V●tra● 〈◊〉 , exercitationes rationales de Deo , Divinisque Perfectoinibus Pag. 248. Notes for div A52412-e8960 Psal. 4. Le Clerks Physics . Pag. 14. Notes for div A52412-e9630 〈…〉 Recherche de la Verité . Tom. 2. p. 165. 〈…〉 . Notes for div A52412-e10660 Psal. 32. 10. Notes for div A52412-e11050 〈…〉 . Christianity not My●ter ▪ p. 90. Serm. of the Mysteries of the Christian Faith. Notes for div A52412-e11270 Life of Christ , p. 184. 1 Cor. 2. 9 , 10. 1 Pet. 1. 12. Notes for div A52412-e12430 p. 379. 
A61545	----	A discourse concerning the nature and grounds of the certainty of faith in answer to J.S., his Catholick letters / by Edw. Stillingfleet ... Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. 1688 Approx. 234 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 66 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A61545 Wing S5582 ESTC R14787 12719427 ocm 12719427 66277 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A61545) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 66277) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 369:12) A discourse concerning the nature and grounds of the certainty of faith in answer to J.S., his Catholick letters / by Edw. Stillingfleet ... Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. [8], 116, [2] p. Printed for Henry Mortlock ..., London : 1688. A reply to John Sergeant's Letter, 1687, and others of his works. Half-title: Dr. Stillingfleet's answer to J.S.'s Catholick letters. Another copy bound with Stillingfleet's A letter to Mr. G., 1687. Errata: p. [8]. Advertisements: p. [2] at end. Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Sergeant, John, 1622-1707. -- Second Catholick letter. Faith -- Early works to 1800. 2004-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-03 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-11 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2004-11 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Dr. Stillingfleet's ANSWER TO J. S's Catholick Letters . Imprimatur , Liber cui Titulus , A Discourse Concerning the Nature and Grounds of the Cerrainty of Faith , &c. Jan. 5. 1687. H. Maurice , Rmo in Christo , P. D. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cantuariensi , a Sacris . A DISCOURSE Concerning the Nature and Grounds OF THE CERTAINTY OF FAITH , IN ANSWER To J. S. his Catholick Letters . By EDW. STILLINGFLEET , D. D. Dean of St. Pauls . LONDON : Printed for Henry Mortlock , at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-Yard , MDCLXXXVIII . THE CONTENTS THe Title of Catholick Letters Examin'd Page 1 How J. S. comes to be concerned in this Debate 3 His Doctrine denied to be Catholick by the Sorbon Doctors and others 5 His Self-Contradiction about it in seven Particulars 7 The State of the present Controversie about the Certainty of Faith 15 How it is altered by J. S. 25 Of the Certainty of Particular Points of Faith 27 The Grounds of the Certainty of Faith laid down by the General Consent of the School-Divines 31 J. S's main Argument against our Certainty of Faith Answer'd and Retorted 34 An Evident Proof of the Certainty of Faith without Infallibility 37 The Notion of a Rule of Faith Explained 38 The Sense of Tradition may be mistaken as well as Scripture 43 The Instances of it defended 44 The Second Argument , about Fallible Certainty , Answer'd . 49 The Third , about our Rule of Faith , being common to all Heresies , Answer'd 50 The Fourth , about making our Private Judgment our Rule , Answer'd 53 The Fifth , about Judgment of Discretion Consider'd and Answer'd 54 How far the Scripture is a Rule to our People 55 What Certainty they have as to things necessary to Salvation 61 What Judgment of Discretion allowed by him 62 That it doth not serve only to find an Infallible Authority proved at large 64 His severe Conclusion of his Third Letter Answer'd 69 The Answer to the Argument summ'd up 71 The Sixth Argument about the Apostles not using a Written Rule in their Preaching , Answer'd 73 The Seventh , about Points necessary to Salvation , Answer'd 74 The Similitude of the Purse defended 76 Scripture owned to be a Rule of Faith ( though not complete ) by the Divines of the Church of Rome 78 And that all Points simply necessary are therein contained 81 J. S. his Concession that all Points are not necessary to all Persons 83 Some Mens Vncertainty overthrows not the Certainty of Others 85 The Eighth Argument about the Certainty of the Letter of Scripture 86 J. S. overthrows it , by allowing it to be corrected by the Sense of the Faithful 87 The Grounds of our Certainty laid down 89 Of Human and Divine Faith 91 The Last Argument , about the Number of Canonical Books , Answer'd 92 No Books of the New Testament lost 93 How the Canon was entire in the First Ages 95 Of the Vniversal Consent of all Christian Churches 97 The Demonstration for Oral Tradition laid down 100 The Instance of the Greek Church not Answer'd 101 The Argument it self consider'd 104 A clear and distinct Answer given to it , and its notorious Fallacy laid open 105 How Errors might come into the Church 109 The late Instance of Molinos produced 109 , 110 Many other Causes of Errors besides Forgetfulness and Malice set down ibid. The Charge of Pelagianism defended against J. S. 113 Of the Council of Trents Proceeding on Tradition 115 The Proof that it did not , referr'd to another Discourse 116 ERRATA . PAge 16. line 9. for as Mr. G. read as Mr. S. p. 32. Marg. for 9.6 . times , r. q. for 19.9 . r. 1 , 2. q. ibid. Marg. l. 9. for the 2 d. 13. r. A. 10. p. 62. l. 23. r. and how far , and. p. 105. l. 15. blot out not before really , l. 16. add not after are . A DISCOURSE Concerning the NATURE & GROUNDS OF THE CERTAINTY OF FAITH , &c. WHEN I published my Two Letters to Mr. G. I had good Reason to expect an Answer from him , who began the Controversie . But it seems he had better Reason to forbear ( and it is not hard to guess at it ) and I am turned over to one , who pretends to write Catholick Letters against me . I have a great and just Reverence for some Catholick Epistles , and believe them written by an Infallible Spirit ; but for these Catholick Letters , though their whole design be Infallibility , yet I cannot find so much as a fair Probability in them . But why must these be call'd Catholick Letters ? Are they written by some Catholick Bishop , to give an Account of his Faith , according to the Custom of the Antient Church ? Is it , that the Doctrine contained in them is undoubtedly Catholick ? So far from it , that I shall make it appear , that no one Church of the Christian World ever own'd it . But , suppose , it had been the Doctrine of the Roman Church , how could this make them Catholick Letters , unless so great a Logician had first proved , that a Part may assume the Denomination of the whole ? But then , why not , Roman Catholick Letters according to the new Style ? There was a Reason for this . J. S. hath not forgotten , how hardly he had lately escaped Censure at Rome , for the Principles contained in them ; and therefore though he hopes they may pass for Catholick here , yet he durst not joyn Roman to Catholick in the Title of his Letters . But how comes J. S. to be concerned in this Controversie with Mr. G. ? The Account he gives of it in the beginning of his First Letter is very pleasant . He saith , He accepted a Commission from Mr. G. to hold his Cards , while he is not in Circumstances to play out his Game himself . I will not examine Mr. G's . Circumstances , nor the Game he plays at ; but methinks , this is no very decent way of expressing the undertaking a Debate about Matters of Faith and Salvation . But in Truth , he makes the business of Infallibility , as he handles it , to be a Matter of Sport and Diversion ; notwithstanding all his Grimaces and Tragical Expressions about it . It is hard to be severe upon a Metaphor ; but , suppose it be allowed ; yet I wonder , of all Men , he should pitch upon J. S. to hold his Cards for him , who had plaid his own so ill , and so much to the dissatisfaction of the leading Men of his own Church . Yet he now appears as brisk and confident , as if he were some New Gamester ; although he produces his old sullied Cards , ( a little wiped ) over again ; and seems to have forgotten the Answer to his Sure Footing , and the Accompt he still owes to the World for it . I know not , how far it agrees with the Laws of Ecclesiastical Chivalry , for one , who hath not defended himself , to appear a Champion for another , especially in the same Cause ; but there is no great Reason to apprehend he should do much for another , who hath done next to nothing for himself . The main Subject of the Debate is , about the Nature and Grounds of the Certainty of Faith ; and the Method I think most natural and effectual to proceed in , is , I. To shew how unfit J. S. of all Men , is to undertake this Cause . II. To settle the true State of the Controversie between us . III. To examine the Reasons he produces against our Grounds of Certainty . IV. To lay open the weakness of his Arguments , on behalf of the Infallibility of Oral and Practical Tradition . I. As to J. S. his appearing in this Cause again , we are to consider , that in his Catholick Letters , he frequently owns Faith vindicated , Reason against Raillery , and Errour nonplust ; and even Sure Footing it self . But I shall now shew , that he disowned the main Principles in those Books , when he was in great danger of being Censured at Rome for them ; and therefore is not to be allow'd to produce them again . The Account of this Matter will give great Light into the state of the present Controversie , and is therefore necessary to be premised to it . Out of those Books of J. S. a considerable Person in the Church of Rome , selected three Propositions about the Grounds of his Infallible Certainty , which were these ; I. That he who is obliged to profess Faith propositions true , must see the Connexion between their Terms , and consequently , that they cannot be unconnected , or false . II. If the two Terms be not seen to be connected , these Propositions may , nay ought to be denyed by the Respondent , whose Office and Right it is to grant nothing but what is evident , lest he ensnare himself . III. 'T is requisite and necessary , that the Assent of Faith in divers particular Believers be formally Infallible , or that those Persons be infallibly certain by evident Reasons , that the Authority or Rule of Faith they rely on , cannot herein deceive them . Else great Wits , and acute Reflecters , whose piercing Vnderstandings require convictive Grounds for their Faith , would remain for ever unsatisfied : nor would the wisest Christians sincerely and heartily assent to , nor with honesty profess the Truth of their Faith , nor could any prove it true , or establish rational doubters in it , or convert Men of exact knowledge to it , or convince Hereticks , calling the Truth of it in question . Nor could Governors and leading Persons with any Conscience or Credit propose and preach the Truth of Faith to the Generality . These Propositions were tender'd to two Doctors of the Sorbon , who declared , The First could not be explained in a Catholick Sense ; and therefore very unfit for Catholick Letters . For if ( say they ) a Person sees the Connexion between the Terms , it would be Science , and not Faith ; it is enough to see them not to be contradictory , or that the Connexion is not repugnant to Reason . Divine Faith is above , not contrary to Reason . As to the Second , they agreed , That neither could that be explained in a Catholick Sense , because it is destructive of Faith , and a Proposition ought not , cannot be denied , although the Respondent hath not Evidence of the Terms of which it consists ; when he otherwise knows the Church ( which Faith [ not Demonstration ] teaches to be Infallible in Matters of Faith ) to propose as a Truth revealed by God. To the Third , they say , That it cannot be explained in a Catholick Sense : Because it is sufficient that the Church be believed by Faith to be Infallible , and it is not requisite that the Infallibility of the Church be proved by evident Reason . See here the main Design of his Catholick Letters declared to be no Catholick Doctrine ; which is to prove that there must be Infallible Certainty by Conclusive Evidence of the Churches Infallibility . And if this be not Catholick Doctrine , I am infallibly certain his Letters are far from being Catholick in their Sense . One of these Doctors writes to the A. B. of D. That the Natural Sense of the Propositions could not be Catholick ; and that all Bishops were bound to suppress this Doctrine , lest it did mischief to the Flock of Christ. And that the A. B. of Paris would revoke his Licence , if the Author did not retract them , as he hoped he would . What ? Retract the Substance of his Catholick Letters ! Is this possible ? And yet again publish the same Doctrine as Catholick ! This is indeed very surprising . But so it was . For the A. B. of D. averrs , That J. S. confessed the Propositions to be Heretical , yea very Heretical ; but he said , they were not taken in his sense ; which the other said , was a ridiculous Plea. He granted , that J. S. might contradict himself , but there was no colour for saying the Propositions were not taken in their true sense . And Mr. S. being requir'd by the A. B. of Paris to Anathematize these Propositions , and to subscribe to the Censure that they could not be explained in a Catholick Sense ; he did it . And yet the sense of them is maintained by him in his Catholick Letters . Is not such a Man fit to hold the Cards for Mr. G. ? who makes the same Doctrine to be Heretical and Catholick , as his Circumstances require . And in his own Language , he goes backwards and forwards , blows and sups , declares for and against the same Principles . This Doctrine of J. S. was complained of at Rome , and a Congregation of Cardinals was appointed to Examine it , and they sent their Instructions about it to the Popes Nuncio at Paris , where J. S. then was . And therein they took notice , that in his Vindication sent to them , he detested that Doctrine as Heretical , viz. that the Evidence of the Connexion of Predicate and Subject , and the Evidence of the Rule of Faith by which the Believer may be infallibly certain he cannot be deceived , is necessary in order to Faith. I desire the Reader to mark this Declaration which J. S. sent to Rome , and to compare it with the Doctrine of his Catholick Letters : But of that hereafter . But it is worth our while to shew with what a double Face I. S. appeared in his Vindication and Complaint , sent to Rome , and in his Books which he published here . And by that , the Reader may judge of the Catholick Sincerity of the Writer of these Letters . I. About the Faith he designs to demonstrate . Faith Vindicated , Preface . I declare then , that my chief End in this Treatise , is to settle Christian Faith , or to demonstrate , that it must be truly or absolutely certain , and that my applying it now and then to my Opposers , is only a Secondary Intention , and meerly Occasional . Querimonia advers . Lominum . p. 49. He saith , He speaks not of Faith in itself , but as it is controverted among us . The same he affirms p. 145 , 146. that he meddles not with Faith , but with respect to his Adversaries ; or as it is disputed between Catholicks and those he calls Hereticks , p. 148. If it were his design to settle Christian Faith , and to make it truely and absolutely certain , and only secondarily applying it to his Opposers ; how is it possible that at the same time , he should not meddle with Faith in itself , but meerly with respect to his Opposers ? Is not this a brave Undertaker , to make Faith infallibly certain , who so evidently contradicts himself as to his own design ? But it seems , to us he must pretend to make Faith certain in itself ; but at Rome , he meant no more by it , but only to perplex and confound us . As though his Demonstrations were only intended for a sort of Metaphysical Traps to catch Hereticks with . But we are glad to see by his own Confession , that Faith in itself is not made absolutely Certain by them . II. About the Objects of Faith , and the Evidence of them . Reason against Raillery , pag. 55. The strangest and wisest Souls are unapt to assent but upon Evidence : Hence , unless such Men see Proofs absolutely concluding those Points true , they are unapt to be drawn to yield to them , and embrace them as certain Truths — Nothing can rationally subdue the Faculty of suspending , in such Men at least , but True Evidence had from the Object working this clear sight in them , either by itself , or by Effects or Causes necessarily connected with it . Other Evidences I know none . Faith Vindicated , p. 12 , 13. The Truth of Propositions of Faith consists in the Connexion of those Notions which make the Subject and Predicate . Whoever therefore sees not the Connexion between those Notions in the Principle of Faith , sees not the Truth of any of those Propositions — It follows , that he who is obliged to profess Faith-Propositions true , must see the Connexion between those Terms . In his Declaration sent to Rome , p. 11 , 13. he not only expressed his Assent to these Propositions , but That the contrary to them were False , Destructive of Faith , and Heretical , viz. I. That the Objects of Faith are not to be evident or demonstrable by Natural Reasons in order to believing them . II. That in order to the believing such Objects of Faith , conveyed down to us , either by Scripture or Tradition , it is not necessary to know evidently the Connexion of Predicate and Subject , but it is sufficient if they be proposed by the Catholick Church . Now let any Man try how he can reconcile these things ; ( 1 ) Nothing can subdue rationally the Faculty of suspending but true Evidence had from the Object ; and yet it is destructive to Faith , and Heretical to say ; that the Objects of Faith are demonstrable by natural Reasons , in order to believing them . Is not true Evidence from the Object a natural Reason in order to believing ? ( 2 ) He that sees not the Connexion between Predicate and Subject , sees not the Truth of Faith-propositions ; and he who is obliged to profess them , must see it ; and yet , in order to believing Objects of Faith , it is not necessary to see it , nay it is Heretical to assert it . III. About Infallible Assent . Reason against Raillery , p. 113. 'T is most evident therefore and demonstrable , that there is no Certainty , but where there is Infallibility ; and that we can never be said to be truly certain of any thing , till , all Circumstances consider'd , we see ourselves out of possibility of being deceived hic & nunc in that very thing . In his Declaration , p. 11 , 13. he owns this Proposition to be True , and the contrary to be Heretical , viz. That it is not necessary , in order to believing the Objects of Faith , that he that believes , should know evidently his Assent to be Supernatural and Infallible . But if there can be no Certainty of Faith , till we see ourselves out of possibility of being deceived , I should think it very hard to say it was Heretical to assert it was necessary for him that believes to know his Assent to be Infallible . For what difference is there between knowing we cannot be deceived in our Assent , and that it is Infallible ? But here he will hope to escape , by joyning Supernatural to Infallible ; and so he over-reached the Cardinals by putting those together ; for his is nothing but a pure Natural Infallibility . IV. About the Mediums of Faith used by him . Sure footing , p. 172. He rejects Extrinsecal Mediums as insufficient , and requires Intrinsecal . Faith Vindicated , Preface , at the end . He owns his Discourses to be built on Intrinsecal Mediums . Errour Nonplust , p. 169. He requires clear Evidence from the Object , to ground a firm Assent . Page . 170 , 171. He makes it necessary to true Certainty , that it be taken from the Thing or Object . And true Certainty ( he saith ) is built on the Things being as it is , and nothing can ever be truly known to be otherwise than it is . In his Subscription to the Instructions from Rome , p. 12. he denies that he spake of Intrinsecal Requisites to Faith ; but only of Extrinsecal . And this he goes about to prove against his own plain Words , in his Declaration , Sect. 3. pag. 34 , &c. How can Intrinsecal Mediums , and Evidence from the Object , be only Extrinsecal Pre-requisites ? V. About Human and Divine Faith. Faith Vindicated , p. 73. Divine Faith ought to have a far greater degree of Firmness in it , than any Human Faith whatsoever : Wherefore since Human Faith can rise to that degree of stability — Divine Faith being Supernatural , ought to be more firmly grounded ; and consequently more highly impossible to be false . Errour Nonplust , p. 143. He speaks expresly of Divine Faith. In his Vindication , p. 97. He saith , It is Evident that he spake of Faith , formally as Human , and not as formally Divine . What Evidence can there be like a Man's plain Words ? Is not that Divine Faith which he goes about to demonstrate the Infallible Certainty of ? It seems we are all this while to seek for the Certainty of Faith formally Divine ; and all this mighty Noise about the Necessity of Infallibility , reaches no farther than a Faith formally Human. And yet J. S. affirms that he undertook to prove the impossibility of Falshood in Divine and Supernatural Faith. And so it seems Divine and Supernatural Faith must derive its Infallible Certainty from a meer Natural Infallibility . Or if it be but Human Faith he means , then he falls short of what he promised , which was to shew the Infallible Certainty of Divine Faith. And thus the Trap-Maker is catch'd himself . VI. About particular Points of Faith. Errour Nonplust , p. 161. I thought he had meant Certainty of the Points of his Faith. What we are then in Reason to expect from Dr. St. is , that he would bring us Grounds for the Certainty of his Faith , as to determinate Points , viz. Christ's Godhead , a Trinity , &c. Reason against Raillery , p. 167. Seeing then Christians are bound to profess their Faith true , as to those Points of a Trinity , for Example , or Incarnation , &c. it follows , that it must be affirm'd and held that a Trinity or Incarnation absolutely is , and consequently , that it is impossible not to be . Declaration , p. 50. He peremptorily asserts ( and challenges his Adversaries to shew the contrary ) that he produced not one Argument to prove any Points of Doctrine to be Divine , or Supernatural ; but only , that such a Doctrine was delivered by Christ or his Apostles . And this he frequently insists upon , and is the main of his Defence . But why then doth he urge us to produce our Grounds of Certainty as to particular Points , if himself doth not ? If he pretends no more than to prove them in general , why may not we be allowed to do the same ? He that calls upon others to do it , in such an insulting manner , is presumed to do it himself , and if he doth not , he only banters and abuses his Reader . And after all this mighty pretence to Demonstration and Infallibility , the whole Dispute comes to this , whether Men may attain to greater Certainty of Christ's Doctrine by Oral and Practical Traditions than we can do by Scripture , Reason and Tradition ? But this is against his words , where he saith , Seeing then Christians are bound to profess their Faith true , as to those Points of a Trinity , for Example , or Incarnation , &c. it follows , that it must be affirm'd and held that a Trinity or Incarnation absolutely is , and consequently , that it is impossible not to be . VII . About Moral Certainty . His whole Book called Faith vindicated was written against it . And in the Preface to it , p. 3. he opposes absolute Certainty to Moral ; and he saith , those who have it not , have no true Faith. Page 17. True Faith by reason of its immoveable Grounds , can bear an asserting the absolute Impossibility of its falshood . And without this , he makes Faith absurd , preternatural and irrational . Page 34. Moral Certainty is in reality uncertainty ; and the highest degree of Moral Certainty is the lowest degree of Vncertainty , truly so called . The same he asserts , pag. 36 , 86 , 93. Error Nonplust . pag. 195. Fallible Certainty destroys all Efficacy , all Defence , and even Essence of Faith. When I read in Lominus , pag. 43. that I. S. in his Vindication pleaded , that he required no more than Moral Evidence for the Assent and Profession of Faith , I could hardly believe him ; and therefore I was earnest to see what he would say in Answer to this ; but even there , pag. 23. he owns it , and saith expresly , That Moral Evidence is absolutely sufficient to Faith : But withal he saith , There is more than Moral Evidence in Tradition . Let now any indifferent Person compare those Assertions together : If Moral Certainty be Vncertainty , and destroy the Essence of Faith , how can it be absolutely sufficient to Faith ? But besides the Contradiction ; he hath by this one Assertion overthrown the whole Design of his Catholick Letters . For , if true Faith may be had without Infallible Certainty , what need any such contending about it ? For the Ground of the Dispute is about such Faith as is necessary to Salvation ; and if true Faith , as J. S. grants , which is necessary to Salvation , may be had without their pretended Infallibility ; there is no Colour left for pressing Persons of our Communion to forsake our Church , because we cannot have Infallible Certainty of Faith , when themselves grant that we may be saved without it . And what Sincerity is to be expected from such a Man , who makes such out-cries upon us , for want of Infallible Certainty for Faith , when himself Confesses , that Moral Certainty is sufficient to Faith ? what ever becomes of Moral Certainty , I love Moral Honesty ; and I cannot see how it is consistent with it , to make such mighty pretences to the Necessity of Infallible Certainty for Faith , even in his Catholick Letters ( which seems to be the chief Design of them , ) when himself had declared to the Cardinals at Rome , that less than that is sufficient for true Faith. But the secret of it is , he knows well enough , there is no such Necessity for Infallible Certainty ; and when it will bring him off , he can own it ; but among us Hereticks , they must bluster and make a mighty noise about it ; because it startles weak and injudicious People ; and they find nothing so apt to terrifie and confound them like Infallibility ; which like a Flash of Lightning doth not help them to see better , but strikes them down with Horror and Astonishment . And here I might fairly stop and send the Reader to J. S. for an effectual Answer to his own Letters ; or at least to shew ; how very unfit he was after such going forward , and backwards in this matter , to undertake this Cause . 2. But lest I should seem to decline any thing which may seem material , I shall now proceed to state the Controversie , as it lies between Mr. S. and me . For , what concerns another Person , I shall leave it to himself , as not standing in need of any Assistance from me . The Occasion of the Conference was set down by Mr. M. to have been , That Mr. G. affirmed in some Companies , that no Protestant could shew any Ground of Absolute Certainty for their Faith ; and that Mr. S. had promised him , that if I were not able to manifest the contrary , he would forsake our Communion . So that Mr. G. was the Aggressor by laying this charge upon us , That we could shew no Ground of Absolute Certainty for our Faith. And therefore when in the Conference I assigned the Scripture for the Ground and Rule of our Faith , and universal Tradition for the Proof of the Books of Scripture , I had Reason in my Expostulatory Letter to Mr. G. , to desire of him to shew , That we have no absolute Certainty of the Rule of our Faith , viz. the Scripture , although we have a larger and firmer Tradition for it , than you can have for the Points in difference between us . This plainly relates to the Conference , wherein Scripture was own'd to be our Rule , and Vniversal Tradition , the Evidence on which we receive the Books . And to any Man of Sense , this is not Shifting and Tricking off the Proof to Mr. G. as Mr. G. often calls it ; but it is a plain and evident Proof of our Certainty upon their own Grounds . For , if Tradition be such a Ground of Absolute Certainty , as they assert , and we have a larger and firmer Tradition for Scripture , than they can produce for the Points of Faith in difference between us ; then it is evident we must have , upon their own Principles , a Ground of Absolute Certainty for our Faith ; which was the main Point of the Conference . If he will Answer the Argument , he must either deny that we have Vniversal Tradition for the Books of Scripture , or that Vniversal Tradition is a Ground for the Absolute Certainty of Faith ? Either of these ways he had said something to the purpose ; but he found this way of Reasoning too hot for him ; and therefore , he calls it Shifting and Tricking off the Proof to Mr. G. and so falls into a Tragical Declamation against my not proving , and making a Secret of the Ground of our Certainty ; as if a Man intended to make a Secret of a Horse he had lost , when he published his Marks in the Gazett . Here is the Ground of our Certainty laid down in that very place , where he saith , I shift off the Proof to Mr. G. but alas for him ! He cannot see any thing like a Proof , unless it be serv'd up , with all its due formalities of Major , Minor and Conclusion . Must I be forced to tell him , as the Painters did by ill Pictures , This is a Horse , and this a Wolf ? This is an Argument , and this an Answer ? It is a hard Case if a Man cannot understand Reason , unless like Scaliger's Jests against Cardan , there be something in the Margin to direct where they are to be found . All Men of Sense understand the force of an Argument , though it be not dressed up after the way of the Schools ; and to tye Men up to those Methods of Reasoning in our Age in Books of Controversie , is like Trammelling a Horse , when he is to go a Journey ; it might do well to teach him to pace , but it would be ridiculous , when he is upon Service . Upon this he runs out into a very Eloquent piece of Trifling , making sad Moans and Complaints with many Exaggerations , and great variety of Phrases , As if I offer'd no kind of Certainty to Mens Souls , but only that I bid those that doubt prove the contrary ; and so brings notable parallels of Peters having twenty pounds in his Purse , because Paul cannot prove he hath it not ; or his having the more Title to an Estate , because an Adversary may have the ill luck to be Nonsuited . I know not how Mr. G. will take these things ; for they do not seem much to his Advantage . If I were as he , I would never trust him to play my Cards more ; for what means this insinuation of Nonsuiting , & c ? But Mr. S. is plainly mistaken , for the force of it doth not depend upon his bare Nonsuiting ; but upon the Goodness of the Deeds , and the Strength of the Evidence , which himself relied upon , and appear much stronger for us than for him . It is not Pauls not proving , but Peters producing the twenty pounds , and laying it before him , which is the Argument to prove he hath it . Suppose he did not produce it in Specie , but shewed good Security for it , such as Paul could not deny , had he not reason to believe he was owner of it ? There being so little colour in the Reasoning Part , I pass over the Declamatory , as fitter for the School at the Savoy , than a Writer of Controversies . But here comes in , among his Flowers , a very notable Point of Divinity . Truth is therefore Truth , because it is built on Intrinsecal Grounds which prove it to be such ; and not on private Mens Abilities , or their saying this or that . This latter is undoubtedly true , and is universally believed , since the School of Pythagoras was broken up : Wherefore till those Grounds be produced , it cannot be with Reason held Truth . This is great ; and becoming the Scientifical I. S. But will he hold to this ? Will he own it to the Cardinals of the Inquisition ? I find a certain Gentleman with the very fame Letters , J. S. writing two whole Sections , wherein he denies that ever he medled with Intrinsic Mediums , or that it was possible that he should . But P. T. was then living , and followed him close at Rome ; now that fright is over , out come Intrinsic Grounds again ; and no Man can hold any thing as Truth , till those Grounds be produced . Suppose a Man assents to the Doctrine of Faith , as True and Divine on meerly Extrinsecal Grounds , or Motives of Credibility ; hath this Man true Faith or not ? Is he bound to hold and profess it to be true , though he doth not see the Intrinsecal Grounds which prove Truth to be Truth ? Doth that Man sin , who professes to believe a thing to be true , though he doth not see the Intrinsic Grounds for it ? What kind of sin is it , Mortal , or Venial ? How far may a Man safely deny that which he cannot with Reason hold to be true ? How many thousand Martyrs Lives , might this Doctrine have saved in the Primitive Times ? How might the poor Innocent Christians have pleaded for themselves ; That they could see no Intrinsic Grounds , which made Truth to be Truth ; and they understood from a deep Divine , that till those Grounds be produced , it cannot with Reason be held Truth ; and if it cannot with Reason be held , it may surely in our very hard Circumstances , with Reason , be denied , or at least concealed and dissembled . There seems to be more danger in professing the Faith without it ; than in not owning it , being not able to produce Intrinsic Grounds for it . And these are far above our reach and capacity ; and if it cannot with Reason be held Truth without it , it seems very unreasonable to require us to dye for it . What saith J. S. to the Case of the Jews , who heard our Saviours Doctrine , and saw his Miracles , did they sin in their Infidelity or not ? It will be very hard for him prove , that they saw Intrinsic Grounds for what they were required to believe ; and yet our Saviour charges them with very great Sin in their Infidelity . I hope Mr. S. will not answer me , about these things , as he did some in the Conference at Paris , with , Tace , Tace , interrumpis & confundis me . This very Instance of the Jews was then brought against him by Dr. G. and he said , That only those Jews sinned , who had clear Evidence that Christs Miracles were true and Supernatural . But A. B. of D. then urged , That if they had such Evidence , they could not have inward Vnbelief , nor call in Question the Truth or Divinity of Christ and his Miracles . To which J. S. replied , Tace , nolo tibi Respondere . I hope he is better provided of an Answer now , and that he will shew , wherein the sin of the Jews lay , who did not profess Christ's Doctrine to be true , because they could not produce any Intrinsic Grounds for the Truth of it . But to return to our first Controversie , About the Certainty of Faith to be proved by us . He tells me , that I know well enough , that to prove Protestants have no Absolute Certainty of their Faith is no hard Task even for a weak Man ; I know , he saith , that any Man may find it confessed to his hands by Protestants ; and in the Margin he cites , Dr. Tillotsons Rule of Faith , pag. 117 , 118. I wonder at Mr. S's . Courage , that he dares mention that Book , to which he hath so many years been indebted for an Answer , and what he hath offer'd towards it in Faith Vindicated , and Reason against Raillery , he hath again retracted as to the main Principles of them , for fear of a Censure at Rome ; and which he advanced out of opposition to those of that Book which he quotes here . So that J. S. by disowning those Principles of his , hath justified Dr. T. and hath overthrown the Absolute Certainty of his own Faith. For I have already proved from his own words , That he owns Moral Evidence to be absolutely sufficient for Faith ; and yet this is the very thing from whence he proves that Protestants have confessed that they have no Absolute Certainty of their Faith. But if this Matter were to be decided by the Confession of Parties , what thinks he of those of the Church of Rome , who have charged his Doctrine about Infallible Certainty , with downright Heresie and Impiety , and that it leads to Atheism and Infidelity , and overthrows the Christian Faith ? This we are told is the sense of all the Learned and Orthodox Men of your Church . Let the Reader judge what J. S. hath gotten by the Confession of Parties . I hope now we shall come to the State of the Question ; for he charges me with perverting it : The First Question ( he saith ) at the Conference , was , Whether Protestants are absolutely Certain , that they hold now the same Tenets in Faith and all that our Saviour taught to his Apostles . And my Answer , he saith , was , They are . By his favour , my Answer was not in those words , but that we are absolutely certain that we now hold all the same Doctrine that was taught by Christ and his Apostles . And for a certain Reason , I desire my own Words may express my Mind ; for I do not find Oral Tradition Infallible ; and where Words are varied , the Sense may be so too . But he observes , that I trick it off again , as he calls it , ( I suppose it is Gamesters Language , ) from the Point of Absolute Certainty of Faith , to Absolute Certainty of the Rule of Faith , viz. the Scripture ; but our Saviour and Protestants believe more than that the Book so called , is Scripture . Is Certainty of this more , and Certainty of this Book , all one ? Here is then an enquiry after one thing , plainly turned off to another . It seems Mr. G. is quite gone for a Gamester ; for he discerned no Tricking in this matter , nor can I. It is very true , we do believe More , than that the Book so called is Scripture ; for we believe All the Matters of Faith contained in that Book . And what then ? If by his More , he means Articles of Faith not contained in Scripture ; then I tell him plainly , we believe no More . And therefore when Mr. G. put his next Question , as he thought very pertinently , By what Certain Rule do you hold it ? My Answer was , By the Divine Revelation contained in the Writings of the New Testament : Whereby I excluded his More , if it be not contained in Scripture . But if by More , he means our Assent to the Points of Faith contained in Scripture , I shall give a full Answer to it afterwards . Then he asked , By what Certain Rule do you know that the New Testament , which we now have , does contain all the Divine Revelations of Christ and his Apostles ? And if he puts such Questions concerning the Rule , What Tricking was it in me , to give a direct Answer to them ? How did I turn off the Enquiry from one thing to another , when I only Answered the Questions he proposed ? This is not playing Mr. G 's Cards , but condemning him for playing unskilfully ; and desiring to begin a new Game ; for Mr. G. had a bad hand , and managed it very ill . But what would J. S. have done ? The thing to be made manifest by the Conference , was , the Absolute Certainty of Protestant Faith. And so it was ; for Protestant Faith is to believe all that is contained in Scripture , and no more . Mr. G. did indeed ask some Questions about your Certainty of your Rule ; and I gave him direct Answers . Where is the Tricking in all this ? But I wisely cut off the Course of the Questions before they had question'd away the Certainty of Faith. So far otherwise , that I let them alone , till they plainly run away from the business of Certainty to another Question ; and then Mr. T. cut them off , by declaring himself satisfied ; and asking How they could prove the Church of Rome to be Infallible ? But now we are to see how much better the Cards might have been plaid . And now , look ye Gentlemen , the Man of Skill begins the Game . After the Certainty of Scripture from Tradition was admitted , there was no Refusing to admit that Tradition causes Certainty , and makes Faith as certain as Scripture . See the difference of these two Gamesters at Tradition ! But what if I should yield him , that I will not refuse to give my Assent to any Point of Faith , which comes down to us from the Apostles Times with as large and as firm a Tradition as the Scripture ? Then ( saith he ) it would have proved something difficult to satisfie even a willing Man , that the Faith is certain which is opposed to a Faith come down by Tradition . Something difficult ! Nay very much so , without doubt . But this is fairly to suppose , that you have as Vniversal a Tradition for your Tridentine Faith , as we have for the Scripture ; but this I utterly deny ; and I hope in another Treatise to shew , I have not done it without Reason . Let the Matter of Tradition itself , as a Rule of Faith , be one of these Points . If there were a Constant Vniversal Tradition in the Christian Church from the Apostolical Times , that there were Matters of Faith necessary to Salvation not contained in Scripture , I grant that it would be difficult , to prove it to be a Matter of Faith that Scripture alone is our Rule of Faith. But that is the mighty Advantage of our Cause , that we have both Scripture and Tradition for us ; and that no Catholick Tradition can be produced against us , in any one Point of the Additional Creed of Pius IV. which is the Design I have undertaken , of which I shall suddenly publish the First Part ; and if God gives me Life and Health , I hope to go through the Rest. Well ; but in the mean time , Absolute Certainty of Scripture was not the Point of the Conference . Can J. S. tell better than the Managers ? His meaning is , it ought not to have been . Nor is it the Point of Concern . This is strange . Not the Point of Concern to those that own it to be the Word of God , and the only Rule of Faith ! It is of Infinite Concern to us ; if it be not to you , I pity you for it . Besides that , it is agreed on all hands , Men are saved by Believing and Practising what Christ taught , not barely by believing Scripture is Scripture . This is no New Speculation ; But what follows from it ? Therefore we ought to believe Christ's Doctrine contained in Scripture , and obey his Commands ; and do I give the least Intimation against this ? But , the Question was about our Rule of Faith , and that I still think is the Scripture ; and whatever is contained therein , is to be believed on that Account . But Salvation is the thing that imports us in these Disputes , and 't were well if nothing else were minded by Disputers . And so think I too . I desire no more to end our Controversies , than to make Salvation our End , and the Scripture our Rule . But how can Salvation be the thing that imports us in these Disputes , if Men cannot with Reason hold any thing true , unless they can produce the Intrinsecal Grounds which prove it to be so ? Doth Mr. S. in earnest think , that none are saved but Metaphysical Speculators , that perch upon the specifick Nature of Things , and dig into the Intrinsecal Grounds of Truth ? If this be his Opinion , How few can be saved ! But if Salvation be the End , the Means must be suitable to the Capacity of Mankind ; and I do not think , the Intrinsecal Grounds of Truth are so . But aftey all , he saith , that I stifle any further talk of the Certainty of Protestent Faith. How can that be , when I own no Protestant Faith but what is contained in Scripture , or may be deduced from it ; according to the Sixth Article of our Church . I am not conscious to myself of any Art in the matter , which he charges me with ; and he saith , I avoid what cannot be performed . What is that ? To make out that Protestants are absolutely certain that they now hold all the same Doctrine that was taught by Christ and his Apostles . If all that Doctrine be contained in Scripture , and they hold the Scripture by Grounds of Absolute Certainty , then Protestants must be certain that they hold all the same Doctrine that was taught by Christ and his Apostles . Afterwards Mr. S. starts something that comes nearer to the business ; which is , that Certainty of Faith and Certainty of Scripture , are two things : For those who have as much Certainty of Scripture as we , may have not only an Vncertain but a Wrong Faith ; and therefore I am concerned to shew , not only that Protestants have Certainty of their Rule , but of the Faith which they pretend to have from that Rule : That which I am now upon , is to settle the true State of the Controversie about the Certainty of Faith. In the Conference , my first Answer was , that , We are absolutely Certain that we now hold all the same Doctrine , that was taught by Christ and his Apostles . And when the Question was asked , By what Certain Rule do we hold it ? I answer'd , By the Divine Revelation contained in the Writings of the New Testament . So that the Certainty of Scripture was that which I was obliged to answer to . Now comes J. S. and he finds fault with Mr. G's management ; because he asked Questions about the Certainty of the Rule ; whereas he ought to have gone another Way to work . So that now Mr. G. is given up , and a New Controversie is begun upon other Grounds ; and the Words which I used with Respect to the Rule , are applied to particular Doctrines . He saith , The Certainty of Scripture was not the Point for which the Conference was . How comes he to know better than Mr. G. unless he directed the Point , and Mr. G. mistook and lost it in the Management ? But I am now bound to manifest , that Protestants have Absolute Certainty , not only of the Scripture , as the Rule , but of the Faith they have from that Rule , or else to own that I cannot . It seems Mr. G's good Nature betray'd him , when he asked Questions about the Rule of Faith ; and so the main Point was lost . Yet methinks it was not meer good Nature in Mr. G. For , when we are asked , about the Grounds and Certainty of our Faith , how is it possible we should answer more pertinently , than to assign the Rule of our Faith ? And we declare it to be the Scripture , by which we judge what we are to believe , and what not . And therefore if any ask us of the Matter of our Faith , we must answer , It is whatever God hath revealed in the Scripture which is our Rule . If they ask us , How we come to know these Books to be written by such Persons , we say , It is by the Vniversal Tradition of the Christian Churches . If they ask us , Why we believe the Doctrine contained in those Books , then our Answer is , From the Divine Testimonies , which make us certain that it came from God. And thus we answer both to that which is called , the Material and Formal Object of Faith ; and if we are absolutely Certain of these , we must be so of our Faith. If we ask a Jew about the Certainty of his Faith , he saith , he is Certain of it , because all his Faith is contained in the Books of Moses , and he is well assured they were written by Divine Inspiration . If we ask a Mahometan , of his Faith , his Answer is , That his Faith is contained in the Alcoran ; and by proving that , he proves the Certainty of his Faith ; and if that be disproved , the Certainty of it is overthrown . Those who resolve their Faith into a Written Rule , must go thither , when Questions are asked them about the Certainty of their Faith. For , if I believe every thing in it , and nothing but what is in it , there lies my Faith , and the Certainty of it depends upon the Certainty of my Rule . But I must shew the Certainty of the Faith of Protestants , as it is pretended to be taken from the Rule . Not certainly , when the Question is asked about the entire Object of our Faith , or when we are to shew how we hold all the same Doctrine that was taught by Christ and his Apostles ; for the word All makes it necessary for us to Assign our Rule wherein that All is contained . If he ask us of the Certainty of any particular Point of our Faith , then we are to make it out , that this is contained in our Rule ; and our Certainty is according to the Evidence we are able to produce for it . For the Case is not the same , as to particular Points of Faith , with that of the General Grounds of the Certainty of Faith. A Jew firmly believes all that is contained in the Books of Moses , and with the highest Degree of Certainty ; but whether the Resurrection can be proved certainly from those Books , is a particular Point ; and he may have Absolute Certainty of all contained in those Books , though he may not have it , as to such a Particular Point . And when we come to Particular Points , their Case is not only different from the General Rule of Faith , but such Points are very different both among themselves , and as to the Certainty of them . For , ( 1 ) There are some Points of Faith , which were necessary to be Revealed , because they were necessary to be Believed , in order to our Salvation by Jesus Christ. For as Mr. S. saith , Salvation is the thing of greatest Importance ; and therefore on Supposition , that it is to be by Jesus Christ , the Nature of the thing requires , that we have a firm and established Faith in him . And of these Points of Faith , the Church hath given a Summary in the Creeds which were proposed to those who were to be Baptized ; and not only St. Augustin , but Aquinas saith , these were taken out of Scripture ; and the Certainty of them to us , doth depend not upon the Authority of the Church proposing them ; but the Evidence of Scripture for them , which is very much confirmed to us by the Concurrent Testimony of the Christian Church in all Ages , from the Apostles times , i. e. as to the main Articles ; for that there was a great variety , as to others , is evident to any one who will compare the Ancient Creeds , as I have lately shewed . And these main Articles are those which Aquinas calls the prima Credibilia ; which are therefore revealed , because necessary to be believed by all that hope for Salvation by Jesus Christ. II. There are other Points of Faith , which are only necessary to be believed , because they are so clearly revealed ; As that Cajaphas was High Priest when Christ suffer'd ; that there were two Malefactors who suffer'd with him ; that he was buried in Joseph of Arimathea's Sepulchre ; no Man who believes the Scripture can doubt of these things ; and yet we do not make these Points of Faith in themselves necessary , because they have no immediate Reference to Salvation , which might have been as effectually carried on , if there had been another High Priest , or Christ had lain in another Sepulchre . But in these Points there is an absolute Certainty from the unquestionable Evidence of their being contained in Scripture . III. There are doctrinal points not necessary to Salvation , about which some may attain to a greater Degree of Certainty than others . And the same Measure is not required of all ; Because Mens Capacities are not equal , if they do use equal Diligence ; and all are not obliged to the same Degrees of Diligence that some are . As to the Points necessary to Salvation , God is not wanting by his Grace to make them known to Men of honest and sincere Minds . And this is no peculiar Doctrine of mine , as J. S. would insinuate , but it hath been the constant Doctrine of their most Learned and Judicious School-Divines ; as is evident from what they speak of the Donum Intellectus , and the Lumen Fidei , which secure Men from Errour in what concerns their Salvation . If he hath therefore such an Inveterate Spleen against this Doctrine , let him attaque the greatest Divines of the Church of Rome , who have in terms asserted the same , which I have done . And I would fain see J. S. demonstrating against Aquinas , and all his followers , That there is no such Security from Errour in Points necessary to Salvation , where ever God bestows true Grace . As to Points not necessary to Salvation , I do not affirm , there is any such Ground of Absolute Certainty , as to particular Persons , who are only concerned as to their own Salvation . And that was the Reason of my Answer to the fourth Question . The Universal Testimony of the Christian Church , concerning the Book of Scripture , and the Doctrine contained therein is a sufficient Ground to make us certain of all Matters necessary to our Salvation . But of this more afterwards . It is sufficient here to observe , that even in the Church of Rome , there are Points of Doctrine , which are not de Fide , and consequently the Certainty of Faith is not required to them . And then it is most unreasonable to require the Absolute Certainty of Faith in those things which we deny to be Points of Faith. It is , as if we should ask them what Absolute Certainty of Faith they have , as to the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of the B. Virgin , or the Popes Infallibility , they would tell us , these are no Points of Faith with them , and therefore it is unreasonable to ask after the Absolute Certainty of Faith , where there is no Faith pretended . The same we say , in the like Case , It is very absurd to demand of us the Absolute Certainty of our Faith in such things , wherein we never pretend to a Certainty of Faith ; but of common Sense and Reason proceeding according to the Rule of Scripture . As , if Men impose false and absurd Doctrines upon us , as Transubstantiation ; &c. we insist upon the Common Right of Mankind , not to be required to believe Contradictions ; and the Right of Christians , not to believe , what hath neither Scripture , nor Reason , nor Tradition for it . And these are the Grounds on which we reject the Additional Creed of Pius the Fourth . We make them no Points of Faith at all ; and if others do make them so , we desire to be excused , because it is as certain to us they are not so , as we can be of Negatives : And farther than this we go not in such Points ; and if this be what he means by Protestant Faith , he hath my Answer . IV. The General Reason of the Certainty of Faith in Particular Persons is not from Conclusive Evidence as to the Points of Faith , but from some higher Cause . And this Mr. S. ought to know hath been the constant Doctrine of the Schools ever since Divinity hath been brought into them . I except only one Franciscus de Marchia , who required conclusive Evidence to the Certainty of Faith , but he is disputed against by Gregorius Ariminensis ; and he saith , His Doctrine was condemned by the Faculty of Paris ; and Gregory de Valentia , speaks of him with great Contempt for holding so absurd a Doctrine . The Certainty of Faith is declared by the Antient School-men to be above Opinion , and below Science : by which they understood , the Intrinsic Grounds on which Truth is built ; which Mr. S. makes necessary to the Profession of it . Hugo de Sancto Victore , saith , That the highest Certainty of Faith is owing to a Pious and pure Disposition of the Mind , and an immediate Divine Influence . Petrus Pictaviensis , That it lies not in Evidence , but Adherence . Guliel . Parisiensis , proves Conclusive Evidence repugnant to Faith , in a long Discourse . Gul. Antissiodorensis , thinks rational Evidence good to support and defend the Faith , and to prepare men for it ; But that the Certainty of it lies not in Speculation , but in an Adherence of the Mind to the Prime Verity . Alex. Alensis , saith likewise , its Certainty doth not lie in Speculation , but in inward Affection and Adherence ; there is , he saith , an inferiour sort of Acquisite Faith which relies on Reasons and Testimonies ; but this , he saith , is meerly Natural and Preparatory to Divine Faith. Bonaventure saith , the Certainty of Adherence is beyond that of Speculation , because a Martyr may have doubts , and yet die for his Faith. Thomas Aquinas thinks , those that go about to bring Demonstrations for Faith , expose it to the Scorn and Reproach of Infidels ; and he resolves the inward Certainty of Faith into Divine Illumination ; when the Objection was put , That Matters of Faith could not be resolved into first Principles . Which Mr. S. hath so long and so vainly pretended to . Henricus Gandavensis saith , There is a Certainty of Adherence in the habit of Faith ; and that the Evidence of Credibility falls much short of that of Science ; and he makes Scripture the Rule , whereby we are to judge of the Doctrine of the present Church , and of all Ages succeeding the Apostles . Scotus distinguisheth between Acquisite and Human Faith , and Divine or Infused Faith ; but he denies any Infallibility to belong to the former . Durandus denies Faith to be consistent with Conclusive Evidence ; and that the Motives of Credibility affords such Evidence , because that necessitates Assent . And it is observable , that he resolves Faith not into the Testimony of the present , but of the Apostolical Church . I need produce no more , to shew what a Stranger Mr. S. is to the Doctrine of his own Church ; or else what an obstinate Opposer he is of it . But this is sufficient to shew what Grounds of the Certainty of Faith are allowed by the Chief Divines of the Church of Rome , and how very different they are from those of the Catholick Letters . To summ up briefly therefore the State of this Controversie about the Certainty of our Faith ; I. I assert , That we are Absolutely Certain of the Formal Object of our Faith , viz. that whatever God reveals , is True , and to be professed by us , though we do not see the Intrinsick Grounds of it . II. We are Absolutely Certain of the Infallible Rule of our Faith ; and that All the necessary Points of Faith , in order to the Salvation of Mankind , are therein contained - III. The General Certainty of Divine Faith in true Believers , according to their own Divines , doth not depend upon Conclusive Evidence , or Intrinsick Grounds , but an inward Perception caused by Divine Grace . IV. Particular Points of Faith are more or less Certain , according to the Evidence of their Deduction from Scripture as the Rule of Faith. V. Where any Propositions are imposed as Points of Faith , which others deny , those who impose , are bound to prove the Certainty of them as such , and not those who reject them . And this is our Case as to the Points in Difference between us and those of the Church of Rome : We do not make the Negatives any Points of our Faith , any further than as the Scripture is our Rule , and we cannot be bound consequently to receive any thing as a Point of Faith , but what is contained in it , or deduced from it . But the Church of Rome requiring us to receive them as Points of Faith , is bound to prove the Certainty of them as such . Having thus endeavoured to set this Controversie about the Certainty of Faith in its true Light , I now proceed to consider what Mr. S. doth object against it . And I shall conceal nothing that looks like an Argument . His Raillery I despise , and his Impertinencies I shall pass over . I. That which looks most like an Argument , is , what he hath set out by way of Propositions in his First Letter . 1. God hath left us some way to know what surely Christ and his Apostles taught . 2. Therefore this way must be such , that they who take it , shall arrive by it at the End it was intended for ; i. e. know surely what Christ and his Apostles taught . 3. Scriptures Letter interpretable by Private Judgments , is not that way ; for we experience Presbyterians and Socinians ( for Example ) both take that way , yet differ in such high Fundamentals , as the Trinity and the Godhead of Christ. 4. Therefore Scriptures Letter interpretable by Private Judgments , is not the way left by God to know surely what Christ and his Apostles taught , or surely to arrive at Right Faith. 5. Therefore they who take only that way , cannot by it arrive surely at right Faith , since 't is impossible to arrive at the End , without the means or way that leads to it . Upon setting down this , Mr. S being sensible he had plaid his best Cards , cannot help a little expressing the Satisfaction he had in the Goodness of his Game . I do not ( saith he ) expect any Answer to this Discourse , as short as it is , and as plain , and as nearly as it touches your Copy-hold . Alas for me , that am fallen into the hands of such a Gamester ! But I am resolved to disappoint him , and to give him a clear and full Answer to this shew of Reasoning . And that shall be , by making it appear , I. That it proceeds upon False Suppositions . II. That it destroys any Rule of Faith , even his own admired Oral and Practical Tradition . I. That it proceeds upon False Suppositions . As. 1. That no Certainty can be attained where there is no Infallibility . For if Men may arrive at Certainty where there is a general Possibility of Deception , all this seeming Demonstration comes to nothing . And yet this is a thing all Mankind are agreed in , who allow any such thing as Certainty ; and the contrary Opinion was ( which Mr. S. little thinks ) the very Foundation of Seepticism ; viz. That there could be no Certainty , unless Men could find out such an Infallible Mark of Truth , which could not agree to what was False ; as he might have learned in Cicero's Lucullus , without sending him to Pyrrho's Scholars . And till Zeno and his Disciples pretended to find out this , Scepticism gained little Ground ; but when they yielded to that Principle , That no Certainty was to be had without it , then a mighty Advantage was given them , which they improved accordingly . But the more Judicious Philosophers were forced to quit the Stoicks Infallible Mark , and to proceed upon such Evidence of Perception , and Sense , and Ratiocination , as might in things not Self-evident form an Assent which excludes all reasonable Doubt of the contrary . But still those who pretended to Infallibility , were the most deceived . As Epicurus thought there could be no Certainty in Sense , unless it were made Infallible ; and from hence he ran into that gross Absurdity , that the Sun was really no bigger than he seemed to be to our Senses . For , he went just upon Mr. S. his Principles , If there be a possibility of Deception , there can be no True Certainty ; and to make good this Hypothesis , the Sun must be no bigger than a Bonfire . But the Wiser Philosophers took in the Assistance of Reason , which , though not Infallible , might give such Evidence , as afforded Certainty , where it fell short of Demonstration . As in Physical and Moral things . I grant , that some of those who talked most and best of Demonstration , fell wonderfully short of it , when they came to apply Notions to Things ; and the Demonstrations they made were to little or no purpose , in the promoting of Knowledge , as , that Man is a Rational Creature , &c. But their Physical Speculations are very far from it ; yet this doth not hinder but that a Certainty is attainable as to the Nature of Things . And in Morals , they knew and confessed there could be no Demonstration in them ; yet they professed a true Certainty they had as to the Nature of Happiness , and the real Differences of Vertue and Vice : They owned some Moral Principles to be Absolutely Certain , as that Good is to be chosen , and Evil to be avoided , &c. but in particular Cases , they made use of the best Reason they had , to prove some things Good , and others Evil. And although they could not proceed with equal Certainty in all Vertues and Vices ; yet in some they had clear Evidence , and in others they made use of the best means to give Satisfaction to themselves and others . Thus it is in Matters of Faith , there are some things Absolutely Certain , as , that God cannot deceive us ; that the Scripture is our Rule of Faith ; but then , whether such Points be contained in that Rule and be of Divine Revelation , is not Self-evident ; and therefore these must be deduced by all the best Methods of Reasoning from a written Rule ; and when Persons have examined the Scripture with all the Care and Diligence , which one who would arrive at Certainty thinks himself obliged to , then I do affirm , that such a Man may attain to a true Certainty and Satisfaction of Mind about it . And that true Certainty is attainable without Infallibility , I shall prove by an undeniable Instance ( if an Instance willl be allowed ; and I hope I shall make it appear as reasonable for me to produce Instances as himself , ) and that is , concerning a Point of Faith of the greatest Importance , viz. That Jesus Christ was the true Messias foretold by the Prophets . The Proof of this depended on the Interpretation of Scripture ; and there could be no Infallible Interpreter relied upon in this Case . As to Christ himself , although he really was so , yet we suppose the Question to be about him , whether he were an Infallible Teacher or not ; and therefore we must not suppose the thing to be proved . As to the Publick Interpretation , which Mr. S. makes his Infallible Rule , if that were to be relied upon , then a Jew was bound not to believe Christ to be the true Messias , because the Publick Interpretation was against him ; and the Traditional Sense of the Prophecies was against him , being for a Temporal Prince ; I now demand of Mr. S. whether the Jews were capable of Certainty in this Point or not ? If not , then the Jews were excused in their Infidelity : If they were , then true Certainty may be had without an Infallible Guide , although the Publick Interpretation and Tradition be against it . And if it may be had in so difficult a Case , which depended on the Sense of obscure Prophecies ; much more certainly under the clear Revelation of the Gospel ; wherein all Necessary Points are laid down with so much clearness , that the Fault must be more in Mens Wills than their Vnderstandings , if they do not apprehend them . 2. The Second false Supposition is , That a Rule of Faith must be a Mechanical Rule , and not a Rational ; i. e. It must be like a Carpenters Rule , that hath all its Dimensions fixed , and ready to be applied to Material things ; but in matters of Understanding no such Rule is to be expected . The Philosophers who disputed so much about Certainty , would have laughed at any man who had applied a Material Rule to Intellectual things ; yet this is Mr. S's great Example : I take my Ruler , saith he , and draw a Line by it ; does the streightness or crookedness of this Line depend upon my Vnderstanding ? By no means . But is there any such Intellectual Rule as this ? There have been great Disputes in the World , among Men of Wit and Subtilty , about the Certainty of Human Knowledg ; Whether any Infallible Criterion could be found to discern Truth and Falshood ? But they never imagined any such thing as an Intellectual Ruler to draw Lines by ; but that there were certain Differences of Truth and Falshood , which men might find out , but not without Diligence and Application of their Minds to it . And notwithstanding the Characters of Truth and Falshood were in themselves Certain , yet it was very possible for Men to mistake about them ; not only for want of Judgment , but of Diligence and Impartiality : So we say here as to a Rule of Faith ; we do not suppose it to be a Material Rule ; i. e. If a Man take the Letter of Scripture , and apply it to any Opinions , he must presently know whether they be true or false ; but it is a Rational and Intellectual Rule , which is absolutely Certain in it self ; and whatever agrees to it is True , and whatever doth not is false : But still there may be mistakes in the Vnderstanding and Applying it ; and therefore Care , and Diligence , and Impartiality , are required ; by which some may attain to that Certainty , which others miss off . As in the Points he mentions of the Presbyterians and Socinians differing about such high Fundamentals , as the Trinity and Godhead of Christ. 1. Why Presbyterians and Socinians , I beseech him ? There is a notable Insinuation in this , as though we of the Church of England were Socinians in those Points ; and none but Papists and Presbyterians were Orthodox in them . But this is an Insinuation which hath as much Folly as Malice in it ; since our solemn and express Declarations , are to the contrary : And he may as well call us Papists as Socinians , since our Writings are as plainly against one , as the other . What our Sense as to these Matters is , he may find in the Dialogues of the Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared ; not long since Published by a Divine of the Church of England . But to pass this over , 2. Suppose the Difference between us and the Socinians , What then ? Both take the same way of Scriptures Letter Interpretable by private Judgments , and yet differ in these Fundamental Points . And what follows ? That the Scripture is no Certain Rule ? By no means . But that the Socinians may err , and certainly do in misinterpreting this Rule . But how can it be a certain Rule , if men that use it may err in using it ? How can Reason be certain in any thing , if Men following Reason may mistake ? How can Arithmetick be a certain way of computation , if Men following the Rules of Arithmetick , may mistake in casting up a sum ? Doth any Man question the Certainty of the Rule , for Mens blundering in their Accompts ? yet this is his way of Reasoning . And I will put it just with his Propositions . I. Arithmetick prescribes a Certain way by Addition and Substraction for us to find out any Sum. II. Therefore it must be such that they who take it , shall arrive by it , at the exact Sum. III. But two Men who have made use of the same way , differ at least a hundred in casting up the Sum. IV. Therefore Arithmetick doth not prescribe a certain way to attain at a Certain Sum. V. Therefore they who take only that way , cannot by it arrive at the Certain Sum. Is not this clear and evident Demonstration ? But those who consider a little better than Mr. S. hath done , will distinguish between the rule and the application of it . The Rule of Arithmetick may be nevertheless Certain , although those who want Skill , or Care and Diligence , may mistake in casting up a particular Accompt . The same we say here , Scripture is a Certain Rule in all Fundamental Points , to such as have Capacity and Use , due Care and Diligence in finding them . But we do not deny , but Men through Prejudice , Weakness , want of Attention , Authority of False Teachers , Impatience of throughly examining things , and not using proper Helps may run into gross Errors ; such as these about the Trinity and Incarnation ; but still the Rule is Certain to those who use it aright , although it be very possible for Men through their own Faults to mistake about it . And this is no way disagreeing to the infinite Wisdom of God , who deals with us as with Rational Creatures ; and hath put Faculties into us , that we might use them in order to the Certainty of our Faith. And such Moral Qualifications are required in the New Testament , in order to the Discerning the Doctrine of it , as Humility of Mind , Purity of Heart , Prayer to God , Sincere Endeavour to do the Will of God ; that it would be very repugnant to the Design of it , to suppose that the Letter of Scripture alone would give a Man immediate and certain Directions in all Matters of Doctrine being applied to it . Therefore an easie Answer is to be given to Mr. S's . great Difficulty , viz. How the Sense drawn from the Letter can any more fail to be true , than the Line drawn by the Rule to be straight . For , we say , that the Sense truly drawn from the Scripture can never fail to be true ; but we do not say , that every Man must draw the True Sense from the Scripture ; for , although the Scripture be an Infallible Rule , yet unless every Man that makes use of it be Infallible , he may mistake in the Application of it . And this to me is so clear , that to make an Infallible Rule in his Sense , he must make every Person that uses it Infallible , or else he may err in the Application of it : But the Right Way , saith Mr. S. will certainly bring a Man to his Journeys End , and the way must needs be a wrong way if it do it not . The Right way will certainly bring them to their Journeys end , if they continue in it ; but here we must consider what is meant by the Journeys End. If by it be understood their Salvation , then we say , that those who do their utmost endeavours to keep in that way , shall not fail of their Journeys End. But if by it be understood the Certain Truth or Falshood of every Opinion tried by the Scripture , then I answer , that although the Sense of Scripture be infallibly true , yet it was not designed as an Infallible Way for us to know the Truth and Falshood of all particular Opinions by . For , as Mr. S. well observes , Salvation is that which chiefly imports us ; and it was for that End the Doctrine of Christ is made known to us , and it is an Infallible Way to it , if Men continue therein ; but for judging the Truth or Falshood of Opinions without respect to Salvation as the End , it was not intended as an Infallible Way to every one that makes use of it ; and therefore it is easie for Men to mistake in judging by it of things it was not design'd for . As if a Man designed to observe all the old Roman Cities and Stations here , and were told the old Roman Way would be a Certain Way to lead him to them , with the help of the Roman Itinerary , if that Man objects , that this will not do , for he cannot find out all the Modern Towns and Villages by this Means , is it not a just and reasonable Answer to say , that is a most Certain way , which leads a Man to that which it was design'd for ; and the Roman way was only intended for Roman Foundations , but it is very unreasonable to find fault with it , because it doth not lead you to all Modern Towns and Villages . So say I here ; the Scripture was designed by Divine Wisdom to make us Wise to Salvation , and thither it will infallibly lead us , if we keep to it ; but if besides this we would know by it such things as are not necessary to Salvation , we blame it for that , which was not in the Original Intention and Design of it . For , when we make use of it to be our Rule of Judgment , meerly as to Truth and Falshood of things not necessary to Salvation ; it is not because it was designed for that End ; but because it is of Divine Revelation , and so is the surest Standard of Divine Truth ; and we are sure there is no other Rule for us to judge besides . From whence we may and ought to reject any Points of Faith imposed upon us , which are neither contained in Scripture , nor can be proved from it . And so it is our positive Rule of Faith , as to all Necessary Articles ; and our Negative Rule as to all pretended Points of Faith , which are not proved from thence . II. I answer , that this Method of Mr. S. will overthrow the Possibility of any Rule of Faith ; because none can be assigned , which it is not possible for Men to misapprehend , and to mistake about it . Let us at present suppose Mr. S. to substitute his Rule of Faith in stead of Scripture , viz. Oral and Practical Tradition . Why may not Men mistake the Sense of Tradition , as well as the Sense of Scripture ? Is Tradition more Infallible in it self ? Is it deliver'd by Persons more Infallible ? Doth it make those to whom it is delivered Infallible ? Why then , may not those who deliver it , and those who receive it , both be mistaken about it ? This I had mention'd in my second Letter , that it was very possible to mistake the Sense and Meaning of Tradition ; and I instanced in that of Christ's being the Son of God ; where the Traditionary Words may be kept and yet an Heretical Sense may be contained under them . Mr. S. answers , That the Sense of the Words and all the rest of Christ's Doctrine is convey'd down by Tradition . This is bravely said , if it could be made out ; and would presently put an End to all Disputes . For if all the Doctrine of Christ be derived down to us in such a manner , that we cannot mistake the Sense of it , we must be all agreed , whether we will or not . For , how can we disagree , if we cannot mistake the Sense of Tradition ? Not while we hold to Tradition . Then it seems it is possible not to hold to Tradition ; and if so , we have found a terrible flaw in Human Nature , that will let in Errors in abundance , viz. that it may grosly err about the Rule of Faith ; yea , so far as to Renounce it . But how is this possible , if the Sense of Tradition be infallibly convey'd ? For is not Traditions being the Rule of Faith any part of it ? We must in Reason suppose this : And if we do so , how can Persons Renounce its being the Rule , while they cannot but believe its being the Rule ? If Men may mistake about Traditions being the Rule of Faith ; why may we not suppose , they may as well mistake about any Points convey'd by it ? For the greatest Security lying in the Rule , there must be more Care taken about that , than about the Points convey'd by it . But let us see how he proves that Men cannot mistake the Sense of Tradition in Particular Points : The force of what he saith , is , That Men were always Men , and Christians were always Christians ; and Mr. S. is always Mr. S. pretending Demonstration , when there is nothing like it . If Men were always Men , they were always apt to be deceived ; and unless Christians by being such are Infallible , they are liable to Mistakes . But the highest means to convey the Sense of Words are to be found in Tradition . I am quite of another Opinion ; I think it the most uncertain way in the World ; and the Corruption of the first Ages of the World are an Evident Proof of it ; when there were all possible Advantages of Tradition , and yet the Principles of Natural Religion were strangely corrupted , although they were plain , easie , few , of the highest Importance , and Men lived so long to inculcate them into the Minds of their Children . If therefore , notwithstanding Tradition , the World might then degenerate into Polytheism and Idolatry ; what absurdity is it to suppose , that notwithstanding Tradition , the Christian Doctrine might be corrupted likewise ? But Mr. S. alledges not only Words but Actions , to determine the Sense of them ; as , that Christ is the Son of God ; by Praying to him , and giving Divine Reverence to Christ without stinting them , or making them scruple , lest they give too much , or commit Idolatry by giving that to a Creature , which is due only to God. And does not this Practice , beyond all possibility of Mistake , insinuate into them , that he is equally to be adored with God the Father , or Co-equal to him , and so not a Creature , but Very God of Very God ? I Answer , I. Would not the very same Reasoning have made the coming in of Idolatry impossible ? For , that there was but one True God , was evident from all Acts of Worship , being given only to Him , as the proper Object of it : How then could Men so foully mistake , as to give proper Divine Worship to any Creature , there being an infinite Distance between God and his Creatures , which every Child could not but know by a constant Tradition from Adam . II. How was it possible that External Acts of Worship should so infallibly prove Christ to be true God , if all External Acts of Worship be of an Equivocal Nature , and receive their Determination from the inward Sense of the Mind ? Did not the Arians use the same External Acts of Worship with others , with respect to Christ ? Where did they ever separate from the Christian Assemblies , on the account of the Worship given to Christ ? If not , how was it possible from thence to prove Christ not to be a Creature ? So that this is very far from putting the Point of the Divinity of Christ beyond the possibility of Mistake . Especially , when Solemn Invocation , which is one of the most natural Parts of Divine Worship , came to be allowed to meer Creatures . All the difference that can be assigned then , must be from Mens Words and Professions , and not from their External Actions . III. The same Divine Reverence was given to Christ in the Apostolical Times , and the utmost Care used to instruct People in the True Doctrine of Christ ; and yet then we find that Persons did Err in the Sense of that Proposition , That Christ is the Son of God. For , even then , the Ebionites and Cerinthians understood it , not in Respect of Nature , but Adoption ; and so did the Artemonites and Samosatenians afterwards . And how can that be proved impossible to be done , which we shew was actually done ? Men did notoriously mistake the Sense of Christ's being the Son of God , when it was received by Tradition ; and yet Mr. S. pretends it cannot be mistaken , if it be so received . Mr. S. still urges , That Faith hath Sense in it ; and it is inconsistent with the Nature of Mankind , not to hold some Sense or other , and with the Nature of Christians , not to instruct their Children in that Sense . And I think Words written have as much Sense in them as Words spoken , and less liable to Mistakes ; there being no such mixtures of the Infirmities of Men in a Written Rule , as in Oral Tradition . But Instances are unlucky things to be brought against Demonstrations , and such is that of the Cerinthians and Artemonites , who pleaded Tradition for their Sense ; and yet they were Men , and pretended to deliver the true Doctrine of Christ to their Disciples . I alledged another Instance , how the Sense of Tradition might be mistaken ; and that was about a Real Presence in the Eucharist , which might be understood in very different Senses . No , saith Mr. S. That cannot be ; for , Faith works on our devout Affections , which must either oblige us to pay an infinite Veneration to a Creature , if Christ's real Body ( and consequently God ) be not there , or if Christ be not God , which is the greatest deviation from true Religion that is possible ; or else to be highly irreverent , and to want the most efficacious Motive that can be imagined to excite and elevate our Devotions , if he be there , or Christ be indeed God. Truly Mr. S's way of Writing is the most effectual means I know to make me Question whether written Words be a good way to convey a Certain Sense to our Minds . For , I cannot understand , how Faiths working on our devout Affections , should oblige us , either to pay an infinite Veneration to a Creature , or else to be highly Irreverent . For , supposing I believe Christ's Body not to be really in the Eucharist , but yet that Christ himself is God , I think my self bound to shew the utmost Reverence to Christ as God , even in the Act of Receiving the Eucharist : And I am of Opinion , that the just Apprehension of the Divine Majesty , is as apt to excite and elevate our Devotion , as the believing the Body of Christ to be there really present . But it is observable , what Mr. S. here grants , that if Christ's Body be not there , they are guilty of paying an Infinite Veneration to a Creature , which is the greatest deviation from true Religion that is possible . And upon my Word then they had need have better Assurance , than what he offers , to prove Christ's real Body to be there . For , if as great Reverence may be paid to Christ in Heaven , as if he were in the Elements , I cannot see how the Posture of Adoration can any ways determin the Sense of Tradition in this Matter . And thus Mr. S. hath left the Sense of Tradition as uncertain , as he pretends that of Scripture to be ; and if his Argument will hold against the One being the Rule of Faith , it will do as great a Kindness for the Other also . Thus I have fully answered his main Argument , against Scriptures being a Rule of Faith , which he hath been so free with me , as to tell me I cannot Answer ; and he and I must now leave it to the Reader 's Judgment . The summ of it is , I. We distinguish Necessary Points of Faith , from Matters of Speculation . II. We distinguish Certainty of Faith in order to Salvation , and Certainty of Opinion in Matters of Controversie . III. We distinguish the Certainty of the Rule , from the Certainty of the Application of that Rule ▪ And then my Answer lies in these things ; I. That the Scripture is a certain Rule of Faith as to all Points necessary to Salvation , to all such as make use of it as such , and do not through their own fault make a wrong Application thereof . II. That the Scripture was not designed for a Certain Rule as to Vnnecessary Opinions ; and therefore Mens not arriving at a Certainty in them , doth not hinder its being a Rule of Faith. III. That Scripture being our Rule of Faith , we are bound to reject all pretended Articles of Faith , which cannot with Certainty be proved from the Sense of Scripture . And so the Proof of Certainty lies upon those who affirm such Articles of Faith , and not upon us who deny them . This Argument is Mr. S's Goliah , and now it is no wonder if his lesser Men at Arms soon quit the Field . But I must take some notice of them , lest they be magnified , by being slighted . His next Argument is , That I contradict myself : I hope I have in the beginning made him unwilling to repeat such a Charge against me , till he hath cleared himself . But wherein is it ? In another place , he saith , I deny any Absolute Certainty as to Tradition attesting the Books of Scripture ; which in the Conference I asserted . I have looked in the Place he refers to , and there I find nothing like it . I deny the Necessity of any Infallible Society of Men , either to Attest or Explain the Scripture . Where , by an Infallible Society of Men , I mean such as have a Divine Assistance to that purpose : And what is this to the Absolute Certainty we have of the Books of Scripture by Vniversal Tradition ? But he urges it further , If this Society be not Infallible , then it is Fallible ; and if it be Fallible , then we cannot be more than fallibly Certain , and so we can have no absolute Certainty from a Fallible Testimony . This is the whole force of what he saith . To which I Answer , I. I understand no such thing as Infallibility in Mankind , but by immediate Divine Assistance , I grant , that the Holy Spirit may , where he pleases , preserve the Minds of Men from any possibility of mistake , as to those things , wherein it doth inlighten them ; but set aside this , there is no such thing as Infallibility ; the utmost is a rational Certainty built on clear and convincing Motives . Where the Motives are meerly probable , there may be Opinion , but no Certainty ; where the Evidence is thought so strong as to determine Assent , there is a Certainty as to the Mind ; as when we commonly say , we are certain of such things , we mean no more , than that we firmly believe them ; but when the Evidence is the highest , which in point of Reason the thing is capable of , then there is that which I call Absolute Certainty ; i. e. such as depends not meerly on the Assent of the Mind ; but the Evidence which justifies that Assent . II If by being fallibly Certain , he means any Suspicion , that notwithstanding such Evidence in all its Circumstances , I may be deceived , then I utterly deny it ; for otherwise I could not be absolutely Certain ; but if he means only , that there is no Divine Infallibility ( and I know no other ) then I own that there is still human Fallibility consistent with this Absolute Certainty . But Mr. S. will have Absolute Certainty to be Infallible : If nothing will satisfie him , but Human ( i. e. fallible ) Infallibility , much good may it do him , but I much rather chuse proper Terms , which I know the certain meaning of , than improper , though they make a far greater Noise . I do own an Absolute Certainty in some Acts of the Mind by inward Perception , as that I think , I doubt , and that I am ; I do own an Absolute Certainty as to common Objects of Sense ; and as to some Deductions of Reason ; I do own an Absolute Certainty as to some Matters of Fact , by a Concurrence of Circumstances ; but for all that , I do not account Human Nature Infallible , nor this an Infallible Certainty , unless it be taken in another Sense than Divines take it in . For even the Divines of the Church of Rome as well as Ours make a difference between a Human and Acquisite Certainty , and that which is Divine and Infallible . And if Mr. S. by Divine means Human , and by Infallible no more than Certain , he must not think he hath gained any great matter , when he hath made use of Words in an improper and unusual Sense . III. His next Argument is , That our Rule of Faith is common to all the Heresies in the World , which pretend Scripture , as well as we . This is just the Old Sceptical Argument against Certainty ; if there be any such thing as Certainty , you must assign such a Criterion which is not common to Truth and Falshood ; but if you cannot assign any such Mark of Truth , which may not as well agree to what is False , then there is no such thing as Certainty to be had . In Matters of this nature , the Proof must not lie in generals , but we must come to particulars , to shew the Grounds of our Certainty , viz. as to the Trinity , and Incarnation of Christ , and then if we cannot shew why we believe those Points , and reject the opposite Heresies , as Arianism , Sabellianism , Eutychianism , &c. then we are to be blamed for want of Certainty in these Points , but not before . But this , he saith , is to make Light and Darkness very consistent , and Christ and Belial very good Friends . It seems then , there is no difference to be found by the Rule of Scripture , between the Doctrine of Christ and the Devil . Is this in Truth your avowed Principle ? Do you in earnest believe the Scripture to be such a Chaos , where there is no difference of Light and Darkness , and that nothing but Confusion can be found in it ; And we cannot tell by it , whether we are to Worship God or the Devil ? If Mr. S. grants , that there is enough in Scripture to distinguish these two ; then it is a Rule so far , as to put a difference between Light and Darkness , between Christ and Belial ; and so these Expressions must be disowned as little less than Blasphemous , for all his pitiful Defence of them in his Second Letter ; which is , That he never said that Christ and Belial could be reconciled , or advanced any Position that implied it . But he said , That to make Scripture our Rule , is to make Light and Darkness consistent , and Christ and Belial very good Friends . And is not this Blasphemy against Scripture ? and implies , that if we go by that Rule only , they may be very good Friends . How can this be , unless he asserts that by Scripture alone , we can find no certain difference between Light and Darkness , between Christ and Belial ? Let Mr. S. Answer to this , and not think to escape with such a poor Evasion . If he owns the Scripture a Certain Rule as to the difference of Christ and Belial , and Light and Darkness , then we have gained thus much , that in some Matters of very great Moment , the Scripture is a very sufficient Rule and Ground of Certainty , as to all Points between Us and Infidels . And if it be so , as to these Points , then why not as well as to other Points consequent upon these ? If Christ be the Eternal Son of God in opposition to Heathen Deities , and we can know him by Scripture to be so , then we may as well know him to be the Eternal Son of God in opposition to Arians and Socinians . If against the Heathens we can prove from Scripture , that the Word was made Flesh , Why will not this as well hold against Nestorians and Eutychians ? And so the Scripture becomes a very sufficient Rule to distinguish Light and Darkness in such Points among Christians too . For , is it ever the less fit to be a Rule , because both Parties own it ? But they differ about the Sense of it , and therefore Controversies can never be ended by it . If Church-History deceive us not , the greatest Controversies were ended by it , before General Councils were heard of ; and more than have been since . Many of those we read of in the First Ages were quite laid asleep , as Theodoret observes ; but since Church-Authority interposed , in the most Reasonable manner , some Differences have been perpetuated , as appears by the Nestorian and Eutychian Controversies . I do not blame the Authority of Councils , proceeding as they then did by the Rule of Scriptures , but the Event shewed , that the most probable Means , are sometimes very ineffectual for ending Controversies . And those which Men think will most effectually Suppress Heresies , do often give a New Life and Spirit to them . So vain are the Imaginations of Men about putting an End to Controversies , till they do come to a Certainty about the true Sense of Scripture . It is possible to stop Mens Mouths by Force and Power , but nothing brings Men to a true Satisfaction , but inward Conviction as to the true Sense of Scripture ; and there can be no rational Certainty as to these Points without it . If Controversies be not ended , let us not blame the Wisdom of Providence ; for God doth not always appoint the Means most effectual in our Judgment , but such as are most suitable to his own Design . And we see Reason enough to blame the Folly and weakness , the Prejudice and Partiality , the Wilfulness and Obstinacy of Mankind ; and till Human Nature be brought to a better Temper , we may despair of seeing any End of Controversies . Men may Dispute , and for all that I know , will do to the Worlds End , about the Method to put an End to Disputes . For , the Controversies about Certainty and Fatality have been always the Matters of Debate , among disputing Men , under several Names and Hypotheses , and are like so to be to the general Conflagration . IV. He saith , Scripture is not our distinguishing Rule of Faith , but our own particular Judgments about Scripture ; for that which distinguishes my Rule from that of the most abominable Heresies , can only be my own Judgment upon the Letter of Scripture , and wriggle which way I will , there it will , and must end at last . I wish Mr. S. had been a little better conversant in the old Disputes about Certainty ; for it would have saved me the trouble of answering some impertinent Objections ; such as this before us . For they would have been thought mean Logicians , who could not put a difference between the Rule of Judgment , and the Judgment which a Man made according to the Rule . Suppose the Question were about Sense , whether that were a certain Rule , or not , to judge by ; and Epicurus should affirm it , and say he so firmly believed it , that he judged the Sun to be no bigger than he seemed to his Senses ; would not he have been thought ridiculous , who should have said , this Fancy of Epicurus was his Rule ? The Rule he went by was in it self certain ; but he made a wrong Judgment upon it ; but that was not his Rule . So it is here . We declare the Scripture to be our only certain and standing Rule , whereby we are to judge in Matters of Faith ; and we understand it as well as we can , and form our Judgments by it ; but doth it hence follow , that our Judgment is our Rule ? We may be deceived in our Judgments , but our Rule is Infallible ; we may differ in our Judgments , but our Rule is one and the same . And how is it possible for those who differ in Judgment , to have the same Rule , if our Rule and our Judgments be the same ? For then their Rules must be as different as their Judgments . I know not what Modern Logick Mr. S. learnt ; but I am sure he learnt not this way of Reasoning from the Antient Philosophers , who discoursed about the Criterion after another manner than our great pretender to Logick doth . V. He objects , That our People do not make Scripture the Rule of their Faith , not one in a Million relying upon it ; and therefore this pretence of mine , he saith , books like a meer Jest ; and he cannot perswade himself , that I am in earnest , while I advance such a Paradox . What doth J. S. mean , to call one of the Articles of our Church , a Jest and a Paradox ? For the Words of our Sixth Article , are , Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation : so that whatsoever is not read therein , nor may be proved thereby , is not to be required of any Man , that it should be believed as an Article of Faith , or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation . Doth J. S. now take this for a Paradox among us ? I assure him , I love not to make Jests about Scripture , nor matters of Faith and Salvation . But wherein doth this Jest lie ? Why , forsooth , I make the People to make Scripture their Rule , and not one in a Million thinks of relying on it . Have they then any other Rule of Faith , which they rely upon ? What is it , I pray ? Is it the Churches Infallibility ? No. Is it Pius the Fourth's Creed ? No truly , while they are Children , they believe Tradition . Now , I think , J. S. hath hit it . Tradition is indeed a Rule of Faith for Children ; who are very apt simply to believe their Fathers and Teachers . But suppose , they come to years of Discretion , what Rule of Faith have they then ? Have they a Judgment of Discretion then ? No ; this is another Jest. For he supposes all our People to be a dull sort of Animals , that understand nothing of Scripture or Faith themselves , ( I wonder then , that they make no more Converts among them ) but trust their Parson for all ; For , Boves arabant & Asinae pascebantur juxta eos ; therefore the People have no Judgment of Discretion ; I hope J. S. knows whose Jest or rather Argument that was . Whatever he insinuates , as to our People , I have Reason to believe far better of them ; and that all those who mind their Salvation do seriously read , and consider the Holy Scriptures , as the Rule of their Faith. But if in Matters of Opinion , or in doubtful or obscure Places , they make use of the Skill , and Assistance of their Teachers , wherein are they to blame ? The Scripture is still their Rule , but the help of their Teachers is for the better understanding it . And cannot our Logician distinguish between the Rule of Faith , and the Helps to understand it ? Suppose now a Mother or a Nurse should quit honest Tradition , as J. S. here calls it ; and be so ill inclined , as to teach Children to spell , and to read in the New Testament , and by that means they come by degrees to understand the Doctrine which Christ preached , and the Miracles which he wrought , and from thence to believe in Christ , and to obey his Commands , I desire to know , into what these Persons do Resolve their Faith. Is it indeed into those who taught them to read ? or into the New Testament , as the Ground of their Faith ? When they have been all along told , that the Scripture alone is the Word of God ; and whatever they are to believe , it is because it is contained therein . And so , by whatever means they come to understand the Scripture , it is that alone they take for the Rule and Foundation of their Faith. If a Man were resolved to observe Hippocrates his Rules ; but finds himself uncapable of understanding him , and therefore desires a Physicians Help ; I would fain know , whether he relies upon the Skill of his Interpreter , or the Authority of Hippocrates ? It is possible his Interpreter may in some doubtful and obscure Places have mistaken Hippocrates his Meaning ; but however , the Reason of his keeping to the Rules is not upon the Account of the Interpreter , but of Hippocrates . But suppose a College of Physicians interpret Hippocrates otherwise , is he bound then to believe his own Interpreter against the Sense of the College ? I answer , If a College of Physicians should translate Bread for Cheese ; or by Phlebotomy should declare was meant cutting of Arteries , or of a Mans Throat , let them presume to be never so Infallible , I would trust any single Interpreter , with the help of Lexicons and Common Sense against them all ; but especially , if I can produce Galen , and the old Physicians , who understood Hippocrates best , on my side . This is our Case , as to the People , about disputable Points ; we do not set up our own Authority against a Church pretending to be Infallible ; we never require them to trust wholly to our Judgments ; but we give them our best Assistance , and call in the old Interpreters of the Church ; and we desire them to use their own Reason and Judgment with Divine Assistance for settling their Minds . If People be negligent and careless , and will not take necessary pains to inform themselves , which Mr. S. suggests , we are not bound to give an Account of those , who do not observe our Directions . And I never yet knew the Negligent and Careless brought into a Dispute of Religion ; for in this Case , we must suppose People to act according to the Principles of the Religion they own ; otherwise their Examples signifie no more against our Doctrine , than Debauchery doth against the Rules of Hippocrates . But suppose , saith Mr. S. that one of my own Flock should tell me , that I have erred in interpreting Scripture , he desires to know , what I would say to him . This is a very easie Question , and soon answer'd . I would endeavour to Convince him as well as I could . And is that all ? And what would J. S. do more ? Would he tell him he was Infallible ? I think not ; but only as honest Tradition makes him so , and how far that goes towards it , I shall examine afterwards . Well ; but suppose John Biddle against the Minister of his Parish , and the whole Church of England to boot , understands Scripture to be plainly against a Trinity and Christ's Divinity . And it is but fair for me to suppose him , maintaining his Heresie against J. S. and let any one judge whether of us be more likely to Convince him . He owns the Scripture , and confesses if we can prove our Doctrine from thence , he will yield ; but he laughs at Oral Tradition , and thinks it a Jest for any one to prove such a Doctrine by it . And truly , if it were not for the Proofs from Scripture , I do much Question , whether any Argument from meer Tradition could ever confute such a one as John Biddle . But when we offer such Proofs , as are acknowledged to be sufficient in themselves , we take the only proper way to give him Reasonable Satisfaction . Suppose he will not be convinced . Who can help that ? Christ himself met with Wilful and Obstinate Unbelievers . And was this any disparagement to his Doctrine ? God himself hath never promised to cure those who shut their Eyes against the Light. Shall the Believing Church then have the Liberty to interpret Scripture against the Teaching Church ? Who ever asserted any such thing ? We only say , that the People are to understand the Grounds of their Faith ; and to judge by the best Helps they can , what Doctrine is agreeable to Scripture , and to embrace what is so , and to reject what is not : But among those Helps we take in , not barely the personal Assistance of their own Guide , but the Evidence he brings , as to the Sense of the Teaching Church , in the best and purest Ages . It is very strange , that after this , it should presently follow , 'T is evident hence , that Tradition of our Fathers and Teachers , and not Scriptures Letter , is indeed our Rule ; and by it we interpret Scripture . If this be so evident , then how is it possible , we should set up the Ecclesia Credens against the Ecclesia Docens ; as he charged us just before . If Tradition be our Rule , and we interpret Scripture by it , what fault then are we guilty of , if Tradition be such an Infallible Rule ? But , methinks , this Hence looks a little Illogically upon the Premises ; and if this be his Conclusive Evidence , he must excuse me as to the making it a Ground of my Faith. But he allows , That we set up Scripture as our Rule , when we Dispute against them ; but when that is done , we set up our own Authority over the People , and do not allow them that Priviledge against us , which we take against the Church of Rome . This is all the strength of what I can make out of that Paragraph . For if all Writing were like his , it would be the best Argument for Oral Tradition ; his Sense is so intricate , and his Conclusions so remote from his Premises . Just before he said , 'T is evident hence that we follow Tradition . And presently , 'T is as evident we do not follow it , and set up our own Authority against it . We do interpret Scripture by Tradition ; and yet immediately , we set up Scripture against Tradition . We plead for the Peoples Right to a Judgment of Discretion ; and yet we do not allow them a Judgment of Discretion . What invisible links hath Oral Tradition to connect things , that seem so far asunder ? But however it be expressed or connected , his meaning is , That we only set up Scripture against the Church of Rome , and then set up our own Authority over the People . This is not possible , if we do allow them a Judgment of Discretion ; and this is one of the things he so much charges upon me ; and saith , He never read any Protestant that puts Matters more into private hands than I do ; and yet in the very next Page , he saith , I deny the People the same Priviledge against Pastoral Authority . How can I deny them such a Priviledge , if I put Matters into their hands above any other Protestant ? I do not know , that I do in the least differ from the sixth Article of our Church ; nor do I take off from the due Authority of Bishops and Pastors of Churches . But all our Dispute is , about this Judgment of Discretion , whether it be allowable to People , and how far . In his Third Letter he resumes this Argument , and thither I follow him , that I may lay things together into some Method . The words he cavils at , are , If we have the Consent of all Christian Churches against the only pretended Infallible Judge , we have their Consent likewise , that every Man is to judge for his own Salvation . What hurt is there in this ? It seems then nothing will content us now but Infallibility . Was there ever such an awkard Man at Reasoning ? It follows indeed , that either there must be an Infallible Judge , or every Man must judge for himself . Do I then allow no Authority to Church-Governors , that do not pretend to Infallibility ? Yes , very much , while they do not pretend to Impose on our Faith , by a pretence to Infallibility . But what Occasion do I give for this , when I say only , That every Man must judge for his own Salvation ; and yet he had the Conscience to leave this out in repeating my Sense , but two lines after . May not you mistake or pervert to Day , what you heard Yesterday , when I find you mistaking or perverting my Sense , but at two lines distance ? And then run on in a long Discourse , as though you had taken the true Sense of my Words . Is not this a fit Person to play out Mr. G 's Game , who shuffles in so strange a manner , and so openly plays false Cards ? Where did I ever dispute against Church-Authority in due proposing Matters of Faith , provided that every Man is to judge for his own Salvation ? But I have , he saith , an aking Tooth at the Churches intermeddling in Matters of Faith. From whence doth this appear ? This must either arise from great Ignorance , as to the Right of Judging every Man hath as to his own Salvation ; or from a Malicious Design , to expose me to all Church-Governors ; but I pity his Ignorance , and despise his Malice . What pleasant Entertainment doth he make with the Sober Enquirer ? 'T is pity ( saith he ) but he had a blew Apron on , and a Tub to Hold-forth in ; as a Sober Enquirer may possibly find some Pretenders to Infallibility have done in their Time. But what is the meaning of all this ado about a Sober Enquirer ? I had said many years ago , That the Scriptures being owned , as containing in them the whole Will of God so plainly revealed , that no Sober Enquirer can miss of what is necessary for Salvation , there can be no Necessity supposed of an Infallible Society of Men either to Attest or Explain these Writings among Christians , any more than there was for some Ages before Christ , of such a Body of Men among the Jews , to Attest or Explain to them the Writings of Moses and the Prophets . And where lies the Heresie or Danger of this Doctrine ? If I said that no Sober Enquirer can miss of things necessary to Salvation in Scripture , it is no more than St. Chrysostom , St. Augustin , Aquinas , and other School-men , had said before me ; and Were they for blew Aprons and Tubs to Hold forth in ? Nay , to shew how unskilful J. S. is in the Writers of his own Church , ( if they do own him ) even Bellarmin himself grants as much as I say . For being to Answer that Place Jam. 1.5 . If any Man lack Wisdom , let him ask it of God , who giveth liberally , &c. he Answers , This is to be understood of Sapientia necessaria ad Salutem ; so then a Sober Enquirer praying to God to give him Wisdom , shall not want that which is Necessary to his Salvation . And he quotes several Passages of St. Augustin to prove , that Prayer obtains nothing Infallibly but that which is necessary or useful to the Salvation of him that prays . If this be then obtained Infallibly , then we see an Infallible Ground of Certainty , as to what is Necessary or Useful to Salvation . Bellarmin indeed saith , that a Gift of Interpretation is not to be had by Prayer ; and , Do I ever say it is ? Did I ever give the least Countenance to Enthusiastick Pretenders , or to the Breakers of the Laws and Orders of our Established Church ? What means then these spiteful Insinuations ? Doth the Man hope to raise Himself by exposing Me ? Or to be caressed by F.P. and F. W. by the brave attempt of throwing Dirt so plainly in my Face ? Which will never stick , being so unskilfully thrown , either to my Prejudice , or his Advantage . But this Matter about the Peoples Judgment of Discretion , must not be thus pass'd over . For , he resumes it at the End of his Third Letter , and thought it a good relishing bit to conclude with . And towards the very end , he begins to state the Controversie , this true Logician having forgotten it before , or reserved it for a Disert at the last . To come closer ( saith he ) and take a more distinct view of this Judgment of Discretion . It was even time to come closer in the 99th . p. of the Third Letter . Alas for Mr. G. ! he is like to have a hopeful Game of it , when his Substitute talks at this rate at the very end of the Game . But let us see what feats he will do now he comes closer . Now he will acquaint me , how far he allows it , and far and how in what he rejects it . This is well ; but why no sooner ? He was at ' another Game before , viz. two or three throws at the Sober Enquirer , and having knock'd him down with his blew Apron and Tub , he now comes to T. G's Cards again . And let us see how well he plays them . First , He grants , That every Man is to judge for his own Salvation ; i. e. he yields what the Sober Enquirer aimed at , and now methinks he desires the blew Apron and Tub , to Hold-forth himself . Secondly , He saith , All Mankind are agreed in it . It seems then the Fanaticks are true Catholicks in Mr. S's Opinion . Thirdly , He yields , That every Man is to judge of the best way to Salvation , and of all the Controversies between Them and Vs. Now the Tub is turn'd to a Chair , and the Holder-forth become a Judge of Controversies . Nay , he goes so far as to say , the contrary Tenet is ridiculous , as what 's most ; nay , that it is sottishness to hold it ; and to deprive Mankind of this Priviledge of judging thus , is to debar him of the Light and Vse of his Reason , when it is most useful for him . Is not all this very obliging ? But where now lies the difference ? Why , truly , if his Discretion leads him to the Infallible Rule of Tradition , all is well ; but if not , it is no longer Discretion . What ? has he been Judge of all the Controversies between Us already , and is he to seek for his Rule still ? What Discretion had he all that time , to judge without a Rule ! What a Judge of Controversies have we found at last ? Methinks the Sober Enquirer far exceeds him in point of common Discretion ; for he never pretended to judge without a Rule , much less all the Controversies between Us. But this discreet Judge of all Controversies first determins all the Points ; and when he hath done this , he finds out his Rule . Of all the Judges of Controversies that have been yet talked of , commend me to this set up by J. S. For , how is it possible for him to judge amiss , who had no Rule to judge by ? You see ( saith he ) how we allow them the Vse of their Reason and Judgment of Discretion , till it brings them to find a certain Authority , and when they have once found that , the same Judgment of Discretion which shewed them that Authority was Absolutely Certain , obliges them to trust it , when it tells them what is Christ's Faith , without using their private Judgments any longer about the particular Points themselves thus ascertained to them , but submitting to it . To which I Answer , I. The same reason which enabled Men to find out this Infallible Guide , or Certain Authority will help them to judge concerning this Authority , and the Matters proposed by it . For , either he hath a Rule to find out this Authority , or he hath none ; if he hath a Rule , it must be either Scripture , or pure Natural Reason . If Scripture , that only affords Fallible Certainty , he saith over and over , and so a Man can never come certainly to this Authority . And if the Foundation be uncertain , what can the Rule do ? But Mr. S. doth not pretend Scripture , but Reason , for his Infallible Rule . Then I demand , whether Reason doth afford an Infallible Ground of Certainty , as to this Certain Authority or not ? If it doth , we are yet but Fallibly Certain ; if it doth not , then what need this Certain Authority ; for in the Opinion of all Reasonable Men , certain Reason is better than certain Authority . And he cannot deny the Certainty of Reason , who builds the Certainty of Authority upon it . II. Suppose the particular Points proposed by this Certain Authority be repugnant to that Certainty of Reason , by which I am required to believe it : As suppose this Authority tells me , I am no longer to rely upon my Reason , but barely to submit , although the Matter proposed be never so much against it ; What is to be done in this Case ? I am to believe this Certain Authority on the Account of Reason , and that requires me to believe such things as overthrow the Certainty of Reason ; How is it possible for me to rely on this Certain Authority on the Certainty of Reason , when that Authority tells me , there is no Certainty in Reason ? III. Must I believe Reason to be Certain just so far and no further ? But who sets the bounds ? Hath God Almighty done it ? When and where ? I may and ought to use my Reason in searching after this Certain Authority , and judge all Controversies in order to the finding it out ; all this is allowed ; but as soon as ever this Certain Authority is discover'd , then Goodnight Reason ; I have now no more Use for you . But who bid you be so ungrateful to that Certain Reason , which conducted you so far ? It is very possible it may be as Useful still , why then do you turn Reason off so unkindly after so good Service ? IV. Are all People capable of this Certain Reason , or not ? It requires , it seems , a great deal of Logick to prove this Certain Authority , or this Infallible Guide by Reason ; and I am one of those that think it can never be done : Suppose then , some of us duller People can never comprehend the force of this Reason , which is to lead us to an Infallible Guide , What is like to become of us Uncapable People ? Are we all to be damned for Dunces and Blockheads ? No , not so neither : This is really some Comfort . For then it is to be hoped we may go to Heaven without finding out this Certain Authority ; and then we may have True Faith without it . This is still better and better . And then I pray what need have I to find out this Certain Authority at all , if I may have True Faith and be Saved without it ? V. I have greater Certainty by Reason of the Certain Authority of Scripture , than you can have of the Certain Authority of Tradition . Here is Reason on both sides , and Authority on both sides ; but I say there is no Comparison between either the Reason or the Authority . The Reason to believe the Scripture , is so incomparably beyond the Reason to believe Oral Tradition . And the Authority of Scripture hath so much greater Force on the Consciences of Men , that it is very extraordinary among those who own Scripture to be the Word of God , to find them compared in Point of Authority . For , we must deal plainly in this Matter ; the Scripture we look on as the Rule of our Faith , because it is the Word of God. If you do not own it to be so , but resolve all into Tradition , we know what you are ; but if you do own the Scripture to be of Divine Revelation , how can you pretend to set up any Certain Authority in Comparison with it ? VI. If this Certain Authority be only to lead us into the Certain Sense of Scripture , then it must be either into the Sense of plain Places , or of difficult and obscure : If of plain Places , then it is to kindle a Torch to behold the Sun ; if of obscure Places , then who hath appointed this Certain Authority to Explain them ? Who is to appoint such a Certain Authority in the Church , to Explain his Word , but God Himself ? And we desire to see some plain Places , that set up this Authority to Explain those which are obscure and doubtful . We think it our Duty to read and search the Scripture , and especially the New Testament , where we find very great Occasion for this Certain Authority to be mentioned . We find Churches newly settled , and many Disputes and Controversies started among them ; and those of great and dangerous Consequence ; we find the Apostles giving frequent Advice to these Churches with respect to these Differences , and with great earnestness giving Caution against Seducers , and warning them of the danger of them ; but not one Word can we find in all their Epistles tending this way , or mentioning any Certain Authority they were to submit to , for the putting an End to all Controversies . This is really a Matter of so much Concernment to the whole Christian World , that if any such thing had been in the Design of Christianity , I can never believe that the Apostles would have omitted it in their several Epistles . Had not they sufficient Care of the Certainty of Mens Minds , and of the Peace of the Church ? Was it a Secret concealed then from them ? Or not thought fit to be communicated by them , when it was most necessary to prevent the early Corruptions and Errours of the Christian Churches ? But they are so far from it , that I cannot find any Intimation to that purpose in all their Writings , although they had the fairest Occasions for it . VII . If Men by Certain Reason have found out this Certain Authority , What are they to do with this Certain Reason afterwards ? Methinks it is a little hard for ever to discharge so useful a Servant immediately after so extraordinary a piece of Service , as the finding out an Infallible Guide . We do not find the Apostles directing the People not to make use of their Understandings , because their Guides were Infallible . I am apt to think the Apostles were as Infallible as Tradition or Church-Authority ever since ; and therefore what allowance was made by them to a Judgment of Discretion is still to continue . What doth St. Paul mean to speak to the Corinthians in such a manner , I speak as to Wise Men , judge ye what I say : How different is this from , I speak by an Infallible Spirit , and ye are not to judge what I say ? When he saith to the Thessalonians , Prove all things , Doth he mean , Swallow all things , and Prove nothing ? When St. John saith , Try the Spirits , whether they are of God , Doth he only mean , till they had found a Certain Authority ? Did not they believe St. John's Authority to be Certain ? If not , to what purpose did he write this Epistle to them ? If he did , he supposed them still to have a liberty of Judging , even those who pretended to Inspiration . For , many false Prophets are gone out into the world . And there are certain Rules and Marks to judge of the Pretences to an Infallible Spirit , which were in vain assigned , if they were not to judge by them . VIII . Suppose Men differ about this Certain Authority , wherein it lies , and how far it extends ; Are not they to exercise their Reason still about this ? Suppose some pretend , that it lies in an Infallible Assistance which Christ hath promised to his Church in all Ages ; and Others say , this is impossible to be a Ground of Faith , because it is it self an Article of Faith : Must not a Man exercise his Reason about this ? Here is Certain Authority pleaded ; but Others say , there is Certain Reason against this Pretence of Certain Authority ; and they must grant I must follow Certain Reason , though against Certain Authority . Again , Others say , the Certain Authority of Oral Tradition is a Novel , vain and dangerous Opinion , destructive of Faith , and leading to Heresie and Atheism ; What is to be done in this Case ? Must our Reason be quitted , and Men not be allowed to judge of this Authority by it ? Yes , till they come to own it , and then they are to judge no longer ; i. e. put out your Eyes once , and ye need never think of opening them after . Be very circumspect in the Choice of your Way , till you come to a Precipice , and when you are come there , be sure to throw your self from it headlong , and there is an End of Controversies . But we do not judge this a very Reasonable Method ; but think he had much better keep upon plain Ground , and use the best Method he can to find the true Way ; and if his Judgment , will serve him to find the Way to a Precipice , we think it will much better serve him to keep him from it ; And that he had better bear with some imperfection of his Sight , than put out his Eyes that he may be the more quietly led , he knows not whither . There is only one thing more , which deserves to be taken notice of , about this Argument , viz. that J. S. saith , I expresly exclude the Churches Help ; which is , as he triumphantly concludes his Third Letter , The First Principle , nay the Quintessence of all Heresie , Fanaticism in the Egg , perfect Enthusiasm when hatcht , and downright Atheism when fledg'd . This is a parting Blow indeed . It is the bite of an Angry Viper , at its last Gasp , when it puts its utmost force into the Venom , and hopes even dying to destroy . Others love to conclude gently , but J. S. is a Man by himself , and as though he were writing Epigrams , would reserve his Sting for the last . But what Ground is there for all this venemous Froth ? Even just as much as there was for the Author of Pax vobis to say , that I am for introducing Paganism ; or for another to make me the Founder of Anti-Catholick , and Anti Christian Doctrines , whereas I profess to own no other than what have been received in this Church ever since the Reformation . But some Mens Spleen and Gall must have a Vent lest it destroy them . It is some satisfaction to me to think that none but such , who either Oppose or Betray our Church , set themselves thus to defame me ; and it is a great comfort to find such feeble Reasoning , where so much Spite and Malice is discover'd . Thus it is here , with J. S. he could merit nothing without giving me hard words , and because many look on the Beginning and End of a Book , who mind nothing else in it ; therefore he hath here put together as the Consequence of my Doctrine , no less than Heresie , Fanaticism , Enthusiasm , and downright Atheism . He thought he could not make my Case Equal with his own , unless I were charged with Heresie , and Principles leading to Atheism . But he is charged by the most Zealous Catholicks , and in respect to his avowed Principles ; but my charge here is by an enraged Adversary ; and for such a Doctrine which is owned by all Men of Understanding in both Churches , and if I may name him among them , even by J. S. himself . My words are , If it be said , that the Churches Power will become explicit to any sober Enquirer , then every such Person may without the Churches help find out all necessary Points of Faith. And where lies the Heresie , the Enthusiasm , the Atheism of this Doctrine , which I have already shewed was asserted both by Fathers and School-men ? And J. S. himself grants , that every Man is to judge for his own Salvation ; and of the best way to his Salvation , and of all the Controversies between them and us , and especially of the true Grounds of Faith ; and all this without the Churches help . And if he can do all this , I desire to know whether he cannot find out all Necessary Points of Faith ? Hath he indeed , resolved all Controversies , and yet wants some necessary Points of Faith ? And hath he found out the Churches Authority too , without the Churches Help , and yet doth he want some necessary Points of Faith ? Then it follows , that after the submitting to the Churches Authority , there are still necessary Points of Faith which may be wanting ; and then an absolute Submission is not all that is required of one that hath found out the Churches Authority . But my whole Argument there proceeds upon a Supposition , viz. that if one may without the Churches Help find out the Churches Authority in Scripture , then why not all necessary Points of Faith ? So that it goes upon a Parity of Reason ; and I see no Answer at all given or pretended , but only he endeavours to stop my Mouth with a handful of Dirt. Thus I have dispatched this long Argument about the Judgment of Discretion . And I shall now sum up my Answer in these particulars . I. Every Christian , as such , is bound to enquire after the true Way to Salvation , and hath a Capacity of Judging concerning it . II. Every Christian proceeding according to the best Rules of judging , hath Reason to receive the Scripture as the Rule of his Faith. III. The Scripture is so plain in all Necessaries , and God hath promised such Assistance to them , that sincerely seek it , that none who do so , shall want the knowledge of such things as are necessary to their Salvation . IV. When any thing is offer'd as necessary to be believed in order to Salvation , every Christian hath a Right and Liberty of Judging , whether it can be proved by the Scripture to be so necessary or not . V. We do not allow to particular Persons the same Faculty of Judging in doubtful Points of Controversie , which we do as to Matters that immediately concern their Salvation . VI. No pretence of Infallibility or Authority can take away that Right of Judging , which was allowed them by the Apostles , whose Authority was Infallible . VII . This Right of Judging doth not exclude the Churches due Authority as to Matters of Faith and Controversies of Religion , ( as it is declared Art. 20. of our Church ) but all that we now plead for , is ( not any Authority as to others ) but a Right of Judging as to themselves , in Matters that concern their Salvation . VIII . The Certainty of Faith , as to them depends upon two Things ; 1. The clearness of Scripture about them , which implies the Certainty of Reason . 2. The Promise of Divine Assistance which makes their Faith Divine , both as to its Principle , its Ground , and its Effect . But I have not yet ended his Objections about our Rule of Faith ; For VI. He objects , That we cannot necessarily resolve our Faith into the Writings of the Apostles only . What is the meaning that we cannot necessarily resolve it ? I think we must Resolve it into a Written Rule , till we see another proved . Did the Apostles when they went to convert the World , go with Books in their Hands , or Words in their Mouths ? Doubtless , with Words in their Mouths . Or were those Words a jot less Sacred , when they came from their Mouths , than when they put them in a Book ? Not one jot . Or lastly , doth any Command from Christ appear to write the Book of Scripture , or any Revelation before hand , that it was to be a Rule of Faith to the future Church ? No such matter ; and the Accidental Occasions of its writing at first , and its Acceptation afterwards bar any such pretences . On the other side , their grand Commission was not scribite , but only praedicate Evangelium . I have given an Account so lately of the Reasons and Occasions of writing the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament , that I need only here to give these general Answers . I. Whatsoever was done as to the Writing the Books of the New Testament , was done by the immediate Direction and Appointment of the Holy Ghost . II. The Reason given , by the Writers of the Gospels themselves , is , that Matters of Faith might be delivered with the greatest Certainty . III. Those Writings were not intended only for the Benefit of the Church then being , but for future Ages ; and thence the Books of Scripture were so received and esteemed in the Primitive Churches . IV. The most Antient Writers of the Christian Church assure us , that the Apostles wrote the same Doctrine they taught , and for that purpose , that they might be a Pillar and Foundation of Faith. V. The most certain way we now have to know what Doctrine the Apostles taught is by their Writings ; since they taught and wrote the same Doctrine ; and we are certain we have the Doctrine they wrote , but we have no other Way to be certain what Doctrine they taught . VII . He objects , That the Question being put concerning the New Testament's containing all Divine Revelations of Christ and his Apostles , I gave no direct Answer , but shuffled it off to Matters necessary to Salvation . The setting out of this is the Subject of some pages . To which I give an easie Answer . The Question concerning the New Testament containing all the Divine Revelations of Christ and his Apostles , may be taken in two Senses . 1. As relating to the entire Object of Faith ; and so the Answer was most direct and plain , to the second Question , That the Rule , whereby we hold all the same Doctrine , that was taught by Christ and his Apostles , is by the Divine Revelations contained in the Writings of the New Testament . For since we believe all that is there , and nothing but what is there , that must contain the Entire Object of our Faith. And the word All must relate to that . 2. As to all those things which particular Persons are bound to believe , as contained therein ; and so the Question being put , about the Vniversal Testimony to assure us , i. e. all particular Christians , That the New Testament contained all the Divine Revelations of Christ and his Apostles : My Answer was direct and apposite to this Sense , viz. that the Universal Testimony of the Christian Church , as to the Book of Scripture , and the Doctrine therein contained , is a sufficient Ground to make us certain , i. e. all particular Persons , of all Matters necessary to our Salvation . So that the Substance of my Answer lies in these three things . I. That all our Faith is contained in Scripture ; and thereby we hold all the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles . II. That although all particular Persons may not reach to the entire Object of Faith contained in Scripture , yet they had thereby a Certainty , as to all Matters necessary to their Salvation . III. That the Ground of Certainty as to both these , was the Universal Testimony of the Christian Church , concerning the Books of Scripture , and the Doctrine contained therein . The Words of my Letter are , We are to consider , that the Scripture being our sole and entire Rule of Faith , all Matters necessary to Salvation , must be supposed to be contained therein ; and therefore the same Testimony , which delivers the Scripture to us , doth deliver all the necessary Articles as contained therein . Which are there received as in the Lump ; and if we receive the Book which contains all , we must by the same Authority receive all contained in it . As if a Purse be left to a Man by his Fathers Will , full of Gold and Silver , and this by the Executors be declared to contain all the Gold and Silver his Father left him they who deliver this Purse to him from the Executors , do certainly deliver to him all the Gold and Silver left him by his Father . But if he suspects there was both Gold and Silver left him by his Father , which was not in that Purse , then he must call in Question the Integrity of the Executors , who declared that all was contained therein . This is now the Case of the Christian Church , as to all Divine Truths which respect Mens Salvation ; the Primitive Church , who answer to the Executors in the other Case , did unanimously declare that all such Truths were undoubtedly contained in the Written Word . Although therefore there may be a real Difference in the nature of the Doctrines therein contained , as there is between Gold and Silver , yet he that receives all , must receive one as well as the other ; and the Matters of Salvation , being of greatest Moment , they that receive the whole Will of God upon Grounds of Certainty , must be assured that therein they receive all Matters necessary to our Salvation . Never was any Purse so rifled as this is by J. S. he examines not only the Coin in it , but the very Strings and Linings of it . He is a dreadful Man at Ransacking a Metaphor . He tells me , My Similitude is so far from running on four Legs , that it is in many regards lame on the right ( and indeed only ) foot it ought to stand on ; and which is worse , perhaps against my self . The sum of it amounts to this , that because Scripture contains all , and Protestants have Scripture , therefore they have all . A strange kind of Discourse ! As if , because they have it in a Book , therefore they have it in their Minds and Souls , in which , and no where else Faith is to reside . But was not the Question put , whether we had All the Points of Faith which our Saviour taught ? And how could I answer a Question about All , but by shewing where we had All ? If All the Doctrine of Christ be there , we must be certain we have all , if we have the Scripture which contains all . But it is not enough to have it in a Book . I grant it . But still if you ask , where all my Faith is contained ; I must refer you to that Book which contains All. For I profess to believe every thing there , and nothing as a Point of Faith , but what is there . We do not pretend , that it is enough for Persons to say , their Faith is in such a Book ; but we grant that they ought to read and search , and actually believe what ever they find in that Book ; but still all Points are not equally necessary to all Persons that are therein contained , but all such as are necessary to Salvation lie there open to the Capacities of all who desire to know them . Now this is one of the things J. S. finds fault with this similitude of a Purse for , viz. That People think it is an easie thing to open , and as easie to come at the Sense of Scripture , as to take Money out of a Purse : 'T is but plucking the Strings , and the Deed is done . And is this any Disparagement to a Rule of Faith to be plain and easie ? If it were not so , it could not be a Rule of Faith for all Persons . We do not say , that any Person by opening the Scriptures , may presently attain to the Certain Sense of all Places of Scripture ; but that which I assert , is , That no Man who sets himself to read and consider the Scriptures as he ought , and prays for Wisdom from God , shall miss of knowing all things necessary to his Salvation . But Mr. S. is for mending the Similitude , and truly he doth it after an extraordinary manner . He will allow the Scripture to be a Purse , provided the Purses Mouth were tied up with a Knot of such a mysterious contrivance , that none could open it but those who knew the Mind of the Bequeather ; and that the Church , to which it was left as a Legacy , had knowledge of his Mind , and so could open it , whilst Others only perplexed themselves more while they went about it . The Point then between Us , is , whether the Scripture were left only to the Church to Interpret it to the People in all Points ; or whether it were intended for the general good of the whole Church , so as thereby to direct themselves in their Way to Heaven ; and consequently , whether it may not be opened and understood by all Persons in Matters that are necessary to their Salvation . One would think by the Church of Romes management of the Scripture , keeping it so much out of the Peoples hands , and talking so much of the Danger and Mischief that comes by it , that they did esteem it just as the Old Romans did the Sybillin Oracles , which were to be kept up from the view of the People , and only to be consulted in Cases of great Difficulty , and no farther Questions were to be asked , but what the Keepers of them declared to be their meaning , was to be so received without any farther Examination . And this is the Sense of the Politicians of that Church , concerning the Scripture . But when they have written like Divines , and have been driven to state the Controversie truly , they have been forced to such Concessions , as have overthrown the Political Hypothesis . For , I. They cannot deny , that the Scripture was designed to be a Certain and Infallible Rule of Faith to all . This Bellarmin proves in the beginning of his Controversies ; where he shews at large , That the Law was the Rule in the Old Testament . To the Law , and to the Testimony . Blessed are they that search thy Commandments , &c. That in the New Testament Christ proves his Doctrine by the Scriptures , and refers the Pharisees to the Scriptures , and confuted the Sadduces out of them . That the Apostles direct Christians to honour , and esteem , and to rely upon them . And then he proves , that a Rule of Faith must be Certain and Known ; and for the Scriptures , he saith , Nihil est Notius , nihil Certius . Nothing is more Known , nothing more Certain . How can this be , if there be such Mystical Knots which tye it together , that none but the Church-Guides can unloose ? How can this then ever be so Known , as to be a Rule of Faith to the People ? And not meerly a Rule , but a most Certain and Safe Rule . Which is the greatest Non-sense in the World , if it cannot be understood by those , who are to make it their Rule . They may as well say , That Algebra was a Rule for Masons and Carpenters , and a Jacob's Staff for a Taylor 's Measure . But Mr. S. hath beaten his Brains so long about Rules and Rulers , and that which is ruled and regulated by them , that we must not expect that he should be tied down to Cardinal Bellarmin's Notions ; and therefore I must consider what he saith , after above Twenty years hard labour about these things . He tells me plainly , I quite mistake the meaning of the word Rule . For ( saith he ) it speaks Rectitude . No doubt a Right Rule doth . But still I mistake his meaning . How so ? There must be a Rectitude in the Rule . That is not it . What then ? It must be evident Rectitude , i. e. Evident to be Right . Not so . I hope we shall come at it at last . It is such an Evident Rectitude as preserves those who regulate themselves by it from Obliquity or Deviation , that is , in our Case , from Errour . And is this the wonderful Mystery ? There wants but one Word to make it past dispute , viz. who effectually regulate themselves by it . For Regulating is an ambiguous Word , and may be taken , either 1. For what a Man takes and professes to be his Rule which he is to act by ; so a Ciceronian regulates himself by Cicero , i. e. he declares his Manner of Speech to be the Rule he orders his Speech by . And yet it is very possible that such a Man may use Phrases which are not Cicero's , for want of sufficient Skill and Care. 2. For what he doth in Conformity to his Rule . And so he doth Regulate himself by Cicero , who doth not in the least swerve from his Manner of Speaking . But Cicero is the Rule to both these . And so the Question here comes to this , Whether that can be said to be a true Intellectual Rule , which Men through their own default , and not through any defect in the Rule , may deviate from ? If a Rule be in it self Certain , and be certainly received for a Rule , that is surely enough to make it a Rule to a Man ; but it is not necessary to the being of a Rule , that a Man can never deviate from it by his own Fault . For , there is no Intellectual Rule can be assigned , but it is possible for a free Agent to deviate from ; although he do at the same time profess it to be his Rule . Do not all Christians agree the Commands of Christ to be an Infallible Rule of Life ? And J. S. by his admirable Logick will either prove this not to be a Rule , or that it is impossible for Men to Sin. For , saith he , A Rule speaks Rectitude , and that such an evident one as preserves those who regulate themselves by it from Obliquity or Deviation . Yes , saith he , this is very plain , those who Regulate themselves by Christ's Rule , cannot Sin ; I grant it , those who do effectually Regulate themselves by it ; but Others may profess this to be their Rule , and the most Infallible Rule of Life , and yet through their own Fault may deviate from it . So here Persons may own the Scripture to be a most Certain & Infallible Rule as to Truth and Falshood ; and they are sure while they effectually regulate themselves by it , they can never Err ; but while they profess to do it , they may . So that all Mr. S's Subtilty vanishes into nothing , by so plain and easie a Distinction . Therefore I am still of the mind , that a Rule of Faith is that whereby we are to judge what we are bound to believe as to Divine Revelations . No , saith J. S. I ought to have said , It is that by which , while we follow it , we shall be absolutely secured from erring in Faith. This follows from the Rectitude of the Rule , that while Men keep to it , they cannot Err ; but it doth not follow from the Nature of the Rule , that Men must necessarily follow it . For is it possible for Men to misunderstand a Certain Rule or not ? i. e. such a Rule which if they truly follow , they shall be secured from Erring : If not , then the Rule must be plain and evident to all Capacities , to such a degree , that they cannot fail in judging by it . If it be possible , then , although the Rule be in it self Certain and Infallible , yet it is possible for Men to Err through such a Mistake , and while they think they follow the Rule , they may run into Errour . And it is strange to me , that Mr. S. in all this time hath not discerned the Fallacy that hath misled him . If it hath really misled him , and not been set up by him , on purpose to Confound and Confute Hereticks , as he tells the Cardinals at Rome . But one of that Number hath fully proved , as I have shewed already , that the Scripture was intended for a Rule of Faith to the People ; and then it follows from J. S. himself , that while they Regulate themselves by it , they can never Err. What Reason then can be given , why such a Rule of Faith should be kept from them ? And the Purse be tied up with so many Mysterious Knots , which are utterly inconsistent with the Notion of a Rule of Faith. II. They grant , that there is a great difference in the Points contained in Scripture ; of which some are allowed to be simply necessary to Salvation ; as those which are required to Baptism ; and Bellarmin yields , That all these Points are certainly contained in Scripture ; and were the things which the Apostles constantly preached to all People . Who cannot be denied to have been capable of Understanding these things , when they heard them preached ; and how could they lose the Capacity of Understanding them when they were written ? And if they might still Understand them , then the Scripture hath no such Mysterious Knots , but all Points necessary to Salvation may be understood by the People . So that as to these Points of greatest Importance , the Scripture must be left as a Legacy to all Christians , and not only to the Guides of the Church . But J. S. craves leave to Explain himself ; and it is great pity to deny it him . Mistake me not , saith he , I do not mean Scriptures Letter is not clear in such Passages as concern Morality , or the X Commandments ; nor in Matters of Fact , as the Marks or Signs of the Messias foretold by the Prophets ; ( Methinks the Mysterious Knots should have been about Prophecies , ) nor in Parables explained by himself and such like ; but in Dogmatical Points or Tenets , which are Spiritual , and oftentimes profound Mysteries , as a Trinity , Christ's Godhead , the Real Presence of his Body in the Sacrament , and such like ; and in such as these our Rule is not intelligible enough to keep the Followers of it from Erring . I Answer , Either the Apostles Preached these Points to all Persons as necessary to their Salvation , or they did not . If not , how come they to be necessary to be believed now ? If they did , then the People were capable of Understanding them when they heard them , and therefore may as well understand them when they read them . I do not mean the Manner as to the Trinity and Incarnation ( as to Transubstantiation , I know nothing in Scripture about it either as to Thing or Manner ) but the Revelation of such a Doctrine . So that if these Points be owned to be necessary to Salvation , they must be so plain that Men may understand their Duty to believe them . For , that is the Bound I keep my self within , that all things Necessary to Salvation , are so plain , that we may be certain of our Duty to believe them ; but if not , we may Err without Prejudice to our Salvation . Mr S. asks what I mean by all things necessary to Salvation . Nothing but what all others do mean by it . Did Christ ( saith he ) teach any unnecessary Points ? Alas for him ! But are all Points taught by Christ , or written in Scripture , equally necessary to the Salvation of all People ? No , he saith presently after , That he will grant that fewer means than the Knowledge of all Christ taught , may suffice for the Salvation of some particular Persons . Very well ; now I hope he will make something of the main business in hand , viz. To prove that Absolute Certainty of all that Christ Taught , is Necessary to Mens Salvation , when he grants that some may be Saved , without so much as Knowing all that Christ Taught . To what purpose was all this Heat about the Certainty of our Faith , as to all that Christ Taught , if at last some may be Saved without so much as Knowing it ? How doth Mr. S. prove , That those some are only the Ignorant People in the Church of Rome ; but that all Ours are tied to no less than Infallible Certainty of all that Christ Taught . He would have done well , to have proved such a Privilege for Ignorance to have been limited to their Communion ; and that no Claim can be allowed as to the Circumstances of any other particular Persons . Some few ( he saith again ) may be Saved without the Knowledge of such and such Points , slender Motives being enough for their Circumstances . I thank Mr. S. for this . It seems the Point as to Salvation is gained , unless particular Persons among us can be proved to be none of these few . But where-ever they are , it seems they may be Saved ; but I hope , not without True and Saving Faith ; whence it follows , that such Faith hath no necessary Relation to these high Points ; and there is no need of Infallible Certainty , as to them , of all Christ Taught . One of these high Points , is that of Transubstantiation ; too high for me and Thousands and Millions besides , ever to apprehend , let us do our utmost ; nay we cannot apprehend ( such is our dulness ) that we can have any Certainty , as to Sense or Reason , if we hold it . We hope therefore J. S. will enlarge his Number , and not talk only of some Few that may be Saved without the Knowledge of such deep Mysteries ; we desire to be admitted into his Number , for truly our Capacities can never be stretched so far , as to comprehend the Possibility of Transubstantiation . Suppose our Motives be slender , yet they are such as move us to that degree , that we cannot overcome the Reluctancies of Sense , and Reason , and Revelation , and Tradition against it . But Mr. S. brings himself off with a Salvo ; Though all Points are not necessary for every particular Person , yet all of them are necessary for the Body of the Church , whose Pastors are to Instruct their Children in them , and apply the Efficacy of them to their Souls , as their Capacities admit , and Exigencies require . It seems still they are not Necessary to particular Persons , but according to their Capacities and Exigencies , but they are to the Body of the Church . But how came they to be Necessary to the Body of the Church ? For Instance , The Point of Transubstantiation is a very deep Point ; and although particular Persons may be Saved without believing it , yet I cannot understand how this deep Point comes to be Necessary , in any Respect , for the Body of the Church . I hope J. S. will not deny this to be one of his Necessary Church-Points : Let him then shew , how it comes to be so Necessary for the Pastors of the Church to Instruct their Children in it . My Capacity , I assure him , will not reach to this , and therefore I hope I may be excused ; and in his own words , my mind is not capable of being cultivated by such elevating Considerations . I do not believe there is any such danger of the Flocks dying , or falling short of their full growth they might have had in the Plentiful Pasturage of the Church , as J. S. elegantly speaks , if they do not believe Transubstantiation , or any such deep Points . But still we have no Absolute Certainty of our highest Fundamentals . No ? We affirm the Contrary ; and from Absolutely Certain Grounds . It is Absolutely Certain , that whatever God Reveals is true , and ought to be believed by us . And we are , as absolutely Certain as Scripture and Reason can make us , that God hath Revealed the Fundamentals of our Faith. But there is Experience to the Contrary . What Experience ? That we are not Certain ? We affirm that we are ; and who can tell best ? How comes Mr. S. to know we are not Certain when we say we are ? But all are not , as Socinians , &c. What are they to us ? Are not we certain , because some are not Certain ? What pittiful Reasoning is this ? Is Mr. S. Certain of his Infallible Ground of Certainty , Oral Tradition ? Why do I ask such a Question ? For very good Reason ; because there are some not Certain of it , and even in his own Church ; but cry out upon it , as Fallible , Fallacious , Dangerous , and Destructive of Faith , and leading to Atheism . From whence it follows , on Mr. S's . Principles , that he cannot be Certain himself , because others are not . Nay , it is impossible he should have any Certainty on his own Grounds . For he can have no Rule of Certainty , as I shall evidently prove from his own Words . A Rule must have Absolute Certainty ; Absolute Certainty there cannot be where Persons are left uncertain ; but there are many in the Church of Rome , that not only doubt of his Rule of Infallible Certainty , but utterly deny it , and dispute against it . How is it then possible , for him to be certain of it on his own Grounds ? But it is time to proceed to another Objection against our Rule of Faith. VIII . J. S. saith , We can be no more certain of our Rule , than we are of the Truth of the Letter of Scripture ; but we cannot be certain we have the Right Letter , unless we have a Right Translation , and that must be from a true Copy ; no Copy can be true , unless Conformable to the Original ; and if there be any failure in any of these , nay , if we have not absolute Certainty of all these , we cannot have any absolute Certainty of our Faith. This Objection , those of the Church of Rome , who believe Scripture to be a Rule of Faith , ( though not the Complete ) are concerned to Answer , as well as we . For , the Matters of Faith contained in Scripture are convey'd to their Minds after the same manner . But Mr. S. saith Their Case is different from ours . Do not they make the Vulgar Translation Authentick ? And will not the same Objections then lie against all those who rely upon it ? Let us see how J. S. clears this Matter : 1. The Canon of the Books comes down , saith he , by the Testimony of all Christian Churches , that are truly Christian . And we say , the Canon of the Books comes down by the Concurrent Testimony of all Christian Churches , however differing in other things . And herein , I think , we have much the advantage . For , we do not except against the Testimony of any Christian Churches ; nor condemn them as not truly Christian till their Cause be better heard and examin'd . 2. The Doctrine of Christ , saith he , transfused into the hearts of the faithful , both taught them how , and obliged them to correct the Copy in those particular Texts that concerned Faith. What is this , but in plain terms to expose the Scriptures to the Scorn and Contempt of Atheists and Infidels ? Who would desire no better a Concession than this , that the Scripture hath been corrected in Matters of Faith , according to the Faith of the Church . If this be granted , it is impossible to prove that we have any true Original Texts , in Matters of Faith : For if the Church did correct the Copy in those particular Texts , which concerned Faith , according to the Sense of the faithful ; then the Church in every Age might so correct it : and consequently we can never be sure , that the Texts continue the same for any two Ages together ; unless it be first proved impossible for the Sense of the Church to vary in any two Ages ; or of those who think themselves bound to correct the Texts . And I should be very sorry to have my Faith rest upon such a slippery Foundation . I will put the Case , as to the Arian Controversie . How was it possible for the Nicene Fathers to have convinced the Arians on such a Supposition as this ? You alledge several Texts of Scripture , might they say , to prove the Godhead of Christ , and his Equality with the Father ; but how can we know that these were Original Texts , and not corrected by the Guides of the Church then , according to their own Sense ? We do not deny that there were some leading Men of this Opinion , and having gained a Party to themselves , they corrected the Texts according to it : And therefore we can never be satisfied , that these were the Original Texts , because we can bring down a Tradition of a contrary Sense from the Apostles times . I do not see what satisfaction they could ever receive , if this pernicious Principle be allowed , that the Texts were to be corrected in Matters that concern Faith , according to the Sense of the Church . But he saith it is , If any Errour , through the carelesness , unattentiveness , or malice of the Translators , or Transcribers at any time had crept in . This doth not one jot mend the Matter . For if the Faith of the present Church be the Rule , then the Texts are to be corrected according to it , and the blame to be laid on the Carelesness or Malice of Translators and Transcribers . This is a miserable Account of the Certainty of Texts of Scripture in Points of Faith ; As to other Texts of inferiour concern , as he speaks , they could be best corrected , by multitudes of other ancient Copies , the Churches Care still going along , as was shewn in the highest manner , by the Council of Trent , that so it might be as exact as Human Diligence could well render it . As to multitudes of Copies they serve us as well as them ; but as to the Care of the Council of Trent , I am by no means satisfied . For 1. They went no farther than a Translation , and declared that Authentick ; without due regard to the Original Text. 2. The Care taken was not so exact ; for then Clemens the Eighth did great Injury to Sixtus the Fifth , when he recalled and corrected his Bibles in so many Places after Sixtus the Fifth , had published his for an Exact Edition . 3. There are still complaints in the Church of Rome of want of Exactness in the Vulgar Latin. 4. After all this is but Human Diligence , and no such Absolute Certainty , as J. S. requires from us . But it may be , he will say , That he doth not at all make it his Rule of Faith ; Let him declare so much ; and then we know what to Answer . This is still putting off . Therefore I will give a distinct Answer . I. We do utterly deny that it is in any Churches Power to correct Original Texts , because they contradict the Sense of the present Church ; or any Translations any farther , than they differ from the Originals . And I do not know any assertion that shakes more our Faith , as to the Scripture , than this of J. S. doth . II. The early Appeals made to Scripture in Matters of Faith , by the Writers of the Christian Church , make us Certain that there could be no such Alterations or Corrections of the Texts , according to these use of the Correctors . As for Instance , we find the Places produced against the Arians used before against the Samosatenians and Artemonites . If it be said , They might correct the Fathers to I answer , That there is no imaginable Ground for any such suspicion ; because the Fathers lived in distant Places and Countries , and therefore when their Testimonies agree about some places of Scripture alledged by them , there can be no Reason to suspect any Corruption or Alteration of the Text. As for Instance , no one Text of the whole New Testament , hath been more suspected than that of 1 S. John 5.7 . There are three that bear Record in Heaven , &c. And it cannot be denied , that there hath been great variety , both in the Greek and Latin Manuscripts about it ; yea , there was so in S. Jeroms time , as appears by his Preface to the Canonical Epistles ; who charges the leaving it out to the unfaithfulness of the Translators . S. Jerom is cried out upon as a Party in this Controversie , and therefore it is said on the other side , that he put it in as favouring his own Opinion . But his Integrity is vindicated herein , because S. Cyprian so long before the Arian Controversie produced this Place . So that our Certainty as to Scripture doth not depend upon the meer Letter , but upon comparing the best and most antient Copies , with the Writings of the Fathers , who still made use of the Scriptures in all Discourses and Debates about Matters of Faith. III. The variety of Readings in Matters that are not of Faith , cannot hinder our Certainty in Matters of Faith. We do not pretend , that there is no kind of variety in the Copies of the New Testament ; but I am of Opinion that this rather establishes than weakens our Faith. For , considering the great Multitudes of them , and how insignificant they are , it shews that this Book was liable to the common Accidents of Books ; but yet , that there is no such variety , as to make one suspect any Fraud or Design in the Alterations that appear in the Manuscript Copies . And as to Translations that have been made among us , the People who are not able to examin them by the Originals , have no Reason to suspect them , as to any Matter of Faith. Not meerly from the Skill and Integrity of the Persons , and the Care that hath been taken , but because it was so much the Concernment of some Men to have lessen'd the Credit of our Translations , as much as was possible , and they have not been able to produce any thing that might shake the Faith of a considering Man. If it be said after all , This is but Human Faith , and not Divine ; I answer , IV. We must be careful to distinguish the Certainty of Human and Divine Faith in this Matter . We do not pretend that we have an Absolute Divine Certainty of things that are only capable of Human Certainty ; and we do not say , that we have only Human Certainty of things capable of Divine Certainty . If the Question be put concerning the Objects of Divine Faith , then we do answer , That we have a Divine Certainty of them from those things , which are the proper Evidence of Divine Revelation . We believe the Doctrine of Christ with a Divine Faith , because it was confirmed by Miracles and Prophecies : We believe the New Testament to be written by the Holy Spirit , because the Promise of the Spirit was fulfilled upon them ; and especially in a thing of so great Concernment to the whole Christian Church . But if the Question be asked only concerning a Matter of Fact , as whether the Books that bear such Names were written by the Persons , whose Names they bear ; then I can have no greater Certainty than belongs to a Matter of Fact ; but then it is so circumstantiated , that I have a greater and more absolute Certainty , as to this , then any other Matter of Fact which wants the Proofs that this hath . And if as to Books , and Copies , and Translations , we have as high a Certainty , as the thing is capable of , it is madness to expect and require more . For where there is but a Human Testimony , there cannot be the Certainty of Divine Faith , which must not only have a Divine Object , but must rest on a Divine Testimony ; but where the Testimony is Human , the Certainty must be such as relates to the highest of that kind . But still , such a Faith may have Absolute Certainty of its kind ; and although in regard of its Testimony it be Human Faith , yet in regard both of its Object , its inward Cause , and its Effects , it may be truly called Divine . IX . The last Objection is , concerning the Number of Canonical Books . Pray satisfie us ( saith Mr. S. ) about this exact Number of Books ; and how many will just serve turn . One would think by his Objections , J. S. were preparing Matter for the Critical History of the New Testament , he seems so concerned to lessen the Authority of it . But I shall Answer the Objections he offers . 1. There may have been Books lost that were written by Persons divinely inspir'd , and we have no unanimous Consent of the Christian Church that there is none lost ; and those Books might contain Matters different from , or to be superadded to the Canon we have now ; and without this , we can have no Certainty , that the Books we have now , contained all the Divine Revelations . I Answer , I. If we have the unanimous Consent of the Christian Church , that we have the Canon of the New Testament entire , then we have their Consent , that there is no Book , written by Divine Inspiration , lost . And this appears by the Contest in the IV. Century , about the just Number of the Canonical Books ; The Churches then differ'd about some Books not then Universally receiv'd ; as the Apocalypse in some , and the Epistle to the Hebrews in others . Which shews , that the Churches were then so solicitous to preserve any Books that appear'd to be written by Persons Inspir'd , that although these did then want Universal Consent , yet they were still kept , and read , and dispers'd , till upon further Examination they came to be Universally read . It is not therefore in the least probable they should suffer any Apostolical Writings to be lost . II. This is to charge the Christian Church with so gross a Neglect , as overthrows the force of all his Arguments for Tradition . For we must suppose an Apostolical Writing sent to some Church by Direction of the Holy Spirit , and yet that Church be so notoriously careless , as to lose a Book containing in it many Points of Faith ; now I appeal to any one of common Sense , whether he could trust their Word for Matters of Faith , who could be so negligent as to lose a great many Points of Faith at once . And the more such a Book were dispersed , the Argument is still stronger against Tradition . Besides , this shews the great Insufficiency of Oral Tradition , if these Points of Faith are lost ; because such a Book was lost , wherein they were contained . If Tradition had been so effectual a Means of Conveying Matters of Faith , it should have appear'd in such a Case , viz. in preserving such Matters of Faith , though the Books were lost : But we find nothing like this , so much as pretended . Although it were much easier pretended than proved . III. This is to suppose the Providence of God not to be immediately concerned in preserving Books written by Divine Inspiration . Mr. S. doth really suppose that Books written by Divine Inspiration may have been lost , or at least that we cannot prove that they are not : But we think it a considerable Proof , that they could not , because the Divine Providence doth so immediately concern it self in preserving that which tends so much to the Good of his Church . If a Hair doth not fall from our Heads , nor a Sparrow fall on the Ground , without the Providence of God ( as our Saviour affirms ) is it not very unreasonable to suppose that a Divine Book , written for the Benefit of the Christian Church , should be wholly lost ? Especially considering the extraordinary Care the first Christians took , in Times of the greatest Persecutions , to preserve the Scriptures ; and no force or violence could extort them out of their hands . On Mr. S's Supposition , it was no hard Matter for a Book of Scripture to be lost , viz. if the several Books had been committed to the Custody of some Men in Trust for the whole Church ; but if we consider the things as they really were , it will appear hardly possible . For the Books were not kept up at first in a few hands , but dispersed abroad in multitudes of Copies , and received with mighty Veneration both on the Account of the Authors of them , and the Matters contained in them . They were read both in Publick and in Private , they heard them in their Assemblies , and they made them their constant Imployment at home ; they were their Rule of Life , as well as of Faith. And how is it possible to suppose any Book so received , so esteemed , so dispersed , so constantly read , could be suffer'd to be lost among Christians ? If it be Objected , That they were not all so esteemed at first , as appears by the Epistle to the Hebrews , and therefore might more easily be lost ; I Answer , That however they were not universally received at first , yet they were by those Churches to whom they were written ; and among them they were not kept up , but mightily dispersed ; so that there was no way to lose them , from the first spreading of them abroad ; unless we can suppose such multitudes of Christians to conspire together to suppress a Book of so great Concernment to themselves . As if Persons who claim an Estate by virtue of some Deeds , should all agree to imbezel them , or any material part of them . Here was no pretence for Registers and Abridgments , which some make use of to lessen the Authority of the Books of the Old Testament ; for here we have the very Authentick Writings of the Apostles , and their own Epistles in their own style and Expressions . And supposing the Churches , to whom they were sent , to have received them as their Writings , and to have communicated them to others , as they did , I do not see , under these Circumstances , how a Book , containing Divine Revelations , could be lost . II. He Objects , That the Canon of Scripture was not entire , but deficient for some hundreds of years , till the whole Canon was collected and acknowledged , and therefore so long the Church had no Perfect Rule of Faith. I Answer , I. I distinguish between a Compleat Rule of Faith , and a Compleat Canon of Scripture . For , if the Books owned and universally received , contain in them all Matters of Faith , then the Rule of Faith is Compleat , although some particular Books may be still in Dispute . As for Instance , it is certain , that in St. Jerom's Time , the Church of Rome did not receive as Canonical the Epistle to the Hebrews ; Had not that Church therefore a Compleat Rule of Faith ? If God hath so abundantly provided for his Church , that there may be a full Revelation of all Points of Faith in the rest , then the disputing the Authority of such an Epistle , doth not derogate from the Compleatness of the Rule of Faith. For , if they have all Points of Faith , they must have a Compleat Rule of Faith. II. It is no Prejudice to the true Canon of Scripture , that some particular Books of the New Testament were for some time disputed by some particular Churches . For , if it were done without Ground , it doth reflect more on those Churches than on those Books ; especially when those very Churches afterwards received them . And this was the Case of the Church of Rome , as to the Epistle to the Hebrews : St. Jerom affirms , That not only the Greek Churches all received it , but that all the Ancient Writers did so ; and not meerly as an Ecclesiastical , but as a Canonical Epistle . Therefore this must be a late thing in the Church of Rome ; and in probability , began upon the Novatian Controversie , which Epistle was thought too much to favour the Novatian Doctrine ; and when that Controversie did abate , that Epistle recovered its Authority in the Church of Rome . But Mr. S. is angry with me , for reflecting on the Church of Rome for not receiving the Epistle to the Hebrews in St. Jerom 's Time ; which ( he thinks ) was an Act of Prudence , antecedent to the Judgment or Determination of any Church , whether Greek or Latin. One may see by this how well versed he is in the Canon of Scripture , when St. Jerom declares , that not only all the Greek Writers received it , but all the Ancient , and that as Canonical . Was here no antecedent Judgment of the Church in this Matter ? Doth not the Consent of all Ancient Writers , even in St. Jerom's Time , make a Judgment of the Church ? But he adds , That what I make a heinous Crime in the Church of Rome , was a commendable Caution in it . That which I said , was , That it hence appear'd , that the Church of Rome was far from being believed then to have the Authority of making the Canon of Scripture , or being Infallible in Faith. And what saith J. S. in Answer to this ? Not one Syllable , but runs it off to another thing . But why do I not as well blame the Greek Churches for not receiving the Apocalypse ? They do not pretend to such Authority and Infallibility in this Matter , as the Church of Rome doth . I do not deny that there were some Greeks then to blame in rejecting the Apocalypse , but Bellarmin saith , they were but few and obscure Persons ; and he produces the Testimonies of Justin Martyr , Irenaeus , Theophilus Antiochenus , Melito Sardensis , Dionysius Alexandrinus , Clemens Alexandrinus , Origen and Athanasius , all approving it . And the Occasion of disputing it arose from the Millenary Opinion , which some thought they could not confute , as long as the Apocalypse had such Authority in the Church . And such Disputes as these , which wore off by degrees , are no real Prejudice to the Canon of the New Testament , which was at first generally received ; and although some few Books were contested for a time , yet they recover'd their Authority , and have ever since been received by the Universal Consent of all Christian Churches . III. He Objects against this Universal Consent , the Testimonies of Marcion , Ebion , Valentinus , Cerinthus , and Epiphanius his other Hereticks , who rejected the Canon of the New Testament . Could any Man but J. S. make such an Objection as this ? But he had a mind to bring me in as a Favourer of all Hereticks ; and , as such another Man of Integrity hath done , of all Anti-Catholick and Anti-Christian Doctrines . But where have I given any Occasion for such spiteful Reflections ? All that I said , was , We have the Universal Consent of all Christian Churches for the Canon of the New Testament , i. e. Of all since the time , that the Epistle to the Hebrews was receiv'd in the Latin , and the Apocalypse in the Greek Churches ; notwithstanding all the Divisions they have since fallen into , yet they had no Difference as to the Canon of the New Testament . And this I insisted on as the Ground of our Certainty , viz. The Unanimous Consent of all the great Bodies of Christians , that have continued under different Denominations to this day . To this he gives no other Answer , but that my Answer to the Fifth Question , is co-incident with that to the Fourth . I thought J. S. in the Self-evident way , would have liked my Answer the better for it . But he doth not comprehend the design of it . I had said before , That we relied on the Universal Testimony of the Christian Church ; upon that the Question was asked , What I meant by the Christian Church : My Answer was , That it was that which was made up of all Christian Churches ; i. e. saith J. S. That all the Parts make the Whole ; and what Incongruity is there ? When Mr. G. said , That the Christian Church may be taken in several Latitudes , he desired to know in what Sense I took it ; and could I answer him more directly than to tell him , I took it in the largest Sense , as it was made up of all the Parts ; and not in such a Sense as they do , who give the Denomination of the Whole to a Part ? But by this I do not seclude all Hereticks . I do not take upon me to judge of all the Bodies of Christians in the World , whether they be justly charged with Heresie or not ; but I take them only as Christians , and from their Universal Consent , I prove the Certainty of the Canon of Scripture . Hereby I profess a Brotherhood with Excrementitious Outcasts . I know not what Brotherhood lies in making use of their Testimony ; but I had rather do it , than with unsufferable Pride and Folly call so many Bodies of Christians ; for whom Christ died , Excrementitious Outcasts . But although he seems to own that their Testimony doth strengthen the Evidence for the Canon of the New Testament ; yet he calls it back again , and for extraordinary Reasons . 1. They may have corrupted the Letter of Scripture , although they may allow of the Books . Let us then take their Testimony for the Books , and examine the Letter afterwards . 2. This Vniversal Testimony must reach to each Chapter and Verse ; but we must have Assurance not only of each Verse , but of each significant Word in the Verse . How hardly are some Men satisfied about the Certainty of Scripture ! Are there not different Copies in all Parts to examin and compare , if there be cause of Mistrust ; and if there be none , What Prejudice is this to our Certainty ? At this rate , Men may argue against every thing ; and that there can be no Certainty of any Writing , unless the Person stood by and saw the Author write ; and even then he might question his Senses too . These Objections do indeed lead to an Incurable Scepticism in the Church of Rome . 3. The Judges suspect the Justness of the Cause , if known Knights of the Post are called in to corroborate the Evidence . What a desperate Cause is that , which forces Men to fling such Dirt in the Face of so many Christian Churches ? And that without the least Evidence or Proof against them . How come all the Greek , Abyssine , Coptick , Oriental Christians , to be compared to Knights of the Post , because they afford a Concurrent Testimony with us about the Canon of the New Testament ? They may be the honestest and best Part of Christendom , for any thing J. S. knows ; and what Justice can there be in such Uncharitable Censures ? It is not enough for you to say , They are all accounted Hereticks or Schismaticks by you ; for we that know how unjust and unreasonable your Censures are so near home , have no Cause to regard them at such a distance . Thus I have Answered all the Objections I have met with in J. S. against our Rule of Faith. I now come to the last part of my Task , which is to examin the Arguments produced to prove the Infallibility of Oral and Practical Tradition . The main Argument is thus set down by Mr. S. All Traditionary Christians believe the same to day which they did yesterday , and so up to the time of our Blessed Saviour ; and if they follow this Rule , they can never err in Faith , and therefore are Infallible . And they could not innovate in Faith , unless they did forget what they held the day before , or out of malice after it . All the Parts of this Argument Mr. S. endeavours to shew to be Self-evident ; but in truth it is a Self-evident Fallacy ; as I shall shew at large . But before I particularly lay it open , I must consider what he saith against the Method I used in the Conference for answering it . I then thought , and do still , that the clearest Answer to an Argument , which proves a thing impossible was to bring an undeniable Instance that such a thing really was , which was proved impossible to be . And to this purpose I produced the Instance of the Greek Church , which professed to follow Tradition , and yet they could not deny to have erred . This Mr. S. saith , Is giving no Answer at all ; for this is no Answer to his Argument , but producing a new Argument against him . And he magisterially tells me , That it is my turn to answer ; and therefore I am confined to Concedo , Nego or Distinguo : as the Propositions are either true , false or ambiguous , or I may deny the Inference , if I find more terms in the Conclusion than in the Premisses . But these are my Bounds which I must not exceed . But with submission to these Logicians , I answer , That where an Argument is designed to prove a thing impossible , which is contrary to Sense and Experience , the producing an evident Instance is the plainest and shortest way of Answering ; as well as in an Induction which is allowed to be disproved by a plain Instance . As in the Case of Zeno's Argument against Motion ; Diogenes his Moving was a far more effectual Answer , than if he had stood a great while with his Concedo , Nego and Distinguo . J. S. confesses , That the vanity of Zeno 's Argument was not ill ridiculed by Diogenes his moving before him . And why might not I then expose the vanity of this Demonstration by the Instance of the Greek Church ; unless some fault be found in the Instance . He brings the Argument , and I an Instance against it , what are People the wiser ? and which shall they be for ; the Argument or the Instance ? Zeno brought his Argument , and Diogenes his Instance ; were not By-standers the wiser , when it so apparently proved the foppery of the Argument ? Doth J. S. think the vanity of it was not enough exposed by that means ? But he saith , This is excepting against the Conclusion , when there lies none against the Premisses . No such Matter ; for it shews there is a Fallacy in the Premisses : It is however but an Argument , ad hominem ; call it what you will , so it doth my business ; to shew the vanity of the Demonstration . This way doth but sham an Adversary . And truly that is a great matter , if they be such as P.G. They are of no use for discovery of Truth . As much as laying open Sophistry helps to the discovery of Truth ; which is not a little when we deal with Sophistical Disputers . But we come to the Instance . How doth he after all clear this Instance of the Greek Church ? Doth he deny that they hold to Tradition ? No. Doth he deny that they have erred notwithstanding ? All that he saith is , That P. G. was no ways obliged not to deny that the Greek Church had erred in Points of Faith. No ? then he must grant that the Roman Church hath erred , for they contradict each other . Let him take his choice ; one doth my business as well as the other , and more effectually destroys the pretence of Infallibility in the Roman Church . But I say , they did not err . What is my saying to the business in hand ? Besides , there are other Points contradictorily held between the Greek and Roman Churches , besides that of the Filioque and the Argument holds as well in any other , as in that . And therefore he must fix the Errour on one side or other . After all this flourishing he takes heart , and resolves to grapple with the Instance . Let us see what your Instance will do . Now I thought we shall have a direct Answer . But I am strangely disappointed . For he runs still back to that , That I do not believe it erred . Was the Instance brought against me , or against P. G ? But his Answer doth not make or marr the business . The business of the Demonstration it doth , and that was my business . But this doth not prove that a Church going upon Tradition errs , unless I will grant that the Greek Church hath erred . What strange Trifling is this ? The Dispute was about P. G's . Argument , and not my Opinion . Is this the Answer to the Instance about the Greek Church which Mr. M. promised ? If this pass for an Answer , I think J. S. may defend Sure footing . I mentioned P. G's . Answer , That the Greek Church followed Tradition till the Arians left that Rule , and took up a new one . And why saith J. S. hath he not answered well ? Because he did not answer to the purpose ; which was not about the Arians , but the present Greek Church . But a Church may follow Tradition at one time , and leave it at another . Very true ; but the Greek Church did not forsake Tradition , and yet erred . And therefore Tradition and Errour were found together , and therein lies the force of this undeniable Instance . The rest is such Trifling , that I am really ashamed to answer it over and over . Still he attempts to give an Answer , and still fails ; but it is something new , and therefore shall be considered . His Answer , saith J. S. holds as well as to the present as past Greek Church . His answer ! Where is it ? It was that those who err in Faith must leave Tradition . But the Greeks did not leave Tradition , and yet erred in Faith ; so that the Instance holds good still . He denies that Errour and Tradition can be found together in the Greek Church , or any other Ancient or Modern , i. e. the Conclusion must be held against all the Instances in the World. But I ought to say , whether the differences were in matters of Faith. Yes , in such which the Church of Rome accounts matters of Faith. But how can an erring Church still plead Tradition and adhere to it ? Answer the Instance ; for the Greek Church doth plead Tradition . But then pleading Tradition is no more but quoting some Expressions of ancient Writers , as the Arians did : Not so neither ; for the Greek Church relies most upon Tradition from Father to Son in Practise of any Church in the World. But if they adhere to Tradition , and that Tradition leads them to Christ , who could not err , how can they possibly err ? For , pray did Christ teach any Errour ? No certainly . When a Father believed what Christ taught him , and the Son what the Father believed , did not the Son too believe what Christ taught ? Run it on to the last Son that shall be born in the World , must not every one believe what Christ taught , if every one believed what his Father believed ? And so Goodnight to the Greek Church ; we are come back to the Argument . I might as well have Instanced in the Latin Church it self . Truly I think so too ; and so you shall find in a short time ; and how little Advantage you get by such a Challenge . But it is impossible for a Church to adhere to Tradition , and yet to Err ; therefore if the present Greek Church have Erred , it has not adhered to Tradition ; if it have adhered to Tradition , it hath not Erred . That is , the Argument must be good , let the Instance be what it will. But an easie Distinction will shew the Weakness of this Argument . Adhering to Tradition may be taken Two ways . I. For Adhering to Tradition , as the Rule and Means of Conveyance of Matters of Faith. II. For actually Adhering to that very Doctrine which Christ taught , and hath ever since been truly convey'd down by Tradition . In this latter Sense we grant it impossible for Men to Err , while they actually adhere to that very Doctrine which Christ taught , and is supposed to be deliver'd down by Tradition . But this is not the Matter before us ; which lies in these Two Points . I. Whether Tradition be an Infallible Way to convey the Doctrine of Christ down to us . II. Whether it be impossible for those who hold to This as Their Rule , to Err or not . And so the Answer is plain to the main Argument . If by Traditionary Christians , be meant such as adhere to that very Doctrine which Christ taught , and was actually conveyed down to them , then such Traditionary Christians , so believing , cannot Err. But if by Traditionary Christians be meant such as take Tradition for an Infallible Rule of conveying all Matters of Faith ; then we say such Traditionary Christians may and have Erred : And that for Two Reasons . I. Because Tradition is no Infallible Rule . II. Because although it were , yet Men might Err , either by mistaking it , or departing from it . But saith J. S. They cease to be Traditionary Christians if they do not believe the same to Day which they did Yesterday , and so up to Christ. If by Traditionary Christians be meant , they do not really believe what Christ taught , we grant it , that they are . If by Traditionary Christians be meant such as bear the Name of Traditionary Christians , and look on Tradition as their Rule , and imagine they have the same Faith which Christ taught ; then they are still Traditionary Christians . And now I am to give a clear and distinct Answer to the Demonstration of the Infallibility of Oral Tradition , as it is managed by J. S. and taken into Propositions . I. All Traditionary Christians believe the same to day which they did yesterday , and so up to the time of our Blessed Saviour . J. S. hopes I have nothing to say to this ; but he is mistaken . For I have many things to say to lay open the Notorious Fallacy of it in every Clause . I. All Traditionary Christians . Who are they ? Are all Christians Traditionary Christians ? This were to the purpose , if it could be proved . But how doth this appear ? Why is it not said , All Christians have gone upon this Principle ? He knew this could never have been proved . And therefore he puts in the thing in dispute , and would have it taken for granted , that there were no other but Traditionary Christians . Which I deny , and I am certain he can never prove it . Suppose then that there were Christians not Traditionary as well as Traditionary , the Proposition appears ridiculous ; so far is it from Demonstration . Traditionary Christians believed so ; Non-Traditionary Christians believed otherwise ; and which are to be believed , is the Question ; and that to be determined by the Certainty of the Ground they went upon ; and so we are come to the Debate between Scripture and Tradition . II. All Traditionary Christians believe the same to Day which they did Yesterday . This is capable of a threefold meaning . I. That they do actually believe the same to Day which they did Yesterday . Which is a meer contingent thing , and proves nothing . Or , II. That they are bound to believe to Day , as they did Yesterday . And that may be on several Accounts . I. Because they see Evidence from the Word of God to Day as well as they did Yesterday . II. Or because their Guides of the Church teach them the same to Day which they did Yesterday , whom they believe to be Infallible . III. Or , meerly because they receive it by an Oral Tradition , and not on the other Accounts ; and then it proves no more than that they are bound to do it ; and it is too well known that many fail to do what they are bound to . Or III. That they do Infallibly believe the same to Day which they did Yesterday . But then this ought to have been inserted in the Proposition , That Traditionary Christians cannot fail to believe to Day what they did Yesterday . If it be said , That this is implyed in their being Traditionary Christians , then I say , the whole is a Fallacy of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for he supposes all true Christians to be Traditionary Christians , and then that they Infallibly hold to Tradition as their Rule , and from thence he proves Tradition to be Infallible . But if the Body of Christians may go upon another Rule , or if going upon Tradition , they may misunderstand it , then there is no inseparable connexion in the several Links of this Chain . And there is a further Fallacy in supposing that if any change in Faith happens , it must be as sudden and remarkable , as if all Men should to day refuse to believe what they believed Yesterday . Whereas the changes of Opinions are oft-times wrought by insensible Degrees , and many concurrent Causes ; and sometimes the very same Words may be used and the Faith altered , as in the Case of Merit , Sacraments , Sacrifice , &c. which sheweth Men may continue the very same Terms , and yet believe quite a different thing . And where Changes are gradual , it is very unreasonable to pitch upon such a precise and narrow space of time , as between to Day and Yesterday . By the same Method , one may demonstrate it to be impossible that any Language should be changed ; for People speak the same Language to Day which they did Yesterday and the same Yesterday which they did the Day before , and so up to the very building of Babel ; and yet we all know that Languages are continually changed , and to such a degree , that in some Ages they cannot understand , what was at that time intelligible by all . In such cases , it is enough to assign the general Causes and Reasons of Alterations without fixing a precise and determinate Time. And those I shall speak to afterwards . III. And so up to the time of our Blessed Saviour . To prove any thing from hence it must be shewed , I. That there can be no Pretence to Tradition taken up without Ground ; for if there may , it can by no means follow , That if Men pretend to Tradition , that Tradition must run up to the Time of Christ. But then they cease to be Traditionary Christians . What then ? Not in pretence , for they may call themselves so still ; but in reality they are not . II. That if Men lay claim to a Rule they must always observe it . We do not pretend to it as to the Scripture : And what Reason is there for it as to Tradition ? But if Men may pretend to follow Tradition , and do not , then from their being Traditionary Christians , it can by no means follow that this Tradition must be carried up to the Time of our Blessed Saviour . II. The second Proposition is , And if they follow this Rule , they can never err in Faith. This is palpably self evident , saith J. S. So say I too , but it is only to be a meer Fallacy . To follow this Rule is to believe the same to Day which they did Yesterday , and so up to Christ , or downwards : If they did this from Christs time , and so forwards , they must continue to believe the same to the End of the World. If they really believe the same Doctrine which Christ taught , no doubt they cannot err . But the Question is , Whether this be an Infallible Rule for us to Judge , they could never mistake in this Rule , nor follow any other : For if either of these could happen , the Demonstration is lost . If it were possible for Errors to come in some other Way , or for Persons to misapprehend the Doctrine delivered ; then it is not possible for us by this Way to be convinced they could not err . The latter I have already spoken to ; I shall now shew that there were some other ways that Errors might come in . And here I shall pass over the Common Infirmities of Human Nature , which I think Oral Tradition can never Cure , and which leave Men always lyable to Error ; but I shall name some more particular Ways of introducing them . I. By the Authority of False Teachers . And for this I shall not run back to the False Apostles and Seducers in the Apostles times and afterwards ; but I shall bring a present Instance in the Church of Rome ; and that is of Michael de Molinos , a Person solemnly condemned at Rome , Aug. 28. of this Year for 68 Propositions taken out of his Books and owned by himself , as the Decree saith ; which are there said to be Heretical , Erroneous , Blasphemous , Offensive , Rash , Seditious , and contrary to Christian Discipline . This Man is said to have had Thousands of Disciples in Italy , in the very Heart of the Traditionary Church . Now , I desire J. S. to inform me , If Tradition be Infallible , and that be the Way followed in the Church of Rome , how it was possible for such Multitudes to be deceived in Matters of such Consequence ? To say they were not deceived , is to expose the Authority of the Guides of the Church of Rome to the greatest Contempt ; To say they were deceived , is to own , That notwithstanding Tradition , a single Priest may gain such Authority , as to deceive Thousands ; and where lies then the Infallibility of Tradition ? II. By Enthusiasm , or a Pretence to Immediate Revelation . For this I shall not produce the Old Instances in Ecclesiastical History , as of Montanus , Asclepiades , Theodotus , Manichaeus , Arius , AEtius , &c. who all pretended to Revelations for their particular Opinions . But I shall keep to the late Instance of Molinos , who asserts , That the Perfection of a Christian State lies in a Simple , Pure , Infused and Perfect Contemplation , above the Vse of Ratiocination or Discursive Prayer , and that in order to this , nothing is so necessary as Self-annihilation . This Doctrine is now condemned at Rome ; but how came it into the Church ; Did not they believe the same to Day which they did Yesterday ? If there were Oral Tradition for it , how came it to be condemned ? If not , then notwithstanding Oral Tradition , dangerous Doctrines may get in under a pretence of a more Sublime and Spiritual Way of Perfection , than is to be attained in the Dull and Heavy Way of Tradition from Father to Son. III. By a Pretence to a more Secret Tradition . And thus Christianity was at first corrupted , by such as pretended that there was a Mystical Doctrine delivered by Christ of a more purifying Nature , than the Plain and Common Doctrine taught to all People by the Apostles . So Hegesippus in Eusebius affirms , That the Christian Church was corrupted by this Means ; and to the same Purpose Irenaeus . So that Tradition was so far from securing the Church from Error , that it was the Means of bringing it in . And the Publick Tradition could not hinder this coming in of Error , because the Secret Tradition was pretended to be more Divine and Spiritual ; the other was only for Babes , and this for grown Christians . IV. By Differences among Church-Guides about the Sense of Scripture and Tradition . Thus it was in the Samosatenian , Arian , Pelagian , Nestorian , and Eutychian Controversies . Neither of the Parties disowned Scripture or Tradition ; and those who were justly condemned , pretended still to adhere to both . And if such Flames could not be prevented , so much nearer the Apostles Times , by the help of Tradition , What Reason can there be to expect it so long after ? V. By too great a Veneration to some particular Teachers , not far from the Apostolical Times , in regard to their Learning or Piety ; which made their Disciples despise Tradition in Comparison of their Notions . And thus Origens Opinions came to prevail so much in the Church ; and the Mixture of Platonism with Christianity proved the occasion of several Errors , with Respect to the State of Souls after Death , as well as in other Points . VI. By Compliance with some Gentile Superstitions in Hopes to gain more easily upon the Minds of the People ; who having been long accustomed to the Worship of Images and Tutelar Deities , it was thought no Imprudent Thing in some Guides of the Church , when the main Doctrines of Paganism were renounced , to humour the People in these things ; so they were Accommodated to Christianity ; but others vehemently opposed this Method , as repugnant to the True Primitive Christianity . But by Degrees , those Superstitions prevailed ; and the Original Tradition of the Church thereby corrupted . VII . By Implicit Faith ; which puts it into the Power of the Church-Guides to introduce what Doctrines they thought fit . When the best of the People were told it was against the Fundamental Rights of the Catholick Church for them to examine any Opinions which were proposed to them by their Guides , That they neither did , nor could , nor ought to understand them ; and when once this Point was gained , People never troubled themselves about Scripture or Tradition ; for all they had to do , was only to know what was decreed by the Church , though with a Non-obstante to a Divine Institution ; as is plain in the Council of Constance , notwithstanding all the Tricks to avoid it . If then , Errours might come into the Church all these ways , what a vain thing is it to pretend , That Oral Tradition will keep from any possibility of Error ? And so I need give no other Answer to his last Proposition , That if Men did innovate in Faith , it must be either through Forgetfulness or Malice ; for I have shewed many other Causes besides these ; especially since I intend to shew in a particular Discourse how the Errors and Corruptions we charge on the Church of Rome did come into it : My design here being only to shew the Possibility of it . There remain only two things which deserve any Consideration : 1. About the Charge of Pelagianism . 2. About the Council of Trents Proceeding on Tradition ; which will admit of an easie Dispatch . I. As to the Charge of Pelagianism . It doth not lie in this , That he requires any Rational Inducements to Faith , which we do assert as well as he . But it lay in these Two things . I. That a Divine Faith was to be resolved into a Natural Infallibility . For we were told that Divine Faith must have Infallible Grounds ; and when we come to examine them , we find nothing but what is Natural . And now to avoid the Charge of Pelagianism , this Divine Faith is declared to be meer Human Faith ; and so Human Faith is said to have Infallible Grounds , but Divine Faith must shift for it self . For saith J. S. 'T is confess'd and ever was , that the Human Authority of the Church or Tradition , begets only Human Faith as its Immediate Effect ; but by bringing it up to Christ , it leads us to what 's Divine . Well ; but what Infallible Ground is there for this Divine Faith ? Where doth that fix ? Is it on the Infallibibility of Tradition or not ? If not , then we may have Divine Faith without it . If it doth , then Divine Faith is to be resolved into Natural Means : And what is this but Pelagianism ? II. That he excludes the Pious Disposition of the Will , from piecing out ( as he calls it ) the Defect of the Reasons why we Believe . And in another place he excludes the Wills Assistance in these words , That Faith , or a Firm and Immoveable Assent upon Authority is not throughly Rational , and by consequence partly Faulty , if the Motives be not alone able to convince an Vnderstanding rightly disposed without the Wills Assistance . How then can a pious Disposition of the Will be necessary in order to the Act of Faith ? And is it not Pelagianism to exclude it ? Therefore I was in the right , when I said , That this way of Oral Tradition resolves all into a meer Human Faith ; and that this is the unavoidable Consequence of it . No , he saith , he resolves all into Christs and the Apostles teaching . How ridiculous is this ? For , did not Pelagius and Coelestius the very same ? And the thing I charged upon them , was , That they went no farther upon this Principle than they did . Upon this he asks a very impertinent Question ; but if I do not Answer it , I know what Clamours will follow . Pray do you hold that Christ is a meer Man , or that Believing him is a meer Human Faith , or that the Doctrine taught by Him or Them is meerly Human ? What Occasion have I given for such a Question ? But I perceive there is a design among some , to make me be believed to be no Christian. I pray God forgive the Malice of such Men. I thank God , I have better Grounds for my Faith than Oral Tradition . I do believe Christ to be more than meer Man , even the Eternal Son of God , and that his Doctrine is Divine , and his Apostles had Infallible Assistance in delivering it . But what is all this to the present Question ? I perceive some men when they are hard pinched , cry out , that their Adversaries are Atheists or Socinians , &c. and hope by this means to divert them from the business before them . But these Arts will not do . And such a Dust cannot so blind the Readers Eyes , but he must see it is raised on purpose , that he may not be discerned in making an Escape . II. As to the Council of Trents proceeding upon Tradition . That which I said , was , The Church of Rome hath no where declared in Council , that it hath any such Power of making Implicit Articles of Faith contained in Scripture to become Explicit by its explaining the Sense of them . And the Reason I gave , was , Because the Church of Rome doth not pretend to make New Articles of Faith : But to make Implicit Doctrines to become Explicit , is really so to do ; as I there proved . Now what saith J. S. to this ? I. He saith , That the Council of Trent defines it belongs to the Church to judge of the True Sense and Interpretation of Scripture . As though all that belonged to the Church , must presently belong to the Church of Rome ; or all Judgment of Scripture must be Infallible ; or must make things necessary to be believed which were not so before . II. He shews , That the Church did proceed upon this Power . What Power ? Of making things not Necessary to become Necessary ? I. It declares Sess. 13. That from some Texts mentioned , the Church was ever persuaded of the Doctrin of Transubstantiation . This is an admirable Argument , to prove , that it can make that Necessary to be believed , which was not , because it was always believed . II. Sess. 14. It declares 1 Cor. 11. to be understood of Sacramental Confession by the Custom and Practise of the Church . Then I suppose the Church thought it Necessary before . III. Sess. 14. It declares Jam. 5. to be understood of Sacramental Confession . But how ? By its Power of making it Necessary to be believed meerly by such Declaration ? No ; but by Apostolical Tradition ; then the meaning is , that it was always so understood . But because the Council of Trent doth pretend to Apostolical Tradition for the Points there determin'd , and the shewing that it had not Catholick and Apostolick Tradition , is the most effectual Confutation of the present Pretence of Oral Tradition , I shall reserve that to another Discourse , part whereof , I hope , will suddenly be Published . FINIS . A CATALOGVE of some BOOKS Printed for Henry Mortlock , at the Phoenix in S. Paul's Church-Yard . A Rational Account of the Grounds of Protestant Religion ; being a Vindication of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury's Relation of a Conference , &c. from the pretended Answer by T. C. Wherein the True Grounds of Faith are cleared , and the False discovered ; the Church of England vindicated from the Imputation of Schism ; and the most important particular Controversie between us and those of the Church of Rome throughly examined : By Edward Stillingfleet , D. D. and Dean of S. Pauls , Folio , the Second Edition . Origines Britannicae : Or the Antiquity of the British Churches ; with a Preface concerning some pretended Antiquities relating to Britain , in vindication of the Bishop of S. Asaph , by Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of S. Pauls , Folio . The Rule of Faith : Or an Answer to the Treatise of Mr. J. S. entituled , Sure footing , &c. by John Tillotson , D. D. to which is adjoyned , A Reply to Mr. J. S.'s third Appendix , &c. by Edward Stillingfleet D. D. A Letter to Mr. G. giving a true Account of a late Conference at the D. of P's . A second Letter to Mr. G. in answer to two Letters lately published concerning the Conference at the D. of P. Veteres Vindicati : In an Expostulatory Letter to Mr. Sclater of Putney , upon his Consensus Veterum , &c. wherein the absurdity of his Method , and the weakness of his Reasons are shewn ; His false Aspersions upon the Church England are wiped off , and her Faith concerning the Eucharist of proved to be that of the Primitive Church : Together with Animadversions on Dean Boileaus French translation of , and Remarks upon Bertram . An Answer to the Compiler of Nubes Testium : Wherein is shewn That Antiquity ( in relation to the Points in Controversie set down by him ) did not for the first five hundred Years Believe , Teach and Practice as the Church of Rome doth at present Believe , Teach and Practice ; together with a Vindication of Veteres Vindicati from the late weak and disingenuous Attempts of the Author of Transubstantiation Defended by the Author of the Answer to Mr. Sclater of Putney . A Letter to Father Lewis Sabran Jesuite , in answer to his Letter to a Peer of the Church of England ; wherein the Postscript to the Answer to the Nubes Testium is Vindicated , and Father Sabrans Mistakes further discovered . A second Letter to Father Lewis Sabran Jesuite , in answer to his Reply . A Vindication of the Principles of the Author of the Answer to the Compiler of Nubes Testium in answer to a late pretended Letter from a Dissenter to the Divines of the Church of England . Scripture and Tradition Compared , in a Sermon preached at Guild-Hall-Chappel , Nov. 27. 1687. by Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of S. Pauls , the second Edition . There is now in the Press , and will speedily be published , An Historical Examination of the Authority of Councils , discovering the false Dealing that hath been used in the publishing of them , and the Difference amongst the Papists themselves about their Number . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A61545-e1550 Faith vindicated , pag. 13. Faith vindicated , pag. 41. Errour Nonplust , pag. 135. Haeres . Blakloan . p. 37 , 38. P. 39. P. 39. P. 40. P. 42. P. 44. Third Letter , p. 65. Append. ad Haeres . Blakloan . First Letter , pag. 4.5 , 6. Declaratio J. S. circa Doctrinam in suis libris contentam ; exhibita Sacrae Congregationi Eccles. & R. D D. Cardinalium — General . Inquisitorum . Duaci . 1677. John 15.22 . Haeres . Blokloan . pag. 315 , 316 , 317. Page 318. Page 6. Haeres . Blackloan . p. 33.153 , &c. 323. Haec nova propositio fidem Christianam destruit impellitque ad Scepticismum & Atheismum . Haeres . Blaklo . p. 66. Mecum omnes viri Docti & Orthodoxi sentiunt , per tua principia vastum ad Atheismum & Heresin hiatum aperiri . Haeres . Blackloan , p. 200. 2.2 . a 9. ad 1. Sed circa ea quae sunt de Necessitate Salutis , sufficienter instruuntur à Spiritu Sancto . 2.2.9.8 . a. 4. ad 1. Donum intellectus nunquam se subtrahit sanctis circa ea quae sunt necessaria ad salutem , sed circa alia interdum se subtrahit . ib. ad . 3. A. 3. dicendum quod Lumen Fidei facit videre ea quae creduntur — ita per habitum Fidei inclinatur mens hominis ad assentièndum his quae conveniunt certae Fidei & non aliis . 2.2.9.1 . a. 4. ad 3. Per lumen Fidei divinitus infusum homini homo assentit his quae sunt Fidei , non autem contrariis ; & ideo nihil periculi vel damnationis inest his qui sunt in Christo Jesu , ab ipso illuminati per fidem . 2.2.9.2 . a. 3. ad 2. Greg. Ariminens . D. 1. A. 4. Q. 1. Greg. de Valentia . Tom. 3. Disp. 1. Q. 1. Part. 4. Hugo de Sancto Victore Sumsent . l. 1. c. 1. De Sacram. l. 1. p. 11. c. 2.4 . Rich. de Sancto Victor . Declar. Part. 1. p. 373. Petr. Pictaviens . Sentent . Part. 3. c. 21. Gul. Parisiens . de Fide. c. 1. Gul. Antissiodor Sum. in Praef. & l. 3. Tit. Q. 2. Alex. Alens . Part. 1. Q. 2. M. 3. A. 4. Part. 3. Q. 68. M. 2. A. 2. Bonavent . l. 3. D. 23. Q. 4. Aquin. 1.9.46 . a 2. in C. 19.9.32 . A. 1. in . B. 2.2.9.2 . a. 1. ad 1.9.1 . a. 4. ad 3.9.2 . a. 3.9.5 . a. 4. C· Henr. Gandav . Sum. Art. 7. Q. 2. N. 6 , 7 , 8. Art. 9. Q. 3. N. 13.13 . Q. 1. N. 4 , 5. Scot. in Sentent . L. 3. Q. 23. N. 14 , 15. Durand . Prolog . Q. 1. N. 43 , 46. L. 3. Dist. 24. Q. 3. N. 8 , 9. Second Letter , p. 25. Second Letter , pag. 6. Second Letter to Mr. G. pag. 7. Third Catholick Letter , pag. 6. Third Letter , p. 14. First Letter , p. 32. First Letter , p. 25. Second Letter , p. 73 , 74. Theod. Haeret . Fab. l. 2 , 3. First Letter , p. 26. First Letter , p. 26. Page 27. 2.2.9.4.2.6 . Page ●● . Page 29. Page 29. Page 29. Page 29. Third Letter , p. 92. p. 93. Bell. de verbo Dei , l. 3. c. 6. sect . Respondeo . Third Letter , p. 99· p. 102. 1 Cor. 10.15 . 1 Thess. 5.21 . 1 Joh. 4.1 . Third Letter . Page , 104. 2d . Letter , p. 21. Third Letter . Page , 34. Luke , 1.4 . Job . 20.31 Third Letter , p. 38.39 , 40. Second Letter , p. 17. Third Letter , p. 40. Bell. de Verbo Dei l. 1.2 . Third Letter , p. 81. Bellar. de Verbo Dei , l. 4. c. 11. Third Letter , p. 44. Pag. 48. Pag. 48. Ibid. Page 49. Third Letter . Page , 50. Page 51. Page 51. S. Cyprian . de ●nit . Epist. ad Jubai . Third Letter , p. 58. Page 56. Mat. 10.29 , 30. Page 58. Hieronym . ad Dardanum . Third Letter , p. 57. Third Letter , p. 59. Page 74. Page 75. Page 76. Page 57. Page 76. First Letter p. 8. Page 10. Page 11. Page 12. Page 13. Page 14. Page 15. Page 16. Page 19. Page 20. Page 8. Euseb. l. 5. c. 3. c. 14. c. 28. l. 7. c 31. Theod. l. 1. c. 4. l. 2. Euseb. l. 3. c. 32. l. 4. c. 22. Third Letter , p. 24. Faith Vindicated , p. 155. Page 157. Page 27. 
A09274	----	Vindiciae fidei, or A treatise of iustification by faith wherein that point is fully cleared, and vindicated from the cauils of it's aduersaries. Deliuered in certaine lectures at Magdalen Hall in Oxford, by William Pemble, Master of Arts of the same house: and now published since his death for the publique benefit. Pemble, William, 1592?-1623. 1625 Approx. 517 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 116 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A09274 STC 19589 ESTC S114368 99849594 99849594 14751 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A09274) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 14751) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 931:6) Vindiciae fidei, or A treatise of iustification by faith wherein that point is fully cleared, and vindicated from the cauils of it's aduersaries. Deliuered in certaine lectures at Magdalen Hall in Oxford, by William Pemble, Master of Arts of the same house: and now published since his death for the publique benefit. Pemble, William, 1592?-1623. Capel, Richard, 1586-1656. [8], 16, 19-154, 171-239, [3] p. Printed by Iohn Lichfield and William Turner, for Edward Forrest, Oxford : 1625. Editor's note "To the Christian reader" signed: Rich. Capel. Running title reads: A treatise of iustification. Reproduction of the original in the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Grace (Theology) -- Early works to 1800. Faith -- Early works to 1800. Justification -- Early works to 1800. 2003-09 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-12 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-04 Elspeth Healey Sampled and proofread 2006-04 Elspeth Healey Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion VINDICIAE FIDEI , OR A TREATISE OF IVSTIFICATION BY Faith , wherein that point is fully cleared , and vindicated from the cauils of it's aduersaries . Deliuered in certaine Lectures at Magdalen Hall in Oxford , By William Pemble , Master of Arts of the same house : And now published since his death for the publique benefit . PHILIP . 3. 9. — And he found in him not hauing mine owne righteousnes , which is of the Law , but that which is through the faith of Christ , the righteousnesse which is of God by faith . OXFORD Printed by IOHN LICHFIELD and WILLIAM TVRNER , for Edward Forrest . 1625. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL MASTER DOCTOR WILKINSON Principall of Magdalen Hall : The Masters , Batchelours , and other Students of that flourishing Societie . SIRS CVstome hath made dedication of bookes almost as common , as Printing of them : and Wisdome directs there to dedicate , where we owe either respect , or thankes : this worke therefore is yours by right , the Author thereof ( who is now with God ) vndertaking it at your request , and performing it amongst you for your good , so that now to bestow it vpon you is not a gift , but retribution : and I hope , it will both stirre you vp to be carefull to continue fit men to stand vp in his place , and remaine to his successours as a patterne of imitation , if it be too high for aemulation . To commend this Authour to you , were to bring Owles to Athens , and for me to commend the worke , would not adde much worth to it : I know nothing can disparage it , vnlesse it be a naked Margent : but you and all that will be pleased to take notice of his yeares , and great abilities in all humane learning , wil confesse he could not haue time to reade many Fathers , and so that defect may be easily pardoned . For he had fully finished sixe lusters of yeares , yet had hee throughly traced the circle of the Arts , and attained to an eminency , not only in those ordinary Sciences , wherein all Schollers haue some smattering , but euen in those sublimer speculations of which all are not capable , few search after : For hee was export in the Mathematickes both mixt , and pure : his skill in Histories was also praise-worthy : sometime he spent ( and not without successe ) in trauailing to learne 〈…〉 and much trauaile in the study of our home-taught tongues , that he had worth to lai●e beene Professour 〈…〉 , or H●brew : all which indowments , as they 〈◊〉 afterwards haue enabled him to read with much profit , so could they not chuse but preuent younger yeares from reading at all the ancient Fathers , so it was not want , but abundance of learning , that tooke vp his time , and preuented his Margent , and therefore I hope shall not disparage this worke . The first weapon young Fencers learne to vse is single sword , when they are masters of that , they inlarge their skill ; our Author was but yong , let it not preiudice him , that he first vses onely the sword of the Spirit , the word of God ; especially sith that is so dextrously weelded , that by it alone he hath deadly wounded the Romish Leuiathan : Therefore ( as in my knowledge ▪ these Lectures were heard with much applause , so doe I perswade my selfe , they wil be read with great approbation , and occasion the publishing of other Lectures , and priuate labours , wherein hee tooke no lesse paines , nor deserued lesse praise , then in his publike indeauours . So hoping that you will accept this small paines of mine , I take my leaue , and rest From Tewkeisbury this 9th of Iuly . 1625. Yours : willing to doe you greater , though not more acceptable seruice , IOHN GEREE . To the Christian Reader . GEntle Reader , this Treatise was neither finished nor polished by the Author : He left it with mee when hee died , to bee dealt with as cause should require ; vpon perusall , I found it fit for the time , so full of lif● so sound & cleere in proofe , that in my conceit it will doe much good : and here thou hast it , as he left it . The argument is of all , indifference betwixt vs and Papists the chiefest , no controuersie more disputed , and lesse agreed vpon then this . Christ and his bloud is the maine cause of our spirituall peace ; Papists and others diuide with him , and take something to themselues : the spirituall pride that is in the heart of man , would faine haue a finger in the work of saluation , of other controuersies betwixt vs & the other party : some befor the Popes Kitchin , some for the Popes crowne , but this of our Iustification , toucheth the life of Grace to the quicke , breeds more in our flesh then any , and th●se sicknesses are most dangerous , that come from within . It is a fundamentall case , wherein to faile , takes away the essence of a Christian : Wherefore sith there is now such need to haue the world confirmed in this truth of God , I thought good to send this booke abroad , wherein this is put out of question to any man of a single eie ; that we are not iustified by any thing wee any thing we can doe or suffer . Many write bookes , and confute them themselues when they haue done ; but this our Author what hee wrote , he beleeued ; for being to die , he confirmed this Truth , in a discoursefull of life and power , and professed to take his last vpon it , that it was the very truth of God. Wee reade that some learned Papists , when they are to giue vp the ghost , disclaime their owne merits , and would faine finde all in Christ alone : but this our Author did it before sundry , with that life , and feeling , 〈◊〉 cleare apprehension of the loue of God in his Sonne , that such is heard him , and loued him well and long , could not well tel , whether they should weepe , or reioice ; weepe , to see a friend die , reioyce to see him die so . Good Reader , learne this holy instruction out of this booke : that we are not to be found in our owne righteousnes at all , and beleeue it ; thou shalt haue as he had , peace passing all vnderstanding , in life , and in death , for being iustified by saith ( not by workes ) we haue peace with God saith Saint Paul. If any ingenuous learned Papist would vndertake to answer this booke , me thinkes I might prophecy that as Vergeziꝰ ( Bishop of Capo d' Istria , and Nuncio to Clement the seuenth , and Paul the third ) reading Luther , to answere Luther , was conuerted , and had his soule saued . And as Pighius , tho of a peeuish Spirit enough , yet reading Caluin , to confute Caluin , was in the very doctrine of Iustification confuted himselfe , and wrote with vs. So I say , would a modest Papist read this booke to reply vnto it , he could not but see the truth , and yeeld vnto it . For tho many have done excellently in this argument , yet to speake my opinion freely , at least for perspicuitie , this surpasseth them all . Farewell . Thine in Christ , Rich. Capel . A TREATISE OF IVSTIFICATION . CHAP. I. The explication of these tearmes . First , Iustice , or Righteousnesse . Secondly , Iustification . HAuing by Gods Assistance dispatched two of those generall points at first proposed ( touching the Antecedents and Nature of true Faith ) we are now by the same help to goe forward to the third generall head ; namely , concerning the Consequents of Faith , which were two , our Iustification in regard of God , & our Obedience in regard of our selues . The former will shew vs how to iudge of the dignity and excellent worth of Faith ; being so farre honoured in Gods gracious acceptance , as to be made the blessed Instrument of our spirituall peace and comfort flowing from our Iustification . The later will direct vs how to make triall of the truth of our faith in the discouery of that vnseparable Vnion which there is betweene beleeuing , and obeying . Let vs begin with the former , our Iustification , the doctrine whereof I shall endeauour to deliuer vnto you , as briefely and plainely : as so large and difficult a subiect will giue leaue . Wherein because the opening of the word will giue vs some light for the vnderstanding of the matter : wee are in the first place to see what is meant by these words , Iustification , and Iustice , or Righteousnesse . Iustice , therefore , or Righteousnesse ( that I meane which is created , for of vncreated Righteousnesse , wee haue not to speake ) is nothing but a perfect conformity and agreement with the Law of God. For Gods will being originally , essentially , and infinitely righteous ; must needs be the patterne & ●ule of all derivatiue & finite righteousnesse . Now this righteousnesse ( though but one , in its substance , neuer thelesse ) admits a double consideration , being called either , 1 Legall and of Workes , which stands in that conformity vnto Gods law , which is inherent within our selues , when in our owne persons and workes we possesse and practise that righteousnesse which is required of the Law. This Legall Iustice is also double , 1 Of Obedience , when all such things are done , as the Law commandeth ; or left vndone which it forbids . Hee that doth so is a iust man. 2 Of Punishment or Satisfaction , when the breach of the Law is satisfied by enduring the vtmost of such penalties , as the rigour of the Law required . For not onely hee who doth what the Law commandeth : but euen he also that suffereth all such punishments , as the Law-giuer in Iustice can inflict for the breach of the Law , is to be accounted a lust man , and reckoned after such satisfaction made , as no transgressor of the Law. The reason of this is plaine from the name of penall Lawes . For first , where the penalty is suffered , there the will of the Law-giuer is satisfied ; for as much as his will was , either that the Law should be obserued , or the punishment vndergone . If therefore he , to whom the Law is giuen , doe either : he satisfies the will of the Law-giuer . Had his will beene absolute , so that nothing else could haue contented him , but onely obedience : then it had beene a vaine thing to haue prescribed a determinate penalty . But when as a penalty is limited in case of disobedience , 't is manifest that though the intent of the Law-giuer was in the first place for Obedience ; yet , in the next place it should suffice , if there were satisfaction by bearing of the penalty . Secondly , the good and benefit of the Law-giuer is hereby also satisfied . For it is to be supposed in all penall lawes , that the penalty limited is euery way proportionable and equivalent , vnto that good which might accrew by the obseruation of the Law. Else were the wisedome of the Law-maker iustly to be taxed , as giuing an apparant encouragement to offenders ; when they should see the penalty , not to be so much hurtfull to them ; as their disobedience were gainfull . He therefore that suffers the penalty is afterward to be reckoned as if he had kept the Law : because by his suffering , he hath aduanced , the Law-giuers honour , or benefit , as much as he could by his obeying . 2 Euangelicall , and of Faith , which is such a conformity to Gods Law as is not inherent in our owne persons ; but being in another is imputed vnto vs and reckoned ours . The righteousnesse of the Law , and of the Gospell , are not two seuerall kindes of righteousnesse ; but the same in regard of the matter and substance thereof : onely they differ in the Subiect and Manner of application . The righteousnesse of workes is that holinesse and obedience which is inherent in our owne persons and performed by our selues : the righteousnesse of Faith is the same holinesse and obedience inherent in the person of Christ and performed by him ; but imbraced by our faith , and accepted by God , as done in our stead , and for our benefit . These are the diuers acceptions of this word Iustice or Righteousnesse ; so farre as it concernes the point in hand . In the next we are to enquire of this word Iustification ; which being nothing but the making of a person iust or righteous , may be taken in a double sense . For a person is made iust either by Infusion , or Apology . Wee will take it in these tearmes for want of better . Iustification by Infusion , is then , when the habituall quality of Righteousnesse and Holinesse is wrought in any person by any meanes whatsoeuer ; whether it bee created & infused into him by the worke of another ; or obtained by his owne art and industry . Thus Adam was made iust . Eccle . 7. 29. God hauing giuen vnto him in his creation the inherent qualities of Iustice and holinesse . Thus also the regenerate are made Iust , in as much as by the holy Ghost , they are sanctified through the reall infusion of grace into their soules ; in the which they increase also more and more , by the vse and exercise of all good meanes . 2 Iustification , by Apology is , when a person accused as an offender is iudicially or otherwise , acquitted and declared to be innocent of the fault : and so free from the punishment . When the innocency of a party accused is thus pleaded and declared ; he is thereby said to bee iustified , or made iust ▪ according as , on the contrary by Accusation and Condemnation , a party is said to be made vniust . As 't is plaine by that of Isaiah , 5. 23. [ They iustifie the wicked for a reward : and take away the righteousnesse of the righteous from him ] that is , they condemne the righteous , which is a making of them , vnrighteous in the sight & estimation of men . So in 1 Ioh. 5. 10. [ He that beleeueth not God , hath made him a lyer ] because vnbeleeuers do in their hearts call Gods truth into question : and accuse him to be false of his word . So againe , Psal. 109. 7. [ When he is iudged , let him be condemned . ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let him goe out a wicked person . For so his condemnation makes him ( that is ) declares him to be . But here further it must be obserued , that this Iustification of a person , by pleading to , and absolution in Iudgement , is of two sorts ; according as the Persons to be iustified , are likewise of two seuerall conditions . 1 Some are truely and inherently iust , being no Transgressors of the Law ; either at all ; or not in that whereof they are accused . In this case if any crime , or suspition of crime , be layed to their charge ; they are iustified ; either by a plai●e denyall of the fact , alledging that the fault whereof they are accused , was neuer by them committed ; or by denying the euill of the fact , alledging that in so doing they haue done well , because they haue done what the Law commanded ; and that 's their warrant . Thus Samuel iustifies his gouernment against all surmise of fraudulent and wrongfull dealing , that the people might imagine by him . In 1 Sam. 12. 3. &c. Thus Dauid cleares himselfe before God , from that crime of conspiracy against Saul his Master , and seeking of the Kingdome ( which Cush and other Courtiers accused him of ) professing his innocency ; and desiring God to iudge him according to his righteousnesse and integrity in that behalfe : as it is Psal. 7. 3. 4. 8. There need not other instances in so plaine a matter . Those that are iustified by this meanes are iustified by that Righteousnesse which is of the Law and of Workes . By which plea though man may be iustified before man : yet in the sight of God no flesh liuing shall be iustified . As hereafter we shall see . 2. Some are not truely righteous in themselues : but are in their owne persons transgressors of the Law. These ( when they are accused ) haue no other meanes whereby they may be iustified , but by confessing the crime , and pleading satisfaction : that for their transgression against the Law , and offence thereby against the Law-giuer , they haue fully satisfied by doing or suffering some such thing , as by way of iust penalty hath beene required of them . Now hee that can plead such a full and perfect satisfaction , ought therefore to be accounted innocent , and free from all desert of further punishment ( for t is supposed he hath endured the vtmost of euill the Law could inflict : ) and so he is to be esteemed of , as if he had not at all violated the Law. For plenary satisfaction for a fault , and the non-Commission of such a fault , are of equall Iustice : and deserue alike Iustification . In which point , it must be no●ed , that if the party offended doe pardon without any satisfaction taken , there the offender is not iustified at all . And againe if the offence be such , as there can be no satisfaction made : then it is vtterly impossible that the offender should euer be iustified . Now this satisfaction which an offender may plead for his Iustification , is threefold . 1 That which is made by himselfe in his owne person . He that can plead this kinde of satisfaction , is iustified Legally by his owne righteousnesse and merits . 2 That which is made by another for him ; When another by consent and approbation of the party offended , interposeth himselfe as surety for the party delinquent , in his stead and name to make that satisfaction , which is required of the party himselfe . Whether this be done by doing or suffering the same things which the delinquent should haue done or suffered , or some other things but of equivalent worth and dignity . He that pleades this kinde of satisfaction , is iustified Euangelically by grace , through the righteousnesse of another imputed to him , and accepted for as his . 3 That which is made partly by himselfe and partly by another . Which kinde of satisfaction may haue place betweene Man and Man : but betweene God and Man it hath none at all . Neither by this , nor by that first kinde of satisfaction which is done in our owne Persons , can any man be iustified in the sight of God , but onely by the second sort , that satisfaction which is made by another for vs. As wee shall see afterwards . CHAP II. In what sense the word Iustification ought to be taken in the present controversie , and of the difference betweene vs and our Adversaries therein . HAuing thus distinguished of these words , it followeth that in the first place , we enquire in which of the fore-named senses wee are to take this word Iustification . The difference betweene vs and our adversaries of the Romish Church , is in this point very great and irreconcileable . They affirme that Iustification is to bee taken in the first acception , for making of a Man Iust by infusion of Reall Holinesse into him . So that with them to Iustifie beares the same sense as to purifie or sanctifie . that is of a person vncleane , vnholy , vniust , to make him formally or inherently Pure , Holy and Iust , by working in him the inherent Qualities of Purity , Sanctity and Righteousnesse . We on the cōtrary teach according to the Scriptures ; That Iustification , is to be taken in the second acception , for the pleading of a persons innocency called into Question : wherby he is iudicially absolved and freed from fault and punishment . So that with vs to justifie a person is in iudiciall proceeding to acquit him of the crime whereof hee is accused , and to declare him free from desert of punishment . Whether of vs twain be in the right is very materiall to be determined of , considering that all ensuing disputation touching the Iustification of a Sinner is to bee framed vpon one of these grounds , rightly taken ; and an error here is like a threed misplaced at first , that runnes awry afterward through the whole piece . Our Adversaries plead for their Assertion : the Etym●logy of the word iustificare is iustum facere , in that sense ( say they ) as P●rificare , Mortificare , Vi●ificare , and many the like signifie to make pure , to make dead or aliue , by the reall induction of such and such Qualities . Againe they alleadge Scriptures ; as namely Dan : 12. 3. [ They that turne many to righteousnes [ Heb. that iustifie many ) shall shine as the Starres for euer ] Apoc. 22. 11. [ Hee that is righteous ( iustificetur ) Let him be righteous still . ] Tit. 3. 7. [ He hath saued vs by the washing of Regeneration , & renewing of the holy Ghost , — That being iustified by his grace wee should bee made Heires according to the hope of eternall life . ] Againe , 1 Cor. 6. 11. [ And such were some of you : but yee are washed , but yee are sanctified , but yee are iustified , in the name of the Lord Iesus , and by the Spirit of our God. ] Out of these with some other places ( but such as haue scarce any shew of good proofe ) they would faine conclude , that by Iustification nothing else is meant , but the Infusion of the Habite of Iustice vnto him , that was before sinfull and vniust . Hereto wee answere . 1. First for the Etymology that the signification of words is to bee ruled , not by Etymologies : but by the common vse : — Quem penes arbitrium est et vis & norma loquendi — as the Poet truly defines . Now it s a thing notorious that in the custome of all Languages , this word Iustificare imports nothing but the declaration of the Innocency of a person ▪ and lawfulnesse of any fact : against such accusations as impleade either , of vniustice and Wrong . I will iustifie such a Man or such a Matter ( say wee in English ) and what English Man vnderstands thereby any thing but this , I will make it appeare such a Man is honest , such a fact lawfull , howeuer questioned to the contrary . In other Languages my skill serues mee not , nor is it needfull to trouble you with Instances . Those that haue written of this subiect of every Nation witnesse every one for their owne Language . And further this word Iustificare being of a latter●stampe , vnknowne to such Latine Authors , as are of ancient and purer Language , fitted by Ecclesiasticall writers to expresse the meaning of those two words of the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; it is apparent the Copy must follow the Originall , and the Latine word beare the same sense as the Hebrew and Greeke words doe . And that this is that Legall sense which wee haue spoken of is a point so manifest throughout the whole Bible : that nothing but impudency can deny it . As wee shall presently perceiue . For in the next place . 2 As to the Scriptures which they alleadge for proofe of their Interpretation of the word : We answere : That of a Multitude of places of Scripture , wherin the word Iustifie is vsed , our Adversaries may truly pick out one two or three that seem to fauor their Assertion of Infusion of habituall Iustice : yet haue they gained little thereby , For where tenne or more may be alleadged against one in which the contrary signification is vsed , reason tels vs , that an Article and Doctrine of Religion ought to bee framed out of the signification of words and phrases , which is vsuall , ordinary , and regular ; and not out of that which sometimes comes in by way of particular exception . Might he not be iudged destitute of sense or modesty , that would quarrell at the signification of the word Ecclesia , that in the New Testament it is not taken for the Company & Assembly of the faithful , because in a place or two ( as Act. 19. ) it is taken for any ordinary ciuill meeting of people together ? Wherefore we may grant them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that of Dan. 12. and ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Apoc. 22. ) is to be made iust , formaliter , by infusion of inherent Holinesse in a Sinner . For so Ministers may be said to iustifie many ( as it is in Daniel ) viz. by Ministery turne many to righteousnesse , directing them to the meanes of Holinesse , and as Gods Instruments , working in them the graces of Conversion and Regeneration . And so he that is iust ( in the Apoc. ) may be iustified still : ( that is ) encrease in the inward Habite and outward Exercise of Holinesse , more and more . thus we may yeeld them in these two places without seeking too , other Interpretations further off . And yet will this be no prejudice to our Doctrine grounded vpon the other signification so generally vsed . Wee answere , that of all those other places alleadged by Bell , and Becanus , there is not any one that doe necessarily enforce such a meaning of the word ; as hee and his fellowes stand for . These aboue the rest haue most apparance , namely , 1 Cor : 6. & Tit. 3. Rom 8. 30. where Iustification is , say they , confounded as one and the same with Sanctification ; & Regeneration . Wherevnto I answeare that they doe ill to confound those things that the Apostle hath distinguished very plainly . Hee tels the Corinthians ; that the Vnrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God , and that themselues had bin such , euen of the most notorious rancke : but now they were washed , sanctified and Iustified . By three words the Apostle expresseth the change of their former condition . One Metaphoricall ( yea are washed ) The meaning whereof hee declareth in two proper words following . [ yee are Sanctified ] that 's one degree of washing or clensing from the corruption of Nature ( in part ) by the [ Spirit of our God ] of whome is the gift of inherent grace . And [ ye are iustified ] that 's another sort of washing , from the guilt of Sinne ( in the whole ) [ in the name of the Lord Iesus ] that is , by the Righteousnesse a●d Merits of Iesus Christ. Nothing can be more perspicuous and elegant . That place to Tit. Chap. 3 is also as plaine . God ( sayeth the Apostle ) speaking of the Heires and sonns of GOD in Christ ) ( hath saued vs [ not by any workes of ours ; but by his owne mercy . ver . 5. This salvation is set forth to vs in the Meanes and in the End. The meanes are two Regeneration and Iustification . [ He hath saued vs by the washing of Regeneration , & renewing of the Holy Ghost ] This is the first Meanes ( viz. ) Regeneration expressed 1. by its properties or parts . 1. Washing or doing away of the filthy Qualities of our corrupted Natures . 2. Renewing , the Investing of it with new Qualities of Graces and Holynesse . 2 By the cause efficient the Holy Ghost , [ whome hee hath shed on us abundant●y ] or richly , following the Metaphore , comparing the Holy Ghost in this operation to water powred out . 2 The Meritorious Cause of it [ Through Iesus Christ our Saviour ] who hath procured the sending downe of the [ Holy ghost ] into the hearts of the elect . ver . 6. This is one stepp to Heauen , our Regeneration , but it is imperfect and cannot abide the severity of Gods Iudgements : now we must be absolutely free from all fault and guiltinesse before we can haue hope of obtaining eternall Life : Therfo●e followes the other meanes of salvation ( viz. ) our Iustification , by the free grace of God which vtterly frees vs from all blame whatsoever , both of obedience to the law and satisfaction for Sins against the law ; that thus being Regenerate and Iustified we might obtaine the end of our salvation , eternall Life . The third place is that [ Rom. 8. 30 , Whom God hath Praedestinated , these he hath called , whome called , iustified ; whome iustified , glorified ] In this place Becanus triumphs . For ( sayth he ) The Apostle here describing the order of Mans salvation , first in Gods decree ; then in the Execution of it by three degrees of Vocation Iustification and Glorification : it followes necessarily from thence ; that either Sanctification is left out : or that it is confounded with one of those three degrees named . T is a desperate shift to say that Sanctification is signified by Vocation or Glorification : therefore it must be the same with Iustification ; And this cannot be avoyded by any Elusion . We leaue shifts to the Iesuites , returning him to this place , this plaine direct answere . That Sanctification is here comprised in the word Vocation . For whereas the linkes of this golden chaine are inseparable , and all those that are called must needes be iustified and glorified : by vocation , must here be meant that calling which is inward and effectuall , not that alone which is outward by the externall Ministery of the Word . For all that are thus called , bee not iustified , as is apparent ; and againe , some , as Infants , are iustified that are not capable of such a Calling . But now ; wherein stands the inward vocation of a sinner ? Is it not in the Infusion of inherent sanctifying Grace , enlightning his Eyes , opening his Eare , changing his Heart , turning him from darkenesse to light , from the power of Satan , to the obedience of God ; in a word , in the Renovation of his Fac●lties ? Which what is it else but Sanctification ? or Regeneration ? or Conuersion ? Only stiled by that tearme of Vocation in regard of the meanes whereby it is ordinarily effected ( that is ) the preaching of the word . He must needs coyne vs some new Mystery in Divinity : who will perswade vs that some other worke of Grace is meant by Vocation ; and not that of Sanctification . Therefore wee haue neither one Linke snapt out , nor two shuffled together in this chaine of our Saluation : But foure , as distinct , as vndivideable . Election , Sanctification , ( whereto we are called by the Gospell preached , 2 Thess. 2. 14. ) Iustification by Faith , ( which is a fruit of Sanctification ) and Glorification . The fourth place is that in the Epistle to the Hebrewes , Chap. 13. 14. [ For if the blood of Bulls and Goats , and the ashes of an Heifer , sprinkling them that are vncleane , sanctifieth as touching the purifying of the flesh : how much more shall the blood of Christ , who through the eternall Spirit offered himselfe without fault to God , purge our consciences from dead workes , to serue the liuing God. ] Hence they argue ; That as Leuiticall Sacrifices and Washings did sanctifie the flesh from outward Legall impurity : so the Sacrifice of Christ doth purge the Conscience from inward spirituall vncleanenesse of dead Workes or Sinnes . This purging of the conscience is nothing , but iustification of a sinner . Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be all of one meaning . To which I answere , That the Apostle in that Chapter , and the next disputing of the vertue and efficacy of Christs death , far exceeding the force of all Leuiticall Sacrifices ( the shadowes of it ) ascribes vnto it what could not be effected by those , ( viz. ) eternall Redemption [ verse 12. ] purging of the conscience from dead workes [ verse 12. ] the putting away of sinne , [ verse 26. ] The Sanctification of the Elect , [ Chap. 10. 7. 10. ] made Heires according to the hope of eternall life . In neither then of those places is our sanctification confounded with our Iustification : but both distinctly declared , as two seuerall partes of graces and meanes of the Accomplishment of our eternall Happinesse . 'T is scarce worth the labour to examine those other Scriptures produced by our Aduersaries , whereof some part doe directly crosse , and the rest doe but onely in apparance confirme their assertion . In generall therefore for them , thus much wee confidently affirme , that let the Concordance be studied , and all those places examined wherein either [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] is vsed in the Old or [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] in the New Testament : there will not one be found , no not one , in which those wordes carry any other meaning , then that which we stand for ( viz. ) the clearing of a parties innocence questioned as faulty , and blame-worthy . Take a taste of some places . 1 Iustification is sometimes applyed to 1. God , when Man iustifies God. As Psal. 51. 4. Rom. 3. 4. [ That thou mightest be iustified [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] in thy saying , and mightest ouercome when thou art iudged . ] Matth. 11. 19. [ And wisedome is iustified [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] of her children , ] Luke 7. 35. Luke 7. 29. [ And the Publicans iustified [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] God , being baptized with the baptisme of Iohn . ] Can there be any other meaning of Iustification here● : but this onely ? That God is then iustified , when his workes , his wisedome , his sacred ordinances , being accused by prophane men , as vntrue , vnequall , vn●ust , and foolish , are by the Godly acknowledged , or any other meanes evidently cleared vnto all men , to be full of all Truth , Equity , Wisedome , and Holinesse ? 2 Man and that 1 Before Man in things betweene Man and Man. When Man iustifies Man , Deut. 25. 1. [ If there be a controversie betweene Men , and they come vnto iudgement , that the Iudge may iudge them , then they shall iustifie [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] the righteous and condemne the wicked , ] Isaiah 5. 23. [ Woe to them wh●ch iustifie the wicked for a reward , and take away the righteousnesse of the righteous from him ] Prouerb . 17. 15. [ He that iustifieth th● wicked , and condemneth the iust , euen they both are an abomination to the Lord. ] 2 Sam. 15. 4. [ Oh that I were made Iudge in the Land , that euery man that hath any suit or cause , might come to me , and I would doe him Iusti●e . [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] In these & many the like places , to Iustifie is in iud● ciall proceeding to absolue a party from fault & blame : whether it be rightfully or wrongfully done . Ezek. 16. 52. [ Be thou confounded and beare thy shame , in that thou hast iustified thy sisters ] speakes God vnto Ierusalem ; in comparison of whose abhomination the sinnes of Sodome and Samaria , were scarce to be accounted any faults . They were Saints to her . Of the Pharises Christ speakes , Luke 16. 15. [ Yee are they that iustifie your selues before men : but God knoweth your hearts . ] That is , You stand vpon the defence and ostentation of outward Holinesse , and deeming it sufficient to make it appeare before Men you are holy : without regard of acquitting the sincerity of your hearts before God. 2 Before God , where God iustifies Man Exod. 23. 7. [ The innocent and the righteous slay thou not , for I will not iustifie the wicked . ] by esteeming him as innocent , and letting him goe from punishment . Isaiah 50. 8. ( Hee is neere that iustifieth me , who will contend with me ? ) saith the Prophet in the person of Christ , signifying God would make it appeare that he was blamelesse , for the rejection of his people the Iewes who perished for their owne and not his fault . Rom. 5. 18. ( As by the offence of one iudgement came on all Men to condemnation : So by the righteousnesse of one , the free gift came vpon all men to the Iustification of life , ) Rom ▪ 8. 33. 34. [ Who shall lay thing to the charge of Gods Elect ? It is God that iustifies ; who shall condemne ? 1 Cor. 4. 4. [ I know nothing by my selfe : yet in this am I not iustified . Hee that iudgeth me is God. q. d. I haue kept a good conscience in my Ministery , but God is my iudge , though my conscience pronounce me innocent , yet God is my sole Iudge that iudgeth me and my conscience . Acts 13. 38. 39. [ Through this Man is preached vnto you the forgiuenesse of sinnes ; and from all things from which yee could not be iustified by the Law of Moses ; by him euery one that beleeueth is iustifyed . By which places ( not to name more ) it appeares pl●inly : that Iustification is opposed to Accusation and Condemnation : and therefore can signifie nothing else but the defence & absolution of a persō accused for an offender . Which thing is so cleare and euident that it cannot be gaynsayed , except by those alone who are wilfully blind , and obstinately resolued to cōtradict any truth , that makes against their inveterate errors . For our selues , we may not , nor dare not shut our eyes against so cleare Light : nor ought we to be so bold whē God hath acquainted vs with his meaning ; as to follow another of our owne making . And there fore according to the Scriptures we acknowledge and maintaine , that as in other places where mention is made of the Iustification of a sinner before God : so in the 2 and 4 Chapters of the Ep. to the Rom. and third Chapter of the Gal. ( where the Doctrine there of is directly handled ) by Iustification nothing else is meant ; but the gracious Act of Almighty God whereby hee absolues a beleiuing sinner accused at the Tribunall of his Iustice , pronouncing him iust and acquitting him of all punishment for Christs sake . CHAP III ▪ The Confutation of our Aduersaries cauils against our acception of the word Iustification . OVR Adversaries haue little to reply against these so plaine places . Somthing they answere , namely . 1 That it cannot be denied but that Iustification , doth many times beare that sense we stand for . But with all they would haue vs obseru this rule that [ Quotiescunque in Scripturis Deus dicitur iustificare impium : semper intelligendum est ex impio facere iustum . God cannot declare a man to be iust : but of vniust he must make him iust . ] And they giue the Reason . Because the Iudgment of God is according to Trueth Rom. 2. 2. We embrace this Rule and the Reason of it , acknowledging that where euer there is Iustification , there must be Iustice some way or other in the party Iustified . But the Question stands still in what manner God makes a sinner iust : whom hee in Iudgemenr pronounceth so to be . They say by bestowing on him the grace of Sanctification & perfect Righteousnesse inherent in his own Person . We affirme , that it is by imputing vnto him the perfect Righteousnesse of Christ , accepting Christs obedience for his . In which diuersity let vs come as neere them as Trueth will giue leaue . Thus ●arre we goe along with them . 1 That there is inherent Righteousnesse bestowed vpon a Sinner , whereby of vnholy , impure , vniust ; he is made holy , cleane , and iust . We all confessed this worke of the Holy Ghost renewing Man in the spirit of his mind , restoring in him the a Image of God in a Knowledge , Righteousnesse , and Holinesse . That the Holy Ghost dwelles in the Elect , as in b Temples dedicated to his service , which he adornes by communicating vnto them his Heauenly graces . That hee makes them Liuing c Members of Christs Body : and fruitfull d Braunches of that true Vine . That this grace infused is a fountaine of e Living water springing vp to eternall Life . These things we beleeue and teach . Wherfore whereas the Popish Doctors fall foule on our reformed writers , charging Calvin & others for denying all Inherent Righteousnesse in Beleeuers , & maintaining only an Imputed Righteousnesse without them : We tell them 't is a grosse Calumny forged by perverse . Minds , that list not to vnderstand Mens playnest writings . Nor Calvin 1 nor any that euer maintained the trueth with him , euer denied the Righteousnes o● Sanctification . But this he denies & we also with the Scriptures that the Righteousnesse which iustifies vs in Gods Iudgment is not in our selues : but all in Christ. That inherent Righteousnesse or sanctification allway keepe company with Iustification , in the same Person . Severed they are never in their common Subiect ( viz ) a True Beleeuer . as appeares Rom. 8. 30. But that therefore they must be confounded for one and the same Grace and worke of God ; may be affirmed with as good Reason : as that in the Sunne Light and Heate are all one : because alwaies ioyned to geather . That by this grace of Inherent Righteousnesse , a Man is in some sort iustified before God. That is so farre as a Man by the grace of God is become truly holy and good : so farre God esteemes him holy & good . God taketh notice of his owne graces in his Children , he approues of them and giues Testimony of them in case it be needfull ; as appeares by the Righteousnesse of Iob , Dauid , Zachary and other holy Men ; who were good and did good in Gods sight . Yea in the Life to come when ( all corruptions being vtterly done away ▪ ) the Saints shall be invested with perfection of Inherent Holinesse : by the Righteousnesse of their owne , and not by any other shall they then appeare iust in Gods fight . Thus farre we agree with them . But herein now wee differ , that although by the grace of Sanctification infused , God doe make him righteous and holy in some measure that was before altogether vnholy and wicked : neuerthelesse we affirme that by and for this Holynesse , the best of Saints living never were nor shall be Iustified in Gods sight ; that is pronounced iust and innocent before the Tribunall of his Iustice. For we here take vp the forenamed Rule layed downe by our adversaries , Whomsoeuer God pronounceth to be perfectly iust ; he must needs be made perfectly iust . For Gods Iudgment is according to trueth . Now that no man in this life , is made perfectly iust by any such inherent Holinesse in him as is able to outstand the severe and exact triall of Gods Iudgment : is a Trueth witnessed by the Scripture and confessed alwaies by the most holy Saints of God. Our Aduersaries indeed stiffly pleade the contrary : teaching that sinne and Corruption in the Iustified is vtterly abolished . The error and pride of which Imagination we shall shortly haue occasion more at Large to Discouer vnto you . Meane while let that much stand for good : that Man being not made perfectly iust in himselfe cannot thereby be declared perfectly iust before God : and therefore some other Righteousnesse , & not that of Sanctification is to be sought for , whereby a sinner may be Iustified in Gods sight . To that argument of ours from the Opposition of iustification to Accusation and Condemnation confirmed by so many places of Scripture ; They answere . That this hinders nothing at all Both may agree to God who of his mercy iustifies some ; ( that is ) makes them inherently Iust ; of his Iustice condemns other ( that is ) punisheth them . To which slight Answeres wee make this short reply . That where words are opposite , ( as they acknowledg these to be ) there according to the Lawes of opposition , they must carry opposite Meaning . But vnto Accusation , Comdemnation , and punishment nothing is opposite but defence , Absolution , and Pardon . Where therefore Iustificare is coupled with these words ; it must needes beare this and no other meaning : of a bad man to make a good is not opposite to Accusation , Condemnation , or punishment of him : Accused he may be , Condemned and punished iustly , and after made good . I should but trouble you to alleadge more of their Cavills . Let thus much suffice for the clearing of this point : That Iustification and Sanctification are to be Distinguished and not confounded . The Righteousnesse of the one is in vs , in its Nature , true and good : but for its degree and measure , Imperfect ; and alwaies yoaked with the remaynder of naturall Corruption ▪ And therefore if a sinner should plead this before the Iudgment seate of God , ( offering himself to be iudged according to this Righteousnesse and Innocency ) oh how soone his mouth would be stopped ; And this confession wrung out from out his Conscience ; All my Righteousnesse is as filthy Raggs ! And againe Vilis sum ; I am vile , what shall I answere thee ! But that other Righteousnesse of Iustification is without vs in Christs possession : but ours by Gods gratious gift and acceptation , and this euery way perfect and vnreproued in the seuerest Iudgment of God. And therefore when a sinner is drawne before the Barre of Gods Iudgment , accused by the law , Satan , his Conscience ; conuicted by the euidence of the Fact , and to be now sentenced and deliuered to punishment by the vnpartiall Iustice of God : In this case he hath to alleadge for himself the al-sufficient righteousnesse of a Mighty redeemer who onely had Done and suffered for him that which hee could neuer doe nor suffer for himselfe . This Plea alone and no other in the world , can stop vp the Mouth of hell , confute the accusations of Satan , chase away the Terrors that haunt a guilty conscience , and appease the infinite Indignation of an angry Iudge . This alone will procure fauour and absolution in the presence of that Iudge of the whole world . This alone brings downe from Heauen into our Consciences that blessed peace , which passeth all vnderstanding ; but of him that hath it . Whereby we rest our selues secure from feare of Condemnation ; being provided of a defence that will not faile vs , when after death wee shall come into Iudgment . SECT . 2. CHAP. I. The Orthodoxe opinion concerning the manner of Iustification by Faith , and the confutation of Popish errours in this point . HAuing thus cleared the meaning of this word [ Iustification ] and shewed that the Scriptures , when they speake of the Iustification of a sinner before God , doe thereby vnderstand the absolution of him in Iudgement from sinne and punishment . Wee are now vpon this ground to proceede vnto the further explication of this point , to enquire by what Meanes and in what Manner , this Iustification of a sinner is accomplished . That we may goe on more distinctly : I will reduce all our ensuing discourse of this point into three heads . First , touching the condition required in them that shall be iustified . Secondly , the matter of our Iustification . ( viz. ) What righteousnesse is it wherefore a sinner is Iustified . Thirdly ; touching the forme of Iustification , in what the quality of this iudiciall Act of God , iustifying a sinner , consisteth . Concerning the first at this time . The condition required in such as shall be partakers of this grace of Iustification is true faith , wherunto God hath ordinarily annexed this great priuiledge ; That by faith and faith onely , a sinner shall bee iustified : This the Scriptures witnesse in tearmes as direct and expresse , as any can be . [ Rom 3. 28. We conclude a man is iustified by faith without the workes of the Law. ] and Rom. 4. 9. [ For we say that faith was imputed vnto Abraham for righteousnesse . ] and Rom. 5. 1. [ Then being iustified by faith we haue peace towards God through Iesus Christ our Lord. ] With other the like places . Whence it is agreed vpon on all sides , that a sinner is iustified by faith : but touching the manner , how he is said to be iustified by faith , there is much controuersie and brawle , betweene the Orthodoxe of the reformed Churches , and their Aduersaries of Rome and Holland ; the Arminians , and the Papists . The sentence of the reformed Churches touching this point , consisteth of two Branches . First , that a sinner is iustified by faith , not properly as it is a quality or action ; which by it's owne dignity and merit , deserues at Gods hands Remission of sinnes ; or is by Gods fauourable acceptance taken for the whole and perfect righteousnesse of the Law , which is otherwise required of a sinner : but onely in relation vnto the obiect of it , the righteousnesse of Christ ; which it imbraceth and resteth vpon . Secondly , that a sinner is iustified by faith in opposition vnto the Righteousnesse of workes in the fulfilling of the Law. Whereby now no man can be iustified . In this relatiue and inclusiue sense doe the Reformed Churches take this proposition [ A man is iustified by faith . ] They explaine themselues thus : There are two Couenants that God hath made with man ; By one of which and by no other meanes in the world , saluation is to be obtained . The one is the Couenant of workes , The tenor whereof is [ Doe this and thou shalt liue . ] This Couenant is now vtterly void , in regard of vs ; who through the weaknes of our sinfull flesh cannot possibly fulfill the condition of Obedience required therby : and therfore we cannot expect Iustification & Life by this means . The other is the Couenant of grace the Tenor whereof is , Beleeue in the Lord Iesus and thou shalt be saued . The condition of this couenant is Faith : the performance whereof differs from the performance of the condition of that other Couenant . Doe this and Liue is a compact of pure Iustice wherein wages is giuen by debt , so that he which doth the worke obeying the Law , may in strict Iustice for the worke sake claime the wages , eternall life , vpon iust desert . Beleeue this and liue is a compact of freest and purest Mercy : wherein the reward of eternall life is giuen vs in fauour for that which beares not the least proportion of worth with it : so that he which personnes the condition cannot yet demand the wages , as due vnto him in seuerity of Iustice ; but onely by the grace of a freer promise , the fulfilling of which hee may humbly sue for . By which grand difference betweene these two Couenants clearely expressed in Scriptures , it appeares manifestly that these two Propositions . [ A man is iustified by workes , ] [ A man is iustified by Faith , ] carry meanings vtterly opposite one to the other . The one is proper and formall : the other Metonymicall and Relatiue . In this Proposition ( A Man is iustified by workes ) we vnderstand all in proper and precise termes : That a righteous man who hath kept the law exactly in all points , is by and for the dignity and worth of that his obedience iustified in Gods sight from all blame and punishment whatsoeuer ; because perfect obedience to the morall Law in it selfe , for it owne sake deserues the approbation of Gods seuere Iustice and the reward of Heauen . But in that other Proposition ( A man is iustified by Faith. ) We must vnderstand all things relatiuely thus . A sinner is iustified in the sight of God from all sinne and punishment by faith ( that is ) by the obedience of Iesus Christ beleeued on ; and embraced by a true faith . Which Act of Iustification of a sinner , although it be properly the onely worke of God , for the onely merit of Christ : yet is it rightly ascribed vnto faith , and it alone , for as much as faith is that mayne condition of that new Couenant , which as we must perform if we will be iustified : so by the performance thereof we are said to obtaine iustification and life . For when God by grace hath enabled vs to performe the condition of beleeuing ; then doe we beginne to enioy the benefit of the Couenant ; then is the sentence of absolution pronounced in our consciences ; which shall be after confirmed in our death ; and published in the last iudgement . Secondly , our faith and no other grace directly respects the promises of the Gospell ; accepting what God offers , sealing vnto the truth thereof by assenting thereto , and imbracing the benefit and fruit of it vnto it selfe , by relying wholly vpon it . This interpretation of that proposition the Reformed Churches do admit , & none other : reiecting as erronious and contrary to the Scriptures such glosses as ascribe any thing to the dignity of faith ; or make any combination betweene Faith and Workes , in the point of our Iustification . Amongst which there are three erronious assertions touching mans Iustification by Faith ; which we are briefly to examine and refute . 1 That faith iustifieth vs [ Per modum Causae efficientis & meritoriae ] as a proper efficient and meritorious cause . Which by it's owne worth and dignity deserues to obtaine Iustification , Remission of sinnes , and the grace of well-doing . This is the Doctrine of the Church of Rome , which Bellarmine labours to proue ▪ in his 17. Chap. lib. pr. de Iustificatione , where disputing against Iustification by faith alone , hee tels vs. If we could be perswaded that faith doth Iustifie [ impetrando , promerendo , & suo modo inchoando Iustificationem , ] then we would neuer deny that loue , feare , hope , and other vertues did iustifie vs as well as faith . Whereupon he sets himselfe to prooue that there is in faith it selfe some efficacy and merit to obtaine and deserue Iustification . His Arguments are chiely two . From those places of Scripture , wherein a man is said to be iustified , a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . or absolutely without Article or Preposition . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per fidem , ex fide ( or ) fide . Wherein these Prepositions , signifie , saith he , the true cause of our Iustification . Which he proues 1 By the contrary , when a man is said to be iustified [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ] This notes the true efficient deseruing cause of his Iustification . Secondly , By the like in other places where we are said to be redeemed , saued , sanctified , Per Christum , per sanguinem , per mortem , per vulnera ; and in the whole 11. to the Heb. The Saints are said to doe such and such things ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) by faith . All signifying the proper cause . From those places of Scripture which ( sayth he ) plainly shew : Faith doth impetrare remissionem , & suo quidem modo mereri . Such are those [ Thy Faith● hath saued thee ] or made thee whole . A speech that Christ vsed often ; as to the a woman that washed his feet ; To her b that had an issue of Blood ; To the c blind man recovered of his sight . And that to the Cananitish woman [ O woman d great is thy Faith ] now see what the merit of this Faith was , ( For this e saying go thy way the Diuel is gone out of thy Daughter ) Thus Abraham , being f strenghened in Faith glorified God. ) who therefore iustified him for the Merit of his Faith. And againe in the eleuenth to the Heb. by many examples we are taught that ( by g Faith ( that is ) by the merit and price of Faith Enoch and other men pleased God. For answeare here vnto . 1 Vnto the Argument from the Proposition we reply ; That if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be needs strictly taken in the same kind of Causality : then the Iesuits should doe well to stand to that and make the similitude betweene Faith and workes runne thus . A Man is iustified ( by ) workes that is for the proper and only Merits of his obedience ; so a Man is iustified ( by ) Faith that is for the only merit of his Beleeving in Christ : aud by that meanes both shall be true and effectuall causes of Iustification . But if Bellarmine dare not thus presse the similitude for feare of being found guilty of despising the blood of the New Couenant , attributing that to the Merit of Faith which belongs only to the Merit of Christ ; he must then giue vs that leaue to distinguish which he takes to himselfe ; and if he fall to his Qualifications and quodammodo's : he must pardon if we also seeke out such an Interpretation of those places ; as may not crosse other Scriptures . Which for asmuch as they testifie that ( We i are Iustified by his grace through the Redemption that is in Christ ) that ( All k sinne is purged by the blood of Christ ) that ( By the sacrifice of himselfe he hath put away Sinne ) and ( With offering hath consecrated for ouer them that are sanctified . ) : we dare not without horrible sacrilege ascribe the grace of our Iustification vnto the worke and worth of any thing whatsoeuer in our selues ; but wholy and only to the Righteousnesse of Christ. And therefore when the Scriptures say we are iustified ( by ) Faith ; we take not the word ( By ) in this formall and legall sense ; we are iustified by the efficacy of our Faith , or for the worth of our Faith , according as 't is vnderstood in Iustification by workes : but we take it Relatiuely & Instrumentally : We are Iustified by Faith ( that is ) by the Righteousnesse of Christ , the benefit whereof vnto our Iustification , we are made partakers of by Faith , as the only grace which accepts of the promise , and giues vs assurance of the performance . He that looked to the Brasen serpent and was cured , might truly be sayd to be healed ( by ) his looking on , though this Action was no proper cause working the cure by any efficacy or dignity of it selfe ; but was only a necessary condition required of them that would be healed , vpon the obedient observance whereof , God would shew them favor : so he that looketh on Christ beleeuing in him , may truly be sayed to be saued and Iustified by Faith , not as for the worth , and by the ●fficacy of that act of his ; but as it is the Condition of the promise of grace , that must necessarily go before the performance of it to vs : vpon our Obedience where vnto God is pleased of his free grace to iustifie , Nor is this Trope , any way harsh , or vnusuall to put Oppositum pro opposito , Relatum pro Correlato , Habitum pro Obiecto . In Sacramentall locutions 't is a generall Custome , to put the signe for the thing signified : and the like is vsed in other passages [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And the n word of God grew , &c. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the o mystery of faith , ) and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the words of Faith ) and Rom. 8. 24. [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Spe seruati sumus ( id est ) Christo in quem speramus . Hope that is seene is not hope , that is , res visa non sperata est . That of Ignatius , [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] Like to that ( Christ our Ioy ) Anni spem credere Terrae ) Georg. 1. And if we list not to be contentious , 't is plaine enough , that in those places , where the Apostle treats of Iustification by faith ( viz ) the grace of God in Christ ; opposing workes and faith , that is the Law and the Gospell , the Righteousnesse of the Law , to the righteousnesse of the Gospell , which is no other but the Righteousnesse of Christ. Thus faith is taken , Gal. 3. 23. Where he expresly treats of Iustification . But before Faith came , we were kept vnder the Law , shut vp vnto the Faith , which should afterward be reuealed . ] p That is , Before Christ came , and the cleare exhibition of the Gospell , and the Righteousnesse thereof : the Church was kept vnder the Ceremoniall Law , as vnder a Schoole-master , directing her vnto Christ , that so [ Wee might be iustified by Faith. ] that is , not by the Lesson of the Law , but by Christ , typified and figured vnto vs therein . 2 Vnto the other Argument prooving the merit of faith , we reply ; That in those places is no ground , at all for such a conceit . [ Thy Faith hath saued thee , ] saith Christ to some whō he cured both in Body & Soule . But what ? was it by the efficacy and for the word of their faith that this was done ? No : As 't was vertue went out of Christ that cured their bodily diseases ; and his compassion that mooued him to it : so 't was his grace and merits and free loue that healed their soules , and brought them pardon of their sinnes in the sight of GOD : Yet he saith ; Their faith saued them , because by beleeuing in the Sonne of God , they receiued this fauour , though for their beleeuing they did not deserue it . God bestowes mercy where he findes faith , not because faith merits such fauour at his hands : but because he is pleased to disperse his fauours in such an order , as himselfe hath appointed ; and vpon such conditions as hee thinkes good . To that of the Canaanitish woman : Her great faith could not claime by desert , that fauour which Christ shewed vnto her daughter : onely Christ was pleased to honour her faith by his testimony of it ; and to helpe the daughter at the Mothers entreaty . Christ did it vpon that request of hers so instant and full of faith ; But yet who can say she merited ought at CHRISTS hands by that her faithfull and instant petition ? Her selfe yet liuing would deny it ; and shee doth deny it there , counting her selfe a dogge vnworthy of the childrens bread , when yet shee beleeued strongly , and was a child of Abraham according to the faith ▪ To that of Abraham who gaue glory to God , and of Henoch and others , who pleased God by their faith : Wee answere : That it is one thing for a man to glorifie and please God by his Obedience ; 'T is another , by so doing to deserue ought at his hands . If God in much grace and fauour accept of the honour and contentment wee are able to doe him by our Faith and Obedience : It followes not that therefore we must in iustice merit at his hands . Other Arguments for them there are : but so weakely knit ; they fall in sunder of themselues . Against them we haue to obiect the Scriptures , that so often say , [ We are iustified ] gratiâ and gratis ; and the Councell of Trent which they respect more then the Scriptures , which hath defined thus : Nihil eorum quae Iustificationem praecedunt , siue fides , siue opera , ipsam Iustificationis gratiam promeretur , Sess. 6. Cap. 8. How then can they say Faith merits Iustification . Heere our Aduersaries haue two shifts to runne vnto , whereby they would avoide the absurdity of this Assertion . 1 That this merit is not from vs : but of God. Because Faith is the gift of Gods grace ; and therefore though we be iustified by merit : yet we are iustified by grace , because merit is of grace . 'T is of grace that our faith merits . This you may be sure , is some of that smoake of the bottomelesse pit , wherein hell vented out the Iesuites , and they their darke Imaginations ; all to confound whatsoeuer is cleare and lightsome in Scripture . Scripture opposeth these paires ; Grace , and Nature , Grace and Merit . As the Pelagians of old confounded Nature & Grace , teaching that we were saued by Grace : yet affirming that we are also saued by Nature , and the naturall strength of free-will . Which they salued thus . To be saued by Nature , is to be saued by Grace : for Nature is of Gods grace and giuing . So these confound Grace and Merit , making a thing Meritorious , because it s of Grace . Faith merits because its Gods gracious gift . Nothing more contradictory . If it be his gift , how doth it merit , or of whom ? Of man it may , of God it cannot : vnlesse we will senslesly affirme , that the gift deserues something of the giuer . That he that giues an hundred pound freely , is thereby bound to giue an hundred more . Had they sayed that faith is good , because of Gods giuing ; that were true , and we may grant them that God is honoured and pleased with his owne gifts : but that euery good thing merits , and that we can deserue of God by his owne gifts , is affirmed without all Reason , or Scriptures ; and will neuer be proued by either . But there is yet another shift . 2 Faith merits Iustification [ Non de condigno ] of the worthinesse of it : but [ de Congruo ] of the fitnesse : that is , God in Iustice is not bound to bestow Iustification where there is faith : but yet in fitnesse he ought to doe it . So that if he doe not iustifie him that beleeues : he is likely to omit a thing very fit and agreeable . This distinction is a meere Imposture and collusion . Bellarmine in dealing with it seemes to haue a dog by the eares , he is loath to loose him : yet knowes not well how to hold him . If he be vrged where Scriptures make any the least Intimation of such a distinction : hee referres you to Divines , that is , Popish Schoole-men , who out of their owne imagination haue forged it , and in time made it Authenticall . But he stickes in the mire , when he is to shew what merit of Condignity and merit of Congruity is . Merits of Condignity are workes , to which wages is due of Iustice. What then are merits of Congruity ? Such workes whereto wages is not due by any Iustice. As for example : He that labours the whole day in the Vineyard , merits a penny of Condignity : because in Iustice his labour is worth his hire . But he that for an houres worke , receiues a penny , he deserues it of Congruity : because though his labour be not worth it , yet he was promised a penny by him that set him on worke : Then which fond imagination nothing can be more ridiculous , and contrary to common sense . For the merit of any worke is the proportionablenesse of 't is worth with the Reward . Now in reason wherein ariseth this proportion of any work with that reward ? Stands it in the dignity of the worke it selfe ; or in the compact made betweene him that worketh and him that rewardeth ? It is apparant that the worke is deseruing or not-deseruing according to ' its owne Nature , not according to a compact made . He that promiseth vnto one more for a little worke , then to another for a great deale in the same kinde : doth not by such a compact make the little labour of the one more deserving then the others great pains . We must look to the worke , what it is in its own Nature : & as it is of some worth or no worth , so account it deseruing or not deseruing ▪ Wherfore whē in the distinction they make some merits of Condignity or worthinesse , some of Congruity , or of fitnesse without worthinesse , they offend two wayes , grosly against two rules of Reason . First in opposing termes not opposite : Worthinesse and fitnesse : being the same , if you take them in regard of the worke . For that which deserues a reward worthily , deserues it fitly : ( how else is it worthy of the reward , if the reward be not fit for it ? ) and that which deserues it fitly ( if it deserues ) it deserues it worthily . 2 In distinguishing vpon tearmes that doe not convenire t●ti . For Worthinesse agrees to merit onely : but fitnesse belongs to Compact . So that in plainer English , the distinction runnes thus . Merits or deserts , are of two sorts . Some , that are merits and doe deserue because they are worthy of a reward : others that are no merits and doe not deserue because they are not worthy of the Reward : but onely obtaine it , ex Congruo , in regard of Compact and Promise . For this Rule is most certaine , That a worke which deserues nothing by its owne worthinesse : can neuer deserue any thing by compact or promise . The Iesuites are senselesse in defending the contrary . If ( saith Bellarmine ) a King promise a Beggar 1000 ▪ pounds a yeare , vpon no condition , then indeed the Begger doth not deserue it . But if vpon condition he shall do some small matter , as that he shall come to the Court and fetch it , or bring a Pos●e of flowers with him , now the Begger deserues it : and he may come to the King , and tell him , hee hath merited his 1000 pounds a yeare . Euery man , but a Iesuite , would say 't were extreame impudency in a Begger to make such a demaund , so derogatorily to the Kings gracious bounty . Now can it helpe them to say , That a Promise bindes vnto performance , so that God should be vniust and vntrue , if he should not bestow the reward promised , although the workes bee not equall to the reward . For Gods Iustice and Truth in performing his promise , doe not imply our merit in performing the Condition . We doe not deserue by our well-doing ; because God is iust in his rewarding . And the reason is manifest ; Because God in making the promise , respected meerly the freenesse and bounty of his owne grace , not the worthinesse of our workes . And therefore that obligation whereby he hath tyed himselfe to performance , is founded meerely in his owne Truth : not a ●ot in our merit . Wherefore when they tell vs , that faith merits Iustification [ de Congruo ] they intrappe themselues in a grosse Contradiction ; seeing to deserue [ de Congruo ] is not to deserue at all ; but onely to receiue the reward by meere promise : God hauing promised to iustifie beleeuers . Thus much touching the first Assertion , that Faith is the proper Cause of Iustification , working it by it owne efficacy and merits . CHAP II ▪ The Confutation of the Arminian errour , shewing that faith doth not iustifie , sensu proprio , as it is an act of ours . The second Error about this point is of the Arminians , with whom also the Papists agree : T is this . 2 That we are Iustified by Faith sensu proprio , that is , the Act of beleeving , in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere , is imputed to vs for righteousnesse , being accepted of God and accounted vnto vs for that whole Righteousnesse of the Law which we were bound to performe . So that our very Faith is that Righteousnesse , for which we are iustified in the sight of God ; no● quidem merito suo : sed propter gratuitam acceptilationem Dei. The authors of this opinion are Faustus Socinus that vnhappy Haereticke in his most Blasphemous Booke [ de Christo servatore : ] & Michael Servetus a Spanyard in his second Booke [ de lege & Evangelio ] which Errors are confuted by Calvin in his opuscula . A stiffe de●ender of this opinion was Christophorus Ostorodius a Polonian in his disputations contra Georgium Tradelij , who for this and other pestilent errors about the Article of Mans Redemption , was wi●h his companion Andreas Vaidonitus banished the Low Countreys where he had seated himselfe and published his opinions ; Arminius , and his followers haue bin cheefe promoters of it . Arminius himselfe , as in other his opinions : so in the publishing of this vsed much closenesse and cunning conveyance . In his private disputations [ Tit. de Iustificatione ] he seemes plainly to condemne it , saying that it is an abuse to say that Fides est causa formalis Iustificationis , and an error to affirme [ That Christ hath deserued , vt fidei dignitate et merito iustificemur . ] In his publique disputations he opens himselfe somewhat plainly : yet darkely enough [ Thes. 19. de Iustificat . cat . Thes. 7. These are his words . [ Fidei vero Iustificatio tribuitur , non quod illa sit Iustitia ipsa quae rigido & seuero De● iudicio oppont possit ; quanquam Deo grata : sed quod in iudicio mis●ri●ordiae triumphans supra iudicium absolutionem a peccatis obtineat & gratiose in Iustitiam imputetur . Cuius rei causaest tum Deus iustus & misericors , tum Christus obedient●● oblatione et intercessione suâ secundum Deum in beneplacito et mandato ipsius . ] Here Faith it selfe is imputed for Righteousnesse . But t is not in Gods seuere Iudgment , but in his Iudgment of Mercy . Faith in it selfe is not worthy : but yet Christ by his merits hath deserued that God will gratiously accept of it . This opinion published was quickly contradicted : wherevpon Arminius makes knowne his mind in playner Termes , In declaratioue sententiae ad ordines Holland : & Westfrisiae he confesseth that in the forenamed Thesis his meaning was , that [ ipsa fides tanquam actus iuxta Evangelij mandatum praestitus imputatur coram Deo in siue ad iustitiam , idque in gratiâ , cum non sit ipsamet iustitia Legis . And in his Responsione ad 31. Artic. art . 4. hee brancheth cut his opinion in three distinct propositions . 1 Iustitia Christi imputatur nobis . 2 Iustitia Christi imputatur in iustitiam . 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere imputatur in iustitiam . The first of these Propositions , he grants : That Christs Righteousnesse is imputed to vs. The second hee denies , That Christs Righteousnesse is imputed for Righteousnesse . The third ●e grants , That the Act of beleeuing is imputed for Righteousnesse . Here by Mysteries in these Propositions , hereafter to bee vnfolded . Wee now meddle with the last which yet is more roundly expressed by Arminius in his Epistle ad Hyppolitum . [ Lege princip . Pa. ] [ Ipsum Fidei actum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere , dico imputari in iustitiam , idque sensu proprio non metonymice ] The same is the opinion of his fellowes the Remonstrants , of c Vorstius , of d Peter Bertius , of e Episcopius , and the f rest . With whom Bellarmine agrees pat [ Liber ● . de Iust. cap. 17. When vpon that Rom : 4. ( His faith is imputed for righteousnesse . ] he saith thus . [ Vbiipsa fides censetur esse Iustitia , ac per hoc non apprehendit fides iustitiam Christi : sed ipsa fides in Christum est iustitia . ] In summe , their opinion runnes thus . God in the Legall Couenant required the exact obedience of his Commandement : but now in the Couenant of grace , he requires faith , which in his gracious estimation stands in stead of that obedience to the Morall Law , which wee ought to performe . Which comes to passe by the Merit of Christ ; for whose sake God accounts our imperfect saith to be perfect obedience . This Assertion we reiect as erronious , and in place thereof we defend this Proposition . God doth not iustifie a man by Faith properly , impuring vnto him faith in Christ for his perfect obedience to the Law , and therefore accounting him iust and innocent in his sight . Which we proue by these Reasons . 1 We are not Iustified by any worke of our owne . But beleeving is an Act of our owne : Therefore by the Act of beleeving we are not Iustified . The Maior is most manifest by the Scriptures , which teach that we are saued by grace Ephes. 2. 5. [ and therefore not by the workes of Righteousnesse which we had wrought . ] Tit. 3. 6. [ For if it be of Works , then were grace no more grace ] Ro. 11. 6. The Minor is likewise evident . [ That Faith is a worke of ours . ] For though Iohn 6. 29. it bee said , [ This is the worke of God that ye beleeue in him whom hee hath sent ] yet will not our adversaries conclude thence , that Faith is Gods worke within vs , and not our worke by his helpe . For so should they runne into that absurdity which they would fasten vpon vs. ( viz. ) That when a Man beleeues , t is not man beleeues : but God beleeues in him . To beleeue , though it be done by Gods aide : yet 't is we that doe it ; and the Act is properly ours . And being so , we conclude , that by it we are not iustified in Gods sight . Here two Exceptions may be made . 1 First that we are not iustified by any worke of our owne ( viz ▪ ) which we our selues doe by our owne strength without the help of grace : But yet we may be iustified by some worke which we doe ( viz ) by the aide of Grace ; and such a worke is Faith. Wee answere . This Distinction of workes done without Grace and workes done by Grace , was devised by one that had neither Wit nor Grace ; being a T●icke to elude the force of such Scriptures as exclude indefinitely all workes from our Iustification , without distinguishing either of Time when they are done , before or after ; or of the ayde & helpe whereby they are done , whether by Nature or by Grace . Wherefore it is without all ground in Scripture thus to interpret these Propositions : A man is not iustified by workes ( that is ) by workes done by worth of Nature before and without Grace . A Man is iustified by Grace ( that is ) by workes done by aide of Grace . These Interpretations are meere forged inventions of froward Minds , affirmed but not proved : as we shall more hereafter declare , 2 That we are not Iustified by any workes of our own , ( that is ) by any works of the Law : but by a worke of the Gospell such as faith is we may be iustified . Male res agitur vbi opus est tot Remedijs ( saith Erasmus in another case . ) T is a certaine signe of an vntrue opinion when it must be bolstered vp with so many distinctions . Nor yet hath this distinction any ground in Scripture , or in Reason : for both tell vs that the workes commamded in the Law , and workes commanded in the Gospell are one and the same for the substance of thē , What worke can be named , that is enioyned vs in the New Testament , which is not also cōmanded vs in that summary precept of the Morall Law [ Thou shalt loue the L●rd thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soule and with all they strength , and with all thy mind : and thy neighbour as thy selfe . ] Luc. 5. 27. Deut. 6. 5 What sinne is there against the Gospell , that is not a transgression of the Law ? If the Gospel cōmand Charity , is it any other then that which the Law commands : If the Gospell cōmand Faith , doth not the Law enioine the same ? you will say No. It doth not command Faith in Christ. I answere , yea , it doth : For that which commands vs in generall to Beleeue what euer God shall propose vnto vs : commands vs also to beleeue in Christ , assoone as God shall make knowne that t is his will we should beleeue in him . The Gospell discouers vnto vs the Obiect ; the Law commands vs the obedience of beleeuing it . Wherefore Faith , for the Substance of the Grace and works done by vs , is a worke of the Law ; and so to be Iustified by the Action of beleeuing , is to be Iustified by workes and by our owne Righteousnesse , contrary to the Scriptures ; and that Phil : 5. 9. ( That I may be found not , &c. This of the first Reason . 2 God accounts that only for perfect Righteousn●sse of the Law , which is so in deed and truth . But Faith is not the perfect fulfilling of the Law. Therefore God doth not account it ●or such . The Minor is granted by our adversaries ; That Faith is not the exact Iustice of the Law ; such as can stand before the severity of Gods Iudgments . The Maior must be proued : That God accounts not that for perf●ct Iustice which is not perfect indeed . This appeares by that Rom. 2. 2. [ The iudgement of God is according to trueth . ] Where therefore any thing is not truly good and perfect : there God esteemes it not so . Here also twil be excepted . That God some time Iudgeth Iudicio iustitiae , according to exact Iustice ; and then he ●udgeth nothing perfectly iust , but that whi●h hath true perfection of Iustice in it . Sometimes he iudgeth iudicio misericord●ae ; according to mercy : and so he may esteeme a Man perfectly righteous for that which is not perfect righteousnesse in it selfe ; namely for his Faith. Surely , this is a trimme distinction thus applyed , that sets Gods Mercy and Truth together by the Eares . As who would say , When God iudgeth out of Mercy : hee then doth not iudge according to truth . The Scriptures doe not acquaint vs with any such mercifull iudgement of God. This they doe acquaint vs with , That God iudgeth according to mercy , not when he doth pronounce and cleare a Sinner to be perfectly righteous for that righteousnesse which is truely imperfect : but when he iudgeth a Sinner to be righteous for that righteousnesse which is perfect ; but is not his owne . In this Iudgement there is both Truth and Mercy . Truth , in that he esteemes me perfectly righteous , for that righteousnesse sake which is euery way perfect : and mercy , that he accepteth for sinne , that righteousnesse which is performed for me by Christ my surety ; but is not mine owne . Other mercifull Iudgement of God besides this , we acknowledge none . 3 We are not iustified by two righteousnesses existing in two diuers subiects . But if wee be iustified by the worke of Faith : we shall be iustified partly by that righteousnesse which is in vs , ( viz. ) of Faith : partly by the righteousnesse of Christ without vs. Ergo we are not iustified by Faith properly . The Minor is apparant . The Righteousnesse of Faith is ●nherent in vs. and by it we are iustified ( say our Aduersaries . ) The righteousnesse of Christ is inherent in him : and by it are we iustified , say the Scriptures . [ Being now iustified by his blood , we shall be saued from wrath through him . ] Ro. 5 9. & v. 19. [ By the obedience of one , many shall be made iust . ] Wherefore either we are properly iustified by both , or there is an errour , and one part must stand out ▪ We cannot be properly iustified by both , for our own faith and Christs obedience too : for if we be perfectly iust in Gods sight for our own Faith , what need the Imputation of Christs obedience to make vs iust ? If for Christs righteousnes we be perfectly iustified : how can God accoūt vs perfectly iust for our faith ? Arminius and his friends , seeing these things cannot stand together ; haue ( according to the good will which they beare toward the righteousnesse of Christ ) kept in our faith , and thrust out Christs obedience , denying vtterly that it is imputed vnto vs for righteousnesse . But my Brethren ( which I hope make a better choice ) seeing it cannot part with ours : part with our owne righteousnesse , leaning wholy vpon the righteousnesse of Christ ; and seeking for the comfort of our Iustification in his perfect obedience , and not in our weake and imperfect saith . These Reasons may suffice to shew the errour of that Assertion . We are iustified by Fa●●h , sensu prop●rio , God accepting the Act of beleeuing for the perfect obedience of the Law. And therefore that in those places , where 't is said , [ Faith is imputed for righteousnesse , ] the Phrase is to be expounded metonymice , ( that is ) Christs righteousnesse beleeued on by Faith , is imputed to the beleeuer for righteousnesse . Whereas our Aduersaries say that faith of its owne dignity and desert , doth not obtaine this fauour of God , to be esteemed for the perfect righteousnesse of the Morall Law : but this comes to passe onely by the Merits of Christ , who hath procured this grace vnto vs , that God should thus accept of our Faith : wee answere , that this is affirmed , but 't is not prooued . They speake a little more fauourably then the Romanists , who make faith of it selfe to merit Iustification : these will haue it not to merit it ; but to be graciously accepted for righteousnesse . But wee find not in Scripture any such Doctrine as this , [ Christ hath merited that wee should bee iustified for our faith , ] or [ Christ hath merited for our faith , that faith should be esteemed by God for that perfect Iustice of the Law ; whereby we are iustified in Gods sight . ] These things the Scriptures teach not : they teach , that Christ is our righteousnesse , and that we are iustified by his blood and obedience . But that he hath merited by his obedience , that we should be iustified by our owne obedience and righteousnesse , is a peruerse assertion of men that loue to runne about the bush , and leauing the streight , to runne in crooked and froward wayes . And it differs little from the like shift of the Disciples of Rome , who to maintaine Merit of our workes and of Christ too ; salue it with this tricke . Christ hath merited that wee might merit . But we acknowledge , as no other merit , but that of Christ ; so no other righteousnesse to Iustification , but his alone . Thus much of the second Assertion . CHAP. III. The confutation of Popish Doctrine , that other graces doe iustifie vs , and not faith alone . THe third and last followes , wherein the Controuersie is betweene vs and those of Rome ; whose Assertion is : that 3 A sinner is not iustified by faith alone , but also by other vertues and graces ; as Hope , Loue , Repentance , Feare of God , &c. This we also reject as an error , contrary to the Scriptures , wherby we are taught , That a man is iustified by faith alone . For opening the truth of which point : you must call to minde the different acception of the word Iustifie : wherein it is taken by vs , and by our Aduersaries . With them to Iustifie is all one , as to Sanctifie : of vnjust and vnholy , to make inherently iust and holy . With vs to Iustifie is to absolue an offender , quitting him from blame and punishment . According to these different Acceptions , this proposition [ A man is iustified by faith alone ] hath a double meaning ; one thus [ A man by faith alone is inherently sanctified ] another thus : [ A man by faith alone obtaines absolution in Gods Iudgement , from all faultinesse and punishment . This latter meaning onely is true , and t is that onely which is defended by vs of the Reformed Churches ; Namely , that faith onely is the grace of God whereby a sinner beleeuing the promise , and resting himselfe vpon the righteousnesse of Christ , receiues mercy from God in absoluing him from the fault and punishment of all his Transgressions : and to be accounted Righteous for Christs sake . Which gracious priuiledge God hath annexed vnto faith , as vnto the Condition of the New Covenant , and not vnto Loue , Hope , Feare , Repentance , or any other grace ; For not these , but Faith onely , respecteth the promise of the Gospell . The former sense of that Proposition , is false and absurde , viz. [ A Man by faith alone is inherently sanctified ] nor doe any of the Reformed deteine such a Construction thereof . Wherefore when Bellarmine and his Complices dispute eagerly against Iustification by faith alone , those Arguments wherewith they suppose to smite through the Truth of our Assertion , are let flye at a wrong Marke ; being all aymed at this Butte , ( viz ) to proue ; That a man is sanctified by other inherent Graces as well as faith . Which point we easily yeeld them , confessing that inherent righteousnesse , consists not of one , but of the a manifold graces of Gods Spirit , wrought in the heart of such as are Regenerate . Neuerthelesse for the shewing of some points which may be doubted of ; Let vs briefely take a view of the chiefe passages of Bellarmines long discourse ; which he maintaines from the twelfth Chapter of his first booke de Iustificatione , to the end . For to proue that a Man is iustified not by faith alone . Of his Arguments which are few , I shall name three onely , which are materiall . 1 If other vertues Iustifie as well as Faith , then not faith alone . But other vertues doe Iustifie — Therefore , &c. The Minor he prooues out of the Councell of Trent , Sess. 6. cap. 6. where seauen preparatory , graces to Iustification , are reckoned vp . 1 Faith. 2 The Feare of God , 3 Hope in his mercy . 4 Loue of God , as the Fountaine of Iustice ( & ad benefactoris , saith Bellarmine ) 5 Repentance , a sorrow and detestation of sinne . 6 A desire of receiuing the Sacrament of Baptisme . 7 A purpose to leade a new life , and keepe Gods Commandements . All these ( saith Bellarmine ) doe iustifie a Man , Praeparatoriè , antecedentèr , dispositiuè . Faith , that 's the roote and beginning of our Iustification , the rest follow in order ; all must goe before as needfull preparations : and Iustification followes , as the effect of all in common , &c. Ergo , Not of Faith alone . The b Iesuite goes ouer euery particular , to shew by Scriptures what force each of those graces haue to Iustifie . But t is not worth-while to repeate his proofes . Vnto the Argument , wee answere two things . 1 That it is framed vpon the errour which puts out of frame the whole dispute of our Aduersaries , about this Article of Iustification ; namely , that Regeneration and Sanctification is all one thing with Iustification ; and that to Iustifie a sinner is nothing but to doe away inherent corruption , by infusion of inherent righteousnesse . This we haue heretofore by the Scriptures cleared to be false ; and therefore this Argument proouing our Sanctification to be wrought by other graces as well as by faith , toucheth not the point of Iustification in the Remission of sinnes , which faith alone obtaineth through the promise . 2 Touching these graces which they make preparatory vnto Iustification , that is to Sanctification : Wee answere , that t is a Philosophicall dreame of such as measure out the workes of Gods Spirit in mans conuersion , according to Aristotles Physickes ; and those disputes touching praeuious , or fore-going dispositions , that qualifie the matter for receiuing of the Forme . We acknowledge , that in mans Regeneration all graces of the Spirit are not perfected at once . But as the ioynts and sinewes in the bodily : so the graces of Sanctification in the spirituall New-birth , are at first weake and feeble : Which in continuance of time gather more strength , according to our growth in Christ. But yet these are true for the substance : though imperfect in their degrees and measure . There is now true Spirituall life in such a one which was before dead in sinne : although there be not the free and able exercise of all the vitall powers . Health there is , but not entire from all degrees o● sicknesse , and euery kinde of disease . Wherefore we aff●●me that these vertues which are by our Aduersarics reckoned onely as dispositions vnto Regeneration : are , if they be true and not counterfeit Mettall , the maine parts and fruits of Regeneration . Hence we beleeue that these are foule errors ( viz. ) To teach that a man without grace by the power of his free-wil may dispose himselfe to his Regeneration , by beleeving in Christ , fearing and louing of God , hoping of his Mercy , repenting of his sinnes , resoluing vpon amendment , and all this with true and sincere affection : or to teach if a man cannot do these things of his owne meere strength and free-will ; yet by the Spetiall aide of God inciting and helping him ; 〈◊〉 may doe them whilst he is vtterly vns●nctified in statu peccati . That true Faith , and Feare , and Hope , and Loue , and Repentance , and purpose of Reformation , are Vertues and Graces in a Man that is yet gracelesse and without Vertue , because destitute of Sanctification . That these Graces consisting in the inward motion of the soule , and change of the Affections , are wrought in Man , not by any sanctifying Grace of the Holy Ghost , inwardly touching the heart : but by some other kind of Vertue and aid ( they know not what ) a externall , a exciting and helping forward the strength of Nature . a All these are monstrous and mis-shapen imaginations , bred in proud hearts that would faine share the glory of their Conversion , betweene Gods grace and their owne free-will , and maintained by curious heads , whom Philosophicall speculations haue transported beyond the simplicity of diuine Truth . The Scripture speaks otherwise of these Graces , as of those that belong to such as are not in the way to be made good , but are made so already . [ Ye are al the Children of God by Faith in Iesus Christ ] saith the Apostle Paul Gal. 3. 28. Whosoeuer shall confesse that Iesus is the sonne of God : God dwelleth in him and he in God. ] saith Iohn 1. 1. Ioh. 4. 15. and Chap. 5. 1. [ Whosoeuer beleeueth that Iesus is that Christ ; is borne of God. ] Doe we by true Faith become the Children of God , borne of him , in whom hee dwelleth and we in him , when as yet in the meane time we are yet vnsanctified , vnholy , vncleane , & not in the state of Grace ? Bellarmine will proue that a man may haue Faith ; yet not the Child of God : ou● of Iohn 1. 12. [ As many as receiued him , to them he gaue power to become the Sonnes of God : euen to them th●t beleeue on his name . ] See ( s●●th he ) they that beleeue are not yet , but haue power if they list , to become the Sonnes of God , ( viz. ) by going on further from Faith to Hope and Loue , and the rest of the Tridenti●e dispositions . For t is Loue properly and not Faith , that makes vs the Sons of God ; as he would proue ( contrary to that expresse place of the Galat. ) out of the 1 Ep. of Iohn , where the Apostle hath much excellent matter , but nothing to that purpose . To the place of Iohn , wee answere , that the Iesuite playeth with the ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is not here a liberty to doe what we list ; as if we could at our pleasure become Gods adopted sonnes : but t is a right and priuiledge which Christ the naturall Sonne bestowes on true beleeuers , to be made Gods adopted sonnes , and so coheires with him of the heauenly inheritance . When is this priuiledge of Adoption bestowed ? Then when they beleeue , and assoone as they beleeue , before they be Regenerate ? No , Saint Iohn denies it . [ He giues power to be the Sonnes of God , euen to those that beleeue in him . ] Who be they ? Hee answeres , vers . 15. [ Which were borne not of bloud , nor of the will of the flesh , nor of the will of man , but of God. ] Faith then is not a Preparatiue to Iustification , but a part of it . And is not Feare of GOD too ? No , saith Bellarmine . That is the b beginning of wisedome ( that is ) of a perfect Iustification . A bad interpretation , but a worse Argument . T is the beginning , therefore not part . Nay ; If the feare of God be the Alpha of Christian graces , certainely it selfe makes one Letter of that Alphabet . T is such a beginning of wisdome : as its selfe is wisdome too . Else God himselfe deceaues vs : who , as it is , Iob 28. 28. [ Sayd vnto man : Behold the feare of the Lord that is wisdome , and to depart from euill is vnderstanding . ] And therefore to take it in the Iesuits glosse , Feare of God is Iustification as well as the beginning of it . For Hope ; If it be true , ( viz. ) That c which makes not ashamed , ] Which is the d Anchor of the Soule , sure and stedfast , that entereth within the Vaile . ] It would bee knowne what difference the Iesuite will put betweene that Hope which is in a man before : and that which is in him after his Sanctification . If he say , It differs onely in degree : then hee grants , t is the same in substance : whence wee haue a faire position ; That man sanctified and vnsanctified , is alike capable of the sauing graces of Gods Spirit . The like we say for Loue of God , if it be sincere and without dissimulation bred in the heart : Vpon those spirituall considerations not onely of Gods Mercy in Christ : but also of his Iustice and infinite Righteousnesse ; ( For so the Trent Fathers will haue this Loue to respect God , vt fontem Iustitiae ) then we affirme this spirituall Loue is not to bee found but onely in those Hearts , that are in some measure Regenerate and made spirituall . In ( whom e this Loue of God is shed abroad by the Holy Ghost that is giuen to them . ] as the a Apostle speaketh . This Bellarmine is so●ne forced to grant : yet he puts it off with a distinction [ No man can loue God perfectly with all his heart , without the Holy Ghost : but loue him he may imperfectly without the Holy Ghost dwelling in him , though not without the speciall aide of God. ] Whereto we answere ; 't is one thing to loue God perfectly , and another to loue him truely . To loue him perfectly , is to loue him with all the heart , all the soule , all the minde , & all the strength : which we grant no man can doe without the Holy Ghost : but we also affirme , that no man did or shall euer doe it in this life , so long as there is lustfull corruption in him causing any the least auersion of his soule from God in any motion thereof . So that if none haue the Holy Ghost abiding in them ; but such in whom Loue is thus perfected ; he must be confined with the Saints in heauen , and not haue his dwelling with the faithfull on earth . But if imperfect Loue of God be also from the Holy Ghost , dwelling in the hearts of the Godly , who loue God truely in vnfeigned vprightnesse of heart ; though in much imperfection by reason of sinne , which diuerts the heart vnto other pleasures : then it must be knowne of the Iesuite , what he meanes by imperfect Loue. Is it false Loue , such a meere naturall Man may conceiue vpon generall grounds : That God is good , the chiefest good , iust , holy , and full of all excellency ? He will not say for shame , this is a true preparatiue vnto Iustification . Is it true loue , but in its degree imperfect , not so vigorous , so vehement , so hot as coales of Iuniper : yet such as hath some strength and warmth of spirituall affection ? Then we require that these men will draw vs out a line by the Rule of the Scriptures , and to tell vs how farre the true Loue of God may come , without the grace of the Holy Ghost sanctifying the heart : But after t is past such a degree , then there is required the sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost for it . T will trouble their Mathematickes to describe vnto vs in what degree of Perfection that Womans loue was situated , whose example they alleadge for a proofe of this point out of Luke 7. 47. [ Her sinnes which were many , are forgiuen her , for she loued much . ] Can Bellarmine tell vs how much this was ? that so by that patterne we may know how farre men goe in the true Loue of God before they bee at all sanctified by inherent Grace ? For such wonders they would make vs beleeue concerning this penitent Sinner ; that when her soule was full of Faith and Loue to Christ , her heart full of sorrow , her eyes full of teares for her sinnes ; yet for all that she was a gracelesse , vnholy person , whose Loue , and Faith , and Sorrow , came not from the sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost , but onely from free-will helped with some kinde of externall aide of God. We haue not Faith to beleeue such Mysteries as these . Nor yet in the last place can we conceiue how there should be true repentance , with a sincere purpose of Reformation and obedience , where the Heart is not changed and renued by the Holy Ghost . That Godly sorrow and Hatred of sinne should spring out of a gracelesse heart , that so holy a Resolution of Amendment of Life should be in an vnholy person ; be Assertions so contradictory and iarring : that no Christian Eare can with patience endure to heare them . We conclude then touching these dispositions vnto Sanctification , that if these Graces be true , they are parts and chiefe Branches of inherent Righteousnesse . But if they be false and counterfeit , they are not so much as Preparations therevnto . So much of this first Argument : wherein yet one of these 7 dispositions first reckoned vp is omitted ( viz. ) a Desire of receauing the Sacrament of Baptisme . ( that is ) A Man that 's baptised in his youth , afterward , before he be Iustified , must haue a desire to be Rebaptised . For what is it for one baptised to desire to receaue that Sacrament againe ? This conceit is so absured that howeuer Bellarmine reckon it vp among the other Dispositions ; because of the Authority of the councell of Trent : yet a Becanus giues it ouer in plaine Feild ; numbring these fore naming sixe graces onely , choosing rather to venter the Councells credit , then his owne , by defending an vnreasonable position . 2 Argument . If Faith alone doe iustifie vs ; then it may d●e●t when other graces are absent ; as well as when they are present . For seeing the Vertue of Iustifing vs depends vpon Faith alone : and that in this act it receaues no aide from any other grace ; It followeth that it needs not the cōpany of any other grace : as in the law of sense . If the whole force of Burning proceed onely from Heat : then where Heat is , though there be no other Qualities yet there will be burning ; yea if Faith only haue force to Iustifie , it will follow , that it may iustifie not onely in the absence of other graces : but in the presence of the coutrary vices . For as the absence of other graces doth not hinder : so the presence of other vices will not hinder Faith one jot in it office of Iustifying . But t were absurd to affirme , that Faith can Iustifie without other vertues with other vices — Ergo , The force of Iustifying is not in Faith alone . To this we answere . That this sophisme is fashioned vpon the same Block with the former , that to Iustifie and Sanctifie are all one . In which sense we confesse the Consequence is vnauoydable . If Faith alone by it owne vertue and force did sanctifie : then it would effect this not onely in the absence of other graces ; but in the presence of their contrary Corruptions : and the similitude which we bring to illustrate our assertion , would confirme that of the Aduersaries . T is the eye onely sees , say our Men : yet the Eare is in the Head too . Yea , reply they , But the eie could see well notwithstanding the Eare were deafe . T is the a Heate onely of the fire or Sunne that warmes , though there be light ioyned with it . True say they , But if there were no Light , yet if heate remained , it would warme for all that : as the Heate of an Ouen , or of Hell , burnes , though it shine not . Thou holdest in thy hands many seedes ( T is the old comparison of Luther on the 15 of Gen. ) I enquire not what t is together but what is the vertue of each one single . Yea , reply our Aduersaries ; that 's a very needelesse question indeed . For if among them many seedes there be some one that hath such soueraigne vertue ; that it alone can cure all diseases , then t is no Matter whether thou haue many or few , or none at all of any other sort in thy hand . Thou hast that which by it owne vertue without other ingredients will worke the Cure Nor haue we ought to make answere in this case ; If , as the Eye sees , heate warmes , seeds and other simples doe cure by their owne proper Vertue : so Faith alone by its owne efficacy did sanctifie vs. But there is the Errour . Faith works not in our sanctification or Iustification by any such inward power & vertue of its own , from whence these effects should properly follow . For Sanctification Faith , as we haue seene , is part of that inherent Righteousnesse which the Holy Ghost hath wrought in the Regenerate : and t is opposed to the Corruption of our Nature which stands in Infidelity Faith sanctifies not as a cause , but as a part of insused grace : and such a part as goes not alone , but accompanied with all other Graces of Loue , Feare , Zeale , Hope , Repentance , &c. Inasmuch as Mans regeneration is not the infusion of one ; but of the Habit of all graces . Againe , 't is not the Vertue of Faith that iustifies vs ; The grace of Iustification is from God , he workes it : but t is our Faith applies it and makes it ours . The Act of Iustification is Gods meere worke ; but our Faith onely brings vs the Benefit and Assurance of it . Iustification is an externall priuiledge which God bestowes on beleeuers ; hauing therein respect onely to their Faith , which grace onely hath peculiar respect to the Righteousnesse of Christ and the promise in him . Whereby t is manifest that this argument is vaine . Faith alone is respected in our Iustification : therefore Faith is or may be alone without other graces of Iustification . Bellar : b would vndertake to proue that true saith may be seuered from Charity and other Vertues : but wee haue heretofore spoken of that Point : and shewed , that [ true Faith , yet without a Forme : ] [ true Faith , dead , and without a soule ] be Contradictions as vaine as [ A true Man without reason ] [ A true Fire without heate . ] We confesse indeed that the faith of Iesuites ( the same with that of Simon Magus ) may very well bee without Charity and all other sanctifying graces ; a bare assent to the truth of Divine Reuelations , because of Gods Authority . As t is in Diuels , so t is in Papists and other Heretickes . But we deny that this is that which deserues the name of true Faith : which whosoeuer hath , hee also hath eternall life . As it is , Iohn 6. 47. 3 Argument . That which Scripture doth not affirme , that is false doctrine . But the Scripture doth not affirme that wee are Iustified by Faith alone — Ergo , so to teach , is to teach false Doctrine . This Argument toucheth the quicke : and if the Minor can be prooued , we must needs yeeld them the Cause . For that the Iesuites conceiue that this is a plaine case : for where is there any one place in all the Bible , that saith , Faith alone Iustifies ? They euen laugh at the simplicity of the Heretickes ( as they Christen vs ) that glory they haue found out at last the word ( Onely ) in Luc. 8. 50. in that speech of Christ , to the Ruler of the Synagogue , [ Feare not , beleeue onely , and shee shall be made whole . ] And much sport they make themselues with Luther : That to helpe out this matter at a dead lift , by plaine fraud hee foysted into the Text , in the 3. to the Romans , the word ( Onely . ) When being taught with the fact , and required a Reason : He made answere according to his Modesty , ( Sic volo , sic iubeo , stet pro ratione voluntas . ) T is true that Luther in his Translation of the Bible into the Germane tougue : read the 28. verse of that Chapter , thus . ( We conclude that men are iustified without the workes of the Law : onely through Faith. ) Which word onely is not in the Originall . Where , in so doing , if he fulfild not the Office of a faithfull Translator : yet he did the part of a faithfull Paraphrast , keeping the sense exactly in that Alteration of words . And if he be not free from blame : yet of all men the Iesuites are most vnfit to reproue him ; whose dealing in the corrupting of all sort of Writers , Diuine and humane , are long since notorious and infamous throughout Christendome . What Luthers Modesty was in answering those that found fault with his Translation : we haue not to say . Onely thus much , That the impudent Forgeries of this Generation , witnesse abundantly : that it is no rare thing for a Lie to drop out of a Iesuites or Fryers penne . But be it , as it may be ; T is not Luthers Translation ; Nor that place in the 8. of Luke , that our Doctrine , [ touching Iustification by Faith alone , ] is founded vpon . We haue better proofes then these : as shall appeare vnto you in the confirmation of the Minor of this Syllogisme . Whatsoeuer the Scriptures affirme , that 's true doctrine . But the Scriptures affirme , a man is iustified by Faith alone . Therefore thus to teach , is to teach according to the word of whole-some doctrine . Our Aduersaries demaund proofe of the Minor. We alleadge all those places wherein the Scriptures witnesse : that we are Iustified by faith , without the workes of the Law. Such places are these . Rom. 3. 28. ( Therefore we conclude that a man is iustified by faith , without the workes of the Law. ) Rom. 4. 2. 3. ( If Abraham were iustified by workes , hee hath whereof to glory : but not before God. For what saith the Scripture ? Abraham beleeued God : and it was counted to him for righteousnesse . ) And vers . 14. 15. 16. ( For if they which are of the Law be heires : faith is made void , and the promise made of none effect . Because the Law worketh wrath , for where no Law is , there is no transgression . ) Gal. 2. 16. ( Knowing that a man is not iustified by the workes of the Law , but by the Faith of Iesus Christ : Euen we haue beleeued in Christ , that we might be iustified by the Faith of Christ , and not by the workes of the Law. For by the workes of the Law shall no flesh be iustified . ) Gal. 3. 21. 22. ( Is the Law then against the promises of God ? God forbid . For if there had beene a Law giuen , which could haue giuen Life : verily righteousnesse should haue beene by the Law. But the Scripture hath concluded all vnder sinne : that the promise by the faith of Iesus Christ , might be giuen by them that beleeue . ) Ephe. 2. 8. 9. ( For by grace ye are saued , through Faith , and that not of your selues ; It is the gift of God : Not of workes , least any man should boast . ) Phil 3. 8. 9. ( Yea doubtlesse , and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord. For whom I haue suffered the losse of all things : and doe count them but dung , that I may winne Christ. And be found of him not hauing mine owne righteousnesse , which is of the Law : but that which is through the faith of Christ : a the Righteousnesse which is of God by Faith. ) Out of which places , not to name more , expresly touching this point of our Iustification , we argue thus . A Man is iustified either by the workes of the Law , or by faith in Christ. But hee is not Iustified by the workes of the Law. Ergo , He is iustified onely by faith in Christ. In this disiunctiue Syllogisme , they cannot find ●ault with vs for adding the word [ onely ] in the Conclusion ; which was not in the Praemises . For Reason will teach them , that where two Tearmes are immediately opposite , if one bee taken away , the other remaines alone . So that in euery disjunctiue Syllogisme , whose Maior Proposition standeth vpon two Tearmes immediately opposite : if one be remoued in the Minor , the Conclusion is plainely equivalent to an exclusiue Proposition . As if we argue thus . Eyther the wicked are saued : or the godly . But the wicked are not saued . Thence it followes in exclusiue Tearmes , Therefore the godly onely are saued . Our Aduersaries cannot deny , but that the Proposition [ A Man is iustified by workes , or by Faith , ] consists of Tearmes immediately opposite . For else they accuse the Apostle Paul of want of Logicke , who Rom. 3. should conclude falsely , [ A man is iusitified by faith without workes : if he be iustified either by both together , or else by neither . Seeing then he opposeth Faith ād workes as incompatible , and exclude workes from Iustification : wee conclude infallibly by the Scriptures , That a man is iustified by faith alone . This Argument not auoidable by any sound āswere , puts our aduersaries miserably to their shifts . Yet rather then yeeld vnto the truth , they fall vnto their distinctions : whereby , if t were possible , they would shift off the force of this Argument . Whereas therefore the Scriptures oppose Workes and Faith : the [ Law of Workes , ] and the [ Law of Faith. ] Our [ owne righteousnesse which is of the Law ] and the ( Righteousnesse of God by Faith , ) manifestly telling vs that we are Iustified , ( Not by Workes , by the Law of Workes , nor by our owne Righteousnesse which is of the Law , but that we are iustified by Faith , by the Righteousnesse of God by Faith. ) Our Aduersaries haue a distinction to salue this Matter withall . They say then Workes are of two sorts . 1 Some goe before Grace and Faith , and are performed by the onely strength of free-will : out of that Knowledge of the Law , whereunto Men may attaine by the light of Nature , or the bare Reuelation of the Scriptures . These workes or this obedience vnto the law , which a meere naturall man can performe , is ( say they ) that Righteousnesse which the Scripture cals our owne . By this kinde of Righteousnesse and Workes , they grant none is Iustified . 2 Some follow Grace and Faith : which are done by Mans free-will , excited and aided by the speciall helpe of Grace . Such Obedience and Righteousnesse is ( say they ) called the ( Righteousnesse of God , ) because it is wrought in vs of his gift and grace . And by this Righteousnesse a man is iustified . By this Invention they turne of with a wet finger , all those Scriptures that we haue alleadged . Wee are Iustified ( not by the workes of the Law , ) that is , by the Obedience of the Morall Law , which a man may performe without Gods Grace : But we are Iustified by ( Faith of Christ , ) that is , by that obedience of the Morall Law , which a man may performe by faith , and the helpe of Gods grace . b Boasting is excluded , saith the Apostle , by what Law ? By the Law of workes , that is , by the Law performed by the strength of Nature ? Nay , For he that performes the Law by his owne strength , hath cause to boast of it . By what Law then ? By the Law of Faith , that is , by faith which obtaines Gods grace to fulfill the Morall Law. Now he that obeyes the Law by Gods helpe , hath no cause to boast . ( c Israel which followed the Law of righteousnesse , could not attaine vnto the law of righteousnesse . ) Wherefore ? Because they sought it not by Faith ; that is , they sought not to performe the Law by Gods Grace ; ( But as by the workes of the Law , ) that is , by their own strength : Thus Paul desires to be found in Christ , ( not hauing his owne righteousnesse which is of the Law ) that is that righteousnesse he performed without Gods grace before his Conversion ; But ( the righteousnesse of God which is by faith . ) i.e. That righteousnesse which he performed in obeying the Law by Gods grace after his Conversion . For confirmation of this distinction , and the Interpretations thereon grounded , Bellarmine brings three reasons to shew that when workes and faith are opposed : all workes of the Law are not excluded . 1 It s manifest ; Faith is a worke : and that there is a Law of Faith as well as workes . If therefore , Rom. 3. all workes , and all Law be excluded from Iustification : then to be iustified by Faith , were to bee iustified without faith . 2 It s plaine the Apostle , Rom. 3. intends to proue that neither Iewes by the a naked obseruation of the law of Moses : nor the Gentiles for their good workes ; before they were b conuerted to the faith of Christ , could obtaine righteousnesse from God. 3 The Apostle shewes , Rom. 4. 4. what workes he excludes from Iustification , ( viz. ) such whereto wages is due , by debt , not by grace . Now workes performed without Gods helpe deserue c reward ( ex Debito : ) but workes performed by his helpe , deserve wages ( ex gratia . I doubt but ( notwithstanding these seeming Reasons ) the fore-named distinction and expositions of Scripture according thereto ; appeare vnto you at the first sight , strange , vncouth , farr besides the intent of the Holy Ghost , in all those fore-reckoned passages of Scripture . Let vs examine it a little more narrowly : and yee shall quickly perceiue ; that in this Schoole distinction , there is nothing but fraud & shifting . ( By workes done , by the strength of Nature wee are not iustified . By workes done with the helpe of grace wee are iustified . ) This is the distinction : resolue it now into these tearmes which are more proper , & it runs thus . ( A man is not sanctified by those workes of the Mora●l Law which he doth without grace : but a man is sanctified by those workes of the Morall Law he doth by Grace . ) Both Sentences are squint eyed , and looke quite awry from the Apostles ayme in this dispute touching Iustification . Is it his intent , Rom. 3. to proue that a sinner destitute of grace cannot be made inherently holy , by Morality , or outward workes of Piety ? or thus . That a Sinner cannot attaine to Sanctification by his owne strength : but he must attaine to it by the grace of God ? Take a suruey of the Chapter , and follow the Apostles Argumentation . All both Iewes and Gentiles are vnder sinne , verse 9. therefore ( euery mouth must be stopped ) and none can pleade innocency ; ( and all the world must be guilty before God. ) and so liable to condemnation , verse 19. What followeth hence now ? ( Therefore by the workes of the Law , shall no flesh be iustified in his sight , verse . 20. How strange were this Conclusion , taken in our Adversaries Construction . Ergo , By Obedience vnto the Morall Law done without grace no flesh can attaine Sanctification in his sight . For neither doth the Apostle speake of Sanctification , but of absolution as is apparant ; All are sinners against the Law , Ergo , by pleading innocency in the keeping of the Law , no Man can be wholy sanctified nor Iustified nor absolued from Blame in Gods sight . Nor yet will the Reason immediately annexed admit that glosse [ Workes without Grace ] By the workes of the Law shall no flesh be Iustified in his sight . Why ] For by the Law commeth the Knowledge of Sinne ] that is , By the Law Men are conuinced of Sinne , and declared not to be innocent . Which reason is not worth a Rush , according to our Aduersaries Construction . He that without grace shall doe the workes of the Law : he is not thereby made holy . Why ? Because the Law is the knowledge of sinne . The Law thus obserued tels him he is a sinner . In which reason there is no force , vnlesse it bee true on the other side . He that by the helpe of grace doth the workes of the Law , is thereby sanctified : because the Law thus kept tels him he is not a sinner , which is most vntrue . In as much , as not onely those which are destitute of grace ; but those that haue grace also , and by the helpe thereof , keepe the Law in some measure , are by the Law notwithstanding convinced to be sinners . The Apostle yet goes forward . ( If we be not iustified by the workes of the Law , by what then ? He answeres , ( verse 21. ) But now is the righteousnesse of God made manifest without the Law. ) We are iustified by the righteousnesse of God : But what is that ? It is ( saith the distinction ) that obedience to the Law which we performe by Gods grace . A glosse apparantly false . For the righteousnesse of God here is a Righteousnesse without the Law : But obedience to the Law , though performed with grace , is a Righteousnesse ( with ) the Law ; because t is the Righteousnesse of the Law. For t is all one , he that obeyes the Law by his owne strength ; if he doe it d perfectly he hath the righteousnes of the law , & he that obeyethit perfectly , by Gods grace , hath still the same righteousnes of the law , and no other . For so the Law be kept , it alters not the righteousnes thereof , that we keepe it by our own strength , that wee haue of our selues , or another helpe that giues vs strength to doe it . For then that strength which he giues vs is our owne . Which point duely obserued cuts in sunder the sinewes of this distinction ; for t is cleare the Apostle distinguisheth the Righteousnesse of the Law and of God as different in thir kindes : these make them to be one and the same thing , [ Obedience to the morall Lawe ] but done by diuers helpes ; one by meere nature : the other by Grace . This is most contrary to the Scriptures , and specially to that excellent place Rom. 10. 3. 4. &c. where the Apostle shewing the differēce betweene the Righteousnesse which is our owne or of the Law ; and that which is the Righteousnesse of God or Faith : tels vs. The Righteousnesse of the Law is thus described [ Th Man that doth these things shall liue thereby : ] but the Righteousnesse of Faith speaketh on this wise [ whosoeuer beleeueth on him ( i. e. Christ ) shall not be ashamed . ) Can any thing be more plaine ; then that the Apostle opposeth heere [ Doing of the Law ; and [ Beleeuing ] in Christ : Not [ doeing ] the Law by our owne strength , and doeing of the Law by [ Gods grace . ] These are Iesuiticall glosses that corrupt Apostolicall Doctrine , and strangely peruert the worke of Christ in our Redemption as if he had done no more for vs but this a ( viz. ) procured that where as we could not liue by doeing of the Law through our owne strength : God will now aide vs by his grace , that we may fulfil the Law , and by that Legall Righteousnesse obtaine Iustification and remission of Sinnes . We abhorre such Doctrine , and doe reiect as vaine and imaginary that distinction whēce such absurdities necessarily follow b More h might be sayed in confutation thereof , were it needefull : but we haue dealt long vpon this point , and t is time to hasten forward . By the way vnto the Iesuits Arguments in the defence of this Distinction We answere . 1 We confesse Faith is a worke , and in doeing of it we obey the Law , because ( as Saint Iohn speakes ) Iohn . 3. 23. [ This is Gods Commandment , that we beleeue in the name of his Sonne Iesus Christ. ] , And therefore the Gospell is called [ The Law of Faith. ] because the promise of grace in Christ is propounded with Commandment that Men beleeue it . But now we deny that Faith iustifies vs , as 't is a worke whi●h we performe in Obedience to this Law : It iustifieth vs onely as the Condition required of vs ; and an Instrument embracing Christs Righteousnesse . Nor can the contrary be proued . 2 The Iesuits are mistaken in the scope of the Apostle Rom. 3. whose intent is not to shew the Iew or Gentile could not attaine Sanctification without Gods grace ; by such Obedience to the Law ; as they could performe through the meere strength of Naturall Abilities . They affirme it strongly : but their Proofes are weake , being manyfestly confuted by the whole File of the Apostles disputation , who clearely and plainely exclude both Iewes and Gentiles , from being Iustified by the workes of the Law without making mention or giueing the least Intimation , by what meanes these workes must be performed , whether without grace or by the Helpe of grace . Yea it had been quite besides his purpose so to haue done . For the Apostles argument is cleare as the Light ; and strong as a threefold cord . All are Sinners against the Law , therefore by obedience vnto the Law , ( Let Men performe which way they list or can , without grace or with grace ) no Man is in Gods sight pronounced innocent , 3 To the Last argument out of Rom. 4. 4. we answere , The Apostle there proues : that the Faithfull , children of Abraham ; are not iustified by workes . Because Abraham the Father of the Faithfull was Iustified by Faith ; and not by workes . Where wee affirme ; That the Apostle excludeth all the workes of Abraham from his Iustification : both such as he performed when he had no grace , and those he did when he had grace . For those workes are excluded wherein Abraham might glory before Men. Now Abraham might glory before Men as well in those workes which he did by the helpe of Gods grace : as those which he did without it . Nay more in those : then in these . As in his obedient Departure from his owne Country at Gods command ; his patient expectation of the promises ; his ready willingnesse euen to offer his owne Sonne out of Loue and Duty to God , his religious and Iust demeaning of himselfe in all places of his abode . In those things Abraham had cause to glory before Men , much more , then in such works as he performed before his Conuertion : when he serued other Gods beyond the Flood . Therefore we conclude that Abraham was Iustified ; neither by such workes ; as went before Faith and grace in him : nor yet by such as followed after . This is most cleare by the v. 2. [ If Abraham where iustified by workes , he had wherein to glory : but not with God. ] Admit here the Popish Interpretation : and this speach of the Apostles will be false . Thus [ If Abraham were iustified by workes ] that is by such workes as he performed without Gods gratious helpe [ he hath wherein to glory ▪ ] viz. before Men : but [ not with God. ] Nay , that 's quite otherwise . For its euident . If a Man be Iustified by obeying the Law through his own strength : he may boldly glory before God , as well as before Men ; seing in that case he is not beholding to God for his helpe . But according to our doctrine , the Meaning of the Apostle is perspicuous . Abraham might glory before Men in those excellent workes of piety , which he performed after his vocation : and in mens sight he might be iustified by them . But he could not glory in them before God : nor yet be iustified by them in his sight . So then all workes whatsoeuer are excluded from Abrahams Iustification : and nothing lest but Faith , which is imputed vnto him for Righteousn●sse ; as it is v. 3. Whence it followes . That as Abraham : so all others are Iustified without all Merit , by Gods free grace and fauour . For so it followes , verse 4. 5. [ Now vnto him that worketh , the wages is not counted by fauour ; but by Debt : but to him that worketh not ; but beleeueth in him that iustifieth the vngodly , his faith is counted for Righteousnesse . ] These words runne cleare , till a Iesuite put his Foote into the streame to raise vp the Mudde . To him that worketh ] that is , which fulfileth the Righteousnesse of the Morall Law : [ the wages of Iustification and Life [ is not counted by fauour : but by debt ] for by the perfect Righteousnesse of the Law ▪ a Man deserues to be iustified and saued . [ But to him that worketh not ] that hath not fullfilled the righteousnesse of the Law in doing all things ; that are written therein : [ But beleeueth in him that iustifieth the vngodly ] That is relyeth vpon Christ , who by his Righteousnesse obtained absolution for him ( that is ) Rightousnesse in himselfe . ] His Faith is imput●d for Righteousnesse ] that is . He by his Faith ob●aynes I●stification in Gods sight : not by Merit of his owne , but Gods gratious acceptation of Christs Righteousnesse for his . But here our Aduersaries trouble the water by a false Inte●●retation . [ To him that worketh ] that is , say they that fulfil , the Law by his owne strength . Wages is not counted by fauour , but by debt , ] but if he fulfill it by Gods grace , his wages is pai●● him by fauour , not of debt . Where vnto we reply : That 1 This glose is a plaine corruption of the Text. For by workes in this fourth verse the Apostle vnderstands that kind of workes were of mention is made v 2 By which Abraham was not Iustified : and these as we haue shewed where works done by the helpe of Grace not by the meere strength of Nature . 2 And againe for the Assertion it selfe , namely [ He that fulfils the m●rrall Law by the helpe of Gods grace is iustified , by fauour not by debt ] we say t is ether a manifest falshood or at best , an ambiguous speech . For t is one thing to bestow Grace on a Man to fulfill the Law : and t is another thing to Iustifie him ; when he hath fulfilled the Law. If God should giue strength to a Man exactly to fulfill the Morral● Law that were indeed of his free fauour and grace : but when this man , that hath receaued this stre●gth shall come before God with the perfect Righteousnesse of the Law , pleading that in euery point he had done what was required God is bound in Iustice to pronounce him innocent , and of due Debt to bestow on him the wages of eternall Life . Adams case is not vnlike to such a Man. For God gaue Adam what strength he had : yet Adam fulfilling the Law by that strength , should haue merited Iustification and Life . Therefore when the Apostle speake 〈◊〉 all workes in the perfect fulfilling of the Law , he sai●h , that [ to him that worketh Wages is not counted by fauour but : but by debt : ] he speaketh exactly , and the Iesuits in excluding workes done by Grace comment absurdly . Thus much touching the third point concerning Mans Iustification by Faith alone : as also of the first generall Head promised in the Beginning . Namely , the condition required of vs vnto Iustification ( viz. ) Faith. SECT . 3. CHAP. I ▪ Of the righteousnesse whereby a man is iustified before God : that it is not his own inherent in himselfe : that in this life no 〈◊〉 hath perfection of holinesse inherent in him . I Proceede vnto the second Generall , of the Matter of our Iustification where we are to enquire what Righteousnesse it is , for which a Sinner is Iustified in Gods sight . Iustificat●on and Iustice a●e still coupled together ; and some Righteousnesse there must be , for which God pronounceth a Man Righteous : and for the sake whereof he for Gi●eth vnto him all his Sinnes . No● is a Sinner iust before God because Iustified : bu● hee is therfore Iustified because he is some way or other Iust. — The Righteousnesse for which a Man can be Iustified before God is of necessity one of these two . 1 Eyther inherent in his owne Person and done by himselfe . 2 Or inherent in the Person of Christ : but imputed vnto him . A Man is Iustified either by something in him and performed by him : or by some thing in another performed for him . The wisedome of Angels and Men hath not bin able to shew vnto vs any third Meanes . For whereas it is affirmed by some that God might haue reconciled Mankind vnto himselfe by a free and absolute parden of their Sins without the interuention of any such Righteousnesse , eithe● in themselues or in Christ whereby to procure it : to that we say That God hath seene it good in this matter rather to follow his owne most wise Counsailes ; then these Mens foolish Directions . T is to no purpose now to dispute what God might haue done , whether God by his absolute omnipotency could not haue freed Men from a Hell , by some other Meanes without taking satisfaction for Sinne from Christ : whether God ought not to haue the same priuiledge which we giue vnto any mortale King , freely to pardon a Rebell , and receaue him to fauour , without consideration of any goodnesse in him or satisfaction made by him , or ano● for him ? Or , whether Sinne doe make such a deepe wound in Gods Iustice and Honour , that he cannot with the safegard of either passe by it without amendes . Such question ▪ as these are vaine and curious prosecuted by idle and vnthinkfull ▪ Men , who not acknowledging the Riches of Gods 〈…〉 and grace in that course of their Redemption which god hath followed ; would accuse God of Indiscretion , for making much adoe about nothing , & teach him to haue go●e a more compendious way to worke , then by sending his owne sonne to 〈◊〉 for vs. 〈…〉 stand what God hath not tell him what he might or should haue done . According to which course of his now reuealed will we know that God hath declared his euerlasting hatred against Sinne ▪ as that thing which most directly and immediately opposeth the Holynesse of his Nature , and the Iustice of his Commandments . We know that for this hatred which God beareth to Sin , no sinfull creature can be able to stand in 〈…〉 And therefore before reconciliation it was needefull , Satisfaction should be made where offence had bin giuen . Which seeing man could not effect by himselfe ▪ God thought it good to prouide a Mediator , who should in make peace betweene both . So that what euer may be imagined of possibility of other meanes to bring man to Life : yet now wee know that sicioportuit , Thus Christ ought to suffer , Luc. 24. 26. and that it ( Behoued him to be like vs that being a Faithfull high Priest , he might make Reconciliation for our Sines . ) Heb. 2. 17. Leauing then this new way to Heauen neuer frequented , but by Imagination ; let vs follow the old wayes of Iustification that the Scriptures haue discouered vnto vs : which are two and no more . Either by our owne Righteousnesse and workes : or by the Righteousnesse & workes of another ( viz ) Christ. The former is that way whereby Man might haue obtayned Iustification and life , had hee not bin a Sinner . But now , Man , that is a Sinner , cannot be Iustified and saued : but onely in the later way ( viz. ) by the Righteousnesse of Christ the Mediator . This Duine trueth is of most infallible certainty and soueraigne consolation vnto the conscience of a Sinner : as shall appeare in the processe of our Discourse wherin we shall first remoue [ our owne Righteousnesse : that so in the second place we may [ establish the Righteousnesse of Christ ] as the onely Matter of our Iustification in Gods sight . By our owne Righteousnesse we vnderstand as the Apostle doth Rom. 10 ▪ [ The Righteousnesse of the Law or of workes ] which is twofold . 1. The fulfilling of the Law whether by the [ Habituall Holynesse of the Heart : or by the [ Actuall Iustice ] of good workes proceeding thence For the Law requires both , That the P●rson be Holy ▪ endued with all inward qualities of [ Purity and Iustice ] and that the workes be Holy being performed for Matter and all the Circumstances , according to the Commandment . 2 The satisfying for the Breach of the Law. For he that makes full satisfaction to the Law , which is broken , is afterward no debter to the Law : but to be accounted Iust and no Violater thereof : We must now enquire touching these two : whether a Man can be Iustified ▪ by his owne O-Obedience to the Morall Law ▪ Secondly , Whether he can be iustified by ▪ his owne Satisfaction for Transgression of the Morrall Law. Concerning which two Quaeres : we lay downe these two Conclusions which are to be made good . 1 No Man that is a Sinner is Iustified by ▪ his owne Obedience to the Morrall Law. 2 No Man is Iustified by his owne satisfaction for his Transgression . For the former . It is the Conclusion of the Apostle Rom. 3. 20. Therefore by the workes of the Law shall no flesh be Iustified in his sight ] which we proue by these Arguments . The first shall be that of the Apostle in the forenamed place which stands thus . Whosoeuer is a Transgressor of the Morall Law : he cannot be Iustifi●d by his Obedience thereto . But euery Man is a Transgressor of the Morall Law. ergo , No Man can be Iustified by his obedience thereto . The Maior is an vndeniable Principall in Reason . It being a thing Impossible that a party accused as an offender should be absolued and pronounced innocent by pleading Obedience to that Law which he hath plainely disobeyed . Wherefore the Apostle takes this Proposition for granted in these words of his [ For by the law commeth the Knowledge of Sinne ] v. 20. That which conuinceth vs to be sinners : by that t is impossible we should be declared to be righteous . that plea wilneuer quit vs ; which proues vs guilty . Yea t were not onely folly , but madnesse to alledge that for ones iust excuse which it selfe is his very fault whereof hee is accused . The Maior then is certaine . The minor is no lesse . ( viz. ) That euery man is a transgressor of the Morall Law ) If any Sonne of Adam will deny this , his owne conscience will giue his tongue the Lie : and the Scriptures will double it vpon him . Which hauing concluded [ a all vnder Sinne ] averre . That b [ If we ( an Apostle not excepted ) say We haue no sinne we deceaue our sel●es and the truth is not in vs. ] Yea ( If c we say we haue not sinned , we make God a her , and his word is not in vs ] The conclusion then is vnfallable ( That by the Obedience of the Morall Law , no Man shall be iustified ( that is ) quitted & pronounced innocent before Gods iudgment seate . ] This Aposticall argument vtterly ouerthrowes the pride of Man in seeking for Iustification by the Law : and it is of so cleare euidence , that the Aduersaries of this Doctrine cannot tell how to avoide it . But , for asmuch as many exceptions are taken , and shifts sought out , for the further manifestation of the force hereof against gainsayers of the truth : it will be requisite to examine there euasions . Which we shall doe in the next argument . Which is this . 2 Whosoeuer hauing once broken the Law & can neuer after perfectly fullfill it : he cannot be Iustified by his obedience thereto . But Man hauing once broken Gods Law can 〈◊〉 after that perfectly fullfill it . Ergo , Man cannot be Iustified by Obedience of the Law. The Maior of this Argument is framed vpon another ground then the former & opposed vnto that erronious tenent of our Aduersaries . [ That howsoeuer a man be a sinner against the Law , yet neurthelesse afterward be may be iustified by his obedience of the Law. Because God for the time following ▪ giues him grace perfectly to fulfill it . ] Which opinion is directly contrary to the reason of the Apostle which is : [ That once a sinner , and alwayes vncapable of Iustification by the Law : for how should the Law declare him innocent that hath , though but once transgressed against it . ] Hee that hath stollen in his youth , and euer after liued truly and iustly , can neuer quit himselfe in Iudgement from the guilt and punishment of thee very by pleading , he hath kept the Law in his latter Times . Obedience that followes after , iustifies not from the guilt that went before . As we shall see more ●ereafter in the point of Mans satisfaction . But let vs grant that the Law though once broken , yet afterwards fullfilled would Iustifie a Man : we here defend the Minor ( That Man hauing broken G●ds Law , can neuer after wards perfectly fullfill it ) and so by that meanes also he is excluded from Iustification by it . This Proposition the Romanists will not yeeld to , with out strong proofe : Let vs explaine it and confirme it . The Proposition may beset downe in these termes [ No Man whosoeuer can perfectly fullfill the Morall Law in this Life ] Man heare we consider in a two-fold estate of Nature of Grace . Touching man in the estate of nature , it is a greed on both sides that the keeping of the Law is vtterly and absolutely impossible vnto him . But concerning Man regenerate and iustified , they of Rome affirme he may keepe the Law : wee of the Reformation granting that absolutely it is not impossible ( for we will not say ; but God might if he saw good bestowne such perfection of grace vpon a Regenerate Man , that afterwards he should Liue without all 〈◊〉 , and be translated to Heauen without death ) yet , according to the order which God now holdeth in bringing Man to saluation ; we deny that there euer was or euer will be any Mortall Man that hath or shall perfectly fulfill the Righteousnesse of the Morall Law : This shall appeare vnto you , by parting the Righteousnesse of the Law into its branches , whereby you may see what it is to fullfill the Law , and how impossible it is so to doe . The Righteousnesse required by the Morall Law is of two sorts . 1 Habituall , in the inherent holinesse of Mans whole person , when such gratious Qualities are fixed and planted in euery faculty of soule and Body : as doe dispose and incline the Motions of both onely vnto that which is conformable to the Righteousnesse of the Law. That such Righteousnesse is required by the Law , is a plaine Case and confessed ; That which commands the good , or forbids the euill action ; doth command the vertuous and forbid the vitious Habit too . He that lookes for purity in the streame , cannot but dislike poyson in the Fountaine : and God that commands vs to doe good , bids vs also to be holy ; nor can wee doe the one , vnlesse we doe the other . And therefore the Apostle ioynes both together . [ The end of the Commandement is loue , ( but where ? ) out of a pure heart . ] 1 Tim. 1. 5. 2 Actuall , In the exercise of all good workes enioyned by the Law , and forbearing the contrary euill workes . Whether these good or euill workes be inward in that spirituall obedience which the Law required ; ( viz. ) in the right ordering of all the motions of our soules , that euery one of our Thoughts , Imaginations , Purposes of our minde , and all the secret workings and stirrings of our affections , be altogether employed vpon Piety and Charity , not so much as touching vpon any thing , that is contrary to the loue of God , or our neighbour . Or , whether these good and euill works be outward in the bodily obedience vnto the Law , in doing all and euery externall dutie of Religion towards God : of Iustice and Mercy towards man ; and in leauing vndone the contrary . Further this actuall righteousnesse of the Law is to bee considered two wayes : 1 As it respects all the Commandements , and so that righteousnesse is onely perfect , which fulfils all and euery particular precept of the Law. 2 As it respects any one Commandement , or any one dutie therein contained . And so we may call that righteousnesse perfect , which exactly performes any one point of the Law , though it faile in others . So you see what is to be done of him that will perfectly fulfill the Law : let vs now see whether any man can doe so , or no. We say no man can doe it ; and we make it good in the confirmation of these three Propositions . 1 No man in this life hath perfection of grace and holinesse inherent . 2 No man in this life can fully obserue all those good workes both inward and outward which the Law requires . 3 No man in this life can performe any one particular good worke so exactly , that in euery point it shall answer the rigor of the Law , and Gods seuere iudgement . For the first we proue it by this Argument ▪ Where sinfull corruption remaines in part , there in herent holinesse is not perfect . But in euery Man during this life there remaineth sinfull corruption . Ergo , In no man is there , during this life , perfect inherent holinesse . The maior is without exception . For he that is part bad and sinfull , t is not possible , he should be totally good and holy . The minor is most euident by Scriptures and each Mans experience and reason it selfe . Gal. 5. 17. The Apostle describes the Combat that is betweene the flesh and the spirit , ( that is ) betweene corruption and grace , in a man regenerate . [ The flesh lusteth against the spirit , and the spirit against the flesh : and these two are contrary one to the other , so that ye cann●t doe the same things that yee would . ] Who can say that holinesse is perfect in that mā , in whō corruption of Nature , not onely troubleth , but hindreth grace in its holy operation ? Shall we say this contention lasts but for a while after a man is newly regenerate : but in successe of time the Spirit gets an absolute victory , corruption being not only ouer-mastered ; but also annihilated ? If we say so , experience will accuse vs , & conscience will iudge vs to be Lyars Where is that man , and who is he named , that can say , he findes no rebellion or distemper in his affections or desires , no disorder in any motion of his soule : but that all within him is sweetly tuned vnto obedience , without iarre and discord arising from corruption ? Certainely that humble confession of a most holy Apostle , may cause blushing in any such proud Iustitiary ▪ Had Paul the body of sinne in him , and hast thou no●e ? He fights and wrestles , [ against the Law in his members , rebelling against the Law of his mind . ) yet he is so checkt and mated by it , that [ He can neither doe the good hee would , nor auoid the euill he would not , when he would doe well , euill is still present with him . ] And so tedious is this toyle vnto him ; that he complaines of it at the very heart , and cries out bitterly for helpe in this conflict . Whereupon though he haue helpe from God through Iesus Christ , yet hath hee not full deliuerance from this inherent corruption ; but is faine to conclude in this pittifull manner , [ So then I a my selfe in my minde serue the law of God : but in my flesh the law of sinne . ] Euen Paul serues God in the better halfe of him : doe what he can , sinne will haue a place in his heart , & a part of his seruice , though he be vnwilling to yeeld it . If any will compare and preferre himselfe to this holy man : he may prooue himselfe prouder , but better then him he cannot . T is arrogance for a simple Fryer to claime perfection , when so great an Apostle disauowes it . He that will not acknowledge that corruption in himselfe , which Paul ( in the name of all ) confesseth in his owne person ; t is not because such a one is more holy then the Apostle : but because he is ignorant , and sees it not ; or high-minded and scornes to be knowne of it . Furthermore , Reason confirmes what Scriptures and experience doe witnesse ; ( viz. ) that sinfull corruption will hang fast vpon vs vnto our dying day : for if we suppose an vtter abolishment of sinne and corruption in our Nature ; it must needes follow , there will neuer be any sinfulnesse at all in our workes and liues . Where the Habit is perfect , the Action is so too : and a sweet Fountaine cannot send forth bitter waters . Wherefore seeing not the best of men can liue without manifold actuall sinnes : It it apparent , that this ill fruit comes from a bad humour , in the tree , and this defect of actuall obedience , comes from the imperfection of habituall holinesse . This is sufficient for Iustification of the truth of our first Preposition [ That inherent holinesse in this life , is not perfect ; ] Because t is alwayes coupled with some sinfull corruption . But here our Adversaries cry out with open mouth , that we maintaine moastrous propositions . Namely b That there is n● inherent holinesse in a man that 's iustified , that after Iustification , a man still remaines a sianer and vniust . That in Iustification , sinne is not abolished , but onely couered with Christs mantle . Thence they fall to their Rhetoricke , That all Calvinists are but painted Sepulchers , faire without full of rottennesse within . Like foolish Virgins that haue no oyle of their owne : But thinke to be supplyed by that of other folkes . Like Wolues in a Lambes skinne , which hides , but takes not away their rauening and fierce nature . Like a leprous person in fine cloathes ; that lookes to be fauoured and imbraced by his King , because his is well apparelled . For this is ( say they ) to teach , That a Man iustified is yet a sinner in himselfe . That corruption , filthinesse , and vncleannesse remain in him , when yet in Gods sight he is accounted pure and cleane , because hee hath hid himselfe v●der the cloake of Christs righteousnesse . Whence also they tell vs it well follow , Wee make Christs body monstrous , a holy , beautifull head ioyned to filthy leprous members . Christs marriage polluted ; A most holy and faire Bridegroome coupled to a foule deformed Spouse . To this we say . Truth is modest ; yet shee will not bee out-faced with bigge words . Their eloquence hath slandered ; partly vs , partly the truth . Vs , in that they affirme we deny all inherent righteousnesse in a person iustified , which is an impudent calumny . The truth , in condemning that for an error which is sacred verity taught vs by God in the Scriptures , ( viz. ) That a person iustified , is yet after that in himselfe in part sinfull . This we still teach and maintaine for a truth , firme as the foundation of the earth , that cannot bee shaken , namely , That although a Iustified person is by the grace of the Holy Ghost dwelling in him made inherently holy : yet this sanctity is not that perfect purity of the heart , which the Law requires , because some degrees of impurity and corruption doe dwell in him till death . And therefore the most iustified person liuing , is yet in himselfe partly sinfull and vniust ; but the sinfulnesse is pardoned vnto him in CHRIST . Against this the R●manists contend , labouring to proue , that in him that is iustified . Sinne doth not remaine at all : but is vt●erly abol●shed . They proue it by such Arguments as these . 1 The Scriptures testifie , That Christ is the c Lambe of God , that taketh away the sinnes of the world . That Hee was d offered to take away the sinnes of many . That in Repentance , our sinnes are e blotted out . That God will subdue our iniquities and f cast our sinnes into the bottome of the Sea ; in allusion to the drowning of the Aegyptians in the red Sea. Wherefore if sinne be taken away , blotted out , drowned in the Sea , like the Aegyptians : then sure it is abolished , and remaines no longer . 2 They prooue it from the Properties which are ascribed to Sinne ; as namely these . 1 Sinne is compared to spotts , staines and filthynesse : but from thence we are washed by the powring on of ( cleane a water ) vpon vs ; and by the ( Blood of Christ. ) 2 Sinne is compared to Bonds , Fetters , & the Prison , whereby we are holden captiue vnder the power of Satan : Now Christ hath broken these Chaines and opened these prison doores , hauing ( deliuered us c from the power of darknesse ) and ( redeemed d us from all iniquity ) & ( made us free e from Sinne to be come the seruants of Righteousnesse . ) 3 Sinne is compared to sicknesses , diseases , & wounds . Now God is the best Phisition , the most skilfull Chirurgian : and where he vndertakes the Cure , he doth his worke throughly : he cures all diseases and each on perfectly . He doth not spread on a sick Man a faire Couerlid , or couer a festred wound with a faire cloth , as Caluin imagines : but by a purgatiue potion he expelles the disease , by a healing plaister he cures the wound . So that there is not left , nor corrupt matter , nor dangerous sore , that can proue deadly according to that Rom. 8. 1. ( There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus . ) that is . There is no matter at all for which they deserue Condemnation , as those expound . 4 Sinne is likned to death , nay it is the spirituall Death of the Soule . Now he that is iustified is restored to Spirituall Life , and where Life is there death is quite taken away , seing a Man cannot be aliue and dead both together . Wherefore the Apostle saith Rom. 6. 6. [ Our old Man is f crucified with him , that the Body of Sinne might be g destroyed , that hence forth We might not serue Sinne ) and v. 11. ( We are dead vnto Sinne. ) Hence they conclude . If the filthinesse of sinne be washed away , the Chaines of sinne broken , the Diseases and hurts of Sinne healed , the Death of Sinne abolished : then it followes , that Sinne is quite exstinguished , and remaines no more in those that are iustified . 3 They argue thus . If Sinne remaine in those that are iustified and be onely couered : then God either knowes of the sinne or knowes it not . To say he were ignorant of it were blasphemy ( all h things being naked and bare before his eyes . ) If he know it , then either he hates it or he hats it not . If he doth not hate it how doth the Scriptures say true that he is a ( God that hateth Iniquity . ) If he do hate it thē certainly he must punish it : God cannot see a fault and hate a fault but he must also punish it to . If he punish it , then he which is iustified shall yet be condemned which is absurd . Vnto these Arguments we answere . Vnto the two former thus . When we say Sin remaines in a Man regenerate and Iustified we must distinguish the ambiguity of the word Sin. In Sin , to vse that distinction which is authenticall with ou● Aduersaries ; There are three things . 1 The offence of God , which is the fault . 2 The obligation vnto eternall punishment , which is the guilt . 3 The staine or pollution of the soule , ( viz ) the inherent vitious inclination of it vnto euill . From whence the fault committed first issued , and which by committing of the fault is augmented . For euill once committed leaues a further pronnesse in the heart to doe it againe . This we call the corruption of Sinne. Thus then we answer . Sin doth not remaine in those that are iustified , & regenerate in the two first respects , viz. of the fault and the guilt , both which are takē away by the death of Christ. But Sin doth remain in the regenerate according to the 3 respect , ( viz. ) the vitious quality and corruption thereof , inherent in the soule : We shall explaine these answeres , and apply them to the Arguments . We say then ; That the fault & guilt of sinne in the regenerate , is vtterly abolished by the death of Christ. Which we doe not take in such a sense as this . That in a man regenerate there is not at all any one fault or guilt to be found , for to say that a man regenerate , when he sinnes , were neither faulty nor guilty , were a grosse vntruth , ● seeing t is impossible that man should sinne , yet God not be offended ; that man should sinne , and yet not be guilty , and deseruing eternall death . Wherefore we confesse that in the holiest of men , if they sinne , there 's a true fault , and God is displeased with it ; there is also true guilt , and for it they deserue to goe to Hell. But yet this truth also must be acknowledged withall , that all faultinesse and guiltinesse are quite abolished and taken away from them by Christ , because that both are pardoned vnto them . God is offended ; but yet they feele not the wofull effects of his indignation : because in Christ hee is graciously contented to be reconciled with them . Againe they haue deserued euerlasting death : but they come not to the paines thereof , because freed from the punishment by Christs satisfaction . Thus then we vnderstand the first part of the answere . That the fault and guilt of sinne is vtterly abolished , that is , totally pardoned vnto the Regenerate , by meanes of Christ , so that no finall eternall punishment shall befall them therefore . The other part . That Sinne ( in the uitious quality and corruption if it remaine in Men iustified ) we vnderstand with this necessary a Limitation , That it remaines in them not in its power and strength : but in its Being and Life . It hath vitam : but not Regnum . It reignes where there is no Grace at all : but it liues euen where Grace is . which though it mightily a bate to power of it : it cannot vtterly d●stroy its being . Hence now its easy to vnty the Arguments . Sinne is taken away , b●otted out , drowned in the bottome of the Sea , in regare of those mischieuous effects which sinne would haue brough on vs : God is reconciled , the obligation , to punishment cancelled ; and all the power , force , & strength of Sin defeated ; So that like the dead Egyptians they can no longer pursue the Israelites to annoy them , not shall stand vp as an aduersary in iudgment to condemne vs. The Guilt of Sinne is washed away totall by the blood of Christ : the filthynesse of corrupted Nature is in part by Degrees clensed by the Spirite of Christ powred on vs in his sanctifieing Grace . The Fetters and bonds of Sinne , whereby we were held in bondage vnder condemnation , these are quite broken asunder : but those chaines , whereby with Paul , Rom. 7 ( we are led captiue ) to disobedience are some broken , all weakened . We are freed from the power of Satan and feare of Hell : but not wholly freed from Sinne , whereby we are often captiues against our will. Sinne is a sicknesse , and God is the Phisitian ; a wound , and God is the Chirurgian , true : but the cures neither perectly , yet correct that word . He cures our sicknesse and sores perfectly : but not suddainely , where he begines the worke he will finish it : but he will not doe all in a day . The cure begins and goes onward to perfection during this life : but t is neuer finished till after death . He forgiues b all our iniquity and that 's done ●utirely and totally [ and healeth all our infirmities ] : but this is by degrees , not all at once . In which course God hath no cause to feare the censure of a Iesuite for vnskilfulnesse nor stands he in need of Mans counsaile , for prescription , nor Mans helpe to hold his hand in working , if the Cure goe on more slowly then our foolish hastinesse thinkes fit . That 's fit and best what God thinkes so : and if we count him faithfull and wise in his art ; t is our duty to take his aduice : but saucy persumption to giue him any . Lastly , where Sinne is said to be the ( Spirituall Death of the Soule ) and so Life being restored in Iustification Death must needes be quite abolished : the weaknesse of this Argument appeares streight , if the metaphoricall terme be changed in to proper . The death of Sinne is either the Separation of all grace from the Soule , or the Separation of Gods Fauour from the Soule . We are dead in trespasses and Sinnes both waies : In regard that in the state of vnregeneration the Soule is vtterly destitute of all Grace and goodnesse : and also be cause in that condition it is liable to eternall Death . Now the Death of Sinne that is eternall death in the perpetuall Losse of Gods fauour this is cleane taken a way from him that 's regenerate . Christ by his death hath purchased to him Life and immortality . But touching that other ; ( death ( that is ) the want of all inherent Grace in the Soule ) They say . That in Regeneration Grace and Holynesse is restored to the Soule , yet not so perfectly as to abolish euery degree of Sinnefull Corruption . Before Regeneration the Soule had no grace atall and so was vtterly dead but it followes not , That therefore in Regeneration , it hath all grace giuen it in all perfection , and so made perfectly aliue : what euer harshnesse there is in the Metaphore , the plaine termes in this case are smooth enough . A Man may be at once a liue and dead , that is , at once a Man may bee partly holy , and partly sinnefull . [ Our old Man is crucified with Christ vpon whose Crosse it receaued a deadly wound ; ( because Christ by his sacrifice hath procured the sending of the Holy ghost into the hearts of the Elect ; who by sanctifying them , abolished their naturall corruptions by degrees . [ That so the body of sinne might be destroyed . ] that is , not presently annihilated : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made of no force and strength , made vnable to worke strongly in vs. [ That henceforth we might not serue sinne . ] Though alwayes we should haue sinne in vs. So are we [ dead to sinne ] not as if sinne were vtterly dead in vs ; or had no more working in vs , then it hath in a dead carcase : but because the guilt of sinne is fully taken away , and the power of sinne hat● receiued a deadly wound , doth bleed out some of its life now , and shall infall●bly bleed out the last drop of its life hereafter . Vnto the third Argument , we answere thus , That the Hornes of those Dilemma's be made of wood , and may be easily battered . We say then that God sees and knowes the sinfull corruption which is in the regenerate ; for wee cannot assent vnto that wilde and franticke imagination of some ; who haue troubled the quiet of some places in this Land , by preaching that God doth not , nay cannot see any iniquity or matter of blame , in those that be in Christ Iesus . We beleeue that nothing is hid from his eyes : nor be our sins lesse visible to him then our graces . God knowes what sinnes his children commit , he iudgeth them to be faults , and such as deserue his infinite wrath . Yea , to goe further , as hee sees the sinne of the regenerate : so he hates it with a perfect hatred ; it being impossible , that his pure eyes should behold impurity and loue it . But now what followes hence ? If he see it and hate it , then he cannot but punish it . True , that consequence is certaine . But what 's next ? If God punish that sinne which is in the Regenerate how then is their sinne couered and their iniquities forgiuen ? How doth hee account them Iust , whom he knoweth and punisheth for vniust ? Here 's a Sophisme . He sees sinne , and hates sinne , and punisheth sinne of the Regenerate : Therefore he punisheth it in , and vpon their owne persons . That 's a non sequitur . Hee punisheth it , but t is in the person of Christ [ who hath troden the Winepresse , ] of the fierce wrath of God conceiued against all sinfulnesse whatsoeuer in his Elect : by which meanes his hatred towards the sinne of the Regenerate , is fully satisfied , and also his loue towards their persons procured . He graciously passeth by their iniquity , pardoning vnto them what he hates , and hath punished in Christ : in which respect he may be truly said not to see that sinne in them which he will neuer punish in them , and to couer that sinne which shall neuer bee layed open in iudgement against them . CHAP. II. No man can perfectly fulfill the Law in performing all such workes , both inward and outward , as each commandement requires , against which truth Popish Obiections are answered . ANd thus much touching the first Proposition and the first point wherein Man fals short of his obedience to the Morall Law , ( viz. ) in the imperfection of habituall inherent holinesse . We goe on vnto the next Proposition , touching Mans actuall Obedience vnto the whole Law. Where we teach , That no man can perfectly obey the Law in performing all such workes , both inward and outward , as each commandement requires . A man would thinke this point needed no other proofe but onely experience . In all the Catalogue of the Saints , can you pricke out one that after regeneration , neuer committed sinne against the Law ? We shall kisse the ground he treads on , if we know where that man haunts , who can assure vs that since his conuersion he neuer brake the Law. Shall we finde this perfection in a Monkes Cell , or in a Hermits Lodge , an Anachorites Mue , vnder a Cardinals Hat , or in the Popes Chaire ? All these are Cages of vncleannesse , not Temples wherein dwells vndefiled Sanctity . Neuer to sinne ; that 's a happinesse of Saints and Angels , with whom we shall hereafter enioy it : but whilst w●e are mortall we can but wish for it . [ Thy Law , ( saith Dauid ) is exceeding large . ] It compriseth in it not a few , but many and manifold duties . Good workes are by a kind of Popish Soloecisme brought to a short summe Prayer , Fasting , and Almes-deedes . These are eminent among the rest : but not the hundreth part of the whole number . There is besides a world of duties enioyned , and as many sinnes forb●dden : each Commandement hath it seuerall Rankes , euery duty its manifold Circumstances ; to reckon vp all , were a businesse which the wit of the subtilest Iesuite , or the profoundest Diu●ne could hardly master . To performe them is a taske , which is beyond the strength of the holiest Man , who in finding it a great difficulty to doe any one well , would forthwith iudge the performance of so many an impossibility . But if this suffice not ; we haue expresse Scriptures to proue that no man doth actually obey the Law in all points . Such places are these : ( 1 ) 1 Kings 8. 46. There is no man that sinneth not . ( 2 ) Eccles. 7. 20. For there is not a iust man vpon ea●th that doeth good and sinneth not . ( 3 ) Iames 3. 2. In many things we offend all . ( 4 ) 1 Iohn 1. 8. If we say that we haue no sinne , we deceiue our selues , and the truth is not in vs. Whence we conclude , that [ de facto ] neuer any man did keepe the Law : but brake it in some , yea , in many things . And therefore we say that the dispute of our Aduersaries , touching the possibility of keeping the Law , vanishes to nothing . For seeing no man hath , or will euer actually keep it ( as the Scriptures witnesse ) to what end serues all the quarrelling a●d dispute about the possibility of keeping it . No man shall be iustified by the Law , because he hath a power to keepe it if he list : but because he hath actually kept it . Whence it is manifest that the reply of our Aduersaries is ridiculous . No man indeed doth keepe it : but yet they may if they will. For 1. what is that to Iustification ? Can a man that 's regenerate be iustified by his obedience of the Law , when yet after his regeneration hee doth not keepe it ? 2. And againe . How know these men that there was , or is , such a power in the Saints to keepe the Law , when yet the world neuer saw it brought into Act ? Is it not more probable that what neuer was nor will be done , neuer could nor can be done ? Were they all idle , and did not doe their best endeauour ? T is true , none doth so much good as hee should and might ; but yet t is a sharpe censure to say that none would put themselues forward to the vtmost of their might . What shall be said of Saint Paul , ( Phil. 3. 12. ) He confesseth that himselfe was not yet perfect : but that he sought after it . How ? negligently ? No , with great diligence and intention . He followed after . [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] v. 12. and that eagerly , Reaching forth to catch the things that were b●fore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , v. 13. And pressing towards the marke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , v. 14. Here was diligence , and we cannot say that Saint Paul did not doe his best . Did Paul then fulfill the Law ? It seemeth so , for here we see he was willing , and in another place Bellarmine tels vs he was able , for so we haue it , Paul. 4. 13. I can doe all things through Christ that strengtheneth me : that is , fulfill the Morall Law by the grace of Christ. Now if hee were willing and able , then certainly he kept it . Nay t is certaine he did not keepe it . Witnesse the Testimony of himselfe . I doe not the good things which I would : but the euill which I would not , that doe I Rom. 7. 19. Where is the fault then ? In the Apostles will ? No , T is plai●e he would haue done it . Wast then in his ability ? Yea , this was it . to will was present with him : but he found no meanes to performe that which is good verse 8. The Iesuite then abuseth vs with a false exposition of of that place to the Philippians interpreting it of the Apostles ability to performe the morall Law , which himselfe meant concerning that strength where with Christ enabled him vnto contentation and patience in all conditions whatsoeuer . Paul was able to beare all afflictions patiently , to vse prosperity soberly : but to fullfill the Law in all things perfectly he was not able . And if he were not , who is ? We conclude that the actuall Obedience of the morall Law in fulfilling all the commandements exactly , is impossible to a regenerate Man in this Life . Let vs now take a short survey of our Aduersaries Arguments whereby they would proue That actuall obedience to the whole Law is not onely possible : but allso very easy to the regenerate and Iustified . They are those . ● That burden which is light may be carried without shrinking vnder it , that yoake which is easy , is worne without paine ; those commandments which are not burdensome , may be obserued without difficulty . But such is the morall Law. [ My yoake is easy and my burden light ] Mat. 11. 30. [ This is the loue of God that ye keepe his cammandments , and his commandments are not c grieuous . ] 1 Iohn 5. 3. Ergo , The Morall Law may be easily obserued . To this we answere , That the place of Matthew is to be vnderstood not of the Morall Law : but of the yoake and burden of the crosse and afflictions which euery one must beare , that will follow Christ and obey the Gospell . To those that are wearied and laden with the Crosse , Christs speakes by way of Consolation , telling them whether to resort for helpe . ( Come to me and I will giue you rest ) that is comfort and deliuerance . 2 Then he perswades them to patience vnder their affliction . ( Take vp my yoake vpon you ) and beare it chearefully , which is persuasion he strength theus with three arguments . 1 From his owne example . ( Learne of me ) to doe and suffer as I doe , enduring so many persecutions and afflictions with all meeknesse and patience . For I am meek and lowly in heart , quietly bearing all wrongs and indignities from man without murmuring against God , repining against man , seeking revenge at their hands that haue vniustly persecuted mee . 2 From the successe of this patient enduring according to CHRISTS example . And ye shall find rest vnto your soules ; comfort in affliction , seasonable deliu●rance from affliction . 3 From the Nature of such crosses . For my yoake is easie , &c. Though they be yoakes and burdens which for the present seeme grieuous : yet they be easie , they be light , because Christs yoake and Christs burden which he layes on all his true Disciples that follow him , and which hee will giue them strength to support and beare out with cheerefulnesse . This seemes the most naturall interpretation of this place , & it is most agreeable to the twelfth Chapter to the Hebrewes . Where the like Arguments are vsed to comfort the godly in such afflictions , as follow the profession of the Gospell . But yet if we vnderstand it of the yoake and burden of the Law : We answere to it , and that place in Iohn , That the Commandements of God are not grievous to the Regenerate ; not because they can perfectly and easily fulfill them : but because that which made them intollerable and vnsupportable vnto them , is now taken away . What 's that ? The rigor of the Law in requiring of euery man exact obedience , vnder paine of the curse of eternall death . Here was the vneasinesse of the yoake which punched man in his sinfull state ; this was the wai●ht of the burthen , vnder which euery man out of Christ must needes be crushed and sinke downe to Hell. Now Christ hauing fulfilled the Law , and satisfied for all our trangressions thereof , hath made this yoake easie for the neckes , and this burthen light vpon the shoulders of the Regenerate ; because though they be tyed to obey ; yet not vpon those seuere tearmes of being eternally accursed , if they at any time disobey . Now they are assured their hearty obedience shall be accepted , so farre as they are able to performe it ; and where they faile they shall be mercifully pardoned . Which is a singular encouragement of a Christian heart , to shew all willing and cheerefull endeauour in obeying Gods Commandements , whereby he may giue good proofe of his vnfained loue vnto God himselfe . Againe we answere that his vneasinesse and burdensomenesse of the morall Law , is to be taken in regard of the Enmity and opposition which a carnall man beares vnto the obedience thereof . Vnto a naturall man it is the greatest toyle and wearisomnesse in the world , for him to be made to draw in this yoake . For him to bridle his desires : to checke his disordered affections ; to restraine himselfe of his pleasures ; to be tyed to the exercises of Religion ; to haue a lawlesse minde brought in subiection to a strict Law : Oh what a wearinesse is it , how he snuffes at it ? Hee chafes and sweats vnder such a burden , more then vnder the waight of ten talents of Lead . But now vnto a heart sanctified by grace , all such obedience becomes sweet , pleasant , and delightfull . The heart now loues the holinesse of the Law ; it b delighteth in the Law ; takes contentment in c the obedience of it , and is full of singular affection and desire after it . Whence , though it faile in many things through manifold infirmities and temptations : yet it ceaseth not in a willing , constant , and cheerefull endeauour to performe all . Grace fighteth with may difficulties , and in the combate takes many a foyle : but yet at last the victory falls on her side . For ( saith Saint Iohn , ) d He that is borne of God ouercommeth the world . So that The lust of the eyes , the lust of the flesh , and the pride of life ; which he vnderstands by the world , ( 1 Iohn 3. 16. ) preuaile not against him , to turne him away from the holy Commandement giuen vnto him . But he still obeyes cheerefully and syncerely ; though not euery way perfectly . This of the first Argument . The second is this . 2 If the hardest precepts of the Law may be kept ; then much more all the rest which are easier . But the hardest precepts may be obserued , — Ergo , the rest also . They proue the minor thus . Three precepts there are , which are most hard as all confesse . 1 Thou shalt loue the Lord with all thy heart . 2 Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe . 3 Thou shalt not couet — The tenth Commandement . But now all these three commandements may be kept by the Regenerate . Ergo the rest ; and so the whole Law. Wee deny the minor of the Prosyllogisme ; and say that those three precepts are not to be kept perfectly by any man in this life . They proue it in each particular . 1 That a man in this life may loue God with all his heart . This they prooue . ● By Scripture . Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart , and the heart of thy seed , to loue the Lord thy God with all thy heart , and with all thy soule , that thou mayest liue . This is a praediction or promise of that which was heretofore , and is still accomplished in the regenerate , who being sanctified and purified from sinne ( a worke of Gods Spirit in the heart figured by externall circumcision of the flesh ) should loue God with all their hearts . 2 By example of Dauid , who saith of himselfe , Psal. 1 9. 10. With my whole heart haue I sought thee ; and God also testifies of him : That he kept his commandements , and followed him with all his heart , to doe that onely which was righteous in his eyes , 1 Kings 14. 8. The like is recorded of Iosiah , 2 Kings 23. 25. And like vnto him was there no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart , and with all his soule , and with all his might , according to all the Law of Moses : neither after him arose any like him . These men then loued God with all their hearts . 3 By reason ; For to loue God with all the heart , carries one of these three senses . First , to loue him onely , and nothing else , and so wee are not commanded to loue God with all our heart , because we must loue our neighbour too . 2 To loue him tanto conatu , quanto fieri potest ; ( that is ) as much as may be . Nor is this commanded ( saith Becanus ) and yet if it were , who would say t were impossible to loue God as much as one can . 3 To loue God aboue all ( that is ) to preferre him before all creatures , before father and mother , as Christ did , Mat. 10. 37. and as Abraham did ; before his onely Sonne . Now this onely is to loue God with all the heart , and this , men may doe , as appeareth in the Martyres and others , who left all for Gods loue . Vnto these Arguments we answere . That it is not so easie a matter to loue God , with all the heart : as these imagine . a Bellarmine indeed makes a ( But ) at it . There is nothing required ( saith he ) of vs : But to loue God with all the Heart . As if it were as easily done , as spoken . But wee beleeue that in this ( But ) God hath set vp a white , which all the men in the world , may and must aime at : but none will shoot so steadily as to hit it . Vnto the place of Deuteronomy , we say . God therein tels vs what his gracious worke is in circumcising , or sanctifying our hearts , & what our bounden duty is thereupon ( viz. ) to loue him with all our hearts : the performance whereof wee must endeauour syncerely , chough we cannot doe it perfectly . For the examples of Dauid and Iosiah , who are said to follow the Lord with all their heart ; there is nothing else meant thereby : but a syncere intent and endeauour in the generall to establish and maintaine Gods pure Religion in their Kingdome free from corruption of Idolatry ; as also for their owne particular conversation to liue vnblameably . For Dauid , t is a cleare case that not perfection ; but syncerity is his commendations ; whose many sinnes recorded in the Scriptures witnesse sufficiently that hee had in his heart that corruption which many times turned the loue thereof from God to other things . How did he loue God with all his heart when hee defiled Vriahs bed , shed Vriahs blood , intended to murder Nabal , iudg'd away an honest mans Lands to a fawning Sycophant , with such other faults . The Prophet himselfe in that place in 119. Psal. witnesseth ; as the vprightnesse of his heart , [ With my whole heart haue I sought thee : ] so withall , the weaknesse and corruption of it ; against which he humblie craues Gods assistance in the very next words , [ Let me not wander from thy commandements . ] For Iosiah : t is plaine that this singular commendations is giuen him , because of his through reformations of the most corrupt estate of Religion , which was before his reigne . Wherein many Godly Kings before him had done something in redressing some abuses : but none went so farre in a zealous reformation of all , according to Moses Law. Wherefore the Text saith , that there was no King before him like vnto him , which cannot be meant absolutely of all , ( for Dauid is said to follow Gods will with all his heart ; as well as Iosiah : ) but since the time that Religion began to bee corrupted in the Iewish Church , there was none of all the Kings of Iudah , that was so faithfull as Iosiah , to restore all things to their first purity . Whence he hath the praise , that he turned vnto God more entirely , then any other King before or after him . But now from Iosiahs zeale in reformation to conclude , that in euery particular of his life he kept the Law perfectly , louing God with all his heart ; is a consequence , that wants strength of connexion . Vnto the reason from the meaning of the Law , we grant . That the first is not the meaning of it . But for the second , ( viz. ) That to loue God with all the heart , is to loue him as much as may be . The Iesuite hath no reason either to deny , that this is not commaunded ; or to affirme that if it were commanded , t is yet possible to doe it . Would any man say ; except he care not what he say , that God doth not command vs to loue him as much as may be ? Or will it bee a truth from any mans tongue , to say , that he loues God with as great perfection as may be ? It cannot . Which appeares thus . Gods will is , that we should loue him with all our hearts . Now Christ hath taught vs to pray . Thy will bee done in earth as it is in Heauen . Thence t is euident , Wee on Earth are bound to fulfill the Commandement of louing God : as the Saints in Heauen doe fulfill it . But now our Aduersaries themselues grant , that whil'st wee bee [ in viâ ] wee cannot loue God so much as we shall d ee [ in Patriâ ] Whence it followes , that no man can loue him so much as may be , and as he ought to doe : seeing no man hath his heart replenished with that measure of Diuine loue , whereof his Nature is capable , which either Adam had in his inoncency ; or the Saints haue in glory . Touching the third sense of the words , we grant indeed ; that to Loue God with all the heart , is to loue him super omnia , that is aboue all Creatures . But the Iesuites take here but one part of true loue of God. T is a singular part of Diuine loue , when the heart is so fixed on God : that neither the loue nor feare of any earthly thing can draw it from obeying of God. Which we say , is a matter wherein euery one failes in some kinde or other , more or lesse , though in the end may Martyrs and other holy men , haue herein by faith ouercome the world . But this is not enough vnto perfect loue , to preferre God before all Temporall paines and pleasures , profits or discommodities . He loues God with all his heart , not onely who loues him aboue all , but also obeies God in all . This is the loue of God , that we keepe his Commandements . He that for Gods loue will not obey Gods Law : he loues his sinnes more then God. Offend but in the least thing , there 's presently want of loue : for hee that will not doe as God bids him then , is voyde of that loue which moues him to obey at other times . He then that keepeth Gods word , in him is the loue of God perfect indeed . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 1 Iohn 2. 5. Perfect obedience and perfect loue are inseparable . Now seeing the former cannot be found in mortall men : we cannot in them seeke for the latter . And therefore this Commandement [ Loue God aboue all things ] cannot be kept in this life . 2 That a man may loue his neighbour as himselfe . For which purpose they turne vs vnto Rom. 13. 8. Hee that loueth another hath fulfilled the Law. Because the Law is comprehended in this saying , Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe , v. 9. and loue doth not euill to his neighbour : therefore is loue the fulfilling of the Law , vers . 10. And they bid vs looke Gal. 5. 14. Where we reade , For all the Law is fulfilled in one Word : Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thyselfe . Hereto we answere . That there 's in these places , nothing that needs answering . We grant , that the loue of our neighbour as of our selues , is the fulfilling of the Law ; that is , of the second Table of the Law , touching our duty vnto man , and so much these places witnesse , commanding vs also so to doe . But now how doe our Aduersaries prooue out of these places , that men can perfectly ob●serue this Law. We yeeld the Regenerate loue their neighboars as themselues : but that perfection of loue , which in euery point fulfils the Law , doing our neighbour no hurt , but all good , in all our thoughts words and deeds ; this we cannot grant them , vnlesse vpon better proofes . Let vs goe to the tenth Commandement , which they say may be kept , that is , 3 Thou shalt not couet . This tenth Commandement of the Decalogue , is ( say they ) possible to be fulfilled by a Regenerate man. For three things must be obserued , touching this concupiscence or coueting forbidden in the tenth Commandement . 1 The vitious pro●enesse and inclination of Nature vnto baddesires , which is styled concupiscence in actu primo . As to haue a theeuish minde . 2 The inordinate motions of the heart immediately arising from that corrupt disposition , which preuent reason , and goe before consent ; as to desire another mans money : but sodenly vanisheth of it selfe , or vpon deliberation t is checkt . 3 The consent of the will , when either it takes 〈◊〉 mediate delight in such desires themselues ; as speculatiue f●rnication &c. or when it resolues to put in execution what the heart imagined ; as to lay a plot to spoyle another of his goods . The two former , the vitious disposition of Nature , and the inordinate desires that goe before consent : these be no sinnes ( say the Romanists ) and so not forbidden in the tenne Commandements . The last ( viz. ) Euill desires with consent , they be the very sins which are forbidden in that Commandement ; Whence they conclude that a Regenerate man may auoid the breach of this commandment ; seeing it is in the power of his will , whether he will consent vnto such motions of the heart or no : and if he doe not consent : then , hee sinnes not . Herevnto wee answere . That whereas they of Rome teach , that the Habituall vitiousnesse of Nature and the disorderly motions of the Heart which goe before Consent , are no Sinnes : they therein erre grossily against Scriptures and sound Reason . This the gift of these Men alwayes to iudge flatteringly and fauourably on Natures side : they concipt to themselues a God in Heauen like their God in Rome , Facilem Deum , one that will wincke at small faults , and graunt Indulgence by the Dozen . Looke what they iudge a small Matter God must be of there mind : or else they are not pleased . His Loue must fit there Humors ; what they thinke they can doe ; that God shall haue leaue to command or forbid : but if otherwise they 'le tell him to his face , that he is a foole ct a Tyrant , to command them that , which now they cannot performe . For God ( say they ) to require of a Man a freedome from all vitious Inclinations and euill desires , this were as mad an injunction , as for a master to command his seruant neuer to be hungry , or thirsty , hot or cold , and to threaten him , that hee should looke through a halter , in case it bee otherwise with him . This errour wee shall more conueniently speake of in the refutation of common and generall exceptions , which they make against all those proofes , that doe demonstrate the impossibility of keeping the Law , whereof this is one , that Concupiscence in the first and second act is not Sinne. But now whereas they affirme that it is in a Regenerate Mans power not to yeeld consent to the motions of Sin , and that therefore he may fulfill the Law which sayed ( thou shalt not lust : ) we graunt them that the Spirit may many times get the victory , ouermastring such vuruly motions of the heart : but this is not perpetuall . For who is there ( except extreamely ignorant of Grace and Nature ) but will confesse that many times these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , affections of Sinne ] as the Apostle cals them , do work in them so strongly , vpon such circumstances and aduantages ; that they doe not only [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , combate and fight ] against the powers of grace : but also [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vanquish them ] and euen leade a Man regenerate captiue vnto the Law or command of sinne . The Apostle confesseth so much of himselfe Rom. 7. 23. Who yet was able to doe as much as he that thinkes himselfe best . And therefore what euer power we may seeme to haue not to yeeld consent : yet 't is certaine that we shall often faile in in our practise . This of the second Argument touching the obseruation of the obseruation of the hardest precepts of the Law : The third followes . 3 If a Man may doe more then the Law requires : he may certainely doe as much . But a Man may doe more then the Law requires . Ergo He may doe as much . The minor Bellarmine proues by the example of the young Man Mat : 〈◊〉 9. who telling Christ that he had obserued all the commandements and that from his youth ; our Sauiour bids him doe one thing more and then he should be perfect . [ If thou wilt be perfect , go sell that thou hast and giue to the poore and follow me . ] ver . 20. Now if the young Man had done this , he had done more then the Law required . In as much as whatsoeuer the Law required he had obserued formerly . For do you not beleeue him that he spake true ? [ All these things haue I obserued from my youth ] verse 9. Whereto we answere . That we doe not beleeue the Testimony of that vaine young Man touching his owne Righteousnesse . Who boosted of keeping the 2. Table in the outward duties thereof : when as yet he wanted inward Charitie towards his Neighbuor and Loue towards God. He auou●hed that he had kept all perfectly fulfilling that commandment [ Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe : ] and there vpon is so bould as to aske Christ. what lacke I yet ; Christ to conuince him of his pride and wants , put him to the Triall . If thou hast such perfect Charity towards Man ; then certainely if God command thee to bestow , that a part , but all thy goods vpon the poore , vpon promise of better things to thy selfe : thy duty vnto God and singular Charity to Men , will make thee doe so . [ Goe then sell all that thou hast and giue a to the poore . ] Vpon this speciall Commandment , this couetous mind shews it selfe . Nay , 't is plaine he loued not his Neighbour , so well as his riches . He is neither so dutifull to God ; nor charitable to the poore : as for either of their sakes , to part with his possessions . But , might he say , what ? will not ordinary almes , or a little more then ordinary serue the turne ? Must I giue away all . Ind●ede the Law requires that I be mercifull to the poore : but where 's any Law that bids me sell my whole estate and distribute to them that want ? Christ layes an vnnecessary burden vpon me ; if I cannot be perfect without vndo●ing my selfe , I will content my selfe as I am , and not seke after such perfection . Heere a Papist will say he speake reason , seeing Christs speech was but acounsaile of more perfection , then the Law required . Now a Man is not to be blamed if he chuse only to be as perfect as the Law commands him , and so this young man was : if you 'le beleeue him or them . But the Scripture makes it plaine that he did euill in disobeying Christ ; and , that if he had obeyed him in that particular , he had done no more then the Law required at his hands . For obedience to euery speciall Commandment is included in the generall . The Law indefinitely commands vs to giue almes : now if God by a speciall commandment limite how much we shall giue ; whether halfe , or all our Estates , to obey such a perticular precept is not to do more then the generall Law requires vs. Such a particular Commandment was this of Christ vnto the young Man , wherein he sets him a spell , according to that conceit of perfection which he had of himselfe : putting him to the practise of the highest duty which the Law of Liberality can possible require of a Man ( viz. ) to part with all . This he ought to haue done vpon Christs particular commandment ; in not doing of it he brake the Law , and proclaimed his heart to be full of couetousnesse , deuoide of faith in God ; and true Charity towards his Neighbour . From this place then our aduersaries cannot proue , that this young Man might haue doen more then the Law required : or that wee are bound at any time to doe as Christ bid him . Christs command was for his particular Triall : not for our Imitation . They that take it otherwise be a generation of men that professe Beggery ; and possesse Kingdomes , who were willing enough to part with that little they had of there owne , that so they may liue the more Largely and plentifully vpon other Mens . Wee goe forward to the next argument . 4 If the Law were impossible to be kept it were no Law : for there is no Law of things impossible . Yea God were more cruel and foolish then any Tyrant , too command vs to doe that which is impossible for vs to doe . To this wee answere , That the consequences were true if God had giuen a Law which Men neuer had strength to performe . But now the Law written in tables on Mount Sina , was but a reuiuing and repetion of the same Law , which was written in Adams heart ; the Characters whereof were now defaced in his sinnefull Posterity . Adam had strength sufficient to fulfill it : which as he receaued for himselfe and vs ; so he lost it for both . Neuerthelesse though Strength to obey be lost : yet the obligation to Obedience remaines . We are no more discharged of our duties , because we haue no strength to doe it : then a debter is quitted of his Bands because he wants money to make payment . Nor is this cruelty or folly in God , that when he published this Law vnto the Isralites , he did not qualifie the exactnesse thereof , fitting the precepts to there abilities , commanding thē to do iust as much as they could or would do . Had God made a Law in that sort in fauour of mans sinfull nature : they might with better reason haue layd folly to his charge , for bending the rule to the crokednesse of mans heart ; and not leuelling it according to the streightnesse of the Rule . God was to set forth a Law of Liberty , that should not flatter but freely rebuke Man of all vnrighteousnesse ; a a perfect , Law containing in it a full description of Holynesse and Iustice , which Man ought to haue and performe towards God and his Neighbour : & in this case God had iust reason to haue respect vnto mans duty ; not his ability , which once he had ; but now had forfited and lost . The next Argument is . 5 Euery Prayer made in Faith according to Gods will is heard and granted . But we pray that we may fulfill the Law perfectly . ( For we pray that we may doe Gods will in Earth , as it is in Heauen . ) Ergo God heares vs , and giues vs such grace that we can doci . Hereto we answere . That this prayer shewes vs what we are bound too ; and what is our duty continually to endeuour . That we may doe Gods will euery day more perfectly , cheerefully and constantly , then other . And so farre God heares the faithfull prayers of his louing children , enabling them to better performance , the longer they liue . But that such perfection of Obedience is giuen to vs in this life ; as the Saints enioy in Heauen , will not be graunted by our Aduersaries themselues . Wherefore they must also grant that that Prayer is heard and granted vs by degrees . In this Life we attaine such perfection as God sees fit for vs : afterwards , that which is compleate . 6 They proue by these Scriptures , that the Law may be fulfilled . Gal 5. The apostle reckons vp the fruits of the spirit . Loue , ioy , Peace &c. then he sayth ver . 23. that against such there is no Law. [ That is ( sayeth Bellarmine ) the Law cannot accuse such men of Sinne. So 1 Iohn . 3. 9. [ Whosoeuer is borne of God , doth not commit Sinne , for his seede remayneth in him ; and he cannot Sinne because he is borne of God. ] Ergo , the regenerate cannot so much as breake the Law. We answere . That both these places are peruerted by false Interpretations . Against a such there is no Law sayth the Apostle . Against what ? such persons , or such graces ? If it be meant of Persons , ( viz. ) That such as haue the Spirit , and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit there mentioned against those there is no Law : we must take it in the Apostles owne meaning , which hee expresseth . verse 18. [ If yee he led by the spirit ye are not vnder Law ] How is that ? Are not the Regenerate vnder the Law , that is vnder the Obedience of the Law ? Yes , wee graunt on both sides that Grace frees vs not from subiection and obedience vnto Gods Law. How then are they not vnder the Law. T is plaine . They are not vnder the Curse and Condemnation of the Law , as those be that walke in the flesh and doe the workes thereof , who therefore [ shall not inherit the Kingdome of God ] v , 19. and that 's to be accursed . But such as walke in the Spirit being regenerate and Iustified , are not vnder the Curse : and therefore though the Law may and doth accuse them of Sinne : yet the Law is not so against them , as to bring condemnation vpon them ( as it doth vpon other ) from which in Christ they are freed . If the clause be vnder stood of the Graces of the Spirit , there reckoned vp the sense is this . Against such workes there is no Law forbidding them , as there is against works of the flesh : these agreeable , those contrary to the law . But this makes nothing to our Adversaries purpose . For the place in Iohn [ He that is borne of God doth not commit Sinne yea cannot . ] If our Aduersaries exposition according to the very Letter may stand good it will ●ollow . That in the regenerate there is not onely a possibility to keepe the Law : but also an impossibility at any time to breake it . But they easily see how absurd this position is , and that it being graunted their doctrine of falling away from Grace lies flat in the dust ; seeing Iohn sayeth expresly . That a man regenerate , not onely , doth not , but cannot Sinne. Therefore certainely he cannot fall from Grace . Wherefore they helpe it out with a distinction . Hee cannot sinne , that is , mortally . He may sinne , that is , venially , and veniall sinnes may stand with grace and with perfect Obedience of the Law. This distinction is one of the rotten pillars of the Romish Church ; tw'ill come in fit place to be examined hereafter : for the present , we say , Hee that Sinnes venially ( as they mince it . ) breakes the Law ; and againe a Man Regenerate may sinne mortally ; which is true not onely according to there doctrine who teach that a Man may fall from the Grace of Regeneration which to doe is a mortall Sinne : but much more according to the Scriptures and Experience which witnesse that Peter , Dauid , Solomon , and Many , yea all the Saints , haue at sometime or other there greivous falls ; out of which notwithstanding , by the Grace of the Holy Ghost , abiding in them they recouer themselues so that finally they fall not a way . The last Argument is from the examples of such men as haue fulfilled the Law. 7 The Scriptures record that diuers men haue beene perfect in fulfilling the law in all things : 〈◊〉 b Abraham , c Noah , d Dauid , e Iosiah , f Asa , g Zacharie and Elizabeth , the h Apostles , and other i holy Men. Therefore the Law is at least possible to bee kept by some . Not to stand in particular examination of all the places of Scripture , which are alleadged for proofe of these examples ; we answer briefly . That it is euery mās duty to aime at perfection in his obedience , according to Christs Commandement , Mat. 5. 48. Be ye therfore perfect , euen as your Father in Heauen is perfect . 2 That in this life there are many degrees of grace , which God bestowes diuersly on diuers men , according to his owne pleasure , and their greater or lesse diligence in the practise of Holinesse . So that comparatiuely some men may be said to be perfect , because farre more perfect then others , as the greatest starres bee said to be of perfect light , because they shine brighter then those of lesser Magnitude , though yet not so bright as the Sunne . But 3. we affirme that no man in this endeauour after perfection , goes so farre , as for inward Holinesse and outward obedience to answere the perfection of the Law in all points . Euen in these holy Saints which they bring for instance , the Scriptures haue recorded vnto vs their failings , that in them at once we may see a patterne of Holinesse to be imitated , and an example of humane Infirmity , to be admonished by wee haue a Abraham , somtimes misdoubting of Gods promise & protection , and helping himselfe by a b shift scarce warrantable . c Noah ouer-seene in drinke . d Dauid breaking the sixth and seauenth Commandements , one after another . e Iosiah running wilfully vpon a dangerous enterprise against Gods Commandement . f Asa relying on the King of Syria for helpe against the King of Israel , and not vpon the Lord , g & in a rage imprisoning the Prophets for reprouing him ; h and in his disease seeking not to the Lord : but to the Phisitians . i Zachary not giuing credence to the Angels message . The k Apostles all at a clap forsaking , or denying Christ. We cannot then in these Saints finde perfection in the full obedience to the Law ; amongst whose few actions registred by the Holy Ghosts penne : we may reade their sinnes together ; with their good workes . And had the Scriptures beene silent in that point : yet who could thence haue concluded , that these men or others had no faults , because no mention is made of them ? It was Gods purpose to relate the most eminent , not euery particular action of their liues ; euen Christs story fals l short of such exactnesse . Wee conclude then notwithstanding these Arguments . Our second Proposition standeth firme and good ( viz. ) That no man in this life can fulfill the Law in euery duty both inward and outward : but that the iustest man on earth will faile in many things . So if he should seeke for Iustification by this his actuall obedience to the Law : he throwes himselfe vnder the curse of the Law. For cursed is euery one that continues not in [ all ] things , which are written in the booke of the Law to doe them , saith the m Apostle out of n Moses . Which curse must needs light on those , that are of the workes of the Law , that is , seeke for Iustification and life by the obedience of the Law , which yet they cannot in all things perfectly obey . CHAP. III. No man in this life can performe any particular good worke , so exactly that in euery point it shall answere the rigour of the Law , proued by conscience , Scriptures , reason ; and Popish obiections , answered . I Proceed vnto the last Proposition , which concerneth Mans actuall Obedience to any one particular precept of the Law. Wherein will appeare the third Imperfection of mans Obedience in fulfilling of the Morall Law. We haue seene . That no man hath perfect inherent sanctity free from Natures corruption . Againe , That no man can performe perfect actuall obedience to all and euery duty of the Law without failing in any one point . And this much our Aduersaries will not much sticke to yeeld vnto vs , and confesse . That there is no man , but sinneth at some time or other ; and that t is scarce possible to avoide veniall sinnes , as they stile them . But then they deny vtterly . That a man sinnes in euery particular good worke ; though he cannot doe all perfectly , yet in some he may exactly fulfill the Righteousnesse of the Law , not missing in any one circumstance . And therfore at least by that obedience he may be iustified . This opinion of theirs hath neither truth in it selfe : nor yet brings any benefit at all to their maine purpose in prouing Iustification by workes . For to what end serueth it them to stand quarrelling for the perfectiō of our obedience in some one or two good works ; when yet we faile in many things besides ? One thing well done will not iustifie him that doth many things ill . For that of Saint Iames must be a Truth : Hee that keepeth the whole Law , and yet faileth in one point , is guilty of all . Iames 2. 10. Much more guilty is he , that keepeth it in a few : and breakes it in many . But yet further , we reiect this opinion also , as an Errour : and we teach on the contrary . That No man in this life can performe any one particular good worke , so exactly , that in euery point , it shall answere the rigour of the Law , and the seuere tryall of Gods Iudgement . About this Assertion our Aduersaries raise much stirre and many soule slaunders against vs , proclaiming vs to all the world , open enemies to all good workes , that wee bee Factors for the Kingdome of darknes , promoting as much as in vs lyeth all licentiousnesse in evill courses , and taking of the courage and endeauour of Men after pious duties . For who will set himselfe ( say they ) to doe any good worke if the Protestants doctrine be true , that in doing of it he shall commit a mortall Sinne ? who wil pray , fast , and giues almes , if when he doth these things he cannot but sinne ? As good then it were to doe euill as to doe good : a man can but sin , and so he shall , let him doe his best . These slanderous incongruities fastened on vs , spring not out of our Doctrine rightly vnderstood : but out of froward and peruerse hearts , that will not see the truth . Such aspersions will easily bee wiped of , when after the confirmation of the Trueth wee shall make answere to such obiections , as seeme to infringe it . We say then . That no man can performe any good worke required in the Law with such exact observation of every circumstance : that ( were it examined by the rigour of the Law and Gods Iustice ) no fault at all can bee found in it . This we proue by Conscience , by Scriptures , by Reason . First we here apeale vnto the Conscience of Man , the Iudgment whereof is to be regarded ; and whereunto we dare stand in this matter . Thou that boastest that in such and such good workes ; that thou hastnot committed any Sinne at all . Darest thou indeed stand to it , and vpon these Tearmes appeare in Gods Iudgment ? Darest thou abide the strictnesse of this examination standing ready to Iustifie thy selfe against euery thing that hee can obiect ; Wilt thou venter thy selfe vpon this Tryall euen in the best works thou dost , That God cannot with his most piercing eye of Iustice spy a fault in thē , if he number thē , he shal find nothing short ? if he weigh them not one graine too light ? Againe let conscience speake , when thou hast prayed , fasted , giuen almes , done any other excellent worke of Piety and Charity in the deuoutest , and most vnblameable manner thou thinkest possible . Thinkest thou verily , that in this case thou doest not at all stand in need of Gods fauour , to passe by thine infirmities , and that thou needest not euen in this behalfe pray ; Lord forgiue me my trespasses ? What man durst say or thinke in any good worke : Lord in this particular I doe not desire thou shouldest be mercifull vnto me ? Without doubt there is no man liuing vpon earth that shall in serious consideration of the seuerity of Gods iudgement , and the great infirmity of his owne Nature , compare his own obedience with the seuerity of Gods Iustice , but his heart will presently shrinke within him , and his conscience shunne this tryall ; as much as euer Adam did Gods presence . The thought of such a strict proceeding in Iudgement , would make the proudest heart to stoope and tremble , the boldest face to gather blacknesse , filling the soule with an horrible feare in the expectation of that day ; should the most innocent life , the most holy actions of men be there scanned according to the rigour of Iustice : not graciously pittied , pardoned , and accepted according to that mercifull loue of God which couereth and passeth by multitudes of sinnes . T were arrogant pride in any man to vtter that speach in a sober temper ; Whereunto Iob breakes out in a passion , chased by the sense of his miserable tortures ; and the froward disputes of his friends . a Oh ( saith he ) that a man might pleade with God , as a man pleadeth with his neighbour . And againe , Lay b downe now , put me in a surety with thee , who is he that will strike hands with me ? And againe , Oh that c I knew where I might find him , that I might come euen to his face , I would order my cause before him , and fill my mouth with arguments . I would know the words which he would answere mee , and vnderstand what he would say vnto me . Speakes the man reason ? or is he beside himselfe ? what ? challenge God to dispute with him , and hope to make his party good in the quarrell ? This was Iobs infirmity ; It s our Aduersaries arrogancy , who dare set their foot against Gods ; and bid him pry as narrowly as hee list into their good workes : they will maintaine the righteousnesse thereof against all that he can obiect to proue the least sin●ulnesse . Iob saw his folly : God grant that these may theirs . In a calmer temper , when conscience was not ouerclouded with griefe and anger : he reades vs a quite contrary lesson . In the 9 Chapter of his booke . How should man be iust with God ? if he contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand , v. 2. 3. And againe , hauing reasoned & questioned of Gods wisdome & power , not to be questioned or resisted by any . How much lesse shall I answere him ( saith he ) & chuse out my words to reason with him ? whom though I were righteous , yet would I not answer : but I would make supplication to my iudge , v. 14. 15. Further , If I would iustifie my selfe mine own mouth will condemne me , If I say I am perfect , it shall proue me peruerse . Though I were perfect yet would I not know my soule , I would despise my life , v. 20. 21. And once more . If I wash my self with snow water , & make my hands neuer so clean , yet that thou plunge me in the ditch , & mine own cloathes shall abhorre me . For he is not a man as I am that I should answere him , and we should come together in iudgement , vers . 30. 31. 32 See , this holy Saint , who elsewhere stands peremptorily to the defence of his Innocency and vprightnesse against that wrongfull imputation of hypocrisie which his friends charged him withall , telling them that till he die , he wil not take away his innocency from himselfe , nor his heart shall not reproue him of his dayes : yet when he sets himselfe before the Tribunall of Gods Iustice , he dares not stand out in his own Iustification , but submits himselfe to the mercy of his Iudge , with humble supplication for his fauour . These confessions of Iob be not complements out of a fained and needlesse modesty : but the fruits of a conscience rightly informed and apprehensiue of its owne sinfulnesse , and the seuere rigour of Gods iudgment . The serious meditatiō of which two particulars , we commend vnto our Aduersaries , and all other of their humour ; that are apt to entertaine fauourable and gentle opinions touching their sinnes : and withall to nourish high conceits of their owne goodnesse . Whence they grow by degrees to thinke , that Gods iudgement is like their owne foolish imaginations ; and where they out of blindnesse or selfe-loue cannot see a fault : that there God himselfe can finde none . We hardly see beames in our own eyes : are we then so skilfull to spie the smallest moate ? who can vnderstand his faults ( saith Dauid ) wilt thou answere him ; Yes I doe ? A secret fault may soone s●●p it , a deceitfull heart may in one circumstance go beyond thy wit & watchfulnesse . Here then humility would doe well , and prayer for thy ignorances , for thy secret sinnes ; vnknowne to thy selfe as much as others . Here true modesty would haue her place , that thou preferre Gods wisedome and iudgement aboue thine owne , remembring that he iudgeth not as man iudgeth : but sometimes otherwise then thou doest , accounting that abhomination , which in thine eyes is much set by ; and alwayes more exactly then thou caust ; seeing much euill in that where thou seest little , and some euill where thou think'st there is none . And therefore alwayes speake vnto thy selfe in those excellent words of Saint Iohn ▪ If my heart condemne ( as in many things it doth ) God is greater then my heart , and knoweth all things . 1 Iohn 3. 20. God forbid then that in any thing I should presume to pleade with him in my Iustification . He is wise in heart , and mighty in strength ; who hath hardened himselfe against him and hath prospered , Iob. 9. 2. Thus much touching our first Argument , for the inward witnesse of the conscience . Which in the most innocent life , often in the most holy worke , drawes backe from Gods Iudgement seat , and is afraid to put it selfe vpon the tryall of his seuere Iustice. Wee haue the Scriptures to witnesse vnto vs the same Truth . Psa. 143. ● . 2. [ Heare my prayer O Lord giue ear● vnto my supplication : in thy faithfulnesse answere mee and in thy righteousnesse . ] Here the prophet seemes to appeale to the Iustice of God requiring his helpe vpon such tearmes , as if God out of pure Iustice could not haue denyed him . But t is nothing so . T is the mercy of God the holy Prophet sues vnto . Answere me in thy faithfulnesse and Righteousnes , that is , in those gratious promises , wherin thou hast made mee to trust , where vpon I doe rely . Thou art iust and faithfull : in keeping promise , be so to me in my distresse , who according to thy promise seeke vnto thee for succour . Vnto this Righteousnesse of God Dauid presents himselfe , and his supplications ; but before that strict & severe Iustice of God he dares not stand , but in all submissiuenesse prayes in the next words . [ And enter not into Iudgement with thy seruant . ] He craues mercifull audience of his prayers : but deprecates the strict examination of his Life and doings . He knew well that if God should deale with him vpon so hard Termes ; his owne Innocency could neuer haue made his prayers exceptable ( For ( saith he ) in this shall no Man liuing be Iustified ) . The force of this place a Bell. seekes to decline by three poore miserable shifts . That Dauid would not haue God enter into Iudgement with him to iudge him ( seili●et ) according to such things as he had of himselfe : but according to such things as God had giuen him , that is , Iudge mee not according to that righteousnesse which I haue by Nature : but according to that righteousnesse which thou hast giuen by thy Grace . ) Which interpretation how ridiculous a phantasy it is , and quite besides the meaning of the Prophet , t is easy for any one to Iudge by reading of that Psalme . Bell. therefore hath another string to his Bow : but as rotten as the Former . 2 That the place is meant of veniall Sinnes without which a Man cannot liue , and though they be small faults : yet would it be no Iustice in God to punish them . So that the meaning is , [ Lord enter not into Iudgement , ] that is , Lord I will not contend with thee I confesse my selfe a sinner and craue pardon , Diuers small faults I haue committed not against the Law : but besides the Law , and thou mayest easily pardon them . My case is not singular . I doe therein , but as other Men doe , amongst whome , there is none so iust but some time failes and offends . And therefore doe not lay such faults to my charge . Men of corrupt conscience that thus sport with Sinne and play with the Scriptures . The Iesuite must bring vs better proofes , then he doth , else wee shall neuer beleeue that Dauid was a Man of Bellarmine his mind touching Veniall Sins . That doctrine is part of the dregs of corrupted Nature , maynatined by Popish Moabites , who are setled on thier Lees , infatuated by the Loue of Sin , and flattering themselues in that wickednesse as little & light which God accounteth worthy to be ha●ed . wee acknowledge no Veniall Sinnes : but such as deserue eternall death , which hereafter we shall make good . And therefore if Dauid would not that God should enter into iudgement with him , because of veniall sinnes that accompany his holiest practises , t is in effect , that which we say ; the difference is onely in an Epithete . We say Dauid prayed not to come into iudgement , because [ his best workes were sinfull : ] and Bellarmine addes , Because venially , or , pardonably sinnefull . Which aduantageth him not a jot . For let him mince it , how him l●st●tis manifest , that these were such sinnes , as for them Dauid durst not venter his best workes to come vnto the Barre of Gods seuere Iudgement . There is yet another deuise . That thirdly Dauid speakes by comparison . ( viz. ) That that though the Righteousnesse of his workes were true , being absolutely considered : yet being compared with Gods Righteousnesse , it seemed to be vnrighteousnesse . As a candle set in the Sunne , seemes to haue no light : and a little light compared to a greater , seemes darkenesse . Whereto we answere that Dauid here makes a confession of his owne sinfulnesse ; not a comparison of his owne righteousnesse , with the righteousnesse of God. He desires that God will not enter into iudgement with him ; not because he had not so much righteousnesse as God , in comparison of whom it seemed little or nothing : but because he was sinnefull , and had not so much Righteousnesse as he should . Man may haue a Righteousnesse of his owne ; infinite degrees , below the Righteousnesse of God , which yet may passe the Tryall of Gods Iudgement without all reproofe . As is manifest in the Righteousnesse of Adam and Christs Humanity : both which , though inferiour to Gods Righteousnesse , were yet able to endure that strict examination . Wherefore wee are not accounted vniust for that imperfection , because we haue lesse Righteousnesse then our Maker : but because wee haue not so much as we ought to haue , according to the capacity of our Nature wherein hee made vs. But of this more hereafter . Let this serue for the clearing of this first place of Scripture , and the exceptions against it . The second place of Scripture , is that , Isa. 64. 6. But wee are all as an vncleane thing , and all our righteousnesse is as filthy ragges , and we all doe fade as a leafe , and our iniquities like the winde haue taken vs away . This is the confession of the Church of God , submitting herselfe to him in the acknowledgement of her sinnes , and the iustnesse of his anger against her . The confession is euery way generall : both for Persons , not one excluded ; We all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are as an vncleane thing , and likewise for workes , none are excused from faultinesse . All our Righteousnesse ( nay in the plurall ) all our righteousnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are as filthy ragges . Hence they acknowledge that God is iustly angry with them , and that in his righteous displeasure , they are afflicted , consumed and brought into great aduersity , the glory of the Church , and state decaying more and more , like a fading leafe that fall● from the tree , and is driuen away with the winde ; And wee all doe fade as a leafe , and our iniquities like the winde haue taken vs away . Against this plaine acknowledgement of mans sinfulnesse in all his most righteous workes , the Iesuites except diuers wayes . 1 That the Prophet speakes here in the person , not of the godly : but of wicked , who make here this confession of their sinnes . And how proued they this ? Thus. The Text saith . Behold thou art wrath , for wee haue sinned . Now God is not angry with the godly : but with the wicked . Againe , the Text saith , There is none that calleth vpon thy name . That is , None of the wicked persons , for the godly doe call on Gods Name . This exception is manifestly refuted by the whole order of the Text , whereby it is apparent to any that hath but halfe an eye , that this Recognition of Sinne , and prayer for mercy beginning at the 15 verse of the 63. chapter , to the end of the 64 chapter , is made by the whole Church , and all the faithfull therein , confessing their owne faults , as well as others , and suing for reliefe , not onely in behalfe of others , but of themselues too . His reasons are worth nothing . God is not angry with the godly , saith Bellarmine . No ? Then Peter is in an errour , who saith , 1 Pet. 4. 17. 18. The time is come that iudgement must begin at the house of God ; and if it begin at vs , what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospell of God ; And if the righteous be scarsly saued ; where shall the vngodly and sinner appeare ? Here 's Iudgement on Gods house , that is , on the righteous , that obey the Gospell , as well as on the vngodly that obey it not . And so t is , when the godly sinne , they smart for it , in priuate afflictions , in publique calamities , both wayes they finde God is not well pleased with their ill doings . When a Church and a State is ruinated , may not the most righteous take vp this confession . Lord thou art angry for we haue sinned Euen we by our sinnes haue hastened and increased the publique miseries ? I trow , none will deny it . Againe , the Text speakes of those that doe not call vpon Gods Name . But the godly call vpon it , Ergo. t is not meant of them . True , they doe call vpon Gods Name : but is this done alwayes with that diligence , with that zeale which God requires ? How comes it to passe then , that the godliest men are many times secure , slothfull , cold and carelesse in the duties of Gods most holy worship ? Yea , in the corrupt and declining times of the Church this happily is their fault chiefly , who themselues begin to freeze in so generall a coldnesse of the season , loosing much of that seruency of Spirit which the Apostle requires of vs , as at all times : so then especially , when it should reuiue and put heat into others , when their loue of Religion begins to waxe cold . At such times zeale in Gods seruice , vehemency in prayer , constancy in all Relious exercises , resolute , but discreet forwardnesse in the holy profession of Religion is most commendable . But yet it so comes to passe , that euen then much security and slackenesse ouercomes the godly , and whilest they should be a meanes to preuent a mischiefe , they hasten it vpon themselues and others . And thus the Iewish Church here in this place confesseth , that there were none that called on the name of the Lord , a carelesse negligence , and slacknesse in the Seruice of God , was come vpon them , so that as it is in the next words , [ there was none that stirreth vp himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take hold of God. ] None awaked and rouzed vp himselfe with diligent endeauour to apply himselfe to the worship of God , A fault wherewith God may iustly be angry : as hee then was . This first exception then is friuolous . Others there bee as idle . 2 That by ( all ) in this place is to be meant the greatest part ; not all the Iewes , nor all their works were sinfull ; but the greatest part . For so the word [ All ] is taken in some places of Scripture : and therefore the Iesuits thinke , it must needs be taken so here . 3 That if it be meant of ( all ) simply : yet t is not to bee vnderstood at all Times . All the People and their workes were nought and sinnefull , when they were to be caried away Captiue : but it followes not , that they were so at other times . 4 This must be restrained to the righteousnesse which consistes in Obedience to the Ceremoniall Law. [ All our Righteousnesse ] that is , all our Ceremoniall workes in Sacrifices , Obseruations of Sabboaths , New-moones , Fasts and such like , [ are as filthy clouts ] being done in that manner as wee doe them ( viz ) without Faith and Obedience . To these we say . That there would neuer be an end , were a Man bound punctually to refute euery Cauill , which an Aduersary may frame out of his fancy-full imagination , and froward heart . We owe the Romanists no such credit : as to assent to any point of Religion vpon their bare affirmation . We can as confidently deny such Exceptions as these , without yeelding them a refutation : as they doe boldly make them without bringing any proofe . And certainely most vaine and vngodly is that course which our Aduersaries or any that tread in there steps doe hold in their Disputations , about serious points of Christian Doctrine : when being vrged with conuincing Scriptures , they thinke they haue done the part of Schollers , and satisfied the Consciences of others desirous of Truth , if they can amuse and stonny you a little with two or three Interpretations and prety exceptions , and so leaue you to chuse which you list . They will not tell you which they will stand to : but euen when there answers crosse one another , yet all shall downe , that if one helpe not , another may , and altogether may vexe you , when they cannot satisfie you . This quarrelsome humour of men , who seeke not the truth in loue : but write to maintaine , to dispute , is not the least vexation of the spirit , and wearinesse to the flesh of man ; as all those will witnesse , whose much reading hath led them along into the perplexed mazes of Schoole-learning , whether Diuine or humane . The third place of Scripture is , Psal 130. 3. If thou , Lord shouldest marke iniquities , O Lord who shall stand ? This place is parallell to the former , wherein the holy Prophet desires God to be attentiue to the voice of his supplications , craues this audience meerely of Gods fauour ; not vpon any righteousnes or worth of his own . As for that he confesseth . That if God should be strict to obserue wherein hee and all men doe amisse : neither himselfe , nor any other could be able to stand in his presence . Whence he flies from his Iustice vnto his mercy . But there is forgiuenesse with thee that thou mayest be feared . verse 4. Presumption then it is , and arrogant pride for any Romanist to say . Lord if thou doe obserue Iniquities : yet I shall be able to stand . In such and such good workes , be extreame to marke what is done amisse ; I feare not the tryall , nor will sue to thy mercy . From Scriptures we come to Reason . Which is thus . Wheresoeuer there is concupiscence and inordinate motions of the heart ; wheresoeuer there 's a defect of Charity towards God and Man ; Wheresoeuer veniall sinnes ( as our Aduersaries cals them ) are mingled with good works : there the best workes of men are not free from some corruptions and sinfulnesse . But in a man Regenerate there is concupiscence and euill motions of the heart present with him , when hee would doe good ; there is a want of that measure of loue to God and Charity to Man , which he might and ought to haue , there also are besides many veniall faults that accompany his best workes . Ergo , the works of a Man Regenerate are not euery way good : but in part sinfull . The Minor is cleere and confessed by our Aduersaries : especially for the two former circumstances of concupis●●●ce , and imperfection of Charity : and for veniall sinnes , they also acknowledge it a very hard matter to 〈…〉 in any good worke . Wherefore they are a driuen in a desperate manner to deny the Maior and to auouch . That neither concupiscence nor imperfection of Charity to God or our Neighbour ; nor yet veniall sinnes mingled with good workes , doe at all impaire the goodnesse and perfect righteousnesse o● our obedience to the Law ; but that they are as good with those infirmities , as without them . Bad causes must be helpt out , by bold and desperate attempts ; and so it ●ares with our Aduersaries in this point . They will vtterly deny that there is any thing euill in a man Regenerate : rather then be forced to confesse there is any thing euill in the workes , that he performes . The impudent vnreasonablenesse of this their Assertion , we shall shortly speake of . In the meane we goe on vnto the consideration of such Arguments , which are brought by our Aduersaries , to proue . That the good workes of men Regenerate , are truely and perfectly good , without all faultinesse in them . They proue it then . 1 From the examples of Iob and Dauid . Of Iob is said . Iob 1. 22. In all this Iob sinned not ; nor charged God foolishly , and chap. 2. verse 10. In all this did not Iob sinne with his lippes . Againe for Dauid : he is conscious to himselfe , of his owne innocency , and that no fault can be found in his doings , wherefore he prayes , Psal 7. 8. Iudge me , O Lord according to my righteousnesse , and according to mine integrity that is in me . And after all this , Psal. 18. 23. 24. He professeth openly his innocency , and reward for it . I was , saith he , also vpright before him , and I kept my selfe from mine iniquity . Therefore hath the Lord recompensed mee according to my righteousnesse , according to the cleannesse of my hands in his sight . And Psal. 17. vers 3. Hee declares how GOD had throughly tryed him : and yet found him faultlesse . Thou hast proued mine heart , thou hast visited me in the night , thou hast tryed me , and yet shalt find nothing : I am purposed my mouth shall not transgresse . How then can any man say that Iob and Dauid sinned mortally in their sayings and doings : when God himselfe witnesseth for them that they d●e not sinne ? Hereto we answere . That we doe not lay sinne vnto the charge of those holy men : nor doe we say they did ill ▪ where the Scriptures witnesse they did well . Iob in that first Act of his tryall quitted himselfe well , and ouercame the Temptation . He sinned not as afterwards he did , breaking forth into impatiency : and that is all the Scripture meant by that speech ; In all this Iob sinned not . But whether Iobs patience were in this first conflict euery way so vnreproueable , that not the least fault could be spied in it , in Gods seuere Iudgement , is more then we dare affirme , or our Aduersaries will euer be able to proue . For Dauid ; his innocent demeanor of himselfe , in the time of Sauls raigne was such : that no Imputation of vnfaithfulnesse or ambition could iustly bee layed to his charge . Wherefore when Sauls followers accuse him of treason against their Master : Dauid appeales vnto God desiring him to deale with him according to his Innocency in that behalfe . His owne conscience , and God with his conscience , after tryall made , acquit him from plotting and practising against Saul , as his Aduersaries said hee did . Thence it followes that Dauid did not offend in that kind whereof his Aduersaries accused him . His heart was vpright ; his life was innocent ; neither his Aduersares could make proofe , neither did his conscience accuse him , or God condemne him of these faults , that he was charged withall . Thus farre Dauid durst stand to Gods Iudgement ; that hee was innocent in those particular euils , whereof man had accused him : but it followes not therefore hee durst enter into iudgement with God ; and plead , that God himselfe could find no fault at all with him . Hee might haue many secret faults and imperfections euen in this most innocent passage of his life ; which neither himselfe knew , nor his enemies could come to the knowledge of : and therefore though he dare pleade his righteousnesse before God , so farre as man can accuse him of vnrighteousnesse , yet he dare not goe further to cleare himselfe against all that God may obiect against him . Heare what himselfe saith in this case , Psal. 139. 23. 24. Search me , O God and know my heart , try me and know my thoughts . Speakes the Prophet this out of confidence , that God vpon search and tryall , shall finde no euill in his heart and thoughts ? No , but out of holy desire , that whatsoeuer euill is found in him may bee amended . Hee knowes well that many things may be found faulty in him : and therefore he stands not to iustifie himselfe : but only sues for grace to redresse them ; adding in the next words . And see if there be any wicked way in mee ; and lead mee in the way euerlasting . 2 They proue that the workes of Men regenerate are not Sinnefull by the Scriptures which call them good workes and say that they are pleasing vnto God. 1. That they are good . [ Let your light so shine before Men that they may see your good worke : ] Matth : 5. 16. ( Charge the rich that they doe good and bee rich in good workes . ) 1 Tim. 6. 18. [ wee are his workemanshippe created in Christ vnto good workes ] Eph. 2. 10. [ why trouble yee the woman ; for shee hath wrought a good worke vpon mee . ] Mat ▪ 26. 10. 2. That they are also pleasing vnto God is apparant by these places . Ye are made ( an holy ●riesthood to offer vp spirituall sacrifices , acceptable to God by Iesus Christ ) 1 Peter 2. 5. In the Epistle to the Philippians , the Apostle calleth their almes seat vnto him ( An odor of a sweet smell , a sacrifice acceptable well pleasing vnto God ) Philip 4. 18. Againe . ( To doe good and to communicate forget not , for with such sacrifices God is well pleased ) Heb. 13. 16. Hence th●y argue . If the workes of Men regenerate bee good and acceptable vnto God : then certainely the Protestants erre in their Doctrine , teaching that the best workes of Men are sinnefull , for as much as Sinne is neither good in it selfe nor any way pleasing vnto God. Who is infinitely , offended at all iniquity . Hereunto we answere . That this Argument is nothing , but a forward and wilfull mistake of our doctrine . Wee teach , that the best workes of the best men are in part sinnefull . They thereupon cry out that wee take away all goodnesse from the workes of the godly , and that wee account them to be [ in se. a i. e. Ex natura sua ] damnable and mortall sinnes . This is a foolish calumny of Men that cannot distinguish , betweene the disease and the diseased Body : but straightway conclude that the whole body it selfe is nothing else , but a meere rotten vlcer , because it hath swellings and sores in some parts of it . Wherefore to vnfold their eyes in his point , they are to vnderstand that wee make a necessary & true distinction between That which is sinne and that which is sinnefull : teaching that the good workes of the Regenerate be not sinnes , though they be sinfull . Wee explaine it thus . That is to be called Sinne in its owne Nature , which is the transgression of the Law in doing any act forbidden ; or in leauing vndone any act commanded by the Law. The omitting , or committing of any such act is properly [ b in se & ex Naturâ suâ ] a sinne . Because it is directly and totally in the very substance of it against the Law. As to pray to a false God , or neglect prayer to the true God , are both of them sinnes in their very proper Natures : because both are forbidden by the morall law . That wee call sinnefull , which is for the maine substance of the worke conformable to the Law ; but it failes and offends against the Law in some circumstances required in the doing of it , when the thing is done which the Law commands , but no● perfectly in euery point as the Law commands it : such a worke , we say , is not a sinne , though it be sinnefull ; there is sinne in it , but it is not all sinne . This distinction our Aduersaries cannot but admit of , as in the workes of the Heathen and Christians vnregerate : so in the good workes of the Regenerate themse●ues . Wee and they confesse that the morall Vertues of the Heathen were good and commendable in the substance thereof : nor doe we thinke there is any men so deuoide of reason , as to affirme that the Iustice , Temperance , Chastity , Liberality of a Heathen , are meere vices & sinnes . We all grant , they were vertues : but yet our Aduersaries themselues cannot affirme , that they were euery way vertuous , free from all spots and staines of b Vice ; seeing they had neither faith & sanctity from whence they sprung ; nor the glory of God , at which they aimed . Now as the vertues of the naturall man , are in part vitious : so the good workes of the Regenerate are in part sinnefull . To fast , to pray , to giue almes , with the like workes of Piety or Mercy , we affirme and teach that they are good workes , good in their nature and vse : being such actions as the Law commands . We know none of our side so farre gone with passion , as to maintaine that a godly man sinnes , because hee fasts , prayes , and giues almes ; as if those very acts were nothing but damnable sinne . We detest such franticke opinions ; and if any of our Writers haue let slip such words , as may giue occasion to our Aduersaries , so to thinke of vs : we doe not , nor are we bound to iustifie euery hot and cholericke speech , breathed out in eagernesse of disputation . Good workes they be , truly and verily good : but they are not perfectly good . When a godly man prayes he doth well : but he neuer doth so well ; but he may doe better . Nor dare any man in the world auouch , that either the roote whence good actions come , is purged by perfect Holinesse : or the manner of doing them , is so exactly kept in a precise obseruation of euery circumstance , or the end in doing them Gods glory , and Mans good , so syncerely and truely aimed at : that the seuerity of Gods Iustice , cannot finde any the least failing in any of those things . This is all we teach touching the sinfulnesse of good workes , and thus we stand too : as a most certaine truth . And we say . That this sinnefulnesse accompanying our good workes , is sufficient to barre vs from Iustification by them . For we deserue not reward for what is well done , except all were well done . But neuerthelesse it shall not hinder Gods gracious acceptation of our good workes , who is well pleased with the obedience of his children so farre as it is good and holy : and when it failes , for Christs sake he mercifully pardoneth their Trespasses . Thus much of the second Argument . The third is from reason grounded on Scriptures . 3 Where there are ( sufficientia principia rectae operationis ) sufficient causes and meanes of well-doing : there a good worke may be done without all fault . — But in a man Regenerate , there are causes and meanes sufficient for well-doing — Ergo , He may doe well , and not offend . They proue the Minor thus . To the performance of any good worke , there is required nothing , but these things , Knowledge of what is to be done , will and power to do it — But now a Regenerate man hath all these . For first , his vnderstanding is enlightned , so that hee can easily know what is good to be done . Secondly , his will and affections are sanctified and aided by grace , to desire and endeauour the performance of it . And thirdly , and lastly , hee hath power to put in practise what he knowes and desires , there being no impediment inward , or outward that should hinder him — Ergo , he may doe well and sinne not . Here we desire them to shew vs. How a man Regenerate is enduded with such perfect abilities , as may helpe him : and quite rid him of all such impediments , as might hinder hi● in well doing . This ( they say ) is done by the grace of Sanctification , giuen vnto a Regenerate man , whereby hee is freed from all contagion of sinne : and such incombrances , as hinder him in well-doing . For by this grace giuen to him , hee is made a good tree : now [ A good tree cannot bring foorth ●ad fruit , Matth 7. 18. — And ergo , a good man cannot doe bad workes . 〈…〉 made a fruitfull Branch of Christ the true Vine , as it is Iohn 15. 5. I am the Vine , yea are the branches , he that abideth in me , and I in him , the 〈◊〉 beareth much fruit . And Ergo , That fruit onely which is good . Which Similitude of a Branch much illustrates the matter ( in their Imagination . ) For as in a Vine-Branch . If first it haue sufficient moisture from the Body of the Vine . Secondly , if it haue sufficient heat of the Sunne to digest that moysture . And thirdly , if it be not hurt nor hindred by Frosts , Wette , Windes , Wormes , or other such discommodities of the Ayre and Soile ; then certainely it will be are very much , and very good fruit : so is it in a man regenerate . From Christ he receiues sufficient moisture of Diuine Grace , which is in him , [ as a well of water springing vp vnto euerlasting life . Iohn 4. 14. ] He hath heat sufficient of spirituall affection , to cause him to bud forth into good workes . For Christ saith [ I am come to send fire on the earth , and what will I if it be already kindled . Luke 12. 49. And [ Did not our hearts burne within vs ] said the two Disciples that went to Emaus , Luk. 24. 32. Ergo , they haue heat enough . Finally , they haue no impediment . Neither inward . For why ? It is written , Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus . Ergo , no inward impediment to well-doing . Nor outward . For it written , [ nothing shall separate vs from the Loue of God , that is in Christ Iesus our Lord , Rom. 8. 38. Ergo , no outward impediment of good workes . Hereunto we make answer . That this Argument is a sophisticall cauillation ; which proues that which we do not deny . They say that a Man Regenerate , hath sufficientia principia rectae & honestae operationis . We say so too ; confessing that hee is made a good tree , a fruitfull Branch ; that hee is enlightened ; sanctified , and strengthened by the spirit of God vnto the performance of good workes . We grant that now he is enabled to doe well , who before his Regeneration could doe nothing saue●ll : but the question still remaines , whether now he doe so well , as that he doth nothing ill when he doth best . We grant that the Vine , which in former time yeelded nothing , but wild grapes , now being transplanted and grafted into the best Vine , beares good grapes : but we deny that they are so weet and kindly in eu●● respect , as not to haue a little relish still of their former wildnesse and sowrenesse . Wherefore our Aduersaries doe but trifle with vs to tell vs that Men Regenerate haue meanes sufficient to doe those workes that be good : this we deny not ; but we question whether they haue helpe sufficient to performe any worke so absolutely and perfectly good ; that God himselfe cannot charge it with any Sinne at all . This we constantly deny . And to their discourse , ( That a regenerate Man hath sufficient Knowledge , Power and will to doe good perfectly ) in this they affirme more then will euer bee proued . Our imperfections in euery one of these three particulars witnessed to our Conscience by Scripture and experience doth disable vs euer frō doing any worke entirely and totally good . Knowledge we haue : but much darkned by ignorance . We haue a will to doe good : but that also corrupted with much forward Rebelliō . A power we haue to do good : but alwayes crossed and much restrained by manyfold Lusts within , and Temptations without vs. How is it possible for vs , being compassed about with so many infirmities : but wee should offend in one thing or other ; Becanus here brings vs an instant of a good worke : and bids vs shew what sinne there is in it . If ( sayth he ) A Man regenerate read or heare those words of Christ. Mat : 6. [ giue almes ] hee being enlightned knowes that this is a worthy and honest worke . Wherupon he is touc●ed in heart and stirred vp to do it . He consents to this motion , and resols vpon the execution , which ( supposing that he be rich ) nothing now can hinder because he is both able and willing to giue . Now then this almes being thus giuen out of knowledge , and a pious motion of the Heart tending to Gods honour and our Neighbours good , the Iesuit desires to knew of vs , where their is any Sinne in it . Wee say there is some euill in euery good worke and therefore hee would haue vs tell him what euill there is in this Almesdeed . Vnto this we say , that this enquiry of the Iesuite is the most ridiculous and absurd thing , that can be . He asketh vs where is the Sinne ? what if we answere him we doe not know ; Is hee now euer the wiser ? what hath he gained hereby ? Are other Mens worke without all faults because we know not what they be ? Nay , are they without fault , because themselues know not whether there be any in them : or no ? what silinesse were it to argue in this sort ? Therefore when wee come to this point strictly to examine the workes of Men. First we tell the Iesuite that he must not put Cases touching generalities [ suppose that such a good worke be done so and so what then ] we dispute now touching particulars in euery Mans reall practice . The enquiry is not for the generall . ( What euill is there in such and such a good worke ) done thus and thus , according as the Circumstances are framed in an Imagined Case . As to aske what Sinne is their in an Almes-deede done out of Faith and Charity to Gods glory . This is a fond question thus framed vpon generall termes we say their is no Sinne in it . But the enquiry is in particular , what Euill their is in such a worke done by this or that , Man , according to all Circumstances , that were at that time incident to the worke , as . What sinne was there in Zacheus or Cornelius almes-deeds ? This question we admit , and answere to it , That some Sinne there was for which those holy Men , as wel as others , would not haue beene willing that God should enter into iudgement with them , strictly to iudge them . Yea , but will the Iesuits reply , name what Sinne this was ; or else you wrong them . Now this is meere impudency . For who is judge of their actions ? Are we ? or is it God and their owne Consciences ? we can be no judges , who at furthest can judge but accordrng to outward appearance . We know not their Hearts : nor are we priuy vnto euery particular Circumstance , that did accompany those actions of theirs Circumstances in euery particular action differ infinitely , one Man may offend in this point , another in that : nor haue we a generall Rule whereby to judge alike of all . And therefore it is a childish quaere to aske on Man whether another Man offendes , who may doe euill a 1000 times , not only secret from others , but vnwitting to himselfe . If then the Iesuite will haue an answere to his question , he must resort to particular mens Consciences , and to God : for only the spirit of Man , and the spirit of God know the things of Man. Let him aske a Cornelius when he giues almes , whether he doe thinke this worke so well done , that no fault can bee found with it . Doubtlesse he will answere , that he cannot excuse himselfe from all faultinesse : though he knew nothing by himselfe , yet he dares not stand to Gods judgment . His confession and prayer would in this case be the same with Nehemiahs . Nehem. 13. 22. [ Remember me O my God concerning this also , and spare mee according to the greatnesse of thy mercy . ] at once begging fauorable acceptance of his obedience , and gratious pardon of his infirmities . If this suffice not in the next place , the Iesuite is to repaire to God almighty and question him , where the Sinnes in such and such a good workes , who no doubt can shape him an answere that will sore confound his pride and folly , and make it quickly appeare vnto him , that sinnefull Man , when he pleades with God , is not able to answere him one obiection of a 100 , that God shall make against him . This of the third Argument . That Man hath sufficient meanes to doe well and not Sinne. The last followes , drawne from such absurdities , as they say doe follow vpon our Doctrine . Thus. 4 If ( say they ) our Doctrine be true that the best workes of Men be Sinfull : then these absurdities be likewise true doctrine . That to be iustified by faith is to be iustified by Sin. That no man ought to beleeue , because the worke [ Beleeuing ] is Sinne. That all good works are forbidden , because all Sinne is forbidden . That God should command vs to commit Sinne : because he commands vs to doe good workes . That God bidding vs be zelous of go●d workes , should in effect bid vs be zealous of mortall Sinne. That to pray for the pardon of Sinne were a damnable Sinne. These and such other absurd Positions would be true : if the protestants doctrine concerning the sinfulnesse of good workes may stand for good . Hereunto we answere . That these absurdities issue not out of our Doctrine , but out of our Aduersaries malitious Imaginations . Who like the ragine Sea casting vp mire and Dirt from its owne Bottome would faine throw all this filth in the face of the Reformed Churches , to make them odious and hatefull to the world . The best is . Truth cannot bee disgraced though it may be belyed . These foule Absurdities ; touch vs not : but follow vpon that Doctrine which is none of ours . Namely , That the good works of the Regenerate are in their very Nature altogether sins , and nothing else but sordes ▪ inquinamenta , & merae iniquitates . Such an absurd assertion would indeed yeeld such an absurd consequence . But we defended it not : & they abuse vs grosly , whē in their writings they report of vs the contrary that we doe mainetaine . This onely we teach . That mens good workes are in part sinfull . Much good they haue in them : but with all some euill mingled therewith . Amongst the gold , some drosse also will be sound , that will not be able to abide the fire of Gods seuere Tryall . Imperfections will appeare in our best workes , so long as humane infirmity and mortality hangs vpon vs. This we teach , and from this Doctrine all that haue reason , may see that no such vnreasonable conclusions can be collected . And let thus much suffice for the clearing of this third Proposition , touching the imperfection of our obedience to the Morrall Law of God , euen in the good workes which we performe . From whence euery godly heart should le●rne both Christian Humilitie and also Industry . First , Humility not to boast in the flesh and glory in its owne Righteousnesse , thinking that God must highly account off , and reward largely , that which is very little worth . Secondly , Industry in a faithfull indeauour after perfection . That what cannot be done well as it ought : wee may yet euery day be done better then before it was . CHAP. IIII. Three generall exceptions against the truthes deliuered in this third Section ▪ THus we haue stood long in the confirmation of our second Argument , touching the impossibility of Mans fulfilling of the Law in this Life , and so consequently of iustification by the Law. Against all that haue bin sayed for the profit of this point ; our Aduersaries haue three Common and generall Exceptions . Which are these . 1 That Concupiscence or Naturall Corruption in the first and second act of it , is no sinne . 2 That imperfection in our Charity and Obedience is no sinne . 3 That smaller faults , or ( as they tell them ) Venia●● sinnes , doe not hinder the Iustice and goodnesse of any good worke . To these three Positions they haue continually recourse . For whereas they cannot deny ; but that their is in the Regenerate ; both a pronesse of Nature vnto Euill , and also many inordinate Sinnefu●l motions arising thence : they first deny , that , either these Naturall Corruptions , or disordered Motions of the Heart be any sinnes . Againe , they confesse that no man hath such perfect loue of God and Man ; but that he may increase in charity : nor be his good workes so perfectly good ; but that they ought still to striue to doe them better : but then here also they deny , that this imperfection of our charity and good works , is any sinne . Lastly , they grant that no man can auoide veniall sinnes , scarse in the best workes he doth : but then they deny that veniall sinnes be contrary to the Law , so that albeit a man commit them , yet he may perfectly fulfill the Law of God. I cannot stand largely in the refutation of these foule errors . The confutation whereof belongs properly to the Article of remission of sinnes ; where the nature and kindes of sinnes are to be handled . For this present I shall but touch on them briefly , and proceed to the matter . 1 For the first ; we defend this conclusion . The vitious inclination and pronnesse of Nature vnto euill , as also the inordinate moti●ns of concupiscence , which goe before consent , they are sinnes euen in a man regenerate . That the inclination and pronnesse of Nature to sinne is a sinne , we proue thus . It is expresly so called by the Apostle , Rom. 7. not once nor twice : but almost in euery verse of the Chapter . I am carnall sold vnder sinne . The sinne that dwelleth in me . ver . 17. 20. The Law of sinne . verse 23. 25. In it selfe it is sinne , and deserues the wages of sinne , eternall death . For which cause the Apostle there cals it . The body of this death . verse 24. Because this inward Corruption ( which is like a Body that hath many members consisting of diuerse euill affections spreading themselues throughout his whole Nature ) made him lyable to eternall death , from which onely Gods mercy in Christ could deliuer him . 2 To rebell against the Law is Sinne. Ergo , To haue a rebellious inclination is sinne likewise . For if the act bee euill , the habite must needes be naught : if the Law forbid one ; it must needs forbid the other . If it be euill to breake any Commandement in act : is it not euill to haue , a pronenesse and readinesse of minde to breake it ? The habit denominated a man sinfull and not the act . Nor doth God lesse abhorre the pronnesse of man to offend him : then wee doe abhorre the rauenous disposition of a Wolfe , though it be a Cubb , not yet vsed to the prey ; or one tyed vp in a chaine , and kept from rauening . That the euill motions of the heart without consent be sins . 1 They are forbidden in the Morrall Law. In the tenth Commandement . Thou shalt not couet . For motions with consent are forbidden in the other Commandments . As appeares manifestly in Christs exposition of the Commandements . Mat. 5. 22. were not only the outward act of Adultery : but the inward desire is also forbidden ; if wee beleeue Christ the best interpreter of the Law : When Ergo the tenth Commandement forbids coueting [ of our Neighbours Wife , it either meanes the same kind of lusting , with a needelesse Tautology : or a different . viz. that which is not consented vnto . Nor can our Aduersaries shift this off : though Becanus most impudently denies it , with out any reason of his so doing . 2 We proue it thus . Whatsoeuer is inordinate and repugnant to right Reason : that is Sinne. But these Motions without confent be inordinate . — Ergo They be Sinne , The Minor is confessed . That these Motions be inordinati & recta Rationi repugnantes . The Maior is apparant . For what is Ordo & recta Ratio in Moralibus : but that course of doing any thing , which is conformable to Gods Law and his will. God is the God of order . His Law is the rule of order in all humane actions . Recta Ratio what is it ; but the conformity of mans vnderstanding and will vnto Gods will , which only is the rule of righteousnesse ; We neuer purpose and will matters aright : but when wee will them agreeably to Gods will. Wherefore it is a grosse absurdity to deny the Sinnefulnesse of these disorderly motions : seeing no man can breake those orders which God hath made , and yet be faultlesse . Nor is it possible a Man should doe that which is contrary to Gods will : And yet be without Sinne in doing of it . These motions then without consent be confusions in Nature opposites to the righteousnesse of the will of God ; and vnto that euen and streight order expressed in his Law. We conclude then that Concupiscence and inordinate motions of the Soule not consented vnto , are Sinnes contrary to our Aduersaries assertion . They bring some Reasons to proue they are not . 1 Originall sinne is taken away in Baptisme . But concupiscence is not taken away in Baptisme ; as appeares by experience in the regenerate in whom it remaines . — Ergo , concupiscence and pronnesse to Sinne , is no sinne . This Argument is friuolous . In Originall sinne , there are two things , First , the guilt . Secondly , the inherent corruptions . We say in Baptisme the guilt is altogether washed away from the Baptized Elect , by the blood of Christ. And for the corruption thereof , it is part done away by the sanctifying Spirit of Christ , powred out vpon the Regenerate , which by degrees purgeth out the inherent sinfulnesse of Nature , by replanting the graces of Sanctification in all parts . Concupiscence then , notwithstanding Baptisme remaines in the Regenerate , and is a sinne in them , the guiltinesse whereof God mercifully pardons in Christ. 2 What is not in our power to auoide : that God doth not forbid vs by his Law. But t is not in our power to auoide the Motions of the heart that preuent Reason and consent . Ergo , they be no sinnes forbidden vs. To this we answere . The Maior is true in things meerely Naturall , that fall out by the Necessity of Nature well disposed . So we say , Gods Law were vncouth , should he command a man neuer to be an hungry or thirst , which things he cannot auoide , but they come vpon him , will he , nill he ; by the meere necessity of Nature . But concerning inordinate motions , there 's no such matter . God hath layed no such necessity on Nature in her creation : but we by our sinne haue brought it upon our selues . Now such a necessity excuses vs not . In this case it helpes a man no more to say . [ I cannot auoid euill thoughts and desires : ] then it doth a desperate sinner , that by countenance hath hardened himselfe in euill courses ; or then it helpes the Diuels and the damned , if they should say ; Wee cannot chuse but doe euill . 3 They argue thus . That which would haue beene naturall and without fault in man , if he had beene created , in puris Naturalibus ; that is , no sinne nor fault in vs. But motions preuenting consent , would be naturall , and without fault in men so made . — Ergo , In vs they be no faults of themselues . Heere our Aduersaries haue made a Man of white Paper , or the like to Materia prima : that hath not any quality in him morally good or bad . That is . A Man that hath neither the Image of God in knowledge , righteousnes , and holines , engrauen on his vnderstanding , will , affections , and whole person ; nor yet , though it haue it not , hath in him any contrary euill quality , that comes vpon him by reason of such a defect . Now of such a Wiseaker they dispute . If God had created a Man thus ▪ in puris naturalibus , neither good , nor bad , then . What then ? As the old word is . If the Heauens fall , we shall haue Larkes good cheepe . Suppositions framed by our Imaginations touching what might be done , are vaine and needlesse when we see what is done . This we see that Man was created in God's Image invested with all reall Qualities of Righteousnes and Holinesse . This we see also , that Man being falne is borne in Originall corruption , depriued of God's Image , & thereupon depraued in his whole Nature by sinfull infirmity . Wherefore a man in his pure Naturals , one that hath neither Grace , nor Corruption , was neuer found in this world : yea , 't is a contradiction to imagine a man thus naked without his Qualities ; that he hath Reason , but neither enlightened , nor darkened , a will but meerely indifferent , neither enclined to good , or euill ; affections , but neither vertuously , nor vitiously disposed . In a word , that he is a Man capable of Vertue , or Vice ; Holinesse , or Sinfulnesse , and yet hath neither . That were to make a Man litle better then an vnreasonable Beast . But to follow them a little . Suppose a Man were made in his pure Naturals , would such disorderly motions be found i● him ? Yea , say they , and that boldly . Si Homo crearetur a Deo in puris naturalibus , proculdubiò constaret duabus partibus repugnantibus , Spiritu & Carne : & haberet duos app●titus contrarios . Rationalem , & Sensitivum : ergo naturaliter haber●t quosdam motus repugnantes Rationi . Without doubt the Iesuite is deceiued in this his Imagination , and his Argument is not worth a Button . A Man in his pure Naturals should haue two parts , a Soule and a Body , Spirit and Flesh ; he should haue two appetites , Reasonable and Sensuall , ergo , these parts in their motions and desires would be contrary one to the other . This consequent is false . They would be diuerse , not opposite and repugnant . The Body and the Sensitiues would lead a Man to those things that are agreeable to the Body . The Soule and reasonable appetite , or will would incline him to those higher and more noble objects agreeable to the Soule . But neither of these inclinations would crosse and trouble one another , the inferiour faculties , like the lower Spheares would moue differently from the superiour : but yet most orderly according to their owne nature , without impeaching the Motions of the other . Each faculty in it's place would worke orderly in sweet harmony and agreement each with other , had not Sinne brought in confusion and discord into the world , as betweene God and Man : so betweene Man and himselfe . This we further make good by this argument . Whatsoeuer is naturall , and so without blame in Man : that Christ took one him — But these inordinate Motions of the sensitiue appetite , repugnant vnto Will and Reason ; Christ tooke not on him — Ergo they are not naturall , and without blame . The Maior we proue by that , Phil. 3. 7. He was made like vnto Man : and Heb. 2. 17. In all things it behoued him to be made like vnto his Brethren . And againe , Chap. 4. 15. Wee haue not a high Priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities : but was in all things tempted in like sort : yet without Sinne. Whence 't is manifest that Christ taking on him our Nature , tooke on him all the properties of our Nature , and with all such infirmities of our Nature as not sinfull in themselues , or the effects or punishments of Sinne in vs. If therefore it be naturall vnto Man , that the Motions of the sensitiue appetite should preuent and be repugnant vnto Reason , and that this is no Sinne except consent make it so : then certainly Christ had in him such motions and inordinate desires . But to affirme that , there were in Christ such disorderly Motions of his inferiour Faculties , repugnant vnto his Reason and Will , is a blasphemie against the immaculate Lambe of God , Christ was indeed tempted ( as the text saith ) and in like sort as we are : but will any Man heere vnderstand this of inward Temptations arirising from any thing within Christ , as if he were like vnto vs drawne aside with b Concupiscence and inticed , the motions of his sensitiue faculties , inclining him to that which was contrary to his vnderstanding and will ? We confesse that he was fiercely tempted by Satan and wicked Men from without : but that he was tempted by any thing in himselfe , by disorderly Motions of his heart tending vnto euill , and ergo checked by his will and Reason , this we account an abominable Errour touching the spotlesse humanity of our Sauiour . Wherein we deny , that there euer was any the least disorderly desire , thought , word , or worke whatsoeuer . And therefore we conclude , that such motions are not naturall vnto Men , becomming sinfull only by accident , because they are consented vnto : but they are accidentall vnto him , being the fruit of originall Corruption , and are in themselues verily and properly Sinnes . For Conclusion of this point , let vs heare that Argument which Bell. makes . 4. Where there is no Law , c there is no sinne . Rom. 4. 10. But there is no Law prescribed vnto sense and sensuall appetites . Ergo The Motions thereof are not sinfull . The Maior we grant . The Minor he proues ▪ Because the Law praesupposeth Reason in all that whereto it is giuen . But the sensitiue part of Man is without Reason , and ergo not capable of a Law , according as it is in bruite beasts , to whom ergo no Law is giuen . This he further proues by that place , Rom. 7. 20. Now if I doe that I would not , it is no more I that doe it , but Sinne that dwelleth in me . Where 't is plaine ( saith Bell. ) that the Apostle did not sinne , because he lusted against his will. 'T was not he did the worke : but 't was the Sinne in him . Wherefore he saith afterward . That in his mind , i. e. in his superior faculties he serued the Law of God : and kept it : although in his flesh , i. e. sensitiue appetite and inferiour faculties he serued the Law of sin : yet , for all that he sinned not in so doing , because sinne cannot be but in the minde , and the Law is not giuen to those facul●ies that be vnreasonable . To this we answere . That God giues no Law to vnreasonable Creatures , but such as haue Reason . The sensitiue faculties of bruite-beasts haue no other Rule then Natures instinct , which guides and moderates their seuerall motions in due order and measure . But in man those inferiour faculties how euer vnreasonable , are yet capable of Reasons Gouernment , which according to Gods Law prescribes vnto the motions of the sensitiue appetite their measure and bounds , beyond which they may not passe . If a man were vncorrupt , the appetite would obey this rule of Reason and keepe it selfe within those prescribed Bounds . But being now corrupt by Sinne , it breakes out beyond this compasse and ouerbeares Reason and will , which in their sinfull weaknes are not able to bridle these vnrulie motions . wherefore when Bell. saieth . That the Law is giuen to the reasonable will , not to the sensiue appetite ; it is vtterly false : Because in Man it is probable of gouernment , and so subject to the Law. Our Reason hath euen in this our corrupted estate a ciuill command ouer our appetite and affections ; so that it can moderate them by faire persuasions now and then . That which it can doe sometimes , it ought to doe alwaies , and if any affections can obey Reason at sometimes , were they not infected with Sinne , they would doe it at all times . And if they doe well when they obey , certainly they doe euill when they disobey . And ergo such motions of them , as are repugnant to right reason , are nothing but rebellion against God's Law. As to the place in the 7. Rom. we answere . That that Interpretation of it which Bell. brings is most peruerse and against all Sense . The Apostle complaines that he did the Euill , which he would not ; no doubt in so doeing he did sinne . But what is it now which committed this guilt or sinne ? It is not I that doe it saieth the Apostle : but that sinne that dwelleth in me . That is , according to Bell : not I in my mind , or superior faculties of Reason and Will : but my inferior Appetite and affections which doe this euill against my consent . So the meaning shal be Concupiscence in that duell in the Apostle committed Sinne : but the Apostle himselfe committed it not . Which is very absurd . As if a cholericke-Man hauing done a mischiefe in his anger should sa●e , It were not he did it ; but his raging passion : or an adulterer , that 't was not he committed the Sinne ; but his sinfull Affection that carried him further then reason would . So that if God will punish such a sinne ; he must not punish him : but onely his sensitiue appetite which was in fault . This is ridiculous , for besides that it crosseth the Romanists Doctrine manifestly ; in teaching that such disorderly motions of the sensitiue appetite be no sinnes , which heere the Apostle contradicts , saying plainly ( that the Sinne which dwelt in him did doe the euill he would not . ( viz , Sinne : ) it draweth after it this grosse Error . That some faecultie in man may sin , and yet the man not sinne himselfe . Wherefore the Apostle in that speach , 'T is not I doe it : but sinne in me . doth not oppose one facultie against the other , the reasonable will , against the sensitiue appetite , seeking for a shift to excuse his sinne , by putting it off from himselfe , to that which was not capable of Sinne : but he opposeth grace in euery facultie to Corruption in the same facultie ; as two contrarie Principles and causes of his actions , one mouing to good ; the other enclining to bad . Thence the Apostle saieth , that ( when he doth euill ) 't is not I that doe it . i. e , I regenerate according to the Grace , that dwelleth in me , for that inclines me to doe good : but 't is the Sinne dwelling in me which ( when I would doe well ) inclines me to doe euill . He heere shewes the Roote , whence this Euill comes : but yet he doth not put off the fault from himselfe . As 't is himselfe doth well : so 't is himself● doth ill too , according as he concludes . vers 25. Then I my selfe . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe both well and ill ; well , according to Grace , in my mind that is regenerate , part both of inferior and superior facultie . I serue the Law of God ; but ill according to corruption remaining in me : but in my flesh , vnregenerate part the Law of Sinne. Much more might be added : but 't is not my purpose , heere to enter vpon the common place at large , I proceed to the second quaestion of our Aduersaries , who teach that albeit our Loue of God be imperfect : yet this imperfection is not sinne in vs. They grant . That no man hath any grace of the spirit : but he may encrease in it daily . that the Loue of God and our Neighbours may still grow on to farther degrees of affection ; That no grace , nor good worke hath that full perfection , which it might haue in this Life , or which we shall attaine vnto in Heauen . But they deny this defect to be any fault or sinne . 2. Defectus Charitatis quod ( viz ) non faciamus opera nostra tanto feruore dilectionis , quanto faciemus in patriâ , defectus quidemest : sed culpa & peccatum non est . saieth Bell. and againe Charitas nostra quamuis comparata ad Charitatem beatorum , sit imperfecta : tamen absolute perfecta dici potest . This is an Error , against which we defend this Conclusion in generall , touching both Charity and all man Righteousnes . The defects or want of Perfection in Mans Righteousnes is Sinne. For the proofe of this point we are to obserue , that the Imperfection , or Perfection of any thing is to be considered of two waies . 1 Comparatiuely . When any thing set by another is more or lesse perfect , then that other . 2 Absolutely . When considered in it selfe , it hath or wantes that Perfection which it should haue by its proper Nature . Betweene these there is great difference . For Comparatiue imperfection is not euill : absolute imperfection is Euill . We may see it in an example , The Senses that are in Man being compared with their like in other creatures , 't is manifest they are much excelled by them , as by an Eagle for sight , a spider for touch . &c. Heere we say that the eie of a man is not perfect as the eie of an Eagle : but yet we doe not account this imperfection any Naturall euill of the eie of a man. God might haue giuen a stronger and a clearer sight to men : but we , blame not his workes ; nor count our sight imperfect because it hath not that singular Temper which is in other Creatures ; but because it wants at any time that temper which is agreeable to our nature . Such a defect only , is properly an Euill in Nature , when something is wanting to the perfection of any part , which by the Course of nature should be there . Thus 't is also in Grace . Compare we the Righteousnes of man , or Angels , with the Righteousnes of God ; we saie that God's is infinitely more perfect then the Creatures . But now is this imperfection in Humane or Angelicall righteousnes any Euill and Sinne in them ? We saie No. Neither are the Angels sinfull because lesse righteous then God : nor Adam sinfull because lesse righteous then either . God made them both lesse good then himselfe : yet very good and without all Sinne. There be degrees of Righteousnes , and though the Creature be infinitely below the heighest pitch of goodnes ( which is God : ) yet he may bee still aboue that lowest descent vnto Sinne and vnrighteousnes . In Phylosophie we dispute whether the slackening of any degree in one Quality , be the mingling of another that is contrary . As heat in eight degrees if it decrease vnto seuen , whether there is any degree of cold mingled with it . 'T is heard to say that there is . But concerning Grace and Righteousnes 't is certaine , there is that remissio graduum without any admixtion of Sinne and iniquity . As the Holines of Saints is lesse then that of Angels ; that of Angels lesse then the Holines of Christs glorified Humanity , this lesse then his Diety . And yet in the least of these Righteousnesses there is no Vnrighteousnes at all to be found , no not in the seuere judgement of God. Except we say there is vnrighteousnes in Heauen where no vncleane thing can enter . Well then . What Imperpection of mans Righteousnes is it , which is Sinne ? We say . That Imperfection , when man in any Grace or good Worke wantes that degree of goodnes , which he ought to haue . As in nature . If the Eye want that cleernes of sight which should be in it : 't is a naturall Euill . In Morality if a man want that Temperance or degree of Temperance he ought to haue , it s a vitious and morall euill : so in Grace the want of that righteousnes or degree of righteonsnes which God requires to be in man , is a Sinne and spirituall Euill . All such priuations of what should be present are Euill in what kind soeuer . If they be in nature they be malamiseranda , deserue pity and cure : if in Vertue and Grace ; they be mala culpanda worth of blame and punishment . Such defects as these in Grace , when man fals short , not onely of that which is in others ; but that which should be in himselfe , doe alwaies arise from the mixture of Corruption and Sinne. Hee that loues n●t God or his neighbour so much as he ought to doe : 't is because his heart be wicked , at the least in part ; and that he loues others things more then he should doe . These things are certaine and vndeniable according to those words of St. Augustin that are authenticall . a Profecto illud quod minus est quam debet , ex vitio est . And againe . b Pec●atum est , vel cum non est charitas , quae esse debet : vel minor est quam debet . 'T is a Sinne , not to loue . God at all : or to loue him lesse then we should . Wherefore heere we aske the Iesuite whether Charity and other Graces in a man regenerate be so perfect in this Life , as they ought to be ? If he say , they be not so perfect , as they ought to be . how can he affirme that this defect is no fault nor Sinne : Can a man possibly doe worse , or be worse then he should ; and yet be i● no fault therefore ? If he say they be as perfect as they should be , his owne Conscience and the Conscience of all the men in the World will gain-say him for a liar . No man can say , that he loues God and his Neighbour asmuch as he ought to doe : and that he is not bound in euery grace and good worke to ariue at greater perfection , then hee hath for the present . He that thinkes himselfe come nearest vnto the marke , will yet be driuen to confesse , that he fals many bowes short of those patternes which we ought to imitate , Adam in his Innocency ; Christs Humanity , and the Saints in Heauen . Wee here bid them ( Depinge ubi sistam ) make a point where we shall stoppe : that when we are come so farre , we need seeke no further perfection . If they cannot do this , then they must confesse , as the truth is , that euery man is bound by Gods command to be more holy , to be more perfect in all Graeces and good workes ; and so farre as he wants any degree or dramme of goodnesse , that should be in him and his works , so farre he is sinfull and guilty of a fault . 3 I goe on to the last Assertion of our Aduersaries , which is to●ching veniall sinnes , ( viz. ) That these doe not hinder the righteousnesse of mens good workes . A man may be a perfect iust man , though he commit many veniall sinnes . The reason whereof they make to be [ because veniall sinnes are not contrary to charity , the loue of God and our neighbour , and so may stand well enough with the fulfilling of the Law. Against this errour , tending to the obduration of mans hart in impenitency & loue of sin : we maintain this conclusiō . Those sinnes which the Church of Rome cals veniall , doe truly make a man regenerate , and his workes vnrighteousnesse in the sight of God. This we proue by this one Argument . Whosoeuer transgresseth the Law , he is vnrighteous in so doing . But he that commits veniall sinnes , transgresseth the Law. Ergo , He that commits veniall sinnes is an vnrighteous man. The Maior is vndeniable . For the Minor our Aduersarie is at a stand . They are loath to grant it : yet cannot tell how to deny it with any honesty . Bellarmine after one or two shuffling distinctiōs of simpliciter , & secundum quid ; perfectè and imperfectè , at last plainly denies that veniall sinnes be contrary to the Law. For answering vnto those places in Iames. [ In many things we offend all , ] and that in Iohn . [ If we say we haue no sinne , we deceiue our selues . ] Hee saith they cannot hansomly shift themselues of those places , who hold that veniall sinnes be [ propriè contra Legem . ] Such as bee of that opinion [ Let them looke to it ( saith he ) what they will answere to that of Saint Iames. ] He that keepes the Law in one point , &c. ] He therefore will be more wise and wary . [ Sol●da igitur respensio est ( saith he ) Peccata venialia , sine quibus non viuitur , non esse peccata simpliciter , sed imperfectè & secundum quid : neque esse contra Legem , sed praerer Legem . ] And thus saith he , Omnia cohaerent ( like a Pebble in a Withe ) [ Nam qui ostendit in vno praeuaricans scilicet vnum praeceptum , reus est omnium & simpliciter iniustus constituitur & tamen in multis offendimus omnes , quia tametsi nihil facimus contra Legem ; tamen multa facimus praeter Legem . Et qui ●atus est ex Deo , non peccatat transgrediendo Legem , & tamen si dicamus q●ia peccatum non habemus . ( viz. ) nihil praeter Legem faciendo : no● ipsos seducimus , & veritas non est in Nobis . ] This is an vnbound Besome , as will appeare by vndoing that distinction which seemes to hold it together . Veniall sinnes are not against the Law : but besides the Law. Well , we must now know what is against the Law , & what besides . That is against the Law , when any thing is done which the Law forbids ; or left vndone which it commands . That is besides the Law , when the thing done is neither cōmanded , nor forbidden in the Law. He then that commits a veniall sinne , doth some such act as the Law neither forbids nor commands . Here then we aske . Be veniall sinnes , sinnes ? Yea , they be . Is God offended with them ? Yea , and he may iustly punish them , on vs with the losse of Heauen . For so Bellarmine himselfe confesseth . [ Peccata venialia nisi misericorditer remittantur impediunt ab ingressu illius Regni in quod nihil coinquinatum intrare potest . ] Now sure this is admirable , that such acts as these should defile a man , deserue hell , offend God , in a word be sinnes , and yet for all this neither commanded nor forbidden in any Law of God. Was there euer such a toy heard of as this ? as Sinnes beside the Law. T is a most ridiculous contradiction , Peccatum praeter Legem . He that doth any thing beside the Law , not mentioned , nor include ● therein by way of prohibition or command , t is most apparent he sinnes not , nor offends not at all . For whom doth he offend , or who can challenge him of Sinne ? Doth God the Law-giuer ? No , for t was not his intention to command or forbid such an act , and ergo , be it done or not done , it crosseth not his will : nor hath he any reason to finde fault or be displeased at it . Satan or Man cannot accuse him . For let them then shew the Law that prooues him an offender . If they cannot alleadge a Law against which he hath transgressed : they wrongfully accuse him of a fault . Were it not absurd accusation against a prisoner at the Barre ; to say that he hath indeed done nothing against the Lawes of the Land : but many things besides the Law not forbidden nor commanded in the Law , those hee hath done and deserues to be punished for it as an offender ? But now if those veniall sinnes bee mentioned in Gods Law : then are such actions either commanded or forbidden . If commanded , then the not doing of such a thing , is plainely contrary to the Law. As for example . c To steale a penny , or some other small matter , to please an idle word , to tell an officious lie ; these be veniall sinnes say our Aduersaries . But how hnow they , they be sinnes ? who told them so ? The Scriptures they will say . Where ? In the 8 and 9 Commandement . Aske them now . Did God intend in those Commandements to forbid those actions of stealing and lying ? Yea , or No ? If he intended it not ; then t is no sinne at all to doe them , seeing it cro●seth not Gods will , nor offends him . If he did intend to forbid vs those things : then to doe them is a sinne , manifestly contrary to the holy will of God , the Lawgiuer . Wherfore let vs here remēber that excellent rule of Bernard . [ Non iussa quïdem licitè vtrumlibet , vel admittuntur vel omittuntur : iussa vero sine culpa non negleguntur , sine crimine non ●ontemnuntur . For things not commanded : we may either lawfully doe them or leaue them : but for things commanded , to neglect them is a sinne , to contemne them is a haynous crime . Wherefore this distinction of sins against , and sinnes beside the Law falleth to dust : and our Minor Proposition stands firme : That he who committeth veniall Sinne , transgresseth the Law of God , and therefore is vnrighteous for his so doing . a Becanus here forsakes the Cardinall in this distinction : and helpes him by an other deuis● . He grants that Veniall Sinnes be against the Law , and proues it , [ because euery Veniall Sinne is moraliter malum , and Ergo contra rectam rationemet Legem aeternam . ) But here 's now the distinction : It is one thing to be contra Legem ; another contra finem Legis . All Veniall sinnes be against the Law : but no veniall sinne is properly against the end of the Law. that is , against Charity the Loue of God or our Neighbour . Is not this a superfine Inuention ? As if a Subiect that hath in many things broken the Law , should say . True my faults be against the Law of the Land : but yet they are not against the end of those Lawes . viz. obedience to my Prince , and Loue to the good of him and my Country . Though I break the Lawes : yet I would not haue you thinke ; but I loue and honour my Prince and Country well enough . Iust so the Iesuits . A man may commit many sinnes against Gods Law : and yet obserue the end of the Law , in louing God with all his heart ; and his Neighbour as himselfe . Then which nothing can be more senselesse , that a man should offend God in breaking of his Law : and yet not withstanding loue God with his whole heart . That a man should wrong his Neighbour doing that to him which he would not haue done to himselfe : and yet , for all that , loue his Neighbour as himselfe . ( If ye loue mee keepe my Commandem●nts ) saith Christ. Iohn . 14. 15. Nay ( say the Romanists ) we loue him and yet breake his Commandements . ( Loue doth none eu●l to his Neighbour ) saith the Apostle Romans . 13. . 10 Nay ( say the Iesuits ) Loue may doe euill to his Ne●ghbour : and yet keepe the name of loue . A man may be angry with another without cause , reuile him , and call him Racha , hee may defraude him in small matters ( for these they make veniall sinnes ) and yet in the meane time , all this without breath of Charity . Himselfe would not willingly be so vsed : but hee will vse another in this sort ; and yet looke to bee thanked for his loue too . Such grosse absurdities doe our Aduersaries runne in to , by coyning such senselesse distinctions of ( Sinnes not against : but besides the Law ) of sinnes not against the end of the Law : though against the Law it selfe . Our Consciences cannot be satisfied with such silly shiftes : and therefore we leaue them vnto those that can content themselues ; and choake vp their Consciences with a little sophistry . Men who make a pastime of sinne ; and take liberty to qualifie and dispence with Gods Law as they thinke agreeable to their Conscience ; hoping by tricks of wit and dodging Distinctions to a void the accusations of Conscience , and to elude the seuerity of Gods Iudgement . SECT . 4. CHAP I ▪ Iustification by workes makes void the couenant of grace of the difference between the law & the Gospel . of the vse of the Law. of the erroneous conceit of our Aduersaries in this point . THus much of these three Exceptions of our ●econd Arg●ment , prouing the impossibili●y of our Iustification by the workes of the Law , because we cannot perfectly fulfill the ●aw . We goe now forward vnto two Arguments more ; taken , the one from the difference of the two Couenants God hath made with man. First of works , the other of grace : and the other from the Nature of true Christian Lib●rty obtained for vs by Christs death . 3 Argument . That which makes voide the Couenant of Grace is a false and haereticall doctrine . But Iustification of workes of the Law , makes void the Couenant of Grace . Ergo , T is false and haeriticall so to teach . For confirmation of the minor in this Argument wee must briefly shew . 1 ( What the Couenant of Grace , what the Couenant of workes is ) 2 What opposition their is betweene these two . By the Couenant of Grace we vnderstand in one word , the Gospell , i. e. the gratious appointment of God to bring man to Saluation by Iesus Christ. In the administration of this gratious purpose of God we must obserue foure periods of time , where in God hath diuersly ordered this meanes of Mans saluation . 1 The first is from Adam vntill Abraham . Werein God made the promise to Adam anone after his miserable fall : and renued it as occasion serued vnto the Patriarches and Holy men of that first Age of the world . viz. That ( the seede of the woman should breake the Serpents head ) This blessed promise containing the whole substance of mans redemption by Christ , was religiously accepted of , and embrased by the seruants of God in those times . who witnessed their Faith in it , by their offering of sacryfice as God had taught them : and thier Thankfulnesse for it , by their Obedience and holy Conuersation . The second is from Abraham to Moses . After that men had now almost forgot Gods promise and their owne duty : and Idolatry was crept into those Families , wherein by succession the Church of God had continued , God cals forth Abraham from amongst his Idolatrous kinred , & with him renues that former promise in forme of a League and Couenant confirmed by word & solemne Ceremonies . God on the one side promising to be the God of Abraham , and of his seed , & that in his seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed : Abraham for his part beleeuing the promise , and accepting the condition of ●bedience to walke before God in vprightnesse . This Couenant with Abraham is rat●fied by two externall Ceremonies . One of a fi●e-brand p●ssing between the pieces of the Heifer and other Beasts with Abraham , according to custome in making of Leagues had diuided in twaine . Gen. 15. The other the Sacrament of Circumcision vpon the flesh of Abraham and his posterity . Gen. 17. The third period is from the time of Moses vntill Christ. When ( after the Church multiplyed vnto a Nation , and withall in processe of time , and continuance among the Idolatrous Aegyptians , grew extremely corrupt in Religion and Manners ) God againe reuiues his former Couenant made with Abraham . Putting the Iewes in remembrance of the Couenant of grace in Christ. 1 By adding vnto the first Sacrament of circumcision another of the Passeouer , setting forth vnto the Iewes , the Author of their deliuerance ; as well from the spirituall slauery and punishment of sinne ; as from the bodily bondage and plagues of Aegypt . 2 Afterwards by instituting diuers Rites & Ceremonies concerning Priests sacrifices , &c. all which were shadowes of good things to come ( viz. ) of Christ , the Churches Redemption by his death . Which things were prefigured vnder those types , though somewhat darkely , yet plainely enough to the weake vnderstanding of the Iewes . Who in that Minority of the Church stood in need of such Schoolemasters and Tutors to direct them vnto Christ. The fourth period and last is from Christs death , to the end of the world . Who in the fulnesse of time appearing in our flesh , accomplished all the Prophecies and promises that went before of him : and by the Sacrifice of himselfe , confirmed that Couenant a new : which so long before had beene made with the Church . Withall hauing abolished whatsoeuer before was weake and imperfect , hee hath now replenished the Church with aboundance of knowledge , and of grace , still to continue and increase , till the consummation of all things . In all these periods of time , the grace of God that brings saluation to man was euer one and the same : onely the Reuelation thereof , was with much variety of circumstances , as God saw it agreeable to euery season . In the first t was called a Promise , in the second a Couenant , in the two last Periods , a Testament ; the Old from Moses till Christs death ; the New from thence to the worlds end , in both Remission of sinnes , and Saluation bequeathed as a Legacy vnto the Church : and this bequeast ratified by the death of the Testator , typically slaine in the Sacrifices , for confirmation of the Old : Really put to death in his owne Person , for the Sanction of the New Testament . But notwithstanding this or any other diuersity in circumstance , the substance of the Gospel , or couenant of Grace , is but one & the same , throughout all ages . Namely , Iesus Christ yesterday , and to day , and the same for euer . In the next place . By the Couenant of Workes , we vnderstand that we call in one word the Law : Namely , That meanes of bringing man to Saluation , which is by perfect obedience vnto the will of God. Hereof there are also two seuerall Administrations . 1 The first is with Adam before his fall . When Immortality and Happinesse was promised to Man , and confirmed by an externall Symbole of the Tree of Life : vpon condition that he continued obedient to God , as well in all other things ; as in that particular Commandement of not eating of the Tree of knowledge of good and euill . 2 The second Administration of this Couenant was the renuing thereof with the Israelites at Mount Sinai : where ( after that the light of Nature began to grow darker , and corruption had in time worne out the Characters of Religion and Vertue , first graued in mans heart ) God reuiued the Law , by a compendious and full declaration of all duties required of man , towards God or his Neighbour , expressed in the Decalogue . According to the Tenor of which Law God entred into Couenant with the Israelites , promising to be their God ; in bestowing vpon them all blessings of Life and Happinesse , vpon condition that they would be his people , obeying all things that he had commanded . Which Condition they accepted of , promising an absolute Obedience . All things which the Lord hath said we will doe . Exod. 19. 24. and also submitting themselues to all punishment in case they disobeyed ; saying Amen to the Curse of the Law. Cursed be euery one that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to doe them : and all the people shall say , Amen . Deut. 27. 26. We see in briefe what these Couenants of Grace & Workes are . In the second place we must inquire what opposition there is betweene these two ; Grace and Workes ; the Gospell and the Law. The opposition is not in regard of the End whereat both doe aime . They agree both in one common end , namely the Glory of God in Mans eternall Saluation . The disagreement is in the meanes , whereby this End may be attained ; which are proposed to Men in one sort by the Law , in another by the Gospell . The diuersity is this . The Law offers life vnto Man vpon Condition of perfect Obedience , cursing the Transgressors thereof in the least point with eternall Death : The Gospell offers Life vnto Man vpon another condition , viz. Of Repentance , and Faith in Christ , promising Remission of sinnes to such as repent and beleeue . That this is the maine Essentiall and proper difference betweene the Couenant of workes and of Grace ( that is ) betweene the Law and the Gospell , we shall endeauour to make good against these of the Romish Apostasy who deny it . Consider we then the Law of Workes , either as giuen to Adam before the promise : or as after the promise it remained in some force with Adam & all his posterity . For the time before Mans fall . It is apparant that perfect obedience was the condition required for the establishing of Adam in perpetuall blisse . Other meanes there was not : nor needed any be proposed vnto him . But when Man had failed in that Condition ; and so broken the Covenant of Workes : God to repaire Mans ruined Estate , now desperate of euer attaning vnto happines by the first means : he appoints a second offering vnto Adam a Sauiour ; that by Faith in him , and not by his owne vnspotted Obedience , hee might recouer Iustification , and Life which he had lost . So that what Adam should haue obtained by workes without Christ : now hee shall receiue by Faith in Christ without Workes . Since the time of Mans fall we must consider , that the Law and Gospell though they goe together , yet as they still differ in their vse and office betweene themselues : so also the Law differs from it selfe , in that vse which it had before , and which it hath since the Fall. To vs now , it hath not the same vse which it had in Mans innocency . It was giuen to Adam for this end , to bring himselfe to Life , and for that purpose it was sufficient both in it selfe , as an absolute Rule of Perfection : and in regard of Adam who had strength to haue obserued it . But vnto Man fallen , although the Band of Obedience doe remaine : yet the End thereof ( viz. ) Iustification and Life by it , is now abolished by the promise , because the Law now is insufficient for that purpose , not of it selfe , but by reason of our sinfull flesh , that cannot keepe it . This is most manifest by the renewing of the first Couenant of Workes with the Iewes , when God deliuered vnto them the Morall Law , from Sinai , at which time God did not intend that the Iewes should obtaine Saluation , by Obedience to that Law. God promised Life if they could obey , and the Iewes , as their duty was promised they would obey ; but God knew well enough they were neuer able to keepe their promise , and ergo 't was not God's intention in this Legall couenant with the Iewes , that any of them should euer attaine Iustification , and Life by that meanes . As that first the Promise need not to haue bin made vnto Adam , if the Law could haue suffised for the attaining of Life : so after the Promise was once made , the Law was not renewed with the Iewes ; to that end that Righteousnes and Life should be had by the obseruation of it . This is the plaine doctrine of the Apostle . Gal. 3. in that his excellent dispute against Iustification by the Law. The doubt that troubled the Galatians was this . God had made an Evangelicall couenant with Abraham , a that in Christ he and his faithfull seed should be blessed ; that is , Iustified . Afterward 430 yeares , he made a Legall couenant with Abraham's posterity , that they should liue , that is , be justified and saued , if they did fulfill all things written in the Law. The Quaestion now was , which of these two couenants should stand in force , or whether both could stand together . The Apostle answere , that the former couenant should stand in force , and that the later did not abrogate the former ; not yet could stand in force together with the former . This he expresseth v. 17. 18. And this I say , that the couenant that was confirmed afore of God in respect of Christ , the Law which was 430 yeares after , cannot disanull that it should make the Promise of none effect . For if the inheritance ( viz ) of Righteousnes and life , be by the Law ; it is not by the Promise : but God gaue it to Abraham by Promise , Heere now they might object , Wherefore then serueth the Law ? If Men cannot bee iustified by keeping the Law , to what end was it giuen so long after the Promise was made ? To this the Apostle answeres . It was added ( vnto the Promise ) because of the transgressions . Here 's the true vse of the Morall Law , since the fall of Man , not to justifie him and giue life : but to proue him to be vniust and worrhy of death . It was added [ because of transgressions . ] that is . 1. To convince Man of Sinne , that he might be put in remembrance what was his duty of old ; and what was his present infirmity in doing of it , and what was God's wrath against him for not doing it . That seeing how impossible it was for him to attaine vnto life by this old way of the Law. First appointed in Paradise , he might be humbled and driuen to looke after that new way , which God had since that time layed forth , more heedfully attending the Promise , and seeking vnto Christ , who is the End of the Law vnto euery one that beleeues in him . Which vse God pointed out vnto the Iewes , figuring Christ vnto them in the Mercyseate , couering the Arke wherein the Tables of the Couenant were kept , and in the Sacrifices appointed for all sorts of Transgressions against this Couenant . To admonish the Iewes a further thing was aimed at in giuing them the Law , namely the bringing of them — to Christ the promised seed , in whom Remission of Sinnes , and Life Eternall was to bee had . 1. To restraine Man from Sinne. That the Law might be a perpetuall rule of Holinesse and Obedience whereby Man should walke and glorifie God to the vtmost of his power . That so those Iewes might not thinke that God by making a gracious Promise , had vtterly nullified the Law , and that now Men might liue as they list ; but that they might know these bounds prescribed them of God , within which compasse they were to keep themselues , that so the ouer-flowing of Iniquity might be restrained . These most excellent , perpetuall and necessary vses of the morall Law , God intended in renewing of the Legall couenant with the Iewes : & ergo the Apostle concludes , that God did not crosse himself , when first he gaue the Inheritance to Abraham by promise , and afterwards made a Legall couenant with the Iewes his posterity . Is the Law then against the Promises ? ( saith the Apostle ) God forbid . For if there had beene a Law giuen , which could haue giuen Life , surely Righteousnesse should haue bin by the Law : But the Scripture hath concluded all vnder Sinne , that the promise by the Faith of Iesus Christ might be giuen to all that beleeue . ver . 21. 22. Whence it is most cleare that the Law and the Gospell in some things are subordinate and vphold one another ; in other absolute , and destroy one another : As the Law by the discouery of Sinne and the punishment of it , humbles man and prepares him to receaue the Gospell . 2. As the Law is a sacred direction for Holines and Obedience to those that haue embraced the Gospell and all others . 3. As the Law requires satisfaction for the Breach of it , and the Gospell promiseth such satisfaction : thus the Law and Gospell agree well together and establish one another . But as the Law giues life to them that perfectly obey it , and the Gospell giues Life to them that stedfastly beleiue it : thus the Law and Gospell are one against the other ; and ouerthrow one another . And ergo if God had giuen such a Law to the Iewes , as could haue brought Saluation to them through the perfect fulfilling of it : 't is apparant that God had made voide his former Couenant vnto Abraham , because Righteousnes should haue bin by the Law , and not by Christ. But now God gaue no such Law , as could be kept by the Iewes , as the Apostle proues , because all were sinners against it ; and therefore it followes that notwithstanding the giuing of the Law , the Promise standes good for euer ; and Righteousnes is to be odtained onely by the Faith of Iesus Christ. From hence we conclude firmely . That the difference betweene the Law and the Gospell , assigned by our Diuines is most certaine and agreable to the Scriptures . viz. That . The Law giues Life vnto the Iust vpon Con●ition of perfect Obedience in all things : The Gospell giues Life vnto Sinners vpon Condition , they repent and beleiue in Christ Iesus . Whence it is plaine . That in the point of Iustification these two are incompatible , and that therefore our minor Proposition standes verified . That Iustification by the workes of the Law , makes voide the Couenant of Grace . Which Proposition is the same with the Apostles assertion else-where . Gal. 2. 21. If Righteousne : be by the Law Christ died in vaine . and Gal. 5. 4. Ye are abolished from Christ : whosoeuer are iustified by the Law ; yee are fallen from Grace . By somuch more iuiurious are these of the Romish Church vnto the Gospell of Christ , when , by denying this difference , they would confound the Law and Gospell : and bring vs backe from Christ to Moses , to seeke for our Iustification in the fulfilling of the Morall Law. They would persuade vs that the Gospell is nothing , but a more perfect Law , or the Law perfected by addition of the Spirit , enabling men to fulfill it ; That the promises of the Gospell be vpon this Condition , of fulfilling the Law ▪ with such like stuffe . Their Doctrine touching this point is declared vnto vs by Bellarmine . Lib 4. de Iustificat . cap. 3. 4. Where he comes many distinctions betweene the Law and Gospell : but will by no meanes admit of that which our Reformed Diuines make to be the chiefe . The cheife distinction which he conceaues to be betweene them he frameth thus . The Gospell ( saieth he ) is taken in a double sense . 1. For the Doctrine of Christ , and his Apostles by them preached and written ; 2. For the Grace of the Holy Ghost giuen iu the New Testament , which he makes to be the Law written in our Hearts , the quickening Spirit , the Law of Faith Charity shed abroad in our Hearts , in opposition to the Law written in stone , to the dead and killing Letter , the Law of Workes , the Spirit of bondage and feare . Vpon this he proceeds to the difference betweene the Law and the Gospell . Thus. The Law teacheth vs what is to be done , the Gospell ( if it be taken for the Grace of the holy Ghost ) so it differs from the Law ; because it gaines strength to doe it : but if it be taken for the Doctrine deliuered by Christ and his Apostles , so it agrees with the Law , teaching vs , as the Law doth , what things are to be done . This Argument the Iesuite illustrates and proues in three particulars . 1. The Gospell containes , Doctrinam operum , or Leges . For Morall praecepts , they be the same in the Gospell , that be in the Law ; euen those praecepts that seeme most Euangelicall . ( viz ) of louing our Enemies , witnes of this all the writings of the New Testament , wherein euery where we find praecepts , & exhortations to the same virtues , Prohibitions and dehortations from the same vices , which the Law forbids or commands . So that for Morals , the Doctrine of the Gospell is but the Doctrine of the Law ; newly ( that is ) most cleerely and fully expounded . Nor is the Gospell in a more perfect substance : but in Circumstance a more perspicuous Doctrine . Which , though a Trueth , yet is very ridiculouslie proued by the Cardinall out of . Mat. 5. Nisi abundauerit &c. Vnlesse your Righteousnes exceed . What ? He saieth not the righteousnes of the Law and Prophets : but of the Scribes and Pharisees ; yee shall not enter &c. A profound Glosse . ( Christ would not add to the Burden of the Law : but take away from the false glosse of the Scribes and Pharisees . ) Surely good cause had our Sauiour to taxe both the Doctrine of the Pharisees in interpreting , and their manners in their hypocriticall practice of the Law in outward matters ; without inward Obedience ; But litle Reason was there that Christ should require of man more perfection then Gods Law required and 't is a fancie to dreame of any such meaning , in our Sauiours speach . 2 The Gospell containes Comminations , and threatnings as the Law doth . Witnes the many woes from Christ's owne mouth against the Scribes and Pharisees ; together with those frequent denunciations of Iudgement and Damnation to such as are vngodly , that doe not repent and obey the Gospell . 3 Thirdly the Gospell containes promises of Life and happines : but these Euangelicall promises be not absolute but vpon the same Condition , that the Legall are . ( viz ) Cum conditione implendae Legis , Cum conditione Iustitiae actualis , & operosae , quae in perfecta Mandatorum obseruatione consistit . Cap. 2. This the Iesuite would proue vnto vs. 1. From that . Math. 5. Vnlesse your Righteousnes aboud &c. ( that is , in Bellarmines Construction ) so far as , vnto the perfect keeping of the Law : you shall not enter into the Kingdome of Heauen . 2. From Mat. 19. 17. Mat. 10. 19. Where Christ speakes to the yong man. Asking him what he should doe to be saued . If thou wilt enter into Life keepe the Commandements . And to the Lawyer . ( 10. 28. ) who asked the like Question he answeres . This doe and thou shalt liue . That is . Fulfill the Law , and thou shalt be saued . In which wordes they say ; That Christ did preach the Gospell , and shewed vnto these men the very Evangelical way to Saluation . 3. From the many places of Scripture . Wherein Mortificati●n of Sinne , and the studious practice of Holines . and Obedience is required of vs. As. Rom. 8. If yee mortifie the deed 's of the flesh by the Spirit : yee shall liue . So. Ezekiel 18. 21. If the wicked will returne from all his Sinnes , that he hath committed ; and keepe all my statutes , and doe , that which is lawfull and Right : he shall surely liue and not die . With a Number such like places . 4. From the very Tenor of the Gospell . He that belieueth shall be saued : but he that belieueth not , shall be damned . Where we see the Promise of Life is not absolute , but conditionall . If we doe such and such workes . From hence the Romanist concludes : That seeing the precepts , threatnings , and promises of the Gospell , be for matter the same , that those of the Law are : the true difference betweene the Law and Gospell shall be this . That the Law nakedly proposeth what is to be done without giuing grace to performe it : but the Gospell not only proposeth what is to be done , but withall giueth Grace and strength to doe it : and therefore the Law giuen by Moses the Law-giuer cannot iustifie , because it was giuen without the grace of fulfilling it : but the Gospell giuen by Christ the Redeemer doth justifie , because it is accompanied with the grace of the holy Ghost , making vs able to keepe the Law. For which cause also the Law of Moses is a yoake vnsupportable , the Law of a feare and bondage ; because it giues not grace to keepe it , but onely conuinceth our Sinne , and threatens vs punishment : but the Law of Christ , the Gospell is a light yoake , a Law of loue and liberty ; because it giues grace to keepe it , and of loue to God and man : and so by fulfilling frees a man from feared punishment . This is the summe of the Romish Doctrine touching the difference betwixt the morall Law and the Gospell in the point of Iustification , as it is deliuered vs by Bellarmine , the rotten pillar of the antichristian Synagogue . Wherein we haue scarce a syllable of distinct Trueth : but all peruerted by aequiuocations and grosse Ambiguities , as shall appeare by a short surucy of the former discourse . Whereas then he distinguisheth the Gospell into the doctrine of Christ , and his Apostles , and into the Grace of the Holy Ghost : let vs follow him in these two parts . First for Doctrine . We grant that the Gospell is often so taken : but in this matter about Iustification , this acception , on is too large ; and not distinct enough . For although , by a Synecd●che of the chiefest & most excellent part , the whole Doctrine and Ministry of Christ and his Apostles with their successors , be called the doctrine of the Gospell , and b the Ministery of the Gospell : yet all things which they preached or wrote , is not the Gospell properly so called . But as Moses chiefly deliuered the Law vnto the Iewes , though yet with all he wrote of Christ , and so in part reuealed vnto them the Gospell : so Christ and his Ministers , though chiefely they preach the Gospell , yet in its place they vrge the law withall , as that which hath its singular vse in furthering our Christian faith and practise . Wherefore when we speak of the Gospell as opposite to the Law , t is a Iesuiticall equiuocation to take it in this large sense . For the whole doctrine of Christ and his Apostles , preached by them , and written for vs in the Booke of the New Testament , we follow the Apostle in his dispute of Iustification . Gal. 3. 4. 5. And according as he doth take the Gospell strictly for the promise of Iustification and life made vnto man in Christ Iesus . This is in proper tearmes the Gospell ( viz. ) that speciall Doctrine touching mans Redemption and reconciliation with God by the meanes of Iesus Christ ; the Reuelation whereof was indeed [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] the gladdest tidings that were euer brought to the eare of mortall man. Which Gospell in strict teārmes the Angels preached . Lue. 2. 10. 11. Behold , I bring you glad tidings of great ioy , which shall be to all people , That vnto you is borne this day in the Citie of Dauid , a Sauiour which is Christ the Lord. And afterward Christ and his Apostles fully explained the mysteries thereof vnto the world . According to this necessary distinction , we answer . That if we take the Gospell in that large Acception ; t is true which Bellarmine hath . That the Gospell containes in it the Doctrine of workes ( viz. ) the Morall Law , euen the very same precepts , prohibitions , threatnings , & promises which are deliuered in the Law. All which as Christ and his Hpostles preached : so may all Ministers without blame , yea , they must , if they will auoid blame , presse the same vpon their hearers , seasonably and discreetly , that the Law may make way for the better receiuing and entertainment of Grace in the Gospell . But hence it followes not , that the Gospell properly so taken , is to be confounded as one and the same thing with the Law ; because the Law is conjoyned with it in the preachings and writings of the Ministers of the New Testament . They still are deuided in their Nature and Offices : nor hath the Gospell any affinity with the Law in praecepts , threatnings , or promises . Wherefore when Bellarmine teacheth vs. That Euangelicall promises be made with condition of perfect fulfilling the Law. T is a desperate errour , and that in the very foundation . You heard his proofes before recited : see now a little how passing weake they be . 1 Mat. 5. Except your righteousnesse , &c. To this wee answere . The plaine meaning of the place is this . Our righteousnesse must abound more then that of the Pharises ( that is , ) It must not be outside onely as theirs was : but inward Righteousnesse of the heart , in inward sanctity of the thoughts and affections , as well as of the outward Action : or else such our hypocrisie will keepe vs from entring into Heauen . But doth it hence follow , that because we must be more perfect then these Pharisees , we must be as perfect in all things as the Law requires : we must exceed them , ergo , equall the holinesse of the Law in all points ? Because wee must be syncere without hypocrisie , ergo , we must be perfect in all things without blame ? Such consequents as these , the Iesuit hath cōcluded out of his own head , not out of the text . Touching that speech of Christ to the yong man. Mat. 19. and the Lawyer . Matt. 10. That if they did fulfill the Law , they should liue . We answere , that Christ in so speaking vnto them did not preach the Gospell : but shewed vnto them the Legall way to Saluation . For these erring that grand error of the Iew in seeking for righteousnesse not by faith but by the works of the Law , seuering the Law , from Christ the end thereof ; ( as the Apostle shewes . Rom. 9. 31. 32. & 10. 3. and so supposing to be saued by doing some good thing . Christ answeres them in their humour , as euery one should be answered , that swels with high conceits of his own righteousnesse & workes , That there was a Law to be kept : and if they could fully obserue the righteousnes of it , they should be saued , sending them of purpose to the Law , that they might be humbled thereby and see their great folly in seekeing for life by that , which they were so vnable to keepe . Against which answere the a Iesuit hath nothing to rely ; but stands much in confuting of another answere made by some of our Diuines . That Christ spake these things Ironically . This Bellar. seeks to confute ; nor do I labor to confirm it ; though it might be justified for any thing he brings to the contrary . 3 Vnto those those places of Scripture that euery where almost promise life , blessednesse , the fauour of God , vpon condition of [ holinesse in life and conversation , that we mortifie the lusts of the flesh , walke in the Spirit , ouercome the world , &c. ] We answere , that , Obedience is one thing , perfect obedience is another . We say that the promises of the Gospell bee all vpon condition of obedience : but none vpon condition of perobedience . T is an iniury done vnto vs , whē they say ; we teach that Euangelicall promises be absolute and without condition , as if God did promise and giue all vnto vs ; and wee doe nothing for it on our parts . We defend no such dotage . The promises of the Gospell be conditionall ( viz. ) Namely vpon condition of repentance and amendment of life . That we study to our power to obey God in all things ; but this is such a condition as requires of sincerity and faithfulnesse of endeauour , not perfection of obedience in the full performance of euery jot and Tittle of the Law. Vnto the last Argument , from the tenour of the New Couenant ( viz. ) That we must beleeue if we will be saued ; ergo , the promise of the Gospell is with condition of fulfilling the Law. This is an Argument might make the Cardinals cheeke as red , as his Cap , were there any shame in him . Faith indeed is a worke : and this worke is required as a condition of the promise : but to doe this worke , To beleeue , though it be to obey Gods Commandement ; yet it is not perfectly to fulfill the whole Law ; but perfectly to trust in him , who brings mercy and pardon for transgressions of the Law. CHAP. II. Of Bellarmines erroneous distinction of the word Gospell . SO much of the first member of the Iesuits distinction , wherin his sophisticall fraud appeares , taking the Gospel for the whole doctrine of the New Testament , published by Christ and his Apostles , and ergo , confounding the Law & Gospell as one : because he findes the Law as well as the Gospell deliuered vnto vs , by our Sauiour and his Ministers : I proceed to the second branch of it . The Gospell ( saith he ) is taken for the grace of the holy Ghost giuen vs in the New Testament : whereby men are made able to keepe the Law. T is so taken . But where is it so taken ? The Iesuit cannot tell you that : [ Vt verum fatear ( saith he ) nomen Evangelij non videtur in Scripturis uspiam accipi , nisi pro doctrind , ] No good reason for it , in as much as t is euident to all me , that there is great difference betweene the doctrine of Mans saluation by the Mercy of God through the Merits of Christ ( which is properly the Gospell ) and the graces of the Holy Ghost bestowed on man in his Regeneration , whereby he is made able in some measure , to doe that which is good . But the fault is not so much in the name in calling the grace of God in vs by the name of Gospell : as in the mis-interpretation of the matter it selfe . Wherein two errours are committed by the Iesuite . 1 In that he maketh the grace of the New Testament , to be such strength giuen to man : that thereby he may fulfill the Law. 2 In that he saith . The Law was giuen without grace to keepe it . In both which assertions their is ambiguity and Error . For the first . We grant that grace to doe any thing that is good , is giuen , by the Gospell , not by the Law. The Law commands : but it giues no strength to Obey , because it persupposeth that he , to whome the command is giuen , hath , or ought to haue already in himselfe strength to Obey it . And Ergo , we confesse it freely , that we [ Receaue th● Spirit not by the workes of the Law : but by the hearing of Faith preached ] as it is Gal. 3. 2. The Donation of the Spirit in any measure whatsoeuer of his sanctifying graces is from Christ as a Sauiour , not as a Lawgiuer . Thus when we agree . That all Graces to doe well is giuen vnto vs by the Gospell ; but next we differ . They teach that the Gospell gies such grace vnto man , that he may fulfill what the Law commands : and so be Iustified by it . we deny it , and say that Grace is giuen by the Gospell , to obey the Law sincerely without hyppocricy : but not to fulfill it perfectly without infirmities . In which point the Iesuite failes in his proofes which he brings . 1 Out of those places where contrary Attributes are ascribed to the Law and Gospell . Vnto the Law. That it is [ the ministry a of death and Condemnation ] b [ Killing d Letter ] that it ( workes wrath ) that it is a [ Yoake d of Bondage a [ Testament c bringing forth Childeren vnto Bondage ] . But vnto the Gospell , e that it is [ The ministry f of Life ] and [ of Reconciliation ] g the h ( Spirit that quickeneth ) the ( Testament that bringeth forth Childeren to Liberty ) which opposition Bellarmine will haue to bee , because The Law giues precepts without affording strength to keepe them : but the Gospell giues grace to doe what is Commanded . But the Iesuite is here mistaken . These opposite attributes giuen to the Law , are ascribed to it in a twofold respect , 1 Inregard of of the punishment which the Law threatens to offenders ( viz. ) Death . In which regard principally the Law is said to be the ministry of Death , to worke wrath , to be not a dead , but a Killing Letter : in asmuch as being broken it leaues no hope to the Transgresser : but a fearefull expectation of eternall Death and condemnation of the Law vnder the Terrors whereof it holds them in bondage . But on the Contrary the Gospell is the ministery of Life , of reconciliation of the quickening spirit and of Liberty , because it reueales vnto vs Christ in whom we are restored to Life ; from the deserued Death and condemnation of the Law , vnto Gods fauour , being deliuered from the wrath to come , vnto liberty ; being freed from slauish feare of Punishment . This is the cheefe Reason of this opposition of Attributes . Secondly the next is in regard of Obedience . In which respect the ministry of the Law is said to be the Ministery of the Letter written in tabels of stone : but that of the Gospell is called the ministery of the Spirit which writes the Law in the fleshly tables of the heart . Because the Law bearely commands : but Ministers not power to obey ; & so is but as a dead Letter without the Vertue of the Spirit . But in the Gospell grace is giuen from Christ , who by the Holy Ghost sanctifieth the heart of his Elect , that they may liue to Righteousnesse in a sincere thought not euery way exact conformity to the Law of God. The like answere we giue vnto another proofe of his . 2 Out of that place ( Iohn 1. 17. The Law came by Moses : but Grace and truth by Iesus Christ. ) that is ( saith Bellarmine ) The Law came by Moses without grace to fulfill it : but grace to keepe it , by Christ. We answere . The true interpretation of these words is this : Moses deliuered a twofold Law , morall and ceremoniall . Opposite to these Christ hath brought a twofold priuiledge . Grace for the morall Law , whereby we vnderstand not only power giuen to the regenerate in part to obserue this Law , which strength could not come by the Law it selfe : but also , much , more Remission of sinnes committed against the Law and so our Iustification and freedome from the guilt of sinne and course of the Morall Law. Secondly , Truth for the Ceremoniall Law the substance being brought in and the shadowes vanished . wherefore the Iesuite erres greately in this point , when he makes the grace of the New Testament to consist in this . That strength is thereby giuen us to fulfill the Law. The grace of God in the Gospell is chiefely our Iustification and Redemption from the curse of the Law : and in the next place strength afforded vs to Obey the Law in some measure not perfectly as our Aduersaries would haue it . In the next point he erres as much in saying that the Law of Moses was giueu without grace to obey it . A false assertion . For although the Law of it selfe giue not grace : yet t is certaine that grace was giuen by Christ euen then when Moses published the Law. Sufficient for the proofe hereof are . 1 These excellent properties ascribed vnto the Law of God , as in other places of the old Testament : so spetially in the Booke of the Psalmes . And amongst them in the 19. and 119. Psalmes . Where the Law of God is said to ( giue light to the ei●s , to conuert the Soule , to reioice the Heart &c. ) which it could not doe of it selfe , had not the grace of the Holy Ghost being giuen in these times . without which the Law could worke no such sauing Effects . 2 Experienee of those times in the Faith , Patience , and ●bedience , and all sorts of graces shining in those ancient Saints ( who liued before and after the Law was giuen . Which graces they receaued from the Holy Ghost , shed vpon their hearts by vertue of Christs mediation , whereby they receaued strength to liue holily in Obedience vnto the Law of God. The difference betweene these times , and those vnder the Law , is not . That we haue grace and they had none : but only in the m●asure and extent of the same grace bestowed , both on vs and them . In those times as the Doctrine of the Gospell was more obscurely reuealed : so the grace which accōpanies it was more sparingly distributed , being confined to to a Church collected of one nation , and bestowed vpon that Church in a lesser measure , then now ; though yet suffitiently in that measure . But in the times of the New Testament , the light shines more brightly , and grace is dispenced more liberally , being extended indifferently to all Nations and poured vpon the Godly in a larger Abundance : according as was promised Ieremiah 31. Though also this comparison must be restrained vnto whole Churches , what generally is now done ; for no doubt in many particulars some men vnder the Law exceede for abundance of Grace , many vnder the Gospell . Wherefore it is a notable iniury vnto the Bounty of God , and the honour of those Saints of old , to exclude them from partaking of the Gospell ; to affirme that they were led only by the Spirit of Feare , and not of loue ; that they receaued not the Spirit of adoption to cry Abba father as well as wee ( though not plentifully as wee ; and so b that they were not Sonnes though vnder Tutors and gouernors , as we confesse they were but very Seruants held in Bondage and excluded from the inheritance of Grace , and glory till after Christs Death . So that at best their adoptio● was but conditionall with regard of Time to come : but , for the presēt , they were handled as slaues fear'd with temporall punishments allured by temporall rewards , like a heard of Swine fed with base achors and huskes . These be absurd Errors bred out of Scripture misvnderstood . Especially that of Iohn 1. Grace came by Christ. Ergo , not before Christs In●arnation . A sily Argument . Christ is as old as the World and his Grace as ancient , as the Name of Man vpon Earth . grace alwaies came by Crhist , & was in its measure giuen by him lōg before he appear'd in the flesh . He was euer the head of his Church , and that his Body , which he alwaies quickned by the blessed influence of his Spirit ministered therevnto . Whereby the Godly before as well as since his incarnation were made liuing members of that his misticall Body . Wherefore it is apparant , that grace is not to be tied to the Times of the Gospell and seuered from the Law. Nay , as of old the Law was not alwaies without grace : so now many times the Gospel it selfe is without grace Christ himselfe being a stumbling stone and rocke of offence , the Gospell a Sauiour of Death to those many vpon whome Grace is not bestowed ; to beleeue and embrace it . I conclude then . That this difference , with our Aduersaries make betweene the Law and Gospell is false : and that their Error is pernitious in makind the Gospel to be nothing , but a Spirit added to the Law that man may fulfill it to his Iustification . That thus a man may be saued by Christ through the perfect fulfilling of the Law. Which is a monstrous and vncouth Doctrine laying an vnsupportable burthen vpon the conscience of man and hazarding his soule to ●ternall distruction , whiles by this meanes he frustrates the Grace of God in Christ ; and withall frustrats his owne hopes of life expecting to obtaine it by that Law which he is neuer able to fulfill . SECT . 5. CHAP. I. Iustification by fulfilling the law , ouerthrowes Christian libertie , the parts of our Christian libertie . SO much of the Third Argument : The last followes drawne from the Nature of Christian Liberty . Which is this . 4. Arg. That which ouerthrowes our Christian Liberty purchased for vs by the death of Christ : that 's no Euangelical , but an Haereticall Doctrine . But Iustification by the workes of the Law ouerthrowes the spirituall Liberty of Man obtained for him by Christ. Ergò . 'T is an Haeresie against the Gospell . For the proofe of the minor Proposition , let vs in briefe consider wherein stands that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made vs free , that so we may the better perceiue what part thereof , this doctrine of Iustification by works doth nullifie and depriue vs of . The Liberty wee haue in Christ is either in regard of the Life to come , or of this praesent life . The first is the Liberty of Glory consisting in a fu●l deliuerance from that state of vanity and misery , both sinfull and painfull , wherevnto we are now subiect . And not we only , but the whole Creation , which with vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , groaneth and trauaileth in paine , till with vs it also be deliuered , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; From the bondage of Corruption , into the Glorious libertie of the Sonnes of God , ) as the Apostle declares Rom. 8. 19. & seq . This Liberty we haue in hope , not in possession . The next we actually injoy in this life , and that is the Liberty of Grace . This we may diuide not vnfitly into 3 branches : 1 Freedome from Sinne. 2 Freedome from the Law : 3 Freedome from Men. 1 Our Freedome from Sinne stands in 2 things ; 1 In our deliuerance from the Punishment of Sinne. For whereas euery Sinne of it's owne Nature brings with it guiltines , and a sure obligation vnto punishment , binding ouer the transgressor vnto the paines of God's aeternall wrath by a strōger chaine then of Steele or Adamant : Christ by his meritorious satisfaction hath broken these bonds , and ransomed vs from this fearefull Bondage vnto Hell and destruction . He being made a Curse for vs , hath redeemed vs from the Curse of the Law. Gal. 3. 13. That is , By taking on himselfe the punishment of our Sinnes , in his owne person suffering , and satisfying the wrath and Iustice of God , he hath once for euer set vs free from the dreadfull vengeance of God , which we deserue should fall vpon vs for our Iniquities . 2 In our deliuerance from the Power of Sinne , which though it abide in vs in the Reliques of our corrupted Nature : yet by the power of the Holy Ghost dwelling in the Hearts of the Regenerate , it is subdued and kept vnder , that it doth not reigne nor exercise it's commanding authority without Controle . So that whereas the Vnregenerate be the Seruants of Sinne , wholly at the command of Satan and wicked affections , the Regenerate are freed from this slauery being ruled and guided by the Spirit of the Lord , which wheresoeuer it is , there is liberty , as the Apostle speakes , 2 Cor. 3. 17. Liberty from that blindnes wherein we are holden by Nature , not knowing what the will of God is . Liberty from that rebellion and infirmity of our Nature , whereby we are , nor willing , nor able to doe the will of God. From which we are freed in part by the Spirit of Christ , inlightning our Mindes , and changing our Hearts . This Liberty from Sinnes dominion and damnation , S. Paul joynes together , Rom. 8. 2. ( The Law of the Spirit of Life , which is in Christ Iesus , hath freed me from the Law of Sinne and of Death . ) And againe , Rom. 6. 14. Sinne shall not haue Dominion ouer you , for ye are not vnder the Law , but vnder Grace . 2 Our freedome from the Law is eithr from the Ceremoniall or Moral law . The Ceremoniall Law contained in it diuerse Carnall Ordinances ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) to endure vntill the time of reformation . From all which Christ hath freed the Church of the New Testament , as namely . 1. From the whole burthen of Legall ceremonies whatsoeuer vsed in the worship of God. Those resemblances are of no vse now , when the substance it selfe is come in place : nor may such beggarly and impotent rudiments be sought after , when greater perfection is to be had . Gal. 4. 9. 2. From that restraint in things indifferent , whereunto the Iewes were tied , but we are not bound . Such are the obseruations of dayes , of Meates and Drinkes , of Garments , with the like . Wherein the Iewes were rest●ayned : but our consciences are left free , being taught that euery Creature of God is good being sanctified by Prayer and thankesgiuing . 1. Tim. 4. 4. 5. And that to the b pure all things are pure . Onely this being obserued , that we abuse not this our Liberty , but that as we are informed by Faith that all things are lawfull for vs : so we should be taught by charity to see what are expedient in regard of others . That a due regard be had of others infirmity , that nothing be done whereby the truly weake may be scandalized , as the Apostle commands , Rom 14. 21. By which ●eanes Knowledge on the one side still preserues vs , that our consciences be not i●snared with superstition , and charity on the other side shall keepe our Liberty from degenerating into Licentiousnesse , and vnchristian contempt of our weake Brethren . 2 Our freedome from the Morall law stands in this , that whereas the Law requires of euery Man , vpon strictest termes of Necessity , full and compleate Obedience to all things whatsoeuer contained in it , if he will auoide the punishment of Hell fire : Christ hath freed all that belieue in him from this heavy and rigorous exaction of the Law , taking away from our Consciences this obligation vnto a necessary fulfilling thereof , vpon paine that we shall forfeit Heauen if we doe it not . As we shall see more anon . 3 In the last place our Freedome is from Men : namely from all power and authority they may claime ouer our consciences : they may hold our persons in subjection , but they cannot command ouer our consciences . We acknowledge no Iurisdiction of Man or Angel ouer our Consciences ; but only that of God that created vs , and of Christ that hath redeemed vs. Whosoeuer ergo shall impose vpon Man any humane Traditions , Opinions , or Ordinations whatsoeuer to tye his conscience vnto obedience by vertue of his own authority , such a one trenches vpon Gods high Praerogatiue , & vsurpes tyrannically ouer the soules of Men , according , as at this day , that Man of Sinne doth . But here we must obserue that Humane Constitutions be either Ecclesiasticall or Politicall . Ecclesiasticall concerne either the matter and substance of God's & worship when any thing is invented by Man , & commanded , wherein and whereby to worship God. 2 The Manner and externall order of God's worship in the determination of indifferent circumstances tending to decencie and comelinesse . For the former we renounce and reiect all humane authority whatsoeuer , that shall without warrant from the Scriptures , prescribe vnto the Church any doctrine to be receiued as a diuine Trueth or Custome , Ceremony or Practise whatsoeuer , to be obserued as a proper part of God's most holy worship . According as our reformed Churches haue happily recouered their Liberty by breaking asunder those cordes , & casting away that Yoake of false doctrine of Superstitions , ●●r●moniall will-worships , wherewith not Christ , but Anti-Christ had insnared and oppressed the Church . And they haue God's owne warrant for so doing , Isay. 29. 13. ratified and explained by Christ , Mat. 15 , 9. ( In vaine they worship me , teaching for doctrine Mens precepts : ) which was a thing contrary to God's expresse commandement , Ezech. 20. 18. ●● . ( Walke yee not in the ordinances of your Fathers , neither obserue their manners , nor defile your selues with their Idoles : I am the Lord your God , walke in my Statutes , and keepe my Iudgements and doe them . ) For the later , namely humane Constitutions concerning indifferent Circumstances in God's worship , tending to orderly decency , agreeable to the simplicity and purity of the Gospell : herein wee must acknowledge the authority of the Church though not ouer our Consciences to binde them : yet ouer our practises to order & limit them . Accordingly as also we doe in the other branch of humane Obediences . viz. Politicall or ciuill , comprising all Law , touching lawfull things made for the gouernance of Kingdomes ; or inferior states by the supreame Magistrate , that hath authority so to doe . Wherevnto we ( must be subject , not because of wrath onely , but also for conscience sake . ) For Conscience sake , not because the highest Monarch on Earth hath power ouer the Conscience of his meanest subject ; to binde it by vertue of his owne authority : but because God hath established the Magistrates authority and commanded subjects Obedience in lawfull things , and therefore we cannot disobey them without breach of Conscience , in disobeying and viol●ting also Gods Commandement . But otherwise for any immediate power over the conscience , to restraine the inward liberty thereof , no man without praesumption may arrogate its nor any without slauish basenes yeeld to another , as the Apostle commands ( ye are bought with a price , be not yee seruants of men . ) This is in breife the Doctrine of Christian or spirituall l●berty , which we call Christian : 1. from the cause of it , Christ , by whose purchase we enioye it . 2. From the subject of it , Christians , in opposition to the Iewes , who had not this liberty in all parts of it as we haue . Namely in freedome from the Ceremoniall Law , and restraint in things indifferent . In all other parts they in their measure were freed by Christ as well as we . Againe we call it spirituall in opposition to ciuill and bodily Liberty : because it stands in the freedome of So●le and Conscience , not in the freedome of the outward man ; the bondage and subjection whereof is no impeachment to this spirituall freedome : As Anabaptisticall Libertines would perswade the world contrary to the Apostles decision . 1. Cor. 7. 22. ( He that is called in the Lord being a seruant , is the Lords Free-man . CHAP. II. Iustification by workes subjects vs to the rigour and curse of the Law WE are now in the next place to see which braunch of our liberty is cut off by the doctrine of Iustification by workes . Not to meddle with others whereat it giues a backblow , but to take that which it directly strikes at : we say , it destroies our Liberty from the moral Law , which stands heerein , that we are not obliged vnto the perfect fulfilling of that Law , vpon paine of aeternall Daemnation , if we doe it not . This gratious liberty Christ hath enfranchised vs withall , whosoeuer beleiue in him : and they that now teach we are justified by workes of the Law , doe rob our Consciences of this heauenly Freedome , bringing vs again vnder that miserable bōdage vnto the Law , wherein all men are holden , which are in state of infidelity & vnregeneration , from whom the Law in extremest rigour exacts perfect Obediēce if they will be sau●d . For the cleering heereof , this in the first place is manifest . That he which will be justified by the workes of the Law , is necessarily tied to fulfill the whole Law : seeing ti 's impossible the Law should justifie them that transgresse it . In the next place then we must proue , that for a mans Conscience to be thus tyed to the fulfilling of the Law for the obtayning of Iustification , is an vnsupportable yoake of spirituall Bondage , contrary to that liberty , wherewith Christ hath made euery beleeuer free . This shall appeare in confirming of this Proportion . A Man regenerate endued with true faith in Christ Iesus , is not bound in Conscience vnto the fulfilling of the whole Law for his Iustification . This Proposition seemes very strange vnto our adversaries and to be nothing else but a ground-plot wherein to build all licenciousnes and Libertinisme , as if we did discharge men of all Alleageance to God & subjection to his Lawes . But their Calumnies are not sufficient confutations of orthodox Doctrine : for the stopping of their mouthes we throw them this distinction , whereon they may gnaw while they breake their teeth , before they bite it in pieces . Mans conscience stands bound vnto the Law of God in a two fold obligation . Either 1. Of Obedience , that according to the measure of Grace receiued he endevour to the vtmost of his power to liue conformably to the Law of God in all things . 2. Of fulfilling the Law , that in euery jot and tittle he obserue all things whatsoeuer it commands vpon paine of everlasting condemnation for the least transgression . We teach that no true Beleeuer is freed from the Obligation vnto Obedience , but so farre as by grace giuen him he is enabled , he ought to striue to the vtmost , to performe all duties towards God & man commanded in the Law , if he will justifie his faith to be sound , without Hypocrisy . And ergò our Doctrine is no doctrine of Licentiousnes . But on the other side we teach , That euery true beleeuer is freed from that obligation vnto the fulfilling of the Law , for the attaining of life & justification by it . Which materiall difference for the cleering of our doctrine not obserued or rather suppressed by a Bellarmine , causeth the Iesuite to labour much in a needlesse dispute , to proue against vs , That a Christian man is tyed to the obseruation of the morall Law. He tells vs that Christ is a Law-giuer aswell as a Redeemer of his Church , praescribing orders for all in common , for each one in particular . That he is a Iudge that sentenceth according to Law. That he is a King that ruleth ouer subjects vnto a Law. That Christ by his comming did not destroy , but fulfill the Law , expounded it & enioyned it to be observed by vs. That his Apostles vrge it in euery Epistle . That a Christian man sinniug offends against the Law , & ergò is bound to keepe the Law. In all which the Iesuite encounters his owne phantasy & not our doctrine which is not wounded by such misguided weapons . For we grant without striuing , that every Christian is tyed to obserue the Morall Law , and we averre that it is a most vnchristian & Iesuiticall slaunder to affirme , as he doth , that we teach ( Christianum b nulli Legi obnoxium & subjectum esse in Conscientia coram Deo. ) Nay we teach that he is bound to obey to the vtmost of his power : and from this obligation no authority of Man or Angell , Pope or Deuill , can discharge him . So much we grant the Arguments alleaged by the Cardinall doe enforce , and nothing else . They proue Obedience necessary to a beleeuing Christian : but they can neuer proue perfect fulfilling of the Law , to be necessarily required of him . From this heauy burthen Christ hath eased the shoulders of all such as are in him by a liuely Faith , of whom God doth no longer exact perfect Obedience to his Law in those strict and rigorous termes . that they shall be accursed if they fulfill it not . This we proue by these Scriptures . 1. Gal , 1. 2. 3. ( Stand fast ( saith the Apostle ) in the Liberty wherein Christ hath made vs free , and be not entangled againe with the yoake of bondage . ) But what is this Yoake of Bondage ? Is it onely the obseruation of the Ceremoniall Law ? No. That was indeed part of the yoake which the Apostles sought to lay on the Consciences of the Galatians . But 't was the least and the lightest part , the weightiest burthen was the fulfilling of the Morall Law , wherevnto by the doctrine of the false Apostles , the Galatians stood obliged . This is plaine by the Text in the words following . ( Behold , I Paul say vnto you that if you be circūcised , Christ shall profit you nothing . For I testifie againe to euery man , which is circumcised , that he is bound to keepe the whole Law ) The Apostles dispute is heere evident . The Galatians may not be circumcised , not obserue the Ceremoniall Law. why ? Because if they did Christ should not profit them at all . But what reason is there for this , that Circumcision & the Ceremonies should frustrate the benefit of Christs death ? The Apostle alleageth a good reason , because the obseruation of the Ceremoniall Law , tied them also to the fulfilling of the whole Morall Law. The Argument is thus framed . They who are bound to keep the whole Law haue no profit at all by Christ. But they who are circumcised , are bound to keepe the whole Law. ergo , They that be circumcised haue not profit at all in Christ. The minor in this Argument is the expresse words of the Text , and the proofe of it is euident in Reason , because the retaining of Legall ceremonies did in effect abolish Christ's comming in the Flesh , who by his comming in the Flesh , had abolished them . And ergo , they who in reviving them , denied Christ's death , had no meanes at all to be saued : but only by the fulfilling of the Morall Law. Wherevnto they were necessarily bound , if they meant not to perish . Which reason yet is of no force before Christ his comming , and ergo then circumcision and other legall ceremonies , did not lay vpon the Iewes such a strict obligation to fulfill the whole Law. The Maior Proposition is the very reason of the Apostles Enthymeme ; thus . ( Men circumcised are bound to keep the whole Law : Ergo , Christ shall not profit them ) The Reason of the consequence is this Proposition , ( Whosoeuer are bound to keepe the whole Law , Christ profiteth them nothing at all . ) This Argument , and the Reason thereof , will hardly passe with approbation in the Iesuites Schooles , ( Men are bound to the whole Law , ergo , Christ shall not profit them . ) Nay , will they reply : That 's a non sequitur . For by that doctrine , Christ's death hath cancelled that streight obligation of fulfilling the Law : But euery one that beleeues the promise of saluation in Christ , is yet notwithstanding obliged to fulfill the whole Morall law . For this is ( say they ) the very Condition wherevpon he must haue benefit by the promise , euen ( a Perfecta Mandatorum ●bservatio : ) and therefore he is so farre from being freed by Christ from this obligation vnto the Law , that for a certaine , except he fulfill it , he shall neuer be saved ; as b Bellarmine peremptorily and bloodily determines . These Men when they list are wondrous mercifull toward Sinners , and can teach them trickes by very easie meanes , to merit Heauen and Remission of Sinnes . But their crueltie betrayes their kindnes in other matters ; in as much as when all comes to the vpshot , a Sinner is driuen to this . If he wil be saued by Christ , he must as he is bound , perfectly keepe the whole : law else there 's no hope for him . This is cold comfort for the poore beleeuer : but 't is happy we haue not Iesuites , Pharaoh's taske-masters , set ouer vs , to exact the whole Tale of Bricke : but a Iesus , who hath freed our soules from this bitter thraldome and deliuered vs from the power of so rigorous and strict commands of the Law. We beleeue an Apostle of Christ against all the Sycophants of Rome , and tell them that they giue the holy Ghost the lie , when they teach that in beleeuers the obligation to keepe the whole Law stands still in full force & vertue not discharged by the death of Christ ; directly contrarie to this Argument of the Apostle . ( Ye are bound to keep the whole law , ergo , Christ shall not profit you . ) Whence we argue thus . Whosoeuer are bound to keepe the whole law , to such Christ is vnprofitable . But vnto true beleeuers Christ is not vnprofitable . Ergo True beleeuers are not bound to keepe the whole law . A conclusion most certaine , as from these irrefutable praemisses : so from most euident Reason . For if such as beleeue in Christ , ( Who through the Spirit waite for the hope of Righteousness through Faith ) as the Apostle speakes here , v. 5 ; if such be yet bound to fulfill the whole Law for their Iustification , to what end is it to belieue in Christ , vnto Righteousnesse and Iustification ? If when all is doen we must be saued by doing , what profit comes there by beleeuing ? Can the conscience find any benefit and comfort at all in Christ , when we shall come to this wofull Conclusion ; that notwithstanding there is in Scripture much talke of Faith , of Christ , of Promises , of Grace ; yet all this will bring vs no commoditie , except this condition be performed on our parts , that we perfectly keepe the Law of God : If any thing in the World , this is to imprison the soule in wretchlesse slauerie , and to lay the conscience vpon the racke of continuall Terrors , if Heauen be not to be had but vpon such hard termes . And this is most apparantlie to frustrate all benefit of Christ , of Promise , of Faith , of Grace , of the whole worke of Redemption , seeing in fine 't is the Law that we must liue by , and not by Faith : the perfect fulfilling of the Law must make vs righteous in God's sight : and not our beleeuing in Christ , that we may be justified . For he that keepes the whole Law , is thereby righteous , and by nothing els . Here 't is but a bare shift to say , Though we be bound to fulfil the Law ; yet Christ profits vs , because he giues vs Grace to performe our Band in exact Obedience . This evasion might it stand good , Saint Paul were indeed finally confuted as a weake disputant . But the Errour of this hath bin touched before , and if nothing els were said , this Apostolicall Argument is sufficient to refute it . I proceed to other Scriptures . 2. 1 Tim 1. 9. ( Ye know that the Law is good , if a man vse it lawfully ; knowing this , that the Law is not made for a righteous man , but for the lawlesse and disobedient , for the vngodly , for Sinners , for vnholy , and prophane , &c. ) The Law is not giuen to the Righteous . How must this bee vnderstood ? Is it not giuen ( quoad directionem ) as a Rule prescribing what is to be done , what is not to be done ? Yes , vve all agree in that . Hovv is it then not giuen ? 'T is ansvvered , ( quoad coactionem & maledictionem ) as it compels to obedience , and curseth the Transgressors . Thus is it not giuen to the Iust. This ansvver is full of ambiguitie , and needes some explication , that vve may knovv vvhat is the coaction or compelling force of the Lavv , from vvhich the Iust are freed . In vnfolding vvhereof our aduersaries and vve differ . Whether are in the right , we shal see by the proposal of both our Interpretations . They say , ( The Law hath no coactiue or compelling power ouer the Iust , because the Iust doe obey it , spoute , libentèer , & alacritèr , & ex instinctu charitatis ) that is , vvillinglie , out of Loue : but it hath a compulsiue force ouer the vniust , because they recalcitrant & cogi quodammodò debent ad obsequium ) that is , they obey vnvvillinglie , being forced to it by Terrors and Threatnings , and therefore ; The law rules not ouer the iust , as seruants who obey for feare : but sonnes who obey for Loue. We expound it otherwise . The Law hath not coactiue power ouer the just , because the just ( that is ) true beleeuers in Christ Iesus , are freed from the necessity of perfectly fulfilling it , for the obtaining of saluation . But the Law hath a coactiue power ouer the vnjust & vnbeleeuers , because they are obliged vnto the perfect fulfilling thereof , or else to be certainly accursed . And ergo we say , the Law command's ouer the just as ouer Sonnes requiring of them a faithfull and willing endeavour : but it commands ouer the vnjust , as ouer Seruants , of whom it exacts the vttermost farthing , and vpon the legall default threatens eternall malediction . The difference then betwixt them & vs , is this . They make the coaction of the Law to consist in the manner or quality of mans obedience to it . The Law compels when men obey vnwillingly . We make the coaction of the Law to consist in the quality of the command , & condition , wherevpon Obedience is required . The Law then compels , when it exacts full obedience vpon poenalty praecisely threatned to the disobedient . Wherein the trueth is manifestly on our side . For 't is plaine , that compulsion in a Law must be taken in opposition to direction , not persuation , for Lawes persuade not , but command . For if we speake properly a Law cannot be sai'd to compell those , to whom 't is giuen , as if by any real and physicall operation it did enforce them to obedience . It proposeth what is to be done , it setteth before a man , the punishment for disobedience : but it workes not on the will of man , to force it one way , or other . Wherefore if we know what direction in a Law is ; we shall soone know what Compultion is . Direction ( as all agree ) is the bare praescription , of what is to be done , or left vndone . Compulsion , that is , the exaction of obedience vpon paenalty to be inflicted . What other coactiue force there is in a Law , no man can imagine . Well then to apply this . The just are sub directione Legis : but not sub coactione . This must of necessity be vnderstood thus , the just are not vnder the coactiue power of God's Law , ●●cause it doth not exact of them full obedience vpon paenalty of aeternall death , to be otherwise inflicted on them . As it doth exact of the vnjust . For otherwise there will be no difference betweene the just and the vnjust in regard of this coactiue power of the Law , if both the one and the other be obliged to yeeld , alike , perfect obedience vpon the like paenalty . In this case the Law will be as coactine to one , as the other , exacting aequall obedience , vpon aequall termes , both of the just and vnjust . ( viz ) obey fully in all things : or you shall be cursed . The Sonne and Seruant shall be all one , and the Law shall still command , over the children , with as much terrour , as ouer the Bondslaue . There is no difference in the world ; in our adversaries doctrine , both sorts are bound to obey perfectly , or else certainly they shall not be saued . So that the Law of itselfe shall be as rigorous towards one ; as the other . But we know the Scriptures offer vnto vs more mercy : and that Christ hath discharged vs from this rigour of the Law , vnder which euery one , that is out of him in the state of vnbeleefe is holden in bondage . As to the difference they make ( the iust obey willingly , the vnjust vnwillingly , & ergo the Law compels these and not those ) this is nothing to the purpose . For it alters not the nature of the Law , that it is obeyed with diuers affections . The Law is the same , for its command & authority ; howsoeuer it be obeyed willingly or vnwillingly ; that matters not . The Law ceaseth not to be coactiue , because ti 's willingly obeyed : euen as a slaue ceaseth not to be vnder the coaction & compelling power of his Master , though he loue his master ; and out of a willing mind be content to abide in thraldome . And as Adam , though he obeyed the Law willingly ; yet was vnder the coactiue power of it ; because he was tyed to obey it , or else he should certainly die the death for his transgression of it . Wherefore I conclude , that the just are not freed from the Laws direction , nor from the Lawes compulsion , as it compels or enioynes them absolute obedience in all things , and for default thereof threatens the vnauoydeable malediction of Gods aeternall wrath . 3 Lastly for proofe of this point we haue those places formerly alleaged , Rom. 6. 14. [ We are not vnder the Law , but vnder Grace . ] Gal. 5. 18. [ If we be led by the spirit , we are not vnder the Law. ] 2 Cor. 3. 17. [ Now the Lord is the Spirit , and where the Spirit of the Lord is , there is Liberty . ] Gal. 3. 13. [ Christ hath redeemed vs from the Curse of the Law , being made acurse for vs. ] All which , with b other the like , doe establish this orthodoxe Doctrine ; That beleeuers haue ohtained freedome by Christ , from the rigour of the Morall Law , and are not any longer bound in conscience to the perfect fulfilling thereof vpon this assured perill : that if they keepe it not , they shall not be saued . We might stand longer vpon each Testimony : but let that which we haue said , suffice for the vindicating of our conscience from that Torture and Bondage wherewith these ●●opish Doctors would ensnare vs. The knowledge of which our Liberty , is not to giue vs occasion of security or licentiousnesse , as these Men calumniate : but to restore peace & spirituall rest vnto our soules , knowing that we are now deliuered from the necessity of obeying , or of perishing , which before we were in Christ , lay more heauy vpon our soules then a mountaine of Lead . That so being freed from this thraldome , we might serue him who hath freed vs , thankfully , and chearefully , obeying him in all duty , by whom wee haue obtained this glorious priuiledge ; that whereas perfect obedience was sometimes strictly exacted of vs : now our sincere , though imperfect indeauours , shal be mercifully accepted at our hands . SECT . 6. CHAP. I. The reconciliation of that seeming opposition , betweene S. Paul , and S. Iames in this point of Iustification . THus much of this Argument and of the first Branch of mans Righteousnes , whereby if it were possible he should be justified . viz. His Obedience to the Law of God. By which meanes we haue shewed , no flesh shall be justified in Gods sight . We are to proceed vnto the text branch heereof . viz. Mans satisfaction for his transgression of the Law. Wherein we haue also to proue , that a Sinner cannot be acquitted before god's judgment seat , by pleading any satisfaction , that himselfe can make for his offences . But in our passing vnto that point we are to giue you warning of that stumbling stone which St. Iames , ( as it may seeme ) hath layed in our way : lest any should dash his Faith vpon it ; and fall , as our adnersaries haue done into that Errour of Iustification by workes . That blessed Apostle , in the second Chapter of his Epistle , seemes not only to giue occasion : but directly to teach this doctrine of Iustification by workes . For in the 21. ver . &c. He sayeth expressly , that Abraham was justified by workes when he offered his sonne Isaack vpon the altar ; and also that Rahab was in like manner justified by workes , when she entertained the spies . Whence also he sets downe ver . 22. a generall Conclusion . That a Man is justified by workes and not by faith alone . Now in shew , nothing can be spoken more contrary to St. Paule his Doctrine in his Epistle to the Romans and else-where . For in the fourth chap. speaking of the same example of Abraham , he saieth cleane contrary , that Abraham was not justified by workes , for then he might haue boasted . ver . 2. And in the 3 chap. treating generally of mans Iustification , by faith ; after a strong dispute he drawes forth this conclusion . That a man is justified by Faith without the workes of the Law. v. 28. Which Conclusion is in appearance contradictory to that of St. Iames. This harsh discord betweene these Apostles seemes vnto some not possible to be sweetned by any qualification , who knowing that the Holy Ghost neuer forgets himselfe haue concluded that if the spirit of trueth spake by St. Paul it was doubtlesse the spirit of error , that spake by the author of this Epistle of Iames. For this cause most likely it was doubted of in ancient times , as a Eusebius and Hier●me witnes . But yet then also publiquely allowed ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) in many Churches , and euer since receaued in all : Out of which for the same cause Luther and others of his followers , since him would againe throw it forth , accounting the author of it to haue built not gold and siluer ; but straw and stubble vpon the foundation . Erasmus assents to Luther . And Musculus agrees with them both , who in his Commentaries vpon the fourth to the Romans , speakes his mind simply , that he sees not how Iames and Paul can agree together , and therefore he turnes out St. Iames for the wrangler , supposing that this Iames was one of the Desciples of Iames the Apostle , the brother of Christ , who vnder pretence of his Master's name and authority , continually snarled at the Apostle Paul , and opposed his Doctrine . Howbeit his Epistle got credit in after times , ( cum veritas paulatim inualescente mendacio proculcari caeperit . ) That is . When error by degrees praevailed against the trueth . But this medicine is worse then the disease , and is rather violence , then skill , thus to cut the knot where it cannot bee readily vntied . A safer and milder course may be holden ; and some meanes found out for the according of this grand difference without robbing the Church of somuch pretious Treasure , of diuine knowledg , as is stored vp in this Epistle . Wherefore both they of the Romish and we of the reformed Churches , admitting this Epistle for canonical doe each of vs search after , a fit reconciliation betweene the Apostles . But they and we betweene our selues are irreconcileable in our seuerall reconcileations of them . They reconcile them thus . By distinguishing . 1. of Iustification . 2 of Workes . Iustification ( say they ) of two sortes . 1. The first when a man of vnjust is made just and holy , by the Infusion of Grace , or the Habit of Charitie . 2. The 2. When a man of just is made more just by the augmentation of the Habit of Grace first giuen vnto him . Againe they diuide workes into two sortes . 1. Some goe before Faith , being performed by the meere strength of nature , and free-will without the helpe of grace ; and such workes as these are not meritorious . 2. Some follow Faith , being performed by the aide and assistance of grace giuen vnto man : and such workes as these be meritorious . These distinctions praepared , the worke is now ready for the soddering , which they finish artificially glewing togeather the proposition of the two Apostles in this sorte . St. Paul saieth that Abraham , and all men are justified by Faith without workes . This ( say they ) is to be vnderstood of the first Iustification , and of workes done before Faith , without grace , by the strength of nature . So that the meaning of Paule's proposition ( Abraham and all men , are justified by faith without workes is this . Neither Abraham , nor any other can deserue the Grace of Sanctification , whereby of vnjust and vnholy they be made just and holy , by any workes done by them , when they are Naturall Men , destitute of Grace , but only by Faith in Christ Iesus , or thus . No Man merits Grace to make him a good Man of a Bad , by any thing he doth before he beleeue in Christ ; but by beleeuing he obtaineth this . On the other side S. Iames saith , that ( Abraham and all others are iustified by Workes , not by Faith only . ) This ( say the Romanists ) is meant of the second Iustification , and of such workes as are done after Faith , by the aide of Grace : So the meaning of the Proposition shal be this . Abraham and other Men being once made good and just , deserue to be made better , and more just by such good workes as they performe through the helpe of Grace giuen vnto them ; & not by faith only . Being once sanctified , they deserue the increase of Sanctificatiō through that merit of their Faith , and good workes out of Faith and Charity . Is not this difference between these Apostles finely accorded think you ? They will now walke together being in this sort made friends through the mediation of the Schoole-men . But it is otherwise . They are so far from reconciling them , that they haue abused them both , and set them farther asunder making them speake what they neuer meant . Neither in S. Paul nor S. Iames is there any ground at all , whereon to raise such an interpretation of their words . And therefore we respect this reconcilement , as the shifting quercke of a Scholeman's braine , that hath no footing at all in the text . Which we doe vpon these Reasons . 1. That distinction of Iustification ( that is of Sanctification ) into the first giuing of it , and the after increase of it , ( howsoeuer tolerable in other matters ) is vtterly to no purpose , as it is applied vnto the doctrine of these Apostles . Who when they speake of Iustification of a sinner in God's sight doe vnderstand thereby the Remission of Sinnes through the imputation of Christ's Righteousnes , and not the infusion , or increase of inherent Sanctity in the soule of man. This confusion of Iustification with sanctification is a prime error of our adversaries in this article , as hath bin shewed , in clearing the acceptions of the word Iustification : and shall be shewed more at large in handling the forme of our Iustification , 2. The distinction of Iustification taken in their owne sense , is falselie applied to St. Iames as if he spake of the 2. Iustification , and to St. Paul as if he spake of the first . For first a Bellarmine himselfe being judge St. Iames in the example of Rahab speakes of the first Iustification , because ( as he saieth ) she was then , at the first made a beleeuer of an infidell a righteous woman of an harlot . And againe Paul , he speakes of the 2. Iustification in the example of Abraham , which is alleaged by both the Apostles . Heere 's then a confusion insteed of a distiction . Paul speakes of the first , Iames speakes of the 2. and yet both do speake of both Iustifications . Againe when they say Iames speakes of the second Iustification , whereby of just a man becomes more just , ti 's a groundlesse imagination for asmuch as it was to no purpose for the Apostle Iames to treat of the second Iustification , whereby men grow better : when those Hypocrites , with whom he had to doe , had erred from their first iustification , whereby they were not , as yet , made good , as the learned b Iackson obserues . Nay there is not in all St. Iames his dispute , any s●llable , that may giue any just suspicion that by Iustification , he meanes the increase of inhaerent Iustice. c Bellarmine catcheth at the clause . v. 22. ( By workes Faith was made perfect ) which is , in the Iesuites construction , Abraham's inhaerent justice , begun by faith , receiued increase and perfection by his workes ) But this is onlie the Iesuites phrensie . Abraham his faith and his Righteousnes , whereof his Faith is but a part , was not made but declared to be perfect , by so perfect a worke ) which it brought forth , as euen Lorinus another of that sect expounds it orthodoxly . 3 Thirdly , that distinction of workes done before Faith , without grace , and after Faith by grace , is to as litle purpose , as the former ; in this matter of our Iustification . Heretofore we haue touched vpon that distinction and shewed the vanitie thereof , in limiting St. Paul to workes done without grace , when simplie he concludes all workes from our Iustification . And St. Iames though he require workes of grace to be ioyned with that Faith which must justifie vs : yet he giues them not that place and office in our Iustification , from which Paul doth exclude them , and wherein our adversaries would establish them , as it shall appeare anon . Leauing then this sophisticall reconcilement coined by our aduersaries I come to those reconciliations which are made by our diuines ; wherein we shall haue better satisfaction vpon better grounds . Two waies there are whereby this seeming difference is by our Men reconciled . 1. The 1. by distinguishing the word ( ● Iustification ) which may be taken either 1 , For the absolution of a Sinner in Gods iudgement . 2 , For the declaration of a mans Righteousnes before men . This distinction is certaine and hath its ground in Scripture which vseth the word Iustifie in both acceptions , for the quitting of vs in Gods sight , and for the manifestation of our innocency before man against accusation or suspicion of faultines . They applie this distinction for the reconciling of the two Apostles . Thus. St. Paul speakes of Iustification , ( in foro Dei ) S. Iames speakes of Iustification ( in foro hominis ) A man is justified by faith without workes saieth S. Paul : that is in God's sight , a man obtaines remission of Sinnes and is reputed just only for his Faith in Christ , not for his workes sake . A man is justified by workes ; and not by Faith onely saieth S. Iames that is , in mans sight we are declared to be just by our good workes , not by our Faith onely : which with other inward and invisible Graces , are made visible vnto man onely in the good workes , which they see vs performe . That this application is not vnfit for to reconcile this difference , may be shewed by the parts . 1. For S. Paul , ti 's agreed on all sides that he speakes of mans iustification in God's sight . Rom. 3. v. 20. 2. For S. Iames we are to shew that with just probability he may be vnderstood of the declaration of our Iustification and righteousnes before men . For proofe whereof the Text affords vs these reasons . 1. Verse . 18. Shew me thy Faith without thy Workes and I will shew thee my Faith by my workes . Where the true Christian speaking to the Hypocriticall boaster of his Faith , requires of him a declaration of his faith and Iustification thereby , by a reall proofe , not a verball profession , promising for his part to manifest and approue the trueth of his owne Faith by his good workes . Whence it appeares , that before man , none can justifie the soundnes of his Faith : but by his workes thene proceeding . 2. V. 21. Abraham is saied to be justified when he offered vp his sonne Isaak vpon the Altar . Now ti 's manifest that Abraham was justified in Gods sight long before ; euen . 25. yeares Gen. 15. 6. Therefore by that admirable worke of his in offering his Sonne he was declared before all the world to be a just man and a true Beleeuer . And for this purpose did God tempt Abraham in that triall of his Faith : that thereby all beleeuers , might behold a rare patterne of a liuely and justifying Faith , and that Abraham was not without good cause called the Father of the Faithfull . 3. V. 22. It is saied that Abrahams faith wrought with his worke and by workes was his faith made perfect . Which in the iudgement of popish a Expositors themselues , is to be vnderstood of the manifestation of Abrahams faith by his workes . His Faith directed his workes : his workes manifested the power and perfection of his Faith. It is not then without good probability of Reason , that Caluin and other Expositors on our side , haue giuen this solution vnto this doubt . b Bellarmine labours against it and would faine proue that justification cannot be taken heere pro declaratione Iustitiae . But his Argument cannot much trouble any intelligent reader , and therefore I spare to trouble you with his sophistry . This now is the first way of reconciling the places . Howbeit the trueth is , that although this may be defended against any thing that our aduersaries objected to the contrary : yet many and those very learned divines chose rather to tread in another path and more neerely to presse the Apostles steps ; whom also in this point ● willingly follow . 2 The second way then of reconciling these places , is by distinguishing of the word ( Faith ) which is taken in a doubled sense . 1. First for that Faith , which is true and liuing ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Faith which worketh through loue ) and is fruitfull in all manner of Obedience . 2. Secondly for that Faith which is false and dead , being onely a bare acknowledgment of the trueth , of all Articles of Religion accompanied with an outward Formality of Profession : but yet destitute of sincere Obedience . This distinction of this word ( Faith ) is certaine by the Scriptures , as hath heretofore bin shewed in handling of that Grace . Our Men now apply it thus . S. Paul when he affirmes that we are justified by Faith onely , speakes of that Faith which is true and liuing working by Charity . S. Iames when he denies a Man is justified by Faith only , he disputes against that Faith which is false and dead , without power to bring forth any good workes . So that the Apostles speake no contradictions , where Paul teacheth we are iustified by a true Faith , and S. Iames affirmes we are not justified by a false Faith. Againe S. Paul saith we are not iustified by workes . S. Iames saith we are justified by Workes . Neither is here any contradiction at all . For S. Iames vnderstands by Workes , a ( working Faith ) in opposition to the idle and dead Faith before-spoken of ( by a Metonymie of the Effect . ) Whence it is plaine that these two Propositions ( Wee are not iustified by Workes ) which is Pauls , and ( We are iustified by a working Faith ) which is Iames , doe sweetly consort together . Paul seuers Works from our Iustification , but not from our Faith. Iames ioyned Workes to our Faith , but not to our Iustification . To make this a litle plainer by a similitude or twaine : There is great difference betweene these two sayings , ( A Man liues by a Reasonable soule ) and ( A Man liues by Reason . ) The former is true , and shewes vs what qualities and power are ess●ntiall vnto that soule , whereby a Man liues . But the later is false , because we liue not by the quality , or power of Reason , though we liue by that soule which hath that quality necessarily belonging to it , without which it is no humane soule . So also in these Propositions , ( Planta vivit per animan● auctricem ) and ( Planta vivit per augmentationem ) each Puny can tell that the former is true , and the other false . For although in the Vegetatiue soule whereby Plants liue , there be necessarilie required to the ( Being ) of it , those 3 faculties of Nourishment , Growth , and Procreation : yet it is not the facultie of growing that giues life vnto Plants , for they liue when they grow not . In like manner . These two Propositions ( we are iustified by a working Faith ) & ( We are iustified by Workes ) differ much . The first is true , and shewes vnto vs what qualities are necessarilie required vnto the ( Being ) of that Faith , whereby the Iust shall liue . Namely , that beside the power of beleeuing in the Promise , there be also an Habituall Pronnesse and Resolution vnto the doing of all good Workes , joined with it . But the later Proposition is false . For although true Faith be equallie as apt to worke in bringing forth Vniuersall Obedience to God's will ; as it is apt to beleeue and trust perfectlie vnto God's promises : yet neuerthelesse we are not justified by it as it brings forth good Workes ; but as it embraceth the promises of the Gospel . Now then Iames affirmes that which is true , that ( We are iustified by a working Faith , ) and S. Paul denies that which is false : viz. ( That we are iustified by workes . CHAP. II. The confirmation of the Orthodoxe reconciliation of S. Paul and S. Iames , by a Logicall Analysis of S. Iames his disputation in his second Chapter . THis Reconciliation is the fairest , and hath the most certaine grounds in the text . It will , I doubt not , appeare so vnto you , when it shall be cleered from these Cavils that can be made against it . There are but only two things in it that may occasion our Aduersaries to quarrell . The first is touching the word ( Faith ) we say that S. Iames speakes of a false and counterfeit Faith. They say he speakes of that which is true , though Dead without Workes . This is one point . a The second is touching the interpretation of the word ( Workes ) vsed by S. Iames when he saith , ( We are iustified by Workes . ) This we interpret by a Metonymie of the Effect for the Cause , We are justified by a working Faith , by that Faith which is apt to declare and shew it selfe in all good Workes . This interpretation may happily proue distastefull to their nicer Palates , who are very readie when it fits their humour , to grate sore vpon the bare words and letter of a Text. These cauils remoued , this reconciliation will appeare to be sure and good . For the accomplishment of this I suppose nothing will be more commodious , then to present vnto you a briefe resolution of the whole dispute of S. Iames touching Faith , that by a plaine and true exposition thereof we may more easily discouer the cauils and sophisticall forgeries wherewith our Adversaries haue pestered this place of Scripture . The disputation of S. Iames beginnes at the 14. v. of the second Chapt. to the end thereof . The scope and summe whereof is . A sharpe reprehens●ion of hypocriticall Faith of vaine Men as they are called ( v. 20 ) Which in the Apostles time vnder pretence of Religion thought they might liue as they list . Two extremes there were , whereunto these Iewes , to whom the Apostle writes , were mis-led by false teachers and their own corruptions . The 1. That notwithstanding Faith in Christ ; they were bound to fulfill the whole Law of Moses ; Against which Paul disputes in his Epistle to the Gal. who also were infected with that Leven . The other was , that Faith in Christ was sufficient without any regard of Obedience , to the Law : so they beleeued the Gospell , acknowledging the Articles of Religion for true , & made an outward profession all should be well , albeit in the meane Time Sanctitie and syncere Obedience were quite neglected . The former Errour brought them in Bondage : this made them licentious pleasing haeresie if any other , whereof there were and will be alwayes store of sectaries who content themselues to haue a forme of Godlines , but deny the power thereof . Against such hypocrites & vain Boasters of false Faith and false Religion , S. Iames disputes in this place , shewing plainly that such men leaned on a staffe of Reed , deceiuing their owne selues with a counterfeit & shadow of true Christian Faith insteed of the substance . The reproofe with the maine Reason is expressed by way of interrogation in the ( 14. v. ) What doth it profit my Brethren , though a Man say he haue ( as many then did , and alwaies will say , boasting falselie of that which they haue not in truth , ) And haue not workes ; that is , Obedience to God's Will , whereby to approue that Faith he boasts of ? Can that Faith saue him ? so that Faith vvithout Workes a sauing Faith , that vvill bring a Man to Heauen ? These sharpe Interrogations must be resolued into their strong Negations . And so vve haue these tvvo Propositions . 1 Containing the maine summe of the Apostle's dispute : The other a generall Reason of it . The 1 is this . Faith without Obedience is vnprofitable . The second prouing the first , is this . Faith without Obedience will not saue a Man. The vvhole Argument is . That Faith which will not saue a man is vnprofitable , of no vse . But the Faith which is without Obedience will not saue : Ergo Faith without Obedience is vnprofitable . The Maior of this Argument vvill easilie be granted . Th●t it is an v●pro●itable Faith which will not bring a Man to life and Happines . But hovv doth S. Iames proue the Minor. That a Faith without workes will not doe that ? though it scarse need any proofe ▪ yet because hypocrisie is euer armed vvith sophistrie , for a plainer Conviction , the Apostle proues it by this manner of Argumentation . That Faith which saues a Man is a true Faith. But a Faith without workes is not a true Faith. Ergo A Faith without workes will not saue a Man. The Maier is euident to all that haue Reason . The Minor S. Iames proues by diuerse Arguments . 1. dravvne● pari , from comparison vvith another like vertue . Namely Charity tovvards the poore . The Argument is thus . If Charity towards the poore professed in Words , but without workes be counterfeit , then Faith in God professed in like manner without Obedience is also counterfeite not true . But Charity towards the poore in words professed without deeds is a counterfeit Charity . Ergo , Faith in God without Obedience is a counterfeit and false Faith. The Reason of the maior Proposition is euident , from the similitude that is betweene all Vertues and Graces . There is no vertue , but men may counterfeit and falsely arrogate it to themselues ; as they may boast of a false Faith , so also ( as Salomon and experience speakes ) of a false Liberality , false Valour , false Prudence , &c. Now there is but one way to discouer this counterfeiting in any kind , and that is to goe from words to workes , from praesumptions and boastings to actions . This way all count most certaine , nor will any man beleiue words against workes , or be persuaded by faire speaches , that the habites of vertues and graces be truly seated in his mind , whose tongue tells vs they be so : but his doeings confute his sayings . Wherefore the Apostle in his comparison proceedes on an vndeniable ground . Now for the minor ( that the Charity which is rich in good words , and poore in almesdeeds , is not true but counterfeit pitty ) the Apostle shewes by an ordinary instance ( If a brother or sister be naked , and destitute of daily food ) that is . If a beleiuing Christian want food and raiment or other necessaries ( and one of you say vnto them , depart in peace , and be ye warmed and filled ) If he giue him kind words , Alas poore soule I pitty thee and wish thee well , I Would I had to giue thee , goe in God's name where thou mayest be releiued , and so let him passe with a few pittifull Complements , notwithstanding yee giue them not those things which are needfull for the body : what doth it profit . Is the poore man's backe euer the warmer ? or his belly the ●●ller , with a few windy complements ? Can such a man persuade any that he hath in him indeed the bowells of mercie and compassion towards the needy , when they find such cold entertainment at his Gates : 'T is manifest that this is but a meere mockery , and that such pittifull words come not from a heart that 's truely mercifull . The Apostle now applies this touching Charity , vnto Faith. v. 17. Euen so Faith if it haue not workes is dead being alone . As that Charity , so also that Faith which men professe without Obedience is false and fained , and therefore vnprofitable to saue a man. It is dead : How must this be vnderstood ? Faith is a quality of the soule , and qualities are then saide to be dead , when they are extinguished . As if we should say such a man's Charity is dead ; it is because he hath lost it ; that which was in him is abolished . But this is not the meaning . For then when St. Iames saieth that Faith is dead being alone : his meaning should be that Faith seuered from workes , is no Faith at all : but quite extinguished . Now this is not so . For there 's a Faith seuered from workes in Hypocrites , Haeretiques , Reprobates and Deuills . Which Faith is a generall assent to all diuine truthes : and this Faith in them hath a true being , but no sauing vse . Wherefore . it is called ● dead faith in regard of the effect : because 't is nothing availeable to bring them in whom it is , to Life and Saluation as a true and liu●ng Faith is . Heere our Aduersaries haue much strange Contemplation , telling vs that Faith without workes though it be a dead Faith , yet 't is a true Faith. Euen as an Instrument is a true Instrument , though it be not vsed . So that in their Philosophy ti 's one and the same true Faith which is dead without , and liuing with workes . Euen as 't is one and the same Body which liues with the Soule and is dead without it : or as water is the same whether it stand still in a Cisterne or runne in a Riuer . Whence they proceed to discourse that Charity is the forme of Faith : and conclude that it is not the inward and Essentiall forme of it , as the Soule is the forme of a man ( for that workes are not essentiall to Faith ) nor the accidentall forme as whitenes is of Paper ; because Faith according to their Schooles , is in the vnderstanding , and Charity in the will ▪ But it is the externall Forme of it , because it giues to Faith a merit and worthines for the deserving of Heauen . These fond speculations of the Forme and merit of Faith I passe by now , hauing touched vpon them heeretofore . To that which they say . That a liuing Faith , and a dead Faith is one and the same true Faith : 't is vtterly false , they differ asmuch as Light and Darknes . 1. In their subject . a dead Faith is in the Reprobate Men and Deuills . A liuing Faith only in the Elect. 2. In their Object . A dead Faith assents to diuine Reuelations as barely true or good onely in the generall : a liuing Faith assents to them , as truer and better in themselues ; then any thing that can be set against them . 3 , in their Nature . A dead Faith is no sanctifying Grace : but a common gift of Creation as in the deuill ; of ordinary illumination as in Reprobate Men. A liuing Faith is a sanctifying Grace , a part of inhaerent holines wrought in the heart by the speciall power of the Holy Ghost . All which haue bin heeretofore cleared in handling the Nature of Faith. Wherefore vnto those arguments or Sophismes rather , which a Bellarmine brings to proue that Iames speakes of a true diuine , infused , Catholique , Christian Faith , though it be dead faith ; I answere breifely . That we grant a dead Faith to be a true Faith : but it is in its kind . Because it hath a true being in men and deuils , in whom it is , and ti 's directed toward true objects : But it is not that true Faith which is Catholique Christian & sauing . This is of another kind , and in comparison of this , that other is but a meere shadow and counterfeit resemblance of true Faith. Wherefore when those Hypocrites accounted themselues to haue that faith which is truely Christian and sauing , S. Iames shewes them , that this their faith which was alone naked of Obedience , was nothing so : but a Faith of another kind , a dead faith , hauing onely a false shew of a true and liuing faith . This of the first Argument . 2 The 2 Argument is contained . v. 18. being drawne from an impossibility , in prouing the trueth of it . The Argument stands thus . That Faith , which is truely Christian may be shewen and proued so to be . But a Faith without workes cannot be demonstrated to be a true faith . Ergo. A Faith without workes is no true Faith. The major is omitted as most euident of itselfe . Because there is no morall vertue , or grace of the Holy Ghost truely planted in the heart : but it may be knowne by some externall Actions , which it is apt to bring forth . Euen as life is knowne by breathing , or beating of the Pulse . The trueth of an inuisible Grace hath it's demonstration in visible workes . But now for the Minor , S. Iames proues that Faith without Obedience cannot appeare by any proofe to be true faith . Which he doth in a Dialogue betweene a true beleeuer and a Hypocrite . Yea a man may say , thou hast Faith , and I haue Workes shew me thy faith without workes , and I will shew thee my faith by my workes . That is . Thou saiest thou hast a true Faith , though thou hast no workes : I say I haue true faith because I haue workes . Come wee now to the triall , and let it appeare who saieth true , thou or I. If thou saiest true ; proue thy Faith by something or other to be true . Shew me thy Faith b without thy wotkes . Workes thou hast none , whereby to shew thy faith , make it then appeare by something else . But that 's impossible . Where workes are wanring , ther 's no demonstration else whereby to justifie the trueth of faith . And therefore thou art driuen to confesse that thou vainely boastest of that which thou hast not . But on the otherside ( saieth the true Beleeuer ) I can make good , that which I say , prouing that my faith is true by my workes . I will shew thee my faith by my workes . My sincere Obedience is a reall demonstration : that my beleife is no verball ostentation and vaine bragg . This proofe of S. Iames is very con●incing , and gripes the Consciences of Hypocrites , smiting them with shame and confusion when they come to this triall ; and so haue their false and fraudulent hearts laied open . But heere it will be asked what workes doe demonstrate the trueth of faith , and also how they doe proue it . Whereto wee answere Workes are of two sortes . 1. Ordinary , such workes of Sanctity & Obedience , as are required to a holy Conuersation . 2. Extraordinary . viz , Miracles . We say S. Iames vnderstands the former , and those onely : our aduersaries conclude both . But erroneously , for asmuch as S. Iames speakes not of the doctrine of faith , but of the Grace of faith . The Grace requires good workes of Piety and Charity as perpetually necessary for the conmirmation of it's Trueth . So doeth not the doctrine of Faith alwaies require Miraculous workes for the confirmation of it's divinity : But oney at the first publication thereof . Wherefore Lorinus is very ridiculous , who vpon this place tels vs , that they may justly demaund of vs Haeretiques ( For so they bedust vs ) Miracles for the confirmation of our new and false Doctrine . Indeed were it new and false their request were not vnreasonable , that we should make our doctrine credible by doing of Miracles . But sure the Iesuite iudgeth of our doctrine by his ovvne , vvhich did he not suspect for a nevv Error , vvee see no reason they should still require Miracles for confirmation of an olde Truth For our selues we seeke not the aide of a lying Wonder to vphold a true doctrine : nor doe we count it any disgrace at all to our Religion , that we cannot by our Faith so much as cure a lame Horse , as the Iesuite out of a Erasmus scoffes at vs. Now surely if such a beast as Bellarmine's deuout Mare , want helpe to set her on all foure , we cannot be yet so well perswaded of that vertue of Romish Faith , as to thinke that a Frier will doe more good at such a jadish miracle , then a Farrier . But whereas the Iesuite goes forward to require of vs the other sort of good workes , of Piety and Charity for the demonstration of our Faith hee hath reason so to doe , though not so much as he imagines , when hee chargeth vs with neglect of good Workes and vnbridled licentiousnesse . Would to God we could cleere our practise from such neglect , as well as we can our doctrine from teaching it . But yet , by their fauour , if we come to comparisons , we know no Reason why we should runne behind the dore , as more ashamed of our practises , then they may justly be of theirs , in which case we boldly bid him amongst them ; that is without sinne to cast the first stone at vs. To proceed . Seeing Workes of Obedience are the proof●s of a true Faith , it must be considered in what sort they proue it . For may not good Workes be counterfeited as well as Faith ? I answere . That in this triall the judgment of verity & infallibility belongeth vnto God , who only knowes the heart and conscience , being able to discerne euery secret working of the Soule , and so to judge exactly whether or no all outward appearances come from inward syncerity . But for the judgement of Charity that belongs to vs. If we behold in any man the Workes of Obedience to God's will ; of such a Man we are to judge that he hath true Faith. Though yet herein we must as farre as humane frailtie will giue leaue , iudge also not according to appearance , but iudge righteous iudgment . Mens practises must be examined : if hypocrisie bewray it self , ( as 't is hard for a Counterfeit not to forget himself at some one time or other , if he be duly obserued ) there Charity must not be blinde : it must see and censure it . 'T is not a charitable , but a peruerse Iudgment to call euill good : nor is it any offence to call that a barren or bad Tree , that beares either no fruit at all , or none but bad ; And thus of this second Argument of the Apostle , that these Hypocrites Faith was vaine , because , when it comes to the proofe , it cannot be iustified to be found and good . 3 The 3 Argument is v. 19. from the example of the diuels themselues , in whom there is a Faith without Workes , as well in hypocrites : and ergo it is in neither of them a true Faith. The Argument is brought in to confute a Cauill with the hypocrite might make against the former reason . True might he say , I cannot shew my Faith by my Workes : yet for all that I haue a true Faith. And why ? Because I beleeue the Articles of Religion , that there is one God , with the rest . Hereto the Apostle replies . That such a beliefe is not a true Christian Faith , because it is to be found euen in the diuels . The Argument runnes thus . That faith which is in the diuels is no true Christian faith . But a bare assent to the Articles of Religion without Obedience is in the Diuels . Ergo A bare assent without Obedience is no true Christian faith . The Maior of this Argument will easily be granted . That the diuels haue not that true Faith which is required of a Christian Man to his saluation . The Minor is also euident . That the diuels doe belieue the Articles of Christian Religion . S. Iames instances in one for the rest , namely the Article of the Godhead , whereto the Diuels assent aswell as Hypocriticall Men. Thou beleeuest that there is one God , saith the true beleeuer to the hypocrite , pleading that he beleeued the Articles of Faith , Thou doest well . 'T is a laudable and good thing to acknowledge the Truth of Religion . But vvithall thou must knovv that the diuels deserue as much commendation for this beleefe , as thou doest . The diuels also beleeue . Euen they confesse the Truth of that and the other Articles of Religion . An euident proofe vvhereof is this , that they tremble at the povver , vvrath , and iustice of God , and the remembrance of the last iudgment , vvhich did they not beleeue , they vvould not feare : but novv they expect it vvith Horrour , because they knovv it vvill come vpon them . Whence 't is plain that the Faith of Hypocrites and diuels is all one , neither better then other , both vnfruitfull to bring forth Obedience , both vnprofitable to bring vnto saluation , and therefore neither of them that true Faith , vvhich is Christian and sauing . This Argument of the Apostles , pincheth our Aduersaries sore , vvho stiffly maintaine that S. Iames speakes of a True , though of a dead Faith. For they can not for shame say that there is a true Faith in the diuels and damned Spirits . But yet S. Iames hath concluded that they haue that dead Faith which hypocrites boast of . What then ? Then a dead Faith is no true faith , as our a Adversaries affirme it is . Wherefore to helpe themselues , they deny that it is one and the same dead Faith , which is in hypocrites and euill Spirits . Indeed ex parte obiecti , they grant that the Faith of diuels is as true and catholique as that of wicked Men , because they both beleeue the the same things . And also in regard of the effects , they grant their Faith to be alike , because both be vnfruitfull . But not ex parte subiecti , so they say there 's much difference . The Faith of diuels is of one sort , and the Faith of hypocrites of another . But heere they make a litle to bold with the blessed Apostle , ouerturning the force of his argument , to vphold their owne fancie . The Apostle proues against Hypocrites that their idle Faith without Obedience is not true sauing Faith. Why ? Because the diuel 's idle Faith destitute of Obedience is no true sauing Faith. But now . Is the Faith of diuels & hypocrites of the same kinde and Nature . Yea , or no ? No , they be not , they be of a diuerse nature , say the Adversaries . Let it be then considered , what force there is in the Apostle's Argument . Faith without workes in Deuils saues them not . Ergo Faith without workes in wicked Men , saues them not . Might not one prompted by a Iesuite , reply vpon the Apostle . Nay by your leaue , your Argument is inconsequent , because you doe not dispute , ad idem . Faith in the diuels is of one kinde , Faith in Hypocrites is of another : & therefore though Faith without works cannot saue diuels ; yet Faith without works may saue Men. Thus were the Apostle's Argument laide in the dust , if these Mens Opinions may stand for good . But would you know what distinction these Men make betweene the faith of diuels and wicked Men , which St Iames takes for the same . 'T is thus . First the Faith of Euill Men is free , the Faith of diuels is compelled and extorted from them by a kinde of force . So b Bellarm. Fides hominum malorum libera est , captivante nimir ùm piâ voluntate intellectum in obsequium Christi : Fides vero Daemonum est coacta , & extracta ab ipsàrerum Evidentiâ . Quod insinuavit idem Iacobus dicens . Daemones credunt , & contremiscunt . Nos enim non credimus contremiscentes , id est , inviti & coacti , sed spontè & libentèr . Wicked Men beleeue freely and willingly . Why ? Because their pious and godly Will captiuates their vnderstanding to the Obedience of Christ , so causing it to assent vnto the Truth . The diuels beleeue vpon compulsion , being forced to it by the Euidence of the things themselues . Which Saint Iames intimates , They beleeue and tremble : that is , they beleeue against their Wills. Is not this a shamelesse Iesuite that will say any thing to patch vp a broken cause ? For be not these absurd Contradictions to say , that wicked Men haue godly Wills , that by a pious Motion of the Will , their vnderstanding is captiuated to the Obedience of Christ , and yet they be hypocrites and wicked Men still . No Man can relish such assertions , who knowes how averse and fromward the will of Men is to embrace any thing that is of God , till such time as it be regenerate by sanctifying Grace . It is therefore without all reason , to affirme that wicked Men beleeue willinglie , and 't is against all experience , which shewes that vngodly Men are vtterly as vnwilling to beleue any truth that makes against them in any kinde whatsoeuer ; as a beare is to be brought to the stake . Indeed in matters that like them , or such as be of an indifferent Nature , neither fauouring nor crossing their Corruptions , they 'll be apt to beleeue , though not out of a pious affection , as the Iesuite dreames : but out of selfe-loue and other selfe-considerations . But take them in any other point of Religion , that doth any way grate vpon their wicked affections , all the perswasion and instruction in the World , cannot worke them to a beleefe of it , till the Conscience ( spite of their hearts ) be convicted by some notable Euidence of the Trueth . Now what else can be said of the diuels ; who will as willinglie beleeue what makes for them , ( if any thing did ) or what makes not against them ; as any wicked man can doe ? And they are as vnwilling to beleeue any thing , that makes against them , as any wicked Man is . Nor would they beleeue it , did not the cleerenes of diuine Reuelations convince them of the certaine Truth thereof . So that there is no difference at all in this respect , as the one , so the other beleeue vnwillingly ; as diuels , so wicked Men beleeue with trembling . The diuels indeed with greater horror , as their beleefe and knowledge is alwaies more distinct then Mans : but yet Men with horror too , when their Consciences by fits are awakened to behold the woes , that are comming vpon them . Vnto this difference of c Bell. others adde two more . Namely : 1 That the Faith of diuels is naturall ; that of wicked Men supernaturall and infused . 2 That the Faith of Diuels is dishonest , the Faith of wicked Men is an honest Faith. Whereto we say thus much . That touching the first difference , we grant indeed that the Faith of the diuels is not supernaturall except it be in regard of the obiect . The faculties which they receiued in their creation are not so farre corrupted in them : but that they are able to assent vnto , and apprehend diuine Reuelations without further helpe , then of their owne naturall Abilities . Man in his fall sustained greater losse in the spirituall powers of his soule , & therefore stan●s in need of helpe . Which helpe is afforded euen vnto the vngodly ; but this is by ordinary illumination , not by speciall infusion of any sanctifying Grace . Enlightned they are aboue the ordinary pitch of naturall blindnes : but not aboue that whereto a meere naturall vnderstanding may be aduanced . Yea were Mans Vnderstanding raised vp to that perfection which is in diuels : this were more then Nature , yet lesse then Grace . This common gift of Illumination bestowed on wicked Men , but not on diuels , is no proofe that their Faith is of a diuerse kinde . As to the last difference we are not so far studied in Moralities , as to conceiue wherein the dishonestie of the diuel 's Faith , and the honestie of Hypocrites Faith doth lie . To ordinarie vnderstanding it seemes euery way as honest & commendable a matter , for a wicked fiend , as for a wicked Man , to beleeue what God reueales vnto him . If not , we must expect to be further informed by these Iesuites Men that are better read in that part of Ethickes , whether diabolicall or hypocriticall . 4. 4 This of the Apostle's third Argument . we come to the fourth . The 4. Argument is contained in the 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25 verses . Before which the Apostle repeates his maine Conclusion . That Faith without Obedience is a false and dead Faith. But wilt thou know O a vaine Man ( or hypocrite ) that Faith without workes is dead ? v. 20. For the convincing of him further , he proceeds to a new Argument to proue it vnto him . The Argument is this . That Faith which will not iustifie a Man is a false and dead Faith. But the Faith which is without workes will not iustifie . a Man. Ergo 'T is a dead and a false Faith. The Maior the Apostle omits as most evident of it selfe . The Minor he proues by an induction of two Examples . Thus. If Abraham and Rahab were instified by a working faith , thou that Faith which is alone without workes will not iustifie . But A●raham and Rahab were so iustified , viz. by a working Faith. Ergo Faith without workes will not iustifie a man. The Reason of the Consequence is manifest . Because as Abraham and Rahab : so all other must be justified . The meanes of justification and Life , were euer one and the same for all men . Which also the Apostle intimates in that clause v. 21. Was not our Father Abraham &c. implying that as the Father , so also the children , the whole stocke and generation of the Faithfull , were and are still justified by one vniforme meanes . The two instances the Apostle vrges , that of Abraham . v. 21. 22. 23. that of Rahab . v. 25. The conclusion with aequally issues from them both , he interserts in the middest , after the allegation of Abrahams Example . v. 24. I shall goe ouer them as they lie in the Text. In the example of Abraham , the Apostle v. 21. sets downe this proposition . That Abraham was justified by a working Faith. For this interrogatiues Was not our Father Abraham justified by workes ? must be resolued into an affirmatiue Abraham our Father was justified by workes . That is a working Faith. Which proposition the Apostle confirmeth by it's parts . 1. Shewing that Abrahams Faith was an operatiue faith declared and approued by his workes . Secondly , prouing that by such a working Faith Abraham was justified in God's sight . That the faith of Abraham was operatiue , full of life and power to bring forth Obedience vnto God , the Apostle alleageth one instance insteed of all the ●est to proue it . And that is that singular worke of Obedience vnto God's command . When he offered vp his sonne Isaak vpon the Altar . Many other workes there were performed by Abraham abundantly justifying the trueth of his Faith : But the Apostle chooseth this aboue all other , as that worke which was of purpose enjoyned him by God for a triall of his faith . Wherein Abraham mightily ouer●oming all those strong temptations to disobedience and infidelity , made it appeare , that his faith was not an idle , dead and empty Speculation , but an actiue and working Grace . Wherefore the Apostle adds ver . 22. Seest thou how faith wrought with his workes , and by workes was faith made perfect ? That is as in other workes of that holy Patriarch , so specially in that sacrificing his sonne , all that can see , may plainely behold , the strength and life of his faith . Faith wrought with his workes . That is . His faith directed and supported him in the doing of that worke , as the Apostle Paul expounds it . Heb. 11. 17 By faith Abraham offered vp Isaack : that worke had not binne done , if faith had not wrought it . In euery circumstance thereof faith did all in all from the beginning of the worke to the end . This interpretation is most simple and generally receaued . Faith wrought with : That is . In or by his workes , vnto the performance whereof the force of faith was in spaeciall manner assesting . Pareus reads the words by a a tmesis . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ( that is ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( scilicet ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( that is ) Faith being with his workes wrought . What ? his Iustification . But this construction seemes somewhat hard and not necessary for this place . The other sense is much plainer , shewing vs by or with what vertue Abraham's workes were wrought . viz. By the vertue of his faith , which in most powerfull manner incited and inabled him to obey . The Apostle goes forward , And by workes was faith made perfect . That is declared to be perfect . b For workes did not perfect Abrahams Faith essentially , in asmuch as long before this time , it was perfect , as is plaine in that Abraham was justified by it 25 yeares before the oblation of his sonne Isaack , and also by the strength of his Faith had done many excellent workes and obtained great blessings at the hand of God. So that the offering vp of Isaack was not the cause but a fruite of the perfection of Abrahams Faith , the great difficulty of that worke shewed the singular petfection of that Grace which was able so to encounter and conquer it . The goodnes of the fruit doth not worke , but declare the goodnes that is in the tree ; the qualities of the fruits alwaies depending vpon the nature of the Tree : but not on the contrary . Thus then the first part of the Proposition is plainly proved by the Apostle . That Abrahams Faith was a liuely and working Faith declaring and approuing it's owne trueth by the workes of his Obedience . The next part . Namely . That Abraham was justified in God's sight , by such a working Faith , he proue● . 1. By a Testimony of Scripture . 2. By an effect or consequent thereof , Both are expressed in the 23. v. The first in these words . And the Scripture was fulfilled which sayeth . Abraham beleeued God , and it was imputed vnto him for Righteousnes . The application of this testimony is very heedfully to be obserued , because it serues excellently for the clearing of the Apostles meaning , when he saieth we are justified by workes . And the Scripture was fulfilled saieth S. Iames. When ? At the time , that Isaack was offered . But was it not fulfilled before that time ? Yes . Many yeares , when the promise of the blessed seed was made vnto him , as appeares Gen. 15. 6. Whence this testimony is taken . How was it then fulfilled at the oblation of Isaack ? Thus. The Trueth of that which was verified before , was then againe confirmed by a new and euident experiment . Well . Thus much is plaine enough . But heere now the difficulty is , how this Scripture is applyed vnto the Apostles former dispute . In the 21. v. He saieth that Abraham was justified by Workes when he offered Isaack . How proues he , that he was so justified ? why by this testimony . Because the Scripture was fulfil●ed at that time , which saieth , Abraham beleeued God &c. Marke then the Apostle's Argument . When Abraham offered Isaack the Scripture was fulfilled which saieth Abraham was iustified by faith . For that 's the mea●ing of that Scripture . Ergo , Abraham when he offered Isaac● was justified by workes . This at first sight s●emeth farre set , and not onely besides , but quite contrary to the Apostles purpose to proue he was then justified by workes , because the Scripture saieth , he was then iustified by Faith. But vpon due consideration , in●erence appeares to be euident , and the agreement easie . The Apostle and the Scripture alleaged , haue one and the same meaning : the Scripture saieth . He was iustified by Faith , meaning , as all confesse , a working Faith fruitefull in Obedience . S. Iames affirmes the very same , saying , that he was justified by workes , that is . Metonymically by a working Faith ▪ And therefore the Apostle rightly alleageth the Scripture for confirmation of his assertion : the Scripture witnessing . That by Faith he was iustified ; the Apostle expounding what manner of Faith it meanes . Namely a Faith with workes or a working Faith. So that the application of this Testimony vnto that time of offering vp of Isaack is most excellent : because then it appeared manifestly what manner of Faith it was , wherefore God had accounted him just in former times . Without this Metonymie it appeares not that there is any force in the application of this Scripture and the Argument from thence . The Scripture witnesseth that Abraham was then justified by Faith. Ergo 'tis true , that he was then justified by Workes . What consequence is there in this Argument except we expound S. Iames by that metonymie , Workes , that is a working Faith ? And so the Argument holdes firme . Take it otherwise , as our aduersaries would haue it , or , to speake trueth , according to the former interpretation of our diuines ; it breeds an absurd construction either way . Abraham in offering Isaack was justified by workes , that is , secundâ Iustificatione of good he was made better . How is that proued ? By Scripture . Because the Scripture saieth . That at that time he was justified by faith . That is , primâ Iustificatione of bad he became good . Is not this most apparent Non-sence . Againe according to the Interpretations of our diuines , Abraham at the offering vp of Isaack was iustified by workes ( that is , say they ) declared iust before men . How is that proued ? by Scripture . Because the Scripture saieth . That at that time , he was justified by Faith. that is , accounted just in God's sight . In which kind of arguing I must confesse I apprehend not how there is any tolerable consequence . Wherefore we expound S. Iames metonymically , putting the effect for the cause ; workes , for a working Faith , as the necessary connexion of the text enforced vs. Nor is there any harshnes at all , nor violent straining in this figure , when two things of necessary and neere dependance one vpon the other , ( as workes , and a working Faith ) are put one for another . Neither haue our aduersaries more cause to complaine of vs for this figuratiue interpretation of workes , then we haue of them for their figuratiue interpretation of faith . For when we are saied to be justified by faith , they vnderstand it dispositiuè & meritoriè not formaliterè Faith in itselfe is not our sanctification , nor yet the cause of it . But it merits the bestowing of it , and disposeth vs to receaue it . Let reason iudge now , which is the harsher exposition . Theirs ? faith iustifies ( that is ) Faith is a disposition in vs deseruing that God should sanctifie vs by infusion of the habit of Charity . Or ours ? Workes justifie , that is , the Faith whereby we are acquited in God's sight , is a working Faith. Thus much of this Testimonie of Scripture prouing that Abraham was justified by a true and working faith , In the next place the Apostle shewes it by a visible effect or Consequent that followed vpon his Iustification expressed in the next words : And he was called the freind of God. A high prerogatiue , for God the Creator to reckon of a poore mortall Man as his familiar freind ; but so entire and true was the faith of Abraham , so vpright was his heart , that God not onely gratiously accounted it to him for Righteousnes : but also in token of that gratious acceptance entered into a league with Abraham taking him for his especiall freind and confederate ; A League of●ensiue and defensiue . God would be a Freind to Abraham [ Thou shalt be a blessing ] and a freind of Abrahams Freinds . I will blesse them that blesse thee ; and an Enemy of Abrahams enemies : I will curse them that u●se thee . Which League of freindship with Abraham before the offering vp of Isaack was therevpon by solemne protestation and oath renued , as we haue it Gen. 22. v. 16. &c. Thus we haue this first example of Abraham . From thence the Apostle proceeds to a generall conclusion in the next verse ( 24 ) Yee see then how that by workes a man is iustified , and not by Faith only . That is . Therefore it is euident . That a man is iustified by a working faith : not by a faith without workes . Which Metonymicall interpretation is againe confirmed by the inference of this conclusion vpon the former verse . The Scripture saieth , That Abraham beleeued God and it was imputed vnto him for Righteousnes . Ergo ( saieth ● Iames ) Yee see how a man is iustified by workes and not by Faith onely . A man might heere say . Nay rather . Wee see the contrary . That a man is iustified by faith onely and not by workes . For in that place of Scripture there is no mention at all made of Workes . Wherefore of necessity we must vnderstand them both in the same sense . And so the conclusion followes directly . That euery man is iustified by an actiue not an idle Faith , because the Scripture witnesseth , that Abraham was instified by the like Faith. Our Aduersaries collection then from this place . ( That Faith and Workes be compartners in Iustification , we are 〈◊〉 partly by faith , partly by workes ) is vaine & inconsequent . For when the Apostle saies , A Man is iustified by workes and not by faith only : his meaning is not , that workes and faith are two Coordinate causes by their ioynt-force-working our Iustification ; but the Apostle vtterly excludes Faith onely from Iustification , and attributes it wholy vnto workes . For by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith onely , he vnderstands faith alone , that faith which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 17. alone , solitary , by itselfe , without workes . And such a dead faith whereof these hypocrites boasted . S. Iames excludes wholly from justifying of a man. I say then that he is not iustified by faith onely : but that he is iustified by workes . That is a working faith that is fruitfull in Obedience . The Apostle goes forward from the Example of Abraham vnto that of Rahab verse . 25. Likewise was not Rahab the Harlot iustified by workes ? That is in the same manner as Abraham : so also Rahab was iustified by a working saith . Which appeared to be so by that which shee did when she receaued the messengers , entertained the two spies which were sent to search the land , lodged them in her house without discouering them . And when by accident they were made knowne , hid them secretly vpon the roofe , and afterwards sent them out another way , conveied them away priuily , not by the vsuall , but by another way ( that is ) through the window letting them downe ouer the wall by a Cord as the story hath it . Ios. 2. In this dangerous enterprise , wherein this weake woman ventured her life in succouring the Enemies of her King and Country : it appeares plainly that she had a strong and liuely Faith in the God of Israel : and that the confession which she made with her mouth to the spies ( The Lord your God , he is the God in Heauen aboue and in the Earth beneath . Iosh. 2. 11. ) proceeded from a truely beleeuing heart , insomuch as her words were made good by works , that followed them . Wherefore the Apostle iustly parallels these 2 examples of Abraham offering his sonne ; and Rahab in the kind vsage of the Spies , because both those facts were singular trialls of a liuely faith which was able in that sorte to ouercome what was hardest to be conquered . viz. Naturall affection . In Abraham both fatherly affection to the life of a deere and only sonne : and in Rahab the Naturall loue to ones Country and a mans owne Life did all stoope and giue way , when once true Faith commands Obedience . Here againe our adversaries trouble themselues , and the Text with needlesse speculations telling vs , that now the Apostle hath altered his cliffe , and gone from the second Iustification in Abrahams example , to the first Iustification in this of Rahab . That Rahab was conuerted at this time of receauing the spies being made a beleeuer of an infidell , a good woeman of a bad . That she by this good worke did expiate her former sinnes and merited the grace and fauour of God , notwithstanding that she committed a venial sinne in handling of the businesse , telling a downe-right lie , which though she should not haue done ; yet it hindred not the meritoriousnes of the worke , with such other fond imaginations peruerting the simplicity of the Trueth . But first they are not agreed among themselues whether the Apostle doe in that sort shift from one Iustification to another . Bellarmine affirmes it and many moe . But others deny it , as may be seene in Lorinus his exposition of the. 21. v. of this Chapter . And were they agreed vpon it , sure I am they should disagree from the Apostle , who makes this second instance of the same nature with the former . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In like manner saieth he , was Rahab iustified : viz. as Abraham was . Againe when they say Rahab became a true beleeuer at that time of receauing the spies , not before , 't is more then they can proue . By the circumstances of the story it appeares plainely , that she beleeued before they came , by the relation of the great workes which God had done for his people , and the promises that were made vnto them , that they should possesse Rahabs countrey . This bred feare in others : but faith in her , by the secret working of the holy Ghost : See Ioshua 2. 9. &c. And certainly ; ( had she not had Faith , before the spies came , who can thinke she would haue giuen entertainment to such dangerous persons ? But she knew them to be the Seruants of the God of Israel in whom shee beleeued ; and therefore by this a Faith she receaued them peaceably ; though Enemies of her Countrey . Lastly to that of the Merit●riousnes of the worke of Rahab , to deserue Grace and Life aeternall ; we reiect it , not only as a vaine but an impious conceit , which neuer entred into the humble hearts of the S● . of old : but hath bin set on foote in the last corrupt ages of the world by men drunken with selfe-Loue , and admiration of their owne Righteousnes . Thus we haue these 2 Examples whereby the Apostle hath proued sufficiently , that the Faith which is separated from Obedience , will not justifie a Man , & therefore that it is a dead Faith , and not a true liuing Faith according as was proposed . v. 20. Now for a close of this whole dispute he againe repeates that conclusion , adding thereto anew similitude to illustrate it by , in the last verse of the Chapter . For as the Body without the Spirit is dead , so faith without workes is dead , that is , As the Body without the Spirit , i. e. the Souls , or the Breath and other Motion ( is dead ) vnable to performe any liuing action whatsoeuer : So Faith without workes is dead ; that is , vtterly vnable to performe these liuing actions , which belong vnto it . What are those ? Two. 1. To repose it stedfastly vpon the promise of life in Christ , which is the proper immediate liuing Action of Faith. 2. To justifie a Man in the sight of God , which by a speciall priuiledge is the consequent of the former . These liuing actions cannot be performed by that Faith which is dead , being destitute of good workes . That Faith which hath not power to bring forth Obedience , is thereby declared to be a dead Faith , deuoide of all power to embrace the promise with confidence and relyance as also to justifie . A Man would thinke this were plaine enough , and needed not to be troubled with any further C●villations . But 't is strange what a coile our Adversaries make with this similitude , writhing and straining it to such Conclusions as the Apostle neuer intende● ▪ Hence they gather . 1. That as the Soule giues life to the Body , as the ●●rme of the Body : so Workes giue life to Faith as the forme of it 2 That as the Body is the same true Body without the Soule & with it : so Faith is one and the same true Faith without workes and with them , which are nothing but sophisticall speculati●●● besides the purpose of the Text. The Apostle intends nothing but to shew the Necessity of the Copulation of a liuing Faith and Obedience together : by the similitude of the like Necessitie of the vnion of a liuing Body , and the Soule . But his purpose is not to shew , that the manner of their Connection is the same , that just in euery point as the Soule is to the Body , or the Body to the Soule : so Workes are vnto Faith , and Faith vnto Works . It sufficeth to his intent , that as in the absence of the Soule , the Body : so in the absence of Obedience , Faith is dead . But thence it followes not , that workes by their presence doe the same thing to Faith ; as the Soule to the Body by it's presence ; or that Faith in the absence of Workes remaines the same ; as the Body doth in the absence of the Soule . If we must needs be tied to the strict termes of the Similitude : let vs a little examine the comparison , and we shall see our Aduersaries all flye off first from it . Let the comparison be first thus . Betweene the Body and the Soule , Faith and Workes as the termes be in the Text. As the Body without the Soule is dead because the Soule giues life , i. e sense , breathing , and all other Motion to the Body . So Faith without Workes is dead , because Workes giue life vnto Faith. But now this Comparison will not runne on all foure . For Workes are not vnto Faith as the Soule is to the Body ; but as sense and motion is to the Body . Seeing Workes are externall acts , not internall habits : and so are proportionable not to the Soule , but to the liuing actions thence issuing . Wherefore 't is as absurd to say , that Workes giue life vnto Faith , as 't is ridiculous to affirme , that Sense & Motion giue life to the Body , which are not Causes ; but Effects & signes of Life . Therefore when Faith without Workes is dead , 't is not spoken in that sense , because Workes giue life to Faith , as the Soule doth to the Body . L●● then the Comparison bee thus . Between the Body and the Soule . Faith and Charity . As the Body without the Soule is dead , because the Soule is the forme of the body , and giues life to it . So Faith without Charity is dead , because Charity is the Forme of Faith , and giues life to it . But neither will the Comparison hold vpon these termes . For 1. our Adversaries here put in Charity the habit , for Workes the act : which is more then themselues ought to doe , seeing they will tye vs at short Bitts , to the very letter of the Text. For though we can be content to admit that interpretation , would they admit of the Apostle's plaine meaning , & not straine for querkes : yet seeing they argue so precisely from the Words of the Comparison , they must not now haue libertie from vs to goe from them , but be content to take the Words as they lie in the Text , and make their best of them . Yet seeing 't is most senselesse to make Workes ( that is ) externall Actions the Forme of Faith an internall habit : let them take Charity insteed of them , an internall habit likewise , Wil it be any better now ? belike so . Thē 't is thus . As the Soule is the Forme of the Body : so Charity is the forme of Faith. and as the Soule giues life and action to the Body , so Charity vnto Faith. Will they stand to this ? No. Here againe they fly off in both Comparisons . Charity is one habit , Faith another distinct betweene themselues , and therefore they deny , as there 's good reason , that Charity is either the Essentiall forme of Faith , as the Soule of the liuing Body : or the accidentall Forme , as whitenes of Paper . They say 't is onely an externall Forme . But this now is not to keepe close to the Apostle's comparison , but to runne from it at their pleasure , when they fall vpon an absurdity in pressing of it so strictly . The Soule is no externall , but an internall essentiall Forme , & therefore Charitie must be so , if all runne round . Againe doth Charitie giue life or liuing actions vnto Faith as the Soule doth vnto the Body ? Neither dare they hold close to this Comparison . For the proper worke or action of Faith is to assent vnto the Trueth of diuine reuelations , because of Gods authoritie , as themselues teach . Whence now comes this assent ? From the Habit of Faith , or of Charity ? They grant that it comes immediatlie from the Habit of Faith , which produceth this action , euen when it s seuered from Charity . Then 't is plain that it is not Charitie that giues life to Faith , which can performe the proper action that belongs to it , without it's helpe . How then doth Charity giue life vnto Faith ? For this , they haue a sillie conceit . Charity giues Life , that is Merite vnto Faith. The beleefe , or assent vnto diuine Trueth is meritorious if it be with Charity . If without , then 't is not meritorious , This is a fine toy , wherein againe they runne quite from the Comparison of the Apostle . For the Soule giues liuing Actions to the Body , not only the Qualifications of the Actions : and so Charitie is not like the Soule , because it giues only the qualification of Merit vnto the Action of Faith , & not the action it selfe . Beside . A most vaine interpretation it is , without any ground from Scripture , to say a liuing Faith , ( that is ) a meritorious Faith : when euen in common sense , the life of any habit consists onelie in a power to produce those actions , that naturallie and immediatlie depend vpon that Habit. And what Reason is there in the World why the Habit of Charity should make the actions of Faith meritorious , or , why Charity should make Faith meritorious , rather then Faith make Charity meritorious , seing in this life there is no such praeeminency of Charity aboue Faith ? Wherefore we despise these speculatiue Sophismes , which with much faire glozing , our Aduersaries draw from the Text : but yet when all comes to the Triall , themselues will not stand to the strict application of the similitude , because it breeds absurdities , which euen themselues abhorre . Now if they take liberty to qualifie and interpret , they must giue vs leaue to doe so too , or if they will not we shall take it . To shut vp all . Their other Collection is as weake as the former : namely . A dead body is a true body . ergo a dead Faith is true Faith. This Argument forceth the Similitude , and so is of a Force . In materiall things which haue a diuerse being from different Causes , it may hold . But 't is not so in Vertues and Graces . Trueth and Life are both essentiall to such qualities . True Charity is a liuing Charity ( i. e. ) actiue , as the Apostle himselfe proues . v. 15. True Va - Valour . And so of euery vertuous quality , if it be true , 't is liuing and stirring in Action : if it be otherwise , 't is counterfeit , some other thing that hath onely a shadow of it . All these Trickes are pin vpon the Apostle to pervert his plaine meaning ; viz : That as it is necessary to the being of a liuing body that it be coupled with the ●oule , so 't is necessary to the being of a liuing true Christian Faith , that it bring forth Workes of Obedience . SECT . 7. CHAP. I. None can be iustified by their owne satisfaction for the transgression of the Law. A briefe summe of Popish doctrine , concerning humane satisfactions for sinne . THus we haue the resolution of the dispute of S. Iames , together with such Cauils , as our Adversaries make vpon the seuerall passages thereof . By the whole order whereof it appeares sufficiently that Saint Iames disputing against Faith , meanes thereby that false and bastard Faith which hypocrites pleased themselues withall insteed of a true Faith : and that disputing for workes , he meanes nothing but a working Faith. And it appeares also that the drift of the Apostle is not in this place to dispute directly of Man's Iustification : but only to bring that in , as an argument to proue his principall Conclusion . That Faith without workes is dead , because it will not iustifie . In summe it 's euident , that neither these Apostles doe disagree between themselues , nor ye● either of them doe agree with our Adversaries in teaching Iustification by the the Workes of the Morall Law. Of the impossibility of Man's Iustification by which meanes , Hitherto . The●r ex● Proposition is , that [ None can be iustified by their owne safisfaction for the transgression of the Law ] For this is this is the only way 〈◊〉 for an Offender to obtaine Iustification and Absolution : vi● : to alleage that he hath satisfied for his offence committed , by doing or suffering so much as the party offended could in justice exact of him . Which satisfaction being made , he is no longer debter vnto him , but deserues his absolution and his fauour , as if he had not offended at all . Now then the Question is . Whether a Sinner may , by any thing done , or endured by himselfe , satisfie the Iustice of God , & so obtaine absolution at the Barre of God's Iudgment . We defend the Negatiue . That it is impossible for a Sinner , by any Action or Passion of his own to doe so much as shall be aequivalent vnto the wrong which he hath done vnto the glorious Iustice of God : that there with he may rest satisfied and exact no further paenalty . Which point is so euident vnto the Conscience of euery one that knowes himselfe to be , either a Creature , or a Man , or a Sinner : that it needes not any confirmation . If we be considered as Creatures , there 's nothing that a finite strength in a finite time can performe , which can hold proportion with the offence of an infinite goodnes and Iustice , and the eternal punishment thereby deserued . Consider vs as Men , so we are bound to fulfill the Law of God in all perfection , nor is there any thing so true , so honest , so just , so pure , so worthy loue and good report : but the Law one way or other obliges vs vnto the thought and practise of it . So that besides our due debt of Obedience , we haue nothing to spare ouer and aboue , whereby to satisfie God for those Trespasses that we haue committed vpon his honour and Iustice. Lastly consider vs as Sinners , so we are tyed in a double Obligation , 1. of punishment to be suffered for Sinne committed . 2. Another of Obedience to be perpetually performed . Both these debts of punishment and Obedience , are equally exacted of sinfull Men , and ergo 'tis as absurd in Diuinity to say , the Obedience of the Law or good workes , will satisfie for the Transgression of the Law : as 't is in ciuill dealing to account the payment of one Band the discharge also of another . Wherefore euery one that is not blinde and proud in heart will here be soone perswaded to relinquish all claime of Heauen by his own satisfaction , running vnto him onely , who alone without the helpe of Man or Angell hath troden the Winepresse of the fiercenesse of God's wrath , bearing our Sinnes in his Body on the Tree , suffering the vtmost , whatsoeuer was due to the punishment of them . Our Adversaries in this busines are at a stand , mistrusting their owne , yet not daring wholly to trust to Christ's satisfactions . They will giue him leaue to haue his part : but , by his leaue , they will haue one share too in satisfying for Sinnes . For they are a generation of Men that are resolued to be as litle beholding to God , as may be , for grace , or for glory . And if there be any article of Religion wherein Scripture and Reason would giue the honour of all vnto God , they looke at it with an Euill Eye , and cast about which way to thrust in themselues for copartners . 'T is strange to see to what passe Pride and Couetousnesse haue brought the doctrine of Satisfaction , as it is now taught and practised in the Romish Church . With you patience I shall take a short survey of it , that you may see whether of v●twaine rest our Consciences vpon the surer and more stedfast anchor : we that trust onely to Christ's satisfactions ; or they that joine their owne together with his . The summe of their doctrine , as it is deliuered vnto vs by the Councell of Trent . Sess. 6. cap. 14 , 16. & Sess 14 cap. 8. 9. with the Romish Catechisme . part . 2. cap. 5. quaest . 52. & seq . and explained at large by Bellarmine in his two bookes De Purgatorio in his 4th Booke De Poenitentia , and his Bookes De Indulgentijs : is this . Sinnes are of two sorts . 1. Sinne committed before Baptisme : as Originall Sinne in all that are baptized Infants : and actuall sinnes in those that are baptized at yeares of discretion . 2. Sinne committed after Baptisme , when after the Grace of the holy Ghost receiued in Baptisme ; men fall into Sin , polluting the Temple of God , and grieuing his Spirit . Touching the former sort of Sinnes , they are agreed that Men are freed from them both , the fault and punishment , by the Merits and satisfaction of Christ only without any satisfaction on our part . But now for Sinnes after Baptisme , in obtaining of Remission of them , Christ and we part stakes . Which copartnership is declared vnto vs in this manner . In 〈◊〉 Sinnes ( we must know ) there are three things considerable . 1. The fault in the offence of God's Maiesty , and violation of our friendship with him . Here they grant also , That Man can not satisfie for the fault , doing any thing that may appease God's displeasure ; and procure his loue . Christ onely hath done this for vs , for whose onely satisfaction . God of his mercy freely returnes into fauour and friendship with vs. But this must be vnderstood in a catholique sense , viz : for fault of Mortall Sinnes ; as for Veniall Sinnes God is but slightly angry with them , and so we may satisfie him for the fault thereof , both in this life , and in Purgatory 2. The staine or corruption of Sinne , called the Reliques of Sinne abiding in the Soule . For the purging out of which , there is great force in such satisfactions , as are made by Prayers , Fastings , Almesdeed●s , and other laborious workes , although the Heretiques say otherwise . That the abolishing of inhaerent corruption is by the gift of grace freely bestowed on vs by degrees , in the vse of all godly meanes . 3. The punishment of Sinne , which after the fault is pardoned , remaines yet to be suffered . For although it be true that God in some causes doth pardon both fault and punishment wholy , as in cause of Martyrdome , which sweepes all cleane , and makes a● l reckonings euen ; and although God might , if it had so pleased him , alwaies for Christ's sake haue pardoned the whole debt : yet Holy Mother Church hath d●t●rmined , that he doth not so vse to doe . But after that in mercy he hath forgiuen the faul●● yet there 's an after reckoning , and we must come to Coram for the punishment , by which his Iustice is to receaue satisfaction . But ( ye must know ) the punishment of Sinne is two fold . ● . Eternall ▪ in the destruction of Soule and body in Hell-fire to endure for euer . Heere now Christ's satisfaction comes in againe . By whose merits alone they grant , we are deliuered from the eternity of the punishment of Sinne. Which must be noted , that Christ's satisfaction hath not eased vs of the substance of the punishment it selfe : but only in the continuance of it . 2. Temporall ; to endure onely for a time , whereof there are also two degrees . 1. One in this life , as namely all calamities and afflictions vpon the Body , Soule , Name , Goods , &c. together with death the last and greatest of euills . All which are inflicted vpon m●n ; as punishments of ●inne . Of these some come vpon vs inui●●bly as death vpon all men , or as death in the wildernes on the Children of Israel , with the like punishments , certainly and irreuocably denounced . Now here 's no remedy but patience , and that 's an excellent remedy too . For ( as the ghostly Fathers of Tre●t informe vs ) If they be borne willingly with patience , they be satisfactions for Sinnes : but if vnwillingly they be God's just revenge vpon vs. Other some come , Euitably . And heere such a course may be taken , that we need not suffer the punishment it selfe : but we may buy it out and make satisfaction for it vnto God by other meanes . Which meanes are principally foure . 1. By the vehemency of Contrition , or inward sorrow . Which may be so intensiue as to satisfie for all punishments , both in this life and also in Purgatory . 2. By other outward laborious workes . Whereby we may buy out the obligation to temporall punishments . Such Workes are these . 1. Praier with Confession , Thankesgiuing . &c. For , if we beleeue the Cathol●que Doctors 't is a very good satisfaction to a Creditour , if the debter pray vnto him for the forgiuenes of his dept . According to that text . Psal. 50. 15. Call vpon me in the day of trouble and I will d●liuer thee . Ergo , Praier is a satisfaction for the punishment of sinne . 2. Fasting , vnder which is comprehended the sprinkling of Ashes , wearing of haire cloth , whippings , goeing bare-foote and such other paenall workes . These also satisfie for sinnes as 't is written 2. Sam. 12. Dauid fasted , lay vpon the ground and wept all night . Therefore he satisfied for his Sinnes of Murther and Adultery . And againe . Paul saieth 1. Cor. 9. 27. I beat downe my body . That is , I whippe and cudgell my selfe to satisfie for my sinnes . And againe . Luk. 18. 13. The Publican smote vpon his breast . Ergo. Corporall chastisement is a good satisfactions for sinnes . 3. Almesdeedes : comprehending all kind whatsoeuer workes of mercy . These also buy out the punishments of sinne according to the text Dan. 4. 24. Breake off thy sin by Righteousnes : and thine iniquity by mercy towards the poore . that is . By almesdeeds satisfie for the temporall punishmens of thy Sinnes . And againe . Luk. 11. 41. Giue almes of that which you haue and behold all things shall be cleane vnto you . That is to say ( in the language of Babell . ) The temporall punishment of sin shall be taken away . Now all such workes as these are either . 1. Voluntarily vndertaken of our owne accord , as voluntary Pilgrimage , Scourgings , Fastes , Sackloth , Weepings , and Praiers of such a number and measure , with the like rough punishments , which we take vpon our selues to pacifie God. All which being done with an intent to satisfie for the punishment of our Sinnes ; must needs be accepted of God almighty for good payment : because in so doeing , we doe more then he hath required of our hands . Now 't is very pleasing to God to doe what he bids vs not : or what he bids vs , to doe to another end of our devising . He therefore that voluntarily vndertakes such needlesse paines , giues God high satisfaction . According to the Text. 1. Cor. 11. 31. If wee would iudge our selues , we should not be iudged . 2 Inioyned by the Priest. Who by vertue of the Keies committed vnto him might iudicially absolue the paenitent from the whole debt , were it not thought fit vpon speciall considerations to keepe backe a part . Wherefore when he hath absolued him from the fault and aeternall punishment , he binds him vnto satisfaction for the temporall punishment , and therefore he enjoynes him what he shall doe to buy it out . Let him goe visit the shrine of such and such a Saint , say so many Aues & Paternosters before such an Image , whip himselfe so many times , fast so many daies , giue so much almes with such like paenalties . And when he in humble obedience hath done these things commanded by the Preist : then 't is certaine his sinnes be satisfied for . For 't is to be noted that in enioyning this Canonicall satisfaction , as 't is called , the Priest and God almighty be just of the same mind . Looke how much the Preist enioynes for satisfaction , God must be content to take the same , or else the paenitents conscience will not be quiet , because , it may be , God expected more to be done for satisfaction : then the party hath done by the Priests iniunction . But it is to be supposed , that as the Pope , so euery Priest in his Chaire of confession hath an infallible spirit , whereby he is able exactly to calculate the just propo●tion betweene the sinne and the punishment , and the price of the punishment , that so he may enjoyne just somuch penance , as will buy it out ; neither more lest the paenitent be wronged : nor lesse , lest God be not satisfied . All which is trimly founded vpon that text which saieth . Whatsoeuer yee binde on Earth shall be bound in Heauen , and whatsoeuer yee loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heauen . Mat : 16 , 19. & 18. 18. That is . Priests may forgiue the fault and retaine the punishment , and what satisfaction they enioyne on Earth to expiate the punishment , that will God accept in Heauen : Or else they be deceaued . This is the second meanes to satisfie for temporall punishments . The 3. Meanes is by Pardons and Indulgences . Wherin the superabundant merits of Christ and the Saints are out of the treasury of the Church granted by speciall grace of the B● . of Rome vnto such as are liable to suffer the temporall punishment of their Sinnes . So that they hauing got by his grant a sufficient portion of satisfactory workes , out of the common stocke , they are fre●d thereby from satisfying Gods Iustice , by their owne workes . Which is a rare priviledge no doubt . 4. The fourth meanes is by another liuing mans satisfaction for them . For not onely the superabundant works of Christ and Saints departed : but the good workes of iust men aliue will satisfie for another , being done with that intent . So great is God's clemency towards good Catholiques , that , though one man cannot confesse , nor be contrite for another ; yet satisfie he may the Iustice of God for his sinnes . Both these meanes are grounded vpon pregnant places of Scripture . Gal. 6. 2. Bea●e yee one anothers burthen , that is , satisfie one for another . Againe 2 Cor. 12. 15. I will most gladly bestow and be bestowed for your sakes : that is , to satisfie for your sinnes . Againe 2 Tim. 2. 10. I suffer all things for the Elects sake : that is , that my sufferings may be their satisfactions . So Col. 1. 24. I reioyce in my sufferings for you and fulfill the rest of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh , for his bodies sake , which is the Church . That is . My sufferings with Christ's sufferings make vp a Treasurie for the Church , that such as want of their owne , may make vse of his satisfaction and mine . Againe Rom. 12. 15. We being many are one anothers Members Ergo , We may impart sati●factory workes one to another , as one member doth heate to another . To conclude . 'T is in our Creede , I beleeue a communion of Saints . Ergo , There is a communion of satisfactions . And so the point is very fitly proued . Whereby it appeares that the Ch●l●ren of the Romish Church are reasonable well prouided of Meanes to recompense God's , Iustice , and redeeme the Temporall punishment of their sinnes in this life . The other degree of the temporall punishment is in the life to come , namely , in ●urgatory , whereinto all they drop who die in Veniall Sinnes , the fault whereof was not forgiuen in this Life ; or in Mortall Sinnes , the fault whereof was forgiuen in this Life ; but full satisfaction was not made for the punishment before death . Such must fry awhile in Purgatory longer or shorter time according as their Sinnes are more or lesse haynous ; or as Mens hearts on Earth be more or lesse pitifull towards them . But howeuer there they must be till the Temporall Punishment of their Sinnes be fully suffered : or bought out by something else that may satisfie God's Iustice . This Punishment of Sinne inflicted in Purgatory , is twofold . 1. Poena Damni . of Losse ( viz. ) of the beautifull vision of God , and ioyes of Heauen . 2. Poena sensus . of sense or smart . viz. The bitter paines of God's wrath sensibly tormenting the Powers of the Soule , inflicted vpon them either immediatly by God himselfe , or by the ministery of the diuels as his Instruments . For 't is a doubt not yet resolued among the Patrons of Purgatory , whether the Diuels haue not to doe there also as well as in hell . But whether their Tormentours be Diuels or not , this is agreed vpon , that the Torment and Punishment which the Soules do suffer in Purgatory , is for the Substance of it the very same with the Torments of Hell , differing only from it in continuance . Those of Purgatory be temporall , these of Hell aeternall . Well now , such as haue not bestirred themselues then , well in this Life to make all euen by full satisfactions , such must be arrested in the mid way to Heauen , and cast into this Prison . Out of which two Meanes there be to be deliuered . 1. By suffering all this temporall punishment for so many yeares and dayes as 't is to continue . How many that is , you must inquire of St Michael , the Church knowes not that . But yet sure shee is , that many Soules shall continue in Purgatory till the day of Iudgement , so there shall be the same period of the World , and of their Torments . These haue a hard time of it ; 't is easier haply with others . But be it as 't will be , such as these pay the vtmost farthing , where they endure in the flames of Purgatory , so long till the time of their whole punishment be runne out . Then God is satisfied , and they deliuered . 2. By buying out this punishment by some other satisfactory price . For although God could so haue ordered it , that euery Soule being once in Purgatory , should suffer all the Temporall punishments due : yet he is content to bee intreated to commute poenance , and take some other valueable consideration by way of satisfaction for this punishment . But this satisfactory payment cannot be made by the Soules themselues : it must be made by some on Earth for them . which is done . 1. Either by laborious workes of any one iust and godly Catholique , whether he be a friend of the deceased , or other touched with a charitable pitty toward a poore soule . Who by store of deuout prayers , Almes , Masses , Pilgrimages , founding of Coue●ts and Hospitals , &c. may procure a gaole-deliuery for that soule for which he intends those good workes . 2. Or by the Pope who is purse-bearer to the Church , and hath the Treasurie thereof vnder Lock and Key . He now , though he cannot directly absolue the Soules in Purgatory from their punishment , as he can Men liuing on the Earth , yet he may helpe them another way by bestowing on them so much of the superfluous sufferings of Christ and of the Saints , that thereby God's Iustice may be satisfied , for the whole punishment , which otherwise they should haue endured . Yea such is the power of his Indulgences to infuse a vertue into such and such Alt●● ▪ Shrines , 〈◊〉 &c. that whosoeuer shall frequent such places , or vse such prayers , all Complements duely obserued : he may at his pleasure free one , two , three , or more soules our of Purgatory . Nay did not Couetousnes coole the heare of his Apostolical Charity , he might so bountifully powre out the Treasures of the Church vpon these prisoners in Purgatory , that they should all haue enough to weigh down the feales , & deserue a passe-port for Heauen . Such efficacie there is in that spirituall Picke locke which the Pope hath in keeping . All which is very properly proued by the former places of Scripture , and others also , were it needfull now to alleage them . But thus we see the Catholiques are euery way furnished for satisfactions , that what Christ hath not done for them , they can doe for themselues , either to suffer and ouercome the Temporall punishments of their Sinnes , or else , which is the easier course , to buy out that punishment at a valuable price of other satisfactionary workes , wherewith Gods Iustice shal be abundantly contented . Now whereas those whom they terme Heretiques , cry out aloud that such satisfactions to God's Iustice be indeed no Satisfactions at all , because they are no wayes equall vnto the offence committed : and so no full recompence of wrong offered vnto God : for the assoiling of this doubt , they giue vs this distinction very necessary to be obserued . Satisfaction is double . 1. Iustitiae : ex rigore Iustitiae , ad absolutam & perfectam Aequalitatem Quantitatis . That is . There is a Satisfaction of Iustice consisting in a perfect aequality between the offence and wrong , and the recompence made , when so much is done , or suffered , as the offended party can in iustice exact . Now they grant that Man cannot satisfie God in this sort in rigour of Iustice. Only Christ hath satisfied so ; for vnto such a satisfaction it is required that it be done . 1. Ex proprijs . By that which is our owne . 2. Ex indebitis . By that which is not debt of it selfe . 3. Ad aequalitatem . By that which is of aequall worth and value . Now none of these wayes can our satisfaction passe in strict Iustice Because whatsoeuer we haue , 't is God's free gift : whatsoeuer we can doe , 't is our due Obedience , & when we haue done all , yet we cannot by any finite act doe such honour to God , as shal be equall to that iniury we haue offered to his infinite Maiestie . Euen the right of Nature teacheth . as Bellarmine grants , That Man cannot parca reddere Deo , giue him quid pro'quo . 2. Acceptationis facti ex Gratiâ donante ad imperfectam Aequalitatem Proportionis & ex Condigno . i , e. There is a satisfaction of fauourable acceptance , wherein there is a kinde of imperfect Proportion betweene the offence and the recompence , when so much is done or suffered , as God is content in gentlenes to take for good satisfaction . Thus then a man may satisfie God's Iustice , because God giues him grace to doe so much as he will accept for satisfactiō . Which Grace is threefold . 1. The Grace of Iustification , whereby the Holy Ghost dwels in vs and we are made Members of Christ , and Christ is become our Head. By meanes of which vnion with Christ , and inhabitation of the Spirit , it comes to passe that our workes haue a singular vertue . For Christ communicates vnto vs his satisfaction ▪ and by merits of them , makes our Workes meritorious and satisfactorie vnto God. So that whereas all things whatsoeuer we could haue done , where of no worth at all in the sight of God : now Christ hath deserued such a Grace for vs that the spotted ragges of our righteousnes and good workes being tincta Christi sanguine ( i. e. ) died in the bloud of Christ receaue such a colour , that they will passe for reasonable good cloth . In a word , our money is now good siluer which before was but brasse . Againe , because the holy Ghost dwels in the just , Ergo ( as Bellar : profoundly argues ) their Workes proceeding from the Holy Ghost haue [ quandam infinitatem ] a kind of infinitenes in them , and thereby , quandam aequalitatem , a kind of aequality with the injury which by sinning we offered vnto God. Euen as a man may say , that a fly or a spyder is a kind of infinite Creature because 't is of Gods making : and God you know is infinite . This is the first Grace of Iustification . The 2 ye may call . 2 The Grace of Euangelicall Counsailes . For although God might of right challenge all our workes as due vnto him : yet so it is that he commands not all , but onely persuades and exhortes vnto some ▪ By which bounty of God , it comes to passe that we haue certaine workes Propria & indebita , of our owne which we owe him not ; and by these we onely make satisfaction . Yea such is the bounty of God that he suffers vs to merit by those things which be of his free gift , and is willingly content that what we receaue at his hand , we giue it him backe againe for a satisfactorie payment to his Iustice. Which is very strange I tell you . 3 Lastly one Grace more God giues vs. Namely . When hee pardons the fault he remoues the aeternity of the Punishment , and makes it Temporall that so it may be more easily satisfied for . All which particulars and Priuiledges are sure and certaine , because the Catholique Doctors haue firmely proued them out of their owne heads without the helpe of the Scripture . So then they are agreed . That our workes are not satisfactorie in Rigour of Iustice : but only in favourable acceptance , by grace giuen to doe them , and Gods clemency in accepting them being done . CHAP. II. All sinne is remitted vnto vs wholy in the fault and punishment . For the onely satisfaction of Iesus Christ. THus I haue somewhat largely set forth vnto you the popish Doctrine of humane satisfaction for sinne : wherein it is plaine to all that can see any thing , that their aime hath bin to lay a plot to delude mens Soules and pi●ke their Purses . It would require a large discourse to prosecute their Arguments , whereby they seeke to couer their Fraud . But they are not of that Moment as to spend time about them , being too hasten to other matters . The summe of them all comes vnto this . 1. That those afflictions and Temporall chastisements which God hath laied vpon his Children ( for the Triall of their Faith and patience , for their humiliation for sinnes past by hearty Repentance , for their admonition for the time to come , for the example of others . &c. ) they must needs be , in these Mens Imaginations , true satisfactions to Gods Iustice to expiate their sinnes past . 2. That such good workes as the godly haue performed for declaration of their piety ; testification of their thankfulnes vnto God ; for to expresse the sorrow of Heart ; for to bring themselues to a greater measure of true humiliation by much Praier , fasting , &c. for to obtaine victorie ouer some Corruption , and temptation ; for to get some grace which they wanted ; for to preuent or fit themselnes for some Iudgement feared ; &c. All this now must be conceaued presently to be meritorious and satisfactorie to Gods Iustice for Sinne. 3. That such Pennance , as in the Primitiue Church was enjoyned vnto those that after their Conversion and Baptisme , relapsed againe to Heathenisme ; or otherwise for such as for scandalous offences were excommunicated : I say that such Pennance enjoyned to these for testification of their hearty sorrow for their offence , and for satisfaction to the Congregation , before they might be againe admitted into it : must now be turned into a direct and proper satisfaction for the sinne it selfe . 4. That such indulgence or fauour as was then sometimes vsed toward such relapsed and excommunicate persons ( in remitting vnto them some part of their enioyned Pennance vpon euident tokens of their vnfained repentance ) this is now by these men turned quite to another vse . Namely , to the freeing of men from further satisfaction to Gods Iustice by applying vnto them certaine phantasticall supererogations treasured vp in the Popes Cabbinet . These are the maine Issues and Errors of their disputes , wherein I will proceed no farther : but onely lay downe one generall Conclusion opposite vnto their Doctrine , and so end this point with a few Reasons , for the confirmation of the Trueth and confutation of this Error . The Position is this . All Sinne whatsoeuer ; Originall or Actuall is remitted vnto vs wholy in the Fault and Punishment , aswell Temporall as Aeternall for the only satisfaction of Iesus Christ : and not any satisfaction made by vs vnto the Iustice of God. For confirmation of this sacred Trueth deliuered vnto vs in the word and generally embraced by the Reformed Churches ( yea by our Aduersaries themselues when the Agonies of Consciences ; the app●ehension of Death and of Gods Iudgement doe cleere vp their eyes , a litle to behold the vanity of their poore satisfactions . ) obserue we these Reasons . First the innumerable Testimonies of Scripture ascribing the Remission of Sinne , onely to the mercy of God in Christ crucified . That Christ hath borne a our Sinnes ; His bloud hath purged b vs of all Sinne ; His death c redeemed vs from all iniquity ; His d Stripes healed vs ; That he hath e paied the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or price of our Ransome ; That God for his f sake hath for giuen vs our trespasses ; Blotted out g our sinnes ; Cast them h behind his backe ; Forgotten i them ; with store of the like sayings , ascribing the doeing away of all Sinnes to the Grace of God through the Satisfaction of Christ without limi●ing it to any Sinne , or mentioning any satisfactorie workes of ours . Now what say our Aduersaries to this ? By a shift they turne of all Scriptures tending to this purpose . Thus Christ hath satisfied for the fault of our Sinnes ; and so reconciled vs vnto God , and for the aeternity of the Punishment : but he satisfied not for temporall punishment : We must endure Torment's though but for a while . This is a meere Cavill without any apparant ground from such Texts of Scripture ; or necessary deduction from other . We deny it therefore as they affirme it . And that it may appeare to be but a forged devise . Let vs inuert the distinction and we shall hold it with as good probability the other way . Christ satisfied for the fault , not for the punishments ( say they . ) We will goe contrary and say , Christ satisfied for the punishment : but not for the fault . We by our owne satisfaction must procure Gods fauour . Now let them object what they can against this : if we list to ca●ill as they doe : it may be shifted off with as faire probabilitie ; as they doe our Arguments on the other part . Let them name all the places that say , Christ hath k reconciled vs to God his Father . This is easily put off . Christ hath reconciled vs. that is , Christ deserued such Grace for vs : that we by our workes may reconcile ourselues . Iust as they say . Christ hath satisfied . that is . procured Grace for vs : that we by our workes might satisfie . Let them object , Our workes can be of no worth to appease Gods anger . We will say . True. Of themselues they are not : but Christ hath merited that they should be of sufficient worth . Iust as themselues say vnto vs objecting , that our workes be not of value to satisfie Gods Iustice. True , say they . Of themselues they be not : but Christ hath deserued for them to make them satisfactorious . Thus if euery idle distinction not fortified by necessary deduction from Scripture might passe for a good answere , the certainty of diuine Doctrine were soone shaken to pieces : and no Position so absurd , but would be defended with much facility . 2. That Assertion of theirs . Namely . That the fault is forgiuen and the punishment required , is most false and absurd ; euen in common sense . To pardon a fault and be friends and yet require full satisfaction ; to forgiue the debt , yet to exact the payment , be not these trimme kindnesses ? a Bellarmine tels vs , there be some offences of so grieuous Nature : that satisfaction cannot be made , but in a long time . Now in this case the partie wronged may pardon the other , and be reconciled to him : yet the offender remaine still bound to make entire satisfaction for the wrong . But now the Iesuite doth not name any such case : neither indeed can doe . For suppose a subject hath offended his Prince and the fault deserued 7. yeares close imprisonment for satisfaction . If the Prince should say vnto him I pardon your offence , you haue my loue ; but yet you shall lie by it to the last daie : were it not a mockerie , would any man thank him for such a kindnes ? It is to be thought the Iesuites , the incendiaries of Christendome would not thanke Christian Princes for such a courtesie , if they should pardon them their fault , and hang them vp . The like absurditie there is in this , when they say ; That after the fault pardoned ; yet in this Life and in Purgatory , the temporall punishment must be suffered . For wherefore must it be suffered ? For satisfaction say they , To what ? To God's Iustice. For what now ? Is it for the fault and offence committed ? No , That 's pardoned . For what then ? For just nothing . Againe , this Assertion is contrary to good reason . For God's Friendship , and his Iustice may not be diuided in this sort , as if he were reconciled and well pleased with that Creature , which hath violated his Iustice , and not made satisfaction for it . God's friendship with Man followes satisfaction to his Iustice : euen as his Enmity with Man is a consequent of the breach of his Iustice. His righteous will is transgressed , therefore he is offended . His righteous will must be satisfied before he be pleased . So that it is a vaine speculation to thinke . Christ hath appeased God's anger , but not satisfied his Iustice , for as much as his fauour is purchased onely by satisfaction to his Iustice offended . 3. This doctrine of humane satisfactions , obscures the dignity , and ouerthrowes the Force of Christ's satisfactions . If we haue a share , he hath not all the glory . Nay , he hath scarse any at all . For aske wee . For what hath Christ satisfied ? They say , to procure God's Loue to vs. But that cannot be , vnlesse he hath satisfied his Iustice. Hath he done this , or no ? Yes , he hath satisfied for the Aeternity of the punishment . Yea. But how know they that ? What if we vpon their grounds say , That he hath not satisfied for the Aeternity of it : but only merited , that our sufferings and satisfactions should be aequivalent to the aeternity of the Punishment ? Especially considering that our Workes according to Bellarmine , haue a certaine kinde of infinite value in them . Againe , Aeternity is but an Accident of punishment of Sinne : the Essentials of it are the Losse of Ioy , and the sense of Paine : if therefore Christ haue satisfied only for that , he hath done but the least part . Neuerthelesse our Adversaries will needes perswade vs , that humane satisfactions doe not so much eclipse as illustrate the glory of Christ's satisfactions : in as much as thereby he hath not only satisfied himself : but made vs able also to satisfie . A great matter doubtlesse . But where saith the Scripture any such matter , that Christ hath merited that we might merit and satisfie . And moreouer by this Tricke , whilest Christ makes vs able to merit and satisfie : his owne satisfaction is plainly excluded . For come to the point , and aske . Who is it satisfies God's Iustice for Sin ? Christ , or wee ? Heere b Bellarmine stumbles like a blind horse , and of three answeres takes the very worst . Some say 't is Christ , and he only satisfies Properly : but we Improperly . Our works being only a Condition without which Christ's satisfaction is not applied vnto vs. But such smell of the fagot . For 't is a perilous Haeresie to say , Christ onely satisfies for Sinnes . Well others say , That both Christ and we our selues doe satisfie , & also there 's two satisfactions for the same offence . But this mettall clinketh not well neither . Wherefore others are of opinion , and Bellarmine likes it . That Wee only satisfie , not Christ. Tertius tamen modus probabilior videtur [ Quòd una tantum sit actualis satisfactio , & easit nostra . ] Yea this is as it should be , thrust out Christ , and let vs only satisfie while he stands by and holds the Candle . Yet the Iesuite will not doe Iesus so much wrong : for marke , to mend the matter hee adds . [ Neque tamen excludit●r Christus , vel satisfactio eius . Nam per eius satisfactionem habemu● gratiam , vnde satisfacimus . Et hoc modo nobis dicitur applicari Christi satisfactio ; non quòd immediatè ipsae eius satisfactio tollat poenam temporalem nobis debitam : sed quod mediate eam tollat , quatenùs gratiam a● ea habemus , sine qu● nihil valeret nostra satisfactio . ] Which wordes they may vnderstand that can ; For I cannot . The Iesuite . walkes in the darke : seeking to hide this shamefull Injury to the Merits of Christ , but it will not be . 'T is too apparant that Christ is to them of no account . Only for a fashion they make vse of his Name , when they haue reckoned vp a bedrol of their own Merits , & S t s Merits , and such other trash , then to conclude all with a [ Per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum . ] That 's the burden of the Song , and the oyle that seasons all the Salet : as a Marnix merily . 4. That distinction of Satisfaction in Strict Iustice , and satisfaction in fauourable acceptance is vaine in this businesse . We grant indeed that our good workes done out of Faith , are pleasing to God , and graciously accepted of him : but can it appeare , that God accepts them as satisfactions to his Iustice ? No Scripture intimates any such thing , That God's fauour doth thus dispense with his Iustice , and make that satisfaction acceptable , which is in it selfe no full satisfaction of his Iustice. Shall we thinke that God in this case is put vpon those termes of Necessity , and complement which fall out in humane satisfactions , betweene Man and Man ? It may so fall out that a Creditor ( to whom 1000 Crowns are owing ) may be content if the debtor will yeeld vp his whole Estate , though not worth 50. Because no more can be had . So in case of offence , sometime , a litle formality , or a word or two of confession of the wrong may be accepted for satisfaction . But God wants no meanes to receiue full satisfaction of vs , either vpon our owne persons , or vpon Christ for vs. And therefore 't is without ground to imagine such a facility and partiality of his Iustice , as to be satisfied with a few poore complementall Formalities . Satisfactions to God's Iustice wee acknowledge none ; but such as are in Iustice sufficient . Such are Christ's satisfactions . But as for vs , we haue nothing to doe with satisfactions , but with free Pardons . 5. This Doctrine of humane satisfactions taught in the Church of Rome is altogether full of vncertainty , and ergo , brings no rest and peace vnto mens Consciences , at all . God pardons the fault : but requires the punishment say they . But when is this ? Is it alwaies ? No , sometimes he pardons both . But can they tell certainly when he doth ? when not ? At Martyrdome he pardons all . How know they that ? or how know they he doth it not at other times too ? Contrition ( say they ) if it be vehe●nen● , satisfies for all . But can they tell vs the i●st asure of that Contrition which is satisfactorie ? It may be the partie is contrite enough : yet the Pre●st enioynes Penance when 't is needlesse . It may be he is not co●●●ite enough : yet no penance enioyned . Where 's the certainty , what 's to be done in such a case ? Christ ( say they ) hath satisfied for the Aeternity of Hell punishments . Well . But can they tell how many yeares or daies are left vnsatisfied for ; that so all things may be fitted according to the Race of time ? Laborious workes , of Praiers , Fastings , Almes-de●ds , satisfie for temporall Punishments in this life ( say they ) Sup●ose it be so . Are they sure they can also satisfie the paines of Pu●gatorie ? The Priest enjoynes satisfactorie penance . But is he sure he enioynes iust so much as will doe the Feate ? Is he certaine that God will take that for paiment , which he decrees to be paied ? What if there be not Aue-Maries enough & c ? Againe suppose there were Evangelicall Counsailes , as Vowes of Chastity , Pouerty &c. and that to doe these things were pleasing vnto God. Are they sure they shall passe for satisfactions presently ? thou saiest I giue this Almes , I vow Poverty , I doe this and that to satisfie Gods Iustice for such or such a sinne . What ? Is it a Match presently , that God must doe as thou desirest : and take what thou offerest for paiment ? Soft there , a while . Where 's the warrant for that ? Those that are in Purgatory , when haue they satisfied enough ? who brings word , when they are deliuered ? How knowes the Pope when he hath bestowed vpon them sufficient supererogatiue Money to pay the Fees of the Prison ? Or doth S. Michael that hold's , the Scales send him word , when their satisfactions weigh downe their Sinnes ? Not to reckon more vp ; there is in all this Doctrine no firme ground whereon a distressed Soule may cast anchor : But when it hath once let slip that maine Cable , wherevpon it might rid it out in all stormes ( the satisfaction of Christ ) afterwards it is carried a d●ift vpon all hazards of Windes and Seas . 6. The-●rpractise betraies their Opinion . Did they indeed thinke that there were any seueritie in Gods Iustice , any necessitie or sufficiencie in such their satisfactions , 't is not possible , they would prostitute such thing 's in so base a manner , as they doe . But when an Aue Maria , a Pater noster before such or such an Altar ; a wax-Candle to such a Saint ; a kisse of such a cold stone ; a pilgriamage to Compostella for cockle-shels ; a lash or twaine vpon the Bare ; two or three meales meat forborne ; a pardon purchased at a few Deniers ; yea when the roughnes and meanesse of Adams figgleaue breeches shall be accounted a worthy matter to satisfie for his sinne , as a Bellarmine most ridiculously doates ; I say , when such base trifles shal be reckoned to be valuable satisfactions to Gods Iustice : they must pardon vs if we guesse at their meaning . They may dispute and talke while they will in big wordes and faire glosses of Bridles against Sinnes , and I know not what : but in fine all proues but Gins to catch money : But such as serue themselues thus , vpon God ; and play with his Iustice , as the flie with the Candle ; let them take heed , lest in the end , they be consumed by it . To leaue then these vaine Inuentions . Let vs giue to God the glory that 's due to his name : and so we shall well provide for the peace of our Soules . Trusting entirely and onely vnto that Name of b Iesus Christ. besides which , there is not in Heauen , or in Earth ( in Man or Angell ) any name , Merit , Power , Satisfaction , or whatsoeuer else , whereby we may be saued . And thus much touching the first maine branch of the matter of our Iustification , namely Our owne Righteousnes , Whereby , it appeares sufficiently , that we shall neuer be justified in Gods Sight . Μόνῳ τῷ Θεῷ δόξα . FINIS . THE CONTENTS OF EVERY Section and Chapter in this Booke . SECTION 1. CHAP. I. The explication of these termes . First , Iustice , or righteousnesse . Secondly , Iustification . CHAP. II. In what sense the word Iustification ought to be taken in the present controuersie , and of the difference betweene vs and our Adversaries therein . CHAP , III. The confutation of our Adversaries cauils against our acception of the word Iustification . SECT . 2. CHAP. I. The orthodoxe opinion concerning the manner of Iustification by Faith , and the confutation of Popish errours in this point . CHAP. II. The confutation of the Arminian errour , shewing that Faith doth not justifie , sensu proprio , as it is an act of ours . CHAP. III. The confutation of Popish doctrines , that other graces doe justifie vs , and not Faith alone . SECT . 3. CHAP. I. Of the righteousnes whereby a man is justified before God ; that is not his owne inhaerent in himselfe : that in this life no man hath perfection of holinesse inhaerent in him . CHAP. II. No man can perfectly fulfill the Law in performing all such workes , both inward and outward , as each commandement requires , against which truth , Popish objections are answered . CHAP. III. No man in this life can performe any particular good worke , so exactly that in euery point it shall answer the rigour of the Law , proued by conscience , Scriptures , reason , and Popish objections answered . CHAP. IIII. Three seuerall exceptions against the truths deliuered in this 3 Section . SECT . 4. CHAP. I. Iustification by workes makes voide the couenant of grace . Of the difference betweene the Law and the Gospell . Of the vse of the Law. Of the erronecus conceit of our Adversaries in this point . CHAP. II. Of Bellarmine's erroneous distinction of the word Gospell . SECT . 5. CHAP. I. Iustification by fulfilling the Law , ouerthrowes Christian libertie . The parts of our Christian libertie . CHAP. II. Iustification by workes , subjects vs to the rigour and curse of the Law. SECT . 6. CHAP. I. The reconciliation of that seeming opposition , betweene S. Paul , and S. Iames in this point of Iustification . CHAP. II. The confirmation of the orthodoxe reconciliation of S. Paul , and S. Iames , by a Logicall Analysis of S. Iames his disputation in his second Chapter . SECT . 7. CHAP. I. None can be justified by their owne satisfaction for the transgression of the Law. A briefe s●mme of Popish doctrine , concerning humane satisfactions for sinne . CHAP. II. All sinne is remitted vnto vs wholy in the fault and punishment . For the onely satisfaction of Iesus Christ. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A09274-e390 Sect. l. ● . 1. Rom. 8. 30. Heb. 9. Lib. 1. de Iust , cap. 1 ▪ See luke 18. 14 This Man went downe to his house iustified rather then the other . His prayer was for pardon . God be mercifull , &c. For he went home Iustified ( i. e ) pardoned and absolued rather then the Pharisee . Which is referred , ad gratiam Regenerationis . Tom. 2. tract . 4. Cap. 2. Parag. ● . Rom 6. 7. [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] significat liberatur : sed sersus loci d●scrimen indicat . 〈…〉 a Eph● . 4. 24. Col. 3. 9. a Eph● . 4. 24. Col. 3. 9. b 1 Cor. 3. 16. 6. 19. 2 Cor. 6. 16. Rom. 8. c Rom. 12. 5. 1 Cor. 12. 11. d Ioh. 15. 4. e Ioh. 4. 14. 1 Cal. Iustit . lib. 3 cap. 1● . Rom. 8. 30. 〈◊〉 . Ibid. Parag. 9. Sect. 2. ● . ● . ● Gen. Head● . ● Cap. 7. Generall head . a Gal. 2. 16. b Rom. 5. 1. c Rom. 28. d Rom. 4. 2. & 3. 20. Gal 2. 16. Iam. 2. a Luke 7. 5● . b Mat. 9. 22. c Ma● . 10. 52. d Mat. 15. 21. e Mat. 7. 29. f Rom. 4. 20. g Heb. 21. 5 ▪ 6. i Rom. 3. 24. k Heb. 1. 3. n Act. 6. 7. & 6. 5. o 1 Tim. 3. 9. & 4. 6. Virg. Georg. 1. p Gal. 3. 23. Act. 13. 38. Rom. 11. 6. 〈…〉 Thes. 48. 2. 3. pag 6● . c A●tibell . pag. 106. d Collat. cu● Sib. Lubber . e Thesibu , de ●ustific . f R●monstr●nt . In Cell . Delphensi . Art. 2. Antith . 2. [ Statuimus Deum Fidem no●iram nobis imputare per obedientiam : ea●que ( & nos in illa ) acceptos habere . We are saued by grace thorough faith . Ephes. 2. 8. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1 Arg. Bell. b Lib. 1. cap. 13. a Lib. 1. cap. 2● . Nectamen est a Deo intus inhabitante , per gra●●am Sanctificari : sidextrins●cus ad●●vante , & exitonte . a Et Cap : 13. pag. 311. H. a Feare . Feare . b Psal ●11 . 10. Pro. ● . 7. Faith is radix : a part of the tree . Hope . c Rom. 5. 5. d Heb. 6. 18. Loue. e Rom. 5. 5. a Rom. 5. 5. Repentance . Reformation . Not of Ahab or Iudas . a Tom. 2. Tract . ● cap. 3. Quest. 3. Bell. lib. 1. c. 14. 2 Arg. a 〈◊〉 antid . ●onc . Trid. Sess. 6 cap. II. b Cap. 15. eiu●dem Lib. primi . 3 Argu● Bell. lib. 1 cap. 16. [ Allein durch ●en gsaubren . ] Bell. quotes Lu●beri Resp. ad duos Art. ad ami●●m quendam . a Tit. 3. 5. 6. 7. b Rom. 3. 〈◊〉 . c Rom. 9. 31. 32 How knowes Bellarm●ne that ? Bell. lib. 1. c. 19 ▪ ●ello . cap. 16. a Bell lib. 1. ● . 19. b 〈◊〉 . Tom. 2 , tract . 4. cap. 2 ▪ quest . 6. §. 15. c Bell. cap. 19 ▪ d As Adam . a So Bellarmin● cap. 19. answering that place ▪ Gal. 2. [ If righ●teousnesse be by the Law , then Christ dyed in vaine ] saith : Nay , seeing we are iustified by faith ▪ and workes following it , Christ died to purpose , that God might giue vs grace so to be iustified . b Workes without grace doe not iustifie . h Why ? because imperfect , or because done by natures strength . Not the later : For then Adam not iustified . Not the former forse all good works of the best are imperfect . Sect. 3. c. 1. 2 Generall . heads . a 〈…〉 〈…〉 Conclusion . Arg. a Rom. 3. Gal. 2. b Iohn 1. 8. c Verse 10. 2 Argument . Pure in heart vndefiled 〈◊〉 the way , 2 Cap. ● . 3 Cap. 3. Proposition . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . euen I my selfe . b 〈…〉 c Iohn 1. 29. d Heb 9. 28. e Acts 3. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. f Micah . 7. 19. a Ezek. 16. 2● . Apoc 1. 6. 1 Iohn 1. ●7 . c Col. 1. 13. d Tit. 2. 14. e Rom. 6. 18. 2● f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . h Heb. 4. 14 a Rom. 6. 12. 14. b Psal. 103. 3. 2 Proposition . Lib. 4. cap. ●0 . Bell. lib. 4. de Iust. cap. 1. 10. 11. 12 13. Bec●tom 2. tract 4. cap. 4. quest . 1. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈…〉 〈…〉 b Rom. 〈◊〉 . c Psal. 119. per 〈◊〉 d Verse . ● 〈◊〉 a Lib. 4. cap. 1● . 3 Arg. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 a Iam. 1. 25. Psal. 197. ● Argu. 6 Arg. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ 7 Argu. b Gen. 17. 1. c Gen. 6. 9. d 1 King 14. 8. e 2 King 23. 25. f 2 Chro. 15. 17. g Luke 1. 6. h Iohn . 17 6. i Phil. 3. 15. a Gen. 15. ● . 3. b Gen. 20. 11. c Gen. 9. 21. d 2 Sam. 11. e 2 Chron. 25. v. 20. 21 22. f 2 Chron. 16. 7 g Ver. 10. h Ver. 12. i Luke 1. 18. k Mar. 14. 50 ▪ 66. &c. l 〈◊〉 20. 30. 31. m Gal. 3. 10. n Deut. 27. 26. Proposition . a Iob 16. ●1 . b Iob 17. 3. c Iob. 23. 3. 4. ● . a Lib. 1. cap. 20. N●li iudica●e ex his quae in me 〈◊〉 . a Bill ▪ lib. 〈◊〉 . 17. 〈…〉 4. c. 13. 17. Be 〈◊〉 . 2. tract . 2. cap 2. 〈◊〉 4 & cap 4. quest . 1. a 〈…〉 3. c. 14. §. ● . b Bell lib. 4. c. 77. erres in saying . [ Opera b●na●x gen●●e ●ue ex obiecto , sed 〈◊〉 circumsta●●● 〈…〉 And it is false which he addes that God doth simply condemne ( facto ) almes-deeds , &c done with a●●d intention for vaine glory , &c. God doth not simply cōdemne the the wo●●● b●● them for their ill doing of it . b Su●t Vitata 〈…〉 . Bell. lib. 4. cap. 1● . & passim aubi . ● Exceptio●● . Conclusion . 〈…〉 . 3. 12. 13. 〈◊〉 . 4. 8. ●ense your ●nds : purge ●ur hearts . Tom. 2. pag. 885. Marke them that walke disorderly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i e. sinfull , otherwise according to the Law. 1 Arg. Adu . 2 Arg. Adu . 3 Arg. Adu ▪ 〈…〉 b Iam. 1. 〈◊〉 4 Arg. Bell. c Lib. 4. cap. 1● . Excep●ion . Be● lib. 4 c. 10. ● 17. ● cap. 〈◊〉 . Conclusion . contr . a 〈…〉 b Lib. de perfect . 〈…〉 . 15 3 Exception . Bell. lib. 4 c. 17. Conclusion contr . 〈◊〉 . 4. cap. 14. ●●t●er meaning of these words [ against ] ●nd [ Besides ] there can be 〈…〉 Lib. 4. cap. vse . c 〈…〉 Bernard de Praecept●● Dispen . a Tom. 2. tract . 2 cap 2 q. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Man. confess praelud . ● . Num. 16. 3 〈◊〉 . Couenant of Grace . 〈◊〉 . Couenant . 2 Workes . a 〈◊〉 . 1 Cor. ● . Iohn 1. 17. 〈◊〉 . 20. Iohn 13. 17. If ye know those things , &c. Iohn 15. 14. Ye are my friends ●ye do what●uer I com●●d you . a ●om 8. 15. 〈◊〉 4. 24. 25. b Rom. 12. 16. At that day when God shall iudge , the secrets of Men by Iesus Christ according to my Gospell . a Calv. I●st . lib. ● . cap. 18. § 9. a 2 Cor. 3. 7. b 2 Cor. 3. 6. d Gal. 5. 1. d Gal. 5. 1. c Rom. 4. 15. 1 Cor. 15. 56. e Gal. 4. 24. f 2 Cor. 3. 6. g 2 Cor 5. 19. h 2 Cor 3. 6. 7. 17. Gal. 4. 16. Thou art our Father b See Beca●●● Tom. 2. Tract . 4. cap. ● Quest. 1. 2. 3. 4. Argument , Heb. 9. 10. b 1 Ti● . 1. 15. 1 Cor. 10. 23. This Liberty from humane Constitutions binding the Conscience , is 〈…〉 Rom. 13. 5. 1 Cor. 〈…〉 a Lib. 4. de Iustif . cap. 5. b Ibid 〈◊〉 a Lib. 4. cap. 2. b Lib. 4. cap. 7. ( Si Promissio vitae aeternae est conditionata , ut cap. 1. probavimus , certè necessarium est implere Conditionem , si quis sal●us fieri vel●● . ●●s ; ● iustus non est liber ab ebligatione Legis divine : certè nisi eam impleat ●onsaluabitur , ) If the Law still rule ouer vs as seruants requiring the praescribed taske : or else shaking the Whip , and threatning stripes , & not as ouer sonne commanding Obedience . So a King in vnder the Direction : not the Compulsion of the law ; because not tyed to the Penalty . cum v. 11. b Rom. 7. 1. 2. &c. 2 Conclusion . a Hist. Eccl. 2. cap. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a Lib. 4 dé Iust. cap. 18. Lorin 〈◊〉 Iac. b Iackson of lust . Faith. S. 2. cap. 6. c Leeo supra ●●tat . a Lor●● in lacob . b Lib. 4 cap. 18. Gal. 5. 6. a Bell. lib. 1. de ●ust . cap 15. 1 Arg. of S. Iames. a Lib. 1. de Iust. cap. 15. 2 2d Arg. of S. Iames. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The former reading is most agreeable to the Art gument of the Apostle ▪ So the Syriack-Beza , the Vulgar , the French , our last Translators . Pareus ●ollowes the other reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and so Piscator . But they giue no good reason of this she is so doing . The change was easie from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a De lib. arbi● 3 Arg of ● . Iames. a Bell. lib. 1. d● Iustif. cap. 15. b 〈◊〉 c Becanus . 4 〈◊〉 of S. Iames. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an empty Vessell without liquor a 〈…〉 b 〈…〉 〈…〉 2 Example , a Heb. 11. 31. 2 Conclu●●●● proued . Phil. 4. ● . Deut. 5. 6. a 1 Pet. 2. 24. b Heb. 13. c Tit. 2. 14. d Isa : 53 : 5. 1 Pet 2 24. e 1 Tim. 2. 6. f Coll. 2. 13. g Ibid v. 14. h Isa 38. 17. i Ier. 31. 34. k Coll. 1. 10. a Bell. de poen . lib. 4. cap. 1. b Bel. Lib 1. de Purga● : cap. 14. §. quarta Ratio . a Tabula de differentia 4 part . Tom. 2. cap. 15. 16. Bell. lib. 4. de Paenit . cap. 1. a De po●nit . lib 4. cap. 9. sect . 5. Irenaeus . b Acts Apost , cap , 4. v. 1● . 
A33723	----	A discourse of regeneration, faith and repentance preached at the Merchants-Lecture in Broad-Street by Thomas Cole ... Cole, Thomas, 1627?-1697. 1689 Approx. 362 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 152 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-05 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A33723 Wing C5030 ESTC R35626 15501481 ocm 15501481 103588 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A33723) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 103588) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1185:11) A discourse of regeneration, faith and repentance preached at the Merchants-Lecture in Broad-Street by Thomas Cole ... Cole, Thomas, 1627?-1697. [14], 160, [2], 124, [2] p. Printed for Thomas Cockerill ..., London : MDCLXXXIX [1692] Errata: p. [124] of second grouping. Advertisements: [2] p. at end. "A discourse of faith" (p. 1-80 of 2nd grouping), and "A discourse of repentance" (p. [81]-124 of 2nd grouping), each have special t.p. Reproduction of original in the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign Campus). Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Regeneration (Theology) Faith. Repentance. 2004-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-02 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-03 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2004-03 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DISCOURSE OF REGENERATION , FAITH and REPENTANCE . Preached at the Merchants-Lecture in Broad-street . BY THOMAS COLE , Minister of the GOSPEL , in London . LONDON : Printed for Thomas Cockerill , at the Three Legs in the Poultrey , over-against the Stocks-Market , MDCLXXXIX . THE PREFACE TO THE READER . WHAT hath been already published in the hearing of many by Preaching , is now put into private hands by Printing ; and because 't is easier to please many Hearers than one Reader , Let me ( whoever thou art ) bespeak thy Candor in a few words . Readers should be Courteous ; there is a Civility due to Books as well as Persons : 'T is not Manners to interrupt a Man in the middle of his Discourse ; and to censure a Book before you have read it our , is much the same . He that answereth a matter before he heareth it , it is folly and shame unto him , Prov. 18. 13. If what is here delivered , fall not in with your thoughts , I can only say this , That my design was , to write down my own Thoughts , and not other mens , submitting all to the Judgment of the Scriptures : every one knows best what he thinks , what he believes , and is persuaded of . A plain proposal of the Grounds and Reasons of our present Judgment , leaving 'em to their own weight in every Man's Conscience , is to act like men one towards another ; and the best way to communicate Light to those who are willing to learn. We cannot differ about the Conclusion , when once we agree in the Premises ; but to resolve upon Conclusions first , is the ready way to put a Cheat upon our selves , whilst we don't seek so much to find out Truth , as to make good our own Inventions . To be born again , was a hard saying , Nicodemus could not receive it ; knew not how to make sense of it . Had Christ intended only an outward reformation of Life , and not an inward renovation of Nature ; he would not have explained our being Born again , by being Born of Water , and the Spirit , Verse 5. which are Evangelical terms of a much higher signification , and do imply a deeper change than that of Manners , which at best reduces us but to a practical conformity to those inbred Moral principles , belonging to our first birth as men ; this is still but a state of Nature ; we are in the same Spirit and Principle that ever we were . Where is the new Nature ? that Spirit which is born of the Spirit , those supernatural Principles that are above all our natural Notions , carrying us out directly to God in Christ ? 'T is Faith that gathers up these supernatural Truths out of the Gospel , and sets 'em home upon the Conscience with power , subjecting the Soul to the Divine Authority of the Word , without consulting flesh and blood about these high mysteries . Revealed Truths are strange things to a natural Man , and will never find acceptance with him , till his mind be suited to them by a supernatural irradiation ; Heavenly things cannot be seen but by a Heavenly Light : when God shines in our hearts , then we are transformed into the very Image of those Truths which that Light discovers to us , and do experimentally know what that renovation of the Spirit is which the Word speaks of : Such Gospel Truths are put into our inward parts , as were never there before ; this enables us to understand the Scriptures , to Read 'em with pleasure ; we delight in the Law of God in our inward Man : This Man within a Man , this hidden Man of the heart is the new creature , the genuine birth of the Spirit of God. If thou art such a Man , thou art a true Christian Reader indeed , willing to receive the witness of Christ , who speaks what he knows , and testifies that which he hath seen , Ioh. 3. 11. I have written this following Discourse to you , not because you know not the truth , but because you know it , and that no lie is of the truth , 1 Joh. 2. 21. If any , who may be yet spiritually unborn , shall take up this Book , and Read it , they may see what they are not , how short they come of that Character the Gospel gives of new-born Souls : There are more Nicodemusses than one , who cannot unriddle the mystery of Regeneration ; they will understand nothing by it , but what they can bring ' emselves unto , by an outward Baptism ; there is no Reasoning with these men ; while they live in one Nature , and talk of another , they say they know not what ; 't is impossible to have a real feeling of that Nature that is not in us : He is a Skilful Limner , who draws to the Life ; tho Life it self can never be drawn , some resemblances of Life there may be ; the Cast and Colour of a Living Face , but no breath ; like Painted Fire , without heat ; or the Picture of a Man running , without any actual Motion ; he is fixed in his first step ; you will always find his feet where your Pencil left them , standing still in a running Posture . Thus it is with many Professors ; they are as Pictures hung upon a Wall , dressed up in all the outward Formalities of Religion ; you would take 'em to be real Saints ; they have a name to live , but are indeed dead , without any inward living Principle of Grace to animate and quicken those forms , filling them up with true , real Holiness . Acts flowing from a living Principle within , do carry their own evidence along with 'em , giving a pleasing sensation of their Truth and Reality , as the genuine off-springs of the heart , which nothing that is forced or counterfeit can do ; The heart flows out with those actions that come from it , but secretly turns away , as unconcerned in every thing that doth not correspond to the inward Sense and Inclination of the Soul : This will help us to judg of our Regeneration , by observing the consent of our Minds to those outward acts of Religion we pass thorow ; what Complacency and Delight we have in them , or what secret aversion to them , which we must needs be privy to ; all mere imitations of Nature , are defective somewhere ; this is more easily discernable , when we practise upon our selves , seeming to be what we are not ; as Actors upon a Stage , under a Disguise , who know we are not the Persons we go for : When the New Nature comes into us , how kindly are the motions of our Hearts towards Christ ? How welcome is he to us ? We are never more in our own Element , than when we are in closest Communion with him ; our Joy is then full , because we have the very desire of our Hearts ; we are where we would be , we have what we longed for . Every unregenerate man , in the very height of his outward Profession , be-lies his own Sense and Experience , and says that of his Heart , which he knows he doth not speak from his heart . When a humbling , overwhelming Sense of Original Sin comes upon us , discovering the Universal Pravity of our Degenerate Nature , how is the glory of all flesh stained ? How vile and mean a thing is Man , born of a woman ! he may well lye down in his own shame , stand behind the whole Creation of God , and blush at the mischief he hath done the World , groaning with all his fellow Creatures to be restored to the glorious Liberty of the Children of God. Serious thoughts of our lapsed estate , must needs beget this self-abhorrency in us , that we should thus unman our selves , and become like the Beasts that perish , nay worse than they , because we cannot so perish , as to cease to be ; the immortality of our Souls making us naturally capable of a miserable Eternity ; how should we then be consounded in our own sight , and be yet more vile in our own Eyes ? We cannot presently take in the full sense of our wretched state ; the grossest sins of our Lives , are not to be compared to the sins of our Nature ; they might pass for particular acts of folly , which we were hurried into by the violence of some sudden Temptation ; we might hope that Nature would recover it self ; but that being poysoned and turned into a root of Bitterness , what fruit unto Holiness can ever grow upon such evil Trees as we naturally are ? 'T is not any improvement of Nature by Art or Industry , that will recover us ; there must be a real Change of Nature wrought in us ; and how few are convinc'd of the necessity of this ? A Toad may as soon complain of his Poysonous Nature , as Fallen Man of his Corrupt Nature ; we are reconciled to every thing that is natural to us , else it could not be natural ; whatever is a part of our selves , can be no burden to us . 'T is a sign the Spirit of God hath been at work in that Soul , who is grown into a dislike of himself , hating what he is , and what he doth from a carnal Principle . T is a sign there is another Spirit and Principle stirring in him . 'T is impossible there should be true Grace in that Man , who hath no afflicting sense of indwelling sin . The flesh is flesh still , even after Regeneration ; the New Creature is raised up in the presence of the old man , they live together awhile , tho' at continual variance , till the fleshly part be abolished ; then the new creature will stand up by it self in a perfect state of Glory , in the stature of a perfect Man in Christ. Sin , tho it cannot hinder the Birth of the New Man , yet it hinders his growth , and depresses that for a season , till Mortality , with all that belongs to it , be quite swallowed up of that Eternal Life , which we derive from Christ in our Regeneration ; if we dye strangers to this life of God and Godliness , we with all our Forms , Names , and specious Pretences to Religion , shall be swallow'd up of Eternal Death , and never see the Kingdom of God. Verily , verily , except a man be born again , he cannot see the Kingdom of God. T. C. A DISCOURSE OF Regeneration . &c. From IOHN iii. 3. The Introduction . THE Sound of these Words at the first reading , may convince any Considering Person , That Christian Religion is a great Mystery ; the way to understand it aright , is to look into the internal Parts of it , not into the Words , but Power of Godliness . Many and various are the outward Forms by which Professors are unhappily distinguished , pleasing themselves with different Superstructures upon the same supposed Foundation ; But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon , 1 Cor. 3. 10. There is Gold , Silver , and Precious Stones , in some Buildings ; and too much Wood , Hay , and Stubble in others . Before I set fire to this by a spirit of Judgment and Burning , let us all examine our Foundations , and see whether the whole House is not to be pulled down , and built anew ; we had better pull down a House weakly founded , than suffer it to fall upon our heads , then we perish in the ruins : My Text leads me to this search . I hope you will all join with me in feeling for the Rock ; if we find it , we may with more comfort and success set upon the mending and repairing what is amiss otherwise . The Text speaks of the Nativity , or first Original of a Christian , and derives his Descent from above , from Heaven , from God , from the Holy Spirit ; this is very high ; we may look for something extraordinary in such a Birth , which is here called Regeneration , or our being Born again , or a second time . This is a great Mystery , and cannot be understood , till it is in some measure felt . Regeneration is not a Notion , but a Nature ; not a mere empty Speculation floating in the Brain , but an inward living Principle rooted in the Heart : I am not speaking of things without you , at a distance from you , that are foreign and extrinsecal to your souls , but of that which is essential to the Being and Constitution of a Christian as such ; you are not only my Auditors this day , but each of you the subject of my present Discourse ; I am not only speaking to you , but of you ; 't is what you are , or are not , in the inward state of your souls , that I am now enquiring after : By comparing your selves with the word , you may know how far you do , or do not , answer to the Character that is given there of the New-born soul ; the essential Properties of that Nature in which we live , must needs be owned by us , they are in us , they are of us , bone of our bone , and flesh of our flesh ; they are our very selves ; no sensible considering man can be without this knowledg of himself ; he cannot deny his own Image which he sees with his own Eyes . In a glass , face answers face ; so 't is with the heart of a Man , describe it as it is , in its present Actings , Motions , Principles and Inclinations , 't will fall in with you to a tittle . I would not speak a word , and I hope God will so guide me , that I shall not utter any thing concerning this new Birth , which falls not under the experience of the weakest Christian who is really born of God : If I shoot over the heads of others , 't is none of my fault , we must speak of Divine Things , as they are laid down in the Scriptures , whether we are understood , or not understood . Preachers do only explain the Object , they cannot enlighten the Faculty ; they may open the Text , but they cannot open the Hearts of those that hear them , to understand the Scriptures , this is God's work ; Faith cometh by hearing , therefore he that hath ears to hear , let him hear . I cannot bespeak your Attention by a stronger Argument than that in my Text , Except a man be born again , he cannot , &c. That which the Word of God so plainly puts as a bar to our entrance into the Kingdom of God , we are all concerned to see that bar removed , who have any hope of entring into that Kingdom . Give me leave to reason with you out of the Scriptures about this great Point of Regeneration : Some place it in that which a mere natural man may pretend unto ; passing over the whole Mystery of the Gospel , they construe the Word of God by Reason , bringing down all spiritual Expressions to the level of Man's Understanding : And if no more be intended by them , things are strangely worded in the Bible ; 't is not the manner of men to speak so , to cloath their natural Notions with such Phrases and Words ( peculiar only to the Scriptures ) as do not at all symbolize with any mere humane conception , and therefore must needs signifie something higher , something beyond all that ever entred into the heart of a Natural Man ; if not , then farewel all Revealed Religion , it seems nothing is revealed in Scripture but mere words , Natural Theology is the thing into which all Scripture must be interpreted ; all the use we are to make of the Scriptures , according to them , is only to borrow some peculiar words and expressions , as so many new Terms of Art appropriated to Religion , by Divine Authority : What a strange conceit is this , to borrow from the Scriptures new Bottles to put our old Wine into , our Sense into Gods word , so spoiling both ; God's Words are too big for our sense , and our sense too low and mean to fill up such high Expressions which can never by any rule of speech be brought down and contracted to so narrow a signification ; so that whilst we accommodate the Word of God to our own false Conceptions of Divine Things , we understand neither God nor our selves ; we think absurdly , and speak improperly . But those who understand the pure Lauguage of the Gospel , they see a suitableness between the Words of the Holy Ghost , and the things of the Holy God. I have read to you out of my Text , the Words of the Holy Ghost ; 't is God only , who must shew both you and me the thing it self intended , and meant by these words . And now to come a little nearer , let me begin with the Context . Iohn 3. 3. One would have thought the high Opinion Nicodemus had of Christ , ver . 2. As a teacher come from God , a worker of miracles , and one whom God was with : And Christs earnestness in asserting the truth of what he laies down so positively , ver . 3. under a solemn Asseveration , that it was certainly so , should have led Nicodemus to the belief of what Christ affirmed ; but 't is not the Opinion we have of the Preacher , nor his earnestness in Preaching , nor the certain truth of what he delivers , will perswade us to receive this Doctrine of Regeneration , till God enlighten our minds , and give us experience of the thing in our selves . Observe , All natural Men have strange , gross Apprehensions of the Doctrine of Regeneration . Nicodemus applies all that Christ said , to natural Generation , mistakes the Mystery of the new Birth , not comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual , but with Natural . He cannot rise higher than a natural Generation , and thinks that must be repeated in Regeneration ; if any such thing be , though never so often repeated , 't is still the same thing done the same way by entring the second time , &c. And how can a man be born when he is old ? But , suppose there were such a thing as a natural Regeneration in Nicodemus's Sense ; this would not mend the matter in making us more fit for Heaven , for we should be sent again into the World , in the same corrupt Nature as we had before ; whatever is born of the Flesh , is but Flesh still , omne simile , generat simile ; therefore a natural Regeneration supposes no change , but reproduces a man in the same State , Form and Nature , as he had before . If a Man were ten thousand times Born naturally , he would be the same Man still : But the Regeneration Christ speaks of , makes him a new man ; and therefore could not be by entring a second time into his mothers womb : Nicodemus knows nothing of any such new Birth , that should bring forth a new Kind , or Race of Men into the World , of a different Genius , Complexion and Principle , from all that are Born of a Woman ; but because the Scripture does so plainly speak of such a thing , they who read the Word , dare not deny it altogether ; and therefore place the whole Mystery of it in external Baptism ; do suppose it always compleated there of course , and will hear no more of it ever after ; they count it absurd to call upon grown baptized Persons , especially old Men and Women , to labour after a Regeneration ; that they think is past and over long ago , when they were baptized . Observe , None but a regenerate Person understands the true nature of Regeneration . Others can never reach it , because they don't feel it in themselves ; 't is a personal Change wrought in every individual Saint ; men may see our outward Profession , our outward Walking , our Praying , Hearing , Preaching , our Moral and Religious Practices ; but the Principle from which we Act , and by which we are carried out in all these things , is infallibly known to none but God , and our own Souls ; we may search into our own Hearts so far , as to discern this new Birth , and we should not rest till we have found it out . That we might the better understand the Nature of Regeneration , let us consider the several Names given it in Scripture ; Regeneration , Renovation , New Creation , Conversion , are Synonimous terms in Scripture , and do all signify the same thing , do all imply the Corruption of Mans Nature , that produceth nothing but what is like it self ; how specious soever it may seem to be , 't is but Flesh ; therefore all fleshly Wisdom , Beauty and Glory , must be mortified and abolished ; the Scripture calls for a new Birth , a new Creation after the Image of God , that Man may be enabled to do good , created in Christ Iesus unto good works , Ephes. 2. 10. Baptism is the Sign and Symbol of Regeneration , and does imply the thing it self , when the inward Work of the Spirit goes along with the outward washing of Water , which it does not always do ; this Wind bloweth where it listeth . Regeneration is of a larger Extent and Signification than Justification and Sanctification ; 't is initially all that belongs to a state of Grace ; 't is fully described , Tit. 3. 5. by washing and renewing ; there is a double washing from Sin. First , From the guilt of it , by the blood of Christ , 1 Iohn 1. 7. Rev. 1. 5. Rev. 7. 14. This washing is Justification , therefore called Baprism unto remission of sin , Mark 1. 4. Acts 2. 38. Gal. 3. 27. This is Baptism unto Justification by the blood of Christ. Secondly , From the filth of sin by the Spirit of Christ , 1 Cor. 6. 11. 1 Cor. 12. 13. This is commonly called Regeneration , Tit. 3. 5. Ioh. 3. 4 Born of water , this is baptism unto sanctification , Rom. 6. 3 , 4. Col. 2. 12. These two internal Washings are always joyned together , 1 Cor. 6. 11. the one perfect , the other imperfect ; Justification in nature only precedes Sanctification ; and being the Act of God upon us , and towards us , is perfect : but in Sanctification God takes us along with him , we concur in every Act of Sanctification ; he works in us to will , and to do ; but 't is we that will and do . I conceive it lies something wide from the truth , to put ( as some do ) Regeneration for Sanctification , lying in the mortification of sin , and newness of life , which is rather an effect of Regeneration , than that in which it consists ; the renewing of our Nature supposes a union to Christ , an ingrafting into him , who is the Root that bears us , communicating all spiritual virtue and sap to those Branches that are vitally joined to him . Therefore I shall describe Regeneration , or at large define it thus , viz. 'T is a wonderful work of God , begetting the Elect again unto himself , by implanting them into Christ , from whom they derive a spiritual being , and in whom they live spiritually for ever and ever ; growing up daily into his likeness , till they come to the stature of a perfect man in him . In Regeneration there is a supernatural form of true holiness impressed upon the Soul , that the preternatural form of sin and ungodliness brought in by the Devil , may be abolished ; nothing that is physically natural , is abolished by Regeneration , which takes not away any natural faculty or affection of the Soul , only sets them upon right Objects . Regeneration produces a new spiritual being in the Soul , draws the Image of God upon the heart , sets the Soul into a holy order and rectitude ; when the natural faculties of the rational Soul are brought under the power of supernatural Principles , that man is regenerated . Regeneration implies the beginning of the new Life , or new Creature ; birth is the beginning of life ; we are born of God , Iohn 1. 13. This is caused by God's quickning of us , Eph. 2. 5. in and through our union to Christ by faith , who is our life , a quickning Spirit in us , and to us , 1 Cor. 15. 45. They who are born of God , are not still-born , but born alive , quickned by the Spirit of Christ. This new life appears most in the Will , by its real tendency towards God , Phil. 2. 13. Where you see the will of a man turned to God and Christ , you may be confident God hath been at work in that Soul ; this great quickning work of Regeneration usually appears first in the Will , in the gracious motions and inclinations of the will of man towards God and Christ ; there may be an illumination of the Mind , without any conversion of the Will ; the darkness of the Understanding is sooner removed , than the corruption of the Will ; there may be many strong convictions wrought , before there be any true conversion of the Will , that stands it out to the uttermost , before it consents to come to Christ , and cast the Soul upon him by an act of faith ; and when the Father has drawn the Will to that act of faith , repentance is always joined with it , Acts 19. 4. Mark 1. 15. Faith principally respects Christ , but Repentance is towards God himself , whom we have offended by our sins , Acts 20. 21. therefore Repentance turns us into the Will of God , seeks to please him , by doing only what he approves of , Works meet for repentance , Acts 26. 20. These Works are an effect of Gospel-repentance , that flows from faith in Christ. Legal Terrors that accompany a legal Repentance , are before Faith , and cannot be removed but by faith in Christ Jesus ; an unregenerate man may attain to a Legal-repentance , and be much terrified ; but he cannot attain to a Gospel-repentance , in turning from sin as contrary to God's holiness . Indeed this Gospel-repentance that flows from Faith , may be sooner perceived than Faith it self ; a Sinner cannot easily perswade himself that he is reconciled to God in Christ , before he finds in himself that he hath left those sins that separated him from God. Regeneration lies in creating in us a habit and vital principle of Faith , which disposes and inclines us to actual believing ; this very principle denominates a man a Believer in the sight of God , before he actually believes ; so regenerate Infants may be said to be Believers . In Regeneration there is a power put into a man to believe and repent , which are acts of the new Creature ; so that a man must first be a new Creature ; and that which makes him so , is Regeneration ; before that , an unregenerate person is called an old man , the old man is distinct from our selves as men ; we must distinguish between the corruption of humane Nature , and humane Nature it self , which Regeneration does not destroy , but perfect ; it implies a change of state , and a change of nature , the foundation of both is laid in our Regeneration , by virtue of our incorporation into Christ , who of God is made unto us righteousness and sanctification ; the efficacy of his Blood and Spirit does reach our Souls , being one with him ; we die with him , and rise with him , are discharged from sin upon the account of his Satisfaction , and are raised up unto newness of life by vertue of his Resurrection . We pass through all the states that Christ passed through ; we die with him , are crucified with him ; we rise with him , ascend into Heaven with him , are glorified with him ; there is nothing that God requires of Believers in a way of faith and hope , but he hath given some instance already in his Son Jesus Christ of the actual accomplishment of that thing . We hope to be justified from our sins , because Christ is justified from 'em ; they were laid upon him , but he has freed himself now from the imputation of them ; and therefore will appear the second time without sin , Heb. 9. 28. We hope for a resurrection of the Body , because Christ is risen ; we hope for glory , because Christ is ascended and glorified : So the Apostle argues , 1 Pet. 1. 21. Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead , and gave him glory , that your faith and hope might be in God. There is as much reason for the justification of a sinner believing in Christ , as for the Justification of the Person of Christ himself ; it is upon the same account ; so that our case is an adjudged case , already upon record in Heaven ; it is no new thing for God to pass by our sins , he having passed them all by in Christ ; no new thing for God to justifie such sinners as we are , having already justified Christ , admitted him to Glory , and set him down at his Right Hand : These are all instances of what you may expect from God the Father : The Covenant of Grace requires no other Righteousness for your Justification , but that of Christ ; therefore I would perswade you to keep up a high value and esteem for the Righteousness of Christ ; it will support you under the greatness of your own sins , and under all the defects of your own Righteousness : What is it that troubles poor souls ? their sins are great , and their Righteousness small , and what will become of them they know not . Set the Righteousness of Christ against the greatness of your sins , and against all the Imperfections of your own Righteousness , raise up your thoughts in a high esteem of this Righteousness of Christ. I would not have you say , as too too many do , and may be they mean no more than they say , if so , they do not say all the truth ; how many real Believers have I heard say , Christ will cover the Imperfection of our own Righteousness , and so think they speak all the truth ; but they must mean something beyond all this , or they do not speak right ; for the Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith , does not only cover all the Defects of your own Righteousness , but covers your very Righteousness it self , which must never be brought in as an Argument , why God should justify ; you must not be found in your own Righteousness ; not having my own Righteousness , says Paul , Phil. 3. 9. that is , not having it on ; Faith in Christ does strip a Man of his own Righteousness , does not only speak comfortably , as to the Pardon of all the Defects of our own Righteousness ; but take it in its best State , and highest Degree , as far as our Righteousness can reach , it must be covered when we come to God for Justification . There are two Seasons when Christ presents us to the Father , the one for Justification , the other for Glorification ; when he does the first , he presents us sinners lying in our blood , as having no righteousness of our own , but what is imputed to us by God ; and then for Glorification , he presents us perfectly Holy , inherently Holy , without any spot or blemish upon us ; and this he doth with exceeding great joy : so that when you would make use of Christ for Justification , remember to cover all your own righteousness , and put it quite off , as to any trust or confidence in it ; 't is hard to do Righteousness , and not to be proud of it , conceiving we merit something by it ; you must be workers of Righteousness , but not wearers of your own Righteousness : when you stand before God for Justification , take heed of having it , or being found in it . Nothing can make a man see the weakness and insufficiency of his own performances , but a true principle of Faith , that humbles him , and empties him , sending him stript and naked unto Christ , to cover him with the unspotted Robe of his perfect Righteousness . Lastly , The immediate effect of Regeneration is Adoption : You see I have been comparing Regeneration with other great Gospel Truths , that I might find out the proper place for it , and see what relation it stands in to all the other parts and members of the body of Divinity . I say therefore , the immediate effect of Regeneration is Adoption ; being born of Man , we became the Children of Men ; so being born of God , we become the Children of God : Adoption and Birth go together here ; he that begets , adopts those whom he hath begotten ; 't is not so among men , for this is another peculiar property of Regeneration : They who have power to become the Children of God , they are born of God ; adopted , and yet born ; born , and yet adopted ; so that it pleaseth God the Father , by all the ways of Nature , of Art , of civil Custom among men , to set forth his Love by a natural generation , or being born . 'T is a natural thing among men to be born , but adoption is a civil instituted thing , a thing of prudence and custom among men , it is brought in by Man : You know how fond men are of those they have Adopted ; 't is next to the natural affection they bear to the Children of their own bodies ; so that no doubt there is much of mystery in this Doctrine of Regeneration . There is not a Man in the World almost , but lives in some hope of going to Heaven when he dies ; yet the greatest part of mankind carry themselves so , as if they would only make the World believe they shall be saved , not as if they were under any real hope , or expectation of such a thing , nothing of this appears by any serious preparation they make for Heaven or Glory : But let their hopes be what they will , except a man he born again , he cannot see the kingdom of God. Thus much in general . I shall now come to particulars , and cast all I have further to say upon this Text , under these following Heads : viz. 1. The Author of Regeneration . 2. The Subjects of Regeneration . 3. The Means of Regeneration . 4. The Manner of Regeneration , how it is wrought and carried on in the Soul. 5. The Time of Regeneration . 6. The End of Regeneration . 7. The Scripture-marks and signs of Regeneration . 8. The Application of the whole . 1. The Author of Regeneration : viz. God. 1 Ioh. 5. 18. We are said to be begotten of God , born of God ; and this is sometimes ascribed to the Father , sometimes to God the Son , sometimes to God the Holy Ghost ; all that is called God , is concerned in Man's Regeneration . God the Father is said to beget us , 1 Pet. 1. 3. We are said to be Created in Christ Iesus unto good works , Eph. 2. 10. To be in him , even in his Son Iesus Christ , 1 Joh. 5. 20. to be born os the spirit , Joh. 3. 5. All the persons of the Trinity have a joint agency in this work of our Regeneration , &c. Page 1. And great is the efficacy of Three such concurring , total Causes of the same kind ; this is above all our Logick and Philosophy , which own no such Causes . God is wonderful in counsel , and excellent in working , Isa. 28. 29. We are in his hands , as clay in the hand of the potter , Jer. 18 6. He can make us Vessels of Honour if he please ; and this Honour have all his Saints , his excellent ones , in whom he delights . The moving Cause is God's meer Good Will and Pleasure . Iames 1. 18. His abundant mercy and loving kindness , 1 Pet. 1. 3. Tit. 3. 4 , 5. Ephes. 2. 4 , 5. We should be much affected with the Love of God in our Regeneration : God stands in the relation of a Father to all who are begotten by him . 1. He is the Father of Christ , the Second person in the Trinity , Psal. 2. 7. whose Generation is Eternal , who can declare it ? Isa. 53. 8. It is the profound object of our Faith , grounded upon Divine Revelation . 2. He is the Father of all true Christians , who are spiritually born of his Will , at the time appointed of the Father for their effectual Calling . 'T is termed a Calling , because they are begotten by the Word of God , speaking to their hearts by it , and so turning them to himself : God is the Father of Christ , and the Father of Believers . Iohn 20. 17. My father , and your father . Upon these accounts it is , that God glories so much in his own Paternity ; not only in relation to Christ , his Eternal Son , who is God equal with the Father ; but also in relation to the Saints , who are his true-born Children through Christ. See an instance of both : 1. In reference to Christ ; Heb. 1 : 5. Thou art my son , this day have I begotten thee . Let all the Angels of God worship him ; thy throne is for ever and ever . Sit on my right hand , until I make thine enemies thy footstool . So Psal. 2. 6 , 7 , 8. Thus was this great Man , this Son of God , incarnate , brought into Heaven in state and triumph , at his Resurrection . 2. In reference to the Saints ; Jer. 31 : 9. I am a father to Israel , and Ephraim is my first-born . So 2 Cor. 6. 18. I will be a father unto you , and ye shall be my sons and daughters , saith the Lord Almighty . Tho God does greatly delight in his beloved Son , loves to see the brightness of his own glory shining out in Christ the express Image of his Person ; yet next to his own Image in Christ , he loves to behold the Image of his Son in the Saints , and therefore has predestinated them to be conformable to the Image of his Son , Rom. 8. 29. Christ indeed is the first-born , but many Brethren are to follow ( Rom. 8. 29. ) to be added to the Lord , as the Phrase is , Acts 5. 14. God loves to see the number of his Children encreasing ; to see his Family enlarged . Under this consideration Paul bows his Knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named , Ephes. 3. 14 , 15. With what reverence doth Paul draw nigh to this great Father ? I told you but now , that God glories in Christ his first begotten Son ; you heard in what triumph the great Man , Jesus Christ , was brought into Heaven , how God welcomed him to Glory ; so there is joy in Heaven at the Regeneration of a Sinner ; Angels rejoyce , God rejoyces . This day have I begotten such and such ; Oh that there might be Joy in Heaven upon this account , this day , that it might be noted down above , that this and that Man were born here . I will shew you the ground of this glorying , of this great satisfaction that God hath in his Children : Tho Christ be anointed above his fellows , yet there is a great measure of anointing poured out upon the Saints ; the fulness of the Godhead is in none but Christ , yet the fulness of God is in all the Saints , Ephes. 3. 19. they are not shut out from any of the communicable Attributes of God , but have their share of all that is in him , according to their capacities as creatures : Cast an empty Barrel into the Sea , all the Sea is not in the Barrel , but the Barrel is in all the Sea ; the Sea runs under it , over it , on every side of it : Thus are we swallowed up in God. He comprehends us , tho we cannot fully comprehend him ; we are in Christ according to his infinite capacity , and therefore are perfectly justified by the infinite merit of his perfect Righteousness imputed to us : But Christ is in us , according to our finite , weak capacities , and therefore we are but imperfectly sanctified ; we have what we are able to receive , and no more at present , till our hearts are farther inlarged . Thus you see what it is to be a Child of God ; how the fulness of God is bestowed upon us . God glories in this . And have not the Saints reason to glory in it also ? But alas , how do Men please themselves with their Rich Relations , Great Families , they are Nobly descended ? But I must tell you , all Nations are of one Blood , and that is tainted too , we are a Seed of evil-doers , there is no Noble blood runs in your veins , till you are born of God ; 't is Regeneration only that makes you the Sons and Daughters of the Most High ; then you are high born indeed . To stir you up to a holy ambition after this new birth , do but consider the Father of the Family , the great God of Heaven and Earth , blessed for ever , the Father of Mercies , and the God of all Comfort . Consider Christ the Elder Brother of the Family , Rom. 9. 5. He is over all , God blessed for ever . His Name is Wonderful , Counsellor , the Mighty God , the Everlasting Father , the Prince of Peace , Isa. 9. 6 , 7. You see how the Dignity and Majesty of his Person is described . 3. Consider the many priviledges that are intailed upon new-born Souls , Heirs of God , joynt heirs with Christ ; you are born to nothing but woe and misery , till you are born again . How should we long to be related to such a Father , to such a Brother , to such an Inheritance ? I insist the more upon this , because I am perswaded , discourses of your Heavenly Father must needs be very pleasing to you who are his Children , whom should Children hear of with more delight , than of their Father that begat them ? Be not cast down at any thing that offends you here below , you have a Father in Heaven who takes care of you , numbers the hairs of your heads , will interest himself in your smallest concerns , and see that all things shall work together for good to you . We may notionally , and according to the Letter , speak what we read and hear of Regeneration , and be little affected ; but when once the New Nature begins to stir , when a Spirit of Adoption begins to breathe in us , 't will carry us out by a secret instinct to God as to a Father ; Nature works powerfully ; we say , Love descends more strongly than it ascends ; so 't is here , God loves his Children better than they can love him ; this is love , not that we love God , tho there is a great strength in the natural Affection of ingenuous Children towards their Parents . The truth is , nothing does more enoble our Minds , raise our spirits to a true Christian Magnanimity ; nothing does more uphold and encourage us in our way , more strengthen our Faith and Hope in Prayer , than lively Apprehensions of God , as our Father in Christ Jesus ; see how Christ hangs upon this word [ Father ] in his Prayer , Iohn 17. Father , Father ; Oh Father ; Holy Father ; Oh Righteous Father ; we should eye nothing more in Prayer , than our Relation to God as a Father : How can an unregenerate man say , Our Father which art in Heaven ? Alas ! thou hast never a Father in Heaven , thou art a Child of Wrath , a Child of the Devil : Though some unregenerate Persons may be within the Election of God , yet the Scripture speaks of them according to their present state , calls them Aliens , Strangers , Foreigners : Could we conceive aright of our Covenant-relation to God , and keep our thoughts working upon it , it would afford an Argument to us , where all other Arguments fail ; as Isa. 63. 16. Doubtless thou art our Father ; it cannot be that our Heavenly Father should forget us ; a Mother may forget her Child , — but the Lord is gracious and full of Compassion , Psal. 145. 8. There is a greater fulness of Compassion in our Heavenly Father , than in our Natural Parents ; they can do , and will do , what God cannot do , because he will not : Since the Priviledges of the Children of God are so great , how should we long to be born again ! to be born of spirit , Joh. 3. 6. To be a new lump , 1 Cor. 5. 7. New creatures , 2 Cor. 5. 17. To have Christ formed in us , Gal. 4. 19. To be quickned , Ephes. 2. 1. Baptized with the Holy Ghost , Mat. 3. 11. To be renewed in the spirit of our mind , Ephes. 4. 23. These are Scripture-expressions of a great depth , of a high signification , which if well studied and pondered in our hearts , seriously and often prayed over , will give us more light into the Mystery of Regeneration , than the tongue of Men and Angels can utter ; none can open these Scriptures to you but the Holy Ghost ; tho Ministers cannot bring down these Scripture expressions to man's Understanding , yet the Spirit of God can lift up man's Understanding to some discerning of the mind of Christ in them , by shining in our hearts the light of the Knowledg of the Glory of God in the face of Christ. We see how much Glory and Honour is derived to us by God's being the Author of our Regeneration . I will now look a little further into this Mystery . Regeneration is our passing over into Christ , into his Life , Nature , and Spirit ; they who are thus joined to the Lord , are one Spirit . Christ is their Life ; being united to Life it self , they must needs be quickned by it ; it is present death to be separated from Life it self ; in Regeneration Life doth not so much enter into us , as we into it ; and being once born of God , we gradually enter further and further into his Life , till all Mortality be swallowed up of it . Thus Grace reigns through Righteousness unto Eternal Life , and this Eternal Life is God ; there is but one Eternal Life ; when we are in him that is true , in him that is Eternal , this is life eternnl , John 5. 20. Therefore to be in Christ , and to be a New Creature , is all one . All Creatures that have breath , live , move , and have their Being in God , yet they are not so in God , as the New Creature is in Christ : God , as a Creator , bestows a Creature-life upon man , distinct from his own Eternal Uncreated Life ; and man having this natural root of his own , from the God of Nature , grows up by himself , with all the specifical Properties belonging to his kind , whereby he is distinguished from his fellow-creatures , he stands forth at some distance from God , yet under the general influence of his Providence , without which no creature can subsist : But in Regeneration God does not only breathe the breath of life into us , making us living souls , but breathes his own quickning Spirit into us , that we may live the very life of God in our measure ; 't is one thing for God to give forth something virtually from himself , as he does in our first Creation ; another thing to give himself really unto us , as in the second Creation . God as a Redeemer , raises up a new Creature in himself , partaker of his own Divine Nature , Life and Spirit ; this life is hid with Christ in God , Col. 3. 3. and cannot in the Root and Principle of it be distinguished from God himself ; Christ is our Life , which according to our finite capacity as Creatures we partake of ; the new Creature is but a Creature for all this , though quite of another make , constitution , and original , from all the first Creation , and therefore called a new Creature , standing in a nearer union and conjunction to God , so born of him as no other creature is ; all Creatures are made by him , non born of him but the new Creature ; as Christ took part of our Flesh and Blood in his Incarnation , so we partake of his Divine Nature in our Regeneration ; as the soul is the life of the body , so the spirit of Christ dwelling in us , is the life of our souls , acting them in a supernatural way ; we live the life of God , which we were estranged from , knew nothing of in our unregenerate state ; 't is not we that live , but Christ living in us , Gal. 2. 20. Because I live , you shall live also , John 14. 19. Christ in us the hope of glory , Col. 1. 27. Till Christ be formed in us , we cannot be said to be born of God ; a spirit of life must first enter into us from Christ ; and how does this spirit enter ? Not as a separate Principle from Christ , but in and with Christ Jesus ; the spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death , Rom. 8. 2. Have a care of leading a separate life from Christ , in the strength of your own Graces , for they are but streams issuing from the Fountain of Life in Christ Jesus , and will quickly dry up , if not continually fed by the Fountain : Branches cannot bear fruit , if they abide not in the root ; as the life of the branches is in the root of the tree , so our life as new creatures is radicated in Christ ; he is the root that bears us under all our deadness and dulness ; we should go to Christ for fresh quicknings ; many times we seek for life in our selves , and can feel none ; but if we would seek for it in Christ , and come up closer to him , how reviving would that be ? animus cum sole redit ; so get but under this Sun of Righteousness , you 'l quickly find healing ; your spirits will return , your cold frozen hearts will grow warm , the fire will burn within ere you are aware ; what is a state of death , but a state of alienation from Christ , who is our life ? Eph. 4. 18. Put him on then , and wear him next your hearts , let him but stretch himself all over your dark dead souls , as the Prophet did over the dead child , 1 Kings 17. 21. 2 Kings 4. 34 , 35. and life will return , you 'l find a sudden Resurrection , a fresh vigor of spirit will suddenly come upon you ; if ever you would be quickned , it must be by Christ , and with Christ , who hath quickened us together with Christ , Eph. 2. 5. What do you alone without Christ ? No wonder you are in a dead frame , while you are musing upon what you are in your selves , while you are in this solitary condition , wandring up and down without Christ ; let Christ and you come once together , and there will be life , there will be strength , there will be another Spirit in you . If God be the Author of Regeneration , let not the Eunuch say , I am a dry tree ; all things are possible with God , who can raise up children to Abraham of stones . I would have none despair of becoming the Children of God , who do sincerely desire it , and long for that day . New Births are sudden things . I am perswaded they will be so towards the end of the world , when a Nation shall be born in a day , and sinners be converted by thousands , as in the Apostles time . Now we travel in birth a great while with one and another ; many pangs , many throws , yet they stick in the place of bringing forth ; we prophesie over dry bones , but no ratling , no coming together , no spirit of life yet entring into them , they stick in the place of bringing forth ; how many hearers are there in our Congregations who are stuck between Christ and the World , can get neither backwards nor forwards , are now where they were many years ago ? They dare not cast off Religion altogether , neither dare they come up to the power of it ; they come and go to and from the place of the Holy One , conversing only with the dead Letter of the Gospel , are not yet brought under the glorious ministration of the Spirit ; 't is the Spirit gives life , by bringing in Gospel Truths in their natural living Principle into the Heart ; then we live , and the Word lives in us ; the heart and the Word are quickned together ; one was in a dead frame , the other lay in a dead Letter before , but now both do live together , and agree with each other ; the sense of the Soul , is the sense of the Word ; and the Sense of the Word , is the sense of the Soul ; they both mean the same thing , they fall in with each other , they dwell together in Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding ; there is but one Spirit between them ; what one says , the other does ; and this is the great work of God as he is the Author of Regeneration , to make our hearts thus to agree with his Word , by casting them into the mould of the Gospel . If ever the Word be ingrafted upon the Soul , it must be ingrafted upon a living Principle of Holiness that suits with it , for nothing else can receive it , or hold it , and this is the Work of God upon the Soul in Regeneration . CHAP. II. Subjects of Regeneration . II. THE Subjects of Regeneration , who they are , viz. The Elect , only the Elect , and all the Elect , Rom. 8. 30. Whom he did predestinate , them he also called , &c. Let their outward Circumstances be what they will , whether bond or free , male or female , 1 Cor. 12. 13. Gal. 6. 15. Regeneration will reach them all first or last . I prove it thus : It must be either by Gods Election , or by Man's Election , putting himself by his own free-will into this state ; or by Accident , no body knows how . I will prove it must be one of these three ways , because 't is apparent , that all by Nature are born in an unregenerate state , and that the Devil does carry away the greatest part of mankind into Hell in their unregenerate state . These Truths are plainly laid down in Scripture , and are capable of clear demonstration from thence . Since neither of them need any proof , I 'le take them both for granted , and I argue thus from them : If all are born in sin , and the greatest part by far , dye in their sins , Who makes the difference , and from whence does it arise ? It must come either from the Eternal Purpose of God electing some and not others , or from man's own choice electing himself , and putting himself into this state , by the power of his own free-will , so that he is regenerate because he will be so ; he will regenerate himself , and change his own nature , and make himself a new creature . The absurdity of this will appear by and by : or else it is by an unaccountable Contingency , no body knows how or why . It cannot be by the two latter ways , Ergo , by the First , viz. Gods Election . 1. It cannot be by man's own free-will ; for it can't be supposed that corrupt nature should ever will its own destruction ; the flesh is not so divided against it self ; Satan will not cast out Satan ; the Devil is more at Unity with himself than so ; he would indeed set himself above God , and dethrone him if possible ; as he is , he would be a God , he would have the use of God's Power , that he might abuse it , and play the Devil the more , so far he would be like unto the most High ; but he is so much a Devil , such an irreconcilable enemy to all Godliness , that he would not exchange his Devilish Nature , for the Holy Nature of God ; and so are all the Children of the Devil , Acts 13. 10. Oh thou child of the devil , thou enemy of all righteousness . A natural man would be nothing but what he is ; he likes himself too well to part with his own nature ; 't is unreasonable to imagine such a self-destroying inclination in any creature whatsoever ; 't is impossible for any nature to will a change of it self . A Principle of self-preservation runs through the whole Creation of God ; the Toad , as full of Poyson as it is , would be a Toad still ; so sinful man is as tender of himself , as much in love with himself , as the Holiest Angel in Heaven is with himself . Whence should such an actual Will arise in man , as to desire his own Annihilation , that he may cease to be what he is , and become a new Creature ? There must be another Nature put into him before he can desire to be another Man ; all do follow the course of Nature , and cannot do otherwise ; therefore till nature is changed , the course is and must be the same as ever it was ; good inclinations are never found in depraved nature ; an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit ; figs grow not upon thistles , nor grapes upon thorns . To suppose a man in a state of nature to will his own Conversion , is to suppose him already converted : if the Will be changed , the Man is changed ; the Will is the Man. Can the Ethiopian change his skin , or the Leopard his spots ? Jer. 13. 23. they may as soon do this , as one born in sin can cease to live in sin ; we must be born again first , for a sinful nature will never carry a man out to a holy Life . Nature is a constant fixed Principle , always keeping within its own sphere ; 't is not a mutable fancy , that may be taken up , or laid down at pleasure . We see all things keep their own shape and form ; and 't would be monstrous , were it otherwise . The whole Creation would be confounded , if things could run one into another , and Metamorphise themselves into what different species they please ; the God of Nature has fixed things otherwise ; and I am sure none but the God of Grace can alter the corrupt nature of fallen man. It cannot be by chance , by a fortuitous concourse of I know not what . None but a downright Atheist will resolve it into this ; 't is such a denial of Providence in the chiefest design and contrivance of the Infinite Wisdom and Goodness of God , as no Christian ever can bear . What is Regenerating Grace , but a special Providence towards the Elect , carried on with wonderful Wisdom and Counsel ? Where known causes , and special ends may be assigned , there is no room for Chance ; we may steadily look from the beginning to the end of such a production , and trace back the effect step by step , to its first original cause . He that is a Christian by chance , not knowing how or why he came to be so , will give but a sorry account of his Faith , and may as suddenly , with more reason , turn Infidel again . Therefore since Regeneration does not happen by an unaccountable Contingency , nor can ever be brought about by any mere humane contrivance , what remains , but that we ascribe it , as the Scripture does , to the Divine Will of him , to whom all things are possible ; beginning at the Eternal Purpose of God in Election , so proceeding downwards through all the methods , ways , and means appointed by God for the carrying on this great work of his in the hearts of men ? The truth is , the first breaking forth of Electing Love upon us , is in our Regeneration ; 'till something of it appears , we cannot know any thing by all that is before us , of God's Eternal Love to us : Our actual taking any thing up into our hands , argues a previous choice , that our eye was upon it before . So here , God has from Eternity made choise of some for Salvation , his Eye was upon them from Eternity ; and when his Grace takes actual hold of them , we may then , through our present effectual Vocation , see up to our Eternal Election , and by these visible streams , go back to the invisible Fountain of Free-grace in the heart of our Heavenly Father : By what he does in time , we know what he intended from Eternity . Let none despair of this Grace , who wait upon God for it ; all those who have already passed the streights of the new-birth , were once under as discouraging circumstances as any now can be ; but God had mercy on them , and so he may on thee ; he breathed the breath of Spiritual life into them , and so he can and may into thee ; he is a God that raises the dead , dead Souls as well as dead Bodies . We may see in the eye-lids of some , the very shadow of Eternal death ; but God can turn that shadow into the morning , and cause the day-spring from on high to visit them . Election alters no Man's state , till it issue in Conversion ; then you may see your names written in the Book of Life , from a sence and feeling of that life in your selves to which you were fore-ordained . 'Till we are regenerated , we cannot tell whether ever we shall be ; God knows , but we do not : The Election shall obtain , Rom. 11. 7. Therefore all that have obtained , must ascribe it to Election , That the purpose of God might stand according to election , Rom. 9. 11. The cause of this great change that Regeneration makes , must be resolved either into the Will of God , or Will of the Creature ; there is no medium between God and the Creature ; whatever is done , is by one or the other . Some resolve Conversion and Regeneration into Man's own power , derived from that general sufficient Grace purchased by Christ for all men : But if man in his perfect state fell under that general sufficient Grace which he was certainly endowed with at his first Creation , How can we now suppose any such general grace to be sufficient to recover fallen Man , and to keep him for ever from a relapse ? Therefore we must place fallen Man under some stronger influence , even that of Effectual Grace , which does not only shew unto Man the way of Salvation by Christ , but effectually draws his heart to an actual closure with Christ , joyning him to the Lord in one spirit . This Effectual Grace in saving some , does no injury to others ; they perish justly from the demerits of their own sins ; these are saved freely through the merits of Christ. Let us not be too curious in enquiring why God saves one and not another ; there is a covering upon the face of this great deep . The ways of God are unsearchable , and his judgments past our finding out ; all must be resolved into the Soveraign Will of God : Why should our eye be evil because his is good , who does what he will with his own , and gives no account of his matters ? Because God has purposed from Eternity to shew mercy to some , not telling us who , let every own study his own Salvation , and put in for his share of this Free Grace , which is offered to all , intended for some ; and why not for thee ? Those who embrace the Promise , and believe in Jesus , will never find any Decree in Heaven against them hindering their Salvation ; and those who refuse the Promises , will not come to Christ when called , shall never be saved by virtue of any mere Decree . Faith and Repentance are as much under the decree of God , as Salvation it self ; if the Decree of God bring not forth such things in you now as accompany Salvation , 't will never bring forth Salvation it self . The Doctrine of Election is a comfortable Doctrine , if we apply it to the Means as well as to the End : They who deny this Doctrine , and plead so much for Man's Free-will , they do , and must hold a falling from Grace ; tho God loves them now , they are not sure to continue in his love , nor never will be , 'till they run up all their hopes into Electing Love. When once they see that God has loved them from everlasting , which they may do , by resolving all the present fruits of the spirit into election , as the Scripture teaches us ; they can strongly argue from the unchangeableness of God , That he who has loved them from everlasting , will love them to everlasting ; for whom he so loves , he always loves to the end . Let me make some use of this Point ; there may be some difficulties in it , but I hope God will clear them up to your Souls . If the Subjects of Regeneration be the Elect , only the Elect , and all the Elect ; Then prove your Election by your Regeneration ; you cannot prove Regeneration by your Election ; for bare Election , if you know it , alters no Man's state . Many of the elect of God lie long in an unregenerate state : Election is never in Scripture brought in as a proof of Grace in us ; but Grace in us is brought in as a proof of our Election . To prevent mistakes in some convinced , tho yet unconverted sinners , ay , and in some weak trembling Believers too , whose convictions of sin do put them into no small fright : When I say Regeneration is a good proof of your Election , let not any say , Then my unregenerate state is as good a proof of my Reprobation ; it does by no means follow , for these Reasons . 1st . Because an unregenerate state , or a state of sin and unregeneracy , has not that dependance upon , or relation to eternal Reprobation , as Regeneration , or a state of Grace has to our eternal Election . A state of Grace flows from eternal Election ; but a state of sin and unregeneracy does not flow from eternal Reprobation , but from the fall of Adam , God permitting it as a means through which his electing love would effectually work for the more glorious restauration of Man. They who are regenerated , are elected , Rom. 8. 29 , 30. but those who are not yet regenerated , cannot be said to be not elected or reprobated . 2dly . A state of sin and unregeneracy is common to all , both elect and reprobates ; but a state of Regeneration peculiar only to the Elect. We are all born in sin , all by nature the Children of wrath ; all the Saints here on Earth , and all the Saints now in Glory above , were once in an unregenerate state . 3dly , . An unregenerate state is alterable ; we may pass out of it into a better state ; but a state of Grace is unalterable . We may rise up out of a state of sin , but we cannot fall out of a state of Grace ; we may , even in a state of Grace , fall into many particular sins , out of which God will recover us by repentance ; but we can never fall quite out of it into Hell. The Decrees of God are unalterable , and so is a state of Grace flowing directly from thence ; but a state of sin and unbelief is alterable . I speak this to the support and comfort of all convinced sinners , that none may sink into utter despair ; because there is yet hope concerning them . The Scripture does not put us upon proofs of Reprobation , but Election . We are commanded to make that sure . 'T is true , final Unbelief and Despair are the certain consequent of Reprobation ; but we must stay till the end come , we can positively determine nothing till then ; God calls some at one hour , and some at another hour ; till the day of Grace be quite spent , and the last minute of the last hour quite run out . We can conclude nothing of any Man's Reprobation . There are certain Men ordained of old to condemnation , I do not doubt of it : God may , and doth sometime swear against such and such , totally withdrawing for ever from them ; and yet 't is hard for any man to know this of himself , or any other ; for we see some who , in their own judgments , have been left to a total , final despair , have yet been recovered ; those who , in their own and others apprehensions , have been under invincible hardness and unbelief of heart , yet that also has been overcome , and they brought to a better frame and temper . Secret things belong to God : Let us not be too rash in this matter ; 't is enough for a terrified sinner to know the badness of his present state ; should he know more , 't would quite overwhelm him , he would be fit for nothing but Hell. God hides this usually from the wicked'st men upon earth , to see how they will carry it under the means of Grace , that they may be the more inexcusable at last , who lived so long in the view of their danger , and of the only way of escape by Christ , and would not come unto him for Life . The best way to know your Interest in the decree of Election , is to study your present state well . You 'll say , What are we to understand by the present state of our Souls ? And how shall we know what that is ? Answ. The present state of our Souls , lies in the relation we stand in , either to Heaven or Hell ; in that capacity we are in , for eternal Salvation , or eternal Damnation , if we should dye this Instant . To know this aright , we must consider how God has stated it ; every Man 's present state is stated by God in the Word : mark well what his declared judgment is of such as we are , who live as we live , do as we do , think as we think . — I stand not much upon the judgment of a Man , concerning his everlasting state , unless it fall in with the judgment of God in the Scriptures ; many will judge themselves , as their fears or hopes do lead them , without any reference at all to the Word of God. We that are Ministers must join with the Word , whether it be for you or against you . If you come not up to the terms of the Covenant , you are cast by the Word , we shall quickly understand your Case ; but if you 'l make new terms for your selves , and say , If I have not such gifts , such degrees of Grace , such enlargements and sensible comforts ; if I still remain under such temptations , such afflictions , I will never believe I am a Child of God ; you may say and believe what you please , but I know no Word of God , from one end of the Bible to the other that says as you say . There is no end of these Objections , you 'l be sure to hold to your Opinion , you give so much credit to your self , and so little to the Word in that case , that all we say from thence , in answer to your doubts , signifies nothing ; whereas if you grounded your scruple upon any Word of God , we could answer you by some other Word of equal authority with you , and then we should be heard , and be able to satisfy you , by reconciling Scripture with Scripture , and consequently you to your self . It may be some fearful Saint , or some secure sinner will object and say , I am not like to understand my present state this way , for I can't believe the Word against my own sense and experience , as I think , to the contrary . Having already spoken to doubting Saints , I 'll suppose this Objection to be made by some secure sinner . I Answer , Admit this , viz. That you can't Believe , &c. yet however be persuaded to draw up your case out of the Word , and say , ( what you cannot but say , if you mind what you read ) If the Word of God be true , I am in a lost state ; but I have a better opinion of my condition than so . Could we bring secure sinners thus far , the time may come , and will come , if you belong to God , when his Word will have more weight with you than your own present thoughts and imaginations ; and then you 'l judge of your selves , as the Word judges , and no otherwise : What ever your present hopes or fears may be , you 'l come over to the Word , and be of the same mind with that concerning your Eternal state . Don't say as some generally do , If I am Elected I shall be Regenerated and saved at last ; so putting off all from your selves , upon God's Decrees , as if they left no room for your Duty ; as if the Decree of Election had no determining influence upon your wills , to bring forth what is decreed , in a way agreeable to your rational nature , by inclining you to the free use of all means appointed by God in order to your Salvation . Whereas you say , if you are Elected , you shall be Regenerated and Saved , pray follow that thought home , pursue it a little further , bring it to an issue ; don't stop in the midst of a thought , in the midst of your reasonings , but come to some conclusion . If I am elected , I shall be regenerated , &c. But I am not Regenerated , therefore I am at present in a state of wrath , and for ought appears yet in me , I may be in a state of Reprobation . And is this a state to be rested in ? Do you make so light of it ? Can you eat , and drink , and sleep so securely under it ? Methinks your own Hypothesis should lead you whether you will or no , to some consideration of that dreadful conclusion which may follow upon on it , since God has comanded you to make your calling and election sure , and shewed you how you may do it . Since your present Comfort , and future Happiness depends upon the proof of your Election , How should you long to see this sure and infallible evidence of it in your Regeneration ! CHAP. III. III. The Means of Regeneration . I Have already spoken of the principal efficient Cause of Regeneration under the first Head ; I am now to speak of the Instrumental Cause , or outward means of Regeneration . viz. The Word Preach'd , as appears by these following Scriptures , 1 Pet. 1. 23. where Regeneration is plainly ascribed to the Word , Iames 1. 18. God is said to beget us with the word of truth . 1 Cor. 4. 15. Paul is said to have begotten the Corinthians through the Gospel , or by the Word of God which is able to save our Souls . These Scriptures are an undeniable proof of these two things : 1. That there is a Virtue and Power in the Word , to work a change of heart and nature in those that hear it . 2. That this Virtue and Power is from God , whensoever his Spirit concurs with it , it becomes effectual for our Regeneration . I shall give you some Reasons , or rather some further Illustrations of this Truth , from the Scriptures ; we must say nothing of the Word , but what we have from the Word , and what falls in with the experience of all Christians , who live in any observation of the way of the Spirit of God , in turning their hearts to himself . I shall make out this in sundry particulars : 1st . The Word is a proper medium for the Invisible God to work by ; we cannot behold his face because he is Invisible in his Essence ; but we may hear his voice when he speaks to us in our Language . God never acts more like a God , like a Creator , than when he works by his Word ; He says , and 't is done ; let there be light , and there was light : Lazarus come forth , and immediately a Resurrection follows : He can as easily do as speak ; his Word is operative . God chuses to work by his Word , that he may appear to do all by himself . As a Creator he has nothing else to work by : Thus he brings all things out of nothing ; he that is the everlasting I am , makes that which is not , to be and exist ; the essence and being of all things that are made , flows from the Lord Iehovah , the fountain of all being . 2dly , The Written Word is the most suitable means for God to make use of in all his dealings with his reasonable creature Man : Speech is proper to Man , he only of all creatures has Ears to hear and understand words ; as men communicate their thoughts one to another by words , so does God communicate his sense to us by words ; he puts his sense into our words , adapting them to Divine mysteries , and thereby drawing them up to a higher signification , than the wit of Man can reach unto . The VVord is a very proper means for God to work upon Man by , because it is full expressive of the mind of God ; and when the Spirit is given from above , we shall have a right understanding of it ; as a natural Man cannot know the things of God in the VVord , without the Spirit ; so neither can a spiritual Man in this VVorld know them without the Word : we cannot come nearer to God now than the VVord brings us . 3dly , The Word is the Exemplar or Pattern of the Image of God , which is drawn upon the face of the new creature ; plainly representing it to us in all its spiritual features . We have it before us as in a Table , that we may often examine our selves by it , and see how we answer to that Character which the Scripture gives of every renewed Soul , how like or unlike we are to it ; the Word is the Mould into which we are cast . The Glory of the Lord reflected upon us through the Glass of the Gospel , leaves its own Image upon the Soul. As to know God in Christ is Eternal Life , so to behold his Glory with understanding , is the highest Glory we are capable of ; as his Righteousness makes us Righteous , his Wisdom , wise , his Strength makes us strong , so his Glory let in upon the Soul , is our glorification . Thus God is all in all to the Saints ; there is some appearance of God in every thing that is excellent in them ; their All is Christ in them , without him they are nothing ; and it is by the Word they are transformed into his likeness . What is Grace but Truth put into the inward parts ? the Law written in the Heart , the Word abiding in us , and turned into grace in our hearts ? which is nothing else but a living principle of Faith and Holiness , enclining us to keep the Word , which is an authentick copy , and transcript of the will of God to Man. Where there is an inward Man delighting in the Law of God , we may be sure the Word has been effectual in that Soul. Who is that inward Man , but the new Man , the new Creature , born of the incorruptible seed of the Word ? 4thly , The Word works morally , the Spirit Physically ; in plain English , thus ; The Word makes an outward proposal of the Object , the Spirit inwardly enlightens the faculty , disposes the heart to receive it : as things of sense are perceived by a more gross corporeal contact , so things of Reason and Faith are let in , in a more intellectual way , by mental conceptions . How all intelligible things , purely rational , do arise from Sense , I shall not now speak to ; but 't is certain that all inward representations of things purely spiritual and supernatural are made to us by the Holy-Ghost ; revealing Christ in us , and in him discovering to us the reality and truth of all the Word speaks of . The Word is of a persuasive strain , full of reasonings and arguings with Man ; God debates matters with us , would discourse us into a right understanding of his Will : Hence so many motives and exhortations ; Faith it self is but a persuasion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to persuade ; but because the things discoursed of in the Word are supernatural , we must be spiritually illuminated before we can perceive them ; the Natural Man perceives not the things of God. The Word is but an outward light , let it shine out never so brightly in the plainest and fullest Exposition that can be given of it , yet still 't is but an outward light , which our dark minds cannot comprehend , 'till God enlighten them . Snuff a Candle never so often , a blind Man will see never the better ; but when his eyes are opened , then he can distinguish between the dimness and brightness of the Candle : So 't is with Believers , they are ready to take in the most spiritual sense of the Word ; 't is that they wait for , they know that God does open his mind further and further to the Saints by the Preaching of the Gospel , which makes them so much in love with Ordinances ; and 't is the rejoycing of their hearts to have any further discovery of the Mind of God made to them in any point of Doctrine , which they were not so clear in before , or at least did not take so much notice of before . 'T is observable how strangely the Saints are affected , and that on a sudden , with some old known truths , which they have a long time owned and professed , but never found them so warm upon their hearts before ; their hearts do glow and burn within them . What is this but the hand of the Lord with them at such a season , letting in his Word with power upon their Souls ? 5thly , The Doctrine of Faith laid down in the Word , cannot be taken into the Soul , but by the Grace of Faith ; no other principle will admit it . The things of God knoweth no man , but by the spirit of God. That this living principle of the Grace of Faith in the heart , may be exactly suited to the Doctrine of Faith in the Word , God has ordered it , that one should beget the other , to prevent all strangeness between them , that they may the better fall in with each other . 6thly , The Word , as 't is the means of Regeneration , is called the Word of Life . Life is promised to the hearing of it . 'T is therefore called the word of life , because 't is the Word of Grace , in distinction from the first Covenant , which neither expressed nor intended any pardoning Grace to a sinner : All the Words of the Bible , from the 3d of Genesis , to the end of the Revelations , are words of Grace , tho there is frequent mention of the Law , of the Curse of it , of fearful denunciations of wrath against sinners ; yet the end of all is to stir us up to accept of the Grace of the Gospel . A pure Covenant of Works , exclusive of all Grace , is no where spoken of , but in the 2d of Genesis , where God places Adam under that Covenant before the formation of Eve ; And the Lord God took the man , and put him into the Garden of Eden , and the Lord God commanded the man , saying , Of every tree thou maist freely eat , thou , thou , &c. Here was none but God and Adam at the making of this Covenant : Eve was , no doubt , afterwards informed of it by her Husband , as appears Gen. 3. 2 , 3. where she repeats over that Covenant to the Serpent . Were not the Word of the Gospel a word of Grace , there would be nothing for the Faith of a sinner to lay hold on ; no virtue nor power in it to beget life in a dead sinner . The life we have by Grace , differs from the life Adam had at his first Creation , that came in with his first being ; this is life from the dead , life given after the forfeiture of life , which is an act of mere Grace : To raise Man out of the dust of the earth , and to make him a living reasonable creature , was an act of God's Power and Soveraign good pleasure : But after the fall to give him a new life , after he had chosen death , and sunk himself under the power of it ; What can this be ascribed to , but those Bowels of infinite compassion in God to Man ? He was not willing that Man should die but live ; and therefore fixes him in a state of Eternal Life in Christ Jesus . Since a creature-life was so uncertain , God joyns Man to himself in one Spirit , takes him into his own Life , that he may live for ever . Because I live , you shall live . I am resolved not to live without you : my delight is among the Children of men . I have chosen you from Eternity to be my Associates and Friends , to be about my Throne , and to have fellowship with me for ever . 7thly , There are as many instances of the Power of the Word in Regeneration , as there are Believers now in the World , who do all ascribe their New Birth to the Divine Virtue and Energy of the Word , set home upon their Hearts by the Spirit of God. Application . You see your Calling , Brethren , what outward Means God has appointed for your Conversion ; Means not put into your hands for you to work by , and to shew your own skill in turning your own hearts , but a Means that God himself will work by : The reason why so few are converted by the Word , is because they don't put their Conversion upon God , saying with Ephraim , Jer. 31. 18. Turn thou me , and I shall he turned . 'T is our duty to submit to the use of Means , to place our selves under them , waiting for the coming down of the Spirit to make the Word effectual ; did we thus wait upon God in a real Dependance upon him , he would be found of us , his Arm would be revealed , we should see more of his Glory in the Sanctuary . Let us come then with raised Expectations of what God only can and may do upon our Hearts , praying that he would give some signal Testimony to the Word of his Grace . The Word of God is either a certain Truth , or a cunningly devised Fable ; if it be a Fable , Why don't you throw away your Bibles , lay aside your Profession , resolve never to hear a Sermon more ? If it be a Truth , as I doubt not you all believe it to be , Why don't you follow it home , make something of it ? 'T is a Word whereby you may be saved ; give God no rest day nor night , till you attain that Salvation . In our Saviour's time they followed him for the Miracles they saw done upon the Bodies of men ; the Word can do as great Miracles now upon our Souls : When you are going to hear the Word , think with you selves , I am now going to see what further change of Heart God will work in me ; what Renovation of Spirit ; what further Enlightnings ; what fresh Comforts ; what further Increase of God I may find in my inward man : Did you come in expectation of these mighty works of God in and upon your Hearts , no place would be large enough to contain the comers to the word , that they might have some experience of his mighty saving Power passing upon their Souls : As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness , so we lift up Christ that you may look unto him , and be healed : You look unto men , you judg how much of Mans Wisdom , Reason , and Understanding there is in a Sermon ; but there is not that earnest looking for the power of God unto salvation , as there ought to be . — Many come with itching ears to hear some new Notion set off with the enticing words of Man's Wisdom , as if the strength of Human Reason , by a Natural Operation upon the minds of men , could lead them into the belief of any thing that is said in the Pulpit , without any inward efficiency of the Spirit ; but if this be all you look for , 't is not worth your coming hither ; we don't pretend to any such Rhetorical Charms , to any such prevailing Influence over you ; you may excel us in Acuteness of Wit , Quickness of Apprehension ; you may be greater Masters of Reason than we are ; but let me tell you , the right understanding of what we preach to you , depends neither upon your Reason nor ours , but upon the bare Testimony of God ; we tell you , Thus and thus says the Lord ; that 's Reason enough for you to believe , and 't is the highest Reason we can give for your belief ; when you have once received any Gospel-Truth by Faith , you will easily in the light of that Faith , allow of every thing that may be rationally deduced from that Truth , as included in it , and belonging to it , though not discerned when you first believed ; here lies your Edification , to know the extent of those Gospel-Principles which you first took in by Faith ; this Faith is the Gift of God ; Ministers perswade you to come to Christ , to repent and believe the Gospel , but 't is God that turns the Heart to what we perswade you to : we call upon blind , dead , dark sinners to look unto Christ , but 't is God must give them eyes to see him ; all the perswasions in the world , won't cause a blind man to see . You 'l say , To what purpose then is all this moral Suasion in the Pulpit . Answer , To very good purpose , that whilst we are proposing the Object to you , God may take occasion to open the eyes of your Understanding , that you may , as men , discern the Object through the proper Medium of Scripture-language so plainly representing it to you . Believers do find by daily experience , that the Words of the Holy Ghost in Scripture being so full , so apposite and proper , do mightily help them in understanding the things of God , and to this end has God given all Ministerial Gifts , That Preachers might be apt to teach , gathering up the sum and substance of the Gospel in their Sermons to the people ; God has appointed this way of Instruction , has promised to be with us to the end of the world , and to work effectually upon the hearts of men by these very means ; therefore let not any despise them , and count them foolishness ; the Preaching of the Gospel is the Power of God to Salvation ; these Weapons are mighty through God , as they are in our hands , they signifie little , if God did not fight with them even in our hands ; we hold the Weapons , and manage them as well as we can , but the piercing edge , the overcoming weight and irresistible force of them is from God ; 't is he that gives the blow , and does all the execution by them . God has in Infinite Wisdom made choice of such outward Means as have least of Man in them , that whilst we compare the weakness of the Means in a human Judgment , with the wonderful Effects of them in our hearts , we may be convinced of a Divine Power accompanying them . Let us come then into these Assemblies with raised Expectations of some signal Appearance of God in his Word , for the carrying on this Great work of Regeneration in our Souls ; we should see the Glory of God , and be convinc'd that he is among us of a truth ; you may come in one Spirit , go forth in another ; come in one Nature , go forth in another ; come in Scoffers , go home Believers ; a plain proposal of Christ as Crucified for us , was the means of Conversion in the Primitive Times , and so I am perswaded it is still : Some may with more Art , Elegancy and Learning , preach the Gospel , yet there is nothing in all this for Faith to take hold of , but the naked Truth ; it brings nothing else into the Conscience , but drops all the rest ; What is the Chaff to the Wheat ? I see nothing else required to believing , but a serious looking up to God in the use of means , for that anointing that teaches us all things ; the Gospel is plain enough in its own terms , He that believes shall be saved ; He that believes not shall be damned ; Vnless you repent you shall perish : What can be plainer spoken ? We do as men know the common Notion of Faith and Repentance ; tho what Faith in Christ Jesus is , what Repentance towards God is , we know not : Here we are at a loss , and ever shall be , till our Heavenly Father reveals these things unto us , giving us a true spiritual discerning of them . You have had a Bible a great while , but it may be have not taken such notice of the Contents of it , as you should ; go home and open it once more , and say , This is the word of God to Man , and to me in particular ; why should I refuse him who speaks from Heaven ? I will sit down , and consider what I have read , what I have often heard ; you don't know what hold the Word may take of you , what impressions it may make upon you ; it may fill your hearts with such serious thoughts of God and Eternity , as you never had before : And let me tell you , if ever you be born again , it must be under the power of such thoughts , kept up and impregnated in your hearts , whilst you are thus musing the fire will burn , and the work will be done , you 'l find a real turning of the Heart to Christ , which is the Obedience of Faith , that every New-born Soul does yield to the call of Christ in the Gospel . 'T is a harder matter to Convert Professors now to the power of the Gospel , than 't was to convert the Heathen World at first to the Profession of it ; then Profession and Power went together ; now they are unhappily separated ; men hide themselves under a National Profession , without any strict inquiries after their Personal Interest in Christ. They came out of Heathenism one by one , into the power of Religion : But now an hereditary profession of Religion come upon them , they know not well how , they have Abraham to their Father , born of Christian Parents , and Baptized , this is all the account they can give of themselves and their profession : Here Religion sticks , and here I am persuaded it will stick ; till God by a special dispensation of his Spirit suited to the formality of this professing Age , does send out Ministers by a special mission , to awaken such who have only a name to live , but are indeed dead . When the Gospel was first Preached to the Heathen world , they knew they worshipped gods of their own making , they knew they were unbelievers , and enemies to Christ and the Gospel ; but we Preach the Gospel now , to those who profess they worship the true God , profess Faith in Christ , and love to Christ ; they profess themselves to be all that already which we exhort them to . Therefore how should we pray that God would pour out more of his Spirit upon his Holy Prophets , and send them forth under a fresh anointing , that they may convince the constant hearers of the Word , that something more is required to the Salvation of their Souls than an outward profession of Religion : And what that something else is , we are all concerned to enquire after . We must not flatter those who have lived long under the means of Grace in an unregenerate state ; but plainly tell them to their faces , that they have already outliv'd the most probable means of their own Conversion : There is yet a possibility of it , God calls some at the Eleventh hour ; and if it be that time of day with any that hear me this Morning , and the hour of Conversion not yet come , let them wait upon God with trembling , for that blessed moment wherein his Arm may be revealed upon their hearts , before they have quite done hearing ▪ and quite done living in this world ; if God do them good , it must be by the Preaching of the Word , which is the power of God unto salvation , to all that believe . As the Word is the means of Regeneration ; so of all after edification , and growth in Grace : If you want comfort , more strength against corruptions , more communion with God , the Word is of excellent use to you in all these Cases ; 'T is profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , for instruction in righteousness , that the man of God may be perfect , throughly furnished unto all good works . CHAP. IV. The manner of Regeneration , how 't is begun and carried on in the Soul. HERE lies the greatest difficulty of all , the similitude by which the manner of Regeneration is set forth ; Verse the 8th . shews us that it is incomprehensible , and not to be understood ; therefore you may wonder why I undertake to speak of it : Truly the whole Gospel is a mystery , and all the chief points of the Gospel are deep mysteries ; they do not only pass our humane understanding , as men ; but as to a perfect apprehension of them , they pass the understanding of Christians in this world ; yet these things must be studied by all Saints , they must be Preached by all Ministers . Tho we prophesy but in part , and know but in part , yet who can tell but God may reveal to us the unknown parts of these known truths which we have some understanding of already ? This is visible edification , a further increase of light , a further discerning of the Truth as it is in Jesus . As the wind bloweth where it listeth , and thou hearest the sound thereof , but canst not tell whence it cometh , and whither it goes ▪ i. e. No Man knows the certain point to which it will turn , till it be turned ; so is every one that is born of God , i. e. so to others , not altogether so to himself ; so to a Natural Man , who perceiveth not the deep things of God ; but not so to the Spiritual Man who judgeth all things . So to others who are not privy to the inward workings of the spirit upon his heart ; not to himself , who may understand something of what is done in him , and upon him , if he diligently commune with his own spirit . He that hath the white Stone , knows the new name that is written in it . Regeneration is a supernatural work ; but the effects of it are sensible . Regeneration is a great mystery ; we may be at a loss in tracing the footsteps of the Holy-Ghost throughout this work : you must not expect rational demonstrations , but sensible experiences ; and so far as any thing I shall say , may fall under that head , I know you will follow me : If it happen otherwise , pray take better aim by your own light that may exceed mine , and judge for your selves , I impose nothing . The manner of Regeneration is not one and the same in all who are regenerated , tho the thing it self , when done , be the same in all . Elect Infants , dying in their Infancy , are regenerated after one manner , and adult persons after another ; the difference lies here , the Regeneration of Elect Infants , is the sole immediate act of the Spirit of God , without the Word ; it is indeed according to the Word , and pursuant to the Covenant and Promise made to Abraham , That God would be his God , and the God of his Seed : But it is not by the Word , because Infants are not subjects naturally capable of being wrought upon that way . You cannot expect I should look further into this great Secret , it belongs to God only , and not to Man to know this : Therefore in my following discourse , I shall confine my self to the Regeneration of adult persons , and consider the manner of that , as the Scripture has revealed it . I describe it thus in general ; 'T is wrought by the Spirit of God , as the principal efficient Cause ; not without the Word , but by the Word as the instrumental Cause , or outward means of Regeneration . Before I enter upon this , let me put this Question , viz. I will put it , without any positive solution , only I will suggest to you my thoughts , and leave the matter to your further consideration . The Question is this : viz. Whether any who live till they come to the use of Reason , are Converted or Regenerated before they come to the use of Reason , after the manner of Elect Infants dying in infancy ? I dare not deny but it may be so , because of some Scriptures that look that way . Iohn the Baptist is said to be filled with the Holy Ghost from his Mothers Womb ; Ieremiah , to be sanctified from the Womb. Tho these Texts are capable of another construction , 't is evident that Paul distinguishes his separation , or sanctification , from the Womb , unto Office , from his effectual calling by Grace in Conversion : But admitting this , that some now living may have been regenerated in their Infancy , before they come to the use of Reason ; yet this I may say , that such persons , when grown up , must needs be little acquainted with the manner of their Regeneration , because 't was done before they knew it : nothing can fall under their observation , but the after effects of it , manifested in their lives ; How 't was at first wrought , is too hard a question to put to such . I will venture to say this , That I conceive it is usually otherwise , viz. That those who live till they come to the use of Reason , are not ordinarily converted before they come to the use of Reason . Because God loves to be understood by us in all the acts of his kindness towards us , therefore he will have some part of the known history of our lives to be a standing witness to us of our former unregenerate state . Such were some of you . I was before a blasphemer , a persecutor ; but I obtained mercy . He had undeniable proof and evidence of this in his own experience , and within his own remembrance ; which made him so much admire the free-Grace of God towards him , that put such a difference between him and others , and between him and himself , heretofore and now . So that as the matter is cast , I am only to enquire after the Regeneration of adult persons , and to shew the manner of that . My Text leads me to speak of such who are come to the years of discretion and understanding , as Nicodemus was ; my Ministry leads me to it , being sent to Preach to such : My Auditory consists of such ; and therefore I shall apply my self to you , and every one of you , about the manner of your Regeneration . Among grown persons , if you take the day of Conversion more largely , as the Scripture often does , for the day of their Lives , for the day of their outward Callings , generally termed the day of Grace , i. e. of outward Grace , so they all agree in the day of their Conversion ; they are brought home to Christ within that time , or never ; tho they do not all come in at the same hour of the day : But more of this by and by , when I come to speak of the time of our Regeneration , which ( to avoid all coincidence of matter ) I shall comprehend under this Head of the manner of Regeneration , which the Scripture gives us some light into ; we may know something of it . The Manner of Regeneration . 1st . That a marvellous work is wrought in us , and upon us . We see a great difference between what we now are , and what we formerly were , even in our own remembrance . Whereas I was blind , now I see . Such were some of you , but you are washed . Remember that ye being in time passed Gentiles in the flesh , but now in Christ Iesus . Called out of darkness into his marvellous light . This is something of the manner of Regeneration , which all Saints have some experience of ; the change is so great , so universal , in every part and faculty of the Soul , All things are become new ; that it cannot be altogether hid from a considering Christian ; he cannot resolve the Cause and Reason of it into any thing but the Power of God ; 't is his doing , wonderful in our eyes . He that is born of God , knows and loves him that begat him , does naturally cry Abba , Father , from the Spirit of Adoption received in Regeneration ; being born of the Spirit , he breathes and prays in the Spirit ever after ; his heart is instructed and quickned by the Spirit to call God Father . The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit , that we are the children of God. 2dly , Regeneration does not only shew the wide difference between the two states , the Regenerate and Unregenerate ; but it comes in a different manner upon the Regenerate themselves . I say a different manner ; for there is no difference in the nature of the thing it self , That is the same in substance , essence , and principle in all who are Regenerate : yet there are some circumstances attending Regeneration sometime , wherein one Regenerate person may greatly differ from another , even in the first moment of Regeneration , e. g. Some may be Regenerated and Converted into higher degrees of Grace in the first moment of their Conversion , than some others ( tho as truly Regenerate as they ) may attain to all their days ; all in Regeneration do receive one and the same spirit of Grace , but not in the same measure . Paul was converted into an eminency in Grace ; he was never a babe in Christ , but was born a strong Man in Christ the very first moment of his Conversion . God had present use of Paul ; he had designed him for eminent service , which he was immediately to enter upon , and therefore God furnishes him accordingly . Let not weak Saints question the truth of their Regeneration , because they are not presently raised up to such degrees of actual Grace as they see in others . Another Reason I conceive of this difference between Saint and Saint in their first Conversion , may arise from the different circumstances Grace finds them under , in respect , 1. Of their Years ; 2. Of their Temptations : 3. Of their Employments and Callings . 1st . In respect of their Years . Some may be Regenerated in their Infancy , as was at first granted ; they are capable only of habitual Faith , of the seed and principle of Grace . A Man is no further capable of Grace than he is of Reason ; 't is Reason that makes a Man a subject naturally capable of Grace , and Grace usually comes in in a degree proportionable to the strength of our rational faculties . Where there is but a principle of Reason , there may be a principle of Grace brought into that Soul ; and where there is an actual understanding , there may be actual Faith proportionable to our actual Understandings . I shall not speak of Infants who are but habitually rational , and therefore can be but habitually gracious . But I shall begin with those who are next to Infants , newly come to the use of Reason , some are more early Converts than others . Mr. Cotton in his Exposition of 1 Iohn 2. 13. says , that Children may act Grace as soon as they act Reason ; may be made to know their Heavenly Father , as soon as they do their natural Parents . This is early indeed , yet I doubt not , but so it may be ; only let me put in this Observation by the way . viz. Observe . The nearer our second birth lies to our first , the more undisernable it is . In its first rise and original , here Grace seems to grow up with Nature ; Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual , but that which is natural , and afterwards that which is spiritual . The Apostle applies it to the Resurrection of the Body , and I may as fitly apply it to the Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul in Regeneration ; so that you see the new creature is still the youngest Man , if compared to the old Man. The new creature is of a later extraction , an after birth , or a second birth ; But every man in his own order . Should Grace come in with our first being , the first introduction of it could not be called Regeneration . God does proportion his gifts of actual and efficacious Grace , according to the strength and ripeness of our active faculties ; tho all Converts have the same principle of Grace , yet the younger sort in their tender years , are not capable of acting so distinctly as others may , who are of full Age , and have their Senses better exercised by reason of use . 'T is said of Iohn , That the child grew and waxed strong in spirit . So of Christ himself , tho he was fill'd with internal habitual Grace at his first conception ; yet proportionably to his Age his Grace did actually and more powerfully manifest it self . So 't is with all young Christians , Grace in the active part of it , keeps peace with Nature , and does not offer violence to it ; Grace may elevate and quicken our rational faculties , and bring them sooner to maturity : But it always takes our Understanding and Will along with it , in every act we put forth . Faith is a rational Grace , an understanding Grace , a wise Grace ; there is much of the strength of a Man's rational Soul goes out in every act of Faith. Tho Faith be above Reason , yet Faith can give a Reason , why we should believe things above Reason ; and so one way or other Faith doth deal with Man's Reason , even when it lifts up Man above Reason . This may be one ground of the different degrees of actual Grace among some at their first conversion ; I say actual Grace , because that only is capable of degrees . A principle of Grace is the same in all , but variously acted , either according to the natural capacity of the subject , or the efficacious assistance of the Spirit ; for let our rational faculties be never so quick and strong , they cannot carry out a Child of God , much less others , to the least act of Faith , without the help of the Spirit . 2dly , In respect of their Temptations . Those who have been exercised with strong Temptations , born down by the power of strong Corruptions , when converting Grace comes , it comes with an actual strength , proportionable to the actual resistance that 't is like to meet with , so pulling down the strongest holds of Satan : Habitual Grace infused at our first Conversion , is the seed of God. The Spirit sets home the Word , and causes a spiritual conception in the heart ; raises up the living Image of the living God in the Soul of a dead Sinner . This Immortal Seed , or Eternal Principle of Grace , has the strength of Christ in it , and is able to cope with original corruption : But when it opposes strong acts of sin in those who have been accustomed to do evil , and by their frequent practise do sin with a stronger hand than ordinary ; in this Case a principle of Grace must be drawn out into acts of a proportionable strength to these mighty acts of sin , to put a stop to them for the future , and to turn the sinner from them . God said to Paul , My grace is sufficient for thee ; my strength is made perfect in weakness : the power of Christ did rest upon him . That degree of Grace may prevail over one sinner , that may not so soon prevail over another ; I speak in respect of acquired habits or acts of sin , which hardens the heart the more ; besides the Devil does not always make the like furious assaults upon all . God knows how to suit the dispensations of his Grace to the present necessities of the Soul : A Disease , the further it spreads , the deeper root it has taken in the Body , requires stronger Physick , and more effectual Remedies to remove it . So 't is with the Soul , and Christ the great Physician applies himself accordingly , with a sufficiency of actual , effectual Grace . As he took notice how many years the Daughter of Abraham was bowed down , and bound by Satan ; So he observes what power the Devil has got over such , or such a Soul ; if his name be Legion , Christ will cast him out , being able to save to the uttermost . Christ is more put to it to save some sinners than others , in comparison . There is ( in this respect ) a greater difficulty in saving some , than others . How hard is it for them that trust in riches , to enter into the kingdom of God ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It signifies one who has a nauseating stomach , a 〈◊〉 swallow ; he kecks at every thing , nothing will go down with him : you may as soon draw a Camel through the eye of a Needle , as bring a rich Man to Heaven : But with God all things are possible . God is here brought in acting according to the utmost possibility of his power in saving a Rich Man : This may be another Reason why some are regenerated into a higher degree of Grace , and spiritual strength , than may be found in some others : All have the same habit of Grace in the principle , all have a sufficiency of actual Grace , but all have not the same measure , neither is it needful they should ; and so comparatively , one Saint may be stronger or weaker than another in the first moment of Regeneration . 3dly , In respect of their Employments and Callings , which may render them capable of higher service for God in the World , than others may be called unto : I instanced in Paul before , so I may in Magistrates and Ministers now . God in Conversion gives in Grace suitable to their Stations and Callings in the World. Saul , when anointed King , was turned into another Man ; tho that was but a civil Conversion ▪ yet it holds true in saving Conversion . Also , the Spirit of God divides to every man severally , as he will ; and sets the Members every one of them in their proper place , in the body , under their proper peculiar gifts and qualifications , that may render them useful to each other . The Head cannot say to the Feet . I have no need of you ; yet the Head is the most honourable part of the Body : And you should covet earnestly the best Gifts . There is a gradual difference in the Gifts and Graces of the Saints , according to the several Offices they bare in the Body of Christ , as Eyes , Hands , Feet , — and according to the several opportunities that Providence puts into their hands , of serving the interest of Christ in their Generation . Thus much of the Manner of Regeneration , in a more general way : I shall now speak to the Manner of Regeneration , with a peculiar respect to the Gospel Notion and Nature of Regeneration , as it consists in the Souls ingrafture into Christ , by a vital Union to him through Faith ; Christ being the proper Fountain of that New Life which we derive from him in Regeneration , and which is ever after maintained by him in all his true Members , abiding under the quickning Influences of Christ their Living Head. The particular Manner of Regeneration in this Gospel-Notion of it , will further appear in the right stating of this following Question , viz. Quest. Whether the first step in Regeneration be from Sin to Holiness , or from a sinful state and nature to Christ , that we may be made holy by him ? I affirm the latter ; There can be no Change made in our Nature by the Spirit of Christ in our Sanctification , but upon a Change of State from our closing in with the Blood of Christ for Justification . The Spirit of Christ doth always follow the Blood of Christ ; 't is the Purchase of that Blood ; so that the sanctifying Spirit of Christ , extends himself in all his saving Operations , no further than the Body of Christ ; none but Members vitally joined to Christ their Head , can be quickned by him ; therefore no man or woman can be savingly wrought upon by the Spirit of Christ , who continue in a state of separation from him . I grant many changes may be wrought in a mere natural man , which amount to no more than a Moral Reformation , and do all lye within the verge of an unregenerate state . Were there no more in Regeneration or Conversion , than a turning from Sin to Holiness , than a change of Life and Manners , arising , as some would have it from that General Sufficient Grace , purchased for all , and which we may make effectual when we please ; this puts Regeneration and Conversion into Man's Power . — But Regeneration implies more than all this amounts to ; not only a Change of Life and Manners , but of Nature and Principle ; we must first fix the Principle , before we talk of doing ; we may as well do the Actions of a living Man without Life , as act like Christians without Christ ; Christ is our Life , a quickning Spirit in all his Members . Therefore I state the Question thus , viz. That the first step in Regeneration , is from a sinful State and Nature , to Christ. Or thus , Regeneration is the Implantation of the Soul into Christ. Or thus , Saving Conversion in the right Gospel-Notion of it , is Conversion to Christ : 'T is true , a turning from Sin to Holiness , is the effect or consequent of Regeneration , but 't is not the thing it self ; the Tree must be made good , before it can bring forth good Fruit ; so that Regeneration lies chiefly in our incorporation into Christ ; till we are joined to the second Adam , we are and shall be acted by that corrupt nature which we derived from the First Adam . There were but two publick men in the World , and all men do take after one or other of them , either after the First Adam , or after the Second Adam ; they are the two Great Standards . I will shew that this is the right Scriptural Notion of Regeneration and Conversion ; to this end is Christ Preached , 1 Cor. 1. 23 , 24. No other Name under Heaven by which we can be saved , Acts 4. 12. This Name must be published , Acts 9. 15. Regeneration , or our first Conversion , what is it but a revealing Christ in us ? Gal. 1. 16. Drawing unto Christ , Iohn 6. 44. Receiving Christ , Iohn 1. 11. Following Christ , Matt. 9. 9. 'T was Christ they came over to in Conversion ; hence those Phrases of our being in Christ , and Christ's being in us , living in us , Gal. 2. 20. Formed in us , Gal. 4. 19. Put on by us , Gal. 3. 27. Rom. 13. 4. Thus you see how the New Creature , or the Regenerate Person , has his Life , Being , and whole Subsistence in and from Christ. If any man be in Christ , he is a new creature . We are taken up so much with Duties of Evangelical Obedience , that we commit a great error in our first step ; do not go over to Christ and begin there ; thence it is that the Saints are called Christians , because their Original is from Christ ; they bear his Image , are acted by his Spirit , partake of his Nature . If this new Life be from Christ , what is the way of its derivation from Christ unto us , or how comes this Virtue from Christ into our Souls , that both our state and nature should be thus changed in him , and by him , in order to newness of Life in our after Conversation ? You must give me leave often to put Questions , why , and how , and which way ; because I am now enquiring after the Manner of Regeneration . If you ask , How Life comes to be derived from Christ into the Soul of a dead Sinner ? Answer , I say , this is effected by our vital union to Christ. — We need not wonder that such a change is wrought in those who are thus joined to the Lord in one and the same Spirit ; we cannot come so near to Eternal Life it self , and not be quickned by it ; we cannot remain dead , when we thus enter into Life it self . The main Query is , How this Union is brought about between Christ and our Souls ? Answer , The Spirit takes hold of us , and joins us to Christ ; working Faith in us at the same instant ; by which we take hold of Christ , improving the Grace of Union to a real Communion with Christ , we dwelling in him , and he in us . 'T is union to Christ , that gives Life at first , and maintains it ever after in our souls . We have our first quickning from this Union , and all after increases of Spiritual Life , are but so many fresh emanations from Christ the Fountain of Life , flowing into our Souls . Thus we have Life , and have it more abundantly from Christ. I shall prove this Union between Christ and Believers , as 't is productive of Life it self in its first vital Principle , and also as it is the cause of all after-growth in Grace , proceeding from the higher and more vigorous operations of this Life , raised and kindled in the Soul by the enlivening influences of the Eternal Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus ; in both these respects , as it causes and continues Life in the Saints , is this Mystical Union between Christ and Believers , spoken of in the Scriptures ; The glory which thou gavest me , I have given them , that they may be one , even as we are one . The Glory that was given to the Man Christ , did all spring from the Union of the Human Nature to the Divine ; next to this is the Mystical Union between Christ and Believers ; the enlivening influences of this Union are set forth by an Incorporation ; by an Ingrafture . The Ministry of the Word is an outward means of bringing this Union about , making a tender of Christ to us , and calling upon us to receive him . Ministers are the Instrumental cause of this near Conjunction between Christ and Believers ; They are the friends of the bridegroom ; who give the Saints in Marriage unto Christ. I have espoused you to one Husband . You see how the Scripture variously sets forth our Union to Christ , who is our Life . Regeneration is the beginning of this new Life and Nature in the Saints , which shews it self more or less , after an inward effectual call ; we know 't is God the Father's Voice who so calls us ; because a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation accompanies it , powerfully enlightning our Minds . By our Union to Christ , we stand in a spiritual Relation to him , as his Brethren , Spouse , and Members ; and this spiritual Relation to him , gives us a right to all that he hath purchased for us , He that hath the Son , hath life , &c. We have an Interest in his Righteousness ; 't is ours by Imputation ; we being his , his Righteousness becomes ours ; we cannot have Christ without his Righteousness , which in the Infinite Merit of it , extends it self to all Believers , Rom. 3. 22. Thus we are made the righteousness of God in him , 2 Cor. 5. 21. Christ takes hold of us by his Spirit , and by so doing , enables us to take hold of him , by Faith of his own operation in us ; such a Regeneration , such a Conversion as this , derives from him a Principle of Spiritual Life , by which we are carried out to all good works , Ephes. 2. 10. I shall further explain the Manner of our Union to Christ. Christ took our Nature upon him , without the sin that cleaves to it in us ; this was done by a Miraculous Conception ; when Christ took our Nature , his Eye was upon the Persons of the Elect : The Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in the Person of Christ , was in order to the Spiritual Union of our Persons to the Person of Christ ; Christ took our Nature , abstracted from our Persons , and consequently without sin super-induc'd upon it by Adam's Fall ; the Person corrupted the Nature in the First Adam , not the Nature the Person , as now it does . Though Christ have taken our Nature upon him without sin , yet how can we maintain this Union and Communion between Christ and our Persons , in whom there is so much sin ? Ans. 1. Christ joins himself to nothing but the New Creature , holds Communion with nothing else in the Saints . Light has no Communion with darkness , nor Christ with Belial . Nay , he does not so much hold Communion with us , as takes us into Communion with himself . 2. This Communion between Christ and Believers , is carried on and manag'd on both sides by the Holy Spirit ; and therefore must needs be a Holy Communion . 3. The design of Christ in uniting us to himself , is to cleanse us from all sin , to purge them quite out , and to sanctifie us wholly in Body , Mind and Spirit . The Spirit of Christ is a Spirit of Burning , it consumes by degrees all that is contrary to it self in our Persons , and will at last make us exactly conformable to himself : we shall bear the image of the Heavenly Adam , and take after the perfect Human Nature of Christ , i. e. Human Nature in us , tho it is now corrupted , yet when Regeneration has had its perfect work upon us , it shall even in our Persons be reduced to that Rectitude , Harmony and Perfection as 't is now in the Man Christ ; then we shall be men indeed , Glorious Men and Women , when we have derived our Human Nature from Christ in all its Perfections , and under that Divine Tincture which the Hypostatical Union gives it in Christ. In Regeneration we pass over ( by Faith ) both Body and Soul into Christ ; some present effects of this , we see in our Souls now ; and when our vile Bodies shall be made like unto his Glorious Body , we shall to Eternity bless God , who has taken us out of the First Adam , and put us into the Second . This Spiritual Union of Believers to the Divine Person of Christ , makes a living Impression of Godliness upon their Human Persons , which causes them to grow up daily into a further Conformity to the Image of Christ , as God-Man , till they come to the stature of Perfection in him , resembling him in both his Natures ; in the Perfection of his and our human Nature in him ; and in such a spiritual Participation of his Divine Nature , as Creatures are capable of ; and standing in this Mystical Union to the Divine Person of Christ , they behold his Glory , as the glory of the only begotten Son of God ; it shines out upon them in Heaven , to all Eternity , and lifts them up to the highest Communion with God , that Creatures are capable of , and this is their Glorification . Thus I have led you from the first step in Regeneration to the last , that you may see the Blessed Tendency of so great a work , begun here in this World , and compleated in the next . I told you , That Regeneration is initially , and seminally , all that belongs to a state of Grace , ay , and of Glory too ; therefore I may instance in any thing that lies within the Compass of a state of Grace , whether Adoption , Vocation , Union to Christ , Justification , Sanctification , and not recede from the Subject I am upon concerning Regeneration ; for all these do nearly concern it , and lye close about it . Some would suppose our Union to Christ , and consequently , by virtue of that , our Justification by Christ , to be before Actual Faith , even in adult Persons , and consequently without it ; they insist upon a Priority in Nature and Time , and build Positions upon that distinction that will not hold ; they who speak with the Learned , must understand with the Learned , and use their terms in their sense ; they do not suppose this Priority or Posteriority to be in the things themselves , but only in our manner of Conception , we first apprehend one , and then another ; tho we may apprehend one thing without another , or before another , it does not follow that those things are really without or before each other ; things that cannot be separated , may by a precise act of the Understanding be distinguish'd ; but these signa or momenta rationis , that men of art make use of to guide their Thoughts , are too great subtilties for vulgar Heads to meddle with ; it may be you do not reach me in what I am now saying , and it matters not whether you do or no : it renders the Argument so much the stronger against the use of such Scholastick Terms in Divinity ; I am casting them out , and perswading you from mingling vain Philosophy and Science , falsly so called , with the Mysteries of Faith , which are best understood in their own native simplicity , as they are delivered to us in plain Scripture-language . They who hold Justification before Faith , are afraid lest they should be betrayed into a Justification by Works , if they should hold otherwise ; and therefore chose rather to plead for a Justification before Faith , and without Faith , lest they should seem to be Justified by any thing in and from themselves ; but how contrary is this to Scripture , He that believeth not , is condemned ? But he that believeth not , is justified , is no where written in my Bible . They will admit of habitual Faith , but are afraid of actual Faith , lest that should encroach too much upon free Grace , and lessen that ; for say they , an act of Faith is Mans act ; and nothing that is so , must have any place in Justification . 1st , I Answer , Is not a habit of Faith , a Mans habit ? Is it not infused by God into Man , and placed in Man ? Is not Man the Subject of this Habit ? But this is wrought by God ; and is not every Act of Faith wrought by God in the Soul of a Believer ? I see no more danger in allowing actual Faith , than habitual . 2dly , We must distinguish between an Act of Faith , and Works of Faith ; Works of Faith , are not Faith , but an Effect and Fruit of Faith ; an Apple is not the Tree , but something growing out of it , and upon it , as distinct from it ; but an Act of Faith , is Faith it self ; 't is Faith reduced to Act , or actual Faith. 'T is true , an Act of Faith , is mans Act , deriving all its Virtue , Efficacy and Signification from Christ the Object ; but 't is not properly a Work , but Faith it self ; so that I see no danger of running into Justification by Works , by asserting Justification by Faith. 3dly , As an Act of Faith is not properly a Work , in the legal Notion of a Works ; it is not within the Covenant of Work ; is it any where contained there , that we should act our Faith upon Christ , for the free Pardon of Sin ? Besides , the Scripture expresly denies Faith to be a Work in this Sense . To him that worketh not , but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly , his faith is counted for righteousness ; therefore believing is not working for Justification . 4thly , An Act of Faith is the only Act of a Man , that entirely falls in with the free Grace of God : Therefore it is of Faith , that it might be by Grace . An Act of Faith , is a receiving Act ; it brings nothing of our own to Christ , but an empty hand receiving all from him , ascribing all to him , excluding all manner of boasting ; how can such an Act of Faith interfere with our free Justification ? 5thly , We say , That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere , or Faith as our Act , justifies no Man , tho we allow the instrumentality of it in Justification , as that by which we apprehend the Object Jesus Christ , by whom alone we are justified . When we say we are justified by Faith , we mean no more but this , That we are justified by Christ received and applied ; does it therefore follow , we are not justified by Christ alone ? Did we well consider the Nature of Faith in its Principle and Relative Essence , and also in its manner of acting , we should better understand the matter , and clearly see that Faith excludes all Works , even it s own Act out of Justification . Tho it self be the Act of a Man , wrought in him by God ; yet 't is an Act so subservient to free Grace , so intirely falling in with it , that it does not in the least derogate from it ; but declares to all the World , that Christ is the Sinners only Righteousness , and leaves him relying upon Christ only for his Justification . This is the meaning , this is the sense of an Act of Faith : Novel Expressions are apt to beget strange novel Opinions , and therefore we should have a care of them : Faith well acted upon Christ , will never injure the free Grace of God ; why should we run up our Regeneration and Iustification into such ignote beginnings before Faith , which we can give no account of to our selves or others , before we believe ? I see not of what use this is , to soar aloft beyond the Knowledg and Experience of all Christians ; let us not be wise above what is written . I am yet upon the Manner of Regeneration , and all preparatory Works naturally running into the manner of Conversion or Regeneration . I shall a little consider them . The best way to understand the manner of doing a thing , is by observing all Preparations made for it ; all Praeludiums , or Introductions in order to it ; therefore it will be necessary to look a little into the nature of these Preparatives , which some lay too great a stress upon , limiting the Spirit of God to their own unscriptural Methods ; and Error is soon committed here . We may run upon the Merit of Congruity ere we are aware , if we don't hold the Ballance of Truth with an even hand , keeping close to the Genius and Spirit of the Gospel , in all that we say of this matter ; which I shall reduce to these following Heads , — shewing you , 1. What Preparatory works are . 2. Whether there be any such certain Preparatory works always antecedently necessary to Conversion , and what they are , how they are all comprehended under Conviction of sin . 3. That the Law is of excellent use to work this Preparatory Conviction . 4. That there is Law enough taken into the Gospel to do this . 5. That the Law is to be Preached , but never alone by it self , without any mention of Gospel-Grace . 6. We must not limit the Spirit of God to such or such degrees of Humiliation , Repentance , Contrition , or Terror . Upon these Hinges my whole Discourse will turn . If any Word or Phrase I shall use , be not to your liking , you may please your selves with your own way of Expression , and speak your own language ; if we agree in Principles , and understand the same thing , as I hope we shall , it matters not much whether we express it in the same manner . — I shall keep to the method proposed , and not mingle things , unless it be when one Particular may borrow light from another , then a looser joint discovery does best . 1. What Preparatory Works are ? — In the Sense of those who contend most for them , they are certain previous Dispositions wrought in the Soul , in order to Conversion , yet short of Conversion it self . Here are Two Opinions about this . Some would have these Preparatory Works to be Saving Works ; I grant eventually they may be , and are so sometimes ; but not being always so , I see not how that can be called Saving , under which a Soul may eternally perish ; or how any Saving Work can be wrought in any before they are in Christ. The Second Opinion more agreeable to Truth , is of those who call these Preparatory Works , yet common Works of the Spirit , but always further carried on in all elect adult Persons , till at last they issue in true Conversion . Here we agree ; but for those who place this Preparatory work in such and such certain degrees of Humiliation and Contrition , affirming , That Conversion is not ordinarily wrought any other way , than by those Legal Steps , not one of which is to be bated ; this needs some Explication . — Of which more anon . — That God does by his Word , by his Spirit , by his Providence , prepare all his Elect for Conversion , I no way doubt ; but how this is done , whether God does observe the same way , manner , and method in this Preparatory work in all that are converted , as he may do in some , is not so clear to me . 2. Whether according to Scripture , there are any such certain Preparatory Works , always antecedently necessary to Conversion , and what they are ; how they are all comprehended under Conviction of sin ; whether Repentance , Humiliation , Contrition , Terror ? This Conviction of sin must be presupposed in all who come to Christ for Pardon ; The whole need not a Physitian . Here we must distinguish between initial and compleat Conversion ; I mean , between Conversion begun , and Conversion rising up to a sensible Closure with Christ : Conviction of Sin is always antecedent to an act of Faith upon Christ , for the Pardon of sin , at least it must be concomitant with it , else there can be no reason given of a sinner's coming to Christ ; but that such or such a degree of Humiliation , Contrition , &c. is always pre-required unto Conversion ; I cannot say that , Conversion is a sudden secret work of God upon the Soul , as the Wind blows , &c. If we observe how the Spirit comes upon sinners where it lists , of all sorts and tempers , of all conditions and circumstances , drawing their hearts to Christ , we shall find it a hard matter to give this Preparatory work any certain particular name ; I am persuaded 't is very various and different ; it may be , not altogether the same in any two that are converted ; therefore to lay down a preparatory work in all its circumstances , common to all that are converted , is very dangerous ; that which hath occasioned this , is mens dwelling upon a distinct work of the Law , as a School-master to Christ ; because the Iews of old were trained up under a legal administration of the Gospel , therefore the whole work was then ascribed to the Law , whereas the Law was never separately propounded to the Iews , but always in some dark Typical Conjunction with the Gospel , tho they did not see to the end of those things , yet these Types , Shadows and Ceremonies had a Gospel-end . What tho there was a Legal Discipline in the Church of the Old Testament ? This is no warrant for us to set up pure Legal Preaching under the New ; the Law of it self works no saving Conviction of sin in any , further than the Spirit of the Gospel goes along with it . We may tell men their doom according to a Covenant of Works , but we are bound at the sametime to preach Christ to them , and not leave them under the Law , in hopes of a Preparatory work that may fit them for the Gospel . The Law alone works too violently ; we cannot stand under the terror of it , Heb. 12. 18. We are not called to Preach Damnation to sinners , but Repentance ; Christ came not to condemn the world , but to save it . We do indeed preach Damnation to impenitent unbelievers , but first we preach Repentance , which we cannot do from the Law alone ; therefore something of the Grace of the Gospel must be mingled with the severity of the Law ; for if that alone be pressed , we may drive men to utter despair , I mean an absolute despair of Salvation , which prepares none for the Gospel , but quite alienates their minds from it , as an offer made too late . Indeed a despair of Salvation by the works of the law , may prepare for Christ , but then we must Preach Christ too ; I think we ought not , no , not for a Moment , to conceal all Intimations of Gospel-Grace from convinced sinners purposely to keep them under the terrors of the law , till they are as we judg sufficiently broken and humbled . Some have been put into such a fright by that way of proceeding , that has distracted them all their days . Certainly a Gospel-Ministry is the only Ministry appointed by Christ ; there is law enough in that to bring us to the knowledg of sin ; the Gospel does hold forth the danger , and the remedy too ; and so must the Preachers of the Gospel . God is so far from expecting any preparations in Man , that he calls men of all sorts , which shews that Conversion is not limited to such or such antecedent qualifications in us . God knows best when to begin his work in us ; we must leave it to his Infinite Wisdom to chuse the season wherein he will shew us this Mercy ; he that gives the gift , knows the fittest opportunities and moments to bestow it upon us . How many are surprized with a sudden Conversion , in a time when they looked not for it ; when their Friends and Relations did little expect it , when they seemed to be in a frame farthest off from it , breathing out Cruelties and Threatnings , as Paul ; but when the time comes according to the purpose of God , of their effectual Calling , the Work is done in an instant ; the heart is suddenly struck , and the Sinner turn'd into another Man , to the wonder of all who behold it . God prevents us by his Grace , turning us to himself ; sometimes in the height of our obstinacy ; and when we are without all previous Dispositions to such a Conversion , Isa. 65. 1. He finds a heart of Stone in us , and turns it into a heart of Flesh. Conviction of Sin is always included in Conversion ; 't is a part of the Call it self ; while a Sinner is in his way to Christ , actually coming to him , he comes every step he takes , under a Conviction of his Sin and Misery , that Mercy may be the sweeter to him ; this is but as the opening of a Wound , when a healing Medicine is to be applied ; some Wounds may be longer in opening and dressing than others , we must leave this to the Wisdom of our heavenly Physitian . Conviction of Sin is not only necessary to our first Conversion , but to all Acts of after Conversion in the Saints themselves , when they have fallen into any foul sin . God made David feel the burthen of his sins . We must be made to know what God in justice may do against us , before we come to him for Salvation : he is a just God and a Saviour . Mercy is most acceptable when we see our selves in misery . I was brought low , and the Lord helped me , says David . 3. The Law is of excellent use to work this Conviction , that is absolutely necessary to Conversion . The Law is our School-master ; we are under the tuition of the Law , but not under the dominion of the Law ; not at the disposal of the Law. The Law is our Counsellor and Director , but not our Lord and Master ; it has not power of life and death , as formerly it had : The Law was given after the Fall to another end , than 't was before the Fall. The Law was a Covenant of Life to Adam standing , declaring the justification of a Righteous Man ; but now 't is as loud in condemning the Sinner . The Law speaks to Man according to the different state he is in , of Innocency or Sin : The condemning voice of the Law is kept up in the ears of sinners , to provoke them to come to Christ. The Law was Four hundred and thirty years after the promise made to Abraham , and could not disannul the Covenant of Grace , but only serves as a School-master to lead us to Christ. The great Lesson we are now to learn is Christ , faith in Christ : The Law serves to evince the necessity of this , the Law teaches the same thing with the Gospel , but not by the same argument : It argues from love , not wrath . 4. There is Law enough comprehended in the Gospel to work this preparatory conviction of sin ; we have an authentick Copy of the Law in the New Testament ; 't is kept there on record , in terrorem . Cursed is every one , &c. Do you not hear the Law , says Paul ? Thus the Gospel sets life and death before us : Death to all who are under the Law , and Life to those who are under Grace ; therefore let us study the Gospel , and study the Law in the Gospel . 5. The Law is to be Preached , but never alone by it self , without any mention of Gospel Grace ; nothing purely legal can prepare a sinner for Conversion ; the Law must be Preached , not legally , but Evangelically , as 't is in the Hand of our Mediator , who knows how to use it for Conviction , for Humiliation and Repentance . The Law tempered with the Gospel is an excellent means for the Spirit of Christ to work by ; the Law is now appendant to the Gospel ; so much of the Law is taken into the Gospel as is sufficient to produce Conviction , Humiliation , and Terrour too , if need be ; but the Law alone is not to be Preached ; That is not in our Commission , as we are Ministers of the New Testament . This Preparatory work I am speaking of , is principally ascribed to the Gospel , as appears by Iohn's Ministry . Iohn the Baptist was the greatest Legal Preacher in all the New Testament , yet a true Gospel Preacher too ; viz. his special business was to carry on this Preparatory work in order to conversion ; and how does he do this ? observe his method ; he proclaims the coming of Christ , draws arguments from thence to bring them to Repentance . Repent ye , for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand ; therefore repent . He calls them a generation of Vipers , tells them of the wrath of God , and preaches the Baptism of Repentance for the remission of sins . He points to Christ , Behold , the lamb of God , that takes away the sins of the world , that was Iohn's subject . Peter converted the Iews by Preaching Christ , and Remission of sin in his name ; the remedy must not be concealed . Though Peter denounces a heavy Judgment against Simon Magus ; yet he lays down some ground of comfort , had he had Grace to consider it ; we must keep back nothing God would have spoken to sinners ; we must not be always affrighting your consciences with Legal Terrours , 't is necessary sometimes to draw the Sword of the Law , that sinners may see their danger ; but we must tell them also whither they must fly for refuge ; else we preach not the Gospel ; we don't know how far the Sword of the Law may enter , how deep it may cut into the Conscience of a convinced sinner ; it may be dangerous to leave the wound bleeding one night , without applying some Gospel-Lenitive , pouring in some oyl : our first Faith in Conversion sometimes takes more after the Law , sometimes more after the Gospel , as the Spirit sets it a work either for Terror or Comfort ; we must not limit the Spirit of God in one or the other ; we must not say such a one shall be humbled to such a degree , shall lie so long under Terrours of Conscience , before comfort be spoken to him ; the Spirit is the best judge of this ; and knows our frame better than we do , and what way of procedure is most suitable to the inward sense and feeling of such a one's Soul ; this must be left to God to speak Comfort or Terror when and in what degree he pleases . We who are Ministers , must lay down the ground of both in our Preaching , and insist upon one or t'other as we see occasion . — But God may do as he will. If I see a broken humble sinner a little revived under a sense of Mercy and Pardon , I would not check his comfort , nor seek to bring him under terrors again : but if I see a hardened impenitent sinner going on in his sins , I would lay the Law before him in the most terrible manner I could , and shew him the dreadful consequence of a Course of sin persisted in , that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all such who do not repent , and turn to God , that they may find Mercy : we cannot Preach the Gospel , but we must refer to the Law ; the Gospel shews how we may be delivered from the curse of the Law , and therefore must needs mention it , and I am sure we ought not to Preach the Law alone without any discovery of Gospel Grace . 6. We must not limit the Spirit of God in converting sinners to such or such degrees of humiliation , contrition , or terror as we think necessary ; for we are not competent Judges in that matter : so much Contrition of sin as causes a loathing of sin , a desire to leave it , and to obtain Mercy of God , in the Pardon of it is sufficient for conversion ; God may carry on this Humbling work farther or farther , to a higher or lower degree as he thinks fit , as the present frame of our hearts may require . Saving Conviction is the first thing in order belonging to Conversion , but that conviction to such a degree of Repentance . Humiliation and Terror , should always be a fixed constant Preparatory work , antecedent to all beginings of true Conversion , is not so evident . That all true Converts are convinced of their Sin and Misery by Nature , I no way doubt ; and that the Law is of excellent use to work and heighten these Convictions , is not to be denied ; and that many be under meer Legal Convictions and Terrors , who may or may not be afterwards converted , is not disputed neither ; the Spirit of God may improve a common work , those terrors or any other afflicting providences , to lead a sinner to Christ ; but it does not therefore follow that such Legal Terrors must always go before Conversion , no more , than such or such awakening Providences made use of by God to Convert some , should necessarily befall all who are converted . Saving Gospel Conviction of sin , includes in it all that is in a mere Legal Conviction , with this difference , that under a Gospel Conviction of sin , we see the folly of it as well as the danger , and always have an eye to Christ , which does alleviate the sinking overwhelming Terrors of a meer Legal Conviction only , which is as the nethermost Hell , a dark dungeon indeed , without the least cranny for any beam of Gospel light to shine in upon a poor distressed Soul , trembling under a sence of eternal vengeance . It is not the design of Christ that any so concluded under wrath by Law , should be left one moment without any tender of Gospel grace , which if they do reject and despise , God may and does sometimes judicially give them up to a final Tormenting despair . We cannot rationally urge upon sinners that which is the consequence of final unbelief , till we have first Preached the Gospel to them ; and then at their peril be it , if they believe it not . Some Convictions of sin that issue in Conversion , will be found to have their beginning with it , i. e. some Convictions that issue in a visible Conversion , may have their beginning in an inward , latent , and yet invisible Conversion to us , that does not at present appear under that name . To our discerning , the Soul may be in travel some time before the New Creature appears , before we can say such or such a one is born of God , and yet the Converting act of the Spirit of God may be truly passed in that Soul , before it is manifest to us , in the sensible effects of it . Let us not separate saving Conviction from true Conversion , and look upon it as only Antecedaneous and Preparatory to it , when indeed 't is a real part of it , and essentially belonging to it . A true Gospel saving conviction of sin , is a higher work of the Spirit of God in a regenerate Soul , than a meer Legal Conviction of sin is in a Natural man , let it run up into never such Frights , Fears and Terrors . There are some common lower works of the Spirit , that may be , and are sometimes mistaken for saving grace , and there are some special saving works of the Spirit , that go but for a common work with some . Common works are not always in the intention of God so much as Preparatives for Conversion ; it may be said to be finis Operis , but not Operantis , God not giving them Grace to improve their Legal Convictions , either they wear off , or else they sink under them into despair . The Law may terrifie a sinner , but till his heart comes to be affected with the love and mercy of God , he will never turn from sin ; but then his Soul melts within him , he looks unto him whom he has pierced , and is in bitterness . The sense he has of the love of God to sinners in Christ Jesus , kindles love in his heart towards God , which is a full evidence of real Conversion . We never turn to God , but we begin to love him , then we grieve for sin as sin ; with a true godly sorrow , that causeth Repentance unto Salvation . 'T is the duty of Ministers to make known the mystery of the Gospel . Paul was afraid he should not speak out , speak plain enough , and so am I. CHAP. V. Of the Time of Regeneration . SOmething of this fell in under the former Heads , therefore I shall say the less of it now . The Time is in this life . All who live with God in Heaven hereafter , are born to him and of him here on Earth . This whole time is called the day of Grace ; To day if you will hear his voice : And there is a particular hour in that day , wherein Saving Grace takes hold of us by God's Effectual Calling , which is best known by our Obediential Hearing , when we answer to the Call , Lord here I am , ready to comply with thy Will in all things ; What wouldst thou have me to do ? and I will do it . Consult your selves about this ; when you first find your wills brought over to Christ , write down that as the day of thy Conversion ; you can give no account of a real work of Grace till then ; your knowledg cannot prove it self Saving , till it thus operate upon the Will , in turning that to God : So that the time of thy Regeneration is when thy heart is first drawn up to trust in Christ , let it fall in what year of thy life , in what hour of the day it will , so the thing be done , it matters not when as to the issue of it ; to be converted , is necessary to Salvation ; but to know precisely the time when , is not necessary , provided you know the time when it was not ; or at least not so manifest to you as now it is . It shall be done unto the last as unto the first ; the last and the first Converts in an Age are equally welcome to God , and there is something peculiar in both , that does very much set forth and signalize the freeness of God's Grace , viz. That he converted the one so soon , and the other so late ; that he came so early to one who had heard so little , and that he came at all to the other who had heard so much , and despised it . Late Converts are very rare ; he that comes not in now , while 't is called to day , may slip his opportunity , and die under a dreadful conviction , that he obstinately refused a fair offer of life and pardon that was made him at such a time , in such a Sermon , by such a Preacher , who may be called forth to witness against him at the last day . Whether you believe , or not believe , the Word will have its effect one way or other upon you all , either as a favour of life or death . When the favour of the knowledg of Christ is not a sweet Savour , we take offence at it ; Death indeed may follow that deadly scent ; 't is a dangerous symptome of Eternal death to be offended at Christ , at the purity and strictness of his Heavenly Doctrine . A distinct remembrance of the certain time , means and manner of our conversion , is very comfortable ; but tho we be at some loss here , yet if we can prove the thing it self , 't is enough . He that does the real actions of a living Man , gives sufficient proof and demonstration of his first conception and real birth into the World , tho he knows not the day and hour of either . CHAP. VI. The End of Regeneration . 1. THAT God may raise up a Holy Seed unto himself , that shall be counted for a Generation to serve him . That he may have a Church and People here on Earth , devoted to his fear , professing his Name , and keeping up his Worship . All people will walk every one in the name of the Lord his God ; and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever . By our first birth we are brought forth into the World Enemies to God and Godliness ; by our second birth , we partake of the Divine Nature , become a Holy people unto the Lord our God : a peculiar people . 2. That his Elect may be made meet for Heaven , and fitted up for Glory . God begins all this in Regeneration , which is pursuant to Election . All those Names that are written in Heaven , or in the Lamb's Book of Life , shall be begotten again unto that Life , which in the Eternal purpose of God belongs to their Names . They are a chosen Generation , which is the cause and ground of their Regeneration : All the rest of the World will be left in darkness , in Idolatry , to worship the Dragon , whose Names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World. They who belong not to this chosen Generation , are rejected of God , never to be born again . Regeneration is a sure evidence of Election : God demonstrates his Eternal Love to us , by this signal effect of it in our Regeneration . CHAP. VII . The Scripture Marks and Signs of Regeneration . 1. HE doth not commit Sin. 2. He doth Righteousness . 3. He believeth that Jesus is the Christ. 4. He overcometh the World. 5. He loves Christ and all the Saints . 6. He desires the sincere Milk of the Word . They are not my Marks , but God's , laid down in his own terms , as 't is written in your Bibles ; what you find in your selves answerable thereunto , I must leave to God and your own Consciences . The Text tells you , Vnless a man be born again , he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Iohn , in his Epistle tells you , unless these marks be found upon him , he is not born again : and dying in that estate , is excluded Heaven for ever . Iohn foreseeing what false notions of Regeneration men wou●● taks up with , and rest in , to prevent all fraud , all mistakes in so great a point , lays down these infallible marks of true , real Regeneration , as 't is distinguished from that which is but pretended , false and counterfeit ▪ For ought I see , there is no more required to Regeneration , in the judgment of some men , than to be born in such a Country where Christianity is professed , and to be Baptized according to the custom of the place ; this is the whole of Regeneration , as some state it , tho none of these marks appear in them , but the quite contrary : They commit Sin , they don't do Righteousness , they hate Christ and his Members , are overcome every day by the World , and the temptations of it ; yet these must go for Regenerate persons , let the Scripture say what it will to the contrary . But let us not deceive our selves , God will judge us by the Word , and none will be looked upon at the last day as truly regenerate , in whom all these marks are not found . I do not say that all are unregenerate who see not all these marks in themselves , but those who have them not ; to be wholly defective in any one of them , overthrows our state : These marks are so linked together , as to the certainty of their being , that they are inseparable , tho as to our perceiving 'tis otherwise : we may not so clearly discern some of these in our selves , as we may some others . I would carry it with as gentle a hand as I can ; I perceive these marks in the right application of them , will bear hard upon us all , and it may be , leave us under a godly jealousy of our selves , examining our state with trembling . Truly this I aim at , I am sure we shall suffer no loss or damage by it in the end . God has put his own stamp upon his own workmanship , that it may be known to be his . Shew me your Regeneration under God's seal and mark , and I shall rejoyce with you in it , and pronounce it to be his workmanship indeed . And now Brethren , produce your evidences , such as the Word of God calls for . I shall begin with the first Mark : 1. He doth not commit sin , he cannot sin . He sinneth not , but doth righteousness . Here is a Negative and a Positive Mark , what he doth , and what he doth not . I shall first speak joyntly of them both together , and then separately of each apart by themselves . The sense in general of this Scripture , is , That he who is born of God , does so far express his Image , and take after his Holy Nature , as to hate that which is evil , and to love that which is good ; he has put on the new man , which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness . Escaping the corruption that is in the World through lust . If ye know that he is righteous , ye know that every one that doth righteousness , is born of him . He proves the new-born Soul to be a true Child of God , because he so much resembles his Heavenly Father in Righteousness and true Holiness ; we cannot be partakers of his Nature , but we must be also partakers of his Holiness : they are inseparable . But to keep to the Negative mark , He commits not sin &c. The common interpretation of this Text is , That such who are born of God , sin not with full consent and allowance , they go not on in a course of sin , they sin not the sin unto death , &c. All this is true , and does belong to the interpretation of this Text ; yet I conceive there is something further intended as the ground of all this , viz. That he who is born of God , as such , sins not at all . He that is a new creature may sin , but not as a new creature ; this is an absolute truth contained in the Text. Under all the distinctions , limitations , and soft interpretations that are given of this Scripture , we must be sure to maintain the words of the Text as they are expressive of a certain absolute truth , else we shall quite lose the mark here laid down by the Holy Ghost , of Regeneration ; and therefore I shall first fix that , and make it as plain as I can , that we may the better judge of our state by it ; 't is matter of Life or Death ; all is now upon Tryal ; your eternal Interest lies at stake , therefore in so great a case we had need go by sure marks and signs , and none so sure as those that are in express terms laid down by the Holy Ghost , of Regeneration ; as we must not raise them too high in contradiction to other Scriptures , so neither must we sink them too low , lest we lose that Characteristical difference that the Holy Ghost here puts between the Regenerate and Unregenerate ; the mark lies here , viz. That there is in every Regenerate Soul an inward living Principle of Grace and Holiness inclining us to good , but never to evil , always giving check to sin , never approving or allowing of it . A Regenerate person may fall into acts of sin , through humane Infirmity , but cannot give himself over to sin in a constant habitual way ; he cannot go on in sin ; 't is against his Nature ; he may be surprized into an act of sin , but the new Nature will quickly recover it self , and cast out that sin by Repentance . A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit ; sin is not so connatural to a Regenerate Person ; he can't brook it , his heart rises against it , from the Antipathy he has to it ; when he does sin , he would not sin ; and this we say , is from the Grace of Regeneration . The assertors of Free will , do hold , That man cannot incline to good , without the general assistance of the Spirit of God ▪ but they own only such an assistance as may be resisted by us , and leaves it to our option whether we will do good or evil ; but that the will of man should be determined by God to a good act , and yet act freely under that determination , is that which some will ▪ not understand , supposing such an overruling efficacy of Divine Grace to be inconsistent with the liberty of man's will. The prevailing efficacy of sin in fallen man is undeniable ; whose thoughts and imaginations are evil , only evil , and that continually ; yet those thoughts and imaginations , with all outward acts proceeding from them , are free ; so that what they deny to the efficacy of grace , they allow to the efficacy of sin ; That , it seems , does not destroy the liberty of mans will , but the efficacy of grace does : the mistake lies in a misapprehension of the Nature of Irresistibility ; grace is irresistible , not because it cannot be resisted , but because it cannot be overcome , else 't would not be effectual ; the efficacy of Saving Grace lies in gaining over the free consent of the will to follow its motions and inclinations . God made man perfect ; and that he might not impose upon his rational Nature , left him a free agent , giving him liberty to good or evil ; his Perfection did not lye in having liberty to evil , but in not using it , in abstaining freely from evil out of choice ; when he fell , God withdrew and left him perpetually inclined to his own first choice , which nothing can draw him off from , but effectual Grace ; not by forcing , but changing his will. It was never the intent of God in our first Creation , that man should exert his power both ways , to do good and evil ; but that he should freely chuse his own way at his first setting out , and be delivered up into that Power which he should first Exercise . By his obedience he would have been confirmed in good , never to have fallen from it ; so by his disobedience he was confirmed in evil , never to be recovered out of it , till free Grace of its own accord relieved him . And this it does gradually , not all at once , which is the reason why the Saints in their imperfect state here , do both good and evil , being flesh as well as Spirit . Grace has the Predominancy , because it enters in against the full Power of reigning sin , breaks in upon corrupt Nature whether it will or no , sows immortal seed , where never good fruit grew before ; the Predominancy of sin lies in a total exclusion of Grace , but the Predominancy of Grace lies in its gradual entrance into the Soul , because it opposes the whole body of sin , or indwelling corruption , in making this forcible entrance , forcible in respect of corruption that would keep it out ; free in respect of the renewed will , through which it passes by consent ; God in opening the heart , makes the heart to open it self . Believing is our act , but the power of doing it , is God's . They who are endued with this Divine Power , cannot do the evil they would do , and are inclined to by nature : Gal. 5. 17. They are no more servants of sin . Rom. 6. 17. But have ceased from it . 1 Pet. 4. 7. They cannot sin ; there is something in them called here the seed of God , that cannot sin , 1 Iohn 3. 9. They are born of God ; but he that committeth sin , is of the Devil , ver . 8. a Child of the Devil . To clear up this further . There are two different Natures , two contrary Principles in the Saints , Flesh and Spirit ; the Scripture speaks of them sometimes according to one Principle , sometimes according to the other , and sometimes according to both ; as Flesh , so no good thing dwells in us ; we all sin ; he is a liar that says he has no sin ; as Spirit , so we don't commit sin , we can't sin ; are inclined only to good , by that Divine supernatural Principle ; as Flesh and Spirit , so not a just man upon Earth but sins , tho he be just and holy , truly sanctified in his Regenerate part , yet he is unjust , unholy , unsanctified in his unregenerate part ; there he fights against God ; the law of the Members wars against the law of the Mind ; the sense of this remaining enmity against the Law of God , makes the Saints complain of their wretchedness . O wretched man that I am . Rom. 7. 24. What carefulness , what clearing of themselves , what Indignation and Revenge ? 2 Cor. 7. 11. Tho God has forgiven them , they cannot , they will not forgive themselves , they cut off their right hands , and pluck out their right eyes . The Scripture speaking of a Saint according to one or other of these two Principles , speaks of him personally as two Men , each distinct from the other ; as if a Saint when acted by a carnal Principle , were not the same Man with himself , when acted by a spiritual Principle . Physically and substantially , he is the same Man under both Principles ; but spiritually considered under those Divine Qualifications belonging to him , as a new Creature ; he is not the same Person in God's account , nor by his own reckoning ; not I , but Sin that dwells in me . Could we keep up this distinction under a prevailing Temptation , clearing our selves , and laying Sin at its own door ; not I , but Sin ; 't would afford much comfort to us , and quicken us up to a speedy Repentance . An unregenerate Man when he sins , he can't say , 't is not I ; he lies if he says so ; he sees nothing in himself that opposes Sin as Sin ; no , 't is his own proper doing , his own act , his whole Will is in it ; he can't say , the Evil I do , I would not do . Can we in any sense say , That we do not commit Sin , that we cannot Sin , do no iniquity ? Is there such a Principle within us , that we can say from our Consciences , we would not Sin , even when we do Sin ? That 't is against our Inclinanation , 't is a force upon the new Creature ; we are in Pain , and cry out under that Act of Violence committed upon us , 't is an unwilling Captivity that we are led into . I have done with the Negative part ; what a regenerate Person does not , He does not commit Sin. I come to the Positive part , He doth righteousness . Negative holiness in abstaining from such and such Sins , will never prove a Man to be born of God ; we cannot conclude safely and strongly from this negative Mark , That we are born of God , unless it be from the universality of it ; if we can truly say , We hate every evil way , do fly all appearance of Evil , cannot suffer Sin in our selves or others , without a holy Indignation against it ; this indeed has something in it , is very significant ; we may infer from hence , that we are born of God ; that which makes this Mark so conclusive and significant , is not only the universality of it ; but chiefly this , that where-ever this negative Mark is , there is also the positive Mark to be found ; he that escheweth Evil , does Good. The force of one Mark is best understood in Conjunction with some other ; one single Mark is but a slender evidence of a state of Grace , unless it run into some other , which is the inseparable consequence of it . The Positive part is , He doth Righteousness ; what do ye more than others ? Opèratio sequitur esse ; all things have their active qualities especially where there is Life , there must be active Faculties , and an active Principle ; life it self is an act ; the life of a Christian is a life of the highest activity , from Principles truly Divine and Heavenly , that have their energy , virtue , and efficacy from God himself , who is a most Pure , Simple , Eternal Act , the Fountain of all Action and Motion to his Creatures , as he pleases more or less to communicate himself unto them . Since we are made partakers of the Divine Nature , surely 't is in order to a godly life , that it may appear whose off-spring we are , whose image we bear ; being born of the Will of God , we must do the Will of God , which is the only rule and measure of all Righteousness ; in doing which , we must respect the matter what God commands , and the manner of doing what is commanded . What is materially good , is obvious to all who know but the Moral part of Religion ; all the difficulty lies in the manner of performing it ; the spirituality of the action lies here , that it be done from a Gospel principle , and to a Gospel end ; it must be done in Faith , and in a constant dependance upon Christ for strength , doing what we do as unto the Lord , out of a Religious respect to his Holy will ; whatever we do , we must do to his Glory ; 't is below a Christian to seek himself , to live to himself . God hath set a part the man that is Godly , for himself . These are sure marks of Regeneration . Hold the glass of the word close to your Consciences , look again and again upon these Scriptures , examin your selves strictly by them ; Can you prove your Regeneration by these marks as they are proper and peculiar only to the Regenerate ? 'T is not every forbearance of sin , nor every outward act of righteousness , that will come up to this mark ; these Scriptures speak something to the experience of every one who is born of God , that no Unregeneman in the world understands ; The ear ' tries words as the mouth tastes meat ; the word has a peculiar rellish and savour in it to a Spiritual pallate , The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him ; the word reveals it , it opens the heart of God to man , and laies open a man to himself , discerns the thoughts and intents of his heart ; 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a discerner , a critical judge of the frame of a mans heart , and of the state of his Soul ; shews a Child of God how , and wherein he differs from an unregenerate person ; and by this discerning Word we must judge of our selves : He that is born of God , commits not sin , cannot sin , but does righteousness ; you who are born of God , do know what God means by these words ; I am sure you know it ; there is a strong spirit in these words ; they are critical words ; discerning , distinguishing words ; and if there be any true life in you , they will more or less affect you ; you cannot but be concerned at the hearing of them . Hold the highest Spirits to the Nose of a dead Man , rub him all over with them , yet no heat , no motion , no lively colour , because he has not a natural principle of life to mingle with them , to feed upon them : I would commend my self to your Consciences this day , I hope you feel me , as well as hear me . When you drink any strong spirits , they heat within ; the vital spirits do take them in , feed upon them , are raised by them : so when spiritual truths are held close to the Conscience , if there be any life there , the Spirit of God within thee , will close with the Spirit of God without thee in the Word ; there will be an inward burning in the heart : the Leaven works strongly ; and under these inward workings of spirit I desire to leave you , debating the matter between God and your own Souls till you have brought it to an issue , and can say by the light of these Scriptures , that you are , or are not born again . 2. He doth righteousness : Every one that doth righteousness , is born of him ; and , Whosoever doth not righteousness , is not of God. The more we resemble Christ in righteousness and true holiness , the more evident it is both to our selves and others , that we are born of him , descended from him , and therefore cannot but take after him ; a true Christian is , and will be a follower of Christ ; this genius or disposition to all practical righteousness , flows from our new Birth , rises out of the new Nature , which the Apostle ascribes to the Death and Resurrection of Christ , as the procuring cause of all newness of life in us , which is but our likeness to his Resurrection ; we die with Christ ; that we may live with him , being freed from sin , not serving it any more , but yielding our selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead , and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God. This plainly proves every regenerate person , as such , to be a doer of righteousness , inclined to all holiness , by virtue of his Regeneration , which casts in a new leven , makes us a new lump ; as original Sin infected the whole man , so Regeneration sanctifies the whole man , in Body , Soul and Spirit : The fruit of the spirit is in all , goodness , righteousness and truth ; Regeneration inclines us to follow Christ ; the filth of the Soul is carried off by the washing of Regeneration , and renewing of the Holy Ghost ; hence we are said to be born of water , and of the Spirit . There is a natural inclination in a regenerate man to do good ; he does it willingly , not by constraint ; Grace is got into his nature ; the Law is written in his heart , therefore his heart inclines him to keep the Law. As Sin entred , so Grace enters ; Sin entred into all the powers and faculties of the Soul , weakning the whole man ; so Grace diffuses it self through every part of the Soul , strengthning the whole man in every part In Regeneration we are renewed after the Image of Christ , growing up into his likeness , like in judgment and affection ; not that our natural Faculties are altered , but only brought under the power of a supernatural principle ; we don't cease to be men , only we become new men , men of other minds , spirits and dispositions , than before , taking after the second Adam , not after the first ; being by Faith implanted into Christ , we are made partakers of his Divine Nature ; this is called a second Birth , or a new Creation , though out of the same physical materials of Flesh and Blood , the change is only spiritual ; as the Wild Olive , when engrafted into the True , as to its materials remains still the same ; 't was wood before , so 't is still , only there is a new sap secretly convey'd through the pores of it , which make it bring forth more kindly , and pleasant Fruit : so the Sinner , as to his physical substance , was Flesh and Blood before conversion , and so he is still ; yet there is an inward spiritual change wrought in him by his implantation into Christ , who infuses his Nature , Spirit and Grace through the Man , so making him a new Creature , not taking away his Manhood , but sanctifying his Nature . God is the Fountain of all Holiness , 't is essential to him , it goes along with his Nature , is entail'd upon all who are born of God ; being partakers of the Divine Nature , they must needs be holy as God is holy ; God appropriates goodness and righteousness to himself in the abstract , and is the original Spring of all righteousness in the Saints . Let us exert and put forth our new birth , and live a life of faith ; The life which I now live in the flesh , I live , &c. We are created in Christ unto good works , that we should walk in them ; Let us then abide in Christ , that we may bring forth much fruit ; for without him we can do nothing . Corruption indeed is always active in a Saint , because it acts naturally without any cessation ; but Grace does not always act , at least so sensibly in a Saint , because it must be first acted by the Spirit , who is a free Agent : should Grace always be as active in us as Corruption , we should mistake it for Nature , and ascribe all to our selves ; the Spirit of God is always in Believers , but does not always work so effectually , so sensibly ; the operations of it are not so manifest to us as sometimes they are . This righteousness that is said to be done , lies not so much in the perfection of the Deed , as in the perfection of the Doer ; he aims well , though he cannot always hit the mark ; he cannot do the good he would , yet he wills it , and that is doing in God's account , who accepts the will for the deed . The inclination or tendency of a new-born Soul to holiness , appears three ways . First , Before the Temptation , i. e. not before the being or existence of a Temptation , for there is no such season ; we are always compassed about with many Temptations ; a regenerate Soul is aware of this , and fears always . But before we enter into this or that particular Temptation that we see coming towards us , or have reason to suspect from the present circumstances we are under , here a regenerate person watches and prays that he may not enter into that Temptation , that God would some way or other divert the Temptation , or fortify our hearts against it , that we may repel it . A Temptation may enter into us , when we don't enter into it ; then it goes , as it comes , and makes little or no impression upon us : when a Temptation shews it self to us at some distance , the Seed of God in a regenerate Soul presently takes the alarm , puts on the whole armour of God. Secondly , Under the Temptation , when the Flesh has betrayed the Soul into the hands of a Temptation , has been tampering with it , then does Grace struggle and fight , and cry out unto God for help ; all this shews the activity of Grace in a way of righteousness , how loth it is to be overcome of evil . Thirdly , After the Temptation , when 't is ended , or finished , then it issues either in the commission of the Sin , or conquest over the Temptation . Grace shews it self both ways . First , After the commission of Sin ; what repentance , what godly sorrow , what shame , what indignation , what revenge ? Secondly , After the conquest over the Temptation ; what rejoycing , what thanksgiving , what triumphing in the Grace of Christ ? So that you see here lies the manifest difference between the Children of God , and of the Devil — An unregenerate man cannot do righteousness ; his skill lies not that way ; he is wise indeed to do evil ; but to do good , no knowledg , he is a meer Bungler at a good work ; his hand is always out , because his heart is never right with God. He may do what is materally good , but always fails in the manner ; those spiritual Ingredients which the Gospel requires to a work truly holy , are wanting . Thirdly , Whosoever believeth that Iesus is the Christ , is born of God. And every spirit that confesses that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh , is of God. They prove each other , being inseparable . The going forth of the Soul , by Faith , unto Christ , as the anointed of the Lord sent and sealed by the Father , to undertake the great work of Man's Redemption , is a sure evidence of Regeneration . All unregenerate men are strangers to Christ , they know him not , they desire him not , they think they can shift well enough without him : None know the Son of God , but those who are born of God. When the Spirit comes into us , then we confess that Christ is come in the flesh ; Christ conveys himself through our nature , to our persons ; the Divine and Humane Nature must be first united , before our persons can be admitted to any communion with him . The Humane Nature of Christ is the foundation of all our Communion with God : our access to God is through the veil of his flesh . Being born of the Spirit , we stand related to the Person of Christ , he is not ashamed to call us Brethren ; we can then call God our Father , as he is the Father of Christ our elder Brother . God was the Father of Christ before his Incarnation , and continues still to be so after his Incarnation , not only to him , but to all who are born of his Spirit : The Spirit of Christ being the Spirit of him who is God and Man , knows how to raise up a seed of godly men and women . The Infinite Eternal Spirit of the Son of God , being poured out without measure upon the Man Jesus Christ , operates through both his Natures , hypostatically united in his Divine Person , in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily , without any diminution of its infinite excellencies , and Divine properties , from the assumption of our finite humane nature ; so the same Eternal Spirit of Christ dwelling in us , in a lower way of union to our persons , does act indeed Divinely ; but yet according to our finite capacities ; all intellectual acts are finite or infinite , as the persons are that do them ; the Person of Christ being infinite , so are his spiritual actings , notwithstanding his finite nature as Man ; so the actings of the Spirit of God in the Saints are finite , because their persons are so . Actiones sunt suppositorum : Actions are personal , of greater or lesser degree of efficacy and power , as the persons are that do them . Faith in Christ Jesus being the birth of the Spirit , must needs be an infallible mark of Regeneration ; the design of the Spirit of God in working Faith in us , is to bring us to the knowledg of Christ , and through him to the knowledg of God , wherein consists our true happiness ; This is life eternal to know thee , &c. Faith is the beginning of Eternal Life in the Soul ; and the manner of conveying this Eternal Life from God unto our Souls , is called Regeneration . Thus you see how he that believes that Jesus is the Christ , is born of God. The next inquiry will be , how Faith does this ; or how believing in Christ does work that universal change in the Soul , which the Gospel calls Regeneration . Tho the beginning , or rather all the essentials of Regeneration are found in the first principle of Faith , created in us by the Spirit of Christ , yet this does not appear to us but by those lively operations of this Faith put forth by us . We have an inward feeling of these operations , the sense of which does lead us to some discerning of that spirit and principle from whence they flow . 'T is actual Faith Iohn means in this . Epistle , therefore he joyns it with Confession , he lays the Mark upon actual Faith ; for that only falls under our discerning . God indeed sees the first seeds and principles of Grace ; but they are known to us only by the sense we have of their powerful actings in us : and therefore I shall consider the regenerating Power of actual Faith , and shew how it does discover that new birth that came in with a principle of Faith at first . — The Regenerating power of Faith , both in the principle and in the act , is very great , it makes a marvellous change in us . — So strong are the impressions of Faith , about Christ and our everlasting concernments in him , that we must needs be much affected with the discovery ; which lies in two things : 1. In a convicting knowledg of our sin and misery by Nature . 2. In an astonishing discovery of God's Grace and mercy to us in Christ. The Spirit of God demonstrating both unto us with such clearness and evidence , that we cannot but be persuaded of the truth of them in our own case ; and being so persuaded , we must be concerned about them . Faith draws in the attention of the mind to those things we believe in reference to our selves , fixes our thoughts upon them , dwells upon the consideration of them ; there is no evading the serious thoughts of Faith , no getting them out of our heads , nor out of our hearts ; they lye close , they lye next us , always in our view , My sin is ever before me . Christ dwells in our hearts by Faith , we have the whole state of our Souls before us from first to last ; Faith shews us where our true interest lies , what is of absolute necessity to be done in order to Salvation . We see all this in Christ , who is God and Man , made sin for us , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him . In Christ we see how matters stand between God and Man , we see all that passed between God and Man in order to his recovery ; the whole method , way , and manner of our restauration from first to last ; we see the wages of our Sins , and the price of our Redemption ; we see the Law and the Gospel both fulfill'd in Christ ; God's infinite Justice and Mercy highly exalted and glorified in him . 'T is a pleasing ravishing sight to behold God in Christ reconciling the World unto himself ; to observe the mystery of his manifold hidden wisdom in carrying on the great work of Man's Redemption ; all this Faith discovers to us in some measure , filling us with a Holy admiration of God's unspeakable kindness and love to us , provoking us to pursue after the great ends of the Gospel . How busie is the Soul ? how full of discourse with it self ? What secret inferences does an enlightned Conscience draw from what it believes ? This believing Jesus to be the Christ , takes in all that belongs to the Person of Christ , in all his Offices ; takes in the whole Doctrine of Christ , all his Precepts , all his Promises , applies all to the Soul ; Thou art the Man spoken of , and spoken to in the Gospel ; hear , and thy Soul shall live . Now is the accepted time , now is the day of Salvation ; Faith admits of no delays , won't give us one days respite from the work it hath cut out for us . So Faith wrought in Paul , when Christ was revealed in him , immediately he consulted not with flesh and blood ; Faith changes our Counsels , alters the whole frame of the Soul ; the Man is a new Man , born again into a new World , into a new Nature , quite of another spirit : This is the Regenerating power of Faith. Let us then judge of the truth of our Faith , by the great change that it always makes in those who are brought out of darkness into this marvellous light . Should we ask some Professors , what effect their Faith had upon them ; whether upon their believing in Christ they found themselves born again , made new creatures ? It may be they will say , they hope they are the better for believing , that their Faith has not been without some good effect . Alas , what a slender account is this ? how short of a new birth ? You may be the same Man that ever you were for all this , in the same state in which you were first born . — Art thou born again ? born of God ? — Speak to this . Some outward Reformation there may be , where there is no inward Regeneration . Hast thou a new heart ? dost thou lead a new life ? is the whole course of thy life changed ? are all things become new within and without ? Faith in Christ changes us into the same image , transforms us into his likeness , le ts in the Spirit of Christ further and further into the Soul , till we are so filled with the Holy Spirit , that there will be at last no room for a worldly spirit to breathe in us ; it will be quite extinct and die away . The more we see of this newness of spirit in any , the more of the new creature appears in them . When the Apostle would take off the Ephesians from a vain , worldly course of life , he shews the inconsistency of such a course , with the true knowledg of Christ. — You have not so learned Christ , you have been taught better things by him than to walk as the Gentiles do , in the vanity of their mind . Faith in Christ works so great a change in all the faculties of the Soul , in the understanding , will and affections , and in our outward conversation too , that a true Believer may well be said to be born again , from the newness of life that appears in him ; and to be born of God , from the holiness , spirituality , and heavenly nature of that life which he now lives by Faith in the Son of God. Till the Regenerating power of Faith do thus appear in us , we have no reason to think we are born again . 4. Whosoever is born of God , overcomes the world , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Omne quod ex Deo genitum est . He uses the neuter gender to comprehend all sorts , states and degrees of mankind ; he does not say , he or she that is born of God , &c. but whatsoever is born of God , every Man , Woman and Child , rich or poor , bond or free , whosoever is born of God , has power and strength from Christ , to overcome the World ; they are assured of the Victory at their first setting out , because greater is he that is in them , than he that is in the World. They know they are of the strongest side , Christ has overcome the World already in his own Person , and will not fail to conquer it in and by the Saints ; he will appear so great in them , that the whole World shall not be able to stand before them . Be of good cheer , I have overcome the world , and you in me have overcome it ; and by me you shall personally overcome it your selves . I prove this to be an evidence of Regeneration thus . That which overcomes the World , must be of a higher extraction , of a more noble descent than the World it self in its present corrupt state ; it must be something distinct from the World , and above it , whatever is born of the Flesh is but Flesh , falls in with the World to which it belongs , and of which it is a part : but God having chosen some out of the World , and called them to a Heavenly Life , has promised to give them a Heavenly Nature , to beget them again unto himself , to put his own Spirit into them , that they may walk as New Creatures , who are not of the World though they live in it ; they are Born of God , do bear his image , their hearts are moulded into the belief of his word , they can do nothing against the truth , but every thing for the truth ; these are they who overcome the World , the men of the world , and the Things of the World ; the Spirit & Principles of the World , the Fears and Hopes of the World , the Lusts and Pleasures , and Temptations of the World , they are dead to all these , not moved by them , but do steer their course by a higher light let down from heaven into their hearts ; and this is their Victory , even their Faith ; they have nothing to oppose against the World and all things in it that may disquiet and discompose their Spirits , but their Faith , and by believing , they enter into rest ; all who are Born of God do thus live by Faith here below ; they consult not with Flesh and Blood , their affections are suited to the apprehensions of their Faith , they are filled with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory ; by believing they see good days a coming , when all Tears shall be wiped from their Eyes , they wait patiently till then , rejoycing in the hope of the Glory of God. Till we get into this frame , walking in the evidence of things not seen , we shall never overcome the World ; for the things that are seen , conceive them in what shape or posture you please , have their emptiness and vanity in them , will never satisfy ; they are but finite and temporal ; the present Fashion of this World , be it what it will , passes away into something else , while we are a beholding it ; all things here below moulder and crumble away in our hands , perish in the using , are always the worse for wearing , which shews they cannot last long ; when they are in their best state they are altogether vanity ; the highest degree of Perfection in the Creature , tends to corruption , and indeed disposes to it ; 't is as Natural to Die as to be Born , there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a turning point , that stops the further growth of the Creature , and makes it to decline ever after , till its fading Glory be quite extinguish'd ; therefore labour not for the meat that perishes , but for that which nourishes unto Everlasting Life . Till we come to Live upon Eternal unseen things , we live but meanly , in the midst of our Earthly sufficiencies we are in straights , still wanting something till Christ be ours , and then all is ours . There is no room left then for any further designs , in him we have plenary satisfaction and perfect rest , we shall never have true hearts ease till then . But the difficulty lies in bringing over our hearts to this Newness of Life to this Noble Life of Faith , that fetches all its Comforts from Heaven , casting up its anchor within the Vail , which is sure and stedfast ; Flesh and Blood cannot do this , there is nothing in Nature that disposes us to it , therefore we must be born again , be made New Creatures , before we shall favour the things of heaven ; and such is the power of Religion upon the minds of men , where it is in truth , that it always works this change in them ; they find it , and feel it in themselves . Whether it be so with us , whether we have any certain experience of such a thing in our own Souls , we should do well to consider that even upon our knees , and give God no rest day nor night , till we see some better symptoms of Eternal Life in our selves ; we may judge of our life whether it be Eternal or no , by the things we live in , and live upon ; they who are of the Earth , are Earthly ; they who are born from above , are heavenly , to be carnally mindedis death , but to be Spiritually minded is life and peace ; The inward frame of the mind discovers what kind of Creatures we are , whether old or new , flesh or spirit ; the issues of life are from the Heart ; as the pulse of your Souls beats upwards or downwards , so you may judge of your state , as you find your selves most concerned in things above or things below ; till you have got above the world , and have overcome it , you are not born again . Fifthly , Every one that loveth , is born of God , and knoweth God. That which is intended here , is , First , Love to the Saints as such . Unfeigned love of the Brethren is a sign of a pure heart , and that we are indeed born again . Secondly , Love to all men ; 't is due to all ; Owe no man any thing , but love ; that , we owe to all ; every man may challenge it ; every man is our Neighbour in that sense , to be the object of our Love ; we must extend it to our very Enemies ; 't is the fulfilling of the Law ; the duty of man to man , prescribed in the Second Table , cannot be performed without it . — Love is above all Illumination and Knowledge ; a more sure mark of Regeneration : He that dwelleth in love , dwelleth in God , and God in him . Love is one of the communicable Attributes of God , shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost ; we are followers of God , when we walk in love . Common Professors have some love one to another ; but if you trace it up to its original , you 'll find it a selfish , mercenary love , in which they rather respect themselves than Christ ; 't is not for his sake , but for some outward respects of relation , neighbourhood , or usefulness in the common concerns of this life ; it may be for their agreement in opinion about some lower matters of Religion ; this is but the friendship of the World , and may be consistent with real enmity against God and good men as such ; but perfect love , i. e. real , sincere , Christian Love , is for God's sake , because he has so loved us , and given us a new Command , to love one another . There is no true love among men , till we are born again . He exhorts those who have put off the old man , and are renewed in spirit , to put away all bitterness , wrath , &c. Before Regeneration , we are foolish , disobedient , living in malice and envy , hatesul , and hating one another : Biting , dev●uring , consuming one another . It looks rather like a description of Wild Beasts than men , so savage and fierce are we by nature ; nothing but a spirit of Regeneration will sweeten and mollify the hearts of men ; that which unites us to Christ , unites us one to another ; we are all one in Christ , but we shall never be all one among our selves , till we are united to Christ ; then the Peace of God rules in our hearts , to which we are called in one body . There is no true good nature among men , but what flows from Grace ; Sin hath so poysoned and sowred man's Nature , that till that Serpentine Venom be purged out , and a better Spirit be put into us , there will be little harmony or concord among men . Having put on the new man , put on therefore as the elect of God , &c. Vide Loc. Were this mark of Regeneration more visible in our days , it would be a token for good , of a more effectual work of the Gospel among us , than for ought I see does yet appear . Hatred , variance , &c. are reckoned up among the Works of the Flesh , as directly opposite to the Fruits of the Spirit . I will shew how this loving disposition arises out of Regeneration ; that the fundamental ground of it is our conformity to Christ , which necessarily follows upon our Regeneration : Christ is the express Image of his Father ; the Saints are in their finite capacities , the express Image of Christ , in whom they see the Father , who as God , is one with the Son ; whilst they behold the Son as God-man , they see their humane Nature hypostatically united to the Divine ; they see their humane persons joined to the Lord in one Spirit . I doubt not but the spiritual glorified Body of Christ is the medium of the beatifical Vision to Angels and Saints above ; the Godhead shines through it in all its brightness , as the Sun shines through pure Chrystal ; shines upon it , shines into it , fills every part with light ; there is nothing to obumbrate or shade it , it transmits the light to us with advantage . The Bodies of the Saints at the Resurrection being freed from all mortality , and natural weakness , being then immortal , spiritual Bodies , like unto that glorious Body of Christ , they are capable of receiving this reflected glory from Jesus Christ ; they have a nearer and more inward view of God in Christ than the Angels have , because they see him in their own nature face to face , and nothing between , the Glory of God shines out upon them in the Face of Christ ; thus are they made light in the Lord , being changed into the same Image by the Spirit of the Lord. — What is thus done unto perfection upon the Bodies and Souls of glorified Saints at the Resurrection , is really done in some degree upon the Souls of the Saints in this life ; the Image of God in all his communicable Attributes is impressed upon them ; they partake of his Holiness , Wisdom , Goodness , Love ; are merciful , as their heavenly Father is merciful ; and cannot but express something of all this , as they are new Creatures , holding forth the Image of the heavenly Adam , which carries them out to a love and liking of it self , in whomsoever it appears : therefore he who says he loves God , and hates his Image in another , is a liar . Those who know God in Christ , will be sure to take notice of his Image in the Saints ; God in Christ is the Object of our worship , and Christ in the Saints is the Object of our endeared love and affection ; God is invisible , we see him not ; it must be pure faith that keeps up love to God ; but Christ in the Saints is more visible to us ; here ; we have something to help our faith , and to draw out our love ; we see the Children of God , we converse with them , we may lay our hands upon them , and embrace them ; God allows us to bestow our love to him upon his Saints , 't is still to him , when showed to them for his sake ; As much as you do it to one of these , you do it to me . Sixthly , To desire the milk of the word . As a new-born Child does naturally desire the Breast of the Mother , so a new-born Soul does as naturally take the breast of the Word . God , as he is Iehovah , is the Fountain of being to all things that are : and as He is the Everlasting God , He is the Fountain of life to every living Creature ; In him we live , move , and have our being : all things do subsist in him , and by him ; He supports the whole Creation , which he raised out of nothing ; For of him , and through him , and to him are all things . There is a Creature life , which is but a creature ; and an uncreated and eternal life , which is God himself . A Creature life is either of Spirits or Animals ; of things incorporeal , or corporeal . How immaterial spirits are maintained in their created natural living beings , we must leave to God that made them ; only this I may say , that the Eternal life of the Elect Angels in which they were created , and confirmed by Christ , differs from that eternal life which Believers have in Christ ; the one is a creature life , or a created life ; it once was not , tho it shall never have an end ; the other is the Eternal Life of God himself communicated in time , and in some degree to his creature Man , which makes him a new creature , taken into the Eternal Life of God himself , according to man's finite capacity . All sublunary living creatures have their proper nourishment assigned them by the Providence of God ; they all live upon their fellow creatures , and have their food suited to their several kinds , which by a natural appetite they are carried out unto ; Man who has the dominion over the creature , has his choice of every thing made for food ; but the new man , or the new creature , being born of God , united to God in Christ , and quickned by his Eternal Spirit entring into him , has Eternal Life continually communicated to him from Christ the second Adam , who is a quickning spirit , dwelling always in the Saints . If it be asked , what is the Patulum vitae , to the Saints , as they are new creatures ; I answer , they have meat to eat that the World knows not of , hidden Manna , secret communications from Christ , who is their life ; and because they have not an immediate fruition of him here , therefore they are commanded to feed upon Christ by Faith in the Word , and to gather up the Heavenly Manna they meet with there . Faith knows how to live upon God in the Word , till the Soul can have a nearer access to him by vision above , face to face ; then we have life more abundantly , are even swallowed up of life , are all life , without any symptomes of mortality about us : then that life and immortality which the Gospel has brought to light , will more fully appear , and be made manifest in all glorified Saints . APPLICATION . You have heard the Doctrinal part , what Regeneration is , the necessity of it , what are the signs of it . The next thing to be considered is , whether you and I are regenerated , and do feel any symptoms of this new birth in our selves ? If not , the Text does plainly conclude against us , that we can't see the Kingdom of God. If these marks , if all these Scripture marks be not found in you , and upon you , it is because there is no life in you . Shew me but one of these marks , and I 'll shew you all the rest in that one , at least make it evident to discerning Christians , that they are all comprehended in that one , which you see and own in your selves . I have been searching you from head to foot , feeling for life in every part , and 't is well if we can find it in any part : O how dead , how cold , how wan , how earthy are many Professors under all their forms , like a Carcass stretched out and stiff , no breath , no motion , no heat , laid out for the Grave , free among the dead , unconcern'd in all the mysteries of the Gospel : The reason of our mistakes about Regeneration , is because we don't look for so great an inward change in our selves as we ought to do . We are more given to contemplation than practise ; grown so purely speculative in Religion , that we are no further concerned in our own notions , than to maintain and defend our Opinions against all others of a contrary sentiment ; and this has filled the World with disputes , and set us all a wrangling one with another ; every one thinks he is in the right . When Scripture and Reason are against a Man , that Man is under a temptation to be against both ; so fond are we of our own Tenents , even when we put darkness for light , and evil for good , things must be as we have put them . At this rate the truth and power of Religion will quickly be lost amongst us , unless both be better exemplified in our Lives and Conversations . The Gospel is set before us as a new mould into which we our selves must be cast ; it comes to work a great change in us , not of our opinions only , but of our Hearts and Nature , to create us again in Christ Jesus unto good works ; Is this done ? where this is not done , that man's pretended interest in Religion will deceive him , and come to nothing . You may be of this or that Persuasion , of this or that Party , have excellent notions of Divine things in your heads , and yet not have one tittle of the truth writ upon your hearts . I don't ask what you hold , or what you profess , or what you know , but what you are , what Newness of Spirit do you find in your selves ? My Text speaks of something to be done in you , and upon you , Is that done ? Art thou born again ? Art thou a new creature ? I speak the Language of God to you , a new creature is that which you must be before you die , else you 'l be undone for ever ; it concerns you to look what that is , do you look to that ; A new creature you must be , else you perish eternally : better you had never been born , if you are not born again before you die . Let not the strangeness of the expression , nor the mystery of the thing it self , take you off from seeking after this Regeneration in the Text ; 't is something must be wrought in you , you need not go further than your own selves for a proof of it ; let every one view his own heart well , wait for a change there , carry thy old , carnal , unbelieving heart to God , and say , Lord create in me a clean heart ; take away this heart of Stone ; I lay it down at thy feet , I dare not take it back again , I dare not go from thee in my old sinful corrupt nature : O let thy creating power pass upon me this instant , that I may become a new creature . Did we come with raised expectations of such a work , we should see the Glory of God in some inward astonishing effects of his mighty power upon our hearts : He that commands light to shine out of darkness , and calls things that are not as tho they were , gives them a being by his creating power . Things that are not , do answer to this call of God , as if they had been there before ; they come forth out of their own nothingness , deriving a real being and existence from the operative Word of the Lord ; he speaks , and it is done : So able is God to raise up Children unto Abraham , even out of Stones ; a Stone may as soon turn it self into a living creature , as a natural Man turn himself into a new creature ; only there is this difference , a Stone has no sense to perceive any such change brought upon it , but a natural Man has ; he is a living Soul ; and when converting Grace comes upon a Man living in sin , to turn him from it , he must needs feel the opposition that is made to the whole course of his corrupt nature ; the conflict that is between two living contrary principles is felt on both sides ; Sin feels it , and Grace feels it ; the Flesh lusts against the Spirit , and the Spirit against the Flesh ; the Flesh is hindred from doing all the evil it would do , and the Spirit from doing all the good it would do ; they retard each others motions ; one pulls one way , and the other another ; these two are contrary , they never agree in any thing . A sinner finds himself dying to sin , under the quickning regenerating influence of the Spirit of God ; though corrupt nature perceives not the beauty and glory of Grace , yet it sees and feels the contrariety of Grace to it self , and is full of enmity against it ; as the Spirit of God does assist our dying graces , so the Devil , that evil spirit , does what he can to keep alive our dying sins ; he would fain prevent the utter mortification of sin in Believers , if it were possible : You see what striving and strugling there is in every regenerate Soul , two living men contending with each other , the old man and the new ; there is a mighty strength in the old man , but the new man is stronger than he , enters in upon him by an irresistible force , binds him , and at last casts him quite out . Let us either throw away our Bibles , and resolve never to look into them more , or else submit to the judgment of the Scriptures in so great a Case as this is — Verily , Verily , &c. THE END . A DISCOURSE OF FAITH , IN TWO POINTS : VIZ. I. How Faith comes by Hearing . II. How we are Justified by Faith. By Thomas Cole Minister of the Gospel . LONDON , Printed for Thomas Cockerill , at the Three Legs over against the Stocks-Market , 1689. A DISCOURSE OF FAITH . ROM . 10. 17. So then , Faith cometh by hearing , and hearing by the word of God. THE Apostle towards the close of the Ninth Chapter speaking of a twofold Righteousness , of Works and of Faith , tells us that the Gentiles did attain to the Righteousness of Faith , but the Iews did not attain to the Righteousness of Works , which they so much trusted in , for they being ignorant of Gods Righteousness , and going about to establish their own , have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God , Rom. 10. 3. Hence the Apostle takes an occasion to compare the Righteousness of the Law , with that of Faith ; calling one our own Righteousness , the other the Righteousness of God , which the Law do's tacitly point to , promising Life to perfect Obedience , this not being found in any mere Man since the Fall , we are directed to seek it in Christ , who is the end of the Law to every one who believes , ver . 4. he brings in Moses , verse the 5th . describing the Righteousness which is of the Law , that the man which doth thsoe things shall live by them . Such doers of the Law we are not , therefore can look for nothing but Death by Law. Verse 6th . He brings in the Righteousness of Faith by a Prosopopeia , speaking it self to an afrighted dejected sinner , who is also brought in musing upon his wretched Condition , full of sad thoughts , saying over many dismal things to himself in his own Heart about his Eternal State , how shall I get to Heaven , how shall I escape Hell , how shall I dwell with everlasting Burnings which I see no way to avoid by Law , the righteousness of Faith meets this convinced Sinner , in this great distress of Conscience , communes with him , discourses of Christ to him , minds him of his Resurrection from the dead , and Ascension into Heaven , you seem ( says the Righteousness of Faith ) to deny both in talking at this rate , your way to Heaven is plain , Christ is ascended , you shall as surely go to Heaven , if you believe as Christ is gone before you , as surely escape Hell and overcome Death , as Christ is risen from the dead , and the only way to get an Interest in Christ is to attend to the word of Faith that is preached , ver . 8. when once that prevails and brings you to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead , you shall be saved ver . 9. this proved out of Isa. 28. 16. Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed , whether Iew or Gentile , ver . 11 , 12. and because Prayer is the principal part of that outward Confession made with the Mouth , and the best indication of Faith in the Heart , he concludes ver . 13. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved . Whence Observe ; Observ. The chiefest thing we should now pray for , is , that we may have an Interest in Christ and his Righteousness , desiring to be found in him , &c. Having spoken so much of the Righteousness of Faith , he does in a certain gradation shew the way and means of attaining it , it is not a Righteousness that is to be done by us , to be wrought out with our own hands , but prepared for us by another , freely promised and given to us , therefore it must be askt , it must be earnestly pray'd for , we must beg hard of God to impute it to us , v. 13. the Law propounds the work of Righteousness to be done by us , the Gospel ( Rom. 5. 17. ) propounds the Gift of Righteousness to be pray'd for and thankfully received , v. 14. there can be no Prayer without Faith , no Faith without Hearing , no Hearing without a Preacher , no Preachers unless they be sent , from all which he draws this Conclusion , viz. that the next immediate Cause of Faith is Hearing . There is much Preaching and much Hearing in this City , but what comes on 't ? Truely if Faith does not come , nothing comes that will turn to any good Account to you : The Apostles in the Primitive times so spake that many believed , Acts 14. 1. with that evidence and power , their words had a special Accent in the Ears and Hearts of those that heard them , God gave a signal testimony to the word of his Grace , than fear came upon every Soul , Acts 2. 43. Those who were not savingly wrought upon , were greatly astonished at the Doctrine of the Gospel ; 't is otherwise now , how little of this astonishment does appear in our Assemblies , where is this fear that came upon every Soul , 't was short of Faith , yet I am perswaded when Faith comes in some open eminent Conversion , that the whole Assembly is usually struck with some present fear , the Word comes like a mighty rushing Wind into the Congregation , shakes all , when 't is about to Convert one ; something like this may be observed in the Acts of the Apostles , and other passages in the New Testament , it is sit that Grace should be solemnly attended when it goes forth to the publick Conversion though but of one Soul : If God intend the coming of Faith into any of your hearts this day , he 'l come along with his Work , he will prepare the way , he 'l bless your hearing , and speak something inwardly to you from himself , that shall incline your hearts to believe the Gospel , though God speaks by the Ministry of man , yet his voice is distinct from ours , and begins where that ends , carrying the Word from the Ear to the Heart , there leaving it under those mixtures of Faith that make it work effectually . Hear I beseech you with diligence least you obstruct the coming of Faith by not attending to what shall be spoken to you in the name of the Lord. So then faith cometh by hearing , &c. Doct. Hearing the Word of God Preached to us , is the ordinary means of begetting faith in us . First , What are we in a more special manner to understand by Faith here in the Text. The general Object of Faith is the whole Doctrine of God laid down in the Scriptures ; the special object of Saving Faith , is the Free-promise of Grace in Christ Jesus , this supports the former , we must believe the Divine Narrative of the whole Will of God revealed in the Bible , before we can pitch our Faith in any suitable actings upon any part of it , 't is one thing to assent to the Truth of the Word in General , a further and indeed another thing to apply the Promises ; he believes a Promise who do's fiducially rely upon it , this is properly Trusting , we believe something in reference to our selves , living in a comfortable Hope and Expectation of it , respecting not only the Truth of the thing , but also the Goodness of it in reference to our selves under that possibility , probability or certainty of obtaining it , which our Faith , according to its various Degrees may represent unto us , Faith in the Righteousness of Christ for justification is here principally intended . Secondly , Why must this Faith come by hearing . Hearing is alwayes antecedent to Faith , though Faith be not always the consequent of Hearing , ver . 16. 18. all Hearers are not believers , though all Believers are first Hearers . I shall evince the necessity of Hearing in order to Faith , from these following grounds : I. Hearing is Sensus Discipline , the Sense by which all Knowledge is let into the Soul. There is a two-fold Knowledge belonging to Faith , one leading to it , the other found in it , arising from it , and is the same with Faith it self . The First , is Litteral or Historical , 't is rather notitia then cognitio , a notice or particular information given us of the Contents of the Bible , especially of the report which the Gospel makes of the way of Salvation by Christ , we must know what we are to believe , before we can be supposed to believe any thing ; How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard , and how shall they hear without a Preacher . Words are the proper Object of this Sense of Hearing , where nothing is spoken , nothing can be heard , the sound of Words must reach the ear , before the sense of those Words can enter into the Understanding . This Historical Knowledge do's not lye in Learning the Scriptures by roat , without any Rational Knowledge of the Litteral Sense and Meaning of those Propositions of Truth that are contained therein , this would be only Memory without any Understanding : A Natural Man does not dis-believe the Scripture , because he has not a Rational Conception of the common Notion of things spoken of there , but because he has , and finding them so uncouth , so seemingly contrary to Humane Reason , he rejects them as Foolishness . The Second , Is a Knowledge more than Historical , and is of the Essence of Faith all one with it , it is that which we call a Saving Knowledge ; it lies in the Use and Application of Gospel Truths to our own Souls , when we shape our selves to a real Conformity to the Call of God in every Gospel Truth , acting in a way of Duty what the Word of God commands . There is no Saving Knowledge of Gospel Truths , but the Knowledge of Faith , and no other Reason for Faith in the highest Misteries of the Gospel , but the bare Word of God. That Faith is Knowledge , I prove thus , Because in Scripture , 't is opposed to Folly , Blindness and Ignorance , Acts 17. 23 , 30. Ioh. 17. 3. Ier. 31. 34. Isa. 9. 1 , 2. Besides it has all the effects of Knowledge in the Soul , it gives full satisfaction to the Mind of a Man , removes all doubts , establishes the Heart in a full perswasion of the Truth of the Word of God ; Humane Knowledge is liable to many Mistakes but a Divine Faith admits of no Falshood , therefore Faith perfects mans Understanding , because it brings in nothing but Truth , no mans Errors do proceed from Faith , he may err in matters of Faith , but 't is not from his Faith , but his Unbelief , therefore Faith is Knowledge , unerring Knowledge we believe and are sure , we may be so , if we rightly understand our selves in an act of Believing , no demonstrations of Reason , do give that Evidence of Truth as Faith do's , as mans Understanding is too low , to take in Divine Truths , so Gods Understanding is too high , for man to comprehend , therefore we are called to yield the obedience of faith to his revealed Will , God governs man rather by giving him the knowledge of his Will , then lifting him up into his own Infinite Understanding , that is above our Capacity , our Duty lies not in knowing what God knows , but in doing what God commands , who gives no account of his matters to us , only commands us to believe his Word , and to look upon that as a sufficient ground and reason of our faith , when we hear it preached to us . II. Because God has appointed hearing the Word , as a necessary means of faith , he will not immediately speak to our hearts by his Spirit , but has appointed his Word to be first spoken to our Ears , and promis'd that way to let it down into our hearts , thus Faith comes by Hearing . Quest. How should Hearing of things above our Reason contribute any thing to our believing them ? One would think the oftner we hear them , the more absurd we should count them to be , and reject them with greater Indignation , having so often tried them by the Touchstone of our own reason , and pronounced them unintelligible . Answ. Hearing alone will not let in these Divine Mysteries into our Understandings , Isa. 6. 9 , 10. God must inwardly Teach us and reveal them to us by his Spirit , before we can believe them , which brings me to the third head , viz. III. How faith is wrought by our hearing the Word . 1. By a special Appearance of God to the Soul. 2. By opening the Heart , enlightning the Mind , and perswading the Will to a thorough closure with Christ upon Gospel Terms . To these two heads may be referred all that falls under our discerning and experience of the work of the Spirit in begetting faith in us . 1. Faith is wrought by a special appearance of God to the Soul , what this appearance of God is , how it rises out of the Word , in what manner 't is let into the Soul , I shall endeavour to open to the experience of those who know what it is to hold Communion with God in hearing his Word : there is some co-incidence in the particulars above-mentioned , yet not without some distinction , which I leave to your own observation , the less of Art or Method there is in handling experimental points , the better , they come with most power to the Conscience in their own simplicity , therefore I shall in a joynt Discourse run the matter close together , looking sometimes on one side , and sometimes on t'other , till I have viewed it round , that I may present the whole Truth to you in so great and necessary a point , we can have no saving knowledge of God but in and by his word , we must look through that Glass upon him , and that appearance of God we meet with there , is the beginning of all Religion , the Word never comes with power to our Consciences , till God appear in it . How that is , I am now to shew . Whilst we are hearing his Word we see God standing forth , in his own words , declaring himself to be the Author of it , this draws in our attention , adds that weight and authority to the Word , that we cannot but receive it as the Word of God , and set our Seals to the Truth of it , we see sufficient grounds for our Faith in God from this manifestation of himself to our Souls . Thus God wrought faith in Abraham , Gen. 17. 1. by appearing to him several times as God Almighty and All-sufficient , that Abraham might not doubt of any thing that such a God should promise to him , and therefore 't is said Rom. 4. 3. that Abraham believed God , being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able to perform , ver . 21. Thus God appeared to Samuel revealing himself to him by his Word 1 Sam. 3. 21. So Christ appeared to Paul by a voice , and a Light from Heaven , I am Jesus , Acts 9. there are spiritual appearances of God now to our Souls under the Preaching of the Gospel answerable to these Visions of Old. God lets himself down into our Hearts , through the apprehensions of our faith , which frames in our hearts a right image of God answerable to that Character he gives of himself in the Word , he shines through the Word in all his Glory , when he spake of Old to the Patriarchs by an articulate voice , the unwritten word then was accompanied with such convincing signs of his Presence , that they could not but believe it , and so is the written Word now as capable of representing God to us , when he has a mind to be seen by us , as that was then ; the Letter of the Word is but a Creature , but the Truths contained in it are Eternal , and do all center in God himself , who is the Essential Word , thus God rises out of the Word , and looks a man in the Face , tells him , thus saith the Lord , I am that Lord God Almighty who now speaks unto you , he leaves no Objection unanswered , shews what sure grounds of faith , we have in him , shall God say and not do ? 't is impossible for God to lie , it must be so as God saies , it can't be otherwise , Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass away than one Tittle of the Word be broken , thus in God we praise his Word , Psal. 56. 4. 10. Consider the Word out of God : 't will puzzle Men and Angels to make out the meaning of it , to think the things spoken of possible or likely to come to pass , but all things are possible with God , and to those who believe in God , they stick at nothing , they are sure Omnipotency knows no difficulties , the Counsel of the Lord must stand , his thoughts shall come to pass : a Soul thus struck with a sense of Gods Presence yields immediately , I believe Lord with all my heart , am ready to do whatever thou requirest of me , so Paul : Oh that God would so manifest himself to every one of your hearts this day , that he would shew himself , come up close to you , look you in the face , and say , I am Jesus , you could not withstand this mighty presence of God in Christ Jesus , O speak Lord , 't is but thy saying to each of us I am Jesus , and we shall all be made to know the Lord from the least to the greatest , I hope the quickning voice of the Son of God , is now sounding in the Ears of your Faith , while I am speaking to you , and that you do receive the Word , not as the word of Man , but as it is indeed the Word of God , quick and powerful , sharper than a two-edged Sword in every one of your hearts . The knowledge of the Truth as 't is in Jesus ( Eph. 4. 21. ) is one thing , and the knowledge of the Truth as 't is in Ink and Paper is another ; they are the same Truths , but as they are in the Scriptures they lie in the dead Letter , as they are in Christ they are seen in their living root and principle from whence they spring , meer Scriptural Knowledge is but Historical , we look upon the things we read and hear , rather as notions than realities : till God fills up all expressions of Scripture concerning himself , with a Divine Presence answerable thereunto , we believe nothing that is said of him , but such a presence of God in his Word , captivates our hearts to the belief of it , we must believe him to be such a God as the Word declares him to be , before we shall count all his sayings true , we must fetch strength from the name of God , Rev. 2. 13. to support our Faith in all its actings upon any part of his revealed will , and we never deny any Truth plainly revealed but we deny his name , Rev. 3. 8. and question his Attributes ; some Truths bare more upon one Attribute , some more upon another , but all are founded in God and in the essential properties of his Nature , from whence they have their verification and accomplishment , so that till God appear and shew himself to the Soul , all that is said to us out of the Scriptures in the name of an unknown God affects us not , because it wants that which is the ground of its Credibility , no man can say that Jesus is the Lord , but by the Spirit , 1 Cor. 12. 3. he cannot say so and think so , he cannot say so and believe what he says , till the Father reveal his Son in him , Paul by the Light of that Revelation of Christ in him , knew all Gospel Mysteries , and without such an inward spiritual manifestation of God to our Souls , giving us a sight of him who is invisible , 't is impossible we should ever be throughly convinced of the Divinity of the Scriptures , all Divinity springs from God , leads to him , nay it looks him directly in the Face , and can't be considered apart from him , there is but one God and one Faith , God must be in the view of our Faith whensoever we really act it . Neither can we have that inward testimony of the Spirit convincing us of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures , without this special Appearance of God in the Soul as a witness to the Truth of his Word . While we are hearing the Word , God has invisible wayes of access to our hearts , he conveys himself through his Truth to our Souls , his Divinity leads the way , without some appearance of this , the contents of the Word would have no place in our hearts , but coming with so great a presence , in so great a name , and with so strong an impression , God himself writing them upon the heart , we cannot but receive his Testimony , the Word comes into our Hearts suddenly before we are aware , and seises them for God , we cannot but think , speak , act and judge as God does , the sense of the Word is the sense of our Souls , so far as the Word is written in our hearts , we read it without the least variation , the Copy answers the Original : Hence arises that habitual disposition or inclination to believe , God creates this new heart , I say this infused habit or principle of faith , is antecedent to all acts of faith put forth by us , and is in it self the sole act of God upon us in our first Conversion , it is from this supernatural principle thus infused , that the natural powers and faculties of the Soul of Man , viz. the Understanding and the Will , are enabled to take in things purely Spiritual and Divine , Nature never acts above its sphere , those inbred common Notions that are the Standards and Measures of Natural Truths in all their consequences will never lead us to grant , or admit that which is supernatural , when we do this , 't is always from some higher Principle ; when we see men acting above themselves , we may conclude they are acted by something higher than themselves , which is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them . This special Appearance of God , with those inward effects of it upon the Soul which I have been speaking of , may be known to Believers , they discern it in others , Acts 11. 17 , 18. and do when they give a true reason of their faith , see it in themselves , that all springs from the Fathers , revealing his Son in them , they can give no other reason why they believe in Jesus , 't is God that opens the door of Faith and makes it effectual , Acts 14. 27. We are apt to be taken with any appearance of Man in a Sermon , this we look after , what words of Mans Wisdom , how Man acquits himself in reasoning of this or that Point . 'T is true there is some skill required in Planting , and Watering , but all the encrease comes from God , your Faith consists not in the Wisdom of Man but in the power of God , if God himself do not appear as a witness to his own Truth , as the great undertaker of all that he has promised , what we say will prevail little , your faith must terminate in God himself , and in that Ability that is in him to perform his word , this was the ground of Abrahams faith , Paul knew him whom he believed , 2 Tim. 1. 12. and so must you if ever you believe to the saving of your Souls . Did you go out of the Congregation after every Sermon you hear under a sight and sense of this appearance of God in his Word , speaking to you from Heaven and shewing himself to your souls in some spiritual resemblance suited and adapted to that Word you are hearing , how could you reject such a Word , so full of God , so exactly corresponding to what you see in God himself , you must yield and cry out each of you , who am I that I should withstand God ? This is the first way that God takes to work Faith in us , by our hearing the Word Preached to us . Secondly , Faith is wrought by opening the heart , enlightning the mind , and perswading the will to a through closure with Christ upon Gospel Terms . I shall now shew you how God thus appearing to us in hearing the Word , does open the heart , enlighten the mind and throughly perswade the will , to a through closure with Christ upon Gospel Terms . Naturally our hearts are shut up against the Gospel , our Minds are blinded 2 Cor. 4. 4. till God shines into our hearts , to give the light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ , ver . 6. Enlightning the eyes of our Understandings , Eph. 1. 17 , 18. Quest. What is this Light of Faith , and how does it differ from the Light of Reason ? Answ. The Light of Reason lies in the evidence of the thing it self , as it falls under a Humane Understanding , arguing from the cause to the effect , drawing certain conclusions from undeniable premises , granted and acknowledged by all men to be Truths in Nature : Upon such Concessions they build all their acquired Knowledge , and do put the stamp of Truth upon all fair inferences from thence , which they judge agreeable to those first principles and notions of Truth , that pass for currant under that name among credulous men , who do but think they know , and do rather ghess than judge : so great is the uncertainty of all humane Knowledge , we have little cause to glory in it . The light of Faith lies in the infallible certainty of Divine Testimony , faith sees not the causes of things in the things themselves , but in God alone , to whom all things are possible , faith excells all other knowledge , in as much as it sees and knows all things in their first Cause , God , and takes hold of them by the very root from whence they first spring , arguing from the Veracity of God , to the Truth of all his sayings , we know that God has spoken thus and thus , as Ioh. 9. 29. we know the Doctrine is of God , Ioh. 7. 17. and that no prophesie of the Scripture is of private Interpretation , 2 Pet. 1. 20 , 21. under this conviction we cannot but yield the obedience of faith to every word of God : I do not deny but experience may and does give Believers some Evidence of the things themselves , but this belongs rather to their after Edification , then to the first act of Faith in their Conversion , by which they close in with Christ , upon the credit of a bare word of promise from him who cannot lie . Object . Since these sublime supernatural Misteries of the Gospel are so much above , and so seemingly contrary to humane Reason , how comes it to pass that any man should own them for Truths , and be brought under the power of them . Answ. 'T is by a Divine Faith , I call it Divine because 't is the work of God that we believe his Testimony , Ioh. 6. 29. Quest. Does not this Operation of God upon the Hearts of men in working faith in us , offer violence to mans Nature and force the Will to consent to that which is above the Understanding : Or how can the efficacy of Gods Grace in determining Mans Will to such a Spiritual Act of Faith in Christ Jesus be consistent with the liberty of the Will. Answ. Many intricate disputes there are about this Point , managed by subtil heads , not without some shew and appearance of Reason , who to secure the liberty of Mans Will , have denied the efficacy of Gods Grace , placing the power of believing in man himself , to avoid the force that otherwise they think must be offered to his Will. But to clear the efficacy of Gods Grace from this imputation , I need say no more but this , viz. That the Grace of God enters the Soul of man as a New Nature , and therefore cannot put any force upon him , Nature works kindly in all , by Inclination , not by Violence ; as Nature is from Generation , so the new Nature is from Regeneration ; one is the birth of the Flesh , the other of the Spirit ; as we are born Men by our first birth , so we are born Christians by our second birth . Artificial Christians are all name , without any living Nature answerable to it , being not truly born of God and thereby made partakers of his Divine Nature . The breathing in of this new Nature into the Soul of man by the Spirit of God , is that new Creation spoken of in the Gospel , 't is the first Act of God in our Conversion , 't is solely the Act of God , without any concurrence of ours , we have only a passive obediential power to receive the impression ! 'T is God that makes it , upon this supernatural Principle are grounded all after proceedings in bringing the Soul forward to an actual closure with Christ , all the natural powers and faculties of the Soul are gathered into this supernatural Principle , do act under it , are moved by it , and directed in all their free motions to a supernatural end , which they could not of themselves tend unto ; and let it not seem incredible to us that God should do this , he can do no evil from the perfection of his Nature , and for the same reason all good must needs be in the power of his hand , the greatest good that can be done to fallen Man , is thus to restore him . In this new Nature are wrapped up the seeds of all Grace , which by the efficacy of the Spirit , are drawn out into act , with the free consent of Mans Will : Should God determine the Will of Man to a good act whilst it is in a bad state and under a corrupt nature , this would imply force and violence , but to lead out a man according to his new Nature , is not to put a force upon him . If Sin had that efficacy upon Man in his perfect state , to encline his Will to Evil , why should not Grace have the like efficacy upon Man fallen to encline his Will to good . Though an inclination to Evil in Man standing was possible from the liberty of his Will in which he was created , yet such an actual inclination was inconsistent with his perfect state , and left such an inherent crookedness in his perverted Nature that nothing but Grace can rectifie and make streight again . What is a principle of Grace , but liberty to Good restored to fallen man , from whence an actual inclination to choose what is good do's follow of course , when God calls and excites him thereunto , here is no force put upon mans Will , it acts freely in the choice of good , and it cannot be otherwise , since Grace enters as a new Nature , ingenerating a powerful Principle of Holiness in the Soul , that do's incline a man freely to comply which the efficacious grace of God exciting him to those acts of Holiness so agreeable to the Nature of the new Creature , as Sin reigns unto Death , so Grace will reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life , Rom. 5. 21. Shall not he that raises the dead be able to quicken a dead Soul , but we are more sensible of that power that God puts forth upon the bodies of Men , then of that which he puts forth upon their Souls , that you may know that the Son of man hath power to forgive sins , Take up thy bed and walk , Mat. 9. 6. This you all see , but the actings of my saving power upon the souls of men , that power that works within , ( Eph. 3. 20. ) you see not ; let this that you see convince you of that which you see not , and never dispute my power more to forgive sin , I can heal the diseases of the Soul as well as those of the Body , the power that God has to forgive sin is the great prerogative of God , belonging to the soveraignty of his grace . God walks invisibly thorow the World , doing his mighty works of Grace , he touches some mens hearts , not others ; he draws some and not others , by the sweet yet irresistable force of his Grace ; we see nothing but man , mans Will , mans Choice , mans Act , and therefore conclude all is by mans own power , because we see not the wheel within the wheel , the Spirit of God setting the whole soul in motion towards Christ : This arcanum Iehovae , this secret of the Lord is with them that fear him , Psal. 25. 14. The way of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men is discerned by few , 't is a very hard matter to understand how God works in us to will and to do , because we find it to be our own act to believe , repent and turn to God , we ascribe all to our selves as if our own arm had saved us : The truth is , God in all the efficacious operations of his grace upon the hearts of men , loves to conceal himself , he will not be seen by others to do what he do's in and for his Saints , no noise in the streets , Matth. 12. 19. The kingdom of God comes not with observation , Luke 17. 20 , 21. All is done within secretly and silently , non are privy to this heart-work , but they that feel it , this is the hiding of his power from the observation of those whom he never intends to work upon , and for the hardening of their hearts , that they may still retain an opinion of their own ability to do that which they see others so freely and willingly addicting themselves unto : Though this be a cause of stumbling to many , who boast of a supposed power and freedom of will to believe and repent when they please , yet such in whose hearts God has wrought these mighty works of his grace , they see and feel the weight of his Arm revealed upon their souls , they know it is Gods doing , that a divine power has touched their hearts , and carried them out to all these acts of Faith that they put forth , they openly acknowledge this , 1 Cor. 15. 10. Phil. 4. 13. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Gal. 2. 20. Not I but Christ. When they feel themselves most strengthned by Christ , they are then most sensible of their own self-insufficiency and weakness , I can do all things through Christ , yet not sufficient of our selves to think a good thought ; when I am weak , then am I strong , 2 Cor. 12. 10. They would not say so , if they did not find a power more then humane exerting it self within them , and strengthning them with might in their inward man , I live , yet not I , but Christ lives in me , till we can thus distinguish between Nature and Grace , and see God influencing our Wills in all their free motions to that which is good , we shall vainly assume to our selves a power that never yet reduced it self to the least real act of Faith in any man whatever : 't is easie talking of a power to believe , before we come to believe in good earnest , then our strength fails us if God do not support us , and help our unbelief ; I believe , help my unbelief , q. d. I can't hold it , my faith will fail , if God do not put his Everlasting Arms underneath , if we consider what difficulties , what strong Objections unanswerable by Reason , Faith Acts against in keeping up a lively hope of Pardon in the Conscience of a convinced sinner , we must needs say , 't is the work of God that we believe ; we may wonder at our selves as men , when we consider what we believe as Christians . I have spoken all this to shew that God is the Author and Finisher of our Faith , 't is he only can open the heart , and dispose it , to give Credit to the Word of his Grace . Application . By way of Discovery , viz. How we may know when Faith comes by Hearing , even at the time of Hearing , and whether it be yet come into your hearts , by all you have heard hitherto . Faith is a secret and a sudden work , when it comes it gives some sense of it self to an observing Christian , that quickly convinces us of a change in our selves , a heart truly turned to God , is not the same it was before , not in the same posture , not in the same disposition and frame , there is something new appears in every new Creature , that do's not belong to the Old Man but rises up in opposition to him : this newness do's not lye in some one corner of the heart , but every where , 't is universal in every faculty ; all things are become new , though the old leaven be not totally cast out any where , but left as an occasional provocation and challenge to the Grace of God to act in more opposition to those motions of sin , that put a force upon the New Creature , are directly contrary to the bent and genius of our renewed Nature ; till Faith comes we are never sensible of any such inward Conflicts between the flesh and the Spirit ; but then the fight begins , the good fight of Faith : 'T is Faith strikes the first stroke , makes the first assault upon our reigning sin and corruptions , and will never cease contending with them , till it has got a full Victory over them , and throughly mortified them . But how shall we know in the very time of hearing , when Faith comes . When the word Works effectually after hearing , it usually gives some powerful touch upon the heart at the time of hearing ; so 1 Cor. 14. 24 , 25. he speaks there of the occasional Conversion of an Unbeliever , who came into the Assembly , where there was Prophesying and Preaching , 't is probable some such are come in hither to day ; Oh that God would meet with them , that they might be convinced and fall down upon their Faces , worshipping God , acknowledging that he is among us of a truth ; so Acts 2. 37. their Hearts were prick'd , they cry out in the midst of the Sermon , Men and Brethren what shall we do ? We want such publick Conversions , had we more of these New Births in our Congregations ; we should have more of these out-cries ; which would be very awakening to us all , if God would honour his Ordinances with such visible signs of his presence , as in the Primitive Times the Word was preached with that power , that it wrought a great consternation and astonishment in the whole Assembly , there was a great impression upon their minds , which had various effects ; some blasphemed , and some believed , but all were moved and stirred , struck inwardly , though many saw not the hand that struck them ; 't is otherwise now ; hearers are more unconcern'd , in a more drowsie frame ; we can hardly keep them waking all Sermon time ; they say these were extraordinary cases , not applicable to us now : I must tell you , Conversions wrought by ordinary means now , are extraordinary things , have extraordinary effects ; the Light into which we are brought , is , and ought to be , as marvellous in our Eyes now , as 't was in theirs heretofore ; they who find nothing of this , neither in nor after Conversion , would do well to make a stricter inquiry into their state ; sometimes we bring down Grace as low as we can for the sake of weak ones , but we must not make nothing of it , to please some who would rest in a silent easie Conversion , and think to go Heaven by the charitable Opinion others have of them ; that so great a change as Conversion is , should make so little appearance as it doe's in many pretending to it , is that we should not easily digest , Let every one examine himself . Should God come upon any of you with a through Conviction of Sin , and give you a real sight of Christ as your only Saviour , you would not be able to contain your selves under this marvellous Light ; 't will be like Fire in your Bones , Ier. 20. 9. you 'l immediately spring up as the Goaler did , Acts 16. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he did not consider which soot he should put foremost , but leaped up on a suddain , broke out into a passionate inquiry after the way of Salvation . Faith especially at its first entrance , when it first comes into our Hearts , is alwaies accompanied with a through Conviction of our lost undone Estate : I don't speak now of those legal Convictions that in some may be preparatory to Conversion , but of that saving Evangelical Conviction that is of the Essence of saving Faith , alwayes accompanying it , it is the reason of Faiths earnestness in its first actings upon Christ , Master save us , we perish . In the Acts we have several instances of Faith wrought in the time of hearing , Acts 10. 44. While Peter yet spake , the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word : So Acts 14. 1. Acts 18. 8. Acts 28. 24. Paul perceived Faith in the Cripple by his attentive hearing , Acts 14. 9. When Faith does not make this publick entrance into the Hearts of those who hear the word ; as it did in the Primitive times , in the view and face of the whole Congregation , and 't is much to be lamented that it does not : I fear it portends more than I am willing to tell you ; yet I hope Faith may and does come in a more silent manner into your Hearts at the time of hearing ; this you may know by a sudden astonishment , and trembling that sezes upon the Soul , Luke 4. 33. Acts 13. 12. Acts 9. 6. When a discovery of the Evil of Sin , and of the Grace of Christ do meet together in one saving Conviction in the Conscience of an awakened Sinner , we must needs be variously affected with horrour and hope ; Grace clothes it self with contrary passions at the same time , as it looks at Sin , and at Christ , loathing the one , and embracing the other ; this may be perceived at the first opening of the Heart to believe the Gospel , a present act of Faith is and will be the present sense of the Soul in and about what it believes ; there is no putting the word from us , when once we believe it in our Hearts : Men may talk of Gospel-Truths under a formal profession of Faith , and not be affected with them , but the Word works effectually in them that believe . Faith touches the Soul in the most sensible part of it , gathers up the Mind and Thoughts of a Man into a close and serious debate with himself , about those things which he believes in reference to himself ; his Heart waxes hot within him ; this is the Power and Dominion that Faith has over us , being the highest principle in Man ; it overcomes all contradictions from the Flesh , answers all Carnal Objections , throughly perswades a Man , firmly establishes the Heart in the belief of the present Truth , so that we become unmovable from the hope of the Gospel . These are the inward Commotions that Faith makes in the Soul at its first entrance , you cannot so slight the impressions of Faith , as not to be greatly concerned about them ; 't is not come to real believing till it comes to this ; you are and must be serious in and about that which with your hearts you believe concerning your Eternal State. Whether you now are , or ever have been in such a frame , God and your own Consciences know best ; they are not trifles that you believe , but matters of that moment that you cannot but be concerned in them , and there is nothing required to fire your Hearts with a zealous solitude and thoughtfulness about them , but only your believing them ; you can no more step over such an act of Faith , than you can cease to think while you are actually thinking , or cease to move while actually moving : An act of believing is the Soul in actual motion towards Christ , flying for refuge to the hope that is set before him . This is the way of the Spirit in working Faith at the time of hearing ; and if you observe such a one whose heart the Word has reached ; he goes home musing upon what he has heard : Suppose one standing in the Spirit of Isaiah at the Meeting-door , as you go forth crying out , Who hath believed our report , to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed this day ; how experimentally would such a one say , I have believed , to me hath the Arm of the Lord been revealed ; follow him further into his House , into his Chamber or Closet ; behold he prayes , as the Word brings down the sense of God into the Soul ; so Prayer carries up the sence of the Soul , concerning that word , to God above : Prayer , especially just after Conversion , is but a Holy enlargement of the Heart about those things that God first speaks to us by his Word . I will say 't is my people , they shall say , the Lord is my God. In hearing expect no other reason for Faith , but the bare testimony of the Word of God , search the Scriptures whether things are so or no , as Ministers declare , if you find them so , charge them upon your Consciences as most worthy of all acceptation and belief : Religion now a dayes is branched out into so many speculations and subtle questions wrapped up in such terms of art , under such nice distinctions , that the power and simplicity of the Gospel is almost lost , ordinary Professors know not what to believe while the Pulpit gives such an uncertain sound . There is not so much Rational Knowledge required to the obedience of Faith as some imagine , leave others to dispute , to produce their Reasons pro and con , do you quote Scripture and believe , begging of God to direct your faith into right apprehensions of his revealed Will , hold fast there and you are safe , the greatest Scholars in the World must come down to the plain mans Faith , if ever they die in peace , in all Gospel Truths , their consonancy , not to our Reason , but to the Scriptures is to be regarded . Mans leaning rather to their own understanding of the thing , than to their faith in the Word , about that thing , hath led them into Error , into false notions of Divine Mysteries . I grant from your faith in one Truth you may fetch Reasons for some other Truth depending upon it , these are Gospel Reasons not your own ; we don't believe because we know , but we know because we believe ; this is a new way of knowing things , which the world is not acquainted with , because it cannot receive the spirit of Truth , the spirit of Truth is a spirit of Faith ; hearing the Word is of singular use to Believers themselves , 1 Ioh. 5. 13. to confirm and strengthen your Faith , that you may be built up further in it , furnished with further matter to act it upon . Let none be discouraged though never so ignorant and unlearned , of a low , mean , capacity , yet come to hear with an expectation of Gods working faith in thee , faith will overcome all these difficulties , as weak and simple and ignorant as any may be supposed to be , yet be not discouraged , you may be made to believe more in one moment , than the greatest Scholars in the World can attain to the knowledge of in many years study . It is written in the prophets ( Joh. 6. 45. ) and they shall be all taught of God , every man therefore that hath heard , and hath learned of the father cometh unto me ; Not that any man hath seen the Father . 'T is not what men you hear , what Ministers you follow , till God the Father do's speak powerfully to your hearts by the Ministry of man. It matters not who the man is , your faith consists not in the Wisdom of man , but in the power of God , when you have a proof of Christs speaking in any , 2 Cor. 13. 3. then hearken diligently , till you hear an inward Word from this invisible Teacher , you 'l never come to Christ. If all the Ministers in the World should lay their heads together , they could never bring a sinner to Christ , till the Father speaks the word and draw him . We are but Ministers by whom you believe , as the Lord gives to every man ; So then , neither is he that planteth any thing , nor he that watereth , but God that giveth the increase , 1 Cor. 3. 5 , 6 , 7. The sum of all is this , We are sent to Preach , that you may Hear ; we carry the Letter of the Word to your Ears , the Spirit brings it home in the name of God to your Consciences , convincing you that it is his Word , under this Conviction you see the truth of the Word , in the veracity of God , this word of Truth and your Souls meeting so close , as they alwayes do in an act of Faith , sanctifies you ; this sanctification lies in the ready assent of your understanding , and free consent of your Will , the one is founded in light , the other in love , so that when an enlightned Understanding receives the Truth in the love of the Truth , there is a firm Principle of Holiness fixed in that Soul , flowing from that Union to Christ that Faith gives us , this is the beginning and progress of that Faith , the end of which is the Salvation of your Souls . The Second Point . How we are Iustified by Faith. WE ought to be Doers of the Word and not Hearers only , to maintain good Works for necessary uses , Tit. 3. 14. It behoveth us therefore to know what use we should make of our works and doings in the great business of our Salvation , so as not to entrench upon the Righteousness of Christ , nor to degrade that from being our sole and only justifying Righteousness . Some men are as much mistaken in grounding their salvation upon doing , as others are in grounding it upon bare hearing ; and therefore these things must be warily spoken unto , and warily understood . When we urge the necessity of doing the Word of God , Carnal Reason lies at the catch , and is ready to take every thing in a wrong sense and meaning , and to bring down the Mysteries of the Gospel to a low loyal vulgar Notion more suitable to humane Reason . There are two extreams that men are apt to run into ; either they neglect good works , or else , they trust in good works ; either they do in a careless formal presumptuous manner , pretend to cast all upon Christ , without any serious inquiries after the Truth of Grace in themselves , or ever proving it by its fruits ; conceiving it altogether needless to be any way active in their own salvation . Secondly , If upon search they find any actings of Grace in their Hearts , any fruits of Grace in their Lives , these are their own proper goods they think , Money found in their own Purses ; it matters not how they came by it , they have it , and they are resolved to convert it to their own proper use , making it nothing less than a part of their Justifying Righteousness . Those of this way , with whom I have now to do , do state the matter thus . They say , that Christ is the meritorious cause of our Justification , having by his Death satisfied the Law , and discharged us from the Curse of it ; and so far we agree with them . They say further , That Christ to compleat our Justification , hath also purchased for us strength and ability to perform the condition of the new Covenant ( this we assent to ) the performance of which according to them , is to be taken in as a part of our Justifying Righteousness , and this we deny . We say the performance of what is required in the New Covenant , is a good Justification of the Cause , whether it be of Faith or of Good Works , or of any particular thing or action , the sincerity and truth of which may be in question . But we deny that it adds any thing to the Justification of the person , and therefore they speak not ad idem , to the same thing , when they deny Christs imputed Righteousness to be the sole Righteousness that justifies the Person , because there is another Righteousness required , upon another account to justifie or clear up the sincerity of our Faith and Holiness ; I say to clear up this to our selves and other men , which we deny not . For we do not admit any Faith to be a justifying Faith , but upon good evidence of the Truth of it , neither do we admit any works to be good works but upon full proof of the goodness of them . The Sum of all is this ; we say , Faith and obedience once proved to be true and genuine , are good evidences of our interest in Christ , whose imputed Righteousness is the sole and only Righteousness by which our Persons are universally justified from all charges and blame whatsoever in the sight of God , and to say otherwise is in effect to say that Christ died to justifie us , that we might be justified without him ; or at least not only and solely by him ; which is highly derogatory to the death of Christ , neither will their owning Christ to be the meritorious cause of our Justification salve the matter while they do in any sense require another Righteousness distinct from that of Christs , for the justification of our Persons in the sight of God. And having given you this brief account of the matter in difference , I shall now proceed . The Point in General which I am to speak to is this . That though good works are highly necessary in a justified person , yet they not required in any way of causality to the Justification of the Person . Or thus , no part of our inherent Righteousness can be any part of our justifying Righteousness . This I might prove to you many ways . First , From the subject of Justification , an ungodly Person ; a believing Sinner flying in the sense of Sin unto Jesus Christ for Life and Pardon . Sin is that from which we are Justified , the Righteousness of Christ is that for which or by which we are Justified , Act. 13. 39. Secondly , Because there must be a change of state in Justification , and by Justification , before we can derive any saving Grace from Christ to enable us to the least good work . I might also Thirdly , Argue from the weakness and imperfection of all Inherent Holiness which is not able to justifie it self , much less the Person . And many Arguments may be brought ; but my design is to contract this general to a particular point , concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere , or the act of believing ; and I shall shew that that part of our inherent Righteousness that flows from our doing the Word of God , that is , the Work of Faith as done by us in an act of believing , is no part of our justifying Righteousness . This is that which seems to have the fairest claim to , and interest in , our Justification ; and if this be disproved , the Argument will hold a fortiori against all the inferiour branches of our inherent Righteousness ; they must be forced to quit their claim also . That which seems to intitle Faith to such an Interest in our Justification as is pleaded for by some , is the phrase and manner of expression which the Scripture uses in speaking of Faith , telling us that Faith is imputed to us for Righteousness , that we are justified by Faith ; that he that believes shall be saved , and the like . The question is , in what sense these Scriptures are to be understood ; whither we are to take up our standing partly in the act of Faith , and partly in the object of Faith , making up a Righteousness , partly from our selves , and partly from Christ , or whether we are by Faith to go out of our selves unto Christ for our whole , sole and only justifying Righteousness ; and this is that which I affirm , and shall endeavour to make good , and shew you that the Scriptures alledged do not ascribe our Justification to the Act , but wholly to the Object of Faith ; not to our believing , but to Christ believed on , which I prove thus : First , From those Expressions of Scripture peculiar to Holy Writ , by which the Holy Ghost doth of set purpose limit Faith to its Object , Iohn 6. 47. Rom. 9. 33. Ephes. 1. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to believe in , into , or upon Christ , which plainly points out this , that Faith is alwayes to be taken in relation to its Object ; that by Faith is meant Christ apprehended by Faith. Life is promised , not simply to believing , but to believing in ; in whom ? in Christ , or nothing . Faith is a relative term ( as to its whole sense and signification ) to the Object Christ. It must be Faith in Christ , or Faith in nothing . Believing is a Scripture Phrase , setting forth our leaning upon Christ. Faith , as our Act adds nothing to Christ , doth not make his Death satisfactory ; it was so in its self before , though by an applicatory act of Faith it is made so to us ; that is , we do reap the benefits of his Death and satisfaction ; we are not united to Faith , but by Faith we are united to Christ. Faith is the Medium uniens ; we do not trust in our Faith , but by Faith we trust in Christ ; all that Faith signifies is in relation to Christ ; all that it doth , is in the Name of Christ ; without Christ it signifies nothing , it doth nothing , it is nothing . When we are said to be justified by the Faith of Christ , or justified by Faith in Christ , Gal 2. 16. pray must the meaning be , that we are justified by Faith , and Christ , as some would have it , giving the priority to Faith , and making Christ but a remote cause of our Justification , and our inherent Righteousness to be the next and immediate cause ? Were Men more willing to exalt Christ , and debase themselves , this would be English plain enough : Faith in Christ would then signifie but one Righteousness ; it would not be Faith and Christ. Let Men have a care how they speak unadvisedly of Christ to the lessening and diminution of his Honour : God hath said he is our Righteousness without any Limitation , without any restriction : Now for Men to say , ay but not all our Righteousness , not our only Righteousness ; I say , 't is a bold word thus to distinguish whatever remote inferences they may gather out of Scripture to justifie their meaning ; yet since God hath not thought fit to drop any such diminutive expression of Christ in Scripture , I say it is a bold word for Men to speak . You may see how severely speaking against God was punished , Numb . 21. 5 , 6. And God complains of it , Ezek. 35. 13. With your mouths ye have boasted against me , and have multiplyed your words against me : I have heard them . We may safely deny any thing of God that implies weakness or imperfection ; but to deny that of Christ which tends to the Exaltation of his Name and riches of his Grace ; let Men distinguish how they will , it is dangerous meddling here : This is a tender point ; that is the first . Secondly , If the bare act of Faith without any relation to the object , justifies ; then any act of Divine Faith will justifie us as well as Faith in Christ ; for the Act is specified by the Object : Take away the Object , and all Acts of Faith are alike , equally insignificant . But I proceed . Thirdly , To the third Argument that shall be drawn from the Nature of Faith , which consists in receiving . As it is the Act of a Believer , it implies doing ; but properly as an Act of believing ; it consists in receiving , and that with an empty hand : Now the question is whether by this receiving Act of Faith there do redound to us a Righteousness of our own , distinct from that which we receive from Christ ? I say no : We are not justified by a Righteousness that we do , but by a Righteousness that we receive : Now the bare Act of receiving in a common Natural way , is not counted morally meritorious : A Beggars receiving an Alms , argues no merit in the Receiver , but meer Grace in the Donor . We count that he who only receives a benefit , he doth nothing for it , it comes freely : Indeed he doth something naturally in receiving , but nothing morally by way of merit for the thing received . Thus it is among Men , and so we understand it , in all such actings of ours ; but when we come to deal with God , how do our proud hearts put a value upon them ; then we put a value upon every thing , upon our coming , upon our adhering , upon our relying , upon our asking , upon our receiving ; We grow proud of those very Acts of Grace by which we do express our Poverty and Beggary , our absolute Dependance upon another ; as if Christ was beholden to us for our accepting of him : So naturally prone are we to rest upon any thing that looks like our own doing . Brethren ! There are two things to be considered in Faith. ( 1. ) The Motion of the Soul in receiving , which is an Act naturally necessary to all manner of receiving ; it is as reaching forth , and opening the hand . ( 2. ) You may consider the passive reception it self , wherein the Nature of Faith doth chiefly consist , in admitting , applying , and owning the Gift . Though the word Believing doth Grammatically imply an Action , yet really and physically we are passive in believing : For these Reasons . First , The first Reason is this ; They who make our Act of believing a part of our Justifying Righteousness , do manifestly make Faith to contradict it self in and by its own Act : If by an Act of believing we go out of our selves to Christ for all : I do not see how by the same Act we can possibly settle upon any thing in our selves that is not Christ : If by being justified by faith they understand the Object of faith , then we agree with them ; then faith and Christ is all one : By faith we mean Christ applyed , and nothing but Christ. But if they understand the bare Act of believing in distinction from Christ the Object ; therein we differ from them . And they must so understand it who make our Act of believing a part of our justifying Righteousness distinct from Christs Righteousness ; and therein I say , they make faith to contradict it self in and by its own Act : I do not know whether I am understood ; I think I understand my self in what I have said : Take it thus , Pray consider what is the sense of a believing Soul under a present Act of faith in Christ ? I appeal to you all , I desire you would all be Judges in this matter who have ever been serious , and in good earnest , dealing with God by an act of faith for Salvation . You believe in Christ , what is the English of that ? What do you mean by it ? Is not this your sense ; you desire to cast your self wholly upon Christ , to be found in Christ not having on your own Righteousness ; to be built upon that Foundation , to lay hold on Eternal Life in Christ ; to go out of your selves unto Christ for Righteousness and Life ; to seek that in another which you have not in your selves ; to count all things but loss and dung that you may win Christ ; don't you mean this ? Pray what an absurdity then is it , what a gross contradiction to say I am justified by something in my self , by virtue of that very act of faith , by which I do purposely go out of my self to Christ for all . If this be Reason and Sense , I have quite lost the use of both , and will never pretend to understand any thing . But how do some Men fight with their own shadows and lose themselves in their own expressions . They cannot speak of Christ , and of the way and manner of applying Christ , but presently they must be Co-workers with Christ in their Justification . Brethren ! We must not be perswaded out of our Christian Names , nay out of Christianity it self by those who would impose their own notions upon us , and indeed preach another Gospel ; let them read on and tremble . But I will say this , that if Paul were alive , and should hear any man upon Earth , or Angel from Heaven compound Faith and Works , Works and Christ in the matter of our Justification , I doubt not but he would curse them in the name of the Lord. Certainly we are not to be Mealy-mouthed , and silently suffer the grand principles of the Gospel to be decryed , as if we doubted whether they were true or no. These are the Pillars of the House , all fall with them , if they be taken away . These are the Ancient Land marks and bounds of our Religion ; they must not be removed , for if you suffer that , you will quickly have a dead Child in the room of the living . New Notions , though not contrary to any received foundation , should be warily uttered ; but supposing there is the least discrepancy or opposition , it is our duty and wisdom to be silent , and not break the eye of the Needle , by forcing our Camel through . New Notions must yield rather to antient received Truths , they must be governed and over-ruled by them . It is dangerous to force plain Scripture , and plain principles to make good our own private interpretations . 2. Our act of believing is no part of our justifying Righteousness , because justification is an act of God ; not properly subsequent to our Faith , but simultaneous with it . They are concomitants , so close , so instantaneous , that we cannot say which is first , or last in time ; we cannot say the one takes its rise from the other . I explain my self thus ; it is one thing for the Scripture to speak Doctrinally of Faith , another thing to speak of a Believer under the actual exercise of Faith. When the Scripture speaks of the Doctrine of Faith in the Abstract , it tells us the consequents of it , that according to Gods order and appointment , Faith is requisite unto Justification , and so Faith is antecedent to Justification , and Justification is spoken of as a thing to come , upon our believing . The Doctrine of Faith shews what shall be to all who obtain it ; the actual exercise of Faith shews , what is to them who have it , and do believe it . It is not only he that believes shall be saved and justified , but is justified . It is true , who ever believes shall be saved ; the just shall live by faith , this is Doctrinally true . But he that believes hath everlasting Life , Iohn 3. 39. is justified ; this is experimentally true . God , if you rightly consider the point , doth justifie us , by working Faith in us . It is his way of Justifying ; it is the way God hath chosen to communicate the Righteousness of God , which is a stupendious Mystery , and cannot be otherwise applied to the soul. He doth not justifie us because of any antecedent act of Faith we have lying by us , and which we could now produce as a price ( as it were ) and Meritorious Means of our Justification . God justifies us by working Faith in us ; God being willing in so great an act of Grace , to speak to our Understandings and Knowledge , he hath appointed Faith as a fit means by which the soul not only doth the thing , but also le ts in a sense of what is done upon the soul ; and therefore saith the Apostle , it is of faith that it might be of grace : God will be understood in all the acts of his Grace towards us . Now that there might be in us a sense of reception of so great a benefit , God resolves to put it into the hand of Faith , which hath a natural sutableness in it , and fitness to receive what free Grace tenders to it ; and so it doth when it is in any strength . Christ and our Souls would never meet were it not for Faith. There is no letting down any thing spiritual and supernatural into the soul , but by Faith ; Faith is our modus habendi , it is the way , the means by which we come to have God and Christ , and an Interest in the things of Heaven . We have what we have from Christ by Faith , and we hold it by Faith. Faith and Repentance as acted by us , and reflected upon , are very good Evidences of our Justifications , for it is in that reflection only that they do give evidence of themselves , and of any thing produced from them . Therefore , I say , as they are reflected upon they have retrospection to our Justification , of which they are very good and evident proofs ; but they have no antecedent causality to produce the thing signified , because they signifie it , as a thing already done , past and perfect . 3. And lastly , Justification is frequently set down in Scripture without any relation to these acts of Grace in us , to shew that it wholly flowes from Christ ; and that by our believing we add nothing to our Justifying Righteousness , but do only apply it , as wholly derived from Christ alone , 1 Ioh. 5. 12. He that hath the Son , hath life ; they that are in Christ there is no Condemnation to them , Rom. 8. 1. Now because we cannot admit sinners to be in Christ but by faith , therefore what flows from Christ , is attributed unto faith ; which is , I say , our modus habendi , but still the real cause of our Justification , that which makes us just in the sight of God , is our being in Christ , and our having the Son. There is no mention made of having any thing else ; but faith is our modus habendi ; we cannot have the Son but by faith , nor be in Christ but by Believing . Therefore God speaks , to our Understanding , and hath attributed that to the act of faith , which is only derivable from the Object . I shall now shew you the weakness of those grounds and reasons they go upon , who differ from us in this point . 1. They speak much of a Charge of Infidelity , Impenitency and Unholiness to be drawn up against us at the last day , and therefore it concerns us to muster up all our good works , all our acts of Grace , and every part of our inherent Righteousness , that we may be in a readiness to answer to this Charge and clear our selves . A specious Argument ! enough to amuse the World , and fright men back into the Popish Doctrine of Justification by Works . Brethren ! I do not deny that unbelieving , impenitent and ungodly Persons shall be charged with infidelity , impenitency and ungodliness , and be condemned ; but to talk of a charge of Infidelity against a Believer at the last day , I say , it is a groundless , unscriptural Notion . I do not deny that the faith of the Saints that draws them to Christ , and its efficacy afterwards in all its fruits , will be taken notice of by Christ , when they are admitted into the Kingdom , Mat. 25. 34. Come ye blessed ; and when that blessedness is fixed , Christ doth not put them upon the proof of their faith , but helps them himself to understand the former actings of their faith and love to God , which they were ignorant of before . When saw we thee an hungred , and fed thee ? or thirsty and gave thee drink ? &c. In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these , ye have done it to me . I see more Grace in you saith Christ , than ever you saw in your selves , so and so appearing in your lives ; Come ye blessed . Brethren , Good Works are good Evidences to us , to make out the Truth of Grace in us ; but the All-knowing God needs no such Evidences for his Information ; he knows what is in man , and needs not that any should tell him . He searches the Heart . Though we see Grace only in the Fruit , yet God sees it in the Root and Principle . Besides , I conceive , the last Judgment is not to prove who is , and who is not in a state of Grace ; but rather to pronounce the Sentence according to the state that every one shall appear in at the Resurrection . There will be no doubting of any mans state at the Resurrection ; the method and manner of the Resurrection will decide it . Christ himself will separate the Sheep from the Goats ; and he will do this before the Judgement , Mat. 25. 32 , 33. You shall know a Believer then by his Station at the right hand of Christ ; by his Company among the Sheep . The Angels are sent forth , Mat. 24. 31. to gather up the Elect from the four Winds , from the one end of Heaven to the other . They will ransack every corner of the World to find out every Saint ; not only the Ninety and Nine , but the whole Hundred shall be presented to God ; not one missing , we shall all stand together . Now after they are thus ranked by Christ , and the Angels have declared them to be Sheep , to be true Believers , must they come under a charge of infidelity ? Who must draw up this charge , and manage this false Indictment ? Either God , or good Angels , or Conscience , or the Devil . God he hath justified them here , sealed them by the Spirit of Adoption to the day of Redemption , and he will never reverse his judgment . The judgment of God at the last day will be pursuant to the judgment already past by his Word and Spirit in the Hearts and Consciences of Believers here . Good Angels are imployed to gather up the Elect , and consequently they have a true discerning who they are . Our Consciences are sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus , and have an answer in readiness , by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead . And the Devil will have something else to do in that day , when he stands at the head of the wicked to receive his sentence with them , the time of his torment being then come . Though he be now the accuser of the brethren day and night before God , he must then Eternally be cast down . True , he is now our accuser , and we must labour to overcome him by the Blood of the Lamb , as Rev. 12. 10 , 11. that is , by Arguments drawn from the Blood of Jesus ; yet I say fear him not after death . The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death , saith the Apostle ; and must we have an after rancounter with the Devil ? Must we be set upon a fresh by him ? No , no , after death he hath done with you for ever ; he will not dare to look you in the face at the last day : He draw up a charge against you ? You shall accuse , judge and condemn him , and all the Devils in Hell , 1 Cor. 6. 3. Never fear , you that dye in the Lord , shall rise up under those denyable evidences of a state of Grace , that neither the Devils nor wicked Men shall dare to gain-say . What , must poor Christians who have lived under doubts , fears , under buffetings and temptations , under accusations and challenges from the Devil and their own Consciences , must they rise so ? Is this to be raised in power , with our Spirits made perfect ? Surely Paul was out in his triumph , Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect ? Do you make good your Title to Christ now , and never fear any charges afterwards at that day ; it will be a joyful day to Believers . Look up , saith Christ , lift up your heads for your Redemption draweth nigh , Luke 21. 28. And therefore comfort one another ; your Witness is in Heaven , and your Record is on high , as Iob speaks , God , Christ , Angels , Conscience , will all be on your side . Aye , but if this feigned process be not observed , some mens notions will fall to the ground . Aye , and let them fall ; no matter how soon ; for they are not grounded upon the Word of God that endureth for ever . Brethren , we must not draw Schemes and Models from our own Brain , and when we have done , impose them upon God , and make his proceedings in every particular exactly to suit the methods of Humane Judicatures : The natural notion of these things is so strong in some mens heads , that it doth carry them out beyond the line of the Gospel . Good works certainly do best furthest off from the judgment seat of God. They are good and comfortable evidences here , but they will make but a sorry Righteousness there for us to plead . Though God may and will take notice of all the fruits of his Grace appearing in our words or works , when he passeth the solemn declaratory Sentence at the last day , which is but a fuller manifestation of our justification . God will personally and publickly own that which he hath secretly in our Consciences , done by his Word and Spirit in us . God doth now act mediately by his word , then he will act immediately by himself ; we shall hear the sentence of our Justification from his own mouth , which now we hear only from the mouths of his Ministers that speak to us in his name . Secondly , The second ground they go upon is this , they say , that it is a conditional service imposed upon us by God in the new Covenant ; and therefore the performance of it must needs be part of our Justifying Righteousness ; which is very specious , and very suitable to Humane Reason , as most things are that contradict the Mysteries of the Gospel , but it is of like sound and significancy with the other . Alas ! At how little a hole will self-Righteousness creep in ? How apt are we in the pride of our hearts to distinguish our self-Righteousness into our Justification , that we may have somewhat whereof to glory . To prevent mistakes I will premise one thing ; that is this , I do not deny , but that to believe in God , in Christ , is an eminent piece of service , a great act of Divine Worship , the greatest act of Worship we can perform to God on this side Heaven . But I deny that it is a service done in order to the procuring or purchasing those benefits which we receive from Christ as his free gift . Faith receives what Christ hath already procured . Faith doth not come to Christ to desire him to dye for us ; but having dyed for us , it comes for the fruit of his death : It comes on no other Errand but to receive what is already prepared . Faith hath no causality or efficiency at all in contriving , compassing , constituting the great act of Grace , wherein the pardon of our sin and our justification is held forth unto us . Our Faith did not move God to promise pardon , but finding all this Grace in Jesus , Faith applyes it , lays hold on it , and God gives us leave , nay commands us to do this . So that Faith is a service we owe to God by way of duty in complyance with his free Grace towards us , but it is not a service done by us in way of procuring that which is freely given . No , no , we owe that to Christ and not to Faith. Brethren ! In common acceptation , when we say come to me , and I will do this and that for you ; pray who is the doer , he that comes to have the thing done , or he that doth it . Certainly if coming be a service in this case , it is a service done to a Mans self , and can never be urged as a service done to God. But they further say , that this is a conditional service : Why ? Because God hath commanded us to believe that we may be justified . Commanded us to believe and pray , what is that ? I told you before the meaning of an act of Faith , even to renounce our own Righteousness , to come in our nakedness and poverty to Christ , without Money or without Moneys worth , that we may be enriched by him in all things . Is not this the old , honest , plain down-right notion of believing ? And is this the Conditional service required ? Why don't you do it then ? Who is against it ? Only let them attend to the sense of Faith , and not be carried away with the meer word and talk of Faith , as their own act , never regarding the inward sense and signification of the thing it self . Hath God required us to believe in Jesus ; let us know what that means and do it ; no body is against it . If that be the Conditional service , let them lye low before God , and seem more vile in their own eyes , and cast themselves upon Christ for all . Let them learn to come without Money . This is the proper Obedience of Faith ; that Obedience which the Doctrine of the Gospel doth require ; and since you will call this a condition , I say , why don't you perform it ? Is this the performance of such a condition of believing , according to the sense and meaning of believing , to tell the World that Christ is not our only Justifying Righteousness , that we must seek for something in our selves to joyn with him , if ever we will be saved ? Is this the condition ? Doth God mean this , when he bids me believe in Jesus ? Sirs ! Let us not read our Bibles backwards ; wresting Scripture to our own destruction : It is strange to me , that Faith which is all along in Scripture opposed to Works in our Justification , and is appointed by God to shut all good works out of Justification , should be thus made an inlet to bring all good works into Justification . Oh! That we were more under the powerful actings of true Justifying Faith , it would then open it self more fully to us , and shew us its meaning . I wish we could a little better understand the actings of our Faith , understand the reason , the sense of it , the importance , the intent of an act of Faith , what a thing Faith is . Thirdly , They suppose a double Justification , and a double Justifying Righteousness ; the first to justifie us from the accusations of the Law , the other to justifie the sincerity of our Faith and Holiness ; and here comes in all our inherent Righteousness . This is specious too : But I would not have men coyn new heads of Divinity to make good their own notions . We know but of one Justification , I say , the second Justification , which they talk of , it is implyed in the first ; and therefore needless and unscriptural : For since the Revelation of the Gospel , infidelity and unbelief is a sin against the Moral Law ; and Faith in Christ is injoyned as a duty by the Moral Law ; by which we take God to be our God , and consequently do bind our selves over to believe whatsoever he had , or hereafter should reveal to be his Will. This we are bound to by the Moral Law ; therefore if we are ( as they themselves affirm ) freed by Justification from the Law of Works upon the condition of Faith , then we are on our first Justification absolutely freed from infidelity , and our Faith is sufficiently approved to be true , and what then need a second Justification , unless we will suppose an error in the first Judgment ; which is impious to suppose ; as if God should acquit us from the accusation of the Law of Works upon the condition of Faith ; which upon after examination , Christ discovers to be false and unsound . So that these things do not hang together . Fourthly , They say that Faith and Holiness are conditions and evidences of our title to Christ , and all that comes by him ; and therefore part of our Justifying Righteousness . It is hard to understand the strength of some mens reasoning ; but grant all this , it amounts to no more but Christ , and a title to Christ , so far we are agreed , for we desire no more . But how they will make Faith which is our title to Christ , and unto which Christ and all his benefits are by the Gospel granted , promised and made over ; how they will make this title never so well evidenced , to be part of our Justifying . Righteousness , I see not : A title adds nothing to the inheritance , makes it neither more nor less , but conveys it down to us , according to the intrinsick value of the thing , be it more or less . A title to Land is no part of the Land ; only we are invested in it as it is , by vertue of our title . Now therefore if the Righteousness of Christ be not of it self sufficient to justifie us , I see not how a good title mends the matter ; for if the Estate be never so great , and we have no good title to it , it is worth nothing to us ; and if our title be never so good , we can have no more then is , and belongs to the title . So that after all this stir about conditions and evidences of our title to Christ , the result of all is this , we have a title , a good title , are under all the conditions and evidences of a good title ; but to what ? To an Inheritance that is not sufficient to maintain us , to a Righteousness that is not sufficient of it self alone to justifie us ; and where are we now with our conditions and evidences of our title ? For ever destitute of a compleat Justifying Righteousness . Is this to Preach Christ ? To Preach the glad Tidings of the Gospel ? Is this the way to quiet and settle the Consciences of poor distressed sinners ? surely no. Fifthly , They urge the literal sense of some few Scriptures that seem to speak for them ; especially two ; and I do not know of more in the whole Bible , as to the literal signification ; if there were we should hear enough of it . I know they quote many others , which add no weight at all to the Argument they would ground upon them , Therefore I shall not speak to them . Those two are Mat. 12. 37. By thy words thou shalt be justified , and by thy words thou shalt be condemned ; and that in Iames , where it is said , Abraham was justified by works , Iam. 2. 23. For that in Matthew , Calvin charges the Papists with very great weakness in offering to draw an Argument from that Text for Justification by Works . Maldonate a Learned Jesuite on the other hand is very angry with Calvin for supposing any of the Roman Church to be so weak and injudicious , as to argue so from that Scripture ; for , saith he , we very well understand that this Text doth not speak De justificatione , qua justi efficimur , sed de judicis sententia , qua , sumpto ex verbis nostris argumento , justi declaramur . So saith the Jesuite ; we know this Text doth not speak of that which is the cause of our Justification , of the thing for which , and by virtue of which we become just and righteous , only here is the appearance of our Righteousness by our words , and we are declared to be Righteous . So that this doth not touch this cause of Justification ; and yet this is the main Text brought for it , the main proof repeated again and again , to prove inherent righteousness to have an influence into our Justification . I say let them take the answer from the Papists or Protestants , which they please , they are both against them in this thing . As for the other Scripture , They will take it in no other sense but what implyes a contradiction to all other Texts of Scripture in the case . The whole current of Scripture is against Works in Justification , and leads us to a fair construction of that in Iames , that it is to be understood of a justification before men , and not of a justification before God. Protestant Writers have sufficiently cleared up this , to the Conviction of all but such who are resolved not to be Convinced . Certainly they should have a care how they abound too much in their own sense . The Learned Lord Bacon saith , that a little Phylosophy makes men Atheists , but a great deal will convince them of a Deity . Some mens Logick and School Learning overthrows Reason , which duely improved and well managed , would teach them to argue otherwise : Certainly in our reasoning about Divine things we should be careful not to abound too much in our own sense . It is better for us to leave the Mystery of the Gospel in its Mystery where we found it , than to seek to draw it out , and so to explain it , as to force it into the mould of Humane Reason , shaping it on every side to an exact conformity to the thoughts and conceptions of our weak imperfect Understanding ; I say , no Gospel Truth will bear this . After all our Faith and Knowledge and Experience , we know but in part , and there is at the end of every Gospel Truth , a Mystery ; something that is passing our Understanding , that calls for silence , for an holy Admiration , for an humble submission in Faith to the Will of God. Therefore I would not have men speak as if they knew all , and draw particular Schemes , and it must be so , and no otherwise ; and thus and thus you must proceed in this and that way and form , therefore things must be so stated . I have done with the Argumentative part . I will now speak a word or two in a looser way of Discourse . I say then thus , he may be a true Believer who doth not take his faith for any part of his Justifying Righteousness ; I suppose that will be granted : But he cannot be a true Believer who takes not Christ for his Justifying Righteousness . I do not say now for his only Justifying Righteousness , because I would speak in the sense of those I oppose . I say , they cannot be Believers who do not look upon Christ as their Justifying Righteousness ; but they may be true Believers who do not look upon faith as a part of their Justifying Righteousness . For the first , suppose it an Error , it is only about the act in our apprehension which doth not alter the nature of the thing at all . The second is an Error in the act , which quite destroys the very nature of faith . Therefore the safer way is rather to press persons to believe , to see they have faith indeed and in Truth , than urge them to such an unscriptural construction of their faith , putting such a title of Honor upon it to the reproach of Christ and his Righteousness . They honour faith sufficiently who only prefer Christ before it . No doubt God will give faith its due praise and place at the last day ; our not knowing or not understanding the reach and truth of our faith in all circumstances of it , will be no prejudice to faith at the last day . I heartily wish , we were more in the Exercise of Faith than in Controversies about it ; more in the Practise of Good Works than in Dispute about them ; we should then sooner understand both the one and the other . Sirs ! the mysterious , sublime Doctrine of Justification was revealed for our comfort , and proposed to our faith to be believed ; not to our reason to argue upon in a Quodlibetical manner and to toss to and fro for Argument sake . What if we know no more of Justification then is absolutely necessary for our Justification ? This is the case of many plain , sincere hearted Christians ; and if it were so with us all , we may have fewer Notions in our Heads , but possibly more Grace in our Hearts . The Lord grant , that we may know the Doctrine of Justification so as they know it who are saved by Christ. But surgunt indocti & rapiunt Coelum , & nos cum doctrinis nostris sine corde , volutamur in carne & in sanguine . The Learned they dispute and wrangle themselves into Hell ; the unlearned they believe , practice and gain Heaven , taking up the truth in simplicity according to the general scope of the Gospel , as it is held forth to the meanest Capacity . Brethren ! what Paul said to the Jaylor , Acts 16. 31. that I say to you all , Believe on the Lord Iesus Christ , and thou and thy house shall be saved . Don't you go home now , and tell your Families that they must not understand this Text so as to look upon Christ as their only justifying righteousness , but look out for something in themselves if ever they be saved . No , pray speak Scripture Language , expound Scripture by Scripture , and tell them , that Christ is all in all ; tell them plainly that they must not be found in their own righteousness ; they must be found in Christ not having on their own righteousness , that they must count all things but loss and dung that they may win Christ ; that there is no other foundation but Christ , no other name under Heaven by which they can be saved , but the name of Christ ; tell them they must not come for Justification and Life in the name of their Good Works , of any thing that belongs themselves ; but only in the name of Christ , promote this Doctrine in your Families and among your Children and Servants . This is the way to save you and your Household . This is good , wholesome household Divinity , and suited to the ordinary Capacity of all serious Professors . We must not send our Hearers to intricate distinctions , to learn the meaning of the Doctrine of their Justification . The sense of the Gospel is plain enough in this thing , they that run may read it . Come , come , you shall never be charged at the Last Day for giving too much to Christ in the matter of Justification . You are bound to ascribe all to him , and you shall never be charged for giving too much . And certainly if it be possible to err on that hand , I had rather err in giving too much then too little to Christ. Do you think that a true Believer , who doth not look upon the act of Faith or works of Holiness to be any part of his justifying righteousness ; but casts himself upon Christ , do you think , I say , that God will reprove such a person at the last day for ascribing too much to Christ , and not pleading his own righteousness ? Certainly a Believer cannot plead the righteousness of Christ without Faith ; his way of arguing from Christ will sufficiently evince the truth and reality of his Faith ; there needs no other proof and demonstration of it . I should have made some Application . I will tell you what I intended . First , To those who ground their Justification upon the sandy Foundation of their inherent Righteousness ; I would exhort them to pull down the house presently before it fall upon their heads ; and lay a better Foundation , if ever they think to stand before the Son of Man in his Day . Then I should exhort them , and press them to study other Arguments , ( as there are very many ) to promote Good Works and practical Holiness among men ; and not justle out Christ to make room for self Righteousness in the matter of Justification . What , must we work for Life still ? To work for Justification is to work for Life , and why should we thus turn the Gospel into the Law ? I should speak also to those who are built upon the right Foundation , and have cast themselves upon Christs Righteousness for Justification unto Life . Let such be careful to maintain good Works ; let them be Examplary in the practise of them ; and bring forth fruit meet for the Kingdom of God. For as the Foundation may be too weak for the Superstructure , so the Superstructure may be too mean for the Foundation . And therefore down with all this Hay , Wood and Stubble , and labour to walk more sutable to that Holy Faith under the Profession of which you live . Brethren ! The unsutable and uncircumspect lives of Professors , have been the greatest scandal to the Doctrine of Justification by Faith ; it hath opened the Mouths of men against it . Therefore labour to live men into a Conviction of this Truth . Disputes and Words will not do it , till you make it appear , that the Grace of God that hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel , hath taught you to deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts. This is the way to promote the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone . You that are built upon the right Foundation had need be careful and circumspect . The House is not yet finished , we do all of us lie open more or less to Storms and Tempests here below , though they cannot throw down the house , yet they may shake the house ; the rain may beat into the house , may soak through every room of the house , may foul the house ; may greatly incommode us and distress us . Therefore keep your Souls in good repair , keep them as tite as you can against Wind and Weather . And for your Comfort I would have told you that Heaven will mend all the Errors in the Superstructure , if the Foundation be right . God will then take away and separate all those weaknesses and sinful mixtures that now run along with all our Graces ; all Cracks and Flawes , the sinkings , and failings , the bendings and leanings , this way and that way in any part of the building , Heaven will mend all , will set all right and straight ; when we are Sanctified throughout , and the Top-stone is laid . FINIS . A DISCOURSE OF REPENTANCE : SHEWING The Difference between Legal and Evangelical Repentance , AND The Necessary Connection between Evangelical Repentance and Saving Faith. By Thomas Cole Minister of the Gospel . LONDON , Printed for Thomas Cockerill , at the Three Legs over against the Stocks-Market , 1689. A DISCOURSE OF Repentance . MARK 1. 15. Repent ye , and believe the Gospel . THE summe of the Gospel lies in Faith and Repentance , which alwayes go together , and cannot be separated , though they may and ought to be distinguished one from the other : I have chosen this Text to show the necessary connection that is between Faith and Repentance ; that I may be the better understood I shall observe this method . 1. Distinguish between Legal and Evangelical Repentance . 2. Shew the nature of Evangelical Repentance , what it is , and wherein it does consist , how it rises our of faith , what its use and end is . 3. Shew the necessary connection that is between Evangelical Repentance and saving Faith. 4. The real difference that is between them , notwithstanding this necessary connection . 5. Inquire into the true cause and reason why the Professors of this Age , who are so much for Faith , do mind Repentance so little . 6. Apply all . First , Distinguish between Legal and Evangelical Repentance . You see the Repentance and Faith spoken of in the Text , have both of them a reference to the Gospel ; Repent and believe the Gospel . We shall better understand the nature of Evangelical Repentance , by comparing it with Legal Repentance , observing as we go how they differ from each . ( 1. ) Legal Repentance is the work of the Law , i. e. The work of the Spirit by the Law , for the Law works but faintly under the influence of meer Natural Light , unless the Spirit awaken the Conscience , and set home the Law , little will be done , such a work of the Law you have Rom. 2. 15. letting in a Spirit of Bondage upon the Conscience , accusing us for what we have done against the Law , and leaving us so convicted without any plea for our selves . Evangelical Repentance is the work of the Gospel , sweetly melting the Heart by Arguments drawn from the Love of God , and his free Grace in Christ towards Sinners ; it encourages a trembling Soul to plead with God for Mercy as the Publican , Lord be Merciful to me a Sinner . ( 2. ) Legal Repentance is all terrour and no hope , it rises from the revelation of Gods Wrath against Sinners ; 't is a despairing Repentance without any hope of pardon , the Curse of the Law lies hard upon a Man ; he knows not how to get from under it , but lives in a fearful expectation of fiery indignation to devour him , he is a terrour to himself : But Evangelical Repentance leaves not an affrighted sinner altogether without hope , as I shall shew under the next head . ( 3. ) Legal Repentance is from worldly sorrow , not so much for the sin as the penalty incurred thereby , the apprehension of which is very dreadful to a convinced sinner ; he is more affected with the evil of punishment , then with the evil of sin in it self ; 't is not for Gods sake but his own , that he repents of sin ; he could love it well enough if it did not damn him : Though I do not deny , but a Repentance purely legal , may have some sense of the evil of sin as sin , not only as malum prohibitum , but as malum in se , as evil in its own nature ; where common notions of good and evil are not utterly extinguished , it must needs be so , especially under a higher conviction from the Spirit of God , that gives us a farther discerning of the evil of sin , then the meer light of nature under its greatest elevation can possibly do . It was so in Iudas , Matt. 27. 34. he was convinced , not only that he had broken the Law of God , but that he had sinned in so doing . I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood : He knew he had a hand in murdering a Man , a good Man , a great Man , who was more then Man ; no doubt all this came up into his mind , concerning Christ , yet the knowledge of Christ that Iudas had , did not reach so far as to beget the least hope of Mercy from him ; and here lay the legality of his Repentance ; it was a despairing Repentance , he conversed only with the Law , and so sunk under the wrath of God , and the curse of the Law ; he had none to accuse him but his own Conscience , the Rulers and chief Priests were for him , had set him a work and rewarded him ; but seeing him under such horror of Conscience , he had done their business , what care they , see thou to that ; unconvinced sinners do slight the convictions of others , they may go hang themselves for all them , they have no pity for them . I speak this to shew that legal Repentance may take in something of the evil of sin in it self , as well as the destructive nature of it to us ; though these legal convictions of the evil of sin in it self , are far short of those more through convictions that accompany true Evangelical Repentance : Though the sorrow that is in legal Repentance be but worldly ; yet 't is very pungent , it pierces us thorow , and pretends to some Devotion too , as if it were for Gods sake , when self is only at the bottom . Pharaoh confessed his sins , and desired the Prayers of Gods People , Exod. 9. 27 , 28. Saul wept for his sins , 1 Sam. 24. 16. The effects of Gods wrath are very dreadful upon convinced sinners , may draw Tears from their Eyes , when they see what mischief they have brought upon themselves ; they repent , but how ? Not of the sin , but of the punishment : Alas ! What does that signifie , how ineffectual is it ? What have we to do to repent of the punishment ? We can't reverse it ; 't is Gods part to repent of the punishment , to turn from his wrath , to cease from his anger , which he will do , when we repent of the sin that occasioned it . To repent of the punishment , is in effect to be sorry that God is so just , that he so severely animadverts upon sinners ; we wish he would let them go unpunished , that we might more securely go on in our sins ; the only way to escape vengeance , is to acknowledge the sinfulness of sin , and to repent of our great folly in committing it ; such a frame of Spirit bears some proportion to the Holiness of God , argues true Godly sorrow , which worketh Evangelical Repentance unto Salvation . 2 Cor. 7. 10. ( 4. ) Legal Repentance is before Faith , without Faith may never issue in saving Faith , as in Cain , Saul , Iudas , but Evangelical Repentance does alwayes accompany saving Faith ; and of this I am now to speak under the second head ; shewing you Secondly , The nature of Evangelical Repentance ; what it is in its first rise and original ; upon what 't is founded . It came in with the Gospel , the Law never intended any such thing , the sinner was to be cut off by Law , to die without Mercy , in the day thou eatest thou shalt die , says the Law ; unless ye repent , says the Gospel ; here is an exception put in ( in case of repentance ) against the peremptory Sentence of the Law. I say repentance comes in with the Gospel , I will put enmity , &c. Gen. 3. 15. Repentance rises out of this Enmity . This seems to point particularly at the Conversion of Eve , who by Faith in the promised Messiah should turn against the Serpent . I will put enmity between thee and the woman ; this woman , whom thou hast deceived , shall become thy Enemy , and bring forth a seed that shall break thy head , thou shalt bruise his heel , but his Death shall be thy overthrow . Repentance is a Gospel Priviledge purchased by Christ , 't is an act of Grace in God to injoyn us Repentance , as his leaving men in an impenitent hardened frame is an act of his Justice and Wrath. The Law in its Original Constitution , does not intend the amendment of the sinner , but his utter Destruction ; the Law can kill the sinner , but cannot mortifie the sin ; Damnation makes no man better , but concludes him Eternally under sin and wrath ; the Justice of God is not obliged to turn a sinner from his sins , but to turn him into Hell for his sins . That which makes it a just and righteous thing with God to forgive the sins of Believer , is Christs , Merits and his own Promise ; 't is Justice in God to make good his own Promises , Rom. 3. 25 , 26. 2 Thes. 1. 6 , 7. he is a debtor to his own promise , he cannot deny himself , 2 Tim. 2. 13. he owes the performance of his Promise to his Faithfulness and Truth ; 't is an act of Justice to himself to keep his Promise : God offers Mercy to sinners , not because they do repent , but that they may repent : Repentance is not the Cause but the Effect of Pardon , God always intends Pardon to those whom he effectually calls to repentance ; he gave no such call to the Angels that fell ; there was no Gospel preached to them . No fallen Angel was saved , because no Elect Angel fell , but there are many of Gods Elect among the fallen Sons of Adam to whom promises of Salvation were made upon their believing in Christ ; this being published to all in the Gospel , all who hear the Gospel do put in for their share in this Salvation , and that they may render the attainment more easie and feazable to them , they deny absolute Election , bring in Universal Redemption , assert the liberty of Mans Will to believe if he please , and supposing it to be in their own power to believe , they conclude they may be saved as well as others , and this is the ground of all that security that is among common Professors . Having spoken thus much of Evangelical Repentance as it implies a real hatred of sin as sin , and a real turning to God as the chiefest good from an inward change of nature renewed after the Image of God , I shall now shew you , 1. That such a Repentance can never be wrought in any by the Law alone , the Gospel has a principal hand in this . Why not by the Law. Because in the Law there are not sufficient motives and inducements to Repentance , nothing that encourages to it , that renders it available to mans Salvation , the law cannot give life to a sinner upon his repentance ; the Gospel can , but the Law cannot , could a man under the Law , Repent , suppose that ? What would he get by it , he must to Hell after all , the Law as a Covenant of Works does not seek to bring a sinner to Repentance , but to Punishment , the Law cannot give Repentance unto Life , because it cannot give Life upon our Repentance . You 'l say then , is the Law against Repentance ? I don't say so neither ; for take Repentance as 't is a just equitable thing , as a holy disposition of mind ; so the Law is not against it where ever it may be found , as it is not against any other act of Moral Righteousness as such that a man may do , and yet for all this 't will condemn a man for his sin , and all his righteousness shall not be remembred , though the Law be not against Repentance , yet it will not accept of repentance as a satisfaction for past sins , but the Gospel provides full satisfaction for the Law , and promises sufficient and effectual Grace to the sinner to bring him to repentance ; having rescued him from the Curse of the Law , enables him to walk worthy of the blessing of the Gospel , if those who are justified were not sanctified , they would live to the scandal of the Gospel . The Law cannot contradict it self , having already pronounced a peremptory sentence of death upon the sinner , 't is impossible the Law should ever gier repentance unto Life , the Law insists upon the Execution of its own Judgement , and will not be satisfied till that be done , in this the Gospel yields to the Law , to have execution done upon man for sin , and provides a man on purpose , the man Christ Iesus , who bore our sins in his own body upon the cross . 3. This Evangelical Repentance implies real Sanctification , but the Law sanctifies no man , because it can't convey its own Holiness to another , can't alter the Nature of a Man , but only shew him what mischief his sin has done him , shews him his sin in this or that instance , to his great terror , but if he happen to out-live those terrors , and not die in the fit as Iudas , his evil heart will encline him as strongly to sin , as ever it did before his former Convictions , they made him give a present start backwards , but he will quickly recover himself , and return to his wretched course , he cannot cease from sin , though he know it displeases God yet he likes it never the worse for that , might he but escape the punishment , 't is not the wrath of God in it self that he fears , but only as it goes forth in the penal effects of it against himself , else he could suffer God to be angry , and not be troubled at it , whereas this goes most to the heart of a Child of God , that he has incurr'd his displeasure . There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger , Psal. 38. 3. The Law alone never works any real Sanctification in a sinner ; 't is indeed the rule of Judgement , it judges us according to what we are , but cannot make us better . 4. Repentance is a turning unto God , but the Law gives no encouragement to a sinner to turn to God , it holds forth the Wrath of God against him , that makes him run from the presence of an angry God and hide himself as Adam did , how can dry stubble stand before a consuming Fire , but God out of Christ is a consuming Fire to a sinner , he dares not come near him . 5. The law by it self can't work a saving Conviction 't is very Instrumental in conjunction with the Gospel to do this , but of it self it cannot . Saving Conviction is of the essence of Evangelical Repentance . Saving Conviction hath these four properties . 1. It apprehends upon Scripture grounds a possibility of a sinners Salvation , and not only so , but a fair probability of it upon the due use of those means appointed by God in order thereunto , and leads out the sinner to seek relief in Christ , under some hope of obtaining it . 2. It works a hatred of sin as sin , strongly inclines and disposes the heart of a sinner to break off from his sins , and to betake himself to a strict course of Holiness : God offers Grace to sinners , because he intends to give Faith and Repentance to as many as are ordained unto Life , Faith inclines us to beg Repentance , disposes us to it , laies open the foulness of sin so plainly , so convincingly that we cannot but repent of it , under such a saving Conviction as Faith works in us , I call it a saving Conviction , because it puts us upon the diligent use of all means tending to Salvation ; a man is so convinced that he cannot rest till he has found out an effectual remedy to cure so deadly a disease , nothing will satisfie him but Christ , we see not all that is in sin ; till we see an absolute necessity of Christ to save us from it : Here is a deep discovery of sin indeed , when we know nothing but the Blood of Christ can take it away ; Behold the Lamb of God , &c. a Sacrifice of Gods providing , all the Bulls , Goats , Sheep and Lambs of Mans procuring will never expiate sin , nothing that is among men can do it , but God has a Lamb , cherished in his own bosom from Eternity , this Lamb must be slain to take away the sins of the World , 't is very astonishing to think what God parted with from himself to satisfie his own Justice ; his Attributes conspire together to heighten and advance each other ; infinite Grace lays out it self to satisfie infinite Justice , and satisfied Justice gives way to infinite Grace to glorifie it self in mans free Redemption . 3. It convinces us not only of particular sins , but of the general Corruption of our Nature , 't is by a Divine supernatural Light that we discern this , we have a feeling of it in our selves , from an inward Principle of a higher Life raised up in us by the power of God in our Regeneration , which will not suffer us to walk any more after the flesh , we cry and complain of that proneness that is in us to evil ; O wretched man that I am , &c. Rom. 7. No unconverted man is brought in complaining of the Corruption of his Nature , only David , and Paul , and such like , but none else . When we look upon the old man with the eyes of the new , we see that deformity that never appared to us before . 4. It Convinces us not only of the severity of the Law , in punishing , but also of the Holiness of the Law in all its just and reasonable Commands ; Rom. 7. 12. This is a main difference between Legal and Evangelical Repentance , that Conviction and Sense that is in a Legal Repentance of the Holiness of the Law , is very small , next to none at all , and that which is , proceeds chiefly from the remainders of light in all natural Men , left on purpose in the Conscience , that all reverence of God and his Law might not be quite cast off , and something of this may now and then appear under strong legal Convictions of sin , as in Iudas , but all this never begets any true love to Holiness , for still they go on in their sins and have pleasure in them that do so , Rom. 1. 32. which is a great demonstration of the absolute Dominion sin has over fallen man , in carrying him on not only against the known Law of God written in the Word , but against all the natural Notions of the Law written in his own heart , nothing can hold him in , he despises God and man and his own Conscience , he will not be a Law to himself . Legal Convictions come short in all these properties of saving Conviction . Legal Convictions are either such as are antecedent to the Commission of Sin , or such as follow upon it , which are properly called Convictions . Convictions antecedent to sin , are all one with the knowledge of the Law , by which we understand what is morally good or evil in it self ; what is sin , and what is not , Adam and Eve in innocency were under this Conviction , they knew what God had forbidden , viz. to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil , and that to eat of it in opposition to Gods express command to the contrary , was a high act of Disobedience , to be punished with Death , but by the subtilty of the Devil they yielded to the Temptation , and did eat : if their perfect knowledge of the Law could not keep them in Innocency , from falling , how can we expect that our imperfect knowledge of the Law from any Convictions of that kind , which we may be under should keep us . And for those legal Convictions subsequent to the commission of sin , by which we see the obliquity of our own actions , and know our selves to be Transgressors of a holy righteous Law , they fall short in all the forementioned properties of saving Conviction , they leave us without hope of Mercy , work no renovation of nature in us , they may disturb us in the present act of sin , and terrifie us much about that , laying some present restraint upon us , but they work no real Reformation in us , Iudas was in great horror of Conscience for betraying his Master , was much troubled that he should have a hand in shedding innocent blood : and yet under the light and power of this Conviction , how evil it was to Murder another , he hangs himself , which was as contrary to Law , as killing another : I speak this to shew how legal convictions may hurry a man from one sin to another , but they never lead him into a constant setled way of true Holiness , whence I infer that Convictions purely legal will never work Repentance unto Life . How Repentance unto Life is wrought by the Gospel . Because God hath appointed the Gospel to be the means of Repentance , Luk. 24. 47. Rom. 16. 25 , 26. to the Glory of his Free Grace , as Justice is glorified in the Damnation of an impenitent sinner , so Grace is glorified in his Conversion ; Evangelical Repentance is from a Discovery of Gods Love and Free Grace : His goodness leads us to Repentance , Rom. 2. 4. 2 Pet. 3. 9. Psal. 130. 4. A true Penitent fears least he should miss of Mercy , and come short of it , he rejoyces at the good News of the Gospel , begins to lift up his head in some expectation of a blessed Redemption , he serves God chearfully being perswaded that his Duties and Services will be pleasing to him and accepted by him for Christ sake , Psal. 130. 4. Hos. 6. 1 , 2. a sence of love and mercy quicken up a drooping trembling sinner to return unto God , the Prodigal remembred what a kind Father he had , Luk. 15. 18. 't was Pauls Argument , Rom. 12. 1. 2 Cor. 7. 1. 'T is a sad thing that the Grace of the Gospel which is intended to keep men from Despair , should be some be made an encouragement to presumption , God forbid we should continue in Sin because Grace abounds . 2. The Grace of the Gospel is not only an appointed Means , but is in its own nature a fit means to work repentance , suited and adapted to that end , the goodness of God leads us to repentance , the Schoolmen tell us that amor est congregativus , and they give this reason for it , because it does congregate and gather in our roving scattered thoughts from those various lesser Objects after which they go , fixing our Minds upon God , the only soul-satisfying Object . Love is conciliative , when God doth through Faith let in any sense of his intended grace towards sinners , the heart melts under it , a sinner does not repent that he may believe , but because he does believe , something of the Love of God to sinners in Christ Jesus , some inkling of this is come to his ear , hath touched his very heart , before ever he sets upon repentance , and now he can hold no longer , the love of Christ constrains him , great is the power of Love , when it commends it self to us in some signal expressions of kindness to our visible advantage and benefit . 3. Because Christ gives repentance , Act. 5. 31. he purchased this and all other graces for us , by dying for us , he not only obtained pardon of Sin in our Justification , but all inherent Graces in the Saints come from Christ , he procured them for us , he works them in us , his sufferings being not only satisfactory for sin , but meritorious of grace to be bestowed upon us , though the Law can't sanctify a sinner yet Christ can , and 't is an act of special grace towards us when he doth , but he will first satisfie the Law and Justice of God , that being brought under grace by our free Justification , we may answer to the Law of grace in our sanctification , denying all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts , living soberly and righteously here below as the redeemed of the Lord ought to do ; the Law commands perfect Obedience , but in case of Failure , the Gospel Promises Faith and Repentance , Zach. 12. 10. Acts 11. 18. 4. Because God hath annexed a quickning Spirit to the Gospel , to make way for his Grace , and to give it a prevailing efficacy in the Hearts of men , they are drawn by the loving kindness of God , and cannot resist it , the Spirit opens the Mystery of the Love of God in Christ , and so charms the Soul with it , that it is impossible to withstand the allurements of it . 5. Because the ways and means of bringing a sinner to life , are all supernatural ; the Law speaks nothing of this , the Law never puts us upon any thing that is supernatural ; I mean that originally was so to man in his perfect state , for then it had been quite above the reach and capacity of Mans Understanding , but God suited his Law to those inbred Notions and Principles of Truth , that were concreated in us , the way of salvation through Faith and Repentance being supernatural ; we must apply our selves to the Gospel to know this . 3. The necessary Connection that is between Evangelical Repentance and saving Faith. I prove , it thus . 'T is so in the first production of Repentance , and in all the subsequent acts of Repentance , therefore 't is alwayes so . In the first production of Repentance if you consider how this was wrought by Iohns Ministry , Mat. 3. and Luk. 3. these two things will evidently appear . First , That Repentance alwayes presupposes Faith. Secondly , That Repentance rises out of Faith. And how ! I will clear up this by a brief Paraphrase upon those words , Repent ye , for the kingdom of heaven is at hand . Iohn is brought in inviting sinners to Repentance ; the Argument he uses is plainly this , God is inclined to Pardon you , therefore Repent : I come as a forerunner to prepare the way , that by bringing you the first newes of Gods intended grace and favour towards you , I might soften and mollify your hearts and dispose you to a ready thankful acceptance of Christ , this offer of Grace is called the Kingdom of Heaven because it is inclusive of all the happiness that Heaven can afford : all good comes along with Pardoning Grace , I see says Iohn , you are all lying under the sad damning circumstances of your own sins , in a very woful miserable condition , compassed about with Hell and Death , with horror and darkness , all things round about you , look very black and dismal , I am come to put you into a better state , to offer you a Kingdom , which will shortly appear in all its Glory ; 't is at hand , 't is coming toward you , Heaven it self is come to look after you to lend a helping hand to lift you out of this horrible Pit , before it shut its mouth upon you , see that you refuse not this grace , that you put not from you the word of the Gospel , least you judge your selves unworthy of Eternal Life , as Acts 13. 46. i. e. it will as plainly appear to be so , as if it had been so declared in open Court , upon a fair hearing of your Cause , if Heaven and Earth were to sit in Judgment upon you , they would conclude you most unworthy of Everlasting Life , and by putting the word from you , you have in effect passed this judgement upon your selves , or you have done that now which your own Consciences will so interpret at the last day , they will then tell you you might have had life and pardon , but would not ; you would not come to Christ that you might have life , therefore your damnation is just , you deservedly perish , & may thank your selves for it , how speechless will sinners be then : as to remain in impenitency under the outward Light of the Gospel , does argue the height of unbelief , so to be brought to Repentance by the Preaching of the Gospel does necessarily imply Faith in the Gospel , 't is impossible that a Tender of Grace should work Repentance till 't is believed , 't is of no force , makes no impression upon the Mind of a Man till then , therefore , Faith must be presupposed , I make it out thus . That which is brought as a motive for the doing of a thing , must be first understood , received and believed , before the thing can be done upon that motive : there is in the Gospel a general offer of Mercy to sinners , this proves an effectual means to beget Faith in all that are ordained unto life , upon their believing this general offer of Grace , their hearts begin to melt under it , and some inclination to Repentance is wrought in them , this Faith and this Repentance wrought in a more general way at first , do form themselves into more particular and distinct acts afterwards , thus the principles of the Doctrine of Christ , viz. Repentance from dead works and Faith towards God are first laid , and then there is ( in the light and power of these principles ) a going on unto perfection , Heb. 6. 1. Our first Faith is a more general Faith , and so is our first Repentance , rather an inclination and tendency to believe and repent , then actual Faith , or actual Repentance . Our first Faith wrought in us upon the general proposal of Gospel Grace , contains in it a saving Conviction of Sin , 't is impossible to receive grace without it , grace is nothing to us , of no signification to us , but as it gives relief against sin , which we must have some sense of , before we apply our selves to the grace of God for Pardon , we must see something in our selves that wants a pardon , and which we are willing to repent of and forsake in Case of a pardon , Repentance is as true an effect of Faith , as Pardon and Comfort , Faith first brings a sinner to Christ under some hope of Pardon , and then busies it self in working Repentance , in order to a comfortable sense of Pardon . The Spirit lets in some sense of Gospel Grace tendred unto sinners , and affects the heart with it , as very desireable , as a very seasonable offer , by no means to be slighted , the Soul begins to be taken with it , conceives some hope from it , and this is the begining of Faith , and with our first Faith Light comes in giving us some Gospel Conviction of sin in order to Repentance , I call it a Gospel Conviction , because it is wrought by means of the Gospel , all after acts of Faith and Repentance have their rise from this first work , which brings me to the second Point , viz. That Faith is not only joyned with Repentance in the first production of it , as has been shewed , but in all the subsequent acts of it ever after ; which I make out thus . Faith and Repentance do constantly refer to each other in their several actings , Faith to Repentance , and Repentance to Faith ; he that believes , repents because he believes , and he that repents , believes because he repents , i. e. as Faith is the cause of Repentance , so Repentance is the reason of every particular act of Faith put forth upon Christ for Pardon , 't is impossible to make up the full sense of an act of Faith on our part , if you fetch not the reason of it from Repentance : Why do we go to the Physitian , is it not because we are sick , weary and faint ready to die of such a Disease : So why does a weary Soul come to Christ , is it not to be eased of his Burden ? that insupportable burden of sin that is ready to sink him into Hell. If Faith and Repentance be thus always joyned together , does it not follow that we are justified by our Repentance as well as by Faith ? I Answer , No. Though we are not saved without Repentance , it does not therefore follow that we are justified by our Repentance ; but some to make good this Assertion have coyned many subtle distinctions , relating to both . Before I give a particular reply to this , let me say something in general . Religion may be considered , either in its primitive purity and simplicity , as it was laid down in the Fundamental Principles of it , by Christ and his Apostles . Or as it has since been drawn through the various Discourses , Reasonings and Writings of Men for so many Centuries past , this has so much overcharged Religion with so many nice distinctions , intricate questions , and endless disputes , that it seems to be quite another thing then it was in the Apostles dayes : The best way is to return to the primitive simplicity of the Gospel , especially in judging of Fundamentals , which are plainly and clearly laid down there in Terms very intelligible . Though Faith be the Gift of God , and is given of meer Grace but to a few , yet all who live under the Light of the Gospel may know what they ought to believe , which will render their unbelief more inexcusable ; did we dwell more upon what is plainly revealed as fundamentally necessary to Salvation , we should better discern , by the light of those Fundamentals , the just consequences of them , in any deductions from them , which may not be so particularly and expresly spoken unto in Scripture . But now to answer the query whether we may not be said to be justified by our Repentance , as well as by Faith , since we are not saved without Repentance ? Answ. There is a great deal of difference between Justification and Salvation , Salvation includes all qualifications belonging to that state , Justification lets us into that state ; gives us right to Life from whence spring all Qualifications becoming that Life . Besides , Saving Graces are so called , not that they are the Causes of Salvation , but because they accompany it , we cannot be saved without them . Faith it self as a Grace inherent in us , is no meritorious Cause of our Justification ; 't is that which carries us out of our selves to Christ for Righteousness upon the account of which we are justified in the sight of God , when we say we are justified by Faith , we don't mean we are justified by any thing in our selves , we can't understand it so , but the contrary , that we must be beholding to Christ for all . He that receives all from another , gives nothing to himself , he does indeed apply to himself , to his own use and benefit , what is freely given to him by another , but he cannot in any propriety of Speech be said to ascribe any thing to himself , or to owe himself thanks for what he receives from another : Faith in its justifying act does not look to it self as our grace , but unto Christ as our Righteousness , the inherent grace of Faith is not our justifying Righteousness , though it lead us out to him who is ; Faith is the hand , but Christ is the gift ; nay the hand it self is the gift of God , as well as that which is put into it : God gives us not only what we believe , but he gives us to believe ; the habit and act of faith are both from God , that he that glories may glory in the Lord only : And if it be so with faith , if that be shut out from being any part of our justifying Righteousness , 't will hold true much more in all other saving graces that spring from faith , whether Hope , Love , Fear , Repentance , &c. Repentance proves our Faith to be saving , such a faith as gives us an Interest in Christ , faith adds nothing to the Righteousness of Christ , but applies it as it is , it only gives us an Interest in it , and makes it ours by vertue of the Promise tendring it to us , by receiving the Promise we have a sure interest in the thing promised , and may ever after count it our own , and if we are not justified by our graces themselves , much less by our good works , which are the fruits and issues of them , we must resolve all our graces into faith , and faith it self into Christ and his Righteousness before we can be clear in the matter of our Justification . 4. The real distinction that is between them notwithstanding this necessary Connection . Faith and Repentance are frequently joyned together in Scripture , and sometimes each of them singly put for the whole work of Conversion , and then they do alwayes include each other , and imply the whole work of grace in the Soul , as Luk. 13. 5. Luk. 15. 10. Acts 3. 19. Acts 11. 18. Though they cannot be separated , yet they may be distinguished , not only nominally but really ; they are spoken of ( Act. 20. 21. ) as two distinct things , as Faith and Hope are inseparable , yet two distinct Graces , so 't is with Faith and Repentance , they grow together as different Branches from the same Root that bears and feeds them both , they are the two Vital Constituent parts of a Christian , which have their distinct Offices and Influences : Repentance is the same in Principle with Faith , though they receive different denominations , from the different objects and occasions about which they act : A principle of Grace is that immortal Seed , or that Spirit that is born of the Spirit ; the fruits of the Spirit are not the Spirit it self , but something produced by him ; all Graces are the fruits of the Spirit and are specified by their different objects : All Graces are but so many expressions of that holy Disposition , that is wrought in us by the Holy Ghost . To Repent of Sin is as true Holiness as not to sin at all ; a sinner has no other way to express his Love to Holiness , than by a declared Hatred of his Sins . They differ in their Objects , faith as justifying , hath Christs Righteousness for its Object , Repentance has mans unrighteousness for its Object ; as Faith acts upon Christ for an Interest in his Righteousness , so Repentance acts towards God , acknowledging our own Unrighteousness and bewailing it , we cannot rejoyce in the Righteousness of Christ , till we mourn for our own sins ; Christ reconciles God to us , by the attonement offer'd , 2 Cor. 5. 20 , 21. and us to God by working Repentance in us , who were Enemies to him in our Minds by wicked works , Col. 1. 21. alienated from the life of God , Col. 4. 18. This Enmity against God and alienation from him , is removed by Repentance : Faith works upwards to appease Gods Wrath , by holding up the Blood of Christ ; Repentance works downwards upon our selves , changing our Minds towards God , that we may be conformable to his Will , and rebel no more against him . Besides ▪ All Graces do not imploy , at least equally , the same Affections , there is more joy and hope in Faith , more sorrow and fear in Repentance ; faith lists up and comforts a guilty sinner upon one account , Repentance humbles him and lays him low upon another account , filling him with godly sorrow for his sins . 5. Reasons why the Professors of this Age who are so much for Faith do mind Repentance so little , are so seldom found in the Exercise of it . 1. Because they rest in general Notions of Faith , and of Justification by Grace through Christ ; they say they have faith , and think this will save them , we may have right notions of faith in our Heads , and yet be under no real actings of faith in our Hearts ; we may be Orthodox in our Judgements , sound in the Doctrine of Faith , and yet be strangers to the Grace of Faith ; we may hold the Truth , dispute for it , preach it up , maintain it in our Discourses , as our Opinion , and yet be rotten at Heart for all this , under the power of unbelief , if you know these things happy are ye if ye do them . Faith must be done as well as talked of , it must be really acted by us in our own case , 't is not the doctrine of faith , but your faith in or according to that doctrine , that saves you , the just shall live by his own faith , the doctrine of faith is an external thing laid down in the letter of the word , but the grace of faith is an inward living principle found only in the hearts of real Saints , this is that I am inquiring after , and pressing upon you as that that will certainly produce Repentance , Zach. 12. 10. 'T is one thing to have a Notional Knowledge of the doctrine of faith as contained in the letter of the word , another thing to be under the power of the grace of faith as it passes thorow the heart in the lively actings of it : Notions of things may be separated from those effects that alwayes attend the things themselves when they are in being , we may shake and freeze under our notions of fire , but we cannot stand before fire it self and not be warmed by it , were there more real faith ; I mean of the grace of faith , among professors , there would be more Repentance , let us not flatter our selves in the good opinion we have of our faith , and of our supposed Interest in Christ , 't is all false , our faith is vain , and we are yet in our sins , if Repentance do not accompany our faith : The visible neglect of Repentance in the Professors of this age , has brought a reproach upon the doctrine of faith , and caused it to be evil spoken of , that faith that does not sanctifie , will never justifie , and without Repentance there can be no Sanctification : not that we make Repentance any Meritorious Cause of Pardon , or that it is to be rested in as any satisfaction for sin , only we affirm that justifying faith alwayes works Repentance . 2. Because they rest in a general Repentance , which they took up at their first Conversion , and that must serve all their lives long , 't is enough they have once repented , that work is over , they have done with it now , and care not to return to it again : but because you have once repented , you must always repent , you entred into Covenant with God for your whole lives , to repent of every sin you should fall into , and shall we begin in the Spirit and end in the Flesh. 3. Because they have long since reformed what was amiss in their Lives , and refrained from the outward acts of those sins they lived in heretofore , all this may be without any true Repentance , you say you have forsaken your sins that is a gross mistake , for till you repent of them you have not forsaken them in Gods account , but are still looked upon as those who justifie your selves in those very sins , if not why don't you repent of them , you alwayes abide under the guilt of that sin which you have not repented of , the turning of the heart to God , can never be without Repentance ; till then you still retain the good opinion you had of your sins , your heart is set upon them still , nothing but Repentance turns the heart another way . There can be no real Reformation of Life , without a change of Heart ; Men may for a spurt force themselves to an outward Course of Holiness , but they can never hold it , the heart will go its own way , and carry the man after it , nothing but repentance makes a man a better man than he was before ; a man is the same that ever he was till he repents , then indeed he is another man , of another Mind . 4. Because they reckon all their particular sins among their Infirmities , and therefore a slight Repentance will serve the turn , they think they will be pardoned of Course to them , without any more ado . I look upon it as a great Error , to hold that all sins committed in a state of Grace are sins of Infirmity ; Saints themselves may be guilty of wilful presumptuous sins , and when they are , they must not think to shift them off as common Infirmities . I grant , those grosser acts of sin , that a Saint may be surprized into , do argue an infirm imperfect state , their state may be good though imperfect , there may be some good thing in their Hearts toward God , when they fall foul as David and Peter did ; but I am not now inquiring what is in their hearts , but what is in those grosser acts of sin , viz. Murder , Adultery , and the like ; I say there is nothing but Evil in them , they are all over and throughout sinful ; now , what is morally evil and sinful in its own nature cannot properly be called a sin of Infirmity , because an Infirmity in the true Notion of it , is the deficiency of a good Action , 't is not so good as it should be , absolutely evil in it self it is not , v. g. a Child of God prayes but not so fervently as he should , he hears the Word , but not so attentively as he should ; he believes in Christ , but not so firmly , so strongly , so stedfastly as he would , this is his Infirmity , here the action it self , or the thing done , is for the substance and matter of it good in it self , what God has commanded , but when we do that which is materially Evil in its own nature , and forbidden by God , this is more than an Infirmity , the whole action is naught ; 't is not a weak action , but a wicked one . He that is an infirm man , is a living man ; a dead man is more than infirm , he has no life at all in him that is capable of infirmity , if a Child of God should swear , be Drunk , or commit Whoredom , &c. I would not say as some do , Oh the Infirmities of the Saints , but I would say oh the Wickedness , the Leudness of the Saints ; you 'l think these hard words , hard things must have hard words , they that do well shall hear well , and they that do ill must hear ill : Sin is not the less sinful because a Godly Man commits it , it falls under greater Aggravations in him , than in another ; there may be some good thing in his heart , but there is nothing in these sinful acts but what is morally Evil and abominably wicked . This should awaken us to Repentance , are there not sins even mong us against the Lord our God ? 6. The Application . Repentance being the plainest and surest Evidence of Saving Faith , let us be much in the exercise of this Grace : We should repent as often as there is new matter for Repentance , I do not say we should alwayes be grieving and mourning for the same sin ; Repentance may have its perfect work , in reference to some particular sin , which God has sufficiently humbled us for . There is a time to set broken bones , we may rejoyce in the Cure , in that Ease and Rest that God gives us , when he speaks peace to us : By believing we enter into Rest , till some new sin disturb our rest , and then Repentance is to be renewed : By a new sin I don't mean common unavoidable Infirmities , but some grosser wilful Miscarriage : We ought to be humbled under our Infirmities , to confess them , and so to pass on by a present act of Faith , into our wonted serenity and peace of Conscience not doubting but God will overlook them for Christs sake . Faith is not so put to it , does not labour so much to take in the pardon of them , as it does and must do to obtain the pardon of grosser sins , which put the Soul at a greater distance from God , then common Infirmities do , which are pardoned of Course to Believers upon their humble acknowledgement of them , but in case of any particular wilful sin , we must renew our Repentance in a more solemn manner , and afflict our souls for it , how long God may keep us mourning , before he restore to us the joy of our Salvation , must be left to him who knowes when to administer comfort to us , in the fittest season : When we are about this work , 't is good to reflect upon former sins already pardoned , there sinfulness appears thorow the Pardon . We may join our old scores to this new reckoning , and carry over all to the present Account , that having the sum Total before us , we may bewail the late addition we have made to it : When we see how high it rises , every new offence receives an aggravation , from so many that went before , 't is some Extenuation of a Fault to say , 't is the first time ; but frequent relapses into the same sin do heighten the guilt of it , and in such Cases there is nothing but Repenting , or perishing . The more you are in the Exercise of this Grace of Repentance , the less inclinable will you be to any sin : I am perswaded were the Devil sure you would Repent , he would not be so forward to Tempt you to any sin , nothing does so enrage the Devil , as the Repentance of the Saints , could he keep them always in that Mind , they are in , in the hour of a prevailing Temptation , he might Glory over them , but when they come to themselves , and consider better of it , how do they inveigh against the Tempter , and cry down the sin as an abominable Practise , and what does the Devil get by this , he loses more by their Repentance then ever he got by their Sin , he is laid open as an Impostor , as a Deceiver ; the Repentance of the Saints is the greatest Torment to the Devil before his time that can be ; as there is joy in Heaven at the Conversion of a Sinner , so there is no small sorrow in Hell upon the same Account . You cannot Honour God more than by a Daily Repentance , thereby you vindicate your holy Profession , from giving the least countenance to sin ; were the people of God more ashamed of sin , the wicked of the World would glory less in it , they would begin to blush with you , and hang down their heads for doing that which is so openly decry'd by all good men , good men are greatly wanting in the open Profession of their Repentance , if you did mourn for sin more , others would rejoyce in it less . FINIS . ERRATA .. In the Preface . THE last Page but one for sins read sin . Regeneration . Page 6. for God r. Ghost . pag. 93. for works r. work . p. 97. for discovery r. discourse . p. 155. for patulum r. pabulum . Faith. Page 12. last line , for words , r. word . pag. 42. for Loyal r. Legal . pag. 62. for deniable r. undeniable . Books Printed and Sold by Tho. Cockeril , at the Three Legs in the Poultrey , over against the Stocks-Market . THE Works of the late Learned Divine Stephen Charnock . Two Vol. Folio . Annotations upon all the Books of Old and New Testament ; by Matt. Pool . 2 Vol. Folio . The History of Phylosophy , containing the Lives , Opinions , &c. of Phylosophers ; by Tho. Stanley , Esq Folio . The compleat Works of Mr. Isaac Ambrose . Folio . The Morning Exercise at Cripplegate , or several Cases of Conscience practically resolved by sundry Ministers . The 4th . Edition , 4to . A Supplement to the Morning Exercise at Cripplegate , or several more Cases of Conscience practically resolved by sundry Ministers . The second Edition , 4to . The Court of the Gentiles ; Part 3. The Vanity of Pagan Phylosophy demonstrated , &c. by Theophilus Gale. 4to . The Rise , Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God in the Soul of Man , opened in several Sermons , by Peter Sterry , sometimes Fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge , and late Preacher of the Gospel in London . 4to . Speculum Theologiae in Christo : Or , a view of some Divine Truths , &c. By Edward Polhil of Burwash in Sussex , Esq 4to . Geography rectified : Or a Description of the World in all its Kingdoms , Provinces , Countries , &c. The second Edition enlarged , with above thirty sheets more in the Description and about 20 new Maps . By Robert Morden , 4to . Large Octavo's . THE Nature , Powers , Deceit , and Prevalency of the Remainders of In-dwelling sin in Believers ; Together with the ways of its working , and means of prevention , opened , evinced and applyed ; with a Resolution of sundry Cases of Conscience thereunto appertaining . Precious Faith considered in its Nature , Working and Growth . By Edward Polhil of Burwash in Sussex . Christus in Corde : Or , the Mystical Union between Christ and Believers considered , in its resemblances , bonds , seals , priviledges and marks . By the same Author . Armatura Dei ; or a preparation for suffering in an Evil Day , shewing how Christians are to bear Sufferings , and what Graces are requisite thereunto : suited for all good Christians in this present time . By the same Author . The Faithfulness of God Considered , and cleared in the great events of his Word ; or a second part of the fulfilling of the Scripture . By the Author of the first Part. A Renunciation of several Popish Doctrines because contrary to the Doctrine of Faith of the Church of England . By. R. R. B. D. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A33723-e360 Iude 4. Heb. 3. 18. Rom. 6. 14. 2 Cor. 3. 18. Rom. 7. 1 Cor. 2. 11. Acts. 5. 20. Phil. 2. 15. Isa. 55. 3. Joh. 5. 25. Acts 20. 32. Gen. 2. 15 , 16. Joh. 14. 19. 2 Tim. 3. 16 , 17. Luke 1. 15 Jer. 1. 5. Gal. 1. 15. 1 Cor. 6. 11. 1 Tim. 1. 13. Joh. 9. 25. 1 Cor. 6. 11. Tit. 3. 3. Ephes. 2. 11 , 13. 1 Pet. 2. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 17. 1 Joh. 5. 1. Rom. 8. 15. Gal. 4. 6. Rom. 8. 16. 1 Cor. 15. 46. Verse 23. Luke 1. 8. Luke 2. 40 , 52. 1 Joh. 39. 2 Cor. 12. 9. Luke 13. 11 , 16. Mark 10. 24. 1 Cor. 12. 12. Verse 18. Mat. 12. 32. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Act 11. 26. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 1 Cor. 6. 17. Eph. 2. 8. 1 Cor. 1. 9. Joh. 6. 96. Joh. 13. 22 , 23 , 24. 1 Cor. 12. 12 , 13. Rom. 11. 17 , 19. 23 , 24. Joh. 15. 1 , 2. Joh. 3. 29. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Col. 3. 4. Joh. 6. 45. 1 Joh. 5. 12. Rom. 4. 3. Quest. Ans. Joh. 3. 18. Rom. 4. 5. Rom. 4. 16 Psal. 38 4. Isa. 45. 21. Psal. 116. 6. Psal. 118. 13. Gal. 3. 24. Gal. 3. 19 , 20 , 21 , 22. Gal. 3. 10. Gal. 4. 21. Luke . 1. 16. 17. Matt. 3. Luke 3. Luke . 3. 3. John. 1. 29. Acts. 2 38 39. & 3●●9 . Acts. 8. 22. Acts. 20 , 20. 2 Cor. 7. 10. Eph. 6. 19. Heb. 13. 13 , 15. 2 Cor. 2. 14 , 15. Psal. 22. 30. Ezek. 11. 19 , 20. Micah 4. 5. Deut. 14. 21. Tit. 2. 14. Exod. 19. 5 , 6. Rom. 8. 28 , 29 , 30. Luke 10. 20. Rev. 21. 27. 1 Pet. 2. 9. R●v . 13 8. 1 Joh● 〈◊〉 1 Jo●● 〈◊〉 1 Joh●● 1 John ●● 4,5 〈◊〉 1 〈◊〉 ●2 ●● 1 Joh. 3. 9. 1 Joh. 5. 18. 1 Joh 2. 29. Eph 4 23 , 24. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 1 Joh. 2. 29. Mat. 7. 18. Psal. 119. 3. Rom 7. 16 1 John 2. 29. 1 Pet. 3. 11. Job . 34. 3. Heb. 4. 12. Luke 24. 32. 1 John 2. 29. 1 John 3. 10. Rom. 6. 4. vers . 13. 1 Thess. ● . 23. Eph. 5. 9. Matth. 19. 28. Tit. 3. 5. John 3. 5. Jer. 31. 33. Gal. 2. 20. John 15. 5. 1 Joh. 5. 1. 1 Joh. 4. 2. Observ. Heb. 10. 20. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Ephes 4. 20. 1 Joh 5. 4. 1 Joh. 44. Joh. 16. 33. Heb. 4. 3. Prov 4. 23. 1 Joh. 4. 7. 1 Joh. 5. 1. John 13. 34 , 35. 1 Pet. 1. 22. vers . 23. Rom. 13. 8. 1 John 4. 16. Rom. 5. 5. Eph. 5. 1. Jam. 4. 4. 1 John 4. 12. Joh 13. 34. Vide Eph. 4. 23. compared with verse 31 , 32. Tit. 3 , 3. Gal. 5. 15. Col. 3. 15. Joh. 17. 31. 22 , 23. Col. 3. 8 , 13. Gal. 5. 19 , &c. 1 Joh. 4. 20. 1 Pet. 2. 2. Rom. 11. 36. 
A28197	----	Helps for faith and patience in times of affliction In three parts. Viz. I. Sampson's riddle spiritualiz'd. II. Orthodox paradox: or, the greatest evil working the greatest eternal good. III. Heaven and earth epitomiz'd: or, invisibilities the greates realities. By James Burdwood late minister in Dartmouth. To which is added, A sure tryal of a Christian's state, by John Flavell, late minister (also) in Dartmouth. Burdwood, James. 1693 Approx. 522 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 294 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28197 Wing B2957D ESTC R218170 99829787 99829787 34230 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28197) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 34230) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2025:5) Helps for faith and patience in times of affliction In three parts. Viz. I. Sampson's riddle spiritualiz'd. II. Orthodox paradox: or, the greatest evil working the greatest eternal good. III. Heaven and earth epitomiz'd: or, invisibilities the greates realities. By James Burdwood late minister in Dartmouth. To which is added, A sure tryal of a Christian's state, by John Flavell, late minister (also) in Dartmouth. Burdwood, James. [12], 275, [1] p. printed by T.W. for Jonathan Robinson, at the Golden Lyon in St. Paul's Church-Yard, London : 1693. "Food for faith and patience: or, Sampson's riddle spiritualiz'd", "Orthodox paradox: or, The greatest temporal evil working the greatest eternal good", "Heaven and earth epitomiz'd: or, Invisibilities the greatest realities" and "To all my Christian friends in Dartmouth, or elsewhere; that desire to know the true state of their nevery-dying souls: .." have caption titles and running titles; register and pagination are continuous. Includes contents. Identified as B5621 (entry cancelled in Wing 2nd ed.) on UMI microfilm "Early English books, 1641-1700" reel 2025. Reproductions of the originals in the Bodleian Library and the British Library (both on UMI microfilm "Early English books, 1641-1700" reel 2025). Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith -- Early works to 1800. 2006-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-02 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-03 Ali Jakobson Sampled and proofread 2007-03 Ali Jakobson Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion HELPS FOR Faith and Patience IN Times of Affliction . In Three Parts . VIZ. I. Sampson's Riddle spiritualiz'd . II. Orthodox Paradox : Or , The greatest Evil working the greatest Eternal Good. III. Heaven and Earth epitomiz'd : Or , Invisibilities the greatest Realities . By James Burdwood late Minister in Dartmouth . To which is added , A sure Tryal of a Christian's State , by John Flavell , late Minister ( also ) in Dartmouth . LONDON , Printed by T. W. for Jonathan Robinson , at the Golden Lyon in St. Paul's Church-yard , 1693. TO THE Religious , and my very dear Kinswoman , M rs . Mary Cholwich , Of Hele in Cornwood , in Devon. AND To the rest of the Family , related by the Bonds of Grace and Nature ; the Author of the ensuing Discourse heartily wisheth encrease of all Grace here , and the fulness of Glory hereafter , through the Merits of our Dear Lord Jesus Christ . THE many multiplied Favours you have continually shewed to my self and Family , obligeth me to make this acknowledgment thereof , by presenting to you all this little Testimony of my true Love and real Gratitude , humbly praying for your kind Acceptance and diligent Perusal . Let me mind you , and my self no less , That we are come towards the Evening of our Days : The Contents of this Book , by the assistance of the Holy Spirit , may help us in making due preparation for our latter end ; in which , I doubt not but you are daily engaged . The Sun of our Life is going down on our outward man : You , my most dear Kinswoman , as well as my self , have been kept several Years upon the Graves mouth , and have been many times brought back from the brink of the Pit : Oh , that the Sun of Righteousness might shine on our inward man , that therein we may be renewed day by day . Our God hath tryed our Faith and Patience , and made us more than ordinary Monuments of his Mercy and Goodness ; oh , that He would make us Instruments of his Praise and Service : What further Tryals our Heavenly Father will call us unto we know not ; may it please him to help us , that our Faith and Patience may have their perfect Work : He will have Glory , and we shall be Gainers . It hath pleased our good GOD to call us off from the enticing , lying , dying Vanities of this present Evil World , for our advantage , I hope ; what have we to do now , but to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure . Lord , pardon former negligence , and help us to get on the Wedding-garment of Christ's Righteousness and Holiness , that we may bid our blessed Bridegroom welcome . To the rest of my Honoured Cousins . May I obtain the Favour from you to spend a little of your little unexpired time in reading this small Book , and pray for a Blessing on what you read . I am sure the Contents do nearly concern you all : You are all travelling to another Country , Eternity is at hand , your Account is near , Time is precious , so are your Souls ; the World is vain , the Heart is deceitful : Oh , could I prevail with you to spend some time in close Self-examination , in constant heavenly Meditation , in Watchfulness , in Self-denyal and Mortification , you would much engage me , and advantage your own Souls . I pray the Blessing of God may go along with this poor piece ; there are many have better Heads , and better Hearts may do better . Now , that you all , and your Relations old and young , may be taken into the Covenant of Grace , and may grow up in all things in Christ Jesus ; that after our wearisom Pilgrimage in this Wilderness World , we may at last enter into the Promised Land , and enjoy that everlasting Rest , purchased by the most precious Blood of our dearest Lord , and there live with him for ever , is the earnest Prayer of Your very affectionate and much obliged Kinsman , James Burdwood Aug. 1. 1693. TO THE Honest-hearted Reader . INstead of an Epistle ( which for want both of outward and inward strength , having been tryed with about Eight or Nine Years Sickness , and most part of the time confined to my Chamber and Bed , I cannot perform ) I shall only present you with the several Points of Doctrine handied in the ensuing Treatise , having some time since cast one Mite into the Church's Treasury , viz. my Hearts Ease , do now adventure to cast in this other , though very unworthy to be laid up among so many choice Pearls : But I remember , who will not despise the day of small things . Had I not been unfaithful in the improvement of the Talents my Great Master had entrusted me with , I might have had more . I humbly beg the fervent Prayers of such Readers as truly love the Salvation of Souls , to pray the Lord to pardon all my 〈◊〉 fulness and negligence in the Work of the Lord , through the most precious Blood of the most precious Lord Jesus Christ , without which I perish ; and which is all I beg of them for my self . Now , having been a long time disabled to say or do any thing for the edification of others , and not likely to be of any use any more in this World , I was willing , while I could hold my Pen , and in any measure compose my Mind , much broken by Affliction , to emit this into the World , with my poor , yet earnest Prayers , That the Blessing of the Lord will go with it ; as also , to testifie my Gratitude to Him who hath wonderfully delivered me from so many Deaths , and yet doth deliver , and graciously supports me under so many multiplied Afflictions ; for which I hope , through God's great Mercy , and Christ's precious Merits , I shall have cause to bless God to all Eternity . Readers , pray for a Blessing on what you read , and for Your affectionate Friend and Servant in any thing for your Souls good , whilst I am J. B. From my Sick Chamber , Aug. 1st . 1693. THE CONTENTS . PART I. From 2 COR. iv . 16. THough our outward man perish , yet the inward man is renewed day by day . Doctrine 1. That it is the Comfort and the Character of truly-gracious persons , that as their outward man doth decay , decline and perish , so their inward man doth revive , encrease , and is renewed . PART II. Ver. 17. For our light affliction , which is but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . Doct. 2. That the light and short Afflictions of the People of God here in this World , are singularly useful , to work them for , and to work for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory . PART III. Ver. 18. While we look not at the things which are seen , but at the things which are not seen : for the things which are seen are temporal , but the things which are not seen are eternal . Doct. 3. That because all visible things are temporal , and of no long continuance , therefore gracious Souls engage not their Hearts too much in them , nor concern themselves too much for them , or about them . Doct. 4. That a right and true Judgment of Earthly things will help much to support and uphold the Lord's Servants in , and under all the Afflictions of this Life . Doct. 5. That truly-gracious Souls do most seriously mind , and most diligently intend and aim at unseen and eternal things ; about these their Thoughts ●●●●ainly and mostly fixt , and about these their greatest Care and Study is employ'd . Doct. 6. That the due minding of , and meditating upon unseen eternal things , will much help to support the People of God under all their Sufferings in this World. Gentle Readers , If you meet with some literal Mistakes , or Mispointings , I pray excuse the Author , being so far from the Press , and not in capacity exactly to review the Copy ; but in the exercise of your Charity towards him , and by your Prayers on what you read , you may , by God's Blessing , find Benefit ; which is the earnest desire of Your Servant , J. B. THE Publisher to the Reader . THE Pious Author sent this Treatise to the Press some time since ; but before it was finished , it pleased God to take him out of a state of great Tryals and Afflictions , into a state of Glory and Happiness ; so that his Friends may entertain this as a Funeral Sermon , prepared by his own hand ; in the serious reading of which , they will find that he experimentally felt , and truly practis'd the substance of this Book , viz. 1. That he found a great deal of Comfort in sanctified Afflictions ; and that as his outward man decayed , so his inward man was renewed day by day . 2. That the light and short Afflictions of this Life did work for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory . 3. That because all visible things are temporal , and of no long continuance , therefore his Heart was not engaged in them ; nor was he too much concerned for them , or about them . 4. That having a right and true judgment of Earthly things , he was thereby much supported under all his sore Afflictions . 5. That he did most seriously mind , and his Heart was most diligently fixed on unseen and eternal things ; and that , 6. The due minding of , and meditations upon unseen and eternal things , did much support his Soul in all his Sufferings in this World , and made him long for the full fruition of that God , who is no● his Portion for ever . I pray God succeed this Treatise , and sanctifie the loss of such excellent an● holy men to us all , particularly to the Town of Dartmouth , which in less than Three years time , hath been deprived o● Three Great Lights , viz. Mr. Flavel , Mr. Burdwood , and Mr. Chapman . FOOD FOR Faith and Patience : OR , SAMPSON's Riddle Spiritualiz'd . PART I. 2 Cor. iv . 16. For which cause we faint not ; but though our outward Man perish , yet our inner Man is renewed day by day . IN these words we have a Divine Cordial to prevent the fainting of God's People , under the troubles of this Life ; commended to us , from the experience of the Apostles and Primitive Christians . For although the words may have a reference to what goeth before , unto-some other grounds and means of comfort and support which they had ( as I have largely discoursed of elsewhere ) besides this ; yet this was one ground of their comfort and support , that they gained by their losses ; Their Souls prospered , while their Bodies wasted ; what they lost in the outward Man , they gained in the inward Man , and for this cause they fainted not : and wherever this is found by experience , it will be a ground of support and comfort . Now that this truth of God ( so proper and pertinent to my present Condition , which is a perishing of my outward Man ) may be a mean to support and uphold me , to the praise of my God : I have pitcht my thoughts upon it , and humbly begging the gracious assistance of his Holy Spirit , that I may rightly understand the mind of God in it , and rightly apply it to my own Soul , and may find and feel the power of it , and by Faith suck out the sweetness of it , to my support and consolation : now seeing those evil days are come upon me , wherein I may truly say , I have no Pleasure in them ; praying also , that these my Meditations on this Text may be useful to them into whose hands they may sall . The Doctrinal Conclusion I observe from the Won is , That it is the Comfort and the Character ●● truly gracious Persons , that as their outward Ma● doth decay , decline and perish ; so , their inward Man doth revive , increase , and is renewed . Four Things are to be explicated , which wil● fully open the Text , and demonstrate the Propsition . 1. That in Man there are two Parts , an outward and an inward Man ; and what these are . 2. That the outward Man is subject to declining , decaying and perishing ; it cannot be avoided nor prevented , but it must be so : and that the inward Man is capable of increasing , growing , and renewing . 3. That the decaying , decreasing and perishing of the outward Man , in gracious Persons , through the great Goodness and Grace of God , tendeth unto the increasing and renewing of the : inward Man ; and what influence the one hath upon the other to effect the same . 4. That this is the Comfort and the Character of truly gracious Souls . First , that there is an outward Man is obvious to sense : That we have Bodies of flesh and blood and bone is evident enough : This is the Shell , the Carcase , the B●rk of the Man , as I may say ; but there is an inner Man also , which every body doth not believe ; for too many live and walk in so much care and fear , with so much sollicitousness about the outward Man , the Body , and the provisions and accommodations of it , that the inner man is totally neglected ; whose whole care is for the Body , as if they had no Souls at all to mind or care for : And oh ! that God would pardon and purge this guilt from my Soul through Christ's blood ; but we must know there is an inner Man also 〈…〉 . ● . 22. Ephes . 3. 16. And the Scripture speake● Wisdom in the inner parts , Job 38. 36. And of truth in the inward parts , Psal . 51. 6. and God promiseth to write his Law in the inner 〈…〉 . 31. 32. This inner Man , is the Man of the Man , the Kernel , the Jewel , the Treasure . But more particularly , By the outward Man , I understand the Lady , and all the concernments and accommodations thereof ; all that tends to the preservation and conveniences of it : Animal-life , Livelyhood , Bodily , Endowments and Comforts ; Health , Strength , Beauty , Ease , Liberty , Friends , Relations , Estate , and whatsoever tends to the outward Wellfare of the Body ; Food , Physick , Recreation , Rest , &c. By the inner Man , I understand the Soul and all its faculties , the Spiritual , in visible part of Man , and all the concernments and accommodations of it ; and all that conduceth to the Life and Livelyhood of the Soul ; to the Preservation , Health , Strength , Safety , Liberty and Advantage of it ; all its Graces and Comforts ; all that belongs to the inner Man , to its Being , and well-being . As for the Qualities of both , they are these . 1. As for the Body , simply and singly considered for the flesh and blood , the Scripture gives us many Epithetes of it : as , Houses of Clay , Earthly Tabernacles , Dust and Ashes , earthen vessels , &c. And these Bodies are . 1. Vile bodies . Phil. 3. 21. because made of vile and base materials ; subject to vile diseases ; to vile abuses ; to vile abominations ; and to a vile dissolution at last ; sowen indishonour , shall end in Corruption ; great hinderances to the Soul many waies . 2. The outward Man is the mortal Man , that of Necessity must dye and return to dust , from whence it came ; this cannot possibly live alway : There is an irreversible Sentence of Death past upon it Hebr. 9. 27. and for these reasons , the Body is the worst part of Man ; the worst by far ; and should be least esteemed : and such as is the Body , even such are all bodily Comforts and Accommodations ; Health , Strength , Beauty , Liberty , Friends , Honours , Estate , &c. all mortal , mutable , decaying , fading , dying things : daily experience confirmeth this : I need say no more . 2. But for the inner Man , the Soul , that is 1. Precious ; so precious , that it is more worth than all the World. Math. 16. 26. Psal . 49. 8. having the blessed Image of the glorious God stamped on it at first ; being capable of knowing and injoying the true and living God ; and when sin had spoil'd and captivated it , it could not be redeemed , but by the precious Blood of the Son of God. So are all the Concernments of the Soul precious also . 2. It is immortal also ; it never dies , it lives for ever : None can , nothing can kill the Soul ; that is , cause it not to be : and for these reasons , it is the noblest , chiefest and best part of Man ; and hence also the Concernments of the Soul are more excellent , more noble and precious than those of the outward Man ; the Graces and Comforts , the Strength and Beauty of the Soul ; the Priviledges , and Peace , and Wellfare of the Soul are more excellent and precious , as will more appear in the next particular . 2. The second thing to be considered is , That the outward Man is subject to decline and perish . The Body it self ; all its Beauty , Strength , Health , &c. is subject to decay . The Bodies , even of the best Saints , that shall one day be made like unto Christ's glorious Body , are subject to vile Infirmities and Diseases . What is become of Sampson's Strength , and Saul's Beauty ? Job and David will tell us of their decays in all these ; their Friends , Estates , Relations ; their Health , and all their outward Comforts failed them ; and how can we possibly hope , that we shall keep them ? All outward things are dying Vanities ; we are all of us travelling to the Land of forgetfulness . They that live longest , go the farthest way about ; and they that dye soonest , g● the shortest way home . Our greatest Care should be , to be sure , that we are in the right way to Eternal Life . But now , the inner Man is capable of growing increasing and renewing ; our inner Man is renewe● day by day , saith the Text : Grace and Peace , Spiritual Life , inward Strength and Comfort , are capable of increasing . For 1. This God commandeth ; That Christian should grow and increase , 2. Pet. 1. 5. and 3. 1● and that they should abound and go forward , and be strengthned . 2. This is God's Promise to his People ; that they shall grow and flourish , Psal . 92. 14. Isa . 14. 40. 29 , 30 , 31. They that wait on the Lor● shall renew their strength . 3. This is the Character of a gracious Soul Prov. 4. 18. and 24. 5. Coll. 1. 10. and 2. 1● Eph. 4. 16. And this the Apostle prays for 1 Thess . 3. 12. and 4. 16. 3 Epist . John● This the Soul is capable of ; being deformed i● sin , and God's Image defaced on it , it is capable of being renewed , and of having God's blesse Image repaired on it ; which is begun in Regeneration , and is still carried on , and promoted ●● God 's Ordinances and his Providences , his Spi● working in them , and with them upon his People All afflictions being intended for , and sanctifie unto this end ; to make Souls more and more 〈◊〉 unto Jesus Christ . Those weaknings and pershings of the outward Man , being , by the love at wisdome of God , designed to strengthen , repair and better the inner Man ; that the Soul may b● made , and must be made more holy , more humble , more heavenly , more like God : it must group in all things like unto Christ ; Ephes . 4. 12 , 13. The Soul , the inner Man , may , and must get more strength against Corruption and Temptation ; it must get more Victory over the World , and over it self ; it must grow in self-denyal , in faith , in patience , in hope , in Communion with God ; it must increase in knowledge and experience ; it must get nearer God ; and more weaned from the World , and better prepared to put off this earthly Tabernacle of the Body : Wherefore is the Christian train'd up in Christ's Schools , his School of Ordinances , and of Providences ; but that the Soul , the inner Man , may be made better ? That Grace may grow ; for it is the Growth of Grace , that evidenceth the Truth of it . And why doth our heavenly Father chastise us in our outward Comforts , but to better us in our inward Man. But , before I proceed , let me pause a little , and commune with my own heart : O my Soul ! Thou hast been under the blastings and witherings of thy outward Man ; these many years thou hast been in the School of Correction : Thy God hath made many breaches upon thy earthly Comforts ; stript thee of thy dearest Relations , of thy Liberty , of thy Estate , of opportunities of serving thy God in thy place ; deprived thee of thy Health and Strength , &c. yet hath he dealt with thee , infinitely better than thy Sins have deserved . It is his mercy thou art not consumed ; not in Hell , not in thy Grave : but O my Soul ! what art thou the better for all those stroaks upon thy outward Man ? What hast thou gained by all thy losses ? It is true , Afflictions are dry Rods , and my heart , a dead heart ; there can be no blossoms , nor fruit , without God's Blessing , and the Word and Spirit 's working in and by Affliction : but what blessing upon all thy troubles canst thou discern ? What good to the inner Man have these afflictions done thee ? Art thou more sensible of the evil of Sin ? more weary of it , and more grieved with it ? Is thy Heart more tender , thy Spirit more humble , thy will more subdued to Gods will ? Art thou more Crucified to the Creature ; thy inordinate Affections mortified ; thy unruly Passions subdued ? Art thou more meek and patient ? Are thy Affections raised , and more inlarged after God , and Christ , and Heaven ? Is Jesus Christ more precious to thee ? And dost thou pant and thirst more after the manifestations of his Love to thy Soul ? Art thou more watchful over thy thoughts , words and actions ? More careful to please God , more fearful to displease him ? More tender of his Honour ? More sensible of the Afflictions of Joseph ? More diligent in holy Duties ? More frequent in Self examination , in heavenly Meditation , in heavenly discourse ? Art thou , O my Soul , ashamed of , and grieved for thy former Miscarriages , thy mis-spending time , Breath , Liberty , Strength ? &c. More diligent in preparing for thy Dissolution ; and more contented with thy present Condition ? Dost thou endeavour now to go to the Fountain for all Supplies ? And dost thou labour with all thy might , in the strength of God , to make up all thy losses and breaches in God , and in his Covenant through Christ ? Dost thou prize the promises , and labourest to live upon them by Faith ? Is God and Christ more in thy thoughts and affections than heretofore ? And dost thou labour to get out the blessing of thy Afflictions , and art most earnest with God for the blessing ? Dost thou labour to cast all thy care upon God , and to trust him with all ? If any of these things appears , let God have all the Glory ; and blessed be God for any weak desires after these sweet Fruits . Deny not what God hath done for thee ; but be ashamed and grieved , that thou art no better : Cry to God mightily , wrestle with him for his blessing upon thy afflictions . 3. The third Particular is , That the Decaying and Perishing of the outward Man to God's people , tends to the strengthning , the prospering and renewing of the inner Man. The Adversity of the Body proves the Prosperity of the Soul , to all gracious Persons , and to them only . The Soul and Body of a Saint , is like the House of David and Saul ; as the one grows weaker and weaker , the other grows stronger and stronger ; and where it is so , there is good ground of Comfort under all outward troubles ; and where it is not so , there is little ground of Comfort for the present : although , there may be a growing in the Soul , when it is not discerned ; as there is of the Babe in the Womb , and of the Corn in the Earth , under the Clods ; both grow , even when they are not discerned ; but in due time will appear . But more of this afterward . Quest . But how comes this to pass ? What Efficacy and Influence have the perishings of the outward Man , to help forward the increasings of the inward Man ? How the Sicknesses , Pains , Troubles , Losses , Crosses upon the outward Man , should greatly contribute to the Strengthning and Renewing of the inward Man , is the Question ; which great Truth resolved , clearly apprehended , firmly believed and experienced , will tend very much to a poor Christians Consolation . Ans . 1. By the Decays and Witherings of the outward Man , those Hinderances are removed , which did very much obstruct the Growth , Strength and Comfort of the inward Man. When David● outward Man flourished ; When he had his Honour , Health , Ease , Liberty , and the confluence of earthly Comforts about him ; he was weak in his Soul : that lay languishing in sinful Security ; he was so weak in his Soul , that he could not resist the least Temptation ; but was shamefully conquered by the glance of his Eye . Ordinarily , our Souls are in the worst case , when our Bodies are in the bes● case : It is pitty ( we say ) that fair weather should do hurt : yet so it is . The welfare of the outward Man , tends to the ill-fare of the inward Man , without a more than ordinary measure of Grace . For first , Ordinarily , the Prosperity of the outward Man interposeth betwixt God and the Soul and keeps God at a distance from the Soul ; and the Soul at a distance from God : Jesus Christ loves not to lye in their arms , who embrace other Lovers . God will be uppermost , or not at all ; neare the heart , or not at all there . He deserves Best and will have the Best , or will accept of nothing . While the outward Man is fixt on the Creature the inner is not far off from it ; and then it is so in divided from God. 2 Cor. 5. 6. While th● Soul is at home in the Body , it is absent from power Lord ; and the reason is , Because of that power the Body hath upon the Soul , to draw it down t● it self , and even sink it into it self ; and to participate with it . It is hard for a poor Bird to flye u● that hath weights tyed to his feet ; and harder ●● a poor Soul to Mount up , or indeed to move wi●● any speed heaven-ward , that hath such a weigh● of Clay hanging on it . And this made godly Ag● afraid of fulness . Prov. 30. 8 , 9. Usually , Prosperity begets Pride ; and Pride sets us at a distance from God ; God resisteth the proud : he sees the proud afar off . Christians are never so far from God , as when they are nearest to their outward Comforts and Enjoyments . God is then but in few of their thoughts : Now it is the Presence or Absence of God , that makes Summer and Winter in the Soul ; as it is the presence and absence of the Sun that makes Summer and Winter on the Earth . Now , if Prosperity does withdraw our hearts from God , ( as too often it doth ) it causeth God to withdraw from us , ( though we may not find him wanting while earthly Comforts continue with us ) it must needs do us a great deal of hurt ; for if God withdraw or withold the influences of his Grace from us , our Souls must needs be in a sickly and languishing condition ! How weak and feeble must we be , when God doth not continue his Grace to us ? Prosperity lies betwixt God and our Souls ; which we all know by woful Experience : and our God , our gracious Father knows it , and therefore , in tender love to our Souls , many times breaks our outward Prosperity , that our Souls may not be drown'd in it ; and perish by it . 2. Secondly , The welfare of the outward Man hinders the inner Man from that serious , diligent , hearty intent , and Spiritual Service , that it should perform to God : in which the Soul might have had many sweet meetings with God , and many Communications of Love and Grace from him ; which , through the defects of his duties , are suspended from him . Isai . 64. 5. and this must needs tend to the weakning of the Soul. What Strength , Life , Comfort , have God's People found in holy Duties ? How have their Souls been refresht , their Hearts raised , and quickned , and enlarged after God many times ? but then they have been serious , earnest , fervent in Spirit in these Duties . Now in Prosperity , what careless , heartless service do we perform ? How soon weary ? secretly glad when the work is over ? How ready upon the least occasion to neglect a Duty , or an Ordinance ? Not so fearful to dispense with some Service that God calls for ; nor so fearful to draw nigh a Temptation . O , how cold , dead , and heartless are we in Duty ? All this is too true , O my Soul , see it , lament and bewail ; and bless the Lord for time to do it , and bless him more for an heart to do it . What bad service did Manasses do to God ? Or , rather what great service did he do the Devil , when he was in his prosperity ? never minding his God , or his Soul , till his outward man perished . 3ly , It hinders communion with God , which is the very life of gracious Souls , their Heaven upon Earth : Communion with God in holy Ordinances , and holy Duties ; as Prayer , Praises , Meditation , &c. is that which fattens and prospereth the Souls of God's people ; but outward prosperity hinders communion with God in these ; for then , even while outward comforts are present , God , and his company , and presence , are not so much sound wanting , nor so much valued , desired , and panted after , as in a barren Wilderness , where no waters of worldly comforts are , Psalm 64. 1 , 2 , 3. Psalm 42. 1 , 2 , 3. When David was in great straits , stript of his earthly Comforts , bedewed all with Tears ; then his Soul panted after God : when he was in the Valley of Baca , then he looks unto the Mountains of Myrrh , the Garden of Spices , Psalm 84. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. Is it not so with God's People ? when their Liberty , Friends , Health , Estate , &c. are gone ; then God is sought for , and communion with him , earnestly longed and thirsted for , more than ever ; and then usually most enjoyed . By Acts of Communion with God , Souls converse , commerce , and trade with God , trade in Heaven , and that turns greatly to their advantage : We can never take a Voyage to Heaven by Prayer or Meditation , but it will turn to account first or last ; some gain to our Souls will accrue by every act of communion : We cannot touch Christ by our Faith or Love , but some Vertue will flow from him to our Souls , Psalm 145. 18. God will fulfil the desires of them that fear him : He will satisfie the hungry with good things . Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness . Every groan of a gracious Soul after Grace , every pant and breathing after God in truth , is observed and recorded in Heaven . Mal. 3. 16. A book of remembrance for them that thought upon his Name . O , the transcendent goodness of our most gracious God , to take notice of such poor things ! He will not despise the day of small things : and what an encouragement is this to us , to spend our most serious thoughts on God : But Prosperity in the World , doth stop and interrupt the Soul's converse and trade with God ; by estranging the heart from God and heavenly things , and so it becomes very prejudicial to the prosperity of the inward man. It is very hard for a man to have much of the World in his hands , and much of Heaven in his heart also : to have much converse with , and much enjoyment of Creature-comforts , and to have his Conversation in Heaven too . And when do our Souls thrive and flourish best , but when we are trading above , conversing with God ? Now these great Mischiefs , I have named , to the inner man , are promoted by the prosperity of the outward man ; thus : 1. By making us forgetful of those things that we should necessarily remember , in order to the good of our Souls : Prosperity spoils the Memory exceedingly , as to heavenly and spiritual things , and that in these particulars . Prosperity breeds , 1. Forgetfulness of God , the chief good ; and surely that Soul can never thrive that forgets God , who is the Fountain of all its Life , Grace , and Comfort . The remembrance of God brought sweetness and satisfaction to David's Soul , Psalm 63. 5 , 6. but Prosperity makes us forgetful of God ; Deut. 6. 11 , 12. and Deut. 8. 14 , 19 , 20. Yea , fulness of outward things makes men to deny God ; of which good Agur was afraid , Proverb . 30. 9. 2. Forgetful of their best part , their Souls ; the Soul is then mostly forgotten , when the Body is mostly minded . 3. Forgetful of their Duties to God and Man ; so it was with Pharoah's Butler . 4. Of the Affliction of Joseph , Amos 6. 6. When we our selves are at liberty , how apt are we to forget them that are in Bonds . 5. Of Sin ; that usually is most remembred in time of Affliction , as in Joseph's Brethren . 6. Of God's Word , that is too much forgotten in Prosperity ; the Precepts of God not obeyed , nor the Promises so relished and believed , not Threatnings feared . 7. Prosperity makes us forgetful of Death , Judgment , the World to come , Eternity : The Evil Day is put far off . All these Seven Things should be always remembred by us , and have our frequent Thoughts and Meditations ; for the remembrance of them is very advantageous to the welfare of the inner man , and will tend to the good of our Souls ; but the flourishing of the outward man breeds too much forgetfulness of all these things ; and the forgetfulness of these things , drives us from God , and God from us , keeps us at a distance from him , casts him out of our Minds and Thoughts , makes us unserviceable to him , and hinders our communion with him . 2ly . The flourishing of the outward man begets Pride , Wantonness , Security , Envy , Ambition , Contention , negligence in God's Service , contempt of others , and many hurtful Lusts , Deut. 32. 15. Experience proves this . 3ly . It consumes precious Time and Strength , wastes the Spirits , Thoughts , and Affections , being placed on earthly things , which should all be spent on God principally , and but so much on other things , as may fit us for his Service , and in subordination to him : But while men are contriving how to get , how to manage , how to spend , &c. This fills up their Time , Hearts , Thoughts , Minds , Spirits and all ; so that there is no place nor room left for God , or the concerns of their Souls : Therefore the wife God in great Love and Mercy to the Souls of his People , breaks their outward Prosperity , which otherwise would ruine their Souls , removing those things that hinder the welfare of the Soul ; for when outward Prosperity is gone , then the Soul flies to God , it draws nigh to God. Prosperity kept it at a distance before ; it forgot God before , now it remembers him , seeks God early , serves him diligently : Now it seeks communion with God , pants after his Favour , and the sense of his Love : Now the Soul is awakened and enlightned , and now it remembers God , and it self , and Sion , and its former miscarriages ; it now minds Death and Eternity more seriously than ever , and is more diligent in preparation for them ; and now the Soul that lay languishing and pining before , while the outward man flourished , begins to be in a thriving way ; for these things promote the welfare of the Soul. And this is the first way , how the perishings of the outward man help towards the renewing and strengthning of the inner . Secondly , The Adversity of the outward man promotes the Prosperity of the inner , by being a means of bringing in Light and Conviction into the Soul : Prosperity shuts Men's Eyes , and deafens their Ears ; but vexatio dat visum , Affliction opens Men's Eyes , so that they see what they did not before ; and they see things otherwise than before : dark Dispensations bring Light with them . Afflictions put God's People upon the search . Lamen . 3. 40. Then they retire and look within themselves ; then they find out the filthiness , vanity , frowardness , pride , earthliness of their own hearts , more than ever they saw before ; then they find and feel their Spiritual Wants , Diseases , Dangers , the treachery , falseness , deceitfulness of their own Hearts ; their often grieving , quenching , resisting of God's Spirit in time of Prosperity ; their inordinate Self-love , Flesh-pleasing , and Gratifyings : then they see their former spiritual sloth and negligence , their backwardness to , and weariness in God's Service ; their formality , deadness , customariness in holy Duties ; their impatience of reproof ; their hastiness of Spirit , their want of tenderness towards , and of sympathy with those that were afflicted ; not weeping with those that wept ; their censuring and judging others ; their want of Charity : then they see how badly they improved their healthful and youthful time ; their Talents , and their Enjoyments , with many other Evils are discovered . As also in times of Affliction , there is a discovery of the vanity and emptiness of the Creature : when all Comforts of Life fail ; as Health , Wealth , Friends , Liberty , Estate , &c. then the Soul is convinced of the vanity and uncertainty of all these : The Rod discovers both Heart and Life , and what the Creature is ; And also , then the Souls of God's People come to see the surpassing Excellency of God and Christ , and of the Promises , and of the great Importance of the things of the World to come ; O , now the Soul can prize an Interest in God , and in his Christ and his Covenant : and is hereupon stirred up to mind God more , and Heaven more ; and to bestir it self in the use of all Means , and to get Assurance of an Interest in God. Now all this tends very much to the Welfare of the inner man ; and if we well and wisely consider this Benefit which our merciful Father grants us , by blasting and withering our outward Comforts ; thus to enlighten and convince us of all those things , we shall have cause to Adore and Admire his Goodness towards us , in taking such course with us , and to cry out with Job 7. 17 , 18. What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him ? and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him ? and that thou shouldest visit him every morning , and try him every moment ? Thirdly , The Adversity of the outward man promotes the Prosperity of the inner man , by taking away the Idols of the Soul , which divided the Soul from God : The best of us are apt to make Idols of every Creature-enjoyment , very apt to let out our Hearts in inordinate Affection to Husbands , Wives , Children , & c. and suffer them to have more of our Hearts , Loves , and Delights , than God and Christ , and Heaven ; over-prizing and over-loving them ; taking too much content in them , and expecting too much from them ; and so make Idols of them ; and then God withdraws his gracious Influences from us , those quickning strengthning , and comfortable Influences of his Spirit from us , and hides his face ; and then our poor Souls languish , and we grow weak and feeble ; so it was with David , Psalm 30. 6 , 7. but this withdrawing of God from us , we do not many time perceive and feel , while our earthly Comfort continue with us ; though our Graces be weak Faith and Love weak , our Passions and Corruptions strong , and are too often too hard for us , and we are carried captive by them ; and although w● decay in spiritual strength , and grow dead in holy Duties , careless and watchless in our Conversations , and want that vigour , spirit , and life , which sometime we had ; which are the effects of the absence of God's Spirit ; that we grow cold in on Affections to heavenly things : I say , these sa● effects of God's withdrawment from us , are no● perceived and felt by us , so long as our bodi●● Comforts continue with us ; but then it pleased our gracious God to send some awakening Providences upon us , he sends Adversity , and remove these our Idols ; and then through God's assisting Grace we come to see our sin , and the fruits of it then we see our folly , in letting out of our Hearts upon the vain Creature , and that then God did withdraw , and that our Souls did wither and languish ; upon which , by the special Grace of God , we lament our folly , beg forgiveness through the blood of Christ ; and the Lord , being gracious and merciful , returns to the Soul again ; and then the Soul begins to recover it self , and to grow better . Fourthly , Adversity is a means of bringing afresh to our Remembrance those particular special Sins which in Prosperity were forgot ; and which , while they lye on us without Repentance , they waste and weaken , hurt and corrupt our Souls . Adversity ( as was said before ) puts God's People upon the search of their Hearts and Lives : now they say unto themselves , what have we done ? now their Spirits do , or should make diligent search ; now they do , or should commune with their own Hearts , and examine their ways , and seek for the plague of their Hearts ; their Dalilah's , their Jonah's , their darling , their beloved Sins , which they did not , or would not see in their Prosperity , nor were willing to be reproved for , but did over-look them , or forgot them , or look'd on them as little ones , and common Infirmities , humane Frailties ; and could study shifts to cover and excuse them : Such as Pride and Passion , inordinate Affection , Unthankfulness , Hypocrisie , Covetousness , Selfishness , vain Thoughts , idle Words , Omissions , Unfaithfulness , breaking Vows and Promises ; Earthly mindedness , Security , hardness of Heart , unprofitableness under the means of Grace , and many other Heart-evils that scarce appear in time of Prosperity ; that in time of trouble upon a through search we may find out ; as our Unbelief , want of love to God and Christ , want of love to God's Word , insensibleness of Sin , and want of hatred to it ; want of fervent Charity to others ; with many others : which upon a consciencious search , and by the help of God's Spirit , we shall find out in our selves , which lay hid in us , corroding and putrifying our poor Souls , which were never so heartily confess'd and lamented as they should . But when the Spirit and the Word comes with Affliction , there is a discovery made of those lurking Lusts , the filthy corners of our false Hearts opened ; and every gracious Soul is willing to be convinced of every sin , and begs God heartily to search him , and to rip him up , and to shew him all the Evils of his Heart and Life , with all their aggravating Circumstances , being committed against much Love and Light , against Conscience , Conviction , Resolution ; after many Confessions of them before the Lord ; and many times those Sins are brought to remembrance , which were quite forgotten ; as sins of Youth , fleshly Lusts , excess in Meat , Drink , Apparel ; Disobedience to Parents , mispending Time , foolish jesting , rash Anger , sinful Silence Cowardize in God's Cause , neglect of Reproof ; neglect of relational Duties ; Sabbath-sins , with multitudes of others , which will appear upon a diligent search ; many omissions of Spiritual Duties ; as Heavenly Meditations , Self-examination self-denial , Watchfulness ; all which the gracious Soul being convinced of , repents of , mourns for before the Lord ; and by Faith in the blood of Jesus , obtains Pardon of them , and by the Spirit of Jesus obtains power against them ; and so the Soul being pardoned and healed , recovers , and is renewed day by day ; whereas before it lay pining and la●●●ithing : this blessed fruit is produced by the blessing of our most gracious God , upon the perishings and wastings of our outward man. Fifthly , By disingaging and weaning the Hearts of God's People from all the things of this World , mortifying and crucifying their Affections to things below ; drawing off the Heart from Creature-comforts , weaning the Soul from those dry Breasts . In Prosperity , the best of us think little on Mortification , and on crucifying the Flesh , with the Affections and Lusts of it ; although the very Life and power of true Christianity lies in these ; as Rom. 8. 13. Galat. 5. 24. but then we are for pleasing and gratifying the flesh . Oh , how tender are we of our flesh , and how loth to be cross'd ? how deeply are our Affections engaged to the Vanities of the World ? how do our Hearts cleave and cling to the Creature , even as our Skin to our Body ? how seldom do we think seriously of parting with our Relations , our Health , &c. or of putting off our earthly Tabernacles , and of our ●ying down our Heads in the dark Grave ? How are we afraid of Dangers to our outward man , and troubled at evil tydings ? how thoughtfully careful to preserve our Creature-comforts with us , not taking so much care to en●oy God in them , and to enjoy them for God , as to enjoy them our selves , and for our selves ? How ●ear do they lie to our Hearts ? Now our loving Father seeing all this , he takes it very ill at our ●ands , that the Creature should be so near and ●ear to us , and have so much room in our Hearts ; and therefore in love to our Souls , blasts and wastes these our Comforts , to draw off our Hearts from them , that we may not set our Affections upon them . Sixthly , The perishing of the outward man furthers the flourishings of the inward man , not only by bringing our Sins to our remembrance , ( as was shewed but now ) but also as being a means of God's appointment and blessing , both to purge away Sin past , and to prevent Sin for the future ; as Isa . 27. 9. the Lord speaking of Afflictions there , upon the Church , saith , By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged ; and this is all the fruit , to take away his Sin. O blessed design of our good and gracious God : O blessed fruit . So Job 33. 17 , 18. To withdraw man from his purpose , and to hide Pride from Man. Are not many of God's People sensible of this ? how that be their Afflictions they have been kept from many Sins that without their Afflictions , they ha●● been liable to have fallen into and committed Surely they will acknowledge it , and give Go● thanks . Sin is the Sickness and plague of the Sou● which corrupts the Spirit , wounds the Conscience weakneth Grace : now in time of Prosperity , whe● there is no Plague nor Sickness in Town or Cou●try , but all things belonging to the outward m●● flourish , even then , is the very Air most spiritual infectious , and most places then , and most peoples breath then most infectious ; then the con●gion of Sin spreads most : let a man then go in what place he will , into what Company almost I will , his Soul is in danger of Infection by Si● what Contentions , Pride , Envy , Censuring , Bad biting , unjust Dealing , and at best , but vain , idi● unprofitable Discourse is to be heard among most and how little of promoting the power of Godliness , or mutual edification : Now , in such a time the poor Soul gets falls and wounds , gets many a disease and Spiritual distemper ; which it perceives not : now it gathers much Rust , much Dross ; and it may carry the infection of sin a long time , and is weakned and wasted by it ; which , it may be , others see by him more than himself ; his Passions and Corruptions get ground upon him , and he pines day by day : he grows more worldly , froward , proud , &c. and yet perceives it not ; and thus the inner Man is much damnified , by the advantages of the outward . All this , the wise God seeth and observeth , and out of his pity and tender compassion to the precious Souls of his poor Servants ; seeing them thus captivated by their Corruptions , and diseased with so many spiritual Distempers , and that they stand in great need of Physick , lest they should perish , thinks fit to break their worldly prosperity , to give them the bitter purge of affliction ; to cast them into the Furnace , that they may be purified and purged , and so recovered and saved . Zachar. 13. 9. Thus God ordereth the fire of affliction as a means to cleanse and purify his people from their filthiness , and to make them pure and white . Dan. 11. 35. Seventhly , By exercising the Graces of God's people , which in time of their prosperity , were as it were laid asleep , and for want of use and exercise did decay , and scarce appear : for , it is not Grace ●n the habit , that doth so much comfort the Soul , ●s Grace in exercise : now , Adversity serves to draw ●ut Grace into act and exercise ; as Faith , Repentance , Hope , Patience , and other Graces : now if ever , the Christian labours to put forth his faith on God in Christ ; and on the Covenant and Promises : Oh! now , God and Christ , and the Covenant and the promises signify something indeed to the Soul ; to these , the poor Soul now flies , as it was with Micah , 7. 7. When all outward Comforts failed , then he acted his Faith , Hope and Patience . I will look unto God , I will wait for the God of my Salvation , my God will hear me . So Habb . 3. 17. 18. Then also , God's People renew their Repentance search their Hearts and Ways , and turn to God , as Ephraem , Jerem. 31. 18 , 19. And then they act their Hope upon the promises of future Glory ; and then their Patience appears , and stand● them in great stead ; and their tender-heartedness , their love to God , his Word and People ; their contempt of the World ; yea , every Grace is exercised mostly in time of affliction : and this is the rare and special excellency of true Grace , that ● thrives most and prospers best in the worst time for the most part : Grace is strengthned and fa●ned , when sensible Comforts are withered an● starved ; and thus the inner man is renewed , whe● the outward doth decay and perish . Eightly , The perishings of the outward Man he , forward the flourishing of the inward , by makit room and place , and preparation in the Souls o● God's People , for the gracious Communications Spiritual Mercies to them : as is evident from tha● Scripture , Hos . 2. 6. and 14 compared . The●● Creature-enjoyments stood in the way before , fill● up all the room in the Hearts ; now these must b● removed , to make way for better Mercies ; the too-well-beloved guests must be discarded , that th● King of Glory may come in . Other lovers had th● heart before , these must be divorced , that th● Lord Jesus may the more fully and sweetly manifest his love to the Souls of his people : See Mr. Burr . on the Second of Hos . Verse 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13. There are many heavy Judgments threatned ; the taking away all the Comforts of the outward Man : Where , we may note God's absolute Soveraignty over all our enjoyments , and his propriety in them all : So Ezek. 16. 18 , 21. All we have is the Lord's ; and his gracious , sweet and blessed ends and purposes in threatning and executing those terrible things , and that is wonderful ; as Verse 14. Therefore , Behold , I will allure her , and bring her into the Wilderness , and speak comfortably to her . It was to make way for the communications of glorious Mercies . The gracious God hath gracious Ends , in all his taking Providences towards his poor people ; to make the wastings , fadings , totterings , perishings of their outward Man , to prove helpful to the increasing , prospering and flourishing of the inner Man. Outward Takings make way for inward Givings : I will take away ( saith God ) all her Lovers , dry up all her Cisterns , that I may open to her the Fountain . I will strip her naked of all her outward Comforts , that I may speak comfortably to her Soul : Now I will allure her ; now I have brought her into the Wilderness ; now my poor peoples hearts are taken off from the Creature , I will see now to win them to my self . I may now win their love and gain their hearts to me , seeing they are stript of the earthly comforts . O what support should this be to God's afflicted People , O , that we could believe it and improve it ; that God's design in all his takings from us , is but to make way , that he may bestow greater and better Mercies upon us : This Argument our Lord used to comfort his Disciples with , John 16. 6 , 7. Of all earthly Comforts , the bodily presence of Christ with his Disciples was the best ; yet , he tells them , he must leave them , and withal assures then for their comfort , that it was for their advantage , and that it was expedient for them that he should leave them , that the Comforter might come , which should abundantly supply his absence ; and who would not come to them , if he did not go away . This would be enough to quiet and comfort ●● in all sinking providences , that these takings an intended to make way for the giving of Spiritu●● Mercies , if our unbelief , distrust , despondenc● and impatience do not hinder . Oh , could we but drink in this truth , and firmly believe it , that God's takings from us , are i● order to his givings to us ; as God took from Davi● an Infant begot in Adultery , and gave him Solomon in its room ; and that his Castings of ● down , are in order to his Raisings of us up ; h● witherings of our outward intended for the rene●ings of our inner ; how patiently and comfortabl● should we bear our troubles ; yea , and how fervently should we pray , that God would bring pass all those his gracious purposes upon o● Souls . I shall conclude this particular by setting dow● an Instance of our times , which I had from a Person of Quality and Honesty ; tho' I never use ● record Reports , but this , upon the credit of t● relator , I shall for once , and it is very remarkable . There was some years since , in London , a ve●● Godly Gentleman and his Wife , who had a ve●● fair Estate , both of them very zealous professors Religion ; eminent for Piety and Charity ; who had lived together many years , but had never a Child , which they much desired , and often sought the Lord to build their Family for them ; and at last , God was pleased to give them a Son , to their great joy ; which lived and grew up to be three or four Years Old , exceeding fair and witty , very delightful and pleasant , tractable and teachable ; and they having but this one Child , their affections were much set upon him ; and likely too much : The Husband and Wife lived exceeding lovingly together , insomuch that many observed their sweet Carriage to each other ; he being of a lovely disposition , and every way well bred , and a Man of good Parts , and of an Holy Life ; so amiable and tender to his Wife , that her Life was even bound up in his : In the midst and height of this their Prosperity , the Gentleman fails Sick and Dies ; which was so heavy a stroak to his poor Wife , that she could not bear up under it : her Spirit sinks , and she refused to be comforted : many Prayers were put up to God for her in the publick Congregations ; and many pious Ministers and godly Friends visited her , to Comfort her , but to no purpose ; for she had no regard to her self , or did care to Eat or Drink , but for meer necessity , but would sit in the Chimney-corner all day , sighing and weeping , and hanging downher head , seldom giving an answer to any body : Upon a certain day , some godly Ministers with Christian Friends by agreement , met at her House to Fast and Pray , and seek God for her ; and it came to pass , that after they had ended their work , walking up and down where this disconsolate Widow was ; her lovely Child playing there in the Room , ( of whom she took no noice ) had got a Joint-steel ; and carrying it up and down , at last he turns the Stool upside down , and immediately fell or thrust himself into it , no Person present knew how ; but the Stool and the Child overturning together , the Childs head being downward , he brake his Neck ; they sent presently for Physicians and Chirurgeons , but the Child died presently ; and no means would avail at all , to get so much as one breath from him ; which was most amazing and astonishing to all the beholders ; the Chamber being then full : The poor Mother sat there all this while in her usual posture , but when she saw her Child was really dead , she arose up , and before them all , uttered these words , or words to this purpose ; most of them are the very words : O! blessed Jesus , will nothing please thee but the heart of thy poor Creature ; and the whole heart , and the whole love ; now take it , Lord ; take it , thou hast won it , thou art worthy of it , I give thee my whole heart ; Lord , take it , take it , fill it with thy Love , and possess it for ever . And from that very moment , she was filled with joy and comfort , and walked very chearfully and comfortably several Months , even until God took her unto himself . Here we see the truth of what I have been treating of ; the Lord made the blastings and breakings of her outward Man the means of refreshing and comforting her inner . I should not have set this down , but that I depend upon the Credit of the Relator . O Lord ! how unsearchable are thy Judgments , and thy ways past finding out ! 4. The last particular proposed , was , that , for a Christian to be renewed in the inner Man when the outward Man doth decay and perish , is the Character and Comfort of gracious Persons . That it is their Character , appears , because the contrary is true of wicked Persons ; they are curs'd in Soul , when cross'd in Body ; their outward perishings prove inward perishings also ; for then , usually they murmur and repine ; fret against God and Instruments ; then , they think of sinful shifts and unlawful means to get out of trouble ; when their outward Man is hurt by affliction , they hurt their Souls by sin ; by impatience and discontent , as that wicked King , who said , what , shall I wait upon God any longer ? but now we find the servants of the Lord , as Eli , David , Job , Micah , Habakkuk and others , when their outward comforts failed them , then they submitted to the will of God , fled to him for supplies , trusted in him , and so by the exercise of their Faith and Patience , their Souls were supported and strengthned . David expressly confesseth that it was good for him , that is , for his Soul , his inner Man , that he was afflicted . Psal . 119. 71. And in the Text , we have the attestation of the Apostle and Primitive Christians . And this is the comfort also of God's People , that their greatest outward evils , through the goodness and blessing of God , turn to their greatest inward good : and this makes them rejoyce in afflictions , and glory in tribulations ; as Rom. 5. 2. to wit , because of the Spiritual benefit they receive by afflictions , and upon this very ground , God gives that command , Heb. 12. 12. Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down : that is , therefore be comforted and encouraged . Therefore , wherefore ? because of the great profit and sweet fruits of God's chastnings upon his People : Therefore lift up the hands that hang down . As it is a comfort to a Man that hath a Wound in his Body , to have his Cloths torn off , that so his wound may be healed ; so it is to have the diseases of our Souls cured , tho' our outward comforts be rent and torn from us . The Application . I. For Information . First , Hence it appears , that there is a great difference between the Godly and Ungodly , in reference to afflictions , between the upright and the hypocrite : The godly are the better , the wicked are the worse for affliction . The godly Man gains in his inner Man , by his losses in his outward Man but the wicked in their afflictions commit more wickedness , and their Corruptions break out more to the ruine of their Souls : The Righteous holdeth on his way , altho' Briers and Thorns , yea , Lyons be in his way , that tear and spoil all his outward Comforts ; and he that hath clean Hand and a clean Heart , groweth stronger and stronger even when his outward Man grows weaker and weaker : Job 17. 9. The wicked in affliction are like the troubled Sea , that casts up nothing but mi●● and dirt . Isa . 57. 20. Secondly , That an afflicted godly Person is in a far better case than an afflicted wicked Person , th● the affliction be of the same kind , measure and degree ; because an afflicted godly Person hath fa● better grounds of Comfort than the other ; forth godly Man may be confident that his affliction o● his outward Man , shall tend to the good of his Soul but the ungodly hath ground enough to fear , that he shall be the worse for his affliction : the wicked shall grow worse and worse . Tho' all things may happen alike to all , as to outward afflictions ; yet the godly have the best on 't upon this account , that their outward afflictions shall tend to their Inward , Spiritual and Eternal Good : O , happy are the People that are in such a case , that no Winds can blow amiss to them ; but that all the cross and contrary winds that they meet with , upon the Stormy Sea of this World , shall but further them in their Passage , and hasten them to their Harbour in Heaven . Blessed be the Lord our God : Amen . Thirdly , Then , a gracious person hath more and better ground of Patience , quietness and Contentation under all his afflictions than a wicked Person hath ; because every gracious Person hath good ground to hope , believe and conclude , that , his good God is doing him good , doing his Soul good , by all the troubles on his outward Man ; and having ground to hope , believe and conclude so , he hath good ground of Patience and Contentation . Now a Child of God hath good ground to hope , believe and conclude so ; because he hath the faithful word of the true and faithful God , for to ground his Hope and Faith upon ; who hath said , that all things shall work together for good to his People : if all things , then afflictions ; Rom. 8. 28. And that all things are theirs ; 1 Cor. 3. 22 , 23. things present , all their present sufferings and troubles are theirs ; that is , shall work for their Spiritual good : and God's word tells us expresly , Hebr. 12. 10. that all our chastisements are for our profit , our greatest profit ; namely , to make us partakers of God's Holiness ; to purge away our Sins , Isa . 27. 9. to make us conformable to Christ : and to fit and prepare us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory , 2. Cor. 4. 17. Here we have a sure word of Promise ; the God of Truth , who cannot Lye , the Almighty God , ( who is able to perform his promises ; which promises flow from his everlasting Love and unsearchable goodness & mercy , and are founded in the full satisfaction of Jesus Christ , in whom they are made , and through whom they shall be fulfilled ; to assure us of the truth of them . ) I say the Almighty God hath engaged his word , that all the sufferings of his Children shall work for the good of their Souls ; which is a most firm ground of Patience , Contentation and Consolation to them . When I can believe and be perswaded in my Soul , that all my afflictions shall promote the welfare of my Soul , I have all the reason in the World to be patient and content under them : Our great care must be to look to this , that we be the Heirs of the Promises ; and if we be in Christ , really united to Christ , grafted into him , made partakers of his Spirit , Life , and Grace ; then are we the Heirs of the Promises , Hebr. 6. 17 , 18. Gal. 3. last : and we being the Heirs of the promises , we have grounds of Patience , because God hath promised all shall work for our good : and then next , that we may be able with patience to bear our afflictions , we must labour to keep these promises still in our eyes , looking to them , and to the love , goodness , faithfulness and all-sufficiency of God in them , and looking unto Jesus , through whose satisfaction and mediation they come to us , and labouring to keep our Eyes , the Eyes of Faith and Hope , fixed on those promises , trusting in God , and relying upon him ; and so shall we be able in our Patience to possess our Souls : and Patience will do us great service in affliction , for altho' it cannot keep us from misery , it will keep us from being miserable : for we can never be miserable , so long as we have an interest in Christ , and through him , in the promises . Now Faith in the promises is both the breeder and feeder of Patience , let Faith live , and Patience will not dye : let Faith be present , and Patience will not be absent ; and through Faith and Patience we shall inherit the promises . Oh , then , let us labour to live by Faith , and strive to keep up our ●aith in Act and Exercise ; and in special , upon the real Spiritual Good , that our good God will bring to our inner Man , by the decays and perishings of our outward , he having promised so to do , and he being faithful who hath promised ; and let us also labour to live in hopes and expectations of that good , praying also constantly for increase of our Faith and Hope , so shall we be able with Patience to endure to the end , and be saved . Certainly it is every ones concernment , to know and consider , that Man consists of two Parts , the inner and outer Man , and which of the two is best , and ought to be most minded , and principally looked after ? for most live , as if they had Bodies only , and no Souls ; or , if they have Souls , that they need not much minding , but say , they leave the care of them to God : whereas indeed , it is the welfare , the safety and salvation of our Souls , that we all should be most solicious about . What shall it profit a Man ( saith our Saviour ) if he gain the whole World , and ●ose his own Soul ? Sin is the Disease of the Soul , and Holiness the health of the Soul , and afflictions are God's Physick to effect this Cure by ; surely then , we had better take the Physick , the Remedy , tho' it make us sick , than keep our Disease , which will make us Die , and that eternally : the Remedy is better than the Disease . So that when our merciful Father , the only wise God , sees , that the blastings and breakings of our outward Comforts , are proper means to keep us from , and to purge from 〈…〉 Spiritual Diseases , our sins , which not purged would destroy our inner Man , our Souls ; and therefore useth this means , what cause have we to endeavour in God's strength , patiently , quietly and comfortably , to bear all our breaches and perishings of our outward Man ? yea , and to praise and bless the Lord , that he will take this course with us , thus to chasten us here in this World , that we may not be condemned with the World hereafter : 1 Cor. 11. 32. Fourthly , It follows also from the Premises , that wicked Men are fools , very fools , yea , mad fools and cruel to their own Souls , because all their ca●● is for their Bodies , and none at all for their Souls , they provide for the Servant , but neglect the Master ; provide for the Horse , but forget the Rider : Eccl. 10. 7. We have seen , how little care God takes of the outward Man , but beats and break that many times , that he may secure and preserve the inner Man of his People . And also wicked Men are cruel to their own Souls Prov. 8. 36. He that sinneth against God , wrongeth his own Soul. Is it not a madness , carefully to preserve the Box , but lose the Jewel ? to spend precious time , strength , thoughts , cares , pains , all Mans days , in feeding , cloathing , preserving the outward Man ; but let the poor Soul starve , perist and be eternally lost ? if there be any cruelty out● Hell , this is a great piece of it . Fifthly , It follows also , that the continuance o● outward Comforts is not to be expected . The● will be witherings , decays , perishings of our ou●ward Man ; it cannot be avoided : our health at ease , and peace , will not abide always with us our dearest Relations must bid us farewel , this on earthly Tabernacle must shortly be put off ; w● cannot live always : all things here are mutable and changeable ; we see this by experience ever● moment : our pleasant and lovely Companions in the flesh , our dearest friends in Christ ; our Yoak-fellows , the desires of our Eyes , the comforts of our lives ; they and we must part . Psal . 39. 6. This fully believed , and seriously considered , would unglue our affections from these things , and prepare us to part with them ; that our parting with them be not so grievous to us , as usually it is . Could we use these things as we do our Gloves on our Hands , which we can with ease pluck off ; and not as the skin on our Hands , which cannot be pulled off but with much pain and smart . It were good wisdom for us often to look on all our earthly comforts , as things that we cannot long enjoy ; as things that we must needs shortly part with ; this my health , my estate , my ease , my relations , I must part with , and I know not how soon , a parting time must come : This Soul and Body must part , and to keep such thoughts in our minds , and often to consider of it , would help to moderate our affections to them while we enjoy them , and to imploy them for God , and also it would prevent our immoderate sorrow for the loss of them , because we expected such losses , and made account of them before they came : but we are too often surprised , and therefore too often overcome with sorrow . Sixthly , It follows from the premises , that the Servants of God have no true cause or reason to be discouraged , disquieted or dejected , when their outward Man perisheth , their outward Comforts wither , their old House begins to totter and decay ; because by all these witherings and perishings of their outward Man , their inner Man is renewed day by day ; and therefore , no cause of fainting . Such as know , that is , are assured by Faith , that when this their earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolved , that they have a building with God , an House not made with hands , eternal in the Heavens , such will not be troubled when their Houses of Clay begin to totter ; no , but rather , they groan earnestly to be cloathed upon with their House which is from Heaven . 2 Cor. 5. 1 , 2 , 3. And that God's Servants may thus be willing to put off their earthly Tabernacles , and exchange them for Heavenly Houses . God is working upon them , and in them , this willingness , as Verse 5 , by his Spirit , his Word , and by his Chastisements , breaking and blafting their earthly Comforts , weakning their bodies , to make them willing to leave them , and to long for those everlasting habitations , which their dear Lord hath prepared for them ; John 14. 1 , 2 , 3. And for the more effectual working of God's People to this willingness , he gives unto them the earnest of the Spirit , which is the earnest of their Inheritance , untill the Redemption of the purchased Possession , Eph. 1. 13 , 14. and Rom. 8. 23. We which have received the First-fruits of the Spirit groan within our selves , waiting for the Adoption , to wit , the Redemption of our Bodies . Now this Earnest or First-fruits of the Spirit , which in some measure God gives to all his people here in this life , to prepare them for Glory , is called also the Seal of the Spirit , Ephes . 1. 13. After ye believed , ye were sealed . Now , this Seal of the Spirit , I take to be , the saving Works , Graces and Fruits of the Spirit in us ; as the Work of true and sound illumination , true Conviction of our Sin and Misery , and of the Creatures Vanity ; of our own impotency and utter insufficiency to help 〈…〉 our selves ; and of Christ's Excellency , All-sufficiency and willingness to save all such as come unto him , and are heartily willing to take him for their onely Lord and Saviour ; all this is the work of the Spirit : As also , sound Conversion from all Sin unto God , as the chief good ; the Spirit enabling the Soul to repent and turn to God ; and also working in the Soul the Grace of Faith , enabling it to come to Christ , to receive him , accept of him , rest upon him , and to resign it self up sincerely to him and to his Government , by his Word and Spirit . The Spirit works Sanctification in the Soul , destroying the old corrupt Principles of Nature , and implanting new Principles of spiritual Life , making it partaker of the Divine Nature ; mortifying in it the lusts of the flesh , and quickning it to newness of life ; repairing the Image of God upon it , and working all those other Graces , which are the Conditions of Pardon and Justification ; as true love to God and Christ , to his Word and People ; true Fear of God , sorrow for , and hatred of Sin ; producing those Fruits mentioned , Galat. 5. 22 , 23. as Patience , Meekness , Humility , and the like . Also the Spirit helps the Soul to act those Graces , and to perform those Duties required of us , in order to our Salvation : It guides and leads , and teacheth us , helps our Infirmities , teacheth us to pray , and carrieth on the whole work of Sanctification in us . And this I take to be the Seal of the Spirit ; when those saving Impressions and Habits of Grace and Holiness are wrought in and upon the Soul , whereby the Soul is made in some measure like unto Christ Jesus , being by the Spirit united to him , planted and grafted in him , and by vertue of its union with him , made partakers of his Life and Grace , whereby it lives and grows , until it come to the State of Perfection in the other World. This Spirit thus savingly working , is God's Seal upon our Hearts , the Seal of his everlasting love to our Souls , and of his everlasting Covenant which he hath entred into with us , which he will never deface or blot out ; and it is also the Earnest of our Inheritance ; that thereby we may confidently conclude to our great comfort , that , as sure as he hath given us his Spirit , thus savingly to work in us those gracious Works , this gracious Change , this true Repentance , and Faith and Love , and Holiness , and other Graces ; even so sure he will give us the Inheritance in Heaven at last : as surely as he hath sanctified us , so surely he hath justified us , and will glorifie us : For this is the Seal , this is the Earnest . And upon this account saith the Apostle , Having this Seal , this Earnest , this comfortable Assurance of a better state , and of a better life after this , we groan earnestly to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven ; That we may possess that glorious purchased Inheritance , of which we now have the earnest ; we long to enjoy the full Harvest , of which we have received the First-fruits , and consequently , we that have received these First-fruits , this blessed Earnest ; have no cause to be troubled or disquieted , when these our earthly Tabernacles begin to decay and perish ; because we are wrought by God's Spirit for a better state ; and , as was said , not only the Spirit of God worketh this willingness to die , by working those Graces in the Soul , as you see ; but also accompanying Afflictions , and blessing them , to crucifie our Affections to earthly things , and helps to Holiness in order to our eternal Happiness ; and therefore also ought the more patiently to be endured . Seventhly , Then it is the chiefest wisdom in the World , for every one of us to labour to become real Saints , to get into a state of saving Grace ; and often to search and try our selves , and never to give over searching and trying , until we come to some well-grounded Assurance , That we are indeed truly Regenerated , and that we have a real Interest in Jesus Christ ; for this Assurance may be attained , and we are commanded to give all diligence to attain it , 2 Pet. 1. 10. It is not bare wishes or desires will serve the turn , but we must labour and strive after it , and be much in self-examination , 2 Cor. 13. 5. How is it possible we can have any true comfort living or dying , if we have no Assurance of a better Life ; and so long as we know not whether we shall go to Heaven or Hell when we die : We all have been too negligent in labouring after this Assurance ; let us lament it , and let us all now begin to bestir our selves , and in God's strength lay out our utmost care and pains in the use of all means to get the clear evidences of our peace with God , and that we are in a pardoned and reconciled state ; for upon this Assurance , we shall have this Advantage above all others , that we shall not be troubled nor much disquieted , when our outward man doth decay and perish , our earthly comforts fail us , our bodily Members wither ; because all these decays and wastings do but make way , and prepare us for the happiness of our Souls . Whereas , on the contrary , it must needs be an uncomfortable thing , to look upon a decaying Body , and be altogether uncertain what will become of the Soul when it leaves this Body : It must needs make Death terrible . But when we know that our Souls at death shall enter into our Master's joy we shall bid Death welcom . The Eighth Inference . From what hath been said , we may draw one Rule of Tryal to us all , whereby we may know whether we be true real Christians or no , or only nominal , and but formal Professors , viz. by the real good to our Souls that our Afflictions have done us ; we all have had Afflictions of one kind or other ; let us examine what spiritual good we have got by them : look over the former Particulars , and apply them . It is a true sign of a Child of God , to be the better for Prosperity and Adversity , and commonly more the better for Adversity than or Prosperity . But lest we should be mistaken , I grant , that Affliction may work some good in the hypocritical Professors , as on Ahab and Nineveh . But note these Differences . First , On the Godly , Afflictions work good mostly on their inward man , on their Souls ; although they work good also on their Conversations ; the sweet fruits of Afflictions appear also in their Lives . But on others , if Afflictions do work any good at all , it is mostly on their outward man ; they may by them be outwardly reclaimed and reformed , but not inwardly renewed and sanctified . Now there is a vast difference between outward Reformation and inward Renovation . 2dly , The fruit of Affliction on the Godly is continually increasing and growing ; it is renewing day by day ; as in the Text. But the Fruit of Affliction upon others , is like a morning dew , or early cloud , which the Sun-blast of Prosperity dries all up , and blows all off . Those seeming Fruits of Humility , of Sensibleness , Patience , Inclinations to good Duties , Resolutions against Sin , &c. which appear in some in time of their Affliction , are all blasted and withered again , when their Afflictions are removed , Hos . 6. 4. Thirdly , The Fruit of Affliction upon the Godly is more afterward than at present , Heb. 12. 11. ●ut on others 't is most at present , even while the Affliction is upon them ; then they will seek God early and earnestly : but when the Affliction is over , they grow remiss and careless . And oh , that this were not the fault of too many of the Godly ! It is the After-fruit of Righteousness , the exemplary Holiness of our Lives afterwards , that ●s the good Fruit of sanctified Afflictions , which we must bring forth , to evidence the Love of our Father to us in his Chastnings of us , and our spiritual Profit by those Chastisements . It is not so ●uch how we behave our selves in the time of our Afflictions , ( though that must be minded also , and ●●reful we must be to carry our selves as Christians under the Cross ; ) for an Ahab may then ●ehave himself well : but the great matter is , how ●e carry our selves after our Afflictions ; that ●●en we bear and bring forth the quiet and peace●ble Fruits of Righteousness ; that we shew forth our Conversations , the singular good and spiritual profit that we have got by our Afflictions ; at we are become more holy , more heavenly , ●umble , meek , lowly , more tender-hearted , more ●●tchful and circumspect , more zealous of good ●orks , more charitable , more careful in all things please God. This is that will clearly prove , That Afflictions have done us good , and then we shall have cause to bless God for them . Fourthly , The promised Good and Blessing ●● Affliction , is the main thing which the graciou● Soul mostly desireth , prayeth for , and hopes and expects : Thus he breaths ; O , that this strok● may be a stroke of Love ; O , that this Affliction may do good to my inward man ; O , that my S●● may flourish and prosper , and be a Gainer by a my outward Losses and Crosses : O , that my So● may be purged in those Fires , and cleansed i● those Waters of Affliction , that I may bring for all the blessed Fruits of Affliction ; and O , th● God would accomplish all his gracious ends up●● my Soul , by his Chastisements : but it is not with others ; they cry , Lord , remove thy ha●● take away my Affliction . Fifthly , The gracious Soul understands God's a sign in Affliction , and earnestly desires to k●● the whole Mind of God , and why the Lord o● tendeth with him ; and hears the Voice of Rod , searcheth for his Sin , for the Plague of own Heart ; repents and turns to God through casts away the Idols of his heart , resolves aga●● his Corruptions ; prays and hopes for the ble●● of his Affliction ; and thereupon he labours submit to the holy Will of God , and patiently bear his Afflictions . But it is not so with oth●● they are not sollicitous about the attaining of spiritual good to their Souls ; so they can get the Affliction , they care for no more : Whe● the gracious Soul is afraid that he shall lose ● benefit of his Afflictions , and therefore is n● earnest with God for it . Sixthly , The gracious Soul seeks a ●●eparation of all his Losses , and a Balance to all his Troubles in God through Christ , and in God's Covenant , 2 Sam. 23. 5. and there he finds it in some measure , which stayeth and quieteth him : When the streams of all Creature-comforts fail him , he repairs to God the Fountain , and there he lies for all Supplies , Psalm 31. 14. Psalm 142. 4 , 5. Refuge failed me , no man cared for my Soul. I cried unto thee , O Lord , I said , thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living . But the Ungodly are strangers to this course in the time of their trouble . Now these things considered , we may by them attain in some measure the knowledge of our estate , whether we be godly or no ; in a state of Grace or no ; to wit , by the real good our Souls have gotten by our bodily troubles . So much for Information . II. Thesecond Vse is of Counsel to God's afflicted People , when their earthly Comforts wither and decay . 1. Bear the Indignation of the Lord , take his blows with patience , acknowledge his hand , stoop and submit to his Will ; He is your gracious , wise , merciful Father that smites you ; he intends you no hurt ; He that loves you better than you can love your selves ; He that Redeemed you , and he that knows what is best for you ; He that intends all for your good , and will cause all things to work for your good : therefore in your patience possess ye your Souls , and quietly submit to his good Will. 2. Search your Hearts and try your Ways , and turne him that smiteth you ; Commune with your o● Hearts ; call to remembrance your neglects ●● Duty to God and Man ; your neglect of the So●● of your Relations ; your careless performance ● holy Duties ; your mis-spending your Talents your earthly and unprofitable Discourses , &c. Th●● is a time for Heart-searching , a time for the tr● of your ways , Lamentat . 3. 40. In the day of Adversity consider : Consider wherefore God afflicts you consider what you have done against God , a● what your present Duty is : Repent of your f●●mer miscarriages , hurable your selves under God mighty hand ; and act Faith on the Lord Jesus ●● Remission , and by Faith labour to draw streng● of Grace to reform and amend ; and so comp● with God's design in his Corrections , which i● to take away your Sin , and to make you partake of his Holiness . 3. In your Afflictions consult God's Word , a● be conversant therewith , and conform there●● Now learn to kep God's Precepts , Psalm 119. ● Now set straight steps to your fe●t , Heb. 12. 12. ● God 's Word you will fin● sweet Counsels and Co●solations precious Promises , encouraging ● amples of Faith and Patience ; supporting , qui●ning and strengthning Arguments : Had it ●● been for God's Word , David had perished in his ● fliction O , therefore now study the Scriptur● and make them your Meditation Night and Da● acquaint your selves with God's Word , and app● it , and yield up your selves to the obedience of ● holy Job in his Affliction , esteemed the Word of G●● above his necessary Food ; and David , above Gold ●● Silver . 4. Learn and comply with God's Designs in chastening you : His main Designs are these ; To take away our Sins , Isa . 27. 9. He takes away our Isaacs , to destroy our Dalilahs ; he removes the desire of our Eyes , to consume the Defilements of our Hearts ; God designs the purifying of us , to make us clean and holy , and fit Vessels for himself to dwell in , to make us partakers of his holiness , and conformable to his Son ; to make our Souls better ; to draw us off from all our Idols , and to draw us nearer to himself , and to prevent our sinning here , and our condemnation with the World hereafter . O blessed , gracious Ends our heavenly Father hath in all his Chastisements of us ; now it 's our Duty to comply with these his Ends , and pursue them with utmost diligence . Quest . But how shall we pursue those Ends ? Answ . First , by deep and serious Meditation upon those few special things fit to be thought on in Affliction . 1. Think seriously on the meritorious Causes of your Affliction ; search for your Sins ; let your Spirits make diligent search for your Sins ; for now God is searching for your Sins , Job 10. 6. and we should set in with him , and think how greatly you have provoked him , how unkindly you have dealt with him ; against what Light and Love , and Mercy you have sinned ; and think also upon the desert of your Sins ; you are now under outward Afflictions ; but where had you been , ●f God had dealt with you according to your Deserts ? Call to mind your Sins , and repent , and reform ? 2. Think seriously on the Designs of God in all your Troubles , what good Intentions God hath in them ; that he aims at nothing but your real spiritual , and eternal good : It he break your earthly Comforts , waste your Estates and Bodies it is for the good of your Souls ; be perswaded of this , consider it , and lay it to heart . 3. Think seriously of the Love of God in Christ to you , in all your Afflictions ; they come from his Fatherly Love , he sees that you need them , that your Souls will perish without them ; and that he doth chastise you , because he loves you , and because you are his Children . 4. Think also , how infinitely better God deals with you , than with others , whom he chastn●● not here , but reserves them for the Wrath to come , unto everlasting Destruction ; in comparison of which , all your heaviest Afflictions here are not as much as Flea-bitings . 5. Think also upon the many exceeding great and precious Promises which God hath made t● you , for your support : As , that he will be ●● you ; will never leave you ; that all shall work togeth●● for your good ; that he will uphold you : and ma● such . 6. Think seriously and deeply on that ●● more exceeding and eternal weight of glory , for whi●● all your Afflictions do prepare you . Thus be m●● in Meditation on those things Lastly , Think upon the Sufferings of Christ fo● you ; his bitter Agony , and bloody Sweat in the Garden ; his cruel , cursed , shameful , painful Death on th● Cross , Isa . 53. 10. Thus if we exercise our Thought in these Considerations , it will help us to th● attaining the gracious Ends of God in his Chastisements . Secondly , As by Meditation , so by Prayer we must pursue God's Ends : Now pray , pray continually , pray without ceasing ; pray most earnestly , most fervently ; strive and wrestle with God in Prayer , as Jacob did for the Blessing ; so should we pray , and continue instant in prayer , that God would accomplish all his blessed Designs upon our Souls , and perform his whole Work. Thirdly , By Faith in Christ , and in the Promises ; for no Blessing comes to the Soul any way , but in and by Jesus Christ ; and only in and through him are the Promises fulfilled : Therefore in all our Afflictions , we must look unto Jesus , as unto him , through whose hands the Affliction comes upon us ; for all our Afflictions come through his hand ; and the blessing of them comes through his hand also ; act Faith on all that Jesus hath done and suffered for you ; and upon what he is doing for you in Heaven ; and upon what gracious Promises he hath made to you : and the more you can act Faith on Christ , the more you will love him ; and the more you love him , the more patiently and comfortably you will bear his Chastisements ; as knowing that they proceed from his Love to you , Rev. 3. 19. III. The last Vse is for Consolation : The Text and Doctrine is very full of Comfort . If this be a Truth that I have held out ; That the perishings and wastings of the outward man , of the People of God , tend to the renewing of their inward man ; then let none of God's People be discouraged or dejected , whatever Afflictions befal them ; Poverty , Sickness , Restraint , loss of Relations , Estates : Remember and consider , what great Spiritual Good all shall certainly produce to you , and what a gracious issue all your Afflictions shall have upon you ; and therefore faint not , nor be weary ; but be quiet and comforted . Quest . But when may we take Comfort in our Afflictions ? Answ . 1. When God's smiting you , works i● you true turning unto God , Isa . 9. 13. Jer. 31. 1● 19 , 20. for then Affliction proceeds from God Love , and turns to your good . O , the yerning Bowels of God towards returning Sinners . 2. When by Chastisements we are made partakers of God's Holiness , made more holy , an● more conformable to Christ than formerly , He● 12. 10. 3. When God's Soveraignty works in us S●lence and submission ; as in Eli , David , as others . 4. When God's Rods on us make us mor● obedient to his Law , Psalm . 94. 12 , 13. as 119. 67. 71. 5. When God's Righteousness in what he doth gives quietness and satisfaction to the Soul ; a Dan. 9 14. Nehem. 9. 33. 6. When Afflictions put us upon Self-examination , and searchings for our Sins , Lam. 3. 4. Gen. 42. 21. 7. When in Afflictions we can see God's faithfulness , making good his Promises , Psalm 119. 75. He hath promised to withhold no good thing . 8. When we hope and believe , that God wil● give us more , and better things , than those he takes from us , 2 Chron. 25. 9. Psalm 90. 14 , 15. Isa . 35. 6. 9. When God's Wisdom contents us ; that because God is only wise , and knows best , what is be●● for us , this contents us , Isa . 28. 27 , 28. Infinite Wisdom hath ordered it . 10. When we can firmly believe that God's Love is in all his Chastisements , Heb. 12. 6. All these things will produce Comfort in all our Afflictions ; especially when we can see these Effects in some measure brought forth in us , we may conclude , that God's gracious Design prospers in us . Could we but find that our inward man grows better , and that we grow and flourish in Grace , when our outward man doth decay and perish , we should not faint . The good Lord grant that this may be the good Effect of all my Afflictions . Amen . So much of the First Part. PART II. Orthodox Paradox : OR , THE Greatest Temporal Evil working the greatest Eternal Good. 2 COR. iv . 17. For our light Affliction which is but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory . THIS the Apostle brings in as a Reason of that holy Courage that he and the Primitive Christians had under all their Troubles , that they did not faint , but rather , they got strength ; and as their outward man perished , their Souls , their better part , flourished and prospered ; as in the foregoing Verse : For ( saith he ) our light affliction , &c. In which Reason or Argument we may observe , 1. The Nature of the Saints Troubles ; they are Afflictions . 2. The Qualities of them ; they are light , and but for a moment . 3. The Tendency of them , or their subserviency to their eternal good , through God's blessing on them ; they work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory . 1. For the Nature of the Saints Troubles , they are Afflictions , and our Afflictions : All the Saints Troubles in this Life are Afflictions , and but Afflictions ; they are not properly Punishments , inflicted on them , to make Satisfaction for Sin. They are not Destructions , no , they are but Afflictions . The original word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth a pressing , from the effect of them on the Saints ; for they are sent to press out their hidden Corruptions , that were in the Heart undiscovered ; to make manifest that which lay hid before . Affliction is as God's Wine-press also , to press out the sweet Wine of Grace , that it may appear in Act and Exercise . It is also God's Fullers-press , to press out the inward spots and defilements of their Souls . Afflictions are not to the Saints Executions of Vengeance , not Destructions , as they are to others , Destruction upon Destruction ; that is , one Trouble and Distress upon another ; so they are to the Wicked . 2. They are our Affliction too : this may note , first , the commonness of them to all men , 1 Cor. 10. 13. No Temptation befals us , but what is common to Men , to all Men , and mostly , to all Saints ; it is their Lot , their Portion ; yea , it is God's Gift to them , Phil. 1. 29. Secondly , It may note the Propriety the Saints have in their Afflictions , and Benefit they have by them . These Afflictions are ours , 1 Cor. 3. 22. All things are yours , things present : the present Afflictions are ours ; that is , they are sanctified , and made profitable to us ; they are our Friends , Friends to our Souls , not our Foes ; they are our Helps , not our Harms ; they are ours in common also ; they are the Churches Troubles ; others sympathize with us , and they count our Afflictions theirs . And if this be so , what reason have we to faint and sink under our Troubles , seeing they are but Afflictions , not Destructions , and seeing they are ours also , for our good and advantage , appointed and ordered to us by the loving Hand of our only-wise God and gracious Father : and seeing all the People of God have a share in them , by way of sympathy , and we have a share in their Prayers for us , therefore we faint not . 2. The second Branch of this Argument is the Quality of those Afflictions , expressed here by two words , 1. They are light , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , leve ; the same word in Mat. 11. 30. My burden is light ; that is , it is tolerable , sufferable , such as may be endured and suffered : Christ's Government is not intolerable , neither are the Afflictions of his People . Object . But how can that be , that the Troubles of God's People are light ? Were David's Troubles light , from whom we often hear such sad and bitter Complaints ? And were Job's Troubles light , Job 6. 3 , 4. And were the Primitive Christians Troubles light ? See the 7th and 8th Verses of this Chapter ; and elsewhere the Apostle complains , that they were pressed above measure , and despaired even of Life ? Answ . The meaning plainly is comparative ; Afflictions are light , not simply considered in themselves , but by way of comparison ; as thus . 1. They are light , in comparison of what our Sins have deserved . Sin deserves Eternal Death , everlasting Flames in Hell , everlasting Destruction , easeless , endless , remediless Torments . The Wages of Sin is Death , eternal Damnation , 2 Thess . 1. 8 , 9. Now , in comparison of Hell and Damnation , all our Afflictions are but light , but as Flea-bitings to those eternal Torments : Oh , what is the Wrath of Man to the Wrath of a GOD ? What is the Displeasure of a Father to the Revenge of an Enemy ? Oh , what is Sickness , Poverty , a Prison , Losses , &c. to Hell-fire ? 2. They are light , in comparison of the cruel , bitter , dreadful Sufferings of Jesus Christ the Son of God. He , upon whom the Spirit of Might did rest , was even sunk by them ; if we do but duly consider Christ's Sufferings , his bloody , bitter Agony in the Garden , when his Soul was exceeding sorrowful even to death , he was sore amazed ; when all the Sins of the Elect were laid on him , made to meet on him , Isa . 53. 6. all the Wrath of Men and Devils on him , yea , and which was heaviest of all , his Father's Wrath was on him ; it pleased the Father to bruise him , and to put him to grief , Isa . 53. 10. All this would have sunk Ten thousand Worlds ; this made our dearest Lord sweat great drops of Blood , &c. Oh , the inconceivable love of our Blessed Jesus ! O , the cursed nature of Sin ! But what are all our Afflictions , all our Sufferings , in comparison of Christ's ? He was afflicted , he was oppressed , infinitely more than ever any man was , or can be . 3. Light too , in comparison of what the Wicked shall suffer hereafter : see Psal . 11. 6. 2 Thess . 1. 9. Revel . 21. 8. Our Afflictions are light , surely very light in comparison of these . 4. Light also in comparison of the Glory that God's Suffering Saints shall afterwards enjoy . This our Apostle affirms , Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in vs. Not worthy to be compared with that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory . Thus are our Afflictions said to be light . 2. Another Quality of our Afflictions noted here , is , That our Afflictions are short also : as they are light , so they are short too , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , momentany , for a moment . Object . But how can this be ? Did not David complain , that he was afflicted from his Youth , and the Church in Affliction four hundred years at once ? How then are their Afflictions short ? Answ . This for a moment , or short time , must be understood comparatively also ; Our Afflictions are short , and for a moment , in comparison of what the Damned must suffer ; for their Death is eternal , their Destruction is everlasting , everlasting Damnation in Hell , the Fire never goeth out , the Worm never dyeth . But especially , our Afflictions here are short , as well as light in comparison of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory , that the Saints shall possess hereafter . Observe the Antithesis , or opposition here in the Text , which duly considered , and Faith acted on it , is enough to support a Christian under all his Troubles . Mark it well . For Afflictions here , he shall have Glory hereafter ; for light Afflictions he shall have a weight of Glory ; for short Afflictions an eternal weight of Glory ; yea , a far m●●e exceeding and eternal weight of Glory : in comparison of which Afflictions , all our Afflictions may well be termed light and short . Let us seriously consider how strangely and wonderfully the Happiness of Suffering Saints is here set out by the Apostle . 1. It is Glory , it is Glory that they shall receive hereafter , a Crown of Glory , that fadeth not away . It is Glory that they seek for , Rom. 2. 6 , 7. and it is Glory they shall have . Here in this World the poor Christian meets with shame and dishonour , laden with Reproaches , made the off-scouring of all things , trodden down as Mire in the Streets , the Song of Drunkards ; but hereafter they shall be advanced to Glory : what this Glory imports , I shall enquire hereafter . It is surely a Soul-supporting , a Soul-satisfying thing . 2. It is a weight of Glory : Not a grain or scruple , ( though a little of this Glory will abundantly recompense all our Sufferings in the way to it ) but it is a weight of Glory , enough to fill all the Faculties of the whole Soul , enough to satisfie the vast Desires of the Mind , which the whole Creation cannot do ; yea , enough to sink the Soul under the weight of it , did not the Almighty Power of God uphold it . 3. It is eternal also : The glorified Saints shall never be unglorified again : it is everlasting Glory . 4. It is an exceeding weight of Glory : surmounting , surpassing , and transcending , not only our Merits , but our Desires , our Thoughts and Imaginations , Ephes . 3. 20. and of which it may be said , as the Apostle speaks of the Mysteries of the Gospel , that it never entred into the heart of man to conceive , 1 Cor. 2. 9. 5. It is a more exceeding : it is a marvellous Glory ; what a Climax , what a Gradation is here ! 6. A far more exceeding : it exceeds all our Desires , all our Thoughts , it is more than we can ask or think ; it exceeds all our Doings , all our Sufferings , more than Heaven exceeds Earth , or Light Darkness , or any thing we can imagine : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This Glory is excellent , uper-excellent , beyond all measure excellent . Now , in comparison of this excellent Glory , all our present Sufferings are but light and short ; and if so , is there any reason the Saints should faint under them , but rather to bear up , and be of good courage ? 3. The third Branch of this Argument is , the Influence that these short and light Afflictions have upon this Glory , or the Reference they have unto it , or Tendency towards it ; and that is very considerable , and it is this : Those Afflictions work for us this transcendent Glory . It is no where said , that Honours , or Pleasures , or Riches work for us this Glory , but Afflications work it ; that is , the only-wise God , who can bring Light out of Darkness , Sweet out of Bitter , Good out of Evil ; even He so ordereth and blesseth all the Afflictions of his People to them , that they become singularly useful , and influential , to work out for them this Glory : but not as the Papists hold , who abuse this as they do other Scriptures , concluding hence , that the Saints Sufferings , as well as their Doings , do merit Glory ; for this was not St. Paul's meaning , because he speaks to the contrary , Rom. 8. 18 , I reckon that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed . Glory is Christ's Purchace , not Man's Merit . But Afflictions work for us this Glory , by way of Preparation for it , as a way and means ( though not the only and principal ) which our gracious God appoints , ordereth , and sanctifieth , to fit and prepare his People , for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . It was by the way of Suffering that our Lord , the Lord of Glory , went to his Glory , Luk. 24. 26. Heb. 2. 10. And therefore , seeing Afflictions have such a reference , subserviency , and tendency to Glory , that they are made useful to fit and prepare us for this most blessed , most excellent state of Happiness and Glory , we faint not under them , but rather we are encouraged and strengthned by the consideration of their tendency to prepare us for our eternal Happiness . Now let us put all these pieces together , and they will yield us this comfortable Doctrinal Conclusion , viz. Doct. That the light and short Afflictions of the People of God here in this World , are singularly useful to work them for , and to work for them , a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory in the World to come . This is so plainly asserted here by the Apostle , I need not stand to prove it ; all I have to do , is to demonstrate , and shew , how those light and short Afflictions of God's People , are thus singularly useful and influential to work them for , and to work for them , this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; which , by the assistance of God , I shall endeavour to do . But before I begin this , it may not be amiss to say a little ( and I can say but a little , a very little , for I know very little ) of this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory : And shall I speak before I know ? Lord , open my Understanding , and pardon any Ignorance . By this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory , I understand , all that wonderful Happiness and Blessedness , which the great and glorious God hath prepared for , and promised unto his Children , and which the Lord Jesus Christ , by his precious Blood and Passion , hath purchased for them , which chiefly consists in their advancement and admission into the nearest enjoyment of the great and glorious God , the Chiefest Good , to be ever with the Lord , to see his Face , to know him as we are known of him , to live for ever with him , partaking of his Glory to their everlasting Consolation . But , alas ! how short and shallow are my Apprehensions of what I am writing ? If it did not appear to the beloved Disciple , what Happiness the Saints should be advanced to , at the last , but only in general , that when Christ appears , we shall be like him : No marvel if such a poor blind Worm as I know so little ; yet some glimpses we have in the Glass of the Gospel , whereby we may come to a little dark Knowledge , and a slight taste of this Glory . It is the Souls enjoyment of God , the chief Good , and that is the sum and substance of all Happiness and Blessedness ; this is called , Seeing God , Matth. 5. 8. Psal . 17. 15. Revel . 22. 4. Beholding the glory of Christ , John 17. 24. Seeing God face to face ; that is , as far as Creatures are capable . See the Prayer of Christ , which doth notably express this weight of Glory , Joh. 17. 21 , 22 , 23. That they all may be one , as thou father art in me , and I in thee , that they also may be one in us ; and the glory which thou gavest me , I have given them , that they may be one , even as we are one : I in them , and thou in me , that they may be made perfect in one ; that the world may know that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me . What can be more desired ? Here is a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory indeed ; a real Union of the Saints with the Blessed God , and the Blessed Jesus , such a Union as is between the Head and the Members , and between Husband and Wife ; yea , such as is between God and Christ , and a participation of the same Glory that Christ himself doth possess , and an enjoyment of the same Love that Christ himself doth enjoy ; yea , the Saints shall then be made like unto Christ , both in Soul and Body . Lord , help me to believe all this , and to be fully perswaded of it , that my Heart may be kindly affected , and filled with enflamed affections towards my Blessed Jesus , who hath purchased all this Glory for us with his most precious Blood : Oh , let me attain the full assurance of my true Title thereto , that I may praise thee , and may long for the full possession of it : O my base unbelieving Heart ! Lord , subdue my unbelief : Oh , what pains should we take to be assured of this Glory ? and , how patiently and cheerfully should we bear our Afflictions , that are designed to prepare us for it ? But I cannot break off here . This weight of Glory is , by the Holy Ghost , in the Scripture represented to us , by all the most excellent and delightful things among Men , speaking to our Capacities , and after the manner of Men. Hence it is called a Kingdom ; It is your Father's good pleasure ( saith our Lord ) to give you a Kingdom : I appoint unto you a kingdom , as my Father hath appointed unto me a kingdom . The Kingdom of Heaven , a Kingdom that cannot be moved ; a Kingdom of Glory ; a Crown of Glory , that fadeth not away ; a Crown of Righteousness ; a Crown of Life : Christ hath made us Kings and Priests to God. Here in this World the Saints have the Cross , Fire , Faggot , Halters , Gibbets , &c. let them wait but a while , and they shall hear the Judge of the whole World say unto them , Come ye blessed of my Father , enter into the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world . Now you are abused , reproached , imprisoned , impoverished , despised ; shortly you shall all be crowned . This Glory is called the Inheritance of the Saints in light , an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled , that fadeth not away , reserved in Heaven for you : You that now may have no House nor Home of your own , no certain Dwelling-place ; and you that now dwell in Houses of Clay , tottering every moment , being the Children of God , you shall shortly enter into everlasting Habitations , and possess those glorious Mansions in the Father's House ; you shall shortly inhabit that House not made with hands , eternal in the Heavens : God hath prepared for you a City that hath Foundations of his own building and making : Hold out Faith and Patience , you shall shortly be translated into the Paradise of GOD , above the reach of Men and Devils . Moreover , ( for methinks it is good to be here ) when Christ , who is our Life , shall appear , we shall also appear with him in Glory ; with Palms in our Hands , and Crowns on our Heads , and with everlasting Joy and Songs of Praises in our Hearts and Mouths . This Glory is called Life , Everlasting Life , Eternal Salvation , Everlasting Peace , and Everlasting Rest , the purchased Possession , that which cost the most precious Blood of the only Son of God to procure , surely it must be a far more exceeding weight of Glory , that cost such a price ; this Glory is the Fruit of Christ's Blood , and of all his cruel Sufferings : Oh , that some Beams of it might be darted in upon my dark Heart by the Spirit , while I am writing this , to quicken and enlarge it . It is Everlasting Rest , — Rest from all Sin , the greatest burden to a gracious Soul ; and from all Sufferings ; from all doubts of God's love ; from all sense of God's Displeasure ; from all Temptations of Satan , of the World and Flesh ; Rest from all Persecutions : Now they that have suffered with Christ , shall be glorified with him ; no Prisons , Banishments , Burnings , Hangings , Quarterings , then ; Rest from all our sad and sinful Divisions , and from all our personal Sufferings , Pains , Diseases , Losses of dear Relations , ill Tydings ; Rest from all Vain Thoughts , from all the pain of Duty , from all our Labours . Let us a little further consider , I. The Preparatives to this Glory ; and , II. The Properties of it , that so our Hearts may be the more affected with it , and the more carried out with all Love and Desires after him that purchased it for us , and with all labour and diligence to secure our title to it ; and may also the better bear all our Afflictions , which prepare us for it , and lead us to it . I. Of the Preparations to this Glory ; and these are , 1. The glorious appearing of the great God , and our Saviour Jesus Christ , Tit. 2. 13. Our blessed Lord will most certainly come again from Heaven , with Power and great Glory , attended by his mighty Angels , to receive his People to himself , that where he is , there they may be also , Joh. 14. 3. to be glorified in his Saints , and to be admired in all those that believe , 2 Thess . 1. 10. Alas , what Comfort should we have in this life , if it were not for the Hope of Christ's second coming ? He will not leave us here still , sinning , suffering , groaning , dying ; no , no , the day of our full Redemption will come ; our Lord will come again , and set all his poor Captives free ; but a little while , and he that shall come will come , and will not tarry ; He will come for our Salvation , Heb. 9. 28. And for our great Comfort , let us know and believe , that however we now live as Lambs amongst Wolves , when our glorious Lord Jesus , the Lord of Glory , and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth , the chief Shepherd shall appear , we shall receive a crown of glory , that fedeth not away , 1 Pet. 5. 4. It should be then the Character of a Christian , as it is his Duty to love , to long , and look and wait for the Son of God from ●eaven , even Jesus , whom he raised from the dead , which by bearing the most dreadful Wrath of his Father , hath delivered us from the Wrath to come , 1 Thess . 1. 10. Act. 1. 12. And while we are on Earth , we should have our conversations in Heaven , and from thence look for the Saviour , the Lord Jesus Christ , who shall change our vile bodies , and make them like his glorious body , Phil. 3. 20 , 21. being assured , that then we shall receive that Crown of Righteousness , which the righteous Judge shall give at that day , to all those that love his appearing , 2 Tin. 4. 8. Oh then , seeing we look for such things , what manner of persons ought we to be , in all manner of holy Conversation and Godliness , giving all diligence , that we may be found of him in Peace , without spot , and blameless ? O , what unspeakable Comfort will the Coming of Christ bring to all his poor suffering Saints , the fore-thoughts of which should support us under all our present Troubles ? Although , it may be , now we are destitute of all Creature-comforts , our Flesh and Fleshly Relations fail us , our Outward-man perisheth daily , our Bodily strength decays , our Friends fail us , our own Hearts fail us , this should comfort us , that our Lord is gone to Heaven , to prepare a place for us , and he is now preparing us for that place , by his Spirit , by his Word and Rod ; and when he hath prepared us , he will come again , and take us to himself , that where he is , we may be also ; And where is that , but at his Father's right hand , in Glory ? Col. 3. 3 , 4. 2. The second Preparative to this far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory , is , that great and glorious Work of Christ , in raising our Bodies from the Dust , and uniting them again to our Souls ; the wonderful Effect of Almighty Power and Love. Read 1 Cor. 15. 1 Thess . 4. 15. Death shall not dissolve the Union between Christ and us ; not turn away his Affections from us ; but in the morning of Eternity he will send his Angels , yea , come himself , and roll away the Stone , and unseal our Graves , and awake us out of our long sleep , and call us forth , to receive our own Souls again ; and , oh what a joyful Meeting will that be ? and , what unspeakable comfort will that produce ? The Devil had the power of Death till he was overcome by Death , Heb. 2. 14 , 15. but he that liveth , and was dead , and is alive for evermore , hath now the Keys of Death and Hell , Rev. 1. 18. The Saints Resurrection to Glory is only the fruit of Christ's Death , and this fruit they shall certainly partake of . The Promise is sure , Joh. 5. 28. All that are in the graves shall hear his voice and come forth . Joh. 6. 39. And this is the Father's will which hath sent Christ , that of all which he hath given him , he should lose nothing , but should raise it up at the last day . So Ver. 40. Joh. 14. 19. As sure as Christ is risen , we shall rise also ; because he lives , we shall live also : Besides this mortal life we now live , we have a life that 's hid with Christ in God , And when Christ , who is our life , shall appear , then shall we also appear with him in glory , Col. 3. 3 , 4. Oh then , beloved Fellow-christians , Let us be stedfast , unmovable , alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord , forasmuch as we know our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Let us never look at the Grave , but let us look to the Resurrection beyond it . Let us contentedly commit these Carcasses to the Dust , that dark Prison shall not long contain them : Let us lye down in Peace , and take our Rest , it will not be an everlasting Night , nor endless Sleep ; no , no , there will come a most joyful and glorious Morning . What if we go out of the Stirs and Troubles of this World , and enter into those Chambers of Dust , and the Doors be shut upon us , and we hide our selves , as it were for a little moment , until the indignation be overpast ; as sure as we awake in the morning , after we have slept out the night , so sure shall we then awake . And what if in the Grave we become loathsome Dust , cast out of the sight of Men , as not fit to be endured among the Living ? What if our Bones be digged up , and scattered about the Pits brink , and Worms consume our Flesh yet we know our Redeemer liveth , and we shall see him with these Eyes : And why should we be loth to lay down these Bodies of Flesh , how comely or fair soever they are , they have been but the Prisons of our Souls , Clogs and Hinderances to our Souls in the Work of God , and Way to Heaven . What care , labour , grief and sorrow have they cost us ? How many a weary , painful , tedious Day and Night ? Grudge not , O my Soul , that God should disburthen thee of all this , and free thee from thy Fetters , and break open thy Prison door ; remember that when this Earthly House of thy Tabernacle is dissolved , thou hast a Building of God , an House not made with hands , eternal in the Heavens . O my Soul ! labour now to have thy part in the first Resurrection ; now labour to get into Christ , and to live in him by Faith and Love ; now labour to know , O my Soul ! the Power of his Death and Resurrection , in thy dying to Sin , and living to Righteousness ; now act thy Faith on Jesus , and thy Love to him , and let Jesus live in thee , and manifest his Life in thy mortal Flesh , and let thy Thoughts and Affections be set on things above ; let thy Conversation be in Heaven , and let thy Heart be where thy Treasure is ; now live to him that dyed for thee , and rose again , and then fear not Death , but be confident , that as sure as Jesus dyed , and rose again , so sure shall all they that sleep in Jesus rise also ; and that , altho' thy Body be sown in Dishonour , it shall be raised in Glory , 1 Cor. 15. 43. This is the Second Preparative . 3. The Third Preparative to this far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory , is that great Assize , and general Judgment , when the Lord Jesus shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory , with all the innumerable Host of glorious Angels about him , and all the Sons and Daughters of Men that ever lived upon Earth shall stand before him , Rom. 2. 16. & 14. 10. to be judged by him , and to receive their final Doom , Rev. 20. 12 , 13. Matth. 25. 31. at which time there will be made an exact separation between the Sheep and the Goats , between the precious and the vile , and then the Saints shall be first acquitted and justified , and then with Christ shall judge the World. Those that have truly repented , and sincerely believed in the Lord Jesus ; they that have chosen the Lord for their God , and Chief Good , and Portion , placing all their Happiness in him , and have unfeignedly accepted of the Lord Jesus for their only Lord and Saviour , and have unfeignedly given themselves wholy up to his Government by his Word and Spirit , and entred cordiasly into Covenant with him , and became entirely his , these shall sit on his Right hand ; these have often judged themselves i● Heart-breaking Confessions , and therefore shall not be then judged to Condemnation by the Lord , for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus , who walk not after the flesh , hut after the spirit ; Rom. 8. 1. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect ? Shall the Law ? These are not under the Law , but under Grace , their Surely hath fulfilled and satisfied the Law for them ; the Law of the Spirit of Life , which is in Christ Jesus , hath made us free from the Law of Sin and Death ; it is God that justifieth , who shall condemn ? The Judge himself hath said , That he that believeth is him shall not perish , but shall have everlasting life ; he shall not come into condemnation , Joh. 3. 16 , 17 , 36. but will say to all such , You have confessed me before men , and I will confess you before my Father and the holy Angels . This will be the joyful day indeed , the day of our full Redemption , the time of refreshing indeed , the fore-thoughts of this day should support us under all our present Troubles . 4. The Fourth Preparative is ; the Saints solemn Coronation , and receiving into the Kingdom of their Father : Now the Crown of Righteousness , of Life , of Glory , which was promised them from the beginning of the World , and purchased for them , by the most precious Blood of Jesus , and laid up in Heaven for them , shall by the Lord , the righteous Judge , he given them at that day ; they have been faithful unto Death , and therefore shall receive the Crown of Life . The Lord Jesus will then say to all his Saints , Come ye blessed of my Father , inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world . Every word is full of joy and comfort . [ COME ] will Christ say , Approach this exceeding Glory ; come is near as you will , for the way to it is open for you ; I have made your passage plain by my blood . Christ will not say then , Come , take up your Cross , and follow ●● ; but , Come now , and receive your Crown . [ COME , YE BLESSED . ] In the world ye were accursed , but now ye are blessed , and shall be blessed for ever . [ OF MY FATHER . ] You are the objects of my Father's love , he loveth you as he loveth me . [ INHERIT . ] You are the heirs of the promises , the heirs of the kingdom , the heirs of salvation . No less than the Kingdom of Heaven . You shall reign with me for ever and ever . [ PREPARED ] Eternal Love hath laid the Foundation : He prepares the Kingdom for us , and then prepares us for the Kingdom . [ FOR YOU ] for you all poor penitent Believers , called Regenerate Souls ; for all you that received me by Faith , and persevered therein to your death . Thus much for the Preparatives to this far more excceeding and eternal weight of Glory . II. Secondly , I shall speak a little also of the Properties of this Glory ; but , oh how short and shallow are my Apprehensions of this also Lord , enlighten my Understanding , and affect , enlarge , and quicken my Heart . 1. This glorious state of Happiness is called The Purchased Possession , Eph. 1. 14. It is the Fri●● of the Love and Blood of our dear Redeemer , whom we shall in Heaven behold and enjoy . We shall have our Redeemer alwaies before our Eyes , and the liveliest sense and freshest Remembrance of that bleeding-dying-love , still upon our Souls . Oh , how will it fill our Souls with perpetual Ravishments , to think that in the Streams of this Blood we have swam through the violence of the World , the snares of the Devil , the seducements of the Flesh , the curse of the Law , the wrath of a● offended God , the Accusations of a guilty Conscience , and the vexing doubts and fears of an unbelieving Heart , and are passed through all , and are safely arrived at the Bosom of God. O think , and think again , what weight of Wo●● and Wrath , of Sin and Sorrow , lay upon the Soul and Body of our most dear Lord , to purchase fo● us this exceeding weight of glory . His Soul was oppressed , exceedingly oppressed , his Body broken his Blood shed , to purchase this Glory . We value things by the Price they cost : If any thing we enjoy were purchased by the Life of our deare●● Friend , how would we esteem it ? Certainly th● bitter Death and Blood of our Lord will everlastingly sweeten our Heavenly Glory : ( Oh , that the Joy ! ) we shall then leave those Hearts of Stone and Rock behind us ; the Sin that here so close h● sets us , and the sottish Unkindness that followe● us so long , shall not be able to follow us into that Glory ; but we shall behold , as it were , the wounds of Love , with Eyes and Hearts of Love for ever . Now his Heart is open to us , and ours shut to him ; but when his Heart is open , and our hearts open too , oh what a weight of Joy will there then be ! What a passionate meeting was there between our new-risen Lord and the first-sinful silly Woman that he appears unto ? How did Love struggle for expression ? Mary ! saith Christ : Master ! saith Mary ; and presently she clasps about his Feet , having her Heart as near his Heart , as her Hands were to his Feet . What a meeting of Love then will there be , between the new-glorified Saint , and the glorious Redeemer ? But I am here at a loss , my Apprehensions fail me , and fall short ; only this I believe , that it will be the singular Praise of our Glory , that it was bought with the price of that Blood ; and the singular Joy of the Saints to behold the Purchaser and the Price , together with the Possession . 2. Secondly , This Glory also is most free ; it was dear to Christ , but free to us : Silver and Gold could not purchase this Glory , nothing but the precious Blood of the Son of God ; but we have it freely , for nothing , without Mony , and without Price . It 's true , this Glory is promised on Conditions , but the Condition is but hearty Acceptance , and to take him for our Lord , who hath redeemed us , especially when the Condition is also given , as it is by God to all his Chosen . Faith , which is the main Condition , is the gift of God. O the everlasting admiration which must needs surprize the Saints , to think of the freeness of their Glory ! O what did the Lord see in me , to count me meet for such a state ? That I , a poor , diseased , despised Wretch , should be cloathed in the brightness of this Glory ! That I , a silly worthless Worm , should be advanced to this high Dignity ! That I , who was but lately groaning , weeping , dying , should now be so full of Joy , as my Heart can hold ! Yea , should be taken from the Grave , where I was rotting and stinking ; and from the Dust and Darkness , where I seemed forgotten , and here sit before the Throne of God in Glory ! when the poor self-denying , self-accusing , humble Soul , that thought himself unworthy the ground he trod on , unworthy the air he breathed in , unworthy to eat , drink , or live ; that this Soul shall find himself wrapt up into Heaven , closed in the Arms of Christ , crowned with Glory , in a moment ! D● but think with your selves what a transporting astonishing thing this will be : surely our Unworthiness shall not hinder our Glory . God hath chosen the Poor of this World , rich in Faith , to be Heirs of that Kingdom . Grace is most free , so is Glory : As we pay nothing for our Pardon , so nothing for our Glory . What an astonishing thought will it be , to think of the unmeasurable difference between our Deservings and our Receivings , between the state we should have been in , and the state we are in ? to look down upon Hell , and see the vast difference between us and them ? to see the Inheritance , which we were born to , so different from that we are adopted to ! O , what pangs of Love will it cause within us , to think , yonder in that dreadful place , in those Lakes of Fire and Brimstone , was my native place , my deserved Portion , those unquenchable Flames should have lain on me , that never-dying Worm should have fed on me ! But that unsearchable rich Grace , and infinite Love in God , through the most precious Blood of my Redeemer , I am delivered from that place of Torment . Eternal Life is the Gift of God , through Jesus Christ my Lord : Did not I neglect Grace , and make light of the Offers of Life , and slight my Redeemer's Blood a long time , as well as those poor damned Souls ? Did not I waste my time , forget my God and my Soul , and walk after the Flesh , as well as they ? Was not I born in Sin ●nd Wrath , as well as they ? Or , who made me to ●iffer ? Should I ever have loved God , if he had not first loved me ? Or ever been willing , if he had not made me willing ? Had not I been in those ●ames , if I had my own way , and if he had let me ●lone to my own will ? Oh , how free was all this ●nfinite Love , and how free is this Crown of Glory , that so glorious a Crown should be set on the Head of so vile a Creature ? 3. The third Property of this Glory is , that it shall be fully satisfying and contenting , for it is a weight of Glory , an exceeding weight of Glory : It shall be a perfect freedom from all Evil , and a perfect fruiti●ns of all Good : This Glory shall be perfectly sui●●ed to our Natures ; for , as here in this Life every gracious Soul is made partaker of the Divine Nature , of the Life of God in some measure , and made like Christ in some degree ; so in the Life to come he shall have a Nature more fully like God , his holy Image more fully printed on him , and made more fully like Christ : When he shall appear , we shall see him as he is , and we shall be like him , ● Job . 3. 2. When we awake , at the glorious morning of the Resurrection , we shall be satisfied with his likeness , Psal . 17. 15. This Glory shall be perfectly suited also to the Desires of the Saints ; then the So shall have all that Heart can wish , all that ever thou ( O poor believing Soul ) didst ever pray or labor for , there thou shalt find : thou wouldst rather have God in Christ , than all the World ; why , there thou shalt have him . O , what wouldst thou give for the Assurance of his Love ? Why , there thou shalt have Assurance beyond all suspicion ; yea , thou shalt have infinitely more than thou canst desire . This Glory is suited also to all the Necessities of the Saints ; it will make a full supply to all our wants , for it is an exceeding weight of Glory . My God shall supply all your need with the riches of his glory in Jesus Christ , Phil. 4. 19. Here in this World we are always complaining of Wants ; for Soulor Body , or both , we want Grace , want Peace and Comfort ; we want Health and Friends ; nothing but Wants : But when once we come to possess this exceeding weight of Glory , we shall have no more cause to complain of Wants ; we shall never want any thing for ever , for we shall be filled with all the Fulness of God ; we shall ever be with the Lord , and dwell in his presence for ever , in whose presence is fulness of Joy , and at whose right hand are Pleasures for evermore . Solomon said , That Mary answereth all things ; I am sure that Glory will answer all things . 4. Fourthly , This Glory is incorruptible , 1 Cor. 9. 25. This is an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled , 1 Pet. 1. 4. We shall then have Joy without any mixture of Sorrow , Rest without Weariness As there is no mixture of Corruption with our Graces then , so no mixture of Sufferings with our Solace . Our best Comforts here are mixed with Crosses ; we have no Flower without Prickles Our best Wine is mixed with Water , and some times with Vinegar and Gall. We are now sometimes even at the gates of Heaven , and presently almost as low as Hell. Today we are well , to morrow sick ; to day in credit , to morrow in disgrace ; to day have Friends , to morrow none . The only thing that corrupts and imbitters our sweetest Comforts here , is our Sins , and God's hiding his Face from us , for our Sins . It is Sin that puts Gall and Wormwood into all our pleasant Cups ; but when we shall receive that exceeding weight of Glory ; we shall sin no more for ever . Hark , O my Soul , the best News that ever thou heardst , since that greatest good news of a Saviour ; the time is coming , when thou shalt sin no more , Rev. 21. 27. then Saints are Saints indeed , Eph. 5. 27. O poor Believer , if it were put to thy choice , wouldst thou not rather chuse to be freed from Sin , than to be made Heir of all the World ? Wait till then , and thou shalt have thy desire . That hard , earthly , carnal Heart , that thou hast so often complain'd of to the Lord ; those vain and vile Thoughts , which did lye down and rise with thee , shall trouble thee no more : Oh , blessed state , blessed time ! 5. And Lastly , It is an eternal weight of glory ; a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away ; that Life is everlasting ; there is no more Death , it is everlasting Peace , everlasting Joy , Pleasures for evermore , Eternal Glory : O blessed Eternity ! The Saints shall be Pillars in the Temple of God , and go no more out for ever : What! to be eternally blessed , to be ever with the Lord ? What can my shallow Thoughts conceive of this ? O happy Souls in Hell , if they could escape after millions of years ! But how infinitely happy are those in Heaven , that shall live there eternally ! O this amazing , this astonishing word Eternity ! O my Soul , study this word [ Everlasting ; ] methinks it should revive thee in thy deepest Agony : Thy Heaviness shall endure but for a night ; God will hide his Face but for a moment ; thy Afflictions are but light and short , thy Temptation shall be but an hour , thy Tribulation but ten days , but thou shalt receive a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . Believe this , O my Soul , and let thy Heart break and melt , that thou art no more affected with that eternal Love that purchased this eternal Glory for thee : For ever adore and admire eternal Love and Grace , and double thy Diligence , to secure thy title to this eternal weight of glory ; and live in the Love , and in the high Praises of thy dear Redeemer ; and patiently bear all thy Afflictions , because they are preparing thee for this Glory . Thus we have seen a little of the Preparatives to , and Properties of this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; and , alas ! how little do I know of it ! Now , before I proceed , let us also enquire who shall be the Possessors of this Glory , or what those happy persons are , that shall be made partakers of this Blessedness , that we may know whether we our selves have any title to it , and have any good hope , through Grace , that we shall one day enjoy it : It will be but small Comfort to hear of all this Blessedness and Happiness , if we our selves have no right to it . And of this briefly . Certainly this most blessed state is not for all , not for most , but only for a few : Few , saith our Lord , shall be saved ; and those are the Children of God , only they are Heirs to this Glory , Rom. 8. 17. If Children , then Heirs , not else ; and such we are not by Nature , Joh. 8. 44. Eph. 2. 2 , 3 , 12. But all that are the Children of God , are made so by Grace ; they are made so by Faith in Christ . Gal. 3. 26. We are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ : And if we are Christ's by Faith , then are we the Heirs of the Promise , ver . 29. That is , we are Heirs of this promised Glory . So Heb. 6. 17 , 18. Also we are made the Children of God by Regeneration , by the blew-birth . Full is that Text , John 1. 12 , 13. As many as received him , that is Christ , to them gave he power to become the sons of God , even to as many as believe in his name : which were born not of blood , nor of the will of the flesh , nor of the will of man , but of God. So 1 Pet. 1. 3 , 4. we are said to be begotten to this Inheritance . Jam. 1. 17 , 18. Of his own will begat he us , by the word of truth . So 1 Pet. 1. 23. And our Lord , who is Truth it self , hath assured us , that except a man be born again , he can never see the kingdom of God ; that is , he shall never inherit this Glory . It is prepared for none but God's Children , and none are his Children but true Believers in Christ ; none but such as are truly regenerate , and born again by the Word and Spirit ; now all such as are in Christ have his Spirit living and ruling in them : Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the spirit of Christ , the same is none of his . And , 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ , he is a new creature ; all old things are past away , and all things are become new . And such as are born again , they have the Image of God repaired in them , the Divine Nature communicated to them , the Life of God planted in them , and are thereby enabled to live unto God , and to walk as his Children , in sincere Obedience to all his Commandments , in resemblance of their Heavenly Father , in most hearty and superiative love to him , and in an holy confidence in him , and entire dependance on him , as their most gracious Father Almighty , in and through their most dear Lord Jesus Christ : These are the Persons , and these only , that shall be advanced to this exceeding weight of glory . Moreover , we are made the Children of God by Covenant ; God , the All-sufficient Good , of his infinite Love and Grace , condescends to poor Sinners , and freely bestows himself upon them , becomes their God in Christ , and takes them into Covenant with himself , and makes them his Sons and Daughters , 2 Cor. 6. 17 , 18. communicating to them his Spirit , working in them all sanctifying Graces , pardoning their Iniquities , giving them new Hearts , new Spirits , soft and tender Hearts , Hearts to tremble at his Word , to mourn for Sin , their own and others , tender of God's Honour , Hearts to love him , Hearts to fear him , &c. and enabling them to give up their whole selves unfeignedly and unreservedly unto the Lord Jesus Christ , taking him for their only Lord and Saviour , and as the only way and means to bring them unto God , and to his glory , submitting themselves to his gracious government in all things , and trusting in him for Life and Salvation . These are the Children of God , which shall certainly inherit this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . They are the People of God , that shall possess this glory , who are described by a famous Divine , thus : — They are a part of the Externally called , who being by the Spirit of Christ throughly though imperfectly regenerate , are hereupon convinced , and sensible of that evil i● Sin , that misery in themselves , that vanity in the Creature , and that necessity , sufficiency , and excellency of Jesus Christ , that they abhor that evil , bewail that misery , and turn their Hearts from that vanity , and most affectionately accepting of Christ for their Saviour and Lord , to bring them unto God the Chief Good , and present them perfectly just before him , do accordingly enter into a cordial Covenant with him , and so deliver up themselves unto him , and herein persevere unto their lives end . Now all th● Children of God , all the People of God , may be assured of this glory ; for , First , God hath ordained and prepared this glory for his People : This Kingdom is prepared before the foundation of the World , Mat. 25. God hath predestinated his Children to this glorious Inheritance , Eph. 1. 5 , 11. Rom. 8. 29 , 30. 2 Thess . 2. 13. God hath prepared for them a City , Heb. 11. 16. 1 Cor. 2. 9. Matt. 20. 23. The Saints are Vessels of Mercy , before prepared unto glory , Rom. 9. 23. And those , in time , he translates out of Satan's Kingdom , into the Kingdom of his dear Son , and by his Spirit of Grace , by his Word of Grace , by his Fatherly Chastisements , by his Mercies , he doth by degrees make meet and fit for this glorious Inheritance with his Saints in light , Col. 1. 12 , 13. And surely , God's Counsel shall stand , and his Decrees be fulfilled : Therefore blessed are they whose God is the Lord , and the people whom he hath chosen for his Inheritance , Psal . 33. 11 , 12. Secondly , This Glory is purchased also , as was said before : It is alone by the Blood of Jesus , that we have entrance into Heaven ; therefore do the Saints sing forth his Praises , for that he hath redeemed them out of every Nation by his Blood , and made them Kings and Priests to God , Rev. 5. 9 , 10. So that either Christ must lose the price of his Blood and Sufferings , and never see the Travel of his Soul , but all his pain and expectations be lost ; or else , for certain , there remains for the Saints this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . Thirdly , This Glory is promised also : God , that cannot lye , hath promised Eternal Life , Tit. 1. 2. Luk. 12. 32. & 22. 19. I appoint unto you a kingdom , as my Father hath appointed unto me a kingdom . 2 Thess . 1. 7. Matth. 25. 34. Jam. 2. 5. Rev. 2. 7 , 10 , 11 , 17. Heb. 10. 34. with many other places . So that if the Purpose and Decree of God be certain , if the Purchase of Christ be certain , if the Promises of the faithful God be certain , all which are most sure and certain , then also it is most sure and certain , that the Children of God shall most assuredly one day receive this far more exceeding and eternal weigh of glory . And now , O my Soul ! how long shall thy foolish Heart deceive thee ? how long wilt thou set thy Affections on things below , upon lying dying Vanities ? When wilt thou draw off , and mind thy Everlasting Rest in good-earnest , and lay out thy self to the utmost , to secure thy Title to it ? Lord , be merciful to me , according to thy loving kindness : and according to the multitude of thy tender mercies , blot out all my Transgressions . Thus have I said a little concerning this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory , of the Preparatives to it , of the Properties of it , and of the People that shall certainly possess it , to their everlasting consolation . And what shall I say now , but that Shame should cover my Face , and Sorrow fill my Heart , for that I am so little , oh ! so little affected with these great things : Oh , what a hard earthly Heart have I ! Oh , that all those that shall read or hear what I have written , may have their Hearts more affected with these things , and that they may be perswaded and enabled in the strength of God , to put forth all their Power , in the use of all means , while they have time , to be assured on good grounds , that they are the persons designed for this Glory : And , oh that you and I would now examine our Hearts and States about this . Let us in the presence of God ask our selves these few serious Questions : Are we the Children of God , they only are Heirs to this Glory ? Have we , out of a true sense of our Sin and Misery , heartily accepted of the Lord Jesus Christ for our only Lord and Saviour , really yielded up our whole selves to his government ? Are we truly regenerated , our Natures changed , God's Image repaired on us , and his Spirit living and ruling in us ? Do we hold out the Life of Christ in our Life , and are we like God ? Have we actually entred into Covenant with God in Christ , and chosen him for our only Happiness and Portion , giving up our selves unfeignedly to be the Lord's ? Let us deal uprightly with our selves , and if our Consciences can witness for us , that it is thus with us , then may we be confident that all our Afflictions shall work and prepare us for that Glory . I proceed now to shew how those light and short Afflictions of the People of God in this World , are singularly useful and influential to work them for , and to work for them this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . And that these waies . First , By discovering , imbittering , curing , and removing those things , which undiscovered , uncured , and uncleansed , would utterly deprive us of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . What those things are , you may easily judge ; they are our Sins , our Corruptions , our Iniquities , the Evils of our Hearts and Lives , the filthiness of Flesh and Spirit ; these not purged away , will most certainly exclude from Glory ; as , 1 Cor. 6. 9 , 10. Col. 3. 5 , 6. Rev. 21. 27. No unclean thing shall ever enter into the New Jerusalem . Now Afflictions are useful to discover Sin , to aggravate and imbitter Sin , to cleanse and cure the Soul , and so to prepare it for Glory . ( 1. ) To discover Sin : Afflictions enlighten mens Eyes ; One calls Afflictions the Christian's Eye-bright . Man is full of Self-love , and this Love is blind and blinding ; and Man's Heart is deceitful and ignorant , his Mind is dark ; Man is born blind , spiritually blind ; Men see not their Sin and Misery , Rev. 3. 17. until God discover their Sins to them , which He doth , as by his Word and Spirit , so by Afflictions , Deut. 8. 2. Gen. 42. 22. 1 Kin. 17. 18. God doth by his Rod shew Men their Iniquities . A very Pharoah sees , and acknowledgeth his Sin in his Affliction : So did the Jews , Isa . 59. 11. And it 's usual for men to cry out on their Sins in their Trouble , Oh then , my Pride , my Covetousness , my Prophaneness , my Frowardness , &c. of which they would not hear before . ( 2ly . ) Afflictions are very useful to aggravate and imbitter Sin : Those Sins that were sweet in time of Prosperity , and seemed small , or nothing but Mole-hills , as it were , light and little , prove bitter and grievous , even as heavy as Mountains . Were not David's Sins so to him ? See Psal . 38. 3 , 4 , 5. Our Lord Jesus , in Matth. 11. 28 , 29. maketh this sense of the bitterness of Sin , a fit qualification of Souls to come to him , that in him they may find Rest , which Rest is the beginning at least of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . When and where Sin is aggravated , and becomes bitter and burdensome to a Soul , then and there Christ , Grace , and Glory becomes sweet and amiable . Usually in Prosperity Sin is sweet , or at least accounted small : Is it not a little one ? Oh , the Excuses , Shifts , Evasions , and Pleas that in Prosperity men study to extenuate and lessen Sin ! They feel but little weight in great Sins ; the Sins of Youth , Vain-talking , Jesting , officious Lying , neglect of Duty , worldly Talk on the Lord's day , &c. who feels the ponderous weight of such Sins in time of Prosperity ? Now Afflictions serve to imbitter sweet Sins , and to aggravate small sins . Job 13. 26 , 27. then he remembers the Sins of his Youth , and looks on them otherwise than he did before . In Youth great Sins seem small ; as Disobedience to Parents , wasting time , prophaning the Lord's day , Lying , &c. but in Afflictions they lyo heavy ; as we see in Joseph's Brethren , Gen. 42. 22. ( 3ly . ) To cure and cleanse Sin , Psal . 119. 67. Jerem. 31. 18. Eminent is the Example of Manasses , on whom Afflictions wrought a wonderful change , 2 Chron. 33. And this comes to pass , in that Afflictions , when God blesseth them , they work Repentance : This is one of God's ends in sending Afflictions upon his People , his Children , whom he loves dearly , Dan. 11. 33 , 34 , 35. It is to make them white and clean , to purge away their Iniquity , Isa , 27. 9. And thus Afflictions are influential on God's People , to work them for , and to work for the●● a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; for none are fit for this glory until sin be imbittered to them , and they purged and cleansed from their Sins in the Fornace of Affliction , but all through the vertue of the Blood of Christ , 1 Joh. 1. 7 , 9. Secondly , Afflictions are useful to prepare for Glory , by being means of God's Appointment and Blessing , to work gracious and happy Changes on men , without which they can never come to glory . All men must have mighty , great , and wonderful Changes made upon them , before they can be glorified : Now , to effect these gracious Changes , God useth various means , as principally his Spirit , his Word , his Rod ; and many times he makes his Rod to do that , and to work that great Change on Men , which his Spirit and Word , without the Rod , could not do , because of Mens resistance of the Spirit and Word ; but when the Rod comes , they cannot resist that . By the Rod he makes the Proud to stoop and become humble , as in Nebuchadnezzar's Case , &c. The Rod and the Word work Wonders , when God by his Spirit works in them and with them . Afflictions change , even such as were Beasts , into Men , yea , into Saints : Jer. 31. 18. I was ( saith Ephraim ) as a Bullock , a Beast , before I was chastized ; but being chastized , I spake like a man , yea , like a child of God. Afflictions working effectually , work this Change. Psal . 119. 67. so on Manasses ; many a Child of God can witness this Truth . Thirdly , Afflictions both drive and draw God's People nearer to him ; they wandered before , they went a whoring from God after other Lovers ; but Afflictions bring them home , Psal . 142. 4 , 5. As the natural Spirits in the Body retire inward , and get close to the Heart in cold weather , and in any danger outward ; so the Souls of God's People draw nearest to God in times of Storms and Tempests in the World : Psal . 31. from ver . 9 , to 16. his Troubles made him take Sanctuary in God , and to trust in him : I trusted in the Lord ; I said , Thou art my God. Fourthly , Afflictions destroy that great Impediment that unfits for Glory , and that is Earthly-mindedness , inordinate Love of the Creature , Phil. 3. 19. Earthly-mindedness fits for Destruction , and not for Salvation : Afflictions are intended to wean our Hearts from the World , to crucifie our Affections to Earthly things : And this effect they had on our Apostle here , and upon the Primitive Christians , as Verse the last ; We look not ( say they ) on those things which are seen , for they are temporal : All Creature-enjoyments , which Worldlings set their Hearts upon , and labour so eagerly after , we value them not , we care not much for them , our Hearts are weaned from them , we are crucified to the World , and the World is crucified to us ; but we look to those things which are not seen ; we mind , and think on , and hope , and believe , and joy in those things which are not seen ; our Hearts are in Heaven , set upon the unseen God , the unseen Glory there , the unseen Jesus . And whence came they to be wrought into this blessed heavenly frame , but much by the Blessing of God on their Afflictions , God's Spirit working in and with their Afflictions this deadness of Affection to the World , and raising up their Hearts towards Heaven ? So their Afflictions were useful to them , to prepare them for Glory . Fifthly , By working in us ; and exercising in us those Graces to which Glory is promised : Rom. 5. 3 , 5. Tribulation worketh Patience , and Patience Experience , and Experience Hope : Yea , God's Spirit makes Afflictions useful to work Holiness , Heb. 12. 10. to make God's Children partakers of his Holiness , without which no man shall see God. So Jam. 1. 12. Happy is the man that endureth temptation , for when he is tryed , he shall receive a crown of glory , which God hath promised to them that love him . And in hope of this glory God's People rejoyce in their Tribulations . Sixthly , Afflictions quicken God's People to all diligence and seriousness in the use of all God's means to obtain Glory ; they quicken to Self-examination : I considered my ways , saith David : They make them search their Hearts , and try their ways : Afflictions make them put away their Idols , helping on the work of Reformation , quicken them to Prayer ; then they cry unto the Lord , and pour out their Hearts before him , and God loves to hear their Cries ; then they wrestle with God in Prayer , and then they are serious in their Reproofs , Admonitions , and Instructions of others ; then also they labour to act their Faith and their Love to God and Christ , and to set their Affection upon things above , and to look to their Sincerity and Uprightness . Unto all those things we are too backward in time of Prosperity , but in trouble we are awakened and quickened . Lastly , Afflictions prepare God's People for glory , by working in them strong Desires , fervent Pantings and Breathings after that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . When holy David was in a barren Wilderness , where no Waters of Earthly Comforts were to be had , oh ! then his Soul , and Flesh , and all , did thirst after God. Psal . 63. 1 , 2 , 3 , 8. then his Soul followed hard after God. So Psal . 42. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. in Prosperity our Souls follow too hard after the Creature , after the lying , dying vanities of this World : Oh , how are we enamoured with these fading Beauties and Braveries ! How eagerly do we pursue the Profits and Pleasures of the World ! we may with Shame and Sorrow confess it ; but when our Heavenly Father strips us of all our pleasant things , plucks our fairest Flowers out of our Hands , and snatches our dearest Comforts out of our Bosoms , oh , then what Breathings and Pantings after God , the light of his Countenance , and the manifestations of his Love ! When Earth is gone , then Heaven is welcome ; when the Creature is gone , then Christ is sweet . Before I come to the Application , three Questions shall be resolved . Q. 1. How must Afflictions be so born , as that they may thus work ? 2. How must they be improved to attain this end ? 3. Who are the People interested in this Priviledge ? Q. 1. How must Afflictions be born , that they may work thus , to prepare us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ? Of all these Questions I have treated on other Texts , which may be seen in my Notes . Yet briefly , Answ . That our Afflictions may thus work , we must be sure to bear them as Christians ; our Carriage and Deportment in them , and under them , must be as becometh Christians , that is , in such a Christian manner as Christ did bear his Sufferings . We must set Christ before us for our Example , to imitate him ; and we must set the Saints of God before us for our Example also , and bear our Afflictions as they bore theirs : And also , we must bear them according to the Rules of Christianity set down in the Gospel ; and that is , we must bear our Afflictions quietly , silently , patiently , submissively , contentedly , willingly , cheerfully , and constantly : So did our Lord Jesus , and so did the Saints ; and so must we , if we will have this great benefit by them , that they may prepare us for Glory ? Q. 2. How must we improve them ? Ans . By the conscientious practice of these Duties . First , Serious Consideration . In the day of Adversity consider ; Eccles . 7. 14. Do we suffer ? Let us consider for whom , for what , from whom we suffer ? Consider , what our Lord hath suffered for us , what our Sins have deserved , and what our special Duties are in time of Afflictions : Let us fill up our Thoughts with these serious considerations , and dwell some time in the Meditations of them , and let them sink into our Minds , and it will much help us in the spiritual improvement of our Afflictions for our great advantage . The want of this due consideration God chargeth on the Jews as a very great Sin , Jer. 5. 3. I have smitten them , but they have not grieved , &c. God expects , that when he smites us , we should lay it to Heart , ponder upon it , and consider it , or else know this , that there is a more dreadful stroke of hardness upon thy Heart , than there is upon thy out-comforts ; for then , without this due Consideration , no Duty is performed , nor Benefit received by all our Afflictions . ( 1. ) In time of Affliction consider the vanity of the Creature . When God deprives us of our outward Comforts , takes away our dearest Relations , now consider what vain things they are , that we promise our selves so much Comfort and Contentment in ; how soon they wither , one stroke from God separates us and them , they are gone . We can talk of the Vanity of the Creature , but it is never so well learned , as when God teacheth by our own Experience ; other mens Experience is not so much to us . Isa . 40. 6 , 7. All flesh is grass ; all Creature-enjoyments are withering grass . ( 2. ) Consider the Evil of Sin : Are we in any Affliction , are we in Pain , under any Trouble ? Let us now consider what Sin is , which is the cause of all those Miseries . These are the bitter Fruits of Sin. ( 3. ) Consider also the End and Design of God in our Afflictions . Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me . What Provocation have we given God ? What have we done ? ( 4. ) What Errand and Message is this Affliction come upon ? Surely God hath sent it upon some Errand ; what is his meaning ? ( 5. ) Consider also the merciful and gracious Disposition of God towards his People in Affliction , Deut. 8. 5. Heb. 12. 6. Rev. 3. 19. He is grieved for them , Isa . 63. 9. In all their Afflictions he is afflicted , he doth not afflict willingly , he loves them when he corrects them . ( 6. ) Consider God's fatherly Affection to his Children in Affliction ; Lam. 3. 33. Judg. 10. 16. Jer. 31. 20. My bowels are turned for him . Heb. 4. 15. Zech. 2. 8. they that touch them , touch the apple of his Eye . Psal . 103. 13. God pittieth them as a Father doth his Children : Therefore let us pray as the Church . Isa . 26. 8. In the way of thy judgments have we waited for thee . So Isa . 63. 15. ( 7. ) Consider God's gracious moderation of his Peoples Afflictions . Isa . 27. 7 , 8. He afflicts in measure , He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind : He doth not punish as we deserve , Job 34. 23. Psal . 103. 10. Job 11. 6. ( 2. ) He will keep us from sinking , Lam. 3. 22. 2Cor . 4. 8 , 9 , 10. Though ▪ troubled on every side , yet not distressed ; perplexed , yet not in despair ; persecuted , but not forsaken ; cast down , but not destroyed . 2Cor . 6. 9. see his gracious Promise . 1 Cor. 10. 13. God is faithful , who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able , but will with the temptation also make a way to escape , that ye may be able to bear it . Job 23. 6. Will he plead against me with his great power ? No : but he would put strength in me . Psal . 37. 24. The Lord upholdeth with his hand . ( 3. ) He will not be always wrath : Isa . 57. 16. It shall be for a moment , and no more . Lam. 3. 31. He will not cast off for ever . 2 Cor. 1. 10. He hath delivered , he doth deliver , and will deliver . Psal . 126. 5. They that sow in tears , shall reap in joy . ( 4. ) He orders all the Circumstances of our Troubles ; the Time how long ; the Place where ; the Quality , what kind ; the Measure , how much . All the Powers of Men and Devils are not able to add a dram to the weight , nor a drop to the measure , of what our gracious Father hath appointed for us . All these seven Considerations will exceedingly help us to make a profitable improvement of our Afflictions , for the preparing of us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . And also these Considerations will very much help us to carry and behave our selves aright , and as Christians under afflictive Providences , which is the right way to attain the benefit of them . It is an hard thing for a man to carry himself well under a smiling Providence : but an harder thing for a man to carry himself well under a smiting Providence ; which was hinted before . Secondly , But a little more to shew how we ought to carry our selves under Afflictions , that so we may receive the Blessings and Benefits of them , which we may lose by our Miscarriages . 1. When any Affliction befals you , Be silent before the Lord , for he hath put you to silence . Do not murmur , quarrel , fret , or be discontented : I believe , a better sign of an honest and upright Heart can scarcely be found , than for a man to love God the more for his afflicting of him , and to cleave the faster to God , when God cuts off his earthly Comforts from him : Oh , be silent before the Lord ; Zech. 2. 13. Lam. 3. 28. 2. Be humble under God's hand , for that is his end in afflicting , lye down at his Feet , Jam. 4. God is humbling of you , now then humble your own Souls ; labour to break your own Hearts in the sense of your Sins , and to lye low before the Lord. 3. Acknowledge God's Righteousness , and justifie him , even when he striketh the heaviest stroke ; let the blow be never so great upon your most desirable Mercies , yet acquit God , do not charge him foolishly , and say he dealeth hardly . Psal . 51. 4. God must be acquitted and justified , tho' he should condemn us unto everlasting wrath . lev . 26. 41. This is to accept of the punishment of our Iniquities . 4. Search your hearts , and try your ways . La● . 3. 40. find out the Achans , the Jonabs , the Dalilah . Jer. 8. 6. when the Lord sends any Affliction upon his People , he hearkens to hear what they speak : The Lord hearkened and heard , and there was none that smote upon his thigh , saying , What have I done ? Our Work now in Affliction is to enquire , What Sins have I committed ? what Duties have I omitted ? Now make a diligent search . 5. Pour out your Hearts to God in Prayer ; this is our great relief and ease in time of Affliction : Jam. 5. 13. Is any afflicted ? let him pray : Now pray earnestly , fervently , cry to God : Let us never think to heal the wound that the stroke of God hath made any other way : go not to mer●y Company , and the Affairs and Delights of the World for a Cure : Pray for a Blessing on the Rod : Pray that God will shew you his End in afflicting you , and that he will make up what he hath removed from you by the enjoyment of himself : Pray for Suffering Graces , for Faith and Patience : It is a sad thing when Afflictions are on Men , if they know not how to ease themselves by Prayer . 6. If by Affliction the Lord discover any particular Evil to thy Soul , then break off that Wickedness by speedy Repentance and Reformation , or else you frustrate the very End of God in afflicting you , and you provoke the Lord to go on with stroke upon stroke , until you are consumed . I● the Lord smite any of you for any particular S●● you live in , and he convince your Conscience of it do not continue in the practice of that Sin for a World ; for when once the Lord taketh up his Rod , he will never lay it down ; if he have Love to thy Soul , he will smite thee deeper and deeper , until he have stript thee of all thy dearest Enjoyments , and leave thee stark naked , that he may separate thee and thy Sin. But when the Lord intends to punish a Soul eternally in Hell , he will not do so ; but whom he loves , and intends to save eternally , he will smite and smite , and never leave smiting , until he separate them and their Lusts . 7. Lastly , give up your whole Hearts entirely to God in Christ ; for this end God cuts off our choicest earthly Mercies , that we may entirely give up our selves to Christ . These things stood in the way of Jesus Christ , therefore God removes them , and so makes room in the Heart for himself , and for Christ . O , now say , O my Soul ! thou hast wasted too much of thine Affections on those poor perishing things ; this Mercy , and that Enjoyment , hath taken off thy Heart from Jesus Christ ; this Relation hath lain between thy Heart and Christ : Well , now the Lord hath taken these away , oh ! now my Soul , let Jesus Christ stand in the Breach that is made , and let him fill it up : Let him come in the room of that Mercy that is gone . If we labour thus to make up the Breach , the stroke will be a stroke of Love , and by this we may know that Affliction comes in love to our Souls , when it makes us love God better , and stick faster to God than before , and cleave more to Duty than before : That which endeth in our Love to God , did come from . God's Love to us . These are the strokes from a Father's Hand , and he will heal them in his due time , which is the best time . So much of the Second . Thirdly , If we would improve our Afflictions so , as that they may be means of preparing us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory , we must carefully avoid the usual Extreams that men are liable to in times of Affliction , that is neither to slight them , nor to sink under them : Prov. 3. 11. Despise not thou the chastnings of the Lord , neither faint when thou art corrected of him . ( 1. ) Slight not Afflictions , but value them , for Afflictions are of God's sending , they arise not o●● of the Dust , they are God's Messengers ; yea , sufferings for Christ are God's gifts . Phil. 1. 29. ( 2. ) They are Love-tokens sent us from a loving Father : Heb. 12. 6. Whom he loveth he corrected . ( 3. ) They are wholsom Physick , needful for us , to cure the mortal Diseases of our Souls , sent us from a most wise and faithful Physician , who prescribes and orders every Ingredient in our Potio● . ( 4. ) They are Marks of the true way to Heaven Act. 14. 22. ( 5. ) Preservatives against the Veno● of Sin , to prevent the infection of it . ( 6. ) They are Covenant-Mercies . Psal . 89. 32. ( 7. ) Means t● prepare us for glory , and to prevent our eternal condemnation . 1 Cor. 11. 32. Oh , could we b●● thus receive our Afflictions , and so take and b●● them , and so improve them after this manner , what singular good would they do us , and what Comfort might we have in them ? And as we must not despise them , so we must not faint under them neither , but patiently and quietly submit to the holy will of God , and resign up our selves to his Good-will and Pleasure ; ●● was shewed before . Fourthly , We improve Afflictions when we are exercised by them . Heb. 12. 10. then we shall reap the Fruit of them . Now this Exercise consists ( as a worthy Divine observes ) in these things . Jer. 9. 24. Ezek. 22. 29. Isa . 64. 5. to wit , 1st , About the Affliction that smarts ; 2dly , About our Hearts that feel ; 3dly , About the Hand that smites . 1st , About the Affliction itself , the Rod that is upon us ; we must be exercised in hearing Work , in bearing Work , and in doing work : 1. In hearing Work ; Mic. 6. 9. Hear ye the rod , and him that hath appointed it : The voice of the Rod is the whole Word of God : Three words ( saith he ) especially the Rod speaks ; 1. Thou hast sinned ; 2. God is displeased ; 3. Return and Repent : We must hear and obey these Voices . 2dly , In bearing Work ; Mic. 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord. Jam. 1. 4. Lam. 3. 27. Bear thy affliction feelingly , freely , willingly : Jerem. 10. 24. waitingly , not growing weary . 3dly , In doing Work , three things are to be done , 1. Kiss the Rod in your Father's Hand , honour it as your Father's Scepter , fear it as his Sword , love it as his Physick . 2. Cast away the Sin that hath provoked it . Isa . 30. 22. Hos . 14. 8. Job 34. 31. 3. Embrace the Covenant of God , for which he pleads . Thus must we be exercised about our Affliction . Secondly , We must be exercised about our Hearts thus : 1. Heart-Consideration of the Rod : Eccles . 7. 14. Weigh well what it is we suffer , whence it comes , by what provoked , and to what intended ; of which before . 2. Heart-breaking under it : Jer. 4. 3. Hos . 10. 12. 3. Heart-bending : Our Spirits must stoop to the Will of God. Thirdly , We must be exercised about the Hand that smites . Isa . 24. 15. to glorifie God in the Fires ; 1st , By abasing our selves : Job 42. 5 , 6. I abhor my self in dust and ashes , said holy Job . 2ly , By justifying God in all his Dealings : Jer. 12. 1. Lam. 3. 39. Righteous art thou , O Lord. 3ly , By yielding Reverence , Fear , Obedience , Faith. 4ly , Going to God for the Blessing of the Rod : And thus exercising our selves these ways , we shall improve our Afflictions for our spiritual Advantage . Q. 3. But who are the People interested in this great Priviledge , that those short and light Afflictions shall work for them , and work them for , this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ? Answ . Surely not all that are afflicted ; all shall not receive this Blessing , for some grow worse by Affliction ; but only the Saints and true Believers , such only as are the Children of God , and such as hold forth the Life of Christ in their mortal Flesh ; as Vers . 10 , 11. of this 2 Cor. 4. such as walk as Christ walked , that follow his Steps ; such as look , aim at , and follow after invisible eternal things principally and chiefly , as Verse 18 ; even such , and such only as are exercised by Affliction , as was shewed before ; they , and they only , shall reap the quiet and peaceable Fruits of Righteousness here , and receive that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory hereafter . They that bear Afflictions as Christians , and improve them as Christians , and partake of the Blessings of them , they shall partake of this Priviledge of being prepared by them for this weight of glory . The Application . First , for Information , 1 Inf. I. Then God's Children must take heed that they do neither despise the Chastnings of the Lord , nor faint when they are rebuked of him : Prov. 3. 11. Seeing they are designed for such good ●●ds , as to fit us for glory , we should not slight the ●ast Affliction , the least Cross or Disappointment that doth befal us ; for how little soever it be , it is 〈◊〉 Father's Rod , his Messenger , his Hand . Nor ●ould we faint under any Affliction , how great and ●eavy soever it be , because he that lays it on , doth ● in love to our Souls , and will lay on no more than he will enable us to bear , for he will uphold t● with his Hand . 1. We must not despise them , as noted before , ●● which I shall add this . We are said to despise Messenger sent us , when we do not bid him welcome , nor comply with his Message , but turn him 〈◊〉 without his Errands end . We must not deal ●● with any Affliction , any of God's Messengers ; ●e must not be unwilling of Affliction , nor be discontented at them , but thankfully receive them ●● Tokens of our Father's Love to us , and as his wholesome Physick , which our Souls stand in need ●● ; as was also before noted , and to which I shall ●dd a little more , because it is an hard thing to bid affliction welcome , and to bless God for taking , as well as for giving , as Job did . And though we have no warrant to pray for Affliction ( although we may pray that God would use all means to do our Souls good , and to prepare us for glory ) yet they must be thankfully received , then God sends them , and God is to be praised for them . This is a hard Lesson to Flesh and Blood , who can bear it ? Yet it is our express Duty , Jam , 1. 2. Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations ; which I think mainly respects the Sufferings of the Saints for Christ , in which we are bound to rejoice and be glad . Matth. 5. 12. yet not excluding other Afflictions : So 2 Cor. 6. 10. Rom. 6. 2 , 3. glory in Tribulations . Job 1. last . Obj. But is it possible , that when Afflictions come on us , as loss of our dear Relations , loss of our Estate and Liberty , loss of Health , when grievous Pains are on our Bodies , is it possible we can bid these welcome , and rejoice in them ? Or , if it be possible , is it necessary ? Ans . 1. God himself grants , that the Afflictions of his People are not for the present joyous , but grievous , Heb. 12. 11. not to be delighted in : God allows his poor People to complain , and grieve under them ; which notes his Tenderness towards them : He himself takes notice of their Afflictions , Exod. 2. 25. Jer. 31. 18. Psal . 56. 8. he telleth their Wandrings , and puts their Tears into his Bottle . He himself is grieved for their Afflictions , Judg. 10. 16. his bowels work towards them , and in all their afflictions he is afflicted , Isa . 63. 9. Now , if our Afflictions be grievous to God , it will not displease him if they be grievous to us . Nay , God expects that we should grieve for grieving him by our Sins . We never find in Scripture God's People to be blamed for their grieving and complaining of their Afflictions , unless they were immoderate : God doth not forbid the workings of Nature ; nay , God loves to see Nature work orderly and regularly . Aaron's Case , and Ezekiel's was extraordinary , and not to be drawn into Example . Chastening is a displeased Father's Rod , therefore there must be a Child-like grief , shame , and sorrow . Numb . 12. 14. it is the Rod of Love : There must be Grief and Love in us his Children ; He rebukes and loves , we must grieve and love . So that It must be granted , that in the pain , and smart , and trouble that is on us , simply considered , we cannot rejoice , nor bid the Burthen welcome : A Man should have an Heart worse than of a Beast to do so : Nor is it required , but the contrary is required , namely , to humble our selves under the mighty Hand of God ; and to be sensible of his strokes , to be afflicted , and weep and mourn , Jam. 4. 8. 2. But the sweet Fruit , the Blessing of Affliction , that God intends Affliction shall bring forth in us , which we must pray for , hope for , believe for , and to which we must have an Eye as soon as the Affliction comes ; this is that we must rejoyce in , and bless God for , and so , in prospect of this good Fruit , of this Blessing , and in hope of it , we must entertain our Afflictions thankfully , as thus : I am afflicted in my Relations , in my Estate , in my Body ; here are grievous , painful , sad strokes ; but , Lord , I hope all this is in love to my Soul , I hope the Fruit will be good , and therefore in hope of the good Fruit , I 〈◊〉 and bless thy Name , and most earnestly but th● 〈…〉 of all thy Chastisements . So that , if we 〈◊〉 consider , and firmly believe , that our Afflictions we Testimonies of God's Fatherly Love to u● , and care for us ; as Heb. 11. Rev. 3. 19. Whom I 〈◊〉 , I rebuke and chasten , saith our Lord ; it being 〈…〉 taken of God's Wrath not to be afflicted 〈…〉 . Let them alone , saith God , I will not 〈…〉 : Luk. 6. 22. And if we could 〈…〉 Afflictions are the signs of our Sonship , and the signs of the true way to Heaven , that they are for our profit , to make us conformable to Christ , and to prevent our eternal condemnation , and that we have need of them , and that they shall prepare us for eternal glory : I say , these things firmly believed , and duly considered , we shall be able thankfully to receive our Afflictions , and to bless the Lord , in hope to receive those singular Blessings from them , Rejoycing in Hope , patient in Tribulation , Rom. 12. 12. It is our want of Faith in God's Promises , concerning those sweet Fruits of Affliction , that we do not cheerfully bear them : Lord , encrease our Faith , our Hope , our Patience . There is Joy and Peace in believing ; Rom. 15. 13. Had we more Faith , we should have more joy and less grief in our Afflictions . We are glad when our Physick works , though it put us to pain , in hope of Relief and Benefit by it ; let us do so when God's Physick works , and we shall be sure to have Benefit by all . Obj. But are not Afflictions Tokens of God's Displeasure ? and , can we , or ought we to rejoice in them then ? Ans . They are so indeed against the Wicked , and so are all the Mercies they enjoy : And they are Tokens of God's Displeasure against the Sins of his People , but Tokens of Love to their Souls . Psl . 99. 8. Thou answeredst them , O Lord our God : that wast a God that forgavest them , though thou tookest vengeance on their inventions . Isa . 57. 17 , 18. and so are Mercies too , Isa . 38. 17. Q. Can we rejoyce when God takes away our choicest Earthly Comforts , our dearest Enjoyments from us ? Ans . Yes , after we have been sensible of God's Hand , and have been humbled under it ; and if it make way for better Mercies , and God be pleased to bestow more of himself , more of his Spirit , more of his Grace and Love upon us , then we shall have cause to rejoyce , and to be thankful . So much of the first part of our Duty in our Afflictions , That we must not despise them . II. The second is , That we must not faint under them , nor grow weary of them . This is the other Extream that we must carefully avoid . Seeing Afflictions , which are but light and short , work for us , and work us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory , therefore we must not grow weary under them . By this weariness , in general , I mean , a sinking of Spirit , a despondency of Heart under the Rod , when a man is , as we say , Crest-faln , and without Spirit , so that he cannot bear up , his Spirit fails in the day of Adversity ; when a man is willing to throw off the burthen , before God takes it off ; is Job 4. 5. Psal . 88. 14 , 15. I am afflicted , and ready to dye , from my youth up : while I suffer thy terrors , I am distracted . Thy fierce wrath goeth over me , by terrors have cut me off . Thus spake Heman , a choice Saint . Here I shall briefly shew , 1. the Cause ; 2. the Cure of this Weariness , that we may the better avoid it . 1. First , the Cause , and that is manifold , as first , from Man himself ; we our selves are the Causes of this Weariness , in a threefold respect , as , 1. Our not expecting Troubles : In Health we look not for Sickness , and when Troubles come unexpectedly , they make us weary . 2ly , Our over-valuing of our earthly Comforts . 3ly , Because , in truth , we are more sensible of our Losses , than of our Enjoyments . 2. In regard of the Affliction it self : 1st , When it swells to any great height : 2ly , When Afflictions are multiplied one upon the back of another . 3ly , When they be of long continuance : 4ly , When inflicted on the nobler parts , and upon the Spirit : 5ly , When but little support , but few Comforters , or miserable Comforters , few to help to bear the burthen : 6ly , When they are heavy , and ordinarily they are heavy , because Sin is light , and Glory is light ; for when Sin lies heavy on the Soul , and Heaven much in the Heart , Afflictions are much lighter on the Body ; Nil sentit in nervo , cum ani●● sit in Coelo . 3. In regard of God ; He puts Lead into son● mens Burthens sometimes ; he sets home Sin and Wrath upon the Conscience , and then men grow weary . 4. In regard of the Devil , he doth his utmost to imbitter every Trouble , and adds his Tempations to make it more intolerable . So much ●● the Cause of Weariness . 2. Secondly , for the Cure. We must labour to avoid this Weariness under Affliction ; and tha● we may , take these Directions : 1 Direct . 1st , Let us urge our Heavenly Father Command upon our own hearts , and the Command of our Lord Jesus upon our selves : See the express Command of God , Prov. 3. 11. Heb. 12. 5. Be not weary of his chastisements : faint not when th●● art corrected : Thus speaks our Heavenly Father to his Children : And the Command of our Lord Christ is express also , John 14. 1. Let not your hearts be troubled : Whatever affliction befals you , let not your Hearts be troubled . Let us urge these Commands upon our selves : Consider we , 1. Is there any cause of Heart-trouble , when our Heavenly Father , the great Lord of Heaven and Earth , hath his will , which we daily pray for ? All our Troubles are by the Will of God. 2. When the great Proprietor and Owner of all things doth most wisely and most righteously dispose of his own ? 3. When we are called to render back but what we had borrowed ? Our Health , Estates , Liberty , Relations , Life it self , all were but lent us . 4. When lesser Mercies are removed , that greater and better may be bestowed ? 5. When we have our Iniquities purged , which is the sure Evidence that they are pardoned ; and that we are made more conformable to Christ , and so sitted for nearer and fuller Communion with God ? 6. When our Graces are tryed and acted , and so made more apparent and illustrious ? 7. When by all our Afflictions we are prepared for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ? Let us weigh all these things well , and they will help us against Weariness : And for our further help against Heart-trouble , see my Discourse on John 14. 1 , 2 , 3. 2. That we may not grow weary of God's Chastisements , let us urge Reason also upon our selves , as thus : If I grow weary , I break the express Command of my Heavenly Father , and disobey the Counsel of my Dear Lord : 2. If I grow weary , it argues my Unbelief ; for , who would grow weary of long and grievous Afflictions , that did fully believe the gracious ends and designs of God in them ; and his sweet Promises to his afflicted People ; and that Afflictions are in the Covenant ; that they are the Fruits of God's Fatherly Love , and shall surely work for our good ; that the Cross is the way to the Crown : Who believes these things , and yet is weary ? Again : By Weariness we make our Burthens heavier than God intends them to be ; Cheerfulness and Patience makes them lighter : The like Affliction to a patient , humble , contented Christian is much lighter than to another fretful , weary , and discontented person . Now , it is possible we may make our Burthens heavier than God intends them , thus : 1st , When we think no Trouble like ours : Consider Job's Case ; Trouble was upon all his Relations , all his Estate , upon his Body , Soul , and All. 2ly , When we let loose our Passions , to run whither they will , without any restraint : 3ly , When we refuse the Comforts that God sends us : So did good Jacob , Gen. 37. 35. 4ly , When we continually fix our Thoughts on our Afflictions , and are always poring on them , so that all the Mercies that we enjoy are quite swallowed up : And have we any reason to greaten our own Burthens ? And again , by our Weariness we dishonour God , and discomfort our selves , and discourage others . 3. Thirdly , Serious Consideration , laying to heart and pondering upon several things that may prevent this weariness ; as , 1. Consider what this Weariness signifieth and implies : it hath very ill significations ; for , to be weary , signifieth a want , or at least , a great weakness of Faith , for he that believeth maketh not haste ; want of Hope , for we must hope to the end ; want of Patience , for Patience must have her perfect work , which is to last as long as Trouble lasts ; want of Love , for Love endeareth all things ; or , at least , a great weakness of those Graces . 2. Consider , God is long-suffering , He hath waited long on us . 3. It hath been the Practice of all the Saints , in all Ages , to wait on God. 4. That by our weariness we limit the Holy One of Israel , and do indeed call in question all the glorious Attributes of God , his Power , Wisdom , Faithfulness : Let us consider these things . 5. Consider , that they that suffer without weariness , they are blessed and happy ; Job 5. 17. Psal . 94. 12. Jam. 1. 12. Blessed are they that endure ; that is , that suffer without weariness . 6. Consider , that Afflictions are signs of our Sonship ; Heb. 12. and signs of God's Fatherly love . 7. Consider God's good and gracious Ends ; Isa . 27. 9. 8. Consider Christ's dreadful Sufferings for us . 9. Consider the many exceeding great and precious Promises that God hath made to patient Sufferers , that he will be with them , will sustain them , and in due time will deliver them : Now , if we will think and meditate on those things , and let our Thoughts dwell on them , and suffer them to sink down into our Hearts , and roul and revolve them in our Minds , they will much support us , and help us against weariness . 4. A Fourth thing we must do , to prevent , or cure this Weariness under Affliction , is serious examination of our selves , whether we belong to God or no ; whether reconciled , regenerated and born of God , or no ; whether united to Christ , justified and pardoned , or no : If you are , why then should we be weary of Affliction ? For , if God have done so many great things for us , surely he loves us , and will afflict us no more , nor no longer than need : Such a Soul will say , If the Lord please to become my God in Covenant , to give me to Christ , and Christ to me ; to pardon my Sins , and take me into his favour , and save me at last , let him do with my Health , and Estate , and Liberty , and Relations , and all , as he pleaseth . But if on the contrary , upon examination , we find our selves not regenerated and pardoned , it is high time for us to set about these great works in earnest , lest we should be cut off before they be wrought in us , and to set in with God in his Afflictions on us , for his Rods are one way he takes to bring about these gracious works upon us : therefore we should not be weary of them . O labour for the sense of God's Pardoning , Regenerating , Redeeming Love ; and labour to clear up to your selves , your Interest in God by Christ , and this will bear you up . 5. Fifthly , Labour to get and keep your Consciences pure and clean , that when there be Troubles without , you may have Peace within : But if God strike you without , and lay on blows on your outward Comforts , your Consciences may not lash you within , and charge you with heavier Burthens . If a man have a sound and whole Back , he can bear an heavy Burthen ; but if his back be sore , a small Burthen will pinch him : Let us therefore make even reckoning with God and our own Consciences , by renewing our Repentance , our Faith , in the Blood of Jesus , and by New Obedience ; and let us take heed we wrong not , nor wound our Consciences . 6. Sixthly , Spend many Thoughts on Zion , be grieved for the Afflictions of Joseph , think upon the Miseries and Distresses of many of the Lord 's dear Servants , and lay them to Heart : Divert and turn aside from musing on your own Troubles only , and let Sion's Sorrows have some impression on your Minds . 7. Seventhly , Labour to act Faith strongly upon the Invisible God , and upon that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory , prepared in Heaven for you . Moses endured , and was not weary , as seeing him that is invisible , Heb. 11. 25 , 26. having an eye to the recompence of reward . Act Faith on God's Almighty Power ; he can bring light out of darkness , and can make dry Bones live : And upon his infinite wisdom , He , who is only-wise and most merciful , orders all the circumstances of your Afflictions , for time , place , quality , and quantity : Act Faith on his Faithfulness , Righteousness , Love , Pity and Compassion ; and labour by Faith to realize the promised purchased Glory , which Afflictions prepare you for . Dilate , spread , and enlarge your Thoughts and Meditations on those Crowns and Kingdoms , that Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled , that fadeth not away , reserved in Heaven for you ; those many Mansions in your Father's House , those everlasting Habitations above ; and sweeten your Spirits with those Thoughts . 8. Lastly , To prevent or cure Weariness , let us be much in Prayer : Seek the Lord , seek his Face continually , seek his Strength : He give ●● power to the faint , and to them that have no might he encreaseth strength , Isa . 40. 29 , 30 , 31. Jam. 5. 13. Psal . 50 , 15. Is any afflicted , let him pray ; call upon God in the day of Trouble . Q. But is this all we must do in Affliction ? Must we do nothing but pray ? A. Yes ; 1. We must seek the Lord , and search our hearts , and try our ways , Lam. 3. 40. seeking God , and searching our Hearts , to find out our Sins , must go together . 2. Seek the Lord , and hear the Voice of his Rod ; Mic. 6. 9. God speaks many things by Afflictions ; all his Rods have Voices ; there is an awakening , a discovering , an humbling Voice , a purging trying Voice , an instructing , teaching , comforting Voice : Let us own God's Hand in all our Afflictions , whoever be the Instruments . It is the Lord hath taken away my Health , my Estate , my Friends : So said holy Job ; not a word of Instrument . 3. Seek the Lord , and turn to him with all your Hearts : Turn to him that smiteth : It is in vain to seek God , if we do not turn from our Sins , by true Repentance and thorow Reformation . 4. Seek the Lord , and act Faith on Jesus Christ . Hos . 6. 1 , 2. After two days he will revive us . Luther says , This is the Scripture Paul speaks of , 1 Cor. 15. 4. Christ ●ose the third day , according to the Scripture : What Scripture ? This , saith he : And then the sence is this . As if the Church should say , Our Afflictions and M●●cies may be great , and we may lye in them for a time . So did Christ ; he was dead , and buried , and lay in the Grave two days , but he was raised up the third day . And thus should a Child of God exercise his Faith : I am thus and thus afflicted , and brought very low , so was Christ , and much more ; he was a Man of Sorrows , though he were the beloved Son of God. He was delivered up into the Hands of Enemies , he was scorned , scourged , crucified , killed , but my Condition was never so bad ; no Sorrows were like Christ's : Never was the Church of God , the Cause of God , in so low a condition as Christ was , who is the Head of his Church : never was Man or Woman in so low a condition as Christ was ; he lay not only under the wrath and malice of Men and Devils , but under his Father's wrath also : He was not only brought to Death's Door , but to Death it self ; yea , he was sealed up in his Grave , and yet God raised him up . Here is Fo●d for Faith : In what depths and dangers soever the Church of God and People of God may be , let us act Faith on the Resurrection of Christ , he was raised up , and so shall we , if we be his ▪ and therefore let us trust in the living God , which raiseth the dead , 2 Cor. 1. 9. Thus we see what means to use , that we may not grow weary of God's Chastisements , nor faint under them . Q. O , but if I knew God did afflict me in Love , I should not grow weary , but patiently and cheerfully bear my Trouble ? A. 1. If thy Heart be drawn out more after God , to love God more , to fear , to please , to follow after God more , it is in love : If thou are more fearful of Sinning against God , and more careful to glorifie him , it is in love ; Psal . 116. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. 2. If you enjoy the gracions Presence of God with you in your Affliction , his teaching , strengthning , sanctifying , quieting , satisfying , humbling , comforting Presence with you , then you may conclude , it is in love ; Isa . 43. 2. Psal . 94. 19. 2 Cor. 4. 16. when your inward man is renewed , as your outward perisheth . 3. If your Afflictions make you more conformable to Christ , in Meekness , Humility , Heavenlyness , Patience , Self-denyal , &c. 4. If you be taught by the Spirit and Word , when afflicted by the Rod , how to hate Sin more , to dye to Self and the Vanities of the World more ; how to dye to all Relations , and Creature-Comforts m●re : and how to list up Christ more , and love him more ; to prepare for Death more , and mind Heaven more ; then you are afflicted in Love : Blessed are they that are thus taught by Affliction ; Psal . 94. 12. 5. If God lay no more on you than he enables you to bear ; Isa . 27. 8. Jer. 30. 11. & 46. 28. 1 Cor. 10. 13. 6. If you can be willing to lye in the Furnace , until your dross be consumed ; Job 23. 10. Mic. 7. 9. Can you cry out , Lord , remove the Cause rather than the Effect : take away my Corruption rather than my Affliction : A Cure , Lord , a Cure of the Distempers of my vile Heart ; good Lord , a Cure ? 7. If you can live by Faith on the Promises in your Affliction ; Isa . 41. 10. & 43. 1 , 2 , 3. & 57. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 15. Psal . 50. 15. Joh. 10. 17 , 27 , 28. Isa . 26. 3. Matth. 11. 28 , 29. Heb. 12. 10. Hos . 2. 14. Heb. 13. 5. Rom. 8. 28. Zech. 13. 9. Psal . 34. 8. & 84. 11. Let us labour to find these sweet Fruits of God's Fatherly Love to us in our Afflictions , and then we shall not grow weary . 2 Obj. But my Afflictions have been long upon me . Ans . 1. Not so long as thy Mercies have been : Canst thou number the days of thy Health ? Have not thy good days been many more than thy evil days ? 2. Nor so long as thy Sins have been : Thou hast been a Transgressor from the Womb , a Sinner from thy Conception ; Psal . 51. 5. 3. Nor so long as the Afflictions of others it may be far better than you . See the 77th and 88th Psalms , Gen. 15. 12 , 13. Four hundred years : Exod. 12. 40 , 41. Job 21. 25. Some have not had a day of health or pleasure many years ; no , not in their Lives : Oh , how should this quiet us under our Troubles , that we may not complain that they are long ? 4. The longer thy Afflictions have been on thee , the sweeter will Heaven at last be to thee ; Psal . 126. 1 , 2 , 5 , 6. compared . The longer the Storm the sweeter the Calm ; the longer in the Tempest , the more welcome the Harbour . 5. Thy Afflictions are not long , but short , if compared with that Eternity of Glory reserved in Heaven for you ; as in the Text ; Everlasting Habitations , Eternal Life , a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away : Have an Eye fixed on the Crown , while thou bearest the Cross : One moments being in the Bosom of Christ , will make thee forget all thy Misery ; oh , long for that good hour . 6. The longer you are in Afflictions , the more spiritual Experiences you have of the Love and Care of Christ towards you ; 2 Cor. 1. 5. 2 Cor. 12. 5. O , the Love-tokens that Christ sends his Spouse in the Furnace of Affliction ! then he speaks most kindly to her : The blessed Martyn found it so . 7. Long Afflictions are but Preparatives , sometimes to long-liv'd Mercies ; as in Joseph and David , Isa . 54. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14. If by my long Affliction God make more room in my Heart for himself , Son , and Spirit , his Word ; if he crucifie my Affections more to the World , and make me more conformable to Christ , I shall for ever bless his Name for them . 8. The more Afflictions here , the more Glory hereafter ; 2 Cor. 4. 16. Matth. 5. 10. For , 1st , the more Affliction , the more Grace is exercised ; and the more Grace here , the more Glory hereafter : 2dly , The more Afflictions , the more religious Duties will be performed ; Psal . 109. 4. Isa . 26. 16. Psal . 42. 1 , 2 , 3. Now God will reward every into according to his works , though not for them ; 1 Cor. 15. last , 2 Cor. 9. 6. 9. Impatience will but lengthen our Affliction ; God's time is the best for deliverance ; Affliction shall last no longer than need : Act. 27. 13 , 15. Psal . 23. 1 , 2. & 94. 9. Rom. 8. 28. Moreover , that we may bear up as Christians , and not grow weary , and so may find that all our Afflictions are blessed to us , to prepare us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory , let us dwell on a few more Considerations . ( 1. ) That these our Troubles are all the Hell we shall have . ( 2. ) Think much on the real spiritual Advantages we shall have by Affliction : Have we not had some ? bless God for them . ( 3. ) Your choicest and chiefest Treasure is safe ; your God , your Christ , your Portion , your Crown , your Inheritance is safe ; your Graces , your Souls are safe . ( 4. ) Consider it is our unmortified Lust that is the sting of all our Afflictions ; its Sin adds gall to our wormwood : Let us set our selves in earnest to the mortifying of our Sins , apply the Blood of Christ , beg his Spirit , Rom. 8. 13. ( 5. ) That all our Afflictions come to us through the Covenant of Grace , Psal . 89. 30 , &c. ( 6. ) That they do but reach our worser ; our baser part , our Bodies ; 2 Cor. 4. 6. our Souls may grow better . ( 7. ) Labour to live by Faith , and keep it as much in exercise as possible ; for Faith in exercise 1st , shews the extreme vanity of all earthly things , for the Soul by Faith seeth them as God seeth them , to be all vanity and vexation , and so it overcometh the World ; 1 Joh. 5. 4. 2dly , Faith presents to the Soul greater , sweeter , better things in God and Christ , than can possibly be found in the Creature : Faith looks and feeds on Invisibles . 3dly , By enabling the Soul to center it self on God , and to be satisfied with the naked enjoyment of him ; God is All to the Soul that trusteth in him ; Joh. 14. 8. Psal . 17. 15. Phil. 3. 8 , 9. ( 8. ) Labor every day to be more humble , low and little in your own Eyes . Who am I ? I am not worthy of the least of God's Mercies ; I have forfeited all ; I have improved none ; it is Pride only that brings Discontent . ( 9. ) Consider , the worst that God doth to his People here , is but to do them good in the latter end ; Hos . 2. 14. Heb. 12. 10. ( 10. ) What God wills is best ; God is Wisdom it self , and he is Goodness it self ; when he sends Sickness , Sickness is best . ( 11. ) That God will be with us in all our Afflictions ; that his Ends in afflicting us are all good and gracious ; that the best way to have our wills , is entirely to submit them to God's Will. ( 12. ) Think much on the shortness and uncertainty of Life ; Life is not vita , but via ad vitam : Hold out Faith and Patience , thy Troubles and thy Life will shortly end together . Let us most seriously and often speak thus to our selves ; I have great Works to do , great Matters to dispatch , a God to be reconciled to , a Christ to close with , a Soul to save , a Race to run , a Crown to win , a Pardon to get , an Hell to escape , a Body of Sin to destroy , a World to conquer , a Heaven to secure , and I have but a little short uncertain time for all this ; I have one Foot in the Grave , I am just going ashore on Eternity , what time have I to stand poring on my Troubles ? Oh! let my whole Soul be taken up with my most necessary Work ; oh , let me engage all the powers of my Soul , and Members of my Body , in studying and labouring to secure my eternal Happiness , how to improve all my Afflictions to the good of my Soul , how to glorifie God in those Fires , how to enjoy Communion with God in every condition , how to live so this little short time , that I may dye in Peace , and enter into my Master's Joy , to be with my dearest Lord in glory , for ever and ever . Oh! these things should take up our Thoughts , and possess our Minds . And thus , if we endeavour in the Strength of Christ , so to manage our Afflictions , so to carry our selves under them , and so to improve them as we have been directed , we shall find , by the Blessing of our good God and gracious Father in Christ , that all our light Afflictions , which are but for a moment , shall work for us that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory ; to which purpose , that Christians may be able to hear up under all their Troubles , the Apostle subjoins a notable and singular help , which himself and the Primitive Christians had found very useful by their own experience , which is expressed in the following Verse . And so much for this 17th Verse . PART III. Heaven and Earth EPITOMIZ'D : OR , INVISIBILITIES THE Greatest Realities . 2 COR. iv . 18. While we look not at those things which are seen , but at those things which are not seen : for those things which are seen are temporal , but those things which are not seen are eternal . WE have seen in the former Discourse how bravely the Apostle and Primitive Christians bore up under all their cruel Sufferings , and got advantage by them ; as Ver. 16 , 17. and what means they used to attain this holy Courage ; besides all which , here is another singular Help they made use of , to get this gracious frame of Spirit , and that is in these words , Verse 18. We faint not ( they say ) but gather strength , and get ground inwardly ; while we look not at those things which are seen , but at those things which are not seen : So long as we shut out visible things of our Minds , and shut our Eyes at them , and so long as we apprehend and mind things invisible , and fix our Eyes on unseen things ; while we do so , we faint not under all our Sufferings , but profit by them . Here is looking off , and looking on , a double Act of Faith ; a looking off seen things , things visible to the Eye of Sence , we look off these ; and a looking on things not seen , but invisible to the Bodily Eye . Here is a double work , one negative , the other affirmative : For the negative part , observe , 1. the Act , if I may properly so call it , a looking off ; or a looking away from , a withdrawing of their sight . 2. An Object , things that are seen , visible things , things obvious to bodily right . 3. The Reason annexed , for they are are temporal : All things that are seen are temporal , things that will last but for a time , a short time ; they are fading , fleeting things , transitory momentany things : Be they good things or evil things , be they prosperous or adverse , be they sweet or bitter things , if they be seen things , visible things , they are but temporal . 2. A positive practice , but we look unto those things which are not seen . 1st , Here is the Act , we look ; Actus Animae , it is the Act of the Understanding , Will , and Affections , all are set and fixed on , and employed about . 2dly , The Object , things that are not seen , things invisible ; and the Reason is added , for they are eternal : And because these unseen things are eternal , therefore are they most worthy of our most serious thoughts and best affections . And both these Acts , of looking off from visible temporal things , and looking on upon invisible eternal things , have a very great influence in supporting Christians under all their Sufferings in this World ; as will manifestly appear in the following Discourse . 1. First , What is here negatively expressed : We look not at these things which are seen ; the meaning is not , that they did shut their Eyes upon all earthly things , and take no notice at all of them , for that was not their Duty : The Apostle-himself laboured with his Hands , and exhorteth all Christians to be diligent in their Callings , which they could not be , if they did not look upon the things of this World ; but he means this , that their hearts , minds , and affections were weaned and taken of from earthly things ; they were not earthly minded ; They minded not the things of the flesh , Rom. 8. 5 , 6. that is , 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 ; yea , not at all in comparison of invisible and eternal things : So our Lord is to be understood , Joh. 6. 27. Labour not for that meat which perisheth : That is , not so much , not so earnestly , as for that which endureth to Eternal Life . Col. 3. 2. Set your affections ●● things above , not on things below : that , is , comparatively ; but let the strongest , steddiest stream of your Affections run Heaven-ward : Let your Affections be set , that is , placed , setled , fixed upon things above : Not that we should not at all mind things below , but we must not set our Hearts upon them , nor fix and place our Loves and Delights in them . So here , we look not on things that are seen , that is , we place not our Affections on them ; visible things are not the chief and principal things that we mind ; nor do we exercise and spend our most serious and chief thoughts about these visible things , they are not the main study and care of our Souls . I am ( saith this Apostle ) crucified to the world , and the world is crucified to me , Gal. 6. 14. There are two kinds of visible things , visible good things , and visible evil things , neither of which was the object of their principal thoughts and cares ; and they give a good Reason for it , because they are temporal , they are short-liv'd , and but for the present , and therefore we do not much mind them , nor look after them . 1. Visible good things , simply and in themselves good ; as , ( 1. ) Life , Animal Life , one of the best good things in the World , yet very short , and very uncertain , Job 14. 1. James 4. 14. What is our life ? It is but a Vapour , that appeareth for a little time , and then vanisheth away ; Psal . 39. 4 , 5. ( 2. ) The Accommodations of Life , as , Riches , but uncertain , 1 Tim. 6. 17. Corruptible , 1 Pet. 1. 17 , 18. Deceitful , Matth. 13. 22. ( 3. ) Pleasures , they are but for a season , Heb. 11. all lawful Pleasures , such as Solomon had , all but vanity and vexation ; Health and Strength , Friends and Relations , all are but for a time , a very short uncertain time . Abraham had his Sarah , and David his Jonathan , and Jacob his Rachel , but for a time ; daily Experience proves all this , all visible good is but temporal . 2. Evil things that are visible are but temporal also . Heaviness endureth but for a moment ; Sickness , Pain , Poverty , Disgrace , Persecution , Afflictions are but for a moment , Tribulation ten days , an hour of Temptation ; Desertion but a little moment ; and because this is the Nature and Property of all visible things , that they are transitory temporal things , not lasting , much less everlasting ; therefore we that are enlightned by Grace , and that have true understandings and right apprehensions of these things , and which have also had the experience of their shortness and uncertainty , both of the good and evil things of this World , we do not look unto them , that is , we look beyond them and above them ; those visible temporal things do not lye so near our Hearts , nor take up so much room in our Minds , nor so much place in our Affections , as invisible eternal things do , nor as those visible temporal things do in the Hearts and Minds of others , whose Hope and Portion is in this Life , and whose Minds the God of this World hath blinded . No , no ; we look not upon those earthly things with such an Eye of Love , Desire , and Delight ; the visible good things of this World do not raise or delight our Souls , nor seek we that content in them that others do ; nor have we such dreadful thoughts of the evil things of this World , as to perplex our selves with the fears of them before they come ; nor with immoderate sorrow and grief when they come ; nor are we so dejected and troubled , when we part with the visible Comforts of this Life , because we have right Apprehensions of them ; and therefore we faint not under our Afflictions . From hence two Points of Doctrine are observable . 1 Doct. That because all visible things are Temporal , and of no long continuance , therefore gracious Souls engage not their Hearts too much in them , nor concern themselves too much for them or about them . 2 Doct. That a right and true Judgment of earthly things , will help much to support and uphold the Lord's Servants in and under all the Afflictions of this Life . 1 Doct. 1. First , That because all visible things are temporal , but for a short time , therefore they must not be much minded nor regarded . This is the Character and the Duty of all gracious Souls , 1 Cor. 7. 29 , 30. Because the time is short , therefore they that have wives must be as if they had none , and they that weep as if they wept not , &c. Joh. 6. 27. Labour not for that meat which perisheth : And Phil. 4. 6. Be careful in nothing . &c. Q. But must we cast off all care of earthly things , 〈◊〉 not mind them at all ? Ans . Not so neither ; for we are commanded to work , and use lawful Callings , and to abide in our Callings ; but the meaning is , 1. That we must not mind and regard visible things , earthly things Then , when we are to mind invisible and heavenly things ; see Isa . 58. 13. Upon the holy day of God , and when we are in holy Duties , praying , hearing , reading , meditating , then our Hearts , Thoughts , and Minds should be wholly taken up with invisible heavenly things , and visible earthly things laid aside . 2. Nor must we mind them so heartily , seriously , delightfully , as we must mind heavenly things ; we must be fervent in Spirit , serving the Lord , Rom. 12. 11. and strive , as in an Agony , to enter in at the ●●ait gate , Luk. 13. 24. and give all diligence to make your calling and election sure ; and to serve the Lord with our whole heart , and with all our might ; but we are never commanded to mind and pursue the things of the World so , nor with such eagerness and fervency . The Lord chargeth it as a grievous Crime on Israel , that they panted after the Dust of the Earth , Amos 2. 7. But gracious souls pant after God ; Psal . 42. 1 , 2. & 63. 1 , 2 , 8. Their souls follow hard after God : and blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness , Matth. 5. Not they that hunger and thirst after the Honours , Pleasures , and Riches of this World. 1 John 2. 14 , 15. Love not the world , nor the things of the world . 3. Nor must we mind these visible temporal things firstly , principally , and chiefly , but only secondarily , and in subserviency to heavenly things Matth. 6. 33 , 34. First seek the kingdom of God ; first , in the beginning of your Life ; first , in the morning of the day ; first , in your Affections . 4. Nor mostly : God is to be loved with all our hearts , with all our souls , with all our minds , and with all our strength , Matth. 22. 37. Psal . 16. 8. I have set the Lord always before me , as the most worthy object of my continual love , desire , fear , and delight . 5. Nor must we so mind visible things at all , as to be taken off from minding heavenly things , or to be hindred from , or to be unficted for minding heavenly things . 6. Nor must we mind them , but with heavenly Hearts , and for heavenly ends , still minding God in them , how to glorifie him by them . 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink , or whatever ye do , do all to the glory of God. Q. But when do we mind visible temporal things us much ? Ans . 1st , When we mind them unseasonably , as noted before : 2dly , When we mind them inordinately , out of order , that is , firstly and principally : 3dly , When we mind them immoderately . Let your moderation be known unto all men , saith the Apostle , Phil. 4. Q. But when do we mind them immoderately ? Ans . 1. When our minding of these visible temporal things hinders us from minding those invisible and eternal things . This was the Sin of Demas , his embracing this World made him forsake Paul : So that when the Service of Christ must give place to the Service of the World ; when the Farm , the Oxen , the Wife , must be preferred before the Feast , and good Duties laid aside while the World is served ; when the call of God is neglected , and the call of the World obeyed ; then do we mind Earthly things immoderately . In some cases , I confess , that is in Cases of Necessity , to shew Mercy to any in Misery , to save or preserve Life , God will have mercy , and not sacrifice ; but out of those cases God and his Service must be preferred before all visible temporal things . But when earthly things so fill up our Heads , Hearts , Minds , Thoughts , Hands , Time and all , that we have none left to spend or bestow on heavenly things , then we mind visible things immoderately . 2. When our minding visible temporal things unfits and indisposeth us for minding invisible and eternal things ; when earthly things have so entred our Hearts , and so engaged our Minds , that they deaden and dull , clog and cloy our Spirits , so entangle and perplex our Thoughts , as that thereby we are put out of frame and temper , and made unfit to mind or meddle with Divine and Heavenly things . Luke 21. 34. Take heed , lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting und drunkenness , and cares of this life , saith our Lord. 3. When we are less tired and wearied in the thoughts of visible temporal things , than in the thoughts of invisible eternal things : When we can plot , study , cark , care , think , muse , ponder upon , freely talk of earthly things , without weariness , but with much delight , as being very suitable to our Minds , and therefore very pleasing and grateful to us ; we can think and speak of earthly things from morning till night , without weariness , but are soon weary of the study and meditation of heavenly things ; nay , are meer Strangers to heavenly Meditation and heavenly Discourse ; Mal. 1. 13. When we are in company where there is heavenly talk , we are soon weary of such company , and of such talk , and are willing to break off such Discourse , and to entertain the talk of worldly things . 4. When we are more attentive unto , more intent upon , more seriously affected with , and more strongly impressed by those visible temporal things , than we are with and by invisible and eternal things . When good News from Sea or Land , a good bargain , good success in our Worldly business , doth more heartily affect us and rejoyce us , th●● good News from Heaven , or any spiritual Mercy , then we do immoderately mind earthly things . It was far otherwise with holy David , Psal . 4. 6 , 7. Many say , Who will show us any good ? any visible temporal good ; but , Lord , lift thou vp the light of thy countenance upon us : Thou hast put more gladness into my heart , than when their corn and wine encreased . And so it is with all gracious Souls . 5. When the gain of visible temporal things brings more joy , and the loss of them breeds more sorrow than the gain or loss of invisible eternal things ; when the gain of an Estate , of Honour , of the Favour of a great person , doth more rejoice the Heart than the gain of the Pearl of Price ; and the loss of an Estate or Friend doth more cast down than the loss of God , or a good Conscience . 6. When we are more afraid of Suffering than of Sin , and would rather venture the loss of invisible eternal things , than the loss of visible temporal things : Surely it was not thus with the Apostles and Primitive Christians ; they looked not on those visible temporal things , they did not mind them unseasonably , inordinaiely , immoderately ; and so , comparatively , they are said to mind them not at all . The Proof of this 〈◊〉 will appear , I , by express Precept ; H. b● the 〈◊〉 of Gospel-Christians ; III. by solid Reasons . I. By express Precepts ; besides 〈…〉 before , John 6. 27. 1 Cor. 7. 31 , 〈…〉 that in Col. 3. 1 , 2 , 3 , 5. Set your affections 〈…〉 things above , and not on things below , and 〈…〉 inordinate affections : 1 John 2. 〈…〉 , would , nor the things of the 〈…〉 , the love of the father is 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 in lay that to Heart , the love 〈◊〉 World is utterly inconsistent with the love of 〈…〉 that in Jam. 4. 4. He that is 〈…〉 is the Enemy of God , the 〈…〉 is enmity to God. It is a dangerous 〈…〉 , to be the Enemy of God ; nothing is so dangerous : See Nahum 1. 2. God is jealous , and the Lord revengeth : the Lord revengeth and is furious ; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries , and reserveth wrath for his enemies . What a dreadful Text is this ! And who are the Lord's Enemies ? Why , those that are the friends of the world , saith the Spirit of God. Although but few think or believe so , yet so it is ; and it is a most dreadful thing to be the Enemies of God , for then God is our Enemy , and that is most dreadful . Now , he that is a friend to the world , is the enemy of God. World in that place , I take to be the same that is here in my Text , called Visible temporal things , the good things of this World : Such as are the friends of these things , saith the Apostle , are the enemies of God ; and this is no small matter : let us all therefore look well to it , that we be not such . Q. But who are the friends of this World ? you will ask . A. First , All such as love this World , and the things of it , more than God , and Christ , and Heavenly things ; this is most clear : So Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth father or mother more than me , is not worthy of me , saith our Lord. 2 Tim. 3. 4. Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. What do most People mind most , and think most upon , and speak most of ? Is it not the World , things that are seen ? What is most in their Thoughts , Mornings soon , and Evenings late ? Where are their Hearts and Affections most ? Let our Consciences speak : Whom do we serve most , follow and pursue most , God or the World , Christ or the Creature ? Who hath the precedency and supremacy in our Hearts ? What Interest is uppermost in our Souls ? This is a plain Rule of Tryal ; and if we will suffer our own Consciences to speak plainly , and tell us the truth , we may know whether we be Friends of the World or no. Let us deal faithfully with our selves in this great Case , and not flatter and deceive our selves , as most do , and so mistake our selves , by taking our selves to be the Lord's Servants , when indeed we are his real Enemies , because we are Friends of the World ; and by this mistake may we ruine our selves for ever . Secondly , All such as covet , desire , seek after the World , the Profits , and Pleasures , and Favours of it , more than after God and Christ , after Grace and Glory : Such as pant after the Dust of the Earth , that make haste to be rich , that load themselves with yellow Clay , such are Friends of the World : Whereas gracious Souls are like those in Isa . 26. 8. Yea , in the way of thy judgments , O Lord , have we waited for thee : the desire of our soul is to thy name , and to the remembrance of thee . With my soul have I desired thee in the night ; yea , with my spirit within me will I seek thee early . So Psal . 73. 25 , 26. Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee . God is the strength of my heart , and my portion for ever . So Psal . 42. 1 , 2. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks , so panteth my soul after thee , O Lord. The strongest , steddiest Streams of his Desires and Loves did run after God and his Favour . Thirdly , He that is commanded by the World , is a Friend of the World ; one Friend can command another ; so all Friends profess to one another , and if they mean not so , they basely dissemble . Can the Profits and Pleasures of the World command your Hearts , Thoughts , Affections , Time and Strength , yea , and your Consciences too ? Can the World keep you from serving God ? Can you dispense with the Service of God to attend the World ? then sure you are the Friends of it . Fourthly , Are you more intimate , friendly , and familiar , more pleasant and joyful in the company of the People of the World ? And in your dealings with the things of the World , are you more delighted and pleased , and are , as it were , more in your Element , and where you would be , than when you are in the company of the Saints , and than when you are dealing with God and Christ , and heavenly things ? David , who delighted greatly in God , and in his Word , and in his Saints , professed himself to be a Stranger in the Earth ; as Psal . 119. 19. When the Lord's Servants are in his work , and among his People , then they are in their Element , then they are where they would be : One day in thy House is better than a thousand , Psal . 84. Fifthly , He that seeks the Worlds Favours , and fears the Worlds Frowns more than God's , is a Friend of the World. A gracious Soul seeks nothing so much as God's Favour : O , how doth David pant after God's Favour , and the light of his Countenance ! In thy favour ( saith he ) is life , Psal . 30. 6. and thy loving-kindness better than life , Psal . 63. 3. And how earnestly and frequently doth he pray , that God would not hide his Face from him ? Sixthly , He that is troubled more for the loss of those visible temporal things , than for the loss of God , or his Gospel ; and complains more for the want and absence of these things , than for the want and absence of God , such , in such a degree , are Friends of the World , and being Friends of the World , are Enemies of God. Seventhly , He that gives the World most Respect and best Entertainment : we give our Friends most respect , and best entertainment . How oft hath Christ knock'd at our Doors in the Ministry of the Word , and Motions of his Spirit , begging our acceptance ? How oft hath Christ called to us in Ordinances and Providences for entertainment , and we have shut our Hearts against him ? How oft hath the Holy Spirit been striving with us , but we have grieved and quenched him by our Resistance ? But how easily have we entertained the Enticements of the World ? How readily have we embraced the Motions of the World ? This proves us to be Friends of the World ; and such are the Enemies of God. By these things let us try our selves , and we may know whether we be the Friends of the World , or the Friends of God. II. This Point is proved by Example : Take our Apostle as a pregnant Instance ; as in the Text , saying , We look not at those things which are seen : So in Gal. 2. 20. & 6. 14. I am crucified to the world , and the world is crucified to me . As if he had said , I am in the Eye of the World as contemprible , despicable , and abominable a thing , as one hanged on the Cross , as a Malefactor on the Gallows , an Object that Passengers care not to look upon , but turn away their sight from : Such a one am I , saith this blessed Apostle ; for the World said of him , Away with such a f●llow , he is not worthy to live : And the world is crucified to me , saith he . I have a ●ow and base thoughts of the World as the World hath of me ; the World is as despicable and contemptible to me , as I am to it ; I look no more upon the World than it doth upon me ; I do as little value the World as it doth value me . And this is a full explication of his sence in the Text , We look not on those things which are seen , for they are temporal . This is the Character of truly-gracious Souls . So Gal. 5. 24. They that are Christ's , have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof . Q. But how shall we know when we are crucified to the World ? Ans . 1 : When our care for visible temporal things doth not consume and eat out our care for invisible and eternal things ; when our care for our Bodies doth not destroy our care for our Souls ; Deut. 4. 9. Only take heed , and keep thy soul diligently : Our Souls must have our greatest care , and all other cares we must cast on God : Matth. 6. 33. First seek the kingdom of God , and his righteousness , and all other things shall be added . 2. When the work of the World is neglected , that the work of God may be attended . See this in Martha's Case , Luke 10. 40 , 41. one thing is needful . 3. When , altho' our Hands may be full of visible temporal things , yet our Hearts are not entangled nor over-charged with them , 2 Tim. 2. 4. Luke 21. 34. When our Engagements about visible temporal things do not hinder us from minding our concernments about invisible eternal things , 1 Tim. 6. 19. When matters and businesses of the World are made to stand by , and give place to the Service of God. When praying times , hearing , reading , meditating times are duly attended and observed . And indeed , we have need work while our day lasteth ; for there is no work , wisdom , or device in the Grave , whither we are going : All that is to be done for Eternity , must be done in this world , John 9. 4. 4. A man is then crucified to the world , and to these visible things , when he is content to be without these good things of the world , when the will of the Lord is so ; Content to be without Friends , Health , Liberty , Wealth , Honours , Pleasures , Phil. 4. 11 , 12. Contentment is the Hearts Ease ; well-pleasedness with our condition , without vexation or distraction ; to acquiesce in the holy will of God : Godliness and Contentment grow both together ; if Contentment be little , Godliness is not much : if thou be truly godly , then God , the All-sufficient and Chief Good , is thy Portion ; and so thou hast enough to content thee , enough to make thee happy for ever . It is a Paradox to the World , That a gracious Soul cannot be content with the whole world only , and yet can be content without it . Let us seek Content where we will out of God , and we shall never find it . 5. And lastly , when a man can patiently bear the loss of all visible temporal things , then he is crucified to the world ; when Losses and Crosses do not sink him , and make him faint , as those Saints in this Chapter , ver . 16. and those in Heb. 10. 34. who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods . And thus we have the description of a person that is crucified to the World , and the World to him ; one that looks not on the things which are seen , that sets not his Heart and Affections upon them . III. The Reasons of the Point , why gracious Souls do not so much regard and mind visible things are those that follow . Reason 1. One Reason is in the Text , which is , because they are temporal , fading , perishing , transitory , momentany things ; All flesh is grass , and the glory thereof as the flower of the field : All are dying things , and therefore no suitable Objects for never-dying Souls to spend themselves upon . All our Relations , how dear and near soever , our Health , Estate , Liberty , yea , our Life , is but a Vapour , that appears but a little time , and then vanisheth away ; therefore not fit for immortal Souls to fix upon . Reas . 2. Because these visible temporal things , the outward good things of this World are most times great Enemies to our Souls , and have proved very hurtful and prejudicial to them , that have had the greatest confluence of them , but beneficial to very few , Deut. 32. 15. Oh , how few have been the better for Prosperity ! Now this damage and hurt to mens Souls , cometh not from those good things themselves , for they are good in themselves , and are God's Blessings ; but this hurt comes partly , from the Devil , and partly from mens own Corruptions . 1st , From the Devil , the god of this World , 2 Cor. 4. 4. who causeth Mischief to the Souls of Men , by the good things of this world , these ways : 1. He misrepresents the things of this world to Men , the Riches , Honours , and Pleasures of it , Liberty , Health , Ease , Money , Estates , the Devil shews them in false glasses , and not as the God of Truth in his Word declares them to be ; and indeed so they are , and not otherwise ; but Satan represents them not as vain , deceitful , vexatious , and uncertain things , but as brave , glorious , satisfying things ; and thence men promise themselves so much Content in them . 2. He lays Snares , Baits , and Temptations in all visible temporal things ; 1 Tim. 6. 9. There is not any visible Comfort , but there is some Snare , some Temptation attending it . 3. He over-values all temporal things to us , making them to be worth all our Affections , Strength , Time , and Pains , but undervalues Heaven , Grace , and Glory ; there he saith , why so much ado ? time enough hereafter . 4. He greatens present Evils , as Shame , Poverty , Sickness , Losses , &c. Oh! these must be avoided by any means , but lesseneth eternal Evils , God's Wrath and Vengeance , and eternal Damnation : Thus the Devil makes these visible temporal things hurtful to men . 2dly , This hurt comes to men through their own Lust and Corruptions within them ; without which the Devil could not hurt them ; if Men had 〈◊〉 the Spirit of this World within them , 1 Cor. 2. 〈…〉 a worldly Spirit , a vain Mind , a foolish Mind , an earthly Mind , darkned and corrupted , 〈…〉 earthly things , which complieth with 〈…〉 unto Satan's Temptations without 〈…〉 their Hearts are carried our 〈…〉 these earthly things , else Satan 〈…〉 Now the great Mischiefs 〈…〉 do to Mens-Souls , through the 〈…〉 and Mens own Corruptions , 〈…〉 First , These Earthly thing● 〈…〉 coming to Christ , as they 〈…〉 Matth. 19. 22. by darkning their 〈…〉 their Minds , that they cannot see that transcendent Beauty and unspeakable Amiableness and Comeliness that is in Jesus Christ ; nor their own absolute necessity of him , and their undone estate without him : by filling their Hearts , Heads , Hands , and Time and all , so that there is no room for Christ , nor time to mind Christ ; Profits and Pleasures take up all their time , and carry away their Hearts . Secondly , They hinder men from following Christ , Phil. 2. 21. All seek their own , not the things of Christ ; at least , they hinder men from following Christ fully , and wheresoever he goes , as Joshua and Caleb did , and those in the Revelations , 14. 4. Thirdly , They hinder men from owning Christ and his Truths and Saints , and from suffering for Christ when called thereunto ; as it hath millions of Professors in time of Persecution . Now , from the consideration of the danger we are in , from visible temporal things , we have good reason to draw off our Hearts and Affections from them , and not much to mind or regard them . And indeed , our Souls are in danger on both hands , both from the good and from the evil things of this World , Prosperity and Adversity . 1. From Prosperity , we are in danger to have our Hearts divided and estranged from God , and so to commit spiritual Idolatry , setting up our Enjoyments for Idols in our Hearts , taking more pleasure and delight in them than in God and his Service : We are in danger of forgetting God , and of falling into sinful security ; in danger of being lifted up with Pride and Vain-glory , and thereby provoke God ; and in danger of growing careless and negligent in the Service of God : And these are great Evils . 2. From Adversity there is danger also ; as in case of loss of Friends , Estate , Liberty , Health , &c. We are in danger of Impatience , Discontent , Despondency , &c. And therefore gracious Souls labour to get off their Hearts as much as they can from all visible temporal things , and to be as indifferent and as unconcern'd to them as possibly , and to be as dead to them as they can . 3 Reas . Because of the Vanity , utter Insufficiency , and Impotency of all earthly things , without God , either to preserve from the least Evil , or to procure the least good . All the Riches in the world cannot cure an aking Tooth ; Haman's Honour could not save him from the Gallows , nor Herod from the Worms : See Prov. 11. 4. Eccl. 1. 2. & 5. 10. Isa . 55. 2. There is no satisfaction to be had in them or from them . 4 Reas . Because there is not the least true happiness in having the greatest abundance of earthly things ; for if there were , then Reprobates and Cast-aways should have the greatest share in Happiness , for they have most of those things . 5 Reas . Because every gracious Soul is in Covenant with God , united to Christ , partaker of his Spirit , and so made like unto God , and like unto Christ ▪ The Great God is his , and all the great things of the Covenant are his ; Christ , and all his Benefits are his ; and , alas ! what mean , low , base things are all the visible temporal things of this World , in comparison of God , of Christ , and Glory ? Besides , all gracious Souls are in measure made like God : And we read what a low esteem God hath of these things , Luke 16. 15. Those things that are highly esteemed amongst men , are an abomination to the Lord. And our Lord Jesus had a very low esteem of them , being contented to be without house or home , or a penny in his Purse : And every true Christian hath the Spirit of Christ in some measure , and the same mind that He had ; Rom. 8. 9. Gal. 4. 6. 6 Reas . Because gracious Souls are born of God , and that unto far higher and better things than these visible temporal things are at their best , 1 Pet. 1. 4 , 5. They are begotten to an inheritance incorruptible , undefiled , and that fadeth not away , reserved in Heaven for them who are kept ( for it ) by the mighty power of God unto salvation . And they are also bound for God , and for Heaven ; they have not their Portion here , nor their Treasure here ; they are bound for another Country ; they seek a City that hath Foundations , and their Hearts are where their Treasure is : and there ore they do not much mind and regard those visible temporal things . 7 Reas . Because they have been so often disappointed and deceived by those things ; they never found that in them which they expected from them ; the World hath ever proved false to them ; they have tryed it , and by Experience have ever found it Vanity and Vexation , and nothing else . 8 Reas . And Lastly , Because gracious Souls have Principles of Faith in them , they have the same Spirit of Faith in them , that those Primitive Christians had , and that is a victorious Principle , a World-conquering Faith , Heb. 11. 1. By Faith the Soul mounts aloft , and takes a prospect of the invisible eternal things , being the substance of things hoped for , and the evidence of things not seen ; fixing its Eye upon , and conversing with those things , and so it overlooks , and looks beyond and above all visible temporal things : 1 John 5. 4. This is the victory that overcometh the world , even our faith . And this I take to be the main thing intended in the Text : As if the Apostle had said , We look not unto things that are seen ; that is , we live not by sence , but by Faith ; as 2 Cor. 5. 7. we set not sence on work on visible temporal things , but we set Faith on work on invisible eternal things , and by our Faith on invisibles , we get victory over visible temporal things . Q. But how doth Faith help a Soul to take it off from minding and over-much regarding visible temporal things ? Ans . Faith doth it many ways . 1. First , by carrying the Soul to pitch its Eye upon , and take a view of the invisible God in Christ , and his God in Christ : Heb. 11. 26. Moses saw him that was invisible , and thereby he endured the evil things of this World , and despised the Riches and Honours of Pharaoh's Court : Alas ! how vile and base are all earthly things , in comparison of the Eternal God , the All-sufficient Good ? And by Faith the Soul pitcheth it self upon this God , and applieth and appropriateth this God to himself . This God is my God , 1 Sam. 30. 6. Psal . 31. 14. I said , Thou art my God ; and 48. 14. This God is our God ; and 73. 26. My Portion . Also , by Faith the Soul is carried to pitch upon Jesus Christ , in whom dwells all fulness , and by Faith sees his Interest in this Blessed Jesus , and thence he is mounted aloft above all visible temporal things , having his Affections raised and fixed upon Jesus his Saviour , who sits at the right hand of God , Col. 3. 1 , 2. This sight of God , and Jesus by Faith , takes off the Minds and Thoughts of Believers from those things below , having higher , better , and more excellent things above to feed and fill their Thoughts with ; for no man can look up to Heaven and look down to the Earth at the same time ; as , while Paul pressed forward towards the mark , he forgot those things which were behind ; and as Jesus is said to be in Heaven , John 3. 13. that is , his Heart and Mind was there , when he was on Earth , even so it is in some measure with all true Believers , their conversation is in Heaven , Phil. 3. 20. 2. Faith receives the Testimony which God hath given in his Word concerning those visible temporal things , that they are all vanity and vexation of spirit , and therefore judgeth them not worthy of too much place in their Hearts and Minds . 3. Faith raiseth the Soul to a believing sight of a better World than this present evil World is , and of better things than those visible temporal things are ; of a better Life , an eternal Life ; of a better Rest than can be had here , even an everlasting Rest ; of a 〈…〉 inheritance , 1 Pet. 1. 4. an incorruptible and undefiled our , that fadeth not away ; of a better Country than Earth at best , even an Heavenly Jerusalem ; and of a better House than the best House here , even an house not made with hands , eternal in the heavens , whose Builder and Maker is God ; and of a better City , even a City that hath Foundations ; 〈…〉 that better and more enduring Substance in Heaven , Heb. 10. 34. and that infinitely-better Company , the Blessed God , and the Blessed Jesus , the Mediator of the New Covenant , the glorious Angels , and the Spirits of just men made perfect , and better Joys , Delights and Pleasures , than can possibly be enjoyed here , and also far better Employment , and indeed , all better things ; and all these better things the Believer by Faith doth realize to his Soul ; and all those , so exceeding great and glorious things , the Believer knows he must have , cost what Cost : and therefore the strongest streams of his Thoughts , Cares , Studies , and Pains run this way , and after these things , even after these better things above . Faith looks within the Veil , unto those unseen Excellencies , to those invisible Glories , to be with God , and with Jesus , and to enjoy that full and perfect Communion with them above ; and when a Soul is pitcht and fixt by Faith here , setled and centred on things above , then farewel deceitful World. 4. By Faith the Soul apprehends , as the most transcendent Excellency of those things above , so by Faith the Soul sees its absolute necessity of those things : Interest in God , Peace with him , Union with Christ , Title to Eternal Life , &c. are things not only infinitely better than all visible temporal things ; but , saith the believing Soul , these things I must needs have , I shall be eternally undone without them : It 's true , I must have Food and Raiment also , these are necessary too , but not so necessary : If I have God and Christ , I shall not want Food and Raiment , the faithful God hath past his Promise that I shall want no good thing ; I may be happy for ever without Riches and Honours , without earthly Friends and Relations , without Health or Liberty , but not without God and Christ , oh ! there lies my Happiness : One thing is needful , only needful , absolutely needful , and that is , my Interest in God and Christ ; and the making sure of that deserves and calls for our most serious and utmost Thoughts and Cares . If a man were condemned to dye , whereupon would he spend his most serious Thoughts , but upon getting his Pardon , if there were any hopes of it , and not in providing himself fine Clothes , or a full Table ? The application is easie . 5. By Faith a Soul is perswaded , that neither the evil things of this World can hinder , nor the good things of this World can further his Happiness , nor his way to it , of themselves : but rather the contrary ; for a man may be poor in this World , yet rich in Faith , and an Heir of the Kingdom ; as , James 2. 5. and a man may be rich in this World , yet poor in Soul , and an Heir of Hell , as we see in Dives . 6. Faith is a powerful , a victorious , conquering Grace : This is the victory that overcometh the world , even our Faith. Stephen was full of Faith and Power , Acts 6. 8. The work of faith with power , 2 Thess . 1. 11. Faith brings all visible temporal things under the Believer's Feet ; it gives the Believer power to use the World , and not to abuse it , not seeking Rest and Contentment in it ; to use it moderately , without damage and detriment to the Soul ; to use it for God's honour , it s own spiritual advantage , and the good of others ; and power to keep it out of the Heart , Christ dwelling there by Faith ; to use the World , and not losing our Hearts , our Peace , nor our Consciences in it : Faith gives the Soul power to withstand the Threats and Temptations of the World , and power to be willing to leave it , and to go to a better World. Oh , the mighty power of Faith ! and by the Power of this Faith , gracious Souls are taken off from those visible temporal things . And so much for the Doctrinal Part. The Application follows . First , for Information . If it be the Character and Duty of gracious Souls , because visible things are temporal , therefore they must not , they do not much mind or regard them . I. It follows then , that Earthly-mindedness , worldliness is a great Evil , and very unbecoming true Christians , for their minds and conversations are it Heaven , Phil. 3. 19 , 20. There is the discriminating Character , both of the gracious and ungracious , a vast difference between them , the one mind Earthly things , the other● have their conversation it Heaven . Most People look on those things which are seen ; all seek their own things , those that they count their own ; and those are mostly , ●hiefly , and principally minded , as appears manifestly , thus : 1. By the stream of their Thoughts , which runs steddily upon visible temporal things , having vain Minds . 2. By the common current of their Discourses , their Talk is all of the World. 3. By the tide of their Affections , Love , Joy , Fear , Sorrow , Delight , all run strongly World●●rd . 4. By the course of their Actions , their Time , Pain , Care , all is spent about the World ; rising early , going to Bed late , eating the Bread of Carefulness , and all about the World. This is a great Evil , because expresly forbidden , Matth. 6. 19. Lay not up for your selves treasures on earth , Joh. 6. 27. Labour not for that meat which perisheth . Col. 3. 2. Set your affections upon things above , and not upon things below . And this Worldly-mindedness is contrary to the Practice of true Christians , as in the Text , We look not on those things which are seen : So Phil. 3. 20. And it is the Character of such as are in a state of Nature , and that cannot please God : Rom. 8. 5 , 8. They that are after the flesh do mind in things of the flesh : Such are not crucified to the World , but conquered and captivated by it ; yea crucified by it ; conquered by the Profits , Honours and Pleasures of it , and meer Slaves to these ; and crucified by the Crosses and Losses of the World ; their Hearts and Spirits lye under the Feet of these , and are at the beck of these ; their Hopes and Comforts lye all at the Courtesie of the World ; and this is a woful Bondage . Remember this , we can never conclude , that we are truly gracious , until we have Grace enough to keep God and our Hearts together , and to keep the World and our Hearts asunder . 1 John 2. 14 , 15. Love not the world , nor the things of the world , for he that loveth the world , the love of the Father is not in him . Woe to them that have their Portion in this World , Psal . 17. 14. who have their good things here , who have laid up their Treasures upon Earth , and there have their Heart . That Text Phil. 3. 19. is enough to terrifie a● such ; Their end is destruction who mind earth●● things . Inf. II. It follows from the Premises , that Contentment with our Condition , and with any portion of visible temporal things , is a great Virtue , and well becoming Christians : Discontent proceeds from our over-minding , and over-valuing , and over-loving earthly things ; and it is a very great Evil , for it practically denies God's All-sufficiency , his Wisdom , Soveraignty , Faithfulness , and Mercy ; it disgraceth the Gospel and Godliness , and is in it self a great Plague . Q. But how shall I do to be content , content to be deprived of my dear Relations , Estate , Health , Liberty , & c ? A. Read Mr. Burroughs's Book of Christian Contentment : Take also these Directions . 1. Labour to make God your own , and then you will have a full and sufficient Ballance to all your Losses . He is God All-sufficient . Weigh well those two Scriptures , 1 Sam. 30. 6. & 2 Sam. 23. 5. 2. Labour to make Christ your own ; he offers himself to you in the Gospel , with all he is , and with all he hath . And in him dwelleth all fulness , he is all in all : Psal . 23. 1. The Lord is my shepherd , I shall not want , said David . 3. Search the Scriptures , and be acquainted with the many exceeding great and precious Promises that are there , suitable to every Condition you can be in . Act your Faith on them , and apply them ; lye upon and suck those full Breasts of Consolation . 4. Pray for Contentment , and pray earnestly for the manifestation of God's Love to your Souls , and that will so satisfie and content you , that any measure of earthly things will content you . 5. Be much in Heavenly Meditations , look upon invisible and eternal things , spend serious frequent fixed Thoughts on them . 6. Consider your Deserts : No person in the World , how little soever he hath of the good things of the World , but hath much more than he deserveth , and more than he doth well improve ; and how much soever he hath of the evil things of the World , he hath infinitely less than he deserved , for every thing out of Hell is a Mercy : It 's of the Lord's Mercy we are not consumed . 7. Consider , if you be true Christians , you have the Spirit of Christ in you , Rom. 8. 9. Jesus Christ had a most contented Spirit : Contentment is the inseparable Companion of true Godliness . 1 Tim. 6. 8. Having food and raiment , let us be content . Let us , that are Christians , who have the Great GOD for our Portion , and Blessed Jesus for our Treasure , and Heaven for our Inheritance , having Food and Raiment , any Food , any Raiment , though never so coarse , let us be content , content with such things as we have , Heb. 13. 5. Inf. III. Thirdly , hence it follows also , that great is the Folly of all by Nature , and great is their Blindness ; which appears in this , that they value , prize , mind , and follow after visible temporal things , much more eagerly and earnestly than after invisible eternal things : This is but too manifest , Isa . 55. 2. labouring for that which is not bread : not Bread for their Souls , and for that which cannot satisfie their Souls . God , Christ , Heaven , is not in all , scarce in any of their Thoughts , Psal . 10. 4. & 49. 11. the god of this World blinds Mens Eyes . 2 Cor. 4. 4. and the World bewitcheth Mens Minds , and the Deceitfulness of Sin so strangely deludes 〈◊〉 , that they become meer Slaves and Captives to the World. Ask any Man or Woman what things are best , Earth or Heaven , God or the Creature , their Souls or their Bodies , Saving Grace of Worldly Goods ? and all will confess , that God is best of all , and Heaven better than Earth : If it be so , why then is this World minded more than God ? and , why is Earth minded more than Heaven ? The Apostle tells us the true reason , Rom. 8. 5. which is , because Men are in the Flesh , in a state of Nature , under spiritual blindness and darkness : This their way is their folly ; Psal . 49. 12. It is a great Folly to chuse the worst things , and refuse the best ; to mind Earth , and forget Heaven ; to pursue the Creature , and neglect God and Christ : Folly indeed ! to mind day and night , and follow hard after visible temporal things , and neglect eternal . The pleasures of sin are but for a season , but a God's right hand are pleasures for evermore ; Psal . 16. last . O , the bewitching nature of this World ! that it should so gain and hold the Affections of Men and Women ! that altho the World and the fashion of it passeth away , and is but a shadow , yet that Men should so drown themselves in it , as to make them forget the World to come . How unreasonable a thing is it , to spend all our Thoughts , Cares , and Pains about visible temporal things , seeing they are so transitory and perishing , so much beneath our never-dying Souls , so utterly unable to satisfie or content our Souls , or to comfort us in our Troubles , or to stand us in any stead in Death and Judgment ? Were not our Minds most strangely blinded , it were impossible that , having Reason and Understanding , we should so waste our Time and Strength in pursuit of earthly things , seeing the Great God and the Blessed Jesus offer themselves to become ours ; and seeing Heaven , and Happiness , and Glory is before us , and offered to us , and we may have them if we will , and so be happy for ever ; O wonderful Folly and Blindness ! the Lord enlighten and convince us . Inf. IV. Fourthly , it follows , that a true Christian lives by Faith , and not by Sence ; for he that is a Captive to the World , hath but little Faith , if any ; 1 John 5. 4. For faith overcometh the world ; where Sence riseth , Faith falleth . Now , saith the Apostle , 2 Cor. 5. 7. We walk by faith , not by sence . This is our Practice , and this is the very meaning of the Text : We look not at those things that are seen ; that is , we live not by Sense , but by Faith. Q. But what is it to live or walk by Sense ? Ans . The great good , or end , or happines that a carnal Heart proposeth to it self , in which it expecteth Content , is some good that is the object of Sense , something that may be sensibly enjoyed , and this they pursue and labour after . The Rule by which they judge things , is Sense ; if things please Sense , and seem good to Sense to the Eye , to the Ear , to the Taste , to the Appetite , they judge them to be good things ; if not pleasing to the sense , they are counted evil things That which affects their Hearts , is Sense , Sensible Comforts , or Sensible Crosses , Sensible Gain , or Sensible Loss ; wanting the light of God's Spirit to open their Understandings , they live only by Sense , and are but Sensual ; Jude 19. Eccl. 11. 9. and so they walk after the Flesh , and mind the things of the Flesh , chiefly and principally . This Life of Sense is variously expressed , Prov. 3. 5. A leaning to their own understanding ; Psal . 81. 12. A walking after their own hearts lusts , and in their own counsels ; Jer. 9. 14. Walking after the imaginations of their own hearts ; Isa . 65. 2. After their own thoughts , in a way that is not good . Isa . 5. 21. This is not the way of true Christians ; but they walk by Faith , and not by Sense . Q. What is it then to walk by Faith ? Ans . The great Good , or End , or Happiness that a gracious Soul aims at , and seeks content in , is that which is presented to him by Faith , out of the Word of God , and that is twofold , to wit , the glorifying of God , and the enjoyment of him ; these are things not seen ; these are not the Objects of Sense , but of Faith : To glorifie God in Christ , and to enjoy God in Christ , this is the end of the Saints walk and way ; and all this is by Faith. This Life of Faith is demonstrated several ways . 1. He that lives by Faith is guided by the Word of Faith , and that is the whole Gospel , and every Truth in it ; such a Soul gives up it self to the conduct of the whole Word of God ; it walks by no other Rule . 2. It yields it self up to the government of the Spirit of Faith , the Holy Ghost ; it is obedient to the motions , stirrings , counsels of the Holy Spirit , harkning to that word behind him , Isa . 30 , 31. not willingly grieving nor quenching it . 3. It walks in the way of Holiness , for this Faith purifies the Heart ; Acts 15. 9. & 26. 18. 4. It always leans upon Christ , and draws strength from him , to hold on and hold out in the way of Duty ; by it the Soul abides in Christ , John 15. 3. and by drawing of strength from Christ it can do all things , Phil. 4. 13. notwithstanding all opposition . 5. By Faith the Soul commits himself to God in Christ , in all his ways , and trusts himself and all his concernments with God ; Psal . 37. 3 , 5. Prov. 16. 3. 2 Pet. 5. 7. Psal . 112. 7 , 8. Isa . 26. 2 , 3. Such a Soul can satisfie himself with what he receives by Faith , as really and truly as others can satisfie themselves with Sense ; the faithful Promises of God are as sweet to him as the sensible Possessions and Enjoyments are of others , Heb. 11. 13. they saw the Promises afar off , and embraced them . Now , when a Soul can depend upon God alone for All , in the want of all outward means , and make progress in the ways of God , through all difficulties , and not draw back ; and doth in his whole course of Life so walk , work , and act , as becomes one that doth believe such glorious things in the other World , as he doth believe ; when there is a suitableness in his Life to what he believes ; then , oh then , he may truly be said to live by Faith. And this is the Life that in some degree every true Christian lives , and desires to live ; and this living by Faith , and not by Sense , is that which is meant in the Text. 2 Vse . The second Use is of Exhortation to us all , to look off from visible temporal things . Let us labour to get our Hearts crucified , and our Affections mortified to all earthly things ; to draw away our Minds as much as possible , from the things of this Life . A great part of the Gospel , and of the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles , tend to this , to take off our Hearts and Minds from setling and fixing upon earthly things . I. Some Motives to this . II. Some Directions . I. Motives . 1. Consider , it is the express Command of God , Col. 3. 1 , 2. Set not your affections on things below , 1 John 2. 14 , 15. Matth. 6. 19. Lay not up for your selves treasures on earth . This we should urge on our Hearts . 2. Consider the vanity , emptiness , insufficiency , unsatisfactoriness to the Soul , of all earthly things ; Eccl. 5. 10. 3. The great inconstancy and uncertainty of them , 1 Tim. 6. 17. Prov. 23. 5. 1 Cor. 7. 31. Riches and Honours go from one man to another , as Birds hop from Tree to Tree . 4. How prejudicial they have been to those that have had the most of them , but beneficial to very few . 5. That these earthly things are all defiling things , like Pitch ; and corruptible and corrupting things , being full of Snares and Temptations , are but like Thorns to most . 6. No real Happiness in them , for Reprobates may have them ; and they may consist with Gods Wrath ; therefore we should not set our Hearts upon them . II. Directions shewing how we may get off our Hearts , and draw off our Minds from them , for our Hearts are so glued to them , we cannot but look on them , and mind them . It is not easie work to do , but let us use the means that God hath appointed , and try what we can do . 1. First , Let us labour to be transformed in the Image of our Minds , renewed in the Spirit of our Minds ; Rom. 12. 1. Eph. 4. 23. New Natures we must get , this must be done ; our Old Minds are vain , and altogether suitable to earthly things . Q. But how shall we get New Minds ? A. 1st , Pray earnestly to God , to give you new Hearts , to repair his Image on you , to create a clean Heart in you , as David did , Psal . 51. 10. to give you his Spirit , 1 Cor. 2. 12. to sanctifie you throughout , 1 Thess . 5. 23. to regenerate you by his Word and Spirit ; Jam. 1. 17 , 18. Tit. 3. 3 , 4 , 5. Oh pray , pray that God would cast you into a new Mould , to root out the old corrupt Principles of Nature in you , and to plant new heavenly Principles of the Divine Life and Nature in you , to work a real change in you . Go to Jesus , beg his Spirit ; He was crucified to all visible temporal things , beg of him to give you those Waters of Life , Joh. 4. 14. which he hath promised to them that hunger and thirst after them : Beg of him to make you of his mind ; labour to put him on by imitation . 2ly , Look up to God's Covenant , and lay hold on God's Covenant , Ezek. 11. 19. and most earnestly beg the Lord to take you into his Covenant , and to remember his Covenant , and to perform it to you , and wait upon God continually : Study the Covenant of Grace , and lay hold on it ; for in the Covenant God promiseth to become our God and Portion ; and if once God be ours , all the good of Heaven and Earth is ours , and then we shall but little mind visible temporal things . 3ly , If we would be regenerated , we must search the Scriptures diligently , attend on the Word preached and read , for the Word of God is the Seed of Regeneration , the Word of Grace , ordained to work Grace in Souls , Acts 26. 18. Look often into the glass of the Gospel , 2 Cor. 3. 17 , 18. and look thorow it unto the glory of the Lord , that shines forth in it ; the glory of his Love , and Grace , and Mercy , and Wisdom ; and Power , and Holiness , and Righteousness , and Faithfulness , all which are wonderfully displayed in the Face of Jesus Christ , in this glass of the Gospel ; and by frequent , serious , believing , fixed looking into this glass , and upon the glory of God in Christ therein represented , we shall be changed into the same Image , from glory to glory , as by the Spirit of the Lord. 4ly , Study Jesus Christ much , set him still before you for a Pattern , labour to imitate him , and to be like him , and to walk as he walked : And this is the way to get new Minds . 2 Direct . Secondly , If we would get off our Hearts from earthly things , let us labour for a clear knowledge and a firm belief of , and familiar acquaintance with invisible eternal things ; take a few instances : The Resurrection of the Body , as fet out in 1 Cor. 15. The second Coming of the Lord Jesus , the manner and ends of it , 2 Thess . 1. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. The glorious manifestation of the Sons of God , and their full Redemption . That when Christ , who is their Life , shall appear , they shall appear with him in glory , Col. 3. 3. The Day of Judgment ; the separation of the Sheep from the Goats ; the final irrevocable Sentence that shall then pass on all Mankind ; the Saints passing into Heaven with Christ , their Souls and Bodies united , and their triumphant entrance with the Captain of their Salvation into the Paradise of God , to see the Blessed God face to face , to live in his presence , in whose presence is fulness of joy , and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore ; to live with God in perfect Light , Love , Purity , Rest , and Peace for ever and ever ; fully and for ever freed from all Sin and Misery . Oh , these are the things most worthy of all our most serious , most fixed , and most constant Meditations . We should first labour to get those things into our Heads , fully and clearly to understand them , and should not be contented with a dark confused knowledge of them , but should labour for a distinct knowledge of them ; and therefore should earnestly beg the light and assistance of the Holy Spirit , to instruct and teach us , as Eph. 1. 18. and look up to God's Promise , which is , that all his People shall be taught of him , that we may have a spiritual knowledge of them . And then we should labour to draw these invisible eternal things down into our Hearts , and labour to draw up our Hearts to them , for with the Heart Man believeth . We should beg of God to open our Hearts wide to embrace them , to relish , and savour , and be affected with them , and exercise our loves , hopes , desires , delights , hunger and thirst after them , considering also the transcendant Excellencies of those invisible eternal things , above all visible temporal things ; and our own real concernment in them , and likewise their nearness to us , they are not far off ; we shall shortly possess that Kingdom promised , and inherit that Glory purchased for us , if we be true Believers ; But a little while , and he that shall come will come , and will not tarry . Considering also , that all our Thoughts , Words , and Actions have reference to invisible eternal things . If they be good and holy , they have reference to eternal glory ; if bad and wicked , they have reference to eternal Misery ; for such as is our Heart and Life here , such shall be our eternal state hereafter . 3 Direct . Thirdly , Be much in the Meditation of Heavenly Things , if we firmly believe , and are fully perswaded , that there are indeed such great and glorious , such excellent things in the other World , as the God of Truth assures us of , in the Word of Truth ; and if we believe , or have good ground to hope , that we have a title to them , and shall shortly enjoy them , why are they not more in our Thoughts ? why do we not more meditate on them ? Our frequent fixed Meditations on Heavenly things , will so sweeten and delight our Souls , and yield such satisfaction to us , as to take off our Minds from Earthly things : And to Meditation add Prayer , That God would raise and lift up your Hearts to mind things above . 4 Direct . Fourthly , Discourse frequently and feelingly of the vanity and emptiness of visible temporal things , and of the reality and excellency of invisible eternal things : If Heaven and Glory be in your Hearts , they will be in your Mouths . Consider also the shortness of the time you have to converse with visible temporal things , 1 Cor. 7. 31. and study a crucified Christ more , by that you will come to be crucified to the World , and the World to you ; Gal. 6. 14. 5 Direct . Fifthly , Consider you that are Christians , are not at home , you are in a strange Country , you are but on your Journey , in your passage to your Father's house , to your long home , and therefore you should not much mind the things of this World. 6 Direct . Sixthly , Consider what you lose all the while you are inordinately minding earthly things ; you lose not only your precious time , but much inward joy and peace , and much sweet communion with God , which you might have in minding of , and meditating upon Heavenly things : Psal . 63. 4 , 5. My soul shall be satisfied as with mar●●● and fatness : — When I remember thee open my bed , and meditate on thee in the night-watches . 7 Direct . Seventhly , Let us work a few more serious Considerations into our Hearts and Minds , to take them from Earthly things . ( 1. ) That whatever any Man or Woman hath of visible temporal things , Death will put a full end to them all , and after Death they all shall partake of invisible and eternal things . Matth. 25. 46. The wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment , and the righteous into life eternal . ( 2. ) That every Man and Woman in the World is either made for ever , or undone for ever , as they are related and entituled unto the invisible eternal good things or evil things of the other World ; they are made for ever , if related and entituled to the invisible God and Glory ; and undone for ever , if not : So that our Eternal Happiness or Misery depends not on our relation or title to visible , but to invisible things . ( 3. ) Such as is our Title and Estate now , to the one or other , such it will be to all Eternity . As the tree falls , so it lies : as death leaves us , so will judgment find us . ( 4. ) This looking off from earthly things is the way to grow and encrease in Grace , for Worldly Cares do choak , deaden , and weaken Grace , cloying the Affections , entangling and encumbring the Thoughts , much hindring the exercise of Faith and Love , which are the principal Graces whereby holy Souls enjoy Communion with God. ( 5. ) By this you will have more Communion with God ; for the less we look downward , the more we shall look upward ; and the more we look upward to God and Christ , in the actings of our Faith and Love , the more will God and Christ manifest themselves and their love to our Souls . ( 6. ) This will support us in Affliction , and comfort us in a dying hour ; when our Affections are crucified to the World , we shall not be unwilling to part with it . Col. 3. 3. We are dead , saith the Apostle ; that is , to the World. And this supported those in this Chapter ; they were crucified to all visible temporal things , therefore they could easily part with them . 3 Vse . Thirdly , by way of Examination . By this gracious frame of Spirit , we may know our spiritual state , whether we be born of God or no , whether in Christ or no ; to wit , by this , Whether our Hearts and Minds are more set on God , Christ , and Heaven , or on the World. Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus ; they are safe , come Plague , Sword , Fire , Faggot : But who are in Christ Jesus ? He tells us , They that walk not after the flesh , but after the Spirit . So Ver. 5 , 6. They that are spiritually minded ; they that have their conversation in Heaven . Phil. 3. 20. Col. 3. 1 , 2. They are risen with Christ . So Psal . 73. 25 , 26. If we be born from Heaven , we are bound for Heaven : Heavenly-mindedness is as good an Evidence for Heaven as any is , and Earthly-mindedness is as ill a Character as can be . Let us now try our selves by this : Where are our Hearts , and Minds , and Affections mostly set , on Heaven or Earth , on Christ or the Creature ? Let our Consciences speak : Surely this one Rule of Tryal will help us to know in what state we are . Lastly , For Consolation to Believers , in respect of outward Losses and Troubles , that they are all visible and temporal things that we can lose , and but temporal things that we can suffer , which are but light and short , as we have seen ; but our invisible eternal Mercies , they are all sure , and can never be lost . If we had enjoyed our earthly Comforts a little longer , it could have been but a little longer , they and we must have parted : All visible things are but temporal ; our fairest Flowers are fading , our sweetest earthly Mercies are perishing : And here is our Comfort , that if we be in Christ , we shall be delivered from Eternal Death , from Everlasting Destruction , from the Wrath to come . If we have our part in the first Resurrection , the Second Death shall have no power on us . Let this comfort us , that the Comforts we lose here are but temporal Comforts , and the Troubles we suffer here , are but temporal Troubles . And this brings us to the second Point observed from the Text , which was , 2 Doct. That a right and true Judgment of earthly things , will help to support the Lord's Services under their Afflictions . Of which I shall speak but briefly , because much of what hath been said in the former point 〈◊〉 confirm this . Heb. 10. 34. They took joyfully the 〈…〉 their Goods ; And why ? but because 〈…〉 in themselves they had in Heaven 〈…〉 a more enduring substance . They 〈…〉 Judgment both of Earth and Heaven , 〈…〉 Earthly and of Heavenly Things , and 〈…〉 infinite worth and value of 〈…〉 they knew that Heavenly things were 〈…〉 real , the most substantial , the most 〈…〉 and that Earthly things were temporal 〈…〉 , and therefore not so ●e command 〈…〉 less to be valued or 〈…〉 Heavenly things . Q. 1. But how 〈…〉 of Earthly things ? A. ( 1. ) We must judge of 〈…〉 only wise , judgeth of them 〈…〉 judge truly and rightly of them . Now God hath declared in his Word his Judgment of them , Isa . 4. 6 , 7. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken this . The voice said , Cry ; and he said , What shall I cry ? All flesh is grass , and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field . The grass withereth , the flower fadeth . Psal . 39. 5 , 6. Verily , every man , at his best estate , is altogether vanity . Surely , every man walketh in a vain shew , Psal . 103. 14 , 15. we are but Dust : As for man , his days are as grass : as a flower of the field , so he flourisheth . For the wind passeth over it , and it is gone ; and the place thereof shall know it no more . Job 14. 1 , 2. Man that is born of a woman is of few days , and full of trouble . He cometh forth like a flower , and is cut down : he fleeth also as a shadow , and continueth not . So 1. Pet. 1. 24. Jam. 1. 10. & 4. 14. What is our life ? It is but even a vapour , that appeareth for a little time , and then vanisheth away . This is the Judgment of God concerning Man , all Men ; They are but Dust , but a Shadow , but Grass , and the Life of Man very short , and full of trouble , but even as a bubble , but a vapour ; and we may be sure , that the Judgment of God is according to Truth . And then , for all the things of this World , Solomon , by the Spirit of God , hath declared what they all are . Eccles . 1. 2. Vanity of vanities , saith the Preacher , vanity of vanities , all is vanity . Vanity and Vexation . Riches , Honours , Pleasures , Relations , Friends , Liberty , all pleasant Accommodations , all is vanity and vexation of spirit . This is the true and right Judgment we should have of all earthly things . ( 2. ) We must judge of these earthly things by the experience of the best and wisest men that ever lived upon Earth ; they will tell us from their own experience , that they are all vanity and vexation . So Solomon , Job , David , Moses ; Psal . 90 , 4 , 5 , 6. Yea , we all know this by our own Experiences every day , that all flesh is as grass , and as the flower of the field : How soon do all our earthly Comforts wither and perish , our dearest and nearest Relations wither and dye away , our Health and Strength , our Life , and all , still withering and perishing ? [ See largely of this in Dr. Reynold 's Three Treatises , the first part , concerning the vanity of the Creature . ] ( 3. ) Once more judge of Earthly things by the evil use we make of them while we have them , through Satan's Temptations and our own Corruptions , ( as was shewed before ) and also what cloggs and hinderances they are to our Souls , in our way to Heaven : Altho' Life , and all the Accommodations of Life , as Health , Strength , Liberty , Estate , Friends are good things in themselves , and given us to be helps to Holiness , and to Heaven ; yet we must confess to our shame , that all our Earthly Comforts , yea , and our animal Life it self , doth very much , most times , hinder our Communion with God , hinder us in the Service of God , keep our Hearts at too great a distance from God ; and many more Evils they bring upon us ; all which considered , we have but little reason so to value them as we do , nor to let our Hearts and Affections so to run out after them . Thus let us take a right judgment of all Earthly things . It is true , that so far forth as these Earthly things are useful to us in the Service of God , and further the good of our Souls , so far forth we ought to love and prize them , and praise God for them , and pray for the continuance of them ; but so far forth as they are hinderances to us in Holiness , and bring Sin and Guilt on our Souls , as too oft they do , so far forth , and in that respect , we had better be without them than with them ; their Room would be better than their Company : And when they prove Snares to us , and like Solomon's Wives draw away our Hearts from God ; and like Dalilah to Sampson , betray our Souls into the hands of our spiritual Enemies ; then surely it is the goodness of God to separate them from us , and strip us of them , and we shall have cause to bless God for so doing . Sickness and Weakness improved , is better for our Souls than Health and Strength abused : Restraint and Confinement improved , better than Liberty abused : Solitariness improved , is better than a Family and Company abused : Poverty improved , better than Riches abused , &c. Thus you may get a right Judgment of Earthly things . Q. 2. But how will this right Judgment of Earthly things help us to bear our Troubles in this World ? A. 1. By acting our Faith upon the Word of God. Believe , and be fully perswaded of the truth , which God , the God of Truth , hath spoken concerning all Earthly things : Believe that all flesh is grass , that life is but a vapour , &c. here lies the root of all our Impatience and Discontent under our Losses and Earthly Comforts , even our Unbelief ; we do not fully and firmly believe they are such vain things that we are deprived of , out grass , but as the flowers of the field . Just like a man that finds a Box or Bag of Counters , and takes them to be all pure Gold , and greatly rejoycech in what he hath found ; then after a short time he loseth his Counters , and then he is exceedingly troubled for the loss of them , because all this while he took them for Gold ; but if once he comes to believe , that it was but a Box or Bag of Counters , then he grieves no more . So it is with us ; we believe not , that all our Comforts are vanity and vexation ; we look not on them to be so , but that there is much contentment , and sweetness , and satisfaction to be had in them : And therefore we grieve immoderately when we lose our Counters ; but if we did firmly believe they are but Counters , Shadows , Grass , Vapours , we should not be so cast down . 2. Meditation and Consideration of the true nature of all Earthly things , as God hath shewed us in his Word ; often thinking , pondering , and meditating on their vanity , uncertainty , transitoriness and deceitsulness : Without this due and serious Meditation , a right Judgment of them will do us no good . When God smites our Comforts , maketh our fairest Flowers to wither , blasteth our flourishing Grass , then let us consider what God hath smitten and blasted , nothing but grass , but flowers . What have we lost ? Nothing but Shadows , but Counters : This deep Consideration will support us under our Losses . Consider also the Experience of the Saints , who in all Ages have found these things to be but vanity and vexation . 3. Add Prayer to God , That He will throughly convince your Minds of the vanity of all earthly things , as David prayed , Psal . 39. 4. That we may judge of them as God judgeth of them , and not otherwise ; and then it will not so much trouble us to part with them . So much for a right Judgment of the good things of this World : We must also labour to get a right Judgment of the evil things of this World , as Poverty , Sickness , Imprisonment , Disgrace , loss of Friends and Relations ; we usually judge amiss of these also , and therefore become impatient . Now , that we may have a right Judgment of these things also , we must observe the former Rules . 1. To judge of these Evil things as God in his Word judgeth of them . Now God tells us in his Word , that Afflictions are short and light ; that is comparatively , as was shewed before ; that his ends and designs in all the Afflictions of his People , are good and gracious ; of which largely before ; that they are Tokens of his Fatherly Love to us , and Evidences of our Sonship ; that they are for our spiritual and eternal profit , to take away our Sins , and to make us partakers of his Holiness , and to prepare us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; that they are needful and necessary for us , Afflictions being as necessary to God's People , in their passage to Heaven , as Water is to a Ship , to carry her to her Port. Now , if we judge of Afflictions thus , as the Only-wise God judgeth of them , we shall bear them with much patience . 2. To judge of them as the wise , good , and holy men of God do judge of them . Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God , than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season . Holy David professeth , That it was good for him that he was afflicted , Psal . 119. 71. [ Vpon which Text I have written at large by it self . ] So the Primitive Christians , 2 Cor. 4. 17 , 18. and Heb. 10. 34. And thousands now in Heaven , and upon Earth , can seal to this Truth , That Afflictions have done them good . 3. Let us judge also by our own Experiences , that as the good things of this World have been , by Satan's Temptations , and our own Corruptions , very hurtful to our Souls ; so the evil things of this World have been , through the Grace of God , sanctifying them to us , very profitable to our Souls , and we have cause to bless God for them . And as Earthly things , good in themselves , become evil to us , so evil things , so in themselves , but by the Blessing of God on them , become good into us . Now this right Judgment of the evil things of this World , will much support us under them , 1. If we strongly act our Faith in believing that God in his Word hath said of these Evil things , that they are all but light and short , that He hath such gracious ends in them ; and if we act faith and Hope upon the many exceeding great and precious Promises in the Word , made to his People in their Afflictions , and relye upon his faithfulness in them , we shall be sweetly supported under them . 2. If we duly meditate and consider of the good ●ruits that our Afflictions shall bring forth in us , ●● due time ; and do duly ponder upon the gracious ends of God in them , it will , doubtless , mightily uphold us under them . 3. And if we add fervent Prayers to God , to give out all those spiritual Blessings of Afflictions to us ; and wait on him for the blessing , hoping , ●esiring , and panting after these Blessings ; we shall be enabled to bear up under them all . Application . Let us bewail our wrong and false Judgment of Earthly things , both of the good and evil things of this World , and pray earnestly for a true , spiritual , and right Judgment of them ; let us fully submit our Judgments to the Judgment of God , and setledly acquiesce in God's Judgment ; let us pray earnestly for a spiritual Understanding , and a renewed Judgment ; let us look on all visible temporal things , as God looketh on them , and settle it in our minds . That the Judgment of God is right and best ; and let us not lean to our own Understandings , and by this means we shall be much helped to bear all our Afflictions with Comfort and Patience . So much of this Doctrine . Now to proceed to the last words in this Verse : 2 COR. iv . 18. But to the things which are not seen , for they are eternal . THIS is another Act of Faith : Faith enables the Soul not only to look off from things which are seen , for they are temporal ; but also to look unto those things which are not seen , for they are eternal . We look ; the original word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , prospicio , to look seriously , diligently , earnestly , to look upon a thing as his mark and scope , to look with ardent desire to attain that which he looks for . Now saith the Apostle , We look not on those things which are seen , temporal things , as our mark and scope , with such eagerness and diligence to attain them ; we see not such worth and excellency in them , as to spend our best Thoughts about them , and our ardent Affections upon them ; no , no , but we look on things not seen ; we look on unseen things as infinitely more worthy , and more highly meri●ing our best Thoughts and Affections ; for those ●●seen things are eternal things , and therefore more worthy of our Affections . Two Points of Doctrine arise hence . Doct. I. That truly-gracious Souls do most seriously mind , and most diligently intend and aim at unseen eternal things ; upon these their thoughts are mainly and mostly fixt , and about these their greatest Care and Study is employed . Doct. II. That the due minding of , and meditating upon unseen eternal things , will much help to support the People of God under all their Sufferings in this World. Doct. I. First , That truly-gracious Souls do most ●eriously mind , and most diligently intend and aim at ●●seen and eternal things . Here we must enquire , 1. What those invisible eternal things are . 2. The Reasons of the Point . 1. What they are . They are things not seen , and they are eternal ; unseen to the bodily Eye ; opposed to the visible things of the World , Ri●●es , Honours , Pleasures , Friends , Health , Liberty , &c. those good and evil things of this World ; these we look not unto , but to invisible , and they are , 1. First , The Invisible God , whom no man hath seen , nor can see with bodily Eyes ; Coll. 1. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 17. Moses saw him that is invisible . Heb. 11. 27. We , saith the Apostle , look unto him , Mic. 7. 7. I will look unto the Lord , Psal . 34. 5. Gracious Souls make God their aim , and their end , how to serve , and please , and glorifie him , and how to have Communion with him , and to enjoy him . This is the chief Study , Care , and Labour of gracious Souls , to be accepted with God , and to bring Glory to him , 2 Cor. 5. 9. We are always looking to God , to his Precepts , to obey them , to his Promises to believe and rest upon them ; to his Providences , to observe and comply with them , answering them by suitable Duty . 2. Secondly , We look unto our Blessed Jesus , the Image of the Invisible God , the eternal Son of God ; He was once visible , and seen in the Flesh , and shall be so again at his second coming , Acts 1. But now we see him not , yet now we believe in him , and look on him by Faith : And that we may look upon and behold this unseen Jesus , and by Faith and Love , to enjoy Union and Communion with him , to know him living in us , and to have fellowship with him in his Death and Resurrection , and in his Life , to receive of his fulness Grace for Grace : This the Saints aim at , and spend their Thoughts and Cares about , and make this the main and principal work of their Lives ; Phil. 3. 8 , 9 , 10. That they may be joyned to Christ , married to him , engrafted into him , partake of his Spirit , Life , and Grace ; that they may be conformable to him , and enabled to walk as he walked ; that he may sup with them , and they with him ; that he may dwell in their Hearts by Faith , and take up his abode with them , and manifest his Love unto them ; that they may grow up in all things like unto him . These are the Aims , Intentions , Desires , Prayers , Longings , and constant Endeavours of truly-gracious Souls . Not to be rich , and great , and honourable in the World , but to partake of the unsearchable Riches of Christ , to get and possess Jesus , this Pearl of greatest 〈◊〉 , to be rich in Faith , to have a clear Title to ●e Crown of Life , which Jesus hath purchased ●● promised ; to live in Christ , and to please , ho●●ur , and enjoy Jesus . This is their Chief La●●ur . 3. The holy Spirit is invisible and eternal ; the ●●cious Influences and Operations of the Holy ●host on the Hearts and Spirits , ( though the ●ects may in some sense be said to be visible , ●● of eternal efficacy ) yet the Operations are in 〈◊〉 sence invisible ; the Graces of the Spirit , ●●ch I take to be those Waters of Life , which our ●●d speaks of , John 4. which spring up to Eter●al Life ; the Joy , the Comforts of the Spirit , the ●aintings , teachings , guidings of the Spirit ; the ●●iness and sealings of the Spirit ; all these are in●●able and eternal things ; and these are the things ●hat natural men cannot know nor discern , 1 Cor. 2. ●1 , 13 , 14. Strangers intermeddle not with this by , because Strangers to it : It is hidden Manna : ●●at these are the unseen things , that gracious ●als mind , seek , and breath after , and always ●●g for : Oh , that they may be filled with the ●pirit , filled with the Graces and Comforts of the Spirit , and enjoy Communion with the Spirit . 4. The Word of God , the glorious Gospel , that is invisible and eternal , not in the Letter of it , for that is to be seen in the Book , but the Mysteries of ●t are hidden Mysteries ; Matth. 11. 25. These things are hid from the wife and prudent of the World. It 's true , the sound of the Gospel is gone ●ut abroad throughout the World ; but the power and efficacy , the vertue and inward workings of it , the sweetness of it , that is invisible to the Eye of the Body , and hidden to the World , 1 Cor. 2. 9 , 10. God reveals those things to his People by his Spirit : The infinite Beauty of Christ , his transcendent Excellencies , the Beauty of Holiness , the surpassing sweetness of the Promises , the glory of Heaven , with many , many other unspeakable Excellencies , which are held out in the Gospel ; all which bodily Eyes cannot see , nor carnal Hearts understand . The powerful enlightning , quickning , transforming , nourishing , strengthning , refreshing , and comforting power and vertue of the Gospel , but very few see and feel ; none but such as are spiritualized , and whose Understandings are savingly enlightned ; Eph. 1. 17 , 18 , 19. There are great and glorious things represented in the Gospel ; but Men's Understandings must be enlightned before they can see them : Life and Immortality is brought to light by the Gospel ; Heaven and Hell opened in the Gospel , but not to be seen by the bodily Eye . Hence the Gospel is said to be hid , 2 Cor. 4. 4. and this word abideth for ever , 1 Pet. 1. 25. and it is an everlasting Gospel . Now , saith the Apostle , we look to the Word of God , and mind the glorious Mysteries of the Gospel , and feel the sweet and powerful effects of it ; we desire the sincere milk of the Word , that we may grow thereby ; we esteem the Word of God above our necessary food ; Job 23. 12 , 13. and it is sweeter to us than the hony or hony-comb , Psal . 19. 9. 5. We look unto , and mind all the exceeding great and precious Promises which are in the Word of God ; the vertue , sweetness , and good of them are all invisible to carnal Eyes . Tell a carnal man of the goodness and sweetness of the Promises , it is a Riddle to him ; give him present Enjoyments , he never tasted any sweetness in them ; but true Christians look on them as exceeding rich things , and look up to them , and embrace them , and live upon them ; they could not ●re without them : The Promises are dry Breasts ●● carnal Hearts , they can draw no vertue from them ; but they are full Breasts to gracious Souls : ●●il . 27. 13. I had fainted , unless I had believed , ( that ●● , in the Promises ) to see the goodness of God in the 〈◊〉 of the living . The Promises , That God will be our God in Christ , and our Portion , and exceeding great Re●ard , Gen. 17. 1. That He will be a Sun and a ●ield to us , give us Grace and Glory , and will with-hold no good thing from us ; Psal . 84. last . ●romises of Pardon , of Peace , of Holiness and ●●essedness , of Rest for our Souls , Mat. 11. 28 , 29. Promises of his good Presence with us in all our ●roubles ; of Supports , Supplies , and of a gracious 〈◊〉 out of all ; gracious Souls trade in the Promises , converse with the Promises ; these they mind ●nd rest upon , and find Sweetness and Comfort in . 6. And Lastly , We look unto all those great and glorious things which the Great God hath prepared for us from the foundation of the World , and which our most dear Lord Jesus hath purchased for us by his most precious Blood. Oh , the great and glorious things which God our Father ●ath prepared for us ! that blessed Vision of God , that Kingdom of Heaven , that Life eternal , that Crown of Glory , of Life , of Righteousness , that inheritance incorruptible , undefiled , and that sa●●th not away ; that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; that everlasting Rest ; all these things are invisible and eternal ; And unto these ●●seen and eternal things , we , saith the Apostle , 〈◊〉 , and set our mind upon . And also the great and glorious things which our Lord hath purchased ; as Peace with God , his Favour , Acceptance with him , Adoption , Sonship , Heirship , Remission of Sins , an heavenly Inheritance ; these are all invisible and eternal things , great and wonderful things , things of the greatest excellency and highest concernment ; And , saith the Apostle , we that are Gospel-christians , we look to these things ; upon these we spend our most serious thoughts , and our best affections ; these possess our hearts and minds , and we live in the continual prospect of these unseen and eternal things . Before I come to the Reasons of the Point , a little more to open this Act of gracious Souls , and the Object of it . I. For the Act , Looking ; which may note these things . 1. It notes Reality , it is no Fancy , Dream , or empty Imagination , but we look , we see , we behold them ; the Eyes of our Understandings being enlightned , and our Minds illuminated by the Spirit of God ; and having the Spirit of Faith in us , we discern and behold those invisible and eternal things : Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for , and the evidence of things not seen . We do as fully believe them , as if they were visible to our Bodily Eyes . 2. It notes Certainty ; what we see with our Eyes , we are certain of ; we are fully perswaded of them , Heb. 11. 13. hence this Sight is called Knowledge , 2 Cor. 5. 1. 3. Fixedness ; it is not glancing , or casting an Eye on them , but we look on them , that is , fixedly and stedfastly ; we aim at them ; we lock on them as our Mark and End. Thus for the Act. II. For the Object ; they are things that are not seen : What they are , hath been showed ; the Properties are these : 1. They are spiritual things ; so in their Nature , and revealed by the Spirit , 1 Cor. 2. 8. and they are spiritually discerned , and not otherwise . 2. They are all high , great , and glorious things ; yea , the highest , the greatest , and the most glorious things : All other things are but Dross and Dung in comparison of them . 3. They are the choicest and the best things , most worthy of our Hearts and Minds , and of our choicest Affections : What is the Chaff to the Wheat ? What is the Dross to the Gold ? What is Earth to Heaven , or the Creature to God ? 4. They are Heart-transforming , Heart-gladding , Heart-elevating , Heart-strengthning things , 2 Cor. 3. 17 , 18. 1 Pet. 1. 8. These things looked unto by the Eye of Faith , will change the Heart , and cause joy unspeakable and glorious . 5. They are real , solid , substantial things , not Shadows , as visible temporal things are ; Hebr. 10. 34. They joyfully took the spoiling of their goods , for they were but Shadows , Trifles ; because they had in Heaven substantial things . The things of this World are all vain , lying Vanities , things that are not ; Prov. 23. 5. 6. They are Soul-satisfying , and Heart-contenting things ; such as have them shall never thirst more , John 4. 14. that is , inordinately and immoderately after Earthly things . 7. And Lastly , They are eternal things , permanent , abiding , lasting , everlasting things ; eternal Life , eternal Glory ; everlasting Consolation , everlasting Rest : We shall ever be with the Lord. O my Soul ! Can I be a true Christian , and be a Stranger to this Practice of conversing with those invisible eternal things ? Can I be regenerate , born of God , born from above , and be a Stranger to this Practice ? Can I be quiet in Conscience , so long as I live in the neglect of this ? Can I groundedly hope to live and converse with God and Christ for ever hereafter , and be such a Stranger to this converse with him here ? Can I have any Support in Trouble without this ? Can I have any true Comfort in Life or Death , or bid Sickness or Death welcome , and be a Stranger to this ? Certainly no : Therefore , O my Soul , labour for more familiar Acquaintance with those invisible eternal things , and exercise thy self more in the Meditations of them . The Grounds and Reasons of the Point , Why gracious Souls do most seriously mind , intend and aim at invisible eternal things . Reas . I. Because they are commanded so to do , Col. 3. 1 , 2. Set your affections upon things above , not on things below , Mat. 6. 19 , 20. Lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven , not in Earth , 1 Tim. 6. 19. II. Because truly-gracious Souls are endued with invisible , divine , and eternal Principles , which do encline , dispose , and suit them to those invisible and eternal things : Jam. 1. 17 , 18. They are begotten of God , born of God ; their extraction is heavenly ; 1 Pet. 1. 23. 2 Pet. 1. 4. They must needs mind God , for they are begotten of him , He is their Father , they have his Image on them ; and they must needs mind Christ , for he is formed in them ; and the Spirit , for they are born of the Spirit : Heaven is their Father's House , their own Home , their Inheritance ; the Principles of the Divine Nature enclines and disposeth them to mind things above . As they that are after the flesh , do mind the things of the flesh , so they that are after the spirit , do mind the things of the spirit ; for this is the characteristical difference between the carnal and the spiritual man , Rom. 8. 5 , 6. 1 John 5. 4. Every thing acts according to its Principles . If Men and Women have no other Principles in them , but such as they brought into the World with them , which are only earthly , and have no other Spirit than the Spirit of the World i● them ; they cannot mind heavenly things , for such as is the earthly , such are they that are earthly ; Heavenly things are contrary to their Natures , and to their Principles , and therefore they cannot mind them . But holy Souls have Principles of the Divine Life , and they live the Life of God. III. Because their Hopes are set , grounded , fixed on those invisible eternal things ; their hopes are not in this Life , but in God , in Christ ; Glory , Heaven , and Eternal Life , are the Objects of the hopes of all truly-gracious Souls ; 1 Cor. 15. 19. Rom. 5. 2. Heb. 6. 18 , 19. Tit. 2. 14. Tit. 1. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 13. 1 John 3. 3. We must needs mind them , and set our Affections upon them , because we hope to enjoy them for ever . Phil. 3. 20 , 21. IV. Because the People of God have had experience in some measure of the sweet and powerful Influences and Operations of those invisible eternal things on their own Hearts and Spirits ; they have tasted that the Lord is gracious ; they have had fellowship with the Father and the Son , in some degree ; they have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost , in many saving fruits and effects on them ; they have felt the power , efficacy , and comfort of the Word and Promises ; and they have in some measure received the first-fruits and earnest of their Inheritance ; Rom. 8. 23. Eph. 1. 13 , 14. V. Because by all these things gracious Souls live , and in all these things is the Life of their Souls : Their Life is hid with Christ in God , and should they not mind God and Christ ? Christ liveth in them , and they in him , Gal. 2. 20. They live in the Spirit , and walk in the Spirit , Gal. 5. They live by , and live upon the Promises , Job 23. 12. They live by Faith , in the purchased , promised , prepared Inheritance ; they live in hope of Eternal Life , Tit. 1. 2. and rejoyce in hope of glory , Rom. 5. 2 : They live in hope of a better Resurrection ; they groan after their House in Heaven ; they seek a Country , an heavenly ; and therefore they cannot but mind and intend , look unto , and aim at those invisible eternal things . Our natural Life , much less our spiritual Life , doth not consist in the things which we possess ; that is , in visible temporal things ; for , in God we live , move , and have our being . VI. Because these invisible eternal things are the only things that are suitable and satisfying to the Souls of gracious persons ; Earthly things are not suitable to Heaven-born Souls ; Riches , Honours , Pleasures , not suitable , nor satisfying to immortal Souls , which are begotten of God : Earthly things are no Bread for Souls ; Isa . 55. 2 , 3 , 4. John 6. 27. They are all but Ashes , but Wind , Husks , Chaff , not Food for Souls ; these are suitable to the Body , Meats for the Belly , and the Belly for Meats ; but God , and Christ , and the Word , &c. for the Soul , for the renewed gracious Soul ; other things will not content it . VII . Because these invisible eternal things are the best , the choicest , the chiefest , the most excellent things , the principal things , as all will confess , and therefore most worthy to be minded and looked after ; Phil. 4. 8. GOD and Glory , Heaven and Happiness , are the best things for certain , Heb. 10. 34. & 11. 16. The Saints Happiness lies in those invisible eternal things : They may be happy without visible temporal things , but they can never be happy without the other : And indeed , all visible temporal things are not worth minding at all in comparison of the other . Oh , that we could believe this , and act accordingly . VIII . Because those things are most sure and certain , incorruptible and undefiled , and that fade not away , Matth. 6. 19. nor moth , nor rust , nor thieves can spoil us of these ; 1 Cor. 9. 25. Heb. 11. 9 , 10. & 13. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 4. Psal . 48. 14. This God will be our God for ever . None can say so of Relations or Possessions , of Health , Wealth , or Liberty . Jesus Christ is the Believer's for ever ; their Joy is everlasting , none can take it from them ; their Peace is everlasting , their Kingdom everlasting . IX . Because by minding of , and by setting their Affections upon those invisible eternal things , they are much freed and discharged from the Snares , Fears , Cares , Sorrows , Entanglements , Incumbrances and Temptations , that accompany the minding of those visible temporal things . Nil sentit in Nervo , cum Anima sit in Coelo . Oh , the intolerable Burthens , the unavoidable Snares , Cares , and Fears that attend these earthly things ! how are the Minds of Men rack'd , tortured , distracted , distempered , macerated with these ? while they mind them eagerly and inordinately , What cross Passages fall out ? what Disappointments do they meet with ? how strangely are mens Minds bewitched with these things ? what unruly Passions are oftentimes stirred up , and thence they break out into many uncomely words and actions , piercing themselves thorow with many Sorrows , 1 Tim. 6. 10. Against this our Lord caution'd his Disciples , Luk. 21. 34. Take heed , lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting , and drunkenness , and cares of this life . And by these worldly entanglements many times God is forgotten , Conscience wounded , Peace broken , Guilt contracted , Duty neglected , and Sorrows multiplied . But now , when we can get off our Hearts from Earthly things , and can get them up above these things , and can fix our Minds upon those high and heavenly things ; how are our Spirits discharged and disburthened , and our Minds eased and quieted : Psal . 63. 5 , 6. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness : When I remember thee upon my bed , and meditate on thee in the night-watches . O , the sweet Peace and Tranquility of Mind that those enjoy , that look above , and live above , and have their conversation in Heaven ; who walk with God , and talk with God , and constantly converse with things above : To be spiritually minded is life and peace , Rom. 8. 6. X. Because by this minding Heavenly things the Saints get good Proof and Evidence of their Title unto , and of their Interest in God and Christ , and to those invisible eternal things ; 1 Joh. 5. 4. Col. 3. 1 , 2 , 3. Joh. 3. 6. 1 Cor. 15. 48. This is a good Proof that we belong to God and Heaven , because we mind them , and set our Hearts upon them . XI . Because by the minding of those things above , the People of God are wonderfully supported under all their Troubles in this Life ; and by their Heavenly-mindedness their Troubles are alleviated and sweetned to them ; as in the Text and Context : We faint not , while we look not at those things which are seen , for they are temporal ; but at those things which are not seen , for they are eternal . By our looking off from temporal things , and by our looking on upon eternal things , we are supported under all our Sufferings . XII . And Lastly , Because this is the way to salvation : For if the end of those who mind earthly things be Destruction , as Phil. 3. 19. then the end of those who mind Heavenly things , must be Salvation . Thus much for the grounds of the Point . Q. But wherein consists this Duty of looking unto invisible eternal things ? What is this minding of them ? And how must this Work be managed ? Ans . 1. It consists in the distinct knowing , and right understanding of those invisible eternal things ; to know God and Christ , the Mystery of God and Godliness , Col. 2. 3. Ephes . 1. 17 , 18. Let us pray as the Apostle doth there ; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ , the Father of glory , would give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation , in the knowledge of him : That the eyes of our understandings may be enlightned , &c. 2. In a full perswasion of Heart , of the Reality and transcendent Excellency of those invisible eternal things , that they are indeed the most real , the most substantial , and the most excellent things , infinitely surpassing all temporal things ; Phil. 3. 8 , 9. Psal . 73. 25. If we believe not this , and be not fully perswaded of this , that Heavenly things are incomparably better than Earthly things , we shall never set our Hearts upon them . 3. In the frequent and lively Actings of Faith , Love , Desire , Hope , Hungrings , Thirstings , Pantings , Breathings , Longings and Expectations upon and after those Heavenly things ; Psal . 42. 1 , 2. & 63. 1 , 2 , 3 , 8. Isa . 26. 9. Oh , that I had a clearer , fuller sight of God , more acquaintance with my Blessed Jesus , more spiritual relish of Divine things , more experience of the saving workings of the Holy Spirit , more sense of the fatherly love of God in Christ : Oh , that I had clearer Evidences of my title to Everlasting Rest : Oh , that the Love of God may be shed abroad on my Heart abundantly : Oh , that I could taste more sweetness , and feel more Power in the Word and Promises : Oh , that I could converse more with God , and have my Conversation more above . Thus holy Souls pant and breath after God and Heavenly things . 4. In esteeming , prizing , valuing those invisible eternal things above all earthly temporal things ; Psal . 30. In God's favour is life ; Psal . 63. 3. His loving-kindness is better than life ; Psal . 4. 6. Lord , lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us . This will put gladness into our hearts , more than the encrease of corn and wine . 5. In applying and appropriating these invisible eternal things to our own Souls ; My Lord , and my God , my Jesus ; The kingdom prepared for me , the crown belongs to me . 6. In frequent conversing with them by meditation , contemplation , consideration ; spreading and spending our most serious Thoughts , and our most fixed and deepest Cogitations on them , and never leave thinking and thinking , pondering , musing , ruminating and dwelling on them , until our Hearts be warmed ; and our Affections kindled , our Desires enlarged , and our Delights raised . Psal . 37. 5. Delight thy self in the Lord. Psal . 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet . Alas , we have so few , and such short , and inconstant , and unfixed Thoughts of God and Christ , of Heaven and Glory , that our Hearts are not affected , nor raised and enflamed . 7. And lastly , In a conversation suitable to those invisible eternal things : Phil. 3. 20. the Apostles and Primitive Christians had their Conversations in Heaven . This alone is true , real minding of , and conversing with those Heavenly things , when we live the life of God , live like God , like Jesus , walk in the Spirit , to be holy in all manner of conversation ; 2 Pet. 3. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 18 , 19. To be like Christ in Meekness and Humility ; Matth. 11. 28. and in Purity ; 1 John 3. 3. in contempt of the World , and Vanities of it ; in Heavenly-mindedness . And thus we ought to look unto and mind invisible and eternal things , and this will bring true Joy and perfect Peace . Isa . 26. 3. Psal . 112. 6 , 7. Moreover , I conceive , that the Apostle and Primitive Christians did look also unto the invisible eternal Evil things , and spent some Thoughts upon them ; as , The Terrour of the Lord , Everlasting Destruction , Eternal Death , the Wrath to come , &c. These things they minded two ways . 1. By way of Praise and Thanksgiving , admiring the Love and Grace of God in Christ , by which they were delivered from those invisible eternal Miseries , which their Sins had deserved ; as we find often in their Praises . 2. In their Diligence to escape those eternal Evils , labouring for the assurance of their full deliverance from them ; constantly exhorting all men to give all Diligence , that they might not fall short of their Everlasting Rest . But principally , I think , they looked unto those invisible eternal Good things , to secure their Title to them , and Interest in them ; and so minding them , as still to press forward towards the Mark of the Price of the high Calling ; and with the fore-thoughts and fore-sights of them , did support their Spirits under their Troubles , and sweeten their passage through this present evil World. So much for the Doctrinal part . The Application . First , For Information . 1 Inference . Hence appears the extream Folly and Madness of People by Nature , who look at , mind and aim only at visible temporal things , but totally neglect Invisible eternal things . God , Christ , Heaven , is not in all , scarce in any of their Thoughts ; Lovers of themselves , of their own things , of Profits and Pleasures , more than of God , Phil. 1. 21. 2 Tim. 3. 4. that make themselves the Mark they aim at ; but the Glory and Honour of God , the pleasing and enjoying him , are strange things to them , things they never minded , never thought on : God complains of this against the Jews , Hos . 8. 12. I have written to them the great things of my Law , but they counted them as strange things . So may Jesus Christ justly complain of Men under the Gospel ; I have revealed the great and glorious Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven , the Mysteries of Salvation , the unsearchable Riches of the Grate and Love of God in the Gospel . Life and Immortality is brought to light by the Gospel ; the true and only way to Heaven and Eternal Life , to Everlasting Happiness , is clearly made known in the Gospel ; the only Means to get an Interest in the great God , in Jesus Christ , in the New Covenant ; how to get Pardon of Sin , Peace with God ; how to be justified , saved , and glorified for ever ; All these things are fully and clearly revealed in the Gospel . The invisible eternal things of the World to come , which are the greatest Realities and Excellencies , the choicest , greatest , and best things . But woe , and alas ! how little are those things minded ? It is Corn , Wine , and Oyl ; Who will shew us any good , any visible temporal good ? Now , is not this extream Folly and Madness , for reasonable Creatures , made for God , made capable of enjoying God , and all those invisible eternal good things ; for them thus to labour and pant after the Dust of the Earth , to spend their Thoughts , Minds , and Strengths upon that which cannot satisfie , which will not endure ; but thus to waste precious Time , and Breath , and Spirits for perishing fading things , and neglect invisible eternal things ; the incorruptible Crown , that fadeth not away , the undefiled Inheritance , the everlasting Kingdom , eternal Life and Salvation ; not to look on those , nor mind them , nor labour for them : Yet this is the common neglect of the World. It is amazing Madness , astonishing Folly. Thus God expresseth , Jer. 2. 11 , 12 , 13. Be astonished , O ye heavens , at this ; be ye horribly afraid ; be ye very desolate , saith the Lord : For my people have committed two evils ; they have forsaken me , the fountain of living waters , and hewed out Cisterns , broken Cisterns , that can hold no water . Prov. 1. 20 , 21 , 22. Yet such is the Madness of all by Nature , and it is greatly to be lamented . This shews also the blindness and darkness of Men by Nature , that they cannot see the excellency of those invisible eternal things , nor their own absolute necessity of them , and concernment in them : The God of this World hath blinded the minds of them which believe not , lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ , who is the Image of God , should shine into them : This glorious light shines upon them , and shines into many of their Heads ; this Light they cannot resist ; but it shines not into their Hearts , to transform and change them , as it doth into the Hearts of God's Elect ; and it 's greatly to be lamented ; 2 Cor. 4. 4. 2. Inf. Secondly , Hence appears the beguiling , bewitching nature of the World , that it should so strangely win and gain the Hearts and Affections of Men and Women , and so easily prevail with them , while God and Christ are offered to them , and are not embraced : Heaven gates are opened to them , and they invited , entreated , perswaded by Promises , by Threatnings , commanded to come and enter , but they will not ; they make light of it ; no Perswasions will prevail ; they turn the deaf Ear to all : But for the World , how soon are People perswaded to embrace it , to follow hard after it , to count no Time nor Pains too much to attain it ? What is there in those visible temporal things , in those glittering vanities , that should so allure , entice , and seduce rational Souls , and such as profess that they believe all those better things ? But indeed , they do not believe them , whatever they profess : Infidelity is the Root of all ; Men do not believe what they profess to believe . It were impossible that the World should be so heartily , so eagerly follow'd and pursued , if the vanity and vexation of it , the emptiness and insufficiency of it , the uncertainty and transitoriness of it , were indeed believed : It were impossible that the great and glorious God , the Alsufficient Good , that blessed Jesus , that Heaven and Eternal Happiness , should be so slighted and neglected , if they were truly , really , and heartily believed . It is most strange , and yet most true , that People should yield up their Hearts unto , and spend their best Affections upon the things of this present evil World , and can think and speak delightfully of them , but have no mind to think or speak of eternal things . Oh , this beguiling , bewitching , and deceiving World ! and , oh , these corrupt , carnal , deceitful Hearts of ours , that suffer the World thus to deceive us ! It cost the Heart-blood of Christ to deliver his People from this present evil World , Gal. 1. 4. Could we apprehend the Mischief this World hath done us , and doth still do us , we should have but little kindness for it ; and if once we could attain the Assurance of our title to that World above , we should not care how soon we were gone out of this . 3 Inf. Thirdly , Hence appears the Unreasonableness of immoderate Worldly Joy , Sorrow , Fear , Cares about visible temporal things . Being they are but temporal , passing , transient , momentany things , why then so much care to get and keep them ? Why so much fear of losing them ? Why so much Joy in possessing ? and , why so much Trouble in parting with them ? Why so much Care and Fear about Life it self , which is but a Vapour ? Jam. 4. 14. Alas , we rejoice in things of nought , and are grieved for the loss of Shadows ; for such , and no better at best , are all visible temporal things , in comparison of invisible eternal things . Let us all bewail this Folly : O , when shall we be wise ? How long shall we simple ones love this our sinful Simplicity ? Prov. 1. 22. Oh , how long e're we be able to discern between Good and Evil ? till we know the one thing needful , and approve and pursue the things which are most excellent ? and give up our Hearts entirely to God and Christ ? 4 Inf. Fourthly , Hence appears the absolute Necessity of Regeneration : Seeing we are by Nature so ignorant , dark , blind , stupid and dead , that we cannot see nor understand the things of God , nor the things that belong to our own Eternal Peace : Therefore we should earnestly seek and pray for Renewing Grace , and that Christ would give us the Light of Life ; and that God would beget us anew , and give us his sanctifying quick'ning Spirit , and infuse new spiritual Principles of the Divine Nature into our Hearts , and thereby take us off from inordinate minding visible temporal things , and turn our minds another way , even towards Himself , and towards Christ and Heaven , that there we may center and place all the Affections of our Hearts , all the Desires and Delights of our Souls : This must be done by the mighty power of God , and we must seek him diligently , to effect this work upon us ; and we must also attend on his Word preached and read , and diligently and conscientiously read the Word , searching the Scriptures for this very end and purpose , and servently beg God's Blessing on the Word , that it may prove to us a Word of Grace , a renewing , converting , sanctifying Word , the Seed of Regeneration . Jam. 1. 17 , 18. Of his own will begat he us , by the word of truth . John 17. 17. Thus must we Labour to be regenerated , or else we shall never get off our Minds from earthly things . Second Vse ; by way of Examination . We All hope to go to Heaven when we dye , and to enjoy all those invisible eternal good things , do we not ? Let us be so kind to our own Souls , as to try our Title , and the grounds of our Hopes : Sure here is one Mark , by which we may know whether our Hopes be well grounded or no ; to wit , by our Heavenly-mindedness . What do we aim at mainly , mind chiefly , look on , and look after principally ? Is it Heaven or Earth ? Visibles or Invisibles ? Let us examine our selves : Which way runs the Stream of our Thoughts , the Current of our Affections , the Tide of our Discourses ? Which way runs it strongest , steddiest ? Put this Question close to our Consciences , and require a direct Answer : Let us not dally and shuffle , but be serious . Our Apostle makes this a discriminating Character of a Child of God , of one in Christ , and above the power of Condemnation , of one that is born again : Rom. 8. 5. They that are after the flesh , do mind the things of the flesh ; the Profits , Honours , Pleasures , Ease , Health , Liberty , of the Flesh ; that is , they mind these things mainly , mostly , principally , chiefly ; most heartily , most seriously , most affectionately , most delightfully . These visible temporal things lye most upon their Thoughts , and lye nearest their Hearts . This is their Character , and it appears in all their Words and Actions . But they that are after the Spirit , that is , are born of the Spirit , born of God , are in Christ , they mind the things of the Spirit ; the grace , the work , the witness , the comfort and joy or the Spirit ; they mind the things which the Spirit hath revealed in the Word ; God , and Peace with him ; Christ , and Union with him ; God's Covenant , and Interest therein ; Eternal Life , and Title thereto ; these invisible eternal things , they mind these mainly , chiefly , mostly , principally , most heartily , affectionately , and most delightfully and constantly . This is their Character , and this is manifest also in their Words and Actions . Now , let us try our selves ; What Character have we ? Which of these two ? If we will not do so much for our own Souls , as to take a little pains in trying , we have not much love to them . A man may know very much of his State by this : And is it not worth a little Labour , to know whether we be in Christ , or no ; and whether we shall be Saved or Damned eternally ? Let us put it home to our Consciences : Say , O my Soul ! what dost thou mind most ? What are thy Thoughts most exercised about ? Whereupon are thy Affections most fixedly set ? This is a searching mark ; oh , that we did all try our selves by it ! we should be much more heavenly than we are . The best of us all will have cause of shame and sorrow , cause of self-suspicion and jealousie , when we strictly compare our selves with this Rule ; we shall find our Hearts so earthly , so carnal , our Minds so fleshly , so set upon visible temporal things , but our Thoughts on invisible eternal things ; so short , so weak , so inconstant , so seldom , so soon tired , and our Affections so unsetled , so unfixed , that we shall have great cause to bewail our selves , and cry out with St. Paul , O wretched man that I am , who shall deliver me from this body of death : Rom. 7. 24. And this will make us cry to God also , to renew the Spirits of our Minds , and to transform the Image of our Minds ; and this should make us look up to God's Covenant for new Hearts , for Hearts joyned and united to the Lord , Psal . 86. 11. Psal . 57. 7. & 108. 1. Oh , what cause have we to bewail the frequent departings and wandrings of our Hearts from God , their slidings from God , and to cry with holy David , Quicken me , uphold me . Our Hearts are not fixed nor stayed on God ; we do not abide with God. Third , Vse of Exhortation , To this great Duty of most serious minding of , and looking unto invisible eternal things . O , let us mind , and look unto , and aim at God , Christ , the Spirit , the Word , the Promises , the great and glorious things purchased by Christ , and prepared for us in the other World : Oh , mind the full enjoyment of God and Christ in Heaven for ever and ever ; to dwell with him , in whose presence is fulness of joy , and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore . Let us mind eternal things in good earnest , with all our Hearts and Souls ; Look off , look off visible temporal things , shut your Eyes to the World , turn away your Eyes from beholding Vanity : But open your Eyes towards Heaven , hold your Eyes to invisible eternal things . Here I shall shew , I. The Hinderances to this Duty . II. Means to help us to perform it . III. Motives to perswade to it . I. The Hinderances , which are many , and which must be avoided . 1st , Hinderance is , living in any known or beloved Sin ; this will keep us down from heavenly Meditation , Heb. 12. 1. No looking unto Jesus except we lay aside the Sin that doth so easily beset us ; in some , Passion ; in some , Weariness of well-doing ; in others , Pride or Covetousness , is the Sin that doth easily beset them : This must be hid aside , whatever it be ; it must be repented of , and reformed , 1 Thess . 5. 22. Abstain from all appearance of Evil ; Sin interposeth between God and our Souls , and hides his Face from us : If we would mind the Heavenly Word of God , so as to profit by it , in hearing or reading of it , we must lay aside all known Sin ; 1 Pet. 2. 1 , 2. Sin divides us from God and heavenly things . If we regard any Iniquity in our Hearts , God will not hear our Prayers . The sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. 2ly , Worldly Cares , Fears , Joys , Sorrows : If we suffer these to take up our Hearts , and to fill our Minds and Thoughts , there will be no room for heavenly things : We must therefore be watchful , to cast out , and keep out those bad guests ; Luke 21. 34. Phil. 4. 6. Be careful in nothing : If our Affections be set on visible temporal things , they cannot be set on invisible eternal things . No man can serve two Masters , God and Mammon , saith our Lord. If the World be Master of our Hearts and Minds , of our Thoughts and Affections , then surely they cannot be set on GOD , and things above . 3ly , Worldly Company , where is nothing but Earthly Discourse . They that are of the Earth , are earthly : Worldly Company will cool the Affections , and dull and deaden the Heart , and draw it from God : Therefore is that Exhortation and Prohibition , Eph. 5. 11. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness , but rather reprove them . True Christians are Christ's Doves , his Turtle-Doves , they have no Society with the Birds of Prey ; They are Christ's Sheep , what have they to do among Swine ? They are his Children , what have they to do among his Enemies ? We are not aware of the very great mischief that carnal company doth bring to our Souls . If at any time we have had any communion with God in any Ordinance and Duty , and then presently go into vain carnal Company , we shall quickly lose all savour and relish of God and Heavenly things ; as if you eat Hony , and presently eat Gall after , you lose all the taste of Hony : And that 's not all , but by being in worldly Company , you will soon be infected , and will bring away on your Spirits the ill savour of the Earth and filthy World ; as a man that comes out of a Garden of sweet Flowers , goes and wallows on a stinking Dunghil . The best of us should not go into worldly Company , but as Physicians into a Pest-house , when lawfully called , and with our Preservatives with us : We having so much Flesh and Earth in us , Worldly Company will make us more fleshly and earthly . 4ly , Pride and High-mindedness . God resisteth the proud , 1 Pet. 5. 5. Psal . 10. 4. There are many precious Promises made to the humble ; Job 22. 29. God will dwell with the humble , teach them , save them : None have so sweet Communion with God as humble Souls . Heavenly things and humble Souls are things very suitable and agreeable one to the other . 5ly , Sloth and Idleness . 'T is easie , we say , to go down the Hill , but not so easie to go up : 'T is easie , because natural , and usual , and ordinary , to mind visible temporal things ; but there must be Pains-taking , Industry , and Labour used , to raise up our Hearts to invisible eternal things ; a stirring up our selves , 2 Tim. 1. 6. And we must often call upon our own Souls , and provoke one another , and ill too little . We must have Resolution and Zeal . 6ly , The greatest Hinderance of all is Vnbelief . Men do not fully believe , nor are fully perswaded of the Reality and transcendent Excellency of invisible eternal things : This is the grand Impediment ; Why is not the great God , the good God , the Fountain of all Goodness , the Alsnfficient Good , minded , thought on , loved , feared , trusted , served no more ? but because He is not believed , He is not believed to be that which he is indeed , and which he hath revealed himself to be , Heb. 11. 6. He that cometh to God , must believe that he is , and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him . Oh , the cursed rooted Atheism and Unbelief that is in all our Hearts , more or less ! Why is not Jesus Christ , Precious Jesus , Blessed Jesus , Lovely , altogether Lovely Jesus , the Brightness of his Father's Glory , the Chiefest of Ten thousands , the fairest of all the Sons of Men , is whom dwells all fulness ; oh , why is he no more minded , thought on , spoken of ? why no more admired , loved , and sought after ? but because He is not believed . To them , to all them that believe , he is precious , most precious , 1 Pet. 2. 7. And why is not Heaven and Happiness that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory , that Everlasting Rest , in the full and perfect enjoyment of the Blessed God for ever , thought on , minded , and laboured after more ? but because these things are not fully believed . O cursed Unbelief ! Men believe that Life , Liberty , Health , Honour , Estate , &c. are good things , and therefore they mind them , and labour after them , and count no Pains too much to obtain them , labouring as it were in the Fire to get those things . Those that believed those better things in the other World , counted those visible temporal things of this World , but Toyls and Trifles ; Heb. 10. 34. 2 Cor. 5. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. So Heb. 11. throughout . It is our Unbelief is the cause , why God , and Christ , and Heaven have so little of our hearts and minds , so little of our thoughts and affections : Oh , let us all bitterly bewail our Unbelief : Lord , subdue and pardon it . These are the Hinderances . II. The Means to help us to this Work , that we may most seriously and most heartily mind invisible eternal things . 1. First , We must labour clearly to know and understand the Truth and Reality , the exceeding Greatness and Excellency of those invisible eternal things ; as was hinted before : Our ignorance of them is much the cause why we mind them no more . Ignoti nulla Cupido . No man minds or loves what he knows not . Let us set our Hearts in earnest , to consider what it is to enjoy God , who is All-fulness ; what it is to have Fellowship with the Father and the Son ; what it is to have Communion with the Holy Ghost ; to have the gracious Presence of the Holy Spirit ; to feel the Work , the Witness , the Sealing , the Joy , the Consolation of the Holy Spirit ; all which all true Christians know and feel in some measure , and rejoice in them ; Consider also what it is to live in Christ , and to have Christ to live in us , to dwell in our Hearts , to manifest his Love to us ; to come in to us , to sup with us , and we with him ; to take up his Abode with us ; what it is to know the Power of his Death , and the Vertue of his Resurrection ; to be made one with him , joyned , married to him , made one Spirit with him ; and what it is to be made like him here , and what it is to be made like him hereafter , both in Soul and Body , ●ad to appear with him in Glory at last , and to be for ever glorified with him ; what it is to see this Face , and to dwell in his presence for ever . Oh , chese are the only things that are worthy of all our Hearts and Minds , most worthy of all our Affections and Desires , of all our Labourings , Longings , Pantings , Breathings , Hungrings , and Thirstings of Soul : Oh , shame on us all , that we spend our Affections on Toys and Trifles , on Dreams , Fancies , and Shadows ! Oh , that such Folly and Madness , such Brutishness should possess us ! Let us lament and lament it . And let us labour to know and understand those high and excellent things , and let us be fully perswaded of them , and of their infinite worth and value . These things are worth glorying and rejoycing in . Jer. ●● 23 , 24. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom : — But let him that glorieth , glory in this , that he understandeth and knoweth me , that I am the Lord , which exercise loving-kindness , judgment , and righteousness in the earth ; for in these things I delight , saith the Lord. Let us consider also the exceeding-great and precious Promises , and what our Blessed Jesus hath purchased , and what God hath prepared for his People in the other World ; and let us ponder upon , and by Meditation work these things into our Hearts and Minds : Labour for a distinct knowledge of all those things : Labour to prove your particular Right and Title to all those invisible eternal good things , and then you will mind them indeed : A bare Knowledge of them , without an Interest in them , will do you no good . No wise man will much mind those things in which he hath no Interest ; let us then search , and try , whether we have any true Title to these things ; whether we have any good and solid ground to hope , that we shall one day be possest of them , and shall certainly enjoy them : Then we shall think of them , and speak of them with Joy and Comfort ; when we can say with Paul , There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness : And we know , that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved , we have a building of God , an house not made with hands , eternal in the heavens . We all hope to enjoy that promised purchased Inheritance , all hope to see God in Glory , and to be happy ; but let us try our Title by the Word of God , by that Word which must judge us all at the last day . We may easily deceive our selves , as those in Matth. 7. 21 , 22. and as the foolish Virgins ; no Deceit so easie , nor so common , nor so dangerous , for it is irrecoverable , and a little serious tryal might prevent this Self-deceiving ; Self-searching may prevent Self-deceiving and Self-undoing . Briefly then , let us ask our selves , Is Jesus Christ ours ? Then All is ours ; All depends on this . If Christ be ours , God is ours ; Pardon , Life , Salvation , Heaven and Earth is ours . 1 Cor. 3. 22 , 23. Are we Christ's , really and sincerely his ? Then He is ours : My beloved is mine , and I am his . Are we his , all we are , his ? Hearts , Heads , Tongues , Time , Talents ; are we all his ? Are we new Creatures ? 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ , he is a new creature . Mark it , a new Creature ; all old things are pass'd away ; and behold , all things are become new ; new Insides , new Out-sides , new Principles , new Ends , new Affections , new Desires , new Delights , new Company , new Language ; all new , if new Creatures . Have we the Spirit of Christ in us ? If any man have not the spirit of Christ , the same is none of his , Rom. 8. 9. Doth Christ live in us ? Is Christ most precious to us ? Do we believe in him ? Let us try the truth of our Faith ; doth it purifie our Hearts ? Doth it work by Love , by Love to Christ , to all that hath the Image of Christ on it ? Doth it overcome the World ? Doth it support under Trouble ? Let us see that it be Faith unfeigned , the Faith of God's Elect. Have we with all our Hearts chosen the Lord for our Portion , and placed our Happiness in him , fixed our best Loves , Desires , and Delights in him , and have we resigned up our whole selves cordially and unreservedly to him ? Have we broken our League with all Sin , and with all the Idols of our Hearts ? Do we hate and detest all Sin , and do we keep a continual watch and war against all Sin ? Have we an equal respect to all God's Commandments ? Can we deny our selves , and part with all things for Christ ? Are we the Heirs of the Promises ? If we be really Christ's , then are we Heirs of the Promises ; Gal. 3. 29. Are we the Children of God ? If Children , then Heirs , Heirs of all those invisible eternal things ; Rom. 8. 17. Now , if we be the Children of God , we are led by the Spirit of God , Rom. 8. 15. As many as are led by the Spirit of God , ( just so many , and no more ) are the Children of God. If we have the Image of our Heavenly Father on us , and do love him with all our Hearts , and can trust him , and depend on him in all things , and for all things , and are most careful to obey him in all things ; if it be so with us in Sincerity ; then have we a good and firm Right and Title to all those great and glorious things in the other World. And when we can prove our Right to them , and can call them our own , then surely we shall think on them ; our Hearts and Minds will be set upon them , all our Affections will be carried out after them . Psal . 73. 24 , 25 , 26. Whom have I in Heaven but thee ? and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee . My flesh and my heart faileth , but God is the strength of my heart , and my portion for ever . When a Soul can in truth , and upon good grounds say , My God , my Lord , my Jesus , then he will in earnest mind them . Psal . 63. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6. O God , thou art my God , early will I seek thee ; my soul thirsteth for thee , my flesh longeth for thee : To see thy power and thy glory , — because thy loving kindness is better than life : my lips shall praise thee . Thus will I bless thee while I live : — My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness , and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips : When I remember thee upon my bed , and meditate on thee in the night-watches . And v. 7 , 8. Because thou hast been my help , therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce . My soul followeth hard after thee : thy right hand upholdeth me . And the ground of all this was his Interest in God ; O God , thou art my God. 2. If we would have our Hearts and Minds set and fixed on invisible eternal things , let us seriously consider the nearness of those things , of those invisible eternal things unto us , and of us to them ; things that are great , but at a distance from us , seem but small things to us , and but little affect us . The time of our departure hence is at hand , and then farewel for ever to all visible temporal things ; our Houses , our Honours , Estates , and Friends , shall know us no more ; we shall have no more converse with , or enjoyment of any visible temporal thing for ever : And it will not be long e're this parting come . God is near to every one of us ; Christ is nigh , the Holy Spirit is nigh , stirring and striving with us ; the Word is nigh us , even in our Mouths , and in our Hearts , Rom. 10. 1. Heaven and Glory are nigh to us , if we be Saints ; we are not far from our Father's House , not far from the Kingdom ; Hell and Destruction nigh to us , if we be wicked , but a Breach between us and everlasting Damnation ; and if we be Saints and Believers , the day of our full Redemption draws nigh , the Coming of Christ is at hand , our Salvation at the very Door . As it is dangerous for the Wicked to put far off the evil day , Amos 6. 3. so it is disadvantagious to the Godly to put far off the good day . We shall shortly , very shortly , enter the Con●●nes of Eternity , and converse with nothing but invisible eternal things , those things that now are out of our sight , and too much out of our minds ; but it were our great Wisdoms to look on them as night at hand , and to spend our Thoughts and Affections upon them . We are displeased with our Friends , that when we are out of their sight , we should be out of their Minds : And may not God and Christ , our best Friends , be justly displeased with us , that they are so much out of our Minds ? But though God and Christ be invisible to our bodily Eyes , they are nigh unto us , therefore we should still mind them . Psal . 16. 8. I have set the Lord always before me ; because he is at my right hand , &c. Psal . 109. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. 3. Let us be often discoursing and speaking of those invisible eternal things ; let those things be often in our Mouths . Should not the Children of God be often talking of their Heavenly Father , and of their Father's House , and of that Kingdom and Inheritance which he hath prepared for them ? Should not the Heirs of Salvation be often speaking of that Crown of Glory , of Life , of Righteousness that is purchased for them , and promised to them ; and of that incorruptible Inheritance that they are born unto ? 1 Pet. 1. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. Oh! can we have any Title to all the Promised Glory , and not speak often of it ? How much is it to be lamented , that those that profess themselves Children of God , and Heirs of Heaven , when they come together , that they speak so little of God and Heaven ! This is our great Sin , and should be our great Shame and Sorrow . Whither are we bound ? Where are we travelling ? Where is our Home , our long Home , our last , our everlasting Home ? Where is our Treasure ? Where lies our Inheritance ? Is it above or below ? Where is our Country ? Where is our Father , our Redeemer ? Where are all our pious Relations that slept in Jesus ? Are not all these above ? And do we so seldom think or speak of these ? Shame , shame on us . Are we born of God , born from above , and do we belong to that City , that hath Foundations , to that heavenly Canaan , to that New Jerusalem ? What! and our Minds so glued , our Hearts so fastened to Earthly things , and our Tongues so constantly employed about earthly things ? Oh , our idle words ! Matth. 12. 36. Can our Treashres be in Heaven , and our Hearts not there ? And , can our Hearts be there , and nothing appear in our words ? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh . Surely the earthliness , vanity , empriness , unfavoriness , frothiness of our common ordinary Talk , doth but too much discover the vanity and earthliness of our Hearts . Oh , that we did all of us lay this to our Hearts : The more we talk of these invisible eternal things , the more we shall mind them . 4. Consider , it is the express Duty of every true Christian , to set his affections upon things above , and not upon things below , Col. 3. 1 , 2. Charge the Command of God upon your Consciences ; accustom and inure your selves to it : O my Soul , this is as much thy Duty , as to pray , or hear , or read ; how long wilt thou neglect it ? O , dare not neglect it any longer ; begin it presently ; call upon God to renew and raise thy Heart . 5. Let us learn that blessed Art of Spiritualizing earthly things , every earthly Mercy , to a Child of God , is a taste of Eternal Mercy ; every visible temporal thing discovers somewhat of invisible eternal things : This is a sweet work , to converse with God and Heaven in the Creatures : As for instance ; When we sit down at Table , remember , there is a time coming , when we shall sit down with Christ , and eat and drink at his Table , in his Kingdom ; that is , we shall enjoy free and intimate Communion with him in Heaven : And let us labour to raise our Hearts from temporal to spiritual things , and be much in praising , adoring , and admiring God in the Creatures . 6. Be convinced also , that all our happiness and comfort , both here and hereafter for ever , lyeth not in any , or all , of the sensible temporal things , but all lyeth in those invisible eternal things : It lyeth not in having Honours , Riches , Pleasures , &c. for a man may be happy without them , as Job and Lazarus were ; and miserable with them , as Haman , Ahab , Dives , and others were . Psal . 144. 15. Yea , happy are the people whose God is the Lord. Happy indeed , if God , Christ , and Heaven be ours , happy for ever , or else miserable for ever . 7. And Lastly , Let us labour to be renewed in the Spirit of our Minds , or else we shall never seriously and heartily mind invisible eternal things ; as was shewed before . We must get those invisible eternal Principles of Renewing Grace planted in our Hearts , the Divine Nature , the Life of God , the Spirit of our heavenly Father , to renew our Spirits , or else we shall never mind those things in good earnest ; for which purpose , let us go to God , call , cry to him for Renewing Grace , Psal . 51. 10. Let us look up to , and lay hold on God's Covenant , Ezek. 11. 19. go to the Promise , Luke 11. 13. If you , being evil , know how to give good things to your children , how much more will your heavenly Father give his spirit to those that ask him ? A precious Promise indeed ; let us rest upon this Promise , and most earnestly beg God to perform it to us . Old Bottles will not hold new Wine , nor old Hearts retain Heavenly things : New Hearts we must have , heavenly , holy Hearts , or we shall never mind heavenly things as we ought . III. Motives to this Duty . 1. Consider , that thus to look unto , and mind invisible eternal things , is the express Character of every true Christian . No man can approve himself to be a true Christian , and be a total Stranger to this Work ; for , to be a true Christian , is to be like Christ . Now Jesus Christ minded those invisible eternal things , as is most evident in the whole course of his Life ; his Heart was in Heaven while his Body was on Earth , John 3. 13. Shall we profess our selves Christians , and not be like Christ , nor have the Character of Christians ? 2. Consider , this will be a sure sign and clear evidence to us , of our interest in , and title to all those invisible eternal good things in the other World ; Matth. 6. 20 , 21. Where the Heart is , there the Treasure is . If our Hearts and Minds , Thoughts and Affections are on God , on Christ , and Heaven , it is a sure sign that these are ours . An heavenly Mind is as good a sign that we belong to Heaven as any is ; as was also shewed before . 3. This will begin our Heaven upon Earth ; these heavenly things minded , affected , delighted in , will yield such joy and comfort , as to begin our very Heaven here ; when Faith and Hope , Joy and Praise , Love , Desire and Delight are exercised on God , and on Christ , and Glory , we shall be filled with Joy and Peace ; as , Rom. 15. 13. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Psal . 31. 7. Oh , then let us labour to begin our Heaven here , by our Heavenly-mindedness . 4. This will yield Contentment and Comfort , Satisfaction and Peace to our Souls in every condition : It will sweeten every bitter Cup : To think on God as our Father , and on Christ as our Redeemer , Head , and Husband , and on all the sweet Promises , of which we are Heirs , what comfort will this bring to our Souls ? Lam. 3. 33. He doth not afflict willingly , nor grieve the children of men . Isa . 63. 9. In all their afflictions he was afflicted , and the Angel of his presence saved them : in his love , and in his pitty he redeemed them , and he bare them , and carried them all the days of old . Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God. With many other exceeding great and precious Promises , which our good God hath made , that our Faith might feed upon them , and find satisfaction , or else our Souls would faint . 5. This will fit us for every Duty to God and man : The more we think on God and heavenly things , the more conscientious shall we be in our Duties to Man ; because it is for the Lord's sake , from whom we look for the Reward ; as the Apostle speaks to Servants , Eph. 6. 5 , 6 , 7. And for Duties to God , it will make us serve God cheerfully , delightfully , and constantly , having the Glory of God , the enjoyment of him , and the Recompence of Reward in our Eye : Oh , how will it quicken , raise , animate , and encourage us ! For why are all those great and glorious , invisible , eternal things proposed , and promised to us , but that we should mind them , aim at them , and live in the lively hopes , and comfortable expectations of enjoying them ? Heb. 11. 6 , 24. & 1. 1 , 2 , 3. 1 Cor. 15. last . Therefore be stedfast , unmovable , always abounding in the work of the Lord , forasmuch as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. 6. This will serve to encrease and strengthen Grace ; for the more we mind those invisible eternal things ; the stronger will be our Love , our Faith , our Hope , and our Patience ; yea , the more heavenly and spiritual we shall grow ; and the more useful , savory , and profitable in all our Discourses . By our heavenly-mindedness we shall smell of Heaven in all our Converses and Communications , to the advantage of others . 7. This is one principal way of enjoying Communion with God here in this World ; for by this we open our hearts to God , raise up our Desires after him , spend our Thoughts and Affections upon him ; and in these heavenly Meditations God communicates his Light and Love , his Grace and Peace to our Souls . By these Meditations on invisible eternal things , our Souls converse with God , talk with God , walk with God , have our conversations with God ; and this is most sweet and contentful to gracious Souls ; this is to live in God , and to live the Life of God ; and it is the sum of all our happiness here and hereafter . The enjoyment of God's good presence here , in acts of Communion with him , will produce greatness of Joy ; and the enjoyment of God's glorious presence hereafter , in the uninterrupted Acts of Communion with him in Heaven , will produce fulness of joy , and pleasures for evermore , Psal . 16. last . 8. By this looking to , and affectionately minding invisible eternal things , we shall be more and more changed into the image and likeness of them . 2 Cor. 3. 18. We all with open face beholding as in a glass , the glory of the Lord , are changed into the same image , from glory to glory , even as by the spirit of the Lord. These believing , loving sights of heavenly things will change us into the image of them . 9. By this we shall be made more and more willing and desirous to leave this World , and to go to a better . Compare this Text with the beginning of the next Chapter , 2 Cor. 5. 1 , 2 , 3. the Apostle having said , We look not on visible temporal things , but on those things which are not seen , which are eternal ; presently adds , for we know that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved , we have a building of God , an house not made with hands , eternal in the heavens ; for in this ( House ) we groan earnestly to be clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven . And this made Paul desire to be dissolved that he might be with Christ , which was far better , or best of all ; Phil. 3. Certainly , such as really apprehend , and truly believe those invisible eternal things , and their title to them and portion in them , will be really willing to dye , that they may enjoy them , knowing that they lye on the other side of Death , and cannot be enjoyed , but by dying , and after Death , Death being the In-let to all that purchased , promised Glory . Now , the more we do seriously think and meditate on those glorious things , the more willing we shall be to leave all those fading , vain , and vexing Comforts , to enjoy those eternal Delights : And it is a great Mercy and sweet Priviledge to be willing to dye ; and I know nothing will more effect this willingness in us . Now , let all those Motives effectually perswade us to draw off our hearts from those visible temporal things , and to set our Affections upon things above . How long shall vain Thoughts lodge within us ? how long shall this present evil World gnaw and feed upon our Spirits , consuming and wasting them , and eating out our time and strength ? how long shall the God of this World blind our Minds , and the Dust of it fill our Eyes ? how long shall we misplace our Affections , and mistake our Rest ? Our Rest is not here , our Heaven and Happiness is not here ; Earth is going from us , and we from it , and shall we hug what we cannot hold ? Shall we kiss and embrace that which is withering in our hands , and dying in our arms ? Are there not infinitely-better things to be minded ? Duke de Alva wickedly said , when one told him of an Eclipse that was then present , I have so much to do on Earth , I have no leisure to mind Heaven . O , that it may not be so said of any of us . Let us call to mind what those invisible eternal things are aforementioned , as God , Christ , the Holy Ghost , the Promises , the Purchased Inheritance , the Glory of Heaven , &c. withal , let us mind Christ's second Coming to Judgment , the manner and end of it , 2 Thess . 1. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. which the Apostle often spoke and wrote of , and minded , Tit. 2. 13 , 14. the glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour ; the Resurrection of the Body , and the manner of it , 1 Cor. 15. the full Redemption and glorious Manifestation of the Sons of God ; the happy uniting of the Souls and Bodies of the Saints after so long a Separation ; and the uniting and solemn Marriage of both to Christ , the King of Glory ; the passing of the Saints into Heaven with Christ in Triumph ; their living for ever with God , seeing his Face , and knowing him as we are known : Oh , that we could mind these things , and set our Faith and Love , our Hopes , D●stres , and Delights on work upon these things , what sweet Contentment , what Soul-refreshing Joy and Comfort would such thoughts yield to our Souls , even in the midst of all our Troubles ? No wonder we are such Strangers to the Joy of the Lord , because we are such Strangers to God himself , and to the great things of his Kingdom . I shall conclude this Use with that of the Apostle , 2 Pet. 3. 14. Wherefore , beloved , seeing that ye look for such things , be diligent , that ye may be found of him in peace , without spot , and blameless . Be diligent to prepare for the enjoyment of all those great and glorious things , and to secure our title to them ; which Preparation consists in two things mainly , as exprest in that Scripture , 1. In a state of Reconciliation with God. 2. In a spotless , blameless Conversation . 1. In a state of Reconciliation with God. Be diligent , that ye may be found of him in peace : There will be a most strict and accurate search made at the last day ; all those that look for those invisible eternal good things at last , must be exceeding careful about this , to make this the Mark , Design , and Aim all their Life , and at Death , that they may be found in a reconciled state , in a state of Peace with God. This is the critical point , the main hinge , whereupon hangs all the safety and happiness of a Man or Woman for Eternity : Not whether rich or poor , high or low , honourable or contemptible in this World , the Differences and Distinctions will signifie nothing then ; nor whether Presbyterian or Independent , &c. but whether reconciled to God or no. This strict search will be made by the Lord , who cannot be blinded nor deceived . And the consideration of the issue of this search should quicken us to diligence in our Preparation , which shall be , 1st , on them that shall then be found not reconciled ; the danger will be to their whole man , Soul and Body , Depart ye cursed , &c. most dreadful , and most intolerable . 2dly , On them that are found reconciled , their Comfort will be unspeakable ; the Lord Jesus will own them all , as the Purchase of his Blood , and will embrace them all , Come ye blessed of my Father , &c. and will commend them , Well done , &c. and will crown them with a Diadem of Eternal Glory . Oh then , let us presently engage all the Powers of our Souls , in striving to be found of God in Peace . And if we will be found of God in Peace at that day , we must . 1. Fall out with all Sin , and make an open breach with all Ungodliness , and all Worldly lusts , Tit. 2. 11 , 12. No Peace with God , so long as we have Peace with any Sin : We must search for our Sins of Heart and Life , heartily repent of them , declare open War against them all , not regarding any Iniquity in our Hearts , but hating and mortifying all . Go to God , to give you sound Repentance ; Acts 5. 31. & 3. 19. 2. Fall in , and close unfeignedly with Jesus Christ , the only Peace-maker , accepting him on his Terms , taking him for Only Lord and Saviour , resigning up our whole selves unto him in all things , giving him the Preheminence in us , and over us , and heartily submitting to his government by his Word and Spirit . Thus by true Repentance and Faith we are to make our Peace with God. And this is the sum of the Gospel , Acts 20. 21. Repentance towards God , and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ : Repentance , in order to the obtaining of our Pardon : Acts 3. 19. Repent , and be converted , that your sins may be blotted out , when the time of refreshing shall come . Acts 5. 31. Christ is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour , to give repentance and remission of sins . Job 22. 21. And by Faith in Christ we take hold of God's Strength ; Isa . 27. 5. Which is the mercy of God in Christ , this is the strength of God , to save sinners . Lay hold then on this Strength of God , viz. the Mercy of God in Christ , and so shall we make Peace with God : Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith , we have peace with God. Make sure and sound work then , in Repentance and Faith ; let us often try our Repentance and Faith ; dally not , nor delay in this business , we are all upon the Borders of Eternity , we are all near those invisible eternal things . This is the common Counsel we give every body on their Sick-beds ; You must make your peace with God , we say , but how this may be done , few know or mind . O , let us mind those great matters : Have we unfeignedly repented from dead Works unto Life ? Is all Sin hated and sought out ? Are we truly converted ? Acts 26. 18. & 3. 19. Sound Conversion , a thorow Change of Heart and Life , is the surest sign of true Repentance . Have we Faith in Jesus Christ ? the Faith of God's Elect ? Faith unfeigned , that purifieth the Heart , worketh by Love , overcometh the World , unites to Christ , and draws Life from him , to live as he lived , and walk as he walked ? Let us try our Repentance by these Texts , Jer. 31. 19. Joel 2. 14. Isa . 55. 7. Matt. 3. 8. Heb. 6. 1. Thorow Examination of Heart and Life , Clear Confession , Hearty Humiliation , Self-Abhorrency , Thorow Reformation , will prove our Repentance true and sound . Q. How shall I know that I have truly believed ? A. Haft thou found it an hard Work to believe , a Work altogether above thy own Power ? Haft thou seen and felt thy loft Estate by Nature ? Haft thou seen the Excellency of Christ , and thy absolute necessity of him ? Is he most precious to thy Soul ? Hath thy Soul been drawn to Christ , made heartily willing to close with Christ upon his own Terms ? to take him for your only Lord and Saviour ? hath all this been wrought in thee by the Word ? Dost thou value Faith as a Jewel ? Dost thou rely on Christ , and trust him with all things , and for all things ? Doth this bring Peace to thy Soul ? Dost thou draw Life and Strength from Christ ? Doth thy Faith in him support thee in Trouble ? What Service doth it do thee in time of Trouble ? It is the greatest Support the poor Saints have in all their Afflictions ; as Heb. 11. throughout . Our great Business lies upon making sure and clear the Truth of our Repentance and Faith , and we must go to God for both , for they are his special gifts : Also we must go to Christ , he is the Author and Giver of them ; Acts 5. 31. Heb. 12. 1 , 2. And we should be often trying our Repentance and Faith , for without these no Soul can ever attain unto Salvation ; and with them no Soul shall ever miss it . The penitent Believers are the only heirs of the Promises ; all the great and glorious things of the other World , which the faithful God , who cannot lye , hath promised , and which our Blessed Jesus hath purchased with his most precious Blood , they do ill belong to penitent Believers , and to none else . The exceeding great and precious Promises , are those sweet Breasts of Consolation , which they should lye upon , and suck continually , and by two immutable things ( to wit , the Word and Oath of God ) wherein it is impossible that God should lye , these Promises are confirmed , that the heirs , of the Promises might have ( not weak , but ) strong Consolation , Heb. 6. 17. Fourth Vse , for Lamentation . These things are to be lamented : I. The great ignorance of those invisible eternal things . Our Lord lamented and wept over Jerusalem for this , Luke 19. 21 , 22. If thou hadst known , at least in this thy day , the things that belong to thy peace . It is a lamentable thing , that People living under the clearest Discoveries and brightest Displays of those invisible eternal things , should yet be so grosly ignorant of them , and so unacquainted with them , as God complains of Israel , Hos . 4. 1 , 6. & 8. 12. No knowledge of God in the Land , though it was the only Land in all the World then that had the means of Knowledge ; Hos . 8. 12. I have written to them the great things of my law , but they have counted them strange things . Look over those particulars afore-mentioned , and we shall find , that there is very little true distinct knowledge of them in the Land. Obj. But we do know these things . Ans . If we do know God , why do we not obey him ? Tit. 1. 16. To profess to know God , and in works to deny him , is the Character of a Reprobate . Why do we not trust him ? Psal . 9. 10. They that know his name will put their trust in him . 1 John 2. 3 , 4. & 4. 17. What likeness have most Men and Women to God and Christ ? What Fruits of the Spirit do appear ? Gil. 5. 22. but the Fruits of the Flesh are manifest . What Power , Sweetness , and Comfort do Men find in the Word and Promises ? how little are most affected , when they read or hear of all the great things purchased by Christ , and prepared in Heaven for Believers ? What fixed , delightful . Thoughts and serious Meditations are spent upon these things ? Alas ! alas ! whose Conscience doth not accuse him ? Whose Heart that hath any tenderness , doth not smite him for his neglect of this ? While I am writing this , my Conscience flies in my Face , and chargeth me with guilt : O pardon me , Lord , through the Blood of Christ , and give me true Repentance : Let me be ashamed and even confounded for my woful neglect of minding invisible eternal things : I am convinced of my guilt , and blessed be God for that . O give me an heavenly heart , let in more of Heaven to my heart . O shew thy self to me , Or take me up to thee . II. It is a Lamentable thing , that those high , glorious , invisible eternal things should be so little believed by us : They are little known , but less believed : They cannot but be known to us in some measure ; they have been so often preach'd to us , and we have so often read of them : Their sound hath gone out to the ends of the earth , Rom. 10. 19. Did not Israel know ? Doth not England know ? Then we must be stark deaf and blind . Some Knowledge in our heads we must needs have ; but certainly here is the Root-Sin , the Spring of all Ungodliness , even Unbelief ; whatever People profess , these things are not believed ; People are not fully perswaded in their Hearts and Souls , of the Truth , of the Excellency , and of the Reality of those things , Who hath believed our Report ? Isa . 53. 1. and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ? to make Souls believe , and to work effectual Faith in them ? Surely to very few . A very bare historical Faith is wanting , but much more a cordial , practical Perswasion of those things ; for by true Faith we come to have an Interest in all these eternal good things , and if we had an Interest in them , we should mind them more . Those invisible eternal things spoken of in the holy Scripture , signifie no more to most of us , than those Mountains of Spices , and Mines of Gold do , that are in the Indies , which we never hope to see or possess , and for which none of us will part with our poor Cottages : Alas ! alas ! it were impossible , if we did really believe those things above , and that they may be had by us , but that we should take more pains to get a Title to them , and having once got a Title , surely we should mind them more than we do . Now the grand Reasons why we that profess that we know and believe those great things of the other World , yet take so little pains to be assured of our Right to them , are these , viz. our false Faith , our false Hope , and our inordinate Love of the World. Cou'd we get these three Thieves out of our hearts , it wou'd be otherwise with us . 1. Our False Faith , building our Faith on the Mercy of God , and Merits of Christ in general , not considering whether those Conditions are wrought in us , to which the Mercy of God is promised , and to which the Merits of Christ do belong . Isa . 1. 16. & 55. 7. Rom. 8. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 17. 1 Cor. 6. 17. Heb. 5. 9. Matth. 11. 28 , 29. & 16. 24. & 10. 34. By all which places we shall find , that the Mercy of God belongs to the penitent returning Sinner , and that those only can truly claim an Interest in Christ , that submit to his Yoke , that have his Spirit , that are new Creatures , that deny themselves , and give up themselves to the Government of Christ . 2. Our False Hope ; that deceived those eminent Professors in Matth. 7. 21. and the foolish Virgins , Matth. 25. and which deceives all Hypocrites and formal Christians , that build their Hopes upon outward Profession , Priviledges , the performance of religious Duties , outward Reformation , &c. not minding that express word in 1 John 3. 3. Every one that hath this hope , ( that is , to see Christ in Glory , and to be made like unto him ) purifieth himself , even as he is pure . Col. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of glory : Not Christ without you , professed by you , but Christ in you , formed in you , dwelling in your Hearts by Faith , living and reigning in you by his Word and Spirit , that is the Hope of Glory , the true and only ground of true Hope of Glory . 3. Inordinate Love of the World. 1 John 2. 14 , 15. If we be friends of this world , we are enemies to God : Too much love of Life , Liberty , Ease , Relations , &c. our Hearts are let out strongly after these , therefore our good God doth oftentimes strip his dearest Children of these , in love to their Souls , to take off their Affections from them , that they may place them on better things , where they are better bestowed . III. It is Lamentable also , that those invisible , eternal , great and glorious things should be no more minded , thought upon , considered , and spoken of by Professors , that hope shortly to enjoy them . God , Christ , Glory , Heaven , are seldom in mens Minds and Thoughts : What are most Peoples Morning and Evening Thoughts ? Psal . 49. 11. What vain Thoughts lodge in our Hearts ? Jer. 4. 14. Oh , how little talk is there of these things amongst us ? Is God our Father ? Is Christ our Head and Husband ? Is the Holy Ghost our Counsellour and Comforter ? Is the Word of God our Rule and Guide , our spiritual Food and Nourishment , our Comfort and Consolation ? Are the Promises our great Charter , Heaven and Glory our Inheritance ? And do we indeed hope to enjoy all these things for ever and ever , and yet think no more , and speak no more of them ? Can this be so ? Can our hopes be good and well grounded ? Let us not deceive our selves . IV. It is Lamentable , that those great things should be no more laboured after : Joh. 6. 27. Labour not for that meat which perisheth , but for that which endureth to eternal life . Prov. 2 , 2 , 3 , 4. Isa . 55. 2 , 3. We labour for that which is not Bread , not Bread for our Souls ; and spend that which is better than Mony , our Spirits and Time , for that which doth not , cannot satisfie . Why should visible temporal things have so much of our hearts , heads , tongues , hands , time , strength and all , and those invisible eternal things have so little ? Is there any colour of Reason for it ? Are not those invisible eternal things infinitely better than the other ? Certainly it is , because they are not known nor believed , nor minded , that they are no more laboured after . How do we dishonour God , and Christ , and the Promises ? how do we undervalue Christ's Purchase , and Eternal Life , when we lay out our selves so much for the World , and so little for these ? How shall we escape , if we neglect so great salvation ? Heb. 2. 3. V. It 's lamentable also , that the loss of the means of the discovery of those invisible eternal things , should no more affect and trouble us : Lam. 1. 7. Jerusalem remembred in the days of her affliction all her pleasant things , that she had in the days of old . A Famine of the Word is the worst , Amos 8. VI. And it is lamentable , that those who know , believe , desire , and labour after those things themselves , should be no forwarder and readier to commend those things to others , and should take no more pains to perswade and draw others to look after them : Oh , how few cry out to others with holy David , Come , and I will tell you what God hath done for my soul ? VII . And no less lamentable is it , that those who claim an Interest in all those great and glorious good things , and hope to enjoy them hereafter , that those persons should no more express the power of them in their Lives ; that they should no more rejoyce in them , and be no more raised in their Spirits , and gladded in their Hearts with the fore-thoughts of them ; and that they should live no more comfortably upon them : It 's sad , that those thus interested in God , and Christ , and Glory , and that are the Expectants of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory , should not live better lives , more exemplary , shining , profitable , joyful lives : We that look for such things , what manner of persons ought we to be in all manner of holy conversation ? It 's sad also , that such should bear up with no more strength , holy courage and confidence , in the midst of the Troubles of this short Life , seeing they hope for such glorious things in the other World : We see how bravely the Primitive Christians carried themselves in all their Sufferings , by looking unto , minding , and thinking upon those invisible eternal things : Oh , could we keep them in our view , and keep our Eye on them , we should not faint nor sink under any of our Troubles . We look too much on , and mind too much those visible temporal things , and look too little to the Invisible God , to our Blessed Jesus , and Eternal Glory . Oh , that God would encrease and strengthen our Faith , and help us to live in the lively actings and exercise of it . By it we stand . Oh , that we could live more by Faith , and less by Sense ; 2 Cor. 5. 7. Fifth Vse , for Instruction . If we would set our Hearts and Minds on those invisible eternal things , we must 1. Be much in Prayer : Pray , oh , pray for new Hearts , old Hearts will not hold heavenly things . Pray for Saving Light and Knowledge , Ephes . 1. 17 , 18. Pray that ye may clearly apprehend and understand those things : Pray for Faith , that you may really believe them , and may be fully perswaded of the Truth and Excellency of them . Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for , and the evidence of things not seen . Pray for Love , that your Hearts may be throughly and truly affected with them ; that you may relish and savour them , and may feel , taste , and see the goodness of them : Pray for strength of Faith and Love , that you may act those and other Graces , as Hope , Joy , Desire , and Delight upon those heavenly things . Pray without ceasing ; pray fervently for these things , and never leave praying till you obtain . Tell God that an earthly , empty , carnal Heart you have , and how impossible it is for you your selves , to make ●t heavenly : Complain to the God of all Grace , who can make all Grace to abound . 2. Search the Scriptures diligently ; Read the Word of God conscientiously ; for there all those great and glorious things are discovered : And labour to believe what you hear and read ; and to get the power and efficacy of God's Truths on ●●our Spirits ; 2 Cor. 4. 4 , 6. 3. Be watchful against all Sin , and against the World , and the Lusts of the Flesh : Be much in mortification of your inordinate Affections : Col. 3. ●1 , 2 , 5. compared . Watch against vain thoughts , and strive in God's strength to draw up your ●earts to Heaven , and hold them there . 4. Seriously and often consider the great and ●●al difference between visible and invisible things , between temporal and eternal things , uncertain and certain things , transitory and permanent things ; between those things that respect the mortal Body , and those that concern the immortal Soul ; between those things that are the Portion of Reprobates , and those that are the Portion of God's Elect. Oh , consider the great difference between those things which are the Effects of Common Providence , and those that are the Fruits of God's everlasting Love , and Christ's most precious Blood. Surely a due and deep consideration of the vast difference which is between these things , would help us to mind eternal things . 5. Consider what taste these visible temporal things will have in a dying hour ; surely either none at all or a bitter one . Oh then , what will Honours , Riches , Pleasures signifie ? Oh then , how much better and sweeter will those invisible eternal things be to a poor Soul ? Oh then , an Interest in God and in Christ , a Pardon , a Title to Eternal Life , Assurance of Salvation , will be things of value , And why should they not be so now ? 6. Converse much with heavenly-minded Christians ; but , alas ! where shall we find them ? Let us all bewail our horrible Earthliness , our Earthly Discourse , all Earth in our Thoughts , Earth in our Mouths , and yet hope to go to Heaven at last , and live in Heaven for ever ; O , how unlikely ! Surely , if I am not very much mistaken , I think , a great many of our Professors will be mistaken at last , and that will be dreadful , because irrecoverable . O Lord , give thy poor Servant an heavenly Heart . Sixthly . The Last Vse is , for Comfort to those that do mind and look unto those invisible eternal things in good earnest . For your Comfort , consider , 1. This is to you an Evidence of your Interest in all those great and glorious things : That you do thus mind and converse with heavenly things , with God , and Christ , and Glory ; it is a good sign that these are all your own , that you have a good Title to them . An heavenly Mind is a very good sign of one that belongs to Heaven . 2. You shall shortly enjoy and possess them all : Where Christ is , there ( shortly ) shall his Servants be : He will not always dwell in Heaven without you ; nor will he always be absent from you ; no , but he will come again , and receive you to himself , that where he is , there you may be also , John 14. 1 , 2 , 3. And where is he , but at the right hand of the Throne of his Father ? and there you shall be also : when Christ , who is our life , shall appear , we shall appear with him also in glory , Col. 3. 3 , 4. Now you can see and think on those invisible eternal things but darkly and confusedly , but then you shall see clearly , yea , possess and enjoy them for ever . 3. This your minding of heavenly things will very much sweeten your present Sufferings : And this brings me to the consideration of the last thing in the scope of the Text , namely , the help or benefit those Primitive Christians had , by their looking unto those invisible eternal things , which was , that thereby they were supported under their present Sufferings ; Ver. 16. We faint not , while we look not on things that are seen , but on things that are not seen . Hence may we observe this Doctrinal Conclusion . Doct. That a believing sight , and serious minding of unseen eternal things , is a singular means of sweet support to poor Christians under all their Troubles . This flows from the scope of the Text , We faint not , say they , but rather we gather strength and courage , and our inner man is renewed day by day ; while we look not at those things which are seen , but at those , &c. Looking off from visible temporal things doth much help to support God's People under their Troubles ; but looking on upon invisible eternal things doth help more . Crucifixion of our Affections to visible temporal things is very useful , but the fixation of our Affections on invisible eternal things , is more useful to our Support and Comfort . Psal . 27. 13. I had 〈…〉 believed to see the goodness of God in the land of 〈…〉 , Ver. 14. So Heb. 11. 26 , 27. By Faith Moses endured , as seeing him that is invisible : Moses could never have endured all those hard things , if he had looked only on those things which are seen , but he looked on the invisible God , and the unseen Jesus , and on the Promises , the Recompence of Reward ; he had a fixed Eye to those great things ; his mind was setled on these , and that carried him through all . So Heb. 10. 34. They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods , knowing in themselves they had in Heaven a better , and a more enduring substance . So Heb. 11. 9 , 10 , 13. they endured the condition of Strangers and Pilgrims ( usually a sad and troublesome condition ) because they looked for a City , an invisible eternal City : They embraced the Promises , and minded them . And to this our Lord leads us , in pronouncing those Blessings , Mat. 5. 10 , 12. That great should be their reward in Heaven . Reas . 1. Because the blessed tendency , the powerful efficacy , and sweet fruits of all a Christians Troubles , as to our part , much depends on this Work and Duty performed by us . Let us mind this : What is the tendency and fruit of a Christian's Troubles ? See the foregoing Verse , They work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . A blessed tendency indeed , sweet fruit ! Q. But how are Afflictions useful and effectual to produce those sweet fruits ? Ans . Some things are done on God's part , and some on our part : On God's part , He makes Afflictions useful , to fit us for that weight of Glory , as was shewed before , by following those Afflictions with the Blessing of his Word , and Power of his Spirit , and so makes them useful to those happy ends , Psal . 94. 12. as , 1st , By discovering , imbittering , and cleansing them from Sin , Deut. 8. 2. Gen. 41. 21. 1 Kin. 17. 18. Isa . 59. 11 , 12. 2ly , By drawing Souls nearer to God , Psal . 142. 4 , 5. Psal . 31. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14. 3ly , By crucifying their Affections to the things of this Life . 4ly , By making them more diligent and serious in their preparation for that state of Blessedness . Thus God blesseth Afflictions . But all doth not lye on God's part ; this Blessing is attained by us , while we look not at those things which are seen , which are temporal ; but at those things which are not seen , which are eternal . Those Blessings of Afflictions are not received , nor those Benefits and Advantages obtained by us , while we stand looking and musing , poring and pondering open those things which are seen . So long as our Hearts and Minds are still fixed upon our visible Losses and Crosses , and upon the earthly Comforts that we are deprived of ; and so long as our Thoughts and Affections are still set on and glued to those visible temporal things , so long we go without those Blessings and Benefits : But we must look off those things , and look up , and mind and meditate on those invisible eternal things ; we must set Faith and Love , and Hope on work , in viewing and reviewing , in considering and contemplating , in apprehending and applying that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . Now , while we do so , we are in the right and realy way to obtain the rich Blessings of all our Afflictions , and so we receive Comfort and Support under them all . It is the plentiful Harvest hoped for , and believed , that sweetens the stormy Seed-time . It ' is a dangerous mistake , to expect too much from the Creature , and too much comfort here in this World , for here is not our Rest . All men would have Peace , Comfort , and Happiness , but they would have it from the Creature , rather than from God. Psal . 4. 6. Believers themselves , that would have their Comforts from God , yet would have them here also , and would not stay for them till hereafter , saying with the Disciples upon the Mount , It is good to be here ; whereas here in this World we are to have but sips , crumbs , drops , glances , glimpses ; at most , but some First-fruits of Canaan ; that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory is reserved for the other World. The Inheritance is reserved in Heaven for us ; 1 Pet. 1. 4 , 5. and we must wait , for our Harvest is not here ; we are not come home . It doth not yet appear what we shall be , the quiet and peaceable Fruits of Righteousness come not till afterwards ; the great Reward , the full Reward , is in Heaven , not here . 2d Reason is , Because ( as I think ) the Work of Saving Faith ( by which mainly we are supported ) doth not consist only in looking backward on the Cross of Christ , and his payment of our Ransom by his precious Blood ; but also in looking forward on the Crown of Christ , and the Glory he hath purchased for us . Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for , and the evidence of things not seen . Saving Faith is , not only to believe what our dear Lord hath already done on Earth for us , in the great work of Redemption ; but also unfeignedly and firmly to believe those things which we never saw nor did ever Man see , and to hope and look for them so really , as to let go all worldly Hopes and Happiness , rather than hazard the loss of those invisible things . This is an eminent part of Faith , whereby the Just do live ; 1 Pet. 1. 8. It is upon our clear Apprehensions and firm Expectations of that unseen and eternal Felicity , in the full enjoyment of the Blessed God , that both our Peace and Safety doth depend . We can have no solid Peace , while we look for much Comfort and Content from the Creature , in this our present Pilgrimage and Prison ; for in doing so , we looking for more in the Creature than is in it , we lose our Comforts , and then complain for want of them ; for our looking for so much from them , and looking so much on them , provokes God to take them from us ; and when they are gone , we are troubled . If eternal Joys , and everlasting Consolations were more in our Minds , if the Joy of our Lord , Matt. 25. 21. were more in our Thoughts and Affections , surely spiritual Joy would more at present abound in our Hearts : Rom. 15. 13. The God of consolation would fill us with joy and peace in believing : Believing Apprehensions of those invisible eternal Joys , would breed in us some refreshing Joys for the present . So 1 Pet. 1. 8. No wonder we are so comfortless , and walk so sadly , while those things which should raise us and comfort us , are so little in our Minds and Thoughts , and we such Strangers above . We must needs faint when we lay by our Cordials , and make no use of them , and when we lay by our Supports , and mind them not . Temporal things most needs affect us and afflict us , when eternal things are out of sight , and out of mind . Mark this : When Christians do not only let fall their expectations and hopes of the unseen promised Glory , and let the thoughts of them decay and dye away in them ; but also heighten their hopes and expectations from the Creature , and earnestly and eagerly pursue the same ; then do they most certainly prepare for their own Disquiets , Fears and Troubles , and with both Hands draw Calamity on themselves , because they forsake the fountain of living waters , and hew out to themselves cisterns , broken cisterns , that will hold no water . All Creature-comforts are at best but Cisterns , and when too much loved , but broken Cisterns , in which are no Waters of true Consolation to be found ; Jerem. 2. 13. To seek Content here , in any thing out of God , and beneath him , is to seek the Living among the Dead : The Work of Faith is , to look upwards , to look within the Veil , to look to Jesus , Mic. 7. 7. The right and ready way to present Peace is , looking stedfastly ( not to present things , but ) to that future Rest and Happiness , to the full enjoyment of God in Heaven . Thus our Lord takes off his Disciples from their Heart-trouble , John 14. 1 , 2. of which Text I have written a Discourse at large . Let us consider how this looking unto those eternal things is expressed : 2 Tim. 4. 8. it is , loving the appearance of Christ : Tit. 2. 13. Phil. 3. 20 , 21. 1 Cor. 1. 7. 2 Cor. 5. 2 , 3. Rom. 8. 23. waiting , hoping , hastening unto , groaning after that Glory . Whoever meets with a distressed , disconsolate , complaining Christian , you shall find , that one or both of these things is manifest in him ; either he hath low Expectations from God hereafter , or he hath high Expectations from the Creature here ; either he looks too much on things visible and temporal , or too little on things invisible and eternal ; and indeed , he that doth the one doth the other ; for , the too much minding visible temporal things , hinders the true minding of invisible eternal things . If we examine matters aright in our own Souls , we shall find , that this is the main thing that begets in us , and keeps us under , so many Troubles and Disquiets ; either , that we do not , or will not seriously and believingly engage our Hearts and Minds in the meditation , consideration , and application of all those great and glorious things , which God hath promised , and which Christ hath purchased ; or else we will needs mind and expect what God hath not promised , nor Christ purchased , a total freedom from Troubles , Sicknesses , Losses , &c. God hath no where promised , nor hath Christ purchased it : and then we complain , when we miss of our groundless Expectations . Either we are still poring and thinking on our Creature-comforts and Enjoyments , and looking for much from them and in them , much comfort , help , sweetness , satisfaction , respect , kindness , from them ; or else we are grieving and mourning for the loss and want of them ; all which thoughts do but sowre , imbitter , wound and weaken our Spirits ; or else we do but too seldom think of the infinite Goodness , Love , Mercy , Tenderness , All-sufficiency of God and Christ , and of the Glory of Heaven ; which Thoughts would sweeten , alleviate , and mitigate our Sorrows , and help much to support our Spirits under all our Afflictions . We are grieved and troubled for Losses and Crosses , for loss of Relations , for Sickness and Pains , Disappointments , Unkindnesses of Friends , Disesteem in the World , &c. Let us consider , whether God hath promised , or Christ purchased any Freedom from those : Have any of the Saints been freed from those ? And , why should we expect to be free ? But if we make Promises to our selves , and then our own Promises deceive us , whom can we blame for that ? Nay , do we not , as it were , necessitate God hereby , to imbitter all our Earthly Comforts to us , and to make every Creature a Scorpion to us , because we will make them our Gods ? We have less Comfort in them than we might have , because we would have more in them than we should : We might have more kindness from Friends , more sweetness in our Relations , &c. if we looked for less . Scarce any Comfort we have , but one time or other becomes a Scourge to us , because we foolishly made it an Idol to us . Isa . 2. 22. Cease ye from man , whose breath is in his nostrils , for whereof is he to be accounted ? Jer. 17. 5 , 6 , 7. We can never expect so little from the Creature , but we shall be sure to find less than we looked for : But such is the Goodness of God to his People , that we can never expect so much from him , but we shall be sure to find more . The Application . First , For Information . 1. If the serious minding of , and believing looking unto invisible eternal things , will much support Christians under the Troubles of this Life , it follows then , that there is a great necessity that Christians should have a distinct saving knowledg of invisible eternal things , for without such a knowledge of them , they cannot mind them , nor set their Hearts upon them . John 17. 3. This is life eternal , to know thee the only true God , and Jesus Christ , whom thou hast sent . Col. 2. 2 , 3. We know those things but confusedly , and therefore we mind them but confusedly . This Saving Knowledge is a New Covenant-Mercy : God promiseth that his People shall be all taught of him , and that they shall all know the Lord ; Jer. 31. 33 , 34. John 6. 45. Eph. 4. 21. Our Duty is then , to lay hold on God's Covenant , and humbly to beseech him to teach us by his Spirit , and to enlighten our Understandings ; as Paul prays , Eph. 1. 17 , 18. 2. Hence appears the Necessity of Faith , and full perswasion of the verity , reality , and excellency of those invisible eternal things . It is a full perswasion of a Better Good than the Creature , and of a Better Countrey , of a Better Substance , of a Better Place than this World is , and of Better Company , Better Friends than can be enjoyed here , that will make us set our Thoughts on work upon them , and that will support under the loss of those worse things . While we have those better things in our Eye , we shall not be much troubled about the worse ; the better will swallow up the worse , if we firmly and heartily believe them , and have good ground to hope , through Grace , that we have Title to them ; as Heb. 11. 25 , 26. The belief of a better Resurrection , and of a better Life than this , will support us under the Troubles of this : Heb. 11. 35. 3. Then there is also a necessity lies on us of having an Interest in those invisible eternal good things ; in God , in Christ , in the Promises , and in the Purchased Inheritance . An absolute necessity lies on us all , of getting an interest in Jesus Christ , Real Union with him , for only hereby we come to have an Interest in all those eternal Blessings : If Christ be ours , All is ours ; not else . 1 Cor. 3. 22 , 23. Oh , this , this is the one thing necessary , That we make sure our Interest in God , and in his Covenant by Jesus Christ : This , and this alone , will ballance all our Losses . Take special notice of those two Texts , 1 Sam. 30. 6. 2 Sam. 23. 5. Let us try our Interest in Christ by those few Scriptures , Rom. 8. 1 , 9. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus , who walk not after the flesh , but after the spirit . If any man have not the spirit of Christ , the same is none of his . 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ , he is a new Creature ; all old things are past away ; behold , all things are become new . Gal. 5. 24. They that are Christ's , have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof . Gal. 2. 20. Christ liveth in me . 4. Hence we may know the true cause and ground of Discouragement and Despondency under our Troubles , to wit , our want of Faith in , and our not minding of eternal invisible things . They that believe not the Crown , can never comfortably bear the Cross : The way to forget our Misery , is seriously and believingly to remember and consider our Felicity . Rom. 8. 17. The sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us . Our Burdens would not be so heavy as they are , if our Hearts were more heavenly than they are : If we could get more above , and converse more with God , our Troubles would not be so troublesome as they are . Nil sentit in Nervo , cum anima sit in Coelo . Oh , let us pray for more acquaintance with God , and thereby good , all good , shall come unto us . Let us cry out with the Divine Poet , O shew thy self to me , Or take me up to thee . Converse with God and Christ will sweeten every bitter Cup , and lighten every heavy Burden . 5. Hence also we may inferr the Necessity of Patience under all our Afflictions , which are designed to prepare us for Glory , and that no otherwise , than as we do by Faith and Patience live in the expectation of that Glory . Rom. 2. 7. To them , who by patient continuance in well-doing , seek for glory , and honour , and immortality , eternal life : Heb. 10. 36. Unless we patiently bear our Troubles , they are not like to produce those blessed effects ; it is only through Faith and Patience that we inherit the Promises . 6. The Misery of all Unbelievers then is very great , whatever they posse's in this World , for they must needs meet with Troubles also in this Life , and must meet with the King of Terrors at last : And what possibly can support them , having no interest in God and Christ , and no good grounds of hope , that they shall enjoy those invisible eternal good things hereafter ? Part they must with all visible temporal good things , and that for ever , and cannot look on God , and Glory , and Heaven as theirs , because not regenerated , not united to Christ , not effectually called : surely their case is most sad , for then also all their vain hopes and groundless confidences shall perish . 7. The mischief of Earthly-mindedness also appears hence : Inordinate minding earthly things , whether Friends or Foes , Ease or Pain , Loss or Gain , &c. this very much hinders our Comfort and Support : Oh , pray against it , watch against it . Now to take us off from this inordinate minding of these Earthly things , let us take these Helps . 1. Let us urge and press the express Command of God upon our Hearts , Col. 3. 1 , 2. Set your affections upon things above , and not upon things below . Let this sway with us : It is as much our Duty as any other , and there is as much Divine Authority in this Command as in any other , and as much of the Power of Religion and Truth of Grace lies in the Practice of this , as of any other Duty ; and by the consciencious performance of this Duty , we do as much evidence the sincerity of our Love and Obedience , as by any other . 2. If we be true Christians , we are of an high , noble , heavenly extraction and original , begotten and born of God ; Jam. 1. 17 , 18. John 3. 3 , 5. born from above , Heaven-born , therefore we should mind heavenly things . As is the heavenly , such are they that are heavenly . 3. If we be true Christians , we have an invisible eternal Life in us ; Christ is our Life , and our Life is hid with Christ in God ; Col. 3. 3 , 4. We have invisible eternal Principles of Life in us , Christ formed in our Hearts : Phil. 4. 19. The incorruptible Seed of God in us , the Spirit of Jesus in us , the Divine Nature in us ; all which dispose and encline us to look upwards , and to mind invisible and eternal things . 4. Your Hopes are grounded and fixed on invisible eternal things , 1 Cor. 15. 19. If our hope were only in this life , we should be of all men most miserable . Our hopes are not here , we hope for what we see not ; Rom. 5. 2. 2 Pet. 1. 13. 1 John 3. 3. It is invisible glory , the glory that is to be revealed at the Coming of Christ , That when Christ shall appear , you may appear with him in glory , and may see him as he is , and may be like him . You hope for infinitely better things than this World can afford ; Tit. 2. 13 , 14. Phil. 3. 21. You look for the Coming of Jesus in glory , who shall make your vile bodies like unto his glorious body ; and then you that look for such things in Heaven , surely you should have your Conversations in Heaven . 5. Your Actings and Workings here in this life , are for invisible ends and purposes , not to be seen of Men , not to have your Reward here , but you seek Honour , and Glory , and Immortality , and Eternal Life ; Rom. 2. 7 , 8. Your sowing here is to reap Life everlasting ; Gal. 6. 8. It is an invisible , incorruptible Crown , an everlasting Kingdom , an Heavenly Inheritance , that you are seeking : 1 Pet. 1. 4 , 5. You labour not for that meat which perisheth , but for that which endureth to everlasting life : John 6. 27. You are seeking a City which hath foundations , and travelling home to your Father's House ; therefore needs must your thoughts and affections be set upon things above . 6. Let us consider , that all our best Friends and dearest Relations are above , invisible and unseen to us here below . There is our Heavenly Father , there our dear Redeemer , sitting at his right hand ; there are all our pious Friends and dear Relations that dyed in Christ ; there they are together praising and enjoying God. 7. If you be true Christians , you have enlightned Minds , Eyes of Faith , Spiritual Understandings given you , to discern and apprehend those invisible eternal things ; 1 Cor. 2. 9 , 10. you are spiritual persons . 8. You esteem , value , and love those heavenly things most and best , if you be true Christians ; your Hearts are in Heaven , for there is your Treasure ; 1 Pet. 1. 8. 9. You have invisible Supports , Influences , and Experiences , a Well of Living Water springing up in you , unto eternal life , John 4. 14. which no others but you have ; and from those spiritual Principles , which the Spirit of Christ plants in his People , good thoughts and heavenly Meditations are continually bred and fed . 10. You are in Heaven already , in Christ your Head ; Ephes , 2. 6. Risen with Christ : And this Heavenly-mindedness the Apostle makes the true evidence of our being risen with Christ ; Col. 3. 1 , 2. If ye then be risen with Christ , seek those things which are above : Set your affections on things above : And it is the very distinguishing Character of one in Christ : Rom. 8. 1. They that are in Christ , walk not after the flesh , but after the spirit . Second Vse , by way of Exhortation to all Christians . Would you have sweet Support under all your Discouragements and sinking Troubles , then stedfastly and fixedly look upon invisible eternal things : Labour to live in the believing views and prospects of , and in a serious , hearty minding , and meditating upon invisible eternal things . Oh , that we could draw off our Thoughts and Affections from visible temporal things , and that we could set them upon things above : Oh , what Peace and Sweetness should we find in our Spirits ? Q. But how shall we be able to do this ? A. I. By looking to God in all our Mercies . II. By resigning up our Wills to God in all our Miseries . III. By aiming at Communion with God , and Conformity to him in all our Actions . I. Let us look to God in all our Mercies . He is the God of our Lives , and of all the Comforts of Life : The power , vertue , and comfort of all created good , comes from the Created good , even GOD alone , for in him we live , and move , and have our being . This Health , Ease , Liberty , Relations , Rest , Sleep , that we have , and all those comfortable Accommodations that we enjoy , are from the Lord. It was truly said of one , That many love the Creature , in opposition to God ; Most love it in competition with him , and almost All love the Creature in a way of separation from him . But more particularly let us labour , 1st , To look unto , and acknowledge with Heart and Tongue , that our Heavenly Father in Christ is the Author and Giver of all the Mercies we enjoy . When we have Health , Ease , Liberty , Rest , or any other Mercy , we should look to him from whom they come , and to him through whom they come ; we should eye the hand of a Father , the heart and love of a Father , and consider also , that all these Mercies come to us through the Blood of a Redeemer ; this will make every morsel , every drop and crumb to be sweet and pleasant to us . A Dinner of green Herbs , Barley-bread , and cold Water , with the Love of God , will be sweet . Q. But when shall we know , that we have these from the Love of God , and with the Love of God ? Ans . Then we may conclude , these outward Mercies come from the Love of God to us , when we are truly thankful for the least Mercy we receive , and are stirred up to love God more , and to be more careful to serve , please , and trust God the more . Let us look thorough our visible Comforts , to the invisible giver of them , and to that eternal Love from whence they come ; 1 Chron. 29. 12 , 13 , 16. It is our great evil , that we love the gifts of God for themselves , and not for the giver of them : if we could see and taste Divine love and goodness in our Relations , Health , Estate , &c. Oh , how sweet would they be unto us ? But this is our Folly and Fault , we overlook and forget God , and look no further than our visible , sensible , temporal Comforts ; even when we speak of God with our Mouths , our Hearts are but too far from him : Our Hearts hang loose from him , and lye at too great a distance from him ; our Hearts are not engaged with Love , and Desire , and Delight in him , nor enlarged after him , and so we miss the Comfort and Sweetness which we might find in him . To delight in the God of Mercy more than in the Mercies of God , is a true Christian frame , and an high pitch of Grace , and a special way of enjoying sweet Communion with God ; a thing wholly strange to most , and experienced but by few . Q. But how shall I know when I do this ? Ans . 1. By real , practical , hearty acknowledgment and owning God's Propriety in all our Mercies . These Relations , Friends , this Health , Ease , Liberty , Safety , &c. these are all the Lords ; as Jacob said , Gen. 33. 5. These are the things that the Lord hath graciously given me . We should always look on God as the proper owner of us and them ; and all that we have , are but lent to us , and we are but Tenants at his will. 2. By labouring to draw up our Hearts and Loves to God , by those Mercies we receive from God , to make them as Cords and Bands of Love , to draw our Hearts nearer to God , and to bind our Hearts faster and closer to God by them ; to make those Mercies as steps , to raise up our Souls higher towards God , in all the ways of obedience and holy confidence , we should pant and pray thus : Oh , that this Creature-comfort may draw my Heart nearer to God , and not lye as an Idol between my Heart and God ; oh , that this temporal Blessing may raise my Heart some degrees higher towards God ; oh , that it may help me to advance God more : Oh that it may not divide my Heart from God , nor make me forgetful of him , nor hinder me in my Duty to him ; but , oh that every Mercy I receive from God , may endear God to me , and engage my Heart more to him . Such pantings and breathings of Soul should be in us , then we shall enjoy God in our Mercies , and then they will be sweet unto us . 3. By labouring to use and improve all our Mercies for God ; our Health , Ease , Liberty , Estate and all for God ; to lay all out for his Service . If we have any Talent , let it be improved for God ; if any Candle of Comfort lighted in our Habitation , let it burn for God ; if any Ease after Pain , any Strength after Weakness , lay it out for God ; Let us be thinking and studying what use and service we can put our Mercies to for God. Let us spend Time , Health , Strength , and all for God. 4. By labouring to be willing to part with all our outward Mercies when God calls for them . As we should desire and wish for no Comfort otherwise , than as we may have it with the love of God , and as it may help us , and not hinder us in our way to God ; so likewise , we should not desire the continuance of any outward Comfort , any longer than with the Love of God ; and when he is pleased to call for them , willingly to surrender them to him : This is not to love any thing above God , nor in competition with him , nor in separation from him . 1 John 2. 14 , 15. For he that loveth any thing in the world otherwise , the love of the Father is not in him . And in so doing we evidence , that we love the God of Mercies more than the Mercies of God : And this way we may enjoy and maintain much sweet communion with God here in this Life ; namely , by our hearty acknowledgment of God our Father in Christ , to be the Author of all our Mercies ; looking to his Love in them ; owning his Propriety in them all ; making them as Cords of Love , to draw up our Hearts to God ; using them for God , and willing to part with them at his call . This is to look to God in all our Mercies . Secondly , Let us labour to look unto , and live upon God , in every Creature-comfort that we enjoy . Not only look unto God in our Mercies , as was said before in the other particular , but let us labour to ascend higher ; and that is , let us labour and learn to live upon God and his Love in those Mercies . Let this be minded by us : That it is not the Creature , but God in the Creature , that we must love and live upon . The Creature should not content us , without some sense of God's Love in it . If we have Health , Wealth , Liberty , Friends , we should put this Question to our selves ; Do we enjoy God's Love with these ? A great Question , yet seldom ask'd . It is surely the Love of God in a Mercy , that doth sanctifie and sweeten the Mercy to us ; as is evident in that famous Instance of Hezekiah , Isa . 38. 17. Thou hast in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption . Then Deliverance is sweet , when it comes from God's Love to our Souls . Q. But how may we know that ? A. As Hezekiah did ; For , saith he , thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back . When Pardon of Sin comes with a Mercy , 't is a Mercy indeed , a double Mercy . Note , When a Soul-mercy comes with a Bodily Mercy , a Soul-mercy , with Ease , Recovery , &c. then that outward Mercy comes from the Love of God indeed . And thus many times our Lord Jesus distributed his Mercies in the days of his Flesh upon the Earth , healing Souls and Bodies together , forgiving their Sins , and curing their Diseases all at once . Q. But how shall we know that our Sins are forgiven as well as our Trouble removed ? Ans . 1. When the Soul is stirred up to suitable praising of God , as in Hezekiah , so in David , Psal . 103. 1 , 2 , 3. the sense of God's Mercies to them enlarged their Hearts with Thankfulness . 2. We may know that our Sins are forgiven us , if those Conditions are wrought in us , unto which forgiveness of Sins is promised , and those are chiefly Repentance and Faith : Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore , and be converted , that your sins may be blotted out , when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 10. 43. To him ( namely , to Jesus ) do all the Prophets witness , that through his name , whosoever believeth in him , shall receive remission of sins . Now , if after Mercies God gives us Hearts to repent and believe , we may certainly conclude that those Mercies come to us from the love of God. We follow hard in our Prayers , and Desires , and Endeavours after earthly Mercies , when we want them ; whereas our Souls should follow hard after God in them : Psal . 63. 8. & 31. 23. In every Ordinance , Priviledge , Duty , Providence , in every Enjoyment , it is the Love of God in it , that our Souls should thirst after ; as David did , Psal . 63. 1 , 2 , 3 , My soul thirsteth for God , for the living God : So Psal . 84. 1. Thee , thee , Lord , my soul longeth for . He longed for God's Ordinances too , but chiefly , for God in them . So should we cry , Health , and Ease , and Liberty , and Deliverance with thy self , Lord , and with thy Love : Peace and Plenty with thy Love , Lord , not without it . Better be without these Mercies than without the Love of God in them : Jude 21. Keep your selves in the love of God : Gal. 2. 20. Psal . 62. 10. If riches ( Friends , Ease , &c. ) encrease , set not your hearts ●● them , but on God in them . To look through , and beyond , and above a Mercy , unto the God of that Mercy , is a Mercy in that Mercy , and a choice one too ; for none but God's Chosen ones can do it : And so to do , argues much Grace and much Communion with God. Col. 3. 1 , 2. Let us look up , look up to God in all our Mercies : Stay not on the Mercy , be not content with the outward Mercy , for that is but the Shell , but look up to God , and long to see and taste his Love in it , for that is the Kernel , his Love in Christ ; feed on that by Faith , Love , Meditation . O , let us labour to have God in all our Thoughts ; for , to look to , love , and live upon Creature-comforts meerly , barely , only , is but to live upon Husks , Ashes , Wind and Vanity ; these are no Bread for the Soul ; Isa . 55. 2. Psal . 143. 6. I stretch forth my hands unto thee ; my soul thirsteth after thee , as a thirsty land . When we taste and see the earthly Comforts we have , if we can also taste and see the Love of God in them , we enjoy a double sweetness , an outward and an inward , a visible and an invisible sweetness : Oh , what sweetness then may we taste ? for both Faith and Sense are fed at once . And we may further know , that any Mercy comes to us in Love , when our Souls are the better for that Mercy , more endeared to God , and more enlarged after God. 3. We must labour to use and enjoy all our Mercies for God , for his Honour and Service , as was hinted before . This is God's end in giving them , and it should be ours in using them . 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink , or whatever ye do , do all to the glory of God. This great End should always be minded by us . We should judge all that good that leads us nearer to God , and all that evil that draws us farther from him : Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself . We have lost most of our Comforts for want of this , to wit , our not enjoying them in God , and for God , and God in them : We feed on them , but not on God in them ; and this provokes God to remove them , and to take away our best outward Mercies from us ; even his Gospel , for our not using it , and not improving it for God , and for contenting our selves barely with it , without God in it : Bare Ordinances , bare Duties , without God in them , are but dry Breasts , without Milk , which Souls may lye upon all their days , and starve and perish notwithstanding , if they meet not God in them . But now , if we thus eye and look unto God , and seriously mind the invisible eternal God , we shall hereby be sweetly supported under all our Troubles . For , 1st , This will take out the gall and wormwood of our Troubles , which is our inordinate love of the Creature ; for there is no immoderate Sorrow for the loss of any thing , but of that which was inordinately loved : So that if God had had our Hearts and Affections , when we had our Creature-Comforts , he will have them much more then they are removed ; for God remains the ●ime still , every way as full , and as All-sufficient ●● supply and support us : So that if we had lived ●●on God the Fountain when we had the Cisterns , ● shall live more immediately upon him when the ●●sterns are broken , and shall then have our Comforts more pure , and more refreshing . And this is not all ; but if we be truly gracious , ● will grieve us to the very Heart , when our earth●● Comforts are gone , that we set our Hearts so much upon them , that we minded and loved them ●o much , and lived so much upon them , and that ●e lived so little upon God in them , and enjoyed ● little of God and his Love in them ; and this ●ill be the Sting and Burthen of our Souls then . ●ut now , to live on God and his Love in our ●njoyments , will prevent this Trouble of Troubles , ●nd support us under all our Troubles , because our God , and his Love , which we lived upon before , remain still . God is everlasting , and his Love unchangable . The Foundation remains ; the ●pring of all our Mercies remains . But , woe and ●as ! what Strangers are we to this living upon God , and his Love in Christ ? David lived en●rely upon God , Psal . 73. 24 , 25 , 26. Whom have ●in Heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that desire besides thee . My flesh and my heart faileth , but God is the strength of my heart , and my portion for ever . 2dly , By this we may begin our Heaven upon Earth out of Heaven , even in the Hell of the Troubles and Miseries of this World ; for this is the ●ery Happiness of Heaven , to be continually with God , and to live upon God , that God may be all in all , 1 Cor. 15. 28. This is Heavens Happiness , to live upon that infinite Fountain of goodness , and to live with God. And so far as we can thus live upon God by Faith , Love , Meditation , Holy Confidence and Dependance , Holy Resignation of our selves and all our concerns to him , so far we are entred into Heaven , and Heaven is entred into us already : The kingdom of Heaven is within you , said our Lord. And , what support will this be to us in all our Afflictions ! 3dly , This is the way to lose nothing of all our Earthly Comforts ; for , what we lose in the Creature , we shall find in the Creator . If we enjoyed God in the Creature , in Relations , Friends , Estate , Liberty , Health , &c. we may enjoy him as well when these Creature-comforts are gone , and it may be better than before , for the Fountain it self is purer than the Streams . All the little good , the small comfort , the slender and short satisfaction , the little mixed sweetness , that we have in or from any Creature , comes not from the Creature it self , distinct from God , for then all that enjoy the Creature would have that Comfort and Content , the bad as well as the good ; which we know is not so ; for many have had large Portions of the best of the Creatures , that have had no comfort or contentment in them : Solomon himself is a Witness . But that very little Comfort or Content that any one hath in the Creature , it is distilled and derived to him through the Creature from God , and from him alone . It God put sweetness into any Creature-comfort , and bless it to us , it shall be sweet to us : If He convey any goodness or content to us through any Creature-chanel , we shall have it , not else : But if he put bitterness into any Creature-comfort , and with-hold his Blessing , it will yield us no content at all . This is a most experienc'd Truth , That it is God's Love , his Blessing in a Mercy , that is The Mercy ; and it is that only which brings any Comfort or Content to us that have it . What Content had Ahab in his Kingdom , or Haman in his Honour ? Surely none at all . Prov. 10. 22. The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich , and he adds no sorrow with it . The Blessing of the Lord maketh the Poor in this World rich , and with this Blessing comes no Sorrow , as there doth with all other Blessings . This is the Blessing that goes with The Blessing , the inward Blessing that goes with the outward Blessing , whether little or much , the love of God is in it to his People ; and that maketh rich , that contents the Soul , and yields sweetness to it ; and this Contentment is the Blessing , without which Godliness it self is not Gain . Now , when the outward Blessing is gone , the Creature-blessing gone , the inward Blessing may be continued ; the Love of God , and inward Contentment may be continued ; when the Cabinet is worn out , the Jewel may be as good as ever : And if this continue with us , namely , the Blessing which is the Love of God , if that remain towards us , when the outward Blessing is taken away , we have no cause of Disquietment . But this remains always to the true Christian ; for it is God's Covenant , which cannot be broken . Psal . 89. 34 , 35. My loving-kindness I will not utterly take from him , nor suffer my faithfulness to fail : My covenant will I not break , &c. Oh , that we could look more at the invisible eternal Blessing , the sure Mercies of David , in all our outward Blessings , which remains when all the visible temporal things are gone . Yea , further , this invisible everlasting Blessing doth not only remain with us , when all other Blessings are gone , but ( which is wonderful ) then , even then , our everlasting Father doth usually communicate and manifest more of his Love ( which is the Blessing indeed ) to the Souls of his People , than when they had the enjoyment of their outward Blessings . When had Ezekiel and John such glorious Visions of God , but in Captivity and Exile ? When God brings his People into the Wilderness , then he speaks comfortably unto them , then he speaks to their Hearts , Hos . 2. 14. as in the Wilderness , in the absence of Creature-comforts , the Spouse leans on her Beloved , Cant. 8. 5. fixeth her Loves and Desires most intimately and heartily upon him ; so , even then , her Beloved manifests most of his tender love to her ; and when the World frowns , he smiles upon her . So that this looking up to God in all our Enjoyments , living upon Him , and enjoying all in him , and for him , will wonderfully support us under all our Trouble , because by this means we shall lose nothing , but what we lose in the Stream , we shall find in the Fountain ; what we want in the Creature , we shall find in God ; yea , and in all our losses for Christ and his Truths , we are assured to have an hundred fold ; Matth. 19. 29. So much for the first Counsel , Look to God in all our Enjoyments . II. The second Counsel : Resign up your wills entirely to the will of God in all your Afflictions . It is an Argument of an excellent Spirit , when all Self-respects are drowned in the Will of God , and there is nothing lost therein , for our best safety is in the Will of God ; our Happiness is more in God than in our selves , and His Will is infinitely better than ours . We may be sure of this , that a man shall never have setled Peace and Comfort , until he have cordially committed and resigned up all his Will and Way , all his Concerns , and Interests , and Ends to the holy Will of God. Psal . 37. 5 , 7. Commit thy way unto the Lord : trust also in him , and he shall bring it to pass . Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for him . Prov. 16. 3. Commit thy works unto the Lord , and thy thoughts shall be established . It is the difference of Wills , Ends , and Interests that begets all the Stirs and Troubles in the Hearts of Men. GOD will have his Will , and Man will have his : It is the communion of Wills , Hearts , Interests , and Ends , that is that fellowship that a Creature hath with its Creator . It is the Interest and Honour , the Dignity and Duty , the Comfort and Quiet , the Heaven and Happiness of a Rational Creature to be what God will have him be , to do what God will have him do , to want what God will have him want , and to suffer what God will have him suffer ; to be wholly at the dispose of God , as our Lord was ; Not my will , but thine be done . This is true Christianity indeed , true Self-denial , Matt. 16. 24. To be no more our own , nor at our own dispose , but to be entirely at the Will of God , is the way to true Comfort : Psal . 142. 5. Thou art my refuge , and my portion in the land of the living . Now , if we would thus look unto the invisible God , and resign up our wills to his will in all things , in order to our support and comfort in all our Afflictions , we must carefully observe these things : 1st , We must really look unto , and heartily own God's absolute Dominion over , and his Propriety in all things : He is the Lord and Owner of all his Works ; Job 9. 12. He taketh away , who can hinder him ? who durst say to him , What doest thou ? Isa . 45. 9. He is the Potter , we are the Clay ; He is the Creator of all things , and therefore the true , only , and rightful Owner of all things : Ezek. 18. 4. All souls are mine , saith God ; and all Creatures are his . Hos . 2. 9. And we are none of our own , 1 Cor. 6. 20. Whether as Creatures or Christians , our Souls , Bodies , Goods , all are God's , upon all accounts : If we did not look on those earthly Comforts too much as our own , we should not grieve too much for the loss of them . Now , we own God's Dominion and Propriety in all things , when we thankfully receive any Creature-comfort from him , and silently submit to his dispose of them . Psal . 39. 9. I was dumb , saith David ; and quietly surrender them up to God when he calls for them ; as Eli , 1 Sam. 3. 18. 2ly , We must really and heartily look unto and own God's Righteousness in all his Dispensations towards us , though never so hard , bitter , and pinching to the Flesh , yet God is righteous in all . By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us , O God of our salvation . Dan. 9. 14. Righteous art thou , O Lord. Psal . 145. 17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways , and holy in all his works . Now we own God's Righteousness in all our Afflictions , when we diligently enquire to find out the why and the wherefore of all God's dealings with us : We should reason thus ; The righteous God afflicts me ; then certainly I must enquire after the Cause , and the End : Lam. 3. 40. Let us search our hearts , and try our ways . God is righteous , we have deserved this Affliction . Hereupon we must search for our Sins , confess them , hate them , turn from them ; and then this Consideration setleth and satisfieth our Minds under God's correcting Hand : It is the righteous God that smites . 3ly , We must look unto and own the Faithfulness of God in his Chastisements of us : When He blasts our Earthly Hopes , kills our Creature-comforts , takes away our dear Relations , deprives us of Health , Ease , Liberty , Name , Estate ; yet He is faithful ; Psal . 119. 75. In faithfulness thou hast afflicted me . God hath put chastisement for Sin into his Covenant , Psal . 89. 31 , 33. and hath promised to with-hold no good thing from his People , Psal . 84. 11. Now God sees and knows that Chastisements are good for his People , and shall work for their good , therefore in very faithfulness he doth correct them , to perform his Promise , and fulfil his Covenant . Oh , that we could seriously look to this Faithfulness of God , and believe , that while He is afflicting and chastising us , He is but making good his faithful Promises to us , it would mightily support and uphold us : But this is our Unhappiness , that in Affliction we are apt to judge the quite contrary , and to think rather that God is executing his Threatning upon us , and that breeds Trouble to us . Little do we think , that when God strips us of this or that outward Mercy , and lays his correcting Hand upon us , that now He is in all these Afflictions but performing his Promises to us , that He is doing us good by these , and accomplishing all his sweet , good , and gracious ends upon us ; and that by these Afflictions He is preparing us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . Oh , could we but believe this , and act our Faith upon God's Faithfulness , it would help us cheerfully to bear all our Afflictions . Lord , encrease our Faith. 4ly , We must look unto and own the infinite Mercy and tender Compassions of the invisible eternal God , in all our Afflictions : God is the Father of Mercies , a God of tender Mercies , of tender Bowels , his Mercy endureth for ever ; His tender Mercies are over all his Works , and much more over his special Workmanship , his own Children , whom He hath begotten and formed for himself : He is gracious and merciful , Exod. 34. 6 , 7. Plenteous in Mercy ; His Mercies are a great depth ; Fury is not in Him towards his poor Children , Isa . 27. 4. but Pity and Compassion ; Psal . 103. 13. His Compassions fail not , Lam. 3. 22 , 23 , 24. There is no revengeful Passion in the most holy God ; it is He that puts Bowels of Mercy and Compassion into his Creatures , and then surely He is full of Mercy himself : He is rich in mercy , and of great love , Ephes . 2. 4. and full of Mercy . The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him , in them that hope in his mercy , Psal . 147. 11. Behold , the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him ; upon them that hope in his Mercy ; Psal . 33. 18. Let us act Faith on the Mercy of God. 5ly , We must look unto and own the Omnipotency and All-sufficiency of the invisible eternal God , Gen. 17. 1. I am the almighty God , Rev. 1. 8. The only Creator of all things out of nothing ; He can create Salvation and Deliverance ; Isa . 4. 5. & 57. 19. God being All-sufficient , can never be at a loss , nor to seek of ways to help his People in distress . He hath infinite ways of his own for helping us , either immediately from himself , or by raising up other means ( and those it may be very unlikely , yea , contrary ) to deliver us . God is most honoured by us when we see nothing , but rather all contrary to that we look for , Refuge failing , Friends , Flesh , Heart failing , then , to shut our Eyes to all Creature-helps , and look altogether on God's All-sufficiency , and only relye on that . God can convey himself more comfortably to us , when He pleaseth , without means , than by means . This our eying and owning God's Almightiness and All-sufficiency , will work in us an holy awe and filial fear of Him : Who would not fear such a God ? Luke 12. 5. And also it will breed an holy confidence in him : Psal . 9. 10. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee : for thou , Lord , hast not forsaken them that seek thee . O my Soul , look up to God's All-sufficiency , He can in a moment turn thy Darkness into Light , thy Sorrow into Joy ; He can make dry Bones live ; He that breaks can bind up ; He that takes can give . This is the best way to glorifie God in the day of our Visitation ; to trust in him , and relye upon him ; though He kill all our Comforts , yet to believe He can supply He can provide ; as said Abraham , so Psal . 107. 33 , 35. Whatever our case be , let us take heed that we despond not , nor cast away our confidence , but rest upon God's All-sufficiency . Trust in the Lord for ever , for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength , Isa . 26. 2 , 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace , whose mind is stayed on thee , because he trusteth in thee . 6ly , Let us eye and own the infinite Wisdom of the invisible eternal God : He that sends and orders all our Afflictions , is the Wise God , the Only-wise God , the very Fountain of all Wisdom ; 1 Tim. 1. 17. He shews his Wisdom not only in his general Providence governing the whole World , but in all his special Providences towards his People , and that in respect of their Afflictions . For , 1. God knows best how to order our Afflictions to us , and that ( 1. ) as to Time , when to send them ; ( 2. ) as to Kind , what sort of Affliction to send ; ( 3. ) as to Measure , how much to send ; ( 4. ) as to Duration , how long to continue them : Rev. 2. 10. and to what end and purpose . He is a most wise God. 2. He knows best how to support and comfort his People under all their Afflictions , and when to comfort them ; He knows their Frame ; He knows their Souls in Adversity ; He knows their Need and their Strength ; and hath regard to all this . 2 Cor. 1. 4. He is the God of all consolation . 3. He knows best when to deliver ; even then , when it shall make most for his own glory , and his Peoples greatest good ; 2 Pet. 2. 9. and surely that must be the best time . 4. He knows best how to make Afflictions work most for our good ; how to bless them , and to make them Blessings to us , that we may have cause to bless him for them . Now , we eye and own the Wisdom of God in our Afflictions , when by the consideration of it we are kept from maligning and fretting at the Instruments or Causes of our Afflictions , saying in our Hearts and Tongues , Let Shimei curse , let Enemies persecute and plunder , &c. All these are but Swords , Staffs , Rods in our most wise and loving Father's Hand : These Losses , Sicknesses , &c. do but execute the Will and Wisdom of God ; and when we make no haste to get out of our Troubles , nor use any unlawful means , but quietly and contentedly referr all to the Holy Will and Wisdom of God ; and when we can wait with Patience upon God , and stay his time , and hope in Him only for an happy issue ; resigning up our Wills to his Will and Wisdom , to do with us , to dispose of us , and of all our Comforts , as He pleaseth : By so doing we shall be sweetly supported under all our Troubles . Lord God , of thy abundant Grace , and by thy Almighty Power , work in us this blessed frame , and keep us in it till Death , that thou maist be glorified by us . 7ly , and lastly , Let us eye and own the love and goodness of God in all our Afflictions : We are apt to look mostly to the Anger and Displeasure of God in our Troubles , which indeed we ought to be sensible of , and deeply affected with , because we have sinned against Him , and therefore ought we patiently to bear the effects of his indignation , Mic. 7. 9. and to humble our selves under his mighty Hand , to repent of , and turn from our evill ways , Lam. 3. 40. This we must do , but this is not all our Duty ; but we must also look up to the love of God , and to his goodness , from which our Afflictions come ; Psal . 89. 33. Heb. 12. 6. Whom the Lord loveth he chastneth : Psal . 25. 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth . For , as our Afflictions have a bad Cause , as bad as may be , even our Sins . Lam. 3. Wherefore doth the living man complain , a man for the punishment of his sins ? Yet they proceed from a good Root , even the Love of God : As many as I love , I rebuke and chasten , saith our loving Lord Jesus , Rev. 3. 19. He loves when he takes , as well as when he gives . He takes in love ; and this believed and considered , will very much sweeten every bitter Cup : The believing consideration , that the love of our Father , the love of the Mediator is in every Affliction ; that every Cup that comes to us , passeth first through his Hands , who loved us , and gave himself for us , ( for through him are all things ) this consideration will support us : Lord , encrease our Faith. So much of the second Counsel , viz. To resign up our Wills to the Will of God in all our Miseries . III. The last Counsel to Christians , in order to their support and comfort in their Afflictions , is this : Aim at Communion with God , and Conformity to him in all your Actions : Look unto the invisible eternal God , and labour for Communion with him , and conformity to him . It is conformity to God that fits us for communion with him . The more conformity to him , to his holy Nature , and to his holy Will , the more communion we shall have with him ; and the more we are like him , the more will he manifest himself unto us ; and the more we obey him , the more fellowship we shall have with him . John 14. 21 , 23. And also , the more communion we have with him , & the more communications we have from him , the more conformable we shall be to him , and the more we shall be like him ; 2 Cor. 3. 18. Communion with God will transform and change us into his Image more and more ; and the more we have of his Image , the more pleasure will he take in us , and the more delight will he take to communicate himself to us : The more holy , heavenly , humble , meek , patient , loving , merciful , peaceable we are , the more like him we are ; and the more we are like him , the more of his love and likeness will he continually work in us , and manifest unto us . This is the Life of true Religion ; this is to live the Life of God , to live in communion with him , panting and longing after constant Influences and Communications of his Life , Spirit , Love , Grace , Peace , and Comfort from him ; and giving up , surrendring up of our Hearts and Souls to him , spending our best thoughts , desires , affections , hopes , trust , joy , and delight upon him . Always minding , that it is God in Christ that we must thus look unto and mind , in all these particulars ; God in Christ , not God singly considered , but God in Christ ; for , God cannot be comfortably thought upon out of Christ our Mediator , in whom alone he is well pleased : No Communion with God , but in Christ ; no Communication of any good from God to us , but in Christ , and by his Spirit . It is the invisible eternal God by the invisible eternal Son of God , and through the invisible eternal Spirit , that we must make all our Addresses unto , and expect all Communications of good from . It is Christ alone that must bring God and the Soul together : In Christ we are reconciled to him , even by the Blood of his Cross ; 2 Cor. 5. 19. Col. 1. 21. And being reconciled to God by him , we have Peace with God , and then have Communion with him . In Christ , God's Nature becomes lovely to us , and ours to God , otherwise there is an utter Enmity betwixt his pure and our impure Nature . Christ hath made up the vast gulf between God and us ; He drank of the brook in the way , Psal . 110. last . Aim at , and thirst after Communion with God in Christ , in all your receipts of Mercies from him , and in all your returns of Duty to him : Pray and pant , that all that you receive from him may come to you from his Love in Christ . Oh , that this Mercy , that this Affliction , may proceed from God's Fatherly Love in Christ Jesus ! so in all your Approaches to God , in Ordinances and Duties , pray and pant after Communion with God in Christ ; Oh , that I may meet with God in this Ordinance , and in this Duty ! without which we should not be satisfied in any . Ordinances and Duties , and all outward Blessings , are but visible temporal things ; we must look beyond them and above them , unto God in Christ , for the invisible eternal love , and grace , and blessing of God in them . So holy David , Psal . 63. 1 , 2 , 3. That I may see thy power and thy glory , saith he . And Vers . 8. My soul followeth hard after God ; to see God's power , and love , and grace in Ordinances . So Psal . 42. 1 , 2. My soul thirsteth for God , for the living God. This is the marrow and fatness of God's Ordinances , and this is that will satisfie the Soul ; therefore this is the thing that our Souls should long and breath after , that we may have sights , sweet sights of the invisible eternal God in Christ , in Ordinances and Duties , and tasts of his love and goodness in them . And if we have Communion with God in our Mercies , we shall be able thankfully to receive them and fruitfully to improve them for God : And also , we shall be enabled patiently and comfortably to bear all our Afflictions , and profitably to improve them . Now , if we would have Communion with God in Christ , we must look well to these things , viz. 1st , We must labour to be pure in Heart , for such as are pure in Heart , and they only , shall see God ; God in his Son , God in his Ordinances , in his Providences , and in Glory at last . If we regard Iniquity in our Hearts , God will not hear our Prayers , nor afford us any Communion with him . Mat. 5. 8. A pure Heart is a new Heart , an Heart purged by the Blood of Christ from the guilt of Sin , and purified by his Spirit ; Acts 15. 9. An Heart renewed and sanctified ; a single , sincere , and upright Heart , that hath pure Principles planted in it , the Spirit of God , the Fear of God , the Love of God , Faith in God and Christ , Christ formed there , the Image of God stamped there , the Kingdom of God set up there : These are the true Principles of Purity of Heart and Life ; and also an Heart set and bent by the Rules of God's pure Word , that pure Rule ; and that acteth for pure ends to please God , to bring Glory to him , to do good to others , and to enjoy God in our Salvation : Such may expect sweet Communion with God , 2 Cor. 6. 16 , 17. the Lord God Almighty will walk and dwell with such . 2ly , We must labour to be poor in Heart , poor in Spirit , Mat. 5. 3. broken in Heart , contrite in Spirit , Isa . 57. 15. O , the wonderful condescension of the high and lofty one , who dwelleth in the Heavens ! that He should stoop so low , as to dwell in the broken Heart , to revive such Hearts , such Spirits ; O , the Revivings of God , they are Soul-satisfying things : The Consolations of God are not small : Happy indeed are those Souls in whom the great and glorious God dwells ; Blessed Souls that are the Temple of the holy God , Habitations of God by the Spirit ; 1 Cor. 3. 16. Eph. 2. 22. Isa . 66. 2. To the man will God look that is poor , and of a contrite Spirit ; and God's looks on such are sweet looks , Love-looks ; such shall have much communion with God and Christ , for Christ was sent to bind up the broken hearted , Luke 4. 18. What a comfortable support is this to a poor afflicted Christian , that is poor in this World , destitute of Friends and earthly Comforts , restrained and shut up in Prison , or otherwise confined to Chamber or Sick-bed , and withal , is poor in Spirit , is content in this condition ? Yet now , in this his desolate condition , he may have Communion with the great God ; he may enjoy the blessed and sweet Company of the Lord Jesus by day and by night , even when Lover and Friend is put far from him ; even then his God is near him , his everlasting Father is with him , his dear Lord and Redeemer , his ●●eet Saviour and loving Husband is with him ; Psal . 25. 15 , 16 , 17. Psal . 102. 17. He will regard ●e prayer of the destitute , and not despise their prayer . He will never leave them , nor forsake them . Yea , He will then speak most comfortably to their poor Souls , Hos . 2. 14. He will speak to their Hearts ; He knows their Souls best in Adversity , and their Souls know him best then : Jesus Christ will then ●hew them his Love , and manifest it unto them , and support them . 3ly , If we would have Communion with God ●n every condition , we must labour to be upright in Heart : Psal . 125. The Lord is nigh unto them that call upon him in truth ; they shall have Communion with him : He loveth truth in the inner parts ; He that walketh uprightly shall dwell in God's tabernacle , and abide in his holy hill , Psal . 15. 1 , 2. God hates Hypocrisie : Oh , the guile and falshood of our hearts , let us bewail it , and cry to God with David , Make my heart sound in thy statutes . 4ly , Be heavenly in heart , be heavenly-minded ; such shall have sweet Communion with God ; such as have their Conversation in Heaven , have converse with God , Phil. 3. 20. We must be very watchful , that the World do not lye too near our hearts , nor lodge too long in our hearts , for that will steal away our hearts from God , and hinder our Communion with him : We must take heed , that our hearts be not at any time over-charged with the Cares of this Life , but let us labour to keep the World and our Hearts asunder ; for those things that are visible and temporal , will darken our sight of God , if we let them into our hearts ; and they will drive God out of our hearts , if we entertain the inordinate love of them . Covetousness is Idolatry , because it sets up the Creature for a God in the Heart ; 1 John 2. 14 , 15. He that loveth the world , the love of the Father is not in him . Keep a strong Watch then against this present evil World , and suffer it not to get into your Hearts , if you will maintain your Communion with God in Christ . 5ly , Be much in the acting of Faith , Love , Hope , Joy in the Lord : Be much in praising God : By the exercises of these graces we enjoy God , and God communicates himself to us . Oh , labour to live in the lively exercise of Faith : Christ dwells in the Heart by Faith ; Eph. 3. 17. Gal. 2. 20. Labour to believe the Love of God in Christ to your Souls , in giving his Son to be a Sin-offering for us : John 3. 16. 2 Cor. 5. 21. And this believing it will warm and enflame your Hearts with Love to God again , and so you may enjoy much sweet Communion with God and Christ ; John 14. 21 , 23. In the Actings of our Love to God we shall meet with more Manifestations of God's Love to us . Where and when we open our Hearts to God and Christ , and give them our Loves , there and then will God and Christ open their Hearts to us , and give us their Loves ; Cant. 1. 2 , 3. & Cant. 7. 10 , 11. There is a mutual Manifestation of Love to each other ; no Love is lost between Christ and his Spouse : If any man open to me , ( saith Christ ) I will come in unto him , and sup with him , and he with me ; Rev. 3. 18. Now , by the exercise of Faith and Love , we open to Christ ; he is always ready to come in : Open your everlasting doors , that the king of glory may come in , Ps . 24. 6ly , Be very watchful : Watch , and keep your hearts with all diligence , Prov. 4. 23. Take heed ; let not the World nor Vain Thoughts lodge there . Take heed of wandring from God ; watch your words , watch your steps ; take heed , grieve not , quench not , resist not the Holy Spirit , for by him God communicates himself to your Souls ; carefully observe all his Motions , and still beg his assistance in all your Duties , and rest upon his Aid , without which you can do nothing . 7ly , And lastly , If we would maintain our Communion with God , ( which is our Heaven upon Earth ) we must look well to our whole Conversation , that that be ordered aright , for to such God will shew his salvation , Psal . 50. 23. God looks for a well-order'd Conversation , a Life order'd by the Rule of his Word , setting narrow Steps to our Feet , looking straight on , not turning aside to the right or left hand , Prov. 4. 25 , 26 , 27. nor wickedly departing from his way , Psal . 18. 21 , 22 , 23. but to be righteons , just , honest , saithful , upright , charitable in all our dealings with Men , and carefully performing all our Duties to GOD and Man in singleness and integrity of Heart . This is a well-order'd Conversation . Also , in our Conversation , we must mind two things : 1. That we have no fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness , Ephes . 5. 11. that is , no more than need ; no intimate Familiarity and Communion with them , lest thereby we lose our Communion with God ; no more Communion with the Wicked than Piety , Charity , and Necessity will allow . Too many have lost Communion with GOD , by their too intimate Communion with the Wicked . Away from me , saith holy David , all ye workers of iniquity . 2. That we break not Fellowship with , nor withdraw Communion from the People of God , from those that bear his Image , although differing from us in some circumstances . In the Communion of Saints we may have Communion with God ; Psal . 16. 2. God is among his People , he walks in them , and dwells in them . Our Love must be not only to those of our own Opinion , but to all Saints and professing Christians , and must hold Communion with all those with whom we may charitably judge , that Christ holds Communion ; were this well minded , it would do much to heal our sad and sinful Breaches ; Heb. 10. 24 , 25. And thus we have seen , how that our looking unto invisible eternal things , especially unto God in Christ , and maintaining our Communion with them , we may be sweetly born up , and comfortably supported under all our Troubles . O Most holy , most merciful , most gracious Lord God , Father Almighty , and my most loving and tender-hearted Father in my most dear and sweet Redeemer Jesus Christ ; I render Thee my most humble and hearty Thanks and Praise , for lengthning my days , and for supporting me with thy Special Goodness , in this poor Work ; for giving me sometimes hours , sometimes half-hours , and sometimes days of some Strength and Ease , between those many sad and painful Distempers upon me , since I began it . And I most humbly beseech thee to write these Truths on my Heart , and keep them there , that by the assistance of thy good Spirit they may be effectual to spiritualize , raise , and fix my poor , cold , dead , carnal Heart upon thy blessed Self in Christ ; and be pleased to vouchsafe me sweet , sensible , and constant Communion with thy self in Christ , for thy Mercies sake , that thereby I may glorifie thee in this my day of thy Visitation , and may be throughly sanctified by , and comfortably supported under all my Troubles . Amen . TO ALL MY Christian Friends IN DARTMOVTH , Or elsewhere ; That desire to know the true state of their never-dying Souls : In order to their making clear and sure their Interest in the Lord Jesus ; Grace and Peace . BEfore I had finish'd the foregoing Treatise , there came to my hands , by God's good Providence , some Papers of very great concernment to all our Souls for Eternity , being the Conclusion of a Discourse by that Eminent , Learned , and Pious Servant of the Lord Jesus , Mr. John Flavel , whose Works praise him , and of whose Presence and Labours , we that knew him by Face or Works , have continual cause to lament our Loss ; which Discourse was from 2 Cor. 13. 5. concerning Self-examination about a Man's Interest in Christ : Which Papers when I viewed and reviewed , I bless God , I felt so much power in the Contents of them , and so much sweetness , that I thought not fit to eat my Morsels alone , but was strongly imprest to make them publick , which here by the consent of his dear Relations , I presume to do , hoping it will awaken those that did hear those close-trying Truths , to be more exact in their trying Work , and may also excite others to due diligence in that so profitable and too much neglected Duty of Self-examination . Those Characters in this will help us against Self-deceiving : Do not read only , but pray earnestly for the Spirit 's help , and do no longer delay this Work , lest thou be cut off before thy Work be done , and what will become of thee then ? That this , with all other Helps to thy Soul in the way to Heaven , may do thee good , is the unfeigned Prayer of thy unfeigned Friend , James Bardwood . The Reverend Author having preached many profitable Sermons on the 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves , whether you be in the Faith , &c. in which he industriously and clearly shewed the necessity of Self-examination , the nature of the Duty consisting in a secret Debate of our eternal estate and conditions within our own Bosoms , wherein the Mind of a man ponders and weighs all that makes for him or against him , in an even Ballance . The Object-matter of this Debate is things eternal , the eternal concernments of his Soul , as likewise the manner of the performance of this Duty , with greatest seriousness and solemnity setting the perfect Law of God before us , and humbly imploring the special Assistance of the Holy Spirit . Men are to debate these two things ; 1st , Whether they are in Christ , or in the state of Nature : a great Question indeed , upon which hang all our Hopes of Heaven , Christ in you the hope of glory , Col. 1. 27. 2dly , If we be in Christ , what condition we are in , whether thriving in Grace , or decaying . In the first of these Questions the painful Author spent many Exercises in the resolving of , in laying down , opening and answering eight several distinct Rules of Tryal of a Saving Interest in Christ , with the several Objections that poor doubting Souls might make against themselves ; things highly worth the publication , as I perceive by some imperfect Notes taken from him , which , because I cannot attain to a more exact Copy of them , I must omit them , the more is the pity : But for the ninth and last Mark , I find more full and perfect , and therefore only offer this one to your consideration , concerning which hear his own words . As to this ninth Mark , of a Saving Interest in Christ , I have this to say , That if the Lord shall clear but this one Tryal , I do not value whatever Objections you have against any of the former : This will undoubtedly speak your Souls Interest in the Lord Jesus , without any more ado ; and as far as the Lord shall clear it to you , you may venture your Souls into Eternity upon it . And therefore try your selves by this , if any of you be sincerely and fully resolved upon full conviction of your sinful and miserable state by Nature , and the answerableness of Christ to all your Wants ; to let go all that hinders the enjoyment of him , and embrace all that furthers the enjoyment of him . You need not make any Doubt or Question after this , Whether Christ be yours , or you be his : Consent is essential to Marriage ; there can be no Spiritual Marriage to Christ , but by consent of the Will. Knowledge is essential to Consent ; he that doth not think and know , cannot consent . If you be therefore consenting and willing to be Christ's upon his own terms , there remains no Doubt whether Christ be yours after that Consent . Hos . 3. 3. Thou shalt be for me , so also will I be for thee . Christ is for vou if you be for him : And when the great Work of Conversion is exprest in Scripture , you find it exprest under the Act of the Wills Consent , in the 110th Psalm 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power , in the beauties of holiness , from the womb of the morning : thou hast the dew of thy youth . That is , of thy Spiritual Off-spring ; and this is brought about by consenting to take Christ upon his own terms . But Beloved , don't mistake your selves , I am not about to shuffle over so great a concernment as this is rashly ; I am well aware my own and your Salvation too is carried in the matter I am to discourse , and therefore I resolve , in the Strength of Jesus Christ , to be impartially faithful between God and us , in this great matter . I would not for ten thousand Worlds a word should drop from my Lips , to the ruine of any Soul , nor yet to disturb the Peace of any gracious Soul , and therefore let me explain what I have to say clearly . There are three things of absolute necessity for the gaining of a solid Scriptural Interest in Christ , the two first I hope will pass current with most of us , yet some may stumble there . 1. The first is this : There must of necessity be a full and serious conviction of Sin and Misery without Christ ; there 's not a Soul that comes to him without such a conviction : The Spirit , when he cometh , he shall convince the World of Sin and of Righteousness , John 16. 9. that's the Spirit 's first Work , and 't is fundamental to all his After-works : And therefore you shall find in all the Converts in Scripture , the Lord has been dealing with their Understandings first , to convince them of their sinful and miserable state by nature . And the Lord Jesus professedly tells us , He came not to call the righteous , but sinners , to repentance . Convinced Sinners , not those that think they have Righteousness of their own ; and that the whole have no need of a Physician , but they that are sick : And it must needs be so , that Christ must take his course , because his Commission leads to it ; Isa . 61. 1 , 2. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me , because he hath sent me to preach glad tydings to the meek , to bind up the broken in heart , and proclaim liberty to the captives . These are the persons upon whom Christ is to act the great work of Salvation ; they are said to be such as are bound with the sence of Sin , such as are broken hearted through the sence of their Sin and Misery : And when he invites Men and Women to come to him , see how he doth it , in the 11. Matth. 28. Come unto me all that are weary and heavy laden , and I will give you rest : These are the persons Christ bestows himself upon . So that there must be such a conviction of Sin and Misery by Nature , as leaves us without Hope , without Christ . I don't speak of the degrees of spiritual Trouble , but I take this to be an unquestionable Truth , that so much Conviction as unbottoms the Soul from Self-righteousness and False hopes , is absolutely necessary ; and before this is , there can be no Match between Christ and the Soul. If any man be married to his own Righteousness , Duties , and Performances , that Soul hath nothing to do at all with Christ ; nor can that Soul be married to Christ , for 't is married to the Law , another Husband ; as you may see in the Sixth of the Romans , the Apostle in that Chapter proves to us , that we can have nothing to do with Christ until we are divorced from our own Self-righteousness . That 's the first thing , and this , I hope , the Lord hath wrought upon many that are here before him : The Spirit of Illumination hath been upon us , shewing us what miserable Wretches we were , and struck down the Foundation upon which our Hopes were built before . II. The second thing that is to pass upon every Soul , in order to his Union with Christ , is a full Conviction of the Answerableness and Fulness that is in Jesus Christ , to all the wants and spiritual necessities of the Soul. This you must see , or you will never consent to take Christ for your Lord : Acts 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other , for there is none other name given under Heaven , whereby we may be saved . Here 's your Refuge ; Christ , and none but Christ , can answer the Necessities of my poor Soul. I am full of Guilt , and there is no Righteousness but in Christ to justifie me ; I am full of Filth , and there is no Holiness but in Christ to sanctifie me . To this Refuge therefore in Christ , God shuts up every Soul as to his last Hopes : Therefore you find in the 3d of Galat. 23. we are said to be shut up unto the Faith : So that we see no other way in the World to escape Hell , but at this Door , the Lord Jesus . This also , I trust , the Lord hath made evident to so many Souls of you as are in Christ . You see your absolute need of him , and you see in Christ a compleat fulness to answer all the wants of your Souls ; that you are shut up to him , and have not the least hopes hanging upon any other Object besides Christ . Well , that 's the second thing . III. To come to the main , for all these are but previous Works , and may signifie something or nothing ; the third thing that gives an Interest in Christ , is a deliberate Consent to part with all things that hinders the enjoyment of him , and to embrace all things that promote and further the enjoyment of the Lord Jesus . Such a Consent as this is , will put your Salvation quite out of doubt , if there be any in the World , in Christ , 't is the Soul that deliberately consents . Now therefore to open this , remember , 1. First , That here must be a deliberate Consent ; it is not a Work to be done Hand over Head , as we say , rashly , and so to repent afterwards , to retreat , and call back our Consent afterwards ; when we shall meet with something in Religion that we did not look for , there must be a deliberation of the Will. There be many men that hang between willing and unwilling , they do and they do not consent : In some things they can , and in other things they cannot come up to the terms of the Gospel , when the Mind and Judgment of a poor Christian hangs in a doubtful suspence . I would , and I would not ; This I could close with , and That I cannot : Here 's the undoing of Men. And this was the case of Agrippa , Almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian . I could go a great way to be a Christian , but I cannot come off roundly to all the Terms of Jesus Christ : What shall we do in such a case as this is ? Thy Soul sees Sin and Misery upon one side , and Salvation in Christ upon the other side ; willing thou art to suffer a little for him , but there be some things in Religion they cannot come up to . Now if a Man will be a thorough Christian , he must deliberate the Terms , and heartily resolve to embrace all the Terms of the Gospel , that are made necessary to his Salvation by Christ ; it must be a thorough Resolution , exprest in the 119th Psalm , I have sworn , and I will perform it , that I will keep thy righteous judgments . And this is called , a counting of the Cost . Such a Consent as this is absolutely necessary ; and the want of this is the cause of so many Half-christians , which is called , a Cake not turn'd ; which doth but make Hypocrites in Religion . That 's the first thing in Consent , Deliberation in the Judgment , pondering the Terms of Christ throughly . 2. The second thing in this Consent is , that a Christian must heartily resolve to let go all those things that hinder the enjoyment of Jesus Christ , and blessed be he of the Lord , whose will is brought to this , that there is nothing so dear in the World , but he is resolved it shall go ; for I must tell you , Brethren , there be some things of which Christ saith , If ye seek me , let these go their way . So if you seek Christ , there be some things that must go , and some things that may go . Now , those things that are to be parted with in order to the enjoyment of Christ , are of two sorts , first , some things are absolutely necessary to be cast off without any more ado ; and there are some things conditionally necessary to be parted with ; that is , if God's Glory , Truth , and Honour require our parting with them . First . To begin with the first , there are some things absolutely necessary to be renounced without any Conditions ; there must be no Scruple as to these things ; and they are such as these : ( 1. ) First of all , Sinful Self , and all beloved Lusts of our Hearts and Natures : These must be renounced , or we can have nothing to do with Christ : The profitable and pleasant Sins , that are as right Hands and right Eyes , you must part with them , Christians , if you will have Christ , for Christ and Sin cannot reign together . Pray look into Rom. 6. 19 , 20 , 21. and you shall see the necessity of this ; As you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness , so now yield them up to God , as Instruments of Righteousness , unto holiness . You see the absolute necessity of giving Sin a discharg from all further Obedience , or else we cannot be the Servants of the Lord Jesus . Christian , I do not say , when thou receivest Christ , thou shalt never commit a Sin more ; no , no , but that which I mean is this , That thou must from henceforth provide for Sin no more , indulge Sin by the consent of the Will no more ; you must not continue the actings of it deliberately ; you must hate every ●alse way , and the consent of your Wills must be to Christ ; that 's the first thing to be let 〈◊〉 , or you cannot have an interest in the Lord Jesus . ( 2. ) The second thing that is absolutely necessary to be renounced and parted with , in order to an Interest in Christ , is all our own Self-righteousness ; you must let that go too , else Christ and you will never agree : That Idol must down , Self-righteousness must be universally and heartily renounced and abhorred . 'T is plain from Phil. 3. 8 , 9. Yea doubtless , and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord : for whom I have suffered the loss of all things , and do count them but dung , that I may win Christ , and be found in him , not having my own righteousness . You see Self-righteousness must go to the Dunghil , all our own Duties must be renounced , all natural and acquired gifts must be renounced , never to look at Self in whole or in part , in point of justification ; if you do , you can have nothing to do with the Righteousness of Christ ; Rom. 10. 3. the Jews being ignorant of God's Righteousness , went about to establish their own Righteousness . Here you see a perfect opposition between a Man's establishing his own Righteousness , and getting an interest in Christ . Friends , you must not think of two Righteousnesses , one in Christ , and another in your selves : I will make mention of thy righteousness , even of thine only . Down with all Self-righteousness , or you can have nothing to do with Christ . ( 3. ) The third thing that is to be let go for the Lord Jesus Christ , are all Companions in Sin : How much Delight soever you have formerly had in them , you must henceforth make them no more your delightful chosen Associates . Here 's the parting Point between wicked Men and the Saints of Jesus Christ . I don't speak of Civil Commerce , as Men in the World , there we must have to do with wicked Men , but I speak of chosen delightful Companions in Sin , when 't is an Act of the Will ; 1 Pet. 4. 3 , 4. Wherein they wonder that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot , speaking evil of you . Ay , here 's the breach made , when we come to Christ , between us and the wicked World ; Psal . 15. 4. — and so you shall find in Psal . 119. 63. I am a companion of all them that fear thee . Beloved , Christ requires you to cast off the delightful company of wicked ones ; Christians are a company of themselves , and none but such should be chosen : All my delight is in the Saints , saith David . Whatever Tyes there be , unless it be those of natural and civil Relations , they must not tye us to wicked men , but we must be the Companions of the Servants of Christ , if we will have Christ . Secondly , There are some things that may be let go , or may not ; that is according as God calls , or calls not for them : If the Glory of God shall require it , then we are to part with them ; and these are all Earthly Comforts , if so be they come to be inconsistent with the Truths or Glory of Christ , rather than deny the Truths of Christ ; when his Glory or Enjoyment comes in competition , then Christ requires us to part with them . Such are our estates , when the Glory of the Lord Jesus shall call us to deny them , as the believing Hebrews were . Such are our Liberty , when we cannot keep it without the eclipsing the Honour of the Lord Jesus : Yea , such is also our natural Life , if that be laid in ballance with the Truths of Christ . He would not have his People reckon their Lives dear upon his account ; either I must deny the known Truth , or my Liberty , Life , or Estate must go : And now , if any of these come in competition with Christ , they must all go : Luke 14. 33. Whosoever he be of you , that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my Disciple . This includes Estate , Liberty , and Life , Now , here is the stick in the case , How far a poor Soul can come up to Christ's Terms , upon this Conditional Necessity . I do not doubt , but there be many Souls in Christ that have many Fears about it , what their Heart will do ; many shaking Fears what they will do in an hour of Temptation ; yet Christ hath the consent of their Hearts , that all shall go ; they will forsake Father , Mother , Wife , Children . Why , Lord , saith a poor Christian , if I cannot enjoy these without the destruction of my poor Soul ; in thy Strength I resolve to follow thee in the deepest paths of Self-denyal , to the last breath . And without this you cannot be Christ's Disciples . My Friends , the Lord Jesus hath set down the Terms , and he will not come lower , and if you cannot come up to his Terms , Christ and you must part , he will not come down for the sake of any man ; therefore consider of those things . Now , he that is contented to part with all , rather than part with Christ , that Soul is for Christ , and Christ is for that Soul. But there is the last thing , and that is , the embracing of all those things that may help you to enjoy Christ : These are deep tryals of the Heart , and therefore it concerns us to make deep searches here . Well then , there be four things that do further a man's Soul in the way to Christ , and are you contented , and that deliberately , Christians , to embrace them all to help you to Christ ? 1. First , Are you contented to embrace and welcome all the Ordinances of God and Duties of Religion , both publick and private , without exception of one of them ? Can you turn your feet to all his Ordinances ? I know some Christians have a Zeal for some Duties , and not for others ; but publick and private Duties , Heart-duties , and Life-duties , all that have the Stamp of Christ's Institution upon them , must be embraced ; as in Psal . 119. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed , when I have respect unto all thy commandments . When you dare not neglect a Duty , but bring a serious Heart to every Duty , if you be Christ's , you must come under the Law of his House . 2. Secondly , Are you contented to embrace all Fatherly Corrections from the hand of God , for the killing of the Remainders of Sin in you ? If you will be for Christ , you must submit to Chrisi's Method : It is in vain to say , If I can travel to Heaven without meeting a Storm in the way , I am willing to go ; thou must be contented with all Afflictions , to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . Paul could say , in 2 Cor. 12. 10. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities , in persecutions , for Christ's sake , for when I am weak , then am I strong . Ay , that was a high frame ; I will not strain up your Experiences to Paul's ; But , can you consent to endure them ? Can you bear a Rod from God when it is to purge your Corruptions ? Can you bear a Persecution from God , without starting from your Duty ? 3. Thirdly , If you will be Christ's , you must submit to all those means Christ hath appointed , for the mortification of your Corruptions , be they never so hard , Rebukes from GOD , Rebukes from Men , by Afflictions , and by the Word , for the mortification of Sin ? Can you say , Christians , that you are willing to have your Mistakes detected by GOD or Men , your Corruptions discovered , any thing that helps to the pulling up the Roots of Corruption ? Surely thus it must be , if you will be for Christ , all faithful Admonitions , all necessary Afflictions . 4. Fourthly , and lastly , If you will be for Christ , and be his , you must embrace all pains , watchings , and labourings after Holiness , to the end of your days : Holiness will cost a Christian abundance of Labour , but this you must do , or you cannot be Christians . 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these promises , let us cleanse ourselves from all silthiness of flesh and spirit , perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Here 's the Work of a Christian , cleansing Work and perfecting Work in the fear of God , to the end of our Lives . You must take the pains that other Christians do if you will have Christ for your Portion . Now mark what I say : He that is willing to part with all that hinders the enjoyment of Christ , as sinful Self and righteous Self ; and he that resolves to embrace all things that may help him forward to the enjoyment of Christ , as all the Ordinances of God , all Fatherly correction from the hand of God , all means of mortification from GOD or Men , and all pains for Holiness ; he that is contented with these terms is as surely Christ's as ever was any Soul. I have not made the terms in one point higher than Christ hath made them . And thus I have shewed you Christians what the Terms are , in which you are allowed to enroll your selves in the Catalogue of Christians . And , oh that the Lord would set home this one tryal to the satisfaction of our Souls , then we may say , The Lord is my God , and My beloved is mine , and I am his . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28197-e1230 1 Joh. 3. 2. 
A52035	----	The vvorks of Mr Stephen Marshall, late minister of the Gospel at Finching-Field in Essex. And since at Ipswitch in Suffolk. The first part. Viz. I. Of Christ's intercession. And of sins of infirmity. II. The high priviledge of beleevers. They are the sons of God. III. Faith the only means spiritually to feed on Christ. IV. Of self-denial. V. The saints duty to keep their heart in a good frame, etc. VI. The mystery of spiritual life. Attested by Ralph Venning. Thomas Lye. Thomas Jacomb. Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655. 1661 Approx. 403 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 127 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A52035 Wing M747 ESTC R214099 99826318 99826318 30715 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A52035) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 30715) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1763:8) The vvorks of Mr Stephen Marshall, late minister of the Gospel at Finching-Field in Essex. And since at Ipswitch in Suffolk. The first part. Viz. I. Of Christ's intercession. And of sins of infirmity. II. The high priviledge of beleevers. They are the sons of God. III. Faith the only means spiritually to feed on Christ. IV. Of self-denial. V. The saints duty to keep their heart in a good frame, etc. VI. The mystery of spiritual life. Attested by Ralph Venning. Thomas Lye. Thomas Jacomb. Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655. [18], 152, 78, [2] p. printed by Peter Cole, and Edward Cole, printers and book-sellers, at the sign of the Printing-press in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange, London : 1661. The final leaf is blank. Reproduction of the original in the Bodleian Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith -- Early works to 1800. Christian life -- Early works to 1800. Sermons, English -- 17tn century. 2004-10 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-11 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-01 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-01 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE WORKS OF M R Stephen Marshall , late Minister of the Gospel at Finching-Field in Essex . And since at Ipswitch in Suffolk . THE FIRST PART . VIZ. I. Of Christ's Intercession . And of Sins of Infirmity . II. The High Priviledge of Beleevers . They are the Sons of God. III. Faith the only means spiritually to feed on Christ. IV. Of Self-Denial . V. The Saints Duty to keep their Heart in a Good Frame , &c. VI. The Mystery of Spiritual Life . Attested By Ralph Venning . Thomas Lye. Thomas Jacomb . LONDON : Printed by Peter Cole , and Edward Cole , Printers and Book-sellers , at the Sign of the Printing-press in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange . 1661. BEcause it is usual to abuse Readers in thrusting forth broken Notes under the Names of Authors that are of Repute : These are to Attest the following fifty Sermons on several Texts ; Were Preached by M R Stephen Marshall ; And are now Published by the most perfect Coppy . Ralph Venning . Thomas Lye. Thomas Jacomb . Books Printed by Peter Cole , and Edward Cole , Printers and Book sellers of London , at the Exchange . Mr. Burroughs ▪ WORKS viz. on Matth. 11. 1 Chirsts call to all those that are Weary and Heavy Laden to come to him for Rest. 2 Christ the Great Teacher of Souls that come to him . 3 Christ the Humble Teacher of those that come to him . 4 The only Easie way to Heaven . 5 The Excellency of holy Courage . 6 Gospel Reconciliation . 7 The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment . 8 Gospel-Worship . 9 Gospel-Conversation . 10 A Treatise of Earthly Mindedness . 11 Exposition of the Prophesie of Hosea . 12 The Evil of Evils , or the exceeding sinfulness of Sin. 13 Precious Faith. 14 Of Hope . 15 Of Walking by Faith. Twenty one several Books of Mr. William Bridge , Collected into two Volumes . Viz. 1 Scripture Light the most sure Light. 2 Christ in Travel . 3 A Lifting up for the cast down . 4 Sin against the Holy Ghost . 5 Sins of Infirmity . 6 The fals Apostle tiled and discovered . 7 The good and means of Establishment . 8 The great things Faith can do 9 The great things Faith can suffer . 10 The Great Gospel Mystery of the Saints Comfort and Holyness , opened and applied from Christs Priestly Office 11 Satans power to Tempt and Christs Love to , and Care of his People under Temptation . 12 Thankfulness required in every Condition . 13 Grace for Grace . 14 The Spiritual Actings of Faith through Naturall Impossibilities . 15 Evangelical Repentance . 16 The Spiritual Life , and in being of Christ in al Beleevers . 17 The Woman of Canaan . 18 The Saints Hiding place , &c 19 Christ Coming &c. 20 A Vindication of Gospel Ordinances . 21 Grace and Love beyond Gifts . New Books of Mr. Sydrach Simpson . VIZ. 1 Of Unbelief ; or the want of readiness to lay hold on the comfort given by Christ. 2 Not go●ing to Christ for Life and Salvation is an exceeding great Sin , yet Pardonable . 3 Of F●ith , Or , That beleeving is receiving Christ ; And receiving Christ is beleeving . 4 Of Coveteousness . Mr. Hookers New Books in three Volumes : One in Octavo , and two in Quarto . These Eleven New Books of Mr. Thomas Hoo●ker made in New-Edgland . Are attested in an Epistle by Mr. Thomas Goodwin , and Mr. Philip Nye , To be written with the Authors own hand : None being written by himself before . One Volum being a Comment upon Christ's last Prayer on the seventeenth of John. Wherein is shewed . 1 That the end why the Saints receive all glorious G●ace , is , That they may be one , as the Father and Christ are one . 2 That God the Father loveth the Faithful , as he loveth Jesus Christ 3 That our Savior desireth to have the Faithful in Heaven with himself . 4 That the happiness of our being in Heaven , is to see Christs Glory . 5 That there is much wanting in the knowledg of Gods Love , in the most able Saints . 6 That the Lord Christ lends dayly direction , according to the dayly need of his Servants . 7 That it is the desire and endeavor of our Savior , that the dearest of Gods Love , which was bestowed on himself , should be given to his faithful servants , 8 That our Union and Communion with God in Christ , is the top of our happiness in Heaven . Ten Books of the Application of Redemption by the Effectual Work of the Word , and Spirit of Christ , for the bringing home of lost sinners to God. By Thomas Hooker . D. Hills WORKS . The Kings Tryal at the High Court of Justice . Wise Virgin. Published by Mr. Thomas Weld , of New-England . Mr. Rogers on Naaman the Syrian , his Disease and Cure : Discovering the Leprosie of Sin and Self-love ; with the Cure ; viz. Self-denial and Faith. A Godly and Fruitful Exposition , on the first Epistle of Peter . By Mr. John Rogers , Minister of the word of God at Dedham in Essex . Mr. Rogers his Treatise of Marriage . The Wonders of the loadstone . By Samuel Ward of Ipswitch . An Exposition on the Gospel of the Evangelist St. Matthew . By Mr. Ward . The Discipline of the Church in New-England By the Churches and Synod there . Mr. Brightman on the Revelation . Christians Engagement for the Gospel , by John Goodwin . Great Church Ordinance of Baptism . Mr Loves Case , containing his Petitions , Narrative , and Speech . A Congregational church is a Catholick Visible Church . By Samuel Stone in New-England . A Treatise of Politick Powers . Dr. Sibbs on the Philippians . Vox Pacifica , or a Perswasive to Peace . Dr. Prestons Saints submission , and Satans Overthrow . Pious Mans Practice in Parliament time . Barriffs Military Discipline . The Immortality of mans Soul. The Anatomist Anatomized . The Bishop of Canterbury's Speech . Woodwards Sacred Balance . Dr. Owen against Mr. Baxter . Abrahams Offer , Gods Offerings : Being a Sermon by Mr. Herle , before the Lord Major of London . Mr. Spurstows Sermon , being a Pattern of Repentance . Englands Deliverance . By Peter Sterry . The Way of God with his People in these Nations By Peter Sterry . Mr. Sympson's sermon at Westminster . Mr. Feaks sermon before the Lord Major . The best and Worst Magistrate . By Obediah Sedgwick . A sermon . A Sacred Panegyrick . By Stephen Marshal . A sermon . The Craft and Cruelty of the Churches Adversaries . By Matthew Newcomen of Dedham . A sermon . Clows Chyrurgery . Marks of Salvation . Mr. Stephen Marshals New WORKS . VIZ. 1 Of Christs Intercession , or of sins of Infirmity . 2 The high Priviledg of beleevers , They are the Sons of God 3 Faith the Means to feed on Christ. 4 Self-denial . 5 The Saints Duty to keep their Hearts , &c. 6 The Mistery of spiritual Life . Several Physick Books of Nich. Culpeper Physitian and Astrologer ; and A. Cole , &c. 1 Idea of Practical Physick in twelve Books . 2 Sennertus thirteen Books of Natural Phylosophy . 3 Sennertus two Treatises . 1. Of the Pox. 2 Of the Gout . Sennertus Art of Chyrurgery in six Parts . 1. Of Tumors . 2. Of Ulcers . 3. Of the Skin Hair and Nailes . 4. Of Wounds . 5. Of Fractures . 6. Of Luxations . 4 Twenty four Books of the Practice of Physick , being the Works of that Learned and Renowned Doctor , Lazarus Riverius . Physitian and Councellor to the late King , &c , 5 Riolanus Anatomy . 6 Veslingu● Anatomy of the Body of Man. 7 A Translation of the New Dispensatory , made by the Colledg of Physitians of London . Wherein is added . The Key to Galens Method of Physick . 8 The English Physitian Enlarged . 9 A Directory for Midwives , or a Guide for Women . 10 Galens Art of Physick . 11 New Method both of studying and practising Physick . 12 A Treatise of the Rickets . 13 Medicaments for the Poor , Or Physick for the Common People . 14 Health for the Rich and Poor , by Diet without Physick . The London Dispensatory in Folio , of a large Character in Latin. The London Dispensatory in twelves , a smal Pocket Book in Latin. To the Physical Reader . THe greatest Reason that I could ever observe why the Medicines prescribed in these Books above mentioned , and in many other Physick Books , do not perform the Cures promised , is , the unskilfulness of those that make up the Medicines . I therefore advise all those that have occasion to use any Medicines to go or send to Mr. Ralph Clarke Apothecary at the sign of the three Crowns on Ludgate-Hill , in London ; where they shall be sure to have such as are skilfully and honestly made . The Printer to the Reader . I Have in my hands divers other works of Mr. Stephen Marshals , which for their excellency and variety of matter are highly esteemed by all that heard them preach'd , Or have read them in writing . I intend to print them in several smal Books , that they may not be above the reach of a poor man's purse . The Subjects on which they treat are Chiefly these that follow . VIZ. 1. Of the Covenant of Grace , And the great priviledges the Saints have therby . 2. Formal Professors seldom become sincere . 3. Reformation and turning to God , the only means to prevent Ruine . 4. Christ the Prince of Peace . 5. The Excellency of Christ's Kingdom . 6. How Freedom come by Christ. 7. The Vnion between Christ and Beleevers . 8. The Riches of the Saints through the Poverty of Christ 9. How Christ is the Head of the Church . 10. Christ and his Seed have sufficient strength to destroy their Enemies . 11. Christ the Bridegroom , Beleevers are his Bride . 12. No Participation of Christ but by Faith. 13. Faith so precious a Grace , that Christ is glad of any thing that may further it . 14. An Humble Spirit Infinitly acceptable to God. 15. Great Joy to all that Mourn in Zion . 16. The double Recompence the Godly shall have after their affliction . 17. The Happiness of the Saints under the Cross 18. The untimely Death of good men a Ground of Great Lamentation . 19. The Magistrates Dignity , Duty and Vsefulness . 20. The Churches Danger , Deliverance and Duty . 21. The Churches praise unto God for their Deliverance . 22. A great Mercy in God to prevent his Peoples ingageing one against another in Blood. 23. Gods Chosen Ones are the Preventors of destruction . 24. Mens Misery is only from themselves , Their Deliverance is only from the Lord. 25. The Pearl of the Gospel . 26. How the Gospel is the Power of God to Salvation . 27. It 's impossible for true Beleevers totally and finally to fall away . 28. Parents Duty to their Children . 29. Provision for the Poor . 30. The Great Judgment of Famine . 31. Of the Sacrament . The CONTENTS of the first Book of Mr. Stephen Marshals Works . VIZ. Of Christs Intercession or Sins of Infirmity . SERMON , I. On 1 John 2.1 . And if any man sin , we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous . THe scope of the Epistle Opened Page 1 , 2 , 3. The words of the Text explained Page 3 , 4. Doct. That the Lord Jesus Christs Intercession in Heaven , is the great dayly Relief that all the Saints diligentest , their watchfulest work in the world to keep their hearts in a good frame when once the Lord in mercy hath put them into a good frame Page 132 , 133 Reasons of the Point . Reas. 1. Because the Heart is beyond all comparisons the best part of Man , it is the Head Quarter Page 142 Reas. 2. Because the Heart is not only the best part of Man , but it is the Treasury , wherein better things are laid up than it self . Quest. What are the Treasures laid up in the heart of a gracious Man ? Answer 1. The great God chooses the Heart of every Godly man for his Privy and Presence Chamber . 2. Christ Jesus dwels there ; Emmanuel dwels there , in whom are bid , all the Treasures of God. 3. The Holy Ghost dwels there too , the Heart of every Godly man , is his Temple . 4. All the Graces of the Spirit of God are laid up there . 5. The Word that is the the rule of our life is laid up there Reas. 3. Because the Lord whom we profess to serve looks only at the Heart in al the Sacrifices we perform to him . Reas. 4. The Devil makes all his Assaults and Batteries against the Heart , and counts all his labor lost if he get not into the Heart . Reas. 5. Because the Heart is not to be trusted , but is deceitfull , false , cosening , even the Heart of the best man in the world 139 Reas. 6. Because out of it are the Issues of Life ▪ thy whol Conversation wil be as thy Heart is kept . Use 1. Serves to reprove thousands with a bitter reproof who would fain go for Children of God and yet 1 , They are exact in keeping their Houses &c , but neglect their Hearts . Page 143 , 144 2. Others are curious about their Bodies , to Feed , Physick , Adorn them but neglect their Hearts . Others are careful also of their manners and Conversation to avoid scandal and yet neglect their Hearts . 4 , Others keep indeed their Hearts but sleightly , they do not keep them above all keepings Page 146 Use 2. This is a Doctrine of wonderful consolation ( though it carry just rebuke with it ) to al whose Consciences witness that their greatest care is to purge and keep their Hearts Page 147 Use 3. To exhort all men for the time to come to make this their study to keep their Hearts . Before this can be done , I. The Lord must break the Heart to pieces and new mold it And then you must 1. Keep it pure from Sin. 2. Keep it fit for Duty . The Life of Christ , or the great Mystery of Spiritual Life . SERMON I. THe Text Opened , Page 1 , 2 , 3 Doctrine 1. Every Soul that hath Interest in Christ , while he is in this world , it is in Christ that lives in him . Doctrine 2. The manner of their living this Life in this world it is by Faith. For Explication consider that There is a twofold life . 1. A Natural life , which we have from Adam . 2. A Spiritual Life which flows from the second Adam . Quest. What is this spiritual life . Answ. It is a Participation of Christs Righteousness , upon the Souls union with him . Use 1. Shews how necessary it is that we should all try and examin our Souls whether we are partakers of this Life or No. Page 20 Considerations to stir up to this examination . 1. That in Truth this alone is Christianity : there is nothing Christianity but the Life of Christ. 2 Aboundance of things go for this Life which are not this Life . Quest. How shall we know this Life ? Answ. By these two Characters . 1 Wheresoever the Lord gives Life to any Creature in a Natural way , the life is the Preciousest thing in the world to that Creature : and so among al that live the life of Christ there is nothing in this world so dear to them , as their Spiritual Life is . Which valuation of the said Life appears in these three things . Page 22 1 In a Natural propensity and inclination and appetite towards those things that are the nourishment of this Life . 2 In a most vehement declining of what they know to be destructive to this life . 3 In a willingness to part with any thing to save this spiritual Life . Page 24 The second Character of this Spiritual Life . 2 Consists in some things that are the proper beatings of the pulse as it were of the Soul. Arguments of this spiritual Life . A● , 1 The Natural motion of this spiritual Life is to enjoy God in Jesus Christ as their chiefest good ; this is the great thing wherin the souls pulse beates . 2 There is a Natural making out of the Heart towards holiness , righteousness , love , kindness mercy , pitty . Page 27 3 The Soul that is alive unto Christ , is guided by the word it is his Card , his compass , his Square , his Meet-wand , his Eye Looking to the word as his only Guide . Who are strangers to the Life of Christ ? 1 All that know not Christ 2 All that live to their Lusts. 3 All that live to the World. 4 All that live to their Pleasures . Use , 2. This serves to comfort those that live this life considering that . 1 This is the highest , noblest , most excellent Life that ever any Creature did partake of . 2 This is the sweetest of all Lives , for in all other lives men tast but the sweetness of the Creature , but in this the sweetness of God and Christ. 3 It is the greatest pledge of Gods love he gives to any . 4 Christ being the fountain of this life you may be bold to rely upon him for the preservation of it . Page 32 Use , 3. To perswade all men to study and seek after this life . SERMON , II. DOCT. 2. That life of Christ which all Gods people live in this world , they live it by Faith The DOCTRIN is . 1 Demonstrated from scripture that it is so , that the whol Life of a Christian is led by Faith. 2 It is opened by shewing what the Holy Ghost means by this , and what it is for a Soul to live the life of Christ by Faith. Page 35 Use , 1. Hence we may safely and sadly conclude , that amongst the great multitudes of those that challenge the Name of Chrstians , there are very few that are really Christians . For , 1 Many are Ignorent of Christ. 2 Many never trouble themselves at the very Doctrine of Faith. 3 Many live to their lusts . 4 Multitudes live to the world . 5 Many live to their own wills . Use , 2. Real Christians ought to lament nothing so much as their unbelife . Quest. Do you think that the people of God are so much guilty of it ? Judge by these Signs . 1 Our not studying of the Word 2 Our little Valueing of the Word . 3 Our unevenness in our whol course . 4 Our deviations and use of unlawful means . SERMON , III. Use , 3. This shewes what kind of Christians they must needs be who can live in the Flesh above Word and Ordinances , having no use of them , and ( as they think ) nothing to do with them , but live in an immediate communion with God and enjoyment of him . Use , 4. To make this living by Faith better known to the Lords people and more exactly practised then it hath been hitherto . For encouragement to study this art of living by Faith , consider . 1 If you wil be Christians you have no other Mistery to maintaine your lives but Faith. 2 All other waies of life that any man pitches , upon wil shortly appear to be but a poor thing , 3 This Mystery of living by Faith is the best Life the most desirable Life that any Man or Woman can live , til they come to enjoy God immediately . The Excellency of this Life opened in Particulars . 1 It is the life which the Lord hath chosen out to be the life of those that he loved from all Eternity . 2 It is most honorable to us . 3 In this world it is the easiest Life . To live by Faith is the easiest Life under Heaven . 4 It is the best Life because it is the surest Life . Page 64 Question . How shall we do to live this Life ? Answer . 1 The Grace of Faith is the principal of his Life . 2 If you would live the Life of Faith , labor to be well acqainted with God , especially with God in Christ. 68 3 Study to be acquainted with the word . 4 Faithfully and Conscientiously serve the Lord , in the use of means . Page 73 Two Cautions to be taken in with these directions . When it is said we must use means , and thus live by Faith , the meaning is . 1 That when we have done we must not limit God ; God limits you and limits me , but Faith must not limit him , as to the way how , or time when be shall make● good . Page 74 2 When you are directed thus to live the life of Faith you must take heed of some other Principles , viz. your own Reason and your own sense . The Premises considered it is sad to think . 1 How the common People of the world live amongst us , being wholly Ignorant of these things , and setting their Hearts upon wealth and Pleasure and Honor and such perishing things . Page 76 2 It is sad to think how many Souls that are Godly and study the Scriptures and attend upon the word , yet had rather study nice controversies and things that engender strife , then this great comprehensive Duty of living to Christ , and living by Faith. Page 77 FINIS . CHRIST'S INTERCESSION , OR Sins of Infirmity : Opened in a Sermon at Pauls , Novemb. 19. 1654 1 John 2.1 , 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that you sin not ( now follows my Text ) And if any man sin , we have an Advocate with the Father , Jesus Christ the righteous ; And he is the Propitiation for our sins , and not for ours only , but also for the sins of the whol world . THe whol scope of the blessed Apostle in this Letter of his , is , as himself teacheth us , to confirm the people of God , to build them up in that great Article of their Faith , and their great priviledge which is , the Communion of Saints . He tels you in the beginning , he writes to them that they might have Communion with himself and the rest of the Apostles , whose Communion is with God the Father and is Son Jesus Christ ; presently he proceeds to shew wherein this Communion stands , which he doth express , First , More generally : It is to walk in the light ; when all the world walks in darkness ; they by virtue of their fellowship should walk in the light , And then , Secondly , Explains this more particularly , in the subsequent discourse ; and shews that by walking in the light he mainly intends walking in holiness , that is , to abominate and abandon the waies of sin , and to live as becomes those that are born of God in holiness and righteousness , and this is the plot of the whol Epistle . And then he begins with the first branch of it , and that is , to depart from the waies of sin , and sets down this conclusion , That if any man do pretend Communion with Jesus Christ and walk in sin , he is a meer Dissembler , he hath not one dram of Communion with God and Jesus Christ ; That is a certain rule , no man that hath Communion with Jesus Christ can walk in a sinful life , but every branch of the great things that Christ bestows upon his people , the purport and intent of them all is , to make them leave sinning , that they wholly overthrow the very tenour of the Gospel , who talk of believing in Christ and walk in a Godless life . Now this first Branch the Apostle prosecutes at large , both in the first Chapter , & in this second Chapter , and begins the second Chapter thus , Now all these things do I write to you ▪ that you sin not , and presently at the 3d verse takes it up again , ( saith he ) If any man know him he must walk as he walketh , and so proves it by many Arguments . Now ( Brethren ) you shal see the intent of my Text : The Apostle knowing what an uncomfortable Doctrine this would be if it were not explained , how uncomfortable it would be even to the best of Gods Saints and people , he prevents the sad objection that every gracious heart would be ready to make ; for when he hath set down this for his Conclusion : He that is in Christ cannot sin , he cannot sin , he deceives himself if he talks of Christ and sins , Why ? A poor Soul would presently come out and say , Then am I utterly undone , I have then no interest in Christ , for I sin , I sin dayly , I cannot live without it , I cannot perform one Duty but my corruption is intermingling it self with it ; wo be to me if that Doctrine go for currant , that he hath nothing to do with Christ that sins . Now by way of Prolepsis the Apostle anticipates this objection , and cleers the mind of God about it , and then proceeds further to prosecute his Doctrine , and it is laid down in these words , But if any man sin , let him know that we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous , who is the Propitiation for all our sins , and not only ours that are Jews , but throughout all the world if they be Beleevers : This he laies down to stay the hearts of Gods people in reference to that sadness , that they would be ready to be overwhelmed with . Now ( Brethren ) because there is but one main Doctrine that I intend to insist upon , I wil but briefly explain the words to you , and then I wil propound the Doctrine . First , When the Apostle saith , If any man do sin , he thereby plainly implies , that there are certain sorts of sins , that even Gods Children though they dare not commit sin nor walk in sin , yet even Gods own Children ( for them he speaks to , my little Children I write this to you , ( I say ) there are sins that Gods own people ) are overtaken with , even after they have fellowship and Communion with Jesus Christ ; that is the first thing that he takes for granted . Then , Secondly , To that he adds , But ( saith he ) if any man sin , that is , when we do thus sin , when Gods people do thus sin , What then ? We have an Advocate , ( that you all know the meaning of , ) one that pleadeth our cause , that is the office of an Advocate , to appear in behalf of another in his cause : We have an Advocate with the Father above in Heaven at his right hand , that is , Jesus Christ our Lord who died for us , and loved us , and gave himself for us , he appears in Heaven for us , yea , he is Jesus Christ the righteous ; that is , though he be so righteous that he wil never plead an ill cause , yet this is a part of his righteousness , to intercede and appear in the behalf of his own people , even when they sin against him ; Jesus Christ the righteous who is the Propitiation for our sins ; that is , who once upon earth offered himself up a Sacrifice to satisfie for them , and now in Heaven pleads the benefit and virtue of it for ever in the behalf of his people . And not for ours only ; that is , we that are Jews , but for the sins of the whol world , supposing stil he speaks of the same matter , of those that believe in Christ , that have Communion with him throughout the world , Rich and Poor , Yong and Old , Jew and Gentile , this is a truth to them all ; When Gods people sin , Jesus Christ the righteous , at Gods right hand maketh mediation for them . So the words thus briefly paraphrased upon do afford us this Doctrine , ( which is the only Lesson that I intend to handle this day , ) namely , Doct. That the Lord Jesus Christs intercession in Heaven , is the great dayly relief that al the Saints have upon Earth against their dayly sins . A Doctrine which at the very first propounding Promiseth not only comfort to Believers , but carnal men they wil be ready to promise themselves liberty , ( though I hope without cause ( by that time I have done with it , ) but Jesus Christs mediation in Heaven is the great relief to all Gods Saints upon earth , against the dayly sins that they are overtaken with . Now ( Beloved ) that I may handle this Doctrine for your profit , there are two questions which ( God willing ) I shal endeavor to cleer , ( and that wil be the sum of all my work , the discussing of them . ) First , Quest. 1. What sins the Lords Children and People are liable to while they are in this world , what those sins are that the Children of God may be overtaken with while they live in this world . Secondly , Quest. 2. I wil shew you how the Intercession of Jesus Christ is the great relief to Gods Children against these sins . For the first , First , What are those sins which the Lords people , his own Children are liable to while they live in this world ? And to make you the more attentive to it , be pleased to note that there are two Conclusions about sin , laid down so cleerly in the Scripture , yea , in this very Epistle , that they almost seem to contradict one another , and therefore it is of great weight to have that cleared . First , 1. Nothing clearer then this , That he that is born of God doth not sin , nor cannot sin , and if a man say he hath communion with Jesus Christ and walkes in sin , he is a Liar and deceives his own Soul ; Nothing clearer then this in this Epistle ; So likewise in Romans , 6. How can we that are dead to sin Live any longer therein ; Sin cannot have dominion over you , you are not under it , you are under Grace ; This is a clear proposition , A Child of God cannot sin . 2. Yet on the other side it is as clear , that if any man that calls himself the Child of God say he hath no sin , he is a Liar , it is rather an Argument he hath no grace ; In many things we sin all ; Nothing clearer then that the people of God , his dearest Children do sin . Paul in the name of them all , talketh of being sold under sin , carrying a body of sin about him ; now these two must of necessity have such an interpretation , as to justifie the truth of God in it . Be pleased then to know thus much , that when the Scripture speakes so positivly and clearly , of the Children of God not sinning , that they cannot commit sin , the meaning is this , That whereas the way of sin ( mark it , the way of sin ) is the only way that al men walk in before they come to Christ , as conceive it thus , when men first fel from God , while he stood in his integrity God was his end , God was his portion , God was his rule , but when man fel from God , the whol corruption of mans nature stood in these two things , That now he was turned away from God , and fallen into the Creature , and there he continues til a new life be communicated , let him do what he will , let him pray , let him read , let him hear , let him walk in workes of justice and righteousness , and stil he is but within the compass of injoying the creature , and living to the creature , making himself and the good that he can find in the creature his portion , which is a turning off from God and this is one way of sin , and thus all the men in the world walk , that although it be true , yet some of their sins are greater then others , and aggrauated by some circumstances , yet look as it is with a man that is in prison , though the prison may be very large , and he may somtimes walk East , West , North , and South , and do some things more clean , and some things more gross , yet they are al done within that compass of the prison ; So take a man not in the state of Grace , the end he aimes at is himself , the rule he walks by is somwhat that may yeild contentment to him from the creature , and beyond al this no living man goes til God give him a new life . Now when the Lord vouchsafeth to cal a man home to Jesus Christ , and planteth in him a new principle of a new life , then the Soul returns home to God , now for time to come God is his portion , and the way that may lead him to the injoyment and knowledg of God , is his only way to which he resignes up himself , and makes it his daylie study and trade to walk in it : now here is his way , that as to an unconverted man the creature is his way , and al things that may make him injoy the creature , or setled in the creature is his way , but the new man he hath no way but approaching to God , aspiring up to him , drawing nigher to him , being made more like to him , this is his way , but now while he intendeth this way , ( mark it ) he being converted but in part , he knows his way but in part , and therefore somtimes misseth it for want of light , he somtimes likewise stumbles in the right way for want of strength , somtimes a violent temptation takes him and turnes him a little out of the way for want of good take-heed ; these kind of sins Gods Children are liable to while they live in this world ; So that the sume of it is this , no reigning sin , a sin that shal have dominion over him to carry him from God , and settle him upon the creature can be compatible with the state of a converted man ; but yet frailties and weaknesses for want of strength those are his sins , and they and no other are the sins that Gods Children are liable unto . So that the thing I have brought you to is , to shew you , that the Saints while they live in this world are compassed with infirmities , and only with infirmities ; concerning which ( because it is a great Doctrine ) I intend ( the Lord assisting me ) to open these three things , and that wil be the sume of this first Question , What the sins are . Three things I will open to you about the sins of infirmities wherewith Gods people are compassed while they live ; The first is , First , I wil shew you the nature of them , the nature of a sin of infirmity . Secondly , I wil shew you the kinds of them , what kinds of sins of infirmities Gods people may be overtaken with . And Thirdly , Thirdly , I wil shew you how these may be known to be such , that no man may deceive his heart about them and these must needs be opened , because the latter part of our Question of Christs being a relief to them , is so ful of Consolation , that I would have no body have it that have not right to it , and therefore I would not have them flatter themselves about it . For the first , First , To open to you the nature of an Infirmity : Take it thus , To enable a Soul to walk in the waies of God , ( as all Gods people do in measure , but to enable a Soul to do it , ) there is required a twofold strength , the one is , I. An habitual strength . The other is , II. An actual strength . 1. The habitual strength that all Gods Saints have , it is nothing but the inclination and disposition of their hearts to the waies of God , and against the waies of sin , which is wrought in them by 〈◊〉 Holy Ghost in the time of their first conversion 〈◊〉 which hour the quickning Grace communicate●●o the Soul , doth once for ever make the bent of the heart stand to the waies of God , that now there is a complacency , a delight , a suitableness to them in the waies of God , and a displacency and aversion in reference to the waies of sin . This now is habitual strength , once given to Gods people , never taken away from them . But now though this habitual strength do give them a good wil , ( as the Apostle cals it ) a good mind to the waies of God , yet , 2. To enable them either to forbear any sin , or to perform any duty , there must be communicated an actual strength , and that actual strength is nothing but the immediate assistance of the Holy Ghost , who dwels in them drawing out their Graces to work , and strengthening them in their working , and when this actual strength is communicated to them by the Holy Ghost , then if a temptation to a sin be propounded , the Saint is too strong for it , he overcomes the temptation , if a holy Duty be propounded to be done , by the help of this God ( if need be ) he can leap over a wall . Give a Child of God the inward inclination of his heart wrought by Grace , and the actual assistance of the Spirit of God , when he is called out to particulars , then he walketh as becomes a Saint in holiness and righteousness : but when at any time the Spirit of God ( for reasons best known to himself ) doth withold his immediate assistance from that Soul , then their habitual inclination is never able to make them do any thing that is good : If a temptation to a sin be propounded , and a corruption of their nature be a little excited , and Satan backing it , and the Spirit of God not joyning , down they tumble in every temptation , and sin against God though never so fouly ; and if a holy Duty be to be performed , pressed with all the moral Arguments in the world , if the Lords spirit afford them not assistance and strength , immediately they are not able , they are unfit & unable to do that which they are required : and from hence ariseth all the infirmities of Gods people ; and herein you may see there is a corrupt nature in part remaining . There are likwise external objects that would stir up this corrupt nature , temptations from the Devil that would inflame it , when these stir and Gods spirit doth not assist , then are all the Lords people so weak and feeble , that infallibly they sin against him ; and this is the nature of the sins of infirmity , that is the first ; The second thing I would cleer is this . Secondly , What kinds there are of them , ( because that will further acquaint you , for indeed my aim is that all the Saints of God may see the frame of their own spirits ( as it were ) in a Glass , that so afterwards you may learn how needful the Lord Jesus Christ is to us , then the second question is , ) What kinds of infirmities are the people of God subject to ? To that I answer , They may all be brought to these two Heads , they are either , First , Such as are not common to all the Saints , No , nor to any of Gods Children except upon special desertion ; or else , Secondly , They are such as all Gods people while they live in this world are dayly compassed about with : For the first of them , I. There are Infirmities ( I say ) which are not common to all Gods people , No , nor to any of them unless when very extraordinarily deserted of God , and they are such as when the Servants of God do seem to pour their hearts out into wicked waies , and commit those sins that are publickly to the dishonor of the Lords Gospel , to the wasting of their own Consciences , to the defiling of their own holy waies , to the scandal of Gods people : as suppose , to live in Adultery , in Uncleanness , in wantonness , Cursing , Swearing , Drunkenness , false dealing and the like ; Now two things I would say about this . 1. That somtimes Gods own Children for a season are left under such a condition ; David you know even when he was the Child of God , took his neighbors Wife into his bosome , and most wickedly plotted to take away her Husbands life , and did take it away ; Peter Cursed , and Banned , and Swore and counterfeited himsel● to be a prophane person , that he might not be thought to be a follower of Christ : So that such things & many other instances I might give you , that in the greatest the most flagitious way , wherein a man may seem to be turned from Christ , and betake himself into the Tents of his enemies , to fight against him , as if he would be a Ranter against him , such a thing may befal a Child of God : But then I adde , 2. But this is not the Lot of all , No , nor of any but when extraordinarily deserted , and that is cleer by this , because throughout all the tennor of the Gospel it is sufficiently declared , that these are not the spots of Gods Children , these are not the waies of the Saints , these are the waies in which whosoever walks cannot be saved , and therefore what their condition is I shal tel you by and by , ( God willing ) when I come to cleer it : But that is one sort , that it is possible the corruption may be so strong , the assistance of Gods spirit so wholly withdrawn , and the temptation so mighty , as that a Child of God for want of strength may fall into the foulest mire and filth in the world ; That is one sort . II. There are other sorts of Infirmities , which all the Saints are compassed about with every day that they live , and it is rare that any of them spend a day either without al of them or some of those infirmities , and if you wil know what they are , I answer , There are three kinds of them , and I think all the infirmities of the Saints wil fal under one of them , and I purposely open them that you might have a Glass to see your faces in . 1. Some and very many of the infirmities of the Saints of God , they are meerly the infirmities of their understandings , that is , sins of ignorance , that they do the things that are contray to God , contrary to his will , but do not know Gods mind about them , and from this sort no man upon earth is free ; Who knows the errors of his life ? and I think verily under this head fals those sins of the Patriarchs , of the holiest men that walked with God , whose hearts were perfect with God , they had their many Wives , they had their Concubins too , not knowing that this was against the Institution of God. And so likwise in the sin of omission , as you shal see there was from Joshuah's time to Nehemiah's time , one of the great solemn Feasts , that is , the Feast of Tabernacles was never kept , according to Gods institution for a thousand years together , that they were by Gods institution to keep it not in their own houses , but to go to live in Booths in the Fields for that time , & it is said expresly from Joshua to Nehemiah that that Feast had never been so kept , that either they had forgotten it or the generations were unacquainted : But now when Gods people do any of them in their speeches or actions , do the things that are indeed contrary to Gods wil , but especially not knowing it to be so , and yet their hearts prepared , that if the Lord would but discover his mind to them , they would follow him in all things , and yet this is one sort that all Gods people are liable to in the world : But I tel you ( by the way ) that were but this one thing understood , it would go a great way to make the Servants of God less harsh than they are one to another : The Lord give them so much light to own it , he sees such a thing as cleer as the Sun to be the institution of God , or the mind of God , or the way of God , in this or that Duty , of the first or second Table , and then because he sees it , he is ready to condemn all the world as rebelling against God , for not being of his practice , because the Lord ( it may be ) lets not them see it : But that is one sort , sins in the understanding when Gods wil is not known . 2. Another sort of these infirmities when the thing is known , it is known that such a thing is contrary to God and I ought not to do it , but yet by a sudden hurry of temptation , when the violence of temptation surpriseth the Soul , many times before ever it can recollect it self , it is carried down with the temptation even against a cleer light , yea , carried against it , as if a Cock-boat should be carried down a strong stream , & they have not so much time to cal themselves to an account , to think whether these things become them or no ; And thus it was with Aaron that Saint of the Lord , he could not but know that to make a Calf , it was destructive to the Covenant of Grace that God had made with them , it was a kind of implicite renouncing of God , but a sudden temptation came , all the people came saying , make us a resemblance of God , Moses is gone , we wil have it , he was surprised before ever he could recollect himself . And so Moses that holy meek man , when a sudden temptation came , that the madness of the people had vexed him , that he could not recollect himself , he speaks so unadvisedly with his lips to Gods dishonor , and this no man is free from , but some in one part , some in one kind and some in another , all Gods people before they are aware are many times carried away and surprised before they can recollect themselves to know what their duty is ; But yet there is a third sort , and that seems to go deeper , and that is , 3. When they do not only know it to be a sin , but deliberatly commit it , I mean , that the heart is tempted to such a thing , saith the soul it is abominable , it is against God , I will not do it , but betakes it self to prayer , prayes the Lord to assist and strengthen him , the temptation comes again and gathers upon him , that though he do resist it yet he hath not strength enough to overcome it , & the ground of it was , because the holy Spirit who is a free agent , communicates so much strength to him as to stir up his graces , and to draw them out into the Field in Gods Cause , and to oppose the Enemy , and gives him some strength to resist it , but not strength enough to overcome it , but leaves him unfit and without sufficient strength against that temptation ; and of this I think the Apostle Paul mainly means in all his discourse in Rom. 7. where in the Person of a Regenerate man he saith , The thing I would not do , I do , and when I would do good , Evil overcomes me , I would not do the Evil , yet it is too strong for me , & then complains , Wretched man that I am , I am even sold under it : Now ( I think ) under one of these three fal al the common infirmities of all that love Jesus Christ in sincerity , they are either meer Ignorances that they know not Gods mind , or they are else sudden surprises , hurried away before they can cal their hearts and graces to act , and have strength to assist them , or else the Lord lets out a greater measure of the power of the Enemy to assault than he is pleased to communicate to the soul to resist ; and under one of these ( I say ) do all the infirmities of Gods people fal in their ordinary course : Now the third thing ( which when I have briefly dispatched then I wil go to the next , which is the great question , ) is , Thirdly , How this may be known ; and I wil speak to it the rather because I find there is no man in the world that lives , ( within the compasse of the Church I mean ; ) but is wonderous desirous to have all his lusts and corruptions to be adopted into the name of an infirmity , and when they have brought them under that Burrow , then they are wonderful safe in their own eyes ; the man that Keeps a harlot , and nourisheth his wanton vain glory , or whatsoever it be , convince him of it , I ( saith he ) God helpe me it is my infirmity no man lives without his infirmities , and when they have once got them under that name of an infirmity then all that you say concerning Jesus Christ's relief against their daily sins , it is all their own , though God knows they are as far from it , as the East is from the West : And on the other side , I find many a real Servant of God , that if their corruption have any thing in it that carries horridness to the Conscience , any strange distemper that is more than ordinary , and assaults them , and buffets them , and treads them under foot , Then they are ready to think that all the world cannot satisfie them that these are but infirmities , these cannot be the spots of Gods people : And so that neither the Lords own Servants may be discouraged , nor wicked men get a Cloak , I would a little discover how you may cleerly know , what are the infirmities of the Saints , and wherein they differ from the rebellions of those that are the Lords Enemies , and for that I wil give you 1. One Rule that is Negative , and , 2. Another that is Positive . 1. Negative : You must take this , That an infirmity must not be judged of by the matter of the sin , not one whit judged of by the matter , but only from the disposition and qualification of the Person that commits it ; my meaning plainly is this , We are ready to think that those sins that are but petty and trivial , they must all have the names of infirmities , and those sins the matter whereof are odious , those must not go for infirmities : Now this is a most false Rule , for a sin that is a very trifle , if it be but an idle word , vain thought , petty oath , any such thing , as it may be committed , may be a reigning sin , and a path of the way that leads to eternal damnation , according as the Person is that commits it , and on the other side even a great sin for the matter of it , should it be Murder and Adultery , ( I instance in them because they both met in David ) possible it is that the things may so fal out that these may be but infirmities , therefore remember that is a corrupt Rule , and all you that please your selves with this , that God keeps you from the great abhominations , you are no Whoremasters , you keep not a Harlot , and you are no Cozeners nor Cheaters in your Trade , though it may be your Oaths are Faith and Troth , and prittle prattle , and slighting of holy Duties , you wil have these things pass for infirmities , No , you wil see this is no Rule . That is one , remember you must not judge of infirmities from the matter but only from another Rule which I wil give you , and that is this , 2. Whosoever can but rightly judge of an infirmity of the body , hath a cleer Rule to direct him to an infirmity of the Soul : Now all infirmities of the body they have all of them these three things constantly go with them . The first is , 1. They never are our choyce , That that is our infirmity never is our Choyce , that I think I shal not need much to discourse of , I have such an infirmity , I want strength in me , I , strength in my Limbs , in so much as if any body say , Come pra'y , will you walk , If I walk I must halt every step I go , But would you have it so ? Do you make choyce of it to be so ? Now there is a mans infirmity , he never makes any choyce of it ; Though it is possible in spiritual things there may be something of the wil in temptations , yet no man ever saith , Lord , give me leave to be a Deceiver , or a proud man and the like , No , if it be an infirmity we never make choyce of it . Secondly , 2. If it be an Infirmity , it is perpetually a burden , and according to the nature of it , so the burden is greater or lesser ; And so a man that hath an infirmity in his body , if it be in a noble part his Eye , Oh! it is a great burden to him , if his infirmity be in a very useful part , in his Foot , every step he takes goes to the heart of him , if it be an infirmity in his breast where the Lungs lie , Oh! that is a wonderful burden ; According as the part or faculty is useful , so a weakness there is accordingly a proportionable burden : So now wheresoever any Child of God hath any passions , any corruptions stirring in him to hinder him in his enjoyment of God , or walking with him , they are his greatest burdens in the world , no affliction goes so neer to a man that hath given up himself to walk in the way to Heaven , as that that keeps him from walking in the way to Heaven , that interrupts his peace , and disturbs him in that way : So if it be thy infirmity the Soul chuseth it not ; Secondly , It is a burden unto it . And then the third is , 3. That in an infirmity alwaies there is a desire of curing it , that though beforehand I may know I can never cure it totally , yet if I can but cure it so as to be less burdensome ; if I could cure it wholly whatsoever it cost I would , yet , if not cure it wholly yet to keep it under : So here every Child of God whose end is God , whose way is Gods word , he finds his flesh that that hinders him he cannot walk in it , doth he make nothing of it ? No , it is his dayly practice to crucifie it , to put off the Old man with all the lusts of it ; No Chyrurgion more desirous to mortifie a member that must needs be cut off , than a Saint is to draw out the life blood of every corruption he bears about him : And truly because I see the time hath so prevented me that I shal be hindred I would else have stopped here , and made some Application of this , but I wil only beg of you ( because I am in the next question to open a great deal of comfort to every Child of God I beg of you ) for the Lords sake deceive not your selves about it , think not that all that shal be spoken of Christs being a relief against the corruptions of his people wil reach you , you that sel your selves to unrighteousness , you that would not be made clean , and have no mind that the Lord should rend your Harlot from you , but your credit and reputation you must have , whether it wil stand with Gods or no : Flatter not your selves to think that the Blood of Christ wil be your Propitiation , and that he appears for you , No , you have nothing to do with him , you choose your waies of sin , and the Text hath told you a little before , That if any man talk of Communion with God and with Christ , and walk in darkness , that man is a Lyar and hath no truth in him : But if any of you your Consciences bear witness to what I have delivered , that your heart is in Gods way , Gods word is your way , your aim is at it every day in every thing , only you are surprised , you want light , and strength , and ability to stand it out when you are put to it , Now for that come we to the second Question , and that is , Secondly , To shew you how the Lord Christs Intercession in Heaven is a sufficient relief to al his Children , against all their corruptions they bear about them : And I know ( before I enter about it ) I may say in so great an Assembly , all those that are the Lords they wil much more desire to have a relief about their corruptions , than about the greatest afflictions that betide them in all the world . For I know no such evil that the people of God lie under as their sins in their own apprehensions . Now then the Question is . How doth the Lord Jesus Christ's being in Heaven serve as a relief to Gods people under their many infirmities ? And to that I shal bring my Answer to two Heads , according as I laid down two sorts of infirmities , I told you there is one sort of infirmities that is not common to all , nor to any of Gods people unless when wofully deserted . Now the Question to that is , Quest. 1. What is the Intercession of Jesus Christ unto the Saints under such abhominable fals ? What Relief is the Intercession of Christ to David when he lies in Adultery ? To Peter when he denies his Master ? and to others when they fal into the like sins , What is the interecession of Christ to them ? Answ. That I shal dispatch very briefly , and I will lay you down what I have found to be the Lords mind in these two Conclusions . First , 1. That during the time that any of the Lords people do rant , after that maner against him , fal in that way against him , the intercession of Christ is so far from affording comfort to them , that it is the greatest aggravation of their sins , and Christs being related to them and so their being related to him , doth make their sin beyond al measure sinful ▪ that is the first . Now , a child of God turning rebell against his Father while he lies under this rebellion , ( the intercession of Jesus Christ indeed our selves know upholds him and grace wil bring him home as I shal speak by and by but during that time ) he is interdicted al communion with God through Jesus Christ. Many are the evidences I could give you of it in the Scripture , what was Ephraim ? God saith he is his dear Child , but if he joyn himself to Idols , let him alone ( saith he ) let him alone , he is joyned to Idols let him alone , I wil meet him as a Bear robbed of her whelps , I will meet him as a Lion or as a Leopard , I wil tear the very Caul of his heart . And the Prodigal all the while he had run away from his Father , and wasted his goods amongst his harlots , his Father lets him alone , let him starue and giue up the Ghost , he never inquires at al after him ; and had I time I could shew you abundance of particulars to make this good , that the Lords People when they fal into flagitious scandalous waies , they make them so abominable , that in regard of Gods glory & the good of the Church , it had bin better they had never bin born then commit them , they do so harden the wicked , so dishonor God , so deeply defile their own Consciences , that here is nothing can be said for any men that they have any part in Christ , while they are given up to such waies ; No , ( saith God ) Know you not that no Whoremonger , nor Adulterer shall come into the Kingdom of Heaven ? they are as it were interdicted from all right of entring into Heaven , while they are in that condition , That is the first : But then Secondly , 2. When the Spirit of God awakens them to repentance , that they grow sensible of their unworthy and unchild-like walking ; then the intercession of Christ so far is for them , that there is a free access to come to the Lord , to be in his Book , and to enjoy Peace with him , as if never any such thing had been committed by them at all . Though the sins of Gods people , when they are thus egregious , are beyond al measure sinful , and do exceeding mischief to others , notwithstanding all this if once the soul be but humbled , and that they consider what they have done against God , and how they have provoked him and injured him , Christ in Heaven prevails that there is no bar in the world against their acceptance , but the Lords Arms stand open to receive them as freely , as if the things had never been done by them ; and of this you have a world of Evidences . I wil give you but two instances of it , and one is that of Ephraim , The Lord saith to him he was his dear Child , but all the while he walked after that manner the Lord spit in his face and would not own him , but you shal read of him in Jer. 31.18 . saith the Lord , I saw Ephraim bemoaning himself ; mark there , Ephraim was come home by weeping Cross , What did he do ? ( saith he ) I saw him bemoaning himself : Oh! I have been an untamed Heifer , the Lord hath chastised me and I was chastised , but I was like a Bullock that would not bear the Lords Yoke , Turn thou me , and I shal be turned , for thou art the Lord my God , surely after that I was turned I repented , and after that I was instructed , I smote upon my Thigh , I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth ; When this Spirit had seized upon him , mark what follows , The Lord stands behind the Curtain and hears his Child thus bemoaning , and what saith he ? Ephraim is my dear Child , he is a pleasant Child , for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him stil , therefore my bowels are troubled for him , I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord ; He breaks out , he can bear no longer , when once he had a Christ and Mediator in Heaven , and when once he was but sensible of it , the Lords bowels yerned towards him presently : And that other Instance is the example of the Prodigal in Luke 15. that the Lord intended to be the Pattern of those Children that should run away and be brought home again by Grace , all the while that Wretch ran away and spent his goods , his Father regarded him no more than his elder brother did when he came home , but when the man was broken , I have a Father ( saith he ) And I wil go to my Father and confess I am not worthy to stand before him , and when he came tattered and lousie home , the Text saith his Father ran to meet him , as if he should have said , No more of that ( Son ) come bring him in , kill the fatted Calf , and put a Ring upon his Finger ; and quiets his Elder Brother , and it is fit it should be so , thy brother is come home again ; I speak this the rather because if there should be any one here to hear me this day that hath run away from God , and the Lord hath touched thy heart and thou beginnest to think how thou hast wronged him , the Lord Jesus Christ hath made thy peace , the door is open that thou maiest come freely to him , as if there had never any such thing been . As in Hosea 14. the latter end , When Ephraim shal say , Come take words and say , Father receive us gratiously : I wil heal him freely ( saith he : ) There is the first Question answered . I was the shorter in this because I would gladly hope there are none such here so wofully deserted of God , as when they have received a new life that they should give up themselves desperately to walk in waies contrary to him . Quest. 2. But now for the other question which is the lot of al the Saints of God , I know there is no man heares me this day that hath any thing of the life of Christ in him , but he carries a body of death about him , whereby he is surprised one way or other ; or for want of sufficient strength he is overcome , now such an one must know that when it is thus with him he hath a great reliefe by Christ Jesus his appearing at the right hand of God for him ; wherein lies that , I wil open in four or five particulars with a very short application added . Four conclusions I would set you downe about Christs being a reliefe to his Children against their daily corruptions their infirmities , The first is . 1. That Jesus Christ doth pitty in heauen , he pities his Children under their sinful infirmities , as much as any Parents pity their Children under their bodily infirmities ; that is the first . That the Lord Christ who is their high Preist , their suretie ? he hath compassion upon them in their infirmities , and pitties them under them , as Parents use to pittie their Children that lie under bodily infirmities ; no body I hope wil mistake me , when I say pity , I mean not such workings of bowels and passions in Heaven , which we poor men are subject to upon earth , but somewhat that is like to it , somewhat that carries the thing in it and that you wil find cleerly in Scripture , the Psalmist saith , in Psalm . 103. when he cals up himselfe to blesse the Lord there for al his goodnesse , and tells us the Lord heals his infirmities , surely he means his spiritual infirmities , and there he blesseth God that pities them even as a Father pities his own Children . And we have an high Priest ( saith the Apostle ) that cannot but compassionate our infirmities , though he was without sin himselfe , yet he hath a compassionate heart And there is one passage which if you will but read when you come at home , it would give you abundance of satisfaction , it is in Ezekiel 34. in the midst of the Chapter , the Lord there quarrels with the wretched Shepeard that goared some of his Sheep , and trod others under foot , and killed some , and fleeced some , and when he comes to reckon with him , he tels him that he would send the Lord Jesus , and that he was the good Shepeard , and what he would do , and there he sets down all the infirmities that Sheep are subject to , I seek them that are lost , some of them wander , I seek them that are lost , others of them are driven away , by a violent temptation , I wil fetch back that which is driven away ( saith the Lord , ) then others of the Lords Sheep are wounded , I will heal that that is wounded , wounded in their Consciences with guilt , the Lord wil heal them , others of them their very Limbs are broken , I wil bind up that that is broken ; and compare that with another place where some of them are unable to stir , I wil lay them upon mine own Shoulders and bring them home ; Mark , If they wander , be driven away , wounded , broken , lamed and spoiled , he hath a heart sutably compassionate to them all ; that is One , Jesus Christ compassionates us under our sinful infirmities , as we Parents do our Children under their bodily infirmities , we are far from loving them the less for them : But if any one ( by the way ) should ask , If he do so , Why doth he not heal them ? Stay but while I come to the last Conclusion and that wil satisfie you ; that is the first . Secondly , 2. Jesus Christ at his Fathers right hand prevails that the sinful infirmities of his People , make no breach in the league of love that is betwixt God and them ; mark what I say , his Intercession prevails for them , he bearing their names , and pleading their cause , prevails that there is no breach made in Gods good will towards them : But even as it is with us that have a poor Child that goes about to do our work , and oftentimes spoils it when he would fain do it , and somtimes forgets to do it when yet he had a mind to do it , we knowing the frame of the Child , we kiss it notwithstanding ; So God is such a gracious Father through Jesus Christ to his people , that notwithstanding al our infirmities the Lord never breaks his league of love , but we may go to him and pray to him , and call him Father , leave our supplications with him , and make that use of him as the Covenant of Grace holds him out to all his people , as freely in the midst of all our infirmities , as if we were quite delivered from them : Now this the Scripture is wonderful plain in , I could turn you to a great many , That Speech of Micah is admirable , Who hath such a God as we have ? Why , what is our God ? He passeth by the transgressions of the remnant of his Inheritance , he never looks after them , or if any one shew him them , he casts them behind his back , drowns them in the depth of the Sea , never laies them to the charge of them that fear him : Thou art a dead hearted Creature and canst not pray without wandring , and do nothing as becomes thee , but thy own flesh rangles with it , that al is an abhomination in thy own eyes that thou doest , thou hast a friend in Heaven that presents all to God as if there were no blemish in them : Thou art all fair , my Dove there is no spot in thee . Is not this good news to all those that endeavor to walk with Christ in sincerity ? The first is , He pities them under them ; The second is , He prevails that there is no breach made betwixt God and the Soul because of them ; Thirdly , Another which is a very great one , and that is . 3. Jesus Christ gives his Spirit unto his People to relieve their infirmities ; The Spirit it self helpeth our infirmities , you have that expression in Rom. 8. That the Lord Christ our Mediator doth give his holy Spirit to help us against our infirmities , What is that ? I humbly conceive that Christ helping his Saints against their infirmities signifies these three things , possibly it may signifie more , but these three ( me thinks ) are very cleer , The one is , 1. The Lords Spirit helps the Lords People so about their infirmities , that they shal not be quite overrun with them ; I , he doth as he said to the Sea , the proud waves of it when they come roaring , hitherto you shal go ; there you shal stop ; So the Spirit of God keeps our corruptions in bounds , otherwise he whose corruption is gotten loose and taints his understanding with a speculation , that would carry him on to action , and so to an habitualness ; No , ( saith the spirit of God ) here I wil stop you , you shal go no further ; that is one . It is through the help of Gods Spirit only , that the strength of every corruption that assaults us , makes us not act it to the very height of it ; As when I walk with a man that hath overthrown me , then I am in his power , he may cut my Throat if I had not some friends to succor me ; Gods Spirit succors us that Satan and our corruptions should not totally subdue us . Secondly , 2. He raiseth us up again when corruption hath brought us down ; for you must know ( Brethren ) and that you wil easily understand , that the nature of sin is such that when a man is committing it , that he would rol down to the bottom of the Hil , and when he is there the waight would lie upon him that he should never rise again : Now the Spirit of God doth like the friend of a Wrastler by him when he hath thrown a man down , he plucks him up again and sets him upon his feet again : So when any thing hath overpoured the Soul , it would never rise again were it not for the Spirit of Christ , but Christs Spirit that is sent to relieve us , sets us again upon our feet ; Yea , Thirdly ( which is more ) 3. The Spirit of Christ so assisteth all his people , that notwithstanding their corruptions be too strong for them , they shal again oppose it , yea , and by degrees get strength against it , Crucifie it , and Mortifie it all . As the Apostle expresseth it in Rom. 8. that when our corruptions are most potent , by the help of the Spirit you shal mortifie and crucifie the deeds of the Body ; thus doth Christ for all his people , he doth not only compassionate , and keeps peace with God for them , but keeps their corruptions in some bounds that they do not quite over run them , or when they have prevailed in part ; sets them up again , yea , and gives them strength to get up again : And then Fourthly and Lastly , ( and then I draw to a Conclusion , ) which is the Mystery of all the rest , and that is this , 4. The Lord Jesus appearing in Heaven for his People doth not only thus succor them , but like a Heavenly Physitian maketh Treacle of these Bites , he doth his Children Good by their Corruptions , and helps them more on in their way to Heaven , even by the opposition of their corrupt natures . This I acknowledg to flesh and blood is a mystery not to be opened , but you will see it cleerly to be so , only understand me thus , When ( I say ) the Lord wil do his people good by their sinful infirmities , I mean not that there is any thing in the nature of a corruption that can contribute to it , No , all that is in a corruption is deadly and poysonful , and dishonorable to God ; but as one of the Fathers said of Adams fall , Oh! happy fall that did obtain such a Redeemer ! So ( you will say ) happy are the People of God in the midst of their corruptions , when the Lord Jesus doth them so much good by them : Now if you will know what is the good he doth to them , I acknowledg I want strength and time , and you would want Patience if I should discourse of them at large , I wil name but four Particulars and the naming of them wil confirm you in the truth of them , if you compare them with the experiences of all Gods people . The first is this , 1. By the Corruptions that the Saints of God carry about them , the Lord keeps them in a continual self-abhorrency , which is the most excellent frame on this side Heaven . I know what I speak , that there is no frame of Spirit in this world so excellent as a self-abhorring Spirit , taken but with the next branch that you shall hear of presently , now nothing laies all Gods people so low as their corruptions ; I tell you if the Saints of God had all the afflictions in the world lay upon them , were it not for their own corruptions they would rather be proud of their afflictions , they are ready oft-times to murmur against God , as David and Job were tempted to it , I have walked with God in my integrity and simplicity , and yet I must thus be made worse than others ; Oh! that would be grievous ; but now when the Soul is sensible of its own corruption , dead heart , unprofitable Spirit , and the like , then wretched man that I am who shal deliver me from it ? I say again , nothing in the world keeps Gods people so low as their corruptions , and that is a great gain ; Augustin had a Speech That God would rather allow Lust to keep his Grace humble , than Grace to make his heart proud ; Oh! nothing so abasing as the relicks of corruption , which exceedingly advantages Gods Children ; The Second Advantage is , That as it makes us very low in our own eyes , so , 2· It wonderfully magnifies Christ , Oh! it maketh Jesus Christ most precious nothing makes Christ so precious to the Saints of God , as the Corruptions that they bear about them : Nay , I will add more , that had Jesus Christ forty years ago done the work , satisfied for sin , and made me stand in Gods favor , and now I had no more need of him , I should quickly forget him ; As suppose a man had forfeited his estate , and his Life forty years ago , and some dear friend buys all , and gives him all , and sets him up again , now forty years after he hath traded and grown Rich by his own Wit and strength , surely he cannot but remember how he was beholding to that friend , forty years ago ; I , but he would never remember him so well , as he would that friend that should do that every day for him , I live upon his Table and Almes every day , and yet he Loves me never a whit the less : So when a Soul remembers I was a dead Man , an enemy , and Christ brought me , and not only so but every day I forfeit all , and grieve God , and shall bring ruine upon my self , mark how Paul concludes it in Rom. 7. when he said , Oh wretched man ! Who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death ? I thank God through Jesus Christ ; Oh! Christ Jesus his appearing it was dear to Paul. Now here is a wonderful gain beyond all the Righteousness of this world , if the Saints of God had in their course as much Righteousness as the glorified Saints in Heaven , and the Angels in Heaven have , it were not so glorious to God in this administration , as a spirit that magnifies Christ and abaseth it self , and this is wonderfully advanced by the reliques of corruption that we bear about us ; Thirdly , Another great benefit is , 3. Hereby doth the Lord temper his People , to make them submit quietly , to every bitter Cup the Lord gives them to drink ; Nothing makes the Soul so Patient under affliction , so quiet in the loss of all other things , nothing doth it like to this , Oh! had I my deserts , should the Lord mark mine iniquities , it would not be the loss of a Child would serve my turn , it would not be the clipping off of a piece of my estate , it is mercy I am not destroyed , nothing makes the Soul lay its hand quietly upon its mouth , and quietly submit to every dispensation of God though never so bitter , as the sence of corruption we daily bear about us ; And in the last place . 4. Hereby doth the Lord , wonderfully make his People long to be dissolved and get to Heaven , where they may leave sinning against him ; for whatsoever carnal People may think , there is nothing so grievous to the people of God as sinning against him , and when they shal come to die , when they shall put off mortality and leave off dishonoring his name it is more welcome to them then to be rid of afflictions , and that made Paul long to be in Heaven , because I know while I am in this Body I shal never be with the Lord as I should be , but I long til that day shal come ; Now here is gain , when that corruption , those reliques of it abase thee , and magnifie Christ , and fit thee for every dispensation , and make thee long to be at home with the Lord , and ( I might add ) in the mean time make thee attend conscionably upon all the means that may bring thee to him , and is not here wonderful gain ? So that you may see of what use the intercession of Christ is to al the Saints in the middest of all their sinful infirmities that they bear about them ; I will now dismiss you presently with two short Uses of it . First , USE , 1. This Lesson if truly understood ( for I know it wil be a hard thing to keep wicked men from laying hands upon it : but I think Gods mind is , that his own Servants should have their portion whosoever abuse it , but ) here they may have a constant relief against that which is their greatest burden , I am sure of it , if thou beest the Lords , no burden like thy corruptions , and thy other afflictions would be easily born by thee if so be corruptions did not aggravate them in thy own apprehensions ; Now if the world were given thee , it would not be such a succor as this to thee , when thou canst say in all thy wandrings , Oh! I have talked with many a Soul , Oh! never such an unprofitable wretch as I ( saith one , ) I think no one hath such a forgetful head as I ( saith another , ) and none have such impetuous affections as I ( saith another , ) Oh! but doest thou remember that he is at Gods right hand that gave himself for thee , and in an acceptable day carries thee home , and carries thee stil in his bosom , how he appears for thee every day in the midst of all thy corruptions , if thou didst know it , it would engage thee to joy , and to every thing that is Holy and Good , the Lord set it home to the hearts of his people , and teach them to apply it to their own Souls in secret . And then Secondly , USE 2. 2. I say to you all from hence : All of you learn what need there is of getting an interest in Jesus Christ , for that is the end of my Sermon , To perswade you to see the need that you have of getting an interest in Jesus Christ. Would you know why ? I wil tel you , Al the sins that you commit ( as you wil commit sins every day you live , but all the sins that you commit ) are all writ down in Gods Book , he numbers your steps though you number them not your selves , he hath your iniquities in a Bag , and the day is coming when he wil cal every one of you to an account , and now ( Friends ) what if you have not a Daies-man or a Mediator to appear for you ? I remember Ely said , Oh my Sons ! if men sin against men , men shal speak for them , but who shall speak betwixt the Soul and God ? So you have committed innumerable sins , and your own hearts and Consciences tel you more than any man can charge you with , How wil you do to appear before God ? What if you have not a Mediator , the Lord Jesus that is a Propitiation for our sins ? What a woful case are you in ? Take heed you do not imbrace a Cloud , but study Christ and get found Faith in him , and if Christ be yours , you are secure : but look to it or your case is dangerous , I dare not stay you any longer : The Lord give us understanding in all things . FINIS THE HIGH PRIVILEDG Of all True BELIEVERS To be the SONS of GOD. Opened in a Sermon at Suttons Hospital , Novemb. 12. 1654. John , 1.12 , 13. But as many as received Him , to them gave he power to become the Sons of God , even to them that beleeve in his Name , Which were Born not of Blood , Nor of the will of the Flesh , Nor of the will of Man , But of God. THe dependance of the Words stands thus . First , You have in the beginning of the Chapter a most glorious Description of Jesus Christ , both of his person , and of his Natures , and of his Office , under the Name of the Light that inlighteneth every one that cometh into the World. Then , Secondly , You have a description of his Entertainment in the World , when this great Lord submitted to this work , and manifested himself : What was his entertainment ? First , He came into the world , and though the world were made by him , Yet the world would not know him , he came amongst his own , that is , his own nation and kinred , who had been instructed about a Messiah that was to come , and had long prayed for him , Oh! that he would bow the Heavens and come down amongst us ; he came amongst them , and they would none of him , they would not receive him . Truly , this is the ordinary lot of Jesus Christ wheresoever he cometh , but yet there were a remnant that did receive him and shal receive him , even those that belong to the Covenant of Grace . And what get they by it ? That Remnant , that handful that do receive Christ , make the best bargain that ever was made in the world : As many as did receive him , to them he gave this priviledg , that they should become the Sons of God ; and so here you have the comprehension of all the happiness that Beleevers do receive by Jesus Christ , they are made the Sons of God ; so that the Text hath two things in it . First , 1. Here is the Means whereby Souls are made partakers of Christ ; that is , upon receiving of him , that is the means and condition or instrument . All that receive him , which is interpreted in the next words , even they who believed in him , Believing in Christ , and Receiving Christ is al one ; This though it be a Doctrine of wonderfull comfort I shall speak nothing of it , but of the second ; That is , 2. The benefit that they all receive who do partake of Christ , what they get by him : They all of them have this priviledg or Prerogative , That they are made the Sons of God ; and so without any more preparation to the Text , or explication ( for the Doctrine I will explain in the handling of it , I say , ) without any more preface I lay you down this Doctrine , Doct. That al who believe in Jesus Christ are made the Sons of God , the Children of God. And that you may receive this with better attention , I will ( to make you the better understand the Lord's scope ) answer a Question , that is this . Quest. You say it is very cleer in the Scriptures that al Beleevers are made the Children of God , that is one of their Priviledges , but what is the reason that no more is named but that one ? They are Justified , they are Sanctified , they have the Promises , they are Reconciled , they have a thousand excellencies in this world , yet here is none named but only this , they are made Sons , Why is no other named but this ? Answ. I Answer plainly , and it will be of great use to understand it , namely , that though somtimes in the holy Scriptures our Sonship is but one of our Priviledges , yet very frequently in the Scripture all that Beleevers do obtain from Christ in this world and the world to come , here and to eternity , all is comprehended in this one , That they are made the Children of God. Really you wil see it as cleer as the Sun presently , that God comprehends all other priviledges in this one ; that he that hath this one , he that is made the Son of God , he hath all other that can be imagined , or that you can find any Speech of , in al the Book of God , so great is this . And I wil give you a little light about it , and then you wil receive the Doctrine ( I hope ) with the more attention , and with the more desire to see your own Interest in it ; You shal see ( and observe it as a general ) that very frequently , when the Lord describeth the Covenant of Grace , the new Covenant what he wil be to his people in the new Covenant , he is very frequent in the setting down of this , I wil be their Father ( saith he ) and they shall be my Sons and Daughters ; I know not how often the whol Covenant of Grace is expressed in that word , I wil be their Father , they shal be my Children : but very cleerly you shal see it , if you turn to Ephes. 1.5 . where the Apostle doth bless the Lord for all the abundant Grace that is manifested to us in Christ , there he sets it down in this one expression , having predestinated us to the adoption of Children : What is al that ? Al the Graces & al the Good that we enjoy from Christ , you have it in this one Sentence , God predestinated us to the adoption of Children ; he hath done all when he hath done that . And therefore upon that very account it is that you shall see in Rom. 8.23 . where the Apostle speaks there of the Groaning of the Saints , the rest of the Creatures groan , & al the Saints groan for the glorious coming of Jesus Christ , To what end ? ( saith he ) That we might receive the Adoption ; that is , the perfecting of our Sonship . Now we have Heaven it self when we have but our Sonship made , that is plain ; and you wil see it still plainer in the Epistle to the Galatians , Chap. 4 and the beginning , the Apostle there speaking of Christs coming as our Surety , When the fulness of time was come the Lord sent his Son Jesus Christ , made of a Woman , under the Law , and made him a Curse , To what end ? that we might receive the adoption of Children ; there is all . But that the time would prevent me having many things to deliver , I might go on to shew you more Scriptures that fully prove this truth , That to be made a Son of God is to have the comprehension of all that is obtained by Jesus Christ ; so that this is no smal Theam that I am entred upon , and I hope if the Lord help me but to make it out to you in this hours discourse , you will before you part , conclude they are happy men that have gotten an interest in Christ by Faith. This premised now I come to the demonstration of the Doctrine , That all who have really accepted of Christ for their Savior , they are all of them made the Sons of God ; that is the Doctrine . Now to explain it , You must know that God is said to have Sons , or to be a Father in the Scripture in many senses ; I may bring them all to these two heads for my purpose . 1. Sometimes the Lord is said in a Metaphorical sense to be a Father in divers cases , and yet he is not properly a Father , he neither hath the bowels of a Father , to those whom he cals Sons in that sense , nor have they the bowels of Children , who cal him Father in that sense , for all the whol Creation he is the Father of them all in that respect , That their being is from him and their dependance upon him and the like : But then Secondly , 2. God is said to have Sons properly , and I explain when I say properly , I mean Sons so that really he is a Father to them , hath the heart of a Father , the bowels of a Father , whatsoever is desirable in a Father ; and they on the other side properly are his Children , in being unto him what Children are unto a Father : Now in this sense God is said in the Scripture to have Sons two waies , two sorts of Sons . The one is , 1. Natural , Begotten by him , in which begetting or generation his own essence is communicated , that as we beget a man , so in that begetting God may be said to beget a God , or a Person that hath the essence of God ; this is one sense , and in this sense he hath no Son but our Lord Jesus Christ , who was eternally begotten by him , and is God over all , blessed forever ; and it is blasphemy for any but Christ Jesus to challenge to be the Son of God in that sense ; and therefore the Scribes and Pharisees were right when they told Christ , he did blaspheme because he called himself the Son of God they were right ( I say ) thus far , that had not Christ been the begotten Son of his Father , and so had the same nature , he had blasphemed in calling himself Gods Son in that sense . But then Secondly , 2. But God hath other Sons to whom he is properly a Father , and those are by Adoption , which you frequently read of in the Scriptures , especially of the new Testament , where all Saints and Beleevers have the Adoption , are the adopted Sons and Daughters of God ; Thus I have brought you to it , that Beleevers are the adopted Sons and Daughters of God concerning which I shal ( the Lord assisting me ) in the Doctrinal part open these three things to you , and the other shall be the Application so far as the Lord shall help me in the compass of the time ; Three things in the Doctrinal part : The first is , 1. What this means , what it is to be an adopted Son of God. Secondly , 2. How this priviledg of being made the Son of God by Adoption is wrought , that you may see it is not a Fancy , I wil shew you how it is wrought and brought about , and by it those that will be willing and Faithfull may be able to judg of their own condition , whether they are the adopted Children of God or not . And then Thirdly , 3. I wil shew you , in somwhat a more general way , What this adoption , or being made an adopted Child of God , what infinite priviledges it doth comprehend in it . For the first , 1. What it is to be adopted , What is Adoption ? I Answer , Indeed the word was never used in the old Testament , and the reason is because that adoption it was not then known , though there was somthing like it , but in the Roman Empire which was at the height when Christ and his Apostles lived , there the thing that we cal Adoption was as wel known , as almost any thing that belonged to the government of the Empire , the Nature , the Laws of it , the Duties of it too , they were all stated , that our Lawyers have not more cleer Evidences how to set out things that belong to our Law now , than in the Empire of Rome they were acquainted with the whole Laws and Manner and way of adoption , and so because it is of so exceeding great use to shadow out the unexpressable benefits that we have by Christ , the Lord was pleased ( if I may so say ) to adopt into the Covenant of Grace ; And amongst the Romans Adoption it was after this manner , It was the taking of a Person or Persons , who had no natural right to any inheritance , a taking them into a Lawful right , there are various descriptions of it amongst the Romans , but the best of them is this , A lawful act imitating nature , whereby a Person or Persons who have no natural right to an inheritance , are taken in , into a lawful right , and it was done after this manner in a few words , for commonly none but Princes , or Senators , or great Persons did ever adopt any , but this was the way , When there was an agreement made betwixt the Persons that did adopt and the Person to be adopted ( for they never adopted those that were unwilling to it , but when there was an agreement it should be so ) the adopter did carry the Person before the Judges , or into some publick and Lawful Assembly , and there before them al called the Party Son , This is my Son , and from that day forward he was his Son to all rights and purposes in the Roman Laws , as much as if he had begotten him ; ( as you will hear more before I have done my discourse , ) thus it was amongst them . Now accordingly if you wil know in the Gospel Sense , what is Adoption , I describe it thus , It is a gracious Sentence of God the Father , who cals sinners ( if Beleevers ) his Sons for Christ's sake ; I give you this short description : That it is a gracious Sentence of God the Father , whereby he doth call Beleevers though sinners , yet he cals them his Sons for Christs sake ; the very Scripture language , We are called Sons : but yet I think a little plainer take this : It is a gracious work of God , whereby he doth take poor sinners who beleeve in Christ , into that Glorious Condition of being his own Children : All this will by and by be more plain , when I come to shew you what it comprehends in it , but the Lord of his free Grace when he hath brought home a Soul , to make it accept of Christ to be its Savior , then doth he , how unworthy soever that Wretch be , he takes him into the condition of his own Children : That is the first , and I am the shorter in it because the next wil explain it more , The second Question is this , 2. What is this work of Adopting , or how is it done ? and therein I humbly crave your best attention , because I know to you that are the Lords , I am opening the most glorious Priviledg that Christ Jesus hath bought with his blood for you , and it wil be wel worth your understanding , how we that are Children of Wrath come to be made the Children of God. I Answer you then , First , 1. In general , The Adopting of a Soul to be a Child of God is so high a work , that the whol Trinity , the Father , the Son , the Holy Ghost , every one of the three Persons have their distinct work , in Adopting a poor Sinner to be the Child of God ; nor is any man upon Earth ever made the Child of God , til al those three works of the Trinity have passed upon him , so great a matter is it to be made Gods Child : And this wil I open to you in the second place , 2. What the several works of the blessed Trinity are , in making a poor unworthy sinner to become the Child of God. First , 1. The work of the Father . God the Father what is his work in our Adoption ? It stands in two things , you will find them cleerly if you do but study the Scriptures . The first is , 1. From all Eternity the Lord did choose them to be his Children , that when he did first pitch upon them , ( if I may speak of any thing that is first which is eternal ) but when the Lord pitched upon poor Creatures and chose them to life , he chose them to be his Children ; as you have it in Ephes. 1. verse 5. He hath predestinated us to the Adoption of Children , that although he himself had a naturally and only begotten Son , every way pleasing and delightful to him , yet besides this only begotten Son would he have other Children , who with that Son should enjoy him , and serve him , and under that notion he chose to make them his Children ; Not only so , but , 2. When he gave them to Christ , which was likewise a work from all Eternity , When the Lord gave these to Jesus Christ whom he chose to be Sons , he gave them to him under the notion of Brethren ; These are to be thy Brethren , I give them to thee to compleat the work which I have chosen them to , which is to be my Sons , and therefore it is said in that place of the Hebrews , That because the Children were partakers of Flesh and Blood , that is , those that the Lord had chosen and looked upon as Children , he that was their Surety must partake of Flesh and Blood : So there is the Fathers work , that from all Eternity he taketh a poor Creature , and saith , This shal be my Son , and he gives him to his Son Christ , These I give as thy Brethren to thee , to bring them to the enjoyment of me ; There is the work of the Father , this I hope is plain . Then Secondly , 2. There is a work of Jesus Christ , What is that ? The work and Office of Jesus Christ in the point of Adoption , that likewise stands in two things . The First is , 1. He was to purchase their Sonship for them ; for though the Father would give it them freely , it should cost them nothing , yet Christ being made their Surety he must purchase it for them , so that the Lord although he was the Heir of all things , yet he condescends by his own Blood , by his own Sufferings , by himself being made a Curse , He condescends to purchase adoption for those that were given him to bring to life . This is plain in Gal. 4. where i● is said , When the fulness of time was come , God sent his own Son born of a Woman , made under the Law , that we might receive the adoption of Sons , that our Adoption as it flows from Christ is the price of his Blood , that is one of the works that Christ doth . The second is this , 2. That when the acceptable hour is come , that the Lord is pleased to bring a Sinner home to Christ , Christ is applied to him as a Brother , that when they are brought to Christ by Faith , Christ cometh to be applied to them as their elder Brother , not only as a Redeemer that hath satisfied God and purchased for them , but when he is made over to them , he is made over to them in his Sonship as wel as in the rest of his works ; so that as our justification ariseth from Christs righteousness being applied to us , so our Sonship arising from Christ as the Son , ( being the only begotten Son of God and our elder Brother ) is applied to us : Yea , I tel you this application of Christ in his Sonship to the Saints is so neer and so close , that although he be the only begotten Son of God , the first born , the Heir of all things , yet by vertue of his application unto Beleevers , they likewise come to be called by God himself his first born : These are high things , but the Scripture is cleer in them , for so you read it in the latter end of Heb. 12.23 . where it is said , that we are come to the new Jerusalem , to an innumerable company of Angels , to the general Assembly , and to the Congregation of the first born whose names are written in Heaven , that all they that are called home to Christ , by reason of their conjunction to their elder Brother , they are the first born of God : and the Lord speaks thus of all his Saints in that place of Exod. in that sense I am speaking , Go ( saith he ) to Pharoah , tel him Israel is my Son : What Son ? My first born , he is my first born because Israel was comprehended in Christ , and Christ looked upon as his Brother , Israel is Gods first born : So here are two of the works of the Trinity in our Adoption , the work of the Father in chusing us to it , and giving us to Jesus Christ as his Brethren , the work of the Son is in purchasing this great priviledg by his Blood , and when the time of Application is come , the making himself over to them in the consideration or notion of an elder Brother , and so they really by their conjunction with him partake of it . There is the second work . 3. There is the work of the Holy Ghost , and til that likewise be past over the Soul , never is any man made the Son of God. The Holy Ghost and his work is so eminent and apparent , that he is called the Spirit of Adoption , that when the Lord gives his Spirit unto his Children , he cals it by the Spirit of Adoption , because it is the great Office of the Spirit to make that great work of Adoption . Quest. Now what is the Holy Spirit 's work about it ? Answ. I Answer , It stands in three things , and you wil see them all cleer in Scripture , ( and I hope I shal have some time for the Application , for I go it over as fast as I can , ) the Holy Ghosts work in making us the Sons of God stands in three things , as it is cleer in the Scripture . The one is , 1. When the acceptable time is come , that the Lord means to make a Soul that is by nature a Child of wrath to become the Child of God , He sends the Spirit of Jesus Christ into that Soul to be a band of union betwixt Christ and that soul , that whereas Christ is to be applied to them as a Brother , and they to be mystically united unto him , the holy Spirit takes this Office upon himself to come and dwel in the heart , as a band of union betwixt Christ and them , that Christ and they should never more be separated , and this work of the pouring out of the Spirit into the Soul , to take possession of him for Christ , and to give the possession of Christ unto him , the Spirit being the band of it , this is the first work of the Spirit as he is the Spirit of Adoption : There is one . The second work of the Spirit is this , 2. That when the holy Spirit comes to make Christ and us one , he as the elder Brother and we as his Brethren inseparably united to him , whereas he findeth us enemies , hateful , hating , that would rather be united to Harlots , to the Creature , to any thing , the Spirit of God works a Child-like heart in them , framing and molding their Spirits , that for the time to come they calling God , Father ( as they have warrant to do ) they likewise shall be made Sons , even in the frame and bent of their spirits , which is very excellently expressed in the very next words to my Text , wherein it is said , He gave them this Prerogative that they should become the Sons of God , which were born ( saith he , mark , ) not of Blood , nor of the wil of the flesh , nor of the will of man , but of God ; Now no longer shal flesh and blood sway them , but being born of God , the Spirit of God gives a new birth and a new life , now they come to have the hearts of Children , that as nature hath planted in the heart of a Child toward the Parent , Honor , and Love , and Reverence , and Obedience , where sin hath not utterly perverted it , this is the natural genius of a Child to his Father . So the Spirit of God molds and frames the Soul , and this the Scripture signifies when it saith , Because you are Sons , God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts , whereby now we can cry Abba Father , now the hearts of them shal stand to God , and be carried to him in Faith and Prayer , as the hearts of Children are naturally carried to their Parents That is the second thing . And then the third and last work of the Spirit ( and so you have all this indeed as plain before you as I can set it out , briefly the Third Work ) is this , 3. This Holy Spirit even as it is the Spirit of Adoption , doth not only unite them to Christ , and frame a sutable disposition in them towards God and Christ , But it abides in them upon all need to witness to their Spirits that this is their condition , to give not only the Seal of it by changing their hearts , but by giving them the comfort of it as they need it in their necessities ; which the Apostle expresseth in those words , it is in Rom. 8. And the same Spirit witnesseth to our spirits that we are Gods Children , it carries our hearts to God , and testifies to the Soul that God is their Father . There is the second . Now I have been larger in that , because in truth the world doth not ponder these things , nay few of Gods own Children do ever consider what a strange work it is , that none but the blessed Trinity can undertake , and each of them have their distant work in it , of bringing a poor Child of Wrath to become the Child of God. That is the second . You hear now what Adoption is , and how it is wrought . Now the third thing in the Doctrinal part ( and then I hasten to the Application , ) is , Wel , What are the benefits of it ? Now what are the benefits of our Adoption ? That when the Lord hath took this strange course , and brought about this strange work , Wherein doth the worth of this Priviledg stand ? I answer , You wil receive a great deal of light of it , at least it wil help you to remember it , and understand it the better , if I do illustrate it , by the practice that was amongst the Romans : So their Adoption and the Roman Adoption had three things in it , it carried three things ( as all learned men that have read their Stories and Laws do know ) The first is , 1. When a man was Adopted into a Family , the Family of a Caesar , or the great men , by his Adoption he was cut off from the Family from which he sprung by his natural birth , cut off from it , not simply , but from whatsoever was base or unworthy in that Family , that if his Father were a Slave , and himself by his birth a Slave , it was hereditary to him , or if any blot or infamy stuck upon his family , whatsoever it was , the Adopting of this Person into another Family , wholly cut him off from al the base ignominious slavish bondage , and dangers which belonged to the Family , from which he sprung by his natural birth ; That was the first . The second was , 2. That by his Adoption he was taken as belonging to the Family into which he was Adopted , as much as if he had been begotten by him , he was to have ( by the Laws of the Empire ) the same respect from his adopted Father , the same provision , the same protection , the same immunities whatsoever , that his own begotten Son might claim by nature from the Roman Laws , the adopted Child was instituted in them all . And Thirdly , 3 By his Adoption he had the same right to the inheritance that the begotten Child had ; if there were no other begotten Children , the whol Inheritance sel to the Adopted Child , if there were another begotten Child though beloved , the Adopted shared with him in it , Look how the inheritance was to go amongst the begotten Children by the Laws of the Empire , so by the same Laws it was to go amongst them that were adopted : Thus it was amongst them , but whether any Lawyers can except against it or no I will not much dispute it , but I shal make it cleer to you , that it is thus absolutely and fully in our adoption ; Absolutely and fully in the adoption of a Child by Faith , all these three things meet . First , 1. We are hereby cut off from the Family from which we sprung by nature , I speak not now of our Civil birth or rights , but of our spiritual standing , which is to be Children of wrath , Children of Belial , Children of old Adam , Children of Sin and Death , we are cut off from that Family , no longer to be reckoned of it , the Bondage , Baseness , Obligations , Curses , whatsoever lay or doth lie upon Adams Family , or upon any that spring from it , assoon as ever the Lord cals him Son through Christ , he is wholly cut off from all , that is plainly thus , ( and because I cannot possibly open these in a short discourse , I wil commend it to your studies ) 1. We are ( for example ) all of us by nature under the Dominion of sin , that is our birthright , sin and the curses of it , we are al under it , assoon as ever the Lord cals a Beleever , Child , that he hath let his adoption pass upon him , the bondage of sin , the curse of sin , the dominion of sin , it is wholly removed from him ; ye 〈◊〉 not under sin , sin cannot have dominion over you ▪ because you are now brought under Grace ; And then likewise , 2. The Law whereby sin is irritated and animated , the Law that in the Rigor of it , and the Curse of it , that lies upon all the Sons of Adam , we are cut off from it assoon as ever we are Gods Children ; and therefore the Apostle expresseth it thus to the Galatians , that he made his Son born under the Law , that he might Redeem us that are under the Law , that we might have the Adoption of Children , I hope no Body will mistake me , for it is most clear in the word , that the Law remains as a rule to Gods Children , and that is their priviledg , but as for the Rigor and curse of it , they are wholly cut off from that when they are made the Sons of God by Adoption ; That is the First , That the Lord calling Sons to Jesus Christ , and owning them as his Children for the sake of Christ , they are delivered from all the Curses and bondage that belongs to Adams Family , and which all the Rest of the world lie under : But then the Second is greater then this . And that is , 2. That by our Adoption we are really ( I speak of Beleevers not nominal Christians , but real Christians , they are all of them ) taken into Gods Family as his Sons and Daughters , that is , he owneth them to be his Children , and hath the Bowels of a Father to them really , that they are now under his care , under his provision , under his Protection , under his indulgence , and whatsoever he hath commanded the most Holy Parents to exercise towards their own Children that fear them , he hath ingaged himself perpetually for ever , to do all these things unto those whom he is pleased to cal his Sons and Daughters by Adoption ; There is nothing so ful , no pearle so ful of excellency , there is nothing so ful of any thing that is good , as this is ful of consolation to the saints of God , that can but understand it , therefore he must needs bear with them , therefore he must needs provide for them , therefore if he correct them it must needs be in Love , with nothing but a Fatherly rod , for we are all taken into his Family , and may go to him as to a Father in all things wherein we have need of a Father ; that is the Second , A great comprehension of Priviledges not to be uttered ; And then the Third branch is as clear . 3. That when God calls us to be his Children , we are thereby made his Heires , we are Heires of God ; indeed in the Civil Law inheritance it is by a succession into the right of the Dead , but now as the Lord is pleased to apply it to his Children , it signifies a certain inheritance , but certainly the inheritance that the Lord of Heaven is to give to any , or that he hath given to his Son Jesus Christ , all his Brethren the Brethren of Christ , and the Sons of God have a share in it ; If you wil have it a little more fully , I will tell you in a few words thus , for you have the proof of it in Rom. 8.16 . That the Spirit witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Children of God , and if Children then Heirs , Heirs of God and Coheirs with Christ : But I mean these two things by it . First , 1. The Heir while he is a Child is Lord of all , he is Lord of al before he comes to the injoyment of it , he is the Lord of it , so now while Gods Children are in their minority , while they are poor ones in this world , they are Heirs of the world , the Lord hath called his Children to be Heirs of the world , that is , whatsoever is in this world is for their sakes , the Angels , the World the Devils in Hel , in spite of their Hearts they are al under the Saints , and are compelled by the Lord , they against their wills , and the Angels with their good wils , they all of them are subservient to those that are the Sons of God by Adoption , and whatsoever is in the wide world , and may be enjoyed any waies for the good of his People , they are the Heirs of all ; this is their Portion while they are in this world ; the Scripture saith it plain , All is yours , and you are Christs , and Christ is Gods , and therefore Paul , and Apollo , or Cephas , or whatsoever is in the world , all is yours , the Saints of God have a real right to al by vertue of their Sonship , not in the Law of man but in the spirituall sense that the Scripture holds out . And then , 2. For the other life , where the prepared possession which was cast by God from all Eternity , all the Glory of Heaven , such as Eye never saw , nor never entred into the heart of man to conceive of , it is all kept to be the everlasting inheritance of all those that are called the Lords Children . Thus ( Brethren ) I have as briefly as I could , and yet I have through Gods goodness plainly opened to you this great priviledg of all priviledges , that whosoever doth beleeve in Jesus Christ , really accepts him to be their Savior , they are upon their beleeving in Christ made the Sons and Daughters of God : Now let me make some Application before I dismiss you , and one thing that I would fain have you think upon alone , is , USE , 1. 1. To take heed you be not deceived about it ( this would require a Sermon whensoever I should treat of it , and therefore I wil but commend it now to you in a few words , be not you deceived about it ) I pray do not all of you take this for granted ( now I have opened so glorious a Priviledg ) that every one of you because you are called Christians , are all made the Sons and Daughters of God , take heed you be not deceived , you see it is a mighty work of the whol Trinity to make it , and therefore your own fancy and conceit will not give you a share in it , No , it is here as it is in Saintship , many a man is owned as a Saint , yea , and ought so to be owned by them that converse visibly with him , and yet God wil not own him , but look upon him as a Devil , as he did upon Judas : So it is with Adoption , there is a visible kind of Adoption that men partake of , when they visibly own the Covenant , and I think this is the sense the Apostle speaks of , when they demand what Priviledges the Jews had above others , very much , to them belongs the Adoption , that is , visibly they were owned as Gods people in the face of the world , and yet I tell you , when many of them came and pleaded their adoption and said , God is our Father , saith Christ to them , The Devil is your Father , and you do the works of your Father the Devil ; So you may say when you come home after the Sermon , here is a great priviledge indeed , are wee Gods Children ? I you may say so , but God wil say to you , you are of your Father the Devil ; look to your hearts then and examine very much , whether this be wrought in you , and you shall need no other direction , if you will be faithful ( for this I tel you is not the use I intend to insist upon ) therefore do but ask whether these works of the Trinity be passed upon you or no , and chiefly that of the Holy Ghost , Is the Holy Ghost come to dwel in you to unite you to Christ ? Doth the Holy Ghost work a Childs heart in you ? Can you honor God , and reverence him , and turn to him ? And can you walk before God as obedient Children , at least in the constant bent and tenure of your Souls ? You had best examin that , if you wil conclude all is wel . Now many force themselves , How came you a Child of God ? By my Baptism ( as it is in the Catechism ) because you were once washed , Oh! beware of these things , it is a hard thing to know that you are the Children of God , therefore be not deceived in it ( but this I say , I purposely wave the entring into this , because I cannot speak of it in so little a time ) but that which I wil open to you shal be but two Instructions that flow from this , but are likewise very ful of consolation to all Gods People . USE , 2. Is this the Lot of al the Lords People ? all beleevers in Christ , are they all made the Sons and Daughters of God ? Then I pra'y be informed of these two things ▪ First , 1. The infinite love of God to poor sinners : Brethren , were I able to speak of it ( though I should borrow half an hour to speak it , you could not grudge the time , if I could speak of it ) as it deserveth , it would astonish you , Behold what love the Father hath shewed to us , that we should be called the Sons of God , saith the Apostle in 1 John 3. and the beginning , Oh! here is love indeed ! God hath shewed a kind of Phylanthropia , a love to man in many things , but could we consider what love the Lord shews to a poor Soul , when he doth but cal Child in the Covenant of Grace , I am assured it would make you all be swallowed up in admiration ; I wil open it in three things , 1. What is the love that God the Father shews . 2. The love that God the Son shews . 3. The love that God the Holy Ghost shews to thee a poor sinner who beleevest , when each of them have this work upon thee as to make thee his Son. 1. As for God the Father . Was it not a strange love that made him from al Eternity choose thee to be his Child ? especially this love wil swallow thee , if thou wouldest but take in these three Considerations . First , 1. His Majesty , How great and Glorious a Majesty he is , that He should condescend : This Glorious Majesty could condescend after this manner . And Secondly , 2. To whom ? To thee a Worm , if he looked upon thee at the best , as a thing made of a piece of Clay , that hast a heart ful of enmity against him , And Thirdly , 3. If we could but take in , upon what motives or considerations the Lord hath done it ( for if we mark it ) Amongst men , when any mortal man hath at any time Adopted one to be his Child , it was because either they had no Child , or no Child that pleased them , or because they would perpetuate their Name , that their name might continue after them , or because there was some worth or excellency in the person that might be an honor to them , some such things as these have led all mortal men , when they Adopted any to be theirs , but why did God chuse thee ? Did he want a Child ? Had not he a Son from everlasting ? Is his comfort increased by it ? I remember the Romans said , It was an imitating of Nature , found out for the Solace of the Father , But didst thou Solace God ? Did he need any ? No , but meerly out of his good will to thee ; and as for the perpetuating his Name , thou addest not to it ; so that it is meer mercy and meer Grace to thee and me , and whomsoever he hath set his Heart upon , that the Father would condescend after this manner . And , 2. Is it any less in Christ Jesus the Son of God ? That he would die to purchase Coheirs with him ? Amongst men this is not usual , an Heir is seldom troubled that he hath no more Brethren and Sisters to share in his Inheritance , he is rather afraid that there should be too many to get some of it away from him , but that the Son of God when this was his Inheritance from all Eternity , should be come in the form of a Servant , die , undergo the wrath of God to this end , that he might purchase poor worms to be Coheirs , and a Brother with himself , and that he would likewise give himself to thee as a Brother , that thou shouldest be one mistically with him . And in the Third place , 3. The Holy Ghost , That he would condescend to come and dwel in thee , to unite us to Christ , to alter & frame our cursed natures , and ( as need shal require ) to be a constant supplication of comfort and refreshing to us , Oh Brethren ! these things surpass the thoughts of man , utterly surpass them , but could we ponder them seriously we would say , Oh Lord ! Who am I that thou shouldest remember me ? it would make us so settled upon the love of God ; and I the rather press it , because when a Servant of God is but perswaded of Gods love , he wil interpret every thing wel that God doth to him , and he will then trust him , and then fear him , when he is but perswaded of his love ; and therefore learn this Lesson , here is love indeed , here is love the like was never heard of , that the Lord should rear poor Worms , and let such a work pass upon them , to make them the Sons of God : That is one collection , that therefore the love of God is wonderful great unto those that do beleeve in him : And Secondly I have but one Collection more that I will give you at this time , and that is this , 2. Hence it follows , That they who beleeve in Jesus Christ are exalted to the highest dignity that any Creature is capable of , that as here is a magnifyng of Gods love to them , so here is a magnifying of their State : That I hence collect , that there are no People under the Heavens , Nay let me ad not in the Heavens , there are no Creatures so highly exalted as Beleevers , and why ? Because they are the Sons and Daughters of God , not in a name only , not metaphorically as all the Creatures are , but really , God hath the heart & the Bowels of a Father to them , and they the hearts of Children , Yea , the State & Adoption of Children , the greatest exaltation that is in this world . I remember what David said when some of his Courtiers came to him , & told him of Sauls good opinion of him , to give him his Daughter , and wished him to be thankful for it , Oh! but ( saith he ) is it a smal thing in your eyes , for a man of so mean a stock as I am , to be made the Son in law of a King ? So if there be any Beleever here , that thy heart tels thee that thou acceptest of Christ to be thy Savior , & that his Spirit hath laid hold upon thee , Is it a smal thing in thy eyes that thou art really the Child of God ? Is there any thing in Heaven and Earth to compare with it ? I remember David in 1 Chron. 17. when he had Nathan came to him with a message from God , and told him to this purpose ( saith he ) I wil raise up thy Child after thee and I will set him upon thy Throne ▪ and I wil be his Father and he shal be my Son , and thus I wil do to thee , David could not hold but runs and sits him down reverently before the Lord , Oh Lord ! ( saith he ) who am I ? What comparison is there ? Wilt thou be my Father and the Father of my Child ? Is it true Lord ? Can this be ? Oh! it so amazed him that God should be his Father , Oh! could we think of it , I beseech you tel me , to which of the Angels said God at any time , thou art my Son ? he saith to the poorest Beleever in the world , thou art my Son : It is not only a name that expresseth good wil , but a state and condition that the Lord hath set him in , so that I dare boldly say ( I will draw to a Conclusion with it , but I would have you study it when you are at home , I dare boldly affirm ) that the meanest Beleever though ( as we say in the Country ) he go with his Flail , or a Rake , or ( as you wil say in the City ) he carries the Tankard , the meanest Beleever that hath Christ for his Lord and Savior , he is exalted to a higher condition than Ahasuerus was , when he was made the Emperor of a hundred twenty & seven Provinces ; for let them take al the Pomp , Wealth , & State that is in this world , let them have it all , if they have not Christ , God looks upon them as Satans slaves , and over a few daies they wil perish among the Dogs , I mean among the Devils , & be base , and be miserable for ever ; wheras the poorest servant of God that believeth in Christ , the Lord tenders him as his first born , O! I would fain ( if it were Gods wil ) that Gods People would lay this to heart , it would comfort them against all the Scorns and Reproaches of the world . It is with many of Gods People as it was with Christ when he was upon Earth , when he was called King , How was he jeered for it ? Art thou a King ? ( saith Pilat ) when he had a seamless Coat on and bound with Halters , belike you are a King : So they are ready to jeer the Children of God , belike you are the Childrdren of God , I , let them scorn , I have read of Princes that when for some ends , they could be strangers from their own Countries a while , they could bear the Scorns and Jeers of People , but when I am at home I am known what I am : So a poor Child of God may say , I go in a russet Coat , and have never a penny of Mony in my purse , and undergo many afflictions and troubles , Wel , but God is my Father , and the very thought of the dignity that God hath exalted him to , will make him quietly and contentedly undergo all the afflictions of this world , These are but general Collections , had I time to enter into the Particulars , to shew what Gods Children by Adoption are delivered from , Sin , and the Law , and what they are instated into , under his Family , under his Provision , Protection and the like , truly I might set that before you , that if a man could hold to it by Faith , and the Lords spirit help him to apply it to his heart , he would live comfortably here al his daies . FINIS FAITH THE ONLY MEANS Spiritually to FEED on CHRIST . Opened in a Sermon at Mary le Bow , November , 12. 1654. JOHN , 6.53 , 54 , 55 , 56. Then said Jesus unto them , Verily , verily , I say unto you , Except ye Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man , and drink his Blood , ye have no Life in you . Whoso eateth my Flesh , and drinketh my Blood , hath eternal Life , and I will raise him up at the last day . For my Flesh is Meat indeed , and my Blood is Drink indeed . He that eateth my Flesh , and drinketh my Blood , dwelleth in me , and I in Him. I Read all these verses because they all hold out one and the same Doctrine , though in a little different phrases ; That you may the better understand the scope of our blessed Savior in these words , know that the occasion of it was this , Christ having the day before fed the Bodies of many thousands who attended upon his ministry ; The rumor of this flying abroad , the next day great multitudes thronged after him again , and Christ knowing what lay at the bottom of the heart , told them plainly they sought him for carnal ends , because they had eat of the Loaves and were filled , but that was not the end of his coming into the world to , fil their Bellies , No , there was better food that he was willing to give all that had an appetite after it , and thereupon ( that I may not stay you ) fals into a most divine discourse of his own being sent out of the bosome of his Father , to be the Bread of life to al who did thirst after him , and would but accept of him , and tels them more particularly that they must eat and drink his flesh and his blood , as the only Food that would do good to their Souls ; hereupon these carnal People were extreamly offended at him and at his Doctrine , for they interpret all this in a carnal manner , as if Christ did mean that they must eat his very flesh and drink his very blood , as they did eat and drink other food , and truly it was ever thus and it wil be ever thus , that nothing can act above its own Sphere , and they who have carnall minds can never judg right of spiritual things ; thereupon our blessed Savior in the words that I have read , and in many other in this latter end of the Chapter inculcates this Doctrine further , Assuredly no man could ever live that did not eat and drink his flesh and blood , and he that did eat him and drink him , eat his flesh and drink his blood would receive such invaluable nourishment , as he would think it the best meal that ever he was at : And that is the scope of these words , which before I come to handle , give me leave very briefly to vindicate them , from the gross erronious interpretation that the Papists put upon them , for you all know that there is a monster in their Doctrine that is called transubstantiation , which in their conceit is the turning of the Bread and the Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper , into the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ , and whosoever doth not beleeve it ( in their conceit ) is certainly damned . And this Doctrine of theirs hath been the occasion of the murdering and martyrdome of many thousands of Saints , and among all the Arguments that they alledg to prove it , this Scripture is the prime of all the rest , except only that of This is my Body : But in the next place to that comes this discourse , wherein Christ speaks so Positively and punctually of eating his flesh and drinking his Blood , and the necessity of it to salvation , that they think every man out of his wits that is not convinced by these Texts to grant their transubstantiation ; yea , one of them , and one of the learnedst of them hath left it in Print , that if ever the Lord Christ should say to him at the day of judgment , Why didst thou beleeve that the Bread and Wine was my very Body and Blood ? he would make no other Answer than this , Thou spakest it so plain in such a place that it could not be denied , my sense and reason could not deny it . Now I wil a little cleer this Text from them , and I hope to such an understanding Auditory as ( I think ) I preach to , a very few words wil serve the turn . There are three things which whosoever doth but weigh , will be easily convinced that the eating and drinking that is here spoke of , hath no relation in the world to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper . The first is , 1. This Sermon was preached a whole year before there was any word of the institution of the Sacrament , the Sacrament of the Lords Supper was at the Passover , immediately before his Death , this was a whole year before it , Now how can it be imaginable that Christs speech here should be meant of a Sacramental eating , when no Sacrament was instituted ? Who can imagine such a thing ? Secondly , 2. This Text and all this discourse in John 6. if it should be interpreted literally , for that is the thing they stand for , the literal sense ( I say ) interpret it literally and it is quite against their transubstantiation , for they say that the Bread and Wine are transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ , but if here be any transubstantiation at all , it is that the Body and blood of Christ are transubstantiated into bread and drink , for he doth not say the bread is my body , the drink is my blood , but my body , my flesh is meat , and my blood is drink , so that if you will have any transsubstantiation it is quite contrary . And , Thirdly , 3. The eating and drinking of Christ that my Text speaks of , it is very plain by our Lords words , that whosoever eats him and drinks him as this Text holds out , shal certainly live another life for ever , and they themselves grant that you may eat that very Body and Blood of Christ as it is in the Sacrament , and never partake of his Grace , but go to Hell with the Sacrament in their bellies : I hope that this is enough to shew you that this Text proves it not ; I tel you ( in a word ) that the eating and drinking that my Text speaks of , is the same thing that the people of God enjoy in the Sacrament and out of the Sacrament , for there do we partake of the Body and Blood of Christ spiritually by faith , whosoever receives it preparedly , but the discourse here is nothing at all to that ; But now I come to the matter , and in the words there are two things which ( the Lord assisting me ) I wil open to you , the first is , 1. The duty required of every one that would partake of Jesus Christ ; and that is , to eat his flesh and drink his blood ; that is the duty pressed over and over and so heavily , that the Lord saith expressly , that whosoever doth not do it , can never live ; The duty required , to eate and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ ; the second is 2 The benefits which every soul doth receive who doth eate Christs flesh and drink Christs blood , and that is set down in many various expressions , but all tending to the same thing , that is , they shall live for ever , they shall never hunger nor thirst , they shall in no wise be cast out , they shall be raised up at the last day , they shall live to eternity , these are the benefits or rather the benefit ( for all is one ) that every soul partakes of , who eates the flesh of Christ and who drinks his blood : wel now for the meaning of it , that I may make it plain , ( for my intent is to preach but a short Sermon ) I will ( God willing ) open both the parts , that is the duty required and the benefit received , I will open them distinctly and give you the application of them both together , for the first . 1. What is meant by our Lord when he doth thus positively say , that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood , his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed , this we must eat , this we must drink , What doth he mean ? I answer plainly that his meaning is , we must beleeve , Beleeving is eating and drinking , and eating and drinking in this sense is beleeving ; that is the general meaning , and that it is so , any of you may prove it your selves , if you wil but read the Scriptures over , for where he saith , My flesh is meat indeed in one place , He that beleeveth in me shall never hunger nor thirst , by and by , He that eateth of this Bread shal live for ever : So that I know not how often in this one Chapter eating & drinking is interpreted by Beleeving , and Beleeving in a Metaphor is nothing but Eating & Drinking , therefore my work shal be ( God willing ) to explain this , know then in general , that this great Grace of Faith whereby Souls partake of Christ , it is in the true nature of it nothing but an accepting or receiving of Jesus Christ , to be that unto us which God sent him to be for poor sinners ; the Scripture is most cleer , in 1 John 12. As many as received him , he gave them power to become the Sons God , even they that beleeved in him ; So that to receive Christ is to believe in him ; now the receiving of Christ being a spiritual act of the soul , wherin the understanding and the wil must both have a share , it hath pleased the Lord ( I beseech you mark it , it hath pleased the Lord ) to set out this one act of Beleeving by abundance of Metaphors in the Scripture similitudes taken from the Body , and every one of them being rightly interpreted wil cleerly set out the nature of Faith , and what the Soul doth when it beleeveth in Christ , as I wil give you but a tast , because it is but one only that I mean to open , and that is in my Text Somtimes , 1. Beleeving it is very often set forth by Coming ; Come unto me , He that cometh unto me I will not cast him out , that is to Beleeve● Now Coming therein is a figure , an expression taken from an act of our Body , of our Feet , wherein there are alwaies these three things , 1. There is the place from which we go . 2. There is the place to which we go . 3. There is the way and means in which and by which we go : Now these interpreted would cleerly shew you what the Soul doth in Beleeving : So likewise , 2. To look up to Christ , that as Moses lift up the Serpent in the Wilderness , that whosoever looked upon it was cured , so Christ is lifted up that we may look upon him : Now that very act of the eye to look to an Object for such an end , being rightly interpreted would cleerly shew you , what the Soul of man doth when it beleeveth in Christ. And so , 3. To stay upon him or to lean upon him , which is a Metaphor taken from the Body that reposeth it self upon somewhat to uphold it , when it wants strength of its own ; now this being discovered would cleerly shew you what the Soul of man doth when it believeth in Christ. 4. Now among many of these Metaphors , this Text of John's pitcheth upon this especially , of eating Christ , and drinking , which is the action of our mouth and stomach , wherby our life comes to be maintained by our Food , and there is in this of eating and drinking so cleer a demonstration what the Soul of man doth when it beleeveth in Christ , and how it may discover whether men do beleeve or no , that you cannot desire a cleerer than this is , if God do but vouchsafe the ful understanding of it . That then which I have laid out for a part of this afternoon's work is , to shew you wherin the eating & drinking of our food doth shadow out Beleeving in Jesus Christ to eternal life , though I have but now brought you to that which I would endeavor a little more fully to discover to you , Would you know then wherein the Holy Ghost maketh the comparison to stand ? for I dare not go to ad the study of our own brains , but wherein the Scripture makes these to answer one another , eating and drinking food for bodily life , and Beleeving in Christ for spiritual life , wherein do they answer ? I answer in these six things , some of them I shall not need to stay upon , for if I should stay upon all I should not have time to cleer the rest , but in six things do the eating and drinking of our food answer our laying hold upon Jesus Christ by Faith , and I wil desire you to mark them , because it is the foundation of a great tryal of your spiritual estate . The first , 1. That the Lord when he first created man with a living Soul , with a life ; this life of man is not able to nourish it self , to preserve it self in being , nor to strengthen it self when it is any waies impaired , but God hath appointed that which is food , such creatures as have suitable spirits in them to the life of man , that mans life ( under God ) lies in these , and cannot be preserved without them , but it is the meat and drink ( as the ordinary expression is ) it is the food and the nourishment , the means wherby the life of man is preserved in a man , and give him all other things in the world , let Angels attend him , Princes wait upon him , let all that God hath given to the whole Creation be bestowed upon him , keep food from him and the man dies , he doth not live , though it is true we live not by Bread only , but God can preserve it otherwise , but in the ordinary proceedings of God , take away food and you take away life , you need no other weapon , mans life , the nourishment of mans life is food ; that is one . Now answerable to this for our spiritual life , it is laid up and to be found wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ , in his flesh and his blood , but you must know it is his flesh and blood prepared , that look as other meat , Bread must be broken , and ground , and baked , and so made fit for mans use before he partakes of it , so the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ was ground , was broken by the passion and sufferings he underwent for our sins , and by vertue of his dying communicated it to us , his flesh and blood hath merited life , satisfied wrath , and in Christ and Christ alone lies all the spiritual life of his people , and can be had no where else : Give him all the obedience that ever mortal man had , give him the righteousness of the Holy Angels in Heaven , give him all that a mans Tongue can speak of , or his Pen write down , he is a dead man if he have not the Lord Jesus Christ to be his life it self : Our life is hid in Christ ( as the Apostle saith ) there is the treasury of it . There is the first , that as our humane life lies in Gods disposing ( I mean by his so ordering it ) in our food , so our spiritual life lies only in Jesus Christ. That is one . Secondly , ( these three first I wil be very brief in ) The second branch is this , 2. That look as God in nature hath planted in every man , ( because his life is the most excellent thing skin for skin , and all that a man hath , he wil give for his life , therfore God hath planted in man ) a more vehement appetite and desire after food then after any thing else in the world , and if he be put to it that the choyce must be made , it may be he would not part with any thing that he thinkes is sutable to him , but if choyce be made all shal goe , so he may have food , the strongest appetite after any thing in the world is after food ; insomuch as therefore the Lord uses ordinarily to expresse the highest desires of the soule that man can put out in any kind , he uses to expresse them by hungering and thirsting , which is nothing but the appetite that men have after food , so that living men out of a desire of that which is sutable to their life , have a vehementer desire after that then they have after any thing else in the world ; So the Lord plants in any soul to whom Christ is life , ( for I speak not of those who are meerly dead , though I shall have occasion afterwards to shew you that Christ gives life to the dead , but ( I say ) to those to whom Christ is life ) there is nothing in the world found in them after which their desires are so mighty , so vehement , so constant , so unsatisfied with any thing else in the world , no such appetite is in the soul of a man , as the party that partakes of spiritual life hath after Jesus Christ ; as the heart after the rivers of waters , as the hungry man after his food , all kind of such things are expressed in the longing desires that the soul of a man that hath an interest in Christ hath after Jesus Christ ; lay up these by you till I come to apply them , but yet I am not come to the main things , wherein the comparison holds ; thirdly ; There is a third thing which is between eating and drinking and beleeving , and that is this . 3. That look as it is in our bodily life , our natural life , that as there is no such vehement appetite after any thing as after food when we want it , so there is no such satisfaction in any thing , as there is to be had in sutable things , that when a hungry man is satisfied with food , there is the quiet of his outward life ; then all vehemency , all pains , all angers , all longings till he hath more need doth cease , for you know such is our life , that one meales meat will not serve it but for a little while , but when hunger is raised and food administred , then is the desire quieted : So now when the Lord Christ hath life prepared in him , and raised up in the soul a desire after him , when that soul findeth him , when he can find that Christ owneth him , or intimates to it that he accepts it , it is satisfied as with marrow and fatness , no joy , no delight , no content in the world pleaseth the Soul so as to say this one thing I have found Christ Jesus and have an interest in him ; All these are main , but the three last are most ful to my purpose , and therefore I hasten to them ; Fourthly then , and that which I think is one of the greatest of all the rest , thus it is , 4. That look as it is in our food ( pray mark it , look as it is in our food ) for the body , let the food be never so excellent , never so wel Cooked , never so freely conferred , we never so freely invited , let al be set out that is imaginable , that food never nourisheth me or any other , until it come to be incorporated within me , that when a man & his food come to be made one , one mass , I wil not say transubstantiated , but translated and changed into the same substance with himself , never doth it become food to him til then . Take a man , set him before all the dainties , let him smel to them , put them in his mouth , nay ( if you can imagine it ) he may swallow them down , and they pass through him , if they be not incorporated into him , that the flesh of the beast he eateth turns to his flesh , or to be made fit for his blood , it is no food to him , though all the delicates of the world be set upon a Table , and say , here is enough to satisfie a thousand men , not one bit of them is fit for me , except it be so changed that it becometh one mass with me , this we all know in our natural food . Now herein lies the answerableness , so it is with Christ , it is Jesus Christ that is prepared , the Lord hath prepared and put the vertue into him , that it is enough to serve all the world , if the Lord be pleased to bestow it upon the world , but no man ever comes to have spiritual life from Christ till Christ become one with him , and he become one with Christ ; It is Christ in you that is the hope of Glory ; and this our Savior expresseth in the very Text ( saith he ) He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood , I dwel in him and he dwels in me ; that they are made one really , only with this difference it , remember it , indeed our food for our body , we and our food are made of one substance , but there the food is turned into our substance , that if it were not the flesh of a Beast turned into my flesh , if it were not the blood of a Bird that is turned into my blood , and so it leaves its own nature and is changed into my nature , but this is different in our spiritual eating , for here instead of Jesus Christ being changed into our nature , we by feeding upon him are changed into his nature , made partakers of the divine nature , and there is a mystica , I spiritual union betwixt the Lord Jesus Christ and us , whereby we cease to be what we were in regard of our corrupt being , and now come to be changed into his spiritual being , but notwithstanding a union and conjunction there must be , or else the Lord Christ never profits : This is so plain that ( I hope ) I need say no more about it , that is the fourth . Lay up these , for these wil be for tryal before I dismiss you . Then fifthly , the fifth thing wherein the comparison lies is this , 5. That look as the Lord in his infinite wisdom hath in nature given such a Power to our stomach , our appetite to receive it , and our stomach to digest it , that all the art in the world hath not the power or skil to come and make the food that is an extraneous thing another thing from it , to fit it so and prepare it so that it shal be fit to become one with me , no art in the world can do it like that of the stomach , the power that God hath given to nature ; we know if we should take our meat and boyl it upon the hottest fire , it can never prepare it so as the heat of a mans stomach can do it ; God hath given this peculiar faculty and power to the stomach , thus to make our meat sutable for us ; so it is with the grace of God , beyond all other graces and works of all the creatures yea , of the Angels , he hath given that power to the souls acepting of Christ , and consenting to Christ , that power to unite Christ and the soul together , that is not elsewhere found in all the world ; for all Gods creatures if they should all joyne together to put out their utmost skil , they could not make such a conjunction between Christ and the soul as beleeving doth ; but yet I wil tell you thus far , not by any virtue that God hath put in faith , but as it is the hand whereby we receive the holy Spirit , for by the Spirit we receive faith , and this holy Spirit that takes Christ and gives him to us , and takes us and gives us to Christ , this holy Spirit in a way utterly unknown to us , and no waies to be understood in this world , makes us one with Christ. There is the fifth . And then the sixth and last is this , 6. That look as in our food , when the food is prepared , and we have an appetite to it , and the stomach receives it and works upon it , and it becomes one with us , then by vertue of that , by the strength of that food are we enabled to live as men ; if we have wasted our spirits , if our healths are decayed , here is strength to be added , if we have work to do , we are thereby enabled to do it , to go through what belongs to us , by the power that comes in Gods way of ordering it , by the power that comes and is added to us ; So it is here in our spiritual life , that when once the Lord brings the Soul to value Christ as that wherein his life lies , to have a desire after him above all goods in the world , to come to have Christ incorporated into us by the power of the Spirit , then do we come from hence by the Covenant of Grace , the operation of ●he Holy Ghost , according to Gods dispensation to his People , to receive such a supply of his Spirit , as we are enabled to walk as those that are alive unto God through Jesus Christ ; only add this difference ( for I wil shew you how the preheminence lies in our spiritual eating with this difference ) that whereas our outward food never gives life to those that want it , but by the blessing of God only repairs it in those that have it , now this spiritual eating of Christ doth not only maintain life in those that are alive , but it raiseth them up from the very dead , it gives life , and that moment that the Lord enables the soul to hunger after him and rest upon him , in that moment is the life of Jesus Christ conveyed to him . And this is the first part , to let you see that eating and drinking , it is nothing but beleeving in Christ , and the resemblance of them stands in these things , as I have opened to you ; and now the second ( which I wil be but brief in , because I would not stay you long , nor be hindred from the Application of it , the second ) thing I promised is , 2. A little to discover what the benefit is that we partake of , by eating and drinking the flesh and the blood of Jesus Christ , What do we get by it ? For answer , We can easily say when men are extolling the good cheer they have been at , at any Feast or Banquet , where luxury is set out , What get you by it ? a feeding of our Bodies that wil return to clay is al that a man gets by it ; Now what is gotten by this eating and drinking of Jesus Christ ? Oh! could I but in a few words open to you what our Lord hath said of it , ( saith he ) 1. He that eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood he shal have everlasting life : There is the first benefit . What means he by that life ? That is not this poor frail momentary life that we live , though this be the purchase of Christ to Beleevers , but he shall have , First , 1. The life of pardon , that whereas all of us are dead under the guilt of sin , dead in Law , liable to wrath , they are pardoned men if once they beleeve in Christ. 2. Whereas they were dead likewise under the dominion of sin , and were strangers to the life of God , the Lord Jesus infuseth a principle of a new spirituall life into them , and such inward qualities and holiness , that enables them to live the life of God , that life that is of the same kind that Christ himself lives , his life , a holy spiritual life , that alas ! if I could open it to you and you understand it , it would make you conclude , that there is no such life in any creature to be found , as the life that every soul lives that laies hold upon Christ ; I , and then he adds , 3. This life is an everlasting life , that is as our Savior expresses it , ( saith he ) Your Fathers did eat Manna , that is ( as the Scripture saith ) Angels Food , not that Angels eat any meat , but if they did eat any food it would be Manna , Your Fathers did eat Manna and are dead , but he that eateth upon me lives for ever ; It is not such a poor momentary life as this is , but a life that wil last to all eternity ; this is the Benefit : Nay , mark some other expressions that come in here together , 2. He shal never hunger nor thirst more : That wil explain wel what the Lord means by saying an everlasting life , they shal never hunger nor thirst , What is that ? He means not that they shal never desire more of Christ , No , there is a two fold hunger and thirst . 1. There is such a hunger and thirst as riseth out of sweetness , that because the honey is good they would have more of it , because the Wine is good , therefore the Drunkard saith , I wil sip again , where the content of it makes them desire more of it : This hunger all the People of God have , because they find contentment in Christ , therefore they desire more of him : But then , 2. There is another hunger and thirst which is deadly , which will kill a man unless it be supplied , which our Savior explains in his discourse with the Woman of Samaria , He that drinketh of that Water shall thirst again , that is , if he have not a supply he will be in as dead a condition as he was in before , if he be not supplied : But now he that eateth and drinketh of the meat and drink that he prepares , though there wil be a sweet hunger to make him desire more , yet there wil be such a life and stock of life within , that til eternity have end they shal never be destitute of meat : So here is a benefit , a life everlasting , that they shal never hunger nor thirst ; Nay , he explains it yet a little higher in the words I have read , the one is ( saith he ) 3. Whosoever doth thus eat and drink , and thus cometh to me , I wil in no wise cast off ; What is that ? though ( it may be ) he may think himself the most unworthy , and say , Lord ! here is meat indeed , Lord ! ever more give us of this meat , But who am I that I should come ? I am the unworthiest , wretchedest , vilest of all ; Nay , let him be never so unworthy in himself , never so vile , I wil in no wise cast him out , if he come to me , for God my Fathers wil is , and he gave it me in commission when I came from him , not to deny food to any one that cometh after me ; Nay , ( saith he ) last of all , 4. This is the Command I have from the Father , That I should raise them up all at the last day : Though it is true , the bodily life ends and fails , and they shal turn to dust as others do , yet when I come to make good the life that my People must have in abundance , when I come in the last day to make it good to them , I must raise al up that ever did partake of me to life : you see here is the benefit which is laid down in the Text : I have only a little paraphrased upon it , thus I have opened the Doctrinal part , That whosoever would live happy , Eating and Drinking of Jesus Christ is the Duty required of him , and they that do it are happy abundantly ; Let me now a little apply this to you , but three Uses I wil briefly make of it , or rather the Lord makes them , for it is out of mans power to do it , three things I would observe . First , USE , 1. If you be but willing you may cleerly discern whether you are partakers of Jesus Christ yea or no ; Oh! that the Lord that is the Father of spirits would work upon your spirits while I am speaking , Friends ! Shall I speak a little freely and examin this great Assembly , where doth your eternal happiness lie ? tel me in your own hearts , what you would answer to it if God did examin it , where doth your hope of happiness lie ? Would not this be your Answer ? Only in Jesus Christ the Son of God that became a Savior for poor sinners , I disclaim all other things , and I look for my happiness only in Christ , Would not this be the Answer of you all ? It may be some Pharisaical self justifiers , they can pitch presently upon their own honest and innocent life , but I pitch upon that which I think every one of you would answer , It is Christ ( you say ) but what Christ is it that you make account is your life ? What Christ is it ? Is it Christ the Son of Mary and the Son of God , Christ that died upon the Cross , that rose again and ascended into Heaven , and sits at Gods right hand in the Glory of his Father , and that shal come again in the end of the world to judg the quick and the dead ? Jesus Christ is preached to you in the several meetings in the ministry of the word , Is it this Christ you look for ? I , let me add this , If there be no more for thee or me than this , this Christ that sits at the right hand of God , if thou canst not ad , this Christ fed upon by me ; It is Christ in you the hope of Glory , it is not Christ in Heaven the hope of Glory , therefore I must needs beg of you that you would be true to your own souls , for ( through mercy ) I have a little converse amongst men , and a little experience of them , but the want of the knowledg of this point undoeth many men , they have heard so much of Christ that unless they be the arrantest sots and debauched persons , they can tell you all the story of Christ , but if you come to examin how I pra'y came this Christ into your hearts ? I know how he was prepared for Bread , how the Father hath ground him , and baked him , ( pardon the expression ) I know how the Father hath prepared his flesh and blood to be meat and drink , But how came he to be your food ? and how got you your interest in him ? if you did eat his flesh and drink his blood in a carnal way , it would do you no good , for though you go for Church members , yet if the Lord have not done these things in thee , which I have spoke of , thou wilt be utterly lost when thou comest to seek for salvation ; Doth it not trouble thee to think how thou canst answer these four or five Questions ? I will but name them . First , 1. Hath the Lord convinced thy Soul really and cleerly that there is no salvation to such a wretch as thou art , further than Christ Jesus wil vouchsafe it unto thee ; art thou set down under that ? that is wel , for believe it til this work of Christ come upon our hearts , we never see the necessity of that work . Secondly , 2. Hath he raised up in thee that amongst all the contents thou findest in other things , though God maketh thy Wife comfortable , or thy Husband comfortable , and al things sutable , yet stil thy heart is unsatisfied , if I have not Christ I am undone , What will my riches do me good , if I have not Christ ? What wil all the talk of others do me good if I have not Christ ? Hath he raised up in thee such a desire after him What sayest thou ? Thirdly , 3. If at any time the Lord smile upon thee though no body be by , but he smiles upon thee in secret , thou hast gotten some cleer Evidence that Christ is thine , and he wil own thee before the Father , Canst thou turn back and even laugh before the Lord and say , Oh Lord ! is it so ? Is Christ mine ? Is this to thee 〈◊〉 the honey and the hony combe ? 4. Dost thou find likewise in a way that thou know'st not , how it is brought about , but thou findest somwhat settled upon thy heart that hath changed the frame of thy heart ? thou that art by nature proud , lascivious , and naught , there is somwhat that is wrought in thee , and there comes some strength , that though thou canst not walk as thou should'st do , yet the Lord is dear , and his Children are dear , and his waies are dear , some strength God affords , that thou art not pleased in the world , but thy soul finds that God hath enabled thee to make him the end of thy life , and his word the rule of thy life , Hath he done this for thee ? then there is eating and drinking of Christs flesh and blood , then in the name of God thou doest partake of Christ : But ( good Friends ) be not deceived , I tel you in many places not one of a hundred that hears such a Doctrine as this , have any part in Christ , or their feeding upon him , or relying upon him , therefore I pray try your selves ; That is the first Use I wil make of it . Then in the second place , USE , 2. Oh! what a comfort may this be if the Lord would enable me to speak of it , I could pour down even showers of Consolation , upon those souls that have gone along with me in the tryal : All you that the Lord hath shewed this mercy to you , that you feed thus upon Christ : I tel thee this , Carry it home , thou hast eat a meal's meat that will keep thee as a man while God lives , he hath given thee one bit , Oh! one mouthful of Christ to get into Christ : I read of the Widows Oyl , truly it was a delicate portion that God laid out for her , that for a great while together shee had a little Oyl in the bottom of a Cruse , and a handful of meal in the bottom of a Barrel , and she and her Son did live upon it for as many years as the Famine lasted ; I warrant you that poor Woman would not have taken a hundred pound for it : So that poor soul that can say , I bless God he hath raised me up from my low condition , and I have abundance of the world about me , but I know Christ is more dear to me than all the world , I know my prayers are to him for life , and I hang upon him as wel as I can for life , and look for it no where else , and I dayly apply my heart to him in that poor measure his Spirit enables me , I tel thee ( poor soul ) he hath given thee Jehoiakims portion and the richest food , for manna was Angels meat this the Angels , nay , pardon me , God never created any creature in the world to tast of this , but every poor soul how wretched soever that lives upon Christ feeds upon ●t ; I pray meditate upon this at home , and the Lord help you to ruminate upon this in secret . Is it so Lord that the poor soul that casts himself upon Christ is thus made one with him ? Surely I wil never take care how it is in the world with me , God hath provided wel for me , my Lot is fallen in a very good place . And Lastly , USE , 3. For Exhortation : I shal make but one Use and that shal be in the very words of our blessed Savior , when he begins this Doctrine in this John 6. ver . 27. when they came and flocked after him for the Loaves , saith Christ to them , Labor not for the meat that perisheth but for the meat that endures to eternal life : This Counsel of Christ I would a little press to you , though I borrow half a quarter of an hour , forgive me , for it is for your good . First , ( saith Christ ) 1. You seek me for the loaves , labor not for that ▪ Friends , we are all cumbred , as our Saviour said to Martha in Luke 10. the latter end , Martha , Martha , thou art carefull and cumbred about many things , So we are cumbred all of us about many things , some of us are cumbred how to get more wealth , some of us cumbred how to dispose of the wealth we have got , we are cumbred about our places , offices , and these worldly things hurry us up and down , we can hardly come into any place but all the peoples talk is , no body is at leisure but full of business , and what is it for ? the meat that perisheth , all that thou laborest for is perishing , perishing money , pershing wealth , perishing honor , perishing profit , alas Freind ! in a very few daies all that thou laborest for , wil not be worth one penny , at least to thee , and but over a little time to no body else , perishing things not worth your seeking , the Lord knows they are not , they that the world comes in most upon , and all that their hearts can wish comes in with ease , it is not one hours content , it is but meat that perisheth , but now labour ( saith he ) for the meat that endures to eternall life , here is meat worth your labouring for , I appeal to all your consciences that have heard the Sermon , whether this meat be not worth the labouring for , whether to get an interest in Christ , to hunger after him , to long for him , to rely upon him , Is not this worth the seeking ? Oh! seek it , and to encourage you , 2. I wil tel you what our Savior adds in verse 27. Labor for that meat that endures to everlasting life , ( saith he ) the Son of man he gives it you ; that is , you have no promise if you labor for the things of this world , How many are those that toyl and moyl , and cark and care most for the world , and it wil not come upon them ? many a man sits up late , and riseth early , and manages his business discreetly , and yet it wil not come , but God hath engaged himself by a Promise , that he that seeks the bread of life shal have it , that if thou canst but pour out thy soul , Lord ! leave me not destitute of Christ , he wil not deny the Son of man to thee : But lest some-body should further add , Give it me ! Why should he give it me ? What is there in me that the Son of man should be given me ? Why should I think the Lord Christ would give me this food ? If I ask that , he ads , For him hath God the Father Sealed , that is , I came into the world under a sealed Office to do the wil of my Father , and the work that my Father hath sealed to me , made my work to do , is , To give eternal life to those that seek it : He can as wel deny himself , and deny that he is sent from God , and his Office , as to deny the bread of life to a soul that unfainedly labors for it : Wil not this do it ? The Lord bless it , and give you to consider what I have said , and win all our hearts to study that Jesus Christ may be more in our thoughts . FINIS SELF-DENIAL Opened in a SERMON At St. Mary Spittal , March , 26. 1649. Matth. 16 ▪ 14 , and so forward . Then said Jesus unto his Disciples , if any Man will come after me , let him deny himself , and take up his Cross and follow me , For whosoever will save his Life shal lose it , And whosever will lose his Life for my sake shall find it , For what is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul ? Or what shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul ? THe occasion of this speech of our Savior was this , he had a little before told his Disciples , what great things he was shortly to suffer at Jerusalem , whereupon Simon Peter begins to rebuke his Master for admitting of such a Melancholly thought , Far be it from thee to imagine , that God will ever suffer thee to undergo such sad things as these are , Master pitty thy self , if there be any danger take a course to avoid it ; Our Savior therefore replies to Peter , get thee behind me Satan , thou art an offence to me , this is nothing but the savor of the things of the world , that makes thee give me this wicked counsel ; having rebuked Peter , he turns to al his Disciples and utters this speech that I have read , wherein our Lord strikes at the Root of that , which made Peter give him that carnal counsel , for the Lord knew it was nothing but unmortified self in Peter , and he wel saw that it would bring the like bitter fruits in all in whom it was not Crucified , and therupon gives them that counsel , that is contained in those three verses that I have read to you , wherein there are these two things . First , 1. Here is a Lesson necessarily to be practised by all Christs Disciples , in these words , If any man wil be my Disciple , Let him deny himself , Take up his Cross And follow me ; that is the Lesson . Secondly , 2. Here is an Argument to perswade to the learning of this lesson , the Argument is taken from the necessity of it , it is so necessary , that that man that wil not deny himself , even to the denying of his life for Christs sake , wil undo himselff by his good husbandry , by his providence , if he think to save himself by following more wary Counsel , he wil ruine himself , but if he wil resign up himself to the counsel that Christ gives him , Christs counsel shal save him , and Salvation any other way he shal never find : Now lest some-body might object against this and say , But in probability the following of thee , and taking up our Cross wil be so far from saving of us that it wil ruine us , and the looking a little better to our selves may save our state , save our credit , save our liberty , save our life : Wel , to that saith Christ , do but cast up the gain that wil be got by this way , I deny not but a man may by that providence that you speak of save his estate , and save his credit , he may possibly gain the world , a great state in it , but he wil lose his soul by it , and that man that should purchase al the world , that should be able to say this Kingdom is mine , the other Kindom is mine , all the Kingdomes of the earth are mine , But what did they cost you ? nothing but my soul , I gave my soul for them , that man hath made a miserable bargain of it , he will gain nothing that will venture the loss of his soul for the purchasing of the whol world : The worth of a soul is invaluable , and besides when a soul is once lost , the loss of a soul is irrecoverable , what shal a man ever give in exchange for his soul ? Therfore set this down for your Conclusion , The man that wil not follow my counsel , upon the best account that can be made , is certainly an undone man. This is the scope of Christ in these words , Now I come to the Doctrinal part , ( which I shal only insist upon at this time ) and in it there are these two things . First , 1. Here is the Lesson that Christ teacheth and imposeth on his Disciples , in these words , Let him that wil be my Disciple , Deny himself , Take up his Cross and follow me . Those are the three things that Christ imposeth upon all his Disciples , Deny themselves , Take up their Cross , Follow him . Secondly , 2. Here is the Condition upon which this Duty is imposed ; If any man wil be my Disciple : Christ wil compel no body to be his Disciple , and if they have not a mind to be his Disciples , he wil not impose upon them denial of themselves , and taking up of their Cross , and following him , if they like other waies better , let them take them , and see what will come of them in the end , but if any man wil pretend to be a follower of Christ , if he be resolved to be listed amongst Christs Souldiers , or admitted into Christs School , or into Christs Family ; then this is the ABC , this is the first Lesson that he must learn , He must deny himself , Take up his Cross and follow him , and that is all that I will say to the Condition of it , that it may be as a watch word to all you that hear me this day , I shal by and by ( by the Lords assistance ) handle a Doctrine that I know is very hard to flesh and blood , that which possibly many of you never yet learned , nor have any purpose to learn , but only now remember this : You shal not be compelled to learn it , if you have not a mind to the Doctrine that shal be opened , you are at freedome to take another way , provided you wil not lay claim to be the followers of Christ : Run your hazards and enjoy your good things in this world , and see what wil come of it , but if you have a purpose ( as I know you have ) and would be glad to be thought followers of Christ , then be you high or low , Lords or Ladies , Gentle or Simple , Learned or Ignorant , know you that this is injoyned to every one whom Christ will own , that they must deny themselves , take up their Cross , and follow him . It is only the first of them that I purpose to treat upon at this time , Deny himself , and the Doctrine which ( by the Lords assistance ) I shall handle is this , the very words of the Text. DOCT. That whosoever wil be a Disciple or Follower of Christ , he must deny himself . And for the explication of the words , there is nothing hard but this : The word , He shal deny himself , doth signifie a total abrenunciation , he must wholly deny himself , ( as I shal make good out of the Scripture ) it must be a total work . Now for the proof of it that it must be so , it were easie to turn you to a great many Scriptures , where the very same words are used , and upon the like occasion , you shal find it in Mark 8. and also in Luke 9. but for fear I be prevented , I wil content my self with a Text that I wil turn you to , and that is in Luke 14. from verse 28. to the end of the Chapter , & it wil abundantly demonstrate the necessity of this Doctrine : If Christ may be beleeved , you shal find there , that there were a great many came in to Christ to be his Disciples , great multitudes , they were taken with his Miracles , & his Sermons , and the Conversation of the whol world began to run after him , and gave in their names as fast as they could be admitted : but mark what Christ saith to them , about verse 26. saith he , If any man come after me , and do not hate Father and Mother , and Wife and Children , and Lands , and his own Life , he cannot be my Disciple , mark what he saith , he cannot , he doth not say , I wil not own him , but positively , because there is an impossibility of being Christ's Disciple , unless that a man do so far deny himself , as to renounce and and forsake whatsoever may be called himself : And lest he should not be beleeved , he doth prosecute this by three parables that follow there in order , and they are to this purpose , in the two first parables he doth plainly tel them . 1. That if any man pretend to be Christ's Disciple , and do not learn this lesson of self-denial , that man if ever he be put to it wil prove an Apostate , if ever times of tryall come , that man that enters into Christs School not having learned the Lesson of self-denial , wil prove an Apostate . or Secondly , 2. If he be never put to it in a way of persecution , then he wil live all his daies but in a meer form of Godliness , and an unsavory general profession he may make , he wil never have any power in it ; and this ( I say ) the Lord shews in three Parables , the two first of them you wil find they are taken , one from a man that goes about a building , to errect a House , before he have throughly cast whether he have mony enough to go through with the building , and then when he hath gone as far as he can , and spent all that he hath , the building is unfinished , and himself is laughed at ; Or a King that goes to war-fare , and doth not cast up what the War wil cost him , and whether he have strength enough to go through with it , when he is ingaged in it , then he is fain to make shameful conditions , and come off dishonorably and basely , because he thrust himself into a War that he was not able to go through with : So ( saith Christ ) wil it prove with you , if any man undertake the work of being my Disciple , and hath not brought his heart to this resolution , to deny himself in whatsoever may be called himself , that man wil never hold out if a storm come , or if it he be ever put to it : Then the next Parable tels you , that he wil live but an unsavory profession , he may be Salt without any savor that is good for nothing , not so much as good to be cast to a dunghil ; and that wil be the upshot of all : the Christians in the world that list themselves under Christ Jesus , and have not learned this lesson of self-denial : That one Text is proof enough of it , but the main thing that I aim at in the Doctrinal part is , to try if ( by the Lords assistance ) I may make you understand what this same self denial is , and wherein it stands , and so there are two things that I shal bestow the best part of an hour upon . First , 1. In shewing you what is meant by self , what is that self that must be denied . Secondly , 2. What is this denial of a mans self , or when doth a man do that which Christ Jesus cals denying of himself . First , 1. We wil enquire what is meant by self , and the rather you must enquire into it , because there is a self that a man must not deny , there is a self that we must bring with us to Christ , we must not leave that behind us , we must give our selves to the Lord : The Apostle saith in Rom. 6. We must save our selves : in Acts 2. Peter exhorted his hearers , Save your selves : there is a self that we must watch over and attend to , Attend to your selves : So that if there be a self that must be saved , and brought to Christ and preserved , it is necessary to enquire what the Lord means by that same self that must be denyed : Now that I may make this plain to you , I must carry you a little further back ; Then the present condition that we are all now in , in our sinful state , and I beseech you bend your best attention for a while , while I endeavor to cleer this to you . Know therefore thus , That when the Lord did at first make man , he gave unto man a Soul and a Body and excellent endowments and accomplishments to both of them , he gave man likewise the Creatures , all the works of his hands , but though man had all these things to use , yet man had no portion but God , God alone was the Portion of mans Soul , he might use his Understanding , use his Wil , his Wit , his Reason , his Parts , his Wife , his Estate , use them all , but enjoyed nothing at all , but God , God was the whol portion of man , as man stood in the state of integrity : But now assoon as man fel off from God by sin , when ( I say ) he sinned against God , man did immediately leave God for his portion , cease to make God his portion , and having forsaken God as his portion , now he made himself his own portion , and the greatest good that he hoped for or looked for was himself for the time to come , and therein indeed fulfilled the Devil's speech , that if you eat of such a Tree you shal be as Gods , so we became Gods to our selves immediately upon our fal , and ever since that , man did come to fal into himself , to settle ( as it were ) upon his own bottom , and to rest upon his own Center , and now since that time all other things good or bad , that might be any waies conducible to man , to nourish that self-sufficiency that he had conceived in himself , and expected in himself , presently man maketh use of all these , but though he useth them all as means , he rests in none of them as his end , but himself is the end of all : This is the true state of man ; so that by self is meant that self-sufficiency , that portion that lost man did find after he had departed from God : But to make you understand this a little more fully , be pleased to know that every man in the world , though he have but one comprehensive self , yet this self hath four branches , and ( if you wil ) you may cal them so many selves , though indeed they are but one , yet there is a quaternity in it . First , 1. There is a sinful self . 2. There is a natural self . 3. There is a worldly self . 4. There is a religious self . Give me leave to explain all these to you . I say First , 1. There is that that we cal a sinful self , not that the other selves are not sinful , but we call this sinful , because it is materially sinful , this is not only sinful , the others are sinful in the use : but this ( that I mean by the first ) it is materially sinful , and that is the body of corruption , the body of lusts and corruption which every man in the world hath in him from his Mothers womb . You shal find that to be called our Self in many places of Scripture , in Collos. 2.5 . saith the Apostle there , Mortifie your earthly members ; mark you , they are our members , And what are they ? Fornication , Uncleanness , evil Concupiscence , Covetousness , Anger , Wrath , Malice , Lying , all these Cursed lusts doth he call our members , and in the next verse , cals it the old man ; and our Savior Christ cals our beloved lusts , our right Eye , or our right Hand , or our right Foot. There is one branch of Self , the body of corruption . Secondly , 2. There is another Self that is called natural Self , and by it I understand the Soul and the Body , and all the endowments , and Ornaments of them , our wisdom , our Learning , our Will , our Love , our Joy , our Fear , our Strength , our Beauty , all these that make up the Person that you or I do bear , with all the natural endowments or accomplishments ; that you al know to be Self , and that the world commonly understands by Self . Thirdly , 3. Every man hath in him likewise that that is called a worldly Self ; by that I mean al the relations that man stands in to the Creature , and all the interest that he hath in the Creature ; as for example our Wife , our Children our Estates , our Trades , our Lands , our Revenues , our Offices : Now that this is called a mans self the Text is plain for it , in this Text where Christ speaks of denying a mans self , he makes the world a piece of a mans self , and in Luke 14. where he would have a man forsake himself , there he reckons up Father , and Mother , and Wife , and Children , and Lands , and all that he hath . This is a third Branch of Self . Fourthly , 4. There is another that is as much Self as any of these ; and that is that that we cal religious Self ; and by that you are to understand our performance of holy Duties , our Vertues , our Righteousness , any thing that seems to be spiritual , and good , and moral in us ; this you shal find a notable passage about , in Phillip . 3. where the Apostle there saith of true Beleevers ( saith he ) We are the Circumcision that do worship God in the spirit , but we put no confidence in the flesh , we regard nothing of the flesh , and ( saith he ) if there be any man that might have any confidence in the flesh , I as much as any , mark his words , I much more than any , What flesh doth he mean ? mark what follows , I was an Hebrew of the Hebrews , of the Tribe of Benjamin , by my Religion a Pharisee , touching the righteousness of the Law I was altogether unblameable , here was his self : Now , this was his flesh ; so that the Religion , the Honesty , the Conversation agreeable to the Law , that Paul makes a part of himself , and cals it his flesh : Now concerning these four , ( for yet I have not done explaining this first part , what I mean by Self , concerning all these four ) both our Lusts , and our natural endowments , and our worldly interest , and our Religion , you must take these three corrollaries to understand them all , three things that I would add , The first is , 1. That al these are but one and the same self ; pray mark me , all these are but one self only , As the Sea which is but one , yet it is called the Brittish Sea as it toucheth upon England or Scotland , It is called the German Sea as it washeth the German shoar , and a great way off it is called the Ethiopique Sea as it washeth there , but all is but one Sea , so all is but one wretched self , though we call it a sinful self : as self applies it self to Lusts , cal it worldly self , as self applies it self to wealth or riches or honor : and cal it religious self , as self applies it self to the Law of God or to God , in any such like , but all is but one self , all is but one and the same man in all these . And Secondly , Another thing that I would have you know about them all four is this . 2. That though all these are in every natural man , yet commonly there is but one of them that is predominant , and all the other are subordinate unto it , As for example , Some men make their Lusts , their known Lusts their predominant self , and unto that Reason and Wil , and Father and Mother , and Children , and Law , and Duties , and all shal be subordinate , because this is the Lord paramount : In some others it may be the world is the paramount , Oh! and then unto that all their other Lusts , and all their Religion likewise shal be subordinate ; It may be in another his Religion is the predominant , his Honesty , his righteousness , his holy performances , that is his great predominant , and then unto that all the other shal be subordinate ; Commonly there is but some one of them that carries the Chair , that sits upon the Throne , and al the rest are underlings to that . Thirdly , and that which I most of all would have you mark , and weigh , concerning them all is this , and I beseech you weigh my words . 3. That in all these the heart is equally wicked , in every one of them the heart is as bad , and as far from God in the one as it is in the other , I mean plainly thus , That man that sets up his Lusts , suppose his Whore , suppose his Pride , suppose any known wickedness , sets up that to be the great good that pleaseth him , that man is no more wicked , his heart is no more wicked in that than another man that maketh Mammon his God , the gathering of wealth , or the maintaining of his honor , and neither of these are more wicked than he that maketh his righteousness , his own religious performances his God , because for ( though these may seem strange , yet if you wil wait you will find it to be good Divinity ) though in all these self is the end , and all these are used but as means , in the one of them I make use of the Devil to serve my self , in another I make use of the world to serve my self , in another I make use of God to serve my Self : but whosoever I make use of , it is my self that I set in the Throne , my own Ease , my own Wil , my own Good , my own Happiness : Now then here is the result , whatsoever a poor lost sinner doth make his portion , before he come to be reconciled to God in Christ , whatsoever it is that he maketh his portion , or placeth his happiness in , that our Lord means by self ; and there you have the first thing explained that I intended to handle , What is meant by our Self that must be denied ? all that we make our portion , be it our Lusts , be they our natural abilities , be they our worldly interests , be they our religious Vertues , Duties , Righteousnesses , they are all alike when the heart sodders with them , or rests in them , all these make up that self that must be denied . That is the first . Secondly , The second thing that is to be explained , is , 2. What it is to deny a mans self ; he that will follow Christ must deny himself , What is that ? I answer , First , 1. In general , ( as I hinted before ) it must be a total denyal , it is such a denial of a mans self , as must be a total abrenunciation , it must not be to put off the skin , the Serpents skin , and leave the Body , or to cut off a Joynt and leave the Trunk , but the whole man , all the comprehension of this must be abhominated and renounced , by that self-denial that the Lord here means . But what is it ? ( you wil say ) Wherein stands it ? That I shal labor to cleer to you as wel as I can . 1. Negatively , I wil shew what it is not . And then , 2. Positively , I wil shew you what it is . 1. What it is not . First , 1. By denying a mans self the Lord means not , that we should counterfeit our selves to be other than we are , as Jeroboam's Wife denied her self to be Jeroboam's Wife , by faining her self to be another Woman than she was ; The Lord means not that he that is a proud man should say I am not a proud man , or he that is a rich man should say , I am not a rich man , or he that is a proper man should say I am not a proper man , or he whose name is John or Thomas , should say I am not that man that is not the meaning , that he should counterfeit or feign himself to be another than he is : Nor Secondly , ( which it may be you think most probable ) by denying a mans self is this meant . 2. That a man must wholly be rid of al these things , that that man that denies himself must wholly part with all his corruptions , and part with the powers and faculties of his soul , or the accomplishments of them , or part with all his Estate , his Wife and Children , or part with his morral Duties and Religion , that is not the meaning neither , and that that is not the meaning I prove thus to you First , 1. Some of these things are things we must not part with , the Lord forbids us to part with them : If God have bestowed upon any man a good Wife , or Children , or Memory , Understanding , Learning , Wealth , Honor or Abilities , or Honesty and Righteousness , the Lord commands them not to part with these , these are things that God may be served with , and must be served with , therefore that cannot be the meaning . Nay , 2. The worst of them , none of them can be parted with while we live in this world , though we would never so fain part with them , totally no man upon earth can part with all his corruptions : If there be any man can say , he hath no sin in him , that man rather hath no Grace in him : St. John saith that man that saith he hath no sin in him lyeth , and the truth of God is not in him ; therefore that cannot be the meaning , What is it then ? I answer , and I humbly crave your attendance and weighing of these things , because your everlasting welfare must be measured out by this , you wil know your spiritual interest in Christ by it . I answer then , 2. That this same denial of our selves , this total renunciation of our selves , it comprehends these four things in it , and these four things do constantly meet in every soul that doth deny it self . First of all , 1. All these things that I have spoken of , we do totally and absolutly renounce them all from being any part of our portion , that whereas before all our good lay in some of these things , that if you would ask any man what he is worth , What are you ? and what are you worth ? he must tel you , I am worth a thousand pound a year , or I am worth as much as my Wife and Children , my Wit , my Parts , my Learning , my Education , my good name , my honest Conversation , Look what worth there is in all these so much I am worth ; and this was all his portion : but now when the soul cometh to Christ , it totally renounceth all these , to be nothing at all to him in the point of a portion , if he be the Lords ; and I shal shew you good reason for it by and by God willing ; I wil shew you a notable instance of it in the Apostle Paul , in that forenamed Phillip . 3. where he saith , I think if any man might Glory in the flesh , I might Glory as much as any , and there he reckons up his Religion , his Birth , his Education , his Learning , his Righteousness , and the like , and ( saith he ) these things were gain to me , they were my portion , that if you had asked Paul , Paul what are you ? What am I ? as good a man as you I hope , Wherein lies your goodness ? I am a Jew , an Hebrew , a Benjamite , a Pharisee , a Scholler , an honest man , one that is unblameable in my whol conversation , This was my gain ( saith Paul ) but after that Paul was called to Christ , he did profess al that was his gain before , it was now Dogs meat to him , shipwracked ; his Learning abided with him stil , and his wealth , and his wit , or any thing , he had it stil : but it was all rubbish now , he did lay no worth in the world upon it , he had no portion now but the favor of God in Christ Jesus , that was his wealth , but now for all these things what use soever he might make of them , they were nothing , not one penny to him in the point of a portion ; This is the first thing that is an ingredient into this same self-denial , that when the soul cometh to Christ , it is unloosed and set loose from all these things , as they gave any support to the soul , to breed a good esteem in it of its own happiness . That is the first . The Second thing that maketh up this self-denial is , 2 That as the Soul doth renounce all these from being a portion , so as in any of these there is any thing found that stands in opposition to Christ , or hath any enmity against Christ , so far the soul totally doth not only throw it aside as a worthless thing , but opposeth it as a deadly thing , it casteth it aside as an enemy : Before in the other it throws it aside as a useless thing : but here it throws it aside as an enemy , when it hath any opposition or enmity against Christ Jesus , or the waies that Christ would have his people walk in ; that is plain both by many Scriptures , that you shal see the Servants of God when they come to deny themselves , they say to their Lusts , get you hence , to their Idolatry , to their wicked waies , they throw them out to the Moles and the Bats , they mortifie them , they crucifie them , they put off the old man , with all the Lusts that are contrary to Christ , & their carnal reason that stands in enmity against Christ ; According ( I say ) as there is any thing in them that bears opposition to Christ Jesus , and the waies of holiness , so far the soul renounceth them as an enemy , if ever they deny themselves , because ( as you shal hear in the Reason ) Christ Jesus alone is the great good of that soul that denies it self . A Third thing that maketh up this self-denial is , 3. That all these four , or any thing that may fal under any one of them , so far as they ever stand in competition with Christ , and the things of Christ , so far the soul totally abandons them likewise , totally abandons them all according as they stand in competition with Christ Jesus ; and that our Lord means when he saith , That a man must hate his Father , and Mother , and Wife , and Children , Certainly the Lord doth not mean that we should hate them simply , No , but when they come to stand in competition with Christ's excellence , or providence , or things fall out so , that I must either renounce these , or I must withdraw from Christ , I cannot serve Christ , and enjoy them too , therein I totally renounce them all ; and this you shall understand thus : Our Savior Christ saith a man then denies Christ , though he have never so good an opinion of Christ , if yet when he comes to that exigent , that either he must leave Christ , or leave the world , or leave his wealth , if he leave Christ for his wealth sake then he denies Christ , so Christ saith , by the same reason when I leave my life , leave my wealth , leave my Wife , my Children , my Name , my Credit , my wil , my Duties , when these stand in competition with Christ , then I deny them all , then that soul may truly be said to deny them ; as I pray take an instance or two of it , that you may see what I mean : Take that that is reported of a famous Lady in the primitive Church , I think her name was called Julida or Juletta , that having a Suit before a Heathen Magistrate , in somewhat that concerned her estate , her cause was good , and it was like to go of her side , but some body whispers the Judge in the Ear , and tels the Judg that she was a Christian , the Judg tels her ; Lady , your cause is good ( saith he ) and it is like to go with you , but here is an information come that you are a Christian , and if so , you will not only lose this cause , and this part of your estate , but al your estate , and your honor , and your life , all is gone : Is it come to that ? ( saith she ) farewel my lands , farewel my honor , farewel my life , Nay , I am a Christian when these come to stand in competition with Christ once : Or as Gallatius Carixialdus a famous Italian Marquess , that had a Lady and delicate Children , and a fair Estate , but when he could not enjoy Christ and these together , he left them all and went to Geneva to live with Mr. Calvin : And there is a speech of Chrysostome that he said , when he thought he should go to banishment , or martyrdome for Christs sake , he said , If my Father should stand in my way , I would throw him down , if my Mother should meet me , I would tread upon her belly , meaning plainly , that if any of these should be hinderances to him in Christ's cause , and stand in competition , he would trample them under his feet : And this the Lord plainly means by a mans denying himself , my Life is dear , my Learning is dear , my Children are dear , my Credit is dear , al are good , I value them , I love them , I would keep them , but if either my peace with Christ must go or these , if my Conscience must go or these , if the Glory of Christ must go or these , all pack away , they are all renounced as they stand in competition with Christ. This is the third thing in self-denial . Fourthly there is another , ( and I pray lay up these things in your hearts , against I come to apply them by and by ) and that is , 4. That the soul that doth deny it self doth totally forsake all these so far , as from claiming his interest or propriety in them ; they do not only not make them their wealth , but now they resign them all up unto Christ , give them up to Christ , and themselves turn Baylifs or Stewards to Christ , to use them all according to the will and pleasure of Christ Jesus alone : Pray understand this , because though you be never called to some of the other , yet for this last this is that vein of self denial , that must run through the whol course of a mans life , and he hath use of it every day he lives if he be a servant of Christ ; Pray understand my meaning thus : Suppose a man had a smal Farm upon which he totally lived , it was the inheritance he received from his Father , and it is al that he and his Wife & Children have to subsist on , and he useth it according to his own will for his best advantage , builds , plucks down , plows , laies down his plowed ground , turns it into pastures , sels it , keeps it , changeth it , doth what he wil , it is all the wealth he hath , suppose this man had a fair estate that is ten thousand times better , settled upon him by some great man , that gives it him freely , only ties him to this condition , that this Farm that was his own before , he shal now surrender it up to the hands of the Lord , to him that is his Lord , and for time to come though he shal dwel upon it stil , yet now he shal occupie it only as his Baylif , shal not cut down a Tree but what he appoints , not pluck down a house nor alter a room but as he orders him , and all the fruits he shal lay them where he would have them , and dispose of them as he commands him , be but his Baylif and Steward as to that : the other now is his own portion that he shal live upon : Just now here is the case , while we are in our natural estate , all we have to live upon is our self , I have so many corruptions that ( it may be ) are very pleasurable , and honorable some of them , I have such parts , such strength of Body , I have such a wit , or such an estate , or such a good name , it is al I have to live upon , and I wil improve it to the best I can , and as it may best serve my turn I use it , but now when I take Christ Jesus to be my portion , when I come to take the Lord Christ to be my portion , I surrender all these up into Christ's hands , and while he is pleased to put them back again into mine , I am only his Baylif , his Steward , my wit is his , my Honour is his , my Wealth is his , my Lands are his , and a man that hath denied himself doth occupy all these things , just as the Jews were to occupy the Land of Canaan , of whom you may read in Levit. 25. that the Lord told them , This Land ( saith he ) is all mine , and you are but sojourners with me , you shal plow it thus many years , and then you shal plow it no longer than such a time , and of the fruits of it you shal bring the first fruits to such a place , and pay the Tithes to such a place , and to the poor give such a thing , and gives this Reason , For the land is mine and you are but sojourners with me , so that all that a man hath in this world , al that is comprehended under the name self , when once the Soul closeth with Christ , it is but a sojourner with him to use these things , and to use them according to the Lords pleasure ; and these four do make up self-denial ; when a Soul ( in a word ) is come thus far , that he doth abhominate all that is in it so as for making it a portion , when he hates and labors to crucifie whatsoever in it is an enemy to Christ and the waies of Christ , when he parts with all , with any thing as they stand in competition with Christ , when they labor to use all according to the rules of Christ , so as to make Christ the Proprietor , and themselves to be but Stewards or Tennants at wil to him . This is the self-denial that the Lord saith must be in every Soul that wil be his Disciple . Now before I come to the Application of this , I have but one thing more and that is to shew you , 3. Why it must be thus , what reason there is , that so the thing may be demonstrated to you , that so when I come to the Application your hearts may have nothing to oppose against it ; and understand me , the question is not why it is comely to do thus , why it is requisite it should be so : but why there is such an absolute necessity of it , that a man cannot so much as pretend to be a Disciple of Christ that will not submit to it . What Reason for it ? I answer first , 1. Because wheresoever the Lord Christ is received by any soul , he wil be received as the All of that Soul , mark my words , Christ wil be all or he wil be nothing , what the Father hath sent him to do he wil be all to do it , he wil never undertake a piece of it , and the Lord hath sent him to be all that a poor lost sinner can need . Now I pray conceive my meaning thus , Take a Maid that a Man wil be a Husband to her , when she marries to this man he wil be all in the place of a Husband , and she must renounce all the men in the world in matters that belong to conjugal Relations , the marriage state wil admit no rivalty ; I but for al that , though the Husband must be all in the relation of a Husband , yet he is not al that the Wife needs , and she may lawfully have application to other Creatures , and to other men for some things wherein her Husband cannot be all to her ; if she be sick , she must have a Physitian ; if she be wounded , she must have a Chyrurgeon ; if she be sad , it may be she must have another to comfort her : neither can her Husband be her Bread , and her Cloaths , she must have another must make them , and prepare them . But now Christ Jesus is All that the soul needs , he is their Father , their Husband , their Brother , their Friend , their Companion , their Bread , their Drink , their Cloth , their Gold , their Silver , their Honor , he is All in All ; Christ Jesus is so , and he wil be so , or he wil be nothing ; and there is this natural reason for it , Because every mans heart shares out both its prayers , and its confidence , and its love , and its praises ( I say it shares it out ) according as it needs , or findeth supply any where . If one man be my Patron , and give me a great deal of my maintenance , I share out my expectations , my prayers , my love , my service most to that man ; but another helps me with some of these , and he hath part of my good wishes , and part of my prayers , and part of my praises , according to the proportion of good I receive from him , so is my heart shared out to him in dependance , or thankfulness , or love . But Christ Jesus wil have no sharing , he wil have all thy heart , all thy prayers , all thy love , all thy affections , all thy obedience ; Christ Jesus expects all , which he cannot have until he be all , and he never can be all , til al other be renounced , til I have no God but Christ , til I have no Father but Christ , til I have no Wisdom but Christ , til I have no Righteousness but Christ , I shal never share out al my prayers , and confidence , and love , and the like , to Christ for al ; and therefore wil Christ have al renounced that he may be all . That is one Ground , and the great Ground . There is another ( which I wil briefly touch ) and that is this : 2. Because al these things that we are to renounce , even the best of them al in those notions wherein we are to renounce them , they are al of them , and wil be adversaries and hindrances to us , in the way that Christ Jesus expects we should walk before him , and therefore until our souls do totally renounce them , we are in perpetual danger of being undone by them ; as I pray conceive my meaning thus in a familiar comparison : Suppose in a Civil War wherein a Nation is divided , and one Faction engaged against the other ; if a man that hath been engaged on the one Party , do leave that Party , and come over to serve that side against which he did oppose before , this man must renounce all the other Party , though his Brethren were there , though his Estate lay in those Quarters , he must renounce them all , or otherwise he wil never be trusted by them , to whom now he pretends to joyn ; or be sure ( which is the thing I alledg it for ) if he hold correspondence with them , they wil ever be dropping destructive principles into him , against the way that he now engageth for . So al these things , not only our Drunkenness , and Whoredom , and Lust , and Lying , and stealing , and slandering ; but our Reason , our Wills , our Affections , our Wealth , our Honor , our Children , our Friends , our Duties , our Performances , wil lie as blocks in the way to hinder us from some of the things that the religion of Christ wil put upon us ; there is nothing cleerer , Saint John hath an excellent speech in 1 John 2.16 . saith he ) All that is in the world ( mark his words , All that is in the world ) the Lusts of the Flesh , the Lust of the Eye , and the Pride of life , it is not of the Father : It is not of the Father al that is in the world , What means he by all that is in the world ? that that he had said before , Little Children love not the world , nor any thing in the world , his meaning is , love not Life , love not Wife , love not Children , Estate , Honor , Wealth , love them not , Why ? They all serve but to nourish the Lusts of the Flesh , the Lust of the Eye , or the pride of Life , and that is not of the Father , they wil draw you away from God , therefore take heed of them ; and look what John saith of the things of the world , the same may be carried to al the other ; Love not your Duties , love not your Righteousness , love not your Performances , love not your Honesty , love none of these as you in your natural estate cleave to them , they al of them tend but only to advance your self , and to pul down Christ , and wil be hinderances to you in the way wherein Christ wil have you walk ; And thus I have endeavored ( Beloved ) to make plain unto you this great Doctrine of Christianity , that is the very first door that we pass through when we come into Christs School to deny our selves : Now it remains that I make some Application of it , and that I shal do as briefly and as cleerly as the Lord shal please to enable me , and among many other things there are but two or three that I intend to insist upon . The one is , USE , 1. Hence from all this discourse it cleerly follows , that among the great multitude of those that are called Christians , there are but very few who are Christians indeed ( for Gods sake marke this that I say to you , I say ) If this discourse of mine be true ( as I hope I have made it cleer out of Gods word to you ) that a man cannot be Christs Disciple , that hath not learned this lesson of self-denial , certainly there are very few Christians to be found in Christendome , and truly I have often thought and am perswaded it is true , that the not understanding of this lesson , or the not coming to Christ upon the tearms of this Lesson , is the great cause of all the formalities , and hypocrisies , and the unbelief , and apostacy that is sound amongst Christians . I observe ( and it is an observation that many have made ) that in the primitive times of the Church , when death and ruine was visibly to be expected by any one that would imbrace Christ , then it would be hard for any man to enter upon Christianity , until he had resolved upon this lesson , because they took it for granted , I go to poverty , I go to hanging , I go to stoning , I go to beggery if I go to Christ , and therefore they had need see so much in Christ , that they might be willing to part with all for him , and yet even then our Savior Christ noted , that a great many came in upon false grounds : but now after the name of Christian Religion hath obtained in the world , and men are made Christians from their mothers womb , I mean in an outward form , that assoon as we have a Child born we say it is born a Christian , and then we go and Baptize it as a Christian , and then when it cometh to Church it hears Sermons as a Christian , and then as it grows up and gets a little more knowledg it comes to the Lords Table as a Christian , and so men are made Christians by piece-meals , and they know not how , but the Lord knows mavelous few amongst them ever understood any thing at all of this Point of self-denial , that if amongst such a great Assembly as here is , if a man in Gods name should come but to enquire and say , Are you a Christian ? Yes : Do you follow Christ ? I : And are you his Disciples in truth ? I hope so : Pray have you denied your self ? Have you learned the Lesson of self-denial ? God he knows they know nothing of the meaning of it ( as they say ) it is heathen Greek to them , they are unacquainted with it : Wel ( Friends ) know you for certain , that you may be bred Christians , bear the name of Christ , make a profession of Christ , hear Sermons of Christ , partake of the Sacraments of Christ , and do a thousand things that may outwardly speak you to be the Servants of Christ , and in the mid'st of all these you may be as far from being his Disciples in truth , as they were that crucified him , and if ever the Lord come but to dispose of you , and come to cal for that same beloved Self of thine whatsoever it be , that thou must turn it out of door , the world shal quickly know that thou never didst receive Jesus Christ in sincerity , I am perswaded that so many of you as have but ordinary understandings in the Book of God wil be able to Judg , if you compare my Doctrine with the lives of most men . You wil say , Either this that you have preached is not Gospel , or we are not Christians , there are very few of us that ever learned this Lesson , therefore I desire you ( before I go any further ) every one a little to try his own soul , what evidence he hath of this Lesson wrought in him , you cal your selves the servants of Christ , I beseech you examin , Have you ever denied your selves ? I do not ask now whether you have learned a particular Lesson , to deny your Credit , or your Wil at this time or the other time , but this same putting off this old Self , this renouncing of thy self , hast thou ever learned that ? and among a great many trials I wil pray you ( at the present ) but to weigh these two Considerations . First , 1. In the presence of God tel me , what doest thou weigh in the Ballance ? This is somwhat a blunt question , but it is that that wil mightily determine the case , Tel me in the sight of God , what doest thou weigh in the ballance ? my meaning is this , I know thou knowest what thou art , and what thou hast , thou knowest thy self ( it may be ) to be a Scholler , a wel bred man , it may be a great Magistrate , it may be of a great estate , it may be a great name , it may be an honest man , it may be an unblameable conversation , it may be cried up as one of the eminentest men in the City where thou livest , looked upon by all the City , and neighborhood as a rare man , and it may be al this is true : But tel me what doest thou weigh in Gods sight ? That God that knows how thou esteemest thy self can determine this question : Wel thus plainly , Art thou one that carriest such thoughts as these ? there is such and such and such they are great Professors , I thank God I am as good a man as any of them all , I am sure I have a better estate than they , I am sure I have more honesty and as good a wit as they ▪ and I can set out my foot by any man , let any man detect me , I thank God I am not as a great many others are , and thus thou judgest of thy self ; Alas poor soul ! thou art very far from Christ Jesus : But now if God wil bear witness with thy soul , that in the mid'st of al these thou sayest , I am ( indeed I am ) it may be a learned man , or a great man , or a rich man , or a Schollar and the like , and I have lived honestly , and God hath kept me from many notorious wicked waies that others have walked in , but alas what am I for al this ? a poor undone Creature , a worthless Craature , not only my lusts but my Prayers , my Sermons that I preach , or hear , my duties that I perform , God help me I am a base Creature , if God look not upon me in Christ Jesus , I have no one thing to commend me to God , nothing that ever I had , nothing that ever I did is of any worth , I loath it all , Oh! if God would give me Christ I am wel , but for other things I have nothing , there is the man , the soul that weighs nothing in the ballance , is nothing hath denied himself , he hath sold himself , he saith indeed I am worth nothing , Why ? Is not this house yours ? It was but I have sold it and spent the mony too , God help me , so I had these things , but ( alas ) they are not worth a Groat , they are wotrh nothing , my worth is this , if I have hope in Christ I am wel , if not I am lost . Ask but thy soul that . Secondly , 2. Tel me ( for that fourth branch that I named , because I know if thou hast but any face of Christianity , thou darest not own those that are known Lusts , known Corruptions , thou endeavorest to mortifie them , but I wil insist only upon that fourth branch ) Dost thou with all that thou hast , look upon thy self as one that is Christs Baylif and Steward , he hath laid up thy portion for thee , he measures out thy wealth for thee , and for him thou livest , and for him thou givest that that thou hast , and that that thou art , and that that thou doest , thy honor , thy estate , thy life , thy wealth , if Christ may have any service from them , by them , through them , here they are , thou tenderest them to him with all thy soul , if the Lord have subdued thy heart to that , I tel thee for thy comfort ( and so I pass from this first use , if the Lord have subdued thy heart to that ) he hath taught thee that lesson which though it be the first in order to Christianity , yet it is the hardest Nut thou hast to crack , it is a lesson that nothing but Gods Spirit dwelling in thee ever subdued thy heart too , and it is assure a token that the Lord is thine , as any thing that ever can be found in thee , when thou hast renounced all , that Christ may be all to thee : but if this be a stranger to thee and thou to it , do not flatter thy self with thy carnal confidence , thou maiest be very religious and honest in outward shew , but thou servest thy Self and not the Lord , and that self of thine wil ruine thee and never save thee , and therfore in the next place ( which is the use which I most of all intend , and which when I have done with I have done my Sermon ) USE , 2. I would labor to teach this Lesson , this great Lesson of self-denial , I would be a help to those that are willing to learn this hard Lesson , how it may be attained that we may follow the Lord , and truly ( Honorable and Beloved ) if I should look upon my self only in this work , my weakness to think that I should perswade you to deny your selves , I profess I would as soon expect that I might perswade you to go out of this Assembly , and lay violent hands upon your selves , and cut your own Throats , as soon as by any Rhetorick or Arguments of mine , I should ever look to perswade you to this great lesson of self-denial , but when I consider that in this work I am the Minister of Christ , and that his Spirit goes along with his word , I may hope through his Grace that I may teach that , and leave that upon many of your souls , that may make you contented to forsake all , and follow Christ all the rest of your daies ; I say again , looking upon humane perswasions it is nothing : I remember the Story that is told of Luther , When Luther first came out to preach against the Popes indulgences , and to reform the corruptions of the Church of Rome , went about that vast Task , there was one Albertus that liked Luthers projects very wel , but despaired that ever he would make any thing of it , he wrote to him , Frater abi in cellam , die miserere mei Deus ; Fryar ( saith he ) go to thy bed , go into thy Cel , thou wilt never do any good at this work : So to come to perswade men to forsake themselves , to renounce themselves , to come and deal with Lord Majors , and Aldermen , and Sheriffs , and Ladies , and great Citizens , and learned men , to come and turn them out of al that ever they have , that they should renounce al , and deny al , and not be worth one Groat but the favor of God in Christ , Abi in Cellam , Go to thy Bed , there is no hope of it , but if God strike in , there wil be hopes of it , and therfore to perswade you to it , be pleased to take these three motives· 1. Three Considerations I would give you , to make you willing to learn this lesson of self-denial , and then , 2. I will shew you the means that you must use to attain it . 1. To provoke you to it , Consider in the first place . 1. That this self , this cursed self that I am preaching against , it is absolutely the greatest Idol in the world , the greatest Idol and false God that is to be found in al the world : Since man left the true God from being his portion , there have been found out a hundred thousand other Gods , but all those hundred thousand and hundred thousand demy-gods , they are all of them but underlings to this same God that is called Self , Self invented them , Self set them up , Self changeth them , Self produced them , and they all bow before it , as Dagon did before the Ark , so all the other Idols in the world bow before Self : I know I speak Gods truth , my meaning is , All false religions , all policies , all injustice , all oppressions , all underminings , all villanies that are acted in the world , and from one end of the world to the other , they all are but the fruit of self-love , self-preservation , self-interest , self-content , self-respect , somewhat about Self hath set them up , and were they all banished out of the world , while we have a Self in us , an unmortified Self , that self in mankind would invent all those again that ever were , or as bad as they : This is the Abaddon , the Apollion , the abomination that was all desolation , and certainly this ruines Kingdoms , ruines Common-wealths , overthrows Churches , it is the great waster that destroies all , and you set against all other things without any purpose , til you go against this ; I hope I speak to wise men , but I am sure if you wil search you wil find this to be true , that it is only self is the ruine of al men , and til you turn that off , you do but crop the bud ; and as if a man should say , that I have almost undone my self by a Whore , but I wil give her over , I wil follow her no more ; and another say , I have undone my self by a pack of Cards , but I will use them no more , but if self remains Covetousness wil undo thee with Religion and with Honesty , it wil carry thee to Hell by thy Prayers , by thy Tears , by thy reformations , til the Lord turn self out you do nothing . That is one . Secondly , Consider this , 2. There is an absolute impossibility ( the Lord help you to weigh what I am now saying to you , I say there is an absolute impossibility ) that ever the soul should cordially close with Christ until it do totally renounce it self , never can Christ be cordially closed with til then : There are a thousand things may make a man make an external profession of Christ , or keep a fair quarter with him , but cordially to close with him it is impossible , til the Lord teach us to renounce our selves : I wil give you the reason , because Christs interest and self-interest are diametrically opposite one to the other , directly opposite one to another , and therefore it is not possible that ever we should close with Christ until we renounce that other ; that is that our Savior means in Math. 6. No man can serve two Masters , he doth not mean that a poor man cannot serve two or three or ten Masters , he may serve twenty Masters , so as all those Masters have but one interest , if they have all one common and joynt stock he may serve them al , but if their interests be opposite one to another , the man can never serve them both ; Now Christs interest what is that ? it is only to lay the Creature low , to make man , and all that is of man vile and nothing , and to exalt free Grace only , that is Christs interest , but now self-interst is nothing in the world but to exalt it self , whosoever goes down , to tread upon the Devils shoulders to exalt it self , to tread upon the world to exalt it self , to tread upon Gods shoulders to exalt it self , any thing that may exalt it self , they are so opposite that it is impossible they should both close : Thus far indeed a man that hath made Self and self-interest his portion , that man may keep a marveilous fair quarter with Religion , as a learned man handling this very Doctrine I am preaching of , useth this comparison , saith he ; Those men whose interest is to maintain their own greatness , they will entertain those that are cal'd the wits of the time , the pleasant Companions , the Drols , they wil entertain them , bid them welcom , be glad of them : though it be some cost to them , it is a part of their grandour , it maintains their greatness to have such , and they are as welcome to them as any body in the world , but if any of these wits or pleasant Companions shal come to engage this man , and say , pray ( Sir ) be you bound with me for ten thousand pound : Sir you are welcome to my house , and your Horse is welcom , but ( Sir ) you must pardon me , he wil throw him off rather than do so : So a man may entertain Christ , while hearing of Sermons and discoursing of Religion is only an Ornament to a man , a man that is of a selvish spirit may cordially entertain him so far , but so as to hazzard their own undoing for Religions sake , for Christ's sake to bring me to beggary , it may be to hang me upon a Gallows , to throw me out of my Office , to overthrow my Trade , wholly to throw these away no man living can entertain Christ so far . It was a notable speech of the King of Navarre , that afterwards was Henry the fourth of France , The King of Navarre was a Protestant , and owned the Protestant cause , but his eye was upon the Crown of France , to which he knew he was Heir , and hoped to come to it , and when Beza and the other Protestants did press the King of Navarre , to appear cordially in the cause of God , saith he , I am yours , I wil go with you , but I promise you I will go no further to Sea , than I may come to Land if a storm rises , his meaning was , he would never hazzard the loss of the Crown of France for the Protestant Religion , and so he fared accordingly ; and truly so may it be now , Thou maiest tel Christ after a complemental manner , Lord , thou art mine , it is my honor to be thy servant , I delight to hear thy word preached , and worship thee in my Family , I rejoyce in it : all this fair quarter maiest thou keep , but beleeve it , if the Lord have not taught thee to renounce thy self , when Christ shal come to try thee throughly , thou wilt honor him just as you shal find in the Story , and it is worth your observation , in 1 Kings 20. you have such a Story as this is , Benhadad the King of Syria sendeth to Ahab King of Israel such a Letter as this , saith he , Thus saith Benhadad , All that thou hast is mine , thy Wives and thy Children are mine , thy Gold and thy Silver is mine ; and al is mine , Ahab very loth to quarrel with him returns him a very fine complement , My Lord ( saith he ) all that I have is at your service , all is thine ; Well , Benhadad sendeth next day , Wel , ( saith he ) whereas I sent to thee that all is mine that thou hast , I wil send my Servant for to seize upon it : while he only talked of it , Ahab would own it , my Lord all is thine : But when to morrow I wil send my servants , and they shal seize upon it , then he cals his Counsellors , See you how this man picks a quarrel with me , what a fair answer I sent to him , and now he would seize upon all : So if Christ come to thee , til thou hast learned self-denial , and say , here I wil lay thee down , here thou shalt lose thy credit , or thy Conscience , peace with me , or peace with men , thou canst never close with Christ cordially till thou hast learned this lesson . And then Thirdly and Lastly for my Motives . 3. Know for certain , If the Lord have but once taught thee this Lesson , there is nothing in all Christianity wil be difficult to thee , all the waies of Christ will be as plain as a Bowling-Alley , whatsoever thou art called too ; I know I speak a great word , but I bless God I speak not unpreparedly in it , all the waies of Christ wil be as plain as a Bowling-Alley to thee , if the Lord have but once taught thee to turn Self out of doors , thy work wil be brought only to these two Heads . 1. One part of it to learn to know what Gods wil is concerning thee , what he would have thee do , or what he would have thee suffer . And , 2. The other wil be but to seek strength of him , that thou maiest not in thy own power go about it , but be supported by him ; but otherwise all objections and difficulties are removed , if Self be but once turned out of doors ; Why ? Because all the difficulties in the waies of Christ ariseth from Arguments taken from Self only , either this will be against my honor , or here I must part with such a pleasure , or here my estate may hap to be crack't , or here this may hazzard my life , or this may deprive me of my Children , or this may cut me off from my Friends , or this may expose me to scorn , some such thing or other comes in , but otherwise when a man hath no such thing to take care for , I have no honor , nor credit , nor wife , nor Children , nor friends I regard , the Lord is my portion , I live upon him , I drink water out of that Cisterne , and I care for no other , when the soul hath but once learned that , it is but with him as it was with Paul , saith he , I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem , and I profess I know not what I shal meet withal , saith one , then I will tel you what you shal meet withal , the Holy Ghost saith the Jews shall bind you , and Scourge you , and Whip you , and send you to Rome , and what then ? they all fal a Weeping for , and about him , saith he , why break you my Heart ? What care I to die at Jerusalem when it is the work of the Lord ; he had no self to regard , he had turned self out of doors , and all the waies of Christ were easie to him , and God knows this passage was one of the motives that made me choose this Theam before this grave Auditory ; Truly our times are extream Ticklish and dangerous , and the wisest man under Heaven knows not what wil betide him , whether it fals back or edge , no man can tel what will become of him , nor what to meet withal , and a great many wise men are perplexed to know what to do , now I tel you , if the Lord do but teach you to deny your selves , to lay aside all that may be called self , you will have no great difficulty not in these difficult times , but only to know what God would have you do , that you may not go out of the right way for want of light that you may not ingage in sinful actions for want of councel , you wil pray to God to make your way plain , but as for other difficulties whether you shal stand or fal , Live or Die , it would be no great trouble to you , if God had but once taught you to deny your selves ; Nay , you will not only be prepared for the worst times to come , but for all services you shal be called to , It is a good observation of a learned man , That all the men that ever have been eminently serviceable , either in matters of the Gospel , I mean , in Duties of Religion , or eminent if it have been in a Christian way , in matters of Charity , or Justice , or in being faithful Patriots , they have been men that have little regarded themselves , that have not greatly regarded what they were talked of , how they were valued or esteemed , or what was like to betide them , but only men that were willing to be publick sacrifices if need were , and those men have done the best service if any other ; So in the greatest Services , you may be possibly called to suffer , turn but Sarah aside now , when Abraham must go to Sacrifice his Son , Sarah shal not know of it , and then Abraham can do it well enough , for he had learned to follow Gods will , but Sarah would have Rung him another Peal ; So turn but self out of the way , and you will be fit for any thing God shal cal you to ; But you will say . Quest. How shall a man attain this Lesson ? What Arguments or what Rethorick can you use , that you can expect ever to prevail with men , to turn them off thus from themselves ? I wil tell you , Answ. Not by any Humane Oratory in the world is this to be effected , but it is the Lord , it is the spirit of the Lord that doth it ; no man can come to me ( saith Christ ) except my Father draw him ; now in every coming , there is a Terminus a quo , and a Terminus ad quem , the term that you must go from , that is Self , the term that you must come to , that is Christ , Now no man cometh from himself , or cometh unto Christ , til God Almighty draw him : But what ( think you ) is Gods drawing ? It is nothing but the spirits perswading , Gods spirit perswades them , And what do you think the Spirit of God perswades them too ? that I now come to , and afford me but one quarter of an hour for that , and then ( God willing ) I shal have done . The Spirit of God when it doth enable a soul thus to deny it self , it doth perswade them of these two things , which two things I would commend to you as your study . The one is , 1. The Spirit of God maketh him see what Self is , and no man under Heaven longer cleaves to himself , than he is deceived in himself , for let him but once have but a true information of himself , and he abominates himself presently . That is one . And then the second is , 2. To make him see the excellency that is to be found in Christ , the All-sufficiency that the soul may find in Christ , and when they see their present portion worth nothing , and that that is offered to them to be every way satisfrctory , then doth the soul readily renounce the one , and close with the other ; so that then if you would get out of your self , and renounce your self . 1. Study to know thy self , study but to know who thou art , in any of all these things that I have spoke of , know but thy self ; I confess it wil not be a short study , but I commend it to you , and the Lord help you that you may study it ( I say ) know who thou art . First , 1. What thy Lusts are ; for I tel you while a man is in his natural estate , his Lusts are very excellent Ornaments to him , it is a brave thing to many a man to think what a proud spirit he hath , how he can rant it , and tread all his Neighbors under foot , and that he can go from one filthy pleasure to another , that pleases him : Study to know what thy sins are , and who thou art that art a sinner . 2. Study to know what the World is , thy Wife , Honor , Estate , Friends , Liberties , Study to know them . 3. Study to know thy Righteousness , thy Honesty , thy Prayers , thy Duties that thou art so prone to magnifie thy self for , and to make a bottom to stand upon , labor to know them , and thou wilt have enough of them , as I beseech you conceive me thus : Suppose a deluded young man were in love with some beautiful Woman ( as he takes her to be ) he takes her to be the paragon of beauty of all the Country , and of good behavior , and therefore he sacrificeth his State , his Life , his Parts , his Wit , and all to be her Servant , imagine now that this Woman were some ugly , deformed , abominable strumpet that hath only painted her self , and take her paint off , she hath the horridest visage that a man can look upon , and is all eaten up with loathsom Diseases , shew this Man but this Woman in her own colors , let him see her deformity , he hath quickly enough , then he loatheth himself for loving her : Would the Lord therefore teach you but to take any of al these things , and but to weigh them and study them , and see what shadows , what baubles , what dreans , what fancies the best of them all are , I speak not now of your Swearing , and Drunkenness , and Whoring , but I speak of your Pomp , your Honor , your Wealth , your great Estates , your Revenues , your good Cloaths , Nay ( I wil go higher ) your Prayers , your Mercies , your hearing of Sermons , your Righteousness , your Honesty , if God would shew you what guilt , what filth cleaves to them , what venom is in them how little they wil stand your soul in stead in the day of tryal , if God would teach you but to study these things aright , certainly you would say , Lord , draw me from my self , deliver me from my self , that am the veriest monster that lives . But especially . 4. Study to know Christ : Christ saith , Let him forsake himself and follow me , ( said his Disciples to him ) Lord , we wil follow thee , but what shal we have ? I wil tel you , ( saith he ) you shal have a hundred fold more in this world , besides in the world to come you shal have life everlasting , that is , ( in a word ) Thou shalt find in Christ all that that wil abundantly satisfie thy soul , there is righteousness enough , there is wisdom enough , there is mercy enough , there is goodness enough , there is counsel enough , there is honor enough , thou canst not need so much as thou shalt find in Christ , Rivers , Seas , Oceans of happiness in Christ , study to know Christ and thou wilt follow him . These things I thought good to press , and purposed indeed to have pressed them larger , but I know not how the time is gone , nor how burdensom I may be to you , and although this was all the use I intended , when I prepared this Sermon for this place , yet since I finished it , there is brought somwhat to my hands , that doth enable me to make another use of it , at least of one branch of it , and I beseech you give attention to it , and I have done . I am informed that it is one of the ends of this grave , honorable and solemn meeting of the Magistracy of the City , and of this holy service , to promote a work of Mercy , and Charity , towards the poor of the several Hospitals , to let the wel affected be acquainted how things are , and what may be expected or desired from them , and that I may do it in a few words , have patience but while I read this short paper to you , and then I shal spend a little more of my Theam about it , and then I have done . Here is a true report &c Thus ( Beloved ) I have read over this paper , and I think I shal not need to tell you how it fals within my Theam , I told you that one special branch of Self denial is , to resign up all that we have of Wealth , Lands , Mony , Trades , Parts , Abilities , to resign them up to Christ , to serve him with them , to lay them out in the way that he wil appoint : Now your hearts could not wish for a way more cleer and evident , for the testifying your being good Stewards for Christ , than in owning the present business that hath been read to you , and to make it good , I wil say but these two things in a few words . First , 1. That of al the Services , of al kind of Services that ever we can do for Christ , next to the saving our souls , the work of Mercy and Compassion to People is most accepted with him , that that himself wil most own in the great day , when there shal not a cup of cold water go unrewarded that ever hath been given for his sake . I am confident you so frequently hear of the excellency of the work of mercy and bounty to the poor , that I shal not need to spend any more time to commend it to you , only I pray you to think of it . 2. But the other thing that I would commend to you is this , ( and I beseech you beleeve I would not willingly flatter , but according to the best information that ever I could obtain ) There is no such Treasury in the Christian world , no such Banck where a man might promise what he doth to be faithfully , and wisely , and most advantagiously laid out , as in this Treasury of the honorable City of London , and the Governors of these Hospitals , I have often heard ( for I am but an ignorant man my self in the affairs of this City ) Godly men and wise men often say , that had they any Hospitals to erect , any sums of mony , were it a hundred thousand pounds , that they would promise themselves to be laid out so , that it should not go into private mens purses , or be given to Vagrants and Knaves , but to the halt , and the lame that have need of it , they have professed they would put it into the hands of those that are the Governors of the Hospitals about London , where things are done in such a way , that setting aside such frailties as al humane affairs are suhject to in the generality , they are above making personal gains , but desire only to be faithful Stewards , and therefore if God do put it in any of your hearts , that you would shew your self-denial , and would indeed make Christ beholding to you ( as he will be pleased to cal himself your Debtor ) know that such things as these are very fit objects for your thoughts . And the Lord of Heaven direct you about it . I dare stay you no longer . FINIS THE SAINTS DUTY To keep their HEARTS In a GOOD FRAME . Opened in a Sermon at Olaves Silverstreet , November , 9. 1654. PROVERBS , 4.23 . Keep thy Heart with all Dilligence , ( or as it is chiefly read , Keep thy Heart with all keepings ) for out of it are the Issues of Life . IN most of the Chapters of this Book of the Proverbs , there is no connection of one verse with another , that one should give light or help to clear the other , but they are as a multitude of excellent Pearls put into a large Box , whereof every one singly is of a very great price , and it is thought by many that they were but so many sentences , that King Solomon did utter usually when he sate in judicature , according as the cause or condition was that was heard before him , so there was a divine sentence in the Lips of the King , and the Lord in his good providence and love to his Church hath recorded them , to be for instruction for his People to the end of the world , and amongst them al if you go from one end of the book to the other , if it be lawful to make comparisons , I may freely say , there is not one Pearl of greater price , one sentence of more divine use than this that I have read to you , and shal endeavor ( God willing ) to open as far as I can within the compass of an hour and in it there are these two things plainly laid down . Here is first , 1. A Duty enjoyned to all the Lords Children , in these words , Keep thy heart above al keeings . Secondly , 2. Here is an Argument to enforce to this Duty , in these words , for out of it are the issues of life . 1. And in the Duty there are likewise two things . First , 1. Here is the subject matter , the thing that is to be done , and that is , Keep thy heart . Secondly , 2. Here is the manner how it must be done , and that is , ( as we translate it ) with al diligence ; Keep thy heart with all diligence , or , above all keepings keep thy heart . Now give me leave briefly to interpret the meaning of the words , and then I will put it all into one instruction , which I will endeavor to handle in this hour . First , 1. What is meant by the heart , And , 2. Keeping the heart , And , 3. Keeping it above all Keepings . And so , 4. Of the issues of life that flow from it . Let me give you a brief interpretation of each of them . 1. What doth Solomon mean by the heart here that must be kept ? No doubt it is not meant of the heart made of flesh , that is in the midst of our bodies , it is spiritually meant that no man doubts of : Now take the heart spiritually , and somtimes in the holy Scripture the heart is put for the whol soul ; somtimes it is put for the understanding faculty ; somtimes it is put for the memory ; somtimes it is put for the Conscience ; sometimes it is put for the Wil ; sometimes for one or two Affections ; it were endless to give you the instances of all these ; but here is a Key in the Text which will tel you what is meant here ; for without question that is meant by the Heart here , that is the spring of life , from whence the issues of life do flow . Keep thy heart for out of it are the issues of life , ( now as I shal shew you by and by ) the issues of life are nothing but our whol conversation , so that what 's within is the Fountain of our conversation without , that is meant by the Heart here ; and so consequently it must be meant chiefly of the Wil and Affections . not excluding the understanding : by the Heart then is meant the understanding faculty , especially the Wil and the Affections . Then , 2. Keep thy heart , Keep it , What is that ? The word that is here translated Keep , I find it in other Texts of Scripture variously applied , somtimes it is applied unto those that are the Keepers of a Prison , where dangerous Fellons or Malefactors are to be looked to , that they do not break away ; Joseph was made the Keeper of the Prison . The same word that is here ; somtimes it is applied to keeping the Sanctuary of God , and all the holy things that belonged to Gods Temple , so it is several times used in Ezekiel . Somtimes it is used to signifie the keeping of Treasures , Jewels , &c. so that it is such a keeping as doth argue a great deal of care and watchfulness and diligence &c. All this is meant by Keep thy heart , keep it as thou wouldst keep a dangerous Fellon , a Traytor ; keep it as thou wouldst keep a holy Sanctuary and Temple of the Holy Ghost , keep it as you would keep the richest Treasures , keep thy heart . And then , 3 Keep it above al keepings , with al diligence or above all keepings , that plainly needs the least interpretation of all , because that it is clear that there are abundance of things that God gives men in charge to keep , that if God commit to any man a Flock he must take heed to his Flock , if he bestow any Talent upon him of outward goods , he must keep it and occupy it for Gods Glory , every thing that is received from God must be kept according to the rules he hath given , but above all thy keepings , when you have put them all together , all the keepings that must be kept for Wife , Children , Estate , Name or whatsoever is dear , , let thy heart be kept above all keepings , beyond them al , above al keepings keep thy heart . And then , 4. Here is added thy Heart , keep thy heart , that signifies these two things . The one is , 1. That Solomon who was a Son of wisdom , for it is judged by many that these were not Solomons own words , but they were a part of the Catechism that his Father taught him , for so in the beginning of the Chapter he tels you that he was his Fathers dearly beloved Son , and he taught him & instructed him & said so and so to him , and so they think that all these were Davids words to Solomon , but if it be not , if you take them for Solomons words it is all one , for a little before he saith , My Son , that is , when he saith my Son he means one that is a Son of wisdom , a Child of God , Keep thy heart , that is a good heart , that is a reformed heart that hath Grace planted in it , yet he that hath it so , must be careful to keep it so . And then it signifies further , 2. Thy heart , that is , above al other mens hearts look to the hearts of thy Children , if thou beest a Pastor look to the frame of thy People , so far as thy relation and duty reacheth look to them all , and get what good may be , but let thy heart be looked to above them all . That is the meaning of the first branch , Keep thy heart above all keepings . 2. Now a word of the other , For out of it are the Issues of life . Here are two things to be interpreted . First , 1. The Issues of life , What is that ? The word that is translated Issue , it sometimes signifies a Bud that grows out from a Tree , somtimes a Child that is born of a Father , sometimes and very often the waters that spring or issue out of a Fountain , and so by the issues of life he plainly means all that comes out in our Conversation , that is the fruit of the heart , Words , Actions , Relations , Duties , Sufferings , whatsoever you wil , they are all the issues of life , Al these are issues of life . And then , 2. All these are out of it , What is that ? out of it , may signifie two things , and both come to the same purpose , Out of it , that is , 1. Out of the heart , it is out of our heart that cometh all the issues of life , or ( I think life must be added ) out of it , that is , 2. Out of keeping of thy heart though it be a good one , though it be reformed , yet when I exhort thee to keep it diligently , I would have thee to know that according as thou keepest thy heart , so wil the issues of thy life be ; Now out of these words thus opened , I observe this Instruction . Doct. 1. That the greatest Duty that lies upon all the Sons of God , the Sons of wisdom in this world is , to keep their hearts . To explain it a little more before I come to a further proof of it , be pleased to know that there are two great works about our hearts in this spiritual sense . The one is , 1. To get it into a good spiritual Frame , which no mans heart in the world is , til the Lord break it in pieces and make it new . The other work is , 2. When God hath put this Instrument into tune , that we keep it so , that when God hath put it into a good frame , our work must be to keep it in a good frame . The second of these is the Duty of this Text , for this is here applied unto the Sons of wisdom in whom Grace is planted , and so my Doctrine then is this . Doct. 2. That all the Servants of God must make it their busiest , their diligentest , their watchfullest work in the world to keep their hearts in a good frame when once the Lord in mercy hath put them into a good frame . Now to make this good to you , I wil not ( because an hour wil quickly be gone , and I have many things that I would fain give you ) turn you to many Texts that should particularly prove it , I think any of you that do but read the Scriptures , where the Lord Christ enjoyneth us to look to our hearts , because out of the heart and out of the treasury of the heart comes every thing out , but to convince you of it I would open six grounds to you , and all of them out of the Scripture which may satisfie you , that the greatest work that all the servants of God have to do in this world as to themselves is , To keep their hearts in a good frame ; and I hope I shal shew it you cleerly that the things are so , and then I wil make some Application of it , as the Lord shall enable me within the compass of the time . I say , there are six Conclusions that I would set you down , any one of them may be sufficient to convince , but al of them together may and ( I hope ) wil abundantly satisfie you , that we have no such Duty lies upon us as to our selves in this world , as the looking to our hearts . The first is , 1. Because the heart , that heart which I have interpreted , it is beyond all comparisons the best part of man , it is the head quarter . You know in an Army they have their Sentinel in every corner , they would be loth to have the out quarters beat up , but the head quarter where the General or chief Officers lie , there is the strongest and watchfullest guard of all : Now the heart of man , the wil and the affections , and the intellectual faculty , that is beyond all degrees of comparison better than every thing else that is in man , so much better than all the rest that our Lord saith , that the man makes a very ill bargain of it , that gaines all the world if he lose his soul , Loose thy Heart and thy Soul is lost ; Now then if our Souls , if the heart be ten times more worth than all things else that we have , surely it should be kept more diligently than any things else we have : This I think no man can question the strength of the reason of it , it is the best ; Remember our Saviors word in a lower case , when he did chide men that did take care of meat and drink and clothing and the like , saith he , Is not your life more than your food ? Is not your body more worth than your raiment ? I do but allude to that comparison , Now I may say then , Is not thy Heart better than thy Head ? Is not thy heart thy inward man better than thy outward man ? What is the body but meerly the shel ? It is the Heart that is the Jewel . That is one . I hope to have a little more time afterwards to shew what this includes in it , this keeping ( at least to point at it ) but that is one ground . Because the heart it is the best part of man , it is the Queen , it is the Prince , it is the head quarter , and al others are nothing when compared with it . Secondly , A second ground that is for the demonstration of it , is this , 2. Because the heart it is not only the best part of the man , but it is the treasury wherein better things are laid up than it self . The heart is a very rich Cabinet , yea , but it is a Treasury or Cabinet of the rarest , the invaluablest wealth that is in Heaven or Earth . Understand me aright , I speak not of the heart of a wicked man , of an unconverted man , for Solomon tels us expresly , the heart of a wicked man is nothing worth , it self is a base thing , and there is nothing in it but that that is worse than it self , nothing in the world but the rubhish and the filth of the Devil and the World and Hell lies in the heart of a wicked man , but a man that is a Child of wisdom , that is Gods Child , Oh! there is a rich treasury laid up in his heart . You shal read our Savior speaks of a good man , who out of the good treasury of his heart bringeth forth good things , he hath a good treasury : Now would you know what are the treasures that are laid up by God , not of our own getting but of the Lords depositing . Quest. What are the treasures that are in the heart of a Gratious man ? Answ. I Answer , the Tongues of men and Angels cannot tel you what ; I wil name you a few . The one is , 1. The great God himself hath chosen to make the heart of every Godly man , his own privy and Presence-Chamber ; himself saith it , that though the Heaven be his Throne , and the Earth his foot-stool , yet he dwels in in an humble broken heart , in the heart of one that trembleth at his word , and fears his name , there doth he himself dwel . And then , 2. Christ Jesus dwels there : Emmanuel , the Son of God , the Savior of poor sinners ; the Scripture is plain , That Christ may dwel in your hearts by Faith , Christ dwels in our hearts , Is not there a Jewel ? I tel you the Apostle saith of Christ , In him there are hid all the treasures of God ; The God of Heaven is worth no more than is laid up in Christ , and Christ & al he is worth comes to dwel in the heart , and in him ( saith the Apostle ) they are both of them in Collos. 2. the one in verse 13. and the other in verse 9. where he tels you , that the fulness of the Godhead dwels in Jesus Christ essentially or bodily : Now Jesus Christ dwels in the hearts of Gods people . And then , 3. The Holy Ghost dwels there too , For the Heart of every Godly man is a Temple of the Holy Ghost ; and if you wil I might go on to Multiply more . 4. That all the graces of Gods spirit are laid up in our Heart , It is Faith in the Heart , and love unfained in the Heart , and all those excellent things . And , 5. The word that is the Rule of Life , saith David , I have laid up thy word in my Heart , I have hid thy word in my Heart ; Now ( Brethren ) where there is such a treasury that God is laid up in it , and Jesus Christ is laid up in it , and the Holy Spirit ( pardon the expression ) is pleased to dwell in it , and all Gods Graces , all they that are Gods ordinances are there laid up , his word and the like , do not you think this should be wel watched , and well barred , and wel kept , and wel looked to ? There is a second ground , that thy Heart it is not only the best piece that is , but it is the treasury of that that is a great deal better than it self , the richest treasury , and therefore Heaven hath not a richer treasury in it than the Heart of every Saint hath , and therefore it should be kept above al keepings ; Thirdly , A third ground of demonstration is 3. Because that the Lord whom we serve , or pretend to serve , and profess to serve , and do serve if we be his , The Lord looks only at the Heart in all the services that we perform to him , All things that we are to do to the Lord as an homage , and tribute and honor to him , he regardeth nothing but the heart in them all , nothing else is of any esteem with the Lord but the Heart . My meaning is this plainly , that in any services God liketh a thing never a whit the better , for the brave accomplishment or adornment of it with any of our parts or faculties , Wits , Fancies , Memory , expression , Decorum , fair carriage and deportment of the Body , the Lord values not this one button in any service whatsoever , but so much as the heart is in it , so much as the wil & affections are in it , so much doth the Lord value it , insomuch that this one thing wil satisfie you about the truth of it : read all the Scriptures over that speak of the servants of God , & you shal find this , That when all their infirmities ( as many of them had many gross ones and grievous ones , when they ) were all reckoned up , if this were but added , but his heart was with God , his heart was upright with God , that was a Salvo for all the other , he never broke with any of them or cast them off , if so be their hearts were but with him in the midst of al other weaknesses and infirmities , if they could but say as Hezekiah , Lord , remember that amongst all my weaknesses my heart hath been with thee , there was Gods content . And on the other side , Let the performances be never so glorious , or in things never so much commended , or never so much delighted by the Lord , the duties of his Worship and Ordinances , if God did but say of them , This they did but their hearts were not with God , Nevertheless his heart was not upright with God , that signified the Lord threw it all away as rubbish stuf that he took no pleasure in the wnrld in : So then because that it is the Lord that looks at the heart , and if he have that , he hath all , he hath so much as contents him , and never breaks for the want of any thing else , ( as you shal see further anon ) because where the heart is , the best they have wil be brought out , therefore above all we should keep that . That is a third ground . The Lord looks at that above all others , therefore we should keep it above all others . Then Fourthly , ( which I need but name ) . 4. The Devil who is our Adversary , and the Lords Adversary , and goes about like a roaring Lyon seeking how he may devour , all his assaults and batteries are at the heart , and he counts all his labor lost if he do not get into the heart , if he gets that he gets the Cittadel that wil command all the rest , and if he be kept out or cast out there , he himself counts he hath nothing , therfore he saith he wil enter into Judas's heart , he wil fil Annanias's heart , he labors to set up his Throne and his Dominion in the heart of the Children of disobedience , that is his great endeavor . Now then when we are called home to the Lord , we give our selves up to him to fight his battels , and where we know the Enemy wil most assault , certainly our care should be most to watch . If the good man of the house knew at what hour the thief would come he would watch , if he knew what part of the house he would assault , he would watch that most of all ; Now Satans whol endeavor though I confess that by his good wil , he would not let the Lord have a good word out of the mouth of any of his People , nor of any People in the world , nor the bending of a knee if it lay in his power ; but he wil afford that , so he may have but the heart , and if he can but any waies batter the heart , or discompose the heart , or bring it out of frame , he wil not greatly be troubled at all other formalities they give to God : Now because Satan doth so extreamly lay his battery there , surely the servants of God should above all keepings with all diligence keep that . That is a Fourth ground . Fiftly , Another that is of equal force is this , 5. The Heart even the heart of a Godly man it must be kept above Keepings with all diligence , because in truth it is not to be trusted , No , not the heart of the best man living in the world , it is deceitful , it is false , it is cozenig , it is treacherous , not that the new heart is so , but our heart is renewed but in part , and though it be made a Garison for Jesus Christ where our Treasures are kept , yet that Garison hath a great many false enemies that lodg within it ; It were endless for me to explain this sufficiently , in so short a time as is fit for me now to speak , you know where the Scripture saith , that the heart of man , of an unconverted man , in Jerem. 17.9 . It is deceitful above all things , it is desperately wicked , so desperately wicked and deceitful that none but the God of Heaven can search into the bottome of it , the deceitfulness of a mans heart goes as deep as Hel , that no plum-line wil go to the bottom of it ; Now when the Lord plants Grace in any of his Children , and brings in some integrity , some sincerity , yet there remains a woful tang of their former falshood and treachery , that was in it before any Grace was brought in ; and if it be not wel kept and wel looked too , the old deceits wil quickly so get up again , that all wil be put most wofully out of temper upon a sudden . Should I but give you the instances that the Scripture hath left upon record , of some of the choycest Servants of God , how they have been lamentably befoyled , when they have but a little trusted their own hearts , and not had a s●ickt watch and ward going along with it , you would hardly beleeve it ; That holy Apostle Peter , how did he trust his heart when our Lord and Savior asked him , whether he would stick to him when he was in danger ? Lord ( saith he ) I wil die with thee , and hang with thee , if thou beest in danger , and he beleeved it , and little knew what danger lay in the bottom : and David he would not countenance any one that was wicked , but when he trusted his heart it led him to Murther , and Adultery , and Dissembling . And abundance of others that when they have but a little beleeved their own hearts , the best of Gods Children have found so much , that I may say of all the Saints living what Solomon saith in Prov. 28. He is a Fool that trusteth his heart , he that trusteth his heart , that wil beleeve it , No , if it be not throughly searched and throughly looked too : as Solomon saith of an enemy , Beleeve him not though he give the fair words , there are seven abominations in his heart : So I may say to a Child of God , that hath set Christ and Grace and Gods Glory the highest in his heart , Beleeve not thy heart , there are seven abominations lie in it , that if it be not very wel looked to it wil lay thee in the ditch , it will bring thee into woful inconveniences : Now then as you know in a Garison , if so be that we would keep a Garison , if there be impetuous enemies without , if the Rampires and Wals be strong the Guard may be a little secure , but when they know there are a hundred false enemies within their wals , that watch for any opportunity to open some postern Gate or other , to set fire upon the City , to make way for the enemy to come in , they are mad that think that it wil be kept without al diligence ; So that because of the deceitfulness and treachery of our hearts , we must therefore keep them with all diligence in the world . Lastly , to give one more and that is that which my Text holdeth out , and therefore I wil speak a little to it . Keep thy heart with all diligence , Why ? 6. Because out of it are the issues of life , That is plainly , because Thy whol Conversation wil be as thy Heart is kept , that is the plain meaning of it , Thy heart is the fountain , and if thy heart be wel kept , clean , sweet , and pure , thy Conversation wil be such : Now you know that the Conversation of the Lords People it must be pure , it must be holy , Oh! there is a wonderful deal lies upon it , that the Servants of the Lord should glorifie him in a holy & unblameable Conversation : Jesus Christ redeemed them that they should in their Conversation shew forth the graces of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light , & made them Inheritors of better things , that they should be to the praise and glory of his Grace , and to have the servants of God walk unworthily , walk in a deformed disordered conversation , this makes the Lords name stink amongst his enemies , this is the greatest reproach of God that can be in the world , to see those that are his redeemed people walk otherwise than as becometh Saints : Now our Conversation wil be as we look to our hearts , look wel to thy heart , keep that above all keeping , and then thy Conversation is secure , then thy words and thy actions may all be trusted , then the Lord will be secure of his Glory ( if I may speak it with reverence ) in thy words and Conversation , if thy heart be but looked to ; but if thy heart be disorderly , and defiled , and polluted , then unclean issues of life wil appear : A proud Heart will bring a proud Conversation ; a wanton Heart wil bubble out a wanton Conversation ; a worldly Heart that drinks in the love of the Creature , wil dishonor God in a worldly Conversation , be sure of that ; I thought to have named you the Text , but I confess I had not time to look it , but you well know it an excellent speech of Solomons to my purpose , let me tell you before hand , that it is usual in the Proverbs of Solomon , that one part of the sentence concerns the wicked , and the other part concerns the godly , and commonly they are one of them ever set contrary one to another , Now he hath this speech towards the latter end of the Proverbs , The Tongue of the Just it is like refined Silver , ( mark that expression , the Tongue of the just it is like refined Silver ) what is that ? the language , the savory discourse of Godly men , of gracious men , it is pure , and it is gain to a whol City where they dwel , they even scatter refined Silver where they come ; Oh! it is delightful to sit and partake of the language of gracious men , the Tongue of the just is so ; now you will expect the other sentence should be , now the Tongue of the wicked is rotten , their speech is rotten , No , but he saith , The Tongue of the wicked is nothing worth ; as if he should have said , never look for any good in the Tongue of a wicked man , Why ? For his Heart is worth nothing , and therefore never expect his language should be worth any thing , and though it is true some wicked men have so much Hypocrisie , that they can express otherwise to men , yet God that looks at the Heart he looks upon it as rotten and unsavory , but let thy Heart be Silver , and thy Tongue will be like refined silver , let thy Heart be rotten and nothing worth , and thy discourse will be as nothing ; Now lay these six things together , let me endeavor to make some use of it , but this is the sum , therefore should all the Servants of God , all Gods Children look to their Hearts above all things in the world , because First , It is the best part of them , Secondly , It is a treasury of that that is better than it self , Heaven hath not a better treasury than is laid up in the Heart of a godly man , and the Lord looks at it above all other things , and Satan assaults it above all other things , and even the best men have abundance of corruption and deceit in their Hearts , and according as their Hearts are kept so will their life be , therefore above all keepings look to thy Heart ; Now the Application of it , I fear I shal not speak so much as I would have done , but I would willingly ( if God help me ) a little warm your Hearts about it , three Uses I would wilingly make of this Doctrine , that the greatest , the busiest work that the Servants of God have to do in this world , is to keep their inward Heart in a good frame to God-ward . USE , 1. Is this so ? How lamentably and bitterly doth this speak to the reproof of thousands , who yet fain would go for the children of God , I might say of it as Ezekiel saith in another case , it is a Lamentation and shal be for a Lamentation to a world of People , truly almost the whol world , many bitter reproofs may be gathered out of this Doctrine two three or four sorts of people , ( I will give you a touch of it ) and they are found in every place where you come . First , 1. How many are there that are wonderfully exact in keeping the outward things that belong to them ; come into the House which is your Housewives care , those that are neatly , civilly brought up , that would go for Housewives , how delilcatly are their things kept ? How are their Roomes rubbed ? How is every utensil kept tite and clean ? Come into the Shops of your Trades men , How do they keep al their wares ? and if any thing lie out of its place and pile , How impatient are they with their Servants ? if they have received any mony , how wonderfully careful are they to have a Treasury where it may be barred and kept safe for them ? and come into our Country , How do People keep their Cattel ? their very Swine they will keep them as they ought to be , that they may thrive and be for their gain , and credit , and the like , this you shall find common , but go amongst these People , and how are their hearts kept al this while ? As if I should come into one of your houses , and find it very neat , and clean , Truly I con you thanks , surely this cost somebody hot water to keep all this so neatly ; but how do you keep your heart ? Pray how do you keep your heart ? Friends , I fear your Houses , your Shops , your Chests , your Garments , I fear they wil all rise up in judgment against you , every one of you : Have you a Jewel , have you a heart wherein you think such a treasury is laid up ? Do you let it lie open to let every Rogue and Raskal come in , and every thing to defile it , and can you find time to keep these outward things so ? methinks I hear a Mother say to her Child that she gives a row of Pins to , See you keep them carefully I wil call you to an account for them : But saith God to a Soul , I have given thee a Soul , and ( if thou beest mine ) Graces that one of them are more worth than all the Kingdomes of the world , and what paines dost thou bestow upon the keeping them ? The Lord help you to ask your Souls the question , whether this will not rise up sadly against you one day . 2. Go to others and rise higher , because the Body is higher than all these things , Oh! what curiosity shal you find in many about keeping their bodies ? Alas , I must keep my body ( saith one ) I am subject to colds and distempers , and if once they be but bitten a little you shal hardly make them drink a Cup , it wil hurt their Bodies ; yea , they wil have their Cordials by them that shal cheer up their hearts , O! how shal I live if I look not to it , and this care I condemn not simply , because it is an Utensil we should use for Gods Glory , but I fear the bodies of most of you wil be a sad condemnation to the souls of most of you : You shal never meet any of you in a Congregation , but the body of you shal be tricked up as fine as you can , which it ought to be , But what have you done for your hearts ? Have you not left them at home ? Nay , to go a little higher . 3. How many are there that keep their very lives , not only their bodies but their moral Conversations , that look that they may be Sine crimine , that nothing may turn as a reproach to them , God forbid that my language should be otherwise than becomes a Servant of God , God forbid that my Recreations should be such but what may be honorable to God ; and come to them and ask them seriously , Are you the Servants of God ? Pray tel me , Why , can any body detect me ? No , there is your care , the issues of it shal be kept as far as thou canst keep it : but what doth thy heart do ? Thy Tongue talketh righteouly , thy Ears hear good discourse , thy Eyes are in a comly deportment , and so thy actions with men , Justice , Honesty , Sobriety , and other things shal not be found against thee , and perhaps in the mean time , thy very heart left to be a Cage for unclean Beasts and Birds : The good Lord pitty us , these things are very sad , where did you ever read that the Lord said , Keep your Shops above all keepings , or your Bodies a-above all keepings , or your Conversations above all keepings , though I told you how far it is comely , but for you to keep all these things and never look to your hearts is sad : Nay , there is one more that goes beyond all these . 4. It is true , you say true , We were Wretches if we should look to our Goods and Bodies , and not look to our Hearts : I look to that every day , I but Friend , Do you look to it above all keepings ? And bestow more pains about it than about all things in the World besides ? pray deal faithfully in it , for you must give an account to one that knows all things in the world , but have you more studies desires and endeavors about that than about all things in the world ? No , no , Alas most of the people I converse with , they do as some poor Tradesmen do , wretched men that think that they have got a servant that they leave all to , and now and then because they wil not let all run at randome , look into the Shop and ask him , Come , What ? Do you keep your Cash right ? and is all right ? and so rest in him , when all this while he is a Wretch , and runs out of all , and so is my heart wel ? is all wel there ? I , I , saith the heart , and we beleeve it , and put our trust in it , and it is the arrantest Lyar in all the world . I remember Solomon hath a notable Speech in the latter end of the Prov. Chap. 30. where he saith , There are three things that are wonderful , that I could never find out the way of them , yea , there are four of them , the one is , The way of the Ship in the Sea , and that is hard to find for it leaves nothing that you may say here a Ship hath gone , And another is , The way of an Eagle in the Air , and that hath many windings and turnings , And another is , The way of a Serpent upon a Stone , and that leaves neither slime nor excrement , that you cannot find which way it goes , And the fourth is , The way of a man with a maid , which he interprets afterwards to be a lascivious maid , who hath a wanton heart within that would deceive a hundred People , you may add the heart of a man too , for that wil tel you , I have been at Prayer , when it never prayed a word , and I heard the word very wel , and his heart was dead and asleep all the while , Oh! ( Brethren ) it is hard for you to think with a few words thus to charm this deceitful wild Beast , and you to have no care about it , but God knows and man knows that you are real in your other keepings , and slight in this , I fear there is little in your heart that your self judg worth the keeping , that you are so extream slight and loose about it . Wel that is one , ( I dare not stay longer upon it ) let it be a matter of rebuke , and to help you to try and judg how things stand between God and you , for if your hearts be as they ought to be , you wil bestow more pains about them than about any thing in this world . Secondly , Another Use that I wil make of it , which is a Use that Gods Children wil rejoyce in , and that is . USE , 2. It is a Doctrine that affords abundance of Comfort , I , this very Doctrine though it may seem and doth carry just rebuke ( I beleeve ) to the best of all Gods Children , in some degree to be humbled , but withall it is a Doctrine of wonderful Consolation to all those , whom God witnesseth with that their greatest care and study is to purge their hearts , to have their hearts mended , to have their hearts guarded , and are most humbled and afflicted when it is not wel with the inward man , though all other things go smooth with them , yet it is not comfortable with them except they find the heart set right Godward , this Doctrine speaks a world of Consolation to such poor Souls , I am confident it is the Lot of the generation of Gods People that hear me at this time , though it may be under a temptation they may lay all aside , yet otherwise God knows their dayly work , their greatest work , their work of prayer and mourning is most about their hearts ; If you ask them , How doth your Body ? better than my heart , How do you perform your Duties ? wel outwardly , but my heart is wretched , I have a vile heart , and there they make their study , there they make their search , there they make the matter of their mourning : Now I would say to such Souls , and dare affirm it with much boldness , none but the Schollars that are of the Lords own teaching ever study that Lesson , for as for others they love and like their hearts wel , that when they are convinced of every thing else in the world , they will boast of their heart that that is right , but when a man can say , as Hezekiah said to God , Oh Lord ! remember I pray thee that I have with an upright heart sought thee ; as if he should have said , If I could have done thee more service I would , I would have prayed better , and beleeved better , and been more active , but thou hast had my heart , the Soul that can say so , the Lord would answer it even as David said to the Lord , in 1 Chron. 29. Oh! Lord ( saith he ) I know that thou lovest the heart , when he had offered up an Oblation he and his People , Oh Lord ! ( saith he ) I know thou regardest the heart , and hast pleasuere in uprightness , as for me in the uprightness of my heart I have sought thee ; So when thou shalt say , Father , my memory is weak , my utterance bad , my temptations strong , and my corruptions great , I can deny none of these , but the Lord knows he hath my heart , could I get it in a better frame , I had rather see it in a better frame than have the estate of an Emperor ; Where there is a willing mind ( it is an excellent Speech of the Apostle , in 2 Cor. 8. in the point of Alms , and I wil give you an instance in that , that you may make of it in a hundred other things , when he would stir them up to contribute , he saith , where there is a willing mind ) it is accepted according to that a man hath , and not according to that he hath not , as if he should have said , The Lord hath given me a heart , I like this cause so wel I would willingly give twenty shillings to this cause , but I am not able to give above a penny , Hast thou a willing mind to give more ? thou art accepted according to what thou hast , The liberal gift is but the work of Gods Providence , the willing mind is the work of Gods Grace , The same wil run throughout all duties , go to prayer , one man hath such an utterance , conception , working fancy , can speak admirably to the affecting of all , but these are but gifts and parts , and if he hath an humble broken heart goes with it there is Spirit too : but it may be another poor Soul that joyneth in the Duty , that can hardly speak a few words of sense together , but God knows if they could pray , if they could pour out their souls , if they could wrastle with God , they had rather do it than any thing else in the world , that is the work of prayer , the other is but the work of common gifts , that is for the edification of others , therefore know this all of you , we poor creatures deal with men , and it is almost impossible but we value men according to their parts , a man whom God enableth with parts and gifts to edifie others , especially if there be Grace in his Heart too , he is measured by the value of his parts by all men , God goes not by that value , No , that Soul that takes most care about his Heart , give me a Woman , a handmaid that wrestles more in secret , that she may bring her wil to Gods wil , and may love and hate nothing but what God loves and hates , find such an one out , they are Gods choice ones , and his Jewels , therfore be not discouraged for the want of any thing while you can say , The great God that knows al knows my great study is about my Heart , I will conclude this use with a speech I have often heard of one Mr. Banes , a man that was indeed an excellent emminent Man for any thing that was good , and not long before he died , some friends were with him in his Library , it was an excellent one , and they fel a commending of it , I ( saith he ) There they stand but the Lord knows that for many years last past , I have studied my Heart more then my Books ; Oh! There was a study , give me a Scholler that can say , I study my Heart more then my Book , I study my Heart more then my Shop-book , I study my Heart more then my Counting-House , I study my Heart more then a Bargain , that it may be pure and Holy , this Man is a blessed Man and Woman that hath but attained this ; and then Lastly the last Use that I would make ( and I wil but even name it ) is this , USE , 3. I beseech you therefore for the time to come will you all make this your study , You have heard it is a dangerous Heart you bear about you , whatsoever you are that think you may be most secure of your heart , you are but Fools to trust it , and your Conversation wil be as your heart is , remember all the Arguments I gave you , and let it prevail with you for the time to come , to enter into this serious study , how you may keep it in a good frame continually , and this now would have been an Introduction to the second Question , for this is sufficient to prove that it ought to be so : But now the next is , Quest. Wherein stands the keeping of the heart in a good frame ? It is true , I confess it is comfortable to hear of the general endeavor of it , but what are the rules and directions the Servants of God should attend to , when they would keep their hearts in so good a frame , that it may be such a Temple of the Holy Ghost for the Lord to delight in ? Answ. That is too great a Question in truth to handle in a little time , only these two or three things I would say in general before I dismiss you : As First , 1. There is no talking , it is not for any man living ever to talk of keeping his heart in a good frame , until first the Lord have broken it to pieces and new molded it , that is for certain , while the heart is as we come into the world , as we are in a state of nature , the wildest Beast under Heaven will be easilier tamed , than the heart of a man wil ever be ordered ; It is just as a Bel that hath a crack throughout , al the Bel-founders in the Town & Country they may hew it , and chip it , and scurfe it , and I know not what , they wil never make it sound right , til it be choped a pieces and new cast : So ( I say ) the heart of man is by nature so forlorn , so ful of wickedness , so utterly destitute of all good , that if all the Teachers and Tutors under Heaven had it to work , to bring a man up and make him right , til God take away the heart of stone and regenerate him , and give him a new heart , there is no talking of ever keeping it in a good frame : Therefore if you be not throughly grounded in it , get your heart knocked in pieces , the first thing you do pray God Almighty to break it through , break it down , break it up , and then when the Lord hath broke it and new shot it , that he hath given you an interest in Christ , and the Spirit of Christ is become a new life to you , then you are fitted to this Duty , but til the Lord hath wrought that in you , all other talk is to no purpose , therefore your first work must be , to get such a heart as is capable of this , for every one is not . Then Secondly , 2. When the Lord hath done so , then for the keeping of it in a good frame , all the directions ( though there be very many of them yet ) I think they may be all brought to these two heads . The one is , 1. Keep the heart pure , keep it pure from sin , from the defilement that wil daily grow upon it if it be not wel kept , from the stirrings of corruption , either to keep them down that they do not stir , or when they do stir to get them dayly washed off by the blood of Christ. And then the other is , 2. As to keep it pure from sin , so to keep it fit for Duty , tuned and prepared for the several Duties , the word is large and through Gods mercy your instructions are many , and whosoever is willing may have constant directions to guide him in all these . FINIS THE LIFE OF CHRIST : OR THE Great Mystery OF SPIRITUAL LIFE . Opened and applied in several Sermons , at Olaves Silverstreet , Octob. 27. 1653. Gal. 2. part of verse 20. I am crucified with Christ , nevertheless I live , yet not I , but Christ liveth in me , ( now follows that which I shal more insist upon ) and the life that I now live in the flesh , I live by the faith of the Son of God , who loved me , and gave himself for me . THE Dependance of these words with the former , briefly stands thus : The Holy Ghost having decried the Law as that which is utterly unable to give life , and set up the justification of a sinner only from Gods Free Grace , in making over unto him the Righteousness of Christ , having ( I say ) asserted this great fundamental Doctrine of our Christian Religion , wherein the Galatians were begun to be tainted , he then comes to answer the common Cavil , which ( not only the Papists , but ) too many among our selves do charge this Doctrine withal , namely , That it is but a door to al licenciousness , and doth take off the rains from any man , and give him an occasion to be bold in wickedness ; for if our righteousness cannot justifie us , nor our unrighteousness condemn us , but the righteousness of Christ is accepted for us , and in him we are compleat without any thing of our own , who would not take liberty to indulge himself in such fleshly courses as are agreeable to his nature ? Now against this the Apostle opposeth several things , as arguments to prove , that this cannot be a consequence of this Doctrine to a man that rightly understands it , Justification by free Grace wil never be a temptation to a man to a sinful life ; and one Argument is , All Pauls Ministry tended to beat down a wicked life , and do they think he would come to build up that which he had pulled down ? that were an absurd thing . Secondly , The very end of our Justification by Christ is quite contrary to it , for ( saith he ) through the Law I am dead indeed to the Law , but it is that I might live to God ; as if he should have said , It is true , that the right understanding of the impossibility of a sinners keeping the Law , wil beat down in him al thoughts of ever obtaining any life by the Law , he wil be dead as to look for justification , or acceptance that way ; but it is that he might live to God , that is the very end of it that he might live to God ; that is another argument , and that being the very end that God aims at , it is impossible that the quite contrary of it should flow from the Lords own appointment . Then Thirdly , Every man that doth but partake of Jesus Christ , he is crucified with him ; and he instances in himself , I am crucified with Christ ; when Jesus Christ hung upon the Cross , and there by vertue of his death did kil sin , and by vertue of his resurrection hath opened a way to a new life , when I partake of Christ I have an interest in this , I die with him , and am buried with him , therefore it is impossible that looking for life by Christ should make a man live a wicked life . And Fourthly . Which he brings in by way of Answer to a tacite Objection , Are you crucified ? do we not see you are alive ? Yes , I live indeed , but in truth more properly I may say it is not I that live , but it is Christ Jesus that lives in me , by vertue of my interest in him , my whol life flows from him , and that life that I live in this life , that is , in this fleshly Tabernacle , it is the life of Christ , and the way how I live , it is by the faith of the Son of God , who loved me , and gave himself for me . And so I have brought you to my Text ; and in the words ( without any further interpretation , save what you shal have in handling the Doctrine ) there are these Two Doctrines cleerly laid down : The first is , That every soul that hath an Interest in Christ , while he is in this world , it is Christ that lives in him . While we live in this flesh , in this world , the life that we live , it is Christs life , Christ lives it , we do not , only ( when we accept of Christ ) beleeve in him to be saved by him when we go out of this world , and trust al the daies of our life , that when this life endeth he hath a better life for us in store , that is not al , but when we accept of Jesus Christ , we so accept him , that his life is communicated to us , and while we are in this world we live that life . That is the first Doctrine , That all the Lords people while they live in this world , they live Christs life . The Second is , That the modus vivendi , the manner of their living this life in this world , it is by faith . We shal live the life of Christ to Eternity , but when that moment of Eternity cometh , faith shal have no hand in it ; but the life we now live while we are in the flesh , it is the grace of faith by which we live it . Just as I may express my meaning ( for I shal not handle that Doctrine ) as take it of an Infant , As soon as ever the body and soul are but joyned together , that it is made a living soul , it is the life of a man that it lives ; but while it is in the mothers womb , the manner of living is by the navel , the navel-string conveyeth al to it ; when it comes into the world , that is cut , there is no more use of it , and then it lives another way . So while we are in this world , though we live the life of Christ , yet Faith is ( as it were ) our navel-string , it draws and receives al from him , when we are transplanted into another world , that way of living ceaseth , and we enjoy God in Christ immediatly . These two Doctrines lie in the Text , the first of them ( with the Lords assistance ) I shal spend one hour in endeavoring to cleer it to you , and to make some use of it . That all that do receive Jesus Christ , even in this world , they live his life . I live , but it is Christ that lives in me , and the life that I live in this flesh , I live it by the faith of the Son of God. Now to make a little way to it , That al the Saints live Christs life , the life of Christ ; I would not have you expect that I would spend any part of my hour in a Phylosophical Discourse about the Nature of Life in general , No , let this suffice , That you shal find in the Scripture a two fold Life of man spoke of : The one is , This present natural life which we al live , which we receive from Adam , I speak not of the corruption of our Nature , but the first man was a living soul , that is , he was an animal man , a man endewed with a reasonable soul , and al that come from him have that life which is nothing but the union of the body and soul together , and those motions and operations that are in us are acted in us by vertue of that union , and this the Scripture somtimes cals the natural man , the natural life , the animal man , as who should say , the man endewed with a soul , the happiness of whom is to enjoy a soul-life , and this life it is somtimes called the present life , somtimes called the bodily life , the life of man , and this life al that proceed from Adam do live in al Ages and parts of the world , and to the upholding and beautifying and accommodating of this life , are al mens labors and their studies , and the good things of this world , they are naturally al subservient to it , every thing parted with , rather than part with it ; Skin for skin , and all that a man hath , wil he give for this life : Now that there is such a life , no man doubts of it . But then Secondly , The Scripture speaks of another Life , and so you shal see my Text leads to it , he speaks of another life which is a spiritual life , which flows from the second Adam , that as the first Adam was a living soul , and communicates a living soul to al that come from him , the second Adam is a quickning spirit , and communicates a quickning spirit to al that come from him , that is the Life that my Text leads me to speak of , and this Life ( before I come to speak further of it ) the Scripture somtimes cals the new Creature , somtimes cals it the Life of Christ , as in my Text , somtimes cals it the Life of God , not only because God is the Author of it ( for so he is of the other Life ) but because ( in a sound sense ) it is the life that he himself lives , their Life being but an Image of his Life ; this is called Eternal Life , this is that that is the end and fruit of al Christs undertakings . Now this Life , this Spiritual Life , this Life of Christ , this new Life , this Eternal Life , it is that that I now come to endeavor to demonstrate to you , that al the Lords people live this Life while they are in this world . Now there are Two things that my purpose is to treat upon in the Doctrinal part of it , before I come to the Application ; but before I come to either of them both , I wil crave your leave to set down three or four Propositions that are but preparatory to it ; I wil not handle them , for they would take up too much of the time , but to name them is requisite , it shal be a kind of inlet or preparation to it . The one is , That this spiritual Life that the Saints do live , no natural men have any understanding of it , not any real understanding of it ; he doth not know the things of God , nor can he , they are spiritually discerned , and therefore if it should prove a Riddle to many of you , you may have cause to suspect your condition , but not to suspect the truth of the Doctrine . Yea Secondly , I premise that men may be in the Church , live in the Church , and have admirable learning , and admirable abilities to judg of al other things that fal under humane Capa●●ty , yet not be able to look upon this any otherwise than as a meer whimsie or a dark riddle . Nicodemus who was a Doctor , a Pharisee , a Ruler , & an honest man according to his principles he had been trained up under , yet when he comes to Christ to know the way to Heaven , he tels him al his other righteousness was nothing , if he be not born again , and have a new life , he could never come into the Kingdom of God ; What is this ? ( saith he ) this was as dark to him as if he should enter into his Mothers womb , and be born again when he is an old man : Therefore stil think not , that if you be Scholars , or wise men , or learned men , you must needs have the capacity of it though the vulgar cannot ; No , if the Lord give you not a share in it , you wil never understand it . Thirdly I premise this : That there is a double knowledg of this Life . The One is , Only a notional knowledg , the Theory , to be able to conceive that there is such a thing , and to be able to talk of it , and to reason about it . And There is another knowledg of it , that is experimental , and practical , and real , and convincing . Now the notional knowledg ( I confess ) by the common Light that accompanies the Ministry of the Word , may break in upon some men ; but for the experimental real inward knowledg of it , they wil stil be strangers to it . Yea , I would premise this also . That while we are in this world , none living understand this Life , none , not only natural men , unconverted men , but the wisest , holiest , graciousest men that live in this world , never come to have any other than some gatherings , they have some real knowledg ( I hope I shal make good to you ) but for a ful clear understanding of it , it is not attainable in this world , no more than as our Lord speaks of the wind , that we hear the noise of it , but understand not where it rises , nor when it wil end , and no marvel that it be not thus intelligible , Because Partly from the depth of the things themselves , they are the operations of the spirit of God. And , Partly from the weakness and corruption of our faculties and understandings , which in truth know nothing perfectly . No man doth understand how his own bones were framed in his mothers womb , and the things that are before our eyes , not a man living is able to decipher the life of a Pismire or a Butterfly , therefore much less must you think to be able to comprehend this ; for this I note to prevent a discouragement , if any soul should not be able to go along with a man in every thing , nor understand every thing , it may be an argument to humble thee , but not to discourage thee : only I shal ad this in the last place , They that live this Life , the poorest , weakest , simplest of al that are numbred amongst the Lords people , though others may be able to dispute of it better than they , and to speak of it to the edification of others better than they , yet they that live this life know more of it than al the world besides . I only give you these little things beforehand : Now I come to the Two things that I promised to treat of . The one is , I will first prove it cleerly to you out of the Scripture that there is such a Life , a spiritual Life , a Life of Christ , which al who receive Christ live while they are in this world , demonstrate the truth of it that there is such a Life . Secondly , I wil then a little more fully endeavor to discover to you what this Life is , and wherein it stands , and I do not doubt but if the Lord help me in it , the things I shal deliver wil be not only useful in some kind , but very comfortable to the Lords people . First then , The thing that I promised to endeavor the demonstration of it , is , That there is such a Life besides the Life of eating and drinking , and putting on of Apparel , and buying and selling , and enjoyment of these corporal things , there is a Life that is a higher degree of living , wherein men are taken up above the life that other people live , that there is such a Life , and I wil tel you why I undertake to prove this : Because as natural men do not understand it , so out of the pride of their hearts , disdaining that there should be any happiness that the poor creatures enjoy , which they themselves cannot understand , thereupon they beleeve that there is no such thing , and I am confident that most people that live , when they hear men talk of the Life of God , and the Life of Christ , and a new Life , a supernatural Life , a spiritual Life , they look upon it as a meer juggle , partly in the Ministers , to make the world beleeve that they know more than others do ; and the simple people that follow them , that they may have somwhat to cloke their fantasticalness , they give it out ; but for the thing there is no such matter : this men beleeve , and the rather because it is a hidden life , and hidden both under the poverty and weakness of those that have it , and many times hidden under their Infirmities and corruptions that break out , which maketh them look like other men ; and so men force upon themselves , and nourish in themselves a conceit , that though some ( it may be ) may be honester men than others , and stricter , and devouter , and the like , yet this is but a little chipping and he wing of the life that other men live , and can live as they do if they had a mind to it ; but as for a life by another principle and Rule , and to have other manner of operations than the Life of the rest of the world , they abominate the admitting of it into their understandings ; and I am perswaded this is that that hardens abundance of people , that they never look after , nor suspect their own condition : therefore ( I say ) I would now prove to you that there is such a life which the Saints do live , and instead of turning you to many particular Scriptures to prove it , I wil give you these Four Arguments out of the Scripture , which you shal in reading the Scripture find frequently proved to your observation ; Four Arguments to prove that there is such a Life , that is a higher degree of living , and another kind of Life than the rest of the world live . The one is , The comparison between the two Adams : Jesus Christ is to al those to whom he is a Root , as Adam was to al to whom he was a Root : For it is worth your observing , that the Scripture speaks but of two Adams from the beginning of the world to the end of it , two Men ; the First Man , and the Second Man ; because they two only were Roots that others do partake of , either which they spring from , or are grafted into . Now the first Man Adam , God made him a living soul , and of a living soul is he the Root of all us , that is , that natural , rational life that all men in the world have , the first Adam he was the Root of it which communicates it . Now Jesus Christ is to al us the Second Adam , and the Lord made him not only the Lord from Heaven to rule all that should be under him , but to be a quickning spirit , that as the natural men follow their stock , so al that partake of Jesus Christ must follow their Stock , and consequently must partake of his Life , as the branches of the first Adam do of his Life . That is one Argument , and pray weigh it , for if it please God anon , I shal come to examine whether you have that Life or no. Secondly , The second Argument I give is this , The Scripture holds it out as the proper end of Jesus Christs undertaking his work , to give life to al that come to him , that upon their coming to him he should give them life ; I am come that my sheep might have life , that they might have it in abundance ; and herein appeared the love of God , that he gave his only begotten Son , that we might live by him : He that hath the Son , hath life ; he that hath not the Son , hath not life . Now were there no other life than what all natural men live , this were an absurd argument , and a poor ( I may speak it with reverence ) undertaking . Suppose I should go visit , and ride a Journey of many hundred miles , and lay down my life , and part with my estate ; For what end ? That the party for whom I do it , might have have a house , that hath a house already ; why should I do this if there were not another house than that which he dwels in ? Or why should I go that he might have health , that is well without my undertaking , if there were not another health besides that . So , were there not another life , to what end should Jesus Christ make that the undertaking of his life , and death , and burial , and communicate life , if there were not another Life than the rest of the world live ? Thirdly , Cleerly you wil find this , and very frequent in the Scripture , that all the world are said to be dead til they come to Jesus Christ , all the world are said to be dead ; rich or poor , sickly or healthful , yong or old , they are al dead . Now it is apparent that they are not dead as to their natural life , that needeth no confutation , to say of this Assembly , that they are dead men , when they live , and move , and breath , and talk , and do all the actions of men ; when therefore the Lord saith , that al are dead til Christ cometh , certainly there is another Life besides that life that natural men enjoy . Fourthly and lastly , Abundantly in the Scripture wil you find this proved , that upon the souls accepting of Christ they are said to be quickned ; They who were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickned ▪ Read but the ten first verses of the 2d of the Ephesians , and I know not how many other places there are , Ye were dead , ye were such , but he hath quickned you : and he that beleeveth in me ( saith Christ to Martha in John 11.25 . ) though he were dead , he shall live , and living once he shal never die : Doest thou beleeve this ? Then , Christ being the Root of a Life , it being the end of his undertaking that his people might have life , and all men being dead before they come to him , and quickned to life upon the receiving of him , certainly then there is a life that they who have any interest in Christ do live , which others are strangers from . And let this suffice for the first . And ( beloved ) though I shal not apply this alone , yet I would count it a great fruit of this daies meeting , if the very notion of it might but stick upon your hearts , it would be of admirable consequence , that if al of you would go home and say ; Certainly whatsoever I may think of my self , if I be in Christ , there is another life than that which I live yet , and ( as you will hear if it please God ) a better life , another manner of life than this is . But that for the first . The Second ( which it may be you wil more long for , for I suspect not that you wil doubt the truth of the first ) is , What is this Life ? what is it ? Now remember I taught you in one of my Preparatory Conclusions , That it is not to be understood of this world , and therefore pray expect not any cleer opening of it , what it is ; but only so far as the Lord hath taught me out of his Word , I shal communicate to you : I wil give you this Description of it , and then I will open it more expresly as I go along . The Life that al Beleevers have from Christ , it is a participation of Christs righteousness upon their union with him , Pray mark it , I shall make this plainer by and by ; ( I say ) That the Life of Christ that al the Saints partake of , it is a participation of Christs righteousness upon the souls union with him . Where there are these two things a little to be cleered . First , That all who do receive Christ are united to him , and that is the foundation of their Life . The Second is , That upon their union they partake of his Righteousness , and the participation of this righteousness is their life . That is that I mainly intend to cleer . That they are al united to him , the Scripture is abundant in the proof of it , It is Christ in us that is the hope of glory , and we are one with him , and he with us , and he dwells in us by his spirit , &c. therefore it is cleer that we are united to him , made one ; and this union it is nothing but the Lord Jesus sending his spirit into the soul , as a band to knit him and them together , that he be made their Root and Stock . Now that I will not treat of , because the very handling of it , it is not only a great Mystery , but it would take up more time than is to be allowed for the Sermon . But Secondly , Upon their Union with Christ they partake of his Righteousness , and the participation of his Righteousness is our Life : Mark ( I pray ) this , because I hope it will give you some Light into this great Work ; for if you be Gods People , I am only making you to see what your spirits are , what your blood is , what your pulse is , and I shal speak of nothing but the things that are in you , if you be the Lords ( I say . ) The participation of Christs Righteousness that is our Life : To this purpose , be pleased to observe this one rule , and mark it in your reading of the Scriptures , of the new Testament especially ; How that Righteousness and Death , are the two things that are opposed one to another ; Death and Righteousness : That look as soon as ever man was a sinner he was a dead man presently , he was dead under the sentence of Death ; In the day thou eatest thou shalt die : and not dead only under the Sentence , but dead as his sin deprived him of Gods Image . Now as it is sin that is our Death , so it is Righteousness that is our Life ; not our own ( which the Scripture disclaims ) but the Righteousness of Christ : and you shal find several times in Rom. 5. where the Apostle compares the Death by Adam , and the Life by Christ , ordinarily he useth this expression , That , As sin reigned unto Death , so righteousness by Christ unto Life , stil opposing them , our Death is sin , our Life is righteousness . I know the time will prevent me if I should stay upon that . But therefore , I wil proceed to that that I aim at , the Righteousness of Christ , the participation of Christs Righteousness . You wil say , What mean you by that ? I mean plainly this : That our spiritual Death it hath two Branches , that Tree of Death , that deadly Stock hath two Branches ; and we are said to be spiritually dead in a two-fold respect . The one is , We are dead as we are under the sentence of Condemnation , and that is our death of guilt , being bound over by the righteous Judgment of God , to make him amends for the injury we have done him , and that sentence of condemnation is our death ; that is one branch in regard of our guilt . The other branch of our spiritual death is , Our state of death we are in , as being deprived of the image of God wherein we were made , and not only deprived of it , but have contrary principles in al the faculties of the soul , carrying us constantly to the things that are opposite to him . In these two respects are all men and women in the world dead til Christ finds them . Now Jesus Christ answerable to this , hath a two-fold righteousness , the participation whereof is our life . First , He hath a Righteousness of his Obedience , which is inherent only in himself ; but is bestowed upon us , imputed to us , reckoned to us , and by that righteousness performed by Christ , and inherent in him , and reckoned to us , by the righteous sentence of God he delivereth us from the death that we are under , the death of our condemnation , under the sentence of death ; and so the Apostle expresseth it cleerly in Col. 2.12 , 13. Ye ( saith he ) who were dead in sins and trespasses hath he quickened ; How ? forgiving you your trespasses . In that place , the pardoning and removing of our trespasses , is the chief thing that is the quickning there intended . So there is one , a righteousness of Christ performed in our name , accepted by God in our stead , and made over to us in the Covenant of Grace . That is one Righteousness . Secondly , There is another Righteousness of Christ , which is not only inherent in himself , but is communicated to us , so that it is wrought in us , which is the righteousness of our Sanctification , and it is that branch of our spiritual Life that this Text aims at ; for he did assert the other , our quickning from the guilt of sin , in al the former part of his discourse . Now that no wretch may abuse it , and say , that then we may continue vassals to sin , he proves it that Christs righteousness is communicated to us , that is , Christs Grace is infused into our souls ; and that is made up of these three things , and I conceive there is nothing else in it but these three things . The one is , The Spirit of Jesus Christ , that holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is communicated to Beleevers , to dwel in them , to be in them a principle of a new Life . Secondly , This holy spirit poured into the soul , works in them in al the faculties of the soul , those gracious dispositions wherein the Image of God stands , which is , light in the understanding , freedom in the will , love , and fear , and joy , that is , the turning of al these affections or passions to their right object , habitually disposing them , turning the bent of the heart from sin to God. And then the third is , This self same spirit that plants in them these Graces , abides in them to excite them , and stir them up , and draw them out in their whol course , to think , and speak , and do the things , which in a kind of natural way flow from these inward principles , and are a conformity to the Will of God ; and thereupon al the love of the Saints to God , and one to another ; all their mourning for sin , their striving against it ; all their endeavors after God ; they are motions of this new life that is wrought in us : and this is the life now that all the Lords people do live while they are in this world . The Spirit of Jesus Christ bestowed upon them , working in them a new frame of heart , turning the bent of their hearts to God , and remaining as an exciting principle to draw out their graces , and strengthening them in their working , whereby their endeavor is in al things to live unto God according to his Will ; and this is that Life which my Text , and other Scriptures call the Life of Christ , and the Life of God , which although it be perfect in none in this world , but there are reliques of our old death in us , and of our sinful distempers in us ; yet really and truly these things are found in every soul that is brought home to Jesus Christ. And let this ( I pray ) suffice for the Doctrinal part , that without being burdensom to you , I may make some application of it . Thus then you see though I have not turned you to many particular Scriptures ; yet I know that if you do but read the Scriptures , you wil find that this Doctrine it lies written upon the foreheads of abundance of Texts , that thus it is with al Gods people . Now then for the use of it , I intend but three Uses , it may be I shal but even name the last . First , You see by all this how necessary it is that you should al try and examine your souls , Whether you be partakers of this Life or no ? And ( good friends ) be serious about it , and to make you the more serious , give me leave to stir you up by these few Considerations , to be willing to have your hearts tried about it . The one is , That in truth this alone is Christianity : mark my words ( and if you understand them not now study them ) There is nothing Christianity but the Life of Christ , nothing else that is truly Christianity . Opinions they may be Christian Opinions , they may be Christian Truths , but there is no life ▪ As we say not of any dead Carkass , of any Picture though it be drawn to the life , we say not in proper language , this is a man , though it be as like him as one thing can be like another , if it have not a mans soul ; we say not of a dead man , though it be the body of your Father or Mother , you cannot properly say , this is my Father or Mother , it is but the Carkass of them . So , ( I say ) be baptized , be in any Church Form or Order , wait upon never so many external Duties , hear Sermons never so constantly , give as good words as you will to those that preach the Truth , and hold it out to you ; this is not Christianity , Christianity is to live Christs Life , and at that day you shall find the Lord will never own a soul to be a Christian , that had not the Life of Christ communicated to him . And Secondly , I tel you to provoke you to it . Abundance of things go for this Life which are not this life ; because it is the thing that discriminates Gods people from others ; Satan hath shewed infinite stratagems , and discovered all his abilities , laid them out that he might make counterfeits of these things , that might go currant with people that he could delude ; Civil Righteousness in some it is not Christianity , a form of Godliness in others it is not Christianity , and abundance of things that I have not time so much as to reckon up ; but these are not Christianity though they look like it , and therefore I beseech you but think how you could answer this great Question ; Doth Christ live in you ? have you the life of God in you ? The Life you live in this life , is it the Life of the Son of God ? Think what you could answer to it . Now if you wil say , How shall we know it ? I wil briefly discover it to you ; for I will give you but two Characters of it ; many others might be had , but two I would bestow a little time to cleer to you . The one is , Wheresoever the Lord gives Life to any Creature in a natural way , the life is the preciousest thing in the world to that Creature ; howsoever it may mind other things , delight in them , be taken with them , there is nothing so precious to it as life , Skin for skin , and all that a man hath , will he give for his life ; and if you would suppose , as the life of a man it is made up of several lives , that that continues the being of his life , it is prized above al the others ; if he wil be impaired in any of them , it shal not be in that ( as neer as he can ) that concerns the being of his life . Now accordingly ( say I ) you shal find it cleer , that among al those that live the life of Christ , there is nothing in this world so dear to them as their spiritual Life is , it may be they are dayly mourning for the weaknesses of it , but that that they have of it , is dearer to them than any thing they have in this world besides ; and the high valuing of this spiritual Life wil appear in these three things , just as it is in the other life . The one is , A natural propensity and inclination , and appetite towards those things that are the nourishment of their Life . Look what God in Nature hath made the means to preserve life , those things living man , so far as he is living , hath the greatest inclination and disposition to ; and therefore of al desires that man is subject to , none so vehement as those of hunger and thirst : a man may love Gold , or Silver , or Lands , but there is nothing so vehemently carries him out of himself , as the satisfying hunger and thirst . So it is with all those that have this spiritual Life : Look whatsoever God hath placed their life in , as David had learned God had placed it in his Word , O Lord ( saith he ) give me thy Word , my life lies in it : and new born Christians , if ever you tast how sweet the Lord is , desire the sincere Milk of the Word that you may grow by it ▪ be longing after a high and reverent esteem , and an appetite after those things wherein the Lord hath placed thy nourishment , though they be but the channels , the vessels whereby his spirit is administred to you , the supplies of the spirit comes in them to you ; of al things in the world , these are the most desired : Others that are painted Christians may for their reputation , and that others may think well of them , and to get knowledg , &c. and for such carnal ends ; but with an inward savor no man is mightily and eagerly carried out after the means of spiritual Life , but he that lives it . That is one . A Second thing that manifests the high value of that spiritual Life is , A most vehement declining of what they know to be destructive to life . Let a man that is thirsty , come in , and give you all his money in his purse for a cup of Beer ; but let one come and tel him , Sir , that Beer in that cup is poyson ; that man wil drink his own Piss rather than that shal go down , Oh! it wil destroy Life . God hath put it into the bruit beasts ; as put a Sheep into a pasture , he carries that discerning tast , he wil not eat the poysonous Weeds that are there ; the Tree it will shoot no Root that way , it will decline it . So those that are the Lords People , that live the life of Christ , what their souls are convinced of to be destructive to their spiritual life , that they decline , shun , and hate , and turn from : and of all things under Heaven nothing so hateful to them as the waies of sin . And thirdly , it wil appear in this : That look as it is in the natural life , every Creature as it longs after that which would nourish it , and declines that which would destroy it ; so if they must come to the parting , they wil part with al other good things in this world , actually part with them to save their lives . It was a speech of Esau ( and had his Birthright been nothing but a Civil Priviledg it would have been justified ) If I die for hunger , what good would my Birthright do me ? he sels his Birthright for to preserve his life ; Skin for skin , and al that a man hath , he wil part with rather than his life . Take me a man that is alive to Christ , if he must part with his Christ , or with his wealth , with his Christ , or with his outward life , though it be the best thing that is to be enjoyed under the name of all worldly things , yet to a man that lives the life of Christ , that is a poor thing to him in comparison of his spiritual life , you shal rather strip him of al. I know when we come to practice , our weaknesses , ignorances , temptations , reliques of corruption often over power us , which may cause matter of self abhorrence ; but no man that hath this life of Christ , but in the bent of his soul doth these things , nothing so lovely as that that preserves his life , nothing so abominable as that that wil destroy it , and if he must part with any , they must go before Christ. Pray lay up these things . The Second and other Note whereby this Spiritual Life of Christ may be judged of , is this , That look as it is in al other Lives , there are some vital operations , some kind of motions or operations that are properly vital , that where they are found you may say and swear it too , that there is life , and where these are not found there is no life , or that life is in a swound . As now take the Life of a Tree , we know the natural operations of it are al those of vegetation , to draw nourishment , to expel superfluous moisture , to put out their seed in the sap and bark , and seed and the fruit according to its kind , where you see these things , if the sap run , if the buds be , if there be vegetation the Tree is alive , if it appear there be none of these in their season ( though they may be dead in Winter ) it is a dead Tree . So likewise in the life of man , the sensual life of a Beast , if there want the pulse that there be not those beatings , that there are not such motions of the heart , we conclude there is no life there ; if there be a beating of the pulse , though never so weak , life is there . Now in this Spiritual Life there are some things ( that you shal find in the Scripture ) that are the proper beatings of the pulse ; some operations , that though the things , the acting of them abroad , may be counterfeit as to others , yet to a mans own soul that studies his own heart , and the motions and operations of his own inward man , he cannot be cozened in it , and therefore you may by them be able to discern , whether the pulse of this spiritual life beateth . Now they are many , but I thought but of these three , and I think most of the rest wil fall under them . The one is , The proper genuine , and ( as I may so say ) the natural motion of this Spiritual Life , is to enjoy God in Jesus Christ as their chiefest good ; that ( I say ) is the great thing wherein their pulse beats , because Jesus Christ is not only the fountain of it , and so it must flow back to him , but he is the supream good of the soul , God in Christ is the supream good , and to be carried to that that we fancy to be our supream good it is not in our choyce , we do it necessarily , Nature compels every man to follow that that he looks upon as his chief good , therefore we use to say that of the chief end there is no deliberation , a man is not of choyce , but is carried to it . Now God in Christ being the chief good of the soul , the aiming after him , the braying , breathing after him , the mourning for the want of him , the joying in the presence of him , and all those things that would argue Christ to be the souls chief good , are never found in any but those that have the Life of Christ , there is no man else in this world , but if Christ be Twelve to him , there is somthing else that is Thirteen , therefore ask your souls that ; find you that by some operations ( it may be you know not whence they come , nor how they come in you , but there is this fixed upon you ) there is no good to your souls but Christ , let you enjoy God in Christ for your portion , and that is that good your souls aims after : you may tel others , and I tel you that I do this , and my heart may deceive me ; but if I examine my soul , I can never say I do this truly , unless the Life of Christ be in me . Secondly , Another Pulse wherein this Life constantly puts out , is this , That the things of Holiness they are connatural to him : Holiness , Righteousness , to be gracious , to be freed from sin , to be filled with love and kindness , and mercy , and pity , and these things , there is a kind of natural making out of the heart towards these ; because look as it is in our outward man , you know that the actions of eating and drinking , and of a man , no man shall need to learn them , he may have arts that shall make him do them mannerly , but to do the things , they are natural , they were born with him . So now to be holy with God , to be righteous in our conversation with men , freed from sin , to walk as the Lords redeemed ones , to practice these things , this is your life , and therefore the Apostle Peter useth this very expression , That we were redeemed by Christ that we should live to righteousness , live to righteousness . Now as a worldly man lives to his money , another man to his wrath , another man to his lusts , these are the things his heart runs its circle in : A gracious man , the things of holiness and righteousness are the things that suit his spirit . And then thirdly , and lastly , ( I wil name no more , but bring it a little closer to you ) a third thing is , That the Lord having made his Will to be the Rule of our Life , and revealed this Will in his Word , thereupon the soul that is alive unto Christ eyes the Word , looks at the Word , is guided by the Word ; the Will of God revealed in his Word , that is his Card , that is his Compass , that is his Square , that is his Meet-wand , his eye looking to the Word as his only guide . No man ( I dare affirm it though other things may come neer it , but I dare affirm it , that whosoever will study it shall find ) in this world doth any of these three things , but he that hath the Life of Christ , upon a serious debate to make Christ the good of his life , to make the acts of holiness the things that his soul naturally makes after , and for the directing of him in all to live ( as the Apostle saith ) not to the will of man , or the will of the flesh , but to the will of God , that is , to the Word of God , to make Gods Word the Rule of all our actions in our bent and purpose ; here is the discovery of the Life of Christ , and this is now to have Christ in you . Now I beseech you ( Brethren ) tell me ( for I shall by and by dismiss you , when I have made but one Use more , I will leave the third ) what say your souls to these things ? Really leave al self conceitedness , and apprehensions that you may have out of the Pride of your hearts of your own conditions , what say your souls to these things I have opened ? have you now the Life of Christ ? I wil tel you ( Brethren ) if I had time to press it , I had here a large Field to enter in , and to shew you what worlds of people that go for Christians , are yet utter strangers to the Life of Christ. I will name you a few that you may enlarge your thoughts of them when you are alone . All they that know not Christ ; it is impossible that there should be a making of Christ their chief good , where there is no knowledg of him . There is no valuing of an unknown thing . All ignorant persons are strangers to this life , as the Apostle saith , the Gentiles were strangers to the Life of God , because of the ignorance that was in them If you know not Christ and his Excellencies , you can never live in him . Then al those that live to their lusts , whose life is to be wanton , unclean , drunken , prophane , these live to the Devil , the Devil lives in them ; they may say , I live , not I , but the Devil lives in me . And so thirdly , All they that live to the world , whose work that the genious of their heart carries them to from morning to night , his wealth , purchases , buying , trading , &c. there their soul fixes on them , there they rest , to the world they live . And again , All that live to their pleasures , whose viv●re is bibere and the rest , they eat and drink , and sport and play , and give them these and these are the things that make a happy life to them . All these and abundance of others ( which I fear I should presume upon your patience , if I should stand to innumerate but al these ) are cleerly proved to be destitute of this Life of Christ ; think of it ( Brethren ) think of it . It is an easie thing ( let me tel you ) to be Christians ( as we cal it ) they are cheap things to hear Sermons , cheap things to profess Religion in our daies , wherein I think a long time there have not been fewer that mind it heartily , yet abundance now pretend to it ; but to be alive to Christ , to be able to say in this Life , I have other business than what I have here below , I have a Trade , a Wife , a Husband , and Children , but the Lord knows my Conversation is in Heaven , my life is in Heaven , it is Christ that lives in me , they are few can say it , and the Lord help you that you are not deceived about it . And then the other Use that I will make of it , is , That this Lesson is a most comfortable Lesson , for I do not doubt but the clearer any man speaks about these things of Gods Kingdom , the more will the hearts of Gods people be able to joyn with him . I fear not but many of you can say it is thus with you , the Lord witnesseth that with you , doth he not ? That there is nothing you have such an appetite after as the means of Grace and Salvation , that you might live , and that your hearts dread at the waies of sin , and that ( if God put you to it ) you beg of God to be stripped of all , rather than God should not be set up , and that al your prayer is , let God give me Christ , God in Christ for my portion , and that reverently , not in a ranting way , as if a lewd life could honor God ( as some rude people pretend to now ) but that I might be holy in this perverse generation , especially in my inward man where Christ dwels , and the things you look at in buying , selling , and purchasing , and sporting , and in al the things you may do that are Lawful to you , observing Gods Rules you take Gods Word to be your Rule , then I tel you for your comfort these two things . First , The Lord hath communicated to thy soul the excellentest life that ever he gave to any creature . Three things I wil speak briefly that you account of . First , To be thus minded , to be thus molded , thus framed , it is absolutely the highest , the noblest , the excellentest life that any creature ever partaked of . I might shew it you in a world of Particulars out of the Word , that there is no life like it . We use to say in Phylosophy , That the life of a Pismire it is a more noble life than the life of a Cedar , though one Cedar be worth many thousand Pismires ; yet the life of the Pismire is better , because it cometh from a nobler spirit . Now the Life God hath given thee comes from the spirit of Jesus Christ. It is the noblest ; the operations of this Life are above what poor creatures can do : as we say , the Life of Reason it is such a brave flying thing to be a top , above the poor sensual things of bruit Beasts , and to deal with God. And , It is the sweetest too ( that is another ; ) for in al other lives men tast but the sweetness of the Creature ; but here the sweetness of thy Life is God and Jesus Christ himself , there is no life so excellent as this is . Secondly , I say for thy comfort , The Life God hath given thee , is the greatest pledg of his love he ever giveth to any ; he hath given thee life , it was the end of Christs undertaking to give life to his beloved ones , he never giveth this to any man he means hurt to . He can give a Kingdom to a man he means to destroy ; he gave it to Saul , and cast him away in his wrath ; he can give an Apostleship to one that shall be damned ; he gave Judas an Apostleship , and yet he perished : but to have this Life , to close with Christ , to live to him according to his Word : had you this Church ful of Diamonds given you to do what you would with , and to raise your posterity to be the greatest men in this part of the world , it were not such an expression of his love as to give Christ to you . And thirdly , I tel you , This Life that the Lord hath given thee , of which Jesus Christ is the Fountain , thou mayest be bold to rely upon him for the preservation of it , because it flows from him , he is the Well-head of it , he is the Well spring of it ; and therefore when thou thinkest how many evils thy Life may be incident unto , what temptations thou mayest meet withal , how weak thou art to resist them , remember man or woman whose Life this is , it is not thy life , but Christs Life , and he ever lives to make us live ; and therefore thou in an humble walking , and dependance upon him in the use of Gospel Ordinances , mayest comfortably expect that God wil nourish this Life , and cherish it , till thou come to be a perfect man , till thou come to be transplanted into another Life , where Faith and al these things shal cease , and God be All in All : this the comfort of it . Then I thought to have spoken a little to the third Use. That because all the people of Christ live this Life , to perswade you all to study it , and to seek after it , and often compare it with that other life that we so often weary our selves about with a vain shadow , hazarding every thing for it , to have our accommodation with as much refreshing as can be . SERMON II. Gal. 2. part of verse 20. I am crucified with Christ , nevertheless I live , yet not I , but Christ liveth in me ; ( now follows that which I shal more insist upon ) and the life that I now live in the flesh , I live by the faith of the Son of God , who loved me , and gave himself for me . THe Second Lesson , which is the manner how all the Saints of God live this Life of Christ while they are in this world . The Life which I now live in the flesh . By Flesh there he means not his fleshly part , as they are said to live to the flesh who live sensually and wickedly ; but by the Flesh there is meant our mortal condition while we are here upon Earth , while we live our natural life , the Life of Christ in us , it is lived by the faith of the Son of God , that is , the faith wrought in us by the Son of God , which we place upon the Son of God ; but that grace of faith , it is the manner , or the instrument , or the means of our holy Life while we are in this world . And this Doctrine which ( beloved ) is the mystery of Christianity , is the very life , and soul , and kernel of true Christianity , I shal endeavor ( according as the Lord shal enable me ) this day to open to you . This is the Doctrine , That that Life of Christ which all Gods people live in this world , they live it by faith . Understand but the scope aright , and I hope the discourse may prove useful to those that have this Life . My meaning therefore is , That the grace of faith , it is not only the instrument , or condition required to make us partakers of Christ and his Life , it is not only one chief grace , or one branch of this Life , but while the Saints are in this world , the mannagement of their whol Spiritual Life is the work of faith , Christ indeed is the fountain of it , and the Spirit of God is the great administration of it , but that which we do while we live in this world , our whol spiritual Life is through the assistance of God acted by the grace of faith , and I intend ( the Lord willing ) to handle it in this Method : First , I will cleerly demonstrate to you from the Scripture that it is so , that the whol Life of a Christian , it is led by faith . Secondly , which I more aim at . I shall endeavor to clear to you what the holy Ghost means by this , and what it is for a soul to live the Life of Christ by faith ; that shall be my chiefest work in the Doctrinal part , and then I wil come to the application of it . For the proof of it , that it is so . First , Mark how cleerly the Scripture holds it out , that while we are in this world the life of the Saints it is led by faith . There is one place in Habbakkuk 2.4 . I wil mention that , you shall see the reason by and by ; the Spirit of God there speaks of the several waies that men had to live in troublesom times ; for Habakkuk lived in very difficult times of the Church , and there in his discourse he shews how proud men lived by maintaining a good opinion of themselves , and lifting up their hearts , and how worldly men lived by loading themselves with thick clay , good store of Gold and Silver , and Houses , and Lands ; but ( saith he ) the just live by faith , every godly man lives by faith . Now this Text of the Prophet Habakkuk , it is three or four times in the new Testament alledged by the holy Ghost , to prove the very self same Doctrine : as for example , Rom. 1 17. I wil rather name that first , because it proves both these Doctrines I have propounded , saith he in verse 16. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ , for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that beleeveth the Gospel , for ( saith he in verse 17. ) therein is the righteousness of Christ manifested from faith to faith : There now is my former Doctrine , that our Life to Salvation , it is nothing but the righteousness of God manifested to us , and communicated to us , yea , from one degree of faith to another , according as we get more faith , so we have more life , and as Righteousness is further revealed , so we have more faith , and consequently more life , as it is written the just shal live by faith : mark it , The manifestation and communication of the Righteousness of Christ , it is held out in the Gospel , but received by Faith , and every Beleever lives by Faith , The just shall live by faith . So in the Epist. Gal. 3.11 . the holy Ghost repeats the very same expression again , speaking of the Life of the Saints , as it is written , The just shall live by faith . Again the very same phrase in Heb. 10.38 . where the Apostle there is pressing of Beleevers to a holy Life , in difficult and troublesom times that are coming upon them , and shews what wil become of Apostates and Back-sliders , but ( saith he ) The just shall live by faith . The whol life of al holy men while they are going through the world , and get into Heaven , all their life is transacted by faith , this is clear . And I wil ad but another Text , that which you find in 2 Cor. 5.7 . the Apostle saith expresly , We live by faith , we live not by sence ; if you wil take sence there for carnal sence , things that are sensible to our outward man , we live not to sence ; or if you wil take it in the more elevated interpretation , spiritual sence , that is , the immediate enjoyment of the light of Gods countenance to ravish us , though it is a Treasury to be desired rather than ten thousand worlds , yet we live not by it , but by faith , the Life of Gods people it lies al in the grace of Faith. But , I wil add two Proofs more that are not particular Scriptures , but conclusions that are fit for you to study , and wil give a wonderful conviction to your hearts of the truth of this Doctrine , That the Life of al Gods people while they are in this world is lived by Faith. You shall have this demonstration . First , That the holy Ghost when he compares spiritual life and natural life together , he useth to compare the grace of faith to al those faculties or members , which are the whol livelihood of our natural lives , those members or faculties which contribute the most to the livelihood of our natural life , the holy Ghost makes faith to be al these in our spiritual life ; pray remember , my meaning is thus : You know while we are in this world , while we live we must be fed , take away food , appetite , eating , digesting , drinking , concocting of it , and you destroy a mans life presently : Faith is our mouth by which we feed , al the food that the soul hath , it is by a spiritual mouth , and it is faith whereby we feed , ordinarily it is compared to our mouth , appetite , and stomach ; but then before the food cometh to our mouth , the hand receives it and conveys it to the mouth ; Faith is our hand , compared to the hand whereby we do our work , and receive our food and carry it ; Faith is our eye whereby we behold the things we are to act , and work upon , for the maintaining of our life ; Faith is the foot whereby the soul is carried both to its business and food : hands , eyes , mouth , tast , the Spirit of God sets it out by them all , thereby signifying to us , that what the eye , mouth , hand , and tast , contribute to our natural life , that doth the grace of faith to our spiritual life while we are in this world . That is one Conclusion that I think is a cleered demonstration , that while Gods People live in this world , it is faith that is their Life . The Second , which is yet more ful , is this , That you shal find cleerly in the Scriptures , that not only our life in general is attributed to Faith , but every thing concerning our life is in Scripture made the work of faith . Oh! that we could understand this ; but you that are spiritual must needs be versed in the truth of this Doctrine , ( I say ) that not only the bulk of our life in general is said to be the work of Faith , but every thing that concerns our spiritual life , the holy Ghost doth impute it to the grace of Faith ; as now I will instance in some things that wil comprehend al the rest . All the Life of a Christian is reducible either , 1. To the beginning of it . Or , 2. To the preservation of it , and carrying of it on . First , The Beginning of it : We have our spiritual Life begun in us by Faith , it is on our part the principle whereby the very spiritual life is received : or if you will have it more plainly ; All those things that are the real principles of our Spiritual Life , they are all received by Faith. As , Jesus Christ who is our Life , and is the fountain of our life , we recive Christ by faith . As many as received him , that is , as many as beleeved . And in Ephes. 3.17 . whether Jesus Christ dwels in our hearts by faith . That Lord Jesus that remains in us constantly , we have him by faith . Then , The Spirit of Jesus Christ , who doth take from Christ and communicate to the Saints ; for so Christ said when he promised him to his Apostles , and Church ; that shall be his Office to take of mine , and give to you ( saith he ) How received you the Spirit ? was it not by faith ? So that by faith we receive the Spirit , as it is the very principle of our life . I confess this is a great mystery , for Faith it self is the work of the Spirit , and yet the Spirit is received by faith , but the holy Ghost saith it is so . Somwhat I would say to witness that , but the time wil not allow it me . So that our very beginning of our spiritual life is by faith , while we are meerly passive , the Spirit of God works alone without us ; but when we come to be active , the very first , and al the acts of our lives they are by Faith. Well , when this life is begun , Then Secondly , The Preservation , the Maintainance of it , the acting of it wholly , the Spirit of God acts by the grace of Faith : as thus ; All our nourishment comes from Ordinances ; for though the Lord be the Fountain of it , yet the Ordinances are the canales , the channels wherein the Lord gives out a greater supply of himself ; we must receive all these by Faith. The Word profits no man unless it be mingled with Faith , your Prayers they must be Prayers of Faith , the Sacraments they are received by Eaith : All Ordinances are so far effectual to the soul as the grace of Faith puts them upon you . Faith is not only the means of our Food , but for Physick , the overcoming of our evil , al the Spiritual enemies of our spiritual life , all that would destroy it , it is Faith alone must do it . You shall find Satan the great Enemy , how do we overcome him ? By resisting him in Faith. The World another Enemy ; every one that is born of God overcometh that the world cannot prevail upon them , and this is that that overcometh the world , even your Faith. So , All our Lusts ; it is by Faith that we put off the old man : the Scripture is cleer in it , nay , the actings of our lives , all the actions of our spiritual life , all the excitings and callings out of all our graces in every relation publick and private , the Spirit of God laies it al upon Faith , until we come to be consumated , and put into Heaven , the Lord doth leave the mannagement and carrying on of our spiritual life to the grace of Faith , himself is the Sum , the fountain ; but so far as the Creature hath a hand in it , that is the sanctified creature , it is this faith whereby the whol life is acted . Thus you see the first thing I hope sufficiently cleered , That the Life of al Gods People while they live in this world , it is the life of faith . But now comes the greatest Question , for there are so many cleer Scriptures about that you cannot doubt of it , you had as good doubt of your Christianity as to doubt of this , Whether a Christians life is the life of faith ? But now , What the holy Ghost signifies by this , what is it to live by faith ? That is a thing that may be more difficult to be understood , and if it please God that I can but cleer it to you out of the Word , that you may see wherein the true living by faith doth consist , when I have opened this I wil not doubt but so many as are Gods People wil say , this is my very condition ; but as for others they wil say , every body talks of living by faith , one man makes living by faith only to be a fancy in his own head , that God wil do this and that for him without any warrant from the Word ; another ( it may be ) fancies , that live how he lists , if he hope but to go to Heaven when he goes out of the world , then he lives by faith : But living by faith is substantial , I shal now set my self ( by the Lords help ) to clear to you , what the holy Ghost signifies when he saith , that the life of Gods people in this world , they live it by faith ; and to this end I must premise these two things ; but to make way . The first is , That our Lord Jesus who is our Head , our spiritual mystical Head , he hath not only an Al-sufficiency for al his people , for every one that beleeveth , til they come to glory ; but he hath a full purpose in his heart never to be wanting of supply unto his called ones , a full unchangeable purpose to supply them with whatsoever is needful to bring them to glory . That is the first thing I lay down as a foundation , to lead you to know what it is to live by faith , there is an all sufficiency in Christ our Head , yea , a ful purpose and resolution unchangeable , to supply to all his people whatsoever they can need in any condition , til he hath brought them to glory . That is the first thing , no body wil doubt this the Scripture is so ful to it . The Second thing is more immediate and closer to my purpose , and it is this , That Jesus Christ hath not only this determinate purpose in his heart , but he hath in his Word declared and manifested al that he will do for his people , and expect from his people til they come into Heaven ; mark , that is , In his Word hath he declared Promises , which hold out al the good that Christ means to do for his people , not only general promises for pardon of sin to bring them to Heaven , but promises for every condition that can be , he hath declared what he means to do , and which way he wil do it . He hath there likewise declared what his will is for al the duties that his people are to perform i● the way of obedience ; he wil never expect from them in al their life time any thing but what in his Word he hath set down . And thirdly , In the same Word he hath not only laid down Promises what he wil do , and precepts what they must do , but Directions that hold out both arguments to stir them up , and waies that they should take ; al these hath he laid down in his Word , al the means either to attain strength to do duties , or to accomplish the benefit of any Promise ; in his Word he hath laid down al his mind , and that is called his will concerning us , that is the will of God concerning us . Now these three things premised , the purpose of Christ to do all that he will do and expect , the declaration of all this in his Word . These two taken for granted , now in the third place , which is my Doctrine , and which wil make you understand what the living by faith is , The Grace of Faith wrought in us by the Spirit of God , and acted in us by the Spirit of God , it immediately hath its whol application to the Word . Good Friends hearken , ( I say ) the grace of faith is the work of the Spirit in us , and is excited and stirred up to work by the Spirit ; the Spirits proper and immediate work is to deal with the will of Christ revealed in his Word , it looks not at Heaven immediately , it looks not to Christ immediately ; but it looks at God , and Christ , and Heaven mediately through the Word . In the Word there saith sees all the good things promised , that in its life time it shal stand in need of ; in the Word it seeth the injunction of al those duties that the renewed soul should be conversant about or be exercised in ; in the Word , and in the Word only , he seeth the Methods , the Counsels , the arguments , the Directions that are to be attended upon for the enjoyment of all that which is in Christs purpose to do for us . Now mark , The grace of faith stirred up by the Spirit of God , to look to the Word in every thing in the right way , and the Lord by his invisible and secret work making the things held out in the Word effectual to the soul , by this act of faith in the whol course of our life , applying it self unto the Word ; the Word of Promise for matters of Comfort , the Word of Precept for matters of Duty , the Word of Direction in matters of means and Ordinances ; the applying of the soul to the Word in all these things , the Lord according to his goodness making these things good to the soul that thus applies it self to the Word , this is to live by faith . So that now to come a little neerer to the business , ( for I have not yet explained it so far as I hope by and by I shall , but I say ) now to live by faith . First , It is not only for a soul to beleeve in Jesus Christ for salvation , or to beleeve all our life time that we shal be saved by Jesus Christ when we go out of the world ; it is not only that that is but a piece of it . But , To live by Faith , it is in our course to enjoy the whol revealed will of Christ to us as our life , thereby fetching all our consolations that are fit for our life from promises , thereby fetching all our practices from the declaration of what he makes our duty , and applying our selves in the use of those means , which the Lord hath appointed us to attend upon for the accomplishment of these ; this conversation of the soul is the living by faith . To live by faith it is this : I am not only made partaker of the Righteousness of Christ which is imputed for my justification , and is inherent for my new quickening : I have not only these principles in me , but by the grace of faith al the comfort of my life is fetched from a promise , al the rule of my conversation is from the Precepts , and all the means I use for the accomplishment of one or other , they are those that are prescribed there ; so that be it to undergo affliction , to conflict with a temptation , to go through my Calling , be it to comfort my heart against temptations , when the soul looks to the Word of Christ , and there takes the Word for its guide both for comfort and duty , until the Lord of his meer grace have accomplished in us all the good that he intendeth to us , which wil never be til he takes us out of this world , when faith ceaseth ; but in the mean time , this , and this only is that which the Scripture cals living by faith . But now ( because I would yet make it a little plainer to you ) be pleased to know , That although there are acts of faith applicable to every particular condition we are in , which would require a Volumn to mention ; yet for the present purpose you must know , that there are five things faith doth in this general living by faith , that every one that is said to live by faith , his faith doth five things in his ordinary course , which are applicable to every thing that you can think upon , which I shall not need to stand to prove , though I will give a touch as I go along , because I would spare a little time for the Application before I break off : But there are five things applicable . First , The grace of faith looks at the Word as that which is most sure , that is , it yields a firm assent to the truth of all that Jesus Christ hath revealed concerning him in his Word . The Promises that are made , faith assures the soul they are al true ; they are not whimsies nor fancies . The Duties and Directions there prescribed faith assures the soul they are things the Lord looks for ; so that the Apostle saith in Acts 20. when he lived as a Christian , he did exercise himself to beleeve al that was spoken by the Lord in his Law , and David saith , Thy Word ( Lord ) is from everlasting : It makes not any scruple or doubt , but gives a firm assent to what the Lord hath set down in his Word . That is one , and that indeed is the Basis and Foundation of the rest . The Second , It not only assents that all these are true , but faith acquiesses that these are the magazine , the store house , the comprehension of al excellencies that the soul shall ever be made partaker of , he desires to be satisfied in the goodness of them , he desires no other course of Life to order him but what is set down in the Word , he thinks not there are any Councels nor Directions to be regarded , nor compared to those set down in the Word , he rests in them , there his Treasure lies in that great iron Chest , and the Word is not only true , but his livelihood , he knows God hath declared this in his Word , and there his soul is satisfied : That is the Second . And then the third is this : The Lord laies al our happiness up in his Word , the happiness of our comfort , the happiness of our holy conversation , therefore faith directs the soul to attend to the Word as to its only guide and comfort : that look as a man that is satisfied , I am to travel in a dark night , and to go through a dangerous place ; but I am sure I have a mighty guide , not a Will of the Wisp ( as they cal it ) and an Ignis fatuus to miss-lead me ; and therefore as I love my life and happiness , I will look to the Word , by the Word I am guided , by the Word I am directed , as the Apostle expresseth it : It is a thing you do wel to take heed to , as to a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn , until the day of Heaven come , and you be brought to glory . The soul looks to the Word as its only card and compass : as the Marriner at Sea looks at his Card and Compass , they are his guide ; so the Beleever he only looks at the Word as his guide . There is the third . And then the fourth thing that faith doth in al that live the life of faith is this , That they make the things revealed in the Word the matters of their prayers , they dare not beg a thing of God until they know it is Gods wil , that they find a warrant to beg it either absolutely or conditionally ; they make the Word the matter of their prayers and endeavors ; and if they go about any thing , or be under distress and affliction , they labor to get rid of it by making the word their direction in that . And Fiftly and lastly , Doing al these things as well as it can , it staies it self upon the truth ▪ and faithfulness , and power , and wisdom , and goodness of God , and the Lord Jesus who hath revealed these things to him , he staies himself upon him for the accomplishment of these things , in his own time , and in his own way . And he now that doth these five things , he truly lives by faith : The Lord hath turned the bent of his heart to it , and he is assured his Word is true , and that there lies his happiness , he looks at it as his only guide , he makes this the matter of his prayer and endeavors , and when he hath done , knows all his poor endeavors are nothing , but waits upon the Lord to make all good to him , according to his wisdom and faithfulness Thus you have heard a Christian ought to live by faith , and I hope now you see what it is . Now one Question more I must needs briefly speak to , and that is this : But may some say , Do all that live the life of Christ live thus ? that this is excellent I will not dispute , and that this is held out in the Word , I doubt it not ; but will you make true Christianity fall within the compass of this , and no further ? dare you affirm it that none live the life of Christ in this world , but those that you have spoken of ? Now the Answer to this you shall have cleerly in these three things . First , It is true , that even the Lords own people do somtimes too much live to the flesh , there is flesh in the best ; somtimes they are under great temptations , somtimes ( it may be ) under the sweetness of the Creature , and flesh prevails , and they walk by other rules so far as they are unregenerate , so far as the true Genius of Christianity works not in them ; for we all know that as we live but in part , so we live by faith but in part , and too much Gods people fail in this . But Secondly , I answer , That so far as we are Christians , so far every man in the world , be he strong , or be he weak , he lives according to these things . I fear not to speak it positively , that not one man living upon the Earth ought to own himself , or any other to own him to live the life of Christ , further than he lives according to this that I have set you down , though they talk of them , preach of them , write of them , if they practice them not , and actually live according to these Rules , they live not as Christians . But thirdly , I answer , That many souls do live thus , really live thus in their course , who cannot speak thus , who do not know that they live thus . As take my meaning thus : It is certain that our life in nature , it is lived thus , Food is taken into the mouth , when it is taken into the stomach , it digests it , and by a concoction it is so and so separated ; and al Schollers , and those that know the course of Nature , know not only that they live by food , but can tel you the Methods of it ; but many thousands that live the natural life , cannot tel how they live it : And as there is in Logick an Art of Logick , which is nothing else but Reason digested into the right Methods , to shew you what is the cause , and subject , and adjunct , &c. that we cal the Art of Logick , doth but cast al these things into their 〈◊〉 place ; but many thousands do argue , and speak from causes , and effects , and subjects , and adjuncts , and comparisons , and things that are opposite , use arguments from them , who know not that they play the Logicians in al these . So in the great acts of Faith , there is no man ( it is certain ) partakes of Christ but beleeves in him ; but doubtless there are many thousands that beleeve in Christ , that know not what that act of faith is , that gives them an interest in Christ , but the Spirit of God carries them on to it . So the Saints of God though they cannot speak of these Rules I have shewed you til they be opened to them , and then they can close with them ; so that I am far from saying that no man lives the life of faith , but he that understands that he acts al these things , but he may understand them really . Well , this laid as the foundation , you will pardon me though I take a little time to give you a tast of the Application before I dismiss you : But thus I have endeavored to cleer this Doctrine , That all the Lords people while they are in this world , while they do partake of the Righteousness of Christ , one part of it for their Justification , the other for Sanctification , the acting of this while they are in this world , it is the life of faith . Now the use of it is very large and sweet ; I will give you but a tast of two things before I dismiss you : The one is for Instruction . Hence therefore you may safely and sadly conclude , That among the great multitudes of those that challenge the name of Christians , there are ( God knows , and we may know ) a very few that are really Christians ; if this that I have opened to you be the Lords truth , which I hope through his mercy I have demonstrated , but if this be true , you shal see that amongst those great multitudes of them that are called Christians , there are but a very smal number who really are Christians . Oh! ( Beloved ) should I ( as justly I might , if the time would give leave ) but come to separate the chaff from the wheat , and to cul out the several sorts of men in this world , who live by clean different Rules from this I have spoken to you , in what a smal number might the names of real Christians be comprehended , what a little Book would hold them all ? As for Example : Do all the Saints of Christ live the life of Christ by faith ? Then certainly they that are ignorant of Christ , and know him not , are destitute of all real knowledg of him , it is not to be thought that they should live this life of faith . They that never troubled themselves at the very Doctrine of faith , it is to them but a meer whimsie , they are the most ignorant of him ; surely no man can be careless about that which is the principle of his Life : now a careless man about his faith , you may be confident that man never lived the life of faith . Again , All they who live to their lusts ( as God knows multitudes do ) what is their life and comfort , but to drink , to whore , to swear , to cozen , to cheat ? Multitudes of others live to the world , Mammon is the God of their life , the end of their life , that that takes them up from the beginning of the morning til the evening comes , when they are awake the world is in their hearts . And , They that live to their own wills ; as look whatsoever their own fancies and wills suggest to them to be advantagious , this is that that satisfies them and serves their turn , to attain such a corrupt end , or such a way as they are in . Oh friends ! there are a smal number that live the life of Christ , the Lord help you that you may not be deceived about this . I can but name this . And then Secondly , The other thing I wil name is this ( and pray carry this home . ) Those that are Christians , it hath plainly appeared that of al things in the world , Gods people have most cause to lament and bewail their unbelief . You hear that faith is your life and livelyhood , therefore there is nothing to be so much lamented by real Christians concerning themselves as their unbelief : I speak not but there should be somthing more lamented than our own damnation ; but for our selves of al the evils we lie under in this world , there is none to be lamented so much as our unbelief . Take my meaning thus : Suppose a poor child under the care of loving and careful Parents , that would neglect nothing that may do the child good ; but the child cannot eat his meat , it hath no appetite , or the meat is cast up ; alass , if he have no stomach the child wil languish , and for this and other distempers , let the Parents weep over it never so much , or dandle it never so much , the child hath an inward root that wil destroy it . I tel you what is true from the Lord , there is nothing can undo you but unbelief , there is no cross under Heaven can betide you , but faith will carry you through it , no duty can be preached , but faith will carry you through it ; no Promise so hard in the Word of God , but faith wil fetch out the sweetness of it . Oh! this unbelief of ours undoeth us . But you wil say , Do you think the people of God are so much guilty of it ? I wil give you a little tast , and by that you shall judg . First , All our not studying the Word , that we are no more acquainted with the Word , for were a servant of God assured that his livelihood in comfort , in duty , and every thing were to be fetched from the word , there is no Merchant that would endeavor to be skilful in the mystery of his Calling , more than every Christian would be in the understanding of the word . And When the word is held out to us , that we do no more value it , and that we no more rely and venture our souls upon it , it is nothing but our unbelief : As if so be a man that I dare put my trust in , if he make me a promise to furnish me with so much money at such a time , I dare rely upon it : But that I do not thus rely upon God in all my temptations , and fully perswade my self that the Lord will deliver me , it is nothing but my unbelief . If a mortal man tel me , if I walk thus and thus , I will fall into many a danger , and thus it wil fall upon me by Law , this makes me careful . That we deal not so with our gracious God is through our unbelief . Nay , in a word . All our unevenness in our whol course , that we somtimes rely so much upon the Creature , that when things flow in according to our minds , then my Line is cast in a fair ground , then God hath made my Mountain stand strong while the things of the world are with me , & at another time if I see a visibility of ruine , then I cannot say that the great God wil stand by me in these difficulties , this is nothing in the world but unbelief . Nay , All your deviations : If you find David using unlawful means , going over to the King of Gath to gain relief , it is nothing but unbelief . If you find a man venturing out to take any unlawful comfort in the Creatures , it is nothing but unbelief , it is a thrid runs through the whol course of Gods people , to make them live low lives , and hinders them from the obtaining of that that would be consolation to their own souls , therefore I beseech you , you that have made Christ your portion , and make account that faith must be your livelihood , lay it to heart , mourn under it , pray the Lord to root out this bitter weed , and make you masters over it , for certainly it is a great evil ; we stand by faith , we fal by unbelief , it is that that occasions all the disquiets of our lives . The Lord set it to our hearts , and deliver us from it . SERMON III. Gal. 2. part of verse 20. I am crucified with Christ , nevertheless I live , yet not I , but Christ liveth in me ; ( now follows that which I shal more insist upon ) and the life that I now live in the flesh , I live by the faith of the Son of God , who loved me , and gave himself for me . NOW I proceed , and there is but one great Use that I intend , though I would a little mention another , and speak a little of it in the first place . Good Christian Friends , weigh what I have said , and regard it not because I say it ; but because of the evidence I hope goes along with it . But the thing I collect is , That you may all hence learn what kind of Christians they must needs be , who can live in the flesh above the Word and Ordinances , having no use of them , and ( as they think ) nothing to do with them , but live in an immediate Communion with God and enjoyment of him . This is one of the wildnesses and infatuations that the Lord hath let out amongst us in this sinful Nation , that many that have gone for sober , humble , gracious men and women , they look upon al those that have to do with Ordinances , that study Scriptures , and tend upon Sermons , they look upon them but in the A B C Form , they are of a low pitch and rank , themselves are above these things , they have attained to a higher Form : But this Doctrine that I have opened , will cleerly direct al Gods people what to judg of them ; for if they live the Life of Christ ( for that they pretend to ) it is either the life of spiritual sence , immediate enjoyment ; or the life of Faith : if they pretend to an immediate enjoyment of God without the intervention of faith , beleeve it they are beyond the Apostle Paul , that professed in his own name , and in the name of al the Saints that then lived , That the life that they lived in this life , it was by faith , and not by sence ; yet these have learned that they are beyond his Form : I will not say , much good may do their hearts with it ; but poor Creatures their delusion will one day afflict them . But if they say , No , we grant you it is the life of faith we live in this world . Then say I , Unquestionably , and without all dispute , it will appear faith hath its subordinate work , it is the declaration of the Lords mind in his Word , that faith meddles with , and all the Ordinances , and all tending upon the Word and Sacraments , &c. are the administrations of Christs will that is carried on in Ordinances , and no other way I know ; sure I am the Scripture is silent in it : Therfore Friends ( for such as are concerned in it , they wil not be here to hear it , nor any where else , they count it a folly , but ) to your sober Christians that desire to go to Heaven , and to walk with the Lord in his own way , give me leave to say this : Therefore , I confess our divisions and subdivisions in other matters of Religion are very sad , the cutting of the people of God a pieces in the several molds and forms of Government , and therby alienating their spirits one from another , it is very sad , and the Lord in his mercy remove those things . But yet this I must say , That while these lower conditions are , and as long as each form carries people to the Word , holds out Christ in his Word , Christ in preaching , Christ in the Sacrament , there is food for souls ; and if we could look aright ( it may be ) we would not be so angry with one another about it as we are ; for there is but one Truth , and we pray the Lord to reveal it : but stil here is carrying on the life of Comfort , Duty , Direction , and all that faith meddles with , that the Lords people may enjoy : but for Gods sake , and as you love the life of your souls , watch against temptations that would take you off from the Word , that the Scripture should be nothing ; this takes you off from that that your faith wholly meddles with ; for if you can say , I beleeve God for such a thing , and Christ for such a thing , unless you find it promised in the Word , it is presumption . Therefore , Pity such poor souls , your own experience may tel you ; do but mark them , generally they that live above Ordinances , see whether the Spirit of God do not withdraw , see whether the Lord hath any other way to convey himself to them , than what he hath held out in his Word ; their loosness , folly , pride , and joyning in any thing else that is naught , almost plainly shews that the Lord hath withdrawn from them . And secondly , You wil find that such of them as have grace in them ( for I am far from thinking any that have grace cannot be under such a temptation , but ) I fear not but the Lord will awaken them again though they be asleep , because faith must be the navel , and the string that must maintain them here . But this I did not intend to be large in . The great Use that I intend is , To all the Lords people whose Life is Christ , and in whom Christ doth live ; I would endeavor in the rest of this hour to give them some help out of the Word , that this living by faith might be better known to the Lords People , and more exactly practised than it hath been hitherto , and if the Lord help me to divide it , and you to receive it , I will not fear but your life will be more honorable to the Lord , and sweeter to your selves than it hath been : and there are but two things that I intend to treat upon . The one is , Some serious Considerations or Motives , to provoke all who have any thing of Christ in them , that they would study this art of living by faith more than in time past . And secondly , and principally , To lay out of the Word the true Directoins , the easiest and the readiest way that a willing soul may take to be built up in it . For encouragement to provoke you to it , I pray think of these things : First , If you will be Christians , it is our Trade , and the way of our livelihood , we have no other mystery for the maintainance of our lives but faith , that is cleer . Schollers may live by their Wits , Trades-men upon their Mysteries , and Gentlemen upon their Wealth : But as a Christian we have no other living , or way of living to God , but only our faith . Now because it is our Life , and our Trade , and our Profession , it would be a horrible shame to be found Bunglers in that that is properly our own Mystery . If a man should come and examine me , a Minister of the Gospel , and put into my hands a Merchants Book , and bid me cast up such an Account , and I could not , this were no shame to me : but if he should come and give me a Bible , and bid me open a Text , if I could not do it , it were a shame to me . So ( friend ) have you the right skil of living by faith ? No , It is thy Trade : As thou art a Member of the Common-wealth , or one of the Army , thou mayest have a Calling ; but as thou art a Christian , which is thy best Life , thou hast no Trade , but to live by faith , no other way to honor the Lord , nor to manifest the Life of Christ , nor to turn all things for thy good , and the Lords glory , it is thy living by faith must do it ; what a horrible disgrace will it be for thee to be found ignorant of it . Secondly , I tell you there is no other way of Life that any man pitches upon , but it will very shortly appear to be but a poor thing . If you should think that the living upon God , this holy life , it is a thing that is a mystery that you do not study ; but for the present life that you mind , and you mean to follow the things that will help you to live in the world , I tell you all those after a little while will prove meer delusions . If any of you have the way ( as some of you have found it ) to raise up your selves to great estates , of a poor servant , in few yeers to become a great man in the place where you live , and now you are wealthy . Before our eyes God hath overturned all these things ; hath not God let us see how he hath pulled down great Princes and Kings ? hath he not let us see a thousand , ten thousand a yeer a man may have , and yet live to see them al buried , and himself come to beggery ? doth not God tell us they are not al worth our study ? The Lord ( my meaning is ) dayly before our eyes stains the glory of all other waies of living ; never to the worlds end did he , or wil he stain the glory of living by faith , because you can no where else close with him . Thirdly , that which I most aim at in my Considerations , is to acquaint you with this : That this same Art , this excellent Christian Mystery of living our life by faith , it is absolutely the best life , the most desirable life that any man or woman can live , til they come to enjoy God immediately . This I wil demonstrate , and I hope I shal make it plain , that if a man had the comfort of al other waies of living in any kind , never would the learning or wit of man find out any life to be compared with the life of faith , for the excellency of it ; and the excellency of the life of faith I would open to you in four or five Particulars , the Lord perswade you but to study them when you are alone . One is more general . It is the Life which the Lord hath chosen out , to be the life of those that he loved from all eternity . The Lord you grant him al of you to be infinite in wisdom , and therefore before his eyes al waies of living happy were apparent , and out of them all he chose this same life of faith , to be the life of those he loved from al eternity . It is the Prophet Malachi's argument ; it is the best Conjugal condition for a man to have one wife , and a woman to have one husband , because else God could have made ten women if he would ; but he made but one , that is Gods choyce , therfore that is the best matrimonial life . Therefore the Lord ( say I ) who knew what learning , what wisdom , what friends , what Phylosophy , what Policy , what any thing might advance men to , he out of them al shews the living by faith to be the way how they should live in this world , who are as dear to him as the apple of his own eye ; and to a sober heart more needs not be said to make him think it an excellent thing . Secondly , as it is excellent because of Gods choyce , so , It is the honorablest life that can be ; there is no life in this world so honorable as the life of faith . First , It is wonderfully honorable to God , when his redeemed ones have their whol livelihood from him without hanging upon every hedg , but to acknowledg the Lord , I , to tel every body where they come , I have not one comfort in a child , nor in a wife , nor in a penny , nor in a garment , nor in a dish of meat , but I receive it from the hand of God by vertue of my faith , here God is lifted up in al his administrations . And as it is honorable to God , so , It is most honorable to us ; for in truth , if we were independent , that is , if we needed no dependance upon any , we must be Gods our selves , and no man would put his foot under another mans table ( as we use to say ) that hath one of his own . To live dependantly upon another man , that can live independantly of himself , takes off from his nobleness : but if we must live dependantly , then surely it is more honorable and noble to depend upon the head than the foot . He that hath not learned to live by faith upon God , he lives in part upon skins of beasts , upon the world , upon the excrements of the world , he lives ( I mean ) upon poor , ragged , beggerly creatures : one man saith to Gold , thou art my hope ; another man loads himself with thick clay : wel , this is a poor low thing in comparison of depending upon him more immediately , that hath incomprehensible glory ; it is ignoble . Thirdly , In this world it is the easiest life ; I will speak it ( I humbly bless the Lord that I have any experience of it in my own soul , but I dare speak it ) as Divine Truth , to live by faith is the easiest life under Heaven . Do not mistake me , I mean not it is easiest learned , that a man may learn it with a wet finger . Oh! it is a hard trade to learn , and this may be one motive it is not easily gotten : but my meaning is , that when once the soul hath learned it , that it be but a Master of this Trade , that it can say , I have learned to live by faith , no man under Heaven lives , or can live so easie a life as a Beleever may , Why ? Because the life of faith wil never leave any thing upon my care , but to walk humbly , and thankfully with my God , it leaves the providing for my body and soul , and posterity , and for the disposing of them al , and for al my affairs , it leaves it at Gods doors , laies it to him , and to me leaves nothing but to take the Book , find my duty , bend the knee , and for all the successes faith leaves it quietly to the Lord ; and is not this a sweet life ? We that are Parents know ( by reason of our carnality ) what a hard thing it is , when we have a company of poor children to provide for in a confused World , when all we have may be swept away , and others to have great trading , and yet our Ships miscarry , how we shal pay all our engagements we know not : but if once the soul have faith , it directs him to leave al to the wise and gracious God , and my self to acquiess in his will : I repeat it again , and I pray if you be not satisfied in it now , study it , and I wil be bound to recant it ( as the saying is ) at Pauls Cross , whensoever you wil , if ever man can come out and say , the life of faith is an uncomfortable life , no , it is the sweetest life of all : Oh! that God would perswade you to study it , it is the easiest life . Come into a family , and tell me who lives the easiest life , the Father or the Child ; the Child hath food , the Father provides it , the Maid cooks it ; he hath cloaths , his Father buys him them , the Taylor makes them ; and the child goes to school , and never thinks what will become of him when his cloaths are worn out , and his linnen spent , he leaves all to his Father . And then again I tel you . It is the best life , because in truth it is the surest life , for that man or woman that will trust God , and wil study to live according to the rule of faith , ( I speak it with reverence ) they have a statute upon al that God is worth that they shal be provided for ; they have a statute upon his All-sufficiency , I am a God all-sufficient , walk before me , I will be a horn of strength , I will never leave thee , nor forsake thee ; a statute upon his Wisdom , Power , Goodness , Faithfulness , what God is and hath , he hath engaged to the soul that wil trust in him . It is an old saying of a Poet , That it is an uncertain Estate ( though it may be great ) if it cannot be built upon : It is an uncertain estate to depend upon Cables and Anchors ; if it come home it is well , but it cannot be built upon ; and somtimes they stand in need of an Insuring Office , but how justly I dispute not . But lastly , This Art , when once the soul hath learned it , it will deliver a man from all base and unworthy means , it wil deliver the soul from all base and unworthy means in any kind whatsoever , because if he have God in his Word , what need he shirk and shift , or do any thing that is base , when he hath such a rock , such a livelihood for his soul as faith . As now I wil give you but an instance ; The Apostle Paul when he was in prison at Rome , he conceived he might have gone out , by giving the Captain of the Guard some money , but Paul scorned to give a penny : when he was at Philippi , put in prison in the stocks , the Magistrates came and bid him come out , he scorned to go out ; some might have said , you may provoke them ; I care not , he had God on his side . Never did any one so much study to get an Office , or Lordship , or an encrease of his Estate , that they may say there is that boy or girl provided for , let them go where they wil their portion lies by me : this is not so comfortable as to study this Doctrine , That that life that you live in the flesh , you live by the Son of God ; that this life of faith may be on your part your principal delight . Now then the Last part of my Sermon which I come to , is , But how should we do this ? Attainable it is , and in some degree all Gods people have it ; but what course should we take that we might be ( as it were ) Masters of Art in it , that we might Commence to a good degree ? I shall cleerly out of the Word , give you some four or five Directions , which if you will study you may much enlarge , and I hope it is the right way . The first is this , The grace of faith is the principle of our holy life ; while we are in this world you must labor to be well rooted and grounded in the grace of faith ; mark what I say , to be rooted and grounded , look to that that is your livelihood : when I say rooted and grounded , in that I mean these two things . First , You must labor that your faith be a right faith , a sound faith ; for ( beloved ) it is not every faith that wil afford a man a livelihood : painted fire is fire in the Summer time , but it wil never warm a mans hands in the Winter time ; painted bread will never fill a mans stomach ; it must be real bread , and real drink that wil maintain your life . So ( Brethren ) that common faith that goes about in the world , fancies and conceits people have ungrounded , without any work passing upon their hearts to make them new Creatures , it may serve for a dead profession , it may serve ( it may be ) to set you off so far by talking of Religion , that if time serve that way you may get an Office , a Place , and some accommodation for this life ; but never wil a formal faith enable you to live the life of Christ , that must be sound faith , faith of the right stamp . I , and secondly , I mean when I say , to be rooted and grounded in the faith , You must labor for strong faith , for ( Brethren give me leave to say ) the least degree of saving faith will certainly keep thee from Hell , and carry thee to Heaven ; but the least degree of it will not enable thee to live the life of Christ to his glory , and thy comfort : If a storm comes little faith shakes ; Why are you troubled , O ye of little faith ? but never , why are you troubled , you that have fulness of faith ? A little childs hand wil serve to receive a penny , I but a little hand wil do but a little work ; there is a great deal of work lies upon faith , drawing comfort lies upon faith , and quickning to duty lies upon faith , and as is the man , so is his strength . Gideons Son while he is a child , he wil not venture to cut off the heads of the Princes of Midian , no , he dares not fall upon them : no , a little faith will get but a little comfort , but you must endeavor ( and remember this is taught you as the first Direction ) to be strong in the faith of our Lord Jesus : Oh! ( if my heart deceive me not ) I had rather have a strong faith than any thing that may be called strong in the world : A strong purse , a strong head , a strong courage , a strong estate , will never do that that a strong faith wil ; therefore I intreat you al , if you find your want , I am a poor creature , I cannot bear afflictions , if God come with a heavy affliction it is hard for me to bear ; strengthen thy faith , and thou wilt carry any cross in the world , fly to the Lord. The Lord hath given us in our daies , many preachers that preach faith , many excellent Books that treat of Faith , and living by faith , and how faith may be strengthened , and all that is good about it . No Nation in the World since the Apostles daies ( I think ) have the like helps that England hath ; and therefore study it in the first place , labor to be rooted and grounded in faith , get a good faith a strong faith . Secondly , If you will ever live the life of Faith , labor to be wel acquainted with God , especially with God in Christ ( pray mark that , and carry it home ) labor to know God , I know whom I have beleeved ( saith Paul ; ) a man may beleeve confidently , but if he have not a ful knowledg of the party he doth beleeve , it may be his comfort wil be less . To know how all sufficient he is , that he can perform Promises easier than any man can , to know how gracious , how good he is , how unchangeable he is , there is no knowledg of God but wil do thy soul good ; but I mean , to know God in Christ , that is , as he stands related to Beleevers in a Covenant of grace ; and that I rather fix upon , because my Text hath it , and carries it here as the great Basis of Pauls living by faith , ( saith he ) The Life I live in this Flesh , I live it by the Faith of this Son of God , who loved me , and gave himself for me : he knew the dear regard that Jesus Christ bears to all his people , he loves them like the apple of his eye . Never Mother tendered her Children as Christ tenders all his Lambs , though never so weak , though never so feeble , though never so dead , he and his Father in him , is wel pleased when we look upon him in Jesus Christ , that not only I beleeve in him , but I beleeve in that God who in Christ Jesus loved me so , that he gave his Son to shed his blood that I might not perish . Now to know God in Christ is the way not to perish . Thirdly , another great Direction to live by faith is that that I opened at large , and now to speak a little more about it . Study to be acquainted with the Word : If ever you would live by faith you must study to be wel acquainted with the Word ; for though God be the ultimate object , and Christ be the all-sufficient means , yet ( beleeve it ) it is the Word that faith immediately looks upon ; and though I dare promise my self great things from my great God in my Christ , yet it must all be still as he hath revealed it in his Word : therefore if you would ever learn to live by faith , soundly , comfortably , you must be acquainted with the Word : And when I say acquainted with the Word , I mean these two things : The Promises of the Word for the comfort of your lives . To get a good understanding of all those excellent Priviledges , which are scattered up and down in all those glorious Promises , which are ( as the Apostle saith ) exceeding great and precious Promises . Brethren , the Word hath not only the great Promise of the pardon of sin which is an invaluable thing , and will carry us safe when we die ; but you shall find in the Word Promises for every condition it is possible for you to fal into ; if God should take away al thy children from thee , and thy wife from thee , and visit thee with sickness , and let men loose upon thee , and enemies to persecute thee , there are Promises in the Word for every one of these . Oh! to know the Promises it is an infinite help , especially if you ad this which I will make a second Branch of the same Direction : When I say acquainted with the Promises , I mean , We should know not only where the Promises are , but what they signifie ; what doth a Promise signifie that God in his Gospel maketh to souls ? for a man may have Promises , and truly from a great many able and great men ; good Promises signifie very little from many great men , and mighty men ; but to know what Gods Promises are , and what they signifie , it would be a great comfort , and I wil tel you briefly what they signifie , and it may be a key to unlock all the Locks in the House , that is , al the Promises in the Bible . First of all . The Promises of God , they do for the present , at the instant of their making , signifie , That God loves us ; for all the Promises come from his heart , his Providences come from his hands : the Promises come from his heart , and when the Lord makes a Gospel Promise to a soul , he doth as if he should say to that soul , I love thee dearly at the present , before the thing be accomplished thou mayest say it signifies thus to me , If the Lord make such a Promise to me , he loves me . And Secondly , A Promise signifies thus much at present , That God wil never hurt me : God gives in a way of Providence those things to many men whom he wil hurt and destroy , nay , he will destroy them even by the things that he gives them ; but to the souls to whom his Promises belong , they signifie not only Gods good will , but nothing in the world that can betide them shal ever hurt them , because they are all Branches of that Covenant of grace ; in which Covenant of grace there is no evil shal light upon the soul that is under it , therefore God wil one day make thee to know that he intendeth thy good in it : this is signified for the present . And , For the future , A Promise is a certain infallible pledg of a seasonable performance : His Covenant he wil never break , he will not alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth . All the Promises of the new Covenant are all backed with an Oath of him that is unchangeable . Here is a Promise for my poverty , for my temptation , it comes from the God that first loves me , and will do me no hurt , and wil accomplish it . Brethren , Do you beleeve this ? As Jesus Christ said to Martha ; He that beleeveth in me , though he were dead he shall live , and if he live he shall never die ; Doest thou beleeve this ? I Lord , I beleeve it : So say I , Do you beleeve this ? Do you not think you shall live comfortably ? And Secondly , when I said in this third Direction about being acquainted with the Word , I mean , Be acquainted with the Duties held out in the Word , as wel as the Promises , for it cals to holiness as well as to comfortableness ; therefore in the Word learn your Duty : and I the rather tell it you , because many a poor soul takes a great deal of care and pains , in some things that God never required , and they afflict themselves , and make their lives uncomfortable , in things that God hath not appointed ; as not to tel you of many poor creatures in Popery , that would thrust themselves into Monasteries , God never required it ; but my meaning is , study the Word , you can never study any thing that so much concerns you ; therefore there learn your Duties , the Duties that belong to your relations , and particular places where God hath set you ; for to know the will of God concerning me , argues an honest heart more than to know the will of God concerning others : but study to know the Word in the Promises , and in the Duties . That is the Third . Fourthly , which must not be neglected , When you have done all this , faithfully and conscienciously serve the Lord in the use of means , serve the Promises and Commandements , serve them faithfully in the use of the means without distraction , but out of conscience resigning up your selves : For , for me to go to labor for an enlarged faith , and to know the all sufficiency of God , and to have the Promises as familiarly as my Pater noster ( as they use to say ) for me when I have done this , to neglect the means the Lord hath appointed , this is not good . But look as an Husband-man ; What rational Husband-man is there , especially if he know God , but he knows that the Corn upon the ground cannot yield him a Crop , unless rain from Heaven water it ? and it cannot fall from Heaven unless God send it ; and notwithstanding all this , unless God give the Corn a new body , but because he hath likewise learned that ploughing , sowing , and harrowing , and dungcarting , &c. are all duties belonging to Husbandry , he serveth the Providence of God , and God blesseth him accordingly . Do thus with your souls ; God hath given you Promises for some things , Commandements for other things , serve him diligently in the use of the means ; but remember what I taught you before , that by the use of the means I mean , means only of his own appointment , for faith dare not go out of his own line , Lawful means that are agreeable to a particular calling , to reason , &c. I have often thought ( and I speak it to you from the Lord ) that when a people walk with a Word in one hand , and the use of the means in the other hand , we fairly leave the business at Gods feet , whatsoever the success shall be , we will be his Servants , when such a thing hath betided me , I find this is my duty by the best Counsel I can get , and so we leave it at his door , and whatsoever will come , fall back , fall edg , we may have peace and comfort . These are the great Directions , only with these I must put in two Cautions ( and when I have done them , I think I may have said that , which may be helpful to them that would walk by Faith ) The one is , When I say we must use means , and thus live by faith , my meaning is , First , That when you have done , you must never limit God ; God limits you , and limits me , but for himself , Faith must not limit him . My meaning is , Do not limit him to the way how he shal make it good , for he often works by contraries ; do not limit him for time when he shal make it good , for it is good to wait patiently the Lords leisure , though it be al the daies of our appointed season , and we injure God , and our faith doth not work up to its true height , when we will come and say , do it to day ( Lord ) or else I will question it to morrow ; no , limit him not , chalk him not out his way ; I may Lawfully expect from God that such a thing shall do me good , but I may not Lawfully tell God which way it shall do me good ; I may Lawfully say , from such a temptation God wil deliver me , but I may not Lawfully say , he wil deliver me from it within this week or fortnight , but quietly wait upon the Lord as one that infallibly wil do what he hath spoken : and is not here enough ? It may be some will add now by way of Objection . But what if my difficulty be such an one that I can find nothing in the Word about it ▪ What can my Faith do then ? Where is your circumscribing Faith within the compass of the Word ? It may be my difficulty is such as I find no Promise for it in all the Word . I dare confidently then say it is a matter of no great consequence , it may be in thy fancy some great thing , as the fancy of man can blow up a Molehil to a Mountain ; but beleeve it , if it be such a trouble as hath not a Promise , it is not worth the taking notice of ; for all things that concern the Lords Glory , and good of his People , there are Promises in abundance . That is my first Caution . And the other Caution is , When I direct you in all this to endeavor thus to live the life of Faith , you must take heed of some other principles which will put the wisest of you all to the utmost of your graces , and that is your own reason , and your sence , I mean not sanctified reason , nor your holy experience , but I mean carnal reason , and carnal sence , which in spight of our teethes will have an Oar in every Boat , it will be putting in , in all things that concern our whol Conversation : If a Duty be propounded , of a sudden I am called out to it ; it may be my Reason puts in twenty things against it , You wil lose your Credit in it , and your Labor , and it will come to nothing ; it may be our Sence will oppose it , You do but water a dead Plant , a dead Stock , nothing will come of it ; and I will tell you , all the experiences that the People of God hitherto have found of our carnal Sence and Reason , in all things that belong to the Waies of God , they are but like a Sophister in the Schools ; a Sophister that hath a wrangling head , will blur , and blind , and slur the clearest Positions , in any Art in Logick , Grammer , Rhetorick , Phylosophy , or what you will ; when a Conclusion is made and proved , a Sophister riseth up , and he shal slur it all , especially with weak people : So it is with carnal men , whereas a Promise , and a Direction of the Word looked upon by Faith , appears like the Sun in its strength , look upon the very same with carnal Reason , and carnal Sence , and it looks like the Moon in Ecclipse : a dark Body , it hath no light at all in it ; Oh therefore watch against it , and the rather because we are men , and from our Mothers Womb we are corrupt men , and therefore these things are bred in the bone , and will not easily out , but while we carry flesh about us , they will never be subdued . And therefore one handsomly expresseth it , as Abraham did when God called him to that Duty , it was cleer that God made it his Duty when he had called to it ; he never goes to call his Wife , for she would have said , Husband , it is impossible , this is but a delusion , it is not possible , the Child that must be the Heir of all Nations , and in him they must all be blessed , What! for you to kill him ! it is not from God , never talk of it . Friends , I the rather desire to open these things , because in truth , to a great many the Life of Christ is not known , and many holy souls do want plain Directions , how they should order their Conversation as becometh Christians , and in our uncertain daies , wherein we are every day looking what new Confusions shall break out , Oh! it were a sweet thing for a man to be stablished that he might possess his soul in quietness , in the midst of all the Changes in the World ; and really it many times grieves my heart to think , First , How the common People of the World live amongst us , they are totally ignorant of these things ; but they set their hearts upon Wealth , and Honor , and Pleasure , and these perishing things , these men are carried after , when God knows , these things are not worth the while . I wil briefly shew you one instance in Dan. 8. you shal reade of a Goat that came with one Horn , and he ran and killed all other Beasts that were in his way ; and that Goat was Alexander , and this same Alexander in ten years space did conquer one of the greatest Empires , I mean , he brought into his own hands , one of the greatest Empires that ever were in the World , in all the four Quarters of the World ( except America ) had he a great part ; within ten years there was an end of him , and not one of his posterity had one foot of it , and yet he left a Son and Heir , but al was carried away to others . And so will al Earthly things , we may struggle and strive , and weary our selves in a vain shadow , and when we have done , no man knows for whom he have labored ; it may be we expose our Posterity to the greater malice , envy , and hatred , and they wil be the sooner ruined : What a pity is it that such beggerly things as these should be so looked after , and Faith so little thought of . I , in the Second place . It grieves me to think how many souls that are Godly , and study the Scripture , and attend upon the Word , yet they rather study nice controversies , and things that gender strife , and help ( it may be ) to maintain a Party on this side , or the other side , and this great comprehensive Duty of living to Christ , and living by Faith , preached by many , studied by few , little regarded ; these are common Dunstable Truths that the old Puritans did preach a long time ago , but we have a more Seraphick vein and Spirit : and so God suffers us to be gulled of our Religion , which is the sweetest Portion that can be enjoyed in the world ; we make it a matter of brangling , and little comes of it , either to the Honor of God , or Comfort of our souls : And upon such thoughts as these , while the Lord shews me that mercy , that I may preach any thing unto you , I would fain acquaint Gods People with these things , that they may know wherein their life lies , and how they may lead it to the glory of God , and comfort of their own souls . I presumed upon your Patience : if God please to lay these things to your hearts , it wil not offend I hope . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A52035-e14890 Doct. 1. Doct. 2. Doct. 1. Quest. Answ. Vse 1. Quest. Answ. Vse 2. Vse 3. At Mary Magdalens Milkstreet Octob. 30. 1653. Doct. 2. Quest. Answ. Vse 1. Vse 2. Quest. Answ. At Mary le Bow. Octob. 30. 1653. afternoon . Vse 3. Object . Answ. Vse 4. Object . Answ. 
A09277	----	Vindiciæ gratiæ. = A plea for grace More especially the grace of faith. Or, certain lectures as touching the nature and properties of grace and faith: wherein, amongst other matters of great use, the maine sinews of Arminius doctrine are cut asunder. Delivered by that late learned and godly man William Pemble, in Magdalen Hall in Oxford. Pemble, William, 1592?-1623. 1627 Approx. 641 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 156 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A09277 STC 19591 ESTC S114374 99849600 99849600 14757 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A09277) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 14757) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1579:11) Vindiciæ gratiæ. = A plea for grace More especially the grace of faith. Or, certain lectures as touching the nature and properties of grace and faith: wherein, amongst other matters of great use, the maine sinews of Arminius doctrine are cut asunder. Delivered by that late learned and godly man William Pemble, in Magdalen Hall in Oxford. Pemble, William, 1592?-1623. Capel, Richard, 1586-1656. [20], 162 [i.e. 262], [2] p. Printed by R. Young for I. Bartlet, at the golden Cup in Cheape-side, London : 1627. Editor's dedication signed: Rich: Capel. Running title reads: The nature and properties of grace and faith. P. 262 misnumbered 162. The last leaf is blank. Reproduction of the original in the Bodleian Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Justification -- Early works to 1800. Faith -- Early works to 1800. Grace (Theology) -- Early works to 1800. 2004-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-05 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-08 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2004-08 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion VINDICIAE GRATIAE . A PLEA FOR GRACE . MORE ESPECIALLY THE GRACE OF FAITH . OR , Certain LECTURES as touching the Nature and Properties of GRACE and FAITH : Wherein , amongst other matters of great use , the maine sinews of ARMINIUS doctrine are cut asunder . DELIVERED BY THAT late learned and godly man William Pemble , in Magdalen Hall in Oxford . AUG . de Grat. & lib. Arbitr . cap. 16. Certum est nos velle cum volumus : sed ille facit ut velimus bonum . — Certum est nos facere cum facimus : sed ille facit ut faciamus praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati . LONDON , Printed by R. YOVNG for I. BARTLET , at the golden Cup in Cheape-side . 1627. TO THE RIGHT WORshipfull Nathanael Stephens Esquier , Grace and Peace from Iesus Christ. SIR , BOokes are more necessary in a state than arms : Arms are to defend us from the invasion of foes , bookes are to preserve us from the infection of errors ; enemies can but kill the body , errors endanger the soule . There are crept into the Churches , a number of false opinions ; some that oppugne , others that obscure the grace of God. The earth is of it selfe prone enough to bring forth weedes , but should one withall sow tares , we should have much ado at harvest . Our hearts are ranke enough to breed errors , and our wits cunning enough to defend them : but the scripture tells us , that the envious man comes and sows the tares of false opinions ; and of weedes tares are the very worst : sith therefore errors are so plenty , bookes cannot but be very necessary . T is true there bee many , and it may bee , according to the complaint , too many bookes abroad already ; because many bee to little purpose , some little to the purpose : but of good and learned bookes , bookes fitted to the errors and diseases of the time ( as this is ) there neither be , nor well can bee too many : Many errors require many bookes . Nay , I may safely say , that many bookes are more necessary now than ever ; for that wee are fallen into the very age of the Church , wherein as diseases in the body , so errors , the sicknesse of the soule , doe and must abound : For errors are necessary evills in the Church , that they that are approved may be made manifest , saith Saint Paul , And this is all that Satan hath gotten by stirring up the corrupt witts and pens of many abroad ( and some at home ) to write they care not what . Now wee doe begin to see , that Truth is the daughter of time : Truth is never new , but let an old Truth be newly proposed , and at first wee suspect it , let it settle a little , and in time truth gains ground , and wins upon the judgement and consciences of men ; but erroneous opinions just like new fashions , when they are first on foote many doate upon them , give them but some time , and they grow stale and vaine : so now what by the decrees of Synodes , and the writings and preachings of the learned Time , hath brought it so about , that there are few Schollars or others that minde these matters , but doe begin to see thorow the conceipts of the Arminians . Though then this treatise might have beene abroad sooner , yet I dare promise that it comes not in too late ; for hee that reads it with judgement shall soone see , that in the doctrine of Arminius , there is more wit than truth . I doe here commend it to your reading , as to one whom the Lord hath made willing to learne , and able to judge , as also under your name unto the good of the Church , to stand as a testimony of my duty and love unto you , and of your zeale and love unto the truth . Yours in the Lord Iesus , RICH : CAPEL . To all that love and desire the grace of God , and the glory of his grace in IESUS CHRIST . MY deare and beloved brethren in Christ , who are sensible of the dangers of these dayes , and of the misery of this sinfull age ( wherein the heresies of the old condemned hereticke Pelagius , that notable profest enemy of Gods grace , are againe revived and raised up out of the bottomlesse pit , by the malice and subtiltie of the restlesse enemy of mankinde that old Serpent the Divell , working powerfully in and by that new upstart sect of Arminians , the Wolves of this age , who comming abroad in sheepes clothing , and bearing the name of Protestants , yea professing themselves Preachers of the Gospel in the reformed Churches , are indeed Pelagian heretickes , and disciples also of blasphemous Servetus and Socinus ; yea and also have joyned hearts and hands in many maine fundamentall errors with the Papists our enemies , of the Romish Religion and faction ) I doubt not but that as you grieve and sorrow in your soules to see this smoake of pestilent heresies ascending upon the face of our land , obscuring the light , and eclipsing the glory of our Church : so you do in your hearts earnestly desire to be made partakers of such worthy works & painful labours of Gods faithful Ministers , as are in all probability like to prove by Gods grace and blessing most powerfull and effectuall meanes , both for the establishing of your hearts in the love of Gods truth , and in the knowledge of the true doctrine of his grace , and also for the confirming of your minds , that they may neyther be daunted with the reproachfull calumnies and slanders , nor troubled and entangled with the deceitfull cavils and carnall reasons , which these subtile Sophisters have devised against Gods sacred truth in our Church professed : And therefore I doe presume to commend unto you this ensuing Treatise , which I ( having occasion to peruse it while it was under the Presse ) doe perceive to be , as most necessary for these times , so also most excellent and profitable for your purpose . For I finde in it , first , the doctrins of truth concerning the grace of God , and the powerfull worke of grace in the effectuall calling , conversion and regeneration of the elect , most plainly propounded , and strongly proved out of the sacred Scriptures : Also true saving and justifying Faith most accurately described & unfolded , with the whole nature and all the speciall properties of it , by which it may be distinctly knowne and discerned from common fading hypocriticall Faith. Secondly , the maine errors of Arminians and Papists , and their most grosse absurdities about universall grace , and mans free-mill , and power in working his owne salvation , truly related ; their calumnies and slaunders of our Churches doctrine , detected and discovered , and their principall arguments , carnall reasons and objections , with wonderfull brevitie and singular dexteritie answered and refuted . Thirdly , by the way the authority , perspicuity and certainty of the holy Scriptures strongly maintained , and Popish errours about the uncertainty and obscurity of them , beaten downe by strength of reason and by the Word of God , as by a hammer that beates the rockes in pieces . Though the style and maner of handling be somwhat Scholasticall , sitted and applyed to the place and persons where and among whom these Exercises were first performed ( to wit , in one of the Schooles of the Prophets in the famous Vniversity of Oxford ) : yet I assure my selfe that whosoever reads this booke with good attention and understanding , shall finde the Authors meditations therein so throughly digested , and the nature , properties and proper acts of Grace and Faith so distinctly layde downe and accurately distinguished , that he shall reape to himselfe much profite and comfort thereby , and shall with me admire the grace of God abounding toward the Author , in all wisedome , and in all knowledge , lively sense and utterance of heavenly and supernaturall mysteries , far above all which can be expected from , or is ordinarily found in one of his age and yeares . If , as we know trees by their fruit , so we may passe our sentence upon the composer of this Treatise , by his work ; we cannot conceive or speake lesse of him , but that as hee was from his childehood trayned up in the Schooles of learning , and had profited above his equals in the studies of the best arts , humane & divine , so undoubtedly he hath from his tender yeares beene throughly disciplined in the Schole of Christ , and hath by much and daily experience of afflictions and manifold temptati●ns in himselfe , and of the inward sensible operations of Gods spirit and grace in his owne soule , attained to this high measure of heavenly knowledge and understanding , whereof he hath here given us a lively experiment . It is not the most strong out stretched arme of humane reason , nor the most swift and farre flying arrow of the sharpest naturall wit , nor the farre extended lines of long continued studies , which can reach so high to these heavenly and supernaturall mysteries : It is onely the holy Spirit of grace comming upon all these , taking possession of mans soule , dwelling in him , and making him a new creature , which brings this kind and measure of profound wisedome , and this distinct knowledge of divine things : yea by the fiery tryall of inward temptations onely doth that blessed Spirit drive the thirsly soules of Gods militant Saints to digge and dive so deep into the fountaines of the sacred Scriptures , and to draw such living waters from the very bottome of those Wells of salvation . In a word , as the Apostle saith of yongue Abel , that by Faith having offered up a more excellent sacrifice than his elder brother Cain , he by it obtained witnesse that he was righteous , God testifying of his gifts , & by it he being dead yet speaketh , Heb. 11. 4. so I will not doubt nor bee affraid to say of the godly and learned Author of this Booke ( who having offered up to God in a publike place these exercises , as the first fruits of his heavenly learning , did not long after leave this world in the flower of his age , and ascended up into that supercelestiall glory , towards which he had ever bent all his studies and desires , and which alwaies hee had sought after in the whole course of his life ) that by faith hee , though yongue in yeares , hath offered up a more excellent sacrifice than many of his elder brethren ; by which hee being dead yet speaketh , and shall speake to future ages . And as hereby he shall obtaine witnesse of all Gods surviving Saints , that hee himselfe was a righteous and faithfull servant of Christ , excelling in grace and vertue in the dayes of his pilgrimage here on earth : So God also will testifie of this his gift , that it is holy and acceptable in the eyes of his Majestie , by making it powerfull and effectuall to the begetting and increasing of saving grace , faith , and knowledge in all such as reade and peruse it with true Christian docilitie , diligence and humble devotion . To the blessing of which gracious God I leave this worke , and to his grace commend you all ; desiring in my daily prayers to be and continue Your brother , companion and fellow souldier in seeking the glory of Gods grace , defending the truth of the Gospell , and fighting against the spreading errours and springing heresies of this age , George Walker . The Table of the chiefe matters contained in this Treatise . ABilities of man are not to be measured by his own partiall iudgement page 145 Actions of grace and holinesse how far they are in a godly mans owne power 147 Admonition three-fold about searching the Scriptures 217. &c. Affections two-fold , sensuall , rationall described 125 Affections not quickned nor stirred vp to loue of goodnesse before conuersion 125 Not rightly moued towards Spirituall things but when thoy are affected spiritually 130 Articles of the Arminian faith 53 Arminians how they erre about vniuersall grace 54 Their errors about the worke of Gods Word and mans calling 99 Their obiections and reasons answered 106. 107. &c. Their errors about the subiection of mans naturall affections to his reason , discouered 125. &c. They giue large allowance of grace to men vnregenerate 127 Their absurdities therein 128 Their grosse errors about mans will discouered 132 &c. Their errors in holding that conuersion doth begin and consist in the act onely of beleeuing 134 135. &c. The dangerous issue and conclusion of their errors 136 Assent differs in degree according to the diuersity of the obiects assented vnto 169 Assistance effectuall , why denied by God at some times to the regenerate 153 B BAptizing of Infants lawfull 47 Beleefe how it differs from faith and trust 170 C CAlumnies of Arminians and Iesuites 155 Calling outward and inward described 94 How the Arminians conceiue of Calling 99 Catechizing needfull , and vsefull in the Church of Christ Preface , page 6 Certaintie of assent in Faith springs from three grounds , The first 206 The second 220 The third 222 Communion with Christ two-fold 15 Conuersion of a sinner to God 6. 7 The causes of it 16. 24 The subiect 37 The manner how it is wrought 27 It goes before Faith 4 It signifies , First , Gods infusing of habituall grace . Second , The regenerate mans actuall imploying of grace infused 89. 144 Conuersion mistaken by Arminians which is a cause of confusion in their writings 92 Conuersion how to be truly discerned 115 Preparatiue meanes vnto it 137. 138 How weake they are , and in a man vnregenerate how they are said to be sinfull 139 That they may be resisted , and how 140. &c. Cooperation of Gods Spirit necessarie in all holy actions of men regenerate 151 Corruption of nature , what it is 5 D DEsire of spirituall things after a naturall manner is a corrupt desire 130 E ELect men onely are the proper subiect of true conuersion vnto God 41 Euidence of the Scriptures declared & proued 175. 176 Conclusions touching it , The first 176 The second 182 The third ibid. 183 F FAlling from grace and finall resistance described . 142 Faith in Christ a part of sanctification 10 The habit and act of it , and when it is wrought ibid. It is not properly the root of all grace 12 There is some Spirituall life before it 13 and some participation with Christ 15. 23 It helps forward and increaseth grace and all gracious actions 14 Faith is commanded in the Morall Law 110 Faith Legall and Euangelicall the same in substance and differ only in the vse and obiect 111 The excellencie of Faith 158 What Faith or beleefe is in generall 159 How it agrees with , and differs from knowledge & opinion . 160. &c. Three grounds of the certaintie of assent in Faith. 164. 206 The first 206 The second 220 The third 222 Faith a degree beyond beleefe being an assent with confidence and reliance 170 Faith taken in a speciall sence & as it is Christian Faith described 171 Diuers acceptions of it ibid. 172 The obiect of Faith described 172. &c. The subiect , euerie reasonable creature 197. 198 Faith is in the whole heart , euen in the will as well as in the vnderstanding 199. 230 Faith which Papists call iustifying , is the faith of diuels and reprobates 237 Faith foolishly distinguished by Papists into formed and vnformed 237 Faith without works differs in nature from Faith with workes 238 Particular assent in Faith , and the root and cause of it 241 The obiect of it two-fold 244 Faith of the Elect wherein it differs from Faith of Hypocrites 247 Faith vnfained 253. 254 Faith of Hypocrites doth not assent to all Diuine truth at all times 147. 148. &c. Faith implicit of Papists confuted 194 Faith in the particular promise of grace defined 257 The iustifying act therof propounded & proued 258 How it is wrought 259 The comfort of it 260 Faith of the Elect by what degrees of assent and essentiall differences it is distinguished from other Faith 226 Temporarie Faith 227 The causes of it 228. 229 G GOD as Creator how far he may be knowne to naturall men 65 Goodnesse of the naturall man not generall 80 It resp●cts others more then himselfe 79 Grace what the habit of it is 7 It is infused all at once 10. 11 The actions of it appeare sooner or later stronger or weaker in some 9 It is so firmely wrought in the Elect that it shall neuer be blotted out 34 Grace preuenting , assisting , inciting , helping 13 By what meanes Grace may be quenched 37 Grace sufficient for conuersion not giuen to the Gentiles while they are out of the Church 55. 56. 57 Nor to all Christians in the visible Church 88. 89. &c. Grace of conuersion friuolously distinguished into sufficient and effectuall 89 Grace sufficient to conuersion is alwayes effectuall , and effectuall Grace onely is sufficient 91 Grace giuen to those who are within the Church , set forth in the diuers kinds thereof 94 Grace doth not rectifie inferiour faculties first 127 Grace sufficient to beleeue and turne to God is no other but the Grace of regeneration 92. 93 It is not giuen to all 93 Grace preparatiue to conuersion , how it may be resisted 140. 141. &c. H HOly Spirit giuen two wayes 26 I IGnorance of the very time of our conuersion no iust cause of doubting & fear that we are not conuerted and why 44 Illumination both naturall and spirituall , described 94 95 When it is not sufficient for sanctification of the heart 101. &c. Common Illumination not giuen to all hearers of the Word 100 Image of God wherein Adam was made 4 Implicit faith of Papists confuted 194. &c. Infants dying without Baptisme may be saued 45 Infants are charitably supposed to be regenerate in Baptisme 45 Why they may not receiue the Lords Supper 49. 50 Infusion of grace hath no concurrence of mans naturall abilities , but onely requires in him a passiue capacity to receiue 32 K KNowledge of Christian Religion must be alwayes increasing and fruitfull Preface 14 Knowledge meere naturall of the Morall Law brings little practise 70 Knowledge more certaine then beleefe in things of the same kind 166 Perfect Knowledge takes away all beleefe 167 Knowledge by sight so far as sight goes takes away faith 191 Knowledge distinct and explicit of Diuine things necessarie to the being of faith 192 L LAw morall how far it may be knowne to a naturall man 66. 68 Learned men vnsanctified fit to make hereticks . pr. 19. 20 Loue of God reacheth to the Elect before they be regenerate 17 Considered in it selfe it differs from the manifestation of it to vs 18 Gods Loue to our persons and actions 19 Light of nature well vsed by the Heathen doth not bind God in Iustice to giue them supernaturall light 84 MEanes of common faith 229 Meditation of what things will stir vs vp to praise Gods rich grace and mercy in our conuersion 38 Ministers dutie in preaching the Word 113 Miraculous faith ground on immediat reuelations . 173 Motions naturall and spirituall which are wrought by the Word described 95. 96 NAturall man cannot by the most industrious vse of all helpes naturall attaine to the least knowledge of God as he is mans Redeemer in Christ 64 His knowledge of God confined within two limits . 65 How far his knowledge of God as Creator reacheth 65 He neuer goeth so far in practise as he might and as he knowes he ought to doe 71 He neither knowes the cause , nor can iudge aright of the nature of sin . 74. 75 His vertue and goodnesse how far it goes , and is approued of God 76 He cannot possibly desire grace and mercy , and why 84 Necessitie doth well stand together with libertie in the will regenerate 156 OBedience of regenerate men how it is made irregular 152 Obscuritie in the obiect of faith , as it is held by the Papists , confuted 187. 188. &c. Obseruation of Gods mercies & iudgments on our selus or other , a speciall meanes to increase faith 223. P PAssions and affections naturall not subiect to reason 124 Plainnesse of speech and matter to be vsed in preaching of Gods Word . Pref. 22. 23 Priesthood of Christ , and how Christ and Aaron agree and differ Pref. 23 Promises the obiect of faith 170 QValities in the reasonable soule differ three wayes according to the threefold state of man 4. 5 REgeneration improperly ascribed to the Word 97 Regenerat man hath in him two contrarie qualies , grace and corruption ; as he is spirituall he neuer resists the worke of grace 148 Resistance of grace in Regenerat men whence it flowes 151 How the preuailing act of it is taken away 152 VVhy it preuailes many times 153 Religion breeds ciuility & knowledg of all arts 68. 69 Righteousnesse of the naturall man not acceptable to God 81 Rather negatiue then positiue 79 More outward then inward 76. 77 SAnctification how it goes before iustification 21 It is infused into Infants 43 VVrought in a maner meerely supernaturall 29 Sanctification how it hath mans free-will concurring to it two waies . 31 Man not a moral agent in it . 33. 34 Schollars how made complete Pref. 20. 21. &c. Scriptures freed from Popish imputations of obscurity 177. 178. &c. How they are certainly knowne to be Gods VVord 208. 209 By themselues 213 and by the Spirit 214. 215 Sin what a snare it hath layd to intrap wicked men . 139 Spirit how far & in what respect said to be quenched . 37 How infallibly victorious in the maine acts of repentance and loue 555 TRuth and goodnesse one and the same in naturall things 203. 204 VNiuersalitie of assent in true faith in respect both of obiect and time 146 Vniuersall grace how maintained by Arminians . 53. &c. Their grounds and arguments for it confuted . 58 Vnderstanding of things necessary to beleef of them . 192 Vnderstanding and Will doe mutually include one another 202. 203 Vocation outward and inward 42 Inward may be in Infants 43 VVIll of God approuing and effecting 108 Will regenerate is not neuter betweene sin and grace , but constantly and altogether inclined to obey God 149. All power of resisting taken from it by the Spirit 150 It wills necessarily & yet freely 156 Will of man vnregenerate vitious in quality 133 It hath no freedome to chuse spirituall good 133. &c. Word of God onely a passiue instrument of regeneration 96 How it workes grace 98 VVhen heard as Gods Word 116 Not preached with purpose to damne men 111 Worke of the Spirit by the VVord how it is 97. 112 Worke of grace preuenting and assisting 35 The first makes vs good trees , the other makes vs to beare good fruit 35 Workes of naturall men how far approued of God 83 Workes of regenerate men are their owne though performed by the assistance of the Spirit 32 Worship due from man to God in the state of innocency was wholy Spirituall 73 FINIS . THE PREFACE UPON HEB. 6. VERS . 1. 2. 3. TO speake without some Preface , where wee owe duety and respect , is not lesse unmannerly , than it is on the other side tedious and unpleasant to vse long Apologies . Vnto my apprehension , such Prologues , how euer sleeked ouer , doe yet seele rough and uneuen , and smell ranke of Lying or Flattery , when they are most seasoned with artificiall and trim conveiance : but of all , most unhandsomely doth this Rhetorick suite with such as pleade Gods cause before mortall men , who , if they will acknowledge their alleageance , must yeeld attention upon a Sic dicit Dominus , without further intreaty . For your selves ( dearely Beloved , and duely respected in our Lord Christ Iesus ) I verily suppose there is none among you , who respects to heare his owne praises ; if there be , I come not hither to give satisfaction to such their desire . And touching my selfe , I say onely thus much ; 'T is the vainest thing in the world , for Albinus a Romane to write a booke in Greeke , and present it to Cato with an Epistle Apologeticall : hee 'l surely censure him for a foole , one Qui maluit excusare culpam , quàm non committere , who had rather doe ill , and get a pardon for it by an Apologie , than be faultlesse and stand in need of neither . And so I have done with persons : give mee leave yet to make way vnto our after discourses by a necessary and reall introduction , whereby we shall all learne somewhat of our dueties , and you my purpose and intention in this exercise . Wherein to give way to custome more than necessity in this case , I will confine my discourse to that of the Apostle , Heb. 6. 1. Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ , let us goe on vnto perfection , not laying againe the foundation of Repentance from dead workes , and of Faith towards God. 2. Of the doctrine of Baptisme , and of Laying on of hands , and of Resurrection of the dead , and of eternall judgement . 3. And this will we doe if God permit . THe holy Apostle having in the first & second Chapters discoursed of the Divinity of Christ , and the glorious dignity of his person , together with the excellent vertue of his Priesthood , in tasting death for all men , that so hee might bring many children unto glory ; enters thereupon into a large Declaration of the effect which these things should worke in the Iewes , viz. Repentance and Obedience to the voice of the Messias . This is prosecuted with much variety of exhortation and argument , in the second , third , and fourth Chapters ; after which , the Apostle resumes his former argument of Christs Priesthood in the fift Chapter , shewing the similitude and disparity that was between it and the Leviticall Priesthood . The Priests after the order of Aaron , were 1. Men , 2. Men ordained for men in things pertaining to God , to offer gifts and sacrifices for sinnes . 3. Men compassed with infirmities , the more feelingly to compassionate and pitty their brethren . 4. Men called to this office , not intruders without lawfull election . And hitherto Christs Priesthood and Aarons agree : He also was 1. the sonne of man , the man Iesus Christ. 2. the Mediator betweene God and man. 3. a man of infirmities and sorrowes , consecrate through afflictions . 4. lastly , a man that tooke not the honour to himselfe ; but hee that called him , said vnto him , Thou &c. But now see the difference : 1. Aaron was a man , and no more ; Christ the Sonne of God too : 2. Aaron a sinnefull man that must sacrifice for himselfe also , aswell as others ; Christ touched with a feeling of our infirmities , and tempted in all things like us , but without sinne : 3. Aaron but a typicall Minister , Christ a reall author of salvation to all that obey him : 4. Aaron a temporall Priest , a Priest onely and no Prince , a Priest after an inferiour and successive order ; but Christ an eternall high Priest for euer , after the order of Melchisedec , wherein there is neither change nor succession , wherein Crowne and Mitre , Kingdome and Priesthood meet together in the person of Christ. Other differences there are , but the Apostle falling upon the mention of Melchisedecs Priesthood , a point of a high nature and hard understanding , he breakes off his dispute , and on the sudden runnes into an excellent digression , whereby to prepare the minds of the Hebrewes more heedfully to marke what was after to bee spoken . This digression , from the 11. vers . of the 5. to the end of the 6. Chapter , consists of three parts . 1. A tart reproofe of their ignorance and uncapablenesse of divine mysteries , from 11. vers . to the end of the 5. Chapter . The Apostle tells them they were dull of hearing ; but that 's not all , their ignorance was affected : they might for their time and meanes have beene teachers , and yet now they must be taught , and , which is strange , the very principles of the Word of God. Notorious truants , growne old in ignorance and age ; but our Apostle is plain with them , they were but children , and of the youngest size too , babes , infants , sucklings : and if they take snuffe to be thus disgraced , he will prove it to be so ; like a wise Nurse hee knowes what fits their diet , they must bee fed with milke , and that 's childrens food ; i. e. plaine and easie doctrine for vongue beginners , who are unexpert in the word of righteousnesse : not with strong meate of harder and higher mysteries of religion which are for men of age , which through long custome have their wits exercised to discerne both good and evill . 2. An earnest exhortation to increase both in Knowledge & Obedience ; et us be led forward to perfection : which is strengthened with a dreadfull threatning of vengeance against non Proficients and Apostataes , betweene whom there is no medium , the condition of Grace being unlike to that of Nature , admitting no degree of consistancy or stay betweene growing and decaying . This exhortation reacheth to the 9. verse of this 6. Chapter . 3. A sweete consolation against all discouragements that might hinder their perseverance ; by proposing unto them , 1. the examples of the old Saints in times past , who through Faith and Patience now inherit the Promises . 2. the stablenesse of Gods counsells and purposes ; who hath not onely promised but sworne to performe it : by which two immutable things , Gods Word , and Gods Oath , we may have strong consolation , and firme ground whereupon to cast the anchor of our Hope sure and stedfast to the end of the 6. Chapter . You now see by this briefe Analysis , wherto these words which I have read doe tend ; namely , to a growth after a plantation , a finishing after a foundation laid , to perfection after a beginning . These Ebrews had gone to schoole long , and the principles of Christianity had beene taught them a great while agoe , now 't was a shame for them like children to be alwaies in their horne-bookes , and never take forth a higher lesson . The Apostle will now no longer favour their ignorance ; 't was not infirmity but negligence in them : and therefore he purposes to read them a harder lecture , and to sticke no longer on common points of Catechisme , which hee onely names and so passes on . The words then describe unto us the progresse that Preacher and People are to make in the knowledge and practise of Christianity . I joine both together , because it is manifest by the threatning & consolations following , that this exhortation perswades the increase of obedience as well as knowledge , though the words seem to speake most for the latter . This proceeding in Christian piety , is expressed by an opposition of the two Termim or limits thereof . 1. Where it begins , and that is in the plaine and fundamentall points of Christian religion , which must bee knowne and left . [ Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ. ] 2. Where it ends , and that is at perfection , so farre as is attainable in this life , whereto we must strive [ Let us boled forward , or goe on unto perfection . ] The former part is amplified and expounded more at large in the next words , wherein the Apostle declares , 1. What he meanes by [ Leaving ] the principles and rudiments of religion . Wee must not learne and leave them , i. e. forget them , No. But wee may not sticke fast there and goe no further . Hee is an idle and unskilfull . Architect , that is alwaies busie in laying of a foundation , but never reares up a building upon it : and no lesse unprofitable is that Hearer or Preacher , who still is learning or preaching nought but the first elements of sacred science ; & this is that he signifies by [ not laying again the foundation ] which by his and other Apostles preaching had been laid before . 2. What hee meanes by [ the Doctrine of the beginning of Christ ] ( for so the words runne . ) Now , that he here calls a foundation , from the use that Doctrinall principles have in the spirituall building of Christianity , like to that of a foundation in materiall edifices . Of these fundamentall points , sixe are here reckoned up as so many heads and common places of the ancient Catechisme , 1. Repentance from dead workes : 2. Faith towards God : 3. the Doctrine of Baptismes : 4. I aying on of hands : 5. Resurrection of the dead : 6. Lastly , Eternall judgement . The latter part , of attaining to perfection , is amplified two waies : 1. By the meanes that must bring us to it , which is Gods grace , not our owne or others abilities , [ And this will we doe if God permit . ] 2. By its contrary and the punishment therof , viz. backsliding , in the verse following . It is not my meaning to goe over every particular , as they lye in the words , nor to stand now upon the discussing of all the difficulties which trouble the Text ; but purposing to handle them hereafter , as just occasion shall offer them unto us , I shall for this present commend to your observation , two conclusions which the words naturally afford . The first shall be this : That it is a necessary and usefull practise in the Church of God , to teach the doctrine of Christian religion plainly and summarily to yongue beginners . I need not go far to make this good . Nature shewes it : 'T is in Grace as in Nature , we are first babes in Christ , then perfect men : and the difference of spirituall food , fetcht from our naturall sustenance , approves it . Children must have milke , which is of effectuall nourishment , but yet easie digestion : Men must have strong meat , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , solider or harder meates , who have teeth to chew and stomacks to digest them ; that is , larger capacities and riper judgements , to pierce into the deeper mysteries of Divinity . Reason and Comparison in all other knowledge teach the same , wherein infinite conclusions are deducted out of a few Principles , which first learned , give light of knowledge and strength of proofe to every one of them : Your owne experience shall save me the labour of instances . If we looke but to the words , the excellent definition of Catechisme which the Apostle here gives , yeelds us two good proofes of its necessity . 1. It s the Doctrine of the beginning of Christ ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) by some rendred not unsitly for the sense , Sermo qui rudes in Christo inchoat , that gives beginning in Christ. This entrance into the knowledge of Christianity , being that meanes whereby Christ is first formed within us , and the seede out of which that holy conception of his glorious Image is at first shaped in our soules . A blessed institution of yonguer yeares , when Reason and Religion are together moulded and fashioned in tender mindes ; so that Religion shall not onely sanctifie , but also perfect Natures abilities , which euer from their first emploiment are as sinfull as they are weake . 2. It s a foundation that beares up all the building , and though it make the least shew , is yet of greatest use . Nor is their heresie more damnable , who lay any other foundation besides Iesus Christ , than their heresie is justly reproveable , who build upon their own or others any speculations , without the tryed ground-worke of infallible Principles , surely laid and throughly understood . If you will bee pleased to take a briefe survey of the practise of this institution , you shall easily perceive that it is no new or needlesse invention . In the ancient Church before Moses time , as the doctrine of Religion was more obscure , so the maner of its delivery is somewhat uncertaine ; yet we may not unfitly say , that all teaching then was but Catechisme , when the fathers to the children delivered by word of mouth so much of sacred truth , as themselves had either received by tradition from the Ancestors , or learned by new revelation from God himselfe . When the Church grew out of a family into a Nation , and that as men multiplied , so ignorance & corruption increased ; God himselfe writes a Catechisme for the Iewes , describing a short compendium of Religion in the two Authenticke Tables of the Law , containing Ten words ; so few and so plaine , that the shortest memory and shallowest wit might easily comprehend them . And withall , God now layes an expresse command upon his people , both for themselves and for their children , Deut. 6. 6 , 7. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart ; And thou shalt rehearse them vnto thy children , and shalt talke of them when thou sittest in thine house , and when thou walkest by the way , and when thou liest downe , and when thou risest up . The word is emphaticall [ Thou shalt rehearse them continually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] thou shalt sharpen them by often and seasonable instruction , giving an edge or point to the precepts of the Law , that they may pierce into the mindes of the unlearned . How carefully this strict injunction was afterward observed , either by the Levites in publick , or in private by masters of families , wee cannot certainely define , where Scripture is silent of both their practises ; but if wee may judge of the carefulnesse of former times by the carelesnesse of these , there is good cause to thinke , that both Levites in the Synagogues , and Governours in their private houses were negligent enough in discharging this duty . Yet we may well presume , that there were both of the one and other not a few , whose godly industry in this particular , may justly shame the impious slothfulnesse of Ministers and People in latter ages . Where will a David and Bathsheba be now found , personages of highest quality , yet counting it no disgrace to reade a Lecture of religion and morality to a yongue Salomon ? You shall finde their practise , 2. Chron. 28. 8. Prov. 31. 1. And Salomon himselfe seemes to give that precept out of the experience of his owne most excellent education [ Teach a childe the trade of his way , and when hee is old he shall not depart from it ] though himselfe scarce did so . Yea , albeit infinite corruptions have at this day deformed all religion among the Iewes , yet even to these times may be seene some prints of their ancient discipline among them , whose children are in their tender yeares first taught the law and bookes of Moses , and after that their Talmudicall Traditions , with such care and industry , as their skill in Iudaisme at 17. exceedes the knowledge of many among us in Christianity at 70. whereof , see the learned Buxd. Synag . Iudaic. c. 3. But come we unto those times when the Sunne of righteousnesse arose , and the knowledge of holy things shone in its full strength by the ministery of Christ and his Apostles , and we may trace this practise by its apparant footsteps , even from the first age of the Christian Church , and downeward . The words which I have read , are but a copy and briefe description of the Primitive Catechisme : & the Apostle Paul commends to Timothies custody 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a pattern and delincation of wholesome doctrine , which hee had learned from the Apostle , 2. Tim. 1. 13. which also , Rom. 12. 6. he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Analogy of faith contained in all fundamentall points of sacred doctrine , with which all interpretations of Scripture must beare due proportion . Now very necessity drave them in those Primitive times , to draw religion into compendious heads and short summaries , partly in regard of Infidels , who being converted to the faith , were to be instructed in the maine points of Christian beleefe , a thorow knowledge and open confession whereof , was required of them at their Baptisme : partly in respect of the children of Christian parents , who because of the dangerous sollicitations of Idolatrous Gentiles and Hereticall Christians , privily creeping in , to beguile by craftinesse ignorant and unstable soules , were of necessity to have their mindes setled in the chiefe and generall conclusions of Christian doctrine , by which they might defend themselves against all sophistical seducements . Both these , whether new Converts or yongue Christians , were anciently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till their Baptisme and Confirmation ; and for such whose narrow wits could not comprehend large discourses , it was needfull to make use of Epitomes . Touching the word , we finde it more ancient than this custome , and more generally understood than of it onely . In generall , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in its Metonymicall signification is to teach others vivâ vo●● , by speech sounding into their eares ; in speciall , to instruct any in the first rudiments of an art or science : because such as are ignorant learne more by others teaching than their owne study . In the generall acception , besides profane authors , wee finde it used in the new Testament five severall times , Luke 1. 4. That thou mightest acknowledge the certainty of those things , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof thou hast been instructed , saith S. Luke to Theophilus , rendring the reason of the dedication of his Gospell unto him . Of Apollos , an eloquent man , & mighty in the Scriptures , it s said he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instructed in the way of the Lord , Act. 18. 25. & , Rom. 2. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , instucted by the Law ; againe , 1. Cor. 14. 19. I had rather in the Church speake fiue words with mine understanding , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that I might also teach others , than ten thousand words in a strange tongue . But most notable is that place , Gal. 6. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Let him that is taught in the Word , make him that hath taught him partaker in all his goods . In all which places , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to bee taught or instructed , as the circumstances of the Texts doe evidently demonstrate . But in times presently succeeding the Apostles , and since , the word hath been usually taken by Ecclesiasticall Writers in the strictest sense , for the first instruction of yongue beginners in the rudiments of Christianity : For now began the Gentiles in great multitudes to joyn themselves unto the Church , and the number of those that were to be Catechised daily increasing , gave occasion to the Pastors of every Congregation to bee more frequently imployed in this businesse . And as the burden grew heavier , so new meanes were devised for their better institution . Hence , besides the Pastors and Bishops of the Churches , there were some specially deputed to attend this office , who from their imploiment were called Catechistae ; and not onely in the Temples , but also in Schooles opened for that purpose , did teach such as were rude and ignorant the elements of Christian religion . Famous above others is that Schoole at Alexandria in Egypt , wherin so many learned men taught , and so many holy Martyrs and Confessors , had their first education : There it was that Origen having first taught a Grammar Schoole , did afterward succeed Clemens in the office of Catechist ; and such was eyther the necessity of those times , or the excellent abilities of the man , that at 18. yeares of age he took upon him that charge of publicke teaching : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Eusebius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Very yongue yeares ; and I know not whether he got so much honour by his learned teaching , as for his constant suffering , so many persecutions as were raised against him in that City . Yet was he in account for both , in so much that hee was not onely sent for to come into Arabia by the Governour of the country , there to teach ; but also being driven from Alexandria by troubles there , he repaired to Caesarea Stratonis , there set up a Schoole , and was judged worthy to expound the Scriptures , and read Divinity in publicke , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the same Eusebius witnesses , Lib. 6. cap. 13. But I must not write a story of him or others , who in those times bare this office in the Church ; nor yet of the Catachumeni , and the severall constitutions decreed of in Councells and Provinciall Synods , for their more convenient institution ; of the time of their admission to Baptisme , and after that to the Communion , of the manner of their being in the Congregation during the time of divine Service , where they were to stand not mixed with the rest of the people , but severally by themselves , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when they were to depart the assembly , viz. before the celebration of the Eucharist , at which they were by no means to be present , though at the Sermons & Praiers of the Church for them , they might be : of divers cases touching their Baptisme , their relapses & recoveries , their phrensies and possessions by the divell , their martyrdome before Baptisme , with such like queres and customes , of which now antiquated by time , wee neede not trouble ourselves to make any curious inquiry . The Acts and Canons of the ancient Councills , and Church Writers of those times make frequent mention of them ; out of whom to compile an exact Commentary upon this matter , is a worke of longer time than I can spare , and lesser commodity than will pay for the paines . Yet one word of the manner of teaching that was used towards these Novices in the faith : which , what ever it was in private , for the publike seemes not to have beene dialogue-wise by question and answer , after the fashion of these times , but in a continued speech , with much plainnesse and familiar easinesse . That tract of S. Austins , de Symbolo ad Catechumenos , and these Catachismes of Cyrill Bishop of Ierusalem , which are preserved to our times , shew us what course they followed in writing and preaching of Catachisme ; the one being a plaine exposition of the Creede , the other nothing but Sermons upon the chiefe Articles of faith and points of manners , which Cyrill preached extempore to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or newly baptized in his Church . If now wee come downe to latter times , when all the world was become Christian in outward profession , we shall easily perceive , that when they wanted Conuerts of the Gentiles whom they might instruct , these ages began by degrees to neglect also the children of the Church . So that for many ages , whilst ambition and tyranny in Church-men wried their thoughts more to the advancement of their owne greatnesse , than to the furtherance of religion & godliness in the Church , this sacred institution was even quite laid aside ; & after that , through ignorance , barbarism & superstition easily crept in , & soon corrupted whatsoever was sincere either in Gods worship or good maners . And now was this disease growne so desperate , that its thought incurable by those lazie and idle shepheards , which wealth and superstition had bred vp , and advanced to the oversight of Gods flockes . I meane that Cloistred rabble of Monkes and Friers , who sacrilegiously parting those that God hath ioyned together , made a profession of Praier without preaching , and thought by their devout oraisons to bring men to heaven , how ignorant and wicked soever they were . Yet these were the men whose lips must be thought to preserve knowledge , whose brests must bee the oracles of Divinity , and in their heads must lye inclosed the more secret and precious treasures of wisedome : but they were indeed wells without water , deceiving the hope of weary and thirsty soules , empty clouds they were without raine , that did not send forth one gracious showre to refresh the inheritance of the Lord. And now these dreamers , in stead of curing the peoples ignorance , which would have cost them some paines , take a shorter course , and fall to commend it as a speciall vertue , and fruitfull mother of true devotion . Which base impiety , as it hath been detestable to Angels , to men upon whom any the least beame of saving light ever shone ; so since the reformation , hath the shame therof been sufficiently discovered , and cast upon the face of that Romish Strumpet , though her whores forehead cannot yet blush at it . We see , and now enjoy those holy ordinances of Preaching and Catechising within our Churches , revived and observed with happy successe in the increase of all piety . Our adversaries have seen it and sorrowed for it , to behold the industry and care of the Churches in their provision for the due instruction of yonguer and weaker Christians . And though they hope that their ignorance shall uphold their Church against our knowledge , yet very shame hath driven them to doe somewhat : for which purpose , a Catechisme there was hatcht in the Councill of Trent , and by it allowed , wherein of a little milke of Gods Word , and superfluity of ranke poison pressed out of the brests of the Babylonish Harlot , such food was prepared as was thought sit for the nourishment of her infants . But I must hasten ; what I have spoken touching this point , shall be as for justification of our present exercise , so for a commendation of the paines of those faithfull & skilfull worke-men in the Lords building , who have laboured by preaching and writing to lay a sure foundation of knowledge , before they build up in the faith . I could heartily wish that those among us , whom either ease or pride have made carelesse in this office , would bee pleased to looke abroad into such congregations where this course is held , and to compare them with their owne and others where t is neglected : they should soone perceive how faire and open a passage is made for preaching to follow after , where diligent catechising hath gone before , & on the other side , how hopelesse their endeavour is who labour to imprint in the heads of their people the knowledge of conclusions , before they have learned the principles of Divinity . If these men complaine and say , I have spent my strength in vaine , and my labour without profit , preaching long and seeing little reformation , I will not pitty them , who are like unwise Nurses ; who when their children thrive not , lay the blame upon their sickly bodies , when the fault is in their owne indiscretion , who feede them not with childrens bread ; but force upon them stronger meate , which they cannot disgest but vomit up againe . And so I have done with my first conclusion ; I come unto the second which the words afford unto us , and it shall be this , That the knowledge of Christian religion must bee alwaies increasing and fruitfull . I couple both properties together , as both meant by the words of our Apostle [ Let us goe on unto perfection . ] Hee that knowes all and doth nothing , hee knowes nothing as he ought to know ; and hee that doth his Masters will and knowes it not , shall have no thankes for doing he knowes not what . Science and Conscience joyned both together , make up a perfect man in Christ Iesus : perfect indeed in all his parts , but yet imperfect still in every degree : and therfore as they must be , so they must also grow together . Gods Spirit never arose upon that mans heart by supernaturall light of saving knowledge , where the light growes darker and dimmer , and shines not more and more unto the perfect day , till at last it illighten the soule , as the Sun at noonetide in its full strength and brightnesse . Never was that man borne againe of the immortall seede of the Word and Spirit , both which are of lively and mighty operation , who doth not proceed from strength to strength , adding one grace unto another , untill he abound and bee filled with all the fruits of righteousnesse . It is a great eye-sore to God , when hee walkes in the beautifull garden of the Church , to delight himselfe among the trees of the garden , and to gather of their pleasant fruit , if then hee shall see any plant which comes not forward in so kindely a soile , or which growes great and greene , but beares no fruit at all : Certainely , we may well thinke there 's a canker at the roote , and that it will not be long , before such a tree bee blasted by the breath of Gods fiery displeasure , which in a moment shall consume both branch and roote . You know the doome ; Take it away , why should it trouble the ground ? and in this place of our Apostle , the sentence is dreadfull against non-prosicients . The earth that drinketh in the raine that commeth often upon it , and bringeth forth hearbes meet for them by whom it is dressed , receiveth blessing of God : But that which beareth thornes and briers is reproved , and is neere unto cursing , whose end is to be burned . For the godly it is not so with them , they that are good will be better , hee that is holy will be holy still , hee that is just will bee yet more just . That of the Psalmist is most heavenly : The righteous shall flourish like a Palmo tree , and shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon : Such as bee planted in the house of the Lord , shall flourish in the Courts of our God : They shall still bring forth fruit , even in their age they shall be fat and flourishing , Psal. 90. 11 , 12 , 13. But no more in so plaine a case : let us turne our thoughts for a while unto some application to our selves and our present purpose . For our selves , whose profession is to know much , and desire to know all ; let it bee our chiefest study to become good Christians , as well as great Schollers . You will find it to be no needlesse admonition , if you well consider both how easie , and also how dangerous it is to bee gracelesse , and yet learned . Which unhappy separation how oft it is made , the experience of former and present times do witnesse , and both Church and State in all ages have felt the mischievons effects of it . Let mee but discover the dangers wherewith our peaceable and happy course of life is yet incompassed withall , and it shall bee in stead of other motives to make us heedefull of our owne welfare . Our adversaries are chiefly two : 1. Our owne corruption , which being once stirred , workes strangely . When civill education , morall instruction , and divine knowledge in part , shall worke upon a man unregenerate , they will begin to awaken the conscience , rectifie the distempered affections , and give an assay to plucke vp impiety and incivillity by the rootes : but all together are too weake , where the Spirit of grace helpes not ; and without its ingredient vertue are like a potion that stirres the humours , but cannot purge them . Whence corruption once moved becomes violent , the affections rage , conscience is overborne , the light is resisted , all those bands wherewith sinfull nature might seeme to be fettered , are broken like a threed of tow , and such a one carried furiously beyond the limits of ordinary iniquity , to all transcendent wickednesse . For none so desperately evill , as they that may be good and will not , or have beene good and are not . But this is not all , we have another enemy , and that 's 2. Satan by his most powerfull instigations , contrived with much cunning , inforced with secret and irre stable violence . Good reason this Lion should roare fierce upon so hopefull a prey : a Scholler is at least one degree of eminency above the common pitch , and his example prevailes much on either side . If knowledge dare venter , what should ignorance doubt ? If learning cannot defend it selfe from common-vices , how should rudenesse and simplicity be safe ? And thus he perisheth not alone in his transgression . Againe , this is like poison in the fountain , like a worme in the roote , like corruption and rottennesse in the seede , when those that are Spes gregis , the hope of present and after times , whose shoulders should beare up the glory of Church and State , are themselves become vile , light , and vaine persons , corrupt , and corrupting children . Surely , the divell cannot worke a more compendious mischiefe , than to deforme those that should be the meanes of others reformation . Thinke not then wee are more secure from danger than other men : nay , my Brethren , Satan hath his quiver full of fiery shafts fitted for all occasions , all affections , all callings ; and wee in our scholasticall studies lye as open to the stroak of his spirituall temptations , as others doe in their civill and mechanicall imploiments . I will describe some two or three of those weapons of death , prepared for our ruine , and so passe on . 1. The first are grosser temptations to ill manners and open profanenesse : For some there are of a baser mettall and more impure temper , fit to bee imployed in any the meanest service the divell shall put them to . These shames of learning and ingenuous education , who bring up an ill report upon these places dedicated to piety and modesty , you may commonly see , and doe I hope unfainedly detest . But this way succeedes not in all , in whom learning breedes civility at the least : there is therefore a second supply at hand of such poisons , as will be more generally and easily swallowed : of which drugges , there are as I conceive foure most deadly . 1. Pride and selfe-conceit , a bastard begot betwixt a learned head and an unsanctified heart ; which being once conceived in the soule , causeth it to swell till it burst asunder with unthankfulnesse to God for the bestowing , with envie , scorne , and disdaine of men in the imparting of such gifts as may bee to them beneficiall . 2. Surfetting upon humane and inferiour learning , with contempt of divine studies . Thinke you that Christian Academies are now growne so holy , that this age breeds no Politians , nor Lyps● , who are so far from being children of the Prophets , that they are despisers of prophecy ? True Humanists , that rellish nothing but what is of man , having the sacred Scriptures and mysteries of Divinity in basest contempt , esteeming the simplicity of Faith to bee sillinesse and folly , the plainnesse of holy stile to bee but meere dunsery , the familiar delivery of wholesome precepts , to be good , honest , and dry matter . A bawdie Epigrame of some ranke Poet , a drunken song of some Anacreon , a flattering Ode of a Pindarus , a smart invective of some fleering Satyrist , the obscure phrase of some cloudy-pated Lycophron , an acute morall discourse of a Seneca , or a well composed storie of some Tacitus , all these , any of these deserve more study , rellish better to those aguish tongues , carry with them more life and quicknesse of sense , more strength of invention , more juice and bloud of sound knowledge and satisfaction , than the holiest ditty that ever the sweete singer of Israell set , the most exemplary story that Gods Spirit ever indited , the most powerfull Sermon that Prophet or Apostle ever preached , the deepest mysteries that not flesh and bloud but the holy Ghost hath revealed . Strange contempt . Is it possible that the creature should bee thus ignorant of his Creators voice , thus presumptuous to censure him of rudenesse ? But t is so , the tongues , the pens , the practises of not a few discover unto us this leprosie of Atheisticall contempt of Gods wisedome , arising in their foreheads . T is well God hath not left himselfe without witnesse , that he can speake eloquently as well as plainly , But were it otherwise , yet were it well still : and they would be found best Rhetoricians and Artists , that can learne Gods art and not teach him . I proceede to a third danger , and that is 3. Profane study of sacred things , to know onely not to doe , to satisfie curiosity , or give contentment to an all searching and comprehending wit ; who study Divinity as they would doe other arts , looking for no further aide than Natures ability , or as men doe trades and occupations meerely to make a living by it , who reade the Scriptures as wee doe morall authors , collecting what pleaseth their fancy , to bee scattered as flowres of Rhetoricke here and there for the garnish of their discourse , but no whit for sanctification of the heart . In all these there lies a poisonous humour which banes the soule , and you shall observe it , that there are few in whom is found , such invincible hardnesse of heart , consciences so farre stupified and senselesse in sinne , mindes so devoide of all true touch of piety , as those , who frequently conversing in holy things , doe as often pollute them by unhallowed hearts . There 's yet a fourth disease mortall to him that 's sicke of it , and also spreading its contagion unto others , that is 4. Hereticall or Schismaticall opinions , bred and maintained by pride and selfe-love , or some other unsanctified affection which men give way unto , joyned with bitter opposing of the truth . And heer 's a mischiefe able to trouble a whole world : Councils , Conferences , Perswasions , Arguments , Edicts of banishment , confiscation and death ; all the wisedome of the Word , and power of the sword joyned together , shall scarce bee able to put to death this monstrous birth of an hereticall braine , so tenderly cherished by the master and his deare disciples . Well then , you see in how slippery places wee stand , and how easily we are supplanted by that strong one against whom wee wrastle : looke but a little into the story of times , and you shall plainely reade your owne dangers in others misfortune . Never had Christ so much to doe with any as with the learned Scribes and Pharisees , who by malicious depravations , captious interrogatories , secret practise , and open violence , most desperately resisted his Ministery , in so much that our Saviour professeth the poore ignorant Publicans should goe to heaven before them , who had the key of knowledge , and would neither enter themselves , nor suffer others that would , to come in . The Athenians were the learnedst of the Grecians , accounted then the only learned nation of the world : yet you see how course entertainment they gave unto the Gospell in the Apostles times , scornfully despising the foolishnesse thereof , in comparison of their owne superfine wisedome ; and in after times wee know , that those Grecian wits proved the most dangerous Heretickes . T is true , that the divell can make a Mercury a lying deceiver of any wood ; Iohn a Leyden , Cn●pperdolling , or our Henry Nicholls the father of the Familists , with such other blockes , are instruments fit enough for a common disturbance : but yet for the generall , in all the shop of Hell , there is no anvile so well set whereon to forge , no engine so apt whereby to execute any choice piece of mischiefe , as that man who is learned and lewd . The Heresies of all times approve it , bred by men as vicious as learned , even from Arius and upward , downe unto Arminius . The fire of persecution alwayes burnes hottest in the raigne of some Iulian : and none so bitter cavillers against the Truth as a Libanius , a Porphyrie , an Appion , a Cresconius . But once for all , and worst of all take the Iesuites of these last times , who as they have almost ingrost all the learning and honour from the rest of the shaven Friers , so exceede them all in villany and impiety . Being men , who of all others , are found to bee the most impudent and shamelesse perverters of truth , forgers of new and sublimated superstition , corrupters of antiquity ; and not content to live in their owne element , most dangerous intermedlers in all affaires of State , most mischeivous contrivers of the destruction of Kingdomes . Wherefore let me exhort you in the words of the Apostle , Grow in grace , in the knowledge and acknowledgement of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. And let me beseech you , that you would bee pleas'd so to order your courses , that your learning may grace your religion , your religion may blesse your learning : this is but the halfe , the lesser , the worser halfe of Gods image and of a good man ; have both , and bee for ever perfect Christians , complete Scholars . Which that you may be , let me perswade you to two things : 1. To a constant and serious study of the Scriptures : But herein take heede , that an holy and humble minde doe alwaies beare thee company . Thinke when thou openest this booke , thou seest in the title of every book , in the contents of every chapter this inscription , Holinesse to the Lord. Nay , every line breathes holinesse , brings the very breath of that ever blessed and most holy Ghost . And bee assured , that a heart surcharged with covetous desires , ambitious thoughts , voluptuous , uncleane , and impure affections , is farre un fit for the study and meditation of these sacred writings , and shall never attaine to the saving understanding thereof . Againe , be humble and not proud , sober and not curious : neglect no helpes of Nature or Art that may bee gotten , nor relye too much upon either , as foolish Anabaptists doe on the one side , and presumptuous wits on the other , whose stocke will soone decay . Study to obey , not to dispute , turne not conscience into questions and controversies , lest whilst thou art resolving what to do , thou doe just nothing . Draw not all to reason , leave something for faith ; where thou canst not found the bottome , admire the depth , kisse the booke and lay it downe , weepe over thine ignorance , and send one heartie wish to heaven , Oh when shall I come to know as I am knowne ! Goe not without nor before thy guide , but let thine eyes bee alwaies towards that Lambe who onely can open this booke , and thy understanding . And then , Blessed is he that readeth , and he that heareth the words of the prophecy of this booke , for the time is at hand : Yea , the time is at hand when all shall be accomplished , and wee must bee accomptable , when arts shall cease , tongues shall be abolished , knowledge shall vanish away : Doe but thinke now one thought what will be the joy of thy conscience in that day , when thou maist truly say , Lord , thou hast written to me the great things of thy Law , and I have not accounted them a strange thing ; or with David , I have hid thy Word within my heart , that I might not erre from thy Commandements . 2. This for your private , in the second place attend to hearing as well as reading . It is a fault greatly reproveable in many , who despise all but their owne study ; Gods ordinance of preaching , and a moneths paines of the learned cannot do them so much good as an houres study of their owne , who therefore out of scorne of Gods ordinance and other mens abilities will keepe home . And I could wish that yet it were so , that whom God lookes for at the Church , he might finde them in their studies : they should be though not so wel busied as they ought , yet not so ill imployed as now they are . But I spare them in this place , hoping that none heares mee who doth not hate this practise , and tremble to cast such contempt upon the sacred office and ordination of the publike Ministery . I le rather touch upon our private , an exercise of an inferiour nature , yet of excellent use and great necessity . Let that before spoken perswade your attention and diligence in thriving by it ; and besides that , know the worke of providence to be such , that how simple soever the messenger be that brings it , yet Gods words will alwaies accomplish that whereto it is sent , in hardening or softening the heart . Here only let me commend unto your acceptance and expectation a double plainnesse needfull to be used : 1. Of stile and speech , that matter may have leave to command words , and not bee constrained to follow them in servile attendance . How many excellent discourses are tortured , wrested , and pinched in , & obscured through curiosity of penning , hidden allusions , forced phrases , uncouth Epithites , with other deformities of plaine speaking ; your owne eares and eyes may be sufficient judges . A great slavery , to make the minde a servant to the tongue , and so to tie her up in fetters , that shee may not walke but by number and measure . Good speech , make the most on 't , is but the garment of truth : and she is so glorious within , shee needes no outward decking : yet if she doe appeare in a rayment of needle-worke , it s but for a more majestike comelinesse , not gawdy gainesse . Truth is like our first Parents , most beautifull when naked , t was sinne covered them , t is ignorance hides this . Let perspicuity and method bee ever the graces of speech ; and distinctnesse of delivery the daughter of a cleer apprchension : for my self , I must alwaies thinke they know not what they say , who so speake , as others know not what they meane . If they doe it of purpose , they are envious to others , and injurious to Nature : and the best interpretation I can make of such misty and cloudy eloquence , is , that it serves onely to shadow an ignorant minde , or an ill meaning . T is naught in all discourse , about religion much more ; as if the darknesse of our understanding were not hinderance enough , without obscurity of speech : and of all , I am sure in this kinde of exercise most un fit , where both matter and auditors require plainnesse . Catechismes are pend like lawes , in plaine not eloquent termes , & its a great absurdity in definitions & summary decisions to seek after tropes and figures . Wherefore for curious discourses sitted to rub itching ears , let AElians grave censure of Myrmerides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , coaches with foure horses , so little you might hide them undor a slies wing , or Callicrates his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , copies of verses written so small as a chery stone might hold them , passe likewise upon them , they are to say the least , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a laborious losse of time . Certainely , I finde both the one and the other cendemned in Pauls practise and the Iewes example . Hee was learned , and spake all languages , and that exactly eloquently ; if Gods teaching can doe any thing more than a Grammarians or Rhetoricians schoole , yet in case of preaching hee would not doe that which he condemned in the false Apostles , but professeth his opinion and practise , 1. Cor. 2. 1. I came not to you with excellency of words or of wisedome : and verse 4. nor stood my word and my preaching in the entising speech of mans wisedome , but in plaine evidence of the Spirit and of Power ; and he gives a reason for it , verse 5. That your faith should not be in the wisedome of men [ as wrought by mans perswasion ] but in the power of God. Againe , Exekiel was an eloquent man , and the Iewes tooke a pleasure to heare him , but where grace wanted what could his eloquence helpe ? Yee shall have it in Gods owne words , Ezek 33. 31. 32. They come unto thee as a people useth to come , and my people sit before thee , and heare thy words , but they will not doe them : for with their mouths they * [ make jests , ] and their heart goeth after their covetousnesse . But it may be Ezekiels utterance was harsh , and they were offended at it . No , it followes : And loe thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice , and can play well on an instrument ; for they heare thy words , but they doe them not . This for speech , the other plainnesse is 2. Of the matter , that ye will give mee leave to enquire after the old way and to walke in it , I meane that plaine path which the Scriptures have laid forth before us , the easiest I assure me , to be found , the safest to travel in . Mens writings are infinite , their opinions changeable , their resolutions doubtfull : and if wee begin there , wee are out of the way at the first entrance ; and t is hazzard but wee loose truth and our selves among so many turnings and windings of errors , heresies , opinions , conjectures , quarrelsome contradictions , disputes , and brawling controversies as we shall meete withall . Who would be so troubled in his way to heaven , thus wearied and vexed with endlesse and needlesse discourses , which like the envious Amalekites set upon us in our sore travell towards Canaan , assaulting the simplicity of our faith , disquieting the peace of conscience by strange decisions of doubtfull cases , darkning the cleer light of sacred Scripture which shines dimme through such painted glasse , and in briefe , mingling the sincer● milke of the Word with the noisome ingredients of carnall reason , and corrupt affections ? Surely , we doe not beleeve when we read that in the 12. of Eccl. v. 12. There is no end of making of bookes , and much reading is a wearinesse to the flesh : if we did , we would hence learne to see a fault , which an eager desire of learning , not wel guided , drawes upon us all that would be schollars . A strange curiosity to prie into all books of the same kinde , thinking wee never know the truth till wee know what all men have said of it . And are we certaine then wee have it ? It were somewhat if t were in learning as t is in bearing of a burden , where many weake men may beare that which one or few cannot . But in the search of knowledge it fares as in descrying a thing a farre off , where one quicke sight will see further than a thousand cleere eyes . It is most usuall in comparing of humane authors : for the Scriptures , its certaine that they alone without other helpes are sufficient for our direction in all necessary truth , and were our hearts inflamed with love of their excellent holinesse , and our heads a little more acquainted with study and meditation therein , wee should finde by experience that more light shineth in this sunne than in all the starres of the Church , which doe but borrow their light from hence . For mine owne part , I have alwaies wondred at the discord between the doctrine and practice of many Divines , who stiffely and truly maintaining against the Papists the all-sufficiency of Scriptures for heavenly instruction , doe yet in their private studies condemne them of insufficiency , bestowing , to say the least , three parts of their times and paines in the wearisome reading of those huge volumes of Fathers , Schoole-men , and other Writers , for one part which they spend in the meditation of the Scriptures . Wee love to seeke gold among drosse , when wee may have it ready tried and purified to our hands , yea pure as mettall tryed in a furnace and fined seven times , as the Prophet speakes , Psal. 12. 6. Blame not my resolution to follow Salomons admonition ; By these things my sonne bee admonished , and to goe to the living not to the dead , to the Law and Testimony , the lively oracles of God ; ever speaking loud enough if wee have eares to heare what the Spirit saith , and plaine enough , if , as our Apostle speakes , wee had our wits exercised to discerne both good and evill . You shall doe mee wrong to conceive any such meaning by my words , as if I would dash out all writings of men with one stroke , or condemne all Libraries to the fire : an arrogant impiety it were so to thinke or speake of mens paines in writing , and Gods providence in * preserving their bookes . No. I touch none but those who consult onely with flesh and bloud , men like themselves , out of whose discourses they frame to themselves an humane divinity , making such to be pillars that should bee but helpers of their faith : which how likely t is to faile in time of triall , I wish them to forecast betime , before they feele it too late . Among you , my Brethren , I suppose there is none who had not rather have his soule saved , than his fancy pleased : and therefore will bee willing to beleeve where God affirmes , to obey where he commands , without mans authority to convince your reason or perswade your affections . And if so , I am eased of the most troublesome & least profitable toile , the curious search and allegations of Authors : which if you do expect , you overburden me ; if I should promise , I should belie mine owne knowledge , and as I suppose , your opinion of my meannesse . Furthermore , for deeper speculations , new-minted Divinity , or elder Heresies buried in hell with their authors , or strange opinions husht up in silence , it will bee a wrong to imbroile the mindes of such an auditory , and to shake them with the unseasonable blasts of doubtfull disputes , before they have taken deeper roote in the faith . You must pardon mee , I speake to those whom this exercise most concernes , that are the yonguer in age and knowledge . And therefore I must beseech you beloved , and much respected in the Lord , who are the elder and stronger in the Lords stocke , to give mee leave to drive on in Iacobs pace , so as I weary not , nor leave behinde the more tender Lambes . I dare say wee may all at last come to Canaan , and yet breake no company : He that gives to them that want , takes not away from them that have : and you know that men may bee nourished with milk , though infants cannot live with stronger meate . Finis Prologi . THE NATVRE AND properties of GRACE and FAITH . THe summe of all Christian dueties is briefly comprised under these two heads , Agenda and Credenda , Doing and Beleeving . Which the Apostle , 2. Tim. 1. 13. makes the two maine parts of all wholesome doctrine ; Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of mee , in Faith and Love which is in Christ Iesus . The Epitome of Love is the morall Law , briefly contained in ten , more briefly in two precepts ; Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart ; and , Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe . The sum of Faith more at large delivered in the Apostolicall writings , is shortly drawne into that excellent compendium which wee now use , and call the Apostles Creede , containing the substance of Evangelicall doctrine . Both these , Faith and Love , have one common adversary , Satan , by whom they have beene continually assaulted , and whether more dangerously , it is not easie to determine : they seeme both to bee imbarked together in the same bottome ; and if Conscience suffer shipwrack , Faith sinkes too : and if Faith the most precious lading be throwne overboard , I doubt how Charity will be able to make a saving voiage . As Paul said of the Marriners attempting an escape in their dangerous passage , so I of those , Except they abide in the ship , ve cannot be saved : and you may observe it equally difficult , to find an Hereticke vertuous , or an Atheisticall vicious liver , a true beleever . Wherefore the divell cares not much where he begins his battery , yet if I be not deceived , hee had rather enter upon the Church by undermining the Faith with Heresies , than at an open breach upon good manners . Ill manners finde more resistance ; there 's feare of lawes and rod of discipline to curbe them , they want their apologies and colourable excuses , & so lye open to the reproofe and hatred of morall honesty ; they come accompanied with shame and disgrace following at the heeles , which hinders their appearing and entertainment in publike . But Heresie easily enters and quickly spreads abroad : it findes favourers enough , having the advantage of mens common infirmity , who are apt to entertaine novelties , and take a pride to bee singular , it comes armed with reason and such justifications , as it thinkes it needs not blush , being painted over with the colour of truth : lastly , it aimes at the fairest , the Leaders of the flocke , whose authority and example speedily infects the rest . With this weapon hath the Dragon made warre with the woman , raising up even of her owne children such as have fought against her by damnable Heresies against all the Articles of Faith. Of which , part have been cut asunder by the sword of the Spirit , and yet some againe reviving , have been brought into the field under new colours : part though convicted & : condemned , yet stand it out under the support of tyrannicall violence , & remain to this day in that Augean stable , that sink or common sewer of the Romish Synagogue , whereto all Heresies almost of former & latter times have made their confluence . Besides a new breed of Hereticall opinions , not plainly denying , but by consequent overturning sursum vorsum the maine Articles of Christian beleefe : and therefore are so much the mo●e dangerous , by how much the lesse easily they are discernable in their damnable issues ; So as the Doctrine thereof is no lesse perplexed with strange disputes and difficulties , than the Grace it selfe is continually assaulted by fearefull doubting and distrust . Whether it bee mans infelicity to be ignorant of that which stands him in most stead , or the divells malice to lessen our comforts in the vse of Faith , by confounding our understanding in the knowledge of the nature thereof , that so we might either dangerously erre , or discomfortably doubt touching the truth of it in our selves , or Writers misexplication of that excellent grace through their , own weaknes or want of faith : sure I am , if any point of Divinity , this touching faith is full of much obscurity and contention . T is much , men should have a grace so divine and powerfull , and yet know not what it is , but as the Apostle speakes of men , Faith is not of all , so may wee say of Writers , All have not faith that write of it , especially Popish Doctors , who speaking of faith but by imagination , have profanely censured the faith of Gods elect , expounded by Protestants according to Scripture , to bee but a very fancy . Among whose curious and Metaphysicall discourses of this subject , he that wants faith shall never finde it , and hee that hath faith may chance lose it : at least the life and powerfull practice of it , whilst his head is intangled in subtile and nice speculations about it . For our selves , let it be our care so to speake and judge of faith , as that most precious grace which is given us to save our soules , not exercise our wits ; the knowledge whereof by contemplation is most empty and vain , without the reall inhabitation of it within our soules . It shall be my weake and yet best endeavour , by the helpe of Gods assistance , to give you the knowledge thereof , so farre as the word in manifold precepts , and examples of the Saints , together with the paines of the learned have discovered it to my poore understanding . In the unfolding of the nature of it I must spend more time , than at first I purposed to doe , because in this point some other parts of Divinity are so enterwoven and linked one with another , that without the knowledge of all , wee shall not cleerly discerne of any alone . Such are our Vocation the forerunner , and our Iustification the follower of our faith . All that I have to say , I will reduce to these foure generalls ; 1. Touching the antecedents of faith , namely our Conversion & Vocation : of which so much , as shal serve to discover unto us the generation and birth of faith . 2. Touching the nature of faith it selfe , wherein the being of that most heavenly vertue consists . 3. Concerning the consequents and concomitants of faith , both in regard of God , as Iustification , and our selves , as Obedience , whereby we may be able to judge as of the benefit , so of the truth of our faith . 4. Concerning the opposites and enemies of faith , the knowledge whereof may arme us against them . For the first , namely our Conversion , the knowledge thereof will give us some light to finde out how faith is wrought in us : which by Divines is made the first degree of our Conversion , and last Terminus of our effectuall Vocation . However , a part it is , and that a principall one too , of our first resurrection from the death of sinne , to the supernaturall life of grace . Which that it may appeare , we must distinctly consider of the threefold difference of such qualities as are in the reasonable soule , and doe either help or hinder it in its operations . This difference is according to mans triple estate : 1. In the state of innocency man was created right or upright , Eccl. 7. 29. and very good , Gen. 1 , ult . endowed with such strength and integrity in all parts , as did wholly dispose them to all operations conformable to Gods will. His understanding , so farre as was needefull before his translation , had a cleer apprehension of the Deity in his nature , attributes and worship , as also of the creatures in their essence and qualities . His will embraced and clave fast unto God , whom Adam knew to be the author of his being and happinesse . His affections and all inferiour faculties , obeyed without all resistance the rule of reason and motions of the sanctified Will. This universall holinesse and perfection in the whole man , was that Image of God , or originall justice wherein Adam was created , but continued not . For in the second place 2. After his fall , for a punishment of his wilfull transgression , God withdrew from Adam this his Image , and stript him naked of that habite of grace and perfect holinesse , wherewith he was before in all parts qualified : leaving onely here and there some few traces or lines of that excellent Character unblotted out . And now in place of originall justice succeeds originall corruption , being an universall depravation and disability of mans whole nature , to work well and conformably to the law of his first creation . The understanding is dark , erroneous , confused in the apprehension of naturall , stark blinde in perceiving spirituall things . The will froward & averse from affecting or choosing its chief good . The affections and lower faculties disorderly , violent , untameable . And this universall corruption of mans nature is that which we call the image of Satan , to whom Adam by his fall became like , and in Scripture it is termed , The flesh , The old man , The sinne that dwelleth in us , The sinne of the world , The law of sin , The law in our members , The body of death , Concupiscence or Lust , also The first death of the soule , which Adam died immediately upon his sin ; in which death and separation of grace from the soule , all Adams posterity remaine dead and rotten till they be quickned againe by Christ. Whereas then the soule being of a lively and active substance , worketh altogether by and according to its inherent qualities ; where they are onely good , all the actions thereof are regular ; where naught , there all its operations must needs be crooked and incongruous : as in men unregenerate , of whom the Apostle gives this definitive sentence , They that are in the flesh cannot please God. And out of this roote growes that fruit which wee properly call mans aversion or turning from God to himselfe , to Satan , to any creature , yeelding service and love to any but to God , to whom onely he owes it . 3. But there is yet a third estate , wherein the habits of righteousnesse and sinne are not severed as in the former two , but coupled both together : and this is in the state of grace , when holinesse is againe infused into our natures , and corruption done away in part . Which worke of the holy Ghost upon us , is set forth by sundry appellations in Scriptures , all signifying but divers circumstances of one and the same thing . It s called the Spirit , the new man , the new creature , our regeneration or begetting againe , our renascentia or new birth , our renovation or renewing , the law of our minds , viz. renewed , the first resurrection from the dead , our effectuall vocation , our conversion ; and in one word which compriseth and expoundeth the extent of all the rest , Our Sanctification , which is nothing but that Image of God , which we had & lost in Adam , restored unto us again by the supernaturall worke of Gods Spirit , creating holinesse or grace in our unholy and gracelesse hearts . For then only are we renewed being made new men and new creature , then onely begot and borne againe by the Spirit , then raised to life , effectually called and turned from darknesse to light , when we are sanctified throughout by this new quality of grace brought into us , rectifying and repairing every part of our whole man. In which state the operations of the soule are mixt , neither simply good as in the first , nor simply evill as in the second , but partaking of both qualities , according to the different habites of corruption and grace , whereby the soule is depraved or perfected in her working . Now the proper fruit of this renued grace is our Conversion or Turning unto God , when upon the infusion of spirituall life and grace , we begin again to acknowledge our Creator , and forsaking our lusts , Satan , and the creature , to fasten againe our love upon God that made our soules , and best deserves our service . But yet touching this our sanctification or inherent righteousnesse , we are to enquire a little more distinctly : and for the cleerer understanding of it , to distinguish betweene 1. The Habit of Grace , 2. The Operations proceeding from thence . The sacred habite of grace is one supernaturall qualitie of holinesse universally infused into all the powers of the soule at once , and spreading it selfe over all , leaves no part unsanctified , as corruption on the contrary leaves no part untainted . And as this being one containes in it originally the seed of every sinne , so doth the other of every gracious action . It is bestowed on every elect person , through the worke of the holy Ghost , who when hee enters to take possession of the heart by his quickning and sanctifying vertue , brings life & holinesse not to one only part , but to all at once . I say to all at once , in the habituall renovation of every part : For grace comes into the soule like light into the aire , which , before darke , is in all parts at once illuminated ; or as heate into cold water , that spreads it selfe through the whole substance ; or as the soule into the body of Lazarus , or the Shunamites childe , not by degrees but all at once infused , and giving life to every part . So is our new man borne at once , though he grow by degrees : that is , the soule in our conversion is at once reinvested with the Image of God in all its faculties : so that howsoever the actions of grace doe not presently appeare in each one , yet the habite , the seede , the roote of all divine vertues is firmely reimplanted in them , and by the strength of this grace given , they are constantly disposed to all sanctified operations . The operations flowing from this blessed habite of renewed grace , are many : For Grace as in all parts it workes imperfectly during this life , so in divers parts it workes diversly : or rather , because habits are not active per se , thus , Every faculty having proper operations belonging to it different from others , which it produceth by the strength of its proper nature ; if it be perverted by corruption it doth the action ill , if it be rectified by grace it performes it well . As , to know , to assent , to choose , to desire , to joy , to love , &c. are naturall workes of the understanding , and will , or reasonable appetite . But when they shall put themselves forth to action , nothing will be done in a right manner , nor directed to a right object , unlesse the faculties be reindued with their Primitive perfection totally or in part . For this rule is sure , Nothing can worke as God would have it , unlesse it be such as God made it . Now by the restoring of grace or Gods image , a man becomes in part like unto that he was in his first creation , and consequently , the motions of every faculty conformable to their first regularity . Well then , Grace like the Ocean is one Element , but takes divers names , according to the severall regions and parts of the soule which it washeth and sanctifieth , according to the severall objects about which they are imployed , and lastly , according to the severall occasions that stirre them up to action . As for instance ; Grace in the understanding is called spirituall wisedome in discerning of holy things ; Grace in the will is a rectified choice , and embracing of its right object , God and his goodnesse ; Grace in the affections are their pure and sanctified motions towards their proper objects ; Grace in the outward man is its prompt and ready obedience in doing the commands of a sanctified soule . Now in all these parts , albeit the seede of renewing grace bee so deepely sowne and rooted , that as S. Iohn speakes , 1. Ioh. 3. 9. it remaines within us ( the Image of God being though more imperfectly , yet more firmely imprinted on the regenerate than on Adam himselfe ) yet the Actus secundi , the actuall operations of this Grace appeare neither perfectly nor equally in every part , but shew themselves sooner or later , more strongly or weakely , according as the strength of sinnefull corruption abates more or lesse , or as there is greater necessity and use of one grace more than another : For the case is not altogether alike in our New as in our Naturall birth : here all parts are nourished alike , and grow proportionably unto full perfection , if the body be healthy and of good temper . But in the birth of the new creature it is otherwise ; he is crazic and sickly from the very wombe : and first conception , infirmity and corruption hangs upon every joint and limbe of him : so that although life be in every part , yet every part thrives not equally , nor is alike active in its operations . It s with him , as with instants that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Syderati , planet strucken , or as wee say , taken with some ill aire , in whom some parts grow wearish and withered , whilst others grow strong and lusty . All grow and have life , but those more slowly and weakely ; which diversity make the body somewhat deformed though not monstrous : So in Grace every faculty is quickened with spirituall life and strength , and yet one may have a more free exercise of this gracious power , than another , which may bee hindered and kept under through some stopping of the Spirit , some ill humour unpurged , some corrupt custome , company , or example inclining it another way . And this appeares by manifest experience of that great diversity of the degrees of grace which are found even in one regenerate man , who many times proves eminent in some one or few graces , & yet in others attains but to a very meane mediocrity . This distinction between the Vnity of the Habit , and Multiplicity of the Operations of Grace infused , may be further cleered by comparison with other things : as namely , with originall justice , and originall sinne . That was but one Image of God ingraven universally in Adams whole nature , possessing and sanctifying every part , which were thereby disposed at all occasions , to all convenient and due operations without let . This also is not a particular but universall * depravation , indisposing all parts to good , ill-disposing them to naught . Which ( as originall justice should have beene ) is in all infants together with life , but shewes it by degrees and with much diversity , as with increase of yeares , custome of education , force of temperature , strength of temptations provoke and inslame it . So our sanctification being the restoring of originall righteousnesse , and doing away of originall corruption , is for its inherence one generall habite sanctifying all at once , and working in every part a gracious disposition to its proper holy performances , though the execution it selfe be with much variety , as also hinderance and difficulty by reason of the contrary habite of corruption . Againe , health is not a particular but universall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or right temper of the whole body , which in divers parts hath divers names , by which every part workes diversly , and all orderly : In a universall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the contrary . And such are the habites of grace and corruption . Lastly , as the reasonable soule in infants hath all its faculties entirely , though the exercise of each of them appeare not but in time by degrees , so in our regeneration , grace is entire even in its infancy and first birth , though the operations of it are more or lesse according to our growth in Christ. Now , to make application of this to our enquiry touching the originall of faith , you may perceive by what is spoken , Whereof faith is a part , and When faith is wrought in the soule : Namely , that faith is a part of our sanctification * , that faith is wrought in the soule then when we are regenerate by the infusion of the habite of grace into our whole man. This will appeare if we distinguish between 1. The habite of faith , which is in generall the renued quality of the soule , whereby it is made able to discerne and yeeld assent unto , and also willing to put affiance in all divine truth revealed . 2. The act of faith , when the understanding and will do actually know and relie upon Gods truth and goodnesse . This is a fruit of the former , and followes it in time ; the former is a branch of the Image of God restored unto us , a streame of the common fountaine of sanctification , whence all graces slow , a part of our inherent righteousnesse , as is most apparant : It being impossible , that the understanding and will of man should bee effectually inclined towards their spirituall and supernaturall object , to give credence and put confidence in it , untill such time as they bee first rectified by grace , and purged from their habituall inbred blindnesse and rebellion : Which change when it is wrought in the soule by the Spirit of grace , sanctifying and quickning it in all the powers thereof with spirituall life : then follow those living actions of Faith , Hope , Love , &c performed by the strength of inherent and assisting grace . Wherefore wee are not to imagine that faith is infused eyther Before , or without other graces , or that the soule is not at the same time , and as soone disposed to love & feare God , as to beleeve in him , or to Humility , to Patience , to Charity , to Repentance ; as for Faith. The seed of all these graces is sowne at once ; and for their habites they are co●vall stemmes of one common roote of inherent sanctity : though yet some of them shoot up faster and beare fruit sooner than other . Those that doe so are the two principall graces of Faith and Repentance : the actions of both which seem to appeare first in the regenerate : which of them shew first , I will not now dispute ; but certaine it is , that the regenerate soule workes here most lively and stirring , and after the infusion of spirituall life the pulse beates strongest in those arteries . The reason whereof I take it is , the singular use of these two graces arising from the manner of our conversion : which being wrought by the sight of sinne and misery on the one side , and the representation of grace and mercy on the other , of necessity drawes the newly-regenerate soule by strong motions immediately to conceive sorrow for , and detestation of its sinnefull misery , and also to a vehement desiring and looking after the promise of grace , which may bring it deliverance from an estate so damnable . But in this point of the priority of one grace before another , wee may not be too bold nor curious : for as the working of the holy Ghost is secret and wonderfull , in making us wild gourds partakers of the sap and sweetenesse of the true Vine : so is it not possibly observable in all or the most , where , and in what branch this sap first buds forth into blossomes and fruit . Hence this conclusion is to be observed . 1. That Eaith properly is not the roote of all other graces , nor the first degree of our sanctification and spirituall life . Take faith in which sense we please , for the Act , or for the Habit : If for the Act , the Habite is Before that , and the roote of it ; If for the Habit , that is not Before , but a part of our sanctification , nor yet a solitaty Habite infused alone by it selfe , but together with the Actus primi , or Habits of all supernaturall graces whatsoever . T is true in some sense that before faith , there is no life nor sanctity in the soule : because faith is a part of our life of grace , and of sanctity . But there are other parts too , Hope , Charity , &c. and of these it may be said as well as of faith , there 's no grace in the soule till hope & charity be wrought in it . All are parts of our spirituall life wrought together . For as the corporall , so the spirituall life is not one distinct , but omnes actus primi , of every faculty whereby it can worke regularly . And though in the body some part may live alone , and others bee dead , yet in our spirituall life t is farre otherwise , all powers are quickned and live together : where the habit of one grace is , there are all , and as soone all , as one , every Faculty being rectified as well as any : and all the operations of each faculty tending to all its objects , renued as well as any one operation directed to some one object . Wherefore I see not , under correction of quicke eyes , how Faith can bee accounted the roote whence spring all other fruits of righteousnesse , the efficient * cause of our sanctification , the onely pipe through which the waters of life flow into the soule , that first-borne grace in our spirituall regeneration , so much that before its actuall operation there is no jot of spirituall life and sanctity in our hearts . Many divine Elogies are given to faith in the Scriptures , but none such as to cause us to make it the fountaine of all graces . That the heart is regenerate before the act of beleeving and other graces wrought therein , together with the habit of faith , may appear by these reasons : 1. It is the true and generall doctrine of all Divines , that actuall faith is never wrought in the soule , till besides the supernaturall illumination of the understanding , the will bee also changed and freed in part from its naturall perversnesse : For till this bee done , t is utterly impossible it should ever embrace the promise . Now the doing away of this ignorance and rebellion , what is it but an effect of the grace of sanctification implanted in the soule , by which it is sweetly and freely inclined to all heavenly things ? 2. To beleeve is an action of a man living by grace , not dead in sinne . The soule therefore is first endued with the life of grace before it can performe this living action . 3. There can be no reason given why in our regeneration it should bee necessary first to have faith before we can have any other grace of sanctification , no more than that it should be needfull to have some other grace , before we can have faith ; or , why we are more fit being unconverted to receive the grace of faith rather than any other grace , as of repentance , &c. A man unregenerate having no preparations at all to any grace , is alike disposed to receive every one : and so there is no difference on mans part . If any say , that the Spirit which must worke other graces is not received till wee doe actually beleeve : in so saying he confutes himselfe ; it being most apparant , that the Spirit is given to men incredulous , to the end to make them beleevers : and no man should ever bee converted were not the holy Ghost given to him , whilst he is unconverted , to worke his conversion . Now God that for Christs sake gives faith unto us when we had none , without any predisposition in us to receive it , can and doth for the same Christs sake give us all other graces as well at the same time . 4. It cannot well bee shewne how faith produceth all other vertues in us , seeing that all habites of grace are infused , not acquired ; and one habite cannot produce another , nor doth one habite bring forth the operations of another . T is true that faith lends a hand to helpe forward all gracious actions , and does much in their guidance and direction ; but t is like as the understanding guides the actions of the will and inferiour faculties , or as prudence moderates the actions of all other morall vertues ; which actions notwithstanding come from their proper faculties and habites , as their immediate principia and fountaines . But of this point more at large when we come to shew the dependance that obedience hath upon faith . Against this may be objected : That we live by faith , Gal. 2. 20. that by faith Christ dwells in our hearts , Eph. 3. 17. that through faith we are risen with Christ , Col. 2. 12. that by faith we receive the holy Ghost , Ioh. 7. 38 , 39. Eph. 1. 13. So that we have no life till we be in Christ , no being in him til we have faith to beleeve on him , no sap from the vine , no vertue from the body till we be united as branches , as members , which union is by faith onely ; no Spirit of grace to give us life till wee have faith to receive it . In briefe thus : Christ by his Spirit is the author of all our spirituall life & sanctification . But till we beleeve wee have no participation nor fellowship with Christ and his Spirit . Therefore till wee * beleeve wee have in us no life at all , & consequently by faith we are made partakers of all life and grace . To which I answer . We must carefully distinguish betweene a twofold Vnion and Communion we have with Christ. 1. By the Spirit on his part : for Christ as by his Death he is the meritorious cause of life and grace unto the elect , so by his Spirit he is the onely efficient of life and grace in the regenerate . To whom whilst they are yet dead in sin and destitute of all grace , so as they neyther doe nor possibly can beleeve , Christ sends his Spirit which breathes life into them , changes and purifies their nature , by working all holy and rectified abilities in every part . Now this first worke of the Spirit creating of grace in the soule , doth most apparantly precede not onely the act of beleeving , but the habite also : for the habite it selfe is infused by this worke . And therefore it is also manifest that before all faith , we have and must have some participation with Christ , even to this end that wee may have faith . But this union with him is wrought meerely by the holy Spirit , which is that band whereby Christ knits himselfe to us , communicating all gracious and quickning vertue from himselfe to us , and thereby making us living members of his body . 2. By our faith on our parts : when being quickned by infused grace , wee actually apply our selves to embrace the promise , and to relye upon Christ onely . And here wee knit our selves to Christ , resting upon him alone for all comfort . By which uniting of our selves to Christ , wee receive a greater increase and larger measure of grace from him . In the first union we were insensible of it , and grace is given to us non petentibus , that asked not after it : in this second union wee are most sensible of its comfort and benefit ; and here an augmentation of grace is bestowed on us petentes , earnestly suing for it , and by faith expecting the receiving of it . Wherefore I conclude , All grace and vertue whatsoever in us , is given us from the fulnesse of Christ , the fountaine of all supernaturall life ; but yet all is not wrought by Christ embraced by our faith , but by Christ convaying his grace unto us by his Spirit . This first quickens us : wee then with Lazarus after life put into us , can awake , stand up , come forth , and by faith looke on him that raised us , fall downe , worship , and beleeve in him as our Lord and God. The places alledged eyther touch not our sanctification at all , or speake onely of the increase of grace , not of its first infusion , faith being a meanes of that , but no efficient or instrument of this . Having thus shewed the nature of our conversion or sanctification , it remaineth that for the further cleering of many doubts and our more easie passage unto other points , wee speake somewhat touching three materiall circumstances necessary to bee considered in this point of our conversion and vocation , and they are these : 1. The cause whereby , 2. The manner how , 3. The subject wherein conversion is wrought . Of the cause first : which is double , 1. The impulsive or moving cause , 2. The efficient or working cause . That which moves God to bestow the grace of sanctification upon man is nothing in man , but all in God himselfe : namely , his free-love to his elect in Christ : Which love of God is from eternity before the foundations of the world were laid : and though it be revealed unto the elect in time or at their conversion , yet doth it not then begin , when it begins to bee manifested . When wee yet lay in the shadow of death , strangers from the life of God through ignorance that was in us , when wee were cast out polluted in our bloud , not yet washed and seasoned with salt , even then God looked on us with tender compassions , hee pitted us , hee loved us as chosen vessels prepared for glory , as heires of grace and life ; and because he thus loved us , he said to us , Live , hee covered our nakednesse , and cloathed us with righteousnesse . Now that God doth thus actually love the elect before they are regenerate , or can actually beleeve , may further appeare by these reasons : 1. Where God is actually reconciled , there he actually loveth : for love and reconciliation are inseparable ; But with the elect before they convert and beleeve , God is actually reconciled . Ergo , He loves them before their faith and conversion . The minor is evident , because before they are borne , much more before they are regenerate , a full Attonement and satisfaction for all offences is made by Christ and accepted on Gods part . Whereupon actuall reconciliation must needs follow . And this the Scriptures make manifest , Christ being [ the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world ] and God testifying of him at his Baptisme long before his death , in that speech of admirable consolation [ This is my beloved Sonne , in whom I am pleased ] well pleased with him for the unspotted holinesse of his owne person , well pleased with us in him for his unvaluable merits . And hence a second reason à pari , 2. If God did actually love the elect before Christs time , when an actuall reconciliation was not yet made , then much more may hee actually love the elect after the attonement is really made by Christs death , even before they doe beleeve it . But the former is true , as appeares by the salvation of the Patriarkes : and therefore the latter may not well be denied . The reason of the consequence is this , Because it is farre more probable , that God should love us upon satisfaction made , before our faith , than love them upon their faith before satisfaction was given . Specially seeing neyther their faith nor ours is any efficient cause why God loves either them or us . 3. Election , effectuall Vocation , and Faith , all are fruites and consequents of Gods actuall love unto the Elect : which graces and favours he therefore bestowes upon them because hee loves them . And therefore t is vaine to say , Deus elegit homines diligendos , non dilectos , or that faith and sanctity are bestowed on us onely to make us capable of Gods love . Is not the bestowing of them a fruit of his great mercy and love unto us ? Yea , the whole series and chaine of all Gods gracious workes for mans salvation , have Gods love for their first linke : as is apparant , Ioh. 1. 13. 4. These affections of love and hatred in God are perpetuall ; being eternall and unchangeable acts of his will. Whom he loves he loves alwaies , whom he hates he hates for ever . Nor doth hee as man at any time begin to love that person , whom before he hated : or hate that person whom before he loved . These things agree not with Gods immutability , or omnisciency . For it cannot be that like a man he should bee deceived in the placing of his affection , or that hee should change his minde where the things themselves change not : forasmuch as he that is once hated of God will bee for ever hatefull ( for who should make him otherwise ? ) and he that is once beloved shall be for ever lovely ( for God that loves him will make him so ) . Wherefore Gods love to the regenerate is not a thing of yesterday as themselves are : but one of those ancient favours , which have been laid up for us in the treasury of his old and everlasting counsells . 5. God loves and saves those of his elect who dye infants , and cannot have actuall faith : Of which more anon . Wherefore I conclude that before conversion , much more before actuall faith , God actually loves the elect , and out of that his great love , bestowes upon them the grace of conversion . But here I would have you observe a twofold distinction : 1. Betweene Gods love in itselfe , The manifestation of it to us . That is perpetuall and One , from all to all eternity , without change , increase or lessening towards every one of the Elect : But the manifestation of this love to our hearts and consciences begins in time , at our conversion , and is variable according to the severall degrees of grace given , and our more or lesse carefull exercise of Piety , whereby the light of Gods countenance at one time shines bright upon our soules , at another time is in the eclipse . Which divers degrees of revelation , argue no difference in Gods affection ( nay in earthly Parents it doth not alway , for a strong affection may be concealed ) : but we may truly say , That Gods love to us when he decreed to save us , is one & the same without addition with that which he manifesteth unto us , when hee glorifieth us . That holy flame of divine love towards us doth burne as hote now as then ; though till then wee shall not be so thoroughly heated with it . 2. Betweene Gods love to our persons , Gods love to our qualities & actions . A distinction which God well knowes how to make ; and wee should sometimes learne to use it , not hating mens persons , because of some infirmities . Parents I am sure are well skilled in putting this difference betweene the vices and persons of their children , those they hate , these they love , and when for their vices they chastise their persons , they remember with much compassion , that t is a childe whom they have under the rod. To the point ; the cause is alike betweene God and the Elect , his love to their persons is from everlasting the same , nor doth their sinnefulnesse lessen it , nor their sanctity increase it . Because God in loving their persons never considered them otherwise than as most perfectly holy and unblameable in Christ. But Gods love to their qualites & works then begins , when both the one and other become holy by the grace of conversion : before which time and after too , God is angry even with his Elect , and testifies his hatred of their sins as much as of any others , by manifold chastisements upon their persons for their offences . Wherefore though Paul were a chosen vessell dearely beloved of God for his person , even then when in ignorant zeale hee furiously persecuted the Church , yet for his conditions they were hatefull and highly displeasing to God till after his conversion . Most true it is , that sin doth justly make that person hatefull in whom it is , and it doth so in the reprobate , whose sinnes God hates , and for their sinnes their persons , which he alwaies beholds polluted in their uncleannesse : yet in the Elect whom hee hath loved for ever , this difference of affection is manifest , God approves of their persons , whilst hee disallowes their corruptions , and when his fiercest wrath was shewed against the sinnes of the Elect in the person of Christ , then did God most compassionately love the persons both of Christ and of all the Elect. Wherefore God might easily take away his Image from Adams nature , yet not his favour from his person , which he loved as elect in Christ , whilst yet he punished his transgression sharply : and we see nothing more common in Christian observation , than for men , after such time as they are converted and assured of Gods tender love unto them , yet then to feele the bitterest stormes of his displeasure raised up against them for their sinnes . Hence then it appeares , that our effectuall Vocation and Conversion is justly to be accounted a fruit or effect of Gods singular favour towards the persons of his Elected , with whom being actually reconciled in Christ , having justified them from all their sinnes by his merits , he afterwards sends forth his holy Spirit into their hearts , calling them from darknesse to light , from under the power of Satan and their corruption , to the libertie of Gods sonnes , that being thus sanctified they may be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the Saints in light . And whereas that place of the Apostle , Heb. 11. 6. Without faith it is impossible to please God , may breed a doubt against this which hath beespoken , as seeming to imply , that before our actuall Conversion and Beleeving wee are no way at all pleasing unto God , nor beloved of him : For the removing of this scruple , wee are according to the second distinction understand this place of the Actions , not to the Persons of the Elect. Towards their Persons hee beareth perpetuall good-will : but this is secret , they feele it not , nor doth so much appeare vnto them or others till their conuersion , when only God declares himselfe to bee pleased both with their persons and actions . But for their actions , t is certaine no worke whatsoeuer any of the Elect doth before the infusion of sauing faith , can bee done according to Gods will , and so be pleasing vnto him . Of which ordinary course of pleasing of God in our Workes , according to his reuealed will , this place is to be interpreted , and that out of the place it selfe ; for it is apparant the Apostle giues a reason why Abels Sacrifice pleased God not Cains , why Enochs life and religious walking with God was pleasing to him , namely because they had faith , in and by which they performed those seruices acceptably . Without which faith it is impossible , saith the Apostle , to please God , namely in any Worke that we goe about ; & he addes the reason , [ For he that cometh to God , ] whether in sacrifices , prayers , or any other religious duties to be performed to God , [ he must beleeue that God is , & that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him . ] Here therefore is nothing against that Love of God which he alwaies beares towards his Elect in Christ , through whom they are pleasing vnto him , when yet their works please him not . And thus much of the Moving cause of our Effectuall Vocation , viz. Gods Love and Actuall Reconciliation with the Elect. From hence I deduce two corollaries , 1. That Sanctification and Inberent righteousnesse goes before our Iustification and imputed righteousnesse : but with a distinction of a double justification . 1. In Foro Diuino , in Gods fight ; and this goeth before all our sanctification : for even whilst the elect are unconverted , they are then actually justified & freed from all sin by the Death of Christ : & God so esteemes of them as free , and hauing accepted of that Satisfaction , is actually reconciled to them . By this Iustification we are freed from the guilt of our Sins , and because that is done away , God in due time proceeds to give us the grace of Sanctification , to free us from sins corruption still inherent in our Persons . 2. In Foro Conscientiae , in our owne sense , which is but the revelation and certaine declaration of Gods former secret act of accepting Christs righteousnesse to our justification . The manifestation of which to our hearts and consciences , is the only ground of all our peace and comfort : and it followes our Sanctification , upon and after the Infusion of Saving Faith , the only instrument of this our Iustification . This distinction is needfull to be obserued , as giving light to many things : and without it I know not what reasonable construction can be made of these words of Tilenus , Synt. part . 2. cap. 45. Thes. 38. Perperam & absurdè prorsus inter effecta Sanctificationis numer atur justificatio , quae illam naturâ praecedit ; neque enim sanctificatur quisquam nisi jam justificatus : omninoque necesse est , ut arbor bona sit , priusquam bonos ferat fructus . If he meane that no man is sanctified , but he that is first justified in Gods sight by Christs righteousnesse accepted for him , t is true : but if , that none is sanctified but he that is first justified in his owne sense through the apprehension of Christs righteousnesse by faith , t is apparantly false , seeing a man cannot have Faith , nor use faith till he be first sanctified . And the reason hee gives is exceeding weake , The tree must be good before it bring forth good fruits . True , but what makes vs good trees ? our Iustification or our Sanctification ? Surely our Sanctification . For though by Iustification wee are accounted good and Holy before God , yet wee are not so in our Selues , but most euill and Corrupt till we bee indewed with the grace of sanctification . And then only wee become Good trees , fit to beare the fruite of good workes : so that the reason is in effect , as if he had said we must first be Sanctified before our workes be Holy : and that 's true ; for euen to Beleeve is a good and Holy worke , and therefore though it goe before Iustification , yet of necessitie presupposeth Sanctification . 2. That faith is su●b an instrument of making vs partakers of the Benefites of Christs Mediation , as is neither absolutely necessary in al. the Elect , nor yet simply anteceding all manner of participation in those benefites . That it is not absolutely necessarie in all , appeares in the Elect dying infants , who enjoy all the benefits of Christs merits in their Iustification , Sanctification and Glorification , without this instrumentall meanes of their actuall Faith : as wee shall see more at large anon . That Faith doth not simply precede all manner of Participation with Christ , appeares by a double benefit wee enioy by and from Christ , before such time as wee doe beleeve . 1. Our Sanctification wrought by the Spirit , which from Christ convaies Life and Grace into our Soules , when wee were utterly devoid of all both Faith and other graces , as hath beene shewed before at large . And this is the first benefit of Christs death bestowed on us before we so much as aske it . 2. Our Iustification in Gods sight ; which euen long before we were borne is purchased for vs by Christ. For t is vaine to thinke with the Arminians , that Christs merits have made God only Placabilem , not Placatum , procured a freedome that God may be reconciled if hee will , and other things concurre , but not an actuall reconciliation . A silly shift devised to uphold the libertie of mans will , and universality of Grace . No , t is otherwise , the Ransome demanded is paid and accepted , full Satisfaction to the Diuine justice is giuen and taken , all the sinnes of the Elect are actually pardoned , Gods wrath for them is suffered and ouercome , he rests contented and appeased , the debt book is crossed , and the hand-writing cancelled . This grand transaction betweene God and the Mediator Christ Iesus , was concluded upon and dispatcht in heaven long before we had any being , either in Nature or Grace : Yet the benefit of it was ours , and belonged to us at that time , though we never knew so much till after that by faith wee did apprehend it . As in the like case , Lands may bee purchased , the Writings confirmed , the estate convayed and settled vpon an Infant , though it know nothing of all , till it come to age , and finde by experience the present commoditie of that which was prouided for him long agoe . And the reason of all this is , because it is not our Faith that workes Gods reconciliation with us , but Christ beleeved on by our faith : Now his Merits are not therefore accepted of God , because we doe beleeve , but because they of themselves are of such Worth and sufficiency as doe deserve his most favourable acceptance of them for vs. And what reason have we then to thinke why they have not alwaies procured aswell as deserved Gods love and actuall reconciliation for the Elect , not only before their faith as in all , but also without their faith as in Infants ? I proceed to the second cause of our Conversion , viz. the Efficient cause which really produceth it , and that is the Holy Ghost , in whose person , not excluding the Father and the Sonne , this worke of Sanctification is peculiarly terminated . This blessed Spirit are those two golden pipes through which the two Oliue branches emptie out of themselues the golden oyles of all precious graces , into the Candlesticke , the Church , as it is Zach. 4. For which cause all the Graces of God are called the Fruites of the Spirit , Gal. 5. 22. and Eph. 5 9 [ For the Fruit of the Spirit is in all goodnesse and righteousnesse and truth . ] yea , the whole worke of sanctification and renued Grace is styled by the name of the Spirit , Gal. 5. 17. [ The flesh lusteth against the Spirit , and the Spirit against the flesh , ] id est , Grace fights against corruption , and this opposeth against Grace . In respect of this opperation which the Holy Ghost hath in Sanctifying the Elect , he is in Scripture set forth vnder a double Similitude of Water and Fire : which are Elements most apt to cleanse . The similitude is from the custome of the Leuiticall Purifications , which were done by the use of both Elements . For all vessells and utensills polluted by any legall uncleanenesse , were to bee purged by Water if they were of wood , but by Fire , if made of metall or other materialls that might endure it , as you may reade , Num. 31. 23. So what euer filthinesse cleaves unto us , or how deeply soever incorporated into our natures , the Holy Ghost by his most blessed vertue , as by water washeth away , as by fire consumeth . [ Then I will poure cleane water upon you , and yee shall bee cleane , from all your filthinesse and from your Idols will I cleanse you : ] saith God unto the Church , Ezech. 36. 25. And what is this water ? in Verse 27. he interprets himselfe in these words , [ And I will put my Spirit within you ] . Hence wee are said to bee baptized with the Holy Ghost , Ioh. 1. 33. to bee baptized by one Spirit into one body , 1 Cor. 12. 13. to bee borne of water and of the Spirit , Ioh. 3. 5. Which baptizing of washing by the Holy Ghost is in plainer tearmes our Sanctification wrought by his power , cleansing us from inherent corruption , and creating in us Purite and Holinesse , as is cleare out of that of the Apostle , 1 Cor. 6 11. [ And such were some of you : but yee are washed ] : what 's that ? the next words tell us , [ But yee are sanctified , but yee are justified in the name of the Lord Iesus , and by the Spirit of our God ] . Hence the bestowing of the abundant gifts of the Holy Ghost , is metaphorically described by Effusion or pouring out , as Esa. 44. 3. [ I will poure water upon the thirsty and flouds upon the dry ground ; I will poure my Spirit upon thy seed , and my blessing upon thy buds . ] Ioel 2. 18 , [ I will poure out my Spirit vpon a●l fl●sh ] fulfilled Act. 2. For that other appellation of Fire , we haue it expresly , Mat. 3. 11. [ Hee will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire , ] and implied , Marc. 9 49. Euery man shall bee salted with fire : and euery sacrifice shall be salted with salt . Grace therefore is of a diuine off-spring , the immediate effect of the all-powerfull vertue of Gods Spirit , whereby he replants inherent Holinesse in our Soules , having purified them from all Vncleannesse , to make us holy vessells of pleasure fit for the seruice of Gods Sanctuary . Now whereas this worke of the Holy Spirit , is by divines called Donatio Spiritus Sancti , the Giving of the Holy Ghost , that we be not mistaken , you are to note briefly , that the Holy Ghost is said to be given two waies : 1. In his Essence and Graces , both together ; and so was he given to Christ the Head of the Church , in whom dwelleth the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily , or substantially , whom God hath annointed with the Holy Ghost and with Power , and that above all his brethren , having given him the Spirit without measure . 2. In his Graces and Vertues only ; and so is hee given unto the Church , the body of Christ. Touching this Sending forth of the Spirit into the hearts of the Elect , the inhabitation thereof in their hearts , how they are said to bee the Temples of the holy Ghost , and Partakers of the Divine nature : albeit it be most true , that the Holy Ghost being God must needs be present euery where by his Essence , yet I take it to agree best with Christian modesty to let passe curious speculations about such sacred mysteries , and to rest our selues contented with this , that it sufficeth abundantly for our comfort , if wee enjoy his Gracious presence , replenishing us with all heavenly vertues and Consolations . Now this donation of the Spirit , in his graces and vertues , is double ; 1. One respecting the publike , when an extraordinarie measure either of Inferiour gifts , or of Sanctifying graces is bestowed upon some men for the greater benefit of the Church in common . And this was more peculiar to the times of the Primitive Church . Of which donation of the Spirit you may read , Ioh. 7. 39. Act. 2. & Act. 19. 2. 6. Eph. 4. 8. 11. 2. Another in regard of the Private good of every Elect person , when the Holy Spirit is given to him , effectually to call , convert , and sanctifie him . And this only is that giving of the Holy Ghost which wee now seeke after : when the power of that Holy one overshadowes our soules , and by the immortall Seed of his owne most gracious vertue , frames in us the New man created according to God in Righteousnesse and Holinesse . Let this suffice concerning the Causes of our Conversion , which are briefly wrapped up in that of the Apostle , Rom. 5. 5. The love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us . I goe on to the next circumstance , viz. The manner how it is wrought in us . To inquire in what manner the Holy Ghost breathes into our Soules the Supernaturall life of Grace , is a scruteny as difficult , as to search whence and whither the winde blowes , or for a dead man raised up , to tell how life and sense came into him , or for a man borne into the world , to describe in what manner each of his members was fashioned in the wombe . There is not , I suppose , any mortall man not inspired with speciall revelation , that can declare unto us this Way of the heavenly spirit , any more than the skilfullest Anatomist , the Way of the earthly spirit , nor how the bones doe grow in the wombe of her that is with childe , as Saloman speakes , Eccle. 11. 5. To tell the moneth , day or houre wherein they were converted , is in most converts impossible , in all of exceeding difficult observation ; though I denie not but the time may be in Some of sensible marke . But euen in them or others , to shew us by which way the Spirit went out from God to speake unto their hearts , by what secret motions it moued upon their soules , how and in which parts its quickening and sanctifying vertue gaue life and heat unto them , we cannot expect from them any declaration of that which they had no power to obserue . Doe not looke then I should make knowne unto you the manner of that in you , whereof I am ignorant in my selfe . This I trust , that thorough the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ , both you and I may say with the blinde man in the Gospell , One thing we know that we were blinde , but now we see ; we were dead , but now we are aliue ; we were lost , but are now found ; we were darkenesse , but are now light in the Lord : albeit how our eyes are opened and illightned , how we were recovered from our wandring in the vale of death , wee cannot in euery particular exactly recount . Blessed is hee that findes this change in himselfe : and farre more blessed than they , who betray themselues to have no part in the worke by their pride and bitternesse in quarrelling the manner of it , who ( as the learned Moulin censures , not too sharpely ) are themselues ledde by a reprobate Spirit , whilst captiously and carnally they inquire after the working of Gods Spirit . There are neverthelesse two things in the manner of Graces plantation in us , which we may descry , because the Scriptures have discovered them unto us : namely , 1. That this Plantation of Grace in us , is meerely Supernaturall . 2. That this Plantation of Grace is Constant & Durable , not to be rooted up again : two circumstances about the infusion of Grace into mans heart , so necessary to be well observed , as nothing more . Because in the one lies the foundation of all Christian humility , we having nothing but what we have received : on the other depends all our unconquerable comforts in this our pilgrimage , that we have so received grace , as wee shall never lose it again . In both these Sathan hath not beene wanting by his instruments , men of corrupt mindes , to pervert sound doctrine , and poyson religion even in the roote : advancing the wisedome of the flesh , against the power of Gods Spirit , filling the heart with proud imaginations , by ascribing so much unto the Sufficiency of its owne naturall Abilities in point of Convesion , as it need not be much beholding to God for his grace : and againe breeding in the soule terrors unsufferable , and fearefull doubtings of its perseverance in grace received , upon the apprehension of no stronger support in grace , than the reede of mans Free-will , which having received , may as easily reject grace , and having made them , may by the same power eternally undoe them againe . So looke how men are exalted in pride on the one side , as low are they throwne downe , in discomfort on the other side ; and scarce is there any point of religion wherein we may erre more easily and dangerously . Well then let this be our first conclusion touching the manner of our conversion , that The Grace of Sanctification is wrought in the Elect in such a manner as is meerely Supernaturall , id est , above the strength , without the concurrence of any abilities of our corrupted nature . God though a supernaturall agent , yet worketh many things by naturall meanes , and in a naturall manner , whilst hee doth but only giue his assistance and co-working power to & with the naturall abilities originally planted in every creature . And then though we denie not Gods actuall Concurrence , yet we truly and properly ascribe such effects to their Visible , apparant , immediate causes . But in this point , concerning the replantation of Holinesse in a Sinfull man , we affirme against Pelagians , Semi-pelagians , Papists , Arminians , or other sectaries however branded , that as the Agent or Efficient of mans Sanctification is simply supernaturall , viz. the Holy Hhost , so is his manner of working altogether Divine beyond the power , and without the helpe of any thing in man. An assertion that layes nature flat on her backe : and yet gives vnto her as much as Sinne hath left her , and that 's just Nothing in matter of Grace . And the truth hereof will easily appeare to any that will without pride and prejudice consult the Scriptures , or common experience . Me thinkes when we reade in the booke of God these and such like sayings , that every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart is only evill continually ; that of the children of men , there is none that understands and seeks after God ; that they are become altogether filthy , none that doth good no not one ; that [ the naturall man perceiueth not the things of the Spirit , nor can he know them being spiritually discerned ] that wee are [ blinde ] till God [ Open our eyes ] that wee are [ deafe ] till God [ bore our Eares ] that wee are [ Darknesse ] vtterly destitute of Spirituall light , that , [ the Wissdome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the flesh is enmity or hatred against God , is not , nor can be subiect to him ] that [ the flesh lusteth against the Spirit ] rebelling against the worke thereof even in the regenerate ; much more before regeneratiō , that [ of our selves we are not sufficient to thinke a good thought as of our selves , but that our sufficiency is of God ] that [ it is God which worketh in us both the will and the deed of his good pleasure ] that in our conversion , wee are [ New begotten ] [ New borne ] [ New creatures , created in Christ Iesus to good workes ] in fine to put all out of doubt , [ That wee are Dead in trespasses and Sinnes ] and that our Sanctification is the [ first resurrection ] from death , effected in us by the same Almighty [ power which God declared in raising Christ ] from the grave : When , I say , wee consider of these and the like places , were wee not too much in love with our selves , and held some scorne to con God all the thankes for our salvation , our hearts and tongues would presently bee filled with a sincere acknowledgement , Not unto us , O Lord , not unto us , but unto thy Name wee give the glory , for thy loving mercy , and for thy truths sake . Besides , I wish wee would descend unto an unpartiall examination of our owne hearts , to make discovery by the light of the Spirit , of that body of Death wee be are about with us , what strong rebellion there is of the Law in our members , against the law of our mindes , what secret and powerfull attractives the affections of Sinne have to pull us unto disobedience , what violent and bitter opposition they make against Grace checking their disorderly motions , how seldome any blessed resolution tending to sanctity rises up in our thoughts , how vnwildy we are in the managing of any gracious motion from the Holy Ghost , with what slacknesse and cumber wee prosecute such holy inspirations to action and full accomplishment , in a word , how passing slow our course towards heaven is , when wee have all helpes of nature and Grace to carry us forward , I am fully perswaded , that whatsoever any man may conceive in abstract speculation , there is no converted person if he make application to his owne particular , but will confesse freely , if he deale truly with his owne heart , that , not only if God had not done More for him than he could for himselfe , but if God had not done All for him he had utterly perished in his sinnes . And he will acknowledge that it is impossible there should be in and of himselfe such Preparations and forward dispositions to worke his owne Conversion ; who being Converted is hindered by none so much in the finishing of his salvation , as by his owne perpetuall indisposition to goodnesse . This our disabilitie whereof wee are convinced in our owne sense and by testimony of the Scripture , will inforce us , if our pride bee not as great as our povertie , to confesse whence wee have our riches without stammering , shifting and mineing of the matter , as the fashion of too many is , who by many prety scholasticall devices distinguish God out of all or the greatest part , or at least some part of his Glory due unto him for our Conversion , and thrust in the Abilities of their owne Free-will as co-workers with Gods Spirit , & joynt-purchasers of this inheritance of Grace . But let God have glory and every man shame : and let all whom grace hath taught to judge of their Corruption , say with the Church Es. 26. 12. Thou ( O Lord ) hast wrought all our workes in us . I will not prevent my selfe by larger explication of this point at this time : but wrapp up all touching this first conclusion , in a needfull distinction or two , and so passe on . Mans Concurrence in the worke of his sanctifications is double , 1 Passive , which is the Capacity or Aptnesse that is in mans nature for the Receiuing of Grace , for being a Reasonable creature hee is naturally prepared and disposed with such a substance and faculties as are meet subjects to receive the Habit , and instruments to performe the actions of Grace . This Concurrence of man to his regeneration , is most necessary : nor doth God sanctifie senslesse or irrationall creatures , nor is man in his conversion in such sort passive , as is a stone , blocke , or brute beast , as our adversaries absurdly cavill . 2 Active , which is some Strength or Power that man hath in the Vse of his faculties , especially of his will , for the Production of Grace . This strength of man in doing good is to be distinguished in regard 1 Of the Beginning and first Act of our Conversion , when Holinesse is at the first reimplanted in the Soule . 2 Of the Progresse of our Conversion in the practise of Sanctification : In this second respect none denies Mans actuall concurrence with the Spirit of God : for being sanctified and inwardly inabled in his faculties by Spirituall life put into them , he can Move himselfe in and towards the performance of all living actions of grace , even as Lazarus of Nature . Whereas yet you are to remember , that even in these actions wee cannot worke alone , we are but Fellow-workers with the Spirit of God , and this not in an Equality , but Subordination to him : we indeed move our hands to write , but like raw schollers wee shall draw mishapen charecters , unlesse our heavenly Master guide our hands . Neverthelesse these actions take their denominations from the next Agent , and though performed by speciall assistance of the Spirit , yet are rightly said to be mans actions : so that when a regenerate person , Beleeves , Praies , gives almes , rejoyceth in God , &c. we doe not say that the Holy Ghost in us Beleeves or Praies , or gives almes , or rejoyceth in the hope of happinesse , ( as some would fasten upon us such a senselesse assertion ) it is man that doth all these , but man assisted by Grace . But now concerning the former respect , for the first Infusion of the Habite of grace into the soule , wee utterly deny all Active concurrence of mans naturall abilities to the acquiring and generating of grace in his heart , and grant him onely a Passive capacity to receive it bestowed on him . And we maintaine that in this Case neyther the Holy Ghost workes like a Naturall , nor man like a Morall agent . The worke of the Holy Ghost is not like that of Naturall agents in the production of Materiall Formes , brought out of the Power of the Matter , that is , if I understand Naturalists in that Phrase , resulting out of the Inherent qualities of the Subject diversly compounded and ●ipened by the externall agent , or as those agents worke in the generation of Second qualities arising out of the different mixture of the First : in both which the qualities of the Subject concurre with the outward agent in producing the effect . This worke is of a higher nature , like the infusion of the Reasonable Soule into the Conception , to whose creation the body conferres nothing at all , and to its introduction nothing but a passive capacitie . It is a change of our nature , a creation of new qualities , not a perfection of the old , an habituall qualitie meerely infused by Diuine vertue , not issuing out of any inward force of humane abilities , howsoeuer strained up to the highest pitch of their naturall perfection . And therefore againe , man in this work of sanctification is not any morall agent , as when by many commendable actions he gets to himselfe the habit of morall vertue . No : Civilitie is a hopefull preparation , but no working cause of sanctitie . Take that and all other the most likely dispositions you will , let there be sweetnesse of naturall temper , ingenuitie of education , learning , good companie , abstinence & hatred of grosser vices , respect of lawes , restraint of discipline , an industrious forwardnesse to all laudable courses , a naturall desire of the unknowne happinesse of the Saints , a part in the externall communion of the Church , in briefe , the whole packe of morall vertues Christianis'd ( that I may so speake ) by the generall knowledge of religion ; yet all these with their joint force cannot kindle in us one sparke of Celestiall fire , nor quicken our dead soules with the least true motion of spirituall life . Of a man qualified with those preparations we may say as Christ of the yongue man in the Gospel , He is not farre from the kingdome of God ; but that hee is in common estimation , and according to the usuall course of Gods working , more fit than another man is for the receiving of Grace : and for the performance of all gracious workes , without question hee is more aptly disposed than others are , because by those preparations the violence of corruption is somewhat broken in him , which in others remaining intire till their conversion , makes the stronger resistance afterward in all their religious practises . Wherefore it is not to be denied , but that in such a man so prepared , there is a passive capacitie more large and fit for the entertainment of Grace , than in others : but for any active qualification to produce it , it is found neyther in the one nor other . And you are to observe , that in respect of God t is all one , prepared or not prepared : he can of stones raise up children to Abraham : t is easie for him to doe so , and t is not unusuall , if you marke it , that the fairest , best tempered , and best governed natures are manietimes left utterly destitute of all true sense of Pietie , when men of sowre and crabbed dispositions , or of more disorderly conversations , are made partakers of sanctifying grace . To end this matter , Originall righteousnesse to Adam was naturall , being the naturall qualitie wherwith he was created , and corruption was accidentall , being an unnaturall vitiousnesse acquired by his fall : with us t is quite contrary , Corruption is naturall following our generation and birth , and Grace , accidentall : recoverable neyther in whole nor in part by vertue of the poore remainders of Gods Image in us , but by supernaturall restitution made by the holy Ghost . So I come to my second conclusion touching the manner how grace is planted in us , which is this ; That in our Conversion the Habite of grace is so firmely wrought in us , as it shall neuer be abolished againe . Grace in the regenerate is not any slight tincture or staine , but a through and durable dye . The Image of God is so deeply imprinted in our soules , as it shall never be defaced againe . Where the Spirit of God comes , hee makes sure worke : what hee hath built none shall pull downe : where he hath taken possession , none can thrust him out of doores : where he hath opened none can shut : where hee bestowes his gifts and graces hee repents not of his liberalitie : where he hath begun the good worke of grace , there he will also finish it . A matter as plaine as comfortable , if we will but distinguish of the workes of Gods Spirit about our Sanctification , as they are differenced in their times : they are two , 1. The first is the Creating of the Qualitie of renewed Holinesse in the Soule , whereby wee are converted . This work is called Preventing grace , by which the Spirit without our helpe workes in us Habituall grace . 2. The second is the Ayde and Assistance of the Spirit in all actions slowing from the Habite of grace , by effectuall concurrence of his vertue , together with the strength of our regenerate faculties . This worke is called Gratia Subsequens , Cooperans , or Assistens , and the issue of it , are all those sanctified actions which wee performe by its helpe . And this second worke of the Spirit must needs be granted : for albeit he could worke without us in making us good trees , yet wee must worke together with him in bearing good fruit : and t is verie absurd to denie the assistance of Gods speciall grace in euery spirituall action , when we cannot but grant an immediate concourse of his ordinarie power , in all actions naturall , even to the moving of one of our fingers . But further this subsequent vertue of the Holy Ghost about all good workes which wee doe , is twofold : 1. One , that stirres us up to good actions , by inspiring into our soules , after a secret and unperceiveable manner , holy thoughts , heavenly motions , desires , purposes , and resolutions tending to godlinesse : and this worke is called Gratia excitans . 2. Another , that guides and helps forward the strength of each facultie , when it applyes it selfe to the reall performance of any action : and this is properly called Gratia adjuvans or Cooperans . These things thus differenced , let us see wherein the Constancie of Grace consists , and wherin it seemes changeable . First for the Habit of Grace , in the regenerate we affirme that it is Constant , abiding for ever in them in whom it is once implanted . So that hee who is once converted , cannot so shake off the grace of his first , that hee should need a second conversion : and a sinner once raised from death through the infusion of spirituallife , like unto Christ , he dyes no more , but lives for ever to the glorie of God. The reason is strong from that of the Apostle Peter , 1. Pet. 1. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What is this Seed by which we are borne againe ? It is not the Word eyther alone or principally considered , because that is but an instrument , and arbitrary too , the force whereof so depends on the chiefe agent the power of the Spirit , that without it is but a dead sound . And the reason why the word Lives & endures for ever , is only because the power of the H. Spirit , w ch gives it its effect , is everlasting . Well then , this Seed is the power or vertue of the H. Ghost : so called by similitude , because that as of Seed the Conception is formed ; so by the power of Gods Spirit immediatly , the New man , or graces of Sanctification are begotten in us . But why is this Divine vertue the seed of our regeneration called Incorruptible seed ? is it in regard of it selfe , or in respect of the fruite ? For it selfe t is most true , that as the Person , so the Power of the Holy Ghost , is eternall and incorruptible . But hee is wilfully blinde , who sees not that in this place , it is so styled in relation to the effect it workes in us , quatenus Semen , as it is seed incorruptible , producing fruit like to it selfe incorruptible and immortall . And the opposition here made , is manifest , We are not borne of corruptible Seed , for that perisheth , and so what is borne of that must needs be corruptible : but wee are borne of incorruptible seede which lives and endures for ever , and therefore what is born of that , must needs be incorruptible . This is plain then , that this Quickening Power of Gods Spirit , whereby we be regenerate , lives for ever , not only in it self but in us also : supporting and sustaining our soules for ever in their spirituall life of grace once infused into them . And if any will cavill , St. Iohn puts all out of doubt , when speaking of every regenerate person , he saith , that this [ Seed remaineth in him ] and so that cannot sinne . 1 Iohn 3. 9. [ Whosoever is borne of God doth not commit sinne : for his Seede remaineth in him , and hee cannot sinne because hee is 〈◊〉 of God. ] And this for the Habit of grace , the Constancy whereof no desperate defender of the Saints Apostasie , bee hee Papist or Arminian shall bee ever able to shake . In the next place touching the Operations of Grace which we performe by the ayde of the Spirit , there is not such Constancy to be found in them , as in the former . For the Holy Ghost doth not at all times alike , either stirre up the faculties of the Soule by holy motions , or assist their endevours in performance of Good desires . Some presumptuous Sinne against Conscience , some Pride in our owne strength , some neglect of pious duties , especially Prayer and spirituall Meditation , some Carelesse entertainment of the blessed motions of Grace , some Security through long enjoying of heavenly comforts , some such or other offence , may Quench the Spirit , and cause him to withdraw from our Soules all Sense of his comfortable presence and assistance for a time . And then the Soule being destitute of this actuall concurrence of the good Spirit , falls a Languishing , bewrayes presently its naturall impotency , like hot water taken off the fire begins to returne to its first coldnesse ; and for a time corruption prevailes against Grace , that which is naturall against that which was but Accidentall . Such Cessations or Interruptions of grace as these are , all men grant , and all good men feele : but yet though the act faile the Habit ceaseth not , nor is the ground straitway barren because it misseth a Season or two : They are but chastisements for negligence past , and admonitions to ensuing industry , both ending in a large augmentation of all comforts , when upon submission God is intreated againe to cause the light of his Favour to shine upon us . ●…s much touching the second Circumstance about our Conversion , viz. the maner how t is wrought : I should proceed to the third , viz. the Subject of it : but I should vtterly weary you , who by this time cannot but desire to be rid of mee . Pardon me yet a small trespasse upon the time and your patience , that I may conclude all in a word or two of application to our practice . Yee have heard touching our conversion , that the cause of it is Gods free love , without our worth , before we were : that the manner of it is by the grace of the Holy Ghost , without our helpe , when wee were weake and of no strength . Let the serious thought of these things breed in our hearts a double grace . 1. Of Thankfulnesse . 2. Of Humility . Le ts joyne both together , for they are twins of one birth : and as you shall never see a proud man thankfull either to God or man : so you shall never behold an humble minde , but it will alwayes appeare in the most gratefull acknowledgement and confession of the least good turn . We shal see how great cause there is in this businesse of our conversion , that wee should empty our selves , of all proude imaginations , and fill our hearts and tongues with the Praises of Gods rich grace and free Mercy : if wee will enforce upon our dull heartes the powerfull meditation of these foure points ; 1. The Desperate and forlorne estate of an unconverted person . 2. The Impossibilitie of our recovery out of this damnable condition , by any strength of our owne or other creature whatsoever . 3. The admirable Graciousnesse of Almighty God in providing the meanes , and by them effectually working our full deliverance from the power of Sinne & Damnation . 4. Lastly , the blessed estate of Grace whereto hee hath now brought us , and wherein hee preserves us under the hope and expectation of eternall glorie . I beseech you that among the multitude of your thoughts and studies , you would be pleased to make these things the subject of your best advised meditation . Hold me for ever guiltie of a damnable lye , if you finde not by experience how forcible this course will be to take downe our foolish haughtinesse and swelling conceits of our own sufficiencie : and to inlarge the heart in sweetest songs of thanksgiving to him that hath done so great things for our soules . My brethren slight it not , t is a matter of greatest consequence , and touches us neerely . Doe but conceive with me , How horrible that thought is , and ful of unspeakeable terrour , when the conscience , freed from the clamours of ill companie , cooled after the heate of wine and fulnesse of bread , retyred from the distracting businesse of our Callings , and stilled after the rage of some furious passtons , or glut of pleasures , shall in silence turne in upon it selfe , and falling upon the inquirie after its future estate , conclude after diligent search , that as yet it hath neyther part nor portion in the inheritance of grace or glory . Be assured , that conscience will not lye and flatter at such a time , and that , where it findes no reformation of manners , no change of the heart , no puritie in the affections and desires , no sense of the powerfull worke of the Spirit of Grace , conscience will not spare to tell such a man to his face , That he is a man of death , prepared against the day of slaughter , one hated of God , detested of Saints and Angels , living without communion and fellowship with Christ , and so in a continuall expectation of Gods vengeance to fall on him in hell , assoone as death shall strike him to the ground . This will put the heart into a cold sweate , and make the powers of the soule to shake : specially when it shall looke about to all those things whence succour may seeme to be had , and then shall finde it selfe utterly forsaken by them in its distresse . Againe consider with me that no stranger can partake or perceive the unspeakeable joy of that heart , which upon the like examination finds it selfe to be translated out of the bondage of Corruption , into the libertie of Grace , washed from its uncleanenesse by the Holy Ghost , linked in communion with the Saints and body of Christ , and sealed with the Spirit of promise to the assured Hope of everlasting happinesse . If any thing can , these thoughts will melt the heart into most humble thanksgiving , and make us fall on our knees , and with hands and eyes lifted up to him from whom our help commeth , to confesse with the holy Prophet : I was brought low , but thou hast helped me ; I was in thraldome , but thou hast loosed my bonds : the sorrowes of death compassed mee , and the paines of Hell gat hold on mee , I found trouble and sorrow : but thou hast delivered my soule from death , mine eyes from teares , and my feete from falling . What is now my duty ? I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving , and call upon the Name of the Lord : My soule praise thou the Lord , and all that is within me praise his holy Name . And againe , My soule praise the Lord , and forget not all his benefits , saith the same holy David , Psal. 103. 1. 2. But wherefore was all this contention of Spirit , why this striving with utmost endeavour to bee thankefull ? Oh there was good cause : Grace was worth God-a-mercy , and t is for that this holy man thus strives to bee thankefull to God , who forgave all his iniquities , and had healed his diseases . Certainely , where so undeserved mercy in such desperate misery , in that shewed upon a wretch , as not onely to free him from all evill , but also put him into the possession of all blessednesse ; where this grace workes not the heart to Thankfulnesse and Humility , it is most apparant , that such a heart knowes not what such Grace meanes . For our selves , let us shew forth these vertues of the Spirit which hath converted us and dwells in our hearts : let 's looke to the rocke out of which we were hewen , to the pit whence we were digged , consider what wee were and should have beene , what we are and shall be : and then take we up that most modest speech of that noble Athenian * Captaine in the midst of all his glory , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from how great basenesse and misery , to what great glory and blessednesse are wee advanced ? Make wee our confession with Iacob , With my staffe I came , &c. and the Israelites , Deut. 26. 5. A Syrian was my father ready to perish , &c. And now let us in like manner make unto God our thankefull acknowledgement , and say in the words of the Prophet : O Lord , wee confesse unto thee , that our father was an Amo●ite , our mother an Hittite ; that our birth is of the land of Canaan , wee were borne bond-slaves and children of the curse . In the day of our nativity our navell was not cut , we were not washed with water , not salted with salt , nor swadled in clouts : none eye pitied us to doe any of these things unto us , and to have compassion upon us , but wee were cast out into the open field , to the contempt of our persons in the day that wee were borne . Onely thou , O Lord , when thou passest by and sawest us polluted in our bloud , hast had mercy on us , and saidst unto us , Live , even when we were in our bloud thou saidst unto us , Live. Of vile , thou hast made us Honourable , of sinnefull , Holy , of miserable , Happy . Wee praise thee , wee blesse thee ; and wee beseech thee to finish the good worke thou hast begunne , and as by thy mercy thou hast brought us into the kingdome of Grace , so by thy power preserve us through faith unto thy Kingdome of Glory . Amen . I proceed to the third Circumstance considerable in this point of our Conversion , namely , the Subject wherein it is wrought . Now this in generall is the Elect , and they onely : whom onely God hath called to glorie and vertue , appointing them to that as the end , preparing them unto it by this as the meanes . I shall need to name vnto you but one place for proofe hereof , and that 's Rom. 8. 30. Moreover whom he hath predestinate , them also hath he called , whom he hath called , &c. The linkes of this chaine are so surely fastned together , that no power of hell , no wit of man may breake and sunder them . Whom God fore knew , he predestinated to be made like to the image of his Sonne , in grace and glorie : whom he hath thus elected before all time , those in due time he calls or converts , those he justifies , those he glorifies . Wherefore Sanctification , Iustification and Glorie are bounded within those limits which Gods predestination or election hath prescribed unto them : extending to no other persons but such only as haue their names written in the booke of life , and are enrolled in the List of Gods eternall election . But this generalitie of the Subject is yet more particularly to be differenced : The Elect in this life are of two sorts ; 1. Infantes , Infants whose age permitteth them not the knowledge of good , or actuall practise of evill . 2. Adulti , Such as are of age , who may both know and doe eyther good or evill . Both these are the Subjects of Conversion or Sanctification , but with some difference in the circumstances or maner of working it in them . Which will thus appeare : our Vocation unto the state of grace is double , 1. Inward , in the worke of the Spirit of grace upon our hearts , regenerating and sanctifying them by the infusion of Holinesse . Now though this be properly a Worke , yet it is metaphorically termed a Voyce or Calling , whereby the Spirit speakes unto our hearts , and perswades us to Obedience . But you must know , that this inward voyce or speaking of the Spirit to the heart of a man unregenerate , is much more than a bare suggestion of some thing to bee done by him : it is a word of Spirit and Life , as Christ speakes of his owne , Iohn 6. 63. a working Word , renuing in soule , and creating in it all the graces of Sanctification . 2. Outward , in the Preaching of the Word calling us to Faith and Repentance : whereto the Spirit joynes his secret vertue to make it effectuall in whom he pleaseth . I will not now stand to justifie this distinction of our Outward and Inward Vocation , so ancient , so necessary : but yet in these quarrelsome times derided and scornfully rejected . Let us for the present take it , as it is for a truth , and so apply it to our present purpose , thus : Those of the Elect that die infants are internally called and converted ; that is , Sanctified , before they are capable of externall Vocation : Those of the Elect that live to ripe age , are converted and called both inwardly by the worke of the Spirit , and outwardly by the voice of the Word . In both sorts the worke of Conversion is the same , and Infants have it the same in substance as others , being Sanctified by the Spirit without the Word ; but those of yeares have it also in the circumstance of externall Vocation , being Sanctified by the Spirit working in and together with the Ministery of the Word , which is the voice of God calling men unto himselfe : Now a voice presupposing ears to hear , and an understanding to perceive , infants cannot properly bee said to bee called by any such voice , though they may properly bee said to bee converted and sanctified . And this worke of our Sanctification , is also not unusually in Scripture stiled by the name of our * Calling . Wherefore that wee may a little further insist upon this point touching the state of the Elect in their infancy , let this be laid downe as a sure conclusion : That the graces of Sanctification may bee , and are infused into many of the Elect in their very infancie . The truth whereof there is not any doth or can justly denie , considering ; 1. That infants are as capable of the Habites of Sanctity as men are : 2. That their soules may as well be now sanctified by infused Grace , as if Adam had not fell , they should have been Holy even from the wombe , by Originall justice propagated unto them and inherent in them . 3. That the Humanity of Christ was in this maner Holy even from the conception , which was therein by speciall priviledge , like unto that course which should have been ordinary in our conceptions and births , if we had not sinned . 4. That it cannot honestly be denied to bee so in Iohn Baptist , but that so great a Prophet was sanctified by the Holy Ghost even from the wombe ; which may bee confirmed by that his extraordinary motion upon the Salutation of Marie the mother of our blessed Saviour , Luke 1. 41. 44. And of Ieremie t is not unprobable , by that which God saith of him , Ier. 1. 5. Before I formed thee in the wombe I knew thee , and before thou camest out of the wombe I sanctified thee , and ordeined thee to be a Prophet unto the Nations . Albeit here I will not deny , but that Sanctifying here may well be taken not for the graces of Regeneration , but for a designation unto such a function , and a preparation of the Prophet thereto by the infusion of such qualities as might make him meet for the discharge thereof ; as extraordinary wisedome , courage , patience , and the like . In which sense the word Sanctifie is not unusually taken : as , Esa. 13. 3. Where God called the Medes and Persians , prepared and designed for the destruction of the Babylonians , his Sanctified ones : i. e. set apart for his owne service in that businesse . So also Paul of himselfe , Gal. 1. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that Separated me [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] to the Apostleship . From this Conclusion , that Elect infants may bee partakers of the grace of Conversion and Sanctification ; namely , in the Habite implanted in their soules : I desire you to observe foure Corollaries thereon depending , each whereof have their necessary use . 1. A Resolution of that doubt which troubles many tender consciences , who having the care of their salvation in highest regard , are suspiciously jealous over their deceitfull hearts , and apt to thinke the worst of themselves , where they see no manifest evidence to the contrary . These men will often doubt of the truth of their Conversion , because they know not the time when of starke naught they become Good and Holy. ) They will tell you , that their birth hath beene of religious parents , their education under godly governours , that from their youth they have beene accustomed to frequent the exercises of religion in publicke , and to use themselves to all dueties of devotion in private : some goodnesse and love of godlinesse they find in themselves , but they know not how it hath crept upon them by degrees , and they question whether all be right or no with them , because they never remember in all their lives , that ever there was such an alteration wrought in them as they heare and see to bee in other men . To these I say , there 's no reason they should bee sorry that they have not beene so bad as other men . They ought to rejoyce and be thankefull , that God did so soone stop up in them that bloudy issue , which in others hath so many yeares run incurably , that hee healed their wounds when they were greene , and cured their impoisened nature before the venome thereof grow more ranke and raging ; that hee bowed their hearts when they were yongue and tender , before they grew stiffe and old in sinne , that hee hath preserved their youth from those corruptions which others in their age have decrely repented of . Let such who from their infancie have with Isaac , Samuel , Timothy and other Saints beene bred up in all pictie , and growne as in stature so in favour and grace with God and good men , let such not doubt to say , t was at my baptisme , or at my birth , or in my mothers wombe that God hath dealt so graciously with mee , sanctifying me with the Spirit of grace , which then was given me , and hath ever since shewed itselfe in all blessed inclinations to religious courses . 2. A justification of that Prayer in our publike Leiturgie , where the congregation gives thankes to God for the childe baptized , in that it [ hath pleased him to regenerate the Infant by his Holy Spirit and to receive him for his owne childe by adoption , and to incorporate him into his holy Congregation ] . For it cannot be denied but that this Holy Ordinance of Baptisme the scale of our Sanctification , doth take effect many times immediatly in the Infusion of the present grace into the Infants soule : though many times also it have not its effect till many yeares after . But seeing t is questionlesse true in many , wee may and must charitably suppose it in every one ( for when we come to particular whom dare we exclude ? ) And this wee may doe without tying the grace of regeneration necessarily to Baptisme , as some complaine that wee doe by that prayer . To give a reason of this different working why grace is bestowed on some presently at baptisme , in others t is deferred till a long time after , is to unlocke the treasurie of Gods secret counsells : onely this wee may say , that God will shew that no age is uncapable of grace , and that he will bee glorified aswell in sauing some from falling into the fire , as by pulling others out of it : by the gentle and easie deliverance of one and by the more violent torments and panges of the New-birth in another : that both wayes he may have the Thankes and wee the Benefit of this his grace and power . 3. A Defence of the salvation of Infants dying before Baptisme against the Popish assertion to the contrary . For this ground being certaine , No uncleane thing shall enter in the kingdome of Heaven , it followes by the law of contraries , that , whatsoeuer is cleane may enter thereinto . But Infants such as are elect may be cleane and holy before their Baptisme : as is manifest , whether we respect the guilt of Sin or the corruption of it . They are cleane from the guilt of originall sinne by the death of Christ which God hath accepted to their perfect justification , long before they were borne . They are likewise made cleane in part from the Corruption of originall sinne , by the infusion of Habituall sanctity into their soules . For being justified by Christ from the guilt and punishment of sinne , what should hinder why they may not be sanctified by the Holy Ghost , in part whilst they live , and perfectly upon the severing of the Soule and Body , when originall corruption is in a moment done away , and the soule invested in the robes of righteousnesse fit for its entrance into happinesse ? Cannot this worke of Sanctification be wrought in them before Baptisme ? it may as well as after ; seeing it is not baptisme but the Spirit is the cause thereof , whose worke is free , and not so to be tyed unto that ordinance as they of the Romish Synagogue would make us beleeve , but that hee may sanctifie the Elect sometime before , sometime after , and not alwaies at the present celebration of it . Now if Infants thus justified and sanctified depart this life , what should stoppe their passage to heaven ? It will bee vaine to object that they have not actuall Faith , and therefore must be excluded . Wee may aswell say they want repentance and therefore cannot be saved , seeing the Scriptures make alike necessitie of both graces to our salvation . And the objection holds aswell after Baptisme as before , when yet all grant the salvation of Infants . For t is a thing inconceivable and inexplicable how Infants should have Actuall Faith , whilst they are not yet able to exercise any one faculty of their reasonable soule . The truth is , that the Habits of Faith and Repentance they have , as of all other Spirituall graces infused into them , which if they lived would also appeare by their actuall opperations : but for that time they have not the Acts of those graces , nor are they capable of them , nor is it simply needfull they should have them . The case is extraordinary , and God as before they were hath pardoned them of their originall righteousnesse by the bloud of Christ , so can hee aswell bestowe Holinesse and Happinesse on them without any actuall faith of theirs comming betweene as an instrument to receive both . If this may not bee said touching such elect Infants , I must confesse that unto me the knowledge of the salvation of their soules is as inscrutable , as the fashioning of their tender bodies in their mothers wombe . And this which hath beene said of Infants may be also applied to such as are Deafe or ●ooles , having such naturall defects as make them uncapable of Discipline . 4. A just apologie for the lawfulnesse of Childrens Baptisme , against Hereticall impugners of the same . For how can the Signe be denied unto them which have and enjoy the thing signified ? That which is signified in Baptisme is our Iustification by the blood of Christ , our Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ. Baptisme is the Scale of both unto us : and Infants may be partakers of both , being washed from the guilt of sinne by the blood of Christ , in whom they are reconciled to God , and actually justified before him : and also purified in partfrom the uncleannesse of sinne by the infusion of Grace from the Holy Ghost . What then should hinder why these Infants should not also be washed with the water of the Sacrament thereof ? If it be demanded how wee can presume that Christian Infants have a part in the graces of Iustification and Sanctification : I answer , we have good warrant so to thinke , from the Covenant and Promise of God , that hee will be the God of the faithfull and of their seed . But for Heathens and Infidells wee haue no such promise whereon to ground our judgement of Charity , and therefore albeit some of them who are out of the Church may bee within the compasse of God selection , yet seeing God hath excluded them by an apparant barre , wee may not venture to give them the Sacrament of Baptisme , till such time as they shall make profession of their faith , and that by their appearing conversion wee may charitably judge they belong to the Covenant of Grace . Now although of such as live within the Church we know for a certainty in the generall that many both of Christian parents are not faithfull , and of Christian children that they have no part in Christ , yet we may not exclude them from Baptisme , because no man dares be so hardy as to passe his peremptory censure of this or that persons rejection in particular . This is one thing , if wee did know infallibly now that any one were certainely excluded out of Gods election , and should never have benefit by Christs death ; such a one be hee Infidell , or borne of the most Christian parents in the world , wee ought by no meanes to baptize : no more than wee may admit of that person to come to the Lords Supper , that hath apparantly sinned against the Holy Ghost , or as the Church doth with such as are justly Excommunicated , who for the time of their open inpenitencie declare themselves publikely to have no Faith nor part in Christ. For it were a manifest mockery and abuse of this sacred institution to apply this Seale to a Blanke , and to dip them in the water of Baptisme , whom wee know shall never be washed with the Holy Ghost . Further , it helpes not the Ca●abaptists a jot , that when Christian Infants come to age and ability to make profession then wee may discerne and judge of their estate . For that 's impossible : no man can infallibly perceive by any words or actions what the Heart is , whether there be in it true faith or not . And so in this case if Baptisme should never bee administred till other men may judge of their Faith , it shall bee afforded to none at all , or if it be given to every one that professeth and saith hee hath faith , it must be administred to all , and among them to some that have no faith indeed . Wherefore it is as good and safe to baptize them in their infancy as to deferre it : seeing at that time as well as afterwards the judgement of Charity holds good , and tarry we never so long wee can goe no further than this charitable beliefe of them . Wherefore to conclude the absurdity of Paedobaptisme , because Infants have no knowledge nor actuall Faith whereby to embrace the promise ; is at the least , an absurd conclusion , as well for that the like inconvenience holds in Circumcision , as also because where Iustification and Sanctification is given , it is injurious to denie the benefite of Baptisme . And wee are to know that in this case of Infants faith is not required as a Condition absolutely necessary to partake the benefit of Iustification : howsoever in adult is such as are of age it be an instrument simply needfull to give them an Evidence and Assurance of it : which assurance seeing it cannot be in children , the actuall operation of Faith is not needfull in them . But in such as are of age the case is farre otherwise , whether they be Infidells , or Christians children that have beene so long neglected , they must have knowledge and Faith too , so farre as the Church can judge of the tree by the fruit , because if they have neither , or knowledge only but no Grace nor sanctity of life , the Church cannot but presume the worst of them , as of those that yet are out of Christ , rectified by their ignorance and profanenesse of Conversation , which witnesseth to all the unbeliefe and impenitency of their hearts . If it be now objected , ( not to leave that scruple untouched ) that the Lords Supper may aswell bee given to Infants as Baptisme , seeing the same presumptions may bee used here as there , and that infants may make as much use of one as of the other , being alike insensible of both : to this I answer , besides the dangerous inconveniency to their tender age which cannot endure the taking in of the very Elements of Bread and Wine that God himselfe the author of these two Sacraments , hath in the manner of their Institution , made a plaine difference of the persons that are to partake of them . Thus briefly of the Substance of both Sacraments is one and the same , viz. to set forth unto us the benefits of Christs death in our Iustification , Sanctification and Glorification . The Ceremonies of Administration are divers , and in that sort differenced as in Baptisme they require nothing but Passion in the baptized , and so may be administred to Children ; but in the Lords Supper they require such Actions as cannot bee performed but by those only that are of yeares of discretion : such actions are those of Discerning the Lords body , thankfull remembrance of the death of Christ , Examination of our spirituall estate , which , together with that circumstance of often repetition , apparantly shew that God in this Sacrament intended such an exercise of our Faith and Piety as cannot be performed by Children . I will not stand longer upon this point , the full descussing whereof belongs more properly to the doctrine of the Sacraments : and therefore I conclude this Discourse touching the Conversion of Elect Infants , with this generall rule ; That the Scriptures are very sparing and silent touching the case of Infants , so that when they speake of Vocation , Conversion , Faith , Repentance , and such other workes of Grace done by us or in us by the Spirit of God , they are generally to be understood of those that are of age , and by proportion only to bee applied unto Infants . Which would be observed for taking away of some doubts that may arise in reading of the Scriptures . The next sort of Elect persons are those that are of Age , who having some while g●ne astray , are at length brought home to the Sheep-fold of Christ under the obedience of that great Shepheard of their soules . Of these some are let runne longer , others recovered sooner : some have a more gentle and sweet passage from Mortality to Grace , whose lives have beene ordered by the rule of stricter discipline : others whose conversation hath beene notoriously disordered , are converted with more bitter plunges , terrors , and anguish of Conscience : some are strangely changed on a sudden upon the reading of a sentence in Scripture , or hearing of a gracious word uttered in due season , and deeply apprehended : others wrought upon with much paines and long time : in a word , so various is the dispensation of Gods grace in our conversion , that as Christ speakes of his comming in the flesh , so may wee of this in the Spirit ; The kingdome of God commeth not with observation : and impossible it is to set downe a generall rule that will hold in all Converts . But though the manner be divers , yet the meanes are Vniforme and Constant : namely the Spirit of God the chiefe worker , and the Word of God the subordinate instrument by which it workes our Conversion . The word discovers what is to be done , the Spirit inables us to the performance : In Infants the Spirit without the Word , in those of yeares the Spirit and the Word joyne together to work our Sanctification . In which respect their conversion is properly tearmed a Vocation or Calling , because it is effected by the preaching of the Gospell , which is Si●ilus Pastor is , the whistle or voyce of the good Shepheard , which the sheepe heare and follow . And from hence the whole Company of Saints is properly styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Evocatorum coetus , Saints by calling , and ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) as t is 1 Cor. 1. 1. that is , such whom God hath called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with an holy calling ( 2 Ton. 1 9. ) or unto Holinesse ( 1 Thes. 4. 7. ) by the voice of the Word , from out of the corruptions of this present evill world , to the communion of grace and glory . All this is most excellently set downe by the Apostle Paul in those few but most pithy words , containing in briefe the whole administration of the workes of our Redemption , 2 Thess. 2. 13. 14. But wee ought to give thankes alwayes to God for you , brethren beloved of the Lord , because that God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation , through Sanctification of the Spirit , and the Faith of truth : whereunto hee called you by our Gospell , to obtaine the glory of our Lord Iesus Christ. Now we might iustly in this place enter upon an inquiry , how and in what sort the Word and Spirit doe worke together in causing a sinners conversion : a search needfull in these times , wherein it is peremptorily denyed by those of the Arminian faction , that there is or need to be any inward power of the Spirit working on the soule , besides the outward ordinary preaching of the Word . Which opinion is but the issue of their maine errour touching the liberty of Mans will in his conversion , which cannot stand if withall they grant that inward Force of the Spirit giving life and effect to the Word preached , which wee maintaine and plead for . This point will fall in more fitly to be discussed afterwards in the handling of a few Questions touching the manner of the Working of grace in mans conversion . Whereinto though I am somewhat unwilling to enter , because that Positive rather than Polemicall Divinity befits this place , yet considering the danger whereinto mindes not rightly informed in these points may unhappily fall , and that herein it is easie to slip from the truth to Arminianisme , and thence to Popery , ( there 's but a threed betweene them ) I have thought it would not bee unprofitable , briefly and plainly to touch upon such materiall controversies as are moved in this matter , that even the younger sort might have something to oppose against cauilling gainsayers of the truth and crafty seducers of the uninstructed . You are therefore to understand that in point touching Mans conversion there is scarce any circumstance that wee have formerly spoken of , but it is quarrelled at and corrupted with false opinions : Not the nature and substance of our conversion , which , say they , is not by the infusion of Habituall sanctity into the Soule , but through Grace acquired by much paines and industrious actions of our own excited & assisted by some helpe of the Spirit : Not the moving Cause , which is affirmed by them to bee not Gods speciall and actuall Love to his Elect , but his common and equall love to all mankinde alike : Not the Efficient cause which wee affirme to be the worke of Gods Spirit , they say is the Freedome of our wills : Not the manner of it , without and above the strength of our naturall abilities , as wee hold , but so farre is the compasse of our owne power that we may helpe or hinder it at our pleasure ; Not the instrument of it , the Word by the worke of the Spirit , but as they would have it , the Word working by it selfe without any inward vertue of the Spirit besides : Lastly , not the Subject , the Elect only as we maintaine , but all in Common upon whom sufficient grace to Conversion is bestowed if we will beleeve them . All these Erroneous opinions , are founded upon other rotten and unsound principles , which are chiefly these : 1. That God hath not precisely determined of any mans salvation or damnation in particular , but hath left it to be decided by the libertie of their owne wills . 2. That God doth not beare any speciall favour to one more than another , but that his love is equall to all in generall , and his desire of the salvation of all mankinde alike . 3. That Christ hath dyed for all men alike , procuring so much by his death that God is Placabilis toward all , and all men indifferently are Salvabiles if they list to make use of the benefit purchased for them . 4. That God requires Faith in Christ of all men whatsoever , even of such Infidells as to whom Christ was never preached . 5. That God cannot in justice demand of Man the performance of those things , which , since his fall , hee hath no strength to performe : and that if God require any such service , he is bound in equitie to give unto man new strength for to performe it . I doe but only name these articles of the Arminian Faith , though even that 's enough to shew their weaknesse and untruth to any that can judge of sound doctrine ; but I say I mention them only , that you may the better perceive what is that maine issue whereinto they are finally resolved : and that in plaine termes is this , [ That all men whether Christians or Infidells within or without the Church may bee converted and saved if they will. ] You will say this is broadly spoken : but I doe them no wrong , reade their bookes , compare their tenents , and you shall see that this is the upshot of all their discourses : God hath excluded none , hee loves all alike , Christ hath dyed for all , Faith is required of all , sufficient ability to beleeve and repent is given to all ; who then or what should hinder the Conversion or Salvation of any one but himselfe his owne meere free-will ? Surely an opinion that should not bee gainsaid by any , but readily embraced by all if it had as much truth in it as it carries shew of Pity and Commiseration to mankinde . Wee would be loth to be judged cruell : but t is folly , not pitie , to take upon us to bee more mercifull than God hath declared himselfe to be : and t is impiety to tell a lie for God , by magnifying the glorious largenesse of his mercy beyond the bounds which himselfe hath prescribed unto it . Wherefore against this wide and vast Conclusion of Arminianisme , that [ God hath given sufficient grace to all the world to convert and beleeve if they will , ] I oppose this directly contradictory , [ God hath not given sufficient grace to all , and in those to whom hee hath given such grace , it depends not on their Free-will , whether they will be converted or no. ] These two propositions destroy one another , and one is confuted by that which confirmes the other . I will proceed in the handling of them in this order ; Men that are capable of Vocation , are of two sorts , 1. Out of the Visible Church : and of these the Question will bee , Whether God have given to all Pagans and Heathens grace sufficient for their conuersion ? 2. Within the precincts of the Visible Church : and of these the question will be double ; 1. Whether God doe give unto all Christians grace sufficient to worke their conversion ? 2. Whether those upon whom such sufficient grace is bestowed , may if they list hinder their conversion by the power of their free-will ? Within the compasse of these three Questions will bee included all that is materiall touching this businesse . I will use as much brevity in each as the matter will give leave : of the first at this time , viz. Whether the Gentiles out of the Church have grace given unto them sufficient for their conversion ? Wee maintaine the Negative part , the Arminians affirme that all Pagans and Infidells have so much grace given unto them that by it they may be converted , beleeve and worship God rightly in some sort , even without the knowledge of the Gospell . A monstrous assertion , every way repugnant to Reason and Scriptures : For 1. Let it be demanded , what this sufficient Grace is that is given to the Gentiles . Is it that knowledge of God and goodnesse whereto the Gentiles might come by the light of nature ? or it is some other supernaturall Revelation ? If the former , there is a double error in it ; 1. That they call that Grace which is but Nature : for if Vniversall Grace given to Heathens be but that knowledge of God and his worship , which is attainable by the right use of the light of Nature through the contemplation of the creatures and remainders of the Morall Law in mans heart , what is this grace but Nature , & what this opinion but Pelagianisme ? 2. In that they suppose this light of Nature well used is a sufficient direction for the right and acceptable worship of God in some sort : which is nothing but a fancie , overvaluing natures abilities against all reason and common experience , and by consequence taking away the necessitie of Scriptures and divine Revelations to teach the right way of worshipping God in Christ. If they say t is some Supernaturall Revelation , it must be knowne wherof , when and by what meanes it is bestowed on the Heathen . Is it of the Law , or of the Gospell ? is it made knowne unto them by some inward suggestion , vision or dreame , or by outward instruction from a Preacher or Prophet invisibly convayed unto them by miracle , or extraordinarily raised up among them ? againe when is this supernaturall knowledge bestowed on Pagans ? have they it as soone as they come into the world ? if so , t is Naturall : or is it given afterwards at yeares of discretion ? if so , then t is not in Infants , and so not in all the Heathen , and at what yeares is it bestowed ? and what if they die before that age ? All which quaeres are inexplicable , and draw into most vexing and torturing absurdities : a sufficient proofe that there is no such thing as Sufficient grace to conversion given to Indians , Americans , Tartarians , and other Pagans , when they that defend it cannot tell what it should bee . For seeing t is neither any Naturall or Supernaturall knowledge , I thinke none will be so senselesse to say that it is some Naturall or Supernatupower or ability . For if it be Naturall t is not Grace , if Supernaturall , t would be knowne to what purpose a Supernaturall ability should be given to ignorant Infidells , to doe they know not what . 2. Let 's come to experience , and judge wee by what meanes it may possibly appeare unto us , that the Virginians , and other Americans , or the Inhabitants of Southerne unknowne parts of the world , have at this day , or ever have had before or since Christ , sufficient grace for their Conversion and Salvation . What instance and example can bee given in so many ages of any one among these or other Gentiles , that hath been converted by this Sufficient grace ? Strange , that what is ordinarily bestowed on all , should never take effect in any . If it doe take effect extraordinarily in some , how know they that ? If ordinarily in many , then farewell the prerogative of the Iew above the Gentile , of the Christian Church above Pagans : if God ordinarily have his Church , his Converts , his right Worshippers even amidst the darknesse of Gentilisme , without the knowledge of Christ , and all divine revelation of Gods will in his Word . These opinions are , as Moulin speakes , like sicke mens dreames , or rather madde mens ravings . 3. Let us inquire of the Scriptures , and see whether they speake as favourably of the Gentiles as these pitifull Remonstrants doe : In them we shall finde another manner of censure , both touching their forlorne estate in Ignorance and Infidelity , as also the impossibility of their recovery into Grace , except by greater helpe than the Arminians afford them . Of the Ephesians Paul testifieth , that before they were converted by the Preaching of the Gospell , They were at that time without Christ , aliens from the common-wealth of Israel , strangers from the covenant of Promise , having no hope , and being without God in the world , Ephes. 2. 12. And Matthew out of the Prophet Esay witnesseth of all the Gentiles , that before the light of the Gospell was risen to them , they sate in darknesse , and in the region of the shadow of Death , Mat. 4. 15 , 16. This was the condition of the Nations in their pure Naturalls , so fully expressed by those places , as nothing can bee more significantly declared . Now for the meanes they had to come out of it and bee converted , the Scriptures deny them all unto them : God favoured them not , nor had any regard to bestow grace on them ; for [ In times past he suffered all the Gentiles to walke in their own waies ] saith Paul , Acts 14. 16. The Word and Ordinances of his worship they had not : for [ He sheweth his Word unto Iacob , his statutes and his judgements unto Israel : Hee hath not dealt so with every nation , neither have they knowne his judgements ] as the Prophet speakes , Psal. 147. 19 , 20. A Preacher they have not ; and [ How should they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard , and how should they heare without a Preacher ? ] Rom. 10. 14. Naturall ability to know the mysteries of the Kingdome of God they have not ; for [ The Naturall man perceives not the things of the Spirit ] 1. Cor. 3. Nor is there any such power given them from God ; for [ Vnto you it is given to know the secrets of the Kingdome of Heaven , but unto them it is not given ] Mat. 13. 11. and [ Without mee yee can doe nothing ] Ioh. 15. 5. What shall wee thinke then the poore Americans can either know or do in point of godlinesse by the pretended power of Sufficient grace , when the Pharisees and other Iewes , yea the Apostles themselves could do nothing without a speciall gift and assistance from Christ : whereof they will not say those Pagans are made partakers ? Wherefore there is good cause wee should reject this monstrous opinion of Sufficient grace for Conversion bestowed upon Savages and Infidells , as being contrary to Scripture , common sense and reason : Nor can it be thought but that the authors of it are ashamed of the absurdity thereof , although the Sequell of their other tenents ( one errour drawing on another ) have inforced upon them a necessity of defending this also . And that it may not goe abroad without the Patronage of some colour of reason : they proceed in the justification of it upon two grounds ; 1. That the light of Nature if it be well used , is of it selfe sufficient to convert a Heathen from his idolatrous and evill wayes , and bring him to a right knowledge and worship of God , in some sort . 2. That if the Gentiles use the light and helpe of Nature well and with their best endeavour , God is ready ; nay hee is bound in justice to bestow on them one further grace , viz. the knowledge of themystery of Redemption . These two are the rotten pillars of Vniversall grace , given unto the Gentiles ; which how shaken and riven they are , you may soone perceive , if wee pill off that plaister of doubtfull words , wavering and darke sentences wherewith they are daubed over : for the matter is so shamefull that they dare scarce speake out their minde plainely . But their opinion in plaine termes is this : God , say they hath given sufficient strength to all the Gentiles to use their Naturall gifts well : Be it so . But what is this Well Vsing of Naturall gifts ? It is that , say they , whereby they may in some sort & according to their measure forsake their idolatrous and wicked practises , and attain to the right knowledge and worship of God , and reformation of Life . But may all this be done without the helpe of Supernaturall revelation ? Yes : for , say they , if a man goe so farre as with utmost endeavour hee may by naturall helpes : then God is ready and bound in equity to give him Greater grace . Well , what is this further or Greater grace ? T is the Supernaturall light of the Gospell , and knowledge of Gods will in Christ. So then , here 's the conclusion , Before all knowledge of God in Christ a Heathen man may so bestirre himselfe in the use of Naturall helpes , that he may convert truely unto God , knowing and serving him rightly in part : and upon his so doing , God will give a new supply of grace to perfect what is begun . I cannot well say whether these things deserve a serious refutation , which had they beene defended in former ages would sure have beene rejected with scorne and laughter : but seeing in these times wherein men grow wanton , and use neither Grace nor Nature as they ought to doe ; seeing , I say , the Bond-woman is advanced equall to the Free-woman , the servant set up in honour to the disgrace and contumelie of the Mistresse , it shall not bee ( I hope ) amisse to take a little pains in examining the Dignities & Abilities of Nature , that shee being compelled to keepe her old ranke , Grace in all things may have the sole preeminency . And after wee will in a word or two examine the force of that Obligation wherein the Arminians say God stands bound to Nature to give her a larger portion of Grace , upon triall had of her good behaviour . To come therefore to the first , viz. The Sufficiency of meer nature in the Heathen to worke in them true Conversion in part : for the confirmation hereof three speciall passages of Scriptures are alledged ; First , that of Rom. 1. 19 , 20 , 21. [ That which may be knowne of God is manifest in them ; for God hath shewen it unto them . For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world , are cleerely seene , being understood by the things which are made , even his eternall Power and God-head , so that they are without excuse : Because when they knew God , they glorified him not as God , neither were thankefull ] &c. The second is that in Rom. 2. 14. [ For when the Gentiles having not the Law , doe by Nature the things contained in the Law , these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves . Which shew the worke of the Law written in their hearts , their conscience also bearing witnesse , and their thoughts the meane while accusing or else excusing one another . ] The third is that place , Act. 14. 16 , 17. [ Who in time past suffered all Nations to walke in their owne waies . Neverthelesse he left not himselfe without witnesse , in that he did good , and gave us raine from heaven , and fruitfull seasons , filling our hearts with foode and gladnesse . ] From hence this argument may be framed , The booke of Nature and Providence cleerely shewing what God is in himselfe , in his Nature and Attributes , his eternall Power and Godhead , and what hee is to us in his Goodnesse and Gracious bounty : together with the booke of Conscience , dictating unto vs what duty it is wee owe to God or Man in doing of good or forbearing of evill : these two bookes are a sufficient direction for man to glorifie God and become thankefull . But all the Gentiles had the direction of these bookes of Nature , Providence , and Conscience , as appeares by the places alledged . Therefore the Gentiles had a sufficient direction for the worshipping of God , and for to make them thankefully obedient . Which helpe , because they followed not when they might , but detained the truth in unrighteousnesse , they are therefore justly left without excuse in their idolatries and ungodlinesse of liuing . The answer to this argument depends upon the deniall of the major proposition , and the right explication of its contradictory , which is this , [ The knowledge of God and goodnesse whereto a meere Heathen devoid of all Supernaturall helpes may possibly attaine by contemplation of the works of Creation and Providence , and by the light of his Naturall conscience , is not sufficient to convert him to the right worship and obedience of God. ] That this may appeare , be pleased to afford me your patience , whilst once for all , we take a generall survey of the State of a meere naturall man living out of the Church , utterly destitute of all Supernaturall helpes : and whilst of such a one we doe inquire how far he may goe in Religion , in the knowledge and practice of Piety . In which search , we are , for our more distinct proceeding , to examine 1. The Knowledge of the Heathen , how farre they might proceede by the helpe of a meerely naturall understanding in the knowledge of Divine things . 2. The Effect which this knowledge may worke in them , in regard of practise and obedience to what they know . Touching the former , there may bee a twofold consideration of it . 1. How farre the Heathen have gone . 2. How farre they might have gone in the knowledge of God and Godlinesse , if they had carefully used all Natures helpes . For this question is defined in too narrow a compasse , if we go no farther than the Hypothesis , taking an Historicall view of the Heathens knowledge by those records of it that are remaining upon their writings . Wee must ascend higher to the Thesis , to see what they might have done more than they have , or at least whether they have done that they could . It is not to bee doubted , there were and are among the Heathen , many , who besides the common and ordinary gifts of Nature , had extraordinary abilities and endowments by a speciall though not sanctifying grace of God , whereby they were fitted in a singular manner for the finding out of the most secret hidden principles and conclusions in all learned arts , and for the wisest application of them to all manner of practise . A point easily demonstrable , if we consider the singular excellency of some few in all times above the common pitch of mans ordinary condition , though not above that whereto meere Nature is advanceable . Which whether it depended partly on some peculiar temper of the body and spirits not usuall , partly on the speciall gift of God , or both , it alters not the matter , this being certaine , that these rare priviledges exempted not the possessors of them from being Naturall men and no more . Now whether such as were thus in the best manner qualified , did imploy themselves in the search of the best , that is , Divine things , it may justly be doubted , if wee ghesse at former times either by the monuments of them , or by the temper of this present age . Wee may now see , and ( if such did not scorne to be pitied ) wee would lament the unhappinesse of our finest , rarest , and most Heroicall wits , who doe generally spend themselves in matters of meaner and inferiour excellency , and most commonly in curious and fruitlesse imploiments , scarcely ever aspiring to any atchievement worthy of a man , and men of their parts , and if they doe , t is any thing rather than divine and sacred inquisitions , the humble and painefull study wherof is most opposite to their negligence & presumption . For former times it will also evidently appeare to him that shall but a little survey the writings of Philosophers , both those that are extant in whole or in part , and such whose titles onely wee have remaining recorded by those that have written their lives . For among so many hundred volumes written by the Ancients , how few or none almost shall we finde touching the matter of Religion ? Those great scriblers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Chrysippus was called , who left no part of Logicke , Oratory Mathematickes , Morality , Policy , and Nature it selfe unattempted , but with a curious and inquisitive eye pried into the smallest matters , yet in those higher speculations concerning the Nature of Divine things , were either miserably blinde , or wilfully negligent . Aristotle a man of the deepest reach that Antiquity ever bred , among so many bookes that he wrote , and are in part yet extant , hath not left us any one discourse by which it might appeare that hee bestowed any paines in searching after the knowledge of God , except a little * here and there in some poore pitifull disputes . Theophrastus his schollar , who exceeded the master in numbersome writings , composed sixe bookes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three , which we wish had remained to posterity , albeit by the very titles we may suspect what stuffe they were , not unlike to Hes●ods Theogonia and such other fooleries : and that both his bookes and others written of the same subject by Crito , Simon , Xenocrates , Strato , Cleanthes , Epicurus , and many more ( as may be seene in Laertius ) were they now extant , would give us but small satisfaction in this point , unlesse it were to discover the grosse stupidity and dulnesse of those otherwise refined and sublimated wits . Tullie , who had read them , and sets downe the summe of their opinions , gives us cause to beleeve that the wisest of them all , and himselfe too , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were here starke fooles , and forsaking the right way of searching out the Deity in the footsteps of Nature by a due proceeding from the lower to the higher , they gave heede to old & fond fables , or vanished away in their idle imaginations and new opinions . Nor could it be otherwise , if we respect either the corruption of Nature , which how quick and forward soever it bee in other matters , is dull enough in sacred imploiments , as the experience of many dispositions proves , who are excellent in many sorts of Learning , yet dunces in Divinity : or if wee regard the policy of Satan , who blinding the eies of so learned and wise men , made use of their wits and pens in darkning the cleerer light of divine knowledge by senselesse fables and foolish fancies , which passed unto the ignorant vulgar with approbation under the authority of their deepe learning . Wherefore seeing neyther the most wise and learned in former times have alwaies applied their industry in this part of knowledge , nor yet the labours of such as have beene busied therein are preserved to our times , nor those few monuments that are left doe give sufficient proofe that men have done their best in going so farre as they might , we must without consideration of particulars , first dispute in generall , how deepe the eye of Naturall reason can pierce into divine mysteries , and then see in briefe how far men , whose inventions are come to our knowledge , have proceeded therein . Concerning the first , you are to call to minde , that Religion containes in it two chiefe branches . 1. All Divine truths to bee knowne and beleeved in way of Spirituall contemplation and assent , and the Summary of these are the Articles of our Creed , which in general declare unto us what is to be beleeved touching God , as Creator in the first Article , Redeemer in the rest . 2. All Divine and Morall duties to be done and practised by us , the briefe wherof is in the Decalogue , describing unto us , the rules of 1. Pietie in Gods worship . 2. Of Charity in righteousnesse towards man. Within these bounds wee must seeke for the utmost extent of the meere naturall mans knowledge : which wee will doe , beginning with the knowledge of God the Redeemer : touching which I lay downe this position as infallible and undeniable , that The meere naturall man cannot by the most industrious use of all Natures helpes , attaine unto any the least knowledge of God , as hee is mans Redeemer in Christ. This is most apparant by the Scriptures wholly ascribing the knowledge of this mystery to the Sonne of God revealing it from the bosome of the Father , and to the Spirit of God : but utterly denying so much as a thought of it to any of the greatest or wisest of this world , yea , unto the blessed Angells themselves . And t is no lesse agreeable to good reason , which forbids to imagine that a man fallen & corrupted by sin , should ever attaine to the understanding of those things , which Adam in his perfection never had knowledge of . Now the knowledge of God as Redeemer , with all the dependances thereupon , as Adam had no need of it , so was hee before his fall utterly ignorant of it , and had so remained forever , if God had not vouchsafed to reveale it to him . Which revelation though made to Adam when wee were in his loynes , yet was not ( as I may speake ) Generall and deriveable to all his posterity , as the first connaturall and inprinted knowledge was , but particular for the benefit of Adam and so many of his seed as were elect . And though no doubt but Adam did instruct his children , and they theirs for some descents in this mysterie , yet wickednesse increasing in men as fast as men multiplied in the earth , and by reason of the darksome obscurity of this mysterie in those first times of the world , it came to passe that this knowledge quickly decreased , being almost decayed even among the sonnes of God the Few of Gods Church , whom therefore God was faine by new revelations continually to instruct ; but for the Sonnes of men the rest of the wicked world it was utterly extinct , and no sparke of it left alive . They soone forgot what they cared not to beleeve . Wherefore wee must confine the meere naturall mans knowledge within these two limits , 1. The knowledge of God as Creator , 2. The knowledge of the morall Law : and beyond these it is not possible for him to goe . The knowledge of which , though very much eclipsed in Adam himselfe , but more and more darkned in his posterity as they further degenerated from his originall purity : yet is it not so farre obscured , ( except in such whose brutish and savage education have made them equall to the beasts that perish ) but that by carefull education and vigilant industry in the use of all helpes , it may be somewhat repaired , though this some what is but a very little part , almost nothing of its first clearenesse . Wherefore in the second place touching the knowledge God as Creator ; I suppose a meere naturall man may know these things touching God in his nature and attributes : 1. That there is a God. 2. That he is a living Substance . 3. That hee is one . 4. That hee is Eternall . 5. That hee is Immutable . 6. That he is Omnipresent at once in all places . 7. That his Substance is Incorporeall and Invisible . 8. That hee is most Simple without all mixture and composition . 9. That he is most Perfect , most Happy , most Good and Omnisufficient in and of himselfe . 10. That he is Omnipotent and most free , Omniscient and most wise . 11. That hee is most just and mercifull in rewarding and punishing . Besides these invisible things of the Godhead , a meere naturall man may know these two : 1. That this God is the Creator of the world , giving all things their being of nothing . 2. That this God by his Providence doth Preserve and Rule all things . Thus farre at least a naturall man may proceed in the knowledge of God , as Adam kn●w him , and the Gentiles might grope after even in their naturall darknesse . But this is not all : in the third place touching the knowledge of the morall Law as it containes all such duties as were to be knowne and put in practice in regard of God and our neighbour , by the very lawes of Creation , we may safely affirme these things fallwithin the reach of the naturall understanding and conscience : 1. That this God is to bee worshipped and adored of all creatures , men especially . 2. That hee is not to bee worshipped in bodily shapes and figures . 3. That there are outward religious services to be done in his honour , as Invocation with its solemne Times , Gestures , and Ceremonies ; and also Oathes . 4. That God is to bee inwardly reverenced as well as outwardly adored , namely with the pure affections of Love , Feare , Trust and Confidence . 5. That in all the duties of the second Table Iustice and Civill honesty in a state betweene man and man , as also sanctity and sobrietie in each man , is a thing commanded by God and pleasing to him . And thus farre if not further a naturall man might goe , proceeding still upon sure undeniable grounds and experiments in nature and reason , and from thence deducting necessary conclusions . So that I doubt not but a learned Philosopher , having his judgement rectified by the helpe of Logicke , not forstalled and infatuated by some superstitious and senslesse conceits , ( as was that of the ancient Philosophers ) might have attained thus farre , if hee had diligently and mainely intended the search of these things . But as their search so their finding was by halfes . Christian Philosophers have taken more paines in this point ; and it alters not the case that they were Christian , and so had other light besides that of their owne , seeing in this matter they used it not , but have taken pleasure in this naturall search , both to see Religion confirmed by reason , as also to behold how short the Ancients came of those conclusions , which posterity hath with much ease collected even out of their owne principles . To make a summary collection of all those reasons which are produced by sundry authors who have purposely , or by occasion dealt in these points , were a matter of no great difficulty . Such as have written of Metaphysickes , as also some Divines afford us no small number of Arguments . But out of them , or where they faile out of Reason it selfe to make a certaine and unerring discourse for confirmation of all the forenamed points , so as a wrangling , cavelling and gainsaying naturall wit might be convinced and set downe , were a labour worth the paines of some active and searching wit , but requiring time and industry . In the issue of which discourse , these two conclusions would appeare evidently true : 1. That our naturall man may goe much further in the disquisition of Gods attributes , and those things that concerne his worship , than in the understanding of the Nature of the Divine Essence : wherein following reason hee would be as some Christians are , strangely befogg'd , especially in the mysterie of the Trinity . 2. That nothing concerning God himselfe immediatly in the first Table of the Law , would bee so discernable to the Naturall man , as those other points of morality contained in the second : a more particular and exact knowledge whereof hee would with ease attaine unto . The ground of this whole discourse , besides that in Nature , we have in the Scriptures in the like practice of the Apostle with the Gentiles ; as with the Lystrians , Act. 14 , 17. the Athenians in that long and excellent Sermon wholly almost of this subject , Act. 17. 24 , 25 , &c. and the Romans , Chap. 1. vers . 18 , 19 , 20 , 21. An exact consideration and resolution of which places would singularly declare the point in question . But goe wee on from what may be knowne to enquire in briefe what hath beene found out by naturall men in former times . Which being a matter of fact depending upon Records and Histories of ancient times , cannot possibly be perfectly handled : seeing time hath defaced the memory and monuments of our Ancestors . Many learned men have made collections of those sayings and opinions which the Ancients have left unto us concerning the matter of Religion : the like whereof were not hard to be performed with much addition by such as have time to reade , and would use diligence to collect the passages of severall authors . For the present I desire you only to observe in generall these two cautions , which particular search will approve for good : 1. That the wisest of the Gentiles have taken more paines , and with farre better successe in points of Morality touching the second , than Divinity in the first Table ; as appeares by those Treatises of Oeconomickes , Ethickes , and Politicks , where the orders of houshold Government , the course of a vertuous conversation , the lawes of State and Policie are disputed largely , and in most points consonantly to the Scripture , and the fundamentall grounds of equity and justice . So that in many of these vertues commended unto us in Scripture , wee may with much profit have recourse unto their writings for the explication of their nature and qualitie . 2. That we cannot bee certaine when these Ancients were only guided by the meere light of nature , and when by some supernaturall illumination : not that God did afford divine Revelations concerning heavenly mysteries unto the Heathen ( excepting haply the Sybills ) but that what God had revealed from heaven to his Church , was from them brought by some meanes or other to the knowledge of these Philosophers : A point not much to be doubted , if wee consider , that all knowledge whatsoever in any kinde hath principally flourished in those parts of the world , that have beene nighest unto the borders of the Church . Such is the nature of Religion , that it breedes Civilitie and Knowledge of all Arts in the Countries wherein it is professed , and also spreads some part of its light and vertue into the Countries next adjoyning . Witnesse hereof are the Countries of Chaldea , Syria , AEgypt , Arabia , Greece and Asia , with the neerer coasts thereof : wherein the Church had its originall and first breeding , or nigh whereunto it had its abode and settled plantation for many ages . In which time learning Arts , and all Civilitie seemed to have beene confined to those middle parts of the world , the rest further remote being left in grosse ignorance and barbarisme . And the same course is held to this day , wherein Learning and Civility hath abandoned the Easterne countries which have forsaken true Religion ; and hath not yet approached to the Westerne Americans , who have not heard the sound of the Gospell . Now then in the course of times it could not bee but sundry accidents would fall out for the dispearcing of sacred knowledge : as trading and commerce of Merchants , both strangers into Iudaea , and Iewes into forraine parts : Entertaining of Slaves and Captives , who if barbarous learned of their Iewish , if Iewes taught their barbarous Masters many mysteries of Religion , received and beleeved among the people of God : The perigrination and sojourning of many Iewes abroad in forraine parts ( as no countrey soever but hath some of its people in all countreys ) which Iewes as they learned the superstitions of the Heathen , so they brought in amongst them some pieces and relickes of true Religion : Lastly , the Curiosity of the Philosophers of those times ( shaming the negligence of the learned now ) who would with any cost purchase bookes of any Art in any Language , which they thought contained some secret knowledge and rare mysterie : as also spared no labour in travelling into forraine parts wherein they heard were any men or meanes whereby their knowledge might be increased . Wherefore it is more than probable that those Ancients , Zoroastres , Hermes , Orpheus , Plato and others , drew their knowledge , which in part they had of many high mysteries , out of a deeper and cleerer fountaine than the muddy shallow springs of their owne naturall reason , though in the passage this water was much soyled by them with the mudde of many idle fables and silly conceits . A reason whereof , we may conceive to be either the darknesse of their apprehension , not cleerely discerning what was perhaps plainely enough delivered , or the corruption of those Idolatrous times , which permitted not the least innovation in opinion or practice touching the matter of Religion ( as appeares in the case of Socrates ) which constrayned the learned in those dayes , to conceale much of what they knew , or to declare it darkly in many mistie and foggy fables , whose interpretation aftertimes forgot , and so beleeved a lie for a true tale . Hitherto of the knowledge of a meere naturall man , let us next descend to the Effects thereof in regard of Practice : which admitting of a double consideration as theformer , What may be , what hath beene done : shall yet here be handled joyntly together . By the former discourse it appeares how imperfect the knowledge of the wisest naturall man is : whence it followes that his practice will come as farre short of his knowledge , as his knowledge doth of perfection . For so t is even with the best Christians who practise farre lesse than they know : much more with the naturall man whose knowledge is too darke and uncertaine to cause any powerfull and vigorous impression upon his will and sensuall affections , which will be too too violent and untamed to give way to the commands of his understanding . Yea , should we suppose in a naturall man the cleerest apprehension of all duties in the morall Law , yet could it not much better his practice : so easily would the Naturall Conscience bee choaked and borne downe by the power of Corruption , unlesse it bee supported by Faith which only puts life into our knowledge , and strength unto our practice . And in this case there is no difference betweene a Naturall Heathen and an Vnregenerate Christian , who in knowledge may and doth exceed the other , and yet come short of him in practice . For seeing they both alike want Faith and Sanctification , it is possible that goodnesse of naturall temper , civility of education , strictnesse of government , due hope of reward and praise , or feare of the contrary , with the like motives , may carry a Heathen as farre in vertuous courses as bare illumination can a Christian. The same corruption in both ( perhaps greater in the Christian than Heathen , as sinne abounds more , where unsanctified knowledge abounds ) I say the like corruption in both would imprison this knowledge in unrighteousnesse , that it breake not forth into Religious practice . Whence wee finde that Christians , much more Philosophers , have not beene the same men in the Chaire and in their Conversations : but that their opinions and discourses have beene full of Sanctity and Temperance , when their lives have beene defiled with all Impiety and Sensuality . Wherefore for the generall , let us set downe this Conclusion as most true , that The meere naturall man never goes so farre in the application of his knowledge unto practice , as hee might doe , and as hee knowes he should doe . And therefore the Gentiles are condemned for detaining the truth in injustice , for sinning against their consciences accusing them , for knowing God and yet not glorifying him as God. So that t is cleere , although the Naturall man cannot doe or know so much as he ought , yet hee knowes more than hee is ever willing to practise : and for that cause his knowledge is sufficient to condemne him of his unrighteousnesse towards man , and false worship of God himselfe ; though it bee not sufficient to direct him in the true meanes and manner of Gods right worship , or the practice of a holy life . And thus in Gods wonderfull judgement , he is left as without sufficient direction for well doing , so without all lawfull excuse for his ill doing . But come we to particulars ; the Naturall mans practice respects either God in his Inward worship . Outward Man. 1. In things concerning God and his worship the Naturall man utterly , perverts himselfe in his practice , there being in this case the greatest deformity and disagreement that may be , betweene his knowledge in the speculation , and his application thereof to practice . Consider him in the Inward worship of the heart , how hee stands affected toward the Deity in those inward affections , of Love , Feare , Credence , and Confidence , which are required as part of our Spirituall worship of God. It would be strange to see the disposition of a meere Naturall mans heart in this part of Gods worship : how feeble , cold , and forced these affections would bee ; how full of hypocrisie and falshood , being secretly fastned to the creature , when they pretend to bee directed to the Creator , just like unregenerate Christians , that will make shew of Love , Feare , Faith , and Trust in God , when t is apparant they intend nothing lesse in their affections . Consider him in the Outward worship of God , and the Naturall man is farre more defective , as appeares by the manifest experience of all ages , who corrupted their waies in nothing so much as the service of God : mistaking the object , and seeking for that Deity which they apprehended in a generall Notion , not onely in the Similitude but in Nature of the Creatures , and those many times of the weakest and basest ranke , mistaking the manner of this Service , falling from that Spirituall service which by the lawes of Creation was onely required , to a thousand carnall outward Ceremonies , and observations of their foolish devising ; some ridiculous and senselesse , some strange , cruell , and horrible against all good nature and humanity , some furious , madde and drunken , some obscene and beastly , all superstitious and divellish : mistaking lastly the time of this service , in appointing a number of Festivalls , but neglecting utterly the Sabbath , the knowledge whereof was quite worne out among the Gentiles . Which particulars are all manifest by records of old , and experience of latter times , in those places where the Gospell hath not beene yet preached . A reason of this generall corruption in the whole frame of Gods worship , we may conceive to be this . The worship of God that man was to performe in his innocency was wholly Spirituall , not consisting in outward Ceremonies , Ordinances , and Observations ; according as the same shall againe bee performed by us in Heaven hereafter . Such was the perfection of Adams nature , that he being fully replenished with the love of his Creator , did alwaies more cheerfully delight himselfe in the contemplation of his excellency , and obedience to his commands , without such externall helpes . True it is that to Adam in his innocency was prescribed the observation of the Sabbath , and two Sacraments of the Tree of Life , and Knowledge of good and evill . But for these Sacraments , the latter was rather of Abstinence than Action , a triall rather than a helpe of his obedience : the former was a pledge of his happinesse if hee stood , but no meanes of his upholding , and so both of them mainely differing from all Sacraments , afterwards given unto the Church for the support of our infirmities . Likewise the Sabbath was then to bee spent in exercises meerely Spirituall , not in any such outward bodily observations , as since the Fall have beene instituted by God in regard of our weaknesse . And though God alwaies required to bee worshipped in spirit and truth , yet since the Fall there have beene certaine externall rites added thereunto , which were not needefull in time of innocency . Now then this whole frame of the outward and instituted worship of God , man once corrupted could not so much as ghesse at : God therefore revealed it from time to time in the Old and New Testament , and that with many straight prohibitions of adding or altering any things out of our owne invention : for who can or could tell with what outward things God would be pleased but he himselfe ? So that the Heathen being destitute of this light , it was no marvell if they became vaine in their imaginations , and in this point sought out unto themselves many strange inventions . They found by experience how needfull it was by some outward services , to give testimony that they beleeved and worship ped a God , whom else they might seeme to deny in regard of their monstrous impieties : but in what manner to doe this they knew not . Onely this you are to observe , that the whole world almost retained the custome of sacrificing unto their gods , which you must not thinke was a thing learned from the light of Nature * ; for what ground in reason had they to imagine that the wrath of God against a man for sinne , should bee appeased with the slaying of a beast ? but it was a practice received by tradition from the beginning of the world : this custome of Sacrificing being the most eminent and principall outward service of God , commanded first to Adam , and by his precept and practice delivered to posterity . Who retaining the outward worke and ceremony ( as mans corrupt nature is ceremonious enough ) but forgetting the mystery and signification , did quickely pervert that sacred institution in all abominable Idolatry , and esteemed the Numen or Deity offended to bee directly pacified by that , which in its Originall was onely a figure of that propitiatory sacrifice of Iesus Christ. 2. Let us in the next place enquire of the meere Naturall mans practice , as it concerneth man in all Morall duties of the second Table : wherein hee will goe much further than in the former . So that there is scarce any sin therein forbidden which the Heathen have not condemned , or duety commanded , which some of them have not praised and practised . Instances might be shewed in those many excellent patternes of vertue , whose lives have been left registred unto us by the Ancients : and hardly is there any man so bad in whom wee shall not finde some one or other eminent part of goodnesse . But in this point touching the Vicious or Vertuous practices of the Heathen , you are to observe two things wherein the Naturall man will alwaies discover his ignorance and error : 1. In determining the right cause and Originall of sinne , whence all this disorder which is evidently perceived in mans nature , had its beginning , and how it came into the world . Here the Naturall man is at a stand , and cannot possibly ascend so high as to finde out the fall of Adam , & in his Sin & Gods Curse thereupon to discover the fountaine of all our uncleannesse and wretchednesse . So that every Naturall man would upon examination of this matter easily fall into that opinion of some , that there were Duo principia , the one summum Malum the cause of all Evill , the other summum Bonum the cause of all Good. Wee not much wonder that the remembrance of so memorable an accident as Adams fall should quite bee lost in his posterity , seeing that Adam himselfe having that Fact of his in horror and detestation , whereby he made himselfe and all the world miserable , was not willing to publish his owne shame , but rather conceale it from his children as hee would have done from God : and as for the most part of his posterity , they little heeded to know that whereof they cared not to repent . 2. In judging aright of the Nature of sin , either in regard of the Punishment of it , or in regard of the Evill of it . For the Punishment of it , though the Heathen had a grosse apprehension of Gods wrath against wicked persons in this life , and some kind of punishments they should feele afterwards in Hell , yet they never could come so far as to see that all men were in one condition , under the Curse of God subject to everlasting damnation in body & soule , without speciall grace shewed from God. And for this cause that knowledge of the Law which the Gentiles had , could not worke in them that effect as in the Iewes and Christians it doth . These it drives unto Christ , to seek after a Saviour from the curse and punishment which the Law threatens them withall : but in the Gentiles who apprehend not this Curse , it cannot take any such effect . Againe , for the Evill and Vitiousnesse of sinne they never conceived of it according to the full extent of it . They knewit to be bad , but not so bad as to deserve such horrible punishment , as the Scriptures tell us to be due unto it . They knew mans nature to be corrupt , but never dreamt of any such Originall universall depravation of our nature , as that we are dead in sinnefull infirmity , utterly deprived of that Spirituall life and ability which sometime wee enjoyed . They knew the Outward act of sinne , and the grosser sort of . Inward thoughts to be evill , but they could not imagine that so high perfection of Spirituall obedience was required of man by any Law , as to condemne him for every disorderly thought not consented unto . To wish for our Neighbours House or Wife , is a thought , which , allowed of with consent , may by a Heathen upon the fundamentall notions of right and wrong bee condemned as repugnant to charity and equity . But for the same thought to arise in the heart , and passe away without all approbation and intention of practice ; yea haply with some dislike , and yet to be esteemed as an offence , was never thought of by the naturall man. The discovery of the sinfulnesse of this first brood of Lust , when by secret entisings it drawes away the heart , and shootes forth onely in sudden motions , arising and vanishing without notice and allowance : this is a point of Divinity of a higher straine than ever any naturall man could reach unto . Yea Paul himselfe though a Iew & a learned Pharisee , yet before his conversion understood it not , Rom. 7. 7. and the Papist to this day will not bee perswaded t is so , though Paul affirme it . Now from hence wee shall learne in part to judge aright of the naturall mans vertue and goodnesse , How farre ordinarily it goes , and what worth is in it in regard of Gods approbation of it . I will briefly set this downe in five Propositions . 1. The Vertuous practice of the naturall man is more busied about the Outward act than the Inward affection : in reforming the maners , not amending the heart , in restraining the externall action , not resisting the inward desires and inclinations , as the true Christian doth . It is indeed not to be denied but the Heathen came so farre as to condemne the roote of sinne as well as the fruite , and to judge them punishable as vitious persons , not onely whose lewd practices testified them so to be , but those also who in their affections and thoughts approved the like wickednesse . And Philosophers have not a little laboured to finde out the true meanes of composing and settling that more distempered part of our mindes in our unruly passions and perturbations ; whence they easily perceived did issue originally the chiefe provocations to all evill . And in this point they did rightly judge , that it was of much greater difficulty to order the unruly motions of the mind , than to restraine the outward actions of the body , or to atchieve any hard adventure . They well knew that the Soveraignty of the Will over the Appetite and Affections was but a civill perswasive authority , which might be easily withstood by the stubbornnesse of the inferiour faculties : onely over the outward parts the Will had a masterly and absolute command to move them as it pleased without gainsaying . Now then although we may finde many among the Heathen of an excellent temper , who either by a Naturall disposition , or studious education , and wise observation of themselves , carried a singular command over some of their passions of Anger , I ove , and the rest : yet in the generall wee may assuredly beleeve that all those precepts delivered by the wisest Philosophers touching the calmenesse of minde , were farre too weake and heartlesse in their practice to bring the observers of them to true Tranquillity . No , t is onely the Spirit of Sanctification that commands our disordered soules : and if we consider it , even in the sanctified Christian having that Supernaturall helpe , the longest combat and most doubtfull conflict is with these carnall affections and lusts . This exceeding difficulty of mastering the affections , did as it seems , turne the Stoickes quite on the other side , who truely perceiving how great enemies these Desires and Passions were unto Wisedome , Tranquillity , and Vertuous Endeavours , judged them all utterly evill , and not to neede reformation so much as abolishment : whereby they did rather astonish than conquer them : and such their peace might be termed the dull stupidity and unmoveablenesse of a blocke , rather than the quiet calmenesse of a man. Which thing did in many passages of their lives upon occasion of unexpected dangerous accidents , discover it selfe , to others laughter and their owne shame : when their passions which were formerly stupified and charmed by Philosophicall discourses , but not mortified , did easily recover their strength , and brake forth with unresistable violence . So then the naturall man will utterly come short of that endeavour which Christians make their chiefe , viz. the inward Reformation and Sanctity of the Soule ; if he strive about it , t is but faintly , and hee soone gives it over , finding the contention laborious , and the victory impossible : Outward evill practices he may in part forbeare , the grossenesse whereof make a deeper impression of dislike in the naturall conscience , and also bring him in compasse of many Civill inconveniences ; but for the inward loathsome corruptions of the Soule he takes as little notice of them to amend them , as the world doth to punish them . As in Vice so t is in Vertue , the naturall man will love and practise so much of it , as may by its outward splendor winne praise , honour and reward : but to entertaine an entire and unchangeable love to vertue , severed from all these by-respects , hath beene seldome found in any but those alone in whom Grace hath prevailed more than Nature . There have beene some among the Heathen that have held on in a vertuous course even when they have got disgrace and smart by so doing : but this hath beene rather out of a kinde of surly Obstinacy and Stiffenesse of minde , than any zealous affection to goodnesse it selfe . T is one thing to Scorne an ill practice , another thing to Hate it ; and so t is one thing to Love vertue , and another to Practise it out of Greatnesse of minde and High Spirit , when men having fallen upon some good course , and continued long in it with commendations , they now scorne so to submit themselves to other mens wills , and wisdome , as for their pleasure to alter their owne resolutions ; out of meere stomacke they 'le endure any thing rather than bee so base . And in these high Conceits they pleased themselves much more than in the goodnesse of that vertue whereof they made profession . For wee cannot beleeve that those cold discourses of Philosophers , That vertue is to be loved for it owne sake , could ever set so faire a glosse on Vertues face , and so to represent her excellencie to the dull apprehension of naturall men , as to make any of them so farre enamoured with her beautie , that they would still follow her when praise or profit forsooke them . Nay , this is a point most hard for the best Christians to attaine unto , few of whom , those excepted whose more strong and lively faith causeth a cleere apprehension of eternall blessednesse , few I say will bee found , whose love to vertue growes not hotter or colder according as hope of temporall reward , or feare of losse increaseth or slackeneth the flame : as for Hypocrites , the case is most apparant in them , as is cleere in the practice of the Pharisees ; between whom and the Heathen there is little difference in these points , unlesse that these Hypocries are the worse . 2. The Righteousnesse of the naturall man is rather Negative than Positive , in forbearing more than in doing . He is magis extra Vitia quàm cum Virtutibus : a harmelesse Conversation is reputed for a Vertuous innocencie , and he is esteemed very good that is not so bad as others are . Experience shewes it in all naturall men , who content themselves in a freedome from such vices as they see and dislike in other men though themselves have in the meane time but little goodnesse . And it must needs bee so , seeing they want the sanctifying Spirit of God that should incline them to good practices , and have only his restraining Grace which keepes them from breaking out into those enormities , whereby they would shortly disturbe and overthrow all humane society . 3. The goodnesse of the naturall man generally respects others more than himselfe ; his righteousnesse towards his neighbour in things that are done Teste Populo , is greater than his Sobrietie in regard of himselfe in those things that are done Teste Deo & Conscientia . For in those common affaires betweene man and man which lie open to the eye and censure of many , men will for the most part be carefull to maintaine their credit and esteeme : as knowing that commonly men judge of others by their common Practice and Entercourse in publike businesse more than by their Private and Personall qualities . Hence many have beene good Governours and Commanders both in peace and warre , that for their particulars have beene vitious persons : many good for the Common , bad for their private Wealth , good Subjects , good Neighbours , &c. yet bad men : dealing in this case as Covetous men doe in feasting , who however sparing they bee in their private and daily spendings , yet in publike entertainments exceed all for costly provision : few take notice of the one , and the Many will judge of all the rest by that which they once see and approve of . So that the maxime of Politicians , That the Opinion of Vertue is a Commoditie , the reall Practice of it a burden , seemes to be drawne out of the very dregs of corrupted nature : it being generally the utmost aime of a sinfull man , to cover his shamefull but beloved vices with the mantle of otherwise-disdained honesty . 4. The naturall mans goodnesse is not Generall but confined within the compasse of some one or few vertues , those whereto his naturall inclination and Civill Institution did best leade him . This may be found true even in the most excellent of the Heathen , who excelled , some in fortitude , some in justice , some in liberality , some in temperance , &c. but all almost had their great vices mingled with their great vertues , that the case was doubtfull , whether they were more to be loued for the one or hated for the other . Wherein yet they dealt politickly Pravitatem unius , Probitate alterius compensantes , as Salvian speakes , so counterpoysing Vice with Vertue , that by the favour of some vertues pleasing and profitable to others , they with lesse apprehension did freely practise many vices , no lesse pleasing and commodious to themselves . 5 , The righteousnesse of the naturall man is not entirely good , nor acceptable vnto God. Which that it may appeare , we are to see how farre the actions of the Heathen may be said to be good and pleasing unto God. In morall actions two things are to be respected , 1. The Matter and Substance , 2. The Manner and Circumstances of it . The Substance of every Morall Action is its Conformity with the Rule of Goodnesse , id est , the Law , when that thing is done which is commanded by the justice and equitie of the Law. The Circumstances or manner of the action consists 1. In the efficient cause or Person that doth the worke , 2. In the end or scope hee proposeth to himselfe in working : Both these I call circumstances of a morall Action , Because by them the Quality of the action is not varied in it selfe , but only in regard of Acceptation or Reward . For , that hee be a liberall man that gives an almes , or a true friend that doth a friendly office , it is nothing to the work it selfe , for a covetous man or an enemie may doe the like , but with this difference only , that it cannot be accepted or counted thanks-worthy at their hands . In like manner , to make a good worke pleasing to God , its necessary the person himselfe be first sanctified and regenerate : but to doe a worke , good for the substance of it , this is not absolutely necessary . Further for a servant or any other to performe his dutie upon Constraint , upon Feare , at Vnawares , &c. alters the case much in respect of favourable acceptance and merit of reward , but not in respect of the goodnesse of such Services , which may bee the same , as in one that performes them willingly and out of regard of his dutie . So , that worke that is performed out of Hypocrisie , Custome , Formality , Compulsion , or by Chance , may be a worke good in it selfe , but never finde favour and reward with God , unlesse it proceed out of a pure Conscience . Againe , for the End proposed in all actions it is manifest , that neither a good end mends the Nature of a bad action , nor yet a bad end marres the goodnesse of any vertuous worke : Both are meerely Accidentall not Essentiall to the Action it selfe . True it is in respect of our selves wee doe corrupt a good action by a bad meaning , though ( as wee are more apt to marre then than to make ) wee cannot infuse any goodnesse into a vitious action by a vertuous intention . But t is only in respect of our selves , who get no benefit by such a worke ; Otherwise the action of a liberall man , of a valiant man , of a good common-wealths man , though done for private respects of commodity or commendation , may bee in themselves as good , and by such as are ignorant of their intention will be judged to be as good , as those that come out of a pure affection to vertue and sincere aime at publike benefit . So likewise all the vertuous actions of the Heathen , though done for private and carnall ends , may bee the same for goodnesse with those which are performed by Christians with those Spirituall intentions of Gods glory and their owne Salvation . Only God accepts not alike of those things that we doe to serve our selves , as of those things which are done with a desire of his honour ; as man also in the like case would doe the same . Now then seeing the Law commands the Circumstance as well as the Substance of every good and acceptable action , that as wee doe all , so wee doe it As God commandeth : and seeing the Circumstances of every good worke are a pure Conscience and Faith unfained ( the Cause ) and the Glory of God ( the End ) which give such beauty and so sweet a relish to all actions , as that without them they are deformed and unsavoury in the eye and taste of the Almighty : it is manifest that all the morall actions of the Heathen fell short of their Compleate perfection , forasmuch as their Persons were unholy , their Consciences defiled , their Purposes perverse and crooked , and their best Intentions finally resolving themselves into temporall , worldly and selfe-considerations . But if wee looke unto the substance of the worke it selfe , wee shall finde little difference betweene many actions of the Heathen and of Christians : there being as exact proportion and correspondence to the rules of Iustice observed by the one as by the other : yea many times more by the Heathen than the other . It were a consideration worth ones labour to parallell the lawes , customes , and famous actions of the people of God , with those which we finde like unto them recorded in humane history : we should see that many particulars would carry a faire resemblance betweene themselves , and have the same stampe of vertue imprinted on both . This morall goodnesse in Heathen men was no doubt pleasing and acceptable to God , so farre forth that he liked the worke , and approved of it , with that common allowance which he affords to all things that beare any stampe of his owne goodnesse , but not so that he liked the person , and accepted of it into any speciall favour of grace . For it were most absurd to imagine that the Iustice , Temperance , Valour , Chastity of an Aristides , Cato , Scipio , Lucretia , &c. shall stand condemned before God with the same censure of dislike , as the rapine , luxury , cowardise , lust , &c. of a Sardanapalus , Caligula , Messalina , or such other miscreants . Nay , he approved of their vertue and civility , as the effects of his owne grace in common bestowed on the Gentiles for a common good : and in testimony of this his approbation hee prospered those persons and common-wealths , among whom sobriety of life , strictnesse of discipline , & severity of good lawes was best maintained : And Heathenism it selfe could discerne the ruine of Common-wealths to spring originally from the neglect of Piety and Vertue . To conclude then and summe up all touching this point : Gods Nature and Attributes , his Godhead and eternall Power and Providence are indeede cleerely to bee seene in the Creatures , if the Heathen had eyes to see them as Adam had at first . But though they be still as visible as they were , yet man is blinde and cannot behold them . It is very little the Naturallman hath seene , not much that hee can see . What hee knowes , might teach him that God is to be worshipped otherwise than he doth , but cannot shew him how to worship him as he ought . Whatever he doth or can do in the worship of God , nothing is done aright , for matter or manner : His Inward worship is unholy , because his heart is so : His Outward worship is superstitious and idolatrous , because hee is utterly ignorant of Gods appointments : both are false and displeasing , being presented to God without a Mediatour , of whom the Heathen have no knowledge . Againe , the Nature of their sinne and misery is above the reach of the Heathens knowledge ; and therefore Grace and Mercy are beyond the possibility of their desire : both which yet are the first step to true Conversion . Finally , for their vertues they are corrupted in the roote , perverted in their buddes , defective in their whole practice . So that unlesse we will thinke , that a civill Conversation , without all Sanctity of heart , to be true Conversion : a kinde of bare Naturall reverence of the Creator in some cold affections of Love , Feare , &c. or an externall superstitious invented worship without all warrant from God , To be Gods true & right worship in part : ( which are the things the Heathen can attaine unto ) it appeares to be a vaine assertion , to affirme , That God hath afforded sufficiency of ability to the Gentiles , by the good use of Nature to convert truely to the right worship and obedience of God. This of the first ; the second ground is , That if the Heathen use the light of Nature well , God is ready , yea bound in justice to bestow on them Supernaturall light of grace . In the examination of this we neede not be long : it being supported by the former , together with it it falls to the dust . A meere imagination it is withour all warrant from Scripture : though for it they bring that place , Matth. 25. 29. [ For unto every man that hath it shall be given , and hee shall have abundance ] i. e. say the Arminians , Hee that hath the light of Nature and useth it well , to him shall be given the Supernaturall light of grace . An Arminian glosse , that corrupts the Text , which is to be understood of painfulness in the Ministers of the Gospell , in the emploiment of such gifts as God hath endewed them withall for the benefite of the Church . Which gifts and abilities being well used , increase through Gods blessing , but if neglected , decay utterly through his secret curse ; as experience shewes in painfull or idle Ministers . If the argument be framed only by analogy from this Text , and the generall equity of it , That whosoever uses any thing well , shall have more given unto him : besides that this is a very large interpretation , which will admit of many exceptions , it is to bee noted that in their deduction they mistake the proportion observed in the Text and Parable , which speaketh of an increase in the Same , not in a Divers kinde . Hee that hath meane gifts for the Ministry and useth them well , he shall have greater gifts in the same kinde . But thence to collect , Hee that useth Nature well shall have Grace given him , is as if wee should say , He that useth his health well , shall have riches or honours given him : things of another nature . It had been true , if they had said , Hee that useth Naturall light well , i. e. studiously in the search of all good knowledge , in him that light shall be increased , as it was in Philosophers : but this made not to their purpose ; and therefore they take a wide step from Nature to Grace . In Scripture therefore there is no ground for this conceit : besides , there are these three errors in it : 1. Against Experience , which shewes that grace hath not beene bestowed where they have had the best Natuturall dispositions , as is plaine by rejection of the Tyrians and Sidonians , and Vocation of the Capernaites , though they were naturally better fitted to entertaine the Gospell than these : as also by the long rejection of all the civill and learned men of the Nations of the world , who though they used their Naturall reason farre better than other barbarous people , yet were left destitute so many ages of all Supernaturall helpes as well as they . 2. It is founded upon two false Suppositions ; 1. One , That the well using of Naturall light is such an excellent preparation for the receiving * of the Gospell . Which is not so : for although God shewed that favour towards learning and civility of manners , that in the propagation of the Gospell through the world , hee respected those Nations that excelled therein , before others ; as appeares by the plantation of the Church among the Gentiles : yet come we to particulars , and t is evident the Gospell found most resistance and neglect at their hands who seemed to have used their Naturall abilities best , as the learned Philosophers , the wise , temperate , just , politicke men of the world , who were so farre from being the fitter to receive the Gospell , that they cut of pride and fleshly wisedome were its greatest enemies . Num ut quisque ( saith Moulin ) virtutis civilis laudem affectat , & ingenium habet multâ eruditione subactum , ita eimaximè sordet simplicitas Evangelij , & crucis Christi scandalo magis offenditur . 2. Another , That a man may use his Naturall abilities well , i. e. to the right worshipping and obedience of God , without the grace of regeneration , without faith , without all knowledge of the Gospell and the will of God revealed unto man : which being a grosse supposition of an utter impossibility ; and such a one as by consequence overturnes all Christian Religion , as hath beene shewed : it is manifest that this obligation , wherewith the Arminians have tied God to give Supernaturall grace to the Gentiles upon their good usage of Naturall helps , is void & of no validity , God will easily be discharged of it without forfeiture of his Iustice , where the condition on mans part is so impossible to be performed . And hitherto of this first question touching sufficiency of grace given to them that are out of the Church : I will make an end of all with a word or two of admonition for our practice . We ( beloved ) are ( as the Apostle speaks ) 〈◊〉 sinners of the Gentiles , but Iewes of that circumcision which ●o not made with hands . Let us then now bethink our selves what grace we have received , and others want . Compare we advisedly our condition at this present with that of Turkes or other Pagans : and let us magnifie his mercy , that hath by Grace made so great a difference betweene us and them , who by Nature were all alike . Wee were strangers and forreiners as they now are , but we are now fellow Cittizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God , which they are not . A glorious priviledge , and if we have grace to judge aright of it , deserving to have the first place in our esteeme , above all prerogatives in the world . T was but a poore contentment to a dying Philosopher , when he thankt his Gods for being a Crecian , not a Barbarian , an Athenian among Grecians , a philosophen among Athenians . We my Brethren , have to joy in greater dignities , who are Christians , not Insidells , true Beleevers among a world of Heretickes , and Schollars among the company of true Beleevers . Let mee then tell you what you know already , but few of us thinke of it as we should : where greater grace and favour is hestowed , there more Thankes are deserved , more Service is required , a stricter account will be taken of both . And be now intrcated by the mercies of our Lord Iesus Christ to hearken to the Apostolicall exhortation , Walke worthy of that Vocation wherewith wee are called . Be we ashamed that the Morality of a Pagan should outstrip our Religion , that the Conversation of a Papist should disgrace the Beliefe of a Protestant , that the Piety and Modesty of the Vnlearned should condemne the Vncivility and Lewdnesse of a Schollar . Be not ignorant of the dignity of your Calling , but if in any thing , here stand upon your credit and reputation : Why should not the name of Christian , of Protestant , of Schollar , be held forth as a shield of defence against all provocations to base and unworthy courses , as well as meaner titles of Gentility , Honours and Offices are readily alledged against viler imploiments not besitting persons of that quality ? If there be any so respectlesse of his owne , and regardlesse of Gods honour , as by ungodly and base practices , to cause those holy and pretious names wherewith we are called , to be ill spoken of , and Gods Name therein to be blasphemed , to such a one I say only this , and I wish him to heed it , that God will shame that Servant that disgraces his Master , and will in his time vindicate his owne glory , by pouring contempt and everlasting shame upon the head of such a Caitiffe wretch . Wherefore let us pray that the Lord would make us truly jealous of his and our owne honour , by demeaning our selves answerably to our Holy Calling ; in all things to please him and glorifie his name . Amen . Having thus shewed the state of a meere Heathen living out of the Church , and the Vnsufficiency of all meanes whatsoever , that are given him in that state , to worke his Conversion and Salvation , wee are in the second place to descend unto the discussing of our next Question touching the Condition of those that live within the pale of the visible Church , enjoying the benefit of the Word and other ordinances of Salvation , Whether or no Sufficient grace be given to all and singular Christians for their Conversion unto God. This Question is something perplexed and intricate by reason of divers particular queres whereinto it resolves it selfe . I will by Gods helpe proceed therein as distinctly and plainely as I can : First beginning with a briefe explication of the Termes of the Question ; where it must be in short explained , 1. What is meant by Sufficient , 2. What by Grace , 3. What by Christians , 4. What by Conversion . 1. For the terme , Sufficient , we are to knowe that Sufficiency as it is taken in Relation to the producing of some effect , is nothing but such a degree of Power or Strength , in any thing , as that if it be applied unto the Execution , it is able to performe that whereto it was intended . As we use to say of any man , Hee is a man sufficient for such an imployment , because if hee be set about it , he can by the good parts he hath , actually discharge it . Where you are to observe that it is a meere abuse of this word , Sufficient , to oppose it to Effectuall , and so to distinguish betweene the Power and the Act , as if any thing could be called Sufficient in Potentia , which when it is purposely applied to the Act , is utterly insufficient to produce it . T is an error in Speech to say . [ This Medicine considered in it selfe is sufficient to cure such a man ] for t is a vaine consideration to consider the Medicine in it selfe , when wee should consider it in relation to the disease . And if such a medicine being administred suffice not to cure the disease , it is certaine that it was an unsufficient medicine . Wherefore that distinction of the grace of Conversion into Sufficientem and Essicacem is at least a frivolous imagination , distinguishing those things as opposite , which at most are but subordinate , and differ only as the cause and effect . For is it not the fancy of some crackt braine , to affirme , that there is a Grace every way sufficient , and powerfull enough in it selfe to worke the conversion of a Sinner , and yet when this grace is given to such a sinner with a purpose and intent to convert him by it , it shall be found to be utterly unsufficient to Effect it ? T is strange whence or how men should conceit a sufficiency in the power of such grace , when they finde insufficiency in the performance of the worke . 2. By the word Grace we understand some Supernaturall gift freely given unto man from God himselfe . 3. By the word Christians , wee meane , all those that live in externall communion with the militant Church , enjoying the ministery of the Word , and being of yeares to make use of it : for this Question toucheth not Infants . 4. Lastly , by Conversion ( as heretofore hath beene shewed ) we are to understand two things , either 1. The Roote and Cause of that act , namely the Sanctification of all the Faculties by the Infusion of Habituall Holinesse . 2. The Fruite or Act of Conversion properly so called ; when a man regenerate and renued in all parts , doth actually imploy them in loving and obeying God. The first is Gods worke upon us : the next our worke performed toward him , when by the strength of inward Grace given , we after convert our selves in Thought and Worke towards God. This latter is not here to bee understood in this Question , but the former , namely that Conversion of a man , which God workes in him by infusion of the grace of Regeneration into all parts . This infusion of Grace into the Soule by an immediate act of Gods Spirit , the Arminians can by no meanes endure to heare of in this businesse of our Conversion : and therefore they burden this assertion with odious but untrue imputations of Anabaptisticall Enthusiasmes , and of a Lazy expectation of all Grace to be poured into us sleeping , without any endeavour of our owne to get it . Which slanders are only devised for the countenance of that impious opinion of their owne ; namely , That mans Conversion to God begins in some act which man himselfe performes , and not in a worke first wrought in us by God. Now that act of man is his assent and actuall Faith given to the promise . A lewd imagination , sufficiently confuted and cryed downe in the venerable assembly of the last Synod , as most derogatory to the whole worke of Grace in our Vocation , most repugnant to reason and Scriptures , which tell us , That the tree must bee good before the fruit can bee so : it being impossible , that an action so Holy and good as is the yeelding of Assent and Beliefe to the promises of the Gospell , should be done by a man unlesse he be first regenerate and sanctified in all his faculties . The termes thus explaned , the state of the Question is more fully thus , Whether God doe bestow upon all such as Heare the Word preached , any such Supernaturall gift as is sufficiently powerfull to worke in them true Sanctification , though it doe not alwayes effectually produce it ? Our Adversaries affirme it : but we truly maintaine the Negative part , opposing against their assertion these two Conclusions . 1. That there is no supernaturall gift given unto the unregenerate , which is Sufficient to worke his Sanctification , but that only which is Effectuall to worke it . This hath appeared manifestly enough in the explication of the termes of this Question , and will bee more and more evident to us , if we consider that maine mistake of our Adversaries in this businesse of our Conversion , which is , that they imagine our Conversion to begin in some act of ours , namely our Assenting and Beleeving , not in some act of God , sanctifying the Soule before it can Assent and Beleeve . Now because this act is good , and therefore must be done by Gods helpe , for to salve this they have found a daintie new devise of Spirituall strength infused into the Soule by the Holy Ghost : which strength when it is inherent in the soule , a man may use it if hee will to the producing of the act of Faith. If he doe use it , then by that act he is converted : if not , yet that was sufficient to bring forth the Act , if it had beene thereto applied . As in a like Case , when Christ said to the sicke man , Arise take up thy bed and walke , Hee gave him bodily strength sufficient to doe what he bad him , but yet the man might have let his bed lie and stood still if hee list . So when God commands us to beleeve , he gives us strength sufficient so to doe it , albeit we may if we will neglect to make use of it . This foule error hath bred all that confusion and darknesse wherein this controversie is wrapped up ; and it containes two grosse absurdities in it . 1. That they suppose a supernaturall abilitie of beleeving infused into the soule by the Holy Ghost , which yet shall be no sanctifying grace of the Spirit ; an opinion altogether new and against reason . For aske them , is not the inward disability of our soules to beleeve and convert a part of our corruption ? It cannot bee denied . Well , is not then the infusion of an Ability to Beleeve and Convert , the doing away of that corruption ? It is . And then shall not that gift which abolishes our sinfull infirmities , bee justly called a Sanctifying grace ? It is most evident , and none but such as are possest with the Spirit of wilfull contradiction to all manifest truth , will affirme , That the Rectifying of our weake and corrupt faculties by a supernaturall ability put into them , and disposing them to the most excellent worke of Faith , can be any thing else than the grace of Regeneration . An Act so Holy , must come from an Habit as Holy. 2. That they suppose the Act in Divine graces goes before the Habit : an assertion in Divinitie not tolerable , which tells us that the Tree must be good before the fruit can be good . And that Question which Christ put to the Pharisees , Mat. 12. 34. How can yee that are evill speake good things ? is more than any Arminian cau tell how to answer . This pincheth them , and puts them to this choyce , either that an unregenerate man who certainely is utterly Evill , may by the helpe of such a gift as hath not sanctified nor made him Good , not only speake , but doe that which is eminently Good , namely , Beleeve and Convert , or that the Act of Faith performed by such a one , is not good and sound , and so no beginning of true Conversion , or that they doe confesse the Habit of Faith , as of other graces to be first implanted in our soules in the universall renovation of all the Faculties thereof , whence the operation of faith doth afterwards issue . And this is the truth which under those obscure and unexplicated termes of [ Supernaturall strength to Beleeve ] they grant in effect : for the strength is either Nothing at all , or Nothing else but that Habituall Faith , which wee maintaine to be given us as a principall part of our regeneration . These mistakings of the Nature of our Conversion , hath utterly confounded our Adversaries in their opinions and writings about this point . They speake of Sufficiency of Grace to produce the acts and operations of Faith and other vertues : when the Question is meant of the Sufficiencie of Grace in producing the Habit of all Inherent Holinesse . Now as in the former example of the sicke man , it is one thing to enquire whether the Health and strength Christ gave him was sufficient to cause him to walk , another thing to demand what vertue of Christ was sufficient to give him that health and strength : so in this case t is one thing to aske whether the grace of Spirituall health or Sanctification be sufficient for the producing of the actions of a Sanctified man : another thing to aske what grace is sufficient to worke in the soule the grace of Sanctification it selfe . Wherefore in this matter we affirme , that as Health when it is in a man is sufficient to every Naturall action , though alwaies it be not effectuall , because wee make not use of our strength at all times : but to worke Health in a sicke man no vertue is sufficient , but that onely which being applied proves effectuall to restore it : So , where Sanctification is , it is alwaies sufficient to every gracious action if it be duely exercised thereabouts , but may sometime bee ineffectuall through our default in not applying it aright : but now , to worke Sanctification in the heart that hath it not , there is no other gift whatsoever sufficient but the onely vertue and power of the Holy Ghost , the immortall seede of our Regeneration ; and wheresoever this onely and all-sufficient vertue worketh in the heart of any man , there it is alwayes infallibly effectuall . To dreame of any other inherent quality in the soule given to man as sufficient to Sanctifie the soule , and yet after t is given , ineffectuall to performe it , is a fancy never thought of till of late times , wherein mens hearts are strangely embittered in fierce opposition against the glory of Gods free Grace . This of the first Conclusion : the second followeth , and it is this ; That sufficient grace for Sanctification is not given unto all . This is a necessary consectary of the former : for seeing Sufficient and Effectuall are all one in this case , & seeing t is apparant that this grace is not Effectuall in some who are never Sanctified , it follows necessarily , that such Sufficient grace is not given unto all . This were enough to have beene said against this opinion of Sufficiency of Grace given to all within the Church : But yet ex abundanti ; for our better satisfaction I desire your patience and attention in the further examination of this second Conclusion . The truth of it will be cleered by considering what the grace is which is given to those that are within the Church . Now this grace is twofold : 1. The Externall Declaration of Gods will , made unto all men in common by the Preaching of the Word ; the ordinary consequent whereof is Knowledge or Illumination . And this is termed our Externall Vocation by the Word . 2. The Inward gracious worke and vertue of the Holy Ghost immediately exercised upon the Vnderstanding , Will , Affections , and whole Man. The constant effect whereof is Regeneration . And this is called our Internall Vocation by the Spirit . In the explication of the Nature , Distinction , and Sufficiency of these two unto the worke of Sanctification , consists the further cleering of this troublesome controversie . The Orthodoxe sentence which hath beene held touching this matter agreeably to the Scriptures , is this ; There are two things which are ordinarily wrought in men living under the Ministery of the Word : 1. Illumination of the Vnderstanding , 2. A touch or motion of the Will and Affections . These two , because they are the fountaine of all Outward actions , we onely consider in this businesse , letting passe such effects as are visible in mens conversations . Now both these are each of them of two different sorts : Illumination is either , 1. Common and Naturall , when a man in hearing or reading conceives the litterall sense and meaning of the Scriptures in most points of Christian Religion , so that he is able to discourse , dispute , and write of them . I call this knowledge Common , because t is bestowed on reprobates as well as others . I call it also Naturall , because although the object thereof bee Supernaturall and Divine , nor could be knowne but by revelation , yet being revealed , the manner of apprehending it in such a one is meerely Naturall and Carnall , and that light which the Spirit affords to such a one , is but some more eminent degree of that common assistance which hee gives to all that seeke after knowledge in any learning for a publicke benefite . For the case is plaine enough , a learned Schollar unregenerate knowes and studies Divinity in the same manner as he doth any other Art : and as in them , so in this hee may attaine excellent knowledge , by a speciall but no sanctifying gift of the Spirit ; perfecting his Naturall reason but not making it Spirituall . 2. Proper and Spirituall , when a man by a singular gift of the Spirit of grace is inabled to judge of Heavenly things in a Spirituall manner , according to their truth and goodnesse represented to the understanding in their native beauty and excellency . I call this Proper , because it belongs onely to the Elect ; and Spirituall , because the Sanctified understanding judgeth of them Spiritually . Thus for knowledge : next touching the Motions which are wrought in the Will , they are likewise double : 1. Naturall , when upon the understanding of threatnings or promises the Will is touched with some kinde of affections towards those things , as they which are naturally hurtfull or beneficiall to it : as to love , hope , desire , feare , or hate such or such a good or evill thing spoken of in the Word . I terme these affections Naturall , being proportionable to that first sort of knowledge that bred them . For when an unregenerate man shall heare it plainly and amply declared , what happinesse belongs to the Saints , what comfort is in Gods favour , what glory in heaven , what horrour in Hell and a bad conscience , hee will be easily stirred up with many desires of enjoying the one and escaping the other . But this he doth in no other manner than as every man by instinct of Nature will wish and seeke for that good which he knoweth to be proportionable to his nature , and also shunne the Contrarie . 2. Spirituall , when upon the thorough apprehension of all Spirituall Good and Evill , known & beleeved by Faith , the Will is strongly inclined with all Constant and Vehement affections of Love and Hatred earnestly to embrace the one and detest the other above all things else whatsoever . How great difference there is betweene these Illuminations and Motions in the regenerate and unregenerate , I shall by Gods grace shortly have occasion to handle at large . Having now thus distinguished them , let us see how these effects are appliable to their Causes , the Word and the Spirit : the dependance is thus ; 1. Common illumination and the naturall movings of the Will that follow thereupon , are the effects of the ordinary grace of the Spirit in the ministerie of the Word preached . 2. Proper illumination with the Spirituall affections thence arising , are the Effects of the Speciall Vertue of the Holy Ghost in the ministery of the Word , regenerating the Soule . But we must goe further yet , and whereas the Word and Spirit are both joyned together in this worke of regeneration , wee must carefully see what belongs to one , what to the other . Wherefore we are to distinguish betweene the 1. Instrument : For whatsoever can be ascribed to the Word , agrees to it but only as it is an instrument of the power of Gods Spirit . Now instruments are either Cooperative or Passive , and the word must be one of the two . Cooperative it is not , moving and working on the soule by any inward force of it selfe . For it cannot bee declared what operative force there should be in the bare Declaration of Gods Will , to produce the reall effect of Sanctification in the unregenerate heart . It is therefore in it selfe a Passive instrument working only * Per modum Objects , as it containes a Declaration of the Divine will , and as it proposeth to the understanding and will the things to be knowne , beleeved and practised . Now 't is well knowne that no Object whatsoever hath any Active power per se to worke any thing upon the Organ , but is only an occasion of working , which some Force in or about the Organ makes use of . But whence then hath the word its effect ? from the 2. Principall Agent , the Spirit of God ; who by his immediate and proper vertue workes upon the Vnderstanding and Will , causing in that a thorough apprehension of the things proposed , and in this a cheerefull obedience to the things so understood . The Object of this worke of the Holy Ghost is not the Word , as if the Holy Ghost did infuse into it any speciall Vertue wherby it should worke , together with himselfe , as a partiall Coordinate efficient cause in our Coaversion , the Word working one part , the Holy Ghost another , as the Arminians vainely dispute , ( Act. Synod , Defens . Act. 4. p. 136. ) But the object of this Worke is the Soule of man , whereinto this vertue of the Spirit is Infusa or Affusa , or rather , whereabout this Vertue is imployed , quickening , changing , renuing the Faculties of the Soule with such spirituall strength and holinesse , that so it may performe what the Word declares is to be done . Which effect of Regeneration though properly it commeth only from the Sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost , yet by a cōmon Metonymie it is ascribed also to the Word , and for that cause wee are said [ to be borne againe by the Word ] 1 Pet. 1. 23. [ to get Faith by Hearing ] Rom 8. [ to bee begotten by the Holy Ghost ] 1 Cor. 4. 15. [ to be sanctified by the truth , id est , the Word ] Ioh. 17. 17. and hence such proporties as these are ascribed to the Word , that [ it is the Power of God to Salvation ] Rom. 1. that [ it is mightie in operation , sharpe as a two edged Sword ] Heb. 4. 12. that [ it is a Sword ] Eph. 6. 17. Revel . 19. 15. that [ it is Fire and a Hammer to breake the Rocke ] Ier. 23. 29. that it is [ Powerfull to cast downe all strong bolds of Mans proud imagination ] 2 Cor. 10. 4. with many the like , which though they properly belong to the invisible power of the Holy Ghost , giving effect unto his owne Word , yet are figuratively attributed unto the Word it selfe , which he useth as his visible Instrument . I cannot better expresse the manner how the Holy Ghost useth the Word in the worke of Sanctification , than by a Similitude or two . Christ meeting a dead Coarse in the Citie of Nain , touches the Beare and utters these words , [ Yongue man I say unto thee arise . ] Heare the Command , and that given to a dead man : But could these words doe any thing to raise him ? No , t was Christs invisible power that quickened the dead , not his words , which only declared what hee meant to doe by his power . Againe , to the sicke of the Palsie , Hee saith [ Arise , take up thy bed and walke ] Here 's the Command given to a sicke man. But was it the vertue of these words that heald him ? No , 't was that secret vertue which went from Christs Deity , which did the Cure. His words declared what that should bring to passe . So in this matter of our Conversion , Christ bids us , Awake wee that sleepe , and stand up on our feet ; he bids us Beleeve , repent , obey , turne unto him , &c. But all these commands worke nothing of themselves , but take effect by the only Power of God working upon the Heart . In which case the Word is truly the Voice of God , not of man. Now Gods Voice is not a bare sound or word carrying such or such a meaning with it and no more , as mans doth , but it is Verbum factivum , as well as significativum , it deeth and really brings to effect that which it commands to bee done : it makes a world , when it bids a world to be made , it raises us , when it bids us arise , it awakens us , when it bids us awake , it workes faith in us , when it commands us to beleeve , it gives repentance when it bids us repent , it makes us holy when it commands us to be so . According to that of the Apostle , 2 Cor. 10. The weapons of our warfare are mighty , but it is through God : and that in Esa. 59. 21. My word , saith God , shall abide in you , but this cannot be till he have first put his Spirit within our hearts . Wherefore where this vertue of the Spirit is wanting , as it is in most , there the Word hath no other vertue , than to bee as a faire Mappe presented to the eye , wherein are described many matters of excellent knowledge , which the unregenerate may gaze upon , in a kinde of shallow heartlesse speculation , which will differ asmuch from good knowledge , as the knowledge of a Countrie by the Mappe and by the eye in travelling it . And this is the Sentence of the Orthodox Church touching the Nature and distinction of these two Callings , Inward by the worke of the Spirit , Outward by the voyce of the Word . The Arminians are of another opinion , whose judgement about this matter is thas : The Word , say they , and the Spirit alwayes goe together , and wheresoever either the Law or Gospell is preached , there and then the Quickening power and effectuall vertue of the Holy Ghost is present in all , even those that are unregenerate , untill such time as by Contumacy and Rebellion against the Spirit , they have made themselves unworthy of further helpe . But now what is this effectuall power , according to the Arminians , and what doth it in all men ? It doth , say they , inlighten the understanding , it stirres up the Sensuall affections ( for as touching the Will , it meddles not with that ) and so gives unto the heart Sensum verbi , and by an inward power infused doth move and dispose the heart to Beleeve and Convert . Yea , but how is all this done ? Is it by any proper worke of the Spirit distinct from the power of the Word ? By no meanes , say they : It is done by a morall perswasion , per Representationem objectivam , by a proposall of what is to bee done , with commands , exhortations , intreaties , promises thereto annexed . And is this sufficient to our regeneration ? Yea , there is not , there needs not any other immediate inward invincibilis actio ( as they stile it ) of the Holy Ghost upon the Soule . The Word , only the Word begins , continues and consummates our Conversion . Nay , if an inward worke of the Spirit be granted , they affirme that the preaching of the Word can by no meanes possible bee accounted any meanes at all of our Conversion . What then , Inward Calling there is none ? No , say they , there is no other inward regenerating grace but onely the forenamed Morall Perswasion to goodnesse , by the outward Ministery of the VVord . This is the summe of their opinion , and that Chaos of confused errors , which t is hard to distinguish into any good order : I will touch upon them in these three propositions , manifestly opposing their fundamentall suppositions in those their Assertions : The first shall be this , 1. That not so much as common Illumination and stirring up of the affections is given to all in hearing of the Word preached . Shall wee goe any further than experience to prove this in thousands that heare the Word , yet understand no more of it , and are no more affected with it , than the seates they sit on ? The Arminians , as they 'le deny any thing , reject this argument from experience , & except , that though they doe not understand , yet they might understand if they would . To which I answer , that t is true ; Such men shall bee condemned of wilfull ignorance , because the meanes God afforded were sufficient to have brought them to more knowledge , if they had done but as much as they might : but yet the exception is here altogether vaine , because here we inquire of the Act , whether all men bee inlightned , not de Potentià , whether they may bee or no. For the Arminians hold that the Vnderstanding is inlightned , and the affections moved in all , and that Irresistably ; men cannot choose but know and be affected with the Word preached . And this they stiffely maintaine , because that God hath infallibly given unto all Potentiam & Vires Credendi , and this strength is nothing but Illumination of the Vnderstanding , and Exciting of the Affections ; and therefore all must infallibly be illuminated and excited . Wherefore when they affirme that a man may choose whether he will understand and be affected or no , though it be true in part , yet they contradict their owne maine position , and confirme ours , That God though he have given the outward meanes , yet hath not given so much grace unto all , as to make use of them for the gaining of ordinary knowledge in the Word . The second proposition shall be this , 2. That bare Illumination , in the understanding of the sense of the Word preached is not sufficient for Sanctification of the heart : i. e. to move , to renue , to quicken those affections with true love of goodnesse and desire of grace , which before were disordered , by reason of the darkenesse of the understanding . This they affirme : we deny it as a new and uncouth opinion , and that upon these grounds : 1. Because it presupposeth that in the affections there is no other vitiousnesse , but that onely which is bred in them by the errour of the understanding ; which being deceived , misguides the affections , but being once rightly informed , the affections are presently brought in order to follow the directions thereof . Than which nothing can be more absurd , and contrary to all experience . 2. If bare Illumination or Morall Perswasion be sufficient to Sanctifie , it shall work that effect either by it own simple vertue , or by the help of something else besides . If by it self , then why are not the Divels sanctified , who know more of Divinity than haply the learnedst man ? And why are not all learned Divines sanctified also ? what should hinder ? Or if there must be some speciall grace beside , how can they affirm that to be of it self sufficient , which helps not without the help of another thing ? And yet this is that wherto they are driven , namely , to confesse there must be a Special grace to make the Generall effectuall ; & so in one word they dash all their dispute about the sufficiency of Vniversall grace . Or if they like not that , will fall to that shift to say , that Bare illumination is sufficient , though not to Sanctifie , yet to worke true Faith and Conversion : which is nothing else but to affirme that there is Faith & Conversion before and without Sanctification . Which opinion is a kind of phrensie . The third proposition shall be this . 3. That besides the Common illightning of the Vnderstanding and Motion of the affections in ordinary preaching of the Word , there is necessarily required another immediate worke of the Holy Ghost upon the soule for its Sanctification throughout : without which the preaching of the Word will bee utterly unable to worke true grace in the hearers . This I prove by Scriptures and Reason : The Scriptures are many , I will name but one or two of the plainest places . 1. Iohn 6. 36. Where Christ speaketh to the Vnconverted Capernaites thus , [ But I say unto you , that yee have also seen me ] there 's their knowledge of the Gospell by Christs preaching and miracles , but yet [ yee beleeve not . ] What was the reason of that ? t was this : God had not given the Capernaites to Christ ; and therefore he gave them not grace to come unto Christ : for , [ All that the Father giveth me commeth unto me : and he that commeth unto mee I cast not away ] vers 37. Yea , will an Arminian say , They came not , because they were not willing to come , there wanted nothing on Gods part but they might have come . Yes but there did , if wee beleeve Christ ; God did not draw them , therefore they came not . For [ No man can come unto mee except the Father which hath sent me draw him , and I will raise him up at the last day ] vers . 44. But what is this Drawing ? it is the same which in the next verse he call Gods Teaching of us . [ It is written in the Prophets , They shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto mee . ] Nothing can be more manifest than in this place the plaine distinction of an inward Drawing from an outward Morall Perswasion , an inward Teaching of God , from the outward Preaching of man. Which is effectuall to true Conversion in all , and onely those that are inwardly so drawne and taught of God , which the Capernaites were not . 2. Deut. 29. 3. 4. The Israelites in the wildernesse had all instruction and perswasion that might be by the VVord , and by Miracles from God and his servant Moses : they had heard Moses and God speake , and seene the great tentations , miracles , and wonders with their eies . But was this sufficient to convert them ? No , there wanted that within which God denied them ; for , saith Moses , [ Yet tho Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive , and eyes to see , and eares to heare unto this day ] vers . 4. Parallell to which is that touching the Iewes , among whom Christ had preached so much and so plainely , done so many , so singular miracles , [ Yet they beleeved not in him ] Ioha 1● . 37. But what was the cause of that , was not the meanes sufficient ? No , God had denied to reveale unto them his arme or power in giving them the knowledge of the Gospell . That he proves out of the Prophet Esay , who of all the Prophets preacht the Gospell plainest , and yet found small credit to his doctrine , [ That the saying of Esaias the Prophet might be fulfilled , that he saith , Lord , who hath beleeved our report , and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed ? ] vers . 38. A very unreasonable complaint saith the Arminian , if we construe it so ; for t is as if Esay had said , Lord , only the Elect to whom thine arme was revealed they have beleeved it , but none of the Reprobates have beleeved it , because thine arme was never revealed to them , and so they could not beleeve . And what reason had Esay then to complaine of them for not doing that which they could not doe ? I thinke the wisedome of God hath of purpose to checke these pestilent gainsaying Spirits , added in the next words , vers . 39. [ Therefore they could not beleeve , because thus Esaias saith againe , He hath blinded their eyes , and hardned their hearts , that they should not see with their eies , and understand with their hearts , and should be Converted , and I should heale them . ] So Gods Spirit brings that for a good reason which these men count an absurdity : They did not beleeve , and the Prophet complaines of it ; yet it was because they could not beleeve . And why could they not ? ●was the want of that Inward worke of grace wee stand for : God had not inlightned their mindes , nor softned and sanctisied their hearts , and therefore they could not beleeve . 3. 2. Tim. 2 , 24 , 25 , 26. [ And the servant of the Lord must not strive but bee gentle unto all men , apt to teach , patient : In meekenesse instructing those that oppose themselves . ] Here 's the Ministers dutie to preach uncessantly , using all gentle and good meanes to bring men to repentance ; but will this diligence in perswasion , and patient industry bee effectuall at last ? It may prove so , but when it doth , 't is not by it selfe , but by Gods speciall grace , [ If ●od peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the * truth . ] After all outward meanes used , an inward gift is still to be expected . Let vs in the next place come unto reason and experience , where we have these perswasive arguments to confirme us in this truth : 1. From the like experience in Christs calling of his Disciples , to whom he useth no other words but , Follow mee , or , Follow me I will make you fishers of men ; it is wonderfull that so shortan Invitation should worke so strange , so speedy an alteration : [ Sraightway they leave all and follow him ] what ? forsake all to follow after a stranger they never knew before , with such constancy , and yet through so much perill and disgrace , and all for a word spoken , Follow mee ? Nay , in that word there was more then a word ; there went with it that Power , which could have commanded the attendance of the Armies of Heauen and Earth . And those few words accompanied with this secret vertue did more upon the hearts of the Disciples , than many a long Sermon upon the Pharisees and obdurate Iewes , where Christ was not pleased to shew the like effect of his power . So Christ appearing to Saul , accosts him with this expostulatorie salutation , [ Saul , Saul , why persecutest thou mee ? ] hee saith no more , but only tells him being asked [ That hee was Iesus of Nazareth whom hee persecuted , and that it was hard for him to kicke against the prickes . ] But see what a change these few words have made in a fierce raging persecutor , hee is on the sudden as meeke as a Lambe , and now all for obedience to that name which before hee furiously persecuted . [ Lord what wilt thou have mee to doe ? ] command what thou wilt , I am ready to obey . Was it externall morall perswasion trow yee that hath made this wonderfull alteration ? Nor are these examples to bee accounted so extraordinary , as if for the substance the same course were not ordinarily observed . Were not men wilfully perverse , they would confesse , that when of many thousands that heare one and the same Sermon , some one or two , it may be the worst in the company , are in a moment so changed that they are not the same men they were , new hearts , new desires , new affections , all new in them ; they would I say confesse , that this is the very ●inger of God touching the Heart , and not the force of any outward perswasion whatsoever . 2. If only a bare proposing of Divine things to the understanding , joyned with perswasions of command , threatning and the like towards the Will , bee all that is needfull to mans conversion , it would bee knowne what difference wee shall make betweene the working of Gods word and of Mans , of a Divinitie Sermon , and a good morall speech . Nay more , what difference can be made betweene Sathans temptations and all the sacred suggestions of Gods word ? yea , whether Sathans seducements to evill are not likely to prove alwayes more powerfull than Gods perswasions to goodnesse , because in both cases the worke it selfe is left wholly to our arbitrement , and then Sathan hath the advantage of our naturall Corruption cleerely on his side . So that by this Arminian doctrine , mans conversion is even desperate , seeing Sathan is as powerfull , and certainely he is as willing to Pervert as God is to Convert . This blasphemous absurditie the Arminians cannot shift their hands of , though they strive in vaine about it . 3. The old rule must here be remembred , Passio r●cipitur non tam per conditionem agent is : quàm dispositionem patient is : all exhortations , promises , commands , take effect not according to their owne , but according to the quality of him towards whom they are used . And so wee see a word doth more with some , than a frowne , or sharp menace towards another . All Speech workes as the Heart of the Hearer is affected , not as he intends that utters it . Wherefore if there be nothing more to be done on Gods part towards our Conversion but the only proposall and perswasion of the acceptance of Grace , it is manifest to all , that can judge of the state of Corrupted nature , that wee shall never accept of Gods offer ; but out of that Enmity and Hatred of all goodnesse which is deepely rooted in our nature , we should all universally and finally reject it , if it be left to our discretion whether or no wee will receive it . Except our tongues be first brought unto a right temper , purged from the bitternesse of our corrupt humours that have overflowed and infected them , wee shall distaste the sweetnesse of all heavenly doctrine , and nothing will seeme so unsavoury to our relish , as the things of the Spirit . And therefore of necessitie our distempered , disordered , and crooked dispositions must be first Rectified by an inward worke of Gods Spirit , before we can possibly take any true benefit by the Word preached . Thus then the truth of our second maine conclusion stands good , That sufficient grace to Sanctification is not given to all that Heare the Word preached : because none of those other gifts that are given them are sufficient , but only the inward Vertue of the Holy Ghost , and this is not bestowed on all , because wheresoever it worketh , it is alwayes infallibly effectuall , by no meanes possibly to be hindred . Which shall be further shewed in our third Question touching the Controversie . But before we leave this , a scruple or two cast into our way by the Adversary would bee removed . They prove that the Word and Spirit are never seperated ; and for it they bring Scriptures and reason . Scriptures : 1. Esa. 55. 11. The word that goeth out of my mouth shall not returne unto mee voide , but it shall accomplish that which I will , and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it . To which I answer , that this place intendeth no more but that God will certainely performe all his promises that he maketh unto the Church . If it be extended to a larger sense , wee grant that at every Sermon the Prophet or Preacher makes , the power of Gods Spirit is alwayes present with his Word : but how ? to make it powerfull unto conversion in all to whom it is proposed ? Nothing lesse . It sufficeth , that that be done in some only , for whose sakes God chiefly sent it : For others that are disobedient , God hath his worke in them too , namely the accomplishment of his workes of judgement though not of Grace . 2. a Act. 7. 51. Yee have alwayes resisted the Holy Ghost , viz. whose vertue was showne upon their hearts in and together with the preaching of the Prophet . To this I answer , That they that either neglect the Hearing of the Word , or when they heare and understand it , and are convinced of the truth of it , doe wilfully refuse to yeeld obedience to what they know : these are justly said to resist the Holy Ghost , because they resist His b Ordinance , and His worke enlightening their understanding with the knowledge of Gods will. The Iewes had both , and resisted c both ; but it cannot appeare by this place that there was any other Quickening vertue of Gods Spirit working effectually upon the Hearts of the Iewes d : only they had the Externall declaration of Gods will , and also Illumination and Conviction of their Consciences ; which effect the Spirit workes ordinarily in most , but not universally in all that heare the Word . 3. Heb. 6. 4. 5. and 10. 26. 29. But these places as they touch only some of the Vnregenerate , which are in that manner wrought upon ; not all who heare the Word preached : so that worke of the Holy Ghost which appeares upon their hearts is not by that Saving and Quickening power which is the immediate and infallible cause of true Sanctification : but only a more speciall degree of an inferiour grace , as shall bee shewen hereafter . Reasons which they alledge , are th●se ; 1. If the inward worke of the Spirit doe not alwayes goe with the Word preached , it will follow that God doth not sincerely meane that which hee makes profession of . For outwardly by his VVord hee calls them unto him , whom yet secretly he would not have come unto him . For if he would have them come , why doth he not give them that inward worke of the Spirit , without which hee knowes they cannot come ? As for example , when by the VVord he calls upon men and bids them repent and convert , if hee will this seriously , why doth not God bestowe on men all such helpes and meanes as are required on his part , inward as well as outward , without which they cannot convert ? If hee will it not seriously , why doth hee command them to doe that which hee knowes they cannot , nay , we know he would not have them doe ? Is not this dissembling to say one thing and meane another , to will one thing in word , another in secret intent ? Answ. None more damnable hypocrites than they that will accuse God of counterfeiting . Hee deales plainely , fairely , openly , speakes as hee meanes , and as it pleaseth him it should be . If hee bid a wicked man doe well , hee would truly have him doe so ; nor is it his secret desire hee should continue in his wickednesse when hee openly exhorts him to come unto repentance and amendment . But here wee must distinguish betweene a double VVill in God : 1. Voluntas approbationis , of Allowance . God as hee knowes , so he likes of and approves of many good things which he intends never to bring to passe . 2 , Voluntas Effection●s & ●●tentionis , of Performance , when God intends , that shall actually come to passe , which he approves as good in it selfe . Now for the Conversion of all men by the Preaching of the VVord , God wills it seriously by way of Approbation and allowance ; That the creature should convert to God and obey his Creator in all things , is a thing truly good , and God justly commands it , and if the creature can by its owne strength performe it , God doth truly approve and like well of it . But God doth not will the conversion of all men Effectually by way of full intention to worke it in them . If man can doe it , as t is his bounden dutie hee should , well and good , God wills it as a thing in it selfe pleasing and acceptable to him . But God wills not to bestow upon a man strength to doe it , nor is he bound so to doe . So that here is no fraud , nor Sancta Simulatio , or duplex persona in God ( as some impiously at least imagine ) as if his VVord had a meaning contrary to his secret intent . No , the meaning of his VVord is sincere , what he commands he wills to be done as a thing in it selfe very good , and on our parts , our pure due obedience to doe it : and his secret inient of not giving a man sufficient abilities to doe his dutie , crosseth not his Approbation of the goodnesse and necessitie of our dutie to bee performed by us . They are blinde that will not understand this , that t is one thing to approve of an end as good , another thing to will it with a purpose of using all meanes to effect it . Gods Commandements or exhortations shew what hee approves and wills to be done as good ; but his Promises or Threatnings shew what he intendeth effectually to bring to passe . But yet here they urge further , How can God in justice command unto a man by his Word , the Performance of that , which cannot be done by him without the inward helpe of the Spirit , and yet in the meane time God denies this inward grace unto him ? I answer , Gods justice will herein be as free from accusation of tyranny , as before his truth was from falshood and collusion . God may without blemish to his justice Command man to performe his dutie although hee have now no strength to doe it , because once hee had strength and he hath now lost it . Yea , will they say , that were true did not two things hinder , 1. Man indeed had strength and hath lost it , but how ? himselfe did not decoquere wastefully spend his Patrimonie , and by the Act of his sinning abolish the Image of God within him : but God for a punishment of his fault did by an immediate act take away his originall abilities . And it is then as great injustice in God to command us Conversion , Faith , and Repentance , when himselfe hath taken away our abilities whereby wee should performe it , as for a Iudge after he hath put out an offenders eyes , yet to command him under paine of further punishment to read such a booke . If hee had put out his owne eies the case had beene otherwise , the Iudge being not bound to take notice of that his fact . To which we answer , that t is true , God for our sinne hath deprived us of his image , so that we cannot doe his will without new strength restored unto us : yet we must remember though this deprivation be an act of God , yet it happens through our merit by reason of our sinne ; and in this case how harsh soever it may seeme to us , yet God the Iudge of the world doth not unjustly , To command us the doing of that which wee cannot performe without those abilities restored , which himselfe for our transgression hath taken from us , and will not give us againe . This is proved by that one instance beyond all exception , The perfect obedience to the Morall Law is required of all , and yet t is madnesse to affirme that God gives or is bound to give unto all that strength to doe it , which they had in Adam , without which it cannot bee done . Further , that God may justly command what man cannot performe , is manifest by Gods commanding Pharaoh to let the Israelites goe , which yet Pharaoh could not doe ; for God himselfe hardened his heart that hee should not be willing to let them depart . 2. When God commands man to beleeve the Gospell , here 's a duety injoyned that man never had strengh in Adam to performe . And therefore if God doe require a new duety he is bound to afford new strength , because by that which he had , and lost , he was never inabled to doe it . To which we answer , that it is an errour to affirme , that Faith which is the condition of the new Covenant , is not commanded in the Morall Law. Legall and Evangelicall , or the Faith of Adam in innocency , and of man since his Fall , is for the substance of the grace one and the same , viz. Credence and Confidence of and in all things whatsoever that God shall reveale unto man. The difference is onely in the Vse , and in the particular object : as we shall see in the handling of that point of Faith. Now Adam being commanded in all things to beleeve his Creator , whether revealed or to be revealed , and having ability so to doe , so that if God had told of him the mystery of the Gospell he would have beleeved it ; we also are bound by the Law of our Creation , and so the Morall Law , to beleeve in Christ as soone as God reveales vnto us this thing to be beleeved : and God may require it of us , because wee had power once to doe it ; and what is lost , God is not bound to restore . 2. Reason . If the Word at any time be destitute of the quickning Spirit , it will follow , that the Word shall be of it selfe a dead letter , and the ●avour of death , because it is destitute of the Spirit which only puts life unto it . But this is not to be affirmed , for as much as it is only our fault that the Word proves the ●avour of death , &c. To this we answer , That the Word is never of it selfe the ●avour of death , no not then when it is without the vertue of the Spirit : and we reject those assertions as utterly erroneous , That the Word should bee preached unto some to damne them , or with this intent to make them inexcusable . The Gospell is not published with any such purpose at all : for the judgement of our English Divines in the Synod is ●ound , that those who being called refuse to convert , should be made more inexcusable : Neque enim ea singi potest homines reddere inexcusabiles per Verbum & Spiritum vocatio , quae eo tantum Fine exhibetur , ut reddat inexcusabiles . No , there 's no such matter : The end of the VVord preached is to shew unto man what is that good , and that acceptable will of God which he requires man should performe : and the declaration of the will of God to man , is alwaies in it selfe most good and excellent : nor doth it vary in its owne nature , whether the vertue of the Spirit goe with it or no. For ( as I touched before ) the power of the Spirit doth not worke upon the VVord to put life into it , but it workes upon our soules to put life into them . So that whether our hearts be sanctified or not sanctified t is all one to the VVord , it makes no alteration in the nature of that : All the difference lies in the Effect ; where the heart is sanctified , there the VVord is heard with obedience , where t is not sanctified , there t is heard and disobeyed . But the cause of this difference is meerely in the disposition of mans heart , not any jot from the VVord : the preaching whereof is good and to a good intent , but unto some it becomes hurtfull ; not because the VVord hurts them , but they hurt themselves by their owne sinnefulnesse , leaving themselves inexcusable in their fault , and aggravating their damnation by wilfull disobedience . The VVord is neither dead , nor deadly in it selfe , but wee are dead , and by our sinnes against the VVord slay our selves . 3. Reason . If the preaching of the VVord be sometimes destitute of the vertue of the Spirit , it will follow that men should bee condemned for not beleeving , and being converted by that , which hath no power to cause them to beleeve and convert , as the VVord without the Spirit hath not . But that were injustice so to doe , &c. Ergo. To this slight argument we answer , that the default of mens not beleeving and converting , is not through want of any thing in the VVord , which is onely to tell them what God requires of them ; and this the VVord doth fully and sufficiently . If they obey not , it is through want of something in themselves , namely , sanctified abilities in the heart , which as they come not from the VVord , so God is not bound to give them by his Spirit . It sufficeth that God onely command them , if they cannot obey , whose fault is that but their owne ? Gods commands presuppose that strength to obey is or should bee in the creature : if that through sinne be made weake , God is yet just in commanding and punishing . And thus much of this second question , by way of knowledge let us briefly see what use we may make thereof to our practice : it learnes us a threefold lesson ; 1. What our affections are to bee in hearing of the Word , namely , the same that in teachable Schollars towards a most wise Master , or in sicke Patients towards the skilfullest Physitian . We must be content to be ●●ld , and every way submit our selves to the discretion of that our Heavenly Doctor . Wee must remember we have to doe with more than man in this businesse : t is the Holy Ghost that does all in all in this sacred ordinance . When therefore we goe to heare , let us put on all holy , humble , obedient , and tractable affections . A proud , disdainfull , selfe-conceited , contentious minde is un●it for mans instruction , most opposite to the wisedome of Gods teaching , who must needs scorne to be their Master , that thinke themselves to be too good to bee his Schollars . Againe , a malicious , uncleane , worldly , voluptuous heart stands contradictory to the holinesse of this blessed Spirit . Those proud affections hinder us in knowing , these impure lusts in doing our Masters will ; both together , or each alone make the Word utterly unprofitable unto us . 2. What the duety of Ministers is in preaching the Word . This is threefold : one respecting the worke , two the issue of it . For the worke it selfe , the nature and Spirituall quality thereof should teach them faithfulnesse to speake Gods Word as it ought to be spoke : which is opposed as to negligence , and accaused carelessenesse in the handling thereof contrary to the dignity and majesty of it , so on the other side too overmuch diligence & humane curiosity contrary to the simplicity and saving vertue thereof . Not that a man can be too diligent in doing Gods worke , or that it is easie to define precisely what and how farre humane helpes are to bee used in Divinity : but yet this is apparant , a singular fault there is in mens preparations to this worke , who either intend not at all the saving of mens soules , or if they doe , they thinke themselves must doe as much in it as Gods Spirit . Whence else , or to what end should so much of man be mingled with that of God , why so much study to please mens ●ares , why so much care to winne credite to their owne persons ? &c. Sure it cannot but be a thing very admirable to any that will observe it , to heare a man standing as Gods Embassadour , speaking as from his mouth in his Name , to make a solemne praier for assistance of Gods Spirit in his preaching , to blesse his Meditations that he hath put into his heart , to make them effectuall in the hearers , &c. when in the meane time his conscience tells him that in his studied preparations hee sought for nothing lesse than the aide of the Spirit , and his preaching tells us that he publisheth the words not of Gods but of mans wisedome . In the Issue of this worke , there is a double dutie : 1. If it succeed well , Thankefull Humility opposed to Pride ; that when men are converted by his Ministery , hee ascribe all to God , nothing to himselfe , who was but the Saw in the workemans hand , &c. 2. If it succeed ill , Contented Patience opposed to repining Thought ; as , Why should not my Ministery be as effectuall as anothers is ? Let a Minister remember he onely sowes the seede , God must give it a body of his good pleasure : nor is it himselfe , but God whom the people here cast off . He may take comfort and shall have reward for his godly pain●… in the conscionable discharge of his duety , albeit God saw it not good that it should bee so blessed in the effect as 〈◊〉 could desire . 3. This teacheth us how to judge of our ●onversion by the Word preached , namely , by the inward Sanctification of the heart , not by having and frequenting the publicke ordinance . Silly wretches they are that so farre mis●ake themselves and the nature of these things , as to think● the going to Church , the hearing of the Sermon , the remembring and discoursing ●f it , the commending of the Preacher , outward reverence to his Person and Ministery , some kinde of Reformation of maners , wrought out of very shame not to follow such plaine directions as they must needes confesse to be good , and others allow of in opinion and practice , that thinke , I say , these things sufficient arguments of a sound Conversion by the Word . Let us not beguile our selves in a matter of this high consequence , these things are outward , but the effect of the Word is inward also upon the conscience , in the change of the heart and sanctification thereof , with all sacred affections to holinesses . Looke then inwards , and trie how wee are affected in and after the hearing of the Word . Doe we finde an Holy feare to fall upon us when our sinnes are threatned ? are we willing to abide the Surgeons hand upon our tenderest sores , and though it be painfull , yet doe heartily rejoyce in the sharpest strokes , and deepest cuts of the sword of the Spirit , when it pierceth in to the dividing asunder of the Soule and Spirit , marrow and joints , parting us and our best beloved sinne ? Doe our hearts secretly rejoyce with joy unspeakeable and glorious , in hearing those sure and stedfast promises of Mercy and Grace published in the Gospell ? Are our soules brought under the powerfull command of the majesty and authority of the Word captivating all our thoughts to the obedience of Christ , so that no command of a King armed with greatest terrour can lay the like necessity of obedience upon our outward man , as Gods injunctions do upon our consciences ? Hath the Word wrought in us an unfained hatred of that evill which we outwardly forsake , a sincere love of that good which outwardly wee practise ? Can we truely mourne with much bitternesse and anguish , when the Word discovers unto us the infinite corruptions and loathsome uncleannesse of our hearts , so that we wish for nothing more in the world than to bee freed from the sinne that hangs so fast on us , and to be cloathed with perfect holinesse . Finally , doe wee love the Word that hath begotten us , preferring that food of our soules before our appointed bodily food ? If these things be in us we have a witnesse to our soules , that the Word preached hath been unto us not onely in word but also in power , and that the same Spirit which gave it unto the Church , hath made it his most blessed instrument of our effectuall Conversion to God. But if the case stand so with us , that wee know not what these things meane : if to our apprehension there appeare more terror in the angry words of a King , than the most peremptory threatnings of God : if a reproofe of a knowne fault will be rejected by us with contempt and gall : if we sleight the sweetest exhortations , and the Consolations of God seeme a small matter to us : if wee can with a Confident scorne of all Gods counsells hold a resolution to goe on still in our owne courses , let God and his Ministers say what they list : if our Corruptions trouble us not , and of all things in this life we take least notice of the sinfull estate of our soules , or of all pleasures and studies , wee finde least content in hearing , reading , meditating on the Word : These things are infallible Symptomes of Spirituall death that hath seazed on us , and that as yet wee have not so heard the Word , the Voyce of the Sonne of God , as to be made alive by the hearing of it . This tryall is certaine , and this Change that the Word and Spirit worke in our regeneration is very sensible ; if wee be not sensible of it , we may be bold to Censure our selves that as yet wee have it not . To conclude , they only heare the Word as the word of God which finde in it Gods power working Sanctification in their hearts , others heare it only as the word of man , which goes no further than the naturall care and understanding . Where this change of the heart is not , all reformation in the life is but counterfeit and hypocriticall . In the two former Questions wee have examined the pretended sufficiency of Grace universally bestowed on all , whether within or without the Church : and shewed you , that all those gifts which are ordinarily given either to Christians or Heathens , are utterly insufficient for to worke their true Conversion , unlesse there bee a further aide of the speciall grace of the Holy Ghost working on the Soule to the sanctification thereof . Wee are at this time to come unto our third and last Question , whether or no , supposing such grace to be given as is truly sufficient to convert , it be notwithstanding in mans power freely to choose whether he will be converted or not converted by it . The Arminian affirmes that it is so , and that when God directly intends to Convert a man , and for that purpose affords him all gracious helpes needfull to be given on his part , then Man by the liberty of his Will may resist Gods will and worke , so as they shall not worke his Conversion . A desperate error , which whosoever maintaines , it is impossible that Christian Humilitie and thankfulnesse can have any place in that mans heart . Wherefore it behooves us much to be rightly informed in a point of such consequence , wherein it is so easie to become an enemy against the grace of God. The Question then is this , Whether it be in mans power so to resist the grace of God , as finally to hinder his owne Conversion ? In the explication of this Controversie , I shall with Gods helpe proceed in this order , 1. To shew unto you in briefe the Opinion and Errours of our Adversaries in this point . 2. To unfold and confirme that Truth which the orthodox Church defends as touching this matter . 3. To answer such Arguments as are made against it . The Opinion of the Arminians touching the power of Mans free Will in the worke of Conversion , is most fully and freely expressed by that perverse Sectary Iohannes Arnoldi Corvinus , in these words of his so often mentioned in the acts of the late Synod , and which are most worthy to be had in everlasting detestation : [ Positis , saith he , omnibus operationibus gratiae , quibus ad Conversionem in nobis e●●iciendam Deus utitur , manet tamen ipsa Conversio it a in ●ostra Potestate libera , ut possimus non converti , id est , nosmetipsos vel convertere vel non converters ] id est , Suppose all the operations of Grace which God useth to worke conversion in us , bee present , yet Conversion it selfe remaines in that sort free in our power , that wee may be not converted , that is we may convert or not convert our selves . This is plaine dealing without ambiguity and doubling , When God hath done all that is to be done for his part , 't is still on our free choyce whether wee will convert or not . Their explication of this conclusion is as strange as the conclusion it selfe is hereticall . It is thus : there are two operations of Grace precedent to a mans Conversion : 1. Illumination of the Vnderstanding in the cleere knowledge of the Law and Gospell , Sinne and Grace . Which illumination is not , you must thinke , wrought by any immediate worke of the Holy Ghost opening the understanding to discerne of Spirituall things , but by the very plaine evidence of the things themselves , so cleerely declared and represented to the Vnderstanding , that every man having the use of reason a●d judgement , and being attentive in the hearing or reading of the Word , may by the help of his naturall reason , without other Supernaturall light , understand the sense of all things delivered in Scripture needfull to be knowne , beleeved , hoped for , or practised . This is the first worke of Grace upon the Vnderstanding ; the next is in the 2. Renovation of the Affections which are quickened and rectified with new motions towards spirituall things . So that a man not yet converted may truly Sorrow for his offending of God , Bewaile his spirituall death in sinne , be inflamed with the love of the truth , Desire Grace and the Spirit of regeneration , hunger and thirst after righteousnesse and eternall life , truly wish for deliverance out of his sinfull estate , in briefe , offer up to God the Sacrifice of a contrite and broken heart , in Humilitie , in Confession of sinne , in Prayers for mercy , in a Purpose and an Assay of amendment of life . And thus farre the heart or affections may be changed and quickened , when yet a man is not Converted . Now this alteration which is wrought in affections , is , if you will beleeve them , not any immediate effect of the Holy Ghost working this change in them , but the proper cause of it is the Illumination of the understanding , whereupon followes necessarily the stirring up of the affections in their right orderly motions , which formerly were dead and disordered by reason of the darknesse of the minde misguiding them . These two workes goe before mans Conversion , and are wrought in all that heare the Word Vniversally and Irresistably : the plainesse of Divine truth is such , that men though they would cannot avoide the knowledge of it , and the dependance of the affections on the Vnderstanding is such , that their motions must needs bee conformable to the knowledge and apprehensions thereof . When these two effects are wrought in a man , hee is then furnished with sufficient strength to Beleeve and Convert if he will. This power and strength is given him irresistably will he nill hee ; but for the Act of beleeving , that depends wholly on his free will , which after the forenamed illumination of the minde , and motions in the affections , remaines Free to choose or not to choose , to consent or not consent unto the promise of Grace . Which wondrous doctrine they unfold unto us in this manner : The will of man , say they , never had , hath nor can have any other qualitie inherent in it , but only that which is alwayes Essentiall unto it , namely , Liberty , Indifferenti● & indeterminati● ad actus oppositos . Wherefore as in Adam it had no spirituall gifts of Holinesse inherent in it , so it lost none in the fall , nor hath it now any inherent corruption as the other faculties have , nor is it in our regeneration re-indued with any sanctified qualities whatsoever . Only a pure naked Liberty there is in it to choose or refuse any good or evill whatsoever , Spirituall , Morall , or Naturall , after it is once knowne . This Freedome though it bee so Naturall to the will of Man , that Salvâ essentià it cannot be taken away , yet in the exercise thereof the Will depends on the Vnderstanding and Affections . So long as the understanding is darke , and the affections distempered , the Will though it have in it selfe a naturall abilitie to choose that which is good , yet it cannot exercise it by reason of those impediments . Even as the eye hath in it selfe a naturall power to see even in the darke , but yet cannot make use of it , till the object be inlightened . So in the Vnregenerate the Will hath a naturall freedome in it selfe towards all Spirituall good or evill , but it wants the free exercise of this power so long as the Vnderstanding is without Knowledge and the affections are disordered . But as soone as the Vnderstanding is inlightened and the affections reneued , then the Will is restored to the use of her Naturall libertie : So that whereas Life and Death , Good and Evill is now set before her , shee may by her owne free power without any further help from God choose the good if she list , or the evill if she please . And this is that whereon they affirme consists Vivisicatio Voluntatis , the quickening of the Will , which is not the giving of some new power unto it , which it had not before , but only the restoring of it to the free use of that Power which it alwayes had , but could not exercise . Here 's then the summe of their opinion in briefe , When a man unconverted heares the word of the kingdome , hee understands it and is affected with it irresistably and necessarily . By so doing hee hath a power to beleeve given him , that is , His will hath recovered the use of that naturall freedome which it alwaies had , so that now hee stands indifferent , hee may if hee will assent to the promise of grace , he may if he will dissent from it : this Act is absolutely in his owne power to doe or not to do it , and by this Act done he is converted and not till then . This is that leaven of Arminianisme wherewith of late the whole lumpe of sound doctrine hath beene sowred , this is that fretting leprosie which will scarce ever bee healed but in the ruine of those our neighbour Churches wherein the disease first bred . Let us alwaies pray that God wil keep this our Church , & us her Children safe from the danger of this infection . That we may the better avoide it , let us rippe up this swelling ulcer , and wring out the rottennesse and corruption that is gathered together in it : taking a particular view of the severall errors which are like a bed of snakes folded one in another in this dunghill : They are these ; 1. That there is no other illumination of the understanding in divine things , but the ordinary apprehension of the sense and meaning of the Word , wrought in us by the cleere evidence of the things delivered , and the ordinary helpe of the Spirit , perfecting and assisting naturall reason and judgement . For herein they all agree , that although the Gospell could not possibly have been found out by naturall reason , yet being once revealed , it may be fully understood by naturall reason . In so much that he , who is industrious and hath a good judgement , may know all that is needefull to be knowne , without any Supernaturall light infused into his understanding by the Holy Ghost . It seemes these men in their study of Divinity never sought after , nor ever did finde any other helpe besides their owne naturall abilities ; and therefore they thinke other men have no more helpe than themselves had . Wee may probably judge so , by those Hereticall opinions , the immediate off-spring of their naturall reason , wherewith they have now so troubled the quiet of the Christian Church . Had they beene taught of God , and the eyes of their understanding opened to follow the directions of Gods Spirit more than their owne Naturall wisdome : they might have learned to have judged otherwise of themselves and all their opinions too . But how partiall soever their judgements are , wee know the judgement of God to be just and infallible , who knowes us better than wee doe our selves , and He tells us , a That wee are blinde , b that wee are darknesse till wee be made light in the Lord , c that when the Light shineth in darknesse , the darknesse comprehendeth it not , that d the Naturall man cannot perceive the things of the Spirit , for they are foolishnesse unto him , neither can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned . Besides this censure of God upon our naturall ignorance in divine things , wee have the practice of the Saints , acknowledging their naturall disability , and praying for the illumination of the Spirit , which the Arminians scorne . Hence those frequent supplications of the Prophet David , Open mine eyes that I may see the wonders of the Law , O give mee understanding that I may live , Teach mee , O Lord , the way of thy statutes , Make mee to understand the way of thy precepts , with many such like prayers , wherein it were much perversnesse to affirme , that David prayed only for that knowledge of the meaning of the Law , whereto by study and use of his Naturall parts he might possibly attaine . And what shall we say to that prayer of the Apostle Paul which he makes for the Ephesians , [ That God would give them the Spirit of Wisdome and Revelation in the knowledge of Christ , the eyes of their understanding being inlightened , that they might know what is the hope of his calling , and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints ] ? Surely an Arminian will hardly say Amen to this Prayer . For to what end is it ? had not Paul preached the Gospell to the Ephesians plainly enough , had not they heard and beleeved it , were they not men of reason and judgement that could understand what Paul meant when he preached or wrote unto them ? what need then to pray yet for the spirit of Wisdome and Revelation , and inlightening their eyes , when things were so revealed as they could not choose but know and see them ? Yes , there was and is still great need we should make this Prayer , now the Gospell is revealed to the Church , yet to pray for the Spirit of Revelation to reveale it to our hearts , and to inlighten the eyes of our minde , not only to understand the literall sense of the Word by the helpe of that Common light of the Spirit which shineth ordinarily in the Church , but to comprehend with all Saints the height , depth and largenesse of Gods love , the riches of his glorious inheritance , the pretiousnesse of the promises of Grace , the power and saving vertue of the Gospell , the rare excellencie and amiablenesse of all divine truth . Which none can doe without the speciall worke of the Holy Ghost , changing the Vnderstanding from Naturall to Spirituall , by an immediat infusion of such a qualitie as inables it to discerne aright of Spirituall things . I conclude this point with one reason more , If to the understanding of spirituall things there bee no other illumination required , but only the cleere evidence of the object plainely represented to the understanding , without any further worke of the Spirit upon the Vnderstanding it selfe , infusing into it a speciall strength to apprehend the things that are proposed to it : then it would be knowne whether these men thinke that our intellective Facultie hath got any hurt and defect by Adams fall , yea or no. It is manifest that they thinke that mans fall hath not brought any defect and weaknesse upon the power of mans understanding , no not in Spiritualib●…s . For , marke it , when Divine things are in a plaine and lively manner declared to the understanding , is there any defect in the facultie that must be first amended by the Spirit , before it can have the perfect knowledge of those things ? No , say they , so therebe the common assistance of the Spirit preserving unto us the right use of reason and judgement , we may , without any supernaturall worke of the Spirit , understand spirituall things when they are plainly expounded unto us . Why then here 's all the difference betweene Adam and Vs , His Vnderstanding was perfect and happy , because he had both the Power to conceive of things hee was yet ignorant of when they should be cleerely revealed to him , and also the Actuall knowledge of wonderfull varietie in all things . Our understanding is imperfect and unhappy , because by our fall wee want the Actuall knowledge of almost all things , especially Spirituall , but yet we still retaine the same power that we had in Adam , to understand any spirituall thing when it is once cleerely discovered unto us . So that according to Arminius schoole , the understanding of man since the Fall is like unto our Eyes in the darke : the eye is well and without blemish needing no cure of any defect in it selfe , yet it sees nought , because the Object is not inlightened ; so soone as light shines on that causing a cleere discovery of it , the eye without further adoe , can easily perceive it But this is yet the very pride and gall of an Hereticall spirit , secretly accusing the whole mystery of Gods revealed wisdome , whether in the booke of nature or of Scripture , as if it were wrapped up in Obscurity and Darknesse . Wee forsooth have eyes and we need not that God should restore unto us the Faculty of Seeing : only wee are in darknesse because things that are to be knowne are in darkenesse , if God will take away obscuritie from them and make them evident to be knowne , there 's no such infirmity in us but wee may know them if wee be attentive . Let us from our hearts detest this odious popish imputation of obscurity laid upon Nature and Scripture , as if the cause of all our ignorance were not now in the weaknesse of our Vnderstanding , but in the darknesse of Gods revealing himselfe to us . And let us detest that opinion which leads us upon this absurdity : and learne we to confesse our blindenesse , to pray that God will give us eyes , and restore our understanding to its first perfection ; else , though the light shine round about us making all things wherein God is to be knowne most appparant and visible , yet wee may still lie in darkenesse and perish in our ignorance . This is their first error touching the Vnderstanding , of which I shall have occasion to speake more in handling the parts of Faith. I now proceed to the second touching the affections , which is this : 2. That even in Divine things the motions of the Affections necessarily follow upon the illumination of the Vnderstanding . So that when the understanding is rightly informed and thoroughly convinced , the affections are presently excited in all motions conformable to the things knowne . It is very strange that men of so deepe learning , should yet professe so much ignorance in the estate of Mans corrupt nature , as to dreame of a Correspondency and dutifull subjection of our Passions unto our Reason , so that when this is rightly taught , they will be truly affected even in Spirituall things . Nothing more could be said of Adam in his innocency , and to affirme this touching Man corrupted is to give the lie to Reason , Authority and all Experience which speake the contrary . The truth is this , as wee are falne out with God , so are we at oddes with our selves : and our affections are not more often mis-led by , our erroneous understanding , than our understanding and right judgement is haled aside by our vitious affections . What man in the world , that knowes himselfe , but will confesse that even in naturalibus and moralibus , much more in spiritualibus he may often say with Medea — Video meliora proboque , Deteriora sequor ? Wherefore we reject this Opinion , that there is no vitious inclination properly inherent in the affections , besides that which is brought upon them per t●n●bras mentis , through the error of the understanding : wee detest this assertion as a fond and false imagination , and we confesse with the Apostle , that even when we know , allow of , consent unto the goodnesse of the Law , and delight in it in part , yet then wee cannot alwayes doe what we would , but through the Law of Sinne in our corrupt wills and affections , are led captive to disobedience . Their third error is this : 3. That the affections may be , excitati , stirred up and quickened with true love of goodnesse and hatred of evill , before such time as a man be converted . The Arminians are wonderfull obscure in explicating unto us their new invented opinion concerning the Excitation of the Affections , which they make the second worke of Grace preceding mans true Conversion . They tell us not in plaine termes what affections they meane , nor yet what kinde of Excitation and Vivification it is they would have . Wherefore we are more particularly to enquire of both . For Affections or Passions in man they are of two sorts : 1. Sensuall belonging to the Sensitive Appetite , and directed by the phantasie : these are common to brute beasts with us , and arise from one like temper and constitution in both . The object of these is all Naturall good or evill . 2. Rationall , appertaining to the reasonable Appetite or Will , and guided by the Vnderstanding . These are proper to man , and they have their originall from the substance of the reasonable soule , in which they alwaies remaine , not onely when it is in the body , but even when t is severed from it . For feare , hope , love , hatred , joy , griefe , &c. are in the damned and blessed Spirits as well as living men . The object of these properly humane passions , is all Morall and Spirituall good or evill . I neede not among so many learned , Artists stand curiously upon the distinction of these two sorts of passions in man : the identitie of names in both sorts hath caused some confusion ; but in reason the diversity of their nature is evident . Wherefore I goe on to see what is meant by Excitation or Stirring up of the affections : whereby we can understand nothing else , but their right and orderly motions about their proper objects . As in the particulars , Sensuall passions are then duely excited when they are moved about any Naturall good or evill , according to the instinct of Nature in brute beasts , and according to the same instinct of Nature in man , but guided and moderated by right reason . Reasonable Affections are then duely stirred up , when their motions about all Spirituall and Morall good or evill , are conformable to the quality of the object affected , and to the rules of a rightly informed understanding . Let us now see what affections they bee that grace workes upon , and how they are excited before men are converted . For Sensuall affections tending to a meer Naturall good or evill , albeit it bee most true , that Grace sanctifying us throughout hath a singular work upon them too , in moderating the excesse , and repressing the distempered motions of such passions as arise from our Naturall or Personall temper , as of choler , lust , &c. yet we will not be so uncharitable , as to thinke our adversaries meane these affections in this businesse : For 1. It is a strange fancy , to thinke that grace should begin to rectifie the inferiour , faculties in a man , before it have put in order the superiour , to rectifie the sensitive appetite , and leave the will disordered . God is no such preposterous Physitian , who , cùm capiti mederi debeat , cur●t reduviam , when the head is sicke applies a plaister to the ●ingers ends . 2. Againe , what singular preparation to Faith is it , that our naturall affections be well qualified in their motions about naturall and bodily things ? I confesse t is good they should be so , but what speciall vertue hath that to procure unto mans will a free exercise of its liberty in Heavenly or Spirituall things ? as the Arminians affirme the excitation of the affections doth . Vnlesse we should goe further , and make Spirituall things the object of the Sensitive Appetite , which were to elevate it farre above its naturall power , and is an absurdity too grosse to be imagined by any learned man. Wherefore it must bee that other sort of affections which we call Rationall and Humane , whose object is vertue or vice , all Spirituall and Morall good or evill . Of these then wee are to enquire how in an Vnconverted person they are stirred up in their motions about such objects as are Spiritually good or evill . The Arminians give a very large allowance of grace to an Vnregenerate man , and they tell us , that Besides the knowledge of sinne , a sorrow for it in regard of punishment , a feare of Gods wrath , a desire to be free from it , ( all which we confesse may be in a man Vnregenerate ) besides these , there are , say they , in such a one , a deploring of his Spirituall death in sin and utter impotency to doe any good , a griefe for the offending of the divine Majesty , a desire of Grace and the Spirit of regeneration to be given him , a hungring and thirsting after Righteousnesse and Life , a love of Goodnesse and hatred of evill , Humility , Prayer , and Confession of sinnes , an inward purpose of heart to set upon a reformation of life , in briefe , an Vnregenerate man may offer to God the sacrifice of a contrite and broken heart , yea God may give a man a new heart , and yet he not be converted till afterward , as some of them affirme , shamefully abusing that place , Ier. 24. 7. Yee will wonder what maner of thing these men make the Conversion of a sinner to bee , who ascribe so many things to a man unconverted , as they can hardly tell what more to attribute unto him after his Conversion . But to make short , let us aske them touching this change of the heart and affections in a man unregenerate , whether these Stirrings of his affections moving him towards Grace and Godlinesse be true or counterfeit . If these motions be indeed true and right , so that an unconverted man doe truely sorrow for his sinnefull state , truely grieve for Gods displeasure , truely desire the grace of regeneration , heartily thirst after righteousnesse , unfainedly love the truth , if he be truely humble , can pray , confesse sinne , purpose amendment , and all this truly without hypocrisie , then wee desire to bee resolved in these doubts : 1. What can be done by a man after his Conversion , more than he can doe in these things before he be converted ? At all times he can but doe them truely , that is , spiritually : and this he may doe as well before as after Conversion . 2. Whether it be not admirable and unconceivable to any mans understanding , how the affections can bee thus moved , and yet the will remaine untouched . For whereas they say that a sinner may out of true sense and sorrow for sinne , truely desire grace and freedome by Christ , before such time as his will doth assent to the promise of Mercy , it is most strange , how t is possible that a man should heartily and unfainedly desire the benefite of the Promise of grace in Christ , and yet at the same time not assent and embrace the promise offered unto him . T is as if we should say a man may Desire a thing and yet not Will it : when as to desire is nothing but an action of the will. And the very same is true of all the affections , that they are but divers Motions of the Will about divers objects , ( as the irrationall passions are of the Sensitive Appetite ) and therefore to make such separation betweene the Will and the Affections in the reasonable soule , as that the Affections should be Excited and yet the Will not moved , is , to speak favourably , a very unlearned imagination . 3. Whether that argument used to comfort distressed consciences , namely , That he who truly desires grace , hath true grace , whether I say this argument of Consolation used by the skilfullest Divines and accounted hitherto unanswerable by men or divells , be not now by this doctrine utterly made of no worth , if this of Arminius his followers be to be allowed , that a man may unfainedly desire to bee good and to be regenerate , and yet be unconverted and so without all true goodnesse as yet . But that assertion of our Divines , [ That the true desire of grace , is from true grace , and a part of true grace ] shall stand fast as founded on Scripture and sound Reason , when all Arminianisme shall lie in the dust . If these Motions in an unregenerate man bee not True , but False & Counterfeit , then have they made much adoe to little purpose , preparing a man to that Faith and Conversion which is true , by counterfeit and hypocriticall meanes . But they will say that these desires and affections though they are not Spirituall , yet in their kinde they are true and not counterfeit , because they are true Morall or Naturall desires . To which I answer , that the rule to judge of the truth of our desires is this , Wee must compare our affections with the Nature of those things that wee doe affect : if our affections towards them be such as the Quality of the things themselves require , then are they right and good : if not , they are false and evill : as to make it plaine by an instance or two ; When a husband loves his wife but only as his whoore to satisfie his lust , this love though it may be very ●ervent and not dissembled , yet t is a false love because it is not Matrimoniall agreeable to the qualitie of a Wife the object thereof . When Balaam desired the death of the righteous , no question but hee spake as he thought without dissembling , but yet this his desire was false , because he desired it not according to the true nature thereof , as it requires a sanctified life to bring us to a happy end ; which Balaam would none of . When a Turke hopes for heaven that there hee may live in carnall pleasures , according to Mahomets beastly ●aw , 't is true that hee hopes , but 't is false that he hopes truly , because he mistakes the qualitie of Heavenly joyes which are spirituall not carnall . So in like manner ( generally ) when Spirituall things are affected spiritually in such a manner as is conformable to their nature and qualitie , then are our affections rightly and well moved towards them , as to love goodnesse because it is of God , to hate sinne because 't is contrary to the holinesse of Gods nature and law , to desire grace , to the end that it may correct the corruption of nature , to wish for heaven , that we may have communion with God in the beholding of his glory and our constant worshipping of him . These affections are true , but they are such as never arise in the heart of man till it be purified and made Holy by the Spirit of Grace . But on the contrary , when Spirituall things are affected only as things that are Naturally or Morally good or evill , such affections are false and of no worth : as if a man desire grace because t is a commendable qualitie , or redemption , because t is good to be free from miserie , or heaven , because t is a pleasant thing to be at ease : such affections are as farre from truth , as the eye is from right seeing , when it mistakes greene for yellow , or a man for a post . And such , in a man unconverted , are all his Affections about Spirituall things . Wherefore when they tell us of a true Love of goodnesse , a true Hatred of evill , &c. in a man unregenerate , they speake strange paradoxes against reason and Scripture , affirming that they who have not the Spirit , are naturall men , Iud. ver . 19. and that the Naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit , and cannot Spiritually discerne , and therefore not Spiritually desire them , 1 Cor. 3. and againe , that whatsoever is borne of the flesh is flesh ; Ioh. 3. 6. Albeit therefore we denie not but that there are ordinarily many Preparations whereby God brings a man to grace , and that the Word workes many effects , both upon the Heart and lives of men even whilest they are as yet destitute of true Grace : yet as for those affections which our Adversaries place in m●n unregenerate , we affirme that they are not antecedents but consequents and parts of true Conversion . For can hee that is dead in sinne bewaile his Spirituall death ? Can he that is in the flesh , and so an enemie to God , yet greve for displeasing of him ? Can he truly desire the Spirit of regeneration , that is of the c world and cannot receive the Spirit because it seeth him not neither knoweth him ? Can a man thirst after righteousnesse and yet not be d blessed nor satisfied ? Can a man hate evill , who yet e loves not the Lord ? Can hee love God that is f not borne of him ? Can he be humble that hath not the sanctifying Spirit , one g fruite whereof is meeknesse and humblenesse of minde ? May a true prayer be made without the helpe of the Holy h Ghost ? Will there ever be a true Confession in the mouth when there is not Faith and Repentance in the heart ? How can that heart be a new heart , a contrite and broken heart sensible of sinne , which is not yet changed out of stone into flesh ? Can hee have a full purpose of heart to i amend his life and cleave unto the Lord , whose heart is not yet touched with sanctifying Grace ? Whatsoever shadow of these things may appeare in an unregenerate man , it is certaine none can be done in truth but by those only in whom the Holy Ghost hath begun the worke of true Sanctification . I might stand upon the further proofe of every particular were it needfull : but I passe on to their fourth Error , which is concerning mans Will : 4. That the Will of man is not capable of any Habituall qualities inherent in it , whether of grace or corruption . Only a meere liberty it hath to Will or Nill any thing , and besides this liberty there never was , is , nor can be in it any other quality . Whence it followes , that the Will is not to be termed good or evill from any inward disposition of it selfe , but onely from the actions of it according as it is lead or mis-led by the light or darkenesse of the understanding , and by the rectitude or depravation of the affections . Of all the issues of Arminius braines this is one of the most deformed , that the Will of man hath not in it eyther grace or corruption , any vertuous or vitious inclination of it selfe ; a bare liberty to choose or refuse , that it hath , and nothing else . Against which strange noveltie we have to oppose these reasons : 1. The Image of God consisting in righteousnesse and holinesse was in every part of mans soule ; and therefore in the Will as well as the Vnderstanding . And if so , then besides the liberty of the Will , there was in it a righteous and holy inclination towards God and Goodnesse in the first creation of it . Which Habituall disposition to goodnesse is corrupted , and a perverse inclination to evill come in place thereof . If they deny that righteousnesse and holinesse is in the whole soule , it will trouble them much to tell unto what part it must be restrained . 2. The constant tenour of Scriptures ascribes unto mans Heart corruption and grace , as much , nay more than to any other part of man. That the Heart of man is the root of all evill workes , out of it come evill thoughts , murders , adulteries , and such other things as defile a man , Mat. 15. 18 , 19. That the Heart is deceitfull and wicked above all things , Ier. 17. 9. That in regeneration the Heart must bee renued , made cleane , softened , of stony made fleshy , That the Heart is the seate of all Spirituall gifts , as Vprightnesse , Purity , Goodnesse and Honesty , Faith , Lowlinesse , and many more , spoken of in every chapter of the Bible almost . In which places by the Heart to understand our Sensuall and brutish affections , were most absurd . And if as it is , the Soule of man be there meant , it cannot be but a nice subtilty beyond the intention of Scriptures to exclude the Will from having any part in that good or evill which is attributed to the Heart : as if by the Heart were meant only the understanding part of the Soule . 3. Wee preferre the uniforme judgement of all the learned hitherto , above the opinion of one Armini●● and his followers ; who , as they make the Vnderstanding the seate of all speculative Habits , so for all practicall Habits , whether Morall or Theologicall they place them in the Will. With whom agreeably to Scripture and sound reason , we maintaine that there was in Adams will , besides the liberty thereof , an Habituall holy inclination to all that was good , though with a possibility of embracing evill ; again , there is in our wills since the Fall , besides some kind of liberty , an Habituall vitious quality making them averse and froward in choosing the good , prone and inclinable to embrace the ●vill , so that man now doth naturally drinke iniquity like water , Iob 15 , 16. and make a pastime of doing evill , Prov. 2. 14. And therefore as Adams will was truly good , not onely in the actions but in the inward qualities thereof : so our will is truely and properly corrupt , not onely in its evill actions , but also the inward vitious disposition thereof . This is the fourth errour , the fifth is but a consectary of the former ; namely , 5. That the wll of a man Vnregenerate hath a naturall freedome to choose any Spirituall good thing as soone as it is made knowne vnto him . For , say they , the Will of man hath no other property but onely liberty : when man fell and lost other good qualities , his will had no hurt , but retained its liberty perfect and entire . So that an Vnregenerate man after once hee knowes any Spirituall good thing offered unto him , hath naturally as much freedome of will to embrace it , even as Adam had in his Innocency , or as any man can have after his Conversion . But this opinion falls to the ground with the former upon which it is built , presupposing that there is no vitious quality in the will drawing it to evill . But we know that to be false , and therefore we confesse , that untill such time as God doe heale that disease and replant in our wills their primitive integrity , they are utterly dead in sinne , captives and bond-slaves of corruption . So that however they have some liberty in Naturall , Civill , or Externall Spirituall things : yet in regard of true Grace and Holinesse they have no liberty at all to will and choose that , but are wholly enthralled unto sinne ; according to that of the Apostle , Rom. 6 20. When yee were the servants of sinne , yee were free from righteousnesse : and , Rom. 8. 7. The carnall minde is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the Law of God , neither indeede can bee . Doe they not then manifestly give the Scripture the lie , that affirme a man in the state of unregeneration ( who , without doubt , is , if any be , a servant of sinne , and carnally minded ) is notwithstanding free unto righteousnesse , and may be even of his owne naturall power subject to the Law of God , commanding him faith and obedience ? There are yet other errors : the sixth therefore is this , 6. That mans Conversion begins in the Act of Beleeving , not in the Habit of Faith infused . I have heretofore touched upon this point in shewing the falshood of that assertion of theirs , That Conversion begins in some worke that we do , not in a worke that God first doth . Here you are further to note whereto tends this opinion , and that is , to establish their other opinion of Falling away from grace . For seeing Conversion is nothing but the Act of Beleeving , & this Act is freely in our power , as not to do it at first , so when it is once done , not to repeat it often for the continuance of our Conversion , it follows thence that as it was in our power not to become Converts by not doing that Act , so being Converted , t is in our power to relapse by not continuing to doe it . For which purpose they deny that there is any such thing as the grace of Faith infused into the heart ; yea , that there is any constant habit of Faith at all , and that a man is not termed a Beleever from the Habit , but from the Acts of Faith , which being transient and vanishing , Faith ceaseth when they cease . So that belike when a godly man is asleepe he hath no faith , when Noah and all his Family were asleepe in the Arke , then Faith ceased in the Church ; and seeing by faith we please God , men asleepe or dying in a Lethargy doe not please God. T is wonder but these men will deny all other Habits too : and say that David had no skill in Musicke , but that his right hand had forgot her cunning as soone as he had layd his Harpe aside . They may aswell denie the one as the other , both are alike ridiculous . There is yet one Error more , and that is this ; 7. That mans Conversion is properly nothing but the Act of Beleeving the Promise of Grace . This restraint of our Conversion unto so narrow a compasse , as first to bring it from the Habit of Faith , to the Act of Beleeving , and then to appropriate it to that Act without so much as once mentioning any other graces : this narrow conceit touching our Conversion is that which hath filled the writings of many learned about this point with much darknesse and confusion . They so speake and write of Conversion as if it began in that one and only Action of mans will Consenting to the promise of mercy in Christ. But this is without all ground . To convert is not only to beleeve , but to repent , to love God and our Neighbour , to abstaine from every evill way , to practise all duties of Piety and Goodnesse : these acts are as proper and immediat parts of true Conversion , as Faith. Nor doth the Scripture so much as intimate any such limitation , as to appropriate our Conversion to the Act of Faith : nay , t is manifest that the Scriptures when they speake of man● Turning unto God , doe joyne repentance and other godly Acts together with Faith : as appeares by that solemne invitation of men unto God [ Repent and beleeve th● Gospell ] so often used in the New Testament . Let us now for conclusion at this time lay all these errors together , and see what is the finall upshot of this Opinion : all things being reckoned , t is this , That in a man unregenerate there is naturally very little or no Corruption , and unto his Regeneration there is required little or no Grace . That I be not thought to slander them , both will appeare unto you to be true , thus , First that they annihilate and overthrow the Grace of God ; for whereas the Vnderstanding , Will and Affections are in our Conversion chiefly to bee respected , it is manifest that by their doctrine , Grace hath no worke upon any of these . Not upon the Vnderstanding to inlighten it , for , say they , that 's done by the cleere Evidence of the things that are to be understood . Not upon the Affections to rectifie their motions ; for , say they , the affections follow the understanding , and are presently in order as soone as that is informed . Lastly , not upon the Will to incline that to embrace the Promise : for that , say they , is left absolutely to its owne Liberty , and of it selfe it may consent or dissent . Where then is any worke left for Grace ? unlesse that glorious Grace of God in bringing a Sinner unto himselfe , so much magnified in Scripture and by all men , be now at last nothing but only the Revelation of the Gospell unto mankinde . Which we confesse is a great grace , but yet without another that 's greater , is not sufficient to Conuert a sinner . Thus Grace is excluded . Let 's see what they thinke of mans inherent Corruption . This they also extenuate , and tell us that we are not so weake nor wicked as wee have beene alwayes thought to be . For why ? our understanding needs not any supernaturall restoring of decayed sight ; if divine things be plainely set forth to view we can see well enough . Our affections are not of themselves vitiously disposed , but only through the error of the minde ; correct that , and all is amended . Finally our Wills have not rebellious inclination in them , but they can of themselves without further helpe choose that which is good . So that if Arminius bee not deceived in his , wee may now change our opinion of ourselves , and thinke that we are at least something . But what then is become of that Sinne that dwelleth in us , of that Vniversall Corruption and Disorder of our whole nature , so much spoken of , so much complained of ? Is it vanished ? T is not so well ; but these men have vanished away in their imaginations , and have disputed so long of Gods Grace and mans Corruption , till in conclusion they have lost both , and are become wilfully ignorant of the one , and malitious enemies to the other . Hitherto the Explication of their Opinion , their Errors , and the generall issue of them : Wee are now in the next place to unfold and confirme that truth which is to bee maintained touching this question , viz. Whether it be in Mans power so to resist the grace of God , as finally to hinder his owne Conversion . Wee maintaine the Negative , that where God purposes to save , no power of man can destroy . The truth hereof will plainely appeare unto us , if wee shall consider distinctly how a man may hinder the Worke of Grace . 1. In the Antecedents and Preparatory meanes to his Conversion . 2. In his Conversion it selfe . For the Antecedent preparations to bring men unto Conversion , they are either Outward ; namely , The Observation of the externall parts of Gods worship , as frequenting the Word preached , Prayers , Sacraments , keeping of the Sabbaoth , attention and industry in the hearing , reading , and meditation of the Word : or Inward the effects of the ordinary grace of God in the use of those meanes , as , 1. Knowledge of the will of God in the main matters of Religion concerning Faith and Practice . 2. Touch of Conscience in the sense of sinne arising from a cleere discovery and conviction of a mans forlorne estate . 3. A Feare and horror of Gods punishing vengeance , joyned with a naturall griefe of heart that hee is brought into so much unavoydable misery . 4. A thought and wish for freedome by some meanes or other . 5. Some slight hope of helpe from the promise of grace so generally made as none seeme to bee excluded , upon the apprehension whereof some kinde of joy will also arise in the heart . All which together may cause some kinde of reformation of life in doing of many things gladly , and a not unwilling abstinence from others . Touching these preparations unto Conversion , you are to note these three positions . 1. That they are in themselves good and necessary . This is to bee observed against those overbroad and unadvised speeches of some which have given occasion unto our adversaries to fasten upon us this imputation , that according to our Doctrine , * Zelus omnis , cura & sludium ad obtinendam salutem adhibitum ante ipsam Fidem & Spiritum renovationis vanum est atque irritum , quinimo noxium magis homini quam utile & fructuosum . Which assertion were most dangerous , because it opens a wide gappe to let in all profane contempt of the exercises of Religion : man having hereby a good excuse for the neglect of all dueties of Piety , because all their care and diligence in the use of them were not onely to no purpose but to an ill purpose , untill such time as they were truely converted . But this is a slander ; our Divines teach no discouraging Doctrine to blunt the edge of mens good desires , and to beat them off from all religious endeavours . No , they presse upon men ever whilst they are unconverted , the necessity and profitablenesse of all those forementioned preparations : in regard , 1. Of the nature of the things themselves which are good , and our very necessary obedience to doe them , being strictly injoyned by the commandement of God. 2. Of the event that followes upon them according to Gods promise and his ordinary proceeding in the worke of grace : which is such that he bestowes not his grace ordinarily but upon those that conforme themselves to the doing of those things . Neverthelesse our Divines teach this also , which is true and warrantable : 1. That all these preparations are no Efficient causes to produce grace of Conversion in the heart , however they prepare a man to bee the fitter to receive it . And therefore where God is not pleased to afford his Sanctifying Spirit , they prove vaine and fruitlesse . 2. That how good and necessary soever these preparatory works are , yet the doing of them is unto a man unregenerate an occasion of sinning . And so in the consequent , to him they may prove harmfull . As for example : When an unsanctified man heares the Word , Praies , performes any duety in Gods worship or in a Christian life , in the doing of these things hee alwaies commits some sin or other : because he wants a pure Heart , a good Conscience , and Faith unfained , without which hee cannot but err● in fulfilling Gods commandements . But then will some say , if it be so , that the doing of every good duety is unto such a one an occasion of sinning , hee ought not then to doe it , because he is bound to avoide all things wherein he shall certainely sinne . To which I answer , that the inference were good if this avoiding the occasion of one sinne , did not draw him upon another sinne that were worse . But here see what a snare sinne hath laide to entrap a wicked man , which way soever he turnes , he falls , & is taken : if he heare the Word , he sins because he mingles it not with Faith : if he hears not the Word , he sins , because he turnes away his eare from hearing the Law : if he pray hee sins , because he praies not in Faith ; if he pray not hee sins and is accursed , because hee calls not upon the Name of the Lord. What shall he doe then ? I answer , hee must doe his duety what God commandeth , though hee cannot choose but commit a sinne in doing of it , by reason of his corruption and infirmity . Of two sins , whereupon not God , but Himselfe hath put himselfe inevitably to commit one of them : Hee must choose the least , rather sinning in the maner in not doing of it so well as he should , than ●ailing in the matter , and quite neglecting the duety it selfe . For this is certaine , when God commands a duety absolutely to be done , it is a greater sin not to doe it at all , than to doe it amisse : because , our disobedience is Totall in not doing , but onely Partiall in doing it otherwise than we ought . As for a man wilfully to refuse to heare the Word , is a fouler fault , than to heare it with a forgetfull and disobedient heart , though this be a foule fault too ; but yet there is more hope of the latter than the former . Wherefore we may not pretend our infirmity as a just excuse for the neglect of our duety : I cannot doe it well , therefore I will not doe it at all , is no good collection , unlesse I may be blamelesse in my omission of it ; which here I cannot be . Ministers then are to urge upon all men indifferently the necessity of all Christian endeavours tending to their Conversion ; and hearers are not to balke Gods commands upon pretences of their owne sinfull disabilities : God must bee obeyed as farre as we can goe ; if we sin , t is our fault besides the intention of the commandement . And who knowes whether our diligence in doing something , may not be more beneficiall to us , than our sinning in many things may prove hurtfull ? whilst God bestowes grace upon us in the use of those ordinances whereto in some sort we conforme our selves , though with much sinfulnesse and infirmity . This of our first position : the second is this , 2. That the Reprobate unregenerate , in whom these preparations to grace are wrought , may and doe wilfully neglect them , thereby procuring their finall obduration in sin . The third is this , 3. That the Elect unregenerate may and doe for a time resist these preparations to Conversion , thereby deserving this finall obduration ; but God by his speciall grace continues these beginnings unto their perfect Conversion . I will handle both these positions together , containing the maner how farre , and by whom those meanes and preparations to Conversion may be resisted and made fruitlesse . We affirme then that it is in the power of every unregenerate man , whether Elect or Reprobate , to neglect and oppose those gracious meanes whereby God calleth them unto Conversion . This is apparant , whether we respect the outward or inward meanes of Conversion . For the outward in all Gods holy Ordinances , they may every one of them be neglected . Men have the command over their bodies to move them as they please , and they may sit at home or travell abroad without worldly or wicked imployments , when they should be at Church ; they may stop their eares , talke with a companion , reade some booke that pleaseth them , while the Minister is in speaking : they may set their thoughts aworke in their Chests , in the Stewes , in their Storehouses , any where but where their bodyes are , about any thing save the Sermon : they may avoide the often use of the Sacrament , and make such shift as not to appeare before the Lord scarce once a yeare : men may choose whether they will sleepe or pray , fast or surfet of fulnesse , reade and study Gods word , or mans writings . Againe , for the inward workes of grace , all unregenerate men oppose the light of their knowledge , resist the checkes of conscience by presumptuous sinnes , strive to blot out the sense of sinne , and to cast off the feare of the Almighties punishment ; they may stupifie all such motions of affections as tend to goodnesse , by diverting them upon vaine delights . These things , and more , they may doe , yea , and they doe also , though some more , some lesse . For it is most certaine , that no man thus ordinarily called unto grace , by these meanes , was ever so dutifully obedient to the voyce of Gods calling , as to yeeld presently without striving and much opposition . No , let the best man living , who hath well observed himselfe before and after his sound conversion , bee brought to answer in this case , and he will confesse , that in all those meanes whereby God fairely woed him to convert unto him , hee alwaies was strangely perverse , carelesse , scornfull and froward in every motion of grace : till Gods spirit had thoroughly wrought upon his heart . Wherefore wee affirme , that Every one whatsoever doth carry himselfe so stubbornely against this Preparatory grace of his conversion , as that he deserves thereby to be forsaken of God and left to finall imp●nitency . Nor can that bee the cause why God converts this man and not another , * quia hic novam opponit contumaciam , ●ll● non opponit , as the Arminians falsly affirme : for all are contumacious and rebellious against this grace of their vocation : but the reason is because when both rebell , God justly forsakes one in his rebellion , and most mereifully followes the other with fresh supply of more powerfull grace till he have healed his rebellion , and caused him to returne . Thus then both the Elect and Reprobate resist : but the Elect for a time , the Reprobate finally . The difference is from God. The Reprobate neglect and cast off him : * wherefore in justice he neglects and casts off them , leaving them to follow their owne wills , and the counsells of their reprobate minde . Being so forsaken , their hearts become as hard as the ●●ather milstone , their consciences scared , their affections dead : all sense of grace or sinne worne out of the soule , and ●…all obstinacy against God fixed therein . And in this sense we grant there may bee a ●…all resistency against Grace , namely in the reprobate opposing and wilfully neglecting all those outward meanes of Grace , all those inward workes of grace whereby they were invited and prepared to Conversion . Of this rebellion doe the Scriptures in every place complaine and accuse the ungodly , that [ when a God bids them walke in the good way , they say , They will not walke therein ; when hee bids them harken to the sound of the Trumpet , they say , We will not barken ] that , [ they b say unto God , Depart from 〈◊〉 wee desire not the knowledge of thy wayes ] that [ c God stretcheth forth his hands all the day long to a rebellio●s and gainesaying people ] that [ hee d calleth and they refuse ] that e [ they have eyes to see and will not see , eares to heare and heare not ] that [ they f resist the Holy Ghost ] that g [ they Rebell and vexe his Holy Spirit ] that [ Christ h would have gathered Ierusalem but shee woulld not ] that [ hee i preached unto the Iewes to the end they might bee saved , but they would not come unto him that they might have life . ] with a thousand the like testimonies k setting forth the stubbornnesse and hardnesse of mens hearts in rejecting this grace of God offered to them , and despising the riches of his goodnesse that should lead them unto repentance . All which places noting out unto us a s●all resistency , are to be understood not of that Speciall grace whereby God intends to worke mans Conversion , as our Adversaries pervert them , but of that common grace in the ordinary Antecedents of mans Conversion whereby God calleth all unto himselfe . Of which grace wee confesse that it a may bee received in vaine , that b this talent may be hidden in the ground and become unprofitable : as Scriptures together with lamentable experience testifie in three c parts of ●oure that heare the Word unprofitably , in those temporary outside seeming Christians , who d after illumination in the truth and much affection to goodnesse , quite fallaway : and e after they have knowne the way of righteousnesse turne away from the holy Commandement given unto them . So that by this fault , all comes utterly to naught , and they perish ●…ally in their naturall corruption . But now the Elect albeit they are also disobedient and froward at the first , yet God forsakes them not , but in mercie goes on to perfect the worke that hee hath begun , till Grace g●ts the victory over their Corruption Till that their outward fashionable s●vice of God bee turned into true spirituall worship , their knowledge made effectuall to all holy practice , their consciences sprinkled with the blood of Christ and freed from legall terrours , their worldly sorrow turnd into godly griefe , their slight wishes and hope of mercy , changed into zealous prayers for , and firme beliefe of Pardon , their partiall and halting reformation of life , turned into perfect and sincere obedience . And thus farre of the ordinary preparations to Grace , and how farre they are resisted : I come in the next place to our Conversion it selfe . Which is to bee considered two wayes . 1. In actu primo , as it is the worke of Gods Spirit on us , renuing our corrupt nature , healing all vitions , infusing all vertuous inclinations into each faculty ; by which Habituall infused qualities they are disposed to all Spirituall and Holy actions . This is the worke of God by his preventing grace . 2. In actu sicundo , as it is our worke converting our selves to God in all holy operations of Faith , Love , and godly Obedience , which Acts we doe by the help of Gods subsequent and assisting Grace . Of Conversion in both senses we are to enquire , how farre it may bee resisted and hindered : touching the first , namely , our Habituall Conversion in the infusion of all gracious habits , this conclusion is to be defended . That in our first Conversion or Sanctification wee are meerely Passive , and cannot by any Act of ours eyther worke it our selves , or binder Gods working of it . This is apparant by the Scriptures , which testifie unto us what our state is before Conversion , what the worke of God is in our Conversion : namely , That wee are dead in sins , Ephes. 2. 1. Col. 2. 13. Matth. 8. 22. Ephes. 5. 14. That we are blinde , and very darkenesse in regard of Spirituall knowledge , Rev. 3. 18. Ephes. 4. 17. & 5. 8. Matth. 6. 23. Luc. 4. 18. Iohn 1. 5. Act. 26. 18. 1. Cor. 2 14. That our hearts are stony , destitute of all sense and motions of goodnesse , Ezek. 36. 26. & 11. 19. Againe , that Gods worke in our Conversion is a raising from the dead , Ephes. 2. 5. Col. 2. 12. Rev. 20. 6. Iohn 5. 21. 25. A restoring of sight to the blinde , Luc. 4. 18. A new generation and birth of a man , Ioh. 1. 13. Ioh. 3. 3. Another creation of him , Ephes. 2 10. Psal. 51. 12. 2. Cor. 5. 17. Gal. 6. 15. The giving of a new heart of flesh , and taking away of the old stony heart , Ezek. 11. 19. Out of which and many the like places , wee conclude , that a man can doe no more in the effecting or hindering of his first Conversion , than the Matter can do in regard of the Forme , to receive or reject it , no more than Adams body could resist the entrance of the soule into it , or Lazarus carkasse and the dead bones in Ezekiel could refuse the spirit of life's comming into them , no more than an infant can hinder its owne conception and birth , or the world the creation of it selfe , no more than the bodies of those sick persons whom Christ cured by his word , could hinder the restitution of health when Christ commanded them to be whole , or the eyes of the blinde could nill the restoring of their sight , or the aire that is darke can refuse to bee illightned : in briefe , a mans heart can no more hinder the worke of Gods grace in changing it out of stone into flesh , than the body of Lots wife could resist the force of his power in turning it out of flesh into a pillar of salt . Against this Doctrine of mans Passivenesse in his first Conversion , our adversaries object many things , qualifying the rigour of those censures the Scriptures give touching our utter disability , eluding their force by many subtile shifts , all devised onely to this purpose , that our Conversion may not be thought to be altogether of grace , but shared betweene the grace of God , and some power of our owne To alledge and answer every cavill were a businesse of more length than difficulty : unto them all in generall I answer , That hee that takes a mans judgement touching mans abilities , he followes the sentence of a blinde corrupt Iudge , and that in his owne cause . It is the Lord that judgeth us , and it becommeth us to submit to his censure , not to extoll our selves when hee abaseth us , lest wee bee found lyers like those hypocriticall Laodiceans , boasting that we are rich and increased with goods , and have need of nothing when in the meane God knowes though wee know not , how that we are wretched , and miserable , and poore , and blinde , and naked , standing in neede of all things . Wherefore let this truth alwaies stand firme , that as no man can prepare himselfe by any strength of his owne effectually to worke his Sanctification , either alone by himselfe , or as a coworker with the Spirit of grace , so no man can hinder the worke of Gods Spirit when hee intends to bestow this first grace of Sanctification upon a sinner . This of Habituall Conversion in the internall renovation of all the faculties , which cannot be resisted or hindered : in the next place we are to consider of Conversion as it is our act , consisting in the operations and exercises of all gracious habites infused , as when we actually beleeue , repent , and doe other good workes . This Active Conversion is nothing but the practice of Sanctification , when being made holy and good , wee doe good and holy workes , as a man after he is raised from death , or restored to health , performes the actions of a living , of a healthy man. For that similitude of S. Austins is certaine , Non ideo currit rota , ut sit rotunda , &c. as a wheele runs not that it may be round , but because it is round ; so the will beleeves not that it may be regenerate , but because it is regenerate . And therefore that is an errour of the coursest bran , when our adversaries make the act of Beleeving to go before our Sanctification : whereas nothing is more certain than this , that all holy actions whether of Faith or any other grace come from that common root of holinesse infused into our soules . Now then touching these actions proceeding from grace inherent the question is , how farre they are in mans power to refuse the doing of them : and the question may bee laid generally touching all good workes inward or outward , thus : Whether or no that man who is truely sanctified may refuse to doe any good and holy worke at all ; for if any one be in his power to refuse it , all may be in his power by the same reason . But yet because Faith is a principall grace , and all the dispute is touching the act thereof , we may restraine the question unto it , though whatever can bee spoken of mans power about the action of Faith is appliable to all other gracious actions whatsoever . The question therefore is thus , Whether after that a man is once sanctified and regenerate , it be in the freedom of his will to choose whether he will actually beleeve and assent to the Promise , or not ? For the explication of this point , How farre every good action is in a godly mans power to doe or leave it undone : you are to note that there is a double beginning or Cause of every gracious action in a man regenerate . 1. The spirit of God by his exciting and Cooperating grace , 2. Man himselfe renued and sanctified in all his faculties . The former is termed Principium à quo , the latter Principium quod : man worketh , but hee must be moved thereto and assisted by the Spirit of grace : both together concurre to the producing of every holy action . I say both together : for although man in his first conversion was meerely passive , Gods spirit working all without mans helpe : yet Man in performance of any holy act is not meerely Active , able to doe all of himselfe without Gods helpe . No , he is partly Passive , partly Active : Passive as hee stands in need of Gods grace to stirre up , guide , and strengthen the endevour of each faculty in the doing of good : Active in as much as being thus helped by Grace , himselfe willingly moves himselfe to every godly worke . Now by reason of this concurrence of man with God , these operations of grace are properly called Mans worke , not Gods worke in man. So that when a regenerate man beleeves , this act though it be caused by Gods Spirit , yet it is done and exercised by Man voluntarily moving himselfe in that action , and therefore wee say it is Man that beleveth , not Gods spirit that beleeveth : as if the act of beleeving were wrought in mans Will by the Spirit of God , in the same sort , as Iugglers worke strange motions in their Puppets , which seeme to doe wondrous feats , but t is an unseene hand that 's the cause of all . Such grosse conceits should not have beene devised by ingenuous mindes , and put upon so plaine and cleere doctrine as that is touching the concurrence of Gods grace with our strength in all Holy actions whatsoever . The point is easie to him that will understand , Every good desire and good worke is partly from man , because he wills it , hee workes it , but principally from Gods Spirit , because hee makes Man to will and to worke it . Without which cooperating grace , man by Habituall inherent grace could doe no good worke at all ; according to that of Christ , Ioh. 15. 5. Without mee yee can doe nothing , and of the Apostle , Phil. 1. 6. He that hath begun the good worke will also performe it ; and againe , Phil. 2. 13. It is God that worketh in you both the will and the deed , even of his good pleasure : and againe , 1 Cor. 15. 10. I have laboured more abundantly than they all , yet not I but the grace of God which is in me . These things thus explaned , we are yet further to note that in a man Regenerate , there are two contrary qualities inherent in every Faculty : 1. Grace , in a rectified holy inclination to goodnesse , infused into it . 2. Corruption in a vitious Quality disposing it to evill . These two Qualities abide in the regenerate , and oppose one another , till sinne be finally overcome & abolished by death . Vpon these undeniable grounds let us proceed to declare what is a regenerate mans resistance that hee makes against the working of Grace in hindering the performance of any good worke : which you shall perceive by these two conclusions : 1. A man regenerate so farre forth as hee is Spirituall , never resists the worke of Grace , but is constantly most willing and forward to the performance of all holy actions . None can be so ignorant in the mystery of Sanctification as to deny this ; & therfore they tell ●…ge wonders in Divinity , who teach that mans 〈…〉 put in aequilibrio , hanging like a beame upon 〈…〉 to bow either way , and indifferently disposed to 〈◊〉 good or evill . A very dreame it is , contrary to all S●…●●d ●●perience , whereby we are taught that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●●ing regenerate and made spirituall , as it is so , 〈◊〉 so farre from standing upon termes of indifferencie , deliberating whether it shall yeeld , or whether it shall denie obedience , whether it shall beleeve or not beleeve , &c. as on the contrary it doth most constantly and eatnestly desire in all things to obey alwayes . A man whose eye God hath truly inlightened and touched his heart by the finger of his sanctifying Spirit , doth not stand in a mammering , shall I , shall I ? shall I beleeve , shall I obey , were I best doe this good worke , or shall I let it alone ? No , all his desire is now for godlinesse , the weight and strength of his resolutions and affections leane wholy to obedience , his will chooseth the good with full purpose to cleave to that only , turning it selfe from evill with much hatred and detestation . This constant determination of the spirituall will unto obedience and that only , is a thing most manifest in Scriptures and experience of all the Saints , in their prayers , purposes , desires to obey , their joy when they could doe it , their griefe when they could not . Let thy kingdome come , thy will be done , is the prayer of every faithfull soule not standing upon quarrelsome termes of yeelding or refusing , but wholly submitting it selfe and suing for obedience . Oh , faith David , that my waies were directed that I might keepe thy testimonies , Vnite my heart unto thee that I may feare thy name , Incline mine heart unto thy testimonies ; with a thousand such prayers of that holy man , shewing the firme resolution of a sanctified soule only ayming at obedience . Lord increase our faith , prayed the weake Disciples , Lord I beleeve , helpe mine unbeliefe , that new convert ; in both we see an earnest desire , not an indifferent deliberation . That prayer of the whole Church is excellent , Psal. 68. 28. Lord confirme that which thou hast wrought in us ; and more fully , Cant. 1. 2. Draw mee , we will runne after thee . Here 's no resistency , no hanging backe , or standing aloofe off in a doubtfull devising what to doe ; but as soone as these Virgins ( in the first verse ) have smelt the favour of the pretious oyntments of Christs grace , poured out into their soules , they love him , him onely , him entirely , they 'le goe , they 'le run after him : and whereas corruption clogges them in their course , they still shew their readinesse to come , by their willingnesse to be drawne . And such is the temper of every regenerate man ; His obedience is his Hearts joy and desire , and there is nothing that grieves him more , than when he is carried away by his carnall will and unsanctified part , against his spirituall and gracious resolutions , as may appeare for all , by that bitter complaint of the Apostle , Rom. 7. the latter end of the Chapter . Wherefore the regenerate Will stands not Newter betweene sinne and grace , but takes part with grace against sin , in a constant resolvednesse to hold with God and Goodnesse , against all things that are contrarie to them , according to that of Christ , [ The Spirit indeede it willing , but the Flesh is weak ] and that of the Apostle [ They that live after the Spirit savour the things of the Spirit . ] Now this is that most blessed worke of the Spirit of grace in the regeneration of mans will , namely , the taking away of that resistency which our adversaries so stiffely and odiously stand for against us and the truth . They say that grace leaves the will in indifferency , so that it hath power to resist : we maintaine the contrary , that the proper worke of grace in sanctifying our will , is to determine and incline the motions of it onely to obedience , and to take away all power of resisting or disobeying . Which appeares thus , To disobey and not to beleeve is an act of the greatest sinfulnesse that can be . To be able to commit this act comes not from power and strength , but from weakenesse and infirmity : Perfect strength and liberty is to have no power nor will to commit any sinne at all , as it is in God , and the blessed Spirits , and Christs humanity ; to bee able to doe that which is evill is from weakenesse , from corruption . Now in the sanctified will this corruption is in part done away by grace : so that so farre as the will is made Spirituall , it neither doth nor can resist and be disobedient ; it doth not , because it cannot : it cannot , because it will not ; it will not , because by this new infused grace and holinesse it is made [ alwaies willing ] to obey . But this point is cleered by the late worthy Bishop of Salisbury . The second conclusion is this , 2. That a man regenerate , so far forth as bee is carnall , doth alwaies resist the worke of grace , being unwilling and backward to performe any holy action . This is manifest by that of the Apostle , Rom. 8. 5. They that are after the flesh savour the things of the flesh : and againe , Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit . In experience nothing is more certaine , even the best men in their best workes , and best temper , doe sensibly feele many twinges of a froward heart , crossing and interrupting their cheerefull performance of holy dueties . From which rebellion of the Law in our members against the Law in our mindes , the most sanctified man in the world is not free , but as long as he lives he hath cause to complaine with the holy Apostle , [ When I would doe good I am thus yoaked that Evill is present with mee . ] In this opposition of two contrary principles of all our good and evill actions , we have to observe these two things , 1. The necessity of the concurrence of Gods cooperating grace in all holy actions , to bee done after our first Conversion . For if God should give unto us a power only to doe well , by the infusion of Habituall grace , and then should leave us unto our selves for the exercise of the Act , it is apparant that we should never bring this power into Act by our own strength . For wheras we are sanctified but in part , and there remaines in every faculty a corrupt inclination to evill as well as an holy disposition to good , did not the Spirit of God constantly & powerfully assist us in well doing , Corruption would prevaile against Grace , & lead us captive unto the Law of sin that is in our members . Not that Corruption is stronger than Grace , but because we without the aide of Gods Spirit should be more ready to follow the sinfull motions of our corrupted nature , than the sanctified inclinations of grace . And if Adams will being only mutable , but not as yet tainted with any inward corruption , neverthelesse wanting the effectuall assistance and support of Gods grace , was so easily seduced by temptation : much more our Wills , that are holy but in part , would quickly bee enticed and drawne away by the deceiveablenesse of inward concupiscence , and by the subtilty of Sathans temptations , if the Spirit of God did not worke mightily in us ; repressing the motions of sinne , and ayding us against all outward provocations to disobedience . 2. The true cause and roote of that irregularitie which is found in the obedience of a regenerate man. Which is not that indifferencie or freedome our Adversaries contend for , whereby t is in the power of a man regenerate at all times to choose whether he will doe good or evill , but it is that opposition which the Flesh maketh against the Spirit : by reason whereof a regenerate man , when by Grace he constantly desires to obey , is by Corruption hindered in the performance This is plaine by that of the Apostle , Rom. 7. 19. 20. I doe not the good things which I would , but the evill which I would not , that doe I : Now if I doe that I would not , it is no more I that doe it , but the sinne that dwelleth in me . And againe , Gal. 5. 17. The flesh and spirit are contrary one to the other , so that yee cannot doe the same things that yee would . Whence it is manifest , that when a regenerate man failes in his obedience it comes not to passe because his will is free , and so willing to doe that which is evill , but because his will is not so free from the power of his corruption , as it desires to bee , but is partly in bondage under the command thereof . To conclude this point , There is in every regenerate man a possibility or power of Resistencie alwaies remaining so long as any corruption abides in him , which will perpetually make some opposition more or lesse in the performance of every good worke . But for the prevailing act of Resistency whereby such good workes might bee quite hindered , we affirme that by the power of assisting grace effectually ayding the regenerate Faculties , that act is taken away . The flesh may strive , but the spirit doth overcome : Infidelity may cast many doubts , but Faith at last prevailes : Sinne and the World may pleade much worth and lovelinesse , but yet in fine the love of God overtops all earthly base delights , and fills the soule with the only desire of enjoying that alone most blessed and infinite goodnesse . Thus Amaleck may fight , but Israell will get the victory : a victory indeed certaine in regard of the event , but with some uncertainty in the Combat , wherein Israell is sometime put unto the worst . For you are to note that albeit in the generall as touching those maine and principall Acts of beleeving , repenting , persevering in obedience , &c. grace doth work so effectually with mans regenerate will , that corruption cannot hinder it in the exercise of those Acts : neverthelesse , in many particular actions after his first conversion in the continued practice of Sanctification , hee may obey the enticings of his corrupt concupiscence , against the motions of the Spirit of grace . For many times in sundry particulars of Christian practice , God is pleased to denie that effectuall assistance which at other times he affords , and then he leaves us unto our owne strength , for experiment to trie what is in us , for humiliation in discovery of our weaknesse unto us , for exercise of Christian watchfulnesse in making diligent use of all gracious helpes , and the like good purposes . In which case , a man that is thus left unto himselfe , presently lends an eare to the deceivable suggestions of Sinne and Sathan , whereby , wanting a rescue to bring him off cleere in this assault , hee is vanquished and though with much unwillingnesse , led away a prisoner unto those his spirituall Adversaries . During the time of which bondage , though grace shew it selfe so farre , as to cause many an heavie sigh , an hearty prayer and longing wish after its former freedome , yet can he not make a faire escape from his corruption , till Gods spirit returne and bring li●… with 〈◊〉 , breaking the gates of Brasse , and cutting in sunder the barres of Iron , that is , enlarging the heart that it may againe freely runne the way of Gods Commandements . And thus we confesse that a regenerate man may resist the grace of God ; hee may a Quench the Spirit , hee may b Grieve the the Spirit , hee may c Depart away from God through an evill and deceitfull heart , he may d Rebell against the words of God , and contemne the counsell of the most high : opposing all motions of grace , in these raging fits of his corruption , which still furiously struggles for life after it is mortally wounded in our regeneration . But these desertions are not perpetuall : corruption may for a time let the exercise of some particular graces , but in all and alwayes it shall never hinder : God who hath given unto a regenerate man a power to beleeve by the changing of his will through the infusion of a constant inclination to all spirituall good , will also cause the Act of beleeving infallibly to ensue , by the assistance of Cooperating grace , so powerfully strengthening the regenerate will , and so effectually restraining the rebellious motions of corruption , that the will shall not choose but doe that , which above all things in the world it most desires to doe , namely , beleeve and obey the Gospell . Now to shut up all touching this point of Mans liberty in resisting the grace of God , the summe of all is this . Before true Conversion all unregenerate persons doe resist the gracious meanes and preparations to their Conversion , the Reprobate finally , the Elect for a time , till Grace become victorious in their perfect Sanctification . In this their first Conversion or Regeneration the Elect are no way Active either to worke it , or to hinder it . After their Conversion in the doing of all good workes immanent or transient , they resist not so farre as they are Spirituall , they cannot but resist so farre as they are Carnall . And though in time of temptation and Spirituall desertion the flesh doe not onely resist but also prevaile , to the hinderance of many particular gracious actions , yet for those maine and principall Acts of Faith , Repentance , Love of God , Hatred of Evill , &c. the Spirit is infallibly victorious both to doe them after the first Conversion , and also finally to persevere in doing of them . Which comes to passe thus , 1. By Habituall grace infused , the Sanctified will is constantly determined to embrace all Spirituall good . 2. By assisting grace the will is stirred up , provoked , allured and inclined to obedience , through the proposall of the promises , and the heavenly suggestions of the holy Spirit . 3. By the same assisting grace all contrary motions of concupiscence are subdued and kept under . So that nothing can hinder obedience to follow ; because by grace the will is made willing to obey , and by grace all impediments in obeying are taken away : now when all lets are removed , what can let a willing minde to doe that which it desires ? Hence you may perceive the vanity and odiousnesse of those imputations of Manicheisme and Stoicisme , which our adversaries the Iesuites and Arminians throw upon this Orthodoxe Doctrine , crying out upon us , as if we destroyed nature , offered violence to the will , tooke away all liberty from the will , and turned it in the meere necessity of those naturall instincts and inclinations that are in brute beasts : yea , as if wee made the will like a dull and senslesse blocke , that cannot move it selfe a jot in any action of grace . These are unworthie calumnies , raised out of malice or ignorance in the great worke of Sanctification : for refutation we neede but denie what they barely affirm● ; and tell them againe , that by our doctrine , grace doth not destroy but perfect nature . It takes not away but restores unto the will the true liberty thereof , which consists not in the instability of a Weather-cocke , to move any way , in an indifferency to will and do any thing , but in a fixed determination to will and doe nothing but what is good . Which determination is not from any violent compulsion of an externall Agent , as if the will were moved by grace unwillingly ; nor yet by imposing upon the will any naturall necessity from some internall principle , as if the will did incline to good unwillingly without reason and choice , like the naturall propensity in a stone to move downewards , or the instinct in brute beasts . No , this determination of the Will to will onely good , is from an internall cause , viz. Habituall Sanctity infused into it , after which infusion the will inclines it selfe immutably , yet freely to that alone which is Spiritually good . It cannot chuse but will it , yet it wills it freely : for to affirme that this immutable inclination to one part takes away all freedome from the will , is to deny that there is any freedome of will , eyther in unregenerate men and damned spirits whose wills are inclined onely to evill , yet they sin freely , or in God , in the elect Angells , in the Saints departed , in the manhood of Christ , all whose wills are immutably , infallibly and after a sort necessarily inclined onely to good , and yet they will it most freely without all force or Physicall necessity . The neerer we come unto these , the nigher we are unto * perfection in every faculty . And certainely most desirable is that necessity , or immutability , or servitude , or determination , or call it what you will , whereby our wills are so disposed as they cannot but choose the good , cannot but be servants of righteousnesse , cannot but endeavour alwaies to obey , cannot but be holy and happie . Who would thinke himselfe wrongd that is thus blest , or imprisoned that is thus restrained ? Surely it is admirable what strange benefit these Iesuited Arminians have found out in that property of mans will , which so fiercely they strive for , namely , that it must alwaies bee indifferently disposed to good and evill , having an equall power to will both alike . Is this so rare a priviledge of nature ? what , such an excellent vertue to be able to commit an horrible offence , to disobey the Gospell , to despise Gods grace , to bee a slave to sinne , to doe enough at any time to damne ones selfe ? call we this a prerogative of Nature , and is it worth so much contention as hath beene made for it ? They deserve to enjoy it that are so much in love with it . But you are to know that this pertinacity in pleading for Natures prerogatives , is nothing but a cunning pretence to debase the dignity of grace , and to arme man against God in all pride and contumacy , as if wee could frustrate his works , and bring his counsells to nought , and that if we doe obey when hee calls us , wee may triumph in our strength , if we doe not obey , we may yet glory in our malice , whereby wee could make voide Gods holy intentions of doing us good . But how happy had it beene for those collapsed Angells , and for all Adams posterity , had his and their wills beene created with that immutable inclination to goodnesse , wherein the Elect Angells and Saints departed are now confirmed ? And how happy shall we also be , when wee shall bee able to obey as those heavenly Spirits now doe willingly , constantly , unchangeably , having neyther will nor power to disobey ? This service of God alone is perfect freedome ; and if the Sonne make us but in this sort free , then are we free indeede . Let us while we here goe mourning under the burden of our flesh , and that sinne which hangeth on so fast , let 's often send up a wish , a prayer to Heaven for the full accomplishment of our redemption : sighing within our selves , and waiting till we also be delivered from the bondage of that remainder of corruption in us , into that glorious freedom of the Sons of God. Amen . Wee have , by the grace of God , finished the first point that in the beginning I proposed touching the Antecedents of Faith ; namely our Vocation and Conversion unto God. Wherein hath beene shewed at large by what meanes and in what manner a sinner is made partaker of the grace of God unto salvation . In which search , I have endevoured to goe no further than I could see the Scriptures lead me the way : contenting my selfe with that knowledge of this secret and wonderfull worke of Grace , which might be to you and mee most profitable : letting passe those curious speculations which have beene conceived touching these things by men that have discovered more willingnesse to dispute and quarrell , than good affection to learne or teach ought aright in so holy a businesse . My ayme herein hath beene , to let you see what is the originall and generation of that most pretious grace of Faith , whereof we are to speake . The summe of all that hath beene more at large delivered , is thus much in briefe : that Sanctification or inherent Grace is at the first wrought in the soule of an elect sinner , meerely and only by the Spirit of God infusing into the soule new abilities and perfections in each power thereof . This worke of the Spirit is such , that wee cannot by any worth of ours deserve it , wee cannot by any inward power of our owne effect it in part , or in whole : lastly , we cannot by any liberty and strength wee have so forcibly resist as to hinder Gods spirit when he intends to worke it . Now of this our Sanctification , Faith is a part , being an inherent gracious quality infused into the soule at our effectuall Conversion or Regeneration . For its originall therefore it is Divine , being wrought in us by an immediat action of the spirit of Grace , and not any way springing from the liberty of our wils , or strength of our corrupted nature . We are then now by the assistance of God , to come unto the explication of the nature of Faith it selfe , to shew you what this grace is , wherein the Being thereof doth consist . An inquiry it is full of much difficulty ; but the absolute necessity and singular profit of this knowledge must inforce every one of us to use the uttermost of all godly diligence in searching out the nature of so glorious and usefull a Grace as Faith is . The whole frame of Christianity turnes upon this hinge ; Faith like blood runnes thorough every veine of the wholebody of Religion , it gives life and direction to every holy action , it s the staffe of our strength , the support of all our comfort , yea , the life of our soules lies upon it , and by it the just shall live or by nothing . Wherefore it concernes us neerely both to know what it is , and when we know it , to be sure that we our selves have it . Not to have Faith , is to want Christ and all hope of happinesse : not to know what Faith is , is a strong presumption of not having Faith. The Apostle concludes both in that exbortation of his to the Corinthians , 2 Cor. 13. 5. wherewith we also ought to be admonished ; Prove your selves whether you are in the faith : examine your selves , know yee not your owne selves , that Iesus Christ is in you except yee be reprobates ? To come then to the unfolding of the essence of Christian Faith : I shall begin at the lowest step thereof , and so by degrees ascend higher . 1. In the first place shewing unto you the nature of Faith or Beliefe in generall , as this word is taken in the largest extent in relation to all civill or naturall things . 2. In the next place explaining the meaning of this word Faith as it is used in speciall about Divine and Supernaturall things declared to us in Scriptures . The opening of the nature of Beliefe in generall will give much light for the understanding of the speciall consideration thereof : therefore I begin with that first : Not to trouble you with reckoning up all the improper acceptions of this word Fides , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and to tell you that sometime it is taken for Fidelity or Trustinesse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as when a thing is done or spoken bonafide , faithfully or trustily , and in that exclamation Vestram fidem ! &c. sometimes for Arguments or Proofes , from Reason or Authority brought to breed beliefe in another , which acception is usuall in Rhetoritians , Arist. 1. Rhet. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Quintil. l. 5. cap. 10. Haec omnia [ argumenta ] generaliter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant , &c. Faith or Beliefe in the proper acception of the word , is [ an Assent to such matters a● are knowne only by Revelation from another . ] This definition agrees to beliefe as it is taken in the largest sense : the Genus i● Assent , the difference is taken from the object whereto Assent is yeelded , and that is such things as wee understand onely by anothers revelation . Both parts will be plainly understood , if we distinguish between three sorts of knowledge [ Cognitionis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] that are incident unto man : 1. The first is Scientia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Knowledge properly so called , which is bred in us by the evident certainety of things presented unto our reason or sense . When wee understand such principles and conclusions in all arts and sciences as are demonstrable by evident and infallible reason , or when we know such particulars as come under our senses when they are rightly disposed . 2. The second is Opinio , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Opinion , an imperfect knowledge of things not cleerely presented unto reason or sense ; when we apprehend things in part and obscurely , so that wee cannot absolutely say t is this or t is that . 3. The third is Fides , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Beliefe , which is a knowledge grounded on testimony and authority of others , when wee assent to those things whereof by our owne sense and reason we have no certainety nor evidence , only we beleeve them , because such and such have told us they are so . These three divers apprehensions of things wee expresse in formes of speech agreeable ; the first , when we say , I know this to be so : the second thus , I thinke it is so : the last in this , I beleeve it is so . A great difference there is betweene these three apprehensions of the understanding as every one may easily discerne : but more cleerly thus it stands . 1. Knowledge whether it be of things past , present , or to come , hath evermore certainety in the subject , and evidence in the object accompanying it . For the things that are knowne must bee alwaies apparant to the senses or to the understanding . To the senses by the proportionablenesse of the qualities in the Object , and due application of them to the Organ . To the understanding by the bright light of reason shining in the things themselves . Wherefore the Object of knowledge is evermore evident , and being thus evident and apparant , the apprehension thereof in the Subject , by the sense and understanding must needs bee cleere and most distinct : whence ariseth such an assent unto the truth of the thing , as is most firme and certaine , excluding all doubting whatsoeuer : as for instance , that the Fire is hot , the Water moist , the Sunne light , that , Quicquid dicitur vel negatur de Vniversali , dicitur vel negatur de Particulari , & , Quae conveniunt in uno tertio , inter se conveniunt , with the like ; these things are evident , making such a lively impression upon the senses , and so cleerly discovering their reasonablenesse to the understanding , that we strongly assent unto their truth without all doubting . 2. Opinion is contrary unto knowledge , and alwayes hath uncertainetie in the Subject , and inevidence in the Object , attending on it . For some things there are of their owne nature uncertaine and contingent , whereof our best knowledge is but a doubtfull conjecture : as that a red evening and a gray morning should bring a faire day . Againe , those things that are in themselves certaine enough and necessary , yet unto us they will be but onely probable and conjecturall , if either our senses through weakenesse and distemper perceive them not throughly , or our understanding doe not cleerely apprehend the nature and reason of them . Whence it followes , that for want of cleere evidence in the things themselves , our assent unto their truth will be alwayes wavering & doubtfull , without any fixed determination to embrace any side resolvedly , but so holding it selfe to that part which for the present seemes most probable , as that it is ready to shift it selfe unto the other side , when better reason shall bee discovered . 3. Beliefe partly agrees , partly differs both from the one and the other : for it partakes but of one property , namely , certainety in the Subject , though very variable , but never of evidence in the Object . Both shall appeare unto you in order . For the Object of beliefe it may bee certaine and necessary in it selfe , but quâ tale it is never evident to the beleever . For evident , as I said before , those things onely are which by their owne proper qualitie and light worke a cleere apprehension of themselves in the senses , or understanding , or both . Now such things are not beleeved but knowne : as for instance , what wee see , heare , touch , taste , or smell by these senses orderly disposed , we doe not say we beleeve it , but we know it , as that the Fire is hot , the Water cold . He that relates unto mee an accident that himselfe hath seene , He knowes it , but I that heare him , doe beleeve it . Againe , things that wee understand by manifest and infallible reason , those also we know , we doe not beleeve : as for example , If an Astronomer foretell an Eclipse to fall out an hundred years hence , hee doth not beleeve , but he knowes this effect will ensue by the infallible motion of the Heavens : but an unlearned man that findes this in an Ephemerides , hee onely beleeves it . But now that which is the Object of Beliefe , so farre as it is the Object thereof , doth not fall under the cleere apprehension either of sense or understanding , by its owne naturall light . For things beleeved are of three sorts , Past , Present , or to Come . Of things Past before we were , and of things to Come , t is not possible for us to get any knowledge from the things themselves , by our sense or reason , unlesse it be Astronomicall demonstrations , as was touched before , or such Physicall effects as depend upon necessary connexion of their causes . Touching things Present , but yet farre removed out of the reach of sense , and eye of reason , as what is now done in forraine Countries : there is the same impossibility of knowledge by the proper evidence of the things themselves . In every one of these our sense utterly failes us , & our reason which begins at sense , failes us also ; and cannot supply the defect of sense by a necessary deduction of one thing out of another : and therefore it is impossible for us to get the knowledge of these things otherwise than by history and records of times past , by discourse and relation of things present from such as have seene and knowne them , by predictions of things to come . Wherein though we may understand , and that cleerely enough , what is recorded , discoursed of , and foretold , yet will the truth of these things be alwaies inevident to us , unlesse our owne sense or reason could also comprehend them . As for instance , when wee reade any part of the Romane History , as the description of the battell at Cannae , in Livie , wee understand perfectly what he saith , and we beleeve it also : but unto no mortall man was the truth of this accident , evident , but only to such as were then living , who felt and saw that calamity of the Romane state . So , when a traveller reports unto us what he hath seene in forraine parts ; we understand what he saith , and doe haply beleeve him , but nothing of all that he saith is evident unto us , till wee our selves have seene the same things as well as he . Take it then Vniversally thus : All Objects of Beliefe are known only by the relation and telling of another . But no relation of any thing which another makes unto me , can make the thing related evident unto me , i. e. so to represent it to my senses and understanding , that my apprehension of it should be the same with his that hath had the experimentall knowledge of it . Let a man describe unto another the fashion of some stately building , or the situation of some Citty which he hath seene , though he doe it in the most lively maner that may be possible , yet can heenever turne his Auditor into a Spectator , and make the thing he describes evident to his apprehension , unlesse by his discourse he were able to communicate unto him his owne eyes . So the most exquisite discourse of some point of Philosophy made unto a yongue auditor in that science , cannot make the point evident unto him , unlesse the reader could with his words convay his owne understanding into his hearer . Such descriptions and discourses can only effect thus much , that the hearer shall frame unto himselfe a more lively imagination of things related to him : but yet till his owne eies , and his owne reason have fully informed him by immediat experiments from the thing it selfe , that imagination or conceit cannot make the thing truly evident . And in that case . let a man ( for example ) that hath never seene the King , but only heard him discribed , or seene his picture , let him compare that imagination which he hath of him by those meanes , with that other which the very beholding of his person will cause in his minde : and he shall manifestly perceive that our knowledge of things which wee get by anothers relation , falls wonderfully short of that other knowledge which is bred in us by the proper evidence of the things themselves : and that the difference is great betweene the knowing of a thing per speciem propriam , as the seeing of a living face , and the knowing of the same thing per speciem alienam , as the seeing of a liuely picture . Hitherto of that property wherein Beliefe and Knowledge doe differ , namely , evidence of the object , Knowledge is an assent to things evident , Beliefe an assent to things inevident . The other property followes , wherein Beliefe agrees with Knowledge and differs from Opinion , and that is Certainty in the Subject . For in Opinion the Assent is alwaies uncertaine , and if not equally indifferent , yet inclinable to either side , even when its most strongly carried toward one . But in Beliefe the Vnderstanding passes over its assent and approbation unto the truth of one part , whereupon it fixeth and resteth it selfe . And therefore that definition of Beliefe , which Suidas hath , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Vehemency of Opinion , or a vehement Opinion , comes farre short of truth and exactnesse : for even a vehement opinion hath alwaies uncertainetie of Assent necessarily joyned with it : but it is not so in Beliefe , wherein , as in Knowledge , the Assent may be certaine without all doubting . Now of this wee are to enquire , what those grounds are whereon men build the Certaintie of their Assent in matters of Beliefe , they are these three : 1. The Authority of the Speaker . 2. The Consequence of things spoken , in regard of some good or evill in it of great moment , that concernes us . 3. Some Eperiment in part of the truth of that which is related . According to the diversitie of these three things , our Beliefe increaseth more or lesse in certaintie and strength of Assent : which appeares thus ; 1. For the speakers authoritie , two things there are that win credit unto his testimony : 1. Wisdome and Skill that he be not deceived himselfe . 2. Fidelity and Honesty that he will not deceive us . Both these are needfull , for neither doe wee beleeve a simple man though honest : nor yet will we trust a wise man , if he be not honest . But when wee have a full perswasion of a mans wisedome and faithfulnesse by experience formerly had in other things , then we give full credit to his words . 2. The nature of the thing much alters the strength of our beliefe : for if it be a slight matter , that toucheth us not with any apprehension of speciall delight or commodity , benefit or danger redounding to our selves , be the relation of it never so true , and our understanding of it cleere enough , yet we heed not the matter much , nor doth the minde fixe it selfe upon it in any settled and firme assent . But if the matter bee of some great consequence that touches us neerely , we beleeve , as sooner , so with more strength and intention of assent . What we much desire or greatly feare , we easily beleeve , and though our apprehension of it be not very cleere , yet we are willing even to force upon our selves a perswasion of it . 3. Experiment also in part doth greatly adde unto the strength of our beliefe . A story or prophesie whereof we evidently know some part to be true , we doe more easily and firmely beleeve the rest . A learner that heares a discourse of some conclusion in Nature or Morality , if he perceive some part of the truth evidently , he is the more willingly induced to assent unto his teacher in all the rest . One or two conclusions throughly understood , marvellously strengthen our assent to the truth of those that we doe not as yet comprehend . Where all these meet together , there beliefe is firme and certaine : so farre as any failes , so much is our assent weakned . But of the three , the authority of the speaker is the chiefest , whose wisedome and fidelity certainely knowne unto us , will move us to a certaine beliefe of those things , wherein we apprehend no great matter of consequence , nor discerne any evidence of the truth at all : whereas if one that hath neither wit nor honesty tell us of a matter of greatest moment , wherof we also see the probability and truth in part , yet doth he not perswade us to beliefe , though he may move us to a strong suspicion . Thus then you see that assent , being the approbation of the truth of any thing , is common to Knowledge , Opinion and Beliefe : but with this difference , In exact Knowledge our assent is alwaies firme and unremoveable , in Opinion t is alwaies wavering and mutable , in Beliefe t is certaine , but more or lesse according to the different concurrence of those three forenamed grounds . Now out of that which I have spoken , let these two conclusions be carefully observed : 1. That all Knowledge is more certaine than Beliefe , which rule you must understand in things of the same kind , not of divers , thus : He that most firmely beleeves any truth upon the former grounds , is not yet so certaine of it as hee that perfectly knowes it ; as a Countri-man who strongly beleeves that the Sunne or least Starre is bigger than the whole Earth , upon the affirmation of a learned and honest Mathematician , is not yet so certaine of it as when afterward he knowes it by infallible demonstration . But now in divers kindes our beliefe of some things may bee more certaine than our knowledge of others : as our beliefe of divine things upon Gods testimony , may be more certaine than the knowledge of humane things by the light of our reason ; because our understanding hath alwaies this prejudice , that in the generall it may possibly erre , but Gods Word cannot erre at all . 2. That perfect Knowledge takes away all Beliefe : that is , ( for so you must understand it ) perfect knowledge of any thing excludes all beliefe of the same thing : otherwise , perfect knowledge in one thing may helpe our beliefe in another , and knowledge in part of the same thing , doth much strengthen our beliefe of the other part . But here in this opposition betweene knowledge and beliefe , your must alwayes remember what knowledge wee meane , namely Scientiam Intuitivam , or per Visionem , that knowledge which is had by beholding things in their proper nature : but not Scientiam Disciplinarem , or per Revelatione● , that knowledge which is got by discourse and relation of others . And so these two propositions , [ We beleeve what we know not ] and [ We beleeve what we know ] are not opposite each to other : for t is true , we beleeve that which we do not know , namely , by the proper and immediate sight of the things themselves : and t is true also , we beeleeve that which we doe know , viz. by relation , which so far forth represents to us the nature of the thing related , as that we are not ignorant what it is we doe beleeve . Where it must also be observed that the difference is great between these two sorts of knowledge , in regard of the assent that is given to matters thus known . Knowledge that is by Vision or Intuition of things that are presented to the sense or understanding in their proper evidence , inforceth assent unto the things knowne . For in this case the apprehension of the thing is so cleere , that the understanding cannot but approve the truth of it . And therefore the Colledge of the Sceptikes of old , was little better than a Society of fools , and their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Perpetuall doubtfulnesse of all things was somewhat worse than madnes , when they would not assent that they saw the Sunne shine when they looked on it , nor that the fire was hot , when they felt it burne , nor would be certaine of any principles or conclusions in reason & nature . And such was Anaxagoras his dull , melancholy , or wilfull frenzy to maintaine in good sadnesse , that the snow was blacke . For such is the naturall assinity between evident truth and our understanding , that though wee would , yet wecannot but subscribe and yeeld our allowance and assent unto it . Whence it falls out many times , that a Vsurer , a Chuch-robber , or some other not willing to leave this or that course , though doubtfull whether lawfull or not , dares not for his life read such or such a booke written on those subjects , for feare lest he should bee made to know more than hee is content to practise , and that his conscience should bee convicted in spight of his will. But now t is not so in that other knowledge by relation : let a thing be never so plainly delivered , so that we fully conceive the meaning of that which is spoken , yet if neyther our owne sense nor reason doe convince us , we * may choose whether or no we will beleeve and assent unto it , embracing it for a truth . It is the very naturall property of man , never to be satisfied with others reports , till we our selves have seene and knowne the thing it selfe by evident experience . Draw the liveliest picture of any man , the most curious landship of any country , it contents not , wee must see both the one and other . Set downe the most tried experiments in nature taken by most skilfull Artists , this pleases not others till their owne triall confirm them . Generally , every man would faine see with his owne eies , heare with his owne eares , understand by his owne , not another mans reason . In which inclination of nature lies the originall of all the distrust and diffidence that is in the world , and also the cause of those restlesse inquiries which we make one after another into the same things . Whence it comes to passe that whilst we are bul●ed in examining our forefathers inventions , and posterity also imployed in making triall of our examinations , neither we nor they have much time to adde any thing unto the increase of learned knowledge . Hence also may we ghesse at one cause why many Sciences , even for some thousands of yeares have kept one pitch , and not growne above that dwarfish stature they had in their infant invention : and also what the reason is why many that reade most , prove not the deepest schollars ; for no greater impediment to exact learning , than to make use of other mens understandings , and neglect our owne . It would also hence appeare , that History , a pleasant and profitable imploiment , is yet of all studied learning the weakest to give full satisfaction to the minde of man : because that depends wholly upon such grounds of truth , as mans minde desires not to depend upon at all , namely , anothers tongue , eyes , and eares . And it is observable , that very usually those that are of credulous and passive understandings , least able to imploy their owne strength in painfull and attentive inquiries after knowledge , such doe not unwillingly apply their diligence to that course of study , But I am very sensible , that hitherto you may judge my Discourse hath had more Philosophy than Divinitie in it . If it be an errour in this place , I confesse it : and crave your pardon for it : only thus much let me say , that I could not tell well how to avoide this generall consideration of the nature of Beleefe , in regard that the knowledge thereof will cleere our passage to that which followes . You have then heard what evidence there is in the object of Beliefe , what certainty in the assent given to it , how it differs , how it agrees with Knowledge . There remaines but one thing more to be cleered in the Generall , and then I have done with it . Beliefe was at first defined to bee an [ Assent to things knowne by revelation ] : but now yee are further to know , that all assent is not of the same kinde and degree , but differs according to the diversitie of the Objects assented unto . Therefore we must observe , that of the Objects of Beliefe 1. Some are represented unto us only as True and Good in themselves , without any speciall relation to our benefit and commoditie . Vnto such things , whether past , present , or to come , the understanding and will of Man doe yeeld that common assent and approbation , whereby they allow of the Ttuth and Goodnesse of every thing , that is apprehended by them as true and good in what kinde soever it be . This is called a bare assent , or Credulitas ; Beliefe in strict termes , when wee only beleeve t is good and true , and goe no further . 2. Some are revealed unto us not only as True and Good in themselves , but more specially as contayning some excellent truth and goodnesse that concernes us in regard of some benefit that wee shall get thereby . In these things our assent is with adherence , affiance , trust , and dependance upon the thing revealed . For as in generall all Truth and Goodnesse drawes the faculties of the soule to an approbation of them when they are knowne , so much more doth the goodnesse and truth of those things , which are proportionable to our nature and necessities , wherein we may claime speciall interest and commodity , unite our wills and understanding in strong assent and adherence unto them . This kinde of assent is in strict termes called Faith or Trust , Fides , Fiducia , which imply much more than Credulitas , Beliefe . Fidere in the property of the word is a degree beyond Credere , importing an assent with reliance and confidence . Now the proper object of this assent is nothing but Promises of some good hereafter to befall us . And promises are never beleeved , unlesse they bee trusted upon : as a Captive cannot be said to beleeve him that promiseth to ransome him upon a day , unlesse he trust and depend upon him . In which case we cannot distinguish betweene Beleefe and Trust , a Fidem and Fiduciam , to make them two severall Acts , which are but one and the same ; as is manifest thus , A promise is a revelation of some such truth as shall be beneficiall to me in particular . b The truth of such a promise consists in the certaintie of performance . The goodnesse of the promise consists in the qualitie of the thing promised more or lesse excellent . But now to trust ( fiduciam ponere , fidem habere ) upon a promise is not to beleeve the goodnesse of the thing promised ( for that often is knowne perfectly enough ) but to bebeleeve the Certaintie of Performance of it unto me : as for instance , if a rich man promise to pay a poore mans debts , the poore man needs not beleeve the goodnesse of the promise , for he well knowes the benefit thereof . What then must hee beleeve ? The truth of it : where in stands that ? in the performance , that the rich man will certainly doe for him what he hath said . Now what is this else but to trust him ? So that Beliefe and Trust or Affiance are here essentially one and the same thing . Thus much of Faith or Beliefe taken in its largest extent , I come in the next place to the Speciall consideration of Faith , as the word is Christian , applied unto Divine and Supernaturall matters , revealed in the Scriptures . Faith in this use of the word hath a double acception : 1. Improper , and so it is taken three wayes . 1. For the object of Faith , the things beleeved , either 1. Generally , for the whole doctrine of faith delivered in Scriptures , as 1 Tim. 4. 1. In the latter times some shall depart from that Faith , and shall give heed to spirits of error and doctrines of Divells . See many the like place , 1 Tim. 3. 9. Gal. 3. 2. & 1. 23. Act. 6. 7. Iud. vers . 3. 2. Specially for Christ himselfe the chiefe object of Faith. Gal. 3. 23. before Faith came , id est , Christ ; compared with ver . 19. 24. 25. 2. For the externall profession of Faith and Religion , as , Rom. 1. 8. Your Faith is published throughout the whole world . See Act. 14. 22. 3. For that vertue which we call Fidelity or Faithfulnesse in words or deeds , whether it be in God , Rom. 3. 3. shall their unbeliefe make the Faith of God without effect ? or in Man , Tit. 2. 10. that they may shew all good faith or faithfulnesse [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ] This of the word taken improperly : the next acception of it is , 2. Proper ; where to give such a description of Faith , as may comprise in generall termes all the degrees therof , it may be fitly defined thus [ Faith is an assent given by the reasonable creature to the truth and goodnesse of all divine revelations ] . The termes of this definition are large , and require a diligent explication , that we may with more facility attaine our chiefe intent , in judging aright of the nature of saving or justifying Faith. Wherefore in the definition I prove three things to be considered of it : 1. The Object of Faith [ divine Revelations . ] 2. The Subject of Faith [ the Reasonable creature . ] 3. The Genus of it viz. [ Assent . ] Of the nature and properties of these in that order I have proposed . ¶ 1. The compleat Object of Faith is , All divine Revelations of whatsoever things the Creator shall make knowne unto the reasonable creature . These Revelations are of two sorts . 1. Some immediate from God himselfe , by vision , dreame , or other secret but infallible suggestion . Such revelations of divine things were made unto the Prophets , Apostles , and other holy men of God : who as they beleeved certainly the thing revealed , so they knew infallibly the truth of the revelation it selfe , that it was from God and not an illusion of Satan or their owne braine . If you aske me how they knew it , as when the Word of God is said to come unto any one of the Prophets , telling them inwardly what they should preach or answer in such or such a businesse , or when Saint Paul indited one of his Epistles , how did he or they know that the thoughts which then came into their mindes , were from immediate worke of the holy Ghost ? I answer , t is not possible for any man to describe the manner of it , unlesse himselfe had been acquainted with the like Revelations . But this is certaine , God-where he comes , makes himselfe knowne , and such were the lively characters of heavenly majesty , brightnesse , and cleernesse imprinted on those Revelations , that mortall mindes were infallibly ascertained of their Divinity . Yea Balaam himselfe , though he could have wished with all his heart not to have knowne or beleeved those revelations that so unkindly crost his hope of preferment : yet when once the [ a Spirit of God comes upon him , ] he utters his parable with this preface , [ b Balaam the son of Beor hath said , and the man whose eies are open hath said , Hee hath said which heard the words of God , which saw the vision of the Almighty , falling into a trance , but having his eies open . ] He that was at other times driven by the divell into furious motions of mind procured by spells & inchantments , is now as forcibly moved [ c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] or borne away by the power of the holy Ghost , who in this revelation makes so cleere a discovery and strong impression of divine truth in the minde of Balaam , that the Wizard d cannot but speake what he knowes and beleeves , though it quite undoe his owne desire of Greatnesse , and Balacks hope of Victory . Whence also this rule followes generally true , That where the revelation is infallibly knowne to be of God , there will be a firme assent to the truth of the things revealed * Now we are further to note , that upon such immediate revelations and suggestions of the Spirit , is grounded that Faith which is usually stiled , the Faith of working miracles . A gift proper to the primitive times of the Church , bestowed then on many for the better establishment of the Gospell among unbeleeving Gentiles or Iewes . Though the words of the Promise runne largely , Marc. 16 , 17. yet it seemes not likely that every private true beleever had this priviledge , but rather that it was bestowed on such as * were Preachers and Publishers of the Gospell for confirmation of their doctrine . And amongst them t was given not onely to the truely faithfull beleever , but to others also , as appears by Iudas to whom this power was given as well as to the rest of the twelve , Matt. 10 1. and in many other reprobate , Matt. 7. 22. Lord , Lord , have wee not by thy name prophesied , & c ? The proper ground of this faith and assurance of working some miraculous effect , was the speciall and particular suggestion of the spirit . Other motives there were further off ; as the generall perswasion of Gods omnipotency , the beliefe of that promise which Christ made to his Disciples , Matt. 17. 20. [ Verily I say unto you , if yee have Faith as a graine of mustard-seed , yee shall say unto this mountaine , remove hence to yonder place , and it shall remove , and nothing shall be impossible to you . ] but more specially that larger promise hee made at his Ascension , Mark. 16. 17. 18. [ And these signes shall follow them that beleeve : in my name they shall cast out divells , they shall speake with new tongues : They shall take up Serpents , and if they drinke any deadly thing it shall not hurt them : they shall lay their hands on the sicke and they shall recover . ] But these grounds were not sufficient to give assurance of performing this or that miraculous act , without a speciall and particular suggestion of the Holy Ghost , informing them inwardly both touching the time when , and matter wherin they should worke a Miracle . For as all beleevers had not that power , so such as had it , could not doe wonders when and in what kinde they pleased : but were to expect a speciall warrant and direction from the Spirit ; like unto Peter , who , though a faithfull beleever , yet durst not venture upon a miraculous attempt of walking dry-shod upon the water , without a speciall word from Christ , bidding of him come unto him in that manner , Matt. 14. 28. 29. In these times , wherein this speciall direction ceaseth , and also miracles have no use ( unlesse for conversion of a Countrey where the Gospell hath never beene preached , ) this gift also is ceased . Thus much of the first sort of Revelations to bee beleeved : the other followes . 2. Some Mediate , delivered from God , by others , unto us . Such were the answers & Sermons which the Prophets and Apostles made by word of mouth unto the people , such is now unto us the whole written word of God , which is now the only ordinary object of our Faith. Now touching the Scriptures , wee are to enquire how farre things revealed in them may be knowne , how farre they must bee beleeved . You have heard before the difference betweene Knowledge and Beliefe ; that is an assent to things evident , this , to things not-evident : therefore seeing those things that are written are generally the object of our faith , wee must diligently examine what evidence there is to bee found in these things , or whether any at all ; that so wee may know what to judge of that assertion of our adversaries the Papists , who make obscuritie one essentiall property of Faith. In the opening of this question , Whether things revealed in Scriptures be evident to Mans understanding , let these distinctions be observed in the first place , 1. The Scriptures containe in them matters of three sorts , viz. 1. Precepts and Declarations of the doctrines of Religion , whether in the higher mysteries thereof , as of the Trinitie , Incarnation of Christ , &c or in other inferiour points of Sanctification , Piety , and morall Practice . And unto this head may be referred all such discourses of naturall things as are found in the Scripture ; as of the windes , thunder , &c. 2. Histories of matters of Fact past and gone , as of the Creation , Fall of Man , the Floud , &c. 3. Predictions of things to come hereafter , whether they be meerely Propheticall , or withall doe containe some speciall Promise or Threatning concerning those to whom the prediction is made . 2. There is a twofold Evidence , 1. One of the Narration , when it is made in Words and Sentences , so plaine & perspicuous , that the Vnderstanding conceives cleerely what the Speaker or Writen meanes . 2. Another of the thing it selfe that is related , when either our senses doe plainely perceive it , if it be a thing sensible , or our understandings doe manifestly behold the truth and reason of it , if it bee only intelligible . This distinction is most manifest in all discourses , and specially in Mathematickes , where the meaning of a Proposition or Probleme may be cleerely understood , what is to bee knowne or done , before one jot of the Demonstration be understood , how and wherefore it must be so . 3. Wee must distinguish of Mans understanding in a twofold estate ; 1. Of Naturall corruption , as it attaines no further light of knowledge than that which may be gotten by the ordinary gift of God in the course of a learned education , and painefull studie of Humanity and Divinity for such ends as men propose unto themselves . 2. Of Grace and Regeneration , when the Vnderstanding is inlightened ; and the eyes of the minde opened to discerne of spirituall things according to their spirituall nature . Herein also lies a great difference , because all things that are inevident to a man unregenerate , are not so to the regenerate . These things thus distinguished , let us set downe the truth touching this point in some few conclusions , which follow : 1. All things revealed in the Scriptures , whether they be Doctrinall , Historicall , or Propheticall , may be knowne in the evidence of the Narration , not only by such as are truly sanctified , but by those also , who , remaining unregenerate , enjoy only the benefit of common illumination . This conclusion is to be observed against that injurious accusation wherewith those of the Romish Church have standered God and his written Word , that the Bible is an obscure booke not to be understood . A fond and impious conceit , if ever any were . The Scriptures are obscure , say they , but to whom trow yee ? To their learned Clergie and illuminated Doctors ? No , they can understand them well enough , they are able to reconcile all seeming contradictions , to reduce all tropes and figures to their plaine meaning , to note the various acceptions of words , to dive into all hidden mysteries of the text , and over and above the just meaning finde out many spirituall senses of it , that the author never thoughton . This they can doe ; and for witnesse of it , we have of their owne writing infinite volumnes both of Controversed Divinitie decided , if wee beleeve them , by Scripture rightly understood , and also of Commentaries upon the text , which testifie unto us as no small painfulnesse in searching out , so much peremptorinesse in defining the true sense of the most Difficult places of Scriptures . And surely well they may bee confident , having besides their owne and others wits , the helpe of the Popes infallibilitie , in which respect one would thinke they should now make an end of writing , or at least of jarring one with another in their opinions and interpretations . For may we not thinke that the Popes are very uncharitable who being endued with an infallible Spirit , doe not sitting at ease in their chaire compile at last an absolute Commentary upon the Bible , after which no Iesuite of them all should dare to vent his owne private opinions ? or it may bee t is bashfulnesse in the Friers not to trouble his Holinesse about so small a tri●●e as is the right meaning of Scriptures , unlesse we say , that the Romish Apollo is not at leisure to utter Oracles from his trivet , unto every poore Frier that intends to trouble the world with a new booke . Here questionlesse is a great fault , but let them take it among them : meane while wee see their owne practice confuting their owne opinion of the Scriptures obscurity , unlesse they will give us leave to thinke , that all their preaching , disputing and writing hath beene about they know not what . But , ( say they ) the Scriptures for all this are obscure to the Laity ! And are they so ? whose fault is that but the Clergies ? whose duty it was if pride and lazinesse would have given leave , to have seene their people better instructed . If Scriptures are plaine unto themselves , why did they not make them plaine unto others ? or must we in earnest speak that of the Romish Clergy , which Iob doth of his friends in derision [ No doubt but they are the people , and wisedome shall die with them ; ] as for the poore snakes , the Laickes , they , simple soules , have not wit enough to understand the meaning of plaine words . To such their proud contempt of Gods people , we may with indignation oppose that of Iob , Even these have understanding as well as they , yea & are not inferior unto the greatest part of them , unlesse they could give the world better proofe of their deeper wisdomes . But what if they be inferior ? are the Scriptures obscure , because some things are hard to be understood by the ignorant and unstable mindes ? So we might say of the plainest book that ever was written of Logick , that t is obscure , because a fresh man doth not understand it . It is no prejudice to the cleernesse and perspicuity of the Declaration , that there be some things in it which are hard to be conceived by some men at some times . We doe not account the prophecy of Esay touching Christ which the Eunuch read , to be a darke and obscure prediction , but we know t was cleer and plaine enough , though the Eunuch a raw proselyte understood not the meaning of it . T is much we cannot be as charitably minded of the Scriptures , as we are of other bookes in our ordinary studies , wherin when we find some things difficult , we can suspect our selves rather than the author , & when afterward we understand him , we doe not censure him of obscurity , but blame our owne dulnesse , that could not apprehend things plainely enough expressed . And me thinkes the Iesuites might be content to give God Almighty leave to write but even as men of greatest understanding do , namely , to comprise much matter in few words . They might know that in such writing , ( and such is the stile of all the Scripture ) things may be expressed very distinctly and properly , which yet cannot ●●ply be understood at first reading , but after some study . In which case t were a reasonable thing for our adversaries to perswade the world that the Bible were at least as easie a book as some humane author , and that the abundant riches of knowledge in it did by the least deserve as much paines in the search of it , as a piece of Aristotle , some hard Poet , on some intricate crabbed scholasticall discourse of some Iesuite . Did they not greatly mistrust the discovery of their owne errors by such an insinuation of Scriptures facility , they would never discourage their disciples from them , and yet exhort them to the study of many an obscurer author . For our selves , we have learned better things , than to bring God in suspicion with man of envie and fraud , as if hee had caused a word to be written for instruction of men which they should not understand , and in it had laid a snare to intrappe mens soules in Heresie and false opinions , by perverting the Scriptures to their owne perdition . No , against such calumnies we oppose Christs censure of his owne words ( for such are the Scriptures ) Prov. 8. 8 , 9. All the words of my mouth are in righteousnesse , there is nothing froward or perverse in them ( no danger of Hereticall infection ) . They are all plaine to him that understandeth , and right to them that find knowledge ( nor intricate obscurity that no man can tell what to make on 't . ) Yea , we dare avouch that did the simplest of people use but halfe that diligence that they ought in attaining Christian knowledge , and would take but as much paines to understand the Scripture as they doe of the Evidences of their Land● or the Statute booke , or such like , experience would quickly tell them , that the Scriptures are not so farre above the reach of their understandings , as now generally all men not book-learned doe conceive , to the infinite prejudice of Christianity . But however , must the Scriptures be obscure , because men are carelesse , is the Bible a hard booke , because common people understand it not in Latine , are all things in it darksome and intricate , because one man understands not this or that particular , which yet another doth , or those of the present age perceive not the meaning of such or such a prophecy , which the next age may cleerly understand ? These are weak inferences , and such as cannot overturne our first conclusion , namely , that all Doctrines , Histories , Prophecies , and whatsoever else in Scriptures , may be knowne and understood by the perspicuity of the narration in the literall meaning thereof , by all sorts of men bad and good . For what history of the Bible can be named that may not be plainly understood , I say not by a learned or godly , but even by any man ? What prophecy , the meaning whereof hath not , or will not be plainly found out ? What text of doctrine , whereof some have not or shall not understand the right meaning ? and when t is once found out , may not all understand what one doth ? yea take the deepest mysteries of Religion , as about the Trinity , Incarnation of Christ , Resurrection , Life everlasting , Regeneration , and the like , there is none of them so obscurely set downe in Scripture , but that the declaration of them hath light enough to discover unto us what that thing is which we do beleeve , so that we may give an account of our Faith in that behalfe . Nor is this knowledge of divine things by tht evidence of the narration any peculiar priviledge of the godly , but common unto the unregenerate . For Charity , though it could wish , yet cannot be so blinde as to suppose , that every one who is able to interpret Scriptures , and to write or preach soundly of the doctrines of Divinity , is a man truely sanctified by the Spirit of grace . Experience and Reason make good the contrary , that a singular measure of knowledge , and no measure of sanctification are competible . Who sees not abroad in the world many wicked and ungodly wretches abounding in knowledge , and yet destitute of all true piety ? and is it not so in the Divell , who as in knowledge he surpasseth the best of men , so in malice far exceeds the worst of all creatures ? The cause is , for that , this knowledge is onely a degree and necessary antecedent unto saving Faith ; and is not so essentially linked unto it , but that it may be where Faith is not . It s easier to informe the understanding than to subdue the will and affections , the minde may be plainely taught , whilst yet the heart remaines froward , unbroken and untractable : the very heart and life of Faith is the strong inclination and union of the Soule unto the truth and goodnesse of spirituall things , preferring them in our choyce above all other things whatsoever , which gracious motion is the proper worke of Gods spirit powerfully binding and drawing the heart to embrace that good which is offered unto it : but it doth not necessarily follow the right and cleere information of the Vnderstanding . Whence it is both possible and easie for an unregenerate Christian by the helpe of common illumination to goe farre . I say by common illumination , understanding thereby , that course of the Revelation of divine truths now usuall in the Church , consisting in the knowledge of all Arts , skill of Languages , use of other mens labours in their Writings and Commentaries , conference and hearing of the learned living , and accustomed painfulnesse in study of any kinde of knowledge . By these meanes , a Christian , presupposing the truth of holy Writ , may in the state of unregeneration , prove excellent in the understanding of Divine mysteries . Hee may understand all and every the Articles of Christian beliefe , all Controversies in matter of Religion , all duties of Piety in Christian practice , any Sermon or Treatise tending to holy instruction , any place of Scripture of darkest and doubtfullest interpretation . Yea , in these things many times Sanctity goes not so farre as those common graces doe : and you may know by experience , that the holiest men have not beene alwaies the happiest expositors of Scriptures , nor soundest determiners of Controversies , but that both of Papists and Protestants many times men of ungodly lives and Idolatrous profession have equalled and exceeded others in their Commentaries and Treatises . And doth not the triall of every day shew that many a wretched man and vile hypocrite may yet make so good a Sermon ( even about the most spirituall points of Christianity ) and so heavenly a prayer , that those who are of quickest sight , yet seeing him but a farre off , may deeme him sound hearted ? So easie a matter it is for love of this world , to learne Religion by rote , and to teach the tongue to speake , what the heart doth not affect . This of the first conclusion , the next is this : 2. All Histories and Predictions are knowne unto the most illuminated understandings , by no evidence of the things themselves , but only by evidence of the relation . I shall not need stand long in proving this conclusion . In many precepts and doctrinall discourses , sense and Reason may have something to doe , but in matters Historicall and Propheticall , Faith only beares sway . For Histories of things past and gone there is no knowledge at all to be had of them otherwise than from authority of Scriptures relation . That the world was drowned , Noah saved in the Arke , &c , doth not appeare unto us by any argument from the things themselves , evident to sense or reason , but only by the story . So for Prophecies , promises , threatnings , they are not evident , till the event make them evident . As that the Iewes shall bee converted , the Papacy rooted out , &c. we know these things only by the Word foretelling them . In neither of these kindes can our sense be informed , or our understanding convinced of their truth , and therefore wee must rest upon Revelation beleeved . Of these two kindes principally is the Apostle to bee understood , in that description of Faith which hee makes , Heb. 11. vers . 1. where he useth two words to expresse the objects of Faith , the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Things not seene ; the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Things hoped for . Things not seene are of a more large extent , and comprise all both past and to come ; things hoped for have a speciall relation to promises of some future good . Both are the proper objects of Faith , which is alwayes drowned in the sight of things that were unseene , and possession of things that were hoped for . The third and last Conclusion followes , which is this : 3. Precepts and discourses of Dogmaticall points mentioned in Scriptures are in part knowne by the evidence of the things themselves , both to the regenerate & also the unregenerate . This conclusion is of manifest truth , as shall appeare thus . In Scriptures there are doctrinall discourses of divers sorts : some of matters belonging to Nature and Morality , others of mysteries peculiar to Divinity . Of the former sort are those manifold allusions , similitudes , and other passages of Scripture about the properties of living creatures , of Plants , of Mineralls , of Meteors , and other naturall things mentioned often in Iob , Ecclesiastes , and divers other places . And also those sundry precepts of Oeconomickes , Ethickes , and Politickes , scattered as in the whole body of Scriptures , so specially collected in the booke of Proverbes . Now in these things albeit it be true , that by reason of our extreme ignorance in many things , which greatly prejudiceth our exactnesse of knowledge in any , wee doe in part firmely rest even in these common matters upon the truth of Gods revelation , yet it cannot be denied but that they are in part evident unto our sense and reason . It were no hard matter for a man that hath but little goodnesse , to make an exact commentary of all Philosophicall matters mentioned in Scriptures : much grace needs not to the writing or understanding of such a booke as Vallosius his sacra Philosophia . And there 's no doubt but a meere Moralist or Politician , had he no more goodnesse in him than ever was in Mach●avoll , should hee but diligently reade Salomons Proverbes , the booke of Ecclesiastes , and other parts of the Bible that touch upon things within his Sphere , would evidently see that there is in these Scripture-precepts the most pure and exquisite reason of all true Honesty and Policy in the world . But now in other points that are the more proper doctrines of Divinity of a higher and more spirituall nature , some there are that can never be comprehended by any evidence of reason , no not of the most illuminated in this life : such are the mystery of the Trinity , the union of two natures in one person in the Incarnation of Christ , That there is a Catholicke Church , &c. Some againe there are which may be in part evidently knowne in their proper nature , but yet only by such as are truely sanctified and illuminated by the Spirit of grace ; not by the unregenerate . I need give but one instance , t is a large one , and takes up at least one halfe of Christian Religion : and that is the whole mystery of mans Regeneration , and his estate in Grace in this life . Wherein a thousand particulars there are cleere and evident unto the sanctified and spirituall man , which the carnall man knowes no otherwise than by rote and relation . That wonderfull change which the Spirit of God workes in raising a sinner from death to life , the power of a saving Faith , the nature of godly sorrow for sinne , of peace of conscience , of joy in the holy Ghost , of Gods sweetest mercies in the remission of sinnes , the infinite comfort the soule finds in his favourable countenance , our communion with Christ , of the testimony of Gods Spirit and our Conscience in point of Adoption , the whole art of our Spirituall warfarre , containing the wiles and subtile methods of Satan and Corruption in tempting , with the admirable power of Grace and Spirituall wisedome in making resistance and overcomming : these things , with the like , wherein consisteth the very soule and life of Christian Religion , are very riddles unto the man unregenerate , & when he heares them spoken of and press'd upon him , his heart is overflowed with a kinde of bitter humour betweene admiration and scorne , that another should speake so earnestly about that , wherein hee findes no such great matter of consequence . No , hee knowes these things onely by the booke , experience and evidence of them in his owne heart hee hath none ; and therefore his knowledge of these things is cloudy , uncertaine , hovering , floting in superficiall flourishes of Rhetoricall discourse , not piercing into the substance and life of the thing it selfe ; and where hee comes neere to it , t is but the imitation and bare repetition of others inventions , whereunto his owne barren head and gracelesse heart that little to adde of new store . Whence it falls out in common experience , that in these points of Divinity , and in such cases of conscience as neerely concernes the Spirituall estate of man : you shall have many a godly Minister of meane gifts but of an holy heart , yea many a plaine and simple man in regard of any depth of other knowledge , that yet will discharge himselfe with greater skill and dexterity , and give better satisfaction , than some of those that may challenge the praise and admiration of being deepe Divines and learned Teachers in Israel . And this is no small fault wherewith Popish Schoolmen and Casuists are taxed by our Divines , that even the words of Regeneration , Sanctification , &c. are somewhat strange to be found in their writings , and that their discourses and decisions in matters of that kind are intentionall , forraine , dull , and heartlesse . Thus we have seen touching this Object of Faith , namely , Gods written Revolations , How far forth they are Evident and may be Knowne , how farre forth they are Inevident and must be Beleeved . Briefly thus , All things in Scripture may be knowne by the plainnesse of the written narration , else the study of Divinity were a vaine and impossible attempt . All things in Scripture cannot be known by the sight and evidence of the things themselues , for then were Faith utterly taken away . Wherefore againe , Points of Nature and Morality may be in themselves evident to all , but the proper mysteries of Divinity can be in part evident onely to the Regenerate . Now by this wee must learne what to judge of the Popish doctrine , which makes Obscurity one essentiall property of Faith. Faith , say they , is an assent given to any proposition revealed by God Propter authoritatem revelantis : and two essentiall properties this assent hath : 1. Certainty , 2. Obscurity . Of Certainty wee shall speake hereafter ; concerning Obscurity wee yeeld unto them thus farre : That all the Objects of Faith are Obscure , that is , in the Apostles sense , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Things not seen , and comprehended in their proper nature by our senses or understanding . And so not onely the more secret mysteries of Religion , as the Trinity , Incarnation , &c. whose depth and largenesse our reason cannot compasse , but all other matters Historicall or Propheticall , which are easie enough to be understood , are notwithstanding Obscure , that is , Inevident , not lying open to the direct view of body or minde . But this doth not please our Adversaries , t is not want of evidence in the thing revealed , but want of perspicuity in the Revelation it selfe which they understand by obscurity . Their meaning is thus , Faith is an assent to obscure Propositions , that is , to Propositions not understood , whereof wee know not the meaning . I , this is it , this is ( as a learned man speakes ) one roote of Popery in graine , whence originally issues out that blacke darknesse of superstitious ignorance , which covers the face of all that part of Christendome , where Romish tyranny hath the upper hand . And yet that wee may here also gratifie them a little , wee confesse that Christians can for a need yeeld assent to such propositions whereof they understand not the meaning . We have reason to yeeld as much respect to Gods writings as Socrates did sometime to an obscure booke of Heraclitus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith he , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; so when in reading the Scriptures we meet with many hard sentences , & dark prophecies wee know not the meaning of , we also can say , That which I understand I beleeve for truth , that which I understand not yet I beleeve too that is a truth whatsoever it be . But in this case it is manifest , that this assent is full of trouble and confusion , and whereas faith gives rest and satisfaction to the minde , this fills it with anxiety and distraction : will any man not strangely carelesse and blockish , becontent with such a faith as this , I beleeve I know not what ? And if in some particulars , even pure necessitie cause us for the present to bee contented with such a beliefe , because of our ignorance : must it therefore be brought in as a generall and essentiall property of Faith , that t is an assent to things obscure or unknowne ? But this makes much for the advancement of the Catholike cause , and therefore the factors for Rome have reason to stand stiffely in defence of this their doctrine , for so when they have dropped in the eares of their disciples , this poyson , that the faith of a Christian is an assent to things obscure , to he knowes not what , they have at one stroke nayled their eares to the doores of their Church , and made them their slaves for ever , and wonne them over to their blinde Canonicall obedience , as to beleeve , so to doe they know not what . The summe of our Adversaries doctrine in this point is briefly expressed by Becanus in his Theolog. Scholasttom . 3. cap. 1. Quaest , 3. who therein followes his leaders the rest of the Iesuites and Schoolemen . To the Question An Revelatio primae veritatis , ut sit formale objectum fidei , debeat esse obscura ? he answeres affirmatively , that Divine revelations as the objects of Faith must bee obscure , and that in a twofold respect : 1. Ex part● rei revelatae : Revelatio enim non debet clard & evidenter ostendere rem revelatam . A very strange conceit ; Revelations must not declare things plainely and evidently . why so ? When God revealed his will to the Patriarches , Prophets and Apostles did hee not doe it plainely , and did not they clearely understand what was meant by the Revelation ? They did . But happly the Iesuites meaning is a little better . The revelation must not clarè & evidenter ostendere rem , that is , no revelation hath this force of it selfe , Vt rem revelatam exhibeat nobis Praesentem , ut clarè & intuitivè videamus rem narrat●● . If this were all the Iesuites meane by this doctrine , wee would subscribe unto them , and willingly grant that revelation doth not make things Present and offer them to our view : for if they were present , and seene , what need a Revelation ? In this sense we easily admit the proofes which they bring , for Faiths obscurity , out of Heb. 11. 1. that faith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; of things which we behold not by the eye of sense , or reason : and out of 1 Cor 13. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . True , the things that wee beleeve , are now knowne by us in this life , no otherwise than as wee doe know a man whose face we behold in a glasse , but doe not behold his person : but our knowledge of the same things in the life to come , is as when we know a man standing before him , and looking him full in the face . So the Scriptures are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a glasse wherein we may behold the shape and picture of all things to be beleeved , but t is the picture only , not the substance and body it selfe . Were this all our Adversaries intended , the difference betweene us were at an end : things beleeued are obscure , id est , Non-praesentes , non-visae : we grant it . But this doth not fully fit their turne ; for though the things themselves bee obscure , that is , not immediatly seene and looked upon , yet the narration of them in Scriptures may be perspicuous , and plaine to be understood . Now they like not this , all is quite marr'd if they give way so farre , as to grant that the Scriptures are plaine to be understood . This may not bee tolerated in their Schooles and Pulpits , and therefore t is that in their Sermons and writings upon that subject they so bestirre themselves like a heard of wilde beastes , to raise up all the dust they can , wherby to darken the light of that bright most Sunne . And this is the thing that they aime at in their description of Faith , when they tell us that it is an assent to obscure propositions , their meaning is villanous to lay a ground for ignorance and implicite beliefe , that it suffiseth a religious Christian to salvation that he beleeve in grosse the truth of all which the Scriptures and Church doe deliver , though he understand nothing at all distinctly . Let him jumble over his Creed in Latine , and understand never a letter , yet is he a good beleeving Catholike , and it sufficeth that the Creed be recited by him in Persona Ecclesiae , as Becanus out of Thomas very conceitedly affirmes . So in stead of distinct knowledge necessary unto saving faith , they breed in their people a dull , turbulent and confused assent to something but they know not what : which is indeede rather a stubbornnesse and wilfulnesse of resolution , than the well advised beliefe of a Christian. Iust so doe Sorcerers and Witches beleeve confidently in the vertue of a number of Verses , Spells , Characters , &c. which they cannot tell what to make of : and such is the Magicall Faith of those whom the Romish Whore hath bewitched with her inchantments . Nor hath this opinion of Obscurity in matter of Faith any ground at all in those two places before alledged . For the first , in Heb. 11. ver . 1. Faith is an argument of things not seene . Most true , they are not seene , because Faith apprehends them , and sight destroies Faith. But what then , are they unknowne too ? No , for Faith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an evident argument even of these things that are not seene . Yea , but whence doth Faith fetch this argument ? not from the things themselves , for they are unseene . Whence then ? from the Revelation and Declaration of them in the word , which makes them cleer to the apprehension of the beleever . Againe , in that 1. Cor. 13. 12. [ Wee now see through a glasse darkely . ] True , wee see things but as in a looking glasse , therefore wee see them darkely : for let a man first view the shape of any thing in a glasse , and afterward look on the thing it selfe , his first knowledge of it will bee but dark in comparison of the latter . Neverthelesse it is not so darke and obscure , but that a man may describe what thing it is hee sees ; if hee behold a mans face in the glasse , hee may distinctly tell that such a man hath such a visage . In the like manner the Revelations of Scripture are like a cleere well polished glasse , free from dust , ●lawes , crackes , or other deformities : in them wee may behold all the mysteries of Religion cleerly represented in their shapes and proper colours , so farre forth as is needfull for us to see them in this life : and when attentively we marke what is shewne unto us , wee may take distinct notice of every thing that is to be beleeved by us , in all articles of Christian Faith. And this knowledge is in it selfe distinct and cleere , though compared with that other proper immediate beholding of the things themselves , face to face as the Apostle speakes , it may justly be termed Darke , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let one instance make all plaine in Gal. 3. 1. the Apostle saith that Christ was described unto the Galatians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before their eyes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being crucified among them . Why this was not possible , that what was done at Ierusalem on mount Golgatha , should bee seene in Galatia many hundred miles from it . How then was Christ described and crucified in the sight of these Galatians ? It was in the cleere and manifest declaration of him by the Apostles preaching . Which though it could not make the sufferings of Christ so evident unto the Galatians , as they were unto such as stood by the crosse of Christ and saw him suffer ; yet so cleere and distinct was the representation thereof , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the mirrour of the Apostles preaching , that the Galatians faith in this case was not an assent to things obscure which they understood not . It s one thing then for a matter to be present unto us in it owne nature , another for it to be perspicuously & plainly set forth in a narration : in which latter sense we affirm against the Romanist , that all objects of Faith are not Obscure but Evident in those Revelations of them which are made in Scriptures . 2. Ex parte Dei Revelantis . For , non constat nobis clarè & evidenter revelationemillam propter quam credimus articulas fidei , à Deo factam esse . No , is it not evident to us that the Scriptures are of God ? To whom then ? was it evident to the holy men of God to whom they were first inspired ? Yes , the Iesuite grants that , but yet heare his words , Num. 12. [ Prophetae & Apostol● , saith hee , habuerunt tantùm evidentiam revelationis , non autemevidentiam Primae veritatis . Tamet si enim evidenter cognoscerent , Deum esse , qui ipsis revelabat mysteria fides , non tamen evidenter cognoscebant Deum esse summè veracem , qui nec falli possit nec fallere . Vnde sequitur assensum illorum quem habuerunt circa mysteria fidei , fuisse obscurum , & ejusdem speciei , cum assensu fidei nostrae . ] See ye this Iesuite , how hee would blow away with one blast all the certainty of Christian faith , and so bring the matter about , that there shall be no sure footing for it , unlesse it be in the authority of the Church , and the Popes infallible fancy . Revelations of Scripture are not evident to us that they are of God ; to the Prophets and Apostles they were indeed evidently knowne to bee of God , but yet see the mischiefe , the Truth of God , the Revealer , was not evidently knowne unto these holy men , nor were they infallibly certaine , but that God might and would tell them a lie . A foule blasphemy , and I know not whether hee doe deserve the name of a Reasonable creature who is not himselfe , or thinkes there is any , that is not infallibly , evidently , and most certainly convinced of this truth , that God cannot bee deceived himselfe , nor will deceive any . But touching this point , that wee have no such obscure tottering foundation for our faith , but a most sure and cleere word , full of brightnesse and majesty , like light shining into our soules , and by it owne characters discovering it owne divine originall ; of this hereafter more fitly in handling the certainty of Faiths assent . Now in the meane time for conclusion of this first point touching the Objects of Faith , How farre forth they are Evident or Inevident , these two confectaries may be noted out of what hath been said : 1. Knowledge by sight takes away Faith : that is , so far as sight goes , but no further : for as we said of Beliefe , in generall , so here Evident Experience of the truth in some things doth helpe our Faith in other . Whence t is usuall with the godly to strengthen their faith in the promises for time to come , by calling to minde Gods mercies of old , and that evident triall of them they have had in time past . And Thomas because hee saw the Evident truth of Ghrists Resurrection , did more firmely beleeve the rest of the mystery of mans Redemption by him . But otherwise in the same things as sight waxeth , so Faith waineth , the greater light & certainty drownes the lesse ; & where Knowledge is perfect , the Faith , though it remains in the Habit , yet it ceaseth in the Act. This is manifest by that opposition which the Apostle makes betweene Faith and Sight , 2. Cor. 5. 7. [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ] what this walking by Faith is , is plaine Chap. 4. 18. [ We looke not on the things which are seene , but on the things which are not seen : for the things which are seene are temporall , but the things which are not seene are eternall . ] 2. A distinct explicite knowledge of divine things in the Revelations of them in Scripture , is necessary to the being of Christian Faith , By explicite knowledge , I meane , the understanding of the articles of Beliefe , so farre forth as they are plainly declared in Scriptures . This Historicall knowledge ( for so we may terme it synecdochic●● ) of the letter and meaning of the Scriptures in such things as it proposeth to be beleeved , is required to the being of Christian Faith , as a necessary antecedent thereof . For though this knowledge may be where Faith is not , yet Faith can never be where this knowledge goes not before . Ignorant in this sense and Vnbeleeving are termes reciprocall . As perfect knowledge by sight excludes Faith of the thing seene , so doth perfect ignorance of any thing destroy all Faith of the same thing . I say , of the same thing ; for a man may bee absolutely ignorant in some things , yet a beleever in others : and therefore wee doe not meane that such an explicite knowledge is necessary to faith , as that wee must distinctly apprehend all points of Faith , before wee beleeve ; for the Apostles ( when yet they were true beleevers ) were ignorant in many * articles of Faith , as Christs Resurrection , Ascention , &c. But this wee affirme , that where there is totall ignorance of any one article of Faith , there can be no Beliefe at all of that article : as for example , Hee that saith I beleeve a holy Catholike Church , and yet knowes not what a holy Catholike Church is , what ever hee say hee doth not beleeve it . That such a blinde credo is not properly an assent of Christian faith , I prove thus . To assent or dissent is an action of the Vnderstanding or of the Will : if of the Vnderstanding , the object of it is Truth or Falsehood : if of the Will , the object of it is goodnesse or evill . For the assent of the Will the case is manifest , that it doth never assent unto and allow of the goodnesse of the obiect , or dissent from and disallow the evill of it , untill there be knowledge and apprehension of both . For this approbation or reprobation of any thing by the Will , cannot bee without Election , nor Election without foregoing deliberation and judgement of the understanding upon the thing that is chosen or refused . Againe for the Vnderstanding , how can it assent unto the Truth or dissent from the Falsehood of such things whereof it hath no apprehension at all ? For so here should be an Act without an Object , at least an irrationall act of the rationall part of man. For if the Vnderstanding assent or dissent without understanding of whereto or from what , is not a non-ens the object of such an act ? and is not such an act more like the naturall propensions of senslesse creatures whereby they are carried to unknowne ends , than the judiciall determination of a reasonable man ? Though the things beleeved exceed reason , yet the revelations of them are not above our knowledge ; and our assent unto them must be so farre forth rationall , that if wee cannot give a reason of the thing beleeved , yet wee must give a reason of our beliefe . A reason of our beliefe is then rendred when we understand that testimony and authority wherein the thing to be beleeved is revealed unto us . This only makes our assent reasonable . For as in Scientificall knowledge and opinion the understanding never assents till the nature of the thing it selfe be knowne either fully or in part : so in beliefe the understanding assents not till the meaning of the relation or testimony be understood , what that thing is distinctly , whereto it must assent . In the two former wee give the reason of our assent from the thing it selfe knowne , in the last wee give the reason of our assent from the authority of the revealer . In every one our assent presupposeth knowledge , in the former of the thing it selfe , in the later of the Revelation , Wherefore that implicite faith of the ordinary Papist , who following the doctrine of his Teachers contents himselfe that he gives his assent in grosse unto all what ever is in the Bible & Churches traditions , that it is true , whilst yet he understands scarce any Article of his religion distinctly : this their implicite assent is meerely bruitish and unreasonable . Contrary to the expresse precept of the Apostle Paul , Rom. 12. 1. commanding us to offer unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a reasonable service ; and Peter , 1 Pet. 3. 15. bidding us be ready to give an answer ; ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not a bare answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but with a defence ) to every one that demandeth of us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Reason of our Faith. Now it would be knowne of the Romish Laiety what reason they can give for their faith , what Apologie they are able to make for it , when as they are utterly ignorant of Scriptures the only reason and defense of our Faith. And is not their service and worship of God , the very unreasonable motion of an unintelligent beast , that 's ordered by his driver but understands not why , and for what reason and ground ? Where particulars are not knowne , there may be a generall kinde of beliefe . But this generall beliefe is not an actuall assent to the truth of any particular thing revealed , till that particular bee knowne and understood . Actuall assent to particular truths is then only when they are knowne : and according to the increase of distinct knowledge , so this assent increaseth . Before there is this distinct knowledge there can be no more but Praeparatio animi , a resolution of the minde to yeeld assent to any particular if it bee once knowne : Which though it be good when wee can doe no otherwise by reason of unavoydable ignorance , yet to teach that this is sufficient to true faith , is to teach men to be carelesse of all religion . T is good where there is knowledge in part , and when for the rest , ignorance is seene , bewayled and avoyded by all earnest desire and possible endevour to get knowledge in all points : but t is monstrous flothfulnesse to bee content with this , that in generall we beleeve all , though we assent to nothing in particular . This were indeed a short cut to heaven , if no more were required to Christian faith , but to force upon ones selfe such a resolution as this ; Here is the Bible , I am resolved to beleeve all that it saith , but for particulars I le looke no further , let the Church and those that are learned looke to that . How farre such a blinde resolution is from Christian faith and pietie , besides experience , ( which testifies that all those who have true faith in some things , doe alwayes much lament their ignorance , and eagerly desire the increase of distinct knowledge ) the Scriptures also doe abundantly witnesse unto us . Wherein no exhortation more common then this unto the encrease of Knowledge , yea , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. as the Apostle prayes for the Collosians , Col. 2. 2. And for the Corinthians hee wisheth the like , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 2 Cor. 8. 7. How many prayers of the Saints doe wee finde they have made for knowledge , every where mentioned ? How often is Faith and Knowledge coupled together ? Ioh. 10. 38. 1 Ioh. 4. 16. &c. yea , many times confounded and taken one for the other , 2 Cor. 4. 14. Esa. 53 ●1 . Ioh. 17. 3. &c , Againe , this knowledge is easie to be had by the ayde of the holy Spirit inwardly inlightening and teaching the faithfull , when they use such meanes as hee hath appointed . See for that purpose , Ier. 31. 33 , 34. 1. Cor. 2. 10. 12. 2. Cor. 4. 6. Ioh. 14. 21. where Christ promiseth to shew himselfe visibly [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] to those that love him . Were knowledge a thing impossible , or very difficult , or unprofitable , some pretence there were to pleade for ignorance , but when t is so often commanded us , when it may be so easily had , when t is so usefull in the having , so dangerous to want it , it s now impudence to patronize ignorance as a friend to Religion , which is a professed enemy to mans reason . Wherefore it is a shamelesse assertion of Bellarmine , De Iustif. l. c. 5. That Faith may better be defined by ignorance than by knowledge . A pestilent conceit , which once rooted in men breeds in them an horrible contempt , distaste , and neglect of Scriptures and all Religion , as matters not possible nor necessary for them to comprehend . But this is a gull put upon poore people by the Clergy , thereby to excuse their owne idlenesse in not teaching them , or to gaine the admiration to themselves for being the only oracles of Religion , that so they may beare rule over the peoples faith . Or else the god of this world hath blinded these Leaders eies , and they , not willing to goe to hell alone , put out also the eyes of the people , to the end they may not know more than themselves , or all that themselves doe , and so their knavery be discovered . For us , let us detest a doctrine so contrary to the profession of Christianity , that takes away all care and study after godly knowledge , and makes way for the entrance of Heresies , Profanenesse , and Irreligion : nor rest we in our seach after divine things , till wee bee able to say with the Apostle [ I know whom I have beleeved ] 2. Tim. 1. 12. and with the true worshippers of God [ Wee worship that which wee know ] Ioh. 4. 22. Hitherto of the First Part proposed to bee handled in the Definition of Faith generally taken , namely , the Obiect of it , which are all Reuelations of what kind soeuer made by God vnto the Creature . We come vnto the Second point , namely , the Subiect in which this Quality of Faith is inherent , which in the Definition was expressed to be the Reasonable Creature . Within which Latitude wee comprise all created vnderstanding , whether of men or of Angels . Of liuing men there is no Question , not of the best of men that euer were , Adam in his innocency and Christ. That Adam had Faith it cannot be doubted by any who knowes that the cause of his fall , was his not perseuering in a firme beliefe of that threatning , [ In the day that thou eatest , thou shalt die . ] When his ascent to the truth of this reuelation once tottered , Satan presently closes in vpon him , and so plyes him vpon the aduantage , that he leaues him not till he had laid the Happinesse and Honour of that glorious creature in the dust . For the Humanity of Christ , what was in innocent Adam , was also in him , as is apparant by those [ Prayers and Supplications , which in the dayes of his flesh , he offered vp with strong crying and teares vnto him that was able to saue him from death ] Heb. 5. 7. and that complaint vpon the Crosse in his greatest agony . [ My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken mee ] Mat. 27. 46. Those prayers were made in Faith , and so [ Hee was heard in that which hee feared ] : nor was his complaint , though very pitiful , and fetcht from the lowest depth of Misery , without much strength of Faith , whilst yet he cals him his God , whom for the present hee found his enemy . Moreouer , though Christ as the Son of man was ignorant of the time of the end of the world , yet no question but he did perfectly belieue the Article of the last iudgement . Touching Angels , wee haue S. Iames testimony of the euill Spirits , Iam. 2. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They belieue that those chaines of darknesse in which they are now imprisoned shall bee euerlasting , and that they shall bee made much heauier vpon them by a multiplication of their torments in the iudgement of that great Day , as Iude speaketh , Iude 6. This they belieue with such horror , besides a world of other particulars which by reuelation of Scripture they know will fall out . For there is no doubt but the diuels though they tempt men to vnbeliefe , yet doe themselues belieue the truth of the Scriptures , which they know well enough to bee of God. Their rage and malice against them , proues it euidently . For the blessed Angels we cannot deny vnto them nothing what wee grant vnto the accursed , but as their knowledge of many things is more cleare and exact then it is in the Diuels , so is their faith vnto others much more firme and resolued . Whence though they know not the day and houre of the end of the world , Mar. 13. 32. yet they belieue it with ioy , expecting the augmentation of their owne happinesse by accesse of the Churches accomplished glory . Nor doe the Spirits of iust men , who liued by Faith in this life , vtterly cease to liue by Faith after their translation into heauen : for euen when they are there , they yet still belieue many things both past and to come , as the resurrection of their bodies , euerlasting life , &c. And that prayer which the Saints in heauen make for auengment of their bloud-shed vpon the Earth , [ How long Lord Holy and true , doest thou not iudge and auenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth ? ] Reu. 6. 10. is certainely a prayer made in Faith. Wherefore you see that euery part of the world hath faith in it , Faith on earth , Faith in heauen and Faith in Hell too . Whereas there is Created Reason , there also there is Faith. The reason is this , because Perfect Vision only takes away all Faith : and where all things that may be knowne , are euidently seene , and looked vpon being comprehended in their proper nature , there is no faith at all . But now there is no Created Intellectuall Nature but it may vnderstand more by reuelation , then it can comprehend Intuitiuè , by beholding the thing it selfe . And therefore all Future things which doe nor naturally depend vpon necessary causes , cannot be knowne vnto the Angels themselues , but onely by reuelation from God. Whence the Apostle Peter speaking of the mystery of mans redemption by Christ , 1 Peter 1. 11. affirmeth , that euen the Angels were greatly desirous to behold that wonderfull mystery [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] to sto●pe downe and looke into it , as wee doe into darke and obscure places . For such was the mystery of the Gospell , euen secret and hidden from the knowledge of Angels , till God by reuealing it vnto the Church , made it knowne also vnto them : as the Apostle shewes Eph. 3. 10. In like sort for matters of Fact long agoe past , euen the Saints in heauen haue no euident knowledge by Uision , but onely by reuelation : they must still belieue the stories of the Bible , know them they cannot by sight , vnlesse we should belieue that vaine opinion , De Speculo Trinitati● , that the Saints beholding the face of God , doe as in a glasse behold in Sin all things present to their view : which is iustly reiected by the learned as an impossible thing . Wee dare not be curious in these things , pressing too farre into those matters which wee haue not seene : thus much wee may with reason affirme , that God alone is without all beliefe whatsoeuer : because hee onely is Perfect in knowledge , most distinctly comprehending at once all things past , present , and to come , calling the things that are not , as if they were : in whose sight all things are manifest yea [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] Heb. 4. 13. stripped starke naked , and presented to his view in their proper shapes . Only such an absolute infinite knowledge , takes away all Faith in any kinde whatsoeuer . As for the creature , it knowes but in part , and therefore it m●st in part bee alwaies bound to belieue , whatsoeuer the creator shall reueale vnto it . Thus in the generall you see that tho Reasonable Creature is the Subiectum quod of Faith : but we may yet more particularly enquire of the Subiectum quo , in which Facultie of the Reasonable Creature , Faith is resident . In euerie Intellectuall nature there are vsually made two Distinct Faculties : First , The Vnderstanding : Secondly , The Will. The Obiect of that is Truth : The Obiect of this , Goodnesse . Now then Faith being an assent to the Truth and Goodnesse of Diuine reuelations , we must see in which of those Faculties it is resident , or whether in both . Our Aduersaries teach that the Assent of Faith is an act of the Vnderstanding onely , not of the Will. This opinion we reiect as erroneous , because Diuine Reuelations are essentially as Good as they be true , nor hath their truth any prerogatiue aboue their goodnesse : and so Faith is giuen but by halues vnto one part of the Obiect , where there is not as well an Election and Approbation of the Goodnesse of it by the Will , as an ascent to the truth of it in the Vnderstanding . Wherefore we affirme that this Assent of Faith is an act of the Vnderstanding and of the Will , both together approuing and allowing the truth and goodnesse of all Diuine things . In which assertion you are to note that we doe not make the Habit of Faith to be inherent in two diuers subiects , nor this act of Assent to come from two diuers Principles , or two seuerall Faculties of the mind : but we affirme the subiect is but one and the same , namely , the intellectuall Nature . For I take it with diuers of the Learned , yet as they doe vnder correction of the more Learned , that those Speculations about the reall distinction of Faculties in such Spirituall Substances as are the Angels and soules of men , are but meere subtleties of the Schoole , without any true ground in natu●e it selfe . He that shall in an vnpartiall search after Truth and Full Satisfaction , thoroughly examine the same Distinction of Faculties in the Sencitiue Soule , that the Common Sence , Phantasie , and Memory are three powers of it really distinct , as in Nature so in place : let him but examine the weakenesse of the ground of this distinction , and the inexplicable difficulties that doe accompanie it , he shall find vpon study of the point , that it is no Heresie in Philosophy to hold , that our grand Master hath herein affirmed more then will be euer vnderstood or thoroughly iustified by any of his Disciples . As in these materiall Formes , so much more in those Spirituall Essences , Faculties haue beene multiplyed beyond necessitie , and that thought to be done by more , that may be performed by fewer helpes . Our Sences haue in this case deceiued our Reason , and because we find in Compounded bodyes diuers actions and motions to flow from diuers qualities , we haue therefore imagined , that in Simple Spirituall Substances the case must be alike , and there is no remedy , but we must Vnderstand by one Facultie , Will or Nill by another , Remember by a third . Whereas all these seuerall actions flow immediately from the liuely and actiue essence of such a Spirituall Substance , without any such distinct faculties that need come betweene the Agent and the Action . For our purpose it appeares , that the Vnderstanding and Will are not distinct Faculties that haue distinct actions : Thus , First , The Vnderstanding essentially includes the Will. For the Vnderstanding hath a naturall inclmation to Truth , as the Will hath to Goodnesse : It abhors Falshood , as that doth Euill . This desire and loue of Truth is 〈◊〉 , this refusall and hatred of Falshood is Nolitio : and so Velle and Nolle are actions euen of the Vnderstanding too , and this proposition [ Intellectus vulirerum , non 〈◊〉 salsum ] is most true and proper . Secondly , The Will essentially includes the Vnderstanding . For to will or nill any thing good on●uill , is an action either of knowledge , or of ignorance . If of ignorance , then the Will in reasonable nature shall be an vnreasonable Facultie , which is blindly carried to the embracing or refusing of that , which it selfe knowes not at all , but only it is knowne to another facultie , the Vnderstanding . But this were an absurd imagination to make the Will Facultatem non-intelligentem , and to appropriate vnto it such a motion as is destitute of knowledge , like a blind man that is led by the seeing he knowes not whither . So should the Doctrine of Free-will in any kind whatsoeuer , fall to the ground : For how is the Will free , but because it may choose this or that ? How can it make choyce , vnlesse it doe also vnderstand , campare , aduise , and deliberate about the nature and consequences of things offered vnto its choyce ? Wherefore it is manifest , that Intelligere and Iudicare are actions belonging vnto the Will also , and that this proposition [ Voluntas intelligit bonum aut malum ] is true and proper . Thus in regard of the actions Valends , and Intelligendi , we haue no reason to make a distinction of Faculties , where the actions are common and indifferently agree to each of them . If one facultie can doe both , what reason is there to make two ? And if the Philosopher be in the right , denying a distinct facultie for the Memorie in the reasonable soule , because the Vnderstanding sufficeth to that , for as much as eiusdem est seruare Habitus & ●●s vti , we haue the same reason to hold the Vnderstanding and Will to be no distinct Faculties , seeing , eiusdem est intelligere & velle . Thirdly , The Obiect of the Vnderstanding and Will are one and the same . For Truth and Goodnesse are essencially the same thing . In Naturall things it is most plaine , that their Truth and Goodnesse is all one . Their goodnesse is nothing but the Truth of their Being in their perfect conformitie to Gods vnderstanding and will , when their Essence and Qualities are perfectly the same which they had by their creation . When the Creature is as it was made , then it is both True and Good : so farre as any part of truth is lost , so much of goodnesse is gone . And this appeares by the contrarie ; Malum and ●alsum in the creature , opposed to this naturall goodnesse and truth of it , are both but one thing : namely , any Defect or Excesse in the parts or degrees of their Essen●e and Qualities , otherwise then according to the Truth of their Creation . Such defects and excesses we call Errors , Vntruths , and Euils in nature . So that if we consider Truth and Goodnesse in the nature of things themselues , it is not possible to make any reall distinction between them . What things are in our opinion , it matters not much . Our conceit we haue of them , makes them not either true or good . Nor is gold and precious stones any iot the better or worse , because ciuill nations haue them in greatest account , or Tartars and other Sauadges despise them as toyes and vnnecessarie to mans life . Where the Essence of any thing is entire and perfect , there is Truth and goodnesse , though all thinke nothing , or thinke otherwise of it . And let vs thinke as long as we will , we cannot conceiue any naturall thing as true , but we must conceiue as Good too . Witnesse all I ogicke rules , Philosophy , Mathematickes , there is no conclusion , how vnpleasant soeuer it seeme to be : but if it be apprehended as True , it also affects the vnderstanding with ioy , delight , and contentment in the goodnesse of it . It delights because it is true , and so Truth quatenus , Truth is good . So that vnto such as aske , wherefore are the Mathematickes good ? I answer , Because they are True : a part of Gods created truth , of which it is blasphemy to hold and affirme that any the least part is euill and nought worth , nor deseruing a mans study . All Truth is amiable , like God the Authour of it : and goodnesse is so essentially incorporated together with Truth , that they cannot be seuered in our knowledge or affection . Now in morall and Diuine things the case is much more plaine , That their Truth consists wholly in their Goodnesse , nor can it be imagined , how vertue should be said to be true , but onely because it is good , or what the Truth of Grace is , but onely the Goodnesse of it , Wherefore generally that rule is Cortaine , Bonum & Verum conuertuntur , and their praedication each of other is not onely in the Concrete , Verum est bonum , but also in the abstract , Ver●… est bonitas , & ò cont● . 〈◊〉 . And so the Scripture takes these two indifferently , as Gen. 1. 31. When God had created all his workes , he looked on them , and saw that they were Very Good. They were true as well as good , but one includes both . And Iohn 8. 44. it is said touching Satan , that He abode not in the Truth : that is , in that perfect and good condition wherein God created him , for he fell from his goodnesse , as well as from his Truth . By this it appeares that this distinction which is made betweene the truth and goodnesse of things , is not from their Nature , but from our esteeme and conceit of them . We measure the goodnesse of things by our owne ends , and the vse we haue of them : such things as fit our purposes & are proportionable to our necessities , those we account good , and Such things we make the Obiect of our wils , because wee desire them , with a more notable degree of Constancy and vehemency : Other things , though very good in themselues , yet because they touch vs not , and our desire of them is slight and vanishing , we make them the obiect of our vnderstanding only , as if wee apprehend in them nothing but bare Truth . As for example , he that shall discourse vnto an intemperate man in his temperate moode , how shamefull and vnseemely a thing it is for a Christian to be ouercome of drinke , to be a seruant to his appetite , to wallow in filthy pleasures , to bee seene in base company , and hase places , and shall tell him how comely and commendable a vertue sobriety is , how gracious an ornament of a man , how necessary a duty in euery Christian : when you tell him of these things , he vnderstands you , and assents not only to the truth , but to the goodnesse of what you say . But heere is the mischeefe , his resolution stands otherwise , sottish delights preuaile against all sober aduise , and the stronger desires of pleasures drowne those faint affectious towards Temperance . How in this case , the truth and goodnesse of the vertue commended , is but one thing : and the intemperate man did a●t that same time apprehend and approue of both in generall , wishing that it were with him , as it should be , and is with other men . But now when anon after he comes to put in practise what he thus knowes and allowes of , long Custome and ill perswasions doe so farre darken his former apprehension of the Goodnesse of the thing , that now there seemes to be nothing left in his head but a generall notion of the Truth of that which he heard at such a time . So then , Truth and Goodnesse are not two seuerall things , nor apprehended by two seuerall faculties : but one and the same thing , knowne and desired by the same facultie . The difference lyes onely in the diuers degree of our apprehension , which varies according as the things apprehended seeme to haue more or lesse agreement with our particular vses and necessities . Where matters fit vs in particular , there our desires are Strong and Constant : When they agree to vs onely in the generall , then our Generall Desires not well rooted , are choked and stisled by contrarie affections in the particular performance . It fares with men as it did with Shimei ; Salomons commandement of not Departing the Citie is Good , till Shimei haue a Seruant take his heeles and run to Gath : and then Shimeis beliefe of Solomans threatning must giue way to his Couetous desire of recouering his runnagate Seruant . So in matters of Religion , men know and approue of their truth and goodnesse in generall , wishing that themselues had all the grace and pietie which is so much spoken of , but when after they compare it with their more pleasing contentments in this or that kind , they renounce the Goodnesse of Religion , and hold it onely as a Truth . Of which diuersitie in assenting to the goodnesse of things in generall and in particular , more shall be spoken hereafter in the next point . For conclusion of this point touching the subiect of Faith , we doe not appropriate faith either to the Vnderstanding , or the Will , nor yet refer it to both , as vnto two distinct faculties ; but we place it immediately in the whole intellectuall Nature , whether of mans soule , or of Angels . In which wee follow the sentence of the Scriptures , that seate Faith in the whole heart ; as Rom. 10. 10. [ With the Heart , man belieueth vnto righteousnesse : ] and Acts 8. 37. [ If thou belieuest with all thine heart . ] Now it is a thing manifest that in Scripture the heart is taken for the Whole soule with all its powers and operations , as of vnderstanding . 1 King. 3. 9. Salomon asketh of Godan [ vnderstanding Heart ] of Willing , and Choosing . Act. 7. 29. [ In their harts they went backe to Egypt . ] 1 Cor. 7. 37. [ He that st●n●●th firme in this Heart ] i. in his purpose and resolution . Againe , of the Affections , Mat. 6. 21. [ Where the treasure , there is the Heart also ] i. Loue : for Rom. 1. 24. of the memory , Luk. 1. 16. They did those words in their hearts : so Luke 21. 14. We need not goe seeke on t any trouble some distinction of faculties , wherein to place faith , seeing the Scriptures speake simply of the whole soule , and neither Nature nor Scriptures do intimate any necessity at all of mal●ing such a difference . Wee come now to the third and last point proposed in the definition , or the Genus vnder which it is comprehended , that is , Assent : about which wee must enquire after two things . 1 The Certainty of this Assent of Faith. 2 The Diuers Degrees and Essentiall Differences whereby the assent of Faith in Gods Elect is distinguished from all other Faith. The Certainty and strength of our assent vnto Diuine Truths , springs from these three fountaines , 1 From the Infallible Authority of the Reuelation . 2 From the excellent greatnesse and worth of things Reuealed . 3 From the manifest experiment of some part of their Truth , knowne vnto vs. Of these in order . The first and chiefest ground whereon is built the Certainty of faiths assent , is The Infallible truth and Authority of Diuine Reuelations . I call this the chiefest ground , because it is that whereunto finally all our Beliefe is resolued . For aske the question , wherefore do you firmely belieue the Articles of the ●reed ? The answere is . Because God hath reuealed them in Scriptures , to be belieued . The reason of which answere is this , because , What euer God saith , istrue . Now this is a principle in Nature , aswell knowne to the reasonable creature , as that they haue reason , it is grauen deepe vpon the conscience of euery one , which tels him , That God is so infinitely Wise , that hee can be ignorant of nothing , that none can circumuent and ouer each him . And againe , that he is so infinitely good , holy and Iust , that no ●ie can come of this truth ; as Iohn speaketh ; Iohn 2. 21. Wisedome it selfe cannot bee deceiued , Truth it selfe cannot deceiue ; and God is both . Wherefore none but a Iesuite like Beca●… , whose wits haue serued an apprentiship in the mystery of lying and aequiuocation , vnder the Father of ●ies , would haue affirmed , that the Prophets and Apostles , though they knew it was God that reuealed heauenly mysteries vnto them , yet they knew not Euidently whether God was not deceiued himselfe , or would not deceiue them . Alying surmise much like that of the Serpent when hee tempted the Woman , Yea saith he , hath God indeed said so ? Yes , the woman answeres , God hath said so , and we know it . But Satan replies , Are you sure that God spake true when hee said it ? The Diuell then denyed it , and Becanus staggers at it , as a thing very doubtfull , telling vs , that when God speakes . man cannot be euidently certaine whether he speaks true or false : But we reiect with abomination such a suggestion to Infidelity , that strikes at the roote of all Christian Faith , and shakes the lowest foundation-stone in all that building ; we know and are euidently assured , That God is truth , and in him , or of him , there is no Lie. From this first ground of faith in Gods Essentiall truth , wee draw another , that whersoeuer any Reuelation is certainely known or belieued to be of God , there the reasonable creature doth fully assent to the truth of things reuealed . Whence all the holy Pen-men of Scriptures did for themselues most certainely belieue the truth of all things they deliuered , ( though sometimes they vnderstood but darkely , what was the meaning of that which they spake and wrote ) because they knew that they were taught them immediatly from God. Yea , the diuels themselues , when they know , as they doe , these reuelations to be from God , howeuer they tempt men to distrust , and out of malice , raises vp lies and slanders vpon Gods truth , yet in the meane time are themselues cleerely conuinced of this truth , and doe assent vnto it in their consciences . The diuell knew well that Gods threatning to Alam was a certaine truth , euen whilst he perswaded him it was but a lie . And when he inspired the Pharisies to call Christ. Samaritan , Belzebub , a possessed Daemoniacke , a Deceiuer , and all to nought , euen then himselfe could not but confesse that he was that Christ Iesus , the Sonne of the most high God : Mar. 5. 7. But this is the malice of Hell , to sight against the Light , and furiously to oppose what we cannot but acknowledge to be truth . Well , Thus far then our Faith goes vpon a sure ground , That whatsoeuer God saith , is true : And againe , When wee know euidently that God sayes it , wee are ready to belieue it without further question . But here in the next place is all the doubt , How know wee infallibly that God is the Author of the Scriptures , and that such things as therein are proposed for vs to belieue , are reuealed by God himselfe ? This is a fundamentall Question , wherein it greatly behoues euery Christian to be rightly informed . It would require a large discourse to bee prosecuted through euery particular : I shall but onely touch vpon the generall , and giue occasion to each one carefully to bethinke himselfe , that his faith be built on the rocke , and not vpon the Sand. The Question is , How is it knowne certenly that the Scriptures are the very word of God ? it hath two brāches . 1 Toaching each seuerall part of Scripture , as it was reuealed and giuen to the Church of God , How did the People of the Iewes know , that what was deliuered by Moses and other Prophets after him , from time to time , was the word of God ? To which I answere , they knew the writing and Preaching of Moses and the Prophets , to be of diuine Inspiration , partly by the holinesse of the Doctrine which they taught , the liuely power and worke whereof the hearts of the godly then felt , partly by the miracles which they wrought for confirmation of their propheticall office , partly by the certaine and infallible accomplishment of all their prophecies . Of which triall of Prophets and their prophesies , wee haue a generall rule set downe , Deut. 18. 18. &c. I will raise them vp a Prophet from among their brethren like vnto thee , and will pur my words in his mouth , and hee shall speake vnto them all that I command him . 19. And whosoeuer will not hearken vnto my words , which hee shall speake in my name , I will require it of him . 20. But the Prophet that shall presume to speake a word in my name which I haue not commanded him to speake , or that speaketh in the name of other gods , euen the same Prophet shall die . 2● . And if thou thinke in thine heart . How shall wee know the word which the Lord hathnot spoken ? 22. When a Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord , if the thing follow not , nor come to passe , that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken ; but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously : thou shalt not so be afraid of him . By the same meanes were the preaching of Christ , also the preaching and writing of the Apostles knowne in their times . 2 Touching the whole Scripture as it is now compleatly deliuered vnto vs in writing : How can it euidently and infallibly appeare vnto vs , that what wee finde written in the Bible , is of diuine inspiration , the very oracles of God , not mans Inuentions ? In the solution of this Question , our aduersaries of the Romish , and wee of the Reformed Churches differ irreconcileably . Wee affirme that the Scriptures are knowne to be of God by themselues : they maintaine , that we cannot bee certaine of the Scriptures Diuinity by any other argument , then the testimony of the Church , which say they , doth infallibly propose vnto vs , what is to be belieued , what is not to be belieued . So that ask a Roman Catholike , Wherfore do you certainely belieue such and such Articles of Faith : His answere will bee , Because the Church , which can discerne what is , what is not of God , hath infallibly decreed such and such things to be belieued . Against which impious doctrine , we except , and say , That by this meanes our Faith is resolued either into nothing at all , or at the furthest , but only into humane Authority . 1 That is resolued into iust nothing , but runs round in a Circle like a mill-horse . For aske a Roman Catholike , why doe you belieue the Pope cannot erre ? His answere is , because the Scripture saith so , Tues Petrus &c. and , Orauipro te ne deficiat sides tua , and Sum v●b scum ad consummationem saculs : with such other places . But how know you that those places are Scripture , and that that is the right meaning of those places ? He answeres , because the Councell of Trent and the Pope say so . Yea but how know you infallibly they doe not erre in saying so ? Hee answeres , Because the Scripture affirmes , they cannot erre : for , Thou art Peter , & vpon this rocke , &c , This is the Fayries dance , wherein men smitten with the spirit of giddinesse , are led round in a ring , being neuer able to free them , or finde any resting place whereon to fixe the assurance of their Faith. 2 That at best , their faith is resolued finally into Mans Authority . Which appeares thus , aske a Papist . Why doe you belieue Purgatory ? He will say , Because God in his word hath reuealed it as an Article of Faith. Zach. 9. 11. I haue loosed thy prisoners out of the pit , wherein is no water , i. out of Purgatory , and Luke 16. Lazarus was carried into Abrahams bosome . i. into Purgatory . with such like . Well , but why doe you infallibly belieue that this is Gods word , and that this is the meaning of it ? Hee sayes , Because the Church , i. Counceis and Popes say so . Hee can goe no further , vnlesse hee will runne round . Here then hee must stay , resting his Faith on mans Testimony and Authority . Which hee doth manifestly , forasmuch as it appeares not by any argument from the Scriptures themselues , that such a doctrine as Purgatory is contained in them , and therefore he assents to the truth of it finally and onely because the Church for sooth , hath conceiued the meaning of those places to be such . Now this is not to belieue the Scriptures , but to belieue the Opinion of the Church , that is to say , of men like our selues . Heere a Becanus helpes at a dead lift by a schoole distinction , thus . Fidesresoluitur Formaliter in Deumprimam veritatem reuelantem . Directiuè in Ecclesiā propter infallililitatē proponēdt . The shift of a Sophister . What Faith is it that is thus resolued , Theologicall or Humane ? Neither saith hee , Theologicall Faith is resolued into Gods authority ; Humane is resolued into mans authority ; as to belieue an Article , because Calui● , or Lutber teach it , or say wee , because Pope Paul the fift , Gregory the 13. or any other Pope , Cardinall , Bishop or Bishops teach it . What saith is it then which is resolued into the Churches authority ? It is saith the Iesuite , neither saith , neque purè diuina , neque purè humana , sed quasi media inferior is cuinsdam ordinis . Iust so I take it , men vse to speak when they cannot tell what to say , It is Quasi , and Aliquomodò , and Alicuius generis , &c. It is something , if they could tell what . But be it what it may be , if it be not a diuine Faith , What shall become of the vulgar sort in their Church , must they bee saued by such a middle kinde of Faith betweene Diuine and Humane ? This is a new way to heauen of the Iesui●es inuention , wherein it will bee a matter beyond his skill so to conduct a poore vnlearned Catholike , that he step not aside , leaning too much vpōmans authoriti , whereon he should not trust at all ; and too little on Gods , on whom he should altogether relie . Plaine folke haue no skill in such nice distinctions , of belieuing God Formaliter , and the Church Directiuè : and it will trouble the authors of them to giue a reasonable meaning of them . For what is it to belieue the Church Directiuè ; is it to be drawne by the Churches direction in the ministeriall Preaching and application of the Scriptures , vnto beleefe of the Articles of Faith ? Wee grant such a resolution of our faith into the Churches authority , as a motiue to induce and persivade vs to belieue . But Becames denies that the Church is to be reckoned inter motiua fidei , and therefore he must needs account it , inter formales rationes fidei , as a case of reason and proper foundation of our faith , whereinto it is resolued formaliter . And so it is , for there is neuer a Papist that wil belieue any thing that God saith , but onely for this reason , because the Church allowes of it . It is not the light and Euidence of Gods word , by it owne selfe , Euincing its owne Diuinity , and Interpreting its owne meaning , t is not this they rest vpon ; if they did , what need they goe further ? but it is meerely , formally , and directly the Testimony and Opinion of men , whether Fathers , Councels , Popes , or whomsoeuer they please to style the Church . This impiery is horrible , and so maine an errour in the foundation of Faith , that it makes the whole frame to ●otter , fastening the consolation and Hope of man , vpon the vncertainty of another mans testimony , therby throwing him into inextricable difficulties and doubts ; besides offering intollerable indignity vnto God , in giuing such authority vnto his seruant and vassall , as tends to the contumely of the Lord and Master . For so it is when a few men met together in a Councell-house , or one poore sinfull illeterate Pope shal be deemed of power sufficient , and iudgement infallible , to set themselues downe vpon the bench , and to call that word which shall iudge them at the last day , vnto the bar , and there to interpret , ratifie , or nullifie , what and how themselues best pleaseth . Wee might wellbe ashamed of our religion , when wee dispute with Athiests and infidels , if wee had no better reason to confirme our Religion , but our owne testimonie , because we say , it is the truth : and the Romish Church might blush , when she pleads for her infallibilitie from those places formerly mentioned , & yet in sine hath no other warrant from them but onely this , it is so ; and it shall be so , because shee her selfe hath decreed that onely to bee the true meaning of those Scriptures . But to leaue these absurdities & blasphemies , and come to the truth ; that which we maintaine touching the Certaintie of the Scriptures Diuine authoritie , is this , viz. That we are infallibly ascertained of the Scriptures Diuinitie by the Scriptures themselues . I or as in other Sciences there are alwayes some principles Per se not a & indemonstrabili● , whence other things are proued , so in Diuinitie , all conclusions in point of Beliefe and Practise are proued by the Scriptures , but for the Scriptures they proue themselues by their owne naturall light , manifesting their Diuine Originall whence they are , and their right meaning how they must be vnderstood . They are Primum ●●sibile , not like Colour which cannot be seene till light make it apparant , but like Light it selfe , which maketh all other things manifest , & it selfe too , by it own proper Quality . Wherefore when we are asked , why we doe beleeue the Articles of the Creed ; we answer , Because they are reuealed in Scripture : Again , How are you sure the Scriptures are the Word of God ? we answer , we know it by the Scriptures themselues , the Spirit of God opening our eyes to see those naturall and liuely caracters of Diuine truth , which are imprinted vpon those sacred volumes . Lastly , If we be asked , How know you that this is the right meaning of such or such a place ? We answer , We know it by the Scriptures , which being diligently examined and compared together , plainly discouer their own right expesition . In these answers we rest , finally resoluing our Faith into the Word of God alone , and nothing else . As for the Authoritie of any one man , or all men in the Church , we giue it all due reuerence according to its place and degree . We acknowledge the Decisions of Councels and Synods about controuersed Articles of Religion , the continuall Preaching of the Word by the Ministers therof , the manifold expositions of Doctrines of Diuinitie , and Bookes of Scriptures by the Learned in their Writings , all these we acknowledge with due regard & thankefulnesse , to be blessed meanes for the breeding and growth of Christian Faith : because they all doe or should point vs vnto the Scriptures , holding forth the light of them , that we may the more cleerly diseern it in its true brightnesse . Thus they are helpes to make vs see the truth , but no causes why we belee●e it : this we do for its own sake , not their saying . And vnlesse what they teach , doe appeare vnto vs cleerly out of the Scriptures , we freely confesse , that although their Reuerence will cause vs to Suspend our Iudgement , and thorowly to examine the Cause , yet their bare authoritie cannot command our assent to any article of Religion that shall be proposed vnto vs. The rule of the Apostle prohibits vs , 1 Cor. 2. 5. Our faith may not stand in the Wisedome of Man , but in the Power of God. Our Aduersaries here thinke that they haue vs vpon an aduantage , and caught vs in a circle too , as if we also ran round from the Scriptures to the Spirit , & againe from the Spirit to the Scriptures , thus : How know you the Scriptures to be Gods Word ? By the Spirit reuealing the same to my heart and conscience . But how know you this reuelation of the Spirit to be true ? By the Scriptures that testifie , The secret of the Lord is reuealed to them that feare him : Ps. 15. But how know you this & the like places of Scriptures to be Gods Word ? By the Spirit , again . Thus they suppose we are intangled : but they mistake vs and our doctrine greatly in this particular . We teach indeed that we know the Scriptures to be the Word of God , by the Spirit of God inwardly Reuealing and Testifying the truth of them vnto our Consciences . But it must here be diligently obserued , what kind of Reuelation or Testimonie of the Spirit it is wherby we may be said to be sertified & assured of the Scriptures Diuine Truth . It is not any inward suggestion and inspiration different from those reuelations that are in the Scriptures themselues as if the Spirit did by a second priuat particular reuelation assure me of the truth of those former reuelations made in the Scriptures . We haue no warrant for any such priuat reuelations now , nor is there any need of them ; and such as looke for them , may easily embrace their own presumptuous fancies , in stead of a Reuelation from heauen . How then doth the Holy Ghost reueale vnto vs the truth of Scriptures ? I answer , By remouing those impediments that hindred , & by bestowing those graces that make vs capable of this knowledge . There is in vs a two-fold Impediment : First Ignorance , whereby our eyes are closed that we cannot see the light 〈◊〉 Second , Corruption , whereby , although we see the light , yet we cannot but naturally hate it and turne from it . The Holy Spirit cures both by a double remedy : First , of Illumination , restoring our decayed vnderstanding to some part of its primitiue perfection : Second , of Sanctification , infusing into our desires and affections some degrees of their primitiue Holinesse and puritie . By this worke of the Spirit , Opening the eyes of our minds that we may Vnderstand the Scriptures , & see the wonders of Gods Law , and also Rectifying our corrupt affections , that we may loue and embrace the Holinesse of Diuine things : by this meanes , I say , is the Diuine truth of Scriptures reuealed to vs. For presently vpon this Opening the eyes of our minds , we see the glorious brightnesse and light of the Scriptures shining into our hearts , and we discerne in them the apparant characters of heauenly Maiestie as cleerly as a seeing man beholds the Sunne . Also , after this renewing of our Sinfull inclinations , we find presently that our Soules , and those things which the Scriptures do reueale vnto vs , haue a singular sympathy one towards another , our loue that we beare to the beautie and Holinesse of the Word is strong , & that command which the Word hath ouer vs , is most powerfull & awfull : so that now we haue as kindly a relish of the goodnesse and excellency of Scriptures , as a healthfull stomacke hath of wholesome food . By these things which we cleerly see in the Scriptures , & euidently feele in our selues , we are fully ascertained in our soules that none but God is the Authour of so He menly & Holy Mysteries . In this sence we still pray for the Spirit of Reuelation , Eph. 1. 17. so called in that place , because it inlightens the eyes of our vnderstanding , as in vers . 18. that then we may see the excellency of Diuine mysteries reuealed to the Church . Other inward and secret reuelation of the Spirit we acknowledge not in this businesse . Now there is no such circle , as our Aduersaries would driue vs into , but a plain & straight way . How know you that the Scriptures are Gods Word ? We answer , By the Scriptures themselues : by that wonderfull light & excellency of truth and Holinesse shining in them . Here we would rest and goe no further . But yet if we be asked . How we come to see this Light ? We answer , It is by the only worke of the Spirit of God , giuing vs eyes to see , and hearts to loue this Light. If we be further vrged , How know you that you doe indeed perceiue such a light as you speake of , or how can you make it appeare to another , that you are not deceiued therein ? To these questions we answer . That the former is idle , iust as if one should aske him that ga● then the sun , How know you that you now see the Light : And for the later , it demands an impossible thing , as if a blind man should require him that sees , to proue vnto him by sound argument , that he beholds such or such things : which cannot be done . In short , A man inlightened and sanctified by the Spirit , doth perceiue the truth of holy Scriptures infallibly by their owne proper light and for his own proper vse ; albeit he be not able to demonstrate so much to another , to make him see what himselfe doth . Now here we should goe further in the explication of this assertion , that the Scriptures are knowne to be the Word of God by themselues ; and all such arguments as do demonstrate this truth , should be layd forth before you . But it would take vp a long discourse , and the point more directly belongs vnto those generall cōtrouersies about the Scriptures , which are moued between vs and the Papists ; amongst which , this touching the Infallibly certaintie of Scriptures is at large handled and maintained by the Learned of our side . Amongst whom , the learned ●ackson deserues due prayse and thankes of all that loue Learning , for his diligent examination of this point , in his first & second Booke of Commentaries vpon the Apostles Creed . Books that are fruitfull of exquisite obseruation in this kind , and being as painfully studied as they are with much diligence and labour compiled ; will I perswade my selfe giue much satisfaction to those that honestly seeke for it . I conclude all touching this point with a threefold admonition , which by way of application I shall briefly dispatch , intending only to perswade euery one not to slight so serious a matter , but carefully to examine vpon what certaintie his faith is built . 1 Admonition is this , That in this enquiry after the Scriptures certainty , wee must looke that wee giue satisfaction vnto our owne soules : but that is impossible to satisfie all others who are disposed to cauill . The truth of Scriptures is knowne vnto them for whose benefit they were written , namely , the elect : and as in another case the Apostle spake , Rom. 11. 7. The elect , haue obtained it , the rest haue beene hardened : so here , The ●lect doe see this light ; the rest are blinded , Wherefore , when the eyes of our vnderstanding are opened , to see the wonders of Gods Law , to behold the admirable maiesty , purity , holinesse , and oxcellence of diuine reuelations in the Scriptures , when we feele vpon our foules the awfull commanding power of them to binde our consciences vnto obedience , to master our vnruly lusts , and wholy to captinate vs vnto their Soueraignety ; wee must not now begin to doubt of the truth of this which wee so sensibly see and feele , because another cauils , & dispises vs , and will not be won with our perswasions to thinke as we thinke . For he that sees the Sunne , hath no cause to distrust his owne eye-sight , because he cannot perswade a blind man by any argument possible that he beholds a most glorious and excellent light . 2 Admonition is to put you in minde of that danger , wherein carelesse men , who build , without hauing laid a sure foundation . Come to most men and aske them , Why doe you beliue the Scriptures , and these points of religion out of them ? Their answere is , Because they bee the Word of God Yea but what perswades you to thinke so ? Here they are staggered , and haue nothing to say , but they are lead vnto this beliefe by Custome of Education in a Christian Church , wherein the Scriptures Diuinity is generally receiued for an vndoubted truth , and they belieue what they see others doubt not of ; else it were a shame for them . But in the meane time themselues haue neuer laboured to get infallible assurance vnto their owne consciences , from the Scriptures themselues , by prayer , study , & all due obseruation . Now what is the issue of such an ill grounded beliefe ? I le tell you : t is partly Disobedience against , and Apostacy from the Truth , partly Dispaire , and losse of all comfort in time of need . Where there is onely a slight opinion of the Scriptures authority , there easily followes Disobedience to all their commands . Tell the Ambitious and distrustfull worldling ; That the kingdome of God , and the righteousnesse thereof , is first to be sought for , and then other things shal be cast vpon him : That godlinesse is great gaine . That Humility goeth before Honor , &c. Tell the vncleane person , that Whoremongers and Adulterers God will iudge . Tell the Drunkard . That they who doe such things , shall not inherit the Kingdome of God. Tell the Swearer . That for Oathes the land mournes , and God will not hold him guiltlesse , that taketh his name invaine : What doe these men thinke when the Scriptures are thus brought against their faults ? Doe they verily belieue that this is the word of God ? They will not say otherwise for shame of the world ; but who can belieue that their consciences are thorowly conuinced of it , when there is to be seene so strange a disproportion betweene their Faith and practise in these particulars ? No , they laugh secretly in their hearts , at the simplicity of silly men , who tremble at the word , and dare not for their liues , venter vpon the practise of such things as it forbids , which they meane while freely follow to their great contentment . Furthermore , these men that do thus rebel against God in one religion , will be ready , if occasion serue , to reuolt from that vnto another religion , seeing the grounds whereupon they embrace any religion , are alike in all . Besides , let mee tell them thus much , that this loose and vnsetled faith , is one of the ficry darts , & forcible engines of Satan , whereby he affaults and ouerthrowes the hope and comfort of many a dying man. Who hauing not strengthened himselfe on this point , by vndoubted arguments and experiments is there laid at , where hee lies open and vnarmed by such cunning cauils , shifts , and elusions brought against the authority of Scriptures , that the poore man not able to cleare himselfe from such suggestions , fals into an vniuersall doubting of all Religion , and at last , percciuing his Faith hath onely grasped at the ayre , and embraced the empty shadow of mans authority , insteed of the Substance of Diuine truth , he is vtterly confounded , and sinks downe in despaire . If I am able to iudge any thing of the Methods of Satans temptations , I dare say , that this weapon is reserued vsually for the last combat , and that many a mans faith hath perished vpon this rocke both in life , and especially in the last agonies & conflicts with the powers of death and darknesse . 3 Wherfore let this be a third Admonition , that euery one of vs be well aduised , to prouide our selues of such arguments for confirmation of our faith in this point , as wil hold water , and abide the siery triall of Satans temptations . Vnde seis ? is a sore question , and Satan can tell how to enforce his arguments with better skill then any Iesuie and Heretike . Wherefore let vs looke to it in time , that we wauer not ; but may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rooted and stablished in the vndoubted perswasion of this truth . We are all very backward in this study ( and that 's one argument the Scriptures are diuine , because our wretched sinfulnes cannot brooke them . ) And againe , wee are very dull of vnderstanding in these things ( which is also a good proof that they come from a most diuine vnderstanding , because our Naturall wit is sharpe enough in other things , yet comprehend not these mysteries ) but yet for all this , let vs be perswaded with prayer in humility to follow the counsell of Christ. Search the Scriptures , & the Commandement of our King the seruant of Christ , to set the Scriptures in the head of our studies , therein laying a sure ground-worke of our beleefe before we haue to doe with men . Following this course , we may be bold to expect a full resolution of this great Question ; and experience will in the end make it manifest , a most sure word ( as S. Peter cals it , 2 , Pet. 1. 19. ) whereon to build our faith . We shall find that this word is a light shining in a darke place , and that God who in the creation commanded the light to shine out of darkenes , will by this meanes shine also into our hearts , to giue vs the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ , as it is , 2 Cor. 4. 6. Thus doing , we shall be constant in our Religious profession while we liue , and also vnconquerable in our Spirituall consolation when we are to dye . Hitherto of the first ground whereupon the Strength of Taiths assent is built , namely the infallible truth of Diuine Reuelatinos . I proceed vnto the next two : the former whereof is , The Greatnesse and excellent worth of the things reuealed . They are not toyes & tristes , matters of smal moment , that God proposeth vnto vs to be embraced & beleeued : But they are the Great things of his Law , that he hath written vnto vs , Hos. 8. 12. A Law that is Perfect , conuerting the soule ; a Testimony that is Sure , making wise the simple ; Statutes that are Right , reioycing the heart ; Commandements that are Pure , enlightening the eyes ; Iudgments that are True and Righteous altogether , more to be desired then what men desire most , then Gold , yea then much fine Gold , sweeter then the Heny that droppeth from the best Hony combe , as the holy Prophet Dauid , Ps. 19. 7. &c. most emphatically amplifies the dignity & worth of that part of Scriptures which was in his time giuen vnto the Church . Since then we haue a large increase of this heauenly treasure , The Gospel fully reuealed and written for our benefit , containing in it , The Wisdome of God , & that in a mysterie , hid from the princes of this world , 1 Cor. 2. 7. the deepe things of God , v. 10. the riches of his glorious mysterie , Col. 1. ●7 . the vnsearchable riches of Christ , Eph. 3. 8. All both Law & Gospel , old & new Testament are full of admirable perfection , goodnesse , & excellency in themselues , and towards vs they contain matters of greatest consequence in the world . He that doth these things saith the Scripture , shall liue in them : if he doe them not , then Cursed is euery one that continueth not in all the words of that B●oke to fulfill them . Againe , He that beleeueth shall be saued , he that beleeveth not shall be damned , Mar. 16. 16. No lesse matters are set forth vnto vs in Scripture , then Blessing and Cursing , Saluation and Damnation , Grace & Sin , Gods fauour and his Displeasure , Heauen and Hell. Now lay all things in this world together , there 's nothing worth the speaking of in comparison of these , or that can beare any proportion of worth & greatnesse with them . Wherfore this ought to be a forceable motiue vnto vs to giue all diligence , that we fasten our faith vpon these things with all strength and stedfastnesse , not barely and sleightly passing them ouer as things of little moment , but laying them vp in our hearts by deepest & most attentiue meditation . It is strange to see how ●xedulous and apprehensiue men are in other matters that may concern them in their name , goods , or life . Euerie little circumstance is enough to perswade them to a strong beleefe of that which they feare or hope for . But in matters of religion there 's scarce any thing will ' worke vpon vs , we heed not what we heare or reade , promises or threatnings , exhortations or admonitions , all 's one to vs , we passe little for one or other , but as the i●●es of old , we count these things as Strange matters that little concerne vs. Naturally we are all Atheists & Insidels , and that of Saluian is true euen of the best of vs. Omma a mamus , omnia colimus , solus nobis in comparatione omnium Deus vilis est . We can study any thing but the Scriptures , we can beleeue any thing but Articles of Christian Religion , we can loue any thing but God & goodnesse . The truth is , we doe but talke of Religion , being far from any thorough apprehension of the excellency & worth therof , whence it comes to passe , that our thoughts of it are sleight and vanishing , our affections towards it cold and forced , our beleefe of it neerer to a fancy & weake imagination then a well grounded faith . Wherfore let vs henceforth value Diuine things according to their worth , esteeming of them as better to vs then thousands of gold and siluer , or whatsoeuer is by the world had in highest account . Hence shall we gather strength and vigor to cleaue faster vnto Religion in Faith and zealous affection . The last ground remaines , whereupon the firmenesse and strength of our assent standeth : and that is , The manifest experience of some part of the Truth of those things we beleeue . It is indeed a commendation of Christian faith that it can beleeue before & against Experience . And Abrahams faith is herein a glorious pattern to all others , who beleeued strongly the promises , when for a long time he found but smal performances , as may be seen in the storie of his life . But gen●●ally Faith is but weake till it be confirmed by Experience : this giues it life , making the Heart of a man strong in Confidence and Resolution . See this in an example or two , 1 Sam. 30. we find Dauid & his men in great distresse for the losse they had sustained at Z●kla● . Dauid sorrowes as well as his seruants , & his losse is as much as theirs , but this doth not pacific them . Dauid is their Captain , and they thinke this nuthap comes by his fault : so in their rage they intend to stone him . What shall Dauid do in this case , he is but one man in the middest of a f●rious multitude , slight or resistance cannot helpe him : see how his faith helps him out in this exigent . He was now in danger , but he had bin in as great many a time before and very narrowly had he escaped the snares that Saul and his Courtiers had layd for his life . But God deliuered him there , and thence he is confident God will helpe him now . Wherfore when his men rage & chafe , and forget all faith in God , and respect to their Captaine , Dauid is quiet , and Comforts himselfe in the Lord his God , as in verse 6. The like strength of Confidence we find in the same holy man in his combat with the Philisti●n . 1 Sam. 17. where from experience of Gods helpe in time past defending him in his lawfull calling , against the Beare and the 〈◊〉 yon , he confidently assures himselfe of the like assistance & victorie in that his right●ous quarrell against the vncircumcised Philistim , v. 36. The same course takes the Psalmist in Psal. 77. where being in great affliction and tentation , he strengtheneth himselfe in hope of comfort , by the consideration of Gods workes of old , and all his mercies heretofore shewed vnto his people . Thus experience breeds Confidence , and we readily trust him whom we haue once thorowly tried . Where let me commend vnto you a point of Christian wisedome , the practise whereof will cause a singular increase of Faith in vs. It is this , that we would carefully giue our minds to obserue all such experiments of Gods mercies or iudgements on our selues or others , as we can take notice of : comparing the particular euent that we see with the promises or threatnings that are generally deliuered in the Scriptures . Looke ouer all the passages & courses of thy life , & marke wherein God hath done vnto thee according to his Word . Thou praiedst such a time seruently , and he heard thee : in such or such a businesse then committedst thy way to him , and he brought it about according to thy desire , beyond thy expectation : thou wast cast vpon this or that extreamitie , and God when thou soughtest to him deliuered thee beyond all hope : such a Grace thou didst want , or such a Sin thou would●t faine be freed of , God helped thee to the one , and against the other when thou didst follow such directions as his Word prescribed thee : at one time thou sinnedst , and as God had threatned , so wast thou plagued : at another time thou didst some good worke , & receiuedst a blessing according to the promise . Againe , looke abroad and see how God deales towards others . See in one place a Kingdome plagued for Idolatry ; in another a Countrey professing true Religion , yet vndone by the wicked liues of the Inhabitants : see here a Vsurer , Briber , Oppressour , and cruell incloser , that hath raysed his fortunes by all vniust dealing , it may be whilst he liues himselfe and family turned out of all a begging , or in his third heire all this wealth blowne away , his name and posteritie rooted out , or left for a curse and reproach vpon the face of the earth . There behold a murderer pursued at the heeles by stronge vengeance , that neuer leaues him till his blood be shed that hath shed the blood of another . See else-where an Adultorer eaten vp by the secret curse of God , which deuoureth all his substance no man knoweth how . One the other side marke how God blesseth Kingdomes , Families , & priuate persons , wherein , & by whom Religion , Iustice , discipline , ciuilitie & sanctitie are professed , and in truth maintained . If we would vse diligent obseruation in this kind , it would quickly appeare vnto vs , that God is most constant in his courses , That the Scriptures do containe in them a perpetuall & infallible rule that hold true in all times & ages of the world , according to which God euer hath and alwaies will order his prouident administration of all things . We should see the same punishment still attending vpon the same sins , & the like rewards to be still bestowed vpon the like vertues : that God is as neere to helpe vs now as euer he was , and also as swift & strong to plague as he hath bin towards men of old time . This would proue of singular vse for the strengthening of our Faith , when wee shall euidently see the euent of things to answer in iust proportion the reuelations made touching them in the Scriptures . The grosse neglect of this hath bred in the world those monstrous sins of Atheisme and Infidelity , wherewith this age is infected as much as any . We haue indeed , praysed bee God , the Word read and preached , vnto vs plentifully : but where shall we find the man , that doth [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] walke exactly by this rule . Making the precepts of the Word the ground-plot of all his practise as the Apostle would haue vs , Gal. 6. 16. When they behold many strang accidents in the world , doe they , thinke you , iudge of them by the Scriptures , searching into them for the reason and cause of those things , & thence concluding with the Iewes in Zach. 1. 6. As the Lord of Hostes hath determined to doe vnto vs , according to our own waies , & according to our workes so hath he dealt with vs. Nothing lesse ; they haue no such thought come into their minds as this . Loe here how true the Lord is , such a promise , or such a threatning set downe in such a place of the Scriptures . So likewise , for the getting & vsing of wealth , honour , friends , learning , health , or other good things of this life , for the generall dispach of businesse in mens callings , for the auoiding of troubles that come vpon them , thinke you that men do call the Word to counsell , as Dauid did , and doe they out of the Scripture take a platforme of all their proceeding , applying the generall rule to cuerie particular occasion , and thence obseruing the Euent accordingly ? No , they thinke of no such matter , & it seems a strange motion to them , that you will offer to perswade them to loue by the Booke . They follow no such rules ; the good they onloy , or the euill they escape they thanke God for it in Complement , but are indeed beholding to their wits , friends , and good fortune : it was their direction they tooke , & thought of nothing further . Thus for the greatest part of men , God is not in all their wayes , their eyes are neuer towards heauen to consider the works of God , and to regard the Operation of his hands , their thoughts are neuer vpon the Word to obserue how euerie prescription thereof , hath its Probatum est written vnder it in visibl● characters of euerie dayes experience . Let vs not my brethren walke as fooles , but as wise , hauing our eyes in our heads to take notice of all such occurrences as haue vpon them a character of Gods speciall worke of Prouidence . If they be abroad in the world , learne thereby that conclusion of faith which Ps. 58. 11. is gathered from the like obseruation [ Verely there is a reward for the righteous , Verely he is a God that iudgeth the Earth . ] If they be priuate that concerne thee in particular , take such exact notice of all passages of thy life , that thou maist be able to declare vnto another and say [ Come and heare all ye that feare God , and I will declare what things the Lord hath done for my soule ] Ps. 66. 16. This experimentall obseruation of things past , will fill the heart with boldnesse , & confident expectation of the like successe for the time to come . And so much touching the three grounds of Certaintie and Strength in the Assent of Faith. I come now to the second point proposed touching this Assent , or the diuers degrees of it , and those essentiall differences whereby sauing faith in Gods Elect is distinguished from that Faith which is in others . We haue shewed you that faith may be in all reasonable creatures , and the Scriptures testifie that there is some kind of faith in the Diuels , and wicked men . We must therefore enquire what their faith is , and what the faith of Gods Elect is , by what essentiall difference they are distinguished . You are therefore to obserue , that this assent , by which generally all Faith was defined is two-fold . 1 Generall to all Diuine Reuelations as good and true whilst barely considered in themselues , or as they haue no opposition to our desires being applyed to ourselues . 2 Particular when assent is giuen to all Diuine Reuelations as most true and good in regard of our selues when they are applyed to all our particular occasions , and compared with all contrarie desires and prouocations . Herein lies a substantiall difference of this assent of Faith ; there being a great Diuersitie betweene an Assent vnto the truth & goodnesse of things taken in the generall , and an Assent vnto the truth & goodnes of the samethings particularly applied , as you shall see in the progresse of this discourse . The former is but an inferiour degree of Faith and only a step vnto that faith which is true and sauing . It is commonly called by two names : 1 Historicall Faith , synecdochically from one part of the obiect of , because it beleeues the Letter of the Scriptures , whether Histories or doctrines that are expressed therein . 2 Temporarie Faith , from the Euent & issue of it , because it perseueres not vnto the end , but failes in time of Temptation . It is but one and same degree of faith that hath these two names , which assenting to things in grosse , flies off and disallowes when it coms to particular application . Such a general assent there is in the Diuels , who know the Scripturs to be of God , and acknowledge the things contained in them to be in themselues , true & good because from God , though mean-while they hate both the one & other bitterly . The truth of God his Word , Essence , & Attributes works vpon their vnderstandings a deep apprehension of its certainty & excellency , euen when they with vnspeakable hatred and horrour thinke of it . According Iames saith , They belieue & tremble . Such a Faith there is in thousands of Hypocrites & reprobates , who being inlightened , and conuinced of the Truth of the Word , yeeld a generall assent vnto it for the time , as in those Luk. 8. ●3 . Who receiue the Word with ioy , but they haue no root : which for a while beleeue , but in time of temptation go● away . In those Heb. 6. 4 , 5 , Which were inlightened , tasted of the heauenly gift , and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost , And haue tasted of the good Word of God , and of the Powers of the world to come , are salue away . In those , Many that beleeued in Christs Name , but yet Christ would not trust them , because he knew them all , that they were not found at heart , Ioh. 2. 23 , 24. In those many againe that at another time beleeued in him , but Christ giues them a caueat that they looke their faith be ●ound , 〈◊〉 ye continue in my Word , ye are verely my Disciples , Ioh. 8. 30. 31. Such a faith was in Simon the Witch , Act. 8. 13. who beleeued the Apostles preaching and was baptized , euen whilst yet he remained in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquitie , i. a ●ierce enemie to that truth which he seemed to beleeue and professe , and fast bound vnto the loue of those sinnes that he seemed willing to forsake , verse 23. Such a conception of Faith there was in Falix , who trembled when he heard Paul dispute of righteousnesse , temperance , and the iudgment to come , Acts 24. 25. He beleeued and like the Diuels trembled . But Faelix was not temporate , his wife Drusilla was another mans wife : Felix was vnrighteous and couetous , and looked for a bribe , and this likes him not that Paul should come so close to him , wherefore he hath a shift , and put him off in complement to a more conuenient season , which Faelix will take at leasure . The same imperfect faith there was in King Agrippa , who hearing Pauls Apologie , could haue found in his heart to haue beene a Christian , had it beene a thing in fashion with Kings at that time , Acts 26. 28. So was the Case with Herod , who heard Iohn Baptist gladly and reuerenced him as a Iust man and holy , and did many things willingly , Marke 6. 20. But if Iohn be so bold with H●rod as to tell him of his Incest , He shall to prison for it , and for all that he is a Prophet , yet he shall dye , if Herod did not feare the multitude , more then he reuerenced Iohn , Matth. 14. 5. And thus it is with many men still , who knowe the Scriptures , and assent to the truth of such things as they containe ; but this goes no further then generalities , whilst they approoue and allowe of such things , as they know , to be good and excellent , considered abstractiuely and in the Vniuersalitie , and as they doe not crosse them in any of their maine desires and delights . And so long they seeme to bee as forward in faith and practise as the best . The Causes of this Kinde of Faith in men are many : as , 1. That common grace of the Spirit whereby men are inlightened in the knowledge of heavenly things . Which grace God bestowes upon the unregenerate and unsanctied more for others than their owne good . Some light shines upon them , whereby they may know and assent unto divine truths for a common good of the Church , that others may be instructed by their teaching . For Christ in the building of his Church doth also use the helpe and ministery of such men ; according as Salomon did in the building of the materiall Temple , who imployed not the naturall Israelites , but the reliques of the Cananites and strangers that lived in the land , to be bearers of burdens , and hewers of stone , and overseers of the worke , 2 Chron. 2. 17. And these men though unsanctified and such as doe not themselves heartily esteeme and affect that which they know , yet in the generall they beleeve it and willingly teach it to the benefit of the Church . Againe , 2. Authority of men in high account for their knowledge and wisedome . The esteeme that the people had of Iohn the Baptist to bee a great Prophet , made Herod reverence him the more : and the fame that went of Christ drew many to hearken to his doctrine . And so t is still with hundreds whose faith in matters of religion standeth or falleth with their admiration or disesteeme of mens persons . The same effect hath the generall custome and consent of the times and Church wherein wee live , whereby men are : they know not how nor upon what firme grounds drawne to beleeve those things which they see others hold and maintaine fortruth . Lastly , 3. Some extraordinary worke or event confirming the truth of Religion . So did Miracles in the time of Christ and his Apostles perswade many to beleeve who were notwithstanding farre from being true beleevers : as Ioh. 2. 23. [ Many beleeved in his name when they saw the miracles which hee did ] , but t was not good crediting of them that beleeved only upon miracles , therefore Christ [ would not commit himselfe to them ] ver . 24. And thus the Magitian when he saw the signes and great wonders which were done by the Apostles , he beleeved and wondred , when yet his heart was not right in the sight of God , Act. 8. 13. 21. By these and the like meanes is this imperfect and generall kinde of Faith wrought in men , destitute of all inward grace and holinesse . Such motives as these cause this assent ; but there is no Internum principium , no roote in themselves ( as our Saviour speakes , Mat. 13. 21. ) whence this beliefe springeth : no thorough sanctification of the soule conforming all the powers thereof unto the puritie and holinesse of divine things , and inclining the affections to a constant embracing thereof . These men like Religion well , and commend it as men doe costly Iewells set forth to sale : but when it comes to the point that this Good Pearle of great price is to be bought , then if God will let them have it at their owne rates , there 's a match made , they 'le beleeve , and be religious , if God withall will spare them the use of some sinnes and pleasures they love well : but if it must be purchased at Gods price , with the sale of all that they have , they are no merchants for such a hard bargaine ; with the yongue man they shrinke away , sorrowfull that heaven cannot be had at a cheaper rate . Thus when it comes to the proofe in particular application and practice , this kinde of faith vanisheth away and comes to just nothing . Thus you have the explication of this first degree of Faith , & withall you see that this faith falls greatly short of that perfection which is required unto that saith which is saving and justifying . Neverthelesse our Adversaries of the Romish Church maintaine that this assent is that justifying Faith whereof the Scriptures speake . Their opinion touching this point is sufficiently declared by Becanus , who followes the rest of that rabble . Hee Theol. Schol. Tom. 3. cap. 8. q. 1. disputing of the act of justifying Faith , rejects the Lutherans opinion , who place Faith in the will and make it to be Fiduciam de misericordia Dei propter Christum : and saith that the doctrine of the Catholikes is this , that faith belongs to the understanding , and is nothing else but Credere sive assentiri eis quae à Deo revelata sunt . Thence hee setteth downe this Conclusion , § . 6. Actus fidei consistit in assensu quo quis assentitur alicui propositioni à Deo revelatae propter authoritatem revelantis . In this definition there are two parts , 1. the Object of this assent , Propositions revealed by God. 2. The essentiall difference of this act , taken à formaliratione credendi , and that is to beleeve propter authoritatem revelantis . By this saith Becanus Cap. 8. q. 2. § . 2. assensus fidei constituitur in sua specie essentiall , that is , the assent of Faith is made supernaturall and justifying , when wee beleeve things because God hath revealed them : for , saith he , if articles of faith be beleeved upon other motives , as upon mans authority , &c. then this assent of faith is naturall , as in Heritickes and Divells . So then according to Popish doctrine , that faith which justifies us , is nothing but a bare assent of the minde to such things as God reveales , because of Gods authority that revealed them . Than which explication of the nature of justifying , faith nothing can be poorer , and more below the majestie of so high a grace as faith is . I will trouble you but with two reasons ; proving that this kinde of assent is not that faith whereby wee are justified : 1. The act of justifying faith must needs be supernaturall , such as cannot bee done without the aide of speciall grace of Gods spirit . But unto this assent there is required no such speciall grace , therefore it is not an act of justifying faith . The Major is evident and granted by the Schooleman , Cap. 8. 4. 4. that something there is in faith above nature requiring a supernaturall cause : whereto the Scriptures plainely inforce him Eph. 2. 8. By grace yee are saved thorough Faith , and that not of ourselves : it is the gift of God. Phil. 1. 29. Vnto you it is given for Christ that not only yee should beleeve in him , but also suffer for his sake . So Ioh. 6. 45. Wherefore § . 3. he teacheth that this act of assent must be supernaturall , partly in regard of the Object , id est , divine revelations , and partly in regard of the principium or cause by which it is produced , id est , non per solas naturae vires , sed per auxilium gratiae . Wee agree then in the Proposition . For the assumption , That there needes not any speciall grace of the Spirit to worke this bare assent unto the truth of divine revelations ; this wee prove out of the same Schoolemens doctrine , who teach that the Vnderstanding assents not , unlesse the Will command it , because , say they , the act of beleeving is absolutely in our treewill , Cap 8. q. 5. Well , be it so . But now , say wee , the Will may without the helpe of grace command the assent of the Vnderstanding ; which wee prove thus : Whatsoever the Vnderstanding by the only light of Nature judges to be honest , that the Will can desire by the only strength of nature . But by the only light of Nature the Vnderstanding judges that it is an honest thing to beleeve Gods authority revealing any thing to us : therefore the Will by the only strength of Nature may desire this act of beleeving , and so consequently there 's no need of Grace to move the Will to command the Vnderstanding . T is Becanus owne argument against himselfe , cap. 8. q. 5. § 9. Whereto he would faine giue an answer if hee could tell how . Something he sayes to that Minor proposition , whereof he thus distinguisheth . The Vnderstanding by the only light of Nature judges it a thing honest to beleeve Gods authority when hee reveales any thing , Via ac modo naturali , not when he reveales any thing , Via ac modo supernaturali . Beleeve it , a rare distinction and full of mystery . Divine Revelations are of two sorts , supernaturall and naturall . Againe , when God reveales his will to us by naturall meanes , then the very light of Nature teacheth us that 't is honest to beleeve his authority . But if hee reveale things to us by supernaturall meanes the light of nature doth not teach that 't is honest to beleeve him . Can any thing be more senselesse ? or will not every man in the world , excepting a Iesuite , confesse , that the very light of nature teacheth him to acknowledge , that it is a very good and honest thing to beleeve Gods authority , let him reveale his will unto us which way hee please . But t is the fashion of these writers , to dorre their readers with a distinction , and so to leave them with a prius conceditur , posterius negatur , distracted and confounded , rather than any whit satisfied . This of the first reason , That a man may beleeve without the helpe of Gods grace ; the second followes , which also confirmes the former : viz. 2. That is no act of Iustifying Faith which is found in Divells , Heretickes , Hypocrites , and Reprobates . But this assent unto divine Revelations , because of Gods authority , is in those both divells and men . Ergo It is no act of Iustifying Faith. The major is agreed upon , that the acts of Iustifying . Faith are found onely in those who are justified : which cannot be said those persons mentioned . The minor is likewise evident , That Divells , Hereticks , Hypocrites , and Reprobates , may and doe assent unto such propositions as God reveales , and that because of Gods authority who doth reveale them . This hath beene formerly shewed unto you in the explication of the nature of a generall Faith ; and t is so cleere by Scriptures and experience , that our adversaries cannot deny it . The forenamed Schoole-man grants it manifestly , as concerning Hypocrites and wicked livers , who yet professe the Catholicke Faith : for disputing , Cap. 8. de Habit. Fidei , touching that vertue which is infused into the Will , whereby it may if it list command the Supernaturall assent of the Vnderstanding , heetelleth us that this Vertue is a distinct vertue from all others , and is neither Charity nor Obedience , § . 10. in conclus . and that it is perfect in it selfe though it be without them , according as other morall habites of justice , temperance , &c. are . Whence hee tells us § . 11. in plaine termes , Potest esse sin● charitate , ut patet in Christiano peccator● , qui Fidem habet siue gratia & charitate . A Christian that is a sinner , may have Faith without grace and charity . What , Iustifying Faith ? yea according to the Romish Divinity ; for he may beleeve the truth of the articles of Religion , because of Gods authority who hath revealed them : and to do this is a Supernaturall assent , and the proper act of Iustifying Faith , as these men teach . Now touching the Divells and Heretickes the man is a little more coy . He will not confesse that the Divels yeeld that assent of Faith he speakes of . They doe not beleeve the mysteries of Religion Per assensum supernat uralem , i. e. because of Gods authority : but Per assensum quendam naturalem , qui non oritur ex pio affectu , sed ex vi & pondere argumentorum , quibus intellectus illorum convincitur , cap. 11. quaest . 2. § . 4. We grant willingly that they doe not assent out of any good affection ; nor is that needfull to make their assent supernaturall : for in hypocriticall , impenitent , and reprobate Catholickes there 's no pious affection moving them to beleeve , and yet if wee beleeve their Doctors , there is in them a supernaturall assent of Faith. But for that other thing , That the divells beleeve onely ex vi & pondere argumentorum , t is utterly false : seeing it cannot be doubted but that they beleeve the truth of many future contingents , wherof they are not convinced by any force of argument from the things themselves , but from authority of Gods Revelations in his Word or otherwise . Which infallible truth of God in all his revelations , is so cleerely apprehended by these damned Spirits , that it makes them to acknowledge the truth and goodnesse of that which otherwise they abhorre . Wherefore that comparison which hee makes * betweene the faith of 〈◊〉 and wicked Christians , is most vaine and erroneo●… 〈◊〉 ●…ith hee , you consider the faith of either of them , w●…●egard to the Object , there 's par ratio , both being ●…d about the same things . But if you take it with r●●ard 〈◊〉 honesty of the act , so the assent of the Divells is farr●… 〈◊〉 than that of bad Christians , who have faith an●●…rkes . But wherein ? He tells us , The Faith of Ch●… Supernaturalis , Voluntaria , & Honesta The Faith of Divells is Naturalis , Coacta , & pravis circumstantijs vitiata . All which are false . For the Faith of Divells is Supernaturallas much as that of wicked Christians : seeing both beleeve propter authoritatem Dei revelantis , which is * formalis ratio of Supernaturall assent . Againe , the Faith of divells is as voluntary as that of wicked men ; for it cannot bee wrought in either by compulsion simply : and if the Majesty of Gods infallible truth command the assent of Divells to that which they love not , doth not the same cause also prevaile with ungodly men , who beare as little true affection to God and Goodnesse as the divells doe . Lastly , the Faith of Divells is as Honest as that of wicked men . For let any man speake , Is it not as Honest a thing for wicked ang●lls to beleeve what God saith , as it is for wicked men ? If not , wherein lies the dishonesty of that act in the angells , or wherein stands the honesty of that act in men ? Can there be named any circumstances which make the Divels Faith dishonest , but that the same or as bad may bee alledged against the honesty of the Faith of wicked Christians ? Sure I am what everthese men conceit of the Honesty of Faith without workes in men , Saint Iames is plaine in his comparison , that t is no whit better than the Faith of Divells , Iames 2. 19. [ Thou beleevest that there is one God , thou doest well : ] [ the Divells also beleeve it : ] and doe not they doe well too ? Yes haply better than thou ; for they beleeve [ and tremble ] which thou doest not . To conclude , in the last place we object that Heretickes have such a kinde of Faith , as the Romanists call Iustifying . For though they erre in some articles of Faith , yet others they assent unto because of Gods authority revealing them . This Becanus denies , telling us that Heretici qui ve● in uno articulo sunt infideles omnem fidem amiserunt , cap. 11. quaest . 3. § . 4. which answer hee makes upon this ground , That the Habite of Faith is lost by any one act . of infidelity , § . 2. and therefore whereas Heretickes beleeve many things , t is but upon a kinde of custome , and by a humane faith . We reply and say , that that position ; One act of infidelity destroyes the habit of Faith , is false and contrary to reason and Scriptures , as hereafter I shall have occasion to shew , speaking of the opposites of Faith. For the point , we grant that He who is a persevering Heretick though but in one fundamentall article , he hath no justifying faith , not because he hath lost it , but because he never had it . But wee affirme , that for that other generall faith in assenting to the truth of divine things because of Gods authority , this faith as he had when hee was a Catholike , so hee still hath it in part now he is an Hereticke : and by the same faith he beleeved matters of Religion before his Heresie , by the same he beleeves them afterward . And those that are Heretickes indeed , or such whom wee stile by that name , let them bee asked why they beleeve such and such points of religion , they 'le answer truly and resolutely they beleeve them because of Gods authoritie that hath revealed them in his Word ; and for such things wherein they dissent , could they be perswaded the Scripture did teach the contrary , they would for the same authority sake beleeve the contrary . The Iesuite is yet urgent upon us , and tells us that no Calvinist or Lutheran beleeves Gods authority , but doubts of it . Wee tell him againe that 's a foule slander , and more than hee can make good : yes that he will , by a distinction too . Gods authority considered Abstractivè in it selfe ; so indeed we doubt not of . But Gods authoritie considered practicé in respect of the Church as it is proposed unto us by the Pastors of the Church , so we doubt of it , because wee admit not the judgement of the Church , but follow our owne phantasie , ibid. § . 7. To this we answer , that we passe very little to be judged Infidells upon such a ground , because wee call in question the supposed infallibility and authority of the Romish Church . We finde in Scriptures no such straight relation betweene her authority and Gods authority , that if wee call hers in question , wee must needs doubt of his . Wee doubt not of the authority of Scriptures : but we denie that the Romish Church hath any infallible authority of judging and interpreting them . No one man , nor all men ought to usurpe such authority over our faith . And let the truth be judge who be the greater Insidells , Calvinists and Lutherans that beleeve the Scriptures authority for its owne sake , or popish Catholikes that will not beleeve but for mans saying . Thus you have this second reason somewhat largely ; that Faith which our Adversaries call Iustifying , is in Divells , and ungodly men ; therefore it is not that justifying faith which the Scriptures speake of and appropriate unto the Elect , Tit. 1. 1. Here it is but a vaine shift our Adversaries make to runne unto that poore distinction of Fides Formata , and Informis : namely that Faith may exist two wayes ; 1. Vt est conjuncta cum charitate , ut in homine iusto : and then Faith is called formata & viva , because Charity is Vita animae . In this case , Faith can Elicere operationes vitales seu aeternae vitae moritorias . Gal. 5. 6. Faith worketh by Charity . 2. Vt est separata à charitate , quod fit in homine peccatore , qui amissa per peccatum mortale charitate , retinet fidem quamdin Catholicus est . This Faith is called Informis & mortu● , nec potest habere operationes vitales , seu meritorias . Iam. 2. 17. Faith if it have no workes , is dead in it selfe ; and ver . 26. as the body without the spirit , &c. Becan . tom . 3. cap. 10. § . 4. 5. 6. Thus they would have the quality and proper act of justifying Faith to be in reprobate men and divells , but yet it doth them no good , because t is without Charity . Faith without Workes may be in its nature justifying Faith ( because t is an assent to the articles of Religion upon Gods authority ) but yet it justifies not , because t is without workes . Hereunto we reply , that in this distinction there is not a syllable of sound doctrine , nor yet of reasonable sense . Thus much we grant , that there is according to St. Iames. a kinde of ●aith without Workes , namely a generall assent unto the truth of divine things : but we denie that this kinde of Faith is for the substance one and the same with that Faith which is properly called Iustifying . Faith without workes is of one kinde , Faith with workes is of another ; not onely in regard of consequent , because one hath workes , the other hath not : but in regard of their proper nature , because the quality and acts of the one differ from the quality and acts of the other . Wherefore in vaine doe they tell us that the same Faith is sometime with , sometime without Charity : Iustifying Faith is never without Charity , and that which is , is not Iustifying . Vnto that conceit that Charity is the forme of Faith , wee say t is Metaphysicall , and such as no good construction can be made of it . He saith Charity is Vita animae , hee would say , Vita fidei ; but take his meaning , Faith lives by Charity as the body by the forme or soule . Here 1. T is absurd to make one habite of the minde the forme of the other , wee may as well say that Temperance is the forme of Liberality . Each habite of the minde is distinguished by its proper object and actions , and this the Schooleman cap. 18. quaest . 2. § . 3. grants in the strict sense . 2. How doth Faith live by Charity ? We say it lives with Charity as its fellow-grace , not by Charity as its soule . We say without Charity it is dead , yet t is not Charity that gives it life . The Ies●it saith it doth , for being joined with it , Faith can [ elicere vitales operationes ] performe vitall acts . Yea but what are these actions ? Faith hath but two acts : 1. proper and immediate , viz. Credere seu Assentiri : 2. by consequent , Iustificare . Neither of these comes from Charity , even by these mens owne doctrine . Not the first , for Catholickes without Charity may assent to the articles of Faith for Gods authority sake . Not the second , for to Iustifie in the Popish sense is to Sanctifie , of a bad man to make a good . Now how absurd is it to say , Faith by Charity Iustifies , i. e. Faith by the love of God and our neighbour sanctifies us , or ( taking Charity for the Act not the Habite ) Faith by good workes of prayer , fasting , almes-deeds , &c. sanctifies us ? Both these are senselesse propositions ; for t is manifest , that hee who hath Charity , i. e. loves God and his Neighbour , and doth good workes , is not as yet to bee sanctified and made good of bad , but is thereby sanctified already . T is true that Faith is one part of our sanctification or inherent grace , and Charity is another ; but neither doth Faith sanctifie by Charity , nor Charity by Faith , but we are sanctified by both together . If there by any other vitall acts of Faith , they should have beene named . The glosse which the Iesuit addeth , whereby he interpreteth what hee meaneth by vitall operations , viz. [ aeternae vitae meritorias ] such as deserve eternall life , carrieth with it as absurd a sense as the other . Thus , Charity is the forme and life of Faith , i. e. Charity makes the acts of Faith to be Meritorious , s●il . our love of God and man , or our good workes , makes our Faith , i. e. our assent to the Articles of Religion because of Gods authority , to deserve eternall life . Is there in the Scriptures the least intimation of such a strange and uncouth meaning , when it tells that wee are justified by Faith ? To the places of Scriptures , Gael . 5. 6. Faith workes by Charity , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wee answer , the meaning of the place is no more but , That in Christianity no outward matters are of value ; that onely which is to be regarded , is Faith that bringeth forth good workes . These good workes come from Charity , or inward love of God and man. This Charity is stirred up and provoked to worke through Faith. So that Faith workes by Charity as by that chiefe instrument which Faith imployes in the doing of all good works : but Charity works by Faith as by the moving cause , whereby t is excited to worke , according to 1. Tim. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Faith is the first wheel in the clock that moves all the rest , Faith stirs up and directs the other graces of the soule in their operations , whose strength and vigour increaseth according as Faith increaseth . Tantum amam●… , quantum credimus : & t is cleer in all experience , those that have the strongest Faith , they shew the greatest love to God and man , as in Abraham , Moses , Paul , all the Martyrs . But of this more in shewing the connexion between Faith and Obedience . To that other place , Iames 2. 26. [ As the body without the Spirit is dead , even so Faith without workes is dead , ] we answer , that S. Iames understands by that similitude , not modum Informationis , but necessitatem Vnionis : that good workes are necessarily coupled with a justifying Faith , not that good workes are the forme and life of Faith , à priori . They are arguments and effects of a living Faith , they are not causes that make it living : as is apparent , because it is impossible any good worke should goe before justifying Faith , Heb. 11. 6. Wherefore this similitude is not so to be strained unto a Philosophicall construction ; where the Apostle intends no more in all his dispute , but to shew that true saying Faith must of necessity bee conjoyned with good workes . And if our adversaries bee so strict upon the termes of this similitude , t is manifest that they fit not their doctrine : for so , as the soule is the forme of the body , so workes shall be the forme of Faith , i. e. an Act shall bee the forme of a Habite , which is against reason and their owne doctrine , who make the Habituall grace of Charity , not good workes the fruits of it , to be the forme of Faith. S. Iames therefore is to bee taken in the former sense : or else wee may without any violence , * interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place not Spiritum , i. e. Animam , but Spiritum , i. e. Halitum & Respirationem ; and thus the comparison is exact , as the body without breathing and motion is dead , so Faith without workes . Thus it appeares how Faith is sleighted by our adversaries , whilst they hold that the Faith wherby a sinner is justified is nothing but an assent to Articles of Religion because of Gods authority . Some places of Scriptures there are they would faine build this upon , as , Heb. 11. 1. Rom. 4. 3. Tit. 1. 1. Ioh. 20. 31. but their arguments thence are so inconsequent and weake , they are not worth the mentioning or refuting . I proceed therefore from this generall Faith unto that other which is speciall & particular . Particular assent of Faith is , when all things revealed by God are assented unto as most true and excellent in regard of our selves , when they are particularly applyed to our proper occasion , and compared with all desires and provocations whatsoever to the contrary . When we know and beleeve those things that are generally delivered , for our selves , in application to our owne use and practice ( as Iob was counselled by his friends ) : so that wee beleeve in this particular aswell as in that , at this time aswell as at another . In the Explication of the nature of such a particular assent , I propose to your consideration two things : 1. The Roote and Cause whence it springs . 2. The Object of it , whereto it is directed . 1. The true root and fountaine whence this Blessed assent of Faith ariseth is that grace of sanctification wrought in the heart by the holy Ghost , renewing the soule in all the powers thereof . T is not common illumination ; for many know , and despise the truth , or beleeve it but in generall . T is not the Authority of all the men in the world that can perswade to it : wee should not then have had so many thousand ●…rmons of Prophets & Ministers , learned , holy and powerfull in their doctrine , yet preached to very small purpose with the most of m●n . T is not miracles and strange accidents that can force this Faith : the Iewes had plenty of them , yet continued still unbeleeving . T is only the sanctifying Grace of Gods spirit that brings this to passe . For , consider with your selves how deadly an opposition there is betweene a mans unsanctified nature , and the wisedome and goodnesse of God : all his counsells seeme but craft , his words foolishnesse , his mercies light and not worthy of estimation . His exhortations , promises , or threatnings are entertained with inward disdaine , and the heart saith within it selfe , Who is God that I should feare him , or what profit shall a man have by beleeving his Word , and walking in his wayes ? Yea , men that are otherwise ingenuous and of fairer temper , in this case are full of secret scorne and despite of God and goodnesse , they account basely of the holinesse of Religion , being privie scoffers and bitter deriders of the power of Grace , when they are alone by themselves or in company that fits them . They make a tush at Scriptures , and smile at such perswasions to pietie as they afford , counting it an indignitie for men of parts , and resolution to bee moved with faire words of a simple man , though hee speake in the words of God. If their beliefe and knowledge of the truth be good in the generall , yet in the application the heart makes violent opposition : it begins to hold probable dispute whether it be wisedome to doe so or so , whether they be bound in conscience considering such and such circumstances ; it casts all inconveniences that may possibly be thought on to discourage it selfe , yea perchance the truth it selfe shall be called in question , and it thinkes , Sure I am deceived , Gods meaning is otherwise , at last it resolves , I may doe this and yet fare well enough , and , If I doe no worse I hope t will not be much amisse , and I trust that these commodities and pleasures I enjoy may well countervaile the neglect of such or such a small matter . Thus the heart not washed by the holy Ghost in the laver of Regeneration , but abiding in its naturall corruption , is not nor can be subject to the law of God : but proves either impudent and Atheisticall to denie his truth , or strangely subtle to shift it off from it selfe , when t is pressed with it in particular . But when the spirit of Grace hath overshadowed the soule , sanctifying all the powers thereof throughout , t is admirable to see how it stoopes to the command of the Word . There is then a singular harmony betweene the holinesse of the Will , and of the Word : this food of spirituall life relisheth as sweet and savoury unto the soule , as milke to Infants , or strong meat to able and healthy men . Regeneration hath restored health unto the soule , whereby it hath recovered a true taste of the Lords bounty and goodnesse , whence followes a constant appetite thereunto asmuch as unto corporall nourishment , as the Apostle argues , 1 Pet. 2. 1. 2. 3. Hence the soule begins to conceive a high esteeme of the dignity of the Word , it sees now nothing so reasonable , excellent as the wisedome thereof , it beholds nothing ●o terrible as Gods threats , nothing so lovely as his favour : it sees no ornament of the soule comparable to Grace , no pleasure like unto the peace of Conscience : it comprehends an end of all other perfection , but the further it lookes into Gods law , the deeper wonders it discernes : it lookes upon the world and reades Vanity in all the things thereof , and strange folly in mens desires of them : and now it counts no preferment any whit comparable to the hope of heaven : it hath now Reall , apprehensions of Divine things , and conceives of Religion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as of a Worke to be done , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as a businesse to bee discours'd and talked of : it judges now that there is an absolute necessity of obeying God though all the world bee displeased , and that the regard of saving a mans soule must thrust out of the way all importunate pleasures and profits that would presse in upon us . Being thus illightened and inwardly touched by the finger of God , the soule presently puts it wholly upon the certainty and excellency of Gods truth revealed : it stretcheth forth the armes of her strongest confidence , & affiance , unto every branch of the Scriptures , embracing absolutely and without all limitation the truth , goodnesse , power , and wisedome of God shining therein : it beleeves what it knowes , and as it can ; where t is ignorant it prayes for knowledge , where weake it sues for strength and increase of faith , where stubborne it offers it selfe unto God to bee bowed , or broken if he please ; counting it now a happy thing to be crossed in sinne , to bee met with at every by-turning , with some reproofe or chastisement : let him chide or strike , it falls downe at his feet ; and without quarrelling , disputing and arguing the case , takes all with a Benedictus Dominus , &c. Blessed be the Lord , and blessed bee his Ministers , and blessed be their counsell who have kept me from committing this sinne against the Lord. When thus the heart is softened and sanctified , then and not before is wrought that habituall Grace and blessed disposition of the will which we call true Faith , whereby the Creature is willing to resigne up its understanding , desires , affections , thoughts , words , workes , and all to the disposing of his Creator , in such a sort as by his revealed Will hee hath or shall make known , beleeving certainly that in every thing t is best to follow his counsell . This for cause of true Faith ; next followes 2. The Object of this particular Faith : which is twofold : 1. The whole Will of God revealed unto us in his Word , containing all Histories , Doctrines , Commands , Threatnings , Promises of what kind soever . 2. The particular Promise of Remission of sinnes and Everlasting Life by the death of Christ , which in one word we call the Gospell . It is needfull thus to distinguish of the object of Faith , because , although it be but one and the same infused grace of true Faith which respects both ; forasmuch as by the same sacred Habite of the soule , we are inclined to beleeve both the whole and each part of Gods will , be it in it selfe more or lesse excellent , or more or lesse needfull to us : neverthelesse Faith as it hath reference to these Objects , The whole Will of God , and The particular Promise of the Gospell , admitteth of divers considerations , names , and uses . Faith as it assents to the whole Will of God in what kind soever , I call Legall , because it is such a Vertue as is immediately required by the Morall Law , in the same manner as other duties of the Morall Law are . Forasmuch as all men are bound by the Law of their creation to give full assent and affiance to all things whatsoever God shall reveale unto them . And as all other Morall dueties are required of us in their degrees as parts of our outward obedience and inward sanctity necessary to salvation , so is this of Faith commanded , as 〈◊〉 principall grace of the soule , and a prime part of our obedience to the first Commandement . And so Faith in this respect may bee called Saving , namely , as all other Graces are , because required in their measure as needfull to Salvation . Faith as it assents unto the speciall promise of grace , I call Evangelicall , because it is such an Act as is expressely commanded in the Gospell , the object thereof being not revealed by the Morall Law. It is called also properly Saving and Iustifying , in regard of the use it now hath through Gods gracious appointment , to be the onely instrument of our Iustification and Salvation by Christ. In which distinction between Legal & Evangelicall Faith , we must not conceive of two distinct Habits of Faith : it is but one gracious quality of the soule disposing it to the beliefe of all divine truth , which for the substance of it was the same in innocent Adam , with that which is in regenerate men . The difference stands onely herein : 1. In the Degrees , Adams Faith was perfect , because his understanding was fully inlightened , and his affections absolutely conformable to all holinesse . Wee know but little , and by reason of our inward weaknesse beleeve but weakly what we doe know . 2. In the Originall , in Adam it was naturall by creation ; in us t is supernaturall from the holy Ghosts infusion . 3. In the particular Object , Adam beleeved God without reference to Christ the Mediatour , wee beleeve chiefly the promise of Grace in Christ , and all other things with some relation to him . Here then is no new Faith , but a New object of Faith not revealed unto Adam , whereto our Faith is now directed , and here 's also a singular priviledge newly granted unto Faith , that God accepteth it to our Iustification in his sight . Otherwise if wee looke unto the grace it selfe as it was in Adam , a part of Gods Image given him by creation , and is in us a part of the same Image restored by regeneration , so there 's no difference at all : and therefore in that question whether Iustifying Faith bee commanded in the Morall Law , there needs no great dispute : t is manifest that it is injoyned , and that in the first Commandement , as a singular part of that inward worship due unto our Creator , consisting principally in those three graces of Faith , Love , and Feare . These things thus explaned , let us proceede to the unfolding of Faith , taken in the forenamed double relation : and first as it hath reference to the whole Will and Word of God. True ●aith respects all this , and onely this . Only this , because in divine revelations onely is to be found that Infallible truth , which gives satisfaction to the soule . And againe all this , because every part of Divine truth is Sacrosancta , worthy of all Beliefe and Reverence : threatnings as well as promises , precepts , exhortations , admonitions , histori●s , every part of the Word falls in some degree or other within the compasse of Saving Faith. By the same holy Faith whereby a penitent sinner beleeves the promise of mercy of Christ , doth hee also beleeve all other promises of this life , with other inferiour matters declared in Scriptures . This is certaine : but the chiefe point to bee noted here is an essentiall property of true Faith , which standeth in Vniversality and Vniformity of assent to all things that are from God. This Vniversality of assent is to be taken in a twofold regard : 1. Of the Object , the things beleeved , when the faithfull soule gives full assent unto all things revealed by God , not onely to such as it may assent unto without crossing its owne desires and purposes , but unto those also that directly crosse and oppose carnall reason , carnall affections , worldly pleasures , and all other provocations to infidelity . 2. Of the Time and other particular circumstances , whilst it doth most heartily and inwardly acknowledge the truth and goodnesse of these things , not then alone when this may bee done without any contradiction and resistance , but even then also most eagerly fixing the a●●iance of the heart upon them , when temptations rise , when Heretickes dispute and cavill , when humane reason failes , and falls to arguing of impossibilities and unlikelihoods , when sinnefull lusts hale this way and that , when the world threatens or slatters , when Satan rages or speakes faire , then doth true Faith , supported by the Spirit of grace , stand fast as Mount Sion , or if shaken a little t is not moved out of his place , but looking beyond all present temptations to unbeliefe unto the everlasting and infinite truth and goodnesse of God , it preferres that which he saith , above all that the flesh , the world , the divell can promise or threaten to the contrary . Now in this point stands an essentiall difference betweene the faith of Gods Elect and of Hypocrites . These have alwayes their limitations , they beleeve something , but not all : if all , t is but in generall , when it comes to particular proofe they bid ●arewell to saith , when such circumstances come in the way , as they love or feare more than they doe God. But the faith of Gods Elect is sincere , faire , open , universall , without distinctions , equivocations , mentall reservations or other hypocriticall and Iesuiticall sh●fts . The reason is , because the sanctified soule rightly apprehends the soveraignty of Gods truth and wisedome , outstripping in Certainty and Excellency all things that can be set against it ; it judgeth than no good can be equall to that which God promiseth , no evill so great as what hee threatens , no course so safe as what hee prescribes , whereupon abs●lutely without all qualifications the soule casts it selfe upon God , resolving to beleeve and doe as hee pleaseth . Whereupon though in particular practice , it may be ignorant of some things , and weake in the application of others , yet in the Habituall resolution and disposition of the heart , it doth willingly yeeld assent and conformity to all . T is most true , that David in a passion may call Samuel a lying Prophet , for 〈◊〉 him hee should be King , and after abusie dispute maintained upon politicke worldly considerations , c●nci●de that ther●● no remedie but he must one day perish by th● hand of S●●l : So Peter in a bodily feare may chance denie him in whom yet hee truly beleeves : so in a●l , a strong sit of pleasures or other violent incounter may push their buckler of faith aside , but yet it cannot strike it out of their hands : if they give a little ground , they will not flye the field ; but because the heart is holy and entire , they returne to themselves and their standing , where the shame of a foyle taken makes them knit their strength together , and stand more stoutly in the combat . But my brethren , here 's the mischiefe and miserie of all , when there is a false heart within that keepes it selfe in an habituall resolution not to beleeve and trust God in such things , or upon such and suchoccasions . For in this case what ever shew of true faith they seeme to have in the generality , or some few particulars , t is most certaine that there is indeed nothing at all in that heart but horrible hypocrisie and infidelitie . Such neverthelesse is the temper of all those who having not thoroughly searched out , and resolved to renounce their evill affections . nor exactly calculated what the profession and practise of Religion will cost them , nor yet duly considered upon what grounds they undertake this profession , are become their owne carvers in matter of Religion , taking only so much of it into their beliefe and practice , as the love of the world and their deere lusts will give leave . These men are just of the Samaritans Religion that feared God and served their Images : so they will beleeve God , yet obey their lusts . But as it was then , none were found more bitter enemies to the restoring of the Iewish Church and State , than these Samaritans , who by reproaches , accusations , and conspiracies cruelly vexed that poore people , and hindered the restauration of their afflicted estate , even then when with fained flattery they proffered their service , telling the Iewes they would build with them , because they also sought the Lord the God : So fares it with these men , whose beliefe and forwardnesse in some things cannot make demonstration of so much friendship to Religion , as their constant baulking and faltering in others testifies their hearts to be full of rottennesse and corruption , bearing hatefull enmity against God and his Grace . Take me any man who bewitched with custome , commodity , or pleasure , gives himselfe scope and liberty to live in the breach of any of Gods commandements , be it secret or open : as constant neglect of the duties of religion in private : accustomed mispending of pretious houres due to the businesse of our studies and callings ; usuall swearing ; secret thoughts and practices of uncleannesse ; unsatiable desires of earthly greatnesse , and abundance ; unjust increase of wealth , by usury , bribery , or other secret indirect courses ; excusing love of some though lawfull pleasures , &c. I say take me such a man that allowes himselfe in these or the like practices contrary to Gods most holy law , and hee will be found though in name a Christian , yet in heart an Infidell . For trie now the temper and disposition of this mans soule ; bring but the word of God unto it , and you shall see it presently . Lay upon these sinnes the censure of the Word in a faire ingenuous and direct reproofe , without scossing and bitter gybing , presse it upon the conscience once and againe lovingly and sharpely , and see now what strange entertainment Gods word shall finde at such a mans hands . The blood begins to be warm'd with wrath and choler , the stomacke riseth , and the gall of unchristian malice overslowes , the conscience and powers of the soule are of purpose turmoyld , that the water being troubled their owne image may not appeare in it , the head is presently imployed in all cunning tricks and distinctions to avoide the stroke of the Word , the tongue is ready with an apologie to defend it , and if the hand hold from violence t is well . Now whence is all this frowardnesse ? Hence , because the heart is resolved , let God say what hee will , yet in this point not to beleeve that it is better to follow his counsell , than our owne desire . In which case t is strange to see with what rage and unmercifull fury the Prophets of old , Christ and his Apostles in their times , were persecuted by those to whom they preached in all meekenesse and demonstration of good will towards their soules . The like fiery opposition have the Ministers of the Gospell and faithfull Preachers of Christ crucisied , found ever since at the hands of their people , when once they have beene touched where they would not bee medled withall . Straightway a whole Parish will be in an uproare , durt and scorne is hurld in the face of the Minister and his doctrine , all froward courses taken to worke him woe and shame , and all this done by those that wil yet be counted obedient and beleeving Christians . But are they so indeed ? they doe not deserve so much as the name . A Faith indeed they have , but not that which is true and rightly planted . For know this , that True Faith and a constant wilfull refusall to be guided by God in any one particular , whether the doing of a duety , or leaving of a sinne , are as incompetible as Christ and B●●●al . For aske a man that is thus partiall in his courses , You say you firmly beleeve the promises of the life to come , that God will pardon your sinnes and save your soule : why do you not as firmly beleeve the promises of this life , but are altogether caring and distrustfull in your affaires ? You beleeve verily that God is offended with murder , adultery , &c. and therefore you leave them : why doe you not beleeve also that hee is as much angry at swearing , lying , drinking , and such like disorders ? You beleeve God hath forbidden stealing , and you are perswaded t is nought : why doe you not beleeve that usury , bribery , or idlenesse in a mans calling are as bad , being as much forbidden ? You beleeve that t is a good thing to seeke unto God in time of adversity , and when a man 's old , sick , and now neer unto death , then to pray , fast , do all good works , and live religiously , is excellent : why doe you not beleeve that the same courses of Piety and Holinesse are as acceptable to God , as much required of us in time of health , youth , and prosperity , s●●ing God hath equally commanded them at all ti●… ? Aske a thousand such questions , he connot answer you to on● . For is it from a through consideration of Gods t●uth , wis●●ome , power , revealed in the Word that he is moved to beleeve such and such things ? If that were the cause , why doth hee not equally beleeve all , when Gods authority is the same in all ? Is it from true love to God and Goodnesse , that he is content to be ruled in such things ? If that were the cause , t is certaine he that loves goodnesse for its owne sake , would love all things that are good , and love alwayes in a good matter , as the Apostle speakes . What is it then ? I le answer for him ; t is that which the Apostle speakes of , Heb. 3. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an evill heart full of unbeleefe , that having embraced certaine truths not prejudiciall to it selfe upon vaine and worldly considerations , in others slips the collar , and departs away from the living God , refusing to accept of his counsell . The truth of this is most certaine from that excellent rule of S. Iames , Chap. 2. 10. 11. [ Whosoever shall keepe the whole Law and yet faileth in one point he is guilty of all : For he that said , Thou shalt not commit adultery , said also thou shalt not kill . Now though thou doest none adultery , yet if thou killest , thou art a transgressor of the Law. ] What , is it equall that he who transgresseth the Law in one point , should be held guilty of the breach of all the Commandements ? Yea , it is most equall and just : for Gods Soveraigne Commandement is the same in all . Hee therefore that for conscience sake obeyes in one , will obey in all . Hee that breaks one wilfully and customarily , keepes none at all for conscience sake ; and if all things hit aright , he will be as ready to transgresse in the rest , as in that one . Wherefore God judgeth him according to the disposition of his heart , that he is a transgressour of the whole Law. So in our obedience of ●aith , Gods truth is the same in every part of his Word ; he that hath spoken this , he hath spoken that also : he therefore that upon right grounds beleeves in one point , will for the same beleeve in another : if Gods authority cannot prevaile with him in one , that is not the motive which makes him assent to others : and therefore if occasion serve , such a one will dissent alike from all ; according to which Habituall disposition of the soule , he is rightly to be judged an Vnbeleever . He that rejects Gods command in one thing , doth not much regard it in any thing : hee that willingly slights Gods authority and truth in this point , makes as little account of it in another . You have now here , my brethren , opened unto you that Master-veine wherein runnes all that corrupt bloud of Hypocrisie and secret Infidelity , wherewith the greatest part of men professing Christianity are infected . This is that bitter roote of mens Apostasie and back-sliding from Piety to profannes , or from a true Religion to a false . Even this partiall and ill directed Faith is that which one justly calls the greatest part of the Divells Iudiciall Astrology , whereby he prognosticateth the downfall of many , who yet seem Saints in the Church & zealous professors of Religion . Oh , when he sees a man take a dispensation without asking God leave , craving pardon , with a , God be mercifull unto me in this , and so standing out in this or that knowne evill practice ; he now knowes what to judge of such a man , he sees a prey within the reach of his snares , which thereupon he sets so artificially , fitting his temptations to his humors , till in the end he catch his heele in the grin , plunging him into some abominable practice , to his owne destruction , and the disgrace of his Religion . Who could have thought that many Starres in the Church shining bright in all outward holinesse , could have fallen from Heaven , & their light bin put out in utter darknesse , had not after times discovered , that they alwayes lived in some secret ungodly practice ? For our selves , if wee will duely consider the state of our soules , it wil be easie hereby to make a prognostication unto our selves , what will become of us hereafter . Hee that can shift and distinguish , and put off from himselfe , & be content to give God the hearing , yet choose to think and doe what hee lists , let not his forward faith and zeale in something deceive himselfe , as it doth the world : but let him write downe himselfe for a counterfeit , whose Faith will certainely ●aile when it shall bee assaulted by stronger temptations . Now on the other side , that Faith which is true and sound hath alwaies this essentiall marke , that it doth assent Vniformely to all Gods revealed will. It makes not choise of some where , it must embrace all , it knowes God must have all , or he will have nothing ; and therefore it divides nothing to times , and seasons , and private respects : it beleeves what it likes not , as well as that which contents it , as well that that brings disadvantage , as where there 's likelihood of honour or profit . It compares all things within and within us on the one side , with Gods truth and goodnesse on the other ; & so reckoning the worst , it finds Gods anger to be worst of all ; forecasting the best , it beleeves Gods favour to be better than it . Then it resolves , let God say what he wil , to beleeve that that is good , honest , profita - and excellent to bee followed at all times , in all places , above all things that can be set against it . This is that temper of the soule which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Faith without faining , 1. Tim. 1. 5. this is faire , sincere , hearty plain dealing . This is to ascribe glory to God , and give him his full due , setting our seale unto his truth , ratifying it by a most willing absolute subscription to all . Such hath beene the Faith of the Saints . That of Abrahams is admirable conflicting with so many , yet conquering all oppositions , being throughly grounded upon the infinite truth , goodnesse , and power of God. If God bid him leave all , his friends , his fathers house , the land of his nativity , to goe into a strange countrey upon hopes of great matters , he is upon his journey straight , and no intreaty can stay him in Mesopotamia . When hee is in Ganaan , where bee now his great possessions ? Hee hath not so much as a foote of land given him , Act. 7. 5. not so much as his grave without a purchase from the Hittites . But shall his seede enjoy it ? yea , they shall , but is a long time first , some three hundred yeares after Abraham is dead , when the wickednesse of the Cananites is full . But where 's the seed it sel●e that shall enjoy it ? Abraham waits a hundred yeares before hee have Isaack . Now hee hath him shall hee live in Gods sight ? No , Abraham must goe and cut his owne sonnes throate , and Isaack the hope of Abraham and of the world , must dye by the hand of his old Father . Who but Abraham would not here have quarrelled with God , and laid slacknesse , falshood , unjustice , and cruelty to his charge ? But Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doubts nothing all this while , let God command or promise the most strange , unlikely , unpleasing , unreasonable thing in the world , hee will not question it , t is God that saith it , and therefore hee is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fully assured that hee which hath promised is able to doe it , Rom. 4. 21. Moses had a faire way to pre●erment , he was learned , wise a proper person , brought up at the Court , beloved as the Sonne of Pharaohs Daughter , every way a man of singular hopes to become Great in AEgypt . This would have made a Courtier of these times to have borrowed many a point of Law and Conscience , and strained hard to conceale his Religion , denie his Nation , and turne AEgyptian , at least his head would have beene hammering upon a piece of pollicy , that the poore Hebrewes might have beene much releeved by him being a great man with Pharaoh . But Moses hath no such thoughts : his Faith turnes his eyes another way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unto the Recompence of Reward ; and then Moses comparing the adversitie of Gods people , with the pleasures of Pharaohs Court , the rebuke of Christ with the riches of AEgypt , hee concludes , that it is better to bee a bond-man among the Hebrewes , than a revelling Courtier among the AEgyptians , that its farre , farre better to bee poore and religious for Christs sake , though rebuked and scorned of the world , than to be great and ungracious . Heb. 11. 24 25. 26. In a word , reade that whole chapter once and againe , and see what is the practice and power of Faith in the Saints of God ; you shall behold in them an absolute , Vniforme and constant resolution to beleeve God above and against all that can bee opposed : when temptations come on every side , reproaches , bonds , imprisonment , banishment , the sword , the fagot , the gibet , and a thousand difficulties present themselves , their faith makes way thorough all , and come what 〈◊〉 come , they are resolved to [ Follow the Lambe whithi● soever hee goes , ] Rev. 14. 4. For Conclusion of this point , let me intreate you to be exhorted each one to looke unto this matter , to trie how his heart stands affected in point of religion : and to remember as long as you live this most pretious and certaine truth , That true faith is uniforme , and equally respecteth the whole revealed will of God : without limitation to this or that particular , without reseruing to our selves , such or such a wicked resolution , without all provision that no inconveniences accrew unto us . Hee whose faith is thus patched up and dawbed with untempered morter , let him know for certaine that in a frost t will shatter all to peeces , and when temptations beates upon it , the whose building will runne to ruine . Take therefore I beseech you that counsell of Christ which hee gives in this matter , Luk. 14. 25. & seq . Great multitudes then as now , did runne after Christ , very forward to heare and beleeve his doctrine . Christ turnes unto them and tells them , that t is another manner of matter than they are aware of , to bee his disciple : Hee that will be so , must hate his father and mother , and wife and Children , and brethren and sisters , yea , his owne life for his sake , forsaking all , taking up his crosse and following him . Doubt yee not but this seemed to them a harsh doctrine , a very rough and unpleasant religion . But t is neither better nor worse : and therefore our Saviour bids them bethinke themselves what they have to doe , like wise builders to cast up their charges aforehand ; like provident warriours to muster up their owne forces , and duly consider their abilities , lest venturing rashly , they at last sit downe with losse and disgrace . The same I speake to you my brethren , Sit yee downe first , take counsell , reckon the cost , see what religion will stand you in : your lusts must be crossed , the world must be displeased , and despised too , Sathan must be fought withall , hazzard of disgrace and dammage must be undergone , friends and goods and life must be parted withall , if need require , the crosse must be borne daily . If now upon these conditions thou art heartily and freely content to plight thy faith to God , and take Religion with all its inconveniences , then goe on and prosper in this resolution , thy heart is sincere , and thy faith sound . But if upon heady and slight considerations thou hast put thy selfe forward upon the profession of Religion , not forecasting the worst aswell as the best of it , then know that thy case is like that of the Scribe , Mat. 8. 18. who there tells Christ in great forwardnesse , Hee would follow him whithersoever he went. But when the silly man heard Christ reply otherwise than hee lookt for [ The Foxes have holes , and the birds of the ayre have nests , but the Sonne of man hath not whereon to rest his head ] implying , that there was little hope to be rich and honourable by being one of his followers : this now fits not his covetous and ambitious humour , and therefore upon such an unexpected answer hee slinches , Christs company is too meane and poore for his great hopes , and for him he shall goe alone . A miserable thing it is for a man thus to come in at last with a Non putâram , I had not thought religion had required such absolute obedience , I thought I might have done so and so , and yet have beene a true beloever . Hadst thou not thought it ? The more foole thou , that wouldest not bethinke thy selfe better in so serious a businesse . Thinke then of it now , and thinke alwayes of it , that hee who beleoves and does only what him pleaseth , hee neither beleeves nor doth any thing as hee ought . Thus wee have done with Faith as it respects the whole course of Religion , and every part of the Word of what nature soever . Next wee are to consider of True Faith , as it lookes towards the particular promise of Grace , and is directed unto Christ. Which Act though it be particular , yet is of greater necessity and excellency than all other : because it gives , life as to our soules , so to our beleefe of other things , which are beleeved with relation unto Christ. Faith in regard of this particular Object and Act I thus define , [ It is a grade of sanctification wrought by the holy Ghost● in every regenerate man , whereby for his owne particular hee trusteth perfectly unto the promise of Remission of finnes and Salvation by Christs righteousnesse . ] I neede not stand at large upon every particular : That Faith is a sanctifying Grace , part of our inherent righteousnesse , that the Spirit of God is the onely author of it , that a regenerate man is the onely subject of it , these things have beene shewed heretofore . The Object also of it is manifest , by what names soever the Scriptures expresse it , namely , the Lord Iesus Christ , or God in Christ , or the Gospell , or the Promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all comes to one , and wee neede not be curious . But touching the proper Act of Faith as it justifies us , a little more at large . It consisteth in Trust or Reliance upon the promise for our owne particular , when the soule depends wholly thereupon , looking after no other helpe . You have heard heretofore that to . Beleeve the truth of a particular promise ; is to Trust upon the performance of it to mee : and that the Assent of Faith which is given to such a promise is properly called Fiducia , or Trust. Now the Promise of grace in Christ is made unto us in particular termes , both in the Word preached and Sacraments . to assent unto this promise , is not barely to acknowledge that there is such a thing in the world as Remission of sinnes by Christ to bee bestowed on some , God knowes who : ( for this is to beleeve the Promise , not as a promise , but as an History ) but this assent is of the whole heart , in Trust , Reliance , Dependance , Adherence , Affiance , or if there bee any other word expressing that action of the regenerate soule , whereby it casseth and reposeth it selfe onely upon Gods Promise in Christ for the obtaining of eternall , happinesse . That Fiducia is of the essence of Iustifying Faith wee make good : 1. From the phraso of Scripture used in this businesse . Those phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to Beleeve in , or upon , or into God , Christ , the holy Ghost , are not used as the learned know , by prophane Writers , but only by Ecclesiastical : implying that in Divine matters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies besides the naked acknowledgement of the Head , the confidence and affiance of the Heart . 2. From that opposition which is made betweene Faith and distrust or Doubting . ●am . 1. 16. [ Let him aske in Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nothing doubting . ] and Rom. 4. 20 ] Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doubted not thorough unbeleefe . 3. From that excellent place , 2. Tim. 1. 12. where it is apparant that to beleeue , is as much as to commit our selves to Christs trust and keeping . [ I know , saith the Apostle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in whom I have beleeved , or whom I have trusted ] for , as it followes [ I am perswaded that he is able to keep● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that thing wherewith I have entrusted him , or delivered up to his keeping . ] What was that ? His Soule unto everlasting Salvation . Wherefore to Beleeve the promise , is with Confidence and Trust to relye upon it , resting our soules upon the performance of it . Which assent of Faith is wrought in the soule in this manner : 1 A man is inlightned to see his sinne and miserie : and therewith an utter impossibilitie to satisfie God for the one , or free himselfe from the other , by any power and merit in heaven or earth , but onely by the Name of Iesus Christ : And this drives him from seeking helpe elsewhere . 2 The promise of Grace is proposed , and Christ freely offered unto him . 3 Whence in the third place , the Heart touched by the Spirit of Grace , drawes neere unto Christ , throwes it selfe into his armes , grasping about him with all its might , hiding it selfe in the clefts of this rocke from the stormes of Gods furious indignation . It bespeakes Christ in all termes of confidence and affiance , My Lord , my God , my hope , my fortresse , my rocke , my strength , my salvation , Save me or I perish . Have you seene how a tender infant in the apprehension of some danger approching runnes into the armes of his Parent for succour ? so doth a soule pursued by the terrors of the Law , and affrighted with the fearefull sight of Gods frowning countenance , fly with speed into the bosome of Christ , hang upon him , and most importunately sues to be taken into his protection . Now , one favourable looke from him is worth a thousand worlds , and if he will but say unto it , I am thy salvation , it will not exchange the comfort of that word for all the kingdomes of the earth . Wherefore the soule now thinkes of nothing but Christ , to live or die Christ is all in all with it , him it followes with all strong cries and teares for mercie and comfort , in him it apprehends plentifull redemption and all sufficiency of salvation , and therefore having once laide hand fast upon him , to die for it no force shall make him loose his hold . This worke of Faith as it doth greatly glorifie God , by ascribing the whole honour of our Salvation unto his only free Grace in Iesus Christ , so God againe is pleased highly to honour it above all its fellow Graces , by making it the blessed instrument of all the comfort we enjoy in this present world , thereby giving us assurance of our Iustification in his sight by Christs righteousnesse . Whereupon followes in their times , a double comfort unto the soule . 1. Peace of Conscience , resting it selfe secure upon the stability of Gods promise . It hath now what to oppose against the severity of Gods justice , and the accusations of the Law , even an All-sufficient Righteousnesse in Christ , able to satisfie them both to the full , whereupon it s quieted , and injoyes abundance of sweetest peace , being freed from those terrors which before compassed it about on every side . 2. That kinde of Fiducia which wee call assurance and full perswasion of the pardon of our sins . This is a fruit of that other Fiducia or Trusting unto the promise it selfe , wherein stands the proper act of justifying faith . And it followes it , not alwayes presently , but after some time , haply a long time after much paines taken in the exercise of Faith and other graces . For how many faithfull soules are there who stedfastly beleeve and rest themselves only upon Christ for their salvation , who yet would give a world to be assured of Gods favour , and fully perswaded that their sinnes are pardoned ? yet aske them in their sorrowes and feares , can you beleeve in Christ , committing your soules unto him , depending only upon him and no other ? They will answer , yea , I cast my selfe upon him , let him doe with me as he pleaseth , while I live I le trust in him . But now this although it should , yet will not satisfie them , they want joy in the Holy Ghost , there 's no testimony of the Spirit in them , they have no peace , no sense and inward feeling of Gods love , and therefore they cannot be assured that their sinnes are pardoned , and that they be in Gods favour . Whereupon they 'le be ready to fall backe , and tell you they doe not nor can beleeve in Christ at all . A great mistake , and that which casteth many a Conscience upon the racke , tormenting it with unsufferable feares , where there is no cause . They have no justifying faith ? Why ? Because they want full assurance of the pardon of sinnes . A false argument . Iustifying Faith is not to be assured of pardon : But to trust wholly upon the promise for pardon . Which point duly considered , would helpe us to a singular remedy for the consolation of consciences distressed about point of their salvation , who whilst they eagerly labour ( and I cannot blame them ) for an experimentall and sensible assurance of Gods favour , doe too too much neglect that comfort which their faith would afford them , in that , notwithstanding their feare , they are able still to commit their soules unto God as to their faithfull Creator and Redeemer . These men should doe with their soules as David did with his in the like temptations ; [ Why art thou cast downe my soule , why art thou disquieted within me ? ] Here was little peace and joy , doubts still arising , which causeth him to aske the question once , againe , and a third time . But see how he still answers [ Wait on God , wait on God , and againe , wait on God ; for I will yet give him thankes , who is my present helpe and my God ] Psal. 42. 5. 11. and 43. 5. See , when hee hath no comfort , here 's his comfort , even his faith , that he can still depend upon God for comfort . The further explication of this point depends upon the resolution of that practicall Syllogisme , whereby certainty of Salvation is concluded ; which is this . Whosoever beleeveth , His sinnes are pardoned , and hee shall be saved : But I beleeve , Ergo My sinnes are pardoned , and I shall bee saved . The Major here is of Faith. The Minor of Sense and Experience . The Conclusion is of both , but chiefly of Faith , as it followes on the premisses by infallible argumentation ; and partly of sense , as it is founded on the inward experience of Gods grace working upon our soules . Wee may take comfort in this conclusion as we are assured of it by faith , even when experience and sense it selfe failes . But of this more , when we shall speake of the fruits and consequents of Faith : FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A09277-e3340 Zach. 6. 13. Hist l. 6. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Heb. 6. 7 8. AElian . Vat. hist. l. 1. c. 17. * [ shew much love ] n●rans . * Whereof yet many as left unto us , as the Cananites among the Israelites . Notes for div A09277-e5190 Ac●● 27. 〈◊〉 . A clean heart , a right spirit . * Therefore it is our body of death , which yet hath many earthly members . The new man is created a perfect man , though but an infant . * As infidelity of our corruption . Gal. 5. 22. As the Will renued is at once disposed to love our neighbour , as well as to love God , &c. * So Tilenus , with others generally , makes Faith to be the instrument of Instification and Sanctification , with this difference : Fides Iustificationem percipit , Sanctificationem etiam efficit . In the one faith is an instrument only , in the other an efficient cause also . Tylen . Syntag. part . 2. disp . 45. thes . 41. Ob. * As who should say , a dead man must first see , speak , and goe , before he have life in him . Sol. Eph. 1. 22. & 4. 15. Gal. 2. 20. 1. Cor. 6. 17. None can call Christ Lord but by the holy Ghost . Rom. 10. 20. Christ is made unto us life , righteousnesse , &c. Vnlesse we will maintaine the Popish Limbus . He hath loued vs and chosen vs , &c. Deut. 7. 7. 8. & 10. 15. 1. Ioh. 4. 19. 1. Pet. 1. 3. Tit. 3. 5. 7. Eph. 1. 4. 9. 2. Tim. 1. 9. Rom. 11. 5. & 9. 11. God so loved the world , &c. Col. 1. 13. Ioh. 6. 29. and 1 Cor. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Heb. 102. 2 , 23 1 Pet 1. 28. The loue of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost . Col. 2. 9. Act. 10. 38. 1 Cor. 3. Ioh , 9. 25. Anat. Armin. For in him we liue and move , &c. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Psal. 115. 8. Psal. 116. * Iphicrates Arist Rhet. l. 1. cap. 9. * Rom. 8. 28 30 Gal. 1. 15. Whether may the childe of such a one bee baptized ? yes because the Wife may be a true Christian , and one party makes the children holy . But what if both should so sinne ? Then the childe borne of them is to be baptized as other Insidells at years of discretion , and to be held in the same ranke as the children of Christians that turne Turkes . And therefore some of the Ancients did erroneously give the Supper to Infants . Luc. 17. Zach. 10. 8. Ioh. 10. 3. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Holinesse . Quest - 1. Exod. 31. 3. & 35. 31. * As de Coelo . l 1. c. 10. De Mundo , cap. 11. 12. Physic. l. 8. De nat . Deor. lib. 1. 1. Mat. 16. 17. 1 Cor. 2. 21. & 2. 6. & seq . 1 Pet. 1. 12. 2. 3. * As Bellar. absurdly holds Lib. 1. de missa . cap. 20. Mat. 6. Deut. 6. 25. 1 Tim. 1. 5. * This opinion of Arminians of the bestowing of grace vpon the well using of Nature , is in effect but the doctrine of Popish preparatory merits of Congruity , preceding the gift of grace . Both contrary to that of the Apostle , 〈◊〉 . Tim. 1. 9. 〈◊〉 ▪ Quest. And so Adam had Sufficient strength to stand , because it would have upheld him being assaulled , if he had then made use of it as hee should . But that he did not . 〈◊〉 . 2. * And so in Adam who was endued with all inward abilities to doe whatsoever God should command , there needed nothing else but the declaration of his Will , and Adam could presently obey . But in us that want such strength there is required by such a proposall of Gods will , another worke of the Spirit giving us power to doe it . Iam. 1. 18. Luk. 7. Eph. 3. 7. Coll. 1. 29. Nil obstat quominus dicitur vel sola Dei meralis suasio bomines animales reddere spiritueles , saith Grevine . cont . A●●es . pag. 297. * Namely that acknowledging of the truth which is according unto godlinesse . Tit. 1. 1. So Eliah to Elisha , What have I done unto thee ? viz. that thou shouldest be so eager to follow mee . He cast on his Mantle , said nothing and went his way . The Counsell of a Friend , and the perswasion of God. Qualis unusquisque est , 〈◊〉 is ●●●is ●idetur . Rom. 8 7. a Like places are Io● . 2. 1. 13. Esa. 63. 10. 1 Tim. 3 8. Gen. 6. 3. b Mat. 10. 24. c As their fathers had done Esa. 6. 9. & 63. 10. d For these were uncercumcised in heart & eare : id est , unregenerate . Such are 2 Cor. 5. 2. and 6. 1. Gal. 1. 6. Revel . 3. 20. In Act. Synod . Dord . Sent●● . Britan. Theol. de 3. & 4. Artic . He is excusable for rejecting that which is offered him to that very end that he should reject it , not that he should receive it . See Som. 7. 10 , 11 , 12 , 13. Luk. 〈◊〉 . 16. 1 Cor. 3. 5. 6. & 5. 10. Ioh. 5. 25. 1 Thes. 2. 13. Eph. 4. 20. seq . 3. Question . Contra Bogerman . p. 363. Contra Tilen . P. 337. Episcop disp de Perspic . Scriptur● . Arnold contra 〈◊〉 . 307. a Rev. 3. 17. 18. b Eph. 5. 8. c Io● 1. 5. d 1 Cor. 2. 14. Psal. 119. Eph. 1. 17 , 18. This their opinion is plain , as by other so by those words of theirs in their Defence of the 4. article , pa. 164. whereunto our Divines proving a defect and inward disabilitie in mans understanding out of these Scriptures that tells us we are Blinde , and Darknesse , &c. they answer that these Metaphors resolved into their proper sense note unto vs , Nihil aliud , quàm ( ●…egenitos ) rerum 〈◊〉 ●arum & voluntatis salutiserae ignaros & nas●ios ( ●uisse ) a● proinde ●tiam à dei timore 〈◊〉 . At ex hoc aliud nihil conclud● potest quàm ●os indigere Clarâ v●ritatis propositione , ut scientiam co 〈◊〉 See al●o p. 168. 169. Rom. 7. c Ioh. 14. 17. d Mat. 56. e Psal. f 1 Ioh. 4. 7. g Gal. 5. 23. Col. 3. 12. Mat. 11. 25. h Zach. 12. 10. Rom. 8. 26. i Act. 11. 23. [ Actum fidei & conversionis Deus primò & rigide ab homine erig●● ad salutem obtinendam & poenam ●●●dend●m ] Defens . sent . ●em . circa 4. Art●c . pag 154. 155. Even in sleepe there is peace of Conscience in the godly , and that is a fruit of Fai●… . Prov. 3. 24. 25 , 2● . * Act. & Script . Synod Remonst . in declarat . sentent . de 3. & 4. Art. pag. 12. 1. Tim. 1. 〈◊〉 . Corrected us as an untamed Heyfer . ●●r . 31. ●8 . * D●… . S●●t . ●em de 3. & 4. ●rt p. 10. * Prov. 1. 24. & seq . 9. Chron. ●4 . 2● . a Ier. 6. 16. 17 b Iob ●1 . 14. c ●sa 65. 2. Rom. 10. ●lt . d Prov. 1. 24. e Ezek. 12. 2. Act. 28. 27. f Act. 7. 51. g Esa. 63. 10. h Mat. 23. 27. i Ioh. 5. 34. 40. k Psal. 58. 5. Act. 13. 46. a 〈◊〉 Cor. 6. 1. b Mat. ●5 . 25. 28. c Mat. 13. 19. & seq . d Heb. 6. 4. & seq . e 〈◊〉 Pet. 2. 21. See the defense of the Remonstrants opinion about the 4. Article exhibited in the Synod . in the acts of the Synod printed by the Remonstrants , Rev. 3. 17. Ad Simplie . l. 1. quest . 2. Psal. 119. Marc. 14. 38. Rom. 8. 5. Rom. 7. 21. 2 Cor. 3. 17. a 2 Thes 5. 19 b Eph. 4. 30. c Heb. 3. 12. d Psal. 107. 11 Est enim quaedam necessitas voluntaria , as Moulin truely , Anat. Armin. * Heb. 12. 23. 2. Generall . Vid. Scot. sent . l. 3. dist . 24. quaest . unica . Segnius irritant animum demissa per aures , quàm quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus . Is true only in comparing of writing and speaking about abstract matters . Or let a groūded Scholler compare the conceits of things he hath now by his owne reason , with those which had he being a novice , &c. Cognitie 1. Abstractiva 〈◊〉 evacuat sidem . 2. Intuitiva evacuat . Scot. ubi supra . * The cause is , because there is a possibility that the wisest and honestest men may deceive vs or be deceived . Every created understanding is ●…lis , and therfore binds not o●● assent . a T is an erroneous curiositie to make Fiducia a consequent of Fides , and to say , Therefore I trust a man because I beleeve the truth of his promise , that he will do what he sayes : there can bee no good construction of such a saying , for t is as much as this , I trust him because I trust him ; or if the meaning be thus , I beleeve the trust of his promise , therefore I trust vpon it , id est , I seeke not to any other meanes for obtaining the good promised , but only his promise : then Fiducia shall be the not seeking to other meanes : but this is false , for not to seeke to other meanes , is a consequent of trust reposed in the promise . For where there is a continued Act of beleeving or trusting to the Certaintie of performance , there the minde doth acquiescere , rest it selfe in the promise , which acquiescentia is the not seeking and moving after further meanes to helpe it selfe . b In Threatnings the matter is the same mutatis mutandis . Our Belief of them too is more then a generall assent , but it wants a name , something t is proportionable to Fiduria in promises , but the effects are divers , for Fiducia in promises , breed joy and hope : but a firme assent to the certaine accomplishment of Threatnings breeds feare , and despaire , if they be unavoydable , if avoydable , vigilancy to escape them . a Num. 24. 2. b Vers. 3. 4. c 2. Pet. 3. 21. d Num 24. 13. [ I cannot pas● the commandement of the L. &c. ] * The reason is , because every created understanding is evidently convinced of this . That God can tell no lie . * Thus prophesie and gift of miracles are joyned together , Mat. 7. 〈◊〉 . Iob 12. The booke of Canticles which treats of that spirituall and heavenly fellowship the sanctified soule hath with Christ , cannot be throughly understood in the true life of it , but by those that are sanctified . Laert. in Socrat . Tom. 3. cap. 8. quaest . 1. §. 10. 〈◊〉 2. Cor. 3. 〈◊〉 . Fides non habes meritam ubi ratio habet experimentum . Psa● . 77. Iohn 20. * Marc. 16. 22. [ This shall not come to thee ] Mat. 17. 23. [ They shall kill him , &c. and they were very sorry . ] Ioh. 20. 9. [ They k●ew not the Scriptures that he must rise from the dead ] Act. 1. 6. Marc. 9. 31. ●2 . about Christs temporall kingdome . Act. 10. 14. 1● . 34. of the calling of the Gentiles . Mat. 13. 3● . ●ain . Idol . l. 1. 〈◊〉 . 7. §. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . l. 6. 〈◊〉 . 12 , § 31. 1 King. 21. 38. Luk. 24. 25. [ O soules and flow of heart , to ●elieue all the Prophets hau● spoken . ] 〈◊〉 . 6. ●0 . 1 Pet. 2. 10. 11. a Tom. 3. ●…l . School . cap. 8. q. 8. Quo●odo resoluating 〈◊〉 si●e ? Ibid. Num. 7. 1 Iob. 2. 27. of the ●no●uting . Luk. 24. 45. What can he answer but this , I know it , because I see it . To demand a reason of bence , it absued . Col. 1. 23. D● . Gub. lib. 5. ●sa . 5. 11. &c. Ioh 39. 29. Iames 〈◊〉 . Drusillam a priore eius marito Azizo Emiseuorum rege bland : ti 's abduxerat Ioseph . Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 5. Matt. 13. 45. 46 * Ibid. 5. 5. * Cap. 8. q. 2. §. 2. Bellar. de ▪ Iustific . l. 1. c. 15. * Polan . Synta . l. 1. c. 32. Iob 5. 27. 2 Reg. 17. 41. Ez● . 4. 2. a Ioh. 1. 12. Rom. 10. 14. b Rom. 4. 5. Act. 16. 31. c Eph. 1. 12. 
A28523	----	The fifth book of the authour, in three parts the first, Of the becoming man or incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Sonne of God, that is, concerning the Virgin Mary ... and how the Eternal word is become man : the second part is of Christ's suffering, dying, death, and resurrection ... : the third part is of The tree of Christian faith ... / written through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, by Jacob Behme, the Teutonick philosopher ... Von der Menschwerdung Jesu Christi. English Böhme, Jakob, 1575-1624. 1659 Approx. 662 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 137 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28523 Wing B3405 ESTC R21119 12405287 ocm 12405287 61375 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28523) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 61375) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 124:10) The fifth book of the authour, in three parts the first, Of the becoming man or incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Sonne of God, that is, concerning the Virgin Mary ... and how the Eternal word is become man : the second part is of Christ's suffering, dying, death, and resurrection ... : the third part is of The tree of Christian faith ... / written through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, by Jacob Behme, the Teutonick philosopher ... Von der Menschwerdung Jesu Christi. English Böhme, Jakob, 1575-1624. Sparrow, John, 1615-1665? [18], 120, [2], 121-197, [2], 199-239, [9] p. Printed by J.M. for Lodowick Lloyd ..., London : 1659. Translation of: Von der Menschwerdung Jesu Christi. Preface signed: John Sparrow. The 2nd and 3rd pts. each have special t.p. Errata: p. [9] at end of pt. 3. Advertisement: p. [8] at end of pt. 3. Reproduction of original in Yale University Library. Marginal notes. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Jesus Christ -- Passion. Incarnation -- Early works to 1800. Faith. Mysticism. 2006-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-06 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-07 Andrew Kuster Sampled and proofread 2006-07 Andrew Kuster Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion The Fifth Book of the Authour , In Three Parts . The First ; Of the Becoming Man or INCARNATION of Jesus Christ The Sonne of God. That is , Concerning The Virgin Mary , What she Was from her Original , and what kinde of Mother she came to be in the Conception of her Sonne Jesus Christ , And how the Eternal Word is become Man. The Second Part , is of Christ's Suffering , Dying , Death , and Resurrection , and how we may enter thereinto . The Third Part , is of the Tree of Christian Faith ; shewing what True Faith is . Written Through the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost , By Jacob Behme THE Teutonick Philosopher , Dwelling at Gerlitz in Lusatia in Germany , 1620. LONDON , Printed by J. M. for Lodowick Lloyd , at the Castle in Cornhil , 1659. The PREFACE to the Reader of Jacob Behmes Book of Christs Incarnation . Reader , IT is an Eminent Text. Search the Scriptures , for in them ye think ye have Eternal life , and they are they which testifie of ME , And Ye will not come unto ME that ye might have Life , Joh. 5. 39. 40. which are the words of our Lord and , Saviour Jesus Christ to the Jewes at Jerusalem , in the days of this Conversation upon Earth in Mortal Flesh : They thought to have Eternal life in the Scriptures , and were present with Christ outwardly , yet would not come unto Him , though the Scriptures are they that testifie of Him : by which it may appear , that the Coming to Christ must needs be inwardly , in Coming to be like him in their Hearts , in becoming Meek and lowly of Heart : such onely and no other do come unto him in any Age or Place of this world or in Eternity : nor can any other possibly have life . Though the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are indeed the written word of God ; Penned by the Holy Prophets and Apostles , who speak as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost , whose words are some of them recorded in the Holy writings the Bible . Yet if we consider it seriously , can we think that the Eternal Ever-living word , CHRIST JESUS , by which all things were Created , and which is God himself ; who hath spoken by his Word , in all his Holy Ones , that have spoken forth the Things mentioned in the Scriptures , and there recorded by the Command of the same word : I say this being weighed , can it enter into our Hearts to think , that this powerful word which is God , would onely have the Scriptures , to be called the word of God , and the living power to be slightly passed by as not observed , or those Texts that speak of it , to be interpreted of the Holy Scriptures onely ; as if there were no such Thing besides ; whereas , for the sake of that , they were written , the holy Men spake , and God hath wrought , all things , and that by , and for , it , to his own Glory . Also , that the writing , should be preferred , before the Thing that is written of , therein , and which caused the writing and dictated it , as it is , by those , that think , the word is not that , which filleth all Things , calling in the Hearts of All , though not regarded . Further ; that this Holy Scripture doth say : the word is in the Heart ; and yet is not by some , conceived to be there , before the word was known to be written by any Man , or spoken by humane voyce , neither of which , could be , or act , unless first directed by the same Eternal Word . And then ; that the Word is in the Hearts of those onely that have heard or read the Scriptures , or the Word vocally pronounced by Man. And at length to think , the Word , is onely the Scriptures of the Bible , in their Hearts , by and after the hearing or reading it , and remembring what it mentions in Words , according to their own Notions or apprehensions of the Things in their Minds , though perhaps not understood , by those Persons , nor indeed can be , but by the Spirit of understanding , awakened and revived in Man , by the power of the Living Word in the Heart , filling the soul with understanding and believing ; in those who are obedient , to the Movings and dictates thereof in the Mind , though they never read or learned it from any outward word or writing at all ; of which , there are many Examples in the Holy Scriptures . And so now , That the Scriptures , which mention the word of Life , should be taken to be that very word of Life it self , and that thereby the Thing which is so called in the Scriptures , should be thought to be the Scriptures only , and no further search or inquiry made , what that Thing is , or where it is , and how to find the very Thing it selfe ; as if , that were impossible , or not the Maine Matter to be looked after ; whereas God himself saith , Am not I he that filleth all things , and in him are all Things : Can not HE then be found , and whosoever findeth him , can he miss of finding ALL THINGS ? This seemeth strange that it should enter into the Heart of any Man : and that we should be so tyed up to former apprehensions and Conclusions fixed in our Minds , that further consideration of it cannot easily take place , and sink into us , it may make us stand a while , and examine what may be the cause thereof . And then we may observe , that commonly our disposition is such , that we love not to hear opposion , or a different apprehension of others , least we should thereby be led to think & Believe , that which is contrary to our former once framed Ground of Opinion , abstracted from outward sense onely : and this because all Conclusions raised upon it , when that is once removed , do fall to the ground , and so we loose that Great Labour , and must be put to work a fresh upon that new Foundation , and then a fear if that should again be shaken , there must be another labour , with the like hazard of unprofitable Success , which is so huge a discourgement to any Mind , that it bringeth it at length to be languishing and as it were dead , epecially if an assured infallible immoveable internal Ground be not presented to it , that it may go on cheerfully to build , with hope to enjoy fruit , in beholding the beauty of its Superstructure ; and when it is thus dead in it self , it is most capable to be taught by the quickening Spirit of Truth , that lyeth hidden in it , under its former but supposed Truths . Yet , to deny , that the Holy Scriptures , are the written word of God , or the Word of God Expressed in writing , is , besides the opposing of apparent Truth , to undervalue , that precious help to the knowing and understanding , what that Word was , by which it was written , which is the very End for which it was committed to writing and continued to us , and is , one of the most Excellent fruits of the wisdom remaining in Letters , which that Eternal Word hath produced in this outward visible transitory World. But , the Esteeming that fruit , and looking after it more then the Roor , and setting it up instead of , and above , the hidden Word in all things ; is that which hath been attempted in the Hearts of Men , by the suggestion of the Arch-Enemy of all Man-kind : who knoweth well enough , that if the inward Word be once Choaked and killed at the Root , so that it groweth not to be felt known and obeyed ; he will soon cause in Evil Minds , that Most precious literal Word , to be used onely as a pretence , thereby to cover all Sin in Hypocrisie , causing the Word in the Heart , not to be so much as thought on or observed : whereas , on the Contrary , he that highly esteemeth of the Word , the Commandment , Christ in the Heart , that word of Faith , by which the heart it self cometh originally to have its very being : cannot in the least fail of Esteeming , the powerfull working thereof in the inexpressible various wisdom , dwelling in the Heart and appearing from the Mouth or Pen of any Man whatsoever . Therefore peruse this Book , which will inform us , how the Eternal Word became Man , and how the Man JESUS CHRIST , who was born of the Virgin Mary , and lived upon Earth , for the space of Three and Thirty years and upwards , then was Crucified , dyed , was buried , arose again , and ascended into Heaven ; within the little part of the World , that Space of the Country of Aegypt the Wildernss , the Land of Canaan Judea and City of Jerusalem , in the fulness of Time , about sixteen hundred and fifty Eight years ago . How HE was also , this Eternal Word , which was , is , and Ever shall be , God , and Christ , the Eternal Alpha and Omega , the beginning and the End , the word of Faith ; that very Word which is in our Hearts , the word of Life , the inserted or ingrafted Word , the word of Grace , the Spirit of Life , the Bread which came down from Heaven , & which alwaies is in Heaven , not the outward , though in the outward Bread , for we live not by bread alone , but by every word which proceedeth out of the Mouth of God , this is the Bread of Life , Our * Dayly Bread : and so how he is both God and Man : Also how we that are Men , may here in this Life , be rightly partakers of Him according to the sayings of the Scriptures , also of his Sufferings Death and Resurrection : and how or in what manner it is , that he is like unto us in all things Sinne onely excepted , and yet he took our Sinnes upon him , & he that knew no Sinne , became Sinne for us , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him . All this will be clearly discerned in this Treatise of the Incarnation of JESUS CHRIST or his Becoming Man : and therefore also , that so precious knowledg may not remain any longer shut up , it is here published in the English Tongue . Though by perusing it and Meditating therein , the Holy Bible will appear assuredly , to be as much the Word of God , as a writing by Mans hand can be ; and the words there , once spoken by the Prophets , Christ , the Apostles & other Holy Men , as much the word of God , as words and voyces of Men can be ; The true sence and meaning thereof , in the understanding , as much the word of God as the Meaning in the Mind and understanding of any Man can be . Yet the writing , the Words , and sense or meanings , proceeding from Creaturely Instruments , are creaturely , whereas , the Thing properly called the word of God , which inwardly frames those Meanings and formeth all things whatsoever both visible and invisible , is not a Creature , for it is the Creator , the Creating Word , which is God himself , who formeth all things in himself , and so ALL is HE , not one IOT , a Creature ; But he createth the Creature , and dwelleth therein , yet the Creature is not nor ever can be , He : and so that word of his which is produced effected brought forth and Manifested Externally by the Creature , is Gods Word , but is not , God the Word , But the inward Word in the Heart , that vvord of Faith , even Christ the Word , that Word is God. Let me enquire a little Were not all * Eternal Things whatsoever , in Being in their own uncreated World , before therewas so much as the least Glimps of any Created thing , either Angel or Man , either Created Light or Darkness , either Created Heaven or Hell , or this World ? And were not the Divine holy Spiritual , and all other Natural things in Being , without the Created inward and outward world as well as in them ? And had it not been so , though the Angels world and ours had never been created ? And were not all the Things without them and within them , in Being , though they had not been spoken of in the Scriptures ? were not , the Word , God ; though John the Apostle had not said so ? were not the Pure in Heart Blessed ? should we not through Patience possess our Souls ? Is not God himself Light ? And if we walk in the Light as he is in the Light , doth not the Bloud of Jesus Christ clense us from All Sinnes ? otherwise not , though it be in us . And is not his Flesh meat indeed and his Bloud drink indeed ? Why do we not eat and drink thereof ? If we deny our selves , and take up the Cross of Christ , that is , tribulation anguish afflictions adversities and Crosses , and follow him in Meekness and wel-doing , loving those that hurt us , returning Good for Evil to every one , and blessing for Cursing , and this unfeignedly from a sincere Heart : are we not his true Disciples ? will not Heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that desire it ? though certain Disciples , that believed and had been baptized in the Time of the Apostles , had not so much as heard whether there was any holy Ghost , yet being baptized in the Name of the Lord JESUS , and having the hands of Paul laid on them , they received the holy Ghost and Spake with Tongues and prophesied . Do not they receive the Seed into Good Ground , that heare the Inward Word , and receive , consent to , or obey it , and so , understand it , & also bring forth fruit ? Doth not Faith come by inward Hearing , and that Hearing by the same word of God ? And can those that have not Ears to hear , that is , Spiritual Ears , hear , though his voyce his Spiritual Tongue and voyce is gone into all the Earth , that Word ingrafted in every thing by which all doth subsist ? Can the Natural Man perceive the Things of God , seeing they are spiritually to be discerned : or can any teach them rightly , that is Spiritually , but by the Spirit ? And if the word of Promise the Seed of the woman had not been quickned in Adam and Eve , by Gods putting Enmity between the Womans and the Serpents Seed , they both of them and all their posterity , had been meerly Natural and Children of wrath onely , and had been uncapable of ever becoming the Children of Grace and Mercy : but in the Word of promise Christ in them , all Mankind have in them , the Spiritual Man , the hidden Man of the Heart , in whom , even Cain was able to do well , and so doing should have been accepted , and in whom , they are not only able to discern but to do all things ; but if they love themselves , more then God in them ; then their Perdition is of themselves . Hath not God shed abroad his Love in our Hearts ? Can any rightly say , Lord ! Lord ! but by the Holy Spirit ? And are not the Father the Word and Spirit which bear record in Heaven One ? And do not the Spirit the Water and the Bloud which bear record on the Earth agree in One ? Also , is not the Kingdom of Heaven within us ? And doth it not consist in Peace Righteousness , and Joy in the Holy Ghost ? and then must not all needs be in us ? And we may thereby apprehend and understand it rightly , though yet we know it not nor ever read it , or though it had not been related in the Holy Scriptures . How many Thousand Endless Mysteries , are Treasured up in the hidden wisdom of God in Christ , and in him in us ? when we find him and partake of him , in him we have them all , and from his fulness receive Grace for Grace : how narrowly therefore should we search and observe , the exact words of the Scripture , which so surely as an Index , point us to these invaluable things ; and use that powerful word in our Hearts , by which hearing Comes , and direction and power of understanding those things , not onely which are expressed inwardly or outwardly , but even whatsoever is hidden in Christ , in whom all fulness dwels : and then can any thing be impossible to be apprehended or known by a Soul , that hath the very Thing in it self , where nothing can be hid from its inward Eyes ? And since God worketh in us both to wil and to do , why refuse we to will and to do ? by hearkening and yeelding to the Lusts of our own Hearts , being Servants in Obedience to the Evil , and not of God , who is likewise in us with his Grace & fulness : we thinking nevertheless , that we can neither will nor do , endeavouring to bring Scripture to prove it ; to the quenching of the Spirit , the manifestation whereof , is given to every one to profit withal : and this is effected in those that understand not , how to satsfie themselves , in the meaning of those Scripture Arguments that are alledged for proofs ; not considering that God worketh in us to be able through him in us , so that there is himself his power and ability in our Selves , though not Self-ability , as of our selves : for , the Most Holy Man born of the fleshly Seed of Father and Mother , of himself as of himself , is not able to think a Good Thought , but there is none so wicked , except he be altogether uncapable to desire Conversion , and so is a Devil , but doth at some time or other in this life , think a Good Thought ; which testifies the good work of God in his-heart and soul , and is the stirring of the Divine Word therein , in which is Light , but Men love darkness rather then Light , though it Ever Eternally shone in the Darkness , and is the very light of their life in them ; and that because their Deeds are Evil ; and they will not follow to will and do according to it , which is the Obedience to the divine . Light in them ; though God hath given even his whole self unto them to Convert them , wherein they are able to do all things through Christ that strengtheneth them ; and yet will not , but neglect so great Salvation . And these Comfortable words expressed in the holy Scriptures are faithful and the Things certain and undeniably true though the Scriptures had never made mention of them ; and are all of them to be discerned known and throughly understood in the Things themselves , by and in every Soul ; but our want is that we seek not . The Consideration whereof , should move us , earnestly to labour , to understand , more and more , where and how , that word is to be found felt seen and known , as this Book doth exceedingly help us ; that we may infallibly Experimentally , and understandingly , Testifie unto the Truth of the Holy Scriptures , by the through Examination of the Things it speaketh of ; seeing the Scripture directs to that which is to be understood no way but in the Things themselves , as all that is written of is to be known Experimentally , whether it be Natural or Divine , solely by comparing the writing by and with the Things , else all is but a Notional and Imaginary Supposition or Opinion without understanding , but by the knowing of Things we should by degrees cease from Contention , and rightly certainly and infallibly know God , and the Wonders he hath wrought and can and will work in all things , especially in the Souls of Holy Men , some of whom , out of the good hidden treasure of the living word in the Heart , have committed to writing those few things conteined in the Scriptures , being few in respect of the Infinite Depths of the Deity ; and so proceeding forward from Grace to Grace , from Knowledge to knowledg , we may attain to the measure of the fulness of the stature of a Man in Christ and not be alwaies children in understanding , but even strong Men in Christ . The Apostle Johns words . If we say we have no sin , we deceive our Selves ; May they be taken as meant speaking of others , and not himself included ? what then shall we think was become of his Earthly Old Adam of his outward Flesh and Bloud , wherein he was Mortal ? had he not that when he said so , that he might justly exclude himself from having any sinne ? as having laid of this life and body he might have done , having the new heavenly Body , and not the old Earthly one about him at all : in which Mortal flesh and Bloud onely , which Christ himself took of the Seed of the Virgin Mary , he became , Sinne , for us , and could die ; else it had not been possible , as is largely cleared in this Treatise : Though if there be no Consent of the Soul , it may truly be said by any one , with the Apostle Paul , It is no more I , that do the Evil which I would not , but Sinne that dwelleth in me : Yet of this Mortal Corruptible Flesh , which dyeth and remains in Corruption in the Grave , and will not be changed till the General Resurrection of all the Dead at the last day , of that it may be always said , as he likewise saies of himself , after he was rapt into the Third Heaven , and not of others onely : I know that in me , that is , in my Flesh , dwelleth no Good thing . And that is it , in which Evil was present vvith him , vvhen he vvould do Good ; for vvith his Flesh he served the Lavv of Sinne : Can any serve God with his Flesh ? but vvith the Mind he can , and doth vvhen he vvilleth the Good. Yet vvhy are the Mysteries of the Bible , so little understood , but because we apprehend not , that God and Christ and the Holy Spirit , and all Graces , as also Sinne , are invvardly in Every soul ; the flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh in every one , and so the love and vvrath of God is in all things either hidden or manifested ; and that all the things vvhich vve perceive in this corruptible vvorld to be transitory , are in the spiritual invvard uncreated world , Eternal in Substance , and cannot but endure for evermore , which if it were considered we should find what all things are , for they are to be found within our Souls , and with our Inward Eyes , and may be plainly seen discerned and known ; and so the holy Scriptures , as we come to a greater measure of the knowledge of the Things , not only that they are , but what and how they are , as this Author teacheth , would come to be understood , as to all those Mysteries of the Gospel of Christs Eternal Redemption and Salvation , which he hath purchased for all Man-kind : then which there is not any thing comparably desirably to be known , by any of the Sons of Men , which are here fundamentally and particularly explained more then in any other Book of the Authors , wherein thou wilt find such Mysteries discovered as formerly thou couldst not have believed , though one had told thee of them , and which thou hast not so clearly understood , though thou hast often read of them in the Scriptures : And if all Jews Turks Heathens and others not yet true Christians , should perceive the Things therein written , they would instantly with willing and ready Hearts believe in God aright , & worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth ; and know the Only true God , and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent , and then be filled with Joy in the Holy Ghost ; and love Embrace and highly esteem the understanding of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament , which nnot many yet care to be assured they understand them aright by the true knowledg of the Things written of therein . Though also the Ground of all Mysteries are in this Book laid open , which being apprehended , may bring us at length to the full understanding of all that the Scriptures do contein , except in what the spirit of God wil conceal , as what the seven Thunders in the Revelations , sounded forth , which yet wil be made known to that soul , what those things are , that the Spirit wil not yet reveal , but that the Father will reserve in his own power , till the thing be neer to be accomplished , though it may be understood by one or other holy soul in the Nature of the Thing , with a Command not to make it known to others ; yet though we understand things never so perfectly in our Spirits souls & heavenly Bodys in our Inward Man , we enjoy them inwardly onely , in assured hope , but not as we shall do , neither do we see them as we shall do , when we so enjoy them as we do now this world with this outward Body , both which , wil be changed together at the End , and though this body is * sown in weakness , at the resurrection thereof , it is raised in power , a spiritual incorruptible immortal Eternal body , made conformable to Christs Glorious Body , to such as have been partakers of him in this life , this will be in that World , where all Evil shall be done away , first from sticking and adhereing to us as now in and by our Outward Man in this life : and them also , all corruption being done away , as at the change of this world and resurrection of the Body that will be also released from those Clogs of imperfection which now hang on us Outwardly ; and on this whole now visible world , and will do till all Things are separated by the Fire at the last day and every thing shall go to its own Place , the wicked into everlasting Torment , the Righteous to Eternal Bliss ; then Corruption shall put on Incorruption , and God shall be all in all ; yet all things will remain to be what they then are , though God will be all in Every one of them . In the mean time , we may attain Perfection , in our souls , spirits , and new heavenly Bodys , being therein truly members of Christ in us , yet we should bring dovvn our Body dayly , and Mortifie our Members that are on the Earth , and learn to know how every one of us , may justly account our selves even the Chief of sinners , finding sin to be out of measure sinful , and thereby strive through Godly sorrow , to bring forth Indignation in us against it : and how sinne dwels , though we should not let it reign in our Mortal Bodys , to obey it in the Lusts thereof , and if by the spirit we thus mortifie the deeds of the Body , we shall live , for then we bring forth the fruits of the Spirit , wherein we are perfect even in this life . And because this Treatise will so exceedingly further us , in these several divine Considerations , let me desire the Reader for his own Benefit , to peruse it seriously : and he will find as I have done , more then now before he read it he can conceive ; though I viewing my self in the Looking-Glass of my sins , may finde just cause to acknowledg myself one of the unworthiest of the Children of Men. 1658. 25. December , London . John Sparrow . The First Chapter Why the Becoming man or Incarnation of Iesus Christ , hath not hitherto been rightly understood . Also Of the two Eternal Principles , and of the Temporary Principle . 1. WHen Christ asked his Disciples , * Whom do the people say that the Sonne of man is ? They answered , b Some say thou art Elijah , some , that thou art John the Baptist , or one of the Prophets . 2. c He asked them , and said , Whom say ye then that I am ? 3. d Them answered him Peter , Thou art Christ the Son of the living God. 4. e And he answered them and said , Of a truth Flesh and Blood hath not revealed that unto thee but my Father in Heaven ; * And upon this he made known unto them his Suffering . Dying and Resurrection 5. To signifie , that self Reason in the wit and wisdome of this world , could not in its own Reason know nor apprehend this Person , who was both God and Man. 6. But he would for the most part , be rightly known , only those that would wholly yeild up themselves to him , and for his name sake , suffer the Cross , Tribulation and Persecution : who would earnestly cleave to him . 7. As indeed it so came to pass then also ; That , even while he conversed visibly amongst us in this world , he was least known by the Wise in Reason . 8. And though he went up and down in divine VVonders , doing Miracles , yet outward Reason was so blind and void of understanding , that those great wonders were by the wisest in the Arts and Sciences of Reason , ascribed to the Devil . 9. And as at the time when he walked visibly in this world , he remained unknown by the wse in their own Reason ; so he still remaineth unknown to outward Reason . 10. From hence is so much contention disputation and strife arisen about his Person ; in that outward Reason supposeth it can reach fathome and search out what God and Man is ; and how God and Man can be one Person . 11. Which strife hath filled the circuit and face of the Earth , self Reason continually supposing it hath found and gotten the Pearl , not withal con●dering , that God's Kingdom is not of this world , and that Flesh and Blood cannot know or apprehend it . 12. Therefore now it concerns every one , that will speak or teach of the Divine Mysteries , that he have the spirit of God , and know in the Light of God , those Matters which he will give forth for true ; and not suck or draw them from his own Reason ; and so without divine knowledg , run upon the bare Letter in his opinion , and drag the Scripture by the Hair of the Head , to prove it , as is usualy done by Reason . 13. From this , so exceeding many errors are arisen , in that the divine knowledg hath been sought in mens own wit and Art ; and so men are drawn from the truth of God , to their own Reason ; so that the Becoming Man of Incarnation of Christ , hath been accounted a strange work and thing . 14. Whereas yet we must all , in that Becoming Man or Incarnation , be born of God again , if we will ever escape the wrath of the Eternal Torment or Nature . 15. But seeing it is a familiar intimate and native innate work to the children of God , wherewith they should exercise themselves daily and hourly ; and should alwaies enter into the Becoming Man or Incarnation of Christ , and go forth from the earthly Reason ; and so , in this miserable life , must be born in the birth and Becoming man or Incarnation of Christ , if they mean to be the children of God in Christ . 16. I have therefore undertaken to write this high mystery , according to my knowledg and gifts , for a memorial , that so I may have cause also heartily to be refreshed and quickened with my Immanuel . 17. Seeing I also , together with others , the children of God and Christ , stand in this birth ; that I may have a Remembrancer , and support or stay , if the dark earthly Flesh and Blood , together with the Devi●s Poyson , should surprise me or prevail over me , and obscure and darken my Image . 18. Therefore I have undertaken it as an exercise of Faith , whereby my Soul may thus , as a Branch or twig in its Tree Jesus Christ , quicken it self from his Sap and vertue . 19. And that not with wise and high eloquence of Art , or from the Reason of this world ; but according to the knowledg which I have from my Tree Christ ; that my little sprout in the Tree and life of God , together with others , may grow and flourish . 20. And though I search sublimely and deep , and shall set it down very clearly ; yet this must be said to the Reader ; that without the Spirit of God it will be a Mystery to him , and hidden from him . 21. Therefore let every one take heed how he judgeth , that he fall not into the judgment of God , and be captivated by his own Turba , and that his own Reason cast him not down headlong . This I say out of good will , and give it to the Reader to ponder of . 22. When we will write of the Becoming Man or Incarnation , and birth of JESUS CHRIST the Sonne of God , and speak rightly thereof , then we must consider the cause , and what it is that moved God to becom Man , seeing he needed not that to the accomplishment or perfection of his Being or Substance . 23. Neither can we by any means say , that his own Being or Substance hath altered it self in the Becoming-Man or Incarnation . 24. For God is unchangeable , and yet is become what he was not , though his property for all that remaineth unaltered ; that which was only aimed at , was the salvation of fallen Man , that he might bring him into Paradise again . 25. And here we are to cnosider of the first Man , how he was before his fall , for whose sake the Deity hath moved it self ; which ought highly to be considered by US Men. 26. VVe know what Moses saith , That * God Created man according to his Similitude , in an Image of or according to him ; understand it thus , That God , who is a Spirit , beheld himself in an Image , as in a Similitude . 27. Nevertheless he hath also created this World , that so he might manifest the Eternal Nature in substantiality , also in living Creatures and Figures , that all this might be a Similitude and out-birth or expresse Image , out of the Eternal Nature of the first Principle . 28. VVhich Similitude , before the time of the world , stood in the wisdom of God as a hidden * Magia , and was beheld in the wisdom by the Spirit of God. 29. VVho in the time of the beginning of this world , moved the Eternal Nature , and opened and brought forth the similitude of the hidden divine world . 30. For the Fiery world stood as it were swallowed up or hidden in the light of God ; in that the light of the Majesty ruled alone in it self . 31. And yet we must not think that the Fiery World was not then ; It was then ; but it severed it self in or into its own Principle , and was not manifested in the Light of God's Majesty . 32. As we may observe in the Fire & Light , that the Fre is indeed a cause of the Light , and yet the light dwelleth in the Fire , un-apprehended by the Fire , and beareth or hath another source or quality then the Fire . 33. For the fire is fierceness and consumeth , and the light is meekness , and out of its virtue or power , cometh Substantiality viz : Water , or the Sulphur of a thing , which the Fire attracteth into it self , and useth it to its strength and life , and so is an eternal Band. 34. This Fire and divine Light , have each stood still in it self from Eternity , each standing in its order , in its own Principle , and having neither Ground nor Beginning . 35. For the Fire hath in it self for its source or quality , it s own Form viz : the Desiring ; out of which , and in which , all Forms of Nature are generated ; one being continually a cause of the other , as is mentioned expresly at large in the other writings . 36. And we find in the Light of Nature , that the Fire in its own Essence , hath been as in an astringent desirous source or quality , a darkness in it self , which in the Meekness of God hath stood as it were swallowed up ; so that it hath not been qualifying or producing its Quality , but Essentially in it self , and not kindled . 37. And though it hath as it were burned , yet that hath been as a Principle of its own , in it self only perceptible . 38. For there have been only two Principles from Eternity ; the one in it self , the Fiery world ; the other also in it self , the Light-flaming world . 39. And yet they were not parted asunder , as the Fire and Light are not parted asunder , and the Light dwelleth in the Fire , unapprehended by the Fire . 40. And thus we are to understand two Spirits one in another viz : 1º One fiery , according to the Essence of the Astringent and stearn Nature out of the hot and cold stearn Essential Fire , which is understood to be God's wrath-spirit and source or quality , and belongeth to the Fathers property ; according to which he calleth himself , an angry † jealous God , and * a consuming fire , in which the first Principle is understood . 41. And 2º The other a Meek Light-flaming Spirit , which from Eternity conceiveth its variation or transmutation in the Cnter of the Light ; for it is in the first Principle , in the Fathers Property , a Fiery Spirit ; and in the second Principle , in the light , a meek light-flaming spirit , and is only one , and not two ; but is understood to be in two sources or qualities , viz : in Fire and Light , according to the property of each source or quality . 42. As is sufficiently to be understood by us , in every outward Fire , wherein the Fire source or quality , giveth a wrathful fierce spirit , which is consuming ; and the source or quality of the light , giveth a meek amiable Air-Spirit , and yet is Originally , but one Spirit . 43. In like manner we are to conceive of the Being or Substance of Eternity , viz : the holy Trinity , which in the Light , we apprehend to be the Deity ; and in the Fire , to be the Eternal Nature ; as is sufficiently cleared in the other writings . 44. For the Omnipotent Spirit of God with both the Principles , hath been from Eternity All itself , there is nothing before it ; It is it self the Ground or Bysse , and the Abysse . 45. And yet the Holy Divine Being or Substance , is especially observed to be a Being or Substance of its own , in it self , and dwelleth without or beyond the fiery or fiering Nature and property , in the lights property , and is called * GOD , not from the Fires property but from the Lights property . 46. Though indeed both properties are unsevered , as we may understand by this world , wherein there lieth a hidden Fire in the Deep of Nature , and hidden in all beings or substances and Things , else no outward fire could be brought forth . 47. And we see that the Meekness of the water holdeth that hidden fire captive in it self , that it cannot manifest it self ; for it is as it were swallowed up in the water , and yet is , though not substantially , yet Essentially ; and in the awakening is made known , and Operative or qualifying ; and all were a Nullity or Nothing and an Abysse , without the Fire . 48. Thus we understand also , that the Third Principle , viz : the source or quality , and the Spirit of this world , stood from Eternity , hidden in the Nature of the Fathers property , and was known by the Light-flaming Holy Spirit , in the Holy Magia , viz : in the divine wisdome , in the Divine Tincture . 49. For the sake of which , the Deity hath moved it self , according to the Nature of the Genetri● , and generated the great Mystery , wherein then ALL lay , whatsoever the Eternal Nature was able to do . 50. And it hath been only a Mystery ; and hath not been as a Creature , but as a Chaos , Quintissence , Mist , or Mixture together . 51. VVherein the wrathful or fierce Nature , hath generated a Dark Mist or Cloud ; and the light flaming Nature in its property , hath generated the Flame in the Majesty , and the Meekness ; which hath been the VVater source or Quality , and the cause of the Divine substantiality , from Eternity . 52. And it is only virtue or Power , and Spirit , which hath been of no Similitude ; and there is no footsteps of any thing therein ; but the Spirit of God in a two-fold source quality and form , viz : a hot and a cold stearn fire-source or quality ; and then a Meek love-source or quality , according to the kind of the Fire , and of the Light. 53. These have as a Mystery , gone one into another , and yet the one hath not comprehended the other , but have stood as it were in two Principles . 54. VVherein then the Astringency , viz : the Father of Nature hath continualy comprehended or compacted the Substantiality in the Mystery ; where then it hath formed it self as it were into an Image , and yet hath been no Image , but as a Shaddow of an Image . 55. All this in the mystery hath indeed thus continually had an Eternal beginning , of which a man cannot say , that there is any thing which hath not had its figuree , as a Shadow in the Eternal Great Magia . 56. But it hath been no Beeing or Substance ; but a spiritual or divine Scene or sport one in another , and is the Magia of the great Wonders of God , where there is continually what was not , or where there was nothing but only an Abysse ; and that is now in the Nature of the Fire and Light , come into a Ground . 57. And yet it is out of or from Nothing , but only out of the Spirit of the source or quality , which is also no Being or substance , but a source or quality , which generateth it self in it self in or into two Properties , and also severeth it self into two Principles . 58. It hath no * seperater or maker , but is it self the cause , as is particularly mentioned at large in the other writings , that the Abysse introduceth and generateth it felf into a Ground . 59. Thus now we may coneeive of the Creation of this World , as also of the Creation of Angels , also of Man , and all other creatures . All is Created out of the great Mystery . 60. For the third . Principle hath stood before God , as a Magia ; and was not or hath not been wholly manifested or revealed . 61. Also God hath had no similitude , wherein he could discover his own Being or Substance , but only the wisdom , that hath been his longing delight , and hath stood in his will with his Being or Substance , as a great wonder , in the light flaming divine Magia of the spirit of God. 62. For it hath been the habitation of the spirit of God , and is no Genetrix , but the manifestation or revelation of God , a Virgin , and a cause of the divine substantiality . 63. For in it stood the light flaming divine Tincture to the heart of God , viz : to the word of life of the Deity ; and it hath been the revelation or manifestation of the Holy Trinity . 64. Not that , from its own ability and production , it manifesteth or revealeth God ; but the divine Center out of God's heart or being and substance , manifesteth it self in it : It is a Looking-Glass of the Deity . 65. For every Looking-Glass standeth still , or quiet and steady , and generateth no Image , but receiveth the Image : and thus the Virgin of wisdom is a Looking-Glass of the Deity , wherein the spirit of God seeth it self , as also all wonders of the Magia , which with the creation of the Third Principle are come into Being or Substance ; and is all created out of the great Mystery . 66. And this Virgin of the wisdome of God , stood in the Mystery ; and in it the spirit of God hath discovered the formation of the Creatures ▪ for it is the out-spoken or express Image of whatsoever God the Father hath spoken forth out of his Center of the light flaming divine Property , out of the Center of his heart , out of the word of the Deity , by his Holy Spirit . 67. Itstandeth before the Deity as a glance or Looking-Glass , wherein the Deity seeth it self ; and in it standeth the divine Kingdom of joy of the divine Will and Pleasure , viz : the great wonders of Eternity which have neihere beginning nor end nor number . 68. But is all an Eternal Beginning and an Eternal End , and is together as it were an * EYE , which seeth where there is nothing in the Seeing or in Sight ; but the seeing ariseth out of the Essence of the Fire and Light. 69. Understand in the Fires Essence , the Fathers Property , and the first Principle ; and in the lights quality or source and property , the Sonnes Nature , viz : the second Principle ; and the driving Spirit out of both properties , understand to be the spirit of God , which in the first Principle is fierce or wrathful , stearn , astringent , bitter , cold , and fiery , and is the driving spirit in the Anger . 70. And therefore resteth not in the fierce wrath and anger ; but is thrusting forth , and blowing forth of the Essential fire , in that it uniteth it self again in the Essence of the Fire ; for the wrathful Essences draw it again into them ; for it is their source or quality and life , and yet go●th in the kindled fire into the light forth from the Father into the Sonne , and openeth the fiery Essence● in the source or quality of the light . 71. VVhere then the fiery Essence in the great desire of the burning Love , and the first stearn source or quality , in the Lights quality or source , is not known ; but the fierceness of the fire , is only thus a cause of the light flaming Majesty , and of the desiring Love. 72. And thus we are to understand the Being or substance of the Deity , and also the Eternal Nature ; and we understand alwaies the Divine Being or substance , in the light of the Majesty ; for the meek light maketh the stearn nature of the Father , meek lovely and merciful . 73. And is called the Father of Mercy , according to his Heart or Sonne ; for the Property of the Father standeth in the Nature of fire and light , and is himself the Being of all Beeings or Substance of all Substances . 74. He is the Abysse and the Bysse or ground , and parteth him self in the Eternal Birth into Three Properties , as into Three Persons ; also into Three Principles . 75. Whereas yet in the Eternity , there are but Two in Being or Substance , and the Third is as a Looking-Glass of the first Two ; out of which this world as a comprehensible or palpable Being or Substance , is created in a Beginning and End. The Second Chapter . Of the Revelation or Manifestation of the Mystery ; How out of the Eternal Spiritual Mystery , the Temporary Mystery is flown forth . 1. SEeing then thus there hath been a Mystery from Eternity ; therefore now its manifestation or Revelation is to be considered : for we can speak no otherwise of the Eternity , then as of a Spirit . 2. For it hath all been only a Spirit , and yet from Eternity hath generated it self into Being or Substance , and that through Desiring and Longing . 3. Neither can it be said at all , that in the Eternity there hath not been Beeing or Substance ; for no Fire subsisteth without Being or Substance . 4. Also there is no Meekness without the Generating of Being or Substance ; for the Meekness generateth VVater , and the Fire swalloweth up the water , and maketh it in it self , one part Heaven and Firmament , and the other part Sulphur . 5. In which the fire Spirit , by its Essential wheel , maketh a Mercury , and further awakeneth the Vulcan ; that is , striketh up the Fire , that so the Third Spirit , viz : the Air becometh generated . 6. VVhere then the noble Tincture standeth in the midst , as a * Glance with the Colours , and Originally ariseth out of the Wisedom of God. 7. For the Colours arise from the source or quality : Every Colour standeth with its Substantiality , in the meekness of the quality or source of the water , excepting the Black , which doth not so , that hath its Original out of the harsh astringent fierceness ; † they all receive their colours from the source or quality . 8. Thus now every form longeth after the other , and from the Desirous Longing every form is impregnated from the other ; and the one bringeth the other to Being or Substance ; so that the Eternity standeth in a perpetual enduring Magia , wherein Nature standeth in a sprouting springing and wrestling ; and the fire consumeth that , and affordeth or giveth it also , and so is an Eternal Band. 9. Only the light of the Majesty and Trinity of God , is unchangeable : for the Fire cannot comprehend it ; and it dwelleth Free in it self . 10. And yet it is perceptible and known to Us , that the light of the Love is desirous , viz : of the wonders and figures in the wisdom . 11. In which desiring ; this world , as a Model , hath been known from Eternity in the wisdom , in the Deep hidden Magia of God ; for the Desiring of the Love searcheth into or predominateth in , the Ground or Byss , and Abyss . 12. Therein hath also from Eternity , the desire of the fierce wrath and harsh stern source or quality in the Fathers Nature and property , together mingled it self . 13. And so the Image of Angels and Men , have been from Eternity discovered in the Divine property in Gods wisdom ; as also , in the property of the fierce wrath , the Devil , But not in the holy Light-flaming property . 14. But yet in no Image or , † Being and Substance ; but in the way or Manner , as in a deep sence , a thought darteth up , and is brought before its own looking-Glass of the Minde ; where , in the Minde often a thing appeareth , * that is not in Being or Substance . 15. Thus have the two Genetrixes , viz : the fierce wrath in the Fire , and also the Love in the Meekness or Light : set their ‖ Model in the wisdome . 16. Where then the Heart of God in the Love , hath longed to Create , this Model into an Angelical Image , out of the Divine substantiality , that it should be a similitude and Image of the Deity , and should dwell in the wisdom of God , to fulfill the longing of the Deity , and to the Eternal rejoycing of the Divine Kingdom of Joy. 17. And now we are to conceive or apprehend of the Word Fiat , that it hath comprised or c●tched this and brought it into a Substance and Corporeal Being : for , the will to this Image , hath existed out of the Father , out of the Fathers property in the word or Heart of God from Eternity , as a desirous will to the Creature , and to the Manifestation of the Deity . 18. But being it had not moved it self from Eternity , till at the Creation of the Angels ; therefore there was no Creation performed till the Creation of the Angels . 19. But the Ground and Cause thereof , we are not to know , and God hath reserved it to his own Power and Might , how it came to pass , that God hath once moved himself ; seeing , or notwithstanding , he is an unchangeable God : and we shall here search no further , for this troubleth us . 20. Only of the Creation we have ability to speak , for it is a Work in the Being or Substance of God : and we understand , that the Will of the Word or Heart of God , comprehended or Comprised the astringent Fiat in the Center of the Fathers Nature , together with the Seaven Spirits and Forms of the Eternal Nature , and that in the Form and Manner of the Thrones . 21 Where then the harsh Fiat , stood not as a Maker , but as a Creator in the property of Each Essence , * All in the Great Wonders of the VVisdome . 22. As the Figures were from Eternity discovered in the † Wisdome , so they now became comprehended by the Fiat , in the Will-Spirit of God. 23. Not out of strange Matter , but out of Gods Essences , out of the Fathers Nature , and became introduced by Gods Will-Spirit into the light of the Majesty . 24. VVhere then they were Children , and not strange guests : generated and Created out of the Fathers Nature and property , and their will-spirit was inclined or directed into the Sonnes Nature and property . 25. They could and should Eat of Gods love-substantiality , in the Light of the Majesty : where then their fierce wrathful property out of the Fathers Nature became changed into Love and Joy. 26. And that they all did , besides or except one Throne and Kingdom , and that turned it self away from the light of Love ; and would rule and domineer in the stern Nature of the Fire , above Gods meekness and Love. 27 And was therefore , driven out from the Fathers Property , from its own Creaturely Place , into the Eternal Darkness , into the Abyss of the stern Fiat ; and there must stand in its own Eternity ▪ and thus the fierce wrath of the Eternal Nature is here also filled . 28. But yet we are not to think ; that King Lucifer also could not have stood : He had the light of the Majesty † for himself as well as the other Thrones of Angels : If he had Imagined thereinto , or according to it , He had continued an Angel. 29. But he drew himself out of Gods Love into the Anger , and so he is now an Enemy of the love of God and of all Holy Angels . 30. VVe are here to consider further : Of the Enimicitious kindling of the Extruded Spirits : while they were yet in the Fathers property : How they with their Imagination kindled the Nature of the substantiality ; so that out of the Heavenly Substantiality , Earth and Stones are come to Bee : and the Meek Spirit of the water is come to be a burning Firmament in the fires source or quality : whereupon the Creation of this World , viz : of the Third Principle , followed . 31. And for the Place of this World there was an other Light awakened , viz. the SUN : that so the Devils Pomp might be withdrawn from him , and he was thrust out and shut up as a Prisoner in the Darkness between the Kingdom of God and of this world . 32. VVhere then in this world , he hath no further to Rule , but only in the Turba , in the fierce wrath and Anger of God ; where that is awakened there he is Executioner : and is a continual Lyer , Mischiefer and betrayer and Cheater of the Creatures . 33. He turneth all Good into Evill , so far as he is permitted room to do so ; whatsoever is Terrible and Pompous , there he sheweth his might , and willeth continually to be above God. 34. But the Heaven which is Created out of the midst of the Waters , as a Meek Firmament , allayeth his Pomp , so that he is not Chief Great Prince in this world ; but * Prince of wrath . 35. Now when the Devil was thrust out of his Place , this Place or Throne thereupon stood without its Angelical Hoast , in great desire and longing after its Prince ; but he was thrust out . 36. So now God Created for it another Prince , Adam the first Man , who was also a Throne-Prince before God ▪ and here we are rightly to consider his Creation , as also his Fall ; for the sake of whom , the Heart of God moved it self , and became Man. 37. It is not so slight or trivial a thing or Matter , about the Creation of Man , for whose Fall sake , God became Man , that he might Help him again . 38. So also his Fall was not the meere Biting of an Apple ; also his Creation was not in that manner , as outward Reason supposeth , which understandeth the first Adam in his Creation , to be onely a meere Clod of Earth . 39. No , my Dear Mind , God is not become man for the sake of a Clod of Earth : neither was the matter meerly one disobedient Act for which God was so enraged that his wrath could not be pacified , except it be revenged on the Sonne of God and slay him . 40. To Us Men indeed , since the loosing of our Paradisical Image , this Mystery hath continued hidden , except to some who have attained the Heavenly Mystery again : to them somewhat thereof hath been opened , according to the Inward Man. 41. For in Adam we are Dead as to Paradise , and must Sprout and Grow again through Death and the Corruption of the Body , into Paradise , as into another world , in the life of God , into the Heavenly Substantiality and Corporeity . 42. And though it be so in some , that they attain the Substantiality of God , viz : Christs Body , again , on to the soul ; yet the Perished Earthly Adam hath covered the Holy and pure Mystery , so that the Great secret Mystery hath continued hidden to Reason . 43. For God dwelleth not in this world in the Outward Principle , but in the Inward : he dwelleth indeed , in the Place of this world , but this world apprehendeth him not : how then will the Earthly Man apprehend the secret Mysteries of God. 44. And if a Man do apprehend them , he apprehendeth them according to the Inward Man , which is born of God again . 45. But seeing the Divine Mystery will now more and more henceforth , be laid so wholly open , and be so very apprehensibly given to Man , that he will very clearly apprehend the hidden secret : therefore it ought by him to be well considered what it signifieth : Even the Harvest of this world , for the beginning hath found the End : and the Middle is set into the separation . 46 , Let this be told to you ye Children , who would inherit the Kingdom of God : there is a time of Great Earnestness or severity at Hand : the Floar shall be purged , Evil and Good shall be severed one from another : The Day Dawneth , this is highly known . 47. When we will speak of Man , and rightly understand , out of what he is made ; we must Consider of the Deity , together with the Being of All Beings or Substance of all Substances ; for Man was Created according to the similitude of God , out of all the Three Principles ; a totall Image and Similitude , according to all Beings or Substances . 48. He must not be an Image of this world only ; for this worlds Image is Beastial ; and for the sake of no Beastiall Image , is God become Man. 49. For neither did God create Man to live thus in a Beastial Property , as we now live in after the Fall , but in the Paradisicall , in the Eternall Life . 50. Man had no such beastial Flesh , but heavenly Flesh , but in the Fall * it became earthly and beastiall . 51. Neither are we to understand it in such a sence , that he had nothing of this world in him : He had the Kingdom and Dominion of this world in him ; but the Four Elements ruled not in him ; but the Four Elements were in One , and the Earthly Dominion lay hidden in him . 52. He should live in the Heavenly source or Quality ; and though all was stirring in him , yet he should rule with the Heavenly source or Quality of the second Principle over the Earthly ; and the Kingdom and the source or Quality of the Stars and Elements should be under the Paradisical source or Quality . 53. No Heat nor Frost , no Sickness nor Mishap or Mischief , also no fear should touch him or terrifie him , his body could go through Earth and Stone , uninterrupted by any thing . 54. For that would be no Eternal Man , which earthliness could limit , which were thus fragile . 55. Therefore we should rightly consider of Man : It is not Sophistry or Opinion that will do it , but knowing and Understanding in the Spirit of God. 56. It is of necessity you must be born again , if you will see the Kingdom of God again , out of which you are departed . 57. Art will not do it ; but Gods Spirit , which sets open the Doors of Heaven to the Image of man , so that he can see with Three Eyes . 58. For Man standeth in a Threefold life , if so be he be Gods Child ; if not , he standeth onely in a Two-fold life . 59. And it is sufficiently known to us , that Adam is , with the right Holy Image , which was the similitude according to the holy Trinity , gone forth out of the Divine Being or Substance , aud hath Imagined in or according to the Earthliness , and hath brought the earthly Kingdom into the divine Image , and darkned or obscured it , and made it perish , whereupon also we then lost our Paradisical Seeing . 60. Also God hath withdrawn Paradise from Us , whereupon we became then weak faint and feeble ; and instantly , the Four Elements , together with the Constellations or Astrum in us became strong and mighty , so that we are with Adam fallen home to them . 61. Which also is the Cause of the Woman , that God divided Adam , when he could not stand , and parted him into two Tinctures , viz. according to the Fire and Water , as shall be mentioned here following ; the one affording soul , the other Spirit . 62. And after the fall Man became a beastial Being or Substance , who must propagate after a Beastial property or kind ; and then the Heaven and Paradise as also the Deity , became a Mystery to Him. 63. VVhereas yet the Eternal continued in Man , viz : the Noble soul , but covered with an Earthly Garment , and darkned , and infected with the earthly source or quality , and poysoned by the false or Evil Imagination ; so that it was no more known to be Gods Child . 64. For the sake of which , God became Man , that he might deliver it from the Dark Earthliness again , and bring it again into Heavenly Substantiality , in Christs Flesh and Blood , which filleth the Heaven . The Third Chapter . The Gate of the Creation of Man ; and of the breathing in of the Soul and of the Spirit . 1. ALthough this hath been cleared enough in the other Writings ; yet because every one hath them not ready at Hand : therefore it is necessary : to set down a brief recitall or round description of the Creation of Man ; whereby Christs Becoming Man or Incarnation , may be the better understood afterward . 2. Also for the sake of the Pearl , which continually more and more befalleth and becometh given and opened to Man in his seeking ; which is a singular Joy to me , thus to delight my self with God. 3. The Creation of Man is done or performed in all the Three Principles , viz : in the Fathers Eternal Nature and property ; And in the Sonnes Eternal Nature and property ; and in this worlds Nature and property . 4. And , into the Man which the word Fiat Created , was the Threefold Spirit , out of the Three Principles and sources or qualities breathed in to be his life ; viz : he was Created by a Threefold Fiat ; understand the Corporeity or Substantiality ; and the will of the Heart of God , introduced the Spirit into him , according to all the Three Priuciples ; understand it , as followeth . 5. Man was created totally after the similitude of God , God manifested himself in the Humanity in an Image , which should be as himself . 6 , For , God is ALL ; and All is proceeded from him ; and yet all is not called God , therefore , because all is not Good. 7. For , as far as concernes the Pure Deity , God is a light-flaming Spirit , and dwelleth in Nothing but onely in himself ; Nothing is like him . 8. But as far as concerns the property of Fire , out of which the light is generated ; we apprehend that the property of the Fire is Nature , which is a Cause of the Life , Moving , and of the Spirit ; else there would be no Spirit , also no Light nor Being or Substance , but an Eternal * Stilness , neither Colour nor virtue , but all would be an Abyss wsthout Being or Substance . 9. Although yet the light of the Majesty dwelleth in the Abyss , and is not apprehended by the fiery Nature and property ; For as to the Fire , and Light , we are to Understand as followeth . 10. The Fire hath and maketh a terrible and Consuming source and Quality or torment : now in the source or quality and torment , there is a sincking down like a dying , or free yieldiug up it self . 11. That free yeelding up it self falleth into the liberty , without or beyond the source or quality or torment , as into Death ; and yet is no Death , but it so goeth a degree deeper down into it self , and becometh free from the source or quality or torment of the fires Anguish ; and yet hath the sharpness of the Fire , yet not in the Anguish , but in the * Liberty . 12. And then the Liberty and the Abyss , is a Life , and becometh a Light in it self ; for it getteth the Flash of the Anguish Source or Quality or torment ; and becometh desirous , viz : of the Substantiality . 13. And the Desiring impregnateth it selfe with substantiality out of the Liberty and Meekness : For , in that the Anguish source or quality or torment , sinketh or entreth in , it rejoyceth that it is free from the Anguish ; and draweth the joy into it self , and goeth with its will out from it self , which is the Life and † Spirit of Joy. 14. For which , here we had need of an Angels Tongue : yet hereby we will give to the Reader that loveth God , a short explanation , to consider of ; for the understanding of the Heavenly Substantiality . 15. For , in God , All is power Spirit and Life ; But whatsoever is Being or Substance , that is not Spirit ; but that which sinketh down from the Fire , as into Inability , that is Being or Substance . 16. For , the Spirit ariseth in the Fire , but it severeth it selfe into two Sources or Qualities : as one into the Fire , and one in the sincking down into the Liberty , into the Light. 17. This is called God ; for it is Meek and Lovely , and hath in it self the Kingdom of Joy ; and the Angelical world is understood in the sunk down Liberty of the Substantiality . 18. Therefore when we were gone out from the Liberty of the Angelical Substantiality , into the Dark source or quality , whose Abysse was the Fire , then there was no Remedy , unless , the Lights power and Word , as a word of Divine Life , became a Man , and brought us out of the darkness , through the fire source or quality , through the Death in the fire , a-again into the Liberty of the divine Life , into the divine Substantiality . 19. And Therefore must Christ dye , and with the soul-Spirit go through the Fire of the Eternal Nature , viz : through * Hell and the fierce wrath of the Eternal Nature , and enter into the Divine Substantiality ; and break open a way for our souls through the Death and Anger ; through which , we may with , and in , him , enter through death into the Eternall Life . 20. But concerning the divine Substantiality , viz : concerning the divine Corporeity , we are to understand as followeth . 21. VVe understand that the Light giveth Meekness , viz : Love : Now the fires anguish desireth Meekness , that it may slake its great Thirst , for the fire is desirous , and the Meekness is giving , for it giveth it self . 22. Thus in the desiring of Meekness , cometh to be substance or Being , viz ; a substantial * Essentiality : which is sunk down from the fierce-wrath , which giveth its own Life freely , and that is Corporeity , for out of the power in the Meekness , it becometh substantial , and is , by the Astringency as by the Eternal Fiat , attracted or put on and retained . 23. And is therefore called Substantiality or Corporeity ; because it is sunk down from the fire source or quality and Spirit , and is in respect of the spirit as mute or inanimate , Dead and impotent ; whereas Yet , it is an Essential Life . 24. Understand us aright thus , : when God created the Angels , there were onely Two Principles manifested and in Being or Substance ; viz : that in the Fire , and that in the light ; viz : One in the fierce wrathful Substantiality in the stern astringent Fiat , with the forms of the fires Nature . 25. And then that in the Heavenly substantiality , out of the Holy Power , with the water source or quality of Meekness of the Life of Joy : in which the divine Sulphur , as in the Love and Meekness ; was generated ; its Fiat was Gods desiring will. 26. Out of this divine Substantiality , viz : out of Gods Nature , the Angels as Creatures were Created , and the source or quality of their Spirit and Life , ariseth in the Fire . 27. For without Fire no Spirit doth subsist : and if it go out of the Fire into the Light , there it obtaineth the love source or quality , and the fire becometh onely a cause of its Life : but the fires fierceness becometh quenched with the Love in the Light. 28. But Lucifer dispised this , and continued in the Fire-Spirit , and so Elevated himself also and kindled the substantiality in his Place , out of which Earth and Stone came to be ; and he was thrust out ; and so the Third Corporeity and the Third Principle began , together with the Kingdom of this world . 29. So when the Devil was thrust out into the Darknesse , then God Created another Image according to his similitude , in this Place . 30. But if it must be Gods similitude according to all the Three Principles ; then must it also be taken out of all the Three , and out of All Beings or Substances of this Place or of this Deep : as far as the Fiat , had with Lucifers Principality , given it self into the Ether to the Creation . 31. For , Man came in the sted of Lucifer : and hence ariseth also the Envy of the Devils , that they cannot afford Man that Honour : but leade him continually into the Evil way of perdition , whereby they may but increase their Kingdom : and they do it as a spite against the Meeknesse , viz : the love of God , supposing that seeing they live in the fierce strong Might ; that they are higher then the Spirit of God in the Love and Meekness . 32. Understand it thus : Gods Will-Spirit viz : the Holy Spirit hath comprised the Two-fold Fiat in two Principles , viz : in the Angelical world the Inward , and in this outward world , the Outward , and Created den Mesch oder Menschen , as a Mixt person ; for The * Mixture or Man , he should be an Image according to the Inward and outward world ; but should with the inward source or quality , rule over the outward ; thus he should have been the similitude of God : 33. For , the outward Substantiality hung to the Inward , and the Paradise grew through the Earth , and Men in this world upon the Face of the Earth was in Paradise ; for Paradisical fruit grew for him , till the Fall , when the Lord Cursed the Earth . 34. Then Paradise passed into the Mystery , and became a Mystery or hidden secrecy to Man ; whereas yet if he be born of God again , according to the Inward Man , he dwelleth in Paradise , but according to the Outward he dwelleth in this world . 35. VVe are further to consider the Beginning and Original of Man : thus . God hath created his Body out of the † Matrix of the Earth , out of which the Earth was Created . 36. All was together one in another , and yet parted it self into Three Principles of a Threefold Substantiality ; and yet that in the fierce wrath was not known . 37. Now if Adam had continued in Innocency , he had lived the whole time of this world only in Two Principles , and had ruled with one over all , and the fierce wrathful Kingdom had not been known or manifested in Him , though indeed he had it in him . 38. And we are to understand furthee ; that Adams Body was Created out of the Inward Element , wherein the Inward Firmament and Heaven together with the Heavenly Essences , do lye , as to one Part , by the Inward Fiat . 39. And , as to the other Part he was created by the outward Fiat , out of the outward Four Elements , and out of the Constellation or Astrum ; for in the Matrix of the Earth , they stood one among another ; The Paradise was therein , and the Body was created also in Paradise . 40. Understand us aright : He had divine and also Earthly Substantiality on him , but the Earthly was impotent and as it were swallowed up in the Divine . 41. The Substance or matter out of which the Body was Created was a Mass , or Lump of fire and water , together with the * Essences of Both those principles , although the First also lay therein , but not stirring . 42. Every Principle , should continue in its seat , and should not mixe , even as is done in God , and then Man were a Total Image according to Gods Being or Substance . Of the Breathing-in of the Soul and of the Spirit . 43. The Body is a similitude according to Gods substantiality ; the Soul and Spirit are a similitude according to the Holy Trinity , 44. God gave the Body his substantiality out of the Three Principles ; and the Spirit together with the Soul , out of the fountain of the Threefold Spirit of the All-Being All-Substantial Deity . 45. And thus we are to understand , that the soul , with its Image , and with its outward Spirit , is proceeded out of three Principles and breathed and introduced into the Body : as Moses witnesseth ; † God breathed into Man the living Breath into his Nostrils , and so Man became a living soul . 46. But now the Breath and Spirit of God is Threefold , viz : in a Threefold source or Quality . 47. In the first Principle it is a fiery Breath and Spirit , which is the true cause of the Life , and standeth in the Fathers source or quality , viz : in the Center of the fierce wrathful Nature . 48. And then in the second Principle Gods breath or Spirit , is the light flaming love-spirit , viz ; the true spirit of the True Deity , which is called God the Holy Ghost . 49. And in the Third Principle , as in the similitude of God , Gods Breath is the Aire-spirit upon which the Holy Ghost rideth ; as David saith : * The Lord rideth upon the Wings of the Wine : and Moses saith , † The Spirit of God moved upon the Water ; that is upon the Capsula , or inclosure , where the Aire ariseth . 50. Now this Threefold Spirit , hath the total God out of all the Three Principles , introduced and Breathed-in , into the Created Image . 51. Viz : First , the Fire Spirit , he hath introduced into him from within , and not at the Nostrils , but in the Heart in the Twofold Tincture of the inward and outward Blood ; although the Outward was not known or discerned , but was a Mystery , But the Inward was stirring , and had Two Tinctures , viz : one out of the Fire , and one out of the Light. 52. This Fire-spirit is the true Essential soul , for it hath the Center of Nature with its four formes for its fiery might ; It striketh up the fire , it self , and it self maketh the wheel of the Essences , as in the * Second and † Third Book is mentioned at Large . 53. And thou art to know , that the Essential Souls-fire is not the true Image according to the Deity ; It is no Image , but a Magical perpetual enduring Fire . 54. It hath had no beginning : also it will have no End. 55. And understand : That God hath introduced the Eternal Begining-less Fire , which hath been from Eternity in it self in the Eternal Magia , as in the willing of God in the desiring of the Eternal Nature , as an Eternal Center of the Genetrix : for this Image should be a Similitude of or according to him , 56. And secondly , in like manner it is , with the Essential souls-Fire ; the Holy Spirit hath introduced the Light-flaming Love-spirit out of it self , and that even in the Second Principle , wherein the Deity is understood . 57. Not in at the Nostrils ; but as Fire and Light hang one to another and are One ; but in two sources or qualities : thus was the Good Love-spirit , together with the Essential Fire-spirit introduced into his Heart . 58. And each source or quality , brought its own Tincture along with it , as a peculiar Life of its own ; and in the Love-Tincture the right true Spirit is understood ; which is the Image of God , which is a similitude according to the clear true Deity , which respecteth the whole Man properly , also filleth the whole Man , but in its own Principle . 59. The soul , as to what purely belongeth unto it ; is a Fire-Eye , or a fire-Looking-Glass ; wherein the Deity hath manifested it self according to the first Principle , viz : according to Nature , for it is a Creature , and yet Created in no similitude . 60. But its Image which it bringeth forth out of its fire-Eye into the Light , that is the True Image or Creature , for the sake of which God became Man , and introduced it again out of the fierce wrath of the Eternall Nature in Ternarium sanctum into the Holy Ternary . 61. And we are to understand further , thus , concerning the soul and its Image : It is indeed together a Spirit ; but the Soul is a hungry fire , and must have substantiality , else it will be a hungry Dark valley , as the Devils are become such . 62. Thus , the soul maketh Fire and Life ; and the meekness of the Image maketh Love and heavenly substantiality ; thus the souls fire , becometh Meekened and satiated with Love. 63. For the Image hath water out of Gods fountain , which floweth into Eternal life , the same is Love and Meekness , and it receiveth that out of the Majesty of God : As is to be seen in a kindled Fire ; that the fire in it self is a fierce wrathful source or quality , and the Light is a Meek amiable source or quality : and that , in the deep of this world , out of Light and Aire , water cometh to be ; this is thus also , in a similitude . 64. Thirdly , God hath in like manner at once , breathed-in , the Spirit of this world , with the source or quality of the Stars and Elements , viz. the Aire , into Man , into his Nostrils ; that should be a ruler in the outward Kingdom , and open the wonders of the outward VVorld ; to which End also God created Man in the Outward Life . 65. But the Outward Man should not reach into the Image . 66. And the Image of God , should not lodg the outward Spirit in it self ; and suffer that to rule over it . 67. For its food was from the Word and power of God : and the outward Body had paradisical food not from the Sack of Wormes , for it had not that . 68. Also he had neither the form nor shape of Masculine or Feminine , for he was both ; and had both Tinctures , viz : of the soul & of the Spirit of the soul ; of the Fire and of the Light. 69. And he should generate another Man out of himself according to his Similitude : he was a chast Virgin in one only pure Love : he loved and impregnated himself , through the Imagination ; and so also * was his propagation . 70. He was a Lord over the Stars and Elements , a similitude of God ; as God dwelleth in the stars and Elements and they apprehend not him : he ruleth over all : thus was Man Created also . 71. The Earthly source was not wholly stirring in him ; he had indeed the Aire-spirit ; but the Heat and Cold should not touch him , for the substantiality of God pressed through all ; as the Paradise pressed and sprouted through the Earth ; so sprouted the Heavenly substantiality in the outward Being or Substance of his Body , and outward Spirit . In God , that , was very possible , which to us , in the earthly Life seemeth strange . 72. Fourthly , thus Adam , with the introducing of his fair Heavenly Image into the spirit of God , hath together received the Living word of God , which was the food of his soul and Image : that living Word was surrounded with the divine Virgin of wisdom . 73. And you are to know , that the souls Image , stood in the Virgin-like-Image , which was discovered in the Deity from Eternity . 74. And the pure Image of Adam , was out of the wisdom of God : for , God would thus behold and manifest himself in an Image ; and that was the similitude according to God ; understand , according to Gods Spirit : according to the Number Three ; a Total chast Image , like the Angels of God 75. And in this Image , Adam was the childe of God ; not a similitude onely , but a Childe . I say , born of God , out of the Being of all Beings or Substance of all Substances . 76. Thus we have shortly acquainted you , and offered to your understanding ; what kind of Image Adam was before his Fall , and how God hath created him ; for the better understanding , why Gods Word is become Man : how it was brought about , and what it hath caused or produced and effected . The Fourth Chapter . Of the Paradisical * Being or Substance and Dominion : How it would have been if Man had continued in Innocency . 1. MAny Objections hath the Devil framed , whereby he would Excuse himself ; saying God hath Creatted him thus as he is ; whereas his Angelical form which he once had , alwaies convinceth him , that he is a Lyer . 2. And thus he alwaies doth to the poor fallen Man , he introduceth alwaies the Earthly Kingdom with its power and ability into him ; that so he may have a constant looking Glass before him , that he also may blame God , as if he had created him earthly and Evil. 3. But he leaveth out the best , viz : First , the Paradise , in which Man was created ; and then Secondly , Gods Omnipotence ; that † Man liveth not by bread onely , but also from the Power and Word of God : and Thirdly , that Paradise with its source or quality ruled over the Earthlinesse . 4. He sheweth Man onely his Hard miserable fleshly Naked form or Condition : but the form or Condition in Innocency , wherein Adam knew not that he was Naked ; he covereth or concealeth that , to seduce Man. 5. And so , he would have this very much concealed , from us poor Children of Eve : and though the Earthly * Sack is not worthy to know it ; yet it is very Necessary for our Minds to know it . 6. So it is also necessary for us to fly to the True Door Keeper who hath the Key to Open it , to pray to him , and yeeld up our selves wholly to him ; desiring him that he will yet vouchsafe to open to us , the Paradisical Gate in the Inward Center of our Image , that the Paradisical Light might shine to us in our Minds , that so we might become longing to dwell with our IMMANUEL again , with the Inward and New Man in Paradise . 7. For , without this Opening , we understand Nothing of Paradise and of our Image which we had in Innocency . 8. But being Christ the Son of God hath generated us again to the Paradisical Image ; we should not be so remiss , to rely upon Art and earthly Reason : for so we find no● Paradise and Christ ; who must become Man in us , if we will ever see God ; in our Reason , it is all but Dead and Blind . 9. VVe must go out from Reason , and enter into the becoming Man or Incarnation of Christ , and then we shall be taught of God ; and then we have power to speak of God , Paradise , and of the Kingdom of Heaven . 10. And in the Earthly Reason , which onely proceedeth from the Constellation or Astrum , we are but Fools in the presence of God if we will speak of the Heavenly Mystery ; for we speak of a Thing which we have not seen or known . 11. But even a Childe knoweth its Mother , so also every one that is born of God again , knoweth his Mother , not with Earthly Eyes , but with divine , with the Eyes of the Mother from whom he is born : this we present to the true hearted Reader to consider , what he is to do ; and from what mind and apprehension or understanding , we will write . 12. Reason of the outward world , will needs hold , that God Created Man in the outward Dominion , in the source or quality of the fiery Stars and four Elements ; but if that were so , then he was Created in the Angnish and Death . 13. For , the starry Heaven hath its limit ; when it attaineth that , it leaveth the Creature ; of which it was a leader ; and then that Domininion and Beeing or Substance of the Creature passeth away which was subject to the outward Heaven . 14. And we see very well , how we fall away and dye when the outward Heaven with the Elements , leave us , so that even a Child in the Mothers womb is clearly old enough to dye : also oftentimes it perisheth , while it is yet without Life , and in the Fiat of the outward Dominion , is in the coming to be a Body , before the Center of Nature striketh up the Fire of the soul . 15. And thus by Adams fall , we clearly know the Dying and Death ; that Adam as soon as he became Earthly , dyed as to Paradise , and was dead to the Kingdom of God : therefore then the Regeneration was necessary for us , else we could not become Living again . 16. But seeing God did forbid Adam the Earthly fruit which was mixt , not to touch it , and also ereated onely one Man with Masculine and Feminine Properties , with both Tinctures , as of the fire , and of the Light in the Love ; and brought him instantly into Paradise , yea he was Created in Paradise : therefore we cannot give way to Reason , which by the Devils Infection or instigation , saith , that Man was Created Earthly . 17. For whatsoever was solely Created from the Earthly life , or from the Earthly source or quality , that is Beastial , it hath beginning and End , and reacheth not the Eternity , for it is not out of the Eternity . 18. And that now , which is not out of the Eternity , that is , transitory , and onely a looking Glass wherein the Eternal wisdom hath beheld it self as in a Figure and similitude . 19. There remaineth thereof nothing else but a shadow without source or quality and being or substance ; it passeth away , as a wind , which hath raised itself , and then lieth down again . 20. For such a Creatures sake , the word of God , is not become Flesh : the Eternal is not for the sake of the Transitory entered into the transitory substantiality . 21. Also it is not therefore entred into the Earthly , that it would raise and introduce the Earthly transitory , into the Power of the Majesty ; but for the sake of that which was proceeded out of the Power of the Majesty ; but was become evil and Earthly , and as it vvere extinguished in Death , that it might make it living again , and awaken , and lift it up into the power of the Majesty , into that state it was in , before it was a Creature . 22. And we are to understand otherwise then we have hitherto done concerning Man ; having accompted him beastial : Indeed he became Beastial , according to the property of this World ; when he dyed in Adam , from thence forward he lived to this world , and not to God. 23. But if he entered with his will-spirit into God , then the will-spirit would attain the Noble Image again , and according to the Image , would live in God ▪ and according to the Beastial property , would live to this world . 24. Thus he was in Death and yet was living , and therefore Gods word Became Man , that it might unite him into God again , that he might be totally born again in God. 25. VVee are to conceive of the Paradisical Image thus ; we say and apprehend , that Adam was Created Good , pure , and immaculate : as was also Lucifer and his Hoasts . 26. He had pure eyes , and that Two-fold : for he had both kingdoms in him , viz : Gods Kingdom and the Kingdom of this world . 27. But as God is Lord over all , so should Man also in the power of God , be Lord over this world ; for as God ruleth in all and presseth through all , imperceptibly to the Thing ; so could the hidden divine Man press into all , and see all . 28. Indeed the outward * was in the Outward ; † but he was Lord●ver ●ver the outward , it was under him ; it could not subdue him , he could break the Rocks without any prejudice to him . 29. The Tincture of the Earth was wholly known to him , he should have found out all the Wonders of the Earth : for to that end he was also created in the outward ; that he should manifest in figures , and produce into work , what was seen in the Eternall wisdome , for he had the Virgin wisedome in him 30. Gold Silver and the Pretious Metalls are indeed also out of the Heavenly Magia , thus inclosed and shut up by or with the kindling : they are another thing then Earth ; Man loveth that well and useth it for his maintenance ; but he knoweth not its ground and Original ; it is not in vain , loved by the Minde ; it hath a high Original , if we would consider of it . 31. But we are justly silent of it here ; seeing Man wthout that loveth it too much , and thereby withdraweth himselfe from the spirit of God. 32. One should not love the Body more then the Spirit , for the Spirit is the Life : this we give you to understand in a similitude , and are silent of the Matter with the ground and Original thereof . 33. But know this , that it was given to Man for his Sport and Ornament , he had it by the right of Nature ; it was his , understand , the outward Bodyes , for the outward Body with its Tincture , and the Metalline Tincture , are near a kind . 34. But when the Tincture of the outward Body , was destroyed by the Devils Evil longing ; then the Metalline Tincture , hid it selfe also from the Humane , and became an enemy to it ; for it is purer then the perished in the outward Man. 35. Let this be manifested to you , ye Seekers of the Metalline Tincture , If you would find the Philosophers stone , then apply your selves to the New Birth in Christ ; else it will be hard ●or you to apprehend it ; for it hath a great agreement with the heavenly substantiality ; which if it were released from the fierce wrath , would be very well seen . 36. It s lustre signifieth somewhat , so that , if we had paradisicall eyes , we should well apprehend it : The Minde sheweth it us indeed , but the understanding and full knowledge , is dead as to Paradise . 37. Therefore seeing we use that Noble thing , to the dishonour of God , and to the destruction of our selves ; not to honour God thereby , and to enter with our Spirit , into the Spirit of God , but leave the Spirit , and cleave to the substantiality , therefore is the Matalline Tincture become a Mystery , for we are become strangers to it . 38. Man was created , that he should be a Lord of the Tincture , and it was subjected to him ; and he became its servant , and also strange to it , therefore now he seeketh in Gold and findeth Earth . 39. Because he forsook the Spirit , and went with his Spirit into the substan●iality , therefore the Substantiality hath captivated him and shut him Up in Death , so that , as the Tincture of the Earth lyeth shut up in the fierce w●ath , till the Judgment of God , so also the spirit of Man lyeth shut up in the Anger , unlesse he go forth , and become generated in God. 40. For , the Devil would be Chief Great Prince , with his fierce wrath in the heavenly substantiality , therefore it was shut up from him , and became Earth and Stone , so that he is not Prince , but a Captive in the Anger , and the substantiality profiteth not him , for he is Spirit . 41 He contemneth the Heavenly Substantiality , and kindleth the Mother of Nature , viz : the Astringency or Fiat , which instantly made all palpable and Corporeal , which Gods Spirit * created or compacted together . 42. And yet it was well or easie to be known to Man , he could well release the Tincture , and bring forth the Pearl , to his Sport or Scene and Joy , and to the Manifestation of Gods Glory and Deeds of wonder , if he had continued in Innocency . 43. As to Mans-Eating and Drinking , whereby he should give his 〈◊〉 nourishment and substantiality , it was thus . 44. He had a two-fold fi●e in him , viz : the Souls fire , and the outward fire of the Sun and Constella●ions or Astrum : Now every fire must have Brimstone on Beeing and Substance , or else it subsisteth not ; that is , it burneth not : Concerning which we have sufficient understanding in the Divine Beeing or Substance : what the nourishment of Man was . 45. For , as is mentioned above , the souls fire is fed with Gods Love , meekness , and substantiality , together with whatsoever , the word viz : the Divine Centre , bringeth forth . 46. For , the soul is out of the Eternal Magick Fire , which must also have Magick food , viz : by or with the Imagination . 47. If it hath Gods Image , then it Imagineth in Gods Love , in the Divine substantiality , and eateth of Gods food , of the food of the A●gels . 48. But if not , then it eateth of whatsoever it imagineth in , or of whatsoever the Imagination entreth into ; whether it be of the Earthly of hellish source or quality , and into that Matrix also it falleth ; indeed not with its substance , but is filled therewith , and that beginneth to qualitie or operate in it selfe , as poyson doth in the flesh . 49. Also it is sufficiently to be known by us in the food of the Outward Body , thus ; The outward Man was indeed , yet he was as it were half swallowed up by the Inward , the Inward ruled throughout ; and thus every life took of its own food . 50. Viz : the Image of God , or the Souls Spirit and Image , did eat of the Divine heavenly substantiality ; the outward body did Eat of the paradisicall fruit in the mouth and not into the Body : for as the outward Body stood halfe swallowed up in the Inward , so was also the fruit of Paradise . 51. The Divine substantiality sprouted through the Earthly , and had halfe swallowed up the Earthly in the Paradisical fruit , so that the fruit was not known to be Earthly ; and therefore it was called Paradise , as a sprouting through the Anger , where the love of God sprouted through the Anger and bare fruit ; as the Language of Nature clearly uuderstandeth the same , without any Exposition or far fetch'd Meaning . 52. And thus we are further to understand , how God dwelleth in this world ; and the world is as it were swallowed up in him ; It is impotent in him , and he Omnipotent ; thus was Man also , and thus he did Eat , his earthly Eating was heavenly . 53. As we know that we must be born again , so the Paradisical fruit ; was born again out of the Anger into the Heavenly Essentiality . 54. Or , as we see , that a good sweet hearb , groweth out of the bitter Earth , which the Sun qualifieth , or causeth to be otherwise , then the Earth had qualified or caused it to be : so the Holy Man qualified the Paradisical fruit in his Mouth , so that the Earthlinesse , was swallowed up as Nothing , and stirred not Man at all . 55. Or , as we know , that the Earth shall at the E●d be swallowed up , and be no more a * palpable body , so was also Mans outward Bating , he did eat the fruit in the Mouth ; and needed no Teeth for that , for there was the dividing of the Power . 56. There were Two Centres , of the power in Adams Mouth , each took its own ; the Earthly was changed into a Heavenly source or quality ; as we know , that * we shall be changed as to our Bodies , and be turned into a Heavenly powerful Body ; thus also was the transmutation in the Mouth . 57. And the Body received the Power ; for † the Kingdom of God consisteth in Power , and thus Man stood clearly in the Kingdome of God , for he was immortal and a Child of God. 58. But if he should have Eaten thus into the Guts , and have had Such a Stink in his Body , as we now Have ; I will ask a Reason , whether that were Paradise , and whether Gods Spirit did dwell in that ; whereas Gods Spirit was to dwell in Adam , as in the Creature of God. 59. His labour in Paradise upon the Earth was Child-like , but with heavenly Wit or Ingenuity understanding and skil ; he might plant Trees , also other Plants , all according to his pleasure : in all there would grow to him Paradisical fruit , and all would be pure to him , he did what he would , and did all right . 60. He had no Law , but onely the Law of the Imagination or longing pleasure and delight : that he was to place with or by his Spirit , in God , and so he should have continued Eternally . 61. And although God had changed the Earth , yet he had continued without necessity , and Death , all would be but changed into Heavenly Substantiality . 62. So also is to be understood concerning his drinking , the inward Man drank the Water of Eternal Life , out of Gods Beeing or Substance , and the outward drank the Water upon the Earth . 63. But as the Sun , and the Air , suck up the water , and yet is not filled with it ; so it was also in Mans Mouth , it separated it selfe in the Mystery . 64. As we conceive and certainly know , and it is the whole Truth , that God Made all things out of Nothing but onely out of his Power ▪ so all whatsoever was Earthly should in Mans Mouth , go again into that which it was before the Creation of the World. 65. The Spirit and power thereof belonged to Man , but not an Earthly Body : for God had once created him a Body which was Eternal , and needed no Creating more . 66. Hee , understand , Adam , was a Princely Throne , made out of Heaven Earth Stars and the Elements , as also out of Gods Beeing or Substance : A Lord of the World , and a Child of God. 67. Observe this ye Philosophers , it is the true ground and highly known ; Mingle no School fictions with it ; it is clear enough ; Opinion doth it not , but the true Spirit born of God knoweth it aright . 68. All Opinion without knowledge , is an Earthly folly , and here understandeth Earth and the four Elements ; But Gods Spirit understandeth the One Element onely , wherein the four lie hidden . 69. Not four , should rule in Adam , but the One over the four , the Heavenly Element over the four Elements of this world : and thus we must be againe if we will possesse Paradise ; for which things sake God is become Man. 70. Let this be told you Ye , School-Disputers or wranglers , ye go about the Circle and enter not within , as the Cat about the scalding Broath , which is afraid of the burning Heat , so are ye afraid and ashamed before the fire of God. 71. And as little as the Cat eateth the scalding Broath , but goeth about smelling at the Edg thereof : so little also doth Man eat the Paradisical fruit , unless he go out from Adams skin which the Devil hath defiled , and enter again into the regeneration of Christ . 72. Hee must Enter within the Circle , and cast away the skin of Reason ; and then he attaineth Humane Wit or Ingenuity and Undershanding , and Divine skil and knowledge : No learning doth it ; but to be born or regenerated in it . The Fifth Chapter . Of the Lamentable and M●serable Full of Man. 1. IFwe will rightly describe the Becoming Man or Incarnation , of JESUS CHRIST ; it is necessary that we should set down the Cause , why God is become Man. 2. It is no small cause , or for nothing , as the Jewes and the Turks look upon it , the Christians also are halfe dumb concerning it : for indeed it must needs be a great Cause , wherefore the unchangeable God hath moved himselfe : Therefore observe this , we will set you down the Cause . 3 Adam was * a Man , and * an Image of God , * a whole similitude according to God ; although † God is no Image , he is the Kingdom , the Power , also the Glory and the Eternity ; All in All. 4. Yet the Deepe without ground , longed or pleased to manifest it selfe in Similitudes , as indeed there were such manifestations which were done from Eternity in the wisdome of God , as in a Virgin-like Figure . 5. Which yet was no Genetrix ; but a Looking-Glass of the Deity , and of the Eternity , in the Ground or Byss and in the Abyss , an Eye of the Glory of God. 6. And according to that Eye , and in that Eye the Thrones of Princes became Created ; viz : the Angels and in the End , Man ; he had again the Throne in himselfe as being Created out of the Eternall Magia , out of Gods Beeing or Substance , out of the Nothing into somewhat , out of the Spirit into Body . 7. And as the Eternal Magia Generated him out of it selfe , into an Eye of the Wonders and Wisdom of God : so he should and could generate another Man out of himselfe after a Magical manner , without dividing or rending of his Body . 8. For he was conceived in Gods longing Pleasure or delight , and the Desire of God , had generated him and brought him forth ; and so he also had that same longing , to his own impregnating of himselfe . 9. For , Venus's Tincture is the Matrix which was Impregnated with the substantiality , viz : with Sulphur in the Fire , which yet in Venus's Water cometh to Beeing or Substance . 10. The Fire Tincture , giveth Soul ; and the Lights Tincture giveth Spirit ; and the Water , viz : the substantiality giveth Body : and Mercurius , viz : the Centre of Nature , giveth the wheele of the Essences , and the Great life , in the Fire , and Water , heavenly and Earthly ; and the Sal or Salt Heavenly and Earthly , holdeth it in the Beeing or Substance , for it is the Fiat . 11. For , as Man hath the Outward Constellation or Astrum in him , which is his Wheel of the outward worlds Essences and Cause of the Minde : so also he hath the Inward Constellation or Astrum of the Centre of the fiery Essences , as also in the second Principle ; he hath the Light flaming Divine Essences . 12. He had the whole Magia of the Beeing of all Beeings or Substance of all Substances in him ; it was the possibility in him , he could generate Magically ; for he loved himselfe , and desired his likenesse again out of his Centre , As he was Conceived from Gods desire , and brought forth by the Genetrix in the Fiat ; so should he also have brought forth his Angelical or Humane Hoast . 13. But , whether they should all have been generated out of One , viz : out of that one Princely Throne ; or successively all one out of another , is not needfull to be known , for the limit is broken : we have enough in the Knowledge , in that we know what we are , and what our Kingdom is . 14. Indeed I find in the Deep in the Centre , that one should have proceeded out of the other : for the Heavenly Centre hath its Minutes , as well as the Earthly , which always strike : where the Wheele with all the Three Principles always goeth , and always one wonder openeth it selfe after another . 15. Thus was Mans Image also found and contrived wherein the wonders lie without number : they should be opened by the Humane Hoast . 16. And clearly in Time , one Greater Wonder is opened in one then in another ; all according to the Heavenly and Earthly Birth , and wonderful Variation or Alteration : as is done also at this very day ; that in One more Art and understanding of the Wonders lyeth then in an other . 17. Therefore I conclude , that one man should have been generated and proceeded from another : for the sake of the Great Wonders , and for the pleasure delight and joy of Man wherein a Man would have brought forth his like . 18. Thus should the Humane Generations have stood in the Generating , till God had set the Third Principle of this World again , in its own Ether . 19. For it is a Globe with Beginning and End , for the beginning reacheth to the End , that the last may passe into the First ; thus all is finished ond entire . 20. And then will the Middle again be cleared , and goe again into that which it was before the Times of this world , even all but the Wonders , which continue in Gods wisdom in the great Magia , standing , as a shadovv of this World. 21. Now seeing Adam was so Glorious an Image ; moreover in the sted and place of extruded Lucifer , ; the Devil would not allow or afford him that , but Envied it vehemently , and set his Vizard and Imagination alwayes before Adam : he slipt also with his Imagination into the Earthlinesse of the fruit : and Imagined or represented before Adam as if Great Glory did stick in his enkindled Earthliness . 22. Though indeed Adam did not know him , for he came not in his own Form , but the forme of the Serpent , as in the form of a Sumptuous Beautiful Cunning Beast , and Managed his Apish Sport like a Fowler , who deceiveth the fowles and so catcheth them . 23. So did he also , he infected the Earthly Kingdom with his disease and venome of Pride , and halfe killed it , as is to be seen in Earth and Stones , which though so very much diseased venomed and full of vanity , yet would very * fain be loosed from the vanity . 24. And when † it found that Adam was a child of God , and had the Glory and the Power , then it Imagined or longed vehemently after Adam , together with the Kindled Anger of God , that also Imagined or longed after Adam , to delight it selfe in this living Image . 25. All drew Adam and would have him ; the Kingdom of Heaven would have him , for he was created for it . 26. Also the Earthly Kingdom would have him , for it had one part in him ; it would be his Lord , seeing he was but a Creature . 27. Also the fierce wrath , set open its Jawes , and would be Creaturely and substantial , to satiate its great fierce hunger . 28. And thus stood Adam in the Trial or Proba for forty Dayes , so long as Christ was tempted in the Wilderness , and Israel on Moant Si●●i , when God gave them the Law , to see whether it were possible , that this people , could in the Fathers source or quality in the Law , stand before God. 29. And whether Man could have continued in Obedience , so as to have set his Imagination * upon God ; so that God should not have needed to become Man ; for which cause , God did such wonders in Egypt , that man might see , that there is a God , and so love and feare him . 30. But the Devil was a lyar and deceiver , and seduced Israel , so that they made a Calf , and worshipped it for God , now seeing it was not possible for Israel to stand ; therefore * Moses came from the Mountain with the Tables , upon which the Law was written , and brake them , and slew the worshippers of the Calf . 31. So also must not Moses bring this People , into the promised Land , it could not be ; JOSUA and lastly JESUS must do it , who stood in the Temptation before the Devil and the Anger of God , who overcame the Anger and brake Death in peeces , as Moses did the Tables of the Law. 32. The first Adam now could not stand , though the Kingdom of God stood before his Eyes and he in Paradise ; yet Gods Anger was so very much inflamed , that it drew Adam ; for he was too much kindled in the Earth through the Devils Imagination and strong willing . 33. Now saith Reason : Had the Devil so great Might ? yes deare Man : Man had it also , he can throw down Mountains , if he entereth strongly with his Imagination . 34. The Devil was also out of the great Magia of God , and a Prince or King of this Throne , and Entered into the strongest Might of the Fire , in a will and entention to be a Lord over all the Hoast of Heaven . 35. Thus the Magia became kindled , and the Great Turba Generated , that had wrestled with Adam , to try , whether he would be strong enough , to possesse the Devils Kingdom , and to rule in the same , with other Sources or Qualities . 36. This , Adams Rational Spirit did not understand , but the Magick Essences strove against one another , whence the whole Lust and the will did exist , till Adam began and Imagined after the Earthliness , and would have earthly fruit . 37. There all was done : then his Noble Image , which should eat onely of the word of the Lord , became infected and Obscured . 38. And so then instantly grevv the Earthly Tree of Temptation ; for Adam had desired it and given way for it . 39. Then Adam must be tempted , to try whether he could stand , for the stern Commandment came from God. 40. And God said : Thou shalt Eat of every Tree in Paradise , but of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evill thou shalt not eat : for the day that thou eatest thereof , thou shalt dye the Death , that is , dye to the Kingdom of Heaven and become Earthly . 41. And Adam knew the Commandement well , and also did not eat thereof ; but he Imagined thereinto , and was captivated in his Imagination , also quite powerless , also faint and weak , till he was overcome , then he fell down and slept . 42. Thus he fell home to the Magia ; and his Glory was at an End ; for the sleepe signifieth Death and a being overcome ; for the Earthly Kingdom had overcome him , it would rule over him . 43. The Kingdom of the Starres would have Adam , and bring forth its Wonders by him , for there was no other Creature so highly graduated and dignified as Man , which could attain the Kingdom of the Starres . 44. Therefore Adam was drawn , and rightly Tempted , to try whether he could be a Lord and King , over the Starres and Elements . 45. The Devill was busie , he supposed he should overthrow Man , and bring him into his power , whereby this Throne would at last remain to be his Kingdom . 46. For he knew well , that if Man should go forth from Gods will , that he would be Earthly ; and he knew also well , that the Abysse of H● ll , stood in the Earthly Kingdom , and therefore he was now so busie . 47. For if Adam had generated Magically , then he had continued in Para●ise upon Earth , and that the Devil did not like , he was not able to endure that , it did not relish with him in his Kingdom ; for it did not smell like brimstone and fire , but like Love and Sweetness : Then thought the Devil , if thou Eatest not of that Plant , then I my selfe shall not continue a fiery Lord. 48. Thus the Fall of Adam stuck wholly in the Earthly Essence , and lost the heavenly Essence , out of which the divine Love floweth , and he attained the Earthly Essence , out of which , wrath Malice poyson venome sicknesse and Misery floweth ; and lost the Heavenly Eyes . 49. Also , he could no more eat after a Paradisical Manner , but he Imagined after the forbidden fruit , wherein Evil and Good were mixed , as at this day all fruits on Earth are mixed . 50. Thus the four Elements became stirring and qualifying or working him : for his will with its Imagination took the Earthly Kingdom in the Souls fire for a Lodging . 51. Thus he went away from the Spirit of God into the Spirit of the Starres and Elements , that received him and rejoyced it selfe in him , for it was now living and mighty in him ; before it must be in subjection and servitude , but now it gat the Dominion . 52 There the Devil made merry , and derided God : but he knew not what lay behind , he knew not at all of the Crusher of the Serpent , who should take away his Throne and break his Kingdome in peeces . 53. Thus Adam sunk down into sleepe in the Magia , for God saw that he could not stand ; therefore he said 54 , * It is not Good that this Man is alone , we will make a helpe for him , that may be with him , through whom he may propagate and multiply . 55. For he saw the Fall , and came to Help him , in another way ; for he would not that his Image should perish . Reasons Objection 56. Reason saith : First . Why did God suffer the Tree to grow , by which Adam was Tempted ? therefore sure it must needs be his will that Adam should be Tempted . 57. Secondly ; Thus , will Reason also impute it to Gods will , and supposeth that God willed that Adam should Fall ; Thirdly : That God willeth to have some Men to be in Heaven , and some to be in Hell , else he could have hindered the Evil , and have kept Adam , so that he had continued Good , and in Paradise . 58. Thus also the present World Judgeth ; for it saith : if God had not made Evil , nothing had been Evil ; seeing all hath proceeded from him , and he alone is the Creator , who hath made all , and so he hath made Evil and Good , else it would not be so : this will reason strictly Maintain . 59. Also , it thinketh ; if that had not been which the Devil , and also Man , have looked upon and Gazed , and are become Evil ; then the Devil had continued an Angel , Man in Paradise . Answer . 60. Yes dear Reason ; now thou hast the white and the Hub right : thou canst not fail if thou art not blind . 61. Hearken ! Why dost thou not say to the Light : why Sufferest thou the Fire to be ? How pleasant wouldst thou be , if thou diddest not dwell in the Fire : I would pitch my Tent with thee , but thou dwellest in the Fire , and so I cannot . 62. Say now to the Light , go out from the Fire , and then thou wilt be good and pleasant : and if the Light follow your direction , you will finde a great Treasure : O how would you rejoyce , if you could dwell in the Light and the Fire not burn you ! 63. Thus farre goeth Reason ; but look upon it a right , with Magick Eyes , understand , with Divine and also with Natural Eyes : then this shall be shewn you , unless you are altogether Blinde and Dead . 64. Behold I offer it to your understanding , in a similitude . Seeing Reason is * † Foolishness , and understandeth Nothing of the Spirit of God ; I will so set it down as if I had power and were able to take away the Light from the Fire ; which yet cannot be , and see what would follow upon it . 65. Behold , If I take away the Light from the Fire ; then First the Light would loose its * Essence , out of which it shineth ; Secondly , It would loose its Life , and be Impotent : Thirdly it would be captivated by the Darkness , and overpowred and be exinguished in it selfe , and become Nothing ; for it is the Eternal Liberty , and an Abyss ; while it shineth it is Good ; and when it extinguisheth , it is Nothing . 66. Now behold further : what would remain of the Fire if I should take away the Light and Lustre from the Fire ? Nothing but a dry hunger and a Darkness ; it looseth the Essence and source or quality , it hungreth , and yet is nothing ; the Sulphur which it had is a Death ; it consumeth it selfe while there is any Essence left ; and when there is no more , it becometh Nothing , an Abyss , wherein there is not the least footsteps or remainder of Any thing . 67. Now dear seeking Minde ; conceive of it but thus ; God is the Eternal Light ; his power and source or quality , dwelleth in the Light , the Light causeth Meekness , and out of the Meekness cometh Being or Substance ; that Beeing or Substance is Gods Beeing or Substance , and the Source or Quality of the Light is the Spirit of God , which there is the * Understanding : there is no other God then this : in the Light is the Power , and the Power is the Kingdom . 68. But Now the Light and the Power have onely a Love-will ; it desireth not Evil ; indeed it desireth Beeing or Substance , but from or out of its own Essence : understand out of the love and sweetness , for that is conformable to the Light. 69. But yet the Light ariseth from the Fire , and without the fire it would be Nothing ; without that , it would have no Essence ; the Fire maketh Life and Mobility , and is Nature . Yet it hath another will then the Light , for it is Covetous and willeth onely to Consume , it taketh and receiveth onely , and climeth up aloft in Pride . 70. The Light receiveth not but Giveth , that the Fire may be preserved : the source or quality of the Fire is fierce wrath ; its Essences are Bitter , its Sting is enimicitious and unpleasant . 71. It is an Enmity in it selfe , it consumeth it selfe : and if the Light did not come to help it , it would devour it self , so that out of it would be Nothing : Dear seeking Minde , consider this , and thou wilt soon come to the Limit to Rest . 72. God is from Eternity , the Power and the Light , and he is called God according to the Light , and according to the Power of the Light , according to the Spirit of the Light. 73. Not according to the Fire-spirit , for that is called his fierce wrath , his Anger , and is not called God , but the consuming fire of the Might and strength of God. 74. The Fire is called Nature ; the Light is not called Nature : it hath indeed the Fires property ; but changeth it out of fierce wrath into Love , out of devouring Consuming , into generating , out of enmity and hatred , & bitter woe and Torment , into Meek weldoing pleasant amiable desiring and a perpetual satisfying and fulfilling . 75. For , the Love desire , draweth the Meekness of the Light into it selfe : and is an impregnated Virgin ; viz : with the Wit Ingenuity or Knowledge and Wisdome of the Power of the Deity . 76. Thus it is highly known to Us ; what God and Nature is , as also the * Bysse and Abysse , also the deep of Eternity ; thus we apprehend , that the Eternal Fire is Magical ; and is generated in the desiring Will , as is mentioned in the Second and Third Book . 77. Now seeing the Eternal Abyss is Magical therefore that is Magical also , whatsoever is generated out of the Eternal ; for , out of the Desiring , all things are come to be : Heaven and Earth are Magical , and the Minde with the Senses or Thoughts are Magical : If we will but once know , or understand our selves . 78. Now , what can the Light do , if the fire lay hold of somewhat and devoureth it ? seeing the Thing that is apprehended by the Fire , is also Magicall . 79. Seeing then it hath a Life , and the Power and understanding of the Light , why doth it then run into the Fire ? 80. The Devil was indeed an Angel , and Adam an Image of God , they had both the Fire and the Light , as also divine Wit Ingenuity or Understanding in them : Why did the Devil Imagine according to the Fire , and Adam according to the Earth ? They were Free. 81. The Light and Power drew not the Devil into the Fire , but the fierce wrath of Nature ; Why did the Spirit assent to be willing ? 82. Whatsoever the Magia maketh it selfe , that , it hath ; the Devil Made himselfe Hell , and that he hath ; and Adam made himselfe Earth , and that he is . 83. God is no Creature , also no Maker , but a Spirit and an Opener . When the Creation was : we are to Conceive and apprehend of it thus . 84. The Fire and Light had together at once awakened themselves in the pleasure delight and Longing , and desired a Looking-Glass or Image according to the Eternity . 85. Moreover we have it in true knowledge , that the fierce wrath , viz : the Nature of the Fire , is no Maker , that hath made Nothing out of it selfe that is Substantial , for besides that cannot be ; but it hath made Spirit and Source or Quality . 86. But yet no Creature standeth solely and barely in the Essence ; if a Creature be , it must be out of a Substance , viz : out of the power of Sulphur ; it must subsist in the Spiritual Sal , or Salt ; and then out of the ●ire Source or Quality cometh a Mercury , and true Essential Life ; Moreover it must have a Glance or Lustre , if it be to have understanding or knowledge in it . 87. Thus we know that all Creatures , stand in Spiritual Sulphur Mercurius and Sal ; and must not be onely Spirit , but it must be Sulphur ; wherein the Fiat standeth , viz : the soure Matrix to the Centre of Nature , wherein the Spirit is preserved . 88. That is , it must be substance , for , where there is no Substance , there is also , no Creating ; whereas yet a Creaturely Spirit is no palpable Substance ; but it must draw in Substance into it selfe through its ●●agination , else it would not subsist . 89. So then if the Devil drew fierce wrathfulness , into him , and Man Earthliness , what could the Love of the Substantiality of God , do to that : The Devil had indeed the Love and Meekness of God with the divine Substance set before him and offered to him , as also to Man , who will blame , God , now . 90. But the fierce wrathful Essence was too strong , so that it overcame the love Essence ; what can God doe to that ? if a good branch be planted , and perisheth ; what can the Earth do to that : It giveth thereto Sap and Virtue , why doth not the Branch draw the same to it ? 91. Thou wilt say ; its Essences are too weak , but what can the Earth do to that , and he also , who hath planted that branch : his will is to produce a good Tree for his pleasure and delight , and would eat of its fruit : but if he knew that the branch would perish , he would never plant it . 92. Thus we are to apprehend , that the Angels are Created not as one that setteth a Tree ; but with the Moving of God , with both the Principles , as Light , and darkness ; in which the Fire lay hidden ; yet the fire did not burn in the Creating and in the Moving , as yet at this day it doth not burn , for it hath a principle of it own . 93. Why did Lucifer kindle That , the will existed out of his Creature , and not without or beyond him ; he would be a Lord over Fire and Light , he would extinguish the Light , and Contemned the Meeknesse and would be a Fire-Lord . 94. And when he despised the Light , and his birth in Meekness , then he was justly thrust out : thus he lost Fire and Light and must dwell in the Abyss in the darkness ; if he will have fire , he must strike it up for himselfe , and kindle it with his * Malice or Malignity in the Imagination . 95. Which yet doth not burn rightly to him , but onely in the Essential fierce wrathful source or quality , as the four forms in the Centre of Nature , do afford in themselves . 96. Viz : Astringent hard rough and cold is one form , Bitter stinging enimicitions is the second form in the Centre , Anguish Woe & Tormentive source or quality is the Third , and with the Anguish , as in the stirring and life , he striketh up the fire , in the hard astringency , between the hard and bitter sting , so that it appeareth like Lightning ; that is the fourth Form. 97. Now if there be no meeknesse , or substance of Meekness , then it giveth no light , but onely a Flash , for the Anguish willeth to have the Liberty , but is too sharp , and getteth it onely as a Flash , that is , Fire , and yet hath no stability or Ground . 98. Thus , the Devil must dwell in the Darkness , and hath onely the fierce wrathful Flash in him , also the whole form or Condition in his dwelling is onely a fierce wrathful Flash ; * as if it did continually Thunder and Lighten : Thus the Hellish property sets it selfe in the source or quality . 99. Thus we are to understand also in a Similitude , concerning the Tree of Temptation , which Adam stirred up by his Imagination ; he desired ; and so the Matrix of Nature , set that before him which he desired . 100. But God did forbid him it ; and commanded that he should not touch it ; God would not have him do it ; but the earthly Matrix would have Adam ; for it knew in Adam the divine Power . 101. And seeing it was by the Devils Kindling become earthly ; but not quite dead , therefore it † groaned after that which it was before , viz : after the Liberty ; to be freed from the vanity ; and in Adam was the Liberty ; therefore it drew Adam so that he Imagined . 102. And thus Adam Lusted against the Command and will of God , this is as Paul saith . * The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit , and the Spirit against the Flesh 103. Adams flesh was half Earthly and half Heavenly ; thus hath Adams Spirit also by the Imagination brought a power into the Earth , and so the Matrix of Nature , gave him what hee would have . 104. He must be Tempted , to try whether he would stand an Angel in the stead of Lucifer ; and therefore God Created him not barely an Angel , so that , if he should fall , and not stand hee might helpe him . 105. So that he might not perish in the fierce wrath ▪ as Lucifer did , therefore he was Created out of Matter , and his Spirit was introduced into the Matter , viz : into a Sulphur of water and fire , that God might again exgenerate a New Life unto him , as a faire pleasant smelling blossome springeth out of the Earth . 106. Thus also was the purpose of God ; being he knew that he would not stand ; concerning which Paul also saith ; * We were foreseen or Elected in Christ Jesus , ●efore the foundation of the world was laid . 107. That is ; when Lucifer fell , then was not the foundation of this world yet laid , and yet then was Man clearly foreseen in the wisedom of God. 108. But being he should be made out of Three Principles ; there was imminent danger in respect of the kindled Sulphur of the Matter ; and though indeed he was Created above the Earth ; yet he was extracted out of the Sulphur of the Earthly Matrix ; as a fair blossome out of the Earth ; and there was plainly danger . 109. And therein had the amiable blessed saving Name Jesus , Together , co-imaged it self as a Saviour and Regenerator ; for , MAN is the greatest Arcanum or secret Mystery that God Ever wrought . 110. He hath the Figure , and is the Similitude , shewing how the Deity hath exgenerated it selfe from Eternity , out of the fierce wrath , out of the Fire , by the sincking through Death , into another Principle of another Source or Quality . 111. For thus is he also exgenerated out of Death again , and groweth out of Death again , into another Principle of another source or quality , and virtue or power ; wherein he is quite free from the Earthliness . 112. And it is very good , that we are with the Earthly part fallen home to the Earth , in as much as we also retain the divine part . 113. For so we are wholly pure , and come wholly * perfect , without any Lust suggestion or infection , of the Devil , into the Kingdom of God again : and are a much greater Arcanum or secret Mystery then the Angels . 114. We shall also ▪ as to the heavenly Substantiality , excell them , for they are flames of fire , throughly illustrated with the Light , but we attain the Great source or quality of the Meekness and Love , which floweth forth in Gods holy Substantiality . 115. Therefore they do very wrongfully and falsly who say , God willeth not to have all Men in Heaven * He willeth that all should be saved or helped : the fault is in Man himselfe , that he will not suffer himselfe to be Saved or helped . 116. And although many be of an Evil * inclination , that proceedeth not from God ; but from the Mother of Nature ; i● thou layest the blame on God , thou lyest ; Gods Spirit withdraweth i● selfe from no Man. 117. Cast away your Evil or wickedness , and enter into the Meekness , press into the Truth , into Love , and yeeld thy selfe up to God , and so thou wilt be saved or helped ; for therefore is JESUS Born , in that he willeth to Save or help . 118. Thou wilt say : I am kept back that I cannot : yes indeed that is right ; thou willest to have it so ; the Devil also would have it so . 119. Art thou a ● Champion ; why dost thou not strive or fight against the Evil ? but if thou strivest or fightest against the Good , thou are an Enemy of God : dost thou suppose that God will set an Angels Crown upon the Devil ? 120. Art thou an Enemy ? then thou art no friend , if thou wilt be a friend , then forsake thy Enmity and hatred , and go to the Father ; and so thou art a Sonne . 121. Therefore ; whosoever layeth the blame on God : is a lyar and Murtherer , as well as the Devil . 122. Art thou the Maker of thy own selfe ? Why dost thou make thy selfe Evil ? and though indeed thou art * Evil Matter , yet God hath bestowed his heart and Spirit upon thee ; take that to you in your making , and you make your selfe Good. 123. But if thou takest Covetousness and high-mindedness , as also Voluptuousness and pleasure of the Earthly Life ; what should God do with that : should God now sit in thy scornful high-mind ? O no! that is not his source or quality . 124. But if thou sayest ; I am of an Evil source or quality ; and cannot , I am kept back . 125. Very well : Let the Evil source or quality , be as it is : but go thou with thy will-Spirit into Gods love-Spirit , and give up thy selfe into his Mercy : thou wilt once well be freed from the Evil source or quality . 126. The Evil source or quality is out of or from the Earth , if the Earth get the Body , then it may take away its Evil , but thou art and remainest to be one Spirit with and in the will of God ; in his Love. 127. Let the Evil Adam be gone ; there will a good and new one Sprout forth out of the Old , as a fair Blossome , springeth out of the stincking Dung : onley have a care thou retainest the Spirit in God ; 128. Concerning the Evil Body which sticketh full of Evill Affections , there is not much to be done : if it be inclined to Evill , do it the less good ; give it no occasion to wantonness . 129. To keep it in subjection is a good Remedy ; to be full and frolick , is at length , to make the Ass perfectly to wallow in the Mirc , where it defileth it selfe sufficiently like a Swine . 130. To be sober , and to lead a Temperate life , is a Good purgation for the Evil Ass , not to give it that it lusteth after , to let it fast often , so that it may not hinder Prayer , that is good for it ; it , is not willing , but the understanding must be Lord ; for it beareth Gods Image . 131. This Latine doth not relish well to the Rational World : in the Lust of the Flesh ; but seeing that relisheth it not , but drawes into the place thereof meer vain Earthly Voluptuousness and pleasure , and swalloweth them into it selfe ; therefore is the Anger stirring in them , that draweth them continually with Adam out of Paradise , and with Lucifer , into the Abyss , and there thou wilt swallow and devour to the full what thou hast here willingly drawn into thy selfe . 132. But thou shouldest not lay the blame on God ; if thou dost thou art a Lyar , and an Enemy of the Truth ; God willeth no Evil , also there is no Evil Thought in him : he hath only one Source or Quality , and that is , Love and Joy. 133. But his fierce wrath , viz : Nature , hath many Sources or Qualities ; therefore let every one have a care what he doth , every Man is his own God , and his own Devil : that source or quality which he inclineth himselfe , or yeeldeth himselfe up into , that leadeth and driveth him ; and he is the Work-master thereof . 134. It is a great Misety that Man is so blind , that he can not know what God is : for all , that * he liveth in God. 135. And yet there are Men that forbid such a thing , that Man should not search what God is , and yet will be Teachers of and for God : verily , such are even Teachers of and for the Devil , that he may not be known . The Sixt Chapter . Of Adams Sleep : How God made a Woman out of him ; and how he became quite Earthly : also how God by the Curse hath withdrawn Paradise from him . 1. WHen Man became weary and tired , he fell into a sleep , viz : into the Magia , it was with him as if he were not in this world , for all his Senses or Thoughts ceased , the wheel of the Essences , passed into a Rest . 2. He was as it were Essential Not Substantial , he was altogether like the Magia ; for he knew nothing of his Body ; he lay , as dead , but was not Dead , but * the Spirit stood still . 3. And then the Essences have their Effect , and the Spirit of the soul onely seeth or discerneth ; and there is pourtrayed in the sydereal Spirit , all whatsoever the starry heaven bringeth forth . 4. And stood Magically , in the Mind as a Looking-Glass on which the Spirit of this world † Gazeth ; and conveigheth whatsoever it seeth in the Looking-Glass into the Essences ; and the Essences * flow forth therein : as if they did perform the work in the Spirit , and pourtray it in the Spirit : which are Dreames and Representations , or Figures . 5. Thus , we are to know , that when the Earthliness wrestled with Adam , and that he Imagined thereinto ; he became instantly infected thereby , and in his Minde became dark and stern . 6. For the Earthliness began to qualifie or operate like water , that beginneth to seeth by the fire : the source or quality of the Starres became stirring , and were now , Lord , of the Body . 7. And now Moses saith very right † God suffered a Deep sleep to fall upon him : that is , being his Will-spirit Imagined after Earthliness , God let him fall down ; for he brought with the Imagination earthliness into the heavenly Substantiality , and that , the Spirit of God which is a Spirit of Light , would not have . 8. For , Adams Spirit was a Creature , and proceeded forth out of Gods Love-spirit : therefore indeed it did not willingly leave him ; but the Earthliness had already captivated him . 9. And when that left him , then he sank down in impotency , and fell home to the Third Principle , viz : to the Starres and the Four Elements thus he lay in the Earthly Magia , and was not yet wholly Earthly . 10. He lay in the Mystery , between the Kingdom of God and of this world , where both the Fiat's viz : the divine and the Earthly , were stirring in him : and now the Two Kingdoms , viz : of God and of Hell , were first in strife about Man. 11. And so now , if the dear Name JESUS , had not been * incorporated in Adam , even before his Creation , as in the substantiality of God , wherein the Virgin of Wisdome stood , wherein Adam was created , he would indeed have slept still and have beene in the Earthly Death . 12. And this is the cause ; why the Second Adam † Christ , must rest till the Third Day , in the Earth , in the first sleep of Adam ; and awaken or raise up the first Adam again out of the Earthliness . 13. For Christ had also a soul and spirit out of Adam , and the precious Dear word of the Deity , together with Gods Spirit , awakened and raised up again in Christs flesh , the dead substantiality of the Sulphur ; viz : the Body , which , in Adam , was dead ; and put it again into the power of the Majesty of God , and therewith , US all . 14. All those which with their Faith and Imagination , in Christs flesh and blood , in his Death and Rest , go into the Earth ; they sprout all , with their Spirit and will , forth , in the divine substantiality , and are a fair Blossome in the Majesty of God. 15. And God , the Eternal word and power , will at the last day awaken and raise up in himselfe , with his spirit , the dead Body which with Adam is fallen home to the Earth . 16. For , Christs soul and Flesh , which is also our Soul and Flesh ; understand it right , that part which Adam received out of the divine substantiality : hath God , through and in the Death of Christ , separated from the Earthly source or quality , and hath awakened and raised it up , and introduced it into the divine substantiality again , as it was before the Time of the World , and Us , in and with him . 17. And we are onely wanting in our giving up our selves into it : in that we suffer the Devil to with-hold us : for our death is broken , our sleep is become a Life ; and that , in Christ , and through Christ , in God , and through God , in the Eternity , with our Byss or Ground , in the Abyss , viz : in the Majesty without or beyond the fiery Nature . 18. O Blindness , that we know not our selves ! O thou Noble , Man ; if thou knewest thy selfe , who thou art , how woulst thou rejoyce ? How woulst thou give the Devil his Arrant to be gone , who day and night endeavoureth to make our Minde Earthly , that we should not know our true Native Country ; out of which we are gone forth . 19. O , miserable Corrupted Reason , if thou knewest but one little sparke of thy first Glory , how wouldst thou pant after it . 20. How very amiable and blessed is but the glimps of the divine substantiality ? How sweet is the water of the Eternal Life our of Gods Majesty ? 21. O! Most worthy Light , draw us into thee again , we are now , with Adam fallen asleep into the Earthly source or quality : O! come thou most worthy Word , and awaken or raise us up , in Christ ! 22 O! thou most worthy Light : for thou art indeed appeared , destroy and break now the Devils Power , which holdeth us captive ; break the power and Might of the Antichrist and of Covetousness , and deliver us from the Evil one . 23. Awaken and raise us up , O Lord ! for we have long slept in the Devils Net in the Earthly source or quality ; let us yet once see thy salvation . 24. Bring forth the New Jerusalem ; It is Day : why should we sleep in the Day ? 25. O! Come , thou breaker through Death , Thou Powerful Saviour and Conquerour , and break in pieces the Devils Kingdom upon Earth : Give us , Poor sick Adam yet a Cordial draught out of Sion , that we may refresh us , and go into our true Native-Country . 26. * Behold all Mountains and Hills together with the Vallies are full of the glory of the Lord ; it springeth up as a sprout , who will hinder it . Hallelujah . 27. Now when Adam was fallen asleep , he lay in the Mystery as in Gods Wonder , what it did with him , that was done . 28. Thus the incorporated or Imaged Name JESUS moved the Fiat again in two Forms , viz : in both the Tinctures , of the Fire and of the Water . 29. For , this first Image was now fallen home to the Name JESUS in the word of Life : and so now the word of Life was the Second Creator , understand , with the incorporated or Imaged Name JESUS , which would become Man : that severed the two Tinctures one from another , viz : the Tincture of the Fire and of the Light. 30. Yet not wholly in the power , but in the substantiality ; for , i● the Substantiality of the Tincture of the Light , was the Sulphur of Venus of the Love , in which Adam should and could impregnate himselfe : The Fires Tincture gave soul , and the Lights Tincture gave Spirit . 31. Viz : an Image according to the outward Image , the fire-Life Imagined after the Light-life : and the Light-life after the Fire-life : viz : after the Essential power out of which the Light shineth . 32. This was in Adam , but One , for he was Man and * Wife . 33. And the word of Life , took the Tincture of Venus , with the heavenly and earthly Fiat , from Adam , also a Rib or Bone out of his Side , as also the half Cross in the Head. 34. Which is the Character of the Holy Trinity ; Marked by the word of Life , viz , with the Severe Name of GOD , * GOTTES : which beareth such a Character . T. 35. T , signifying the Cross of Christ ; on which he should suffer Death ; and New regenerate Adam again , and in the Name JESU , introduce him in Ternarium Sanstum , into the Holy Ternary . 36. All these , the Fiat took into it selfe , together with all Essences of the Humane property , as also the property of the souls Fire , but in Venus's Tincture , not according to the might and strength of the Center ; and Separated it into the whole form of Man. 37. Thus was the Woman built , with all Members of the feminine properties , as they still have them : For , the Spirit of the great world , Spiritus Majoris Mundi ; had now the strongest Fiat , and figured the woman in such a form , as it could in possibility . 38. For the Angelical Form was gone : the propagation must now be in A Beastiall Manner . 39. And so also there was given to Adam , being he was fallen home to the Earthly Magia ; a beastial form and shape of Masculine Members , and Adams generating was given to the Fiat : and that maketh a similitude of him , out of him . 40. If he had continued heavenly Minded , then he had himself generated heavenly ; but now the Earthly Fiat did it ; and his outward body hecame a Beast ; he lost also the heavenly wit or understanding ; and the Power of the Omnipotency . 41. Beloved Reader thus thou art to know , that the Second Adam ; Christ hath not in vain suffered himselfe to be Crucified , and with a Speare to be pierced in his side , nor hath in vain shed his blood ; here lyeth the Key . 42. Adam was broken in the Side by the Rib for the Woman , into that very Side must Longinus's Speare , with Gods fierce wrath , come ; for it was come into Adam , and out of Maries earthliness , into Christs Side also . 43. And the Blood of Christ must drown the fierce wrath and take it away from the First Adam ; for the Second Adam had also Heavenly blood , that must drown the Earthly Turba , that the first Adam might be whole again . 44. Let this be told you , ye Children of Men ; for it is become known in Ternario Sancto , in the Holy Ternary ; and not in Supposition or Opinion : it concerneth both Soul and Body ; take heed what you do . 45. Thus now the humane propagation began in a beastial manner ; for Adam reteined the Limbus ; and his Eve the Matrix of Venus , for , the the Tinctures were divided . 46. So now Each Tincture is an * entire or total Magia , viz : a desirous longing , wherein the Centre of Nature is generated , and that in the Sulphur . 47. Thus then in the Sulphur , is again the desirous Magia , together with the Tincture ; and yet can not come to Life , except the Tincture of Fire come into Venus's Tincture ; and Venus's Tincture , can awaken no Life , it is too weak , so that life cannot be therein . 48. And both the Tinctures desire also the Life ; and so the vehement Imagination of Man and Wife , beginneth , so that the one desireth to mix with the other . 49. For , the power of the Essences willeth to be living ; and the Tincture driveth on that , and desireth the same . 50. For , the Tincture , is from or out of the Eternal Life , and yet is shut in with the Substantiality : and in that respect it willeth to live , as it hath done from Eternity . 51. And therefore the Man longeth after the Matrix of the Wise ; and the wife after the Limbus of the Man. 52. The Woman hath a Watery Tincture ; and the Man , a fiery , the Man soweth Soul , and the Woman Spirit ; and both 〈◊〉 flesh , viz : Sulphur : Therefore is Man and Wife but one Body , 〈…〉 together a Child . 53. And therefore ought to continue together ; if they Once Mix ; for they are become one Body : and whosoever mixeth with another or separateth from one another , they break the Order or Ordinance of Nature , and such a one is like a Brute beast , and considereth not that in his seed the Eternal Tincture lyeth , wherein the divine Substantiality lyeth hid : and in that regard ; will one day , in the wrath-part , he awakened . 54. Also that is a work which will follow after Man in the shadow , and its source or quality , will one day be made stirring in the Conscience . 55. For , the Tincture , in the Seed , ariseth out of the Eternity ; it is not transitory ; it appeareth in the Spirits form , and passeth into the Magia of Man ; out of which it hath generated and shed forth Man. 56. Mark this ye Whores and Whoremongers , what you work in private Corners many times with great falshood and wickedness , that passeth into your Consciences , & becometh to you an Evil Gnawing Worm . 57. The Tincture is an eternall Substance ; and it would fain be in the Love of God ; but if ye cast it into a false or impure Vessel in abomination and inordinateness , then it will hardly attain Gods Love , and then it passeth with its Imagination again into the first Place , viz : into you . 58. If it be come to be false in a false Vessel , so that it can not rest ; then it will gnaw you indeed , and also pass into the hellish abyss in the Conscience . 59. It is not Fiction or jesting Matter ; be not so Beastial ; for a Beast hath its Tincture meerly from this world , but you not so , ye have it out of the Eternity , and that which is Eternal dyeth not . 60. Though indeed you destroy the Sulphur , yet the will-Spirit in the Sulphur with the Noble Tincture , passeth into the Mystery ; and each Mystery taketh that which is its own ; and that Mystery at the last Day , when the Spirit of God will move it selfe in all the Three Principles , will be Manifested , and there you will see your * fair Works . 61. Thus the great Mercy of God over all the Generations of Mankind , is highly known to us , that God would help Man thus ; else if God had 〈…〉 the beastial property , he would at the same instant have 〈…〉 than and a Woman ; he would not have made One alone with 〈◊〉 the Tinctures . 62. But God knew well the Fall of Man , as also the Treachery of the Devil , which thus with or by Eve was brought to derision ; The Devil supposed thus , when Adam fell down into a Sleep ; Now I am Lord and Prince upon Earth , but the seed of the Woman hindered that . 63. We are to understand the awakening of Adam out of his sleep ; he slept in the heavenly world , and awaked and to the Earthly world , the Spirit of the great World awakened and raised him up . 64. Then he saw the Woman , and knew her , † that she was his flesh and his Bone , for the Virgin of the wisdom of God , was yet in him ; and he looked upon her , and Imagined into her ; for she had gotten his Matrix ; as also the Tincture of Venus ; and so instantly the one Tincture received the other by the Imagination : therefore Adam took her to him , and said ; * Man shall call her Woman , because she is taken out of Man. 65. Also Eve is known to be no Pure immaculate Virgin ▪ as also all her Daughters ; The Turba hath destroyed the Virginity , and Made the pure Love Earthly ; the Earthly Imagination destroyeth the right Virginity . 66. For , Gods wisdom is a pure Virgin ; in which Christ was conceived ; and in a right Virgin-like Vessel became Man , as hereafter will follow . 67. Thus also could not the Earthly Virgin continue in Paradise ; though they were yet in Paradise , also they had both of them the Paradisical Source or Quality ; but mixed with Earthly longing . 68. * They were Naked , and had the beastial Members for propagation , and knew it not , also they were not ashamed : for the Spirit of the Great World had not yet the dominion over them ; till they did eat the Earthly fruit , and then * their eyes were opened , for the Heavenly Virgin of Gods wisdom departed from them , and then they first felt the Kingdom of the Starres and Elements . 69. When the Spirit of God withdrew forth , then the Earthly Spirit with the fierce wrathful source or quality , drew in , and there the Devil gat an entrance and infected them , and brought them into the fierce wrath and Evil Malice or Malignity : as it is still at this day . 70. For , the wrath of God out of the Eternal Nature , which the Devil hath kindled and awakened , sticketh in the Earthly Centre : also , no life can be generated , unless the Centre be awakened ; for the Principle standeth in the Fire , wherein all Life standeth : and the Centre of Nature hath fierce wrathfulness in its forms . 71. Therefore it is this only that will do it : stoop and submit thy self , and enter into Meeknesse , and let thy Life be right and just . 72. For , the Life is Fire , and the Lifes Image , which is the similitude of God , that is in the Light , viz : in the Love-fire . 73. But the Love-fire doth not afford or give the Centre of Nature , and therefore the Devil alwaies supposeth that he is a greater Lord then the Creatures in the Love-fire . 74. Indeed he is more strong or stern , but he liveth in the darkness ; and devoureth the strong or stern Substantiality , into himselfe , and therefore also he is an Enemy to the Love. 75. And we are to know ▪ that the Devil is in fault , and the Cause , that Man was created in his stead ; also , we are to know , that he is guilty of Mans Fall. 76. Although Adam and his Eve ( when God had divided Adam ) could not stand : they were indeed in Paradise , and should have eaten paradisical fruit , after an Angelical manner ; but they have not eaten thereof ; for the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil , was more acceptible to them . 77. And Eve , as soon as she was made , imagined into or longed after the Tree of Temptation : and though Adam did open the Commandement , and made it known to her , yet the Lust or longing was onely after the the Tree . 78. For , the Earthly Essences , were not yet Manifested in Adam and E● e , they were yet captivated , therefore † they drove so on into the Lust , for † they would needs be Lord. 79. And this came to pass through the Infection of the Devil , through his , Ascendent false or wicked Imagination : and therefore he laid himselfe in the form of a Serpent , at the Tree , and praised the fruit to Eve , * that it maketh Wise or Cunning. 80. Yes Wise and Cunning indeed , to know Evil and Good , misery enough ; for a Two fold source or quality to rule in one onely Creature : the not knowing it were better . 81. He telleth them , Lyes , and Truth , together * they shall be Cunning or Wise , and their Eyes shall be opened . 82. Yes sufficien●ly ; they quickly saw , that with the Earthly source or quality , they were fallen home to the Spirit of this world , so that they were Naked , and knew their Earthly Members , they came to have entrailes in the Body , and a stincking † Sack of Worms , full of woe and misery , in anguish and Toyl ; as is mentioned in the Book of the Three Principles , and so we see now before our eyes , what manner of Paradisical Angels we are , and how we must generate and * nourish our selves in Anxiety care and Misery ; which should have been done after another manner . 83. Thus we sufficiently know Adams Fall , and why he could not continue in Paradise : and what Paradise was ; which is , still , to this very day : onely it beareth not Paradisical fruit , and we have not the Paradisical source or Quality , and Eyes : and so we see it not . 84. For God hath * cursed the Earth for Mans sake , so that Paradise springeth no more through the Earth ; for it is become a ‖ Mystery ; and yet it is , continually , there . 85. And into that Mystery the souls of the Saints depart , when the Earthly body separateth it selfe from the Soul. 86. It is in this world ; and yet is out of this world ; for this Worlds quality or source , toucheth it not . 87. The whole World would have continued to be Paradise , if Adam had Continued in Innocency , but when God pronounced the Curse , then Paradise departed . 88. For Gods Cursing , is fleeing : It is a fleeing , not departing away , but a going into another Principle , viz : into himselfe . 89. For the Spirit of God , proceedeth forth from God into the Substantiality , but when this Sustantiality became Earthly , and that the Devil dwelt therein , who was Gods Enemy , then the Spirit of God , passed into its own Principle ; viz : into the Love ; and departed out of the Earthliness ; and there it standeth now presented to Man in the Light of Life . 90. So that whosoever now desireth to Enter into the Love of God ; let him go with his will-Spirit into Paradise ; and then Paradise will spring up again into or in his will-Spirit , and he will receive on-to his Image again , the Heavenly Substantiality , in which the Holy Spirit ruleth . 91. Let this be a Pearl to you , ye Children of Men ; for it is the true Ground ; whosoever seeketh and findeth it , he hath meer Joy therein : It is * the Pearl which lyeth hid in the field , for which one sold all his goods and bought the Pearl , of which Christ speaketh . 92. Thus also we may know † the Cherubine , which draw Adam and Eve out of Paradise , viz : the stern or strong Angel ; which signifieth the Cutter off of the Earthly life from Paradise , where Body and Soul must part asunder . 93. It is indeed known to Us : that Adam and Eve , were driven away out of the place , where the Tree of Temptation stood ; for , Paradisical fruit stood there ; which they should no more see nor Eat , for the Heavenly belongeth not to the Earthly . 94. Also , the Beasts were driven out , in respect of the Evil Tree ; for , they could not eat of the Paradisical fruit : but of this Tree , Every beast could Eat , for it was Earthly . 95. Thus must they leave Paradise : for God had clothed them , through the Spirit of the Great World , † with the skins of Beasts instead of the Heavenly Clothing of clarity and brightness . 96. And he had pronounced their sentence , what they should doe and suffer in this World , what they should thence forward Eat , and how they should nourish themselves or * get their living , in Care and Misery , till they should return altogether , to the Earth from whence they were extracted as to one Part. The seventh Chapter . Of the promised Seed of the Woman , and Crusher of the Serpent . 1. NOw then , Adam and Eve , standing thus , as Man and Wife , in Paradise ; and having yet the heavenly source or quality and Joy , though Mixed , the Devil could not endure that ; for his Envy was too great . 2. Seeing he had overthrown Adam , and brought down his Angelical form : he looked now upon Eve , viz : the Woman out of Adam , and thought : she might conceive Children in Paradise , and remain in Paradise , thou wilt therefore seduce her , that she may eat of the forbidden fruit , and so she will become Earthly , and then thou maist reach into her heart , and bring thy Imagination into her , and so shalt get her into thy Kingdom , and thou shalt continue still Prince in the Third Principle upon Earth . 3. Which he then also did , and perswaded her to the Evil fruit , so that * she laid hold on the Tree and brake off an Apple ; and did Eat , and gave also to Adam . 4. Now when Adam saw , that Eve did not Instantly fall down , and dye , he did Eat also , for the Lust was in both of them . 5. This is the Bitt , upon which Heaven and Paradise departed : where the † Cherubine , viz : the * Cutter off , with the Naked Sword came and stood before the Door , and suffered them no more to come into Paradise . 6. His Sword was that of the destroying Angel , which now cutteth Men with heart , cold sicknesse , necessity and Death ; and at last cutteth off the Earthly Life from the Soul. 7. When this Sword was to be broken in the Death of Christ , then * the Earth Trembled , and the † Sun lost its things Light ; and the Rocks cleft in sunder before the strong Might of God , which thus brake Death in peeces . 8. ‖ Thus also the Graves of the Saints , Opened ; and their Bodies went out from Death again , for the Sword was broken , and the Angel which Guarded Paradise , was done away : and the Bodys of the Saints , went into Paradise again ; 9. But here , when Adam and Eve , did eat the Earthly fruit , they † fell among Murtherers , who wounded them and cast them out ; and let them lie half dead . 10. Their going forth out of Paradise , is the † going from Jerusalem to Jerico : for they went out of Heaven into this Evil corrupt World , into the house of Sinne. 11. Where instantly , in their Minds , in the Centre of Nature , the wheel of the Senses or Thoughts began to qualifie or Operate in the Earthly source or quality : where one sense or thought was against and Contrary to the other , where Envy , Pride , Covetousness , Anger and Contrary opposite will , sufficiently flowed forth upon heaps . 12. For , the Noble Light of Love , was extinguished , which maketh the fierce wrathful source or quality , amiable , friendly and meek , in which , the spirit of God worketh , and the fair Virgin of Gods Wisedom resteth ; they went out from the fair Wisdome . 13. God had created Adam in the chast Virgin of his Wisdome : but he became in the presence and stead thereof , an Evil Earthly Opposire * Woman , with which he must live in this beastial form in meer care anxiety and necessity . 14. And , out of his fair Garden of pleasure , which he had in him , there came an Opposite Thorny and Thistly , Garden ; whence yet he somewhat sought the † Virgin-like fruit . 15. But it went with him as with a Theese , who hath been in a fair Garden to keep it ; but is for his Theft cast out from it , and yet would fain eat to fruit thereof , but cannot get in , but goeth round about the out-side , and reacheth over with his hand after the fruit , which yet the Gardener snatcheth out of his hand again , and he must go away lamenting , and cannot satisfie his Lust or longing . 16. Thus it goeth also with him concerning the Woman , when he was in Gods Love , and the Woman in him a chast Virgin , in Gods Sweetness and Wisdom , then he did eat of her fruit , and could very well refresh or delight himself with his own Love in the Matrix of Venus . 17. For , the Fire - Tincture , hath a great Joyful recreating delight in the Lights Tincture , and that he had in himselfe , he was Man and Wise . 18. But now he must go round without that Gardine , and touch the Tincture of Venus , but with one Member , whereas yet the Inward Tinctures in the seeds receive one another , and labour to produce a Life . 19. But the outward Body is not worthy , that it should enjoy the Inward Joyful qualifying or operation , wherein the souls Life is sowen . 20. The inward Essence onely enjoy that ; for they are out of the Eternal ; but the outward Beastial Ass , bringeth or affordeth onely a beastial Longing or Lust . 21. He knoweth nothing of the Joy of the Essences ; when one Tincture cometh into the other , and what is done then : where there is yet somewhat of Paradise ; but the Earthly Essence mixeth it self suddenly therein , and it is but as a joyful Glimpse . 22. Wherein the will to Life , becometh generated , which afterwards driveth on , and impregnateth it selfe with Sulphur , till it may reach the Principle , and strike up fire in the Centre , wherein then there is a true Life , and again a Soul is generated . 23. Now when the fair Image thus departed away from Gods Love , then it knew it selfe , that it was come into another Source or quality ; then began feare and terrour before the fierce wrath of God , for it began to qualifie or operate in them , they looked one upon another and perceived their Beastial form , and * that they were Naked . 24. And then sure the Devil Danced , and God was derided , for † they were afraid , and crept behind the Trees ‖ and took leaves from the fig-trees ; and wreathed them together , and held them before their shame . 25. For , the heavenly Virgin was gone , they knew the fall and were ashamed : that is , the Soul , which is out of the Eternal , was ashamedof the * Beastlinesse , as it is at this day , when we are ashamed of our beastial Members . 26. And hence it is , that the Woman Clotheth her selfe with a white † covering before her shame : that the Spirit of the Soul , which glanceth forth at the Eyes , be not disturbed , for it knoweth the Matrix of Venus , which also as suddenly in the Man or Masculine begineth to Imagine upon it or Lust after it . 27. Which , if the Woman clotheth her selfe with Black , and Covereth her Eyes , it not easily Effected ; but onely by Imagining or Lusting . 28. But else , instantly both the Tinctures , of the Man and Wife cath one the Other in the Eyes , where the Spirit glanceth forth . 29. Now , when Adam and Eve stood thus in terrour , before the Anger of God , * God , cattel Adam , and said ; Adam where art thou ? and be said : Here I am : I was afraid , for I am Naked . 30. † And he said ; Who hath told thee that thou art Naked ? Hast thou not eaten of the Tree , that I forbad thee : and be said ; the Woman gave unto me , and I did Eat . 31. † And he said to the Woman , Why didest thou that ; she said , the Serpent beguild me , so that I did Eat . 32. Here we understand the great Love of God ; in that God called Adam again , that he should know , seek and finde himself ; and turn again to God. 33. For , Adam had been in God ; but he was gone out from the Love out of the Second Principle into the Third . 34. Wherefore , God said . Where are thou , Adam ? dost thou not see thou are no more in Heaven ? he turned his friendly Countenance again to one part in Adam understand in that part which he had received out of the heavenly Substantiality , and glanced upon it againe with his Spirit . 35. And † said to the Serpent , the Old Devil : Seeing thou hast done this , cursed art thou . 36. And to the Creaturely Serpent ; which must now be a Creature ; for the Devil had turned himselfe into the Form of a Serpent ; therefore must the Serpent also continue : to it he said , Thou shalt go upon thy Belly , and eat Earth . 37. Seeing it had seduced Man , so that he was become Earthly , therefore should also the Devils Image be Earthly , and devour the fierce ●●athful Earthly source or quality , viz : Poyson ; that should now be its source or quality . 38. And here we are to know : that the Devil figured or framed to himselfe the Serpents Image from the Constellations and Elements , through his Imagination , for he had great Power , till the Lord wholly cursed him ; and set the Dear name JESUS , for a Mark or limit of Separation ; and there his great power was laid . 39. For , he said to Adam and Eve ; † the seed of the Woman shall Crush the Serpents head : and Thou , understand , the Serpent shalt sting him in the heel : that is , in Gods , fierce wrath thou wilt stay him . 40. But he shall sprout forth out of Death , and Crush thy Head ; that is take away thy power and overcome the wrath , with the Love. 41. And here in this place , hath the word of the Promise , of the seed of the Woman ; * which was the Dear Name IHESUS , with its Character , Imaged it selfe in the Light of the Life . 42. And likewise in that Character , hath Imaged the highly precious Virgin of Gods wisdome , in which ; Christ , as the destroyer of Death , should become a true Man ; and take away the power of Death , and destroy the Devils sting . 43. Which there should † tread the Winepress of the fierce , wrath and anger , and enter into the Anger viz : into the Center of the Fire , and quench the Fire with his heavenly Blood ; and with the water of Meeknesse out of the fountain of the Heart of God. 44. And know assuredly , that if the Word of the Promise , had not Imaged it selfe in the Light of Life , when Adam and Eve sell into the Earthly source of quality , then would the Spirit of the soul have become a fierce wrathful Devil , and the Body an evil Beast , as indeed it is now , and if the Elementary Water did not allay the insolency of the Fierce wrath , Men would well see ; how many a one would be a devouring Devil . 45. Thus now we are to consider and Conceive , that the world before Christs becoming Man or Incarnation , were saved in this imaged or imprinted Word and Name . 46. Those who have put their will into God , they have received that word of Promise ; for , the Soul was received thereinto . 47. For , the whole Law of Moses , concerning the Sacrifices , is throughout nothing else , but a Type of the Humanity of Christ : of what Christ in his Humanity , did perform by his Sacrifice , that which he did perform with his Blood and with his Love , in drowning that Anger of God ; that , Moses did perform with the Sacrifice with the Blood of Beasts . 48. For , the word of the Promise , was in the Covenant , and God for the Time , represented the figure , and permitted himselfe to be attoned or reconciled in the Covenant , with or by a Similitude . 49. For , the Name Jesus , was in the Covenant , and that attoned or reconciled through Imagination , the Anger and fierce wrath of the Fathers Nature . 50. The Jews indeed understood not that but the Covenant understood it well ; for the Beastiall Man was not worthy to know it , till Christ was born , and then went the sound forth . 51. Which yet after a short time , was covered again , by the Antichrist christ in Babel ; for , the Beastial Man of wickedness malignity or Malice , is not worthy of the most precious Name JESUS . 52. Also it doth not belong to the Beastial part , but to the divine part ; the Beast must remaine in the wilde Earth ; and at the last Judgement Day , be consumed through Gods Fire ; but the heavenly part shall be introduced into the divine power . 53. Therefore it is an abomination to God , that Man should so pride himselfe with the Beast . 54. The Beast is not the Image ; as the Sacrifice of Moses was not the attonement or reconciliation , but the Covenont of Grace , and the word of Life in the Covenant . 55. The Circumcision of the Jewes , that they were to Circumcise the Male Children onely : conteineth rightly in it selfe , as followeth . 56. Adam was the one onely Man that God Created , and in him ws Gods Image , Eve , his wife , God would not Create , generation was to be out of one onely . 57. But seeing he fell , so that God must make him a wise , then came the Covenant and promise again upon One onely ; that all should again be regenerated and new born out of one onely , viz : out of the Second Adam ; not out of the Virgin Mary , but out of Christ the Heavenly Adam . 58. For , the First Mans Bloud , that is , Adams , which he received out of the Substantiality of God , was to * avail ; and not the Earthly blood of the Woman , in that Adam was become Earthly , and a Woman must be contrived for him , therefore also was onely the Masculine Kind Circumcised . 59. And Christ must take upon him the Masculine Forme , though inwardly he stood in a Virgin-like Image ; that the purpose of God might stand . 60. For , the Mans property , viz : the Fires , must Rules and the Womans property , viz : the Lights , must allay his Fire : and bring it into the Meek Image of God. 61. The Womans blood , could not have attoned or pacified the Anger of God ; the Mans blood onely must do it ; for the Woman belongeth unto , or to be in , the Man ; and in the Kingdom of God is to be a Masculine Virgin , as Adam was ; Not a Woman . 62. The Woman cometh to be saved in the Covenant of the Man : for , the Covenant was made for the Mans , viz : the Masculine Virgins sake ; that * it may be reconciled again . 63. Therefore saith Pauls † The Woman becometh saved through bearing of Children ; and not only so , but also in the Covenant of the Man ; for she is a part of Adam ; therefore ‖ should every Woman be subject to the Man or Husband , and he should be Lord. 64. God giveth also to the Man , the Virgin-like wisdome she should govern the Woman , not as a Tyrant ; but * as his own Life or Body ; for she is his Body and his Flesh , an Image of or out of him , his help , and his Rose-Garden , though indeed she be Earthly and weak ; yet he must know , that he himselfe , is the cause and accessary thereto ; and must bear with her , and not give way to his wrath , to destroy her . 65. Also the Woman must know , that she is to be saved in the Covenant and Blood of the Man , and that she is Adams and the Mans Ribbe and Tincture , and the Man 's own belonging to him . 66. She should be Humble ; As a Member serveth the Body , so should the Woman serve the Man and love him as her selfe . 67. Her Love should solely be ‖ cast into him , for , so doing , she attaineth the Heavenly Virgin , together with divine wit or understandand Skill , as also the Spirit of the Covenant . 68. But to the Single or unmarried Virgins , and Men without wives , as also to the Widdowes , it is said , that they have Christs Covenant for a Spouse , therefore should they be Chast and Humble . 69. For , Christ is the Mans Bride , and his chast Virgin which Adam Lost . 70. And , he is also the Bridegroom of the unmarried Virgins and Widdowes ; for his Masculine-ness , is their Masculine-ness , so that thus they every one appear before God as Masculine Virgins . 71. † For , our Image , now becometh generated in Willing and believing , Now Where our Heart and Will is , there is also our Treasure and Image . 72. Wherefore , beware of Whoredome and false or wrong Love , for , thereby the right Image cometh to be disturbed . 73. † Whoredom is the Greatest abomination , that Man worketh in himself * Other things go into a Figure without him , the Whore standing in him ; for he worketh or Effecteth a false Image , in which the Image or Virgin of God is not known , but a Beastial one . 74. † Let this be said to thee OMan , there sticketh so great Abomination behind i ; at which Heaven it self with its Imagination is amazed . 75. * It entereth not easily into the Beastial Imagination ; whereupon also , so very Many Beast-Men are Born , as at this Day may be demonstrated . The Eighth Chapter . Of the Virgin Mary , and of the Becoming Man or Incarnation of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God. 1. MAny have attempted to write of the Virgin Mary ; and supposed that she was not an Earthly * Maid : to them indeed hath been presented a Glimpse of the Eternal virginity ; but the right Mark they have hitherto failed of . 2. For , many have meerly supposed , that she was not the Daughter of Joachim and Anna ; because Christ is called the Seed of the Woman , and is so too . 3. Also he himself witnesseth , that * he is from above , that he is come from Heaven ; and therefore he must sure also be born of a Totall heavenly Virgin. 4. But that would little benefit us poor children of Eve ; that are become Earthly , and carry our souls in Earthly Vessels : where should our poor souls become , if the word of Eternall Life , had not received it into it selfe 〈◊〉 5. If Christ had brought a soul from Heaven ; where then should our soul become , and the Covenant with Adam and Eve , viz : that * The Seed of the Woman should Crush the Serpents Head. 6. If Christ would have come and been born totally from Heaven , he should not have needed to have been born a Man , upon Earth , and where then would the Covenant become , in which the Name JESUS , or the Promise , did incorporate it selfe , in the Light of Life , that is , in the Tincture of the soul , instantly in Paradise when Adam fell ? yea indeed before Adam was Created : as Paul saith ; † We are Elected in Christ , before the foundation of the World was laid . 7. For , God , in his wisdome , knew the Fall ; therefore the Name JESUS did so instantly incorporate it selfe into the word of Life , environed with the Virgin of Wisdom , in Adams● Image , with the Cross . 8. For , the soul it selfe , is even a Cross-Birth : as when the soul-Fire kindleth it ●●●fe , then it maketh in the flash , a Cross ; that is , an Eye with a Cross , with Three Principles , with the Character of the Holy Trinity ; as in the Third Book or part , concerning the Threefold Life of Man , is declared ; and yet further in the Fourth Part , the forty Questions of the Soul. 9. We are to understand , that Mary , in whom Christ became Man , was truly the Danghter of Joachim and Anna , according to the Outward Flesh : and was extracted out of the Seed of Joachim and Anna , according to the Outward Man. 10. But , according to the will , she was a Daughter of the Covenant of Promise , for she was the Mark , to which it pointed at . 11. In her , stood the Center in the Covenant ; and therefore she was , by the Holy Ghost in the Covenant , highly blessed among and above all women Ever since Eve ; for the Covenant opened it selfe in her . 12. You must understand it aright , according to its high precious worth : The word , together with the Promise , which with the Jewes , stood in the Type or prefiguration , as in a Looking-Glass , wherein God , the Angry Father Imagined , and thereby quenched his Anger ; that moved it selfe N●w after an Essential manner : which from Eternity had not been done before . 13. ▪ For , when Gabriel the Prince , brought her the Message , that she should be impregnated or with Child ; and that she consented thereto ; and said ; ‖ be it unto me as thou hast said : then the Center of the Holy Trinity , moved it selfe , and opened the Covenant , that is , the Eternal Virginity , which Adam lost , became opened in her in the word of Life . 14. For the Virgin of Gods Wisdom , environed the word of Life , viz : the Center of the Holy Trinity : thus the Center became Moved ; and the Heavenly Vulcan , struck up the Fire of Love ; so that the Principle in the Love-flame , became generated . 15. Unde●stand this right ; In Maries Essences , in the Virgin-like Essences , which perished in Adam , out of which he was to generate a virgin-like Image , according to the Wisdom of God , the divine fire became struck up ; and the Principle of Love kindled . 16. You are to understand that , in the seed of Mary , When she became impregnate , with the Soul-Spirit , that is with the Tincture of Venus ; for , in the Tincture of Venus ; that is , in the Source or Quality of Love , Adams first Fire , became struck up in the word of Life . 17. And in the Child JESUS , 〈◊〉 both Tinctures perfect ; just as in Adam , and the word of Life in the Covenant , understand , in the Holy Trinity , was the Center ; and rhe Principle appeared , as in or to the Fathers part . 18. Christ became Man in GOD , and also in MARY , in all the THREE Principles ; and together therewith also in the EARTHLY world . 19. * He took the form of a Servant upon him , that he might be able to Master Death and the Devil . 20. For he was to be a Prince , in the Place or space of this world , in the Angelical Prince-Throne , viz : uopn the seat , and in the Authority , of the late Angel and Prince Lucifer , over all the Three Principles . 21. Now then . First : If he must be Lord over this outward World : then he must also dwell in the Outward World ; and have it Essence and property . 22. In like manner Secondly : If he must be Gods Sonne , then he must also be generated out of God. 23. And Thirdly : If he must quench the Fathers Anger : then he must of necessity be also in the Father . 24. And Fourthly : If he must be the Soone of Man , then he must also of necessity be of Mans Essence and Substance : and Fifthly , must have a humane Soul , and a humane Body as we all have . 25. It is known to us , that Mary , his Mother , as also Christ , from or of his Mother , were both of the humane Essence , with Body , Soul , and Spirit ; and that Christ received a Soul out of Maries Essence ; yet without Masculine Seed . 26. Onely the great Secret Arcanum of God , was there opened ; and the first Man , with his S●cret Mystery , which fell into Death , was here generated to Life again ; understand ; in the Principle of God. 27. For , because of this , the Deity Moved it selfe , and struck up the Fire in the Fathers Principle , and so the deadened Sulphur ; which dyed in Adant , became living again . 28. For the word had in it self heavenly Substantiality ; and opened it selfe in the Heavenly Substantiality , in the virgin-like Image of the Deity ; this is the pure chast Virgin wherein the Word of Life became Man. 29. And so the Outward Mary became adorned and * blessed with the Highly blessed heavenly Virgin ▪ among all Women of this World. 30. In her , that which was dead and shut up of the Humanity , became living again ; and so she became as highly graduated or Dignified , as the first Man before the Fall , and became a Mother of the Throne-Prince . 31. This came not out of her ability , but out of Gods ability : unless the Center of God had moved it selfe in her ; she would have been no otherwise , then all Eves Daughters . 32. But , in this place , The word of Life had fix●d the Mark ; as also the Covenant of Promise , and therefore she is the blessed among all Women , and above all Eves Children . 33. Not that she is a Goddess , which Men should honour as God ; for she is not the Mark ; for she also said : * How shall that come to pass , since I know not of any Man ? 34. But , the word of Life in the Center of the Father , which gave in it self , with the Moving of the Deity , into the Humanity ; and opened it selfe in the Humane Essence ; that is the Mark , that is the Goal ▪ that we must run to ; in the Regeneration . 35. This is a greater wonder then in the first Adam , for the first Adam was created out of Three Principles , and his Spirit was introduced into him through the Spirit of God ; and the Heart of God needed not to move it selfe in an especial manner ; for Gods Spirit did onely move it self , out of Gods Heart . 36. But now , the Center or Heart of God moved it selfe : which had rested from Eternity ; and the Divine Fire was there struck up , and kindled or awakened ; as a Man may Express it . The Dear or precious Gate . 37. We should rightly understand , the becoming Man or Incarnation of Christ the Sonne of God , thus : he is not become Man in the Virgin Mary onely , so that his Deity or divine Substantiality , did sit bolted up or fixed therein ; No , O Man ; it is in another Manner . 38. Let not Reason befool thee ; we understand somewhat else : as little as God dwels alone in one onely place : but is * the Fulness of all things ; so little also hath God moved himself in one † Sparkle . 39. For God is not divisible , but Totall Every where : where he manifesteth himselfe , there he is Totally manifest . 40. Also , he is not measurable , for him , is no place found , unlesse he make a place for himselfe in a Creature ; yet he is totally neer the Creature * without or beyond the Creature . 41. When the Word moved it selfe to the opening of Life , then it opened it selfe in the divine Substantiality , in the water of Eternal Life , it entered in and became Sulphur , that is Flesh and Blood. 42. It made heavenly Tincture , which the Deity did close about and fill , wherein the wisdom of God standeth Eternally , together with the divine Magia . 43. Understand it right : The Deity , hath longed to become Flesh and Bloud ; and although the pure cleer Deity , continueth Spirit , yet is it become the Spirit and Life of Flesh ; and worketh in the Flesh ; so that we may say , when we with our Imagination enter into God , and wholly give up our selves into him , we Enter into Gods Flesh and Blood , and live in God. 44. For , the Word is become Man , and God is the Word . 45. We do not thus take away the Creature of Christ , that he should not be a Creature ▪ we will give you a simitude hereof , in the Sun and its Lustre ; and take it thus . 46. We liken the Sun , to the Creature of Christ in a similitu de which is indeed a Body : and we liken the whole Deep of this world , to the Eternal word in the Father . 47. Now we see plainly , that the Sun shineth in the whole Deepe , and giveth it warmth and Power . 48. But now we cannot say , that in the Deep , without or beyond the body of the Sun , there is not also , the power of the Sun ; if that were not there , then would the Deep also not receive , the power and Lustre of the Sun ; it is onely thus , one power and Lustre receiveth the other ; the Deep with its Lustre is hidden , is hidden with its Lustre . 49. If God would please , the whole deep would be a Meer Sun : it were but onely to be kindled , that the Water might be sawallowed up , and come to be a Spirit : then would the Lustre of the Sun , shine every where , if the Fires Centre , should but kindle , as it is in the Place of the Sun. 50. Know also ; that we understand , that the Heart of God hath rested from Eternity ; but , with the moving & entring into the wisdom , it is become manifest in all Places . 51. Though yet in God there is neither place nor Mark , but meerly in the Creature of Christ , there hath the Total holy Trinity manifested it self in a Creature , and so through the Creature through the whole Heaven . 52. He is gone thither , and * hath prepared the place for us , where we shall see his Light ; and dwell in his wisdom , and Eat of his divine Substantiality : his Substantiality filleth the Heaven and Paradise . 53. Were we not , in the beginning , made out of Gods Substantiality ? why should we not also stand therein ? 54. As the Air and the Water , fill this world , and all of us enjoy them : so in the hiddenness is the divine Substantiality , which we enjoy , if with earnest Imagining and with the will we give● up our selves thereinto . 55. And this now , is Christs flesh and blood , in the divine power ; for the Flesh and Blood of the Creature of Christ , standeth therein , and is one Beeing , one Power , one Spirit , one God , one fulnesse , altogether undivided by any place , yet in its own Principle . 56. A swinish man , will here say : O how we will devour him ! O thou Ass , first come so far , that you may reach him ; for thou shalt not devour him with thy Earthly Mouth . 57. He is a Principle Deeper , and yet is † the Outward ; He was in the Virgin Mary , and also as to his Birth , in this world : and * will also appear at the last day , in all the Three Principles , before all Men and Devils . 58. He hath truly † teken upon him the Earthly source or quality , but in his Death , when he overcame Death , the divine source swallowed up the Earthly , and took away its Dominion . 59. Not in that manner , as if Christ had laid off somewhat , but the outward Source or Quality became overcome , and as it were swallowed up , and in that he now liveth , he liveth in God. 60. Thus was Adam also to be , but stood not , and therefore must the Word be generated and become Man and give it selfe up into the Substantiality , that we might receive power to be able to live in God. 61. Thus hath Christ restored or brought back again , what Adam lost , and much more ; for the Word is every where become Man. 62. Understand ; it is every where opened in the divine Substantiality , wherein our Eternal Humanity doth Consist . 63. For , in that Bodily Substance , shall we stand in Eternity , wherein the Virgin of God standeth . 64. We must put on Gods Virgin ; for Christ hath put it on , he is become Man in the Eternall virgin , and in the Earthly virgin . 65. Though the Earthly was no right Virgin : but the Heavenly , divine made it , to be a Vigin in the blessing , that is in the opening of the Word and Covenant ; for , that part in Mary , which she inherited from Adam , out of the heavenly Substantiality , which Adam made Earthly , that became blessed . 66. Thus the Earthly part in her , onely , dyed , the other liveth Eternally , and came to be a chast modest virgin again , not in the Death , but in the blessing . 67. When God opened himselfe in her , then she put on the virgin of God , and became a Masculine virgin in the Heavenly part . 68. Thus Christ became born of a right pure chast heavenly Virgin ; for she received in the blessing , the Limbus of God , into her Matrix , in her Seed . 69. She received no strange thing , onley the Limbus opened it selfe in her , in Gods power , wherein Adam was Dead , that , in Gods moving became living . 70. And Gods Essence in the word of Life entered in , into her Limbus ; wherein the souls Center became opened , so that Mary became impregnated of a Soul and also of a Spirit , both heavenly and Earthly . 71. And this was a Right Image of God , a Similitude according to , and in , the Holy Trinity , out of all the Three Principles . The Nineth Chapter . Of Maries Virginity , what she was before the Blessing , and what she came to be in the Blessing . 1. IT is highly necessary for Us poor Children of Eve to know , this ; for our Eternall Salvation lyeth therein ; It is the Gate of Imma●uel , and the whole Christian Faith Standeth therein ; and it is also the Gate of the Greatest Secret Arcanum . 2. For herein lyeth inclosed the Secrecy of Man , in that he is , the Similitude and Image of God ; for , our whole Religion Consisteth in Three Parts , which we urge and Teach . 3. As First , concerning the Creation ; what Essence , substance , and property , Man is , whether he be Eternal or not Eternal ? and how that is possible , what properly the humane Original is , from which he proceeded in the Beginning . 4. Secondly : Seeing there is so much spoken and taught Concerning his Fall , and that we see , that we are become Mortal because of the Fall , moreover , subjected to Evil , and to the fierce wrathful source ; what then properly his Fall hath been . 5. Thirdly : Seeing God will receive us to Grace again : and for whose sake also he hath given the Law and Teaching , also confirmed then with Deeds of Wonder or Miracles , what therefore , properly , the New Regeneration is . 6. And being we see that we must dye , in what power and Spirit we can , be new Regenerated again , and rise again from Death . 7. All this we finde pourtrayed in these two Images , viz : in the Eternal Holy , and then also in the Earthly corruptible Virginity : and finde also the New Regeneration in the Image of Christ , very cleare and bright . 8. For , in the Eternal Virginity , viz : in God wisedome , wherein the Image and Similitude of God is seen as in a Looking-Glass from Eternity , and known by the Spirit of God ; was Adam the first Man Created . 9. He had the Virginity for his own , viz : the true love - Tincture , in the Light , which is desirous of the Fires Tincture , that it might be a burning Life in power and Glory ; and in the Fires Essence , might be a Genetrix , which in the Lights Essence without the Fire , cannot be . 10. And thus we acknowledge a Virginity in the wisdome of God , from Eternity , in the desirous will of the divine substance . 11. Not a Woman , which generateth , but a figure in the Looking-Glass of Gods wisdome ; a pure Chast Image without substance ; yet in the Essence , but not manifested in the Fires Essence , but in the Lights quality or source . 12. This Image God hath Creeated into a Substance , and that out of all the Three Principles ; so that it is a similitude according to the Deity and Eternity , as a totall Looking-Glass of the Byss or Ground and of the Abyss ; of the Spirit and also of the Substance : and was created out of the Etetnal , not to the Corruptibility or frailty 13. But seeing the Earthly and Corruptible hangeth to the Eternall , so thereby hath the Earthly Lust introduced it selfe into the Eternall Heavenly , and infected the Heavenly property : for it would dwell in the Eternal , and yet was destroyed in the fierce wrath of God. 14. Thus the Earthly Source or quality destroyed the Heavenly , and became the Turba of the heavenly , as we know and perceive by Earth and Stones , which assuredly have their Original out of the Eternal ; but are perished in the fierce wrath and Fire-source of quality ; and the Fiat hath made Earth and Stones out of the heavenly Substantiality . 15. For the sake of which , a Day of Seperation is appointed wherein every thing shall enter again into its own Ether , and be preserved or purified by the Fire . 16. Thus also was Man created in the virginity in Gods wisdome , but became apprehended by the fierce wrath and Anger of God , and therefore became so suddenly perished and Earthly . 17. And as the Earth must pass away , and be tryed or purified in the Fire , and go again into that which it was before ; so also Man ; shall go agin into the virginity wherein he was Created . 18. But , in that , it was not possible for Man , that he should rise from the fieece wrathful Death , and enter into a New Birth ; for his virginity , was shut up together in Death ; for which cause God made a Woman out of him : therefore the Deity must move it selfe , and open that which was shut up , and make it living again ; and that was done in Mary , the included shut up Virgin. 19. Understand , in the Virginity which Adam inherited out of Gods Wisdome ; not out of the Earthly part of the Third Principle , but out of the Heavenly holy Part of the Second Principle , which became included and shut up in the Earthly Death in the Anger of God with the Earthly Imagination and yeelding up thereinto , and was as it were Dead : even as the Earth also appeareth as Dead . 20. And therefore hath the Heart of God moved it selfe ; destroyed Death ; and generated the Life again . 21. Thus now to Us the Birth and becoming Man or Incarnation of Christ , is a * powerful and very weighty Matter , that the Total abyssal Heart of God , hath moved it selfe , and so therewith , the heavenly Substantiality , which was shut up in death , is become living again : so that we may now say with good ground . 22. God himselfe hath withstood his Anger , in that , with the Center of his Heartt , which filleth the E●ernity without ground and limit , he hath again opened himself , taken away the power of Death , and broken the sting of the fierce wrath and Anger : in as much , as the Love and Meekness , hath opened it selfe in the Anger , and quenched the power of the Fire . 23. And still much more is it a great Joy to Us Men , that God hath opened himselfe , in our mortified and dead virginity ; and so on throughly and totally . 24. But , that the Word , or the power of Gods Life , hath given in it selfe again into the Humanity , viz : into the Dead and as it were disappeared virginity , and opened again the virgin-like Life , at that we reioyce ; and go with our Imagination , into the Center , wherein God hath opened himself in the humanity , viz : into his Sons becoming Man or Incarnation . 25. And so in our Imagination , which we introduce into his becoming Man , we become impregnated of his opened Word , and power of the Heavenly and divine Substantiality , not at all with that which is strange , yet it seemeth strange to the Earthliness . 26. The Word hath opened it self every where , even in Every Mans light of life ; and there is wanting onely this , that the Soul-spirit give it selfe up thereinto ; and so it putteth the Eternal Virginity on again ; not as a Garment , but as from its own Essence : And in that Soul-Spirit God becometh Generated or Born. 27. For Mary , together with all Eves Daughters were generated or become Earthly ; but the Covenant of Gods Love , shewed iu their Essence , that God would therein unshut the Life again . 28. And we cannot say throughout , concerning Maries Virginity , as to the Earthly Life before the Blessing , before Gods Heart moved it selfe ; that she was then a Totally perfect Virgin , according to the first , before the Fall ; but she was a naturall Daughter of Eve. 29. But this we say with good gro●nd , that in Mary , as also in all Adams Children , the Eternal virginity in the Covenant of Promise , hath layen shut up , as it were in Death , yet , in God , not ●aded , 30. For , the Name JESUS , in the Center or Heart of God , hath from Eternity together Imaged it selfe , in the Virgin of Gods wisdome as in a Looking-Glass : and hath stood against the Center of the Father , viz : the Center of the Fire and fierce wrath : Not in the fierce wrath of the Essence , but in the Light in the Lights Essence . 31. And Man was * foreseen also in that Essence , in the Name JESU , before the foundation of the world was laid : wherein Adam then was in a Heavenly Essence , without a Naturall and Creaturely Substance . 32. For in the Wsdom , the Fall was known , e're Man became a Creature , and that accoording to the fires property ; not in the Lights property , but according to the first Principle . 33. And thus now according to our deep knowledge , we say , of Mary : that , before the time of the opening and Massage of the Angel , she was such a Virgin as Eve was , when she wen out of Paradise . 34. E're Adam knew her ; then indeed she was a Virgin , but the right virginity was perished in her , and infected with the Earthly Longing , and the beastiall property was manifested on her . 35. For , the Earthly Imagination destroyed the heavenly property , so that she was a Woman , and was not chast pure Imma●●●a●e 〈◊〉 . 36. For , She was but one part of the Heavenly Virgin ▪ the Other Part was Adam . 37. And so there hath been no right pure virgin generated from Eve , which was totall or entire in Substance : the Turba destroyed the virgininity in all , till the Saviour or Champion in the Battel , Came ; who was a total masculine Virgin in Gods wisdom , according to the Heavenly Substance , and the Earthly hung to him : but the heavenly ruled over the Earthly ; for so should Adam also be , but he stood not . 38. Therefore , we say with good ground , that Mary , was the Daughter of Joachim and Anna ; and hath , according to the Earthly part , their Substantiality , Essentially in her . 39. And then we say , that she was the Daughter of Gods Covenant , and that God hath fixed the Mark of Regeneration , in her : so that the whole Old Testament hath looked into that Mark , and all Prophets have Prophesied concerning that Mark , that God would open the rhe Eternall Virginity again , and that , that Mark was blessed . 40. For , God had given himselfe with his Mercy with the Covenant of Promise , into this Mark , and the word of Promise stood in the Covenant , in the Light of Life , against the Anger . 41. And the first world before the Deluge or Floud ; and after ; became saved in that Covenant , which God set before himself as a Virgin-like Looking-Glass ; for , the Eternal Virgin , appeared in the Covenant , as in Gods Looking-Glass ; and the Deity * delighted it self therein . 42. For , if Israel had kept the Covenant , and performed the work of the Covenant , then that had been acceptible to God , as if the humanity had been in the Looking-G●ass of wisdome ; and though indeed Israel were Earthly and Evil , yet nevertheless , God dwelt in Israel in his Covenant in the Wisdome according to his Love and Mercy . 43. Thus the Works of the Law , were † a Looking-Glass before God , till the Life became generated or Born out of the Covenant , till the fulfilling came , and there the Works in the Looking-Glass Ceased ; and the work of the fulfilling in the flesh and blood in the Heavenly Substantiality began to rise again . 44. For in Mary was the beginning , when the Angel brought the Message ; and she said : * he is done unto me as thou hast said ; there instantly the Center of Life , in the Word of God , viz : in the Heart of God , moved in her dead heavenly seed . 45. For all the Three Principles of the Deity , became stirring and catched hold of the divine Tincture , in the Dead heavenly Substantiality . 46 , Not that God stood without Substance , but Man was dead in the heavenly Substance , and now came the Heart of God with living divine Substantiality , into Death , and awakened or raised up the Dead Substantiality . 47. It did not at this time , take away the Earthly source or quality , but entered into the Earthly source or quality , as a Lord , and Vanquisher of the source or quality . 48 , For , the right Life should be introduced , through Death and the Anger of God ; which was done on the Cross , where death was destroyed , and the fierce wrath captivated , and was quenched and vanquished with the Love. 49. And thus we understand now , what , Mary , with the fulfilling was come to be , viz : a right pure Virgin according to the heavenly Part : for when the Heart of God moved it selfe , and that the Day brake forth in her , then shone in her the Light of the Clarity or brightness and purity of God ; for her dead virginity , viz : Gods wisdome , became opened and Living . 50. For , she became filled with the divine virginity , viz : with Gods wisdome . 51. And in that wisdome and divine Substantiality , as also in the dead and now living Substantiality , † the Word became flesh , a Sulphur , with the Center of Nature out of the Fathers Essence , and out of Mary's Essence , a life out of Death , a fruit with both the Tinctures perfectly , whereas both the Tinctures were but One. 52. And as Adam was become a Man , so Christ became , a Man also , according to the outward World. 53. For , not Eves Image in the Womans Tincture , was to remain , but Adams Image was to remain , as he was a Man and also a Woman . 54. But yet being one of the Mar●s must appear according to the Might and power of the outward Fiat , and that also the Champion in the Battel would be fixed and persented in all the Three Principles , therefore the Champion in the Battel , gat Masculine Marks of distinction● 55. For the Man hath the Fires Tincture , viz : of the Fathers property , so now the Father is the strength and Might of all things , and the Sonne is his Love. 56. Thus the Word became Man in the feminine Essence , but became a Man , that his love might quench the Anger and fierce wrath in the Father . 57. For Venus's Tincture hath the Water-source or quality , and the Woman hath Venus's Tincture : Thus must the Fire , become quenched by the water of Eternal Life ; and the Fathers burning Essence in the Fire , become quenched again . 58. Now we know that Mary , the Mother of Christ , according to Flesh Soul and Spirit in the blessing , is a pure chast Virgin ; for that is her Blessing , that God hath opened himself in her . 59. She hath carried the Word of Life in her Body : that hath moved it self in her . 60. She , hath not moved the Word , but the Word hath moved her , both the fruit which she did bear , and her Soul , as also that part of her dead Substantiality ; so that her Soul instantly became environed with the divine living Substantiality . 61. Not according to the Earthly part , viz : according to the Third Principle , but according to the Second Principle , so that thus the Earthly did but hang upon her . 62. For , her soul should also , with the word of Life , which in her became Man , together enter through death and the Anger of the Father , into the heavenly divine source or quality . 63. And therefore must her outward Man dye away from the Earthly source or quality that * it may live to God. 64. And , therefore , in that she was blessed , and did bear the Mark in the Covenant , her body , not vanished , departed or dissolved , for the heavenly hath swallowed up the Eartthly , and holdeth that Eternally captive , to the honour of God and the Manifestation of his deeds of Wonder ; It shall never be forgotten in Eternity , that God is become Man in her . 65. But that some say , she remained totally in death , and quite vanished or Corrupted : their Reason might well discern otherwise , for that which is highly blessed , is * uncorruptible , or cannot vanish away . 66. Her heavenly part of the divine substantiality , which she had in her , blessed ; that is intransitory : else it must follow ; that Gods substantiality in the Blessing , were yet once more fallen and dead , as was done in Adam , for the sake of which dying indeed , God became Man , that he might being it to life again . 67. Indeed , according to the Outward Life , viz : according to the outward source or quality she died , but she liveth according to the Blessing , in Gods substantiality , and also in her own Substantiality , not in the Four Elements , but in the root of the four Elements , viz : in the One Element , which holdeth the Four Elements shut up in it selfe in the Paradise in the pure Element in the Divine Substantiality in the * Body of God. 68. Therefore we say , that Mary , was greater in dignity , then Ever any Daughter of or from Adam , in that God hath fixed the Mark of his Covenant in her , and that she alone among all Eves Daughters , hath attained the blessing , viz : the pure Virgin-like chastity , which in all Eves Daughters , was perished . 69. But , † with her stood the Virginity in the Covenant , till the word of Life highly b●essed her , and then she , became , a right chast Virgin , in which God became Generated . 70. For Christ said to the Jews , I am from above ; but ye are from beneath ; I am not of thi● world . 71. If he were become Man in an Earthly Vessel , and not in a pu● modest Chast heavenly Virgin , he had of necessity been of this World. 72. But thus he became Man in the Heavenly Virgin , and the Earthly source or quality did but hang to him , for , the Essence of the Soul was in us poor Children of Men , become infected . 73. And he was to introduce our Soul in the heavenly Essence in himselfe ; through the fire of God , in Ternarium Sanctum : into the holy Ternary . 74. For , it was for the Soules sake that all was done , being it had been taken out of the Eternall , therefore also God would not forsake it . Question . 75. * Therefore , if it be asked , what kind of Matter it was , whereinto Gods Word and Heart hath given in it selfe , and made it selfe a Body ? whether it be strange Matter come from Heaven ? Or , whether it was of Maryes Essence and seed . Answer . 76. This is our Answer : That Gods Heart was never without Substance ; for , its dwelling is from Eternity in the Light , and the power in the Light , is the Heart or Word , which God hath spoken from Eternity . 77. And , the Speaking was the Holy Spirit of God , which with the Speaking goeth forth out of the power of the Light , out of the spoken Word . 78. And that which is out spoken is Gods Wonder and Wisdome , and this hath in it , the divine Looking-Glass of the Wisdom , whereinto the Spirit of God looketh , and wherein it openeth the Wonders . 79. Thus understand , that the word , which out of or from the Heart of God the Father , was environed with the heavenly Chast Virgin of wisdome , dwelleth in the heavenly Substantiality , and hath in like manner , opened it selfe , in Maries Essence and Substantiality , viz : in her own seed , understand in the humane seed , and hath taken into it selfe , Maries seed , dead , and blind , as to God , and awakened or railed it , to Life again . 80. The living Substantiality came together in the half dead , to a Body , not to a transitory , which should cease or vanish , but to an Eternal , which should remain Eternally , for here the Eternal Life became generated again . 81. Thus , the Substantiality of the Eternity in God , of his Deepe , without Ground , and the Substantiality of the dead Adam in the Humanity , became one Substantiality ; totally or entirely one Substance : so that the Creature , Christ , with his Substantiality , in like manner at once filled the whole Father , which is without bounds limit or Ground . 82. Yet , the Creaturely Soul continueth and is a Creature , and according to the Third Princidle , viz : as to the Creature , this Christ , is a Creature , and King of Men , as also , according to the Second Principle , a Childe of the Abyssal Father . 83. Whatsoever the Father is , in his Abyssal Deepe that the Sonne is in his Creature : for the power and virtue in the Creature , is , with the power without or beyond the Creature , one power , one Substantiality , in which the Angels and Men dwell . 84. But in the Humanity , it giveth also * flesh and blood , and therefore also it is and remaineth a Creature , but † uncreated , yet generated , as to one part , out of God from Eternity , as to the other part , out of the Humanity . 85. And God and Man is become one person , one Christ , One God , one Holy Trinity , in the Humanity , and also in like manner Every where ; so that when we see Christ , we see the Holy Trinity in one only Image . 86. His Creature is an Image , and out of or from us Men ; our High Priest and King ; our Brother ; his power and virtue is our power and virtue ; if we be indeed generated of God again , in the Faith , to him . 87. He is not strange or terrible to Us , but is our Love - Tincture : He is with his power , the quickening of our Souls , our life , and our Souls delightful habitation . 88. When we find him , we find our Help or salvation ; as in like manner Adam should have found him , but the suffered himselfe to be seduced , and found at length , a Woman . 89. Then said he ; * She is Flesh of my Flesh , and bone of My bone , and took her to him for a Companion : so also when our Soul , findeth him , it saith , that is my Virgin , which I had lost in Adam , when an Earthly Woman came to be out of it . 90. I have now again found my love-Virgin out of my Love : I will now never more let it go from me again , it is Mine , my flesh and blood , my strength virtue and Power , which I lost in Adam , it , will I keepe . 91. O , it is a friendly keeping , a friendly qualifying or coworking , beauty , brightness , fruit , power , and virtue . 92. Thus the poor Soul findeth its lost Lights Tincture , and its Love-Virgin , and in this * Spouse , or Wife , the Noble * Bridegroom becometh found . 93. For ▪ it hath longed after the Matrix of Venus ; but hath found onely a Masculine Sulphur , and must have suffered it selfe to be impregnated with Earthly seed . 94. Here it attaineth the right fires and Mans Tincture , so that thus it is also a right Masculine Virgin as Adam was in his I●nocency . The Tenth Chapter . Of * the Becoming Man , or Incarnation , of Jesus Chrst the Sonne of God ; and how he lay Nine Months as all the Children of Men , shut up in his Mothers Body or Womb : and how properly his Becoming Man , is . 1. MEn have had much disputing about Christs * becoming Man ; but very blindly and have made many Opinions concerning it : and so Men have beene turned about with Opinion , and have left and let the right becoming Man or Incarnation , lye still ; upon which , our Eternal Salvation , dependeth . 2. Of which , all the cause hath been , that Men have sought it in outward Wit or Understanding and Art : and Not at the right Mark Aim or Place . 3. If a Man were entered into Christs becoming Man or Incarnation , and were born of , or out of , God ; it would need no disputing : for the Spirit of God , openeth to every one , the becoming Man or Incarnation even in himself ; and without this there is no finding it . 4. For , how will we find , in this Worlds Reason , that , which is not in this World ; we find in the outward Reason scarce any Glimps thereof ; but in Gods Spirit , is the right finding . 5. The becoming Man or Incarnation , of Christ , is such a Mystery ; as which the Outward Reason knoweth nothing of ; for it is done in all the Three Principles : and cannot be searched out , unless a man know the first Man , in his Creation before the Fall. 6. For Adam was to generate the Second Man with the Character of the Holy Trinity , out of himselfe , in which the Name JESUS was Imaged or Incorporated . 7. But that could not be , and therefore must another Adam come , in whom it was possible : for Christ is the Virgin-like Image , with the Character of the Holy Trinity ; he is conceived in Gods Love , and generated in this world . 8. Adam had divine Substantiality , and his soul was out of the first Principle out of the Fathers property , and that should have with its Imagination inclined it selfe into the Fathers Heart , viz : into the Word and Spirit of Love and purity , and have eaten of the Substantiality of Love , and then it had reteined Gods Substance in the Word of Life in it selfe , and would have been impregnated with the power out of the Heart of God. 9. Whence then it should have Imagined out of it selfe into ●s substantiality and it selfe have impregnated its Substantiality , so that a whole similitude according to the first Image , would have Existed , through the Imagination and the yeelding up of the Soul into it : and be conceived in the power of the Substantiality . 10. But being this could not be done in Adam , because of the Ear●●liness which clave to him , therefore it was done in the Second Adam Christ ; who was in such a manner conceived through Gods Imagination and entering into the Image of the first Adam . 11. And it is known to us , that being the first Adam had fixed his Imagination in the Earthliness , he is become Earthly , and that done against the purpose of God , yet the purpose of God must stand . 12. For , here God set his purpose in Adams Child , and brought his Imagination into the perished Image , and Impregnated the same with his divine power , and Substantiality , and Converted the Souls will out of the Earthliness into God , so that thus Mary became Impregnated with such a Childe , as Adam should have been impregnated with . 13. Which selfe ability could not effect , but sunk down into sleepe , viz : into the Magia , where then the Woman was made out of Adam , which should not have been Made , but Adam should himselfe have impregnated in Venus's Matrix , and have generated Magically . 14. But seeing that might not be , therefore was Adam divided , and his own wil● of Great Might and power was broken in him , and shut up in Death . 15. And seeing he would not set his Imagination into the Spirit of God , therefore must his great Might and power in Death , hold still , and let the Spirit of God set his Imogination into it , and do with it what he will. 16. Therefore Gods Spirit awakened the Life to him out of that Death and became the Spirit of that Life , that , the Image and Similitude according to God , which was known from Eternity in Gods wisdom , might yet be generated and subsist . 17. For it stood before the time of the World , and from Eternity in the Virgin-Looking-Glass in the wisdom of God ; and that in two Forms . 18. Viz : according to the First Principle of the Father in the Fire ; and in the second Principle of the Sonne , in the Light ; and yet was onely Manifest in the Light ; and in the Fire as it were in a Magia , viz ; in a possibility . 19. As the Starry Heaven , modelleth to Man a figure in sleep in his Minde according to its ability or * possibility : so also hath the Image in the Center of the Fires Nature appeared altogether Invisibly . 20. But in the wisdom in the Looking-Glass of the Deity , it hath appeared as an Image , like a shadow , yet without Material Substance ; and yet hath been in the Essence of that Spirit . 21. Which if it had discerned it selfe in the Looking-Glass of the wisdome , it would have known and seen this Image , and would once have set its will thereinto , to bring it into Substantiality ; that God might have an Image or similitude in Substance ; where it might not need any more to see it selfe as in a Looking-Glass , but * find it selfe in Substance . 22. Therefore seeing , the first Image Imagined into the stern Might and power , and thereupon became Earthly and Dead , Gods Spirit brought its will and life into Death , and took to it selfe again the first Life , out of Death , that the first Life might stand in full obedience before it , and that it alone may be the Will and the Deed. 23. Thus , it is known to us , that God hath Entered into the halfe dead Image , understand into Mary , and even into that virgin-like form , which lay shut up in Death , wherein Adam should have become impregnated , and generated an Image of himselfe in the Virgin-like Chastity . 24. In this shut up Virgin-like half dead Matrix , is Gods Word or Heart , viz : the Center of the Holy Trinity , become a Humane Image , without hurt to his Substance . 25. And whereas the first living Virgin-like Matrix in Adam would not be obedient to God , yet now , when it was again awakened and raised out of Death , it became Obedient , and gave it selfe totally humbly and willingly into Gods will : and thus now the right Virgin-like Image became figured into the Obedience of God again . 26. For , the first will must remain in Death , which Imagined against Gods will , and a pure Obedient will became awakened which might remain in the heavenly Meekness , which would no more suffer the Image in the fire in the Fathers part , to flow up in it self , but would remain in one souce or quality . 27. Even as the Deity , bringeth its Life but into ONE onely source or quality , viz : into the Light , into the Holy Spirit ; and yet carrieth on his Dominion , over all the Three Principles . 28. Also we are to understand concerning Christs becoming Man or Incarnation , that , when Gods Spirit awakened again , the Virgin-like Life in Mary , which in the Earthly Essence , lay shut up in Dea●h and fierce wrath ; then that Life hence-forward turned it self onely into the ONE onely will , viz : into Gods Love , and gave it selfe up to the Spirit of God. 29. Thus that Life , became impregnated of a right virgin-like Image ; which should have been with Adam , but was not done . 30. For the one Imagination received the other , Gods Imagination , received the Imagination in Death , and brought it to Life again ; that Life Imagined again into God , and became Impregnated with God ▪ and became , out of the Deity and Humanity , ONE Person . 31. The Deity hung to the heavenly Substantiality , which hath ever been from Eternity , with the Kingdom Power and Glory , viz : the Kingdom of Paradise , and the Angelical World , viz : the Spirit and the Seaven forms in the Center of Nature : as in the Third Part or Book of the Threefold Life , is mentioned with all Circumstances . 32. And the Humanity hung to the Kingdom of this world , but when the will of the humanity gave it selfe up into the Deity , then this virgin-like Image in Christ Jesus , came to be onely a Guest in this world , and his Deity was a Lord over this World. 33. For thus it was to be in Adam , also , that * the lesser and impotent should be subject to the greater and Omnipotent . 34. But Adams will , went into the less and impotent : end therefore he became altogether impotent , and fell downe into sleep , and home again to the Creator . 35. But with Christ , this Image remained standing in the Divine Wisdome , and the Earthly source or quality hung to it in the Office and Manner of a Servant : but now no more as a Lord ; as it was over Adam , and Mary his Mother before the high blessing & opening of the Deity : but as a Servant : for this Image became now in Gods Spirit and Might , a Lord over the Third Principle of this World. Qustion . 36. Now saith Reason : How is it come to pass in this becoming Man or Incarnation ? Was then the Life so suddenly with the Point of Conception , become stirring , above the Naturall Course , so that that Part of Mary , viz : the Womans seed instantly lived ? Answer . 37. No : for it was an Essential seed , and became in its Natural Time , stirring , with Soul and Spirit , as all Adams Children . 38. But that part of the Deity , environed with divine Substantiallty and wisdome , liveth from Eternity to Eternity . 39. The Deity , went not to nor fro : what it was that it remained to be , and what it was not , that it came to be . 40. It gave it selfe with divine Substantiality , into the Essence and Substantiality of Mary ; and Maries Essence and Gods Essence , became one * Sonne . 41. But Maries Essences were Mortal , but Gods Essences , were Immortal . 42. Therefore must Maries Essences dye on the Cross , and go through Death into Life ; to which Gods Essences did help ; else it had been impossible . 43. Thus Gods Essence helped us , and still always helpeth us through Christ into Gods Essence and Life again . 44. Thus we konw the becoming Man or Incarnation of Christ , to be natural , as of all the Children , of Men ; for the heavenly divine Subsstantiality , hath given it selfe , with its Life into the Earthly halfe dead subtantiality . 45. The Lord , gave himselfe to be under the Servant , that the Servant might become living , and is in like manner , in Nine Moneths , become a perfect Man , and also continueth a True God , and is also after the Manner and way of all Adams Children , become born into this World , through that very way and passage , as all Men are . 46. And that therefore , Not that he needed it , he could have been born Magically , but he would not , nor should not ; for he was to heal our impure Birth or Geniture , and Entrance into this Life . 47. He should enter into our Entrance into this World , and introduce us out of this World , into Gods Entrance , and bring us out of the Earthly source or quality . 48. For , if he had been generated or born Magically after a divine Manner , then he had not been Naturally in this World ; for the heavenly Substantiality must have swallowed up the Earthly source or quality ; and then he had not been † like us . 49. How then would he have suffered Death ; have entred into Death , and destroyed it ? but therefore it was not so . 50. He is truely and really the Womans Seed and is entered into this World the Natural way like all Men , but yet also is gone forth through death , the divine way , of the divine Might and Substantiality . 51. He is a divine living Substantiality , which subsisted in Death , and destroyed and despised death , and brought the halfe dead humanity through Death into Eternal Life . 52. For , the Earthly part , which he took to himselfe out of his Mother Mary , that is , to or upon the divine Substance ; dyed away on the Cross from the Earthly source or quality . 53. Thus was the Soul , in the Subantiality of God , and as a victorious Conquering Prince , * went into the Hell of Devils , that is into Gods Anger , and quenched it with Gods love and Meekness of the divine Love-suhstantiality . 54. For , the Love-fire came into the Anger-Fire - , and drowned the Anger , wherein the Devill would be God. 55. Thus was the Devil taken captive * with the darkness , and lost his Dominion ; for the sting and the Sword of the Cherubine the staying Angel , was here destroyed . 56. And this was the Cause that God became Man , viz : that he might introduce us , out of Death , into the Eternal Life , and quench the Anger which burned in Us , with the Love. 57. For , you must understand us aright : how Gods Anger became quenched , not with the Mortal Bloud of Christ which he shed , upon which the Jews despised him . 58. But with the Bloud of the Eternall Life , out of Gods substance , which was immortal , which had in it the fountain of the Water of Eternall Life , that became shed upon the Crosse with and under the outward Bloud , and when , the outward fell to the Earth , then fell the Heavenly with it , but yet it was immortal . 59. Thus * the Earth received Christs Bloud , whence it Trembled and Quaked , for the fierce wrath of God in it became now overcome , and the living Bloud came into it which was come out of Gods Substantiality , from Heaven . 60. That † Opened the Graves of the Saints , and Opened Death , and made a Path through Death , * so that Death was made a shew of in Tiumph . 61. For , when Christs Body arose from Death , then he bare Death as a Spectacle or shew on his Body , for its Might was broken or destroyed . The Eleventh Chapter . Of the Benefit , and what Profit , the Becoming Man or Incarnation , and Geniture or Birth of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God , is , to us poor Children of Eve. The Most rich lovely Gate of all . 1. WE poor Children of Eve , were all Dead in Adam ; and though we did as it were Live , yet we lived onely to this World , and Death waited for us , and continually devoured One after another ; and there were no remedy for us , if God had not Generated us again out of his Substance . 2. We should not in Eternity as to the Body , have returned again , but our Soul would have Eternally continued in Gods Anger source or quality , with all Devils . 3. But the Becoming Man or Incarnation of Jesus Christ , is become a powerful Substance or Matter to us , for , for our sakes is God become Man , that he might bring our humanity out of Death into himself again , and redeem or release our Soule out of the fire of Gods Anger . 4. For , the Soul in it selfe , is a Fire-source or quality , and containeth in it selfe the First Principle the harsh astringency , which in it self laboureth onely * to the Fire . 5. But if the Love and Meekness of God , become withdrawn from this Souls Birth or Geniture , or become infected with a total stern Matter , then it continueth a source or quality in the Darkness , a totall stern roughness , devouring it selfe , and yet also in the hunger of the will , alwaies thus generating it self again . 9. For , a thing that hath no beginning nor Ground , that hath also no End , but it selfe is its Ground , it generateth it Selfe . 7. And yet we will not say , that the Soul hath no Beginning ; it hath a Beginning , but onely according to the Creature , not according to the Essence , its Essence is from Eternity . 8. For , the divine Fiat , hath comprised it in the Center of the Eternal Nature , and brought it into a substantial Substance ; moreover with the whole Cross , with the Character of the Holy Trinity ; as a Similitude of the Threefold Spirit of the Deity , wherein God dwelleth ; now whether it be done in Love or Anger , that is in Light or Fire ; for in which of them soever it Imagineth , of that it becometh impregnated ; for it is a Magick Spirit , a source or quality in it selfe . 9. Thus it is the Center of the Eternity , a fire of the Deity in the Father , yet not in the Fathers Liberty , but in the Eternall Nature . 10. It is not † come before the Substance , but in the Substance . 11. But Gods Liberty is * without or beyond the Substance , but dwelleth in the Substance : for in the substance God becometh Manifest . 12. And there would be No God without the Substance ; but an Eternal stilness , without source or quality . 13. But in the source or quality the Fire becometh generated , and out of the Fire , the Light , where then two Substances fever themselves , and drive on a Twofold source or quality ; viz : a fierce wrathful hungry thirsty one , in the Fire , and a Meek lovely yeelding giving oue , in the Light. 14. For , the Light giveth , and the Fire taketh away ; the Light giueth Meekness , and out of the Meekness , Substantiality , that is the Fires food , or else it were a dark fierce wrathfull hunger in it self . 15. As indeed a Spirit is , if it have not the substance of the Light ; like a loathsome poyson . 16. But if it attaineth substance of Meekness , then it attracteth that in it selfe , and dwelleth therein , and useth it for food and also for the Body ; for it affecteth or infecteth it selfe therewith , and impregnateth it selfe ; for its substance is its satiating or fulfilling , and thus the hunger becometh stilled . 17. We are to conceive of the humane Soul thus ; it was taken out of the Center of Nature , not out of the * Looking Glass of the Eternal , as viz : out of the source or quality of this world , but out of the Eternal Essence of the Spirit , or out of the first Principle of the Fathers property as to , or according to Nature . 18. Not from Substance or from somewhat , but the Spirit of the Deity breathed into it , the Life , understand , the Image , into Adams selfe , out of all the Three Principles : It hath breathed into him , the Center of Nature , as viz : the fire source or quality , to Life . 19. Also the Meekness of the Love , out of the substance of the Deity , as the second Principle with divine heavenly Subantiality . 20. As also the Spirit of this World , as the Loaking-Glass or pretotype or prefiguration of Gods wisdom , with the Wonders . 21. But now the Spirit of this World is by the Devils kindling and poyson , which he hath darted thereinto , become perished , for the Devil dwelleth in this world , and is a continual infecter of the outward Nature and property : though in the fierce wrath onely , viz : in the harsh astringent desire , he is Mighty powerful . 22. But he putteth his Imagination with his false Tincture , also into the Love , and poysoneth the Souls best Jewel : and hath infected Adams soul , with his Imagination , with his Evil hunger-spirit , so that Adams soul lusted after the Earthly source or quality , from which Lust it became impregnated with the Earthly source or quality ; so that the Outward Kingdom became introduced into the Inward , whence the Light of the first Principle Extinguished ; and his divine Substantiality , wherein he should live Eternally , became shut up in the Earthly Death . 23. Thus , for this Image and also Soule , there was no remedy more , unless then the Deity did move it self according to the second Principle , viz : according to the Light of Life in it ; and did kindle the substantiality which was shut up in Death , again with the Love Glance : which was done in the becoming Man , or Incarnation , of Christ . 24. And this is the Greatest Wonder that God hath wrought ; in that he hath moved himself with the Center of the Holy Trinity in the Womans Seed . 25. For Gods Heart would not reveal or Manifest it selfe in the Fire , as viz. in the Mans Tincture , but in the Spirits Tincture , viz : in Venus , in the Love of the Life , that the Fire in the Mans Tincture might be apprehended with the Meekness and Love of God. 26. For , the Eternal Life should and must spring again out of the shut up Death ; For , here hath the Root Jesse , and * the true Rod of Aaran , budded , and boarn fair fruit . 27. For in Adam the Paradise was shut up in Death , when he became Earthly ; but in Christ that springeth again out of Death . 28. From Adam we have all inherited Death , but from Christ we inherit the Eternal Life . 29. Christ is that virgin-like Image , which Adam should have Generated out of himselfe , with both the Tinctures . 30. But being he could not , therefore he was divided , and so it must be done through Two Bodies † till Shiloh came , that is the Sonne of the Virgin , which became generated out of God and Man. 31. He is the Breaker through : of which the Prophets spake , saying , * He shooteth up like a Plant or sprout , he sprouteth as a Juniper Tree , in Gods substance . 32. He hath , with his entrance into the humane halfe dead Essence broken or destroyed death , for he sprouted at once both in the humane and divine Essence . 33. He brought to us , along with him in our Humanity , the virgin-like Chastity , of the wisdome of God , he environed our souls Essence with heavenly substantiality . 34. He was the Champion or Saviour in the Battel , where the two Kingdoms lay together in strife , viz : Gods Anger and Gods Love ; he gave himselfe willingly up into the Anger , and quenched it with his Love , understand , in the humane Essence . 35. He came out of God into this world , and assumed our Soul into himselfe , that he might introduce us out of the Earthliness of this world , again in himselfe into God. 36. He generated us again a new in himselfe , that we might be capable to live in God. 37. Out † of his will begat he or generated he us , that we should put our will into him , and then he bringeth us in himselfe to the Father , into our Native Country , again : viz : into Paradise out of which Adam went forth . 38. He is become our Fountain , his water springeth up in us : he is our Spring , and we are Drops in him , he is become the fulness of our substantiality , that we in him may live in God. 39. For , God is become Man , he hath introduced his abyssal immensurable substance into the Humanity ; his Substance which filleth the Heaven that he manifested in the Humanity . 40. Thus , the Humane Substance and Gods substance are become one substance , one fulness of God ; our substance is his moving in his Heaven . 51. We are his Children , his Wonder , his moving in his abyssal Body . 42. He is Father , and we his Children in him : we dwell in him and he in Us ; we are his Instrument , wherewith he seeketh and maketh what he will. 43 He is the Fire , and also the Light , together with all substance , or every thing . He is hidden , and the Work maketh him Manifest . 44. Thus we know that God is a Spirit ; and his Eternal Will is Magicall that is desirous ; he alwayes maketh substance out of Nothing , ond that in a twofold source , viz : according to the Fire and Light. 45. Out of the fire , cometh fierce wrath , climing up , Pride , willing not to unite it selfe with the Light ; but a fierce wrathful Eager Earnest will , according to which he is not called God , but a fierce wrathful consuming Fire . 46. This Fire also becometh not manifest in the pure Deity , for the Light hath swallowed up the Fire into it self , and giveth to the Fire its Love , its substantiality , its water , so that in Gods substance there is onely Love , Joy , and a pleasant habitation , and no fire , known . 47. But the Fire is onely a Cause of the desirous Will and of the Love , as also of the Light and of the Majesty , else there would be no substance : As it hath been largely expounded in the former writings . 48. And now it is known to Us , wherein our New Regeneration standeth , even while we are yet in this world , covered with the Earthly Tent or Tabernacle , and are fallen home to the Earthly life , viz : meerly , in the Imagination , that wee with our will enter into Gods will , and wholly unite and give up our selves into Him , which is called Faith , or , Beleeving . 49. For Word Faith , or , Glauden , Believing , is not Historical , but it is a receiving out of Gods Substance , to Eat of Gods Substance , to introduce Gods substance with the Imagination into the Souls Fire , to still its hunger therewith , and so to put on the Substance of God. 50. Not as a Garment , but as a Body of the Soul ; the Soul must have Gods Substance in its Fire , it must Eat the Bread of God , if it will be a Child . 51. Thus also it becometh New born in Gods Spirit and Substance , which Spirit it transplanteth out of the soyl of the fierce wrath and Anger , into the soyl of Love , Meekness , and humility of God , and blossometh forth with a new blossom in Gods soyl or field . 52 And that blossome which groweth in Gods Love , is the right true Image of the Deity , which God desired when he Created Adam to or in his likeness , that now hath Gods and Mans Sonne , Regenerated , to us , again . 53. For his Regeneration out of God and out of our Substance , is our Regeneration ; his power , Life , and Spirit , is all ours . 54. And we need do no more to it , but that we onely and meerly , enter with our will-Spirit , through him into Gods substance , and so our Will becometh generated in Gods will , and receiveth divine power and substance . 55. Not strange substance , but our first , with which we with Adam entered into Death : and that awakeneth and raiseth up again to us , the first born out of the Dead , which is Christus , Christ . 56. He is God , but yet is generated or born out of us , that he might make us living from or out of the Death . 57. Not any strange Life which we have not had in this World , but our own Life for Gods purpose must stand . 58. The fait blossome and Image , must grow out of the Corrupted soyl , and not onely so , but also out of the pure Soyl. 59. We must be generated or Born of or out of the Virgin , not out of the Man of the Anger , out of the Fires Tincture , but out of the Lights Tincture . 60. We put on the Virgin of Christ , with our giving up our selves thereinto . 61. We herewith become the Virgin of Modesty and Chastity and purity in Ternario Sancto , in the holy Ternary , in the Angelical world ; a Looking-Glass of the Holy Trinity , whetein God beholdeth himselfe , and which he hath taken to him for his Spouse . 62. He is our Husband or Man , to whom we in Christ have been betrothed Maried and incorporated . 63. And We , are now , Mary , in the Covenant of Grace out of which God and Man become generated or born . 64. Mary , was the first in the high blessing , for in her was the Mark at which the Covenant aimed or pointed . 65. She was known in God in the highly precious Name JESU , before the foundation of the World was laid . 66. Not that she brought the Life out of Death , but that God , in her , would bring the Life out of Death : and therefore she became highly blessed ; and the pure virgin Modesty was put on , to her . 67. And out of that Virginity , out of which Christ became Generated or born , we all must be generated or Born ; for we must become † Virgins , and follow after the Lamb of God , else we shall not see God : For , Christ saith , * Ye must be generated or born anew , if ye will see the Kingdom of God , through water and the holy Spirit . 68. The water is the Virginity , for the Virgin bringeth the Lights and Waters Tincture , viz : Love and Meekness . 69. And the Spirit , out of which we must become generated or Born , is that which gave it selfe into the Womans seed with the Moving of the Deity , which brake or destroyed Death , which out of the water bringeth forth a Light-flaming Blossome , wherein he is the spirit and life of the blossome . 70. Not according to the Fire-source or quality of the fierce wrath , but according to the Quality of the Light in the Meekness and humility , The Twlefth Chapter . Of the Pure Virginity : How we poor Children of Eve must be conceived out of the pure Virgin-like Modesty or Chastity in the Becoming Man or Incarnation of Christ , and be new born in God ; else we shall not see God. 1. WE poor Children of Eve , finde in us , no pure virgin-like thoughts : for Mother Eve , which was a Woman , hath made us all Feminine and Masculine . 2. We are in Adam and Eve all become Men and Women ; except we enter into the heavenly virginity , with our desiring Will , in which God hath generated us out of Christ to be Virgins again . 3. Not according to the Earthly Life in which there is no Modesty , Chastity , and purity , but according to the Life of the Heavenly Virgin , in which Christ became a Man ; and which with the Over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost , became put on to Mary , which is without ground limit and End ; which every where standeth before the Deity ; which is a Looking-Giass and representation or * express Image of the Deity . 4. Into this Virgin , wherein the Holy Tinity dwelleth , wherein we were discerned or discovered before the times of the world by the Spirit of God , and were know in the Name of JESU , we must Enter with our Will-Spirit . 5. For , our true Image , in which we are the similitude of God , is with Adam and Eve extinguished to Us , and become Earthly . 6. Which is done through Lust or Imagination ; and so Gods clear Countenance became covered ; for we lost the heavenly Modesty or Chastity . 7. But seeing God , for us , hath , out of his favour and Love , opened his clear countenance towards us again in the becoming Man , or Incarnation , of Christ : and so now it lyeth in this ; that as we in Adam have imagined into the earthly longing , whence we are becom Earthly , so we now set our desiring will in the havenly Virgin , and bring our longing thereinto , and then our Image goeth out from the Earthly Woman ; and conceiveth the virgin-like Essence and property , wherein God dwelleth , wherein the souls Image may attain the Countenance of God again . 8. Outward Reason saith , how may that come to pass ? that we might be born again out of the Virgin , out of which Christ was born ? It understandeth solely Mary : but we understand , not the Mary which is a creaturely Virgin. 9. For as we also , in the immaterial Virgin-like modesty or chastity , became Creaturely Virgins , so if we enter into the becoming Man or Incarnation of Christ ; not according to the outward Life in the four Elements , but according to the Inward in the One Element , where the Fire of God swalloweth up the four Elements into it self ; and yet in his Light , viz : in the second Principle , wherein , the outward Man and Woman must go through death , in Christs resurrection , as a virgin in the one Element , wherein all the four lye hidden ; we then grow forth and spring in the Right vi●gin-like wisedome of God. 10. We must dye away from the Man and the Woman , and Crucifie the Corrupt Adam : he must die with Christ and be cast into the Fathers Anger . 11. That swalloweth up the Earthly Man & the Earthly Woman , and giveth to the soul , out of the becoming Man or Incarnation of Chr●st , a virgin-like Image , wherein the Man and the Woman is but one only Image , with one only Love. 12. Now the Man sets his Love in or upon the Woman , and the Woman in or upon the Man ; but if both the loves be turned into one , there is then no desire of Co-mixture more in the one onely Image , but the Image loveth it selfe . 13. But now the Image , in the beginning was Created in the virgin-like wisedome of God , viz : out of the divine substantiality . 14. And now because the substance was become Earthly and fallen into death , therefore the Word which became Man awakened and raised it up again ; and so the Earthly source or quality remaineth with death in the Anger , and the raised remaineth in the word of life , in the virgin-like Modesty or chastity . 15. And so we bear here in this World a two fold Man in one Person , viz : a virgin-like Image born out of the becoming Man or Incarnation of Christ ; and an Earthly Image Masculine and Feminine , shut up in Death and in the Anger of God. 16. The Earthly must bear the Cross , and suffer it selfe to be scorned persecuted and afflicted in the Anger , and becometh at length given to Death ; and then the Anger swalloweth it up into the sourcive qualifycating fire of God. 17. And so if the word of Life , which in Mary , became Man , is together in the Earthly Image , then , Christ , who wrought the word of Life out of God , riseth up from Death , and bringeth the Essence of the sourcive or Qualificating fire , understand the humane Essence ; out , forth from Death . 18. For he is arisen out from Death , and liveth in God , and his life is become our Life , and his death our Death , we are buried in his death , and sprout forth , in his resurrection and victory , in his Life . 19. But understand the meaning right . Adam was the virgin-like Image : he had peculiar Love of his own : for the Spirit of God had breathed it into him : for what other can the Spirit of God breath out of it self , then what it selfe is . 20. But now , that , is All ; and yet all sources or qualities , are not called God ; but in all sources or qualities there is but one onely Spirit , which is God ; viz : according to the second principle in the Light ; yet there is no Light without Fire . 21. But in the fire , he is not the love-Spirit , or Holy Ghost ; but the fierce wrath of Nature and a cause of the Holy Spirit ; an Anger and a Consuming fire . 22. For in Fire , is the Spirit of Nature , Free ; and yet the Essentiall fire also giveth or affordeth , Nature , and is it selfe , Nature . 23. And yet we understand , but one holy Spirit , in the Light ; though indeed all is but one substance ; yet we understand , that the Matter , which is generated out of the Meekness of the Light , is as it were impetent and obscure ; which the fire draweth and swalloweth up into it selfe . 24. But giveth forth out of the Material source or quality out of the fire , a mighty potent Spirit , which is free from the Matter , and also from the fire ; and though the fire reteineth it : yet it apprehendeth not its source or quality . 25. As we see , that the Light dwelleth in the Fire , and yet hath not the source or quality of the Fire , but a Meek love-source or quality ; which also , would not be , if the Matter were not dead and consumed in the Fire . 26. Thus we consider and conceive of the first Adam ; he was contrived or * Imagined out of the Lights Essence and substantiality , but being he was to go into a Creature and was to be a total or entire Similitude of God , according to all substances , according to all the Three Principles , therefore he became also apprehended with the word Fiat in all substances of all the Three Principles , and was brought into a Creature . 27. Now certainly , all the three Principles were free in Him , and stood one in another , each in its Order , and so he was a right totall or entire similitude , of God , according to and out of the substance of all substances . 18. But we are to know and observe ; How the Third Principle , viz : the source or quality of this world in the kindling of Lucifer , became totally fierce wrathful thirsty and base or Evill ; and instantly , in Adam thirsted after the Second Principle , viz : after the heavenly Matter , whence the Longing in Adam Existed ; for the source or quality of the pure Love out of the Holy Spirit had * refused that . 29. But when the Love entered into the Earthly source or quality to satisfie it , in its kindled thirst ; then the pure Material love conceived or received the desirous Earthly perished Cortupt Longing . 30. And then the second Principle Extinguished , not as a Death , as that it were become a Nothing , but it became caprivated in the fierce wrathful thirst . 31. Now then seeing God is a Light , the pure Love-source or quality stood as shut up in Death without the Light of God. 32. And now the Image was perished and captivated in the fierce wrath of God , and the Own selfe-love lost its might and strength , for it was shut up in the perished corrupt Earthliness , and loved Earthlness . 33. Thus a Woman or Wife must be made out of this Image , and the Two Tinctures viz : the fires Essence , and the Matrixes watery Essence , must be parted , viz : into a Man and a Woman . 34. Whereas yet the Love thus became moving in a twofold source or quality , and so one Tincture loved and desired the other , and mingled together , whence the Generation was to be propagated and maintained . 35. But now this Generation of Men , thus in the Earthly source or quality , could not know or see God , for the pure Immaculate Love was shut up in the Earthly thirsty source or quality , and was shut up and captivated in the fierce wrath of the Eternal Nature , which Lucifer had kindled : for the fierce wrath had attracted the love with the Earthliness into it self . 36. That now in the captivated love , stood the virgin-like Mcdesty or Chastity of the wisdome of God ; which to Adam , was with the second Principle , with the heavenly substantiality ; together incorporated to his body , and much more the Spirit of the Meek substantiality , through the breathing in of the Holy Spirit ; which was breathed into Adam . 37. And so now ther was no Remedy , unless the Deity awakened it selfe , in the divine Virgin , according to the second Principle , in the virginity which was shut up in Death ; and that another Image , came to be out of the First . 38. Thus it is sufficiently known and understood by us ; that the first Image must be given to the fierce wrath , wherewith it might quench its thirst : and must go into Consumption , as into the Essential fire ; whereas yet the Essence dieth not , nor consumeth . 39. For which cause , God hath appointed a Day , wherein he will being the Essence of the Old and first Adam , through the fire , that it might be delivered or loosed from the vanity viz : form the Longing of the Devil , and of the Anger of the Eternal Nature . 40. And we understand further , that God hath again borught into US , the life of his Eternal substance , when he moved himselfe , with his own heart and Word , or power of the divine Life in the virginity which was shut up in Death , viz : in the true pure Love ; and kindled that again ; and introduced his heavenly substantiality , with the pure Virginity into the virginity which was shut up in Death ; and hath , out of the heavenly , and out of the Virginity that was shut up in Death and Anger , generated a New Image . 41. And then Thirdly we understand ; that this New Image , must , through Death and the fierce wrath of the fire , be introuduced again into the heavenly divine substantialit , in Ternarium Sanctum , into the Holy Ternary . 42. For , the Earthly longing which the Devil had possessed , must remain in the Fire , and was given to the Devil for food ; therein he Adams virginity , and introduced it out of Death through Gods fire , into the divine source or quality . 51. Christ , is become Adam , not the divided ; but the virgin-like Adam , which , Adam was , before his sleepe . 52. He hath introduced , the perished-corrupted , in Death , into Gods fire , and hath brought forth the pure virgin-like , out of Death through the fire : whose Sonne thou art , if thou dost not remain lying in Death , as rotten wood which cannot qualifie or operate , which in the fire giveth no Essence , but becometh Dark or black Synder or Ashes . Question . 53. Now saith Reason ; how cometh it then , seeing I am Christs Member and Gods Childe , that I do not find nor feel him . Answer . 54. Here indeed sticketh the Matter , deare defiled piece of Wood , smell into thy bolome , what is it thou stinkest of ? Even of Hellish Lust and Longing , viz : of Hellish voluptuous pleasure , Covetousness , honour and power . 55. Hearken , these are the Devils Garment ; pluck off the Hide or skin , and cast it away , put thy desire into Christs Life , Spirit , flesh , and bloud ; Imagine thereinto , as thou hast Imagined into the Earthly Longing ; and so thou wilt put on Christ , in thy Body ; and in thy flesh and blond , thou wilt become Christ ; his becoming Man or Incarnation will instantly unite it self in thee , and thou wilt become born or generated in Christ . 56. For , the Deity or the Word , which moved it selfe in Mary and became Man , that became Man also in like manner , in all Men that had dyed from Adam , to that time ; who had given up and Commended their Spirits into God , or into the Promised Messiah . 57. And it passed upon all those which were yet to be born out of the Corrupted perished Adam , who would but suffer that word to awaken them or arise in them : for , the first Man , comprehendeth also the last . 58. Adam is the stock , we all are his branches , but Christ is become our sap virtue and life . 59. Now if a branch on the Tree withereth , what can the virtue , and the sap of the Tree do to it : It giveth its virtue to all brances why then doth not the branceh draw the sap and virtue into it . 60. The fault is , that Man draweth devillish virtue or power and Essence or sap , instead of divine Essence , into himselfe , and letteth the Devil seduce him into Earthly desires longing and lust . 61. For , the Devil knoweth the Branch , which in the Country that was his , is grown up to him , and still groweth : and therefore , as he was a Murtheter and lyer at the beginning , so he is still , and infecteth or poysoneth Men. 62. Being he knoweth , that they are fallen to the outward Dominion of the Starres into his Magick Longing ; therefore he is a Continual poysoner of the * Complexion ; and where he smelleth but a Crum that serveth his turn , that he alwaies setteth before Man ; and if a Man Imagineth into it , he will suddenly infect him . 63. Therefore it is said : ‖ Watch , pray , be sober , lead a Temperare life : for the Devil your Adversary , goeth about as a roaring Lyon ; and seeketh whom he may devour . 64. Seek not so , after Convetousness , riches , Money , Goods , Might , and honour ; for we are , in Christ , not of this world . 65. For therefore Christ * went to the Father , viz : into the Divine substance , that we should , with our hearts , Minds , thoughts and wills , follow after him : and so * he will be with us all the dayes to the End of the World ; but not in the source or quality of this World. 66. We should press forth out of the source or quality of this world our from the Earthly Man , and give up our wills into his will , and Introduce our Imagination and Longing in to him : and so , we , in his virginity which he hath stirred up again in us , become impregnated , and Conceive the Word ; which maketh it selfe stirring in him ; in our virginity shut up in Death ; and become born in Christ in our selves . 67. For as death through Adam pressed upon us all , so the word of Life out of or from Christ presseth upon us all . 68. For , the Moving of the Deity in the becoming Man or Incarnation of Christ , hath continued moveable , and standeth open to all M●n , the failing is onely in the Entering in , that Man suffereth the Devil to detein him . 69. Christ need not first depart from his Place , and Enter into us , when we become new born in Him : for , the divine Substance , wherein he became born or generated , hath in all places and Cornors the second Principle in it ; and where a Man may say , there is God Present , there a Man may say , The Becoming Man or Incarnation of Christ is present also ; for it became opened in Mary , and so qualifieth or operateth backward again even into Adam , and forward even into the Lift man. 70. Now saith Reason : † Faith alone attaineth it ; very right : In the right Faith the Impregnation proceedeth . 71. For , Faith is Spirit , and desireth Substance , and that substance is nevertheless in all Men , and that which is wanting , is , that it apprehend the Spirit of Faith. 72. And if it be come apprehended , then the fair Lilly blossometh out of it : not onely a Spirit , but the Virgin-like Image , becometh generated or born out of Death into Life . 73. The Rod of Aaron , which is dry ; sprouteth forth out of the dry death , and taketh its body out of Death ; the fair New virgin-like life , out of the halfe dead virginity . 74. And this , the dry Rod of Aaron signified ; as also Old Zachary ; also Abraham with his old Sarah ; who according to the outward world were all as it were dead , and no more fruitful . 75. But the Promise in the New Regeneration must do it , the Life must sprout out of Death . 76. The Old Adam which became Earthly must not be Lord ; Nor Esau the first born , to whom formerly the Inheritance had belonged if Adam had continued standing ; But the second Adam , Christ , who sprouted forth through death out of the first , must remain Lord. 77. Not the Man or the Woman , shall possess the Kingdom of God , but the Virgin , which becometh generated or born out of the Mans and Womans Death , must be Queen of Heaven . 78. One onely Generation or sex , not two ; one onely Tree , not Many : Christ was the stock , being he was the root of the New Body which sprouteth out of Death , which brought forth the dead virgin again as a fair branch out of Death . 79. And we all are his sprouts and stand all upon one stock , which is Christ . 80. Thus we are Christs Sprouts , his branches , his children , and God is the Father of as all , and also of Christ , * In him we live and Move and are . 81. We bear Christs Flesh and bloud in us , if we do but come to the New Birth , for we become regenerated in Christs Spirit . 82. That in Mary ; became a living Man in the dead humanity , without the touching of a Man , and that also becometh a Man in our selves , in our dead virginity . 83. And henceforward that which is wanting is this , that we cast the Old Adam viz : the Husk ; into Death , that the Earthly lifes quality or source may depart from us , and so we go forth from the Devil , out of his Country . 84. And not alone this ; for , the Old Adam must not be so totally cast away , but the Huske onely , viz : the Shell wherein the Seed or Kernel lyeth . 85. Out of the Old Essence must the New Man in Gods blessing sprout forth , as the blade out of the Grain , or Corn , as Christ teacheth us . 86. * Therefore must the Essence be injected into Gods Anger , must be persecuted , afflicted , plagued , scorned , and lye under the Cross : for the New Man must sprout forth out of God anger fire , he must be Tryed in the Fire . 87. We were fallen home to the Anger 's Essence ; but the Love of God set it selfe in the Anger , and quenched the Anger with the Love in the blood of the Heavenly substantiality in the Death of Christ . 88. Thus the Anger reteined the Husk , viz : the perished corrupt Man , understand the Earthly source or quality ; and the Love reteined the New Man. 89. Therefore can no Man besides , shed heavenly Bloud , the Earthly Mortal Bloud onely ; for , Christ , who was conceived without Man and Woman , he onely could do it ; for , in his heavenly substantiality there was no Earthly Blood. 90. But yet he did shed his heavenly bloud under or among the Earthly , that he might deliver us poor Earthly Men from the fierce wrath . 91. For , his heavenly bloud must in its bloud shedding mix it selfe together with the Earthly , that the Turba in the Earthliness in us , which held us captive , might be drowned ; and that the Anger might be quenched with the love of the Heavenly bloud . 92. He gave his life for us , into Death , he went for us , into Hell , into the source or quality of the Fathers Fire ; and out of Hell again into God ; that he might break or destroy Death , and drown the Anger , and make way for us . 93. Therefore now the whole matter depends on this that we follow afte● him , he hath indeed broken and destroyed death , and quenched the Anger ; yet if we will be conformable to his Image , then we must follow him into his Death , * take his , Cross upon us , suffer persecution , be scorned , despised and slain . 24. For , the Old Husk belongeth to the Anger of God , it must be purged . 95. For , it is not the Old Man , that must live in us , but the New : the old is to be given up to the Anger , for , the New Man blossometh up out of the Anger , as the Light shineth out of the Fire . 96. Thus the Old Adam must be Wood or Fewel for the Fire ; that the New may sprout forth in the Light of the Fire ; for it must subsist in the Fire . 97. That is not Eternal , which cannot subsist in the Fire , and which ariseth not out of the Fire . 98. Our Soul is out of Gods Fire , and the Body out of the Lights Fire . 99. But , understand alwayes , by the Body , an inanimate substantiality , which is no Spirit , but an Essential Fire . 100. The † Spirit is much higher ; for its Original is the fire of the fierce wrath of the fierce wrathful source or quality , and its right life , or Body , which it hath in it self , is the Light of the Meekness ; that dwelleth in the Fire , and giveth to the Fire its meek sustenance or body , else the Fire would not subsist ; it will have sowewhat to Consume . 101. For , God the Father saith also ; I am an angry zealous jealous or fierce wrathful God , a Consuming fire ; and yet calleth himselfe also , * a merciful loving God , according to his Light , according to his Hertz , and therefore he saith ; Barm-hertz-ig . Heart , Warm-heart-ed : or Merciful . 102. For , in the Light the water of Eternal Life becometh Generated ; which quencheth the fire and the fierce anger of the Father . The Thirteenth Chapter . Of the twofold Man , viz. of ohe Old and New Adam , as of two sorts of of Men ; How the Old and Evil behaveth it selfe towards the New : What Religion Faith and Life each of them leadeth , and what each of them understandeth . 1. ●ALl whatsoever , concerning Christ , is in the Old Adam taught , written , preached , or Spoken , he it from Art or how it will , it is out of or from Death , and hath neither understanding nor Life , for the Old Adam without Christ is dead . 2. It must be the New , which becometh generated out of the Virgin , that must do it ; that onely understandeth the Word of Regeneration , and , * entereth into the sheepfold at the Doore of Christ . 3. The Old Adam will climbe up into it through Art and searching or Speculation ; it supposeth Christ may sufficiently be apprehended in the Letter ; he who hath learned Arts and Languages , and hath read much , is called and Instituted by Christ to Teach ; the Spirit of God must Speak through his Preaching , though , likely , he is but the perished Corrupt Old Adam onely . 4. But Christ saith ; † They are Theeves and Murderers , and come onely to Robbe and steal : he who goeth not in at the door of the sheepfold , but climeth up some other way , he is a Thiefe and a Murderer . 5. Further he saith ; * I am the door to the sheep , he that entereth in through me , shall find Pasture , and the sheep will follow him : * for whosoever is not with me is against me . 6. A Teacher should and must be generated from or born of Christ , or else he is a Thief and a Murderer ; and standeth there to Preach onely for a † Belly full ; he doth it for Money and honour sake ; he teatheth his own Word , not Gods word . 7. But if he be Regenerated out of Christ , then he teacheth Christs word ; for he standeth in the Tree of Christ , and giveth his Sound out of the Tree of Christ wherein he standeth . 8. Threfore it is , that there is so much strife and Opposition upon Earth , because Men † heape up Teachers to themselves , according as their Ears do Itch , after what the Old Evil Adam pleaseth to Hear , after what serveth to his climing up and fleshly pleasure and voluptuousness , what serveth to his Might and Pomp. 9. O ye Devill 's Teachers , how will you subsist before the Anger of God. 10. Why do you Teach , when you * are not sent from God ? ye are sent from Babel , from the Great Whore , from the Mother of the Great Woredoms upon Earth , ye are not born of the Virgin , but of the perfidious Adulterous Woman . 11. For ye not onely ‖ Teach humane Traditions , and fictions ; but ye also persecute the Teachers that are sent ; which are borne of Christ . 12. Ye strive about Religion ; and yet there is no strife at all in Religion : * There are manifold Gifts , yet it is but one Spirit that speaketh . 13. As a Tree hath many Branches ; and the fruit many severall Forms , and one doth not look altogether like another ; also as the Earth beareth manifold hearbs and blossoms , and the Earth is the onely Mother to them ; thus it is also with those who speak , out of or from Gods Spirit . 14. Every one speaketh out of the Wonders of his Gifts , yet their Tree and soyl upon which they stand , is Christ , in God. 15. And ye Spirit - Binders , will not endure that , ye will stop the Mouth of your Christ , whom yet your selves Teach with your Earthly Tongue ; unknown ; from the Pulpit ; and binde him to your Lawes . 16. O! alass ! the true Church of Christ hath no Law : Christ is the Temple or Chruch into which we must Enter . 17. The Heaps of stone , make none , New Men ; but the Temple , Christ , wherein Gods Spirit teacheth ; thae awakeneth and raiseth up the half dead Image that it beginneth to sprout forth . 18. They avail all alike : God asketh not after Art , not fine eloquent Expessions : but whosoever cometh to him , he will not thrust him away or reject him . 19. † Christ is come into this world , to call and save poor sinners . And Isaiah saith : † Who is so simple as my Servant . 20. Therefore the Wit and wisdome of this World doth it not , it maketh onely Pride and Pust up Reason , it will out aloft , and willeth to rule and domineer . 21. But Christ saith , † He that Ieaveth not House , and Land , Goods , Money , Wife , and Childe , for my Names sake , is not worthy of me . All whatsoever is in this world , must not be so loved as the dear highly precious Name JESUS . 22. For all whatsoever this World hath , is Earthly ; but the Name JESUS heavenly ; and out of the Name JESUS we must become Regenerated out of the Virgin. 23. Therefore the Child of the Virgin standeth against the Old Adam , he presents or sheweth forth himself , with or by desires of Temporal pleasures and Voluptuousness , honour , power , might and Authority , and is a fierce wrathful Dragon , which onely willeth to devour , as the Revelation of John representeth him to be a Cruel horrible Dragon . 24. ‖ The Virgins Childe standeth upon the Moon ; and weareth a Crown with * Twelve Starres ; for it treadeth the Earthly , viz : the Moon under its feet : It is Sprouted out from the Earthly Moon , as a blossom out of the Earth , and therefore the Virgin-like Image standeth upon the Moon . 25. Against which , the fierce wrathful Dargon , casteth sorth his streames of Water , † and would fain continually , drown the Virgin-like Image , * but the Earth cometh to helpe the Woman ; and swalloweth up the stream and floud of water , and bringeth the Woman into Aegypt . 26. That is , the Virgin-like Image , must suffer it selfe to be put into Aegypt , into Bondage and servitude ; and the Earth , viz : the fierce wrath of God ; Covereth the virgin-like Image ; it devoureth the streams of the Dragon . 27. Although the Dragon with his abominations overwhelmeth the virgin-like Image , and reproacheth , slandereth , and despiseth it ; yet that hurteth not the Virgins Child ; for , the fierce wrath , taketh the reproach and slander , which is cast forth upon the Child , to it selfe ; for , the Earth alwaies signifieth the fierce wrath of God. 28. Thus the Virgins Child standeth upon the Earth , as upon the Earthly Moon , and must continually flie into Aegypt before the D●agon ; it must here be onley under the Bondage and Servitude of Pharao . 29. But it standeth upon the Moon , not under the Moon : the Prince Josua or JESUS , bringeth it through Jordan into Jerusalem : it must onely through Death go into Jerusalem , and leave the Moon . 30. It is but a Guest in this World , a stranger and Pilgrim ; it must wander through the Dragons Country ; and when the Dragon casteth forth his streams upon it , it must bow downe and passe under the Crose ; and then the Anger of God receiveth the Dragons fire to it . 31. It is known to us , that the Old Adam knoweth and understandeth Nothing of the New , it understandeth all things , in an Earthly manner : it knoweth not where nor what God is ; it flatters it self , and ascribeth honesty and holiness to it . 32. It supposeth it serveth God , and yet serveth but the Old Dragon , it Offereth Sacrifice , and yet its heart hangeth to the Dragon , it will suddenly be honest , and with the Earthliness go into heaven . 53. And yet it despiseth the Children of Heaven , whereby it declareth , that is a stranger in Heaven : it is onely , a Lord upon Earth , and Devil in Hell. 34. Among such Thornes and Thistles , must Gods Children grow , they are not known in this World , for the Anger of God Covereth them . 35. A Child of God also * Knoweth not himself aright ; he seeth onely the Old Adam which hangeth to him , which will alwaies drown the virgin-childe . 36. But if the virgin Childe conceive a glimpse in the * Holy Ternary , then it knoweth it selfe , when the Noble faire Garland or Crown of Victory is set upon it , there must the Old Adam first look back , and knoweth not what is done to him . 37. He is indeed very Joyful : like one that danceth to an Instrument of Musick when that Ceaseth sounding , his Joy hath an End , and he remaineth to be the Old Adam ; for he belongeth to the Earth , and not to the Angelical World. 38. So soon as it cometh so farre with a Man , that the virgin-like Image , beginneth to sprout forth out of the Old Adam , so that a Man giveth up his Soul and Spirit into the Obedience of God , then the strife with him beginneth : then the Old Adam in the Anger of God striveth with the New Adam . 39. The Old , will be Lord in flesh and blood , also the Devil cannot endure the virgin-like Branch , for he dareth not to touch it ; but the Old Adam may touch infect and posses it . 40. Because his own dwelling in the Darkness of the Abyss pleaseth him not , therefore he would fain dwell in Man , for he is an Enemy to God , and hath † without Man , no authority . 41. Therefore he possesseth Man and leadeth him according to his pleasure into the Anger and fierce wrath of God , wherewith he scorneth Gods Love and Meekness ; for he supposeth still , seeing he is a fierce wrathful fire-source or quality , that he is higher then the Humility , being he can go so terribly . 42. But being he dare not touch the virgin-like Branch , therefore he useth sublime subtle Craft , knavery and wickedness , and destroyeth it , so that it is not known or acknowledged in this world : * else too many such little branches might grow in his supposed Country , for he is wrath , & an Enemy to them , he bringeth his Proud Ministers or Officers , and P●●gurs , with scorn , upon that man , so that he is persecuted , despised and held a Fool. 43. And this he doth through the Reason-Learned wise world , through those who call themselves shepheards or Pastors of Chirst , upon whom the world looketh ; that so the Holy Lilly branch may not be known : else men might observe it , and too many such branches may grow for him : and then he should loose his Dominion among Men. 44. But the Noble Lilly Twig or Branch , groweth in Patience and Meekness , and taketh its Essence pover and smell out of the Soyl of God , as also , out of Christs becoming Man or incarnation ; for Christs Spirit is its Essence ; Gods Substance is its Body . 45. Not out of any strange or Heterogene property , but out of its own , included and shut up in Death , aud in Christ , Sprouting , Essence ; groweth the virgin-like Lilly Twig or Branch : It seeketh not nor desireth the fariness or excellency of this world , but of the Angelical world . 46. For , it also groweth not in this world in the Third Principle , but in the Second Principle in the Paradise-world : and therefore there is great strife in flesh and blood in the outward Reason . 47. * The Old Adam knoweth not the New , and perceiveth that it withstandeth and opposeth him ; it willeth not what the Old , willeth ; it continually leadeth the Old to abstinence , which causeth woe to the Old , The Old willeth onely to have pleasure , voluptuousness and temporal honour ; it Cannot endure the Cross and Contempt . 48. But the New is well pleased , that it shall bear the Marks ‖ or Prints of the wounds of Christ , * That it should become conformable to the Image of Christ . 49. Therefore the Old goeth often very mournfully about , when it seeth it must be a fool , and yet knoweth not how it befalleth him , for he knoweth not Gods will. 50. He hath onely the will of this world , what there flattereth faire , he willeth to have that ; he would fain be Lord continually , before whom , Men must bowe or stoop . 41. But the New boweth it selfe before its God , and desireth nothing , also willeth nothing , but it panteth after its God , as a childe after its Mother ; It casteth it selfe into the bosome of its Mother , and giveth its body up to its heavenly Mother , into the Spirit of Christ . 52. It desireth the food and Drink of its Eternal Mother , and it Eateth in the bosome of the Mother , as a child in the body or womb of the Mother eateth of its Mother . 53. For , so long as it is covered in the Old Adam , so long it is yet in the becoming Man or Incarnation ; but when the Old dyeth , then the New becometh Generated or born forth out of the Old. 54. It leaveth the Vessel , wherein it lay , and became a virgin-like childe , ●o the Earth , and to the Judgement of God , but it becometh born or brought forth as a blossome in the Kingdom of God. 55. And then when the Day of Resteration shall come , all his * Works , which he hath wrought Good , within the Old Adam , shall follow after him ; and the Evill or Malignity of the Old Adam shall be burnt up in Gods fire , and be given to the Devil for food . 56. Now saith Reason : being the New Man in this world , in the Old , is onely in the becoming Man or Incarnation , then it is * not PERFECT . 57. This is no otherwise then as with a child , where the seed with two Tinctures , viz : the Masculine and Feminine is sowen , the one in the other , and a Child cometh out of it . 58. For as soon as a Man Converteth , and turneth himselfe to God † with heart , Minde , thoughts and will ; and goeth out from his wicked wayes , and giveth himselfe up wholly sincerely and Earnestly , into God ; then , in the fire of the soul in the old perished or Corrupted Image , the Impregnation beginneth . 59. And the Soul apprehendeth in it selfe , the Word , that moved it selfe in Mary , in the Center of the Holy Trinity , which in Mary , with the Modest highly blessed heavenly Virgin , the wisedom of God gave in it selfe into the halfe dead Virgin , and became a True Man. 60. That very Word , which in Mary , in the Center of the Holy Trinity , moved or roused it selfe , which united or Espoused it selfe with the half dead shut up virginity ; apprehendeth the Soulish Fire ; and then instantly , in the Souls Image , viz : in the souls Light , in the Meckness , viz : in the shut up virgin-like wisdom , the Impregnation begineth . 61. For , Mans love-Tincture apprehendeth Gods Love-Tincture ; and the seed is sown in the Holy Spirit in the Souls Image ; as in Our Book of the Threefold Life of Man is written at large . 62. Now behold ! When the virgin-like Marks , in Gods love , appear ; then may this twig or branch be born ; for in God ALL is PERFECT . 63. But being it sticketh covered in the Old Adam , and standeth onely as it were in the Essence as a ●●●d , therefore there is great danger concerning it : for , many attain this Twig or Branch first at their last End. 64. And though indeed he hath brought it along with him out of his Mothers body or womb , yet it becometh perished or corrupt , and broken , and made earthly , by many . 65. Thus it goeth also with the poor sinner , when he repenteth , but afterwards becometh an Evil Man , it goeth with him as befell Adam , who was a fair Glorious Image Created and highly Englightned from God. 66. But when he suffered Lust to overcome him , he became Earthly , and his fair Image became captivated in the Earthly source or quality in the Anger of God ; and thus it goeth continually . 67. But this we say : according as we have received enlightning in the Grace of God , and have wrestled much for the Garland ; that they that in the Earnest continue stedfast or Constant , till his Twig or Branch , get a Bud or little blossom , his Twig or branch will not easily be broken in one or more storms : for that which is weak , hath also a weak life . 68. We speak not thus in or as concerning the Deity , but Naturally it is thus , and indeed also all is done Naturally ; for the Eternal hath also its Nature , and the one doth but proceed out of the other . 69. If this world bad not been poysoned by the Malignity and fierce wrath of the Devil , then Adam had continued in this world in Paradise , and there would have been no such fierce wrath in the Starres and Elements . 70. For the Devil was a King and great Lord in the place of this world , and he hath awakened the fierce wrath . 71. God therefore created the Heaven out of the midst of the Waters , that the fiery Nature , viz : the fiery Firmament , might be captivated with the water-Heaven , that its fierce wrath might be quenched . 72. Else , if the water should be gone or pass away , Men would plainly see , what would be in this world , nothing else but a cold stern harsh astringent and fiery burning : yet onely Dark , for there could be no Light ; for , the Light subsisteth meerly in the Meekness : so there can also be no shining fire , except it have meek substantiality . 73. Therefore it is known to US , that God hath burned the heavenly substantiality into water , which was done Naturally . 74. When God the Father moved himselfe , and the Devil fell , who would be a fire-Lord over the Meekness ; then there was such a Bolt thrust in before his poysoned Malignity : so that now he is Gods Ape or Mimick , and not Lord , a raver and fulfiller in the Anger-source or quality . 75. Therefore being we know this ; that we are environed with the Anger , we should have a care of our selves , and not so slightly and meanly Esteem our selves : for we are , not onely from this world , but also in lik manner , from the divine World , which standeth hidden in this world , and is neer us . 76. We can live and be in Three worlds at once ; if we sprout forth with the virgin-like Image , out of the Evil life . 77. Eor , we live in the first Principle , in the fire-world in the fire , as to the Essential-soul , viz : as to the fire-source or quality , in the Center of Nature of Eternity . 78. And then , with the right pure Virgin Image , we live in the Light-flaming , Paradise-world , although in the place of this world the same is not manifest , yet in the virgin Image in the Holy Spirit , and in the word that dwelleth in the virgin-like Image , becometh known . 79. And then Thirdly , with the Old Adam , we live in this Corrupted sickly world with the Devil in his kindled sickness or Longing : therefore it is said be Watchful , † or Circumspect . 80. Christ saith : * Be simple as Doves , and subtle as Serpents , take heed to your selves . 81. In Gods Kingdome we need wo subtilty , we are onely Children in the bosome of the Mother ; but in this world we must be watchfull , or Circumspect , or look to our selves . 82. We carry the Noble Treasure in an Earthly Vessel ; it is soon done , to loose God and the Kingdom of Heaven , which after this time is more to be attained . 83. We are here in the soyl and in the seed ; we stand here in the growing , if it fall out that the Stalk be once broken , yet the root is there still , so that another stalk may grow . 14. Here , the Door of Grace standeth open to Man , there is no sinner so great , but if the Convert , he may be regenerated , or new born out of the Evil Malignity . 85. But whosoever wilfully and ob●●inately casteth his root into the Devils Mire and as to his growing or sprouting out again , despairs or † resloves against it : who will help him , that will not himself be helped also God will not have him , who himself will not . 86. But if in his will he converts to God , then God will have him : for he which willeth in Gods Anger , him will Gods anger have ; But he which willeth in the Love , him will Gods love have . 87. Paul saith : † To whom you give your selves as Servants in Obedience ; either of sinne to Death , or of the Obedience of God to righteousness : its Servant ye are . 88. The wicked is to God an acceptable * savour in the Anger , and the Holy or Saint is an acceptable savour in his Love. 89. But can a Man make of himselfe what he will ? he hath both before him : the fire and the Light : will he be an Angel in the Light , then Gods Spirit in Christ helpeth him to the Society of the † Angelical Quire. 90. * But , will he be a Devil in Fire , then Gods Anger and fierce wrath helpeth him , and draweth him into the Abyss to the Devil : he getteth his * Ascendent , which he hath a longing or Lust unto . 91. But if he breaketh the first longing or Lust , and entereth into another , then he getteth another * Ascendent , but the first hangeth exceedingly to him , it willeth continually to have him again . 92. Therefore must the Noble Grain often stand in great pinchings , it must suffer it selfe to be pricked with Thornes , for † the Serpent continually stingeth the womans seed , viz : the virgin-Child in the Heel , the sting of the Serpent sticketh in the Old Adam , it continually stingeth the virgin-Childe in the Mothers body or * Womb , in the Heel .. 93. Therefore the life in this world , is with us poor captive Men , a valley of Misery , full of anguish , Crosses , cares , sorrow and troubles : we are here strange Guests , and are upon the Path of our Pilgrimage . 94. We must wander through great dismall wilde desert Corners ; and are environed with Evil Beasts , with Adders , Serpents , Wolves , and very horrible beasts , and the Evillest Beast , we carry in our Bosome . 95. Our fair little Virgin , standeth in that Evil desert Den or stable of Beasts , as a lodging . 96. But we know and say this with good ground ; that when the Noble Twig or Branch groweth , and becometh strong : then in that Man , the Old Adam must be Servant : must go behinde , and often do what it willeth not : he must often suffer the Cross , scorn , reproach and Death , and that he doth not willingly . 97. But , the virgin-like Image in Christ subdueth him , for it will readily and with Joy follow after Christ its Bridegroom , and be conformable to him in the Cross and tribulation . 98. And we may well say this also : that indeed none become Crowned with the virgin-like * Crown , which the woman , in the Revelation of John , weareth ; with Twelve Stars , viz : with the six Spirits of Nature , heavenly , and with the six Spirits Earthly ; unless he stand in the streames of the Dragon , and fly along into Agypt , viz : under the Cross in the Plagues of Aegypt . 99. He must † bear Christs Cross ; and put On Christs Thorney Crown , suffer himselfe to be mocked , abused and scorned ; if he will put on Christs and the Virgins Crown , he must first bear the Thorney Crown , if he will put on the Heavenly . 100. We present to the Enlightned still a secret Arcanum to be known ; that when the Pearl becometh lowen ; he then first putteth on the Crown in the Holy Ternary , with very great Joy and honour before Gods Angels and all † holy Virgins , and there is very great Joy therein . 101. But that Crown hideth it selfe again ; for in that place , God becometh Man : How then can there be but Great Joy ? 102. The Old Adam danceth for Company , but as an Ass after the Harp : but the Crown is laid by , in the becoming Man , or Incarnation . 103. Wilt thou now be a Conqueror , then thou must , in the footsteps of Christ , fight with the Old Ass also , against the Devil . 104. If thou overcomest , and wilt be acknowledged and received for a victorious Child of God ; then will the womans Crown with the Twelve stars be set upon thee , thou shalt weare that , till the virgin be born out of the Woman , out of thy death , or with thy Death ; that shall put on the † Threefold Crown of the Great honour and Glory in the Holy Ternary . 105. For , while the virgin-like Image lyeth yet shut up in the Old Adam , it attaineth not the Angels-Crown ; for it standeth yet in great danger and hazard . 106. But when it is born , with the dying of the Old Adam ; and Crept forth out of the husk or shell ; then it is an Angel : and can perish * no more , and then the right by-laid Crown wherein God became Man , will be set upon it . 107. But it reteineth the Crown of Twelve Starres also for an Eternall † Mark , for it shall not be forgotten in Eternity , that God , in the Earthly Woman , hath again unshut the virginity , and is become Man. 108. The six Earthly Marks shall stand for an Eternal Wonder , and be an Eternal Song of Praise , that God hath delivered us out of Necessity and Death . 109. And the six heavenly Marks shall be our Crown and Honour or Glory , that we with the Heavenly have over-come the Earthly . 110. Thus shall the Marks of victory remain standing in Eternity , in which it shall be known , what God hath had to doe with the Humanity ; and , how , Man is the greatest Wonder in Heaven ; at which the Angells highly rejoyce . The Fourteenth Chapter . Of the New-Regeneration ; in what Substance Being and Property , the New-Regeneration , viz : the Virgin-Child , standeth , while it yet sticketh in the Old Adam . 1. BEing we swim in this miserable Sea , in this Earthly flesh and Blood ; and are become of an Earthly source or quality ; wherein we lie shut up in the dimness in the Glimmering ; therefore let not the Noble Mind cease to search concerning its true Native Country : into which it is to go . 2. It continually saith : where is thy God ? or when shall it come to pass , that I may see the Countenance of God ? where is my † Noble Pearl ? where is the virgins-Child ; I see it not yet ; how is it with me , that I am so anxious about that which yet I cannot see ? 3. I find indeed , the great longing and desire after it ; but cannot see , where my heart might rest . 4. I am yet continually as a Woman , which would fain bring forth : how fain would I see my fruit , which is promised me from my God. 5. There is a Continual longing for the Birth , * one day calleth another , the Morning to the Evening , and the Night to the Day again , and hopeth in the Abstinence ; when once the clear Morning Star will arise , which will give rest to the Mind . 6. And it is with it , as with a Woman , that laboureth for the Birth ; that continually hopeth for the discovery , and waiteth for it with longing and groaning . 7. Thus my beloved , Children of God , it goeth with us , we suppose that we are far off from it ; yet thus we stand in the Birth ; we generato thus in great groaning in anguish ; and know not the seed which we generate ; for it lyeth shut up . 8. We generate not as to this World ; how will we then see the fruit with the Eyes of this world ? neither doth the fruit belong to this world . 9. But seeing we have attained the True knowledge of this Matter , not as to the outward Man , but as to the Inward ; therefore we will pourtray it in a similitude , for the Readers sake , and for our Refreshment . 10. If we would consider our selves , how we are so twofold , with a Twofold Mind , Thoughts , senses and will , we can not better come to the knowledge thereof then by considering the Creature or Creation . 11. We see a rude stone lying on the ground , and in many of them , there is the best Gold , and we see plainly how the Gold glisters in the Stone , but the stone is inanimate , and knoweth not that it hath such Noble precious Gold in it . 12. So also we ; we are Earthly ▪ Sulphur , but we have an Heavenly Sulphur in the Earthly , wherein each is its own by it selfe . 13. Indeed , during this life time , they are one among another , but they qualifie or operate not together , one with the other , the one is the * conteiner and dwelling-house of the other . 14. As we see in Gold , that the rude drossy stone is not the Gold , but is onely its receptacle that conteineth it ; also it s rude drossiness doth not afford the Gold ; but the Tinctura solis , or Tincture of Sol affordeth it in the rude Stone . 15. But the rude Stone is the Mother , and Sol is the Father , for Sol impregnateth the rude stone , because it hath the Center of Nature , out of which Sol hath its Original . 16. If we would go on into the Center , we would set it down : but seeing it is sufficiently explained in the other writings we let it alone here . 17. But so it is also with Men ; the Earthly Man is signified by the rude drossy Stone : Sol signifieth the Word which became Man , which impregnateth the corrupted perished Man. 18. The cause is this : the Corrupted perished Man is indeed Earthly he hath the Eternal Center of Nature , he longeth after Gods * Sol ▪ for in his Creation Gods Sol , was taken along to his Substance . 19. But now the rude Stone hath over-grown the Gold , and hath swallowed it up into it selfe , so that the Gold is intermixed with the rude drossy Sulphur : and cannot escape the rude Sulphur , unless it be clensed in the fire , so that the rude drossiness be melted away , and then Sol remaineth alone . 20. Understand this of Dying and consuming , therein the rude drossy Earthly flesh , is melted away , and then the virgin-like spiritual flesh , remaineth alone 21. Understand us aright , what we mean ; we speak the precious and sublime Truth , as we know and understand it . 22. The New-Man is not onely a Spirit : He is even Flesh and Blood , as the Gold in the stone is not onely Spirit , it hath a Body , but not such a one as the rude drossy stone is ; but a Body , which subsisteth in the Center of Nature , in the Fire . 23. Whose Body , the fire cannot Consume , and that , because the Gold hath another Principle . 24. Dost thou know this thou Earthly Man ? No , It justly remaineth Mute in silence : for the Earth is not worthy of the Gold , though indeed it carrieth it , and also generateth it . 25. So also the earthly Man , is not worthy of the Jewel , which he carrieth , and though indeed he helpeth to generate it , yet he is but dark or dusky Earth , in respect of the virgin-childe , born of God. 26. And as the Gold hath a true Body , which lyeth hidden and captive in the rude drossy stone : so also the virgin-like Tincture in the Earthly Man hath a true real Heavenly divine Body in flesh and blood . 27. But not in such flesh and and blood as the Earthly : It can subsist in the Fire , it goeth through Stone and Wood , and is not apprehended ; as the Gold presseth through the rude Stone and breaketh it Not , neither doth it break or destroy it self . 28. Thus it is also with the Earthly Man : when he conceiveth the Word of life , which became Man in Christ , then he conceiveth it in the perished Sulphur of his flesh and Blood , in the virgin-like Center which was shut up in Death ; wherein Adam was a virgin like Image : wherein the wilde Earth inveloped , his Gold of the clear Divine Substantiality ; so that the heavenly must stand in Death in the Center of the Fire : In that very Center , I say . 29. And in that very Center , the Word of Life moved it self , which became Man in Mary , and therein , the Substantiality shut up in Death , attained a living Tincture . 30. And then the Noble Gold , viz : the heavenly substantiality in Death , began to sprout forth , and had instantly in it selfe the Holy Spirit in the word of Life , which * there proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne , and maketh the wisdome , viz : the heavenly Virgin , as a Looking-Glass of the Express Image of the Deity , as a pure Sulphur for it selfe ; a pure flesh and bloud wherein it dwelleth . 31. Not earthly Essence , but divine Essence , out of the heavenly Substantiality . 32. This is * the true real Flesh and Blood of Christ ; for it groweth in Christs Spirit in the word of Life , which became Man , which brake or destroyed Death , wherein the divine Tincture sprouted again , and generated substance out of it selfe . 33. For all is generated and proceeded out of Gods desiring : But if God be a fire and also a Light , then it is sufficiently knowable to Us , out of what every thing is proceeded . 34. Yet we cannot by any means say otherwise , then that out of the Good and richly amiable ; Good is proceeded . 35. For , a Good-desiring will , conceiveth in its † Imagination , its like ; it maketh that , through the hunger of its desiring like it selfe . 36. Thus it is knowable to us , that being the Deity hath * pleased to have a Looking-Glass , an Image of its like ; that the divine longing , Pleasure or Placet , would also in its impregnating , have the Good and Most lovely , to be generated in its desirous will , a right similitude , according to the Good , according to the clear bright Deity . 37. But that the Earthly hath intermixed it selfe therewith ; that is the fault of the desirous Anger , viz : of the fire ; the fault of the Devil who with his Imagination kindled it . 38. Thus also it is highly knowable to us , That God * would not forsake his own , his very best and loveliest of all , which he Created to his likeness , into a Creaturely substance . 39. He rather became himselfe , such a one as he had Created , that he might generate or bring forth the perished or corrupted out of perdition or Corruption again , and put or change it into the Best , wherein he might Eternally dwell . 40. And we say with good ground , that God himself dwelleth Subsistingly in the New Man , not through a Glimps or a strange Glance or appearance , but substantially , yet in his own Principle . 41. The outward Man , toucheth or apprehendeth him not . 42. Also , the flesh and Blood of the New-Man , * is not God. It is heavenly Substantiality ; God is Spirit ; God doth not perish or Corrupt , though plainly the Substance perisheth or Corrupteth : thus God remaineth in himself . 43. He needeth no going away , for he useth also no going or Entring in . 44. But he manifesteth himself in Flesh and Bloud ; it is his longing pleasure , to possess a similitude . 45. And thus if we rightly know our selves , and go according to it ; we then find , that , Man , understand the whole Man , is a right similitude of or according to God. 46. For , according to the Earthly life and Body , he is of from this world ; & according to the virgin-like Life and Body he is from heaven . 47. For , the virgin-like Essence , hath heavenly Tincture , and maketh heavenly Flesh , in which God dwelleth . 48. As , the Gold in the Stone hath another Tincture then the rude drossy stone ; and that very Tincture hath another Body : Every , Body , cometh to be out of its own Tincture . 49. As therefore we know , that the Earth is become generated from ●he fierce wrath out of the Center of the harsh astringent hellish fi●e , viz : Of the Cold Fire : out of the Sulphur , of the Stern severity in the Anguish to Fire : as is mentioned in the Book of the Three Principles . 50. Thus also a good Corpus or Body , cometh out of a Good Essence , for the Essence * maketh the life ; and yet it self is not the Life : the Life ariseth in the Principle , as in the Fire ; be it in the Cold or in the Hot , or in the light Fire ; each is a Principle of its own , and yet is not severed . 52. Thus we will now with good Ground of Truth , speak and say , concerning the Humanity , with clear plain and unveyled words , not from supposition or Opinion , but from our own true knowledge in the enlightning given us from God. 52. First , that the new Regenerate Man ; which lyeth hidden in the Old , as the Gold in the Stone : hath a heavenly Tincture , and hath divine heavenly flesh and Bloud on it , 53. And that the Spirit of that Flesh , is no strange Spirit but its own , generated out of its own Essence . 54. Secondly : And then we also clearly know and say ; that the Word which in Mary became Man , is the first Ground to the beginning Tincture in the Sulphur : and plainly know , that Christs Spirit which filleth heaven in All places , dwelleth in that very Tincture . 55. Thirdly , we manifestly know , that this heavenly Flesh is Christs Flesh , in which the Holy Trinity dwelleth undivided . 56. Fourthly ; we apparently know , that it is possible , that , that very flesh and Blood in the Time of the Old Adam , can through Imagination become perished or Corrupted again , as came to pass in Adam . 57. Fifthly ; we say , that the Deity in the perishing or Corrupting , doth not depart or go away , also is touched with No Evil. 58. For , that which looseth the Love of God ; that falleth home to the Anger : what falleth out from the Light , that catcheth the fire : and the Spirit of God remaineth to it selfe unperished or uncorrupt . 59. Sixtly ; That , the possibility to the New-Birth , is , in all Men , else God were divided , and not in one place as he is in another . 60. And herein we exactly know , that , Man , is drawn , by the Fire and the Light ; to which he inclineth with the Beam of the Balance , into that he falleth ; and yet he may in his life time , raise up the Tongue of his Angle or Beam , aloft again . 61. Also , that the Holy clear Deity , willeth no Evil ; it also willeth no Devil , it hath desired none , much less to have any man be in Hellin the Anger of God. 62. But seeing there is no Light without fire ; therefore it is sufficiently knowable to Us , how the Devil hath through Imagination gazed or reflected himself on the Anger-fire , as also all men that will become Damned ; they will not suffer themselves to be remedyed , but themselves fulfil the Greedy fire-source or quality ; they suffer themselves to be drawn , and yet can well stand . 63. Seventhly , we say ; That the true Temple , wherein the Holy Ghost preacheth , is in the New-Birth ; 64. That all is Dead Crooked and Lame , which teacheth not out of Gods Spirit . 65. That the Holy Spirit mixeth not it selfe in the sound of the Mouth of the wicked : That no wicked Man is Christs shepheard . 66. For , although , in the Holy , or Saints , the Clock cometh to be struck with or by the voyce of the wicked ; it would indeed be done by the Cry of a Beast , if its noise were intelligible , and did sound the most precious Name of God. 67. For as soon as the Name of God is mentioned , and giveth a sound , then instantly the other sound catcheth it , viz : in that place wherein it is sounded , as , in the holy Soul. 68. But no wicked awakeneth , or raiseth up another wicked , out of Death ; for , that cannot be ; they are both in the Anger of God , and lie yet shut up in Death . 69. Had we our selves been able to have risen up out of Death , then had Gods heart not needed to have become Man. 70. Therefore we say with Certain Ground : * That onely that very word , which there is become Man , awakeneth or raiseth up the poor sinner out of his Death ; and generateth him to Repentance and to a new life . 71. Therefore all Preachers or Cryers , that are wicked or ungodly , are not profitable in the Temple of Christ ; but those that have Christs spirit , † they are his shepheards . 72. We clearly know and say , That all Teachers which give out themselves for Christs servants and Church-Ministers , and that for their Bellies and honour sake , and yet are Unregenerate ; are the Antichrist and the Woman in the Revelation of John , upon the Dragon . 73. We say ; That all Tyranny and selfe usurped power and Authority , wherewith the miserable are squeezed , Oppressed , drunk up , vexed and tormented , is that abominable Horrible Cruel Beast , upon which Antichrist Rideth . 74. We know and say ; that the Time is near ; and the Day Dawneth or breaketh , wherein † this Evil Beast with the Whore , shall go into the Abyss . Amen Halelujah Amen . The second Part of the Book of the Incarnation , is concerning The Suffering , Dying , Death , and Resurrection , of CHRIST And How we must enter into , Christs Suffering Dying and Death and Rise again with and through him out of his Death , and become conformable to his Image , and Eternally Live in Him. Written In the Year 1620. in the German Tongue . By Jacob Behme THE Teutonick Philosopher , Dwelling at Gerlitz . LONDON , Printed by J. M. for Lodowick Lloyd , at the Castle in Cornhil , 1659. Of CHRISTS Suffering , Dying , Death , and Resurrection . And How we must Enter into , Christs suffering , dying , and Death , and arise with and through him , out of his Death ; and become like his Image , and live in him Eternally . The First Chapter . Of the Eternal Beginning , and of the Eternal End. 1. Reasons , Objection . OUtward Reason saith : were it not sufficient that God became man in US ; wherefore Must Christ suffer and Dye . 2. could not God then thus introduce Man into Heaven with the New Birth ? Is not God Omnipotent enough to do what he will ? 3. What pleasure hath God in Death and dying ? that he hath not onely suffered his Sonne to dye on the Cross , but that we all must Dye also ? 4. If then God hath by the Dying of his Sonne , redeemed us , and paid a ransom for us , wherefore then must we also dye and perish or be consumed ? thus Reason runneth on . Answer . 5. To this Looking-Glass we will have the Antichrist , who calleth himself Christs Minister , Pastor , or shepheard , invited for a Guest : and all the high-Schools or Vniversities of this World ; with their disputations and Lawes ; as also all the Children of Christ ; who bear Christ Cross : They shall all see the true Ground . 6. Not with this meaning , to contemn any in his Ignorance , but for the true Teaching and Instruction , that every one might seek and find himself . 7. For it will be a very Earnest matter , and concerneth Man , it costeth body and Soul. 8. He ought not at all to flight it ; for he that hath this knowledge given him , he hath prepared his Trumpet ; It concerneth all Man-kind ; † Every one should trim his Lampe . 9. There will be a Great Two-fold King Come , out of Two Gates : he is but one Onely , and yet two ; he hath * Fire and Light ; he draweth in both , on Earth and also in Heaven , let this be a Wonder to thee . 10. Dear Children of Christ , when we consider of Death , how we must go through Death into Life , then we find altogether another kind of Life ; which cometh out of Death . 11. And we find Instantly , why Christ must have dyed ; and why we must also dye in Christs Death , rise again in him ; and with him , and through him , enter into Gods Kingdom . 12. If now we would find this , we must then consider the Eternity in the Ground and Abyss , else there is no finding of it : we must onely find it where it is . 13. For , out of the Eternal Ground have we , with the Image of God , our original , viz : with the soul and its Image . 14. But are become introduced into the Temporary and Corruptible , viz : into the source or quality thereof . 15. But now the Eternity , viz : the Abyss , is a Liberty without source or * quality and therefore we must go again into the Liberty through dying . 16. Yet we cannot say , that there is no Life therein ; it is the right Life , which there subsisteth Eternally without source or quality . 17. And we give you it in a True reall similitude to meditate and consider of : which indeed is a similitude according to the Kingdom of this world ; but if we * take the divine world to it , or along with it ; then it is the Substance it self . 18. You know that our Life consisteth in Fire , for without warmth we live not . 19. Now , the Fire hath its own Center , it s own Maker in its Circle or Circumference and Extent , viz : the se●ven Forms or Spirits of Nature . 20. And yet onely the First four Forms are acknowledged and accounted to be Nature , viz : the springing source or quality , wherein the fire becometh awakened and struck up , that there be a Principle and lifes Circle or Center there , wherein the † Matter of the burning , maketh it selfe , in the Spirits or formes , and is also Continually consumed in the Fire . 21. And the Fire giveth forth out of the * Consumingness , an other that is better , then the First , which maketh the Fire . 22. For , the Fire killeth or mortifieth and devoureth the substance which the fire it selfe Maketh , understand the Essential Fire , in the forms to Fire : it confumeth that , and giveth out of the Death , a much Nobler and better , which it cannot Consume . 23. And that is demonstrated to you in fire and Light ; which is not onely the true similitude , but it is the substance it selfe ; onely a Man is to distinguish the Principles ; It is indeed all a Fire ; but distinguisheth it selfe according to the source or Quality . 24. If we will present this to be understood ; it is necessary , that we mention the fires Originall : but being we have elsewhere , viz : in the Book of the Three Principles , and in other besides , described it at large , with all Circumstances : therefore here we will set down a brief description , and direct the Reader to the other writings , if he would throughly search out the Seaven forms of Nature . 25. The Fire hath Especially Three forms in it to the Center ; and the Fourth form is the fire it selfe , and giveth the Principle , viz : the Life , together with the Spirit ; for in the first Three Forms there is no right Spirit , they are onely Essences . 26. Viz : First , the Harsh Astringency , that is the desirous Will ; that is the first and Chiefest Form. 27. Secondly , And the Bitter stinging , that is the second Form , a Cause of the Essences . 28. Thirdly : After that , the Anguish , viz : the Circle or Center of Life : the turning wheele , which catcheth or apprehendeth the senses or Thoughts , viz : the bitter Essences , in it selfe , and swalloweth them up as it were into Death ; and giveth forth out of the Anxious Chamber , viz : out of Death , the Minde , viz : another Center . 29. Now understand this thus ; * In the Eternity , viz : in the Abyss without or beyond Nature , is Nothing but a stilness without substance ; it hath also nothing that giveth or affordeth any thing ; it is an Eternal Rest , and like Nothing : an Abyss without beginnig and End ; it is also no limit Circumscription or place , no seeking or finding , or any thing in possibility there . 30. That Abyss is like an Eye : AVge , for it is its own Looking-Glass ; it hath no Moving , also neither Light nor Darkness . 31. It is Especially a * Magia , and it hath a will , after which we should not dive or search , for it troubleth us . 32. With or by this very will , we understand , the Ground of the Deity , which is of No Original , for it apprehendeth it selfe in it selfe ; concerning which we are justly Mute or silent ; for it is without or beyond Nature . 33. And being we are in Nature , we know it not † in Eternity , for , in the Will , the Deity it selfe , is All ; and the Eternal Originall of its own Spirit , and of All and every substance . 34. * In that very will it is Omnipotent and Omniscient ; but in that will it is not called or known to be God , for it is therein , neither Good nor Evil. 35. It is a desirous will , which there is the beginning and also the End , for the End maketh also the beginning of this will , and the beginning the End. 36. And thus we finde that All substances are shut up in an Eye AVge . and that is as a Looking-Glass , wherein the will * beholdeth it self , what it is . 37. And in that * beholding , it becometh desirous of that Substance which it selfe is . 38. And the Desiring is a drawing in , and yet there is Nothing , that can there be drawn , but the will draweth it self in the desiring it self , and modelleth it in its desiring , for what it is . 39. † That very Model is the Looking-Glass , wherein the will seeth what it is for it is a similitude of or according to the willing . 40. And we know that very Looking-Glass , wherein the will seeth or beholdeth it selfe ; to be the Eternall wisdome of God. 41. For , it is an Eternal Virgin without Substance , and yet is the Looking-Glass of all substances , in which all things have been foreseen from Eternity whatsoever there should or could be . 42. But now also , this Looking-Glass , is not the seeing it selfe : but the will , which is desirous ; that is the outgoing longing pleasure of the will , which goeth forth out of the will , and that is a Spirit , and maketh , in the longing pleasure of the desiring , the Looking-Glass . 43. The Spirit is the Life , the Looking-Glass is the Manifestation or Revelation of the Life ; else the Spirit would not know it selfe : for the Looking-Glass , viz : the wisdome , is its ground and reteiner or preserver . 44. It is the Invention , or that which is found by the Spirit , where the Spirit findeth it self in the Wisdom . 45. The wisdome without the Spirit , is no substance ; and the Spirit without the wisdome is not manifest to it selfe , and one without the Other were an Abyss . 46. Thus the wisdome , viz : the Looking-Glass of the Spirit of the Deity , is for or as to it self , Mute , inanimate or silent , * and is the Deities , viz : the Spirits Body , wherein the Spirit dwelleth . 47. It is a Virgin-like Matrix , wherein the Spirit openeth it selfe : and is the substantiality of God , viz : a Holy Divine Sulphur , † apprehended in the Imagination , of from or by the Spirit of the Abyss of Eternity . 48. * And this Looking-Glass or Sulphur , is the Eternal first Beginning , and the Eternal first End : and is every where like an Eye ▪ AVge , wherewith the Spirit seeth ; what it is therein , and what it would open or manifest . 49. This Looking-Glass or Eye , AVge , is without ground or limit , as indeed the Spirit hath no Ground but onely in this Eye , AVge . 50. It is Every where altogether totally Entire undivided , as we know that the Abyss cannot be divided , for there is Nothing that there divideth , there is no moving * without or beyond the Spirit . Thus it is knowable to us , what the ‖ Eternal Spirit in the wisdome is : and what the Eternal beginning and the Eternal End is . The second Chapter . The true and highly-worthy and precious Gate of the Holy Trinity . The Eye AVge of the Eternal Lifes Glance . 1. As then we understand , that the Eternal beginning in the Abyss , is an Eternal will in it selfe ; whose Originall in it selfe , no creature shall ever know . 2. Yet we are to know , and are given to know in the spirit , its ground ; which it maketh to it selfe ; wherein it resteth . 3. For , a will is thin or Obscure , as it were Nothing : therefore it is desirous ; it willeth to be somewhat ; that it might be Manifest in it selfe . 4. For the Nothing causeth the willing , that it is desirous ; and the desiring is an Imagination . 5. Wherein the will , in the Looking-Glass of Wisdome , discovereth it selfe , and so it Imagineth out of the Abyss into it selfe , and maketh to it selfe in the Imagination , a ground in it selfe ; and impregnateth it selfe with the Imagination out of the wisdome , viz : out of the Virgin-like Looking-Glass which there , is a Mother without generating , without willing . 6. The impregnation is not performed in the * Looking-Glass , but in the willing : in the willings Imagination . 7. The Looking-Glass remaineth Eternally a Virgin , without generating ; but the will becometh impregnated with the Glimps of the Looking-Glass . 8. For the will is Father , and the Impregnation in the Father , viz : in the will , is Heart , or Sonne ; for it is the wills , viz : the Fathers Ground , wherein the Spirit of the willing 〈◊〉 in the Ground , and out of the willing in the ground goeth forth into the Virgin-like wisdome . 9. Thus , the willings Imagination , viz : the Fathers : attracteth the Looking-Glasses Avision , or aspect form or representation , viz : the Wonder of the Power Colours and virtue , into it self , and so becometh impregnated with the Glance of the wisdome with the power and virtue : This is the wills , viz : the Fathers Heart , wherein the Abyssal will attaineth a ground in it selfe , through and in the Eternal Imagination . 10. Thus we know the Fathers impregnating to be the Center of the Spirit of the Eternity , wherein the Eternal Spirit continually apprehendeth it selfe . 11. For , the will is the beginning ; and the moving or drawing in into the Imagination , viz : to the Looking-Glass of wisdome , is the Eternal abyssal Spirit , which ariseth in the willing , and apprehendeth it selfe in the Center of the Heart , in the power of the intracted wisdom , and is the Hearts Life and Spirit . 12. Now then being the Eternal Abyssal will in it selfe , is as it were inanimats mute or silent , therefore that which is apprehended or conceived , our of the wisdome , which is called Heart or Center is the word of the willing ; for it is the sound or the power , and is the willings Mouth , which manifesteth the willing . 13. For , the will , viz ▪ the Father , Speaketh with the moving of the Spirit , the power , forth , in the Looking-Glass of the wisdom . 14. And with the speaking forth , the Spirit goeth , out from the willing out of the Word of the Mouth of God , viz : out of the Center of the Heart , forth , into that which is out-spoken , viz ▪ into the Virgin-like Looking-Glass ; and openeth the word of life in the Looking-Glass of wisdome , so that the Threefold substance of the Deity in the wisdome becometh Manifest . 15. Thus we acknowledge an Eternal abyssal divine Substance , and therein Three Persons , whereas one is not the other . 16. Viz : the Eternall will , which is the Cause of all and every substance ; that is the First Person ; yet , is not the substance it selfe ; but the Cause of Substance , and is free from Substance , for it is the Abyss . 17. There is nothing before it , that can give it , but it giveth it selfe , of which we have no knowledg . 18. It is All , and yet also thus but ONE onely , in it selfe without substance , a Nothing . 19. And in this One onely willing , ar●seth the Eternall Beginning through * Imagination or desiring . 20. And in the Desiring , the willing impregnateth it selfe out of the Eye , AVge , of wisdome ; which with the willing is in like or Equall Eternity , without ground and beginning , as is mentioned above . 21. That very Impregnation is the Ground of the willing , and of the substance of all Substances , and is the Sonne of the willing . 22. For , the will generateth this Sonne from Eternity in Eternity perpetually , for it is its * Heart or its word , viz : a sound or revelation or Manifestation of the Abyss of the still Eternity , and is the willings * Mouth or understanding ; and is justly called another Person , then the Father : for it is the Fathers revelation or Manifestation , his Ground and Substance . 23. For a Will is no substance , but the willings Imagination maketh Substance . 24. Thus , the second Person is the substance of the Deity ; understand ; the substance of the Holy Trinity ; the Mouth of the Manifestation or Revelation of the substance of all Substances , and the power of the Life of all and every Life . 25. The Third Person , is the Spirit , which with the apprehension of the Willing through the Imagination , out of the power of , the speaking , goeth forth out of the Mouth of the Father , into the Eye , AVge , viz : into the Looking Glass of wisdome , that is clearly free from the willing and also from the Word . 26. And although , indeed the will out of the Word giveth it , yet it is free as the Aire is free from the Fire : as Men see , that the Air is the Fires spirit and Life , and yet is another thing then the Fire , and yet is given forth also from the Fire . 27. And as Men see , that the Air giveth forth a living and moving Heaven , which is lustrous and moveable : so also is the Holy Spirit , the Spirit and Life of the Deity ; and another Person , then the Father and Sonne . 28. It beareth also another Office ; it openeth the wisdome of God , so that the Wonders Appeare : as the Aire openeth all the Life of this World , that all Live and Grow . 29. Thus , this is a short explanation of the Deity in the Abyss ; how God dwelleth in himselfe , and is himselfe the Center of the Genetrix . 30. But now the humane Mind resteth not satisfied with this ; it asketh or inquireth after Nature , after that out of which this world is become born or Generated , and All Created : Therefore now the Text concerning the Principle followeth further ; to which we have invited Reason for a Guest . The Third Chapter . How God , without the Principle of Fire , would not be manifested or revealed : also Concerning the Eternal Substance : and Concerning the Abyssal Will. 1. WEe have by this description , shewed you : what the Deity without or beyond Nature , is : wherein it is to be understood , that the Deity ; as concerning the Three Persons , together with the Eternal Wisdome , that they are free from Nature ▪ and that the Deity hath yet a deeper Ground , then the Principle in the Fire . 2. But now , the Deity without the Principle were not or would not be Manifest . 3. And understand , the Deity without or beyond the Principle to be a Glimps of the Great Wonder , which none knoweth or can know , what is is , wherein all Colours power and virtue appear in a very terrible substance , which yet seemeth like no substance ; but a terrible Wonder-AVge , or Eye of Wonder● ; so that neither Fire , Light , no● Darkness , may be discerned , but a Glimps of such a Spirit , in a high deep blew green and mixed Colour , wherein all Colours lye , and yet none may be known from the other , but resembleth a Flash which is terrible , whose Glimps disturbeth and Consumeth all . 4. Thus we are to know , concerning the Eternal substance , viz : the Eternal Spirit ; without the Fire and Light ; for it is a desirous will , which thus maketh it self a Spirit . 5. This Spirit is the Eternall Potentiality of the Abyss , wherein the Abyss bringeth it selfe into a Ground , whence all substance ariseth . 6. For every Form in the Spirit , is an Imagination , a desirous will , and desireth to manifest or Reveal it self . 7. Every Form impregnateth its Imagination , and Every form also desireth to manifest it self : and therefore is the Looking-Glass of the Glimps , a Wonder of the substance of all Substances , and of the wonder there is neither Number ground nor End. 8. It is a meer Wonder , whose comprehension can not be written ; for onely the soulish Spirit , which ariseth out of this Wonder , that alone understandeth it . 9. And then we understand , how this Abyssal will , is from Eternity in Eterni●y , perpetually desirous , viz : to Manifest it self , and to search or fathom it self , what it is ; to bring the Wonder into a Substance , and to Manifest it self in the Wonders . 10. The desiring , is an Imagination , wherein the willing draweth into it self , and impregnateth it self , and † overshadoweth it self with the Imagination , that so out of the free willing a Contrary or opposite will existeth , to be free from the Overshadowing , viz : from the Darknesse . 11. For , that which is drawn in , is the Darkness of the free willing , whereas otherwise without the Imagination , it would be free : ●et also , in it self without the Imagination , it would be a Nothing . 12. Thus there ariseth together , in the first willing in the Desiring , a Contrary or opposite willing : for , the desiring is drawing in , and the first will is quiet or still , and in it self , without substance . 13. But it Impregnateth it self , with the desiring , so that it is full of Substance , viz : of the Wonder and power which overshadow it , and make a Darkness of it or out of it . 14. Whereas then in the indrawn powers an other will apprehendeth it self , to go out from the dark power into the liberty . 15. That other or second will , is the Hearts or words Will ; for it is a cause of the Principle , that the anxious wheel kindleth the Fire . 16. So then it goeth through the Anguish , viz : through the fire , forth , with the shining or Lustre of the Light , viz : the Majesty , wherein then the Substance of the Holy Trinity becometh Manifest ; and conceiveth or assumeth here the deare and precious Name God. GOLL . 17. Understand this further thus . The first will , viz : God the Father , that is and remaineth Eternally free from the Anxious source or quality ; as to what the willing in it selfe , is ; but it s desiring becometh impregnated , and in the desiring , ariseth Nature , with the Forms , and Nature dwelleth in the Will , viz : in God , and the will in Nature . 19. And yet there is no Mingling ; for the will is so very thinne as it were Nothing , and therefore it is not apprehensible , it is not comprehended by Nature ; else if it might be Comprehended there would in the Deity , be BUT , ONE Person . 20. It is indeed the cause of Nature , but yet it is , and remaineth in Eternity , another World ; and Nature , remaineth also another world in it self ; for it standeth in the power of the Essence , out of which the Principle ariseth . 21. For , the Clear bright Deity in the Majesty , standeth not in the Essence or in the Principle , but in the Liberty without or beyond Nature . 22. But the shining Light without or beyond the Principle maketh , the Incomprehensible or Abyssal Deity manifest ; it giveth the shining or Lustre of the Majesty ; and yet hath it not in it selfe , but it comprehendeth or conceiveth it out of the Looking-Glass of the virgin-like wisdome , out of the Liberty of God. 23. For , if the Looking-Glass of Wisdome , were not , then could no Fire or Light be generated ; it all taketh its Original , from the Looking-Glass of the Deity : that is now to be understood , in this manner following . 24. God , is in himselfe , the Abyss , viz : the first World , of which no Creature knoweth any thing at all ; * for it standeth solely and alone , with Spirit and Body in the Byss or Ground . 25. Thus also God himselfe in the Abyss , would not be manifest to ●imselfe ; but his wisdome is from Eternity become his Ground or Byss . 26. After which therefore the Eternal willing of the Abyss of the Deity hath pleased to Long , from whence the divine Imagination hath existed , so that the Abyssal will of the Deity , hath thus from Eternity , in the Imagination , with the power of the Avision or Aspect , or form of the Looking-Glass of Wonders , impregnated it self . 27. Now , in this Impregnation of the Eternal Original , are two Principles to be understood , viz : First , the Eternal Darkness , out of which the Eternal world Originateth it selfe , and the Substantiality of the fierce wrath in the Darkness , wherein we understand Gods anger and the Abyss of Nature : and thus we know and acknowledge the fiery world to be the Great Life . 28. And then also Secondly we understand , First , how out of the Fire , the Light becometh generated . And Secondly ; how , between the fiery and light World Death is . 29. Thirdly , How the Light shineth out of Death : and Fourthly : How the Light-flaming World , is another principle source or quality in it selfe , then the fire-world : and yet neither is seperated from the other , neither can the one comprehend the other . 30. Fi●thly , we understand ; How the Light-world filleth the Eternal Liberty . viz : the first willing , which is called Father . 31. Sixthly ; Thus we understand also , herein Earnestly and fundamentally : how , that Natural life , which will dwell in the Light flaming world , must go through death , and must become generated or born forth out of Death . 32. Seventhly , Yet we understand or mean ; that Life which originally ariseth out of the Darkness , viz : out of the Essence of the dark substantiality ; as viz : the soul of Man ; which had out of the fire-world turned it selfe into the Dark substantiality in Adam : Eighthly ; Therefore then we fundamentally and Exactly understand ; wherefore God , viz : the Heart of God , is become Man. 33. And Ninthly ; wherefore he must of necessity dye , and enter into Death , and break his Life in Death , and afterward bring it through the fiery world into the Light-flaming World : And Tenthly , wherefore we must thus follow him . 34. And Eleventhly ; we understand further , wherefore many souls remain and Continue in the fire-world , and cannot go through Death into the light-world . Twelfthly , what Death is . Thirteenthly also , what the Soul is . This is now as followeth . 35. When we consider what the life is ; we find that it specially consisteth in Three parts , viz : first , in the Desiring ; Secondly in the Mind ; Thirdly in the senses or thoughts . 36. Now if we search further , what that is which giveth or affordeth that ; then we find ; the Center , viz : the Essential Wheel , which hath the * Fire-Smith in it selfe . 37. And then if we consider further , whence that Essential Fire existeth ; we find , that it taketh its original in the Desiring of the Eternal abyssal willing , which , with the desiring maketh to it selfe a Ground . 38. For , every desiring is attractive , or harsh and astringent , of that which the will desireth ; * and yet there is nothing for it , that it may desire , but onely it selfe ; that is the Great Wonder-Eye , Wunder-AVge , without limit and ground ; wherein all lyeth . 39. And yet also is a Nothing , unless it become in the desiring will , made a somewhat , which is done by Imagination ; wherein it becometh a substance , whereas yet it is a Nothing , for it is onely an overshadowing of the Free-willing . 40. Which Substance , over-shadoweth the Liberty , viz : the Thinne unsearchable willing , so that two worlds come to be : first : One which in it selfe is incomprehensible and unconceivable , an abyss and Eternal Liberty ; and Secondly , one which comprehendeth , and maketh it selfe a Darkness . 41. And yet neither is sundred from the other , onely this is the difference or distinction , that * the Darkness cannot comprehend the Liberty ; for † it is too Thinne , and dwelleth also in it self , as also the Darkness dwelleth in it self . The very Earnest Gate . 42. Here now we understand . First , how the Fathers Second Will , which , in the Looking-Glass of wisdome he sharpeneth to his hearts Center , becometh impregnated with the substantiality in the Father Imagination . 43. And Secondly that , the same impregnation in respect of the liberty of the first will , which is called Father , is a Darkness : and Thirdly , How in the Darkness or substantiality , all powers , Colours and Virtues lie in the Imagination ; moreover all Wonders . 44. And Fourthly , we understand ; How the powers , wonders and virtues , must be manifested through the Fire , viz : in the Principle wherein all passeth into its Essence : for in the principle the Essence originally ariseth . 45. And fifthly ; we understand very Earnestly and exactly ; that , in the Principle , ere , the fire ariseth , there is a dying , viz : the great anguish life . 46. Which yet is no dying , but a harsh astringent , stern dying source or quality , out of which the great and strong Life ariseth , viz : the fire-life ; And sixthly , then out of the deadned , the sight-Life , with the power of the Love. 47. Which Light-life with the Love dwelleth in the Eternal Liberty , viz : in the first willing , which is called Father ; for , that , the Father in his own willing , which is himselfe , desireth ; and nothing more . 48. That now understand thus : ye see and know that there is no Light without Fire ; and there is no Fire , without the Earnest source or quality , which source or quality is like a Dying ; and the Sabstantiality out of which the Fire burneth must thus also dye and be consumed . 49. Out of the Consuming consisteth two Principles , of two great Lives ; One in the source or quality which is called Fire , and one out of the vanquishedness , viz : out of the Death , which is called Light , which is Immaterial and without source or Quality , and yet hath all sources or qualities in it , but not the source of the fierce wrath . 50. For , the fierce wrath is remained in Death , and the Light-life groweth out of the Dying , as a fair blossome out of the Earth , and is no more , apprehended by the Dying . 51. As then ye see , how the Light dwelleth in the Fire , and the fire cannot move it , and besides that there is also nothing that can move the Light ; for it is like the Eternall Liberty , and dwelleth in the Liberty . 52. Here ye understand , how the Sonne is another Person then the Father ; for he is the Light-world ; and yet dwelleth in the Father ; and the Father generateth him in his willing ; and he is rightly the Fathers Love , also † wonder Council and Power . 53. For , the Father generateth him in his Imagination in himselfe ▪ and bringeth him through his own fire , viz : through the Principle , forth through Death , so that the Sonne maketh and is another World , viz : another Principle in the Father : then the fire-world in the darkness , is . 54. Thus you understand also , How the Fathers Eternal Spirit , divided it selfe into Three Worlds . The First is the Exit out of the Imagination of the first willing of the Abyss , Which is called Father ; in which , with the outgoing it openeth the wisdome : and dwelleth in the wisdome , and weareth it upon it selfe , as its Garment of the Great wonders . 55. Secondly : it is the Cause to the indrawing to the Substantiality of the darknese , viz : to the other world , and is the Cause , and the Spirit to the Originall of the Essential Fire : it is it selfe the source or quality , in the Anguish of the Principle , and also of the fiery world , viz : of the Great Life . 56. And then Thirdly , It is it selfe also , that which the power in the dying of the principle , bringeth forth out of the Fire , wherein the power , out of the anguish , out of the dying , severeth it selfe from the Dying , goeth into the Liberty , dwelleth in the Liberty , and maketh the Light-world , and so it is the flame of the Love in the Light-world . 57. Here in this place ariseth the deare * Name of God , of the Father , of the Sonne , and of the Holy Spirit . 58. For , in the Fire-world , † it is not called the Holy Spirit or God , but Gods Anger , Gods fierce wrath ; wherein as to this , God calleth himself a Consuming fire . 59. But in the Light-world , viz : in the Sonne of God , it is the Flame of Love , and the power of the Holy divine Life ; wherein it is called God the Holy Spirit . 60. And the Light-world , is called the Wonder , Council , and Power , of the Deity , which the Holy Spirit openeth , for it is the Life therein . 61. And is all , together , as farre as our Heart and Mind or Thought can reach : Nothing , but onely these Three worlds ; it ALL standeth therein . 62. Viz : First , there is the Eternal Liberty , and therein the light , with the power in the Looking-Glass of wisdome , which is called God the Father Sonne and Holy Spirit . 63. Secondly , there is the dark substantiality , in the Imagination , in the harsh astringent desirous willing ; the Impregnation of the desiring , wherein all standeth in the Darkness , viz : in the anxious death . 64. Thirdly : There is the fiery world , viz : the first Principle , which standeth in the Anguish , viz ▪ the Great strong Omnipotent Life , wherein the Light-world dwelleth ; but runapprehended by the Fire . The Fourth Chapter . Of the Principle , and of the Originall of the Fire-World ; and of the Center of Nature ; also how the Light severeth it selfe from the Fire : so that , from Eternity in Eternity , two Worlds are one in another . 1. WEe will not write mutely or not to be understood , but demonstratively with good Evidence : We perceive and know , that every Life doth originate it selfe out of the Anguish , as in a venome or poyson , which is a dying , and yet is also the life it selfe ; As it is plainly to be perceived in Men and all Creatures . 2. For , without the Anguish or poyson , there is no Life , as is very well to be seen in all Creatures , Especially in Man , which existeth in Three Principles . 3 As First . One in the Fire , wherein the Great Life standeth , to which a dying Poyson viz : the Gall , belongeth , which Poyson maketh the Anguish-Chamber , wherein the Fire-life originally ariseth . 4 And Secondly : out of the fire-life , the second Principle , viz : the Light-life , out of which the Noble Minde with the Senses or thoughts Existeth , wherein we bear and understand our Noble Image : for , the fire-life in the Heart , originally ariseth from the Death of the * Gall. 5. Thirdly : We understand the Third Principle in the other Anguish-Chamber , viz : in the Maw or Stomack or Entrails ; whereinto we stuffe the four Elements with the constellation or Astrum , where then the other Anguish-Chamber , viz : the third Center , is ; viz : the Kingdom of this World ; a stinck and Evil source or qualities , house ; wherein the third Life , viz : the starry and Elementary life becometh generated ; and through the outward Body , governeth , with the Reason of the third Principle . 6. Now , we understand very well ; that , in the Heart , viz : in the Center , there standeth another world hidden , which is incomprehensible , to the starry and Elementary source or qualities house ; for the Heart sigheth or panteth after that World. 7. And the Spirit which becometh generated out of the Death of the Hearts Poyson , possesseth that other world ; for , it is free from the Poyson , which kindleth the Fire , and yet dwelleth in the Fire of the Heart . 8. But * with its Imagination , it conceiveth or comprehendeth the other world of the Libertty , in the Imagination ; and dwelleth in the Liberty , without of beyond the fire-source or quality , but that onely so farre as it brings or bears a longing pleasure , to or into God. 9. Now then seeing there is such a Threefold dominion in Man , sure it is much more so without or beyond Man , for if that were not it could not possibly have come into Man ; for where there is nothing , there also Nothing comes to be : but if somewhat cometh to be , it cometh out of that which is there ; Every Imagination modelleth onely its like in it selfe , and manifesteth it selfe in the Similitude . 10. Seeing then that the † Substance of all Substances , is an Eternall Wonder , in Three Principles ; therefore it bringeth also forth onely Wonders , Every Principle according to its Property , and Every property again out of its Imagination ; whereby we know that the Eternal is a meer wonder . 11. Therefore now we are to think upon these wonders ; and to consider , the kind and property of the Eternal Genetrix ; for there can be no property unless it have a mother that giveth or affordeth it . 12. Therefore we understand now , first , in this Great wonder of all wonders , which is God and the Eternity , together with Nature : Especially seaven Mothers , out of which the substance of all Substances , originally ariseth ; and yet they are all seaven but one onely substance , none of them is the first or the Last , they are all seaven alike Eternal without beginning ; their beginning is the Opening of the Wonders of the ONE onely Eternal willing , which is called God the Father . 13. And then Secondly , the Seaven Wonders could not be manifested or revealed , if the ONE onely Eternal will , which is called Father , were not desirous . 14. But if it be desirous , then it is an Imagining in it selfe , and is a longing pleasure to find it selfe . 15. And it findeth it selfe also in the Imagination , it findeth Especially † Three forms in it selfe . whereof None is the other , and also none is without the other , but every one generateth the other : and if the one were not , the other would not be ; but the will remaineth an Eternal Nothing without substance , also without shining or Lustre . 16. So now if the will be desirous , therefore it is in-drawing , of that which is in the Imagination ; wherein yet there is nothing ; and so it draweth it selfe , and impregnateth it selfe in the Imagination , and not in the willing , for the will is as Thinne as Nothing . 17. But now , every desiring , is harsh or astringent ; for it is its property : and that is the first Mother . 18. And the willings indrawing in the desiring , is the other or Second Mother ; for these are two forms which are contrary or opposite one to the other ; for , the will is quiet or Still as a Nothing : and it is harsh or astringent , like a still death ; and the Indrawing is its stirring or rousing . 19. And , that , the still will in the harsh astringency cannot endure , and thereupon draweth much more vehemently in it selfe , and yet doth but onely sharpen its own willing , in the drawing , and , will with its stern indrawing , shut in and retain , the Indrawing ; and in such a manner doth but onely awaken or raise it up . 20. The harder the harsh astringency gripeth together to hold the sting , the greater onely is the sting , the raging and the breaking : for the sting will not suffer it selfe to be tamed , and yet is so strongly held by its Mother that it cannot get away . 21. It will be above , and the Mother beneath ; for the harsh astringency draweth into it selfe , and maketh it selfe Hard ; and she is a sincking down-wards , and maketh in the Sulphur the Phur , and in the Mercurius the Sul. 22. And the sting , maketh , in the Sal , Phur , or maketh to it selfe further , the bitter form , viz : the woe , an Enmity in the Astringent Harshnese , and willeth continually to rend forth out of the Astringency , but yet cannot . 23. Thus one climeth upwards , and the other tendeth downwards , and so if it cannot , it becometh winding as a * wheele , and wheeleth it selfe continually inwards into it selfe ; and this now , is the Third Form , from whence the Essence Originally ariseth , and the Wonder of Multiplicity without Number and Ground . 24. In this wheel , understand , the Wonder or power , which the Will , understand , the first abyssal will out of the Looking-Glass of the Abyss draweth into it selfe to its Center or Heart ; that , is here the will of the power and Wonder . 25. In this wheel of the great Anguish : originally ariseth the other or second will , viz ; the Sonnes will , to go forth out of the anguish into the still Liberty of the first Abyssal willing . 26. For the wheel maketh Nature ; for so Nature originally ariseth ; it is the Center and the breaking of the still Eternity , that killeth the Nothing , but it maketh the great Life . 27. But that we speak of killing , it is to be understood in this manner : it is no killing , but it is the pe●ceptibility . 28. For the Life , before the fire , is Mute or silent or inanimate , and without feeling : it is only a hunger after the Life ; as the Material world is onely a hunger after the Life ; and in its hunger so very eagerly or strongly laboureth , towards the Principle ; that it may reach the fire : wherein then the Life of this World , originally ariseth . 29. And it cannot be otherwise ; unless it break the first Matrix , viz : the harsh astringent desiring ; this is the wheel of the first Three Forms , viz : harsh astringency ; and the drawing of the harsh astringency maketh the Anguish , and source-substance or quality-substance . 30. For , it is a terrifying in it selfe , in that it should be so , that the Nothing should come into perceptibility ; for , that is the Poyson-source or quality ; whence the fierce wrath and all Evill ▪ malignity or Malice , originally ariseth , and yet is the right original of the perceptible life . 31. The Life findeth it selfe thus , viz : in the Anguish source or quality ; as we see it in all Creatures , that the Life taketh its original in the stifled bloud , in the Anguish ; both the Creaturely Life , and also the Essential Life ; as in stincking Dung in the rottenness ; where , in the * dying of the Corn or Grain the Great Life Springeth up . 32. Whereas yet in the Essence , no dying is understood : but an anguishing source or quality , wherein the Mother must spring forth : which is a Mute or silent or inanimate substantiality : as is to be perceived in Corne , where the Essential Life groweth out of the Corruption . 33. In like manner , it is held with the Center of Nature ; the Anguish-source or quality is the right Center , and maketh the * Triangle in Nature . 34. And the fire-flash , viz : the fourth form of Nature , maketh , of the Triangle , a † Cross ; for there is the Principle and becometh sevevered into two worlds , of two Principles , viz : into a two fold source or quality and Life : One source abideth or remaineth , and is the fire or anguish-life ; the other or second source existeth in the breaking or Corrupting of the Anguish : which understand as followeth . 35. The first form of the Substantiality , viz : the harsh astringency in the desirous unconceivable or unpalpable willing , must give it self wholly up to the anguish source or quality in the wheel of Nature , for the sting is two strong ; thus the harsh astringency sincketh down as a Death , and yet is no death , but a dying source or qualitie . 36. For the sting becometh Lord , and changeth the harsh astringency into its property , viz : into a raging flash , into an anguish source or quality , which from the sting and the harsh astringency , is bitter ; as is the kind and Manner of Poyson . 37. For , the Poyson or the dying , hath especially Three forms , viz : harsh astringency , bitterness , and Anguish : it maketh it selfe thus in it self ; and hath no Maker , but onely the strong will in the Great life in the fire . 38. Understand us aright thus : The Abyss hath no Life ; but in such a property the Great Eternal Life becometh generated , the Abyss hath no mobility or feeling . 39. Thus the Mobility or feeling generateth it self ; and thus the Nothing findeth it selfe in the Eternal willing ; whose * ground we know not , also should not search , for it troubleth or disturbeth us . 40. And yet this is onely an Essential Life without understanding , like the Earth ; and the Death or dying , wherein really there is a source or quality in it selfe , but in the darkness without understanding ; for the harsh astringent anguish draweth into it selfe , and that which is indrawn maketh darkness , so that the Anguish Life standeth in the Darkness . 41. For every substance is , in it selfe , dark , unless it have the Lights Tincture in it selfe . 42. For , thus the Tincture is a Liberty or freedom , from the darkness , and is not comprehended by the anguish source or quality : for it is in the Light-world ; and though indeed it sticketh in the substantiality , viz : in a dark Body ; yet is out of the substance of the Light-world ; where no * Comprehension is . 43. We have mentioned above , First , concerning the Looking-Glass of the wisdome , of the wonder of All substances : and Secondly , Concerning the Ternary or Number Three of the Substance of All Substances ; how they Originally arise out of one onely willing , which is called the Father of all Substances . 44. And Thirdly , how it createth another will in it selfe ; to manifest or find it selfe in it selfe ; or as a Man may say , to find what and how is is . 45. And then Fourthly ; How that Second re-Created Magickwill to finde it self , is its heart and own seat of possession . 46. And Fifthly : How the first abystal will , impregnateth , it selfe with the Imagination it self , out of the Looking-Glass of the Wonder , which in the Light world is called the Wisdome . 47. And then Sixtly : as we have mentioned ; How that first ayssal will , together with the Impregnation ; and also the Looking-Glass of the wonder or wisdome , in such a property , before the Principle of Fire ; is no divine substance , rightly called : but much rather a Mystery of the wonder of all substances . 48. Which Mystery , taketh its partition , in the Fire , into infinite Endlesse Parts or substances , and yet remaineth also but ONE substance . 49. Thus we give you now further to understand concerning the other or second will ; which , the first will in its Imagination or impregnation , Createth ; which is the Great Mystery , Mysterium Magnum , wherein the first will which is called Father , seeketh , findeth and feeleth it self , as a light in the Heart : How that very other or second will , is the * Mother of the Genetrix , in the indrawn or in the Imagination impressed or conceived impregnation . 50. It is that which causeth originally the Seaven formes of Nature ; and it is also that which causeth the Anguish wheel , viz : the harsh astringency : it is also that which in the Anguish goeth forth through Death into the Liberty , which breaketh or † destroyeth death , and giveth or affordeth the Life , which kindleth the Fire , and in fire , taketh the Glance of the Majesty into it selfe , and in the Light of the Majesty dwelleth in the fire , unapprehended by the Fire , as one that feeleth nothing , which is dyed away from the source or quality , and bringeth another sovrce or quality into it selfe , which feel●th not nor findeth the first from which it hath dyed away . 51. And that we may briefly and yet fundamentally and properly or Exactly , distinguish the fires Originall ; know , that we perceive , in the Deep opened to us out of Gods Grace ; that the fire in its Original , standeth in two Causes . 52. The first cause is the willing-spirit of the Heart , understand , the Fathers Second will , viz : the Sonnes property . 53. And , the Second Cause , is the Willings † Matter , viz : of the wonders of the Wheel , of the Essential Life , viz : the Anguish Chamber . 54. The anguish sigheth or * groaneth after the willing of the Liberty , and the will longeth or groaneth after the Manifestation or Revelation ; for , the willing cannot in the still liberty in it selfe , manifest or reveal it selfe , without the Essential fire , which in the anguish , viz : in the dying cometh to the Manifestation or Revelation , and to the Great Life . 55. Thus , the will is in the dark anguish ▪ and the Anguish is ▪ the darkness it selfe . 56. Now then , being the anguish thus vehemently * groaneth or panteth after the willing of the Liberty : so it conceiveth or receiveth the willing of the Liberty as a flash , as a great Crack as when a Man powreth water into the Fire 57. And here the right dying is Effected : for the very fierce wrathful dark anguish , screecketh or trembleth before the flash , viz : the darkness before the Light ; for the darkness is Killed and vanquished , and the terrour or Crack is a Crack of great Joy. 58. There the harsh astringent fierce wrathful Poyson sincketh down into Death , and becometh impotent or weak , for it looseth the sting , and yet is no Death , but thus the right life of the feeling and panting , becometh kindled . 59. For this is , just as if a Man did strike * Steel and a Stone together ; for they are two Great hungers , of the willing after the substantiality , and of the substantiality after the Life . 60. The will giveth or or affordeth Life ; and the substantiality giveth or affordeth the Manifestation or Revelation of the Life : as fire burneth out of a Candle , so burneth the will not of the Essential substantiality . 61. * The will is not the Light it self , but the Spirit of the Light or of the Fire : the Light ariseth out of the Essence , and the Essence again out of the willing . 62. The anxious Essential Fire , is the Matter to the shining Fire : and the will Kindleth it selfe in the Essential Fire , and giveth or affordeth the white amiable fire , that dwelleth in the hot fire without feeling . 63. The will taketh its feeling , from the fierce wrath of the Essential fire , ( in the fourth form ) that it is manifest in it self , and yet remaineth free from the fierce wrath ; for the source or quality becometh in the kindling , changed into a meek Love-source or quality . 64. And here the other or second will receiveth its Name Spirit ; for out of the Essential fire , it attaineth the property of all wonders , also the right life of the power and might over the Essential fire-life ; for from Nature it taketh the power into it selfe ; and bringeth also the Liberty into it self . 65. Thus the Liberty is a stilness without substance , and so the still liberty giveth it selfe , into the substance of the Anguish : and the anguish receiveth that same liberty without source or quality , whence It becometh so richly full of joy , that out of the Anguish love cometh to be . 66. For , the will which had given it self into the Anguish ; becometh thus delivered from the death of the Anguish , and therefore it findeth it self in the Liberty , and goeth forth from the fierce wrath of the Anguish . 67. For here death is broken or destroyed , and yet remaineth a Death in it self ; but the willing-Spirit , viz : the right holy Life , goeth with the breaking open forth out of the anguish . 68. And is now also a fire ; but a fire in the Liberty : and burneth in the Love-source or quality ; as a Man may see this in Fire and Light , how the Essential fire is a burning woe or pain , and the Light an amiable richly Joyful delight and habitation , without sensible pain , source , or quality . 69. And yet hath all sources or qualities and properties of fire in it ; yet in another Essence , viz : a friendly munificent wel-doing Essence ; a right Glimps of the rich Kingdome of Joy : and the fire a Glimps of terrour , and of Anguish ; and yet one dwelleth in the other , and yet also the one findeth not the other in the Essence . 70. Thus there are two Worlds one in another , whereof none comprendeth or apprehendeth the other ; and nothing can go into the Light-world , but onely through Dying , and for or at the Dying must the * Imagination first lead the way . 71. The anxious Will must † groan or pant after the Liberty of the power of the Light , and totally give it selfe thereinto , and with the desirous Imagination conceive or comprehend the power of the Liberty ; and thus the strong will goeth through the death of the darkness , quite through the Essential fire , and falleth into the Light-world , and dwelleth in the fire , without source pain or quality in the Kingdom of Joy : This is the Gate in Ternarium . Sanctum , into the Holy Ternary : and , Glauben , Faith or Believing in the Holy Ghost . 72. Dear Children of Man : here understand , the Fall of the Devil , who turned his willing-spirit only into the Essential Fire , and thereby would needs dominecre over the Light. 73. Understand here also , the Fall of Man , who turned his Imagination into the Materiall Essentiall substantiality , and is gone forth out of the Light. 74. For which cause , the will of the Love out of the light world , is again entered into the Material Substantiality in the humanity , and hath again espoused or united it self to the Essential fire-spirit in Man , viz : of the soul , and given it self thereinto : and hath introduced the same quite through death and the Fire , into the light-world in Ternarium Sanctum , into the Holy Ternary , viz : in the willing of the Holy Trinity . 75. Let this be a finding and knowing to you , and despise it not for the Great depth sake , which will not be every Mans comprehension , the Cause is , the darkness wherein Man plungeth himself . 76. Else every one might very well find it , if the Earthly way were once broken through , and that the Adamical evill malignant or Malicious flesh , were * not so dearly loved , which is the hinderance . The Fifth Chapter . Of the Principle , in it self ; what it is . 1. WE ought further to consider the first four Forms of Nature ; and so we shall find , what a Principle is . 2. For that is properly a Principle , when a thing becometh , what it never was before ; where out of Nothing a source or quality cometh to be ; and out of the source or quality , a right life with understanding and senses or thoughts . 3. And yet we know the right Principle to be in the fires Original , in the fire-source or quality , which breaketh the substantiality and also the darkness . 4. Thus we acknowledge and understand , First , the Essence and property of the Fire for a Principle ; for it maketh and giveth the Original , of Life ; and of all mobility , also the strong might of the fierce wrath . 5. Secondly : We understand and acknowledge that also for a Principle . First , which can dwell in the fire , unapprehended by the fire : Secondly , which can take away the might of the fire : And thirdly , can change the fires quality or source into a Meek love . Fourthly , which is omnipotent over all . Fifthly , which hath the understanding , to break the Root of the fire ; And out of the fire to make darkness , and a dry hunger and thirst , without finding any case or refreshment as the Hellish quality or source is . 6. This is the Abyss wherein the substance is * spoiled ; where death domineereth with its sting , as a spoiled or faintened Poyson . 7. Wherein really there is an Essential Life , but it hateth and is at enmity with it self , where the right fires kindling is not attained ; but onely appears as a flash without blazing . 8. And thus we give you to understand , that in the Eternal there are no more but two Principles , viz : one is the burning or blazing fire , which becometh filled with the Light ; the Light giveth it its property ; so that out of the burning source or quality , an high Kingdom of Joy cometh to be . 9. For the Anguish attaineth the Liberty , and so the burning fire continueth onely to be a cause of finding the Life and the Light of the Majesty . 10. The fire , taketh into it self , the Lights property , viz : the meekness , and the light taketh into it selfe the fires property : viz : the Life , and to find it self ; and the second Principle is understood in the Light , or to be the Light. 11. But the Essential substantiality , out of which the Fire burneth , continueth Eternally a Darkness , and a source or quality of fierce wrath ; wherein the Devil dwelleth . 12. As ye see plainly , that the fire is another thing then that out of which the fire burneth . 13. Thus the Principle consisteth in Fire , and not in the Essential source or quality of the Substantiality . 14 , The Essential source or quality , is the Center of Nature , the cause of the Principle ; but it is dark , and the fire shining . 15. And here is rightly shewn you : how , the breaking of the fierce wrath , viz : of the Death : and the Eternal Liberty out of Nature , both together ; are the Cause of the shining . 16. For , Therefore is the Wonder-spirit of the Abyss , desirous , viz : that it might become shining ; and therefore it bringeth it self into source or quality , that it may perceive and find it self , and that it might manifest or reveal its wonder in the source or quality , for without source or quality there can be no Manifestation or revelation . 17. Now understand us further , thus : The source or quality , viz : the fierce wrath hath no right substantiality , but the harsh fierce wrath is the substantiality of the sting , wherein it sticketh or stingeth . 11. And the Anguish , together also with the fire , are or make also no right substantiality , but it is onely such a Spirit ; yet the one must be thicker then the other , else there w●uld be no finding . 19. As , viz : the harsh astringency maketh thick and dark , and so the bitter sting findeth the Anguish , in the harsh dark property ; as in * Matter ; for if there were no Matter , there would be no spirit or finding . 20. The Abyss findeth it selfe in the harsh astringent darkness , but it breaketh open the darkness , and goeth forth out of the harsh darkness , as a spirit , which hath found it selfe in the anguish-source or quality . 21. But it leaveth that hard Matter of the darkness , wherein it found it selfe ; and goeth in into it selfe , again into the Liberty , viz , into the Abyss , and dwelleth in it self ; thus must the source or quality , be its sharpness and finding ; and is to it also a kindling of its Liberty . viz : of the Light ; wherein it seeth it selfe what it is . 22. And thus now it desireth no more for it selfe , but the source or quality , but modelleth it self , and seeketh or seeth it self according to all Forms . 23. And every form is desirous to find and to manifest or reveal it selfe ; and thus also every form findeth it selfe in it self , but yet goeth with the desiring out of it self , and setteth it self there represented as a figure or Spirit ; and that is the Eternal wisdome , in the Colours wonders and virtues , and yet is not particular but all totally universally ▪ yet in infinite forms . 24. These forms , have with the moving of the first willing , which is called Father , incorporated or corporised themselves into Spirits , viz : into Angels , that so the hidden substance might perceive , and find and see it self in Creatures , and that there might be an Eternal sport or Scene in the wonders of Gods wisdom . 25. And thus we understand further , the substantiality of the Light-world , which really is a right substantiality ; for no right substance can consist in fire , but the Spirit onely of the Substance . 26. But the fire causeth the substance ; for it is a hunger , an Earnest desiring , it must have substance or it extinguisheth . 27. Vnderstand this as followeth . The meeknese giveth , and the fire taketh : the Meekness is a going forth out of it self , and giveth a substance , of its likeness , every form out of it self . 28. And the fire devoureth that , yet it giveth the Light out of it : it giveth that which is more Noble then what it had devoured , it giveth Spirit for substance . 29. For it devoureth the Meek munificence or well doing , that is , * the water of Eternal Life : but it giveth the spirit of Eternal Life ; As ye see , that the Wind goeth out of the fire , as also the Air , viz : the right spirit out of the fire-life . 30. Thus understand our Minde aright : God the Father , is in himselfe , the Liberty without or beyond Nature ; but maketh himself manifest in Nature through the Fire , the fiery Nature is his property . 31. But he is in himself the Abyss , wherein there is no feeling of any source quality or pain . 32. But yet bringeth his desirous willing , into source or quality , and Createth to himself in the source or quality , an other or second willing to go out of the source or quality again into the Liberty without or beyond the source or quality . 33. That same second will is his Sonne , which he generateth out of his own Eternal willing from Eternity . 34. Which he bringeth through the breaking open of the source or quality of Death , viz : through the Earnest severity of his fierce wrath , forth , Through the fire . 35. That very second will , viz : the Sonne , of God the Father ; is , that which breaketh or destroyeth Death , viz : the stern dark source or quality , which kindleth the fire , and goeth forth through the Fire as a thining Lustre or Glance of the fire , and filleth or satiateth the first willing , which is called Father . 36. For , the Glance is also as a thinne as a Nothing or as the will which is called Father , and therefore it can dwel in the Liberty , viz : in the Fathers Willing , and maketh the Father , Light , clear , bright , amiable , friendly , for it is the Fathers Herts oder Barmhertzigkcit . Heart or Mercifulness . 37. It is the Fathers substantiality , it filleth or satiateth the Father in all places , though indeed there is no place in him , no beginning nor End. 38. Understand us further , thus , The Fathers fire , devoureth the Meek substance , viz : the water-source or quality of Eternal Life into it selfe , into the fires owne Essence , and meekeneth it selfe therewith . 39. There must the substantiality in the fire , as it were dye , for the fire devoureth it into it self , and Consumeth it . 40. * And giveth forth out of the Consumingness a living richly Joyful spirit ; and that is the Holy Spirit ; which thus goeth forth from the Father and the Sonne , into the Great Wonder of the holy substantiality , and openeth the same perpetually and Eternally . 41. Thus the Deity is an Eternal Band , which cannot cease or pass away ; and thus it generateth it self from Eternity and the first is continually also the last , and the last again the first . 42. And thus understand the Father to be the fiery world ; the Sonne , the Light and power-world ; and the holy spirit , to be the Life of the Deity , viz : to be the outgoing driving Power ; and yet all is but ONE God. 43. As the Fire and the Light , together with the Aire , are but one onely Substance ; but yet divideth it self into Three parts ; and none can subsist without the other ; for , the fire , is not the Light , also not the wind , which goeth forth out of the Fire . 44. Each hath its office , and Each hath its own Substance in it self ; and yet each is the others life , and a cause of the others life . 45. For the Wo●●●●loweth the fire up , else it would be stifled in its fierce wrath ; 〈◊〉 would fall into the dark death , even as the stifling is the true 〈◊〉 ; wherein the fire of Nature extinguisheth , and no more draw ●●●bstance into it . 46. Of all thi●● have a good similitude in the outward World , in all Creatures ; she● 〈◊〉 every Life , viz : the Essential Fire-life , draweth substance to 〈◊〉 ●hat is its food to Ear. 47. And the fire of its life , consumeth the substance , and giveth forth the Spirit of the power out of that which is consumed ; and that is the life of the Creature . 48. And you see doubtless very rightly , how the Life ariseth out of Death : it becometh no Life , unless it break that * out of which the Life should go fort● ; it must also go into the Anguish Chamber into the Center and must reach to attain the fire-flash in the Anguish , else there is no Kindling . 49. Although the Fire be manifold , and so also the Life ; yet , out of the greatest Anguish existeth also the greatest Life , as out of a right Fire . 50. Thus dear children of God in Christ , we give you our knowledge and * entent to ponder of . We mentioned in the beginning , that we would shew you concerning the Death of Christ . First , wherefore Christ must have dyed : and secondly , wherefore we must dye also : and Thirdly , rise again , in Christ . 51. This you see now in this description very clearly ; and understand our Great Misery , that it hath been necessary for us , that the word or Life of the Holy Light-world is become a Man and hath generated us anew in himselfe : whosoever understandeth nothing here , he is not generated or born of God. 52. Do but see into what Lodging Adam hath introduced us ; He was an extract of all the Three Principles , a total similitude according to all the Three-worlds , and had in his Mind and Spirit the Angelical property in him . 53. He was introduced into the holy power and substantiality , viz : into Paradise , that is , the divine substantiality , he should have eaten of divine substantiality , and have drunk the water of Eternal Life after an Angelical Manner ; as in the Book of the Threefold Life hath been mentioned at large . 54. But he lost the divine substantiality , and the Angelical property , and Imagined into the out-birth , viz : into the Kingdom of the Earthly source or quality , which the Devil had kindled in his Fall : He turned his Eyes out from God into the Earthly * God , out from the divine Light , into the light of this world . 55. Thus he became captivated , and remained in the Earthly source or quality ; and so he fell into the Earthly Corruptible source or quality , which ruleth in him , and filleth him ; it putteth a body on to him , and breaketh or destroyeth it again : and swalloweth it up into its own Essence , into its Essential Fire . 56. But being the soul was breathed in , out of the Spirit of God , viz : out of the Eternal , into Man , so that the soul is an Angel , therefore hath God assumed the same to himself again . 57. And the power of the holy Light-world , viz : the Heart of God is entered into the humane Essence , which lay shut up in death , into the anguish Chamber of our Misery . 58. He hath gotten into himself a soul out of our Essence , he hath taken our Mortal Life into himselfe , and introduced the soul through death , through the Earnest severe fire of God the Father , into the Light-world : hath broken or destroyed death which held us captive , and unshut the life . 59. Now it may not nor cannot be otherwise ; w●osoever will possess the Light-world : must enter in through the same path , which he hath made , he must enter into the death of Christ , and so in Christs Resurrection he entereth into the Light-world . 60. Even as we know , that the Eternal Word of the Father , which is the Fathers heart ; becometh generated from Eternity to Eternity , out of the fierce wrath of the Death of Darkness , through the Fathers Fire ; and is in himself the right Center of the Holy Trinity , and is out of himself , together with the outgone Holy Spirit , the Light-flaming Majesty or Light-world . 61. Thus also in like manner and property , must we with our Hearts , Senses or Thoughts and Minds , go forth out of the harsh astringent stern and Evil or malignant Earthliness out of our selves , out of the perished or corrupted Adamical Man , and with our earnest severe willing and doing slay him . 62. We must take upon us the Old Adams Cross , which hangeth to us , while we live ; and must upon and in the * Cross , go into the Center of Nature , into the Triangle , and be born anew again out of the anxious wheel , † if we will be Angels . 63. But seeing we were not able to do this ; therefore hath Christ given himself into that ve●ry Center of the fierce wrath , and broken the fierce wrath , and extinguished it with his Love. 64. For he brought heavenly divine substantiality into that very fierce wrath into the Center of the Anguish-Chamber , and extinguished the souls anguish-fire , viz : the fierce wrath of the Father of the fiery world in the soul : so that thus Now , we fall no more * home to the fierce wrath . 65. But when we give up our selves into the Death of Christ , and go forth out of our selves , out of the Evil Earthly Adam ; then we fall in Christs death into the Path or way , which he hath made or prepared for us , we fall into † the Bosome of Abraham ; that is into Christs Armes , who receiveth us into himself . 66. For , the Bosome of Abraham , is the * unshut light world in the death of Christ ; it is the Paradise ; wherein God Created us . 67. And now the Matter lyeth in this , Not that we be Lip-Christians or Mouth-Christians , and pourtray and represent Christs death before us , and remain wicked in heart , spirit , and soul , but that we very Earnestly with Mind and Thoughts , with willing and doing , go forth out of the evill Inclinations or Injections , and strive and fight against them . 68. And though they evidently cleave and hang to us ; yet we must daily and hourly slay that ev●● Adam , as to his willing and doing ● we must do , that which we would not willingly do . 69. We * must deny our earthly Evil life it self , and put on Christs life in us , and then † the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence , and the violens take it to themselves , as Christ said . 70. Thus we become impregnated with the Kingdom of Heaven , and enter thus into Christs death † with the living Body , and receive the Body of Christ , viz : the divine substantiality , we carry the Kingdom of Heaven in Us. 71. And thus we are Christs ▪ Children , Members , and heirs in Gods Kingdom , and the express reflex Image of the Holy divine World , which is God the Father Sonne and Holy Spirit ; and the same Holy Trinitys , substantiality . 72. All whatsoever becometh generated and opened out of the wisedom or substantiality , is our Paradise ; and nothing dyeth to or in us , but onely the dead Adam , the Earthly , Evil one , whose willing we here nevertheless , have continually broken and destroyed , to whom we are become Enemies . 73. * Our Enemy onely departeth from us , he must go into the fire , understand , into the Essential fire , viz : into the Four Elements , and into the Mystery , and must at the End of this Time , be tryed through the fire of God ; and our † Wonders and Works must be presented to us there againe ; whatsoever the Earthly Mystery hath devoured and swallowed up into it self , that it must give up again into the fire of God. 74. And yet not such an Evil [ one , or substance ] † but the fire of God devoureth ‖ the Evil , and giveth us such a one for it , as we here in our Anxious seeking , have sought or desired . 75. For , as the fire deuoureth the substantiality , but giveth Spirit for substance ; so shall our Works in the Spirit and Joy out of the fire of God be presented and set before us as a clear fair Looking-Glass , like the wonders and wisdome of God. 76. Let this be manifested or revealed to you dear Children , for it is become highly known ; suffer not your selves to be so tickled with Christs death , and to pourtray or paint the same before you as a work , done , and that it is enough for us , when we know and believe that it is done for us . 77. What doth it avail me , that I know a Treasure lyeth hid deepe● and that I dig it not out ; it availeth nothing to Comfort and flater in hypocrisy , and with the Mouth to give good words and fine babling ; but yet keepe Wickednesse in the soule . 78. Christ saith , * Ye must become born anew , or else ye will not see the Kingdom of God : † we must Convert and become as a Child in the Mothers body or womb , and be generated or born out of divine substantiality . 79. We must put a New Garment on to our soul ; viz : the Mantle of Christ , the Humanity of Christ : else no flattering Hypocrisie availeth . 80. It is all Lying which the Mouth-Cry , saith , which pourtrayeth Christ before our Eyes , as that he hath done it for us , and that we should onely comfort our selves with it , and thereupon do walk in the old Adam , in Covetousness , high-mindedness , and falshood , in the Lusts of Evil and Maliciousness ; it is the Antichristian deceit of the false Spiritualty or Clergy ; of whom the Revelation warneth us . 81. It all availeth nothing , that we flatter our selves , and tickle our selves with Christs suffering and Death : we must enter into it ; and be like or * conformable to his Image , and then is Christs suffering and death profitable to us . 82. † We must take his Cross upon us , and follow him , quench the Evil Lusts and slay them ; and alwaies readily and earnestly will and desire that which is well ; and then we shall plainly see , what Christs foot-steps are . 83. When we shall strive and * fight against the Devill the Old Adam , and the Evil world , against Earthly reason which desireth onely pleasure and voluptuousness , then Christs Cross becometh rightly laid upon us ; for the Devil is it , the world is it , and our Evil Adam is it , that we must fight against : all these are our Enemies . 84. And there must the New Man stand as a Champion , and fight in the Footsteps of Christ . 85. O how innumerable many Enemies will he there awaken and stirre up , which will all fall upon him : and this may indeed be called fighting for the Thorney victorious Garland or Crown of Christ , as a Conquerour , and yet onely be continually despised , as † one that is not worthy to live upon the Earth . 86. This may indeed be called ; standing in the Battle , and Faith or Believing ; where outward reason saith clearly No , there it is Good to set Christs suffering & Death in the fore-front , and to present , and set it before the Devil the World and Death , together with the Earthly Reason , and not * despaire , or give over as a desperate Coward . 87. For , here it is for an Angels Crown , either to be an Angel or a Devil . 88. We must in trouble and affliction become New born , for it costeth much to wrestle with Gods anger and to vanquish the Devil : if we had not there Christ by and with us , we should loose the Battel . 89. A small handful of skill and knowledg , will not do it , that we know this , and tickle our selves with Gods Grace , and make God a Cover for our sinnes , that so we may stick and finely Cover the wickednesse and Vizard of the Devill under the sufferings of Christ . 90. O No! The wicked one must be destroyed in Christs sufferings and Death : he must not be a wicked one , if he will be a child , be must become an Obedient Sonne , he must labour in the sufferings of Christ , and walk in the footsteps of the Truth righteousnesse and Love ; he must , do , not , know , onely . 91. The Devil knoweth it also well , what doth that avail him ? The Practice must follow , else it is but falsehood and deceit . 92. Hypocritical dissembling Reason saith , Christ hath done it . we cannot do it . Very right ; he hath done , that which we could not do : he hath broken and destroyed Death , and brought or restored Life again ; what will that avail me , if I enter not into him . 93. He is in Heaven , and I in this world , I must enter into him in his way and passage that he hath made for us , Else I remain without . 94. For , he saith ; * Come to me all that are weary and heavy laden , I will refresh or quicken you ; take my yoak upon you , and learn of me , for I am meek and lowly of Heart , and so you shall find rest to your souls . 95. In his path or Passage we must enter in to him ; we must † doc good for Evil , and love one another , * as he did us , and gave his Life for us : If we do thus , then wee quench Gods Anger also in our Neighbour . 96. Wee must give good example ; not in crafty subtilty , slights and designes , but † in Simplicity , with a good will and Heart . 97. Not as a dissembling hypocritical whore , which saith ; I am a Virgin , and dissembles in outward Modesty , but yet is a whore in her heart : all must be in very Earnest Sincerity . 98. Rather have no Money nor Goods , also loose temporal Honour , reputation and power , then Gods Kingdom . He that * findeth God hath found all : He that looseth him hath lost all : He hath lost himself . 99. O. How very hardly doth it come to pass to break the Earthly will ; Come but to this Dancing Ring , thou wilt afterwards no more , need to ask , after the footsteps of Christ , thou wilt see them very well . 100. Thou wilt well feele the Cross of Christ ; thou wilt well feel Gods Anger , which otherwise finely resteth and sleepeth in the Old Adam , till thou finely fattenest him with dignities , and then he giveth thee thy Kingdome of Heaven which thou hast here sought after . The Sixth Chapter . Of our Death . Why we must Dye ; Notwithstanding Christ dyed for us . CITATIO PRIMA , The First * Citation . 1. ODear Flattering Hypocritial Reason , come hither to this Feast . Hither we have invited you all , both the knowing and the Ignorant ; all you that would see God : it is a hard S●al and a fast Lock , to open , think upon it , it concernes you all . Reasons , Objection . 2 , Reason saith ; was not God Omnipotent enough ; to forgive Adam his sinne ; but that first God must become Man , suffer , and permit himself to be put to Death ? What pleasure hath God in Death ? 3. Or if he would needs redeem us in such a way ; wherefore seeing Christ hath redeemed us , must we , then , also dye ? Answer . 4. Dance here dear Reason ; Guess , till thou hittest it : be a Doctor here , and know nothing , be Learned and also Dumb or Mute . Wilt thou not , but thou must , unless thou comest to this School , understand , the School of the Holy Spirit . 5. Who is here that can unshut this ? Is it not that * Closed or shut book of him that sitteth upon the Throne or seat in the Revelation of Jesus Christ ? 6. Then saith the Hypocrite , we know it well ; therefore say I , I have not heard it from them , nor read it in their Writings , they have also forbidden me this seeing ; and have shot a Sinne-Bolt upon it , and imputed or accompted it for sinne , to them that seek such things , or desire to know them . 7. Hereby hath the fair Woman continued finely Covered : O how hath Antichrist been able to sport and act its Scene under this Covering . 8. But it shall stand open , against the will of the Devil and of Hell , for the time is born ; the Day of the bringing again or Restauration breaketh , that it may be found what Adam lost . 9. The Scripture saith ; * We are Dust and Ashes , that is very right : we are dust and Earth . 10. But now it may be asked . Whether God made man out of Earth ? That , Reason will maintain ; and prove it out of Moses , whom yet they understand not ; neither doth the proof afford it , but affordeth much more , that Man is a Limus , that is , an Extract out of all the Three Principles . 11. If he is to be a similitude of Gods substance , then he must needs be proceeded out of Gods substance , for that which is not out of the Eternal , that is not permanent . 12. All that which beginneth , belongeth to that out of which it is gone forth ; so that if it be proceeded forth barely out of the Earth ; then we are of the Earth , what then can blame us that we do so as the Earths property driveth and willeth . 13. But if there be * a Law in us , that blameth , checketh or accuseth us , that we live Earthly ; then that it selfe is not Earthly ; but it is out of or from that , to which it directeth and draweth us : viz : out of the B●ernal , whither it also draweth us : and † our own Consciences blame or accuse us before the Eternal , that we make and do that which is against the Eternal . 14. But if we give our selves up to that which draweth us into the Eternal , then must the other that draweth us into the Earthly break or Corrupt , and enter into that into which it willeth , viz : into the Earth , into which it draweth us , and that willing which we give up into the Eternal , that the Eternal receiveth in . 15. Being God hath Created man in a substance , to be therein Eternally , viz : in flesh and Blood : therefore of necessity , to that willing , which giveth it selfe up into the Eternal , must such flesh and blood be put on ; as it was , when God Created it in Paradise in the Eternal . 16. Whereby then we clearly known , that God hath not created us in such flesh and blood , as wee now beare upon us , but in such flesh and blood ; as , to the willing in the New birth , is put on . 17. Else it would instantly before the Fall have been Earthly and Corruptible : what should my Conscience blame or accuse me for that , wherein God had Created me ? Or what should it desire other then what it was in its own substance ? 18. Thus we necessarily find it clear , that there is yet another substance in our flesh , which groaneth , sigheth and panteth after that , which yet now , is not . 19. Being then that it sigheth and panteth after that which ye now is not , therefore it must needs have been so in the beginning of its being and substance , else there would be no sighing or longing in it after another thing . 20 For , we know , that Every substance sigheth after that , out of which it had its first Original ; and so our will sigheth after such a flesh as God Created , which may subsist in God , not after an earthly transitory one , in source and quality , but after a permanent one without source or quality . 21. Whereby we clearly understand , that we are gone forth out of the Eternal into the Corruptible , that we have attracted or contracted the Matter to the * Limus , and are become Earth , where●s yet God had extracted us out thereof as a Mass , and introduced his Spirit thereinto with the Eternal . 22. For , Adams Imagination , hath drawn the Earthly source or quality of the Stars and Four Elements into the Limus , and the Stars and Elements have drawn in the longing Malady of the Earth ; and thus the heavenly Matter , of the heavenly Flesh , became Earthly . 23. For , the Spirit of God , which was breathed in from the Word Fiat into the Limus , out of Gods Heart , which had heavenly substantiality , heauenly flesh and blood on it , that should rule Adam according to the heavenly divine property . 24. But being the Devil , when he sat in Heaven had infected the Limus , so , now he did to it also , this wickedness , and infected it with his Imagination , so that it began to Imagine or long after the perished Malady or seeking of the Earthly source or Quality , whence he became captivated by the Kingdom of this perished world , which drew in , into the Limus as a Lord. 25. And Now the Image of God became perished , and fell into the Earthly source or quality . 26. But being the heavenly Spirit was in the perished Earthly * Sulphur , the heavenly glance of the divine Fire , could not so subsist in the burning ; for the Eternal fires Light subsisteth in the Liberty , without or beyond the source or quality . 27. But being the water of the Liberty , which was the food of the Eternal fire , became Earthly , that is , filled with Earthliness , and that the Meek love became infected with the Earthly evil Longing and Malady . 28. Therefore could not the Eternal fire burn , also give no Light ; but it † Glowed thus in the Earthly flesh , as a damped fire , that cannot burn for mo●sture . 29. That very fire * Gnaweth us now , it alwaies blameth or accuseth us , and would fain burn , and receive heavenly Substantiality , therefore it must devour and swallow up the earthly source or quality into it selfe , viz : the Earthly Imagination , wherein the Devils longing Malady , mixeth it slfe . 30. Thus , it also becometh Evil , and draweth us Continually to the Abyss , into the Center of Nature , into the Anguish-Chamber , out of which it went forth in the Beginning . 31. Thus thou seest O Man what thou art ; and whatsoever thou further makest out of thy selfe ; that thou wilt be in Eternity ; and thou seest wherefore thou must break Corrupt and dye ; for the Kingdom of * this world passeth away . 32. Yet thou art not in thy outward substance , so potent to continue in that Kingdom , even to its Eternity : but thou art impotent or weak therein , and lyest meerly therein , in a Constellation or Astrum , which hath the Configuration or Course ; wherein thou in flesh and blood or the Earthly substance in the Mothers body or Wombe art flown forth . 33. Thou art so impotent or weak in the outward life , that thou canst not prevent thy Constellation or Astrum , thou must go into the Corruption or breaking of thy Body , when the Constellation leaveth thee . 34 And there thou seest undeniably what † thou art , viz : Dust of the Earth : Earth full of stincking rottenness , even while thou livest ; a dead Carcass , while thou yet livest . 35. Thou livest to the * Configuration and Elements , they rule and drive thee according to their property : they give thee employment and Art : and when their Seculum , time or season or period , is run about , that thy Constellation , under which thou wert Conceived and born to this world , is finished , then they let thee fall away . 36. And then thy body falleth home to the four Elements , and thy spirit which leadeth thee , to the Mystery ; out of which the Astrum or Configuration became generated , and wilt be here reserved to the Judgement of God , where God will prove and try all through the fire of his Might . 37. Thus thou must Moulder away and become Earth , and a Nothing , all but the spirit which is proceeded out of the Eternal , which God introduced into the Limus : therein consider what thou art , even a handful of Earth , and a source or quality-house or tormentive Workhouse of the Stars and Elements . 38. Wilt thou not have thy soule or Eternal Spirit which is given thee from the Eternal highest Good ; here in this time , kindled again in the Light of God , so that it becometh born again in the Light , out of the divine substantiality ; then it falleth in the Mystery to the Center of Nature , viz : home again to the first Mother , into the Anguish Chamber of of the first four forms of Nature . 39. There it must be a Spirit in the dark anguish source or quality , with all Devils , and devour that which it hath in this world introduced into it selfe ; that will be its food and life . 40. But being God would not have it thus with man his similitude and Image , therefore he himselfe is become that , which poor Man was come to be , after that he was fallen out of the divine substantiality out of Paradise : that he might help him again , so that Man hath in himself the Gate of Regeneration , that he can in the souls fire * become born again in God. 41. And that the same souls fire draw into it selfe divine substantiality again , and fill it selfe with the divine Love-source ; from which , the divine Kingdom of joy becometh born again ; and that the souls fire bring forth the Holy spirit again , as is afore mentioned . 42. Which went forth out of the souls fire , and that the Adamical flesh might draw back the ungodly willing , so that the poor soul might not be filled again with the Earthly and devillish Longing Malady . The Gate of the New-Man . 43. This is now to be understood thus , God is become Man and hath introduced our humane soul into the divine substantiality again in Christ : that eateth again of the divine substantiality , viz : of the love and meekness , and drinketh of the water-spirit of Eternal Life , out of the Eternal wisdome , which is the fountaine of divine substantiality . 44. That same soul of Christ , hath gotten divine heavenly flesh and Bloud on it , together with the word which is the Center of the Light-world , which therein Imagineth or longeth after the poor Captive Souls , that very Word dwelleth in the divine substantiality , and in the virgin of Wisdom . 45. But * came into Mary , and took our own Flesh and Bloud into the divine substantiality , and brake and destroyed the power which held us captive in the anger of Death and of the fierce wrath , on the Cross , viz : in the Center of Nature of the Original in the Fathers Eternal willing to Nature , out of which our soul was taken . 46. And kindled in that same Essence , viz : in the souls dark fire , the burning Light fire , again , and brought the other or second willing of the soul through the fire of God , viz : quite forth out of the Original , into the burning white clear bright Light. 47. And when Nature in the soul found this , it became richly full of Joy , it brake Death in pieces , and sprouted with Gods power forth into the Light world , and made out of the fire a Love-desire , so that in Eternity no fire more is perceived or known , but a great and strong will in the Love , after its sprouts and branches , viz : after our souls . 48. And this is that which we say : God thirsteth after our souls : * He is become our stock , we are his sprouts and branches . 49. As a stock alwaies giveth its sap to the Branches , so that they live and bear fruit , to the Glory of the whole Tree : so doth also to us , our stock the † Lord JESUS CHRIST in the Light world , which hath manifested himself in our souls , he will have our souls , viz : * his Branches . 50. He is entered into Adams place or sted , who hath destroyed us : he is become Adam in the Regeneration . 51. Adam brought our souls into this world into the Death of the fierce wrathfulness : and he brought our soul , out of Death through the Fire of God , and kindled it in the Fire again , so that it attained the shining Light again , whereas else it had continued in the Dark Death in the Anguish source or quality . 52. And now at present it lyeth * onely , in our selves Entering in , that we onely follow after in the same way , which he hath made . 53. We need onely to cast our Imagination and Total willing into Him , which is Called Glauben , Believing or Faith ; and to oppose the Old Earthly willing , and so we conceive or receive the Spirit of Christ out of the Regeneration ; which draweth heavenly substance into our soules , * viz : Christs heavenly flesh and Bloud . 54. When the Soul tasteth that , then it breaketh through the dark Death in it self , and kindleth the Fire of Eternity in it selfe , out of which the shining Light of the Meekness burneth . 55. That same very Meekness , draweth the Soul again into it selfe , viz : the souls Fire , and swalloweth the same up into it selfe , and giveth forth out of the Death the Life and Spirit of Christ . 56. Thus that same Spirit , which goeth forth out of the Eternal fire , dwelleth in the Light world with God , and is the right Image of the Holy Trinity . 57. * It dwelleth not in this world , the body apprehendeth it not ; but the Noble Minde , wherein the soul is a Fire , that apprehendeth it , yet not palpably . 58. Indeed the Noble Image , dwelleth in the souls fire of the Minde ; but it hovereth therein , as the light in the Fire . 59. For , while the Earthly Man liveth ; the soul is continually in hazard or Danger ; for the Devil hath Enmity with † it , who continually casteth forth his streames with false and wicked Imaginations into the starry and Elementary spirit and reacheth or graspeth therewith after the souls Fire , and willeth continually to infect the same with Earthly devils longing and Malady . 60. There must the Noble Image defend it self against the Souls fire , and there it costeth striving and fighting for the Angels Garland , there riseth up often in the Old Adam , Anguish ; doubting and unbelief , when the Devil sets upon the soul . 61. O thou Cross of Christ , how heavy art thou ofentimes , how doth the heaven hide it selfe , but so the Noble Grain is sown , when that is sprung up , then it bringeth forth much faire fruit in Patience ; Thus every little sprout groweth in the soule , out of the divine wisedom . 62. It must all press forth out of the Anguish Chamber , as a sprout out of the root of the Tree , it is all generated in the anguish .. 63. ‡ if a Man will have divine knowledge , he must very many times go into the anguish-Chamber , into the Center ; for Every sparckle of the Divine Ingenium wit skil or understanding out of Gods wisedom , must become generated out of the Center of Nature ; else it is not permanent or Eternal . 64. It must out of the Eternal Ground , stand upon the Eternal Root , and so it is a Sprout in Gods Kingdome out of Christs Tree . 65. Thus we understand the Dying , what it is , and wherefore Christ must have dyed , and why we must all dye in Christs Death , if we will possess his Glory . 66. The Old Adam cannot do that , he must again into that out of which he is gone forth , he ‖ shall be tryed through the fire of God , and give up the * wonders again which he hath swallowed up . 67 * They must come again to Man , and appear to Man according to his will , so far as he hath here made them in Gods willing ; but so for as to Gods dishonour , so they belong to the Devil in the Abyss . 68. Therefore let every one look to it , what they here doe and make , with what Minde and Conscience he speaketh , doth and ●●nye seth ; it shall all be tryed through the Fire . 69. And what is capable of the Fire , that it shall devour , and give it to the Abyss in the Anguish ; † of that a man shall have loss and hurt , and shall want it in the other world . 70 Instead of having Joy that he was a * Labourer in the Vineyard of God ; he will be found to be a † sluggish servant . 71. Therefore will also the power Might clarity and brightnesse in the wonders of the divine wisdome in the other world be very unlike and different . 72. Many is here a wiched King , but in * the other world to come a swine-heard shall be preferred before him , in the Clarity brightnesse and Wisdome : the Cause is , his wonders wil be given to the Abyss , being they were Evil. 73. Behold ye dear Men , I shew ye a similitude of the Angelica● world , behold the flowery blossoming surface of the Earth , or the stars and Constellations , how † one Star , also one hearb excelleth another in power , virtue and beauty , also in the Ornament of its form : so also the angelical World. 74. For we shall be presented in a spiritual Flesh and Bloud ; not in such a * form or manner , as here . 75. The spiritual Body can go through Earthly stone , so subtile it is , else it were not capable of the Deity . 76. For God dwelleth without or beyond the palpable source or quality , in the Quiet still Liberty ; his own substance is the light and power of the Majesty . 77. Thus we must also have a power-body ; but truly and really in flesh and Bloud ; but therein is a Glance of the Tincture ; for the spirit it so very thin that it is unapprehensible by the Body , and yet is palpable in the liberty , Else it were a Nothing . 78. And the Body is much thicker then the spirit , that so the Spirit may lay hold of it and Eat it ; whence it maintaineth the spirit-Life in the Fire ; and giveth forth out of the Fire , the Light of the Majesty , and out of the Light , again , the Meekness in flesh and bloud , so that there is an Eternal substance . 79. Now if we thus finde and know our selfe ; then we see know and understand * what God is and can do ; and what the Substance of all substances , is . 80. And we thus find how altogether blindly , we are lead astray Erroniously , in that Men tell us very much of Gods will , and represent the Deity continually as some forinsik or strange substance , which is far of from us , as if God were some strange thing . 81. And did bear onely some inclinable will towards Us , and did forgive sinne out of Favour , as a King pardoneth one his Life , which had forfeited it . 82. But no! hearken ; It is not Hypocritical flattery and seeming Holiness , and to continue and abide wicked that is called for : but it is said ; we must become born out of God , or to be lost from God Eternally . 83. For , true Faith and Will must do it ; the will must earnestly enter into God , it must attain heavenly Substance , else neither singing , Ringing , Crying or flattering , or whatsoever it may be called , will avail . 84. God needs no service or Ministry : we should serve and Minister one to another ; and love one another , and give thanks to the Great God , that is , to lift up our selfe in one Minde and Consent into God , and make known his wonders ; to call upon his Name , and praise him ; that is the Joy in Ternario sancto , in the holy Ternary ; where the Eternal wisdome ; out of the praise , giveth forth Wonders , powers and sprouts . 85. Thus the Devils Kingdom becometh destroyed , and * Gods Kingdom cometh to Us , and his will is done : Else all is but humane Inventions , Traditions and doings , in the sight of God : an unprofitable thing , a flattery or Hypocrisie , and maketh no attonement or reconciliation , but onely leadeth a Man away from God. 86. Gods Kingdom must Come in us ; and his will be done , in us : and so we serve him aright ; when we † love him from our whole Heart , soul and all our powers , and our Neighbour as our selves ; this is the whole service of God which he accepteth of us . 87. What need we flatter our selves ; are we righteous ? then we our selves are Gods in the Great God ; and what we do then , God doth it in and through us . 88. If his Spirit be in us , why do we so very long take care about Gods service ; if he will do any thing , we should be willing and ready Servants , he must be the Workmaster , if a work be to please God. 89. Whatsoever is besides that , is Earthly built in the Spirit of this world : we build that for the outward Heaven , for the Stars and Elements which have their productions and wonders in Us , and for the Dark Devil ; whom we serve with works without the spirit of God. 90. Let this be said to you ; it is highly known , No work pleaseth God , except it proceed * from Faith in God ; flatter how thou wilt , yet thou labourest onely in this world , thou sowest in an Earthly field . 91. But if † thou wilt reape heavenly fruit , then thou must sow heavenly seed ; and if it cometh not to root in a strange field , then thy seed cometh to thee again , and groweth in thy own field , and thou wilt enjoy the fruit thy self . The seventh Chapter . Of Divine or Spiritual SEEING or Vision ; how in this World Man can have divine and Heavenly Substantiality or skill and knowledge : so that he can rightly speak of God : and how his seeing is . CITATIO SECUNDA . The Second * Citation . Or Invitation : of the Outward Reason of this world , in the Outward flesh and bload . 1. Question . OUtward Reason saith : How may a Man in this world see into God , viz : into another world ; and say what God is ? that cannot be : It must needs be a * Phantasy wherewith the Man tickleth and deceiveth himself . Answer . 2. Thus farre it cometh : it can not search further that it might rest● and if I stuck in that same Art , then I also would say the same ; for he who seeth nothing , saith nothing is there ; what he seeth , that he knoweth , and further he knoweth of Nothing but that which is before his Eyes . 3. But I would have the Scorner , and total Earthly Man , asked ; whether the Heaven be blinde , as also Hell , and God himself ? 4. Or whether there be also any seeing in the divine World ? whether also , the Spirit of God seeth , both in the Love-light-world , as also in the fierce wrath in the Anger-world in the Center ? 5. Doth he say , there is a seeing therein ; as indeed is very true , * then he should look to it , that he do not often see with the Devils Eyes , in his purposed Malice and wickedness ; when he long before medelleth and † frameth a thing to himself in his Imagination in false evil Maliciousness , to bring it to pass ; and seeth beforehand how he may and will Effect his wickedness . 6. Can he there see the wicked Malice before hand : why seeth he not also his wages and recompence beforehand ? 7. O no ; the Devil seeth with his Eyes and covereth the Punishment , that he may bring the Evil wickedness to pass . 8. If he would drive the Devil out , then he would see his great Folly which the Devil hath prompted him to . 9. He letteth him see the Evil , and lendeth him Eyes to do it withal , though the thing be farre off , and long before it be to be done : and yet is so blinded that he knoweth not that he seeth with the Devils Eyes . 10. In like manner the Holy or Saint seeth with Gods Eyes ; what God prepurposeth , that the spirit of God in the New Regeneration , seeth out of the right humane Eyes , out of the Image of God. 11. It is to the wise , a Seeing and also a Doing ; not to the Old Adam ; that must be a servant to it , that must * manage in the work , that which the New man , seeth in God. 12. Yet Christ saith † The Sonne of Man doth Nothing , but what he seeth the Father do , and that he doth also . 13. Now therefore is the Sonne of Man become our * House , into which we are entered ; he is become our Body , and his Spirit is our spirit . 14. Should we then in Christ , be blind , as to God ? The Spirit of Christ , seeth through , and in us , what he will ; and whatsoever he will , that we see and know , in him ; and without him we know nothing of God. 15. He doth divine Works , and seeth what and when he will , not when Adam will , when Adam would fain shed abroad his Malignant wickedness , with high-mindedness to be looked upon . 16. O , no : there he hideth himself : he seeth not , in us , in the light of Joy , in God ; but in the Cross and Tribulation , in Christs suffering and dying , in Christs persecution and Contempt , in great sorrow and Lamentation , into these he seeth , and letteth the Old Ass Crouch and bear the Cross , that is its Office. 17. But in the way through the Death of Christ , the New-Man seeth , into the Angelical world , it is to him much easier and clearer to apprehend , then the Earthly world ; it is done Naturally . 18. Not with Imagining , but with seeing Eyes ; with those Eyes which shall possess the Angelical World ; viz : with the Eyes of the souls Image . 19. With the Spirit which goeth forth out of the souls Fire , that Spirit seeth into heaven , that beholdeth God and the Eternity , and no other ; and that is also the Noble Image according to the similitude of God. 20. Out of or from this seeing hath this Pen written , not from other Masters , or out of Conjecture whether it be true or No. 21. Though now indeed a Creature is but a peece , and not a total entireness , so that we see onely in Part , yet it is searchable and fundamental . 22. But the wisdome of God , suffereth not it self to be written , for it is infinite or Endless , without Number and Comprehension * we know onely in Part. 23. And though indeed we know much more , yet the Earthly Tongue cannot lift it self up and say it , or bring it forth : It speaketh onely words of this World , and not words of the Inward World ; for the Minde reteineth them in * the hidden Man. 24. And therefore one alwaies understandeth otherwise then an other , all according as every one is indued with the wisdome ; and so also he apprehendeth , and so he expoundeth it . 25. Every one will not understand my writings according to my meaning and sense , indeed it may be not one : but every one according to his Gifts , for his † benefit , one more then another , according as the Spirit hath its property in him . 26. For , the Spirit of God is often * subject to the Spirits of Men , if they will that which is good or well , and seeth or looketh , after what , Man willeth ; that his good worke be not hindred ; but that every where , above all , Gods will or willing or desiring be done . 27. For , the Spirit which becometh generated out of the souls Fire out of Gods Meekness and substance , that is also the Holy Spirit : It dwelleth in the Divine Property , and taketh its seeing out of the divine property . 28. What is it now that is strange to or in us , that we cannot see God ? This world and the Devil in Gods Anger , it is , that we see not with Gods Eyes ; else there is no hinderance . 28. Now if one saith : I see nothing divine : he should consider , that Flesh and Blood together with the subtilty and Craft of the Devil , is a hinderance and Cover , to him , oftentimes , in that he willeth , in his high-mindedness for his own honour , to see God , and oftentimes , in that he is filled and blinded with the earthly Malignity . 30. * Let him look into the footsteps of Christ , and enter into a new Life , and yeeld himselfe to be under the Cross of Christ , and desire onely the Entrance of Christ , through Christs death , descention into Hell , and ascention into Heaven ; to the Father ; what shall hinder him : but that he must needs see the Father , and his saviour Christ , together with the Holy Spirit . 31. Should now the Holy spirit be blind , when he dwelleth in Man ? or write I this , for my own Boasting ? 32. Not so , but for a rule of Direction to the Reader : that he might forsake his Errour , and depart from the way of wickedness and abomination , forth into a holy divine substance , that he also with the divine Eyes might see the wonders of God , that so Gods will may be done . 33. To which End this Pen hath written very Much ; and not for its own honour , the pleasure and voluptuousness , of this lifes , sake , as the driver continually reproacheth us , that we do , and yet it remaineth onely to the Driver in the Anger of God , whom we would fain that he may have the Kingdom of heaven , if he might be but released from the Devil and the Earthly state and proud Longing Malady ; which make him blind . 34. Thus dear children of God ; you who seek with much sighing and Tears ; Let this be in earnest sincerity to you : Our seeing and knowing is in God : He manifesteth or revealeth to every one in this world , as much as he will , as he knoweth is profitable and good for him . 35. For he that seeth out of or from God , he hath Gods work to manage ; he should and must manage teach speak and do that which he seeth ; else his seeing will be taken from him ; for this world is not worthy of Gods Seeing . 36. But for the Wonders sake and the revelation of God ; it becometh given to many to see , that the Name of God may be manifested to the world ; which will also be a witness against all the Doings of the ungodly which pervers the truth into Lyes ; and despise the Holy Spirit . 37. For , * we are not our own , but his whom we serve in his Light. 38. We know nothing of God : He , God himself , is our knowing and seeing . 39. We are Nothing , that he may be all in us : we should be blind , deaf , and dumb , and know no Life in us , that he may be our Life and seeing , and our work may be his . 40. Our Tongue should not say ; if we have done any thing that is good ; this have we done but this hath the Lord in us , done : His Name be highly pr●ised . 41. But what doth this Evil world now ? If any say , this hath God in me done , if it be good ; then saith the world ; Thou Fool I thou hast done it : God is not in thee : thou lyest : Thus the Spirit of God must be their Fool and Lyar. 42. What is it then : or who speaketh out of the Blasphemous Mouth ? Even the Devil , who is an Enemy of God , that he may hide and Cover the work of God , that Gods spirit might not become known ; and that he may continue , Prince of the World even till the Judgement . 43. * Thus , When you see , that the World fighteth against you , persecuteth you , despiseth , slandereth you , for the sake of the knowledg and Name of God , then consider that you have the Black Devil before you : then sigh and long that Gods Kingdom may come to us , and the Devils sting may be broken or destroyed ; that * the Man through your longing , sighing and praying , may be released from the Devil ; And then you Labour rightly in Gods Vineyard , you prevent the Devil of his Kingdom and bring forth fruit upon Gods Table . 44. For in Love and Meekness , we become New Born out of the Anger of God ; in Love and Meekness we must strive and fight , in the Devils Thorny Bath , in this world , against him . 45. For , Love , is , his Poyson , it is a fire of Terrour to him , wherein he cannot stay : if he knew the least spark of Love in himselfe , he would cast it away ; or would burst himself therefore that he might be rid of it . 49. Therefore is Love and Meekness , our Sword ; wherewith we can fight for the Noble Garland under Christs Thorney Crown , with the Devil , and the World. 47. For , Love is the fire of the second Principle , it is Gods Fire ; The Devil , and the World , is an Enemy to it . 48. The Love , hath Gods Eyes , and seeth in God , and the Anger hath the Eyes of the fierce wrath in the Anger of God , that seeth in Hell in the source or Torment and Death 49. The World supposeth meerly , that a Man must see God with the Earthly and Starry Eyes ; it knoweth not , that God dwelleth not in the outward , but in the Inward . 50. And if then it seeth nothing admirable or wonderful in Gods children , it saith● O , he is a Fool , he is an Ideot , he is Melancholly ; thus much it knoweth . 51. O , hearken Sir , I know well what Melancholly is ; I know also well what is from God : I know them both , and thee also , in thy blindness ; but such knowledge , costeth not Melancholly , but a victorious wrestling . 52. For , it is given to None without wrestling ; unless he be a limit or Mark chosen of God ; otherwise he must wrestle for the Garland . 53. Indeed many a Man is chosen to it in his Mothers body or womb ; as John the Baptist , and others more , apprehended in the Covenant of Gods Promise , who are alwaies a Limit , or Mark of a Seculum or highest Pitch of an Age , who are born with the time of the Great Year , and are Chosen to open and disclose the wonders which God entendeth or purposeth . 54. But , * not all out of the Limit or Mark ; but Many of them out of their Zealous seeking ; for , Christ saith , † Seek and you shall find , knock and so it will be opened unto you : also ‖ Whosoever cometh to me those I will not reject or cast out . Also , * Father , I will that those , whom thou hast given me be where I am : that is , that those who are born out of Christ with the New man ; be , in God his Father . Also , * Father , I will that they see my Glory which I had before the foundation of the World. 55. Here lyeth the seeing , out of Christs spirit , out of Gods Kingdome , in the power of the Word , of the substance the Deity , with the Eyes of God : and not with the Eyes of this World , and of the outward Flesh . 56. Thus thou blind world , know wherewith we see , when we speak and write of God , and let thy false Judging alone : see thou with thy Eyes , and let Gods Children see with their Eyes ; see out of or from thy Gifts , let another see out of or from his Gifts . 57. * As every one is Called so let him see ; and so let him walk or Converse ; for we Manage not all one and the same Conversation ; but every one according to his Gift and Calling to serve Gods honour and Wonders . 58. The Spirit of God suffereth not it self so to be tied or bound up , as outward Reason supposeth , with its Decrees Cannons and Councils , whereby alwaies one Chain of Antichrist is linked to another , that Men will Judge above Gods Spirit , and Maintain and hold their * Conceipts or opinions to be Gods Covenant ; as if God were not at home in this world , or as if they were Gods upon Earth ; and moreover what they will Believe , they establish with an Oath . 59. Is not this a work of Folly , to bind up and tie the Holy Spirit with his Gifts of wonder , to an Oath ; he must Believe what they will , and yet they know him not , also they are not born of him ; and yet they make Lawes what he shall do . 60. I say , that all such Covenants and binding is Antichrist and unbelief , let it seem or flatter how it will : Gods Spirit on the Contrary is unbound , he goeth not into such a Covenant or Band , but he appeareth freely , to the seeking humble lowly Minde , according to his Gift , as he his * inclined . 61. He is also even very subjected to it , if it do but Earnestly desire him ; what then would that ‖ Covenant in humane wit and prudence of this world , do , if it did belong to the honour of God ? are not all † Covenants generated out of self Pomp state and Pride . 62. Friendly Conference and Colloquy together is very Good and necessary , that one present or impart his Gifts to the other ; but the Covenants or Institutions are a false or wicked chain against God. 63. God hath once made one Covenant with us , in Christ , that is enough in Eternity : he maketh no more ; He hath once taken Mankind into the Covenant , and made a firm Testament with or by Death and Blood ; there is enough in that , we justly rest satisfied in that , and cleave to this Covenant . 64. * Note we ought not dare to dance so Boldly and audaciously lewdly about Christs Cup , as is done at present ; else it will be takeh away ; as is done to the Turks . 65. There is a very great earnest severity at Hand , such as hath not been since the beginning of the World : Let is be said to you , it is become known : the Antichrist shall stand * Naked . 66. But look to it , that you become not thereby the worse † for the Axe is put to the Tree : the ‖ Evil Tree shall be hewn down , and cast into the Fire ; the time is near ; let none stick or hide himselfe , in the Lust of the Flesh . 67. For , it avalleth nothing , that any know how he should be New-born , and set continueth in the Old skin , in the pleasure and voluptuousness of the Old Man , in Covetousness , high-mindedness , unrighteousness , in unchastity , immodesty , and in a dishonest or scandalous wicked life ; † such a one is dead while he liveth , and sticketh in the Jaws of Gods Anger , their knowledg will accuse and Condemn them at the Judgement . 68. If he receiveth the word of knowledge and conceiveth it , so that God giveth him to know it , that it is the right way to Life ; then he must presently be a door of the word , and go forth from the Evil or wickedness ; or else he hath a heavy Judgement upon him . 69. What is he better then the Devil , who * also knoweth Gods will , but yet doth his own Evil will : one is as the other , neither Good , so long till he becometh a doer of the Word ; and then he walketh in Gods way , and is in the Vineyard in Gods Labour . 70. The Hypocritical Babel teacheth now at present ; that our works merit Nothing , Christ hath delivered us from Death and Hell : we must onely Believe and so we are righteous . 71. Hearken O Babel ; † The servant who knoweth his Lords will , and doth it not , shall suffer many stripes : a knowing without doing , is just as a fire which glimmereth but cannot burn for moisture . 72. Wilt thou that thy divine Faiths Fire should burn , then thou must blow it up , and put off from Thee the Devils and the worlds Moysture ; thou must enter into the Life of Christ . 73. Wilt thou be his Childe , then thou must enter into his house : and manage his work , else thou art out of it without , and an Hypocrite * who beareth the Name of God in vain or unprofitably ; † thou teachest one thing and dost another , and testifiest thus , that Gods Judgement is right concerning thee . 74. Or , what pleasure hath God in thy knowing , when as thou stil continuest wicked ? dost thou suppose he will accept thy Hypocrisie ? 75. That thou Cryest to him : Lord ! give me a strong Faith in the Merits of thy Sonne Christ : that he hath satisfied for my sinnes : supposest thou , that , that is enough ? 76. O Sir , no , hearken : * thou must enter into Christs Suffering and dying , and be born a second time out of his Death ; thou must become a Member in and with him ; thou must constantly Crucifie the Old Adam ; and alwaies hang upon Christs Cross , and must become an obedient Child , that alwaies hearkeneth what the father saith , and alwaies would fain do that . 77. Thou must enter into the Doing , Else thou art but a * Vizard without Life , thou must together with God , work good works of Love towards thy Neighbour , and continually exercise thy Faith , and alwaies be prepared , and ready at † the voice of the Lord , when he Calleth thee out of the old skin , to go home into the pure Garment . 78. See ; though thou plainly walkest in this way , yet thou wilt have upon thee weakness enough , and feel far too much ; thou wilt still work very farre * too much Evil. 79. For we have an Evil Guest lodging within us , to comfort ones self onely doth not avail , but to fight and strive against it ; and Continually to slay and vanquish it : without this it is ever too strong and will have the Dominion . 80. Christ hath indeed in us and for us , broken and destroyed Death ; and made way for us , but what doth it help me , to comfort my selfe with that , and learn to know that , and yet continue lying shut up in the dark Anger , and Captivated in the Chains of the Devil ? 81. I must even enter into that very way and Path , and walk in that street as a Pilgrim or stranger who wandereth out of Death into Life . The Eighth Chapter . Of the Pilgrims-VVay out of Death into Life . 1. DEar Children , let us very heartily speak one with another concerning the Ground and Foundation . Our true life , wherewith we should see God , is as a damped fire , in many also , as the fire shut up in a Stone ; we must strike upon it with true earnest sincere entring and turning In to God. 2. Look upon Gods care in providing which hath taken for us aforehand : * He hath regenerated us in Christ out of the Water of Eternal Life , and hath left us at last the same in the Covenant of Baptism for a Key ; that we should therewith unlock and therewith * besprinckle our souls Fire ; that it may become capable of the Divine Fire . 3. And hath * given us his Body for food , and his Blood for drink , that we should receive it , and enter into his Covenant , and feed our souls therewith , that they may be quickened and awake up from Death , that the divine Fire , may kindle them . 4. Dear Children ; It must burn , and not continue to lie shut up in Stone , or as an Ember or Tinder , which would fain glimmer , and cannot for the Devils Moysture . 5. The Historical Faith is onely an Ember , which glimmereth like a little spark ; it must become Kindled , we must give it Matter , wherein the sparkle may kindle it selfe . 6. The soul must press forth out of the Reason of this world in to the life of Christ ; into Christs flesh and Bloud , and so it conceiveth the Matter to its kindling : It must be in Earnest Sincerity . 7. For , the History reacheth not Christs flesh and Bloud , Death must be broke open . 8. Although indeed Christ hath broke it open , yet the Earnest sincere desire must follow after , that would fain doe or act , and alwaies labour therein . 9. As a Pilgrim or Messenger who hath a long dangerous way to travail , he alwaies runneth on towards the End , and is unwear●ed , though woe and misery befall him , yet he hopeth for the End , and cometh alwaies nearer where then he Expects in hope his wages and refreshment , and joyeth that his sore travail and wandering will have an End. 10. Thus must a man that will travail and wander to God , behave himselfe in the Way of his Pilgrimage : He must continually more and more wander or travail forth out of the Earthly Reason , out from the will of the Flesh , of the Devil and the World. 11. Often woe and misery befall him , when he must forsake that , which he might well have had , and could therewith have swum in Temporal Honour . 12. But if he will Travel in the Right Path , then he must onely put on the Mantle of Righteousness , and put off the Mantle of Covetousness and the Hypocritical Life . 13. He must * impart his bread to the Hungry , and give his clothes for a Covering , and not be an Oppressor of the Miserable ; and onely fill his own Sack full , squeese away the sweet from the simple ; and impose Lawes upon him , onely for his pride and pleasure sake . 14. He is no Christian that doth such things , but he travelleth in the Path of this world , as the starres and the Elements with the Devils infection and Lust , drive him . 15. And though likely he knoweth the Faith of Gods Mercifulness , of the satisfaction of Christ , yet that will not help him : for ‖ not all that say Lord Lord shall enter enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ; but those that do the will of my Father in Heaven . 16. And that will is , * Love thy Neighbour as thy self : ‖ What thou wilt that men should do to thee , that do thou also . 17. Say not in thy Heart : I sit in this Office and Lordship , of Right : I have bought purchased or inherited it , that which my Subjects doe for me they are obliged to do it . 18. See and search , whether that hath a right original , whether it be ordained of God , or whether it takes its original from deceit , and selfe state and pride , and out of Covetousness . 19. If thou findest that it be of Gods Ordaining , then look to it , and walke therein , according to the Commandment of Love and Righteousness : Consider that therein , thou art a Servant and Minister ; and Not a Lord over Christs Children . 20. And not that thou fittest therein onely to draw their sweat to thee , but that thou art their Judge and shepheard , and that * thou shalt give an accompt of the Office. 21. † Five Talents have been given thee thou shouldst return them up to thy Lord with increase and usury : thou shouldst lead thy inferiours in the right way , thou shouldst give him good Example in Instruction and reproving of evil and wickedness . 22. For , it will be required of thee , If thou reprovest not the wicked , and protectest not the Oppressed and afflicted . 23. Thou art not therefore their Ruler , that thou shouldest be their Lord : not thou ; but God is their Lord. Thou shouldst be their Judge , and part them in their fallings out , and decide their differences . 24. Not for thy Covetousness onely art thou their Judge , but for their Conscience sake , that thou shouldest instruct lead and direct the simple , not onely with squeezing of his sweat , but with Gentleness and Meekness . 25. Thou hast a heavy burden upon thee ; thou must give an Earnest severe accompt thereof . 26. * When the Miserable sigheth concerning thee in his oppression , he complaineth of thee before his and thy Lord , thou shalt and Must stand with him before the Judgment , for the sentence passeth upon thy soul no Hypocrisie will help . 27. Whatsoever was sown with Teares , in right Earnestness , that becometh a substance , and belongeth to the Judgement of God : except a man Convert , and reconcile himselfe with wel-doing and benefit to the oppressed that they may bless him ; then that Substance breaketh . 28. Therefore ye Rulers and Superiours , you ought to look narrowly to your state and Condition ; whence it ariseth Originally : the Root will shortly be narrowly sought after : * every one shall give an accompt of his state and Condition . 29. But have a care that therewith you † ride not in the Hellish fire , as the fierce wrathful Devil himselfe doth : and so ye be found his servants and Ministers ; as the Spirit of the Wonders sheweth us ; that ye are become the ‖ fulfilling of the Eternal anger and fierce wrath . 30. Say not in thy Heart : thus have my Parents , Elders , Ancestors and predecessors walked , I have inherited it from them : Thou knowest not into what Lodging they are entered . 31. Wilt thou be a Christian and a Childe of God ▪ then thou must not look upon the way of thy predecessors ; How they have rid on in Pleasure and voluptuousness : but look upon Gods word : that must be the Light of thy Feet . 32. For , Many who have done Evil , are gone into the Abyss , and thou wilt follow after them : if thou walkest in their footsteps . 33. Suffer not the Devil to pourtray or paint before thee the Hypocritical way ; his Colour glistere outwardly , and in the † Essences it is Poyson . 34. O , how dangerous away have we to wander and travail through this world : and it were to be wished that there were no * Eternal thing in the wicked , then they would not suffer Eternal Torment ; and be in the Eternal scorn and reproach . 35. As they have here in this life been the Enemies of Gods children , so also they continue to be for ever the Enemies of God and of his children . 36. Therefore must the Children of God , take the Cross upon them , and here sweat in the Thistly and Thorney Bath , and become born anew in Anguish ; they must walk in a Narrow steep Path , where Reason alwaies saith : Thou art a Fool , thou mightest live in Joy and Jollity , and be saved well enough 37. O , how often outward Reason striketh and smiteth the Noble Image , which springeth up out of the Thorney Bath , out of Tribulation : how many sprouts become torn of from the Pearl-Tree , through Doubting and Unbelief , which bring Man into the False and wicked way . 38. The Miserable sigh , and paint , after temporal sustenance ; and Curseth the Oppressor , which bereaveth him of his sweat , and thinketh he doth right in it , yet he doth but destroy himselfe therein ; he doth even as wickedly as his driver or Oppressor . 39. Did he take to himselfe Patience , and Consider , that he walketh upon the Pilgrime's Evil Path , and did set his Hope in his Journeys End , and did Consider that thus under the Cross and misery , under oppression , * he laboureth in the Vineyard of Christ ; O how Happily and blessedly should he doe . 40. He hath cause hereby to look for another and better life , seeing he must here swim in Anguish and Misery : if he rightly understand it , how well God entendeth it towards him ▪ that so he might the more seek and hunt after him , that he might not build upon the Earthly Life . 41. Being he seeth , that it is but a vale of Misery affliction and oppression , and that he must spend his dayes here in hard streights , in Misery , in vain Labour weariness and Care : yet he is to Consider , that God letteth it not pass so in vain ; but that in like manner he thus giveth cause , to seek the true Rest , which is not in this world . 42. Besides he must every hour expect death ; and leave his work to another ; what is it then , for a Man to build his Hope upon this world , wherein he is but onely a Guest : and a Wanderer or Pilgrim , which must there wander through the way or Passage of his Constellation . 43. If he did assume the Inward Constellation , O! how happily and blessedly would he labour in Gods work , and let the outward , go , as it may or can be ! 44. A Man in this world that entendeth to possess the Kingdom of God he hath no better way , neither can he have any better Council and advice , but that he continually Consider and Conceive , that he is in the Vineyard of God with all his doings and substance , and whatsoever he is , and that he do it to or for God. 45. His Minde should in a Constant Hope be looking towards God , that he shall obtain his wages for his Labour , from God ; and that he laboureth in Gods deeds of wonder ; and therefore should be diligent in the Labour which he performeth . 46. And when he must oftentimes serve his driver or oppressor in weariness , without wages , then let him but Consider , that he laboureth for God ; and be patient in Hope that God will well bestow his wages upon him in due time . 47. For * the Lord of the Vineyard doth not pay his Labourers off at Noon day , but in * the Evening when their Day Labour is done , when we go home to our Lord , our of the Vale of this Tabernacle , and then every one receiveth his wages . 48. † Those then who have laboured much for a long time ; have much wages to Expect . 49. But they that have been Snorers , Grunters , * sluggish , Lazy , and Evil , murmuring , whining , pettish , Labourers , in Impatience , such a one hath done small service , and ought well to expect moreover , to have punishment from his Lord ; for he hath but misled other Labourers , and hath been an unprofitable Labourer , and hath performed meer vain false and Evil work , to cheat his Lord of his wages , he justly receiveth punishment for his wages . CITATIO TERTIA ▪ The Third * Citation . The Gate in the Center of Nature . 50. Question . Reason saith . Why doth God let it go so , that here is nothing but vain toylsome weariness , as also vexation and oppression , one plaguing and afflicting another ? And though many have much and want nothing ; yet they have no quiet and rest ; they hunt onely after oppression and Unquietness ; and their heart is never quiet and still . Answer . 51. See , thou Locked-up knowledge : the Ground or foundation of the world is thus ; the Original of Life is also thus ; in this world it may or can , not be otherwise . 52. Except a Man become New born , and then he is otherwise in the New-man ; and yet this oppression and driving cleaveth alwaies to him in the Old Man ; * This is , * the strife of the Spirit against the Flesh , where † the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit , and the Spirit against the Flesh . Question . 53. Now saith Reason ; whence hath this its originall ? Answer . 54. Answer : Behold ! in the Center of Nature there is such a Thing Being or substance : do but Mind it . 55. The Eternal will which is called God ; that is Free ; for it hath in it nothing but the Light of the Majesty ; and dwelleth in the Eternal Nothing ; and therefore also Nothing can touch him . 56. But his Desiring ; which maketh the Center of Nature ; that hath such a property ; for therein is the harsh astringency , viz : the first Property of Nature , which alwaies attracteth to it self , and receiveth where nothing is , where it hath made Nothing : and taketh it and twitcheth it up together . 57. Yet it may not Eat it , also it is not profitable to it : Thus it maketh to it self anguish pain and unquietness therewith ; as also Covetousness , in Man , doth . 58. The Second Form , is its drawing or Sting ; that is its Servant or Child , which there twitcheth together what the desire will ; that is the Labourer ; and signifieth the Inferiour Man , who is Evil , base , Angry , Raging , and stingeth and throbbeth in the Harsh astringency . 59. And that cannot the Astringent harshness endure from the servant , but draweth it the more eagerly ; and so the servant becometh more Evil and Base , more raging , and stormeth the Lords house . 60. Thereupon , will the Lord bind and hold the servant , and the servant teareth forth with Malice aloft again . 61. And then seeing the Lord , viz : the harsh astringency cannot over-power it ; they struggle together in Great Anguish , enmity and Opposition , and begin to make a whirling-wheel ; to worry murther and put to death one the other . 62. This is the Third Form of Nature , whence ariseth Warres , fighting , strife , destroying of Country and City , envy and anxious vexatious Malice and wickedness : whereas alwaies one would have the other Dead ; willeth to devour all and draw it into it selfe , it willeth to have it alone , and yet there is nothing profitable to it but hurtful . 63. It doth as the fierce wrath of Nature doth , that swalloweth it self up into it self : and Consumeth and breaketh it self , and yet it generateth it self also thus . 64. * Whence , all Evil cometh ; the Devill together with all Evil things or substances cometh from hence : thus they have their Original : as Nature in the Center doth , understand , without the Light. 65. Thus doth the Devil also , who hath not the Light : as also Evil Men and Beasts , also hearbs and Grass , and all whatsoever is odious or Enemicitious . 66. For , it is the poyson-wheel , whence the Life ariseth Originally , that whirleth it selfe thus in great anguish , in stinging raging and breaking ; till it Createth another will in it selfe to go out of the Anguish , and sincketh it self down into Death , and giveth it self free therein into Liberty . 67. So it destroyeth the stinging and breaking in death , and falleth into the Liberty of the first willing , which kindleth the Anguish of Death-with the still Liberty , whence the Anguish is terrified , Death breaketh , and out of the Anguish goeth forth a Life of Joy. 68. Thus it goeth also with Man when he is in the Anguish and Enmity , that the sting of Death and of Anger rageth in him , so that he is anxious Covetous , Envious Angry and Enemicitious . 69. Then he should not continue in this Evil Substance , Condition , or Doings ; else he is in the Forms of Death Anger fi●rce wrath and Hellish Fire : and if the water-source or quality were not in him together with Flesh and Bloud , then he would instanly be a kindled Devil , and nothing else . 70. But he should consider himself , and Create another will in his Evil Anguish , and go out from the Covetous Malice , into the liberty of God , where there is continually Rest enough . 71. He should in Death sinck down into Patience , and willingly give up himself into the Anxious wheel , and Cr●●● a Thirst after Gods quickening , which is the Liberty , and so 〈◊〉 ●cketh down quite through the anxious Death , and falleth into the Liberty . 72. And so when its Anguish tasteth the Liberty , that it is such a still meek source or Quality , then the Anguish becometh terrified , and in the Terrour breaketh the Enimicitious harsh Death ; for it is a Crack or Terrour of Great Joy , and a Kindling of the Life of God. 73. Thus the * Pearl-Branch or sprout becometh Generated ; that now standeth in the trembling of Joy ; but in great danger ; for the Death and the Anguish source or quality is its Root . 74. And is environed therewith as a fair green Slip or Branch groweth out of a stincking dunhil out of the strong source , and attaineth another Essence , smell , substance and source or quality , then its mother hath , out of which it became generated . 75. As then also the source or quality in Nature , hath such a property , so that out of the Evil , viz : out of the Anguish , the Great Life becometh Generated . 76. And as we further know : that Nature in the Crack or Terrour divideth it selfe into two Kingdoms ; the First , into the Kingdom of Joy : The Second , into a sincking of Death into a Darkness : so also Man , when the Lilly branch to the Kingdom of Joy thus becometh Generated , then its Nature divideth it self into Two Wills. 77. As First , the one riseth up in the Lilly and groweth in Gods Kingdom : Secondly , the other sincketh down in the Dark Death , and panteth or longeth after the Earth ; after its Mother : which striveth alwaies against the Lilly ; and the Lilly flieth before or from the roughness . 78. As a sprout groweth out of the Earth ; and the Essence fleeth before or from the Earth , and is drawn up by the sun ; till it becometh a stalk or Tree : so also Gods Sun draweth Mans Lilly , viz : the * New Man , alwaies , in his power , forth from the Evil Essence , and draweth at last out of it , a Tree in Gods Kingdom . 79. And then he letteth the old Evil Tree or Shell , under which the New did grow ; fall away into the Earth into its Mother , after which it indeed Longed ; and out of the Earth again into the Center of Nature , at the End of the Day of Separation , wherein all must again go into its Ether . 80. Thus goeth the Lilly also into its Ether , viz : into the * free will , into the light of the Majesty . 81. Understand it further thus ; when thus two Kingdoms divide themselves in the Crack or Terrour of Nature , then is the terrour or Crack in it self a flash , and Cause of the Fire , viz : of the Lifes kindling . 82. Thus the Prima Materia , viz : the first Matter , which the harshness maketh with its entering in , wherein the Enmity existed , divideth it selfe into TWO Parts , One downwards into Death : this is the Essential Life with substantiality of this world : such as Earth and Stone . 83. And then the Second Part ; severeth it selfe out of the Terrour or Crack of the Fire into the Light of the Liberty ; for the Terrour of the fire , kindleth the Liberty so that it also * becometh desirous : and that now in its desiring draweth the Kingdom of Joy into it self , viz : the Meek wel-doing , and maketh is also become † Matter . 84. This now , is the Heavenly divine * substantiality ; which draweth the fire againe into it self ; and devourth it in its Crack or Terrour , which is the fire's source or quality : and there the soft meekness Consumeth the source or quality , and bringeth it self into the highest Joy : so that out of Auguish , Love ; and out of fire , a love-burning , Cometh to be . 85. And giveth out of the Burning , the Richly Joyful spirit of the Eternal life , which is called the Spirit of God , which ariseth Originally in the first-willing which is called the Father , for it is the desiring of Nature ; and is in the fire , a fire-source or quality , and in the Anguish of Death , a sting of Death and of fierce wrath , and the Enmity in the substance of Nature viz : in the Center . 86. And in the Light , it is the divine Kingdom of Joy ; which there in the divine substantiality , viz : in the wisdome , which is the Colours of the Virtues and Powers , openeth the Noble * Tincture , which is the Glance of the Heavenly Substantiality . 87. And Causeth in the Substantiality , the Element of the Angelical world , out of which this world is an Out-birth ; but in the Anger ; kindled by the Devil : who is a cause that the fierce wrath of Nature hath kindled it self ; whence in the substantiality Earth and Stone are come to be : as it is before our Eyes . 88. Which the Maghtiest source or quality in Verbo Fiat in the world Fiat , hath separated into a Principle , as in the Book of the Three-fold Life is expressed at Large . 89. Thus , understand the Fire-●lash for the fourth form of Nature . 90. And the Love-birth of the Kingdom of Joy ; for the Fifth Form. 91. And the swallowing in of substantiality , out of the Meeknesse into the Fire-source or quality , where the fire also attaineth the Kingdom of Joy , viz : the sound , of the Manifestation or revelation of the Colours Wonders and Vertues , whence the five Senses , viz : Seeing Hearing Smelling Tasting and Feeling , Exit ; for the sixt Forme of Nature . 92. And the Substantiality of the Light , in which the divine Element is comprehended , out of which the Springing growing or Paradise existeth : for the seventh Form ; as again for the Mother of all Forms , which give●h substance power and Meekness to all Forms ; so that there is an E●ernal Life and an Eternal dwelling or delight of Life . 93. For , the Seventh Form , holdeth or conteineth in it self the Angelical world ; as also the Paradise , or right Kingdom of Heaven , wherein the substances of the Deity is Manifest , and all whatsoever the Light world conteineth : as we have expressed in our Other Books . The Ninth Chapter . Further and More Circumstance of this Third Citation . Highly to be Considered . 1. THus ye Children of Man ; be here seeing and Not Blinde ; Observe what is here manifested to you ; it is done not in vain ; there is somewhat more behind : sleep Not , it is high Time , do but see what the substance of all substances is . 2. This world is generated forth , out of the Eternall ; the * Center of Nature , hath ever been from Eternity ; but to hath not been manifest . 3. With this is world and with the Devils † fierce wrath , it is come into substance : But yet understand what the Devil is . 4. He is a Spirit of his Legions , out of the Center of Nature ; * as one when he was Created in the Divine substantiality . 5. And yet he was to be proved or tryed in the fire , and to set his Imagination into the Love , but he set it into the Center , of the wrathfulness , back into the fourth form of the Anguish , and would fain d●mineer in the fire over Gods Meekness , as an Enemy of the Kingdome of Joy : and despised the Love , when he saw , that the fire , gave strength and Might . 6. And therefore he was Thrust out of the fire of God into the Anguish of the Darkness , into the Center of the fourth Form : he had no more of the Fire , but the Terrible Flash , and that is his right Life . 7. But the will of God : which however , in Angels and Man longeth and panteth after the Life , which cometh to help the Life , with the Liberty , viz : with the Meekness , that hath left or forsaken him ; and so he cannot attain the Light , in Eternity . 8. Also he can frame or Create no Imagination or longing after it ; for Gods wil spirit , floweth into him and quelleth him in the Anguish Chamber , in the first four forms of Nature ; he can not attain the Fift . 9. And though indeed , he hath all forms , of Nature , yet all is enimicitious and Opposite or of Contrary will ; for the Holy Spirit hath left him , and now the source or fountain of the Anger or fierce wrath is in him . 10. God , who is ALL , hath opened his fierce wrath , or the Center of the Original , in him : so that it also is Creaturely ; for it hath also longed to manifest it self . 11. And when God once moved himself to the Creation of Angels , then all became manifest , whatsoever from Eternity in the Wonders of the wisdome stood hidden in the Center , both in Love and Anger . 12. Seeing now we thus know : what we are ; and that God letteth us know it ; we should now look to it , and generate some Good out of us : for we have the Center of the Eternal Nature in us . 13. If we make an Angel out of us , then we are that . 14. If we make a Devil out of us ; then also we are that . 15. Here we are in the Making , in the Creating ; we stand in the field : Gods willing in the Love , standeth in the Center of the Life towards us . 16. God is become Man , and willeth to have us ; so also his Anger in the Kingdom of the fierce wrath willeth to have us ; the Devil also willeth to have us into his society : and Gods Angels also into theirs : to which soever we are Factour and Trade , thither we go . 17. * If we put our Imagination into the Light of God ; and go with earnest sincerity into that ; then we come into it , and are also with earnestness drawn into it . 18. Will we then put our willing into the Glory of this world , and let the Eternal go ; then we have to expect , that we must with this worlds fierce wrath , enter into the first Mystery . 19. * Shall we not then have divine Imagination , viz : Faith , in us , then the divine Love will leave us , and not let us in at her Doars . 20. Assuredly , if God break them not open , then we come into Necessity ; if thou bringest Not Gods spirit along with thee , thou wilt never more attain it . 21. Therefore , it is Good to Spring and grow forth in this Life : Christ is Become our field ; we may without any great anguish or trouble attain it ; * it is but to do this viz : to breake our Will. 22. That is woeful , for the Old Adam will not , so also the Anger will not ; the Devil also will not . 23. Behold ! O , Man : thou thy self art thy own Enemy : that which thou holdest to be thy friend , that is thy Enemy ; wouldst thou be saved , and see God , then thou must become worst Enemy to thy best friend , viz : to thy outward Life . 24. Not that thou shouldest destroy it , but , its will , onely : thou must do what thou willest not , thou must become thy own Enemy , or else thou cast not see God. 25. For , that which thou now holdest for thy friend , is proceeded out of the Anguish Chamber ; and hath still the Anguish life in it , it hath the Anger source or quality and the Devils sicknesse longing or Malady in it . 26. Thou must frame or Create a will in God : thou must frame or Create a will out of thy soul , and with the same go forth out of Evil wickedness and Malice , into God ; and so thou wilt be introduced into Gods Fire . 27. Understand ; the willing-spirit ; that , will kindle thy soul , and so then , reach after the life and spirit of Christ , and thou wilt receive it : which will new Regenerate thee , with a New willing , which will abide with thee . 28. The same , is the blossome of thy soul , wherein , the New-Child standeth in the Image of God : to that God giveth Christs flesh and bloud , to feed on . 29. And not to the Adamical Ass , as Babel wonderfully Dreameth : as if the wicked should participate or be made partakers of the Body of Christ ! O , No. 30. They receive the four Elements , and therein , the Anger of God , and therefore * because they distinguish or discern not the Lords Body , which is every where present in Heaven ; and becometh fed upon by that soul , which attaineth Heaven . 31. Not , as a sign , as the other Phantasy Dreameth ; not Spirit without Substance ; but the substance of the spirit environed and inclosed with Gods wisdome , Christs Flesh , which filleth the Light-world in every Place : which the Word that became Man brought along with it into Mary . 32. That same Substantiality , although indeed , in Mary , it became Opened in its flesh and bloud , and assumed humane Essence to it selfe , † was at that very Time , while Christ lay in the body or womb of Mary , in Heaven in the one Element in all Places . 33. It never came at any time from any Place many miles off , into Mary : No , but the included Center which Adam had shut up in the Anger of God in Death , that , the word of the Deity did unshut or unlock ; and introduced the divine substantiality , into the virgin-like Center shut up in Death . 34. That was done in the Body or womb of Mary , in the limit or Mark of the Covenant ; not departing away , also not entering in , but unshutting , in-generating , and in this world Ex-generating . 35. God-and-Man one Person ; Heavenly , and in Death inclosed substantiality and virginity ; one substantiality : one onely Man , in heaven and in this World. 36. And such must we also be ; for the Word which became Man , is stirring in the soul ; and standeth in the sound of the Life in all Souls . 37. Now go whither thou wilt , thou hast now the Center of the Deity in thee in the sound and stirring ; and also , the Center of the fierce wrath , into which thou goest , and which thou awakenest therein standeth thy Life . 38. Do what thou pleasest , thou art free , and God letteth thee know it : He calleth thee ; if thou comest , then thou wilt be his Child ; if thou goest into the Anger , then thou wilt also be taken up by that . The Tenth Chapter . Of Gods Express-Reflex Image of Man , viz : of Gods similitude and Man. 1. WE cannot in this world see our substantiality or New Body , while we are in the Earthly Body : the Outward Man knoweth it not ; onely the Spirit , which becometh generated , and goeth forth out of the New Man , that knoweth its Body . 2. But if we would fain have the knowledge thereof , and would know whether we are in the New Birth : then we have no better proof or tryal of it ; then by or in the similitude of God , which we understand , to be viz : the Desiring , the sense or * Thoughts and the Mind . 3. These Things contein in them , the Center of the spirit , out of which the strong will becometh generated and brought forth ; in which , the right true similitude , and the Image of God with flesh and Bloud , standeth , which the outward man knoweth not . 4. For that very Image is not in this world , but it hath another Principle , viz : in the Angelical world , and during this Time of the Body standeth in the Mystery in the secresie or Arcanum . 5. As the Gold in the Stone , whereas the Gold hath another Tincture , another Essence another Glance and Lustre or shining ; and the rudeness or drossiness of the Stone , cannot comprehend it : and the Gold also doth not comprehend the rude drossiness of the Stone , and yet the rude drossiness , viz : the Anguish Center , is a Cause of the Gold ; for the rude drossiness is the Mother , and the Sun or Sol is the Father . 6. Thus also is our Old Adam and Body , a Cause of the New Body ; for it is the Mother : out of the Old substantiality originally ariseth the new Body , and Gods Spirit in Christ is the Father , as the Sun is the Father of the Gold : so also is Gods heart the Father of the New-Man . 7. But now we can not know the New Man , better then in the Center , namely in the Desiring , Thoughts and Mind . 8. * When we find our selves thus , viz : that our Desiring standeth totally according to and towards God ; that our Thoughts continually run in the will of God , and that the Mind totally giveth it self up in Obedience into the will of God , and that the Imagination or longing sucketh of Gods power : then we may assuredly know , that the Noble Lilly-Branch is generated , that the Image of God is in substance ; that God in the similitude is become Man. 9. There it is necessary that the Noble Image be highly regarded and taken care of , and that the Old Adam with his Lusts have no room or space left him , but that he be continually put to death , that the New-Man may Grow , and be great , and become adorned with the Wonders of the wisdome . 10. But now Reason asketh : How is then the similitude ? 11. Behold ! God is Spirit , and the Mind , together with the Thoughts and desire is also Spirit . The Mind is the wheel of Nature , the Desire is the Center , viz : the first substance to Nature : the Thoughts are the * Essences . 12. For , out of the Essences go the senses or Thoughts ; they are and have their Original , out of the sting of the desirousness , viz : out of the harsh astringency ; for they are the bitterness , and run alwaies into the Mind as an anguish wheel , and seek rest , to try whether they may attain the liberty of God. 13. They are they , which strike up the fire in the Anguish wheel , viz : in the Mind , and in the kindling in the Crack or Terrour willingly give up themselves into Death : and thus sinck down through the fire-source or quality , into the Liberty , viz : into Gods Arms , and they go forth into the Liberty as a Life out of Death . 14. They are the Root of the New Tast or relish , which penetrate into Gods wisdome and wonders ; they bring the Desire , out of the Anguish of Death , they fill their Mother the Mind , and give it power from Gods Essence . 15. Thus is the mind , the wheel , or the Right Chamber of the Life , viz : * the souls own House , of which it self is a Part ; if the substantiality , understand , the substantiality of the Tincture , be accompted to it , viz : the Fire-life . 16. For , out of the Fire-life ●●isteth the Mind , and the fire-life dwelleth in the Mind : but the Mind is Nobler then the Fire , for it is the Mobility of the Fires-life : it maketh the understanding . 17. The Thoughts or senses are the Minds Servants , and are the subtilest Messengers ; they go into God , and again out of God into necessity . 18. And wherein-soever they kindle themselves either in God , or in Necessity , viz : in falshood or wickedness , that they bring home to the Mind . 19. Therefore must the Noble Mind often be Lord over the Evil or wickedness , and stifle it , in its Anguish , when the Thoughts have entertained or loaden in , false or evil Imaginations into the Desire . 20. Thus understand it lastly in this Manner : God is himself ALL and in ALL. 21. But he goeth forth out of the fierce wrath , and findeth the Light-and power - world in himselfe : he himselfe maketh them , so that the fierce wrath with all forms are onely a Cause of the Life , and a finding of himself in Great Wonders . 22. He is the Ground or Byss and Abyss ; the Liberty and also the Nature , in Light and Darkness . 23. And Man also is IT all , if he do but so seek and find himself as God doth . 24. Our whole Writing and Teaching , aimeth at this , how we must seek make and lastly finde our selves ; how we must generate or bring forth ; that we may be ONE spirit with God ; that God may be in US , and we in God ; that Gods Love-spirit in us , may be the willing and the Doing . 25. And that we , withdraw from the Anguish source or Quality , that we may introduce our selves into the true similitude in Three worlds , that each of them may stand in their Order , and that the Light-world in us , may be LORD , that , that may lead the Dominion . 26. That so , the Anguish world may abide hidden in the Light-world , as it doth also in God , and so be onely a Cause of the Life and of Gods wonders . 27. Else , if we attain not the Light-world , then is the Anguish-world in us , the upper Dominion , and so we live Eternally in an Enimicitious source or Quality . 28. And this strife lasteth so long as the Earthly Life endureth ; and then it goeth into the Eternal Ether , either into Light or into Darkness ; whence there is no release more , and therefore Gods Spirit warneth us , and teacheth us the right way . AMEN . Conclusion . 29. Thus Reader who lovest God ; Know , that a Man is the true similitude of God , which God highly loveth , and manifesteth himself in this similitude ; as in his own : God is in Man the Midlemost . 30. But he dwelleth onely in himself : and if it be so that the spirit of Man , become ONE spirit with HIM , then he manifesteth himself in the humanity , viz : in the Mind , Thoughts and Desiring ; so that the Mind feeleth him . 31. Else in this world he is very much too subtile to be beheld by us , onely the Thoughts behold him in the Spirit , understand in the willing-spirit ; for the will sendeth the Thoughts into God , and God giveth himself into the Thoughts . 32. And then the Thoughts bring the Power of God to the will : and the will receiveth them with Joy , but with * Trembling . 33. For it acknowledgeth it self unworthy , seeing it proceedeth out of a rough Lodging , viz : out of a wavering Mind ; and therefore it receiveth the Power in the sinking down before God. 34. Thus out of its Triumph cometh a soft gentle Meekness to be : that is Gods true substance , and it apprehendeth that very Substance . 35. And that conceived or apprehended substance , is in the willing , the heavenly Body , and is called the True and Right Faith ; which the will hath received in the power of God ; the same sincketh or demerseth it self into the Mind , and dwelleth in the fire of the Soul. 36. Thus the Image of God is entire or total ; and God seeth or findeth himself in such a similitude . 37. And we should not at all think or Conceive of God that he is a strange substance or sorrein Thing , to the wicked indeed he is a strange substance : for the wicked apprehendeth him not . 38. God is in him indeed , but not Manifest , in the willing and minde of the wicked and ungodly ; it is onely his fierce wrath that is manifest in him , he cannot reach or attain the Light. 39. It is in him , but it is not profitable to him , his Essence conceiveth or apprehendeth not it ; it sheweth it self before him ; and is only his pain source or Torment ; and he doth but hate it and is an Enemy to it , as the Devil is an Enemy to the Sun ; and also to the light of God. 40. He would be better at Ease , if he could be Eternally in the Dark ; and knew that God were farre from him , and then he would find no shame or reproach in him . 41. But if he knew , that God is so neer him , and he cannot apprehend him , that would be his greatest plague , so that he would hate himself , and it would make him an Eternal contrary will , opposite Anguish and despair , in that he knoweth , that he cannot attain Gods favour of gracious Countenance . 42. His own falshood or wickedness plagueth him , but he can create or procure no Comfort , that he might come to Grace , for he toucheth not God , but onely the Center in the Anguish in the fierce wrath . 43. He abideth in Death , and in the Dying source or Torment , and cannot break through ; for there cometh nothing to help him , of which he can lay hold , whereby he might Ground or found himself in the Kingdom of God. 44. When he hath lead a Thousand years in the Abyss in the Deep , yet then he would be without God in the Darkness , and YET God is in him , but helpeth him not ; also he knoweth him not , onely he knoweth of him and onely feeleth his fierce wrath . 45. Understand that thus : just as a fire is in a Stone , and the Stone knoweth it not , it feeleth it not , onely , the fierce wrathfull cause * to or of the fire , which holdeth the harsh astringent Stone , Captive in a Body ; it feeleth that . 46. Thus , the Devil also feeleth onely the Cause of the Light , that very cause , is the fierce wrathful Center : and holdeth him captive , and that he hateth and cannot endure it : and yet he hath nothing else that would be better for him . 47. Thus he is nothing but a fierce wrathful vehement eager Malignity or Malice , a Dying source or Torment , and yet is no Dying , but a deadly loathsome poyson , a hunger and thirst ; but no refreshment . 48. * All that is evil base envious , harsh astringent and bitter ; whatsoever fleeth away from the humiliy , as he hath done , that is his strength and his odious desire . 49. Whatsoever hateth and is an Enemy to God , and flyeth from , or Curseth God , that is serviceable to him , whatsoever turneth or perverteth the Truth into Lyes , that is his will upon which he rideth ; and wherein he voluntarily dwelleth . 50. Thus also is the wicked and ungodly Man ; when he looseth God , then he is in the Anguish source or torment , and hath the Devils will. 51. But know this : God hath in the humane soul , broken and destroyed the hardness of Death ; and is Entered into the limit aim or Mark of the Covenant wherein death becometh broke open : he hath broke open the limit or Mark in the Center of the soul , and set his light towards Mans light of Life . 52. The Light is afforded him , so long as he liveth in the virtue and power of the Sun ; will ●e Convert , and enter into Gods Light , he will be accepted : No Election or Predestination is concluded upon him . 53. But when he looseth the Suns Life , and hath also Nothing of Gods Life , then all is out and lost with him , then he is and remaineth a Devil . 54. But God knoweth those that are his : he knowth who will turn and convert to him , upon those goeth the Election of which the Scripture Speaketh ; and upon those which will not , goeth the Reprobation or hardening , or the withdrawing of Light. 55. Man hath undeniably both Centers in him , and so then if he will be ●s Devill , Shall God then cast the Pearl in the way of the Devil ; Shall hee shed forth his Spirit into the ungodly or wicked willing . 56. Indeed , out of Mans willing must Gods spirit become Generated , it must it selfe become God in the willing Spirit , or else he attaineth not divine substantiality , viz : the wisdome . 57. Therefore Mind and Consider your selves dear Children , and go in at the right Door : It is not called onely Forgiveness : but being generated or Born a new : and then is the right Forgiveness ; that is , Sinne is then a Husk or Shell the New Man growth out of it , and casteth the husk away , and that is called Gods forgiveness . 58 God forgiveth the Evil away from the New Man : he giveth it away from him : it becometh not put away from the Body ; but the sinne becometh given into the CENTER , for fewel or wood for the fire , and must thus be a cause of the fires Principle , out of which the Light shineth . 59. It must serve the Holy Man for the Best , as Saint Paul saith , * All things must serve for the Best to them that Love God , even Sinne. 60. † What say we then ? Shall we then sinne ? that our Salvation may become generated ? that be farre off : How shall I will to enter againe into that to which I have dyed ? Shall I go out of the Light into Darkness ? 61. But thus it must be , that the Saints of God may loose Nothing ; therefore it must all serve them : that which to Sinners is a Sting * unto Death , that is to the Saints a Might and Power unto Life . 62. Then saith outward Reason : surely I must sinne , that my salvation may be great . 63. But we know , that whosoever goeth forth out of the Light , he goeth into the Darkness : let him look to it that he abide not in the Darkness ; for he sinneth purposely stubbornly or obstinately , in or against the Holy Spirit : † Erre not ; God will not be Mocked nor slighted . 64. Of his Love , we are after our Fall become righteous again , through his Entrance into our Flesh . 65. But he that entereth purposely or obstinately into Sinne , he despiseth and Contemneth the becoming Man or Incarnation of Christ : and taketh a heavy burden upon or into himself : he should do well to look to it ; he will more hardly be able to go again out of the purposed sinne : then one , to whom rhe way of God is not yet Manifested . 66. Therefore it is Good to shun , and to flee fom Evil , to turn his Eye from falshood and wickedness , that he Senses or Thoughts may not enter into that which is false or wicked : and bring that afterwards to the Heart , whence Lust doth exist , so that the Desire Imagineth , and bringeth it into the Mind , whence the Noble Image becometh destroyed , and an Abomination in the presence of God. 67. Wee would have the Reader and Hearer that loveth God , faithfully warned from ovr Gifts and Deep knowledge : and we have very earnestly and faithfully presented you the way of the Truth , and of the Light ; and we admonish you all Christianly , to Consider of it and to read it diligently : It hath its fruit in it self . Hallelujah . Amen . The third Part of the Book of the Incarnation , is concerning The TREE of the Christian Faith. A True Instruction , how Man may be ONE Spirit with God : and what he must do , that he may work the works of God : wherein the whole Christian Doctrine and Faith is briefly comprised . ALSO What Faith , and Doctrine is . An open Gate of the great secret Arcanum of God , out of the divine Magia through the Three Principles of the Divine Being or Substance Written Anno 1620. in the Moneth of May. In High Dutch. By Jacob Behme THE Teutonick Philosopher , LONDON , Printed by J. M. for Lodowick Lloyd , at the Castle in Cornhil , 1659. The First Chapter . What Faith and Believing is . 1. CHrist saith , * Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof , and so shall all other things be added unto you . 2. Also , † My father will give the Holy Spirit to them that pray unto him for it : ‖ when that cometh , that will lead you into all Truth : * that will intimate to you all whatsoever I have said to you . 3. † For , it will receive of Mine and make it known to you , ‖ that will give you a Mouth and wisdome what ye shall speak . 4. And Saint Paul saith : * We know not what we should pray or speak : but the spirit of God , helpeth us mightily according to that which is pleasing to God. 5. And so now Faith , is not an Historical knowledge , for a Man to Make Articles of it , and to depend onely on them , and to force his mind into the works of his Reason ; but Faith is * ONE Spirit with God : for the Holy Spirit moveth in the Spirit of Faith. 6. True Faith , is the Might of God , ONE Spirit with God ; it worketh in God and with God. 7. It is free , and bound to no Articles , but onely to the right and true Love ; wherein it fetcheth the breath of its Lifes power and strenth ; and lyeth not in humane Arbitrium Opinion or Conjecture . 8. For , as God is free from all inclination or deviation , so that he doth what he will ; and need give no accompt for it , so also is the True Faith free in the Spirit of God ; it hath no more but one Inclination , viz : into the Love and Mercy of God , viz : that it cast its willing into Gods willing ; and to go out from the Syderial and Elementary Reason . 9. It Seeketh not it self in the Reason of the Flesh ; but in Gods Love ; and so if it thus findeth it self , then it findeth it self in God , and co-worketh with God , not as to Reason what that will , but in God , what Gods spirit will. 10. For , it prizeth or Esteemth not the Earthly Life , that it may live in God , and that Gods spirit in it may be * the Willing and the Doing ; it giveth up it selfe in humility into Gods willing , and sincketh through Reason into Death , and yet springeth with Gods Spirit into the Life of God. It is as it were not ; and yet is in God , in All. 11. It is a Crown and * Ornament of the Deity ; a Wonder in the Divine Magia : it maketh where Nothing is , and taketh where nothing is made : it worketh and none teeth its Substance . 12. It † lifteth up it self aloft , and yet needs no climing up : it is very Mighty , and yet is the most lowly humility of all , it hath all ; and yet comprehendeth nothing more then Meeknesse ; and so it is free from all * Evil. 13. And hath no Law , for the fierce wrath of Nature toucheth it not : it subsisteth in Eternity ; for it is comprehended in No Ground , it is included or Bolted up in Nothing . 14. As the Abyss of Eternity is Free , and Resteth in Nothing , but onely in it self , where there is an Eternal Meekness ; so also , is the right true Faith in the Abyss . 15. It is in it self , the substance : it liveth , and yet seeketh not its own Life , but it seeketh the Life of the Eternal still Rest : It goeth forth out of its own lifes Spirit , and possesseth it self . 16. Thus , it is free from the source or Torment , and dwelleth thus in the Eternal Liberty in God. 17. It is with , or as to , the Eternal Liberty , as a Nothing ; and yet is in All : All cometh to it ; which God and the Eternity is and can possibly do : it is apprehended by Nothing , and yet is a fair Inhabiting delight in the Great might or Potency of God. 18. It is in Substance , and yet is or becometh apprehended by no substance : It is a Play-fellow Companioness and Copsmate of the divine● Virgin of the wisdom of God : In that , stand the Great wonders of God ; * and yet is free from All. 19. As the Light is free from the Fire , and yet is continually generated from the Fire , and yet the fire source or Torment cannot apprehend or stirre it : In like manner , I present to your understanding , that thus , Faith becometh generated out of the Lifes Spirit , viz : out of a Continuall burning Fire , and shineth in that same fire , and filleth the lifes fire , and yet is never apprehended . 20. But if it becometh apprehended , then is it self entered into Reason as into a Prison : and is no more in God , in its liberty , but is entered into the source quality or Torment . 21. It Plagueth it selfe , and yet there it may well be free ; in the Reason it worketh the wonders in the Fire of Nature , and in the liberty it worketh the wonders of God. The Second Chapter . Of Faiths Original : and why Faith and Doubting dwel together . 1. NOw seeing Faith is ONE Spirit with God ; therefore we are to consider of its Original , For we may not say , that it is a Figure or Image of Reason , * but it is Gods Image , Gods similitude , an Eternal Figure . 2. And yet may destroy or Corrupt it self in the time of the Body , or transmute and alter or change it selfe into the Anguish-source . 3. For in its own substance in the Original , it is meerly a willing , and that willing is a Seed , and that must the fire-spirit , viz : the Soul , sow into the Liberty of God. 4. And so a Tree groweth out of that seed , of which the soul feedeth , and allayeth or meekeneth its fire-life : so that it becometh powerful , and giveth its virtue to the root of this Tree , whence the Tree groweth in the Spirit of God even into the wonders of the Majesty of God , and springeth in the Paradise of God. 5. And although it be so ; that thus we are as it were dumb or Mute and may notwell be understood ; for Reason will needs comprehend and see all presently ; yet we will set it down very clearly to the Light : why Faith and Doubting are together : And as it were bound with a Chain , so that there is a vehement strife in Man , all the Time , while he is a Guest in * this Tabernacle of the Earthly Life . 6. Unless , he so very eagerly sinck down in himself , that he can introduce the Lifes fire into the Liberty of God , and so he is in the life of Reason , as Dead , and though he liveth , † he liveth to God. 7. Which is indeed a highly precious life of a Man , and is rarely or seldom found in any , for it is * like the first Image , which God Created . 8. Although the Mortal hangeth to it , yee it is as it were Dead , as if a Dead Image hung to him , into which corruption belongeth , wherein the true Man liveth not . 9. For , the Right life standeth converted , and is in another world , in an other Principle , and liveth in another source or Quality . 10. Uuderstand us now therefore in this manner : ye see and know the Original of the Humane Life , how that existeth in the Mothers Womb or Body ; and ye see moreover wherein it qualifieth or operateth , and moveth it selfe , viz : chiefly in Four Forms ; as , in Fire , Air , water , and Earth or Flesh . 11. And though clearly it thus standeth therein , yet it is in this no more then a Beastial Life , For its Reason cometh to it from the Const●llations , and findeth , that the Sun and the Constellation maketh a Tincture in the four Elements , whence the Reason and qualification or working cometh , also pleasure and displeasure . 12. But it is not by farre yet , the right humane Life : for this Reason seeketh no higher , but only it self in its wonders . 13. Yet there is in Man a Desire and a great Longing or panting after a higher better and Eternal Life , wherein there is no such source quality or Torment . 14. And though it be clear that Reason apprehendeth it not , nor seeth it not , yet a Mystery lyeth in Reason , which there tasteth and knoweth it , whence the seeking existeth . 15. Whereby we know that the same Mystery , is together implanted in the first Creation , and is Mans own , and thus find , that it standeth in a desiring or Longing , viz : in a Magick seeking . 16. Further we find , that , with that Mystery , we are in a strange Lodging for our House : that , the same Mystery standeth not in the spirit of this World : for that apprehendeth it not , also findeth it not , whereby then we know the heavy fall of Adam . 17. For , we find that Mystery in the willing of the Mind first ; that it is a secret fountain Spring , which openth it self in another Principle . 18. Secondly , we understand also , that , that Mystery standeth hidden in the fire in the Anguish source or quality , and openeth it self , through the Anguish of the willing . 19. And then Thirdly we find , how that same Mystery is held captive by the spirit of this world . 20. And as the Outward lifes Reason hath Might or ability , to enter thereinto , and to destroy it , so that , that mystery cometh not to the Light , in that it covereth the same , so that the Genetrix cannot generate ; and so * abideth as a Mystery hidden . 21. And so then when the Body breaketh , then the willing hath nothing More which can open the Mystery : and thereupon the fire or Souls spirit abideth in the Darkness ; and the Mystery standeth Eternally hidden in it , as in another Principle . 22. Thus we know that Mystery to be * Gods Kingdom , which standeth hidden in the soul , which giveth a longing pleasure and desire , so that it Imagineth in that Mystery . 23. Where then it becometh impregnated magically in that Mystery out of which the willing existeth to it , to go forth out of the Fire-life into the Mystery of God. 24. And so now if it lifteth up the willing , and casteth it from it into the Mystery , then the willing becometh Impregnated in the Mystery . 25. For , it is longing and attaineth or cometh to be the Body of the Mystery , viz : the substance of the Mystery , which is Gods substance , which is * Incomprehensible to Nature ; Thus the willing draweth Gods similitude or Image on to it self . 26. So now when the willing is generated out of the Souls Fire , then it standeth indeed also with its Root in the soul , and so between the willing and the soul there is no parting or renting : but the willing thus becometh ONE spirit in or with God , and becometh the souls Garment , so that the soul in the willing becometh hidden in God. 27. So that though it dwelleth in the Body , yet nevertheless it is with its willing environed and hidden in God ; and is thus in the willing , which is the right earnest Faith , a Child of God ; and dwelleth in another world . 28. This now is not so to be understood , like a Historical willing , whereby Reason knoweth , that there is in it self a desire after God , and yet holdeth or reteineth that very desire captive , in Evil or wickedness , so that the willing cannot go out from the soul , and enter into the Life or Mystery of God , but maketh Opinions , and setteth the willing inthe Conjectures . 29. Wherein then it cannot reach the Mystery , and so abideth in the Conjecture , or indeed altogether hidden in the soule , in which it is directed and pointed or put off to a Future thing , whereby Reason holdeth the will Captive in the Longing or lust of the Flesh in the Syderial Magia , and continually saith ; to Morrow thou wilt go forth and seek the Mystery of God. 30. Verily , there is no own or * self ability of finding it : This Opinion deceiveth itself ; so also the Liberty is in no Conjecture or Opinion , where the will may Enter in and behold God , that Reason need to Image or Contrive to make or to do somewhat , and so therewith to be pleasing to God. 31. For there is no righter way then onely to go with the willing out from Reason , and not will to seek it self , but Gods Love , to cast it selfe wholly into Gods willing , and to let all lye , which Reason casteth in the way . 32. And though there were great sinnes and forepast Lusts , into which the Body was Entered ; onely to go above them with the will , and Esteem Gods Love greater † the●orbid ●orbid Pleasure of sinnes . 33. For God is not an áccepter of sinnes but an accepter of the Obedient free willing , he letteth not sinnes , into himself . 34. But a humble lowly willing , which goeth forth out of the house of Sinnes , and willeth sinnes No more , but sincketh it self out from Reason into it Love , as an Obedient humble Child , that he accepteth ; for it is pure . 35. But so long as it sticketh in the Opinion and Conjecture , it is surrounded with the Opinion , and is not free . 36. But now seeing then God is free in himself from the Evil or wickedness , so must the willing also be free , and then it is Gods similitude Image and propriety : for , * What comes to him into his Liberty , he will not cast that away , as Christ Teacheth us . The Third Chapter . VVhence , Good and Evil , Love and Anger , Life and Death , Joy and Sorrow , Cometh : and how the VVonders of Nature appear in the Free will of God ; And yet the Liberty of God mingleth not it self with the Wonders of Nature . 1. ANd understand us further in this Manner : We apprehend and have it sufficiently made known to us even in the Holy Scripture , as also in the light of Nature and in All and Every thing or Substance ; that from the Eternal Substance all proceedeth , both Good and Evil , Love and Anger , Life and Death , Joy and Sorrow . 2. Yet we cannot say , that therefore Evil and Death Cometh from God ; for * in God is no Evil , also no Death , and in Eternity no Evil goeth into Him. 3. The fierce wrath onely proceedeth out of the fire of Nature , where the life standeth as in a Magia , where one form desireth and awakeneth the other , whence the Essences of Multiplicity Exist ; out of which the wonders become generated ; in which the Eternity manifesteth or revealeth it selfe in Similitudes . 4. And yet we must say that in Gods willing , there is a desiring , which there causeth the Magia , out of which the Multiplicity existeth . 5. And yet the Multiplicity is not Gods willing it selfe : which is free from all substance ; but in the Seeking or longing of the willing , Nature generateth it self with all forms , where then all originally ariseth out of the Desiring , as viz : out of the Eternal Magia . 6. And we are further to know , that all whatsoever there attaineth Life ( which Imagineth into the seeking or Longing , and setteth its will into Nature ) , that it is the Child of Nature , and ONE life with Nature . 7. But whatsoever with its willing ; goeth forth out of the seeking or longing of Nature , into the free willing of God , that becometh accepted and known in that free willing , and is ONE spirit in , or with GOD. 8. And though it be Nature : as also Nature hath Ever from Eternity generated it selfe in Gods willing , yet its Spirit-life is without or beyond Nature in the free willing , * and so the wonders stand manifested in God , and yet are not God himself . 9. And if the souls will-spirit goeth forth from the Reason of Nature into the free-willing of God , then is the willing-spirit Gods Child , and the Nature-spirit Gods wonder ; and the Creature , standeth in-turned into it selfe , as God himself . 10. For , the Sydereall or Reason-spirit , seeketh in its Magia , in it selfe , in its Center , the Wonders of Eternity : To which End , God hath created the soul , in the Body of the outward Nature , though indeed it be onely apprehended in the Inward . 11. And the willing-spirit goeth into the liberty of God , where then the Holy Spirit bringeth it into the Free divine Mystery , so that the Deity standeth manifest in the willing-spirit , and in the Reason Spirit standeth the Magia of Nature , with its wonders , Manifest . 12. So then seeing the soul is the Center , where the right willing-spirit towards the liberty of God , goeth forth into the liberty of God , viz : into the Divine Mystery , yet it hath the Sydereall spirit for a Band. 13. And if it tameth that so that it worketh not Evil , may introduce , the Sydereal Wonders , which in the Elementary Looking-Glass became made or brought to a Substance , and bring them before the Majesty of God into the free willing of God : that so the wonders may shine or appear in the divine Liberty , as a similitude of Gods willing . 14. Not so to understand ; that the liberty of God mixeth with the Nature-wonders and with the similitude , so that they be One ; NO . 15. God abideth Eternally Free ; he dwelleth in the wonders as the Soul in the Body ; and so little as the Body apprehendeth the soul , or the fire , the Light ; so little also doth Nature , the Deity . 16. And yet is ONE substance , and hath from Eternity parted it self into two substances , viz : the Fire and the Light. 17. Where in the Fire we understand the source or quality of Nature ; and in the Light , the Mystery the spirit of the Life without source or quality , although the Fire also is a Mystery ▪ 18. Thus , understand us , it hath one and the same form or manner in Man. The Soul is the Fire of the true humane life ; that , God out of the Eternal Nature in Adam breathed or blew up by or with his spirit , as viz : out of the Center of God. 19. And the Spirit that became generated out of the souls fire , which Gods spirit formed to its Image ; that , HATH the divine Mystery , out of which the willing towards the Love of God , becometh Generated , out of which the Divine Magia or seeking , Existeth ; that , the willing spirit of God , desireth . 20. And so now if it Lift up it self , that is , go forth out of the hidden Mystery into the liberty of God , then it is a branch bud or sprout in Gods Kingdom : Sprouted out of Gods Mystery , and worketh in Gods willing , and Continually openeth the Wonders of Gods wisdome . 21. NOT in that form or Manner , as if in God somewhat New were become Generated , that had not been from Eternity in Gods wisdome , which hath no Ground or bottom nor Number . 22. Onely in the souls Spirit in it self the Endless or Infinite Mystery becometh Manifest to Gods honour and deeds of Wonder : and to the Eternal Joy of it self , understand of the Creatures self . 23. Now seeing the Earthly perished seeking or longing mixeth it self together with the Starry source or quality , and that the soul in the heavy Fall of Adam , hath with its willing imagined into the Starry seeking or longing , as also into the Earthly , and introduced , the strange Magia into it self ; therefore is the willing become broken or Corrupted , and the divine Image become destroyed . 24. And the Heavenly divine Image of Man became Earthly , so that the right willing standeth as it were reversed or turned about , as viz. in the spirit of this world , viz : in Reason , which is generated out of the Constellation . 25. Now therefore it is necessary for the right Image of God , which is thus destroyed and become Earthly ; that it become * born againe anew . 26. And there would be no Remedy or Council found , to help this Image ; if the word out of the Center of God , viz : Gods own Life , should not become Man , and new Regenerate the pure soul again in it self , whose Image was now perished : and there the right Image , become helped again , else it would Eternally have been bereaved or deprived of the liberty and Majesty of God. 27. And so now seeing all souls are proceeded out of ONE , they are all THEREFORE generated out of the perished or Corrupted Root . 28. But seeing the New regenerated Life in Christ is come again into * a soul : therefore it is necessary , that we all cast our willing into the Regeneration of Christ : for in Christ we are with our souls , become Generated in God again , and have in Christ attained the Image again . 29. For our Mystery in the soul stood after the Fall onely and barely in the Magia of Nature , which in its Center , is a Fire , and the Image was turned out of the liberty of God into the outward Magia , viz : into the outward Principle . 30. So now when that breaketh or Corrupteth in the Substance ; then the poor perished Image of the Soul , standeth as a forlorn lost child , where in its own Center it can awaken or stirre up Nothing , but onely the fierce wrathful fire-source or quality : for it is gone out of the word of God , viz : out of Gods Mystery , into a Corruptible Looking-Glass , viz : into the spirit of this world ; which is inceptive and finite , or hath a beginning and End. 31. And therefore also the souls Body is wholly become Earthly , and is fallen home to Corruptibility and to Death . 32. Therefore it is necessary for us : ( being God hath out of Grace turned his Love to us , and hath turned in our soul , in Christ , into himself again into the Liberty , and made the divine Mystery stirring in the Image , so that the Image can dwell again in God , viz : in the Paradisical Wonders ) that we break off our willing from the outward Center , viz : from the transitory Life , and introduce it into the free willing of God. 33. And to that Now belongeth , not a History onely , or knowledge ; for one to say . I Believe , that is , I know it , or desire it , and yet abide with the willing in the outward Principle , viz : stand in the outward seeking or Longing : No! 34. The thing is this , * Ye must become born anew , through the water and Holy Spirit : Else ye will not see the Kingdom of God. 35. It must be sincere or Earnest : the Reasons willing , must become broken ; it must be a living motion of the willing , which breaketh quite through Reason , and which striveth or fighteth against Reason . 36. And though that indeed be not possible for the soul , since it is become so very perished or Corrupted ; yet there is no better Council or remedy for it , then that it should make it selfe with all its reason and thoughts , as it were dead , and incline and unite it selfe meerly and only into Gods Mercy , and give it selfe up thereinto ; that there be no other Room left for Reason , but that it must be compelled and Subdued . 37. And if the willing do thus strike down Reason , then it is as it were dead , and yet there liveth , but it becometh the right willings servant , and yet there without that , will be Lord. 38. For Gods willing must become Lord over Reason ; if Reason would make or do any thing vertuous , which subsisteth before God. 39. For nothing subsisteth before God unless it be generated in Gods willing . 40. But if the willing turneth it self into God ; then the willings spirit becometh Gods child . 41. Then also do subsist before God , the * Wonders , which have been made or wrought by or with the Reason-spirit ; for they have been made in Gods willing ▪ and have become put out of the inceptive and set in the Eternal . 42. And though indeed we cannot say , that our work or Doings ; or that which we have made , abideth Eternally ; yet the shadow or Image of the same abideth ; and though they truly and really abide in the substance , yet but in the Mystery , viz : in the Divine Magia , before the wisdome of God. 43. Where onely the outward principle thereof breaketh or Corrupteth , viz : the outward Dominion in the four Elements . 44. And there yet the Four will become set again into the One ; where then all Colours and forms or varieties of the four , will become known , with ALL WHATSOEUER is become generated therein . 45. Therefore then a final day of separation is appointed by God , wherein * all shall be proved or Tryed through the Fire , what is generated in the willing of God , or , not ; where Each Principle will reap its own . 46. And there Much of Many Mens works will abide in the fire , because they were not become generated in Gods willing ; for Nothing impure , goeth into God. 47. But whatsoever is generated out of another Magia , that is not Pure ; of which we have the Earth for an Example , which is perished . 48. Doest thou ask ; Why ? Answer . The Devil with his Legions , sate , in his Creation , where really he was Created an Angel ; in the Sulphur , or in the CENTER of Nature , † out of which the Earth afterwards became Created ; he hath awakened or stirred up the fierce wrath in Nature . 49 So that the Earth hath an Evil impure seeking or Longing ; although it is become shut up in Death , and reserved for * Putrifaction . 50. Where it shall be proved in the Eternall Fire , and come again , into whatsoever it was before the Creation , viz : into the Eternal Magia of the Eternal Nature . The Fourth Chapter . How a Man must Live , that he may attain the Liberty of God : and how the Image of God becometh destroyed . Also of the state of the wicked , after the Dying of the Body . 1. NOw then seeing all is included and shut up in Gods willing ; whatsoever is become generated in Nature : therefore thus we understand , that Nothing can enter into Gods willing ; unless it became generated or Made in Gods willing : and so we understand Clearly , that it is necessary for us , that we with all our Reason and Thoughts give up our selves into Gods willing . 2. And so * labour with the Hands in the world , and seek and make food for the Belly , and yet not at all set our willing thereinto , so as to accompt any earthly thing our Treasure . 3. For , † where our willing and Heart is , there is also our Treasure : Is our willing in Gods willing ? then we have the Great Mystery of God , out of which this world , as a similitude hath been generated , and so have both , viz : the Eternal , and the Corruptible ; and yet more ; we bring the wonders of our works , into the Eternal Mystery : for they hang or cleave to the willing-spirit . 4. But if we turn away our willing from the Eternal into the Earthly Mystery ; and accompt Money our Treasure , and the Beauty of the Body for our Lustre , and honour or authority and power of our Best Jewel ▪ then our willing is captivated in the same ; and so now hangeth onely to the Looking-Glass , and attaineth not th● liberty of God. 5. For , the Looking-Glass , viz : the outward Kingdom shall be tryed through Fire , and the fierce wrath shall be severed from the Pure , where then the fierce wrath will be an * Eternal Burning . 6. Now if Reason introduceth the soulish Minde , with the willing spirit of the soul , in which the Image of God , and the right true Man standeth , into the outward Looking-Glass , viz : into an Hypocritical seeking or Longing ; then indeed is the Image and right true Man captivated therewith , and infected with the outward Magia , viz : with the seeking or longing thereof . 7. Where then the Image putteth on the outward substantiality , not onely as a Garment , but it is an infection and totall mixture . 8. Though indeed the soulish-fire , mixeth not it self with the outward Kingdom ; yet the souls willing-spirit , which is Magical , mixeth it selfe , and so the Image of God becometh destroyed ; and altered into an Earthly , where then the souls fire-life remaineth rough , and hath in the willing-spirit , an Earthly Image . 9. So now if the body breaketh and dyeth , then the soul reteineth its Image , viz : its willing-Spirit : and now is departed away from the Bodies Image : for in the dying is a Severing asunder , and then the Image appeareth with and in those things , which it hath received into it self wherewith it is become infected ; and that source or quality it hath in it self . 10. What it hath loved here , that hath been its Treasure , whereinto the willing-Spirit hath entered , and according to that also the soulish Image figureth it self . 11. Hath any turned his heart and Mind into Pride state and Courtliness , in the time of his life : then that very source or quality continually springeth in the souls fire into the Image ; and flyeth forth * over the Love and Meekness , viz : forth over Gods liberty , and can not possess nor apprehend the liberty . 12. But it floweth up thus in it self in such an anguish source or quality , and figureth the willing-spirit continually according to the Earthly Things ; into which its willing hath Entered , and g●●●ereth thus therewith in the souls Fire , and continually climeth up in Pride and state , and will needs go forth in the fire over Gods Meekness . 13 For it can Frame or Create no other willing , for it cannot enter into the liberty of God , into the Holy Mystery ; where it might create or procure another willing ; it liveth onely and barely in it self . 14. It hath Nothing ; and can also attain Nothing but onely , that which in the outward Life it hath comprehended or Conceived in it self . 15. And thus it goeth also with a Covetous Person , who hath in his willing-spirit and Image , the Magick Covetous seeking or longing , who willeth alwaies to have much , and figureth all that is in his willing-spirit , where with he was busied in the Life of the Body . 16. But being that hath left him , and that his substance is no more Earthly , therefore yet he carrieth along the Earthly willing , and so plagueth and tormenteth himself therewith , or he can attain nothing else . 17. And yet it goeth much worse with * falshood , against which the Miserable have cryed out , and cursed him for his Oppression and Extortion . 18. For , all whatsoever hath been wrought in the Evil wickedness or Malice , which he hath caused , followeth after him : for it hath become wrought in the Mystery of the Anger , and so the perished soul falleth thereinto after the Dying of the Body . 19. And there it must Bathe in those Abominations , so that if it were possible , for it to unite it selfe with the willing into Gods love , yet it would have those same Abominations and Malice on its Back , for they make it Eternally dispair . 20. Where then at last the soul departeth away , and renounceth God , and desireth onely to clime up and to live in those Abominations . 21. And this is its Joy , that it blasphemeth God and his Saints or Holy ones , but yet lifteth up it self in the abominations above God and the Kigdome of Heaven , and yet seeth or apprehendeth none of them . 22. Thus we give you to Consider , what the willing and † aime or confidence is , viz : that it is the Master and Leader , which introduceth the Image of Man , both into Gods Love , and also in Gods anger . 23. For in the willing , the right true Faith becometh generated wherein the Noble Image of God standeth ; for in the Faith or believing , we become again through Christ , generated in God : and attain again the Noble Image , which Adam had lost , and Christ with Gods life , hath introduced into the humanity again . 24. Thus a false or wicked will destroyeth the Image , for the willing-spirit is the Root of the Image , for it draweth the Mystery of God into it self . 25. And the Spirit of that same Mystery * openeth the faire Image , and draweth on to it the divine Mystery , viz : Gods Substantiality , understand , Christs heavenly Body ; which became generated out of God , in the Dear and fair virgin of his wisdome , which filleth Heaven . 26. So then if our Minde and Willing become set thereinto , and that the willing desireth the same ; then is the willing Magical and goeth thereinto : and if it then hungereth after it , then it may eat the Bread of God. 27. And now Sprouteth to it the New Body , which is the saving amiable blessed Tree of the Christian Faith ; for every Body , or Corpus , loveth it self . 28. And so then the soul getteth Gods Body , which is so sweet saving amiable and blessed , how then will it not love the same , which yet is given to it for its own , in which it liveth and dwelleth ; and of whose power and virtue it eateth and strengtheneth it self . 29. Now None should deceive himself , and abide sticking in his falshood and unrighteousness , and comfort himself with a Historical Faith , whereby he thinketh , God is Good and favourable , he will forgive me well enough , I will gather Treasure , and enjoy my full thereof , also leave my Children much riches and honour , I will yet one day repent well enough ; It is a meer deceit . 30. Thou gatherest and heapest together in falshood , and attractest into thee unrighteousness ; and though it be all done in the best way that may be , yet it is but earthly ; and thou hast demersed thy heart and willing down into an earthly vessel , and clothed and infected thy Noble Image therewith . 31. Moreover thou inheritest and purchasest onely pride for thy Children , so that they onely Set their willing-spirit also thereinto . 32. Thou Thinkest to do good to thy self , and thou dost to thy self and thy Children , the worst thou canst . 33. Indeed the outward Life must have sustenance ; and he doth * foolishly who voluntarily giveth his goods to a wicked one . 34. But much more foolishly doth HE , that with his goods maketh himself to be a wicked one : in that he setteth his heart upon them , and holdeth temporal transitory pleasure , more in honour , then the Eternal untransitory goods which have no End. 35. * But he is blessed that cometh to help the Miserable ; for they wish all good to him , and pray to God , that he would bless him , in Bodyand Soul. 36. And thus their wish and blessing passeth to the Giver into the Mystery ; and environeth him , and followeth after him as a good Work generated in God : for he taketh that Treasure along with him , and not the Earthly . 37. For , when the Body Dyeth , then the Image passeth into the Mystery , that is , it becometh manifest in the Mystery of God. 38. For , in the Time of the Earthly Life , the outward Principle was a Cover before it , and that falleth away with the dying of the Body , and then the divine Mystery appeareth in the Image , and therein , all good deeds and works ; which were become generated in the Love in the willing of God. 39. All the prayers and wishes of the honest and vertuous Children of God , stand in the Mystery , and incline themselves towards , and appropriate themselves with the Image : For , the children of the Myserable , whom he came to help in their necessity and tribulation , have sent their willing in their prayer into Gods Mystery : and therewith unite them , to their deliverer and comforter . 40. And so when that same wel-doer cometh into the Mystery , so that the Earthly Life falleth away , then all things become Manifest , and every one uniteth it self to its own , into which the willing hath severed it . 41. And all this becometh reserved to the Judgement of God the holy spirit , in the Mystery ; and there every one shall reap what he hath here sown in his field , * there it shall all spring up grow and blossome in a heavenly new Earth . 42. In which , Man will draw and put on to his divine Image , the Body of the perfect Mystery of God ; and see before him , viz : before the bodily or Corporeal Image , his righteousness standing , and why he is so fair Beautiful and bright . 43. He will know the Cause thereof , and Eternally rejoyce himselfe therein , and conceive or comprehend his Song of Praise or Hallelujah therein , to Gods honour and deeds of Wonder . 44. On the Contrary the Wicked Heap or Multitude will have the scorn derision reproach Covetousness Pride State Pomp evil Malignity and wicked Malice , and the Curse of the Miserable , in their Mystery , gathered together into the Anger ; which will also follow after them , and so they will ever continually know the Cause of their source or quality and Torment , and in that regard be Eternal Enemies of God and of his Children . The Fifth Chapter . Why the wicked Convert not . What the most Smarting thing in Converting is . Of the false Pastors or shepheards . Of the Tree of Faith. How a Man must enter into the Kingdom of God. Of the Breaking of the Kingdom of Lucifer . Of the Three Forms of Life : and what we have inherited from Adam , and from Christ . 1. ALL this the wicked Multitude cannot conceive or apprehend , and the Cause is this , there is no willing in them , which desireth to conceive it . 2. For , the Earthly substance hath captivated them , so that they can Create or frame no willing into Gods Mystery ; they are to God as the Dead ; there is no breath of divine Life in them , also they will nothing thereof , they are bolted up into Gods Anger Mystery , so that they know not themselves . 3. God hath not done that to them , but they are with their Willing-spirit gone thereinto , and so demersed themselves , and therefore they run on like Mad men . 4. Where yet the Noble Jewel in them standeth hidden in the Noble Center , in the divine Principle● and they can very well , with their willing , go forth out of the Earthly substance and Malice or wickedness , into the willing of God. 5. But they wilfully and obstinately let the fierce wrath hold them ; for , the Proud stately , self honouring-life , pleaseth them too well , and that holdeth them also . 6. But after this Time , there is no Remedy more ; when the souls Fire , is meerly and barely Naked , then it can be quenched by or with nothing but onely with Gods Meekness , with the water of the Eternal Life in the Mystery of God , and that they reach not or attain not ; there is afterwards a * Great Cliffe or Gulfe between them , a whole Principle . 7. But in this Time , while the soul Swimmeth and burneth in the Blood , it may wel be , for the spirit of God † goeth upon the wings of the wind ; God is become Man. 8. The spirit of God , goeth with the willing , into the soul , it desireth the soul ; it setteth its Magia towards the soul : the soul need onely to * open the Door , and so it goeth voluntarily in , and openeth the Noble Grain to the Tree of the Christian Faith. 9. But this is the most smarting , which entereth most bitterly into Man ; he must break off the willing-spirit from the Earthly Substance ; he must bring forth the willing-spirit out from its Earthly Treasure , viz : out from Pride State Covetousness and Envy , as also out from Anger and falshood towards the Spirit of God. 10. His Mouth must not be an Hypocritical flatterer , and his heart and willing abide sticking in the Earthly Mystery , it must be sincere and Earnest from the Ground of the Heart and of the soul . 11. The Will must turn it self about into the Divine Mystery , viz : into Gods love , that the Spirit of God may have space and place in it , to blow up the divine Sparckle , else there is no Remedy , it is no flattering hypocrisie wil do it . 12. * And though one should learn all the Scriptures outwardly without book by roate , and should sit all his life long in the Church ; and yet would abide in the souls Image , an Earthly Beastial Man , which in his heart hunteth onely after falshood deceit and wickedness , then his flattering Hypocrisie will help him nothing . 13. A Preacher , who handleth Gods Mystery in the outward Externally , and yet hath not Gods Image in the Inward , Internally , but onely hunteth after honour and Covetousness , he is as neer to the Devil , as the meanest of all , he is onely a Jugler with Gods Mysteries , and an Hypocrite without power . 14. He himself hath not the Mystery , and how then will he give or * dispence it to others ? He is a false shepheard and † A Wolfe among the sheep . 15. For every Man which beareth the Mystery of God , that is , who hath awakened or stirred it up , and given himself up thereto , so that Gods Spirit driveth him , * HE is Gods Priest , for he Teacheth out of or from God , none can rightly Teach , unless he teach out of or from Gods Mystery . 16. But how wil he teach , who is without it , will he not teach from Art and Earthly Reason ; what doth that Concern Gods Mystery . 17. Although Reason be a Noble Thing or substance , yet without Gods Spirit , it is blinde ; for Christ saith● † Without 〈◊〉 ye can do nothing : * those whom the spirit of God leadeth or driveth , those are Gods Children . 18. But ‖ he who climeth into the sheepfold , another way then through Christs Spirit , he is a Theef and a Murtherer , and Cometh onely to rob and steal , and to seek his own profit , he is not a Pastour or feeder of the sheep , but a devourer ; as wolf doth . 19. We are to understand thus concerning the Tree of Christian Faith , it must be living , and not a dead History or knowledge ; the Word of Life must in the Image be born or generated Man , that the Soul may bear Gods Image , without that he is not Gods childe . 20. No flattering Hypocrisie , or deferring of Repentance upon hope availeth ; so long as one beareth the Earthly Image on the soul , he is without Gods Mystery . 21. Thou shouldest not dare to think , I will yet one day Convert well enough ; but I will before hand gather enough , that I may not want , and Earthly business may not afterwards lye in the way : No , that is the Devils griping Tallon . 22. But through persecution the Cross and Tribulation through reproach and disgrace , must we go into the Kingdom of God. 23. For the Devil manageth his dominion in the Earthly Image , and he reproacheth the children of God in his proud stately pompous Seat , when they would run away from him , or escape from him : Thus the wicked Multitude serve the Devil and help to promote his work . 24. All this , the Man that will go to God , must not regard , he must consider , that he is in a strange Country among Murtherers , and is a Pilgrim , who wandereth or travaileth into his true Native Country , he falleth among the Murtherers , who vex and rob him . 25. And if he can but bring it so farre , that he reteineth his Noble Image , then he hath Goods enough : for he getteth the heavenly Mystery instead thereof , wherein all lyeth ; out of which this world is onely a Looking-Glass of it . 26. And he is indeed very foolish , which taketh the Glimps of a Looking-Glass for a substantial Thing or Being : for the Looking-Glass breaketh , and he that loveth the same is bereaved thereof . 27. And he is like one who in a great water † buildeth his house upon the sand ; and the water carrieth away his house ; and so it is also with the Earthly Hope . 28. O Child of Man , thou Noble Creature , let * it not have the power ; it costeth thy Eternal Kingdom , seek thy self and find thy self , but not in the Earthly Kingdom . 29. O how very well is it with him , that findeth himself in Gods ; Kingdom ; who draweth on the heavenly and divine Mystery , and entereth thereinto . 30. All the Ornament and Bravery of this world , is Dung in respect of the Heavenly : and is not worth a Mans setting his Love upon it . 31. Although it be so ; that it must yet be brought to the * Wonders ; to which End also God hath Created it : that Man , understand , the outward Man , should open the Wonders of the outward Nature , viz : in the outward Mystery , both out of the Earth and above the Earth . 32. All whatsoever the Starres can do , and the Earth hath in it , should Man bring into Wonders , into Forms , and into Being and Substance , according to the Eternal Figure , which became seen in Gods wisdome , before the Times of the World. 33. But he should not set his willing therein , and Esteeme that for his Treasure , but for his Joy and Ornament he may use it ; but with the Inward Man he should labour in Gods Mystery , and then Gods Spirit helpeth him also to seek and finde the Outward . 34. Seeing then , we are through the Heavy fall become so perished , that our Mind is become turned out of the heavenly Mystery into the Earthly , as into the Looking-Glass , so that we are found as it were half dead ; therefore it is highly necessary for us , that we go quite forth out of the Earthly , with our Mind and willing : and seek our selves first , before we seek the Earthly Beauty and Ornament ; that we may first learn to know , where we are at home , and not make our Mind Earthly . 35. For , though Man standeth clearly in the Image of God , yet he is in a Three fold Life ; but if he loose Gods Image , then he is only in a Twofold . 36. The First Life is the Soules Life , and it originally ariseth in the Fire of the Eternal Nature , and standeth Especially in Seven Forms , all according to the Spirit of Nature , as in our second and Third Book is expressed and declared . 37. And the Second Life standeth in the Image , which is or becometh generated out of the fountain of the Eternal Nature , viz : out of the souls Fire , which Image standeth in the Light in another source or quality , and hath its living Spirit ; as you may find it in Fire and Light. 38. For , the source or quality of the Light , is not as the source or quality of the Fire , and yet the Light existeth out of the Fire , where a Man is to understand in the source or quality of the Light , the meek pure amiable Spirit , and in the source or quality of the fire , the Cause thereof . 39. As you see , that out of the fire the Air Originally ariseth , which is the Spirit , and the Air also is understood to be in Four Forms , as First , one Day according to the fierce wrath of the fire ; and Secondly , a Moist or damp one , viz : water , from the harsh astringent attraction ; and Thirdly , a Meek one from the Light : and Fourthly , a swelling rising one , from the fierce wrath of the fire-Crack . 40. Wherein we then understand ; that the Light in all Forms is Master , for it hath the Meekness , and is a Life , which becometh generated through the fierce wrathful Death , viz : through the Anguish source or quality in the sincking down : viz : as another Principle , which subsisteth in the fire without feeling ; and yet hath its feeling in it self ; viz : the Laudable worthly Relish . 41. Wherein then we understand , that the water , becometh generated through the Death , through the sincking down through the fires Anguish , and we understand further , how yet it is no Death , and yet it is a Death . 42. But the Light maketh it Sprouting , so that there is a Life therein , which life standeth in the Lights Power , wherein the life sprouteth out of Death . 43. And , understand ; the Substantiality , viz : the Comprehensibility or Palpability , for , or to be , the water ; which is dead in it selfe , but the fire-life , and the Lights power is its Life . 44. Thus the substantiality is esteemed as it were dead , where the Life is its own therein , and possesseth and generateth it self in it self . 45. Wherein the Death of the substantiality must give the Body thereto ; as is declared in our Third Book : where then in the Light-life , and in the water of the Death , we understand two forms ; and according to the Anguish in the Fire , the Third . 46. As First , in the Anguish of the Mortifying or killing in the fierce wrath of the Fire , we understand a fierce wrathful water , which in respect of the first four forms to Nature , viz : harshness , bitterness anguish and fire , is like Poyson , and , is also Poyson , a hellish substantiality in the fierce wrath , according to the original of the first Principle , wherein Gods Anger springeth or floweth up . 47. And Secondly , we understand the other water , in the Lights Crack , in which the source or quality sincketh down quite through the Mortifying , and in the Death , becometh like as it were nothing , for in the Nothing , the Eternal Liberty , viz : the Eternal Abyss of the Eternity ; becometh attained . 48. And if then the incomprehensible Light , in that very sincking down into the Eternity shineth or discovereth it selfe , and , alwaies filleth the sinking down , then sprouteth forth in the Light , the power of the Light , viz : the Life of the demersed or sunck down Death . 49. For , the fierce wrath of the Fire , abideth in the fierce wrathful source or quality of the fierce wrathful water , and goeth * not along into Death ; also it cannot be , for the fierce wrathfulness is the stern Almighty life ; that cannot dye , nor attain the Eternal Liberty ; for it is called , & remaineth to be , in Eternity , the Nature-life . 50. And though indeed in the Light-life , there is found also a Nature , yet it is not painful odious or Enemicitious , as that in the Original of Nature , according to which , God called himselfe a zealous jealous Angry God. 51. For , in the Light-source or quality , the water , which is sunck down through death into the Liberty , becometh a source & water of the Eternal life of Joy , in which the Meekness and Love , Eternally flow up . 52. Where then there is no more sincking down , but a sprouting , which is called Paradise . 53. And the movinng out of the waters-source , is called Element , that is the pure Element in the Angelical world . 54. And the Cause of the fire in the Light , is the Eternal Firmament , wherein the Eternal skill and knowledg in Gods wisdom becometh opened : as we have a similitnde hereof in the Firmament and Starres . 55. Thus , we understand two worlds one in another , one not comprehending the Other , viz : One , in the fierce wrath of the fiery Nature , in the water of the Poyson and Anguish source or Quality , wherein the Devil dwelleth . 56. And then one in the Light , wherein the water of the Light , is sunck down , out of the Anguish , into the Eternal Liberty , which the Poyson-water , cannot apprehend or reach . 57. And yet is not severed asunder , but onely through the Death , where it divideth it selfe into two Principles , and so severeth it selfe into two Lives , viz : one in the Anger , and the other in the Love , which Life , is known to be the right Life . 58. And herein sticketh the ground ; that as we with Adam went out of this Life into the Outward Life ; wherefore also God became Man : so he must introduce us through this death , through and out of the fierce wrathful source or quality out of the fire-Anguish-life , through the Death into the Light-and Love-life , again . 59. Whereas yet the Gates of Death , were in the wrathfulness shut up in the humane soul , so that the soul stood in the Anguish source or quality , in the inward Nature , in the fire of the Poyson , viz : in the water of the Anguish . 60. And there hath the Prince Christ , broken the Look Fort or Barre of Death , and is with his humane soul sprouted forth through the Death into the Light of God again , and so now his Light-life leadeth Death captive , and so it is become a Reproach and Scorn . 61 For with the Lock Fort or Barre , Lucifer thought to be a Lord and Omnipotent Prince . 62. But when the Lock Fort or Barre became broken , then the Power of the Deity in the Light destroyed his Kingdom ; and there he became a Captive servant , for Gods Light and the Water of Meekness is his Death ; for the Anger , becometh killed or mortified therewith . 63. Thus is the Light and the Love entered into the Anger , together with the Paradise-Element , and the water of the Eternal Life , and Gods anger is become quenched . 64. And so now Lucifer abideth in himself in an anxious fierce wrathful fire-source , where his Body is a Poyson , a source of Poyson-water . 65. And thus , is become thrust out from Gods fire , into the Matrix of the Eternal Nature , viz. into the stern harshness , which generateth the Eternal darkness , wherein he manageth the very stern dominion in the Anxious Mercurius , and so is as a Reproach or Out-cast . 66. Who in his Original was a Prince , but now is no more then an Executioner , a Base Slave , which must be there in Gods fierce wrath , as a Hangman , who punisheth the Evil , when he is commanded by his Lord to do so : he hath no further power . 67. Although yet he is a deceiver , that he might entrap many , and that his Kingdom may be great , that he may have many , and not stand in reproach with so few . 68. As a Whore thinketh , if there were many Whores , then I should not be a Where alone , I am as others are ; thus he also desireth a great Tribe or Genealogy ; that thereby he may reproach God. 69. For he alwaies attributeth the blame and fault to God , that he is fallen , as that bis wrath hath so drawn him , and thrust him into such a willing of Pride and state , so that he stood not . 70. Thus he supposeth , if he did draw many to him , that his Kingdom would be great , and so should get more to him , that would do as he doth and Curse God , but justifie himself ; that is his strength and pleasure in his dark harsh anguish , where he continually stirreth up the fire in himselfe ; and flyeth out above the Thrones , and so holdeth himself still to be a Prince and King. 71. And though he be indeed Evil , yet he is a Prince in his Legions in the Anger in his Creature , but , With the Anger without his Creature , he hath not power to Act ; therein he must abide as an impotent captive . 72. Thus understand the Life , in two forms , viz : one according to the fire of Nature , and the other according to the fire of Light , which fire bunreth in the Love , wherein the Noble Image of God appeareth or shineth . 73. And we understand herein , that the willing of Man should enter into Gods willing , and so he goeth , in Christs Death with Christs soul , through Death into the Eternal Liberty of God into the light Life ; and * there he is in Christ with God. 74. And the Third Form of Life is the outward Created Life from or out of this world , viz : from the Sun , Stars , and Elements . 75. Which , Gods spirit , with or by the Spirit of the Great world , * to Adam breathed into his Nostrils , wherein then also he became an outward soul , which moveth or swimmeth in the Bloud and Water , and burneth in the outward kindled Fire , viz : in the warmth , 76. That same outward Life , should not gripe into the Image in the Inward Life , also the Image should not let in that into the inward Light , which shineth through Death , and sprouteth with its power into the Eternal Liberty ; for the outward Life , is onely a similitude of the inward Life . 77. The Inward Spirit , should onely , in the outward Looking-Glass , open the Eternal Wonders , which in Gods wisdome , were become discovered in the Abyss in the divine Magia ; and bring them to a figured Looking-Glass , viz : to a Looking Glass of Wonders , to Gods honour , and to the Joy of the Inward Man , generated or Born out of God. 78. But its will should not go into it , to draw in the outward wonders into the Image ; as we now with Lamentable Misery know , that Man , draweth in and Imageth to himself an Earthly treasure into the Mind , and so destroyeth the pure Image of God in the second Principle . 79. For , his willing - spirit , goeth into the Earthly Substance , and bring th his Body , wherein the Image standeth , into the Earthly Substance , viz : into the Earthly Treasure , into an Earthly Vessel , or Comprehension . 80. And now , the Image through the Imagination becometh also Earthly , and goeth again into Death , and looseth God and the Kingdom of Heaven ; for , his willing-spirit sticketh with the Body in the outward Life . 81. And now the outward Life must die , and break or Corrupt , that the Created Image according to the Inward Kingdom may appear and shine . 82. And thus the willing-spirit , sticketh with the Body , in the outward Wonders , and bringeth them in the dying of the outward life , along with it self before * the Judgement of God. 83. And there shall the willing-spirit go through the fire , and the Image shall be tryed through the fire , and all that is Earthly must be burned off from the Image , it must be pure and Immaculate , or without spot . 84. As the Light subsisteth in the Fire , so must willing-spirit also subsist in Gods Fire , and if there it cannot go free through the fire of God , through Death ; then will this Image be spewed out into the Eternal Darkness . 85. And this is verily the heavy Fall of Adam , that he hath put his willing-spirit into the outward Life , viz : into outward Principle , into the false seeking or wicked longing Lust ; and Imagined according to or longed after the Earthly Life . 86. And so he went out of Paradise , ( which sprouteth forth through death into the Second Principle ) forth into the outward ; and wen● thus into Death , and so must dye , and thus his Image became de●stroyed . 87. This , we have inherited from Adam , but from the second Adam●Christ , the Regeneration . 88. Where we must enter into Christs Becoming Man or Incarnation , and with him into his Death , and out of Death with him sprout forth into the Paradise-world into the Eternal substantiality of the Liberty of God. The Sixth Chapter . What Lust can do : How we are fallen in Adam , and helped again in Christ : and how it is no Easie Matter to become a right true Christian . 1. THus we understand , that it lyeth in Lust ; that destruction or perdition , is come out of the Lust , and yet still Cometh from thence continually . 2. For Lust is an Imagining , where the Imagination windeth or insinuateth it self into all Forms of Nature , so that , they all become impregnated with the Thing , out of which , the Lust existeth . 3. As then we understand , that the outward spirit of Man , which is a fimilitude of the Inward hath lusted after the fair Image ; and in that regard set its Imagination into the Inward , whence the inward is become * infected . 4. And being it did not instantly feel the death , therefore , did it give the space and room to the outward in its willing-Spirit , and so the outward is drawn into the Inward for a Lodging , and is at length become the Host in the house , and hath obscured or dimmed the inward , so that the fair Image is disappeared . 5. There the Image fell among the Murderers , viz : among the stern or severe * Spirits of Nature , and of the Life 's original , these held the Image Captive , and drew off from it the Paradise Garment , and committed murther within it , † and left it lying half dead . 6. And now the Samaritan , Christ , was needful , and that is the Cause , that God became Man. 7. If the wound or hurt could have been healed , by a word speaking or word forgiveness , God would not have become Man. 8. But God and Paradise were lost , as also the Noble Image became destroyed and made desolate ; and must be New-Regenerated or born out of God again . 9. And therefore came God with his word , which is the Center in the Light-life , * and became Flesh , so that the Soul gat a divine Paradisical habitation again ; thus , to be understood . 10. That , as Adams Soul had opened the Door of the Fires Essences , and had let in the Earthly Essences ; whose source or quality had wound it self into the Paradise-Image , and made the Image Earthly . 11. So Gods Heart did set open the Doors of the Lights Essences , and encompassed the soul with heavenly Flesh , and so the Holy Fleshes Essences Imagined after the Image , after the souls Essences . 12. Thus now , the soul became impregnated again , so that it went with its willing-spirit through the Death , into the Paradise-life . 13. And thence came the Temptation of Christ , that he became Tempted , to try whether the Soul would Eat of the Word of the Lord , whether it could enter through Death into Gods Life . 14. Which in the End became fulfilled on the Stock or Tree of the Cross , where Christs Soul , went through the fire of the fierce wrath , through the stern source , through Death ; and sprouted forth again into the Holy Paradise-world , in which Adam was Created . 15. Thus are we Men become helped again , and it is necessary for us , that we draw away our willing , Thoughts , and Mind , from all Earthly things , and , turn them into Christs Suffering , Dying , Death , and Resurrection . 16. So that we continually Crucifie the Old Adam with Christs Death , and continually dye from Sinne in the Death and Dying of Christ , and continually rise again with him out of the Anguish of Death , into a New Man ; and sprout into the life of God , else there is no Remedy . 17. We must dye away to the Earthly willing in our willing , and must continually become regenerated to the New world in Faith , in the Flesh and Bloud of Christ ; we must be generated or Born out of Christs Flesh ; if we will see Gods Kingdom . 18. It is not so sleight a thing to be a right true Christian , it is the very hardest thing of all ; the willing must be a * Champion , and fight against the perished corrupt willing . 19. It must , sinck it selfe down out of the Earthly Reason into the Death of Christ into Gods anger , and as a worthy Champion breake the power of the Earthly willing . 20. And with so hardy and bold a courage , that it will set and hazard the Earthly life upon it , and not give over till it have broken the Earthly willing , which indeed hath been a strong Battel with me , where two Principles strive and fight one with the other for victory . 21. It is no slight matter , it must be earnest , to fight for the victorious Crown and Garland , for none get that unless he Overcome , he must break the Might of the Earthly willing , which yet of his own Might he can not do . 22. † But if he sincketh himself down out of the Earthly Reason into Christs Death with his inward willing , then he sinketh down through Christs death , through Gods fierce wrath , and through all the holding Cords of the Devil , into the Paradise-world into the Life of Christ . 23. He must make his * wil as it were dead , and so he liveth to God , and sincketh down into Gods Love , though there he liveth in the outward Kingdom or Dominion . 24. Yet I speak of the victorious Crown or Garland which he getteth in the Paradise-world , if he once presseth in , for there the Noble seed becometh ●●wn , and he getteth the Highly precious † pledge or Earnest of the Holy Spirit , which afterwards leadeth and directeth him . 25. And though he must in this world travail or wander in a dark Valley , wherein the Devil and the worlds wickedness continually Rusheth and Roareth tumultuously upon him , and often casteth the outward Man into abominations , and so Covereth * the Noble Grain of Mustard seed ; yet it will not suffer it self to be kept back . 26. But thence sprouteth forth , and a Tree Groweth out of it in Gods Kingdom , against all the raving and Raging of the Devil and his followers , and dependents . 27. And the More the Noble Pearl-Tree , is sought the more swiftly and strongly it groweth , suffereth not it self to be suppressed , though it costeth the outward life . 28. Thus my Dear Minde search aright after the Tree of Christian Faith : it standeth not in this world . 29. Indeed it must be in thee , but thou must with the Tree , be with Christ in God , so that the world doth but hang to thee , even as * it hung also to Christ . 30. Not so to understand it , as if this World were not at all useful or profitable in the sight of God ; It is the Great Mystery , Mysterium Magnum . 31. Man is therefore become Created in this world , as a wise Ruler or Manager thereof , that he should open all Wonders , which were from Eternity in the Sulphur , out of which this world with the Starres and Elements were Created , and according to his willing , bring them into Formes Figures and Images , all to his Joy and Glory . 32. He is created wholly free without any Law , he had no Law , but onely the Nature-Law , that he should not mixe one Principle in another . 33. The Inward Man should let no Earthly thing into it , but should rule Omnipotently over the outward Principle : and so no Death nor Dying would have come into him . 34. Also the outward Elements could not have touched him , neither Heat nor Frost had touched him . 35. For , as the Noble Image must subsist in the Fire , so also should that same Noble Image , rule through the whole Man , through all the Three Principles , and rule and fill all with the Paradisical source or quality . 36. But since that cannot be at all , and that indeed the flesh is become earthly , therefore now we must become generated in the Faith , where truly the Earthly Life covereth the right Life . 37. Therefore we must put on the right Garment , which is called Hope , and set our willing into the Hope , and Continually Labour upon the Tree of Faith , that it may bring forth its fruit , viz : the saving amiable and blessed * Love towards God and its Neighbour . 38. He should do Good , not for his own sake onely , but also therefore , that he may Edifie and better his Neighbour , with his Example and Life . 39. He should Consider , that he is a Tree in the Kingdom of God ; and that he must bear fruit to God , and grow in Gods field and soyl , and that his fruits belong to Gods Table . 40. And that he should conceive or comprise his works and Wonders in the right true Love , and Converse and walk in Love , that he may bring them into Gods Kingdom . 41. For , God is a Spirit , and Faith is also a Spirit or One Spirit in him , and God is in Christ Become Man , and the Faiths Spirit , is also in Christ Generated or Born Man. 42. Thus the willing-spirit converseth or walketh in God , for it is ONE spirit with God , and worketh or co-worketh with God , divine works . 43. And though it be so , that the Earthly Life covereth it , in , so that * he knoweth not his work which he hath generated or born in the Faith , yet in the breaking of the Earthly Body , it will be manifest . 44. For the Hope is its Chist or Cabinet , and a Mystery , wherein , the Faiths work , becometh sown and Kept . The Seaventh Chapter . To what End this World , and all Substances or Things were Created . Also of the Two Eternal Mysteries . Of the Mighty strife in Man about the Image : and wherein the Tree of Christian Faith standeth Groweth and beareth Fruit. 1. SEeing then that Man standeth thus in a Threefold , Life , So therefore is every Life a Mystery or hidden Arcanum to the other , and desireth the other , to which End , this World , with all substances or Things are become Created . 2. For , the divine substantiality desireth the Looking Glass or Similitude , for this world is a similitude according to Gods being or substance . 3. And God is manifest in an Earthly similitude , for the Wonders of the Arcanum or hidden secresie , might not be opened in the Angelical world , in the Love-Birth . 4. But in this world , where Love and Anger is mixed , therein is a Twofold Genetrix , and there it might be . 5. For , all things originally arise out of the fire-Root , and yet were encompassed with the Water of Meekness , so that it is an amiable or lovely Substance or Being . 6. Yet , thus the Fire , became not known in the Angelical world , for the Center of the Genetrix standeth in the Light , and is the word of God : and so the Wonders of Nature may not , otherwise , then in a Spiritual Magia , become opened , that is , become seen in Gods wisedom . 7. But seeing that same is almost incomprehensibe to the Angels and to the souls of Men ; and yet God will be known in Angels and Men , therefore the Angelical World lusteth or longeth after the Great Wonders , to know them , which have from Eternity stood in the wisdom of God. And they became in the Earthly Similitude brought to substance in Figures and Images , all according to the Eternal Essences of the Center of Nature , that the Wonders may stand Eternally . 9. Yet not Essentially , but in Figures in Images , and similitudes in formings according to the willing , indeed Magically , but yet the Genetrix is in the Center of the wonders . 10. For it hath once become awakened or raised out of the Fire , but it will be again swallowed up into the Mystery , and standeth as a hidden Life . 11. Therefore shall all substances or things become manifest as in shadows in the Angelical world , yet * those onely which in Gods willing have become introduced into the Mystery . 12. For the Mysteries which are Eternal are two , as one in the Love and one in the Anger : into which soever the willing-spirit with its wonders entereth in , therein standeth its work and Wonder . 13. So in like manner , we are to know , that also the outward vehemently desireth the Inward , for all runneth after the Center , viz : after the Original , and desireth the Liberty . 14. For in the fire of Nature , there is anguish and pain or sourcive quality , therefore now will the Imaging or the Image of the Meekness in the sourcive quality of Love be free , and yet may not in the sourcive quality of the fiery Essences , be free , so long , till the sourcive quality divideth it self in the breaking , and there each passeth into its Mystery . 15. In like manner will the fire be free from the water , for the water is also the Fires Death , and it is also Mystery to it . 16. And we see likewise hereby , how the water , holdeth the fire Captive , and yet no Dying is in the Fire , but it is onely a Mystery in the Fire . 17. As then may be seen , how it breaketh forth in the water , and * openeth it self , so that openeth it self out of the Center of its own Genetrix , as is to be seen in the Lighting and Tempest , also in a Stone , which yet is water ; may be known . 18. And yet we see especially , how all forms of Nature desire the Light , for in that desiring the Oyl becometh generated , wherein the Light becometh known , for it originally ariseth out of the Meekness . 19. Thus first , we are to know , our Life : that in us the Fires-Center standeth open , for the Life burneth in the Fire . 20. And then Secondly we are to , ponder and Consider of the desire to Love , which in the word of Life originally ariseth in the Angelical world , where the Heart of God with his desiring standeth towards us with his Imagining , and also draweth us into the divine Mystery . 21. And then Thirdly ; we are to Consider the Magick Kingdom of this world , which also burneth in us , and vehemently draweth us into its wonders ; for it willeth to be manifest . 22. And Man is become Created therein to that End , that he should manifest that same Mystery , and to bring the Wonders to Light , and into forms according to the Eternal wisdom . 23. Now then seeing he is to do this , and that he thus burneth in a Threefold fire , therefore , the right Spirit , in which the Angelical Image sticketh , hath great weariness , and is in great danger , for it wandereth upon a very smal Bridge . 24. For , it hath two Enemies , which continually draw it , each would be in the Image , and bring its sourcive quality thereinto , as , viz : the Inward fire , and also the outward Fire , the inward Kingdom of the fierce wrath , and also the outward Earthly Kingdom of the Looking-Glass ; and thus the right Image sticketh in the Midst in the * Squeezing Press . 25. For the Inward Kingdom , will , through the outward , open the Wonders . 26. But being it is too sharp , therefore the outward Kingdom fleeth away before the Inward , and graspeth after the Midlemost , viz : after the Image , which standeth in the Liberty of God , and so fleeth and slippeth it self into the Image for it all graspeth after the Heart of God , that is , after the Center of the Kingdom of Joy. 27. Therefore now it is necessary for the Image , that it defend it selfe , and not let in the Earthly Guest , much less fiery ; and yet becometh generated cut of Both , viz : out of the fire , the Life ; and out of the outward , the Wonder . 28. Therefore it is highly necessary for Mans Image , that he lead * a sober temperate life , and not fill himself with the outward Kingdom , for else it maketh an indvvelling in the Noble Image . 29. And vve understand herein , the mighty strife in Man about the Image of God ; for there are Three that strive about it , as first , the stern strong fire-Life ; and then Secondly the divine Life ; and then Thirdly , the Earthly Life ; and so the Noble Image sticketh in the midst , and is drawn of Three . 30. Now it is necessary for it , that it hide it selfe with the Faith in the Mystery of Hope , and stand still in that same Mystery . 31. Where then the Devil in the inward fire-life , continually rideth forth into the outward earthly life , in pride Covetousness and falshood or wickedness over the Noble Image ; and would introduce it into the fire , and anguish life , and break or destroy it . 32. For , he supposeth continually , that the place of this world is his Kingdom , he will suffer no nother Image therein . 33. Now thereupon the Noble Image , falleth into the Cross and Tribulation into anguish and necessity , & here there belongeth strife to it , to fight for the Noble victorious Crown or Garland , of Gods Image . 34. And hence originally ariseth Prayer , so that the Image continually goeth forth out of the introduced Earthly substance or Being , and also out of the proud stately hellish abominations , with the Prayer ; and continually Entereth into Gods life into his Love. 35. And thus the right Image continually killeth the Earthly Adam , and also the hellish pride and state of the Devil , and must alwaies stand as a Champion . 36. And it is most necessary of all for it , that it should insinuate it self into Patience , and Cast it self under the Cross , and continually Spring or flow up into the Love. 37. For , that is its Sword ; wherewith it slayeth the Devil , and driveth forth the Earthly substance , it hath no other sword , wherewith to defend it self , then the Meek water of the Eternal Life , and that , the proud stately fierce wrathful Spirit relisheth not ; for it is his poyson , and he fleeth before it . 38. Now if we will rightly demonstrate the Tree of Christian Faith , then we say : Its Root , standeth in the Mystery of the Hope , its Sprouting standeth in the Love , and its Body in the * Comprehension of Faith. 39. That is , where the Image , through its earnest desiring , presseth into the love of God , and , comprehendeth or attracteth the Substantiality of God , that is , Christs Body ; that is now the Corpus or Body , wherein the Tree , standeth , groweth , florisheth and bringeth forth fruits in Patience , which all belong in , to the Angelical world . 40. They are the Souls food , wherein it eateth and refresheth or quicken its fiery Life , so that it is transmuted or changed into the Light or Meekness . 41. And thus the Tree groweth in the Paradise of God , which the Outward Man † knoweth not , and Reason apprehendeth it not . 42. But , to the Noble Image , it is very well to be known , that will then when the outward life breaketh , be manifest , and all its works follow after it in the Mystery of Hope , into which it hath sown . 43. Therefore should none , who will travail in the Path of Gods Pilgrimage , propose or purpose to himselfe , to have in this world , Good and frolick Dayes , with worldly honour , but Tribulation Scorn reproach and persecution , attend him every hour . 44. He is here onely in a vale of Misery , and must continually stand in strife , * for the Devil goeth about as a Roaring-Lion , he stirreth up all his children of Malice and wickedness against him . 45. He is accounted as a Fool ; he is * unknown to his Brethren , his Mothers house scorned and despiseth him . 46. He goeth away and soweth in Tribulation , and is anxious , but there is none that * apprehendeth it , or into whose heart it entereth , every man supposeth his Folly , plagueth him thus . 47. Thus he remaineth hidden to the World , for † he is with his Noble Image not of this world , but born of God ; ‖ He soweth in Tribulation and reapeth in Joy. 48. But who shall express his Glory , which will be his wages ? or who shall speak of the Crown or Garland of Victory which he attaineth ? 49. Who can express the Crown of the Virgin of Gods wisdome , which the Virgin of * Gods wisdome setteth upon him ; where is there such a fair beauteous One ? For it excelleth the Heaven . 50. O , Noble Image ! Thou art indeed an Image of the Holy Trinity of God : in which God himself dwelleth ! God setteth upon thee , his beautifulest Ornament ; that thou shouldest Eternally Exult in Him. 51. What is I pray , the substance of this World , seeing it breaketh or Corrupteth , and bringeth a Man onely into anguish Cares encumbrances and misery , and besides into Gods Anger , and breaketh or destroyeth his fair Image , and draweth a Vizard on to him . 52. * O , how great a shame and reproach will that Man have of it : when he shall thus appear at the Judgment Day of God , in a beastial Image : besides that which followeth hereafter , that he shall abide eternally therein . 53. Then Lamentation beginneth , there will be sighing waiting and howling for the Lost Earnest Penny and Talent , which cannot be reached or attained again Eternally . 54. There , shall the Image stand in Eternity before the Abominable Devils , and do what the Abominable Prince Lucifer will. The Eighth Chapter . In what manner , God forgiveth sinnes : and how a Man becometh a Child of God. 1. MY beloved seeking and desirous Minde , thou that * Hungerest , and Thirstest after Gods Kingdom : Mark the Ground I pray thee , what is shewed to thee . 2. It is not truly so easie a thing to become a child of God , as Babol Teacheth , where Men bring Consciences into the History , and so tickle and flatter them Courtlike with Christs sufferings and Death ; where Men teach forgiveness of sinnes Historically . 3. Like a worldly Judicatory , where ones faults are remitted him of Grace , though he plainly abide wicked in his heart . 4. It is clean otherwise here : God will have no dissembling Hypocrites : he taketh not sinne from us in such a manner , in that we cleave to the knowledge , and Comfort our selves with the suffering of Christ ; and yet in the Conscience , abide in the Abominations . 5. It is said , * Ye must be born a New , or else ye shall not see the Kingdom of God. 6. He that will tickle himself with Christs suffering and Death , and appropriate the same to himself , and yet with his willing will abide unregenerated in the Adamical Man ; doth like one that comforteth himself , that his Lord will bestow his Land upon him , without considering that he is not his Sonne , whereas he hath promised that he wil bestow it onely upon his Sonne : so it is also here . 7. Wilt thou possess the Land of thy Lord , and have it for thy proper own , then thou must become his right and true Sonne , * For the Sonne of the Maid servant shall not inherit with the free : the Sonne of the History is a stranger . 8. Thou must become born or generated of God in Christ , that thou mayst be a † bodily Sonne ; and then thou art Gods child , and an heir of the sufferings and death of Christ . 9. And Christs Death is thy Death , his Resurrection out of the Grave is thy Resurrection , his Ascention into Heaven , is thy Ascention into Heaven ; and his Eternal lifes Kingdom is thy Kingdom . 10. In that thou are his right true Sonne born of his flesh and bloud , so thou art * an heir of all his Goods ; else thou canst not be Christs Child and Heir . 11. So long as the Earthly Kingdom sticketh to thee , in thy Image , so long thou art , the perished Adams Earthly Sonne ; no flattering hypocrisie will help , give as many good words before God as thou wilt , yet thou art but a strange Child . 12. And Gods goods do not belong unto thee , so long , till thou comest with † the lost Sonne to the Father again ; with a right true sorrow and repentance for thy lost Goods of inheritance . 13. Thou must go forth with thy willing-spirit out from the Earthly Life . and break or destroy the Earthly willing , which is woful to the Mind and willing-spirit to forsake the treasure it possessed , wherein the willing-spirit became generated ; and must enter into Gods willing . 14. And there thou sowest thy Seed in Gods Kingdom ; and art new born in God , as fruit , which groweth in Gods field : for thy willing receiveth Gods power , Christs●Body , and the New Body in God , groweth to thee . 15. And then thou art Gods Childe , and Christs Goods belong to thee ; and his Merits are thy merits , his Suffering Death and Resurrection , is all thine , thou art a Member of his Body , and his Spirit is thy Spirit , † He leadeth thee upon right Paths ; and all that thou dost , thou dost to God. 19. Thou sowest in this world , and reapest in the Heaven of God , thou art Gods Work of Wonder , and openest in the Earthly Life , his Wonders ; and drawest thy selfe with thy willing-spirit , into the Holy Mystery . 17. Mark this , ye Covetous , ye Proud , ye Envious , ye false Judgers , ye wicked Malicious , which introduce your willing and desire , into Earthly Goods , into Money and Plenty , into pleasure and the voluptuousness of this Life , and esteem Money and Goods to be your Treasure , and set your desire therein , and yet for all that will be Gods Children . 18. Ye stand and dissemble before God , ●e shall forgive you your Sins , but ye abide with your Image in Adams Skin , in Adams Flesh , and so Comfort your selves with the Sufferings of Christ , and are but dissemblers ye are not Gods Children . 19. Ye must become born in God if ye would be his Children , else ye deceive your selves together with your Hypocrites or dissemblers who paint before you a Glistring Colour . 20. They Teach , and are * not known of God , † not sent to Teach , they do it for their Belly and for worldly honours sake , and are * the Great Where at Babel , who flatter God with their Lips , and with the heart and willing-spirit they serve the † Dragon at Babel . 21. Beloved Mind , wilt thou be the Chlide of God , then prepare thy selfe for affaults ; and for Tribulation , it is no light and soft entrance into the Childs Life , especially , where Reason lyeth captive in the Earthly Kingdom . 22. It must be broken , and the willing must go out from Reason ; it must sow it selfe into Gods Kingdom in lowly obedience , as a Grain is sown in a field or soyl : it must in Reason make it selfe as it ▪ were dead and give it self up to God , and so the New fruit groweth in Gods Kingdom . 23. Thus that Man standeth in a Three-fold Life , and all belongeth to God. 24. The Inward fiery Essences of the first Principle , become incorporated with the New body in Christ , so that they flow up in Christs Flesh and Bloud out of Gods willing , and their Fire , is Gods Fire , out of which the Love meekness and humility burneth . 25. Where the Holy Spirit goeth forth , and helpeth him to stand out the Battel against the Earthly Reason , also against the p●rished corrupt Flesh , and the willing of the Devil : * his Yoak of the earthly willing becometh lighter to him ; but he must in this World , abide in the strife . 26. For , to the Earthly Life , belongeth sustenance , that he must seek , and yet ought not to hang his willing and heart thereupon . 27. It must Trust God , and his earthly Reason passeth alwaies into doubting , it will faile him , it will needs alwaies see God , and yet cannot , for God dwelleth not in the Earthly Kingdom , but in himself . 28. Thus must Reason , being it cannot set God be compelled into Hope , 29. There then Doubting runneth Counter against Faith or Believing , and would destroy the Hope , and therefore must the Earnest willing with the right true Image strive and fight against the Earthly Reason : there is woe and it often goeth sadly . 30. Especially , if Reason looketh after the Course of this World , and so its willing-spirit , as it were foolish hath respect towards the Course of this world : There it is said , be sober , watch fast and pray ; that is , that ye may Tame the Earthly Reason , and make it as it were dead ; that Gods spirit may find place in you . 31. If that appeareth , that soon overcometh the Earthly Reason , and the willing in the anguish discovereth it selfe with its love and sweetness , where then alwaies one fair little Branch or other becometh generated out of the Tree of Faith. 32. And * all tribulation and assaults or Temptations serve for the best to the Children of God : for as often as God hangeth hovering over them , so that they become introduced into anguish and Tribulation . then they alwaies stand in the Birth of a New little branch out of the Tree of Faith. 33. When , the spirit of God appearth again , then he alwaies bringeth up a new sprout , at which the Noble Image very highly rejoyceth it selfe . 34. And now it is but to stand out the first earnest Brunt , that the Earthly Tree may be overcome , and the Noble Grain be sown in Gods field , that * Man may learn to know the Earthly Man. 35. For , when the willing receiveth Gods light , then the † Looking-Glass seeth it self in it self , † one Essence seeth the other in the Light , and so the whole Man findeth himself in himself , and knoweth what he is ; which in the Earthly Reason , he * cannot know . 36. Also none should Think , that the Tree of Christian Faith may be seen or known in the Kingdom of this world , outward Reason knoweth it Not. 37. And though the fair Tree , standeth very clearly in the inward Man , yet the outward earthly Reason doubteth for all that : for the spirit of God * is as foolishness to it ; for it cannot apprehend it . 38. And though it be so , that often the holy spirit openeth it self in the outward Looking-Glass , so that the outward life highly rejoyceth therein : and for great Joy becometh Trembling : and thinketh now I have attained the worthy precious Guest , now I will believe it , yet there is no perfect steddiness therein . 39. For , the Spirit of God doth not stay continually in the Earthly sourcive quality : it will have a pure vessel , and if it departeth into its Principle , viz : into the right Image , then the outward Life becometh weak and fainting . 40. Therefore must the Noble Image alwaies be in strife and fight against the outward-Reason-life ; and the more it striveth and fighteth , the greater groweth the fair Tree , for it worketh or co-worketh with God. 41. For , as an Earthly Tree , groweth in winde , Rain , Cold and Heat , so also the Tree of Gods Image , groweth under the Cross and tribulation and anguish and pain in scorn and reproach , and sprouteth up into Gods Kingdom , and * bringeth forth fruit in Patience . 42. Now seeing we know this , we should labour therein , and let no feare or terrour keepe us back , for we shall well reap and enjoy it Eternally ; what we have here sown in anguish and weariness , that will comfort us Eternally . AMEN . Written by the Author Anno 1620. in the Moneth of May. The End. These whole Three parts translated into English , in six weeks and four dayes , Ending September 1657. THE CONTENTS of the Chapters of the First Part. Of the Becoming Man or Incarnation of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God , that is : concering the Virgin Mary , what she was from Her original , and what kind of Mother she came to be , in the Conception of her Sonne Jesus Christ ; and how the Eternal Word is become Man. CHAP. I. WHy the Incarnation of Jesus Christ , or his becoming Man , hath not been rightly understood hitherto : Also ; Of the Two Eternal Principles , and of the Temporary Principle . Conteining 75. Verses . CHAP. II. Of the Revelation of the Mystery ; how the Temporary Mystery is flown forth out of the Eternal spiritual Mystery . Conteining 64. Verses . CHAP. III. The Gate , of the Creation of Man ; also of the breathing in of the Soul and of the Spirit . Conteining 76. Verses . CHAP IV. Of the Paradisical Being or Substance and Regiment or Dominion ; how it would have been if Man had continued in Innocency . 72. Verses . CHAP. V. Of the Lamentable and Miserable Fall of Man. 135. Verses . CHAP. VI. Of Adams Sleep : How God made a Woman out of him : How at length he became Earthly : And how God by the Curse , hath withdrawn Paradise from him . 69. Verses . CHAP. VII . Of the Promised Seed of the Woman ; and of the Crusher of the Serpent . 75. Verses . CHAP. VIII . Of the Virgin Mary ; And of the Becoming Man or Incarnation of Jesus Christ , the Sonne of God. 71. Ver. CHAP. IX . Of the Virgin Mary ; what she was before the Blessing : and what she came to be in the Blessing or Salutation . 94. Verses . CHAP. X. Of the Becoming Man or Incarnation of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God. How he lay Nine Moneths as all the Children of Men , in his Mothers Body or Womb : and how his Becoming Man or Incarnation properly is . 61. Verses . CHAP. XI . Of the Vtility , or what profit , the Incarnation and Birth of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God , is to us poor Children of Eve : The Most richly amiable and lovely Gate of All. 70. Verses . CHAP. XII . Of the pure Immaculate Virginity : How we poor Children of Eve , must be conceived of the pure virgin Chastity in the Incarnation of Christ ; and be new Born in God ; or else we shall not see God. 102. Verse . CHAP. XIII . Of the Twofold Man , viz : the Old Adam , and the New Adam , two sorts of Men ; How the Old Evil one behaveth it self towards the New : What kind of Religion Life and Belief , each of them Exerciseth ; and what each of them understandeth . 110. Verse . CHAP. XIV . Of the New Regeneration : in what Substance Essence Being and Property , the New Regeneration , viz : the Childe of the Virgin , Consists , while it yet sticketh in the Old Adam : 74. Verses . THE CONTENTS of the Chapters of the Second Part , Being of Christs Suffering , Dying , Death and Resurrection , and how we must enter into Christs Suffering and Death , and rise again out of his Death with and through him , and be conformable to his Image ; and live in him Eternally . CHAP. I. OF the Eternal Beginning : and of the Eternal End. 50. Verses . CHAP. II. The true and Highly precious Gate of the Holy Trinity : The Eye of the Eternal Life : or the Lustre of Life . 30. Verses . CHAP. III. How , God , without the Principle of Fire , would not be manifested or Revealed : also , of the Eternal Being or Substance and of the Abyssal will , together with the very severe Earnest Gate . 64. Verses . CHAP. IV. Of the Principle , and Original of the Fire-world ; and of the Center of Nature : and how the Fire severeth it selfe from the Light ; so that from Eternity , in Eternity , therè are two Worlds one in another . 76. Verses : CHAP. V. Of the Principle in it self , what it is . 100. Verses . CHAP. VI. Of Our Death : why we must dye , notwithstanding Christ dyed for us : the First Citation or Summons ; and of the New Man. 91. Verses . CHAP. VII . Of Spiritual Sight or Vision ; How Man in this world may have divine and Heavenly Substantiality , so that he can rightly speak of God : and how his Sight or Vision is : the Second Citation or Summons , and Invitation of outward Reason in Flesh and Bloud . 81. Verses . CHAP. VIII . The Way or Pilgrimage from Death into Life ; and the Gate into the Center of Nature ; the Third Citation or Summons . 93. Verses . CHAP. IX . Further and more Circumstances converning this Third Citation or Summons ; highly to be considered . 38. Ver. CHAP. X. Of the Express Image of Man , that is , of the Similitude of God in Man : with a Conclusion . 67. Verses . THE CONTENTS of the Chapters of the Third Part , Of the Tree of Christian Faith : a true instruction , how a Man may become One spirit with God , and what he must do that he may work the works of God ; wherein is briefly comprised the whole Christian Teaching and Faith : also what Faith and Teaching is , An open Gate of the Great Mystery of God out of the Divine Magia through the Three Principles of the Divine Being or Substance . CHAP. I. WHat Faith , and Beleeving is . 21. Verses . CHAP. II. Of the Original of Faith : and why Faith and Doubting dwell together . 36. Verses : CHAP. III. Whence Good and Evil , Love and wrath , Life and Death , Joy and sorrow , proceed ; and how the Wonders of Nature appear in the Free-will of God ; without the Free will of Gods mingling with the Wonders of Nature . 50. Verses . CHAP. IV. How men must live , to attain the liberty of God ; and How the Image of God becometh destroyed ; also of the state and Condition of the wicked after the decease or dying of the Body . 44. Verses . CHAP. V. Why the wicked Convert not : what the Tartest and sharpest thing in Conversion , is : of the false Shepheards : Of the Tree of Faith : How men must enter into the Kingdom of God : Of the breaking of the Kingdom of Lucifer : Of the Three forms of Life ; and what we have inherited from Adam and Christ . 88. Verses . CHAP. VI. What Lust can do : How we are fallen in Adam , and Regenerated again in Christ : And how it is no light thing to be a right Christian . 44. Verses . CHAP. VII . To what End this world and All Beeings are Created : Also concerning the two Eternal Mysteries : of the Mighty strife in Man concerning the Image ; and wherein the Tree of Christian Faith , standeth groweth and beareth fruit . 541. Verses . CHAP. VIII . In what manner , God forgiveth sinnes , and how Man becometh a childe of God. 45. Verses . The End. A Catalogue of Jacob Behme's Books , Printed in English . According to the numbers in the Catalogue , at the End of the Book of the 40 Questions . Printed , 1647. 1. THe Aurora . 2. The Three Principles of the divine Essence or Substance . 3. The Thrcefold Life of Man. 4. The 40. Questions of the Soul. 5. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ , 8. Of the Last Times , or 1000 years Sabbath , being the 4. & 5. of his Epistles . 9. The Signature of All things . 10. Of the 4. Complexions , to comfort a Soul in Temptation . 12. The Considerations on Esai as Steefels Book . 13. Of true Repentance . 14. Of true Resignation . 15. Of Regeneration . These are the Way to Christ . 16. Of Predestination and Election ; with 17. An Appendix : of Repentance . 18. The Mystcrium Magnum , An Exposition of GENESIS ; concerning the Manifestation or Revelation of the Divine Word through the Three Principles of the divine Essence ; Also of the original of the World , and the Creation , wherein the Kingdom of Nature and of Grace , are Expounded : for the better understanding of the Old and New Testament ; and what Adam and Christ are . 19 A Table of the 3 Principles , Explain'd . 20. Of the Supersensual Life . 22. Of the Two Testaments of Christ , viz : Baptism and the Supper . 23. A Dialogue between the Enlightned and unenlightened soul ; of Illumination . 25. The 177. Theosphick Questions , without the 13 Answers . 26. An Epitome or Abstract of the Mysterium Magnum . 28. An Exposition of the Threefold World. 31. Being 35. Letters or Epistles of Jacob Behme to several friends of his concerning the Divine Mysteries . A Clavis or Key of his writings . Prephesies of the End of the world : Collected out of several of Jocob Behme's Writings : called Mercurius Teuconicus . The Life of Jacob Behme , written by Durand Hotham Esq Philosophy reformed and improved , containing 3 Books of Paracelsus to the Athenians , helpful to the understanding of Jacob Behme's Writings . Also these Philosophical peeces , viz : Magia Adamica , or the Antiquity of Magick ; of the Magicians Heavenly Chaos , and first Matter of All things . Lumen de Lumine , or a New Magical Light discovered to the world . The Chymists Key to shut and open the true doctrine of Corruption and Generation , illustrated from the true Light of Nature . These Books are to be sold by Lodowick Lloyd , near the Castle in Cornhill , London , 1659. Errata escaped in Printing Jacob Behme's Book of Christs Incarnation . Preface . Page . 9. line 13 for Heed , read Seed . l. 28. r. and the p. 14. l. 13. f. desirably r. desirable . 15. Margin . r. 1 Cor. p. 16. l. 9. none . r. on . 25. f. any . r. my . The first Part. ● . 1. l. 3. Margin . r. c 15. p. 2. l. 2. r. the wise in p 4. l. 4. f●● e. r. Fire . l. 37. f Cnter r. Center p. 6. l. 29. r. i. as a. p. 8. l 9. f. it in . r. l. on . 4. l. 40. f Hoasts . r. Hoast . p. 28. l. 16 f. a ason . r. of Reason . p. 35. l. 6. r. in him . p. 48. 〈◊〉 f. the side . r. hts side . p. 49. l. 15. f. he . r. be 〈◊〉 2. l. 8. & 9. f. shal r. should p. 53. l. 14. f. draw 〈◊〉 . p. 56. l. 28. f. beastliness . r. beastial●●● 2. 60. l. 37. f. things . r. Sinnes . p. 66. l. 10. 〈◊〉 out is hidden with its Lustre . p. 67. l. 31. 〈◊〉 fair Virgin. p. 74 , l. 2. f. r. ●p . 7● 〈◊〉 3. 〈…〉 p. 〈◊〉 . l. 36. r. which the left . p. 81. l. 13. f. be●●● 〈…〉 1 r. for the word . l. 11. r. the Love p. 94. l. 6. f. wrought r. brought p. 9. in the Margin . r. occasioned . p. 97. l. 33. became . r. become . p. 101. l. 34. r. but the p. 〈◊〉 l. 30. r. one onely . p. 109. Margin . l. 5. 〈◊〉 . 10. p. 110. l. 37. f. burned . r. turned . 〈◊〉 29. r. is no more p. 116. l. 10. f. Men. in Man. The Second Part. P. 119. l. 30. r. what it is . p. 132. l. 1. r. for ● it . p. 135. l. 16. r. divideth it self . p. 138. l. 34. r. beginning to appear is . p. 141. l. 15. r. how it is . p. 143. l. 39. f. not . out . p. 149. l. 21. r. as thinne . p. 152. f. ▵ make ◬ p. 159. l. 2. Margin f. not . r. out . p. 171. l. 3. Margin , 〈…〉 174. l. 3. Margin . f. r. † . & f. 19. r. 10. l. 4. f. † . r. ● . p. 1●6 . 19. r. 〈◊〉 hath . p. 179. 〈◊〉 f. paint . r. pant . p. 8. l. 5. Margin . f. * 〈◊〉 † p. 1●6 . f. one . and. The Third Part. P. 208. ● . 2. f. pure . f. poore . p. 211. P. 9. r. it was become l. 22. f. of 〈◊〉 p. 203. l. 〈◊〉 f. or . r. for . l. 〈…〉 into . p. 40. l. 14. f. Day . r. Day p. 224. l. r●●viz into the. l. 35. r. and went. p. 226. l. 20. r. and whether . p. 227. l. 37. r. it suffereth not . p. 220. l. 18. f. therein . r. there . p. 232. l. r. 3. r. draw , 〈◊〉 l. 27. r. less the fiery . l. 29. r. wonders . p. 23. 〈◊〉 Margin . r. l 4. & p. 239. l. 〈…〉 of . The Contents . Page 2. l. 9. f. 69. ● . 96. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28523-e310 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mat. 6. 11. * The Things which are seen are Temporal , but the Things which are not seen are Eternal . 2 Cor. 4. 28. * Cor. 15. 42. 43. Notes for div A28523-e2860 * Mat. 16. 13 b 14. c 15. d 16. e 17. * 21. * Genes . 1. 26 , 27. 5. & 1. 9. & 6 * or Desire . † Exod. 20. 4. * Heb. 12. 29. * GOTT . * Framer or Fashioner . * AVGE . Notes for div A28523-e5500 * Transparency or Reflection . † The Forms of Nature . † Or Substance . * Or that comes not into Being or Substance . ‖ Of figure . * As or viz : † Or Nature . † Or belonging to him . * Or Anger-Prince . * His Flesh : Notes for div A28523-e7720 * Vacuum voidness cessation privation or Negation . * Or Joy. † The Holy Spirit . * Note . * Wesenheit . * Or Mass . † The Quintessence or Mother . * Out-going substantial working powers and properties : † Gen. 2. 7. * Gen. 1. 2. † Psalm . 18. 10. * The three Principles . † The Threefold Life . * Or 〈…〉 Notes for div A28523-e10460 * Or Life . † Deut. 8. 3. Mat. & Luk. 4. 4. * Or Carcass . * Man. † World. * Or Concreted . * Note . * 1 Cor. 15. 51. 52. † 1 Cor. 4. 20. Notes for div A28523-e12930 * Or , One. † Note . * Rom. 8. 20. 22 † The Earth . * Or into : that is , Imagine or think like God. * Gen. 2. 18. * A foolish Virgin . † 1 Cor. 2. 14. * Or root . * Original . * Or the Ground * Or Substance * Or Evilness . * As if it sent forth Thunderbolts . † Rom. 8. 20. 22 * Gal. 5. 17. * Ephe. 1. 4. 5. * Note . * 1 Tim. 2. 4. * Propensity or Complexion . 〈◊〉 Souldier . * Of an Evil Complexion . * Act. 17. 28. Notes for div A28523-e17980 * The Spirit of the Body . † Or is overcome with Gazing . * Qualifie or operate . † Gen. 2. 21. * Or Imaged . † Math. 12. 40. * The Spirits answer . * Or Woman . * GoTTes . * Whole . * Fine or Goodly . † Gen. 2. 23. * Gen. 2. 23. * Gen. 2. 25. † The Essences . * Gen. 3. 5. 6. * Gen. 3. 5. 6. † Or Carcass . * Or get our living . * Gen. 3. 17. ‖ Locus Beat●rum . * Mat. 13. 44. 46. † Gen. 3. 24. † Gen. 3. 21. * Gen. 3. 17. 18. 19. Notes for div A28523-e21660 * Gen. 3. 6. † Gen. 3. 24. * Or Circumciser . * Math. 27. 51. † Luk. 23. 45. ‖ Math. 27. 52. † Luk. 10. 30. * By the word Woman understand the divided Body : see the Three Principles , cap. 13. vers . 1. † Virginal . * Gen. 3. 7. † vers . 8. ‖ Or Braided the Stalks of the leaves together . * Or Beastial Kind . † Or white Apron . * Gen. 3. 9. 10. † Vers . 11. 12. † verse . 13. † Gen. 3. 14. † Gen. 3. 15 * IHS † Rev. 19. 15. * To doe the thing . * She. † 1. Tim. 2. 14. 15. ‖ 1 Pet. 3. 1. 5. * Ephe. 5. 25. 28. ‖ Or injected . † ●ath . 6. 12. † Extra . * 1. Cor. 6. 18. † Note ye wanton lecherous unchast Children of Men. * Heaven . Notes for div A28523-e24630 * Or Daughter . * Job . 8. 23. * Gen. 3. 15. † Ephe. 1. 4. * Luk. 1. 42. ‖ Luk. 1. 38. * Phil. 2. 7. * Luke 1. 4● . * Luke 1. 3● . * Col. 2. 9. † Particlo . * Extra . * Heb. 11. 16. Note . † Or of the * Mat. 24. 30. † Mat 8. 17. Notes for div A28523-e27310 * Or Joyful . * Ephe. 1. 4. * O● ha● a longing delight thereto . † Or in a Looking-Glass . * Luke 1. 38. † Job . 1. 14. * Her Outward Man. * Or intransitory . * Or Life . † Or By , or as to her . * Note ye that are called Men●onites . * Heavenly . † Note ; Created and Generated are two things . * Gen. 2. 23. * The Virgin Sophia or Christ in us . * Or lost Soul. Notes for div A28523-e30650 * Geniture or Birth . * Or Incarnation . * Or Capacity . * Or feel . * Note . * Or Person . † Heb. 4. 15. * Acts 2. 27. * Or by . * Mat. 27. 51. † Mat. 27. 52. 53 * Col. 2. 14. 15. Notes for div A28523-e32870 * Or towards . † Come to be . * Extra . * Or the four Elements . * Numb . 17. 8. † Gen. 49. 10. * Isai . 53. 2. † James 1. 18. † Rev. 14. 4. * John 3. 5. Notes for div A28523-e35140 * Or reflex . * Note . * Or oe●●fioned . * Or Constellations . ‖ 1 Pet. 4. 7. & 5. 8. * Joh. 16. 16. * Mat. 28. 20. † Rom. 3. 28. * Acts 17. 28. * Note . * Mark. 10. 21. † The Spirit of the Soul. * Deut. 4. 31. Jer. 3. 12. Notes for div A28523-e38550 * Joh. 10. 2. † Joh. 10. 1. * Joh. 10. 7. 9. * Mat. 12. 30. † Or a Living . † 2 Tim. 4. 3. * Jer. 23. 21. ‖ Col. 2. 8. * 1 Cor. 12. 4. † 1 Tim. 1. 15. † Isai . 42. 19. † Mat. 10. 37. Luk. 14. 26. ‖ Rev. 12. 1. 5. * Six heavenly and six Earthly . See the Threefold life . ch . 9. vers 73. † Rev. 12. 15. * Rev. 12. 16. * Note . Note . * The mercy of God , viz ▪ the Holy Earth , the Eternal substantiality , the Body of Christ . † Extra . * Note . * Note . ‖ Mahlzeichen . * Rom. 8. 29. * Note . Note . Rev. 14. 13. * Note . † Math. 22. 37. Luk. 18. 27. Note . † Note . 1 Pet. 5. 8. * Mat. 10. 16. † Note . † Rom. 6. 16. * 2 Cor. 2. 16. † Engel-schaar . * Note , ye disputers about Free-will . * Or Mind , inclination , or propensity . * Or Mind , inclination , or propensity . † Gen. 3. 15. * Note * Rev. 12. 1. † Luk. 14. 27. Note . † N●●e . † Note . * Note . Note . † Or Ensign . Notes for div A28523-e42840 † The New-Man . * Psal . 19. 2. * Note . * Word or New-Man , viz : the heavenly Gold. * Note . * Note . Joh. 6. 54. † Note . * Or longed . * Note . * Note . Note . * Note . * Note . † Note . † Rev. 19. 20. Note . Notes for div A28523-e45390 Note . † Mat. 25. 7. * Punishment and Grace . * Extra . ●●thout or beyond . * Or apply in our Mind and Thoughts . † See the 12. Question of the Soul , verse 19. 20. & 22. * Consumptibility . * Note . AVge . * Note . † Or to . Note . * Note wherein God is Omnipotent and Omniscient . AVge . ☉ * Or ●specteth . † Note the introduction of the Eternal wil into substance . * Note the wisdome is the body of the spirit . † Formed or figured . * Note what A. and O. are . Rev. 1. 8. * Extra . ‖ Unus Circulus . Tinctura est Sapientie Ornamentum . * Or Spirit . * Note . * Note . † The first ground of the dark world . * Viz : the Creature . * Or Vulcanus . * Or before it . * Joh. 1. 5. † The Liberty . † Isai . 9. 6. * Mat. 28. 19. † Viz : the Eternal Spirit of the Father . * The Gall is the Dying , source or quality . * Note . † Note . Note . † Seaven . * Rota . Centrum Eterna Natura , & revum Omnium . * 1 Cor. 15. 36. * fire † cross * Note . * Begriffe . * Note . Note . † Heb. 2. 14. † Materia . * Rom. 8. 22. * Note . * Note . * Note . Fire is the Principle . The white fire , is the divine Love fire . * Note . † Rom. 8. 22. * Note . * Choaked or made faint with thirst and hunger . * In einer M●●teria . * Rev. 21. 6. and 22. 1. 17. * Note . * Shell . * Purposed proposal . * Or Ruler . * ✚ † ▵ * Or into the Bosome of wrath . † Luke 16. 22. 23. * Note . * Mat. 16. 24. † Mat. 11. 12. † Even while we are alive in this Body . * Note what goeth from us in our death . † Note what riseth again as our Resurrecti● † Or for . ‖ Note . * Joh. 3. 3. 5. 7. † Mat. 8. 3. * Rom. 8. 21. † Mat. 16. 24. * James 4. 7. † Acts 22. 22. Heb. 11. 36. to the 38. * Note . * Mat. 11. 28. 29. † Rom. 12. 21. * Gal. 2. 20. 1 Tim. 2. 6. † 2 Cor. 1. 12. * Note . * Summons warning arrest Constraint ▪ or Compulsary . * Rev. 5. 7. * Gen. 3. 19. & 18. 27. * Rom. 2. 14. & 7. 23. † Rom. 2. 15. * The Limus is not of all the Three Principles . * The Sulphur and Limus are near of the same portent . † Flowed or qualified Quall . * Note . * 1. Joh. 2. 16. 17. † Gen. 3. 19. * Aspects . * Joh. 3. 3. 5. * Note . John 1. 14. * Joh. 15. 5. † Or Tree . * Note . * Note . * Joh. 6. 51. 53. * According to the right Image our conversation is in Heaven . † The Soul. ‡ Note ye children of the Noble Sophia . ‖ 1 Cor. 3. 13. * Note . * Note . † 1. Cor. 3. 15. * Mat. 20. 1. † Mat. 25. 26. * Mat. 12. 32. Eph. 1. 21. † 1 Cor. 15. 41. * Or Condition * Note . * Mat. 6. 10. Luke 11. 2. † Mat. 22. 37 , 38 , 39. * Rom. 14. 23. † Gal. 6. 7. 8. * Summons warning arrest Constraint or Compulsary . * Representation or Imagination . * Note . † Or purposeth and Contriveth * Put in Execution . † Joh. 5. 9. * Or habitation * 1 Cor. 13. 9. to 12. * 1 Pet. 3. 4. † Or Bettering . * 1 Cor. 14. 32. * Note . * 1 Cor. 6. 19. * Note . * So enflamed by the Devil . * Note . † Mat. 7. 7. ‖ Joh. 6. 37. * Joh. 17. 24. * 1 Cor. 7. 17. * Obscurities . † Genaturetist , qualified or capable . ‖ Institutions . † Or Institutions . * Note . Christendom . * Discovered , or bare . † Note . Seeming Christianity . ‖ Mat. 3. 19. † ● Tim. 5. 6. * James 2. 19. † Luke 12. 47. * Exod. 20. 7. † Rom. 2. 21. &c. * Via vitae . * Monster or Mimick . † Zach. 6. 15. * Note . * Titus . 3. 5. 6. * Note . Heb. 10. 22. * Mat. 26. 26 , 27 , 28. * Isai . 58. 6. 7. ‖ Mat. 7. 21. * Mat. 22. 39. ‖ Mat. 7. 12. * Luke 16. 2. † Mat. 25. 15. 27. * Note ye Magistrates and Superiours . Emperours Kings Princes Lords Rulers and All Officers whatsoever . * Rom. 14. 12. † Or Domineer . ‖ That is , the Tyrants are become , the Eternal wraths own propriety ▪ † Or in the substance . * Note ye Socinians who teach that the wicked shall not rise again , or be tormented . * Mat. 20. 1. * Mat. 20. 8. † Note . * Note ye Lazy sluggish Labourers . * Summons warning arrest or Constraint . * Note . * Gal. 5. 17. * Note . * A Branch on the Vine Christ ▪ * Note . * Note . * Note . † Or Material . * Or Corporcity * Note . * Ground or Foundation of Nature . † Sternness anger or Malice . * Note , th● Devil was Created in the Divine substantiality . * Note . * Note . * Note . * ● Cor. 11. 29 † Joh. 3. 13. * Note . * Note . How we may know whether the Noble Lilly-branch , viz : the Body of Gods Image , be Generated in us . * Or Branches . * Or dwelling of the soul . * Or Quaking * ●um . * Note . What is the Devils riding Horse . To be considered , by Lyars Blasphemers and Boasters . * Rom. 8. 28. † Rom. 6. 1. 2. * 2 Cor. 2. 15. 16. † Gal. 6. 7. Notes for div A28523-e71250 * Mat. 6. 33. † Luke 11. 13. ‖ Joh. 16. 13. * Joh. 14. 26. † Joh. 16. 14. 15. ‖ Mat. 10. 19. * Rom. 8. 26. * Or a Spirit one with or in God. * Phil. 2. 13. * Or Adorning † Or raiseth . * Bosheit . * Sophia . Notes for div A28523-e72130 * Faith is Gods Image , viz : the desiring seeing and Mind . * 2. Cor. 5. 1. † Rom. 6. 10. * Note . * Note . * Note . * Note . * Note . Thou must through Christ in thee deny thy self . * J●● . 6. 37. Notes for div A28523-e73460 * Note . * Note . * Joh. 3. 3. 5. 7. * Or one . * Joh. 3. 3. 5. 7. * Or Works . * 1 Cor. 3. 13. † Note , out of what the Earth is Created . * Or Justifica●on . Notes for div A28523-e75280 * Ephe. 4. 18. † Mat. 6. 21. * Isai . 33. 14. * Over or above . * The false wicked decei●ful Man. † Zuvers●cht . * Or bringeth to Light. * Note . * Note . ye Merciful . * Gal. 6. 7 , 8. Notes for div A28523-e76820 * Luk. 16. 26. † Psal . 18. 10. * Rev. 3. 20. * Note . * Eph. 6. 19. † Mat. 7. 15. * Note . † Joh. 15. 5. * Rom. 8. 14. ‖ Joh. 10. 1. * Note . Acts 14. 22. 2 Thes . 1. 4. † Mat. 7. 26. * The outward Looking-Glass * Work or Effect . * Note . * Col. 3. 3. * Gen. 2. 7. * Note . Notes for div A28523-e79940 * Affected or Tincted . * Note , these spirits Cain was affraid of . See Mysterium Magnum , ch . 29. vers . 55. † Luke 10. 30. * Or Souldier . † Note . Note . * Earthly will. † Or Pawn . * Mat. 13. 31. * Note . * Note . * NOTE . NOTE . Notes for div A28523-e81410 * Note . * Displayeth . * Quetzung . * 1 Pet. 5. 8. * Or Reception † Note the Outward MAN , nor Reason , knowthe not the Tree of Faith. * 1 Pet. 5. 8. * Note . Note . * Or taketh notice of it . † Joh. 8. 23. ‖ Psal . 126. 5. * Sophia . * Note you that do wickedly not onely without doubting , but with confident daring presumption . Notes for div A28523-e83220 * Mat. 5. 6. * Joh. 3. 3. 5. 7. * Gen. 21. 10. Gal. 4. 3. † Or a Sonne of his body begotten or generated . * Note . † Luke 15. 20. † Prov. 4. 11. * Mat. 7. 22. 23. † Jer. 14. 14. 23 , 21. & 27. 15. * Rev. 17. 1. † Rev. 12. 3. * 〈…〉 * Rom. 8. 28. * The right true Man * Or Similitude . † Outgoing substantiaal power and understanding . * Note . * 1 Cor. 2. 14. * Luke . 8. 15. 
A62570	----	Of sincerity and constancy in the faith and profession of the true religion, in several sermons by the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson ... ; published from the originals, by Ralph Barker. ... Tillotson, John, 1630-1694. 1695 Approx. 521 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 246 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A62570 Wing T1204 ESTC R17209 12210364 ocm 12210364 56284 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A62570) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 56284) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 617:4) Of sincerity and constancy in the faith and profession of the true religion, in several sermons by the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson ... ; published from the originals, by Ralph Barker. ... Tillotson, John, 1630-1694. Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708. [14], 473, [4] p. Printed for Ri. Chiswell ..., London : 1695. Errata: p. 473. Advertisement: p. [1]-[3] at end. Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Sermons, English -- 17th century. Faith. 2004-08 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-08 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-09 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2004-09 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion OF Sincerity and Constancy IN THE Faith and Profession OF THE TRUE RELIGION , In Several SERMONS . By the Most Reverend Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON . Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury . Published from the Originals , By Ralph Barker , D. D. Chaplain to his Grace . LONDON , Printed for Ri. Chiswell , at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard , MDCXCV . IMPRIMATUR , Febr. 16. 169● . Tho. Cantuar. TO HIS SACRED MAJESTY , King William , THESE SERMONS ARE Most humbly Dedicated , By the Author's Relict , Elizabeth Tillotson . THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER . THE AUTHOR of these Sermons was so well known , particularly for his most Excellent and Useful Discourses from the Pulpit , that I shall not attempt , by any thing I can say , to recommend them to the Publick . I know very well , they have already that Credit in the World , which will render any Apologie needless ; especially when by this Publication of them , they shall speak for themselves . I think it requisite , only to assure the Reader , That they are what they pretend to be , the genuine Works of that great Man. Whilst I had the Happiness of Conversing with him , he was pleas'd ( at my Request ) to instruct me in the Character in which he wrote all his Sermons ; and some of these now Published , having been Transcrib'd by me some Years since , were found amongst his Papers , Corrected with his own Hand . By what he had been pleas'd to say , that I was Master of his Character , and by the few Errata he observ'd in my first Performance , I was encouraged to set about this Work ; in which I can Solemnly Profess , that I have observ'd a Religious care and strictness , neither to omit nor add any thing , but an of , a the , or the like , when the Sense plainly requir'd it ; and of that too I have given notice , by affixing this Mark [ `` ] upon the Word which I did not find in the Original ; so that the Reader is left to judge of the fitness of such Additions ; which , after all , are so very few and inconsiderable , as scarcely to deserve this notice ; only that he might be satisfied ( in case the Printer do his part ) that he hath here , what he expects , a perfect Transcript of these Sermons ; and in them a true and lively strain of Christian Piety and Eloquence , so fitted to all Capacities , that I cannot but hope , all that shall read them will be the better for them , even those not excepted ( if there be any such ) who may have entertain'd any unreasonable Prejudices against them , or their most Reverend Author . I have alwaies thought , and often said it , that if any were Leaven'd with Prejudice against Him , they were , to be sure , such as did not know him ; and the farther I go in his Writings , the more I am assur'd , that it must be so . But because the Sermons themselves , to which I refer , are not yet all of them Published , I must leave this to the Judgment of the Impartial Reader , when the whole shall be finish'd , which is design'd with all convenient speed . Lambeth , April 2. 1695. Ra. Barker . THE TEXTS OF EACH SERMON IN THIS VOLUME . SERMON I. JOHN I. 47. JEsus saw Nathanael coming to him , and saith of him , Behold an Israelite indeed , in whom is no guile . Pag. 1 SERM. II. HEB. XI . 17 , 18 , 19. By faith Abraham , when he was tried , offered up Isaac ; and he that had received the promises , offered up his only begotten son ; Of whom it was said , That in Isaac shall thy seed be called : Accounting that God was able to raise him up , even from the dead ; from whence also he received him in a figure . p. 39 SERM. III. HEB. XI . 24 , 25. By faith Moses when he was come to years , refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter ; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the People of God , than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season . p. 77 SERM. IV. V. VI. VII . VIII . X. HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the Profession of our faith without wavering ; for he is faithful that hath promised . p. 109 136 , 171 , 209 , 239 , 277. There is a mistake in Numbering of these Sermons : The Tenth should be called the Ninth , and so on to the end . For there are but Fifteen Sermons in this Volume , and should be no more . SERM. XI . 2 COR. V. 7. For we walk by Faith , not by Sight . p. 309 SERM. XII . HEB. X. 38. But if any Man draw back , my Soul shall have no pleasure in him . p. 337 SERM. XIII . XIV . MATTH . XVI . 24. Then said Jesus unto his Disciples ; If any man will come after me , let him deny himself , and take up his Cross and follow me . p. 367 , 395 SERM. XV. XVI . HEB. XI . 13. And confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth . p. 421 , 449 A SERMON Preached at KINGSTON , July 29. 1694. The last his GRACE Preached . JOHN I. 47. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him , and saith of him , Behold an Israelite indeed , in whom is no guile . WHO this Nathanael was , upon whom our Saviour bestows this extraordinary Character , doth not certainly appear , his Name being but once more mention'd in the whole History of the Gospel : For certain , he was a good Man , who deserved this extraordinary Commendation ; and none but our Saviour , who knew what was in Man , and needed not that any should tell him , could have given it , especially of one , whom he had never seen before that time ; for when Jesus saw him coming to him , he saith of him Behold an Israelite indeed . The whole Nation of the Jews were Israelites , by Natural Descent , being the Seed of Jacob , or Israel ; but in a special , and more excellent sense , none are esteemed the true Posterity of Israel , but those , who resembled this Father of their Nation , in true Piety , and Goodness ; for ( as the Apostle reasons ) they are not all Israel , who are of Israel ; they only are Israelites indeed , who resemble good Old Jacob , in the sincerity of his Piety , and the simplicity of his Temper , and Disposition ; for our Saviour seems here to allude to that Character which is given of Jacob ( Gen. 25. 27. ) That he was a plain Man , or as the Hebrew word signifies , a perfect and sincere Man , in opposition to his Brother Esau , who is said to be cunning ; so that to be an Israelite indeed , is to be a downright honest Man , without fraud , and guile , without any arts of hypocrisie and deceit . In speaking of this vertue of Sincerity , which is the highest Character and Commendation of a good Man , I shall consider it , as it respects God , and Man. As it respects God , so it imports the truth and sincerity of our Piety and Devotion towards him . As it regards Men , so it signifies a simplicity of Mind and Manners , in our Carriage and Conversation , one towards another ; both these are included , and very probably were intended , in the Character which our Saviour here gives of Nathanael . I. I shall consider this Grace , or Vertue of sincerity , as it respects God ; and so it imports the truth and sincerity of our Piety toward him , that we heartily believe , and fear , and honour him , and that the outward expressions of our Piety and Obedience to him , are the genuine issue of our inward apprehensions of him , and affections towards him ; and this no doubt our Saviour intended in the first place in the Character of this good Man , that he was a Man of a real and substantial and unaffected Piety , and in truth , what he appeared to be ; that he did sincerely love God , and his Truth , and was ready to embrace it , whenever it was fairly proposed to him , as did plainly appear in his Carriage towards our Saviour ; for when Philip invited him to come and see him , he did not conceal the prejudice and objection he had against him , grounded upon a common , but uncharitable Proverb , That out of Nazareth ariseth no Prophet , but having an honest and sincere mind , he was not so carried away by a popular prejudice , as not to have patience to be better informed , and therefore was easily perswaded to go and see our Saviour , and to discourse with him himself , and being satisfied that he was the Messias , he presently owns him for such , calling him the Son of God , and the King of Israel ; and because sincerity is the very heart and substance of Religion , it concerns us not only to endeavour after this temper and disposition , but to enquire into the nature and properties of it , that we may know when we have it , and may have the comfort of it . I shall mention five or six Properties of a sincere Piety , by which Men may sufficiently know the integrity of their hearts towards God. 1. Our Piety is then sincere when the chief reasons and predominant motives of it are Religious ; and I call that a Religious or rational motive , which regards God , and another World , in opposition to Men , and to our present temporal Advantages ; when the principal and swaying motives of our Piety , are a sense of God's Authority over us , and of our Duty and Obligation to him ; a fear of his Displeasure and Threatnings , and the hopes of the Glorious Reward which he hath promised to Obedience ; these motives are properly Religious , because they respect God , and are the Arguments to Obedience , which he himself offers to us , to perswade us to our Duty ; and that is a sincere Piety , which is wrought in us by these Considerations , how unequally soever mixed ; for even in the most of Men Fear does many times prevail more than Love , and in case of great temptation , may preserve Men from sin , when perhaps no other consideration will do it . On the contrary , that is an unsincere Piety , to which we are moved , meerly by the regard of Men , and the consideration of some temporal Advantages ; and when these have the chief influence upon us , it is easie for any Man to discern in himself ; for he that will carefully observe himself , can hardly be ignorant of the true spring and motive of his own actions ; but there is one sign , whereby a Man may certainly know that his heart is not right towards God , and that is , if when these motives are absent , our Piety and Zeal for the true Religion doth either cease , or be sensibly cooled and abated , as if Impiety , or Popery , or any thing else that is bad , begin to be in fashion , and to have the Countenance of great Examples ; if those whom we fear , and upon whom we depend , do discover any inclination that way , if the garb of Religion cease to be for our interest , or in the revolution of things , happen to be contrary to it ; if in any of these cases , we let fall the profession of our Religion , or neglect the practice of it , this is a plain , and undeniable demonstration of the insincerity of our former Piety . 2. A sincere Piety must be rooted in the heart , and be a living principle within us ; for as the Apostle reasons in another case , he is not a Jew who is one outwardly , but he who is one inwardly , and in the heart ; and without this all outward acts of Piety and Devotion , are hypocrisie , a picture of Religion and a form of Godliness , without the life and power of it . 3. A Third Evidence of a sincere Piety is , when Men are Religious in private and in secret , as well as in publick and in the open view of Men ; he is truly devout , who is so in his Family , and in his Closet , where he hath no Witness , but God , and his own Soul , as well as in the Church ; he is a downright honest Man , who will make good his Word , and perform his Promise ( when no proof can be made of it , and no Law compel him to it ) as readily as if there had been an hundred Witnesses of it ; he is sincerely just , who will not detain from another his right , though he be ignorant of it , nor wrong any Man , tho' he could do it with all the secresie and safety in the World ; who will not impose upon anothers ignorance or unskilfulness , tho never so much to his own benefit and advantage ; he is truly Charitable , who would not only as soon , but rather sooner give his Alms in secret , than in the sight of Men ; and he is truly grateful , who when there is occasion and opportunity , will acknowledge a kindness and requite a benefit to the Relations of his Deceased Friend , though he be sure that all memory of the Obligation dyed with him , and that none are conscious to it , but God and his own Conscience : And indeed there is scarce any act of Piety , and Vertue , the sincerity of which may not by this evidence be known to us : As on the contrary a Man may for certain conclude himself a Hypocrite , if he be not the same , in the presence of God , and his own Conscience that he is in the sight of Men. 4. Another Evidence of a sincere Piety is a constant tenour of goodness in the general course of our Lives : I do not now speak of the first beginnings of Piety , in new Converts , which are many times very imperfect , and such as afford little or no evidence of a Man's sincerity ; but in those who have made any considerable progress in goodness ; the habits of any known sin , and the wilful and deliberate neglect of our Duties , and even the single acts of more hainous Crimes , will bring in question our sincerity , and are by no means to be sheltred under the name of infirmity ; for these the Grace of God , if we be not wanting to our selves , will inable us to subdue ; and he is not sincerely good , who doth not seriously endeavour to be as good as he can , and does not make use of that Grace which God is ready to afford to all the purposes , ( though not of a perfect , yet ) of a sincere obedience to the Laws of God. 5. Another Evidence of a sincere Piety is , that our obedience to God be uniform and universal , equally respecting all the Laws of God , and every part of our Duty ; that it do not content it self with an especial regard to some Precepts of the Law , though never so considerable , and allow it self in the breach , or neglect of the rest ; no nor with observing the Duties of one Table of the Law , if it overlook the other , no nor with obedience to all the Commandments of God , one only excepted . St. James puts this case , and determines , That he that keeps the whole Law , saving that he offends in one point , is guilty of all , that is , is not sincere in his obedience to the rest ; and therefore we must take great heed , that we do not set the Commandments of God at odds , and dash the two Tables of the Law , against one another , lest as St. James says , we break the whole Law : And yet I fear this is too common a fault , even amongst those who make a great profession of Piety , that they are not sufficiently sensible of the obligation and necessity of the Duties of the second Table , and of the excellency of those Graces , and Vertues , which respect our Carriage and Conversation with one another : Men do not seem to consider , that God did not give Laws to us , for his own sake , but ours ; and therefore that he did not only design that we should Honour him , but that we should be happy in one another ; for which reason , he joyns with our humble and dutiful Deportment towards himself , the Offices of Justice and Charity towards others , Mich. 6. 8. He hath shewed thee , O Man , what is good ; and what doth the Lord require of thee , but to do justice , and to love mercy , and to walk humbly with thy God ? And 1 John 4. 21. This Commandment have we from him , that he who loveth God , love his Brother also . And yet it is too visible that many , who make a great profession of Piety towards God , are very defective in Moral Duties ; very unpeaceable , and turbulent in their Spirits , very peevish and passionate , very conceited and censorious , as if their profession of Godliness did exempt them from the care and practice of Christian Vertues : But we must not so fix our eye upon Heaven , as to forget that we walk upon the Earth , and to neglect the ordering of our steps and Conversation among Men , lest while we are gazing upon the Stars , we fall into the Ditch of gross and foul Immorality . It is very possible , that Men may be devout and zealous in Religion , very nice , and scrupulous about the Worship and Service of God , and yet because of their palpable defect in points of Justice and Honesty , of Meekness and Humility , of Peace and Charity , may be gross and odious Hypocrites ; for Men must not think for some acts , either of outward or inward Piety , to compound with God for the neglect of Mercy and Judgment , or to demand it as a right from Men to be excused from the great Duties and Vertues of Humane Conversation ; or pretend to be above them , because they relate chiefly to this World , and to the temporal happiness of Men ; as if it were the priviledge of great Devotion , to give a license to Men to be peevish and froward , sower and morose , supercilious and censorious in their behaviour towards others : Men must have a great care , that they be not intent upon the outward parts of Religion , to the prejudice of inward and real goodness , and that they do not so use the means of Religion , as to neglect and lose the main end of it ; that they do not place all Religion in Fasting and outward Mortification ; for though these things be very useful and necessary in their place , if they be discreetly managed , and made subservient to the great ends of Religion ; yet it is often seen that Men have so unequal a respect to the several parts of their Duty , that Fasting and Corporal severity , those meager and lean Duties of Piety , in comparison , do like Pharaoh's lean kine , devour and eat up almost all the goodly and well-favoured , the great and substantial Duties of the Christian Life ; and therefore Men must take great heed , lest whilst they are so intent upon mortifying themselves , they do not mortifie Vertue and good Nature , Humility and Meekness and Charity , things highly valuable in themselves and amiable in the eyes of Men , and in the sight of God of great price . For the neglect of the Moral Duties of the second Table is not only a mighty scandal to Religion , but of pernicious consequence many other ways : A fierce and ill governed , an ignorant and injudicious Zeal for the Honour of God , and something or other belonging necessarily , as they think , to his true Worship and Service , hath made many Men do many unreasonable , immoral and impious things , of which History will furnish us with innumerable instances , in the practice of the Jesuits , and other Zealots of the Church of Rome ; and there are not wanting too many examples of this kind amongst our selves ; for Men that are not sober , and considerate in their Religion , but give themselves up to the conduct of blind prejudice , and furious zeal , do easily perswade themselves , that any thing is lawful , which they strongly fancy to tend to the Honour of God , and to the advancement of the cause of Religion ; hence some have proceeded to that height of absurdity , in their Zeal for their Religion and Church , as to think it not only lawful , but highly commendable and meritorious , to equivocate upon Oath , and break Faith with Hereticks , and to destroy all those that differ from them ; as if it were Piety in some cases , to lie for the Truth , and to kill Men for God's sake . So that if we would approve the integrity of our hearts to God , and evidence to our selves the sincerity of our Obedience , we ought impartially to regard all the Laws of God , and every part of our Duty ; and if we do not , our heart is not upright with God : 'T is observable that sincerity in Scripture is often call'd by the name of Integrity , and Perfection , because it is integrated , and made up of all the parts of our Duty . 6. The last evidence I shall mention of the sincerity of our Religion is , if it hold out against persecution , and endure the fiery tryal ; this is the utmost proof of our integrity , when we are called to bear the Cross , to be willing then to expose all our worldly interest , and even life it self , for the Cause of God , and Religion ; this is a tryal which God doth not always call his faithful Servants to , but they are always to be prepared for it , in the purpose and resolution of their minds ; this our Saviour makes the great mark of a true Disciple , if any man ( saith he ) will be my disciple , let him deny himself , and take up his cross , and follow me ; this is a certain sign , that Men have received the word into good ground , and are well rooted in their Religion , when they are not shaken by these fierce assaults ; for many ( as our Saviour tells us ) hear the word , and with joy receive it , but having not root in themselves , they endure but for a while , and when persecution , or tribulation ariseth , because of the word , presently they are offended ; nay , some when they see persecution coming at a distance , wheel off , and bethink themselves of making their retreat in time , and of agreeing with their adversary whilst he is yet in the way . So that constancy to our Religion in case of danger , and suffering for it , is the best proof of our sincerity : This is the fiery tryal , as the Scripture calls it , which will try what materials we are made of , and whether we love God and his truth in sincerity . And thus I have considered sincerity as it respects God , and imports true Piety and Religion towards him ; and I proceed to the second consideration II. Of sincerity as it regards Men , and so it signifies a simplicity of mind and manners in our conversation , and carriage one towards another , singleness of Heart , discovering it self in a constant plainness and honest openness of behaviour , free from all insidious devises , and little tricks , and fetches of Craft and Cunning ; from all false appearances and deceitful disguises of our selves in word or action ; or yet more plainly , it is to speak as we think , and do what we pretend and profess , to perform and make good what we promise , and in a word , really to be , what we would seem and appear to be . Not that we are obliged to tell every Man all our mind , but we are never to declare any thing contrary to it ; we may be silent , and conceal as much of our selves , as prudence , or any other good reason requires ; but we must not put on a disguise , and make a false appearance and empty show of what we are not , either by word or action . Contrary to this Vertue is ( I fear ) most of that compliment , which is current in conversation , and which for the most part is nothing but words , to fill up the Gaps , and supply the emptiness of Discourse , and a pretence to that kindness and esteem for persons , which either in truth we have not , or not to that degree which our expressions seem to import , which if done with design , is that which we call Flattery , a very odious sort of Insincerity ; and so much the worse , because it abuseth Men into a vain , and foolish opinion of themselves , and an ill grounded confidence of the kindness and good-will of others towards them ; and so much the more dangerous , because it hath a party within us , which is ready to let it in ; it plays upon our self-love , which greedily catcheth at any thing that tends to magnifie and advance us ; for God knows , we are all too apt to think and make the best of our bad selves , so that very few Tempers have Wisdom and firmness enough to be proof against Flattery ; it requires great Consideration , and a resolute Modesty and Humility to resist the Insinuations of this Serpent ; yea , a little rudeness and moroseness of Nature , a prudent distrust and infidelity in Mankind to make a Man in good earnest to reject and despise it . Now besides that all Hypocrisie and Insincerity is mean in it self , having falsehood at the bottom , it is also often made use of , to the prejudice of others , in their Rights and Interests ; for not only Dissimulation is contrary to Sincerity , because it consists in a vain shew of what we are not , in a false muster of our Vertues and good Qualities , in a deceitful representation and undue Character of our Lives ; but there are likewise other Qualities and Actions more inconsistent with Integrity , which are of a more injurious and mischievous consequence to our nature , as falshood , and fraud , and perfidiousness , and infinite little Crafts and arts of deceit , which Men practise upon one another in their ordinary conversation and intercourse ; the former is great vanity , but this is gross iniquity . And yet these Qualities dexterously managed , so as not to lie too plain and open to discovery , are look'd upon by many , as signs of great depth and shrewdness , admirable instruments of business , and necessary means for the compassing our own ends and designs ; and though in those that have suffered by them , and felt the mischief of them , they are always accounted dishonest , yet among the generality of lookers on , they pass for great policy , as if the very skill of governing and managing humane affairs , did consist in these little tricks and devices : But he that looks more narrowly into them , and will but have the patience to observe the end of them , will find them to be great follies , and that it is only for want of true wisdom and understanding , that Men turn aside to tricks , and make dissimulation and lies their refuge . It is Solomon's Observation , That he that walketh uprightly walketh surely , but the folly of Fools is deceit : The folly of Fools , that is , the most egregious piece of folly that any Man can be guilty of , is to play the Knave ; the vulgar Translation renders this clause a little otherwise , but yet towards the same sense , Sed stultus divertit ad dolos , but the Fool turns aside to tricks ; to make use of these is a sign the Man wants understanding to see the plain and direct way to his end : I will not deny but these little Arts may serve a present turn , and perhaps successfully enough , but true Wisdom goes deep , and reacheth a great way further , looking to the end of things and regarding the future as well as the present , and by judging upon the whole matter and sum of affairs , doth clearly discern , that Craft and Cunning are only useful for the present occasion , whereas Integrity is of a lasting use , and will be serviceable to us upon all occasions , and in the whole course of our Lives ; and that Dissimulation and Deceit , though they may do some present execution in business , yet they recoil upon a Man terribly afterwards , so as to make him stagger , and by degrees to weaken , and at last to destroy his Reputation , which is a much more useful and substantial and lasting instrument of prosperity and success in humane affairs than any tricks and devices whatsoever . Thus have I considered this great vertue of Sincerity , both as it regards God , and the mutual conversation and intercourse of Men one with another . And now having explained the nature of Sincerity to God and Man , by declaring the properties of it , and in what instances we ought chiefly to practise it , and what things are contrary to it ; that which now remains , is to perswade Men to endeavour after this excellent quality , 〈◊〉 to practise it in all the words and 〈◊〉 of their Lives . Let us then in the first place be sincere in our Religion , and serve God in truth and uprightness of heart out of Conscience of our Duty and Obligations to him , and not with sinister respects to our private interest or passion , to the publick approbation or censure of Men ; let us never make use of Religion to serve any base and unworthy ends , cloaking our designs of Covetousness , or Ambition , or Revenge , with pretences of Conscience and Zeal for God ; and let us endeavour after the reality of Religion , always remembring that a sincere Piety doth not consist in shew , but substance , not in appearance , but in effect ; that the Spirit of true Religion is still and calm , charitable and peaceable , making as little shew and stir as is possible ; that a truly and sincerely good Man does not affect vain Ostentation , and an unseasonable discovery of his good Qualities , but endeavours rather really to be , than to seem Religious ; and of the two rather seeks to conceal his Piety than to set it out with pomp ; gives his Alms privately , prays to God in secret , and makes no appearance of Religion but in such fruits and effects as cannot be hid ; in the quiet and silent vertues of Humility , and Meekness , and Patience , of Peace and Charity ; in governing his Passions , and taking heed not to offend with his Tongue by slander and calumny , by envious detraction , or rash censure , or by any word or action that may be to the hurt and prejudice of his Neighbour : But on the contrary , it is a very ill sign if a Man affect to make a great noise and bustle about Religion , if he blow a Trumpet before his good Works , and by extraordinary shews of Devotion summon the Eyes of Men to behold him , and do , as it were , call aloud to them to take notice of his Piety , and to come to see his zeal for the Lord of Hosts : It is not impossible but such a Man with all his vanity and ostentation may have some real goodness in him ; but he is as the Hypocrites are , and does as like one as is possible ; and by the mighty shew that he makes to wise and considerate Men , greatly brings in question the sincerity of his Religion . And with the sincerity of our Piety towards God , let us joyn the simplicity and integrity of Manners in our Conversation with Men ; let us strictly charge our selves to use truth and plainness in all our words and doings ; let our Tongue be ever the true Interpreter of our Mind , and our Expressions the lively Image of our Thoughts and Affections , and our outward actions exactly agreeable to our inward purposes and intentions . Amongst too many other Instances of the great corruption and degeneracy of the Age wherein we live , the great and general want of sincerity in Conversation is none of the least ; the World is grown so full of Dissimulation and Complement , that Mens words are hardly any signification of their thoughts ; and if any Man measure his words by his heart , and speak as he thinks , and do not express more kindness to every man than men usually have for any man , he can hardly escape the censure of rudeness and want of breeding : The old English plainness and sincerity , that generous integrity of Nature and honesty of Disposition which always argues true greatness of mind , and is usually accompanied with undaunted courage and resolution , is in a great measure lost amongst us ; there hath been a long endeavour to transform us into foreign Manners and Fashions , and to bring us to a servile imitation of none of the best of our Neighbours in some of the worst of their Qualities : The Dialect of Conversation is now adays so swell'd with Vanity and Complement , and so surfeited ( as I may say ) of expressions of kindness and respect , that if a man that lived an Age or two ago should return into the World again , he would really want a Dictionary to help him to understand his own Language , and to know the true intrinsick value of the phrase in fashion , and would hardly at first believe at what a low rate the highest strains and expressions of kindness imaginable do commonly pass in currant payment ; and when he should come to understand it , it would be a great while before he could bring himself , with a good Countenance and a good Conscience to converse with Men upon equal terms and in their own way . And in truth it is hard to say whether it should more provoke our contempt or our pity to hear what solemn expressions of respect and kindness will pass between men , almost upon no occasion ; how great honour and esteem they will declare for one whom perhaps they never heard of or saw before , and how entirely they are all on the sudden devoted to his service and interest for no reason ; how infinitely and eternally obliged to him for no benefit , and how extremely they will be concerned for him , yea , and afflicted too for no cause . I know it is said in justification of this hollow kind of Conversation , that there is no harm , no real deceit in Complement , but the matter is well enough so long as we understand one another , Et verba valent ut Nummi , Words are like Money , and when the currant value of them is generally understood , no Man is cheated by them ; this is something if such words were any thing , but being brought into the Account they are meer Cyphers . However it is still a just matter of complaint , that sincerity and plainness are out of fashion , and that our Language is running into a Lye ; that Men have almost quite perverted the use of Speech , and made words to signifie nothing ; that the greatest part of the Conversation of Mankind , and of their intercourse with one another , is little else but driving a Trade of Dissimulation , insomuch that it would make a Man heartily sick and weary of the World , to see the little sincerity that is in use and practice among Men , and tempt him to break out into that melancholy Complaint and Wish of the Prophet ( Jer. 9. ) O that I had in the Wilderness a lodging-place of way-faring men , that I might leave my people and go from them ; for they are all Adulterers , and an assembly of treacherous Men ; and they bend their tongue like their bow for lies , but have no courage for the truth upon earth . Take ye heed every one of his Neighbour , and trust ye not in any Brother ; for every Brother will utterly supplant , and every Neighbour will walk with slanders . Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit ; one speaketh peaceably to his Neighbour , but in his heart he lieth in wait : Shall not I visit for these things , saith the Lord ; and shall not my Soul be avenged of such a Nation as this ? Such were the Manners of the people of Israel at that time , which were both the forerunner and the cause of those terrible Calamities which befell them afterwards ; and this Character agrees but too well to the present Age , which is so wretchedly void of Truth and Sincerity , for which reason there is the greater need to recommend this Virtue to us , which seems to be fled from us , that truth and righteousness may return , and glory may dwell in our land , and God may shew his mercy upon us and grant us his Salvation , and Righteousness and Peace may kiss each other . To this end give me leave to offer these following Considerations . First , That Sincerity is the highest commendation and the very best Character , that can be given of any man ; it is the solid foundation of all Virtue , the Heart and Soul of all Piety and Goodness ; it is in Scripture called perfection , and frequently joyned with it ; and throughout the Bible , there is the greatest stress and weight laid upon it ; it is spoken of as the sum and comprehension of all Religion : Only fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth , says Joshua to the people of Israel , ( Jos. 24. 14. ) God takes great pleasure in it ; so David assures us , ( 1 Chron. 29. 17. ) I know my God that thou tryest the Heart , and hast pleasure in uprightness : And again , Thou lovest truth in the inward parts . To this disposition of mind the promises of divine favour and blessing are particularly made , Psal. 15. 1 , 2. Lord who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle , who shall dwell in thy holy Hill ? He that walketh uprightly , and worketh righteousness , and speaketh the truth from his Heart . Psal. 32. 2. Blessed is the Man , unto whom the Lord imputeth no sin , and in whose Spirit there is no guil . And 't is observable that this Character of our Saviour here given of Nathaniel , is the only full and perfect commendation that we read was ever given by him of any particular person . He commends some particular acts of Piety and Virtue in others , as St. Peter's confession of him , the Faith of the Centurion , and of the Woman that was healed by touching the Hem of his Garment , the Charity of the Woman that cast her two Mites into the Treasury , and the Bounty of that other devout Woman who poured upon him a Box of precious Oyntment : But here he gives the particular Character of a good Man when he says of Nathaniel that he was an Israelite indeed , in whom was no Guil : And the Apostle mentions this quality , as the chief ingredient into the Character of the best Man that ever was , our blessed Saviour , who did no Sin , neither was Guil found in his mouth . Secondly , The rarity of this Virtue is a farther commendation of it . A sincerely pious and good Man , without any guil or disguise is not a sight to be seen every day : Our Saviour in the Text , speaks of it , as a thing very extraordinary and of special remark and observation , and breaks out into some kind of wonder upon the occasion , as if to see a Man of perfect integrity and simplicity were an occurrence very rare and unusual , and such as calls for our more especial attention and regard , Behold ( saith he ) an Israelite indeed in whom there is no Guil. Thirdly , The want of Sincerity will quite spoil the virtue and acceptance of all our Piety and Obedience , and certainly deprive us of the reward of it : All that we doe in the service of God , all our external obedience to his Laws , if not animated by Sincerity , is like a Sacrifice without a Heart , which is an abomination to the Lord. Fourthly , Hypocrisy and Insincerity is a very vain and foolish thing ; it is designed to cheat others , but is in truth a deceiving of our selves : No Man would flatter or dissemble , did he believe he were seen and discover'd ; an open Knave is a great Fool , who destroys at once both his design and his Reputation ; and this is the case of every Hypocrite ; all the disagreement which is between his Tongue and his Thoughts , his Actions and his Heart , is open to that Eye , from which nothing can be hid ; for the ways of Man are before the Eyes of the Lord , and he seeth all his goings ; there is no darkness nor shadow of Death where the workers of Iniquity may hide themselves . Fifthly , Truth and Reality have all the advantages of appearance , and many more ; if the shew of any thing be good for any thing , I am sure Sincerity is better ; for why does any man dissemble , or seem to be that which he is not , but because he thinks it good to have such a quality as he pretends to ? for to counterfeit and dissemble , is to put on the appearance of some real excellency : Now the best way in the world for a man to seem to be any thing , is really to be what he would seem to be : Besides , that it is many times as troublesome to make good the pretence of a good quality , as to have it ; and if a man have it not , it is ten to one , but he is discovered to want it , and then all his pains and labour to seem to have it is lost . There is something unnatural in Painting , which a skilful Eye will easily discern from native Beauty and Complexion . It is hard to personate and act a part long ; for where truth is not at the bottom , nature will always be endeavourring to return , and will peep out and betray herself one time or other ; therefore if any man think it convenient to seem Good , let him be so indeed , and then his Goodness will appear to every body's satisfaction ; for Truth is convincing and carries it 's own light and evidence along with it , and will not only commend us to every Man's Conscience , but , which is much more , to God , who searcheth and seeth our Hearts ; so that upon all accounts Sincerity is true Wisdom : Particularly as to the affairs of this World Integrity hath many advantages over all the fine and artificial ways of Dissimulation and Deceit ; it is much the plainer and easier , much the safer and more secure way of dealing in the world ; it hath less of trouble and difficulty , of entanglement and perplexity , of danger and hazard in it ; it is the shortest and nearest way to our end , carrying us thither in a straight line , and will hold out and last longest . The Arts of Deceit and Cunning do continually grow weaker and less effectual and serviceable to them that use them , whereas Integrity gains strength by use , and the more and longer any Man practiseth it , the greater service it does him , by confirming his Reputation , and encouraging those with whom he hath to do , to repose the greater Trust and Confidence in him , which is an unspeakable advantage in the business and affairs of life . But a Dissembler must always be upon his guard and watch himself carefully , that he doth not contradict his own pretence , for he acts an unnatural part , and therefore must put a continual force and restraint upon himself . Truth alwayes lies uppermost , and if a Man do not carefully attend , he will be apt to bolt it out : Whereas he that acts sincerely , hath the easiest task in the world , because he follows Nature , and so is put to no trouble and care about his words and actions ; he needs not invent any pretences before-hand , nor make excuses afterwards for any thing he hath said or done . But Insincerity is very troublesome to manage ; a Man hath so many things to attend to , so many ends to bring together , as make his life a very perplext and intricate thing : Oportet mendacem esse memorem , A lyar had need have a good memory , lest he contradict at one time what he said at another ; but Truth is always consistent with it self , and needs nothing to help it out ; it is always near at hand , and sits upon our Lips , and is ready to drop out before we are aware , whereas a Lye is troublesome and sets a Mans invention upon the Rack , and one trick needs a great many more to make it good : It is like building upon a false Foundation , which continually stands in need of props to shoar it up , and proves at last more chargable , than to have raised a substantial Building at first upon a true and solid Foundation ; for Sincerity is firm and substantial , and there is nothing hollow and unsound in it , and because it is plain and open , fears no discovery , of which the Crafty Man is always in danger , and when he thinks he walks in the dark , all his pretences are so transparent , that he that runs may read them ; he is the last Man that finds himself to be found out , and whilst he takes it for granted that he makes Fools of others , he renders himself ridiculous . Add to all this , that Sincerity is the most compendious Wisdom , and an excellent instrument for the speedy dispatch of Business ; it creates confidence in those we have to deal with , saves the labour of many enquiries , and brings things to an issue in few words : It is like travelling in a plain beaten Road , which commonly brings a Man sooner to his Journeys end , than By-ways in which Men often lose themselves . In a word , whatsoever convenience may be thought to be in falshood and dissimulation , it is soon over ; but the inconvenience of it is perpetual , because it brings a Man under an everlasting jealousie and suspicion , so that he is not believed when he speaks truth , nor trusted when perhaps he means honestly : When a Man hath once forfeited the reputation of his Integrity , he is set fast , and nothing will then serve his turn , neither Truth nor Falshood . And I have often thought , that God hath in great Wisdom hid from Men of false and dishonest minds the wonderful advantages of Truth and Integrity to the prosperity even of our worldly Affairs ; these Men are so blinded by their Covetousness and Ambition , that they cannot look beyond a present advantage , nor forbear to seize upon it , tho by ways never so indirect : They cannot see so far , as to the remote Consequences of a steady Integrity , and the vast benefit and advantages which it will bring a Man at last . Were but this sort of Men wise and clear-sighted enough to discern this , they would be honest , out of very Knavery , not out of any love to Honesty and Vertue , but with a crafty design to promote and advance more effectually their own Interests ; and therefore the Justice of the Divine Providence hath hid this truest point of Wisdom from their Eyes , that bad men might not be upon equal Terms with the Just and Upright , and serve their own wicked Designs by honest and lawful means . Indeed , if a man were only to deal in the world for a day , and should never have occasion to converse more with Mankind , never more need their good opinion , or good Word , it were then no great matter ( speaking as to the concernments of this world ) if a man spent his Reputation all at once , and ventured it at one throw ; but if he be to continue in the world , and would have the advantage of Conversation whilst he is in it , let him make use of Truth and Sincerity in all his Words and Actions , for nothing but this will last and hold out to the end ; all other Arts will fail , but Truth and Integrity will carry a man through , and bear him out to the last . 'T is the Observation of Solomon ( Prov. 12. 19. ) The lip of Truth is established , for ever , but a lying Tongue is but for a moment . And the wiser any man is , the more clearly will he discern , how serviceable Sincerity is to all the great ends and purposes of humane life ; and that man hath made a good progress , and profited much in the School of Wisdom , who valueth Truth and Sincerity according to their worth : Every man will readily grant them to be great Vertues and Arguments of a generous mind ; but that there is so much of true Wisdom in them , and that they really serve to profit our interest in this World seems a great Paradox to the generality of Men , and yet I doubt not but it is undoubtedly true , and generally found to be so , in the experience of Mankind . Lastly , Consider that it is not worth our while to dissemble , considering the shortness and especially the uncertainty of our Lives . To what purpose should we be so cunning , when our abode in this world is so short and uncertain ? Why should any man by dissembling his Judgment , or acting contrary to it , incur at once the displeasure of God , and the discontent of his own mind ? Especially if we consider , that all our Dissimulation shall one day be made manifest and published on the open Theatre of the World , before God Angels and Men , to our everlasting Shame and Confusion ; all Disguise and Vizards shall then be pluckt off , and every man shall appear in his true Colours . For then the Secrets of Men shall be judged , and God will bring every Work into Judgment , and every secret thing , whether it be Good , or whether it be Evil. Nothing is now covered , which shall not then be revealed , nor hid which shall not then be known . Let us then be now what we would 〈◊〉 glad to be found in that day , when all pretences shall be examined , and the closest Hypocrisie of Men shall be laid open and dasht out of Countenance ; when the Secrets of all Hearts shall be disclosed , and all the hidden Works of Darkness shall be revealed , and all our Thoughts , Words and Actions shall be brought to a strict and severe Tryal , and be censured by that impartial and infallible Judgment of God , which is according to Truth : In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men , by Jesus Christ , To whom , with the Father and the Holy Ghost , be Glory now and for ever . Amen . A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL MDCLXXXVI . Before the Princess ANN. HEB. XI . 17 , 18 , 19. By Faith Abraham when he was Tryed offered up Isaac : And he that had received the Promises offered up his only begotton Son ; Of whom it was said , That in Isaac shall thy Seed be called : Accounting that God was able to raise him up , even from the Dead ; From whence also he received him in a Figure . THE design of this Epistle to the Hebrews , is to recommend to them the Christian Religion , to which they were but newly Converted , and to encourage them to Constancy in the profession of it , notwithstanding the Sufferings which attended it . He sets before them in this Chapter several examples in the Old Testament of those , ( who tho ? they were under a much more imperfect dispensation ) yet by a stedfast belief in God and his promises , had performed such wonderful acts of Obedience and Self-denyal . He begins with the Patriarchs before the Flood , but insists chiefly upon the examples of two eminent Persons of their own Nation , as nearest to them , and most likely to prevail upon them , the Examples of Abraham and Moses , the one the Father of their Nation , the other their great Lawgiver , and both of them the greatest Patterns of Faith , and Obedience , and Self-denyal , that the History of all former Ages , from the beginning of the World , had afforded . I shall at this time , by God's assistance , treat of the first of these , the Example of Abraham , the Constancy of whose Faith , and the cheerfulness of whose Obedience , even in the difficultest Cases , is so remarkable above all the other Examples mentioned in this Chapter . For at the Command of God , he left his Kindred and his Country , not knowing whither he should go . By which eminent Act of Obedience , he declared himself to be wholly at God's Disposal , and ready to follow him : But this was no tryal in comparison of that here in my Text , when God commanded him to offer up his only Son. But such was the immutable stedfastness of his Faith , and the perfect submission of his Obedience , that it does not appear that he made the least check at it ; but out of perfect Reverence and Obedience to the Authority of the divine Command , he went about it as readily and cheerfully , as if God had bid him do some small thing : By Faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac . For the explication of which Words , it will be requisite to consider two things . First , The Tryal or Temptation in general . Secondly , The Excellency of Abraham's Faith and Obedience upon this Tryal . First , The Tryal or Temptation in general : It is said that Abraham when he was tryed , the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being Tempted : That is , God intending to make Tryal of his Faith and Obedience ; and so it is exprest Gen. 22. 1. Where it is said , that God did Tempt Abraham , and said unto him , take now thy Son , thine only Son. Now there are two difficulties concerning this matter : It seems contrary to Scripture , that God should Tempt any Man ; and contrary to Reason , because God who knows what every Man will do , needed not to make tryal of any Man's Faith or Obedience . First , It seems contrary to Scripture , which say's , God Tempts no Man : and 't is most true , that God Tempts no Man , with a design to draw him into Sin ; but this doth not hinder , but he may try their Faith and Obedience with great difficulties , to make them the more illustrious . Thus God Tempted Abraham ; and he permitted Job , and even our Blessed Saviour himself to be thus Tempted . Secondly , It seems contrary to Reason , that God , who knows what any Man will do in any Circumstances , should go to make Tryal of it . But God does not try Men for his own information , but to give an illustrious Proof and Example to others of Faith and Obedience : And tho after this Tryal of Abraham , God says to him , now I know that thou lovest me , because thou hast not withheld thy Son , thine only Son from me ; Yet we are to understand this as spoken after the manner of Men ; As God elsewhere speaks to Abraham concerning Sodom ; I will go down now to see whether they have done altogether aecording to the cry which is come up unto me , and if not , I will know . I proceed to the Second thing I proposed , The Excellency of Abraham's Faith and Obedience upon this Tryal : By Faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac . God accepts of it , as if he had done it , because he had done it in part , and was ready to have performed the rest , if God had not countermanded him . And this act of Faith and Obedience in Abraham will appear the more illustrious , if we consider these three things . First , The firmness and stedfastness of his Faith , notwithstanding the objections against it . Secondly , The constancy of his resolution , notwithstanding the difficulty of the thing . Thirdly , The reasonableness of his Faith , in that he gave satisfaction to himself in so hard and perplext a Case . First , The firmness and stedfastness of his Faith will appear , if we consider what objections there were in the case , enough to shake a very strong Faith. There were three great objections against this Command , and such as might in reason make a wise and good Man doubtful whether this Command were from God. The horrid nature of the thing commanded . The grievous scandal that might seem almost unavoidably to follow upon it . And the horrible consequence of it , which seemed to make the former promise of God to Abraham void . First , the horrid nature of the thing commanded , which was for a Father to kill his own Child ; this must needs appear very barbarous and unnatural , and look liker a Sacrifice to an Idol , than to the true God. It seemed to be against the Law of Nature , and directly contrary to that kindness and affection which God himself had planted in the hearts of Parents towards their Children . And there is no affection more natutural and strong than this , for there are many persons that would redeem the Lives of their Children with the hazard of their own . Now that God hath planted such an affection in Nature , is an argument that it is good , and therefore it could not but seem strange that he should command any thing contrary to it : And in this case , there were two circumstances that increased the horrour of the fact ; That his Son was innocent ; and that he was to Slay him with his own hands . First , That his Son was Innocent . It would grieve the heart of any Father to give up his Son to Death , tho he were never so undutiful and disobedient . So passionately was David affected with the death of his Son Absolom , as to wish he had dyed for him , tho he dyed in the very act of Rebellion , and tho the saving of his Life had been inconsistent with the Peace of his Government . How deep then must it sink into the heart of a Father to give up his innocent Son to death ? And such a Son was Isaac , for any thing appeared to the contrary . God himself gave him this testimony , that he was the Son whom his Father loved , and there is no intimation of any thing to the contrary : Now this could not but appear strange to a good Man , that God should command an innocent person to be put to death . But , Secondly , That a Father should be commanded , not only to give up his Son to death , but to slay him with his own Hands ; not only to be a Spectator , but to be the Actor in this Tragedy ; What Father would not shrink , and start back at such a Command ? What good Man , especially in such a case , and where Nature was so hard prest , would not have been apt to have looked upon such a Revelation as this , rather as the suggestion and illusion of an evil Spirit , than a Command of God ? And yet Abraham's Faith was not staggered , so as to call this Revelation of God in question . Secondly , The grievous scandal that might seem almost unavoidably to follow upon it , was another great objection against it ; the report of such an action would in all appearance blemish the reputation , even of so good a Man , amongst all sober and considerate persons , who could hardly forbear to censure him , as a wicked and unnatural Man. And this was a hard case , for a Man to be put to Sacrifice at once , two of the dearest things in the world , his Reputation and his Son ; nor could he have easily defended himself from this imputation , by alledging an express Revelation and Command of God for it ; for who would give credit to it ? A Revelation to another Man is nothing to me , unless I be assured that he had such a Revelation , which I cannot be , but either by another immediate revelation , or by some Miracle to confirm it . The act had an appearance of so much horrour , that it was not easily credible that God should command it ; and if every Mans confident pretence to revelation be admitted , the worst actions may plead this in their excuse . So that this pretence would have been so far from excusing his fault , that it must rather have been esteemed a high aggravation of it , by adding the boldest Impiety to the most barbarous Inhumanity . But Abraham was not stumbled at this , nor at the advantage which the Enemies of his Religion would make of such an occasion , who would be ready to say , Here is your excellent good Man , and likely to be a Friend of God , who was so cruel an Enemy to his own Son. All this 't is probable he might consider , but it did not move him , being resolved to obey God , and to leave it to his Wisdom to provide against all the inconveniencies that might follow upon it . Thirdly , The strongest Objection of all , was the horrible consequence of the thing , which seemed to clash with former Revelations , and to make void the promise which God had before made to Abraham , That in his Seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed , which promise was expresly limited to Isaac and his Posterity , who had then no Son. And of this difficulty the Apostle takes express notice in the Text , that he that had received the promises ( that is , was persuaded of the truth and faithfulness of them ) offered up his only begotten Son , of whom it was said , that in Isaac shall thy Seed be called . And this Objection is really so strong , that if Abraham could not have given himself satisfaction about it , he might justly have questioned the truth of the Revelation ; for no Man can possibly entertain two contradictory Revelations , as from God , but he must of necessity question one or both of them ; but so strong was Abraham's Faith , as not to be shaken by the seeming contradiction of these two Revelations . II. We will consider the constancy of his Resolution to obey God , notwithstanding the harshness and difficulty of the thing . Tho Abraham were firmly persuaded that this Command to kill his Son , was really from God ; yet it is no easie matter for a Man to bring himself to obey God in so difficult a case , and out of meer reverence to the Divine Authority , to divest himself of his Nature , and to thwart the strongest inclinations of it ; a Man would be very apt to confer with flesh and blood in such a case . Let but any Man that knows what it is to be a Father , lay his hand upon his heart and consider his own Bowels , and he will be astonished at Abraham's Obedience as well as his Faith. To take his Son , his only Son , his Son whom he loved , and in whom he placed all his hopes of a happy Posterity , and with his own hands to destroy him and all his hopes together ; it must be a strong Faith that will engage a Man to Obedience in so difficult an instance . There is one circumstance more especially , which renders Abraham's Obedience very remarkable ; The deliberateness of the action . It had not been so much , if so soon as he had received this Command from God , he had upon a suddain impulse and transport of zeal done this . But that his Obedience might be the more glorious , and have all the circumstances of advantage given to it , God would have it done deliberately , and upon full consideration ; and therefore he bad him go to the Mountain three daies Journey from the place where he was , and there to offer up his Son. It is in acts of Virtue and Obedience , as in acts of Sin and Vice ; the more deliberate the Sin is , and the more calm and sedate temper the Man is in when he commits it , the greater is the fault ; whereas what is done by surprize , in the heat of Temptation or transport of Passion , hath some excuse from the suddainness and indeliberateness of it . So is it in acts of Virtue and Obedience , especially if they be attended with considerable difficulty , the more deliberately they are done , the more virtuous they are , and the greater praise is due to them . Now that Abraham's Obedience might want nothing to highten it , God seems on purpose to have put so long a space betwixt the Command and the performance of it ; he gives him time to cool upon it ; to weigh the command , and to look on every side of this difficult duty ; he gives scope for his reason to argue and debate the case , and opportunity for natural affection to play its part ; and for flesh and blood to raise all its batteries against the resolution which he had taken up . And now we may easily imagin , what conflict this good Man had within himself , during those three daies that he was travelling to the Mountain in Moriah ; and how his heart was ready to be rent in pieces , betwixt his duty to God , and his affection to his Child ; so that every step of this unwelcome and wearisome journey , he did as it were lay violent hands upon himself . He was to offer up his Son but once , but he Sacrificed himself and his own Will every moment for three days together ; and when he came thither , and all things were ready , the Altar , the Wood , and the Fire , and the Knife , it must needs be a stabbing Question , and wound him to the Heart , which his Innocent Son so innocently askt him , Where is the Lamb , for a Burnt-Offering ? It must be a strong Faith indeed , and a mighty Resolution , that could make him to hold out three days against the violent Assaults of his own Nature , and the charming Presence of his Son , enough to melt his Heart , as often as he cast his Eyes upon him ; and yet nothing of all this , made him to stagger in his Duty , but being strong in Faith , he gave glory to God , by one of the most miraculous acts of Obedience that ever was exacted from any of the Sons of Men. III. In the Third and last place , I come to consider the Reasonableness of his Faith , in that he was able to give satisfaction to himself in so intricate and perplext a case . The constancy of Abraham's Faith , was not an obstinate and stubborn Persuasion ; but the result of the wisest reasoning , and soberest consideration . So the Text says , that he counted ( the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he Reasoned with himself ) that God was able to raise him up from the Dead ; so that he debated the matter with himself , and gave himself satisfaction , concerning the Objections and Difficulties in the case ; and being fully satisfied that it was a Divine Command , he resolved to obey it . As for the Objections I have mentioned . 1. The horrid appearance of the thing , that a Father should Slay his Innocent Son. Why should Abraham scruple the doing this , at the Command of God , who being the Author of Life , hath power over it , and may resume what he hath given , and take away the Life of any of his Creatures when he will , and make whom he pleaseth instruments in the execution of his Command ? It was indeed a hard case , considering natural affection ; and therefore God did not permit it to be executed . But the question of God's Right over the lives of Men ; and of his authority to command any Man to be the instrument of his pleasure in such a case , admits of no dispute . And the God hath planted strong affections in Parents towards their Children ; yet he hath written no Law in any Man's heart , to the prejudice of his own Soverign Right : This is a case alwaies excepted , and this takes away the objection of Injustice . 2. As to the scandal of it , that could be no great objection in those times , when the absolute power of Parents over their Children was in it's full force , and they might put them to Death without being accountable for it . So that then it was no such startling matter , to hear of a Father putting his Child to Death ; nay , in much later times we find that in the most ancient Laws of the Romans ( I mean those of the 12 Tables ) Children are absolutely put in the power of their Parents , to whom is given , jus vitae & necis , a power of Life and Death over them ; and likewise to sell them for Slaves . And tho amongst the Jews this paternal power was limited by the Law of Moses ; and the judgment of Life and Death was taken out of the Fathers hands , except in case of Contumacy and Rebellion ; ( and even in that case the Process was to be before the Elders of the City ) yet it is certain , that in elder times the paternal power was more absolute and unaccountable , which takes off much from the horror and scandal of the thing , as it appears now to us who have no such power . And therefore we do not find in the History , that this Objection did much stick with Abraham : It being then no unusual thing for a Father to put his Child to Death , upon a just account . And the Command of God , who hath absolute Dominion over the Lives of his Creatures , is certainly a just reason ; and no Man can reasonably scruple the doing of that , upon the Command of God , which he might have done by his own Authority , without being accountable for the Action , to any but God only . 3. As to the Objection from the horrible consequence of the thing Commanded , that the Slaying of Isaac seemed to overthrow the Promise , which God had made before to Abraham , That in Isaac his Seed should be called : This seems to him to be the great difficulty , and here he makes use of Reason , to reconcile the seeming Contradiction of this Command of God , to his former Promise . So the Text tells us , that he offered up his only begotten Son , of whom it was said , that in Isaac , shall thy Seed be called ; Reasoning that God was able to raise him up from the Dead . So that tho' Isaac were put to Death , yet he saw how the Promise of God might still be made good by his being raised from the Dead , and living afterwards to have a numerous Posterity . There had then indeed been no Instance , or Example of any such thing in the World , as the Resurrection of one from the Dead , which makes Abraham's Faith the more wonderful , but he confirmed himself in this Belief , by an Example as near the case as might be . He Reasoned , that God was able to raise him from the Dead , from whence also he had received him in a Figure . This I know is by Interpreters generally understood of Isaac's being delivered from the Jaws of Death , when he was laid upon the Altar , and ready to be Slain . But the Text seems not to speak of what happend after , but of something that had passed before : By which Abraham confirmed himself in this peruasion , that if he were Slain , God would raise him up again . And so the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be rendred , in the past time , from whence also he had received him , in a Figure . So that this Expression plainly refers to the miraculous Birth of Isaac , when his Parents were past the Age of having Children ; which was little less than a Resurrection from the Dead . And so the Scripture speaks of it . Rom. 4. 17. Abraham believed God , who quickeneth the Dead , and calleth the things which are not , as if they were , and not being weak in Faith , he considered not his own Body which was Dead ; and a little before the Text , ( speaking of the miraculous Birth of Isaac ) and therefore sprang there of one , and him as good as dead , as many as the Stars of Heaven . From whence ( as the Apostle tells us ) Abraham Reasoned thus ; That God who gave him Isaac at first , in so miraculous a manner , was able by another miracle to restore him to life again , after he was Dead , and to make him the Father of many Nations . He Reasoned , that God was able to raise him up from the Dead , from whence also he had received him in a Figure . Thus you see the reasonableness of Abraham's Faith ; he pitched upon the main difficulty in the Case , and he answered it , as well as was possible : And in his reasoning about this matter , he gives the utmost weight to every thing , that might tend to vindicate the Truth and faithfulness of God's Promise , and to make the Revelations of God consistent with one another ; and this tho' he had a great Interest , and a very tender concernment of his own , to have biassed him . For he might have argued with great appearance and probability the other way : But as every Pious and Good Man should do , he reasoned on God's side , and favoured that part . Rather than disobey a Command of God , or believe that his promise should be frustrate , he will believe any thing that is credible and possible , how improbable soever . Thus far Faith will go , but no farther : From the believing of plain Contradictions and Impossibilities , it alwayes desires to be excused . Thus much for explication of the Words ; which I hope hath not been altogether unprofitable , because it tends to clear a point which hath something of difficulty and obscurity in it , and to vindicate the Holy Scripture , and the Divine Revelation therein contained , from one of the most specious Objections of Infidelity . But I had a farther design in this Text ; And that is to make some Observations and Inferences from it , that may be of use to us . As First , That Humane Nature is capable of clear and full satisfaction , concerning a Divine Revelation ; for if Abraham had not been fully and past all doubt assured that this was a Command from God , he would certainly have spared his Son. And nothing is more reasonable , than to believe that those to whom God is pleased to make immediate Revelations of his Will , are some way or other assured that they are Divine , otherwise they would be in vain , and to no purpose . But how Men are assured concerning Divine Revelations made to them , is not so easy to make out to others : Only these two things we are sure of . 1. That God can work in the Mind of Man , a firm persuasion of the Truth of what he Reveals , and that such a Revelation is from him . This no Man can doubt of , that considers the great power and influence which God , who made us , and perfectly knows our Frame , must needs have upon our Minds and Understandings . 2. That God never offers any thing to any Man's belief , that plainly contradicts the Natural and Essential Notions of his Mind . Because this would be for God to destroy his own Workmanship , and to impose that upon the understanding of Man , which whilst it remains what it is , it cannot possibly admit . For instance , We cannot imagin , that God should Reveal to any Man any thing , that plainly contradicts the Essential Perfections of the Divine Nature ; for such a Revelation can no more be supposed to be from God , than a Revelation from God , that there is no God ; which is a downright Contradiction . Now to apply this to the Revelation , which God made to Abraham concerning the Sacrificing of his Son. This was made to him by an audible Voice , and he was fully satisfied by the Evidence which it carried along with it , that it was from God. For this was not the first of many Revelations that had been made to him , so that he knew the manner of them , and had found by manifold experience , that he was not deceived , and upon this experience , was grown to a great Confidence in the Truth and Goodness of God. And it is very probable , the first time God appeared to Abraham , because it was a new thing , that to make way for the credit of future Revelations , God did shew himself to him in so glorious a manner , as was abundantly to his Conviction . And this St. Stephen does seem to intimate Acts 7. 2. The God of glory appeared to our Father Abraham , when he was in Mesopotamia . Now by this glorious Appearance of God to him at first , he was so , prepared for the Entertainment of after Revelations , that he was not staggered even at this , concerning the Sacrificing of his Son , being both by the manner of it , and the assurance that accompanied it , fully satisfied that it was from God. Secondly , I observe from hence the great and necessary use of Reason , in matters of Faith. For we see here that Abraham's Reason , was a mighty strengthning and help to his Faith. Here were two Revelations made to Abraham , which seemed to clash with one another ; and if Abraham's Reason could not have reconciled the Repugnancy of them , he could not possibly have believed them both to be from God ; because this natural Notion , or Principle , that God cannot contradict himself , every Man does first , and more firmly believe , than any Revelation whatsoever . Now Abraham's Reason relieved him in this strait ; so the Text expresly tells us , that he reasoned with himself , that God was able to raise him from the Dead . And this being admitted , the Command of God , concerning the Slaying of Isaac , was very well consistent with his former Promise , That in Isaac his Seed should be called . I know there hath a very rude clamour been raised by some persons , ( but of more Zeal I think than Judgment ) against the use of Reason in matters of Faith ; but how very unreasonable this is , will appear to any one that will but have patience to consider these following particulars . 1. The nature of Divine Revelation : That it doth not endow Men with new Faculties ; but propoundeth new Objects to the Faculties , which they had before . Reason is the Faculty whereby Revelation is to be discerned ; for when God reveals any thing to us , he reveals it to our Understanding , and by that we are to judge of it : Therefore St. John cautions us 1 Jo. 4. 1. Not to believe every spirit , but to try the spirits , whether they are of God , because many false prophets are gone out into the world : That is , there are many that falsly pretend to Inspiration ; but how can these pretenders be tryed and discerned from those that are truly inspired , but by using our Reason , in comparing the evidence for the one and the other ? 2. This will farther appear , if we consider the nature of Faith. Faith ( as we are now speaking of it ) is an assent of the Mind to something as revealed by God : Now all assent must be grounded upon evidence , that is , no Man can believe any thing , unless he have , or thinks he hath some reason to do so . For to be confident of a thing without reason , is not Faith , but a presumptuous persuasion , and obstinacy of mind . 3. This will yet be more evident , if we consider the method , that must of necessity be used to convince any Man of the truth of Religion . Suppose we had to deal with one that is a Stranger , and Enemy to Christianity , What means are proper to be used to gain him over to it ? The most natural method surely were this , to acquaint him with the Holy Scriptures , which are the Rule of our Faith and Practice . He would ask us , why we believe that Book ? The proper answer would be , because it is the Word of God ; this he could not but acknowledge to be a very good reason , if it were true : But then he would ask , Why we believed it to be the Word of God , rather than M●homet ' s Alchoran , which pretends no less to be of divine Inspiration . If any Man now should answer , that he could give no reason why he believed it to be the word of God , only he believed it to be so , and so every man else ought to do , without enquiring after any further reason , because reason is to be laid a side in matters of Faith ; would not the Man presently reply , that he had just as much reason as this comes to , to believe the Alchoran , or any thing else ; that is none at all ? But certainly the better way would be , to satisfie this Man's reason , by proper arguments ; that the Scriptures are a divine Revelation , and that no other Book in the world can with equal reason pretend to be so ; and if this be a good way , then we do and must call in the assistance of reason for the proof of our Religion . 4. Let it be considered farther , that the highest commendations that are given in Scripture to any ones Faith , are given upon account of the reasonableness of it . Abraham's Faith is famous , and made a pattern to all generations , because he reasoned himself into it , notwithstanding the objections to the contrary ; and he did not blindly break through these objections , and wink hard at them , but he look'd them in the face , and gave himself reasonable satisfaction concerning them . The Centurian's Faith is commended by our Saviour , Math. 8. 11. Because when his Servant was sick , he did not desire him to come to his house , but to speak the word only , and his Servant should be healed : For he reasoned thus , I am a man under authority , having Souldiers under me , and I say to this man go and he goeth , and to another come and he cometh ; and to my Servant do this , and he doth it . Now if he that was himself under authority , could thus command those that were under him ; much more could he that had a divine Power and Commission , do what he pleased by his word . And our Saviour is so far from reprehending him for reasoning himself into this belief , that he admires his Faith so much the more for the reasonableness of it , v. 10. When Jesus heard this , he marvelled , and said to them that followed him , verily , I say unto you , I have not found so great Faith , no not in Israel . Inlike manner our Saviour commends the Woman of Canaan's Faith , because she enforc't it so reasonably . Matthew 15. 22. She sued to him to help her Daughter , but he answered her not a word ; and when his Disciples could not prevail with him to mind her , yet still the prest him , saying , Lord help me ; and when he repulsed her with this severe answer , It is not meet to take the Childrens bread and cast it to dogs , she made this quick and modest reply , truth Lord , yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their Masters Table . She acknowledgeth her own unworthiness , but yet believes his goodness to be such , that he will not utterly reject those who humbly seek to him ; upon which he gives her this testimony , O woman great is thy faith . The Apostles were divinely inspired , and yet the Bereans are commended , because they enquired and satisfied themselves in the reasons of their belief , before they assented to the doctrine which was delivered to them , even by Teachers that certainly were Infallible . 5. None are reproved in Scripture for their unbelief , but where sufficient reason and evidence was offered to them . The Israelites are generally blamed for their Infidelity ; but then it was after such mighty wonders had been wrought for their Conviction . The Jews in our Saviours time , are not condemned simply for their unbelief , but for not believing when there was such clear evidence offered to them . So our Saviour himself says , If I had not done amongst them , the works which no other man did , they had not had sin . Thomas indeed is blamed for the perverseness of his unbelief , because he would believe nothing but what he himself saw . Lastly , To shew this yet more plainly , let us consider the great inconvenience , and absurdity of declining the use of Reason in matters of Religion : There can be no greater prejudice to Religion , than to decline this tryal . To say we have no Reason for our Religion , is to say it is unreasonable . Indeed it is Reason enough for any Article of our Faith , that God hath revealed it , because this is one of the strongest and most cogent reasons for the belief of any thing . But when we say God hath revealed any thing , we must be ready to prove it , or else we say nothing . If we turn off Reason here , we level the best Religion in the World with the wildest and most absurd Enthusiams . And it does not alter the case much , to give Reason ill names , to call it blind , and carnal Reason . Our best reason is but very short and imperfect : But since it is no better , we must make use of it as it is , and make the best of it . Before I pass from this Argument , I cannot but observe , that both the extremes of those who differ from our Church , are generally great Declamers against the use of Reason in matters of Faith : If they find their account in it , 't is well ; for our parts we apprehend no manner of inconvenience , in having Reason on our side ; nor need we to desire a better evidence , that any Man is in the wrong , than to hear him declare against Reason , and thereby to acknowledge that reason is against him . Men may vilifie Reason as much as they please ; and tho being reviled she reviles not again , yet in a more still and gentle way , she commonly hath her full revenge upon all those that rail at her . I have often wonder'd that people can with patience endure to hear their Teachers and Guides talk against Reason ; and not only so , but they pay them the greater submission and veneration for it . One would think this but an odd way to gain authority over the minds of Men ; but some skilful and designing men , have found by experience , that it is a very good way to recommend them to the ignorant , as Nurses use to endear themselves to Children , by perpetual noise and nonsense . III. I observe , that God obligeth no Man to believe plain and evident Contradictions , as matters of Faith. Abraham could not reasonably have believed this second revelation to have been from God , if he had not found some way to reconcile it with the first . For tho a Man were never so much disposed to submit his Reason to divine Revelation ; yet it is not possible for any Man to believe God against God himself . Some Men seem to think that they oblige God mightily , by believing plain contradictions . But the matter is quite otherwise . He that made Man a reasonable Creature , cannot take it kindly from any Man , to debase his workmanship , by making himself unreasonable . And therefore , as no service , or obedience ; so no Faith is acceptable unto God , but what is reasonable ; if it be not so , it may be confidence or presumption , but it is not Faith ; for he that can believe plain contradictions , may believe any thing how absurd soever ; because nothing can be more absurd , than the belief of a plain contradiction ; and he that can believe any thing , believes nothing upon good grounds , because to him Truth and Falsehood are all one . 4. I observe that the great cause of the defect of Mens obedience is the weakness of their Faith. Did we believe the commands of God in the Gospel , and his promises and threatnings , as firmly as Abraham believed God in this case ; what should we not be ready to do , or suffer in obedience to him ? If our Faith were but as strong and vigorous as his was , the effects of it would be as great and conspicuous ; were we verily persuaded that all the Precepts of our Religion are the express Laws of God , and that all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel will one day be verified and made good , What manner of persons should we be in all holy conversation and godliness ? How would the lively thoughts of another world , raise us above the vanities of this present life ; and set us out of the reach of the most powerful temptations that this world can assault us withall ; and make us to do all things with regard to Eternity , and to that solemn and dreadful account which we must one day make to God the Judge of all ? It is nothing but the want of a firm and steady belief of these things , that makes our Devotion so dead and heartless , and our resolutions of doing better so weak and inconsistent . This it is , that makes us so easie a prey to every temptation ; and the things of this world to look so much bigger than they are ; the enjoyments of it more tempting , and the evils of it more terrible than in truth they are . And in all disputes betwixt our Conscience and our Interest , to hold the balance so unequally , and to put our foot upon the lighter Scale , that it may seem to weigh down the other . In a word , in proportion to the strength or weakness of our Faith , our obedience to God will be more or less constant , uniform , and perfect ; because Faith is the great source and spring of all the Virtues of a good life . 5. We have great reason to submit to the ordinary strokes of God's Providence upon our selves , or near relations , or any thing that is dear to us . Most of these are easily compared with Abraham's case ; it requires a prodigious strength of Faith to perform so miraculous an act of obedience . 6. And lastly , We are utterly inexcusable , if we disobey the easie Precepts of the Gospel . The yoke of Christ is easie , and his burden light , in comparison of God's former dispensations . This was a grievous Commandment which God gave to Abraham , to sacrifice his only Son : It was a hard saying indeed ; and which of us could have been able to hear it ? But if God think fit to call us to the more difficult duties of self-denial , and suffering for his truth and righteousness sake , we must after the example of faithful Abraham , not think much to deny or part with any thing for him , no not life it self . But even this which is the hardest part of Religion , is easier than what God put upon Abraham . For it doth not offer near the violence to nature , to lay down our life in a good cause , as it would do , to put a Child to death with our own hands . Besides the consideration of the extraordinary comfort and support , and the glorious rewards that are expresly promised to our obedience and self denial in such a case ; encouragement enough to make a very difficult duty easie . And whilst I am perswading you and my self to resolution and constancy in our Holy Religion , notwithstanding all hazards and hardships that may attend it , I have a just sense of the frailty of humane nature , and of humane resolution : But with all , a most firm persuasion of the goodness of God , that he will not suffer those who sincerely love him and his Truth , to be tempted above what they are able . I will add but one consideration more , to shew the difference betwixt Abraham's case and ours . God commanded him to do the hardest thing in the world , to sacrifice his only Son ; but he hath given us an easie commandment ; and that he might effectually oblige us to our duty , he hath done that for us which he required Abraham to do for him ; he hath not spared his own Son , his only Son , but hath given him up to death for us all : And hereby we know that he loveth us , that he hath given his Son for us . What God required of Abraham , he did not intend should be executed ; but one great design of it was to be a Type and Figure of that immense love and kindness which he intended to all mankind , in the Sacrifice of his Son , as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world . And as the most clear and express promise of the Messias was made to Abraham ; so the most express and lively Type of the Messias that we meet with in all the old Testament , was Abraham's offering up his Son. And as St. Hierom tells us ( from an ancient and constant Tradition of the Jews ) the Mountain in Moriah , where Abraham was commanded to Sacrifice Isaac , was Mount Calvary , where our Lord also was Crucified and offered up , that by this one sacrifice of himself once offered , he might perfect for ever them that are sanctified , and obtain eternal redemption for us . Now to him that sitteth upon the throne , and to the Lamb that was slain , to God even our Father , and to our Lord Jesus Christ the first begotten from the dead ; to the Prince of the Kings of the Earth ; to him that loved us , and washed us from our sins in his own blood ; to him be Glory and honour , thanksgiving and power , now and for ever . Amen . A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL MDCLXXXVII . Before the Princess ANN. HEB. XI . 24 , 25. By Faith Moses when he was come to years , refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's daughter ; chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God , than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season . THE Text sets before us a great pattern of self-denial ; for our better understanding whereof , I will give a brief account of the History of Moses , to which our Apostle in this passage doth refer . When Moses was born , his Parents ( for fear of the cruel law which Pharaoh had made , That all the male Children of the Hebrews , so soon as they were born , should be put to death ) after they had hid him three months , did at last expose him in an Ark of Bulrushes , upon the River Nile , and committed him to the providence of God , whom they despair'd to conceal any longer by their own care . Pharaoh's Daughter coming by the River side , espied him , and had compassion on him ; and guessing him to be one of the Hebrew Children , called for an Hebrew Nurse , to take care of him , who , as the Prviodence of God had ordered it , proved to be the Child 's own Mother . As he grew up , Pharaoh's Daughter took care of his Education in all Princely qualities , and adopted him for her Son ; and Pharaoh ( as Josephus tells us ) being without Son , designed him Heir of his Kingdom . Moses refused this great offer . But why did he refuse it , when it seem'd to be presented to him by the providence of God , and was brought about in so strange a manner , and when by this means he might probably have had it in his power to have eased the Israelites of their cruel bondage , and perhaps have had the oportunity of reducing that great Kingdom from the worship of Idols to the true God ? Why would he refuse a Kingdom which was offered to him with so fair an oportunity of doing so much good ? That which seems to have prevailed with Moses , was this , That he could not accept the offer , without forsaking God , and renouncing his Religion ; for considering how strangely the Egyptians were addicted to Idolatry , he could never hope to be accepted for Heir of that Kingdom , unless he would violate his Conscience , either by abandoning or dissembling his Religion . And how unlikely it was that he should prevail with them to change their Religion , he might easily judge by the example of Joseph , who tho he had so much authority and esteem amongst them , by having been so great a Benefactor to their Nation ; yet he could never move them in the least , in that matter . Now seeing he had no hopes of attaining , or enjoying that dignity without sinning grievously against God , he would not purchase a Kingdom at so unconscionable a price . And as for the deliverance of his people , he was content to trust the providence and promise of God for that ; and in the mean time was resolved rather to take a part in the afflictions of God's people , than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season . From the words thus explained , I shall take occasion to consider these Four things . I. Moses's self-denial , in preferring and choosing a state of afflicted piety , before any sinful enjoyments whatsoever ; before the greatest earthly happiness and prosperity , when it was not to be attained and enjoyed upon other terms than of sinning against God. II. I shall consider those circumstances of this self-denial of Moses , which do very much commend and set off the virtue of it . III. The prudence and reasonableness of this choice , in preferring a state of afflicted Piety and Virtue , before the greatest prosperity and pleasure of a sinful course . IV. Supposing this choice to be reasonable , I shall inquire how it comes to pass that so many make another choice . I. We will consider Moses his self-denial , in preferring a state of afflicted piety , before the greatest earthly happiness and prosperity , when it is not to be enjoyed upon other terms , than of sining against God. He was adopted Heir of the Kingdom of Egypt , ( one of the greatest and most flourishing Kingdoms then in the World ; ) But he could not hope to attain to this dignity , and to secure himself in the possession of it , upon other terms than of complying with that Nation , in their Idolatrous Religion and Worship . Now being brought up in the belief of the true God , the God of Israel , by his Mother , to whom Pharaoh's Daughter had committed him , he could not without great violence to his Conscience , and the principles of his Education , renounce the true God , and fall off to the Idolatry of the Egyptians : And for this reason he refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter , chusing rather to suffer affliction with the worshipers of the true God , than to have the temporary enjoyment of any thing that was not to be had without sin ; for so the word ought to be render'd , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than to have the temporary enjoyment of sin . So here was Moses his self-denial , that he chose rather to suffer affliction with the worshipers of the true God , than to gain a Kingdom , by the renouncing of God and Religion . II. We will consider those circumstances of his self denial , which do very much commend and set off the virtue of it . 1. What it was he refused to be called ; the Son of Pharaoh ' s Daughter ; that is , to be Heir of one of the greatest and most flourishing Kingdoms in the world : a temptation so great , that the Devil himself could not find out one much greater , when he set upon the Son of God , to tempt him to fall down and worship him . And when we consider for what inconsiderable things some men sell their Religion and their Consciences , we shall think it no small temptation which Moses here resisted . Si violandum est jus , regnandi causâ violandum est ; If a Man would do any unjust thing , and violate his Religion and Conscience , he would not do it for less than a Kingdom ; and it would be a very hard bargain , even upon those terms . 2. Consider not only what he refused ; but what he chose in the place of it ; a state of great affliction and suffering . Had he refused a Kingdom , and chosen the quiet condition of a Subject of middle rank ( beneath envy and above contempt , ) his self-denial had not been so great ; nay perhaps he had made a wise choice , in the account of the wiseest men , in preferring a plentiful and quiet retirement , before the cares of a Crown , and the burthen of publick Government . But it is very rare to find a Man , that would choose rather to be opprest and persecuted ; than to be a Prince , and to have the sweet power to use others as he pleased . 3. Consider how fair a prospect he had of enjoying this Kingdom , if he could but have come up to the terms of it . He did not reject it , because he despaired of attaining it : for he had all the right that a good title could give him , being adopted Heir to it ; and yet he refused it . To which I may add , that his breeding was such , as might easily kindle ambitious thoughts in him . He was brought up in Pharaoh's Court , and was the Darling and Favourite of it ; exceeding beautiful ( as Josephus tells us ) and learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians ; than which no two qualities are more apt to puff up , and swell a Man with big thoughts of himself . They that are bred in a low condition , never think of a Kingdom ; Men not being apt to aspire to things which are remote , and at a great distance from them . But nothing is more rare in persons of great and generous minds , than such a self-denial as this . 4. Let it be considered in the last place , that this was a deliberate choice , not any rash and sudain determination made by him , when he was of incompetent age to make a true judgment of things . And this the Apostle takes notice of in the Text , as a very memorable circumstance , that when he was come to years , he refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter . And St. Stephen tells us , that he was full forty years old when he made this choice , Acts 7. 23. When he was full forty years old , it came into his heart , to visit his brethren , the children of Israel . When he was of ripest judgment , and in the height of his prosperity , and reputation , he made this choice : for it is said in the verse before , that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians , and mighty in word and deed ; that is , he was in great reputation for his Wisdom and Valour . This seems to refer to other passages of his Life , which are not recorded in the Scripture History , but related at large by Josephus out of Historians extant in his time . For he tells , that when the Ethiopians had invaded Egypt , and almost over-run it , that Pharaoh was directed by the Oracle at Memphis , to make Moses his General , who by his extraordinary Conduct and Courage overthrew the Ethiopians , and drave them out of Egypt . This Moses did not think fit to relate of himself ; but St. Stephen seems to allude to it , when he says , that he was mighty in word and deed : And then it follows ; and when he was full forty years old , it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel ; that is , when he was at full maturity of judgment , and in the hight of his Prosperity , and Reputation , he quitted the Court of Egypt , and went to visit his afflicted Brethren , and chose rather to take part with them in their sufferings , than to accept those great offers that were made to him . There is likewise another passage in Josephus concerning Moses , which seems to be a forerunner of the contempt which he shewed afterward of the Crown of Egypt ; That when Moses was about three years old , Thermuthis , the Daughter of Pharaoh , brought the Child to him , who took him in his arms and put his Diadem upon his Head , But Moses took it off , and cast it to the ground , and trampled it under his feet . This was but a childish act , and they who saw it , would easily believe , that for all his childish contempt of it then , it it were put upon his Head in good earnest , when he came to be a Man , he would hold it on faster , and use it with more respect . And it is not improbable , but that the Apostle might have some regard to this , when he says , that Moses when he came to Years ; intimating that he did not only trample upon the Diadem of Pharaoh , when he was a Child ; but when he was come to years , and was capable of judging better of those things , he refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter . But before I proceed any farther , I cannot but take notice of an objection , which may seem to reflect greatly upon the integrity of Moses . Can we think him so very conscientious a Man , who persuaded the people of Israel ( and pretended God's direction in the case ) to cheat the Egyptians of their Jewels , under a fraudulent pretence of borrowing them ? There is some difficulty in the thing , as at first sight it appears : And yet I doubt not , with your favourable attention , and free from prejudice , to vindicate Moses clearly in this matter . And I shall not insist upon that , which is commonly and truly said in this case ; That God , who is the supream Lord of all things , may transfer the Rights of Men from one to another : because the objection doth not lye against God's Right to take away from any Man what he hath given him ; but against the fraudulent manner of doing it , which seems unworthy of God to command or encourage . Now this matter I think is capable of another , and much clearer answer ; which in short , is this , and grounded upon the History , as we find it related , Ex. 12. The Providence of God did , it seems , design by this way to make some reparation to the Israelites , for the tyrannical usage which they had received from the Egyptians : And that first ( as the Text expresly tells us ) in giving them favour with the Egyptians , who in truth , for their own ends , and to get rid of such troublesome Guests , were disposed to lend them any thing they had . Thus far all is right . Here is nothing but fair borrowing and lending : And if the Israelites acquired a right to those things afterwards , there was then no obligation to restitution . Let us see then how the Providence of God brought this about : Namely , by permitting the Egyptians afterwards , without cause , and after leave given them to depart , to persue them , with a design to have destroyed them ; by which Hostility and Perfidiousness they plainly forfeited their Right to what they had only lent before . For this hostile attempt , which would have warranted the Israelites , to have spoiled them of their Jewels , if they had been in the possession of the Egyptians , did certainly warrant them to keep them when they had them ; and by this means they became rightful possessors of what they had only by Loan before , and could not have detained without fraud and injustice , if this hostility of the Egyptians had not given them a new title and clear right to them . But I proceed to the third thing I proposed , which was to vindicate the prudence and reasonableness of this choice . And in speaking to this , I shall abstract from the particular case of Moses , and shew in general , That it is a prudent and reasonable thing , to prefer even an afflicted state of Piety and Virtue , before the greatest pleasures and prosperity of a sinful course : And this will appear , if we consider these two things . 1. The sufferings of good Men upon account of Religion , together with the the reward of them . 2. The temporary enjoyment of sin , with the mischiefs and inconveniencies consequent upon them . 1. The sufferings of good Men , upon the account of Religion , together with the reward of them . This Moses had in his eye , when he made this choice ; for therefore he chose to suffer Affliction with the People of God , rather than to enjoy the Pleasures of sin , which are but for a Season , because he had respect to the recompence of reward : And tho he had but a very imperfect discovery , in comparison of the future state , yet it seems he had so much assurance of the goodness of God , as firmly to believe that he should be no loser at the last , by any thing that he suffered for God and Religion . Indeed if there were no life after this , and we had no expectation beyond this world , the wisest thing we could do , would be to enjoy as much of the present contentment of this world , as we could make our selves Masters of . But if we be designed for immortality , and shall be unspeakably happy , or intorably miserable in another world , according as we have demeaned our selves in this life ; then certainly it is reasonable that we should take the greatest care of the longest duration , and be content to dispense with some present inconveniences , for an eternal felicity ; and be willing to labour and take pains for a little while , that we may be happy forever . And this is accounted prudence in the account of the wisest Men , to part with a little in present , for a far greater future advantage . But the disproportion betwixt Time and Eternity is so vast , that did we but firmly believe , that we shall live for ever , nothing in this world could reasonably be thought too good to part withall , or too grievous to suffer for the obtaining of a blessed Immortality . And upon this belief and persuasion of a mighty reward , beyond all their present sufferings , and that they should be infinite gainers at the last , the Primitive Christians were kept from sinking under their present sufferings , and fortified against all that the malice and cruelty of the world could do unto them . And if we would consider all things together , and mind the invisible things of another world , as well as the things which are seen , we should easily discern that he who suffers for God and Religion , does not renounce his happiness , but put it out to Interest , upon terms of greatest advantage ; and does wisely consider his own best , and and most lasting interest . This is the First . II. This will yet more evidently appear , if we consider the temporary injoyments of sin , together with the mischiefs and inconveniencies attending , and consequent upon them : That as to the nature of them , they are mixt , and imperfect ; as to the duration of them , they are short , and but for a season ; and as to the final issue and consquence of them , that they end in misery and sorrow . 1. As to the nature of them , all the pleasures and enjoyments of sin are mixt and imperfect . A wicked Man may make a shew of mirth and pleasure , but even in laughter his heart is sorrowful , and the end of that mirth is heaviness . There can be no true and sincere pleasure in any sinful and vitious course , tho it be attended with all the Pomp and Splendor of outward Happiness and Prosperity ; for where ever sin and vice is , there must be guilt ; and whereever guilt is , the mind will be restless and unquiet . For there are two very troublesome and tormenting passions , which are naturally consequent upon guilt ; Shame and Fear . Shame , arising from the apprehension of the danger of being discovered ; and Fear , from the apprehension of the danger of being punisht : And these do continually haunt the sinner , and fill him with inward horror and confusion , in his most secret retirements . And if sin were attended with no other trouble but the guilt of it , a wise Man would not commit it , if it were for no other reason , but meerly for the peace and quiet of his own mind . 2. The enjoyments of sin , as to the duration of them are but short . Upon this consideration , Moses set no great price and value upon them , but preferred affliction and suffering in good company , and in a good cause , before the temporary enjoyments of sin . If the enjoyments of this world were perfect in their nature , and had no mixture of trouble and sorrow in them : Yet this would be a great abatement of them , that they are of so short and uncertain a continuance . The pleasure of most sins expires with the act of them ; and when that is done , the delight vanisheth . I cannot deny but there are several worldly advantages to be purchased by sin , which may perhaps be of a longer continuance ; as Riches and Honours , the common purchase of Covetousness and Ambition , and of that long train of inferiour Vices which attend upon them , and minister unto them ; but even these enjoyments are in their own nature of an uncertain continuance , and much more uncertain for being purchased by indirect and ill means . But if the enjoyment of these things were sure to be of the same date with our lives , yet how short a duration is that compared with Eternity ? make the utmust allowance to these things , that can be ; yet we can but enjoy them whilst we are in this world . When we come into the world of spirits , it will signifie nothing to us to have been rich or great in this world . When we shall stand before that highest Tribunal , it will not avail us in the least to have been Princes , and great Men , and Judges on the Earth ; the poorest Man that ever lived in this world , will then be upon equal terms with the bigest of us all . For all mankind shall then stand upon a level , and those civil distinctions of rich and poor , of base and honourable , which seem now so considerable , and make such a glaring difference amongst Men in this world , shall all then be laid aside , and moral differences shall only take place . All the distinctions which will then be made , will be betwixt the good and the bad ; the righteous and the wicked ; and the difference betwixt a good and bad Man , will be really much greater than ever it seemed to be , betwixt the highest and meanest persons in this world . And if this be so , why should we value the enjoyments of sin at so high a rate , which at the best are only considerable ( and that only in the imagination of vain Men ) during our abode in this world , but bear no price at all in that Country where we must live for ever : Or if they did , we cannot carry them along with us . The guilt of them indeed will follow us with a vengance ; the injustice and all the ill arts we have used for the getting or keeping of them , especially , if at once we have made Shipwreck of Faith and a good Conscience . If we have changed our Religion , or which is much worse , if continuing in the profession of it , we have betrayed it , and the interest of it , for the gaining or securing of any of these things ; we shall find to our sorrow , that tho the enjoyments of sin were but for a season , the guilt of it will never leave us , nor forsake us , but will stick close to us , and make us miserable for ever . But this belongs to the III. Thing I proposed to speak to , namely , The final issue , and consequence of a sinful course , which is misery and sorrow , many times in this world ; but most certainly in the next . 1. In this world , the very best issue and consequence of a sinful course , that we can imagin , is Repentance : And even this hath a great deal of sensible pain and trouble in it ; for it is many times ( especially after great sins , and a long continuance in them , ) accompanied with much regret and horror ; with deep and piercing sorrow ; with dismal and despairing thoughts of God's mercy ; and with fearful apprehensions of his wrath and vengeance . So that if this were the worst consequence of sin ( which indeed is the best ) no Man that considers and calculates things wisely , would purchase the pleasure of any sin , at the price of so much anguish and sorrow , as a true and deep repentance will cost him ; especially , since a true repentance , does in many cases oblige Men to the restitution of that which hath been gained by sin , if it hath been got by the injury of another . And this consideration quite takes away the pleasure and profit of an ill gotten Estate . Better never to have had it , than to be obliged to refund it . A wise Man will forbear the most pleasant meats , if he know before-hand that they will make him deadly sick ; and that he shall never be at ease , till he have brought them up again . No Man that believes the threatnings of God , and the judgment of another world , would ever sin , but that he hopes to retrieve all again by repentance . But it is the greatest folly in the world to commit any sin upon this hope ; for that is to please ones self for the present , in hopes to have more trouble afterwards than the pleasure comes to . But especially , no Man would be guilty of an act of injustice and oppression , in hopes to repent of it afterwards ; because there can be no repentance for such sins without restitution ; and 't is perfect madness for a Man to run the hazard of his Soul , to get an Estate , in hopes of restoring it again ; for so he must do that truly repents of such a sin . But , 2. In the other world , the final issue and consequence of all the pleasures of sin unrepented of , will certainly be misery and sorrow . How quietly soever a sinner may pass through this world , or out of it , misery will certainly overtake him in the next , unspeakable and eternal misery , arising from an apprehension of the greatest loss , and a sense of the sharpest pain ; and those sadly aggravated by the remembrance of past pleasure , and the despair of future ease . From a sad apprehension and melancholy reflection upon his inestimable loss . In the other world ; the sinner shall be eternally separated from God , who is the fountain of happiness . This is the first part of that miserable sentence which shall be past upon the wicked ; depart from me . Sinners are not now sensible of the joyes of Heaven , and the happiness of that state , and therefore are not capable of estimating the greatness of such a loss : But this stupidity and insensibleness of sinners , continues only during this present state , which affords Men variety of objects and pleasures , to divert and entertain them : But when they are once enter'd upon the other world , they will then have nothing else to take up their thoughts , but the sad condition , into which by their own wilful negligence and folly , they have plunged themselves . They shall then , lift up their eyes , and with the rich Man in the parable , at once see the happiness of others , and feel their own misery and torment . But this is not all . Besides the apprehension of so great a loss , they shall be sensible of the sorest and sharpest pains ; and how grievous those shall be , we may conjecture by what the Scripture says of them in general ; That they are the effects of a mighty displeasure , of Anger and Omnipotence met together , far greater than can be described by any pains and sufferings which we are acquainted withall in this world : For who knows the power of Gods anger , and the utmost of what Omnipotent Justice can do to sinners ? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. One would think this were misery enough , and needed no frather aggravation ; but yet it hath two terrible ones ; from the remembrance of past pleasures , and the despair of any future ease and remedy . The remembrance of past pleasure makes present sufferings more sharp and sensible . For as nothing commends pleasure more , and gives a quicker relish to happiness , than precedent pain and suffering : ( for perhaps there is not a greater pleasure in the world , than in the suddain ease which a Man finds after a sharp fit of the Stone ) so nothing enrageth affliction more , and sets a keener edg upon misery , than to pass into great pain immediately out of a state of ease and pleasure . This was the stinging aggravation of the rich Man's torment , That in his life time he had received his good things , and had faired so deliciously every day . But the greatest aggravation of all is , the despair of any future ease and remedy . The duration of this misery , is set forth to us in Scripture , by such expressions as do signifie the longest and most interminable duration . Depart ye cursed , into everlasting fire , Matth. 25. and Mark 9. 43. Where the worm dies not , and the fire is not quenched . And in the Revel . it is said , that the wicked shall be tormented , day and night , for ever and ever ; without intermission , and without end . And this surely is the perfection of misery , for a Man to lye under the greatest torments , and to be in despair of ever finding the least ease . Let us now compare things together : on the one hand , the sufferings of good Men , for a good Conscience , and the reward that follows them ; and on the other hand , the enjoyments of sin , with the mischief and misery that attends them , and will certainly overtake them in this world , or the next : and then we shall easily discern which of these is to be preferred in a wise Man's choice . And indeed the choice is so very plain , that a Man must be strangely forsaken of his reason , and blinded by sense , who does not prefer that course of life , which will probably make him happier in this world , but most certainly in the next . There remains now only the Fourth and last particular to be spoken to ; viz. Supposing this choice to be reasonable , to enquire whence it comes to pass , that so many make a quite contrary choice . How is it that the greatest part of mankind are so widely mistaken , as to prefer the temporary enjoyments of sin , before Conscience and Religion ; especially , if it be attended with great afflictions and sufferings ? And of this I shall give you as brief an account as I can , and so conclude this Discourse . This wrong choice , generally proceeds from one or both of these two causes ; from want of Faith ; or from want of consideration ; or of both . 1. One great reason why Men make so imprudent a choice , is unbelief ; either the want of Faith , or the weakness of it . Either Men do not believe the recompences of another life , or they are not so firmly persuaded of the reality of them . If Men do not at all believe these things , there is no foundation for Religion ; for he that cometh unto God ( that is , he that thinks of being religious ) must believe that God is , and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him , as the Apostle reasons in the beginning of this Chapter . But I hope , there are but few that are , or can be Infidels , as to these great and fundamental principles of Religion . But it is to be feared , that the Faith of a great many , is but weak and wavering ; their Faith is rather negative ; they do not disbelieve these things , but they are not firmly persuaded of them ; their Faith is rather an opinion , than a rooted and well grounded persuasion ; and therefore no wonder ; if it be not so strong , and vigorous a principle of action , and like the Faith of Abraham and Moses , and other worthies mentioned in this Chapter . For where Faith is in its full strength and vigour , it will have proportionable effects upon the resolutions and wills of Men : But where it is but weak , it is of little or no efficacy . And this is the true reason , why so many forsake Religion , and cleave to this present world ; and when it comes to the push , choose rather to sin , than to suffer ; and will rather quit the truth , than endure persecution for it . These are they , whom our Saviour describes , who receive receive the word with joy , and endure for a while ; but when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word , presently they are offended : not that they did not believe the Word ; but their Faith had taken no deep root , and therefore it withered . The weakness and wavering of Mens Faith , makes them unstable and inconstant in their course ; because they are not of one mind , but divided betwixt two interests , that of this world , and the other ; and the double minded man ( as St. James tells us ) is unstable in all his ways . It is generally a true rule ; so much wavering as we see in the actions and lives of Men , so much weakness there is in their Faith ; and therefore he that would know what any Man firmly believes , let him attend to his actions more than to his professions . If any Man live so , as no Man that heartily believes the Christian Religion can live , it is not credible that such a Man doth firmly believe the Christian Religion . He says he does ; but there is a greater evidence in the case than words ; there is Testimonium rei , the Man's actions are to the contrary , and they do best declare the inward sense of the Man. Did Men firmly believe , that there is a God that governs the world , and that he hath appointed a day , wherein he will judge it in righteousnes ; and that all mankind shall shortly appear before him , and give an account of themselves , and all their actions to him ; and that those who have kept the Faith and a good Conscience , and have lived soberly , and righteously , and godly in this present world , shall be unspeakably and eternally happy ; but the fearful and unbelieving , those who out of fear or interest , have deserted the Faith , or lived wicked lives , shall have their portion in the lake , which burns with fire and brimstone ; I say , were Men firmly persuaded of these things , it is hardly credible that any Man should make a wrong choice , and forsake the ways of Truth and Righteousness , upon any temptation whatsoever . Faith , even in temporal matters , is a mighty principle of action , and will make Men to attempt and undergo strange and difficult things . The Faith of the Gospel ought to be much more operative and powerful ; because the Objects of Hope and Fear , which it presents to us , are far greater , and more considerable , than any thing that this world can tempt or terrifie us withall . Would we but by Faith make present to our minds , the invisible things of another world ; the happiness of Heaven , and the terrors of Hell , and were we as verily persuaded of them , as if they were in our view , how should we despise all the pleasures and terrors of this world ! And with what ease should we resist and repel all those temptations , which would seduce us from our duty , or draw us into sin ! A firm and unshaken belief of these things , would effectually remove all those mountains of difficulty and discouragement , which Men fancy to themselves in the ways of Religion . To him that believeth , all things are possible , and most things would be easie . 2. Another reason of this wrong choice , is want of consideration ; for this would strengthen our Faith , and make it more vigorous and powerful : And indeed a Faith which is well rooted and establishould doth suppose a wise and deep consideration of things ; and the want of this is a great cause of the fatal miscarriage of Men ; that they do not sit down and consider with themselves seriously , how much Religion is their interest , and how much it will cost them to be true to it , and to persevere in it to the end . We suffer our selves to be governed by sense , and to be transported with present things ; but do not consider our future and lasting interest , and the whole duration of an immortal Soul. And this is the reason , why so many men are hurried away by the present and sensible delights of this world ; because they will not take time to think of what will be hereafter . For it is not to be imagined , but that the Man who hath seriously considered what sin is ; the shortness of its pleasure , and the eternity of its punishment ; should resolve to forsake sin , and to live a holy and virtuous life . To conclude this whole Discourse . If Men did but seriously believe the great principles of Religion ; the Being and the Providence of God ; the immortality of their Souls ; the glorious rewards , and the dreadful punishments of another world ; they could not possibly make so imprudent a choice , as we see a great part of mankind to do ; they could not be induced to forsake God and Religion for any temporal interest and advantage ; to renounce the favour of Heaven , and all their hopes of happiness in another world , for any thing that this world can afford , nay not for the whole world , if it were offered to them . For as our Saviour reasons in this very case of forsaking our Religion for any temporal interest , or consideration ; what is a man profited if he gain the whole world , and lose his own Soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul ? When ever any of us are tempted in this kind ; let that solemn declaration of our Saviour and our Judge be continually in our minds ; he that confesseth me before men , him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven ; but whosever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation , of him shall the son of man be ashamed , when he shall come in the glory of his Father , with his holy Angels . And we have great cause to thank God , to see so many in this day of tryal , and hour of temptation , to adhere with so much resolution and constancy to their Holy Religion , and to prefer the keeping of Faith , and a good Conscience , to all earthly considerations and advantages . And this very thing , that so many hold their Religion so fast , and are so loth to part with it , gives great hopes that they intend to make good use of it , and to frame their lives according to the holy rules and precepts of it ; which alone can give us peace whilst we live , and comfort when we come to die ; and after death secure to us the possession of a happiness large as our wishes , and lasting as our Souls . To which , God of his Infinite Goodness bring us all , for his mercy's sake , in Jesus Christ : To whom , with the Father , and the Holy Ghost , be all Honour and Glory , World without end . Amen . A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering ; for he is faithful that hath promised . THE main Scope and design of this Epistle to the Hebrews , is to persuade the Jews , who were newly converted to Christianity , to continue stedfast in the profession of that Holy and Excellent Religion which they had embraced ; and not to be removed from it , either by the subtile insinuations of their Brethren the Jews , who pretended that they were in possession of the true ancient Religion , and the only true Church of God upon Earth ; or by the terrour of Heathen persecution which was so hot against them at that time . And to this end the Author of this Epistle doth by great variety of arguments demonstrate the excellency of the Christian Religion above the Jewish dispensation ; and shews at large , that in all those respects upon which the Jews valued themselves and their Religion ( as namely upon the account of their Lawgiver , their High-Priests and their Sacrifices ) the Christian Religion had every way the advantage of them . And having made this clear , he concludes with an earnest exhortation to them to continue stedfast in the profession of this excellent Religion , which was revealed to them by the Son of God , the true propitiatory Sacrifice , and the great High-Priest of their profession , and into which they had solemnly been initiated and admitted by Baptism ; vers . 19 , 20 , 21 , 22. Having therefore , brethren , boldness to enter into the holiest , by the blood of Jesus , by a new and living way , which he hath consecrated for us through the vail , that is to say , his flesh ; and having an high-priest over the house of God : Let us draw near with a true heart , in full assurance of faith , ( that is , let us sincerly serve God with a firm persuasion of the Truth and Excellency of this Holy Religion , into the Profession whereof we were solemnly admitted by Baptism ; for that is undoubtedly the meaning of the following words ; having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience , and our bodies washt with pure water ; the Water with which our Bodies are washt in Baptism , signifying our spiritual Regeneration , and the purging of our Consciences from dead Works , to serve the living God. From all which he concludes , Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering : This refers to that solemn Profession of Faith , which was made by all Christians at their Baptism , and which is contained in the ancient Creed of the Christian Church , called by the ancient Fathers , The Rule of Faith. Let us hold fast , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let us firmly retain ; the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chap. 4. 14. Seeing then we have a great high-priest which is passed into the Heavens , Jesus the Son of God , let us take fast hold of our profession . So here in the Text , the Apostle upon the same Consideration exhorts Christians to retain , or hold fast , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Confession or Profession of their hope ; that is , the Hope of the Resurrection of the Dead , and everlasting Life , which was the Conclusion of that Faith or Creed , whereof in Baptism they made a Solemn Profession . Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith or Hope without wavering ; the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , inflexible , unmoveable , steady , and not apt to waver and be shaken by every Wind of contrary Doctrine , nor by the Blasts and Storms of Persecution . For he is faithful that hath promised . If we continue faithful and steady to God , he will be faithful to make good all the Promises which he hath made to us . In the words thus explained , there are Two things which I shall distinctly consider . I. The Exhortation ; Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering : And II. The Argument or Encouragement used to en●●●ce it ; He is faithful that promised . so I begin with the I. The Exhortation , to be constant and steady in the Profession of the Christian Religion : Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering . In the handling of this , and that we may the better understand the true meaning of this Exhortation here in the Text , I shall do these two things . 1. I shall shew Negatively , wherein this Constancy and Steadiness in the Profession of the true Religion , does not consist . And here I shall remove one or two things which are thought by some , to be inconsistent with Constancy and Steadfastness in Religion . 2. I shall shew Positively , what is implied in a Constant and Steady Profession of the true Religion . 1. I shall shew Negatively , what Constancy and Steadfastness in the Profession of the true Religion does not imply . And there are two things which are thought by some to be imply'd , in holding fast the profession of our faith without wavering . 1. That Men should not take the liberty to examine their Religion , and enquire into the Grounds and Reasons of it . 2. That men should obstinately refuse to hear any Reasons that can be brought against the true Religion as they think , which they have once entertained . 1. That Men should not take the liberty to examine their Religion , and to enquire into the Grounds and Reasons of it . This I think is so far from being forbidden in this Exhortation ; that on the contrary , I doubt not to make it appear , that a free and impartial Enquiry into the Grounds and Reasons of our Religion , and a thorough Tryal and Examination of them , is one of the best Means to confirm and establish us in the Profession of it : I mean , that all Persons that are capable of it , should do it . and that they will find great benefit and advantage by it . For I do not think that this is a Duty equally and indifferently incumbent upon all ; nor indeed fit and proper for all Persons ; because all are not equally capable of doing it . There are two sorts of Persons that are in a great measure incapable of doing it . 1. Children . 2. Such grown Persons as are of a very mean and low capacity , and improvement of Understanding . Children are not fit to examine , but only to learn and believe what is taught them by their Parents and Teachers : They are fit to have the fear of God , and the Principles of the true Religion instilled into them ; but they are by no means fit to discern between a true and false Religion , and to chuse for themselves , and to make a change of their Religion ; as hath of late been allowed to them in a Nation not far from us , and by publick Edict declared , that Children at Seven Years Old , are fit to chuse and to change their Religion : Which is the first Law I ever heard of , that allows Children of that Age to do any act for themselves , that is of Consequence and Importance to them , for the remaining part of their Lives , and which they shall stand obliged to perform and make good . They are indeed Baptized , according to the custome and usage of the Christian Church , in their Infancy ; but they do not enter into this Obligation themselves ; but their Sureties undertake for them , that when they come to Age , they shall take this Promise upon themselves , and confirm and make it good . But surely , they can do no Act for themselves , and in their own Name , at that Age , which can be obligatory : They can neither make any Contracts that shall be valid , nor incur any Debt , nor oblige themselves by any Promise , nor chuse themselves a Guardian , nor do any Act that may bring them under an Inconvenience , when they shall come at Age. And can we think them of discretion sufficient at that time , to do a thing of the greatest Moment and Consequence of all other ; and which will concern them to all Eternity ; namely , to chuse their Religion ? There is indeed one Part of one Religion ( which we all know ) which Children at Seven Years of Age are fit ( I do not say to judge of , but ) to be as fond of , and to practise to as good purpose , as those of riper Years ; and that is , to worship Images , to tell their Beads , to say their Prayers , and to be present at the Service of God in an unknown Tongue ; and this they are more likely to chuse at that Age , than those who are of riper and more improv'd Understandings ; and if they do not chuse it at that time , it is ten to one , they will not chuse it afterwards . I shall say no more of this , but that it is a very extraordinary Law , and such as perhaps was never thought of before , from the beginning of the World. Thus much for Children . As for grown Persons , who are of a very low and mean capacity of Understanding , and either by reason of the weakness of their Faculties , or other Disadvantages which they lye under , are in little or no probability of improving themselves ; These are always to be considered as in the condition of Children , and Learners , and therefore must of necessity , in things which are not plain and obvious to the meanest Capacities , trust and rely upon the Judgment of others . And it is really much wiser and safer for them so to do , than to depend upon their own Judgments , and to lean to their own Understandings ; and such Persons , if they be modest and humble , and pray earnestly to God for his Assistance and Direction , and are careful to practise what they know , and to live up to the best Light and Knowledge which they have , shall not miscarry , meerly for want of those farther degrees of Knowledge which they had no Capacity nor Opportunity to attain ; because their Ignorance is unavoidable , and God will require no more of them than he hath given them , and will not call them to account for the improvement of those Talents , which he never committed to them . And if they be led into any dangerous Error , by the negligence or ill conduct of those , under whose Care and Instruction the Providence of God permitted them to be placed , God will not impute it to them as a Fault : Because in the Circumstances in which they were , they took the best and wisest course that they could , to come to the knowledge of the Truth , by being willing to learn what they could of those , whom they took to be wiser than themselves . But for such Persons , who by the maturity of their Age , and by the natural strength and clearness of their Understandings , or by the due exercise and improvement of them , are capable of enquiring into , and understanding the Grounds of their Religion , and discerning the difference betwixt Truth and Error ( I do not mean in unnecessary Points and matters of deepest Learning and Speculation , but in matters necessary to Salvation ) it is certainly very reasonable , that such Persons should examine their Religion , and understand the Reasons and Grounds of it . And this must either be granted to be reasonable ; or else every man must continue in that Religion in which he happens to be fixt by Education , or for any other Reason to pitch upon , when he comes to Years and makes his free Choice . For if this be a good Principle , that no Man is to examine his Religion , but take it as it is , and to believe it , and rest satisfied with it : Then every Man is to remain in the Religion which he first lights upon , whether by Choice or the Chance of his Education . For he ought not to change but upon Reason ; and Reason he can have none , unless he be allowed to examine his Religion and to compare it with others , that by the Comparison he may discern which is best , and ought in reason to be preferred in his Choice . For to him that will not , or is not permitted to search into the Grounds of any Religion , all Religions are alike ; as all things are of the same Colour , to him that is always kept in the dark , or if he happens to come into the Light , dares not open his Eyes , and make use of them to discern the different Colours of things . But this is evidently and at first sight unreasonable ; because at this rate , every Man that hath once entertained an Errour , and a false Religion , must forever continue in it : For if he be not allowed to examine it , he can never have Reason to change ; and to make a change without Reason , is certainly unreasonable , and mere Vanity and Inconstancy . And yet for ought I can see , this is the Principle which the Church of Rome doth with great Zeal and Earnestness inculcate upon their People ; discouraging all Doubts and Inquiries about their Religion , as Temptations of the Devil ; and all Examinations of the Grounds and Reasons of their Religion , as an inclination and dangerous step towards Heresie . For what else can they mean , by taking the Scriptures out of the hands of the People , and locking them up from them in an unknown Tongue ; by requiring them absolutely to submit their Judgments , and to resign them up to that which they are pleased to call the Catholick Church , and Implicitly to believe as She believes , tho they know not what that is ? This is in Truth , to believe as their Priest tells them ; for that is all the teaching Part of the Church , and all the Rule of Faith that the common People are acquainted with . And it is not sufficient to say in this matter ; that when Men are in the Truth , and of the right Religion , and in the Bosom of the true Church , they ought to rest satisfied , and to examine and enquire no farther : For this is manifestly unreasonable , and that upon these Three accounts . 1. Because this is a plain and shameful begging of the thing in Question ; and that which every Church , and every Religion doth almost with equal Confidence pretend to ; That Theirs is the only right Religion , and the only true Church : And these Pretences are all alike reasonable to him that never examined the Grounds of any of them , nor hath compar'd them together . And therefore it is the vainest thing in the World , for the Church of Rome to pretend , that all Religions in the World ought to be examined , but Theirs ; Because Theirs , and none else , is the true Religion . For this which they say so confidently of it , That it is the true Religion , no Man can know till he have examined it , and searched into the Grounds of it , and hath considered the Objections which are against it : So that it is fond Partiality to say that , Their Religion is not to be examined by the people that profess it ; but that all other Religions ought to be examined , or rather , because they are different from That which they presume to be the only true Religion , ought to be condemned at all adventures , without any farther enquiry . This I say is fond Partiality ; because every Religion and every Church may ( for ought that appears to any man that is not permitted to examine things impartially ) say the same for themselves , and with as much Reason ; and if so , then either every Religion ought to permit it self to be examined ; or else no man ought to examine his own Religion whatever it be ; and consequently Jews and Turks , and Heathens , and Hereticks , ought all to continue as they are , and none of them to change ; because they cannot reasonably change , without examining both that Religion which they leave , and that which they embrace instead of it . 2. Admitting this Pretence were true ; that They are the true Church , and have the true Religion ; This is so far from being a Reason why they should not permit it to be examined , that on the contrary , it is one of the best Reasons in the World why they should allow it to be examined , and why they may safely suffer it to be so . They should permit it to be tryed ; that men may upon good Reason be satisfied , that it is the true Religion : And they may safely suffer it to be done ; because , if They be sure that the Grounds of their Religion be firm and good , I am sure , they will be never the worse for being examined and look'd into . But I appeal to every Man's Reason ; whether it be not an ill Sign , that they are not so sure that the Grounds of their Religion are solid and firm , and such as will abide the Tryal ; that they are so very loth to have them searcht into and examined ? This cannot but tempt a wise Man to suspect , that their Church is not founded upon a Rock ; and that they themselves know something that is amiss in their Religion , which makes them so loth to have it try'd , and brought to the Touch. 3. It is certain among all Christians , that the Doctrine preached by the Apostles was the true Faith of Christ ; and yet they never forbad the Christians to examine whether it were so or not : Nay , on the contrary , they frequently exhort them to try and examine their Religion , and whether that Doctrine which they had delivered to them was the true Faith of Christ. So St. Paul ; 2 Corinth . 13. 5. Examine your selves , whether ye be in the faith ; prove your own selves . And again , 1 Thes. 5. 21. Prove all things , hold fast that which is good intimating to us , that in order to the holding fast the Profession of our Faith , it is requisite to prove and try it . And so likewise St. John's Ep. 1. 4. 1. Beloved , believe not every Spirit ; but try the Spirits whether , they are of God ; because many false Prophets are gone out into the world . And he gives a very notable mark , whereby we may know the Spirit of Truth , and the Spirit of Error . The Spirit of Error carries on a worldly Interest and Design ; and the Doctrines of it tend to Secular Power and Greatness ; vers . 5. They are of the world ; therefore speak they of the world , and the world heareth them . Acts 17. 11. St. Luke commends it as an argument of a more noble and generous Spirit in the Beroeans ; that they examined the Doctrine which the Apostles preacht , whether it were agreeable to the Scriptures ; and this without Disparagement to their Infallibility ; These , saith he , were more noble , than those of Thessalonica , in that they received the word with all readiness of mind , and searched the Scriptures daily , whether those things were so . They were ready to receive the Word ; but not blindly , and with an implicit Faith ; but using due Care to examine the Doctrines which they were taught , and to see if they were agreeable to that Divine Revelation of the Holy Scriptures , which they had before received . It seems they were not willing to admit and swallow Contradictions in their Faith. And we desire no more of the Church of Rome , than that they would encourage the people to search the Scriptures daily , and to examine whether their Doctrines be according to them . We would be glad to hear the Pope and a General Council commend to the People the searching of the Scriptures ; and to try their Definitions of Faith and Decrees of Worship , by that Rule , to see whether what they have defined and decreed to be believed and practised , be agreeable to it ; their Worship of Images ; their solemn Invocation of Angels , and of the Blessed Virgin , and the Saints departed ; the Sacrament under one kind only ; the publick Prayers and Service of God in an unknown Tongue ; the frequent Repetition of the Propitiatory Sacrifice of Christs Body and Blood in the Mass. Had the Beroeans been at the Council of Trent and pleaded their Right to search the Scriptures , whether these things were so ; I doubt they would have been thought very troublesome and impertinent , and would not have been praised by the Pope and Council for their pains , as they are by St. Luke . You see then , upon the whole matter , that it is a very groundless and suspicious Pretence of the Church of Rome , that because They are Infallibly in the right , and Theirs is the true Religion , therefore their people must not be permitted to examine it . The Doctrine of the Apostles was undoubtedly the true Faith of Christ ; and yet they not only permitted the people to examine it , but exhorted and encouraged them so to do , and commended them for it : And any Man that hath the Spirit of a Man , must abhor to submit to this Slavery , not to be allowed to examine his Religion , and to enquire freely into the Grounds and Reasons of it ; and would break with any Church in the World upon this single Point ; and would tell them plainly , if your Religion be too good to be Examined , I doubt it is too bad to be Believed . If it be said , that the allowing of this Liberty is the way to make people perpetually doubting and unsettled : I do utterly deny this , and do on the contrary with good Reason affirm , that it is apt to have the contrary effect ; There being in reason no better way to establish any man in the belief of any thing , than to let him see that there are very good Grounds and Reasons for what he believes ; which no man can ever see , that is not permitted to examine whether there be such Reasons or not . So that besides the Reasonablness of the thing , it is of great benefit and advantage to us . And that upon these Accounts . 1. To arm us against Seducers . He that hath examined his Religion , and tryed the Grounds of it , is most able to maintain them , and make them good against all Assaults that may be made upon us , to move us from our Stedfastness : Whereas he that hath not examined , and consequently does not understand the Reasons of his Religion , is liable to be tossed to and fro , and to be carried about with every Wind of Doctrine , by the slight of Men , and the cunning Craftiness of those that lie in wait to deceive . For when he is attempted ; he will either defend his Religion or not : If he undertake the Defence of it , before he hath examined the Grounds of it ; he makes himself an easie Prey to every crafty man that will set upon him ; he exposeth at once himself to Danger , and his Religion to Disgrace : If he decline the defence of it ; he must be forced to take Sanctuary in that Ignorant and Obstinate Principle , that because he is of an Infallible Church , and sure that he is in the right , therefore he never did nor will examine whether he be so or not . But how is he , or can he be sure , that he is in the right ; if he have no other Reason for it , but his Confidence , and his being wiser in his own conceit , than Seven men that can render a Reason ? It is a shameful thing in a wise man , who is able to give a good Reason of all other Actions and parts of his Life , to be able to say nothing for his Religion , which concerns him more than all the rest . 2. To examine and understand the Grounds of our Religion , will be a good means ( by the assistance of Gods Grace ) to keep us constant to it , even under the fiery Tryal . When it comes to this , that a man must suffer for his Religion , he had need to be well established in the Belief of it ; which no man can so well be , as he that in some good measure understands the Grounds and Reasons of his Belief . A man would be well assured of the Truth and Goodness of that , for which he would lay down hīs Life ; otherwise he dies as a Fool dies , he knows not for what . A man would be loth to set such a Seal to a Blank , I mean , to that which he hath no sufficient Ground and Reason to believe to be true ; which , whether he hath or not , no man that hath not examined the Grounds of his Religion can be well assured of . This St. Peter prescribes , as the best Preparative for suffering for Righteousness sake , the 1st . Ep. of Peter , 3. 14 , 15. But if ye suffer for righteousness sake , happy are ye ; And be not afraid of their terror , neither be troubled : But sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts ; ( that is , make him the great Object of your Dread and Trust ) and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you . 2. The holding fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering , doth not imply , that Men should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason against that Religion which they have embraced , and think to be the true Religion . As Men should examine before they chuse ; so after they have chosen , they should be ready to be better informed , if better Reason can be offered . No Man ought to think himself so infallible , as to be priviledged from hearing Reason , and from having his Doctrines and Dictates tryed by that Test. Our Blessed Saviour himself , the most Infallible Person that ever was in the World , and who declared the Truth which he had heard of God , yet He offered himself and his Doctrine to this Tryal . John 8. 46. Which of you convinceth me of sin ? that is , of Falsehood and Error ? And if I speak the truth , why do ye not believe me ? He was sure he spake the Truth ; and yet for all that , if they could convince him of Error and Mistake , he was ready to hear any Reason they could bring to that purpose . Though a Man be never so sure that he is in the true Religion , and never so resolved to continue constant and stedfast in it ; yet Reason is always to be heard , when it is fairly offered . And as we ought always to be ready to give an Answer to those who ask a Reason of the Hope and Faith that is in us ; so ought we likewise to be ready to hear the Reasons which others do fairly offer against our Opinion and Persuasion in Religion , and to debate the matter with them ; that if we be in the right , and they in the wrong , we may rectifie their Mistakes , and instruct them in meekness , if God peradventure may give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth . We are not only to examine our Religion , before we peremptorily fix upon it ; but after we are , as we think upon the best Reason , establisht and settled in it . Tho we ought not to doubt and waver in our Religion , upon every slight and trifling Objection that can be brought against it ; yet we ought always to have an Ear open to hear Reason , and consider any thing of Weight and Moment that can be offered to us about it . For it is a great Disparagement to Truth , and argues a distrust of the Goodness of our Cause and Religion , to be afraid to hear what can be said against it : As if Truth were so weak , that in every Conflict it were in danger to be baffled , and run down , and go by the worst ; and as if the Reasons that could be brought against it , were too hard for it , and not to be encounter'd by those Forces which Truth has on its side . We have that honest Confidence of the Goodness of our Cause and Religion , that we do not fear what can be said against it : And therefore we do not forbid our people to examine the Objections of our Adversaries , and to read the best Books they can write against it . But the Church of Rome are so wise in their Generation , that they will not permit those of their Communion to hear or read what can be said against them : Nay , they will not permit the people the use of the Holy Scriptures , which they , with us , acknowledge to be at least an Essential Part of the Rule of Faith. They tell their people , that after they are once of their Church and Religion , they ought not to hear any Reasons against it ; and though they be never so strong , they ought not to entertain any doubt concerning it ; because all doubting is a Temptation of the Devil , and a Mortal Sin. But surely that Church is not to be heard , which will not hear Reason ; nor that Religion to be much admired , which will not allow those that have once embrac'd it , to hear it ever after debated and examined . This is a very suspicious Business , and argues , that either they have not Truth on their side ; or that Truth is a weak , and pitiful , and sneaking Thing , and not able to make its party good against Error . I should now have proceeded in the Second place , to shew Positively what is implied in holding fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering ; and then to have considered the Argument and Encouragement hereto , because he is faithful that promised . But I shall proceed no farther at this time . A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering ; for he is faithful that promised . I Have already made entrance into these Words , which I told you do contain in them , I. An Exhortation , to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering . II. An Argument or Encouragement thereto ; because he is Faithful that promised . If we continue stedfast and faithful to God ; we shall find him faithful to us , in making good all the Promises which he hath made to us ; whether of Aid and Support , or of Recompence and Reward of our Fidelity to him . I have begun to handle the First part of the Text , viz. The Apoostles Exhortation to Christians to be constant and steady in their Religion : Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering . The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render , without wavering , signifies inflexible and unmovable , not apt to waver and to be shaken with every Wind of contrary Doctrine , nor by the Blasts and Storms of Persecution . And that we might the better comprehend the full and true meaning of this Exhortation , I propounded to do these Two things . 1. To shew Negatively , wherein this Constancy and Steadiness in the Profession of the true Religion doth not consist . And 2. To shew Positively , what is implied and intended here by the Apostle , in holding fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering . 1. To shew Negatively , wherein this Constancy and the Steadiness in the Profession of the true Religion doth not consist . This I spake to the last Day ; and shewed at large , that there are Two things which are not contained and intended in this Exhortation . 1. That Men should not have the Liberty to examine their Religion , and to enquire into the Grounds and Reasons of it . Such I mean as are capable of this examination and enquiry ; which some , I shewed , are not ; as Children , who while they are in that state , are only fit to learn and believe what is taught them by their Parents and Teachers : And likewise such grown Persons , as either by the natural Weakness of their Faculties , or by some great Disadvantage of Education , are of a very low and mean Capacity and Improvement of Understanding . These are to be considered as in the condition of Children and Learners ; and therefore must of necessity trust and rely upon the Judgment of others . 2. This holding fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering , does not imply ; that when Men upon examination and enquiry are settled , as they think and verily believe in the true Religion , they should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason that can be offer'd againg them . Both these Principles I shew'd to be unreasonable , and Arguments of a bad Cause and Religion . I shall now proceed to explain the meaning of this Exhortation , To hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering , by shewing in the Second place , what it is that is implied in the constant and steady Profession of the true Faith and Religion ; namely , That when upon due search and examination , we are fully satisfied , that it is the true Religion which we have embraced , or as St. Peter expresses it , 1st Epistle , 5. 12. That this is the true Grace of God , wherein we stand ; that then we should adhere stedfastly to it , and hold it fast , and not suffer it to be wrested from us , nor our selves to be moved from it , by any Pretences , or Insinuations , or Temptations whatsoever . For there is a great deal of difference between the Confidence and Stedfastness of an Ignorant Man , who hath never considered Things , and enquired into the Grounds of them ; and the Assurance and Settlement of one , who hath been well instructed in his Religion , and hath taken pains to search and examine to the bottom , the Grounds and Reasons of what he holds , and professeth to believe . The first is meer Wilfulness and Obstinacy . A Man hath entertained , and drank in such Principles of Religion by Education , or hath taken them up by Chance ; but he hath no Reason for them ; and yet however he came by them , he is resolved to hold them fast , and not to part with them . The other is the Resolution and Constancy of a Wise Man. He hath embraced his Religion upon good Grounds , and he sees no Reason to alter it ; and therefore is resolved to stick to it , and to hold fast the Profession of it stedfastly to the end . And to this purpose there are many Exhortations and Cautions scattered up and down the Writings of the holy Apostles ; as that we should be stedfast and unmoveable , established in the Truth , rooted and grounded in the Faith , and that we should hold fast that which is good , and not suffer our selves to be carried to and fro with every wind of Doctrine , through the slight of Men , and the cunning craftiness of those that lie in wait to deceive ; that we should not be removed from him that hath called us unto the grace of Christ , unto another Gospel ; that we should stand fast in one Spirit and one Mind , striving together for the Faith of the Gospel , and be ●n nothing terrifled by our Adversaries ; and that , if occasion be , we should contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints ; and here in the Text , That we should hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering . For the explaining of this , I shall do two Things : 1. Consider what it is that we are to hold fast ; namely , the profession of our Faith ; And , 2. How we are to hold it fast , or what is implied in holding fast the profession of our Faith , without wavering . 1. What it is that we are to hold fast ; namely , the profession of our Faith ; i. e. of the Christian Faith or Religion : For , I told you before , that this Profession or Confession of our Faith or Hope ( as the word properly signifies ) is an Allusion to that Profession of Faith which was made by all those who were admitted Members of the Christian Church by Baptism ; of which the Apostle makes mention immediately before the Text , when he says , Let us draw near in full assurance of Faith , having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience , and our bodies washed with pure Water : And then it follows , Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering . The Profession of Faith which we made in our Baptisms , and which by the Ancient Fathers is call'd the Rule of Faith , and which is now contain'd in that which we call the Apostles Creed , and which is called by St. Paul , Rom. 6. 17. the Form of Doctrine which was delivered to them ; i. e. to all Christians ; and 2 Tim. 1. 13. the Form of sound Words ; Hold fast , saith he , the Form of sound Words , which thou hast heard of me , in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus ; and by St. Jude , The Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints . So that it is the first and ancient Faith of the Christian Church , delivered to them by Christ and his Apostles , which we are here exhorted to hold fast ; the necessary and fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith ; and by consequence all those Truths which have a necessary Connexion with those Articles , and are implied in them , and by plain Consequence are to be deduced from them . It is not the doubtful and uncertain Traditions of Men , nor the partial Dictates and Doctrines of any Church , since the Primitive Times , which are not contained in the Holy Scriptures and the Ancient Creeds of the Christian Church , but have been since declared and imposed upon the Christian World , though with never so confident a pretence of Antiquity in the Doctrines , and of Infallibility in the Proposers of them : These are no part of that Faith which we are either to profess or to hold fast ; because we have no reason to admit the Pretences , by virtue whereof those Doctrines or Practices are imposed ; being able to make it good , and having effectually done it , that those Doctrines are not of Primitive Antiquity ; and that the Church which proposeth them , hath no more claim to Infallibility , than all other Parts of the Christian Church , which since the Apostles time is none at all . In a word ; No other Doctrines which are not sufficiently revealed in Scripture , either in express Terms , or by plain and necessary Consequence ; nor any Rites of Worship , nor Matters of Practice , which are not commanded in Scripture , are to be esteemed any part of that Faith in Re-Religion , the Profession whereof the Apostle here Commands all Christians to hold fast without wavering ; much less any Doctrines or Practices , which are repugnant to the Word of God , and to the Faith and Practice of the first Ages of Christianity ; of which kind I shall have occasion in my following Discourse to instance in several Particulars . In the mean time I shall only observe , That that Faith and Religion which we profess , and which by God's Grace we have ever held fast , is that which hath been acknowledg'd by all Christian Churches in all Ages , to have been the ancient Catholick and Apostolick Faith , and cannot ( as to any part or tittle of it ) be denied to be so , even by the Church of Rome her self . I proceed to the II d Thing which I proposed to consider ; namely , how we are to hold fast the profession of our Faith , or what is implied by the Apostle in this Exhortation , To hold fast the profession of our Faith , without wavering . And I think these following Particulars may very well be supposed to be implied in it . 1. That we should hold fast the Profession of our Faith , against the Confidence of Men , without Scripture or Reason to support their Confidence . 2. And much more against the Confidence of Men , contrary to Scripture , and Reason , and the common Sense of Mankind . 3. Against all the Temptations and Terrours of the World. 4. Against all vain Promises of being put into a safer Condition , and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier terms in another Religion . 5. Against all the cunning Arts and Insinuations of busie and disputing Men , whose Design it is to unhinge Men from their Religion , and to gain Proselytes to their own Party and Faction . I shall go over these with as much Clearness and Brevity as I can . 1. We should hold fast the Profession of our Faith , against the Confidence of Men , without Scripture or Reason to support that Confidence . All Religion is either Natural or Instituted . The Rule of Natural Religion is the common Reason of Mankind : The Rule of Instituted Religion is divine Revelation , or the Word of God ; which all Christians before the Council of Trent did agree to be contained in the Holy Scriptures . So that nothing can pretend to be Religion , but what can be proved to be so , One or both of those ways ; either by Scripture , or by Reason , or by both . And how confident soever Men may be of Opinions destitute of this Proof ; any Man that understands the Grounds of Religion , will without any more ado reject them , for want of this proof ; and notwithstanding any pretended Authority or Infallibility of the Church that imposeth them , will have no more Consideration and Regard of them , than of the confident Dictates and Assertions of any Enthusiast whatsoever ; because there is no reason to have regard to any Man's Confidence , if the Arguments and Reasons which he brings , bear no proportion to it . We see in Experience that Confidence is generally ill grounded , and is a kind of Passion in the Understanding , and is commonly made use of , like Fury and Force , to supply for the weakness and want of Argument . If a Man can prove what he says by good Argument ; there is no need of Confidence to back and support it . We may at any time trust a plain and substantial Reason , and leave it to make its own way , and to bear out its self . But if the man's Reasons and Arguments be not good ; his Confidence adds nothing of real Force to them , in the Opinion of Wise men , and tends only to its own Confusion . Arguments are like Powder , which will carry and do execution according to its true strength ; and all the rest is but noise . And generally none are so much to be suspected of Errour , or a Design to deceive , as those that pretend most confidently to Inspiration and Infallibility : As we see in all sorts of Enthusiasts , who pretend to Inspiration , although we have nothing but their own word for it ; for they work no Miracles . And all pretence to Inspiration and Infallibility , without Miracle , whether it be in particular Persons , or in whole Churches , is Enthusiastical ; i. e. a Pretence to Inspiration without any Proof of it . And therefore St. Paul was not moved by the Boasting and Confidence of the false Apostles ; because they gave no Proof and Evidence of their Divine Inspiration and Commission , as he had done ; for which he appeals to the Sense of Men , Whether he had not wrought great Miracles ; which the false Apostles had not done , though they had the confidence to give out themselves to be Apostles as well as he ; 2 Cor. 12. 11 , 12. I am ( says he ) become a fool in glorying , ye have compelled me . And truly the signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in all patience , in signs , and wonders , and mighty deeds . And Rev. 2. 2. Christ there commends the Church of Ephesus , because she had tried them , which said they were Apostles , but were not ; and had found them liars . And as we are not to believe every one that says he is an Apostle , so neither every one that pretends to be a Successor of the Apostles , and to be endued with the same Spirit of Infallibility that they were : For these also , when they are tried whether they be the Successors of the Apostles or not , may be found Liars , And therefore St. John cautions Christians not to believe every spirit , ( that is , every one that pretends to divine Inspiration and the Spirit of God , ) but to try the Spirits , whether they be of God ; because many false Prophets are gone out into the World , 1 Joh. 4. 1. And therefore the Confidence of Men in this kind ought not to move us , when their Pretence to Infallibility is destitute of the proper Proof and Evidence of it ; which is a Power of Miracles ; and when their Doctrines and Practices have neither the evidence of Reason or Scripture on their side . For instance ; That the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches ; which is one of the new Articles of Pope Pius the IVth's Creed ; and yet there is not one syllable in Scripture tending to this purpose . And in Reason it cannot be , that any but that which was the First Christian Church should be the Mother of all Churches ; and that the Church of Rome certainly was not , and the Church of Jerusalem undoubtedly was . And then that the Bishop of Rome , as Successor of St. Peter there , is the Supreme and Vniversal Pastor of Christ's Church by Divine appointment , as he assumes to himself ; and that it is necessary to Salvation , for every humane Creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome , as is declared in their Canon-Law by a Constitution of Pope Boniface the VIIIth , which Constitution is confirmed in the last Lateran Council ; of all which there is not the least mention in Scripture , nor any divine Appointment to that purpose to be found there . And it is against Reason , that all the World should be obliged to trudge to Rome for the Decision of Causes and Differences , which in many and the most weighty Matters are reserved to the Decision of that See , and can be determin'd no-where else . And against Reason likewise it is to found this universal Supremacy in his being Successor of St. Peter ; and to fix it in the Bishop of Rome , rather than at Antioch ; when it is certain , and granted by themselves , that St. Peter was first Bishop of Antioch , and out of all question that he was Bishop of Antioch ; but not so , that he was Bishop of Rome . Nor is there any thing in Scripture for the Deliverance of Souls out of Purgatory by the Prayers and Masses of the Living . The whole Thing is groundless , and not agreeable to the constant Suppositions of Scripture concerning a future State. Nor is there any Reason for it , besides that which is not fit to be given , the Wealth and Profit which it brings in . The Invocation and Worship of the Blessed Virgin , and of all the Saints departed , is destitute of all Scripture-warrant or Example , and confessed by themselves not to have been owned or practised in the Three first Ages of the Church , because it looked too like the Heathen Idolatry ; which deserves to be well considered by those , who pretend to derive their whole Religion from Christ and his Apostles by a continued and uninterrupted Succession . And this practice is likewise destitute of all colour of Reason ; unless we be assured , that they hear our Prayers in all places ; which we cannot be , unless they be present in all places , which they themselves do not believe ; or that God doth some way or other reveal and make known to them the Prayers which are made to them , which we cannot possibly be assured of , but by some Revelation of God to that purpose ; which we no-where find , nor doth the Church of Rome pretend to it . But I proceed to the 2 d Thing ; namely , That we should much more hold fast the Profession of our Faith and Religion , against the Confidence of Men , contrary to Scripture , and Reason , and the common Sense of Mankind . For these are the chief grounds of Certainty , which we can have for or against any thing ; and if these be clearly on our side , we ought not to be much moved by the Confidence of Men , concerning any Doctrines or Practices of Religion , which are plainly contrary to these . If in Points wherein we have this advantage on our side , we do not hold fast the Profession of our Religion ; our Error and Folly are capable of no excuse . And this advantage we plainly have in several Points and Controversies betwixt us and the Church of Rome . As in the Worship of Images ; which is as expresly and clearly forbidden in the Second Commandment , and that without any Distinction , as any other thing is forbidden in the whole Bible . And that it is so forbidden in this Commandment , and that this Commandment is still in force among Christians , was the Universal Sense of the ancient Christian Church . Prayers and the Service of God in an unknown Tongue are directly contrary to the very Nature and End of religious Worship , which ought to be a Reasonable Service ; which it cannot be , if it be not directed by our Understandings , and accompanied with our Hearts and Affections . But if it be performed in an unknown Tongue , our Understanding can have no part in it ; and if we do not understand it , it cannot move our Affections . And this likewise is plainly contrary to Scripture ; namely , to a large Discourse of St. Paul's , almost throughout a whole Chapter , where he purp sely sets himself to shew the Unprofitableness and gross Absurdity of Praying or Celebrating any other Part of Religious Worship , in an unknown Tongue . If any part of Our Religion had been half so clearly condemned in Scripture , as this is , ( which yet is the constant and general Practice of the Church of Rome ) we must have lain down in our shame , and confusion would have covered us ; and we must either have rejected the Authority of the Bible , or have renounced that Point of our Religion , what-ever it had been : Though it had been dear to us as our right Hand , and our right Eye ; we must upon such plain Evidence of Scripture against it , have cut it off , and plucked it out , and cast it from us . The like may be said of Locking up the Scriptures from the people in an unknown Tongue ; contrary to the Command of the Scriptures themselves , and to the great End and Design of Almighty God in the Writing and Publishing of them ; and contrary to the perpetual Exhortations and Counsels of all the Ancient Fathers of the Christian Church for a great many Ages , not one excepted . They are hardly more frequent , and copious , and earnest in any Argument ; than in perswading People of all Ranks and Conditions , to the constant and careful Reaing of the Holy Scriptures . And contrary to the Common Reason and Sense of Mankind . For what should Men be perswaded to be acquainted withal ; if not with That which is the great Instrument of our Salvation ? That Book which was written on purpose to reveal and convey to Men the Knowledge of God , and of his Will , and their Duty ? What should Men be allowed to know ; if not That which is the best and most effectual Means , to direct and bring them to Heaven , or turn them from Sin , and to preserve them from Eternal Misery ? When our Saviour would represent the best and most effectual Means of bringing Men to Happiness , and saving them from the Eternal Torments of Hell , in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus ; He brings in Abraham , giving the best Advice he could to the Rich Man who was in Hell , concerning his Brethren that were upon Earth , how they might prevent their coming into that place of Torment ; And he directs them to the Scriptures , as the best and most effectual Means to that purpose : They have ( says he ) Moses and the Prophets : Let them hear them . Now if in the Church of God among the Jews , the same Course had been taken , that is now in the Church of Rome ; the Rich Man might , and in all Reason ought to have replyed , Nay , Father Abraham ; But they have not Moses and the Prophets , nor are they permitted to Read them in a Language that they can understand ; And therefore this Advice is of no Vse to them : And then he might with Reason have press'd him , as he did , that one might be sent to them from the Dead , to Testifie unto them . But it appears , that Abraham was very positive and peremptory in this Advice ; and that he prefers the Knowledge of the Scriptures , to any other Way and Means , that could be thought of , and that if this had not its Effect to perswade Men to Repentance , and to preserve them from Hell , he did not know any thing else , that was so likely to do it : For he concludes , If they hear not Moses and the Prophets ; neither will they be perswaded the One rose from the Dead . And this is the Conclusion of the Parable . Which plainly shews , what was the main Scope and Design of our Saviour in it ; namely , to recommend to us the Use of the Holy Scriptures , as the best and most effectual Means , which the Wisdom of God hath provided for the Salvation of Mankind . And now any Man would be apt to think , that the declared Judgment of our Saviour in the case , should go a great way , even with the most Infallible Church in the World. However , this we must say , that it is in truth a very hard case , to which the Church of Rome hath reduced Men ; that it will neither allow them Salvation out of their Church , nor the best and most effectual Means of Salvation , when they are in it . I might say much more upon this Head ; but this I hope may be sufficient . The next Instance shall be in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation ; which is contrary to the Scriptures ; which after Consecration so frequently call , the Elements Bread and Wine ; and which , without Reason or Necessity , puts an absurd and impossible Sense upon those words of our Saviour , This is my Body ; which do no more prove Transubstantiation than those words , This Cup is the New Testament , do prove that the material Cup which was used in the Sacrament , was substantially changed into the New Testament ; And no more , than those Texts which affirm God to have Eyes , and Ears , and Hands , do prove that he really hath so . But besides the Contrariety of this Doctrine to Scripture , nothing can be more repugnant to Reason . It is so big with Contradictions , and so surfeited of Impossibilities , that it would be Endless to reckon them up . And besides all this , it plainly contradicts the clear and constant Evidence of Four of our Five Senses ; which whoever contradicts , undermines the Foundation of all Certainty . And then the Communion in one kind is plainly contrary to our Saviour's Institution of the Sacrament in both kinds ; as they themselves acknowledge . And therefore the Council of Constance being sensible of this , was forced to Decree it with an express Non obstante to the Institution of Christ , and the Practice of the Apostles and the Primitive Church . And their Doctrine of Concomitancy ( as if the Blood were in the Flesh , and together with it ) will not help the matter : Because in the Sacrament Christ's Body is represented as broken , and pierced , and exhausted , and drain'd of its Blood ; and his Blood is represented as shed and poured out ; so that one Kind can by no means contain and exhibit both . The next Instance is , the Repetition of Christ's Propitiatory Sacrifice in the Mass , so often as That is celebrated : Against all Reason ; because the Sacrifice of Christ , once offered upon the Cross , was a full and perfect Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World ; and therefore ought not , because it needs not , to be again repeated for that End , in any manner whatsoever . And it is directly contrary to the main Scope of a great part of this Epistle to the Hebrews , which shews the Excellency of the Gospel above the Law in this respect , That the Expiatory Sacrifice of the Gospel was offered once for all ; whereas the Sacrifices of the Law were perpetually repeated . Chap. 7. 27. Speaking of Christ ; who needs not daily , as those High-priests , to offer up Sacrifices ; first for his own Sins , and then for the Peoples : for this he did once , when he offered up himself . Chap. 9. 26. But once in the End of the World hath he appeared , to take away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself : And as it is appointed for all Men once to dye ; so Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many . And Chap. 10. 10. By the which Will we are sanctified , through the Offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all : And Verse the 12. But this Man , after he had offered one Sacrifice for Sins , for ever sat down on the right hand of God. And Verse the 14. For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified . There cannot be plainer Texts for any thing in the Bible , than that this Propitiatory Sacrifice was never to be repeated . And whereas they say , that the Sacrifice of the Mass is an unbloody Sacrifice : This , instead of bringing them off , doth but intangle the Matter more . For if Blood be offered in the Sacrifice of the Mass , how is it an unbloody Sacrifice ? What can be more bloody than Blood ? And if Blood be not offered ; how is it Propitiatory ? Since the Apostle lays it down for a Certain Rule , That without shedding of Blood , there is no Remission of Sins : i. e. There can be no Propitiation for the Sins of the Living or the Dead , which the Church of Rome affirms there is . I might have added one or two Instances more ; and then should have proceeded to shew , in the Third place , That we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering , against all the Temtations and Terrors of the World ; which is more especially and principally here intended by the Apostle in this Exhortation . But I shall proceed no farther at present . A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering ; for he is faithful that promised . IN these words , I have told you , are contained I. An Exhortation , to hold fast the profession of our faith , or hope , without wavering . II. An Argument or Encouragement thereto ; because he is faithful that promised . I am yet upon the first of these ; the Exhortation to Christians , to be Constant and Steady in the Profession of their Religion ; Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering . And that we might the better comprehend the true and full meaning of this Exhortation , I shewed , 1. Negatively , what is not meant and intended by it . And I mentioned these two Particulars . 1. The Apostle doth not hereby intend , that those who are capable of enquiring into , and examining the Grounds of their Religion , should not have the Liberty to do it . Nor , 2. That when upon due Enquiry and Examination , Men are settled , as they think and verily believe , in the true Faith and Religion , they should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason that can be offered against their present Persuasion . Both these I shewed to be unreasonable , and Arguments of a bad Cause and Religion : And therefore neither of them can be intended by the Apostle in this Exhortation . 2. I proceeded Positively to explain the meaning of this Exhortation . And to this purpose I proposed , 1. To consider what it is , that we are to hold fast , viz. the Confession or Profession of our Faith. The antient Christian Faith , of which every Christian makes Profession in his Baptism : For of That the Apostle here speaks , as appears by the Context ; not the doubtful and uncertain Traditions of Men , nor the imperious Dictates and Doctrines of any Church , not contained in the Holy Scriptures , imposed upon the Christian Church ; tho with never so confident a pretence of the Antiquity of the Doctrines proposed , or of the Infallibility of the Proposers of them . And then I proceeded in the 2. Place , to shew how we are to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering . And I mentioned these following Particulars , as probably implied in the Apostles Exhortation . 1. That we should hold fast the Profession of our Faith , against the Confidence of Men , without Scripture or Reason to support their Confidence . 2. And much more against the Confidence of Men , against Scripture and Reason , and the common Sense of Mankind . 3. Against all the Temptations and Terrours of the World. 4. Against all vain Promises of being put into a safer condition , and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier Terms , in another Religion . 5. Against all the cunning Arts and Insinuations of busiy and disputing Men , whose design it is to unhinge Men from their Religion , and to gain Proselytes to their Party and Faction . 1. We are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith , against the Confidence of Men , without Scripture or Reason to support their Confidence . And of this I gave several Instances . As in the Pretence of the Church of Rome to Infallibility , without any Proof or Evidence of it , either by Scripture or Miracles : I mean such Miracles , as are sufficiently attested . For as for their Legends , since the wisest among themselves give no credit to them , I hope , they do not expect that We should believe them , or be moved by them . And then their Pretence that the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches ; which is now made an Article of their Creed . And that the Bishop of Rome , as Successor of Saint Peter there , is by Divine Appointment the Supream and Vniversal Pastor of Christs Church . And that it is necessary to Salvation , for every humane Creature to be subject to him . And lastly , their Invocation and Worship of the Blessed Virgin , and Saints departed ; without any Warrant or Example of any such thing , either in Scripture , or in the practice of the first Ages of the Christian Religion ; and without sufficient Ground to believe that they hear the Prayers which are put up to them . 2. Much more are we to hold fast the Profession of our Faith , against the Confidence of Men , contrary to Scripture and Reason and the common Sense of Mankind . And here I instanced in the Worship of Images ; the Locking up of the Scriptures from the People , and celebrating the publick Prayers and Service of God in an unknown Tongue ; in their Doctrine of Transubstantiation ; their Communion in one kind ; and their daily repetition , in the Sacrifice of the Mass , of the Propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ ; which was offered once for all , and is of Eternal Virtue and Efficacy , and therefore ought not , because it needs not , like Jewish Sacrifices under the Law ▪ to be repeated . To these Instances , which I have already spoken to , I shall add one or two more ; as namely , That to the due Administration of the Sacraments , an Intention in the Minister at least to do what the Church does , is requisite . This is expresly defined , and under an Anathema upon all that shall say otherwise , by the Council of Trent , Sess. the Seventh , Can. 11th ; which is to make the Validity and Virtue of the Sacraments , to depend upon the Intention of the Priest or Minister . So that if in the Administration of Baptism , he do not intend to Baptize the Party he pretends to Baptize , then it is no Baptism ; and consequently the Person Baptized is not made a Member of Christ's Church ; nor is any Grace or special Benefit conferred upon him ; nor is he a Christian. So likewise in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper , If the Priest do not intend to Consecrate the Host , then is it no Sacrament ; and they that receive it , receive no benefit by it ; and ( which according to their Opinion is a dreadful Consequence ) by the words of Consecration , there is no change made of the Elements into the Body and Blood of Christ ; and consequently they that give Adoration to the Sacrament in such cases , Worship Bread and Wine , for God ; which is Idolatry . And so likewise in their Sacrament of Penance , though the Priest pronounce the words of Absolution ; yet if he do not intend to absolve the Penitent ; though he be never so truly penitent , and God on his part is ready to forgive him ; yet if the Priest do not intend to do so , there is nothing done , and the Man is still in his Sin. So likewise in Ordination , ( which is another of their Sacraments ) if the Bishop do not intend to Ordain the Man ; he is no Priest , and all that he does as a Priest afterwards , either in Administration of Baptism , or the Lords Supper , or the Absolution of Penitents , all is vain and of no effect . Nay , in Marriage , ( which they will needs have to be a Sacrament too ) if the Intention of the Priest be wanting ; there is nothing done , the Contract is null'd , and they that are so Married do really live in Adultery ; though they do not know it , nor have any suspicion of it . Now this is contrary to Scripture and the whole Tenure of the Gospel , which promiseth the benefit and efficacy of the Sacraments , to all those that perform the Conditions of the Covenant which are required on their parts , and declares forgiveness of Sins to those who confess them to God , and truly repent of them . And there is not the least intimation given in the Bible , that the Virtue and Efficacy of the Sacraments does depend upon the Intention of him that administers them ; or that the Forgiveness of sins is suspended upon the Intention or Absolution of the Priest ; but only upon the sincere Resolution of the Penitent . And surely nothing can be more absurd , and contrary to Reason , than that when Men have performed all the Conditions which the Gospel requires ; yet they should notwithstanding this be deprived of all the Blessings and Benefits which God hath promised , and intends to confer upon them ; because the Priest hath not the same Intention . So that when a Man hath done all he can to work out his own Salvation , he shall be never the nearer ; only for want of That which is wholly out of his Power ; the right Intention of the Priest. Besides , that after all their Boasts of the safe Condition of Men in Their Church , and the most certain and infallible means of Salvation to be had in it ; this one Principle ( that the Intention of the Priest is necessary to the Validity and Virtue of the Sacraments ) puts the Salvation of Men upon the greatest Hazard and Uncertainty ; and such as it is impossible for any Man either to discover or prevent , unless he had some certain way to know the Heart and Intention of the Priest. For upon these terms , who can know whether any Man be a Priest , and really ordained ; or not ? Nay , whether he be a Christian , and have been truly baptized ; or not ? and consequently whether any of his Admistrations be valid , and we have any Benefit and Advantage by them ? Because all this depends upon the knowledge of that , which we neither do nor can know . So that when a Man hath conscientiously done all that God requires of any Man , to make him capable of Salvation ; yet without any Fault of his , the want of Intention in an idle-minded Man may frustrate all : And though the Man have been baptized , and do truly believe the Gospel , and hath sincerely repented of his sins , and lived a most Holy Life ; yet all this may signifie nothing , and after all he may be no Christian ; because his Baptism was invalid : And all the Promises of God to the means of Salvation which his Goodness and Wisdom hath prescribed , may be of no Efficacy ; if the Priest do not intend in the Administration of the Sacraments to do that which God and the Church intend . Now if this be true ; there is certainly no Church in the World , in which the Salvation of Men runs so many hazards ; and yet all this hazard and uncertainty has its rise , from a Scholastical Point , which is directly contrary to all the Notions of Mankind concerning the Goodness of God , and to the clear Reason of the thing , and to the constant Tenor of the Gospel ; and which was never asserted by any of the ancient Fathers ; much less defined by any Council before that of Trent : So that it is a Doctrine new and needless , and in the necessary consequences of it unreasonable and absurd to the utmost degree . The last Instance I shall mention , is their Rule of Faith. The Rule of Faith universally received and acknowledged by the Christian Church in all Ages , before the Council of Trent , was the Word of God , contained in the Canonical Books of Holy Scripture ; which were therefore by the Church called Canonical , because they were the Rule of Faith and Manners , of the Doctrines to be believed , and the Duties to be practised by all Christians . But when the Errours and Corruptions of the Romish Church were grown to the highth , and the Pope and his Council at Trent were resolved not to Retrench and Reform them , they saw it necessary to enlarge and lengthen out their Rule ; because the ancient Rule of the Holy Scriptures would by no means reach several of the Doctrines and Practices of that Church , which they were resolved to maintain and make good by one means or other : As namely , the Doctrine of Transubstantiation ; of Purgatory ; and of the Seven Sacracraments : and the practice of the Worship of Saints , and Images ; of the Scriptures , and the Service of God in an unknown Tongue ; of Indulgences ; and the Communion in one kind : and several other superstitious Practices in use among them . Now to enlarge their Rule to the best advantage for the Justification of these Doctrines and Practices , they took these two ways . 1. They have added to the Canonical Books of the Old Testament which were received by the Jewish Church ( to whom were committed the Oracles of God ) I say to these they have added several Apocryphal Books , not warranted by Divine Inspiration , because they were written after Prophecy and Divine Inspiration was ceased in the Jewish Church ; Malachi being the last of their Prophets , according to the general Tradition of that Church . But because the addition of these Books did not make a Rule of Faith and Practice large enough for their purpose ; in imitation of the Jews , in the time of the greatest Confusion and Degeneracy of that Church , they added in the Second Place to their Books of Scripture , which they call the written Word , an unwritten Word which they call Oral Tradition from Christ and his Apostles ; which they declare to be of equal Authority with the Holy Scriptures themselves ; and that it ought to be received with the same Pious Veneration and Affection : Of which Traditions , They being the Keepers and Judges , they may extend them to what they please , and having them in their own Breasts , they may declare whatever they have a mind to , to have been a constant and universal Tradition of their Church ; tho it is evident to common Sense , that nothing can be more uncertain , and more liable to Alteration and Mistake , than Tradition , at the distance of so many Ages , brought down by word of mouth , without writing , and passing through so many hands . He that can think these to be of equal Certainty and Authority with what is delivered by Writing , and brought down by Books , undertakes the defence of a strange Paradox . viz. That general Rumour and Report of Things said and done 1500 Years ago , is of equal Authority and Credit with a Record , and a written History . By which proceeding of the Council of Trent concerning the Rule of Faith and Practice ; it is very evident , that they had no mind to bring their Faith to the Ancient Rule , the Holy Scriptures . That they knew could not be done ; and therefore they were resolved to fit their Rule to their Faith. And this Foundation being laid in their first Decree , all the rest would afterwards go on very smoothly . For do but give Men the making of their Rule , and they can make good any thing by it . And accordingly the Council of Trent having thus fixt and fitted a Rule to their own purpose ; in the Conclusion of that Decree , they give the World fair warning , upon what Grounds , and in what Ways they intend to proceed in their following Decrees of Practice , and Definitions of Faith. Omnes itaque intelligant , quo ordine & via ipsa Synodus post jactum fidei confessionis fundamentum sit progressura , &c. Be it known therefore to all men , in what Order and Way the Synod , after having laid this Foundation of the Confession of Faith , will proceed ; and what Testimonies and Proofs she chiefly intends to make use of , for the Confirmation of Doctrines , and Reformation of Manners in the Church . And no doubt all Men do see very plainly , to what purpose this Foundation is laid of so large a Rule of Faith. And this being admitted , how easie is it for them to confirm and prove whatever Doctrines and Practices they have a mind to establish ? But if this be a new , and another Foundation , than That which the Great Author and Founder of our Religion , hath laid and built his Church upon , ( viz. ) the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles ; it is no matter what they build upon it . And if they go about to prove any thing by the new parts of this Rule ; by the Apocryphal Books which they have added to the ancient Canon of the Scriptures , brought down to us by the general Tradition of the Christian Church ; and by their pretended unwritten Traditions : we do with Reason reject this kind of Proof , and desire them first to prove their Rule , before they pretend to prove any thing by it : For we protest against this Rule , as never declared and owned by the Christian Church , nor proceeded upon by the ancient Fathers of the Church , nor by any Council whatsoever , before the Council of Trent . In vain then doth the Church of Rome vaunt it self of the Antiquity of their Faith and Religion ; when the very Foundation and Rule of it is but of Yesterday ; a new thing , never before known or heard of in the Christian World : Whereas the Foundation and Rule of Our Religion is the Word of God , contained in the Holy Scriptures ; to which Christians in all Ages have appealed , as the only Rule of Faith and Life . I proceed now to the 3. Thing I proposed , viz. that we are to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering , against all the Temptations and Terrours of the World. And this seems more especially and principally to be here intended by the Apostle in this Exhortation . I shall first speak of the Temptations of the World. And they are chiefly these Two ; the Temptation of Fashion and Example : And of worldly Interest and Advantage . 1. Of Fashion and Example . This in Truth and Reality is no strong Argument ; and yet in Experience and Effect it is often found to be very powerful . It is frequently seen , that this hath many times too great an Influence upon weak and foolish Minds . Men are apt to be carried down with the Stream , and to follow a Multitude in that which is evil . But more especially Men are prone to be swayed by great Examples ; and to bend themselves to such an Obsequiousness to their Superiours and Betters , that in compliance with them , they are ready not only to change their Affection to Persons and Things , as They do ; but even their Judgment also ; and that in the greatest and weightest Matters , even in Matters of Religion , and the great concernments of another World. But this surely is an Argument of a poor and mean Spirit , and of a weak Understanding , which leans upon the Judgment of another , and is in truth the lowest degree of Servility , that a reasonable Creature can stoop to ; and even beneath That of a Slave , who in the midst of his Chains and Fetters doth still retain the Freedom of his Mind and Judgment . But I need not to urge this upon considerate Persons , who know better how to value their Duty and Obligation to God , than to be tempted to do any thing contrary thereto , meerly in compliance with Fashion and Example . There are some Things in Religion so very plain , that a wise and good Man would stand alone in the Belief and Practice of them , and not be moved in the least by the contrary Example of the whole World. It was a brave Resolution of Joshua ; though all Men should forsake the God of Israel , and run aside to other Gods , yet he would not do it , Joshua 24. 15. If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord ; chuse you this day whom you will serve : But as for me and my House , we will serve the Lord. It was well resolv'd of Peter , if he had not been too confident of his own Strength , when he said to our Saviour , Though all Men forsake thee , yet will not I. 2. Another sort of Temptation , and which is commonly more Powerful than Example , is worldly Interest and Advantage . This is a mighty Bait to a great Part of Mankind , and apt to work very strongly upon the Necessities of some , and upon the Covetousness and Ambition of others . Some Men are tempted by Necessity , which many times makes them do ugly and reproachful Things , and like Esau , for a Morsel of Meat to sell their Birth-right , and Blessing . Covetousness tempts others to be of that Religion which gives them the prospect of the greatest Earthly Advantage , either for the increasing or securing of their Estates . When they find that they cannot serve God and Mammon ; they will forsake the one , and cleave to the other . This was one of the great Temptations to many in the Primitive Times , and a frequent Cause of Apostacy from the Faith ; an eager Desire of Riches , and too great a Value for them ; as St. Paul observes , 1 Tim. 6. 9 , 10. But they that will be Rich , fall into Temptation and a Snare , and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts , which drown Men in Destruction and Perdition . For the Love of Money is the Root of all Evil ; which while some have coveted after , they have erred , or been seduced from the Faith , and pierced themselves through with many Sorrows . This was the Temptation which drew off Demas from his Religion ; as St. Paul tells us , 2 Tim. 4. 10. Demas hath forsaken me , having loved this present World. Ambition , is likewise a great Temptation to proud and aspiring Minds , and makes many Men false to their Religion , when they find it a hinderance to their Preferment ; and they are easily perswaded , that That is the best Religion , which is attended with the greatest worldly Advantages , and will raise them to the highest Dignity . The Devil understood very well the Force of this Temptation , when he set upon our Saviour ; and therefore reserv'd it for the last Assault . He shewed him all the Kingdoms of the Earth , and the Glory of them ; and said to him , All this will I give thee , if thou wilt fall down and worship me . And when he saw this would not prevail , he gave him over in despair , and left him . But though this be a very dazling Temptation ; yet there are Considerations of that Weight to be set over-against it , from the Nature of Religion , and the infinite Concernment of it to our immortal Souls , as is sufficient to quench this fiery Dart of the Devil , and to put all the Temptations of this World out of Countenance , and to render all the Riches and Glory of it , in comparison of the Eternal Happiness and Misery of the other World but as the very small Dust upon the Balance . What Temptation of this World can stand against that Argument of our Saviour , if it be seriously weighed and considered ; What is a Man profited ; if he gain the whole World , and lose his own Soul ? or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul ? If we would consider Things impartially , and weigh them in a just and equal Balance ; the Things which concern our Bodies , and this present Life , are of no Consideration , in comparison of the great and vast Concernments of our immortal Souls , and the happy or miserable Condition of our Bodies and Souls to all Eternity . And Religion is a Matter of this vast Concernment ; and therefore not to be bargained away and parted with by us for the greatest Things this World can offer . There is no greater Sign of a sordid Spirit , than to put a high Value upon Things of little Worth ; and no greater Mark of Folly , than to make an unequal Bargain , to part with Things of greatest Price for a slender and trifling Consideration : As if a Man of great Fortune and Estate , should sell the Inheritance of it for a Picture ; which when he hath it , will not perhaps yield so much as will maintain him for one Year . The Folly is so much the greater , in Things of infinitely greater Value ; as for a Man to quit God and Religion , to sell the Truth and his Soul , and to part with his Everlasting Inheritance , for a convenient Service , for a good Customer , and some present Advantage in his Trade and Profession , or indeed for any Condition which the foolish Language of this World cal's a high Place , or a great Preferment . The Things which these Men part with upon these cheap Terms , God , and his Truth , and Religion , are to those who understand themselves , and the just Value of their Immortal Souls , Things of inestimable Worth , and not to be parted with by a considerate Man , for any Price that this World can bid . And those who are to be bought out of their Religion , upon such low Terms , and so easily parted from it , 't is much to be feared that they have little or no Religion to hold fast . 2. As we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering , against the Temptations and Allurements of this World ; so likewise against the Terrors of it . Fear is a Passion of great force ; and , if Men be not very resolute and constant , will be apt to stagger them , and to move them from their stedfastness . And therefore when the Case of Suffering and Persecution for the Truth happens , we had need to hold fast the Profession of our Faith. Our Saviour in the Parable of the Sower tells us , that there were many that heard the Word , and with joy received it : but when Persecution and Tribulation arose because of the Word , presently they were offended . And though , blessed be God , this be not now our Case ; yet there was a Time when it was the general Case of Christians , in the first beginning of Christianity , and for several Ages after , though with some Intermission and Intervals of Ease . It was then a general Rule , and the common Expectation of Christians , That through many Tribulations they must enter into the Kingdom of God ; and that if any Man will live Godly in Christ Jesus , he must suffer Persecution . And in several Ages since those Primitive Times , the sincere Professors of Religion have , in divers places , been exposed to most grievous Sufferings and Persecutions for the Truth . And even at this day , in several Places , the faithful Servants of God are exercised with the sharpest and sorest Tryals that perhaps were ever heard of in any Age ; and for the sake of God , and the constant Profession of his true Religion , are tormented and killed all the day long , and are accounted as Sheep for the slaughter . It is Their hard Lot to be called to these cruel and bitter Sufferings ; and Our happy Opportunity to be call'd upon for their Relief ; Those of them , I mean , that have escaped that terrible Storm and Tempest , and have taken Refuge and Sanctuary here among us , and out of His Majesty's great Humanity and Goodness are by his Publick Letters recommended to the Charity of the whole Nation , by the Name of Distressed Protestants . Let us consider how much easier Our Lot and Our Duty is , than Theirs ; as much as it is easier to compassionate the Sufferings , and to relieve the Distresses of Others , than to be such Sufferers , and in such Distress Our Selves . Let us make Their Case our Own ; and then we our selves will be the best Judges , how it is fit for us to demean our selves towards them , and to what degree we ought to extend our Charity and Compassion to them . Let us put on their Case and Circumstances ; and suppose that We were the Sufferers , and had fled to Them for Refuge : the same Pity and Commiseration , the same tender Regard and Consideration of our sad Case , the same liberal and effectual Relief that we should desire and expect , and be glad to have shewn and afforded to our selves ; let us give to them ; and then I am sure they will want no fitting Comfort and Support from us . We enjoy ( blessed be the Goodness of God to us ) great Peace and Plenty , and Freedom from Evil and Suffering : And surely one of the best Means , to have these Blessings continued to us , and our Tranquility prolonged , is , to consider and relieve those who want the Blessings which we enjoy ; and the readiest way to provoke God to deprive us of these Blessings , is , to shut up the Bowels of our Compassion from our Distressed Brethren . God can easily change the Scene , and make our Sufferings , if not in the same kind , yet in one kind or other equal to theirs ; and then we shall remember the Afflictions of Joseph , and say as his Brethren did , when they fell into Trouble , We are verily guilty concerning our Brother , in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us , and we would not hear ; therefore is this Distress come upon us . God alone knows what Storms the Devil may yet raise in the World , before the End of it : And therefore it concerns all Christians , in all Times and Places , who have taken upon them the Profession of Christ's Religion , to consider well before-hand , and to calculate the Dangers and Sufferings it may expose them to , and to arm our selves with Resolution and Patience against the fiercest Assaults of Temptation ; considering the Shortness of all Temporal Afflictions and Sufferings , in comparison of the Eternal and Glorious Reward of them ; and the Lightness of them too , in comparison of the endless and intolerable Torments of another World ; to which every Man exposeth himself , who forsakes God , and renounceth his Truth , and wounds his Conscience , to avoid Temporal Sufferings . And though Fear in many Cases , especially if it be of Death and extream Suffering , be a great Excuse for several Actions ; because it may , Cadere in constantem virum , happen to a resolute Man : Yet in this case , of Renouncing our Religion ( unless it be very sudden and surprizing , out of which a Man recovers himself when he comes to himself ( as St. Peter did ) or the Suffering be so extream , as to put a Man besides himself for the time , so as to make him say or do any thing ; ) I say in this case of Renouncing God and his Truth , God will not admit Fear for a just excuse of our Apostacy ; which , if it be unrepented of , ( and the Scripture speaks of Repentance in that case as very difficult ) will be our Ruin. And the Reason is ; because God has given us such fair Warning of it , that we may be prepared for it , in the Resolution of our Minds : And we enter into Religion upon these Terms , with a professed Expectation of Suffering , and a firm Purpose to lay down our Lives for the Truth , if God shall call us to it . If any Man will be my Disciple , says our Lord , let him deny himself , and take up his Cross and follow me : And again , He that loveth Life it self more than me , is not worthy of me : And if any Man be ashamed of me , and of my Words , in this unfaithful Generation , of him will I be ashamed before my Father and the Holy Angels . And therefore to master and subdue this Fear , our Saviour hath propounded great Objects of Terror to us , and a Danger infinitely more to be dreaded , which every Man runs himself wilfully upon , who shall quit the Profession of his Religion , to avoid Temporal Sufferings ; Luke 12. 4 , 5. Fear not them that can kill the Body , but after that have nothing that they can do : But I will tell you whom you shall fear . Fear him , who after he hath killed , can destroy both Body and Soul in Hell : Yea , I say unto you , Fear him . And to this dreadful Hazard every Man exposeth himself , who , for the Fear of Men , ventures thus to offend God. These are the Fearful and Vnbelievers spoken of by St. John , Who shall have their Portion in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone , which is the second Death . Thus you see how we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering , against all Temptations and Terrors of this World. I should now have proceeded to the next Particular ; namely , that we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith , against all vain Promises of being put into a safer Condition , and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier Terms , in some other Church and Religion . But this I shall not now enter upon . A SERMON ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering , for he is faithful that promised . IN these Words , I have told you , are contained these Two Parts : I. An Exhortation , To hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering . II. An Argument or Encouragement thereto ; Because he is faithful that hath promised . I am yet upon the First of these , the Exhortation to Christians , to be Constant and Steady in the Profession of their Religion ; Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering . And that we might the better comprehend the true and full meaning of this Exhortation , I shewed , I. Negatively , what is not meant and intended by it : And I mentioned these Two Particulars : 1. The Apostle doth not hereby intend , that those who are capable of enquiring into , and examining the Grounds and Reasons of their Religion , should not have the liberty to do it . Nor , 2. That when upon due Enquiry and Examination , Men are settled , as they think and verily believe , in the True Faith and Religion ; they should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason that can be offered against their present Persuasion ; for Reason when it is fairly offered is always to be heard . I proceeded in the Second Place , Positively to explain the Meaning of this Exhortation : And to this purpose I proposed to consider , 1. What it is that we are to hold fast ; viz. the Confession or Profession of our Faith : The Ancient Christian Faith which every Christian makes Profession of in his Baptism ; Not the Doubtful and Uncertain Traditions of Men , nor the Imperious Dictates and Doctrines of any Church ( which are not contained in the Holy Scriptures ) imposed upon the Christian World , though with never so confident a Pretence of the Antiquity of the Doctrines , or of the Infallibility of the Proposers of them . And then I proceded , in the Second Place , to shew how we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering : And I mentioned these following Particulars , as probably implied and comprehended in the Apostles Exhortation . 1. That we should hold fast the Profession of our Faith , against the Confidence of Men , without Scripture or Reason to support that Confidence . 2. And much more against the Confidence of Men , contrary to plain Scripture , and Reason , and the common Sense of Mankind ; under both which Heads I gave several Instances of Doctrines and Practices imposed with great Confidence upon the World , some without , and others plainly against Scripture , and Reason , and the common Sense of Mankind . 3. Against all the Temptations and and Terrours of the World ; the Temptations of Fashion and Example , and of worldly Interest and Advantage ; and against the Terrours of Persecution and Suffering for the Truth . Thus far I have gone . I shall now proceed to the Two other Particulars which remain to be spoken to . 4. We are to hold fast the profession of our Faith , against all vain Promises of being put into a safer Condition , and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier Terms , in some other Church and Religion . God hath plainly declared to us in the holy Scriptures , upon what Terms and Conditions we may obtain Eternal Life and Happiness , and what will certainly exclude us from it ; That except we repent , ( i. e. ) without true Contrition for our Sins , and forsaking of them , we shall perish : That without Holiness no man shall see the Lord : That no Fornicator , or Adulterer , or Idolater , or Covetous Person , nor any one that lives in the practice of such sins , shall have any Inheritance in the Kingdom of God or Christ. There is as great and unpassable a Gulf fixt between Heaven and a wicked Man ; as there is betwixt Heaven and Hell. And when Men have done all they can to debauch and corrupt the Christian Doctrine , it is impossible to reconcile a wicked Life with any reasonable and well-grounded Hopes of Happiness in another World. No Church hath that Priviledge , to save a Man upon any other Terms , than those which our Blessed Saviour hath declared in his holy Gospel . All Religions are equal in this ; That a bad Man can be Saved in none of them . The Church of Rome pretends their Church and Religion to be the only safe and sure way to Salvation ; and yet , if their Doctrine be true , concerning the Intention of the Priest , ( and if it be not , they are much to blame in making it an Article of their Faith ) I say , if it be true , that the Intention of the Priest is necessary to the Validity and Virtue of the Sacraments ; then there is no Religion in the World , that runs the Salvation of Men upon more and greater Hazards and Uncertainties , and such as by no Care and Diligence of Man in working out his own Salvation , are to be avoided and prevented . As for the easier Terms of Salvation which they offer to Men , they signifie nothing , if they be not able to make them good ; which no Man can reasonably believe they can do , that hath read the Bible , and doth in any good measure understand the Nature of God , and the Design of Religion . For Instance ; That after the long Course of a most lewd and flagitious Life , a Man may be reconciled to God , and have his Sins forgiven at the last Gasp , upon Confession of them to the Priest , with that imperfect degree of Contrition for them , which they call Attrition , together with the Absolution of the Priest. Now Attrition is a Trouble for Sin , meerly for fear of the Punishment of it . And this , together with Confession , and the Absolution of the Priest , without any Hatred of Sin for the Evil and Contrariety of it to the holy Nature and Law of God , and without the least Spark of Love to God , will do the Sinner's business , and put him into a state of Grace and Salvation , without any other Grace or Disposition for Salvation , but only the Fear of Hell and Damnation . This , I confess , is easie ; but the great Difficulty is , to believe it to be true . And certainly , no man that ever seriously considered the Nature of God and Religion , can ever be persuaded to build the Hopes of his Salvation upon such a Quick-sand . The Absolution of all the Priests in the World will not procure the Forgiveness of God for any Man , that is not disposed for his Mercy by such a Repentance as the Gospel requires ; which I am sure is very different from that which is required by the Council of Trent . They that offer Heaven to Men upon so very large and loose Terms , give great Cause to suspect , that they will never make good their Offer ; the Terms are so unreasonably cheap and easie , that there must be some Fraud and False Dealing . And on the other hand , nothing ought to recommend our Religion more to a wise and considerate Man ; than that the Terms of Salvation which we propose to Men , viz. Faith , and Repentance , and a sincere Obedience to the Precepts of the Gospel , manifested in the Tenure of a Holy and Virtuous Life , are not only perfectly agreeable to the plain and constant Declaration of Holy Scripture ; but do likewise naturally tend to engage Men most effectually to a good Life , and thereby to make them meet to be made partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light. And therefore every body ought to be afraid of a Religion , which makes such lavish Offers of Salvation , and to take heed how he ventures his Soul upon them . For if , after all the Hopes that are given of Salvation upon such and such Terms , the Sinner do really miscarry and miss of Heaven ; it is but very ill Comfort to him , to be put into a Fools Paradise , for a Minute or two before he leaves the World , and the next Moment after to find himself in the place of Torments . I proceed to the 5. And Last Particular I mentioned , as implied in the Exhortation here in the Text , viz. That we hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering , against all the cunning Arts and Insinuations of busie and disputing Men , whose Design it is to unhinge Men from their Religion , and to gain Proselytes to their Party and Faction . To this purpose there are several Cautions given by our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles . Matth. 24. 4. Take heed that no man deceive you ; for many shall come in my Name , and shall deceive many . Eph. 4. 14. That ye henceforth be no more Children , tossed to and fro , and carried about with every Wind of Doctrine , by the slight of men : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( the Word signifies the Cunning of Gamesters at Dice ; ) by the slight of Men , and the cunning Craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive . And Chap. 5. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain Words . Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain Deceit ; that is , by Sophistry and vain Reasoning , under a pretence of Philosophy . Heb. 13. 9. Be not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines . 2 Pet. 3. 17. Beware lest you also , being led away with the Error of the Wicked , fall from your own stedfastness . And this Caution is enforc'd by an express Prediction of a great Apostasie which should happen in the Christian Church , by which many should be seduced , by pretence of Miracles , and by several Arts of Deceit and Falshood . This Apostasie St. Paul expresly foretels , 2 Thess. 2. 1 , 2 , 3. We beseech you , Brethren , by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ , that ye be not soon shaken in mind , or be troubled , neither by Spirit ( that is , by pretence to Inspiration ) nor by Word ( or Message ) nor by Letter as from us , as that the Day of Christ is at hand . Let no man deceive you by any means ; for that Day shall not come , except there come a falling away , and that Man of Sin be revealed , the Son of Perdition . And after a particular Description of him , he adds , v. 9. Whose coming is after the working of Satan , with all Power , and Signs , and lying Wonders , and in all deceitfulness of Vnrighteousness in them that perish . From all which he concludes , v. 15. Therefore , Brethren , stand fast . The particular nature and kind of this Apostasie the same Apostle describes more fully , 1 Tim 4. 1 , 2 , 3. Now the Spirit speaketh expresly , that in the latter times some shall apostatize from the Faith , giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils , speaking Lies in Hypocrisie , ( i. e. under a great Pretence of Sanctity , spreading their pernicious Errours ) forbidding to marry , and commanding to abstain from meats . This is a very lively and pat Description of that great Apostasie in the Christian Church , which began in the Western Part of it , and hath spread it self far and wide . For there the Spirit of Error and Falshood has prevailed , under an Hypocritical Pretence of their being the only True Church and True Christians in the World : There Marriage , and several sorts of Meat , are forbidden to several Ranks and Orders of Men. All the Difficulty is , what is here meant by Doctrines of Devils ; and these certainly can be no other than Doctrines tending to Idolatry , which the Scripture every where doth in a particular manner ascribe to the Devil , as the Inventer and great Promoter of it . And this is very much confirmed by what we find added in some ancient Greek Copies in this Text , which runs thus : In the latter times some shall apostatize from the Faith ; for they shall worship the Dead , as some also in Israel worshiped . And then it follows , giving heed to seducing Spirits , and Doctrines of Devils . So that the particular kind of Idolatry , into which some part of the Christian Church should apostatize , is here pointed at : That they should worship Souls departed , or the Spirits of dead Men ; which was part of the Heathen Idolatry , into which the People of Israel did frequently relapse . So that the Spirit of God doth here foretel such an Apostasie in some part of the Christian Church as the People of Israel were guilty of , in falling into the Heathen Idolatry . They shall be Worshipers of the Dead , as the Israelites also were . And this is the great and dangerous Seduction which the Christians are so much cautioned against in the New Testament , and charged to hold fast the profession of the Faith against the cunning Arts and Insinuations of seducing Spirits ; not but ( as I said before ) that we are always to have an Ear open to Reason , and to be ready to hearken and to yield to That , whenever it is fairly proposed : But to be over-reached and rooked out of one's Religion , by little Sophistical Arts and Tricks , is Childish and silly . After we are , upon due Trial and Examination of the Grounds of our Religion , settled and established in it , we ought not to suffer our selves to be removed from it , by the groundless Pretences of Confident People to Infallibility , and to be practised upon by Cunning Men , who lie at catch to make Proselytes to their Party . This is to be like Children , tossed to and fro , and carried about with every Wind of Doctrine . And we ought to be the more careful of our selves ; because there never was any time , wherein seducing Spirits were more bold and busie to pervert Men from the Truth . Against These we should hold . fast our Religion , as a Man would do his Money in a Crowd . It passeth in the World for a great Mark of Folly , when a Man and his Money are soon parted : But it is a sign of much greater Folly , for a Man easily to quit his Religion ; especially to be caught by some such gross Methods , as the Seducers I am speaking of commonly use , and which lie so very open to Suspicion ; such as ill-designing Men are wont to practise upon a young Heir , when they have insinuated themselves into his Company , to make a Prey of him . They charge him to tell no body in what Company he hath been ; not to ask the Counsel and Advice of his Friends concerning what they have been persuading him to ; because they , for their own Interest , will be sure to disswade him from it . Just thus do these Seducers practise upon weak People . They charge them not to acquaint their Minister , with whom they have been , nor what Discourse they have had about Religion , nor what Books have been put into their Hands ; because then , all their kind Design and Intention towards them will be defeated . But above all , they must be sure to read no Books on the other side , because they are no competent Judges of Points of Faith ; and this reading on both sides will rather confound , than clear their Understandings . They tell them , that they have stated the matter truly , and would not for all the World deceive them ; and they may easily perceive , by their earnest Application to them , that nothing but Charity , and a passionate desire of the Salvation of their Souls , makes them take all these Pains with them . But this is so gross a way of proceeding , that any Man of common understanding must needs discern by this kind Treatment , that these Men can have no honest Design upon them . To come then to a more particular Consideration of the Arts and Methods which they use ( I mean particularly those of the Church of Rome ) in making Proselytes to their Religion : As , 1. In allowing them to be very competent and sufficient Judges for themselves , in the Choice of their Church and Religion , ( that is , which is the True Church and Religion , in which alone Salvation is to be had ) and yet telling them at the same time , that they are utterly incapable of judging of particular Doctrines , and Points of Faith and Practice ; but for these , they must rely upon the Judgment of an Infallible Church , when they are in it ; otherwise they will certainly run into damnable Errors and Mistakes about these things . And they must of necessity allow them to be sufficient Judges for themselves in the Choice of their Religion ; as will be evident , by considering in what Method they proceed with their intended Proselyte . They propose to him to change his Church and his Religion , because he is in the wrong ; and they will shew him a better , and such a one as is the only True one , and in which alone Salvation is to be had . To perswade him hereto , they offer him some Reasons and Arguments , or give him Books to read , containing Arguments to move him to make this Change , to satisfie him of the Reasonableness , and to convince him of the Necessity of it . Now by this way of proceeding ( and they can take no other ) they do , whether they will or no , make the Person , whom they are endeavouring to convert , a Judge for himself , which Church and Religion is best ; that which they would have him embrace and come over to , or that which they would perswade him to forsake . For to what end else do they offer him Reasons and Arguments to perswade him to leave our Church , and to come over to theirs ; but that he may consider the Force and Weight of them ; and having considered them , may judge whether they be of force sufficient to over-rule him to make this Change ? So that as unwilling as they are to make particular Persons judge for themselves about Points of Faith , and about the Sense of Scripture confirming those Points ( because this is to leave every Man to his own private Spirit and Fancy , and giddy Brain ) yet they are compelled by Necessity , and against their own Principles , to allow a Man , in this case of chusing his Religion , to be a Judge of the Reasons and Arguments which they offer to induce him thereto . So that , whether they will or no , they must permit him to be a Judge for himself for this once , but not to make a Practice of it , or to pretend this Priviledge ever after : For in acknowledgment of this great Favour , of being permitted to judge for himself this once , ( which they do unwillingly grant him , and upon meer Necessity ) he is for ever after to resign up his Judgment to the Church . And tho this Liberty be allowed pro hâc vice , and properly to serve a turn , i. e. in order to the changing of his Religion ; yet he is to understand , that he is no fit and competent Judge of particular Points of Faith ; these he must all learn from the True Church when he is in it , and take them upon her Authority ; and in so doing he shall do very prudently , because She is infallible , and cannot be deceived ; but He may . But is there any Sense in all this , that a Man should be very fit and able to judge of that which they esteem the main and fundamental Point of all , namely , which is the True Church and Religion ; and of the Reasons and Arguments whereby they pretend to demonstrate it ; and of the true Meaning of those Texts of Scripture , whereby they pretend to prove theirs to be the only True Church : and yet should be wholly unable to judge of particular Points of Faith ; or of the True Sense of any Texts of Scripture that can be produced for the Proof of those Points ? Is it so very prudent , in all the particular Points of Faith , for a Man to rely upon the Judgment of the Church , because She is infallible ; and not to trust his own Judgment about them , because He is fallible , and may be deceived ? And is it prudent likewise for this Man to trust his own Judgment in the main Business of all ; namely , Which is the true Church and Religion ; concerning which he is as fallible in his Judgment , and as liable to be deceived , as in the Particular Points ? And if he be mistaken in the main Point , they must grant his Mistake to be fatal ; because his Sincerity , as to all the rest , depends upon it . This is a great Mystery and Riddle ; that every particular Man should have so sufficient a Judgment as to this main and fundamental Business , Which is the True Church and Religion ; and should have no Judgment at all about particular Points , fit to be trusted and relied upon ! As if there were a certain Judgment and Prudence , quoad hoc ; and as if all Men's Understandings were so framed , as to be very judicious and discerning in this main Point of Religion ; but to be weak , and dangerous , and blind , as to all particular Points : Or , as if a Man might have a very good Judgment , and be fit to be trusted and relyed upon , before he come into their Church ; but from the very moment he enters into it , his Judgment were quite lost and good for nothing : For this in effect and by interpretation they say , when they allow a Man to be very able to judge which is the true Church and Religion ; but so soon as he hath discovered and embraced that , to have no Judgment of his own afterwards of any Point of Religion whatsoever ; and a very tempting Argument it is to any Man that hath Judgment , to enter into that Church . 2. Another Art they use with their intended Proselyte , in order to his makeing a right choice of his Religion , is to caution him , to hear and read only the Arguments and Books which are on one side . But now admitting their designed Proselyte to be just such a Judge , and so far as they will allow him to be , and no farther , viz. Which is the true Church ; but to have no Fitness and Ability at all to judge of particular Points of Faith ; yet methinks they put a very odd Condition , and untoward Restraint upon this Judge , in telling him , ( as they certainly use to do those whom they would pervert ) That he must have no Discourse , nor read any Books , but only on that side which they would gain him to ; because that is the way to perplex and confound him , so that he shall never be able to come to a clear Judgment and Resolution in the Matter . But will any Man admit this way of proceeding in a Temporal Case ? This is just as if in a Cause of the greatest consequence , the Councel on one side should go about to persuade the Judge , that it is only fit to hear what he hath to say in the Case ; that he will open it very plainly , and state the Matter in difference of clearly and impartially , and bring such strong Reasons and Proofs for what he says , that he shall not need to hear any thing on the other side , but may proceed to Judgment without any more ado : But if when the matter is thus laid before him so plainly , and is even ripe for Judgment , he will trouble himself needlesly to hear , the other side ; this will cast him back where they first began , and bring the Matter to an endless wrangling , and so confound and puzzle his Understanding , that he shall never be able to pass any clear Judgment in the Cause . What think we would a Judge say to such a bold and senseless Pleader ? The Case is the same , and the Absurdity every whit as gross and palpable , in pressing any Man to make a Judgment in a Matter which infinitely more concerns him , upon hearing only the Reasons and Arguments on one side . 3. Another Art which they use in makeing Proselytes , is to possess them , that there is but One thing that they are mainly concern'd to enquire into , and that is this ; Since there is but one true Catholick Church of Christ upon Earth , out of which there is no Salvation to be had ; Which that True Church is ; And when they have found that out , that will teach them in a most Infallible way the True Faith and Religion , and all things that are necessary to be believed or done by them , in order to their Salvation ; so that they have nothing to do , but to satisfie themselves in this single Enquiry ; Which is the True Catholick Church of Christ ? This is the Vnum necessarium , the one thing necessary ; and when they have found out this , and are satisfied about it , they need to enquire no farther ; this Church will fully instruct and satisfie them in all other things . And this I cannot deny to be a very Artificial way of proceeding , and to serve their purpose very well ; for they have these two great Advantages by it . 1. That it makes the work short , and saves them a great deal of labour , by bringing the whole Business to one single Enquiry : and when they have gained this Point , that this single Question is all that they need to be satisfied in ; then they have nothing to do , but to ply and puzzle the Man with their Motives of Credibility , and Marks of the true Church ; and to shew , as well as they can , how these Marks agree to Their Church , and are all to be found in it , and in no other ; and to set out to the best advantage the Glorious Priviledges of Their Church , the Miraculous things that have been and are still daily done in it , and the innumerable multitude of their Saints and Martyrs : and if these General Things take and sink into them , their work is in effect done . 2. Another great Advantage they have by it , is , That by bringing them to this Method , they divert and keep them off from the many Objects against their Church and Religion , namely , the Errors and Corruptions which we charge them withal . For this is the thing they are afraid of , and will by no means be brought to ; to vindicate and make good their Innovations in Faith and Practice , so plainly in many things contrary to Scripture , and to the Faith and Practice of the Primitive Church ; as the Doctrines of Transubstantiation , of Purgatory , the Popes Supremacy , of the Infallibility of their Church , of their Seven Sacraments Instituted by Christ , and of the Intention of the Priest being necessary to the Validity and Virtue of the Sacraments : and then several of their Practices ; as of the Worship of Images , of the Invocation of Angels and Saints , of the Service of God and the Scriptures in an Vnknown Tongue , and the Communion in one Kind ; and several other things , so plainly contrary to the Scriptures , and the Practice and Usage of the Primitive Church , that almost the meanest Capacity may easily be made sensible and convinced of it . These are sore places , which they desire not to have touched , and therefore they use all possible Artifice , to keep Men at a distance from them ; partly because the particular discussion of them is tedious , and it requires more than ordinary Skill , to say any thing that is tenable for them , and so to paint and varnish them over , as to hide the Corruptions and Deformities of them ; but chiefly , because they are conscious to themselves , that as in all these Points they are upon the Defensive , so they are also upon very great Disadvantages ; and therefore to avoid , if it be possible , being troubled with them , they have devised this shorter , and easier , and more convenient way of making Proselytes . Not that they are always able to keep themselves thus within their Trenches ; but are sometimes , whether they will or no , drawn out to Encounter some of these Objections : but they rid themselves of them as soon , and as dexterously as they can , by telling those that make them , that they will hereafter give them full Satisfaction to all these Matters , when they are gotten over the first and main Enquiry ; Which is the true Church ? For if they can keep them to this Point , and gain them to it , they can deal with them more easily in the rest ; for when they can once swallow this Principle , That the Church of Rome is the One True Catholick Church , and consequently , as they have told them all along , Infallible ; this Infallibility of the Church once entertained , will cover a multitude of particular Errors and Mistakes ; and it will very much help to cure the weakness and defects of some particular Doctrines and Practices , and at least to silence and over-rule all Objections against them . So that the benefit and advantage of this Method is visibly and at first sight very great ; and therefore no wonder they are so steady and constant to it , and do so obstinately insist upon it . But how convenient soever it be to them ; it is , I am sure , very unreasonable in it self ; and that upon these Accounts . 1. Because the True Church doth not constitute and make the True Christian Faith and Doctrine ; but it is the True Christian Faith and Doctrine , the Profession whereof makes the True Church ; and therefore in Reason and Order of Nature , the first Enquiry must be ; What is the True Faith and Doctrine of Christ , which by him was delivered to the Apostles , and by them publish'd and made known to the World , and by their Writings Transmitted and Conveyed down to us ? And this being found , every Society of Christians which holds this Doctrine , is a True Part of the Catholick Church ; and all the Christians throughout the World that agree in this Doctrine , are the One True Catholick Church . 2. The Enquiry about the True Church can have no Issue , even according to their own way of proceeding , without a due Examination of the particular Doctrines and Practices of that Church , the Communion whereof they would perswade a Man to embrace . We will admit at present this to be the first Enquiry ; Which is the True Church ? Let us now see in what way they manage this , to gain Men over to their Church . They tell them , that the Church of Rome is the One True Catholick Church of Christ. The truth of this Assertion we will particularly examine afterwards , when we come to consider the next step of their Method , in dealing with their Converts . At present I shall only take notice in the General , what way they take to prove this Assertion ; namely , That the Church of Rome is the One True Catholick Church ; and that is , by the Notes and Marks of the True Church , which they call their Motives of Credibility ; because by these they design to perswade them , that the Church of Rome is the One True Catholick Church . I shall not now reckon up all the Notes and Marks which they give of the True Church ; but only observe , that one of their Principal Marks of the True Church is this ; That the Faith and Doctrine of it be agreeable to the Doctrine of the Primitive and Apostolick Church , ( i. e. ) to the Doctrine delivered by our Saviour and his Apostles : And this Bellarmine makes one of the Marks of the True Church . And they must unavoidably make it so ; because the True Faith and Doctrine of Christ , is that which indeed Constitutes the True Church . But if this be an Essential Mark of the True Church ; then no Man can possibly know the Church of Rome to be the True Church , till he have examin'd the particular Doctrines and Practices of it , and the Agreement of them with the Primitive Doctrine and Practice of Christianity ; and this necessarily draws on and engages them in a dispute of the particular Points and Differences betwixt us ; which is the very thing they would avoid by this Method , and which I have now plainly shewed they cannot do ; because they cannot possibly prove their Church to be the True Church , without shewing the Conformity of their Doctrines and Practices , to the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive and Apostolick Church ; and this will give them work enough , and will , whether they will or no , draw them out of their Hold and Fastness ; which is to amuse People with a general Enquiry , Which is the true Church ; without descending to the Examination of their particular Doctrines and Practices . But this they must of necessity come to , before they can prove by the Notes and Marks of the True Church , that theirs is the True Church . And this is a Demonstration , that their Method of Satisfaction , as it is Unnatural and Unreasonable , so it cannot serve the purpose they aim at by it ; which is , to divert Men from the Examination of the particular Points in Difference between the Church of Rome and Us , and to gain them over to them by a wile and trick ; because the very Method they take to prove themselves to be the True Catholick Church , will enforce them to justifie all their particular Doctrines and Practices , before they can finish this Proof . And here we fix our foot ; That the single Question and Point , upon which they would put the whole Issue of the Matter , cannot possibly be brought to any reasonable Issue , without a particular Discussion and Examination of the Points in Difference betwixt Their Church and Ours : and when they can make out these to be agreeable to the Primitive Doctrine and Practice of the Christian Church ; we have reason to be satisfied , that the Church of Rome is a Church , in the Communion whereof a Man may be safe : But till that be made out ; they have done nothing to perswade any Man that understands himself , that it is safe , much less necessary to be of their Communion . But if particular Points must be discussed and cleared , before a Man can be satisfied in the Enquiry after the True Church ; then they must allow their intended Convert to be a Judge likewise of particular Points ; and if he be sufficient for that too , before he comes into their Church , I do not see of what use the Infallibility of the Church will be to him , when he is in it . A SERMON , ON HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering ; for he is faithful that promised . I Have already made a considerable Progress in my Discourse upon these Words ; in which I told you , there is an Exhortation to hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering : and an Argument or Encouragement thereto ; because he is faithful that promised . I am yet upon the First of these , the Exhortation to hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering ; by which I told you the Apostle doth not intend , that those who are capable of examining the Grounds and Reasons of their Religion , should not have the Liberty to do it : nor that ▪ when upon due Enquiry they are , as they verily believe , established in the true Faith and Religion ; they should obstinately refuse to hear any Reason that is fairly offered against their present Persuasion . And then I proceeded to shew positively , First , What it is that we are here exhorted to hold fast , ( viz. ) The Confession or Profession of our Faith ; the ancient Christian Faith , of which every Christian makes Profession in his Baptism . For it is of that the Apostle here speaks , as appears plainly by the Context . Secondly , How we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith. And of this I gave Account in these following Particulars . 1. We should hold fast the Profession of our Faith , against the Confidence of Men , without Scripture or Reason to support that Confidence . 2. And much more against the Confidence of Men , contrary to plain Scripture and Reason , and the common Sense of Mankind ; of which I gave you particular Instances . 3. Against all the Temptations and Terrors of the World. 4. Against all vain Promises of being put into a safer Condition , and groundless Hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier Terms , in some other Church and Religion . I am now upon the 5. And Last Particular I mentioned , namely , That we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering , against all the cunning Arts and Insinuations of busie and disputing Men , whose Design it is to unhinge Men from their Religion , and to make Proselytes to their Party and Faction . I have already mentioned some of the Arts which they use , ( I mean particularly them of the Church of Rome ) in making Proselytes to their Religion ; and I have shewn the Absurdity and Unreasonableness of them . As , First , In allowing Men to be very competent and sufficient Judges for themselves , in the Choice of their Religion ; ( i. e. which is the True Church and Religion in which alone Salvation is to be had ) and yet telling them at the same time , that they are utterly incapable of judging of particular Doctrines and Points of Faith. As for these , they must rely upon the Judgment of an Infallible Church ; and if they do not , they will certainly run into damnable Errors and Mistakes . And they must of necessity allow them the first , a sufficient Ability to judge for themselves in the Choice of their Religion : Otherwise in vain do they offer them Arguments to perswade them to Theirs ; if they cannot judge of the Force of them . But now , after this , to deny them all Ability to judge of particular Doctrines and Points of Faith , is a very absurd and inconsistent Pretence . Secondly , Another Art they use , in order to their making a right Choice of their Religion , is earnestly to perswade them to hear and read only the Arguments and Books on Their side : Which is just as if one should go about to persuade a Judge , in order to the better understanding and clearer Decision of a Cause , to hear only the Council on one side . Thirdly , They tell them , that the only thing they are to enquire into , is , which is the True Church , the one Catholick Church mentioned in the Creed , out of which there is no Salvation ; and when they have found that , they are to rely upon the Authority of that Church , which is Infallible , for all other things . And this Method they wisely take , to avoid particular Disputes about the Innovations and Errors which we charge them withal . But I have shewn at large , that this cannot be the First Enquiry : Because it is not the true Church , that makes the true Christian Faith and Doctrine ; but the Profession of the true Christian Faith and Doctrine , which makes the true Church . Besides , their way of proving Their Church to be the only true Church , being by the Marks and Properties of the true Church , of which the Chief is , The Conformity of their Doctrines and Practices with the Primitive and Apostolical Church ; this unavoidably draws on an Examination of their particular Doctrines and Practices , whether they be conformable to those of the Primitive and Apostolical Church , before their great Enquiry , Which is the True Church , can be brought to any Issue ; which it is plain it can never be , without entring into the Ocean of particular Disputes , which they desire above all things to avoid . So that they are never the nearer by this Method ; they can neither shorten their Work by it , nor keep off the Examination of their particular Errors and Corruptions ; which are a very sore place , and they cannot endure we should touch it . I shall now proceed to discover some other Arts and Methods which they use in seducing People to Their Church and Religion , and shall be as brief in them as I can . Fourthly , They pretend , that the Roman Church is the Catholick Church , ( i. e. ) the Visible Society of all Christians , united to the Bishop of Rome , as the Supream Pastor and Visible Head of Christ's Church upon Earth : from whence it clearly follows , That it is necessary to all Christians to joyn themselves to the Communion of the Roman Church ; otherwise they cannot be Members of the Catholick Church of Christ , out of which there is no Salvation . We grant the Consequence , That if the Roman Church be the Catholick Church , it is necessary to be of that Communion ; because out of the Catholick Church there is ordinarily no Salvation to be had . But how do they prove , that the Roman Church is the Catholick Church ? They would fain have us so civil , as to take this for granted : because if we do not ; they do not well know how to go about to prove it . And indeed , some things are obstinate , and will not be proved without so much Trouble and Difficulty , that it is better to let them alone ; and by the confident Assertion of them , by Importunity , and by any other fair means , to get them believed , without Proof of this stubborn sort of Propositions , which will admit of no Proof . This is one , That a Part is the Whole ; or , which is all one , Th●● the Roman Church is the Catholick Church . For that it is but a Part of the Christian Church , and not the best Part neither , but perhaps the very worst and most corrupt of all the rest , is no difficult matter to prove , and hath been often done . But now to prove the Church of Rome to be the Catholick Church ; that is , the whole Society of all True Christians in the World ; these following Particulars ought to be clearly shewn and made out . 1. A plain Constitution of our Saviour , whereby St. Peter and his Successors at Rome are made the Supream Head and Pastors of the whole Christian Church . For St. Peter first . Can they shew any such Constitution in the Gospel , or can they produce the least Proof and Evidence out of the History of the Acts and the Epistles of the Apostles , that St. Peter was acknowledg'd for such by the rest of the Apostles ? Nay , is there not clear evidence there to the contrary , that in the first Council of the Christian Church at Jerusalem , St. James the Bishop of Jerusalem was , if not Superior , at least equal to him ? Does St. Paul acknowledg any Superiority of St. Peter over him ? Nay , does he not upon several occasions declare himself equal to the chiefest Apostles , even to St. Peter himself ? And is this Consistent with a plain Constitution of our Lord's , makeing St. Peter Supream Head and Pastor of the Christian Church ? But suppose this to have been so ; where doth it appear , by any Constitution of our Saviour , that this Authority was derived to his Successors ? And if it were ; why to his Successors at Rome , rather than at Antioch , where he was first , and unquestionably Bishop ? They must acknowledg , that when he was Bishop of Antioch , he was the Supream Head and Pastor of the whole Christian Church ; and then the Style must have been , the Antiochian Catholick Church , as it is now the Roman Catholick . But do they find any footsteps of such a Style in Ecclesiastical History ? 2. To make good this Proposition , That the Roman Church is the Catholick Church ; they are in consequence obliged to affirm and believe , That the Churches of Asia , which were Excommunicated by the Bishops of Rome , for not keeping Easter as They did ; and the Churches of Asia and Africa , who were Excommunicated by the same Bishop , upon the Point of Rebaptizing Hereticks ; that all these , by being turn'd out of the Communion of the Roman Church , were also Cut off from the Catholick Church , and from a possibility of Salvation . This the Church of Rome themselves will not affirm ; and yet , if to be cast out of the Communion of the Roman and the Catholick Church be all one , they must affirm it . 3. In consequence of this Proposition , That the Church of Rome is the Catholick Church , they ought to hold , that all Baptism out of the Communion of Their Church is void and of none effect . For if it be good ; then it makes the Persons baptized , Members of the Catholick Church ; and then those that are out of the Communion of the Roman Church , may be true Members of the Catholic Church ; and then the Roman and the Catholick Church are not all one . But the Church of Rome holds the Baptism of Hereticks , and of those that are out of the Communion of Their Church , to be good ; which is a Demonstration , that the Roman Church neither is the Catholick Church ; nor if she believe consistently , can she think her self to be so . 4. In consequence of this Proposition , all the Christians in the World , which do not yield Subjection to the Bishop of Rome , and acknowledg his Supremacy , are no true parts of the Catholick Church , nor in a possibility of Salvation . And this does not only exclude those of the Reform'd Religion from being Members of the Catholick Church ; but the Greeks , and the Eastern Churches ; ( i. e. ) Four of the Five Patriarchal Churches of the Christian World ; which taken together , are really greater than those in Communion with the Church of Rome . And this the Church of Rome does affirm , concerning all those Churches and Christians , which refuse Subjection to the Bishop of Rome , that they are out of the Communion of the Catholick Church , and a capacity of Salvation . But surely it is not possible , that the True Catholick Church of Christ can have so little Charity as this comes to ; and to a wise Man there needs no other Demonstration than this , That the Church of Rome is so far from being the Whole Christian Church , that it 's a very Arrogant and Uncharitable Part of it . Fifthly and Lastly ; In consequence of the Truth of this Proposition , and of the Importance of it to the Salvation of Souls , and to the Peace and Unity of the Christian Church , they ought to produce express Mention of the Roman Catholick Church , in the Ancient Creeds of the Christian Church . For if this Proposition , That the Roman Church is the Catholick , be true ; it was always so , and always of the greatest Importance to the Salvation of Men , and the Peace and Unity of the Christian Church : and if it were so , and always believed to be so , by the Christian Church , as they pretend ; What reason can be imagin'd , why the Ancient Christian Church should never say so , nor put an Article of such Consequence and Importance in express Words in their Creeds ; nor why they should not have used the Style of Roman Catholick , as familiarly then , as they do now in the Roman Church ? A plain Evidence that this is a new Style which they use , when they give themselves the Title of the Roman Catholick Church ; and that the Ancient Christian Church knew better , than to call one Part of the Catholick Church the Whole . I am sure , that AEneas Sylvius ( who was afterwards Pope Pius the Second ) says , that before the Council of Nice , little respect was had to the Roman Church . But how does this consist with their present Pretence , that the Roman Church is , and always hath been the Catholick Church ; and that the Bishop of Rome is by Christ's appointment , the Supream Pastor , and Visible Head of the whole Christian Church ? Is it possible that this should be believed in the Christian Church before the Council of Nice ; and yet little respect to be had at that time to the Roman Church ? This indeed was said by AEneas Sylvius , before he sate in the Infallible Chair ; but is never the less true for that . 5ly . The next step of their Method is , That the Roman Church is Infallible ; and by this means They have a certain remedy against Heresie , and a Judge of Controversies , from which there is no Appeal , which We want in Our Church . And this is a Glorious Priviledge indeed , if they could prove that they had it , and that it would be so certain a remedy against Heresie , and give a final Decision to all Controversies . But there is not one tittle of all this , of which they are able to give any tenable Proof : For , 1. All the pretence for their Infallibility relyes upon the truth of the former Proposition , That the Church of Rome is the Catholick Church , and That they say is Infallible : And I have already shewn , that That Proposition is not only destitute of any good Proof , but is as evidently false , as that a Part of a thing is the Whole . 2. But supposing it were true , That the Roman Church were the Catholick Church ; yet it is neither evident in it self , nor can be proved by them , that the Catholick Church of every Age is Infallible , in deciding all Controversies of Religion . It is granted by all Christians , that our Saviour and his Apostles were Infallible , in the delivery of the Christian Doctrine ; and they proved their Infallibility by Miracles ; and this was necessary at first for the Security of our Faith : but this Doctrine being once Delivered and Transmitted down to us in the Holy Scriptures , Written by the Evangelists and Apostles , who were Infallibly assisted by the Holy Ghost ; we have now a certain and Infallible Rule of Faith and Practice , which , with the assistance and instruction of those Guides and Pastors which Christ hath appointed in his Church , is sufficiently plain in all things necessary . And as there is no evidence of the Continuance of Infallibility in the Guides and Pastors of the Church , in the Ages which followed the Apostles ; because Miracles are long since ceased : so there is no need of the Continuance of it , for the Preservation of the True Faith and Religion ; because God hath sufficiently provided for that , by that Infallible Rule of Faith and Manners which he hath left to his Church in the Holy Scriptures , which are every way sufficient and able to make both Pastors and People wise unto Salvation . 3. As for a certain Remedy against Heresie , it is certain God never intended there should be any ; no more than he hath provided a certain Remedy against Sin and Vice ; which surely is every whit as contrary to the Christian Religion , and therefore as fit to be provided against , as Heresie : But it is certain in Experience , that God hath provided no certain and effectual Remedy against Sin and Vice ; for which I can give no other reason , but that God does that which He thinks best and fittest , and not what We are apt to think to be so . Besides that Infallibility is not a certain Remedy against Heresie . The Apostles were certainly Infallible ; and yet they could neither prevent nor extinguish Heresie ; which never more abounded than in the Apostles Times . And Saint Paul expresly tells us , 1 Cor. 1. 19. That there must be Heresies ; that they which are approved may be made manifest . And St. Peter , the 2 Epist. 2. 1. That there should be false Teachers among Christians , who should privily bring in damnable Heresies ; and that many should follow their pernicious ways . But now if there must be Heresies ; either the Church must not be Infallible , or Infallibility in the Church is no certain Remedy against them . I proceed to the next Step they make viz. 6ly . That Christ hath always a Visible Church upon Earth ; and that They can shew a Church , which from the time of Christ and his Apostles , hath always made a Visible Profession of the same Doctrines and Practices which are now believed and practised in the Church of Rome ; but that We can shew no Visible Church , that from the time of Christ and his Apostles , hath always opposed the Church of Rome in , those Doctrines and Practices which we now revile and find fault with in their Church . That Christ hath always had , and ever shall have to the end of the World , a Visible Church , Professing and Practising his True Faith and Religion , is agreed on both sides : But We say , that he hath no where promised , that This shall be free from all Errors and Corruptions in Faith and Practice . This the Churches Planted by the Apostles themselves were not , even in Their times , and during Their abode amongst them ; and yet they were true parts of the Christian Catholick Church . In the following Ages , Errors and Corruptions and Superstitions did by degrees creep in and grow up , in several parts of the Church ; as St. Austin , and others of the Fathers complain of their Times . Since that several Famous Parts of the Christian Church , both in Asia and Africa , have not only been greatly corrupted , but have Apostatiz'd from the Faith ; so that in many Places there are hardly any Footsteps of Christianity among them . But yet still Christ hath had in all these Ages a Visible Church upon Earth ; tho' perhaps no Part of it at all times free from some Errors and Corruptions ; and in several Parts of it , great Corruptions both in Faith and Practice ; and in none I think more and longer , than in the Church of Rome , for all she boasts her self like Old Babylon , Isa. 47. 7 , 8. That she is a Lady for ever ; and says in her heart , I am , and none else besides me ; And like the Church of Laodicea , Revel . 3. 17. which said , I am rich , and increased with Goods , and have need of nothing ; When the Spirit of God saith , that she was wretched , and miserable , and poor , and blind , and naked ; and knew it not . Thus the Church of Rome boasts ; that She hath in all Ages been the True Visible Church of Christ ( and none besides her ) free from all Errors in Doctrine , and Corruptions in Practice ; and that from the Age of Christ and his Apostles , she hath always professed the same Doctrines and Practices which she does at this day . Can any thing be more shameless than this ? Did they always believe Transubstantiation ? Let their Pope Gelasius speak for them ; who expresly denies , that in the Sacrament there is any Substantial change of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Was this always an Article of their Faith , and necessary to be believed by all Christians ? Let Scotus , and several other of their Schoolmen and Learned Writers speak for them . Was Purgatory always believed in the Roman Church , as it is now defined in the Council of Trent ? Let several of their Learned Men speak . In what Father , in what Council before that of Trent , do they find Christ to have Instituted just Seven Sacraments , neither more nor less ? And for Practices in their Religion , they themselves will not say , that in the Ancient Christian Church the Scriptures were with-held from the People , and lockt up in an Unknown Tongue ; and that the Publick Service of God , the Prayers and Lessons were Read , and the Sacraments Celebrated , in an Unknown Tongue ; and that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper was given to the People only in one Kind . Where do they find in Holy Scripture , or in the Doctrine and Practice of the Ancient Christian Church , any Command or Example for the Worship of Images ; for the Invocation of Saints and Angels and the Blessed Virgin ; which do now make a great part of their Religion ? Nay , is not the Doctrine of the Scriptures , and of the Ancient Fathers plainly against all these Practices ? With what face then can it be said , That the Church of Rome hath made a constant Visible Profession of the same Faith and Practice in all Ages , from the time of Christ and his Apostles ? Or would the primitive Church of Rome , if it should now visit the Earth again , own the present Church of Rome to be the same in all Matters of Faith and practice , that it was when they left it ? And whereas they demand of Us , to shew a Visible Church from the time of Christ and his Apostles , that hath always opposed the Church of Rome , in those points of Doctrine and Practice which we Object to them ; what can be more impertinent than this Demand ? When they know that in all these Points we charge them with Innovations in Matters of Faith and Practice , and say that those things came in by degrees , several Ages after the Apostles time , some sooner , some later ; as we are able to make good , and have done it . And would they have us shew them a Visible Church , that opposed these Errors and Corruptions in their Church , before ever they appeared ? This we do not pretend to shew . And supposing they had not been at all opposed , when they appeared , nor a long time after , not till the Reformation ; yet if they be Errors and Corruptions of the Christian Doctrine , and contrary to the Holy Scriptures , and to the Faith and Practice of the Primitive Church ; there is no Prescription against Truth . 'T is never too late , for any Church to reject those Errors and Corruptions , and to reform it self from them . The bottom of all this Matter is , they would have us to shew them a Society of Christians , that in all Ages hath preserved it self free from all such Errors and Corruptions as we charge them withall ; or else we deny the Perpetual Visibility of the Catholick Church . No such matter . We say the Church of Christ hath always been Visible in every Age since Christ's time ; and that the several Societies of Christians , professing the Christian Doctrine and Laws of Christ , have made up the Catholick Church ; some parts whereof have in several Ages fallen into great Errors and Corruptions ; and no part of the Catholick , into more and greater , than the Church of Rome . So that it requires the utmost of our Charity to think that they are a true , tho a very unsound and corrupt Part of the Catholick Church of Christ. We acknowledge likewise , that We were once involved in the like Degeneracy ; but by the mercy of God , and pious care and prudence of those that were in Authority , are happily rescued out of it : and tho' we were not out of the Catholick Church before ; yet since our Reformation from the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome , we are in it upon better Terms , and are a much sounder Part of it ; and I hope , by the Mercy and Goodness of God , we shall for ever continue so . So that to the Perpetual Visibility of Christ's Church , it is not necessary , that the whole Christian Church , or indeed that any Part of it should be free from all Errors and Corruptions . Even the Churches planted by the Apostles in the Primitive Times were not so . St. Paul reproves several Doctrines and Practices in the Church of Corinth , and of Colosse , and of Galatia ; and the Spirit of God , several Things in the Seven Churches of Asia : and yet all these were true Parts and Members of the Catholick Church of Christ , notwithstanding these Faults and Errors ; because they all agreed in the Main and Essential Doctrines of Christianity . And when more and greater Corruptions grew upon the Church , or any part of it ; the greater reason and need there was of a Reformation . And as every particular Person hath a right to reform any thing that he finds amiss in himself , so far as concerns himself ; so much more every National Church hath a Power within it self , to reform it self from all Errors and Corruptions , and by the Sanction of the Catholick Authority to confirm that Reformation ; which is our Case here in England . And whatever part of the Church , how great and eminent soever , excludes from her Communion such a National Church , for reforming her self from plain Errors and Corruptions , clearly condemned by the Word of God , and by the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Christian Church , is undoubtedly Guilty of Schism . And this is the Truth of the Case between us and the Church of Rome . And no blind talk about a Perpetual Visible Church can render Us guilty of Schism , for making a Real Reformation ; or acquit Them of it , for casting us out of their Communion for that Cause . 7. And Lastly , ( to mention no more ) they pretend , that we delude the People , by laying too much stress upon Scripture , and making it the only Rule of Faith and Manners : whereas Scripture and Tradition together make up the entire Rule of Faith ; and not Scripture Interpreted by every Mans private Fancy , but by Tradition carefully preserved in the Church . So that it ought to be no wonder , if several of their Doctrines and Practices cannot be so clearly made out by Scripture , or perhaps seem contrary to it , as it may be expounded by a private Spirit , but not as Interpreted by the Tradition of the Church , which can only give the true Sense of Scripture . And therefore they are to understand , that several of those Doctrines and Practices , which we Object against , are most clearly proved by the Tradition of their Church , which is of equal Authority with Scripture . In this Objection of theirs , which they design for the Cover of all their Errors and Corruptions , there are several things distinctly to be considered , which I shall do as briefly as I can . First , Whereas it is suggested , That We delude the People , by laying too much stress upon the Scriptures , ( which certainly we cannot well do , if it be the Word of God ) it ought to be considered , whether They do not delude and abuse them infinitely more , in keeping the Scriptures from them , and not suffering them to see That , which they cannot deny to be at least a considerable Part of the Rule of Christian Doctrine and Practice . Doth it not by this dealing of theirs appear very suspicious , that they are extreamly afraid that the People should examine their Doctrine and Practice by this Rule ? For what other Reason can they have to conceal it from them ? Secondly , Whereas they affirm , that Scripture alone is not the Rule of Christian Faith and Practice ; but that Scripture , and Oral Tradition preserved in the Church , and delivered down from hand to hand , makes up the entire Rule : I would fain know whence they learn'd this new Doctrine of the Rule of Faith ? I know that the Council of Trent declares it for the Rule they intend to proceed upon and make use of , for the Confirmation and Proof of their following Determinations and Decrees . But did any of the ancient Councils of the Christian Church lay down this Rule , and proceed upon it ? Did not Constantine the Emperour , at the opening of the First General Council , lay the Bible before them , as the only Rule , according to which they were to proceed ; and this with the Approbation of all those Holy Fathers that were assembled in that Council ? And did not following Councils proceed upon the same Rule ? Do any of the ancient Fathers ever mention any Rule of Christian Faith and Practice , besides the Holy Scriptures , and the ancient Creed ; which , because it is an Abridgment of the necessary Articles of Christian Faith contained in the Holy Scriptures , is by them frequently called the Rule of Faith ? Do not the same Fathers frequently and expresly say , That the Scriptures are a perfect Rule , and that all things are plainly contained in them , which concern Faith and Life ; and that whatever cannot be proved by Testimony of Scripture , is to be rejected ? All this I am sure I can make good , by innumerable express Testimonies of the ancient Fathers , which are well known to those that are versed in them . By what Authority then hath the Council of Trent set up this new Rule , unknown to the Christian Church for 1500 Years ? and who gave them this Authority ? The plain truth is , the necessity of it , for the Defence of the Errors and Corruptions which they had embraced , and were resolved not to part with , forced them to lengthen out the Rule ; the old Rule of the Holy Scriptures being too short for their purpose . Thirdly , Whereas they pretend , that Holy Scripture , as expounded by a private Spirit , may not seem so favourable to some of their Doctrines and Practices ; yet , as interpreted by Tradition , which can only give the true Sense of Scripture , it agrees very well with them : I suppose they mean , that whereas a private Spirit would be apt to understand some Texts of Scripture , as if People were to search and read the Scripture ; Tradition interprets those Texts in a quite other Sense , that People are not to be permitted to read the Holy Scriptures . A private Spirit would be apt to understand St. Paul's Discourse , in the 14th of the 1st to the Corinthians , to be against Celebrating Prayer and the Service of God in an unknown Tongue , as being contrary to Edification , and indeed to common Sense : For he says , If one should come , and find them speaking and praying in an unknown Tongue ; will they not say , Ye are mad ? But now Tradition , which only knows how to give the true Sense , can reconcile this Discourse of St. Paul very easily with the Practice of the Church of Rome in this matter . And so likewise the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians , with the Worship of Angels ; and the Epistle to the Hebrews , with offering the Propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ in the Mass a Thousand times every Day . And to give but one Instance more ; Whereas a Man by his private Spirit would be very apt to understand the Second Commandment to forbid all Worship of Images ; Tradition discovers the meaning of this Commandment to be , that due Veneration is to be given to them . So that at this rate of interpreting Scripture by Tradition , it is impossible to fix any Objection from Scripture , upon any Doctrine or Practice which they have a mind to maintain . Fourthly , Whereas they pretend the Tradition of their Church , delivered from the Mouth of Christ , or dictated by the Holy Spirit , and brought down to them , and preserved by continnal Succession in the Church , to be of equal Authority with the Word of God ; for so the Council of Trent says , That the Holy Synod doth receive and venerate these Traditions , with equal pious Affection and Reverence , as they do the written Word of God : This we must declare against , as unreasonable in it self , to make Tradition , conveyed by Word of Mouth from one to another , through so many Ages , and liable to so many Mistakes and Miscarriages , to be , at the distance of 1500 Years , of equal Certainty and Authority with the Holy Scriptures , carefully preserved and transmitted down to us ; because this ( as I said before ) is to make common Rumor and Report of equal Authority and Certainty with a written Record . And not only so ; but hereby they make the Scriptures an imperfect Rule ; contrary to the declared Judgment of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Christian Church ; and so , in truth , they set up a new Rule of Faith , whereby they change the Christian Religion . For a new Rule of Faith and Religion makes a new Faith and Religion . This we charge the Church of Rome with , and do challenge them to shew this new Rule of Faith , before the Council of Trent ; and consequently , where their Religion was before that Council ; to shew a Religion , consisting of all those Articles , which are defined by the Council of Trent as necessary to Salvation , and established upon this new Rule , professed by any Christian Church in the World before that time . And as they have pitch'd upon a new Rule of Faith ; so it is easie to see to what End. For take Pope Pius IV. his Creed , and we may see where the Old and New Religion parts ; even at the end of the Twelve Articles of the Aplostles Creed , which was the ancient Christian Faith ; to which are added in Pope Pius his Creed Twelve Articles more , defined in the Council of Trent , and supported only by Tradition . So that as the Scripture answers for the Twelve old Articles , which are plainly contained there ; so Tradition is to answer for the Twelve new ones . And therefore the matter was calculated very exactly , when they make Tradition just of equal Authority with the Scriptures ; because as many Articles of Their Faith were to be made good by it , and rely upon it , as those which are proved by the Authority of Scripture . But that Tradition is of equal Authority with the Scriptures , we have nothing in the whole World for it , but the bare Assertion of the Council of Trent . I should now have added some other Considerations , tending to confirm and establish us in our Religion , against the Pretences and Insinuations of Seducing Spirits : But I shall proceed no farther at present . The Tenth Sermon , as number'd , follows . THere is a mistake in Numbering of these Sermons . The Tenth should be called the Ninth , and so on to the end . For there are but Fifteen Sermons in this Volume , and should be no more . A SERMON . HEB. X. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering , for he is faithful that hath promised . THESE words contain an Exhortation to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering , and an Argument or Encouragement thereto , because he is faithful that hath promised . By the Exhortation to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering , is not meant , that those who are capable of examining the Grounds and Reasons of their Religion should blindly hold it fast against the best Reasons that can be offered ; because upon these terms , every Man must continue in the Religion in which he happens to be fixt by Education , or an ill choice , be his Religion true or false ; without Examining and looking into it , whether it be right or wrong ; for till a Man examines , every Man thinks his Religion right . That which the Apostle here exhorts Christians to hold fast , is the Ancient Faith , of which all Christians make a solemn profession in their Baptism ; as plainly appears from the context . And this Profession of our Faith , we are to hold in the following instances , which I shall but briefly mention , without enlarging upon them . 1. We are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith against the Confidence of Men , without Scripture or Reason to support that Confidence . 2. And much more , against the Confidence of Men contrary to plain Scripture and Reason , and to the common Sense of Mankind . 3. Against all the Temptations and Terrors of the World , against the Temptations of Fashion and Example , and of Worldly Interest and Advantage , and against all Terrors and Sufferings of Persecution . 4. Against all vain promises of being put into a safer condition , and groundless hopes of getting to Heaven upon easier terms than the Gospel hath proposed , in some other Church and Religion . Lastly , We are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering , against all the cunning Arts and Insinuations of busie and disputing Men , whose design it is to unhinge Men from their Religion , and to make Proselytes to their Party and Faction . But without entring into these particulars , I shall in order to Establishment in the Reformed Religion which we profess , in opposition to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome , apply my self at this time , to make a short comparison betwixt the Religion which we profess , and that of the Church of Rome : That we may discern on which side the advantage of Truth lies ; and in making this comparison , I shall insist upon Three things , which will bring the matter to an issue , and are , I think , sufficient to determine every sober and considerate Man , which of these he ought in Reason , and with regard to the safety of his Soul , to embrace : And they are these . I. That we govern our Belief and Practice in matters of Religion , by the true ancient Rule of Christianity , the Word of God contained in the Holy Scriptures : But the Church of Rome , for the maintenance of their Errors and Corruptions , have been forced to devise a new Rule , never owned by the Primitive Church , nor by the Ancient Fathers and Councils of it . II. That the Doctrines and Practices in difference betwixt us and the Church of Rome , are either contrary to this Rule , or destitute of the Warrant and Authority of it , and are plain Additions to the ancient Christianity , and Corruptions of it . III. That our Religion hath many clear Advantages of that of the Church of Rome , not only very considerable in themselves , but very obvious and discernable to an ordinary capacity , upon the first proposal of them . I shall be as brief in these as I can . I. That we govern our belief and Practice in matters of Religion , by the true ancient Rule of Christianity , the Word of God contain'd in the Holy Scriptures : But the Church of Rome , for the maintaining of their Errors and Corruptions , have been forced to devise a new Rule , never owned by the Primitive Church , nor by the Ancient Councils and Fathers of it ; That is , they have joined with the Word of God contained in the Holy Scriptures , the unwritten Traditions of their Church , concerning several points of their Faith and Practice ; which they acknowledge cannot be proved from Scripture , and these they call the unwritten Word of God ; and the Council of Trent hath decreed them to be of equal Authority with the Holy Scriptures ; and that they do receive and venerate them with the same pious Affection and Reverence ; and all this , contrary to the express declaration and unanimous consent of all the Ancient Councils and Fathers of the Christian Church , ( as I have already shewn ) ; and this never declar'd to be a point of Faith , till it was decreed , ( not much above a Hundred Years ago ) in the Council of Trent ; and this surely , if any thing , is a Matter of great consequence , to presume to alter the Ancient Rule of Christian Doctrine and Practice , and to enlarge it , and add to it , at their pleasure . But the Church of Rome having made so great a change in the Doctrine and Practice of Christianity , it became consequently necessary to make a change of the Rule : And therefore with great Reason did the Council of Trent take this into consideration in the first place , and put it in the front of their Decrees , because it was to be the foundation and main proof of the following Definitions of Faith , and Decrees of Practice , for which , without this new Rule , there had been no colour . II. The Doctrines and Practices in difference betwixt us , and the Church of Rome , are either contrary to the true Rule , or destitute of the Warrant and Authority of it ; and plain Additions to the Ancient Christianity , and Corruptions of it ; the Truth of this will best appear , by instancing in some of the principal Doctrines and Practices in difference betwixt us . As for their two great Fundamental Doctrines , of the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome over all the Christians in the world , and the Infallibility of their Church , there is not one word in Scripture concerning these Priviledges ; nay it is little less than a demonstration that they have no such Priviledges , that St. Paul in a long Epistle to the Church of Rome takes no notice of them ; That the Church of Rome either then was , or was to be soon after , the Mother and Mistress of all Churches , which is now grown to be an Article of Faith in the Church of Rome ; and yet it is hardly to be imagined , that he could have omitted to take notice of such remarkable Priviledges of their Bishops and Church , above any in the world , had he known they had belonged to them . So that in all probability he was ignorant of those mighty Prerogatives of the Church of Rome , otherwise it cannot be , but that he would have written with more deference and submission to this Seat of Infallibility , and Center of Unity ; he would certainly have paid a greater Respect to this Mother and Mistress of all Churches , where the Head of the Church , and Vicar of Christ either was already seated , or by the appointment of Christ was designed for ever to fix his Throne and establish his Residence ; but there is not one word , or the least intimation of any such thing throughout this whole Epistle , nor in any other part of the New Testament . Besides , that both these pretended Priledges are omitted , by plain Fact and Evidence of things themselves , their Supremacy , in that the far greatest part of the Christian Church , neither is at this day , nor can be shewn by the Records of any Age , ever to have been subject to the Bishop of Rome , or to have acknowledged his Authority and Jurisdiction over them , and the Infallibility of the Pope , whether with or without a General Council , ( about which they still differ ) though Infallibility was devised on purpose , to determine all differences : I say , this Infallibility , where-ever it is pretended to be , is plainly confuted by the contradictory Definitions of several Popes and Councils ; for if they have contradicted one another , ( as is plain , beyond all contradiction , in several instances ) then there must of necessity be an Error on one side ; and there can be no so certain demonstration , that any one is infallible , as evident Error and Mistake is of the contrary . Next , their concealing both the Rule of Religion and the Practice of it , in the Worship and Service of God , from the People , in an unknown Tongue ; and their administring the Communion to the People in one kind only , contrary to clear Scripture and the plain Institution of our Blessed Saviour ; and then their Worship of Images , and Invocation of Angels and Saints , and the Blessed Virgin , in the same Solemn manner , and for the same Blessings and Benefits which we beg of God himself , contrary to the express Word of God , which commands us to Worship the Lord our God ; and to serve him only ; and which declares , that as there is but one God , so there is but one Mediator between God and Man , Christ Jesus ; but one Mediator not only of Redemption , but of Intercession too ; for the Apostle there speaks of a Mediator of Intercession , by whom only we are to offer up our Prayers , which are to be put up to God only , and which expresly forbids Men to worship any Image or likeness : And the Learned Men of their own Church acknowledge , that there is neither Precept nor Example for these Practices in Scripture , and that they were not used in the Christian Church for several Ages ; and this acknowledgment we think very considerable , since so great a part of their Religion , especially as it is practised among the People , is contained in these points ; for the Service of God in an Unknown Tongue , and withholding the Scriptures from the People , they do not pretend so much as One Testimony of any Father for the first 600 Years , and nothing certainly can be more unreasonable in it self , than to deny People the best means of knowing the Will of God , and not to permit them to understand what is done in the publick Worship of God , and what Prayers are put up to him in the Church . The two great Doctrines of Transubstantiation and Purgatory are acknowledged by many of their own Learned Writers , to have no certain Foundation in Scripture ; and that there are seven Sacraments of the Christian Religion , tho' it be now made an Article of Faith by the Council of Trent , is a thing which cannot be shewn in any Council or Father for above a Thousand Years after Christ. And we find no mention of this Number of the Sacraments , till the Age of Peter Lombard the Father of the Schoolmen . That the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches , tho' that also be one of the new Articles of Pope Pius the IV. his Creed , which their Priests are by a Solemn Oath obliged to believe and teach , yet is it most evidently false : That she is not the Mother of all Churches is plain , because Jerusalem was certainly so , for there certainly was the first Christian Church , and from thence all the Christian Churches in the World derive themselves ; that she is not , ( tho' she fain would be ) the Mistress of all Churches , is as evident , because the greatest part of the Christian Church does at this day , and always did , deny that she hath any Authority or Supremacy over them . Now these are the principal matters in difference betwixt us , and if these Points , and a few more , be pared off from Popery , that which remains of their Religion , is the same with ours , that is , the true Ancient Christianity . III. I shall shew that our Religion hath many clear advantages of theirs , not only very considerable in themselves , but very obvious and discernable to an ordinary capacity , upon the very first proposal of them ; as , 1. That our Religion agrees perfectly with the Scriptures , and all points both of our Belief and Practice , esteemed by us as necessary to Salvation , are there contained , even our Enemies themselves being Judges . We Worship the Lord our God , and him only do we serve . We do not fall down before Images and Worship them , we address all our Prayers to God alone , by the only Mediation and Intercession of his Son Jesus Christ ; as he himself hath given us Commandment , and as St. Paul doth plainly direct , giving us this plain and Substantial Reason for it , Because as there is but one God , so there is but one Mediator between God and Men , the Man Christ Jesus . The publick Worship and Service of God is perform'd by us in a Language which we understand , according to St. Paul's express Order and Direction , and the universal Practice of the ancient Church , and the Nature and Reason of the thing it self : We administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in both kinds , according to our Saviour's Example and plain Institution ; and the continual Practice of all the Christian Churches in the World , for above a Thousand Years . 2. We believe nothing as necessary to Salvation , but what hath been owned in all Ages to be the Christian Doctrine , and is acknowleged so to be by the Church of Rome it self ; and we receive the whole Faith of the Primitive Christian Church , ( viz. ) What ever is contained in the Apostles Creed , and in the Explications of that in the Creeds of the Four first General Councills . By which it plainly appears , that all points of Faith in difference betwixt us and the Church of Rome , are meer Innovations and plain Additions to the ancient Christian Faith. But all that we believe , is acknowledged by them to be undoubtedly the ancient Christian Faith. 3. There is nothing wanting in our Church and Religion , whether in Matter of Faith or Practice , which either the Scripture makes necessary to Salvation , or was so esteem'd by the Christian Church for the first Five Hundred Years ; and we trust , that what was sufficient for the Salvation of Christians in the best Ages of Christianity for Five Hundred Years together , may be so still ; and we are very well content to venture our Salvation upon the same terms that they did . 4. Our Religion is not only free from all Idolatrous Worship , but even from all Suspicion and probable Charge of any such thing ; but this the Church of Rome is not , as is acknowledged by her most Learned Champions , and as no Man of Ingenuity can deny ; And the Reason which the Learned Men give , why the Worship of Images , and the Invocation of Angels and Saints departed were not practised in the Primitive Church , for the first Three Hundred Years , is a plain acknowledgment that these Practices are very liable to the Suspicion of Idolatry ; for they say , that the Christians did then forbear those Practices , because they seem'd to come too near to the Pagan Idolatry , and lest the Heathen should have taken occasion to have justified themselves , if these things had been practised among Christians ; and they cannot now be Ignorant , what Scandal they give by these Practices both to the Jews and Turks , and how much they alienate them from Christianity by this Scandal ; nor can they chuse but be sensible , upon how great disadvantage they are in defending these Practices from the Charge of Idolatry ; and that by all their blind Distinctions , with which they raise such a Cloud and Dust , they can hardly make any plausible and tollerable Defence of themselves from this Charge : Insomuch , that to secure their own People from discerning their Guilt in this Matter , they have been put upon that shameful shift of leaving out the Second Commandment in their common Catechisms and Manuals , lest the People , seeing so plain a Law of God against so common a Practice of their Church , should upon that Discovery have broken off from them . 5. Nor is our Religion incumbered with such an endless number of superstitious and troublesom Observances , as theirs infiintely is , even beyond the Number of the Jewish Ceremonies , to the great Burden and Scandal of the Christian Religion , and the diverting of Mens Minds from the spiritual part of Religion , and the more weighty and necessary Duties of the Christian Life ; so that , in truth , a devout Pastor is so taken up with the external Rites and little Observances of his Religion , that he hath little or no time to make himself a good Man , and to cultivate and improve his Mind in true Piety and Virtue . 6. Our Religion is evidently more Charitable to all Christians that differ from us , and particularly to them , who , by their Uncharitableness to us , have done as much as is possible to discharge and damp our Charity towards them . And Charity , as it is one of the most essential Marks of a true Christian , so it is likewise the best Mark and Ornament of a true Church ; and of all things that can be thought of , methinks the want of Charity in any Church should be a Motive to no Man to fall in love with it , and to be fond of its Communion . 7. Our Religion doth not clash and interfere with any of the great Moral Duties , to which all Mankind stand obliged by the Law and Light of Nature ; as Fidelity , Mercy and Truth : We do not teach Men to break Faith with Hereticks or Infidels , nor to destroy and extirpate those who differ from us , with Fire and Sword : No such thing as Equivocation or Mental Reservation , or any other Artificial way of Falshood , is either taught or maintain'd , either by the Doctrine or by the Casuists of our Church . 8. Our Religion and all the Doctrines of it are perfectly consistent with the Peace of Civil Government , and the Welfare of Humane Society : We neither exempt the Clergy from Subjection to the Civil Powers , nor absolve Subjects upon any pretence whatsoever from allegiance to their Princes ; both which Points , the necessity of the one , and the lawfulness of the other , have been taught and stifly maintain'd in the Church of Rome , not only by private Doctors , but by Popes and General Councils . 9. The Doctrines of our Religion , are perfectly free from all Suspicion of a Worldly Interest and Design , whereas the greatest part of the erroneous Doctrines with which we charge the Church of Rome , are plainly calculated to promote the end of Worldly Greatness and Dominion . The Pope's Kingdom is plainly of this World ; and the Doctrines and Maximes of it , like so many Servants , are ready upon all occasion to fight for him . For most of them do plainly tend , either to the Establishment and Enlargment of his Authority ; or to the Magnifying of the Priests , and the giving them a perfect power over the Conscienees of the People , and the keeping them in a slavish subjection and blind obedience to them . And to this purpose do plainly tend the Doctrines of exempting the Clergy from the Secular Power and Jurisdiction ; the Doctrine of Transubstantiation ; for it must needs make the Priest a great Man in the Opinion of the People , to believe that he can make God , as they love to express it , without all Reason and Reverence . Of the like tendency is the Communicating of the Laity only in one kind , thereby making it the sole Priviledge of the Priest to receive the Sacrament in both . The with-holding the Scripture from the People , and celebrating the Service of God in an unknown Tongue . The Doctrine of an implicite Faith , and absolute Resignation of their Judgments to their Teachers . These do all directly tend to keep the People in ignorance , and to bring them to a blind Obedience , to the dictates of their Teachers : So likewise the Necessity of the intention of the Priests , to the saving Virtue and Efficacy of the Sacraments ; by which Doctrine , the People do upon the matter depend as much upon the good will of the Priest , as upon the Mercy of God for their Salvation : but above all , their Doctrine of the Necessity of Auricular and private Confession , of all Mortal Sins commited after Baptism , with all the Circumstances of them to the Priest ; and this not only for the ease and direction of their Consciences , but as a necessary condition of having their Sins pardoned and forgiven by God : By which means they make themselves Masters of all the Secrets of the People , and keep them in awe by the knowledge of their faults , Scire volunt secreta Domus atque inde timeri . Or else their Doctrines tend to filthy lucre , and the enriching of their Church . As their Doctrines of Purgatory and Indulgences , and their Prayers and Masses for the dead , and many more Doctrines and Practices of the like kind plainly do . 10. Our Religion is free from all disingenuous and dishonest Arts of maintaining and supporting it self ; such are clipping of ancient Authors , nay and even the Authors and Writers of their own Church ; when they speak too freely of any Point : as may be seen in their Indices Expurgatorii which much against their wills have been brought to light . To which I shall only add these Three gross Forgeries , which lie all at their doors , and they cannot deny them to be so . 1. The pretended Canon of the Council of Nice in the case of Appeals , between the Church of Rome and the African Church . Upon which they insisted a great while very confidently , till at last they were convinced by Authentick Copies of the Canons of that Council . 2. Constantine's Donation to the Pope , which they kept a great stir with , till the Forgery of it was discovered . 3. The Decretal Epistles of the Ancient Popes ; a large Volume of Forgeries , compiled by Isidore Mercator , to countenance the Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome , and of which the Church of Rome made great use for several Ages , and pertinaciously defended the Authority of them , till the Learned Men of their own Church have at last been forced for very shame to disclaim them , and to confess the Imposture of them : A like instance whereto , is not I hope to be shewn in any Christian Church . This is that which St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the slight of Men ; such as Gamesters use at Dice ; for to alledge false and forged Authors in this case , is to play with false Dice , when the Salvation of Mens Souls lie at stake . 11. Our Religion hath this mighty advantage , that it doth not decline Tryal and Examination , which to any Man of ingenuity must needs appear a very good Sign of an honest Cause ; but if any Church be shy of having her Religion Examined , and her Doctrines and Practices brought into the open light , this gives just ground of Suspicion that she hath some distrust of them ; for Truth doth not seek corners , nor shun the light . Our Saviour hath told us who they are that love darkness rather than light , viz. they whose deeds are Evil ; for every one , saith he , that doth Evil , hateth the light ; neither cometh he to the light , lest his deeds should be reproved and made manifest . There needs no more to render a Religion suspected to a wise Man , than to see those who profess it , and make such proud boasts of the Truth and Goodness of it , so fearful that it should be examin'd and lookt into , and that their People should take the liberty to hear and read what can be said against it . 12. We perswade Men to our Reliligion by Human and Christian ways , such as our Saviour and his Apostles used , by urging Men with the Authority of God , and with Arguments fetcht from another World. The promise of Eternal Life and Happiness , and the threatning of Eternal death and Misery , which are the proper Arguments of Religion , and which alone are fitted to work upon the Minds and Consciences of Men ; the terror and torture of death may make Men Hypocrites , and awe them to profess with their Mouths what they do not believe in their Hearts ; but this is no proper means of converting the Soul , and convincing the Minds and Consciences of Men ; and these violent and cruel ways cannot be denyed to have been Practised in the Church of Rome , and set on foot by the Authority of Councils , and greatly countenanced and encouraged by Popes themselves : Witness the many Croisades for the extirpation of Hereticks , the standing Cruelties of their Inquisition , their occasional Massacres and Persecutions , of which we have fresh Instances in every Age. But these Methods of Conversion are a certain Sign that they either disturst the Truth and Goodness of their Cause , or else that they think Truth and the Arguments for it are of no force , when Dragoons are their Ratio ultima , the last Reason which their Cause relies upon ; and the best and most effectual it can afford . Again , we hold no Doctrines in defiance of the Senses of all Mankind ; such as is that of Transubstantiation , which is now declared in the Church of Rome to be a Necessary Article of Faith , so that a Man cannot be of that Religion , unless he will renounce his Senses , and believe against the clear Verdict of them in a plain sensible matter ; but after this , I do not understand how a Man can believe any thing , because by this very thing he destroys and takes away the Foundation of all Certainty ; if any Man forbid me to believe what I see , I forbid him to believe any thing upon better and surer Evidence . St. Paul saith , that Faith cometh by hearing ; but if I cannot rely upon the certainty of Sense , then the means whereby Faith is conveyed , is uncertain ; and we may say , as St. Paul doth in another case , Then is our Preaching vain , and your Faith also is vain . Lastly , ( To mention no more particulars ) as to several things used and Practised in the Church of Rome , we are on the much safer side , if we should happen to be mistaken about them ; than they are , if they should be mistaken ; for it is certainly Lawful to read the Scriptures , and Lawful to permit to the People the use of the Scriptures in a known Tongue : Otherwise we must condemn the Apostles and the Primitive Church for allowing this Liberty . It is certainly Lawful to have the publick Prayers and Service of God celebrated in a Language which all that joyn in it can understand . It is certainly Lawful to administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to the People in both kinds , otherwise the Christian Church would not have done it for a Thousand Years . It is certainly Lawful , not to Worship Images , not to pray to Angels , or Saints , or the Blessed Virgin , otherwise the Primitive Church would not have forborn these Practices for Three Hundred Years , as is acknowledged by those of the Church of Rome . Suppose a Man should pray to God only , and offer up all his Prayers to him only by Jesus Christ , without making mention of any other Mediator or Intercessor with God for us , relying herein upon what the Apostle says concerning our High Priest , Jesus the Son of God , Heb. 7 25. That he is able to save them to the utmost , who come unto God by him , ( i. e. ) by his Mediation and Intercession , since he ever liveth to make Intercession for them ; might not a Man reasonably hope to obtain of God all the Blessings he stands in need of , by Addressing himself only to him , in the Name and by the Intercession of that one Mediator between God and Man , the Man Christ Jesus ? Nay , why may not a Man reasonably think , that this is both a shorter and more effectual way to obtain our requests , than by turning our selves to the Angels and Saints , and importuning them to solicite God for us ; especially if we should order the matter so , as to make ten times more frequent Addresses to these , than we do to God and our Blessed Saviour , and in comparison of the other , to neglect these ; we cannot certainly think any more able to help us and do us good , than the great God of Heaven and Earth , the God ( as St. Paul styles him ) that heareth Prayers , and therefore unto him should all flesh come . We cannot certainly think any Intercessor so powerful and prevalent with God , as his only and dearly beloved Son , offering up our Prayers to God in Heaven , by vertue of that most acceptable and invaluable Sacrifice , which he offered to him on Earth ; we cannot surely think , that there is so much Goodness any where as in God , that in any of the Angels or Saints , or even in the Blessed Mother of our Lord , there is more Mercy and Compassion for Sinners and a tenderer sense of our Infirmities , than in the Son of God. Who is at the right hand of his Father , to appear in the Presence of God for us ; we are sure that God always hears the Petitions which we put up to him , and so does the Son of God , by whom we put them up to the Father , because he also is God blessed for evermore . But we are not sure that the Angels and Saints hear our Prayers , because we are sure that they are neither Omniscient nor Omnipresent , and we are not sure , nor probably certain , that our Prayers are made known to them any other way ; there being no Revelation of God to that purpose ; we are sure that God hath declared himself to be a jealous God , and that he will not give his Honour to another ; and we are not sure but that Prayer is part of the Honour which is due to God alone ; and if it were not , we can hardly think but that God should be so far from being pleased , with our making so frequent use of those other Mediators and Intercessors , and from granting our desires the sooner upon that account : That on the contrary we have reason to think , he should be highly offended ; when he himself is ready to receive all our Petitions , and hath appointed a great Mediator to that purpose , to see more Addresses made to , and by the Angels and Saints , and Blessed Virgin , than to himself by his Blessed Son ; and to see the Worship of himself almost jostled out , by the Devotion of People to Saints and Angels , and the Blessed Mother of our Lord ; a thing which he never Commanded , and which so far as appears by Scripture , never came into his mind . I have been the longer upon this matter , to shew how unreasonable and needless at the best , this more than half part of the Religion of the Church of Rome is ; and how safely it may be let alone . But now on the other hand , if they be mistaken in these things , as we can demonstrate from Scripture they are , the danger is infinitely great on that side , for then they oppose an Institution of Christ , who appointed the Sacrament to be received in both kinds ; and they involve themselves in a great danger of the guilt of Idolatry , and our common Christianity in the scandal and reproach of it . And this without any necessity , since God hath required none of these things at our hands ; and after all the bustle which hath been made about them , the utmost they pretend ( which yet they are not able to make good ) is , that these things may Lawfully be done , and at the same time they cannot deny , but that if the Church had not enjoyned them they might Lawfully be let alone ; and can any thing be more unreasonable , than so pertinaciously to insist upon things so hard ( I might say ) impossible to be defended or excused , and which by their own acknowledgment are of no great weight and necessity ; in which we are certainly safe in not doing them , if they should prove Lawful ; but if they do not prove so , they are in a most dangerous condition ; so that here is certain safety on the one hand , and the danger of damnation on the other ; which is as great odds as is possible . And they must not tell us that they are in no danger , because they are infallible , and cannot be mistaken ; they must prove that point a great deal better than they have yet done , before it can signifie any thing either to our Satisfaction or their Safety . I might have insisted more largely upon each of these Particulars , any one of which is of weight to incline a Man to that Religion , which hath such an advantage on its side , but all of them together makes so Powerful an Argument to an unprejudiced Person , as must almost irresistably determine his choice , for most of the Particulars are so evident , that they cannot , upon the very mention and proposal of them , be denied to be clear Advantages on our side . And now , to use the words of St. Peter , I testifie unto you , that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand , that the Reformed Religion which we profess , and which by the goodness of God is by Law established in this Nation , is the true Ancient Christianity , the Faith which was at first delivered to the Saints , and which is conveyed down to us in the Writings of the Apostles and the Evangelists of our Lord and Saviour : Remember therefore how you have received and heard , and hold fast , for he is Faithful that hath promised , which is the Second part of the Text ; the encouragement which the Apostle gives us to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering ; he is Faithful that hath promised to give us his Holy Spirit to lead us into all Truth , to stablish , strengthen , and settle us in the Profession of it , to support and comfort us under all Tryals and Temptations , and to seal us up to the day of Redemption , and he is faithful that hath promised to reward our constancy and fidelity to him and his Truth , with a Crown of everlasting life and Glory . Wherefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast and unmoveable , and alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord , forasmuch as you know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord ; for he is faithful that hath promised ; and let us provoke one another to Charity and Good Works , which are the great Ornament and Glory of any Religion , and so much the more , because the day approacheth in which God will judge the belief and lives of Men by Jesus Christ , not according to the imperious and uncharitable dictates of any Church , but according to the Gospel of his Son. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for ever . Now the God of Peace which brought again from the Dead the great Shepherd of the Sheep , through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant , make you Perfect in every good word and work ; working in you that which is pleasing in his Sight . And the peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your Hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God , and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. A SERMON . 2 COR. V. 7. For we walk by Faith , not by Sight . IN the latter part of the former Chapter , the Apostle declares what it was that was the great support of Christians , under the Persecutions and Sufferings which befel them ; viz. the Assurance of a Blessed Resurrection to another life , Verse 14. Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus , shall raise up us also by Jesus ; for which cause , saith he , verse 16. we faint not , but though our outward Man perish , our inward Man is renewed day by day ; that is , though our Bodies , by Reason of the Hardships and Sufferings which we undergo , are continually decaying and declining ; yet our Minds grow every day more healthful and vigorous , and gain new strength and resolution , by contemplating the Glory and Reward of another World , and as it were feeding upon them by Faith ; for our light affliction which is but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; whilst we look not at the things which are seen , but at the things which are not seen . And he resumes the same Argument again at the beginning of this Chapter : for we know , that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved , we have a Building of God , a House not made with Hands , eternal in the Heavens ; that is , we are firmly perswaded , that when we die , we shall but exchange these Earthly and Perishing Bodies , these Houses of Clay , for a Heavenly Mansion , which will never decay nor come to ruine : from whence he concludes , Verse 6. Therefore we are always confident , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , therefore what ever happens to us , we are always of good courage , and see no reason to be afraid of Death ; knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body , we are absent from the Lord ; that is , since our continuance in the Body is to our disadvantage , and while we live we are absent from our Happiness ; and when we die , we shall then enter upon the Possession of it . That which gives us this confidence and good courage , is our Faith ; for tho' we be not actually possest of this Happiness which we speak of , yet we have a firm perswasion of the reality of it , which is enough to support our Spirits and keep up our Courage under all afflictions and adversities whatsoever , Verse 7. for we walk by Faith , not by Sight . These words come in by way of Parenthesis , in which the Apostle declares in general , what is the swaying and governing Principle of a Christian life ; not only in case of persecution and affliction , but under all events , and in every condition of Humane life ; and that is , Faith ; in opposition to Sight and present Enjoyment : we walk by Faith , and not by Sight . We walk by Faith ; what ever Principle sways and governs a Mans life and actions , he is said to walk and live by it . And as here a Christian is said to walk by Faith , so elsewhere the just is said to live by Faith. Faith is the Principle which animates all his resolutions and actions . And not by Sight . The word is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies the thing it self in present view and possession , in opposition to a firm perswasion of things future and invisible . Sight is the thing in Hand , and Faith the thing only in Hope and Expectation . Sight is a clear view and apprehension of things present and near to us ; Faith an obscure discovery and apprehension of things at a distance : So the Apostle tells us , 2 Cor. 13. 12. Now we see through a Glass darkly ; this is Faith ; but then face to face , this is present sight , as one Man sees another face to face ; and thus likewise the same Apostle distinguisheth betwixt Hope and Sight , Rom. 8. 24. 25. Hope that is seen , is not Hope ; for what a Man sees , why doth he yet Hope for it ? but if we Hope for that which we see not , then do we with patience wait for it . Sight is possession and enjoyment , Faith is the firm perswasion and expectation of a thing ; and this the Apostle tells us was the governing principle of a Christian's life ; for we walk by Faith , and not by Sight ; from which words I shall observe these Three things . I. That Faith is the Governing Principle , and that which bears the great sway in the Life and Actions of a Christian ; we walk by Faith ; that is , we Order and Govern our Lives in the Power and Virtue of this Principle . II. Faith is a degree of assent inferiour to that of Sense . This is sufficient-intimated in the opposition betwixt Faith and Sight . He had said before , that whilst we are at home in the Body , we are absent from the Lord ; and gives this as a Reason and Proof of our absence from the Lord , for we walk by Faith , and not by Sight ; that is , whilst we are in the Body , we do not see and enjoy , but believe and expect ; if we were present with the Lord , then Faith would cease , and be turned into Sight ; but tho' we have not that assurance of another world , which we shall have when we come to see and enjoy these things , yet we are firmly perswaded of them . III. Notwithstanding Faith be an inferiour degree of Assurance , yet 't is a Principle of sufficient power to govern our Lives ; we walk by Faith ; it is such an Assurance as hath an influence upon our Lives . I. That Faith is the Governing Principle , and that which bears the great sway in the Life and Actions of a Christian . We walk by Faith ; that is , we Order and Govern our Lives in the Power and Virtue of this Principle : A Christian's Life consists in obedience to the will of God ; that is , in a readiness to do what he commands , and in a willingness to suffer what he calls us to ; and the great Arguments and Incouragements hereto , are such things as are the Objects of Faith , and not of Sense ; such things as are absent and future , and not present and in possession ; for Instance , the Belief of an invisible God , of a secret Power and Providence , that Orders and Governs all things , that can bless or blast us , and all our Designs and Undertakings , according as we demean our selves towards him , and endeavour to approve our selves to him ; the Perswasion of a secret aid and influence always ready at hand , to keep us from Evil , and to strengthen and assist us to that which is good ; more especially the firm Belief , and expectation of the Happiness of Heaven , and the glorious Rewards of another world , which tho' they be now at a distance , and invisible to us , yet being grounded upon the Promise of God that cannot lie , shall certainly be made good . And this Faith , this firm Perswasion of absent and invisible things , the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us , was the great Principle of the Piety and Virtue of good Men from the beginning of the World. This he calls , Ch. 11. verse 1. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the confident expectation of things hoped for , and the proof or evidence of things not seen , viz. a firm perswasion of the Being and Providence of God , and of the Truth and Faithfulness of his Promises . Such was the Faith of Abel , he believed that there was a God , and that he was a rewarder of those that faithfully serve him : Such was the Faith of Noah , who being warned of God , of things at a great distance , and not seen as yet , notwithstanding believed the Divine Prediction concerning the Flood , and prepared an Ark : Such also was the Faith of Abraham , concerning a numerous Posterity by Isaac , and the Inheritance of the Land of Canaan ; and such likewise was the Faith of Moses , he did as firmly believe the invisible God , and the recompence of reward , as if he had beheld them with his eyes . And of this Recompence of Reward , we Christians have a much clearer revelation , and much greater assurance , than former Ages and Generations had ; and the firm belief and perswasion of this , is the great Motive and Argument to a Holy life : The hope which is set before us , of obtaining the Happiness , and the fear of incurring the Misery , of another world . This made the Primitive Christians , with so much patience to bear the Sufferings and Persecutions , with so much constancy to venture upon the dangers and inconveniencies which the love of God and Religion exposed them to . Under the former Dispensation of the Law , tho good Men received good hopes of the Rewards of another life , yet these things were but obscurely revealed to them , and the great inducements of Obedience were Temporal Rewards and Punishments ; the promises of long life , and peace , and plenty , and prosperity , in that good Land which God had given them , and the threatnings of War , and Famine , and Pestilence , and being delivered into Captivity . But now , under the Gospel , Life and Immortality are brought to light ; and the great Arguments that bear sway with Christians , are the Promises of Everlasting Life , and the Threatnings of Eternal Misery ; and the firm Belief and Persuasion of these , is now the great Principle that governs the Lives and Actions of good Men ; for what will not Men do , that are really persuaded , that as they do demean themselves in this World , it will fare with them in the other ? That the Wicked shall go into everlasting Punishment , and the Righteous into Life Eternal . I proceed to the II. Observation , namely ; That Faith is a Degree of Assent , inferiour to that of Sense . This is intimated in the Opposition betwixt Faith and Sight ; We walk by Faith , and not by Sight ; that is , we believe these things , and are confidently persuaded of the truth of them , tho we never saw them ; and consequently cannot possibly have that Degree of Assurance concerning the Joys of Heaven , and the Torments of Hell , which those have who enjoy the One and endure the Other . There are different Degrees of Assurance concerning things , arising from the different Degrees of Evidence we have for them : The highest Degree of Evidence we have for any thing , is our own Sense and Experience ; and this is so firm and strong , that it is not to be shaken by the utmost Pretence of a Rational Demonstration ; Men will trust their own Senses and Experience , against any subtilty of Reason whatsoever : But there are inferiour degrees of Assurance concerning things , as the Testimony and Authority of Persons every way credible ; and this Assurance we have in this state concerning the things of another World , we believe with great Reason , that we have the Testimony of God concerning them , which is the highest kind of Evidence in it self ; and we have all the reasonable assurance we can desire , that God hath testified these things , and this is the utmost assurance which things future and at a distance are capable of . But yet it is an unreasonable obstinacy to deny , that this falls very much short of that degree of assurance which those Persons have concerning these things , who are now in the other World , and have the Sense and Experience of these things ; and this is not only intimated here in the Text , in the Opposition of Faith and Sight , but is plainly exprest in other Texts of Scripture , 1 Cor. 13. 9 , 10. We know now but in part , but when that which is perfect is come , that which is in part shall be done away . That degree of knowledge and assurance which we have in this Life is very imperfect , in comparison to what we shall have hereafter , and Verse 12. We now see as through a Glass darkly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as in a Riddle , in which there is always a great deal of Obscurity ; all which Expressions are certainly intended by way of abatement and diminution to the certainty of Faith ; because it is plain , that by that which is in part or imperfect , the Apostle means Faith and Hope , which he tells us shall cease , when that which is perfect , meaning Vision and Sight , is come : We see likewise in Experience , that the Faith and Hope of the best Christians in this Life is accompanied with doubting concerning these things , and all doubting is a degree of uncertainty ; but those blessed Souls who are entred upon the Possession of Glory and Happiness ; and those miserable Wretches who lye groaning under the Wrath of God and the Severity of his Justice , cannot possibly , if they would , have any doubt concerning the Truth and Reality of these things . But however contentious Men may dispute against common Sense , this is so plain a Truth , that I will not labour in the farther Proof of it ; nor indeed is it reasonable , while we are in this state , to expect that degree of assurance concerning the Rewards and Punishments of another Life , which the sight and sensible experience of them would give us ; and that upon these Two Accounts ; 1. Because our present state will not admit it ; and , 2. If it would , it is not reasonable we should have it . 1. Our present state will not admit it ; for while we are in this World , it is not possible we should have that sensible Experiment and Tryal how things are in the other . The things of the other World are remote from us , and far out of our Sight , and we cannot have any experimental knowledge of them , till we our selves enter into that state . Those who are already past into it know how things are ; those happy Souls who live in the reviving presence of God , and are possest of those joys which we cannot now conceive , understand these things in another manner , and have a more perfect assurance concerning them , than it is possible for any Man to have in this World ; and those wretched and miserable Spirits who feel the vengeance of God , and are plunged into the Horrors of Eternal Darkness , do believe upon irresistable evidence , and have other kind of Convictions of the Reality of that state , and the insupportable Misery of it , than any Man is capable of in this World. 2. If our present state would admit of this high degree of assurance ; it is not fit and reasonable that we should have it ; such an over-powering evidence would quite take away the virtue of Faith , and much lessen that of Obedience . Put the case that every Man , some considerable time before his departure out of this Life , were permitted to visit the other World , to assure him how things are there , to view the Mansions of the Blessed , and to survey the dark and loathsome Prisons of the Damned , to hear the lamentable outcrys of Miserable and Despairing Souls , and to see the inconceivable Anguish and Torments they are in ; after this , what virtue would it be in any Man to believe these things ? He that had been there and seen them , could not dis-believe them if he would : Faith in this case would not be virtue , but necessity ; and therefore it is observable , that our Saviour doth not Pronounce them Blessed , who believed his Resurrection , upon the forcible evidence of their own Senses , but , Blessed are they that have not seen , and yet have believed . They might be Happy in the Effects of that Faith , but there is not praise , no reward belongs to that Faith which is wrought in Man by so violent and irresistable an evidence . It was the great commendation of Abraham's Faith , that against hope he believed in hope , he believed the promise of God concerning a thing in it self very improbable ; but it is no commendation at all to believe the things which we have seen , because they admit of no manner of dispute ; no Objection can be offered to shake our assent , unless we will run to the extremity of Scepticism ; for if we will believe any thing at all , we must yield to the Evidence of Sense : This does so violently enforce our assent , that there can be no Virtue in such a Faith. And as this would take away the Virtue of Faith , so it would very much lessen that of our Obedience . It is hardly to be imagined , that any Man who had seen the Blessed condition of good Men in another World , and been an Eye-witness of the intolerable Torments of Sinners , should ever after be tempted knowingly to do any thing that would deprive him of that Happiness , or bring him into that place of Torment : Such a sight could not chuse but affect a Man as long as he lived ; and leave such impressions upon his mind , of the indispensable necessity of a Holy life , and of the infinite danger of a wicked course , that we might sooner believe that all the Men in the World should conspire to kill one another ; than that such a Man , by consenting to any deliberate Act of Sin should wilfully throw himself into those flames : No , his Mind would be continually haunted with those Furies he had seen Tormenting Sinners in another World , and the fearful Shrieks and Outcries of Miserable Souls , would be perpetually ringing in his Ears ; and the Man would have so lively and terrible an imagination of the danger he was running himself upon , that no Temptation would be strong enough to conquer his fears , and to make him careless of his life and actions , after he had once seen how fearful a thing it was to fall into the hands of the living God : So that in this case , the Reason of Mens obedience would be so violent , that the virtue of it must be very little ; for what praise is due to any Man , not to do those things which none but a perfect mad Man would do ? For certainly that Man must be besides himself , that could by any Temptation be seduced to live a wicked life , after he had seen the state of good and bad Men in the other World ; the glorious Rewards of Holiness and Virtue , and the dismal event of a vitious and sinful course : God hath designed this Life for the Trial of our Virtue , and the exercise of our obedience , but there would hardly be any place for this , if there were a free and easie passage for us into the other World , to see the true state of things there . What argument would it be of any Mans virtue to forbear sinning , after he had been in Hell , and seen the miserable end of Sinners ? But I proceed to the III. And Last Observation ; namely , That notwithstanding Faith be an inferiour degree of Assent , yet it is a Principle of sufficient force and power to Govern our lives ; we walk by Faith. Now , that the belief of any thing may have its Effect upon us , it is requisite that we be satisfied of these Two things . 1. Of the Certainty and of the great Concernment of the thing ; for if the thing be altogether uncertain , it will not move us at all , we shall do nothing towards the obtaining of it , if it be good ; nor for the avoiding and preventing of it , if it be evil ; and if we are certain of the thing , yet if we apprehend it to be of no great Moment and Concernment , we shall be apt to slight it , as not worth our regard ; but the Rewards and Punishments of another world , which the Gospel propounds to our Faith , are fitted to work upon our Minds ; both upon account of the Certainty and Concernment of them . For , 1. We have sufficient Assurance of the Truth of these things , as much as we are well capable of in this state . Concerning things future and at a distance , we have the dictates of our Reason arguing us into this Perswasion , from the consideration of the Justice of the Divine Providence , and from the promiscuous and unequal Administration of things in this world ; from whence wise men in all ages have been apt to conclude , that there will be another state of things after this life , wherein rewards and punishments shall be equally distributed . We have the general consent of Mankind in this matter : and to assure us , that these Reasonings are true , we have a most credible Revelation of these things , God having sent his Son from Heaven to declare it to us , and given us a sensible demonstration of the thing , in his Resurrection from the dead , and his visible Aseension into Heaven ; so that there is no kind of evidence wanting , that the thing is capable of , but only our own sense and experience of these things , of which we are not capable in this present state . And there is no Objection against all this , but what will bring all things into uncertainty , which do not come under our Senses , and which we our selves have not seen . Nor is there any considerable Interest to hinder Men from the Belief of these things , or to make them hesitate about them ; for as for the other World , if at last there should prove to be no such thing , our Condition after Death will be the same with the Condition of those who disbelieve these things ; because all will be extinguish'd by Death : but if things fall out otherwise ( as most undoubtedly they will ) and our Souls after this Life do pass into a State of Everlasting Happiness or Misery , then our great Interest plainly lies , in preparing our selves for this State ; and there is no other way to secure the great Concernments of another World , but by believing those things to be true , and governing all the Actions of our Lives by this Belief . For as for the Interests of this Life , they are but short and transitory , and consequently of no Consideration in comparison of the things which are Eternal ; and yet ( as I have often told you ) setting aside the case of Persecution for Religion , there is no real Interest of this World , but it may be as well promoted and pursued to as great Advantage , nay , usually , to a far greater , by him that believes these things , and lives accordingly , than by any other Person : For the Belief of the Rewards and Punishments of another World is the greatest Motive and Encouragement to Virtue ; and as all Vice is naturally attended with some temporal Inconvenience , so the Practice of all Christian Virtues doth in its own Nature tend both to the Welfare of Particular Persons , and to the Peace and Prosperity of Mankind . But that which ought to weigh very much with us , is , That we have abundantly more Assurance of the Recompence of another World , than we have of many things in this World , which yet have a greater Influence upon our Actions , and govern the Lives of the most prudent and considerate Men. Men generally hazard their Lives and Estates upon Terms of greater Uncertainty , than the Assurance which we have of another World. Men venture to take Physick upon probable Grounds of the Integrity and Skill of their Physician , and yet the want of either of these may hazard their Lives ; and Men take Physick upon greater Odds ; for it certainly causeth Pain and Sickness , and doth but uncertainly procure and recover Health ; the Patient is sure to be made sick , but not certain to be made well ; and yet the Danger of being worse , if not of dying , on the one Hand , and the Hope of Success and Recovery on the other , make this Hazard and Trouble reasonable . Men venture their whole Estates to Places which they never saw ; and that there are such Places , they have only the concurrent Testimony and Agreement of Men ; nay , perhaps , have only spoken with them that have spoken with those that have been there . No Merchant ever insisted upon the Evidence of a Miracle to be wrought , to satisfie him that there were such Places as the East and West-Indies , before he would venture to Trade thither : And yet this Assurance God hath been pleased to give the World of a state beyond the Grave , and of a blessed Immortality in another Life . Now what can be the Reason that so slender Evidence , so small a degree of Assurance will serve to encourage Men to seek after the things of this World with great Care and Industry ; and yet a great deal more will not suffice to put them effectually upon looking after the great Concernments of another World , which are infinitely more considerable ? No other Reason of this can be given , but that Men are partial in their Affections towards these things . It is plain they have not the same Love for God and Religion which they have for this World , and the Advantages of it ; and therefore it is , that a less degree of Assurance will engage them to seek after the one , than the other ; and yet the Reason is much stronger on the other side : For the greater the Benefit and Good is , which is offered to us , we should be the more eager to seek after it , and should be content to venture upon less Probability . Upon excessive Odds , a Man would venture upon very small Hopes ; for a mighty Advantage , a Man would be content to run a great Hazard of his Labour and Pains upon little Assurance : Where a Man's Life is concern'd , every Suspicion of Danger will make a Man careful to avoid it : And will nothing affright Men from Hell , unless God carry them thither , and shew them the place of Torments , and the Flames of that Fire which shall never be quenched ? I do not speak this , as if these things had not abundant Evidence ; I have shewn that they have ; but to convince Men , how unreasonable and cruelly partial they are about the Concernments of their Souls , and their Eternal Happiness . 2. Supposing these things to be real and certain , they are of infinite Concernment to us : For what can concern us more , than that Eternal and Unchangeable State in which we must be fixt and abide for ever ? If so vast a Concern will not move us , and have no Influence upon the Government of our Lives and Actions , we do not deserve the Name of Reasonable Creatures . What Consideration can be set before Men , who are not touched with the Sense of so great an Interest , as that of our Happy or Miserable Being to all Eternity ? Can we be so solicitous and careful about the Concernment of a few Days ; and is it nothing to us what becomes of us for ever ? Are we so tenderly concerned to avoid Poverty and Disgrace , Persecution and Suffering in this World ; and shall we not much more flee from the wrath which is to come , and endeavour to escape the damnation of Hell ? Are the slight and transitory Enjoyments of this World worth so much Thought and Care ? And is an Eternal Inheritance in the Heavens not worth the looking after ? As there is no Proportion , betwixt the things which are Temporal and the things which are Eternal , so we ought in all Reason , to be infinitely more concerned for the One than for the Other . The proper Inference from all this Discourse is , That we would endeavour , to strengthen in our selves this great Principle of a Christian Life , the Belief of another World , by representing to our selves all those Arguments and Considerations which may confirm us in this Perswasion . The more reasonable our Faith is , and the surer grounds it is built upon ; the more firm it will abide , when it comes to the tryal , against all the impressions of temptations and assaults of Persecution : If our Faith of another World be only a strong imagination of these things , so soon as tribulation ariseth , it will wither ; because it hath no root in it self : Upon this account the Apostle so often exhorts Christians , to endeavour to be establisht in the Truth , to be rooted and grounded in the Faith , that when Persecution comes , they may continue stedfast and unmovable . The firmness of our Belief will have a great influence upon our Lives ; if we be stedfast and unmovable in our perswasion of these things , we shall be abundant in the work of the Lord. The Apostle joins these together , 1 Cor. 15. 58. Wherefore , my beloved Brethren , be ye stedfast and unmovable , always abounding in the work of the Lord , forasmuch as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Stedfast and unmovable , in what ? In the belief of a blessed Resurrection ; which the more firmly any Man believes , the more active and industrious will he be in the Work and Service of God. And that our Faith may have a constant and powerful influence upon our Lives , we should frequently revolve in our Minds the thoughts of another World , and of that vast Eternity which we shall shortly launch into . The great disadvantage of the Arguments fetcht from another world , is this , That these things are at a distance from us , and not sensible to us , and therefore we are not apt to be so affected with them : Present and sensible things weigh down all other Considerations . And therefore to balance this disadvantage , we should often have these Thoughts in our Minds , and inculcate upon our selves the certainty of these things , and the infinite concernment of them : we should reason thus with our selves ; if these things be true , and will certainly be , why should they not be to me , as if they were actually present ? Why should not I always live , as if Heaven were open to my view , and I saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God , with Crowns of Glory in his hands , ready to be set upon the Heads of all those who continue faithful and obedient to him ? And why should I not be as much afraid to commit any Sin , as if Hell were naked before me , and I saw the astonishing Miseries of the Damned ? Thus we should , by frequent Meditation , represent these great things to our selves , and bring them nearer to our Minds , and oppose to the present temptations of Sense , the great and endless Happiness and Misery of the other World. And if we would but thus exercise our selves about the things which are not seen , and make Eternity familiar to our selves , by a frequent Meditation of it , we should be very little moved with present and sensible things ; we should walk and live by Faith , as the Men of the World do by Sense , and be more serious and earnest in the Pursuit of our great and everlasting Interest , than they are in the pursuit of Sensual Enjoyments , and should make it the great Business of this present and temporal Life , to secure a Future and Eternal Happiness . A SERMON , On HEB. X. 38. But if any Man draw back , my Soul shall have no Pleasure in him . THE great Design of this Epistle , ( whoever was the Author of it , which I shall not now enquire into ) is plainly this , to confirm the Jews , who were but newly converted to Christanity , in the stedfast Profession of that Faith , which they had embraced , and to arm them against that Temptation , which Christians were then exposed to , viz. the fierce and cruel Persecutions , which threatned those of that Profession . And to this purpose , he represents to them , the excellency of that Religion , above any other former Revelation , that God had made of himself to the World ; both in respect of the Author and Revealer of it , who was the Son of God , and in respect of the Revelatition it self ; which , as it contains better , and more perfect Directions of a good Life , so likewise more powerful and effectual Motives thereto , better Promises , and more terible Threatnings , than were annexed to the Observation of the Jewish Law , or clearly and certainly discoverable by the Light of Nature . From these Considerations , he earnestly persuades them , all along throughout this Epistle , to continue constant in the Profession of this Faith , and not to suffer themselves to be frighted out of it by the Terrour of Persecution ; Chap. 2. V. 1. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard , left at any time we should let them slip ; and Chap. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear , lest a Promise being left us , of entring into his rest , any of you should come short of it , and verse 23. of this Chapter , Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith , without wavering ; and to encourage them to constancy , he sets before them , the Glorious Rewards and Recompences of the Gospel ; Verse 35. Cast not away therefore your Confidence , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , your free and open Profession of Christianity , which hath great Recompence of Reward . And then on the other hand , to deter them from Apostacy from this Profession , he represents to them the horrible danger of it , here in the Text , But if any man draw back , my Soul shall have no Pleasure in him . I shall briefly explain the Words , and then prosecute that which I mainly intended in them ; if any Man draw back , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : These Words , with the foregoing , are cited out of the Prophet Habakkuk , Chap. 2. Verse 3 , 4. and they are cited by the Apostle , according to the Translation of the LXX . which differs somewhat from the Hebrew ; and the difference ariseth from the various readings of the Hebrew Word , which is rendered by the LXX . to draw back ; but by the change of a Letter signifies to be lifted up , as we render it in the Prophet ; but however that be , the Apostle follows the Translation of the LXX . and accommodates it to his Purpose . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if any Man draw back ; the Word signifies to keep back , to withdraw , to sneak and slink away out of fear , to fail , or faint in any Enterprize : And thus this Word is rendered in the New Testament , Acts 20. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I did not with-hold , or keep back any thing that was profitable for you ; and so it is said of St. Peter , Gal. 2. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he slunk away , or withdrew himself , fearing them of the Circumcision ; and the Hebrew Word , which is here rendered by the LXX . to draw back , is elsewhere rendered by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is to fail or faint ; from all which it appears , that by drawing back , the Apostle here means , Mens quitting their Profession of Christianity , and slinking out of it , for fear of suffering for it . My Soul shall have no Pleasure in him : These Words are plainly a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and less is said than is meant ; for the meaning is , that God will be extreamly displeased with them , and punish them very severely . The like Figure to this , you have Psal. 5. 4. Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in Wickedness , which in the next Verse is explained , by his hatred and detestation of those who are guilty of it , Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity . So that the plain sense of the words is this , that Apostasie from the profession of God's true Religion , is a thing highly provoking to him , and will be most severely punisht by him . In speaking to this Argument , I shall consider these four things . I. The Nature of this sin of Apostasie from Religion . II. The several steps and degrees of it . III. The heinousness of it . IV. The great danger of it , and the terrible punishment it exposeth men to . And when I have spoken to these , I shall conclude all with a short Exhortation , to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering . I. We will consider the Nature of this sin of Apostasie from Religion ; and it consists in forsaking or renouncing the Profession of Religion , whether it be by an open declaration in words , or a virtual declaration of it by our actions ; for it comes all to one in the sight of God , and the different manner of doing it , does not alter the nature of the thing : He indeed that renounceth Religion , by an open declaration in words , offers the greatest and boldest defiance to it ; but he is likewise an Apostate , who silently withdraws himself from the profession of it , who quits it for his interest , or for fear disowns it , and sneaks out of the Profession of it , and forsakes the Communion of those who own it . Thus Demas was an Apostate , in quitting Christianity for some worldly interest . Demas hath forsaken us , having loved this present world , saith St. Paul , 2 Tim. 4. 10. And those whom our Saviour describes , Mat. 13. 20 , 21. who receiv'd the word into stony ground , were Apostates out of fear , they heard the word , and with joy receiv'd it , but having no root in themselves , they endured but for a while , and when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word , presently they fall off . And there is likewise a partial Apostasie from Christianity , when some Fundamental Article of it is denied , whereby in effect and by consequence , the whole Christian Faith is overthrown . Of this Hymeneus and Philetus were guilty , of whom the Apostle says , that they erred concerning the truth , saying that tbe Resurrection was past already , and thereby overthrew the faith of some , 2 Tim. 2. 17 , 18. That is , they turned the Resurrection into an Allegory , and did thereby really destroy a most Fundamental Article of the Christian Religion . So that to make a man an Apostate , it is not necessary that a man should solemnly renounce his Baptism , and declare Christianity to be false ; there are several other ways whereby a man may bring himself under this guilt ; as by a silent quitting of his Religion , and withdrawing himself from the Communion of all that profess it ; by denying an Essential Doctrine of Christianity ; by undermining the great End and Design of it , by teaching Doctrines which directly tend to encourage Men in impenitence , and a wicked course of life , nay , to Authorise all manner of impiety and vice , in telling Men that whatever they do they cannot Sin ; for which , the Primitive Christians did look upon the Gnosticks , as no better than Apostates from Christianity ; and tho they retained the Name of Christians , yet not to be truly and really so . And there is likewise a partial Apostacy from the Christan Religion ; of which I shall speak under the II. Head I proposed ; which was , to consider the several sorts and degrees of Apostacy . The highest of all , is the renouncing and forsaking of Christianity , or of some Essential part of it , which is a virtual Apostafie from it . But there are several tendencies towards this , which they who are guilty of , are in some degree guilty of this Sin. As 1. Indifferency in Religion , and want of all sort of Concernment for it : when a Man , tho he never quitted his Religion , yet is so little concerned for it , that a very small Occasion or Temptation would make him do it ; he is contented to be reckoned in the number of those who profess it , so long as it is the Fashion , and he finds no great Inconvenience by it ; but is so indifferent in his Mind about it , ( like Gallio , who minded none of those things ) that he can turn himself into any other Shape , when his Interest requires it ; so that tho he never actually deserted it , yet he is 2 kind of Apostate , in the preparation and disposition of his Mind : And to such Persons , that Title which Solomon gives to some , may fitly enough be applyed , they are Backsliders in Heart . 2. Another tendency to this Sin , and a great degree of it , is withdrawing from the Publick Marks and Testimonies of the Profession of Religion , by forsaking the Assemblies of Christians for the Worship and Service of God ; to withdraw our selves from those , for fear of Danger or Suffering , is a kind of Denyal of our Religion . And this was the case of some in the Apostles time , when Persecution grew hot , and the open Profession of Christianity dangerous ; to avoid this Danger , many appeared not in the Assemblies of Christians , for fear of being observed and brought into trouble for it . This the Apostle taxeth some for , in this Chapter , and speaketh of it as a letting go our Profession , and a kind of deserting of Christianity , v. 23 , 35. Let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering , not forsaking the assembling of our selves together , as the manner of some is : He doth not say they had quitted their Profession , but they had but a loose hold of it , and were silently stealing away from it . 3. A light temper of Mind , which easily receives Impressions from those who lie in wait to deceive , and seduce Men from the Truth . When Men are not well rooted and established in Religion , they are apt to be inveigled by the crafty Insinuations of Seducers , to be moved with every wind of Doctrine , and to be easily shaken in Mind , by every trifling piece of Sophistry , that is confidently obtruded upon them for a weighty Argument . Now this is a temper of Mind which disposeth Men to Apostasie , and renders them an easie Prey to every one that takes a Pleasure and a Pride in making Proselytes . It is true indeed , a Man should always have a Mind ready to entertain Truth , when it is fairly proposed to him ; but the main things of Religion are so plainly revealed , and lie so obvious to every ordinary capacity , that every Man may discern them ; and when he hath once entertained them , ought to be stedfast and unmovable in them , and not suffer himself to be whiffled out of them , by any insignificant noise about the Infallibility of a Visible Church ; much less ought he to be moved by any Man's uncharitableness and positiveness , in damning all that are not of his Mind . There are some things so very plain , not only in Scripture , but to the common Reason of Mankind , that no subtilty of Discourse , no pretended Authority , or even Infallibility of any Church , ought to stagger us in the least about them ; as that we ought not , or cannot believe any thing in direct contradiction to Sense and Reason ; that the People ought to Read and Study the Holy Scriptures , and to serve God and pray to him in a Language which they understand ; that they ought to receive the Sacrament as our Saviour instituted and appointed it , that is , in both kinds ; that it can neither be our Duty , nor Lawful to do that which God hath forbidden ; as he hath done the Worship of Images in the Second Commandment , as plainly as words can do it . Upon any one of these Points , a Man would fix his foot , and stand alone against the whole World. 4. Another Degree of Apostasie is , a departure from the Purity of the Christian Doctrine and Worship , in a gross and notorious manner . This is a partial , tho not a total Apostasie from the Christian Religion ; and there have been , and still are some in the World , who are justly Charged with this degree of Apostasie from Religion ; namely such , as tho they retain and profess the Belief of all the Articles of the Christian Faith , and Worship the only true God , and him whom he hath sent , Jesus Christ ; yet have greatly perverted the Christian Religion , by superinducing , and adding new Articles of Faith , and gross Corruptions , and Superstitions in Worship , and imposing upon Men the Belief and Practice of these , as necessary to Salvation . And St. Paul is my Warrant for this Censure , who chargeth those who added to the Christian Religion , the Necessity of Circumcision , and observing the Law of Moses , and thereby perverted the Gospel of Christ , as guilty in some degree of Apostasie from Christianity ; for he calls it , preaching another Gospel , Gal. 1. 7 , 8. There be some that trouble you , and would pervert the Gospel of Christ ; but tho we , or an Angel from Heaven , preach any other Gospel to you , than that which we have preached , let him be accursed . And those who were seduced by these Teachers , he chargeth them with having in some sort quitted the Gospel of Christ , and embraced another Gospel , V. 6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the Grace of Christ , unto another Gospel : So that they who thus pervert and corrupt the Christian Doctrine or Worship , are plainly guilty of a partial Apostasie from Christianity ; and they who quit the purity of the Christian Doctrine and Worship , and go over to the Communion of those who have thus perverted Christianity , are in a most dangerous state , and in the Judgment of St. Paul , are in some sort removed unto another Gospel . I shall now proceed , in the III. Place , to consider the Heinousness of this Sin. And it will appear to be very Heinous , if we consider , what an affront it is to God , and how great a contempt of him ; when God hath revealed his will to Mankind , and sent no less Person than his own Son out of his own Bosom to do it , and hath given such Testimonies to him from Heaven , by signs and wonders , and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost ; when he hath transmitted down to us , so Faithful a Record of this Revelation , and of the Miracles wrought to confirm it , in the Books of the Holy Scriptures , and when we our selves have so often declared our firm belief of this Revelation ; yet after all this to fall from it , and deny it , or any part of it , or to embrace Doctrines and Practices plainly contrary to it : This certainly cannot be done without the greatest affront and contempt of the Testimonies of God himself ; for it is in effect , and by interpretation , to declare , that either we do not believe what God says , or that we do not fear what he can do . So St. John tells us , 1 Ep. 5. 10. He that believeth not God , hath made him a Lyar , because he believeth not the record which God hath given of his Son. And all along in this Epistle to the Hebrews , the Apostle sets himself to aggravate this Sin ; calling it an Evil Heart of unbelief , to depart from the living God , Ch. 3 12. And he frequently calls it so , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and by way of eminency , as being of all Sins the greatest and most heinous . Ch. 10. 26. If we sin willfully , after we have received the knowledge of the Truth . That the Apostle here speaks of the Sin of Apostasie , is plain from the whole scope of his discourse ; for having exhorted them before , v. 23. to hold fast the Profession of their Faith without wavering , not forsaking the assembling of themselves together , he immediately adds , for if we sin willfully , after we have received the knowledge of the Truth ; that is , if we fall off from Christianity , after we have embraced it . And , Ch. 12 1. let us lay aside every weight , and the sin which so easily besets us ; that is , the great Sin of Apostasie from Religion ; to which they were then so strongly tempted by that fierce Persecution which attended it ; and therefore he adds , let us run with patience the race which is set before us ; that is , let us arm our selves with patience against the Sufferings we are like to meet with in our Christian course . To oppose the Truth , and resist the clear Evidence of it , is a great Sin , and Men are justly condemned for it . John 3. 19. This is the condemnation , that light is come into the World , and men loved darkness rather than light . But to desert the Truth , after we have been convinced of it , to fall off from the Profession of it , after we have embraced it ; is a much greater Sin. Opposition to the Truth , may proceed in a great measure from ignorance and prejudice , which is a great extenuation ; and therefore St. Paul tells us , that after all his violent Persecution of Christianity , he found Mercy , because he did it ignorantly and in unbelief . To revolt from the Truth , after we have made profession of it ; after we have known the way of righteousness , to turn from the holy commandment ; this is the great aggravation . The Apostle makes wilfulness , an usual ingredient into the Sin of Apostasie , if we sin wilfully , after we have received the knowledge of the Truth . And as this Sin is one of the greatest affronts to God , so it is the highest and most effectual disparagement of Religion ; for it is not so much considered , what the Enemies of Religion speak against it , because they speak evil of the things which they know not , and of which they have had no Tryal and Experience ; but he that falls off from Religion , after he hath made profession of it , declares to the World , that he hath tryed it , and dislikes it ; and pretends to leave it , because he hath not found that Truth and Goodness in it which he expected ; and upon long experience of it , sees reason to prefer another Religion before it : So that nothing can be more despiteful to Religion than this , and more likely to bring it into contempt ; and therefore the Apostle ( v. 29. of this Chapter ) calls it a trampling under foot the Son of God , and making the Blood of the Covenant a profane thing , and offering despite to the Spirit of Grace : for we cannot put a greater Scorn upon the Son of God , who revealed this Doctrine to the World ; nor upon his Blood , which was shed to confirm and seal the Truth of it ; and upon the Holy Ghost , who came down in miraculous Gifts , to give Testimony to it ; than notwithstanding all this , to renounce this Doctrine , and to forsake this Religion . But we shall yet farther see the heinousness of this Sin , in the terrible Punishment it exposeth Men to ; which was the IV. And Last thing I proposed to consider . And this is represented to us in a most terrible manner , not only in this Epistle , but in other Places of Scripture . This Sin is placed in the highest rank of pardonable Sins , and next to the Sin against the Holy Ghost , which our Saviour declares to be absolutely unpardonable . And indeed the Scripture speaks very doubtfully of the pardonableness of this Sin , as being near akin to that against the Holy Ghost , being said to be an Offering despite to the Spirit of Grace . In the 6th Chapter of this Epistle , V. 4 , 5 , 6. the Apostle speaks in a very severe manner , concerning the state of those , who had apostatized from Christianity , after the solemn Profession of it in Baptism , it is impossible for those who were once enlightned ( that is baptized ) and have tasted of the Heavenly Gift , ( that is Regeneration ) and were made Partakers of the Holy Ghost , and have tasted the good Word of God , and the Powers of the World to come , ( that is , have been instructed in the Christan Religion , and endowed with the miraculous Powers of the Gospel-Age , ( for the Jews used to call the Age of the Messias , Seculum Futurum , or the World to come ) it is impossible for those to be renewed again unto repentance ; where the least we can understand , by impossible , is , that it is extreamly difficult ; for so the word impossible is sometimes used ; as when our Saviour says , it is impossible for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . And , Ch. 10. 26. the Apostle speaking of the same thing , says , if we sin willfully , after we have received the knowledge of the Truth , there remains no more Sacrifice for sins ; that is , they who renounce Christianity , since they reject the only way of expiation , there remains no more Sacrifice for their Sins . St. Peter likewise expresseth himself very severely concerning this sort of Persons , 2 Epist. 2. 20 , 21. For if after they have escaped the Pollutions of the World , through the Knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; ( that is , after they have been brought from Heathenism to Christianity ) they are entangled therein again , and overcome ; the latter end is worse with them than the beginning . He seems loth to say , how sad the Condition of such Persons is , but this he tells them , that it is much worse than when they were Heathens before ; and he gives the Reason , for it had been better for them , not to have known the way of Righteousness , than after they have known it , to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them . And St. John calls this Sin of Apostasie , the Sin vnto Death ; and tho he do not forbid Christians to pray for them that are guilty of it ; yet he will not say , that they should pray for them . 1 Epist. 5. 16. If any Man see his Brother sin a Sin , which is not unto Death , he shall ask , and he shall give him Life , for them that sin not unto Death ; there is a sin unto Death , I do not say , that he shall pray for it . Now that by this sin unto Death , the Apostle means Apostasie from the Christian Religion to Idolatry , is most probable from what follows , Verse 18. we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not , ( that is this Sin unto Death ) but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself , and the wicked one toucheth him not , ( that is , he is preserved from Idolatry , unto which the Devil had seduced so great a part of Mankind ) and we know that we are of God , and the whole World , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is under the dominion of that wicked one ; ( viz. the Devil , whom the Scripture elsewhere calls the God of this World ; ) and we know that the Son of God is come , and hath given us an understanding , that we may know him that is true , ( that is , hath brought us from the Worship of false Gods , to the knowledge and Worship of the true God ) and then he concludes , little Children , keep your selves from Idols ; which caution hath no manner of dependence upon what went before , unless we understand the Sin unto Death , in this Sense ; and it is the more probable , that it is so to be understood , because Apostasie is so often in this Epistle to the Hebrews , called the Sin , by way of Eminency , as it is here , by St. John , whosoever is born of God sinneth not . So that at the very best , the Scripture speaks doubtfully of the pardon of this sin ; however , that the punishment of it , unrepented of , shall be very dreadful . It seems to be mildly exprest here in the Text , If any man draw back , my Soul shall have no pleasure in him : But it is the more severe for being exprest so mildly , according to the intention of the Figure here used ; and therefore in the next words , this expression of Gods taking no pleasure in such Persons , is explained by their utter Ruin and Perdition ; But we are not of them that draw back unto Perdition . And in several parts of this Epistle , there are very severe passages to this purpose ; Ch. 2. 2 , 3. If the word spoken by Angels , was stedfast , and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward , how shall we escape , if we neglect so great salvation ? And Ch. 10. 26 , 27. If we sin willfully , after we have received the knowledge of the truth , there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sin ; but a certain fearful looking for of judgment , and fiery indignation , which shall devour the adversary : he that dispised Moses law , dyed without mercy , under two or three witnesses ; of how much sorer punishment , suppose ye , shall he be thought worthy , that hath trodden under foot the Son of God! &c. For we know him who hath said , Vengeance is mine , I will recompence , saith the Lord : And again , The Lord shall judge his People ; it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. What can be more severe and terrible than these expressions ? I will mention but one Text more , and that is Rev. 21. 8. where in the Catalogue of great Sinners , those who Apostatize from Religion , out of fear , do lead the Van ; He that overcometh shall inherit all things , ( which is elsewhere in this Book exprest , by continuing faithful unto the Death . ) He that overcometh , shall inherit all things ; and I will be his God , and he shall be my Son ; but the fearful , and unbelieving , and the abominable , and whoremongers , and sorcerers , and idolaters , and all lyars , shall have their part in the lake , which burneth with fire and brimstone , which is the second death . The fearful , and unbelievers , and lyars ; that is , they who out of fear relapse into infidelity , and abide not in the Truth , shall be reckoned in the first rank of Offenders , and be punished accordingly . And thus I have done with the Four things I propounded to speak to , from these words ; the Nature of Apostasie ; the several steps and degrees of it ; the heinous Nature of this Sin ; the danger of it , and the terrible punishment in exposeth Men to . And is there any need now , to exhort men to hold fast the profession of Faith , when the danger of drawing back is so evident , and so terrible ? or is there any reason and occasion for it ? Certainly there is no great danger amongst us , of Mens Apostatizing from Christianity , and turning Jews , or Turks , or Heathens ; I do not think there is ; but yet for all that , we are not free from the danger of Apostasie ; there is great danger , not of Mens Apostatizing from one Religion to another , but from Religion to Infidelity , and Atheism ; and of this worst kind of Apostasie of all other , I wish the Age we live in , had not afforded us too many instances . It is greatly to be lamented , that among those who have profest Christianity , any should be found , that should make it their endeavour to undermine the great Principles of all Religion ; the Belief of a God , and his Providence ; and of the Immortality of the Souls of Men ; and a state of Rewards and Punishments after this Life ; and to bring the most serious matters in the World into contempt , and to turn them into jest and raillery ; this is not only a Renouncing of Christianity , the Religion which God hath revealed , but even of the Religion which is born with us , and the Principles and Notions which God hath planted in every Man's Mind ; this is an Impiety of the First Magnitude , and not to be mentioned without grief and horror ; and this , it is to be feared , hath had a great hand in those great Calamities which our eyes have seen ; and I pray God , it do not draw down still more and greater Judgments upon this Nation : But I hope there are none here that need to be cautioned against this horrible impiety , and highest degree of Apostasie from the living God ; that which People are much more in danger of , is Apostasie from the Purity of the Christian Doctrine and Worship , so happily recovered by a regular Reformation , and establisht amongst us , by all the Authority that Laws , both Ecclesiastical and Civil , can give it ; and which in Truth is no other than the Ancient and Primitive Christianity ; I say , a defection from this , to those gross Errors and Superstitions , which the Reformation had paired off , and freed us from . I do not say , that this is a total Apostasie from Christianity ; but it is a partial Apostasie and Defection , and a very dangerous one ; and that those , who after they have received the knowledge of the truth , fall off from it , into those Errors and Corruptions , are highely guilty before God , and their condition certainly worse , and more dangerous , than of those who where brought up in those Errors and Superstitions , and never knew better ; for there are terrible threatnings in Scripture against those , who fall away from the Truth , which they once embraced , and were convinced of ; If we sin wilfully , after we have received the knowledge of the truth , &c. and if any man draw back , my soul shall have no pleasure in him . God considers every Man's Advantages and Opportunities of Knowledge , and their Disadvantages likewise , and makes all reasonable Allowances for them ; and for Men to continue in the Errors they have been always brought up in ; or , which comes much to one , in Errors which they were led into by Principles early infused into them , before they were in any measure competent Judges of those matters ; I say , for such Persons to continue in these Errors , and to oppose and reject the contrary Truths , against which , by their Education , they have received so strong and violent a Prejudice , this may be in a great degree excusable , and find Pardon with God , upon a general Repentance for all Sins , both known and unknown ; and cannot be reasonably charged with the Guilt of this great Sin of Apostasie . But not to abide in the Truth , after we have entertain'd and profess'd it , having sufficient Means and Advantages of knowing it , hath no Excuse . I would not be rash in condemning Particular Persons of any Society or Communion of Christians , provided they be sincerely devout , and just , and sober , to the best of their Knowledge : I had much rather leave them to God , whose mercies are great , than to pass an uncharitable Censure upon them , as to their Eternal State and Condition : But the Case is far otherwise , where the Oportunities of Knowledge are afforded to Men , and men love darkness rather than light ; for they who have the Means and Advantages of knowing their Master's will , are answerable to God , as if they had known it ; because if they had not been grosly negligent , and wanting to themselves , they might have known it . And this I fear is the Case of the generality of those , who have been bred up to years of Consideration and Choice in the Reformed Religion , and forsake it ; because they do it without sufficient Reason , and there are invincible Objections against it : They do it without sufficient Reason ; because every one amongst us knows , or may know , upon very little Enquiry , that we hold all the Articles of the Faith , which are contained in the Ancient Creeds of the Christian Church , and into which all Christians are baptized ; that we inculcate upon Men the Necessity of a Good Life , and of sincere Repentance , and perfect Contrition for our Sins , such as is follow'd with real Reformation and Amendment of our Lives ; and that without this , no Man can be saved by any Device whatsoever . Now what Reason can any Man have , to question whether he may be saved in that Faith which saved the first Christians , and by believing the Twelve Articles of the Apostles Creed , tho he cannot swallow the Twelve Articles which are added to it in the Creed of Pope Pius IV. every one of which , besides many and great Corruptions and Superstitions in Worship , are so many and invincible Objections against the Communion of the Roman Church , as I could particularly shew , if it had not been already done , in so many learned Treatises upon this Argument . What is there then , that should move any reasonable Man to forsake the Communion of our Church , and to quit the Reformed Religion ? There are Three things chiefly with which they endeavour to amuse and affright weaker Minds . 1. A great Noise of Infallibility , which they tell us , is so excellent a means to determine and put an end to all Differences . To which I shall at present only object this Prejudice ; That there are not wider and hotter Differences among us , about any thing whatsoever , than are amongst them about this admirable means of ending all Differences , as , where this Infallibility is feated , that Men may know how to have recourse to it , for the ending of Differences . 2. They endeavour to fright Men with the danger of Schism . But every Man knows , that the Guilt of Schism lies at their Door , who impose sinful Articles of Communion ; and not upon them , who for fear of sinning against God , cannot submit to those Articles ; which we have done , and are still ready to make good , to be the Case betwixt us and the Church of Rome . But , 3. The terrible Engine of all , is , their positive and confident damning of all that live and die out of the Communion of their Church . This I have fully spoken to upon another Occasion , and therefore shall only say at present , that every Man ought to have better Thoughts of God , than to believe , that he , who delighteh not in the death of sinners , and would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth , will confirm the Sentence of such uncharitable Men , as take upon them to condemn Men for those things , for which our Saviour in his Gospel condemns no Man. And of all things in the World , one would think , that the Uncharitableness of any Church , should be an Argument to no Man , to run into its Communion . I shall conclude with the Apostle's Exhortation , ver . 23. of this Chapter , Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering , and provoke one another to charity and good works ; and so much the more , because the Day approacheth , in which God will judge the faith and lives of men , by Jesus Christ , according to his Gospel . A SERMON , ON MATTH . XVI . 24. Then said Jesus unto his Disciples , If any man will come after me , let him deny himself , and take up his Cross and follow me . THEN said Jesus to his Disciples , That is , upon Occasion of his former Discourse with them , wherein he had acquainted them with his approaching Passion , that he must shortly go up to Jerusalem , and there suffer many things of the Elders and Chief Priests and Scribes , and at last be put to Death by them ; then said Jesus unto his Disciples , If any man will come after me , let him deny himself , and take up his Cross , and follow me . If any man will come after me , or follow me ; that is , If any man will be my Disciple , and undertake the Profession of my Religion ; If any man chuse and resolve to be a Christian ; he must be so upon these Terms ; he must deny himself , and take up his Cross and follow me : He must follow me in Self-denyal and Suffering . In the handling of these Words , I shall do these Four things . I. I shall consider the way and method which our Saviour useth in making Proselytes , and gaining Men over to his Religion : He offers no manner of Force and Violence to compel them to the Profession of his Religion ; but fairly offers it to their Consideration and Choice , and tells them plainly upon what terms they must be his Disciples ; and if they be contented and resolved to submit to these Terms , well ; if not , it is in vain to follow him any longer ; for they cannot be his Disciples . II. I shall endeavour to explain this Duty of Self-denyal , exprest in these Words , Let him deny himself , and take up his Cross and follow me . III. I shall consider the strict and indispensible Obligation of it , whenever we are call'd to it , Without this we cannot be Christ's Disciples ; if any man will come after me , or be my Disciple , let him deny himself . IV. I shall endeavour to vindicate the reasonableness of this Precept , of self-denial and suffering for Christ , which at first appearance may seem to be so very harsh and difficult ; and I shall go over these Particulars as briefly as I can . I. We will consider the way and method which our Saviour here useth in making Proselytes , and gaining men over to his Religion ; he offers no manner of force and violence to compel men to the profession of his Religion , but fairly proposeth it to their Consideration and Choice , telling them plainly upon what terms they must be his Disciples ; if they like them , and are content , and resolved to submit to them , well ; he is willing to receive them , and own them for his Disciples ; if not , it is in vain to follow him any longer : For they cannot be his Disciples . As on the one hand , he offers them no worldly Preferment and Advantage , to entice them into his Religion , and to tempt them outwardly to profess what they do not inwardly believe ; so on the other hand , he does not hale and drag them by force , and awe them by the terrours of torture and death to sign the Christian Faith , tho' most undoubtedly true ; and to confess with their mouths , and subscribe with their hands , what they do not believe in their hearts . He did not obtrude his Sacraments upon them , and plunge them into the water to Baptize them , whether they would or no , and thrust the Sacrament of Bread into their mouths ; as if men might be Worthy Receivers of that Blessed Sacrament , whether they receive it willingly or no. Our Blessed Saviour , the Author and Founder of our Religion , made use of none of these ways of violence , so contrary to the nature of man , and of all Religion , and especially of Christianity , and fitted only to make men Hypocrites , but not Converts ; he only says , If any man will be my Disciple ; he useth no Arguments , but such as are Spiritual , and proper to work upon the Minds and Consciences of Men : For as his Kingdom was not of this world , so neither are the Motives and Arguments to induce Men to be his subjects , taken from this world ; but from the endless Rewards and Punishments of another . The weapons which he made use of , to subdue Men to the obedience of Faith , are not carnal ; and yet they were mighty through God , to conquer the obstinacy and infidelity of men . This great and infallible Teacher , who certainly came from God , all that he does , is to propose his Religion to Men , with such Evidence , and such Arguments , as are proper to convince Men of the Truth and Goodness of it ; and to perswade Men to embrace it ; and he acquaints them likewise with all the worldly Disadvantages of it , and the hazards and sufferings that would attend it ; and now , if upon full consideration , they will make his Religion their free Choice , and become his Disciples , he is willing to receive them ; if they will not , he understands the nature of Religion better , than to go about to force it upon Men , whether they will or no. II. I shall endeavour to explain this Duty or Precept of self-denial , exprest in these words , Let him deny himself , and take up his cross . These are difficult Terms ; for a Man to deny himself , and take up his own Cross ; that is , willingly to submit to all those Sufferings which the malice of Men may inflict for the sake of Christ and his Religion . For this Expression , of taking up one's Cross , is a plain Allusion to the Roman Custom , which was this ; That he that was condemned to be Crucified , was to take his Cross upon his Shoulders , and to carry it to the place of Execution ; this the Jews made our Saviour to do , as we read , Joh. 19. 17. till that being ready to faint under it and lest he should die away before he was nailed to the Cross , they compelled Simon of Cyrene to carry it for him , as is declar'd by the other Evangelists ; and yet he tells them , they that will be his Disciples must follow him , bearing their own Cross ; that is , being ready ( if God call them to it ) to submit to the like sufferings for Him and his Truth , which he was shortly to undergo for the Truth , and for their sakes . But tho these terms seem very hard ; yet they are not unreasonable ; as I shall shew in the conclusion of this Discourse . Some indeed have made them so by extending this self-denyal too far , attending more to the latitude of the Words , than to the meaning and scope of our Saviour's Discourse : For there is no doubt , but that there are a great many things , which may properly enough be called self-denyal , which yet our Saviour never intended to oblige Christians to . It is , no doubt , great self-denyal , for a Man , without any Necessity , to deny himself the necessary Supports of Life , for a Man to starve and make away himself . But no Man certainly ever imagined , that our Saviour ever intended by this Precept , to enjoyn this kind of self-denyal . It is plain then , that there is no Reason nor Necessity to extend this Precept of our Saviour , concerning self-denyal , to every thing that may properly enough be called by that name ; and therefore this Precept must be limited by the plain scope and intendment of our Saviour's Discourse ; and no Man can argue thus ; such a thing is self-denyal , therefore our Saviour requires it of his Disciples : For our Saviour doth not here require all kinds of self-denyal ; but limits it , by his Discourse , to one certain kind , beyond which , self-denyal is no Duty by virtue of this Text ; and therefore , for our clearer understanding of this Precept of self-denyal , I shall do these two things : 1. Remove some sorts of self-denyal , which are instanced in by some , as intended in this Precept . 2. I shall shew what kind of self-denyal that is , which our Saviour here intends . 1. There are several things brought under this Precept of self-denyal , which were never intended by our Saviour . I shall instance in Two or Three things , which are most frequently insisted upon , and some of them by very devout and well-meaning Men ; as , that in matters of Faith , We should deny and renounce our own Senses and our Reason ; nay , that we should be content to renounce our own Eternal Happiness , and be willing to be damned for the Glory of God and the Good of our Brethren : But all these are so apparently and grosly unreasonable , that it is a Wonder that any one should ever take them for Instances of that self-denyal which our Saviour requires ; especially considering , that in all his Discourse of self-denyal , he does not so much as glance at any of these Instances , or any thing like to them . 1. Some comprehend under self-denyal , the denying and renouncing our own Senses in matters of Faith : and if this could be made out to be intended by our Saviour in this Precept , we needed not dispute any of the other Instances . For he that renounceth the certainty of Sense , so as not to believe what he sees , may after this renounce and deny any thing . For the Evidence of Sense is more clear and unquestionable than that of Faith ; as the Scripture frequently intimates ; as John 20. 29. where our Saviour reproves Thomas , for refusing to believe his Resurrection , upon any less Evidence than that of Sense ; Because thou hast seen , thou hast believed : Blessed are they wich have not seen , and yet have believed . Which plainly supposeth the Evidence of Sense to be the highest and clearest degree of Evidence . So likewise that of St. Paul , 2 Cor. 5. 7. We walk by Faith , and not by Sight : Where the Evidence of Faith , as that which is more imperfect and obscure , is opposed to that of Sight , as more clear and certain . So that to believe any Article of Faith , in contradiction to the clear Evidence of Sense , is contrary to the very Nature of Assent ; which always yields to the greatest and clearest Evidence . Besides that , our Belief of Religion is at last resolved into the certainty of Sense ; so that by renouncing that , we destroy and undermine the very Foundation of our Faith. One of the plainest and principal Proofs of the Being of God ( which is the first and Fundamental Article of all Religion ) relies upon the certainty of Sense ; namely , the Frame of this visible World ; by the Contemplation whereof , we are led to the acknowledgment of the invisible Author of it . So St. Paul tells us , Rom. 1. 20. That the invisible things of God , from the Creation of the World , are clearly seen , being understood by the things which are made , even his eternal Power and Godhead . And the great external Evidence of the Christian Religion , I mean Miracles , is at last resolved into the certainty of Sense , without which , we can have no assurance that any Miracle was wrought for the confirmation of it . And the knowledge likewise of the Christian Faith , is conveyed to us by our Senses ; the Evidence whereof , if it be uncertain , takes away all certainty of Faith. How shall they believe , ( saith St. Paul , Rom. 10. 14. ) How shall they believe in him , of whom they have not Heard ? And ver . 17. So then Faith cometh by hearing , and hearing by the word of God. So that to deny and renounce our Senses in matters of Faith , is to take away the main Pillar and Foundation of it . 2. Others , almost with equal absurdity , would comprehend under our Saviour's Precept of Self-denial , the denying and renouncing of our Reason in matters of Faith : and this is Self-denial with a witness , for a Man to deny his own reason ; for it is to deny himself to be a Man. This surely is a very great mistake , and tho the ground of it may be innocent ; yet the consequence of it , and the Discourses upon it , are very absurd . The Ground of the mistake is this , Men think they deny their own Reason , when they assent to the Revelation of God in such things , as their own Reason could neither have discovered , nor is able to give the reason of : whereas in this case , a Man is so far from denying his own Reason , that he does that which is most agreeable to it . For what more reasonable than to believe whatever we are sufficiently assur'd is revealed to us by God , who can neither be deceived himself , nor deceive us ? But tho' the Ground of this mistake may be innocent , yet the Consequences of it are most absurd and dangerous . For if we are to renounce our Reason in matters of Faith , then are we bound to believe without Reason , which no Man can do ; or if he could , then Faith would be unreasonable , and Infidelity reasonable . So that this Instance likewise of Self-denial , to renounce and deny our own Reason , as it is no where exprest , so it cannot reasonably be thought to be intended by our Saviour in this Precept . 3. Nor doth this Precept of Self-denial require Men to be content to renounce their own Eternal Happiness , and to be willing to be Damned for the Glory of God , and the good of their Brethren . If this were the meaning of this Precept , we might justly say , as the Disciples did to our Saviour , in another Case , This is a hard saying , and who can hear it ? The very thought of this , is enough to make Humane Nature to tremble at its very foundation . For the deepest Principle that God hath planted in our Nature , is the desire of our own Preservation and Happiness ; and into this the Force of all Laws , and the Reason of all our Duty is at last resolved . From whence it plainly follows , that it can be no Man's Duty in any case to renounce his own Happiness , and to be content to be for Ever Miserable ; because if once this be made a Duty , there will be no Argument left , to perswade any Man to it . For the most powerful Arguments , that God ever used , to perswade Men to any thing , are the Promise of Eternal Happiness , and the Terrour of Everlasting Torments : But if this were a Man's Duty , to be content to be Miserable for Ever , neither of these Arguments would be of force sufficient to perswade a Man to it . The first of these , namely the Promise of Eternal Happiness , could signifie nothing to him that is to be Eternally Miserable ; because if he be to be so , it is impossible that he should ever have the benefit of that Promise : and the threatning of Eternal Misery , could be no Argument in this Case ; because the Duty is just as difficult , as the Argument is powerful , and no Man can be moved to submit to any thing that is grievous and terrible , but by something that is more terrible ; for if it be not , it is the same thing , whether he submit to it , or not ; and then no Man can be content , to be Eternally Miserable , only for the fear of being so ; for this would be for a Man to run himself upon that very inconvenience which he is so much afraid of ; and 't is madness for a Man to die for fear of death . Quis novus hic furor est , ne moriare , mori ? By this it plainly appears , how unreasonable it is to imagin , that by this Precept of Self-denial , our Saviour should require Men to renounce Everlasting Happiness , and to be content to be Miserable for Ever , upon any account whatsoever ; because this were to suppose , that God hath imposed that upon us as a Duty , to oblige us whereto there can be no Argument offer'd , that can be powerful enough . As for the Glory of God , which is pretended to be the Reason , it is an impossible Supposition ; because it cannot be for the Glory of God , to make a Creature for Ever Miserable , that shall not by his Wilful Obstinacy and Impenitence deserve to be so . But this is only cast in to add weight . The other Reason of the Good and Salvation of our Brethren , is the only Consideration for which there is any manner of colour from Scripture ; and two Instances are alledged to this purpose , of two very Excellent Persons , that seem to have desired this , and to have submitted to it ; and therefore it is not so unreasonable as we would make it , that our Saviour should enjoyn it as a Duty . The Instances alledged are these . Moses desired of God that he might be blotted out of the Book of Life , rather than the People of Israel , whom he had Conducted and Governed so long , should be destroyed : And in the New Testament St. Paul tells us , That he could wish , that himself were accursed from Christ , for his Brethren ; so earnest a desire had he of their Salvation . But neither of these Instances are of force sufficient to overthrow the Reasons of my former Discourse ; for the desire of Moses amounts only to a submission to a Temporal death , that his Nation might be saved from a Temporal ruin . For the Expression of blotting out of the Book of Life , is of the same importance with those Phrases so frequently used in the Old Testament , of blotting out from the face of the Earth , and blotting out one's name from under Heaven ; which signifie no more than Temporal death and destruction ; and then Moses's Wish was reasonable and generous , and signifies no more , but that he was willing , if God pleased , to die to save the Nation . As for St. Paul's Wish , of being accursed from Christ , it is plainly an Hyperbolical Expression of his great Affection to his Country-men the Jews , and his Zeal for their Salvation , which was so great , that if it had been a thing reasonable and lawful , he could have wisht the greatest Evil to himself for their sakes ; and therefore it is observable , that it is not a positive and absolute wish , but exprest in the usual form of ushering in an Hyperbole ; I could wish , just as we are wont to say , when we would express a thing to the hight , which is not fit , nor intended to be done by us ; I could wish so or so ; I could even afford to do this or that ; which kind of speeches , no Man takes for a strict and precise Declaration of our minds , but for a figurative expression of a great Passion . And thus I have done with the first thing I proposed for the Explication of this Precept , or Duty of Self-denial ; which was to remove some sorts of Self-denial , which by some are frequently instanced in , as intended by our Saviour in this Precept . I proceed now to the Second thing I proposed ; which is to declare positively , what that Self-denial is , which our Saviour here intends ; and 't is plainly this , and nothing but this ; that we should be willing to part with all Earthly Comforts and Conveniences , to quit all our Temporal Interests and Enjoyments , and even Life it self , for the sake of Christ and his Religion . This our Saviour means , by denying our selves ; and then ( which is much the same with the other ) that we should be willing to bear any Temporal inconvenience and suffering , upon the same account . This is to take up our Cross and follow him . And that this is the full meaning of these two Phrases , of denying our selves , and taking up our Cross , will clearly appear , by considering the particular Instances , which our Saviour gives of this Self-denyal , when ever he hath occasion to speak of it ; by which you will plainly see , that these expressions amount to no more than I have said . Even here in the Text , after our Saviour had told his Disciples , that he that would come after him , must deny himself , and take up his Cross ; It follows immediately , for whosoever will save his life shall lose it , and whosoever will lose his life for my sake , shall find it . You see here , that he instanceth in parting with our lives for him , as the highest piece of Self-denyal , which he requires . And he himself elsewhere tells us , that greater love than this hath no man , than that a man lay down his life for his friend . Elsewhere he instanceth in quitting our nearest Relations for his sake ; Luke 14. 26 , 27. If any man come to me , and hate not his father , and mother , and wife , and children , and brethren , and sisters , yea and his own life also , he cannot be my Disciple ; and whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me , he cannot be my Disciple . Which expressions , of hating Father , and Mother , and other Relations , and even Life it self , are not to be understood Rigorously , and in an absolute Sense , but Comparatively ; for it is an Hebrew manner of speech , to express that Absolutely , which is meant only Comparatively ; and so our Saviour explains himself , in a parallel Text to this ; Matth. 10. 37 , 38. He that loveth father or mother , more than me , is not worthy of me : he that loveth son or daughter , more than me , is not worthy of me : And he that taketh not his Cross , and followeth after me , is not worthy of me . In another place , our Saviour instanceth in quitting our Estates for his sake , Matth. 19. 29. Every one that shall forsake houses , or brethren , or sisters , or father , or mother , or wife , or children , or lands , for my names sake ; by all which it appears , that this Self-denyal which our Saviour here requires of his Disciples , is to be extended no farther , than to a readiness and willingness , when ever God shall call us to it , to quit all our Temporal Interests and Enjoyments , and even Life it self , ( the dearest of all other ) and to submit to any Temporal inconvenience and suffering for his sake . And thus much for the Explication of the Precept here in the Text. I proceed in the Third Place , to consider the strict and indispensible Obligation of this Precept of Self-denyal , and suffering for Christ , and his Truth , rather than to forsake and renounce them . If any man will come after me , or be my Disciple , let him deny himself , and take up his Cross and follow me ; that is , upon these Terms , he must be my Disciple , in this manner he must follow me ; and in the Text I mention'd before , he declares again , that he that is not ready to quit all his Relations and even Life it self , for his sake , is not worthy of him , and cannot be his Disciple ; and whosoever doth not bear his Cross , and come after me , cannot be my Disciple ; so that we cannot be the Disciples of Christ , nor be worthy to be called by his Name ; if we be not ready thus to deny our selves for his sake : And not only so ; but if for fear of the Cross , or of any temporal sufferings , we should renounce , and deny him ; he threatens to deny us before his Father which is in Heaven , ( i. e. ) to deprive us of Eternal Life , and to Sentence us to Everlasting Misery . Matth. 10. 32. Whosoever shall confess me before men , him will I confess before my father which is in Heaven : But whosoever shall deny me before men , him will I also deny before my father which is in Heaven : And Mark 8. 38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me , and of my words , in this adulterous and sinful generation , of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed , when he cometh in the Glory of his Father , with his holy Angels ; that is , when he cometh to Judge the World , they shall not be able to stand in that Judgment ; for that by his being ashamed of them , is meant , that they shall be condemned by him , is plain from what goes before , V. 26 , 27. What shall it profit a man , if he shall gain the whole World , and lose his own Soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul ? and then it follows , Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words . But because some have had the Confidence to tell the World , that our Saviour doth not require thus much of Christians ; but all that he obligeth us to , is to believe in him in our Hearts , but not to make any outward Profession of his Religion , when the Magistrate forbids it , and we are in danger of suffering for it : I shall therefore briefly examine what is pretended for so strange an Assertion , and so directly contrary to the whole Tenor of the Gospel , and to the express Words of our Saviour . The Author of the Book called the Leviathan , tells us , That we are not only not bound to confess Christ , but we are obliged to deny him , in case the Magistrate require us so to do . His Words are these : What if the Soveraign forbid us to believe in Christ ? He answers , Such forbidding is of no effect , because Belief and Vnbelief never follows Mens Commands . But what ( says he ) if we be commanded by our lawful Prince to say with our Tongues , we believe not ; must we obey such Commands ? To this he answers , That Profession with the Tongue is but an External thing , and no more than any other Gesture , whereby we signifie our Obedience , and wherein a Christian , holding firmly in his Heart the Faith of Christ , hath the same Liberty which the Prophet Elisha allowed to Naaman . But what then ( says he ) shall I answer to our Saviour , saying , Whosoever denieth me before Men , him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven . His Answer is , This we may say , that whatsoever a Subject is compell'd to in obedience to his Soveraign , and does it not in order to his own Mind , but the Law of his Country , the Action is not his , but his Soveraign's ; nor is it he that in this Case denies Christ before Men , but his Governour , and the Laws of his Country . But can any Man , that in good earnest pays any degree of Reverence to our Blessed Saviour and his Religion , think to baffle such plain Words by so frivolous an Answer ? There is no Man doubts , but if the Magistrate should command Men to deny Christ , he would be guilty of a great Sin in so doing ; but if we must obey God rather than Men , and every Man must give an account of himself to God ; how will this excuse him that denies Christ , or breaks any other Commandment of God , upon the Command of the Magistrate ? And to put the matter out of all doubt , that our Saviour forbids all that will be his Disciples , upon pain of Damnation , to deny him , tho the Magistrate should command them to do so , it is very observable , that in that very place , where he speaks of confessing or denying him before Men , he puts this very Case , of their being brought before Kings and Governours for confessing him , Matth. 10. 17. Beware ( says he ) of Men , for they will deliver you up to the Council , and they will scourge you in their Synagogues ; and ye shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake , for a testimony against them and the Gentiles . But what Testimony would this be against them , if Christians were bound to deny Christ at their Command ? But our Saviour goes on , and tells them how they ought to demean themselves , when they were brought before Kings and Governours , v. 19. But when they shall deliver you up , take ye no thought , how , or what ye shall speak ; for it shall be given you in that very hour what ye shall speak . But what need of any such extraordinary Assistance in the case , if they had nothing to do , but to deny him , when they were required by the Magistrate to do it ? And then ( proceeding in the same Discourse ) he bids them , v. 28. Not to fear them that can kill the Body , and after that have no more that they can do ; that is , not to deny him , for fear of any Temporal Punishment or Suffering the Magistrate could inflict upon them ; but to fear and obey him , who can destroy Body and Soul in Hell. And upon this Discourse our Saviour concludes , v. 32 , 33. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men , him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven ; but whosoever shall deny me before men , him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven . And now can any thing be plainer , than that our Saviour requires his Disciples to make Confession of him before Kings and Governours , and not to deny him for fear of any thing which they can do to them ? But let us enquire a little farther , and see how the Apostles , who received this Precept from our Saviour himself , did understand it . Acts 4. 14. we find Peter and John summoned before the Jewish Magistrates , who strictly commanded them , not to speak at all , nor teach in the Name of Jesus . But Peter and John answered and said unto them , Whether it be right in the sight of God , to hearken unto you , more than unto God , judge ye . And when they still persisted in their course , notwithstanding the Command of the Magistrate , and were called again before the Council , Ch. 5. 28. And the High Priest asked them , saying , Did we not straitly command you , that you should not teach in this Name ? and behold , ye have filled Jerusalem with your Doctrine : They return them again the same Answer , v. 29. Then Peter and the other Apostles answered and said , We ought to obey God rather than men . And let any Man now judge , whether our Saviour did not oblige Men to confess him even before Magistrates , and to obey him rather than Men. And indeed , how can any Man in reason think , that the great King and Governour of the World should invest any Man with a Power to control his Authority , and to oblige Men to disobey and renounce him , by whom Kings reign , and Princes decree judgment ? This is a thing so unreasonable , that it can hardly be imagined , that any thing but down-right Malice against God and Religion could prompt any Man to advance such an Assertion . I should now have proceeded to the Fourth and Last Particular , which I proposed to speak to ; namely , To vindicate the reasonableness of this Precept of Self-denial and Suffering for Christ , which at first Appearance may seem to be so very harsh and difficult . But this , together with the Application of this Discourse , shall be reserved to another Oportunity . A SERMON , ON MATTH . XVI . 24. Then said Jesus unto his Disciples , If any man will come after me , let him deny himself , and take up his Cross and follow me . THEN said Jesus unto his Disciples ; that is , upon Occasion of his former Discourse with them , concerning his approaching Passion , and that he must shortly go up to Jerusalem , and there suffer many things of the Elders and Chief Priests and Scribes , and at last be put to Death by them ; Then said Jesus unto his Disciples , If any man will come after me ; that is , If any Man will be my Disciple , and undertake the Profession of my Religion , he must do it upon these Terms of Self-denial and Suffering . In the handling of these Words , I proceeded in this Method . First , I considered the way which our Saviour here useth in making Proselytes , and gaining Men over to his Religion . He offers no manner of Force and Violence to compel Men to the Profession of it , but fairly proposeth it to their Consideration and Choice ; telling them plainly upon what Terms they must be his Disciples ; if they like them , and be resolved to submit to them , well ; if not , 't is in vain to follow him any longer ; for they cannot be his Disciples . And to use any other way than this to gain Men over to Religion , is contrary both to the Nature of Man , who is a Reasonable Creature ; and to the Nature of Religion , which , if it be not our Free Choice , cannot be Religion . Secondly , I explained his Duty or Precept of Self-denial , express'd in these Words , Let him deny himself , and take up his Cross ; which Phrase , of taking up one's Cross , is an Allusion to the Roman Custom , which was , That the Malefactor that was to be Crucified , was to take up his Cross upon his Shoulders , and to carry it to the Place of Execution . Now for our clearer understanding of this Precept of Self-denial , I told you , that it is not to be extended to every thing that may properly be call'd by that Name , but to be limited by the plain Scope and Intendment of our Saviour's Discourse ; and therefore I did in the First Place remove several things which are instanced in by some , as intended and required by this Precept . As , 1. That we should deny and renounce our own Sense in matters of Faith. But this I shewed to be absurd and impossible ; because if we do not believe what we see , or will believe contrary to what we see , we destroy all Certainty , there being no greater than that of Sense : Besides , that the Evidence of Faith being less clear and certain than that of Sense , it is contrary to the Nature of Assent , which is always sway'd and born down by the greatest and clearest Evidence . So that we cannot assent to any thing in plain Contradiction to the Evidence of Sense . 2. Others would comprehend under this Precept , the denying of our Reason in matters of Faith ; which is in the next degree of Absurdity to the other ; because no Man can believe any thing , but upon some Reason or other ; and to believe without any Reason , or against Reason , is to make Faith unreasonable , and Infidelity reasonable . 3. Others pretend , that by virtue of this Precept , Men ought to be content to renounce their own Eternal Happiness , and to be Miserable for Ever , for the Glory of God , and the Salvation of their Brethren . But this I shewed cannot be a Duty , for this plain Reason ; because if it were , there is no Argument left powerful enough to perswade a Man to it . And as for the two Scripture Instances alledged to this purpose ; Moses his Wish , of being blotted out of the Book of Life for the People of Israel , signifies no more than a Temporal Death ; and St. Paul's , of being accursed from Christ for his Brethren , is only an hyperbolical Expression of his great Passion and Zeal for the Salvation of his Country-men ; as is evident from the Form of the Expression ; such as is commonly used to usher in an Hyperbole ; I could wish . And in the Second Place , I shewed positively , That the plain meaning of this Precept of Self-denial is this , and nothing but this ; That we should be willing to part with all our Temporal Interests and Enjoyments , and even Life it self , for the sake of Christ and his Religion . This is to deny our selves . And then , that we should be willing to bear any temporal Inconvenience and Suffering upon the same Account . This is to take up our Cross. And this I shewed from the Instances which our Saviour gives of Self-denial , whenever he had occasion to discourse of it . Thirdly , I considered the strict and indispensable Obligation of this Precept of Self-denial , rather than to forsake Christ and his Religion . Without this Disposition and Resolution of Mind we cannot be his Disciples ; And if we deny him before Men ; he will also deny us before his Father which is in Heaven . And this Confession of Him and his Truth we are to make before Kings and Governours , and notwithstanding their Commands to the contrary , which are of no Force against the Laws and Commands of God. Thus far I have gone . There remains only the IV. And Last Particular , which I proposed to speak to ; viz. To vindicate the Reasonableness of this Self-denial and Suffering for Christ , which at first appearance may seem to be so very difficult . And this Precept cannot be thought unreasonable , if we take into Consideration these Three Things . I. That He who requires this of us , hath Himself given us the greatest Example of Self-denial that ever was . The greatest in it self , in that he denied himself more , and suffered more grievous things , than it is possible for any of us to do : And such an Example , as in the Circumstances of it , is most apt and powerful to engage and oblige us to the imitation of it ; because all his Self-denial and Sufferings were for our sakes . II. If we cosider , That he hath promised all needful Supplies of his Grace , to enable us to the Discharge of this difficult Duty of Self-denial and Suffering , and to support and comfort us therein . III. He hath assured us of a Glorious Reward of all our Sufferings and Self-denial , beyond the Proportion of them , both in the Degree and Duration of it . I shall go over these as briefly as I can . I. If we consider , That He who requires us thus to deny our selves for him , hath given us the greatest Example of Self-denyal that ever was . Our Saviour knowing how unwelcome this Doctrine of Self-denyal and Suffering must needs be to his Disciples , and how hardly this Precept would go down with them ; to sweeten it a little , and take off the harshness of it , and to prepare their Minds the better for it , he tells them first of his own Sufferings ; that by that means he might , in some measure , reconcile their Minds to it , when they saw that he required nothing of them , but what he was ready to undergo Himself , and to give them the Example of it . And upon this Occasion it was , that our Saviour acquaints them with the hard and difficult Terms upon which they must be his Disciples . V. 21. The Evangelist tells us , that Jesus began to shew unto his Disciples ; how that he must go unto Jerusalem , and suffer many things of the Elders , and Chief-Priests , and Scribes , and be killed . Then said Jesus unto his Disciples ; that is , immediately upon this Discourse of his own Sufferings , as the fittest time for it , he takes the Oportunity to tell them plainly of their own Sufferings ; and that unless they were prepared and resolved to deny themselves so far , as to suffer all manner of Persecution for his sake and the Profession of his Religion ; they could not be his Disciples . If any man will come after me , let him deny himself , and take up his Cross , and follow me ; that is , let him reckon and resolve upon following that Example of Self-denyal and Suffering , in which I will go before him . Now the Consideration of this Example of Self-denyal and Suffering , which our Saviour hath given us , hath great force in it to reconcile us to this difficult Duty , and to shew the Reasonableness of it . 1. That He who requires us thus to deny our selves , hath Himself in his own Person , given us the greatest Example of self-denyal that ever was . And , 2. Such an Example , as , in all the Circumstances of it , is most apt and powerful to engage and oblige us to the imitation of it ; because all his Self-denyal and Sufferings were for our sakes . 1. He who requires us thus to deny our selves , hath Himself in his own Person given us the greatest Example of Self-denyal that ever was ; in that he denyed himself more , and suffered more grievous things , than any of us can do . He bore the insupportable Load of all the Sins of all Mankind , and of the Wrath and Vengeance due to them . Never was sorrow like to his sorrow , wherewith the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce anger . He was despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows , and acquainted with griefs ; his visage was marred more than any mans , and his form more than the sons of men . ( i. e. ) He underwent more Affliction , and had more Contempt poured upon him , than ever was upon any of the Sons of Men ; and yet he endured all this with incredible Patience and Meekness , with the greatest Evenness and Constancy of Mind , and with the most perfect Submission and Resignation of himself to the Will of God , that can be imagined . Such an Example as this should be of great force to animate us with the like Courage and Resolution , in lesser Dangers and Difficulties . To see the Captain of our Salvation going before us , and leading us on so bravely , and made perfect by greater sufferings than we can ever be called to , or are any ways able to undergo , is no small Argument and Encouragement to us , to take up our Cross and follow him . The Consideration of the unknown Sufferings of the Son of God , so great as we cannot well conceive of them , should make all the Afflictions and Sufferings that can befall us , not only tolerable , but easie to us . Upon this Consideration it is , that the Apostle animates Christians to Patience in their Christian Course , notwithstanding all the Hardships and Sufferings that attended it ; Heb. 12. 2. Let us run with patience the race which is set before us , looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith , who endured the Cross , and despised the Shame . For consider him , who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , lest ye also be weary and faint in your minds . And this Example is more Powerful for our Encouragement , because therein we see the World conquered to our Hands , and all the Terrours and Temptations of it baffled and subdued , and thereby a cheap and easie Victory over it obtained for us . By this Consideration , our Saviour endeavours to inspire his Disciples with Chearfulness and Courage in this great Conflict ; John 16. 33. In the world ye shall have tribulation ; but be of good chear , I have overcome the world . 2. This Example of our Saviour , is such , as in all the Circumstances of it , is most apt and powerful to engage and oblige us to the Imitation of it ; because all his Self-denyal and Sufferings were for our sakes , in Pity and Kindness to us , and wholly for our Benefit and Advantage . We are apt to have their Example in great regard , from whom we have received great Kindness and mighty Benefits . This Pattern of Self-denyal and Suffering , which our Religion proposeth to us , is the Example of One , whom we have Reason to Esteem , and Love , and Imitate , above any Person in the World. 'T is the Example of our Lord and Master , of our Sovereign and our Saviour , of the Founder of our Religion , and of the Author and Finisher of our Faith : And surely such an Example must needs carry Authority with it , and command our Imitation . 'T is the Example of our best Friend , and greatest Benefactor ; of Him , who laid down his Life for us , and sealed his Love to us with his dearest Blood ; and , even when we were bitter Enemies to him , did , and suffered more for us , than any Man ever did for his best Friend . If we should be reduced to Poverty and Want , let us consider Him ; Who being Lord of all , had not where to lay his head ; who being rich , for our sakes became poor ; that we through his poverty might be made rich . If it should be our lot to be persecuted for righteousness sake , and exercised with Sufferings and Reproaches ; Let us look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith , who endured the Cross , and despised the shame for our sakes . In a Word , can we be discontented at any Condition , or decline it in a good Cause ; when we consider how Contented the Son of God was , in the meanest and most destitute ; how Meek and Patient in the most afflicted and suffering Condition ; how he welcomed all Events , and was so perfectly resigned to the Will of his Heavenly Father , that whatever pleased God , pleased him ? And surely in no Case is Example more necessary than in this , to engage and encourage us in the discharge of so difficult a Duty , so contrary to the bent and inclination of Flesh and Blood. A bare Precept of Self-denial , and a peremptory Command to sacrifice our own Wills , our Ease , our Pleasure , our Reputation , yea and Life it self , to the Glory of God , and the Maintenance of his Truth , would have sounded very harsh and severe , had not the Practice of all this been mollified and sweetned by a Pattern of so much advantage ; by One who in all these respects denied himself , much more than it is possible for us to do ; by One who might have insisted upon a greater Right ; who abased himself , and stooped from a greater Hight and Dignity ; who was not forced into a condition of Meanness and Poverty , but chose it for our sakes ; who submitted to Suffering , tho he had never deserved it . Here is an Example that hath all the Argument , and all the Encouragement that can be , to the imitation of it . Such an Example is of greater force and authority than any Precept or Law can be : So that well might our Lord , thus going before us , command us to follow him , and say , If any man will come after me , let him deny himself , and take up his Cross and follow me . For if He thus denied himself , well may We , who have much less to deny , but much more Cause and Reason to do it . He did it voluntarily , and of choice ; but it is our Duty . He did it for our sakes ; we do it for our own . His own Goodness moved him to deny himself for us ; but Gratitude obligeth us to deny our selves in any thing for him . We did not in the least deserve any thing from him ; but he hath wholly merited all this , and infinitely more from us . So that such an Example as this is , in all the Circumstances of it , cannot but be very powerful and effectual , to oblige us to the Imitation of it . But the Reasonableness of this Precept will yet farther appear , if we consider in the Third place , That God hath promised to all Sincere Christians all needful Supplies of his Grace , to inable them to the discharge of this difficult Duty of Self-denial , and to support and comfort them therein . For the Spirit of Christ dwells in all Christians , and the same Glorious Power that raised up Jesus from the Dead , works mightily in them that believe ; Eph. 1. 19. That ye may know ( saith St. Paul , speaking in general to all Christians ) what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us-ward , who believe , according to the working of his mighty Power which he wrought in Christ , when he raised him from the dead . Of our selves we are very weak , and the Temptations and Terrors of the world very powerful ; but there is a Principle residing in every true Christian , able to bear us up against the World , and the power of all its Temptations . Whatsoever is born of God ( saith St. John ) overcometh the world ; and this is the victory that overcometh the world , even our Faith. Ye are of God , little children , and have overcome ; because greater is he that is in you , than he that is in the world . And this Grace and Strength was afforded to the first Christians in a most Extraordinary manner , for their Comfort and Support under Sufferings : So that they were strengthned with all Might , according to God's glorious Power , unto all long-suffering with joyfulness ; as St. Paul prays for the Colossians , Ch. 1. 11. And these Consolations of the Spirit of God , this Joy in the Holy Ghost , was not peculiarly appropriated to the first times of Christianity ; but is still afforded to all sincere Christians , in such degree as is necessary , and convenient for them . And whenever God exerciseth Good Men , with tryals more than humane , and such Sufferings as are beyond the ordinary rate of humane Strength and Patience to bear , he hath promised to endue them with more than humane Courage and Resolution . So St. Paul tells the Corinthians , 1 Cor. 10. 13. He is faithful that hath promised , who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able , but will with the temptation also make a way to escape , that ye may be able to bear it . And why should we be daunted at any Suffering ; if God be pleased to increase our Strength , in proportion to the Sharpness of our Sufferings ? And Blessed be God , many of our persecuted Brethren at this day have remarkably found this comfortable Assistance and Support ; tho many likewise have fallen through fear and weakness ; as it also hapen'd in the Primitive times . But where ever this Promise is not made good , it is ( as I have formerly said ) by reason of some Fault and Failing on our part . Either Men were not Sincere in the profession of the Truth , and then no wonder , If when Tribulation and Persecution ariseth , because of the Word , they are offended and fall off : Or else they were too Confident to themselves , and did not seek God's Grace and Assistance , and relie upon it as they ought ; and thereupon God hath left them to themselves ( as he did Peter ) to convince them of their own Frailty and rash Confidence ; and yet even in that case , when there is Truth and Sincerity at the bottom , there is no Reason to doubt , but that the Goodness of God is such , as by some means or other to give to such persons ( as he did to Peter ) the oportunity of recovering themselves by Repentance , and a more stedfast Resolution afterwards . 4. If we consider , in the last place , that our Saviour hath assured us of a Glorious and Eternal Reward of all our Self-denial and Sufferings for him ; a Reward Infinitely beyond the proportion of our Sufferings , both in the Degree and Duration of it . Now the clear discovery of this is peculiarly owing to the Christian Religion , and the appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ , who hath abolished Death , and brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel . And as our Blessed Saviour hath assured us of this Blessed State of Good Men in another World ; so hath he likewise assur'd us , that greater Degrees of this Happiness shall be the Portion of Those who suffer for Him and his Truth : Mat. 5. 10 , 11 , 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousness sake , for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven . Blessed are ye when men shall revile you , and persecute you , and speak all manner of evil against you falsly , for my Names sake . Rejoyce and be exceeding glad , for great is your Reward in Heaven . And nothing surely can be more Reasonable , than to part with things of Small Value , for things infinitely Greater and more Considerable ; to forego the Transient Pleasures and Enjoyments , and the Imperfect Felicities of this World , for the Solid , and Perfect , and Perpetual Happiness of a Better Life ; and to exchange a Short and Miserable Life , for Eternal Life and Blessedness ; in a word , to be content to be driven Home ; to be banisht out of this World into our own Native Country ; and to be violently thrust out of this Vale of Tears , into those Regions of Bliss , where are Joys unspeakable and full of Glory . This Consideration St. Paul tells us supported the Primitive Christians , under their sharpest and heaviest Sufferings , 2 Cor. 4. 16. For this cause ( says he ) we faint not , because our light affliction which is but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; whilst we look not at the things which are seen , but the things which are not seen ; for the things which are seen are temporal , but the things which are not seen are eternal . So that our Sufferings bear no more Proportion to the Reward of them , than Finite does to Infinite , than Temporal to Eternal ; between which there is no Proportion . All that now remains , is to draw some useful Inferences from what hath been Discoursed , concerning this great and difficult Duty of Self-denial for the sake of Christ and his Religion ; and they shall be these following . 1. To acknowledg the great Goodness of God to us , that all these Laws and Commands , even the Hardest and Severest of them , are so reasonable . God as he is our Maker , and gave us our Beings , hath an Entire and Soveraign Right over us ; and by virtue of that Right , might have imposed very Hard things upon us , and this without the giving Account to us of any of his matters , and without propounding any Reward to us , so vastly disproportionable to our Obedience to him . But in giving Laws to us , he hath not made use of this Right . The most Severe and Rigorous Commands of the Gospel are such , that we shall be infinitely Gainers by our Obedience to them . If we deny our selves any thing in this World for Christ and his Religion , we shall , in the next , be considered for it to the Utmost ; not only far beyond what it can Deserve , but beyond what we can Conceive or Imagine : For this perishing Life , and the transitory Trifles and Enjoyments of it , we shall , receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken , an uncorruptible Crown which fadeth not away , Eternal in the Heavens . For these are Faithful Sayings , and we shall Infallibly find them true ; That if we suffer with Christ , we shall also reign with him ; if we be persecuted for righteousness sake , great shall be our reward in Heaven ; if we part with our Temporal Life , we shall be made Partakers of Eternal Life . He that is firmly persuaded of the Happiness of the next World , and believes the Glory which shall then be revealed , hath no Reason to be so much offended at the Sufferings of this Present time ; so long as he knows and believes , that these Light afflictions which are but for a Moment , will work for him a for more Exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory . 2. Seeing this is required of every Christian , to be always in a Preparation and Disposition of Mind to deny our selves , and to take up our Cross ; if we do in good earnest resolve to be Christians , we ought to fit down and consider well with our selves , what our Religion will cost us , and whether we be content to come up to the Price of it . If we value any thing in this World , above Christ and his Truth , we are not worthy of him . If it come to this , that we must either renounce Him and his Religion , or quit our temporal Interests ; if we be not ready to forego these , nay , and to part even with Life it self , rather than to forsake Him and his Truth ; we are not worthy of him . These are the Terms of our Christianity , and therefore we are required in Baptism solemnly to renounce the World : And our Saviour , from this very Consideration , infers , That all who take upon them the Profession of his Religion , should consider seriously beforehand , and count the cost of it ; Luke 14. 28. Which of you , ( says he ) intending to build a Tower , sitteth not down first , and counteth the cost , whether he have sufficient to finish it ? Or what King going to war with another King , doth not sit down and consult , whether with 10000 he be able to meet him that cometh against him with 20000. So likewise , whosoever he be that forsaketh not all he hath , cannot be my Disciple . You see the Terms upon which we are Christians ; we must always be prepared in the Resolution of our Minds , to deny our selves , and take up our Cross , tho we are not Actually put upon this Tryal . 3. What hath been said , is matter of great Comfort and Encouragement to all those who deny themselves , and suffer upon so good an Account ; of whom , God knows , there are too great a Number at this Day , in several parts of the World : Some under actual Sufferings , such as cannot but move Compassion and Horror in all that hear of them : Others , who are fled hither , and into other Countries , for Refuge and Shelter from one of the sharpest Persecutions that perhaps ever was , if all the Circumstances of it be duly considered . But not to enlarge upon so unpleasant a Theam , they who suffer for the Truth and Righteousness sake , have all the Comfort and Encouragement , that the best Example , and the greatest and most glorious Promises of God can give . They have the best Example in their view ; Jesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith , who endured the Cross , and despised the Shame . So that how great and terrible soever their Sufferings be , they do but tread in the Steps of the Son of God , and of the best and holiest Man that ever was ; and He who is their great Example in Suffering , will likewise be their Support , and their exceeding great Reward . So that tho Suffering for Christ be accounted great Self-denyal , and he is graciously pleased so to accept it ; because in denying things Present and Sensible , for things Future and Invisible , we do not only declare our Affection to him , but our great Faith and Confidence in him , by shewing that we rely upon his Word , and venture all upon the Security which he offers us in another World ; yet according to a right Estimate of things , and to those who walk by Faith and not by Sight , this which we call Self-denyal , is , in truth and reality , but a more commendable sort of Self-love ; because we do herein most effectually consult , and secure , and advance our own Happiness . 4. And Lastly , Since God hath been pleased for so long a time to excuse us from this hardest part of Self-denyal , let us not grudge to deny our selves in lesser Matters , for the sake of his Truth and Religion ; to miss a good Place , or to quit it upon that account ; much less let us think much to renounce our Vices , and to thwart our evil Inclinations for his sake . As Naaman's Servant said to him , concerning the means prescribed by the Prophet for his Cure ; If he had bid thee do some Great thing , wouldest thou not have done it ? How much more , when he hath only said , Wash and be clean : So since God imposeth no harder Terms upon us , than Repentance and Reformation of our Lives , we should gladly and thankfully submit to them . This , I know , is difficult to some , to mortifie their earthly Members , to crucifie the flesh , with the affections and lusts of it ; 't is like cutting off a right Hand , and plucking out a right Eye . Some are so strongly addicted to their Lusts and Vices , that they could with more ease despise Life , in many cases , than thus Deny themselves : But in Truth , there is no more of Self-denyal in it , than a Man denies himself when he is mortally Sick and Wounded , in being content to be Cured , and willing to be Well . This is not at all to our Temporal Prejudice and Inconvenience , and it directly conduceth to our Eternal Happiness ; for there is no Man that lives a holy and virtuous Life , and in Obedience to the Laws of God , that can lightly receive any Prejudice by it in this World. Since God doth not call us to Suffer , we should Do so much the more for him . Since he doth not put us to testifie our Love to him , by laying down our Lives for him , we should shew it by a greater Care to keep his Commandments . God was pleased to exercise the first Christians with great Sufferings , and to try their Love and Constancy to him and his Truth , in a very Extraordinary manner ; by Severity and Contempt , by the spoiling of their Goods , and the loss of all things ; by bonds and imprisonments ; by cruel mockings and scourgings ; by the extremity of torments , and by resisting even unto blood ; by being kill'd for his sake all the day long , and appointed as Sheep for the slaughter . God was pleased to make their way to Heaven very sharp and painful , and to hedge it in as it were with thorns on every side ; so that they could not , but through many tribulations , enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . Thus we ought all to be in a Readiness and Resolution to submit to this Duty , if God should think fit at any time of our Lives to call us to it . But if he be pleased to excuse us from it , and to let this Cup pass from us , ( which may lawfully be our earnest Prayer to God , since we have so good a Pattern for it ) there will be another Duty incumbent upon us , which will take up the whole Man , and the whole time of our Life , and that is to serve him without fear , in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives . A SERMON , PREACHED At Whitehall , before the Family , Nov. 1. 1686. HEB. XI . 13. And confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth . The whole Verse runs thus : These all died in Faith , not having received the Promises , but having seen them afar off , and were persuaded of them , and embraced them , and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth . THE Apostle having declared at the latter end of the foregoing Chapter , that Faith is the great Principle whereby Good Men are acted , and whereby they are supported under all the Evils and Sufferings of this Life , Verse 38. Now the Just shall live by Faith ; In this Chapter he makes it his main business , to set forth to us at large the Force and Power of Faith ; and to this Purpose , he first tells us what kind of Faith he means ; viz. a firm Persuasion of things not Present and Visible to Sense , but Invisible and Future ; Ver. 1. Now Faith ( saith he ) is the confident expectation of things hoped for , and the evidence of things not seen . Faith represents to us the Reality of things which are Invisible to Sense , as the Existence of God and his Providence ; and of things which are at a great distance from us , as the Future State of Rewards and Punishments in another World. And then he proceeds to shew , by particular and famous Instances , that the firm Belief and Persuasion of these things , was the great Principle of the Piety and Virtue of the Saints and and Good Men in all Ages of the World ; by this Abel , and Enoch , and Noah ; Abraham , Isaac and Jacob ; Joseph and Moses , and all the Famous Heroes of the Old Testament obtained a good Report , and pleased God , and did all those eminent Acts of Obedience and Self-denyal which are recorded of them . They believed the Being of God , and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him . They dreaded his Threatnings , and relyed upon his Promises of Future and Invisible Good things . They lived and died in a full Persuasion and Confidence of the Truth of them ; tho they did not live to see them actually fulfilled and accomplisht . All these ( saith he , speaking of those Eminent Saints which he had instanced in before ) All these died in Faith , not having received the Promises , but having seen them afar off , and were persuaded of them , and embraced them . This is spoken with a more particular regard to Abraham , Isaac and Jacob ; to whom the Promises of the Conquest and Possession of a Fruitful Land were made , and of a Numerous Offspring ; among whom should be the Messias , in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed . These Promises they did not live to see accomplisht and made good in their Days ; but they heartily believed them , and rejoiced in the Hope and Expectation of them , as if they had embraced them in their Arms , and been put into the actual Possession of them : And they confessed , that they were Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth . This Saying and Acknowledgment more particularly and immediately refers to those Sayings of the Patriarchs Abraham and Jacob , which we find recorded , Gen. 23. 4. where Abraham says to the Sons of Heth , I am a Stranger and a Sojourner with you ; And Gen. 47. 9. where Jacob says to Pharaoh , The days of the years of my Pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years ; few and evil have the days of the years of my Life been . These Good Men were Strangers and Sojourners in a Land , which was promised to be theirs afterwards . They dwelt in it themselves as Strangers , but were in expectation that it would one day become the Inheritance of their Posterity . Now in this , as by a Type and Shadow , the Apostle represents to us the Condition of Good Men , while they are passing through this World. They are Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth ; they travel up and down the World for a time , as the Patriarchs did in the Land of Canaan ; but are in expectation of a better and more settled Condition hereafter ; they desire a better Country , that is , an Heavenly , says the Apostle at the 16 vers . of this Chapter . That which I design from these words , is to represent to us our Present Condition in this World ; and to awaken us to a due Sense and serious Consideration of it . It is the same Condition , that all the Saints and Holy Men that are gone before us were in , in this World ; and every one of us may say with David , Psal. 39. 12. I am a Stranger with thee , and a Sojourner , as all my Fathers were . It is a Condition very troublesome and very unsettled , such as that of Pilgrims and Strangers useth to be . This we must all acknowledge , if we judge rightly of our present State and Condition . They confessed , that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth ; but yet it was not without the Hope and Expectation of a better and happier Condition in Reversion . So it follows just after ; They that say such things , ( that is , that confess themselves to be Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth ) declare plainly , that they seek a Country . This bore up the Patriarchs under all the Evils and Troubles of their Pilgrimage ; that they expected an Inheritance , and a quiet and settled Possession of that Good Land which God had promised to them . Answerably to which , Good Men do expect , after the few and evil days of their Pilgrimage in this World are over , a Blessed Inheritance in a better Country ; that is , an Heavenly ; and with blessed Abraham , the Father of the Faithful , They look for a City which hath Foundations , whose Builder and Maker is God ; as it is said of that Good Patriarch at the tenth Verse of this Chapter . It is very frequent , not only in Scripture , but in other Authors , to represent our Condition in this World , by that of Pilgrims , and Sojourners in a foreign Country : For the Mind which is the Man , and our Immortal Souls , which are by far the most Noble and Excellent part of our selves , are the Natives of Heaven , and but Pilgrims and Strangers here in the Earth ; and when the days of our Pilgrimage shall be over , are designed to return to that Heavenly Country from which they came , and to which they belong . And therefore the Apostle tells us , Phil. 3. 20. that Christians have relation to Heaven , as their Native place and Country . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Our conversation is in Heaven , so we render the words ; but they properly signifie , that Christians are Members of that City and Society which is above ; and tho they converse at present here below , while they are passing through this World , yet Heaven is the Country to which they do belong , and whither they are continually tending ; Sedes ubi fata quietas ostendunt , where a quiet Habitation , and a perpetual Rest , is designed and prepared for them . This acknowledgment David makes concerning himself , and all the People of God , 1 Chron. 29. 15. For we are Strangers before thee , and Sojourners , as were all our Fathers . Our Days on the Earth are as a Shadow , and there is none abiding . So likewise St. Peter , 1 Pet. 1. 17. Pass the time of your Sojourning here in fear ; And Chap. 2. v. 11. Dearly beloved , I beseech you , as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly Lusts. And not only the inspired Writers of Holy Scripture , but Heathen Authors , do frequently make use of this Allusion . Plato tells us , it was a common saying , and almost in every Man's Mouth , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Life of Man is a kind of Pilgrimage . And Tully , in his Excellent Discourse de Senectute , ( concerning Old Age ) brings in Cato describing our passage out of this World , not as a departure from our Home , but like a Man leaving his Inn , in which he hath Lodged for a Night or two , ex vitâ istâ discedo , tanquam ex hospitio , non tanquam ex domo , commorandi enim natura Diversorium nobis non habitandi dedit : When I leave this World ( says he ) I look upon my self as departing out of an Inn , and not as quitting mine own Home and Habitation ; Nature having assigned this World to us as a place to Sojourn , but not to Dwell in . Which is the same with what the Apostle says in the Text , concerning the Patriarchs , they confessed that they were Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth ; and concerning all Christians , Chap. 13. 14. Here we have no continuing City , but we seek one to come . But I do not intend to follow the Metaphor too close , and to vex and torture it , by pursuing all those little Parallels and Similitudes , which a Lively Fancy might make or find , betwixt the Condition of Strangers and Pilgrims , and the Life of Man during his Abode and Passage through this World. I will insist only upon Two things , which seem plainly to be design'd and intended by this Metaphor ; and they are these : 1. That our Condition in this World is very troublesom and unsettled : They confessed , that they were Strangers and Pilgrims in the Earth . 2. It implies a tendency to a Future Settling , and the Hopes and Expectation of a happier Condition , into which we shall enter when we go out of this World. For so it follows in the very next Words after the Text ; They confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth ; For they that say such things , declare plainly , that they seek a Country . They that say such things ; that is , they that acknowledge themselves to have lived in such a restless and uncertain Condition in this World , travelling from one place to another , as the Patriarchs Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob did , and yet pretend to be perswaded of the Goodness of God , and the Faithfulness of his Promise , in which he solemnly declared himself to be their God , do hereby plainly shew , that they expect some happier Condition hereafter , wherein that great Promise of God will be made good to them to the full . And these are two very weighty and useful Considerations ; That we should both understand our present Condition in this World , and our future Hope and Expectation after our departure out of it , that so we may demean our selves suitably to both these Conditions ; both as it is fit for those who look upon themselves as Pilgrims and Sojourners in this World , and likewise , as it becomes those who seek and expect a better Country , and hope to be made Partakers of a blessed Immortality in another World. I shall briefly speak to both these ; and then shew what Effect and Influence the serious Meditation of these Two Points ought to have upon every one of us . 1. That our Condition in this World is very troublesom and unsettled . This I take to be principally intended in the Metaphor of Strangers and Pilgrims . Such was the Life of the Patriarchs , which is here spoken of in the Text ; they had no constant Abode and fixt Habitation , but were continually wandering from one Kingdom and Country to another ; in which Travels they were exposed to a great many Hazards and Dangers , Afflictions and Miseries , Affronts and Injuries , as we read at large in the History of their Travels in the Old Testament . And such is our Condition in this World ; it is often troublesom , and always uncertain and unsettled . 'T is often very troublesom . Not to insist upon the weak Condition of Infancy and Childhood , the helplesness of that State , and insufficiency of it for its own Preservation , and the Supply of its natural Wants and Necessities : Not to mention the dangerous Vanity and desperate Folly of Youth , nor the Infirmities and Contempts , the many tedious and wearisom Days and Nights that Old Age is commonly grieved and afflicted withal , to that degree , as to make Life not only unpleasant , but almost an intolerable Burden to us . Not to dwell upon these , which yet take up and possess a great Share and Portion of our Lives : If we look upon Man in his best State , we shall find him , as David hath long since pronounced on him , to be altogether Vanity . We need not go a Pilgrimage , and travel into remote Countries , to make Life more troublesom and uneasie . In what part of the World soever we are ( even that which we improperly call our own Home and Native Country ) we shall meet with Trouble and Inconvenience enough to convince us , that we are but Strangers in it . More especially good Men are peculiarly liable to a great many Evils and Sufferings upon account of their Piety and Virtue . They are not of the World ( as our Blessed Saviour tells his Disciples , John 15. 19. ) and because they are not of the world , therefore the world hateth them , and taketh all opportunities and occasions to vex and persecute them in one kind or other ; either by doing all manner of Evil to them , or by speaking all manner of Evil of them . But suppose we escape Trouble upon this account ; there are abundance of common and natural Inconveniences , which render Human Life very uneasie . For either we must live alone , or in the Company and Society of others : One of these two is necessary and unavoidable . Suppose we would live alone ; How few are there that can enjoy themselves tolerably alone for any considerable time ? For though there be a great deal too much of Self-love in Mankind , and Men are generally extreamly fond of themselves ; yet I know not how it happens , ( tho so it is ) that very few Men in the World care for their own Company , or can endure , for any considerable time , to converse only with themselves ; nay , for the most part , they are sooner glutted with themselves , and surfeited of their own Conversation , than of the worst Company they can meet with ; a shrewd Sign , as one would think , that they know something worse by themselves than of any body else , or at least they know it more certainly . It is a wise and deep Saying of Aristotle , whoever affects to be alone , must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , either a God or a Wild Beast ; either he must be sufficient for himself , and want nothing ; or of so wild and savage a Disposition , as to destroy every thing that is weaker , and to run away from every thing that is stronger than himself . Now Man is neither good enough to be contented and satisfied with himself , nor bad enough to hate and avoid every body else , and therefore he must enter into Society , and keep Company with other Men. And if we go abroad into the World , and try the Conversation of Men , it cannot but grieve us to see a great many things , which yet we must see every Day ; the Censoriousness , and Uncharitableness , and Insincerity of Men one towards another ; to see with what Kindness they will treat one another to the Face , and how hardly they will use them behind their Backs . If there were nothing else , this one naughty Quality , so common and reigning among Mankind , were enough to make an honest and true-hearted Man , one that loves Plainness and Sincerity , to be heartily sick of the World , and glad to steal off the Stage ; where there is nothing native and sincere , but all personated and acted ; where the Conversation of a great part of Men is all designing and insidious , full of Flattery and Flashood , of good Words and ill Offices : One speaketh peaceably to his Neighbour with his mouth , but in his heart he lieth in wait , as it is in the Prophet , Jer. 9. 8. And when a Man hath done all the good turns he can , and endeavoured to oblige every Man , and not only to live inoffensively , but exemplarily ; he is fairly dealt withal , and comes off upon good Terms , if he can but escape the ill Words of Men for doing well , and obtain a Pardon for those things which truly deserve Praise . But setting aside these , and the like melancholy Considerations ; when we are in the Health and Vigour of our Age , when our Blood is warm , and our Spirits quick , and the Humour of our Body not yet turned and sowred by great Disappointments , and grievous Losses of our Estates , or nearest Friends and Relations , by a long Course of Afflictions , by many cross Events and calamitous Accidents ; yet we are continually liable to all these ; and the perpetual Fear and Danger of them is no small Trouble and Uneasiness to our Minds , and does in a great measure rob us of the Comfort , and eat out the Pleasure and Sweetness of all our Enjoyments ; and , by degrees , the Evils we fear overtake us ; and as one Affliction and Trouble goes on , another succeeds in the place of it , like Job's Messengers , whose bad Tidings and Reports of calamitous Accidents came so thick upon him , that they overtook one another . If we have a plentiful Fortune , we are apt to abuse it to Intemperance and Luxury ; and this naturally breeds Bodily Pains and Diseases , which take away all the Comfort and Enjoyment of a great Estate . If we have Health , it may be we are afflicted with Losses , or deprived of Friends , or cross'd in our Interests and Designs ; and one thing or other happens to impede and interrupt the Contentment and Happiness of our Lives . Sometimes an unexpected Storm , or some other suddain Calamity , sweepeth away , in an instant , all that which with so much Industry and Care we have been gathering many Years . Or if an Estate stand firm , our Children are taken away , to whose Comfort and Advantage all the Pains and Endeavours of our Lives were devoted . Or if none of these happen , ( as it is very rare to escape most , or some of them ) yet for a Demonstration to us that God intended this World to be uneasie , to convince us that a perfect state of Happiness is not to be had here below ; we often see in Experience , that those who seem to be in a Condition as happy as this World can put them into , by the greatest Accommodations towards it , are yet as far , or farther from Happiness , as those who are destitute of most of those things wherein the greatest Felicity of this World is thought to consist . Many times it so happens , that they who have all the Furniture and Requisites , all the Materials and Ingredients of a Worldly Felicity at their Command , and in their Power , yet have not the Skill and Ability out of all these to frame a happy Condition of Life to themselves . They have Health , and Friends , and Reputation , and Estate in abundance , and all outward Accommodations that Heart can wish ; and yet in the midst of all these Circumstances of outward Felicity , they are uneasie in their Minds , and as the Wise Man expresseth it , In their sufficiency they are in streights , and are as it were surfeited even of Happiness it self , and do so fantastically and unaccountably nauseate the good Condition they are in , that tho they want nothing to make them Happy , yet they cannot think themselves so ; though they have nothing in the World to molest and disgust them , yet they can make a shift to create as much trouble to themselves , out of nothing , as they who have the real and substantial Causes of Discontent . Which plainly shews , That we are not to look for Happiness here ; 't is not to be found in this Land of the Living ; and after our Enquiries after it , we shall see sufficient Reason to take up Solomon's Conclusion , That all is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit ; which is much the same with that Aphorism of David his Father , which I mentioned before , That Man in his best estate is altogether vanity . But what Happiness soever our Condition in this World is capable of , 't is most assuredly full of Uncertainty and Unsettlement ; we cannot enjoy it long , and every moment we are in danger of being deprived of it . Whatever degree of Earthly Felicity we are possess'd of , we have no Security that it shall continue . There is nothing in this World , but , when we are as sure of it as this World can make us , may be taken away from us by a thousand Accidents . But suppose it to abide and continue ; we our selves shall be taken away from it . We must die , and in that very Day all our Enjoyments and Hopes , as to this World , will perish with us ; for here is no Abiding Place , we have no continuing City : So that it is vain to design a Happiness to our selves in this World , when we are not to stay in it , but only travel and pass through it . And this is the First ; Our Condition in this World is very troublesom and unsettled . 2. Our Condition in this World being a state of Pilgrimage , doth imply a tendency to a future Settlement , and the Hopes and Expectation of a happier Condition hereafter . And so the Apostle reasons immediately after the Text ; they confessed that they were Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth ; for they that say such things , declare plainly that they seek a Country ; that is , they who acknowledge themselves to be Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth , and yet withal profess to be perswaded of the Goodness of God , and the Fidelity of his Promise , do plainly declare , that they seek another Country . This is spoken of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob , who acknowledged themselves to be Strangers and Pilgrims in the Earth ; and thereby declared , that they sought another Country . Now , says the Apostle , this cannot be the Country from whence they first came , Vr of the Chaldees , v. 15. And truly , if they had been mindful of that Country from whence they came out , they might have had an oportunity of returning thither . And therefore he concludes , that the Country which they sought was a better Country than any in this World. V. 16. But now they desire a better Country ; that is , an Heavenly : Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God ; for he hath prepared for them a City . This plainly refers to that famous Declaration or Promise of God to the Patriarchs of being their God ; I am the God of Abraham , the God of 〈◊〉 , the God of Jacob. Now certainly this Promise of God did signifie some very great Blessing and Advantage to those faithful Servants of God above others . This was not made good to them in this World ; for they confessed , that they were Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth . Where then is the Blessing spoken of and signified by the great Words of that Promise , that God was their God ? They met with no such Condition in this World , as was answerable to the greatness of that Promise . From hence the Apostle argues , that they had a firm Perswasion of a future Happiness ; For they that say such things , declare plainly , that they seek a better Country ; that is , an Heavenly . Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God , since he hath prepared for them a City . And tho the Promise of God to Abraham did immediately design the Land of Canaan , and the earthly Jerusalem ; yet the Apostle extends it to that which was typified by it ; viz. an Heavenly Country , the Jerusalem which is above , which , at the 10th Verse of this Chapter , is called a City , which hath Foundations , whose Builder and Maker is God. And now , seeing God had designed and prepared so great a Happiness for them in another World , well might he be called their God , notwithstanding that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth ; that is , Tho the full Meaning and Importance of this Promise was not made good to them in this World , yet it was accomplish'd to the full in the Happiness which was designed for them in another Life . And God need not be ashamed to be called their God ; implying , that if nothing had been meant by it beyond this World , this Promise , of God's being their God , would have fallen shamefully short of what it seemed to import . And this I conceive to be the true Reason , why our Saviour lays so much Weight upon this Promise , as to pitch upon it for the Proof of the Resurrection ; that is , of a future state of Happiness in another World. There are many Considerations apt to perswade Good Men of another Life after this : As , That Mankind is generally possess'd with this Hope and Perswasion ; and that the more wise and virtuous Men have been , the more plainly have they apprehended the Hopes of Immortality , and the better have they been contented to leave this World ; as if , seeing farther than other Men , they had a clearer Prospect of the Happiness they were entering upon : But above all , that God hath made our Condition in this World so troublesom and unsettled , as if he had designed on purpose to make us seek for Happiness elsewhere , and to elevate and raise our Minds to the Hopes and Expectation of a Condition better and more durable , than any is to be met with in this World ; which , considering the Goodness of God , and his gracious Providence and Care of Good Men , is a thing of it self extremely credible . Having thus , as briefly as I could , dispatched the Two Particulars which I propounded to speak to for the Explication of the Text ; I should now shew what Influence these Considerations ought to have upon our Lives and Practice . And if this be our Condition in this World , and these our Hopes and Expectations as to another Life ; if we be Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth ; and look for a better Country , that is , an Heavenly ; this ought to have a great Influence upon us in these following respects , which I shall at present but very briefly mention . 1. Let us intangle and incumber our selves as little as we can in this our Pilgrimage ; let us not ingage our Affections too far in the Pleasures and Advantages of this World ; for we are not to continue and settle in it , but to pass through it . A little will serve for our Passage and Accommodation in this Journey ; and beyond that , why should we so earnestly covet and seek more ? 2. If we be Pilgrims and Strangers ; then it concerns us to behave our selves blamelesly and inoffensively , remembering , that the Eyes of People are upon us , and that those among whom we live will be very curious and observant of our Manners and Carriage . 3. Let us be chearful and patient under the Troubles and Afflictions of this present Life . They who are in a strange Country , must expect to encounter many Injuries and Affronts , and to be put to great Difficulties and Hazards , which we should endeavour to bear with that Chearfulness , as Men that are upon a Journey use to bear foul Ways and bad Weather , and inconvenient Lodging and Accomodations . 4. The Consideration of our present Condition and future Hopes should set us above the Fondness of Life , and the slavish Fear of Death . For our Minds will never be raised to their true Pitch and Hight , till we have in some good measure conquered these two Passions , and made them subject to our Reason . As for this present Life , and the Enjoyments of it , What do we see in them , that should make us so strangely to dote upon them ? Quae Miseri lucis tam dira cupido ? This World , at the best , is but a very indifferent Place ; and he is the wisest Man that bears himself towards it with the most indifferent Affection ; that is always willing to leave it , and yet patient to stay in it as long as God pleases . 5. We should always prefer our Duty and a good Conscience before all the World ; because it is in truth more valuable , if our Souls be Immortal , and do survive in another World. For ( as our Saviour argues ) What is a man profited , if he gain the whole World , and lose his own Soul ? Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul ? And thus St. Paul reasoned with himself , from the Belief of a Resurrection of the Just and Unjust . For this cause ( saith he ) I exercise my self alway to have a Conscience void of offence both toward God and toward Man. Lastly , If we be Sojourners and Travellers , we should often think of our End , and carefully mind the Way to it . Our End is Everlasting Happiness ; and the Way to it is a constant and sincere and universal Obedience to the Commandments of God. When the Young Man in the Gospel enquired of our Saviour the way to Eternal Happiness , saying , Good Master , what good thing shall I do , that I may inherit Eternal Life ? His Answer to him was , If thou wilt enter into Life , keep the Commandments . We may easily mistake our way ; For strait is the Gate , and narrow is the Way that leads to Life , and few there be that find it . Therefore we should often pray to God , as David does , Psalm 119. 19. I am a Stranger in the Earth , hide not thy Commandments from me . And Psalm 139. 23 , 24. Search me , O God , and know my Heart ; try me , and know my Thoughts ; and see if there be any wicked way in me , and lead me in the Way Everlasting . A SERMON , On HEB. XI . 13. And confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims in the Earth . The whole Verse runs thus : These all died in Faith , not having received the Promises , but having seen them afar off , and were persuaded of them , and embraced them , and confessed that they , &c. I Have lately in this Place ( upon a particular Day and Occasion ) begun to handle these Words : I shall briefly give you the Heads of what hath been already delivered , and proceed to what remains . And that which I designed from this Text , was , To represent to us our present Condition in this World , and to awaken us to a due Sense and Consideration of it . It is the same Condition that all the Saints and Holy Men that have gone before us were in , in this World ; and we may all of us say with David , Psal. 39. 12. I am a Stranger with Thee , and a Sojourner , as all my Fathers were . It is very frequent , not only in Scripture , but in other Authors , to represent our Condition in this World , by that of Pilgrims and Sojourners in a far Country . For the Mind , which is the Man , and our Immortal Souls , which are , by far , the most noble and excellent Part of our selves , are the Natives of Heaven , and but Pilgrims and Strangers here on the Earth ; and when the Days of our Pilgrimage shall be accomplished , are designed to return to that Heavenly Country from which they came , and to which they belong . And for the Explication of this Metaphor , I insisted only upon Two Things , which seem plainly to be designed and intended by it . 1. That our Condition in this World is very troublesom and unsettled ; They confessed , that they were Pilgrims and Strangers on the Earth . II. It implies a tendency to a future Settlement , and the Hopes and Expectation of a happier Condition , into which we shall enter when we go out of this World. And these I told you are Two very Weighty and Useful Considerations ; That we should both understand our present Condition in this World , and our future Hopes and Expectation after our Departure out of it ; that so we may demean our selves suitably to both these Conditions ; both as is fit for those who look on themselves as Pilgrims and Sojourners in this World ; and likewise , as it becomes those who seek and expect a better Country , and hope to be Partakers of a Blessed Immortality in another World. I. That our Condition in this World is very Troublesom and Unsettled ; and this is principally intended by the Metaphor of Pilgrims and Strangers . Such was the Life of the Patriarchs here spoken of in the Text ; they had no constant Abode and fixt Habitation , but were continually wandering from one Kingdom and Country to another ; in which Travels they were exposed to a great many Dangers and Sufferings , Affronts and Injuries ; as we read at large in the History of their Travels in the Old Testament . And such is our Condition in this World ; it is often Troublesom , and always Uncertain , and Unsettled : So that whatever Degree of Worldly Felicity any Man is possest of , he hath no Security that it shall continue for one Moment . II. Our condition in this World being a State of Pilgrimage , it implies a Tendency to a Future Settlement , and the Hopes and Expectation of a Happier Condition , into which we shall enter so soon as we leave this World. For so it follows immediately after the Text ; They confessed that they were Pilgrims and Strangers on the Earth ; For they that say such things , declare plainly that they seek a Country . They that say such things ; that is , They that acknowledge themselves to have lived in such a Restless and Uncertain Condition in this World , Travelling from one Place to another , as the Patriarchs Abraham , Isaac and Jacob did ; and yet pretend to be persuaded of the Goodness of God , and the faithfulness of his Promise ; in which He so solemnly declares Himself to be their God ; do hereby plainly shew , that they expect some Happier Condition hereafter , wherein that Great Promise of God , will be made good to them to the full . So that He need not be ashamed to have been called their God. Having handled at large these Two Particulars , I come now to shew what Influence the Consideration of them ought to have upon our Lives and Practices . And if this be our Condition in this World , and these our Hopes and Expectations , as to another Life : If we be Pilgrims and Strangers in the Earth , and look for a better Country , that is , an Heavenly ; this ought to have a great Influence upon us in these following Respects , which I did but briefly mention before ; but shall now Prosecute and Press more largely . I. Let us Entangle and Incumber our selves as little as we can in this our Pilgrimage : Let us not Engage our Affections too far in the Pleasures and Advantages of this World , because we are not to stay in it , but to pass through it . Upon this Consideration the Apostle St. Peter doth so earnestly exhort Christians to preserve themselves from fleshly Lusts , 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly Beloved , I beseech you , as Strangers and Pilgrims , to abstain from fleshly Lusts , which war against the Soul. The gratifying of our inordinate Lusts , and our Carnal and Sensual Inclinations , is directly opposite both to the Nature of our Immortal Spirits , and to their great Design and Business in this World. Fleshly Lusts do not only pollute and defile , but even quench and extinguish our Diviner part , and do work the ruin and destruction of it ; they sink our Affections into the Mud and Filth of this World , and do entangle and detain them there . In a word , they do wholly indispose and unfit us for that Pure and Spiritual , and Divine Life , which alone can qualifie us for our Heavenly Country and Inheritance . And therefore while our Souls are Sojourning in this World , we should abstain from them , and preserve our selves Unspotted and Untainted by them , as being altogether unuseful , and perfectly contrary to the Laws and Manners of our Heavenly Country . If we wallow in brutish and filthy Lusts , as we pass through this World ; our Native Country , when our Souls think to return to it , will reject us and cast us out : when we come to Heaven's Gate , and knock there , expecting to be admitted , and shall cry , Lord , Lord , open unto us ; He will bid us to depart from Him , because we have been workers of iniquity . Nothing that is unclean can enter into Heaven . He who is to receive us into those Blessed Mansions , hath declared it to be his Immutable Resolution , and Decree , that without Holiness , no Man shall see the Lord. And therefore , as ever we hope to see God , in that Happy and Blissful State , we must Cleanse our selves from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit , and perfect Holiness in the Fear of God ; that having render'd our selves as like Him as we can in this World , we may be capable of the Blessed Sight and Enjoyment of Him in the other . And as for the Advantages of this World , let us not pursue them too eagerly . We may take the Conveniences which fairly offer themselves to us , and be content to want what we cannot Honestly have , and without going out of the way of our Duty ; considering that we are Travellers , and that a little will serve for our Passage and Accommodation in our Pilgrimage . And beyond that why should we so earnestly covet more , and trouble our selves for that which is not necessary to our Journey ? Why should we at any time deal unjustly , to attain any of this World's Goods ? They will stand us in stead for so little a while , that we can have no temptation to injure or oppress any Man , to break the Peace of our Consciences , and to wound our Souls , for the attaining of them . If the Providence of God offer them to us , and bring them to our hands , in the use of Honest Diligence , and Lawful Means ; as we are not to refuse them , so neither are we to set our Hearts upon them , nor to suffer our Affections to be entangled in them . The wisest Use we can make of them , will be , to do like those who traffick in Foreign Parts , to consign our Estates into our own Native Country , to send our Treasures before us into the other World , that we may have the Benefit of them when we come there . And this we may do by Alms and Charity . Whatever we spend upon the Flesh , we leave behind us , and it will turn to no account to us in our own Country ; but whatever we lay out for the Relief of the Poor , is so much Treasure laid out and secured to our selves , against another day . So our Blessed Saviour assures us , Luk. 12. 33. That giving of Alms is providing for our selves Bags that wax not old , a Treasure in the Heavens that faileth not . II. If We be Pilgrims and Strangers ; then it concerns us to behave our selves with great Caution , and to live blamelesly and inoffensively ; remembering that the Eyes of People are upon us , and that those among whom we Sojourn , will be very prying , and curious , and narrow Observers of our Manners and Carriage . They that are in a strange Country , are not wont to take that Liberty and Freedom , which the Natives of the place may do , but to keep a perpetual Guard upon themselves , knowing how strictly they are observed ; and that they live among those who bear no Good Will to them ; and that every Bad Thing we do , reflects upon our Nation , and is a Reproach to the Country to which we belong . Ye are not of the World ; ( says our Lord ) if ye were of the World , the World would love its own : but ye are not of the World ; therefore the World hateth you . Upon this account the Apostle chargeth Christians to be Harmless , and Blameless , and as it becomes the Sons of God to be , in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation , among whom we should shame as Lights . The same Argument St. Peter useth , 1 Pet. 2. 11 , 12. I beseech , you as Pilgrims and Strangers , to abstain from fleshly lusts , having your Conversation honest among the Gentiles ; that is , Considering that you are among Strangers and Enemies , and therefore ought to be very careful to bring no Scandal upon your Holy Profession , among those who will be ready to take all advantages against you . Particularly , we who pretend to the same Heavenly Country , must be kind to one another ; and whilst we live among Strangers , have no Quarrels amongst our Selves . In a Strange Country , it useth to be a Mighty Endearment of Men to one another , that they are of the same Country , and Fellow Citizens ; and this alone is commonly sufficient to unite their Affections , and to link their Interests together . But how little of this is to be seen among Christians ? how shamefully do they Quarrel among themselves , in the midst of Enemies and Strangers ! as if they had no Relation to one another ; and never expected to meet at last in the same Country , and there to live together for ever . III. Let us be as Patient and Chearful as we can , under all the Troubles and Afflictions which we meet with in this Life . They who are in Strange Countries must expect to encounter many Injuries and Affronts , and to be put to great Difficulties and Hardships . Those which are lighter and more tolerable , we must bear with Chearfulness . Upon a Journey Men use to put on all the Pleasantness they can , and to make Sport of all the Inconveniences of the Ways and Weather , and little cross Accidents that befall them : And thus , if we had but the Art and Wisdom to do it , many of the lesser Inconveniences of Humane Life might well enough be play'd off , and made matter rather of Mirth and Diversion , than of Melancholy and serious Trouble . But there are some Evils and Calamities of Humane Life , that are too heavy and serious to be Jested withal , and require the greatest Consideration , and a very great degree of Patience to Support us under them , and enable us to bear them Decently ; as the Loss of Friends and dearest Relations ; as the Loss of an Only Son , grown up to be well fixt and settled in a Virtuous Course , and promising all the Comfort to his Parents that they themselves can wish : These certainly are some of the Greatest Evils of this World , and hardest to be born . For Men may pretend what they will to Philosophy and Contempt of the World , and of the Perishing Comforts and Enjoyments of it ; to the Extirpation of their Passions , and an Insensibility of these things , which the weaker and undisciplin'd part of Mankind keep such a Wailing and Lamentation about : but when all is done , Nature hath framed us as we are , and hath planted in our Nature strong Inclinations and Affections to our Friends and Relations ; and these Affections are as naturally moved upon such Occasions , and pluck every String of our Hearts as violently , as extream Hunger and Thirst do gnaw upon our Stomachs . And therefore it is foolish for any Man to pretend to love things mightily , and to rejoyce greatly in the Enjoyment of them ; and yet to be so easily contented to lose them , and to be parted from them . This is to separate things which Nature hath strongly linked together . Whatever we mightily love , does thereby in some sort become part of our Selves ; and it cannot hand loose to us , to be separated and divorced from us without Trouble ; no more than a Limb that is vitally and by strong Ligaments united to the Body , can be dropt off when we please , or rent from the Body without Pain . And whoever pretends to have a mighty Affection for any thing , and yet at the same time does pretend that he can contentedly , and without any great Sense or Signification of Pain , bear the Loss of it , does not talk like a Philosopher , but like an Hypocrite ; and under a grave Pretence of being a Wise , is in truth , an Ill-natured Man. For most certainly , in proportion to our Love of any thing , will be our Trouble and Grief for the Loss of it . So that under these great and heavier Strokes , we had need both of Faith and Patience . And indeed , nothing but the firm Belief of a better Country , that is , an Heavenly , another Life after this , and a blessed Immortality in another World , is sufficient to support a Man in the few and evil Days of his Pilgrimage , and to sustain his Spirit under the great Evils and Calamities of this Life . But This fully answers all , That the Afflictions and Sufferings of this present time , are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us . Nay , that if we bear these Afflictions patiently , and with a due Submission to the Will of God , ( especially our Sufferings for his Truth and Cause ) it will certainly increase our Happiness in the other World , and work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory . IV. The Consideration of our Present Condition and of our Future Hopes , should set us above the Fondness of Life , and the slavish Fears of Death . For our Minds will never be raised to their true pitch and hight , till we have in some good measure conquered these two Passions , and made them subject to our Reason . As for this present Life , and the Enjoyments of it ; What is it that we see in them that should make us so strangely to dote upon them ? Quae lucis miseris tam dira cupido ! This World at the best is but a very Indifferent place , and he is the wisest Man that bears himself towards it with the most Indifferent Mind and Affection ; that is always willing to leave it , and yet patient to stay in it as long as God pleaseth . And as for Death , tho' the Dread of it be natural , yet why should the Terrors of it be so very surprising and amazing to us ; after we have consider'd , that to a good and pious Soul , it is no other but the Gate of Heaven , and an Entrance into Eternal Life ? We are apt to wonder to see a Man undaunted at the approach of Death , and to be not only contented , but chearful , at the Thoughts of his Departure out of this World , this Sink of Sin , and Vale of Misery and Sorrow . Whereas , if all things be duly considered , it is a greater Wonder that Men are so patient to Live , and that they are not glad of any fair Excuse and Opportunity of getting out of this strange Country , and retiring Home , and of ridding themselves of the Troubles and Inconveniences of Life . For , considering the numerous Troubles and Calamities we are liable to in a long Pilgrimage , there are really but Three Considerations , that I can readily think of , that can make this World , and our present Condition in it , in any good measure tolerable to a wise Man ; viz. That God governs the World ; That we are not always to stay in it ; That there is a Happiness designed and reserved for us in another place , which will abundantly recompense and make amends to us for all the Troubles and Sufferings of this Life . And yet it is strange to see how fast most Men cling to Life , and that even in Old Age ; how they catch at every Twig that may but hold them up a little while ; and how fondly they hanker after a miserable Life , when there is nothing more of Pleasure to be enjoy'd , nothing more of Satisfaction to be expected and hoped for in it . When they are just putting in to the Port , and , one would think , should rejoyce at their very Hearts that they see Land ; yet how glad would they be then of any cross Wind , that would carry them back into the Sea again ? As if they loved to be tost , and were fond of Storms and Tempests . Nay , the very best of us , even after we have made that acknowledgment of David ; I am a Stranger and a Sojourner with thee , as all my Fathers were ; are apt with him to be still importuning God for a little longer Life ; O spare me a little , that I may recover strength , before I go hence , and be no more . And when God hath granted us this Request , then we would be spared yet a little longer . But let us remember , that God did not design us to continue always in this World ; and that he hath on purpose made it so uneasie to us , to make us willing to leave it ; and that so long as we linger here below , we are detained from our Happiness ; While we are present in the Body , we are absent from the Lord. This Consideration made St. Paul so desirous to be dissolved , because he knew that when his Earthly House of this Tabernacle was dissolved , he should have a much better Habitation , a Building of God , an House not made with Hands , eternal in the Heavens . This was that which made him so full of Joy and Triumph , at the Thoughts of his leaving the World. 2 Tim. 4. 6. I am now ready ( says he ) to be offered up , and the time of my departure is at hand ; I have fought a good Fight , I have finished my Course , I have kept the Faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness , which God the righteous Judge shall give me in that day . Nay , the Consideration of this ( tho but obscurely apprehended by them ) did raise the Spirits of the wiser and better Heathen , and fill them with great Joy and Comfort at the Thoughts of their Dissolution . With what Constancy and Evenness of Mind did Socrates receive the Sentence of Death ? And with what excellent Discourse did he entertain his Friends just before he drank off the Fatal Cup , and after he had taken it down , whilst Death was gradually seizing upon him ? One can hardly , without a very sensible Transport , read Cato's Discourse concerning his Death , as it is represented by Tully in his Book of Old Age. I am ( says he ) transported with a Desire of seeing my Fore-fathers , those Excellent Persons of whom I have Heard , and Read , and Written ; and now I am going to them , I would not willingly be drawn back into this World again ; Quod si quis Deus mihi largiatur , ut ex hac aetate repuerascam , & in cunis vagiam , valde recusem . If some God would offer me , at this Age , to be a Child again , and to cry in the Cradle , I would earnestly refuse it , and upon no terms accept it . And now that my Race is almost run , and my Course just finished , how loth should I be to be brought back , and made to begin again ? For what Advantage is there in Life ? Nay rather , what Labour and Trouble is there not in it ? But let the Benefit of it be what it will , there is certainly some Measure of Life as well as of other things , and Men ought to know when they have enough of it . O praeclarum diem , cum in illud animorum consilium caetumque proficiscar , & cum ex hac turbâ & colluvione discedam . O Blessed and Glorious Day , when I shall go to that great Council and Assembly of Spirits , and have got out of this Tumult and Sink . And if a Heathen , who had but some obscure Glimmerings of another Life , and of the Blessed State of departed Souls , could speak thus chearfully of Death ; how much more may We , who have a clear and undoubted Revelation of these things , and to whom Life and Immortality are brought to Light by the Gospel . V. We should alway prefer our Duty and the keeping of a good Conscience , before all the World : because it it is in truth infinitely more valuable , if so be our Souls be immortal , and do survive in another World , and we must there give a strict Account of all the Actions done by us in this Life , and receive the Sentence of Eternal Happiness or Misery , according to the things done in the Body , whether they be Good , or whether they be Evil. For as our Saviour argues concerning the case of denying him and his Truth , to avoid temporal Suffering and Death ; What is a Man profited , if he shall gain the whole World , and lose his own Soul ? Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul ? When we are tempted by temporal Interest and Advantage , or by the Fear of present Loss and Suffering , to deny or dissemble our Religion , to do any thing that is sinful in any kind , and contrary to our Duty and Conscience ; let us ask our selves ; What will be the Profit and Advantage of it ? What , if for fear of Men , and what they can do to me , I incur the Wrath and Displeasure of Almighty God ? This is infinitely more to be dreaded ; and these Frowns are a thousand times more terrible , than the bitterest Wrath and cruelest Malice of Men. What , if to preserve this frail and mortal Body , I shall evidently hazard the Loss of my Immortal Soul ; and to escape a Temporal Inconvenience , I forfeit Everlasting Happiness , and plunge my self into Eternal Misery and Ruine ? Would not this be a wild Bargain , and a mad Exchange , for any Temporal Gain and Advantage , to lose the things that are Eternal ? And for the pleasing of our selves for a little while , to make our selves miserable for ever ? If we confess our selves to be Pilgrims and Strangers on the Earth , and are perswaded of the Promises of God concerning an Heavenly Country , where we hope to arrive after the few and evil days of our Pilgrimage are over ; let us not , by complying with the Humours of Strangers , and the vitious Customs and Practices of an Evil World , bar our selves of our Hopes , and banish our selves from that happy Place , to which we all profess we are going . We pretend to be travelling towards Heaven : but if we make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience ; we destroy our own Hopes of ever arriving at that happy Port. We do not live up to our Expectation of a future Happiness , if the unseen Glories of another World do not raise us above all the Temptations and Terrors of Sense . Our Faith and Hope have not their due and proper Influence upon us ; if they do not govern our Lives and Actions , and make us stedfast in the Profession of our Holy Religion , and in the Conscientious Practice of it . St. Paul reason'd himself into this Holy Resolution , from the Hopes of a blessed Resurrection . Acts 24. 15 , 16. I have Hope , says he , toward God , that there shall be a Resurrection of the Dead , both of the Just and Vnjust : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , For this cause therefore , I exercise my self always to have a Conscience void of Offence , towards God and towards Men. VI. And Lastly , If we be Sojourners and Travellers in this World ; we should often think of our End , and carefully mind the Way to it . Our End is Everlasting Happiness ; and the direct Way to it is by a constant and sincere and universal Obedience to the Laws and Commandments of God : And this in it self is so plain a way , that a sincere and honest Man can hardly err in it . And therefore we must not suffer our selves to be led and trained out of it , upon any Pretence whatsoever ; not by the Wild-fire of pretended Illuminations and Enthusiasms ; nor by the confident Pretence of an Infallible Guide , that will needs shew us another way , and perswade us to follow him blindfold in it . Let us not quit the Infallible Rule of God's Word , to follow any Guide whatsoever . If an Apostle , or an Angel from Heaven , preach any other Doctrine and Way to Heaven , let him be accursed . He who is the Way , and the Truth , and the Life , when he was consulted with about the Way to Eternal Happiness , knew no other but this . For when the Young Man ask'd him ; Good Master , what good thing shall I do , that I may inherit Eternal Life ? His Answer was , If thou wilt enter into Life , keep the Commandments . 'T is true indeed , that by reason of our corrupt Inclinations within , and powerful Temptations without , this Way ( especially at our first setting out ) is rugged and difficult . So our Lord hath forewarned us , telling us , That strait is the Gate , and narrow is the Way that leadeth to Life , and that there be few that find it . Therefore we should strive to enter in , take great Care and Pains to discern the Right Way , and to overcome the Difficulties of our first Entrance into it ; and should often pray to God , as David did , Psalm 119. 19. I am a Stranger in the Earth , hide not thy Commandments from me ; And Psalm 139. 23 , 24. Search me , O God , and know my Heart ; try me , and know my Thoughts ; and see if there be any wicked way in me ; and lead me in the Way Everlasting . Thus , if we would always have our End in our Eye ; it would both be a Direction to us in our Way , and an Encouragement to quicken our Pace in it ; there being no more powerful Motive to a good Life , than to be assured , that if we have our Fruit unto Holiness , our End shall be Everlasting Life . FINIS . ERRATA . PAge 16. l. 26. r. Complement . p. 28. l. 6. r. Nathanael . p. 63. l. 20. after so dele , . p. 78. l. 19. r. Providence . p. 80. l. 4. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 88. l. 11. after Comparison put , . p. 97. l. 26. r. farther . p. 98. l. 16. r. fared . p. 104. l. 15. r. established . p. 110. l. ult . dele ( . p. 130. l. 15. r. sleight . p. 142. l. 13. r. against . p. 292. l. 1. r. infinitely . p. 295. l. 18. after Confession dele , . p. 298. l. 24. after World put ; . l. ult . after Men put a Full Point . p. 299. l. 21. r. distrust . p. 303. l. 9. after God put ; . l. 11. after us put a Full Point . p. 313. l. 8. r. sufficiently . p. 426. l. 7. r. goes off . BOOKS Printed for Richard Chiswell . DR . THOMAS TENISON , now Lord Archbishop of Canterbury , his Sermon concerning Discretion in giving Alms. 1668. — His Sermon against Self-love , before the House of Commons . 1689. — His Sermon of doing Good to Posterity , before Their Majesties . 1690. — His Sermon concerning the Wandring of the Mind in God's Service , before the Queen : Feb. 15. 1690. — His Sermon of the Folly of Atheism , before the Queen : Feb. 22. 1690. — His Sermon preached at the Anniversary Meeting of the Clergy-mens Sons : Decemb. 3. 1691. — His Sermon concerning the Celestial Body of a Christian , before the Queen , on Easter-Day . 1694. — His Sermon concerning Holy Resolution , before the King at Kensington : Decemb. 30. 1694 on Psal. 119. 106. — His Sermon at the Funeral of the Queen , in the Abby-Church in Westminster : March 5. 1694 / 5. Dr. BVRNET , Lord Bishop of Sarum , his Discourse of the Pastoral Care. 8vo . — His Four Discourses delivered to the Clergy of the Diocess of Sarum : Concerning , I. The Truth of the Christian Religion . II. The Divinity and Death of Christ. III. The Infallibility and Authority of the Church . IV. The Obligations to continue in the Communion of the Church . 8vo . 1694. — His Sermon at the Funeral of Archbishop Tillotson . 1694. — His Sermon Preach'd before the King at St. James's Chappel , on the 10th of February , 1694 / 5 being the first Sunday in Lent , on 2 Cor. 6. 1. Dr. PATRICK ( now Lord Bishop of Ely ) his Hearts-Ease ; or , a Remedy against all Troubles : With a Consolatory Discourse , particularly directed to those who have lost their Friends and Relations . To which is added two Papers , printed in the time of the late Plague . The sixth Edition corrected . 12mo . 1695. — His Answer to a Book spread abroad by the Romish Priests , Intituled [ The Touch-Stone of the Reformed Gospel : ] wherein the true Doctrine of the Church of England , and many Texts of the Holy Scripture are faithfully explained . 8vo . 1692. — His Eight several occasional Sermons since the Revolution . 4to . — His Exposition of the Ten Commandments . 8vo . A Vindication of their Majesty's Authority to fill the Sees of deprived Bishops : In a Letter occasioned by Dr. B — 's refusal of the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells . 4to . Rushworth's Historical Collections . The Third Part , in Two Volumes . Containing the Principal Matters which happened from the meeting of the Parliament , Nov. 3. 1640. to the end of the Year 1644. Wherein is a particular Account of the Rise and Progress of the Civil War , to that Period . Fol. 1692. The Letters of the Reverend Father Paul , Counsellor of State to the most Serene Republick of Venice , and Author of the Excellent History of the Council of Trent . 1693. An Impartial History of the late Wars of Ireland . In Two Parts . From the time that Duke Schomberg landed with an Army in that Kingdom , to the 23d of March 1692. when their Majesty's Proclamation was published , declaring the War to be ended . Illustrated with Copper Sculptures , describing the most important Places of Action . Written by George Story , an Eye-witness of the most remarkable Passages . 4to . 1693. Dr. John Conant's Sermons , Publish'd by Dr. Williams , 1693. 8vo . Of the Government of the Thoughts . The Second Edition . By Geo. Tully , Sub-Dean of York . 8vo . 1694. Origo Legum : Or , A Treatise of the Origine of Laws , and their Obliging Power ; as also of their great Variety ; and why some Laws are immutable , and some not , but may suffer change , or cease to be , or be suspended , or abrogated . In Seven Books . By George Dawson . Fol. 1694. A brief Discourse concerning the Lawfulness of Worshipping God by the Common-Prayer ; in Answer to a Book , intituled . [ A Brief Discourse of the Vnlawfulness of Common-Prayer-Worship . ] By John Williams , D. D. 4to . 1694. A true Representation of the absurd and mischievous Principles of the Sect commonly known by the Name of Muggletonians . 4to . 1694. Memoirs of the most Reverend THOMAS CRANMER , Archbishop of Canterbury : Wherein the History of the Church , and the Reformation of it , during the Primacy of the said Archbishop , are greatly illustrated , and many singular Matters relating thereunto , now first published . In Three Books . Collected chiefly from Records , Registers , Authentick Letters , and other Original Manuscripts . By John Strype , M. A. Fol. 1694. A Commentary on the First Book of Moses , called Genesis . By the Right Reverend Father in God , Simon Lord Bishop of Ely. 4to : 1695. The History of the Troubles and Tryal of the Most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM LAVD Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury ; Wrote by himself , during his Imprisonment in the Tower. To which is prefixed the Diary of his own Life , faithfully and entirely published from the Original Copy . And subjoyned a Supplement to the preceding History ; the Arch-Bishop's Last Will : His Large Answer to the Lord Say's Speech concerning Liturgies : His Annual Accounts of his Province deliver'd to the King , and some other Things relating to the History . Publish'd by Henry Wharton , Chaplain to Archbishop Sancroft . Fol. The Possibility and Expediency and Necessity of Divine Revelation . A Sermon preach'd at St. Martin's in the Fields , January 7. 1694 / 5. at the beginning of the Lecture for the ensuing Year , Founded by the Honourable Rob. Boyle Esq by John Williams , D. D. — The Certainty of Divine Revelation , being his Second Sermon preach'd at the said Lecture , Feb. 4. 1695. — His Vindication of the Sermons of his Grace John Archbishop of Canterbury , concerning the Divinity and Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour , and of the Lord Bishop of Worcester's Sermon on the Mysteries of the Christian Faith , from the Exceptions of a late Socinian Book , Intituled , [ Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity . ] To which is annexed a Letter from the Lord Bishop of Sarum , to the Author of the said Vindication , on the same Subject . 1695. 4to . Historia de Episcopis & Decanis Londinensibus necnon de Episcopis & Decanis Assavensibus à prima utriusque fundatione ad Annum MDXL. Accessit ▪ Appendix instrumentorum quorundam insignium duplex . Autore Henrico Whartono , A. M. 8vo . 1695. An Essay on the Memory of the late QUEEN . By Gilbert Bishop of Sarum . 8vo . Advertisement . THere will be published several Sermons and Discourses of the most Reverend Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON , late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury , by order of his Administratrix , faithfully transcribed from his own Papers , by Dr. Ralph Barker Chaplain to his Grace . Which are disposed of to Richard Chiswell and his Assigns . If any Person Print any others ( except those published in the Author's Life-time ) they are to be look'd upon as Spurious and False : And the Publishers will be proceeded against according to Law. 
A62581	----	The rule of faith, or, An answer to the treatises of Mr. I.S. entituled Sure-footing &c. by John Tillotson ... ; to which is adjoined A reply to Mr. I.S. his 3d appendix &c. by Edw. Stillingfleet. Tillotson, John, 1630-1694. 1676 Approx. 565 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 236 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A62581 Wing T1218 ESTC R32807 12761786 ocm 12761786 93512 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A62581) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 93512) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1537:44) The rule of faith, or, An answer to the treatises of Mr. I.S. entituled Sure-footing &c. by John Tillotson ... ; to which is adjoined A reply to Mr. I.S. his 3d appendix &c. by Edw. Stillingfleet. Tillotson, John, 1630-1694. Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. Reply to Mr. I.S. his 3d appendix. The second edition. [5] 333, 116, [[6] p. Printed by H.C. for O. Gellibrand ..., London : 1676. "A reply to Mr. J.S. his 3d appendix" has special t.p. with imprint dated 1675, and separate pagination. Reproduction of original in the Harvard University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith. Theology, Doctrinal. 2004-08 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-10 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-11 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2004-11 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion FEBR. 27. 1666. Tractatus cui Titulus , The Rule of Faith , A doctissimo Viro Iohanne Tillotson scriptus Imprimatur una cum Appendice . Humfr. London . THE Rule of Faith : or an ANSWER to the TREATISE of Mr. I. S. entituled , Sure-footing , &c. By JOHN TILLOTSON , D.D. Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn . To which is Adjoined A REPLY TO Mr. I.S. his 3 d APPENDIX , &c. By EDW. STILLINGFLEET D. D. One of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary . The second Edition . LONDON , Printed by H.C. for O. Gellibrand , at the Golden-Ball in St. Paul's Church-yard , 1676. To my Honoured and Learned Friend , Mr. Edward Stillingfleet . SIR , I Have with a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction read over your Book , which I find in every part answerable to its Title , viz. A Rational Account of the Grounds of Protestant Religion . And now I thank you for it , not only as a private favour , but a publick benefit . No sooner had I perused it , but I met with a Discourse entituled , Sure-footing in Christianity . And although I have no small prejudice against Books with conceited Titles , yet I was tempted to look into this , because it pretended to contain Animadversions on some Passages in your Book which I had so lately read over . Vpon perusal of which Animadversions , I found that the Author of them had attaqued ( and in his own opinion confuted ) a page or two in your Book . This drew me on to take a view of his main Discourses ; which because they are in great vogue among some of his own Party , and do with an unusual kind of confidence and ostentation pretend to the newest and most exact fashion of writing Controversie , as being all along demonstrative and built upon self-evident Principles : Therefore I resolved throughly to examine them , that I might discover ( if I could ) upon what so firm and solid Foundations this High and Mighty Confidence was built . But before I had entred upon this undertaking , I met with a Letter from the Author of Sure-footing to his Answerer , directing him how he ought to demean himself in his Answer . In which Letter , though there be many things liable to great exception , yet because I am unwilling to be diverted from the main Question , I shall not argue with him about any of those matters , only take leave to use the same liberty in managing my Answer , which he hath assumed to himself , in prescribing Laws to me about it : Therefore without taking any further notice of his Letter , I address my self to his Book . THE RULE of FAITH . PART . I. The Explication and State of the Question . SECT . I. § 1. THe Question he propounds to himself to debate , is , What is the Rule of Faith ? In order to the resolution wherof , he endeavours , First , To fix the true notion of these two Terms , Rule , and Faith. Which way of proceeding I cannot but allow to be very proper and reasonable ; but I can by no means think his explication of those Terms to be sufficient . He tells us , That a Rule is that which is able to regulate , or guide him that useth it : In which description , as in many other passages of his Book , he is plainly guilty of that which he taxeth in Mr. Whitby , that is , the confounding of a Rule and a Guide , by making Regulating and Guiding to be equivalent words . But for this I am no further concerned , than to take notice of it by the way : The fault which I find in this definition is , that it doth not make the thing plainer than it was before ; so that no man is the wiser for it , nor one jot nearer knowing what a Rule is . He pretends to tell English-men what a Rule is ; and for their clearer understanding of this word , he explains it by a word less remov'd from the Latine , A Rule is that which is able to regulate him that useth it ; just as if a man should go about to explain what a Law-giver is , by saying , he is one that hath the power of Legislation . Of the two , he had much better have said , that a Rule is a thing that is able to rule him that useth it , though this be nothing but an explication of the same word by it self . § 2. Not much better is his explication of the term Faith , which he tells us , in the common sense of Mankind , is the same with Believing . * He declar'd indeed before-hand , that he did not intend to give rigorous School-definitions of either this or the former word ; and ( to do him right ) he hath not in the least swerv'd from his intention . It were to be wish'd he had prefac'd some such thing to his Demonstrations ; for the Reader will find , that they are not one whit more rigorous than his Definitions ; the latter of which doth very much resemble the Country-man's way of defining , who being ask'd by his Neighbour what an Invasion was , after some study , told him very gravely , that an Invasion was as if he should say an Invasion : In like manner Mr. S. tells us ; that Faith ( or which is all one , Belief ) is the same with Believing ; which in my apprehension is but a Country-definition , unless the interposing of those solemn words [ in the common sense of Mankind ] may be thought to mend the matter . This puts me in mind of what Mr. S. says in his * Transition ( as he calls it ) where he gives the Reader an account what feats he hath done in his Book : He will see ( says he ) I take my Rise at the meaning of the words Rule and Faith ; this known , I establish my First Principles in this present matter , to be these , viz. A Rule is a Rule , Faith is Faith. This is the right self-evident method he talks so much of , and his Principles agree admirably well with his Definitions . If he had but proceeded in the same method , and added , that A Rule of Faith is a Rule of Faith ; that Oral Tradition is Oral Tradition ; and that to say , Oral Tradition is the Rule of Faith , is as much as to say , Oral Tradition is the Rule of Faith , the whole business had been concluded without any more ado ; and I think no body would have gone about to confute him . § 3. Rejecting then his way of Definition , as inept and frivolous , and no ways tending to give a man a clearer notion of things , I shall endeavour to explain a little better ( if I can ) the meaning of these Terms . A Rule ( when we speak of a Rule of Faith ) is a Metaphorical word , which in its first and proper sense being applied to material and sensible things , is the Measure according to which we judg of the straightness and crookedness of things . And from hence it is transferred by analogy to things moral or intellectual . A moral Rule is the Measure according to which we judg , whether a thing be good or evil ; and this kind of Rule is that which is commonly called a Law , and the agreement or disagreement of our actions to this Rule , is suitably to the Metaphor called rectitude , or obliquity . An intellectual Rule is the Measure according to which we judg whether a thing be true or false ; and this is either general , or more particular . Common notions , and the acknowledged Principles of Reason , are that general Rule , according to which we judg whether a thing be true or false . The particular Principles of every Science are the more particular Rules , according to which we judg whether things in that Science be true or false . So that the general notion of a Rule is , that it is a measure , by the agreement or disagreement to which we judg of all things of that kind to which it belongs . § 4. Faith , though both among sacred and prophane Writers , it be used many times more generally , for a perswasion or assent of the mind to any thing wrought in us by any kind of argument ; yet , as it is a Term of Art used by Divines , it signifies that particular kind of assent which is wrought in us by Testimony or Authority . So that Divine Faith , which we are now speaking of , is an assent to a thing upon the testimony or authority of God , or , which is all one , an assent to a truth upon Divine revelation . § 5. A Rule of Faith is the Measure , according to which we judg what matters we are to assent to , as revealed to us by God , and what not . And more particularly , the Rule of Christian faith is the Measure , according to which we are to judg what we ought to assent to , as the Doctrine revealed by Christ to the world , and what not . § . 6. So that this Question , What is the Rule of Christian faith ? supposeth a Doctrine revealed by Christ to the world ; and that that Doctrine was intelligibly and entirely delivered by Christ to his Apostles , and sufficient confirmation given to it ; that this Doctrine was in the same manner published to the world by the Apostles , who likewise gave sufficient evidence of the truth of it . All this is necessarily supposed in the Question : For it would be in vain to enquire whether this or that be the Rule of Christian Faith , if such a thing as the Christian Faith were not first supposed . When therefore we enquire what is the Rule of Christian Faith ? the meaning of that enquiry is , by what way and means the knowledg of Christ's Doctrine is conveyed certainly down to us , who live at the distance of so many Ages from the time of it's first delivery ; For this being known , we have the Rule of Faith ; that is , a measure by which we may judg what we are to assent to , as the Doctrine of Christ , and what not . So that when any Question ariseth about any particular Proposition , whether this be part of Christ's Doctrine , we may be able by this Rule to resolve it . SECT II. § 1. THe next thing to be considered is his resolution of this Question ; by which we shall know what his opinion is concerning the Rule of Faith ; for that being known , the Controversie between us will easily be stated . His opinion in general is , that oral or practical Tradition ( in opposition to writing ; or any other way that can be assigned ) is the Rule of Faith. By oral or practical Tradition , he means * a delivery down from hand to hand ( by words , and a constant course of frequent and visible actions , conformable to those words ) of the sense and faith of Forefathers . § 2. Now , that I may bring the Controversie between us to a clear state , I am first to take a more particular view of his Opinion concerning the Rule of Faith , that so I may the better understand how much he attributes to Oral Tradition , and what to the Scriptures , or written Tradition . And then I am to lay down the Protestant Rule of Faith , that so it may appear how far we agree , and how far we differ . The sum of what he attributes to Oral Tradition , so far as can be collected out of so obscure and confused a Discourse , may be reduced to these five Heads . § . 3. First , That the Doctrine of Christian Religion was delivered by Christ to the Apostles , and by them published to the World ; and that the Age which first received it from the Apostles , delivered it as they received it , without any change or corruption to their Children , and they to theirs , and so it went on solely by this way of Oral Tradition . This is the sum of his Explication of Tradition , Disc. 5 th . § . 4. Secondly , That this way alone is not only sufficient to convey this Doctrine down to all Ages certainly , and without any alteration ; but it is the only possible way that can be imagined , of conveying down a Doctrine securely from one Age to another . And this is the natural result of his Discourse about the Properties of a Rule of Faith : For if the true Properties of a Rule of Faith do belong to Oral Tradition , then it is a sufficient means ; and if those Properties do solely and essentially appertain to it , and are incompatible to any thing else ( as he endeavours to prove ) then it is impossible there should be any other way . § . 5. Thirdly , That it is impossible this means should fail , or miss of its end ; that is , the Doctrine of Christ being once put into this way of conveyance , it can neither cease to descend , nor be at any time corrupted or changed in its descent . This is that which his Demonstrations pretend to prove . § 6. Fourthly , That the infallibility of Oral Tradition , or the impossibility of its failing , is a first and self evident principle . This he frequently asserts throughout his Book . § 7. Fifthly , That this way of Oral Tradition , hath de facto in all Ages been acknowledged by Christians , as the only way and means whereby the Doctrine of Christianity hath been conveyed down to them . And this is that which he attempts to prove from the Consent of Authority . § 8. As for the Scriptures , he grants them indeed to have been written by men divinely inspired , and to contain a Divine Doctrine , even the same which is delivered by Oral Tradition ; so he tells us * , 'T is certain the Apostles taught the same Doctrine they writ . But then he denies it to be of any use without Oral Tradition , because neither the letter , nor sense of it , can without that be ascertain'd ; so he saith in his Letter to Dr. Casaubon * , As for the Scriptures ( ascertaining their letter and sense , which is done by Tradition ) 't is clear they are of incomparable value ; not only for the Divine Doctrine contained in them , but also for many particular passages , whose source or first attestation not being universal , nor their nature much practical , might possibly have been lost in their conveyance down by Tradition . Where , though he give the Scriptures very good words , it is to be understood , provided they will be subordinate , and acknowledg that they owe their sense and their being intelligible and useful to Oral Tradition . For if any man shall presume to say , That this Book hath any certain sense without Oral Tradition ; or that God can write plainly and intelligibly , and that this Book which he hath endited is so written , and doth not depend upon Tradition for its sense and interpretation ; then the most scurrilous language is not bad enough for the Scriptures ; then what are those Sacred Writings * , but Ink variously figured in a Book * , unsensed Characters , waxen natur'd words , not yet sensed , nor having any certain Interpreter , but fit to be plaid upon diversly by quirks of wit ; that is , apt to blunder and confound , but to clear little or nothing . These , with many other disgraceful terms , he very liberally bestows upon Divine Oracles ; the consideration whereof , did it not minister too much horrour , would afford some comfort ; for by this kind of rude usage , so familiar with him towards his Adversaries , one may reasonably conjecture , that he doth not reckon the Scriptures among his Friends . § 9. And whereas he saith , That the Scriptures have preserv'd many particular passages , which because their source or first attestation was not universal , nor their nature much practical , might possibly bave been lost in their conveyance down by Tradition ; this is impossible , according to his Hypothesis . For if neither the Scriptures letter , nor the certain sense of it , as to the main body of Christian Doctrine , could have been secured without Oral Tradition ; that is , if we could not have known that those passages which contain the main points of Christs Doctrine , either had been written by men divinely inspired , or what the sense of them was , but from the consonancy and agreement of those passages with the Doctrine which was orally preached by the Apostles ; how can we be certain either of the letter or sense of other particular passages which must necessarily want this confirmation from Oral Tradition ; because their first attestation was not universal , nor their nature much practical ? Nay , his discourse plainly implies , that we can have no security at all either of the letter or sense of any other parts of Scripture , but only those which are coincident with the main body of Christian Doctrine , as is evident from these words * , Tradition established , the Church is provided of a certain and infallible Rule to preserve a copy of the Scriptures Letter truly significative of Christs sense , as far as it is coincident with the main body of Christian Doctrine preached at first ; because sense writ in mens hearts by Tradition , can easily guide them to correct the alteration of the outward letter . This I perceive plainly is the thing they would be at , they would correct the outward letter of Scripture by sense written in their hearts ; and then , instead of leaving out the second Commandement , they would change it into a precept of giving due worship to Images , according to the Council of Trent ; and a thousand other alterations they must make in the Bible , to make it truly significative of the sense of their Church . But surely the outward letter of other passages of Scripture , which were not intended to signifie points of Faith , is equally liable to alterations ; and yet the Church is not by Tradition provided of any way to correct these alterations when they happen ; because Tradition doth , as this Corollary implies , only furnish the Church with a certain and infallible Rule of preserving a copy of the Scriptures letter , so far as it is coincident with the main body of Christian Doctrine . § 10. Again , he tells us * , Tradition established , the Church is provided of a certain & infallible Rule to interpret Scripture letter by , so as to arrive certainly at Christs sense , as far as the letter concerns the body of Christian Doctrine preached at first , or points requisite to Salvation . So that whatever he may attribute to Scripture for fashions sake , and to avoid Calumny with the Vulgar , as he says very ingenuously in his explication of the 15 th Corollary ; nevertheless 't is plain , that according to his own Hypothesis , he cannot but look upon it as perfectly useless and pernicious . That 't is altogether useless , according to his Hypothesis , is plain ; for the main body of Christian Doctrine is securely conveyed to us without it , and it can give no kind of confirmation to it , because it receives all at its confirmation from it ; only the Church is ever and anon put to a great deal of trouble to correct the alteration of the outward letter , by tradition and sense written in their hearts . And as for all other parts of Scriptue which are not coincident with the main body of Christian Doctrine , we can have no certainty , either that the outward Letter is true ; nor , if we could , can we possibly arrive at any certain sense of them . And that it is intolerably pernicious , according to his Hypothesis , is plain , because * every silly and upstart Heresie fathers it self upon it ; and when men leave Tradition ( as he supposeth all Hereticks do ) the Scripture is the most dangerous engine that could have been invented ; being to such Persons only * waxen natured words , not sensed , nor having any certain Interpreter ; but fit to be play'd upon diversly by quirks of wit ; that is , apt to blunder and confound , but to clear little or nothing . And indeed , if his Hypothesis were true , the Scriptures might well deserve all the contemptuous language which he useth against them ; and * Mr. White 's comparison of them with Lilly's Almanack , would not only be pardonable , but proper ; and ( unless he added it out of prudence , and for the Peoples sake , whom he may think too superstitiously conceited of those Books ) he might have spared that cold excuse which he makes for using this similitude , that it was agreeable rather to the impertinency of the Objection than the dignity of the Subject . Certain it is , if these men are true to their own Principles , that notwithstanding the high reverence and esteem pretended to be born by them and their Church to the Scriptures , they must heartily despise them , and wish them out of the way , and even look upon it as a great oversight of the Divine Providence to trouble his Church with a Book , which , if their Discourse be of any consequence , can stand Catholicks in no stead at all , and is so dangerous and mischievous a weapon in the hands of Hereticks . SECT . III. § 1. HAving thus taken a view of his opinion , and considered how much he attributes to Oral Tradition , and how little to the Scriptures ; before I assail this Hypothesis , I shall lay down the Protestant Rule of Faith ; not that so much is necessary for the answering of his Book ; but that he may have no colour of objection , that I proceed altogether in the destructive way , and overthrow his Principle , as he calls it , without substituting another in its room . The opinion then of the Protestants concerning the Rule of faith , is this in general , That those Books which we call the Holy Scriptures , are the means whereby the Christian Doctrine hath been brought down to us . And that he may now clearly understand this , together with the grounds of it , ( which in reason he ought to have done before he had forsaken us ) I shall declare it more particularly in these following Proposi●ions . § 2. 1. That the Doctrine of Christian Religion was by Christ delivered to the Apostles , and by them first preached to the World , and afterwards by them committed to Writing ; which Writings , or Books , have been transmitted from one age to another down to us . So far I take to be granted by our present Adversaries . That the Christian Doctrine was by Christ delivered to the Apostles , and by them publish'd to the World , is part of their own Hypothesis . That this Doctrine was afterwards by the Apostles committed to writing , he also grants , Corol. 29. * 'T is certain the Apostles taught the same Doctrine they writ ; and if so , it must be as certain that they writ the same Doctrine which they taught . I know it is the general Tenet of the Papists , that the Scriptures do not contain the entire body of Christian Doctrine ; but that besides the Doctrines contained in Scripture , there are also others brought down to us , by oral or unwritten Tradition . But Mr. S. who supposeth the whole Doctrine of Christian Religion to be certainly conveyed down to us solely by oral Tradition , doth not any where , that I remember , deny that all the same Doctrine is contained in the Scriptures ; only he denies the Scriptures to be a means sufficient to convey this Doctrine to us with certainty , so that we can by them be infallibly assured what is Christ's Doctrine , and what not . Nay , he seems in that passage I last cited , to grant this ; in saying , that the Apostles did both teach and write the same Doctrine . I am sure Mr. White ( whom he follows very closely throughout his whole Book ) does not deny this , in his Apology for Tradition ; * where he saith , that it is not the Catholick position , that all its Doctrines are not contained in the Scriptures . And that those Writings or Books which we call the Holy Scriptures , have been transmitted down to us , is unquestionable matter of fact , and granted universally by the Papists , as to all those Books which are owned by Protestants for Canonical . § 3. Secondly , That the way of Writing is a sufficient means to convey a Doctrine to the knowledg of those who live in times very remote from the age of its first delivery . According to his Hypothesis , there is no possible way of conveying a Doctrine with certainty and security , besides that of oral Tradition ; the falshood of which will sufficiently appear , when I shall have shewn , that the true properties of a Rule of Faith do agree to the Scriptures , and not to oral Tradition . In the mean time , I shall only offer this to his consideration , that whatever can be orally delivered in plain and intelligible words , may be written in the same words ; and that a Writing or Book which is publick , and in every ones hand , may be conveyed down with at least as much certainty and security , and with as little danger of alteration as an oral Tradition . And if so , I understand not what can render it impossible for a Book to convey down a Doctrine to the knowledg of after-ages . Besides , if he had looked well about him , he could not but have apprehended some little inconvenience in making that an essential part of his Hypothesis , which is contradicted by plain and constant experience : For that any kind of Doctrine may be sufficiently conveyed , by Books , to the knowledg of after-ages ; provided those Books be but written intelligibly , and preserved from change and corruption in the conveyance , ( both which I shall be so bold as to suppose possible ) is as little doubted by the generality of mankind , as that there are Books . And surely we Christians cannot think it impossible to convey a Doctrine to posterity by Books , when we consider that God himself pitched upon this way for conveyance of the Doctrine of the Jewish Religion to after-ages ; because it is not likely that so wise an Agent should pitch upon a means whereby it was impossible he should attain his end . § 4. Thirdly , That the Books of Scripture are sufficiently plain , as to all things necessary to be believed , and practised . He that denies this , ought in reason to instance in some necessary point of Faith , or matter of Practice , which is not in some place of Scripture or other plainly delivered . For it is not a sufficient objection to say , that the greatest wits among the Protestants differ about the sense of those Texts , wherein the generality of them suppose the Divinity of Christ to be plainly and clearly expressed : Because , if nothing were to be accounted sufficiently plain , but what it is impossible a great wit should be able to wrest to any other sense ; not only the Scriptures , but all other Books ; and ( which is worst of all to him that makes this objection ) all oral Tradition would fall into uncertainty . Doth the Traditionary Church pretend that the Doctrine of Christ's Divinity is conveyed down to her by oral Tradition , more plainly than it is expressed in Scripture ? I would fain know what plainer words she ever used to express this point of Faith by , than what the Scripture useth ; which expresly calls him God , the true God , God over all , blessed for evermore . If it be said , that those who deny the Divinity of Christ have been able to evade these and all other Texts of Scripture , but they could never elude the definitions of the Church in that matter ; it is easily answered , that the same Arts would equally have eluded both ; but there was no reason why they should trouble themselves so much about the latter ; for why should they be solicitous to wrest the definitions of Councils , and conform them to their own opinion , who had no regard to the Churches Authority ? If those great Wits ( as he calls them ) had believed the sayings of Scripture to be of no greater authority than the definitions of Councils , they would have answered texts of Scripture , as they have done the definitions of Councils ; not by endeavouring to interpret them to another sense , but by downright denying their Authority . So that it seems that oral Tradition is liable to the same inconvenience with the written , as to this particular . § 5. And of this I shall give him a plain instance in two great Wits of their Church , the present Pope , and Mr. White ; the one the Head of the Traditionary Church , as Mr. S. calls it ; the other the great Master of the Traditionary Doctrine . These two great Wits , notwithstanding the plainness of oral Tradition , and the impossibility of being ignorant of it , or mistaking it , have yet been so unhappy as to differ about several points of Faith ; insomuch that Mr. White is unkindly censured for it at Rome , and perhaps here in England the Pope speeds no better ; however , the difference continues still so wide , that Mr. White hath thought fit to disobey the summons of his chief Pastor , and like a prudent man , rather to write against him here out of harms-way , than to venture the infallibility of plain oral Tradition for the Doctrines he maintains , against a practical Tradition which they have at Rome of killing Hereticks . Methinks Mr. S. might have spared his brags , that he hath evinced from clear reason , * that it is far more impossible to make a man not to be , than not to know what is rivetted into his soul by so oft repeated sensations , ( as the Christian Faith is by Oral and Practical Tradition ) and that it exceeds all the power of Nature ( abstracting from the cases of madness , and violent disease ) to blot knowledg thus fixt out of the soul of one single Believer ; insomuch , that sooner may all mankind perish , than the regulative vertue of Tradition miscarry ; nay , sooner may the sinews of entire nature by overstraining crack , and she lose all her activity and motion , that is , her self ; than one single part of that innumerable multitude which integrate the vast testification , which we call Tradition , can possibly be violated ; when after he hath told us , * that the City of Rome was blest with more vigorous causes to imprint Christ's Doctrine at first , and recommend it to the next Age , than were found any where else ; and consequently , that the stream of Tradition in its source and first putting into motion , was more particularly vigorous there than in any other See ; and that the chief Pastor of that See hath a particular Title to Infallibility built upon Tradition , above any other Pastor whatsoever ; not to dilate on the particular assistances to that Bishop , springing out of his divinely constituted Office ; when , I say , after all this quaint Reason and rumbling Rhetorick about the infallibility of Oral Tradition , and the particular infallibility of the Bishop of Rome built on Tradition ; we cannot but remember , that this great Oracle of Oral Tradition the Pope , and this great Master of it Mr. White , who is so peculiarly skill'd in the Rule of Faith , have so manifestly declar'd themselves to differ in points of Faith. For that the Pope and his Congregation general at Rome have condemn'd all his Books for this reason , because * they contain several Propositions manifestly heretical , is a sign that these two great Wits do not very well hit it in matters of Faith ; and either that they do not both agree in the same Rule of Faith , or that one of them does not rightly understand it , or not follow it . And now , why may not that which Mr. S. unjustly says concerning the use of Scripture , be upon this account justly apply'd to the business of Oral Tradition * ? If we see two such eminent Wits among the Papists ( the Pope , and Mr. White ) making use of the self-same , and as they conceive , the best advantages their Rule of Faith gives them ; and availing themselves the best they can by acquired skills , yet differ about matters of Faith ; what certainty can we undertakingly promise to weaker heads , that is to the generality of the Papists , in whom the Governors of the Church do professedly cherish ignorance for the increasing of their devotion . § 6. Fourthly , We have sufficient assurance that the Books of Scripture are conveyed down to us , without any material corruption or alteration . And he that denies this , must either reject the authority of all Books , because we cannot be certain whether they be the same now that they were at first ; or else , give some probable reason why these should be more liable to corruption than others . But any man that considers things , will easily find that it is much more improbable that these Books should have been either wilfully or involuntarily corrupted , in any thing material to Faith or a good Life , than any other Books in the World ; whether we consider the peculiar Providence of God engaged for the preservation of them , or the peculiar circumstances of these Books . If they were wrirten by men divinely inspired , and are of use to Christians , as is acknowledged ( at least in words ) on all hands ; nothing is more credible , than that the same Divine Providence which took care for the publishing of them , would likewise be concerned to preserve them entire . And if we consider the peculiar circumstances of these Books , we shall find it morally impossible , that they should have been materially corrupted , because being of universal and mighty concernment , and at first diffused into many hands , and soon after translated into most Languages , and most passages in them cited in Books now extant , and all these now agreeing in all matters of importance , we have as great assurance as can be had concerning any thing of this nature , that they have not suffered any material alteration , and far greater than any man can have concerning the incorruption of their oral Tradition , as I shall shew when I come to answer the thing which he calls Demonstration . § 7. Fifthly , That de facto the Scripture hath been acknowledged by all Christians , in former Ages , to be the means whereby the doctrine of Christ hath with greatest certainty been conveyed to them . One good evidence of this is , That the Primitive Adversaries of Christian Religion did always look upon the Scripture as the standard and measure of the Christian Doctrine , and in all their writing against Christianity , took that for granted to be the Christian Faith which was contained in those Books ; there having not as yet any Philosopher risen up who had demonstrated to the World , that a Doctrine could not with sufficient certainty and clearness be conveyed by writing from one Age to another . But how absurd had this method of confuting Christian Religion been , if it had been then the publick profession of Christians , that the Scriptures were not the Rule of their Faith ? How easie had it been for the Fathers , who apologized for , and defended Christian Religion , to have told them they took a wrong measure of their Doctrine ; for it was not the principle of Christians , that their Faith was conveyed to them by the Scriptures , and therefore it was a fond undertaking to attaque their Religion that way ; but if they would effectually argue against it , they ought to enquire what that Doctrine was which was orally delivered from father to son , without which the Scriptures could signifie no more to them than an unknown Cipher without a Key ; being of themselves , without the light of Oral Tradition , only an heap of unintelligible words , unsensed Cha : racters , and Ink variously figured in a Book ; and therefore it was a gross mistake in them , to think they could understand the Christian Religion ( like their own Philosophy ) by reading of those Books , or confute it by confuting them . Thus the Fathers might have defended their Religion ; nay , they ought in all reason to have taken this course , and to have appealed from those dead senseless Books , to the true Rule of Faith , the living voice of the Church Essential . But doth Mr. S. find any thing to this purpose in the Apologies of the Fathers ? If he hath discover'd any such matter , he might do well to acquaint the World with it , and make them wiser ; in the mean time , I shall inform him what I have found , that the Fathers never except against that method , but appeal frequently from the slanderous reports and misrepresentations which were made of their Doctrine to the Books of Scripture , as the true standard of it . § 8. Another evidence that Christians in all Ages since the Apostles times , have owned the Scriptures for the Rule of their Faith , is , That the Fathers in their Homilies did use constantly to declare to the People what they were to believe , and what they were to practise , out of the Scriptures ; which had been most absurd and sensless , had they believed not the Scriptures , but something else to have been the Rule of Faith and Manners . For what could tend more to the seducing of the People from Mr. S's supposed Rule of Faith Oral Tradition , than to make a daily practise of declaring and confirming the Doctrins of the Christian Faith from the Scriptures ? Had the antient Fathers been right for Mr. S's way , they would not have built their Doctrine upon Scripture ; perhaps not have mentioned it , for fear of giving the people an occasion to grow familiar with so dangerous a Book ; but rather ( as their more prudent Posterity have done ) would have lock'd it up from the people in an unknown Tongue , and have set open the stores of good wholsome Traditions ; and instead of telling them ( as they do most frequently ) thus saith the Scripture , would only have told them , this is the voice of the essential Church ; thus it hath been delivered down by hand to us , from our Forefathers . § 9. I might add for a Third evidence , the great malice of the Enemies and Persecutors of Christianity , against this Book ; and their cruel endeavours to extort it out of the hands of Christians , and destroy it out of the World , that by this means they might extirpate Christianity . For it seems they thought , that the abolishing of this Book would have been the ruine of that Religion . But ( according to Mr. S's opinion ) their malice wanted wit ; for had all the Bibles in the World been burnt , Christian Religion would nevertheless have been entirely preserv'd , and safely transmitted down to us by sense written in mens hearts , with the good help of of Mr. S's Demonstration . Nay , their Church would have been a great gainer by it : For this Occasion and Parent of all Heresie the Scripture , being once out of the way , she might have had all in her own hands , and by leading the people in the safe paths of Tradition , and consequently of Science , might have made them wise enough to obey . Well , but suppose the Persecutors of Christianity mistook themselves in their design , how came the Christians in those days to be so tenacious of this Book , that rather than deliver it , they would yield up themselves to torments and death ? And why did they look upon those who out of fear delivered up their Books , as Apostates and Renouncers of Christianity , if they had not thought this Book to be the great Instrument of their Faith and Salvation , and if it had really been of no greater consideration than Mr. Wh. and Mr. S. would make it ? Why should they be so loth to part with a few unsens'd Characters , waxen natur'd words , fit to be play'd upon diversly by quirks of wit , that is , apt to blunder and confound , but to clear little or nothing ? Why should they value their lives at so cheap a rate as to throw them away for a few insignificant scrawls , and to shed their blood for a little Ink variously figured in a Book ? Did they not know , that the safety of Christianity did not depend upon this Book ? Did no Christian then understand that , which ( according to Mr. S. ) no Christian can be ignorant of , viz. that not the Scripture , but unmistakeable , indefectible Oral Tradition was the Rule of Faith ? Why did they not consider , that though this Letter Rule of Hereticks had been consum'd to ashes , yet their Faith would have lain safe , and been preserved entire in its * Spiritual Causes , Men's minds , the noblest pieces in Nature ? Some of them indeed did deliver up their Books , and were call'd Traditores , and I have some ground to believe , that these were the only Traditionary Christians of that time , and that the rest were Confessors and Martyrs for the Letter Rule . And if this be not evidence enough , that the Scriptures have always been acknowledged by Christians for the Rule of Faith , I shall , when I come to examine his Testimonies for Tradition , ( with the good leave of his distinction between Speculators and Testifiers ) prove by most express Testimony , that it was the general opinion of the Fathers , That the Scriptures are the Rule of Christian Faith ; and then , if his demonstration of the infalliblity of Tradition will enforce that as Testifiers , they must nesds have spoken otherwise , who can help it ? SECT . IV. § . 1. HAving thus laid down the Protestant Rule of Faith , with the grounds of it ; all that now remains for me to do , towards the clear and full stating of the Controversie between us , is to take notice briefly , and with due limitations : 1. How much the Protestants do allow to Oral Tradition . Secondly , What those things are which Mr. S , thinks fit to attribute to his Rule of Faith , which we see no cause to attribute to ours ; And when this is done , any one may easily discern how far we differ . § 2. 1. How much Protestants do allow to Oral Tradition . First , We grant that Oral Tradition in some circumstances , may be a sufficient way of conveying a Doctrine ; but withall we deny , that such circumstances are now in being . In the first Ages of the World , when the credenda or Articles of Religion , and the agenda or Precepts of it , were but few , and such as had the evidence of Natural light ; When the World was contracted into a few Families in comparison , and the age of man ordinarily extended to six or seven hundred years ; it is easie to imagine , how such a doctrine , in such circumstances , might have been propagated by Oral Tradition , without any great change or alterations . Adam lived till Methuselah was above two hundred years old , Methuselah lived till Sem was near an hundred , and Sem out-liv'd Abraham : So that this Tradition needed not pass through more than two hands , betwixt Adam and Abraham . But though this way was sufficient to have preserved Religion in the world , if men had not been wanting themselves ; yet we find it did not prove effectual . For through the corruption and negligence of men after the Flood , ( if not before ) when the world began to multiply , and the age of man was shortned , the knowledg and worship of the one true God was generally lost in the world . And so far as appears by Scripture-History , ( the only Record we have of those times ) when God called out Abraham from Vr of the Chaldees , the whole world was lapsed into Polytheisme and Idolatry . Therefore , for the greater security of Religion afterwards , when the posterity of Abraham was multiplied into a great Nation , the wisdom of God did not think fit to entrust the Doctrine of Religion any longer to the fallible and uncertain way of Tradition , but committed it to writing . Now that God pitched upon this way , after the world had sadly experienced the unsuccesfulness of the other , seems to be a very good evidence that this was the better and more secure way : it being the usual method of the Divine dispensations , not to go backwards , but to move towards perfection , and to proceed from that which is less perfect to that which is more . And the Apostles * reasoning concerning the two Covenants is very applicable to these two methods of conveying the Doctrine of Religion ; if the first had been faultless , then should no place have been sought for a second . § 3. So likewise , when Christ revealed his Doctrine to the world , it was not in his life-time committed to writing ; because it was entertained but by a few , who were his disciples and followers , and who so long as he continued with them had a living Oracle to teach them . After his death the Apostles , who were to publish this Doctrine to the world , were assisted by an infallible Spirit , so as they were secured from error and mistake in the delivery of it . But when this extraordinary assistance failed , there was need of some other means to convey it to posterity , that so it might be a fixt and standing Rule of Faith and Manners to the end of the world . To this end the providence of God took care to have it committed to writing . And that Mr. S ▪ may see this is not a conjecture of Protestants , but the sense of former times , I shall refer him to St. Chrysostom , ( Homil. 1. in Matth. ) who tells us , That Christ left nothing in writing to his Apostles ; but in stead thereof did promise to bestow upon them the grace of his holy Spirit , saying , John 14. He shall bring all things to your remembrance , &c. But because in progress of time there were many grievous miscarriages both in matter of Opinion , and also of Life and Manners ; therefore it was requisite that the memory of this Doctrine should be preserved by writing . So long then as the Apostles lived , who were thus infallibly assisted , the way of Oral Tradition was secure , but no longer ; nor even then from the nature of the thing , but from that extraordinary and supernatural assistance which accompanied the deliverers . § 4. And therefore it is no good way of Argument against the way of Tradition by writing , which he lays so much weight upon , * That the Apostles and their Successors went not with Books in their hands to preach and deliver Christ's Doctrine , but words in their mouths ; and that primitive antiquity learned their faith by another method , a long time before many of those Books were universally spread among the vulgar . For what if there was no need of writing this Doctrine , whilst those living Oracles , the Apostles , were present with the Church ? Doth it therefore follow that there was no need of it afterwards when the Apostles were dead , and that extraordinary and supernatural assistance was ceased ? If the Preachers now adays could give us any such assurance , and confirm all they preach by such frequent , and publick , and unquestionable miracles as the Apostles did ; then we need not examine the Doctrines they taught by any other Rule , but ought to regulate our belief by what they delivered to us . But seeing this is not the case , that ought in all reason to be the Rule of our Faith , which hath brought down to us the Doctrine of Christ with the greatest certainty : And this I shall prove the Scriptures to have done . § 5. So that in those circumstances I have mentioned , We allow Oral Tradition to have been a sufficient way of conveying a Doctrine ; but now considering the great increase of mankind , and the shortness of mans life in these latter ages of the world , and the long tract of time from the Apostles age down to us ; and the innumerable accidents whereby , in the space of 1500 years , Oral Tradition might receive insensible alterations , so as at last to become quite another thing from what it was at first , by passing through many hands : in which passage , all the mistakes and corruptions which ( in the several Ages through which it was transmitted ) did happen , either through Ignorance , or Forgetfulness , or out of interest and design , are necessarily derived into the last : So that the further it goes , the more alteration it is liable to ▪ because as it passeth along , more Errours and Corruptions are infused into it . I say , considering all this , we deny , that the Doctrine of Christian Religion could with any probable security and certainty have been conveyed down to us by the way of Oral Tradition . And therefore do reasonably believe , that God fore-seeing this , did in his wisdom so order things , that those persons who were assisted by an infallible spirit in the delivery of this Doctrine , should before they left the world commit it to writing ; which was accordingly done : And by this Instrument , the Doctrine of Faith hath been conveyed down to us . § 6. Secondly , We allow , that Oral Tradition is a considerable assurance to us , that the Books of Scripture which we now have , are the very Books which were written by the Apostles and Evangelists ; but withall we deny , That Oral Tradition is therefore to be accounted the Rule of Faith. The general Assurance that we have concerning Books written long ago , that they are so ancient , and were written by those whose names they bear , is a constant and uncontroll'd Tradition of this , transmitted from one Age to another ; partly Orally , and partly by the Testimony of other Books . Thus much is common to Scripture with other Books . But then the Scriptures have this peculiar advantage above other Books , that being of a greater and more universal concernment , they have been more common and in every bodies hands , more read and studied than any other Books in the World whatsoever ; and consequently , they have a more universal and better grounded attestation . Moreover , they have not only been owned universally in all Ages by Christians ( except three or four Books of them , which for some time were questioned by some Churches , but have since been generally received ) but the greatest Enemies of our Religion , the Jews and Heathens , never questioned the Antiquity of them , but have always taken it for granted , that they were the very Books which the Apostles writ . And this is as great an assurance as we can have concerning any ancient Book , without a particular and immediate Revelation . § 7. And this Concession doth not , as M. S , supposeth , make Oral Tradition to be finally the Rule of Faith ; for the meaning of this question , ( What is the Rule of Faith ? ) Is , What is the next and immediate means whereby the knowledge of Christs Doctrine is conveyed to us ? So that although Oral Tradition be the means whereby we come to know that these are the Books of Scripture , yet these Books are the next and immediate means whereby we come to know what is Christs Doctrine ; and consequently , what we are to believe . § 8. Nor doth this Concession make Oral Tradition to be the Rule of Faith , by a parity of Reason ; as if because we acknowledge that Oral Tradition can with sufficient certainty transmit a Book to After ages , we must therefore grant that it can with as much certainty convey a doctrine consisting of several Articles of Faith ( nay very many , as Mr. White acknowledges * ) and many Laws and Precepts of Life : So because Oral Tradition sufficiently assures us that this is Magna Charta , and that the Statute-Book , in which are contain'd those Laws which it concerns every man to be skilful in ; therefore by like parity of Reason it must follow , that Tradition it self is better than a Book , even the best way imaginable , to convey down such Laws to us . Mr. S. saith * expresly it is ; but how truly , I appeal to experience , and the wisdom of our Law-givers , who seem to think otherwise . Tradition is already defin'd to us , a delivery down from hand to hand , of the sense and faith of Fore-fathers ; i. e. of the Gospel , or message of Christ. Now suppose any Oral message , consisting of an hundred particularities , were to be delivered to an hundred several persons of different degrees of understanding and memory , by them to be conveyed to an hundred more , who were to convey it to others , and so onwards , to a hundred descents ; Is it probable this Message , with all the particularities of it , would be as truly conveyed through so many mouths , as if it were written down in so many Letters , concerning which every Bearer should need to say no more than this , That it was delivered to him as a Letter written by him whose name was subscribed to it ? I think it not probable , though the mens lives were concerned every one for the faithful delivery of his Errand or Letter . For the Letter is a message which no man can mistake in , unless he will ; but the Errand so difficult , and perplexed with its multitude of particulars , that it is an equal wager against every one of the Messengers , that he either forgets , or mistakes something in it ; it is ten thousand to one , that the first Hundred do not all agree in it ; it is a Million to one , that the next Succession do not all deliver it truly ; for if any one of the first Hundred mistook , or forgot any thing , it is then impossible that he that received it from him should deliver it right ; and so the farther it goes , the greater change it is liable to . Yet after all this I do not say , but it may be demonstrated , in Mr. S's way , to have more of certainty in it than the Original Letter . § 9. Thirdly , We allow , That the Doctrine of Christian Religion hath in all Ages been preached to the People by the Pastors of the Church , and taught by Christian Parents to their Children ; but with great difference , by some more plainly , and truly , and perfectly ; by others , with less care and exactness , according to the different degrees of ability and integrity in Pastors or Parents ; and likewise with very different success , according to the different capacities and dispositions of the Learners . We allow likewise , That there hath been a constant course of visible actions , conformable in some measure to the Principles of Christianity ; but then we say that those outward acts and circumstances of Religion may have undergone great variations , and received great change , by addition to them , and defalcation from them , in several Ages . That this not only is possible , but hath actually happened , I shall shew when I come to answer his Demonstrations . Now that several of the the main Doctrines of Faith contained in the Scriptute , and actions therein commanded , have been taught and practised by Christians in all Ages ( as the Articles summed up in the Apostles Creed , the use of the two Sacraments ) is a good evidence so far , that the Scriptures contain the Doctrine of Christian Religion . But then if we consider , how we come to know that such points of Faith have been taught , and such external Actions practised in all Ages , it is not enough to say , there is a present multitude of Christians that profess to have received such Doctrines as ever believed and practised , and from hence to infer that they were so ; the inconsequence of which Argument , I shall have a better occasion to shew afterwards : But he that will prove this to any mans satisfaction , must make it evident from the best Monuments and Records of several Ages , that is , from the most Authentick Books of those times , that such Doctrines have in all those Ages been constantly and universally taught and practised . But then if from those Records of former times it appear , that other Doctrines , not contained in the Scriptures , were not taught and practised universally in all Ages , but have crept in by degrees , some in one Age , and some in another , according as Ignorance , and Superstition in the People , Ambition and Interest in the chief Pastors of the Church , have ministred occasion and opportunity ; and that the Innovators of these Doctrines and Practises , have all along pretended to confirm them out of Scripture , as the acknowledged Rule of Faith ; and have likewise acknowledged the Books of Scripture to have descended without any material corruption or alteration , ( all which will sufficiently appear in the process of my Discourse ) then cannot the Oral and practical Tradition of the present Church , concerning any Doctrine , as ever believed and practised , which hath no real foundation in Scripture , be any argument against these Books , as if they did not fully and clearly contain the Christian Doctrine . And to say the Scripture is to be interpreted by Oral and Practical Tradition , is no more reasonable , than it would be to interpret the antient Books of the Law , by the present practise of it ; which every one , that compares things fairly together , must acknowledg to be full of deviations from the antient Law , SECT . V. § 1. 2 dly . HOw much more he attributes to his Rule of Faith. than we think fit to attribute to ours . 1. We do not say , that it is impossible in the nature of the thing , that this Rule should fail , that is , either that these Books should cease to descend , or should be corrupted . This we do not attribute to them , because there is no need we should : We believe the providence of God will take care of them , and secure them from being either lost , or materially corrupted ; yet we think it very possible , that all the Books in the World may be burnt , or otherwise destroyed . All that we affirm concerning our Rule of Faith , is that it is abundantly sufficient ( if men be not wanting to themselves ) to convey the Christian Doctrine to all successive Ages ; and we think him very unreasonable , that expects that God should do more than what is abundantly enough , for the perpetuating of Christian Religion in the world . § 2. Secondly , Nor do we say , that that certainty and assurance which we have , that these Books are the same that were written by the Apostles , is a first and self-evident Principle ; but only that it is a truth capable of evidence sufficient , and as much as we can have for a thing of that nature . Mr. S. may , if he please , say that Traditions certainty is a first and self-evident Principle ; but then he that says this , should take heed how he takes upon him to demonstrate it . Aristole was so wise as never to demonstrate first Principles , for which he gives this very good reason , because they cannot be demonstrated . And most prudent men are of opinion , that a self-evident Principle , of all things in the World , should not be demonstrated , because it needs not . For to what purpose should a man write a Book to prove that which every man must assent to , without any proof , so soon as it is propounded to him ? I have always taken a self-evident Principle to be such a Proposition ; as having in it self sufficient evidence of its own truth , and not needing to be made evident by any thing else , If I be herein mistaken , I desire Mr. S. to inform me better . § 3. So that the true state of the Controversie between us , is , Whether Oral and Practical Tradition , in opposition to Writing and Books , be the only way and means whereby the Doctrine of Christ can with certainty and security be conveyed down to us , who live at this distance from the age of Christ and his Apostles ? This He affirms , and the Protestants deny ; not only that it is the sole means , but that it is sufficient for the certain conveyance of this Doctrine ; and withall affirm , that this Doctrine hath been conveyed down to us by the Books of holy Scripture , as the proper measure and standard of our Religion : But then they do not exclude Oral Tradition from being the means of conveying to us the certain knowledg of these Books . Nor do they exclude the authentick Records of former Ages , nor the constant teaching and practise of this Doctrine , from being subordinate means and helps of conveying it from one age to another . Nay , so far are they from excluding these concurrent means , that they suppose them always to have been used , and to have been of great advantage for the propagating and explaining of this Doctrine , so far as they have been truly subordinate to , and regulated by these sacred Oracles , the Holy Scriptures ; which , they say , do truly and fully contain that Doctrine which Christ delivered to his Apostles , and they preached to the world . To illustrate this by an instance ; suppose there were a Controversy now on foot , how men might come to know what was the true Art of Logick which Aristotle taught his Scholars ; and some should be of opinion , that the only way to know this would be by oral Tradition from his Scholars ; which we might easily understand by consulting those of the present age , who learned it from those who received it from them , who at last had it from Aristotle himself : But others should think it the surest way to study his Organon , a Book acknowledged by all his Scholars , to have been written by himself , and to contain that Doctrine which he taught them . They , who take this latter course , suppose the authority of oral Tradition , for the conveying to them the knowledg of this Book ; and do suppose this Doctrine to have been taught and practised in all Ages , and a great many Books to have been written by way of Comment and explication of this Doctrine ; and that these have been good helps of promoting the knowledg of it . And they may well enough suppose all this , and yet be of opinion that the truest measure and standard of Aristotle's Doctrine is his own Book ; and that it would be a fond thing in any man , by forcing an interpretation upon his Book either contrary to , or very forreign and remote from the obvious sense of his words , to go about to reconcile this Book with that method of disputing which is used by the professed Aristotelians of the present age , and withal that scholastick Jargon which Mr. S. learn'd at Lisbon , and has made him so great a man in the Science of Controversie , as to enable him to demonstrate first and self-evident Principles ; a trick not to be learn'd out of Aristotle's Organon . The Application is so easy , that I need not make it . THE RULE of FAITH . PART . II. Concerning the Properties of the Rule of Faith ; and whether they agree solely to Oral Tradition . SECT . I. § 1. HAving thus endeavoured to bring the Controversy between us , to its clear and true state , that so we might not quarrel in the dark , and dispute about we know not what ; I come now to grapple more closely with his Book . And the main foundations of his Discourse may be reduced to these three Heads . First , That the essential Properties of such a way and means , as can with certainty and security convey down to us the Doctrine of Christ , belong solely to Oral Tradition . This he endeavors to prove in his five first Discourses . Secondly , That it is impossible that this way of Oral Tradition should fail . And this he pretends to prove in his four last Discourses . Thirdly , That Oral Tradition hath been generallly reputed by Christians in all Ages , the sole way and means of conveying down to them the Doctrine of Christ. And this he attempts to shew in his last Chapter , which he calls The Consent of Authority to the substance of his foregoing Discourses . If he make good these three things , he hath acquitted himself well in his undertaking . But whether he hath made them good or not , is now to be examined . § 2. First , Whether the essential Properties of such a way and means , as can with certainty and security convey down to us the knowledge of Christ's Doctrine , belong solely to Oral Tradition ? The true way to measure the essential Properties of this or that means , is by considering its sufficiency for its end . For whatsoever is necessary to make any means sufficient for the obtaining of its end , is to be reputed and essential Property of that Means , and nothing else . Now , because the end we are speaking of , is the conveyance of the knowledg of Christ's Doctrine to all those who are concerned to know it , in such a manner as they may be sufficiently certain and secure that it hath received no change or corruption from what it was when it was first delivered . From hence it appears , that the means to this end must have these two Properties . 1. It must be sufficiently plain and intelligible . 2 ly . It must be sufficiently certain to us , that is , such as we may be fully satisfied concerning it , that it hath received no corruption or alteration . If it have these two conditions , it is sufficient for its end ; but if it want either of them , it must necessarily fall short of its end . For if it be not plain and intelligible , it cannot convey this Doctrine to our knowledg ; if it be not certain , we cannot be assured , that that Doctrine which it brings down to us for the Doctrine of Christ , is really such . § 3. I know he assigns more Properties of this Means which he calls the Rule of Faith ; but upon examination it will appear , that they either fall in with these two , or do not at all belong to it . As , First , That * it must be plain and self-evident to all , as to its existence . Nothing can be more frivolous , than to make this a Property of any thing ; because whosoever enquires into the Properties of a thing , is supposed to be already satisfied that the thing is . Secondly , That it be * evidenceable , as to its Ruling power , that is , as he explains himself , * that men be capable of knowing , that it deserves to be relied on as a Rule . By which he must either understand , the certainty of it ; and then it falls in with the second Property I mentioned , and is the same with the sixth , which he lays down . Or else he means more generally , that it is the property of a Rule , that men be capable of knowing that it hath the Properties of a Rule . For I understand not , how a man can know that any thing deserves to be relied on as a Rule , otherwise than by knowing that it hath the properties of a Rule , that is , that it is sufficient for its end . But at this rate , a man may multiply the Properties of things without end , if the evidence of a thing , as to its existence , be one Property ; and then , that we be capable of knowing that it is such a thing , be another . § 4. Thirdly , That it be apt to settle , and justifie undoubting Persons . What he means here , by setling undoubting Persons , I am not able , on the sudden , to comprehend ; because I understand not what unsettles a man besides doubting : for if a man be but so well satisfied about any thing , as to have no doubt concerning it , I do not easily apprehend how he can be setled better , that is , how his mind can be more at rest , than not to doubt . But if by undoubting Persons , he means those who do not doubt for the present , but afterwards may doubt , then I perceive what he means by apt to settle undoubting Persons , viz. apt to settle Persons when they do doubt , that is , when they are not undoubting Persons . As for justifying undoubting Persons , if he means that whosoever securely relies on this Rule , ought of right to be acquitted , as acting rationally in so doing ; this is plainly consequent upon the two Properties I have laid down . For , if the means of conveying Christ's Doctrine be sufficiently plain and certain , every man that relies upon it is justified in so doing , because he trusts a means which is sufficient for its end . § 5. Fourthly , That * it be apt to satisfie fully the most Sceptical Dissenters , and Rational Doubters : For it 's aptitude to satisfie Rational Doubters , that plainly follows from the sufficient certainty of it . But why it should be a necessary property of a Rule of Faith , to be apt to satisfie the most Sceptical Dissenter , I can no more divine , than I can , why he should call a Dissenter Sceptical , which are repugnant terms : For a Sceptick is one who neither assents to any thing , nor dissents , but is in a perpetual suspence ; because he looks upon every opinion , as balanced by a contrary opinion of equal probability , without any inclination of the Scales either way . But if by the most Sceptical Dissenter he means only a Sceptick , one that doth not believe the Doctrine of Christ , nor any thing else ; then would I fain know , what that is which in reason is apt fully to satisfie such a person . If any thing will , sure a Demonstration will ; but there is no aptitude at all in a Demonstration , to satisfie him who doubts whether there be any such thing as a Demonstration ; and likewise questions the certainty of all those Principles , from whence any conclusion can be demonstrated . And those who are most Sceptical , profess to doubt of all this . § 6. Fifthly , That it * be apt to convince the most obstinate , and acute Adversary . If the Rule be plain and certain , the most acute Adversary may be convinced by it if he will , that is , if he be not obstinate ; but if he be obstinate , that is , such a one as will not be convinced , but will persist in his Error in despite of all evidence that can be offered him , then I must profess that I do not know any kind of evidence that is apt to convince that man that will not be convinced by any reason that can be propounded to him . And that he ought not to have expected this from any Rule of Faith , though never so self-evident , he might have learn't from the same Author , in whom he may find his chief Properties of the Rule of Faith , if he had but had the patience to have consider'd his Explication of them ; I mean Dr. Holden * , who layes down the second Property of the Rule of Faith , ( or , as he calls it , the means whereby we come to the knowledge of Revealed Truth ) in these words , Another ( viz. Condition of this Means , &c. ) is , That it be apt of its own Nature , to afford the greatest true and rational certainty , to all men without exception to whom the knowledg of it shall come ; provided they be furnish'd with the faculty of Reason , and have their minds purified from all Passion and Lust , which do ( as he tells us , Cap. 6. ) often hinder the most sagacious Persons from understanding the most evident and manifest Truths . Now I suppose Obstinacy to be the effect of Passion and Lust. If Mr. S. mean , that the Rule of Faith must be apt to conquer Obstinacy , and make men lay it aside , I cannot understand this neither ; unless he mean , that the Rule of Faith must be a Cudgel , which the Traditionary Church have been good at , and may use it again when occasion serves ; for none but they have Title to it upon a Church-account , as Mr. S. tells us , Corol. 10. But setting aside this , I do not know any thing else that is apt to conquer Obstinacy : Not the clearest Reason , or the strongest Demonstration ; for that I am sure is no ways fitted to combat a wilful and unreasonable humour with any probability of success . And if any one doubt of this , if he will but make trial , he may easily be convinc'd by experience , how unapt obstinate Persons are to be convinc'd by Reason . I do not know any thing that ever carried greater evidence than the Doctrine of Christ , preached by himself and his Apostles to the obstinate Jews , and confirmed by multitudes of unquestionable miracles ; and yet we do not find by the success of it , that it was so very apt to convince those that were obstinate . And no man can judg of the aptitude of a means to an end , otherwise than by the usual and frequent success of it when it is applied . Nor do I think that the Doctrine of the Gospel was ever intended for that purpose . God hath provided no remedy for the wilful and perverse , but he hath done that which is sufficient for the satisfying and winning over of those who are teachable and willing to learn : And such a disposition supposeth a man to have laid aside both Scepticism and Obstinacy . § 7. Sixthly , That * it be certain in it self . Seventhly , That * it be absolutely ascertainable to us . These two are comprehended in the second Property I laid down ; so that I have nothing to say against them , but that the last looks very like a contradiction , absolutely ascertainable to us ; which is to say , with respect to us , without respect to us ; for absolutely seems to exclude respect , and to us implies it . Having thus shewn , that the seven Properties he mentions , are either coincident with those two I have laid down , or consequent upon them , or absurd and impertinent ; it remains , that the true Properties of a Rule of Faith are those two which I first named , and no more . SECT . II. § 1. LEt us now see how he endeavors to shew , that these Properties agree solely to Oral Tradition : He tells us there are but two Pretenders to this Title of being the Rule of Faith , Scripture , and Oral Tradition ; these Properties do not belong to Scripture , and they do to Oral Tradition ; therefore solely to it . A very good Argument , if he can prove these two things , That these two Properties do not belong to Scripture ; and that they do to Oral Tradition . § 2. In order to the proving of the First , that these Properties do not belong to Scripture , he premiseth this Note , * That we cannot by the Scriptures mean the sense of them , but the Book , that is , such or such Characters not yet sensed , or interpreted . But why can we not , by the Scriptures , mean the sense of them ? He gives this clear and admirable reason ; because the sense of Scripture , is , the things to be known , and these we confess are the very points of Faith , of which the Rule of Faith is to ascertain us . Which is just as if a man should reason thus : Those who say the Statute-Book can convey to them the knowledg of the Statute-Law , cannot by the Statute-Book mean the sense of it , but the Book ; that is , such or such Characters not yet sensed or interpreted : Because the sense of the Statute-Book is the things to be known ; and these are the very Laws , the knowledg whereof is to be conveyed to them by this Book ; which is to say , that a Book cannot convey to a man the knowledg of any matter , because if it did , it would convey to him the thing to be known . But that he may farther see what excellent reasoning this is , I shall apply this Paragraph to Oral Tradition ; for the Argument holds every whit as well concerning that . To speak to them in their own language , who say that Oral Tradition is their Rule , we must premise this Note , that they cannot mean by Oral Tradition , the sense of it , that is , the things to be known ; for those , they confess , are the very Points of Faith , of which the Rule of Faith is to ascertain us ; when they say then , that Oral Tradition is the Rule of Faith , they can only mean by Oral Tradition , the words wherein it is delivered , not yet sensed or interpreted , but as yet to be sensed ; that is , such or such sounds , with their aptness to signifie to them assuredly God's mind , or ascertain them of their Faith ; for abstracting from the sense , and actual signification of those words , there is nothing imaginable left but those sounds , with their aptness to signifie it . When he hath answered this Argument , he will have answered his own . In the mean while this Discourse , that he who holds the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith , must needs by the Scriptures mean a Book void of sense , &c. Because otherwise , if by Scripture he should understand a Book , that hath a certain sense in it , that sense must be the Doctrine of Christ , which is the very thing that this Book is to convey to us ; I say , this Discourse tends only to prove it an absurd thing for any man , that holds Scripture the means of conveying Christ's Doctrine , to understand by the Scripture , a Book that conveys Christ's Doctrine . This being his own reason , put into plain English , I leave the Reader to judg , whether it be not something short of perfect Science and Demonstration . Nay , if it were throughly examined , I doubt whether it would not fall short of that low pitch of Science which he speaks of in his Preface , where he tells us , that the way of Science is to proceed from one piece of sense to another . § 3. Having premised this , that by the Scriptures we must mean only dead Characters , that have no sense under them , He proceeds to shew that these dead Characters have not the Properties of a Rule of Faith belonging to them . Which , although it be nothing to the purpose when he hath shewn it , yet it is very pleasant to observe , by what cross and untoward Arguments he goes about it : Of which I will give the Reader a tast , by one or two instances . In the first place he shews , that it cannot be evident to us that these Books were written by men divinely inspired , because * till the seeming contradictions in those Books are solved ; which to do , is one of the most difficult tasks in the world , they cannot be concluded to be of God's enditing . Now how is this an Argument against those , who by the Scriptures , must mean unsensed letters and characters ? I had always thought contradictions had been in the sense of words , not in the letters and characters ; but I perceive he hath a peculiar opinion , that the four and twenty letters do contradict one another . The other instance shall be in his last Argument * , which is this , that the Scripture cannot be the Rule of Faith , because those who are to be ruled and guided by the Scriptures letter to Faith , cannot be certain of the true sense of it ; which is to say , that unsensed letters and characters cannot be the Rule of Faith , because the Rule of Faith must have a certain sense , that is , must not be unsensed letters and characters ; which in plain English amounts to thus much , unsensed letters and characters cannot be the Rule of Faith , that they cannot . § 4. And thus I might trace him through all his Properties of the Rule of Faith ; and let the Reader see , how incomparably he demonstrates the falshood of this Protestant Tenet ( as he calls it ) that a sensless Book may be a Rule of Faith. But I am weary of pursuing him in these airy and phantastical combats , and shall leave him to fight with his own fancies , and batter down the Castles which himself hath built . Only I think fit here to acquaint him , once for all , with a great Secret of the Protestant Doctrine , which it seems he hath hitherto been ignorant of ( for I am still more confirmed in my opinion , that he forsook our Religion before he understood it ) that when they say , the Scriptures are the Rule of Faith , or the means whereby Christ's Doctrine is conveyed down to them , they mean by the Scriptures , Books written in such words as do sufficiently express the sense and meaning of Christ's Doctrine . § 5. And to satisfy him , that we are not absurd and unreasonable in supposing the Scriptures to be such a Book , I would beg the favour of him to grant me these four things , or shew reason to the contrary . First , That whatever can be spoken in plain and intelligible words , and such as have a certain sense , may be written in the same words . Secondly , That the same words are as intelligible when they are written , as when they are spoken . Thirdly , That God , if he please , can endite a Book in as plain words as any of his creatures . Fourthly , That we have no reason to think that God affects obscurity , and envies that men should understand him , in those things which are necessary for them to know , and which must have been written to no purpose , if we cannot understand them . St. Luke * tells Theophilus , that he wrote the History of Christ to him , on purpose to give him a certain knowledg of those things which he writ . But how a Book which hath no certain sense , should give a man certain knowledg of things , is beyond my capacity . St. John * saith , that he purposely committed several of Christ's miracles to Writing , that men might believe on Him. But now had Mr. S. been at his elbow , he would have advised him to spare his labour , and would have given him this good reason for it ; because when he had written his Book , no body would be able to find the certain sense of it without oral Tradition , and that alone would securely and intelligibly convey both the Doctrine of Christ , and the certain knowledg of those miracles which he wrought for the confirmation of it . If these four things be but granted , I see not why , when we say that the Scriptures are the means of conveying to us Christ's Doctrine , we may not be allow'd to understand by the Scriptures , a Book which doth in plain and intelligible words express to us this Doctrine . SECT . III. 6 1. ANd now , although this might have been a sufficient Answer to his Exceptions against the Scriptures , as being incapable of the Properties of a Rule of Faith ; because all of them suppose that which is apparently false and absurd , as granted by Protestants , viz. That the Scriptures are only an heap of dead letters , and insignificant characters , without any sense under them ; and that oral Tradition is that only which gives them life and sense ; Yet because several of his Exceptions pretend to shew , that the true Properties of a Rule of Faith do not at all appertain to the Scriptures ; therefore I shall give particular Answers to them ; and as I go along , shew that Tradition is liable to all or most of those Exceptions , and to far greater than those . § 2. Whereas he says , * it cannot be evident to Protestants , from their Principles , that the Books of Scripture were originally written by men divinely inspired ; I will shew him that it may , and then answer the reasons of this Exception . It is evident , from an universal , constant , and uncontrolled Tradition among Christians , not only oral , but written , and from the acknowledgment of the greatest Adversaries of our Religion , that these Books were originally written by the Apostles and Evangelists . And this is not only a Protestant Principle , but the Principle of all mankind , That an undoubted Tradition is sufficient evidence of the Antiquity and Author of a Book , and all the extrinsecal Argument that can ordinarily be had of a Book written long ago . Next , it is evident , that the Apostles were men divinely inspired , that is , secured from error and mistake in the writing of this Doctrine , from the miracles that were wrought for the confirmation of it . Because it is unreasonable to imagine that the Divine power should immediately interpose for the confirmation of a Doctrine , and give so eminent an attestation to the Apostles to convince the World that they were immediately appointed and commissioned by God , and yet not secure them from error in the delivery of it . And that such miracles were wrought , is evident from as credible Histories as we have for any of those things which we do most firmly believe . And this is better evidence that the Apostles were men divinely inspired , than bare oral Tradition can furnish us withal . For setting aside the authentick relation of these matters in Books , it is most probable , that oral Tradition of it self and without Books , would scarce have preserved the memory of any of those particular miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles , which are recorded in Scripture . And for the probability of this , I offer these two things to his consideration . First , No man can deny that memorable persons have lived , and actions been done in the world innumerable , whereof no History now extant makes any mention . Secondly , He himself will grant , that our Saviour wrought innumerable more miracles , than are recorded in Scripture . And now I challenge him to shew the single vertue of oral Tradition , by giving an account of any of those persons , or their actions , who lived 1500 or 2000 years ago , besides those which are mentioned in Books ; or to give a catalogue but of ten of those innumerable miracles wrought by our Saviour , which are nor recorded by the Evangelists , with circumstances as punctual and particular as those are clothed withal . If he can do this , it will be a good evidence that oral Tradition singly and by it self can do something ; but if he cannot , 't is as plain an evidence on the contrary , that if those actions of former times , and those miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles , which are recorded in Books had never been written , but entrusted solely to oral Tradition , we should have heard as little of them at this day , as we do of those that were not written . § 3. Now to examine his Reasons for this Exception : First , He saith , * 't is most manifest that this cannot be made evident to the vulgar , that Scripture was written by men divinely inspired . This Reason is as easily answered , by saying 't is most manifest that it can : But besides saying so , I have shewed how it may be made as evident to the vulgar , as other things which they do most firmly and upon good grounds believe . Even the rudest of the vulgar , and those who cannot read , do believe upon very good grounds that there was such a King as William the Conqueror ; and the miracles of Christ and his Apostles are capable of as good evidence as we have for this . Secondly , He says , * this cannot be evident to the curious and most speculative Searchers , but by so deep an inspection into the sense of Scripture , as shall discover such secrets , that Philosophy , and human Industry could never have arrived to . As if we could not be assured that any thing were written by men divinely inspired , unless it were above the reach of human understanding ; and as if no man could know that this was our Saviours Doctrine , Whatever ye would that men should do unto you , that do ye likewise unto them , because every one can understand it . But if there were more mysteries in the Scriptures than there are , I hope a man might be satisfied that they were written by men divinely inspired , without a clear comprehension of all those mysteries . The evidence of the inspiration of any person doth not depend upon the plaineness or sublimity of the things revealed to him , but upon the goodness of the arguments which tend to perswade us that the person is so inspired : And the Argument that is most fit to satisfy us of that is , if he work miracles . Now I would gladly know why a learned man cannot be assured of a miracle , that is , a plain sensible matter of Fact done long ago , but by so deep an inspection into the sense of Scripture , as shall discover such secrets that Philosophy and human Industry could never have arrived to . § 4. Thirdly , Because * all the seeming contradictions of Scripture must be solved , before we can out of the bare letter conclude the Scripture to be of God's enditing ; to solve which literally , plainly , and satisfactorily ( he tells us ) the memory of so many particulars , which made them clearer to those of the Age in which they were written , and the matter known , must needs be so worn out by tract of time , that it is one of the most difficult tasks in the World. As if we could not believe a Book to be of God's enditing , because there seem now to be some contradictions in it , which we have reason to believe could easily have been solved by those who lived in the Age in which it was written . Or as if oral Tradition could help a man to solve these contradictions , when the memory of particulars necessary for the clear solution of them is ( as himself confesses ) worn out by tract of time . If Mr. S. can , in order to the solution of the seeming contradictions of Scripture , demonstrate , that oral Tradition hath to this day preserv'd the memory of those particulars ( necessary for that purpose ) the memory of which must needs be long since worn out by tract of time , then I will readily yield , that his Rule of Faith hath in this particular , the advantage of ours . But if he cannot do this , why does he make that an Argument against our Rule , which is as strong against his own ? This is just like Capt. Everard's Friend's way of arguing against the Protestants , That they cannot rely upon Scripture because it is full of plain contradictions , impossible to be reconciled ; and therefore they ought in all reason to submit to the infallibility of the Church . And for an instance of such a contradiction , he pitched upon the three fourteen Generations mentioned in the first of St. Matthew , because the third Series of Generations , if they be counted , will be found to be but thirteen . Not to mention now , how this difficulty hath been sufficiently satisfied both by Protestant and Popish Commentators , without any recourse to oral Tradition ; that which I take notice of , is the unreasonableness of making this an Exception against the Protestants , when it comes with every whit as much force upon themselves . Suppose this Contradiction not capable of any solution by Protestants ( as he affirms ) and I should submit to the infallibility of the Church ; can he assure me , that infallibility can make thirteen , fourteen ? If it cannot , how am I nearer satisfaction in this point , by acknowledging the infallibility of the Church ? The case is the very same , as to Mr S's . Exception , if I owned oral Tradition , I should be never the nearer solving the seeming contradictions of Scripture , and consequently I could not in Reason conclude it to be of God's enditing . So that in truth , these Exceptions if they were true , would not strike at Protestancy , but at Christian Religion ; which is the general unhappiness of most of the Popish Arguments ; than which there is no greater evidence , that the Church of Rome is not the true Mother , because she had rather Christianity should be destroyed , than it should appear that any other Church hath a claim to it . It was a work very proper for the Heretick Marcion , to assault Religion this way ; who , as Tertullian * tells us , writ a whole Book , which he call'd Antitheses , wherein he reckoned up all the Contradictions ( as he thought ) between the Old and New Testament : But methinks it is very improper for the Papists who pretend to be the only true Christians in the World , to strain their wits to discover as many contradictions as they can in the Scripture , and to prove that there is no way of reconciling them : The natural consequence of which is , the exposing of this sacred Instrument of our Religion , and even Christianity it self , to the scorn of Atheists . Therefore , to be very plain with Mr. S. and Captain Everard , I am heartily sorry to see , that one of the chief fruits of their Conversion is to abuse the Bible . § 5. Secondly , He says * that Protestants cannot know how many the Books of Scripture ought to be , and which of the many controverted ones may be securely put in that Catalogue , which not ; This he proves , by saying , 't is most palpable , that few , or at least the rude vulgar , can never be assured of it . And if this be a good Argument , this again is a good Answer , to say it is not most palpable . But I shall deal more liberally , and tell him , that we know that just so many ought to be received as uncontroverted Books , concerning which , it cannot be shewn there was ever any Controversy ; and so many as controverted , concerning which it appears that Question hath been made : And if those which have been controverted , have been since received by those Churches which once doubted of them , there is now no further doubt concerning them , because the Controversy about them is at an end . And now I would fain know , what greater certainty oral Tradition can give us of the true Catalogue of the Books of Scripture . For it must either acknowledg some Books have been controverted , or not ; if not , why doth he make a supposition of controverted Books ? If oral Tradition acknowledg some to have been controverted , then it cannot assure us that they have not been controverted ; nor consequently , that they ought to be received as never having been controverted ; but only as such , concerning which those Churches who did once raise a Controversy about them , have been since satisfied that they are Canonical . The Traditionary Church now , receives the Epistle to the Hebrews as Canonical . I ask , Do they receive it as ever delivered for such ? That they must , if they receive it from oral Tradition , which conveys things to them under this notion , as ever delivered ; and yet St. Hierom speaking , ( not as a Speculator , but a Testifier ) saith expresly of it , * That the custom of the Latin Church doth not receive it among the Canonical Scriptures . What saith Mr. S. to this ? It is clear from this Testimony , that the Roman Church in St. Hierom's time , did not acknowledg this Epistle for Canonical ; and 't is as plain , that the present Roman Church doth receive it for Canonical . Where is then the infallibility of oral Tradition ? How does the living voice of the present Church assure us , that what Books are now received by her were ever received by her ? And if it cannot do this , but the matter must come to be tried by the best Records of former Ages , ( which the Protestants are willing to have their Catalogue tried by ) then it seems the Protestants have a better way to know what Books are Canonical , than is the infallible way of oral Tradition ; and so long as 't is better , no matter though it be not called Infallible . § 6. Thirdly , He says * the Protestants cannot know , that the very Original , or a perfectly true copy of these Books hath been preserved . It is not necessary that they should know either of these , it is sufficient that they know , that those copies which rhey have , are not materially corrupted in any matter of Faith or Practice ; and that they have sufficient assurance of this , I have already shewn . And how doth he prove the contrary ? By his usual Argument , with saying it is manifestly impossible . But how do the Church of Rome know that they have perfectly true copies of the Scriptures , in the Original Languages ? They do not pretend to know this , the learned men of that Church acknowledg the various Readings as well as we , and do not pretend to know otherwise than by probable conjecture , ( as we also may do ) which of those Readings is the true one . And why should it be more necessary for us to know this , than for them ? If they think it reasonable to content themselves with knowing , that no material corruptions have crept into those Books , so may we . And that there have not , we know by better Arguments than oral Tradition , even by the assurance we have of God's vigilant providence ; and from a moral impossibility in the thing , that a Book so universally dispersed , and translated into so many Languages , and constantly read in the Assemblies of Christians , should have been materially corrupted , so as that all those copies and translations should have agreed in those corruptions . And this reason St. Austin * gives of the preservation of the Scriptures entire rather than any other Book . If Mr. S. likes it not , he may call St. Austin to account for it . § 7. Fourthly , He says * , the Protestants , at least the rudest vulgar , can have no assurance that those Books are rightly translated , because they cannot be assured either of the ability or integrity of Translators . Fifthly , Nor can they ( says * he ) be assured , that the Transcribers , and Printers , and Correctors of the Press have carefully and faithfully done their part , in Transcribing and Printing the several Copies and Translations of Scripture aright ; Because , they only can have evidence of the right letter of Scripture , who stood at their elbows attentively watching they should not err in making it perfectly like a former Copy ; and even then , why might they not mistrust their own eyes and aptness to oversee ? I put these two Exceptions together , because the same Answer will serve them both . The grounds of these Exceptions , if they have any , are these : That no man is to be trusted , either for his skill , or honesty . And , that it is dangerous for men to trust their own eyes . Unless both these be true , these Exceptions are of no force : For if we can be assured , that other men have sufficient skill in any thing which we our selves do not sufficiently understand , we may be assured , that those who translated the Bible had skill in the Original Languages ; because very credible persons tell us so ; and we have no reason to doubt their testimony in this particular , more than in any other matter . So that if we can have sufficient assurance of mens integrity in any thing , we have no reason to doubt of the skill of Translators , or Transcribers , or Printers . And if we can have no assurance of mens integrity in any thing , then no man can be assured that there was such a man as Henry the Eighth ; and yet I hope the Church of Rome makes no doubt of it : Nor can any man be assured there is such a City as Rome , who hath not seen it ; nay , if he have * , why may he not mistrust his own eyes ? And which is the saddest inconvenience of all , if no body be to be trusted , nor mens own eyes , ( and for the same reason , sure not their ears ) what becomes of the Infallibility of oral and practical Tradition ? Which necessarily supposeth a competent understanding , a faithful memory , an honest mind , in the generality of those who delivered Christs Doctrine down to us : And by what means soever a man can be assured of these , by the same he may much more easily be assured of the ability and integrity of Translators , Transcribers , and Printers . But above all , it supposeth that mens ears and eyes cannot deceive them in those things which they are taught , and see practised . Is it not very pretty to see what pitiful shifts men that serve an Hypothesis are put to ? When to maintain Infallibility they are forced to run to the extremities of Scepticism ; and to defend the certainty of oral Tradition , ( which depends upon the certainty of mens senses , and an assurance of the ability and integrity of those who were dead 1500 years before we were born ) are glad to take refuge in Principles quite contrary ; such as these , That we can have no assurance , but that whole Professions of men * might hap to be Knaves ; that we can have no sufficient evidence that any man made his Copy perfectly like the former , unless * we stood at his elbow , attentively watching him : Nay , and if we did so , we have still reason to distrust our senses . In short , all human Faith supposeth honesty among men ; and that for matters of Fact , and plain objects of Sense , the general and uncontrolled testimony of mankind is to be credited ; and for matters of peculiar skill and knowledg , that the generality of those who are accounted skilful in that kind , are to be relied upon : For , as Aristotle well observes , there is no greater sign of an undisciplin'd wit ( or , to use one of Mr. S's . fine phrases , of a man not acquainted with the paths of Science ) than to expect greater evidence for things than they are capable of . Every man hath reason to be assured of a thing which is capable of sufficient evidence , when he hath as much evidence for it as the nature of that thing will bear , and as the capacity he is in will permit him to have . And , as Mr. White says well * Satisfaction is to be given to every one according to his capacity ; it is sufficient for a Child to believe his Parents ; for a Clown to believe his Preacher . And this is universally true in all cases , where we have not better or equal evidence to the contrary . But such is the unhappiness of the Popish Doctrines , that if people were permitted the free use of the Scripture , they would easily discern them to have no probable foundation in it , and some of them to be plainly contrary to it ; so that it cannot be safe for their Preachers to tell the people that the Scripture is the only Rule of Faith , lest they should find cause not to believe them , when they teach Doctrines so plainly contrary to that Rule . § 8. Lastly , He says * , the Protestants cannot be certain of the true sense of Scripture . Does he mean of plain Texts , or obscure ones ? Of the true sense of plain Texts , I hope every one may be certain ; and for obscure ones , it is not necessary every one should . But it may be there are no plain Texts in the Scriptures ; then the reason of it must be ( till Mr. S. can shew a better ) either because it is impossible for any one to write plainly ; or because God cannot write so plainly as men ; or because we have good reason to think that he would not write things necessary for every one to believe , so as men might clearly understand him . But he tells us * , The numerous Comments upon Scripture are an evidence that no man can be certain of the true sense of it . I hope not ; for if those numerous Commentators do generally agree in the sense of plain Texts ( as 't is certain they do ) then this Argument signifies nothing as to such Texts : And as for those which are obscure , let Commentators differ about them as much as they please , so long as all necessary Points of Faith and matters of Practice are delivered in plain Texts . He adds * , There are infinite disputes about the sense of Scripture , even in most concerning Points , as in that of Christ's Divinity . But are not Commentators , both Protestant and Popish , generally agreed about the sense of Scripture in that Point ? And what if some out of prejudice do mistake , or out of perverseness do wrest the plainest Texts of Scripture for the Divinity of Christ , to another sense ? Is this any argument that those Texts are not sufficiently plain ? Can any thing be spoken or written in words so clear from ambiguity , which a perverse or prejudiced mind shall not be able to vex and force to another meaning . God did not write the Scriptures for the froward and the captious , but for those who will read them with a free and unprejudiced mind , and are willing to come to the knowledg of the Truth . If Mr. S. had been conversant in the writings of the Fathers , he could not but have taken notice with what confidence they attempt to prove the Divinity of Christ out of Scripture , as if that did afford convincing arguments for this purpose . St. Chrysostom * professes to demonstrate out of Scripture , That the Son is of the same substance with the Father ; and relies upon Scripture alone for this , without mentioning any other kind of Argument . So that it seems , St. Chrysostom was not acquainted with the insufficiency of Scripture for the conviction of Hereticks in this Point ; and that he was either ignorant of the ( infallible ) way of Demonstrating this point from Oral Tradition , or had no great opinion of it . The same Father elsewhere * , arguing against Hereticks about the Divinity of Christ , says , That they pervert the Scriptures , to strengthen their Heresie from thence . But then he does not ( with Mr. S. ) blame the Scripture , and say that this Doctrine is not there deliver'd with sufficient clearness ; but contrarywise he says , That the Scripture is clear enough , but the corrupt minds of Hereticks will not see what is there contain'd . Had St. Chrysostom been a true Son of the Traditionary Church , he would have lain hold of this occasion , to vilifie the Scriptures , and to shew the necessity of regulating our faith not by such uncertain Records , but by the infallible Reports of Oral Tradition . § 9. But because Mr. S. lays great weight ( in several parts of his Book ) upon this Exception against Scripture , viz. That Protestants cannot be certain of the true sense of it : Therefore I shall not content my self , only to have shewn that we may be sufficiently certain of the sense of Scripture , so far as to understand all necessary matters of Faith and Practice , and that more than this is not necessary ; but shall likewise return this Exception upon him by enquiring into these two things . 1. How the Traditionary Church can be more certain of the true sense of Scripture , than the Protestants ? 2. How they can be more certain of the true sense of Tradition , than Protestants of the true sense of Scripture ? 1. How the Traditionary Church can be more certain of the true sense of Scripture , than Protestants ? They pretend to have an Oral Tradition of the true sense of it , delivered down from Father to Son. But this only reacheth to those Texts , which are coincident with the main body of Christian Doctrine ; as for all other parts of Scripture , they are as useless to Papists , as they suppose they are to us ; because wanting the help of Oral Tradition , they cannot be certain of one tittle of them . And as for those Texts , the sense whereof is conveyed down by Oral Tradition ; this sense is , I hope , delivered in some words or other ; And have all Preachers , and Fathers , and Mothers , and Nurses , the faculty of delivering this sense in words so plain as cannot possibly be mistaken or wrested to another sense ? I am sorry that when every one hath this faculty of speaking their thoughts plainly , the Holy Ghost should be represented as not able to convey his mind to men in intelligible words . And does not his own Objection rebound upon himself ? If the Church have a certain sense of Scripture orally delivered , whence are the numerous Comments of the Fathers upon it and of later Writers in their Church , and the infinite Disputes about the sense of it , in the most concerning Points ? viz. The efficacy of Gods grace , the Supremacy of St. Peter . the infallibility of a Pope and Council by immediate assistance of the Holy Ghost ? What a stir is made about the sense of Dabo tibi Claves , Tu es Petrus , & super hanc Petram , &c. Pasce oves ? Do not they differ about the meaning of these Texts among themselves , as much as they do from the Fathers , and from the Protestants ? Some understanding them of St Peters Supremacy only ; others of his infallibility ; others of his infallibility only in and with a general Council ; which yet others do not allow to Pope or Council , from any immediate assistance , but only from the rational force of Tradition , supposing that the Pope and Council hold to it . If oral Tradition have brought down a certain sense of these Texts , why do they not produce it , and agree in it ? If it have not ( to use a hot phrase of his own * ) 't is perfect phrenzy to say they can be certain of the true sense of Scripture . If he say , they are by Tradition made certain of the true sense of Scripture , so far as it concerns the main body of Christian Doctrine , and do all agree in it , and that is suffcient ; then I ask him , What are those points of Faith which make up the body of Christian Doctrine ? He will tell me , they are those which all Catholicks agree to have descended to them from the Apostles by a constant and uninterrupted Tradition . I enquire farther , how I shall know what is the certain sense of Scripture so far as it concerns these points ? He must answer as before , that that is the true sense which all Catholicks agree to have descended to them by Tradition . Which amounts to this , that all Catholicks do agree in the sense of Scripture so far as they do all agree in it . It is to be hoped , that the Protestants ( how much soever at present they differ about the sense of Scripture ) may in time come to as good an agreement as this . This brings to my remembrance a passage or two of Mr. Cressy ; the one in his Appendix * , where he tells us , That as it is impossible that Hereticks should agree any other way than in Faction ; so it is impossible that Catholicks should differ in points of Faith. Why so ? Were not those Catholicks first , who afterwards became Hereticks ; and when they became so , did they not differ in points of Belief ? Yes ; but here lies the conceit , when they began to differ , then they ceas'd to be Catholicks ; therefore Catholicks can never differ in points of Faith. The other passage is where he says * , That he hath forsaken a Church where Vnity was impossible , &c. and betaken himself to a Church where Schism is impossible . This last Clause , That Schism is impossible in their Church , cannot possibly be true but in the same absurd and ludicrous sense , in which it is impossible for Catholicks to differ in points of Belief . For he cannot deny , but that it is possible for men to break off from the Communion of their Church , which in his sense is Schism ; but here is the subtilty of it , No Schismatick is of their Church , because so soon as he is a Schismatick he is out of it ; therefore Schism is impossible in their Church . And is it not as impossible in the Church of England ? Where Mr. Cr. might have done well to have continued , till he could have given a better reason of forsaking Her. § 10. But to return to our purpose . Mr. Rushworth * acknowledgeth , that the Scripture is of it self sufficiently plain , as to matters of practice ; for he asks , Who is so blind , as not to see that these things are to be found in Scripture by a sensible , common , and discreet reading of it ; though perhaps by a rigorous and exact balancing of every particular word and syllable , any of these things would vanish away we know not how ? So that for the direction of our lives and actions , he confesseth the Scripture to be sufficiently plain , if men will but read it sensibly and discreetly ; and ( he sayes ) that he is blind that does not see this . But who so blind as he that will not see , that the sense of Scripture is as plain in all necessary points of Faith ? I am sure St. Austin makes no difference , when he tells us * , That in those things which are plainly set down in Scripture , we may find all those things in which Faith and Manners of life are comprehended . And why cannot men , in reference to matters of Faith as well as of Practice , read the Scriptures sensibly and discreetly without such a rigorous balancing of every word and syllable as will make the sense vanish away we know not how ? If the Scripture be but sufficiently plain to such as will use it sensibly and discreetly , I do not understand what greater plainness can be desir'd in a Rule : Nor can I imagine what kind of Rule it must be that can be unexceptionably plain to captious Cavillers , and such as are bent to play the fool with it . Well , suppose the Scripture be not sufficiently clear as to matters of Faith ; and hereupon I have recourse to the Church for the true sense of Scripture : Must I believe the Churches sense to be the true sense of such a Text , though I see it to be plainly contrary to the genuine sense of the words ; yes , that I must , or else I make my self and not the Church judg of the sense of Scripture , which is the grand Heresie of the Protestants . But then I must not suppose , much less belive , that the Churches sense of such a Text is contrary to the genuine meaning of it ; no , although I plainly see it to be so : This is hard again on the other hand ; especially if that be true which is acknowledged both by Dr. Holden , and Mr. Cressy , viz. That though general Councils cannot mistake in the Points of Faith which they decree , yet they may mistake in the confirmation of them from Texts of Scripture , that is , they may be mistaken about the sense of those Texts . And if Mr. S. think his Brethren have granted too much , he may see this exemplified in the second Council of Nice ( to mention no other ) which to establish their Doctrine of Image-worship , does so palpably abuse and wrest Texts of Scripture , that I can hardly believe that any Papist in the World hath the forehead to own that for the true sense of those Texts which is there given by those Fathers . § 11. Secondly , How the Traditionary Church can be more certain of the true sense of their Traditional Doctrines , than the Protestants can be of the true sense of Scripture ? And this is worthy our enquiry , because if the business be search'd to the bottom , it will appear ( besides all other inconveniences , which oral Tradition is much more liable to than Scripture ) that the certain sense and meaning of Traditional Doctrine is as hard to come at as the sense of Scripture . And this I will make appear by necessary consequence from their own Concessions . Mr. White , and Mr. S. say that the great security of Tradition is this , that it is not tied to certain phrases , and set-forms of expression , but the same sense is conveyed and setled in mens hearts by various expressions . But according to Mr. Rushworth , this renders Tradition's sense uncertain ; for he says * , 'T is impossible to put fully , and beyond all quarrel , the same sense in divers words . So that if men do not receive Tradition in a sensible , common , discreet way ( as Mr. Rushw. speaks concerning reading the Scriptures ) but will come to a rigorous and exact balancing of every particular phrase , word , and syllable , the sense of Tradition will be in the very same danger of uncertainty , and be liable to vanish we know not how . Dr. Holden * lays down these two Principles . First , That no truth can be conveyed down from man to man but by speech ; and speech cannot be but by words ; and all words are either equivocal in themselves , or liable to be differently understood by several persons . Secondly , That such is the frame of mans mind , that the same truths may be differently apprehended and understood by different persons . And if this be true , then Traditional Doctrines , if they be deliverd by speech and words , will be liable to uncertainties and ambiguities as to their sense , as well as Scripture . Mr. Cressy * tells us , That Reason and Experience shews , that differences will arise even about the Writings of the Fathers , and any thing but the Testimony of the present Church . If this be true , Tradition wholly falls into uncertainty . For if difference will arise about the Writings of the Fathers how they are to be interpreted , I suppose the Writings of Councils will be liable to the same inconvenience : And if the whole present Church cannot declare her sense of any Traditional Doctrine otherwise than by a Council , ( unless with the Jesuites they will epitomize the Church into the Pope ) , and the Decrees of a Council cannot be universally dispers'd ( or at least never use to be ) but by Writing : And if Differences will arise about the interpretation of that Writing , as well as any other ; then this present infallible Authority ( which Mr. Cressy magnifies so much for ending Differences ) leaves all Controversies arising about the sense of Tradition , as indeterminable as ever ; and they must for ever remain so , till general Councils have got the knack of penning their Decrees in words which will so infallibly express their meaning to the most captious Caviller , that no difference can possibly arise about the interpretation of them ; or else ( which will be more suitable to this wise Hypothesis ) till general Councils ( being convinc'd by Mr. S's Demonstrations ) shall come to understand themselves so well , as not to entrust their Decrees any more to the uncertain way of Writing , but for the future to communicate them to the World by the infallible way of oral Tradition . And to mention no more , Mr Knott * , ( who agrees with the other thus far , that the certain sense of Scripture is only to be had from the Church ) speaks to this purpose , That before we can be certain that this is the sense of such a Text , we must either be certain that this Text is capable of no other sense , as Figurative , Mystical , or Moral ; or if it be , we must have some certain and infallible means to know in which of them it is taken , which can be known only by revelation . If this be true , then by a fair parity of reason , before I can be certain that this is the sense of a Doctrinal Tradition delivered down to me , I must either be certain that the words , in which this Tradition was expressed when it was delivered to me , are capable of no other sense ( as Figurative , Mystical , or Moral ) besides that in which I understood them ; or if they be ( as certainly they will be ) capable of any of these other senses , then must I have some certain and infallible means whereby to know in which of these they are taken : And this can no more be known without a revelation , than which is the true sense of such a Text of Scripture . If it be said , that the sense of a Traditional Doctrine may by different expressions be still further and further explained to me till I come certainly to understand the sense of it ; this will not help the matter : For if these kind of cavils be good , that a man cannot be certain of the meaning of any words , till he can by an infallible argument demonstrate either that they cannot be taken , or that they are not taken in any other sense ; I say , if this cavil will hold , then every new expression whereby any one shall endeavor to explain any Traditional Doctrine , is liable to the same inconvenience which those words in which it was first delivered to me were liable to . From all which it is evident , that the Traditionary Church can be no more certain of the sense of their Traditional Doctrines , than Protestants may be of the sense of Scripture . § 12. These are his Exceptions contained in his second Discourse ; and of what force they are , hath been examined . But because he foresaw that it might be replied that these defects might in part be provided against by History , by the Providence of God , by Testimonies of Councils and Fathers , and by the sufficient clearness of Scripture as to Fundamentals ; He endeavors to shew that these signifie little to this purpose . First , Not History * ; because few are skilled in History , and they that are not , cannot safely rely upon those that are skill'd , unless they knew certainly that the Historians whom they rely on had secure grounds , and not bare hear-say for what they writ , and that they were not contradicted by others either extant , or perished . How much credit is to be given to uncontrolled History by the learned , and how much by the vulgar to men of skill , I have already shewn . I shall only add now , that if this reasoning be true , it is impossible for any man to be certain by History of any ancient matter of Fact , as namely that there were such persons as Julius Caesar , and William the Conqueror , and that they invaded and conquered England , because ( according to him ) we cannot know certainly that the Historians , who relate these things , and upon whose authority we rely , had secure grounds , and not bare hear-say for what they writ : And that they were not contradicted by others either extant or perished , is , I am sure , impossible for any man to know : For who can tell now what was contained in those Books which are perished ? So that if this be requisite , to make every Historical Relation credible , to know certainly that it was not contradicted by any of those Books which we do not know what they were , nor what was in them , we can have no certainty of any ancient Fact or History ; for who knows certainly that some Books that are perished did not contradict whatever is written in Books that are extant ? Nay , if this reasoning hold , we can have no certainty of any thing conveyed by oral Tradition . For what though the Priest tell me this was the Doctrine of Christ delivered to him ? unless I know that all others agree with him in this Tradition , I cannot rely upon his testimony : Nor then neither in Mr. Knott's * opinion , because the testimony of Preachers or Pastors is human and fallible ; unless ( according to his Jargon ) a conclusion , deduced from Premises , one of which is only probable , may be sufficient to bring our understanding to an infallible act of Faith , viz. if such a conclusion be taken Specificative ; whereas , if it be taken Reduplicative , as it is a conclusion , it can only beget a probable assent ; which is to say , that considered barely as a conclusion , and so far as in reason it can deserve assent , it is only probable ; but considered as it serves an Hypothesis , and is convenient to be believed with reason or without , so it is infallible . But to carry the supposition further , put the case , that the whole present Age assembled in a general Council , should declare that such a Point was delivered to them : yet ( according to Mr. S. ) we cannot safely rely upon this , unless we knew certainly , that those whom they relied on had secure grounds , and not bare hear-say for what they delivered , and that they were not contradicted within the space of 1500 years by any of those that are dead ; which it is impossible for any one now to know . But to shew how inconsistent he is with himself in these matters , I will present the Reader with a passage or two in another part of his Book ; where he endeavors to prove that men may safely rely on a general and uncontrolled Tradition . He tells us * , That the common course of human Conversation makes it a madness not to believe great multitudes of knowers , if no possible considerations can awaken in our reason a doubt that they conspire to deceive us . And a little after * , Nor can any , unless their brains rove wildly , or be unsetled even to the degree of madness , suspect deceit where such multitudes agree unanimously in a matter of Fact. Now if men be but supposed to write , as well as to speak , what they know , and to agree in their Writings about matter of Fact ; then it will be the same madness not to believe multitudes of Historians , where no possible consideration can awaken in our reason a doubt that they have conspired to deceive us ; and mens brains must rove wildly and be unsetled even to the degree of phrenzy , who suspect deceit where such multitudes unanimously agree in a matter of Fact. And this seems to me to be the great unhappiness of Mr. S's Demonstrations , that they proceed upon conrtadictory Principles ; so that in order to the demonstrating of thc uncertainty of Books and Writings , he must supopse all those Principles to be uncertain , which he takes to be self-evident and unquestionable when he is to demonstrate thc Infallibility of Oral Tradition . § . 13. Secondly , He tells us * , the Providence of God is no security against those contingencies the Scriptures are subject to ; because we cannot be certain of the Divine Providence or assistance to his Church , but by the Letter of Scripture ; therefore that must first be proved certain , before we mention the Church , or Gods assistance to her . As if we pretended there were any promise in Scripture that God would preserve the Letter of it entire and uncorrupted , or as if we could not otherwise be assured of it ; as if the light of natural Reason could not assure us of Gods Providence in general , and of his more especial care of those things which are of greatest concernment to us , such as this is , That a Book containing the method and the terms of Salvation should be preserved from any material corruption . He might as well have said , That without the Letter of Scripture we cannot know that there is a God , § . 14 , Thirdly , Nor ( says he * ) can Testimonies of Councils and Fathers be sufficient Interpreters of Scripture . We do not say they are . Our Principle is , That the Scripture doth sufficiently interpret it self , that is , is plain to all capacities , in things necessary to be believed and practised . And the general consent of Fathers in this doctrine of the sufficient plainness of Scripture ( which I shall afterwards shew ) is a good evidence against them . As for obscure and more doubtful Texts , we acknowledge the Comments of the Fathers to be a good help , but no certain Rule of interpretation . And that the Papists think so , as well as we , is plain ; inasmuch as they acknowledge the Fathers to differ among themselves in the interpretation of several Texts : And nothing is more familiar in all Popish Commentators , than to differ from the ancient Fathers about the sense of Scripture . And as for Councils . Dr. Holden , and Mr. Cressy ( as I said before ) do not think it necessary to believe that alwayes to be the true sense of Texts which Councils give of them , when they bring them to confirm Points of Faith. Nay , if any Controversie arise about the sense of any Text of Scripture , it is impossible ( according to Mr. Rushworth's Principles ) for a Council to decide either that , or any other Controversie : for he * makes it his business to prove , That Controversies cannot be decided by words ; and if this be so , then they cannot be decided at all , unless he can prove that they may be decided without words , and consequently that Councils may do their work best in the Quakers way , by silent Meetings . § . 15. Fourthly , Nor can ( says he * ) the clearness of Scripture as to Fundamentals , be any help against these defects . Why not ? First , Because a certain Catalogue of Fundamentals was never given and agreed to by sufficient Authority , and yet without this all goes to wrack . I hope not , so long as we are sure that God would make nothing necessary to be believed but what he hath made plain ; and so long as men do believe all things that are plainly revealed ( which is every ones fault if he do not ) men may do well enough without a precise Catalogue . But suppose we say , That the Articles of the Apostles Creed contain all necessary matters of simple belief , what hath Mr. S. to say against this ? I am sure the Roman Catechism , set forth by the Decree of the Council of Trent , says * as much as this comes to , viz. That the Apostles having received a command to preach the Gospel to every creature , thought fit to compose a form of Christian Faith , namely to this end , that they might all think and speak the same things , and that there might be no Schisms among those whom they had called to the unity of Faith , but that they might all be perfect in the same sense , and the same opinion : And this Profession of the Christian Faith and Hope , so fram'd by them , the Apostles called the Symbole or Creed . Now how this end , of bringing men to unity of Faith , and making them perfectly of the same sense and opinion , could probably be attained by means of the Creed , if it did not contain all necessary Points of simple belief , I can by no means understand . Besides , a certain catalogue of Fundamentals is as necessary for them as for us ; and when Mr. S , gives in his , ours is ready . Mr. Chillingworth had a great desire to have seen Mr. Knott's catalogue of Fundamentals , and challenged him to produce it , and offered him very fairly , that when ever he might with one hand receive his , he would with the other deliver his own : But Mr. Knott , though he still persisted in the same demand , could never be prevailed with to bring forth his own , but kept it for a secret to his dying day . But to put a final stop to this Canting demand of a Catalogue of Fundamentals ( which yet I perceive I shall never be able to do , because it is one of those expletive Topicks which Popish Writers , especialy those of the lowest Form , do generally make use of to help out a Book ) however to do what I can towards the stopping of it , I desire Mr. S. to answer the reasons whereby his Friend Dr. Holden * shews the unreasonableness of this demand , and likewise endeavours to prove that such a Catalogue would not only be useless and pernicious if it could be given , but that it is manifestly impossible to give such a precise Catalogue . Secondly , He asks * , Is it a Fundamental that Christ is God ? If so , Whether this be clearer in Scripture , than that Gad hath hands , feet , & c ? To which I answer by another question ; Is it clear that there are Figures in Scripture , and that many things are spoken after the manner of men , and by way of condescension and accomodation to our capacities ; and that custom and common sense teacheth men to distinguish between things figuratively and properly spoken ? If so , why cannot every one easily understand , that when the Scripture saith God hath hands and feet , and that Christ is the Vine and the Door , these are not to be taken properly , as we take this Proposition , that Christ is God , in which no man hath any reason to suspect a Figure ? When Mr. S. tells us , That he percheth upon the specifical nature of things , would it not offend him , if any one should be so silly as to conclude from hence that Mr. S. believed himself to be a Bird , and nature a Perch ? And yet not only the Sciptures , but all sober Writers are free from such forc't and phantastical Metaphors . I remember that Origen * taxeth Celsus his wilful Ignorance in finding fault with the Scriptures , for attributing to God humane affections , as anger , &c. and tells him , that any one who had a mind to understand the Scriptures , might easily see , that such expressions were accomodated to us , and accordingly to be understood ; and that no man , that will but compare these expressions with other passages of Scripture , need to fail of the true sense of them . But ( according to Mr. S. ) Origen was to blame to find fault with Celsus for thinking that the Scripture did really attribute humane affections to God ; for how could he think otherwise , when the most fundamental Point is not clearer in Scripture , than that God hath hands , feet , & c ? How could Origen in reason expect from Celsus ( though never so great a Philosopher ) that he should be able without the help of Oral Tradition , to distinguish between what is spoken literally , and what by a certain Scheme of speech ? Theodoret * tells us of one Audaeus , who held that God had a humane shape , and bodily members ; but he does not say that the reason of this Error was , because he made Scripture the Rule of his Faith , but expresly because he was a fool , and did foolishly understand those things which the Divine Scriptures speak by way of Condescension . So that although Mr. S. is pleas'd to make this wise Objection , yet it seems , ( according to Theodoret ) that men do not mistake such Texts , either for want of oral Tradition , or of sufficient clearness in the Scriptures , but for want of common reason and sense . And if Mr. S. know of any Rule of Faith that is secure from all possibility of being mistaken by foolish and perverse men , I would be glad to be acquainted with it . SECT . IV. § . 1. IN his next Discourse he endeavours to shew , that unlearned Persons cannot be justified as acting rationally in receiving the Scripture for the Word of God , and relying upon it as a certain Rule ; because they are not capable of satisfaction concerning these matters . But I have already shewn that they are , and shall not repeat the same over again . And whereas he says * , That several Professions all pretend to Scripture , and yet differ , and damn , and persecute one another about these differences ; the answer is easie : That they all pretend to Scripture , is an argument that they all acknowledg it to be the Word of God , and the Rule of Faith ; and that they are generally agreed about the sense of those plain Texts which contain the fundamental Points of Faith is evident , in that those several Professions acknowledg the Articles contained in the Apostles Creed to be sufficiently delivered in Scripture : And if any Professions differ about the meaning of plain Texts , that is not an argument that plain Texts are obsure , but that some men are perverse . And if those Professions damn and persecute one another about the meaning of obscure Texts , the Scripture is not in fault , but those that do so . § . 2. And whereas he pretends * , That the Scripture is not able to satisfie Sceptical dissenters , and Rational doubters , because nothing under a demonstration can satisfie such persons so well concerning the incorruptedness of Originals , the faithfulness of Translations , &c. but that searching and sincere Wits may still maintain their ground of suspence with A Might it not be otherwise ? This hath been answered already : partly , by shewing that the Scripture was not intended to satisfie Scepticks , and that a Demonstration is not sufficient to give satisfaction to them ; and partly , by shewing that Rational doubters may have as much satisfaction concerning those matters , as the nature of the things will bear ; and he is not a Rational doubter that desires more . But that he may see the unreasonableness of this Discourse , I shall briefly shew him , That all Mankind do in matters of this nature accept of such evidence as falls short of Demonstration ; and that his great Friends and Masters from whom he hath taken the main grounds of his Book ( though he manageth them to less advantage ) do frequently acknowledg , that it is reasonable for men to acquiesce in such assurance as falls short of Infallibility , and such evidence as is less than Demonstration . Do not mankind think themselves sufficiently assured of the Antiquity and Authors of several Books , for which they have not Demonstrative evidence ? Doth not Aristotle say , that things of a moral and civil nature , and matters of Fact done long ago , are incapable of Demonstration ; and that it is madness to expect it for things of this Nature ? Are there no passages in Books so plain , that a man may be sufficiently satisfied that this and no other is the certain sense of them ? If there be none , can any thing be spoken in plainer words than it may be written ? If it cannot , how can we be satisfied of the certain sense of any Doctrine Orally delivered ? And if we cannot be so satisfi'd , where 's the certainty of Oral Tradition ? But if Books may be written so plainly , as that we may be abundantly satisfied that this is the certain sense of such and such passages ; then we may reasonably rest satisfied in evidence for these matters short of Demonstration . For was ever the sense of any words so plain as that there did not remain this ground of suspence , that those words might be capable of another sense . Mr. Rushworth * says , That disputative Scholars do find means daily to explicate the plainest words of an Authour to a quitc different sense : And that the World might be furnish't with an advantagious instance of the possibility of this , Raynaudus * ( a Writer of their own ) hath made a wanton experiment upon the Apostles Creed , and by a sinister ( but possible ) interpretation , hath made every Article of it Heresie and Blasphemy , on purpose to shew that the plainest words are not free from ambiguity . But may be Mr. S. can out-do the Apostles , and can deliver the Christian Doctrine so clearly , that he can demonstrate it impossible for any man to put any other sense upon any of his words than that which he intended . I do not know what may be done , but if Mr. S. doth this , he must both mend his style , and his way of Demonstration . Is Mr. S. sufficiently assured that there is such a part of the World as America ? and can he demonstrate this to any man , without carrying him thither ? Can he shew by any necessary Argument , that it is naturally impossible that all the Relations concerning that place should be false ? When his Demonstrations have done their utmost , cannot * a searching and sincere Wit at least maintain his ground of suspence with A Might it not be otherwise ? and with an , Is it not possible that all men may be Lyars , or that a company of Travellers may have made use of their Priviledg to abuse the World by false Reports , and to put a Trick upon Mankind ? or that all those that pretend to go thither , and bring their Commodities from thence , may go to some other Parts of the World , and taking pleasure in abusing others , in the same manner as they have been imposed upon themselves , may say they have been at America ? Who can tell but all this may be so ? and yet I suppose , notwithstanding the possibility of this , no man in his Wits is now possessed with so incredible a folly as to doubt whether there be such a place . The case is the very same as to the certainty of an ancient Book and of the sense of plain expressions : We have no demonstration for these things , and we expect none ; because we know the things are not capable of it . We are not infallibly certain , that any Book is so ancient as it pretends to be , or that it was written by him whose name it bears , or that this is the sense of such and such passages in it , it is possible all this may be otherwise ; that is , it implies no contradiction : But we are very well assured that it is not ; nor hath any prudent man any just cause to make the least doubt of it . For a bare possibility that a thing may be , or not be , is no just cause of doubting whether a thing be or not . It is possible all the people in France may dye this night , but I hope the possibility of this doth not encline any man in the least to think it will be so . It is possible the Sun may not rise to morrow morning , and yet for all this I suppose that no man hath the least doubt but that it will. § . 3. But because this Principle , viz. That in matters of Religion a man cannot be reasonably satisfy'd with any thing less than that infallible assurance which is wrought by Demonstration , is the main Pillar of Mr. S's Book ; therefore , beside what hath been already said to shew the unreasonableness of this Principle , I shall take a little pains to manifest to him how much he is contradicted in this by the chief of his Brethren of the Tradition , viz. Mr. Rushworth , Dr. Holden , Mr. Cressy , and Mr. White , who besides Mr. S. and one I. B. are ( so far as I can learn ) all the publick Patrons that ever this Hypothesis of Oral Tradition hath had in the World ; and if Mr. White ( as I have reason to believe ) was the Authour of those Dialogues which pass under Rushworth's name , the number of them is yet less . Now if I can shew that this Principle ( esteem'd by Mr. S. so fundamental to this Hypothesis ) is plainly contradicted by the principal Assertors of Oral Tradstion , I shall hereby gain one of these two things ; either that these great Patrons of Oral Tradition were ignorant of the true foundation of their own Hythesis , or that this Principle is not necessary for the support of it . Not that I would be so understood as if I did deny that these very Persons do sometimes speak very big words of the necessity of Infallibility : But if it be their pleasure to contradict themselves , as I have no reason to be displeased , so neither to be concerned for it ; but shall leave it to Mr. S. to reconcile them first to themselves , and then ( if he pleases ) afterwards to himself . § . 4. I begin with Mr. Rushworth of immortal memory , for that noble attempt of his to perswade the World that notwithstanding he was the first Inventer of this Hypothesis of Oral Tradition , yet he could prove that the Church had in all Ages owned it , and proceeded upon it as her only Rule of Faith. He in his third Dialogue , when his Nephew objects to him , That perhaps a Protestant would say that all his foregoing Discourse was but probability and and likelyhood , and therefore to hazard a mans Estate upon Peradventures , were something hard , and not very rationally done : Replies thus to him , What security do your Merchants , your States-men , your Souldiers , those that go to Law , nay , even those that Till your grounds and work for their livings , what security , I say , do all these go upon ? Is it greater than the security which these grounds afford ? surely no. And yet no man esteems them foolish . All humane Affairs are hazardous , and have some adventure in them . And therefore who requires evident certainty only in matters of Religion , discovers in himself a less mind to the Goods promised in the next life , than to these which he seeks here in this World upon weaker assurance . Howsoever , the greatest evidence that can be to him that is not capable of convincing Demonstrations ( which the greatest part of Mankind fall short of ) is but conjectural . So that ( according to Mr. Rushworth ) it is not reason and discretion , but want of love to God and Religion , which makes men require greater evidence for matters of Religion , than for Humane Affairs , which yet ( he tells us ) are hazardous , and have some adventure in them , and consequently are not capable of Demonstration . Besides , if demonstrative evidence be an essential Property of the Rule of Faith ( as Mr. S. affirms ) then this Rule cannot ( according to Mr. Rushworth ) be of any use to the greatest part of Mankind , because they are not capable of convincing Demonstrations . Again , Do but consider ( says he * ) how unequal and unjust a condition it is , that the claim of the present Church shall not be heard , unless she can confute all the Peradventures that Wit may invent , and solve all the Arguments which the infinite variety of time , place , and occasions may have given way unto ; and then you will see how unreasonable an Adversary he is , who will not be content with any satisfaction , but such as mans nature scarcely affords . And is it not equally unjust in Mr. S. not to let Scripture's claim be heard , unless we can confute every Peradventure [ and might it not be otherwise ] that Wit may invent ? See then how unreasonable an Adversary Mr. S. is , who will not be content with any satisfaction , but such as ( according to Mr. Rushworth ) mans nature scarcely affords . Dr. Holden ( I confess ) states the matter somewhat cautiously , when he tells us * , That it shall suffice for present to determine , that the Wisdom of the Creator hath afforded us such an assurance , especially of Truths necessary to Salvation , as is sutable to our nature , and best fitted for the safe conduct of our lives in Moral and Religious Affairs : But if we interpret these general expressions by the passages I before cited out of Mr. Rushworth ( as in reason we may , since the Doctor is beholding to him for the best part of his Book ) then nothing can make more against Mr. S's Principle . § . 5. Mr. Cressy in his Exomologesis * says , That such Teachers , as approached nearest to the fountain of Truth , Christ and his Apostles , had means of informing themselves in Apostolical Tradition incomparably beyond us . Mr. S. may do well to shew what those means were which are so incomparably beyond his Infallibility and Demonstration . The same Author * does very much applaud Stapleton's determination of the question concerning the Churches Infallibility , which is as follows , That the Church does not expect to be taught by God immediately by new Revelations , but makes use of several means , &c. as being govern'd not by Apostles , &c. but by ordinary Pastors and Teachers . That these Pastors in making use of these several means of Decision , proceed not as the Apostles did , with a peculiar infallible direction of the Holy Spirit , but with a prudential collection not always necessary . That to the Apostles who were the first Masters of Evangelical Faith , and founders of the Church , such an infallible certitude of means was necessary : not so now to the Church , &c. If this be true , That an infallible certitude of means is not now necessary to the Church , and that her Pastors do now in deciding matters of Faith proceed only with a prudent collection not always necessary ; then it should seem that a searching Wit may maintain his ground of suspence , even against their Church also , with A Might it not be otherwise ? Again , Mr. Cressy * tells us , That truth and our obligation to believe it , is in an higher degree in Scripture , than in the Decisions of the Church , as Bellarmine acknowledges : which is to say , that we may have greater assurance of the truth of Doctrines contained in the Scriptures , than we can have of any Doctrine from the determination of the Church . But if we have the greatest assurance that can be of Truths deliver'd to us by the Church , as Mr. S. affirms , then I would fain learn of him what that greater degree of assurance is which Stapleton speaks of , and whether it be greater than the greatest ? Not to insist upon that ( which yet I cannot but by the way take notice of ) that Mr. Cressy , by his approbation of this determination of Bellarmine's , doth advance the Scripture above the Church as to one of the most essential Properties of the Rule of Faith , viz. the certainty of it . But the most eminent Testimony to my purpose in Mr. Cressy , is that famous passage * ( which hath given so much offence to several of his own Church ) wherein he acknowledges the unfortunateness ( to him ) of the word Infallibility , and tells us , That he could find no such word in any Council ; That no necessity appear'd to him that either he or any other Protestant should ever have heard that word nam'd , and much less press'd with so much earnestness as of late it has generally been in Disputations and Books of Controversie ; and that Mr. Chillingworth combats this word with too to great success , insomuch that if this word were once forgotten or but laid by , Mr. Chillingworth's Arguments would lose the greatest part of their strength ; and that if this word were confin'd to the Schools where it was bred , there would be still no inconvenience : And that since by manifest experience the English Protetestants think themselves so secure , when they have leave to stand or fall by that word , and in very deed have so much to say for themselves when they are pressed unnecessarily with it : Since likewise it is a word capable of so high a sense that we cannot devise one more full and proper to attribute to God himself , &c. Since all this is so , he thinks he cannot be blamed , if such Reasons move him to wish that the Protestants may never be invited to combat the Authority of the Church under that Notion . A very ingenuous acknowledgment , and as cross to Mr. S's Principle as any thing can be . But the word Infallibility was not so unfortunate to Mr. Cressy , as is his untoward Explication of the fore-cited passage , in his Appendix which he afterwards published chiefly by way of Vindication of himself against the Learned Author of the Preface to my Lord Falkland's Discourse of Infallibility . There he * tells us , That there are several degrees of Infallibility . And that we may know what degree of Infallibility he thinks necessary to be attributed to the Church , this following passage will inform us : Methinks ( says he ) if God have furnished his divine and supernatural Truth , with evidence equal to this , that the Sun will shine to morrow , or that there will be a Spring and Harvest next year , we are infinitely obliged to bless his Providence , and justly condemned , if we refuse to believe the least of such Truths , as shewing less affection to save our souls , than the dull Plow-men to sow their Corn , who certainly have far less evidence for their Harvest , than Catholiques for their Faith ; and yet they insist not peevishly upon every capricious Objection , nor exact an infallible security of a plentiful reaping next Summer , but notwithstanding all difficulties and contingencies proceed chearfully in their painful Husbandry . So that according to this Discourse , whatever degree of assurance the Church hath , or can give to those who rely upon her , it is plain that no further degree is necessary than what the Husbandman , when he sows , hath of a plentiful Harvest ; and that men are justly condemned if they refuse to believe the least truth upon such security , which yet ( by his own acknowledgment ) is liable to Contingencies : Nay further , that men are not reasonable , but peevish , in exacting infallible security , and insisting upon every capricious Objection , such as is Mr. S's Might it not be otherwise ? Now as to this degree of Assurance , or ( as he calls it ) Infallibility , I cannot but grant what he says of it to be most true , viz. That in a severe acception of the word it is not rigorously infallible , that is ( as he explains it ) it is not absolutely impossible , nor does it imply a flat contradiction that the thing whereof we are so assured may be otherwise : But then I utterly deny that according to any true acception of this word , such a degree of Assurance as he speaks of can be called Infallibility ; and withall I affirm , That none of those several degrees of Infallibility which he mentions , excepting that only which imports an absolute impossibility , can with any tolerable propriety of speech or regard to the true meaning and use of the word , have the name of Infallibility given to them . For Infallibility can signifie nothing else but an utter impossibility that one should be deceived in that matter as to which he is supposed to be infallible ; and to say such a thing is impossible , is to say that the existence of it implies a flat contradiction . So that whosoever asserts degrees of Infallibility , is obliged to shew that there are degrees of absolute impossibilities , and of perfect contradictions ; and he had need of a very sharp and piercing wit that is to find out degrees where there neither are nor can be any . Indeed , in respect of the objects of knowledge , it is easie to conceive how Infallibility may be extended to more objects or fewer ; but in respect of the degree of assurance ( of which Mr. Cressy speaks ) it is altogether unimaginable how any one can be more or less out of all possibility of being deceived in those things wherein he is supposed to be infallible ; for no one can be more removed from the possibility of being deceived , than he that is out of all possibility of being deceived , and whosoever is less than this , is not infallible ; because he only is so , who is out of all possibility of being deceived in those matters wherein he is supposed to be infallible . So that Mr. Cressy's lower degrees of Infallibility are no degrees of that assurance which may properly be called infallible ( for that can have no degrees ) but of that assurance which is less than infallible . And he needed not have raised all this dust about the degrees of Infallibility , had it not been that by the means of such a cloud he might make the more convenient escape out of that strait he was in between the clamours of his own Church , and the advantage which his Adversaries made of his free and open discourse against Infallibility . For any one that carefully reads his Book , will find that he understands nothing by the Infallibility of the Church , but an Authority of obliging all Christians to submit to her Decisions , which is no more but what every Supreme Civil Judg hath in Civil matters , viz. a power to determine those Controversies that lie before him as well as he can or will , and when that is done every one is bound to submit to such determinations ; but yet for all this , no man ever dream't a Supreme Civil Judg to be infallible more than another man. I do not now dispute the extent of the Churches Authority ; but if she have no other Infallibility but what a full Authority of decision does suppose , I am sure she hath none at all . Before I leave Mr. Cressy , I cannot but take notice how unfortunate and disingenuous he is in explaining the meaning of these words of his own , viz. [ Against this word of Infallibility Mr. Chillingworth 's Book especially combats , and this with too too great success ] which in his Appendix * he interprets thus , Success , I mean , not against the Church , but against his own Soul , and the Souls of his Fellow-English Protestants , &c. As if one that had wished well to Caesar should have said , That Pompey had fought against him with too too great success ; and being afterwards challenged by Caesar's Party , as having said that Pompey had Conquered Caesar , he should explain himself thus , Success , I mean , not against Caesar , but against his own life , and the lives of his followers . Can any thing be finer than for a man to say that by Pompey's success in fighting against Caesar , he means that Caesar had beaten Pompey ? which is no more than if one should take the liberty to interpret white by black . § . 6. Lastly , Mr. White doth most expresly contradict this Principle of Mr. S's in these following passages . In his Preface to Mr. Rushworth he says , That such a certainty as makes the cause always work the same effect , though it take not away the absolute possibility of working otherwise , ought absolutely to be reckoned in the degree of true certainty ; and that those Authors are mistaken who undervalue it . So that it seems Mr. S. is mistaken in affirming that a man cannot be certain of any thing so long as there is any possibility that it may be otherwise . In his Answer to my Lord Falkland , he says * , That in Moral matters , and such as are subject to humane action , we must expect such assurance as humane actions bear . If for the government of your spiritual life you have as much as for the management of your natural and civil life , what can you expect more ? Two or three witnesses of men beyond exception will cast a man out of not only his lands , but life and all . He that among Merchants will not adventure , where there is a Hundred to one of gaining , will be accounted a silly Factor . And among Souldiers , he that will fear danger where but one of a Hundred is slain , shall not escape the stain of Cowardize . What then shall we expect in Religion , but to see a main advantage on the one side which we may rest our selves on ? and for the rest , remember we are men subject to chance and mutability , and thank God he hath given us that assurance in a supernatural way , which we are contented withall in our civil ventures and possessions , which nevertheless God knoweth we often love better , and would hazard less than the unknown good of the life to come . Again * , If God Almighty hath in all sorts and manners provided his Church that she may enlighten every man in his way , that goeth the way of a man , then let every man consider which is the sit way for himself , and what in other matters of that way he accounteth evidence . And if there be no interest in his Soul to make him loth to believe , what in another matter of the like nature he doth not stick at , or heavy to practise what he sees clearly enough , I fear not his choice . Once more ; directing a man in his search after rational satisfaction in matters of Religion , he hath this passage ; * Besides this , he must have this care ; that he seek what the nature of the subject can yield , and not as those Physitians , who when they have promised no less than Immortality , can at last only reach to some conservation of health or youth in some small degree : So I could wish the Author to well assure himself first , that there is possible an Infallibility , before he be too earnest to be contented with nothing less ; for what if humane nature should not be capable of so great a good ? Would he therefore think it fitting to live without any Religion , because he could not get such a one as himself desired , though with more than a mans wish ? Were it not rational to see , whether among Religions some one have not such notable advantages over the rest , as in reason it might seem humane nature might be contented withall ? Let him cast his account with the dearest things he hath , his own or friends lives , his estate , his hope of posterity , and see upon what terms of advantage he is ready to venture all these ; and then return to Religion , and see whether , if he do not venture his soul upon the like , it be truly reason , or some other not confessed motive , which withdraws him . For my own part , as I doubt not of an Infallibility , so I doubt not but setting that aside , there be those Excellencies found on the Catholick party , which may force a man to prefer it , and to venture all he hath upon it , before all other Religions and Sects in the World. Why then may not one who after long searching findeth no Infallibility , rest himself on the like , supposing mans nature affords no better ? Are not these fair Concessions , which the evidence and force of Truth have extorted from these Authors ? So that it seems that that which Mr. S. calls * a civil piece of Atheistry , is advanced in most express words by his best Friends , and therefore I hope he will ( as he threatens me ) be smart with them in opposition to so damnable and fundamental an Error . And whenever he attempts this , I would entreat him to remember that he hath these two things to prove . First , That no evidence , but demonstration , can give a man sufficient assurance of any thing . Secondly , That a bare possibility that a thing may be otherwise , is a rational cause of doubting , and a wise ground of suspense ; which when he hath proved , I shall not grudge him his Infallibility . SECT . V. § . 1. THE last part of this Third Discourse endeavours to shew that the Scripture is not convictive of the most obstinate and acute Adversaries . As for the obstinate , he knows my mind already . Let us see why the most acute Adversary may not be convinced by Scripture . Because as he objects * , First , We cannot be certain that this Book is Gods Word , because of the many strange Absurdities and Heresies in the open letter as it lies , as that God hath hands and feet , &c. and because of the contradictions in it : To which I have already returned an answer . Secondly , Because ( as he saith * ) we cannot be certain of the Truth of the letter in any particular Text , that it was not foisted in , or some way altered in its significativeness ; and if it be a negative proposition , that the particle [ not ] was not inserted , if affirmative , not left out . And if we pretend to be certain of this , he demands * our demonstration for it . But how unreasonable this demand is , I hope I have sufficiently shewn . And to shew it yet further , I ask him , How their Church knows , that the particle [ not ] was not left out of any Text in which it is now found in their Copies ? I know he hath a ready answer , viz. by Oral Tradition . But this ( according to him * ) only reaches to Scriptures letter so far as it is coincident with the main body of Christian Doctrine ; concerning the rest of Scripture it is impossible ( according to his own principles ) that they should have any security that the particle [ not ] was not unduly inserted , or left out by the Transcribers . Nay , as to those Texts of Scripture which fall in with the main body of Christian Doctrine , I demand his demonstration that the particle [ not ] was not unduly inserted , or left out , not only in those Texts , but also in the Oral Tradition of the Doctrines coincident with the sense of those Texts . If he say , It was impossible any Age should conspire to leave out or insert the particle [ not ] in the Oral Tradition ; so say I it was that they should conspire to leave it out of the written Text : But then I differ from him thus far , That I do not think this naturally impossible , so as that it can rigorously be demonstrated , but only morally impossible , so that no body hath any reason to doubt of it ; which to a prudent man is as good as a demonstration . Pyrrho himself never advanced any Principle of Scepticism beyond this , viz. That men ought to question the credit of all Books , concerning which they cannot demonstrate as to every sentence in them , that the particle [ not ] was not inserted ( if it be affirmative ) or left out ( if it be negative ) . If so much be required to free a man from reasonable doubting concerning a Book , how happy are they that have attained to Infallibility ? What he saith concerning the Variae Lectiones * of Scripture , hath already had a sufficient answer . § . 2. In his Fourth Discourse , he endeavours to shew * , That the Scripture is not certain in it self , and consequently not ascertained to us . First , Not certain , materially considered * as consisting of such and such Characters , because Books are liable to be burnt , torn blotted , worn out . We grant , it is not impossible but that any , or all the Books in the World may be burnt : But then we say likewise , That a Book so universally dispersed may easily be preserved ; though we have no assurance that God will preserve it , in case all men should be so foolish or so careless as to endeavour or suffer the abolition of it . But it seems the Scriptures cannot be a Rule of Faith if they be liable to any external accidents . And this ( he tells us * ) Though it may seem a remote and impertinent Exception , yet to one who considers the wise dispositions of Divine Providence , it will deserve a deep consideration ; because the salvation of Mankind being the end of Gods making nature , the means to it should be more setled , strong , and unalterable , than any other piece of nature whatever . But , notwithstanding this wise reason , this Exception still seems to me both remote and impertinent . For if this which he calls a Reason be a Truth , it will from thence necessarily follow , not only that the Doctrine of Christ must be conveyed by such a means as is more unalterable than the course of nature ; but also by a clear parity of Reason , that all the means of our salvation do operate towards the accomplishing of their end with greater certainty than the fire burns , or the Sun shines ; which they can never do , unless they operate more necessarily than any natural causes ; now how they can do so upon voluntary Agents , I desire Mr. S. to inform me . § . 3. He proceeds by a long Harangue to shew * , That not only these material Characters in themselves are corruptible , but in complexion with the causes , actually laid in the World to preserve them entire ; because either those causes are material , and then they are also liable to continual alterations ; or spiritual , that is , the minds of men , and from these we may with good reason hope for a greater degree of constancy , than from any other piece of nature ; which by the way , is a very strange Paradox , that the actions of voluntary Agents have a greater certainty and constancy in them , than those of natural Agents ; of which the fall of Angels and Men , compared with the continuance of the Sun and Stars in their first state , is a very good evidence . § . 4. But he adds a Caution * , That they are perfectly unalterable from their nature , and unerrable , if due circumstances be observed , that is , if due proposals be made to beget certain knowledg , and due care used to attend to such proposals . But who can warrant , That due proposals will always be made to men , and due care used by them ? If these be uncertain , where 's the constancy and unerrableness he talks so much of ? So that notwithstanding the constancy of this spiritual cause ( the mind of man ) of preserving Scriptures entire , yet in order to this ( as he tells * us ) So many actions are to be done , which are compounded and made up of an innumerable multitude of several particularities to be observed , every of which may be mistaken apart , each being a distinct little action in its single self , such as is the transcribing of a whole Book , consisting of such Myriads of words , single letters , and tittles or stops ; and the several actions of writing over each of these so short and cursory , that it prevents diligence , and exceeds humane care , to keep awake and apply distinct attentions to every of these distinct actions . Mr. Rushworth * much outdoes Mr. S. in these minute Cavils , for he tells us , That supposing an Original Copy of Christs words , written by one of the Evangelists in the same language , let him have set down every word and syllable , yet men conversant in noting the changes of meanings in words will tell us , that divers accents in the pronunciation of them , the turning of the speakers head or body this way or that way , &c. may so change the sense of the words , that they will seem quite different in writing from what they were in speaking . I hope that Oral and Practical Tradition hath been careful to preserve all these circumstances , and hath deliver'd down Christ's Doctrine with all the right Traditionary Accents , Nods , and Gestures necessary for the understanding of it ; otherwise the omission of these may have so altered the sense of it , that it may be now quite different from what it was at first . But to answer Mr. S. We do not pretend to be assured , that it is naturally impossible that the Scriptures should have been corrupted or changed , but only to be sufficiently assured that they have not received any material alteration , from as good Arguments as the nature of the Subject will bear . But if his Reason had not been very short and cursory , he might easily have reflected , that Oral Tradition is equally liable to all these contingencies . For it doth as much prevent diligence , and exceed humane care , to keep awake and apply distinct attentions to the distinct actions of speaking , as of writing . And I hope he will not deny , that a Doctrine Orally delivered , consists of words , and letters , and accents , and stops , as well as a Doctrine written ; and that the several actions of speaking , are as short and cursory as of writing . § . 5. Secondly , He tells us * , Scripture formally considered as to its significativeness , is also uncertain . First , * Because of the uncertainty of the letter . This is already answered . Secondly , * Because the certain sense of it is not to be arrived to by the Vulgar , who are destitute of Languages and Arts. True , where men are not permitted to have the Scriptures in their own Language , and understand no other : But where they are allowed the Scriptures translated into their own Language they may understand them , all necessary points of Faith and Practice being sufficiently plain in any Translation of the Bible that I know of : And that * eminent Wits cannot agree about the sense of Texts which concern the main points of Faith , hath been spoken to already . § . 6. As for the Reverence he pretends to Scripture in the conclusion of his Fourth Discourse , he might have spared that , after all the raillery and rudeness he hath used against it . It is easie to conjecture , both from his principles and his uncivil expressions concerning them , what his esteem is of those Sacred Oracles . Probably it was requisite in prudence to cast in a few good words concerning the Scriptures , for the sake of the more tender and squeamish Novices of their Religion , or ( as Mr. Rushworth's Nephew * says frankly and openly ) for the satisfaction of indifferent men , that have been brought up in this verbal and apparent respect of the Scripture , who it seems are not yet attained to that degree of Catholick Piety and Fortitude as to endure patiently that the Word of God should be reviled or slighted . Besides that , in reference to those whom they hope hereafter to convert ( who might be too much alienated from their Religion , if he had expressed nothing but contempt towards a Book , which Protestants , and Christians in all Ages till the very dregs of Popery , have been bred up to a high veneration of ) , it was not much amiss to pass this formal complement upon the Bible ; which the wise of his own Religion will easily understand , and may serve to catch the rest . But let him not deceive himself , God is not mocked . SECT . VI. § . 1. SEcondly , He comes to shew * , That the Properties of a Rule of Faith belong to Oral Tradition . And , First , He gives a tedious explication of the nature of this Oral Practical Tradition , which amounts to this ; That as in reference to the civil Education of Children , they are taught their own and others names , to write , and read , and exercise their Trades : So in reference to Religion , the Children of Christians first hear sounds , afterwards by degrees get dim notions of God , Christ , Saviour , Heaven , Hell , Vertue , Vice , and by degrees practise what they have heard ; they are shewn to say Grace , and their Prayers , to hold up their hands , or perhaps eyes , and to kneel , and other postures . Afterwards they are acquainted with the Creed , Ten Commandments , and Sacraments , some common Forms of Prayer , and other practises of Christianity , and are directed to order their lives accordingly , and are guided in all this by the actions and carriage of the elder faithful ; and this goes on by insensible degrees , not by leaps , from a Hundred years to a Hundred , but from Month to Month , and even less . If this be all that Tradition doth , this is nothing but what is done among Protestants , and that with greater advantage ; because we always teach Children to say their Prayers in a known Tongue so as they may understand them . And we also teach them the Creed , and Ten Commandments , and the Sacraments , so many as Christ hath instituted and no more . So that if this be so infallible a way of conveying the Doctrine of Christianity , we have it among us . And we do over and besides , instruct them in the Scriptures , which are the authentick Instrument whereby Christ's Doctrine is conveyed to us . But then we do not suppose ( as his Hypothesis necessarily enforceth him to do ) that the Christian Doctrine is equally taught and learned by all ; but by some more , by others less perfectly , according to the different abilities and diligence of Parents and Teachers , and the various capacities and dispositions of Children ; whereas his Hypothesis falls , if all or at least the generality of Parents do not instruct their Children with the like exactness , and if the generality of Children do not receive this Doctrine in the same perfection that it is delivered . For if it be taught or received with any variation , it must necessarily be so conveyed , and these variations will grow daily . I had thought he would have told us , how all Parents do teach their Children the whole Body of Christ's Doctrine , and explain to them every part of it in a Hundred or a Thousand several expressions signifying the same sense , and not have instanced in two Set-forms , such as the Creed , and Ten Commandments ; for according to Mr. White * , That cannot be a Tradition , which is delivered in set-words . § . 2. Having thus explained Oral Tradition , he comes to shew that the Properties of a Rule of Faith agree to it . I have already shewed that the true Properties of a Rule of Faith are but two , viz. That it be plain and intelligible , and that it be sufficiently certain . The first of these , that Oral Tradition may deliver a Doctrine plainly and intelligibly , I grant him . All the difficulty is about the second Property , whether we have sufficient assurance that the Doctrine delivered down by Oral Tradition hath received no coruption or change in its conveyance ? And all that he pretends to prove in this Discourse is , That if this Rule hath been followed and kept to all along , the Christian Doctrine neither hath , nor can have received any change ; that is , if the next Age after the Apostles did truly , and without any alteration deliver the Christian Doctrine to their immediate Successors , and they to theirs , and so on , then upon this supposition the Doctrine of the present Traditionary Church must be the very same with that which was delivered to the Apostles . All this is readily granted to him . But that this Rule hath always been followed , nay , that it is impossible there should have been any deviation from it ( as he pretends ) this we deny , not only as untrue , but as one of the most absurd Propositions that ever yet pretended to demonstrative evidence . THE RULE of FAITH . PART III. In which Mr. S's Demonstrations and Corollaries are examined . SECT . I. § . 1. BEfore I come to speak particularly to his Demonstrations , I shall premise these two Considerations . First , That ( according to the Principles of the Patrons of Tradition ) no man can by his private Reason certainly find out the true Rule of Faith. Secondly , That ( according to Mr. S. ) the way of Demonstration is no certain way to find out the Rule of Faith. If either of these be made out , his Demonstrations lose all their force . If the first be made good , then he cannot demonstrate the Infallibility of Tradition , nor consequently that that is the Rule of Faith. If the second , then the way of Demonstration which he pretends to take signifies nothing . § . 2. First , No man can ( according to the principles of the Patrons of Tradition ) by his private Reason certainly find out what is the Rule of Faith. Suppose a Heathen to be desirous to inform himself of the Christian Faith ; in order to which he is inquisitive after some Rule by which he may take a measure of it , and come certainly to know what it is : He enquires of Christians what their Rule is , and finds them divided about it , some saying that the Scriptures , others that Oral Tradition is the Rule . In this case it is not possible ( without a Revelation ) for this man to find out the Rule of Faith , but by his own private Reason examining and weighing the arguments and pretences of both sides . And when he hath done this , unless he can by his Reason demonstrate that the one is a certain and infallible Rule , and the other not so , he hath not ( according to Mr. S. ) found out the Rule of Faith. But Reason can never do this , according to Mr. S. For speaking of demonstrating the certainty of Tradition , he tells us * , That Tradition hath for its Basis mans nature not according to his Intellectuals , which do but darkly grope in the pursuit of Science , &c. And again * , speaking how Reason brings men to the Rule of Faith , he uses this comparison , She is like a dim-sighted man , who used his Reason to find a trusty Friend to lead him in the twilight , and then relied on his guidance rationally without using his own Reason at all about the Way it self . So that ( according to him ) the certainty of Tradition cannot be founded on Demonstration , because it is not founded in the intellectual part of man , which only can demonstrate . Besides , if it were founded in the intellectual part , yet that can never be able to demonstrate the certainty of Tradition , because that faculty which is dim-sighted , and does but grope darkly in the pursuit of Science , is uncapable of framing Demonstrations . Nor can any man understand how dim-sighted reason should see clearly to choose its guide , any more than its way , especially if it be considered what a pretty Contradiction it is , to say that Reason as it is dim-sighted can see clearly . But Mr. Cressy is not contented to call every mans Reason dim-sighted , he ventures a step further , and calls it hood-winkt and blind : For he tells us * , That private Reason is apparently a most fallible guide ; and he pities * my Lord Falkland's case , because in the search of the true Religion he did betake himself to the casual conduct of blind , humane , natural Reason , which afterwards he calls * a guide that two persons cannot possibly follow together , because no two persons ( that ever followed any other guide beside Authority ) did or could think all things to be reasonable that all others thought so ; and by consequence such a guide that as long as he continues in that office , there cannot possibly be any Church any where : which ( says he ) is an infallible eviction that this is an imaginary seducing guide , since it is impossible that that should be a guide appointed for any Christian , which neither Christ nor his Apostles , nor any of their Followers ever mentioned , yea , which formally destroys one of our twelve Articles of the Apostles Creed , viz. I believe the Holy Catholick Church . Thus he does by Reason clearly and infallibly evince , that Reason cannot be otherwise than a most blind and fallible guide . This it is to talk of things when a man looks only upon one side of them ; as if because Reason has a blind side and is uncertain in some things , therefore we ought to conclude her universally blind and uncertain in every thing ; and as if because all men cannot think all things reasonable which any one man thinks to be so , therefore it is to be doubted whether those common Principles of Reason be true which Mankind are generally agreed in . And that Mr. Cressy speaks here of the use of our private Reason in the finding out of our Rule , is clear from what he says in the next Section , viz. That this hood-wink't guide ( enquiring into Scripture , and searching after Tradition ) may possibly stumble upon the way to Vnity and Truth , that is , the true Catholick Church . If this be true , why does Mr. S. pretend that he can by Reason demonstrate the Infallibility of Tradition , and by this hood-wink't guide lead men to the true Rule of Faith ? And what a pitiful encouragement would this be to an inquisitive Philosopher ( who knowing no other guide but his Reason , whereby to find out whether Scripture or Tradition be the true Rule ) to tell him that by the help of this hood-wink't guide he might possibly stumble upon the right ? A man may justly stand amazed at the inconsistency of these mens Discourses and Principles . In one mood they are all for Demonstration , and for convincing men in the way of perfect Science which is the true Rule of Faith : But then again when another fit takes them , there 's no such thing as Science , humane Reason grows all on the sudden dim-sighted , and at the next word is struck stark blind ; and then the very utmost that it can do towards the bringing of an unprejudiced and inquisitive person to the true Rule of Faith , is to leave him in a possibility of stumbling upon it ; but if he be a Heretick that makes use of private Reason for his guide , then * it is impossible but that he with his blind guide should fall into the Pit. I cannot for my part imagine how they can reconcile the blindness of humane Reason with all that noise which they make about Science and Demonstration ; but this I must confess that these kind of Discourses which I meet with in Mr. S. and Mr. Cressy , are very proper Arguments to perswade a man of the blindness of humane Reason . And indeed there is one passage in Mr. Cressy , which gives me very great satisfaction concerning these matters , where he tells us * , That the Wit and Judgment of Catholicks is to renounce their own Judgment , and depose their own Wit. Now he that professes to have done this may write Contradictions , and no body ought to challenge him for it . However , it is a very ingenuous acknowledgment , that when he forsook our Church and turned Papist , he laid aside his Judgment and Wit ; which is just such an heroick act of Judgment , as if a man in a bravery to shew his liberty should sell himself for a slave . I am glad to understand from an experienced Person , what charges a man must be at when he turns Roman-Catholique , namely , that whoever will embrace that Religion must forfeit his Reason . § . 3. Secondly , The way of Demonstration is ( according to Mr. S. ) no certain way to find out the Rule of Faith. In his 4th Appendix * against my Lord of Down , one of the Eight Mines ( as he calls them ) which he lays to blow up my Lords Dissuasive against Popery , is this , That the method he takes in dissuading cannot be held in reason to have power to dissuade , unless it be proper to that effect , that is , not common to that effect and a contrary one . Now , that being most evidently no method or way to such an effect which many follow and take , yet arrive not at that effect , 't is plain to common sense , that my Lord of Down miscalls his Book A Dissuasive , and that it can have in it no power of moving the understanding one way or other , unless he can first vouch some particularity in the method he takes , above what 's in others in which we experience miscarriage , &c. If this be true , then his method of Demonstration is no way to make men certain of what he pretends to demonstrate , because that is most evidently no way to an effect which many follow and take , yet arrive not at that effect ; so that 't is plain to common sense that Mr. S's Demonstrations can have in them no power of moving the understanding one way or other , unless he can vouch some particularity in the Demonstrations he pretends to bring , above what is in other pretended Demonstrations in which we experience miscarriage . Do not Thomas , and Scotus ( as Mr. White tells us * ) all along pretend to demonstrate ? and yet it is generally believed that ( at least where they contradict one another ) one of them failed in his Demonstrations . Did not Mr. Charles Thynne pretend to have demonstrated that a man at one jump might leap from London to Rome ? and yet I do not think any one was ever satisfy'd with his Demonstration . And Mr. S. knows one in the World ( whom I will not name , because he hath since ingenuously acknowledged his Errour ) who thought he had demonstrated the Quadrature of the Circle , and was so confident of it as to venture the reputation of his Demonstrations in Divinity upon it , and some of those Divinity Demonstrations were the very same with Mr. S's . Since therefore the World hath experienced so much miscarriage in the way of Demonstration , before Mr. S's Demonstrations can be allowed to signifie any thing , he must ( according to his own Law ) vouch some particularity in his way and method of Demonstration above what is in other mens . He hath not any where ( that I remember ) told us what that particularity is , wherein his way of Demonstration is above other mens : Nor can I upon the most diligent search find any peculiar advantage that his Way has more than theirs above mentioned ; unless this be one that he pretends to demonstrate a self-evident Principle , and herein I think he hath plainly the advantage of Mr. Charles Thynne ; and unless this may be counted another advantage , that he has so extraordinary a confidence and conceit of his own Demonstrations ; and in this particular , I must acknowledge that he clearly excels all that have gone before him : In all other things , his way of Demonstration is but like his neighbours . SECT . II. § . 1. I Come now to examine his Demonstrations of this Self-evident Principle ( as he often calls it ) that Oral Tradition is a certain and infallible way of conveying Christs Doctrine from one Age to another , without any corruption or change ; which is to say , that it is impossible but that this Rule should always have been kept to . That this is not a Self-evident Principle , needs no other evidence than that he goes about to demonstrate it . But yet , notwithstanding this , I think he hath as much reason to call this a Self-evident Principle , as to call his proofs of it Demonstrations . § . 2. In order to his Demonstration a Priori , he lays * these four grounds , which I shall set down in his own words . First , That Christian Doctrine was at first unanimously setled by the Apostles , in the hearts of the faithful dispersed in great multitudes over several parts of the World. Secondly , That this Doctrine was firmly believed by all those faithful to be the way to Heaven , and the contradicting or deserting it , to be the way to damnation ; so that the greatest hopes and fears imaginable were by engaging the Divine Authority strongly applied to the minds of the first Believers , encouraging them to the adhering to that Doctrine , and deterring them from relinquishing it ; and indeed infinitely greater than any other whatever , springing from any temporal consideration : and that this was in all Ages the perswasion of the faithful . Thirdly , That hopes of good and fears of harms strongly applied are the causes of actual will. Fourthly , That the thing was feasible or within their power ; that what they were bred to was knowable by them . This put , it follows as certainly that a great number or body of the first Believers and after faithful in each Age , that is , from Age to Age would continue to hold themselves and teach their Children as themselves had been taught , that is , would follow and stick to Tradition , as it doth , that a cause put actually causing produceth its effect . This is his Demonstration with the grounds of it . § . 3. To shew the vanity and weakness of this pretended Demonstration , I shall assail it these three wayes ; by shewing , First , That if the grounds of it were true they would conclude too much , and prove that to be impossible which common experience evinceth , and himself must grant to have been . Secondly , That his main grounds are apparently false . Thirdly , That his Demonstration is confuted by clear and undeniable Instances to the contrary . SECT . III. § . 1. IF the grounds of it were true , they would conclude too much , and prove that to be impossible which common experience evinceth and himself must grant to have been . For if these two Principles be true , That the greatest hopes and fears are strongly applied to the minds of all Christians ; and that those hopes and fears strongly applied are the cause of actual will to adhere constantly to Christ's Doctrine : then from hence it follows that none th●● entertain this Doctrine can ever fall from it ; because falling from it is inconsistent with an actual will of adhering constantly to it . For supposing ( as he doth ) certain and constant causes of actual will to adhere to this Doctrine , those who entertain it must actually will to adhere to it , because a cause put actually causing produceth its effect , which is constant adherence to it . And if this were true these two things would be impossible . First , That any Christian should turn Apostate or Heretick . Secondly , That any Christian should live wickedly . Both which not only frequent and undoubted experience doth evince , but himself must grant , de facto to have been . § . 2. First , It would be impossible that any Christian should turn Apostate or Heretick . Heresie according to him is nothing else but the renouncing of Tradition . Now he tells us * , That the first Renouncers of Tradition must have been true Believers or holders of it , ere they renounced it ; and I suppose there is the same reason for Apostates . But if all Christians or true Believers ( as he calls them ) have these Arguments of hope and fear strongly applied ; and hope and fear strongly applied be the causes of actual will to adhere to this Doctrine ; 't is necessary all Christians should adhere to it , and impossible there should be either Apostates or Hereticks . For if these causes be put in all the faithful actually causing ( as the Grounds of his Demonstration suppose ) and indefectibleness be the proper and necessary effect of these causes , as he also saith * , then it is impossible , that where these causes are put , there should be any defection . For a proper and necessary effect cannot but be where the causes of such an effect are put ; especially if they be put actually causing ; and consequently 't is impossible that any single Christian should ever either totally apostatize or fall into Heresie , that is , renounce Tradition . § . 3. And that this is a genuine consequence from these Principles ( though he will not acknowledg it here , because he saw it would ruine his Demonstration ) is liberally acknowledged by him in other parts of his Discourse . For he tells us * , That it exceeds all the power of nature ( abstracting from the causes of madness and violent disease ) to blot the knowledges of this Doctrine out of the soul of one single Believer . And * that since no man can hold contrary to his knowledg , nor doubt of what he holds , nor change and innovate without knowing he doth so , it is a manifest impossibility a whole Age should fall into an absurdity so inconsistent with the nature of one single man. And * , That it is perhaps impossible for one single man to attempt to deceive posterity by renouncing Tradition . Which passages laid together amount to thus much , That it is impossible that Tradition should fail in any one single person . And though in the passage last cited he speak faintly , and with a perhaps , as if he apprehended some danger in speaking too peremptorily , yet any one would easily see the last to be as impossible as any of the rest . And he himself elsewhere , being in the full Career of his Bombast Rhetorick , delivers it roundly without fear or wit * , Sooner may the sinews of entire nature by overstraining crack , and she lose all her activity and motion , that is , her self , than one single part of that innumerable multitude which integrate that vast testification which we call Tradition can possibly be violated . § . 4. But it may be we deal too hardly with him and press his Demonstration too far , because he tells us he only intends by it to prove that the generality of Christians will always adhere to Tradition . But if he intended to prove no more but this , he should then have brought a Demonstration that would have concluded no more ; but this concludes of all as well as of the generality of Christians : A clear evidence that it is no Demonstration , because it concludes that which is evidently false , That there can be no Apostates or Hereticks . Besides , supposing his Demonstration to conclude only that the generality of Christians would always adhere to Tradition , this is as plainly confuted by experience , if there be any credit to be given to History . St. Hierom tells us * , That Liberius Bishop of Rome ( for all his particular Title to Infallibility built upon Tradition , as Mr. S. speaks , Coroll . 28. ) turned Arian . And that * Arianism was establish't by the Synod of Ariminum , which was a Council more general than that of Trent . And that * almost all the Churches in the whole World under the names of Peace and of the Emperour , were polluted by Communion with the Arians . Again , That * under the Emperour Constantius ( Eusebius and Hippatius being Consuls ) Infidelity was subscribed under the names of Vnity and Faith. And * that the whole World groaned and wondered to see it self turned Arian . And he * uses this as an argument to the Luciferians , to receive into the Church those who had been defiled with the Heresie of Arius , because the number of those who had kept themselves Orthodox , was so exceeding small : For ( says he ) the Synod of Nice which consisted of above Three hundred Bishops , received Eight Arian Bishops whom they might have cast out without any great loss to the Church ; I wonder then how some , and those the followers of the Nicene Faith can think that three Confessors ( viz. Athanasius , Hilarius , Eusebius ) ought not to do that in case of necessity for the good and safety of the whole World , which so many and such excellent Persons did voluntarily . It seems Arianism had prevailed very far , when St. Hierom could not name above three eminent Persons in the Church who had preserved themselves untainted with it . Again * , Arius in Alexandria was at first but one spark , but because it was not presently extinguish't it broke out into a flame which devoured the whole World. Gregory Nazianzen * likewise tells us to the same purpose , That the Arian Heresie seized upon the greatest part of the Church . And , to shew that he knew nothing of Mr. S's Demonstration of the indefectibility of the generality of Christians , he asks * , Where are those that define the Church by multitude , and despise the little Flock , & c ? And this Heresie was of a long continuance , for from its first rise which happened in the 20 th year of Constantine , it continued ( as Joh. Abbas * hath calculated it ) 266 years . And the Pelagian Heresie ( if we may believe Bradwardine , one of the great Champions of the Church against it ) did in a manner prevail as much as Arianism , as the said Author complains in his Preface to his Book * , That almost the whole World was run after Pelagius into Error . Will Mr. S. now say , that in the height of these Heresies the generality of Christians did firmly adhere to Tradition ? If he say they did , let him answer the express Testimonies produced to the contrary : But if they did not , then his Demonstration also fails as to the generality of Christians . And if the greater part of Christians may fall off from Tradition , what Demonstration can make it impossible for the lesser to do so ? Who will say it is in Reason impossible that a Thousand persons should relinquish Tradition , though Nine hundred of them have already done it , and though the remainder be no otherwise secured from doing so than those were who have actually relinquish't it ? Now is not this a clear evidence that this which he calls a Demonstration a Priori , is no such thing ? Because every Demonstration a Priori , must be from causes which are necessary , whereas his Demonstration is from voluntary causes . So that unless he can prove that voluntary causes are necessary , he shall never demonstrate that it is impossible for the generality of any company of men to err who have every one of them free-will , and are every one of them liable to passion and m●stake . § . 5. From all this it appears , that his whole Discourse about the Original and Progress of Heresie , and the multitudes of Hereticks in several Ages , is as clear a confutation of his own Demonstration as can be desired . The only thing that he offers in that Discourse , to prevent this Objection which he foresaw it liable to , is this , It is not ( says he * ) to be expected but that some contingencies should have place , where an whole Species in a manner is to be wrought upon ; it sufficeth that the causes to preserve Faith indeficiently entire are as efficacious as those which are laid for the preservation of Mankind , the vertue of Faith not being to continue longer than Mankind its only subject does ; and they will easily appear as efficacious as the other , if we consider the strength of those causes before explicated , and reflect that they are effectively powerful to make multitudes daily debar themselves of those pleasures which are the causes of Mankinds propagation ; and if we look into History for experience of what hath passed in the World since the propagating of Christianity , we shall find more particulars failing in propagating their kind , than their Faith. To which I answer , First , That it may reasonably be expected there should be no contingencies in any particulars , where causes of actual will are supposed to be put in all : Because ( as he says truly ) a cause put actually causing cannot but produce its effect . Suppose then constant causes laid in all Mankind of an actual will to speak Truth to the best of their knowledg , were it not reasonable to expect that there would be no such contingency to the Worlds end as that any man should tell a lye ? Nay , it were madness for any man to think any such contingency should be , supposing causes actually causing men always to speak Truth . Secondly , It is far from Truth that the causes to preserve Faith indeficiently entire , are as efficacious as those which are laid for the propagation of Mankind . And whereas he would prove the strength of these causes which are laid to preserve Faith , because they are effectively powerful to make multitudes daily debar themselves of those pleasur●s which are the causes of Mankinds propagation ; I hope no body that hath read the innumerable complaints which occur in their own Historians , and others of the best and most credible of their own Writers , of more than one Age , concerning the general viciousness and debauchery of their Priests and Monks , will he overforward to believe that all those who debar themselves of lawful Marriage , do abstain from those unlawful pleasures . § . 6. But nothing can be more impudent than what he adds , That if we look into Histories for experience of what hath past in the World since the first planting of Christianity , we shall find far more particulars failing in propagating their kind , than their Faith , Do any Histories confirm it to have been the experience of the World , that the far greatest part of the World did in any Age give over propagating their kind ? But Histories do confirm that the far greatest part of the Christian World did fall off to Arianism and Pelagianism ; and consequently , as he supposeth , did desert and renounce Tradition . Did ever whole Nations and vast Territories of the World either wholly , or for the far greatest part of them , take upan humour against propagating Mankind ? And yet both History , and the experience of the present Age assures us , that a great part of Asia and of Africk ( where the most flourishing Churches in the World once were ) are fallen off from Christianity , and become either Mahometans or Heathens . In Africk almost all those vast Regions , which Christianity had gained from Heathenism , Mahometanism hath regained from Christianity . All the North-part of Afrique lying along the Mediterranean ( where Christianity flourish't once as much as ever it did at Rome ) is at this time utterly void of Christians , excepting a few Towns in the hands of the European Princes . And not to mention all particular places , the large Region of Nubia , which had ( as is thought ) from the Apostles time professed the Christian Faith , hath within these 150 years for want of Ministers ( as Alvarez * tells us ) quitted Christianity , and is partly revolted to Heathenism , partly fallen off to Mahometanism . So that it seems , that notwithstanding the Arguments of hope and fear , the very Teachers of Tradition may fail in a largely extended Church . As for Asia , in the Easterly parts of it , there is not now one Christian to four of what there were 500 years ago ; and in the more Southerly parts of it ( where Christianity had taken deepest root ) the Christians are far inferiour in number to the Idolaters and Mahometans , and do daily decrease . What thinks Mr. S. of all this ? Have those Christian Nations which are turn'd Mahometans and Pagans failed in their Faith or not ? If they have , I expect from him clear Instances of more that have failed in propagating their kind . § . 7. But , besides those who have totally Apostatized from Christianity , hath not the whole Greek Church with the Jacobites and Nestorians , and all those other Sects which agree with and depend upon these , and which taken together are manifoldly greater than the Roman Church ; I say , have not all these renounced Tradition for several Ages ? And here in Europe , hath not a great part of Poland , Hungary , both Germany's , France , and Switzerland ? Have not the Kingdoms of great Brittain , Denmark , Sweden , and a considerable part of Ireland , in Mr. S's opinion deserted Tradition ? If I should once see a whole Nation fail , because no body would marry and contribute to the propagation of Mankind ; and should find this sullen humour to prevail in several Nations , and to overspread vast Parts of the World , I should . then in good earnest think it possible for Mankind to fail ; unless I could shew it impossible for other Nations to do that which I see some to have done , who were every whit as unlikely to have done it . So that whatever cause he assigns of Heresie * , as Pride , Ambition , Lust , or any other vice or interest , if these can take place in whole Nations , and make them renounce Tradition , then where 's the efficacy of the causes to preserve Faith indeficiently entire in any ? For the Demonstration holds as strongly for all Christians as for any . § . 8. Secondly , From these grounds it would follow that no Christian can live wickedly ; because the end of Faith being a good life , the arguments of hope and fear must in all Reason be as powerful and efficacious causes of a good life , as of a true belief . And that his Demonstration proves the one as much as the other , will be evident from his own reasoning ; for he * argues in this manner , Good is the proper object of the will , good propos'd makes the will to desire that good , and consequently the known means to obtain it : Now infinite goods and harms sufficiently proposed are of their own nature incomparably more powerful causes to carry the will than temporal ones . Since then , when two causes are counterpoised , the lesser when it comes to execution is no cause as to the substance of that effect , it follows that there is no cause to move the wills of a World of Believers to be willing to do that which they judge would lose themselves and their Posterity infinite goods , and bring them infinite harms , &c. in case a sufficient Proposal or Application be not wanting , which he tells us * is not wanting , because Christianity urged to execution , gives its followers a new life and a new nature , than which a nearer Application cannot be imagined . Doth not this Argument extend to the lives of Christians , as well as their Belief ? So that he may as well infer from these grounds , that it is impossible that those who profess Christianity should live contrary to it , as that they should fail to deliver down the Doctrine of Christ ; because whatever can be an inducement and temptation to any man , to contradict this Doctrine by his practice , may equally prevail upon him to falsifie it . For why should men make any more scruple of damning themselves and their Posterity by teaching them false Doctrines , than by living wicked Lives ? which are equally pernicious with Heretical Doctrines , not only upon account of the bad influence which such examples of Fathers and Teachers are like to have upon their Scholars , but likewise as they are one of the strongest arguments in the World to perswade them , that their Teachers do not themselves believe that Religion which they teach ; for if they did , they would live according to it . Why should any man think , that those arguments of hope and fear which will not prevail upon the generality of Christians to make them live holy Lives , should be so necessarily efficacious to make them so much concerned for the preserving of a right Belief ? Nay , we have great reason to believe that such persons will endeavour as much as may be , to bend and accommodate their Belief to their Lives . And this is the true source of those Innovations in Faith for which we challenge the Church of Rome ; which any man may easily discern , who will but consider how all their new Doctrines are fitted to a secular Interest , and the gratifying of that inordinate appetite after riches and dominion which reigns in the Court of Rome , and in the upper part of the Clergy of that Church . SECT . IV. § . 1. SEcondly , The main grounds of his Demonstration are apparently false : For , First , This Demonstration supposeth that the generality of Christian Parents in all Ages perfectly understood the Doctrine of Christ , and did not mistake any part of it ; that they remembred it perfectly , and that they were faithful and diligent to instruct their Children in it ; which is as contrary to experience as that the generality of Christians are knowing and honest . It supposeth likewise , that this Doctrine , and every substantial part of it , was received and remembred by the generality of Children as it was taught , and was understood perfectly by them without the least material mistake : So he tells us * , That the substance of Faith comes clad in such plain matters of Fact , that the most stupid man living cannot possibly be ignorant of it . But whether this be reasonable to be supposed or no , may easily be determined not only from every man 's own experience of the World , but from a more advantagious Instance of the experience of the first Age of Christianity . Was there ever a more knowing and diligent Teacher of this Doctrine than our Saviour ? and yet his Disciples fell into many mistakes concerning it . So that in order to the certain propagating of it , the wisdom of God thought it requisite to endue even those who had learned this Doctrine from himself with an infallible spirit , by which they might be led into all Truth , and secured from error and mistake ; which had been unnecessary had it been impossible for them to mistake this Doctrine . The Apostles , who taught the World by an infallible Spirit , and with infinitely more advantage than ordinary Parents can teach their Children , yet in all the Churches which they planted they found Christians very apt to mistake and pervert their Doctrine , as appears by their frequent complaints in most of their Epistles . Nay the Apostle chargeth the Generality of the Hebrews * with such a degree of dulness and stupidity , that after fitting time and means of instruction they were still ignorant of the very Principles of Christianity : So he tells them , That when for the time they ought to be Teachers of others , they had need that one should teach them again which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God. And St. Hierom tells us * , That the Primitive Churches were tainted with many gross Errors whil'st the Apostles were alive , and the blood of Christ yet warm in Judea . But it may be there have been better Teachers since , and Children are more apt to learn now than Men were then . Who knows how the World may be changed ? § . 2. Secondly , This Demonstration supposeth the hopes and fears which Christian Religion applies to Mens minds to be certain and necessary causes of actual will in Men to adhere to the Doctrine of Christ ; and consequently that they must necessarily adhere to it . That he supposeth them to be necessary , I have his own word for it ; for he tells us * , That he hath endeavoured to demonstrate the indefectibleness of Tradition as the proper and necessary effect of those causes which preserve and continue Tradition on foot ; and what those causes are he told us before * , That they are Hopes and Fears strongly applied . But I hope that the indefectibleness of Tradition cannot be a necessary effect of the strong application of those Hopes and Fears , unless those Hopes and Fears be a necessary cause of that effect . And indeed this is sufficiently implied in his saying that they are the causes of actual will in Christians to adhere to Tradition . For if these causes of actual will be constant ( as he must suppose ) then they are certain and necessary and infallible causes of adhering to this Doctrine . For whatever is in act is necessary while it is so , and if it be constantly in act , the effect is always necessary . But what a wild Supposition is this , That Moral Motives and Arguments working upon a free Principle , the Will of Man , do necessarily produce their Effect ? Is it necessary that the hopes of Heaven , and the fears of Hell should keep Christians constant to the Doctrine of Christ ? and is it not as necessary that these arguments should prevail upon them to the practice of it ? It is in vain to go about to demonstrate that all men must be good who have sufficient arguments propounded to them , when experience tells us the contrary . Nay , it is in reason impossible that Moral arguments should be of a necessary and infallible efficacy , because they are always propounded to a free Agent , who may choose whether he will yield to them or not . Indeed it is always reasonable that men should yield to them , and if they be reasonable they will ; but so long as they are free it can never be infallibly certain that they will. And if men be not free , it is no vertue at all in them to be wrought upon by these arguments . For what vertue can it be in any man to entertain the Christian doctrine and adhere to it and live accordingly , if he does all this necessarily , that is , whether he will or no , and can no more choose whether he will do so or not , than whether he will see the light when the Sun shines upon his open eyes , or whether he will hear a sound when all the Bells in the Town are Ringing in his ears , or ( to use Mr. S's * own similitudes ) whether he will feel heat , cold , pain , pleasure , or any other material quality that affects his senses . We see then how unreasonable his Suppositions are , and yet without these Grounds his Demonstration falls . For if it be possible that Christians may mistake or forget the Doctrine of Christ , or any part of it , or be defective in diligence to instruct others in it ; or if it be possible that the Will of man which is free , may not be necessarily and infallibly swayed by the arguments of hope and fear , then it is possible that Tradition may fail . And is not this a good Demonstration which supports it self upon such Principles as do directly affront the constant experience , and the clearest reason of Mankind ? § . 3. And here I cannot but take notice how inconsistent he is to himself in laying the Grounds of Tradition's certainty . In one Part of his Book he tells us * , That Tradition hath for its Basis the best Nature in the Vniverse , that is , Mans ; Not according to his Moral part , defectible by reason of Original Corruption ; nor yet his Intellectuals , darkly groping in the pursuit of Science , &c. But according to those Faculties in him perfectly and necessarily subject to the operations and strokes of Nature , that is , his Eyes , Ears ; Handling , and the direct impressions of knowledg , as naturally and necessarily issuing from the affecting those senses , as it is to feel heat , cold , pain , pleasure , or any other material quality . So that according to this Discourse , the Basis of Tradition is not Mans Nature considered as Moral , and capable of Intellectual Reflection ; for in this consideration it is dark and defectible : But Mans Nature considered only as capable of direct sensitive knowledg , and as acting naturally and necessarily . Which is to say , That Tradition is foundded in the Nature of Man considered not as a Man but a Brute ; under which consideration , I see no reason why he should call it the best Nature in the Vniverse . But now how will he reconcile this Discourse with the Grounds of his Demonstration ? where he tells us , That the stability of Tradition is founded in the Arguments of Hope and Fear , the Objects of which being future and at a distance , cannot work upon a man immediately by direct Impressions upon his senses , but must work upon him by way of Intellectual Reflection and Consideration . For I hope he will not deny but that the Arguments of Hope and Fear work upon man according to his Moral and Intellectual part , else how are they Arguments ? And if man according to his Moral part be ( as he says ) defectible , how can the indefectibility of Tradition be founded in those Arguments which work upon man only according to his Moral part ? I have purposely all along ( both for the Readers ease and mine own ) neglected to take notice of several of his inconsistencies , but these are such clear and transparent Contradictions , that I could do no less than make an example of them . SECT . V. § . 1. THirdly , This Demonstration is confuted by clear and undeniable Instances to the contrary . I will mention but two . First , The Tradition of the one true God , which was the easiest to be preserved of any Doctrine in the World , being short and plain , planted in every mans Nature , and perfectly suited to the reason of Mankind . And yet this Tradition , not having past through many hands ( by reason of the long Age of man ) was so defaced and corrupted , that the World did lapse into Polytheism and Idolatry . Now a man that were so hardy as to demonstrate against matter of Fact , might by a stronger Demonstration than Mr. S's , prove that though it be certain this Tradition hath failed , yet it was impossible it should fail ; as Zeno demonstrated the impossibility of motion against Diogenes walking before his eyes . For the Doctrine of the one true God was setled in the heart of Noah , and firmly believed by him to be the way to happiness , and the contradicting or deserting of this , to be the way to misery . And this Doctrine was by him so taught to his Children , who were encouraged by these Motives to adhere to this Doctrine , and to propagate it to their Children , and were deterred by them from relinquishing it . And this was in all Ages the perswasion of the faithful . Now the Hopes of Happiness , and the Fears of Misery strongly applied , are the causes of actual will. Besides , the thing was feasible , or within their power ; that is , what they were bred to was knowable by them , and that much more easily than any other Doctrine whatsoever , being short , and plain , and natural . This put , it follows as certainly that a great number in each Age would continue to hold themselves , and teach their Children as themselves had been taught , that is , would follow and stick to this Tradition of the one true God , as it doth that a cause put actually causing produceth its effect . Actually I say ; for since the cause is put , and the Patient disposed , it follows inevitably that the cause is put still actually causing . This demonstration which concludes an apparent falshood hath the whole strength of Mr. S's , and several advantages beyond it . For the Doctrine conveyed by this Tradition is the most important , being the first Principle of all Religion ; the danger of corrupting it as great , the facility of preserving it much greater , than of the Christian Doctrine , for the causes before mentioned . And yet after all , it signifies nothing against certain experience , and unquestionable matter of Fact ; only it sufficiently shews the vanity of Mr. S's pretended Demonstration built upon the same or weaker Grounds . § . 2. Secondly , The other Instance shall be in the Greek Church , who received the Christian Doctrine as entire from the Apostles , and had as great an obligation to propagate it truly to Posterity , and the same fears and hopes strongly applied to be the actual causes of will ; in a word , all the same Arguments and Causes to preserve and continue Tradition on foot , which the Roman Church had : And yet , to the utter confusion of Mr. S's Demonstration , Tradition hath failed among them . For as Speculators , they deny the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son , and as Testifiers they disown any such Doctrine to have been delivered to them by the precedent Age , or to any other Age of their Church by the Apostles as the Doctrine of Christ. § . 3. To this Instance of the Greek Church , because Mr. White hath offered something by way of answer , I shall here consider it . He tells us * , That the plea of the Greek Church is Non-Tradition , alledging only this , That their Fathers do not deliver the Doctrine of the procession of the Holy Ghost ; not that they say the contrary , which clearly demonstrates there are no opposite Traditions between them and us . But this was not the thing Mr. White was concerned to do , to demonstrate there were no opposite Traditions between the Greeks and the Latines , but to secure his main Demonstration of the impossibility of Traditions failing against this Instance . For that the Greeks have no such Tradition as this , That the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son , is as good an evidence of the failure of Tradition as if they had a positive Tradition , That he proceeds only from the Father ; especially if we consider that they * charge the Latin Church with Innovation in this matter , and say that the addition of that Clause , of the Procession from the Son also , is a corruption of the ancient Faith , and a Devilish Invention . Why then does Mr. White go about to baffle so material an Objection ( and , I fear , his own Conscience likewise ) by a pitiful Evasion instead of a solid Answer ? What though there be no opposite Traditions between the Greek and Latin Church , yet if their Faith be opposite , Will it not from hence follow that Tradition hath failed in one of them ? I wonder that Mr. White , who hath so very well confuted the Infallibility of Popes and Councils , and thereby undermined the very Foundations of that Religion , should not by the same light of Reason discover the fondness of his own Opinion concerning the Infallibility of Oral Tradition , which hath more and greater absurdities in it than that which he confutes . And to shew Mr. White the absurdity of it , I will apply his Demonstration of the Infallibility of Christian Tradition in general , to the Greek Church in particular ; by which every one will see that it does as strongly prove the impossibility of Traditions failing in the Greek Church , as in the Roman-Catholick , as they are pleased to call it . His Demonstration is this * , Christ commanded his Apostles to preach to all the World , and lest any one should doubt of the effect , he sent his Spirit into them to bring to their remembrance what he had taught them ; which Spirit did not only give them a power to do what he enclined them to , but did cause them actually to do it . I cannot but take notice by the way of the ill consequence of this , which is , that men may doubt , whether those who are to teach the Doctrine of Christ , will remember it , and teach it to others , unless they have that extraordinary and efficacious assistance of the Holy Ghost which the Apostles had ; if this be true , his Demonstration is at an end , for he cannot plead that this assistance hath been continued ever since the Apostles . He proceeds , The Apostles preached this Doctrine ; the Nations understood it , lived according to it , and valued it as that which was necessary to them and their Posterity incomparably beyond any thing else . All this I suppose done to , and by the Greeks as well as any other Nation . These things being put , it cannot enter into any mans understanding , but that the Christian [ Greeks ] of the first Age , being the Scholars of the Apostles , could and would earnestly commend the Christian Doctrine to their Posterity ; if so , it is evident that they did . So that the continuance of the purity of the Faith in the [ Greek ] Church is founded upon this , That Fathers always delivered the same Doctrine to their Children which they had received from their Fathers , and did believe it under this very Notion and Title as received ; nor could any one [ of that Church ] deliver another Doctrine under this Title , but he would be convinced of a Lye by the rest ; and if the whole [ Greek ] Church should endeavour to deliver a new Doctrine under that Title , [ and there 's the same reason if they should leave out any Article of the old Doctrine ] that whole Age would be in their Consciences condemned of perfidiousness and parricide . Now this is as impossible as it is that all Mankind should conspire to kill themselves . And he afterwards * gives the reason why it is so . impossible that Tradition should fail , and it is a very bold and saucy one , That if the Tradition of the Christian Faith be not more firm than the course of the Sun and Moon , and the propagation of Mankind , then God hath shewn himself an unskilful Artificer . What is there in all this Demonstration , which may not be accommodated to the Greek Church with as much force and advantage as to the Catholick ? Unless he can shew that it is very possible that all the Men in Greece may conspire to kill themselves , but yet absolutely impossible that all the Men in the World should do so ; which I am sure he cannnot shew , unless he can demonstrate , that though it be possible for a Million , of as wise Men as any are to be found in the World together , to conspire to do a foolish action , yet it is impossible that an Hundred millions not one jot wiser than the other , should agree together to the doing of it . § . 4. From all this it appears , That Mr. White 's Answer to this Objection , doth not signifie any thing to his purpose . For if the Procession of the Holy Ghost was part of Christs Doctrine , then it was delivered by the Apostles to the Greek Church ; if so , they could not fail to deliver it down to the next Age , and that to the next , and so on ; but it seems they have failed . Where then is the force of hopes and fears strongly applied ? Where are the certain Causes of actual Will to adhere to this Doctrine ? Why is not the effect produced , the Causes being put actually causing ? If the Apostles delivered this Doctrine , Oral Tradition is so clear and unmistakable , and * brings down Faith clad in such plain matters of Fact , that the most stupid man living ( much less the Greeks , that were the flower of Mankind ) could not possibly be ignorant of it ; nay * , it exceeds all the power of Nature to blot Knowledges thus fixt out of the Soul of one single Believer ( much more out of so vast a Church ) And * since no man can hold contrary to his knowledg , or doubt of what he holds , nor change and innovate without knowing he did so , 't is a manifest impossibility , a whole Church should in any Age fall into an absurdity so inconsistent with the nature of one single man. And * since 't is natural for every man to speak Truth , and Grace is to perfect Nature in whatever is good in it , it follows that one truly Christian heart is far more fixt to Veracity , than others not imbu'd with these heavenly Tenets ; and consequently that a multitude of such must incomparably exceed in point of testifying the same number of others , unfortified by Christs Doctrine . And since * such a thought cannot enter into the most depraved Nature , as to harm another without any good to himself , and yet this must be if we put Christian Fathers misteaching their Children unreceived Doctrines for received ( and I hope for the same reason , received Doctrines for unreceived ) contrary to their knowledg . For supposing Sanctity in the ( Greek ) Church ( and why may we not as well as in the Latin ) That is , that multitudes in it make Heaven their first love , and look on spiritual goods as their main concern , &c. it follows , that had the Fathers of that Church in any Age consented to mislead their Posterity from what themselves ( not only ) conceited ( but knew ) to be true , they should do the most extream harm imaginable to others without any the least good to themselves ; which is perhaps impossible in one single man , more in few , but infinitely in a multitude , especially of good men . § . 5. Thus I might apply the rest of his Ranting Rhetorick ( but that I am weary of Transcribing it ) concerning * the natural love of Parents to their Children ( unless we suppose the Greek Church destitute of it ) which must needs engage them to use the means proper to bring them to Heaven , and save them from Hell : As also concerning the natural care men have of not losing their Credit by telling pernicious Lyes . And , not to omit the best part of his Demonstration * ( which was therefore prudently reserved to the last place ) I might likewise shew how the Principles of each Science , Arithmetick , Geometry , Logick , Nature , Morality , Historical Prudence , Politicks , Metaphysicks , Divinity , and last of all the new Science of Controversie ( as he calls it ) or the blessed Art of Eternal wrangling and disputing ( the first Principle whereof ( he tells us ) is , That Tradition is certain ) do all contribute to shew the certainty of Tradition , that is , the impossibility that any part of Christs Doctrine should fail in the Greek Church any more than in the Latin. And surely Arithmetick , Geometry , Logick , Natural Philosophy , Metaphysicks , &c. will all stand up for the Greek Church in this quarrel ; for considering that Greece was the place where the Arts and Sciences were born and bred , it is not to be imagined that they should be so disingenuous and unnatural , as not to contribute their best assistance to the service of their Countrey . § . 6. But it may be the Greeks cannot so justly pretend to Oral Tradition as the Latins . What if St. Peter , the Head of the Apostles , thought fit to share Scripture and Tradition between these two Churches , and laying his left hand on the Greek Church , and his right on the Latin , was pleased to confer the great blessing of Oral Tradition upon the Latin Church ? which being to be the seat of Infallibility , it was but fitting that she should be furnish't with this infallible way of conveying the Christian Doctrine . And therefore it may be , that as the Scriptures of the New Testament were left in Greek , so Oral Tradition was delivered down only in Latin . This I confess is not altogether without some shew of reason : Mr. S. may do well to take the matter into his deeper consideration ; he hath in his time improved as weak probabilities as these into lusty Demonstrations . And if he could but demonstrate this , it would very much weaken the force of this Instance of the Greek Church ; otherwise ( for ought I see ) this Instance will hold good against him ; and whatever he can say for the impossibility of Tradition's failing in the Latin Church , may all be said of the Greek Church , if he will but grant that the Apostles preached the same Doctrine to them both ; that the arguments of hope and fear which this Doctrine contains in it , were applied as strongly to the Greeks as the Latins . And yet notwithstanding all this , Tradition hath plainly failed in the Greek Church . Let him now assign the Age wherein so vast a number of men conspired to leave out the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost ; and shew how it was possible a whole Age could conspire together to damn their Posterity ; or how the Faith of immediate Fore-fathers might be altered without any such Conspiracy ; and we are ready to satisfie him how the Doctrine of the Latin Church might be corrupted and altered , and to tell him punctually in what Age it was done . And until he do this , I would entreat him to trouble us no more with those canting questions ( wherein yet the whole force of his Demonstration lies ) How is it possible a whole Age should conspire to change the Doctrine of their Fore-fathers ? And in what Age was this done ? For if it be reasonable to demand of us , in order to the overthrowing of his Demonstration , to assign the particular Age wherein the Latin Church conspired to change the ancient Doctrine ; with the same reason we require of him , in order to the maintaining of his Demonstration , to name the particular Age wherein the Greek Church conspired to alter the Doctrine of Christ ( which was undoubtedly in the first Age truly delivered to them by the Apostles ) and also to shew from the rational force and strength of Tradition , how it is more impossible for the whole Church to have failed in transmitting the Doctrine of Christ down to us , or to have conspired to the altering of it , than for such a multitude of Christians as is the vast body of the Greek Church . If Mr. S. or Mr. White shew this , they do something ; otherwise , I must tell them , that unless they can manage these pretty things they call Demonstrations better , they must shortly either quit their Reason , or their Religion ; or else return to the honest old Mumpsimus of the Infallibility of the Church from an extraordinary and immediate assistance of the Holy Ghost ; or ( to make the business short , and stop all gaps with one Bush ) come over to the Jesuites , and acknowledg the Popes Infallibility both in matters of Faith and Fact ; by which means they may reconcile themselves to him , and prevent that direful stroke which threatens them from Rome , and is ready to cut them off from the Body of the Traditionary Church . And thus I have done with his First Demonstration ; and I take it for a good sign that the Popish Cause is at a very low ebb , when such stuff as this must be called Demonstration . SECT . VI. § . 1. I Come now to his Demonstration a Posteriori , which although it fall of it self if the Demonstration a Priori fail ; yet because it hath some peculiar absurdities of its own , I shall consider it by it self as well as with relation to the other . § . 2. Before he comes to lay it down with the Grounds of it , according to his usual fashion , he premiseth something as yielded by Protestants which , in his sense , no Protestant ever granted . Just so he dealt with us before concerning the Scriptures , saying , That by them the Protestants must mean unsensed Letters and Characters . But let us see what it is . * That this Demonstration a Posteriori , seems a needless endeavour against the Protestants , who yield that those Points in which we agree , as the Trinity , Incarnation , &c. came down by this way of Tradition ; And this ( he saith ) no Protestant ever denied . And then he asks . Whether the same vertue of Tradition would not have been as powerful to bring down other Points in which we do not agree , had any such been ? Now if he speak any thing to his own purpose , he must suppose Protestants to yield , that all those Points wherein we are agreed , were conveyed down to us solely by Oral Tradition without Writing : But this all Protestants deny . So that , that only which would avail his Cause against us , is to shew , that those Points wherein we differ , have not only come down to us by Oral Teaching , but that they are likewise contained in Scripture , without which , we say , we can have no sufficient certainty and assurance at this distance , that they were the Doctrine of Christ , and that they were not either totally innovated , or else corrupted in the conveyance from what they were at first . And if he can shew this concerning any Point in difference , I promise to yield it to him . § . 3. I come now to his Demonstration , which I shall set down in his own words with the Principles upon which it relies . * The effect then we will pitch upon , and avow to be the proper one of such a cause , is the present perswasion of Traditionary Christians ( or Catholicks ) that their Faith hath descended from Christ and his Apostles uninterruptedly , which we find most firmly rooted in their heart ; and the existence of this perswasion we affirm to be impossible without the existence of Traditions ever indeficiency to beget it . To prove this , I lay this first Principle ; That Age , which holds her Faith thus delivered from the Apostles , neither can it self have changed any thing in it nor know or doubt that any Age since the Apostles had changed or innovated therein . The second Principle shall be this . No Age could innovate any thing , and withall deliver that very thing to Posterity as received from Christ by continual Succession . The Sum of which is this , That because a present multitude of Christians ( viz. the Roman Church ) are perswaded , that Christ's Doctrine hath descended to them solely by an uninterrupted Oral Tradition , therefore this perswasion is an effect which cannot be attributed to any other cause but the indeficiency of Oral Tradition . For if neither the present Age , nor any Age before , could make any change or innovation , then the perswasion of the present Age is a plain Demonstration that this Doctrine was always the same , and consequently that Tradition cannot fail . § . 4. In answer to this , I shall endeavour to make good these four things . First , That these Principles wholly rely upon the Truth of the Grounds of his Demonstration a Priori . Secondly , That these Principles are not sufficiently proved by him . Thirdly , That Doctrines and Practises , which must be acknowledged to have been innovated , have made the same pretence to uninterrupted Tradition . Fourthly , That it is not the present perswasion of the Church of Rome , ( whom he calls the Traditionary Christians ) nor ever was , that their Faith hath descended to them solely by Oral Tradition . If I can now make good these four things , I hope his Demonstration is at an end . SECT . VII . § . 1. THat these Principles wholly rely upon the truth of the Grounds of his Demonstration a Priori . For if the Doctrine of Christ was either imperfectly taught in any Age , or mistaken by the Learners , or any part of it forgotten ( as it seems the whole Greek Church have forgot that fundamental Point of the Procession of the Holy Ghost , as the Roman Church accounts it ) or if the Arguments of hope and fear be not necessary causes of actual will to adhere to Tradition ; then there may have been changes and innovations in any Age , and yet men may pretend to have followed Tradition . But I have shewn , that Ignorance , and Negligence , and Mistake , and Pride , and Lust , and Ambition , and any other Vice or Interest , may hinder those causes from being effectual to preserve Tradition entire and uncorrupted . And when they do so , it is not to be expected that those Persons , who innovate and change the Doctrine , should acknowledg that their new Doctrines are contrary to the Doctrine of Christ ; but that they should at first advance them as Pious , and after they have prevailed and gained general entertainment , then impudently affirm that they were the very Doctrines which Christ delivered ; which they may very securely do , when they have it in their power to burn all that shall deny it . § . 2. I will give a clear Instance of the possibility of this in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation , by shewing how this might easily come in , in the Ninth or Tenth Age after Christ. We will suppose then that about this time , when universal Ignorance , and the genuine Daughter of it ( call her Devotion or Superstition ) had overspread the World , and the generality of People were strongly enclined to believe strange things ; and even the greatest Contradictions were recommended to them under the notion of Mysteries , being told by their Priests and Guides , that the more contradictions any thing is to Reason , the greater merit there is in believing it : I say , let us suppose , that in this state of things , one or more of the most eminent then in the Church , either out of design , or out of superstitious ignorance and mistake of the sense of our Saviour's words used in the Consecration of the Sacrament , should advance this new Doctrine , That the words of Consecration , This is my Body , are not to be understood by any kind of Trope ( as the like forms in Scripture are , as I am the Vine , I am the Door , which are plain Tropes ) but being used about this great Mystery of the Sacrament ought in all reason to be supposed to contain in them some notable Mystery ; which they will do , if they be understood of a real change of the substance of Bread and Wine , made by vertue of these words , into the real Body and Blood of our Saviour . And in all this , I suppose nothing but what is so far from being impossible , that it is too usual , for men either out of Ignorance or Interest , to advance new Opinions in Religion . And such a Doctrine as this was very likely to be advanced by the ambitious Clergy of that time , as a probable means to draw in the People to a greater veneration of them ; which advantage Mr. Rushworth * seems to be very sensible of , when he tells us , That the power of the Priest in this particular , is such a priviledg , as if all the learned Clerks that ever lived since the beginning of the World , should have studied to raise , advance , and magnifie some one state of men to the highest pitch of Reverence and Eminency , they could never ( without special light from Heaven ) have thought of any thing comparable to this . I am of his mind , that it was a very notable device , but ( I am apt to think ) invented without any special light from Heaven . Nor was such a Doctrine less likely to take and prevail among the People in an Age prodigiously ignorant , and strongly enclined to Superstition , and thereby well prepared to receive the grossest Absurdities under the notion of Mysteries ; especially if they were such as might seem to conciliate a greater honour and reverence to the Sacrament . Now supposing such a Doctrine as this , so fitted to the humor and temper of the Age , to be once asserted , either by chance , or out of design ; it would take like wild-fire : especially if by some one or more who bore sway in the Church , it were but recommended with convenient gravity and solemnity . And although Mr. Rushworth says * , It is impossible that the Authority of one man should sway so much in the World , because ( sayes he ) surely the Devil himself would rather help the Church , than permit so little pride among men ; yet I am not so thoroughly satisfied with this cunning reason : For though he delivers it confidently , and with a surely , yet I make some doubt whether the Devil would be so forward to help the Church ; nay , on the contrary , I am enclined to think that he would rather choose to connive at this humble and obsequious temper in men , in order to the overthrow of Religion , than cross a design so dear to him by unseasonable temptations to pride : So that notwithstanding Mr. Rushworth's reason , it seems very likely that such a Doctrine , in such an Age , might easily be propagated by the influence and authority of one or a few great Persons in the Church . For nothing can be more suitable to the easie and passive temper of superstitious Ignorance , than to entertain such a Doctrine with all imaginable greediness , and to maintain it with a proportionable zeal . And if there be any wiser than the rest , who make Objections against it as if this Doctrine were new and full of contradictions , they may easily be born down by the stream , and by the eminency and authority and pretended sanctity of those who are the heads of this Innovation . And when this Doctrine is generally swallowed , and all that oppose it are looked upon and punished as Hereticks , then it is seasonable to maintain that this Doctrine was the doctrine of forefathers ; to which end it will be sufficient to those who are willing to have it true , to bend two or three sayings of the Ancients to that purpose . And as for the contradictions contained in this Doctrine , it was but telling the People then ( as they do in effect now ) that contradictions ought to be no scruple in the way of Faith : that the more impossible any thing is , 't is the fitter to be believed : that it is not praise-worthy to believe plain possibilities , but that this is the gallantry and heroical power of Faith , this is the way to oblige God Almighty for ever to us , to believe flat and down-right contradictions : For God requires at the Peoples hands ( as Mr. Rushworth * tells us ) a Credulity of things above and beyond Nature ; nay , beyond all the Fables , be it spoken with respect , that ever man invented . After this Doctrine hath proceeded thus far , and by the most inhumane severities and cruelties supprest Dissenters , or in a good measure rooted them out ; then if they please even this new word Transubstantiation may pretend also to Antiquity , and in time be confidently vouched for a word used by Christians in all Ages , and transmitted down to them by those from whom they received the Doctrine of the Sacrament , as a term of Art appendant to it . And when a superstitious Church and designing Governors have once gained this Post , and by means of this enormous Article of Transubstantiation have sufficiently debauched the minds of men , and made a breach in their understandings wide enough for the entertaining of any Error , though never so gross and sensless ; then Innovations come in amain , and by sholes ; and the more absurd and unreasonable any thing is , it is for that very reason the more proper matter for an Article of Faith. And if any of these Innovations be objected against , as contrary to former belief and practice , it is but putting forth a lusty act of Faith , and believing another contradiction , that though they be contrary yet they are the same . § . 3. And there is nothing in all this , but what is agreeable both to History and Experience . For that the Ninth and Tenth Ages , and those which followed them till the Reformation , were thus prodigiously ignorant and superstitious , is confirmed by the unanimous consent of all Historians ; and even by those Writers , that have been the greatest Pillars of their own Religion . And Experience tells us , that in what Age soever there are a great company of superstitious People , there will never be wanting a few crafty Fellows to make use of this easie and pliable humor to their own ends . Now that this was the state of those Ages of the Church , will be evident to any from these Testimonies . Platina * writes of Pope Romanus , that he null'd the Acts of his Predecessor Stephanus ; For ( sayes he ) these Popes minded nothing else but how they might extinguish both the Name and Dignity of their Predecessors . And if so , who can doubt , but that these Popes who made it their business to destroy the very memory of their Ancestors , would be very little careful to preserve the Doctrine of Fore-fathers . But what the care of those Times was in this particular , may be conjectured from what Onuphrius * says by way of confutation of that passage in Platina , concerning Pope Joan's reading publickly at Rome at her first coming thither . This ( says he ) is utterly false , for there was nothing that they were less sollicitous about in those Times , than to furnish the City with any publick Teachers . And the time which Onuphrius speaks of , was much about the beginning of the Tenth Century . Phil. Bergomensis * says , It happened in that Age through the slothfulness of men , that there was a general decay of Vertue both in the Head and Members . Again * , These Times through the Ambition and cruel Tyranny of the Popes were extremely unhappy — For the Popes setting aside the fear of God and his Worship , fell into such enmities among themselves , as cruel Tyrants exercise towards one another . Sabellicus * says , It is wonderful to observe what a strange forgetfulness of all Arts did about this time seize upon men ; insomuch that neither the Popes , nor other Princes seem'd to have any sense or apprehension of any thing that might be useful to humane life . There were no wholsome Laws , no Reparations of Churches , no pursuit of liberal Arts ; but a kind of stupidity and madness and forgetfulness of manners had possessed the minds of men . And a little after , I cannot ( says he ) but much wonder , from whence these Tragical Examples of Popes should spring ; and how their minds should come to be so devoid of all Piety , as neither to regard the Person which they susteined , nor the place they were in . Sigonius * speaking of these Times , about the beginning of the Tenth Century , calls them the foulest and blackest , both in respect of the wickedness of Princes , and the madness of the People , that are to be found in all Antiquity , Genebrard * speaking of the same Time , This ( says he ) is called the unhappy Age ; being destitute of men eminent for Wit and Learning , as also of famous Princes and Popes . In this Time there was scarce any thing done worthy to be remembred by Posterity . And he adds afterwards , But chiefly unhappy in this one thing , that for almost 150 years together , about 50 Popes , did utterly degenerate from the vertue of their Ancestors . He should have added further , but even to a miracle happy in another respect , that during this long and total degeneracy from the Piety and Vertue of their Ancestors , they did not in the least swerve from them in matter of Faith and Doctrine : A thing incredible , were there not Demonstration for it . Werner * gives this Character of that Time ; About the year of our Lord One Thousand , there began an effeminate Time , in which the Christian Faith begun to degenerate exceedingly , and to decline from its ancient vigour ; insomuch that in many Countries of Christendom , neither Sacraments nor Ecclesiastical Rites were observed — And people were given to Soothsaying and Witchcrafts , and the Priest was like the People . It seems by this Testimony , that Tradition did faulter a little in that Age , else the Christian Faith could not possibly have degenerated and declined so very much : And ( which threatens Mr. S's Demonstration most of all ) that the Practical Tradition of Sacraments , and other Ecclesiastical Observances did fail in many Christian Countries . Gerbert * , who lived in that Time , gives this short Character of the Roman Church , in an Epistle of his to Stephen Deacon of that Church ; The World stands amazed at the Manners of Rome . But most full is the complaint of a great Prelate of the Church * concerning those Times ; In the West ( says he ) and almost all the World over ( especially among those who were called the Faithful ) Faith failed , and there was no fear of God among them : ( it seems the Argument of Fear had lost its force ) Justice was perished from among men , and violence prevailing against equity governed the Nations . Fraud , Deceit , and the Arts of Couzenage were grown universal . All kind of Vertue gave way as an useless thing , and wickedness supply'd its place . The World seemed to be declining apace towards its Evening , and the second coming of the Son of man to draw near : For Love was grown cold , and Fai●h was not found upon Earth . All things were in Confusion , and the World looked as if it would return to its old Chaos . — All sorts of Fornication were committed with the same freedom as if they had been lawful Actions ; for men neither blushed at them , nor were punish't for them . — Nor did the Clergy live better than the People . — For the Bishops were grown negligent of the Duty of their place . &c. In a word , men ran themselves headlong into all Vice , and all Flesh had corrupted its way . And farther to shew the great neglect of Priests and Bishops in the work of Teaching and Instruction ( which is so necessary to the preserving of Tradition inviolable ) I will add the Testimony of one * who lived in those Times ; who tells us , That in those days , the Priests and Bishops , who ought to have been the Pillars of the Church , were so negligent that they did not mind the Divine Scripture ; nor take any care to teach and instruct Scholars that might succeed them , as we read holy Men had used to do , who left many Scholars perfectly instructed to be their Successors . If they had only neglected the Scriptures , all might have been well enough ; but it seems they took no care to instruct people in the way of Oral Tradition , nor to furnish the Church with a new Generation of able Teachers who might deliver down from hand to hand the sense and faith of Fore-fathers . This last Testimony , the late Learned Lord Primate of Ierland , Bishop Vsher ( in his Book De Christian. Eccles. Success . &c. * where several of the Testimonies I have produced , with many more to the same purpose , may be seen ) cites out of a M. S. in Bennet Colledg Library in Cambridg ; concerning the authority of which M. S. there need be no dispute between Mr. S. and me ; because the whole force and effect of this Testimony is sufficiently contained in those Citations which I have brought out of publick and unquestionable Books . § . 4. All these Testimonies which I have produced are , in general and for the substance of them , confirmed by Two of the greatest Props of the Romish Church ; Bellarmine , and Baronius . Bellarmine * says of this Tenth Age , That there was never any either more unlearned , or more unhappy . Baronius * speaks more particularly , What was then the face of the Roman Church ? How deformed ? When Whores , no less powerful than vile , bore the chief sway at Rome ; and at their pleasure changed Sees , appointed Bishops ; and ( which it is horrible to mention ) did thrust into St. Peters See their own Gallants , false-Popes , who would not have been mentioned in the Catalogue of the Roman Popes , but only for the more distinct Recording of so long a Succession of Times . And a little after , Christ was then ( it seems ) in a very deep sleep — And which was worse ; when the Lord was thus asleep there were no Disciples to awaken him , being themselves all fast asleep . What kind of Cardinal Presbyters and Deacons can we think were chosen by these Monsters , when nothing is so natural as for every one to propagate his own likeness ? It is very much that these lewd Women , and their Favourite-Popes , Cardinals , and Bishops who then swayed the Church , should , when they were so careless of their own Souls , be so tender of the salvation of Posterity ; and , when they administred all other affairs of the Church so extravagantly , should be so careful of the main chance , as to transmit the Christian Doctrine entire and uncorrupted to succeeding Ages . Yet Mr. S. hath demonstrated this a Posteriori , which seems so very strange to a man that considers things a Priori . § . 5. But it may be , this dismal state of the Roman Church lasted but a little while ; and she did in the same Age , before Tradition could be interrupted , recover her self out of this degenerate condition . I will therefore enquire a little into the state of succeeding Times . And I find in the Thirteenth Century , St. Bernard * complaining , That the degeneracy of the Priests was in his days greater than ever ; We cannot ( says he ) now say , as is the People so is the Priest ; for the People are not so bad as their Priests . In the Fifteenth Century , Nic. de Clemangiis , who lived in that Time , wrote a Book upon this argument , Of the corrupt state of the Church ; by which we may make some judgment whether in that Age it was ( as Mr. S. says ) impossible but that the Christian Doctrine should be entirely preserved , and faithfully and diligently taught . He says * there was an universal degeneracy in the Church , from the very Head of it to its lowest Members . In the same Chapter he complains , Who is there that preaches the Gospel to the People ? Who shews them the way to Salvation either by Word or Action ? It seems there was a great failure both of Oral and Practical Tradition . Again * , speaking of the Pope's taking to himself the Collation of all vacant Bishopricks and Dignities ; he says , one might think the Pope did this , that the Church might be provided of worthier Governors , both in respect of their Learning , and their lives , did not the thing it self declare the contrary , and that ignorant and useless Persons ( provided they had money ) were by Simony advanced to the highest degrees in the Church . And * , speaking what a vast number of Candidates there was usually at Rome from all Parts waiting for Benefices and Dignities , he tells us , That many of these did not come from their Studies , or from Schools of Learning , to govern Parishes ; but from the Plow , and from the meanest Professions : and that they understood Latin and Arabick much at the same rate ; and many of them could not read at all . But it may be ( says he ) their manners were such as might be some excuse for their Ignorance . No ; though their Learning was but little , their Vertue was less ; for being brought up in Idleness , they followed nothing but Debauchery and Sports , &c. Hence it comes to pass , that in all places there are so many wicked , and wretched , and ignorant Priests — Hence it is that Priests are so contemned by the common People — Formerly the Priesthood was highly honoured by the People , and nothing was more venerable than that Order of men ; but now nothing is more vile and despicable . — * I make no doubt , but there are now more Thieves and Robbers , than true Pastors in the Church . — * Why should any man now flatter himself with hopes of Preferment , because of his Vertue or Learning ? Men do not now ( as formerly ) rise in the Church by such Arts — * Which of those that are now adays advanced to the Pontifical Dignity , hath so much as perfunctorily read , or heard , or learn't the Scriptures ; yea , or ever touched any more than the cover of the Bible ? Again * , speaking of the prodigious Covetousness of the Governors of the Church , and the gross neglect of their Flocks , They would ( says he ) much more contentedly bear the loss of ten thousand Souls , than of ten or twelve Shillings . But why do I say more contentedly ? When without the least trouble or disturbance to themselves , they can bear the loss of Souls ; a thing so far from their care , that it never entred into their thoughts . Had the Hereticks of those days but had Wit enough , and a little Money , they might ( it seems ) for a small Sum have hired the Governors of the Church to have renounced Tradition , or to have ceased to propagate it ; though they had known that in so doing they should have damned all their Posterity . He goes on , and tells us , That if there were perhaps any one who did not take these courses , the rest would all snarle at him , call him Fool , and say he was unfit to be a Priest. — So that the study of the Scriptures ( together with the Professors of it ) was turned into laughter and scorn by all ; but ( which is prodigious ) especially by the Popes , who prefer their own Traditions many degrees before the Commands of God. I desire Mr. S. to take notice in what kind of Times Tradition was set up against Scripture . Again * , speaking of the choice of persons to be Priests , he tells us , That there was no enquiry made into their Lives , no question about their Manners : As for their Learning ( says he ) what need I speak of that ? When we see the Priests , almost universally ▪ have much ado to read , though but in an haesitating and spelling fashion , drawing out one syllable after another , without understanding either the sense of what they read , or the words . I am now reconciled to oral Tradition , and convinced that there was great need of it in those Ages in which scarce any of the Priests could either write or read . I omit the particulars of what he says * concerning the common Drunkenness and Incontinency of Priests , who ( because they made Conscience of Marriage ) kept Whores in their Houses ; concerning the dissolute Lives of Monks ; and concerning Nunneries , which instead of being the Sanctuaries of God , were he abominable Stews of Venus ▪ and the Receptacles of lascivious young men ; insomuch ( says he ) that at this day it is the same thing to put a Virgin into a Nunnery , and to make her a common Strumpet . And to shew that he does not speak these things of a few , but with relation to the general corruption of that Age , he adds * , That wickedness did so abound in all Orders of men , that scarce one among a thousand was to be found who did truly live up to his Profession : And if there was any one that did not follow these lewd courses , he became ridiculous to others , and was branded either as an insolent singular Mad-man , or an Hypocrite . I wil conclude this long Testimony with the character which he gives * of one of the Popes of his time , Clement by name , viz. That he did chiefly apply himself to gratifie and oblige all the Parasites and Buffoons that had any interest in the several Courts of Princes : And to this end , did confer upon these , and upon handsom young Boys ( which he much delighted in ) almost all the vacant Bishopricks , and most of the other Church-D●●●nities . It is well that oral Tradition hath the security of Infallibility , otherwise it had in all probability been lost among this lewd sort of People , which yet they gravely call the Holy Roman-Catholick Church . § 6. To this effect I might have produced Testimonies concerning every Age from the Ninth to the Sixteenth ; but Mr. Cressy hath saved me that labour , who acknowledges * , that these worst times of the Church , when Ignorance , Wordliness , Pride , Tyranny , &c. reigned with so much scope : When the Popes ( so wicked , so abominable in their Lives ) enjoyed so unlimited a power even over secular Princes themselves , and much more over the Clergy : I say , he acknowledges that these worst times continued during the space of about six Ages before Luther : A competent time ( one would think ) for Tradition to have miscarried in , were it not ( as Mr. S. says ) indefectible . Mr. Cressy indeed tells us * , That this was to him an irrefragable Testimony of a strange watchfulness of Divine Providence over the Church , to preserve it from the Gates of Hell ( that is , established and dangerous Errors ) during these worst times . And very likely it is that this might appear so to such a Catholick whose judgment , he tells us , it is to renounce his own judgment : but it will never appear irrefragable , to any man that hath his judgment about him , unless Mr. Cressy can prove , that by that phrase , viz. the Gates of Hell , the Scripture does not mean gross wickedness of Life , as well as dangerous errors in Opinion ; and likewise , that a general viciousness and debauchery of Manners is not as pernicious to Christianity , and as destructive to the end of it , as establish'd Errors in Doctrine : And if so , that the Providence of God is not equally concerned to preserve the Church from things equally pernicious . When he hath proved these three things , then this Declamatory discourse of his may signify something , but not before . § 7. Now if this be a true representation of the state of the Roman Church in those Ages , was not this a very fit time for the Devil to play his Pranks in ? Will any man that reads these Testimonies , think it impossible that the Doctrine of Christ should have been depraved in this Age ; or that the most sensless and absurd Tenets might then be brought in under the notion of Christian Doctrines ? When scarce any one knew what the Doctrine of Christ was : When a general ignorance of Letters ▪ and almost an universal stupidity and madness had seized upon the minds of men : When there was a horrid depravation of manners , and a general failure of Vertue and Piety both in the Head and Members of the Church : When the lives of the Popes were Tragically wicked , and no footsteps of Piety appeared in them : When for about 150 years together , in a continued succession of 50 Popes , there was scarce one pious and vertuous Man ( or Woman ) sate in that Chair : When the Whores governed Rome , and put out , and put in Bishops at their pleasure ; and made their own Gallants Popes , who would be sure to make a Colledge of Cardinals of such Monsters as themselves : When pretty Boys , and Parasites , and Buffoons led the Head of the Church by the Nose , and were gratified with the best Bishopricks and Dignities in the Church : When there was a general decay of knowledg , and defection of the Christian Faith : When in many Countreys neither Sacraments , nor other Ecclesiastical Rites were observed : When Violence and Fraud , and all the Arts of Deceit and Couzenage , and blacker Arts than these , were the common study and practice : When Intemperance , and all kind of Lewdness and Debauchery , reigned in all sorts and orders of men : When the generality of Bishops and Priests ( who , according to Mr. Rushworth * , can only teach the Traditionary Doctrine ) were ignorant in the Scriptures and in every thing else ( very few of them being able so much as to read tolerably ) and did neglect to teach the People , and to breed up any in knowledg to succeed them in their Office ; and in the lewdness of their lives did surpass the vilest of the People . Was not such an Age a fit season to plant the Doctrine of Transubstantiation in ? Or if any thing more monstrous than that can be imagined , it might then have taken place ; for what Weeds would not have grown in so rank a Soyl ? Doth Mr. S. think it impossible , that those that were born in the Church then , should be ignorant of the Doctrine of Christ , when scarce any one would take the pains to teach it them ; or that it could then have been altered , when so few understood , and fewer practised it : When ptodigious Impiety and Wickedness did overspread the Church , from the Pope down to the meanest of the Laity , can any one believe that men generally made Conscience to instruct their Children in the true Faith of Christ ? Was it impossible there should be any neglect of this Duty , when all others failed ? That there should be any mistake about the Doctrine of Christ , when there was so much Ignorance ? unless he be of Mr. Rushworth's * mind , who reckons Ignorance among the Parents of Religion . Where were then the Arguments of Hope and Fear ? Were they strongly applied , or were they not ? Were they causes of actual will in Christians to believe well , when they lived so ill ? Or is Christianity only fitted to form mens minds to a right belief , but of no efficacy to govern their lives ? Hath Christ taken care to keep his Church from Error , but not from Vice ? As the great Cardinal Perron * ( stooping below his own Wit and Reason to serve a bad Cause ) tells us , That the Church sings , and will sing to the end of the World , I am black , but I am fair ; that is to say , I am black in Manners , but fair in Doctrine : As if the meaning of the Prophesies and Promises of Scripture made to the Church were this , that by the extraordinary care of Gods Providence , and peculiar assistance of his Holy Spirit , she should be wicked , but Orthodox to the end of the World. Where were then the vigorous causes imprinting Christ's Doctrine , and continuing it more particularly at Rome than any where else ; and of securing that See and its supreme Pastor in the faith and practice of the Christian Doctrine , above any other See or Pastor whatsoever ? Who is so little versed in History , as not to understand the dismal state of Religion in the Romish Church , in those times ? Who does not know what advantages the Bishops of Rome , and their servile Clergy made of the ignorance and superstition of those and the succeeding Ages ; and by what Arts and steps they raised themselves to that power which they held in the Church for a long while after ? When they could tread upon the necks of Princes ; and make a great King walk bare-foot , and yield himself to be scourged by a company of petulant Monks : When they could send any man upon an Errand to visit the holy Sepulchre , or the Shrine of such a Saint ; and command five or six Kings with great Armies upon a needless expedition into the Holy Land , that so during their absence they might play their own Game the better : When they could mint Miracles , and impose upon the belief of the People ( without the authority of any ancient Books ) absurd and counterfeit Tales of ancient Saints and Martyrs , as delivered down to them by Tradition ; and could bring that foppish Book the Legend , almost into equal Authority and Veneration with the Bible ; and perswade the easy people that St. Denys carried his own head in his hand after it was cut off two miles , and kiss'd it when he laid it down . Any one that shall but reflect upon the monstrous practises of the Roman Bishops and Clergy in these Ages , the strange Feats they played , and what absurdities they imposed upon the superstitious credulity of Princes and People , may readily imagine not only the possibility , but the easiness of innovating new Doctrines as they pleased , under the specious pretences of Antitiquity , and constant and uninterrupted Tradition . § 8. And this kind of Discourse concerning the possibility of Errors coming into the Church , is not , as Mr. White ridiculously compares it * , as if an Orator should go about to perswade people , that George , by the help of a long staff , and a nimble cast of his body , and such like advantages , might leap over Paul 's Steeple ; never considering all the while the disproportion of all these advantages to the height of the Steeple : so ( saith he ) he that discourseth at large how Errors use to slide into mans life , without comparing the power of the causes of Error to the strength of resisting , which consists in this Principle , Nothing is to be admitted but what descends by Tradition , &c. says no more towards proving an Error 's over-running the Church , than the Orator for George 's leaping over the Steeple . How vain is this ? When it appears , from this Instance that I have given of the state of the Roman Church , in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries , and afterwards ; that the causes of Error were infinitely stronger than the power of resistance . The great causes of Error are Ignorance and Vice ; where Ignorance reigns , there 's no Power ; where Vice , no Will to resist it . And how great the Ignorance and Viciousness of all orders of men in the Roman Church was , is too too apparent from the Testimonies I have brought . Where was the strength of resisting Error , when for 150 years together the Popes were the vilest of men , Bishops and Priests overwhelmed with Ignorance , abandoned to all manner of vice , and most supinely negligent in instructing the People ? In such a degenerate state of a Church , what strength is there in this Principle , Nothing is to be admitted but what descends by Tradition ? When those , who ought to teach men what that Doctrine is which was derived to them by Tradition , are generally careless of their Duty , and ignorant themselves what that Doctrine is ; When they addict themselves wholly to the satisfying of their Ambition , and other Lusts , and carry on designs of Gain , and getting Dominion over the People . What can hinder men so disposed from corrupting the Doctrine of Christ , and suiting it to their own Lusts and Interests ? And what shall hinder the People from embracing those Corruptions ? when by the negligence of their Pastors to instruct them , and not only so , but also by their being deprived of the Scriptures in a known Tongue , they are become utterly incapable of knowing what the true Doctrine of Christ is . So that in an Age of such profound Ignorance and Vice , and general neglect of Instruction 't is so far from being impossible for Errors to over-run a Church , that the contrary is morally impossible ; and George's long staff and advantagious cast of his Body are more powerful causes to enable him to leap over Paul's Steeple , than this Principle , That nothing is to be admitted , but what descends by Tradition , is to keep Errors out of a Church in an ignorant and vicious Age ; when few or none are either able or willing to instruct men in the Truth . For suppose this always to have been the Principle of Christians , viz. That nothing is to be admitted as the Doctrine of Christ , but what is descended to them by Tradition : How shall this Principle secure the Church from Heresy , any more than this , viz. That nothing but Truth is to be assented to , doth secure men from Error ? Or more than this , viz. That no man is to do any thing but what is wise and vertuous , does secure the generality of mankind from folly and vice ? SECT . VIII . § 1. SEcondly , The Principles upon which this Demonstration relies are not sufficiently proved by him . His first Principle is this , That Age , which holds her Faith delivered thus from the Apostles , neither can it self have changed any thing in it , nor know or doubt that any Age since the Apostles had changed or innovated any thing therein . This Proposition ( he tells us ) needs no proof to evidence it , but only an Explication . For since no man can hold contrary to his knowledg , or doubt of what he holds , nor change or innovate in the case proposed without knowing he did so ; 't is a manifest impossibility a whole Age should fall into an absurdity so inconsistent with the nature of one single man. But ( by his favour ) that which he says is no proof , but only an Explication , is a proof if it be any thing ; and the force of it this ; That which is inconsistent with the nature if one single man , is manifestly impossible to a whole Age ; but it is inconsistent with the nature of any single man to hold contrary to his knowledg , &c. therefore impossible to a whole Age ; and consequently , that Age which holds her Faith delivered thus from the Apostles , neither can it self have changed any thing , nor , &c. So that in order to the making good of this first Principle , Mr. S. hath left nothing unproved but only this Proposition , namely , That it is impossible that any one single man that holds his Faith to have been delivered uninterruptedly from the Apostles , should either himself have changed any thing in it , or know or doubt that any Age since the Apostles hath changed or innovated any thing therein : And to make out the truth of this Proposition , there only remains this to be proved , viz. That it is impossible for any single man to be mistaken . For if that be possible , then contrary to Mr. S. a man may hold that to have been delivered as a Doctrine of Faith from the Apostles which was not so delivered . § 2. His second Principle is this , That no Age could innovate any thing , and withall deliver that very thing to posterity as received from Christ by continual Succession . He proves it thus ; Since man is a rational Creature , he must have some Reason or Motive , good or bad , which he proposeth to himself as an end to be achieved by his action : And whatever his remote end is , his immediate end , in telling posterity a late invented thing was held immdiately before , is to make them belive it . Wherefore since a seen impossibility cannot be a Motive to one not frantick ; and since 't is evidently impossiible they should make posterity believe a thing so universally known to be false , as this must needs be , &c. it is as impossiible this Principle should faulter , as that the fore-going Age should conspire to act without a motive , or that the succeeding Age should believe what they know to be otherwise , that is , should hold both sides of a Contradiction in a clear matter of Fact. The force of which is this , That it is impossible that any man not frantick should attempt to innovate in matter of Christian Doctrine , because the immediate end of such an attempt must be to have his new Doctrine believed ; but it is impossible he should attain this end , and impossible he should not see that it is impossible to attain it ▪ Now a seen impossibility is an end that cannot move any one that is not frantick ; therefore no man that is not frantick , can attempt to innovate in matter of Christian Doctrine . Thus he hath demonstrated it impossible that there should be any Hereticks , if a Heretick be one that attempts to innovate in matter of Christian Doctrine . For if there be any such attmpters they must be frantick , and if they be frantick they can be no Hereticks ; for Heresie implies a Crime , but God will not impute the actions of mad men to them as faults . Again , suppose he that attempts to innovate be mistaken ( and I hope Mr. S. will grant that a Heretick is fallible ) and think that which he delivers as Christs Doctrine to be really so , though indeed it be not ; why should such a person think it impossible to make men believe that to be received from Christ which he really thinks was received , and thinks he can makes it appear that it was so ? And if this be granted , then it is not impossible that Man , though he be a rational Creature , may attempt to innovate . And if so , then his second Principle is not proved . If Mr. S. had any regard to the noble Science of Controversie ( whereof he pretends to be so great a Master ) he would not bring such trifling Sophisms instead of demonstrative Proofs : And nothing less than a demonstrative Proof will serve to establish any Principle upon which a Demonstration is to be built . SECT . IX . § . 1. DOctrines and Practises which must be acknowledged to have been innovated , have made the same pretence to uninterrupted Tradition . And of this I shall give several Instances ; one among the Jews , the rest among Christians . 1. I shall instance among the Traditionary Jews , whose perswasion in our Saviours time was , and still is , that their Oral Doctrine , which they call their C●bala , hath descended to them from Moses uninterruptedly . Now here is the existence of such a perswasion , as Mr. S. affirms to be impossible without Traditions ever-indeficiency to beget it . And this perswasion of theirs is most exactly parallel with the pretensions of the Romish Church according to Mr. S. For here 's a multitude of Traditionary Jews , manifoldly greater in proportion to the Dissenters in that Church , than the Romish Church is in comparison to those Christians that dissent from Her. Josephus tells us * , That the richer sort were of the perswasion of the Sadduces , but the multitude were on the Pharisees side . So that the Pharisees had this mark of the true Church ( as Bellarmine calls it ) common to them with the Church of Rome , that they were the greatest number , and so they continue to this very day ; insomuch that although they do not call themselves the Catholicks , yet I am sure they call all Jews that do dissent from them Schismaticks . Now that the Sadduces were for the written Law against Oral Tradition , is I confess no credit to us ; but that our Saviour reproved the Traditionary Doctrines and Practises of the Pharisees , because by them they made void the written Law , is much more to the discredit of the Assertors of Oral Tradition . Both Romanists and Pharisees they own alike a written Doctrine , but then they both pretend the true sense and explication thereof to have descended to them by Oral Tradition . For just as the Traditionary Christians do now , so Josephus tells * us the Traditionary Jews of old , the Pharisees , did pretend by their Oral Tradition to interpret the Law more accurately and exactly than any other Sect. In like manner he * tells us , That all things , that belonged to Prayer and Divine Worship , were regulated and administred according to their interpretations of the Law. And they both agree in this , to make void the Word of God by their Tradition ; which the Pharisees did no otherwise than Mr. S. does , by equalling Oral Tradition to Scripture ; nay preferring it above Scripture , in making it the sole Rule of Faith , and interpreting the Scripture according to it . Hence are those common sayings in the Talmud , and other Jewish Books ; Do not think that the written Law is the foundation , but that the Law Orally delivered is the right foundation ; which is to say with Mr. S. that not the Scripture , but Oral Tradition is the true Rule of Faith. Again , There is more in the words of the Scribes ( viz. the Testifiers of Tradition ) than in the words of the written Law. Again , The Oral Law excells the Written , as much as the Soul doth the Body ; which accords very well with what Mr. S. frequently tells us , That the Scripture without Tradition is but a dead Letter , destitute of life and sense . Hence also it is that they required the People ( as the Traditionary Church does now ) to yield up themselves to the dictates of Tradition even in the most absurd things , as appears by that common saying among them , If the Scribes say that the right hand is the left , and the left the right ( that Bread is Flesh , and Wine is Blood ) hearken to them , that is , make no scruple of whatsoever they deliver as Tradition , though never so contrary to Reason or Sense . And lastly , The Doctrines of the Pharisees were many of them practical ; such were all those which concerned external rites and observances , as washing of hands and cups , &c. So that these Pharisaical Traditions had also that unspeakable advantage which Mr. S. says renders their Traditions unmistakeable , That they were daily practised , and came down clad in such plain matters of Fact , that the most stupid man living could not possibly be ignorant of them . Therefore , according to Mr. S's Principles , it was impossible that any Age of the Jews should be perswaded that these things were commanded by Moses and ever since observed , if they had not been so : And yet our Saviour denies these Customs to have been of any such Authority as they pretended . § . 2. But I needed not to have taken all this pains to shew the agreement which is between the Traditionary Jews and Papists , their own Writers so liberally acknowledging it . Mr. White * indeed says , That the Faith of the Jews was not delivered to them Orally , but by Writing ; than which nothing can be more inconsistent with his Hypothesis . For if the Jewish Faith was conveyed to them not Orally , but by Writing , then either the Jewish Church had no sufficient Rule of Faith , or else a Writing may be such a Rule . But other of their Champions make great use of the Parallel , between the Traditionary Jews and the Romish Church , to confirm from thence their own Traditionary Doctrines . Cardinal Perron hath a full passage to this purpose ; As this ( says he * ) is to preserve a sound and entire respect to the Majesty of the ancient Mosaick Scripture , to believe and observe not only all the things which are therein actually contained , but also those things which are therein contained mediately and relatively , as the Doctrines of Paradise , &c. which were not contained therein but mediately , and by the authority which it gave to the deposition of the Patriarchal and Mosaick Tradition , preserved by heart , and in the Oral Doctrine of the Synagogue : So this is to preserve a sound and entire respect to the Majesty of the Apostolical Scripture , to believe and observe all the things which it contains , not only immediately and by it self , but mediately and by reference to the Apostolical Traditions , to which in gross and generally it gives the Authority of Apostolical Doctrines , and to the Church the Authority of Guardian and Depositary to preserve ▪ and attest them . Voysin in his Observations upon Raymundus Martyn , * tells us , That as in the Old Law the great Consistory at Jerusalem was the foundation of the true Tradition , so ( says he ) the See of Rome is the foundation of our Traditions . And as the continual succession of the High Priests and Fathers among the Jews was the great confirmation of the Truth of their Traditions , so ( says he ) with us the Truth of our Catholick Doctrine is confirmed by a continual succession of Popes . § . 3. From all this it appears , that the Pharisees among the Jews made the same pretence to Oral Tradition which the Papists do at this day according to Mr. S. And if so , then Mr. S's Demonstration a Posteriori is every whit as strong for the Jews against our Saviour , as it is for the Papists against the Protestants . For we find that in our Saviour's time , it was then the present perswasion of the Traditionary Jews , that their Faith , and their Rites , and the true sense and interpretation of their written Law was descended from Moses and the Prophets to them uninterruptedly ▪ which we find was most firmly rooted in their hearts . But the Jews had a constant Tradition among them , that the Messiah was to be a great temporal Prince : And though the Letters of the Prophesies concerning him , might well enough have been accommodated to the low and suffering condition of our Saviour ; yet they did infallibly know that their Messiah was to be another kind of person , from sense written in their hearts , from the interpretation of those Prophesies Orally brought down to them from the Patriarchal and Mosaick Tradition preserved by heart and in the Oral Doctrine of the Synagogue , and from the living voyce of their Church essential , that is , the universal consent of the then Traditionary Jews . If it be said , That the Jewish Tradition did indeed bring down several Doctrines not contained in Scripture , of Paradise , of Hell , of the last Judgment , of the Resurrection , &c. ( as Cardinal Perron affirms ) but it did not bring down this Point of the Messiah's being a Temporal Prince : Then as Mr. S. * asks us , so the Jew does him ; By what vertue Tradition brought down those other Points ? and whether the same vertue were not powerful to bring down this as well as those ? Then he will ask him farther , Is there not a necessary connexion and relation between a constant Cause , and its formal Effect ? So that if its formal Effect be Points received as delivered ever , the proper Cause must be an ever-delivery ; whence he will argue from such an Effect to its Cause for any particular Point , and consequently for this Point that is in Controversie between Jews and Christians , concerning the Messiah's being a Temporal Prince , in case it be a Point held ever delivered ; but most certain it is , it was so held by the Jews in our Saviours time , and hath been held so ever since to this day . I shall not trouble the Reader with transcribing the rest of this Demonstration , only desire him as he reads it over , to imagine instead of Mr. S. a Pharisee , demonstrating against one of Christs Disciples the Infallibility of the Oral Tradition of the Jews : And I doubt not but he will find this Demonstration , and every part of it ( changing only the Names ) as forcibly concluding Christ not to be the Messiah , as it doth infer any point of Popery against the Protestants . § . 4. Before I leave this Instance of the Jewish Tradition , I shall briefly consider what Mr. White * hath offered by way of answer to it ; as , First , That the matter of these Traditions is nothing else but Explications of Scripture framed and invented by their own Rabbines . So we say , that the Popish Traditions are Innovations . But then Mr. White , and Mr. S. tell us , That they can demonstrate them to be descended from Christ and his Apostles , because it is the present perswasion of a multitude of Christians that they are so descended . In like manner , if this Demonstration be good , the Jews can prove their Traditions to be descended from Moses and the Prophets . Secondly , He says , that the form of these Traditions is more ridiculous than the Canting of Gypsies , or the jugling of Hocus-pocus , because it consists in inventing the sense of Scripture from the mysteries , and numbers , and changes of Letters . This is a gross inexcusable mistake . For though the Jews have such a Cabala ( called Gematry ) as this which Mr. White describes ; yet that Cabala which is urged in this Instance , and which our Saviour reproves in the Pharisees by the name of Tradition , is quite another thing , and among the Jewish Writers known by the name of the Vnwritten or Oral Law ; which they say was delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai , and by him conveyed to Aaron and Joshua , and the Elders , and successively delivered down from one Age to another ; and at last by Rabbi Jehuda compiled into one Volume , which they call Mishna , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And this does not consist in the Art of Numbring , Combining , or changing of Letters , as Mr. White imagines . But suppose it did so , and were more ridiculous than he conceits it to be ; the Instance would be so much the more conclusive against them , if what they affirm be true , That Oral Tradition is infallible , and that the perswasion of a Traditionary Church in any Age , that such a Doctrine descended to them from Christ or Moses , be a demonstration that it did so : For if this be sufficient evidence , 't is nothing to the purpose what the Doctrine be either for matter or form : For if it be once demonstrated to have come from Christ or Moses , it is without any farther dispute to be received as of Divine authority . So that Mr. White quite alters the state of the question ; which was not whether the Jewish Cabala be absurd and ridiculous , but whether the general perswasion of the Jews in any Age , that it descended to them by uninterrupted Tradition from Moses , be a demonstration that it did so . If it be , then the Jewish Cabala is as demonstratively of Divine Authority as the Oral Doctrine of the Papists . Thirdly , He says , This Cabala was a Doctrine delivered to few , and that with strict charge to keep it from Publicity , and so communicate it again successively to a select Committee of a few ; wherein ( says he ) you may see as fair an opportunity for jugling and couzenage , as in our case there is an impossibility . This I think is true of the Cabala which it ( seems ) Mr. White had only in his view , but is a horrible mistake if he speak of the Oral Law which was contained in the Mishnah , and which this Instance only intends . For of this Maimonides * says expresly , That in every Age , from the time of Moses to Rabbi Jehudah , who compiled the Mishna , the Oral Law was publickly taught : And that after Rabbi Jehudah had compiled it into one Volume , the Israelites did generally write out Copies of it , and it was every where carefully taught , for fear lest the Oral Law should by forgetfulness be last among the Jews . So that upon account of the publickness of the Doctrine , there is as great an impossibility of Jugling and Couzenage in the case of the Jewish as of the Romish Tradition . Besides , was washing of Hands and Cups , which they also pretended to have come down to them from Moses , and to have been constantly practised in every Age , a secret thing ? Was it not a practical Tradition , and performed in a sensible matter ? If therefore no Age can conspire to impose upon the next in a plain custom ; and if an universal Tradition of such a thing cannot come in without such a conspiracy : How could this be the perswasion of any Age , that washing of Hands , &c. was prescribed by Moses and practised in all Ages , if it had not truly been so ? § . 5. Secondly , As for Instances among Christians , whereof many remain yet upon Record ; as namely , the various and opposite Traditions about the time of Easter , and concerning the Baptism of Hereticks ; and the Apostolical Tradition ( as St. Austin calls it ) concerning the admission of Infants to the Communion ; all which have been frequently urged in this Controversie , and none of them yet sufficiently answered ; I shall to avoid tediousness , passing by these , insist only upon that of the Chiliasts ; which in Justin Martyr's time was the perswasion of all Orthodox Christians , that is ( in Mr. S's Dialect ) of all the holders to Tradition . For if notwithstanding the perswasion of that Age , that this Doctrine was descended to them from the Apostles , it was not really so descended ; then the perswasion of Christians in any Age , that a Doctrine was brought down to them from the Apostles , is no Demonstration that it was so . § . 6. To this Instance Mr. White answers * by telling us , that Eusebius says that this Tradition sprang from Papias ( a good but a credulous and simple man ) who it seems was mistaken in saying that it was the Apostles Doctrine . But for all this , Justin Martyr says it was received by all Orthodox Christians in his Time , as a Doctrine descended to them from the Apostles . And if Justin said true , nothing can make more against their Demonstration of the Infallibility of Tradition , than the natural consequence from these two sayings of Eusebius and Justin , which is this , That the mistake of one simple and credulous man may in an Age or two give occasion to the universal entertainment of a Doctrine , as descended down to them from Christ and his Apostles , when there was no such matter . Hath not Mr. White now done his Rule of Faith great service by this Answer ? But it is according to his manner in all his Writings , to say any thing to remove a present Objection , though never so much to the prejudice of his main Hypothesis ; then which I do not know any quality in a Writer which doth more certainly betray the want either of judgment , or of sincerity , or of a good Cause . § . 7. And whereas he says * , That Irenaeus his testimony proves it to be no Tradition ; for he sets down the supposed words of our Saviour , which plainly shews it is a story , not a Tradition ; a Tradition being a sense delivered not in set words , but setled in the Auditors hearts by hundreds of different expressions explicating the same meaning . When I consider this passage of Mr. White , I confess I cannot complement him , and say ( as he makes his Nephew do in the Dialogue * between them ) I cannot but applaud your Discourse , it hath so pleasing and attractive a countenance . And again * , I am not able to oppose what you say by any weighty Objection , your Arguments being not only strong and nervous , but of so comely and winning a complexion , &c. I cannot ( I say ) speak all this of his present Argument . But I may deservedly apply to it the last part of his Nephew's Complement , That it is an Argument so framed , as if without any evidence of its consequence it would perswade men to believe it . But to return an Answer to this passage : It seems ( according to Mr. White ) that Irenaeus was mistaken in the very nature of Tradition : and if so learned a Father was ignorant in the common Rule of Faith , what can we ( to use Mr. S's words * ) undertakingly promise to weaker heads ? Mr. S. instanceth in the Creed , and Ten Commandments , as the principal Traditions which Parents teach their Children ; but now Mr. White can shew plainly that these are no Traditions but Stories , because Tradition is a sense delivered not in set words , &c. As if Christ and his Apostles could deliver no Doctrine unless they expressed the same thing an hundred several ways . But suppose they did so ( which no man hath any reason to imagine , because a thing may be expressed as plainly by one way as by an hundred ) can no man deliver this Tradition who speaks it in any one of those expressions ? If one should employ his Servant to carry a Message , and ( because Mr. White thinks this necessary ) should settle the meaning of it in his heart , by telling him the same thing in an hundred several expressions ; and the Servant should go and deliver this Message in one of those very expressions that his Master used to him , and should say these were his Masters very words ; would not this be well enough ? No , if he had come to such a Philosopher as Mr. White , he would soon have given him to understand that he was not fit to bring a Message , or to be credited in it , who had so little wit as not to know that a Message is a thing not to be delivered in set-words . And now I would entreat Mr. White to reconcile himself in this matter to his Friends . Mr. Rushworth says * , 'T is impossible to put fully and beyond all quarrel the same sense in divers words : Which if it be true , I would fain know what certain course Mr. White can prescribe to explicate the same meaning by hundreds of different expressions , and consequently how Tradition can be infallibly conveyed by setling the sense of it in the Auditors hearts by such variety of expressions . Mr. Cressy * likewise ( a zealous Assertor of Tradition ) does affirm , That the Primitive Churches were even to excess scrupulous in maintaining the very phrases of Traditionary Doctrines ; which ( according to Mr. White ) plainly shews these Doctrines to be stories , not Traditions , because Tradition is a sense delivered not in set-words . The same Author complains , * That few among their learnedst Masters of Controversie , propose the Points to be disputed between them and the Protestants , in the Language of the Church . By which I suppose he does not mean , that these Controvertists were to blame in that they did not settle the sense of these Points by hundreds of different expressions explicating the same meaning , but that they did not keep to the words wherein the Church had in Councils or otherwise ( if there be any other way ) declared her sense of those Points . Again * he says , That St. Paul , referring to the Doctrine setled by Oral Instruction , to shew the uniformity of it everywhere , calls it a form of wholsom words . From whence we may conclude either that St. Paul did not well to call the Traditionary Doctrine ( as Mr. Cressy says he does ) a form of words , or else ( which is more probable ) that Mr. White is mistaken in saying , That a Tradition is a sense not delivered in set-words . Furthermore , the same Mr. Cressy * tells us , That St. Augustine was careful not only to deliver Traditional Truths themselves , but the terms also in which those Truths were conveyed to his Times . But now Mr. White could have informed St. Augustin , that this officious care of his was not only superfluous , but pernicious to Tradition . § . 8. But to return to Justin's Testimony ; to which the summe of Mr. Whites answer is , That Justin esteem'd it not as a point necessary to salvation ; but rather a piece of Learning higher than the common : Since he both acknowledges other Catholicks held the contrary , and entitles those of his perswasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 right in all opinions , that is , wholly of his own mind . It is not material to my purpose , whether or no Justin look'd upon this as a point necessary to Salvation , so long as it is evident that he looked upon it as a Divine Revelation and part of the Christian Doctrine . And yet it seems he thought it a point of more than ordinary importance , because he joins it with the Doctrine of the Resurrection , and says that it was not disowned by any but those who also denied the Resurrection . But whereas Mr. White says that Justin acknowledges other Catohlicks to have held the contrary , I hope to make it evident from the scope and series of his Discourse , that he acknowledges no such thing ; but that the plain design of his Discourse , is to shew that this Doctrine was owned by all true Christians . For when Trypho asks him * , Whether the Christians did indeed believe that Jerusalem should be re-built , &c. He returns him this answer , I am not such a Wretch as to speak otherwise than I think . I have told thee before that my self and many others ( as ye all know ) are of the mind that this will come to pass . But , that many indeed of those Christians who , are [ not ] of the pure and pious perswasion , do not own this , I have intimated to thee . That the negative particle ( though omitted in the Copy ) ought to be thus inserted , will be clear to any one that considers what follows . For after he had spoken of those who disown this Doctrine , he immediately adds by way of further description of them , that though they are called Christians yet in Truth they are not Christians , in these words ; For of these ( viz. the Disowners of this Doctrine ) who are called indeed Christians , but are atheistical and impious Hereticks , I have shewed thee that they teach in all Points blasphemous , atheistical and absurd things . But that ye may know that I do not say this for you only ; I will , according to my ability , compile all these Discourses which have past between us into one piece ; in which I will by Writing make Profession of this very thing which I now declare to you . For I do not choose to follow men or the Doctrines of men , but God and such Doctrines as are from him . And though ye may have conversed with some who are called Christians , and yet do not acknowledg this ; but even dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham , and the God of Isaac , and the God of Jacob ; who also say that there is no Resurrection of the dead , but that so soon as they dye their Souls are received into Heaven : Do not count these men Christians ; no more than a man , that considers things rightly , would own the Sadduces and such like Sects to be Jews , &c. But I my self , and as many Christians as are thoroughly of the right perswasion , do both know that there shall be a Resurrection of the Flesh , and a thousand years in Jerusalem which shall be built , adorned and enlarged , &c. Can any thing be plainer than that Justin endeavours by this Discourse to satisfie Trypho , that this Point they were speaking of was a Divine Doctrine , and owned to be so by all Christians ; except such as did only bear the Name and Title of Christians , but were indeed blasphemous Hereticks and deniers of the Resurrection ? By which Character that he intends to describe the impious Sects of the Gnosticks , will appear by and by . So that Mr. White must either allow the inserting of the negative Particle ( which Mr. Mede * proves to have been omitted in the Copy ) or else acknowledg that those who are Christians only in Name , but in Truth are impious blasphemous and absurd Hereticks , may properly be said to be of the pure and pious Opinion of the Christians . And if only these be the other Catholicks , whom Mr. White says Justin acknowledges to have held contrary to the Millenaries , I am contented he should make his best of them . If Mr. White should blame the inserting of the negative particle [ not ] into Justin's Text , as too great a boldness with the Fathers ; it were easily answered , that the sense evidently requires it . And in such a case it is no boldness , but such a liberty as the most Learned of their own Interpreters and Commentators upon the Fathers do frequently take . And for Mr. S. if he takes offence at this , one may with reason ( since the exigency of the sense plainly requires the inserting of it ) demand of him ( what he * unreasonably does of us in relation to all the affirmative Propositions of Scripture ) to demonstrate that the particle [ not ] was not left out of this Clause of Justin , by those who Transcribed the Book . But besides the exigency of the sense in this place ; that the negative ought to have been inserted , will appear by the reference which Justin makes in this passage to something foregoing in the same Dialogue . I have ( says he ) declared to thee before that my self and many others are of the mind that this will come to pass . But , that many indeed of those Christians , who are [ not ] of the pure and pious perswasion , do not own this , I have intimated to thee . For of these , who are called indeed Christians but are Atheistical and Impious Hereticks , I have shewed thee that they teach in all Points blasphemous , atheistical , and absurd things . In these words he plainly refers to some precedent passage , which if it can be found will be a certain Key to open to us the sense of this place . I know that Mr. Mede * ( perhaps not observing it ) thought that passage to have been fraudulently expunged by the Enemies of the Millenary Opinion : But it seems to me to be still extant . For I find towards the beginning of this Dialogue , after that Justin had endeavoured to prove at large out of Scripture this glorious coming of Christ , and to refute those who applied the Texts produced by him to that purpose to Hezekiah , and to Solomon whose falling off to Idolatry he occasionally mentions ; whereupon Trypho objects to him that many who were called Christians , did also communicate in the Idol-feasts : To this , I say , I find Justin returning this answer * : First , He denies not that there are such as these who own themselves Christians , and confess the crucified Jesus to be both Lord and Christ , and yet teach not his Doctrines , but the Doctrines of seducing spirits . But , says he , We who are the Disciples of the true and pure Doctrine of Jesus Christ are from this very thing the more strengthned in our Faith , and become more confirmed in the Hope which by him hath been declared to us . For we now see those things visibly and effectually accomplish't which he before-hand told us would be done in his Name . For he said , Many shall come in my Name , &c. By which Hope any one that reads the Antecedents and Consequents will plainly see that Justin means the Hope of the Millennium ( which he had been speaking of before ) and consequently of the Resurrection , which he looked upon as having a strict Connexion with the Doctrine of the Millennium ; because ( as he tells us afterwards ) this Doctrine was denied by none but such as also denied the Resurrection . And of these men his description runs on in these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Many ( saith he ) both are and have been , that have come in the Name of Jesus , and taught both to speak and do atheistical and blasphemous things ; and are by us denominated from those men from whom each of their Doctrines and Opinions had its rise ( namely as it follows Marcionites , Valentinians , &c. ) and all these in their several ways teach men to blaspheme the Creator of the Vniverse , and the Christ whose Coming was foretold by him , and the God of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob. But we have no communion with them , as knowing them to be atheistical and impious , &c. This passage in hand , when I compare it with the Text before quoted and consider the words and characters of them both , I cannot but believe it the very same that he refers to in those words , I have declared to thee , I have intimated to thee , &c. If so , the matter in Controversie is clear , that the Doctrine of the Millennium was universal . If it be not the same , I could wish to be shew'd some other place in this Dialogue , where Justin makes any such Declaration or Intimation . In the mean while by comparison of these places , it is evident there are but two sorts of men that Justin speaks of . First , Who believe the Millennium ; We the Disciples * of the true and pure Doctrine , &c. viz. My self and many others ; again , my self and as many Christians as are thoroughly * of the right perswasion . Secondly , Who deny the Millennium ; Many Christians , saith Justin ; but what Christians ? Of a right perswasion ? That , saith he , I have signified before . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. For I have shewed thee of them who are called Christians , but are indeed Atheists and impious Hereticks , that they teach blasphemous and atheistical and absurd things : And true it is , he did shew before that those who deny'd the Millennium were many in number , and were called Christians , &c. but were Teachers of blasphemous and atheistical things , &c. and known to be Atheists and Impious , &c. But he shewed it of none other besides these . So that if this Doctrine were likewise denied by many Christians of the pure and pious perswasion , than Justin Martyr had foulely forgot himself . But if not , then it is plain that the Transcribers have wronged Justin by leaving out a Negative which ought to have been inserted . It is worth observing by the way how Mr. White pleases himself with false and frivolous Criticisms upon the words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . False they are , as Mr. White shall know if he desires to hear any more of them ; and frivolous they are rendered by my preceding Discourse ; for which reason I say no more of them . But I think he may do well hereafter ( as Mr. S. * warily suggests ) not to engage himself , nor be hook't by others , out of his own infallible way , but leave it wholly to the * Bird-witted Hereticks ( as Mr. S. calls them ) to perch upon the specifical natures of Words , as he does of Things . § . 9. Besides these Instances I have given of Doctrines and Practises which Mr. S. cannot deny to have been innovated , I might instance likewise in the chief Points of Popery , and shew that for all their pretence to Tradition , they are really Innovations . But because this would engage me in tedious Disputes about particular Points , I will only single out one of their most fundamental Doctrines , viz. that of Transubstantiation ; concerning which I shall shew that , notwithstanding it is the universal perswasion of the present Roman Church , yet they have not , nor can have any assurance that it was the Doctrine of Christ , and that it is descended to them by an uninterrupted Tradition . I shall not at all contend against the word Transubstantiation ( which is generally acknowledged to be new ) but only the thing signified by it , a substantial change of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. And this I might shew at large not to have been the Doctrine of the ancient Fathers . But because Mr. White , and Dr. Holden , and Mr. Cressy do so frequently and confidently tell us , that nothing is to be reputed a Traditionary Doctrine the contrary whereof hath been publickly held by any Catholick who continued afterwards uncensured , and in the Communion of the Church : Therefore I shall content my self at present with one clear Testimony , and that of a very eminent Person in the Church , St. Theodoret , concerning whom Pope Leo ( in an Epistle to him , at the end of Theodoret's Works ) gives this Testimony , That in the judgment of the Apostolick See he was free from all stain of Heresie . The passage I intend is in his Dialogues , between a Catholick under the name of Orthodoxus , and Eranistes who susteined the person of an Heretick . Eranistes * maintaining that the Body of Christ was changed into the substance of the Divinity , he illustrates it by this similitude . As ( says he ) the Symbols of the Lords Body and Blood are one thing before the invocation of the Priest ; but after the invocation are changed and do become another thing : So the Body of our Lord , after his Ascension , is changed into the Divine substance . To which Orthodoxus returns this answer , Thou art caught in thine own Net. Because the mystical Symbols after Consecration do not pass out of their own Nature ; for they remain in their former substance , figure , and appearance , and may be seen and handled even as before . He does not only in express words deny the substance of the Symbols to be changed , but the occasion upon which these words are brought in , and the scope of them ( if they be of any force against the Hereticks illustration ) renders them uncapable of any other sense . When Mr. S. hath answered this Testimony , I have more for him . That which I mainly urge against this Doctrine is , the monstrous Absurdities and Contradictions contained in it , together with the necessary consequence of them . Several of the Absurdities of it are well brought together by Scotus * , who tells us , That to prove the possibility of Christs Body being contained under the species of Bread and Wine many things must be proved which seem to involve a Contradiction ; as , 1. That one quantum ( or extended Body ) may be together in the very same place with another . 2. That a less quantum may be together in the same place with a greater ; i. e. a Body of less extension may occupy not only the same , but as much room as a Body of greater extension does ; which is to say no more but this , that a Body less than another may be as great as that other even whil'st it is less than it . 3. That a greater quantum may be together with every part of a less quantum , i. e. a Body that is greater than another , may be as little as the least part of that other Body which is less than it . 4. That a subject may be without quantity , i. e. there may be a Body which hath no kind of Magnitude . 5. That a Body may be somewhere where it was not before , without changing its place , i· e. a Body may be removed to another place , whil'st it remains still in the same place ▪ 6. That a quantum may be without any quantitative Mode , i. e. a Body may be extended without any manner of extension . The possibility of all which , he saith ( and I am very much of his mind ) it would be too tedious a work to prove ; and therefore he only attempts to prove the two last , which ( in all reason ) is work enough for one man. All these seeming Contradictions ( as he modestly calls them ) are by his own acknowledgment involved in this Doctrine . To these I might add many more ; as , How a thing can be said to be changed into another thing which did exist before ? How a Body can be present in a place after the manner of a spirit ? and yet this they affirm concerning the presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament ; one might as well say that Snow is black , but not after the manner of blackness , but in the way of whiteness , which is to talk non-sense after the manner of sense : How the whole Body of Christ can be contained under the least sensible part of the species of Bread , as is generally affirmed : nay , and Scotus * adds , that the whole Body is under every little part in its full proportions ; for he says expresly , That the Head and Foot of the Body of Christ are as far distant from one another in the sacrament , as they are in Heaven ; as if one should say that a Body , all whose parts lye within the compass of a small pins-head , may yet within that little compass have parts two yards distant from one another : And lastly , how the sensible species of Bread , e. g. quantity , whiteness , softness , &c. can exist without any subject ? to affirm the possibility of which ( as generally they do ) is to say that there may be quantities of white and soft nothings ; For this is the plain English of that assertion , that sensible species may exist without a subject ; which being strip't of those terms of Art ( species and subject ) that do a little disguise it , it appears to be plain Non-sense . Now the proper and necessary consequence of this Doctrine is to take away all certainty , and especially the certainty of sense . For if that which my sight and taste and touch do all assure me to be a little piece of Wafer , may notwithstanding this be Flesh and Blood , even the whole Body of a man ; then notwithstanding the greatest assurance that Sense can give me , that any thing is this or that , it may be quite another thing from what Sense reported it to be . If so , then farewel the Infallibility of Tradition , which depends upon the certainty of Sense : And which is a worse consequence , if this Doctrine be admitted we can have no sufficient assurance that the Christian Doctrine is a Divine Revelation . For the assurance of that depending upon the assurance we have of the Miracles said to be wrought for the confirmation of it , and all the assurance we can have of a Miracle depending upon the certainty of our senses , it is very plain that that Doctrine which takes away the certainty of Sense does in so doing overthrow the certainty of Christian Religion . And what can be more vain than to pretend , that a man may be assured that such a Doctrine is revealed by God , and consequently true , which if it be true , a man can have no assurance at all of any Divine Revelation ? Surely nothing is to be admitted by us as certain , which being admitted we can be certain of nothing . It is a wonder that any man who considers the natural consequences of this Doctrine can be a Papist ; unless he have attained to Mr. Cressy's pitch of Learning , who speaking of the difficult Arguments wherewith this Doctrine was pressed , says * plainly , I must answer freely and ingenuously , that I have not learned to answer such Arguments , but to despise them . And if this be a good way , when ever we have a mind to believe any thing to scorn those Objections against it which we cannot solve ; then Christian Religion hath no advantage above the vilest Enthusiasms ; and a Turk may maintain Mahomet and his Alcoran ( in opposition to Christ and his Doctrine ) against all that Grotius , or any other hath said , if he can but keep his countenance , and gravely say , I have not learned to answer such Arguments , but to despise them . § . 10. I will add one Instance more in another kind , to shew the uncertainty of Oral and Practical Traditions , and that shall be the Tradition concerning Pope Jone ; than which scarce any was ever more generally received in the Historical kind . Many and great Authors affirm it , as Testifiers of the general Fame . None ever denied it till the Reformers had made use of it to the disadvantage of Popery . Since that time not only Papists deny it , but several of our own Writers cease to believe it . Phil. Bergomensis tells the story thus : Anno 858. John the 7 th , Pope , &c. The Tradition is that this person was a Woman , &c. Here 's an Oral Tradition . He concludes thus ; In detestation of whose filthiness , and to perpetuate the memory of her Name , the Popes even to this day going on Procession with the People and the Clergy , when they come to the place of her Travel , &c. in token of abomination they turn from it , and go a by-way ; and being past that detestable place , they return into the way , and finish their Procession . Here is one Practical Tradition . And for avoiding of the like miscarriages , it was decreed that no one should thereafter be admitted into St. Peter 's Chair priusquam per foratam sedem futuri Pontificis genitalia ab ultimo Dyacone Cardinale attractarentur : Here is another with a Witness . * Sabellicus relates the same ; and moreover says that this Porphyry Chair was in his time to be seen in the Popes Palace . He adds indeed that Platina thinks that this Tradition of Pope Jone was not faithfully delivered to Posterity . But however ( says he ) such a Tradition there is . Concerning the first Practical Tradition , Platina says that he may not deny it . For the second , he thinks the Chair rather design'd for a Stool for another use , &c. He concludes , These things which I have related are commonly reported , yet from uncertain and obscure Authors : Therefore I resolved ( says he ) briefly and nakedly to set them down , lest I should seem too obstinately and pertinaciously to have omitted that which almost all affirm . It is no wonder that he says the Authors of this Report were uncertain and obscure , since so very few writ any thing in that Age. But suppose none had writ of it , so long as he acknowledges it to have been a general Oral Tradition attested by a solemn and constant Practice , it has ( according to Mr. S's Principles ) greater certainty than if it had been brought down to us by a hundred Books written in that very Age. So that here 's an Oral and Practical Tradition , continued we are sure for some hundreds of years , preserved and propagated by a solemn practice of the Popes , Clergy and People of Rome in their Processions , and by a notorious Custom at the Election of every Pope ; and in a matter of so great importance to their Religion ( the honour of the See of Rome , and the uninterrupted Succession from St. Peter being so nearly concerned in it ) that , had it been false , they had been obliged under pain of Damnation , not only not to have promoted it , but to have used all means to have discovered the falsity of it . Therefore Mr. S. is bound by his own Principles either to allow it for a Truth , or else to give an account when and how it begun ; which may possibly be made out by We Metaphysitians ( as he * styles himself , and his Scientifical Brethren ) but I assure him it is past the skill of * Note-book Learning . SECT . X. § . 1. IT is not the present perswasion of the Church of Rome , nor ever was , that their Faith hath descended to them by Oral Tradition as the sole Rule of it . And this being proved , the Supposition upon which his Demonstration is built falls to the ground . And for the proof of this , I appeal to that * Decree of the Council of Trent , in which they declare , That because the Christian Faith and Discipline are contained in written Books and unwritten Traditions , &c. therefore they do receive and honour the Books of Scripture and also Traditions [ pari pietatis affectu ac reverentiâ ] with equal pious affection and reverence ; which I understand not how those do , who set aside the Scripture , and make Tradition the sole Rule of their Faith. And consonantly to this Decree , the general Doctrine of the Romish Church is , that Scripture and Tradition make up the Rule of Faith. So the Roman Catechism ( set forth by order of the Council of Trent ) says * that the sum of the Doctrine delivered to the Faithful is contained in the Word of God , which is distributed into Scripture and Tradition . Bellarmine * speaks to the same purpose , That the Scripture is a Rule of Faith , not an entire but partial one . The entire Rule is the Word of God , which is divided into two partial Rules , Scripture , and Tradition . According to this , the adequate Rule of Faith is the Word of God ; which is contained partly in Scripture ▪ and partly in the Tradition of the Church . And that Scripture is look't upon by them as the principal Rule and primary foundation of their Faith , and Tradition as only supplying the defects of Scripture , as to some Doctrines and Rites not contained in Scripture , must be evident to any one that hath been conversant in the chief of their controversial Divines . Bellarmine * where he gives the marks of a Divine Tradition speaks to this purpose , That that which they call a Divine Tradition is such a Doctrine or Rite as is not found in Scripture , but embraced by the whole Church ; and for that reason believed to have descended from the Apostles . And he tells us further * , That the Apostles committed all to Writing , which was commonly and publickly Preached ; and that all things are in Scripture , which men are bound to know and believe explicitely : But then he says , that there were other things which the Apostles did not commonly and publickly teach ; and these they did not commit to Writing , but delivered them only by word of mouth to the Prelates and Priests and perfect men of the Church . And these are the Apostolical Traditions he speaks of . Cardinal Perron * says , That the Scripture is the foundation of the Christian Doctrine , either mediately or immediately . And that the Authority of unwritten Tradition is founded in general on these sentences of the Apostle , * Hold the Traditions , &c. Again , * The things which thou hast heard of me among many Witnesses commit to faithful men , &c. And that the Authority of the Church to preserve , and especially to declare these , is founded in this Proposition , viz. * That the Church is the pillar and ground of Truth . So that according to him , the primary Rule of Faith is the Scripture , in which the Authority of Tradition is founded . Mr. Knott * says expresly , We acknowledg the H. Scripture to be a most perfect Rule , for as much as a Writing can be a Rule ; we only deny that it excludes , either Divine Tradition , though it be unwritten , or an external Judg to keep , to propose , to interpret it , &c. So that ( according to him ) Scripture is a perfect Rule , only it does not exclude unwritten Tradition , &c. By which that he does not understand ( as Mr. S. does ) a concurrent Oral Tradition of all the same Doctrines which are contained in Scripture , but other Doctrines not therein contained , is plain from what he says elsewhere * , We do not distinguish Tradition from the written Word , because Tradition is not written by any , or in any Book or Writing ; but because it is not written in the Srripture or Bible ; Bellarmine * also says the same . And as for the interpreting of Scripture , he tells us that this is not the office of a Rule , but of a Judg. * There is ( says he ) a great and plain distinction between a Judg and a Rule . For as in a Kingdom the Judg hath his Rule to follow , which are the received Laws and Customs ; which are not fit or able to declare , and be Judges to themselves , but that Office must belong to a living Judg : So the Holy Scripture is and may be a Rule , but cannot be a Judg. Here he makes the Scripture as much a Rule for matters of Faith , as the Laws of the Land are for Civil matters . And in his Reply to Mr. Chillingworth , he hath a Chapter of above 150 Pages , the Title whereof is , Scripture is not the only Rule of Faith ; which ( had he with Mr. S. believed Oral Tradition to be the sole Rule of Faith ) had been as absurd as it would be to write a Book to prove that Turks are not the only Christians in the World. Mr. Cressy likewise ( not very consistently to himself ) lays down this Conclusion ; * The entire Rule of faith is contained not only in Scripture , but likewise in unwritten Tradition . § . 2. Now all this is as contrary as can be to Mr. Rushworth's new Rule of Faith. Therefore Mr. White says * , They speak ill who teach that some things are known in the Church from Scripture , some by Tradition . And Dr. Holden ( in opposition to those who make Scripture any part of the Rule of Faith ) advances one of the most wild and uncharitable Positions that ever I yet met withall , viz. * That if one should believe all the Articles of the Catholick Faith , &c. for this reason because he thought they were all expresly revealed in Scripture , or implicitely contained so as they might be deduced from thence , and would not have believed them had he not judged that they might be evinced from Scripture ; yet this man could be no true Catholick : Because ( as he tells us afterwards * ) we must receive the Christian Doctrine as coming to us by Tradition ; for only by this means ( excluding the Scriptures ) Christ hath appointed revealed Truths to be received and communicated . In the mean time Cardinal Perron ( unless he altered his mind ) is in a sad case , who believed the Authority of Tradition it self for this reason , because it was founded in Scripture . § . 3. And this fundamental difference about the Rule of Faith , between the generality of their Divines and Mr ▪ S's small party , is fully acknowledged by the Traditionists themselves . Dr. Holden says * , That their Divines who resolve Faith according to the common Opinion , do inevitably fall into that shameful Circle ( of proving the Divine Authority of the Scripture by the Church , and the Infallibility of the Church back again by the Scripture ) because they dare not build their Faith upon the natural evidence and certainty of Tradition . So that Dr. Holden's way of resolving Faith , is different from the common Opinion of their Divines , which he says * does not differ from the Opinion of those who resolve their Faith into the private Spirit ; and this ( according to Mr. White * ) is the very way of the Calvinists , and of the absurdest Sects . Nay , Mr. White says farther * , That he will be content to suffer all the punishment that is due to Calumniators , if the Roman Divines ( he there speaks of ) do not hold the same Rule of Faith with the Calvinists , and all the absurdest Sects . So that it seems that the Calvinists , &c. do not in their Rule of Faith differ from the Papists , but only from Mr. White , Mr. S. &c. Now the Divines he there speaks of , are the Censors of Doctrines at Rome , according to whose advice his infallible Holiness and the Cardinals of the Inquisition do usuall proceed in censuring of Doctrines . Concerning these Divines he goes on to expostulate in this manner ; * Shall we endure these men to sit as Censors and Judges of Faith , who agree with Hereticks in the very first Principle which distinguishes Catholicks from Hereticks ? Again * , These are thy gods O Rome ! upon these thou dependest , whil'st prating Ignorance triumphs in the Roman Colledg . And he says the same likewise of the generality of their School-Divines , whom he calls Scepticks , because they do not own his Demonstrative way . Insomuch that he tells us * , That few sound parts are left uninfected with this Plague of Scepticism * ; that this is an universal Gangrene * ; that there are but few that go the way of Demonstration , and these are either wearied out , or else live retiredly , or despair of any remedy of these things . And indeed all along that Book he bemoans himself and his Traditionary Brethren as a desolate and forlorn Party , who have Truth on their side , but want company and encouragement . So he tells us * , That the true scientifical Divines dare not profess their knowledg , lest they should be exposed by the Sophisters of their Church to the derision and scorn either of their Judges or of the People . § . 4. So that upon examination of the whole matter , it appears that Mr. S's Demonstration proceeds upon a false Supposition , That it is the perswasion of their present Church , that Tradition is the sole Rule of Faith. For there is no such matter ; unless Mr. S. mean by their Church a few private persons , who are look'd upon by those who have the chief power in their Church as Heretical : as we may reasonably conjecture by the proceedings at Rome against Mr. White ; many of whose Books are there condemned * , as containing things manifestly Heretical , erroneous in the Faith , rash , scandalous , seditious , and false respectively , &c. And all this done , notwithstanding that the chief subject of those Books is the explication and defence of this most Catholick Principle , That Oral Tradition is the only Rule of Faith. To sum up then the whole business : If nothing be to be owned for Christian Doctrine ( as the Traditionists say ) but what is the general perswasion of those who are acknowledged to be in the communion of the Roman Catholick Church ; then much less can this Principle ( That Oral Tradition is the sole Rule of Faith ) which is pretended to be the foundation of the whole Christian Doctrine , be received as descended from Christ and his Apostles ; since it is so far from being the general perswasion of that Church at the present , that it has been , and still is generally disowned . But Mr. White has a salvo for this . For although he grant * , That very many of their School-men maintain that Tradition is necessary only for some Points , not clearly expressed in Scripture , whence ( he says ) it seems to follow that they build not the whole Body of their Faith upon Tradition : yet he tells us there is a vast difference betwixt relying on Tradition , and saying or thinking we d● so , Suppose there be ; yet I hope that mens saying that they do not rely on Tradition as their only Rule , is a better evidence that they do not , than any mans surmise to the contrary is that they do , though they think and say they do not ; which is in effect to say that they do ; though we have as much assurance as we can have that they do not . Besides , how is this Rule self-evident to all , even to the rude Vulgar as to its ruling power ( as Mr. S. affirms it is ) when the greatest part even of the Learned among them think and say that it is not the only Rule ? But Mr. White endeavours to illustrate this dark point by a - * similitude , which is to this sense ; As the Scepticks who deny this Principle , That Contradictions cannot be true at once , yet in their lives and civil actions proceed as if they owned it : So the Schoolmen , though they deny Tradition to be the only Rule of their Faith , yet by resolving their Faith into the Church which owns this Principle , they do also in practice own it , though they say they do not . So that the generality of learned Papists are just such Catholicks as the Scepticks are Dogmatists , that is a company of absurd people that confute their Principles by their practice . According to this reasoning , I perceive the Protestants will prove as good Catholicks as any , for they do only think and say that Tradition is not the Rule of Faith ; but that they practically rely upon it , Mr. S. hath past his word for them : For he assures us * ( and we may rely upon a man that writes nothing but Demonstration ) that if we look narrowly into the bottom of our hearts , we shall discover the natural method of Tradition to have unawares setled our Judgments concerning Faith ; however when our other Concerns awake design in us , we protest against it , and seem perhaps to our unreflecting selves to embrace and hold to the meer guidance of the Letter of Scripture . So that in reality we are as good Catholicks , and as true holders to Tradition as any Papist of them all , at the bottom of our thoughts and in our setled judgments ; however we have taken up an humour to protest against it , and may seem perhaps to our unreflecting selves to be Protestants . § . 5. Thus much may suffice to have spoken to his two great Arguments ; or * as he ( good man ) unfortunately calls them Demonstrations ; which yet to say truth are not properly his , but the Authors of Rushworth's Dialogues , the main foundation of which Book is the substance of these Demonstrations . Only before I take leave of them , I cannot but reflect upon a passage of Mr. S s * wherein he tells his Readers that they are not obliged to bend their brains to study his Book with that severity as they would do an Euclid ; meaning perhaps one of Mr. White 's Euclids ; for it does not appear by his way of Demonstration that ever he dealt with any other . As for the true Euclid , I suppose any one that hath tasted his Writings , will at the reading of Mr. S's unbend his brains without bidding , and smile to see himself so demurely discharged from a study so absurd and ridiculous . SECT . XI . § . 1. I Should now take into consideration his Ninth Discourse , in which he pretends to open the incomparable strength of the Churches humane Authority , and the Advantages which accrue to it by the supernatural assistances of the Holy Ghost : But that there is nothing material in it , which hath not been answered already . Only I desire him to explain , how the supernatural Assistances of the Holy Ghost can ( according to his Principles ) add to our assurance of the certainty of Tradition . Because we can have no greater certainty of the supernatural Assistance of the Holy Ghost , than we have that there is an Holy Ghost , and of this we can have no certainty ( according to Mr. S. ) but by Tradition , which conveys this Doctrine to us . And if Tradition of it self can infallibly assure us that there are supernatural Assistances of the Holy Ghost , then a man must know that Tradition is infallible antecedently to his knowledg of any supernatural Assistance . And if so , what can any supernatural Assistance add to my assurance of the certainty of Tradition , which I do suppose to be infallible before I can know of any supernatural Assistance ? Can any thing be more ludicrous , than to build first all our certainty of the Assistance of the Holy Ghost upon the certainty of Tradition , and then afterwards to make the certainty of Tradition to rely upon the Assistance of the Holy Ghost ? As if that could contribute to our assurance of the certainty of Tradition , which unless Tradition be first supposed certain , is it self wholly uncertain . § . 2. The Conclusion of this Ninth Discourse is somewhat Extatical ; possibly from a sudden disorder of his fancy upon the contemplation of his own performances , to see what a Man he has made himself ( with the help of Rushworth's Dialogues ) or rather what his Party has made him by the Office they put upon him : For it seems ( by his telling ) * Mr. Cressy and the rest are ordained to cajoll the Fools , leaving him the way of Reason and Principles ; and that himself is chosen out to Demonstrate to the Wise , or those who judg of things per altissimas causas In the discharge of which glorious Office he declares that he intends no Confutation of those Authors which Mr. Cressy and others have medled with : Yet if any will be so charitable as to judg he hath solidly confuted them , because he hath radically and fundamentally overthrown all their Arguments , &c. he shall rejoyce and be thankful . That the * intelligent Reader ( for he writes to none but such ) may also rejoyce with him , I shall recite the whole passage , for it is thick of Demostration , and as likely as any in his Book to have the altissimas causas contained in it . § . 3. * It would require a large Volume to unfold particularly how each virtue contributes to shew the inerrable indeficiency of Tradition , and how the Principles of almost each Science are concerned in demonstrating its Certainty : Arithmetick lends her Numbring and Multiplying Faculty , to scan the vast Number of Testifiers ; Geometry her Proportions to shew a kind of infinite strength of Certitude in Christian Tradition , above those Atté stations which breed Certainty in humane Affairs ; Logick her skill to frame and make us see the connexions it has with the Principles of our Vnderstanding ; Nature her Laws of Motion and Action ; Morality her first Principle that nothing is done gratis by a cognoscitive Nature , and that the Body of Traditionary Doctrine is most conformable to Practical Reason : Historical Prudence clears the Impossibility of an undiscernable revolt from Points so descended and held so Sacred ; Politicks shew this to be the best way imaginable to convey down such a Law as it concerns every man to be skilful in ; Metaphysicks engages the Essences of Things , and the very notion of Being which fixes every Truth , so establishing the scientifical Knowledges which spring from each particular Nature by their first Causes or Reasons exempt from change or motion . Divinity demonstrates it most worthy God and most conducive to bring Mankind to Bliss . Lastly , Controversie evidences the total uncertainty of any thing concerning Faith if this can be uncertain , and makes use of all the rest to establish the Certainty of this First Principle . A very fit conclusion for such Demonstrations as went before . It is well Mr. S. writes to none but intelligent Readers ; for were it not a thousand pities , that so manly , and solid , and convincing a discourse as this should be cast away upon fools ? SECT . XII . § . 1. AS for his Corollaries , supposing them to be rightly deduced from his former Discourses , they must of necessity fall with them . For they signifie nothing but upon this supposition that his fore-going Discourses are true . And yet this being granted , it were easie to shew that most of them are grosly faulty . For , First , Several of them are plainly coincident . The second , viz. None can with right pretend to be a Church but the followers of Tradition , is the very same in sense with the 11 th viz No company of men hang together like a Body of a Christian Commonwealth or Church , but that which adheres to Tradition . So likewise the 12 th and 14 th are contained in the 15 th : The 16 th , and 17 th , in the 19 th : The 16 th 17 , 18 th , and 19 th in the 21 st . And the 32 d and 34 th in the 31 st . Secondly , Divers of them are manifestly absurd , as the 12 th , 13 th , 14 th , 16 th , 17 th , 18 th , 19 th , the sum of which is , That there is no arguing against Tradition from Scripture , or the Authority of the Church , or Fathers and Councils , or from History and Testimonial Writings , or from contrary Tradition , or Reason , or any Instances whatsoever ; which is as much as to say , If this Proposition be true , That Tradition is certain , then it cannot by any kind of Argument be proved to be false . But is this any peculiar Consectary from the truth of this Proposition ? Doth not the same follow from every Proposition ? That if it be true , it cannot be proved to be false ; yet no man was ever yet so frivolous , as to draw such a consequence from the supposed truth of any Proposition . His 23 d also is singularly absurd , That there is no possibility of arguing at all against Tradition rightly understood , or the living voyce of the Catholick Church , with any shew of Reason . These are large words . It might have contented a reasonable man to have said , that no good Argument could be brought against it : But he is jealous of his Hypothesis , and can never think it safe till it be shot-free ; nor will that content him , but it must be also impossible for any one to make a shew of shooting at it . This were , I confess , a peculiar priviledg of Mr. S's Discourses above other mens ; if they were ( as he says ) by evidence of Demonstration so secured , that not only no substantial Argument could be brought against them , but that even the most subtile Schoolman of them all should not be able to come near them with so much as a videtur quod non . But it may be he means no more by this Corollary , than what he said in the 18 th , viz. That no solid Argument from Reason can be brought against Tradition : If so , then the sense of his 23 d Corollary must be this , That there is no possibility of arguing at all against Tradition with any solid shew , or substantial shadow of Reason ; which would be a little inconvenient . I will instance but in one more , his 40 th , which is this , The knowledg of Traditions Certainty is the first knowledg or Principle in Controversial Divinity ; i. e. without which nothing is known or knowable in that Science . Which is to infer , that because he hath with much pains proved the certainty of Tradition , therefore it is self evident , i. e. needed no proof . Nay , it is to conclude the present matter in Controversie and that which is the main debate of his Book to be the first Principle in Controversial Divinity , i. e. such a Proposition as every one ought to grant before he can have any right to dispute about it . This is a very prudent course , to make begging the question the first Principle in Controversie ; which would it but be granted , I am very much of his mind that the method he takes would be the best way to make Controversie a Science ; because he that should have the luck or boldness to beg first , would have it in his power to make what he pleased certain . § . 2. Were it worth while , I might further pursue the Absurdities of his Corollaries . For they are not so terrible as he makes shew of , by his telling Dr. Casaubon * , That Sure-footing and its Corollaries may put him out of his Wits : Which though intended for an Affront to the Doctor , yet it may be mollified with a good interpretation ; for if the reading of wild and phantastical stuff be apt to disorder a very learned head , then so far Mr. S's saying may have truth in it . It remains only that I requite his 41 Corol. not with an equal number , but with two or three natural Consectaries from the Doctrine of his Book . First , No man can certainly understand the meaning of any Book whatsoever ▪ any farther than the Contents of it are made known to us by a concurrent Oral Tradition . For the Arguments whereby he and Mr. Rushworth endeavour to prove it impossible without Tradition to attain to the certain sense of Scripture , do equally extend to all other Books . Secondly , The memory of matters of Fact done long ago may be better preserved by general Rumor than by publick Records . For this is the plain English of that Assertion , That Oral Tradition is a better and more secure way of Conveyance than Writing . Thirdly , That the Generality of Papists are no Christians . For if ( as he affirms ) Tradition be the sole Rule of Faith , and those who disown this Rule be * ipso facto cut off from the Root of Faith , i. e. unchristian'd ; And if ( as I have shewn ) the Generality of Papists do disown this Rule : Then it is plain that they are no Christians . THE RULE of FAITH . PART IV. Testimonies concerning the Rule of Faith. SECT . I. § . 1. THus far in the way of Reason and Principles . The rest is Note-book Learning , which he tells us he is not much a Friend to ; and there is no kindness lost , for it is as little a Friend to him and his Cause as he can be to it . I shall first examine the Authorities he brings for Tradition ; and then produce express Testimonies in behalf of Scripture . In both which I shall be very brief ; in the one , because his Testimonies require no long Answer ; in the other , because it would be to little purpose to trouble Mr. S. with many Fathers , who for ought appears by his Book is acquainted with none but Father White , as I shall shew hereafter . By the way , I cannot much blame him for the course he uses to take with other mens Testimonies ▪ because it is the only way that a man in his circumstances can take ; otherwise , nothing can be in it self more unreasonable , than to pretend to answer Testimonies by ranking them under so many faulty Heads ; and having so done , magisterially to require his Adversary to vindicate them , by shewing that they do not fall under some of those Heads , though he have not said one word against any of them particularly ; nay , though he have not so much as recited any one of them ; for then the Trick would be spoiled , and his Catholick Reader who perhaps may believe him in the general , might see Reason not to do so if he should descend to particulars , which ( as he well observes ) would make his * Discourse to look with a contingent Face . § . 2. I begin with his three Authorities from Scripture ; which when I consider , I see no reason why he ( of all men ) should find fault with my Lord Bishop of Down's Dissuasive for being so * thin and sleight in Scripture-Citations . Nor do I see how he will answer it to Mr. Rushworth , for transgressing that prudent Rule of his , viz. * That the Catholick should never undertake to convince his Adversary out of Scripture , &c. For which he gives this substantial Reason , * because this were to strengthen his Opponent in his own Ground and Principle , viz. That all is to be proved out of Scripture ; which he tells us presently after is no more fit to convince , than a Beetle is to cut withall ; meaning it perhaps of Texts so applied as these are which follow . * This shall be to you a direct way , so that Fools cannot err in it . * This is my Covenant with them , saith the Lord ; my Spirit which is in thee , and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart from thy mouth , and from the mouth of thy Seed , and from the mouth of thy Seeds seed from henceforth for ever . * I will give my Law in their bowels , and in their hearts will I write it : From which Texts if Mr. S. can prove Tradition to be the only Rule of Faith , any better than the Philosophers Stone or the Longitude may be proved from the 1 Cap. of Genesis , I am content they should pass for valid Testimonies : Though I might require of him ( by his own Law ) before these Texts can signifie any thing to his purpose , to demonstrate that this is the Traditionary sense of these Texts , and that it hath been universally in all Ages received by the Church under that Notion ; and then to shew how it comes to pass that so many of the Fathers , and of their own Commentators have interpreted them to another sense : And lastly , to shew how Scripture which has no certain sense but from Tradition , and of the sense whereof Tradition cannot assure us , unless it be the Rule of Faith ; I say , how Scripture can prove Tradition to be the Rule of Faith , which can prove nothing at all unless Tradition be first proved to be the Rule of Faith. This I take to be as shameful a Circle as that wherewith Dr. Holden upbraids the generality of his Brethren . § . 3. I proceed to his Authorities from Fathers and Councils ; all which ( not one of them excepted ) he hath taken out of Mr. White 's Tabulae Suffragiales , without the least acknowledgment from whom he had them . And that it might be evident that he had not consulted the Books themselves for them , he hath taken them with all their faults , and with the very same errors of Citation which Mr. White had been guilty of before him . So that though he is pleas'd to say of himself that * he he is a bad Transcriber ▪ yet I must do him that right , to assure the Reader that he does it very punctually and exactly . § 4. He begins with Councils , of which he tells us he will only mention three in several Ages . The first is the First Synod of Lateran . One might have expected , after he had told us he would mention three in several Ages , he should have produced them according to the order of Time , and have begun with the Council of Sardica , which was near 300 years before the Lateran . But there was a good reason why the Lateran should be first produced viz. because it is mentioned before the other in Mr White 's Book . Well , but what says this Synod ? We all confess unanimously and consequently , with one heart and mouth , the Tenets and Sayings of the Holy Fathers ; adding nothing , substracting nothing of those things which are delivered us by them ; and we believe as the Fathers have believed , we Preach so as they have taught . The force of which Testimony Mr. S. lays upon the Word delivered , as if that Word where-ever it is met with in Councils or Fathers , must needs be understood of oral delivery ; whereas it is a general Word indifferently used for conveyance either by writing , or word of mouth . In this place it plainly refers to the writings of particular Fathers , out of whom a long catalogue of Testimonies against the Heresie of the Monothelites had been read just before this Declaration of the Synod . Now what signifies this to oral Tradition's being the Rule of Faith , that this Synod declares her Faith , in opposition to the Heresie of the Monothelites , to be consonant in all things to those Testimonies which had been produced out of the Fathers ? The next is the Council of Sardica ; out of an Epistle of which Council he cites these words , We have received this Doctrine , we have been taught so , we hold this Catholick Tradition , Faith and Confession . Which are general words , and indifferently applicable to Oral Tradition , or Writing , or both . But be they what they will , Mr. S. ought not to have been ignorant , that this Council was rejected by St. Austin and other Orthodox Fathers , as * Binnius acknowledges ; and which is more , that the latter part of this Epistle ( out of which part Mr. S. cites these words ) which contains a Confession of Faith , is by * Baronius ( and after him by Binnius ) proved to have been surreptitiously added . For though it be found in Theodoret , and mentioned by Sozomen ; yet Baronius thinks that it was the Arian Confession composed by the false-Synod of Sardica which sate at the same time ; and that Sozomen lighting upon it , perhaps mistook it for the Confession of the Orthodox Synod of the same name . However that be , he proves out of Athanasius , and from the Testimony both of the Eastern and Western Bishops , that the Council of Sardica did not so much as add one word or tittle , no nor so much as explain any thing in the Nicene Faith. But Mr. White sayes nothing of this , and therefore Mr. S. could not , who is no Speculator in these matters , but only as a Testifier delivers down these authorities to us as he received them by hand from Mr. White ; and if the word Tradition be but in them , they are Demonstrative . As for his Testimonies from the 2 d Council of Nice ( which he calls the 7 th General Council ) who pretended their Doctrine of Image-worship to have descended to them by an uninterrupted Tradition , and proved it most doughtily by Texts of Scripture ridiculously wrested , by impertinent sayings out of obscure and counterfeit Authors , and by fond and immodest Stories ( as is acknowledged by Pope * Adrian the 6 th ) of Apparitions and Womens Dreams , &c. for which I refer the Reader to the Council it self ; which is such a mess of Popperies , that if a general Council of Atheists had met together with a design to abuse Religion by talking ridiculously concerning it , they could not have done it more effectually : I say , as for his Testimonies from this Council , I shall refer Mr. S to that Western Council under Charles the Great , which a little after at Francford condemned , and also fully confuted the Decisions of this Council , calling their pretended Tradition of Image-worship [ putidissimam Traditionem ] a most stinking Tradition . These are his authorities from Councils ; Where ( says he ) we see General Councils relying on the Teaching of the Fathers or fore-going Church , and on the Churches Tradition as their Rule , &c. Where does he see any such matter ? Or where does he see General Councils ? Was the Council of Lateran a General one ? Or was the Council of Sardica ? If it was , let him shew how the 2 d. of Nice could be the 7 th . General Council . Mr. White must write more explicitly , and say which are General Councils , which not , otherwise he will lead his friends into dangerous mistakes . § 4. After ancient Councils ( not so ancient neither ) let us ( says he ) give a glance at Fathers . Glance is a modest word , and yet I doubt whether ever the Fathers had so much as that from him . Before I speak particularly to his Testimonies from the Fathers , I shall mind him of what Mr. Rushworth says in general , viz. * That who seeks Tradition in the Fathers , and to convince it by their Testimony , takes an hard task upon him , &c. Again * , As in other Points , so even in this of the Resolution of Faith , as Doctors seem to differ now-adays , so might the Fathers also . If this be true , Mr. S. is not very likely by a few Testimonies out of the Fathers to prove that Tradition is the sole Rule of Faith. But let us see what he has done towards it . He begins with a saying of Pope Celestine to the Fathers of the Ephesin Council . Now therefore we must act with a common endeavor to preserve things believed , and retained to this very time by Succession from the Apostles . Binnius's other Reading [ of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] quite spoils the force of this Citation which Mr. S. puts upon the word Succession . But read it how he will ; why may not the Christian Doctrine be said to come by Succession from the Apostles , when it is transmitted to us by Scripture , as well as when by oral Tradition ? I am sure the same Celestine in an Epistle to Cyril , commends him for defending the Faith by Scripture , This ( says he ) is a great Triumph of our Faith , to demonstrate our Opinions so strongly , and to overthrow the contrary by Testimonies from Scripture . And neither in this Epistle , nor the other , does he make any mention of Oral Tradition . Next he cites that known place in Irenaeus , But what if the Apostles had not left us the Scriptures , ought we not to follow the Order of Tradition , & c. ? This makes clearly against him ; for it implies , that now the Apostles have left us the Scriptures , we ought to follow them . The other passage he cites out of Irenaeus , Lib. 1. c. 3. is a clear eviction that he did not consult the Book . For he puts two sayings together which he had met with in Mr. White immediately one after the other ; and because Mr. White had cited Lib. 1. c. 3. for the first saying , and brought in the other immediately upon it with an ( Et rursus ) Again , &c. Therefore Mr. S. ( who is of a right Traditionary temper , which is to take things easily upon trust himself , and require Demonstration from others ) concluded that these sayings were in the same place , though in truth they are in several Books . As for the Testimony it self , there is nothing in it to Mr. S's purpose besides the word Tradition , which Irenaeus does often apply to Scripture as well as Oral Tradition ; and there is nothing in this place to determine it to Oral Tradition . His Testimonies out of Origen will do him less stead : For every one that hath been conversant in the Writings of that Father , knows what he means by the Churches Tradition preserved by order of Succession , viz. The mystical Interpretations of Scripture , which ( he says ) were delivered by the Apostles to the Governors of the Church , and by them down from hand to hand . If this be the Tradition Mr. S. contends for , Origen is at his service ; if it be not , I assure him he is not for his turn . Next comes Tertullian , concerning whom ( as also Origen ) the Papist upon occasion thinks it enough to reply in St. Hierom's words * , As for Tertullian , I have nothing to say of him but that he is not a man of the Church . Whatever he was , these are his words , If thou beest but a Christian , believe what is [ traditum ] deliver'd . And here 's nothing again but the word deliver'd ; which ( as I have said ) is indifferent to Written or Oral Tradition , if the Circumstances do not determine it to one ; as here they do ( very unluckily for Mr. S. ) to the Scripture . For he disputes here against Marcion , who denied the Flesh of Christ ; and who to maintain that , denied his Nativity , and * expunged the whole History of it out of the Gospel ; But ( saith Tertullian ) by what authority dost thou do this ? If thou be a Prophet , foretell something ; If an Apostle , preach publickly ; If Apostolical , be of the Apostle's mind ; If no more but a Christian , believe what is delivered . And where delivered ? But in those Instruments or Books of the Gospel out of which ( as Tertullian immediately before tells us ) Marcion had made bold to expunge this Story . As for his Testimonies out of Athanasius , the two first of them prove nothing but that Faith comes down from our Ancestors , or was by them delivered to us ; which no body denies : Nor is there a word in either of them concerning oral , in opposition to written Tradition . The third Testimony is out of an Epistle to Epictetus , to whom Athanasius writing concerning those who held Christ's Body to be Consubstantial with his Divinity , tells him this was so gross a conceit that it needed no sollicitous confutation ; but that it would be a sufficient answer to say in general the Orthodox Church was not of that mind , our Fathers did not think so . From whence Mr. S. infers that Tradition is held by him a sole sufficient Rule of Faith , and the only Answer to be given why we reject Points from Faith , &c. But if he had consulted the Book , he would not have inferred that this was the only Answer to be given , &c. For it immediately follows , But lest from our being wholly silent , these Inventers of evil things should take occasion to be more impudent , it will be good to recite a few passages out of Scripture , &c. And from thence he confutes them at large . It was so gross an Error that he thought it might be sufficient , without bringing particular arguments out of Scripture against it , to say that it was contrary to the ancient Faith ; but yet lest they should ( if he had said no more ) have taken boldness from thence , and thought that nothing more could be said against it , therefore he confutes it from particular Texts of Scripture . And what in his opinion was the sufficient Rule of Faith , Mr. S. might have seen at the beginning of this Epistle from these words , That Faith which was professed by the Fathers in that Council ( viz. the Nicene ) according to the Scriptures , is to me sufficient , &c. It seems that Scripture was to him the Rule and Standard whereby to judg even the Creeds of General Councils . Mr. S. says he will be shorter in the rest , and so will I. For what is to be said to Testimonies brought at a venture ? when he that brings them , had he read the Books themselves , could not have had the face to have brought them . Such is this out of * Clem. Alezand . As if one of a Man becomes a Beast , like those infected with Circes poyson ; so he hath forfeited his being a Man of God and faithful to our Lord , who spurns against Ecclesiastical Tradition , and leaps into Opinions of human Election . Mr. S. knows whose way of quoting this is , to pick a bit out of the midst of a Text that sounds something towards his purpose , and leave out the rest which would make it evident to be meant just contrary . Yet I cannot charge this wholly upon Mr. S. whose implicit Faith were it not for his culpable Ignorance might excuse him . But for his Seducer Mr. White , how he can acquit himself of so foul an Imputation , I leave it to any ingenuous Papist to judg when I have nakedly set the whole passage before him . Clemens speaking of Hereticks who relinquish the Scripture , or abuse it by wresting it to their lusts , says , Men who deal in matters of highest importance must needs commit great Errors , if they do not take and hold the RVLE OF TRVTH from Truth it self . For such men having once deviated from the right way , do likewise err in most particulars ; probably because they have not the Faculty of distinguishing Truths and Falshoods perfectly exercised to choose what ought to be chosen . For if they had this , they would be ruled by the Divine SCRIPTVRES . [ Therefore as if any of Mankind should become a Beast , in such sort as those who were * bewitched by Circe ; even so he hath lost his being a Man of God and abiding faithful to the Lord , who hath spurned against the Tradition of the Church , and skipt into the Opinions of human Sects * , ] ( not of human Election , as Mr. S. blindly following Mr. Wh. does most absurdly translate it ) , but he that hath returned from his Errors , and hearkned to the SCRIPTVRES , and conformed his life to the Truth , is as it were advanced from a Man to a God. At the same rate he goes on for several Pages together , taking the Scriptures for an indemonstrable Principle , from which all Divine Doctrines are to be demonstrated , and for the Criterion whereby they are to be tried ; and charges the Hereticks in such words as we cannot find fitter for our Adversaries , As ( says he ) naughty Boys shut out their School-master , so these drive the Prophecies out of the Church , suspecting that they will chide and admonish them ; and they patch together abundance of falshoods and fictions that they may seem RATIONALLY not to admit the Scriptures . Again , speaking of these Hereticks affronting the Scriptures , he tells us they oppose the * Divine Tradition with human Doctrines * by other Traditions [ delivered from hand to hand ] that they may establish a Sect or Heresie . Again he says , they adulterate the Truth , and steal the Rule of Faith , &c. but for ORAL Frauds they shall have WRITTEN Punishments . But enough of this ; whosoever desires to see more of it , let him read on where these men to their shame have directed us , and see whether any Protestant can speak more fully and plainly in this Controversy . The whole trust of the Papists is upon the equivocal sense of the word Tradition . Which word is commonly used by the Fathers to signify to us the Scriptures or Divine Tradition as Clement here calls it ; but the Papists understand it of their unwritten Tradition , and to this they apply all those passages in the Fathers where Tradition is honourably mentioned . So Mr. S. deals with us , in the Testimonies I have already examined : And there is nothing of argument in those few which remain but from the ambiguity of this Word ; which I need not shew of every one of them in particular , for whosoever shall read them with this Key will find that they are of no force to conclude what he drives at . § 5. As for his Citations out of the Council of Trent , by which he would prove it to be the perswasion of their present Church , that Tradition is the sole Rule of Faith ; I have already shewn that that Council hath declared otherwise , and is otherwise understood by the chief of their own Writers , And therefore he did prudently to conceal in an &c. those choaking words , in which the Council declares itself to receive and honour , with equal pious affection and reverence , the Books of Scripture and unwritten Traditions . And after a great deal of shuffling , what a pitiful Account is it that he at last gives of that Council's putting Scripture constantly before Tradition , because Scripture being interpreted by Tradition , is of the same Authority as if an Apostle or Evangelist were present , and therefore no wonder they honour Scripture-Testimony so as to put it before Tradition ; which is to say , that because Scripture is subordinate to Tradition and to be regulated by it , therefore it deserves to be put before it . Besides if Scripture and Tradition be but several wayes of conveying the Evangelical and Apostolical Doctrine , why should he imagine an Evangelist or Apostle to be more present by the Scripture than by oral Tradition ? Especially if it be considered , that he supposes Scripture to be an uncertain , and Tradition an infallible way of conveying this Doctrine . SECT . II. § 1. ALL that now remains , is to confirm the precedent Discourse by Testimonies of the most eminent Persons of the Church , in several Ages . in which I shall not need to be large , being so happily prevented by that full Account which is given of the sense of the Ancients in this matter , in the Answer to Labyrinthus Cantuariensis ; which Mr. S. may if he pleases consult for his further Conviction . § 2 I begin with the Historical Account which Eusebius gives of committing the Gospel to writing ; which is to this purpose , viz * ▪ That the Romans were not content with the Doctrine Preached , unless it were also committed to writing ; and therefore did earnestly beg of Mark , Peter's Companion , that he would leave them a Monument in writing of that Doctrine which had been deliver'd to them by word of mouth . And this was the occasion of the writing of St. Mark 's Gospel . And when Peter did understand that this Work was publish'd ( being suggested by the Divine Revelation of the Holy Spirit ) it is said he was very much pleased with the ready and earnest desire of those Persons ; and that by his Authority he confirmed this Writing , to the end that it might be every where read in the Church . As for St. Matthew and St. John , he tells us * , That of all the Disciples they two only have left monuments in Writing ; of whom it is also reported that they betook themselves to write , being drawn thereto by necessity . Matthew after he had preached the Word of God to the Jews , and was resolved to go to other Nations , wrote his Gospel in the Language of his Countrey ; and thus by the diligence and pains of Writing , did abundantly supply the the want of his presence to those whom he left . And when Mark and Luke had published their Gospel , it is reported that John ( who had always used to preach the Word without writing it ) being at length wrought upon by the same reason did betake himself to write . From this account it is clear , that the Apostles thought it necessary for the preservation and secure conveyance of the Christian Doctrine , that it should be put into Writing ; and that they judged this a better way to supply the want of their presence , than oral Tradition . Therefore the same Author tells us * , That the Disciples , who immediately succeeded the Apostles , as they travelled to preach the Gospel to those who had not yet heard the Word of Faith , did with great care also deliver to them the Writings of the Holy Evangelists . Again * , That Ignatius as he travelled towards Rome ( where he was to suffer ) exhorted the Churches of every City to hold fast the Tradition of the Apostles ; which ( as also by Writing he testified ) for greater security he held necessary to be copied in Writing . § 4. That the Hereticks of Old made the same pretence which the Papists make now , of oral Tradition in opposition to Scripture , the same Eusebius tells us ; and withal , that Books are a sufficient confutation of this pretence * . Those ( says he ) who were of the Heresie of Artemon , said that all their Fore-fathers and the Apostles themselves had received and taught the same things which they also did ; and had preserved the true Teaching unto the time of Victor Bishop of Rome , whose Successor Zephyrinus corrupted it . And this ( saith he ) would have great probability , were it not first of all contradicted by the Scripture ; and next if there did not remain the Writings of other Brethren much more ancient than Victor 's time , &c. in the Books of all whom Christs Divinity is acknowledged . And afterwards he tells us that these Hereticks did change and corrupt the Scriptures to bring them to their Opinions ; so Mr. S. tells us that the outward Letter of Scripture ought to be corrected by Tradition and Sense written in mens hearts . St. Hierom also tells us * , That the Hereticks were wont to say , we are the Sons of the Wise , who did from the beginning deliver down to us the Apostolical Doctrine ; but he adds , that the true Sons of Judah adhere to the Scripture . § 4. That Scripture is sufficiently plain in all things necessary . St. Chrysostome * , All things in the Divine Scriptures are plain and straight . Whatsoever things are necessary are manifest . St. Austin having spoken of the profoundness of Scripture , adds * , Not that those things which are necessary to Salvation are so hard to be come at : But ( saith he ) when one hath there attained Faith without which there is no pious and right living , there are besides , many dark and mysterious things , &c. Again * , The manner of speech in Scripture how easie is it to all , though few can penetrate to the bottom of it ? Those things which it plainly contains , it speaks without disguise like a familiar Friend to the heart of the learned and unlearned . How will Mr. S. reconcile this with his grand Exception against Scripture ? And what these things are , which are plainly contained in Scripture , the same Father tells us else-where , in these words * , Among those things which are plainly set down in Scripture , all those things are to be found which comprehend Faith and good Manners . The same St. Austin ( as also Clement in the Book which Mr. White quoted ) for the understanding of obscure Texts of Scripture directs us not to Tradition , but to the plain Texts , without which he expresly says * there would be no way to understand them . § 5. That Scripture is so plain , as to be fit to determine Controversies . Justin sure thought so , when disputing with Trypho , concerning a point wherein the Jew had Tradition on his side , he told him he would bring such proofs ( to the contrary ) as no man could gain-say : Attend ( says he ) to what I shall recite out of the Holy Scriptures , proofs which need not to be explained , but only to be heard . Mr. White might have found likewise much to this purpose in his Clement . But not to tire my Reader in a Point which the Ancients abound with , I shall only produce the judgment of Constantine * in that solemn Oration of his to the Council of Nice ; wherein he bewails their mutual oppositions , especially in Divine things ; concerning which they had the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit Recorded in Writing ; For ( says he ) the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles , and the Oracles of the old Prophets , do evidently teach us what we ought to think of the Divine Majesty . Therefore laying aside all seditious contention , let us determine the matters in question by Testimonies out of the Divine Writings . Not a word of any other Tradition but Scripture , which was held evident enough in those days , though now Mr. S. tells us it is not sufficient to decide that Controversy about the Divinity of Christ. § 6. Lastly , That Scripture is the Rule of Faith. Irenaeus * , The method of our Salvation we have not known by any other but those men by whom the Gospel came to us , which then they preached , but afterwards by the Will of God delivered it to us in the Scriptures , to be for the future the foundation and pillar of our Faith. St. Cyprian the Church hath ever held a good Catholick ; yet Mr. S. * takes notice that he erred in a Point of Faith , and perhaps the rather because Mr. Rushworth * had told him that he was not theirs in this Controversy . For ( says he ) St. Cyprian seems to think that the Resolution of Faith was to be made into Scripture , and not into Tradition . But that we may not seem to accept of this of courtesie from him , nor yet wholly to despise it , I shall offer this one Testimony instead of many out of that Father ; who being opposed with an Argument from Tradition , demands * , Whence have you that Tradition ? Comes it from the Authority of the Lord , and of the Gospel , or from the Epistles of the Apostles ? For God testifies that we are to do those things which are written , &c. If it be commanded in the Gospel , or contained in the Epistles or Acts of the Apostles , then let us observe it as a Divine and Holy Tradition . Hilary * commends Constantius the Emperor for regulating his Faith only according to those things which are written . And to oblige him to deserve this commendation , he adds , He who refuses this is Antichrist , and who dissembles in it is Anathema . * Optatus , concerning the Controversy with the Donatists , asks who shall be Judge ? and answers himself , the Scriptures : Which he illustrates by the similitude of a Father who delivered his Will orally to his children while he was living , but when he was dying caused it to be written in lasting Tables , to decide all Controversies that might happen among them after his death . The passage is large , and it is obvious to apply it . Basil maintaining the Doxology as it was used in his days , says * , Thus we received it from our Fathers ; but adds immediately , This is not enough for us , that it is the Tradition of the Fathers , for they followed the Authority of the Scriptures , making its Testimonies the Principles upon which they built . He has indeed in the same Book * a passage much insisted on by the Papists concerning unwritten Traditions ; but withal he says those Traditions were secretly conveyed , which makes all the rest of no use to Mr. S. Chrysostom * having mentioned several Heresies , directs how they may be avoided , viz. By attending to the Faith delivered , and looking upon all that disagrees from that as adulterate . For ( says he ) as those who give Rules do not put men upon a curious enquiry after many measures , but bid them keep to the Rule given ; so is it in Opinions . But no body will attend to the Scriptures ; if we did , we should not only not fall into Errors our selves , but also rescue those that are deceived . Again * , If we would be throughly conversant in the Scriptures , we should be instructed both in right Opinions and a good life . Again , among the many Sects of Christians * it will be easie to judge of the right , if we believe the Scriptures , because these are plain and true ; If any one agree with these , he is a Christian ; if he contradict them , he is far from this Rule . St. Austin calls the Scipture * the Divine Balance for the weighing of Doctrine . Again , the Holy Scripture ( sayes he ) fixeth the Rule of our Doctrine . And accordingly himself uses it both in his Dispute with Maximinus , to whom he sayes * , Neither ought I now to alledg the Nicene Council , nor thou that of Arminium ; for neither am I bound to the Authority of the one , nor thou of the other . Let us both contest with the Authorities of Scripture which are Wtinesses common to us both . And also against the Donatists in these words * , Let them if they can demonstrate their Church not by the Talk and Rumors [ or oral Tradition ] of the Africans , not by the Councils of their own Bishops , not by the Books of their Disputers , not by deceitful Miracles , &c , but by the prescript of the Law , Prophets , &c. i. e. by all the Canonical Authorities of the Holy Books . Hierom saith * , Of those things , which without the Authorities and Testimonies of the Scripture men invent of their own heads as from Apostolical Tradition , they are smitten with the Sword of God. Theophilus Alexandr . whom Hierom hath Translated , calls Scripture more than once * the Rule , and the Testimonies of it the firm foundations of Doctrine . And again saith * , It comes from a Demonical spirit that men follow the Sophisms of humane minds , and think any thing Divine that wants the Authority of Scripture . Theodoret * charges all Heresies upon the not following of Scripture , which he calls the inflexible Rule of Truth . Again , We have have learned the Rule of Opinions from the Divine Scripture . After the Fathers , I shall produce the Testimonies of two Eminent Persons of latter Times , Gerson and Lyra. Gerson in his * Book of the Tryal of Doctrines , hath this remarkable passage ; In the Tryal of Doctrines that which is first and principally to be considered is , Whether a Doctrine be conformable to the H. Scripture , &c. The reason of this is , because the Scripture is deliver'd to us as a SVFFICIENT and INFALLIBLE RVLE for the Goverment of the whole Ecclesiastical Body and its Members to the end of the world . So that it is such an Art , such a Rule or Exemplar , that any other Doctrine which is not conformable to it , is to be renounc'd as Heretical , or to be accounted suspicious , or not at all appertaining to Religion . Again , * It is evident how pernicious the rejection of the H. Scripture is , and how certain a preparatory for the reception of Antichrist . Once more , * What mischief , what danger , what confusion hath happen'd thorough contempt of the H. Scripture , which sure is sufficient for the Government of the Church ( else Christ must have been an imperfect Law-giver ) let us ask Experience , &c. Lyra * also writes thus * ; As in Philosophy truth is discovered by reducing things to their first and self-evident Principles ; so in the Writings deliver'd by the H. Doctors , Truth is discover'd as to matters of Faith , by reducing them to the Canonical Scriptures . Sir , You know how easy it were to swell up a large Volume , with Testimonies to this purpose ; especially if I should take the course that Mr. Wh. does , to hale in quotations though never so impertinent ; or use the wretched importunity which Mr. S. does , to perswade them to be pertinent . But these Testimonies which I have nakedly set down , leaving them to speak for themselves , are enough to satisfie an unpassionate Reader , such an one as dares trust himself with the use of his own eyes and reason . As for that sort of men which chuses to follow noise rather than light , we must be content to leave them to the blind conduct of those Guides who , having no better means to keep their Followers to them , go halloing in the dark , and fill their ears with the insignificant sounds of Infallibility , Indefectibility , Self-evidence and Demonstration . Concerning the Appendix wherein you are particularly challeng'd , I hope for an Account very shortly , and so take leave , SIR , Your Affectionate Friend , JOHN TILLOTSON . Lincolns-Inn , Febr. 20. 1665. FINIS . A REPLY TO M r. J. S. his 3 d APPENDIX , Containing some Animadversions ON THE BOOK ENTITULED A RATIONAL ACCOUNT of the Grounds of Protestant Religion . By Ed. Stillingfleet B. D. London , Printed by H.C. for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard near the little North-door . 1675. An Appendix to the Rule of Faith. To his honoured Friend Mr. John Tillotson . SIR , AS soon as I understood your intentions to answer Mr. Serjeant , I could not but rejoice on his behalf , as well as on the truths and your own . For I have that real kindness for him , that I heartily wish him that reason and science he pretends to ; which I could not but despair of his attaining , unless he were undeceived in that monstrous opinion he hath of himself and his undertakings . And I knew no person more fit than you , to let him understand the truth and himself together . In which , your performances have been so clear and satisfactory , that I hope Mr. Sergeant , in stead of another Letter of directions to his Answerer , will write you one of thanks , for the reason and kindness you have shewed him throughout your Book . Unless it fares with you , as it hath done with some other Adversaries of theirs , that their civility hath been interpreted as an argument of their uncertainty , and their own confidence cried up for a demonstration . In which sense only I shall grant our Protestant Writers to build on uncertainties , and Mr. White and Mr. Serjeant to be the great Demonstrators of this age . If their own reason had been as severe as the censures at Rome against them , they had saved us the labour of any answer , and would have found out their own sophistry without a confutation . But the least thing we can imagine by their excessive confidence , is , that they are deceived themselves ; and therefore it is a part of charity to them , as well as justice to the truth , to let the world see , that big words are quite another thing from science , and a strong presumption from a regular demonstration . As to which , no more need to have been said , than what you have already done , if Mr. Serjeant had not thought it an accession to the glory of his atchievements , to lead two Pages of my Book in triumph after him . I confess , I was somewhat surprized to see a person who would be noted for his valour in assaulting Protestant Writers , steal so behind the main bulk and design of my Book ; and when he had gotten two single Pages by themselves , fall upon them with as much pomp and ostentation , as if he had attack'd the whole . And this must be noised abroad as an Answer to me , by the same figure that his arguments are called demonstrations , which is by an hyperbole unfit for any , but such who never flag below the sphere of Science in their own judgments , though they seem not to come near it in others . Yet since Mr. Serjeant is not only pleased to concern himself so far as to answer that part of my Book relating to oral tradition ; but in most express terms to challenge me to reply to him , he may now see ( assoon as I could get any liberty from greater imployments ) how ready I am to give him all reasonable satisfaction . And in the first place , I return him thanks for the weapon he hath made choice of , viz. that of reason ; there being no other I desire to make use of , in managing this debate between us : And I hope he will find as much civility towards him throughout this discourse , as he expresses towards me in the entrance to his ; if that may be accounted any real civility , which is intended meerly out of design , with the greater advantage to disparage the cause I have undertaken , and yet see no reason to repent of . If in his cursory view of two Chapters of my Book he had ( as he saith ) quite lost me , he had no cause to be troubled for it , if he had found far more excellent persons , such as Dr. Hammond , and the Disswader , and Dr. Pierce , instead of me . But to be sure , he intends not this in honour to any of us , but by way of a common reproach to us all , as though we did not talk out of nature or things , but words and imagination . I could heartily have wished , Mr. S. would have cropt so much of the victory due to anothers learning and industry , as to have shewed me one proposition in those discourses , which a rational understanding , that would be true to it self , could not settle or rely on . But if such insinuations as these must pass for answers , I must needs say , I judg M. S. equally happy in confuting our grounds , and in demonstrating his own ; in both which , his greatest strength lies in the self-evidence of his bare affirmations . But it seems he is willing to resign the glory of this Victory to the judicious Author of Labyrinthus Cantuariensis , or to some others for him ; and when they have once obtained it , I shall not envy them the honour of it . And I suppose those persons , whoever they are , may be able by this time , to tell Mr. S. it is an easier matter to talk of Victories than to get them . But if they do no more in the whole , than Mr. S. hath done for his share , they will triumph no-where , but where they conquer , viz. in their own fancies and imaginations . Therefore leaving them to their silent conquests , and as yet , unheard-of Victories , we come to Mr. S. who so liberally proclaims his own in the point of oral tradition . Which ( in a phrase scarce heard of in our language before ) is the Post , he tells us , he hath taken upon him to explicate further and defend . What the explicating a Post means , I as little understand , as I do the force of his demonstrations ; but this , and many other such uncouth forms of speech , up and down in his Book ( which make his style so smooth and easie ) , are I suppose intended for embellishments of our tongue , and as helps to sure-speaking , as his whole Book is designed for sure-footing . But letting him enjoy the pleasure and felicity of his own expressions , I come to consider the matter in debate between us . And his first controversie with me , is , for opposing the infallibility of oral tradition , to doctrinal infallibility in Pope and Councils . A controversie fitter to be debated among themselves , than between him and me : For is any thing more notorious , than that infallibility is by the far greatest part of Romanists attributed to the present Church , in teaching and delivering matters of faith , not by virtue of any oral tradition , but the immediate assistance of the Holy Ghost ; and that this is made by them the only ground of divine faith ? For which Mr. S. may if he please , consult his judicious Author of Labyrinthus Cantuariensis , or any other of their present Writers , except Mr. White and himself . He need not therefore have been to seek for the meaning of this doctrinal infallibility , as opposed to traditionary , if he had not either been ignorant of the opinion of their own Writers , or notoriously dissembled it . For this infallibility is not attributed to the Rulers of the Church , meerly as Doctors or Scholars , but as the representative Church , whose office it is , to deliver all matters of faith by way of an infallible testimony to every age , and thereby to afford a sufficient foundation for divine faith . But Mr. S. attributes no such infallibility to the representative Church , as teaching the rest , but derives their infallibility from such grounds as are common to all parts of the essential Church . Wherein he apparently opposes himself to the whole current of their own Authors , who resolve all faith into the immediate assistance of the Holy Ghost ; without which , they assert , there could be no infallibility at all in tradition , or any thing else ; and therefore these opinions are as opposite to each other as may be . For such an infallibility is not attributed by them to the Teachers of the Church , meerly on some signal occasions , as Mr. S. seems to suppose , when they are to explain new matters of saith ; but it is made by them to be as necessary as believing it self , because thereby the only sure foundation of faith is laid ; and therefore it is very evident , they make it proper to the Church in all ages : Or else in some age of the Church men were destitute of suciffient grounds of faith . For they by no means think it a sufficient foundation for faith , that one age of the Church could not conspire to deceive another ; for this they will tell him , at most , is but a humane faith ; but that Christ by his promise hath assured the Church , that there shall never be wanting in it the infallible assistance of his Holy Spirit , whereby they shall infallibly teach and deliver all matters of saith . And if this be not their opinion , let them speak to the contrary , which if they do , I am sure they must retract their most elaborate discourses about the resolution of faith , written by the greatest Artists among them . Let Mr. S. then judg , who it is that stumbles at the Threshold ; but of this difference among them , more afterwards . By this it appears , it was not on any mistake that I remained unsatisfied in the Question I asked , Whether am I bound to believe what the present Church delivers to be infallible ? To which Mr. S. answers , I understand him not . My reply shall be only that of a great Lawyers in a like case , I cannot help that . I am sure my words are intelligible enough ; for I take infallible there as he takes it himself , for infallibly true ; although I deny not the word to be improperly used in reference to things ; and that for the reason given by him , because fallibility & infallibility belong to the knowing power , or the persons that have it , and not to the object . But we are often put to the use of that word in a sense we acknowledg improper , meerly in compliance with our Adversaries , who otherwise are apt to charge us with having only uncertainties and probabilities for our faith ; if we do not use the term infallible as applied to the truth of the thing . I am content therefore wherever , in what I have writ , he meets that term so applied , that he take it only in his own sense , for that which is certainly true ; for I mean no more by it . And in this sense Mr. S. answers affirmatively , and gives this account of it , not only because the present Church cannot be deceived in what the Church of the former age believed , but because the Church in no age could conspire against her knowledg to deceive that age immediately following in matter of fact , evident in a manner to the whole world . The Question then is , whether this be a sufficient account for me to believe that to be certainly true , or to be the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles , which the present Church delivers ? and consequently , whether the resolution of faith be barely into oral tradition ? Thus we see the clear state of the Question between us . I come therefore to the vindication of those things which I had objected against this way of resolving faith into oral tradition . Three things I especially insisted on : 1. That it is inconsistent with the pretensions of the present Roman Church . 2. That it hath not been the way owned in all ages of the Christian Church . 3. That it is repugnant to common sense and experience , and that the Church of Rome hath apparently altered from what was the belief of former ages . If these three be made good , there will be no cause to glory in this last invention , to support the sinking fabrick of that Church . These three then I undertake to defend against what Mr. Serjeant hath objected against them . 1. That it is contrary to the pretensions of the present Roman Church . And if it be so , there can be no reason for those who are of it , to rely upon it . For if so be that Church pretends , that the obligation to faith arises from a quite different ground from this ; how can they who believe that Church infallible , venture their faith upon any other principle than what is publickly owned by her ? And whosoever thinks himself bound to believe by virtue of an infallible assistance of the present Church , doth thereby shew , that his obligation doth not depend upon what was delivered by the former ages of the Church . As those who believed the Apostles were infallible in their doctrine , could not resolve their faith into the infallibility of oral tradition , but into that immediate assistance by which the Apostles spake ; and where there is a belief of a like assistance , the foundation of faith cannot ly in the indefectibility of tradition , but in that infallible Spirit which they suppose the Church to be assisted by . For supposing this oral tradition should fail , and that men might believe that it had actually failed ; yet if the former supposition were true , there was sufficient ground for faith remaining still . And what assurance can any one have , that the present Church delivers nothing for matter of faith , but what hath been derived in every age from Christ and his Apostles , if such an infallible Spirit be supposed in the present Church which was in the Apostles themselves ? For on the same reason that those who heard the Apostles were not bound to trouble themselves with the tradition of the former age ; no more ought they who believe the present Roman Church to have the same infallible assistance . They need not then enquire , whether this age knew the meaning of the former , or whether one age could conspire to deceive another , or whether notwithstanding both these , errors might not come into the Church ; it is sufficient for them , that the definitions of the present Church are infallible in all matters of faith . Therefore my demand was built on very good reason ; How can you assure me the present Church obliges me to believe nothing but only what , and so far as it received from the former Church ? And Mr. S's answer is far from being satisfactory , That this appears by her manifest practice , never refusing communion to any man , that could approve himself to believe all the former age did . For this may be resolved into a principle far different from this , which is the belief of the infallibility of the present Church . For supposing , that they are not bound to enquire themselves into the reasons why the tradition could not fail in any age ; it is suffient for them to believe the Church infallible ; and if it be so , in proposing matters of faith , it must be so in declaring what the belief of the former age was . But my demands go on , What evidence can you bring to convince me both that the Church always observed this rule , and could never be deceived in it ? Which question is built on these two Principles which the infallibility of oral tradition stands on : 1. That the Church must always go upon this ground . 2. That if it did so , it is impossible she should be deceived . Both which are so far from that self-evidence which M. Serjeant still pretends to in this way , that the Jesuits principles seem much more rational and consistent , than these do . For granting them but that one Postulatum , that there must be an inherent infallibility in the testimony of the present Church , to afford sufficient foundation for divine faith , all the rest of their doctrine follows naturally from it . Whereas this new way of resolving faith is built on such suppositions , which no man well in his wits will be ready to grant . For unless it be self-evident that the Church did always proceed on this ground , it cannot be self-evident that oral tradition is infallible ; because the self-evidence of this principle depends on this , that in all ages of the Church , the only rule and measure of faith , was what was delivered by oral tradition from the age foregoing . Now if it be possible , that matters of faith might be conveyed in ways quite different from this , what self-evidence can there be , that the Church much always proceed upon this ? Mr. S. then , must demonstrate it impossible for matters of faith to be conveyed to posterity in any other way than oral tradition ; and not only that the thing is impossible , but that the Church in all ages judged it to be so ; or else he can never make it at all evident , that the Church always made this her rule of faith . But if either there may be a certain conveyance of the doctrine of faith another way , viz. by writing , or that the Church might judg that way more certain , whether it were so or not , either way it will appear far enough from self-evidence , that she always judged of doctrines of faith , meerly by the tradition of the preceding age . If another way be granted possible , there must be clear demonstration , that the Church notwithstanding this , did never make use of it ; for if it did make use of another way of resolving faith in any age of the Church , then in that age of the Church oral tradition was not looked on as the ground of faith ; and if so , notwithstanding whatever Mr. S. can demonstrate to the contrary , that age might have believed otherwise than the immediately preceding did . For let us but suppose , that all necessary doctrines of faith were betimes recorded in the Church , in Books universally received by the Christians of the first ages ; is it not possible , that age which first embraced these Books , might deliver them to posterity as the rule of their faith , and so down from one age to another ; and doth it not hence follow , that the rule of faith is quite different from a meer oral tradition ? Let Mr. S. then either shew it impossible , that the doctrines of faith should be written ; or that being written , they should be universally received ; or that being universally received in one age , they should not be delivered to the next ; or being delivered to the next , those Books should not be looked on as containing the rule of faith in them ; or though they were so , yet , that still oral tradition was wholly relied on as the rule of faith ; and then I shall freely grant that Mr. S. hath attempted something towards the proof of this new hypothesis . But as things now stand , it is so far from being self-evident , that the Church hath always gone upon this principle , that we find it looked on as a great novelty among them in their own Church ; and it would be a rare thing , for a new invention to have been the sense of the Church in all ages ; which if it hath been , the strength of it is thereby taken away . But let us suppose that the Church did proceed upon this principle , that nothing was to be embraced , but what was derived by tradition from the Apostles ; how doth it thence follow , that nothing could be admitted into the Church but what was really so derived from them ? Do we not see in the world at this day , that among those who own this principle , contradictory propositions are believed ; and both sides tell us , it is on this account , because their doctrine was delivered by the Apostles ? doth not the Greek Church profess to believe on the account of tradition from the Apostles as well as the Latin ? If that tradition failed in the Greek Church , which was preserved in the Latin , either Mr. S. must instance on his own principles in that age which conspired to deceive the next , or he must acknowledg , that while men own tradition they may be deceived in what the foregoing age taught them ; and consequently those things may be admitted as doctrines coming from the Apostles which were not so , and some which did may be lost , and yet the pretence of tradition remain still . What self-evidence then can there be in this principle , when two parts of the Church may both own it , and yet believe contradictions on the account of it ? It is then worth our enquiring , what self-evidence this is which Mr. S. speaks so much of , which is neither more nor less , but that men in all ages had eyes , ears , and other senses , also common reason , and as much memory as to remember their own names and frequently inculcated actions . Which is so very reasonable a postulatum , that I suppose none who enjoy any of these will deny it . Let us therefore see how he proceeds upon it . If you disprove this , I doubt we have lost mankind , the subject we speak of ; and till you disprove it , neither I , nor any man in his wits can doubt , that this rule depending on testifying , that is , sense or experience , can possibly permit men to be deceivable . Big words indeed ; but such as evidence that all men who are in their wits do not constantly use them . For I pray Sir , what doth Mr , S. think of the Greek Church ? Had not those in it eyes , ears , and other senses , as well as in the Latin ? Do not they pretend and appeal to what they received from their Fore-fathers as well as the Latins ? It seems then a deception is possible in the case of testifying , and therefore this doth more than permit men to be deceivable ; for here hath been an actual deception on one side or other . But we need not fear losing mankind in this ; for the possibility of error supposeth mankind to continue still ; and if we take away that , we may sooner lose it than by the contrary . But what repugnancy can we imagine to humane nature , that men supposing doctrines of faith to come down from Christ or his Apostles , should yet mistake in judging what those doctrines are ? Had not men eyes , and ears , and common sense in Christ and the Apostles times ? And yet we see even then the doctrine of Christ was mistaken ; and is it such a wonder it should be in succeeding ages ? Did not the Nazarenes mistake in point of circumcision , the Corinthians as to the resurrection , and yet the mean time agree in this , that Christs doctrine was the rule of faith , or that they ought to believe nothing but what came from him ? Did not the Disciples themselves err , even while they were with Christ , and certainly had eyes , and ears , and common sense as other men have , concerning some great articles of Christian faith , viz. Christs passion , resurrection , and the nature of his Kingdom ? If then such who had the greatest opportunities imaginable , and the highest apprehensions of Christ , might so easily mistake in points of such moment , what ground have we to believe , that succeeding ages should not be liable to such misapprehensions ? And it was not meerly the want of clear divine revelation which was the cause of their mistakes ; for these things were plain enough to persons not possessed with prejudices ; but those were so strong as to make them apprehend things quite another way than they ought to do . So it was then , and so it was in succeeding ages ; for let Parents teach what they pleased for matters of faith , yet prejudice and liableness to mistake in Children , might easily make them misapprehend either the nature or weight of the doctrines delivered to them . So that setting aside a certain way of recording the matters of faith in the Books of Scripture , and these preserved entire in every age , it is an easie matter to conceive , how in a short time Christian Religion would have been corrupted as much as ever any was in the world . For when we consider how much notwithstanding Scripture , the pride , passion , and interests of men have endeavoured to deface Christian Religion in the world , what would not these have done , if there had been no such certain rule to judg of it by ? Mr. S. imagins himself in repub . Platonis , but it appears he is still in faece Romuli ; he fancies there never were , nor could be any differences among Christians , and that all Christians made it their whole business to teach their posterity matters of faith , and that they minded nothing in the world but the imprinting that on their minds that they might have it ready for their Children ; and that all Parents had equal skill and fidelity in delivering matters of Religion to their posterity . Whereas in truth , we find in the early ages of the Christian Church several differences about matters of faith , and these differences continued to posterity , but all parties still pleading that their doctrine came from the Apostles ; & it fell out unhappily for Mr. S. that those were commonly most grosly deceived who pretended the most to oral tradition from the Apostles ; still we find the grand debate was , what came from the Apostles , and what not ? whereas had tradition been so infallible a way of conveying , how could this ever have come into debate among them ? What , did not they know what their Parents taught them ? It seems they did not , or their Parents were no more agreed than themselves ; for their differences could never be ended this way . Afterwards came in for many ages such a succession of ignorance and barbarism , that Christian Religion was little minded either by Parents or Children , as it ought to have been ; instead of that , some fopperies and superstitions were hugely in request , and the men who fomented these things were cried up as great Saints and workers of miracles . So that the miracles of S. Francis and S. Dominick were as much , if not more carefully conveyed from Parents to Children in that age , than those of Christ and his Apostles ; and on this account posterity must be equally bound to believe them , and have their persons in equal veneration . If men at last were grown wiser , it was because they did not believe Mr. S's principles , that they ought to receive what was delivered by their Parents ; but they began to search and enquire into the writings of former ages , and to examine the opinions and practices of the present , with those of the primitive Church , and by this means there came a restauration of Learning and Religion together . But though matters of fact be plain and evident in this case , yet M. S. will prove it impossible there should any errors come into the Christian Church ; and his main argument is this , because no age of the Church could conspire against her knowledg to deceive that age immediately following , in matter of fact , evident in a manner to the whole world . But before I come , more particularly , to shew the weakness of this argument , by manifesting how errors might come into the Church without such a conspiracy as this is , I shall propound some Queries to him . 1. What age of the Church he will instance in , wherein all persons who were not cast out of the Church , had the same apprehensions concerning all points of faith i. e. that none among them did believe more things delivered by Christ or the Apostles than others did . I am sure he can neither instance in the age of the Apostles themselves , nor in those immediately succeeding them ; unless Mr. S. the better to defend his hypothesis , will question all written records , because they consist of dead letters , and unsenc't characters , and wordish testimonies . Never considering , that while he utters this , he writes himself ; unless he imagins there is more of life , sense , and certainty in his Books , than in the Scriptures or any other writing whatsoever . 2. Where there were different apprehensions in one age of the Church , whether there must not be different traditions in the next ? For as he looks on all Parents as bound to teach their Children , so on Children as bound to believe what their Parents teach them . On which supposition different traditions in the succeeding age must needs follow , different apprehensions in the precedent . 3. Whether persons agreeing in the substance of doctrines may not differ in their apprehensions of the necessity of them ? As for instance , all may agree in the article of Christs descent into Hell , but yet may differ in the explication of it , and in the apprehension of the necessity of it in order to salvation . So that we must not only in tradition about matters of faith enquire , what was delivered , but under what notion it was delivered ; whether as an allowable opinion , or a necessary point of faith . But if several persons , nay multitudes in the Church may have different notions as to the necessity of the same points , by what means shall we discern what was delivered as an opinion in the Church , and what as an article of faith ? But Mr. S. throughout his discourse takes it for granted , that there is the same necessity of believing and delivering all things which concern the Christian doctrine ; and still supposes the same sacredness , concern , necessity , in delivering all the points in controversie between the Romanists and Us , as there was in those main articles of faith , which they and we are agreed in . Which is so extravagant a supposition , that it is hard to conceive it should ever enter into the head of a person pretending to reason ; but as extravagant as it is , it is that without which his whole fabrick falls to the ground . For suppose we should grant him , that the infinite concerns which depend on the belief of the Christian doctrine should be of so prevalent nature with the world , that it is impossible to conceive any one age should neglect the knowing them , or conspire to deceive the next age about them ; yet what is all this to the matters in difference between us ? Will Mr. S. prove the same sacredness , necessity , concern , and miraculously attestedness ( as he phrases it ) in the Invocation of Saints , Purgatory Transubstantiation , Supremacy , &c. as in the believing the death and resurrection of the Son of God. If he doth not prove this , he doth nothing ; for his arguments may hold for doctrines judged universally necessary , but for no other . Therefore Mr. S. hath a new task which he thought not of ; which is , to manifest that these could not be looked on as opinions , but were embraced as necessary articles of faith . For unless he proves them such , he can neither prove any obligation in Parents to teach them their Children , nor in Children to believe what their Parents taught , but only to hold them in the same degree which they did themselves . When Mr. S. will undertake to prove , that the whole Church , from the time of Christ , did agree in the points in difference between us , as necessary articles of faith , I may more easily believe , that no age could be ignorant of them , or offer to deceive the next about them . But when Mr. S. reflects on his frequent concession , that there are private opinions in the Church , distinct from matters of faith , he must remember , before he can bring home his grounds to the case between their Church and ours , that he must prove none of the things in debate , were ever entertained as private opinions , and that it is impossible for that which was a private opinion in one age , to become a matter of faith in the next . But because this distinction of his ruins his whole demonstration , I shall first propound it in his own terms , and then shew how from thence it follows , that errors may come into the Church , and be entertained as matters of faith . His words are , It being evident , that we have but two ways of ordinary knowledg , by acts of our soul , or operations on our body , that is , by reason and experience ; the former of which belongs to Speculators or Doctors , the second to Deliverers of what was received , or Testifiers . And this distinction he frequently admits , not only in the present age of the Church , but in any ; for the same reason will hold in all . From hence I propose several Queries further to Mr. S. 1. If every one in the Church looked on himself as bound to believe just as the precedent age did , whence came any to have particular opinions of their own ? For either the Church had delivered her sense in that case or not ; if not , then tradition is no certain conveyer of the doctrine of Christ ; if she had , then those who vented private speculations were Hereticks in so doing ; because they opposed that doctrine which the Church received from Christ and his Apostles . If Mr. S. replies , that private speculations are in such cases where there is no matter of faith at all , he can never be able to help himself by that distinction in the case of his own Church ; for I demand , whether is it a matter of faith , that men ought to believe oral tradition infallible ? If not , how can men ground their faith upon it ? If it be , then either some are meer speculators in matters of faith ; or all who believe on the account of the Popes infallibility are Hereticks for so doing . 2. If there were speculators in former ages as well as this , whether did those men believe their own speculations or no ? If not , then the Fathers were great Impostors , who vented those speculations in the Church which they did not believe themselves . And it is plain , Mr. S. speaks of such opinions which the asserters of , do firmly believe to be true : And if they did , then they look on themselves as bound to believe something which was not founded on the tradition of the Church ; and consequently , did not own oral tradition , as the rule of faith . So that as many speculators as we find in the Churh , so many testifiers we have against the infallibility of oral tradition . 3. Whether those persons who did themselves believe those opinions to be true , did not think themselves obliged to tell others they ought to believe them ; and consequently , to deliver these as matters of faith to their children ? Let Mr. S. shew me any inconsequence in this ; but that it unavoidably follows upon his principles , that they were bound to teach their Children what themselves received as the doctrine of Christ ; and that the obligation is in all respects equal as if they had believed these things on the account of oral tradition . 4. If Children be obliged to believe what their Parents teach them for matters of faith , then upon Mr. S's , own concessions , is not posterity bound to believe something which originally came not from Christ or his Apostles ? For it appears in this case , that the first rise was from a private opinion of some Doctors of the Church ; but they believing these opinions themselves , think themselves obliged to propagate them to others ; and by reason of their learning and authority , these opinions may by degrees gain a general acceptance in the ruling part of the Church ; and all who believe them true , think they ought to teach them their Children ; and Children they are to believe what their Parents teach them . Thus from Mr. S's own principles , things that never were delivered by Christ or his Apostles , may come to be received as matters of faith in the present Church . Thus the intelligent Reader needs no bodies help but Mr. S. to let him understand how Invocation of Saints , Purgatory , Transubstantiation , &c. though never delivered either by Christ or his Apostles , may yet now be looked on as articles of faith , and yet no age of the Church conspire to deceive another . Either then Mr. S. must say , there never were any private opinators or speculators in the Church , as distinct from testifiers , and then he unavoidably contradicts himself ; or he must deny that posterity is bound to believe what their fore-fathers delivered them as matters of faith ; which destroys the force of his whole demonstration . Perhaps he will answer , that Children are not bound to believe what barely their Parents , or any other number of persons might deliver as matters of faith , but what the whole Church of every age delivers . This , though the only thing to be said in the case , yet is most unreasonable , because it runs men upon inextricable difficulties in the way of their resolving faith . For suppose any Children taught by their Parents what they are to believe ; Mr. S. must say , they are not bound to believe them presently , but to enquire whether they agree with the whole Church of that age first , before they can be obliged to assent . Which being an impossible task either for Children , or men of age , to find out in the way of oral tradition , this way of resolving faith , doth but offer a fairer pretence for infidelity . For we see , how impossible it is for Mr. S. to make it appear , that their Church is agreed about the rule of faith ; for by his own confession , the far greater number as speculators oppose the way asserted by him ; how much more difficult then must it needs be , to find out what the sense of the whole essential Church is in all matters which Parents may teach their Children for doctrines of faith ? So that if Children are not bound to believe what their Parents teach them , till they know they teach nothing but what the whole Church teaches , it is the most compendious way to teach them they are not bound to believe at all . But if this distinction be admitted , as Mr. S. makes much use of it , then it appears , how errors may come into the Church at first under the notion of speculations , and by degrees to be delivered as points of faith , by which means those things may be received in the Church , for such , which were never delivered by Christ or his Apostles , and yet no age conspire to deceive the next , which was the thing to be shewed . This is one way of shewing how errors may come into the Church , without one ages conspiring to deceive the next : but besides this , there are several others I might insist upon ; but I shall mention only two more : 1. Misinterpreting the sence of Scripture . 2. Supposing it in the power of some part of the Church to oblige the whole in matters of faith . For the first we are to consider , that no imaginable account can be given either of the writing or universal reception of the Books of the New Testament , if they were not designed for the preservation of the doctrine of Christ. And although it should be granted possible for the main and fundamental articles of Christian faith ( such as the Apostles Creed gives a summary account of ) to have been preserved by the help of tradition ; yet , unless we be extreamly ungratful , we cannot but acknowledg , that God hath infinitely better provided for us , in not leaving the grounds of our Religion to the meer breath of the people , or the care of Mothers instructing their Children but hath given us the certain records of all the doctrines and motives of faith , preserved inviolably from the first ages of the Church . And when the Church saw with what care God had provided for the means of faith , oral tradition was little minded ; thence the memory of those other things not recorded in Scripture is wholly lost ; all the care was imployed in searching , preserving , and delivering these sacred Books to posterity . To these the primitive Church still appeals ; these they plead for against all adversaries , defending their authority , explaining their sense , vindicating them from all corruptions . Tradition they rely not on , any further than as a testimony of the truth of these records , or to clear the sense of them from the perverse interpretation of those Hereticks who pretended another kind of tradition than what was in Scripture . And when these were silenced , all the disputes that arose in the Church concerning matters of faith , was about the sense of these Books ; as is evident by the proceedings in the case of Arius and Pelagius . Wherein tradition was only used as a means to clear the sense of the Scriptures , but not at all as that which the faith of all was to be resolved into . But when any thing was pleaded from tradition , for which there was no ground in Scripture , it was rejected with the same ease it was offered ; and such persons were plainly told , this was not the Churches way ; if they had plain Scripture , with the concurrent sense of Antiquity , they might produce it , and rely upon it . So that the whole use of tradition in the primitive Church ( besides attesting the Books ) was , to shew the unreasonableness of imposing senses on Scripture , against the universal sense of the Church from the Apostles times . But as long as men were men , it was not avoidable , but they must fall into different apprehensions of the meaning of the Scripture , according to their different judgments , prejudices , learning , and education . And since they had all this apprehension , that the Scripture contained all doctrines of faith , thence as men judged of the sense of it , they differed in their apprehension , concerning matters of faith . And thence errors and mistakes might easily come into the Church , without one age conspiring to deceive the next . Nay if it be possible for men to rely on tradition without Scripture , this may easily be done ; for by that means they make a new rule of faith , not known to the primitive Church , and consequently , that very assertion is an error in which the former age did not conspire to deceive the next . And if these things be possible , M. S's . demonstration fails him ; for hereby a reasonable account is given , how errors may come into a Church without one age conspiring to deceive another . Again , let me enquire of Mr. S. whether men may not believe it in the power of the ruling part of the Church , to oblige the whole to an assent to the definitions of it ? To speak plainer , is it not possible for men to believe the Pope and Council infallible in their decrees ? And I hope the Jesuits ( as little as Mr. S. loves them , or they him ) may be a sufficient evidence of more than the bare possibility of this . If they may believe this , doth it not necessarily follow , that they are bound to believe whatever they declare to be matter of faith ? Supposing then , that Transubstantiation , Supremacy , Invocation of Saints , were but p●ivate opinions before , but are now defined by Pope and Council , these men cannot but look on themselves as much obliged to believe them , as if they had been delivered as matters of faith , in every age since the Apostles times . Is it now repugnant to common sense , that this opinion should be believed or entertained in the Church ? if not , why may not this opinion be generally received ? if it be so , doth it not unavoidably follow , that the faith of men must alter according to the Churches definitions ? And thus private opinions may be believed as articles of faith , and corrupt practices be established as laudable pieces of devotion , and yet no one age of the Church conspire to deceive another . Thus I hope Mr. S. may see how far it is from being a self-evident principle , that no error can come into the Church , unless one age conspire to deceive the next in a matter of fact , evident in a manner to the whole world . Which is so wild an apprehension , that I believe the Jesuits cannot entertain themselves without smiles , to see their domestick adversaries expose themselves to contempt with so much confidence . Thus I come to the reason I gave , why there is no reason to believe that this is the present sense of the Roman Church . My words are , For I see the Roman Church asserts , that things may be de fide in one age , which were not in another ; at least Popes and Councils challenge this ; and this is the common doctrine maintained there , and others are looked on as no members of their Church who assert the contrary ; but as persons at least meritoriously , if not actually excommunicate . Where then shall I satisfie my self , what the sense of your Church is , as to this particular ? Must I believe a very few persons , whom the rest disown as heretical and seditious ? or ought I not rather to take the judgment of the greatest and most approved persons of that Church ? And these disown any such doctrine ; but assert , that the Church may determine things de fide , which were not before . In answer to this Mr. S. begs leave to distinguish the words de fide , which may either mean Christian faith , or points of faith taught by Christ ; and then he grants , 't is non-sense to say , they can be in one age , and not in another . Or de fide may mean obligatory to be believed . In this latter sense none I think ( saith he ) denies things may be de fide in one age and not in another ; in the former sense none holds it . Upon which very triumphantly he concludes , What 's now become of your difficulty ? I believe you are in some wonderment , and think I elude it rather then answer it ; I shall endeavour to unperplex you . I must confess it a fault of humane nature , to admire things which men understand not ; on which account I cannot free my self from some temptation to that he calls wonderment ; but I am presently cured of it , when I endeavour to reduce his distinction to reason . For instead of explaining his terms , he should have shewed how any thing can be obligatory to be believed in any age of the Church , which was no point of faith taught by Christ , which notwithstanding his endeavour to unperplex me , is a thing as yet I apprehend not ; because I understand no obligation to faith to arise from any thing but divine revelation ; and I do not yet believe any thing in Christian doctrine to be divinely revealed , but what was delivered by Christ or his Apostles . And my wonderment must needs be the greater ; because I suppose this inconsistent with Mr. S's . principles . For oral tradition doth necessarily imply , that all points of faith were first taught by Christ , and conveyed by tradition to us ; but if a thing may be de fide in this latter sense , which was not before , what becomes of resolving faith wholly into oral tradition ? For faith is resolved into that from whence the obligation to believe comes ; but here Mr. S. confesses , that the obligation to believe doth arise from something quite different from oral tradition ; and therefore faith must be resolved into it . Besides , all the sense I can find in that distinction , is , that men are bound to believe something in one age , which they were not in another ; and if so , I shall desire Mr. S. to unperplex me in this , how every age is bound to believe just as the precedent did , and yet one age be bound to believe more than the precedent . But however , I am much obliged to him for his endeavour to unperplex me as he speaks ; for really I look on no civilities to be greater than those which are designed for clearing our understandings ; so great an adorer am I of true reason and an intelligible Religion . And therefore I perfectly agree with him in his saying , that Christianity aims not to make us beasts , but more perfectly men ; and the perfection of our manhood consists in the use of our reasons . From whence he infers , that it is reasonable , consequences should be drawn from principles of faith , which , he saith , are of two sorts ; first such as need no more but common sense to deduce them ; the others are such as need the maxims of some science got by speculation to infer them ; and these are Theological conclusions : The former sort , he tell us , the Church is necessitated to make use of upon occasion , i. e. when any Heretick questions those , and eadem opera , the whole point of faith it self , of which they were a part ; as in the case of the Monothelites , about Christs having two wills . But all this while , I am far enough from being unperplexed ; nay by this discourse , I see every one who offers to unperplex another , is not very clear himself . For since he makes no Theological conclusions to be de fide , but only such consequences as common sence draws , I would willingly understand how common sence receives a new obligation to faith . For to my apprehension the deducing of consequences from principles by common sense , is not an act of believing , but of knowledg consequent upon a principle of faith . And the meaning is no more than this , that men , when they say they believe things , should not contradict themselves , as certainly they would do , if they deny those consequences which common sense draws from them . As in the case of the Monothelites , for men to assert that Christ had two natures , and yet not two wills ; when the will is nothing else but the inclination of the nature to that good which belongs to it . So that there can be no distinct obligation to believe such consequences as are drawn by common sense ; but every one that believes the principles from whence they are drawn , is thereby bound to believe all the consequences which immediately follow from them . Indeed the Church , when people will be so unreasonable to deny such things , may explain her sense of the article of faith in those terms which may best prevent dispute ; but this is only to discriminate the persons who truly believe this article , from such as do not . Not that any new obligation to faith results from this act of the Church ; but the better to prevent cavils , she explains her sense of the article it self in more explicite terms . Which , as he saith , is only to put the faith out of danger of being equivocated . Which is quite another thing from causing a new obligation to believe . As suppose the Church , to prevent the growth of the Socinian doctrine , should require from men the declaring their belief of the eternal existence of the Son of God ; Would this be to bind men to believe some thing which they were not bound to before ? No , but only to express their assent to the Deity of Christ in the simplest terms ; because otherwise they might call him God by office , and not by nature . Now how can any one conceive , that any should be first obliged to believe , that Christ is God , and yet receive a new obligation afterwards to believe his eternal existence ? Thus it is in all immediate consequences drawn by common sense ; in all which , the primary obligation to believe the thing it self , extends to the belief of it in the most clear and least controverted terms , which are not intended to impose on mens faith , but to promote the Churches peace . For neither is there a new object of faith ; for how can that be , which common sense draws from what is believed already ? neither is there any infallible proponent , unless common sense hath usurped the Popes prerogative . But Mr. S. offers at a reason for this , which is , that none can have an obligation to believe what they have not an obligation to think of ; and in some age the generality of the faithful have no occasion , nor consequently obligation to mind , reflect , or think on those propositions involved in the main stock of faith . From whence , he saith , it follows , that a thing may be de fide , or obligatory to be believed in one age , and not in another . But let Mr. S. shew , how a man can be obliged to believe any thing as an article of faith , who is not bound to think of all the immediate consequences of it ? Because faith is an act of a reasonable nature , which ought to enquire into the reasons and consequences of things which it doth believe . But Mr. S's mistake lies here , in not distinguishing the obligation to believe from the obligation to an explicite declaration of that assent . The former comes only from God , and no new obligation can arise from any act of the Church ; but the latter being a thing tending to the Churches peace , may be required by it on some occasions ; i. e. when the doctrine is assaulted by Hereticks , as in the time of the four first General Councils ; but still a man is not at all the more obliged to assent , but to express his assent in order to the Churches satisfaction . But Mr. S. supposes me to enquire , how the Church can have power to oblige the generality to belief of such a point . To which his answer is , she obliges them to believe the main point of faith , by virtue of traditions , being a self-evident rule , and these implied points by virtue of their being self-evidently connected with those main and perpetually used points , so that the vulgar can be rationally and connaturally made capable of this their obligation . But we are not now enquiring , what the obligation to believe the main points of faith is , nor whether tradition be a self-evident rule ; but how there should be a new obligation to believe something self-evidently connected with the former points , is beyond my capacity to understand . And they must be vulgar understandings indeed , that can rationally and connaturally be made capable of such an obligation . For if it be self-evidently connected with the main points , no one can believe the one , without believing the other ; for nothing is self-evident , but what a man assents to at the first apprehension of it ; and if he doth so , how comes there a new obligation to believe it ? Is it possible to believe , that any thing consists of parts , and not believe that that whole is greater than any of those parts ? for this is a thing self-evidently connected with the nature of the whole . But these are self-evident riddles , as the former were unintelligible demonstrations . And yet , though these be rare Theories , the application of them to the case of the Roman Church exceeds all the rest . Whence , saith he , the Government of our Church is still justified to be sweet , and according to right nature , and yet forcible and efficacious . Although I admire many things in Mr. S's Book , yet I cannot say I do any thing more than this passage , that because men are obliged to believe no implied points , but such as are self-evidently connected with the main ones , therefore the Government of the Roman Church is sweet , and according to right nature , &c. Alas then , how much have we been mistaken all this while , that have charged her with imposing hard and unsufferable conditions of communion with her ! No , she is so gentle and sweet , that she requires nothing but the main points on the account of a self-evident rule , and implied points by reason of self-evident connexion with the former . I see Mr. S. ( if he will make good his word ) is the only person who is ever like to reconcile me with the Church of Rome : For I assure you , I never desire any better terms of communion with a Church , than to have no main points of faith required from me to assent to , but what are built on a self-evident rule , nor any implied points but such as are self-evidently connected with the former . And no work can be more easie , than to convince me upon these grounds ; for all endeavors of proof are taken away by the things being said to be self-evident . For the very offer of proof that they are so , self-evidently proves they are not so : For what ever is proved by somthing beside it self , can never be said without a contradiction to be self-evident . But not to tye up Mr. S. from his excellent faculty of proving , if Mr. S. will prove to me that any of the points in difference between us , as Transubstantiation , Purgatory , Supremacy of the Roman Church , &c. have any self-evident connexion with any main point of faith in the Apostles Creed , I solemnly promise him to retract all I have writ against that Church ; so far shall I be from needing a new obligation to believe them . But if these be so remote from self-evidence , that they are plainly repugnant to sense and reason ( witness that self-evident doctrine of Transubstantiation ) what then must we think of Mr. S. ? Surely the least is , that since his being a Roman Catholick , his mind is strangely inlightned , so far that those things are self-evident to him , which are contradictions to the rest of the world . But withal M. S. acquaints us with another mysterie ; which is , how these points descended by a kind of tradition , and yet confesses , they were never thought of or reflected on by the generality , till the Church took occasion to explain them . Such a silent tradition doth very sutably follow the former self-evident connexion . For he that can believe Transubstantiation ro be self-evident , no wonder if he believes that to have been delivered by a constant Tradition , which was never heard of from the Apostles times to these . Now Mr. S. is pleased to return to me , and draws up a fresh charge against me , which is , that I act like a Politician , and would conquer them by first dividing them , and making odious comparisons between two parties of Divines . But to shew us how little they differ , he distinguishes them , as faithful , and as private discoursers ; in the former notion , he saith , they all hold the same divinely constituted Church-Government , and the same self-evident rule of faith ; but as private discoursers he acknowledges they differ in the explication of their belief . I meddle not here with the Government of their Church , ( which I have elsewhere proved to be far enough from being divinely constituted ) but with the rule of faith ; and the question is , whether the infallibility of oral tradition , be that self-evident rule which that Church proceeds on ; Yes , saith Mt. S. they are all as faithful agreed in it , but as discourses they differ about it . Which in short is , that all in the Church of Rome , who are not of his opinion , know not what they say ; and that they oppose that which they do really believe . Which in plain English is , that they are egregious dissemblers and prevaricators in Religion ; that they do intolerably flatter the Pope and present Church with loud declamations for their infallibility , but they do really believe no such thing , but resolve all into oral tradition . But is not this an excellent agreement among them , when Mr. White and his party not only disown the common doctrine of the infallibility of Pope and Councils , but dispute against it as pernicious and destructive to Christian faith ? on the other side the far greater part of Romanists say , there can be no certainty of faith , unless there be an infallible divine testimony in the present Church , and this lodged in Pope and Councils ; that those who endeavour to overthrow this , are dangerous , seditious , heretical persons , Accordingly their Books are censured at Rome , their opinions disputed against , and their persons condemned . And yet all this while , we must believe that these stick together like two smooth Marbles as faithful , though they are knocked one against another as discoursers ; and that they perfectly agree in the same self-evident rule of faith , when all their quarrels and contentions are about it ; and those managed with so great heat , that heresie is charged of one side , and Arch-heresie and undermining Religion on the other . Doth he think we never heard of Mr. White 's Sonus Succinae , nor of that Chapter in it , where he saith , that the doctrine of Pope and Councils infallibility tends to overthrow the certainty of Christian faith ; and that the propagating such a doctrine is a greater crime than burning Temples , ravishing the sacred Virgins on the Altars , trampling on the body of Christ , or the sending the Turk or Antichrist into Christian Countreys ? Or doth he think we can believe that the Pope and Cardinals , the Jesuites and all the Papists of forreign Countreys do as faithful agree with Mr. White in this ? It seems not so by the proceedings in the Court of Rome against him , in which as appears by the censure of the Inquisition against him , dated 17. November 1661. his doctrine is condemned not only as false , seditious and scandalous , but as heretical and erroneous in faith . And if it were not for this very doctrine he was there censured , why doth Mr. White set himself purposely to defend it in his Tabulae suffragiales ? If these then do agree as faithful , who cannot but envy the excellent harmony of the Roman Church , in which men condemn each other for hereticks , and yet all believe the same things still ? Well Sir , I am in hopes upon the same grounds Mr. S. will yield us the same charity too , and tell us that we agree with him as faithful , only we differ a little from him as discoursers ; for I assure you , there is as great reason : the only difference is , we give them not such ill words as they do each other . For let Mr. S. shew us wherein we differ more from him about the Rule of Faith , than they do among themselves : For Mr. White when he hath said , that all kind of heresie doth arise from hence , that men make the holy Scripture , or a private spirit , the rule of faith ; he presently adds , it is all one , if one make Councils or Pope any other way than as witnesses to be the authors of faith . For , saith he , this is to subject the whole Church to that slavery , to receive any errour for an article of faith , which they shall define , or propose modo illegitimo , i. e. any other way then as witnesses of tradition . Either then we differ from Mr. S. only as discoursers , or he and his Brethren differ from each other more then as such . And so any one would think who reads the oppositions and arguments against each other on this subject , particularly Mr. Whites Tabulae suffragiales . But let Mr. White say what he will Mr. S. tells me , I am not aware how little they differ even as Divines . The more shame for them to have such furious heats and oppositions where there is so little difference . But as little as they differ , Mr. White thinks it safer to talk of their unity in England , than to try whether they be of his mind at Rome , by going thither to clear himself ; for he justly fears he should find them differ from him some other way than as bare discoursers . Yet let us hear Mr. S's . reason ; for , saith he , though some speculators attribute to the Church a power of defining things not held before , yet few will say she hath new revelations or new articles of faith . But we know the temper of these men better than to rely on what they barely say . For they say what they think is most for their purpose ; and one of Mr. White 's adversaries , ( if himself may be credited ) plainly told him , if the doctrine of the Popes infallibility were not true , yet it ought to be defended because it was for the interest of the Church of Rome : for which he is sufficiently rebuked by him . It is one thing then what they say , and another what necessarily follows from the Doctrine which they assert . But for plain dealing commend me to the Canonists , who say expresly , the Church ( by which they mean the Pope ) may make new articles of faith : and this is the sense of the rest , though they are loth to speak out . Else Mr. White was much too blame in spending so much time in proving the contrary . But what man of common sense can imagine that these men can mean otherwise , who assert such an infallibility in Pope and Councils , as to oblige men under pain of eternal damnation to believe those things which they were not obliged to , before such a definition ? And what can this be else but to make new articles of faith ? For an article of faith supposes a necessary obligation to believe it : now if some doctrine may become thus obligatory by virtue of the Churches definition which was not so before , that becomes thereby an article of faith which it was not before . But these subtil men have not yet learnt to distinguish a new doctrine from a new article of faith : they do not indeed pretend that their doctrine is new , because they deny any such thing as new revelation in the Church ; but yet they must needs say , if they understand themselves , that old implicit doctrines , may become new articles of faith by vertue of the Churches definition . So little are they relieved by that silly distinction of explicit and implicit delivery of them , which Mr. S. for a great novelty accquaints us with . For what is only implicitly delivered , is no article of faith at all : for that can be no article of faith , which men are not bound to believe ; now there are none will say that men are bound to believe under pain of damnation if they do not the things which are only implicitly delivered ; but this they say with great confidence of all things defined by the Church . And let now any intelligent person judg ; whether those who assert such things , do not differ wide enough from those who resolve all into oral tradition , and make the obligation to faith wholly dependent upon the constant tradition of any doctrine from age to age ever since the Apostles times . But Mr. S. is yet further displeased with me for saying , that Pope and Councils challenge a power to make things de fide in one age , which were not in another . For 1. he sayes , I speak it in common , and prove it not . 2. He adds , That take them right , this is both perfectly innocent , and unavoidably necessary to a Church . And is it not strange he should expect any particular proofs of so innocent and necessary a thing to the being of a Church ? But he will tell me it is in his own sense of de fide , which I have already shewn to signifie nothing to his purpose . Let him therefore speak out whether he doth believe any such thing as inherent infallibility in the definitions of Pope and Councils ? if not , I am sure at Rome they will never believe that Mr. S. agrees with them as faithful ; if he doth , whether doth not such an infallible definition bind men by vertue of it to the belief of what is then defined ? if it doth , then things may become as much de fide by it , as if they were delivered dy Christ or his Apostles . For thereby is supposed an equal obligation to faith , because there is a proposition equally infallible . But will he say , the Pope doth not challenge this ? Why then is the contrary doctrine censured and condemned at Rome ? Why is the other so eagerly contended for , by the most zealous sons of that Church , and that not as a school-opinion , but as the only certain foundation of faith ? Mr. S. is yet pleased to inform me further , that nothing will avail me but this , if a Pope and Council should define a new thing , and declare they ground themselves on new lights , as did their first reformers in England : but I shall find , he saith , no such fopperies in faith-definitions made by the Catholick Church . Is this the man who made choice of reason for his weapon ? could there be a greater calumny cast on our Church , than to say her reformers grounded themselves on new lights : when our great charge against the Church of Rome is for introducing Novelties , and receding from pure and primitive antiquity . Whether the charge be true or no , yet sure it follows they did not declare they ground themselves on new lights ; but expresly the contrary . Well , but Pope and Councils neither define new things , nor ground themselves on them : but what means the man of reason ? that they make no new definitions : surely not ; for then what did they meet for ? and what mean their decrees ? but he intends , that they deliver no new doctrine : but how must that be tried ? or hath Mr. S. gained the opinion of infallibility both from Pope and Councils , that we must believe his bare word ? but we not only say but prove that even their last Council hath defined many things , which never were delivered by Christ or his Apostles . And it is to no purpose whether they say they ground themselves on new lights , or pretend to an infallible assistance ; for it comes all to the same at last . For if the assistance be infallible , what matter is it whether the doctrine hath been revealed or no ? for on this supposition it is impossible that Pope and Council should miscarry . Therefore if any Church be guilty of fopperies in faith-definitions , it must be that which you miscall the Catholick , but is more truly known by the name of the Roman Church . There is yet one piece of Mr. S's . sagacity to be taken notice of as to this particular , which is , that I am at an end of my argument , because I say the opinion of the Pope and Councils infallibility is the common doctrin maintained : in which I confound the Church with the schools , or some private opinaters , and then carp at those mens tenets , And this is the force of all that Paragraph , He tells me , I want not wit to know that no sober Catholick holds humane deductions the rule of their faith , schoolmen definers of it , nor the schools the Tribunal whence to propose it authoritatively and obligingly to the generality of the faithful . Neither doth Mr. S. want the wit to know that our present enquiry is concerning the sense of their present Church about the rule of faith . Since then Mr. S. must confess it necessary to faith to know what the certain rule of it is ; let me enquire further , whether any particular person can know certainly what it is , unless he knows what the Church owns for her rule of faith ; and whether that may be owned as the Churches judgement , which is stifly opposed by the most interessed persons in the Roman Church , and the most zealous contenders for it ? Especially when the Pope who is said to be Head of the Church , condemns the doctrine asserted , and that only by a small number of such who are as much opposed by themselves , as by any of us . Is it then possible to know the Churches judgement or not ? if not , 't is to no purpose to search for a rule of faith : if it be , which way can we come to know it , either by most voices or the sense of the Governours of the Church ; either of the ways , I dare put it to a fair tryal whether oral tradition , or the infallibility of Pope and Councils be the Doctrine most owned in the Church of Rome ? But Mr. S. still tells us , these are only private opinators and schoolmen who assert the contrary doctrine to his . But wiill not they much more say on the other side , that this way of oral trodition is a novel fancy of some few half-Catholicks in England , and tends to subvert the Roman Church . But is the present Pope with Mr. S. a private opinator , or was the last a meer schoolman ? I am sure what ever Mr. S. thinks of him , he thought not so of himself , when he said , he was no Divine in the controversie of Jansenius . Doth the Court of Rome signifie no more with Mr. S. than a company of scholastick Pedants , that know not what the sense of the Church is , concerning the rule of faith ? I meddle not with the Schools but with the authority of the present Church , and him whom Mr. S. owns for the head of it : and is it consistent with his headship to condemn that doctrine which contains in it the only certain rule of faith ? Mr. S. may then see they were no such impertinent Topicks which I insisted on , and as stout as Mr. S. seems to be , I an apt to believe he would not look on the censure of the Inquisition as an impertinent Topick . But at last Mr. S. offers at something whereby he would satisfie me of the sense of the Church , as to this particular , and therefore asks , whether I never heard of such a thing as the Council of Trent ? I must ingenuously confess I have ; and seen more a great deal of it , than I am satisfied with . But what of that ? there , he tells me , I may find a clear solution of my doubt by the constant procedure of that most grave Synod in its definitions . That is , I hope to find that oral tradition was acknowledged there as the only self-evident rule of faith . If I do this , I confess my self satisfied in this enquiry . But how much to the contrary is there very obvious in the proceedings of it ? For in the 4 th Session the Decree is , That Scripture and tradition should be embraced with equal piety and reverence ; and the reason is , because the doctrine of faith is contain'd partly in Scripture , partly in tradition ; but what arts must Mr. S. use to infer from hence , that oral tradition in contradistinction to Scripture was looked on as the only rule of faith ? I cannot but say , that the ruling men of that Council were men wise enough in their generation ; and they were too wise wholly to exclude Scripture ; but because they knew that of it self could not serve their purposes , they therefore help it out with tradition , and make both together the compleat rule of faith . Where I pray in all the proceedings of that Council doth Mr. S. find them define any thing on the account of oral tradition ? instead of which we find continual bandyings about the sense of Scripture and Fathers , which might have been all spared , if they had been so wise as to consider , they could not but know the sense of the present Church , nor that of the precedent , and so up to the time of Christ. But they were either so ignorant as not to light on this happy invention ; or so wise and knowing as to despise it . It is true , they would not have their doctrines looked on as novelties , therefore they speak much of tradition and the ancient faith ; but that was not by what their Parents taught them , but what the Fathers of the Church delivered in their writings ; for by these they judged of traditions , and not the oral way . And therefore I see little reason to believe , that this was either the sense of the Council of Trent , or is the sense of any number of Roman Catholicks , much less of the whole Church , none excepted , as Mr. S. in his confident way expresses it . And if he will , as he saith , disavow the maintaining any point , or affecting any way which is not assented to by all , I hope to see Mr. S. retract this opinion , and either fall in with the Court of Rome , or return , as reason leads him , into the bosom of the Church of England . But there seems to be somewhat more in what follows , viz. that though schoolmen question the personal infallibility of the Pope , or of the Roman Clergy , nay of a General Council , yet all affirm the infallibility of tradition , or the living voice of the Church essential ; and this , he saith , is held by all , held firmly , and that it is absolutely infallible . To this therefore I answer , either Mr. S. means , that none do affirm that the universal tradition of the Church essential can err , or that the Church of Rome , being the Church essential , cannot err in her tradition : But which way soever he takes it , I shall easily shew how far it is from proving that he designs it for . For if he take it in the first sense , viz. that all the faithful in all ages could not concur in an error , then he may as well prove Protestants of his mind as Papists , for this is the foundation on which we believe the particular Books of Scripture . If this therefore proves any thing , it proves more then he intends , viz. that while we thus oppose each other , we do perfectly agree together ; and truly so we do , as much as they do among themselves . But if Mr. S's . meaning be , that all of their Religion own the Roman Church to be the Church essential , and on that account , that it cannot err , ( setting aside the absurdity of the opinion it self ) , I say from hence it doth not follow , that they make oral tradition the rule of faith , because it is most evident , that the ground why they say their Church cannot err , is not on Mr. S's . principles , but on the supposition of an infallible assistance , which preserves that Church from error . So that this falls far short of proving , that they are all agreed in this rule of faith ; which is a thing so far from probability , that he might , by the same argument prove , that Scripture is owned by them all to be the rule of faith . For I hope it is held by all , and held firmly , that the living voice of God in Scripture , as delivered to us , is infallible ; and if so , then there is as much ground for this as the other . But if we enquire what it is men make a rule of faith , we must know not only that they believe tradition infallible , but on what account they do so . For if tradition be believed infallible barely on the account of a promise of infallibility to the present Church , then the resolution of faith is not into the tradition , but into that infallible assistance ; and consequently the rule of faith is not , what bare tradition delivers , but what that Church , which cannot err in judging tradition , doth propose to us . It is not therefore their being agreed in general , that tradition is infallible , doth make th●m agree in the same rule of faith ; but they must agree in the ground of that infallibility , viz. that it depends on this , that no age could conspire to deceive the next . But all persons who understand any thing of the Roman Church , know very well that the general reason why tradition is believed infallible , is , because they first believe the Church to be infallible ; whereas Mr. S. goes the contrary way , and makes the infallibility of the the Church , to depend on the infallibility of tradition . And therefore , for all that I can see , we must still oppose private Opinators in this controversie ; the Church of Rome , not having declared her self at all on Mr. S's behalf , but the contrary , and the generality believing on the account of the present Churches infallibility . And it is strange Mr. S. should find no difference between mens resolving faith into common sense , and into the immediate assistance of the Holy Ghost . If this then be the first principle of controversie , as Mr. S. pretends , we see how unlikely they are to agree about other matters , who are so much divided about the principle of resolving them . And if this be the ground of faith , then most Romanists build on a wrong Foundation . But if the infallibility of oral tradition be the foundation on which that formidable structure is erecting , which he speaks of , wo then to the Court of Rome , for that is known to build on quite a different foundation . And if this , as he saith , rises apace , and has advanced many stories in a small time , it only lets us know how fast their divisions grow , and that they are building so fast one against another , that their Church will not stand between them . By this discourse , Mr. S. pretends to answer all those If 's which follow ; which are these , In case the Church may determine things de fide , which were not before , whether the present Church doth then believe as the precedent did or no ? if it did , how comes any thing to be de fide which was not before ? if it did not , what assurance can I have that every age of the Church believes just as the precedent did , and no otherwise ; when I see they profess the contrary ? And if a thing may be de fide in one age , which was not in a foregoing , then a Church may deliver that as a matter of faith at one time , which was never accounted so before ; by which means the present Church may oblige me to believe that as a matter of faith , which never was so in Christs or the Apostles times , and so the infallibility on the account of tradition is destroyed . To all which Mr. S. gives a very easie answer , viz. that they do not hold any disparate or unimplied points of faith ; but such as are involved and implied in the main point . This is no more easily said then understood ; for if these be implied in the former , how can there come a new obligation to believe them ? For to take his own instance , will any man in his senses say , that he that believes homo est animal rationale , doth not believe homo est animal ? and this he makes choice of as an example , how one point of faith may be involved in another , so as to receive a distinct obligation to believe it . I grant that homo est animal is involved in the other , but he that shall say , that after he hath assented to that proposition , homo est animal rationale , he may be capable of a new obligation to believe the former , which is involved in this , it may be justly questioned whether such an one , as to himself , can truly say , homo est animal rationale , or no. But after such rare subtilties , he doth very well to tell me , that I ought to consider what Logick tells us , that the conclusion is in the premises , which reflection ( in his his court-like expression ) he saith , will much unblunder my thoughts . But let the conclusion be as long as it will in the premises , will any man in his wits say , that he that believes the truth of the premises , is not hereby bound to believe the conclusion ? and the more the one is involved in the other , the less is it possible to make the obligation to believe them distinct . And it is hard for me to believe , that this is a way to unblunder my thoughts , when I see what horrible confusion such expressions argue in his own . Let the Church then clear her thoughts never so much , yet all this cannot amount to a distinct obligation to believe those things which were involved before , but to a more explicit declaring them for the Churches peace and satisfaction . The only conclusion then involved in these premises , is , that if some things may be de fide in one age which were not in another , then the present age may believe otherwise than the precedent did . And if this doctrine be held in the Church of Rome , nothing can be more evident , than that Mr. S's . first principle of controversie , is far from being the doctrin of the Roman Church , which was the thing to be proved . My second chief argument against this way of oral tradition was , that it had not been owned in all ages of the Christian Church ; to manifest which , I enquired into the reason of the obligation in any age of the Church to believe and practise just as the precedent did . Mr. S. rejoices in that confession of mine , that the only thing to be proved in this case is , that every age of the Church , and all persons in it , look'd on themselves as obliged not to vary in any thing from the doctrine and practise of the precedent age . And I there offer the choice of three ways to prove it , reason , testimony , or tradition ; he tells me , he excepts the way of reason ; yet quarrels with me for pressing for a demonstrative medium to prove it , when yet Mr. S. seldom speaks under the rate of demonstrations . But he thereby notes the unconsonancy of my carriage , Wherein I wonder ? That I should desire them to perform this promise , viz. to give us demonstrations for the grounds of faith ? But saith withal , he will yeild me the honour of professing I have no demonstration but probability for the ground of mine , and he makes this serious protestation for himself , that he should esteem himself very dishonest , did he assert and press on others any argument for the ground of his faith , which he judged not evident , that is demonstrative . What is it these men mean , when they cry up their own way for demonstrative , and say that we build our faith meerly on probabilities ? Do they say , that Religion is capable of strict and rigorous demonstration ? If so , let them demonstrate the being of God and immortality of the soul , with as much evidence , as that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles . And it is strange , if they think particular problems in religion are more capable of demonstration than those Theorems on which they are built . But by all the enquiry I can make , all the difference between us is , that Mr. S. will have that called a demonstration , which is scarce a probability ; and we call that sufficient reason , which any wise man may safely rely on in matters of Religion . In the mean time how much do we suffer by our modesty , that because we speak not as big as Mr. S. does , we must be censured presently to have nothing but probabilities fot our faith ? Are those bare probabilities which leave no suspition of doubt behind them ? And such we freely assert the grounds of our Religion to do ; i. e. I assert , that we have the highest actual certainty of the truth of our Religion , which the mind of any reasonable man can desire ; and if Mr. S's . demonstrations can do any more than this , let him tell us what it is . For my part , I know nothing higher in the mind of man than a certain assent , and if I did not think there was the greatest ground in Religion for that , I abhor dissimulation so much , that I should leave off perswading men to embrace it . And if any men have made us shy of the word demonstration and infallibility , they are such men as Mr. S. have done it , who talk of these things , when their arguments fall beneath some of the remotest probabilities we insist on . Nay , if there be any force in his demonstration , as to matters of fact , it hath been used by us long before his Book saw the light . But we love to give the true names to things , and not to lose our credit with all intelligent persons , by playing Mountebanks in Religion , crying up those things for infallible cures , which an ordinary capacity may discern the insufficiency of . But was it any thing but justice and reason in me to expect and call for a demonstration from them who talk of nothing under it ? And therefore I said , that it was impossible to demonstrate this way of oral tradition , unless it were proved impossible for men not to think themselves obliged to believe and do all just as their predecessors did . For where the contrary is not only possible , but easily supposable , as that men may believe those things , as new articles of faith which are defined by Pope and Council , I wonder how Mr. S. will demonstrate , that men must look on themselves as obliged to believe just as their predecessors did ? For I had thought demonstrations had never place in contingent propositions ; but it seems Mr. S. who tells me , Logick will unblunder my thoughts , intends to make a new one for me . And I assure you so he had need , before I shall ever call his arguments demonstrations : and although he thinks himself very honest in calling them so , yet I should think him much wiser if he did not . But before I come to the particular debate of these things , I freely tell him , that I grant all he requests ; I shall take along with me the nature of the matter in hand , the doctrines and practices spoken of , the manner of delivering them , the necessary circumstances which give weight to both ; yet for all these , I cannot look on his way as demonstrative . And that both our meanings may be better understood , it is very necessary the Reader should have a true account of the state of the Question between us . And if he will believe me , I never intended to dispute with him or any one else , whether men were bound to wear their clothes , or build houses , or manage estates just as their predecessors did ; but whether every age is obliged to believe and practise just as the precedent did , by virtue of meer oral tradition ; for about that is all the controversie between us . I do not deny , but that a succeeding age may look on it self as bound to believe what the precedent did ; but whether that obligation doth arise purely from the delivery of that doctrine by the precedent in the way of of tradition , is the thing in dispute between us . For in case the ground of faith be wholly the written Word , conveyed from age to age , I deny not but an obligation to believe descends with the doctrine to every succeeding age . But that which Mr. S. is to prove is , that abstractly from Scripture every age is absolutely bound to believe just as the precedent did , without any enquiry whether that doctrine doth agree with Scriptures or no ; but that he is therefore bound to believe all which is proposed to him , because it was the doctrine of the immediately preceding age . And this is that which I deny , and desire Mr. S. to prove . For which he first gives us a large instance in historical matters , and then comes to the matters of Christian faith . His instance is , in Alexanders conquest of Asia , as to which he saith , that the memory of it is fresh and lively , though some thousand years since ; and that the universal and strong perswasion of this matter of fact was not caused by Books , as Curtius his History , but by human tradition ; that the continuance of this perswasion was the notoriety of the fact to the then livers , which obliged them to relate it to their posterity , and that this testifying by the fore-fathers , was that which obliged posterity to believe things , as true because there could be no imaginable motive why the whole world should conspire to deceive them , or be deceivable in their sensations ; on which principle it passed to the next age , and so came down by way of tradition to our dayes ; & the obligation to believe in every age depended upon this , that the senses of the first could not be deceived ; and having this security in every age , that no one would conspire to deceive the next , it follows , that no age could say a former age testified so , unless it did ; so therefore , saith he , it follows demonstratively , that it was testified ; and so the descendents in every age to the very end of the world have the same obligation to believe their immediate fore-fathers , saying it was testified by theirs , and so to the very first , who were witnesses of his actions . This is the substance of what he more largely discourses in several Paragraphs ; which when he hath done , he tells me , he expects what I will reply to this discourse . Not to frustrate therefore his expectation , and in order to the Readers satisfaction , we are to consider , that in the present case there are two distinct questions to be resolved : 1. How a matter of fact evident to the world comes to be conveyed to posterity ? 2. By what means a compleat history of all passages relating to it may be conveyed ? As to the first , I grant that a fact so notorious as Alexanders conquest of Asia might have been preserved by human tradition , and conveyed in a certain way from one age to another . But if we enquire into that which is alone proper to our question , viz. by what means we may judg what is true and false as to the particulars of that conquest , then I deny that bare tradition is to be relyed on in this case . For the certainty of conveyance of all paticulars doth depend not upon the bare veracity , but the capacity and skill of communicating from one age to another . For which one would think we need no clearer evidence than the consideration of the different account of former times in the several Nations of the world . For who can imagine , but the barbarous Nations were as unwilling to deceive their posterity as any other ? yet we see a vast difference in the histories of former ages among them , and more civilized people . And I wish Mr. S. would rather have instanced in some history which had been preserved meerly by tradition , and not in such a one , which , if any other , hath been most carefully recorded and propagated to posterity . If Mr. S. would have undertaken to have told us , who they were that first peopled America , and from what place they came , by the tradition of the present inhabitants , and what famous actions had been done there in former ages , we might have thought indeed , that sole tradition had been a very safe way to convey matters of fact from one age to another . But since all Mr. S's . arguments will hold as well for the Scythians and Americans , and the most barbarous Nations , as the most civil and polite ; what reason can Mr. S. give , why there is not among them as certain an account of former ages , as among the Greeks and Romans ? Were not their senses , who saw those matters of fact , as uncapable of being deceived as others ? Was not every age among them as unwilling to deceive their posterity as elsewhere ? Yet notwithstanding the force of Mr. S's demonstration , we see for want of letters how grosly ignorant they are of what was done before them . And if this principle were true , why have we not as true an account of the eldest ages of the world , as of any other ? Nay , why were letters invented , and writing ever used , if tradition had been found so infallible ? But it is one thing superficially to discourse what is impossible should be otherwise , and another to consider what really hath been in the world . Doth not the constant experience of all times prove , that where any history hath not been timely recorded , it hath been soon corrupted by notorious falsities , or obscured by fabulous reports ? As we see among our selves , what difference there is in point of certainty between the several stories of K. Arthur and William the Conqueror ; what will Mr. S. say , that those who lived in K. Arthurs time could not know what he did , or that they conspired to deceive their posterity ? But if tradition be so infallible , why have we not the ancient story of Britain as exact as the modern ? If Mr. S. will impute it to the peoples ignorance , want of letters , frequent conquests by other Nations , and succeeding barbarism , he may easily find how many ways there are for matters of fact to be soon lost or corrupted , when they have not been diligently preserved by authentick records ; and that without one age conspiring to deceive another . But notwithstanding Mr. S's confidence , I cannot think it possible for Mr. S. to believe , that we should have had as true an account of Alexanders conquest of Asia , if Arrian Curtias , or Plutarch had never writ his story , as we have now . Yet this he must assert by vertue of his principle . And he that can believe that , I wonder he should scruple believing the Popes infallibility ; for certainly no principle of the Jesuits is more wild and absurd than this is . Besides , I admire how it came into Mr. S's head to think , no error could come into history unless one age conspired to deceive another , when we find no age agreed in the present matters of fact which are done in it , as to the grounds and particulars of them ; to give Mr. S. an instance home to his purpose , in the late Council of Trent we see already what different representations there are made of it in so little a time as hath already passed since the sitting of it . One , though he had all the advantages imaginable of knowing all proceedings in it , living at the same time , conversing with the persons present at it , having the memoires and records of the Secretaries themselves , yet his story is since endeavoured to be blasted by a great person of the Roman Church , as fictitious and partial . We see then it is at least supposed that interest and prejudice may have a great hand in abusing the world in matter of story , though one age never agree to deceive another . And instead of being perswaded by Mr. S's demonstrations , I am still of the mind , that we have no sufficient security of the truth of any story , which was not written while those persons were in being who were able to contradict the errors of it . However I deny not , but some notorious matters of fact , such as Alexanders bare conquests of Asia , might by the visible effects of it be preserved both in Asia and Greece for a long time . But if we come to enquire particularly , whether this or that was done by him in his conquest , which is alone pertinent to our purpose , we have no security at all from tradition , but only from the most authentick records of that story . And by this , I hope Mr. S. will have cause to thank me for unblundring his thoughts ( his own civil expressions ) , and shewing him how errors may come into a story without one age conspiring to deceive the next ; and what a vast difference there is between preserving a bare matter af fact , and all the particulars relating to it . And hereby he may easily see how far the obligation extends in believing the report of former ages . For there can be no obligation to believe any further than there is evidence of truth in the matter we are obliged to . If then there be not only a possibility , but a very great probability of mistakes and errors in matters of fact , I pray what obligation doth there ly upon men absolutely to believe what is delivered by the preceding age ? But to put an issue to this controversie , let Mr. S. examine himself , and try if he can name one story that was never written , which was ever certainly propagated from one age to another by meer oral tradition ; and if he cannot , he may thereby see how little real force his argument hath in the world . For all the force of tradition lies in an unquestionable conveyance of those Books which contain in them the true reports of the actions of the times they were written in . But can Mr. S. think , that if the Roman history had never been written , it had been possible for us to have known what was done under the Kings and Consuls as now we do ? Yet if his principle holds , this necessarily follows ; for those of that age could not but know them , and no age since could conspire to deceive the next . And from hence , the most useful consequence of all is , that Mr. S. might have writ a history from the beginning of the world to this day , with a full relation of all particulars , if there had never been any Book written in the world before . And doth not Mr. S. deserve immortal credit for so rare an invention as this is , and all built on nothing short of demonstrations . But Mr. S. very prudently foresees , what it is I must be forced to recur to , viz. that being baffled with his former demonstration , I have no other shift to betake my self to , but to say the case is different between histories and points of faith . And therefore to bring his business home , he applies it at large to the delivery of the Christian faith , which that he might do in more ample sort , he very finely descants on the old Verse , Quis , quid , ubi , &c. containing the circumstances of human actions , and from every one of them derives arguments for the infallibility of oral tradition ; which briefly and in plain English may be summed up thus ; Since the author of this doctrine was the Son of God , the doctrine it self so excellent , and delivered in so publick a manner , in the most convincing way , by miracle and good living , and for so good an end as to save mens souls , and that by writing it in mens hearts , and testified to others ; and all this at a time when men might judg of the miracles and motives for believing it ; therefore since in all these respects it was incomparably beyond the story of Alexanders conquests , it follows , that in a manner infinitely greater must the obligation be to believe Christs doctrine , than Alexanders or William the Conqerours victories , or any history of the like nature whatsoever . All which I freely grant , but cannot yet see how from thence it follows ; that oral tradition is the only rule of faith , or the means whereby we are to judg what is the doctrine of Christ , and what not . Those arguments I confess prove , that the Christians of the first age were highly concerned to enquire into the truth of these things , and that they had the greatest reason imaginable to believe them ; and that it is not possible to conceive that they should not endeavour to propagate so excellent a doctrine , and of so high concernment to the world . But the question is , whether abstractly from the Books written in the first age of the Christian Church , there is so much infallibility in the oral tradition of every age , that nothing could be embraced for Christs doctrine which was not ; and consequently , whether every age were bound to believe absolutely what was delivered it by the precedent for the doctrine of Christ ? Mr. S. therefore puts himself to a needless task of proving that every age was bound to believe the doctrine of Christ , which I never questioned ; but the dispute is , whether every age be bound on the account of oral tradition to believe what is delivered by the precedent for Christs doctrine . But it is to be observed all along how carefully Mr. S. avoids mentioning the written Books of the New Testament ; because he knew all his game about oral tradition would be quite spoiled by a true stating the matter of fact in the first ages of the Christian Church . I hope he will not be angry with me , for asking him that question about the Scripture , which he asks me about the Council of Trent ; did he never hear of such a thing as the Scripture ? or is it so hard to find it ? But if he hath heard of it , I intreat him to resolve me these Questions : 1. Whether he doth not believe , that the Books of the New Testament were written at such a time , when the matters of fact therein recorded , were capable of being throughly examined ? which he cannot deny upon his own principle ; for tradition being then infallible as to the doctrine of Christ , the writers of these Books cannot be conceived to deliver it amiss , unless they resolved to contradict the present tradition of the Church ; which if they had done , those Books could never have found any reception among Christians . If tradition then convey the doctrine of Christ infalilbly , these Books must convey it infallibly , because they contain in them the infallible tradition of the first age of the Christian Church ; and were written at the time when many persons living had been able to disprove any thing contained therein repugnant to truth . And that these Books were written by those persons whose names they bear , I appeal to Mr , S's own rule , Tradition ; for if that be infallible in any thing , it must be in this ; and if one age could conspire to deceive another in a matter of such concernment , what security can be had , that it may not do so in all other things ? 2. Whether he believes , that those whose intention was to write an account of the life , actions , and doctrine of Christ , did leave any thing out of their Books which did relate to them as of concernment for us to believe ? For upon Mr. S's principles , any one may easily know what the tradition of the Church is ; and especially such certainly who were either present themselves at the matters of fact , or heard them from those who were ; and what satisfaction can any one desire greater than this ? But the question is , whether this testimony were not more safely deposited in the Church to be conveyed by word of mouth , than it could be by being committed to writing by such who were eye and ear witnesses of the actions and doctrine of Christ ? Upon which I advance some further Queries . 3. If oral Tradition were the more certain way , why was any thing written at all ? It may be Mr. S. will tell us , for moral instructions , and to give precepts of good life ; but then why may not these be as infallibly conveyed by tradition as doctrines of faith ? And why then were any matters of fact and points of faith inserted in the Books of the New Testament ? By which it certainly appears , that the intention of writing them was to preserve them to posterity . Let Mr. S. tell me whether it was consistent with the wisdom of men , much less with the wisdom of an infinite Being to imploy men to do that which might be far better done another way , and when it is done can give no satisfaction to the minds of men ? 4. Whether those things which are capable of being understood when they are spoken , cease to be so when they are written ? For Mr. S. seems to understand those terms of a living voice , and dead letters in a very strict and rigorous manner ; as though the sense were only quick when spoken , and became buried in dead letters . But Mr. S. seems with the sagacious Indian to admire how it is possible for dead letters and unsenc'd characters to express mens meanings as well as words . I cannot enter into Mr. S's apprehension , how 24 letters by their various disposition can express matters of faith ? And yet to increase the wonder , he writes about matters of faith , while he is proving that matters of faith cannot be conveyed by writing . So that Mr. S's . own writing is the best demonstration against himself ; and he confutes his own Sophistry with his fingers , as Diogenes did Zeno's by his motion . For doth Mr. S. hope to perswade men , that tradition is a rule of faith by his Book or not ? if not , to what purpose doth he write ? if he doth , then it is to be hoped some matters of faith may be intelligibly conveyed by writing ; especially if Mr. S. doth it . But by no means we are to believe that ever the Spirit of God can do it . For whatever is written by men assisted by that , is according to him but a heap of dead letters , and insignificant characters ; when Mr. S. the mean while is full of sense and demonstration . Happy man that can thus out-do infinite wisdom , and write far beyond either Prophets or Apostles . But if he will condescend so far as to allow that to inspired persons which he confidently believes of himself , viz. that he can write a Book full of sense , and that any ordinary capacity may apprehend the design of it , our controversie is at an end ; for then matters of faith may be intelligibly and certainly conveyed to posterity by the Books of Scripture ; and if so , there will be no need of any recourse to oral tradition . 5. If the Books of Scripture did not certainly & intelligibly convey all matters of faith , what made them be received with so much veneration in the first ages of the Christian Church ? which were best able to judg of the truth of the matters contained in them , and the usefulness of the Books themselves . And therein we still find , that appeals were made to them , that they thought themselves concerned to vindicate them against all objections of Heathens and others ; and the resolution of faith was made into them , and not tradition , as I have already manifested , and must not repeat . 6. Whether it be in the least credible , since the Books of Scripture were supposed to contain the doctrines of faith , that every age of the Church should look on it self as obliged absolutely to believe the doctrine of the precedent by virtue of an oral-tradition ? For since they resolved their faith into the written Books , how is it possible they should believe on the account of an oral tradition ? Although then the Apostles did deliver the doctrine of Christ to all their Disciples ; yet since the records of it were embraced in the Church , men judged of the truth or falsehood of doctrines , by the conveniency or repugnancy of them to what was contained in those Books . By which we understand , that the obligation to believe what was taught by the precedent age , did not arise from the oral tradition of it , but by the satisfaction of the present age , that the doctrine delivered by it was the same with that contained in Scripture . It is time now to return to Mr. S. who proceeds still to manifest this obligation in posterity to believe what was delivered as matter of faith , by the precedent age of the Church ; but the force of all is the same still ; viz. that otherwise one age must conspire to deceive the next . But the inconsequence of that , I have fully shewed already , unless he demonstrates it impossible for errors to come in any other way : For if we reduce the substance of what he saith to a Syllogistical form , it comes to this ; Where there is no possibility of error , there is an absolute obligation to faith ; but there is no possibility of error in the tradition of any age of the Church : ergo in every age there is an absolute obligation to believe the tradition of the present Church . The minor he thus proves ; If no age of the Church can be ignorant of what the precedent taught , or conspire to deceive the next , then there is no possibility of error coming into the tradition of the Church in any age ; but the antecedent is true , and therefore the consequent . Now , who sees not that the force of all this lies not in proving the minor proposition , or that no age could conspire to deceive another ? but the consequence , viz. that no error can come into a Church , but by a general mistake , in one whole age , or the general imposture of it which we utterly deny ; and have shewed him already the falseness of it from his own concessions . And I might more largely shew it from those Doctrines or opinions which they themselves acknowledg to have come into their Church without any such general mistake or imposture , as the doctrines of Papal infallibility , and the common belief of Purgatory . The very same way that Mr. White and Mr. S. will shew us how these came in , we will shew him how many others came in as erroneous and scandalous as those are . For whether they account these matters of faith or no , it is certain many among them do , and that the far greatest number , who assert and believe them to be the doctrine of their Church too . If therefore these might come in without one age mistaking or deceiving the next , why might not all those come in the same way which we charge upon them as the errors of their Church ? And in the same manner that corrupt doctrines come in , may corrupt practises too , since these , as he saith , spring from the other . He might therefore have saved himself the trouble of finding out how an acute Wit , or great Scholar would discover the weakness of this way . For without pretending to be either of these , I have found out another way of attaquing it , than Mr. S. looked for ; viz. from his own principles and concessions ; shewing how errors might come into a Church , without a total deception or conspiracy in any one age . Which if it be true , he cannot bind me to believe what ever he tells me the present Church delivers , unless he can prove that this never came into the Church as a speculation or private opinion , and from thence by degrees hath come to be accounted a point of faith . Therefore his way of proof is now quite altered , and he cannot say we are bound to believe whatever the present Church delivers ; for that which he calls the present Church , may have admitted speculations and private opinions into doctrines of faith ; but he must first prove such doctrines delivered by Christ or his Apostles , and that from his time down to our age they have been received by the whole Church for matters of faith ; and when he hath done this , as to any of the points in controversie between us , I will promise him to be his Proselyte . But he ought still to remember , that he is not to prove it impossible for one whole age to conspire to deceive the next ; but that supposing that it is impossible for any errors to come into the tradition of the Church . Let us now see what Mr. S. objects against those words I then used against the demonstrating this way ; It is hard to conceive what reason should inforce it , but such as proves the impossibility of the contrary ; and they have understandings of another mould from others , who can conceive it impossible men should not think themselves obliged to believe and do all just as their predecessors . And whatever Mr. S. says to the contrary , I cannot yet see , but that therein I argued from the very nature and constitution of the thing . For that which I looked for , was a demonstration , which I supposed could not be unless the impossibility of the contrary were demonstrated . But if it be possible for Men , Christians , nay Romanists to believe on other accounts than tradition of the precedent age , I pray what demonstration can there be , that men must think themselves obliged to believe and do all just as their predecessors did ? Surely if Mr. S's . fancy had not been very extravagant , he could never have thought here of mens being obliged to cut their Beards , or wear such Garters and Hat-bands as their forefathers did . For do I not mention believing first , and then doing ? by which it were easie to apprehend , that I meant matters of faith , and such practices as flow from them . Neither was there any such crafty and sophistical dealing as he charges me with ; for I am content his doctrine be taken in his own terms ; and I have now given a larger and fuller account why I am far from being convinced by the way he hath used for resolving faith . Passing by therefore his challenge , which I accept of , as long as he holds to the weapon of reason and civility , I come to consider his last enquiry , why I should come to doubt of such an obligation in posterity , to believe their ancestors in matters of faith ; and he judiciously resolves it into a strange distortion of human nature , but such as it seems , is the proper effect of the Protestants temper , which is , saith he , to chuse every one his faith by his private judgement , or wit , working upon disputable words . Which as far as we own it , is not to believe what we see no ground for ; and if this be such a distortion of human nature , I envy not Mr. S's . uprightness and perfection . If he means that we build our faith on our private judgments , in opposition to Scripture , or the universal tradition of the Church in all ages , let him prove it evidently in one particular , and I engage for my self and all true Protestants , we will renounce the belief of it . If he hath any thing further to object against the grounds of our Religion , he knows where to attaque me ; let him undertake the whole , or else acknowledg it a most unreasonable thing thus to charge falsities upon us , and then say we have nothing else to say for our selves . We pretend not to chuse our faith , but heartily embrace whatever appears to have been delivered by Christ or his Apostles ; but we know the Church of Rome too well to believe all which she would impose upon us , and are loth to have her chuse our Religion for us , since we know she hath chosen so ill for her self . But if Mr. S. will not believe me in saying thus , what reason have I to believe him in saying otherwise ? Such general charges then signifie nothing , but every one must judg according to the reason on both sides . I now come to the last part of my task ; which is to shew , that this way is repugnant to common sense and experience , and that the Church of Rome hath apparently altered from what was the belief of former ages . To which purpose my words are , It is to no purpose to prove impossibility of motion when I see men move ; no more is it to prove that no age of the Church could vary from the preceding , when we can evidently prove that they have done it . And therefore this argument is intended only to catch easie minds that care not for a search into the history of the several ages of the Church , but had rather sit down with a superficial subtilty , than spend time in further enquiries . But two things M. S. tells me are required ere I can see that their faith varies from the former ; first to see what their Church holds now , and then to see what the former Church held before ; and he kindly tells me , if he sees any thing , I see neither well . It seems I want Mr. S's . spectacles of oral tradition to see with ; but as yet I have no cause to complain of the want of them , but I see much better without them than with them . He tells me , I cannot see what their present Church holds , and therefore I cannot assure any what was held before ; because , if I renounce tradition , I take away all means of knowing . The reason why I cannot candidly see ( as he phrases it ) what their Church holds now , is , because I cannot distinguish between faith and its explication , some Schoolmen and the Church . By which it seems it is impossible for me to know what their Church holds concerning Invocation of Saints , Worship of Images , Communion in one kind ; for those are the points I there mention , wherein it is evident , that the Church of Rome hath receded from the doctrine and practise of the primitive Church . Or are these only the opinions and practises of some Schoolmen among them , and not the doctrine and practise of their Church ? But that we might come to some fuller state of these controversies , I wish M. S. would settle some sure way whereby we might know distinctly what are the doctrines and practices of their Church . If the Council of Trent and Roman Catechism be said to be the rule of doctrine , I desire no other ; so that those may be interpreted by practices universally allowed among them . As when that Council only defined , that due honour be given to Saints ; the general practice of that Church may tell us what they mean by that due honour ; and if that be not fair , I know not what is . But I see all the shift Mr. S. hath , is , when he is pinched , to say these are the opinions of Schoolmen and private speculators , and not the doctrine of their Church . And if such shifts as these are must serve the turn , I should wonder if ever he be to seek for an answer . But the shortest answer of all would be , that none but those of their Church can know what she holds ; and therefore it is to no purpose for Protestants to write against her ; or it may be , that none but Mr , S. and one or two more can tell ; for many among them say , those are the doctrines of their Church which they deny to be . So that except Mr. White and Mr. S. and some very few demonstrators more , all the rest are School-men , private Opinators , and not to be relied on . But I cannot see what their Church held formerly neither . No wonder at all of that ; for if I cannot see an object so near me as the present Church , how can it be expected I should see one so much further off as the doctrine of former ages ? And his reason is so strong , as may well perswade me out of one , at least , of my five senses . For , saith he , if I question tradition , I question whether there be any doctrine delivered , and so any Fathers . And is not this argued like a Demonstrator ? First he supposes there never was any way used in the world but oral tradition , and then strongly infers , if I deny that , I can know nothing . But I can yet hardly perswade my self that the Fathers only sate in Chimney-corners teaching their Children by word of mouth , and charging them to be sure to do so to theirs ; but as they loved preserving the doctrine of faith , they should have a great care never to write down a word of it . But why , I wonder , should Mr. S. think , that if I do not allow of oral tradition , I must needs question whether there were any Fathers ? I had thought I might have known there had been Fathers by their Children ; I mean the Books they left behind them . But if all Mr. S. pleads for be only this , that no Books can be certainly conveyed without tradition , he dispute's without an adversary ; but as I never opposed this , so I am sure it doth him little service . It is then from the Books of the Fathers that I find what the sense of the Church of their age was , and from thence I have shewed how vastly different the opinions and practices of the Roman Church are from those of the primitive . Although then I may not think my self obliged to believe all that the present Church delivers for matter of faith ; yet I hope I may find what the opinions and practice of the former Church were by the records that are left of it . And the reason why I cannot think any one obliged to believe what every age of the Church delivers , is , because I think no man obliged to believe contradictions ; and I see the opinions and practices of several ages apparently contrary to each other . Well , but I call this way a superficial subtilty ; and so I think it still ; so little have Mr. S's . demonstations wrought upon me . But , saith he , is that which is wholly built on the nature of things superficial ? No ; but that which pretends to be so built , may . And of that nature I have shewed this way to be , and not the former . But that I may not think him superficial as well as his way , he puts a profound Question to me , What do I think Controversie is ? and that he may the better let me know what it is , he answers himself . I deal plainly with you , saith he , you may take it to be an art of talking , and I think you do so , though you will not profess it ; but I take it to be a noble science . But to let him see that I will deal as plainly with him , as he doth with me , I will profess it , that I not only think Controversie as usually managed , but some mens way of demonstrating ( Mr. S. may easily know whom I mean ) to be a meer art of talking , and nothing else . But he takes it to be a noble science ; yes doubtless , if Mr. S. manage it , and he be the judg of it himself . His meaning I suppose is , by his following words , that he goes upon certain principles , and we do not . We have already seen how certain his principles have been , and I should be somewhat ashamed of my Religion if I had no better . But what our rule of faith is , hath been amply discoursed already by you , and that in Mr. S's clearing method , that nothing is left for me to do , but to touch at what remains , and concludes this answer . I had the better to illustrate the weakness of that argument from oral tradition , brought an instance in that case parallel , viz. that if one ages delivering to another would prove that the faith of Christ was in every age unalterable , because no age did testifie any such alteration to be in it ; by the same argument the world might be proved eternal , because no age did ever testifie to another , that the world was ever otherwise than it is . So that if oral tradition were only to be relied on , there could be no evidence given of the worlds being ever otherwise than it is , and consequently the world must be believed to have been always what we see it is . This , as far as I can apprehend , is a clear and distinct ratiocination , and purposely designed to prove that we must admit of other rules to judg of alterations in the Church by , besides oral tradition . But Mr. S. ( in his own expression ) strangely roving from the mark I aimed at , professes there is not a tittle in it parallel to his medium , nay , that he never saw in his life more absurdities couched in fewer words . But I must take all patiently from a man who still perches on the specifical nature of things , and never flags below the sphere of science . Yet by his good leave , he either apprehends not , or wilfully mistakes my meaning ; for my argument doth not proceed upon the belief of the worlds eternity , which , in his answer , he runs wholly upon as far as eighthly and lastly , but upon the evidence of oral traditias to no discernable alteration in any age of it . For the Question between us , is , whether in matters of alteration in the faith or practice of the Church , we are bound to rely only on the testimony of oral tradition ; so that if no age can be instanced in wherein any alteration was made , and this delivered by that age , then we are bound to believe there hath been no alteration since Christ and the Apostles times ; now I say , if this hold good , I will prove the world eternal by the same argument ; taking this for our principle , that we are bound to rely only on oral tradition in the case , originally derived from the matter of fact seen by those of the first age ; for that which never was otherwise then it is , is eternal ; but we cannot know by oral tradition that the world ever was otherwise then it is ; for no age of the world can be instanced in , wherein we have any testimony of any alteration that was in it . Either then we must believe that the world ever was what it is , i. e. eternal ; or else we must say , that we are not to rely barely on oral tradition in this case , but we must judg whether the world were made or no , by other mediums of Scripture and reason . And this was all which I aimed at , viz. to shew that where there is no evidence from oral tradition ; yet if there be Scripture and reason , there is sufficient ground for our faith to stand upon . And so I apply it to the present case ; though we could not prove barely from the tradition of any one age , that there had been any alteration in the faith or practice of the Church ; yet if I can prove that there hath been such from Scripture and reason , this is sufficient for me to believe it . And now I dare appeal to the indifferent Reader , whether this be so full of absurdities , or it be such a rambling Chimerical argument ( as he calls it ) , no two pieces of which hang together with themselves , or any thing else . Which being expressions of as great modesty as science , I am content Mr , S. should bear away the hoour of them and his demonstrations together . The last thing he quarrels with me for , is , that I say , if we can evidently prove , that there have been alterations in the Church , then it is to no purpose to prove that impossible which we see actually done . And this appears not only because the Scripture supposes a degeneracy in the Christian Church , which could never be , if every age of the Church did infallibly believe and practise as the precedent up to Christs time did ; but because we can produce clear evidence that some things are delivered by the present Church , which must be brought in by some age since the time of Christ ; for which I refer the Reader to what I had said about communion in one kind , invocation of Saints , and worship of Images : In all which , I say , I had proved evidently that they were not in use in some ages of the Christian Church ; and it is as evident that these are delivered by the present Church , and therefore this principle must needs be false . In answer to this , Mr. S. wishes , I would tell him first what evidence means , whether a strong fancy , or a demonstration ? I mean that which is enough to perswade a wise man , who judges according to the clearest reason , which I am sure is more than ever his demonstrations will do . But it is a pleasant spectacle to see how Mr. S , layes about him , at my saying that the Scripture supposes a degeneracy in the Christian Church . Incomparably argued ! saith he , why , see we not the place ? does it evidently speak of faith , or manners ; the Vniversal Church , or particular persons ? but be it in faith , be it universal , does it suppose this degeneracy already past , which is only proper to your purpose , or yet to come ? That is , does it say there must be a total Apostacy in faith before the year 1664 ? Alas , he had forgot this . Most incomparably answered ! For if the degeneracy be in 1665. or any years after , what becomes of M. S's demonstration then , that no errors could come into the Church ? but it seems his demonstration holds but till 1664. and I easily believe another year will never believe the truth of it . But if such a thing as a degeneracy be possible , how then stands the infallibility of tradition , when there can be no degeneracy without falling from the doctrine and practices of Christ and his Apostles ? But that such a degeneracy hath already been in that which calls it self the Catholick Church , and that both in faith and manners , I shall refer Mr. S to the learned Author of the late Idea of Antichristianism and Synopsis Prophetica , where he may find enough to perswade him that his demonstration was far from holding so long as 1664. And now I leave the Reader to judg whether the foregoing evidences against the infallibility of oral tradition , or Mr. S's . demonstrations have the greater force of reason in them . And if he will not stoop so far from the height of his perch , as to take notice of what I have elsewhere said , I am resolved to let him see I am not at all concerned about it : I begin to understand him so well by this Appendix , that I can give my self a reasonable account why he thought it not fit to meddle with any other part of my Book . But if Mr. S. be resolved not to answer any of the testimonies I there produce , unless I single them out , and print them at the end of this Answer , ( i. e. remove them from that evidence which attends them in the series of the discourse ) I can only say , he is the most imperious answerer I have met with , who is resolved never to deal with an adversary , but on his own unreasonable terms . Thus heartily wishing . Mr. S's . Science as great as his opinion of it , and a good effect of our endeavours to promote the one , by removing the other , I am Sir , Your affectionate friend and servant , Edward Stillingfleet . London . June 28. 1665. FINIS Postscript . SIR , SInce the dispatch of the former Papers , I have met with another Treatise , wherein I find my self concerned , written by the Author of Fiat Lux , the Title whereof is Diaphanta : I am afraid the Title affrights you ; for I assure you it is the most formidable thing in his whole Book . But the man is a very modest man , and hugely different from Mr. S's . humor ; for he is so far from offering to demonstrate the grounds of faith ; that all he pretends to in the title of his Book , is to excuse Catholick Religion against the opposition of several Adversaries . What fault I pray hath the Catholick Religion committed , that it must now come to be excused instead of being defended ? But when I look into that part which concerns my self , I presently understand the meaning of it , which is not to excuse Catholick Religion , but themselves for not being able to defend it . For he very ingeniously tells us , that faith is firm and constant , though all his talk for it be miserably weak : i. e. he is sure they have an excellent Religion , though he knows not what to say for it ; and their faith is a very good faith , but it hath not yet had the good fortune to be understood by them . For he acknowledges , that as often as they dispute , they are beyond the business , ( so may any one believe , who reads their late Books , ) which is in effect to say , there is no way left of disputing any longer with adversaries about their faith ; only they must believe it stoutly themselves ; but it is to no purpose to offer to defend it . Nay , it doth their faith a great deal of mischief ; for , saith he , in reading controversies , we see not so much the nature of the faith , as the wit of him who opposes or defends it . From whence we may easily gather what unspeakable mischief they do their cause by writing for it . By which expressions , we may guess at what a low ebb the defence of their faith is among them : for the way now taken to defend it , is by disowning the defenders of it , and by saying that they only vent their own opinions ; and though we confute them never so much , yet their faith holds good still . Was ever a good cause driven to such miserable shifts as these are , especially among those who pretend to wit and learning ? One , he saith , T. C. vents a private opinion of his own , and it is not a pin matter whether it stand or fall ; another , he saith the same of I. S. a third of J.V.C. and yet for all this , their religion is very firm and sure , and they are all at perfect agreement about it . Is this the victory over me , Mr. S. mentions to be so easie a thing ? I see that by the same figure M. S. calls his way of arguing demonstration , running out of the field shall be accounted conquering . For I never saw any person do it more openly than this Author does . For he plainly confesses , that his Catholick Gentleman went quite besides his business , that he built upon indefensible principles , that his theological ratiocination was indeed pretty , but too weak to hold . And are not we hugely too blame , if we do not cry up such mighty Conquerors as these are ? Truly , Sir , I expect the very same answer should be returned to your Book ; that Mr. S's argument is a pretty theological ratiocination ; and that your answer is not unwitty : but though that way will not hold , another will. Thus , when they are beaten off Infallibility , they run to Tradition : and when they are again beaten off Tradition , then back again to Infallibility . So that the short of all their answers is , though such a one cannot defend our faith , yet I can ; though I cannot , yet the faith is firm and constant still . I wonder what their Superiors think of this way of proceeding among them ; we should imagine , if they be so weak as they say themselves , they had much better keep them from appearing abroad , and exposing their cause so ridiculously to contempt . But it may be , they think their faith is the better as well as their devotion , for their ignorance : and that it would be a mighty disparagement to their cause , for such silly people to be able to defend it . It is enough for them to admire it themselves , and to say as their common people use to do , though they cannot defend it , yet there are some that can . And although it may be no particulat person can do it , yet their cause is able to defend it self , But for all that I can see , by such kind of answers , the intention of them is , to intreat us not to triumph over the weakness of their present Writers , but to wait till the Cause it self thinks fit to write . And when it doth so , they may expect a further answer ; but it were a great piece of cruelty for us to hasten their ruine , who fall so fast before us by each others Pens . FINIS . Books Printed for , and Sold by Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard , and at the white Heart in VVestminster-hall . A Rational account of the grounds of Protestant Religion ; being a Vindication of the Lord-Archbishop of Canterbury's Relation of a Conference ▪ &c. , from the pretended Answer of T.C. folio . Sermons preached upon several occasions , with a discourse annexed concerning the true reasons of the sufferings of Christ , wherein Crellius's Answer to Grotius is considered , fol. Irenicum : A Weapon-Salve for the Churches wounds : in quarto . Origines Sacrae ; or a Rational Account of the Grounds of Christian Faith , as to the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures , and matters therein contained , quarto . A Discourse concerning the Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome , and the hazard of Salvation in the Communion of it , in Answer to some Papers of a revolted Protestant , wherein a particular account is given of the Fanaticisms and Divisions of that Church , octavo . An Answer to several late Treatises occasioned by a Book entituled , A Discourse concerning the Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome , and the hazard of Salvation in the communion of it , the first Part , octavo . A second Discourse in vindication of the Protestant grounds of Faith , against the pretence of Infallibility in the Roman Church , in Answer to the Guide in Controversie , by R. H. Protestancy without Principles , and Reason and Religion ; or the certain Rule of Faith , by E. W. with a particular enquiry into the Miracles of the Roman Church , octavo . An Answer to Mr. Cresey's Epistle Apologetical to a person of Honour , touching his Vindication of Dr. Stillingfleet , octavo . All written by Edw. Stillingfleet , D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty . Knowledg and Practice : or a plain Discourse of the chief things necessary to be known , believed and practiced in order to Salvation : by S. Cradock , quarto ; A Book very useful for Families . The Remains of Sir Walter Rawleigh , in twelves . A Discourse of War and Peace , by Sir Robert Cotton , in octavo . The Moral Philosophy of the Stoicks , in octavo . Hodders Arithmetick , twelves . The Triumphs of Rome over despised Protestancy , octavo . The Original of Romances , octavo . The Advice of Charles the Fifth , Emperor of Germany and King of Spain , to his Son Philip the Second , upon resignation of his Crown to his said Son , twelves . Observations upon Military and Political affairs , by the Right Honourable George Duke of Albemarle , folio , published by Authority . A Fathers Testament : by Phineahs Fletcher , in octavo . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A62581-e590 The Explication of the Terms of the Question . P. 180. * P. 4. * P. 159● Mr. S's Rule of Faith. * p. 41. * P. 117. * P. 337. * Append. 4th . p. 319. * P. 68. * p. 116. * p. 117. * Apology for tradition , p. 165. The Protestant Doctrine concerning the Rule of Faith. * P. 117. * P. 171. P. 38 , 39. * P. 54. * P. 116. * Mr. Wh. Exetasis . P. 9. * P. 39. How much Protestants allow to Oral Tradition . * Hebr. 8.7 . * P. 40. * Rushw. Dial. 4. Sect. 9. * p. 93. How much Mr. S. attributes to his Rule of Faith , more than Protestants to theirs . Notes for div A62581-e4980 * P. 11. * P. 11. * P 3. P. 12. * P. 12. * P. 11 , 12. * Analys . Fid. L. 1. c. 3. * P. 12. * P 12. That the Properties of a Rule of Faith belong to Scriptute . * P. 13. * P. 14. * P. 17. * Luke 1.3 , 4. * John 20.31 . Mr. S's Exceptions against Scripture examined . * P. 13. * P. 13. * P. 13 , 14. * P. 14. * L. 1. contr . Marcion . * P. 14. * Com. in Esai . c. 6 , &c. 8. * P. 15. * Ep. 48. * P. 15. * P. 16 , 17. * P. 16. * P. 16. * P. 16. Preface . * Answ. to the Lord Falkland . P. 33. * P. 17. * P. 17. * P. 17. * Hom. 32 de Consubstant . * Hom. 7 de Sanctc Phoca . * P. 17. * Exomolog . 2 d. Edit . p. 554. * Exomolog . c. 53. Sect. 2. * Dial. 2. Sect. 12. * De Doctr. Christ. L. 2. * Dial. 2. Sect. 6. * Analys . Fidei . L. 1. c. 9. * Append. c. 6. * Answ. to Chilling . c ▪ 2. Sect. 6. * P. 17 , 18. * Answ. to Chilling . c. 1. Sect. 33. * P. 49. * Ibid. * P. 18. * P 18 , 19. * Dial. 2. Sect. 8. * P. 20 , 21. * Praefat. * Analys . Fid. L. 1. c. 4. * P. 21. * L. 4. * Haeret. Fabul . l. 4. That Scripture is a sufficient Rule to the Unlearned , and to the most Rational doubters . * P. 24. * P. 25.26 , 27. * Dial. 2. Sect. 7. * De bonis & malis Libris . * P. 27. Sect. 3. & 4. * Ibid. Sect. 6. * L. 1. c. 1. * C. 19. Sect. 5. * C. 32. Sect. 4. * Append. c. 5. * C ▪ 40. Sect. 3 , &c. * Append. Sect. 2. & 3. * C. 5. Sect. 6. * P. 14 , 15. * P. 30. * P. 46. * Letter to his Answerer . p. 5. That Scripture is sufficient to convince the most acute Adversaries : and that it is sufficiently certain . * P. 28. * P. 31. * P. 31. * P. 116. * P. 32. * P. 33. * P. 34. * P. 34. * P. 34. * P. 35. * P. 36. * Dial. 2. Sect. 7. * P. 38. * P. 38. * P. 38. * P. 38. * Dial. 2. Sect. 14. * P. 41. That the Properties of a Rule of Faith do not belong to Oral Tradition . * Apolog. P. 81. Notes for div A62581-e14110 Considerations touching his Demonstrations in general . * P. 53. * Append : 2 d. P. 183. * Append. c. 6. Sect. 8. * Ibid. Sect. 9. * Ibid. Sect. 11. * Append. c. 7. Sect. 8. * Ibid. * P. 253. & 254. * Extasis , P. 24. Mr. S's demonstration à priori . * P. 59 , 60. The First answer to this Demonstration . * P. 60. * P. 75. * P. 54. * P. 78. * P. 89. * P. 54. * Chron. ad Annum Christ. 352. * Ad An. 363. * Ad An. 364. * Advers . Lucifer . * Ibid. * Ibid. * In Epist. ad Galat. l. 3. * Orat. 20. & 21. * Orat. 25. * Chron. ad Annum octavum Maurit . * Caus. Dei. * P. 65. * Hist. Aethiop . * P. 67. * P. 62. * P. 6● . The second Answer to his Demonstration . * P. 53. * Heb. 5.11 , 12. * Advers . Luciferian . * P. 75. * P. 60. * P. 53. * P. 53. * Apology for Tradition , p. 51. * Phoc. Ep. 7. * De Fid. & Theol. Tract . 1. Sect. 4. * Ibid. Sect. 5. * P. 53. & 54. * Ibid. * P. 78. * P. 86. * P. 89. * P. 90 , 91. * P. 93. Mr. S's Demonstration à posteriori . * P. 76. * P. 77 , 78. The First Answer to his second Demonstration . * Dial. 1. Sect. 4. * Dial. 3. Sect. 7. * Dial. 1. Sect. 4. * In Vit. Romani . Papae 117. A. C. 900. * In Platin. * Anno 506. * Anno 9.8 . * Ennead . 9. L. 1. Anno. 900. * De Regn. Ital. L. 6. * Chron. L. 4. * Fascic . Tempor . * Epist. 40. * Bell. Sacr. L. 1. c. 8. * Elfric . Serm. ad Sacerdot . * C. 2. & 3. * De Rom. Pontif. L. 4. c. 12. * Annal. Tom. 10. Anno 900. * In Convers. Sancti Pauli . Serm. 1. * C. 3. * C. 5. * C. 6. * C. 9. * C. 11. * C. 13 ▪ * C. 14 * C. 16. * C. 20 , 21 , 23. * C. 25. * C. 27. * Exomolog . C. 68. * Ibid. * Dial. 3. Sect. 3. * Dial. 3. Sect. 7. * Reply to K. James . L. 4. C. 6. * Apology for Tradition , p. 49. The second Answer to his second Demonstration . The third Answer to Mr. S's second Demonstration . * Antiq. Jud. l. 13. c. 18. * Ibid. l. 17. c. 3. & de Bell. Jud. l. 1. c. 4. & l. 2. c. 12. * Antiq. l. 18. c. 2. * De Fid. & Theol. Tract . 1. Sect. 6. * Rep. to K. James , observ . 3. c. 4. * Pugio Fid. p. 145. * P. 76. * Apol. 123 , &c. * In Praefat. Sum. Talmud . * Apol. p. 78 , 79 , &c. * Apol. p. 81. * Rushworth Dial. 4. Sect. 4. * Ibid. Sect. 5. * P. 39. * Dialog . 2. Sect. 6. * Exomolog . c. 10. Sect. 4. * Ibid. c. 19. Sect. 2. * Ibid. c. 27. Sect. 2. * Ibid. c. 28. Sect. 1. * Dial. cum Tryph. p. 306. Edit . Lutet· 1615. * Nov. Edit . p. 664. * p. 31. * Ibid. * P. 253. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * P. 68. * P. 69. * Dialog . 2. * Distinct. l. 4. dist . 10. qu. 1. n. 3. * Ibid. qu. 1. n. 12. * Exomol . c. 73. Sect. 7. * Ennead . 9. L. 1. * P. 340. * P. 337. The fourth Answer to his second Demonstration . * Decret . primum quartae Sess. * In Praefat. * De Verbo Dei , &c. L. 4. 12. * De Verbo Dei non scripto . L. 4. c. 9. * Ibid. c. 11. * Reply . Observat . 3. c. 4. * 2 Thess. 2.15 . * 2 Tim. 2.2 . * 1 Tim. 3.15 . * Charity maintained . c. 2. Sect. 1. * Reply to Mr. Chill . c. 2. Sect. 179. * De Verbo Dei , &c. L. 4. c. 2. * Charity maintained . c. 2. Sect. 3. * Exomol . c. 20. * Tabul . Suffrag . p. 96. * Analys . Fid. L. 1. c. 6. * C. 8. * L. 1. ● . 9. * L. 1. c. 3. * Exetas . p. 70. * Ibid. * Ib. p. 73. * P. 144. * P. 64. * P. 149. * P. 67 , 68. * P. 101. * Exetas . p. 9. * Apol. p. 38. * Ibid. P. 39. * P. 30. & 31. * P. 173. * P. 163. Concerning some other advantages of Tradition , &c. * P. 165. & 166. * P. 159. * P. 93. Mr. S's Corollaries considered . * P. 330. Notes for div A62581-e32530 Mr. S's Testimonies examined . * P. 161. * P. 320. * Dial. 2. Sect. 14. * Ibid. * Isa. 35.8 . * Isa. 59.21 . * Jer. 31. * P. 239. * Concil . Tom 1. * An. 347. * Quodlibet 6. cited by Espencaeus in 2 d Epist. ad Tim. c. 4. * Dial. 3. Sect. 13. * Ibid. * Advers . Helvid . * His opinor consiliis tot Originalia Instrumenta Christi delere Marcion ausus est , ne Caro ejus probaretur . Ex qua , oro te , autoritate , &c. * Stromat . L. 7. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Testimonies on the behalf of Scripture . * Histor. Eccles. l. 2. c. 14. * Ibid. l. 3. c. 18. * Ibid. c. 31. * Ibid. c. 30. * Ibid. L. 5. c. 27. * Comment . in Isai. c. 19. * In 2 Thes. c. 2. Hom. 4. * Epist. 3. * Ibid. * De Doctr. Christ. L. 2. c. 9. * De Vnitat . Eccles. c. 5. * Theodoret . Hist. L. 1. c. 7. * L. 3. c. 1. * P. 314. * Dial. 3. Sect. 13. * Epist. 74. * Ad Constant . * Lib. 5. de Schism . Donat. * De Sp. Sancto c. 7. * C. 27. * Hom. 8. in Epist. ad Heb. c. 5. * Hom. 52. in Joh. * Hom. 33. in Act. Apost . * De Bapt. Cont. Donat . L. 2. c. 6. * Contr. Max. L. 3. * De Vnitat . Eccles. c. 16. * Comment . in Agg. c. 1. * Paschal . L. 3. * L. 2. * Haeret. Fabul . L. 5. * Part 1. Consid. 2. * De Distinct . Verar . Vision . a falsis . * Serm. in die Circumcis . &c. * Prolog . de Lib. Bib. &c. * Prolog . de Lib. Bib. &c. Notes for div A62581-e38390 § ● ▪ p. 236. p. 202. §. 2. p. 203. p. 204. §. 3. § 4 ▪ p. 205. §. 5. § 6. § 7. § 8. p. 205. p. 206. §. 9. p. 208. De fide & Theol. tract· 2. sect . 22. p. 158. Tabul . sufrag . p. 3.18 . §. 11. p. 210. §. 12 p. 211. p. 212. p. 213. p. 214. § 13. p. 216. §. 14. p. 236. p. 217. p. 218. p. 223. p. 213. §. 15. p. 224. Part 1. chap. 9. § 16. p. 229 , &c. p. 231. p. 234. p. 235. p. 236. p. 237. §. 17. p. 238. p. 236. § 18. p. 240. p. 241. p 242. l. 243. § , 19. p. 244. Notes for div A62581-e52130 p. 210. p. 209. 
A69644	----	The life of faith in times of trial and affliction cleared up and explained from Hebrews X:XXXVIII ... / by Ioh. Brown ... Brown, John, 1610?-1679. 1679 Approx. 622 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 264 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-05 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A69644 Wing B5034 ESTC R7844 11981230 ocm 11981230 51835 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A69644) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 51835) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 17:2, 205:3) The life of faith in times of trial and affliction cleared up and explained from Hebrews X:XXXVIII ... / by Ioh. Brown ... Brown, John, 1610?-1679. 2 pts. ([12], 396, [4], 474, [1] p.) Printed for the author, [S.l.] : 1679-1680. Second pt. ([40], 474, [1] p.) has special t.p.: The swan-song, or, The second part of The life of faith. 1680. Errata: p. [1] at end. Copy at reel 205:3 (B5030) is parts 1 and 2; copy at reel 17:2 (B5034) is part 2 only. Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- N.T. -- Hebrews -- Criticism, interpretation, etc. Faith -- Early works to 1800. Suffering -- Early works to 1800. 2004-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-02 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-03 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2004-03 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE SWAN-SONG : Or the Second Part of the LIFE of FAITH , in times of TRIAL & AFFLICTION : Opened and applid by That Late , Learned , eminently Gracious , singularly Faithful & exemplarly Zealous Minister of Iesus Christ , MR JOHN BROWN : And published by his afflicted Friend , & a poor Well wisher to the Interest of Christ , & his suffering Remnant . 1 Cor. 16 : 13. Watch ye , stand fast in the faith , quit you like men , be strong . Eph. 6 : 13. Wherefore , take unto you the whole armour of God , that you may be able to withstand in the evil day , &c. Ver. 16. Above all taking the shield of faith &c. 1 John 5 : 4. — And this is the victory that over-cometh the world , even our faith . Philip. 4 : 13. I can all things through Christ which strengtheneth me . Printed ANNO DOM. M. D C. LXXX . To the CHRISTIAN READER , More particularly to the poor suffering Remnant of the CHURCH OF SCOTLAND . DEAR BRETHREN , and Companions in tribulation & in the Kingdom & patience of JESUS CHRIST , I make no other Apologie , for this my present addresse , than that it was amongst the last commands , laid upon me , by the great , & now glorified Author of this following treatise , ( revised by himself , & almost wholly printed before his death ) to prefixe a few lines unto it , & so send it out into the Church ; that by it he being dead might yet speake , particularly to his Brethren in tribulation , to whom living he was so comfortable , by holding forth light , sanctuary light , in their darknesses and difficulties , and now continues still to be , ( after he hath no more a being amongst us ) by pointing forth the way of life and strength , whereby the suffering saint ( without succumbing or sinking , because of sorrow , misery and affliction ) may be made able to do all things , and endure all things , while he walks in that light . But , Christian Reader , while I obey the last command of my dear Brother , I shall so far consult thy advantage , as not to keep thee back , by my tedious and tastlesse scrible , from the perusal of a peece , which not onely , as to thee , needs not my Epistle of Commendation ; For the First Part ( long a●…oe in thy hands ) is a sufficient Epistle to this Second , with all who are in love with , & know the necessitie of the way of living by faith , which is the Christians life , in this life ; ( for , till the day of immediat vision , and full fruition come , we must walk by faith , not by sight : O blessed walke , which brings with it joy unspeakeable , and full of glory ! And so it must , since it is a walking with God ; For as faith's first work is the association of the soul with him , so its next and after vvork is the assimilation of the soul to him ; whereupon followes that neer , that sweet and dear fruition of him , which hath unspeakable joy , as its inseparable Companion , or native effect ) But , the due , and deserved praise of the Author , is so much in the Church of Christ , as it needs not the Epistle of any else , to command it ; For , First , If thou be not a stranger in our Israel , whoever thou be ; then , if either eminency in grace or learning ; if vastnesse and pregnancy of parts ; if fervor of zeal according to knowledge ; if unvvearied diligence , in the work of the Lord , ( wherein he laboured more aboundantly than any of us all ; for no man in the Church of Scotland hath filled up his measure , even as to that : nor know , nor see I a man who is like to doe it , nay who is in capacitie for it ; ) If a holy heroick misreguard of men , and their estimation , in approving himself to God , by a ready and resolute withstanding the corruptions of his time , and opposing all these courses and contrivances , and these unworthy connivings , whereby the cause hath been prejudged ; yea basely abandoned , and the free course and progresse of the Gospel obstructed ; If single sollicitousnesse , and strenuous endeavours , how to have pure ordinances preserved in this generation , and propagat to the posteritie : in a word , if faithfulnesse , as a servant , in all the house , and matters of his God , even that God , who counted him faithful , and put him in the Ministery ; and loyaltie to his princely Lord and Master , ( the prerogatives of whose Crown , the Privileges of whose Kingdom , and the establishment of whose Throne , were more prized by him , more precious and dear unto him , than all other interests whatsoever : nay , he was so far from reguarding any other interest , in respect of that alone valuable one ; that , as he was never daunted , from a plain peremptorinesse in owning thereof , by the dread of poor mortals , or the fear of what the stated enemy could doe unto him ; so , he was never demurred , into a forbearance , or brow-beaten into a base and un - Ambassadour - becoming silence , by the displeasure and disconntenancings , even of such of his Brethren , whom otherwise he loved , and highly honoured , as to a plain contending with them , wherein he perceived them not to walk uprightly , according to the truth of the Gospel , and to the former principles of that Church , while she retained first love , and did first works : Yea , he judged it duetie ( and in this he had the mind of Christ ) to contend earnestly with them , for their not earnest contendings for the Faith ; though , for this , he should have been contemned , and accounted ( as he was ) a man of contention : ) I say , if thou be such an one , to whom such a blessed Conjunction of rare Gifts , with such a rich and plentiful measure of Grace , can endear any man ; I then nothing doubt , but MR BROWN , Great and Gracious MR BROWN , hath such a place in thy soul , and such a preference to others , as thou wilt judge it superfluous in me , to say any thing to commend what the truely great Elijah of his time ( I mean of this present time , when , having served his generation , according to the will of God , he fell asleep , ) the man jealous for the Lord God of Hosts , above all his Brethren , whom he hath left behind him , ( I except not one Soul , nor am I ashamed , or affraid to give it under my hand ) doth here present thee with , as his farewell to the Saints , and the excellent Ones , in whom he so much delighted , and for whose advantage he so much laid out himself , night and day , and for the work and cause of Christ his Lord ; In so much as this his kindnesse to the Saints , and care of all the Churches , particularly that poor Church of Scotland , keept him alwayes neer unto death , through his not reguarding his own life , to supply the lack of other mens service to Christ and to his Church : But , if thou be not such an one ; then , as thou declares thy self unworthy of what is here presented , so thou canst not quarrel , if I be so far of the same opinion with thee , though I dare not but wish thee to be quickly of another mind . I know very well , this which is here hinted , of the excellent and savourie Author , will be unsavourie to some ; yea , will incense not a few , who would be accounted Masters in Israel who have been busie ( while he was busied about the work of the Lord ) in backbiting defaming & reproaching him , & that , because he withstood them all to the face , wherein they were , & are justly to be blamed : But , I must lay my reckoning , and have done it , with that , and many such things : Onely , by way of Apologie , I must tell such , that it is not my work , to engage with them , at present , on this head ; they may exspect to hear of that afterward ; yet next , till more come , I doe not crave their libertie or pardon to say , that it shall be amongst the posteritie ( as it is already with the more serious in this generation ) a stain , which shall never be vviped off the memorie of the reproachers , vvhen his memorie shall be blessed , and his cognizance , in the succeeding generations of the Church , shall be , that , in the day vvhen he fell a sleep , the Church of Scotland was deprived of the most incomparably able , and the most absolutly burning and shining light , belonging to that Church . Secondly , it may be an appreciating , and endearing consideration , unto thee , that this Treatise is not only the work of such a worthy vvorkman , such a Walker with God , such a Wrestler with him , such a Witnesse for his Master , and such a beloved Disciple : But it is his last Work ; this he wrote at the close of a long walk with God : For , in his walk with him , and after him , having by experience found , there neither would , nor could be courage , nor constancy nor comfort in that course , except faith were acting vigourously , upon its blessed object , that Fountain of all fulnesse , both for furniture & frame , both for the light of direction & consolation , and for a measure of life , in order to action , according to the emergent difficulties , & dangers , that are the inseparable attendants , of the duties of the present day : He was taught , by the things which he suffered frō all hands , to make a blessed , & beneficial vertue of this necessitie , & so he held on in his way , ( being thus upheld and supported without turning aside to the right hand , or the left , and without being diverted or deterred from following the Lord fully . The things that he suffered of late , especially at the hands of Brethren , ( their shame , but his garland and glory ) put him to studie and learn the obedience of faith , wherein he was helped , and taught to make such progresse , and proficiency , as he enjoyed a sweet serenitie & calme , in the midst of all these boisterous blasts , which , out of all airths , blew in his face ; but most bitterly out of that airth , whence the storme could , or should least of all have been exspected ; so that , he did not onely possesse his soul in patience , as moved by none of these things , which befell him , from foes or friends ; but he was quieted , quickened , and comforted in his conflictings ; yea , he got meat out of the eater , out of weaknesse he was made strong , & enabled to doe exploits as knowing his God : And finding the sweetnesse of this life , ( otherwise of many sorrowes ) and experiencing , how much he was enabled for all things , through Christ strengthening him , he was moved and constrained , from the aboundant furniture , the sweet facilitie , yea the begun felicitie he found in this life and course , to point forth this way of pleasantnesse , and this path of peace , to such as are put to walke in the midst of trouble ; that so they may finde , by following this course , the same Light arising to them in Darknesse ; and the same life , strength , courage and comfort , springing up and communicat unto them , whereby they may be enabled to goe foreward , through all difficulties , all dangers , yea and all deaths . Hereby thou who , in the sight of difficulties , and the sense of thy impotency , art made to say , What is my strength that I should hope ? Art taught to anwer by another question , Since he is strong , why should I despond or doubt ? For , all things are possible to him that believes , all difficulties are superable to faith ; for , faith is the engaging of an Omnipotent God , for an impotent Creature , whereby the believer is more than a conquerour : And because that stronger is he who is in the believer , than he that is in the World , therefore , being , by him that dwells in him , strengthened with all might , according to his glorious power , unto all patience , and long suffering , with joyfulnesse , conquer he must ; and this is the victorie , whereby he overcomes the World , even his faith ; for faith's valour is , when overpowered , to cast it self and its burden upon God , who performeth all things for the believer ; and so ( how weake so ever in the conflict ; yet ) by faith he carries away the conquerours Crovvn in the issue , and is set dovvn at last to sing , Thanks be to God who hath given me the victory . I say then , these are the last vvords , of a great Student in this blessed and mysterious art , and of a noble proficient in this happie studie ( for he speaks vvhat he knovves , he speakes vvhat he hath found and tasted ) instructing thee , hovv thou mayest with him hold on in thy vvay , and vvax stronger and stronger ; yea , hovv thou mayst surmount all difficulties , othervvise insuperable , as carried uppon eagles vvings ; and run , vvith the greatest burden upon thy back , and not be vveary ; and vvalk , vvith the greatest load upon thy loins , and not be faint . Naturalists , you knovv , and Mariners tell us of the flieing fish , vvhich , vvhen pursued in the vvater by the Shark , flies up into the air , as a foul , and so escapes the danger : But it can flee no longer in the air , than its fins continue vvet , and vvhen these become dry it falls down again into the sea : A lively embleme of a lively Christian vvho , vvhen in hazard to be svvallovved up of trouble , and devoured by the teeth of sharks , mounts up above them upon eagles vvings , and so escaps them . But that vvhich vvaters these vvings , vvhereby faith flies , and that vvhich gives it this vigour is fresh influence of the Spirit : The supplie of the Spirit of Christ quicken's and strengthen's faith , and then failing and feeble faith renews its strength , as the eagle renews her age : It s this which gives weake and withered faith a fresh , vigourous and youthful greennesse , and puts the beleever in case both to say , in God have I put my trust , I will not fear what flesh can doe unto me ; and also , I am able for all things , through Christ vvho strenghtens me , or puts povver in me . Now the Authors scope and aim is to tell thee , and teach thee how thou mayest be expert in this noble flight above trouble : ( O happy dexteritie in a time of trouble upon earth , to know how to make use of faith's wings , in flieing heaven height , and to be instructed in the exercise of that blessed art , how to make use of thy faith , whereby thou pleases God in thy ordinarie walk , for performing these high heroick acts , in the day of the most dismal and deep distresse , whereby it is evident , that the sweetest ferenitie of soul , in the sadest & most surprising of troubles , is possible to him that beleeveth ! ) Thirdly , That which doth commend Books , and without an Epistle of of recommendation , is an Epistle Commendatory sufficient , & makes all courting of the Reader to their perusal , a superfluous complement , an unprofitable waste of words , yea , & a profuse expense of precious time , is , That what the Author writs be not onely upright , and words of truth ; But , that the truth treated of be pertinent to the present day ; & the duty pressed be that which must be known , that it may be practised , when upon the real and right performance thereof depends , in a particular manner more than the believers peace ; yea , more than his soul , and eternal happinesse can amount uuto ; Viz. the glorifying of God in the fires of fiery trials , and the bringing up a good report upon his vvayes , by a practical proof , that there is a sufficiency of strength communicable , whereby the weakest is made strong ; and a singularitie of sweetnesse experienced , whereby a man , otherwise of sorrows can sing in the wayes of the Lord , even when his way lyes thorow fire & water ; so that he who hath taken hold of the path of life needs neither faint in the way , because of his own weaknesse , there being everlasting armes underneath , stronglie supporting ; nor yet turn aside out of it , when there is a lyon in it ; neither wearie in going foreward , through want of what is sweet and refreshing , since there is a well spring of comfort insured unto the walker in these wayes , so as in the greatest pinch and penurie , of all outward things ▪ yea , when put to the greatest pain , he hath still everlasting consolation , and can glory in tribulation , and rejoyce , not onely in the hope of the glory of God ; but sing as alreadie in the suburbs of heaven , while under the shineings of his Masters face , and the shedings abroad of his love in the heart . And according to this rate and reckoning I may make bold to say ; the mater herein treated of is of that moment , import & present necessitie , as to draw the eyes of all men towards it , that their hearts may be cast into this mould , and they put in case to practise accordingly ; for , this was the happie Authors scope ; for this he wearied himself , and was at this peece of pains , ( amongst his other eminent , singularly useful and assiduous labourings , for the edification of the Church , at home and abroad , the care of all which lay upon him ) that thou mightest know how to finde ease , safetie and refreshment , when there seems nothing in thy life , but sorrow ; and in thy cup , but gall and wormewood . In a word , the Author hath written the first & second part of the Life of Faith , that the Reader may write the third part in his practise , by making his life a transumpt of both , in a day when most are making shipwrack of faith and a good conscience ; and many ▪ who once professed themselves Disciples , are now turning back : And , Alas , I am affraid , it shall be observed , and said of them , they walked no more with him ; But , for their turnings aside unto these croaked courses , were led forth with the workers of iniquitie : So that this is a word in season seeing besides the native , and intrinsick beautie of truth , that commends what is said to thy peruseal ▪ the adventitious beautie of seasonablenesse endears it to thee ; For he that writes it was a Preacher , who sought to finde out acceptable words , & the tongue of the learned was given unto him ; For , what he writs doth witnesse , that his eare vvas vvakened to hear as the learned , that so the might speak and vvrite as the learned . But , for a conclusion , I must tell thee , that the spiritually vvise , and zealous Author vvas not only driven to treat of this subject , because of the present pressurs of the poor remnant , pressed out of measure , and beyond strength , ( though he had this also in prospect ) that so they might be quickened , quieted , encouraged and comforted , under these crushing calamities ; and might be instructed , hovv to glorifie God , in this day of visitation ; and endure the vvorlds hatred and the vvorst that either enraged Adversaries , or incensed friends can doe , as seeing him vvho is invisible , and as believing , that all these shall vvork together for their good , and as assured that they shall turn to their salvation , through the intercession of the Mediator , and the supplie of the Spirit of Jesus Christ : But , more particularly considering our vvay , and our proceeding from evil to vvorse ; vvhat high affronts have been put upon our infinitly glorious Lord and Master ; & hovv these have not only not been resented and vvitnessed against , vvith a zeal , a fervor of pure zeal proportioned to the furious fervidnesse , and unhallovved heat ▪ of that opposition to Christ , and hatred to the coming of his Kingdom in the World , vvitnessed by the complex of the adversaries course and carriage : But , Alas , to our shameful & astonishing faint ( vvhen called to have been valiant for the truth , and to have acquit ourselves as the good souldiers of Jesus Christ , ambitious to have been sacrificed upon the Interest of our Royal Master's glorious Crovvn , and Prerogative ) hath been added , a drawing back ; Courses have been taken , patronized and applauded , partly in recto , partly in obliquo ; And that , by some vvhom least of all it became , & , if I may say so , from vvhose hand Christ might have exspected a heroick opposition to these hell-black driveings , vvhereby a defection ( for in despite of all the palliatings , and cunning plaisterings to hide this , novv its manifest ) hath been , and is novv carried on : And there is no small rage vvitnessed , against all vvho essay to discover our iniquitie , to turn avvay our captivitie : In a vvord , vvhen he considered all the dispensations of God , and took notice of the dispositions & propensions of men , not of the multitude , but of Ministers , and Professors , even of these vvho vvould monopolize to themselves the repute of zealous according to knovvledge , & the onelie vvise men in the Church , vvho knovv the times , and vvhat the Israel of God ought to doe ▪ as if vvisdom vvere either to die vvith them , or to live only with the persons of their principles and practises , he fell under the apprehension and persuasion ( and who can escape it ) of a woful day , coming upon the people of these practises ; however a great many have not only been puting far away the thoughts of this evil day , but have been dreaming of a delivery : ( ah how deep a delusion shall this be quickly found ! ) And therefore that the poor remnant , who in some measure have escaped , and have endeavoured to keep themselves pure fr●…m the pollution of this defection , may know what to doe , and how to carry , in that day of vengeance of our God●… , when he shall draw his wheted , his glittering and furbished sword , to avenge the quarrel of a broken and a burnt Covenant ; and that sword shall devour flesh , till the Land , defiled under the inhabitants thereof , by transgressing the Law , changing the Ordinances , and breaking the everlasting Covenant , be soaked with the blood of the men guiltie of these abominations : ( and then , Alas , who shall live when the Lord doth this ? ) I say , it was the foresight of this wofull day which made this Seer draw these draughts , and lay before thee these Directions , that thou may not be put out of frame and posture ; But mayest be strengthened , perfected and throughly furnished unto every good work , when all things run in a confusion , and tend to ruin ; and that thou mayest know of a blessed , a secure and safe place of retreat , in that dismall day , when it shall be said to the men with the slaughter weapon in their hand , begin at my sanctuary , begin at the houses of Ministers and Professors , ( I know , it will be mistaken , if I say it ; But yet , I cannot forbear it : Alas ? of all the men in the Nation , we may particularly meditat terrour ; and I feare , it shall be seen and observed , escape who will , many of us shall be taken ; escape who will , Ministers , their wives & children , and many professors , together with their wives & Children , shall not escape ; ) & mayest be as Mount Sion , that cannot be moved ; yea , and without fear , by living the life of faith , though the earth should be removed , and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea ; though the waters thereofroar , and be troubled , and though the mountains shake vvith the swelling thereof : There is a refuge , and quiet resting place ; there is strength , and a present help in the time of such trouble ; for God is then a rock of salvation , and a refuge to his people , even in such tempests and troubles , vvhen the Confusion and calamitie is so great and universal , as the sea seems to svvallow the mountains , and the mountains seem to smother the sea : And the Authors designe , in what thou art here presented with is to teach thee , how to make this rock of ages all things to thy self , by believing , and acting faith upon him , which he hath made himself to thee in the promise ; that so thou mayest be safe and sing , because , to thy securitie by him , there is unspeak able satisfaction to be had in him ; when the sinners in Zion shall be afraid , and fearfulnesse shall both surprise the hypocrits , and many who have the root of the matter in them , because of what they have been ; and because of what they have unworthily done , and left undone : he who followes this Course , shall dwell on nigh , his place of defence shall be the munition of rocks his bread shall be given him , and his waters shall be sure . Believe it , my Brethren , all you have found is but the least part of vvhat you have to fear , yea of what is inevitable : The fury of the Lord is ready to be poured forth as fire upon this generation ; the day and hour approaches , wherein no man shall have any thing left him to allay his sorrovv , or comfort him in his anguish : But he vvho , being in Chist Jesus , is in case to oppose the Comforts of the Holy Ghost , and that everlasting Consolation which is in Christ , to present confounding and overwhelming calamities ; the oppressions , the horrid and bloody barbarities of enraged , cruel and blasphemous enemies , incensed into a madnesse against the followers of the Lamb , and thristing insatiably after the blood of the saints , who dare nor receive the mark of the beast ; the tumult of incensed friends , the clashings , the contendings , the insurrections of brethren against brethren , will make our poor Land such a weary Land , as men shall be weary of their lives , and wish to be gone from the evil day ; yea , shall either seek for death , and not find it , or in agony and horrour , shall be found of death , and cannot flee from it . But ô how in that day and hour will the sweet shadow , and the secure shelter of the rock of Ages revive , and refresh such as have accesse with boldnesse and confidence , to lay themselves down under it ! they shall finde it that place indeed where the weary are at rest , they shall finde that this is the rest alone , wherewith they may cause their weary souls to rest , and that this is the refreshing too : such as believe in Christ Jesus , and dwell in him by faith , and delight in him by love , shall either not finde the evil of these dreadful dayes , which are coming ; or what they sinde of it shall not much trouble them , because of what upmaking they finde in the fruition of him , who gives meat out of the eater & sweet out of the strong , and who shall walk with them in the midst of the fiery furnace , when we may exspect , it shall be made seventimes hoter than ever we saw it . ( For the Devil is come down , having great wrath , and the cry of our crimson iniquities is gone up to Heaven . ) O happy is the man , who by all his distresses , is driven to seek , and make sure a dwelling , in the secret place of the most high , and to take up his abode under the shaddow of the Almighty ; for , such may sit down and sing , because safe , and say of the Lord , He is my refuge , in him will I trust , as it is Psal. 91 : vers . 1 , 2. O safe ! ô sweet refuge ! he can finde no evil who is got in there , and no evil can finde him : For he covers the man , with his feathers who trusts under his wings , and his truth is his shield and buckler : Would the man , that is escaped in thither , change his dwelling place , and abode , for a Kings palace , while in this Pardise feasted upon the peace of God ; would he change his shelter for a strong tower : O! by no means ! the Universe cannot afford him such securitie and protection ; neither can it supply him , to a running over , with such plentie of sure and unspeakable pleasure : O hovv excellent doe these finde his loving-kindenesse , who put their trust under the shadow of his wings ! As they shall finde there a refuge , until the calamitie be overpast , so they shall be abundantlie satisfied , with the fatnesse which they shall finde , in this house , and he shall make them drink of the rivers of his pleasure ; he shall feast them , while others famish , upon the begun fruitious of himself , and while others are made to weep , and wring their hands , over their broken and emptie cisterns , they shall finde , that with him is the fountain of life , so that they may drink , and drink aboundantly , and thus forget their povertie , and remember their misery no more : Nay , this is such a happie hiding place , as it 's a compleat dweling place ; any hole or hold that is a shelter and protection , in the day of a windy , storme & tempest , is thought good ; wars will commend the bottome of a dark dungeon , where a man is as buried alive ; yea a coal si●…k ( whereof some dear to God have in our dayes , while the wicked were hunting for the precious life , been forced to make use as a shelter ) beyond & above a palace of pleasure ; but ô what a sure ; what a safe refuge is the rock of Salvation in time of trouble ! O how doe : the environing wall●… of Christs righteousnesse , & power , these everlasting armes underneath , supporting , and round about surrouding & preserving , from the tempest of wrath , that it cannot invade or break thorow make such accommodation sweet & pleasant ! But , when with all ? this secret place of the most high hath not onely all safetie in it , but it hath also all sweetnesse , all satisfaction and all goodnesse laid up in it , for such as it hids : It s not onely a strong place , that hath salvation for walls and bulwarks ; But it is within this also , that he shines and shewes his marvelous kindnesse , Psal. 31 : vers . 20 , 21. there is not onely a refuge here , but there is besids a rich treasure of all goodnesse , laid up in this storehouse , to be laid out , and made forthcoming for all who enter within the gates of this Citie : It s not onely a house of war , but a house of peace and pleasure ; it s within these walls that that peace of God , which passeth understanding , doth guard the heart and mind ; as it s here , that the place of their defence is the munition of rocks , so it is within this rock , that their bread is given them , and their waters ate m●…de sure ; there is great fatnesse within this strong hold for feasting souls , and a river of pleasure for their refreshing : This is that unexhausted well-spring & fountain of loving kindnesse , tender mercies and bountie , which glads perpetually the hearts of all beleevers : This is the river that maketh glade the whole Citie of God : This is the very Fountain of life it self , thristing to be drunk of by thristy souls ; which is nothing else , but God himself imparting , and communicating himself , to his emptie and indigent people , and making up thereby all their wants , according to his riches in glory ; a saving God , satiating the weary soul , and replenishing it with goodnesse ; this River of God which is full of water running in into the heart of him who hath opened his mouth wide , till it be filled , to a running over . O how do they , who finde by tasting how good he is ; and what is to be had in the Kings chambers , pitie the poor mistaken World , that feed upon husks , while they are feasted with these royal dainties . Alas ! the World , who are strangers to their joy , knowes little what a Kings life they live ; and how while in their wildernesse lot , they feed upon Manna , and are feasted with Angels food ; they little believe , how the People of the Lord , in their shuttings up , are so fatiat with goodnesse , as their hearts are enlarged , while made glade by the light of his countenance lifted up upon them , in their desirings for others , that it were with them in all things , as it is with themselves , save as to their bonds : O what a blessed hiding place doe they finde him ! He is such a secure hiding place , as is also a most sweet beautiful and refreshing resting place ; a refuge , where repose and soul ravishment are met and marryed together , without a divorce . Now , could a soul think of changing his dwelling place , could he ever by choice and upon deliberation come out , after he hath enterd into these chambers , and shut the doors about him , and hath tasted and seen how good God is ? No sure , it will not , it cannot think on this without terrour ; it will not , after it hath drunk of the river of his pleasure , and is satisfied with the fatnesse of his house , leave these pure springs , to drink of an impure pudle , O how easily must the soul be arrested , where it is ravished in the fruition of what it finds . Now , my dear and distressed Brethren Consider , that you may not be weary nor fainted in your minds , in the day when the blast of the terrible one is as a storme against the wall , what a compleat hiding place you have from trouble , and what a citie of refuge you have to flee unto , Thou art my hiding place , thou shalt preserve me , from trouble , thou shalt compasse me about with songs of deliverance , said the Psalmist Psal. 32. And in this he is not alone , for grace hath made you sharers with him of this great goodnesse : The sure mercies of David are made sure to all who have taken hold of the Covenant , so as whosoever have fled into Jesus Christ for a refuge from wrath and for pardon of sin , when pursued by justice , they may conclude this , as a sweet consequent of it also , Thou art my hiding place from trouble ; And whatever hardship you may meet with , or whatever heavinesse you may be under , yet you may conclude ( O comfortable conclusion ) That the Lord vvill command his loving kindnesse in the day time for you , and in the night his song shall be vvith you ; yea , you shall be compassed about with songs of deliverance , songs shall inviron you about , and joy shall break in on every side ; you shall be able to look no where ( even while all who look on may think your misery unmixed , and your sorrow without the least alay of sweet ) but you shall finde matter of a song , and be able to command a most sweet consort of musick within your own soul , because both safe and satisfied . The Lord will be a refuge , in times of trouble , Psal. 9. and they who know his name , which is a strong tower , may and will put their trust in him . This then is the all of your businesse in order to support , saftie and satisfaction ; in order to your being in case , both to honour him , and to be happie , in the midst of all possible sufferings for his sake ; to betake yourselves to him for shelter , and trust in the covert of his wings : And it is for this end , that this teacher , taught of God , hath left his Brethren in affliction these directions , that as they may be persuaded to stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God ; so amidst all their sufferings for his sake , they may know how to have a sweet serenitie of soul , by acting faith upon him as a full Fountain , sutably to all their needings , wantings , darknesses , difficulties and dangers ; and so be put in case to say , In the Lord have vve righteousnesse and strength ; in him by whom we are justified , in him and by him do vve glory in tribulation , and are more than conquerours . Now , that you may live more constantly with him & have a more comfortable and joyful life then ever , in a fellowship with the Father & with his Son J. Christ ; that you may have grace for grace , yea an all of grace , whereby you may glorifie your Father which is in Heaven ; adorne the doctrine of God the Saviour ; be enabled to fight the good fight of Faith through Christ strengthening you , and endure to the end , by the new supplies of the Spirit of Christ , as it is the aim of the Writer of this treatise , who after all his sufferings and sorrowes , ( in which and under which he behaved as a good souldier of Jesus r●…ist ; and was observed , to have acquired a special dexteritie , in making use of the shield of Faith ) is now got above them , and eternally comforted over them , in the sight and fruition of that God , in whose service he lived , as devoted to his fear , and died in that noble posture ; So it is for you the earnest desire of his soul , who is Your poor Welwisher and Companion in tribulation . THE LIFE of FAITH in times of PERSECUTION . PART . II. THE INTRODUCTION . A Word spoken fitly ( saith the Wise man Prov. 25. ver . 11. ) or in its season , or as it is in the Original , upon his wheels , is like apples of gold , in pictures of silver ; that is , is both pleasant and profitable . We began , in the foregoing Treatise of this Subject to explaine the nature of this Life , which is to be had by faith , in a very sad and trying time ; how and what way faith interesteth a Soul in this Life ; and how they should Act faith , who would partake hereof , in a day of Difficulty and Temptation , wherein , because of adhereing to Christ , and his Truth , the life of his people is made bitter unto them , and they are exposed to many Troubles and sharpe Exercises : And , for a further Encouragment unto a faithful and stedfast adhereing to the Truth , in a day of stormy Tempests , and fierie Trials , we mentioned some of those many Considerations , which the Lord had left on record , in his word , that we through patience and comfort of these Scriptures might have hope ; and so might be perfect , and of good comfort : such as 1. Gods promised Presence with them , in all their Trials , how sharpe and fierie so ever , the faith of which would make the weak and fainting soul become couragious and valiant , as David . 2. Christ's Sympathie with them , in all their Distresses , Troubles , Necessities , Dangers , Paines , Losses , Crosses , and Sufferings for Him , and His Cause ; which , if firmly beleeved , according to the s●…re and undoubted grounds thereof , could not but make them sing all their Sorrow out of countenance . 3. The Lord's Stile of being a Redeemer ; which if fled unto by faith , in an evil day , would prove a strong Tour , to which they might ●…un and be saife . 4. The promises , which are Many , Great , Glorious , Sutable , Pertinent , Precious , Sure and Covenanted ; and as these are made and registred of purpose , that His People might have strong Consolation ; so the Christian faith & Improvement of them , in a day , when Dispensations would seem to cross them , is both the special duty of His people , in that day ; and also the only mean to keep them in life , and hold their head above water , when called to swime against both tide and stream ; and the fixed faith of these would both stablish & strengthen the tossed and wearie soul. 5. Former Experiences of God's Care , Faithfulness , Tenderness , Readiness to deliver and supply wants , to carry thorow Troubles , and at length , in due time , to deliver out of them . These , when rightly improven , according to Gods warrand , and Gospel grounds , will fournish a feast , whereupon faith may feed , and the soul become strong in the Lord , and in the power of his might ; and with Courage , Hop and Confidence wade thorow a Sea of Affliction . 6. The quarrel and controversie is the Lords . A noble ground of courage , comfort and confidence , when beleeved and rightly Improven . 7. Their Sufferings are the Sufferings of Christ , when they are for His sake , and upon His account . And this cannot but be a wel full of Consolation , unto the poor afflicted and persecuted Childe of God , when it is beleeved , and fed upon by faith . These I have ( as the Lord was pleased to assist ) spoken a little unto , in the foregoing Piece , onely in order to this End , That the faithful and honest hearted Beleever , who either hath already met with , or layeth his account to meet with , Sufferings of one kind , or of another , in following his Lord and Master , in the way of Truth and Righteousness , according to the Commands of God , and Institutions of Christ , may in part be helped to know his own strength , where the stock thereof is , and how he may improve the same to his own rich advantage , in every Case and Condition , that the Lord , in his wise and holy Providence , bringeth him into ; and that so , as , notwithstanding of all the fiery Trials , sharpe Afflictions , sore Temptations , sad Exercises , cruel Persecutions , continual Tossings and Harassings and pinching Straits and Difficulties , that he may meet with , in his way , he may be helped unto a Christian Deportment , a Rejoicing evermore , and a bearing of the cross with Joy , Valour , Christian Courage , undaunted Resolution and a fixed Stedfastness and Unmovablness in the way of the Lord : and so win to a life of faith , and through faith , in the midst of all the deathes , that he is to rancountre with , in his way , to the everlasting possession of that Crown of life , and of the Inheritance , that is Incorruptible and Undefiled , and that fadeth not away , reserved in heaven for them , who are kept by the power of God , through faith unto Salvation . I shall now , in the prosecution of this Matter for the end mentioned , mentione and speak a little unto some other Considerations : such as . CONSIDERATION . VIII . It is the decreed will of God. IF the afflicted soul , that is tossed with Tempests , and not comforted , and is like to sinck under the heavy burden of Affliction , Temptation and Tribulation , were considering aright , how that affliction cometh not forth of the dust , nor troub●…e springeth not out of the ground , Iob 5 : 6. that is , That afflictions come not by meer Chance , neither have they all their Original from Inferiour agents , carnal and worldly Instruments ; but there is an higher hand to be observed and espied in all , that the men of this world , the Instruments of Satan , devise and execute , and that there is an higher Resolution , Decree and Determination , to be heeded , than what is taken by man. If the afflicted soul ( I say ) were considering this , he would finde himself called to far other Thoughts and Meditations , than he hath , or can have , when his mind is onely poreing upon the secondary and far inferiour rise of his trouble , to wit , as from men . We see what course Peter took Act. 4 : 27 , 28. When thinking upon the rage of Enemies against our Lord , and against them , his Servants , for his sake ; for of a truth ( saith he ) against thy holy Child Iesus , whom thou hast anointed , both Herod and Pontius Pilat , with the Gentiles , and the people of Israel were gathered together ; for to do whatsoever thy hand and th●… Counsel determined before to be done . So Act. 2 : 23. He tels them , who had been Instrumental , in killing of the Lord of life , that he was delivered by the determinat Counsel and fore knowledg of God , otherwise they had had no power over him . It is good and necessary for Beleevers , to be alwayes , and then in particular , fixed in the faith of this , That nothing cometh to passe by chance or fortune ( as we s●…y : ) but that all events , that fall out or come to passe , are from Eternity , freely and unchangably Ordained and Appointed by the unalterable Determination and Decree of the holy and wise Counsel of God : for He worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will , Ephes 1 : 11. There is an unalterable Decree past in the grand Court of Parliament in heaven , concerning all Events , that fall out in the world ; even such , as we would think to be most uncertaine and contingent , as events determined by lot , Prov. 16 : 33. The lot is cast into the lap ; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. What more uncertain , than that the souldiers should not handle Christ , after the same manner , that they handled the other two , who were crucified with him : and yet they broke not his bones , as they did the bones of the rest ; and they pierced him , which they did not to the rest ; and that because , it was determined of God , that not a bone of Christ should be broken , and also that he should be pierced ; and that the Scriptures might be fulfilled , where mention was made of these determinations , as we see in the Evangelists , besides many other meer ( to us ) accidental things , that befell him . I know what difficulties some move about this matter , in sinful events , as all the Trouble , Affliction , and Persecution are , which the people of God meet with , at the hands of wicked Instruments , upon the account of their adhereing unto Truth , and following duty : But I shall purposely wave all disputs , at this occasion , and onely hold forth the Truth , and thereafter shew , how it ought to be improved unto advantage , in such exercising times . 1. Whatever Affliction , Cross , Trouble , Suffering , Tria●… or Tribulation , any of his are put to endure , in following of duty , it is not to be looked on , as an accidental , fortuitous event , or chance ; but as determined of the Lord , who hath in his Soveraigne wisdom and Counsel thought fit , to have it so ; and ordered it , that it should be so , that his people in all ages , should meet with Opposition , Contradiction , Affliction , Crosses , or Persecution , at the hands of one or other : so that the Substance of the Trial and Exercise is to be looked upon , as ordained and determined of Jehovah : Such a determination , as this , must be the ground of that Act. 14 : 22. — And that we must through much tribula●…ion enter into the Kingdom of God : And of that , wich Paul saith Act 20 : 23. though he knew not in particular what evils should befall him at Ierusalem , whither he was now going ; yet he knew , that bonds and affliction did abide him ; saying , Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every City , saying , that bonds and affliction abide me . It was determined then that these , as pages of honour , should attend him , and should wait for his landing in every place he came unto . And yet more clearly he tels the Thessalonians , 1 Epist. 3 : 3. That they knew , that he and the rest were appointed hereunto , that is , to afflictions ; adding Vers. 4. For verily , when we were with you , we told you before , that we should suffer tribulation , even as i●… came to passe , and ye know . Peter also , in his first Epistle , mindeth those , he writteth unto , of this , several times , and pointeth them unto this will of God , that they might eye it , that is , His determining , decreeing , and appointing will 1 Pet. 3 : 17. For it is better , if the will of God be so , that y●… suffer for welldoing , &c. And againe Chap. 4 : 19. Wherefore , let them that suffer , according to the will of God , &c. From all which Testimonies , we see , that there is a Will , Determination , Resolution and Decree of the Ancient of dayes past , anent the Afflictions , Trials , Tribulations and Sufferings of his people . 2. Not only is there a Decree and Determination past , in the Court of heaven , about the Sufferings of the people of God , in the grosse ( as it were ) and in general : but also the special Kind of the Crosse , or Affliction , that they meet with , or the special manner , or quality thereof . God hath not only decreed , that this or that man , this or that follower of Christ , shall meet with some Crosse and some Affliction , or other ; but he hath determined the species and kind thereof ; to wit , whether it shall be a cross as to his Body , or as to his Estate , or as to his Spirit ; or as to several or all of these together ; whether he shall be put to suffer Fineings , or Confinments , or Imprisonments , or Exile , or Death ; whether Scourgings , Paines and Torments , or Harassings , Feares , Perils , or what ever it be . Paul knew , that bonds did abide him . The Lord determined , that Abraham's Posteritie should be strangers , in a Land , that was not theirs , & be made to serve Gen. 15. vers . 13. He determined that Satan should cast some of the Church of Smirna in prison , and that they should have tribulation , Revel . 2 : 10. We know also , what was particularly threatned against David , 2 Sam. 12 : 11. 3. As the Lord decreeth the Kind and Species of the Trial ; so likewise he passeth a Determination , concerning all the Ingredients and Parts of the same . The trial possiblie is not one single Exercise , but one complicated , and compounded of many ; a cup not of one pure liquor , but mixed of many ingredients ; but of how many Ingredients so ever it be compounded , and of how many parts so ever it consist ; yet all of them are particularly and determinatly decreed and appointed of the Lord. Many bitter ingredients were in the cup , which Christ gote to drink ; but all and every one of them fell under a plaine and peremptour determination of heaven . They were gathered together ( saith Peter , in the fore cited place ) to do whatsoever thy hand and thy Counsel determined to be done : there was a whatsoever here : Nothing was or could be done , but what this Counsel of God had Determined to be done ; and all that was done , was Determined by this Counsel . 4. The Degree , and Measure of the affliction , that His people are to meet with , is as particularly determined , as any circumstance thereof else : we know what Ioseph's Brethren had intended against him , when thy said , come let us slay him , and cast him into some pit , Gen. 37 : 20. But God had not intended so much ; and therefore they were made to change their minde , and to sell him to the Midianites , Vers. 28. And though thereby they thought they were quite of him for ever , and that he should remaine a slave to his dying day ; yet we know it came otherwise to passe ; they thought evil ; but God meant it unto good Gen. 50. vers . 20. As the Lord had another end before his eyes , than they had ; so he had determined , that they should not reach their end , nor do any more , than should contribute unto His end . The King of Assyria had it in his heart , to destroy and cut off Nations not a few . But God had another end in raising him up to be a scourge : and therefore suffered him not to do all he would , Esai . 10 : 6 , 7 , 12. Upon this ground it is , that he debateth with his people in measure , when he sendeth forth his rod ; and stayeth his rough winde in the day of his east winde Esai 27. 8. 5. The Season and time of the affliction and trial is likewise determined of the Lord , which is another Circumstance , sometime very considerable , and weighty . He hath determined the minute of time , when it shall beginne , and with what occasion it shall be trysted . He determined the precise time , when the Messiah should be cut off , after threescore and two weeks , Dan. 9 vers . 26. 6. The Duration of the Trial is also determined by the unchangable decree of God , to a day , yea , to an houre and a minute . He decreed the length and duration of the affliction , that was to come upon the posterity of Abraham , four hundereth and thirtie Years Gen. 15 : 13. Exod. 12. vers . 13. And at the end of these Years , even the self same day , it came to passe , that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the Land of Egypt , where these Years of servitude were to end . So he determined seventy Years for the captivity of Iudah in Babylon , Ier. 25 : 12. and 29 : 10. Dan. 9. vers . 2. 7. He hath also determined who shall be the Instruments of the trouble , He said , he would hisse for the flie , that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt ; and for the bee , that is in the Land of Assyria , Esai . 7 : 18. He appointed the ruine of Iudah to be by the Babylonians , or Caldeans . He determined to raise evil against David , out of his own house , 2 Sam. 12 : 11. These particulars might have been further enlairged , and confirmed ; but because I suppose the truth herein will not be denied , or questioned by the Lords people , it will be much more useful to speak a few things , concerning the right use making of this Truth , That there is a Decree past in heaven from all Eternity , touching our Sufferings , and all the Ingredients and Circumstances thereof , concerning the manner and way of our troubles , the time when , and how long , the Instruments by whom , and all the other particulars considerable in the same : all are fixed by a peremptour and unalterable Determination . Now the faith and beleeving Consideration of this would still , and calme the risings of our proud spirits , and the insolent stirrings of our corruptions , when the Affliction , that is bitter and unpleasant to the flesh , is lying on ; and make us patiently endure all , and sweetly submit to all , saying , the will of the Lord be done : Let him do what seemeth him good ; as good old Eli said , when he heard the determination of the Lord concerning him , and his family , wherein were many sad and bitter ingredients , as may beseen 1 Sam. 2. and 3. Chapters : and go●…d is the ●…rd of the Lord , as good Hezekiah said , when he heard by Esaias , that the Lord had determined , that all that was in his house , and all which his fathers had laid up in store , untill that day , should be carried to Babilon , nothing should be left ; and of his sones , that should issue from him , which he should beget , should they take away , and should be Eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon Esai . 39. vers . 6 , 7 , 8. Whether . ( 1. ) Our thoughts be troubled at the kind of the Cross or Affliction , which is upon us ; so as we are ready to say , had the Lord sent any other rod or affliction upon us , than this , wherewith we are exercised , we could better have born it , Had he visited me ( will one say ) with Poverty , and not with Disgrace , I could have born it : and another , had my affliction been any other , than just what it is , I could have comported with it ; but the consideration of this , that God hath decreed , that that , even that same crosse , should be thy cross , and no other , will make the Soul sit down and say , seing the Lord hath from all eternity appointed and shapen-out this , even this , and none else for me , I must bear it , and submit to his will , who is wiser , than I am , and seeth further than I do , and knoweth what is good and best for me , better than I my self do , His holy will be done . This is a grief , and I must bear it , saith Ieremiah Ch. 10 : 19. ( 2. ) If our heart be troubled and vexed at the Consideration and thoughts of the particular Ingredients in and Parts of our mixed and compounded cup of affliction , whereof every one seemeth more bitter than another ; and we be saying , we are compassed with evils on all hands ▪ trouble of Body is upon us , and trouble of Mind also ; we are wrestling with paines inward and outward , with poverty , with disgrace , with perils and hardships ; and all at once : This will compose our spirits , if we call to mind , that God hath willed and decreed all this ; He thought good to have it so ; He hath ordered , as a wise Physician , all the Ingredients of our bitter cup : and what have we to say against him ? Iob , we know , had many a bitter ingredient in his cup , and this compesceth the tumultuatings of his spirit Iob 23 : 13 , 14. But he is in one mind , & who can turn him ? And what his soul desireth , even that he doth . For he performeth the thing , that is appointed for me ; and many such things are with him . As if he had said , what He will do , He will do ; none can turne him , or make him change his mind ; He performeth what He hath appointed and decreed for me ; and He can do much more yet , and what know I but he shall do much more against me , than he hath done ? This did so far put him from quarrelling at what was done ; that he was troubled and afraid at the thoughts of the Majesty and Soveraignity of this great King , who doth what he will ; and so might adde yet moe ingredients in his cup , as long as he was left breathing , and thereby make his case worse . ( 3. ) If the thoughts of the exceeding great weight and measure of the Trouble vex us ; this may counter-work that , and calme us : if we should suppose , that God doth not measure-out our calamitie by drachmes and unces , but by pounds and ston weights ; and thereupon cry out , that our Trouble is greater , than we can bear , and give way to sinful murmurings and complainings : we should do well , in that case , to call this to mind , That all the doses are weighed and appointed for us from eternity , He hath measured every scruple or graine weight thereof ; and what he hath appointed for us , we must have ; He knoweth best , what dose or measure of such or such a simple , and what weight or quantity of all together will worke best on our humors : and this will helpe to calme our spirits ; knowing that He hath determined all things according to infinite wisdom , according to the Counsel of his own will ; and more than he hath appointed shall no man be able to inflict . He leaveth not the measuring and weighing out of the ingredients of our calamitie , unto men or enemies : but himself doth it , by an unalterable Decree , that all the rage of Enemies can not change as to one ase , or in the hundereth part of one drachme . We hear what Christ said Ioh. 18 : 11. The cup , which my father hath given me , shall I not drink it ? It is true , when the dregs of this cup , wherein was the Curse , was presented to him , his holy humane Nature , in a sinless manner , scunnered at it Mat. 26 : 39. If it be possible , let this cup passe from me : Yet , as sweetly acquiescing in the Lord's Determination , he addeth , Nevertheless , not my will , but thy will be done . And againe Vers. 42. O father , if this cup may not passe away from me , except I drink it , thy will be done . Bitter and sharpe was this cup , even to the highest degree ; yet he viewed the will of God , appointing that he should drink it ; and calmly submitted , and said , not as I will , but as thou wilt . ( 4. ) It is true , the Consideration of the season , in which we are exercised and trysted with such a trouble , may adde griefe to our sorrow ; and we may say in our vexation , had this Trouble come upon us , at any other time , we could have better com●…orted therewith ; had it either come sooner , or later , we had been more able to have born it ; but as it is come precisely at such a nick of time , it becometh a double burden unto us : Yet it will help to calme us , and compesce our turbulent spirits , to remember , that He , who knoweth all seasons , and all times , hath chosen this and no other , for the particular season , wherein we shall meet with such trials ; and it could be no otherwise , than he hath willed ; the trials behoved to come , at that very nick and minute , and no other : an ancient Determination passed thereupon , and no power under heaven could alter it , no not for one houre or minute . ( 5. ) When our thoughts are busied about the Duration of the Trouble ; this Consideration of a Divine determination , past also thereupon , will contribute to our setling . We are ready to cry out , when afflictions lye heavy upon our loines , oh will they ever come to an end : shall we never be redeemed herefrom ? Shall we never see a good day again ? And we are ready to conclude , that our hopes are perished , and we are cut off for our parts : as Hezekiah said when trouble lay upon him Esai . 38 : 10 , 11 , 12 , 13. I said in the cutting off of my daies , I shall go to the gates of the grave : I am deprived of the residue of mine years . I said , I shall not see the Lord , the Lord in the Land of the living , I shall behold man no more with the Inhabitants of the world ; mine age is departed , and is removed from me , as a shepherds Tent. He will cut me off with pining sickness , from day even to night will thou make an end of me . I reckoned till morning , that as a lion so will he break all m●… bones : from day even to night , wilt thou make an end of me . The affliction , through the distemper of our spirits , raiseth such a mist before our eyes , that we can not see thorow the dark face of the dispensation . How oft do we limite the holy one of Israel , and say , if he come not before such a moneth , or such an year , we may conclude , that he will not come at all , and so need waite for him no longer : and the oftener , that our foolishly set & prefixed Periods go over , & the storme continueth , or groweth , our fainting & despondence groweth : especially when we consider , the evil disposition , rage and cruelty of Enemies : and see how their strength groweth , and providence seemeth to smile upon them . But now the faith of this , that He , who hath set bounds to the raging of the sea , saying , hithertil shalt thou come and no further , hath also bounded and limited the time , how long such a Calamity , or Tri●…l shall endure , will sedate our mindes , and keep us calme , and free of that discomposure of Spirit , that the thoughts of the restless Malice , incessant Rage , and cruel Hatred of the Enemies will and do usually cause ; for do they what they can , God will observe the Periods prefixed by himself : his thoughts take place in all generations And when our hearts are disquieted at the thoughts of the long continuance of the Affliction , the calling of this to remembrance , That the only wise God hath determined all the houres and minutes of its continuance , for his own holy ends , will prompt us to say , we cannot strive against the Almighty . Let us therefore waite His time , in patience ; all our strugling will but perplex our selves the more ; and all our endeavours to get free , will but contribute to our further entanglement : we shall not be able , do what we can , to Anticipate his day ; and therefore it is best for us to minde the duty of the day , and lay aside all thoughts of using any unlawful meanes for our outgate , and waite in patience , untill his good time come . ( 6. ) As also the thoughts of the Instruments of our trouble and calamity may sadly affect us , as we see it did David Psal. 55 : vers . 12 , 13 , 14. It was not an Enemie , that reproached me , then I could have born it ; ●…either was it he that hated me , that did magnifie himself against me , then I could have hid my self from him . But thou , a man , mine equal ( or a man according to my rank ) my guide , and mine acquaintance . We took sweet Counsel together , and walked unto the house of God in company . See Ps. 41 : 9. So many , upon this account , may say , If my trouble were brought unto me by any other hands , and instruments , I could comport the better with it ; but when it is caused by such an one , my neer Relation , mine obliged friend , of whom I least expected any such thing , and unto whom I could have yeelded up my self , and all I had , how heavy must it needs be unto me ? But the Consideration of this , That so it hath seemed good unto the only wise God , and Supreame Soveraigne , may and should , and , when rightly beleeved and improven , will cause us lay our hand upon our mouth , and say , The good will of the Lord be done ; Hath he determined , that such an one , and not another , shall occasione all my griefe and sorrow ; shall be instrumentall in all my Calamities ? good is the will of the Lord : though I would think , that if I were persecuted and troubled by others , it would be better , and I could bear it better ; yet seing Infinite wisdome hath determined this circumstance of my calamity ; why should not I acquiesce ? Thus we see , how this Consideration , rightly improven and duely beleeved , will help such , as are under Affliction , Trouble , or Calamity , to a sweet , quiet , submissive and patient life : for 1. By this meanes , the soul will be freed from sinful murmurings , grudgings , frettings and repineings , at this or that Particular , this or that Instrument , or this or that other Circumstance , of its present Distress and Calamity ; in that hereby it will be made to see , that its murmuring thus is against the Lord , and against his Soveraignity , who determineth what he will , according to the good pleasure of his will , and is to give an account of his wayes and determinations to none . 2. This will help unto a Christian Patience under all , that God thinketh good to lay on ; and to endure patiently without wearying untill his good time come : for they will easily see , that it is not for them to strive against the Almighty ; or to think to cause Him alter his Purposes and Resolutions , seing He is of one mind , and none can turn him . 3 This will teach Christians sweetly to comply with all the holy determinations of God , concerning their sufferings , and to say heartily and cheerfully , The will o●… the Lord be done ; as those did , who were perswading Paul not to go up unto Ierusalem , and found that he would not be perswaded . Act. 21 : 14. O what a sweet life is this , to be sailing with the stream of God's eternall Determinations ; and to be embracing and kissing every Dispensation , we meet with , how sharp and bitter so ever it be , because it is Determined by the absolute Soveraigne and Lord of Heaven and Earth ! How light and easie doth this make every load , that is lying upon our shoulders , when we bear it as bound upon us by an everlasting Decree ? 4. This will help unto a life of practical Praising of the Lord , as Absolute Soveraigne : for when the event is submitted unto and sweetly embraced , because determined by a fixed Decree of the Lord Jehovah , the soul doth thereby declare , and acknowledge His Soveraignity ; and upon the matter , by practice , in submission , even though silent , doth Celebrat the praises of that Absolute Soveraigne , who is God over all , blessed for ever ; while as such , upon the contrary , who fret and rebell against the Lord's Determinations , by refusing to give that sweet hearty submission , that is requisite , do give a practical declaration of their not beleeving and acknowledging of Him to be the Soveraigne Lord of all . 5. The thoughts of this will free the soul of many heart-perplexing soul-distracting , disquieting and renting thoughts ; such as these ; If this had not been , or if I had not been in such a place , or had not done such or such a thing . I had been free of all this ; so that every thought of every thing , that had but a far-off and remote tendency unto the occasioning of the trouble , is enough to distract , disquiet and perplex the man ( I do not mean here sins occasioning , or bringing on of trouble ; for these should be thought on and mourned for ; which will not marre this sutable frame of Spirit ; but other things , about which our thoughts are more readily conversant , in such a time : ) and beside these thoughts of what hath been done , or not done , in times by past , there are other thoughts of what may yet further be , and how that may be prevented , which may not a little unhinge and disquiet the soul : Now from all such is the soul freed , by the beleeving thoughts of God's eternal Decree concerning their trouble , and all the way of its coming to passe , and the occasion , and all other circumstances , how and by whom , it was brought on . Here the soul will finde such a satisfying subject of Meditation , that other disquieting thoughts will be quickly hush'd to the door , and the soul will finde no leasure for them . 6. Hereby will the soul be keeped from poreing upon , and too much eying of the motions of the under-wheels of Creatures , and instruments of the trouble and calamitie , which will rather cause a reeling , and giddiness , and hence occasione a staggering and falling , than any stayedness or establishment ; because hereby the soul will be brought to fix its eye upon that ▪ one wheel of the Lords , that moveth evenly fixedly , and invariably , in the midst of all the wheels of men , the motions whereof are so irregular , eccentrick , and so opposite and contrarious one to another . 7. Hereby is the beleever helped to win to that life of tasting and feeling the sweet of that serenity of soul , that a filial disposition possesseth the man of , by an holy , humble , son-like submission and subjection of soul unto the good will of the Lord : When this submission is yeelded unto , the Supream will of God , upon Christian Grounds and Considerations , the soul is in a manner brought into the suburbs of heaven , and enjoyeth an heavenly serenity and peace of minde , whereby it is in case to sing under all its sorrowful pressures , and the confused noise of such as are the Agents and Instruments of all the calamity ; and the beleeving thoughts of the Soveraigne will of God , ordering and appointing all , is a singular help hereunto . 8. The beleever is hereby put without the reach of many a Temptation , and is strengthened against them ; whether to use unwarrantable means to be delivered from the Trouble and Distress incumbent ; or to prevent , what may be further imminent , and is to be feared ; or to vent his displeasure against the Instruments of all the calamity ; or the like : for here will be an antidote at hand , The Lord ordereth and disposeth of all things , according to His own holy and wise will : and nothing can come to passe , but what He hath decreed ; and what He hath decreed shall come to passe , and that when , and neither sooner nor later , and how , and by whom He hath decreed , and no otherwayes ; what have I then more to do , but to minde my present duty , and welcome what the Lord's will determineth for me , will he say . There are these , Three particulars , which set home this Consideration , and promoveth thereupon this work of Submission , and hearty acquiesceing unto the will and determination of God ; and which should be thought upon to this end . 1. The Lord is in all his Determinations and Decrees unalterable , as he is unchangable in himself , there being no variablness or shadow of turning with Him Iam. 1. vers . 17. And if it were otherwise , He could not be infinitly Wise in himself , or not Almighty , and Irresistible by others , for any alteration , that might be in the determinations of his will , must either flow from new and second thoughts in himself : and so He were not Infinitly wise , or from inability to effectuat or through his former Determinations , and therefore must take new measures ; and so He were not Almighty . Now the Soul should think with it self , Should I wish , or desire , that the Lord's will were not done , that He should not be able to do what soever he will Psal. 115 : 3. and 135 6 or that any of his everlasting Purposes and Decrees should fail , and not take effect ; or that He should alter his purposes and lay his conclusions of new ? Then I should wish , He were not God ; for the true God is a God that changeth not Mal. 3 : 6. and a God , whose Purposes cannot fail ; for they have a hand with them to effectuatall Esai . 14 : 26. as he purposeth , so shall it stand Esa 14 : 24. Who can disanull what He purposeth ? Vers. 27. And what he purposeth , he will also do Esai . 46 : v. 11. So that if I should once imagine , that His decrees could alter upon one account , or other , I should in so far deny the true & living God. And if one of his purposes could alter , why not another ? & how then should I think , that his purpose according to election should staud ? Rom. 9 : 11. & 8 : 28. Ephes. 1 : v. 11. & 3 : 10 , 11. 2 Tim. 1 : 9. And if there were the least ground of doubt here , where were all my Hop , Comfort & Confidence ? Therefore would the beleever say ; Because it is my joy & comfort , that His purposes fail not , and that He is a God that cannot change , but whom he loveth , he loveth to the end ; therefore will I with joy subject my self unto all his decreed Dispensations towards me , how hard so ever they may seem to flesh ; because He is Unchangable and Almighty , and thereupon hangeth all my Hope and Salvation . 2. All his determinations and decrees are for his own glory . He worketh all things , according to the Counsel of his own will , that we should be to the praise of his Glory Ephes. 1 : 11 , 12. He maketh all things for Himself Prov. 16 : 4. Hence the beleeving soul reasoneth with himself , Shall I stand in the way of God's getting his glory ? He hath determined this to befall me , for his own glory ; and should I wish it to be otherwayes ? Should I not comply with his holy designe of glorifying himself , by this his Dispensation towards me ? Should I not acquiesce in all the meanes and methods , His infinit wisdom hath thought upon , and He , in infinite wisdom , hath determined to make use of , for glorifying of his own name ? Should not I be satisfied with his being exalted ? Nay , should not this Consideration , that hereby God will be glorified , make mine heart sing under all my sorrow : & cause me conclude all my meditations on His dispen fations towards me , as Paul did his Discourse Rom. 11. For of him , & through him , & to him are all things , to whom be glory for ever , Amen . v. last . 3 : As all that God hath decreed to do in the world , is for his own glory ; so all that he hath determined to do with , or to bring upon His own people , who are called according to the election of grace , is for their good , according to that Rom. 8 : 28. And we know , that all things work together for good , to them that love God , to them who are the called according to his purpose . Hence the Godly Soul can reason , Shall I be against mine own good and advantage ? Shall I wish that things were otherwise , than they are , when the only Wise and Gracious God hath ordered and ordained them so , for my good ? He hath made many noble connexions , in his Purposes , that I see not : and seing He hath said , that all things work together for good to such as love Him , and are called according to his purpose , why should I not beleeve against sense and carnal reason ? Am I able to search out the Almighty unto perfection ? Can I finde out all the depths of his Counsel and Wisdom ? Shall I think then that he can bring about my good and felicity , by no meanes , and dispensations , but such as I am satisfied with ? Shall I measure the unsearchable riches of his Wisdom and Councel thus ? Shall I rebell against his Dispensations , and fret and murmure against Him , who dealeth thus and thus with me . because I see not , how He can bring about my everlasting advantage hereby ? No : Nay rather because his word is true , beleeving the same , I will embrace the sharpest of Dispentions , He is pleased to tryst me with , and waire to see how infinit Wisdom shall make good , what Truth it self hath said : Thus we see , how the Consideration of the decreed will of God can preserve the Christians life , in worst of times . CONSIDERATION . IX . It is the Commanding will of God. CHristian souls have much Peace , and joy , when they are going about a commanded duty , and they know upon good grounds , that what they are going about is a commanded duty , notwithstanding of the many Hazards , Difficulties , Pinches and Distresses , they are put to , in the prosecution thereof : and when they are called to suffer , and to lye under outward Trouble and Affliction , are oftentimes under much sadness of heart , and disquietment of mind , upon this account , among others , That they know not , if their suffering be according to the will of God , and whether or not they have ground to expect God's approbation ; which if they saw clear ground to beleeve and look for , they would be no more disquieted , than when going about other clear and necessary duties . It will be useful therefore and advantagious to such , as meet with a suffering life , to know some thing , whereby they may come to understand , how and what way they may , or may not be called of God to suffer . I grant , that Suffering , as it is a meer passion , doth not properly fall under a command : But the Choosing , Embracing , patient , cheerful , couragious and Christian Enduring of Sufferings and Affliction fall under a command ; and this is all the subject of our present enquirie , That we may know , when we are to judge our selves called of God to choose Affliction with the people of God , and to undergo it with courage and patience , knowing that in so doing , we are approven of God. In order therefore to the clearing up of this , we would know , That as there is a time , when God calleth to valient acting and appearing and hazarding lives and fortunes , and all for Him , and His interest , and to jeopard our lives , on the high places in the field , and to come forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty , as we would escape the Curse of Meroz Iudg. 5 : 23. So there is a time , when He , who only can change seas●…ns and times , calleth for Valiant Suffering , and to become a companion in Tribulation , and in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ. And this appeareth from these particulars . 1. There is a particular gift of God for this Suffering , as wee see Phil. 1. vers . 29. Vnto you it is given not only to beleeve on him , but also to suffer for his sake . And when God giveth a gift for such a peculiar work , it saith , there is a time and season , when that gift is to be imployed and exercised , for he giveth not gifts to lye by us and rust , or to be hid in a napkin under ground . 2. There are peculiar duties called-for at the hands of Christians , relative only or mainly unto a suffering time ; as Taking up the Cross , Patience , Being faithful unto the death Revel . 2 : 10. Holding fast Christ's name , and not denying his faith Vers. 13. Keeping Christs works unto the end Vers. 26. Keeping of Christs word , and not denying his name , Revel . 3. v. 8. Keeping the word of Christs patience V. 10. Keeping fast and not casting away our Confidence Heb. 10 : 35. and the like : All which say , there is a time for suffering , and witnessing to the truth by suffering . 3. ●…he many motives and encouragments given to bear up the hearts of sufferers , say , that the people of God have such a lot to look for , and must lay their account to meet with Trials and Tribulations for adhering to truth . 4 The many Instances and examples of valiant and stedfast Sufferers before us , recorded for our Instruction , and Information , say , there is such a season , wherein such , as would stand fast in the faith , can look for nothing but sharp trials for the Name of Jesus . 5. The forewarnings given to such , as will follow Christ , to take up withall their cross Mat. 16 : 24. And that through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God , Act. 14 : 22. And that all who will live godly , in Christ Iesus , shall suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3. vers . 12. That we should not think strange concerning the fiery trial , which is to try us , as though some strange thing hapned unto us 1 Pet. 4. vers . 12 These and the like confirme this matter . 6 Christ , the Captaine of our Salvation , was made perfect through sufferings Heb. 2 : 10. & He himself hath told us Mat. 10 : 24 , 25 That the Disciple is not above his Master , nor the Servant above his Lord , & that , it is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master , & the Servant as his Lord : & that , if they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub , how much more shall they call them of his houshold ? And we are bidden look unto Iesus , the Author and finisher of faith , who , for the joy that was set before him , endured the crosse , despising the shame : And to consider him , that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , lest we be wearied and fainte in our mindes , Hebr. 12 : 2 , 3. And we are told 1 Petr. 2 : 21. That even hereunto we are called , because Christ also suffered for us , leaving us an example , that we should follow his steps . And againe Chap. 4 : 1. For asmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh , we should arme our selves likewise with the same mind . All which and the like say , that a Suffering lot is abiding the followers of Jesus ; and that it is the will of God they should prepare for it . 7. Some special works there are , which God hath upon the wheels to perfect , and these call for a suffering season ; such as the trial and discovery of the sincerity of His grace in His own , as also the exercise and promoving thereof ; for tribulation worketh patience , and patience experience , and experience hop . Rom. 5 : 3 , 4. So the trying of saith worketh patience Iam. 1 : 3. See also 1 Pet. 1. vers . 7. and 4 : 12. As also the discovery of the rottenness and hypocrisie of a Professing generation , who want root , and so must wither , when the scorching sun of persecution ariseth Mat. 13 : 5 , 21. For this is as a small sieve So also the discovery of the Maliciousness and wickedness of Enemies , which lay hid and latent , before it gote a seasonable vent , when their hour and power of darkness cometh . Luk. 22 : 53. 8. This may be confirmed by express Testimonies of Scripture , such as 1 Pet. 2. vers . 19 , 20 , 21. For this is thank worthy ( or grace ) if a man for conscience toward God , endure griefe , suffering wrongfully . — But if when ye do well & suffer for it , ye take it patiently , this is acceptable ( or grace , or favour ) with God. For even hereunto were ye called . It must then be a commanded duty , and obedience to a command , that rendereth a man gracious and acceptable with God. So 1 Pet. 4 : 19. Wherefore let them that suffer , according to the will of God. &c. this is according to his will of command . So Heb. 10 : 39. The will of God , there mentioned , is , as we explained it , his will of command , which was done by enduring patiently , for the Profession of the truth , a whole fight of afflictions ; their patient suffering being noble service to their Lord and Master . By all which we see , that there are some times and seasons , wherein the people of God are called to suffer . If it be enquired . When is that Time and Season , wherein the people of the Lord are called to suffer ? The answere is easie : to wit , when the red horse ( spoken of Revel . 6 : 4. ) is sent forth , and power is given to him , that sitteth thereon , to take peace from the earth ; and for that end , hath given unto him a great sword ; that is , when Truth and the Profession thereof is persecuted ; when Tribulation or Persecution ariseth because of the Word ; as it is Mat. 13 : 26. When men must be slain for the Word of God , and for the Testimonie , which they hold Revel . 6 : 9. When the Truth and the open Profession thereof , is questioned and opposed , then are the followers of Christ called to suffer rather than to sin , and upon all hazards to hold fast the Profession of their faith without wavering , not forsaking even the assembling of themselves together Heb. 10 : 23 , 25. Then are they to make Moses's choise ; that is , chuse rather to suffer affliction with the people of God , than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11 : 25. When any of the revealed Truthes of God are opposed , and such as owne the same are maligned , hated and persecuted , that is the Season , wherein the Lord calleth all His to embrace any suffering , rather than deny His Truth , and the word of His Patience . It is spoken to the commendation of the Church of Pergamos Revel . 2. vers . 13. That though dwelling where Satans seat was , yet she held fast Christ's ●…ame , and did not deny His faith , even in these daies , wherein Antipas , Christ's faithful Martyr , was slaine . So that it is Christ's will and command , that all his followers should abide stedfast , faithful and unmovable in owning of his Truth and Cause , his Word and Interest , on all hazards . But some will possibly enquire , How shall I know , whether or not , I in particular be called to suffer ? Answer . We are not to expect any extraordinary Revelation , or Declaration of God's mind , in this particular ; though I grant , the Lord may condescend , in love and pity to some weak persons , to give some more than ordinary intimation of his will , whether by some secret and forcible impulse upon their Spirits ; or by some influence of comfort and encouragment , whereby they are enabled to despise the shame , and to endure the cross , as seeing the joy set before them ; and are strengthened against the feares of men , even of the greatest and most terrible , as seeing Him , who is Invisible . But these outflowings of his Love and Tenderness , not being the Rule of our duty , we must not think , that we are never called to hazard on suffering , untill we meet with some such Dispensation of his free grace . Nor must we waite for some singular Intimation , made by some more than ordinary light , given to discover the Truth , and the Importance thereof , for owning of which we are exposed to suffering ; The Revelation of the Truth , made by Jesus Christ , in his Word , is the only ground of our faith , & our faith thereunto is called for , though we want such rare communications of Light , bearing home the soul-captivaring perswasion of the Truth & its concernments , over all possiblity of doubting or hesitating in the least ; for these are not our Ground or Rule of faith , but soveraigne and special helps to strengthen our faith , and to fix us more upon our ground . But the ground of our Suffering , and that which we should look upon as a call from God , to choose suffering , is the Lord's command , to owne and avow His Truth : so that when the Lord , in His Holy and Wise Providence , ordereth matters so , as that we must either suffer , or sin , in denying His word , or any point of Truth , revealed in his word ; and so either Suffer or forsake our Duty ; then are we to look upon our selves , as called of God to choose suffering , rather than sin : When , as it were , Sin and Suffering are laid before us , that we may make our choise , and there is no third thing to demurre us , nor any faire and lawful way to escape the suffering , but by sinning ; then with Moses in that forecited place , Heb. 11 : 2●… . We are to preferre Suffering before Sinning , and that according to the will of God. This deed of Moses , in chusing rather to suffer a ●…tction with the people of God , than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season , was a rare Act of faith ; and consequently an act of obedience ; faith being no blind act , but walking upon the ground of a command . When then we can not evite suffering , but by sinning in denying the Truth , or in not adhering to it , or not Professing of it , according to the will of God , we suffer for well doing . This is it , that is acceptable unto God , and that to which we are called , to wit That we take it patiently , when we do well and suffer for it . This is to endure grief , suffering wrongfully , for conscience towards God , and which is thankworthie 1 Pet. 2. vers . 19 , 20 , 21. Hence we see , that it must be Truth , and the Word of Christ , that must be suffered for ; else we cannot be said to suffer for Conscience towards God , nor for well doing . If a Person be under the Power of an Erroneous Conscience , taking that for Truth , which is nothing but Errour , his suffering in defence thereof , and for adhering thereto , is not suffering for well doing , nor for conscience towards God , nor have such any call from God to suffer upon that account ; and yet if , for fear of suffering , any such should deny that , which they apprehended to be truth , they should virtually deny the truth of God , and sinne ; because they should deny that , which they took to be the truth of God ; and if it had been ●…eally the truth of God , they would have denied it , no less than now they have done , though they did mistakingly apprehend it to be the truth of God , when it was not . In this case , there is no preventing of sin , but by laving by the blinded and erroneous Conscience ; that is , by laying aside the mistake and errour , and receiving ●…ight Information concerning the Truth . And therefore , when a time of trial cometh , and persecution ariseth upon the account of the Testimony of Jesus , and of his Word , all , w●…o would be found faithful in that day of trial , should labour to have the Word dwelling in them richly , to be rooted and grounded in the Truth , tobe receiving and drinking-in the Truthes of God , and to have all grounded upon the infallible Word of Truth , that what they owne and hold may be the sure and undoubted Truth of Jesus , and so a part of his Testimony . And for this Cause , they would be living neer to Him , who is the Truth , that being taught of Him , and receiving the Truth , as it is in Jesus , they may be in case to assert and owne the same , upon all hazards , and so fitted for witnessing to the Truth , and for holding fast Christs Word ; and nothing else . But some may say , Though we know and beleeve the Truth , that is opposed : Yet we are not able to maintaine it against learned Adversaries , nor to answere their contrary Arguments and Objections ; How can we suffer upon the account of such a piece of truth , which we have not skill and understanding to defend against cunning Adversaries ? I Answ. Though it is true , Men of great parts , and abilities to plead and argue for truth , would seem to have a great advantage , in such a day of trial ; yet experience proveth , that such as are far inferiour unto them , as to parts and abilities , will be helped to faithful witness-bearing to the Truth , when they may shamfully decline that Duty . Suffering is a peculiar gift , & doth not alwayes accompany the gift of learning . And I doubt , it be required of all Christians , to be able to disput for the truth , and to answere all the Sophismes of cunning Adversaries ; yet it is required of all , that they contend earnestly for the faith , which was once delivered unto the Saints Iud. 3. and that they stand fast in the faith , 1 Cor. 16 : 13. and in the Lord Phil. 4 : v. 1. 1 Thes. 3 : 8. and hold fast Christs Name and the Word of his Patience , and not deny his Faith and Name Revel . 2 : 10 , 13 , and 3 : v. 8 , 10. and that they keep his Word Revel . 3 : 8. It is the Duty of all to receive the Truth , and the Love of the Truth ; and when the truth in its Love and Loveliness is received , then it sincketh into the heart ; and such , though they cannot Disput for the Truth , yet can suffer for it ; and not deny it , upon any termes . Though they have but a little strength , yet they will keep his Word , as is spoken to the Commendation of the Church of Philadelphia Revel . 3 : v , 8. Truth is Truth , though we be not able to defend it against Sophisters , and to stop the mouth of gaine-sayers , and the Truth , as it is in Jesus , and as it is a part of his Testimonie , who is the Truth , should be owned and maintained by suffering . The Primitive Christians , who suffered martyrdom for the Truth , were not all able to answere the Cavils and Sophismes of a Celsus and a Porphyrie , and others , who imployed their learning and parts against the Truth ; yet having received the love of the truth , and embraced the Gospel of Jesus Christ , no sufferings nor torments could move them to a forsaking or denying of the same ; They did keep Christs word , and would not deny his Name . But may some say , what if the point of Truth , upon which I am questioned and staged , be but small , and of no great consequence , and many moe than I do so judge it ; must I hazard on suffering , upon the account thereof , and think that God will accept of me therein ? Answere . Let the point of truth be never so small and inconsiderable , whether in thine own eyes , or in the eyes of others ; yet it being a part of the Truth of God , and of the Revelation of Jesus Christ , it is a part of that Name of Christ's , which should not be denied ; and of that Word , which should be kept . Satan may move Persecuters to urge but small things at the beginning , that thereby he may make way to greater ; knowing that if once Professors cede in smaller matters , they are the fairer to be prevailed with in greater things ; for h●…ving forsaken the Lord in lesser , they are out of the ordinary rode of meeting with promised help and assistance , when they are questioned upon greater things . Who love Truth for Truth 's sake , and upon the account that it is the Truth of Jesus , will love the l●…ast of divine truthes , and therefore will not deny it , because it is a part of the Name of Christ , every part whereof is sweet and desirable unto the gracious soul. On the other hand , who forsake and deny Truth , because it is small , and inconsiderable , will hold no Truth , as the Name and Word of Christ , and so will be faire to deny the greatest ; who suffer not for the Truth , as it is the Truth , and because it is the Truth of Christ , cannot be said to suffer for conscience toward God , and as holding fast the Name of Jesus , and the word of his patience . And such as are willing to suffer for the Truth , upon this account , will suffer upon all Truth , how small so ever it may seem to be , if it be a part of the word of His Testimony . The Testimonie to the Truth is not to be estimat , according to the greatness or weightiness of the Truth , upon which the Testimony is called for ; but rather on the contrary , that may be accounted a great Testimony , which is for a small Truth ( to speak comparatively , for indeed no part of Christ's truth should be accounted small ) because it argueth great love to the Truth , and Zeal for it ; it argueth much singleness , and honesty ; and so is much to the glory of God : such as are thus faithful in a very little , may be much esteemed of by the Lord , and have rule over many cities . The denying of or not witnessing unto the meanest Truth , in a stated case of Confession , is a being ashamed of Christ and of his Truth ; and who are ashamed of or deny Him before Men , He will deny them before His Father , which is in heaven . The least sin must not be committed to shun suffering ; but the denying of , or not bearing witness unto any of the Truthes of Christ , in a day of trial , is no small iniquity : and therefore ( as we said ) we are to look upon our selves as called of God to suffer , when we can not avoid it but by finning . Yet some may say , when the thing required is manifestly sinful and unrighteous , the call to suffering rather , in that case , seemeth very clear and unquestionable ; and when it is so , the person may have much peace and calmness within , but when the question seemeth more disputable , the call must needs be less clear , that one hath to suffer upon that account ; and an unclear call cannot but creat much perturbation of mind , and perplexity . Ans. A call may be Gods call , wherein or whereabout , there may be much unclearness : It is said of Abraham Heb. 11 : 8. That by faith , when he was called to go out into a place , which he should after receive for an Inheritance , he obeyed , and went out , though , as it is added , not knowing whither he went. It seemeth good in the Lord's eyes , not to make every ones call alike clear and unquestionable , that their faith and obedience may be the more tried . Some have their call to suffering written , as it were , with sun-beames , so clearly and distinctly , that he who runneth may read it : others have their duty and call written with smaller letters , which every one cannot read ; and yet this be no less the call of God , than the other . The call which the three Children had to suffer , was clear and unquestionable ; 〈◊〉 being such an act of manifest Idolatry which was enjoyned them ; that none acquanted with the law of God , could have the least scruple , touching its horrid iniquity ; The call againe which Moses had , rather to suffer , than to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter , would seem not to have been so legible and clear to all ; and yet it was the true call of God , for by faith he obeyed this call . So Daniel's call to hazard rather on the lions , than forbear prayer to the God of heaven , seemeth more ●…lear and legible than Mordecai●…s call to hazard his own life , and the life of all the Jewes , before he would bow , and do rever●…ce unto Haman ●…e Amalakite and yet this was found to be the true call of God. In the primitive times , the case seemed clear and unquestionable , when Christians were commanded to renounce Christianity , to give up their Bibles , as renunceing the same , or to burne incense to Idols , or to build a Temple to Idols , or suffer death ; but when their life was offered unto them , on condition , they would but give any old paper or clout , in stead of the poors coats ; or would give a small summe of money , wherewith to helo to build the temple to the Idol God , one would think their call to suffer was more dark : and yet these worthy witnesses would not redeem their life at such a rate : Yea , if the souldiers , weary in executing of them , should have violently plucked any such thing from them against their wills , as desireous of the smallest seeming Victory , they would not consent , but run after them declaring their adherence to the truth ; and Marcus Arethusius would not give one penny to the building of the Idol Temple . If it be said , But what if by some Imprudent , or Unnecessary act or other , I have occasioned the trial and trouble to my self ; Can I in this case suppose , that I am called of God to suffer . I Ans. It is true , that some unnecessary , or not every way commendable act or other , may give the first rise or occasion to our trouble ; and yet when sufferings are not purely upon that account , nor for that cause : but stated upon another ground ; we may notwithstanding of this imprudent or unnecessary occasioning of the trial to ourselves , look upon ourselves as called of God to suffer , rather than to deny Him , or any part of His Truth . It is observed by some of Paul , that the occasion of his last trouble , mentioned Act. 21. to wit his hearkening to the advice of Iames and the Elders of Ierusalem , was a thing which he might well have forborne , yea and refused , and therein have walked consonant unto both his former Doctrine , Practice and Writtings , by all which , before this time , he had declared , that the Ceremonial Law was not obliging ; Christ , the special end and substance of all these shadowes , being now come , and having established the Gospel way of worship : and others , though they will not blame Paul , nor think he dissembled in what he did , yet they think Iames and the rest should have forborne to have pressed him to do what they urged him to do . Yet we see , that notwithstanding of this , which gave the rise and occasion to these his last sufferings , this not being the ground , or cause , for which he was persecuted ; but his maintainance of the Gospel , and opposing of the necessary observation of the Law of Moses , which was now abrogate , he is in all his sufferings , which followed hereupon , owned of God , and approven of him . If it be said , Though I dar not deny the Truth , upon which I am challenged and staged , nor dar I say , but I am suffering for Truth , and that I could not have shunned this affliction , but by sinning ; yet I am made to doubt of God's call and warrand , because He hideth his face from me , yea He hideth himself from me , more than ever . This causeth me suspect , that all is wong ; and that I have run , in this matter , without his warrand and allowance . I Ans. This is no certaine ground , whereupon to draw such a conclusion . These out-lettings of his free grace , and sensible significations of his favour , are dispensed according to the Soveraignity of his will and pleasure . A person therefore may have an unquestionable call and warrand to hazard on suffering , when he cannot otherwayes do , unless he would sinne , though he misse these soul-comforting , and heart-establishing blainks of His face . How oft do we finde the Saints of God , in Scripture , cry out of the hiding of God's face , when outward trouble was lying heavy upon them ? As in Iob and David : and why may not the Lord dispense thus with others ? I grant the Trial and the Exercise is , upon this account , the greater : but what do we know , but the Lord be ordering matters so , in his holy wisdom , for our further trial , and for the exercise of faith ? It is easie to swime ( we say ) when the head is born up above the water . And if the Lord thinketh good to double our Trials , ought we not sweetly to submit ? His word should satisfie us ; and He hath promised enough to him , that overcometh : We ought to remember our duty , that is , hold fast what we have , till he come , and He will come quickly , Revel . 2. vers . 25. and 3. vers . 11. If He will have us venturing upon faith , why should we not glorifie him thereby ? He knoweth , when the fittest season is of intimating his favour and acceptance . That holy martyr , that complained of this want , all the time he was in prison , yet while going to the staik was made to cry out , He is come , He is c●…me . Let us now speak a word unto the improving of this Consideration , to the end , we may see , how it can contribute unto life , in an evil time . 1. This Consideration may calme and quiet the Sufferer , and may make him enjoy peace within , what ever trouble he meet with from without ; because , hereby he understandeth , that he is about his Master's work , he is following dutie , and walking in a commanded path , whatever trouble he meet with therein : So whatever other thing occurre , to cause disquietment , this may bear him thorow all , that he is in the way of duty , and obeying the command of the great Lord and Law-giver . Christians use to pacifie their own spirits with this , when they meet with unexpected crosses and disappointments , That they were following their duty : So this may quiet them under all their Tossings , Troubles , Persecutions and Vexations , that they have sinfully occasioned none of these things , nor by their sin and foolly brought them on themselves . 2. When on-lookers are ready to condemne them of Foolly , Rashness , Inconsideratness , Pertinaciousness , and the like , this Consideration ; That they are about a commanded duty , may counterballance all ; for then they may know , that whoever condemne them , their Lord and Master will approve of them ; and how ever men construe of their doings , He will account their Sufferings loyal and faithful service to Him. 3. The consideration of this will helpe the Beleever to a life of Patience and Submission , without fretting at their lot : for sure the honest beleever hath engaged himself unto God , and hath promised absolute obedience unto him in all things , and to take up his cross and yoke , whatever it be , that God shall think good to appointe for him : and without all doubt , he is to have respect to all the commands of God , and is obliged to carry as a Son and as a Servant ; and therefore must willingly and with sweet submission do any piece of service , that is laid upon him , & go about any commanded duty with cheerfulness , because it is commanded , how unpleasant so ever it be to the flesh The honest beleever will say , I have given up my self to His service , and count it my glory to be called , the Servant of God ; and why should I not go willingly and cheerfully , and with heart and hand , without all repineing or murmuring , about any piece of service He is pleased to put in my hand ? I made no reserves nor exceptions , when I resigned and gave up my self unto Him ; and why should I not now submit to all He commandeth ? Sure , it is He who is Lord and Master , and so must command and give-out orders ; I am but a servant , a sworn-servant , and am highly advanced , when I am called and accounted a servant to him , and therefore must not carve-out my own work , and service , but be under Authority , and go and abide , or do this or that , or bear this or that burden , as commanded . It is not seemly for a childe , or for a servant , or for a souldier to quarrel with his Father , Master , or Commander , for putting him to any piece of service ; but rather sweetly to acquiesce , and run cheerfully about what is commanded : And ( should the beleever say ) it is more unseemly for me to quarrel with God , who is my Father , Master , and Commander , upon a more noble and substantial an account , for any piece of service He putteth in my hands : I never covenanted with Him , upon condition , He should not call me to suffering , or put any piece of service in my hand , that was not easie and sweet to the flesh . So that the Consideration of this would certainly move to submission , and shoot-out all contrary thoughts , which distract and disquiet the soul , and make his spirit bitter , and his life less lively and comfortable . 4. Hereby would the beleever be helped to a life of Patience and Long suffering , under the Trial and Tribulation , when continueing long , and like yet to continue longer , without fainting or wearying : for the honest soul would think with it self , I should not weary of prayer , nor of hearing the word , nor of any other religious duty ; and why should I weary of the cross , seing the bearing of it , christianly and handsomely , is as much my duty , and an act of obedience to Him , when He calleth thereunto , as is Prayer , or the like , in their season . There is a time , when He calleth for valiant acting , there is also a time , when He calleth for Christian suffering ; and every thing is beautiful in its season : and if the season be longer , than we would desire ; yet the Supreme Lord of Times and Seasons , He knoweth better than I , how long such a season should endure ; and so long as He thinketh fit to appointe the season , so long is the duty seasonable and pleasant , that is called for in that season . 5. This would also help forward the inward Satisfaction of the Believer ; for hereby he might see , that how unworthy and inconsiderable soever he thought his own sufferings ; yet the Lord would get glory thereby ; seing he might easily understand , that the Lord would set him about no imployment or service , but such as would be for his own glory : the husband man will not command his servants to plow-up some cumbersome piece of ground wherein they must meet with much labour and toyl , if he saw not how to reap some fruit thereby ; nor will God set any of His servants about an irksome piece of work , if he saw not advantage to be had thereby to his Name , Interest and Glory : The faith of this , That God will get glory by their sufferings , that being a piece of work He hath put them about , who doth nothing in vaine , and whose glory is advanced by our obedience to His commands , will quiet the heart of the honest beleever , while he is sweating in tugging and toiling at that troublesome work . And when such thoughts as these prove troublesome unto the honest hearted beleever , Alas I am out of case now , while thus shut up in prison , to go about my Christian duties , with my Christian Neighbours , wherein I was wont to rejoice , and God was glorified ; I cannot get Him now so served and glorified , and his praises solemnly sung , in the publick Assemblies of his people . This may satisfie and comfort him . That now he is called unto this piece of service , and by his Christian deportment herein , God will be as much glorified , as He was by his Christian exercises , while at liberty ; That now he hath as good occasion , to advance in his Principal work of glorifying God , though upon another account , as when he was imployed in the most solemne service , that Christians are called to . 6. This consideration will also promove their life of inward Contentmen●… and Satisfaction , under their suffering lot , in that they will thereby be helped to see , that as God will thereby get his due rent of praise and glory ( as we said : ) so their own spiritual advantage and spiritual life will be promoved thereby , if they foolishly hinder it not by their unchristian deportment under the crosse . All obedience hath a native tendency to promove the spiritual good of Christians , they walk and go from strength to strength , in the pathes of obedience , The doing of God's will is the exercise of the Christian life , and the Christian's life is made more and more lively by this exercise : So that , all these Tribulations , or Afflictions , are so far from hindering their spiritual grouth and advancment in grace , that on the contrary they promove the same , when the Christian is helped , through grace , to yeeld obedience unto the good will of God , in undergoing that lot and dispensation , in a Christian manner , even because the Christian is then in the way of God , and carrying as a submissive obedient Son and Servant ought to do . 7. Hereby , ( which will also prove advantagious to their spiritual life ) they will see , How Satan is disappointed of the two great Ends , he aimeth at , in raising up Persecution against the people of God : to wit , the dishonour of God , and the hurt and undoing of the Child of God ; neither of which he can at taine by this mean : for when Afflictions , Distresses , Tribulation and Persecution are borne , in way of obedience to the holy will of God , and the soul is sweetly complying therewith , as its present duty , both God is glorified , and the Christian soul is edified , as by all other Christian duties ; and thus Satan is disappointed . Sure , this can not but yeeld much peace and comfort unto the suffering beleever , under all his hardships and sore pressures . 8. This Consideration , if rightly improven , could not but make the suffering beleever sing and rejoice , with Paul and Silas , while in prison Act. 16. vers . 25. and with the Apostles , when sh●…mfully beaten Act. 5. vers . 40 , 41. Because , they cannot but say , that their hearts are glade and rejoice within them ( if they be not under the power of some evil frame ) when they are about known duty ; and that what they do , they do with a piece of joy and gladness , when they reflect upon it , as a commanded duty , and remember how therein they are doing the will of their Father , and running His errands : and why should they not be also glade and rejoice in their sufferings , when they may know , that therein they are also about the will of their Father , and actually evidencing their Loyalty , Faithfulness , Subjection , and Obedience to Him ? 9. This Consideration may also quiet the honest-hearted Beleever , when troubled with these or the like thoughts , That now he cannot get God so served as he was wont to do ; He cannot get such a good work begun or perfected , which he had intended for the publik good ; He cannot get the spiritual good of others , Neighbours and Relations , so promoved , as he would desire . From this , I say , the Beleever may draw grounds of peace to his own soul , & hush these perturbing thoughts to the door ; because the Lord is not now calling for these works at his hands ; but is now calling for another duty , wherein if he carry himself aright , God will be no less glorified , than by all that work , which he Intended : nay , this being the present duty , and piece of work now put in his hand by God , the doing thereof aright wi●…l more glorifie God : And therefore this should allay all their sorrow and griefe , which they finde upon their disappointments , and cause them sweetly comply with the present duty , and account that best , which He accounteth best . 10. Seing in choosing affliction rather than sin , they are about a commanded duty , and doing the will of God ; they have the same ground of hope , that the Lord shall enable them thereunto , and by his grace carry them thorow , that they have , as to other duties ; the same Covenant-Grounds , and Covenant-promises reatch all duties , and excepte none , so that this very Consideration may raise the soul in hope , & may encourage the man to goe to Christ by faith , and lean to him for seasonable strength and supplies of grace , for through-bearing in the duty ; and through Him , expect to be accepted of the Father , in the discharge of the duty . CONSIDERATION . X. Afflictions are all ruled and over-ruled by a good hand of Providence , which is alwayes in and about them . MAny a time the Beleever , when swiming thorow a sea of trouble and afflic tion , and finding no sensible in-come of reliefe , or mitigation of the calamity , cryeth out with the Church Esai . 49. vers . 14. — The Lord hath forsaken me , and my God bath forgotten me : And as it is Esai . 40. v 27. My way is hid from the Lord. He hath left me alone , in this sea of trouble , as forgetting that I am into this wrestling and fighting postoure : He hath turned his back upon me , and seemeth unconcerned with all that is come upon me , and yet is lying heavy on me . He considereth neither my weakness , nor the strength and violence of the Temptation , under which I am , and which is like to overwhelme me . Hence he crieth out with David Psal. 31. vers . 12. I am forgotten , as a dead man out of minde : And againe Psal. 42. vers . 9. Why hast thou forgotten me . It is certaine , such sad complaints are not altogether justifiable , as they proceed from men , in whom is so much corruption and unbeleef ( though in our blessed Lord , while on the cross , such a sentence , as , My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? was free of all mud or unbelief ) for though they express the ardencie of their desires to have the Lord smiling upon them ; yet there is some admixture of dross in them ; and they hint , at least , that they apprehend God is at a distance , taking little notice of them , or of their present condition , but withdrawing his helping hand , or delaying to send reliefe , as not careing , how great their Affliction be , or how their Enemies trade them under foot . Hence we see , what corruptions are ready to stirre and work in the beleever , at such a time : And the faith of God's being alwayes present with them , while under the trial , and ordering all things , in the dispensation , with a fatherly care and tenderness , would comfort them , and ease their mind , in the saddest of their distress . It may therefore be of use to speak a little unto this Consideration . In order therefore to the clearing-up of this Consideration , for the end intended , we shall . 1. Show , that the Lord indeed hath an high and holy hand , in all such dispensations , as prove sad and grievous afflictions unto the godly . 2. We shall endeavoure to explaine and clear , how and what way the hand of the Lord is in and about these afflictions , only with an eye to our present designe . 3. We shall briefly pointe-out the way how this Consideration should be improven , in the time of Affliction and Tribulation . As to the first , That God hath an holy and high over ruling hand in and over the afflictions , and crosses , that his people meet with . This is past all doubt and disput , as to some of them ; such as poverty , through God's immediat hand , blasting mens labours and endeavours , or taking away their goods by sea , or by fire , or destroying their cattel by death : and sickness upon their bodies , or death of friends and relations , and the like . In such , every one will grant , that God hath an hand , and every wise Christian will look upon them ( as the Centurion , that great Beleever , did , Mat. 8. vers . 8 , 9. ) as God's Servants and Souldiers under his command and Authority , to go and return , as He enjoineth . But as to other afflictions , brought about by the Instruments and Under-agents of Satan , maliciously set to persecute the Godly , in their Name , Liberty , Goods , Life , or Conscience , though none of Gods Children , when they are in their right mindes , & at themselves , will deny the Soveraigne over ruling hand of Providence ; yet while under Temptation , & wrestling with the calamity , they will be found too ready to think and speak that , which is not very consistent with the lively faith and perswasion of this Soveraigne Truth , we shall therefore in a few words confirme it , from the Scriptures . 1. We finde that the Godly have looked on these sad afflictions , brought about by wicked hands , out of wicked purposes and designes , as coming from God principally ; and have eyed God , as having a principal holy hand in the same . The affliction , that Ioseph met with , was sad , when he was sold by his own Brethren ; & though it was they that had sold him , & that out of wickedness and maice ; yet he saith Gen. 45 : 8. to them . It was not you , that sent me hither , but God. He saw the Lord to be the principal disposer of all ; & therefore saith : Gen. 45 5. — God sent me before you , to preserve life . And againe Gen. 50. vers . 26. But as for you , ye thought evil against me , God meant it unto God , to bring to passe , as it is this day , to save much people alive . It was likewise a great affliction to David , to be scourged with the tratorous tongue of Shimei , railing upon him , when he was flying from the face of his Son Absalom : and calling him a Man of blood , & a Man of Belial ; and saying to him , the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul , in whose stead thou hast reigned — And behold thou art taken to thy mischiefe , because thou art a bloody man. 2. Sam. 16 : 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. Yet holy David observed an higher hand in all this , and therefore said Vers. 10. Solet him curse , because the Lord hath said unto him , curse David . Who shall then say , wherefore hast thou done so ? And Vers. 11. againe Let him alone , and let him curse , for the Lord hath bidden him . He taketh up God's hand in the business as principally ordering the matter . So Iob when the Sabeans and Caldeans had robbed him of his goods ; said nevertheless Iob 1. vers . 21. Naked came I out of my Mothers womb , and naked shall I return thither : the Lord gave , and the Lord hath taken away : blessed be the name of the Lord : He looketh over Instruments , and seeth above them an higher hand over-ruling all , and ordering all , according to His soveraigne will and pleasure . See also Ps. 44. v. 11 , 12. and 89 : 39. 2. The Lord himself by his Prophets signifieth so much : and , as it were , looketh upon the deed of these wicked Instruments , as His own ; because of His principal holy hand therein , ordering all to His own holy ends . Thus he saith by Amos 3 : 6. — Shall there be evil in the city , and the Lord hath not done it . So Esai . 45. vers . 7. I forme light and creat darkness , I make peace and creat evil : I the Lord do all these things . Darkness then and evil and sad dispensations are from the Lord Creator : He formeth and maketh these things , according to his own mind . Likwise Ier. 18 : 11. — Thus saith the Lord , behold , I frame evil against you , and devise a devise against you . A remarkable passage we have 2. Sam. 12 : vers . 11 , 12. Thus saith the Lord , behold I wil raise up evil against thee , out of thine own house ; and I will take thy wives , before thine eyes , and give them unto thy Neighbour ; and he shall lye with thy wives , in the sight of this sun : for thou didst this secretly , but I will do this thing before all Israel , and before the sun . And this accordingly was done by that wicked wretch Absalom 2. Sam. 16. vers . 22. And because of the high , holy and soveraigne hand , which God had in this sore a●…iction , He saith by Nathan the Prophet , that He would do it . 3. We finde in the Scriptures , that the wicked Enemies , in following & prosecuting their malicious designes against the People of God , are held forth , and spoken of , as God's Instruments , in that work : As Esai . 10. vers . 5. Where the Assyrian is called the rod of God's anger ; and the staff in their hand , is said to be His indignation . So Vers. 15. They are compared to an a●… in the hand of him , that heweth therewith ; and to a saw , to a rod and to a staff , all which ( we know ) can do nothing , but as moved and ordered by the principal Actor . To the same sense , are they compared to a rasour , wherewith God will shave the head and the haire of the feet , and the beard Esa. 7. vers . 20. Thus is Babylon called a golden cup in the hand of the Lord Ier. 51. vers . 7. Likewise the Enemies are compared to a net . which God will spread over his people Hos. 7. v. 12. and to a snare Ezek. 12. vers 13. They are likewise called God's sword Psal. 17. vers . 13. and His hand vers . 14. All which and the like expressions show , That God hath a principal hand , in the afflictions , which his people meet with at the hands of wicked Instruments ; and that the wicked are but as so many Instruments and Lixes , imployed by him , for that effect , howbeit they minde no such thing , but drive on their own designes , to satisfie their own wicked lusts . 4. The Scripture speaketh of the Lord , as raising up these wicked Instruments , as leavying them , and sending them to execute his will. So Esai . 5. vers . 26. And He will lift up an Ensigne to the Nations from far , and will hisse unto them from the end of the earth , and behold they shall come with speed swiftl●… . So Esai . 7. vers . 18. And it shall come to passe , in that day , that the Lord shall hisse for the flie , that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Aegypt ; and for the bee , that is in the Land of Assyria By which we understand , that as these Enemies cannot stir , notwithstanding of all their malice , rage and anger against the Lord's people , till God send for them , and hisse for them , and ( as it were ) subscribe and seal their commission ; so they are wholly at his disposal ; as the armie is at the disposal of the General , or of him , who leavyeth them , and employeth them . In like manner , we read 1 Chron. 5. vers . 26. that the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul , King of Assyria , against the Reubenits , the Gadites , and the half tribe of Manasseh So it is said Psal. 105. vers . 25. That God turned the heart of the Egyptians to hate his people , and to deal subtilly with his servants . And 2 Cbron. 21. vers 16. that he stirred up against Iehoram the spirit of the Philistines , and of the Arabians , that were neer the Ethiophians . 5. We finde the Lord said frequently to deliver up his people into the hands of these Enemies , and to sell them unto them , & as it were to give them wholly up to their devotion and disposal ; see Iudg. 3 : 8. and 4. vers . 2. and 6. vers . 1. and 10 : 7. Dan. 1 : 2. 2 King. 17. vers . 20. Thereby showing , that these Enemies could do nothing against the people of God , untill the Lord had permitted the same , and given way thereto , and had ( as it were ) withdrawn his protection , and taken away his hedge of defence , and so left them naked and exposed unto the rage and cruelty of their brutish Enemies . 6. This is also manifest from the grand and noble Purposes and Designes , which the Lord bringeth about by those meanes , far diff●…rent from what these wicked Instruments intend ; as we see Gen 45. and 50 Ioseph's Brethren meaned evil against him ; but God meaned it for good . So Esai . 10. vers . 7. The Assyrian meaneth not so , as God doth , neither doth his heart think so ; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few : but the Lord hath another work upon mount Zion and on Ierusalem Vers. 12. to wit , to punish them , only by his smiting with a rod , and lifting up his staff , after the manner of Egypt V. 24. or ( as it is Esai . 27 : 9. ) to purge away the iniquity of Jacob , and to take away sin . Wherefore seing the Lord hath such soveraigne ends , as the chastisement and trial of his people , the exercise of their graces &c. to bring about , He cannot but have a special hand in and about the meanes , which serve to bring about these ends . This being sufficient to cleare up what was first to be spoken to , we come Secondly to speak a little of the manner and way , how the hand of the Lord is to be observed in and about the sharpe afflictions of his people , by the hand of wicked persons , who are active therein . And in speaking to this , we shall wave all subtile debates , concerning God's Decreeing the event of sin , His Predetermination , and His Concourse with second causes , in those Actions , which are sinful ; and shall onely pitch upon some particulars , which are more plaine and undeniable , and also more useful to the point in hand . As 1 There is the Lord 's holy permission , giving way to , and not restraining the furie , and rage of Enemies , when He hath a mind to make use of them for a scourge ; He must loose , as it were , the chaine , with which they are bound and restrained ; and take away the hedge of protection , wherewith he guardeth and protecteth his people , and all that belongs to them Satan could do nothing against Iob , nor stirre so much as one lambs tail , that belonged to him , untill the Lord , for holy and wise ends , gave way thereunto ; therefore he said unto the Lord Iob 1. vers . 10. Hast not thou made an hedge about him , and about his house , and about all that he hath , on every side ? This is also imported , in the Lords giving up his people into the hands of Enemies , and selling them and delivering them , as a judge doth a Malefactor into the hand of the Executioner . Yet we must not conceive of this Permission , as if it were in all things like unto the bare & naked permissions of men ; but as sutable to him , who is a most pure and simple Act 2. There is herein considerable the Lord's Commission , to speak so : not that He will warrand and approve of them , in their wickedness , or give them any moral Authoritie or Power thereunto : but that in his active providence , He hath such a soveraigne and supream hand , and all these wicked agents do so depend upon Him , as they cannot stirr , or move , till he give ( as it were ) the signe , and a Providential call and commission ; as souldiers can not set upon a Citie , or the Enemie , or give an assault , or charge untill the General give the word of command . Thus the Lord behoved to say to Satan , ere he could trouble Iob , Behold all that he hath is in thy power : and againe , Behold he is in thy hand , Iob 1. vers . 12. and 2. vers . 6. This is it which David's words , concerning Shimei , import , when he said , The Lord hath said unto him , curse David . The lying Spirit in the mouth of Ahab's false Prophets , could not go forth to deceive Ahab , that he might fall at Ramoth Gilead , till the Lord had said , Thou shalt perswade him , and prevail also : go forth and do so 1 King. 22 : 22. 3. There is the Lord 's fitting ( as it were ) and qualifying them for the work , by so ordering things , in his Holy and Soveraigne Providence , that they are enabled to carry on their purposes , and to do what they are imployed in , and to performe the work , they are set about : Absalom could not have been such a crosse and plague to his father , David : as to chase him from his Throne and Kingdom , unless he had gote the power of the Countrey upon his side , and such a numerous army to back him : and whence was this , but from the Lord , in his holy Justice and Soveraignity ? Nebuchadnezar could not have been the hammer of the earth , if the Lord , in his holy Providence , had not given him great power and might for that end . Hence Christ said to Pilat Ioh. 19. vers . 11. Thou couldest have no power at all against me , except it were given thee from above . Pilat was boasting of his power and place , and supposed , that he could do what he pleased , and that he had full power over Christ , to crucifie him , or to set him at liberty , as he pleased ; but he boasted of that , which he was not Master of ; for Christ ●…els him , whence his power came , and that he had no more , than the Supream Lord and Governour , the absolute Disposer of all things , was pleased to grant . 4. There is the Lord 's ordering and fixing the Beginning of the Trouble , which nece●…sarily followeth upon the foregoing Acts ; so as the Enemies , for all their heat and rage , cannot touch one hair of God's Children , nor work them the least trouble , before the time come , that the Lord hath appointed , and that He ( as it were ) appoint them to beginne , and give the signe . The wicked are as so many rampant and devouring lions , longing earnestly for their prey , but God hath them so chained , and muzzled , that they can neither bark nor bite , till He give way . Early did Herod beginne to seek the life of our Lord Jesus , while He was but a childe in the swedling clothes ; and oft did his Enemies attempt his hurt , and seek advantage against Him , but all in vaine ; for his houre was not yet come : Hence it was , that when the Pharisees told him , that Herod was seeking his life , He answered Luk. 13. vers . 32 , 33. Go tell that fox , behold , I cast out Devils , and do cures , to day , and to morrow , and the third day I shall ●…e perfected : Nevertheless I must walk to day , and to morrow , and the day following ; for it cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Ierusalem . Jesus Christ , the angel , that ascended ( in vision to Iohn Revel 7. vers . 2 , 3. ) from the East , having the s●…al of the liv●…ng God , cried with a loud voice to the four angels , to whom it was given to hurt the Earth and the Sea ; s●…ying , hurt not the earth , neither the sea , nor the trees , till w●… have sealed the servants of our God : So that there is a restraining power , keeping ▪ up from hurting untill the set time come . 5. There is the Lord 's determining and specifying the nature and kinde of the Trouble , with which His people must be exercised ; and herein His determining and ordering Providence appeareth . The Enemie would be at death , and no less will satisfie them ; but He will order it so , that they shall not get their will ; & therefore will suffer them to do no more than to cast the man in prison , or confine him , or fine him , and spoile him of his goods . The Devil would have been at no less , than Iob's life , when he said Iob 2. vers . 4. Skin for skin , yea all that a man hath will ●…e give for his life : But the Lord would not grant this , but said , save his life Vers. 6. And suffered him only to smite him with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown . 6. There is the Lord 's careful Providential measuring-out the quantity of the Trouble , like a faithful and painful Physician , who will himself measure the quantity of the physick , he is to prescribe unto his dear Son , or Daughter , and will not commit it unto the Apothecary , who possibly may more consult his own advantage , than the good of the patient . Our Lord weigheth the affliction in his own just ballances . Enemies may think to ruine and undo all ; but our God , who setteth bounds to the sea ▪ limiteth their rage ; and will suffer them to do no more , than He thinketh good . The plowers plow , and make long their furrowes , upon the back of God's People , and many a time they afflict them ; yet they prevail not against them ; why ? the Lord cuts asunder the cords of the wicked , Psal. 129 : 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. 7. The Lord's hand of Providence appeareth , in mixing together the several ingredients , that make up their cup of affliction . M●…ny a time the Lords people have a complicated crosse , as we see in Io●… , David ▪ Heman and others ; and it is the Lord , who weaveth and warpeth these crosses together ; Satan and his Instruments are but His drudges , blowing at the furnace ; and therefore t●…e Godly fixe their eye mainly upon God ; as knowing , that He ordereth all to his own mind , and no one ingredient more can be put into their cup , than He will. 8. The hand of the Lord appeareth , in his suiting the Trouble or Calamity , unto their case and necessity . As a wise Physician considereth the Temper and Constitution of the patient , and taketh special notice of the nature of the disease , and accordingly frameth the Medicine : So the Lord considereth the ca●…e of his people , and what humores and corruptions are most predominant in their souls : and accordingly ordereth and prepareth such medicinal afflictions , as are fittest to purge-out these peccant humores : and hence there is a necessity for such sharpe Medicines , as the Lord maketh use of , 1 Pet. 1. vers . 6 Wherein ●…egreatly rejoice , though now for a season ▪ ( if need be ) ye are in ●…eaviness , through manifold temptations . Heaviness , or Sadness , through temptations , and manifold temptations , was necessary to their condition , The Lord saw , that their case called ●…or it , otherwayes he had not exercised them thus . 9. So the hand of the Lord is manifest , in making the affliction answerable to their strength ▪ A potion may be fit for and suitable to the disease , yet may be too strong for the weak patient , and more readily kill , than cure : therefore a wise and tender Physician will take good notice of the patients present strength . So the Lord , who is tender of His peoples welfare , will proportion the Physick of affliction unto their strength . Hence we hear it said , 1 Cor. 10. vers . 13. — But God is faithfal , who will not suffer you to be tempted , above that you are able . Accordingly Ieremiah prayeth Chap. 10. v. 24. O Lord correct me , but with judgement , not in thine anger , lest thou bring me to nothing . The Lord s way is to correct his people in measure , I●…r 30. vers . 1●… . and 46. vers . 28. And as a father pitieth them , that fear him ▪ for he knoweth our frame , he remembereth we are dust , Psa●… . 103. vers . 13 , 14. He knoweth that their strength i●… not the strength of stones , nor are their bones of brass ; and so he knoweth they are not able to bear many blowes . Thus we see , the Lord measures the affliction to their strength : It is true , Paul saith 2 Cor. 1. vers . 8. That he and his companions were pressed out of measure , and above strength : which would seem to contradict what is said ; But this seeming contradiction will be taken away , by what we shall next adde . 10. When the affliction and distress is such , as would undo , and presse the poor Beleever out of measure , if he gote not some new supply of strength to stand under that burden ; the Lord's hand appeareth , in fitting the Beleever for the stroke , and in enabling him to bear it , so that he is not killed thereby , nor overwhelmed therewith ; by giving cordials , he fortifieth the man against the violence of Temptations , which otherwise would prevail against him : Paul and his Company 2 Cor. 1. vers . 8 , 9. were pressed with trouble in Asia , out of measure , above strength , so much that they despaired even of life , yea and had the sentence of death in themselves ; such a storme was it , that they could not ride it out , if fresh supplies of strength and courage had not been granted by God , who raiseth the dead , unto them : and if the Lord had not thus delivered them from so great a death , they had perished ; but how was this done ? See Vers. 4 , 5. The God of all comfort comforted them , in all their tribulations ; and as the sufferings of Christ abounded in them , so their consolation also abounded by Christ : And thus the Lord fitted them for the stroke , when the stroke was too sore for them . So this same Apostle , when assaulted with a messenger of Satan , that buffeted him 2 Cor. 12. vers . 7. Was strengthened by the grace of God , Vers. 9. to stand out against that temptation , which otherwise had overcome him , as his praying thrice , that it might depart from him Vers. 8. would import . Thus the Lord keepeth the head of his poor people above water , by making his power to rest upon them , and by making perfect his strength in their weakness , Vers. 9. Thus also are they strong , when weak Vers. 10. 11. The Lord 's good hand of Providence appeareth in this matter , in disappointing the Enemies of their malicious designes ; They are busie plotting and contriving the ruine and destruction of His people ; but the more they seek to destroy them , the more they grow and thrive , the more they multiply , and the stronger they become . It is almost incredible , what multitudes of Christians , through the whole Empire , the bloody persecuting Emperours destroyed and put to death , in the primitive times ; but the more they were massacred , the more they grew ; the bloud of the saints and martyres , was the seed of the Church . Daniel's adversaries thought to have gote him destroyed ; but their enmity and rage against him tended to his further exaltation and establishment . So was it with David , the more that Saul did persecute him , the more his bow abode in strength . 12. The Lord's hand mightily appeareth in the afflictions of his people , in that He powerfully and Infallibly carrieth on , and bringeth to passe His own Purposes and Designes , countermining and counter working the designes and wicked projects of the Enemies ; yea , in effectuating His own ends , even by what the Enemies are doing purposely to carry on their Ends. When the Enemies are blowing with all their might , to make the furnace burn hot , that the mettal , as they suppose and intend , may be wholly consumed ; the Lord by that same meanes is infallibly bringing about His Ends , and accomplishing His designes ; to wit , to purge the mettal , and take away the drosse . By what the Assyrian was doing , in prosecution of his Ends , to wit , to destroy and cut off nations not a few Esai . 10. vers . 7. The Lord was performing his whole work upon mount Zion and Ierusalem , Vers. 12. and what was this , but to purge away iniquity , and to take away sin , Esai . 27. vers . 9 ? to chasten and punish for correction and amendement Ier. 30 : 11. and 46 : 28. 13. Herein also appeareth the Lord's over-ruling hand , that while possibly the trouble is in its greatest strength , and Enemies are swelling in their pride , and thinking their contrivances cannot fail , their plots and designes are laid so deep and so sure , that they cannot misgive ; even then the Lord will make a door of outgate appear unto his people , and give some foreruning tokens of the dawning of a fair day ; even then , He will make a way for an escape , that they may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10. vers . 13. 14. Lastly , His hand appeareth herein , that in due time , He putteth a period to the trial and trouble , by delivering his people out of them all Psal. 34. vers . 7 , 17 , 19. He will not suffer the rod of the wicked to rest alwayes on the back of the righteous Psal. 125. vers . 3. He will not contend for ever , lest the spirits should fail before him , and the souls , which he hath made Esai . 57. vers . 16. He will keep His people no longer under Physick , than He seeth necessary ; and therefore it is but for a season , that his people are in heaviness . 1 Pet. 1. vers . 6. Enemies think to keep the people of God at under for ever ; but the Lord 's supream over-ruling hand appeareth here , that He hath limited the duration of the trial and trouble to Ten dayes Revel . 2. vers . 10. He hath limited the rage of Enemies to an hour , a day , a moneth and a year Revel . 9. vers 15. And the treading of the holy city under foot to 42 , moneths Revel . 11 : 2. And when the Lord's time cometh , all the power and malice of the Enemies will not be able to hinder the delivery ; and how little so ever His own people look for it , yet He will work it : so that though there be scarce faith upon the Earth , yet He will come , and perfect what He hath intended . We come now to speak a little to the 3 particular , to wit , To shew how this Consideration may and ought to be improven to advantage , in a time of affliction , And 1. The faith and right thoughts of this . Truth , That the Lord ruleth and over-ruleth all that the wicked are devising and executing , according to their own lust and rage , to afflict , persecute and destroy His people , according to His own mind , would yeeld comfort and encouragment unto His people , be their trouble what it would . In a time of Trouble , there are several thoughts , that come in the minde of His people , which occasion Discouragment and Sorrow ; all which this Consideration of God's over-ruling hand , if rightly improven , would either prevent , or keep them from the hurt of ; so that notwithstanding of these , they were in case to rejoice , and to sing , as ( 1. ) When they think upon the Instruments of their calamitie , they are ready to pore too much on them , and to look upon them , as if there were none above them , to marshal and order them , to command and over-rule them ; as people are terrified by souldiers , that are under no Command or Discipline , and expect no pity , or favour from them . But the faith of God's being above their heads , to over-see and over-awe them , would free the Child of God from this discouragment . He would not be so cast down and affrighted , if he beleeved , that God hath all these wicked Instruments , more under his command , than the best disciplin'd souldiers are under the Command of the most strick and awfull General , that ever was . These Instruments cannot move a finger without God. Souldiers , when out of the sight of their Commanders , may do much mischiefe ; and their Commanders cannot hinder it , because they know not of it : But neither Devils , nor the most wicked of his Instruments , can move one haire of God's people , till the Lord give way , and permit it to be done , He must first loose the raignes , or they cannot move a foot . because they are chained hand & foot , in the chaines of his Providence ; yea their very tongue is chained , that they cannot so much , as curse or reproach any of His people , untill the Lord loose their tongues , and say , ( as it were ) go curse and raile upon such an one . ( 2. ) When they observe the Confusion , Irregularity , Brutishness and Unreasonableness of these Enemies , in their way and actions ; they are ready to think , that God hath forsaken the earth , and is unconcerned with what these wretches were doing ; and upon this they cannot but be much fainted and discouraged . But the faith of this , that God is working hitherto Ioh. 5. vers . 17. and that these wicked Instruments of their calamity were under his eye , would free them of this misapprehension . Nay , they would beleeve , and by faith see , a divine Order and Regularity , in the midst of the greatest Confusions , & brutish Ma●…sacres , that ever were ; if they beleeved that God had a principal hand in all these Actions , Moving , Ruling , Ordering and Over-ruling all , according to His own mind . ( 3. ) The consideration of the Activity , Diligence , Malice , Restlesness and Malicious wickedness of the Enemies , troubleth them , and maketh them fear , that ere ever they be aware , they shall be swallowed up . But this discouragment would evanish , if they remembered and beleeved , that the timing of their affliction is not in the hand of their Enemies . They cannot stirre , till their commission be ( as it were ) subscribed ; and the houre and minute appointed come , when they must beginne ; He , who is Supreame , determineth the season , and the time ; and over-ruleth all so , that were the hunger and desire of these ravenous wolves never so great , they cannot attempt any distruction , till the minute appointed come . ( 4. ) When they consider the exceeding great Rage and Cruelty of their Enemies , they are ready to think , that sure , they will make havock of all , they will destroy , utterly , and make an end of all . But how terrible so ever this thought be , yet its terrour is weakened , when the beleever calleth this to minde , That it will not be as these enraged and merciless Beasts intend ; but as God will , who is the Soveraigne Disposer of all , and Supream Master of work ; they are but under-Agents , and the Instrument in His hand : They are no Master of themselves , in this matter ; but as the ax and saw , in the hand of the workman , that cannot cut , but as he ordereth it : The child will not be afraid of a sword , or of an ax , when he seeth it is in the hand of his father . Their threatnings are not much to be regairded ; They have said , come and let us out them off from being a nation , that the Name of Israel may be no more in remembrance as it is Psal. 83. vers . 4. But they have not yet gotten it done . They intend Destruction ; and therefore breath-forth nothing but cruelty ; but God , who is above them , intendeth but Correction , and some Chastisement , and will suffer them to do no more , than may contribute to that end . ( 5. ) The thoughts of the strength and liveliness of the Enemies create also terrour and fear ; they see their power decayeth not , but groweth rather , and their number increaseth , and thence they art ready to inferre , There shall be no outgate : But a sight of God , as neer ( as David prayeth , when he took such a look of his Enemies , Psal. ●…8 . vers . 19 , 21. saying But mi●…e Enemies are lively , they are strong , and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied — Forsake me not , O Lord ; O my God , be not far from me ) would help in this case ; the Beleever would not be much cast down for all this ; for he would be in case to say , They must be keeped up , so long as God hath work for them , as a man will keep his ax and his saw sharpe and clear , so long as he mindeth to make use of them : but all their strength saith not , that there shall be no out●…ate ; when the Lord hath finished his work in Zim , he will punish the fruite of the stout h●…art of the King of Assyria , and the glory of his high looks : And the Lord of hosts will send among his fat ones leanness , and under his glory , he shall kindle a burning . like the burning of a fire Esai . 10. vers . 12 , 16. And for as strong as they are , the Lord can raise up a scourge against them ; as Esai . 10 : 26. yea and make the light of Israel for a fire , and his holy one for a flame , and it shall burne and devoure their thornes , and their briers , in one day , and shall consume the glory of their forest , and fruitful field &c. as Esai . 10. vers . 17 , 18 ( 6. ) But even this proveth sometimes fainting and discouraging unto his people , That it is not man , that they have to do with , but with God principally , whoever be the Instruments ; and that upon several accounts ; as because He is a God of Might , of Power , and of Terrour ; and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God ; and withall He is just , and they are conscious to themselves of much guilt . But yet , notwithstanding of this , the thoughts of Gods having a principal hand in all these afflictions , may keep from fainting , because ( 1. ) He is not intending their destruction , as Enemies do ; but their Good , their Amendement , their Repentance , and Returning unto the Lord &c. ( 2. ) He measureth not out their a●…lliction , according to his strength and almighty Power , else He should soon crush them , and bring them to nothing . Will He plead against me ( said Iob Chap. 23. vers . 6. ) with his great power ? No , but He will put strength in me . ( 3. ) Nor according to strick Justice , and pure Wrath. In plenty of justice , He will not afflict ; as the words of Elihu Iob 37. vers . 23. may be read . He will not stir up all his wrath , Psal. 78. vers . 38. ( 4. ) Nor according to their deservings ; for that word of Zophar holdeth true . Iob 11. vers . 6. God exacteth of thee , less than thine iniquity deserveth . And Psal. 103. vers . 10. He hath not dealt with us according to our sins , nor rewarded us according to our iniquities . ( 5. ) Nor doth the Lord deal with them , as Enemies ; the difference is great betwixt his dealing with the one and with the other Esai . 17 , vers . 7. Hath He smitten him , as He smote those that smote him ? is he slaine according to the slaughter of them , that are slain by him ? But on the contrary , He dealeth with them , according to a rule of Mercy , and fatherly Compassion ; for as a Father pitieth his Children , and only chasteneth them ; so doth the Lord deal with them . He knoweth what they can bear , and layeth no more upon them , than they are able to bear . The wise Prophet tels us Prov. 12. vers 10. That the righteous man regairdcth the life of his beast , and therefore will not overcharge him with a load , heavier than he can bear : And will not the righteous Lord regaird the life of his own servants ? Are they not of much more value , than many beasts ? Sure then , He will not overcharge them . 1. Cor. 10. vers . 13 2. The beleeving and right consideration of this Truth , That God over-ruleth and disposeth of , and ordereth afflictions , as He seeth good , would much help unto the life of Patience , which is so commendable Iam. 5. vers . 11. Being a piece of the honour and badge of Saints Revel . 13 : 10. and 14. vers . 12. and so much taken notice of by God Revel . 2. vers . 2 , 19. Yea and profitable , having its perfect work Iam. 1. vers . 4. and bringing happiness with it Iam. 5 : 11. This Consideration ( I say ) rightly Improven , may help hereunto ; for it will fortifie the soul of the Beleever against those thoughts , which usually occasion impatience . as ( 1. ) When the man is poreing upon the uncouthness of the Affliction , wherewith he is exercised , and saying with the Church Lam. 1. vers . 12. Behold and see , if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow , wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me , in the day of his fierce anger , he is ready to give way unto impatience . But when he considereth , who hath prepared this potion for him ; that it was no unskilful Apothecary , it was not the malignant Enemie , that intended his death and destruction ; but the only Wise and Supream God , who was seeking his good , his life and health , and who knew , that no other potion would suite his distemper , and purge out his peccant humores ; this will help him to lye under the workings of that physick with patience ; Though the potion of physick be bitter , and work something hard , yet a wise man will have patience , when he considereth , that the Physician , who did appoint it , was both well skilled , and his special friend ; and therefore perswadeth himself , that no less would do him good : So when the beleever considereth , that it is His God and Father , who hath prepared that potion for him , and that He saw his distemper called for it , and when he considereth that God with his own hands did make and prepare it , weighed all the doses , with great carefulness , and mixed in nothing but what was most necessary , he will drink it , though bitter , with the better will : and albeit it work hard , and make him sick ; yet he will not be impatient , and cry out , why am I so and so handled ? doth every one get such paining & sickning physick , as this ? but rather say , because every one needeth not such strong physick , I must be dealt with in a special manner ; I have other corruptions , than ordinary , and therefore must have patience , and be content to be otherwise dealt with , than others usually are . ( 2. ) The person in affliction , when he seeth , himself compassed about with evils , and that he is not visited with one or two rodes , but with many at once ; and that innumerable evils compass him about ( as said David Psal. 40. vers . 12. which in part occasioned his adding , therefore my heart faileth me , or forsaketh me . ) then he is ready to say , how can I , while thus invironed with evils , have patience ? But if he would call to mind God's hand in the matter , as Iob did , he would , with him , bless the name of the Lord ; for then he would see , that God himself had ordered all , and that not one of all these multifarious evils came , without the Lord 's special and active Permission , and Providential Ordination , Appointment and Commission : and that God alone had ordered that mixture , and combination of troubles and trials . ( 3. ) The impatience of Gods people is oft occasioned by their imagining , that the trouble is greater , than they can bear : as we see in Iob Chap. 6. vers . 11 , 12. What is my strength , that I should hope ! And what is mine end , that I should prolong my dayes ? Is my strength the strength of stones ? Or is my flesh of brasse . And againe Chap. 7. vers . 11 , 12. Therefore I will not refraine my mouth , I will speak in the anguish of my spirit , I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I a sea , or a whale , that thou settest a watch over me ? But would they consider and beleeve , that God knoweth what they are able to bear , and is proportioning the load to their strength , which He knoweth , better than they do : or when He seeth it fit to presse them above measure , that they may despaire in themselves , and not trust in themselves , that then He under proppeth and supporteth the weak back , and conveyethin secret strength , enabling them to stand , under the load ; and thus never layeth more on , than they are able to bear : If ( I say ) they were calling this to mind , they would see no cause of Impatience ; but rather cause of crying out , when we are weak , then are we strong , and therefore we will glory in our infirmities , that the power of Christ may rest upon us 2 Cor. 12. ●…ers . 9 , 10. And they would through faith , be in case to say , with Paul 2 Cor. 4. vers . 8. We are troubled on every side , yet not distressed ; we are perplexed , but not in despair ; persecuted , but not forsaken ; cast down , but not destroyed . ( 4. ) Their Impatience is likewise occasioned by considering , that their Trouble and Affliction is still growing , when they supposed , that it should have decreased . But the right Improvement of this Truth would frame the Soul for patience , notwithstanding hereof : because the beleever would see ground to say , grow as it will , the hand of the Lord is about it ; it will grow to no greater height , than he seeth good : let Enemies blow at the fire , as fast and with as great earnestness , as they will , the furnace shall be no hoter , than the Supream Master and Over-ruler of all , seeth fit , for the ends He intendeth : He knoweth the nature of the mettall , and how hote a fire will serve the turn to purge it . ( 5. ) This also raiseth impatient thoughts in their heart , That they can see no appearance of an outgate ; all doores are so shut , that no hope appeareth : thus was it with Iob ; & therefore hath he many such expressions : as Chap. 7. vers . 6. My daies are swifter than a weavers shuttle , and are spent without hope . Vers. 7. — Mine eye shall no more see good . Vers. 8. The eye of him , that hath seen me , shall see me no more . But this Impatience would evanish , if this were beleeved , That the Lord's hand were in and about the affliction , making a faire way to a saife escape , and at length , in his own due time , putting a period to the Trouble : when his work is finished , & the end He designed attained : and if it were firmly beleeved , that , let Enemies make all as sure , as they can , and rage as they will , they shall not be able to keep them longer under their yron harrowes , than He seeth good , no not one day , nor an houre . 3. The right improvement of this Consideration would help unto an holy and sweet Submission , and cause us say with David Psal. 39. vers 9. I was dumb , not opening my mouth , because thou didst it . When Aaron met with a sad dispensation , two of his prime sones , Nadab and Abihu , were taken away in the fiour of their age , and that in a very terrible manner , by fire from heaven , for their rashness , and when Moses told him Levit. 10. vers . 3. That this was it , which the Lord spoke , saying , I will be sanctified of all them that come neer me , it is said of him , And Aaron held his peace . A sight of the hand of God , though in a terrible manner , in that dispensation , made him lay his hand upon his mouth , and sit silent in the dust ; He had not one word to say . So that a sight of the hand of God , in the dispensation , ordering all things in it , would help them unto a Christian , yea unto a cheerful Submission : It would not be patience by force ; but an hearty , willing , cheerful choosing , bearing and embracing of that lot , because bound on their back by the hand of God. Shall we not drink ( would they say ) this potion with delight , that God hath prepared , and carefully made up for us ? He knoweth what is best for us ; Shall we not willingly lye under the crosse , that God hath tyed upon us , when He knoweth what He is doing , and what we must not want , and will not sufler us to be tem●…ted above what we are able ? When His good time is come , there will be an end , and all the power of Enemies shall not obstruct our Delivery . The Church Micah . 7. vers . 9. could sweetly sit down , and bear the indignation of the Lord , when by faith she could say , Rejoice not against me , O mine Enemie ; when I fall I shall arise ; when I sit in darkness , the Lord shall be alight unto me . He will bring me forth to the light , and I shall behold his righteousness , V. 8 , 9. 4. The beleeving improvment of this would keep the beleever from fainting , and sincking through discouragment : many thoughts come into the minde , while affliction is lying on their loines , and Satan can suggest many things , at that time , to cause the poor man succumb , while under the load : but the faith of God's Soveraigne and Absolute O dering of all things , in and about the Trouble , according to his own mind , would keep up their head , and preserve them from a sinful and shamful fainting . They look too much to instruments , and pore too much upon their Nature , Disposition , Activity , Power , Wisdom , Wickedness , Maliciousness , Rage , Cruelty , and Indefatigableness ; and forget that they are but under agents , and can do nothing , but as the Supream God Willeth , Ordert he , Disposeth , and Permitteth ; and that He alone Over-ruleth all , Moderateth and Ordereth all , according to His own mind , and for His own holy ends , So that they cannot do any thing , whether as to the Substance , or as to the Circumstances of the affliction , but as He , who is the Supream Master of work , is pleased to suffer and give way unto . 5. The beleeving thoughts of this Truth would keep the Soul from that dreadful sin of Murmuring against the Lord , upon occasion of any Trouble or Distress , he meeteth with . It is the Lord , would the Soul say , and who am I , that I should quarrel with Him. He is ordering , disposing and moderating all , that under agents and lixes are doing , so that all things are done , as He will ; and shall I yet be displeased and quarrelsome ? Enemies cannot get their will , They are over-ruled , in all their Consultations , Projects , Contrivances , bloudy Resolutions , and cruel Executions ; matters go not , as they will , but as He will , who is over them ; and why then should I murmure , and repine against Him ? 6. This would also airth the Eyes of the soul towards the right object , in a day of Trouble . They would not with Heathens , look to chance or fortune , as ruling and ordering all ; nor would they with the carnal multitude f●…x their eye upon the instruments , and run with the dog to the stone , that is cast at him : but would see another more noble object of their sight , to wit , the Principal Agent , Mover , and Orderer of all , in whose hand the wicked are , as the ax and saw in the hand of the workman , and as the rod in the hand of the father ; and this sight would help unto a Spiritual Christian frame of Godly fear & Subjection of Soul , and would put the soul in case , to observe the Wisdom , Soveraignity , and absolute Dominion of God , doing what He will , frustrating the toakens of the liars , and disappointing the craftie devices of wicked men ; as also this sight would minde the man of Christian duties , of searching his wayes , repenting of his sinnes , and turning againe to the Lord ; for he would see , it was the Lord , with whom he had to do . He would look for his Outgate and Salvation from God alone ; so that his Faith , his Hope and his Confidence would be in the Lord alone . His eye being fixed on this object , he would not see cause of troubl●…ng himself much about-Enemies , or how he might procure their favour ; and so would be keeped from Temptations to any sinful compliance or accommodation : So would he be preserved from temptations to the using of unlawful meanes for an outgate . Thus we see , how advantagious this eyeing of the Lord , in the day of Trouble , is unto the afflicted ; and the faith and improvement of this Consideration cannot but airth the souls eye unto this object . 7. The right improving of this Truth would free the beleever from many carnal , disqu●…eting , distracting and perplexing feares : He is ready to say ; oh I cannot ride out this storme , I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul , the next blast of temptation shall blow me over , I cannot but at length faint and succumb , and the Enemie shall have matter of joy , and all God's people shall be made to mourn : for were it beleeved , that God Ordered , Disposed , and Over-ruled all , the beleever would see no ground for these feares ; for he would see , that no blast could blow , but as He would ; no storme could come sooner , than He thought good ; nor continue longer , than He saw convenient ; nor be more violent and strong , let Enemies threaten and rage as they pleased , than He saw good : He would see the hand of God measuring out all , so as he needed not fear to be over-charged ; or if the trouble were indeed greater , than he could well stand under , he might see the Lord fitting him by secret strength for it . 8. Finally the faith of this , and the right improvement of it would preserve the soul from a dead and senseless stupidity , under the rod , or stoical frame , as unconcerned with what befalleth them , which hath no affinity with , but is utterly repugnant to , a Christian frame , and to Christian valour , and undaunted courage : This looketh liker to the frame of an Atheist , than of a Child of God , who trembleth and feareth , when he seeth the rod in his Fathers hand , and dar not despise the chastening of the Lord. Now a sight of God's hand in all , Ordering , Timeing and Seasoning , Mixing and Compounding , Limiting and Bounding , Qualifying and Restricking , Terminating and Ending , Directing and Over-ruling , would perserve the soul from a dead Temper , and cause him mark and observe the footsteps of Royal Soveraignity , Majesty , Wisdom , Power , Goodness , Care and Tenderness . CONSIDERATION . XI . Christ himself had a suffering life . WHen the Leaders and Commanders of an Army , are to bring the Infantrie thorow some deep water , they use to alight off their horses , and walk on foot , that they may take a share of the same lot with the souldiers , that thereby they may the more encourage them to wade with cheerfulness thorow the water : and it proveth indeed some matter of Encouragment to souldiers to follow their Leaders , be the way never so uneasie . Our Lord Jesus , in like manner , who is called the Captaine of our Salvation Hebr. 2. vers . 10. knowing that his followers had both fire and water to go thorow Esai 43. vers . 2. the more to encourage them , to endure that hard lot , would come down off his Throne of Majestie and State , and take a share of the lot himself ; yea and go before them to break the ice . Therefore it cannot but be most advantagious for the souldiers of Christ. who have a mind to run the race , that is set before them , to be looking , in the time of their affliction , upon this Captain , according to the advice , which the Apostle giveth unto the afflicted and persecuted Hebrews Chap. 12. vers . 2. Looking unto Iesus , the Author and finisher of faith , who for the joy , that was set before Him , endured the cross , and despised the shame . 3. Consider Him , that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself ; lest ye be wearied and fainte in your mindes . For this same end and purpose do we finde the Apostle Peter proposing this example , for the encouragment of a number of poor scattered and afflicted saints 1 Petr. 2. vers . 21. For even hereunto were ye called ; because Christ also suffered for us , leaving us an example , that ye should follow his steps . And againe , Chap. 3. vers . 17 , 18. For it is better , if the will of God be so , that ye suffer for wel doing , than for evil doing : for Christ also hath once suffered , the just f●…r the unjust , that He might bring us to God. It will then be of no small advantage , to afflicted persons , to have this Copie and Example laid before them , if He would help us to speak unto it , in any measure to edification . It will not be necessary , to speak of this subject of Christ's Sufferings , in the full latitude ; but it will be sufficient to speak of them , only in reference to the end proposed ; as an Encouraging Example ; and in order to this , we shall only do these Two things . 1. We shall mention and propose some particulars , considerable in the sufferings of Christ , which may be sutable matter for the thoughts of a Child of God , in affliction , to dwell upon : 2. Speak some things to the advantagious improvement of the same , in a day of Trouble . As to the first , we shall onely mention these particulars considerable . 1. The Person , who was put to all these Sufferings , was no ordinary person : we think more of the sufferings of a Noble-man Prince , King or great Potentate , than of the Sufferings of a mean , poor man. What shall we then think of the Sufferings of Christ , who was higher than the Princes of the earth , who was King of Kings and Lord of Lords ? He was in the form of God , having the same Essential Divine form with the Father , He thought it not robbery to be equal with God , having the same Divine Nature and Properties . Phil. 2. vers . 6. And yet for all this , He made himself of no reputation , and took upon him the forme of a servant . — And being found in the fashion of a man , he humbled himself , and became obedient unto death , even the death of the cross vers . 7 , 8. Even He , who was the Ancient of dayes , who was set up from everlasting , from the beginning , ere ever the earth was Prov. 8. vers . 23. Even He was put to end his dayes in paine and sorrow , He , whose goings forth have been from of old , from everlasting Mica . 5 : 2. Who wasthe Creator of the ends of the earth , who was with God , by whom all things were made , and without whom was not any thing made , that was mad●… . Ioh. 1. vers . 1 , 2 , 3. Even He it was , who was put to all this suffering . What a wonder is this , That the everlasting Father , the Prince of peace , the mighty God , as He is called Esai . 9. vers . 6. should become a man of sorrowes , and acquanted with griefe Esai . 53 : 3. That the High and holy one , who inhabiteth eternity , and whose perfections and vertues are past finding out , should be found in the fashion of a suffering Man , That God should be thus manifest in the flesh 1 Tim 3. vers . 16 ? This is a subject worthy of our thoughts , That He , who was God equal with the Father in power and glory , having the fulness of the God head dwelling in him bodily , Col. 2. vers . 9. should condescend so low , as to take on Him mans Nature , and suffer therein . It is true , the Divine Nature could not suffer : but his Humane Nature being personally united unto the Divine Nature , the Person was one , and so He , who was and is God over all , blessed for ever , did suffer , while his humane Nature was put to suffer . 2. Consider by whom He was put to suffer , even by all ranks of Persons , both high and low , by rich and poor , by noble and ignoble , by Church-men and States-men , and by souldiers , by judges higher and lower , and by lixes , by Jewes and Romans . Some of whom were Malicious , Invective , Cruel , Merciless and Irreconcilable Enemies ; such as the Priests , the Scribes and the Pharisees , who were ringleaders ; and did all out of pure malice and wickedness of heart , committing thereby that unpardonable sin , Mat. 12. v. 31 , 32. These drove forward their cruel designe , and forced Pilat , in a manner , to condemne Him , though he found no fault in Him ; and urged a late law of their own thereunto , saying Ioh. 19. vers . 7. We have a law , and by our law he must die , because he made himself the Son of God ; a strange law , by which they had bound themselves to condemne and pursue unto death the Messiah , whom they pretended to be waiting for , when ever he came ; for the true Messiah was to be Immanuel : and when this was not like to work , their malice carrieth them further Vers. 12. saying If thou let this man go , thou art not Caesars friend ; for whosoever maketh himself a King , speaketh against Caesar. Others of those his Persecuters were led on against Him , in their ignorance and blind Zeal , for Christ himself prayeth for them , saying Luk. 23 : 34. Father forgive them , for they know not what they do . And Peter saith Act. 3 : 17. And now , Brethren , I ●…ot , that through ignorance you did it , as did also your Rulers . 3. Consider the duration of his Troubles , they lasted not for a short time , for a few Dayes , or Moneths ; but during this whole Life : For His whole Life was nothing but a Life of Suffering : no sooner came He into the world , but Herod sought his Life . He was forced to flee into Aegypt , being but a childe in the cradle . He was a Man of sorrowes , and acquanted with griefe Esai . 53 : vers . 3. from the Cradle to the Grave , His Life was interwoven with sufferings of one kind and another ; and especially after He entered into the publick exercise of His Offices , and was Baptized , He is not well out of one trouble , while He meeteth with another ; How oft is He put to flee , and hide himself for his Life ? How oft is He maligned , tempted , slandered , persecuted , called a Devil , hated and hunted , until He is at length condemned and killed ? 4. Consider what it was that He suffered : It was not one kinde of Trouble and Affliction , that He was exercised with ; but in a manner all sorts came upon Him , He was a Man of Sorrowes and acquanted with griefe , He was oppressed and afflicted Esai . 53 3 , 7. He was despised and rejected of men Esai . 53 : 3. He hid not his facefrom shame and spitting , but gave his back to the smiters , and his cheeks to them , that plucked off the hair Esai . 50 : v. 6. Matth. 26 : 67. and 27 : 26. He was exercised with Hunger , Thirst , Weariness , Poverty , and the like . He was apprehended as a Thiefe or a Robber , Imprisoned , falsely Accused , Condemned , Scourged , and Crucified . He was mocked and reproached , by Words and Deeds , when they put a Crown of Thorns on His Head , clothed Him with a Rob , and put a Reed in His Hand , and bowed the knee before Him , saying , Hail , King of the Iewes . 5. Consider what , beside all this that He suffered in His Body and Name , He suffered in Soul , when He was in the Garden Matth. 26 : 37 , 3●… . Where He began to be sorrowful even unto Death : Yea so sad and heavy was He , that He cried out Vers. 39 O my Father , if it be possible , let this Cup passe from me : And this He cried thrice over , which showeth the vehemency of that pressure , under which He lay , at that time , when He was beginning to wrestle that bloudy combat with the Wrath of God , and to drink that galled Cup , wherein was the Law ▪ curse , because of Sin. And all this was from the Hand of His Father ; for it was He , who bruised Him , and put Him to griefe Esai . 53 : vers 10. And it was He , who hid His face from Him ; so that He cried out , while on the Cross , My God , My God , why hast thou forsaken me ? And that when He was presently to give up the Ghost Mat. 27 : v. 46 , 50. 6. Consider how little outward Comfort of Friends or Relations He found , all this time : While He was sweating drops of Bloud , through the vehemencie of the bitter agonie , He was into , while in the Garden , He could not prevail with His Disciples to watch with Him , but one houre . And when He was apprehended by the treacherie of His own Disciple , who ate of His Bread , by Iudas the Traitour , all His other Disciples forsook Him ; Couragious Peter denied Him thrice , not without Oaths and Execrations ; His loving and beloved Disciple Iohn stood a far off ; bleeding and sorrowful-hearted , Mary , His Mother , durst not come neer to Him : When the Shepherd was smitten , the Flock was scattered . 7. Consider how innocent He was , He had done no violence , neither was any deceit found in His mouth Esai . 53 : 9. Though He was just , yet was He put to suffer 1 Pet. 3 : v 18 , and 2 : 22. We know what false accusations were brought-in against Him ; But by all their false witnesses , they could not get Him convict of sin : The Causes wherefore ( as to men ) He was judged and condemned were Glorious and Fundamental Truthes , such as His affirming that He was the Son of God , and that He was a King , though His Kingdom was not of this World ; and therefore was not inconsistent with Caesars Kingdom Luk. 22 : 70 , 71. Ioh. 18 36 , 37. 8. Yea not only had He done no wrong , but He was come about the most necessary and useful Business of the World , to wit , to save sinners . He was come to bear witness to the truth , and to lay down His Life for His People ; He was come to save them from Sin and Destruction , by bearing the Wrath and Curse of God , that was due to sinners , in their stead , as being their Cautioner , and substitute by the Father , in their Room and Place . He was Iesus , the Saviour of His People : The Horn of Salvation for us , in the House of David , that we should be saved from our Enemies , and from the hand of all , that hate us , as Zacharias sung Luk. 1 : vers . 68 , 69 , 71 , &c. And yet notwithstanding that this was his errand , this was the welcome He gote . He came unto His own , but they received Him not : He came to save them , from all their Enemies ; and they dealt with Him , as with the Worst of Enemies ; and were never at peace , until they had gotten Him crucified and buried . 9. Consider what a Death He was put to : It was not a simple Death , but a multiplied one : For being Crucified , He had ( 1 ) a Painful Tormenting Death , a long lingering and painful Death , yea five Deaths at once , every nail bringing Death with it . ( 2. ) He had a shameful Death , while thus Crucified , as a chiefe Malefactor , and hung-up betwixt two Theeves . ( 3. ) He had a cursed Death ; for the Law said , cursed is every one , that hangeth on a tree Gal. 3 : vers . 13. Deut. 21 : 23. 10. Consider for whose sakes all this suffering of His was : It was for the unjust 1 Pet. 3 : vers . 18. He bare our griefs , and carried our sorrowes ; He was wounded for our Transgressions , the chastisement of our Peace was upon Him ; The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all , for the transgression of his People was He smitten Esai . 53 : vers . 4 , 5 , 6 , 8. It was for Enemies that Christ , died for sinners , and for the ungodly Rom. 5 : 6 , 8 , 10. 21. Consider likewise how patiently He endured all this , When He was reviled , He reviled not againe 1 Pet. 2 : vers . 23. He was brought , as a Lamb to the slaughter , and as a Sheep before the Shearers is dumb , so He opened not His mouth : Yea though He was oppressed and afflicted , yet He opened not His mouth Esai . 53 : 7. When He was accused of the chiefe Priest and Elders , he answered nothing Matth. 27 : vers . 12. Yea , when Pilat said unto Him , hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee ? He answered him to never a word , in so much that the Governour marvelled greatly vers . 13. When one of the Officers stroke Him with the Palme of His Hand , He only answered thus ; If I have spoken evil , bear witness of the evil ; but if well , why smitest thou Me ? Ioh. 18 : 22 , 23. We have heard of the Patience of Iob , but withall also of much of his Impatience : But never was such Patience seen in any , as in Christ ; never was there an Impatient Word heard out of His Mouth , even when the base Souldiers were reviling Him , spitting in His face , putting a Crown of Thornes on His Head , and a fools coat upon Him , and when scourging Him , buffetting Him ? Hoodwinking Him , and Mocking Him. Yea when they were doing the worst they could devise against Him ; He said , Father forgive them , for they know not what they are doing . 12. Consider how willingly and chearfully He did undergo all , When He knew , that the Priests Emissaries were coming with the Traitour to apprehend Him , He would not go out of the way ; nor suffer His Disciples to rescue Him ; yea He would not pray to His Father for Angels help : Thinkest thou ( said he to Peter Matth. 26 : 53. ) that I cannot now pray to My Father , and he shall presently give me more , than Twelve Legions of Angels . Vers. 54. But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled , that thus it must be . Nay all the Roman Souldiery could not have taken His Life , if He had not been willing Ioh. 10 : vers . 17 , 18. Therefore doth my Father love me , because I lay down my Life , that I might take it againe . No man taketh it from me , but I lay it down of my self . I have power to lay it down , and I have power to take it againe : This Commandement have I received of my-Father . He had a Baptisme to be Baptized with , and how was He straitned , or pained , till it was accomplished ? Luk. 12 : v. 50. How offended was He at Peter , when he would have disswaded Him from suffering , saying to Him , Get thee behinde me , Satan Matth. 16 : v. 23. When He knew , the time was approaching , it is said , He steadfastly set His face to go toward Ierusalem Luk. 9 : 51. As to the Second thing here to be spoken to , the Advantagious Improvment of these Particulars , We shall only mentione some Conclusions , which the right thoughts of these things , will helpe the Beleever to draw , in order to his possessing a life , in time of Afflictions and Persecutions : As 1. The Afflicted Beleever may say , I need not think it strange , that I am exercised with Afflictions , Temptations and Tribulations : It is no new or uncouth thing that is befallen me ; the Captaine of my Salvation was thus , and worse handled ; and who am I , that I should think to be exeemed from such a lot ? Is it not enough , that the common Souldier be as his Captaine ? Nay , will not the common Souldier be glade to share of the Captains lot of Hardship ? And should not I rejoice , that I am honoured to weare my Captains Livery ? His Life was a Life of lasting and growing trouble ; and should not I be glade to follow Him , and drink of that Cup , whereof He drank ? Affliction was no strange or uncouth thing to Him , and why should it be strange to me ? Have I Him , even Him , set before me , for a Copie , and why should I not be most willing to write after this Copie ? 2. Hence the Afflicted Beleever may Inferre , I have so little cause to Complaine of all that is befallen me , that , when I consider what Glorious Christ did meet with , I have great cause to Wonder , and Praise , that I am so gentlie dealt with : He hath been very tender towards me ; when He might have made my lot much more sad : behold , how He hath pitied me , and considered my weakness . He hath not dealt with me , as He dealt with His own only begotten Son , Jesus Christ : His own dearly beloved Son was otherwayes exercised , than I have been : He had more sharpe Trials and Temptations , and sadder Exercises to rancountre with , beside the Wrath and fierie Indignation of God , that He had to wreastle with . How mercifully then hath God dealt with me , that He hath not made my Torments and Grief inward much more insupportable ? O! When I read , how the Holy and Just One , the Innocent Lamb of God , was handled by sinners , through the Holy Permission and Providence of God , and lay my petty troubles in the Ballance with these , how am I made to wonder , that the ‑ Lord hath not dealt otherwise with me a sinner ; and to cry out , who am I that I should have been stroaked with such a gentle Hand ? Who am I , that God should have put so much sugger in my Cup ; when the Prince of Life , the Prince of the Kings of the Earth , who was Holy , Harmless , Undefiled , and separate from Sinners , was otherwise handled ? So that right thoughts , of this would make them ashamed to Quarrel with the most High ; or to repine at his Dispensations with them . When they consider , how others are spared , and they so sharply exercised , their hearts are ready to say , why doth the Lord deal so with me ? Why doth He single me out from others , & deal worse with me , than with them ? But if they would presente before their eyes , what Christ , the Son of His Love , did meet with , they durst not suffer a quarrelling thought to lodge within their heart ; but all their frettings , and repineings would be turned into wonderings and praises . 3. The Afflicted Beleever would hence draw this Conclusion . Seing Christ was put to suffer such and such evils before me , I may inferre , that the sting , venome and curse of these evils are taken away : Seing He hath passed thorow the straits of Affliction , He hath made the passage easier and wider for His followers : He hath sweatened the passage , and taken the sting away ; so that now , it cannot hurt or harme so much , as otherwise it would . Christ hath gone thorow Sorrow , Shame , Paines , Wants , Temptations , Mockings , Spittings , Scourgings , Yea and Death it self ; and thereby hath paved a Way for His Followers , and hath strawed it with flowres of fragant Love ; His footsteps , all alongs the way , have dropped fatness . O how sweet hath He made an hard bed now ? He became poor , that we might become rich , even while poor ; and so might sanctifie Poverty to us . He became a man of Sorrowes , and acquanted with griefe , that He might sweeten that lot unto His Followers , and keep them from the evil of it , from the hurt and poison of it . May not this Consideration encourage His Followers , to embrace the Crosse with Love ; Complacency , and Delight , when it is thus sweetened to them , and in a manner no Crosse ? May not a Prison become an heartsome Palace unto His People , when they consider , how the Prince of Life , the Absolute Lord of all , the Chiefe or Standard-bearer amongst Ten Thousand , was taken from Prison Esai . 53 : 8. ? How welcome should an unjust Sentence from men be , when our blessed Lord was taken also from judgment , and was wickedly condemned for a Traitour ? How sweet should the most shamful and painful Death be to us , that the wicked can devise , as the expression of their imbittered malice , and rage ; when Noble Jesus was crucified ; and so put the most shamful and cursed Death , that could be ; seing hereby Death hath lost its sting , and the curse is taken away ; for he was made a curse Gal. 3 : vers . 13. 4. The Afflicted Beleever may hence Inferre , That seing Christ hath thus been exercised himself , He knoweth how to Pity and Sympathize with such , as are so handled . Was He Mocked , Vilified , Maligned , Despised , falsly Accused , Condemned for a Traitour to Caesar , Buffetted , Spit upon , Scourged , and Hanged as a thiefe ; He knoweth what it is to be so exercised , and what such a condition calleth for , and what they in such a condition have need of : He knoweth what word of consolation will be fittest for them . And this is no small encouragment unto the Beleever , as was shown above Consid. 2. 5. The suffering Beleever may draw this Conclusion . Seing Christ was put to all these sharp and sad sufferings , I may well lay my hand on my mouth , I may put my mouth in the dust , & be silent , let the Lord lay one me what He will : and by this meanes , he may quiet all the insurrections of his spirit against the Lord , and put a check unto all the insolent thoughts , that arise in his mind against the Lord's procedour with him , upon whatsoever occasion : as ( 1. ) Doth this trouble and vex his spirit , that he is innocent , as to what is laid to his charge , and is persecuted without cause ? And will he not be quieted , when he remembereth , how the Innocent lamb of God was handled ; how He was mis-used and persecuted , who did never man hurt , who never did sinne , nor was guile found in His mouth 1 Pet. 2. vers . 22. They hated and persecuted Him without a cause Ioh. 15. vers . 25. as they did David , who was a typ of Him Psal. 35. vers 19. and 69. vers . 4. See also Psal. 35. vers . 7. and 109. vers . 3. and 119. vers . 78 , 161. ( 2. ) Doth it vex him to think , that he hath to do with unreasonable men , worse than Heathens or Turks ? And will not this stop his mouth , That they can be no more rude , absurd , cruel and unreasonable , than those with whom Christ had to do ? What faire law or justice could Christ get ? They could not get so much as false witnesses to agree in any thing to accuse Him of ; yet they would persecute Him to the death . Pilat was convinced of his Innocency , and yet did deliver Him to be crucified . What men more irrational , than the brutish , ignorant rabble , set on by judicially-blinded and enraged Ring-leaders , the Priests and Rulers ? ( 3. ) Doth it vex them to think , that their own familiar friends and acquaintances turn their back upon them , and refuse to comfort them ? And had not Christ this to wrestle against , when all fled and forsook Him , and His own Disciple betrayed Him ; Is it not said , that He came unto His own , and that His own received Hi●… not ? Ioh. 1 : 11. ( 4. ) Doth it trouble them to think , that they are exercised with many troubles at once , and which is worst of all , when outward troubles are lying on , the Lord is hiding His face ? And I pray , was not this also Christ's lot ? was not He put to cry out , even while on the cross , and within a few minuts of expiring and of giving up the ghost , My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? And had He not a sadder inward exercise , while in the garden , where He was made to sweat drops of bloud , than any that can befall them ? He had the weight of Law-wrath to bear , that was due to all the Elect ones ; but the hidings , which Beleevers can meet with , are only fatherly with-drawings . ( 5. ) If the duration and continuance of the trouble and affliction come into their mindes , and vex them ; let them think , that it cannot be worse with them , than it was with the Lord Christ , whose whole life was a life of suffering : we read of His weeping , but never of His laughing . How oft was He in hazard of His life , even from His Infancie ? How was He maligned , slandered , called a Devil , a glutton and a wine-biber , a profane Person ? How oft were snares laid for Him ? and how did Trouble follow Him to His grave ? 6. The afflicted Beleever may hence Inferre , That it is his duty to study and to endeavour patience : for in this did Christ leave us an example , that we should follow His steps 1 Pet. 2. vers . 21. In this passage of Peter , we have some particulars , which were evidences , proofs or effects of Patience in Christ , in all which we should labour to follow our Example : as ( 1. ) As He was free of sin , before He began to suffer , & His Enemies could lay no sin to His charge ; so , while He was under their hands , all the paine and trouble , they put Him to , caused Him not to sinne in thought , word , or deed : So should the Sufferer labour & strive against sin : It is true , we cannot be sinless , and our corruptions will work ; yet it is our duty to wrestle against corruptions , and to set a watch upon the door of our lips , and to guaird our hearts ; or rather to give heart and tongue and all unto Christ to keep ; that we may be helped to suffer holily , to His glory . ( 2. ) When He was reviled , He reviled not againe ; when He suffered , He threatned not . When they were doing the worst they could do against Him , He did not in the least requite them , or wish harme unto them ; but on the contrary , as we heard Luk. 24. 34. He prayed the Father to forgive them . So in this should we endeavour to follow our copie , and thereby give proof of our Christian Patience ; to bless when they curse us , and pray for them , when they dispitfully use us , and persecute us ; and to do them good , that hate us : thus shall we evidence that we are the Children of our Father , who is in heaven Mat. 5 : 44 , 45. ( 3. ) He committed Himself to Him , that judgeth righteously : He referred Himself and His Cause unto the righteous Judg of quick and dead . So should we do , we should not fret our selves because of evil doers , neither be envious against the workers of iniquity ; but commit our way unto the Lord , and trust also in Him , and He shall bring it to passe Psal , 37. vers . 1 , 5. waite for His decision , who is the righteous Judge . Further , the right Consideration of this Patience of Christ , in all His sufferings , would help us unto a more Christian and Patient way of bearing the crosse ; for we would see ground to say , ( 1. ) Was Christ , who did no sin , put to all this suffering ; and did He bear it all with wonderful patience ; and should I take it ill , to be thus persecuted , seing , howbeit men have no just quarrel against me ; yet God hath just cause to pursue me ? Was sinless and holy Jesus patient , and should I be impatient , who am punished of God , less than mine iniquities deserve ? ( 2. ) Was Christ so patient under such an heavie cross , with which mine is not to be compared , or named in one day ; and should I be impatient , and thereby offend God more ? It were better for me , to be following my copie , and keeping mine hands clean of sin , let the crosse be what it will. ( 3. ) Could not all the wrongs , that Christ met with at the hands of cruel and ungrate wretches , move Him once to give them one evil word , or to wish them the least evil imaginable ; But did He rather pray for them ? And is it fit for me to be wishing them evil in my heart ? Should I not rather desire to imitate Christ , and to strive against mine own passion , and willingly forgive them all the wrongs , they do unto me ? ( 4. ) Did Christ commit His cause to God , and waite for His decision ? And should not I possesse my soul in patience , resting on God by faith , that He will judge all these wrongs and injuries , in due time ? Is not God the judge ? And doth not vengeance belong unto Him ? And should I think to dethrone Him , and take his office and work upon me ? Oh! It is better , that I follow Christ , & roll all over on God , and quiet my Soul in hope of a righteous Determination from God , the righteous judge of all the world . 7. The right consideration of Christ's sufferings upon such an account , as to men , I mean , His suffering because He affirmed Himself to be a King , would make the Beleever , called to suffer upon that same account , ( to wit , for Asserting , Maintaining , Avowing , and by their actions and practice Declaring , that Christ is King , and only King and Head over His spiritual Kingdom and Church , ) rejoice in that honour , that is put upon him , to be called to witness unto such a Truth , that Christ Himself was a Martyr for , in respect of Men. O! how should this fill the hearts of such with joy , & make them sing , in the midst of the flames , and rejoice in that they are counted worthy to suffer for so noble a cause , or for the least branch thereof . 8. From Christ suffering so willingly , so cheerfully , so resolutly for the unjust , for sinners , and for rebels , the Suffering beleever will draw this Conclusion : did Christ suffer such things , and that so cheerfully , heartily and willingly for my cause ; and should not I be ready to suffer cheerfully , heartily and willingly for his Cause , Word , Truth , and Interest ? So that this would hearten unto an hearty and couragious witnessing for the Lord , and for His Truth , and for the Word of His Patience , and shame the man from a discouraged , faint-hearted , dead and drouping manner of following Christ , and of bearing His cross ; for he would see cause to say , did Christ suffer so much for unworthy , sinful , nothing Me , and that with so much Patience , Cheerfulness , Sted fastness and fixed Resolution ; and should I be ashamed of Him , who is the God of glory , the Prince of the Kings of the earth , King of Kings and Lord of Lords , or of His Cause and Interest ? Should I carry , when suffering upon His account , and upon the account of His Truth , His Word , His Testimony , His work and Interest , as if I were an evil door ? Should I carry , as if I repented of owning Him , and His Interest ? No , no , I should account it my glory , as it is indeed . CONSIDERATION . XII . Our Sufferings are nothing comparable to Christ's . WHen we spoke to the last Consideration , we mentioned something of this : But because more is to be said of it , and it may be edifyingly Improven , for the ends designed ; we shall speak alittle more to it here by it self , though it be but a branch of the former . And for this cause , we shall do these two things . 1. We shall mention some particulars , whereby the disproportion betwixt Christ's Sufferings and Ours , will appear manifest . 2. We shall shew how thoughts of these my prove advantagious unto a Christians spiritual life , in a day of Affliction and Tribulation . In order to the understanding of the first , we would take notice . 1. That the disproportion is infinite , in respect of the Persons suffering : what are we , Yesterday-Nothings , base and worthless wormes , whose life is in our nostrils , vaine empty shadowes ? But He is the standart-bearer amongst Ten Thousand Cant. 5. vers . 10. The wonderful Counsellour , the Mighty God ; the Everlasting Father , and the Prince of peace Esai . 9. vers . 6. This maketh that all our Sufferings are not worthie to be compared with His. We know , that the Greatness , Nobility , Worth and Dignity of the Person , who is put to suffer , maketh the Sufferings more in the account of men , than otherwise they would be . That a poor , base , unworthy beggar is scourged , spit upon and buffeted , is nothing , or not much considerable ; but to see a King , a Prince , or great Noble-man so used , that is a considerable matter , in the eyes of men . It is not much to see beggars sitting on dung-hils ; but it is much to see such , as did feed delicatly , sit desolat in the streets ; and to see such as were brought up in scarlet , embraceing dunghils ; that is indeed matter of a lamentation . Lam. 4. vers . 5. To see base men contemned and slighted is not much ; but to see Princes hanged-up by their hand , and the faces of Elders not honoured , that is sad and lamentable Lam. 5. vers . 12. So it is not much to see us , base , unworthy , sinful and nothing creatures , suffering , and put to hardships , disgrace , paine , shame , miserie and wants : But to see the Prince of the Kings of the earth in disgrace ; to see the Lord of life killed , the Son of God despised , the King of Kings spit upon , and put to paine ; to see the Heire of all things suffering want ; that is an uncouth sight . This maketh Christ's sufferings incomparably great , and all our Sufferings nothing in comparison with these , even when ours are at the greatest . What are the sufferings of a beast , of a worme , or the like , unto the sufferings of the greatest Prince that ever was , or unto the sufferings of an Angel ? And yet the worme being a creature , as well as the Prince or Angel , the difference is not so very great : but the difference is Infinitly more great , betwixt the sufferings of Christ , who is God , equal with the Father in power , and the sufferings of the greatest King or Emperour , or Angel that ever was , because there is no comparison betwixt Finite and Infinite , betwixt God and the Creature . 2. We know it is much more for one to suffer Death , while in the flowr of his age , and in the prime of his Strength , and who in all probability , according to his natural Constitution , might live many years ; than for one , who is half Dead already , and is carrying about with him the Sentence of Death , his Body being decayed , and his clay-cottage ruinous , and almost fallen to the ground : So in this respect Christs Sufferings are far beyond ours ; for our Clay-bodies are so rotten with Corruption , so broken with sicknesses and diseases , that a few years should put an end to our dayes , and we should quickly return unto dust , though no hand were streatched out against us ; yea , though all imaginable meanes were used , to keep us in vigour and life . But Christs Body , though a true Body , yet was naturally free of these Corruptions , that come because of sin , which our Bodies are obnoxious unto : We never read of his sickness . And though his death was not wholly miraculous , yet we may not say , that He would have died naturally , as other men do , though no violent hands had been laid upon Him. 3. We use to think much more of his sufferings , who suffereth wrongously and without Cause , than of his , who suffereth deservedly ; We will not be much moved to see a bloody Murderer put to Death ; but it will move us much to see a man put to death , against whom nothing worthie of Death can be alleiged . So , in this respect , our Sufferings are nothing in comparison of Christs ; for however , as to men , we should suffer innocently ; yet there is ground for God to plead His controversie against us , and to use these , as Instruments of His Justice , to execute His righteous Sentence against us . But it was otherwayes as to Christ , who , though as standing in the room of the Elect , and made their Cautioner , and so made sin for them , or had their sin imputed to Him , He was smitten of Justice ; yet as to His own Person , He was the Innocent Lamb of God , and without sin , Holy , Harmless , Undefiled . And as to men , He suffered most wrongously , as was seen above . 4. The difference is great in this respect , That Mercy is Master of work , standing at the side of the fournace , and ordering the same , while His people are lying into it : But the Law-wrath and Justice of God was blowing at the coal of Christs Sufferings . We have to do but with men , whose Actions are over-ruled by the Omnipotent hand of a Merciful God ? But He had to do with God , executing Law-Justice , because He stood in the room of the Elect. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all . He was wounded for our transgressions , He was bruised for our Iniquities , the Chastisement of our Peace was upon Him. He bear the iniquity and sin of many Esai . 53. v. 5 , 6 , 11 , 12. His own self bear our sins , in his own Body , on the tree 1 Pet. 2 : v. 24. It is not so with the Lords People ; He dealeth not with them , in pure Wrath , or in Justice ; but in Mercy and in Moderation . The Cup , that Christ had to drink , was full of the purest Law-wrath , and so bitter , that His Holy Sinless Soul did scunner at it : But in the Cup of his Children , there is not one drop of the revenging Justice of God , or of Law-wrath ; but much of His Fatherly Mercy , and it smelleth strongly of Love ; for He is bringing about their good hereby . Therefore the disproportion betwixt Christ's Sufferings and ours is Infinite , upon this account . 5. Put the case ( which yet will not be ) that God should deal with any of His owne , according to strick Severity , and Law-Justice ; yet could not their Sufferings be comparable unto Christs . Though they were pursued by pure Justice , and by Law-vengeance , and sent away to everlasting flames , they should not , for all that , endure what He endured ; for they should but suffer , in that case , for their own particular and personal faults : But Christ bear the sins of many , even of all the Elect : And this would make the difference great : How much greater then must the difference now be , when their Sufferings are of a far other Nature ? 6. This will be further clear , if we Consider , how Christ did not only undergo the Debt of the Elect , and wrestled with strickest Law-Justice ; but by His Sufferings , He made full Satisfaction to Justice ; which they all , for whom Christ died , had never been able in hell to have done ; there had they lyen , for ever , and had never come out of prison ; for they had never been able to have satisfied Justice : But what Christ Suffered was full Satisfaction to Iustice , that it could crave no more ; the Bond and Obligation was cancelled on the Crosse , and Christ cried out , It is finished ; intimating that the last penny was payed . Thus Christ suffered more , than all of them could have done , for all Eternity : and so certainly His sufferings were transcendently and surpassing great ; and the hardest of our Sufferings ought not to be named in one day with His. In Order to the Improving of this , ( which is the Second Particular ) we shall mentione these few things , 1. Were this Consideration rightly thought on , and improven , His people would not be so much troubled and affrighted , in a time of Sufferings , as usually they are . We see how Christ went up to Ierusalem , and set His face to go thitherward , resolving to go thither , notwithstanding of all Impediments in the way ; and albeit His Disciples were averse from that journay , and would have disswaded Him from it ; He went thither with a full Resolution , though He knew He was to grapple not only with the King of Terrours there , but with pure Law-Curse and Wrath , because of the Sinnes of His chosen ones : And what should make His people afraied , who have little or nothing to meet with , in comparison of what Christ did meet with ; they have nothing of Law-wrath , and of pure Vindictive Iustice to meet with , as Christ had to rancountre with , in full measure : Iustice is now satisfied in their behalfe ; and it is their mistake to think , that in and by Afflictions , God is pursueing them in wrath : It is true , there may be fatherly anger and displeasure in the Cup , Which they get to drink ; but Christ drank-out the Curse , and satisfied Vindictive Iustice , and there is no payment to Iustice , no not one farthing required of them , in all their Sufferings . So that Beleevers have not so great cause to fear , as they suppose . 2. Were this rightly considered , the people of God would carry more like Saints under Afflictions , than they do : They are oftentimes , when sore afflicted , saying within themselves , why doth the Lord deal so with me ? Are not many worse than I am more gentlie dealt with . Oh! They consider not what Holy and Harmless Iesus was made to suffer . Sure , if they considered this , they durst repine and fret in their mindes no more . What though they have been innocent , as to men ; and vvhat though they be sincere and upright , as to God ? Yet they are sinners , and Christ , vvho never sinned , vvas othervvayes handled both at the hands of God and Man , than they are , though their Afflictions and Sufferings vvere many vvayes multiplied . 3. Right thoughts of this would teach them to carry the yoke with very great patience and submission of Soul : Holy Jesus had another sort of yoke upon His blessed neck ; and yet he bore it with wonderful Patience , yea with Holy Delight . Why then should they be so impatient under their light and easie Yoke ? It is little they have to bear , yea nothing , in comparison of what Christ stood under . 4. Seing Christ suffered so much , and bore the Curse , what have beleevers now to endure , or lye under ? The height they can be reckoned to , is but small remnants of what fell on Christ in a full floud ; and what they meet with is wholly free of Vindictive Wrath. They suffer but some little thing of that , which is behinde of the Sufferings of Christ Col. 1 : vers . 24. Christ trode the Wine-press , He hath gone thorow the sea , and all the mighty waves thereof : The shoure of Law-vengeance fell on His face , in its full force and might ; and there is nothing of that left , but small drops of the outward Affliction , freed of the Curse , left behinde for His Followers . Have not His Followers then cause of Rejoiceing , upon this account , in the midst of all their Afflictions ? 5. Though trouble increase , yet they ought to be quiet , and possesse their Soul in Patience ; for it will never increase to that height , that it will be equal to Christ's trouble : Though their Afflictions come to the heighest , that men can bring them to : Yet will they be infinitly below the Afflictions , that Christ suffered . Have any then cause to complaine , when they are so gentlie dealt vvith ; and vvhen all their Afflictions are in a manner no Afflictions , in comparison of Christs ? 6. We are oft ready to look upon our Sufferings thorovv a magnifying glasse , and take notice of all Considerations , that may serve to heighten them ; and thus vve take a vvay to create much more trouble and vexation to ourselves , and to make our life more sad and bitter : But the right improvement of this Consideration vvould prevent all this ; for vvould vve take a right vievv of the inconceivably great and unparalleled Sufferings of Christ , ours in comparison of these , would soon evanish out of sight , and disappear as nothing : And thus would we be brought to bear our Affliction with full Subjection of Soul , with silence , yea and with thankful acknowledgment of Gods Graciousness and Tenderness , who hath dealt so gently with us , when He might have made the yoke more , yea much more , heavy and insupportable . 7. Who , taking a right View of what Christ suffered , will not think themselves called to suffer for His sake , with great willingness and cheerfulness ? May not every Beleever say , did Christ undergo the heavy weight of the Wrath of God , for me ? Did He lye under the Law-curse , and bear the blowes of Vindictive Justice , for me ? Stood He betwixt me , and the pure Wrath of a sin-revenging God ? Did He drink the bitter Cup , the Gall and the Worm-wood of Law-vengeance , that I might be freed therefrom ? Did He bear that , under which I should have lyen to all eternity , that I might never come into that place of torment ? And what Affliction , Persecution , Tribulation , Distress , Sorrow , Paine and Suffering should I think too much for Him and His sake ? Seing He endured for me the brunt of the battel , and stood-out the sharpest of the storm and hail of Divine Wrath , and Law-Indignation ; why should not I be content to bear a drop of mans Wrath , or of the storme of mans Indignation , which is free of the Curse and of pure Wrath , for Him and for His Interest ? Hath He suffered so much for me , and shall I think much to suffer such a small matter for Him ? Is there no proportion betwixt what He willingly endured , to save me from Hell and from the Wrath of a Sin-revenging God , and what I can be put to suffer for Him , and His Testimonie ? And shall I notwithstanding be unwilling to undergo such a small inconsiderable bit of suffering for His Glory , and for the Word of His Patience ? Drank he the Cup of pure Wrath for me , and shall I think much to drink a drop of cold Water for Him ? O how willing and cheerful would the right apprehension of this Consideration , make the Beleever , to undergo all that men could devise , for His Lord and Master ? CONSIDERATION XIII . Suffering hath been the Lot of Christ's Church , in all Ages . ORdinarily when the Church and People of God meet with new trials and troubles , they cry out , as the Church did of old Lam. 1 : v. 12. Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow : They presently conclude , that their case hath not a parallel , and that the Church in no age did meet with such a dispensation , as they are under : Hence proceedeth much sorrow . But if it were considered , that the Church in all Ages ( very few excepted ) hath met with the like or sorer trouble , and hath drunk of that same cup , that is now at theit Head , they could not but see cause of laying their hand upon their mouth , and sitting silent in the dust , as being convinced , that there were no new thing under the Sun ; Therefore , seing this Consideration may be of use , in order to a spiritual Life under Afflictions , we shall speak a little to it ; and in order to the right improvement thereof , lay down these following Particulars to be pondered . 1. The only Wise God hath thought good , for His own Holy ends , that His Church should be a Militant Church here , should taste of the Worm-wood & the Gall of Affliction , and wade thorow Trouble and Persecution : He hath seen it fit , that she should be in a wilderness Condition here : And so it hath been in almost all ages , as might be evidenced , if necessary . 2. Not only hath the Church of God met with Affliction ; but the cup hath been long at her Head , without any intermission . The seed of Abraham were to be strangers , to serve and be afflicted foure hundereth yeers and more , even from Ismaels beginning to mock , until they were delivered out of Aegypt Gen. 15 : v. 13. Act. 7 : 6 , 7. with Exod. 12 : 41. Was not the Church keeped fourtie yeers wandering in the Wilderness , before she came to rest ? And when settled in the promised Land , how many yeers together was she oppressed by Enemies ? sometimes Eight Iudg. 3 : 8. then Eighteen vers . 14. then Twenty Iudg. 4 : v. 3. Then Senventie Years in captivity in Babylon . And we know , how the Christian Church was in an afflicted and persecuted condition , in the primitive times , three hundereth Yeers , untill Constantine the great came to the Empire ; and how long she hath groaned under Antichrist's tyrannie . 3. The Lord also thinketh good , to renew the daies of the Church her sorrow ; after some warm blainks , and some short respite ; as the primitive Church had , in the intervals betwixt the Ten vehement and fiery Persecutions , some whereof were of longer , some of shorter continuance : After a respite , He sendeth a new storme ; so that her calamites are like waves of the sea , ere one be well away , another cometh . Hence the Psalmist saith Ps. 129. vers . 1 , 2. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth . 4. Yea moreover , the Lord seeth good to afflict her , with billowes of waves of His displeasure , and to afflict her very sore : as Esai . 64. vers . 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. Be not wroth very sore — Thy holy cities are a wilderness , Zion is a wilderness , Ierusalem a desolation . Our holy and our beautiful house , where our fathers praised thee , is burnt up with fire , and all our pleasant things are laid waste : wilt thou refraine thy self for these things ? O Lord , wilt thou hold thy peace , and afflict us very sore ? This was a sore stroke , which destroyed both Church and State. 5. Some times the Church hath to do with moe Enemies , than one , at once : See Psal. 83. ver . 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. For they have consulted together with one consent , they are consederat against thee . The Tabernacles of Edom , and the Ishmaelites , of Moab and the Hagarens , Gebal and Ammon and Amalek , the Philistines with the Inhabitants of Tyre . Assur also is joined with them ; they have holpen the children of Lot. This was a dreadful conspiracy of all the Enemies round about , both far and neer ; and their designe was , to cut off the people of God from being a Nation , that the Name of Israel might be no more in remembrance vers . 4. As Herod and Pilat will agree , when they are to concurre to the cutting off of Christ ; so these Enemies , though sometimes at variance among themselves , yet can agree in one to joine their forces together , to destroy and cut off , if they could , the Inheritance of the Lord. 6. Withall the Lord may hide His face , in the midst of these outward calamities , and refuse to give light , comfort , counsel or direction . She may be afflicted and tossed with tempests , and withall not comforted . How hath the Lord ( said the Church Lam. 2. v. 1 , 3. ) covered the Daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger ? — He burned against Iacob , like a flame of fire See also Chap. 3 : 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , &c. and several other passages . 7. Sometime the Lord so ordereth the affliction , as that the very timeing of it , maketh it much more heavy , than otherwise it would be ; as when His people are secure , and crying peace , peace . The Israelites thought all was well , when they were gote out of Egypt ; but ere they were awar , how quickly were they invironed with new Difficulties , pursued by Pharaoh , & all his hosts ; & having the red sea before , and no way to escape upon either hand , doubtless the very season & time of this new difficulty made it very grievous . It cannot be but sad , when it is with the Church , as Ieremie saith of the Church , in his time Ier. 8 : v. 15. and 14 : 19. We looked for peace , but no good came , for a time of healing , and behold trouble . 8. Not only is the Church put to contend with open Enemies ; but she is also much molested with false friends , who , under pretence of friendship , seek to ruine her ; These prove most dangerous Enemies , as traitours within a besieged place . While she is prospering , many offer their service to her , and seem to be cordial friends , and yet are but a mixed multitude , who , when the first occasion offers , will seek to returne to Egypt : for all their profession of kindness and friendship , when a fit opportunity offereth , there are none more bitter Enemies , than they are . So that it oft fareth with her , as Paul said it would fare , after his death , with the Church of Ephesus , in respect of Hereticks and false Teachers Act. 20. vers . 29 , 30 For I know this , that after my departing , shall grievous wolves enter in among you , not sparing the flock ; also of your own selves shall men arise , spea●…ing perverse things &c. 9. Yea , so low may the Church sometimes be brought , under the feet of adversaries . that little hope may remaine of her recovery ; yea she may be looked on by one and other , as in a desperat and forlorne condition ; so that even many of the faithful may be shaken in their hops , and saying , will the Lord be favourable no more ? Are His mercies clean gone ? Doth His promise fail for ever more ? Hath He forgotten to be gracious ? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies ? Such may be her condition , that all humane probability of her recovery may be gone , and the faithful have nothing but a bare haire ofhop to hold by , or a small plank ofa promise , & that also under the waters of contrary dispensations , to stand upon ; and so far may the delivery be out of sight , that , when it beginneth to dawne , they may be as those that dream Ps. 126. vers . 1. 10. Yet withall it is considerable , that notwithstanding of all the opposition , made by the Devil and his Instruments , against the Church , she hath been a burning bush , and yet not consumed : though she hath been many a time afflicted , and that from her youth , yet her adversaries have not prevailed against her : the plowers have often plowed upon her back , and made long their furrowes ; yet still the righteous Lord hath cut the cordes of the wicked Psa. 129. vers . 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. Many an arrow have they shot at her ; yet mount Zion stands , and she hath her Towers , Bulwarcks and Palaces Psal. 48. She is founded upon the rock of ages , and the ports of hell cannot prevail against her Mat. 16. No Weapon , that is formed against Israel , shall prosper Esai . 54 : 17. If these particulars were rightly thought upon and improven , we might be helped thereby to a life of Faith and Hope , both in reference to the sad condition of the Church in general , and also in reference to our own particular suffering condition . And first , In reference to the Church , we may from these particulars see ground of giving a check to our Inferences from the Lords's present Dispensations with His Church , savouring of Unbeleef , Despondency , Discouragment and Hoplesness . We see , it is true , the Church over-whelmed with sorrow , fitting as a widow , and her teares upon her face : We see her looking pale , as if death were in her face , all beauty and liveliness gone , her Enemies multipliying and prospering daily , and the Church still sincking more and more in the sea of sorrow and distress . Many , it is true , are ready to say , can this be the true Church , and these the real people of God , whose life is thus constantly made bitter with renewed stormes and tempests of adversity ? Can this indeed be the work of God , which is thus cast down to the ground , and trampled under-foot ? Would the Lord stand by and look on , when His spouse ( if she were so indeed ) is thus abused by the vilest of men ? Would He suffer His Name and Work to be thus blasphemed ? True , all this and much more may be said , and be done against His Church , and she remaine the true Church of Christ ; and His work be His work . It hath been so before now ; and there is no new thing under the Sun. And the right thoughts of what is said would prevent the trouble , that such Atheistical and perplexing thoughts necessarily cause , if they be admitted and fomented . Hath not the Church of Christ been a militant Church from the beginning ? hath there not been a constant enmity betwixt the seed of the Serpent , and the seed of the woman ? Is it any new thing to see the Church driven to the wilderness , and tossed in the sea of afflictions ? Is it any un-heard-of thing , that the Church must be tossed betwixt winde and wave , and have stormes and tides and all against her ? Is it any new thing to see the Church , even while within the sight of the haven of an happy and glorious Reformation , driven back to sea againe ? What ? hath she not oftentimes seemed to on-lookers to be sunck ? have not false friends many a time sought to drive her upon rocks , or cut her cables , that she might be left to the mercy of the seas ; or to make lecks , that she might sinck to the ground ? Is outward prosperity the mark of the true Church ? No : let Antichrist make it a mark ofhis , seing so the Papists will. The Church of Christ must be the speckled bird ; She must have many horns in her side : Her rest and triumphant state is above ; though , it is true , she may have some breathing times , some lucide intervals , and a more glorious day , when the Vial is poured forth on the Seat of the Beast , Euphrates dried up , and the Kings of the East brought in , and when Babylon the great is fallen , Gog and Magog destroyed , and the Beast and the false Prophet cast into the lake of brimstone ; but then the end of her warfare will be nigh . Againe would we call to mind , how often the Church hath been very low , and her Enemies singing a triumph , as if they had gotten an everlasting victory , and as if they were assured , that the Name of Israel should be no more mentioned ; and yet the Lord hath hithertill saved , and hath brought that broken Vessel saife to land . Notwithstanding of all that the red Dragon the Hethenish Emperours did in persecuting , with their bloudy massacres , the Christian Church , the first three hundered Years ; yet the Church of Christ , grew and multiplied and spread over all the Empire . And though the Antichristian abomination did prevail in the Church , and the woman was made to flee to the wilderness 42 moneths , or 1260 dayes , or Years , from the Year 660 or 666 ( as some compute ) untill the Reformation 1550. or 1560. Yet notwithstanding of this long desolation and darkness , dureing which time the Gentiles possessed the outter court , the Lord in his own good time , in the dayes of Luther and afterward , made light break up , and made the world see , that His Church was not yet destroyed . And though now Antichrist be thinking to possesse the outter Court againe , and to destroy the Reformation & to make even the lands , that were by solemne Covenant devouted unto Christ , as His peculiar Inheritance , become lands of graven images , and brought under his tyrannie : yet the Lord liveth , & we are to waite in faith & hop and to possess our souls in patience ; for now is the faith & patience of the Saints ; & to beleeve , that in due time , He , who hath begun to poure forth the vials of His wrath upon that Antichristian cursed conspiracy , will also make an end : & in His own good time shall poure forth the Vial on the Beast Revel . 16. vers . 10. And the judgment of the great whore shall come , that fitteth upon many waters , with whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication , even the woman , that sitteth upon a scarlet-coloured beast , full of Names of Blasphemy , having seven heads , and ten horns , arayed in purple and scarlet coloure , and decked with gold and precious stones and pearles , having a golden Cup in her hand , full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication , upon whose fore-head is a Name written , MYSTERY , BABYLON THE GREAT , THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH . And which is drunken with the bloud of the Saints , and with the bloud of the Martyres of Jesus . Which is manifestly interpreted by the Spirit of God ( Revel . 17. vers . 8. to the end , ) to be the Papal Church and State , sitting at Rome and commanding all . Wherefore it becometh all , who love their lives , to take notice of that word Revel . 18. vers . 4 , 5. — Come out of her my people , that ye be not partakers of her sins , and that ye receive not of her plagues , &c. for the day is coming , when it shall be said ( as it is vers . 6 , 7 , 8 , &c. ) Rewarde her , even as she rewarded you , and double unto her double according to her worksin the cup , which she hath filled , fill to her double . How much she hath glorified her self and lived delicious●… , so much torment and sorrow give her ; for she saith in her heart , I sit a queen , and am no widow , and shall see no Sorrow . Therefore shall her plagues come in one day , and mourning , and famine , and she shall be utterly burnt with fire ; for strong is the Lord God , who judgeth her . Let us live in hope , that the day shall come , when what followeth there shall be fulfilled , and it shall be said , as vers . 20. Rejoice over her , thou Heaven , and ye Holy Apostles and Prophets ; for God hath avenged you on her . And it shall be found true , that is said vers . 21. And a mighty Angel took up a stone , like a great milstone , and cast it into the Sea , saying , Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down , and shall be found no more at all . And that shall be verified , which is foretold Chap. 19. A great voice shall be heard of much people , saying Allelujah , Salvation and Glory , and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God : For true and righteous are His judgments ; for He hath judged the great whore , which did corrupt the Earth with her fornications , and hath avenged the Blood of His Servants at her hand , vers . 1 , 2. Next , This Confideration may be improven by particular Beleevers , in reference to their particular Exercises and Afflictions : For hence they might inferre , 1. That they have no cause to complean , but reason rather to lay their hand upon their mouth , what ever way the Lord be pleased to exercise them , and what ever Affliction ▪ He lay upon their loines ; for this hath been the ordinary Lot of the Church ; and seing the Lord thinketh good to exercise her with sore and sharpe trials , in all Ages : Why may He not also exercise them , in Particular ? 2. That they have yet less cause to compleane or be dissatisfied , seing the Church , their Common Mother , hath met with sadder and sorer Crosses and Distresses , than they have met with , or can meet with : It is a sadder sight to see the Mother put to the door , and sitting in a Wilderness , weeping and refusing to be comforted ; than to see a Child whipped . 3. That they have reason to rejoice , in their sad Lot , upon this account , that they are not in that solitary and lamentable Condition alone ; their Mother is suffering with them . Are they in a Wilderness , so is she : are they sitting in the dust , so is their Mother sitting with them . 4. That by this they see , they are no Bastards , but Children of the House , suffering with the Mother , and no other wayes dealt with , than the Mother is . 5. That Crosses and a Course of Affliction are no evidence of the Lords not owning or looking upon them as His Children ; as corruption and unbeleefe would prompt them to inferre and conclude : Afflictions can no more say , that they are not the Children of God ; than Afflictions on the Church can say , that she is not the Church of Christ , nor His Spouse . 6. That they may comfort themselves , in their Troubles , with the Mother her Consolations ; and as it were lye in her lap or bosome , and partake of her cordials , and feed with her upon the same promises , until the night be over , and the day dawn , and the time of the singing of the birds come , and the voice of the turtle be heard in the land , and until the Beleever's God and the Church her Husband wipe all teares away from the face both of Mother and Child . CONSIDERATION . XIV . Other precious Beleevers have been Afflicted so , if not worse . THough such , as are ease in Zion , think little of all the Trouble and Anguish , that the Afflicted are put unto ; and not a few prove like Iobs Friends Iob. 6 : v. 15. &c. though to him , that is afflicted Pity should be showne vers . 14. Yet such , as are under the Affliction , can subscribe to the truth of that , which the Wise Man hath Prov. 15 : 15. All the dayes of the afflicted are evil : for , so long as the Affliction endureth , they are ready to think , that their Condition groweth worse and worse daily . Nay , ordinarily Affliction so seazeth upon them , that they cannot perceive the Grounds of Comfort , though hard at hand , and can make little use of Cordials , though within their reach . A time of Affliction is such a thoughtful time , that they are as a Ship at Sea , tossed with Tempests and contrary Tides . Among other disturbing thoughts , this is one , How is this ( think they with themselves ) that the Lord hath pitched upon me , and singled me out , from all the rest , or the most part of His Children , at least , whom I know , and set me up for His mark , at which He is shooting His Arrowes ? My case is not like the ordinary case of others ; there is something extraordinary in my case : I know , that His Followers have been in Affliction , but their Affliction was nothing comparable to mine : Were all things laid together , my Affliction would be found to be of another kind : Were my Affliction but such as others have had , I should be able to bear it ; but there being something Odde and Uncouth in mine , I cannot choose but be troubled . Though He only , who comforteth those , that are cast down , can comfort such , 2 Cor. 6 : vers . 7. Yet he can do it by unlikely meanes , and blesse a few words to this end . We shall therefore only propose a few things , that may serve to make a Diversion , as to these perplexing and disturbing thoughts ; and reduce them to these few Heads . First , We shall propose a few Generals , which such afflicted persons would take notice of . Secondly . Shew how , possibly , their case is not so singular , as they conceive it to be . Thirdly , We shall show , how little cause they would , possibly , befound to have , to speak thus , if all things were well considered . Fourthly , We shall show , how that , seing they will take notice of others , and compare their case with theirs , they may and should improve the example of others , better than thus . As to the First , let these Particulars be considered . 1. It is ordinary almost with every one to be accounting their own case and condition , in Affliction , singular ; and to say , as much as those of whom we are now speaking . Every one feeleth that best , which is neerest to himself : they are more sensible of their own paine , than of the pain of others ; and paine felt is more touching , than what is understood by the report of others only . Hence every one is ready to conclude , that their own case is worst . And therefore this should be looked upon , as no strange thing . 2. Every bodies Temper and Disposition not being alike , some may be obnoxious to distempers and diseases , that others are not much acquainted with ; and some by their Folly and Intemperancy may bring peculiar diseases upon themselves ; and when such must have peculiar Physick , adapted to their diseases , should they complean of the Physician ; that he giveth them not such gentle and easie Medicines , as he doth to others ? So the compleaner here may have brought upon himself some uncouth spiritual distemper , which calleth for some Afflictions , more than ordinary , to cure the same : Should they then be anxious to finde out a precedent , or one that hath been so handled , as they are ? Ought they not rather , to reasone thus with themselves , doth the Lord purge and afflict me more than ordinary , then it is like my peccant humors , & my corruptions , have been more than ordinary . 3. Be it so , that thy case is in some respects singular , what knoweth thou , if there shall be two found , in all particulars , or in all considerable circumstances , every way alike ? May not the Lord hereby declare and preach forth his Infinite Wisdom , in guiding so many Sones and Daughters to glory , through so many several Kindes of Trials , Exercises , Afflictions and Temptations ? Will it not be much to His Glory , when every one of the Redeemed shall , beside their wondering at the gracious Work of Redemption , common to them all , have each something peculiar to himself , raising his Admiration ? As it commends the wonderful Workmanshipe of God , that among so many millions of faces of Men , two shall hardly be found , betwixt which no difference shall be discovered ; so , may not this commend the Work of Gods Providence ? 4. And what if , as to those Particulars , wherein they think their owne case singular , it be otherwayes indeed ? Have they had through acquaintance with all the Saints of God , in all ages ? Why then do they speak so confidently ? 5. But be it so , as they say ; yet they should know , that they are in the hands of a well skilled Physician , and of a tender Father , who knoweth their Constitution , their Distemper , and their Strength ; and will make the Physick no stronger , than He knoweth they can bear , and will work , and do them good . And this should cause them forget their complaints . 6. All that people say , while under a distemper , must not be taken for certaine . Iob had many expressions , while under the Affliction , that he would not owne or approve of , afterward . As to the Second Head , that we may come neerer their case , what if it be found , that even as to these same Particulars , upon the account of which they account their case singular , others , of whom we read in Scripture , have been in the like case before ? We shall therefore mentione some Particulars , which people in Affliction use to aggravat their case from , and because of , look upon their case as singular , 1. Some may think their case singular upon this account , That they never knew much in experience what prosperity meant ; their Life hath been nothing but a Life of Exercises , Temptations and Trouble . Such would know , that some therefore would possibly think , they might bear Afflictions the better , being so accustomed therewith , and inured thereunto , and trained up at that School . But however , they erre , if they think , that this case is singular , or that none but they have been so exercised ; not to mention our Lord Jesus , whose Life was a Life of bitterness , as we saw above ; see one Instance of Heman Psalm . 88 : vers . 15. I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up . His Trouble and Affliction was not of Yesterday ; He was under it from his youth : 2. Others , it may be , will complaine , and think their Affliction so much the sadder , that they have not been much enured with , nor trained up at the School of Affliction ; & that if they had been used with Trouble , they would have thought this , that now lyeth upon them , the more light and easy to be born ; but now , having been so long in prosperity , and at ease , the Affliction coming is more terrible , and seemeth more insupportable . Oh what is man , that will thus abuse and pervert all things ; and can be satisfied with almost nothing ! Others would look upon this Dispensation as gentle and easie , and as a great favour , and yet what some would account a mitigating ingredient , others will look upon , as a great aggravation . Some would say , that such were not much to be pitied , who have had such a long Summer-day of prosperity : who would think much , if a Shipe , that hath for many dayes had a faire winde , should towards the end of her Voyage , meet with a contrary blast ; But the truth is , so rebellious are our hearts , that none of Gods Dispensations with us , can satisfie us ; and every Body is better pleased with anothers Lot , than with his owne ; and therefore we are so ready to choose any condition , but what God is pleased to carve out unto us ; and we think every bodies Affliction is more easie , than our owne ; and we could bear any Lot better , than what we are called to bear . May it not be thought , that such as compleane upon this account , would complaine much more , if it were with them , as it was with Asaph Psal. 73 : v. 14. All the day long have I been plagued and chastenedevery morning ? However such as cry-out , because after a long time of prosperity , they meet with adversity , would know that their case , in this , is not singular ; as Iobs instance can evince , who was not much acquainted with adversity and affliction , till Satan began to pursue him ; but dwelt at ease , and in prosperity Iob. 16 : 12. I was at ease , but He hath broken me asunder . 3. Some possibly will look upon their case as sad and singular , because the Crosse , under which they stand , seemeth so heavy , that they see not how they shall be able to stand under it . As if , forsooth , every one almost were not ready to say the same ; How few are there , who look upon their own Affliction , as the lightest and easiest ? David told us , Psal. 6 : vers . 3 that his Soul was sore vexed and Psal. 55 : vers . 4. that his heart was sore pained within him . Was not the Israelites case in Egypt hard , when their lives were made bitter with hard bondage Exod 1 : 14. and they were made to sigh by reason of the bondage Exod. 2 : 21 ? Was it not sad with Paul and his Companions , when he saith , they were pressed out of measure , and above strength , in so much , that they despaired even of life 2 Cor. 1 : v. 8. We hear of some , who have come out of great Tribulation , Revelation 7 : v. 14. 4. Some possiblie will account their condition singular , in that it is not with one or two rodes , that they are chastened , but with many , and with several sorts , their Affliction is complicated , and many are twisted together ; whence they are ready to say , That none was ever so visited and afflicted , as they are . But the case of Iob is enough to confute this mistake . Hath God taken away thy goods , and made thee of a rich man , a poor man ? So did He to Iob , whose riches were great ; for he had Seven Thousand Sheep , Thr●… Thousand Camels , Five Hundred Yoke of Oxen , Five Hundred She Asses Iob. 1 : vers . 3. Hath God taken away thy pleasant Children , in whom thou tookest delight ? So did He take away Iob's Seven Sons and Three Daughters , and that in one houre , and that by an unusual manner , he neither seeing them die , nor getting one word of them , before they died . Read his book , and see what a multitude of evils came upon him at once . See a short summe Chap. 19 : vers . 8 , — 21. He hath fenced up my way , that I cannot passe , and He hath set darkness in my Paths , He hath stript me of my glory , and taken the Crown from my Head. He hath destroyed me on every side , and I am gone , and mine hope hath He removed , like a tree . He hath also kindled His wrath against me , and He counteth me unto Him , as one of His Enemies . His Troups come together , and raise up their way against me , and encamp round about my Tabernacle . He hath put my Brethren far from me , and mine acquaintaince are verily estranged from me . My Kinsfolk have failed , and my familiar friends have forgotten me . They that dwell in mine house , and mine maidens account me for a stranger ; I am an alien in their sight . I called my servant and he gave me no answere , I intreated him with my mouth . My breath is strange to my wife : though I intreated for the Childrens sake of mine own body . Yea young Children despised m●… : I arose , and they spoke against me . All my inward friends abhorred me , and they whom I loved are turned against me . My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh ; and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth . Paul 2 Cor. 6 : 4 5 , 8 , 9 , 10. giveth us a catalogue of calamities of various kindes , that he and others did meet with : such as , Afflictions , Necessities , Distresses , Stripes , Imprisonments , Tumults , Labours , Watchings , Fastings , Dishonour , Evil reports , accounted Deceivers , Vnknown , Dying , Chastned , Sorrowful , Po●…r and having nothing . And againe he giveth us an account of what befell himself , 2 Cor. 11. vers . 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27. — In stripes above measure , in prisons more frequent , in deaths oft ; of the jewes five times received I fourty stripes save one ; Thrice was I beaten with rods , once was I stonned ; Thrice I suffered shipwrack , a night and a da●… have I been in the depth ; in jurneying often , in perrils of waters , in perils of robbers , in perils by mine own countrey-men , in perrils by the Heathen , in perils in the city , in perils in the wilderness , in perils in the sea , in perils among false Brethren , in weariness , in painfulness , in watchings often , in hunger and thirst , in fastings often , in cold and nakedness &c. Who can say , that his condition runneth parallel with this ? And if not , have they any cause to complaine , and cry out , never man was so hardly dealt with , as they are ? See also what hardships those did undergo , of whom we read Hebr. 11. vers . 36 ; 37 , 38. They had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings , yea moreover of bonds and Imprisonments , they were sawne asunder , were tempted , were slaine with the sword , they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins , being destitute , afflicted , tormented , &c. Can they say , that they are more hardly dealt with , than these were ? If not , is not their complaint very groundless ? 5. Some possibly will account their case singular , in that afflictions attend them , as the shadow doth the body ; where ever they be , and whithersoever they go , Crosses , Troubles and Temptations are their constant Companions . But do they verily think , that none before them , hath had as good cause to speak thus , as they ? Sure , the Catalogue of calamities , that Paul reckoneth up , as we heard lately , saith , he had such a lot , before them , He met with trouble both by sea and land , in cities , in wildernesses , by his own countrey-men , by strangers , and by false Brethren ; in some places was he scourged , in some places beaten with rods , in some places stoned , in some places imprisoned &c. so that a short view of his life will put this beyond question . And himself said Act. 20. 23. that in every citie bonds and afflictions did abide him . 6. Some may possibly think , that their sufferings are so much the sadder , that they reach not their goods , but their good name , and credite , and that without all coloure of ground . Yet , for as heavy as this appeareth to be ; it is no new or uncouth thing . It is true , it may prove sad to some , who are tender of their name and credite , and would glory thereof ; but how sad so ever it be to them , they must not say , that their case , as to this , is singular . Wo to you ( said Christ to his Disciples and followers Luk. 6. vers 26 , ) When all men speak well of you ; for so did their Fathers unto the false Prophets . And againe , Mat. 5. vers . 11 , 22. Blessed are ye , when men shall revile you , — And shall say all manner of evil against you falsly , for my sake . Rejoice , and be exceeding glade ; for great is your reward in heaven ; for so persecuted they the Prophets , which were before you . So that this was the common lot of the Prophets , & was to be the lot of the Apostles , & accordingly Paul tels us , 1 Cor. 4. vers . 9 , 11 , 12 , 13. — That they were made a spectacle unto the world , and to Angels , and to men ; and he addeth , Even unto this present houre , we both hunger and thirst , and are naked and are buffeted , and have no certaine dwelling place , and labour working with our own hands ; being reviled , we blesse ; being persecuted , we suffer it ; being defamed , we entreat ; we are made as the filth of the world , and the off-scouring of all things , to this day . Was not here a suffering of an high degree , both in body and in name ? So 2 Cor. 6. vers . 8. As deceivers , and yet true . So were they accounted , the chiefe of Traitors , such as turned the world upside down Act. 17. vers . 6. He was accounted , the man , that taught all men every where against the People , and the Law , and the Temple Act. 21. vers . 28. Elijah was called the Troubler of Israel 1 King. 18. vers . 17. We heard above , how Christ himself suffered in His Name . So that this must be no rare or uncouth thing . 7. It may be an heavy affliction to some , possibly , to be persecuted by their own Countrey-men , Neighbours , and Relations . But was not Christ so ? was not Paul so exercised 2 Cor. 11. vers . 26. Were not the Thessalonians so afflicted 1 Thes. 2 : vers . 14 ? Knew not David this in experience Psal 55. vers . 12 , 13. And Iob also , when not only his Friends and domestick Servants & neighbours carried so unfriendly and untenderly with him ; but even his own wife , that lay in his bosome , had no other consolatory counsel to give him , but to take his leave or last good night ( as we say ) of God , and so be destroyed out of hand ; for thus the sentence may be interpreted , which in the Original is , blesse God and die ; as we use to blesse , or wish well to them , of whom we are taking our leave ; and so this benedicere , is , as it were , valedicere : Her saying blesse was as much , as if she had said , Bid Him fare well . 8. Some may think their crosse heavy upon this consideration , that they have to do with men , who know no Justice , and walk not either by Law , or Equity ; but do what they please . But neither is this any strange thing ; for not to speak of our Lord Jesus Christ , who was thus dealt with ; what Law or Justice did Iohn Baptist meet with , when upon the desire of a light dancing Damsel , his head was cut off in prison , without so much as a forme of process ? What Law or equity acted the confused rabble , that rofe up against Paul , at Ephesus Act. 19 ? By what Law was he and Silas beaten openly and uncondemned at Philippi Act. 16. vers . 22 , 23 , 37 ? By what colour of law , was he drawn out of the Temple , and almost killed by the Jewes Act 21 ? 9. If it adde to the griefe of any , when they consider , that such as persecute and oppose them , are not openly profane , and wicked Persons ; but such as are accounted good and sober persons ; and such as may be judged to have the grace of God in them : It would be remembered , that howbeit this indeed be a sad Ingredient in the cup of affliction , & may make the trouble heavier , than otherwise it would be ; yet it is no uncouth thing : Iob's friends were good , sober , understanding Persons , though in a great mistake as to the application of their discourse unto Iob's state . Paul did meet with some thing like this Act. 13. vers . 30. at Antioch , when the jewes stirred up devout and honourable women against him . The false Teachers , that on all oc casions opposed Paul , were not profane , wicked Persons ; for they had transformed themselves into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11 : v●…rs . 13. We read also of some , that preached Christ of envy and contention , supposing thereby to adde affliction unto Paul's bonds . Phil. 1. vers . 15 , 16. 10. Some may possibly think much to be put to open shame , and made a gazing stock , and to be exposed to open contempt , and ludibrie ; and indeed , that may be a sad affliction to some noble and generous spirit , and heavier than death it self . But yet it is no strange thing ; for we read of some Hebr. 10. vers . 33. who were theatrized , brought to open scaffolds , and put on pillories , and made publick spectacles , and exposed to open mockery . So Hebr. 11. vers . 36. some had trial of cruel mockings : Was not Iob made a by-word of the people , and their song Iob 17 : 6. and 30. vers . 9. Several other things of this nature might be named , but I shall haste unto the third particular , and shew , how little ground there would be for such complaints and outcryes , if all were known and rightly considered : and to this end I shall mentione these particulars . 1. When Peter is writting to a scattered company , living as strangers , in a strange land , he saith unto them 1 Pet. 4. vers . 12. Beloved , think it not strange , concerning the fiery trial , which is to try you , as though some strange thing hapned unto you . Though they were scattered thorow many Countreyes ' and were to meet with trials , yea and fierie trials ; yet he would not have them troubled thereat , or look upon it , as any uncouth accident , befalling them : teaching us thereby to look otherwayes upon the sharpest of trials and exercises , that we meet with , than we readily do ; and not to think , that we are worse dealt with , than others , or that God taketh some uncouth un-heard-of course with us . 2. What if it be found , after impartial trial , that there have been many , who have drunk deeper , by many degrees , of the cup , than they have done ; and that their affliction , under which they groan and cry-out so much , is nothing comparable to what others of the Lord's worthies have been exercised with ? Will not this appear by an impartial view of the Instances adduced ? And seing their crosse is light , in comparison of what some dear to the Lord have had , is there or can there be any ground for their so complaining ? 3. Will it not be found , that such as complaine thus , dar not compare themselves with others , who have been as sore afflicted , if not sorer , than they , as to Grace , Sanctification , Communion with God & c ? Will they arrogat to themselves that honourable Epithet , which the Lord gave David , a Man according to God's own heart ; or Iob , a perfect man and upright , and one that feared God , and eshewed evil ? And if not , is there ground for their complaint , when God is dealing no worse with them , than He did with those , yea is dealing with them in a far more gentle manner ? 4. What if it be found , that such as have been visited with the same affliction , with which they are visited , and under which they groan so much , have not provoked the Lord , so much as they have done ? And will not their complainings then be found most unreasonable and groundless ? 5. What if it be found also true & undeniable , that those who have met with the same calamities , have been more usefull in their generation , than they are , or ever were ? If God spare not the green tree , shall the drye tree , that is sapless and barren , doing little more than cumbering the ground , complaine , that it is cut down ? We should be content with the same lot , that both the Prophets and Apostles had . It needed not grieve the Philippians , that they had the same conflict , which they saw in Paul , and heard to be in him . Phil. 1. last . The last particular , is to shew a better way of improving the example of others , who have been afflicted before us , than to take occasion therefrom to complaine of God's dealing , as if it were worse with us , than with them : to wit , to be considering their Christian carriage under their afflictions , that we may be ashamed of our deportment , and may be stirred up to follow their example , in what is truely commendable , and is for that end held forth to us in Scripture : many particulars of this kind might be mentioned , we shall name only a few . 1. We finde them patient under the crosse , and their instance proposed to us for imitation , in this respect : So saith the Apostle Iames Cap. 5. vers . 10 , 11. Take , my Brethren , the Prophets , who have spoken in the Name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction , and of patience . Behold , we account them happy which endure ; yee have heard of the patience of Iob , and have seen the end of the Lord , that the Lord is very pitiful , and of tender mercy . If the carriage of the Prophets under the crosse , and particularly of Iob , were narrowly searched , it would be found , that there was sometime too much Impatience , but the Spirit of the Lord would not have us poreing upon that , but to take special notice of their patience ; and in this , to look upon them , as a copie , set before us ; for albeit there was much Impatience to be observed in Iob's carriage ; yet his Patience is taken notice of by the Spirit of God , and we are bidden look to that , as if we had never heard of one of his impatient expressions . 2. We finde them looking especially to God's hand in the matter , and overlooking all Instruments , adoring and reverencing the holy Providence and Disposal of God , laying their hand upon their mouth , and giving God the glory : and in this we should study to be followers of them . David said Psal. 39. vers . 9. I was dumb , I opened not my mouth , because thou didst it : And when Shimei railed upon him , and cursed , he said , let him curse , for the Lord hath said unto him , curse David , and Iob said , the Lord hath given and taken , blessed be His name . 3. We finde them following their duty , notwithstanding of all the trouble and calamity which they did meet with ; Paul , notwithstanding of all that befel him , went on , and minded his work ; when he was persecuted in one place , he went to another , and there preached the Gospel : And in this we should follow them ; for , for this end , are these things left on record . 4. We finde them so far from fretting and repineing at the Lord's Dispensations with them , in suffering wicked instruments to afflict them and persecute them , for righteousness ; that they therein rejoice , as the Apostles did Act. 5. vers . 41. And Paul glorified in these his infirmities 2 Cor. 12. And it is commendable to follow them here . 5. We finde them likewise , notwithstanding of all their Sufferings , standing fast in the faith , adhereing to their principles , refusing deliverance upon any sinful or base termes . Heb. 11. vers . 35. Others were tortured , not accepting deliverance , that they might obtean a better resurrection : And it were good , if we were considering them to this end , that in this we might follow their footsteps . 6. We finde them acting faith on God , in the mean time , Heman Psal. 88. was in a very sad case , yet for all that was come upon him , he would not quite his interest in God ; but beginneth that sad Psalm thus , O Lord God of my salvation . So did Iob likewise act faith on God , Chap. 19. 7. We finde them exercising Hop , for as desperat-like as their case would seem to be ; as David Psal. 38. the beginning whereof sheweth that his case was then very sad ; yet V. 15 , he crieth out , In the Lord do I hope . 8. We finde them taking with their iniquity , whereby they provoked God , to deal so with them , or desireous to understand what is the ground of God's controversie : so the Church Mica . 7. vers . 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord , because I have sinned against him . See likewise Lam. 3. vers . 39 , 42. And Iob said , Chap. 10. ver . 2. I will say unto God , do not condemne me ; shew me , wherefore thou contendest with me . If we were thus taking notice of the commendable deportment of other worthies , when they were in Afflictions , to the provoking of our selves unto the like carriage , we would finde it a more profitable exercise , than to be , in our mindes , aggravating our lot , beyond the lot of those before us , and imagining that God dealeth worse with us , than He hath done with others , before us . CONSIDERATION . XV. Suffering Christianly is a special gift of God. MAny look upon Suffering for the Name of Christ , with an evil eye , and with prejudice ; and because of the misapprehensions they have of it , they cannot complye with it ; whereas a right view of it would make it less terrible , yea more lovely and desireable . The Apostle , writting to the Philippians Chap. 1. vers . 29. giveth them ground to think well of the cross of Christ , when he said , for unto you it is given , in the behalfe of Christ , not only to beleeve on Him , but also to suffer for His sake . He had been exhorting them , in the foregoing Verses , that they would stand fast in one spirit , with one mind , striving together for the faith of the Gospel , and in nothing be terrified by their adversaries : and after he had told them , that the opposition of the adversaries was an evident token to them of Perdition , & that their own standing & withstanding was an evident token to themselves of Salvation , and that of God ; He subjoineth this ground of encouragment ; that it was granted unto them , as a special favour , and that in the behalfe of Christ , not only to beleeve on Him , but also to suffer for His sake . In which words , these Three Particulars are chiefly considerable , in order to our present designe . 1. That suffering , for the sake of Christ , is a special gift of God , and not a thing that meer natural Strength and Courage can reach . 2. That it is a gift purchased by Christ , and given on His behalfe , or for His sake ; and not for any thing in us . 3. That it is a gift , in some respect , beyond that excellent gift of faith . But before I speak particularly to these points , I shall premit these three things considerable . 1. Though to bear any crosse , or crossing dispensation , outward or inward , in a christian acceptable manner , be beyond the power of nature , and natures strength , and is the pure gift of God : yet here we are mainely to speak of that Trouble , Afflictions and Crosses , which the followers of Christ are put to suffer by wicked Men , and for avowing of His truth and Interest , of what measure or degree so ever it be ; for , this is that which is here understood , and whereof the Apostle is speaking , as the forgoing and following Verses cleare . 2. Nor do we hereby understand every Trouble , that wicked persons create unto the Godly ( though unto a Christian deportment , in such a case , the special grace and gift of God be required : ) but of that , which is properly for the Name of Christ , for adhereing to His truth and cause : for of this doth the Apostle speak , when he mentioneth suffering for Christs sake . 3. Nor do we speak of Suffering here , simply considered ; but of suffering , accompained with its Christian Concomitants , or of Suffering in a Christian , humble ; self denied , handsome and cleanly manner ; this being the Suffering , which is to be called the gift of God ; and not that , which may be undergone , upon a carnal account , and may flow from a carnal Principle , and be intended fo●… some carnal end . Having premised these things , we come to speak to the first point , and shew , That suffering in a Christian manner , for the Name of Christ , is the meer gift of God , and beyond the reach of all natural Strength and Courage : Which will be sufficiently clear , if we but take a view of such particulars , as are requisite unto a Christian way of suffering for Christs sake , some only of which we shall content ourselves here to name : as 1. To the end , that one suffer as a Christian , for the sake of Christ , it is requisite , that he be a Christian indeed , a beleever in Christ indeed ; for a man in nature can act nothing , as a Christian , as wanting the divine principle of all Christian Actions : This is imported in the Text , now before us , where the gift of faith in Christ is supposed as existent , before the gift of suffering . Now it is beyond all debate with the orthodox , that to beleeve in Christ , and to become a Christian indeed , is beyond the reach of nature ; and the same Text here evinceth faith to be given of God ; so also is it expresly said to be the gift of God , and not of ourselves Ephes. 2. 8. And therefore , this Christian suffering for the sake of Christ , must be the special gift of God. 2. Unto suffering Christianly it is requisite , not only that the sufferer be aBeleever ; but also , that faith be acting on God , through Christ , and resting upon the promises of outgate , and of an everlasting recompence , and of throw-bearing , and the other objects of faith , necessary to be eyed , in such a day ; for if this be not , even the beleever may fainte and fall backward , as we see in Peter : Now this present acting of faith being the gift of God , through His grace and influences , it is manifest , that Christian suffering , unto which this is requisite , must be also His gift . 3. Hope is also requisite unto a Christian suffering ; for hereby must the sufferers head be born-up , when he is swimeing thorow the sea of Persecution ; it is the Souls anchor , which must not be wanting in a storme ; it is his helmet , and must not be a missing in the day of battel . Now this hope being the special gift of God , and his work 1 Pet. 1 : 3. 2 Thes. 2. vers . 13. it is manifest , that Christian suffering , unto which this hope is so necessary , must be His special gift . 4. Patience is likewise hereunto requisite , for without it , there will be nothing but wearying , fainting , fretting , repineing , and sinful longing to be from under the Crosse ; hence there is so great need of patience , Heb. 10. vers . 36. Luk. 21. vers . 19. Iam. 1. vers . 4. 2 Pet. 1. vers . 6. And it is so much pressed Iam. 5. v. 10 , 11. 1 Tim. 6 : 11. And commended 1 Thes. 1. vers . 3. 2 Thes. 1. vers . 4. Revel . 2 : 2 , 9. Now this patience is not the work of nature , but His work , who is the God of all patience Rom. 15. vers . 5. And therefore Christian suffering must be His work and gift also . 5. Humble submission and calmness of spirit is also requisite unto a right way of suffering ; for a proud , haughty , unquiet and undaunted spirit , will never take a right lift of the crosse : and this must also be wrought by the free and powerful grace of God , and must be of Him , from whom every good gift , and every perfect gift cometh down ; even of the Father of lights Iam. 1 : 17. And therefore , Christian suffering , unto which this is so requisite , must be of Him also . 6. Such , as will suffer Christianly for Christ , must have Courage , Boldness , and Christian Resolution ; as accounting it their glory and honour to suffer for His sake , and as remembering , that as , on the one hand , their cheerful , couragious and valiant suffering for the Interest of Jesus , is no small encouragment to others to adhere to Him , and to His cause ; so , upon the other hand , to suffer discouragedly , and with a fainting heart , is no small disadvantage to the cause , Enemies being thereby more hardened , and friends discouraged . And this Courage and fixed Resolution must only be had from God , Nature will not fournish this . They must be strong in the Lord , and in the power of His might Ephes. 6. vers . 10. And as this is from the Lord alone , so must the grace of Suffering Christianly be . 7. He , who would suffer as a Christian , must have his Conscience sprinkled , God must be pacified , all quarrels must be taken out of the way ; for the sense and apprehension of an angrie God , and sin and guilt looking the man in the face , will much dash , discourage and fainte him , in his sufferings , Now it is unquestionable , that God's manifesting himself satisfied and well pleased with the man , is His own free gift ; it is His proper work to sprinkle consciences from dead works ; and so must this Christian suffering be from Him , which dependeth hereupon . 8. When one is questioned for the Cause of Christ , before learned and able States-men and Politicians , or before learned Church-men , he will have need of something , wherewith to answere his Accusers ; and so be in case to give a glorious Testimony to the Truth , and the cause of Christ , otherwise the adversaries will think , they have cause to triumph , when he is made speachless ( though that Christian Martyr-woman , who said , she could not disput for Christ , but she could burn for Him , did sufficiently refell all the Arguments of her Adversaries , which were but meer Sophismes ) especially if the maine crime be coloured-over with some alleiged personal fault ; In this , or the like cases , it is necessary , that the accused have pertinent , clear and pungent reasons of his actions , in readiness , whether to refell what is falsely alleiged ; or to defend what is just and righteous . Now whence shall this be had , or from whom is it to be expected , but from Him , who hath promised that it shall be given them , in that hour Mat. 10. vers . 19. But when they deliver you up , take no thought , how , or what ye shall speak ; for it shall be given you , in that same houre , what ye shall speak . And therefore Christian suffering , unto which this is so necessary , must be given of God also . 9. Such as are suffering for Christ's sake , had need to be very fixed , stayed , and stedfast , in adhereing to their Principles , as unshaken with any winde of temptation ; for cedeing and yeelding , in matters of a Testimony , dishonoureth the Lord , whose truth is questioned ; encourageth and confirmeth Enemies , and stumbleth and marreth the confidence of others ; therefore such as would suffer aright , must stand to the truth , and not yeeld in an hoofe , nor sell or give away the least point of truth . And this fixed , and stedfast adhereing to the truth , is of God alone . He who stablisheth us in Christ , is God 2 Cor. 1 : vers . 21. And when Paul is pressing the Thessalonians to stand fast 2 Thes. 2. vers . 15. He addeth Vers. 16 , 17. Now our Lord Iesus Christ himself , and God even our father — Comfort your hearts , and stablish you , in every good word and work . And therefore so must the Christian suffering be of Him alone . 10. A Christian sufferer for Christ must have a Christian love to Christ ; for it is this that maketh the sufferers not count their life dear to the death for Christ , and maketh them hazard all for Him ; they love him better , than they love Father , or Mother , or any thing else in a world , and therefore are content to lose all for Him , and His sake . Now , love is of God , who is love . 1 Ioh. 4. vers . 7 , 8. And it is one of the fruites of the Spirit Gal. 5. vers . 22. And must be from the God of all grace ; for we love Him , because He first loved us 1 Ioh. 4. vers . 19. And therefore so must this right suffering be from Him. 11. Before one can suffer aright for Christ , and His cause , he must be dead and mortified to this world , and to all the Riches , Honours and Pleasurs , to the lust of the eye , to the lust of the flesh , and to the pride of life , as Iohn speaketh 1 Ioh. 2 : 16. Yea he must be dead to himself , and to his own life , otherwayes these will hang as weights upon him , and hinder his swimeing through the sea of affliction and persecution . Now this self denial being the singular gift of God , suffering , unto which it is so necessary , must be His peculiar gift also . 12. Unto Christian Suffering for the sake of Christ , it is necessarily requisite , that the Sufferer have fresh Influences from the Spirit of God , to stirre up the graces of God in him , and to carry him thorow ; for if these be withheld , a very Peter will sinfully and shamefully deny his Master : now , it is unquestionable that these Influences must needs flow from the fountaine , and be the effects of Gods grace and love ; and therefore so must Christian suffering be , which cannot be without these . By these particulars the first point is clear : And as for the Second Viz. That this gift of suffering is purchased by Christ , is a fruit of His death , and is obtained for His sake , and bestowed in His behalfe . To you it is given in the behalf of Christ to suffer , we need not insist upon it , seing it is certaine , and undeniable , that every gift of this kind , and every spiritual grace , is purchased to us by the bloud and merites of Christ ; He laid down His life to purchase heaven to His own , and every thing else , that was needful for them , in the way to heaven . In Christ are we blessed with all spiritual blessings , in celestials Ephes. 1. vers . 3. Every spiritual blessing cometh to us , in and through the Covenant of Grace , and of this Covenant Christ is the Mediator ; so that every blessing of the Covenant is purchased by Him. This is also manifest from what was said , in confirmation of the former Point ; for all these favours , requisite unto a Christian suffering , as the grace of Faith , Hop , Courage , Stedfastness , Patience ; Humility &c. are purchased to us by Christ ; and consequently so must this gift of Christian suffering be purchased also . The third point followeth , to wit , That this gift of Suffering Christianly for the sake of Christ , is a gift , in some respect , beyond faith : for the Apostle saith . It was given to these Philippians , not onely to beleeve , but also to suffer , which expression , not only , but also , importeth a sort of gradation , and giveth some eminency and excellency unto the last ; as Ioh. 5 : vers . 18. and 13. vers . 9. Act. 19. vers . 27. and 21. vers . 13. Rom. 5. vers . 3 , 11. and 8. vers . 23. and 13 : 5. 2 Cor. 7 : 7. and 8 : 10. Ephes. 1. vers . 21. and else where . We shall clear this further , by mentioning some particulars . 1. This Christian-suffering for the cause of Christ , doth presuppose Faith , as we said above ; and so must be a gift given , over and above faith . 2. Many have the gift of faith , who never receive this gift of suffering ; many precious beleevers go to their grave in peace , and know not what it is to die for witnessing to the Name of Jesus , on a scaffold , or to suffer at the hands of Persecuters , upon that account . It is reported of famous Luther , that he oft wished and praied for this ; and yet God thought fit , he should die on his bed in peace . This gift then of suffering , not being common to all , to whom faith is common , must have some peculiar excellency , as being more rare . 3. Yea even all those beleevers , who are called to suffer for the cause of Christ , cannot alwayes win to this gift of Christian & Valiant Suffering for the sake of Christ , but through temptation and carnal fear over-powering them , may for a time shrink , cede and fainte , and thus wrong their own peace , harden the Adversaries , discourage the Godly , wrong the Cause , and dishonour the Lord ; as we see in Peter , when he denied his Master , and that with Curses and Execrations , whose faith yet failed not , the Lord having prayed for that Luk. 22 : 32. 4. Though it be a matter of no small , difficulty to beleeve ; yet some may win over that difficulty , that cannot win over the difficulty of Suffering Christianly , in bearing Testimony to the truth of Jesus , as that instance of Peter cleareth . It being then a matter of greater difficulty to suffer aright , than to beleeve , this gift of suffering must be a greater gift . 5. Unto Suffering for the sake of Christ , in a right manner , there is requisite ( as we saw above ) a greater concurrence of the graces of the Spirit of God ; & a necessity also for a greater concurrence of divine Influences , to carry the soul thorow . 6. This suffering for Christ's sake hath a special piece of honour attending it : Hence the Apostles rejoiced , that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the Name of Christ Act. 5. vers . 41. And Peter 1 Pet. 4. vers . 13. desireth those , he wrote unto , to rejoice , in that lot ; and Paul Rom. 5. vers . 3. saith , we glory in tribulations ; yea he speaketh of this , as in some respect , a step above their rejoiceing in the hope of the glory of God , Vers. 2. for he bringeth it in , with a not only so , but also . Which manifestly cleareth the excellency of this gift of Suffering . 7. Christian Suffering for the Name of Christ , is a common and publick good , being edifying to the Body , and so advantagious to many : A mans faith is mainly profitable to himself , and is thereunto ordained ; But Suffering in a right manner is profitable unto many ; to Enemies and Persecutors it giveth a dash , and leaveth some ground of conviction ; and Friends are much encouraged thereby ; yea the whole Church receiveth advantage ; for thereby a noble Testimony is given to the truth , and the bloud of the Martyres becometh the seed of the Church . 8. Suffering for the cause of Christ , in a Christian manner , maketh the Sufferers to be like Christ and conforme to the Captaine of their Salvation ; as one now graduat , or advanced to an higher class ; Christ came to bear witness to the truth , and suffered upon the account of bearing Testimony to the truth ; and those , who are honoured with this special gift , are made in a special manner conforme unto Him , and thus are greatly honoured . 9. As Sufferers for the cause of Christ are thereby advanced to great honour and dignity , so are they usually admitted to great neerness and access to God ; the Lord loveth to let out of himself unto them , in a special manner : that is a confirming expression , which we have 1 Pet. 4 : 14. If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ , happy are ye ; for the Spirit of God and of glory resteth upon you . Sufferers have , even here , an happiness , and an happiness upon the account of their suffering ( were it but ) reproach , for the Name of Christ ; and who can tell how rich and great this happiness is , and wherein it consisteth ? The Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon them ; this Spirit of God , which is the Spirit of glory , working in them all His glorious graces , whereby He prepareth them for glory , and comforteth their souls , as if they were in the suburbs of glory , resideth in them , and resteth upon them , as the sure earnest of glory : wherefore this Suffering for His Name must be a great matter . 10. This Christian suffering for the Name of Christ maketh way for a greater degree in Glory : If we suffer with Him , we shall also reigne with Him , 2 Tim. 2 : vers . 12. If we suffer with Him , we shall be glorified together , Rom. 8 : vers . 17. There is a noble word to this purpose 2 Cor. 4 : vers . 17. For our light Affliction , which is but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory . The Glory , that our momentany Affliction worketh for us , is eternal , and the Weight of that Crown is eternally Weighty , that can never be fully weighed : Nay , It cannot be told by Hyperbolee's heaped upon Hyperbolee's ; all these will come short of expressing the Weight thereof . We finde in the Book of the Revel . Chap. 7 : ve●…s . 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17. that there were some discernable from others , and more remarkable , having on a distinguishing rob , as a peculiar livery in Glory ; They are said to have had White Robs , and who were these ? Such as came out of great Tribulation . They were made to wear on earth a red livery of bloud ; but now in glory they are shineing in white : And it is added Vers. 15 , &c. Therefore are they before ●…he Throne of God , and serve Him day and night , in his Temple , and He that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them . They shall hunger no more , neither thirst any more ; neither shall the Sun light on them any more , for the Lamb , which is in the midst of the Throne , shall feed them , and shall lead them unto living fountains of Waters : And shall wipe away all teares from their eyes . We shall now come to speak something , in order to the improvement of these Truthes , which we have confirmed . First , The faith of these Truthes would give a check unto several evils , that we are too ready to comply with , in a day of trial , and discover unto us several things , for which we are to check and rebuke ourselves , as 1. Do not some finde an Antipathy at the cross working and striving in them , even when the Cross is yet far off ? Do they not finde some aversness of soul therefrom ? Now this evil would meet with a check , if these Truthes were beleeved ? No beleever findeth any aversness from faith ; but he is still desaring more and more of it , and praying , Lord increase our faith ; for he knoweth how excellent and necessary it is . And now , seing the grace and gift of Suffering is , ( as we have shown , ) in several respects above and beyond faith , should they be unwilling to receive it , if God shall be pleased to honoure them with that ? Might not the beleever hence say to himself , are there any of the Gifts of God to be refused , or rejected ? Are not all His Graces and Gifts excellent and lovely ? Why doth my heart then so much stand out against this ? How is it , that I am not more in love with the Glorious Cross of Christ ? Especially seing it is an honour , that isnot conferred on every one , and an honourable Gift , purchased by the precious blood of Christ , that hath purchased nothing that will harme us , or nothing but what is excellent and desirable ? Why then am I so little in love with suffering for the sake of Christ ? Ought I not to be ashamed of and displeased with my self , upon this account ? Ought I not to check this aversness ? 2. The faith of this would give a check unto our readiness to shift the Cross , when we are called to make ready for it , and when it seemeth to be at the door : For , would we say , what ? Shall we devise meanes to shift suffering for the Cause of Christ , when He is calling us to it ? What , shall we meditate a way of shifting and putting away such an honourable Divine Gift , more excellent than faith , in several respects ? What unsutable & unworthy carriage must this be ? Is it a gift of God , and such a gift of God , and a gift given in the behalfe of Christ , as purchased by His Merites and Death ; and shall we thus sinfully , basely and unworthily shift it by our door ; and rather sinne , than embrace it , and make it welcome ? What a shame were this ? 3. The faith of these things would give a check unto our fool-hardiness and too rash adventuring on sufferings , without a due call ; and as if our strength were able to carry us thorow . Too many are too confident , and promise too much upon their own Ability , Parts , Resolution and Strength , as if the stood in need of no more ; and as if this Suffering for the sake of Christ were not a pure gift of Grace , that must come down from above from the Father of Lights , through Jesus Christ. Now the faith of these Truthes , would check these thoughts . Any that know what true faith is would be dissatisfied with such , as would talk of it , as a thing in their power , and which they could put in Act , when they pleased , because they would know , that such boasted of what they had not ; and that faith was not in their Power , but was the special and purchased gift of God. So would the right thoughts of this put us from ever thinking to venture on suffering , in our own strength , & put us to look to Him , from whom every good gift and every perfect gift cometh , through Jesus Christ , and waite on Him for it . 4. The faith of this would likewise rebuke our readiness to fainte , when we aer called to suffer , or engaged in it ; and put a check to our saying : Alas , we will never win thorow this Sea of Affliction , one day or other , we shall shamefully fall , and betray the cause , and so come off with disgrace ; and would put us to look off ourselves , and to look up unto the giver , who giveth freely ; and to the Purchaser , who will receive all that He hath purchased . Must we not thus carry , in order to faith , when we beginne to feare , that it shall fail us ; Do we not comfort ourselves with this , That faith is the free gift of God , and is purchased by Christ , and is not of ourselves ? And why should we not do so , in order to suffering , which is also the free gift of God , and is purchased by Christ ? When we are like to be discouraged with the thoughts of our own weakness , and unfitness to contend with Horsemen , and with the swellings of Jordan ; should we not look upon it , as the gift of God , whereby He can make us strong , even when we are weak , to the Glory of His free Grace ? And when we are discouraged with the thoughts of our unworthiness , and thereupon inferre , that God will never honour us , with bearing faithful Testimony unto His Truth ; should we not , in humility and in the acknowledgment of our own Unworthiness , and Provocations , look to Him , as the great and free giver , who giveth nothing because of our merites : He gave us faith freely , notwithstanding of our former Provocations and great unworthiness ; and may He not also give us this gift , when He calleth us to the duty , freely through Jesus , the great Purchaser ? 5. The faith of this would give a check to that humore , whereby some are ready to sacrifice to their own net , and to burn incense to their own drag ; that is , to be puffed up , and vainly proud of their carriage , when they have been helped to carry honestly in a day of trial , as if they by their wit and courage had done it , or as if it had not been given them , in that houre : what would such have to be proud of , who beleeved , that this grace was freely given to them , and that , in the behalfe of Christ ? And who saw , that if it had not been so , they had never been able to have endured the storme ; Would not they see cause to say , Not unto us , not unto us , but unto God be Glory ; Secondly , From these Truthes , we may be informed of several things , the knowledge of which may be useful , in an evil day : As 1. We may hence be convinced of the difficulty of Suffering Christianly , for the Cause of Christ : It is not Natural Courage , Stoutness , or Fear of Shame , or the like , that will be able to carry thorow : No , no , A Divine purchased , Grace and Gift must be had , or there will be no standing . Many , in a calme day , may think it no great matter to suffer upon Christ's account , and may seem very resolute , willing and ready to suffer ; but when the storme beginneth to blow to purpose , and they are put to it , they finde it some other thing . than they imagined : And what wonder ? It is not a thing that Nature can command , nor Natural Strength and Courage can enable for : but Divine Help is required thereunto . It must be given , and given in Christ : and this saith , there is no small difficulty in it . 2. We may hence see a fundamental Reason , why some are honoured with suffering for the Cause of Christ , and others not ; It is the free gift of God , and purchased by Christ , and so is bestowed onely on those , for whom it is purchased , and on whom free grace will bestow it . As also , whence it cometh to passe , that of two , who are both called to witness to the truth by suffering , one is honourably helped thorow , the other fainteth . The one hath gote the free gift , the other not : It is true , other provoking causes may come here into consideration , as bringing this on ; but yet this is principally to be considered , our sins may provoke the Lord to withold this gift ; and when it is not given , there will be no suffering for the sake of Christ , in a Christian manner . 3. We may hence be informed concerning the ground of this honour being bestowed upon any : It is not for their eminency of parts , or worth , or any such thing in them ; but purely of free grace , and on the behalfe of Christ. Thirdly , Upon the ground of these Truthes , we may read several Duties , called for at our hands , in a day of Suffering . As 1. In such a day , when stormes are at hand , we should not be troubled with perplexity and anxiety of Spirit ; nor disquiet or discourage ourselves with feares and apprehensions , that we shall fainte in the day of Adversity , and shall not be in case to stand stedfast in the storme : For our strength and standing is not in our own hands , It is in Gods Hand ; His gift must make us sta●… , and nothing else . 2. We should be looking off ourselves and all that is within us , and not think , that any thing of that kind will be able to carry us thorow ; But fix our eye upon the gracious Giver , and lay hold on Christ by faith , and expect the thorow-bearing Gift and Grace , in and through Him ; In such a day , we would do well to renounce all within us ; that we may not lean to it , and so betake ourselves alone to the fountaine of free grace , and expect what is necessary in that day , from Him , who giveth freely and upbraideth not . 3. And in order to this , seing this gift is bestowed only in and through Christ , we should study before hand , to get our Interest in Christ made up , that so we may have ground to expect a grant of this gift for His sake ; for none else can expect this , but such as are reconciled to God through Christ. 3. We would also labour to be in good termes with God , and to be keeping our Conscience void of offence both before God and Man , lest He be provoked to with-hold this gift from us . When we have been walking neer God , and keeping carefully Communion with Him , we may go to Him with the greater Confidence and Boldness , and ask this gift , through Christ. Fourthly , We may hence see , what Duties we are especially called to , in the day , when we are actually and particularly called to bear witness to the Truth , and to suffer upon the account thereof . As 1. We should make the Cross of Christ welcome , because it is Gods send ; all that God sendeth should be welcome ; This is a special Gift , and a purchased Gift ; and therefore it should be heartily embraced , both because of the Giver , and because of the Purchaser . It is true , flesh and bloud have no will of Suffering , nature is averse from it ; yet Spiritual Reason and Grace should say , God will give me nothing on the behalfe of Christ , but what is good and necessary for me ; and seing Suffering for Christs sake is of that nature ; and is so excellent a Gift , beyond faith it self , in so many respects , why should I storme ? Why should I quarrel upon that account ? Why should I not rather embrace it with love , and give it an heartsome welcome ? 2. Not only upon this account should we accept of that favour heartily and cheerfully ; but also we should accept thereof with Joy and Gladness , rejoicing that free grace would put that singular honour upon us : As we had cause to rejoice , when He was pleased to single us out from many others , no worse than we were , and bestow faith upon us ; so have we cause to rejoice , in His pitching upon us , and going by many others , better than we are , in the matter of Suffering . Should we not count it all Joy , when , for Christs sake , we fall into manifold temptations , because the Lord is thereby honouring and enriching us with this rare and precious Gift ? Should we not , upon this account , Glory in Tribulations , as in so many enriching gifts , freely bestowed on us of God , and purchased by Christ ? 3. Hereby should we learne to beware of fretting or repineing at the trouble , that the Crosse and Testimony of Jesus bringeth with it ; and choose rather to be thankful for such an honourable gift , as this Suffering for the sake of Christ is : Nay the more our trouble and harassing be , let us look upon ourselves as the more honoured of God ; and therefore called to be thankful and to bless ; seing we should blesse Him , for all His Benefites ; and this is among the chiefe of His benefites . 4. We should then be wholly dead to ourselves , and to any stock of strength or courage , that we may imagine to be in us ; that we may not think of standing upon our own legs ; for these will fail us : And should fix our eye on this Father of Lights , from whom every good gift must come ; and by faith depend upon Him , and seek this from Him , in prayer through faith . We have encouragment now to go to God , through Jesus , to seek this gift , because it is a gift , and because it is a gift purchased by Christ. 5. And especially should this be our exercise , when at any time , we finde our heart like to fainte , and our strength like to faill us , and we are like to sinck . Then should we double our ●…uites , and renew our acts of Faith , upon the ground of Christs Purchase , and the Fathers Grace and Readiness to bestow what we need , and cannot now want , of His own Free Grace , and good Will. Lastly , There is here a sure ground of great Comfort laid down ; and this is the plain scope of the words ; for the Apostle is comforting these Christians of the Church of Philippi , against the Cross , with this , ( among others ) that to suffer for Christ's sake was a gift of God , and a gift bestowed upon them through Jesus Christ : So that there is here comfort against many Discouragments As 1. Against the thoughts of the greatness of the difficulty : we are ready to cry out ; Oh we cannot wrestle thorow this Cross , wherein are so many difficulties , and each more insuperable than another : But this may comfort us . That there is a gift of God for it , which will make all difficulties superable : we of ourselves , as of ourselves , cannot wreastle thorow ; but this gift can enable ; and that there is nothing called for at our hands , but what this gift will enable us to do : this gift will bear all our Charges , and keep our heads above , when swiming thorow the most dangerous Seas , 2. This may comfort against the thoughts of Rageing , Strong and Cruel Adversaries ; for this gift will enable ; if it be given to Suffer , we shall be helped to Suffer all their Rage and Cruelty , and not fear , or fainte . 3. It may comfort us against the thoughts of our own weakness : we are but like a reed shaken in the winde , and cannot endure much : Yet as when the gift of faith was given all our corruption and unbeleefe , and all the Power of Satan could not hinder our closeing with Christ ; so , when this Gift of Suffering is bestowed , through Jesus Christ , all our inward weakness and aversness shall not hinder our through-bearing : We shall then go in the strength of that gift , without wearying or fainting ; for we shall then be strong in the Lord , and in the Power of His Might . 4. It may Comfort against the apprehensions of our own sinfulness and great unworthiness , whereby we may fear , that He shall forsake us , because of our provocations , and not helpe us thorow : For this being the gift of God , and given in the behalfe of Christ , we cannot think , that it can be given for any worth in us : What ever our sins be , we may look to Him , when we are called to bear witness to His Truth , who is a great and a free Giver , and have hope that He will make us Partakers of that free Gift , in and through Christ. Beggars look for a free almes , though they can plead nothing but poverty and want ; and are far from pleading their own worth and merites : He gave us faith , at first , which we neither did , nor could merite ; and why may He not also give us this gift , when He calleth us to the duty ? 5. It may comfort against the faintings of others , whom we apprehend to have been more able to ride thorow the storme , than we are : We are ready to say , How can such as I am stand , when the like of Peter fainted so foulely ? But this is comfortable , that it is not any stock of Grace , or inward Strength , Resolution and natural Courage , or the like , that will carry thorow ; but the gift of God ; and without this gift of God , the strongest will not stand ; and with it , the weakest will be enabled to stand-out the trial : And when God denieth this for a time unto strong Christians , for His own Holy Ends , He may give it to the weak , and so carry them thorow ; that all may see , it is His gift that doth the thing , and nothing else . 6. This may also comfort us , against the thoughts of our unpreparedness to meet with the trial ; for the matter of our throw-bearing dependeth not upon our fitness , and preparation for the Exercise ; but upon the Gift of God ; and this gift will be more glorious and excellent in their eyes , who knowing themselves to have been very far out of case , for such a trial , were yet enabled by vertue of that gift to stand , and to suffer for the sake of Christ. 7. So it may comfort against the sorrowful thoughts of their former Miscarriages , Faintings and sinful Shunnings of a faithful Testimony , which may readily cause such apprehend , that the Lord will stand by them no more , but forsake them , as they did formerly forsake Him : This , I say , may comfort them , that it is a gift , and a gift of God , and a gift , purchased by the bloud of Jesus , by which they must be helped ; and what is of that nature , may be given , notwithstanding of all that hath past ; all Gods gifts being free , and the more unworthy they be , on whom they are bestowed , the glory of free grace shineth forth the more , and the worth and value of the Merites of Christ is more conspicuous . CONSIDERATION . XVI . The Sufferings of Christs Servants are for the advantage of the Church . WHen persecution ariseth especially against Christs eminent Servants and Followers , then many are ready to draw strange Conc●…usions , in their own minde , touching the Church ; and to think that the Church shall be utterly extirpated ; little considering the wonderful Workings of God , who , by that meane , which , to them , threatneth ruine , is bringing about the welfare and advantage of the Church , to the Glory of His Power and Wisdom . Whereas if it were beleeved , that even by persecution , raised against the Preachers and eminent Professours , the Church should be no loser , the thoughts of such a Dispensation could not cause much consternation . In order to the speaking a few words unto this , we would take notice of a few Instances , which will confirme the truth thereof , Act. 8 : vers . 1. It is said , that at that time , there was a great persecution against the Church , which was at Ierusalem and they were all scattered abroad throughout the Regions of Iudea and Samaria , except the Apostles ; that is , all the Church-Officers were forced to flee , after Stephen was stoned . But did this any harme to the Church ? No ; but did tend rather to the furtherance of the Gospel ; for it is added vers . 4. Therefore they that were scattered went every where , preaching the word ; so that by this meanes , the Gospel was spread throughout the Regions about , and that more quickly , than otherwayes , in all probability , it would have been . When Paul is speaking of his Sufferings Col. 1 : 24. he saith , they were for them , and not so only , but for the whole body , the Church . Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you , and fill up that which is behinde of the afflictions of Christ , in my flesh for his bodies sake , which is the Church . So 2 Cor. 1 : 6. And whether we be afflicted , it is for your Consolation and Salvation , 2 Tim. 2 : 10. Therefore I endure all things for the Elects sake . Another plaine Instance we have Phil. 1 : 12. But I would , ye should understand , Brethren , that the things , which happened unto me , have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel . 1. For further clearing up of this , we shall mentione some particular Advantages , which the Church reapeth by the Sufferings of Christ's Eminent Servants and Followers . 1. Their sufferings , upon the account of Truth , serve much to Strengthen and Establish the rest of the people of God , in the faith ; for the truth is thereby much confirmed unto them , and made to have some deeper Impression in their hearts , when they see , that the Truthes , which those Servants of Christ delivered unto them , were such , as the Preachers themselves were perswaded of , as truthes , and as weighty truthes ; yea and such , as they are ready to seal with their bloud . It is for this cause , that Paul maketh mention of his sufferings , in that Epistle to the Colossians ; for he is endeavouring to settle them in the faith , and to keep them stedfast in the day of Temptation . He would have them vers . 23. Continue in the faith , grounded and setled , and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel . And because they might have said , what can we do , when you are put to such sufferings , and are shut up in Prison ? He obviateth this by saying , I rejoice in my sufferings for you . As if he had said , My Imprisonment and Sufferings are not to your disadvantage , but for your good ; and upon that account I rejoice in them . So that this is a notable mean to keep others stedfast in the truth : As , upon the other hand , it is a potent and forcible mean to shake poor people out of their hopes , and to confirme many in Atheisme and Infidelity , when they see such , as have been preaching forth truthes unto them , refusing to stand to them , and avow them , in a day of Temptation : Hence is it , that Satan , seeing this so much for his advantage , doubleth the force of his Temptations and Assaults against such , knowing that the fall of one such may endanger many , and occasione the staggering of multitudes . 2. By this meanes the Gospel is made to spread more , and and that not only by occasion of the banishment of Preachers ; as we see Act. 8. but also , that by reason of their very Imprisonment or Persecution to the death many will be made to enquire after the cause , why such are put to so hard sufferings ; and after enquirie , some may be made to see , that their Cause is just and righteous , howbeit they be condemned , & thus may be brought to like their cause , & befriend it , & to hate the carriage of the Persecuters : So that the Gospel-truth is no loser , by all the loss that the Preachers suffer , upon the account thereof ; for when strangers observe that such men of Understanding , judgment and Conscience , are ready and willing to confirme the truth of what they assert with their bloud , and to suffer any thing rather than deny the same , they beginne to search more seriously after the matter , and to consider its consequences , and come at length to affect that way more in their heart ; an Instance whereof we have Phil. 1 : 12. 13. He told them vers . 12. that what hardships had befallen him ; had fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel , and in the next verse he sheweth , how this was , saying , so that my bonds in Christ are manifest , in all the Palace , and in all other places . The report of his Imprisonment , for the Name of Christ , went far and neer ; so that even Caesars Court ringed againe with the noise of it , and they are talking of it among themselves ; and severals are converted to the truth thereby , and brought to embrace the Gospel ; for he tels us Chap. 4 : 22. That there were Saints in Caesar's houshold , all the saints salute you , cheefly they that are of Caesar's houshold . 3. When the Lords eminent Servants are persecuted upon the account of truth , the ●…ord is ( to speak so ) more engaged to do for His Church , to owne her , and to counter work the plots and wicked devices of Satan ; and this He is pleased , for the glory of His name , to declare and manifest , by making thereby the Gospel to flourish more , in power and life ; and to bless the laboures of a few the more The Church did never thrive better , than in the Primitive times , during these hote persecutions . I●… time of persecution , the Church is purer , for few adhere to the truth , but such , who have received the truth , as it is in jesus , and have the grace of God in them in truth ; then are there fewest hypocrites to be found in the Church , the heat of persecution driveth them away , and driveth the uprght hearted neerer to God , so that their grace & communion with God groweth , their mortification to the things of this life increaseth , and they become more and more crucified unto the world , and the world unto them : So that howbeit the outward bulk of Professours diminish ; yet the true hearted grow more lively , strong and vigorous , and the inward man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4 : 16. So that really the Church suffereth no loss , but is a gainer . 4. By this meanes , many other faithful , zealous and honest-hearted Servants of God , are made ( through the Lord's wonderful defeating of the Counsels of Satan ) more bold & forward , in owning & declaring the truth : The devil thinks , by the sufferings of some eminent Servants , to discourage and fainte many , as supposing that they will be affrighted from their duty ; but the grace and power of God worketh-out the contrary event : As we see Phil. 1 : 14. where another fruit of Paul's bonds and Imprisonment is added . And many of the Brethren in the Lord , wa●…ing confident by my bondes , are much more bold to speak the word , without fear . So that the Church is a gainer , through the Lord 's wonderful working , by all these Sufferings . 5. There is hereby an encouraging exemple laid before others : ●…is no small advantage unto particular Beleevers , in a time of Persecution , to know of some precedent , of some that have gone thorow the foord before them : Therefore saith the Apostle Iames Chap. 5 : 10. Take , my Brethren , the Prophets , who have spoken in the name of the Lord , for an example of suffering affliction , and of Patience ; so that such Examples are refreshing , and helpful unto their Constancy and Stedfastness ; when they see others standing fast in the faith , in the midst of all persecutions , that they meet with , they are animated unto the like stedfastness , and to resolution , in adhering fixedly to the truth : such examples will make even a timorous man wax bold ; and the exemplary carriage of sufferers is very encouraging and comfortable , wherefore the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 1 : 6. whether we be afflicted , it is for your Consolation . Therefore these Sufferings are much for the advantage of the Church . 6. Hereby is the Church awakened from security , and made to look out for a suffering lot ; when thus it is done to the green tree , they are made to take Warning ; Such a dispensation is as the sounding of the trumpet for an alarme ; and this is no small advantage , when she is raised to her feet , and put in a postour , and made ready for the battel ; then she needeth not fear a surprisal ; but hath time to prepare , and make ready for the storme . In order to the Improvement of this Consideration , we would 1. Beware to conclude that all is gone , when we hear or see Christs eminent Servants put to sad sufferings : We are ready to wonder why the Lord should suffer such and such things to be done ; why He should suffer such sad things to befall His eminent and useful Servants , who cannot well be missed , one whereof is worth an hundered , so that the Death or Imprisonment of one such threatneth more destruction to the Church , than the loss of many : But we know not the thoughts of the Lord ; we know not what He is designing , and what He mindeth to effectuat thereby . And if we beleeved , that even such a dispensation as this could do no harme to the Church ; how little would we be troubled at it ? If we saw , what an effectual way this were , in the steady , unerring Hand of God , to bring about the spiritual advantage of the Church , how would we lay our hands upon our mouth , and be silent ? And though we can not see in particular , what advantage the Church is like to get , by the taking away of such , as were as Pillars of the Church : Yet we should by faith rest assured , that the Head , and Husband of the Church , would not suffer such a Dispensation to come , if He knew not , how to bring good and advantage out of it ; and that thereby good seed was sowen , which , though accompanied with teares and bloud , yet should yeeld full sheaves at length , which should be brought home with Joy. 2. We would do well to search ourselves , at such a time , to see if we , as particular members of the Church , be reaping any advantage by what we hear and see of the Sufferings of Christs eminent Servants ; as for example , see if thereby the truth of the Gospel become more riveted in our souls , & we becometh more rooted in the faith and assurance thereof , and more fixed in our Resolution to adhere thereunto ; See if Truth becometh lovely & desireable to us upon this account ; See if grace be growing more within , and if our hearts and affections be loosed more and more from the things of a world , and we be prepared more to quite all for Christ , and His Cause ; See if by the example of others we be more animated , and encouraged to avow and abide by the truth , cost what it will ; See if these newes be raising us out of our bed , and making us prepare for the battel , and make ready for the approaching storme : & if we finde any such advantage thereby , let us blesse Him , who is giving us meat out of the eater , and doing us good by the dear cost and charges of others . 3. This should comfort such , as are called forth to suffer for the Name of Jesus ; they need not trouble themselves with thoughts , what shall become of the Church and Interest of Christ ; but leave that upon the Lord ; and beleeve , that He shall make it contribute to the furtherance of the Gospel , and to the enlairgment of His Kingdom ; Ministers called to suffer may possibly think , Oh what shall become of the poor people ? we cannot get preached unto them , as formerly ; but what if God make their stedfastness in suffering more advantagious , than their preachings would have been ? What if that edifie more , than many preachings did , or would do ? Ought not they , upon this Consideration , rejoice in their Lot , and suffer cheerfully , that Christs Interest may prosper more thereby ? What know they , what influence their Christian carriage may have on all On-lookers , yea and on Enemies and Persecuters themselves , beside what confirmation friends may have thereby ? CONSIDERATION XVII . The Lord Reigneth in Zion . BEleevers are not like unto the Subjects of Kings , here on earth , who may be dethroned , and their Crowns may fall from their Heads , and the Scepters be taken out of their hands , and they may lose all the Ensignes of Royalty ; and when it falleth out so ( as is done many a time ) Subjects have but cold Comfort , in looking to the Throne , when it hath forsaken him , that sat thereon . But Beleevers have a King , who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever , and whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom . It cannot then but be strange , that when Men , who have all their temporal happiness hanging upon the standing of Kings of Clay , can rejoyce in adversity , when they have any hope of their King 's recovering of his lost Throne and Kingdome , though the grounds of their Hop be most disputable and uncertaine ; that the Children of God , in the day of their Adversity , can draw so little Comfort from the sure and certaine Grounds of Hope , which they have to look to . If Christs Crown and Throne were not surer , than the fading and perishing Regalia of Men , what would beleevers do ? Whither could they go for consolation , in the day of their Distress and Anguish ? But now , seing their King is not like the Kings of the Earth , why are they so heartless , in the day of their extremity ? Sure , the Reason must be , because they beleeve not , that He is such a King , as He is indeed ; or they know not how to improve , to any spiritual Advantage , such a noble Ground of Consolation , as this is . Wherefore it may be useful to speak a little unto this : And so we shall first lay down some Propositions , clearing up this Truth , and next some Conclusions , pointing out the improvement , that may be made thereof . First , As for the Propositions , take these following , 1. The Lord standeth under the Relation of a King to His Church and People ; He hath taken to himself that Name and Title : and accordingly we finde them eyeing this , in the day of their Distress ; So David Psal. 5 : vers . 2. and 84 : v. 2. embraceth Him , crying , My King and my God : and he comforteth himself with this Ps. 10. v. 16. The Lord is King for ever and ever . And the Church crieth out Psal. 74 : v. 2. God is my King of old : and comforteth herself with this Esai . 33 : v. 22. The Lord is our judge , the Lord is our Lawgiver , the Lord is our King , He will save us . So doth the Lord make a sweet promise of this , for the Comfort of His people , Hos. 13 : v. 10. I will be thy King. Whereby we see , that there is such a relation betwixt God and His People , that will yeeld Comfort , in an evil day . 2. He is not a King that is far off ; but is neer at hand , in the midst of His Kingdome and People : And this is also comfortable : Kingdomes may have a King , and yet be little the better of Him ; he may be far away , and unable to help them , in the day of their greatest necessity ; But it is not so with Zions King , He is alwayes at hand , in the middest of His People : He is established King in Zion . Psal. 2 : v. 6. Yet I have set my King ( saith the Father of His Son , the Mediator ) upon my holy hill Zion . His whole Kingdome is , as it were , his Throne , and there He sitteth , as King on his Throne ; and He is placed and fixed there by a sure and unchangable Decree . That question of Ieremiah Chap. 8 : v. 19. putteth the matter out of question , Is not the Lord in Zion ? Is not her King in her ? So Ps. 99 : 2. The Lord is great in Zion . Zions King then is a great King , in the midst of her . 3. Zions King is a King actually reigning upon His Throne , and exercising His Kingly Office ; not like a King , imprisoned , or put out of a capacity of helping , or releiving his distressed Subjects ; for He reigneth Psal. 93 : v. 1. and 97 : 1. and 99 : v. 1. It is the bringing of good tidings , the publishing of Peace , the bringing of good tidings of good , the publishing of Salvation , to say unto Zion , Thy God reigneth Esai . 52 : v. 7. Zions King is not a King outted and dethroned ; but actually reigning and sweying His Scepter , exerceing His Kingly Office and Government . 4. Zions King is an everlasting King , He shall reigne for ever and ever : He cannot be dethroned , He must reigne until all His Enemies be made His footstool 1 Cor. 15 : v. 25. for He is settled on His throne by an everlasting and unchangable decree Ps. 2 : v. 6 , 7. And therefore He is called the King eternal 1 Tim. 1 : 17. That is a sweet and comfortable Word of Promise Ps. 146 : v. 10. The Lord shall reigne for ever , even thy God , O Zion , unto all generations . Micah 4 : 7. And the Lord shall reigne over them , in mount Zion , from hence forth , even for ever . Psal. 10 : v. 6. The Lord is King for ever and ever . And Psal. 45 : 6. Thy Throne , ô God , is for ever & ever . Ier. 10 : 10. The Lord — is an everlasting King ; and so His Kingdome is an everlasting Kingdom ; for it is said Luk. 1 : 33. He shall reigne over the House of Iacob for ever , and of His Kingdome there shall be no end . So Revel . 11 : 15. And the Seventh Angel sounded , and there were great voices in Heaven , saying , the Kingdomes of this world , are become the Kingdomes of the Lord , and of his Christ ; and He shall reigne for ever and ever . 5. Not onely doth this King reigne in the midst of Zion , His Kingdome and Throne ; but He ruleth in the midst of His Enemies Psal. 110 : 2. This is advantagious and comfortable ; For He can reach them a blow , when He will : And all their Consultations , and Cabinet Counsels , are well known to Him ; He ruleth in the midst of them , and over-ruleth all their Plots and Actions , as He seeth good ; & is working out His own holy ends and designes by what they are doing : Hence it followeth ver . 5 , 6. That He shall strike thorow Kings , in the day of His wrath . He shall judge among the Heathen : He shall fill the places with the dead bodies ; He shall wound the heads over many Countries . Other Kings must make use of Spies and Intelligencers , to know the purposes and motions of their Enemies ; and after all their paines remaine ignorant ; or if they come to some knowledge thereof , be unable to prevent the mischiefe designed : But this King ruleth , as Commander in chiefe , among the very Enemies , though they know it not . 6. This King of Zion , is a mighty and great King , He is excellent in Power & Majesty ; and therefore is stiled King of Kings Revel . 17 : 14. He is the blessed and only Potentat , the King of Kings , and Lord of Lords 1 ▪ Tim. 6 : 15. He hath on His thigh and on his Vesture , a name written , King of Kings , and Lord of Lords Revel . 19 : 16. And therefore by Him Princes rule , and all the Iudges of the earth vers . 16. He is a King therefore endued with Supream Power and Authority , higher than the Kings of the earth , whose petty Soveraignity is as nothing compared with His. 7. As He is a Mighty and Powerful King ; so is He a Righteous and just King. He shall reigne in righteousness . Esai . 32 : 1. The scepter of His Kingdome is a right scepter Psal. 45 : 6. He loveth righteousness , and hateth wickedness vers 7. just and true are all His wayes , who is King of Saints Revel , 15 : 3. Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne Psal. 97 : 2. Yea the King's strength loveth judgment , He establisheth equity , He executeth judgment and equity in Iacob Psal. 99 : 4. His strength and Power needeth not be terrible unto his Subjects , for His throne is a throne of judgement , and His scepter is a scepter of Righteousness : All His Regalia have this engraven on them , to the great comfort of His Subjects . 8. He is a King , that is clothed with Majestie and Terrour ; and so is able to affright and strike terrour in the heart of the greatest & proudest Adversaries The Lord reigneth , and He is clothed with Majesty Psal 93 : 1. This mighty one girdeth His sword on His thigh , marcheth with Glory and Majesty , and in Majesty he rideth prosperously Psal 45 : 3 , 4 , 5. The Lord is great in Zion , and He is high above all people , and His name is great and terrible . Psal. 99 : 2 , 3. Clouds and darkness are round about Him , a fire goeth before Him , His lightnings enlightned the world , the earth saw and trembled , the hils melted like wax at the presence of the Lord , at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth Psal. 97 : vers 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. What Enemie then is able to withstand , or resist this Potentat . 9. He is a King thorowly fournished with all Enduements and necessarie Qualifications for the Exercise of this His Government . Grace is poured into his lips , and He is anoynted with the oile of gladness above His fellowes Psal. 45 : 2 , 7. In Him are hid all the treasurers of wisdom and knowledge ; yea in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Col. 2 : 3 , 9. He is then a Compleet King , fully able to administrate this Kingly Office , and to performe all Acts belonging thereunto , in truth and faithfulness , and in due season . 10. As he is a King terrible unto the Kings of the earth Psal. 76 : 12. and is clothed with Majestie and Power ; so is He a King , that is meek and lowlie : Even when he rideth in Majestie , it is upon truth and meekness , as the words may be rendered Psal. 45 : 4. When He rideth in state , it is upon Meekness . He is a King that cometh — having Salvation , lowlie and rideing upon an Asse , and upon a colt tho fole of an asse Zech. 9 : 9. Mat. 21 : vers 5. Though He be the terriblest King , that ever was , unto Enemies and Rebels ; yet He is all meekness unto his own . 11. This King , who sitteth and ruleth upon His throne , is a Priest upon His throne Zech. 6 : 12 , 13. — Behold , the man , whose name is the Branch , and He shall grow up out of His place , and He shall build the Temple of the Lord ; even He shall build the Temple of the Lord , and He shall bear the glory , and shall sit and rule upon his throne , and He shall be a Priest upon his Thron ; and the Counsel of peace shall be betwixt them both : Such a King is He , that will not destroy His followers , notwithstanding of their sins and rebellions , but will rather make an attonement for them , lay down His life for them , and become an Intercessour on their behalfe . 12. He is an ancient King. His throne is established of old ; and He is from everlasting Psal. 93 : 2. The goings forth of this Ruler of Israel have been of old from everlasting Micah . 5 : 2. And thus His throne is from everlasting to everlasting . 13. This King of Zion hath Dominion over all the earth , over hell & over death . Angels and Authorities and Powers are made subject unto him 1 Pet. 3 : vers 22. He hath them all under his command and Authority , that He may dispose and make use of them , as He seeth fit . By Him were all things created , that are in heaven , and that are in earth , Visible and Invisible , whether they be Thrones or Dominions , or Principalities , or Powers , all things were created by Him and for Him Col. 1 : 16. God hath put all things under His feet , and hath given Him to be Head over all things to the Church Ephes. 1 : 22. He is King of all the earth , and He reigneth over the Heathen Psal. 47 : 7 , 8. All Power in Heathen and in Earth is given unto Him Mat. 28 : 18. 14. He is a King that rideth prosperously Psal. 45 : 4. The work He undertaketh doth not misgive in His hand , nothing miscarrieth , or can miscarry , which He undertaketh . He is the happiest sweyer of a scepter , that ever was . His purposes fail not ; He is not disappointed of his Projects or Designes ; all of them succeed well in His hand . The pleasure of the Lord shall Prosper in His hand . Esai 53 : 10. Secondly , From these Comfortable Propositions , let us draw some comfortable Conclusions . 1. The Church and People of God are not an headless , helpless Company , as many take them to be . They have an Head , and a living head , though Strangers and On-lookers do not observe it , nor beleeve it . The world , and the men of the world , look upon them , as a contemptible Company ; yet they have a King reigneing over them , and a King that shall reigne for ever and ever . They themselves are oft times perplexed and distressed in minde , when they see not one great Person owning them and their Interest , and offering himself to be an head unto them ; but if they knew , what anone they had for their Head , Husband and King , they would not be much troubled , though not one great Person in all the earth should owne them and theirCause : So that when all earthly Powers forsake them , and withdraw their helping hand , this may comfort them , That there is a standing relation betwixt Christ and them , as is betwixt a King and his Subjects , and this relation neither is , nor can be broken off . 2. Let devils & men do what they can , they shall not be able to destroy and root out the People of God. They may intend to destroy , & to cut them off from being a Nation , that the name of Israel may be no more made mention of ; and may make a strong combination for this end , as Psal. 84 : vers 4. But this their Interprise is vaine , they will never be able to effectuate what they designe . Seing He is a King , that reigneth on his Throne , He must have a Kingdom and a People , whom He must governe , and over whom He must swey His scepter . So that whoever would resolve to destroy His Kingdom , must first think of making Him no King ; take away His Kingdom , and take away His Scepter too ; Himself must be dethroned , ere He have no Kingdome . Enemies then may attempt great things , and promise to themselves great success ; but in end , they will prove themselves to be fooles ; for He must reigne for ever and ever , and His Kingdom must be to all Generations . He shall reigne for ever , and of His Kingdom there shall be no end . Luk. 1 : vers 33. His people then may be at peace , though they know what great things their Enemies designe against them , and that their cruelty and rage is such , as nothing but their utter overthrow and destruction will satisfie ; seing it is all one , as if they should presume to pull God from His throne . Let the Devil , and his trustee Livetenant , Antichrist , conspire , and use what Machinations and bloody Devices they will , to destroy the whole Interest of Christ ; He must not want Subjects , He shall not want a Kingdom , so long as Sun and Moon endure : Howbeit the people of God may be several times brought very low ; yea and almost out of sight , as a Woman fled to the wilderness ; yet this exalted King , who is set upon His throne , by an everlasting Decree , must have a Kingdom , & shall have a Kingdom , over which to swey His Scepter . 3. Yea Christ's Kingdom must be a coming and a growing Kingdom Luk. 1 : vers 32. He must be great , and have the throne of His Father David : Many excellent promises have we of this : Micah . 4 : 1 , 2 , 3. But in the last daies , it shall come to passe , that the mountaine of the house of the Lord , shall be established on the tope of the mountains , and it shall be exalted above the hils , and people shall flow unto it , and many Nations shall come — and He shall judge among the people . So Esai . 2 : 2 , 3 , 4. Rev. 11. vers 15. And the seventh Angel sounded , and there were great voices in heaven , saying , the Kingdomes of this world , are become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of His Christ ; and He shall reigne for ever & ever . We are taught to pray daily , Let thy Kingdom come . Our Lord shall be great to the ends of the earth Micah . 5 : 4. 4. Wherefore , Let Enemies do what they can , His Church shall not get much hurt : For so long as He is in the midst of her , she cannot be moved , though the earth be removed , and though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the sea , though the waters thereof roar , and be troubled , though Mountains shake with the swellings thereof . Psal. 46 : 5. It is promised Mic. 4 : 7. That the Lord shall reigne over them , in mount Zion ; and what followeth ? And thou , ô Toure of the Flock ( vers . 8. ) the strong hold of the Daughter of Zion , unto thee shall it come , even the first Dominion , the Kingdome shall come to the Daughter of Ierusalem . 5. Though it frequently come to passe , that God's people are brought low , and Enemies get the upper hand ; yet Zion's King liveth ; and therefore He will Assemble her , that halteth , and will gather her , that is driven out , and her that have been afflicted ; and make her that halteth a remnant , & her that was cast off a strong Nation Mica . 4 : 6 , 7. Because He liveth , His members must live also . Seing the Churches Head is above the water , she cannot drown . Wherefore , upon this very ground , that Zions King liveth and reigneth , His Church and People , even while low and under the feet of Enemies , may lift up their head in hop , and be sure that their day of redemption draweth neer ; and they may conclude with the Church Esai . 33 : 22. The Lord is our judge , the Lord is our King : He will save us . Seing He is King , He can command deliverance Psal. 44. 4. and work Salvation Psal. 74 : 12. Upon this ground , David inferreth a Delivery and a Victory Psal. 10 : v. 16. The Lord is King for ever and ever , the heathen are perished out of his land . Enemies will not be able to stand long in Immanuel's Land. It is His work , as King , to deliver and defend His Subjects ; and they may be sure , He will not deny Himself , He will answere ●…is Title and Relation . 6. When His people see , that all their Strength is gone , and that there is none shut up or left , they are ready to conclude , that all is gone : But what , cannot this King in Zion soon leavy an Army ? How easie is it for Him , to speak to dry bones , and make them armed men Ezek. 37. When mention was made of this Ruler in Israel , whose goings forth were from of old , and who should stand and feed in the strength of the Lord , in the Majesty of the Name of the Lord His God Micah . 5 : 4. It is added , This man shall be the peace , when the Assyrian shall come into our Land , and when he shall trade in our Palaces ; then shall we raise against him Seven shepherds and eight Principal men , and they shall waste the Land of Assyria with the sword , and the Land of Nimrod , in the entrance thereof . Thus shall He deliver us , from the Assyrian , when he cometh into our Land , and treadeth within our borders . And the remnant of Iacob shall be among the Gentils , in the midst of many people , as a Lion among the beasts of the forest , as the young Lion among the Flocks of sheep — Thine hand shall be lift up upon thine Adversaries , and all thine enemies shall be cut off vers . 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. When His people are brought very low , so that , in all probability , they shall not be able to raise up themselves ; then this King can help the business , He can raise up an invincible army , out of lame sick souldiers . He can make Ierusalem a cup of trembling , and a burdensome stone ; for all people Zech. 12 : 2 , 3. He can make the Governours of Iudah like on hearth of fire among the wood , and like a toarch of fire in a sheaf , and they shall devoure all the people round about , on the right hand & on the left ver . 5. He can make Him , that is feeble among them , like David , and the house of David , as God , as an Angel of the Lord before them v. 8. Out of Him cometh the corner , out of Him cometh the nail , out of him the battel bow — and He can make them to be as mighty men , which tread down , as the mire of the street , in the battel ; and He can strengthen the house of Iudah . Zech 10 : 4 , 5 , 6. He can bend Iudah for himself , and fill the bow with Ephraim , & raise up Zions sones against their Enemies Zech. 9 : 13 : He can make poor worm Iacob , a new sharp threshing Instrument having teeth ; and say to them , thou shalt thresh the mountains ; and beat them small , and shall make the hils as chaff &c. Esai . 41 : 14 , 15. 7. This Consideration speaketh dread and terrour unto Enemies ; for He is a King , that is terrible to the Kings of the earth . He maketh the Earth , and the heavens to tremble , the hils melt and quake before him ; & what then can weak man do ? What will they be , in the hands of the Almighty , who shaketh Nations ? The Lord reigneth , Let the earth tremble , He sitteth between the Cherubims , Let the earth be moved Psal. 99 : 1. At the wrath of this everlasting King , the earth shall tremble ; and the Nations shall not be able to abide his Indignation Ier. 10 : 10. Where then shall His Enemies stand , in the day of His Indignation ? We are oft afraid of the terrour of Enemies , but saw we Him , who is our King , we would see , that our Enemies had more cause to be afraid of Him , who is clothed with Majestie : there goeth a smoak out of his nostrils , and fire out of His mouth devoureth and coals are kindled by it Psal. 18 : vers . 8. Read what followeth . 8. When we are thinking on the Wit , Skil and Activity , of the Adversaries , let us call to mind , that our King is infinitly beyond them , He searcheth the heart and tryeth the reines ; He knoweth the thoughts afar off : He is privie to all the motions of Adversaries ; He knoweth when they march , and when and where they halt Esai . 10 : 28 , 29. See what is said of our King Esai . 11 : 2 , 3. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him , the Spirit of Wisdom & Understanding , the Spirit of Counsel and Might , the Spirit of Knowledge , and of the Fear of the Lord ; and shall make him of quick understanding , in the fear of the Lord. Though the Adversaries should soon out-wit us ; yet they will not be able to out-wit Him , who is our King ; for the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge are in Him : So that it is an easie business for Him , to countermine all their Plots and Machinations . He hath formed all their hearts , and so He knoweth what is in their hearts . Nothing can be hid from Him , His very eye-lids try the Children of Men Psal. 11 : 4. Wherefore , when we are at a non-plus , and know not what to do , this may comfort us , and compose our Spirits , our King knoweth very well , how to carry on his own Contrivances , & glorious Projects : So that when we are blinde , we are to look to Him , who knoweth what to do , when we know not what to do ; and let Him alone with His own work . 9. It is sad , when the Children of God are wronged , and cannot get faire Justice : wickedness is to be seen in the place of judgment , and iniquity in the place of righteousness Eccles. 3 : v. 16. judgment is turned away backward , and Justice standeth afar off , for truth is fallen in the streat , and equity cannot enter ; yea truth faileth , and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey Esai . 59 : v. 14 , 15. But here is comfort against this , that Zions King reigneth , who is just , and a King that reigneth in righteousness . He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes , neither reprove after the hearing of his eares , but with righteousness shall He judge the poor , and reprove with equity , for the meek of the earth — and righteousness shall be the girdle of His loines , and faithfulness the girdle of His reines Esai . 11 : 3 , 4 , 5. His people then need not fear , seing there is Justice to be had at His bar . 10. The Children of God are much fainted and discouraged , when second meanes are out of sight , they see not horses , nor horsmen , to appear in the fields for them ; but a right sight of this Truth would prove helpful and encouraging in this case : Did they but by faith see , that Zions King were reigning on His Throne , and actually sweying His Scepter , they would easily conclude , that all would be well ; for this King would either work without meanes ( as sometime He doth ) or creat meanes for His own use : A wight man ( we say ) never wanted weapons ; and shall our King be straitned for want of meanes ? Could Sampson , without either Sword or Spear , only with what came next to his hand , the Jaw-bone of an asse , slay so many ? And need we fear , that our King shall want Instruments , when He mindeth to work by Instruments ? Omnipotency cannot want hands : Any of all the Creatures is sufficient in His hand ; with vermine He made an end of proud Herod . If He but speak the word , He will therewith command deliverance : So that we need not fear , though the fig tree should not blossome , and though we should see nothing but dry bones , and dry bones scattered about the graves mouth , so long as this King liveth and reigneth , unto whom belong the shields of the Earth , Ps. 47 : v. last . 11. The Lords reigning in Zion may assure us , that there are great and rich off-fallings to be had . Courtiers fear not want , so long as the King possesseth His Throne , yea they dar adventure to take on Luck's head ( as we say ) and why may not the Lords people also rejoice on Lucks head , seing their King shall never be dethroned ? It is said Esai . 32 : vers . 1. that a King shall reigne in righteousness . And what is to follow thereupon ? See vers . 2 , 3. And a man shall be as an hiding place from the winde , and a covert from the Tempest , as Rivers of water , in a dry place , as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land , and the eyes of them that see shall not be dim , and the eares of them that hear shall hearken . 12. This Consideration may fill the souls of his People with Joy and Consolation , however matters go with them , were they never so low , were Enemies never so high , were the case of the people of God never so desperat like : That Zions King liveth and reigneth , is the most encouraging newes , that can be , The Lord reigneth , let the earth rejoice , and let the multitude of the Isles be glade thereat Psal. 97 : 1. There is Joy and gladness here sowen for all the upright in heart . Is not the Lord in Zion ? Is not her King in her ? Said Ieremie Chap. 8 : 19. It is a shame , that Beleevers should any way carry themselves so as On-lookers might have ground to think , that Zions King were not in her , or that they themselves did not beleeve , that Zions King indeed were reigning . CONSIDERATION XVIII . The time of Affliction is but short . IT is an ordinary thing for people , under Affliction , to be putting moe hours in their day , than twentie foure ; to be multiplying their yeers , and accounting their moneths Yeers , their weeks Moneths , and their houres Dayes ; and to be crying out , Oh will this life never have an end ? How long , how long , will this Cup be holden to my head ? When shall the day dawn , when God shall loose this Yoke from off my neck ? The Harvest is past , and the Summer is ended , and we are not saved , Ier. 8 : vers . 20. Will not this year put an end to our trouble ? How long shall the rod of the wicked rest upon the lot of the righteous ? How long will God lengthen-out this sad trial ? These speaches , and the like , are but too frequent in their mouth ; and their thoughts are too oft upon this Subject : and thus eternizing their sad lot , in their mindes , or foolishly imagining , it will not have an end , in hast , they multiply their own Sorrow ; whereas did they calculat by the Scripture-account , they would see the time shorter , than they now imagine it to be . Now to help them , as to his , We shall 1. Shew what is the Scripture account of the time of Affliction . 2. Answere what can be objected to the contrary . 3. Show how this Consideration may and should be improven to advantage . As to the First , The Scriptures give us this account of the matter . 1. That it will not be for ever 1 King. 11. v. 39. And I will for this afflict the Seed of David , but not for ever . Though for their iniquities He resolved to punish and afflict the Seed of David ; yet it will not be for ever : And what is here spoken of David's Seed , will , in some respect , agree to the Church and People of God , in all ages . Ay , and there may be here a Meiosis , a Figure , whereby much more is imported , than the words signifie ; and this not for ever , is as much as , for a short time . It must then be the language of unbeleef to say , that God will cast off for ever , and that He will be favourable no more ; for His strokes upon the Godly are not of that nature : He may afflict for a time , but not for ever . 2. The Scripture telleth us , that these dayes will be shortened , Matth. 20 : 22. And except those dayes should be shortened , no flesh should be saved ; but for the Elects sake , those dayes shall be shortened . Christ is speaking there of sore and sharp Tribulation , that was to come upon the Land ; and for the comfort of the Elect , He saith , that those dayes of Affliction and Tribulation should not long continue , but should be shortened for their sake : And this will hold good , in all Ages , the Lord being as careful of His Elect now , as then , and His Elect being as ready to fainte , through long Affliction now , as formerly : Therefore the ground of this promise continueing , we must not say , that the promise it self is out of date : To say then , that Affliction shall never have an end , is upon the matter , to annul this Promise . 3. We finde the Scripture saying , That Affliction , or the rod of the wicked , should not rest upon the Lot of the righteous , lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity , Psal. 125 : v. 3. This promise containeth likewise , in the bosome of it , a ground of assurance , that it is not expired ; for as long , as the righteous are in hazard of putting forth their hands unto iniquity , because of the continuance of the trouble ; we may eye this promise , that the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon their lot ; & this ground will alwayes endure ; and so the promise , bearing this Ground and Reason in its bosome , will continue likewise in force . We must not then say , that Afflictions on the Godly shall never have an end , unless we would withall destroy this promise . Therefore we may conclude , that the People of the Lord shall not be the rest of the burden of the Word of the Lord ; as it is said of Damascus Zech. 9 : 1. 4. We are also told in Scripture , That the Heaviness of Affliction is but for a Season , 1 Pet. 1 : 6. wherein ye greatly rejoice , though now for a Season ( if need be ) ye are in heaviness , through manifold temptations . The word rendered for a Season , in the original , signifieth a little present now ; to show that this Season is but short ; a present now , without any considerable duration . If this were beleeved , we could not be crying-out , as we are too ready to do , Oh , will those dayes never be at an end ? we would see that the little inconsiderable present now , or point of time , would quickly be over . See Revel . 6 : 11. 5. The Scripture tels us of a little while , Heb. 10 : 37. for yet a little while , and He that shall come will come &c. The expression is mostemphatick in the Original , & cannot well be rendered to the full ; as if he had said , yet a little , how little , how little ? As if it could not be expressed , how little the time was to be . This little while , or appointed time ( as it is called Habb . 2 : .3 will soon be over . 6. The Scripture pointeth it out to be a very little while Esai . 10 : 25. for yet a very little while , and the Indignation shall cease &c. In the Original there are two words , both of them signifying a little time , or a very little time ; and so it is as much as if he had said . a very little little time . Sure that time cannot be long , which is so short , that the shortness of it cannot be expressed . Is it not then strange , that when the Spirit of the Lord cannot ( to speak so ) get words to express the shortness of the duration of their trouble , they on the contrary cannot get words sufficiently to express their sense of the length of the time ? 7. We finde it called by a definite number Ten dayes , Revel . 2 : 10. — And ye shall have tribulation ten dayes ; Whereby the shortness of the duration of that tribulation is expressed ; not that the trouble was to continue just ten dayes ; but to signifie that it was not to continue long , but a short inconsiderable time , which the Lord had determined and limited punctually to a day . Tribulation will not last alwayes , Ten dayes will put a period to it . 8. If this be too long , we have it expressed as yet much shorter ; even a night , which is no long time Psal. 30 : 5. — Weeping may endure for a night , &c. The dark disconsolat weeping time will not endure long , the few houres of a night will put an end to it : It is but a night , and a night , that hath the dawning of a day following it . We should be ashamed then , to think , or say , that our Trouble and Affliction will alwayes last ; we never saw a night yet , but it had a morning of a new day following it . 9. If this should yet seem too long , we have it denominated from a shorter time , as an hour Revel . 3 : 10. there is mention made of an hour of temptation , that was to come on all the earth . Our Lord ; sure , would hereby confute our errour of construeing the time to be too long , when He doth of purpose mention such short measures of time . An hour will soon be at an end , the few minuts thereof will swiftly post away . 10. Nay , if this should seem too long , we have it expressed by a shorter duration viz. of a moment , Ps. 30 : 5. for his anger endureth but a moment . And what can be shorter , than a moment ? Is there any measure of time shorter , than a moment ? And yet by this is the duration of the Anger of God against His Children , in afflicting of them , expressed . Why then should we account that an age , which the Lord calleth but a moment ? So Esai . 54 : 8. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee , for a moment . The word rendered moment signifieth cutting or dividing , and so importeth the shortest cutting or division of time . The Apostle speaketh thus of it also 2 Cor. 4 : 17. Our light Affliction , which is b●…t for a moment . The Apostles expression is singular , there is a lightness of Affliction , and that lightness is but a momentany lightness ; Now weightiness or lightness is not measured by time ; yet the Apostle , in a most emphatick manner doth so here , to shew us , that all the weight of the Affliction ( in comparison of the glory , that is coming ) is meer lightness ; or is so light , that it cannot be measured with the least of weights ; and therefore he saith , it is but a momentany thing , like a feather falling on a mans hand and immediatly blown away againe . It can be nothing then , but shameless unbeleef , that saith the time is long . 11. Nay , which is yet more ; as if this duration were yet too long , it is expressed by a little moment Esai . 26 : vers . 20. As if it were a little part of the least division of time , if there be any moment less then another , that is the right name of the duration of the Troubles and Afflictions of His People . So Esai . 54 vers . 7. It is called a small moment . And can we imagine how it can be less ? If the People of God had the measuring of the time of their trouble , in their own hand , could they give it any shorter duration , than this ? Could they imagine a shorter ? When the Spirit of the Lord expresseth it thus , We should be ashamed to think it too long . But it will be objected ( and this is the Second thing I am to speak to ) That the Lords ordinary dispensation with His people in all ages seemeth to contradict this , for ordinarily , if not alwayes , we see , that the Afflictions of His People are of long continuance : did not Israel wander Fourty Yeers in the Wilderness ? After they came into Canaan , did they not serve the King of Mesopotamia Eight yeers Iudg. 3 : 8. and the King of Moab Eighteen vers . 14. and the King of Canaan Twenty Yeers Iudg. 4 : 3. & the King of Midian Seven Yeers Iudg. 6 : vers . 1 ? Were they not captives in Babylon Seventy Yeers ? not to mention their being now Non-churched above sixteen hundreth Yeers ? How then can this time be called and accounted so short ? For clearing of this , we shall propose these few things following to Consideration , 1. The time of the Affliction of His people may be accounted short , in regaird of the great and manifold effects , which God is to bring about by the same , a through Consideration of which would make us say , ( if we judged according to our usual manner ) that the Afflictions must of necessity continue a long time , to the end those great and noble effects may be produced thereby . Would we consider , how much Dross and Corruption in His own people remaineth to be purged away , as Pride , Carnality , Inordinat Self-love , and Love of Pleasures , Riches , Honours , Ease &c. Carnal-Security , Passion , Self-conceite , Formality , Hypocrisie &c. we would see a necessity for the Crosses lying-on for a long time , in order to the purging of these away ; As also would we consider how much Hypocrisie , Hollow-heartedness there is to discover ; how many false Friends to Christ and His Interest , there are to be made known , we could not but think , that of necessity , in order to the effectuating of this discovery , a long time of trouble and trials were requisite . As likewise , if we called to minde , how many things His people are to learne thereby . Considering I say , those and such like noble Effects , which the great Master of Work is to effectuate and produce by the Affliction ; And how they would seem to call for the continuance of the same for a considerable time , And withall how notwithstanding the Lord prevents the thoughts of many , and maketh a short work ; and doth that in a few Moneths or Dayes , which we could have thought should have called for many Yeers . When then the Lord maketh such a quick dispatch of such a great Business , we may well say , that the time is short , and that many Years are but a very short time . 2 The time of Afflictions may be accounted short , considering what our Sins and Provocations call for at His hand . When in righteousness the Lord might keep us under the rod all our dayes , and multiply Afflictions upon us , to our very dying day , Ten or Twenty Years Captivity should seem a very short time , a few Years Imprisonment would seem nothing to a man , who had been condemned to perpetual Imprisonment : To another possibly , who got no such Sentence , a few Moneths Imprisonment would seem longer , than many Years to him , because he expected no less , than perpetual Imprisonment . So , were we considering , that in regaird of our deservings , the time of Afflictions might justly be continued to the end of our dayes , a few Years or Moneths would appear to be no considerable time . Wherefore in respect of our deservings , a long time of Affliction is but a short time ; because the longest is nothing to what we have deserved . 3. They may be accounted short , in respect of the dayes of Prosperity , which they have had sometimes in the world The Lord doth not alwayes chide , He will not cast off for ever , but though he cause griefe , yet will He have compassion , according to the multitude of His tender Mercies Lam. 3 : vers . 32. and so He sendeth Prosperity , which lasteth longer , than their Adversitie did ; as we see Iudg. 3 : vers . 11. after Eight Years bondage , they had rest Fourtie Years : And vers . 30. after Eighteen Years trouble , they had rest Fourscore Years So Chap. 5 : vers . last . after twenty Years bondage , they had rest Fourty Years . Thus the Lord sometimes sendeth such a length of Prosperity , that the dayes of Adversity are forgotten , as if they had been few and inconsiderable . 4. The time of Affliction may be accounted short , considering how that oftentimes , for as long as the delivery seemeth to be a coming , yet , when it cometh , His People are surprized therewith , their expectation is prevented ; they imagined , in their own apprehensions , a longer duration of the trouble , so that mercy preventeth them , when it cometh ; and this maketh the by-past time of their Affliction seem short . Though the People of God had been a conderable time in bondage , and under the feet of Adversaries ; yet it appeared unto them , but ( as it were ) as the time betwixt seed time and harvest Psal. 126 : vers . 5 , 6. after God had wonderfully delivered them out of Captivity and Bondage , they draw this Conclusion from this rare Act of Gods Providence about them . They that sow in tears shall reap in Ioy , and he that goeth forth and weepeth having precious seed , shall doubtless come againe with rejoiceing , bringing His sheaves with him . Whereby is imported that Gods People , abiding by the Lord , though they should meet with Affliction , in their Duty , and be made to weep sore , be reason thereof ; yet the time of delivery should come , like an Harvest with fruit , recompensing all their toile and tears : and so , they summed up all their Seventy Years into less than Seven Moneths . And how came it to passe , that the time seemed so short ? That Psalm pointeth this forth , as one Reason hereof , Vers. 1 : When the Lord turned againe the Captivity of Zion , we were like men that dream . They were surprized with the mercy , for they did not look for it ; but thought their exiled Condition should have continued longer , because they saw no appearance or probability of a returne . So that in regaird of what the People of God themselves may imagine , the time of the Affliction may be short . 5. It may likewise be accounted short and inconsiderable , in regaird of the wonderful and extraordinary goodness of God , that appeareth in the delivery ; when it cometh , it may be attended with such signal and notable Mercies , which so fill their souls with amazement and satisfaction , that the length of the time of their Affliction disappeareth and evanisheth ; and , as if it had been nothing , it is presently forgotten . So in that forecited Psal. 126 : vers . 2. The delivery is accounted signal and wonderfully remarkable , such as filled their mouth with laughter , and their tongue with singing . It was such a notable delivery , accompanied with so many rare Passages , and carrying in the bosome of it so many rare demonstrations of Gods Power , Tenderness , Faithfulness , Constancy and loving Kindness , that they could not but be filled with admiration thereat , and have their tongues loosed to sing his praises : Yea they took notice of this circumstance , which increased the admirablness of the delivery , that even Strangers and Heathens were made to say , that God had done great things or the poor Jewes ; and they themselves , being no less convinced hereof , could not but subscribe to the truth thereof , and ( as it were ) take the word out of their mouth , and say v. 3. The Lord had done great things for us , whereof we are glade . Now this being so remarkable a delivery , the first sight and apprehension of it did so fill their soul with Joy and Admiration , that the long Seventy Years Bondage seemed to them , but as the paines and labour of a few Moneths , in expectation of a good harvest , after the seed was sowen : as the long paines of a women travelling in Child-birth are forgotten , when she hath brought forth a Man-Child . In respect therefore of the delivery , so signal as to its Ingredients , Attendants and Circumstances , the time of Affliction may appear as nothing . 6. This time of Affliction may appear to be short , in respect of the Comfort and Support , which the Lord may bestow upon them in the Affliction : His Presence and Company may so sweeten the Lot , that the time may ( as it were ) steal away , and scarce be observed : what is a whole Years Affliction , when God is pleased to shine in love upon the soul dureing that time ? Good Company will make the Journay seem short , and the way good , which otherwayes would be tedious . Now the Lord is pleased sometimes so to manifest Himself , as to fill His People with Joy , and this so sweetneth the trouble , and cutteth the time short , that many Years seem but a few dayes . 7. The time may be accounted short , in respect of the rich recompence of reward , that is coming . If we should lay this in the ballance with an hundred Years Bondage and Affliction , what would all these Years of trouble seem to be , but as the trouble of a moment , when it is past ? Therefore , when Paul taketh a view of the exceeding and eternal weight of Glory , which was coming , all the Afflictions in this earth appeared as nothing in his eyes ; the transcendent Glory & incomprehensible Excellency of the one , eateth away the duration of the other to a thing of nothing 2 Cor. 4 : ver . 17. It is with the Beleever , in this case , as it was with Iaeob , when he was serving for Rachel , Seven Years enduring of the cold frost by night , and the heat by day , seemed unto him but as a few dayes , For the love he had to her Gen. 29 : vers . 20. The thoughts of the rich and upmaking reward , that faithful Sufferers have to look-for , will cause a long time of sad Affliction seem short . 8. The time of Affliction is so short , that it is as nothing , in comparison of Eternity : the exceeding and eternal weight of Glory will make the Afflictions light & momentany . What is the whole of time unto Eternity ? Is there any comparison betwixt what is finite , & what is Infinite ? Seing then the whole of time is not as a moment of time to all eternity ; what can the longest duration of Affliction be , but as an inconsiderable part of that inconsiderable whole ? VVhat do those , who are up before the Throne , think of the many Years of their Trouble and Persecution here below ? Are they , think we , calculating it by Years or by Dayes , or by Houres ? Oh no , all of it is , with them , comprized within the Circle of a small inconsiderable point . These and the like particulars being duely pondered and considered , it will appear , how the longest time of Affliction , that we can have here , is but short & inconsiderable : And it is our not weighing and laying of these things to heart , which maketh our trouble seem so long . Thirdly , VVe come now to speak of the Christian and Edifying Improvement of this Consideration : which is by fixing it in our heart , as a sure truth , that the time of Affliction is indeed but short . And had we the faith hereof rooted in our souls , we would be in case to carry Christianly under Afflictions : For the faith hereof would produce several sweet and useful Effects , in our hearts , seasonable and profitable for such a time : Such as these following . 2. The fixed apprehension of this , that the time of trouble is but short , would fortifie the Soul of a Beleever against the false suggestions of the Devil , which he maketh much use of at that time , to disquiet their hearts , and make their lives bitter . He will laboure to perswade them , that God looketh on them as Enemies , otherwise He would not continue their heavy Affliction so long ; and thus tempt them to question their Interest in God. But the faith of this truth would enable the Beleever to answere this Objection , and to repel this Temptation , by saying , His anger is but for a moment , His face will not alwayes be hid ; this blast will go over ; and therefore I have no cause to call my Interest in question , upon this account . 2. The fixed faith of this would keep the Beleever from questioning the promises , upon the account , that the Lords Dispensations did seem to threaten a long lasting trouble ; and a sad life of Affliction for a long time . Temptation , it is true , will then say , God hath forgotten to be gracious , He will be favourable no more , His faithfulness faileth for ever . But the Soul , beleeving this Conclusion , will say , what a poor insignificant ground is that for me , whereupon to call the faithfulness of God in question ? If the trouble were lengthened out ●…et longer , all the time is but short , it will soon have an end . 3. The faith of this will contribute much to hold up Hop 's Head. When the afflicted Person , through the Power of Temptation , is made to cry-out , O! This Trouble will never have an end , this perplexity and exercise is but growing ; and what shall I do ? Then hope beginneth to fail , and when hop faileth , the soul sincketh : But now , when this Consideration is seriously thought upon , and the soul is made to say , all the time of Affliction , which his Children meet with here , is but short , it will not alwayes last , it is but for a moment , yea and for a very short moment ; then hop is made to lift up its head ; for the man will be ashamed to quite his hop , and despond , who knoweth that the storme will quickly be over , and be but like a may-shoure . 4. The Faith of this will help unto the exercise of Patience : when we look upon the trouble , as that which will not end , or must be of long continuance , our courage departeth , our spirits fail , and we storme and grow Impatient . But when we by faith look thorow the thick and black side of the dispensation , and see the end of the calamity nigh at hand , the moment posting away , how sweetly will we lay our necks under the yoke , and set our faces against the storme , and hold on our Journay ? How patiently will we bear the Indignation of the Lord , when we know , that it will be over within a moment ? We will be ashamed to quarrel , or complaine , when we know , that a period shall quickly be put thereunto . The Apostle told the Hebrewes Heb. 10 : 36. that they had need of patience : And to encourage them unto Patience , he tels them , that within a little while , yea a very little while . He that should come , would come , and would not tarry vers . 37. 5 The faith of this will help unto Constancy and Stedfastness . When we once conceive and apprehend , that our trouble shall be of long endurance , we grow weak , and unable to stand out against temptations ; and are ready to say , because this storme will not soon blow over , it is best to row to a lee shore , and comply with the sinful courses of the time : Whereas did we see and beleeve , that the storme would not endure long , but be quickly gone , we would be encouraged to ride it out , and enabled to withstand temptations unto a sideing with the workers of Iniquity . 6. It would help also unto Christian cheerfulness under the Crosse ; when we know that it will be but a blast , soon over and gone , our Countenance will not fall , nor our courage fail : but when we represent the trouble to ourselves , as of long continuance , and we beginne to doubt if ever it shall have an end , then we become discouraged , and our countenances are cast down , and we appear no more couragious and cheerful : How do our hearts faint , and our hands fail us ? The Consideration of the short and momentany Affliction keeped-up Pauls heart , and made him say , For this cause we fainte not 2 Cor. 4 : 16 , 17. 7. The faith of this would free us from many feares , that ordinarily attend such a Condition ; we are , while under Affliction , saying , what if this or that fall out ? But the faith of this would hush these troublesome feares and questions to the door . The Tribulation being but to continue ten dayes , we would fear none of these things Revelat. 2 : v. 10. CONSIDERATION . XIX . Remember Peter's fall Mat. 26. vers 33 , 34 , 35. IN a time of trials and temptations , as it is of advantage to be calling to minde , and presenting to ourselves the Christian , and commendable Carriage of such , as have been helped of the Lord , to witness a good Confession for Him , and for His Cause and Interest , before men ; to the end we may thereby be encouraged to follow their example , and to adventure on the Promises with them , and not to fear the faces of men , in Christ's Cause ; so it may be of use for us also , to present before our eyes , and to take notice of the faintings of others , in the day of Trial , that thereby we may learn , to walk in fear , and not to trust to ourselves , or to any thing within us ; and to watch , lest we enter into temptation , when we are not in case to wrestle against it . We have here before us a sad and an alarming Instance viz. the foule fall of an Eminent man , in the houre of Temptation , which may be Improven to advantage . After Christ and His Disciples had been supping together , at that Instituted Feast , He tels them some sad and wakening newes vers . 31 , 32. to Teach us ( 1. ) That we are never more ready to grow secure , and to think that our mountain stands so strong , that it shall never be moved , than when we have had greatest Enjoyments of and Communications from the Lord , and nighest Access unto him . ( 2. ) That there is never less cause of security , than at that time ; for the higher we have come in our attainments , the Devil is the nigher with his storme . ( 3 ) That we should never be secure ; but even , when we win neerest God , we should resolve upon and prepare for new assaults , and temptations . But withal it is remarkable , that the Lord delayed the signification of the sad things , that were to fall out , until the feast was ended , and they had sung a hymne ; knowing that they would then be best in case to bear the sad report ; and not loving to marre their mirth , at that feast of Love. Though Christ had told them , that they should all be offended because of Him , that night ; yet Peter , out of a piece of manly courage ( as would appear ) promising too much upon his own head , would not beleeve ; but would rather make his Master a false Prophet , than suspect his own weakness : Therefore Christ tels him , that he should be more offended , than any of the rest ; and that he should deny Him thrice , ere the next morning came vers . 34 But all this would not lay the high conceite , that Pet●…r had of himself ; for he resolved rather to die , than do that ; and this he avowed openly , little knowing this own strength . In this carriage , and in these Answers of Peter , there are some things good , and some things bad ; and the noticeing of both may be of use to us . As for such things , as are good here , and may yeeld us some Instruction , we shall mention these three . First , It was good , that Peter was convinced , & did acknowledge , that it was his duty , and the duty of all Christ's Disciples , to avow their Master , and not to be offended in Him , whatever came . And this is an undeniable truth , That upon all hazards , Christ should be owned and avowed by all , that would not have Him to be ashamed of them one day ? And yet how little is this beleeved & beleevingly practised ? Secondly , It was good , that he was convinced , and that he confessed , that it was his duty , though all the rest should have left alone , yet notwithstanding to owne and avow his Master , and not deny him : For Christ and His truth and cause is worthy to be owned and avowed , how small so ever our encouragment from others be : And as we should not follow a multitude to do evil ; so neither will the defection of many justifie our defection , and lessen our fault , if we depart from the faith . Thirdly , It was good , that he saw , and acknowledged , that he was obliged to owne his Master , and stand at his back , be the hazard never so great ; and that the very fear of death , should not cause him deny his Master . Thou●…h ( saith he ) I should die with thee , yet will I not deny thee . And indeed all , that would be faithful Disciples to Christ , must not think their life dear to the death for Him ; but must be dead to life and all that is dear to them . But that which we would chiefly here take notice of is , that which was amisse in him ; and which will ground some sad Truths for our use ; As First , He had too great a conceite of himself ; and thought too much of what he had , & of what he was Hence obs . That Christians are too ready to be puft up with thoughts of themselves ; and are in hazard to be carryed away with this evil of self conceite , and vaine thoughts of their owne worth and excellency . And this ariseth from these evils . 1. Unmortified Corruption , This is alwayes working against God , one way or other ; and is as ready to work this way , as any other way . 2. Little self searching , and self examination , whereby we become strangers to the evil of our hearts , and know not what enemies are lurking there , and what wickedness aboundeth ; and when we know not what is within , it is little wonder we be readily puft up with swelling thoughts of vanity . 3. Little real acquaintance with the treachery , deceitfulness and double dealing of our false hearts : If we saw that , and saw its activity for evil , we would see more cause of humiliation , than of pride and self conceite . 4. Little mindeing & considering aright the failings and falls of others , who seemed to be as fast at the root , as we : If we thought upon this , we might have cause to feare , that we should also not be able to ride out a storme . 5. Trusting too much unto our own present good disposition and frame , as if this would alwayes continue with us , and we needed to feare no change . 6. Trusting too much to our Resolutions , Purposes and earnest Engagments , considering little the treachery and deceitfulness of the heart , nor remembering our own Changeableness and Unconstancy , and that our good fits may be soon off us . 7. Little considering how we must depend on the Lord & His Influencing grace , for through-bearing in all our duties ; and how we can do nothing without Him , and His supplies of grace and strength . This should be a warning to us to guaird against this evil of pride and self conceite : and to study more humility of minde ; knowing better what we are , and where our strength lyeth , that we may promise less upon our own head , and undertake noth ing in our own strength . And it should teach us to mourne over this body of death , and to guaird against its riseings & motions , and to strive against it , in all its appearances and actings . Secondly , The foretold defection and fainting of all the rest of the Disciples maketh not him the more afrayed ; but for all that he keepeth fast his high and presumptuous thoughts of himself . Which tels us , that there is such an evil among good Persons , as not to suspect themselves , and fear their fall , notwithstanding of the supposed and foreseen fals and failings of others . And this floweth from the same evil root of pride , and self confidence . We remember not that the same evil heart of Unbeliefe , Unconstancy , Treachery and Backsliding , that is in others , remaineth in us . Whence we should learne to bewar of this evil , and to know our hearts better , and suspect the evil of them more . Let us not think of ourselves more highly than we ought Rom 12 : 3 but Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall 1 Cor. 10 : 12. And let the examples of others put us to watchfulness & fear , lest we fall after the same example of unbeleefe . Heb 4 : 11. Thirdly , He would not fear , though Christ told him , and that with a doubled asseveration , verily , Verily that himself in particular , as well as the rest , should deny him . Whence we see , how ●…ard it is to lie open to Convictions of our own weakness , & readiness to decline in an evil day . And this floweth from the same evils of Pride , Self-confidence , & Ignorance of our hearts and wayes . This should teach us to observe and notice the strength and activity of this piece of Corruption , which yet remaineth in the best : And to hate and strive against this evil and proud humore : As also to be jealous of ourselves , and to lye open to Convictions from the Word , and be ready to take warnings , and to tremble before the Lord , and at his Word . Beside these things that were good , and that were bad in Peter . We may consider this Prediction of Christ's , and the intertainment that Peter gave it , whereof we have heard , with the event , and other circumstances here recorded , and thence finde some matter of Instruction . 1. Then , we may observe . That a Person may be convinced of his duty to stand by Christ and his Cause and Interest , in a day of trial , and yet deny Him , when it cometh to the point of tryal . Peter's Conviction of his duty to owne Christ , come what could come , did not keep him from a foule fall , in the hour of temptation : And the reason is manifest , for ( 1. ) Convictions may evanish , or lose their force & edge : Light may grow dark , truths become questioned ; or ( 2. ) suppose Convictions should remaine in their force ; yet it is only fresh supplies of Influences of grace , & strength , that will cause the man stand , without which he may be carried over the belly of Light , Conscience and all Convinctions , in a day of temptation . Hence we see Light and Convictions are not enough to keep us sted fast , in a day of tryal ; we must look-out for something more , and not lean to that which will not carry us thorow , more than it did Peter . 2. A Person may be throughly convinced , that he should stand by Christ and his Cause and Interest , though the defection were never so great , yea though he should be left in that quarrel alone ; and yet deny Christ and his Truth , in a day of tryal : Peter was convinced , that he should not deny Christ , though all others should do it ; and yet fell foully . And the grounds of this are the same , with the grounds of the former truth : Deep Convictions are one gift , and stability in a day of tryal is a distinct gift . Light is one thing , but grace to follow that light , is another thing . Wherefore the deeper our Convictions be , we ought the rather to feare the more , and depend the more by faith on Christ for actual Assistance , Influence and Grace to follow Convictions , and abide by Duty , in the day of tryal . 3. Clear , Plaine , Peremptour and Particular Warnings , will not be enough to keep us sted fast in an evil day : Peter had such here , and yet he fell in the day of temptation : And the reason is because ( 1. ) These warnings may weare away , and be forgotten , And ( 2. ) Pride and Corruption may so puff up , that all these shall not once pick upon the man : And so he may forget himself , and take little notice of them The consideration of which should teach us to be Jealous of our heart , to keep humble , and feare alwayes ; and to improve warnings , to a stirring of ourselves up to Diligence , Watchfulness , Acting of faith upon Christ , and Living nigh to Him. 4. A present good frame and disposition , or a fit of warmness and affection to Christ , will not be enough to secure us from a fall , in the day of tryal . As we see here in Peter ; He seemed to be in a very good frame , at present , and full of affection , when he would rather die than deny his Master ; & yet when the temptation came , he yeelded The reasons are ( 1. ) Such frames and fits do not usually stay , nor leave any deep impression on the heart . ( 2. ) Grace actuated , & blown upon one way , will not be sufficient to make grace lively another way , or for other work ; but the habite must have new Influences for every new work : For ( 3. ) without Christ we can do nothing : All our strength is in Him ; in Him we must move , as well as live ; and He must work in us both to will and to do , of his own good pleasure . This should learne us , not to think much of any present fit of tenderness , or flash of affection ; for that may soon wear off ; nor think that that will be sufficient to carry us thorow new straits and difficulties . It were better to be learning & practiseing the way of faith , and of dependance upon Christ , that we may be strong in Him , and in the power of His might Ephes. 6 : 10. That we may live in Him , and bring forth fruit in Him. Diffidence of our selves , and of any thing we have , even when we are at the best , would be more suitable and useful for us , than building too much upon such slender and slippery grounds : And the consciousness of our own Unconstancy , and Instability should make us live closer to Christ. 5. Strong Purposes and Resolutions to stand fast , in a day of tryal , will not keep us from reeling and staggering in a stormy day : Peter had brave Purposes and stout Resolutions ; yet he fell notwithstanding , in the hour of temptation . And the reason is because : ( 1. ) These Purposes and Resolutions are oft ill founded with us ; we ground them too oft upon something within ourselves , on our Partes and Abilities , our Light and Knowledge , and upon our Grace and Receivings from God , or upon former thorow-bearings , and the like ; which may prove but a sandy foundation . ( 2. ) The heart is deceitful above all things , and desperatly wicked ; and so may faile us , in a day of strait and difficulty . ( 3 ) These purposes may soon be forgotten and laid by . Which should learne us , not to deceive ourselves with those specious and promiseing flourishes of Purposes and Resolutions , even when they are real , and without the reproachings of our heart ; for these are not strong enough to carry us thorow a sad storme , that may come . 6. A Person may resolve on death , in avowing Christ , and yet not stand out against a smaller temptation : Peter resolved to die , rather than deny his Master , and yet the word of a Damsel made him deny Christ. And that because ( 1. ) Presupposed hazard is not so terrible to nature , as what is present , a small trouble present is more frightful to nature , than a greater trouble afar off , ( 2. ) We oft make our Resolutions without Christ , and resolve not in Him , but in ourselves . ( 3. ) Oftentimes these Resolutions are not deliberat , but done in a fit of a good mood and warm frame ; and when that is off , the Resolutions animated thereby wax cold and faint . The Consideration of which should make us feare alwayes , and not to trust the highest and strongest of Resolutions . Happy such as abide in Christ , and depend upon Him , for their daily Food , Strength , Courage and Activity ; and undertake nothing without Him. 7. All these fast and firm-like Purposes , Vowes and Resolutions will be so far from keeping a person from a fall , in a day of temptation , that they will not , some time , keep him even for a few houres . So was it here with Peter ; for that very night he denied his Master . And that because ( 1. ) A Christian , when left to himself is not able to stand-out a storme , even a very little time . ( 2. ) Their adversary the Devil is active , subtile , and vigilant . ( 3. ) After Vowes and fast Purposes they become secure , as thinking their hazard less , and trusting to their owne strength ; and so the Devil gets most advantage , when they are gone from their watch-towr , and are fallen asleep in their security . ( 4. ) The Lord may see it good to suffer this , to punish them for their Pride and Self-Confidence , and to let all see , that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord. This may let us see , What an Unconstant Creature a beleever is , when he is left to himself , and how inconsistent he is with himself . And should teach us to fear most , and be most upon our guard , when we think ourselves best and saifest . And to know , that our Strength and standing is in the Lord. 8. When Persons think themselves most sure , they may be nearest to a fearful fall : Peter thought now his mountaine stood so strong , that he should never be moved , as David did Psal. 30. And all the warnings he gote did not make him once fear a fall : And yet w●… know , what a fearful fall followed upon this . And the reason is , because ( 1. ) They oft judge by sense and carnal reason ; and so think because they finde themselves , in a good mood at present , that all is well , and they need to fear nothing . ( 2. ) They grow then most secure , and self confident , and therefore neglect their watchful , and circumspect walking , and are not in the fear of the Lord all the day long . ( 3. ) Satan observing this watcheth his time , and finding them secure setteth on , & cannot but prevaile . ( 4. ) Self-confidence blindeth the eyes , that they see not their owne weakness , and where Satan may have advantage against them . ( 5. ) The only Wise God ordereth it thus , to let us see , that all Flesh is grasse . Therefore we should never resolve to quite our Watch-towr , but alwayes minde watchfulness and circumspection , and guard against Security . Let us fear most , when we think we are saifest , and beware of promising saifty and immunity to ourselves , in whatsoever condition or frame we be into . Let him that standeth take heed , lest he fall . 9. Such as have an higher conceite of themselves , than of others , may come to fall fouler than any . Peter thought more of himself , than of all the rest ; and that he should stand by his Master , though all the rest should shamefully turn their back upon Him ; and yet none among them all did , as he did . And the Lord wisely ordereth matters thus , that ( 1 ) All Flesh may lye low in the dust , be humble , tremble and feare . ( 2. ) That the best may be jealous of themselves , and fear a fall . ( 3. ) That He may chastise the pride of some , who thought there were none comparable to them . Which is a warning to all , to have humble and low thoughts of themselves , and to beware of proud imaginations and loftie thoughts . 10. A Person may have true Grace , and yet sinfully and shamfully shun suffering for Christ. As we see in Peter , who had the root of the matter in him : For to beleeve is one gift , and to suffer is another distinct gift , and they go not alwayes together . See Phil. 1 : v. 29. of which we spoke above . To teach us to depend upon Him for the one , as well as for the other ; and not to think , that if we have grace , we need no more to carrie us honestly thorow a day of temptation . We would remember , that it must be given us in that very houre , to suffer stedfastly , and to stand to the truth . 11. A Child of God may fall into this grievous sin of denying his Lord and Master in all His Interests , in His Person , Offices , Attributes and Works . This was no small sin , in which Peter fell , at this time : It had a long tail of direful and sad Consequences . There is no sin , which Beleevers are exempted from , but the unpardonable sin unto death , final impenitency , and final and total Apostasie . And Satan , in all his temptations , driveth at this , to have them denying , quiting and renouncing Christ. Which should teach us ( 1. ) To have charitie to some , that fall in a day of temptation ; seing some , in whom is the root of the matter , may , being left of the Lord , fall very foulely . ( 2. ) To be humble and watchful all our dayes , not knowing what may befal us ere we die : We may ride thorow one , or two , or moe stormes , and yet fall shamfully , ere we go off the stage . ( 3 ) To remember what a strong and violent Body of Death we have within us ; lest we turn secure and careless . ( 4. ) To be thankful to God , if we be keeped stedfast at any time ; for that is not of ourselves ; the Grace and Power of God have done it . Therefore let God have the Glory , and not we ourselves . 12. When once a Beleever , in a day of temptation , beginneth to fall , and loseth a foot , he may fall very foulely , ere he recover himself . Peter lost his foot , and spoke an untruth at first , simply denying his Master ; but it came to fearful Oaths , Cursings and Execrations , ere all was done . For ( 1. ) The way down-ward is very easie ( 2. ) Satan is at hand , to drive forward ; and who can stand , when the Devil driveth down ward ? ( 3. ) Conscience being once wounded will be easily made worse : If once a little hole be made in the Conscience , it is easily made wider ; for tenderness and watchfulness go away . Which should serve as a loud warning , to beware of the very beginning of a defection , and to guard against the very first breaking-in of waters , It is not saife to say , such a length I will go , and so far I will yeeld , to save a staik , and to keep my peace ; but I will go no further . It were more wisdom , to hold further off the brinke and precipice , lest , if our foot slip , we recover not ourselves so easily againe : And we know not , what a providential Commission the Lord may give Satan , to drive us , by his temptations , forward to that , which we never dreamed of , because of our rash and sinful ventureing , and bold hazarding upon sin and known dangers . It is Wisdom to resist the beginnings of evil ; then are we strongest , and best able to withstand ; whileas , the more we cede and yeeld , the weaker we become , and the weaker we are , we are the more easily driven downward , and carried away of the winde of temptation . CONSIDERATION XX. Gods Way of delivering his People is hid and mysterious . ESAI . XLV . VERS . 15. Verily thou art a God , that hidest thy self . O God of Israel the Saviour . BEcause right thoughts of Gods Mysterious wayes of Working , and bringing about Salvation and Deliverance , are useful , in a dark day , we shall speak alittle to this . We finde in Scripture frequent mention made of God's hiding himself , 1. His Saints are oft complaining of it Iob. 13 : v. 24. Wherefore hidest thou thy face ? So Psal. 10 : 1. & 44 : 24. & 88 : 14. and they are making it the matter of their lamentation , and laying it forth , as the ground of their sorrow and griefe . 2. We finde this dispensation threatned because of sin Deut. 31 : 18. And I will surely hide my face , in that day , for all the evils , which they shall have wrought . 3. We finde it also accordingly executed because of sin Ezek. 39 : 24. According to their uncleanness , & according to their transgressions have I done unto them , and hid my face from them . So Esai . 57 : 17. For the iniquity of his Covetousness was I wroth , and smote him , I hid me and was wroth . See also Esai . 59 : vers 2. & 64 : vers 7. & 54 : 7 , 8. 4. We finde this dispensation accompanied with sad Effects : Such as ( 1. ) A not hearing of the praiers of his people Esai . 1 : 15. And when ye spread forth your hands , I will hide mine eyes from you . Hence these petitions are put up together to God by the Psalmist Psal. 27 : 7 , 9. Hear , O Lord , when I cry with my voice , and hide not thy face far from me . As upon the other hand , when He heareth the cry of His people , it is an evidence that His face is not hid : Yea these are looked on as one thing , so firmly are they knit together Psal. 22 : v. 24. — Neither hath He did his face from him ; but when he cried unto Him , He heard . ( 2. ) Sad and grievous Afflictions , as Esai . 64. 7. Thou hast hid thy face from us , and hast consumed us . ( 3. Sad and grievous Afflictions continued , together with a not-regairding , or owning of them , in their Afflictions : For so doth the Church complaine Psal. 44 : 24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face , and forgettest our affliction and oppression ? ( 4. ) Trouble and griefe inward Psal 30 : ver . 7. — Thou didest hide thy face , and I was troubled . So Psal. 88 : v. 14. Lord why castest thou off my soul ? Why hidest thou thy face from me ? But this is not the hiding , whereof the Prophet in this place Esai . 45 : 15. is speaking : For the hiding here mentioned is of a far other nature , giving us properly to understand , That the Lord hath an Unseen , Unusual , Hid , Mysterious , Sublime , Excellent , transcendently and incomprehensibly Glorious way of carrying on His Work , of bringing about His holy Purposes , and of making good His faithful Promises : The circumstances of the Text do fully make out this to be the true and genuine meaning of the words ; for the whole contexture of what preceedeth and of what followeth , is a masse of gracious Promises of great things , which the Lord was about to do , in the behalfe of His Church and interest ; and the very particular Instrument , King Cyrus , by whom the Lord would begin the recovery of the Estate of his Church , is designed ; and his prosperous success , in all his attempts , against what stood in his way , foretold ; Objections , that might arise in his peoples mindes removed ; and they shamed from their Unbeleeving , Querrelling , proud and arrogant Contending humore : Together with remarkable adjuncts , and concomitants of this great change of the Church to the better , in their Neighbours , Aegyptians , Ethiopians and Sa●…eans ; as also ruine and destruction foretold , to come upon all the Enemies . Now in the midst of these thoughts , the holy Prophet breaketh out into a rapture of Admiration , having in these words , an holy Ejaculation and Apostrophe , as ravished with the thoughts of these great incredible-like and wonderful matters , and the rare and wonderful manner of bringing about this Change & Outgate , which humane understanding could not comprehend : For as one transported with joy & wondering , he cryeth out , in the midest of these Prophecies . Verily thou art a God , that hidest thy self O God of Israel , the Saviour . Wherein we may take notice of these foure things . 1. The frame of the Prophet , and the holy disposition of his soul , held forth by this abrupt Ejaculation . 2. The matter or occasion of this Rapture and Transport , which is twofold ; for ( 1. ) He seeth God hiding himself ; and ( 2. ) in that dark and unseen way , he saw him , the God of Israel , and the Saviour . 3. The Manner of Expressing this his admiration , with a Verily . 4. His venting himself thus in the bosome of God. Verily , thou art a God &c. As to the first , the frame of soul , which was in the Prophet , at this time , we may take notice of these Particulars , which may withal point-out our duty , in a sad day . 1. We see the Prophet fixed in the faith and perswasion of the truth of what the Lord was here promiseing , concerning his Church and People : He was confident and fully perswaded , that the deliverance of the people of God out of the Babylonish Captivity , in which they were to be , full Seventy yeers , would come ; though at this present , while he is getting this discovery and manifestation , there was no appearance of their being brought in bondage , & led away captive out of their own land by the Babylonians ; far less of their delivery out of that Captivity ; the people being now dwelling in their owne Land , & living in peace and quiet , far from any molestation from the Caldeans : His faith and perswasion of the truth of what the Lord said to Him , and by Him , was the ground of this his Admiration and Ravishment : For what we do not beleeve to be true , how rare and uncouth so ever it be , it will not ravish us , nor cause in us a rapture of Admiration . Hence we see all the sayings of God , how improbable and unlikely so ever they may be , should be embraced with fulness of faith ; we should with Abraham Rom. 4 : 18. Against hope beleeve in hope ; He did not consider his own body now dead , nor the deadness of Sarahs womb , nor did he stagger at the promise of God , through unbeleef ; but was strong in the faith , giving glory to God , and was fully perswaded , that what God had promised , he was able also to performe vers . 19 , 20 , 21. So no more should we take any notice of the humane improbability , and of the many unlikelyhoods , and of such things , as might , to humane reason , walking upon humane grounds , make the thing promised seem altogether improbable , if not impossible : But , having the firme Word of God , who cannot lie , nor change , there to rest , as anchored upon that immovable Rock , and ride-out all stormes of carnal Reasonings , and corrupt Suggestions and Temptations of Satan . 2. We see in the Prophet , that all the consideration , that he might have had , at this time , of the Improbabilities , small Appearances , Difficulties , yea and Incredibilities to humane judgment , standing as mountaines in the way of the charriot of God's Faithfulness & Truth , coming With Salvation to his people , did but contribute to his more firme and fixed gripping of , and cleaving to , the Promises and Predictions ; and raise in his soul an holy Ravishment and Rapture of wondering , at this rare and wonderful Work of God , which he saw by faith . And this should teach us to take notice of the Difficulties , and Improbabilities , that seem to us to lye in the way of the accomplishment of the great Promises , for no other end than this , that we may become more fixed in the faith thereby , and be raised up to see more of the Glorious Power , Truth , Goodness and Faithfulness of God , and helped to get a fuller look of God , as Incomprehensible in all His wayes . 3. We may observe here , in the frame of the Prophet , That he discovered in God something Rare , Admirable , Excellent and Glorious , that ravished him , and transported his soul : He saw a Divine , Holy Mysterie , in God's way : When the way of the Lord was , to humane eyes , Unclear , Dark and Cloudy , he saw the Glory of God shining forth , with greater brightness and splendour . He saw the Lord , while covered , as to his way of working , with a thick cloud , by the eye of faith ; he pierced the clouds , and saw the Invisible . Thou art a God : Nay he , saw , that such a way , whatever the shallow & dim-sighted Reason of Man might apprehend , concerning it , was God's way ; and had the manifest lineaments of God engraven upon it : he saw that that hid way was God-like ; and these thick clouds , that to humane reason would darken the beauty and lustre of God's Glory , did the more set off to him , the Divine Glory and Majesty of God. O what an excellent frame is this ; and how useful and necessary for his people , in a day of clouds and darkness ? And what a sharp eagles-eye must faith have , that can discover Glory in obscurity ; and see a rare and singular sight of God , even when He is hiding himself ; and can observe a greater Glory , and splendour of Excellency , in the clouds and darkness , that are about His throne . How great must the difference be betwixt that sight of God , which a Natural eye , measuring things according to the rule of Carnal Reason , can get of the most refulgent and self-manifesting Operations of God ; and that discovery of God , which faith getteth , in those dispensations of God , which have no Glory or Majesty in them , unto a Carnal eye ? How averse and unwilling should the consideration of this make us , to judge of God and of his Wayes and Doings , by Carnal Reason ? And how blinde a judge must that be of Gods Wayes and Dispensations ? 4. We may here take notice , in the Prophets frame , That he discovereth , in the wayes of God , about which now his thoughts are occupied , an unsearchable Depth , a Mystery , and Incomprehensibleness : For he is like a man walking into the sea , and findeth it the longer the deeper , and at length is like to drown , and there standeth , and cryeth out , this ocean hath no bottom ; I shall lose my selfe if I go further : He hath been , as it were , wading in his contemplations of the Mystery of God's wayes with and about his Church and People ; and as one loseing ground , he cryeth out Verily thou art a God , that hidest thy self : Thy wayes are Incomprehensible , Unfathomable , and Unsearchable . As the Apostle Paul , in a case not unlike Rom. 11 : 33. — how unsearchable are his judgments , and his wayes past finding out ? David hath an expression not unlike , in his contemplations of God Psal. 145 : 3. Great is the Lord , and greatly to be praised ; and his greatness is unsearchable ? 5. It is observable in the Prophets frame , That as he discovereth in the wayes of God , which were now the matter of his Spiritual Meditation , a singular & rare Beauty , and Divine Excellency , a transcendent Glory ; so he saw this , while all these wayes of God were covered with clouds , and darkness . Even when He was hiding himself , and clouds and darkness were round about Him , he saw , that Righteousness and Judgment were the habitation of his throne ; as it is Psal. 97 : 2. Faith can see God in the dark , and discover a God hiding himself : Faith can go-in thorow clouds and coverings and dark dispensations , and see the Glorious God acting in Majesty , and carrying on His work in Faithfulness and Truth , according to His everlasting Purposes , and Faithful Promises . This should be our study , in the day of God's hiding of Himself , as to His visible dispensations , and oùtward work , in the world . 6. We may here also mark , in the holy Prophets frame , a sutable Submission of spirit , & holy Acquiescence of soul , in this singular and rare way of the Lords bringing-about His Intended Designes ; There is no footstep here of the holy mans Murmuring , Repining , Grudging or Quarrelling , at this dark and unseen way of the Lord 's ordering His matters ; but on the contrary we may observe , the Prophet stouping , & putting his mouth in the dust , sweetly acquescing in , and submitting to the way , howbeit dark , unusual , and compassed with dark clouds , that infinite wisdom thinketh good to take and follow , in carrying on His Purposes , and Designes of love and mercy , to His people . Verily thou art a God , that hidest thy self &c. I see that now , would he say , that I did not observe before ; and I am satisfied : I have nothing to say against it ; I close with it , and am fully content it be so . Such a frame would suite us well , let the Lord take what way He will , & follow what method He thinketh good : How uncouth and dark so ever it seemeth to us ; yet so far should we be from complaining , or from a quarrelling discontentedness of minde ; that we should heartily , cheerfully , and with full satisfaction of soul comply therewith , in heart , mind and affection . 7. It is observable also in the holy Prophets frame , that notwithstanding of all these interveening clouds of Improbabilities & Unlikelihoods , and dark Dispensations , that would seem to cover and hide the comfortable relation , that God standeth in unto his Church and People ; as their Covenanted God and Saviour ; yet against hope , as to humane appearances , and carnal reasoning , he beleeveth in hope ; and holdeth this fast , that be His dispensations what they will , and be the outward and visible appearances of His owning of and appearing for His people , never so small and inconsiderable ; yet He was , & would be , the God of Israel , and the Saviour . Howbeit the reasonings of flesh and bloud would say , God hath forgotten to be gracious , and his Promises fail , and he will be favourable no more , as Psal. 77 : v. 7 , 8 , 9. Yet he saw , that His way was in the Sanctuary , and in the sea , and His path in the great waters ; and that though His footsteps could not be seen , yet He was leading his people like a flock . v. 13 : 19 , 20. Such actings of faith , in a dark day , would be of great use , & would contribute much to our Establishment ; & keep us from staggering , in the day of temptation . 8. We may take notice here , in this manner of expression , of the burning of the holy mans Affections towards God ; These thoughts of the Lord's Dispensations , whereby He appeared a God like himself , did not alienate his heart from God , nor drive him further from Him ; but on the contrary , they did warm his Affections more , and draw him nigher unto God ; for he is uttering these his Apprehensions of God , and of His way , even unto God himself , saying , Verily , thou art a God &c. It is good when our Meditations of God , & of His wayes , how uncouth , strange , & unusual so ever they be indeed , or seem to be , work thus upon us , & are accompanied with a powerful attractive vertue , drawing & powerfully inclineing the heart & soul , to approach nigher unto God : And when the Lord is rightly seen , in any of his wayes , how dark soever , this will follow upon it ; the heart will be more engadged unto God , & the soul will improve these meditations , to a noble advantage ; and have thereby many sweet occasions of heavenly Ejaculations , and of Postings of soul toward God. 9. It is considerable also in the Prophets carriage , while he thus uttereth the whole matter of his thoughts , even in the Presence of God , and poureth forth his soul into the very bosome of God , that he was real , and single hearted , in all this Exercise ; it was not a meer rational discursive Contemplation , but a real exercise of soul ; his heart was really & in very deed affected with the mater , Verily ( saith he ) thou art a God that hidest thy self & . His declaring of the thoughts of his heart unto God , saith , that he was not formal , superficial , or for a fashion exercised in this case ; but was really exercised therewith at the heart ; his soul was in the meditation ; and he looked upon it , as momentous , and weighty , and as a matter of high concernment . A Formal , Superficial , Indifferent , and Cursory Contemplation of the works and wayes of the Lord , should be hateful to us ; and Uprightness , Sincerity and Reality should appear in all our wayes , and especially while musing & meditating upon the rare Passages of God's Providence : Our heart and soul should be in every thought , for the subject is grave and weighty , and of great concernment . 10. Lastly , It is obvious enough , that the Prophet here is in a transport of Admiration : he getteth so broad a sight of this Majestick and God-like way of carrying on His work , that he is astonished thereat , and ravished with wondering ; and therefore breaketh out , in this holy Apostrophe and Ejaculation , verily , thou art a God , that hidest thy self &c. Never do we get a right look of God , and of his wayes but when the sight thereof raiseth in us an high admiration and wondering ; for it is no common and ordinary thing , that is to be seen in them , when they are seen in the right colours : Our not wondering declareth our sight here to be but common and superficial . It was no ordinary thing in the eyes of the Jewes , when they saw the man leaping and standing & walking , who had been lame from his Mothers womb Act. 3 : 8 , 9. and therefore they were filled with wonder & amazement v. 10. When David was musing upon the Lords alseeing knowledge , he cryeth out Psal. 139 : v. 6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me , it is high , I cannot attain unto it . Next , Let us consider the matter and occasion of this Transport of the holy Prophet : what is the thing , which he seeth ; and what are his thoughts busied about , causing this Ejaculation ? First . He seeth God hideing Himself , Next He seeth Him hiding Himself , even while He is the God of Israel and the Saviour ; or he seeth Him abiding the God Israel , and Saviour , even while His way is hid , and He will not be seen . As to the first of these , to wit , the Lord 's hiding himself , that is , bringing about the promised deliverance , and salvation to his people , in a way not discernable & obvious to the eyes and observation of ▪ every one ; in a way removed from the sight of ordinary beholders ; and as to them hid , dark , under ground , and out of the reach of their perception ; in which is a Soveraigne , Majestick , Kingly and Stately procedour to be seen by Spiritual eyes ; and only by such , as can see God , while covered with clouds , and thick darkness . And this saith , That howbeit in all the wayes and works of the Lord , there is a singular , rare and divine piece of State Majesty and Glory to be seen by Spiritual observers ; yet there is sometimes , in the Lords bringing about the deliverance and outgate of his People , so much hid Mysteriousness , and Majestick Imperceptibility , that saith to a gracious observer , that the Lord is hiding Himself , and carrying on his Purposes , and perfecting his Work , according to such grounds and rules of Divine Policy , that every one cannot penetrate thereinto , nor discover his Footstpes , nor see distinctly the hand of God , at work . As sometimes wise and great Politicians , Statsmen , and Leaders of Armies carry on their designes , in such a way , as ordinary onlookers shall not understand what the matter meaneth , nor what is intended , by what they see done with their eyes ; And the more they carry on their work with success in the dark , and hid from the observation of ordinary spectators , the more do they discover their great wit , and give proof of their dexterity , in the managment of affairs of greatest consequence ; and such under-ground workings , and stratagems , carry on them a special piece of Beauty and Glory . Thus our Lord thinketh good sometimes to work , and while working , not let every one see , what he is doing ; but carry on his business , much out of sight , and under ground , and by Holy and Majestick Stratagems ; so as not only enemies shall be ignorant of what He is doing , or about to do ; but many even of his owne followers and friends shall be in the dark . So that the observation of Iob. Chap. 23 : 8 , 9. is oft times found to be true , Behold I go forward , but he is not there ; and backward but I cannot perceive him , on the left hand , where he doth work , but I cannot behold him ; he hideth himself on the right hand , that I cannot perceive him . As also of the Psalmist , Psal. 77 : vers . 19. Thy way is in the Sea , and thy path in the great waters ; and thy footsteps are not known . As all the wayes , and footsteps of the Lord , are full of Majesty , and of hid and unseen Glory ; and therefore must be sought out of all that take pleasure therein Psal. III : vers . 2. so that in all of them , the Lord is like Himself , & acteth like Himself ; and every piece of them discover to a spiritual observer the Finger of God. So there are some special pieces of work , which are more signal , and remarkable , and wherein the Lords gloriously-working hand is less obvious ; and even these works , upon that very account , are in a special manner Glorious and Majestick ; and of such is the truth in hand to be understood , wherein the Lords footsteps are not seen , nor known , nor observable by every one : for further clearing of which point of truth , concerning the Lord's thinking good to work ; and yet to hide Himself , so as it shall not be observed by every one , that He is indeed working ; we shall mentione some few of these special Works of God , that are thus covered with a cloud of Majesty , that every one cannot understand the Reasons of State , why such and such things are done , or suffered to be done ; nor see the connexion betwixt these Actings , and the intended Designe : As 1. When there is not only a seen and palpable disproportion , betwixt the meanes taken and followed , and the end projected or intended ; and an obvious unsutableness of the meanes used unto the designe to be carried on by them : But the Work of the Lord seemeth to Onlookers to Crosse and Counter-work the intended end . How oft is it seen , that the Works of Gods Providence seem not to run in a subserviency to the bringing effectually about of the Promises ; but rather to turn head upon them , and to threaten the utter annulling of them , and rendering of them void , and of no credite ? When the present Dispensations of providence are considered , and compared with the great things concerning the Kingdom of Christ promised ; who can see what rational correspondence they keep , & can observe them smiling one upon another , as fit meanes and the end would do ? Nay , who would not say , that these Dispensations do rather drive on a direct designe to defeate the Promises , who would consult with humane Reason ? Is not this then a special piece of the Lord's Work , wherein He hideth himself , and thinketh good to cloath himself with State and Majesty , that every one may not be able to prye into the Depths of his Insinite Wisdom ; nor see how all things are laid , and joynted together , with firme bands and ligaments , that cannot be broken or dissolved ; and so have a certaine connexion , with the intended and promised good ? When Moses was sent to deliver the People of Israel out of Aegypt , and to tell them good newes , that the Lord had visited them , and looked upon their Affliction , and would now rescue and deliver them from their bondage and slavery Exod. 4 : v. 30 , 31. the Dispensation , that immediatly followed upon the neck of that , seemed to keep no good correspondence therewith , when their yoke was made heavier , and their bondage more grievous , and their slavery and hard work doubled , by the People of Israel their being constrained to seek straw for themselves , without diminishing the tale of their bricks ; and they hereupon , who formerly believed the Word of God by Moses , and bowed down and worshiped , when they heard the same , now made to say unto Moses and Aaron Exod. 5 : v. 21. The Lord look upon you and judge , because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh , and in the eyes of his Servants , to put a Sword in their hand to slay us . Yet herein was a piece of that Stately Working of God , which is full of Majesty , which the People could not see ; and which Moses himself could not well take up , as his words to God Vers. 22 , 23. evidence , where he saith — Lord ! Wherefore hast thou so evil intreated this People ? Why is it that thou hast sent me ? For since I came to Pharaoh , to speak in thy Name , he hath done evil to this People ; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all . 2. When the Dispensations of God are such , as even those , whom they most concerne , & who have greatest interest in them , and are most called therefore to understand them , do not know what to say of them ; nor what construction to put upon them ; nor what to gather out of them , not only in particular , but even as to a more general matter ; that is , they shall not know , whether they speak-out Mercy , or Anger in God towards them . This must be a singular piece of God's hiding himself , and covering himself with a cloud , that no distinct judgment can be made of what He is doing : Such was that Dispensation , which Sampsons Father met with : He and his Wife could not agree in their judgment , as to what they saw Iudg. 13. Manaoh said Vers. 22. We shall surly die , because we have seen God. But his Wife , on the contrary , said Vers. 23. If the Lord were pleased to kill us , he would not have received a Burnt offering , and a Meat-offering , at our hands ; neither would he have shewed us all these things , nor would he at this time have told ut such things , as these . So as to that strange and unusual Dispensation , which holy Iob did meet with , he did not know , what the mind of the Lord was , nor what he was intending and driving-at thereby : therefore he resolveth Chap. 10 : Vers. 2. to say unto God — Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me ; which sheweth , that he was utterly ignorant hereof . 3. When the Lord surprizeth His People with a Mercy and a Deliverance , and cometh upon them with an unexpected Out-gate ; whether ( 1. ) As to their present Frame and Fitness for the mercy and delivery ; Or ( 2. ) As to their Present Hopes and Expectation . When First , I say , the Lord cometh with a sweet and merciful delivery unto a People , that seem to be in no present capacity for it , as being out of all good Frame or Fitness , for receiving such a mercy with advantage , because lying in their sin and impenitency ; When the Lord cometh with Salvation unto such a people , sure , his way must be covered with darkness , and hid from the eyes of Beholders , with a clothing of Soveraignity ; for who could think , that deliverance were upon its march towards such a people , who are not seeking it , nor turning from their sinful wayes , that the Lord may have mercy upon them , according to his usual Method and Order ? Such steps of Soveraignity are hid steps of Majesty , and full of Glory ; and therein the Lord is hiding Himself , and His way , coming with Salvation in an unusual path : As when he saith Esai . 57 : 17 , 18. For the iniquity of his Covetousness , I was wroth , and smote him , I hid me and was wroth , and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart , I have seen his wayes , and will heal him : I will lead him also , and restore Comforts unto him , and to his mourners . Next , When the Lord surprizeth a people with a mercy , that they are not in Expectation of , nor Waiting for , then he acteth , like a stately King , and His Way is Glorious and hid ; as it was , when the Captivity was brought back from Babylon , concerning which they say Psal. 126 : vers . 2. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion , we were like them , that dream . It is true , they had good ground to be now looking for their delivery , because of the Prophecy of Ieremiah , foretelling that after Seventy Years , they should return back to their owne land ; and Daniel understood so much , and thereupon , when the time was approaching , set himself to pray Dan. 9. But as to the generality , they were , in all appearance , little looking for this outgate ; but rather fearing more trouble and vexation , by Babylons warrs with the Medes and the Persians , who were coming against them ; though the name of Cyrus , because of what was foretold by Esai . Ch. 44. and 45. might have caused them lift up their heads in hope . But notwithstanding of all this , we see , they were , ( at least as to the generality and bulk of the people ) little looking for an outgate , at this time ; & therefore at the first report of freedom , granted to them to returne , they were like men that dream ; scarce beleeving their owne eyes and eares : At which time , while they were in this dreaming posture , how were they surprized with this mercy ? And how was the way of the Lord , in His stately Marchings , hid from their eyes ? In reference to this same Dispensation of deliverance to his People by Crus , is the Prophet here crying out thus ; Verily thou art a God , that hidest thy self ; as the former part of the Chapter , from the beginning , cleareth . 4. When Dispensations , upon the one hand , and the other , say , that in humane probability , there is no appearance , or ground of hope of an outgate , or deliverance ; yet delivery cometh , in an unexpected way ; how hid must the way of the Lord then be ? Thus He loveth to hide Himself , in His advancing with Salvation , when there is no appearance to humane Consideration , whether mens eye be upon the Enemies , or upon the People of God themselves : As to Enemies they may ( 1. ) Be Strong , Mighty , and Invincible , the Consideration of which might alone be sufficient to dash all hopes ; as who could have thought , that the People of Israel , being so under the feet of that mighty Monarch Pharaoh , could get out of his Territories , and be freed of his mighty Yoke ? ( 2. ) They may not only be strong , but prevalent , and prospering in their evil way , all things succeding according to their mind , the Lord , as it were , shining upon their Counsels , and granting to them their hearts desire , crossing them in none of their wicked interprizes , and designes ; but even suffering them to devise mischiefe upon their bed , and to put it the next day in execution . Was it not so with Saul , in his wicked persecution of David , oftentimes ? Had he him not sometimes in a net , and compassed him about , on all hands , that there was no apparent escaping ? and yet deliverance came . ( 3. ) They may be also Crafty and Politick , and lay their traines so sure , that they may think they cannot misgive ; and have all things prepared to their minde , that in a moment , they may blow up His People , that there should not so much , as a memorial of them be left ; and yet be disappointed . The Lord , in an unseen way , may bring about His Peoples deliverance ; so was it with the people of the Iewes , in the dayes of Mordecay , when Haman had gote a Commission sealed by the Kings ring , and a Decree passed , that might not be ranversed , or recalled , the day appointed , and designed , and that by a lot , as having something like a divine approbation , Orders dispatched to put all in execution ; and thus the mine was ready for the springing ; what hop could the poor Iewes then have of a delivery ? And yet , behold , the Lord was then a God , that hid himself : He was counter-working this myne , and laying a back traine , that might cause it spring back upon the Authors ; and so it did , as the Storie cleareth . When the Enemies thought themselves sure of their designes , and thought it impossible , that their purposes could fail ; behold , the God of Israel , the Saviour , was hiding himself , and laying an unseen ambush , that cutt them off , who thought to have destroyed the Iewes . So upon the other hand , this God will bring about deliverance to his People : When upon their part , there is not one toaken for good , not one thing apparent , that can be a probable ground of hope : As ( 1. ) When their strength is gone , and there are none shut up or left ; not a man , that might be an hopful Instrument , to the fore ; all their valiant Men , and Men of Courage , and such , of whom any thing could be expected , destroyed and taken away ; Yet He , who is a God that hideth Himself , can come in an unseen way , and loveth to come so ; according to that gracious Word Deut. 32 vers . 36. For the Lord shall judge his People , and repent Himself for His Servants , when he seeth that their power is gone , and there is none shut up or left . Was it not thus also , in the dayes of Deborah , when there was not a spear or sheild seen among Fourty Thousand in Israel ? Iudg. 5 : vers 8. ( 2. ) When their heart and courage is gone , they are desponding and desparing , and looking on their own case as hopless and helpless ; as it is said of the People of Iudah , while in Babylon , who said Ezek. 37 ▪ v. 11. — Our bones are dried , and our hope is lost , we are cut off for our parts . Then , even then ▪ when People can see no hope , He , who hideth himself , can say , Prophesie upon these Bones , and cause breath enter into them , and bring flesh upon them , and cover them with skin , and put breath in them , that they may live Vers. 3 , 4 ▪ 5 , 6 , 7 , &c. and make them a strong Army . This is among his hid Acts , whereof he hath a rich treasure . 5. When the meanes , which He putteth His peoples upon , in order to their deliverance and outgate , are such as promise little ●…or nothing , being considered abstractly ; and in themselves , being very unlikely , in humane probability , to effectuate the end designed , then and therein the Lord is a God , that hideth himself : as when he commanded Iosua and the People to compasse Iericho , and to blow with Rams Horns , who could have thought , that that should have proven an adapted mean , for bringing to the ground the strong Wals of the City ? And when Esther was imployed to effectuate the ranversing of the decree , given out to destroy all the Iewes , who could think , that thereby Haman should have been destroyed , and all the Enemies of the Iewes ? Who would have thought , that the stirpling , David , should have killed the great Goliah , & thereby brought about the defeate of the mighty Army of the Philistines ? Thus oftentimes the Lord maketh use of most unlikely and improbable meanes , that the excellency of the Power , and the Glory , may be His : And He cometh thus in a dark cloud , with Salvation , without observation , that His hand may more eminently appear and be observed , and His Salvation be more conspicuous . 6. When some very hopful beginning of a good Work of Reformation meeteth with an unexpected stop , and impediment to retard it ; this is one of the wayes , wherein the Lord chooseth , to hide Himself and His work ; then is His way covered with a cloud , and His footsteps cannot be seen . Thus it was , when contrary Orders came to stop the building of the Temple , after the peoples return from captivity ; as we read in the Book of Ezra ; whereby that necessary work , so much desired , prayed for , hoped for , and with such earnestness begun , was for a considerable time retarded . Thus was it also , when David was about the bringing up of the Ark , out of Kirjath Iearim to set it in its place , in the midst of the Tabernacle , that was pitched for it ; and had for this end assembled the Body of the People of Israel , and all the chosen Men of Israel , Thirtie Thousand ; and was now rejoiceing before the Lord , playing before Him , on all manner of Instruments ; then , even then , is there an unexpected stop put to the work ; for when they were advanced to Nachons threshing floor , Vzzah , one of the Sones of Abinadab , put forth , in his simplicity , his hand to the Ark of God , and took hold of it , for the Oxen shook it ; and upon this , the Anger of the Lord was kindled against Vzzah , and God smote him there , for his errour , and there he died by the Ark of God 2 Sam. 6 : vers . 5 , 6. And upon this , the work is stayed ; for David was afrayed of the Lord , that day ; and would not remove the Ark unto him , unto the City of David ; but carried it aside unto the House of Obed Edom , the Gittite , where it stayed full three Moneths , Vers. 8 , 9 , 10 , 11. See 1 Chron. 13. 7. When even the Godly are left of God , to take such courses , as do provoke God to anger , prove stumbling blocks to the Godly , and a strengthening of the wicked , in their evil wayes ; and to bring wrath upon the Land ; then doth the Lord hide Himself , and hath His way in the Sea ; for who can consider this Dispensation ▪ and not be astonied ? Are the Reasons hereof obvious to all ? Is there not something singular , uncouth , and rare , in this Dispensation ? Thus was it , when the Lord left Gideon to make that Ephod , which proved a snare to him and to his House , and an occasion of sin to the Land ; for it is said ▪ All Israel went thither a whoreing after it Iudg. 8 : vers . 27. And this was , when the Lord had wrought a great deliverance by him , and had subdued Midian ; so that they lifted up their heads , no more . Thus also was it , when the Lord left Aaron to make that Calfe , in the Wilderness , that brought so much Sin and Wrath upon the People , as we see Exod. 32 , and 33. Deut. 9 : vers . 8 , — 21. Thus was it also , when the Lord suffered David to number the People , & moved him , as it is said 2 Sam. 24 : vers . 1. or suffered Satan to stand up to provoke him thereunto , as it is said 1 Chron. 21 : vers , 1. A deed that cost Israel dear ; for therefore the Lord sent a Pestilence , that destroyed , in three dayes , Seventy Thousand Men 1 Chron. 21 : v. 14. 2 ▪ Sam. 24. 15. 8. So we may conceive the Lord to be a God that hideth himself , when we see wicked enemies imployed , and actively bestirring themselves , in carrying forward the Lords Work : It is true , when these Enemies are most active , in carrying on their wicked Designes , and malicious Purposes ; the Lord , who overruleth all , as the great Master of Work , turneth their desperat wickedness to good , and in his Holy Wisdom , and by his Irresistible Power , maketh that contribute to His ends ; and to the carrying-on of his Holy Designes ; for He hath a wheel in the midst of all their wheels : and in this , the Lords way is indeed in the deep waters , so that Enemies cannot perceive this ; and his own People are oft in the mist ; and through unbeleefe , and faithless fear , have oftentimes unsutable thoughts of God , and of His Way . But the thing that we are now speaking of , is a passage of the Lords Providence , that is more rare and observable ; when , to wit , the Lord will force and necessitate Enemies to do that , which is a manifest and plaine setting forward of His work , contrare to their owne wills and inclinations ; as when the Philistines were constrained to send home the Ark to Israel againe 1 Sam. 6 : This was a Majestick piece of Providence : And that , which made the way of the Lord more hid here , was this , that the Lord would rather bring home the Ark thus , than employ the Israelites themselves , and send them forth to recover the Ark by a glorious Victory over the Philistines . We would readily think , that He should rather have done this ; but He is a God that hideth himself ; and chooseth what way He thinketh meet . 9. The Lord manifesteth himself to be a God that hideth himself , in His workings ; when in His holy Providence He delayeth , procrastinateth , and suffereth His intended and promised work to meet with retarding hinderances and impediments : we would think , that when the Lord did so wonderfully and with such an outstretched arme bring the People of Israel out of the furnace of Aegypt , to the end he might make good His promise to Abraham , and put his posterity , according to His faithful word , in possession of that promised land ; he should incontinent , after He had brought them thorow the red sea , and brought them to the very border of Canaan , have entered them into Canaan : Yet we see , He caused them to wander in a waste houling Wilderness Fourtie Years . Againe , when He brought them over Jordan , we would think He should in all haste , with great expedition have destroyed the Canaanites , that in a short time Israel might have had peacable possession of the whole Land : Yet we see , the Lord thought good to do other wayes . And how many a time , doth He think good to exercise the Patience and Faith of His People ; and for this end delay the carrying on and perfecting of the work He intendeth ? And this He doth , not for want of strength to go over all Opposition ; nor for want of Wisdom , as if he were put to new Resolutions , and to a stand , in carrying-on his old Purposes : But that he may give proof of His Majestick Soveraignity ; and shew how Stately and Glorious He is in His Operations , performing all , according to the Counsel of His own will ; cutting short His Work , when we might think , it could not be finished , in haste ; and againe drawing it forth to a longer period of time , when we would think , that all things cry for His hastning of it . 10. The Lord hideth Himself , in His workings , when He suffereth Enemies at once to destroy and overthrow a work , that hath been long in building , and hath been carried-on with much trouble , toile , work and care , by prayers , fastings , and blood . We understand not , what that meaneth , which the Lord saith by Ieremiah , unto Baruch Ier. 45 : 4. — Behold , that which I have built , will I break down ; and that which I have planted , I will pluck up , even this whole land . But this is a piece of His working , who loveth sometimes to be a God that hideth himself . It is a sad complaint , which the Church hath Psal. 74 : vers . 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. Thine Enemies roar in the midst of thy Congregations , they set up their ensignes for signes . A man was famous , according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees : But now they break down the carved work thereof at once , with axes and hammers . They have cast fire into thy sanctuary . — They said in their hearts , let us destroy them together . They have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land. Thus was there more destroyed in one Year , than was built-up in many . Is not our Lord , in such a case , a God , that hideth Himself ? Who can see thorow such a Dispensation , as this ? 11. There is a time also , in which we may say , the Lord is a God , that hideth himself ; and that is , when his Dispensations are so mixed and composed , to speak so , of mercy and judgment , that People shall not know , which to regaird most ; or what to judge of the complex Business . As it was when the Ark came to the Bethshemites , there was great joy , and offering of brunt Offerings , and Sacrificeing of Sacrifices , 1 Sam. 6 : vers . 13 , 15. But behold , ere the day was ended , their mourning was as great as their joy ; for the Lord slew Fifty Thousand and Threescore and Ten Men , because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord v. 19 Whereupon the people lamented , because the Lord had smitten them , with a great slaughter ; and they said vers . 20. Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God ; and to whom shall he go up from us ? A wonderful dispensation , wherein the Lord shewed himself to be a God , that hideth Himself . 12. We may adde to these another case , in which , the Lord may be looked upon , as one that hideth himself ; and that is , when He is unwilling to make use of holy and useful Instruments , of whom much might be expected , and who would willingly spend themselves , and be spent in the service of the Lord. As the Lord thinketh good to make use of Instruments , in his work ; so it is an hopeful business , when the Lord raiseth up , fitteth and animateth Instruments , for carrying on of his work ; and the Lord is then appearing in His power , on the head of His work : But when He saith , by His dispensations , that He will not make use of hopful , and steadable Instruments , for beginning or carrying on of His work , then He is , as it were , hid , and his footsteps cannot be seen . Whether ( 1. ) He expresly declareth , that he will not make use of such or such a worthy Instrument , that would gladly be Imployed in the work ; as when David did so earnestly desire to be imployed in building of Gods House ; yet the Lord said , he should not build Him an House : He would not have that service from him , 2 Sam. 7. but would employ one out of his loines for that end ; and David must be content to prepare money and materials for the work . Or ( 2. ) When the Lord taketh away Instruments , before their work be ended ; as He did Moses , who would faine have passed over Iordan , to have seen that good Land , and have perfected his work of leading the people thereinto Or ( 3. ) When He suffereth worthy and eminent Instruments to be snatcht away basely and unworthily ; as we see in Iohn Baptist , a man that had not a marrow that day upon the face of the earth ; the only forerunner of Christ ; greater then any Prophet , that was before him ; and a man that had done much good ; yet see how unworthily he is taken away ; he is cast in prison , and at the desire of a light dancing damesel , prompted thereto by a base and unworthy harlot ; and taken away in a most unworthy manner , murthered in his prison , and his head given as a propine and satisfying gift to that girle . What a wonderful dispensation was this , that the Lord should suffer them to do to this non-such and eminent man , even what they would , and listed ? But in these and the like workings of the Lord , He is a God that hideth himself . We have thus declared how the Lord is a God , that hideth himself , even when He is about to do good to , and to deliver his People ; and have , for further clearing and explaining of the mater , given some instances of cases , wherein the Lord may be said to be a God hiding himself . If we should now enquire , Why and for what Reasons doth the Lord choose to work so , and bring about deliverance to His people , in such an hid and unobservable manner ? It should satisfie us for an answere . That thus it pleaseth Him to do , for his own glorious ends , which we may not too curiously prye into : Yet seing all that God doth , is done in great wisdom , both for matter , and method ; and for holy ends , which His word mentioneth ; we may so far , with soberness and humility , enquire into these ; to the end , we may be able to observe something of the wise & holy workings of God , and so be in better case , with knowledge & understanding , to carry ourselves as Christians , with a sutable frame and disposition . To the Question then , Why the Lord thinketh good to follow this way ? We answer , He doth it for great and weighty reasons , partly ( 1. ) concerning Himself ; partly ( 2. ) concerning Enemies : and partly ( 3. ) concerning His own People . As to the first , the reasons concerning Himself , we may take notice of these . 1. The Lord thinketh good , to bring about His purposes of delivering His people , in an hid , unseen , and unobservable way , that He may shew forth the glory of his Soveraignity , who chooseth Wayes and Methods , as He pleaseth ; and doth , as whatever he will , so after what manner he will , in heaven and in earth ; and is not obliged to follow ordinary methods , or to walk in beaten and troden paths ; but to do what beseemeth a great King and a Royal Soveraigne , who giveth not an account of any of his matters ; whose will is a law to us , and a rule ( to speak so ) to himself . Hence , in this same Chapter Esai . 45. is this so oft repeated , I am the Lord , and none else . vers . 5 , 6 , 18 , 21. Hereby laying down the ground of His so acting ; and quieting his peoples mindes , and stilling their thoughts , concerning this matter . 2. The Lord thinketh good to trade in such an unseen way , that spiritual e●…es may the more see , that it is He , even He , who is God , and there is none else ; that it is He , who formeth the light and crea●…eth darkness , who maketh peace and createth evil ; and is the Lord , who doth all these things vers . 7. Wherein should it appear , that He were Jehovah , if , in all things , he should work according to the thoughts and imaginations of men ? Is not this a manifest proof of His being God , when his wayes and Actings transcend our Comprehensions ? Though in all his wayes and workings , He is God , and worketh and doth like himself , even in such as are most ordinary and obvious ; and a Spiritual eye can discerne and espve something truely divine , & the marks of a divine hand ; there yet when His way is in the deep waters , and his foot-steps cannot be seen , He acteth in a manner more like Himself , like one , who is indeed God , and whose wayes are beyond and above the reach of Men , the wisest , and holiest of Men ; and then may all have ground to say , This is the finger of God , as the Magicians of Egypt said , when the Lord did somethings , which they with all their inchantments could not imitate Exod. 8 : 18 , 19. 3. The Lord chooseth this way , to give some signal proof of His Wisdom ; if Statsmen should mannage and carry-on their affairs of State , alwayes in such an open and plaine manner , that every plaine and simple man , that knoweth nothing of the intrigues of state , should be able to discerne their motions , designes and all their contrivances , they would not give great proof of their State wisdom and Policy . And if a Commander and Leader of an army should so manage all his affairs , in that conduct , that the meanest souldier should be able to discover and understand all his designes , and stratagems ; he should give but a sory proof of his singular dexterity in conduct . But when the Statsman , and the Commander in chiefe so carry on their projects , that few or none can well understand what their Designe and Intention is , then a demonstration is given of their Ability , Wisdom and Accomplishment , for such places of power and trust . So when the Lord hideth His holy Purposes and Projects , and acteth so , as ordinary on-lookers will suppose & imagine that he is going East , when He mindeth to march west ward ; and even many of his own will think , that He is about to destroy his work and people , when He is upon His way to raise them up , and set them on high , and to destroy the Adversarieship and thigh , then His deep and unsearchable Wisdom appeareth . Then it appeareth , that He also is wise Esai . 31 : 2. Iob gote a sight of this , in the Lords rare works of providence Iob. 12 : 12 , 13. to the end ; and therefore saith , with the ancient is wisdom , and in length of dayes understanding , with Him is wisdom and strength , he hath counsel and un derstanding . So Paul gote such a sight of this , that made him cry out Rom. 11 : 33. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ? how unsearchable are his judgments , and his wayes past finding out ? 4. Hereby also the Lord giveth a clear demonstration of his Faithfulness and Truth . If He were carrying-on the accomplishment of his Promises and Purposes of good towards his people , in a visible , discernable and obvious manner , folks would have but an ordinary and cursory observation of His Faithfulness ; and their hearts accordingly would be but in an ordinary manner affected , and they moved but to praise and blesse Him therefore , of course ; for , remarking nothing singular , their hearts would not be raised-up , above what is usual and ordinarie , to admire & extol Him , upon that account . But when he followeth another method , & taketh an unusual course , to bring about his grand designes , and such a course , as whereby Enemies might think , He did not see , nor regard , He would never come to helpe His people , the day was theirs , they should prosper , and never be moved ; for there is no appearance , or probability , might they think , that ever the case shall alter , & our affairs be overturned ; & upon the other hand , whereby his owne People might s●…e no visible or probable ground of hope , that the promises should be accomplished , & the word of the Lord should take effect ; then His appearance with salvation , after he had wrought so long under ground , & out of sight , & all hop was gone from them , & fear from the enemie , is much more remarkable ; & his Faithfulness shineth forth with a more then ordinary Glance and Lustre : It cometh forth then with a witness : Then they see and say , that his faithfulness is unto the clouds Psal. 36 : 5. that his righteousness is like the great mountains , and his judgments are a great depth vers . 6. and that his faithfulness is unto all generations Psal. 119 : 90. So that no vicissitudes , or changes here below , can alter Him ; no delay of time or procrastination , or the like , can make any alteration in Him ; for his faithfulness is unto all generations . Then will they praise his Truth Psal. ●…1 : 22. But next as to such grounds , and reasons hereof , as concerne Enemies , we may take notice of these 1. He cometh with deliverance unto His people , in a way not obvious nor observable , that enemies may appear in their own colours ; and give a plaine and open discovery of the latent malice and wickedness of their heart against the People of God : If the Lord did alwayes appear openly and manifestly , in the behalfe of His owne ; & let all the world see , that He owned them for His people ; and would suffer none to do them harme ; the malice and wickedness of many latent enemies , who can speak with their mouth smooth words , smoother than butter , and softer than oile , when war is in their heart , & drawn swords Psal. 55 : 21. would not appear : But when the Lord hideth himself , and goeth out of sight , then they say , as it is Psal. 71 : 11. God hath forsaken him , persecute and take him ; for there is none to deliver . Because they say in their heart , God hath forgotten , he hideth his face , he will never see ; therefore their mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud ; under their tongue is mischiefe and vanity ; they sit in the lurking places of the villages , in the secret places do they murder the innocent ; their eyes are privily set against the poor &c. Psalm 10 : vers 8 , 9 , 10 , 11. 2. The Lord maketh choise of this manner of way of appearing , and working for His people , that Enemies may be judicially hardened , in their wicked course of opposition to His Interest and People ; & so fitted for the fatal blow of God's Justice . As it was with Pharaoh , when the plagues were taken off , and God's terrour removed out of sight , he became alwayes thereupon more hardened in his wickedness against God and His people ; and thereafter when he saw , that the people of Israel were ensnared betwixt mountains and the sea , and so judged , that God had left them , or could not helpe them , then his heart was hardened unto a peremptory resolution , to pursue and take them , even through the red sea , and there the wrath of God fell upon him , and all his army . 3. The Lord carrieth on His work thus , that the ruine of the enemies may be the more signal and remarkable , and the hand of God manifestly seen therein , when they are puft up with pride , and think no hand can reach them , they are beyond all hazard ; no appearance is there of any thing , that can put the least demurre unto their wicked proceedings : The blow becometh the more remarkable , them ore surprizing , and unexpected that it is : Such was that fatal blow , that came on Pharaoh , and his hoste ; and on Belshazzar , when ravelling with his Nobles , Wives and Concubines , and profaning the holy vessels of the house of the Lord Dan. 5. 4. The Lord thinketh good to follow this way : That He may , the more observably , fill the faces of his Enemies with shame and confusion : therefore he he will suffer them to carry on their designes , to lay their mines close , to prepare all , so that nothing may seem to remaine , but putting fire to the traine , that they may blow up the Interest and People of God , in a moment ; and when they think all is ready , give them a fearful disappointment ; and withal let them see , that He , who is the watchman of Israel , hath seen what they have been doing , all that time , in secret , and hath been counter-working their devices , and undermineing their mines , when he shall cause their mine spring back upon themselves ; and thus cover their faces with shame and confusion ; when they shall see , that it is the hand of God , that hath done it , defeating their plots and devices , which were laid and carried-on with such secrecy , and with such providential foresight , and rational security ; that nothing but the immediat hand of God could frustrat and defeate them . Was it not so with Hamans device and bloody plot , to cut off all the Iewes ? And how shamfully came he off ? Thus the Lord destroyeth the wisdom of the wise Esai . 29 : 14. 5. The Lord taketh this way , to the end , He may shame ( if it can be ) those enemies from their wicked atheistical thoughts concerning Him ; that they may know , that there is a God , that ruleth in the earth ; a God that careth for His people , & watcheth over his Inheritance ; or else , they may be rendered the more inexcusable , in the day of their appearance before God. Thus the Lord will consume such , as belch out with their mouth , have swords in their lips , and say , who doth hear ? That they may know , that God ruleth in Jacob , unto the ends of Earth Psal. 59 : 7 , 13. An eminent place for this we have Esai . 49. The Lord hid Himself , so that his people became a prey , and were captives ; yet saith the Lord vers . 24 , 25 , 26. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty ; or the lawful captive delivered ? But thus saith the Lord , even the Captives of the mighty shall be taken away , and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered &c. And what then ? And all flesh shall know , that I the Lord am thy Saviour , and thy Redeemer , the mighty one of Iacoh . 6. The Lord thinketh fit to follow this way , that hypocrites , and such as are not heart friends to Him & His cause , may be discovered , may fall off , and so appear to be what indeed they are . If the Lord were alwayes appearing for His people , when ever they began to be in a straite , and visibly making bare His arme , in their behalfe , many hollow hearted & false friends would take part with them , and stay among them , and seem to love and favoure them ; Therefore , that they may be made manifest , the Lord hideth himself , and appeareth not so openly for his friends ; but suffereth them to fall under the feet of enemies , who oppress them , and all that take their part ; which occasioneth their stepping aside , & turning away from the Truth , as not being reconciled with the crosse , nor loving Christ , and his People so , as to take a share with them in the Affliction and Bondage . How many , who appeared zealous , in a faire day , will turn about , and side with wicked and evil doers , to be free of the crosse ; and when they see no foot-steps more of the Lords appearing for his Work and Interest ? On the other hand , in the third place , the Lord thinks good , to follow this way , for some good ends , in reference to His own people : As 1. The Lord doth thus , that he may discover the hid Corruption , that lurketh in His own people , which in a fair day , when He is upon their head , marching through the host of the Enemie , and tradeing them under foot , who oppressed His people , and keept them at under , will lye at the bottome , and not appear . As ( 1. ) Vnbeleefe , when the arme of the Lord is revealed , they cannot then but beleeve , That He is the Lord , and the God of his people ; they cannot then have the least doubt about this : But many Doubts , Questions , Scruples and Hesitations , will arise in their soul , when the Lord's face is hid , and He appeareth not in behalfe of His Afflicted People and Interest : The Disciples did openly enough professe their faith in Christ , as the Messiah , & the Son of the living God , while was with them , He working miracles before their eyes ; but when once he was crucified , dead and buried , Thomas would not beleeve , no not though the other Disciples had told him , that they had seen the Lord ; nor would he beleeve , as he said expresly himself , unless he should see , in his hand , the print of the nails , and put his finger in the print of the nails , and thrust his hand , in his side Ioh. 20 : 25. And what unbeleefe these Disciples vented , who were going to Emmaus , unto the Lord himself , whom they knew not , we may see Luk. 24 : 21. and may gather from Christ's sharpe rebuke vers . 25 , 26. O fools and slow of heart to beleeve all , that the Prophets have spoken : Ought not Christ to have suffered these things , and to have entered into his Glory ? ( 2. ) Fainting of heart . So long as the shipe saileth faire before the winde , a raw sea-man will have courage enough : Men at Christ's back , who have not yet had a storme blowing in their face , will be as stout as Peter , who nothing doubted , but he would lay down his life for his Master ; who yet , when the Lord is out of sight ; and his cause seemeth to be upon the declineing hand , will shrink and turn back , at a very small temptation : As Peter did deny his Master , and that with cursing and swearing , at the very word of a Damsel . ( 3 ) Self love is another evil , that such a day as this will discover : Many will appear very self denied , and willing to hazard all for Christ and His Cause , in a faire day , who , when a storme cometh , will be unwilling enough to cast their goods over board to save the shipe : In a day , when the Lord is hiding himself , many will seek to save skin and life , by such indirect courses , as sometime they would have been ashamed of . ( 4. ) Impatience : How doth the heart of many too often say little less , than that graceless King said , This evil is of the Lord , why should I waite any longer for the Lord ? 2 King. 6 : vers . 33. Such expressions , as that good man had , in that dark day , do evince this sufficiently Psal. 77 : v. 7 , 8 , 9. Will the Lord cast off for ever ? And will He be favourable no more ? Is His mercy clean gone for ever ? Doth His promise fail for evermore ? Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies ? 2. The Lord followeth this way and methode , that he may put his people to the trial and exercise of the graces of His Spirit ; such as these ( 1. ) Their Faith in Him , and in His Word and Promise : It is no great art or difficulty to beleeve , that God will make good His promise , when he is , in the sight of all beholders , most manifestly accomplishing whatever he said and promised : But for Abraham to beleeve , that in his seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed , and that his Seed should be multiplied , as the Stars of the Heaven , for multitude , when he had not one Child , and himself was stricken in years , his body now as good as dead , he being about an hundered Yeers old , and when Sarahs Womb was also dead ; that was faith ; then his faith appeared , while he against hope beleeved in hope , when he staggered not at the promise of God , through unbeleefe , but was strong in the faith giving Glory to God ; for he was fully perswaded , that what God had promised , He was able also to perform Rom 4 : vers . 18 , 19 , 20 , 21. Againe , It was no great matter for Abraham to beleeve , that it would be , as the Lord had said , when Sarah was with Childe , & had brought forth her Son , and he was healthy and thriving ; but to beleeve the accomplishment of the promise , when God said unto Him , Go offer up thy Son , thy only Son Isaac , there was faith , accounting that God was able to raise him up from the dead , Heb. 11 : vers . 19. Thus faith is both tried and exercised . ( 2. ) Patience is also tried and exercised , when the Lord is out of sight , & seemeth to say , He will not yet come , the time is not yet come : We oft cry out , How long will the Lord hide his face ; not so much out of an earnest love and desire to see his face againe , as out of impatience Psal 6 vers . 2. and 13 : v. 1. and 35 : 17. and 90 : 13. Iob. 7 : v. 19. Hab. 1. v. 2. The Lord will thus teach his people to stand upon their watch , and upon the watch towr , till the Vision , that is yet for an appointed time , and tarrieth , shall speak Hab. 2 : vers . 1 , 3. ( 3. ) To try and exercise their hope : for that is the fit time for the exercise of this grace , when humane appearance and probability faileth , and when the Lord hideth himself , and delayeth his coming Rom. 8 : v. 24 , 25. for usually then people are ready to say , there is no hope Esa. 57 : 10. & our hope is lost Ezek. 37 : 11. What is my strength ( said holy Iob Ch. 6 : 11. ) that I should hope ? It is good in such a case , to say , with the Church Lam. 3 : 24. The Lord is my portion , therefore will I hope in Him. ( 4. ) To try and exercise their Submission to and Dependance upon Him. That they may learne to carry as humble Children ; that they may say with David , Psal. 131. Lord my heart is not haughty , nor mine eyes lof●…y . neither do I exercise my self in great matters , or in things too high for me . Surely , I have behaved and quieted myself , as a Childe , that is weaned of his Mother , my soul is as a weaned Childe : And so hope in the Lord , not arrogantly set limites unto the holy One of Israel , nor prescribe a way , that he must follow ; but leave him to follow His own way and method , with due Submission and Dependance , laying the hand upon the mouth , when He is pleased to hide himself , and to take another way , then we would possibly wish , or desire . ( 5. ) To try & exercise their Diligence and Constancy , in Prayer and Watchfulness . As when the Master delayeth his coming ; so when he hideth himself , as if he were not coming , or would not come , many are ready to fall from duty , and fall a beating their fellow servants , and to eating and drinking &c. Mat. 24 : 48 , 94. Therefore the Lord will have all His People set a watching , as not knowing what houre , or after what manner He will come ; and to exercise them in this duty of Watchfulness and Diligence ; he will come , and not let them know of His coming , nor tell them when , or after what manner He will come . The Consideration of this should , in general , teach all His people , as upon the one hand to guard against , and bewar of these evils mentioned , which Satan and Corruption , upon occasion of the Lords hiding of His Way , and keeping Himself under clouds , after the manner mentioned , doth provoke & stirre up the soul unto ; so , upon the other hand , to minde & faithfully set about the Duties mentioned , which are especially called for , at such a time . But more particularly we may mentione some duties , and recommend them to the practice of His People , in such a day , as this : As 1. This Dispensation calleth upon all Gods People , to be observing the Lord in all His wayes and actions , and to mark His footsteps , even when they can not be seen ; to observe His stately goings , in Majestie , like a Prince , that will not walk in the view of every common Subject , nor suffer every mean person to be privie to his Secrets of State. These rare and unusual works of the Lord call for more then ordinary observation . It is a mark of graceless persons , and a sin bringing-on sad and ruineing strokes , to consider none of Gods wayes Iob. 34 : vers . 26 , 27. That is a divine precept Prov. 23 : 26. My Son give me thy heart , and let thine eyes observe my wayes shewing that this is the Duty of all the Children of God , as to observe the Precepts of God , so also his Wayes and Workings ; and that it can be performed a right only by such , whose hearts are given away to God ; and that it argueth an heart fixed upon , and united to God , as being a native and kindly consequent thereof . At the end of a large Historical narration of many remarkeable passages of the Lord's Providence , the holy Psalmist thus concludeth Psal. 107. vers . last . Who so is wise , and will observe these things , even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Showing what the spiritually wise will do , and what advantage they will have by thus considering the singular wayes of the Lord. This Considering of the wayes , and workings of the Lord , comprehendeth these things , ( 1. ) A beleeving that God , howbeit unseen , yet is working ; though clouds hide Him out of their sight ; yet they do not hinder Him from working ; He is working , though we perceive Him not . ( 2. ) A musing and pondering and dwelling on the thoughts of God and His wayes . As when the Lord saith Psal , 50. Consider this , ye that forget God , He presseth them to a serious meditation and pondering of what was said . ( 3 ) A seeing and observing of a stately Majesty , in the Lords carrying on his work , after such an hid manner . ( 4. ) A passing of a sutable and wise judgment on what He is doing , construeing all to the best . This is to consider wisely of his doing , as Psal. 64 : vers . 9. ( 5. ) A serious observing of every discovery or appearance , or speaking effect of the Lord 's working , to the end they may speak thereof to others , and declare the Work of the Lord , and be confirmed in their faith and hope , and encouraged to waite . 2. In such an hiding time , when the Lord is pleased to hold Secret Councel , and to act and carry on his Stratagems , accordingly , it becometh all His People , to act Faith and Fear ; Faith , to beleeve in hope against hope ; and Fear , to stoup and stand in awe ; knowing that He is God , and will act like himself : How happy is it to get a sight of an Absolute , Invisible Soveraigne , when He is hiding himself , as a stately Prince ? 3. As in a time of darkness , when his people sit in darkness , and have no light , they are called to stay themselves upon God , Esai . 50. So in a time , wherein the Lord is walking out of sight , and no man seeth what He is doing , His people are called to live by faith . Now the just shall live by Faith Heb. 10. When was this ? When he , who should come , was not yet come : and there was little appearance of his coming When the Vision was not yet speaking Hab. 2 : vers . 2 , 3. 4. Waiting , Is especially called for , at His peoples hand , in such a day ; which includeth the exercise of Faith , Hop and Patience ; Faith , to realize the thing promised , and give an objective being ( as it were ) to that which is not visible , in it self , nor apparent ; Hope , to embrace , and to stretch forth the armes to lay hold on what is promised ; and Patience , to keep the Beleever in the Possession of his soul , in the meane time . This was the Resolution of the holy Prophet Esaias Chap. 8 : vers . 17. And I will wait upon the Lord , that hideth his face from the House of Iacob : And I will look for him . 5. It is the Duty of His People in such a day , wherein the Lord is hiding Himself , and is walking and working under clouds ; to be stooping and adoreing ; which comprehendeth these duties following , ( 1. ) Not to quarrel with , nor to grudge , fret , nor repine at the Lords taking of this course , for the glory of his own name . ( 2. ) To look upon and consider Him , as one , whose wayes are unsearchable , and past finding-out : As perceiving Depths that are unsearchable , in all His wayes . ( 3. ) Upon this account , to look and consider upon His Wayes with Fear , Dread and Reverence . ( 4. ) To beware to set limites to the holy One of Israel ; or to conclude that He will not come to save His People and Inheritance , because he cometh not in the way , which we imagine He must come ; as if infinite Wisdom could not finde out wayes , beyond what ever we can imagine . ( 5. ) To have high and sublime thoughts of Him , and to speak of Him , as such an high and exalted Prince , whose wayes are out of our reach , and beyond all our Apprehensions . 6. His Children would , in such a day , labour to li●…e nigh God by faith : that hereby ( 1. ) They may be keeped from fainting , while compassed with darkness , assaulted with Satans Temptations , who then will be busie tempting Gods People , to say , there is no hope now , God hath forsaken the Earth ; He will returne no more . ( 2. ) They may be keeped from siding with the Workers of Iniquity , and from turning aside to evil courses , because there is no manifest appearance of the Lord 's returning to rid His People out of thraldom , and to break the Power of the Adversary . ( 3. ) They may get some discoveries , now and then , as the Lord seeth good to grant them , of God , even while hideing himself , which may endear Him unto their soul , and warm their heart towards Him : Such as live thus by faith nigh to God , in such a day , are faire to see that , which others , living at a distance , shall not partake of . ( 4 ) They may be led of God , by an unseen hand , in such a dark day ; for the meek will he guide in judgment , and the meek will he teach his way , Psal. 25 : v. 9. And the Secret of the Lord is with them , that fear him vers . 14. We come next to speak to the Second Particular , which the Prophet discovered through this thick cloud : He saw this hid God to be the God of Israel , & the Saviour ; and he owned him , as such ; and spoke and prayed to him , as such : from whence we may observe these Three Things , First , That all the darks and hidden passages of the Dispensations of the Lord about His People , do not alter or change his Relation to and Covenant-Interest in His People . A forsaking God can and will be a Beleevers God , notwithstanding thereof Psal. 22 : v. 1. My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? This holdeth true of a Church , ay and while He give her a bill of divorce , and excommunicate her , after she hath proven obstinate and incurable in her wickedness : Hence we finde the Lord so often owning a wicked and sinful People , as His , as Psal. 50 : vers . 7. Hear , O my People , and I will speak , O Israel , and I will testifie against thee , I am God , thy God : And yet the following Verses declare how unlike to His People they were , And it holdeth alwayes true of Beleevers , who have closed a Covenant with him by faith : And that upon these Grounds , 1. The unchangablness of His purposes , which alter not , according as outward Dispensations change ; but are stable as mountains , and as rocks in the Sea , that are not moved for all the motion of the sea about them , and all changes of tides , and tempests : Hence , whom he loveth , he loveth to the end Ioh. 13 : vers . 1. He is no changling in his love , it is like himself , unalterable . Hence also His gifts and calling are said to be without repentance Rom. 11 : vers . 29. And , which is very remarkable ; this is spoken concerning the Lords purpose of calling home the People of the Iewes , who have been lying under the weight of their own doom and imprecation ; and are yet as unlike to be delivered , as ever , of whom the Apostle saith , that though as concerning the Gospel , they are enemies for our sakes , yet as touching the Election , they are beloved for the Fathers Vers. 28. and as a Confirmation of which , he addeth , for the gifts and callings of God , ( or the gift of the calling of God ) are without repentance . So that the purposed gifts , or intended callings of God will , and must be ; the Lord not being as man , that he should repent . A Balaam , when he took up his parable , could say , Numb . 23 : 19. God is not a man , that he should lie , neither the Son of man , that he should repent : Hath he said and shall he not do ? Or , hath he not spoken , and shall he not make it good ? So said the Prophet Samuel 1 Sam. 15 : vers . 29. And also the strength ( or the Eternity and Victory ) of Israel will not lie , nor repent ; for he is not a man , that he should repent . And this abideth firme , notwithstanding that sometimes we read of Gods repentings , which is only to import the change of his outward Dispensations , sometimes to the better Deut. 32 : vers . 36. Iudg. 2 : vers . 18. Exod. 32 : 14. 2 Sam. 24 : 16. 1 Chron. 21 : 51. Ier. 26. v. 19. Psal. 106 : 45. Amos. 7 : 3 , 6. Ion. 3 : vers . 10. Sometimes to the worse Gen 6 : vers . 6. 1 Sam. 15 : vers . 35. And so is spoken of God after the manner of men , who evidence the change of their minde , by the change of their outward carriage , way and work . Man is a changable Creature ; but with God there is no variableness , nor shadow of turning Iam. 1 : 17. Hence the Lord saith of Himself , I am God , and change not . Mal. 3 : 6. 2. The Covenant , in which this Relation and Interest is offered and accepted , is an unchangable Covenant . Hence we finde it called an everlasting Covenant , ordered in all things , and sure 2 Sam. 23 : vers . 5. So Esai . 55 : 3. and 61 : vers . 8. Ier. 32 : v. 40. Ezech. 37. vers . 26. Heb. 13 : 20. It is an everlasting Covenant , and all things , promised and held-forth in this Covenant , are the sure mercies of David Esai . 55 : 3. Act. 13 : 34. And therefore , seing all the Dispensations of God , in and about His Church and People , turn upon this wheel , and run into this channel of mercy , being parts or appendices of the sure mercies of David , they can make no change or alteration in the fountaine , out of which they all spring ; Water , coming out of one & the same fountaine , may run in diverse channels , some greater , and some lesse , & these channels may at length run to a great distance from other , and the water in them may not be alike clear and free of mud ; and yet all this diversity , and difference , can make no difference or alteration in the spring , and wels head . 3. Nay , all those various and discrepant dispensations are but pieces and parts of that one grand designe , which the Lord is prosecuting ; to wit , the glorifying of his great Name and Free grace , in the salvation of his Church and People through Jesus Christ : And therefore , the difference or alteration , that is apparent in & among them , is so far from giving ground , to inferre any mutation of the Lords Interest in , and relation to His people ; that to a Spiritual , seeing and beleeving eye , they do the rather and the more confirme the same ; because such an eye will see the connexion betwixt all these as meanes , and the great end designed ; and will see , that they are all subordinat unto , and are concurring effectually , in their subordinat place , to the securing of the end intended , in which they are all meeting together , as lines in a center drawn from the circumference . 4. Fountaine love runneth along , in all these various dispensations , & so Modifieth , Tempereth , Qualifieth , and Ordereth them , that they can make no breach upon that firme and everlasting Relation ; nor work any substantial change in the State and Condition of His people : Scourges and Chastisments are not a casting out of the house , and a disinheriting ; but flow from , and are qualified by fatherly love and care , whatever the witless child suppose , or imagine : Whom the Lord loveth , he chasteneth , and scourgeth every son , whom he receiveth , Heb. 12. 6. Prov. 3. 12. 5. So is it contracted , in the Covenant of Redemption , betwixt Jehovah and the Mediator Psal. 89 : 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , If his children forsake my Law , and walk not in my judgments ; if they break my statutes , and keep not my commandments . Then will I visite their transgression with the rod , and their iniquity with stripes : Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him , nor suffer my faithfulness to fail . My covenant will I not break , nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips . The accomplishment therefore of this . Article of that Covenant , is rather a proof and confirmation of its stability , and inviolableness ; and consequently of the permanency of the Relation and State , than of any change and alteration in the same ; and all the changes of the dispensations of the Lord towards his People , should rather confirm them , in the faith of this , than raise doubts or jealousies in their minds . From whence , by way of Use , we may see , how reprovable many even of the Children of God are , who measure Gods love , by these outward dispensations ; & accordingly are up or down , in their hops and joyes , as these alter to the better , or to the worse . We do not hereby meane , that they should not be sutably affected with the various dispensations of the Lord , in and about them ; we do not presse a stoical insensibility , which is but a stupidity ; for on the contrarie we say , it becometh them well to weep , when the bridegroome is away , as to rejoice while he is present . When the Lion roareth they should fear and tremble Amos. 3 : 8. When the Lord is angry , they should bear his indignation , because they have sinned Micah . 7 : 9. But the thing here reproved is their construeing of Gods Minde , Affection and Covenant-Relation towards them , according to these outward dispensations , and the hideings of himself , like a foolish childe , that would think the Mother had forsaken him and cast him off , each time that she were out of sight , or set him out of her armes : So that the thing here reprovable , is their drawing wrong Conclusions from these outward changes ; such as these . ( 1. ) God hideth Himself , therefore His heart is changed , and He is no more their Father ; His love is altered . His Grace , Favour and Promises fail . ( 2. ) God hideth Himself , and they see Him not ; therefore all are undone , there is no more hope , we are cut off for our parts ; as Ezekiel . 37. ( 3. ) God hideth Himself ; therefore we are cast out of the Covenant , our state is changed , we have no more any place in his favour , or room in his love ; we are in the state of the dead . ( 4 ) The Lord hideth Himself , & is out of sight ; therefore all that He hath done formerly , and we looked upon , as His work of grace & love , have been but delusions , and not his work in very deed . ( 5. ) The Lord hideth Himself ; therefore His cause shall be destroyed , His work shall never be perfected ; His enemies shall never be overthrown . ( 6. ) The Lord hideth His face , and appeareth not ; Therefore our Salvation is desperat , and hopeless . These wrong Conclusions & the like are justly reprovable , & argue a wrong & perverse consideration of the Dispensations of the Lord , quite contradictory to the Truth here asserted ; & therefore should be seriously guarded against , & such thoughts , when they enter the soul , & occupy the mind , should be rejected & dismissed with abhorrence , as temptations , and irrational and antievangelick suggestions of Satan . Next , We may hence learne , how to answer , and with grounded reason repel the forementioned sinful Suggestions , & false Insinuations , when the Devil assaulteth us therewith , to trouble our Peace , marre our Joy , brangle our Hope , and weaken our Confidence ; & thereby bring us , into a Fainting , Misbeleeving , Desponding and Heartless Disposition of Spirit : For whatever the outward dispensations of the Lord be , His Covenant stands fast , and His Covenant-relation abideth the same , and His heart and love abideth fixed and unchangable , His purposes alter not , His thoughts take place in all generations , how great so ever the difference be , betwixt the one and the other , as to His dispensations in them . And the fixed faith of this would prove a notable preservative against fainting and faithless fears , and would Strengthen , Support , and Uphold the heart , in the midst of all these contrary waves ; this would be good & fast ground , whereon the soul may ride at anchor saifly , in the midst of all these stormes , and horrible tempests . Thirdly , Hence we see the great advantage of the people of God , who have cut a covenant with the Lord ( as the Scripture phrase is ) and are become His , and have an interest in Him , as theirs ; Let the Lord's dispensations outwardly be never so dark , and sad , and such as those , who are utter strangers to the Scriptures , and to the Lord's way of dealing with His people , would interprete to be manifest evidences , and demonstrations of God's off casting ; yet they may fing with the sweet Psalmist of Israel , and say , Although mine house be not so with God , yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant , ordered in all things , and sure ; for this is all my salvation , and all my desire , although he make it not to grow 2 Sam. 23. 5. O how great is this advantage , that they may by faith read love in His heart , when anger seemeth to flow out of His hands ? And that his Interest in , and relation to His people , & theirs to Him againe , abideth firme and unshaken , notwithstanding of all the outward sore and sharpe passages of his providence . What Joy , Peace and Comfort may the thoughts of this yeeld unto His sad hearted people , when troubled , at the consideration of His sharpe dispensations ? Fourthly , Here is likewise great encouragment , and a strong motive to enduce and perswade unto a closeing of a Covenant with God : And Oh , that all , who are as yet strangers hereunto , would at length be moved to lay hold on Him , while his armes are stretched out to welcome & embrace all , who will come . Secondly , We may hence observe , That there is a discovery to be had of the standing relation betwixt God and His people , even when the Lord hideth Himself : For the Lord was now hiding Himself , or appearing as such unto the Prophet ; and yet the Prophet saw him withall , to be the God of Israel , and the Saviour . In the former point , we saw , That the relation betwixt God and His people doth stand , notwithstanding of the Lords hideing of His face ; and not appearing openly by acts , sutable to such a relation . But though this be so ; yet His people may want the heart-confirming sight thereof . And now in this point , we hear , That His people may be helped unto this sight and discovery , even in such a day , wherein the Lord hideth Himself . And that . 1. When the Lord leadeth them in by Faith , to see His unchangeable Nature , Purposes and Decrees ; as also his Truth , and unchangable Word ; together with the other Particular grounds of this unchangablness in Gods Relations towards His people , formerly mentioned ; the hand of God must lead them in to this secret chamber , where , discovering the Lord , and His way with His people , they see his heart abiding the same , however His face may frown , & rodes may be in His hands . Now when faith getteth right apprehensions of God , and winneth to a right discovery of Him , they see this connexion , that otherwise would be dark and questionable ; and they see a reality and subsistence in the promises . 2. The Lord helpeth them to see thorow the dark cloud , and the black dispensation , and to read , what is written on the backside thereof ; or what standeth behinde the courtine of the present sad dispensation : And then they discover Faithfulness and Unchangablness in God , & Love , Truth & Mercy in all his dispensations . 3. The Lord blunteth the edge of the temptations of Satan ; and lets His Child see the unreasonablness of what is objected , & the absurdity of the Inference , that Satan and corrupt Reason would make , & draw from the Lords way of procedoure : Yea , he helpeth them to draw the contrary Conclusions , and that upon certaine & approven grounds , confirmed by manifold experience . 4. The Lord discovereth unto them the firm connexion betwixt these saddest and blakest Dispensations , and the faire Promises , and the noble Outgate , that is coming to His people : And then they cannot but see him to be Israel's God , even when He hideth Himself . 5. The Lord thinketh good sometime to give , in the darkest day , and in the darkest houre of the night , some glimpses of His glory , in behalfe of His People ; to shew , that He is not altogether unmindful of them ; that He is not far away ; and that He is about His work , and carrying it on to His glory , & to their good : And this confirmeth their faith in His abiding the same , whatever His dispensations be . This should let us see , as upon the one hand , the great goodness and condescendency of God , who will lout down and help his weak people , who are desirous to fear him , and to walk honestly before him , in a dark day ; and will set a prospect to their eye , whereby they may see , as Moses did from the top of Pisgah , the promised land , and that great ground of Joy and rejoiceing , that the Lord hath not forsaken His people ; so upon the other hand , it should point-out our duty , to wit , to be living nigh God , even while He is hiding Himself ; and pursuing after an hid God ; to the end , He may lead us , while we are in the dark , and hold us by our right hand , that we stagger not through unbeleef and fall ; but may be helped , through his grace , to a sight of Him , as the God of His people , even when He hideth himself ; whereby we should have many advantages . As 1. This sight of God , in such a day , as it would set us with earnestness to pray ; so it would encourage us to continue instant in prayer , knowing that the return would come in due time ; seing the Lords mind were not altered , His affections remained the same , & His relation to & Interest in His people was not changed ; & therefore He would hear and helpe in due time . 2. This sight would strengthen the child of God unto all Patience in waiting , when he saw , that the Lord would come , and that the coming of the Lord drew nigh , he would waite , and stablish his heart in waiting , as the husband man waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth Iam. 5 : 7 , 8. And by this patience , as he would establish his heart , as this place of Iames sheweth , so he would possesse his soul Luk. 21 : vers 19. 3. It would also strengthen , fortifie & confirme their hope : for faith , discovering this sight , would make the soul stretch its hands thorow the dark cloud , to grip the glorious promises , lying hid in the other side , and embrace them . Those worthies mentioned Heb. 11. though they did not receive the promises , yet having seen them a far off , & being perswaded of them , they are said to have embraced them vers . 13. 4. This would keep up their head , and cause them sing in hope , they would rejoice in the midst of their Affliction ; and notwithstanding of all the present and apparent impossibilities , in the way of the Lords return , & of recovering his work , they yet would rejoice with joy unspeakable & full of Glory ; because they would see , the Lord would come , and subdue Nations , and loose the loins of Kings , and open the two leaved gates , and break in pieces the gates of brasse ; and cut asunder the bars of yron Esai . 45 : 1 , 2. But if it be said , When the Lord is not pleased to lead poor beleevers , into these secrets , in a dark night ; nor grant them the use of such a lanterne , whereby they may see their way ; nor such a discovery of the grounds of the immutability of this Relation ; what can poor beleevers do in that case ? The answere lyeth in that , which we may Thirdly , Observe from these words of the Prophet , as pointing forth the duty of the people of God , in such a case , after the Prophets example ; seing for this end this is here set down , to wit , That in a day , wherein the Lord is hiding Himself , as to the way of bringing about the promised salvation , and out-gate of His Church and People , it is the duty of all beleevers , to be asserting this Relation of the Lord 's to , and interest in His Church and People , as their God and Redeemer ; and to be closeing with Him and griping to Him , as such , let dispensations seem never so manifestly to speak out the contrary , & be never so discouraging to them , in that adventure : For we see the Prophet ( and doubtless this was left on record , for our instruction , in the like case , and while under the same circumstances ) even while he is beholding and considering God , as hiding Himself ; laying hold upon Him , as Israels God , and as the Saviour ; and asserting this as a Truth ; to which he would stand , & which he would owne , let matters go as they would . This doth include these things . 1. That in such a day , as this , which was mentioned , the People of the Lord , should look upon it , as their duty , to Professe , Declare , and Avow , that the Lord is Israels God , keeping fast His Relation ; and Close with Him , Grip to to Him , Accept of Him , and Adhere to Him , as such . 2. Thatin such a day specified , they should certainly expect , that he will answere that Relation , and be indeed a Saviour : And Salvation should be looked for from Him alone , & none else ; & from no other airth . Thou art the Saviour . The first of these is manifest from these Particulars . 1. That no dispensation we meet with will warrand His people to have mistaking thoughts of Him ; or to stand aback from laying hold on Him : For they are not sent for that end ; but rather to drive them nigher to him , and to urge them to a more firme and fixed adhering to Him. Windy blasts will not cause us hold a more careless grip of our cloaks , but rather cause us hold them faster . 2. The darker the dispensation be , our need of holding Him fast is the greater ; and so our call the more loud ; 3. This is the way , to get the sanctified use of such Dispensations ; and to win to the right improvement of them : And without this , we cannot carry aright under these and the like dispensations . 4. This is the proper season for Faith to bud and appear in , and to bring forth Fruit : And this is the native and kindly exercise of Faith , in such a day . 5. This is the only way to get a right frame of Spirit , under such a dispensation ; and to carry as beleevers ought to do . 6. This is the only way to be keeped stedfast , faithful , and unmovable , in that day of darkness ; and without this , the soul is exposed to all the tempestuous on - sets & blasts of the Enemie . Hereby noly is the beleever keeped fast anchored on the rock , that will not fail . The second Note is likewise clear upon these grounds . 1. Because in such a dark day , Faith should be exercised , and that is the proper season , wherein faith should appear , and should grow ; that is , as it were , the soil , wherein faith should bring forth fruit . When the knife was at the throat of Isaak , the Son of the promise , and the first and only sprout and appearance of that seed , in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed ; yet Abraham , the father of the faithful , beleeved , that God was Faithful and True , and would be his Salvation . 2. Thus the Lord is glorified , when , blow stormes as they will , and temptations to a despareing & desponding of heart , be never so multiplied , & motives to seek salvation & an outgate by sinful and , unlawful wayes and meanes , doubled ; yet the soul is fixed , on Him , and on Him alone , and will say , Asshur shall not save us , we will not ride upon horses , — but in God alone , the fatherless findeth merey Hos. 14 : 3. All which may discover our sinful and unsutable frame , in such a dark day , when the Lord is , in Glory and Majesty , sutable to Himself , carrying on His work , out of our sight , and is hiding Himself , that we cannot see him , nor know what he is doing ; so may it point forth our duty , and teach us , what to think , and what to do , in such a day . And to this end , we may hence learn in particular , to minde those duties following . 1. In such a day , wherein the Lord hideth Himself , we should beware of entertaining any jealous thoughts of Him : Satan will then be busie , to muster up all the Arguments and Grounds he can , to cause Beleevers , at least , turn jealous of God ; and to doubt , if He will appear any more for Zion , to the end they may faint , and give over Faith and Hope ; and then he hath gained his point ; and Beleevers in such a day , may expect this , and feare their own hearts , that will be too ready to comply with all Satans Motions and Suggestions : This therefore would be carefully guarded against . 2. In such a day , the unchangable Purposes of God , His faithful Word and Promises should be the subject of our Meditation ; on these should we dwell , and ruminate ; to the end , our heads may be keeped-up in hope , and we may not despond . 3. We should beware to make the day darker , by sinful departing from God , and by giving way to Satans Temptations : When folks in a dark night are walking among snares and pits , they will set down their feet with great warriness and circumspection : so should we do , in such a day , lest we make our Condition worse . 4. We should observe narrowly , what we can mark , in the Dispensations of the Lord , that will say and evince to us , according to the grounds of spiritual reasoning , that God is about His work ; and that , though we see Him not , yet . He in working under ground , and carrying on His projects ; to the end , we may be confirmed in our hope , and strengthened to waite , with patience and faith . 5. We should minde our duty , whatever He do ; for that is it we are called to , and so much the rather , that the Lord hideth Himself , should we be diligent in unquestionable duties ; for He meeteth him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness Esai . 64 : v. 5. 6. We should beware to limite the holy One of Israel ; let us rather stoup and adore , and acknowledge Him to be Jehovah , who doth what He will. The Third thing considerable in these words of truth , is , what is imported by that word Verily : And it wouldseem , to pointe out to us these particulars following , which I shall but mention . First , That it is no light , or easie mater , to win to the faith , and to the sight of this by saith , That God is the Lord , and the God of Israel , and the Saviour , when He hideth Himself : For this ejaculation seemeth to have been , or is so here expressed , as if it had been the issue and result of some great inward wrestling , out of which , when the Prophet getteth up his head , he cryeth out , Verily thou art a God , that hidest thyself , &c. And considering , the frame of our heart by Nature , and the subtilty of Satan , and his skill and diligence to muster up all Considerations , in such a day , to our disadvantage , this difficulty cannot but be great . Secondly , That this truth is of great moment , being here confirmed by such an asseveration : It is a truth , useful , and necessary to be beleeved and fixed in the heart : For it is attended with great advantages , and the want of the faith of it , is not only sinful , but most hurtful and dangerous ; being accompanied with many sad evils , and being the cause of dreadful effects and consequences . Thirdly , That this Truth should be fixed , in our hearts , as a great and fundamental point , and put beyond all doubt , or disput with us , that He is a God , that hideth Himself , the God of Israel , and the Saviour . The Last Particular here considerable , is the Prophets uttering this Mater to God , and speaking thus to Him , Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself &c. Which pointeth forth to us these things . First , The sincerity and uprightness of heart , in the Prophet , who could thus speak unto God , and lay the matter before Him , as it was : Which should teach us to be honest , sincere , and upright in all our carriage , free of deceit and hypocrisie . Secondly , The reality of this his Exercise , and outgate ; for it was no made and supposed thing , but real : To teach us so to carry . Thirdly , That the Prophets heart was more warmed unto God , and that this was the result of his excercise , in his meditations , that his heart was drawn nigher unto God ; for now he uttereth the matter , in the very bosome of the Father . It is well , when our exercises have this issue and outgate . Fourthly , His open Profession of this matter , was to exalt and glorify God ; for herein is a piece of solemne worship performed unto God ; which pointeth forth our duty , in the like case . CONSIDERATION XXI . No man can make straight what God hath made crooked . ECCLES . VII : V. 13. Consider the Work of God ; for who can make that straight , which He hath made crooked ? IN a day , wherein the People of God are persecuted and afflicted for His sake and cause , it were a great help and advantage unto a christian and sutable carriage under that dispensation , to have right and sutable thoughts of God , and of His divine works . In such a day , we fancie and imagine many things amiss , in the Providential Workings of God , many things we think we see , that might be helped , and if we had the disposal of matters , in our hand , should be quickly redressed ; and thus being led away with our own proud hearts , and insensibly carried down the strame , we fall a censureing of the holy Way of the Lord , and a quarrelling with Him , because He doth not rectifie matters , according to our mind , and doth not governe the world , or , at least , the Church , according to our wishings and wouldings . Now because this frame of spirit is so repugnant unto the Holy Will of God , so unsutable unto the Children of God , so hurtful unto the Soul , and such an Enemie unto the right deportment of Souls , in the day of Crosses and Affliction , it will be of use to to speak some thing ( if the Lord will help ) to rectifie our mistakes , and to cure us of these Distempers . We think we see many crooked Passages , in God's Way and Dispensations with the Church , and with ourselves in particular ; and we imagine also , we know wayes how to set all these crooks even ; But this is really a clear demonstration of our follie : For the Wise man telleth us here , that no man can help any thing , that they suppose God hath made amisse ; or make any thing straight , which God hath made crooked , who can ( saith he ) make that straight , which He hath made crooked ? Among several other wholsome Instructions , which Salomon giveth us , in this penetential discourse of his , this is one , That we would Consider the Work of God , that is , Take notice of what He is doing and working , ponder upon His works , Meditate upon them , and dwell on the thoughts thereof , and lay to heart His Providential disposal of all Things , Actions and Events ; and His ordering and mannaging of them all to His own Glory , and according to His own mind and absolute will and pleasure : And that so , as to acquiesce in what He doth , to rest satisfied with it , and to comply heartily and cheerfully therewith , in all points , without Murmureing , Fretting , Repineing or Quarrelling . And He addeth a Reason ; ( which is that we are here mainely to speak to ; ) for who can make that straight , which he hath made crooked ? This question is an emphatick negation of the thing ; and is as much , as if he had said , it is absolutly Impossible , that any Creature , Man or Angel , can make straight , what God hath made crooked . They cannot Counter - work the Lord ; they cannot undo what He hath done ; they cannot amend what they suppose is made or done amisse . This He had said before Chap 1 : vers . 15. that which is crooked cannot be made straight . And here He maketh this Improvement of it , and as it were draweth this use from it ; That we should consider the Works of the Lord ; as if He had said , The Consideration of this , that no man can make any thing straight , that they suppose God hath made crooked , should move us to complye with , and contentedly acquiesce in whatsoever God doth under the Sun , by His mighty Power , and according to His unchangable Purpose and Counsel , and to the everlasting determinations of His holy will. These words give ground to enquire 1. What are those crooked things , which God hath made ? 2. How and why it is , that these crooked things cannot be made straight by one or other of the Creatures ? 3. What way we should , upon this account , Consider the Works of God ? or what Improvement we should make of this Impossibility of helping , what we suppose is amisse , in the Lord's Works of Providence ? As to the first , VVe may not suppose , that , to speak properly , any thing , that God doth , is crooked ; but our corrupt unsatisfied mindes look upon many passages of God's All-ruling and All-disposing Providence , as crooked , and as such as we would faine have altered , if we had our wills . Some of which we can onely mention , and these we may reduce to two Heads , 1. Touching some things , that are more controverted . 2. Touching some things , that are less controverted . As to the more controverted , we shall mention only these following , 1. Not only do our hearts rise up against the Holy and Soveraigne Acts of Gods will , in choosing whom He would unto eternal Life , and in passing by o●…hers ; as we see Rom. 9. Corrupt Reason , that will not submit unto the Lord and His wayes , spurneth against that saying , that God hath mercy on whom He will ; and Iacob have I loved &c. Vers. 13 , 15. and responsateth against God , objecting , upon this account , unrighteousness unto the just and holy One of Israel V. 14. But also against His holy Executions of these His Holy and Soveraigne Decrees . Paul had concluded , that God had mercy on whom He would , and hardened whom He would Vers. 18. And corrupt Reason will againe carp , and say , If so , why doth He yet finde fault ? For who hath resisted His will ? Vers. 19. Unto which the Apostle must returne a sharp and silenceing answere , Vers. 20 , 21 , 22 , 23. Nay , but O Man , who art thou , that repliest ( or disputest ) against God ? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it , why hast thou ma●… me thus ? Hath not the Potter power over the Clay , of the same lump ; to make one vessel unto honour , and another unto dishonour . &c. 2. So in the matter of the Lord's dispensing the meanes of grace , and the Gospel , we wonder at the Lords Way , and cannot understand how it is , that He should hide this Mysterie from Ages and Generations Col. 1. vers . 26. Ephes 3 : v. 9. should send the Gospel to one place , and not unto another ; and why He should forbid the Apostles to goe preach the good newes of Salvation in Asia and in Bithinia Act. 16 : vers . 6 , 7 , Why He should continue the Gospel long with one people , and remove it quickly from another , and Non-church them : And why one Nation and People should enjoy the meanes of grace for many ages ; and others , for many ages , never once have a report of Salvation through Christ , but be left , from one generation to another , in blackness of darkness , in woful Idolatry and Ignorance . This piece of the Lord's work seemeth so crooked , and so unlike to , and incorrespondent with , or repugnant to the attributes of God , as to His Mercy , Loving Kindness and Goodness , unto some , that they , to make up this supposed gap , and set right this crook in the Lords way , feigne and imagine an Universal Objective Grace ; or an Universal Gospel ; that is , that God hath given to all Nations , how barbarous so ever , those meanes of Grace and Salvation , which , if they would improve aright , would prove saving ; and so must imagine , that the Sun , Moon and Stars , Raines and fruitful Seasons , and other works of Creation and Providence , do preach out that Mysterie of Salvation through a crucified Christ , contrare to Scripture , and to all Sense and Reason ; or that there is another way to Salvation , than by saith in a crucified Christ ; which is also contrare to the Scripture Act. 4 : vers , 12. Thus the Arminians , and Semi - Arminians and Quakers , think to make this crooked work of God straight ; but in vaine . We should rather minde that , which Paul hath Rom. 11 : 33. after he had spoken of the rejection of the Jewes , and the Lords taking-in the Gentiles , O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments , and his wayes past finding out ! Vers. 34. For who hath known the minde of the Lord , or who hath been his Counsellour ? Vers. 35. Or who hath first given to him , and it shall be recompensed to him againe ? Vers. 36. For of him , and through him , and to him are all things , to whom be glory for ever , Amen . And minde the purpose of God here , Ephes. 1 : v. 8 , 9 , 10. and 3 : 9 , 10 , 11. 3 , The way of the Lord , in this matter , seemeth so crooked to Pelagians , and their followers , Arminians , Socinians and Quakers ' with Papists and Iesuites , that all this contrivance of an Vniversal Objective Grace , or an Universal Gospel , will not satisfie them , nor be enough , in their apprehensions , to set this crook even ; but they must further assert an Vniversal Subjective Grace ; that is , Grace and Power granted to every One , to hearken to the voice of God calling in Nature , and in the Gospel , to convert and turne themselves , to believe and repent , if , and whensoever they will ; because they see not , how it is consistent with Gods Wisdom and Goodness , to require any duty of man , but what he giveth him full ability to performe , not regairding the stock of strength , that was once given to man , and was dilapidat by Adam . But , as to this , how crooked so ever we suppose it to be , we must rest here , that the Carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Rom. 8 : vers . 7. And that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them , because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2 : v. 14. and that Faith is the gift of God. Ephes. 2 : v. 8. And that it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do , according to his own good pleasure Phil. 2. vers . 13. And that Christ is a Prince exalted to give Repentance . Act. 5 : v. 30 And that God is a free Dispenser of His grace , as being obliged to none , and shewing mercy to whom he will. 4. That work of the Lord 's covenanting with Adam , as the Head , in the name of all mankinde ; and his imputing his sin unto his posterity , who were in his loines , so that all become borne and conceived in sin , and obnoxious to the wrath of God , because of that transgression of Adam , according as the Apostle speaketh Rom 5 vers . 12. Wherefore , as by one man sin entr●…d into the world , and death by sin , and so death passed upon all men , for that all have sinned . And againe Vers. 14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses , even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression . And Vers. 18. Therefore as by one mans offence ( or by one offence ) judgment came upon all men to condemnation . This Dispensation , I say , seemeth so crooked to some , such as Pelagians , Socinians , Arminians and Quakers ; that they must absolutely deny it ; and say , there is no such thing as original sin , though Paul sa●…eth Ephes. 2 : vers . 3. — that we were by nature ( including himself ) the Children of wrath ; And David telleth us , in his humble Confession of sinnes to God Psal. 51 ver . 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity , and in sin did my Mother conceive me . And Iob sayeth Chap. 14 : v. 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? Not one . And to the same purpose Bildad Iob. 25 : v. 4. — How can he be clean that is borne of a Women ? 5. For further setting even , what otherwayes men think crooked , in the way of the Lord , they imagine , assert and defend an Universal Redemption ; saying , that Christ hath died for all ; equally , say some ; with some difference , say others : because it seemeth a crooked thing with them , and inconsistent with the Nature and Goodness of God , not to seek the Salvation of all , and not to prepare meanes of life for all , & so not to send Christ to die for all and every mothers son ; though we be plainly enough and expresly told in Scripture , that the Father gave not all to the Son to redeem , but some ; and that Christ laid down His life a ransome for those alone , who were given to him to save , and of whom he must give an account to the Father , as having undertaken to redeem them from Hell , Wrath , Satan and all their Enemies ; and by His Power , and Grace to bring them saife home at length , as being their Head , their Husband , their Shepherd , their Cautioner , their Lord Ransomer , their Intercessour , and Advocat with the Father ; and that these are an all ; and called the ●…orld , to point out their natural Original , that Grace may the more appear to be grace ; and to pointe out their being scattered through th●… world , and taken out of all Kindreds , Tongues , Nations , People , Languages ; especially now under the Gospel , in distinction from the dayes of the Old Testament , when the Iawes were only the peculiar people of the Lord , and in Iudah only was God known , and his name great in Israel . 6 Further to make God's supposed crooked wayes straight , the Enemies of the free G●…ace of God imagine ▪ that the will of Man must be left Free , to be Lord of all , and absolute disposer of the decrees and purposes of God of Redemption , and of Salvation ; so that the Lord must not by an Irresistible Power draw any home to Christ , contrary to Ioh. 6 : 44. Nor create in any a new heart , and take away the heart of stone , and give an heart of flesh , contrare to Ezech. 11. 19. and 36 : 26 , 27. Because they cannot see , how it can consist with Gods Love to mankinde , to preferre one to another ; they imagine that God layeth the matter alike to all mens door , standing equally and knocking at every mans door ; and so leaving it to them alike to choose or refuse , to become happy or miserable , as they please ; and so they say , that when God hath done all He can or will do , to save people , their will is at perfect freedome to accept or reject the Grace of God , and that there is no special saving work of grace upon the heart of one , more then of another . O what real crooked work do foolish men make here ! How do they darken , deforme and make crooked the glorious straight work of the free grace of God , wherein absolute Soveraignity , glorious Grace , and the free Mercy of God shineth forth with such a Soveraigne Lustre , Beauty and Glory ? Paul had other thoughts of the matter , when he said Ephes. 1 : vers . 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7. Blessed be the God and Father of ou●… Lord Iesus Christ , who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Celestials , in Christ : according as he hath chosen us , in him , before the foundation of the world , that we should be holy and without blame before him in love , having predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Iesus Christ to himself , according to the good pleasure of His will. To the praise of the Glory of his grace , wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved &c. 7. To salve this same Diana of Free will , the same Persons do deny the Free and Absolute Decrees of God , touching any thing to be done by Man , whether good or evil ; because they cannot see , how God's Absolute Decrees , concerning this or that , can consist with the free Actings of mans will , & not impose an absolute necessity on man to do , or not to do , according to what is decr●…ed ; as the stone must absolutely and naturally move down-ward , and the Sun shine , and all Natural causes act and work ; therefore to make this supposed crook straight , they see no other way , but to deny all such Decrees , and Purposes in God ; not knowing , that as God's decrees determine the event , so they determine the manner of the events ●…alling out ; that Natural Causes shall produce such an event naturally and necessarily , and Free and Contingent Causes shall in●…vitably produce such an effect , but freely and contingently , according to their Nature : as that the Iewes should kill Christ , and do what they did against him ; but yet through no necessity of nature , but freely and of their owne accord , out of malice and enmity ; as also that the souldiers should pierce Christ's side , and not break a bone of Him , and all that most freely , without any compulsion , or constraint upon their wils : Whereby we might ●…ee , if we were compliant with the holy Will & Workings of God , that the decrees of God are so far from everting & destroying the Liberty of the will of man , that , on the contrary , they establish , & confirme the same . But let men imagine it to be never so crooked , we must hold by this , That God did from all eternity freely & unchangably ordaine whatsoever comes to passe , even the most contingent things Act. 2 : 23. & 4 : 27 , 28. Prov 16 : 23. 8. So to make the wayes of God straight and even , which otherwise men imagine would be crooked , Some , as our Quakers , with others , imagine that People may be saved , that never heard of Christ , by yeelding Obedience to the law and light of Nature , or by following the guide of the works of Creation and Providence , or a Light within them , as they speak : But what their condition is , who are without Christ , the Scripture sufficiently sheweth Ephes. 2 : 12. — they are strangers from the Covenants of promise , having no hope , and without God in the world . And that the light of Nature can only helpe to make Persons without excuse Rom. 1 : 20. But passing these and the like , which are mater of controversie , let us mentione some others of God's works , which men suppose to be crooked : As 1. When it is as Eccles. 8 : 14. There be just men to w●…om it happeneth according to the work of the wicked ; and againe there be wicked men , to whom it happeneth according to the righteous ; that is , when as to the outward things in the world , It is just otherwise as we would think should be ; the wicked prosper , and their eyes stand out with fatness , they increase in riches , and have more then they could wish , they are not in trouble , nor plagued as other men , and there are no bands in their death , as it is Psal. 37 : 3 , 4 , 5 , 12. And upon the other hand , the Godly man he is oppressed with Poverty and Affliction , plagued all the day , chastened every morning . This was such a rugged and uneven path , that the honest Man of God Asaph could not hold his feet in it ; but was like to fall and break his neck , concluding that it was in vaine to minde piety ; veri●…y ( said he vers . 13 ) I have cleansed my heart in vaine , and washed my hands in Innocency . And such a crook was this , that he could not get it set straight , till he went into the sanctuary of God vers . 17 : This mistake made Iobs friends go so wilde , in their reasonings against him ; and to conclude him an hypocrite , because he met with such hard outward dispensations at the hands of the Lord ; for they could not see , how God should deal with a Godly man , as He dealt with Iob ; that was so crooked a piece of work , that they thought God would never have made it . But Iob understood the matter otherwise , and told them Chap. 9 : 22. This is one thing , therefore I said it , He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked So Ch. 12 : 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13. he enla●…geth upon this theame . 2. When it is as Eccles. 4 : 1. So I returned and considered all the oppressions , that are done under the Sun , an●…●…ehold , the tears of such as were oppressed , and they had no comforter ; and on the side of their oppressours there was power , but they had no comforter . That is , when the innocent are oppressed in their Name , Goods , Rights , and Person , and made to cry out bitterly because of their oppression ; and yet have none to take their part , or helpe them , or speak comfortably unto them ; no●… power to helpe and relieve themselves : but on the contrary , their oppressing enemies have power and might enough , to bear them more downe , & oppress them . This seemeth a crooked piece of work , and yet the Lord hath so ordered matters , that it is oft so with the innocent . We see what Iob was made to say Chap. 6 ; 14. To him that is Afflicted pity should ●…e she●…ed from his friend ; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty , 1●… . my Brethren have dea●… dec●…itfully as a brook , as the streams of brooks they passe away . And How Habbakuk looked upon this Chap. 1 : 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil , and canst not look on iniquity ; wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously , and holdest thy tongue , when the wicked devoureth the man , that is more righteous than he ? And makest men as the fishes of the sea , as the creeping things , that have no ruler over them &c. This seemeth to many to be a very crooked passage of Providence , and they think , the judge of the whole earth should order matters otherwise , and not a few are stumbled hereat , and tempted to think , that God hath forsaken the earth . 3. When it is as Eccles. 7 : 15. — there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness ; and there is a wicked m●…n , that prolongeth his life , in his wickedness . This seemeth also a crooked passage in the Lord's way & Work , to many , who look upon the Lord and his way and working with eyes of flesh . How oft hath it thus fallen out ? Honest Naboth , experienced this 1 King. 21. So did Ioh Baptist , when he was so basely and unworthily cut off , and that in his righteousness . So also the Martyres of the Lord , in all ages . Honest Ier miah thought this a secret , that he could not be satisfied in , and a ground whereupon he would go plead with God Chap. 12. 4. Yea , when it is but as Eccles. 9 : v , 2 , 3. it seemeth crooked to many , who would have a visible difference in external things , alwayes put betwixt the Righteous and the Wicked . And yet we see the Wise Mans Observation was , that no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them . All things ( saith he ) come alike to all ; there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked ; to the good and to the clean and to the unclean ; to him that sacrificeth , and to him that sacrificeth not : As the good , so the sinner ; he that sweareth as he that feareth an Oath . This is an evil among all things , that are done under the Sun , that there is one event unto all . Our carnal Reason would think , that God should so rule and governe the world , as that all might be in case to observe a palpable difference betwixt the Godly , and the Wicked , even in external things : But we will not get made straight , what God hath thus made crooked . 5. So it seemeth crooked to some , that it is oft times with men , as was observed by Salomon , Eccles. 9 : v. 11. The race is not to the swift , nor the battel to the strong , neither yet bread to the wise , nor yet riches to men of understanding , nor yet favour to men of skill , but time and chance happeneth them all : But things fall out quite otherwise , than men would have expected , or hoped : And though herein appeareth a beautiful over ruling hand of Providence , controlling mens Projects , Designes and Forecastings , and disappointing them of their hopes , and of what they promised themselves , and made account to be sure of ; because of their wise contrivance and managment of their work unto that end , yet our carnal Reason would think , it should be otherwayes , and that our paines labour and wise Contrivances should not be in vaine ; that David , when he had made such preparation ; for building of the House of God , should not misse of his great desire and wish . But our seeing of crooks in this straight All-ruling and All-disposing providence , doth but proclame our blindness . 6. Our carnal heart would oft times think , that it is a wonderful crook in the Providence of God , that he should suffer sin to be in the world , which doth so much di honoure him , and causeth so much trouble and evil , unto all , when he may and can well hinder it . We oft wonder , why the Lord should have suffered Adam to fall , and bring himself and all his posterity into such a sea of misery , yea and the whole creation almost ; seing he might have keeped him , as he did the confirmed Angels : And we are ready to think , that it had been better , if sin had not entered into the world ; and thus account this passage of the Lords Providence to be a crooked thing . And we are ready to wonder that the Lord suffers wicked persons to live so long to dishonoure Him , and commit more wickedness , and that He doth not presently cut them off , or at least restraine them , as He might do , a thousand wayes . As also that he should judicially harden their hearts ; as he did the heart of Pharaoh , that so they may commit more sin , and beleeve a lye , as 2 Thes 2 : vers . 11 , 12. and not obey the voice of the Lord , as Esai 6 : v. 9 , 10. Rom. 11. v. 8 Act. 28 : 26. Mat. 13 : v. 14. Mark. 4 : v. 12 : Luk. 8 : 10. Ioh. 12 : v 40. But if our eyes were opened , and if we were spiritual , we would see a beautiful straightness , where now we think there is a crook . 7. The Dispensations of the Lord , in and about His Church , do oft times seem crooked to us , when we consult with carnal Reason . As ( 1. ) It seemeth not straight to us , that His Dispensations should so contradict ( 1. ) His Promises , ( 2. ) The Hopes and Expectations of His People . And ( 3. ) Their Prayers , Desires and Wrestlings . We oft think it should be otherwayes ; and so allaige that there is a crook and a palpable unevenness in the Way of the Lord. ( 2. ) It seemeth crooked to us , that His Church should be so keeped under , and oppressed by wicked men ; and persecuted for His sake , and for the truths sake , and should be still , as a bush all in fire : For we would think , that God should keep His own peculiar Kingdom , and his own Flock free from the Oppression & Tyranny of Oppressing Enemies : Hence we finde , that His People have put up many times a complaint concerning this . See Psal. 44 : vers . 12. and 60 : vers . 3. and 94 : v. 5 Dan. 9. vers . 16. ( 3. ) And that this trouble should not be for a short time , like a Summer showr , that soon bloweth over ; but almost her constant lot from her youth Psal. 129 : vers . 1 , 2. so that her lucide intervals , and sun-blainks are but short , and she is hardly well out of one tryal , while she is in the midst of another . ( 4. ) So it seemeth crooked , that this trouble should not be light , but very sad and sharpe ; the Enemies should make long their furrowes Psal. 129 : v. 3. ( 5. ) That she should not have one enemy to deal with , but many , both together and successively . The Tabernacles of Edom and the Ismaelites , of Moab and the Hagarens , Gebal and Ammon and Amaleck , the Philistines , with the Inhabitants of Tyre and Assure Psal 83 : 6 , 7 , 8. ( 6. ) That the Lord should not hear or regard the Prayers & Cryes of His people ; but should rather be angry at their Prayer . Psal. 80 : 4. ( 7. ) That the Lord should seem so inexorable , that he would not grant the suits of his special favourites , and such as have prevailed with Him at other occasions , interceeding in their behalfe , such as Moses and Samuel Ier. 15 : 1. and Noah , Daniel and Iob Ezech. 14 : 14 , 20. ( 8. ) That the Lord should suffer these wicked enemies to overturne all His own work ; break downe the carved work 〈◊〉 pluck up the vine , which His own right hand hath planted . As Psal. 80 : 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13. to burne up all the Synagogues of God in the Land ; cast fire into the sanctuary &c. Psal. 74 : 2 , 3 , 5 , 6 , 7. Yea and blaspheme His own name vers . 10. See Psal. 44. 8. There are also several things , in the Lord's Dispensations with His own people in particular , that seem to us many times crooked : As ( 1. ) We think that He should never hide his face from his owne faithful ones ; and that they should never be made to cry out with Iob Chap 13 : 24. Wherefore hidest thou thy face , and holdest me for thine enemy ? and as David Psalm 10. vers 1. and 30. vers 7. ( 2. ) Or if He contend against them , He should shew them wherefore , and not put them to complaine of this , as Iob was , who said Iob 10 : 2. — Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me . ( 3. ) We think it strange and uncouth , that the Lord should shew himself terrible unto them , as to Heman Psal. 88. who was distracted with the terrour of God , and to Iob. Chap. 7 : vers 13 , 14 , 15. & 9 : 34. & 6 : 4. ( 4 ) We are ready to think , that such should never be under Cloudes , Fears , Darkness , sad Apprehensions , & Doubts concerning their state and condition , Esai . 50 : 10. But that alwayes they should enjoy light , and see their happy condition . ( 5. ) We think that the work of grace in His people should never meet with a stop , far less with any decay ; but that they should be still flourishing like the palme tree , and growing like a Cedar in Lebanon . ( 6. ) So we think , that they should be free , all their dayes , of the trouble or at least of the prevailing power of corruption ; we think , that enemy should never assault us any more , or molest our quarters : We think it strange , that these servants should ever come to ride upon horses , in our souls ; and that His people should be made to cry out with Paul Rom. 7 : 24. Woe is me miserable man , who shall deliver me from the body of this death . ( 7. ) We think it also strange , that they should have so little rest from Satan , and from his inward hellish Injections , tending to Atheisme . Infidelity , Blasphemy and all Profanity : Seemeth not that dispensation somewhat crooked , that Paul met with , after he was taken up to the third heaven 2 Cor. 12 : 7 ? ( 8. ) It seemeth many times uncouth to us , that His people have so many sad and bitter houres ; & that they are so far from enjoying Comfort , Joy and Delight , & from that life of rejoyceing in the Lord continually , which is allowed to them , and they are called to ; that their life is nothing almost but a continual complaint ; sometimes compleaining of the Hardness of their heart , Blindness , Weakness , Impotency , Treachery , &c. sometimes of the weight of Duties , and of their Failings and Shortcomings ; sometimes of the prevailing of Corruption and of the power of Temptation &c. These and the like dispensations of the Lord , in and about his Saints , seem to themselves & to others sometimes crooked , and very unstraight : and as they wish it were otherwayes ; so they suppose it would be more glorious and honourable to the Lord , if it were otherwise . Thus it appeareth , how many things God hath made crooked , to our apprehensions : But now , who shall , who can make these crooked things straight ? This is the Second Particular , in the words , That what God hath made crooked no man can make straight , with all his Wisdome , or Power , or by all the meanes he can use or devise ; for that which is crooked cannot be made straight Eccles. 1 : 15. I know ( said the wise man Eccles. 3 : 14. ) that whatsoever God doth , it shall be for ever : nothing can be put to it , nor any thing taken from it . When He giveth quietness ( said Elihu Iob 34 : 29. ) who then can make trouble ; & when He hideth his face , who then can behold him ? Whether against a Nation , or a Man only ? And the reason is manifest , because 1. He is Unchangeable , and hath fixed all upon Eternal , and Immutable Purposes . He is the Lord , he changeth not Mal. 3●… v. 6. With him is no variablness , nor shadow of turning Iam. 1 : 17. He doth all things after the Counsel of His owne will Ephes. 1. 11. taking Counsel of none Rom. 11 ▪ v. 34. Esai . 40 : 13 , 14. His Counsel hath an immutability Heb. 6 : 17. 2. He is Almighty ; and who can justle with Him , and put Him to take new Resolutions ? He is in one minde ( said Iob Ch. 23. 13. and who can turn Him ? And what His Soul desireth , that doth He. So Psal 115 : v. 6. He hath done whatsoever he pleased . I know ( said the Psalmist Psal. 135 : 5 , 6. ) that Iehovah is great , and that our Iehovah is above all Gods , whatsoever the Lord pleaseth that did He , in heaven , and in earth , in the seas , and all deep places . So Iob tels us Chap 9. 4. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength , who hath hardened himself against him , & hath prospered ? So vers . 12. Behold he taketh away , who can hinder him , Who will say unto him , what dost thou ? 3. He is Absolute and Soveraigne , to do what he will , as the Potter is absolute over the clay Ier. 18 : 6. Rom. 9 : 10. Esai . 45 : 9. And he is uncontrollable : Who can call him to an account ? Who can say unto him , what dost thou ? Iob. 9 : 12. He giveth not account of any of his matters Iob. 33 : vers 13. For he is greater then man vers . 12. 4. All his wayes are done in Wisdom , and all his works Psal. 104 : 24. & 136 : 5. And there is no wisdome against the Lord Prov. 21 : 30. He hath established the world by His wisdom Ier. 10 : 12. & 51 : v. 15. He is mighty in strength and wisdom Iob 36 : 5. And what then can foolish man , that is like a wilde asses colt , do ? With the Ancient is wisdom ( said Iob Chap. 12 : 12 , 13 , 14. &c. and in length of dayes understanding : With him is wisdom and strength : he hath Counsel & understanding : and thence inferreth , Behold he breaketh down , and it cannot be built againe ; he shuteth up a man , & there can be no opening &c. See further to the end of that Chap. 5. All his works are perfect Psal. 18 : vers 30. And then , what can be added to them , or taken from them to amende them ? What is perfect cannot be made better , or amended , one way , or other . What we then think and account to be crooked , is Perfect , Straight and Even , and contributeth to make up this compleat perfection of the whole . 6. There are Depths and unseen Mysteries in the work and wayes of the Lord , that we cannot search , and ignorance of which causeth the sinstruous Apprehensions , that we have of them : And how shall we think to amende that , which we do not understand ? His works are great , sought out of all them , that have pleasure therein His works are honourable , glorious , & wonderful Psal. 111 : 2 , 3 , 4. Then I beheld ( said the wise man , Eccles. 8 : ver . 17. ) all the work of God , that a man cannot finde out the work that is done under the sun : Because though a man labour to seek it out ; yea further , though a wise man seek to know it , yet shall he not be able to finde it . And againe Chap. 11 : v. 5. As thou knowest not , what is the way of the Spirit , nor how the bones do grow , in the womb of her , that is with childe ; even so thou knowest not the works of God , who maketh all . The consideration of which should first cause us sorrow , and mourne before the Lord , for our seeking to amend God's work , as if we could make straight , what God hath made crooked , and set all things in a righter posture , than God hath done . Concerning which , we would 1. Take notice of some of these wayes , whereby we are attempting this vaine work . And 2. Take notice of the evil of this sin . As to the First . We are seeking to make straight what God hath made crooked , when 1. We are in a quarrelling humore Disputing with God , and Condemning him in our minds , for what he is doing ; and Justifying ourselves in our Anger and Displeasure against the Dispensations , and Wayes of the Lord , as did Ionah ; who was displeased exceedingly & very angry , that the Lord spared Ninive Chap. 3 : v. 10. with 4 : v. 1. And when the Lord said unto him Chap. 4 : vers 4. Doest thou well to be angry ? was not for all that satisfied : and againe vers 9. when the gourd was withered , and the East winde blew , and the sun beat upon his head , he fell againe in this distemper ; and when the Lord said unto him , the second time , doest thou well to be angry ? he answered , I do well to be angry , even unto death . 2. When our vaine Ratiocinations are engaged against the wayes of the Lord , in one particular or other ; and we have this or that , to object against that course , which the Lord taketh ; as if we would impute iniquity unto our Maker ; and accuse Him of unrighteous dealing : As those whom Paul bringeth-in reasoning against the truth of God , and saying Rom 9 : 19. — Why doth he yet finde fault ? For who hath resisted his will ? To whom he answereth Vers. 20 , 21. Nay , but o man , who art thou●… , that ( answerest againe , or disputest against God , or ) repliest against God , &c. As if he had said , Hath not the Lord Power and Soveraignity , in that matter , to do what he will ; as well as a Potter hath over a bit clay ? May not God dispose of His Clay , which he made Himself , as well as the Potter may do of the Clay , which he made not , and is not the Creator of , but was created to his hand , by the same God , that created himself ? Why then dost thou quarrel with Him , or disputest against Him ? Canst thou help the matter ? Canst thou make that straighter , than it is ? 3. When we corrupt the truthes of God , and abuse them , perverting them to our corrupt and licentious Ends , like that saying Rom. 6 : vers . 1. Shall we continue in sin , that grace may abound ? And againe Vers. 15. Shall we sin , because we are not under the Law , but under grace ? And Chap. 7 : v. 7. Is the Law sin ? So Chap. 3 : v. 31. Do we then make void the Law through faith ? These and the like Objections , which Paul , in his Epistles , preoccupieth , shew what the corrupt heart and reasonings of men are set upon ; and how prone they are to turne the Grace of God into lasciviousness , and to pervert the right Wayes of the Lord. Whereby they clearly demonstrate , how displeased they are at the holy Truths and Wayes of God , and how ready to thraw and pervert them , that they may become more straight , then they seem to them at present to be . 4. When we Fret , Repine , Grumble and Grudge in our minde , against any of the Lords Dispensations in and about us , or our concernments . This was the great sin of Israel , they murmured against the Lord , and against Moses , Exod. 15 : and 16 , and 17. Numb . 14 , and 16 , and 17. 1 Cor. 10 : 10. They were dissatisfied in their mindes , and repined and murmured against the Lord ; and hereby they said , they would have the wayes and dispensations of the Lord altered towards them : they were crooked , and they would have them made more straight . 5. When our hearts do not sweetly comply with the Wayes and Dispensations of the Lord , or we learne not , nor study Christian Submission . We should submit ourselves unto the Lord , I am . 4 : vers . 7. and humble ourselves under his mighty hand 1 Pet. 5 : v. 6. We should be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits . Heb. 12. vers . 9. even when he Crosseth , Chastneth and Afflicteth us But when we forget this Christian Duty , we declare our displeasure , at Gods wayes and dealings with us ; and say , that we would have his work amended , and that made straight , which He hath made crooked . 6. When we are Impatient , and cannot waite God's leasure , but take sinful courses to deliver ourselves ; or sit down discontented , and sinfully longe for an outgate ; then we declare our dissatisfaction with God's way , and would have his dispensations altered , and matters running in another channel : As when the labouring man would have the day of harvest the next week after the seed is cast into the ground , he is displeased with Gods Order and Appointment of some Moneths interveening : Whileas we should have Patience , and waite Gods time with Patience , I am . 5 : 7 , 8. Luk. 8 : 15. 2 Pet. 1 : v. 6. I am . 1 ; 4. Rom. 12 : 12. 7. When we are discontented with our own lot , and grudge at others , as having a better lot , than we have : an evil , which Iames condemneth Iam. 5 : vers . 9. and which plainly sayeth , we would amend Gods work , and set straight what He hath made crooked . As that wicked King was displeased , when he heard the message of the Lord 1 Kings 20 : 42 , 43. 8. When we are excessively Anxious and Disquieted in our minde , as to any passage of Providence , that we meet with , or as to any crosse that befalleth us . David checketh his own soul , as to this Ps. 42 : vers . 5 , 11. and 43 : 5. saying Why art thou disquieted within me ? We are discharged to be careful thus with a sinful anxiety for any thing Phil. 4 : v. 6. 1 Cor. 7 : 32. But When we are thoughtful , we clearly say , that we would faine make straight , what God hath made crooked , though Christ hath told us , Matth. 6 : 27. that by taking thought , we cannot adde one cubite to our stature . 9. When , though we dar not speak against God , in sending a crosse upon us ; yet we are not satisfied with the Manner , or Measure , or Season , or Duration and Continuance , or the Instrument of our crosse ; but say , we would choose any other crosse but this : we would be satisfied , if it were not so Bitter , and so Heavy and so Insupportable : we would have taken it well , had it come upon us at any other time , than now : we would most chearfully have borne it , if it had been of shorter Continuance : and had any other person been the Instrument thereof , we would have laid our hand upon our mouth : all which and the like , though they seem to insinuate some sort of Submission ; yet are plaine Declarations , that we think the way of the Lord crooked , and that we would have matters better ordered , and all things made more straight and even , than they are . 10. When in our prayers , there is not that submission unto the holy and soveraigne Will of the Lord , that ought to be ; but rather a limiteing of the holy One of Israel : and a sinful unwarrantable Importunity , as to things not necessary , in themselves , nor for us , without submission of soul unto the holy Will of the Lord , as to the Manner , Time and Measure of the Lords granting of our suites : When our Prayers are not commensurate unto the Promises , as to their Substance ; nor put up with Submission to God's Will and Soveraignity , as to the Manner , Measure , Season , Way , and the like circumstances , which the great God hath keeped in His own hand . By these and the like wayes , we declare our dissatisfaction with the wayes and works of God , and account them crooked , and think and endeavoure ( though in vaine ) to make straight , what God hath made crooked : An evil at which God is highly displeased . Wo unto him ( saith the Prophet Esai . 45 : vers 9 , 10. ) that striveth with his maker : Let the Potsheards strive with the Potsheards of the Earth : shall the Clay say to him , that fashioneth it , what makest thou ? Or thy work , he hath no hands ? Wo unto him that saith to his Father , what begettest thou ? Or to the woman , what hast thou brought forth ? And the great sinfulness of this sin appeareth in these Particulars , 1. It is a striveing against the Lord , in the place now cited : the word in the Original signifieth a Contending in judgment , as Lam. 3 : vers 58. Leading a processe against one , Judging or Sentenceing in judgment ; so also a Chideing , Contending withfighting as Gen. 26 : vers 20 , 22. So that this sin is a calling of the most High to an account , and a bringing of Him before our judgment-seat , as Iob 33 : 13. Where the the same verbe is used Why dost thou strive against him ? ( Or why dost thou call Him before thy tribunal , summond Him to compear before thee , or contend with Him in judgment , or plead against Him ) He answereth not , he giveth no account of his mat●…s to any . 2. It is a rebelling against the Lord. When the People of Israel murmured against the Lord , and against Moses and Aaron Numb . 14 : v. 1 , 2 , 3. Moses said unto them Vers. 9. Only rebel not ye against the Lord. So it is said Psal. 78 : vers 40. How oft did they rebel against him , in the wilderness ? in the margine . See Vers. 8. 3. It is a manifest calling his Wisdom in question ; and a saying , that He is not wise enough , to order and dispose matters , aright . As if He were not mighty in wisdom Iob 36 : vers 5. Our Wisdom were to cease from our own Wisdom Prov. 23 : vers 4. and to beleeve , though we should not see , that in wisdom , he hath made the heavens and all Psal. 104 : vers . 34. and 136 : vers . 5. and hath established the world in wisdom Ier. 10 : vers 1●… . and 51 : v. 15. And not think to give Him Counsel and Advice , how He should rule the world , for there are Depths of Wisdom , and of Knowledge in Him Rom. 11. 33. that we should think upon with Admiration ; for if in our wisdom , we think to correct His wayes , and quarrel against them , and not comply with them , he will destroy the Wisdom of the wise , 1 Cor. 1 : 19 , 20. O what a guilt must this be to proclame ourselves wiser , than He is ; and better able to order all things aright , at least , what concerneth ourselves ! The very hauk will not flie by our wisdom Iob : 39 : 26. and shall we think to prescribe Rules to God ? 4. It is a calling in question of His Absolute Power and Soveraignity : As if He might not do what he pleased ; but were obnoxious to us , and bound to give an account of his wayes to us , or could do injustice , or wrong to any . As if he had not that Power over His Creatures , to whom he hath given being and all they have , that the Potter hath over the lump of Clay ; or we have over our beasts , which are our fellow-creatures , and hold not their being of us . And must not this be a great sin ? 5. When we are sinfully anxious and disquieted with his Dispensations towards his Church ; We call into question His Faithfulness and Care of , and also his Love to his Church ; as if he had forgotten to be gracious , and would be merciful no more , and cared not that she perished ; as Christs Disciples said Mark. 4 : 38. contrare to 1 Pet. 5 : 7. And this , sure , must be no small sin . 6. We hereby proclame Him to be an imperfect Worker ; and say , that He is not God ; for his works , who is God , cannot but be perfect ; and his Way also , Deut. 32 : 4. 2 Sam. 22 : 31. 7. We profess ourselves hereby able to finde out the depths of His wayes , and to search Him out unto Perfection , as was said to Iob Chap. 11 : v. 7. Why else will we think to reprove Him , and amend what He hath done , as if it were amisse ? 8. When we are dissatisfied with His Dispensations towards us , we really accuse the Most Holy of Injustice ; as if indeed He had wronged us , and we had deserved better at His hands ; though all His wayes are Judgment , and though He be a God of Truth and without Iniquity , and just and right Deut. 42 : vers . 4. Eliphaz said to Iob , after he heard his complaints Chap. 3. Iob 4 : vers 17. Shall mortal man be more just , than God ? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker ? Elihu said well Iob 34 : vers 17. Shall we condemne him , that is most just ? What a sin must it be , to lay such an Imputation on Him , who hath justice and judgment for the habitation of his throne Ps. 89 : vers 14 : and who is excellent in power and in judgment , and in plenty of Iustice , Iob 37 : vers 23 ? Next , The Consideration of this should cause us watch against this evil , and labour for another frame of heart , that will be more complying with the Wayes and Works of the Lord. And for this cause , we should take another look of the Works . of the Lord , and consider them in another manner , than we usually do : and this bringeth me to the Third thing in the Text , which will also lead us to a further improvment of this impossibility of helping what we suppose is amisse , in the Works and Dispensations of the Lord. Thirdly , Therefore let us see , what way we should consider the Works of the Lord , to the end , we may have a suteable frame of spirit , complying sweetly with all the crooks that are , or we suppose to be , in Gods Way and Works , for in reference to this only , shall we speak of considering the Works of the Lord. We should then consider the Works of the Lord , whether of Creation , or of Providence . 1. So as that thereby we may become rooted and more setled in the Faith of this , that He alone is Iehovah above all Gods ; and this would do much to quiet and calme our spirits : For our murmuring at , or displeasure with what He doth , floweth from the want of the clear sight and apprehension of the hand of the only Supream and Soveraigne God therein ; Hence , to the end , that people may set Him above all imagined , false and supposed God's , he readeth a lecture to them of His great works Esai . 40. from vers 12. and forward ; and inferreth once and againe vers 18 , 25. to whom then will ye liken God ? Or what likeness will ye compare with him ? So he setteth forth several remarkable works , that He would do for his Church , that they may see , and know , and consider and understand together , that the hand of the Lord hath done this , and that the holy One of Israel hath created this , Esai . 41 : vers 20. And when we consider His Works so , as to see Him alone to be Jehovah , the Absolute and Soveraigne King , Creator , Conservator and Disposer of all Things , according to His own will and pleasure , then our hearts will bow more , and submit unto His holy Determination , and we will learne to say , with good old Eli , 1 Sam. 3 : 18. — It is the Lord Jehovah , let him do what seemeth him good . 2. We should consider the works of the Lord , till we finde thereby , that He alone is the wise Governour of the World , and that there is a beauty of Divine Wisdom to be seen and observed on all , even on that , which we account most crooked , in our blinde and byassed judgments . Thus did holy Iob Chap. 12. contemplate the most crooked like works of the Lord , such as , His breaking down , shutting up of a man , sending-out waters to overturne the earth , leading Counsellours away spoiled , making the judges fools , removing the speach of the trusty , taking away the understanding of the aged , pouring contempt upon Princes , weakening the strength of the mighty , destroying and straitning the nations ; taking away the heart of the chiefe of the People of the earth , causing them to wander in a Wilderness , wherein is no way , to grope in the dark without light , and making them to stagger as a drunken man : and he saw in the midst of all this vers . 12 , 13 , 16. that with the ancient is wisdom , even wisdom and strength ; and that he had counsel and understanding . Such a sight , as this , of the great and wonderful works of God , would cause us put our mouth in the dust , and adore the Depths of the Counsel of God ; and be far from quarrelling with Him , for any thing he doth : and when any thing appeareth crooked to us , to suspect our own folly and ignorance , as not seeing in to the profound Projects , wise and unsearchable Contrivances of the only wise God ; rather than impute folly and ignorance to the only wise God. It were best that we saw , that we ourselves were beasts Ec●…les . 〈◊〉 : 18. 3. It were our wisdom to consider the works of the Lord , so as to finde out , see and observe his Loving Kindness . After a long rehearsal of the mighty and considerable works of God , both of Creation and Providence ; and that both as to the whole world , and more especially as to the Church Psal. 104 , and 105 , and 106 , and 107. in end the Psalmist Psal. 107 : 43. saith , VVho so is wise and will observe those things , even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. There is a loving kindness ingraven upon all the works and wayes of the Lord , a sight of which would teach us to acquiesce more heartily in all He doth , and submit more sweetly unto the most sowr and rugged of His Dispensations : The faith and the sight of this would make all the works of the Lord appear most straight and lovely to us : and therefore , that our hearts may comply mo●…e heartsomely and christianly with the works and dispensations of God , and that we may be keeped from so much as desireing to have his wayes and dispensations other then they are , let us study and meditate upon the works that He doth , till we discover therein this mystery of loving kindness , that is wrapped up in all , and brought about by all , that this great God doth in the world , about and for His Church . 4. We should also consider and contemplate the works of the Lord for this end , and until we did remark , in some measure , the Purity , Unspotted Holiness , Righteousness and Integrity of this great Worker , Hos. 14 : 9. Who is wise , and he shall understand these things ? Prudent and he shall know them ? For the wayes of the Lord are right , and the just shall walk in them , but the transgressours shall fall therein . There is , in all the wayes of the Lord , whether we see it , or not , a divine and singular Righteousness ; and it is the want of the sight of this , that makes us quarrel . Ieremiah knew that God was righteous , yet he did not see it so clearly , as was necessary , in the Dispensations of the Lord ; and therefore he sayeth Chap. 12 : 1 , 2. as desireous to reason the case with God , VVherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper ? VVherefore are all they happy , that deal very treacherously ? Thou hast planted them , yea they have taken root , they grow , yea they bring forth fruit &c. So Hab. 1 : 2 , 3. O Lord , how long shall I cry , and thou wilt not hear , cry out unto thee of violence , and thou wilt not save ? VVhy dost thou shew me iniquity , and cause me to behold grievance ? For spoiling and violence are before me , and there are that raise up strife and contention . And againe vers . 13. — VVherefore lookest thou upon them , that deal treacherously , and holdest th●… tongue , when the wicked devoureth the man , that is more righteous than ●…e ? &c ▪ Therefore it would be our wisdom , so to consider the works of the Lord , as to be confirmed in the faith of this , that the Lord is Just and Righteous in all He doth ; and so as to finde new and fresh demonstrations thereof ; and then our hearts will be more calme under all , & more ready to submit to & acquiesce in all that the Lord doth . 5. We would study , dwell upon the thoughts of , and consider the works of the Lord , till we see and observe in them something of the Stateliness , Excellency and Majesty of God ; for in His works , which are honourable and glorious , wonderful and powerful Psal. 111 : 2 , 3 , 4 , 6. there are discoveries to be had of His excellent Majesty : yea a Spiritual eye can discerne this , in the most common , obvious and ordinary of his works : Elihu saw this , in the bright light which is in the clouds , in windes cleansing of them , in faire weather coming out of the North , for after this , he addeth Iob. 37 : 21. — With God is terrible Majesty . God is indeed terrible in his doing to the Children of men . Ps. 66 : 5. and this we will be convinced of , if we will come and see , and rightly consider His works . If we were thus studying the excellent works of the Lord , we durst not censure , or condemne Him , or His works . But would rather fear ; as it is Ps. 64 : 9. And all men shall fear , and shall declare the work of God , for they shall wisely consider of his doing . And this would be our wisdom : wherefore after much said of the commendation of the works of the Lord , the Psalmist closeth the Psal. 111. with this vers . 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom . The fear of the Lord , taught and learned by the works of the Lord , would prove our wisdom . This is one special use that we should make of His stately doings . I know ( said the wise man Eccles. 3 : 14. ) that whatso●…ver God doth it shall be for ever , nothing can be put to it , no●… any thing taken from it : And God doth it , that men should fear before Him. See also Iob. 37. vers 22 , 23 , 24. and vers . 14 , 15 , 16. 6. It were good to be so considering and meditating on the works of the Lord , until we came to have low and abasing thoughts of ourselves : thus did the Psalmist Ps. 8. contemplate the work of God ver . 1 , 2 , 3. And then addeth vers . 4. What is man that thou art mindful of him ? And the Son of man , that thou vis●…test him ? And this would stop our mouth , when we were beginning to quarrel , at any thing He doth , and we would soon see cause of silence before Him , because we would see , that we were but beasts . 7. We would so contemplate the works of the Lord , as to see and observe , how wisely , steadily , & irresistibly He Ordereth & Carrieth on His works , for throughing and bringing about His designed Ends. It is our ignorance of the ends and designes of God , that causeth us to complean and quarrel , and wish that His works were otherwise ordered and marshalled ; for saw we these , and con●…idered how pertinent and s●…teable all the passages of His way , and all the circumstances of His work , were unto the end designed , we would be forced to say , Behold He doth all things well . When Elihu had been considering Iob 37. the Lords thunder and the great & small raine , the whirle wind & the frost , and observed how the Lord did weary the thick cloud , and turne it about hither and thither ; he did not satisfie himself with that , till he also gote a look of the special ends , wherefore the Lord did so ; that so he might see the beauty , and splendour , that was therein : therefore he addeth ver . 12 , 13. And it is turned round about by his Counsels , that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them , upon the face of the world , in the earth . He causeth it to come , whether for correction , orforhis land , or for mercy . And thereupon vers . 14. exhorteth Iob to hearken unto this , to stand still and consider the wondrous works of God : And of Him , who ( vers . 16. ) is perfect in knowledg . And such a sight as this of the works of the Lord would put us far from intertaining such thoughts of God , and of his wayes , as we too ordinarily have . If we saw Him , in these His works , acting as a wise Governour , carrying on His noble and excellent Designes and Purposes , we would see a necessity for all that He doth ; and that no Circumstance might be wanting ; otherwise His work should not be perfect , as it must be . And the faith of His being a God of wisdom , doing all for wise and holy ends , should quiet us , even though we should not see the Particular end , which the Lord Intendeth in this or that Particular work . 8. We would consider also the work of the Lord , and see how thereby He executeth many a time His judgments on the wicked , and how He is pouring out His red wine , that is full of mixture , and causing the wicked of the earth drinkout the very dregs ; as it is Psal. 75 : 8. And thereby making it appear , that verily there is a God , that judgeth in the earth Ps. 85. 11. Yea , even when He seemeth most to be favouring the wicked , and His dispensations smile most upon them , He is but heaping wrath the more upon them , and fitting them for the day of slaughter . Asaph , that could not see this , when he was under the Water , saw it clearly , when he went into the Sanctuary ; then he understood their end , and saw that the Lord had set them in slippery places , and they were brought into desolation , as in a moment Psal. 73 : 17 , 18 , 19. It was an heart-establishing sight , which the Psalmist had of the great works of the Lord Psal. 92 : 4 , 5. when he saw vers . 6 , 7. that a brutish man knoweth not , neither doth a fool understand this , when the wicked spring as the grasse , and when all the workers of iniquity flourish , it is that they shall be destroyed for ever . CONSIDERATION XXII . Judgement upon a Land , because of sin , sometime will not be held off by the prayer of God's people . JEREM. 15 : 1. Then said the Lord unto me , though Moses and Samuel stood before me ; yet my minde could not be toward this people : Cast them out of my sight , and let them go forth . IN a time , when , because of publick and abounding sins , the Lord bringeth on Publick and General Calamities ; especially such , as sweep away the Righteous with the Wicked , and that could not be prevented or held off by all the Prayers and Supplications of His people , how earnest so ever they have been therein ; it may seem no small piece of difficulty , how a beleever shall win to any life ; or to know what a life may be had , in a such a dismal day : It may therefore be of use to speak a little hereunto , especially seing this is very like to be the case of this Generation . These words , and the like Passages , show us , that indeed there is a time , when God is so provoked by the sinnes of a people , that after much abused patience and long-suffering , He will not be intreated to hold off the stroke , that He is about to send , or hath threatned because of Provocations : Nor shall the eminentest of His favourites , & wrestlers , who sometime have prevailed as Princes with Him , be in case to stand in His way , and avert the blow , by all their Intreaties & earnest Supplications . God was about to bring on this people of Judah , the long threatned desolation , and did denounce the same by His Servant Ieremiah , saying Chap. 7 : 14 , 15. That He would do unto His house at Ierusalem , which was called by His name , and wherein they did trust , as He had done unto Shilo ; and that He would cast them out of His sight , as He had cast out their Brethren , the whole seed of Ephraim . And that Ieremiah might understand the peremp●…oriness of this denounciation , He addeth vers . 16. Therefore pray not thou for this people , neither lift up cry nor prayer for them ; neither make intercession to me , for I will not hear thee . The Lord hereby signifying not so much His will , that Ieremiah should surcease , and pray no more in their behalf ; as the peremptoriness of His purpose and resolution , to bring on the judgment , so that all his Interceeding and Interposeing should not avail : And this is againe renewed Chap 11 : 14. Therefore pray not thou for this people ; neither lift up a cry , or prayer for them ; for I will not hear them , in the time , that they cry unto me , for th●…ir trouble . As if He had said , The decree is now gone forth , neither shall they prevail for themselves , nor thou for them . Yet Compassionat Ieremiah could not get them forgotten in his prayers ; but interceedeth earnestly with the Lord , in their behalf Ier. 14 : 1. From the beginning to the 10. ver . Whereupon the Lord said unto him the third time vers . 11. pray not for this people ●…or their good . Ieremie againe vers . 19. to the end , notwithstanding of this , fell to the work of prayer , and did earnestly supplicat and interceed for them . But now the Lord tels him Chap. 15 : 1. That Moses and Samuel should not prevail in their behalf ; and therefore he may be the better satisfied , to hear that God would not grant his Petitions , put up for them . The like we have said foure times over Ezek. 14 : 14 , 16 , 18 20. Though these three men , Noah , Daniel and Iob , were in it , they should deliver but their own souls : and againe , Though those three men were in it , as I live saith the Lord God , they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters , they only shall be delivered , but the land shall be desolate . The matter then , which we are to notice is manifest , to wit , That there is a time , when the sins of a people come to that height , that God will not spare , upon any humane Intercession : He will hear no Intreaty . That was an unalterable and inevitable sentence against the house of honest Eli. 1 Sam. 3 : 14. And therefore I have sworne unto the house of Eli , that the iniquity of Elies house shall not be purged with sacrifice , nor offering for ever . When the Lord would beginne , He would also make an end , as it is said v. 12. So Esai . 22 : v. 14. And it was revealed in mine eares by the Lord of hostes ; surely this iniquitie shall not be purged from you till ye die . There is a time , when the end is come , and the Lord will judge a people , according to their wayes , and recompense upon them all their abominations ; and His eye shall not spare , neither will He have pity : As Ezek. 7 : 2. to 10. And the Lord will not againe passe by them any more Amos 7 : vers 8. and 8. vers 2. Such a time and dispensation , as this , cannot but be afflicting and grievous to all , that are concerned in such matters : And the Consideration of these particulars may manifest how sad it is , when the Lord is so provoked against a People , as no Intercessions of His most highly honoured Favourites , upon whose Intreaties , sometime He hath manifested wonderful condescensions of grace , will prevail to keep off the stroke ; no not Moses and Samuel both together . 1. That the Lord hath done much at the Prayer and Intercession of these two in particular , here mentioned , Moses and Samuel : For Moses , see Exod. 32. where the Lord was so wroth and displeased at the Peoples turning aside so quickly out of the way , and making the golden Calf , that He said unto Moses vers 9 , 10. I have seen this people , and behold , it is a stiff-necked People . Now therefore , let me alone , that my wrath may wax hot against them , and that I may consume them : And yet upon the Intercession of Moses , saying Vers 11 , 12 , 13. Lord , why doth thy wrath wax hote against thy People , which thou hast brought forth out of the Land of Aegypt , with great power and with mighty hand &c. It is said Vers 14. That the Lord repented of the evil , which he thought to do unto his People . So againe Numb 14 : v. 19 , 20. See Psal. 99 : vers 5. and 106 : v. 23. In like manner , as to Samuel we see 1 Sam. 7. that when the Children of Israel were in great fear of the Philistines , they said to Samuel Vers 8. Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God , for us , that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines . And upon this Samuel cried unto the Lord , for Israel , and the Lord heard him . See also Psalm 99 : v. 6. Is it not sad , that the Lord , who sometime did so much upon the Intreaty of these Persons , is now so offended , that He would not regard their Intercessions , nor spare upon their request ? 2. That the Lord hath frequently spared , and keeped a stroke off His People upon the interposing of others , as of Amos. Chap. 7 : v. 2 , 3 , 5 , 6. When he had prayed for the People , and had said , O Lord God , forgive , I beseech thee : by whom shall Iacob arise , for he is small ? The Lord repented and said , It should not be . And againe the second time he prayed , and had the same return . So Nehemiah 9. and Daniel Ch. 9. and Asa 2 Chron. 14 : v. 11. and Iehosaphat 2 Chron. 20. and others . 3. That the Lord hath sometimes forborne to strick , when even graceless Persons , and such , as had no interest in the special favour of God , have prayed and humbled themselves : as when He spared Ninivee , after that natural People had humbled themselves : And when that wicked man Ahab , that did evil in the sight of the Lord , above all that were before him 1 Kings 16 : vers . 30 , 33. rent his cloths , and put sack-cloth upon his flesh , and fasted and lay in sack-cloth , and went softly , the Lord delayed the stroke , and would not bring the evil upon his house , in his dayes 1 Kings 21 : v. 27 , 29. How sad must it then be , that He , who sometime hath turned from the fierceness of His anger , and held off the evil threatned upon the crying of graceless Persons , will not hear the earnest Intreaties of His greate●…st Favourites ? 4. This dispensation will also appear more sad and afflicting , if we confider what an high esteem the Lord hath for the Prayers and Intercessions of His worthies . Such an account hath He of them , that the expressions thereof are indeed rare and very remarkable . Let me alone , saith He unto Moses Exod. 32 : v. 11. as if Moses had been stronger than He , and had bound up His hands ; or as if God could do nothing without Moses's consent or permission . So said He to Iacob Gen. 32 : v. 26. when He was wrestling with Him by prayer and supplication Hos. 12 : v. 4. Let me go : as if He could not have gone without Iacobs good leave and permission : And Iacob is said to have prevailed with God , as a Prince ; and hath therefore his name changed into Israel . 5. Adde to this end , the frequent promises made of the Lords hearing of such , in the behalf of others Gen. 20 : 7. the Lord said to Abimelech , Restore the man his wife , for he is a Prophet , and be shall pray for thee , and thou shalt live . So Iob. 42 : v. 8. The Lord directed Iobs Friends to set him a work to pray for them , with a promise of success . Go to my servant Iob , and offer up for yourselves a Burnt-offering ; and my servant Iob shall pray for you ; for him will I accept . How sad then must it be , when the Lord will not hear such . See also Iam. 5 : v. 14 , 15 , 16. 6. Yea sometimes we read , that the Lord hath delivered , when there was no Intercessour Esai . 59 : vers 16 , 17. And He saw , that there was no Intercessour . Therefore his arme brought salvation unto Him , and His righteousness it sustained Him. Must not His anger then be great , when He will not pity , nor spare , even though His worthies , whom He highly honoureth , were standing before Him , and putting up Supplications , in the behalfe of a sinful People ? 7. He hath said Psal. 50 : vers 15. — Call upon me in the day of trouble , and I will deliver thee . Is it not then sad , when iniquity is come to such an height , that the Lord will not onely not hear the People themselves , when they cry ; but also He will not hear the beseechings and intreaties of such , as have most prevailed with Him , at other times ? 8. As also if we consider , how unanswerable this appeareth to be unto the Title and Stile , which He hath gote , and the Consideration of which hath encouraged His servants to call upon Him : As Psal. 65 : vers 2. O thou that hearest Prayer , unto thee shall all Flesh come , such a Dispensation , as this , cannot but be sad and grievous . If it be enquired , when we may apprehend the time to be such , as wherein the Lord will hear no Intercessions , no Prayers , nor Intreaties of His greatest Favourites , in the behalf of a sinf●…l People , against whom the Lord is coming in judgment ? I answere , Though we may not be peremptour herein , knowing that the Lord sometimes taketh pleasure to Act , according to a Soveraignity of mercy ; for the glory of His rich Grace and Compassion ; and therefore must leave a latitude unto the Soveraignity of free Grace : Yet if we consider the condition of this People , of whom this is said ; and see what iniquities they were guilty of , at this time , we apprehend such a thing may be feared , where the Lord is in the same , or in the like manner , provoked ; and when He is coming in judgment against a people chargable with the same evils , it may be feared , that no prayer , no intercession of one or other , shall availe to hold off the judgment . Of these sins , whereof this People , for whom the Lord would hear no intercession , we shall mention some few , to the end we may be helped to understand better the language of Gods present Dispensations ; and to search and see , whether there be cause or no , to fear , that judgment inevitable is to be the lo of this generation . 1. When sins , and rebellion against the Lord , come to an exceeding great height , and gross and palpable defection is begun and carried on by Court and Countrey ; then the Lord is engaged to vindicat His Name and Justice , before the World ; that all may see , He is no Patronizer of Wickedness , even in a People called by His Name . Thus it was in the dayes of Manasseh , who , with his Court , committed such hainous wickedness , as was never there before perpetrated , as may be seen 2 Kings 21 : v. 1 , to 10. 2 Chron. 33 : 1 , to 11. and wherein the whole land was involved : Wherefore the Lord threatned 2 Kings 21 : v. 12 , 13 , 14 , &c. to stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria , and the plummet of the House of Ahab ; that is , that He would do with Jerusalem , as He hath done with Samaria , and the House of Ahab ; and no more spare those , than He did these . And ( which is very remarkable ) this iniquity the Lord would not Pardon , notwithstanding that Manasseh himself gote mercy , & reformed several things before his death ; and notwithstanding of a more universal and general Reformation , that was in the dayes of his Grand-child Josiah , that none-such King : For it is said 2. Kings 23 : v. 25 , 26 , 27. And like unto him ( i. e. Josiah ) was there no King before him , that turned to the Lord withall his heart , and with all his soul , and withall his might , according to the Law of Moses ; neither after him , arose there any like him . Notwithstanding ( as it is added ) the Lord turned not from the fierceness of His great wrath , wherewith His anger was kindled against Judah , because of all the Provocations that Manasseh had provoked Him with all . And the Lord said , I will remove Judah also out of my sight , &c. And in this same place Jer. 15. after the Lord had said Vers 1. that though Moses and Samuel stood before Him , his mind could not be towards them ; but that He would cast them out of His sight , to the death , to the sword , to the Famine , and to the Captivity , Vers 2. to the Sword , to Dogs , to Fowls , and to Beasts Vers 3. He saith Vers 4. And I will cause them to be removed into all Kingdomes of the Earth , because of Manasseh , the Son of Hezeki●…h King of Judah , for that which he did in Jerusalem . 2. When hainous iniquities , and sins become common and epidemick , in a land , infecting all ranks of Persons , young and old , rich and poor , Magistrat , Minister and common People ; then an inevitable blow is to be feared : for so was it with this people , as we see Jer. 5 : vers . 1. &c. hardly could there a man be found in Jerusalem to execute judgment , and to seek the truth : Neither was this scarcety to befound only among the poor and foolish people ; but even among the great men ; for they had altogether broken the yoke , and burst the bonds Vers 5. therefore followeth Vers 7. How shall I pardon thee for this ? And againe Vers 9. Shall I not visite for these things ? saith the Lord ; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this ? So in the two last Verses of that Chapt. it is said , A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the Land. The Prophets prophesie falsely , and the Priests bear rule by their meanes , and my People love to have it so : and what will ye do i●… the end thereof . Such Priest , such People were here ; and what else but ruine could be expected ? So Ierem. 6 : vers 13. and 8 : v. 10. it is said , that from the least of them , even unto the greatest of them , every one is given to covetousness ; and from the Prophet even unto the Priest , every one dealeth falsly : Therefore is wrath threatned both upon old and young , and upon all the inhabitants of the land Vers 11 , 12. See also Vers 28. They were all grievous revolters , brasse and iron , they were all corrupters . So is this plainly charged upon them Chap. 7 : v. 18. The Children gather wood , and the Fathers kindle the fire , and the women knead their dough ▪ to make ●…kes to the Queen of Heaven . So that Man , Wife and Children , young and old , were conspiring in one , and with one shoulder carrying on this Defection and Apostasie from God. So Jerem. 11 : v. 13 , 14. For according to the number of thy cities , were thy Gods , O Judah ; and according to the number of the Streets of Jerusalem , have they set up Alt●…rs to that shamful thing , Altars to burn in●…ense unto Baal . Thus was this sin become universal through the whole City Jerusalem , and through the whole Land of Judah : And what followeth hereupon ? Therefore pray not thou for this People &c. The like we finde Micah . 3 : vers . 11. The Heads did judge for reward , and the Priests did teach for hire , and the Prophets did divine for Money : And what followeth upon this ? Therefore ( Vers 12 ) shall Zion for your sakes be plowed as a field , and Jerusalem become heaps , and the mountaine of the house as ●…he high places of the forest ; that is , Citie and Sanctuary shall be laid desolate . This same was laid to the charge of this People by Zephaniah , Ch. 3 : ver . 3 , 4. Her Princes within her are roaring lions , her judges evening Wolves , her Prophets light and treacherous Persons , her Priests have polluted the Sanctuary : So that both Church and State was corrupted : & therefore was woe denounced against her Vers 1. See also Micah 7 : 2 , to 6. 3. When Corruption in the Worship , and Ordinances of God , is admitted , fostered and continued in ; and Superstition or Idolatrie is brought-in , then an inevitable stroke is to be feared : for God is a jealous God , and will not hold them guiltless that take His Name in vaine , but will visite the iniquities of the Fathers unto the third and fourth Generation of those that thus hate Him , and corrupt His Ordinances : This was also given as a cause of the destruction , that came on this People 2 Chron. 36 : v. 14. They polluted the House of the Lord , which He had hallowed in Jerusalem . So Ezek. 5 : vers 11. it was threatned . Wherefore , as I live , saith the Lord God , surely , because thou hast defiled my Sanctuary with all thy detestable things , and with all thine abominations ; therefore will I also diminish thee ; neither shall mine eye sparer , neither will I have pity , See also the following Verses , where the dreadfulness of the blow is laid forth : yea saith he Vers 13. thus shall mine anger be accomplished , and I will cause my fury to rest upon them , and I will be comforted . And all is sealed in end Vers 17. with this , I the Lord have spoken it . So Ezek. 7 : vers 20. As for the beauty of his Ornament , he set it in Majesty : But they made the Images of their Abominations , and of their detestable things therein . This was their sin , and what followeth ? Therefore have I set it far from them , or made it unto them an unclean thing . And further in the following Verses , He threatneth , to give it into the hands of strangers for a prey , and to robbers , who shall defile it , &c. See likewise Chapt. 8. throughout , and Chap. 23 ▪ vers 38 , 39 ▪ So Jerem. 9 : vers 12 , 13 , &c. The Land was perishing , and was burnt up like a Wilderness , that none passeth thorow : And wherefore was this ? Because ( saith the Lord ) they have forsaken my law , which I set before them , and have not obeyed my voice , neither walked therein ; but have walked after the imagination of their own heart , and after Baalim , which their Fathers taught them &c. 4. When a land or Church maketh defection from God , apostatizeth , breaketh wedlock , renounceth their Covenant relation ; then a sword is to be expected , wherewith the Lord shall avenge the quarrel of His Covenant Levit 26 : 25. & there is ground to fear , that judgment shall inevitably overtake such sinners : For thus was it with this people of Judah Ier. 2 : 9 , 10. 11 , 12 , 13. So Ier. 4 : 16 , 17 , 18. They had forsaken God , and rebelled against Him ; and therefore came destruction upon destruction v. 28. and Ier. 11 : 10. Because they brake God's Covenant , which He had made with their Fathers : Therefore v. 11. He threatned to bring evil upon them , which they should not be able to escape , and that He would not Hearken , though they should cry unto Him : And then followeth vers 14. Therefore pray not thou for this people &c. So Ier. 22 : 6 , 7. The Lord threatned to make them a wilderness , and Cities not inhabited , in so much , that Nations shall be astonished , and enquire what can be the cause of this ? And the answere they shall receive is this v. 9. Because they ●…ave forsaken the Covenant of the Lord , their God , and w●…rshipped other Gods & srved them . And in this same place Ier. 15 : 6. it is said , Thou hast forsaken me , saith the Lord , thou art gone backward ; therefore will I stretch out mine hand against thee , & destroy thee , I am weary with repenting . See what was threatned for breach of Covenant Ier. 34 : v. 17 , 18 , 19 , 20. The Lord said , He would proclame a liberty to the sword , to the pestilence , and to the famine , and would make them to be removed into all the Kingdomes of the earth , and give all ranks among them into the hands of their Enemies ; and give their dead bodies to be meat unto the fowls of heaven , and to the beasts of the earth . We see Ezek. 16. how the Lord deduceth along process against them , and proveth them to have plaid the harlot , and that in a most impudent manner : And how therefore he saith , that He will judge her as a woman , that breaketh wedlock v. 38. & make his fury towards them to rest , and his jealousie shall depart , and He will be quiet vers . 42. and againe v. 59. He saith I will even deal with thee , as thou hast done , which hast despised the oath , in breaking the Covenant . See the like charged upon Israel , as the ground of their desolation . Hos. 4 : 12 , 13 , 14. & 5 : 4 , 5 , 6 , 7. & 8 : 1 , 2 , & 9 : 1 , 2 , 3. & 13 , 16. 5. When this Defection and Apostasie from God in the matter of Religion , is accompanied with gross immoralities , fearful sins against the Second table of the Law , which the very light of Nature condemneth ; then may the guilty fear an unavoidable stroke , & a blow of justice , that shall not be evited ; for the Lord will not have it said , or supposed by strangers , that He will bear with gross impieties in His own professed people , and suffer them to exceed the heathen in wickedness , without control , or punishment : We see this people of Judah , upon whom inevitable ruine was coming , were charged likewise with many gross and hainous impieties Ier. 5 : 26 , 27 , 28 , 29. There vvere among them wicked men , they did lay waite , as such as laid snares , they set a trap , they watched men , their houses were full of deceit ; yea they did overpasse the deeds of the wicked ; & thereupon it followeth v. 29 Shall I not visite for these things , saith the Lord ? Shall not my soul be avenged of such a Nation , as this ? So Ier. 9 : 1. They were all adulterers , an assembly of treacherous men , they bend their tongues for lies like bowes , they did proceed from evil to evil , they taught their tongues to speak lies , and deceived their Neighbours ; they spoke peacably , but in heart they did lay wait : Therefore it is added v. 9. Shall I not visite them for these things ? &c. So Jer. 21 : 12. O house of David , thus sai●…h the Lord , execute judgement in the morning , and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressour , l●…st my fury go out like fire , and burn that none can quench it , because of the evil of your doings . These things were neglected by them ; and therefore wrath came upon them , at length , and there was no remedie Jer. 22 : 3 , 4 , 5 , 6. And the Prophet Ezekiel hath the same charge against this people Chap. 5 : 5 , 6. They changed Gods judgments into wickedness , more than the Nations , and his statutes more than the Countreys : And therefore the Lord threatned v. 8 , 9 , 10. to execute judgment in the midst of them , and to do that unto them , which He had not done before , and the like whereof He would not do any more : He would bring on them an unexemplified stroke , and a stroke , that should not have a parallel . And againe Chap. 9 : 9 , 10. The iniquity of the house of Israel and of Judah is exceeding great , and the Land is full of blood , and the city full of perversness . And therefore it is added , mine eye shall not spare , neither will I have pity , but I will recompense their way upon their head . Therefore was it , that commission was given to the Lord's executioners to go thorow and slay Old and young , maids and little children and women ; yea all , except the marked ones v. 5 , 6. Se also Chap. 16 : 46 , 47 , 48. Iudah corrupted her self more than Samarca , yea more than Sodom v. 49 : 50 , 41. And Chap 22 : we have a large Catalogue of their sins , see v. 2 , 4 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. And that as the provoking cause , drawing forth the sword , wherewith the Lord would cut off both the righteous and the wicked , mentioned Chap. 21 : ver . 3. — 14. And bringing-on the desolation and scattering , mentioned Chap. 22 : 15 , 16 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22. Thus the Lord dealt also with Israel , because of their manifold iniquities , mentioned Hos. 4 : 1 , 2 , 3. there was no truth , nor mercy , in the land , nor knowledge of God ; but there was swearing , lying , killing , stealing , adultery and blood touching blood . See also Micah . 6 : 10 , 11 , 12 , 13. 6. When this defection , and course of sinning is long continued-in , and there is no wearying of this way , but rather a growing in this Apostasie ; then such may fear , that at length the Lord will come , and will not spare , nor pity , nor passe by any more ; for thus was it with this people of Iudah Ier. 16. there are sad judgments denounced against them , from the beginning to V. 10. And thereof the reason is given vers . 11 , 12. - Because your fathers have forsaken me , and have walked after other goods &c. And ye have done worse than your fathers ; for behold ye walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart , that they may not hearken unto me . And therefore destruction is threatned of new v. 13. Therefore will I cast you out of this land , into a land , that ye know not — where I will not shew you favour . So Ier. 32 : 30 , 31. For the Children of Israel , & the Children of Iudah have only done evil before me from their youth . And againe . This city hath been to me , as a Provocation of mine anger , and of my fury , from the day that they built it , even unto this day ; that I should remove it from before my face . So the Prophet Ezekiel draweth up a long Libel of many Instances of their rebellion , continued in for many Generations , running in a constant line from Father to Son , from V. 3. to V. 33. and there we finde the sentence given out , As I live saith the Lord God , surely with a mighty hand , and with a stretched-out arme , and with fury poured-out , will I rule over you And Israel was charged with this same guilt , Hos. 10 : ver . 9. O Israel , thou hast sinned from the dayes of Gibeah . See also Esa. 65 : 7. 7. When People become bold and impudent in their sinful courses , then there is ground to fear a sad and inevitable stroke of Justice : For thus was it with this People of Iudah Ier. 3 : 3. — Thou hadst a whores fore-head , thou refusedst to be ashamed . And againe Ier. 6 : 15. Were they ashamed , when they had committed abomination ? Nay , they were not at all ashamed , neither could they blush : And what is added upon this ? Therefore they shall fall among them , that fall ; at the time , that I visite them , they shall be cast down , saith the Lord. So Chap. 8 : v. 12. in these last mentioned places , the false Prophets would seem specially to be meaned ; yet the circumstances will include others . When People provoke the Lord to anger continually , to his face , as it is Esai 65 : 3. then they become a smoak in Gods nose , and a fire that burneth all the day , and they must expect a recompence from God , as Vers. 5 , 6. 8. When People stand chargable with the abuse of many favours , received at the hands of God ; which they have perverted , and mis-improven to the hardening of themselves in their wicked courses ; then it is to be feared , that God will come at length , and be avenged on such a Generation of Perverters : This iniquity was also charged upon this People of Iudah by Jeremiah Chap. 2 : 5 , to 9. Their forgetting the old kindnesses of God , and abusing His favours , defiling His land , and making His heritage an abomination , is charged home Vers 7. Wherefore ( saith the Lord Vers 9. ) I will yet plead with you , and with your Childrens Children will I plead . So Chap. 11. after the Lord had said to Jeremie , Pray not for this People Vers 14. he addeth , as a provoking cause hereunto Vers 15 , 16 , 17. What hath my beloved to do , in mine house , she hath wrought lewdness with many , and the holy flesh is passed from thee , when thou dost evil , then thou rejoicest . The Lord called thy name a green Olive tree , faire and of goodly fruit . But there was no sutable walking ; and therefore it followeth , with the noise of a great tumult , he hath kindled fire upon it , and the branches of it are broken : For the Lord of Hosts , that planted thee , hath pronounced evil against thee , &c. So Jer. 13. the Lord by a similitude of a girdle , showeth how he had caused the whole House of Israel to cleave unto Him , and the whole House of Iudah ; that they might be unto Him , for a People , and for a Name , and for a Praise , and for a Glory : but they would not hear ; and therefore he threatned to make them like unto the marred girdle ; and so mar the pride of Iudah , and the great pride of Ierusalem , and make them good for nothing . See Vers 9 , 10 , 11. So Chap. 16 : 18. he saith , And first , I will recompense their iniquity , and their sin double , because they have defiled my land , they have filled mine inheritance , with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things . Thus did they requite the kindness of God , in bestowing that land upon them , by defileing it with their sins ; and therefore He threatneth to recompense their iniquity double . So doth the Prophet Ezekiel Chap. 16. make a large deduction of the favours and kindneses shown to that people , and give us also a large summe of their abusings and pervertings of these favours : And therefore is wrath denounced from Vers 36. and forward . This was likwise charged upon Ephraim or Israel , by Hosea Chap. 7 : 13 , 15. — they have transgressed against me , though I have redeemed them , yet they have spoken lies against me — though I have bound and strengthened their armes ; yet they do imagine mischief against me . So Hos. 11 : vers 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. Esai . 1 : vers 2. 9. When People become hardened in their sins , loving and delighting to wander out of the way , and glory in their wickedness , as resolving never to amend , and are therefore tushing at all threatnings , and contemning them ; then is there great ground to fear an overturning blow , that no meanes shall avert : It was also laid to the charge of this people Ier. 14 , 10. that they loved to wander , and did not refraine their feet : And what followeth upon this ? Therefore the Lord doth not accept them ; He will now remember their iniquity , and visite their sins . And then Vers 11. The Lord said unto him , pray not for this People for their good . Vers 12. When they fast , I will not hear their cry — but I will consume them by the Sword , by the Famine , and by the Pestilence . So the Prophet Ezekiel Ch. 24. seeth Ierusalem , in the likeness of a pot full of pieces ; and she is called Vers 6. the pot , whose scum is therein , and is not gone out of it ; she would cast away none of her abominations : and therefore the Lord said Vers 9. Wo to the bloudy City , I will even make the pile for fire great . Vers 10. Heap on wood , kindle the fire , consume the flesh , and spice it well , and let the bones be burnt . Vers 11. Then set it empty upon the coals thereof , that the brasse of it may be hot , and may burn : and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it , and that the soumme of it may be consumed . She would not put away her scum in time , and therefore the Lord will put an end to it in her destruction ; and He will not be hindered ; for it is added Vers 13 , 14. In thy filthiness is leudness , because I have purged thee , and thou mast not purged ; thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more , till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee , I the Lord have spoken it , it shall come to passe , and I will do it , I will not go back , neither will I spare , neither will I repent &c. The same was the sin of Israel , for saith Hosea Ch. 7 : 10. And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face ; and they do not return to the Lord their God , nor seek Him for all this . So Chap. 11 : 7. And my People are bent to back sliding from me : though they called them to the most High , none at all would exalt Him. They hardened their necks , that they might not hear God's Words : Therefore the Lord said Ier. 19 : 15. that He would bring upon Ierusalem . , and upon the rest of the Towns , all the evil that He had pronounced against it . It was this same People , of which Zephaniah spaketh Chap. 1 : 12. That were setled on their lees , and said in their heart , the Lord will not do good , neither will He do evil . Upon which , dreadful and desolating strokes are denounced , to the end of that Chapter . 10. When a People under their sins , turne brutish , sensual and senseless , regarding nothing that the Lord is either doing or saying , by His Servants or Dispensations ; but following their pleasures ; then an alarming and destroying stroke , that shall not be turned away , may be feared , according to that Esai . 22 : v. 12 , 13 , 14. And in that day , did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping , and to mourning , and to baldness , and to girding with sackcloth , and behold joy and gladness , slaying Oxen and killing Sheep , eating Flesh , and drinking Wine : Let us eat and drink , for to morrow we shall die . And it was revealed in mine eares by the Lord of Hosts ; surely , this iniquity shall not be purged from you , till ye die , saith the Lord God of Hosts . The like we have pronounced by Amos Chap. 6 : v. 1 , &c against such , as are at ease in Zion , put far away the evil day , lye upon beds of yvory , & stretch themselves upon their couches , and eat the Lambs out of the Flock , and the Calves out of the midst of the Stall ; that chant to the sound of the viol , invent to themselves Instruments of musick , like David ; that drink wine in bowls , & anoynt themselves with the chiefe oyntments ; but they are not grieved for the Affliction of Ioseph . Now see what the Lord threatneth upon this account Ver. 7. and forward , confirming the same with an Oath Vers 8. to shew the immutability of this Counsel . 11. When People are so far from taking conviction , and making challenges welcome , and from humbling themselves before the Lord , in the sense of their iniquities ; that they will justifie their owne wayes , and plead themselves innocent before God ; Then , there being no more hop of their recovery , their case seemeth desperat , and they may expect a final blow : For this was also the sin of this People of Iudah ; as we see Ier. 2 : v. 23 How canst thou say , I am not polluted , I have not gone after Baalim ? Therefore Vers 24. their moneth must come , wherein they shall be found and taken : So Vers 35. Yet thou sayest , because I am innocent , surely , his anger shall turn from me . What followeth ? Behold I will plead with thee , because thou sayest , I have not sinned . So that the Lord is engaged so much the more , to plead His controversie against them ; and make them and the world both see , by sad effects , how guilty they have been . Also we see how the Lord justifieth His procedour with this same People by Ezekiel Chap. 11. throughout : they would say , that all these calamities , which they did meet with , and were yet to meet with , came not on them for their own sins , but for their Fathers sins ; their Fathers ( said they ) had eaten sowre grapes , and their teeth was set on edge ; and therefore they concluded , that the way of the Lord was not equal : but the Lord , in that Chapter , is vindicating Himself , and evinceing that they were as guilty , as their Fathers , & did tread in their Fathers footsteps , approving all that their Fathers did ; and therefore could not plead innocent . See likewise Ezek. 33 : 11 , to 20. 12. When People will go on in their wickedness , and shelter themselves under an outward Profession of Religion and Piety ; then it is to be feared , that God shall vindicat His Name and His Glory , in the sight of the Nations , and make it appear that His outward worship and service shall be a scug to no profane Person : For this was also the sin of this People Jer. 7 : 3 , 4. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts , the God of Israel , amend your wayes and your doings , and I Will cause you to dwell in this place : Trust ye not in lying words , saying , the Temple of the Lord , the Temple of the Lord , the Temple of the Lord are these . Because they had the Temple among them , they thought all should be well , and they should never be ruined , do what they pleased : But the Lord , in the following Verses , manifesteth that all that should no more save them , than it saved Shiloh ; and then addeth Vers 15 , 16. And I will cast you out of my sight , as I have cast out all your Brethren , the whole Seed os Ephraim . Therefore pray not thou for this People &c. So saith the Lord by Esaias Ch. 1 : 11 , &c. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices &c. The Lord cared for none of these things , when their outward walk was not answerable to their profession ; He would not hear their Prayers Vers 15. So Esai . 66 : 3 , 4. He thereupon threatened to choose their delusions , as they had chosen their own wayes , and that in which He delighted not . See also Amos 5 : 21 to 23. Micah laith his to the charge of this same People . Chap. 3 : 11. The heads thereof judge for reward , and the Priests thereof teach for hire , and the Prophets thereof divine for money : Yet will they lean upon the Lord , and say , is not the Lord among us , none evil can come upon us , But what followeth upon this ? Vers 12. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field , and Jerusalem shall become heaps , and the mountaine of the House , as the high places of the forest . 13. When iniquity aboundeth particucularly amongst Church-men , who should both by their doctrine & example have reclamed the people from their sinful courses ; then the matter seemeth desperat , and God must be avenged on all together ; Hence we see this same people charged with this Jer. 2 : 8 , 9. The Priests said not , where is the Lord ? And they that handle the Law , knew me not : The Pastors also transgressed against me , and the Prophets Prophesied by Baal , & walked after things , that do not profite . Wherefore I will yet plead with you , saith the Lord , and with your Childrens Children will I plead . See also Ch. 6 : 14 , 15. and 8 : 11 , 12 , 13. There was falshood among the Priests and the Prophets , and they healed thehurt of the daughter of Gods People slightly , saying Peace , Peace , when there is no Peace : And therefore followeth Vers 13. I will surely consume them &c. So Ezek. 22 : 25 , 26. There is a conspiracy of her Prophets , in the midst thereof — they have devoured souls , her Priests have violated my Law , and have profaned my Holy things &c. Therefore ( as it followeth Vers 31. ) have I poured out mine indignation upon them , I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath ; their own way have I recompensed upon their heads , saith the Lord God. See also Hos. 4 : v. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. and 9 : vers 8. 14. When a People lay not God's controversie to heart , when He is pleading the same against them by lesser judgments ; nor are taking warning thereby , but notwithstanding thereof are going on in their sins ; then it is to be feared , that God shall once for all send a consuming stroke , that they shall not evite : for this was also the sin of this People , as we see Jer. 5 : 3. — Thou hast stricken them , but they have not grieved ; thou hast consumed them , but they have refused to receive correction : So Chap 2 : 30. and 12 : v. 11. Thus was it also with Israel Amos 4 : v. 6. and forward to the end : several particular judgments are there mentioned , but they wrought them not up unto a returning to the Lord vers 6 , 8 , 10 , 12. And then a nameless Judgment , or a Judgment without a parallel , a judgment that could not be expressed is threatned ; and they are bidden prepare for it vers 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee , O Israel ; & because I willd o thus unto thee , prepare to meet thy God , O Israel . See Amos 7. where also several Judgments are mentioned , but the Lord made not yet a full end : But at length vers 8. He saith , I will not againe passe by them , any more : And so againe Chap. 8 : 2. See likewise Zeph. 3 : 7. Esai . 1 : v : 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. 15. When oppression & injustice rageth among a people , then is there just ground to fear such an overflowing blow ; Violence was one of the sins , that brought ▪ on the floud on the old world Gen. 6 : 11 , 14. And for this sin , was Ierusalem threatned with destruction Esai . 1 : 21 , 23 , 24. How is the faithful city become an harlot ? — they judg not the fatherless , neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them . Therefore thus saith the Lord , the Lord of hosts , ah , I will ease me of mine adversaries , and avenge me of mine enemies . So Jer. 7 : 6. they were oppressing the stranger ▪ the fatherless and the widow , and shedding innocent blood : As also Jer. 22 : 17 18. And therefore are sore judgments threatned against their King Iohojakim vers 18 , 19. that he should be buried with the burial of an asse , drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Ierusalem . We see what was threatned against Israel Amos 2 : 6 , 7 , 8. For this sin , of selling the righteous for silver , and the poor for a pair of ●…hoes , for panting after the dust of the earth , on the head of the poor , turning aside the way of the meek , and laying themselves down upon cloths , laid in pledge , & drinking the wine of the condemned , in the house of their God. See also Amos 8 : 4 , 5 , 6. where this sin of unrighteousnese and oppression is charged upon them ; and then followeth vers 7. The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob , surely , I will never forget any of their works . 8. shall not the land ●…remble for this , & every one mourn that dwelleth therein ? &c. So Mic. 2 : 1 , 2. the like sin is charged upon that people ▪ and then it followeth V. 3. Therefore , thus saith the Lord , behold , against this family do I devise an evil , from which ye shall not remove your necks . And utter desolation is threatned v. 4 , 5. And v. 10. It is said Arise ye , & depairt ; for this is not your rest &c. See likewise Ch. 3 : 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. and againe v. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. Habbakuk also saw this sin in Judah Chap. 1 : 2 , 3 , 4. Violence , Iniquity , Grievance , Spoiling , Strife and Contention , no Judgment , but wrong Judgment : Therefore v. 5 , 6. &c. an incredible work of Judgment was to be wrought , and the Caldeans were to be sent against them . So was the like threatened by Zephaniah Ch. 1 : 3 , 7 , 9. for the same sin and 3 : v. 3. See Es. 5 : 23. to the end . 16. When people will not follow Gods way , and turne at His reproof , but go on in their sin ; and when evil cometh upon them , use carnal shifts to save themselves , and run to the arme of flesh ; then it is to be feared , that God's anger shall break-out and burn without remedie : For this was also the sin of Iudah , they would not turn to God , but trust in Egypt and Assyria , in their strait Ier. 2 : 8 , 9 , 36 , 37. So Es. 8 : 6 , 7 , 8. For as much as this people r●…fuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly , and rejoice in Rezin and in Remaliah's Son : Now therefore behold , the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river ●…rong and many , even the King of Assyria , — and he shall passe thorow Iudah , and shall overflow and go over &c. So Hos. 5 : 13 , v. 14. When Ephraim saw his sickness , & Iudah his wound ; then went Ephraim to the Ass●…rian — I will be unto Ephraim as a lion , and as an young Lion to the house of Iudah : I , I will tear and go away , I will take away , and none shall rescue . And againe Chap. 7 : 11 , 12. Ephraim also is like a silly dove , without heart ; they call to Egypt , they go to Assyria . When they shall go , I will spread my net upon them ; I will bring them down , as the fowls of the heaven : I will chastise them , as their congregation hath heard . And againe Ch. 8 : 8 , 9 , 10 ▪ Israel is swallowed-up , now shall they be among the Gentiles , as a vessel wherein is no pleasure : for they are gone up to Assyria . 17. When people , settling on their lees , grow secure , and carnally confident , as afraid of nothing , as if they were without the reach of God's hand , and all hazard ; then it is to be feared , that God shall make it appear , that He is stronger , than they : For this likewise was the sin of Iudah Ier. 21 : 13 , 14. Behold I am against thee , O Inhabitant of the valley , and rock of the plaine , saith the Lord , which say , who shall come down against us ? or who shall enter into our habitations ? But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings — and I will kindle a fire , in the forest thereof , and it shall devoure all things round about . This was also charged on Israel by Amos Chap. 6 : 13. Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought , which say , have we not taken to ourselves horns by our own strength ? For which cause see what followeth Vers 14. But behold I will raise up against you a nation , O ouse of Israel , saith the Lord the God of Hosts , and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath , unto the Ri●…er of the Wilderness . The like we finde Amos , 9 : 10 ▪ All the sinners of my People shall die by the Sword , which say , the evil shall not overtake , nor prevent us . See Ezek. 9 : 9 , 10. 18. When a People have followed these courses of sin , notwithstanding of many reiterated warnings and admonitions , given by the Lords Servants ; then it is to be feared , that God shall wait upon them with warnings no longer , but shall once for all send a devouring stroke , that they shall not with all their cries get prevented , nor taken off them ; according to that Prov. 29 : 1. He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck , shall suddainly be destroyed , and that without remedie . And that Prov. 1 : 2●… . to 31. Because I have called , and ye refuse●… &c. I also will laugh at your calamity , and mock when your fear cometh ; when your fear cometh as desolation , and your destruction cometh as a whirle winde — Then shall ye call upon me , but I will not answere &c. Thus was it with this People of Iudah , Jer. 7 : 13. And now because ye have done all these works , saith the Lord , and I spoke unto you , riseing up early and speaking , but ye heard not ; I called you , but ye answered not . Then it followeth Vers 14 , 15. Therefore will I do unto this House — as I have done to Shiloh . And I will cast you out of my sight , as I have cast out of my sight , all your Brethren , The whole Seed of Ephraim : And then He addeth Vers 16. Therefore pray not thou for this People . The same sin is againe charged upon them Vers 25 , 26 , 27 , 28. And then it followeth Vers 29. Cut off thine Hair , ô Jerusalem , and cast it away , and take up a lamentation ; for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath . So Jer. 25. vers 3. the Prophet tels them in the fourth Yeer of Je●…ojakim , that he had spoken unto them 23. Year , viz. from the 13. Year of J●…siah ; but in all vaine : and Vers 4. that the Lord had sent unto them all his servants the Prophets ; but all was in vaine Vers 7. Therefore sad judgments are threatened Vers 8 , 9 , 10 , 11. even utter desolation , and slavery under the King of Babylon full 70 Years Vers 12. See also Ch. 29 : 17 , 18 , 19. and 35 : 17. This was Israels sin also Hos. 5 : 2 , and 6 : 5 , 6 , 7. and 9 : 17. My God will cast them away , because they did not hearken unto Him : And they shall be wanderers among the Nations . 19. When People not only will not take warning ; but also tush at warnings ; then may they fear , that God shall be avenged upon them ; for thus was it with this People of Judah , Jer 5 : 11 , 12 , 13. For the House of Israel and the House of J●…dah have dealt very trecherously against me — They have belied the Lord , and said , It is not He , neither shall evil come upon us , neither shall we see sword , nor famine : And the Prophets shall become winde , and the word is not in them . Therefore is destruction by the Caldeans threatned , in the following Verses 14 , 15 , 16 , 17. See also Ier. 6 : 10 , 11 , 12. So Jer. 18 : v. 12 , 13. When the Lord threatned sad dayes to come upon them , all the use they made of it , was They said , there is no hop ; but we will walk after our own devices , and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart We know what that wicked King did with the roll of threatenings Ierem. 36. but see what followed thereupon Vers 30 , 31. andanother roll is written with additions Vers 32. 20. When People turn so impudent in their wayes , and so fixed in their sinful courses , that there is no moving of them by all the warnings that can be used ; nay , they become enraged at , and persecute such as do admonish them , or exhort them to amend ; then the case seemeth to be desperat , and their destruction must come : for thus was it with Judah 2 Chron. 36 : 15 , 16 : They mocked the Messengers of God , and misused His Prophets , until the Lord arose against his People , till there was no remedy . And what sufferings Jeremiah met with at their hands , for his faithfulness , his book telleth us Chapters 11 , and 26 , and 38. So was it with Israel Amos 5 : 10. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate , & they abhore him , that speaketh uprightly . See also Amos 7 : 10. to the end . Upon which followed Chapter 8 : v. 2. the end is come upon my People Israel , I will not againe passe by them any more . How much more may a People , or a generation , among whom not one , or two , or a few onely of those sins are to be found ; but all of them , fear , that such a stroke be coming , that no prayer or humane intercession shall avert ? The Lord tels us by Ezekiel Ch. 14. that when He breaketh the staff of bread , and sendeth famine , on a land , because of their trespassing grievously , though these three Men Noah , Daniel and Job were in it , they should deliver but their own souls Vers 13 , 14. And againe if He spoile the land by noisome beasts , though these three Men were in it , they should deliver neither Sons , nor Daughters &c. Vers 15 , 16. So when He bringeth a Sword upon the Land v. 17 , 18. or a Pestilence v. 19 , 20. And then addeth v. 21. How much more , when I send my foure sore judgments upon Ierusalem , the Sword and Famine , and the noisome Beasts , and the Pestil●…ce , to cu●…t off from it man and beast ? that is , how much more shall I go on and devoure ? And how much less shall they think to escape upon the Petitions of Noah , Daniel and Iob , or upon the account of their relations to them . So , if upon one , or two or a few of the forementioned sins , we finde , that God will bring upon a land inevitable judgments , and will not be stopped , in the execution , by the intercessions of Moses and Samuel ; how much more , may we suppose certainly and unavoidably shall judgment overtake a generation , that is guilty of all those twenty grievous iniquities ? From this matter all of us may learne these lessons . 1. To fear and tremble before this God ; seing He is so just and seyere a judge and Governour , and seing it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 2. To beware of abusing His Patience : for howbeit it may endure for sometime ; yet it will expire at length , as to its effects ; and abused longanimity will end in unavoidable ruine , and in inevitable strokes of Iustice. 3. All , whether Lands or particular Persons , who know themselves guilty of the evils mentioned , as causes procuring such inevitable rodes , should hast to break off these courses , that will , no doubt , hasten-on irremediable destruction : It were best to get out of the way of the wrath of God in time . If it be enquired , what the People of God are called to do , in such a day , when the place they live-in , is guilty of and continueing-in these grievous sins , and they can look for nothing but wrath to be poured-out ; so that no Prayer , Fasting , or Supplication shall hold it off ? For Answer , Let such minde those duties following , ▪ 1 Let them beware to seek great things for themfelves , Ier. 45. The Lord said to Baruch by the Prophet Ieremie vers 4 , 5. Behold , that which I have built , will I break down ; and that , which I have planted , will I pluck up , even this whole land : and seeke●… thou great things for thy self ? seek them not ; for behold I will bring evil upon all flesh , saith the Lord. Whence we see , that it becometh not the People of God , to be too much minding themselves , and their own things , in such a day ; but they ought to be very well satisfied , if the Lord give them their life for a prey : as He promised to Baruch . 2. They should stoup , and adore this God , who is just and righteous in all His wayes ; they should be silent before Him , and put their mouth in the dust : no quarrelsome thoughts should have place or room , in their hearts . Hold thy Peace saith Zephaniah Ch. 1 : 7. ) at the p●…esence of the Lord God , for the day of the Lord is at hand : For the Lord hath prepared a Sacrifice , He hath bid his guests &c. When the Lord is about to make a Sacrifice in a land , and to give the carcases of men to the fowls of the Heavens , and the beasts of the field ; all flesh should be silent , and His People especially should quiet themselves , and hold their peace before Him , without murmuring , or venting any discontentment , at the matter . 3. They should observe the glory of the Lord , shineing forth , in that remarkable Act of Holy Justice ; see His Majestie , Awfulness , Terrour , and just Severity , to the engaging of their hearts more unto Him , and to a glorying in Him. The black and dreadful day , that was to come upon Iudah , was mentioned , and several things held forth , to make it have a deeper impression Ier. 9 : and v. 22. it was said , that even the carcases of men shall fall , as dung upon the open field : And then it is added v. 23. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom &c. and Vers 24. But let him that glorieth , glory in this , that he understandeth and knoweth me , that I am the Lord , which exercise loving kindness , judgment and righteousness in the earth ; for in these things I delight , saith the Lord. To tell us , that in such a day especially , the Lords People should be taking a right view of God , that they may understand and know Him to be Jehovah & one that exerciseth judgment and righteousness in the earth ; and withall one , that even then , exerciseth loving kindness to His own ; and a God that delighteth in these exercises ; and that they should glory in Him , even in such a day , and delight in that wherein He delighteth . 4. They would do well to refuge themselves in time , in their chambers , and shut their doors about them , and hide themselves for a Little moment , until the indignation be over past : As it is Esai . 26 : 20. This is the Counsel of the Lord unto His people , in a time , when the Lord cometh out of His place , to punish the inhabitants of the earth , for their iniquity . v. 21. 5. They should rest satisfied , though their prayers , in behalfe of the land , have not that success and fruite , that they could have wished ; & that upon these grounds and considerations . ( 1. ) Out of that Dispensation , howbeit both black and terrible ; yet God will get glory , both of his Truth and Veracity , in his threatnings , at which the wicked tushed , & would give no credite to them ; which carriage could not but Afflict His people ; it could not but grieve themto see those wicked ones carry so atheistically , as contemning all the Denounciations of wrath ; but now when the day of execution is come , the Lord is seen to be a God of truth , and His people see then , whose word standeth , whether God's Word , or the word of those wicked sinners Ier. 44 : 28. And of His justice in pursueing evil doers , who said , by their doings , that He had forsaken the earth , or that He was not a God , that judgeth in the earth . So also of His Holiness , and Purity : For then it 's made manifest , that He is not , as they imagined , altogether such an one , as themselves ; but that He hateth all the Workers of iniquity . ( 2. ) God will have a care of them , even then , and be a little sanctuary unto them Ezek. 11 : v. 16. and cause all things work together for good to them Rom. 8 : v. 28. He will set a mark upon such , as sigh and cry for all the abominations , that are done , that the men with the slaughter weapon may not come nigh unto them Ezek. 9. ( 3. ) He will return their prayers into their own bosome againe ; so that they shall not fall to the ground Psalm 35. vers 15. ( 4. ) He will accept their prayer and intercession , as good service , off their Hand even though He think not good to grant the Particular , that they ask : And if they be accepted of Him , in that piece of service , it may suffice and satisfie . 6. They would do well to be sighing and crying for all the abominations , that are committed in the land ; to be keeping themselves free of that guilt , mourning over the same , protesting against it , abhorring the same ; that they may be preserved and protected in the day of God's contending , according to what we read Ezek. 9 : 4 , 6. 7. In the midst of all these desolations , and the effects of the Lords indignation , burning against a sinful generation , they are called to act faith , on God , as the true and faithful God , keeping mercy and covenant for ever , and to waite upon him , in faith , hoping and expecting with confidence , that He will carry on His work , and make His Kingdom come , and make all this contribute unto that end . We see what desolation Zephaniah is threatning against Ierusalem , and the rest of the Cities of Iudah for their great sins Cbap. 3. 1 , to 7. And thereafter Vers 8. he inferreth and presseth on them , that would minde the duty of the day , a waiting in Faith and Hop upon the Lord , saying , Therefore waite ye upon me , saith the Lord , until the day , that I rise up to the prey , &c. And then followeth Vers. 9 , 10. For then will I turn to the people a pure language , that they may call upon the Name of the Lord , to serve Him with one consent , from beyond the Rivers of Ethiopia , my suppliants , the Daughter of my dispersed , shall bring mine offering . They should wait in faith for the accomplishment of all the great and precious promises made to the Church , notwithstanding of all these sad interveening Dispensations . This was the resolution of the Prophet Esai Chap. 8. 17. in an evil day , when many should stumble , and fall , and be broken , and be snared and taken Vers 15. And I will ( said he ) wait upon the Lord , that hideth his face from the House of Iacob , and I will look for him . But it will be said , what shall the righteous do , in the day , when God is so angrie at the whole Land , that He will cut off the righteous with the wicked , and to this end shall draw His Sword forth out of His Sheath against all Flesh , from the South to the North , as it is Ezek. 21 : 3 , 4 , 5 ? For Answer , I grant such a dispensation may be expected , when all Flesh have corrupted their wayes , and even the righteous , who have not gone the length of others , in Defection and Apostasie , yet have not been valiant for the Lord , and for His oppressed truth , nor so faithful and zealous for the Lord of Hosts , in their Generation , as became them : It is then to be feared , that even many of them shall be sweeped away with the common calamity , as they have been in part tainted with the common sin , procuring it . And in that case , it is their part to minde these duties following . 1. To be preparing to meet the Lord , with ropes about their necks , acknowledging their sin , giving glory unto the Lord , as just and righteous , in proceeding thus against them with the rest : They should prepare to meet their God , thus coming in His holy displeasure , to glorifie His justice , as the Prophet adviseth Israel to do Amos 4 : 12. 2. They should be busie to get their peace made with God in time , through Jesus Christ , that when God shall get glory on their carcases , in the sight of others , they may get their souls for a prey : They should be mourning as doves in the valleyes , every one for his iniquity , that their sin may be blotted out , and their souls washen in the bloud of Iesus . 3. They should be amending , through the help of the Lord , what hath been amisse , and seeking to Him , and seeking righteousness , & meekness , upon a may be of being hid , in the day of the Lords anger , this is the exhortation of Zephaniah Chap. 2 : 3. Even to the Godly , Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the earth , which have wrought his judgment , seek righteousness , seek meekness , it may be ye shall be hid , in the day of the Lords anger . 4. If they should not be hid , but the judgment should overtake them , as well as others , then let them sweetly submit , and lye under the rod , and humble themselves under the mighty Hand of God , Iam. 4 : 10. 1 Pet. 5 : 6. and say , with good old Eli , when sad things were denounced against his house ; and it was told him , that God would judge his house forever , and that the Lord had sworn unto the house of Eli , that the iniquity thereof should not be purged with Sacrifice , nor offering for ever . It is the Lord , let Him do what seemeth Him good , 1 Sam. 3. 12 , 13 , 14 , 18. He saw it was Jehovah , who could do no wrong ; and therefore he was quiet , and acquiesced to all , that He would do , how sad so ever it was : He saw Him the righteous Governour and Iudge , and said , His holy Will be done . 5. They should accept of this punishment of their iniquity Levit. 26 : ver . 41. giving Glory to Gods Iustice , and have a complacency ( for so the word will import ) in that stroke , as being a stroke of Iustice , and a stroke , whereby God will be glorified in His Iustice , Righteousness and holy Severity : Thus should they kisse the rod , and contentedly welcome the Sword of Justice , and kisse its point , when pierceing their heart , because of their sins . 6. Thus should they say with good Hezekiah , when sad things were denounced against his Family , Esai 39 : vers 6 , 7. Good is the Word of the Lord. Vers 8. It is Iehovah's Word , I have nothing to say against it ; holy and righteous is He , and his Judgments are righteous , His Threatnings are good : And thus should they with the Church , Micah 7 : vers 9. Bear the Indignation of the Lord , because they have finned against Him. AMEN . A TABLE Of the CONTENTS . THE Introduction . Pag. 1. Seven Considerations handled at more length in the first Part , briefly resumed . Pag. 2 , 3 , 4. Consid. VIII . It is the decreed will of God. Pag. 5. How trouble is decreed of God , in Seven Particulars . 8 , to 13. How the Consideration of this calmeth the heart , in Six cases . 15. to 23. How it helpeth under affliction , in Eight particulars . 23 , to 27. How this Consideration is set home , in Three particulars . 28 , to 32. Consid. IX . It is the commanding Will of God. 32. That suffering sometimes is the Will of God , cleared in 8. particulars . 34 , to 37. The season , wherein People are called to suffer , cleared 37 , to 39. How we shall know , if we be called to suffer . 39 , to 52. How this Consideration is to be improved in 10. particulars . 52 , to 61. Consid. X. God overruleth afflictions . 62. God hath an hand in Afflictions , cleared from 6. Grounds . 64 , to 71. The way hereof , cleared in 14. particulars . 71 , to 82. How this Consideration should be improven in 8. particulars . 83 , to 101. Consid. XI . Christ himself had a suffering life . 102 Twelve particulars , concerning Christ ' sufferings considerable . 104 , to 113. How this is to be improved in 7. particulars . 114 , to 125. Consid. XII . Our sufferings not comparable to Christs . 127. The disproportion cleared in 6. particulars . 127 , to 133. How this is to be improved in 7. particulars . 134 , to 138. Consid. XIII . Sufferings the lot of the Church . 140 Ten particulars , concerning the sufferings of the Church , considerable 141 , to 146. How this ought to be improved in reference to the Church . 147 , to 152. How in reference to our selves in 6. particulars . 152 , to 154 , Consid. XIV . Other beleevers have been afflicted . 145 Six particulars to be considered by such as are afflicted . 156 , to 159. Ten particulars , wherein , possibly , others have suffered more than we . 159 , to 170. How little ground of complaint , if all were known , cleared in 5. particulars . 170 , to 173. How the example of others should be improved in 8. particulars . 173 , to 176. Consid. XV. Suffering is Gods Gift . 177. That suffering is Gods Gift . 178 , 179. Right suffering is Gods Gift , cleared in 12. particulars . 180 , to 187. This Gift is purchased by Christ. 187. How this gift is beyond the gift of Faith , cleared in 10. particulars . 188 , to 192. Five evils that this Consideration would help . 194 , to 198. This Consideration informes us of 3. particulars . 199 , 200. And calleth for 4. Duties in general . 200 , 201. And for 5. other Duties more particularly . 202 , to 204. How comfortable it is in 7. particulars . 204 , to 207. Consid. XVI . The Sufferings of Christs Servants are for the good of the Church . 208. Six advantages , which the Church reapeth by such Afflictions . 210 , to 215. How this is to be improved in 3. particulars . 216 , to 218. Consid. XVII . The Lord reigneth in Zion . 219. How Christ reigneth , cleared in 14. particulars . 220 , to 228. Twelve Conclusions drawn therefrom . 229 , to 240. Consid. XVIII . The time of Affliction is but short . 241. How the Scriptures express this shortness in 11. particul . 242 , to 248. An Objection answered by 8. particulars . 246 , to 256. How this is to be improved in 7. particulars . 257 , to 261. Consid. XIX . Remember Peter's Fall. 262. Three things good and imitable in Peter . 264 , 265. Three things wrong , and to be shunned by us . 265 , to 268. Twelue useful Lessons drawn from this Passage . 269 , to 279. Consid. XX. Gods way of delivering his People is oft hid and Mysterious . 280. Various hidings of God. 280. Various Effects of this hiding . 281. What is the hiding mentioned Esai 45 : v. 15. 282 , 283. Ten things considerable in the Prophet's frame . 284 , to 294. Singular steps of Majesty sometimes to be seen in Gods Deliveries . 296. This cleared in 12. partic . 299 , to 316. Four Reasons of the Lords taking this way , in reference to Himself . 319 , to 322. Six Reasons of this , in reference to Enemies . 324 , to 328. Two maine ends of this , in reference to his own People . 329 , to 334. Six particulars , which this dispensation calleth for , at the Hands of Gods People . 335 , to 339. Three things observable from the Prophets seeing God , even then , to be the God of Israel . 340 , &c. First , That Gods dark dispensations alter not His Relations . 340 , &c. This improved in 4. partic . 346 , to 350. Secondly , God may be seen , when hiding Himself , and how . 350 , to 353. How this should be improved in 4. particulars . 353 , to 355. Thirdly , That when God hideth Himself , his People should assert His relation to them , and expect He will answer His relation , both cleared in several particulars . 356 , to 358. Six duties then to be minded . 359 , to 361. Two other particulars in the Text cleared . 361 , to 363. Consid. XXI . No man can make straight , what God hath made crooked . 364. Eight crooked things , which are more controverted . 368 , to 377 Six other things in the Lords Dispensations , which seem crooked . 377 , to 382. Eight particulars about the Church , which seem crooked to us . 383 , to 385. Eight other particulars , about privat beleevers , that seem crooked . 386 , 387. How these cannot be made streight . 389. When we foolishly seek to make streight what God hath made crooked , in 10. particulars . 392 , to 398. Eight aggravations of this evil . 398 , to 401. Eight wayes of considering the works of the Lord aright , 403 , to 412. Consid. XXII . Iudgment on a Land sometime is not to be held off by Prayer . 413. The matter cleared from Ierem. 15 : ver . 1. 413 , to 416. How sad this is , cleared from 8. particulars . 417 , to 421. When such an inevitable stroke is to be feared , cleared in 20. partic . 423 , to 453. How this should be improved , in several particulars . 456 , &c. What should satisfie the Godly , in this case , when their prayers are not heard , in 4. particulars . 458 What the Godly should do , when God is about to cut off the Righteous with the wicked , cleared in 6. particulars . 462 FINIS . ERRATA . PAg. 51. lin . 14. wong . r. wrong . p. 54. l. 2. their . r. his . p. 65. l. 21. maice . r. malice . p. 87. l. 25. art . r. are . p. 97. l. antep . & penult . ordereth . p. 117. l. 20. fragrant . p. 118. l. 128. put to the. p. 141. l. ult . Seventy . p. 197. l. 4. aer . r. are . p. 217. l. 17. becometh . l. 18. become . p. 226. l. 21. treasures . p. 255. l. 11. woman . p. 264. l. 10. this r. his . p. 305. l. 9. Crus r. Cyrus . p. 320. l. penult . there r. there ; p. 328. l. 9. them ore r. the more . p. 358. l. 10. noly r. only . p. 422. l. 25. after People adde , were guilty . p. 429. l. ult . r. served . 
A09950	----	The breast-plate of faith and love. A treatise, wherein the ground and exercise of faith and love, as they are set upon Christ their object, and as they are expressed in good workes, is explained. / Delivered in 18 sermons upon three severall texts, by the late faithfull and worthy minister of Iesus Christ, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to his Maiesty, Master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne. Preston, John, 1587-1628. 1630 Approx. 952 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 303 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A09950 STC 20208 ESTC S105956 44920396 ocm 44920396 6279 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A09950) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 6279) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1330:1 or 2101:11) The breast-plate of faith and love. A treatise, wherein the ground and exercise of faith and love, as they are set upon Christ their object, and as they are expressed in good workes, is explained. / Delivered in 18 sermons upon three severall texts, by the late faithfull and worthy minister of Iesus Christ, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to his Maiesty, Master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne. Preston, John, 1587-1628. Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635, ed. Davenport, John, 1597-1670, ed. [12], 138, 200, 219 [i.e. 216], 216, [18] p. Printed by W. I[ones] for Nicolas Bourne, and are to be solde at the South Entrance of the Royall Exchange, London, : 1630. Includes index. Dedication signed by the editors, Richardvs Sibs. Iohannes Davenport. First and third parts ("Of faith" and "Of love") have caption titles; second part, "A treatise of effectuall faith" has separate t.-p. Errata: p. [18] at end. Title within ornamental border (McK. & Ferg. 275). Identified as STC 20208a on reel 1330. Reproduction of originals in: Dr. Williams's Library and the Bodleian Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Faith -- Early works to 1800. Love (Theology) -- Early works to 1800. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2002-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2002-12 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-01 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2003-01 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE BREAST-PLATE OF FAITH AND LOVE . A Treatise , Wherein the ground and exercise of FAITH and LOVE , as they are set upon Christ their Object , and as they are expressed in Good Workes , is explained . Delivered In 18. Sermons upon three severall Texts , By the late faithfull and worthy Minister of Iesus Christ , IOHN PRESTON , Dr. in Divinity , Chaplaine in ordinary to his Maiesty , Master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge , and sometimes Preacher of Lincolnes Inne . But let us who are of the day be sober , putting on the breastplate of Faith and Love , 1 Thes 5.8 . What will it profit , my Brethren , if a man say he have faith , and hath not workes ? Can faith save him ? Iames 2.14 . LONDON , Printed by W. I. for Nicolas Bourne , and are to be solde at the South Entrance of the Royall Exchange . 1630 ILLVSTRISSIMO , NOBILISSIMOQVE VIRO , ROBERTO COMITI WARVVICENCI , IOHANNIS PRESTONI S. T. D. ET COLLEGII IMMANVELIS Q. MAGISTRI ( CVIVS TVTELAE , DVM IN VIVIS ESSET , PRIMOGENITVM SVVM , IN DISCIPLINAM , ET LITERIS EXPOLIENDVM , TRADIDIT ) POSTHVMORVM TRACTATVVM PARTEM , DE NATVRA FIDEI , EIVSQVE EFFICACIA , DEQVE AMORE , ET OPERIBVS BONIS , DEVOTISSIMI , TAM AVTHORIS , DVM VIVERET , QVAM IPSORVM QVI SVPERSVNT , OBSEQVII TESTIMONIVM M. D. D. D. RICHARDVS SIBS . IOHANNES DAVENPORT . To the Christian Reader . Christian Reader , INnumerable are the sleights of Satan , to hinder a Christian in his course towards Heaven , by exciting the corruption of his own heart to disturbe him , when he is about to doe any good ; or by discouraging him with inward terrours , when he would solace himselfe with heavenly comforts ; or by disheartening him under the feares of sufferings , when hee should be resolute in a good cause . A type whereof were the Israelites , whose servitude was redoubled , when they turned themselves to forsake Aegypt : Wherefore we have much neede of Christian fortitude , according to that direction ; Watch ye , stand fast , quit your selves like men : especially since Satan , like a Serpentine Crocodile pursued , is by resistance put to flight . But , as in warres , ( which the Philistines knew well in putting their hope in Goliah ) the chiefe strength of the Souldiers lyeth in their Captaine , so in spirituall conflicts , all a Christians strength is in Christ , and from him . For , before our conversion , we were of no strength : since our conversion , we are not sufficient of our selves to think a good thought . And , to worke out from the Saints all selfe-confidence , God , by their falls teacheth them , To rejoyce in the Lord Iesus , and to have no confidence in the flesh . Whatsoever Christ hath for us is made ours by Faith , which is the hand of the soule enriching it by receiving Christ , who is the treasure hid in the field , and with him , those unsearchable riches of grace , which are revealed and offered in the Gospell : Yea it is part of our spirituall armour . That which was fabulously spoken of the race of Gyants , is truly said of a Christian , hee is borne with his armour upon him ; as soone as hee is regenerate hee is armed . It s called a Breast-plate , because it preserves the heart , a long , large shield , ( as the word signifieth ) which is usefull to defend the whole man from all sorts of assaults : Which part of spirituall armor , and how it is to be managed , is declared in the former part of the ensuing Treatise , in ten Sermons . Now , as all rivers returne into the sea , whence they came , so the beleeving soule , having received all from Christ , returneth all to Christ. For thus the beleever reasoneth . Was Gods undeserved , unexpected love such to me , that he spared not his onely begotten Sonne , but gave him to die for mee ? It s but aequall that I should live to him , die for him , bring in my strength , time , gifts , liberty , all that I have , all that I am , in his service , to his glory . That affection , whence these resolutions arise , is called Love , which so inclineth the soule , that it moveth in a direct line towards that obiect , wherein it expecteth contentment . The soule is miserably deluded in pursuing the winde , and in taking ayme at a flying fowle , whilest it seekes happinesse in any creature : which appeares in the restlesnesse of those irregular agitations , and endlesse motions of the mindes of ambitious , voluptuous and covetous persons , whose frame of spirit is like the lower part of the elementary region , the seate of windes , tempests and earthquakes , full of unquietnesse ; whilest the beleevers soule , like that part towards heaven , which is alwayes peaceable and still , enioyeth true rest and ioy . And indeed the perfection of our spirits cannot be but in union with the chiefe of spirits , which communicateth his goodnesse to the creature according to its capacity . This affection of Love , as it reflecteth upon Christ , being a fruit and effect of his love to us apprehended by faith , is the subiect of the second part of the following Treatise in 7. Sermons . The iudicious Authour out of a piercing insight into the methods of the Tempter , knowing upon what rockes the faith of many suffers shipwracke ; that neither the weak Christian might lose the comfort of his faith , through want of evidences , nor the presumptuous rest upon a fancy in stead of faith , nor the adversaries be emboldened to cast upon us , by reason of this doctrine of Iustification by faith onely , their wonted nicknames of Soli-fidians , and Nulli-fidians ; throughout the whole Treatise , and more especially in the last Sermon , he discourseth of good Workes , as they arise from faith and love . This is the summe of the faithfull and fruitfull labours of this Reverend , learned and godly Minister of the Gospell , who whilest he lived was an example of the life of faith and love , and of good workes , to so many as were acquainted with his aequall and even walking in the wayes of God , in the severall turnings and occasions of his life . But it will be too much iniury to the godly Reader to be detained longer in the porch . Wee now dismisse thee to the reading of this profitable worke , beseeching God to increase faith , and to perfect love in thy heart , that thou maist be fruitfull in good workes . Thine in our Lord Iesus Christ , RICHARD SIBS . IOHN DAVENPORT . OF FAITH . The first Sermon . ROM . 1.17 . For by it the righteousnesse of God is reuealed from Faith to Faith : As it is written , The iust shall liue by Faith. IN the words I haue read vnto you , Paul tels them that he is not ashamed of the Gospell of CHRIST . For it was a shame to him , partly , because the very substance of the Gospell was then persecution ; and partly , because he was plaine in speech ; hee came not with excellency of words , or mans wisedome ; and therefore you may obserue what adoe he had to defend himselfe in his Epistles to the Corinthians , a wise people , who partly hated , and partly despised his manner of deliuery : but , saith hee , I am not ashamed of it , for it is the power of God to saluation : it is that which , being receiued , will bring men to heauen ; being rejected , will shut men vp in Hell ; and therefore it is of no small moment . He giues a reason in these words , why it is the power of GOD to saluation : For , saith he , by it the righteousnesse of God is reuealed . That is , the righteousnesse which is of GOD , which only GOD accepts , and by which alone men can be saued , is reuealed by the Gospell , and no other way . But to what purpose is this reuealed , if I know not how to come by it ? Many things are reuealed , but how shall I know that they are mine ? Therefore he addes , it is the power of God to saluation , to euery one that beleeues . As it is reuealed by the Gospell , so something is to be done on our part ; as GOD manifests it , exposes it , and layes it open , so you must receiue it by faith . I , but I haue not so strong a faith , I cannot beleeue as I would , and as I should . Sayes he , Faith hath degrees , it is reuealed from faith to faith . That is , one receiues it in one degree , and the same afterward receiues it in a greater degree , and so forward . All are alike iustified , but there is difference in Faith , some is stronger , some is weaker , which I will afterward shew at large . The point to be gathered out of these words is this : That Righteousnesse by which alone we can be saued now in the time of the Gospell , is reuealed and offered to all that will take it . When you heare this , it may be , at the very reading , you may not haue such a conceit of the thi●g as you should haue : but it is not a matter of light moment , but an exceeding great thing to see the righteousnesse of GOD reuealed . It is the great , glorious mysterie of the Gospell , which the Angels desire to pry into , which made Paul in his Ministery so glorious , which swallowed vp his thoughts , that he could not tell how to expresse it : that now in this last Age , Christ hath reuealed through vs the vnsearchable Riches of his Grace , that is , Riches which I know not how to expresse . Therefore hee prayes that God would open their eyes , that they might comprehend with all the Saints , the height , and length , and breadth of that Redemption , which Christ hath wrought for them . It is past a full comprehension , yet he prayes that they may comprehend it in such a measure as is possible , though there is a height , and breadth , and depth therein , which could not be measured . And this is it that is reuealed to the soules of men , the scaping of Hell and death , this free accesse to the Throne of Grace , which none before had ; this liberty to be made sonnes of GOD , an heyres of heauen , yea , Kings and Priests to GOD , and making good of all promises , and the entayling of them to our posterity , and making them Yea and Amen . All this , I say , is now reuealed , which before was not . 2. It is said to bee reuealed , ( marke that ) partly , because this of all other things was neuer written in the hearts of men . The Morall Law was written therein , but they had not the least inckling , the least creuice of light to see this ; partly , because it is now opened in a larger measure then it was heretofore , in the times of the Prophets : the doore was a little open before , but now it is wide open , and nothing is hid from the soules of men , that is necessary for them to know . Againe , it is reuealed not onely in regard of the Preachers that make it knowne , but likewise in regard of them that heare it : for there is a greater measure of the Spirit of Reuelation dispensed vnder the Gospell . Therefore , Eph. 1.18 . the Apostle prayes that the eyes of their vnderstanding might be opened , that they might know what is the hope of their Calling , and the riches of his glorious inheritance in the Saints . For what is it to haue a light shining , if their eyes be shut to whom it shines ? So the thing reuealed is the Righteousnesse of God. And lastly , it is that Righteousnesse , by which alone men can be saued . This is the maine point , which that you may vnderstand , I will open , by answering these 6. Questions . 1. How this righteousnesse of GOD , or , which is accepted of GOD , saues . 2. How it is offered to vs. 3. To whom it is offered . 4. Vpon what qualifications . 5. How it is made ours . And lastly , What is required of vs , when we haue it . These hang one on another , but for memory sake I haue thus distinguished them . First : How doth it saue ? I answer : 1. This righteousnes saues after the same manner that the vnrighteousnesse of Adam did condemne : let vs set these two together , and the thing will be plaine . First , as Adam was one man , yet the common roote of all mankinde , of whom all that are guilty of death , and shall be damned , must be borne : so CHRIST , the second Adam , stands as a publike person , and the Root of all that shall be ingrafted into , and borne of him . Secondly , as Adams first vnrighteousnes , the first sinne he committed , is communicated to men , and made theirs by imputation ; and not so onely , but by inherencie also ; ( for it hath bred in them originall sinne : ) After the same manner , and by the same equity , the righteousnesse that Christ wrought , is made ours by imputation , and this imputatiue righteousnesse of Christ worketh a righteousnesse which qualifies the person , and is inherent in vs. Lastly , as after this vnrighteousnes comes death , which rules and raignes in vs , bringing euery thing into subjection , so that all the comforts men possesse are ouercome in some degree , while we liue here ; ( all sicknesses , and troubles , and crosses , being as so many skirmishes which Death hath with vs , before the maine Battell comes : ) So in CHRIST life raignes ouer all , and brings all into subjection to him : that is , it brings all the troubles man sustaineth , all the enemies he hath , yea death and sinne into subjection , by degrees in this life , and after death perfectly . There is a comparison made in Rom. 5.14 . which you shall finde more fully to expresse , and more largely to set this out then I haue done . The first Adam was a figure of him that was to come , and 1 Cor. 15.45 . CHRIST is called the second Adam ; now you doe see the miserable fruit of Adams fall , you see by lamentable experience , what originall sinne is , and how much it hath corrupted vs ; why then should you thinke it a strange thing , that the righteousnesse of CHRIST should be imputed ? Againe , Death , you see , raignes ouer all by one , Why then will not you beleeue that life shall reigne ouer all men , that is , bring euery enemy of ours into subjection by the other ? For the righteousnesse of one saues , as the vnrighteousnesse of the other condemnes . Another expression I finde in 2 Cor. 5.21 . As CHRIST was made sinne for vs , who knew no sinne , so are we made the righteousnesse of God in him . That is , though CHRIST was a man without sinne in himselfe , yet our sinne was imputed to him , and hee was by GOD reckoned as a sinner ; and then he kils him , putting our curse vpon him : so to vs that are free from righteousnesse , CHRIST is made righteousnesse , so that GOD lookes on vs as if wee had performed perfect righteousnesse , and when that is done , he saues vs. And so much for the first Question . But now when we heare that this righteousnesse saues , the Question is , How shall wee come by it ? In that it saues , it is good and comfortable , but it may saue some men , and yet I haue no share nor part in saluation ? I answer , It is freely giuen to vs , euen as Fathers giue Lands and Inheritances to their children , and as Kings giue Pardons and Titles , and Honours , and Riches , out of their clemencie , because they will , to shew their magnificence , and goodnesse to their Subjects ; So doth GOD giue this righteousnesse . As you shall finde it expressed , Esay 9.6 . To vs a Childe is borne , to vs a Sonne is giuen : a place worth your marking and obseruation . And Iohn 3.16 . GOD so loued the World , that he gaue his onely begotten Sonne , &c. And Rom. 5.17 . it is called the Gift of Righteousnesse . That is , a thing which GOD freely , simply , voluntarily , and onely because hee will , bestowes on men , not looking on any worthinesse in them of the same : ( as we say , nothing is so free as gift . ) The passage is this : For , if through the offence of one , Death raigned in all , much more they which receiue abundance of grace , and the gift of righteousnes , shal raign in life by one Iesus Christ. So that GOD giues it freely out of his meere loue , without any other motiue or end , but to shew his magnificence , and to make manifest in the Ages to come , the vnsearchable riches of CHRIST , the great and exceeding glorious riches that he hath prouided for them that loue him . But what is the reason that God will haue it communicated to the sonnes of men no other way but by gift ? You shall see it , Rom. 4.5 . that it is for these causes : First , That no man might boast in himselfe , but that he that reioyceth may reioyce in the Lord. If any other bargaine or manner of conueyance had beene made , wee should haue had something to boast of , but comming meerely from God as a gift , we haue cause to glory in God , and nothing else . Againe , it is a gift , that men may learne to depend vpon GOD for it : GOD will haue no man challenge it as due ; for it is a meere Grace . Lastly , it is a gift , that it may be sure to all the seede . If there had been any thing required at our hands , This doe , fulfill this Law , and you shall haue this righteousnesse , it had not beene sure , nay none had beene saued : for by the Law is transgression and wrath , but being by gift , it is firme and sure to all the seed : for when a thing is freely giuen , and nothing expected , but taking it , and thanksgiuing for it , what is more sure ? But , when you heare this righteousnesse is giuen , the next Question will be , To whom is it giuen ? If it be onely giuen to some , what comfort is this to me ? But ( which is the ground of all comfort ) it is giuen to euery man , there is not a man excepted ; for which we haue the sure Word of GOD , which will not faile . When you haue the Charter of a King well confirmed , you reckon it of great moment . What is it then , when you haue the Charter of GOD himselfe ? which you shall euidently see in these two places , Mark. vlt. 15. Goe and preach the Gospell to euery creature vnder Heauen : What is that ? Go and tell euery man without exception , that there is good newes for him , Christ is dead for him , and if he will take him , and accept of his righteousnesse , he shall haue it ; restraine it not , but go and tel euery man vnder haeuen . The other Text is Reu. vlt. Whosoeuer will , let him come , and take of the waters of life freely . There is a guicunque vult , whosoeuer will come , ( none excepted ) may haue life , and it shall cost him nothing . Many other places of Scripture there be , to proue the generality of the offer : and hauing a sure Word for it , consider it . But if it be objected , It is giuen only to the Elect , and therefore not to euery man. I answer , when we haue a sure word that it is giuen to euery man vnder Heauen , without any restraint at all , why should any except himselfe ? Indeed when Christ was offered , freely to euery man , and one receiued him , another reiected him , then the Mystery of Election and reprobation was reuealed ; the reason why some receiued him being , because GOD gaue them a heart , which to the rest hee gaue not ; but , in point of offering of Christ , we must be general without hauing respect to Election . For otherwise the Elect of CHRIST should haue no ground for their faith , none knowing he is elected vntill he hath beleeued and repented . But Christs righteousnesse being offered to men in state of vnregeneration , How shall I know it belongs to me ? There is no other ground but this Syllogisme . This righteousnes belongs to euery man that beleeues : but I beleeue , therefore it belongs to me . Therefore , though it be applyed onely to the beleeuers , yet it must be offered to euery man. Againe , we are bound to beleeue that the thing is true , before we can beleeue our share in it ; we doe not therefore make it true because we beleeue ; but our beleeuing presupposeth the object of our Faith , which is this , that CHRIST is giuen : now the very beleeuing doth not cause Christ to be giuen ; but he is giuen , and therefore we beleeue . In all actions the object is in order of nature before the action it selfe ; my beliefe makes not a thing true , but it is true in it selfe , and therefore I beleeue it . It being true that CHRIST is offered to all men , therefore I beleeue that I am reconciled and adopted , and that my sinnes are forgiuen . Againe , if he should not be offered to euery man , we could not say to euery man , if thou dost beleeue thou shalt be saued ; but this we may say to all , euen to Iudas , if thou beleeuest , Iudas , thou shalt be saued . Againe , if it were not offered to all , then wicked men should bee excluded as much as the Deuils ; but Christ tooke their nature on him , therfore it is possible for them , if they beleeue , to be saued . But how differs this from the doctrine of the Aduersaries ; for they also say that Christ is offered equally to all : I answer , In 2 respects : ( not to run through all ) The first is this , We say , Though CHRIST be offered , and freely giuen to all , yet GOD intends him onely to the Elect. They say , His intention is the same to all , to Iudas as to Peter . The other is , They affirme , that as CHRIST is offered to all men , so all men haue sufficient grace to receiue him , there is an ability by that aswell as a freedom , and vniuersality in the offer . This we altogether deny . Though Christ be giuen to all , yet the gift of faith is a fruit of Election . God giues faith and repentance , and ability to receiue him , where hee pleaseth . The gate is open to all , we shut out none ; but none will come in , but those whom GOD inables . A Pardon may be offered to all , and yet none accept it , but those whose mindes GOD hath inclined . Therefore that he is offered to all it is without question . They that question it , doe it because they doe not vnderstand the Doctrine of our Diuines ; for we propound it no otherwise in substance then they doe , only we differ in the method : but it will be your wisdome to looke to that which will be of vse , and yeeld comfort when you come to dye . As this you may build on , The Gospel is preached to euery creature vnder heauen , & therefore I haue my share in it . If a Pardon be offered to some , whose names alone are inserted therein , you cannot say on any good ground , I I am pardoned : but when the Pardon is generall , and offered to all , then I can beleeue the Pardon belongs to me . Were it onely to the Elect , whose names are written in the pardon , we should first enquire whether we be elect or no , but that 's not the method . Build you on the sure promise , they that are pardoned , shall take hold of it , they that take not hold of it , shall be excluded . The next thing a man will desire to know , is this . What qualifications are expected ? Doth not GOD require to finde something in vs , if he giue it vs ? I answer , that it is offered to all , and no qualification at all is required as praeexistent to be found in vs , but any may come and take it . GOD requires no qualification as concerning our sinnes ; he saith not , you shall be pardoned , so your sinnes be of such a number , or of such a nature , but though they be neuer so many , though of neuer so extraordinary a nature , though they may be aggrauated with all the circumstances that can be , yet there is no exception at all of you , the pardon runnes in generall termes , This is the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the world . And seeing it is in generall termes , why will you interline and restraine it ? You see it runnes in generall , and so you may take it . And as it is propounded generally , so is it generally executed : 1 Cor. 6.9 . you shall finde , the greatest sinnes that can bee named are there pardoned : Be not deceiued , you know how no fornicator , nor adulterer , nor vncleane person , &c. shall enter into the Kingdome of God , and such were some of you : but now you are iustified , now you are sanctified , now you are washed . Though they had committed the greatest sinnes , you see , it is generally executed , without exception . But there is another sort of qualification . Is there not something first to bee done ? I know , that though I haue committed all the sinnes of the world , yet they shall not prejudice my pardon ; but I must doe something to qualifie mee for it . No , not any thing as antecedareous and precedent to the pardon ; it is onely required of thee to come with the hand of faith , and receiue it in the middest of all thy vnworthinesse , whatsoeuer it be , lay hold on the pardon , and embrace it , and it shall be thine . But you will object , then to what end is the Doctrine of humiliation ? to what end is the Law preached to be a Schoolmaster , if no qualification be required ? I answer , humiliation is not required as a qualification ; for no teares of ours can giue satisfaction . And againe , it hath beene found in a Reprobate ; For Iudas had it . Neither is it any part of sanctification . But how is it required then ? As that without which we will not come to CHRIST . As for example , If wee say to a man , The Physician is ready to heale you ; before you will be healed , you must haue a sense of your your sicknesse : this sence is not required by the Physician : ( for the Physician is ready to heale him ) but if hee be not sicke , and haue a sence of it , he will not come to the Physician . If at a generall Dole it be proclaimed , let all come hither that be hungry , a man is not excluded if hee be not hungry , but else he will not come : therefore we preach , that none receiue the Gospell but the poore , those that be humble , and touched with sence of sin and wrath ; and we preach so , because indeed no man will come without it . In the next place , the Question will bee , How this righteousnesse of CHRIST is made ours ; or , What is to be done of him to whom it belongs . To this I answer ; though no precedent qualification be required , yet this must be taken , a man must not reflect on himselfe , and consider , Am I worthy of it ? but he must take it as a Plaster , which if it be not applyed , will not heale ; or as meate , which if it be not eaten , doth not nourish . As the Husband wooes his Spouse , and sayes thus , I require nothing at thy hands , no condition at all , I doe not examine whether thou art wealthy , or no ; whether thou be faire , or no ; whether thou bee out of debt , or well conditioned , it is no matter what thou art , I require thee simply to take me for thy Husband . After this manner comes Christ to vs ; we must not say , Am I worthy to make a Spouse for Christ ? Am I fit to receiue so great mercies ? Thou art only to take him . When we exclude all conditions , wee exclude such a frame and habit of minde , which we thinke is necessarily required to make vs worthy to take him . As if a Physician come and offer thee a Medicine , by which thou maist be heal'd , and say , I require nothing at your hands , onely to drinke it , for else it will doe you no good : So GOD offers the righteousnesse of Christ , which is that that heales the soules of men ; GOD lookes for nothing at your hands , it matters not what your person is , onely you must take it . So you shall finde himselfe expressing it , Esay 55.1 . where he compares this to the offer of Wine and Milke : Come buy Wine and Milke without money . Let him that is athirst come , and hee that hath no money . As if he had said , it is freely offered , you are onely to take it . But , when you heare you must take it , the Question will be , What this taking is . I answer , This taking is nothing else but that which we call Faith : and therefore that we may not erre in the maine , I will declare what Faith is . And it is nothing else but this , when these two things concurre , that God the Father will giue his Sonne , and freely offers righteousnesse , and we receiue this rghteousnesse , taking Christ for our Husband , our King and Lord. But , you will say , Faith is more : for Fides est actus intellectus , It is an act of the vnderstanding , assenting to Truths for the Authority of the Speaker ; therefore the mind and will must concurre to make vp this Faith. For the better vnderstanding of it , marke this word , the righteousnesse of God is reuealed ; wherein is likewise implyed , ( though it bee not expressed ) that it is offered : for to what purpose , or what comfort is it to see that there is such a righteousnesse , if it be nothing to vs ? but it is so reuealed , that it is also offered . Now being both reuealed , and offered , you must finde something in men answerable to both these : to the reuelation of it the vnderstanding assenting to it as a Truth , that CHRIST is come in the flesh , and offered to all men . Againe , to answer to the matter of the offer , there is also an act of the will , whereby it comes in , and takes or embraceth this righteousnesse . Both these , 1 Tim. 1.15 . are put together , This is a faithfull saying , and worthy to be receiued , that Iesus Christ came into the world to saue sinners . It is true , saith the vnderstanding , and therefore that beleeues it ; but it is worthy to be receiued , saith the will , therfore that comes in , takes and accepts it . As in matter of marriage , If one come and tell a Woman , there is such a man in the world that is willing to bestow himselfe on you , if you will take him , and accept him for your husband : Now ( marke what it is that makes vp the marriage on her part : ) first she must beleeue that there is such a man , and that that man is willing to haue her , that this message is true , that it is brought from the man himselfe , and that it is nothing else but a true declaration of the mans minde . This is an act of her minde or vnderstanding : But will you take him , and accept of him for your Husband ? now comes the will , and the concurrence of these two makes vp the match . So wee come and tell you , There is such a one , the Messiah , that is willing to bestow himselfe on you ; If you beleeue that we deliuer the message from Christ , and doe consequently embrace and take him , now are you iustified , this is the very translation of you from death to life , at this very instant you are deliuered from Satan , possessed of a Kingdome , and saluation is come to your house . Now because this taking of CHRIST is the maine point which makes CHRIST ours , and the want whereof is the cause that euery man is condemned , ( it comming neerest to life and death ) that you may know what it is , we must tell you that this is required therein : First , there must not be Error personae , errour of the person . Secondly , you must vnderstand aright what this taking is . Thirdly , there must be a compleat deliberate will , which must concurre to this action of taking . These three being declared , we shall not easily be deceiued in it . First , when you heare of this righteousnes of CHRIST , and of its being made ours , you you must know , that first CHRIST himselfe is made ours , and then his righteousnesse , as first you must haue the Husband , and then the benefits that come by him . I say , take heede that there be not an errour of the person , that you mistake him not . And this excludes all ignorant men , that take not Christ indeed , but onely in their owne fancie . Therefore when you come to make this marriage , you must know that CHRIST is most holy , that he is also such a one as will bring persecution with him , as sayes of himselfe , that he knowes not where to lay his head , such a one as for whose sake you must part with euery thing ; such a one as is hated in the World , and for whose sake you must be hated : some would haue the man , but they know not the man , and so many thousands are deceiued , that are willing to take CHRIST , but they know not what they take , they vnderstand not Christ aright , there is an errour of the person , and so a misse of the match , and consequently of Justification : for , so as to make him their Lord , so as to be subiect to him , they take him not , they do not consider that he requires such and such things at their hands . Secondly , If there be no mistake of the person , yet what is this taking ? In marriage , there is a certaine forme to be obserued , and if that forme be mist of , there is a misse of the match . This taking therefore is nothing but this , So to take him , as to be diuorced from all other Louers ; so to serue him , as you serue no other Master ; so to bee subject to him , that you be subject to nothing in the World besides . This is properly to take CHRIST ; and this excludes the greatest part of men , they being ready to take Christ , but then they will loue the World too : but GOD tels them , that if they loue the World , the loue of the Father nor the Sonne is not in them . You must haue your affections weaned from euery kinde of vanity . Goe thorow the whole Vniuerse , looke on all the things that are , Riches , and Pleasures , and Honours , Wife , and Children , if your heart be not weaned from euery of them , you take him not as a Husband . Againe , others will serue CHRIST and their riches too , their credit too , their owne praise with men too ; but CHRIST tels them no man can serue both ; you must serue him alone , and be obedient to none but him : if you doe so , you take him for your Lord indeede . So many will be subject to him as a King , but they will bee subject to their lusts too ; if their lusts command them , they cannot deny them , some they will reserue ; and , you know , how many this excludes . Therefore you shall find that no man can take Christ and his wealth : you know , the young man was shut out , because he would not let goe his possessions , which he must part with , or else haue none of him . So , Ioh. 5.44 . If you receiue the praise of men , how can you beleeue ? That is , if you be not weaned and diuorced from all , you cannot beleeue . Though you be the off-scowring of men , though you bee mocked and scorned , it matters not ; but if you seeke the praise of men , you cannot beleeue . Where , by the way , you may marke something , and adde it to that I said before . What is the reason that the seeking praise of men should hinder from beleeuing ? Certainely , if Faith were onely an Act of the vnderstanding , assenting to the truth for the Authority of its Speaker , it would bee no hindrance or impediment to the act of the mind , in beleeuing that such a thing is true ; so that it must needs haue reference to the will. Therefore , saith CHRIST , While you seeke the praise of men , how can you beleeue ? That is , take me for your GOD and LORD whom you will serue altogether ? So that to take CHRIST with a iustifying faith , is nothing else but to receiue him , as it is expressed in many other places of Scripture : Ioh. 1.11 . Hee came vnto his owne , and his owne receiued him not ; but to as many as receiued him , he gaue power to become the sonnes of God , euen to them that beleeue on his Name . And so it is not ( as the Papists say ) a meere act of the vnderstanding , but a taking of him for your GOD , your Sauiour , to whom alone you will bee subject , and giue your selfe . Last of all ; When these two are done and effected , so that there is no errour either in the person or in the forme , there is yet one thing more remaines behinde , and that is , to take and accept him with a compleate , a deliberate , and true will. For , euen as in other matches , put the case the person bee knowne , and the forme duely obserued , yet if there does not concurre a compleat will , it is not properly a match : and therefore those matches are vnlawfull , which are made before yeeres of discretion , when a man hath not the vse of his will , or when a man is in a phrenzie , because there is then no compleat or deliberate will ; so in this spirituall Match , you shall see how many the want of such a will excludes . First , I say it must be compleat , which excludes all wishers and woulders , that prize CHRIST a little , that could bee content to haue CHRIST , but it is rather an inclination then a compleat will , that are in an Aequilibrio , that would haue CHRIST , but not yet ; that would liue a little longer at ease , and haue a little more wealth , but are not come to a resolute peremptory will , that haue onely a weake inclination , which is not enough : for in a match , the will must be compleate , and it 's needfull it should be so , it being a thing that must continue all a mans life . Againe , it must be a deliberate will ; and this excludes all those that will take CHRIST in a good moode , on some sudden flash , when they are affected at a good Sermon , and haue some good motions cast into their mindes , that will ( at such a time ) be content to take CHRIST , to serue him and obey him , to forsake their sinnes , and giue ouer their former lusts , but the will is not deliberate . Last of all , as it must be compleat and deliberate , so it must be a true will ; that is , it must be free ; and that excludes all them that meerely for seruile feare , at time of death , in the day of sicknesse and trouble , when Hell and Heauen are presented to them , will take CHRIST : Indeede you can scarce come to any , but , in such a case , hee will professe that he is now content to take CHRIST for his Lord and Sauionr ; but this is done by constraint , and so the will is not free . So I say , when all these concurre , the match is now made , and you are iustified . But after the match is made , something is required . Therefore there is one Question more : and that is , What is this that is required after the making of the match ? I answer , It is required that you loue your Husband , Iesus Christ , that you forsake Father and Mother , and become one Spirit with him , as you are one flesh with your Wife : for you are now bone of his bone , and flesh of his flesh . 2. Againe , it is now required that you should repent . And that is the meaning of that place , Repent , for the Kingdome of heauen is at hand . I tell you of a Kingdome , and a great Kingdome , but no man can come into that Kingdome , except hee repent : You must walke no longer after the flesh , but after the Spirit : You must haue your flesh crucified , with all the affections and lusts of it . Thirdly , You must part with euery thing for his sake , whether you haue riches , or honours , or credit , or whatsoeuer , it is no matter , you must be ready to let them all goe . 4. Againe , You must be ready to vndergoe any thing for his sake : you must haue him for worse as well as for better : you must be content to bee hated of all men for his sake , you must take vp your crosse , and follow him . 5. Againe , You must doe much , aswell as as suffer much for him , he dyed to this end , that he might purchase to him a peculiar people , zealous of good workes : you must respect him as a Wife doth her Husband , not as a seruant doth a hard Master ; you must not looke on his Commandements as a hard taske , whereof you could willingly be excused , but as one that hath his heart inflamed to walke in them , as a louing Wife , that needes not to be bidden to doe this or that , but i● the doing of it may aduantage her Husband , it will be a greater griefe to her to let them lye vndone , then labour to doe them . But now men say , This is a hard condition , I little thought of it . It is true , the condition is hard , and that is the reason that so few are willing to come in , when they vnderstand these after-clap conditions , that they must part with all , that they must be persecuted , that their wil must be perfectly subject to the will of Christ , that they must be holy as he is holy , that the same mind must be in them that is in Christ Iesus that they must be of those peculiar people of GOD. And therefore haue wee told you that none will come in to take CHRIST for their Husband , till they haue beene bitten with the sense of their sinnes , till they be heauy laden , and haue felt the weight of Satans yoake , till then they will not come vnder the yoake of CHRIST ; but those that be humble , that haue their hearts broken , that know what the wrath of GOD is , that haue their consciences awaked to see sinne , will come in , and be glad they haue CHRIST , though on these conditions ; but the other will not . If you will haue CHRIST on these condition , you may : But we preach in vaine , all the world refuseth CHRIST , because they will not leaue their couetousnesse , and idlenesse , and swearing , and their seuerall sports and pleasures , their liuing at liberty , and Company-keeping , they will not doe the things that CHRIST requires at their hands , and all because they are not humbled , they know not what sinnne meanes ; whereas , should GOD shew it to them in its right colours , should they be but in Iudas his case , had they tasted of the Terrours of the Almightie , were their consciences enlightned , and did it set them on , they would take him with all their heart . But an other Objection comes in , I would come in , but how should I doe it , I want power and ability , I cannot mortifie the deedes of the body , could I doe that , I would not stand on the businesse . To this I giue a speedy answer : If thou canst come with this resolution to take him , take no care for doing of it ; for as soone as thou art his , he will giue thee another spirit he will enable thee to all things , Ioh. 1.16 . To as many as receiued him , to them he gaue power to become the sonnes of God : What is that ? Is it an empty Title ? No , he made them sonnes not borne of the flesh , or of the will of man , but of God. It is true , with thy owne heart thou art not able to doe it ; but what if GOD giue thee a new heart and a new spirit ? When the match is made , and concluded betweene him and vs , he sends his Spirit into our hearts , and this Spirit giues vs ability , making vs like CHRIST , changing vs , and causing vs to delight in the duties of new obedience in the inner man. Therfore take not care for ability , onely labour for an honest heart , armed with this resolution ; I am resolued to take Christ from henceforth , and you shall finde another Spirit to enable you exceedingly . And now , that we may not let all this goe without some application , wee will heereof make two Vses . First , this great Vse is to be made of it , To learne hence to see how great the sinne of men is , and how iust is their condemnation for the same , that when this righteousnesse of God is reuealed from heauen by this Gospell , which we now preach , they resist it , casting it at their heeles , not regarding it , but despising these glad tydings of saluation , which is so glorious a mysterie . This very thing that we preach to you , is it that was so many thousand yeeres agoe fore-told , and as long expected , being the greatest worke that euer God did . This is it which Paul magnified so much , and stood so amazed at . Therefore , if you reject it , know that your sinne is exceeding great : we that preach the Gospell , are Messengers sent from the Father , to inuite euery one of you to come to the Marriage of his Sonne : If you will not come , ( as some of you are yong , and minde other things ; others of you haue gone long in an old tract , and will not turne ; some haue married a Wife , others haue other businesse , and therefore you will not come ; or if you doe come , it is without your Wedding Garment , you come not with a conjugall affection ) I say , if you refuse , the LORD will deale with you , as with them in the Gospell , hee will haue you brought and slaine before his face . And we come not from the Father onely , but we are also sent from the Sonne , hee is a Suitor to you , and hath dispatched vs as Ambassadours to wooe you , and to beseech you to be reconciled ; if you will come , he hath made knowne his mind to you , you may haue him ; if you will not come , you will make him angry ; and you had neede to kisse the Sonne lest he be angry : though hee be so mercifull , as not to quench the smoaking Flax , nor to breake the bruised Reed , yet notwithstanding , that Sonne hath feete like burning brasse , hee hath a two-edged Sword in his hand , and his eyes are like flames of fire : So you shall find him to be , if you refuse him . As he is a corner stone for some to build on , so he is a corner stone to grinde them to powder that refuse him . When the better is the suitor , and is rejected , what wrath , what indignation breedes it among men ? And so take all the sinnes you haue committed , there is none like this , none shall be so much laid to your charge at the Day of Iudgement , as your rejecting of the Sonne , and of his righteousnesse reuealed , and freely offered to you . What Christ said , ( It shall be easier for Sodome and Gomorrah then for such a City ) I may apply to euery one that 's come to heare me this time ; If you will not giue eare to my inuitation , it shal be easier for Iewes and Turkes , for the Saluages at the East-Indies , then for you . It had beene better for you that Christ had neuer come in the flesh , that his righteousnesse had neuer been offered to you . Therefore is that added , Mar. 16. He that beleeues not , is damned . Of such consequēce is the Gospell . When Moses was on Mount Ebal , he set before them a blessing and a curse , life and death : so doe I now ; If you will not accept of CHRIST , you are cursed . Therefore , when you heare this offer , Let euery man examine himselfe how he stands affected vnto it . For all hearers are diuided into these 2 sorts , some are worthy , and some vnworthy . As when Christ sent away his Disciples , if any were worthy , their peace was to rest vpon them , if they were not worthy , they were to shake off the dust of their feete against that Citie . I say , consider if you be worthy of this righteousnesse : for if you finde your hearts to long after it , if you find you prize it much , so that you can reckon all as drosse and dung in comparison of it , and will sell all to buy this Pearle , then are you worthy : But if , when you heare of it , you neglect it , and attend vnto it coldly , you are vnworthy , and against such we are to shake off the dust of our feete : that is , God shall shake you off as dust , when you come for saluation to him at the day of Iudgement . If in examination you finde your selues vnworthy , that this worke hath not bin wrought in you , ( wherein it is your best way to deale plainely with your selues ) then giue no rest to your selues , but enter into a serious consideration of your sinnes , attend on Gods Ordinances , make vse of all that hath beene deliuered concerning humiliation , and giue not ouer vntill you haue attained this eager desire after Christ. Indeed this is wrought by GOD himselfe , but giue not you ouer . This is it S. Iohn cals drawing : none can come to me , except the Father draw him : and that is done when GOD giues another will ; when , on the propounding of Christ , he giues agninam voluntatem , the nature of a Lambe , changing the heart , and working such an inclination to Christ , as is in the Iron to follow the Load-stone , which neuer rests vntill it be attained . Thus it was with the Woman of Canaan , she would haue no denyall ; and Cant. 3. with the Spouse , that would not be at quiet vntill she had found her Beloued , seeking him day and night ; finding him not within shee enquires of the Watchmen , and neuer giues ouer till she hath found him whom her soule loued . As GOD puts an instinct in the creature , such a violent , strong , impetuous disposition and instigation is in them that shall be saued , and belong to CHRIST , GOD puts into them such a disposition as was in Sampson , when he was athirst , giue me water or else I dye ; so are they athirst after CHRIST , giue me CHRIST or else I dye . And this you must haue ; for GOD will put you to it , he will try whether you be worthy commers or no. Commonly , at the beginning , he is as a man that is in bed with his children , and loath to rise , but you must knocke and knocke againe ; and as it was with the vniust Iudge , importunity must doe it ; though your desire be strong , yet , for a time , in his ordinary course , he withholds , and turnes a deafe eare , to try if thou hast an eager desire : for if it ceases quickly , he should haue lost his labour in bestowing Christ on thee . But if nothing will make thee giue ouer , if thou wilt beseech him , and giue him no rest , I 'le assure thee , GOD cannot deny thee , and the longer he holdeth thee off , the better answer thou shalt haue at the end . And when thou hast CHRIST , thou hast that that cannot be expressed ; for , with him , thou hast all things , When you haue him , you may goe to him for Justification , and say , LORD , giue me remission of sinnes , I haue CHRIST , and thou hast promised that all that are in CHRIST shall haue pardon , that they shall haue thy Spirit , and be made new creatures ; now , LORD , fulfill these promises . If say , It is a condition beyond expression , next to that we shall haue in heauen , and farre aboue that which any Prince or Potentate in the World hath , farre beyond that which any man that swims in pleasures , and abundance of wealth hath ; which , if it were knowne , would by all the World be sought after . Therefore , when you heare of such a condition offered , take heede of refusing it : for if you doe , your sinne is haynous , and your condemnation will be iust . The second Vse I will onely name : Consider what it is to refuse , yea what it is to deferre your acceptance of it . GOD may take your deferring for a denyall ; you that thinke , Well , I will take it , but not yet , take heede lest you neuer haue such an opportunity againe . I say , be exhorted , be moued , be besought to take it . This I speake to you , that be humble , to so many among you as haue broken hearts ; others may take him if they will ; but they will not , they mind not this Doctrine , they regard not things of this nature , they will when they lye a dying , but now they haue something else to doe . But you that mourne in Sion , you that haue broken hearts , that know the bitternesse of sinne , to such as you is this Word of Saluation sent : The others haue nothing to doe with it ; and let them not thinke much to be excluded ; for CHRIST excludes them : Come to me all ye that are heauy laden , and ye shall finde rest : Not but the others shall haue him , if they will come , but they will not take him on the precedent conditions , named before . It may be , they would haue redemption , and freedome , and saluation by him , but they will not take him for their King. They that bee humble , that haue their hearts wounded with the sense of sinne , are willing to take him on his owne termes , to keepe his Commandements , and not thinke them grieuous ; to beare his burden , and thinke it light ; to take his yoke , and count it easie ; to giue all they haue for him , and to thinke all too little ; to suffer persecution for his sake , and to reioyce in it ; to bee content to be scoffed at , and hated of men ; to doe , to suffer any thing for his sake ; and when all this is done , to regard it as nothing , to reckon themselues vnprofitable seruants , to account of all as not worthy of him . Therefore be not thou shye in taking of him : for you haue free liberty . But , before I dismisse you , let me speake a word to you that be not yet humble , let mee beseech you to consider 3. things to mooue you . First , the great danger that is in not taking of him . If you could be well without him , you might sit still as you are ; but you shall dye for want of him . If a Wife can liue without a Husband , she may stay vnmarried : But when a mans case is this , I see without CHRIST I must perish , I must lose my life , that is the penalty , such is the danger if I refuse him , me thinkes this should moue him . Secondly , as the danger of refusing him , so consider the benefit of taking him : if you will haue him , you shall with him haue a Kingdome , you shall change for the better ; for whatsoeuer you part withall , you shall haue an hundred fold in this life : if you forgoe any pleasure or lust , you shall haue for it the ioy of the Holy Ghost , farre exceeding them : If you part with riches , you shall be truely rich in another world ; yea , you shall there haue a Treasure : If you lose friends , you shall haue GOD for your friend , and shall be a Fauourite in the Court of Heauen . In a word , you shall haue an hundred fold . 3. You shall bee sure to haue it , you shall not be deceiued : for God hath put out his word , he hath declared that to be his will , and it stands now with his Iustice as well as with his mercie , to giue Christ : his Word is a corner stone , and you may build on it : Nay by 2. immutable things he hath confirm'd it , his Word and his Oath , and Heauen and Earth may passe , but they shall not passe , you may build on them , to haue Christ and saluation by him . When Paul had deliuered Gods minde , if an Angell from Heauen should tell them the foundation is sandy , nay if he himselfe should preach another doctrine , they were not to beleeue him . Therefore if you will take him and haue him , trust perfectly in the grace that is reuealed by Iesus Christ , doe it not by halues ; It may be I shall be saued , it may be not , thou maist build on it , thou maist venture thy life on it . All these things considered , the greatnesse of the danger in refusing , of the benefit in accepting ; and if it be thus sure if wee will take him , then put it to venture , why doe you stand off ? What can wee say more to perswade you ? If you will take him , and this righteousnesse , you may haue it . GOD hath committed this to vs , what we loose on Earth , shall be loosed in Heauen . He hath giuen vs the Keyes of Heauen and Hell , and if we open the Gates of Heauen to any , they shall stand open , but now in the preaching of the Word , the Gates of Heauen stand open to euery one of you . Therefore come in while it is called to day , before the Sunne set on you , as you know not how soone it may . Indeed , if wee had not made the offer , the danger had beene ours , and wee should haue perished for your sakes : but seeing we haue made manifest the whole Councell of GOD , wee are now free from the blood of euery one of you ; for wee haue made knowne the will of GOD to the full ; you know what is offered to you ; and if you take him not , your blood shall be on your owne heads . Therefore consider whether you will take him or refuse him ; that is the question , Will you take him , or not take him ? You that now refuse and slight this offer , the day may come , when you would be glad to haue it . You that are now in the height and flower of your youth , and you that are more ancient , liuing in health and wealth , and hauing your fill of pleasures , it may be , for the present , you haue other things to take vp your mindes , but the time will come when the Bridegroome shall enter in , and the doores shall bee shut , when your Houre-glasse shall be out , and your time spent , and then this relation of righteousnesse , and remission of sinnes , now offered , would be reckoned glad tydings : but take heede that it be not too late , beware lest you cry , and GOD refuses to heare : Not but that GOD will heare euery man , if his cry comes from vnfeigned faith and loue ; but , it may be , GOD will not giue thee that vnfeigned faith and loue when you be come to that extremity ; seeing you would not come when he called , it may be he will not come when you call ; it may be , he will not breathe the breath of life , nor giue such a spirit and disposition as he will accept of . Christ dyed to purchase to himselfe a peculiar people , zealous of good workes , and not onely to saue men . He dyed for this end , that men might doe him seruice ; and if you will not come in now in time of strength and youth , when you are able to doe him seruice ; I say , in his ordinary course , he will reject you now in your extremity , you may not then expect mercie at his hands . Therefore doe not say , I will follow my couetousnesse and idlenesse , my pleasures and businesse , my lusts and humours , and heereafter come in ; for you are not to chuse your own time . If he call you , and you refuse to come , take heed lest in his wrath he sweare that you shall not enter into his rest . FINIS . OF FAITH . The second Sermon . ROM . 1.17 . For by it the righteousnesse of God is reuealed from Faith to Faith : As it is written , The iust shall liue by Faith. THe next point that these words affoord vs , is this ; that , Faith is that whereby the righteousnesse of God is made ours to saluation . The righteousnesse of GOD ( saith the Apostle ) is reuealed from faith to faith . That is , it is so reuealed and offered by GOD , that it is made ours by faith , we are made partakers of it by faith : you see it ariseth cleerely from the words . Now for the opening of this point to you , you must vnderstand that there are two waies or Couenants , whereby GOD offereth saluation to men . One is the Couenant of workes , and that was that righteousnesse by which Adam had beene saued if he had stood in his innocencie ; for it was that way that GOD appointed for him , Do● this , and liue : But Adam performed not the condition of that Couenant , and therefore now there is another Couenant , that is , the Couenant of Grace , a Board giuen vs against Ship-wracke . Now this Couenant of Grace is double : Either absolute and peculiar ; Or conditionall . Absolute , and peculiar onely to the Elect ; so it is expressed , Ier. 31. I will put my Lawe into your inward parts , and write it in your hearts , and I will be your God , and you shall be my people . So likewise , in Ezek. 36. I will giue you a new heart , and put a new spirit within you , and I will take your stonie hearts out of your bodies . Heere the Couenant is expressed absolutely , and this is proper onely to the Elect. But now beside this , there is a conditionall Couenant of Grace , which is common to all ; and that is expressed in these termes , Christ hath prouided a righteousnesse and saluation , that is his worke that hee hath done already ; Now if you will beleeue , and take him vpon those termes that he is offered , you shall bee saued : This , I say , belongs to all men , This you haue thus expressed in the Gospell in many places , If you beleeue , you shall be saued , as it is , Mark. 16. Goe and preach the Gospell to euery creature vnder Heauen ; hee that will beleeue shall be saued , he that will not beleeue shall bee damned . It is the same with that Rom. 4.5 . To him which worketh not , but beleeueth in him which iustifieth the vngodly , his faith is accounted righteousnesse , Marke it : To him that beleeueth on him that iustifieth the vngodly , that is , there is a certaine iustice or righteousnesse that CHRIST hath prepared or purchased for men , though they be vngodly , he requires nothing of them before-hand , though they be wicked and vngodly , yet this righteousnesse is prepared for them ; that which is required of them , is onely that they take it . Now hee that will beleeue GOD that he hath prepared this for him , and will receiue it , it is enough to make him a righteous man in GODS acceptation ; so that this is the onely way now by which men shall be saued . The worke is already done on Christs part , there is a righteousnesse that GOD hath prepared , which is therefore called the righteousnesse of GOD ; and there is nothing precedently required or looked for on our part , but taking and applying of it . But , you will say , Is there nothing else required of vs ? Must GOD doe all , and must we doe nothing but onely take that righteousnesse that is prepared for vs ? I answer , it is true indeede , we must lead a holy life , a religious , sober , and righteous life , for , for this end hath the grace of God appeared , saith the Apostle : yet you must know withall , that we cannot worke in our selues this holinesse , this religious and sober conuersation , that must be Gods worke altogether , we are onely to take this righteousnesse , and the other is but a consequent that followeth vpon it . To illustrate this vnto you by a similitude ; A Wheele or a Bowle runneth , not that it may be made round , that is the businesse of the workeman , who makes it round , that it may runne : So it is in this case , GOD doth not looke that we should bring holines and piety with vs , for we haue it not to bring : we are at the first onely to beleeue and accept this righteousnesse that is offered vs ; when that is done , it is Gods part to frame vs , and to fit and fashion vs for a holy life : such a kinde of speech you haue it expressed in , Eph. 2.10 . We are Gods workmanship , fashioned in Christ Iesus to walke in good workes , which he hath ordained , &c. Marke it : it is not an action of our owne , but GOD is the workeman , we are the materials , as the clay , and the wood , that he takes into his hands ; when wee haue but taken this righteousnesse that is offered , it is Gods worke to cast vs into a new Mould , to giue vs a new heart , and to frame a new spirit within vs , that so we may walke in good workes before him : this is the great mystery of godlinesse : for we haue much adoe to perswade men to beleeue that the righteousnesse prepared by CHRIST should be offered to them , and nothing be required but receiuing of it : this will not sinke into the hearts of men by nature , they thinke they must doe something precedently , or else this righteousnesse is not offered them . But , my beloued , we must learne to belieue this , and know that it is the worke of GOD to sanctifie vs after hee hath iustified vs. I confesse , it is not so in other things , there is still some action of our owne required to gaine this or that habit or ability , as you see in naturall things , there are some kinde of habits that we get by some precedent actions of our owne , as the learning of Arts and Sciences , to learne to write well , &c. here there is some action of our owne required to fit vs for it , and then we get the ability to doe it . But besides these , there are other habits , that are planted by nature in vs , as , an ability to heare , to see , to taste , &c. Now for these , we neede not any action of our owne for the attaining of them , because they are planted in vs by nature : So it is in these things that belong to saluation : It is true indeede , we may get habits of morall Vertues by labour and paines of our owne , there are actions of our owne required to them ; and in that the Philosopher said right , that we learne to be temperate , and sober , and chaste , &c. But now for the Graces of the Spirit there it is not so , those habits that nature hath planted in vs , we exercise them naturally , without doing any action of our owne to attaine them ; as we doe not by seeing oft learne to see , but it is a faculty naturally planted in vs : so it is in all the workes that we must doe , which are the way to saluation , GOD workes them in vs , he infuseth those habits into vs. Therefore this conclusion is good , that it is faith alone , by which this righteousnesse is made ours to saluation . This is euident by the Apostle , Gal. 2. vlt. Saith he , it is not by the Law , If righteousnesse had beene by the workes of the Law , then Christ had dyed without a cause . As if he should haue said , saluation must needes be by one of these two . Either by something that we doe our selues , some actions that we our selues haue wrought , or else it must be meerely by faith . Now if it had beene attainable by any worke of our owne , CHRIST dyed without a cause : as if he should say , CHRIST could haue giuen you ability to doe those workes without his dying ; but for this very cause Christ came into the World , and dyed , that he might worke righteousnesse , and make satisfaction to God : so that you haue nothing to doe for the first attaining of it , but to receiue it by faith . And if you would know the reason , why GOD , that might haue found out many other wayes to leade men to saluation , yet hath chosen this way aboue all others to saue men , only by faith , receiuing the righteousnesse of CHRIST , which he hath wrought for vs ; you shall finde these foure reasons for it in the Scriptures . Two of them are set downe , Rom. 4.16 . Therefore it is by faith , that it might come by grace . Marke it : This is one reason why GOD will haue it by faith , that it might be of grace : For if any thing had beene wrought by vs , ( as hee saith in the beginning of the Chapter ) it must haue beene giuen as wages , and so it had beene receiued by debt , and not by fauour ; but this was Gods end in it to make knowne the exceeding length and breadth of his loue , and how vnsearchable the riches of Christ are : his end was to haue his Grace magnified . Now if there had beene any action of ours required , but meerely the receiuing of it by faith , it had not bin meerely of grace ; for faith empties a man , it takes a man quite off his owne bottome ; faith commeth as an empty hand , and receiueth all from GOD , and giues all to GOD. Now that it might be acknowledged to be free , and to be altogether of grace ; for this cause GOD would haue salvation propounded to men , to be receiued by faith onely . Secondly , as it is by faith , that it might come by grace , so also that it might be sure , that the promise might be sure ; if it had been any other way , it had neuer beene sure : Put the case that GOD had put vs vpon the condition of obedience , and had giuen vs grace and ability , as he did to Adam , yet the Law is strict , and the least fayling would haue bred feares and doubts , and would haue caused death . But now , when the righteousnesse that saueth vs is wrought already by GOD , and offered to vs by him , and offered freely , and that the ground of this offer is the sure Word of GOD , and it is not a conjecturall thing , now we may build infallibly vpon it : for vnlesse faith haue footing on the Word , wee cannot say it is sure , all things else are mutable , and subject to change : therefore when GOD hath once said it , we may firmely rest in it , and it is sure . And this is the second reason why it is onely by faith . Thirdly , it is by faith , that it might bee to all the seede , not onely to those that are of the Law , but also to them which were strangers to the Law. If it had beene by the Law , then saluation had beene shut vp within the compasse of the Iewes ; for the Gentiles were strangers to the Law of GOD , they were vncleane men , shut out from the Common-wealth of Israel ; but when it is now freely propounded in the Gospell , and nothing is required but onely faith to lay hold vpon it , when there is no more looked for but beleeuing , and receiuing ; hence it comes to be to all the seede : for Abraham himselfe , before he was circumcised , he was as a common man , the vaile was not then set vp ; yet , euen then , his faith was imputed to him for righteousnesse . The last reason why it is of faith , is that no man might boast , that no flesh might reioyce in it selfe ; for if it had beene by any other means , by any thing done in our selues , we had had cause to reioyce in our selues , but , for this cause , saith the Apostle , 1 Cor. 1.30 . Christ is made to vs wisdome , righteousnesse , sanctification , and redemption , that he that reioyceth might reioyce in the Lord. As if he had said , if GOD had giuen vs a wisedome of our owne , wee had had cause to haue reioyced in our selues ; but we are darknesse , Eph. 4. there is nothing but foolishnesse and weaknesse in vs , to the end that no flesh might reioyce in his presence . Againe , if we had had grace put into our selues , ( though it had beene but little ) for which GOD might haue accepted vs , the flesh would haue boasted ; therefore his righteousnesse is made ours . But , when this is done , yet , if after iustification , it had beene in our power and ability to haue performed the workes of sanctification by any power or strength of our own , we should yet haue beene ready to boast thereof , Christ is made sanctification too , so that we are not able to thinke a good thought , we are not able to doe the least good thing without him : It is I ( saith the Lord ) that doth sanctifie you : It is I that doth act euery Grace ; it is I that doe put your hearts into a good frame : Christ is made sanctification to vs ; so that take a holy man , after he is iustified , it is CHRIST that sanctifieth him , and that carries him thorow his life in a holy and righteous conuersation , and all this is done that no flesh should reioyce in it selfe . And yet one thing more is added by the Apostle ; for if a man could rid himselfe out of misery , if a man could helpe himselfe when he is vnder any crosse or trouble , hee would then be ready to boast in himselfe : therefore , saith he Christ is made to vs redemption also : so that take any euill , though it be but a small euill , a small disease , a little trouble , no man is able to helpe himselfe , in this case , it is Christ that redeemes vs from the least euils , as well as from hell it selfe : For you must know , that all the miseries that befall vs in the World , they are but so many degrees , so many descents and steps towards hell ; now all the redemption that we haue , it is from CHRIST ; so that let vs looke into our liues , and see what euils we haue escaped , and see what troubles we haue gone thorow , see what afflictions we haue beene deliuered from , it is all through CHRIST , who is made redemption for vs. It is true indeede , there are some generall workes of GODS prouidence , that all men taste of ; but there is no euill that the Saints are freed from , but it is purchased by the Blood of CHRIST ; and all this GOD hath done , that no flesh might reioyce in it selfe : and for this cause , saluation is propounded to be receiued onely by faith , there is no more required at our hands , but the taking of Christ by faith ; and when we haue taken him , then hee is all this to vs. So that now you see the point cleared , and the reasons why it is by faith onely , that the righteousnesse of CHRIST is made ours to saluation . Now , in the next place , If to this that wee haue said , wee adde but one thing more to cleere the point , we shall then haue done enough to satisfie you in this point ; and that is this , to shew you what this faith is : for , when wee speake so much of faith ( as wee doe , ) euery man will be inquisitiue to know what this faith is : therefore wee will endeuour to doe that at this time . First , Faith , if we should take it in the generall , it is nothing else but this : An act of the vnderstanding , assenting to something . But now this assent is of three sorts . First , there is such an assent to a truth , as that a man is in a great feare lest the contrary should be true ; and this we call opinion , when we so assent to any proposition , as that that which is contrary , may be true , for ought we know . There is a second kind of assent , which is sure , but it is grounded vpon reasons and arguments ; and that we call Science or knowledge : that is , when we are sure of the thing we assent to , wee make no doubt of it ; but wee are led vnto it by the force of reason . Againe , there is a third kinde of assent , which is a sure assent too , but we are led to it by the authority of him that affirmeth it : and this is that which is properly called Faith : So that a generall definition of Faith is this : It is ( nothing else but ) a firme assent giuen to the things contained in the holy Scriptures , for the authority of God that spake them . This is properly Faith , or beleeuing , if wee take the word in the generall . But if we speake of iustifying Faith , we shall finde that that is not commonly expressed in the word beleeuing only , but beleeuing in Christ , which is another thing ; and therefore you shall finde that it differeth in two things from this common and generall faith . First , in regard of the object , and indeede that is the maine difference : for whereas the other faith lookes vpon the whole Booke of GOD , 1 and beleeues all that GOD hath reuealed , because GOD hath reuealed it ; This iustifying Faith pitcheth vpon CHRIST , and takes him , with his benefits and priuiledges : so that the difference lyeth not in the habit of Faith , but in the object ; for with the same faith that we beleeue other things , we beleeue this ; as with the same hand that a man takes other Writings with , he takes a Pardon ; with the same eyes that the Israelites see other things , they looked vpon the brazen Serpent , the difference was not in the faculty , but in the object vpon which they looked , by which they were healed ; so it is in this , betweene this ●aith and the other , they differ not in the habit , but in the object . There is a second difference , which is a maine difference too ; 2 the other faith doth no more but beleeue the truth that is reuealed , it beleeueth that all is true that is contained in the Scriptures , and the Deuils may haue this faith , and wicked men may haue it ; but iustifying faith goeth further , it takes CHRIST , and receiues him , so that there is an act of the Will added to that faith , as it is expressed , Heb. 11.13 . They saw the promises afarre off , and embraced them thankfully : Others ( it may be ) see the promises , and beleeue them , but they take them not , they doe not embrace them . So that if I should define iustifying Faith vnto you , it may bee thus described : It is a Grace or a habit infused into the soule by the Holy Ghost , whereby we are enabled to beleeue , not onely that the Messias is offered to vs , but also to take and receiue him as a Lord and Sauiour . That is , both to be saued by him , and to obey him ( Marke it ) I put them together , to take him as a Lord , and as a Sauiour : for you shall find that in the ordinary phrase of Scripture these two are put together , Iesus Christ our Lord and Sauiour . Therefore we must take heede of disjoyning those that GOD hath joyned together , we must take CHRIST aswell for a Lord as a Sauiour , let a man doe this , and he may be assured that his faith is a iustifying faith . Therefore marke it diligently , if a man will take CHRIST as a Sauiour onely , that will not serue the turne , CHRIST giueth not himselfe to any vpon that condition , only to saue him , but we must take him as a Lord too , to be subject to him , to obey him , and to square our actions according to his will in euery thing . For he is not onely a Sauiour , but also a Lord , and he will be a Sauiour to none but those to whom he is a Master . His seruants you are to whom you obey , saith the Apostle . If you will obey him , and be subiect vnto him in all things , if you make him your Lord , that he may haue the command ouer you , and that you will be subiect to him in euery thing , if you take him vpon these conditions , you shall haue him as a Sauiour also : For , as hee is a Priest , so you must know that he is a King that sits vpon the Throne of Dauid , and rules those that are to be saued by him : Therefore , I say , you must not onely take him as a Priest , to intercede for you , to petition for you , but to be your King also ; you must suffer him to rule you in all things , you must be content to obey all his Commandements . It is not enough to take CHRIST as a head , onely to receiue influence and comfort from him , but you must take him also as a head to be ruled by him , as the members are ruled by the head ; you must not take one benefit alone of the members , to receiue influence from the head , but you must be content also to bee guided by him in all things , else you take him in vaine . Againe , this must be marked , that I say , you must take or receiue him : you must not onely beleeue that he is the Messias , and that he is offered , but there is a taking and receiuing that is necessary to make you partakers of that that is offered : those words Iohn 3. make it plaine ; God so loued the World , that he GAVE his onely begotten Sonne , &c. Giuing is but a Relatiue , it implyes that there is a receiuing or taking required : For when CHRIST is giuen , vnlesse he be taken by vs , he doth vs no good , he is not made ours . If a man be willing to giue another any thing , vnlesse he take it , it is not his . It is true indeede , there is a sufficiency in CHRIST to saue all men , and hee is that great Physician that heales the soules of men , there is righteousnesse enough in him to iustifie all the World : But , my beloued , vnlesse we take him , and apply him to our selues , we can haue no part in that righteousnesse : this is plainely expressed in Matth. 22. where it is said , the King sent foorth his seruants to bid men to the Marriage of his Sonne : And so in Eth. 5. the same similitude and comparison is vsed by the Apostle , where he setteth foorth the vnion that is betweene Christ and the Church , by that vnion there is betweene the Husband and the Wife : put the case that a Husband should offer himselfe to a woman to marry her , and she shou●d beleeue it , yet vnlesse there be a taking of him on her part , the match is not made ; and so it is ●ere , and in this thing the essence of faith consists , when CHRIST offereth himselfe vnto you , you must beleeue that there is such a thing , and that God intendeth it really , but it is the taking that consummates the marriage ; and when the Wife hath taken the Husband , then all that is his is hers , she hath an interest in all his goods : so also it is here , there must be a beleeuing that Christ is offered , that hee is the Messias and that there is a righteousnes in him to saue vs ; but that is not enough , we must also take him , and when that is done , wee are iustified , then we are at peace with GOD. But that you may more fully vnderstand what this faith is , I will adde these 4. things more . First , I will shew you the obiect of this faith . Secondly , the subject or place where it is . Thirdly , the manner how it iustifieth vs. Fourthly , the actions of it . 1 I say , that you may more fully vnderstand what this faith is , consider first the object of it , and that is CHRIST , ( as I told you before ) and herein this is to be marked , that a man must first take Christ himselfe , and after , the priuiledges that come by him . And this point I could wish were more prest by our Diuines , and that our hearers would more intend it . I say , first remember that you must first take CHRIST himselfe , and then other things that we haue by him , as the Apostle saith , Rom 8. If God haue giuen vs him , that is Christ , he wil● with him giue vs all things else : but first haue CHRIST himselfe , and then all things with him . And so , 2 Cor. 1. All the promises IN HIM are Yea and Amen . That is , first we must haue CHRIST , and then looke to the promises ; this must be still remembred , that we must first take his person , we must haue our eyes fixed vpon that : And so that place before-named , Ioh. 3. God so loued the World , that he gaue his onely begotten Sonne : hee giues his Sonne , as a Father giues his Sonne in marriage ; the Father giues the Sonne , and the Sonne himselfe must bee taken : So that we must first take CHRIST , wee must fixe our eyes vpon him : For faith doth not leape ouer CHRIST , and pitch vpon the promises of Justification , and Adoption , but it first takes CHRIST . The distinct and cleere vnderstand●ning of this will helpe vs much in apprehending and vnderstanding aright what iustifying faith is : wee must remember to take CHRIST himselfe ; for it is an adulterous affection for a Wife not to thinke of the person of her Husband , but to thinke onely what commodity she shall haue by him , what honours , what riches , what conueniences , as if that made the match , to be content onely to take those ; will this , thinke you , make a match amongst men ? Surely no , there must be a fixing of the eyes vpon the person , that must doe it : Doe you loue him ? are you content to forsake all , that you may enioy him ? It is true indeed , you shall haue all this into the bargaine , but first you must haue the person of your Husband : therefore remember to fixe your eyes vpon Christ , take him for your Husband , consider his beauty and his excellencies , ( which indeede are motiues to vs ) as a Woman that takes a Husband , is encouraged by the benefits that shee shall haue by him : but still remember that he himselfe must bee taken . As it is in other things , if you would haue light , you must first haue the Sunne ; if you would haue strength , you must first take meate and drinke , before you can haue that benefit by it : so you must first haue Christ himselfe , before you can partake of those benefits by him : and that I take to be the meaning of that in Mar. 16. Go preach the Gospell to euery creature vnder heauen ; he that beleeues and is baptized , shall be saued : that is , he that will beleeue that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh , and that hee is offered to mankinde for a Sauiour , and will be baptized , that will giue vp himselfe to him , that will take his marke vpon him : for in that place , by baptizing , is meant nothing else but the giuing vp of a mans selfe to CHRIST , and making a publike testimony of it , although there bee somthing more meant generally by baptizing ; but heere it is meant , a iustification to all the world , that we haue taken CHRIST . Now euery one that will beleeue and be baptized , that is , euery one that will doe this , shall bee saued : so that a man must first take CHRIST himselfe , and then he may doe as the Wife , after she hath her Husband , she may thinke of all the benefits she hath by him , and may take them , and vse them as her owne . This is the first thing . The second thing that I promised , 2 was to shew you the subiect of faith , and that is the whole heart of man ; that is to say , ( to name it distinctly ) both the minde , and the will : Now to shew you that both these are the subject of faith , you must know that these two things are required : First , on the part of the vnderstanding , it is required that it beleeue ; that is , that it conceiue and apprehend what GOD hath reuealed in the Scriptures ; and here an act of GOD must come in , putting a light into the vnderstanding : for , my beloued , Faith is but an addition of a new light to reason , that whereas reason is purblinde , faith comes , and giues a new light , and makes vs see the things reuealed by GOD , which reason cannot doe ; by faith we apprehend these great and glorious Mysteries , which otherwise wee could not apprehend , as we see it expressed in 2 Cor. 4. The god of this World hath blinded their eyes , that the light should not shine into their hearts , by which they should beleeue this glorious Gospell . So then there must be a light put into the minde , that a man may be able by that to eleuate and raise his reason to beleeue this : that is , to conceiue and to apprehend the things that are offered and tendered in the Gospell . But this is not all , there is an act also of the will required , which is to take and receiue Christ : for this taking is an act of the will ; therefore there must be a consent as well as an assent . Now it is the act of the vnderstanding to assent to the truth , which is contained in the promises wherein Christ is offered : but that is not all , there is also an act of will requisite to consent vnto them , that is , to embrace them , to take them , and to lay hold vpon them , and to apply them to a mans selfe . This I will the rather cleere , because it is a thing controuerted . I say , there is a double act , an act of the mind , and an act of the will : to this purpose consider that in Rom. 5 17. For if by the offence of one , death raigned by one , much more they which receiue abundance of grace , and the gift of righteousnesse , shall reigne in life by one , Iesus Christ. Marke it , you may see what faith is in those words ; Those that receiue the gift of righteousnesse : righteousnesse is giuen and offered by God , and those that receiue that gift of righteousnesse , shall reigne in life : so that taking and receiuing being an act of the will , it must needs be that the will must come in to this worke as well as the vnderstanding . Like vnto this is that 1 Ioh. 12. To as many as receiued him , &c. That is , to as many as beleeued in his Name : for so the words afterwards expresse ; that is , when wee are willing to take Christ , which is nothing else but the consent of the will , when the will is resolued to take him , being so apprehended as he hath beene described , as a Lord , and as a Sauiour , this is faith ; this , I say , is an act of the will , because it is an act of receiuing . Io● . 5.44 it is euident , How can y● beleeue which receiue honour one of another & c ? If beleeuing in Christ were only an act of the mind , as the Papists affirme , and some others besides ; it beleeuing were nothing else but an assenting to the truth of GOD , which is an act of the vnderstanding , how could the praise of men be opposite to beleeuing ? But the meaning is , How can you beleeue , & take me for your Husband , and yet seeke praise of men too ? for that will come in competition with me , and then you will forsake me . I say , this makes it euident , that iusti●ying faith is not onely an act of the mind , but an act of the will also ; because otherwise the seeking praise with men , could be no impediment to the act of beleeuing . Now this also , aswell as the former , must be wrought by God and God puts a new light into the vnderstanding , he raiseth it vp to see and beleeue these truths ; so there is another act which GOD also workes on the will , and vnlesse he worke it , it is not done : for come to any man that is in the state of nature , and aske him , Will you be content to take Christ ? that is to say , to receiue him in that manner as he hath beene described ? His answer would bee , No. Beloued , the liues of men expresse it , though they speake it not in so many words : Therefore till GOD come and drawe a man , and change his will the worke is not done . If you take a Bough , and offer it to a Swine or a Wolfe , they will refuse it , and trample it vnder their feete ; but offer it to a Sheepe , and the Sheepe receiues it , and followes it : so when Christ is offered to men vpon these conditions that we haue named , men refuse him , they reject him , and slight him : but when GOD takes away these woluish and swinish hearts of ours , and turne our wils another way , ( which is the drawing the Scripture speakes of ) then we are willing to take Christ. If you take other metall then Iron , the Loadstone will not stirre it ; but turne the metall into Iron , and it will follow the Load-stone : So , let the hearts of men continue in that condition wherein they are by nature , and they will neuer take CHRIST , they will neuer accept him ; but when GOD puts into them such a strong and impetuous instigation and disposition as that of the Spouze in the Canticles , that had no rest till she had found her Beloued , then they will take CHRIST vpon his owne conditions . So the we see this Faith is an action both of the minde and the will , wrought by GOD , enlightning the mind , and changing the will ; which is that which our Sauiour Christ cals drawing ; none comes to me vnlesse the Father draw him : that is , except his will be set on worke , vnlesse GOD change him , and put such a disposition and instigation into him , that he can finde no rest till hee come to Christ. Thirdly , 3 the thing wee are to speake of , is , How this Faith iustifieth . Now for this , know that this faith is considered two wayes ; eyther As it workes , or , As it receiues : Either as a quality , or as an instrument . As a quality it workes ; and in this sense it hath nothing to doe with Justification . It iustifieth vs as it is an instrument , and that not by altering the nature of sinne ; that is , by making sinne to be no sinne , but by taking away the efficacy of sinne . As , for example , when a man hath committed sinnes , Faith doth not make his sinnes to be no sinnes ; indeede , it scattereth them as a Cloud : You may consider it after this manner : First , it cannot be that that sinne that is once committed , should be made to be no sinne ; for what is once done , it cannot be vndone , GOD himselfe cannot doe that , because it is a thing that cannot be ; for when the sinnes are committed , they doe remaine so : and therefore , I say , it cannot be that that which is sinne should be made to be no sinne ; we cannot make Adultery to be no adultery , for the nature and essence of the thing must remaine . Well now what doth faith ? It doth this , though the sin be the same that it was , yet it takes away the sting and the guilt of sinne , by which it puts vs into the state of condemnation , and by which it bindes vs ouer to punishment . As the Lions to which Daniel was cast , they were the same as they were before , they had the same propensenesse , and disposition to deuoure as they had before , they had the ordinary nature of Lions ; but at that time , GOD tooke away from them that fiercenesse that was in them , so that they did not deuoure him , though they were there still : so it is with sinne , the nature of sinne is to condemne vs ▪ but now when GOD shall take away this efficacie from it , it doth not condemne : and this is that that faith doth . Euen as the Viper that was vpon Pauls hand , though the nature of it was to kill presently , yet when GOD had charmed it , you see it hurt him not : so it is with sinne , though it be in vs , and though it hang vpon vs , yet the venome of it is taken away , it hurts vs not , it condemnes vs not : thus faith , by taking away the efficacie and power of sinne , it iustifies vs , as an instrument , as a hand that takes the Pardon . The King , when he pardoneth a Traytor , he doth not make his Treason to be no Treason , for the act of the Treason remaines still ; but the taking of the Pardon makes the Traytor not to be vnder condemnation : So , my belo●ed , faith is that act that takes the Pardon from GOD , so that though the sinne remaine the same , and of its owne nature is of power to binde vs ouer to death , yet by this faith taking the Pardon from GOD , it comes to passe that it hurts vs not , wee are not condemned for it . You know , debts in a mans booke , the writing remaines still , the lines are not blotted out , yet when they are once crossed , the creditour cannot come and aske his debt any more , because it is crossed : So it is in this , our sinnes are the same after we are iustified , as they were before ; but faith is that that crosseth the booke ; faith , I say , by apprehending the Pardon , and taking the acquittance at Gods hands that he offers . I● a man haue anacquittance , although the debt remaine the same in the Booke , yet there can no more be required at the hands of him that hath taken the acquittance . Thus , I say , faith iustifies vs as an instrument , by accepting , receiuing , and taking the acquittance that GOD hath giuen to vs through Christ. 4 Let mee adde one word more of the next thing : which is , What are the acts of this faith ? They are these three : First , To reconcile , or to iustifie . Secondly , To pacifie the heart . Thirdly , To purifie , or sanctifie . 1 The first thing that Faith doth , is to reconcile : That is , ( as I said before ) by faith wee are pitched vpon CHRIST ; wee take him first , and then wee take the priuiledges , they all follow vpon it , forgiuenesse , and adoption ; this is the first act of Faith , to reconcile vs to CHRIST himselfe ; and vpon this wee haue boldnesse to goe to CHRIST for forgiuenesse , to goe to CHRIST to make vs heyres of all things : For after this manner faith doth it ; All things are yours , whether Paul or Apollo , &c. And why ? Because you are CHRIST'S . ( Marke it , ) you must first bee CHRIST'S : that is , euen as the Wife is the Husband 's , so you must be knit and vnited to CHRIST , and then all things are yours : so that Faith first makes vs Christ's , it reconciles vs to him , and makes vs one with him , and in him , one with GOD the Father ; and then all things are giuen vnto vs , and made ours . 2 The second act of faith is to quiet and pacifie the heart ; to comfort vs , in assuring vs that our sinnes and transgressions are forgiuen ; and this is different from the former : There are two acts of faith : The one is the direct act by which we apprehend and take CHRIST , and the righteousnesse that is offered through him , by which we take forgiuenesse . And the second is the reflect act by which we know that wee haue taken CHRIST , and haue taken out our pardon ; and this act is very different from the former , we may haue the former without this . Wee commonly thinke that wee are not iustified by CHRIST , vnlesse we haue assurance of it ; and when we looke for that , and finde it not presently , all our hopes are gone , but it should not be so ; It is one act of Faith to take CHRIST , and another act of faith to comfort and pacifie the heart ; and that these are two distinct things , consider but this in a word . The first act is constant , when a man hath once taken and accepted of CHRIST , hee is alwaies his ; after wee once haue CHRIST , there is no diuorse : But the other act of assurance , whereby we know that wee haue taken him , that is a thing that may faile and deceiue a man. Againe , the first act admits of no degrees ; for when a man is once in CHRIST , hee is alwaies CHRIST'S , when he is once married to him : Marriage , you know , admits of no degrees ; so Justification is equall to euery man , it admits of no degrees , it is alwaies the same ; we are not now lesse iustified ▪ and then more , but we are alway alike iustified , being once iustified : but the other act of faith , whereby I am assured that I haue taken CHRIST , that admits of degrees , a man may haue sometimes more comfort , sometimes lesse ; and therefore righteousnes is said heere to be reuealed from faith to faith . Lastly , the first act of faith , whereby we take CHRIST , and those priuiledges by him , as the Wife takes the Husband , that is founded vpon the sure Word of GOD , GOD hath tendered it to vs vpon his Word and promise , and he must performe it , it cannot be altered nor changed ; he that builds vpon it , builds vpon the corner-stone , that will not faile him : But now the second act , whereby I come to know that I haue done this , that is grounded vpon experience : Indeede , we are helped by the Holy Ghost to know it , but it is chiefly grounded vpon our owne experience : for it is no more but the act of a mans owne heart , reflecting vpon what hee hath done , when hee considers , Haue I taken CHRIST , or no ? as a Lord , and as a Sauiour ▪ as a Priest , to saue me ; as a King , to liue by his Lawes ; this is a looking vpon an act of mine owne , therefore the vnderstanding and knowing of it must come from experience . The last act of faith is to purifie , 3 and to sanctifie . I cannot stand vpon it at this time , nor make Vse , and apply this as I desired : therefore I will breake off heere . So much for this time . FINIS . OF FAITH . The third Sermon . ROM . 1.17 . For by it the righteousnesse of God is reuealed from Faith to Faith : As it is written , The iust shall liue by Faith. THe last point that wee deliuered out of these words , was this , that Faith is that whereby we are made partakers of the righteousnesse of Christ. Wee come now to the Vses of it . And first of all , if it be by faith onely by which we are made partakers of that righteousnesse that saueth vs , the first consectary that we will draw from hence is this , That wee should learne to come to CHRIST with an empty hand , and not to bee discouraged for any want that wee finde in our selues , nor for the greatnesse of our sinnes ; wee should not bee discouraged for the want of a perfect degree of repentance and godly sorrow , or for the want of whatsoeuer good worke you thinke is requisite to saluation , for , my beloued , you must know that this is the nature of faith , that it doth its worke best alone ; and faith is so farre from requiring any thing in the partie that shall haue CHRIST , that necessarily he must let goe all things else , otherwise hee cannot beleeue : and this is a point necessarily to be considered : for euery man is apt to conceiue and thinke that it is impossible that GOD should accept him , vnlesse there bee something in him why GOD should regard him : If he finde himselfe to be exceeding vngodly , he thinkes that CHRIST will neuer looke after him . And againe , if hee haue nothing at all to giue , if he haue nothing to bring with him in his hand , hee thinkes that hee shall haue no pardon : But you see that faith requires nothing in the first apprehension of CHRIST , if a man bee neuer so vngodly , it is all one , the promise notwithstanding is made vnto him . Againe , Why should you looke for righteousnesse in your selues ? The worke of faith ( and it hath nothing else to doe ) is to take that righteousnesse of Christ , that is none of your owne : so that there is nothing else at all required ; for all that faith hath to doe , is onely to take from Christ that righteousnesse that we want our selues : so that I say there is no reason why any man should bee discouraged in his first comming , for any want that he findes in himselfe , or for any condition that he is in , because faith onely is that that makes vs partakers of a righteousnesse to iustifie vs , because we our selues haue it not . I say , faith is so farre from requiring any thing to be added to it , to helpe it in the act of iustifying , that of necessity it excludes all things else : for faith hath this double quality , not onely to lay hold of Christ offered , but to empty a man of all things else whatsoeuer . As for example , Faith is not onely the beleeuing of a truth which is deliuered , from the authority of him that doth deliuer it ; but it is a resting vpon Christ , a casting of our selues vpon him . Now when a man leanes vpon any other thing , hee stands not vpon his owne legges , hee stands not vpon his owne bottome ; for if hee did , hee could not properly be said to leane . If a man trust and depend vpon another , he prouides not for himselfe , but he that so lookes to himselfe , that he prouide so as to make him selfe safe if another should faile him , so farre he trusts himselfe ; so that , beloued , if you trust CHRIST , it is of necessity required that you must bee vnbottomed of your selues , you must altogether leane vpon him , you must cast your selues wholly vpon him : For faith hath such an attracting vertue in it , that it fils the heart with CHRIST . Now it cannot fill the heart with CHRIST , vnlesse the heart be emptyed first . Therefore I say , faith hath a double quality , not onely to take , but to empty ; and they are reciprocall , the one cannot be without the other . Hence it is that we say , faith ingrafts a man , a man cannot be ingraft into a new stocke vnlesse hee bee quite cut off from the former roote ; therefore faith driues a man out of himselfe , and makes him nothing in himselfe , so that when he comes to lay hold on the promise of GOD , he lookes at no quality or excellencie of his owne , he lookes at no fitnesse nor worthinesse in himselfe , but he comes with a hand and a heart altogether empty : So that when a man comes to beseech GOD to receiue him to mercie , and to grant him a Pardon of his sinnes , when he comes to take hold of the righteousnesse of CHRIST for his iustification , if he thinke that there is any little worthinesse in him , or that there be no fault in him at all , and from thence shall thinke that GOD will receiue him , this man is not fit to come to Christ , he must be wholly emptied of himselfe , and then God will speake peace vnto him . But you will aske , What is that that faith doth empty a man of ? Faith emptieth a man of two things : First , of all opinion of righteousnesse in himselfe . Secondly , of all opinion of strength and ability to helpe himselfe : for if either of these remaine in the heart , a man cannot receiue CHRIST . First , I say , a man must be emptied of all opinion of worthinesse in himselfe , of all conceipt that he hath the least righteousnesse in himselfe ; therefore when the yong man came to CHRIST , and CHRIST told him that he must keepe the Law , and he said hee had done all those things from his youth , CHRIST knew that he was not yet fit , therefore , saith he , Goe and sell all that thou hast : Christs end was nothing else but to discouer to him his owne vnworthinesse . If thou wilt be perfect , ( saith CHRIST ) take this tryall , Canst thou be content to let thy wealth goe , to follow me ? Canst thou be content to suffer persecution ? This shewed that hee was not perfect , but that hee was still a sinfull man ; this was the way to prepare him for Christ , this course we see CHRIST alwaies tooke : we see it expressed in the Parable of the Publican and of the Pharise , the Publican went away iustified , because he was wholly emptyed of all conceipt and opinion of worth in himselfe . But the Pharise was not iustified , ( not because he was not a iuster man then the Publican , for he was in outward performances better then he ; but ) because he had an opinion of his owne righteousnesse , he was conceited of a worthinesse in himselfe , therefore he went home not iustified . What was it that excluded the Iewes ? was it not an opinion of something they had of their owne ? The Laodiceans , they thought they were rich and increased , and wanted nothing , therefore they neuer came to buy of CHRIST . That which a man thinkes he hath already of his owne , hee will neuer bee at the cost to buy ; therefore that is the first thing that a man must doe , hee must thinke himselfe of no worth at all , he must be empty of all opinion and conceit of his owne excellency . But this is not all , although a man be perswaded of this , that he hath no worthinesse in himselfe , yet if he thinke hee is able to helpe himselfe , and can stand alone without GOD , he will not come to take CHRIST ; and therfore this further is required , that a man see that he hath no ability to helpe himselfe , that all his redemption must come from CHRIST : for if you aske many men whether they haue any opinion of worth in themselues , they will be ready to answer , No. What then is the reason that they come not to CHRIST ? It is because they are in health and prosperity , and they can doe it soone enough hereafter , they can yet for the present subsist without Christ ; but when GOD shall shew a mans heart to himselfe , when GOD shewes a man his danger , and shewes it him as a present , and how vnable he is to helpe himselfe out of danger , then a man will haue no rest till he haue Christ. Therefore you shall see both these required , 1 Cor. 1.30 . CHRIST must be to vs wisdome , righteousnesse , sanctification , and redemption too . First , if a man thinke that there is any thing in him , either wisdome , righteousnesse , or sanctification , that excludes him , for he will reioyce in himselfe : and that concernes the first condition required , to be empty of all opinion of worth . But yet if a man thinke that hee is able to stand safe and secure for a time , that hee is able to be a Buckler to himselfe , that hee hath somewhat wherevnto he may leane , and doth not see that CHRIST must be his redemption also , he will not come at CHRIST . That which kept the Prodigall sonne away , it was not an opinion of any worth in himselfe , but because he thought hee could liue without his father , hee had his portion in his owne hands , and at his owne disposing ; and he would not come home to his Father , till he could liue of himselfe no longer : so that , though wee haue an opinion of no worth in our selues , yet if wee conceiue or thinke that we can liue without CHRIST , wee will not care for him . This was the fault of those that were inuited to the marriage , they refused to come , not because they thought that themselues were of worth , but they were perswaded that they needed not those things to which they were inuited . Therefore , I say , these two things must be done , a man must be emptied of all opinion of worth in himselfe . And secondly , of all ability in himselfe to helpe himselfe , and when faith hath done both these , then it brings a man to CHRIST , when a man seeth that there is nothing in him why GOD should regard him , and that he cannot stand longer , nor be in safety longer then CHRIST helps him , and speakes peace to him , now a man is fit to take hold vpon CHRIST : and therefore we must learne to come to CHRIST with an empty heart . Many men complaine that they would beleeue , but they want that sorrow that they should haue , they want that repentance that they would haue , they thinke they are not yet fit , therefore they dare not apply the promises . To these we say now , that there is a double kinde of complaint . One is , when a man lookes vpon these things , as vpon things that make him fit , which if he haue , he thinkes GOD will respect him ; and if he haue not , he thinkes that GOD will not looke after him . If thy complaint be thus , it is sinfull ; for in this thou seekest something in thy selfe . But if a mans complaint be this , that he is not yet awaked enough , that he is not yet sensible enough of his sinnes , the doctrine of the remission of his sinnes , and free Justification doth not affect him as it should . Indeed , here is iust cause of complaint ; for these things are necessary before you can come to take CHRIST . Therefore that place in Mat. 10.11 . will explaine this , and answer an objection that may be made against it , when the Apostles were sent out to preach the Gospell , when they came to any house , they were bidden to Enquire who were worthy ; If any man be worthy ( saith CHRIST ) your peace shall come vpon him : but if he be not worthy , shake off the dust , &c. A man would thinke by this that there were some worthinesse required in the partie that comes to CHRIST , and that before hee can apply the first promise of Justification . To this we answer , the worthinesse that is required here is nothing else but an ability to prize CHRIST , to set him at a high rate , to long after him , to hunger and thirst after his righteousnesse , your peace shall come vpon such a man. That is , if there bee a broken-hearted man that lookes after CHRIST , whose heart yeranes after him , that he is able to prize him aright , he shall be accepted : but if they bee such men as will not receiue you , such as will not set meat before you , such as will giue you no respect , shake off the dust of your feete , &c. So that I say , such a complaint we may make , If we finde a want of desire after CHRIST ; for that is required ; but if we looke vpon any thing as a qualification in our selues , such a worthinesse is not required , we must be driuen out of all conceit of it , or else we cannot take Christ. So much for the Vse , that seeing it is onely faith whereby wee lay hold of Christs righteousnesse , that then we haue no reason to be discouraged , in respect of any want ; nay , we must finde a want of all things , before wee can be made partakers of this righteousnesse . Againe , secondly , if it bee by faith onely , by which we are made partakers of this righteousnesse , and by which we are saued , then we should learne hence to reioyce onely in GOD , and not to reioyce in our selues ; for this is the very end why GOD hath appointed this way of saluation : Eph. 1.6 . For he hath chosen vs to the praise of the glory of his grace , in his Beloued . That is , that he might haue the praise of the glory of his grace , as it is in Ephes. 2. Therefore it is of faith , and not by workes , that no man should boast of himselfe : 1 Cor. 1.30 . Therefore CHRIST is made to vs wisdome , righteousnesse , sanctification , and redemption , that no flesh should reioyce in it selfe . Now if that be GODS end , if that be his aime , why he will haue vs saued by faith , let not vs disappoint him of his aime , let vs not take from him the glory of his grace ; but let vs glory in the Lord. This point we should especially looke to , not to reioyce in our selues , but in GOD : For , my beloued , wee are all naturally exceeding apt to reioyce in our selues , wee would faine finde some excellencie in our selues , euery man is apt to reflect vpon himselfe , and hee would faine see some worth there that hee might reioyce in ; and if he be no body at all there , it is contrary to his nature to thinke that he shall be accepted : there is nothing in the world that we are so backward to as this . It was Adams fault in Paradise , whereas hee should haue trusted GOD , and haue beene wholly dependant vpon him for all , he would needes know good and euill , he would haue something of his owne ; and this was it that lost him all , and brought the curse vpon him , because hee would not bee dependant . Now in the Gospell , GOD comes by a second meanes of sauing men , and in this the LORD would haue the creature to haue nothing in himselfe to glory in , but man is hardly brought to this , but exalts and lifts vp himselfe , and would faine haue some worth and excellencie of his owne ; but as long as wee doe thus , wee cannot bee saued : that is the argument that is vsed Rom. 6.4 . why Abraham was iustified by faith ; if there had beene any other way , Abraham had had wherein to reioyce in himselfe : but faith excludes this reioycing , and onely faith , wee should , I say , learne to do this in good earnest , to see that there is no worth in our selues , to haue CHRIST to be to vs all in all : Col. 3.11 . is an excellent place to this purpose , saith the Apostle there , ( in the matter of saluation ) There is neither Iew nor Gentile , bond nor free , but Christ is all in all . That is , when we come to be iustified before GOD , when wee come to the matter of saluation , God lookes at nothing in a man , he lookes at no difference betweene man and man ; one man is vertuous , another man is wicked ; one man is a Iew , and hath all those priuiledges ; another man is a Gentile , an alien from the Common-wealth of Israel ; one man is circumcised , another man is vncircumcised ; but all this is nothing : Why ? For CHRIST is all in all . Marke it : First , he is all ; that is , there is nothing else required to iustifie : Indeede , if wee were something , and he were not all , we might then looke at something besides ; but he is all . Againe , he is all in all : that is , goe thorow all things that you may thinke will helpe you to saluation , in all those things CHRIST is onely to be respected , and nothing but Christ , whatsoeuer is done without Christ , GOD regards it not ; If you will doe any worke of your owne to helpe your selues in saluation , if you will rest vpon any priuiledges , Christ is not all in all ; but Christ must be all in all in euery thing : and if onely Christ be all , then we must come onely with faith ; for it is faith onely that layes hold vpon Christ. Now a naturall man , hee will not haue Christ to bee all , but himselfe will bee something ; or if Christ be all in some things , he will not haue Christ to be all in euery thing , to haue Christ to be his wisdome , his righteousnesse , his sanctification ; to doe nothing but by Christ ; to haue Christ to be his redemption , not to be able to helpe himselfe without Christ , but that Christ must helpe him out of euery trouble , and bestowe vpon him euery comfort , this , I say , is contrary to the nature of man : therefore we must bee thorowly emptyed of our selues in this matter of reioycing , aswell as in the matter of taking : for in what measure any man sets any price vpon himselfe , so farre as he hath any opinion of himselfe that he is something , iust so farre he detracts from Christ : but when a man boasts not of himselfe at all , such a man reioyceth in GOD altogether , such a man will stand amazed at the height , and breadth , and length , and depth of the loue of GOD ; such a man will be able to see that there are vnsearchable riches in Christ ; such a man will be able to say with Paul , that he cares for nothing , he reckons all things dung , Phil. 3. I haue all the priuiledges ( saith he ) that other men haue ; I am a Jew , I am a Pharise ; but I reckon all these things as dung ; that is , I care for none of them , if I had an hundred more : It is true , I haue beene as strict as any man ; yea , I went beyond others : for I was zealous in that course wherein I was , yet I haue beene taught thus much , that all these things are nothing , for GOD regards them not , he regards nothing but Christ and his righteousnes , therefore I looke not after these things , but that I may be found in him , not hauing mine own righteousnesse , but that righteousnesse that GOD accepteth , which is through faith in him . Therefore , my brethren , learne thus to reioyce in CHRIST , and in GOD , and not in your selues ; this is the most excellent worke that we can performe , it is the worke of the Saints and Angels in Heauen , wee should learne to come as neere them now as we can : In Reu. 7.11 . they cryed with a loud voyce , saying , Saluation commeth by our God , that sitteth vpon the Throne , and by the Lambe ; and therefore , praise , and wisdome , and glory be giuen to God for euermore ; because saluation is from the Lord , and from the Lambe , and not from our selues at all : hence it is that they fell downe , and worshipped him ; and for this cause they all cry , wisdome , and glory , and praise be to our GOD for euermore . If saluation had beene from our selues , if wee had done any thing to helpe our selues therein , there had not been ground of giuing all praise and glory to GOD ; and if this bee the worke of the Saints & Angels , we should labour to performe it as abundantly as we can now : and let vs doe it in good earnest : for if men could be brought to this , to reioyce in GOD alone , their mouthes would bee filled with praise exceedingly , they would regard nothing else , and in the course of their liues they would make it euident to the world , that they were such as made no account of the World , so they might haue CHRIST , they would be content with any condition : for Christ is all in all to them . Thirdly , if it be by faith onely by which we are made partakers of the righteousnesse by which we are saued , then it should teach vs to let other things goe , and principally to minde this matter , to labour to get faith , whatsoeuer become of other things ; for it is that by which we haue saluation . The Papists , they teach that workes are the maine , and many things they prescribe that men must doe : our Doctrine is , you see , that faith onely is required : Indeede , many things follow vpon faith , but faith is that you must onely labour for , and then the rest will follow vpon it . This Doctrine of ours , you shall finde that it is deliuered cleerely in Gal. 5.5 , 6. We waite , through the Spirit , for the hope of righteousnesse , which is through faith . That is , we looke for nothing from the Law , we regard no workes at all in the matter of iustification ; that which we looke for , is onely that righteousnes which is taken by faith : and why doe wee so ? For , saith he , in Christ Iesus , neither circumcision is any thing , nor vncircumcision , but faith , &c. As if he should say , there is good reason why we should expect saluation onely by faith , because nothing else will helpe vs in that worke , circumcision is nothing , nor vncircumcision is nothing : by those two hee meanes all other things , that is , the hauing of all the priuiledges in the world , the doing of all the workes that can be done , faith is all in all ; but it must be such a faith as workes by loue ; though it be by faith onely , yet it is not an idle faith : therefore you are especially to labour for faith . There are many other excellencies that we are capable of , many morall vertues , such as Aristotle and Socrates haue described ; but without faith , GOD regards none of these : take one that is a wicked man , and take another , let him be neuer so vertuous , as Socrates , and Seneca , that were the strictest in morality of all the Heathen ; nay , take any man that liues in the Church , that liues the most strict and exact life , and yet is not iustified by faith , God makes no difference betweene these men , the one is as neere to heauen as the other , GOD lookes vpon them both with the same eye ; for he regards nothing without faith . He that is the most prophane and vngodly , if he come with faith , he shall obtaine Christ ; the other that hath all other morall Vertues in the most exact manner , without faith , they shall doe him no good : therefore we are to seeke for nothing in the matter of iustification , but how we may be enabled to beleeue , we are principally to study this matter of faith . Take such a one as Socrates , and such a one as Saint Paul , it may be Socrates might bee outwardly as temperate , and as patient , and be indued with as many excellencies , hee might appeare in his carriage as strict as Saint Paul ; but here is the great difference , The one doth what hee doth of himselfe , and through himselfe , and for himselfe ; the other doth what hee doth of CHRIST , and through CHRIST , and for CHRIST : therefore faith mainely is requisite . If we had all other excellencies , yet we shall finde this in them , that they doe alway giue something to the creature . Againe , if you goe neuer so farre in them , yet you shall finde that there is some imperfection in them . But faith it emptieth the creature of all things , it leaueth nothing in a man , it makes him leane and rest only vpon CHRIST , and vpon his righteousnesse for saluation . Againe , faith worketh in vs a loue to GOD : for , we hauing nothing in our selues , but all that we haue being from him , we cannot but loue him againe . Againe , faith presenteth to God a perfect righteousnes , and therfore God only accepts it : for God must be iust , and nothing can satisfie the Justice of GOD , but a righteousnes that is perfect , nothing can attaine a righteousnesse that is perfect , but onely faith , labour therefore to beleeue this , and to turne all your study and care how to get faith . My beloued , this is a thing that we are bound to preach to you ; this is the summe of that Doctrine that CHRIST so often preached when he was vpon the Earth , Beleeue , for the Kingdome of God is at hand : this is the summe of all the Doctrine of the Apostles , it was all they had to doe , to perswade men to beleeue : What was the summe of all Pauls Doctrine ? We goe vp and downe , saith he , from place to place , witnessing both to Iewes and Gentiles , &c. So it is our part , when we come to preach to you , when we come to dispense to you that which is for the nourishment of your soules , we must doe as those Stewards that set bread and salt vpon the Table , whatsoeuer other dish there is ; so we should alway preach Christ , and perswade you to beleeue in him , and stir you vp to turne the streame of your endeuours after the obtaining of that faith that taketh this righteousnesse ; the principall thing we are to look vnto , is , to see from what Fountaine that that we haue comes ; if a man haue neuer so many vertues in him , if they arise not from this fountaine , if they spring not from this roote , they are nothing , GOD lookes vpon them without acceptance or delight . Againe , this is that that you are to doe in hearing , that which you are chiefly to looke after , is , how to get faith ; and therfore if men will employ their strength and their endeuours , and busie themselues to attaine such and such vertues , it is but as the watering of the branches , and to let the roote alone ; faith is the roote ; that is , it is that that makes all acceptable to GOD : for what is the difference betweene Christianity and Morality , and without this , what is our preaching ? Wee may gather welneere as good instructions to resist vice , ouf of Plutarch , and out of Seneca , as out of Pauls Epistles , but this differenceth it , that we preach CHRIST , and from Christ wee deriue ability and strength to doe all things else , and that makes all else to be acceptable ; so that this is it that you must looke after , to haue CHRIST , to receiue all from him , to doe all for him ; for these are reciprocall , vnlesse you thinke you haue all from CHRIST , you will neuer doe all for him ; when wee thinke CHRIST is alsufficient , we will be perfect with him againe . But , by the way , in this you see not onely the difference betweene morall vertues , and those in a true Christian , which is godlinesse , that they come from different fountaines , and looke to different ends ; but you see also the difference betweene those shewes of strictnesse that are among the Papists , and that sincerity of life that wee preach vnto you , which is an effect of this faith : for , if you marke it , you shall find that all that they doe , either is without Christ , or addes to Christ ; they thinke they shall bee saued for doing such and such things , which prepare and fit them for saluation , they looke mainely to the workes of humbling the body , and doing many actions of mortification , but still Christ onely is not sought after in all this . But now looke to the Doctrine that we haue deliuered , it is CHRIST that we preach , it is faith that we preach vnto you . It is true , wee preach those things too , we lay the same necessity vpon you of doing good workes , we stirre you vp to holinesse of life , and mortification ; but here is the difference , wee deriue it all from Christ by faith , we say that faith doth all . Indeed when you haue faith , if that faith be right , it will worke by loue : here then you see the difference , we doe the same things , but we deriue all from a iustifying faith , laying hold vpon CHRIST ; and so loue to him , and all other graces doe arise from this . Againe , a fourth Vse of this point is this , If saluation be onely by faith , then we should learne hence to goe with boldnesse to GOD , to take the promises , and to reckon them sure to vs. If something else had beene required on our part , wee should then haue gone with a great deale of doubting to GOD ; but now , seeing there is nothing required , but only to goe and take it , this should make vs to goe with boldnesse to the Throne of Grace , to come with assurance that we shall speed . And therefore in the businesse of seeking to GOD for the remission of our sinnes , ( which indeed is the greatest businesse that wee haue to doe ) what greater comfort can there bee , then to haue this assurance , that if wee come to GOD for it , we shall not faile nor be deceiued of it ? For the present occasion of receiuing the Sacrament : What is the end of the Sacrament , but to preach faith ? The Sacrament preacheth that to your outward senses , that we doe to your vnderstandings ; it presenteth to the eye , that which wee now preach to the eare : for what is the Couenant of GOD in the Gospell , but onely this ? GOD offers Christ vnto you freely , as the Bread and Wine is giuen vnto you . To vs a Sonne is giuen , &c. Againe , we take him , and binde our selues to obey him , and to loue him , to be to him alone , to marry him , to make him our Lord and our Husband . Now in the Sacrament both these are done : when the Bread and Wine are offered , they are but a resemblance of the offer of CHRIST . Indeed there is a blessing in it : for it is Gods Ordinance , it increaseth this grace of faith . And againe , there is a bond on our part , wherein wee tye our selues to obey CHRIST . Now if any of you will offer to come , and yet haue not giuen vp your selues to GOD in good earnest , you receiue your own condemnation , you are diuorsed from CHRIST , and married to the World ; and this is to receiue the Sacrament vnworthily . The maine end of the Sacrament , is to increase faith , and saluation is ours by faith ; therefore wee should come with boldnesse , and lay hold vpon the promises of it . We should doe in this case as Ioab did , lay hold vpon the hornes of the Altar ; that is , take hold vpon CHRIST , and remember that sure word of promise , To vs a Sonne is giuen , to vs a Child is borne . And , Let whosoeuer will , come and take of the waters of life freely . Goe thorow the whole Booke of GOD , all the promises therein are as so many grounds for faith to build vpon ; it is impossible that God should slay you , if you come and lay hold of the hornes of the Altar . If you will take Christ , and receiue these promises , and rest on them , it is impossible but that God should performe them , he hath bound himselfe to performe what he hath said , in 1 Ioh. 1.9 . If we acknowledge our sinnes , he is faithfull and iust to forgiue them : As if he were vniust and vnfaithfull if he should not doe it . His Oath is passed , hee hath added an Oath to his promise , that by 2. immutable witnesses it should stand firme . We should doe in this case as Iacob did , after he had once a promise from GOD , when he meetes his brother Esau , Lord , ( saith hee ) Thou hast promised to doe me good , therefore deliuer me from the hand of my brother . So , when we haue a promise , and GOD hath said , Hee that will take CHRIST shall be saued , and CHRIST is freely giuen , and the pardon is generall , therefore what should hinder vs ? Vrge GOD vpon his promise , wrastle with GOD , as Iacob did , and let him not goe without a blessing ; wrastling implyes resisting , it is a signe GOD resisted him for a time : so , it may be , GOD will deny thee a great while , yet continue thou to seeke him , let him not goe , he cannot deny thee in the end , thou shalt haue the blessing at the last : we should learne thus to importune GOD ; tell him , Lord , I haue a sure promise , and thou hast made the pardon generall , and I am sure I come within the number of that Comission : Goe and preach the Gospell to euery creature , goe and tell euery man vnder heauen , that Christ is offered to him , he is freely giuen to him by GOD the Father , and there is nothing required of you , but that you marry him , nothing but to accept of him ; here is a word sure enough , if there were nothing else but this . Therfore learne to doe in this as the Woman of Canaan did , though Christ denyed her , yet she would not giue ouer : for she had this ground to build vpon , that he was Iesus , he was the Sonne of Dauid , he was mercifull , and shee had exceeding great neede of him , and therefore she would not giue ouer ; so , I say , hauing this ground for your faith , goe to GOD with boldnesse , and neuer giue ouer ; it is impossible ( if you seeke him in good earnest , with all your heart ) but that he should receiue you . It is true indeed , hee giues to some sooner then he doth to others ; with some he deales as he did with the Woman of Canan ; to some he giues an answer quickly , some againe hee defers longer , and he will put vs to the tryall . CHRIST dealeth differently with his children , he doth with vs sometimes as the vniust Iudge , he turnes the deafe eare to vs , or like the man that was in bed with his children , and was vnwilling to rise ; but what saith the Text ? Luk. 11.6 . though he would not doe it for him as a friend , yet his importunity makes him rise and lend him : so thou thinkst ( it may be ) GOD is not thy friend , yet by thy importunity he will rise at the last ; therefore , though thou finde GOD to be as an enemy , though he be neuer so backward to rise , yet giue not ouer , I can assure thee , as certainely as there is any truth in the Booke of GOD , thou shalt be heard in the end , Heauen and Earth shall passe away before this sure Word shall perish . It is Gods manner to put men to the tryall , and it is his wisdome so to doe , otherwise , he would haue many that would be forward at the first , that would fall off in the end . It was Naomies wisdome to bid her Daughter Ruth goe backe to her kindred , but shee would not , she stood it out : I will goe ( saith she ) where thou goest , and nothing but death shall part betweene me and thee . When Naomi saw that she was stedfastly minded , she tooke her along with her . So , if GOD should receiue men at the first , many men would come in , and take hold vpon Christ , and make a profession of his Name , but they would not hold out to the end with him : But when CHRIST shall tell them , I haue not so much as a place to lay my head in , if thou wilt haue me , thou must deny thy selfe , and take vp thy Crosse , and thou shalt finde a great deale of trouble , and suffer persecution ; If a man now , notwithstanding this , will not be beaten off from Christ , but , though Christ turne the deafe eare to him for the present , and present to him all manner of difficulties , yet if he will , notwithstanding all this , be constant still in importuning God to haue CHRIST , when GOD shall see that his mind is thus set , he will take him along with him , hee will be thine , and thou shalt be his , his people shall be thy people : this is it that knits the knot betweene you : My Beloued is mine , and I am his ; his Word is passed for it , he hath promised his consent , now if we will giue ours , the match is made . If it were doubtfull whether wee should haue his consent , it were another case ; but we haue a sure Word for it , wee should learne therefore to importune him . Now when we haue done this , when wee are come with this boldnesse , and haue laid hold vpon CHRIST , then let vs looke to the priuiledges , then let vs take the pardon of our sinnes , adoption , and reconciliation , and all things else , only remember that condition of after-obedience , that though wee may come freely , and come with this boldnesse , and though nothing be required , but that we take this Sonne of GOD that is offered , yet , I say , there is a condition of after-obedience , wee must resolue to serue him , and to loue him with all our heart , we must resolue to doe that that Ruth promiseth to Naomi , to liue with him , and to be with him , and that his people shall be our people , &c. But you will say , I am willing to doe this , to part from my lusts , and to be to CHRIST alone , but I am not able , my lusts are strong and preualent . To this I answer , If thou bee but willing , Christ desires no more : I would but aske thee this , Suppose that thou wert able to ouercome those lusts ; take a man that is strongly giuen to good-fellowship , ( as they call it ) to company-keeping , that is giuen to fornication , to swearing , or whatsoeuer the sinne bee , take any preualent lust that is in any man that now heareth me , I would aske him this Question ; Put the case thou wert able to get the victory ouer thy lust , wouldst thou be content to part with it , and to take CHRIST ? If thou sayest , No , I had rather enioy the sweetnesse of my lusts still , Art thou not now worthy to be condemned ? But if thou answer , I would , vpon condition I were able to ouercome my lusts ; I assure thee , GOD will make thee able , GOD requires no more but a willingnesse to come , and take CHRIST , the other is Gods worke . I , but I haue tryed , and haue not found it so . I answer , it cannot be , thou hast not yet solued to part with thy lusts , thou hast not yet set downe this peremptory conclusion in thy selfe , that thou wilt forsake euery thing that you may haue CHRIST : If any man say he is willing to take CHRIST , and to part with the sweetnesse , and the pleasantnesse , and the profitablenesse that his lust brings to him , if he could get the victory , if hee were freed from the sollicitations of them : Let me tell thee , thou must first resolue to take Christ vpon his owne conditions , and for the other , GOD hath promised to doe that himselfe : 1. Cor. 8.9 . God will confirme you , and keepe you blamelesse ; for he is faithfull that hath called you to the fellowship of his Sonne . As if hee should haue said , Doe you thinke that GOD will call men to CHRIST , that he will beseech men to take his Sonne , will he call you to the fellowship of his Sonne , and will hee not keepe you blameles ? he hath promised it , and sworn it , if he should not doe it , hee should be vnfaithfull ; when GOD calleth you to come vnto Christ , he promiseth that the vertue of Christs death shall kill sinne in you , and that the vertue of Christs Resurrection shall raise you vp to newnesse of life ; GOD hath promised that he will giue the Holy Ghost : for he neuer giues his Sonne to any , but he giues them the Spirit of his Sonne too . Now , Hee that hath called you is faithfull , and he will doe it . So that I say , if thou wilt come in , ( that is ) if thou wilt accept of CHRIST vpon his conditions , it is certaine GOD will receiue thee ; and if thou find thy selfe troubled with the violence of any lust , or of any temptation , presse vpon GOD , vrge him with his Word and promise , that he would assist thee by his own strength , that he would enable thee to ouercome , that he would giue thee the Spirit of his Sonne , and resolue as Iob , Though he kill me , yet will I trust in him : for I haue a sure promise , Heauen and Earth shall passe , but not one tittle of his sure Word shall passe till it be fulfilled . Now because this is a point of much moment , this laying hold vpon the promises , and because it is a thing that is not easily done , therefore I will shew you these two things . The first is this , that the vnderstanding must be rightly informed , what ground a man hath to doe it ; when a man comes to beleeue the forgiuenesse of his sinnes , let him not thinke , I haue a perswasion that my sinnes are forgiuen , therefore they are forgiuen , but a man must labour to see the ground of it : for , a thing is not true because wee are perswaded it is so ; but the thing is first true , and then we beleeue it : GOD hath first offered forgiuenesse of sinnes to you , and then you looke vpon his Word , and so beleeue it ; But , I say , when a man is perswaded in a confused manner , without any iust ground , without a cleere knowledge of the progresse of faith , how it goeth along , this is not right , this keepeth many from assurance , because they are not cleerely instructed in it : For , to the end that faith may take hold of the promise , that it may be sure to vs , we must conceiue of the right method , and that stands in these foure things . First , we must see our owne condition , we must be sicke before we can seeke to the Physician , we must see our selues to be condemned men , that there is nothing in vs to helpe our selues ; wee must be broken in heart in some measure , wee must see our selues to bee children of wrath , and then we will come and seeke for a remedy ; and that is , By looking into the Booke of GOD , ( and that is the second thing ) and there I finde all the promises , CHRIST is there cleerely offered , onely with this condition required , that I must obey him , and serue him , and loue him ; so that that is the second thing , CHRIST is offered in the Scriptures to euery one , and if you haue him , you shall haue a pardon of your sinnes with him ; onely he is offered with condition of obedience : Well , when you see this cleerely , now you come to consider it , you begin to ponder this Word , whether it be so or no , a man begins to thinke , Is this a sure promise ? and then he sees , that looke what certainety there is of the Scriptures in generall , there is the same certainety in these particular promises : so that with the same faith that a man is to beleeue the Word of GOD , with the same faith he is to beleeue this offer of CHRIST . I , but is it sure to me ? Then a man lookes to the generality of the promise , that it is offered to all , none excepted , and therefore , saith hee , it is offered to me . But will Christ doe to me as hee hath promised , is he powerfull and willing to doe it ? Then a man lookes into the Word , and finds that he is Almighty , that he is able to make him the Sonne of God , that whatsoeuer Christ hath by nature , he shall haue it by matching with him : Indeede Christ hath it immediately as he is the Sonne of GOD , but wee haue it mediately , as the Wife hath the riches of her Husband . If a Woman marry the Kings Sonne , she hath the same priuiledges , and the same inheritance that he hath : so , whatsoeuer CHRIST hath becomes ours : Paul , and Apollo , and all are CHRIST'S , the World is CHRIST'S , and all things present and to come are CHRIST'S , and they are all made ours . Now when this is well pondered , and we finde that wee haue a sure Word to confirme this , Then , in the third place , we come and take him , and this no man will doe indeed , till he haue well considered , as the saying is of marriage , that it is a bestowing of ones selfe vpon such a one , so it is in this ; euery one therefore should consider before-hand , what it is to bestow himselfe vpon CHRIST , and when this is done , that we haue made the match , and bestowed our selues vpon CHRIST , then , In the next place , we come to see what we shall haue by him , and then we come to make vse of all that CHRIST brings with him , reconciliation , and pardon of sinne , and all things else that he hath , I haue with him , I am the sonne of God , and I shall be sanctified ; ( for together with him I haue his Spirit , ) all my prayers shall be heard , all the promises in the Booke of GOD are mine ; for In him they are all Yea and Amen : as all the World is his , so it is all the wealth of a Christian after he hath taken CHRIST . Now when this is distinctly propounded to vs , and wee conceiue it aright , it makes the way much more easie to vs ; but when we goe on in a confused manner , because the Gospell is not cleerely vnderstood by vs , hence it is that wee labour much , and yet the thing is not done : therefore , my beloued , if you haue a perswasion of the forgiuenesse of your sinnes , if it bee but a meere perswasion , it will alter exceedingly , it will goe and come in the time of temptation ; but when you haue a sure Word , when you haue built your selues vpon the Scriptures , it is not dependant vpon your perswasion , but it is the Word that you rest vpon : For fancie , and opinion , and perswasion , it will grow sometimes longer , and sometimes shorter , as the shaddow doth , whereas the body of the thing is the same ; but when your eye is vpon the Word , when you rest vpon that , then your perswasion will continue the same as the Word continues . Indeed , your comfort may be sometimes more , sometimes lesse ; but when it is pitched vpon the sure Word , that is it that will bring you comfort in the working of it , to obserue the method and degrees of it . Indeed , my beloued , it is a point of another nature to beleeue then the world thinks of ; therefore examine , and recall , and vnderstand this Doctrine that we haue now taught you distinctly , it will be worth all your labour , for the present you shall haue a good conscience , and the assurance of Gods fauour , and when death comes , the right vnderstanding of it will be worth all the world besides . It is said of the second ground , that they fell away , because they had no roote in themselues : they had some root , but their faith was pitched vpon a generall Doctrine , vpon a generall perswasion , that hath a kinde of roote , but it hath no roote in it selfe : so many Christians goe farre , and they doe much , but they haue no roote in themselues , that is , they doe not vnderstand distinctly , and throughly , the grounds vpon which their faith is built , they see not a sure ground for it in the Word of GOD , they know not how faith is built vpon the ●ure corner stone ; for CHRIST is that sure corner stone , he that is built vpon him shall neuer be ashamed , wee should learne therefore not to giue ouer till wee be rooted and grounded . If a man should aske many peop●e , What is the reason that you are perswaded that your sinnes are forgiuen ? ( for you ought to build that vpon an infallible ground ) I● it be no more but because you are perswaded , it is nothing ; but if you can say , My sinnes are forgiuen , because I haue Christ , and he that hath the Sonne hath life , I haue the sure Word of God for it , God cannot lye , he is Truth it selfe that hath said it , and he hath offered CHRIST to euery creature vnder Heauen ; then is the ground good , thou maist take him boldly , being within that number . So much for this time . FINIS . OF FAITH . The fourth Sermon . ROM . 1.17 . For by it the righteousnesse of God is reuealed from Faith to Faith : As it is written , The iust shall liue by Faith. THe next thing to bee done is this , to draw the will to take the promises ; for , though the vnderstanding rightly apprehend all that is deliuered in the Word , yet except the will bee bowed , except we incline , and be willing to embrace these offers , and willingly take Christ vpon these conditions , the thing is not done ; for , I say , iustifying faith is as well in the will as in the vnderstanding : for that which I deliuer now , is built vpon that which I deliuered before ; and I speake chiefly to those that vnderstand the premises , or else you will not fully vnderstand that we are now about . But seeing that the will hath a part in faith as well as the vnderstanding , the second thing is to draw the will : But how is that done ? This is the worke of God , hee onely hath the soueraignety ouer the will and affections of a man , it is the great prerogatiue of GOD , when a businesse is to be done with the will and affections , GOD must perswade it , as in Noah's speech , God perswade Iapheth to dwell in the Tents of Sem : As if he should say , I may perswade in vaine , except GOD put to his hand to the worke : So it is the property of the Spirit to conuince ; as Ioh. 16. The Spirit shall conuince the World of sinne and righteousnesse . That is , he shall shew men their sinnes , and their neede , and withall conuince them , and perswade them to take Christs righteousnes . Thus I say , it is GOD that draweth the will , it is he that puts a strong instinct into the heart of man , it is he that must worke on the heart , as in Ioh. 6.44 . None can come to me except the Father draw him . How shall that be done ? If GOD doth once draw a man , hee will haue no rest till he haue Christ , hee will not bee at quiet till he haue gotten him : compare that place , None come to me except the Father draw him , with that Cant. 2.3 . Draw vs , and we will runne after thee , it is not such drawing as when a man is drawne by force , but it is a drawing which is done by changing the will and affections , when GOD alters the bent of the mind , when GOD iustifies a man , hee will affect a mans heart so , that hee shall bee so affected with Christ , as that he shall haue no rest till he haue him ; when he doth see his neede of him , he shall not giue ouer , till he be assured that he is reconciled to him : Draw vs , and we will runne after thee : It is such a drawing as is called the teaching of GOD : Ioh. 6.45 . Ye shall be taught of God : that is , when GOD comes to teach a thing , he boweth the will and affections to doe it . Wee heeretofore exemplified this by the similitude of the Ant , and the Bee , and other creatures , they are said to be taught of GOD , when GOD puts a strong instinct into them to doe such and such a thing , he teacheth them to doe this and this : So GOD teacheth men to come to Christ , that is , he puts a strong inclination into their hearts , and when that is there once , they can haue no rest ; as the Iron cannot rest till it come to the Loadstone , and as the stone cannot rest till it come to the center , so the heart of man , when GOD draweth it , when hee hath changed the will , then hee findes such a disposition in him as was in the Spouse , Cant. 2. She fought him whom her soule loued , she sought him by night , and by day , she sought him in the street , and among the Watchmen , and neuer rested vntill shee had found him : So when GOD hath drawne a mans heart , when hee hath inclined a mans will to embrace Christ , hee is neuer satisfied vntill he haue found him . But , you will say , GOD doth this by meanes , he vseth Arguments to draw the will. It is true , The Question therefore is , How GOD doth this : we will propound 3. meanes by which GOD doth vsually doe it . First , the will is drawne , by being perswaded what the miserable condition of a man is that is not yet come to CHRIST , that hath not yet taken him , that hath not gotten the pardon and forgiuenesse of his sinnes , that hath not got assurance that Christ hath receiued him to mercy . The second thing is , the good that he shall get by it . The third thing is , that he shall not lose his labour if he doe attempt it . The first thing , I say , that drawes vs to CHRIST , is to consider how miserable wee are without him , if men were perswaded of this , they would more seeke him . It is true , if a man could liue alone he would not come to him : take Rebels , & Pyrates , if they were able to maintaine themselues abroad , if they could be as happy in rebellion as in receiuing mercie , they would neuer come in : So it is in this case , If we be brought to this exigent , that we see wee cannot hold out any longer , we are not stronger then he , as the Apostle saith , 1 Cor. 10. Are we stronger then he ? when a man is perswaded of that , when a man seeth this necessity is laid vpon him , or else he perisheth , then he will come in : So take a seruant or a sonne , if he be able to liue from his Father , or Masters house , perhaps he will run at ryot still ; but when he seeth he cannot haue so much as huskes , hee can haue nothing to sustaine him , that is it that will bring him home : So take a Wife , a Spouse , if one come to wooe her , if she be able to liue without him , it may be she will refuse him , but if the case be so that she cannot subsist , but the Creditors will come vpon her , she must needs haue a Husband to protect her , to be a barre and a couering vnto her , now she seeth a necessity of it : Therefore we say the Law driues men vnto CHRIST , and the Law doth it by shewing a man his sinne , and the curse due to it , by shewing a man his vilenesse , and if this will not doe it , then it shewes him the curse ; when a man sees the misery that the Law brings vpon him , and pronounceth against him , that he is condemned , that perswades him : Therefore the Law drawes a man , and the sence of his misery , shewing him that hee is out of CHRIST , this drawes him to consider that GOD is his enemy , that all the creatures are his enemies , : for if GOD bee thine enemy , then needes must all the creatures be so , because they turne with him to and fro , as an Armie turnes at the becke of the Generall . Now to haue GOD and the creatures to bee a mans enemy , to haue euery thing to worke together for a mans hurt ; prosperity slaies him , and aduersity is not a Plaster or Medicine , but a poyson to him , euery thing ioynes for his hurt ; the Word , which is the sauour of life to others , is the sauour of death to him ; the Sacraments , which are a meanes to conuey grace and assurance to others , it is a meanes to conuey Satan to his heart , it increaseth his condemnation and his iudgement , when the wrath of GOD abides vpon a man ; t●at is , it shall be vpon him for eternity hereafter : for he that hath not the Sonne , hath not life , Ioh. 3. vlt. when a man seriously considers all this , when he seeth what case he is in , that he cannot liue without CHRIST , this will be one thing that boweth and inclineth the will to come in and take CHRIST : but this is not all . But in the second place , a man will know what good he shall haue by such a Husband ; and indeed , if this were all , hee could neuer marry out of loue , and if he doe not , it can be no match : Therefore we must finde some good , some excellencie in CHRIST ; and this is the second thing that drawes the will , If we take him , we shall haue all his wealth , and all his honour , all the ioy and pleasure he can afford , we shall haue all his wealth ; that is , goe to the whole Vniuerse , and see what there is profitable or comfortable to the sons of men , and all that is ours , whether it be Paul , or Apollo , or Cephas , or the world , or life , or death , or things present , or things to come , all is yours , you are Christs , and Christ is Gods , all this is yours . As for the things of the world , if we take him once , we haue all these : would not a man desire all these , Is not this a strong argument to moue a man to take Christ , that all the Angels in Heauen , all the excellent Ministers on the Earth , ( that are next to Angels ) they are all his seruants ; God hath bestowed these gifts for his sake , they are set aworke for the furthering of his saluation : and the Angels , you know , are ministring Spirits , sent forth for the good of the Elect ; for the World , as the Apostle saith , that is , whatsoeuer is in the World , all the good and all the euill in the world , euen that euill doth him seruice , the afflictions , and persecutions , and stormes , driue him to his hauen , aswell as faire gales ; euery thing scoures him , doth him some good or other , all in the world is his , both life and death ; that is , whatsoeuer belongs to this life or another , all is for his seruice ; & not that only , but when death comes , that a man thinks is the greatest enemy ; that there is no good in death , yet that doth him good , it heales our sins , it is a meanes of happines ; in a word , when the Apostle could say no more , things present , or things to come ; for a man should looke to both : as heauen will not content him without the things of this life , so the things of this life will not content him without Heauen ; but when there is both , the minde is satisfied . Now when a man considers what wealth he hath by Christ , and againe , that he shall haue all his honour ; now looke what honour Christ hath , the same he hath by matching with him ; hauing him wee haue all things : If a man could enter into a serious consideration of this , to thinke that he is a King , that he is an heyre of all things , that all the promises doe belong to him ; doe but thinke with your selues , if any of you should be raised from a meane ordinary condition , to bee made an earthly Prince , how would you bee affected with it ? would it not put other thoughts into you ? Why should you not beleeue spirituall priuiledges to be as reall ? Why should you not reioyce more in them ? they are more durable , they are more excellent , they haue all in them the other haue : Indeede they are things that are not seene with the eye , they are spirituall , they are things that are enioyed and reserued for afterward , but yet there is much for the present : Learne to consider this , and it would draw and moue you ; but because these things are looked on with a generall eye , as matters of fancy and speculation , they are looked on as things that are rather talked of , we see no such thing , we haue no feeling of them , therefore wee doe not affect them : but we should labour to beleeue this : The Scripture often mentions and repeates this , Yee are a Royall Priesthood , Heyres with CHRIST . Labour to come to this disjunction , if these things be not so , why doe you beleeue them at all ? if they be so , why doe you not reioyce in them , proportionable to these priuiledges ? And so for Joy ; at his right hand there are Joyes and pleasures for euermore . And as it is so for eternity , so the neerer wee draw to him in this life , the more pleasure we haue ; for he is the God of all comfort , the neerer we are to him , the more comfort , all the wayes of wisdome are wayes of pleasure , because they leade neerer to GOD who is the cause of all comfort , So that is the second thing to consider , the good you shall haue by CHRIST when once you see how miserable you are without him , and that you shall gaine so much by him . Now in the third place , there is one thing remaining , How shall I haue him ? I may attempt it , and goe without him , I may seeke , and be denyed : and therefore , in the third place , you shall be sure to obtaine ; that is a great meanes to encourage vs to come vnto him , when you see you shall not faile , there is nothing can hinder on your part , as you haue heard of in the precedent condition ; there is required but an earnest hunger and thirst after him , he iustifies the vngodly , and therefore nothing can hinder on your parts : and therefore if any thing hinder it , it must be on GODS part . Now what is there on GODS part that hinders ? He hath promised , and bound himselfe , and he will not goe from his Word , he will not deny himselfe : and therefore when there is no hinderance on neither part , then why doe you not beleeue ? If you will consider Christ , and see how he describes himselfe in the Word , if you looke vnto all those arguments that are propounded vnto vs therein , to perswade vs , you will make no question , but if you are willing to come , you are sure to receiue him , you shall haue remission of all your sinnes : 1 If you consider , first those speeches in E●●kiel , I desire not the death of a sinner : and Why will ye dye , O ye house of Israel ? such expostulations are very frequent ; Oh that my people would returne : and How often would I haue gathered you , as the Henne gathereth her Chickens : I say , these are the speeches of GOD , and GOD speakes as he meanes ; you shall finde by the manner , and the fashion , and the figure of the speeches , that GOD desires it earnestly : Why will ye dye , O ye house of Israel ? by way of interrogations : and , Oh that my people would doe thus and thus : Euen this GOD desires , that a sinner would returne . There is no action that God doth , but he doth it willingly , that he forgiues sinners , that hee receiues those men that will come home vnto him . You see in the Father of the Prodigall , that doth expresse the disposition of GOD , hee runnes to meete his Sonne , hee was the forwarder of the two , hee fals vpon him , and kisseth him , hee could not expresse his ioy for his comming home : such is the disposition of GOD : I take no delight , as I ●●ue , saith the LORD , in the death of a sinner : but rather that he should liue . And therefore when GOD saith it , wee haue a surer Word , you should better thinke of it , vndoubtedly hee will receiue you to mercie . Againe , 2 consider how Christ did in the daies of his flesh , how he behaued himself then , was he not exceeding gentle to all that came vnto him , exceeding compassionate and pittifull , ready to heale euery one , ready to doe any thing that was requested of him , that he denyed not any that was importunate with him : do you thinke that he hath put off that disposition ; is he not the same still ? as it is in the Hebrewes , Is he not a mercifull High Priest still ? and that the bowels of compassion in him melt ouer a straying sinner , and is ready to receiue him , his bowels yearne within him , and ther●fore doubt not but the Lord will receiue you . Againe , 3 of necessity hee must receiue you , or else the blood of CHRIST were in vaine , his Crosse and death were of none effect : What now can make the death of CHRIST to be of none effect , but when it is not regarded , when his blood is trampled vnder feere and despised of men , when it doth no good , when it is not improued for the purpose it was shed for ? Doe you thinke that GOD sent his onely Sonne from Heauen , to dye a cursed death , and would hee haue his blood shed in vaine ? Now except hee should receiue poore sinners when they come , the death of CHRIST should be of none effect : And therefore it cannot be but GOD must be ready to receiue them . So that there is no difficulty in him , all the difficulty is in our selues , we are not willing to come . 4 Againe , if we consider what he hath done for others , how many hee hath receiued to mercie , when one sees such Rebels receiued to mercie , and considers with himselfe , and thinkes how he gaue pardon to Manasses of his sinnes , which were crying sinnes , and of an extraordinary nature , sinnes that were of long continuance ; he forgaue Mary Magdalens sinnes , he forgaue these greater sinners , and why should he not forgiue me ? If one should come to a Physician , of whom he hath heard a great fame , and if he should meet with hundreds by the way of his Patients , and all of them should tell him he hath cured them , and healed them , it would encourage a man to go on with confidence . Or if one should come to a Well of which he hath heard much , and should meete with hundreds of people by the way , and all of them should tell him , we haue beene at the Well , and it hath cured vs , and made vs whole , this would encourage a man to goe with confidence , because of the multitude that haue tryed the experience of it : so we should runne to CHRIST ; when so many thousands haue beene forgiuen , why should not these perswade vs that he is ready to forgiue vs , as Paul saith , he hath shewed mercy to me , that others might beleeue in GOD , I am an example for them to trust in God : therefore when we see he hath forgiuen others so many and so great sins , why should we doubt ? Againe , if CHRIST should not be ready to receiue vs , no flesh should be saued , nor there is no man that would feare him , or heare him ; Psal. 130.3 . there the same argument is vsed ; If thou , Lord , shouldst marke iniquity , who should stand ? but there is mercy with thee that thou maist be feared . That is , if GOD should not be pittifull to mankinde , and ready to receiue them , notwithstanding their manifold failings , and infirmities , and rebellions they are subiect vnto , no flesh should be saued , but all the world should perish . Againe , 5 not so onely , but GOD himselfe should not be worshipped , men would not regard him ; men would not serue him : Therefore , I say , of necessity GOD must haue mercy vpon men , that they may feare him , and serue him , and that men may be willing to serue . Take a hard Master , a cruell King , a man that shuts out men , and excludes them that haue no hope , there is none that will serue such a man , there is no man that will come in to him ; but there is mercy with the Lord that he may be feared and worshipped , and men may come in and worship him : and therefore doubt not but Christ is willing to receiue you . If all this will not perswade you , yet in Esay 55. there is one thing more , 6 if it will not enter into your thoughts ; If you thinke your condition be such , if you thinke your sinnes so circumstantiated , as I may say , that they are committed in such a manner , that you thinke , though others haue beene forgiuen , yet you cannot , it passeth your thoughts , you know not how to imagine it ; yet know , his mercie is aboue all : a man must hold that conclusion still . And if this alone will not perswade me , yet when all this is put together , when I see the misery of a man without CHRIST , when I see I shall be happy with him , when I see it is of necessity , and if I come I shall certainely be receiued , he cannot refuse me , all this will helpe to perswade a man ; this you should learne to presse vpon your own hearts , wee that are the Ministers of CHRIST are bound to doe it : and therefore he hath sent vs out to compell men to come in , that his House may be full : therefore he commands them to goe vnto the high-way , and vnto the hedges , and compell men to come in . ( And what is that ? ) That is , be so importunate with them , promise them , threaten them , command them in the Name of Christ to consent and come in , GOD would faine haue his House filled , he hath killed his fatlings , hee would not haue his Table ready , and haue no guests ; he would haue his House filled , that his Table might not be prepared in vaine ▪ and that it may not be in vaine , we are to inuite you to this marriage , we are to inuite you to these fatlings , to this Wine and Milke ; it is a banquet , and a banquet you know what it is ; In a banquet there is as much as will cheere the body , a concourse of all pleasant things ; Such things are in Christ , there is spirituall comfort , a concourse , a heape of all spirituall ioy and comfort , of all precious things you can finde ; and if you will come and taste , you shall haue all his Jewels , all his Graces , to beautifie and to adorne you withall : let this perswade you to come in . But some may object , If I come in , I must lose my right eye , or my right hand , I must part with my lusts , which are as deare to me as these members . I will be briefe for t●is point , because I will finish the Text at this time , and will answer it euen as CHRIST doth , Matth. 5. It is true , we must doe so , but then remember we shall haue heauen for our labour : if Heauen be not worthy losing of a right eye , or a right hand , keepe thine eye still , if thou wilt needs keepe it , but thou shalt be sure to goe to hell : There needs no other answer , doe but seriously consider of this ; If I will , I may keepe this lust , this fleshly desire , but certainely that will leade me to hell . Let that answer serue for this . But it may bee further obiected , If I doe thus , I must deny my selfe , and this is a difficult thing for a man to offer violence to himselfe , to crosse himselfe in all his desires , a man is able to doe much , he may be willing to take great paines , and to suffer much , but to crosse himselfe still of his most inward desires that he hath , those that are most rooted in the soule , that sticke neere and close vnto him , this is difficult . I answer , CHRIST is worthy of all these , thou shalt prouide better for thy selfe by doing this , there is another life in the regenerate part , and it perfects that , though you destroy the flesh , and offer violence vnto that , yet there is the inward man that is growing vp daily , though the outward man faile : It is true , violence must be offered to the flesh , you must be content to part with pleasures , and the outward man in that sense must suffer somewhat , but remember what you gaine , there is the inward man that so much the more prouides for it selfe ; and if you will not then deny your selfe , you deny not your disease that will slay you . If a man haue a disease that cries hard to him to haue such and such things giuen it , it is wisdome for him to deny it , because he nourisheth that that would destroy him : so herein himselfe is his disease , and to giue to that , is his destruction : so that that which you call your selfe is your disease , and when you feed your selfe , you feed your disease : and therfore euery one is to bee ruled by the Physicians aduice , who teacheth to doe othewise , CHRIST teacheth vs another way , which is for our health and safety : I cannot stand to presse that . But I shall endure persecution , and losse of friends ; nay , perhaps losse of life . I , but thou shalt receiue an hundred fold , thou shalt haue no losse by that bargaine , thou shalt finde Christ worth all that thou giuest him . More I should adde , but I come to the last point . The righteousnesse of CHRIST is reuealed from faith to faith . The first poynt yee haue heard ; that , Righteousnesse is reuealed and offered in the Gospell to as many as will take it . As also , The second , That it is by faith by which we are made to partake of this righteousnesse , it is reuealed from faith to faith ; that is , it is so reuealed as that it is taken by faith . The third point , that we are now to handle , is this , that , Faith admits degrees , and wee ought euery Christian to grow from degree to degree . In this proposition faith admits of degrees , and that we ought to grow from one degree to another , I finde two parts : First , that there are degrees of faith . Secondly , that we ought to grow from degree to degree . For the first , that I may run through them as briefely as I can , There are degrees in faith in these foure respects : as there are two acts of faith , one whereby we take Christ , and that we call a direct act , by which we truly lay hold on him , & receiue him as our Lord and Sauiour . The second is that act of faith by which we know we haue receiued him , the reflect act which is assurance , both these receiue degrees : The first receiues degrees in three respects : the last receiues degrees , I will name but one , and so make vp the fourth . 1 The first act by which we receiue and take Christ the Messias offered vnto vs , it admits this first degree , there is a great degree of perswasion that Christ is offered , and that hee is ours , that he is giuen by GOD the Father ; and though I find this proposed in the Word , that Christ is giuen to vs , yet there are degrees of the perswasion of the truth of this ; and this we need not wonder at ; for though it be faith , and though the perswasion be true , and good , and firme , yet notwithstanding it may admit of degrees , else any man might obiect ; If a man be fully perswaded , what needes he more ? If he be not fully perswaded , it is not faith ; if he be fully perswaded , that makes it faith , and how can that admit degrees ? I answer , it may , because there are degrees in the very perswasion , though the perswasion be good and true , yet there are degrees in it : As for example , there is such a proposition of Truth , which I am perswaded to beleeue by arguments that ouercome me , I must needes yeeld to it , and yet there are more arguments and reasons that may bee brought , that may worke a greater perswasion , as wee say , that may be more immediate to perswade vs of that conclusion : as , a man may see a thing by a little glimmering light of a candle , he may see it certainely and firmely , but when there come more Candles or a Torch in , he may see more cleerely , although he saw it certainely before : So the promises of God , we may behold them , and apply them to our selues to be sure and firme , and yet this may admit more degrees , when there is more light , and more arguments , when the Spirit of Adoption speakes more cleerely and fully to vs , there may be a greater degree of perswasion : and therefore that objection , that either it is not faith if there be doubting , or if it be firme in a man , he needes no more ; I say , it is not so , for faith admits degrees , there is a full perswasion , Col. 2. which intimates there is a lesser faith then that : As , you know , a Ship may be carried with a gentle gale of wind as well as with a stronger gale , though it goe not so fast , but it may be moued , it may be put on with a gentle wind as well as with a strong gale . So a Tree may be rooted , and rooted strongly and firmely , and yet may be more rooted afterward ; The phrase of Scripture carries it so : Oh ye of little faith : there is a little faith , and therefore it implyes there is a strong faith , yet the least is accounted faith . So , Lord , I beleeue , helpe my vnbeliefe : it was vnbeliefe , and yet it was reckoned for beliefe . So our Sauiour said to Peter , Why doest thou doubt ? Certainely Peter beleeued , or else hee could not cast himselfe vhon the water ; and yet there was doubting indeede mingled with it : And indeede , if faith were not mixt with doubting , who should haue faith ? Did not Dauid trust GOD much ? and yet his faith was mixed with doubting : saith he , I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul , and yet he had faith : Therefore , I say , there may be faith , though we haue not so full a perswasion . But , you will say , how differs it from opinion ? Opinion is an assent to a truth , with a feare lest the contrary may be true : it differs from opinion in the object : the object of opinion is something in its owne nature vncertaine , but Faith pitcheth vpon the Word of GOD , which is in its owne nature infallible , and cannot deceiue . Againe , opinion is a matter of speculation and no more : faith is a matter of practice , but that is not all . Opinion goeth no further , but stayes in a doubt , but faith proceedes to full assurance : And therfore it hath the denomination of full assent . As wee say of a Wall that is a little white , it is white , because it tends to full whitenesse : and as we say water is hot , that is a little hot ; so faith that is but in a little degree , yet it may be true , firme and substantiall . But what is the least degree of faith , the least assent , the least beliefe of the promises , without which it cannot bee said to bee faith ? I answer , the least degree of faith is that which brings vs to CHRIST , which makes vs willing to take him . Marke this point , for it will be of much vse to you , when the promises of GOD are preached to you , and made knowne vnto you , when the arguments that moue you to come to CHRIST are declared and made manifest : Now if a man stands and knowes not whether he were best to take him or no , this is not faith , such a man acteth nothing , hee is such a one as is spoken of in Iam. 1. for that I take to be the meaning of that place ; a man that knowes not whether he should come to CHRIST or no , that stands in a doubt , and sometimes hee will goe , and sometimes he will not ; hee is off and on , to and fro , such a man hath not faith ; such a one CHRIST rejects : but now when there is so much waight as will cast the Ballance the right way , though there be something left in the other end of the Ballance ; that is , though there be some doubting , some feare , yet if I so farre beleeue the promises , and the Word of GOD , as that I am willing to take CHRIST for my Husband , I am willing to rest on him , to pitch on him , to bestow my selfe vpon him ; this is faith , though it come not to the full degree . As for example , if one be a spokesman for a Suitor , he comes and tels the Spouse to whom he is a Suitor , that such a man is of such parentage , hath such honour , and such wealth , and is thus qualified ; now , if she be but so farre perswaded as that she is willing to take him for her husband , that is enough to bring her to make the match , that perswasion will bring her to doe it ; afterward shee may come to know the thing more fully , and to be better perswaded , but that addes to the degrees : So , if there be but so much assent , so much firmenesse of perswasion to bring vs to CHRIST , to make vs willing to come to take him for our Sauiour and for our LORD , that is the least degree of faith , and though there be doubting left , and though there bee some feares , yet , if there be but so much as will produce that , it is faith . Let mee exemplifie it in some other thing : Take Hester , when she was to come to the King , she knew not what successe she should haue , shee was fearefull , as we may see by the manner of going about the businesse , yet , seeing there was so much as drew her to the action , she comes and sayes , If I perish , I perish ; as if she had doubted she might haue perished , yet she resolued to doe it ; this may be said to be an act of faith , that put her on the worke . Take a Martyr that comes to suffer , hee hath many doubts and feares , and yet if there be but so much perswasion as will produce the act in him , as that hee is moued to doe the thing , hee may properly bee said to doe it out of faith . And so of all other actions . The three Children , GOD can deliuer vs , if he will , ( say they ) if hee doe not , wee will not worship that Image that thou hast set vp . There might be some doubting in them , and yet , because there was so much trust in GOD as to bring them to doe the thing , here was faith enough to make them acceptable in the sight of GOD. So , I say , if there be so much faith as will bring vs to GOD and to CHRIST , that is the least degree , other degrees there are that may be added afterwards , but this is thy comfort , if thou haue but so much as will produce such an effect , thou maist be sure that thou hast faith . Secondly , 2 Faith admits degrees in regard of the difficulty and hardnesse of the things that are to be beleeued . As for example , Martha and Mary both beleeued in CHRIST when hee feasted with them , but when Lazarus was dead , and had beene in the graue foure dayes , that put them to a stand : Now if they had beene able to beleeue this , there had beene a greater degree of faith . And that was it that magnified Abrahams faith so , that when there was so great difficulty that he must goe and offer his sonne , the sonne in whom GOD had promised that his seede should be blessed , who was called the sonne of the promise : Now here was a great degree of faith , because there was great difficulty . Moses , we see , when he came to beleeue the promise of God , in Numbers 11. that so many , euen sixe hundred thousand should be fed with flesh , and that they should be so fed a whole moneth together , it set Moses at a stand , he knew not what to say ; Not one day , ( saith he ) not tenne dayes , not twenty dayes , but a whole moneth together , and sixe hundred thousand people ! If all the Flockes and Heards should be killed , and all the Fishes in the Sea should be gathered together , how should this be done ? This was a great thing to beleeue : and therefore GOD pittyed Moses , GOD seeth when things are hard to be beleeued , and pitties man ; GOD beares with Moses in that case , because the thing was difficult and high ; there are some things which are aboue hope , and in such cases GOD is willing that his people should aske him a signe , he knowes their strength , they had neede of something to confirme them . And therefore in such a case , when GOD comes in such manner , if they aske him a signe , GOD is willing to giue them a signe : Indeede , when men will aske a signe to tempt GOD : an adulterous generation askes a signe ; that is , for tryall or temptation , not for loue of CHRIST , and to be perswaded he is fit for them , but an adulterous generation , they did it not out of loue : but , I say , when eyther the thing is high , or else when the means of perswasion is weake and slender , As , we know , CHRIST said vnto Nathaniel , Doest thou beleeue this ? as if he should say , This shewes thy faith is great , that for so small a thing as this thou beleeuest ; I said no more but I saw thee vnder the Fig-tree . And this shewed the weaknesse of Thomas his faith , that hee would not beleeue vnlesse hee might put his finger into the print of CHRIST'S wounds , and his hand into his side : so that when a man beleeues by slender meanes , or when he beleeues things of a higher nature , which is more aboue hope , when there is great difficulty , in this sense faith admits degrees . Thirdly , 3 Faith admits degrees in regard of the extent of it , when there is more things reuealed to them ; and I take it , this place will carry , that the righteousnesse of GOD is reuealed from faith to faith ; that is , the righteousnesse of CHRIST was reuealed in the time of the Law and the Prophets , it was reuealed obscurely , and there was a little saith among them to beleeue , it was enough to saue them , but when the time drew neerer , there were greater reuelations , as we know , in the time of the Prophets , their faith was great , as there were more reuelations , so there was more faith : So , I say , it admits degrees in regard of the extent of reuelation ; as the Apostles , when CHRIST was vpon the earth , they had a degree of faith , but when Christ ascended , then there was more reuelations , then they grew from faith to faith , because they grew from reuelation to reuelation , then the Spirit of God was sent into their hearts to reueale all things , and to leade them into all truth , you know they had abundance of reuelations afterwards . So in this regard , in regard of the extent , faith receiues degrees , not because the habit is increased , but because the reuelations and objects are more : And therefore that is the comfort of poore Christians , those that are yet ignorant , they may haue a true habit , and as true a grace in the heart ; and though a man bee more conuersant in Scripture , and knowes more then they , he hath more reuelations , and in that sense , though he haue a greater faith then the other , yet the other hath a like precious faith with him , in regard of that grace . So , wee see how faith receiues degrees in these three respects . Now , last of all , that faith that giues assurance , that pacifieth and comforteth the heart , which is nothing but a reflect act , by which we know and are perswaded that wee haue taken CHRIST , and that our sinnes are forgiuen , this admits of degrees of proofe . And here , as the euidences of sanctification are more , so is the assurance ; as the Apostle saith , the Spirit witnesseth to our spirit ; he discouers good things to vs , wee had neede of the light of the Spirit , to iudge aright of the sincerity of the graces that wee haue , we shall goe amisse else , we shall not be able , except wee haue the Spirit to helpe and assist vs , and so wee grow from assurance to assurance . Now for the second part , that wee must grow in all these . First , as faith admits of degrees , so we must labour to grow in all these degrees . First labour to grow to a more full and firme assent , by that meanes we shall draw neerer to CHRIST , and receiue him in a greater measure : Marke , this very act of taking CHRIST , that immediately iustifies , but it is fed with assurance in the vnderstanding , it is that which doth increase , and strengthen , and supply this action of the will in taking CHRIST . So that , the more strong assent the minde and vnderstanding of a man giues to those truths which concerne iustification , deliuered in the Scripture , the stronger his will is in taking Christ : As in the Act of marriage , a Woman takes such a one to bee her husband , but yet there are degrees in the will , one may take him with greater greedinesse , with a more full perswasion that it is best for her , with more loue , and with more resolution : So , the stronger the assent is that we giue to the promises of GOD , wherein he assures vs of the pardon of our sinnes , wherein CHRIST is offered freely vnto vs , the more we take CHRIST , and so the vnion is greater betweene vs , wee are linkt and knit together , and married , as it were , in a greater degree . Secondly , in regard of difficulty , which is the second thing wherein faith admits degrees , when we beleeue hard things , or easie things propounded with slender arguments . Labour to grow in this : for this is very profitable for you ; I will giue you but these two instances . You know what Moses lost , and what Abraham got ; Moses lost Canaan , he lost the honour of carrying in the people , he lost the honour of concluding his worke , when hee had taken so much paines , and all because he did not beleeue when he strooke the Rocke , for want of faith . Abraham now , that beleeued things that were of a high , of a difficult nature , you see what hee got by it ; for this cause , saith the LORD , I will doe thus and thus , because thou hast not spared thine onely Sonne , which is repeated , Rom. 4. Abraham being strong in faith , gaue glory to GOD. And therefore , you see , Abraham is set aboue all men , he is the Father of all the faithfull , he is the head , the top of those to whom GOD shewed mercie , he shewed mercie to all for Abrahams sake : Abraham , Isaac , and Iacob ; Abraham is first , this did Abraham get for euer , because he beleeued in God in so great a matter ; this you shall gaine , if you will beleeue , it will bring a great reward , yea it will not onely bring a reward , such as Abraham had , but it will bring increase of the same faith , God will reueale more to you , and giue you more of his Spirit , as he did to Nathaniel : Beleeuest thou ? for this saith Christ , thou shalt see greater things then these : If we beleeue in difficult cases , GOD will make vs with facility to beleeue them another time . Thirdly , for the multitude of reuelations , for the extent of faith , that way we should labour to be filled full of faith , as Barnabas is said to be full of faith ; And how is that ? By studying the Word much , for therein will GOD reueale this : this is it that Paul magnifies so much in 2 Cor. 12. that which he gloried in , he doth not name it in his owne person , but saith , I knew a man in CHRIST had such a reuelation : he glories not in this , that he had wealth , or honour , but in the multitude of reuelations ; that of all other might haue exalted Paul , but he was wise , he knew what he did when he was so apt to be exalted , in that it seemes there was some extraordinary excellency in it . Lastly , labour to get full assurance , the more assurance you haue , the more loue . Againe , you shall doe the more worke when once we are assured that our labour shall not be in vaine in the Lord , as 1 Cor. 15. vlt. it will make vs abound in the workes of the Lord. Againe , it stablisheth a man in well doing , he shall neuer hold out and be constant till he come to haue assurance that he shall not lose his reward . I cannot stand on this point : I will name the Vses , that so I may not leaue the point vnfinished . The first is a Vse of much comfort , if there be such degrees in faith , then let vs not be discouraged , though we come not to the highest , if we haue but a little , yet since there are degrees , this is enough to make vs partakers of the righteousnesse of CHRIST , and of saluation . The end of this is to comfort those which are apt to be discouraged . A little grain of true Muske is able to sweeten a great deale ; So if faith be true , a little true faith will perfume all the heart and soule , it hath influence into euery thing , and it puts a good tincture vpon all that a man doth , though it be but little , yet the influence is great , Therfore though thou haue not a great measure of faith , if thou haue a little , comfort thy selfe with that ; we know , the best bud drawes sap from the root , as well as the greatest branches , as truely ; so they that budde , that are but yet in the beginning of faith , yet they are as truly grafted into CHRIST and receiue life from him , as those that are growne Christians . And therfore be no● discouraged because thou hast not , as yet , a great measure of Faith , say not , because I am not as strong as such , therfore I am no body , reason not so , if thou haue but as much as will bring thee within the doore , within the Couenant , within compasse once ; it is true , when a man is within the doore , there are greater degrees , he may goe farther into the house , or a little way in , but all is one when he is in once : So in faith , a little faith is enough to put a man within the Couenant , to put one within the Gate of Heauen , as it were ; indeed when they are in , some goe further , and some goe not so farre : but if thou be in at all , comfort thy selfe with that , and thinke not that euery little infirmity shall breake the Couenant when thou art in : No , that which makes a diuorse betwixt GOD and you , will doe it , but euery infirmity doth not that . Take heed therfore of robbing GOD of his glory , and your selues of comfort ; you know what a Father he is , he is a tender , and a wife Father : we reckon it wisdome in parents , when they consider the infirmities of their children , GOD is wise , let vs goe to him , a Father will beare with his sonne and receiue him againe and againe , though he haue infirmities : So GOD is thy Father , what though he see many failings in thee , what though he see wee haue little grace , or little faith , yet wee are sonnes , GOD will spare vs ; and therefore cast not away your hope , but labour to know that though you be but as smoking Flax , yet there is fire there , as well as if it were all on a flame . Now it is Satans end indeed to discourage , and remember but that , that the thing hee labours , is to perswade you that you haue no faith , and that a little will not serue the turne , and that because thou art not so strong as the strongest Christians , that therefore thou hast a false heart , and art no body at all ; his end is to discourage , labour to resist him . And we that are Ministers of CHRIST , wee are in this case to comfort and encourage you , as Paul saith , we were gentle among you , as a Nurse among her children ; wee should bee tender ouer you , and comfort and encourage you , wee are not Lords of your faith . And there●ore in Ezekiel 33. it was the fault of the Shepheards , they ruled all the people with rigour , but we are helpers of your ioy ; for what haue we to doe , but what our Master hath set vs about to doe ? as he did ; how did he behaue himselfe ? the smoking Flax , hee did not blow it with a tender breath to kindle it more , he dealt not roughly with it : So the Ministers of GOD should labour to build men vp , to draw them on ; Indeede sometimes the Minister must be sharpe , to wake men when they sleepe , to discouer hypocrites , and temporizing professors , to teach those to know themselues , that haue a forme of godlinesse , without the power thereof , here the Word preached must be a two-edged sword , that must pierce betweene the marrow and the ioynts ; here the Word must be as the Thunder and Lightning , it must haue terrour in it : So Christ comes with his Fanne in his hand , and with his Axe in his hand , he will burne the chaffe with vnquenchable fire , and hew downe the vnfruitfull Trees ; but this is to be vnderstood of those that are false-hearted , those that are not sound , that haue Christ offered them , but doe not receiue him . Indeede , to those our Ministery is sharpe , but for others it is not so : And therefore in Ezekiel 34. we are to doe as the Shepheards doe there with their Flocks , some Sheepe are weake , and are not able to goe the pace of the rest ; some are broken , some are lost , and some are gone astray , and some are great with yong ; our businesse is to seeke those that are lost , to driue all according to the pace of the weakest , to binde vp the broken , to carry them in our armes ; thus Christ did , and if we faile in this , CHRIST , who is the great Shepheard of the Flocke , he sees it , if we goe astray , he fetches vs in ; if we be broken , and haue lost our wooll , and be not in right order , he bindes vs vp , he feedes vs , and tenders vs ; thus Christ deales with you : And therefore be not discouraged , though thou be not so strong as the strongest , yet if thou be a Sheepe , if thou be in the fold , if thou hast the least degree of faith , it is able to make thee partaker of this righteousnesse , although thou haue not the highest degree , though thou haue not that excellencie that others haue . The second vse is , to exhort you to growe in faith , ( and so I end ) content not your selues with a little , a small measure of faith , though notwithstanding a little will serue to put you in the state of saluation , yet it should be your wisdome to get a great degree , as the Apostle saith , 2 Pet. 1.13 . Trust perfectly in the grace brought in by the reuelation of CHRIST : ( Marke it ) for it is an excellent place for this purpose ; study it , and thinke well of it , trust perfectly in the grace reuealed ; that is to say , doe it not by halues , let no● there be some odde reckonings betweene GOD and thee , stand not in distance from him , but trust vpon him perfectly , beleeue fully and assuredly that your sinnes are forgiuen you , beleeue fully the grace that is giuen you through CHRIST , doe it perfectly , throughly , trust perfectly in the grace brought in by CHRIST , that is our fault that we doe it not in such a manner ; hence it is that our Joy is weake , our grace is weake , trust perfectly , that your Joy may be full , that you may haue full communion and fellowship with CHRIST , the benefit is exceeding great when we trust perfectly , and why will you not ? why should you limit the holy one of Israel ? It was their sinne and transgression to limit him in his power and alsufficiencie , as if he were not able to doe such and such things , and is it not as great a sinne to limit him in his mercie and goodnesse ? Why cannot hee forgiue sinnes and transgressions , that in all circumstances are the greatest sinnes , in what nature soeuer ? to thinke otherwise , is to limit the holy one of Israel ; trust perfectly therefore . It is not a little that will serue the turne , as the Apostle saith , 2 Pet. 3. vlt. grow in grace , there is neede of it ; you shall finde , that as you wade further in the profession of Christianity , so you shall haue neede of more strength , you shall haue greater imployment , therefore you haue more neede of growth to goe forward , and perseuere . Againe , you shall meet with greater temptations and assaults , if you bee not more strong then at the first , you are not able to resist . Againe , If you grow in faith , you shall growe likewise in Joy , and that is a thing which wee haue continuall vse of , that is of onely vse to comfort and strengthen vs , to make vs abound in the workes of the LORD , that helpes vs to goe thorow all variety of conditions , that enables vs to abound and to want , to passe thorow good report and euill report , to suffer and endure persecution , now the more you grow in faith , the more you grow in joy , as the Apostle saith , Rom. 15.13 . The God of peace fulfill you with all ioy by beleeuing : So that the more wee beleeue , the more ioy , the more consolation wee haue . Againe , the more you grow in faith , the more you shall gaine the fauour of GOD , the more you shall winne his loue ; there is nothing in the World doth so much winne the fauour of GOD , as a great degree of faith : and therefore , though thou mayest be saued with a lesse degree , yet that thou mayest be in a greater degree of fauour , seeke more faith ; and this , though it be reckoned a small matter to haue a great degree of GODS fauour , yet , it is the greatest dignity in the world ; Looke vpon all the difference of men , it is their difference in the fauour of God that makes them so . Why was Moses a man aboue all the rest ? saith GOD I will haue compassion vpon whom I will haue compassion , and I will shew mercie to whom I will shew mercie ; I haue chosen Moses : looke to what difference of men you will : looke into what estate , what condition thou wouldest haue , either thy soule or thy body , whatsoeuer it be , it is by the grace and fauour of GOD in CHRIST IEsus , that all thy comfort and consolation increaseth . What shall make me grow in the fauour of GOD ? I answer , there is nothing that causeth God to set so much by vs as faith : the woman of Canaan , see what cause Christ had to giue her such a great commendation , great is thy faith , and because her faith was great , therefore hee set her at so high a rate . So the Centurion , saith CHRIST , I haue not found so great faith in Israel , and that is the thing that he set so great a price vpon . So Iacob , when hee got the name of Israel , when he preuailed with GOD , certainely it was the greatest blessing that euer he had : Why was that ? Because hee shewed the greatest faith that euer he did , it was a strong faith that preuailed with GOD : And what set him at so high a rate in GODS Booke ? It was the faith he had in GOD , therfore he is remembred in the whole Booke of GOD for his faith , Therefore the more faith you haue , the more GOD prizeth you , it is it that winnes his loue . I cannot stand vpon the arguments why we should grow in faith , they are many ; The more faith we haue , the more powerfull are our prayers in preuailing with GOD , for faith giues strength to them . Againe , the more faith you haue , the more you bring glory to GOD ; if there bee much faith , there will bee much fruite , it is the roote of all grace , as , Iohn 15.8 . Herein is my Father glorified , that you bring forth much fruit . Get much faith then if you will haue much fruit , that you may bring glory to GOD : as if he should say , If a man haue but some faith , he brings forth fruit , yet there shall be something wanting : but when a man is eminent , when he is conspicuous , when he is as a great light that euery man turnes his eye to , when he is as a Tree that brings forth much fruite , which turnes the eyes of the beholders to it , So it is with Christians , herein , saith Christ , is my Father glorified , &c. A Christian hath no such motiue as this , he shall glorifie GOD exceedingly , if he haue abundance of faith , he shall haue abundance of euery Grace , he shall grow rich in good workes ; this is that which we should all labour for : I cannot stand to presse it further . So much for this time , and for this Text. FINIS . A TREATISE OF EFFECTVALL FAITH : Deliuered in sixe Sermons vpon 1 Thes. 1.3 . By the late faithfull and worthy Minister of IESVS CHRIST , IOHN PRESTON , Dr. in Diuinity , Chaplaine in ordinary to His Maiestie ; Master of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge ; and sometime Preacher of Lincolnes-Inne . The iust shall line by faith . Hab. 2.4 . Who through faith subdued Kingdomes , wrought righteousnesse , obtained promises , &c. Heb. 11.33 , 34. LONDON : Printed for Nicholas Bourne . 1630. OF EFFECTVALL FAITH . The first Sermon . 1. THESS . 1.3 . Remembring your effectuall Faith , &c. IN the former Verses , the Apostle setteth down this generall , Wee giue thankes alwaies for you , making mention of you in our prayers , without ceasing . First , hee tels them that hee prayes for them ; and then hee tels them more particularly , that his prayer was a thanksgiuing . And this giuing of thanks for them , hee expresseth by the continuance of it , he did it constantly , without ceasing , ( not by fits ) making mention of you in my prayers . Then he names the particulars for which he giues thankes , namely these three : For their Effectuall Faith , Diligent Loue , Patient hope . Now these three Graces he describeth and setteth forth three wayes : First , from a certaine property or character which distinguisheth the true faith from the false faith , the true loue from the false loue , the true hope from false hope . I giue not thankes for euery faith , but for such a faith as is effectuall , ( that is the property or character by which the truth of faith is discerned . ) Againe , not for euery loue , but for such a loue as is laborious , ( for so the word signifieth . ) Thirdly , not for euery hope , but for such a hope as makes you patient ; that is the character by which to know hope . And this is the first way whereby he describeth these Graces . Secondly , he describeth them from the object vpon which these Graces are pitched , and that is Iesus Christ our Lord , that is to say , I giue thankes for the faith you haue in Christ , for the loue you haue towards him , for the hope you haue of what he will doe for you : I giue thankes for that faith , for that loue , for that hope , that hath Christ for the object of it . Thirdly , he describeth these graces from the sincerity of them : I giue thankes for all these graces that you haue in the sight of God ; that is to say , not in the sight of man onely ; as if he should haue said , many make a profession of faith , and goe for beleeuers in GOD , and for louers of GOD , and men iudge them so : but you haue it in the sight of God : that is , not only in the sight of men , not only in your owne fancie , apprehension , and opinion , but indeed , in good earnest , in sincerity . Lastly , In the sight of God our Father : hee describes GOD by this property , hee is a Father . I need not say more for the opening of the words . We will come to that point for which wee haue chosen them , which is the first thing for which hee giues thankes . Remembering your effectuall Faith. This point wee will deliuer to you out of them , that The Faith that saues vs must be effectuall . This Doctrine wee haue neede to adde to that which we formerly deliuered : for hauing said so much of faith , that faith is that that saueth men , and that there is no more required of you , but to take the gift of righteousnesse , onely that you receiue CHRIST , onely that you beleeue in God that iustifieth the vngodly ; that is , that you onely accept o● that iustification that God is ready to giue to euery man , be hee neuer so vngodly . Now ( when we heare so much of faith , and that there is nothing at all required of vs , but a meere taking , left any man should bee deceiued , and run away with a false opinion , that if he haue but a naked apprehension , and no more , he shall doe well enough , ) I haue chosen this Text , that you may know what kinde of faith it is that is required of vs , namely eff●ctuall faith . The faith that saues vs must be effectuall . Now Saint Paul adding this word to it , ( remembering your effectuall faith , ) he giues vs this intimation , that there is a faith which is not effectuall ; there is a faith in the world , that goes for true faith , which , if it be examined , is not a faith that saues . We see , through the Scriptures , much mention made of a certaine faith which men had , which yet was not a sauing faith : we see , many came and beleeued in our Sauiour , but he would not commit himselfe to them : for he knew what was in their hearts . Here was a faith to beleeue in him : nay further , it was such a faith as had some effect too , ( for it made them come to him ) and yet , for all this , it was not such a faith as God accepts , it was not an effectuall faith . So when Iohn Baptist came , before Christ , there were many hundreds that came to him , and reioyced in his light , but it was not effectuall , but a counterfeit faith that they had , notwithstanding all that . So there came many that were invited to the Wedding , so that the house was full ; but yet euery man had not a Wedding garment . There was a certaine faith which brought them to the House , but they had not true faith , they had not the Wedding garment ; that is , they had not such a faith as could produce and bring forth in them a conjugall affection , which is the Wedding garment . So two of the foure grounds had faith , they brought foorth some fruite , that faith strengthned and enabled them to doe so much as they did ; but yet it was not true faith , it was not the faith which the fourth ground had . And not onely in the New Testament , but in the Old Testament also , there is often mention made of such a faith , and of such a trust in GOD , as enabled men to doe much , but it was not an vnfained trust , it was not effectuall , but as it is Ieremie 3.10 . Treacherous Iudah hath not turned to mee with her whole heart , but feignedly , saith the LORD . Therefore certainely , saith the LORD , their turne of euill and misery shall come : they trusted in GOD , but not with their whole heart . So likewise , Deut. 5.25 the people there desire Moses to goe and receiue the Commandements from God for them , and whatsoeuer God should say to them , that they would doe : here was a faire profession ; it is likely themselues thought it to bee sound and good , yet Moses tels them they were deceiued in it : Oh ( saith hee ) that this people had a heart to doe this indeed . So , we see , there is a faith that is not effectuall , and therefore wee haue the more need to looke to it , because there is so much false faith in the World. As , when you that are Tradesmen , doe heare that there are so many counterfeit Drugges , or so many counterfeit Colours , or whatsoeuer you deale in , you will looke the more to it ; so we should looke the better to our faith in this regard . Therefore to open this point a little , wee will doe these three things : First , I will shew the cause why there is so much vneffectuall faith , why there is so much faith that is not sound and substantiall . Secondly , I will shew wherein the efficacy of faith consists , what it is for faith to be effectuall . Thirdly , I will shew the reasons , why God will accept no other faith at our hands , why wee cannot bee saued , vnlesse we haue such a faith . 1 For the first , namely the causes of vneffectuall faith , the reasons why the faith of many is vneffectuall , that it workes not powerfully , that it is not substantiall , you shall finde them to be these fiue . First , the vanity or vneffectualnesse of faith ariseth vpon our taking of CHRIST vpon mis-information , when wee know not who it is that we take , when there is an errour in the person we take , when wee vnderstand not aright what wee doe . 1 Many doe as the yong man that came running to CHRIST , he came hastily , he made account to bee his follower , but CHRIST tels him that hee might mistake him , and therefore he lets him know what it was to follow him , what a Master he had betaken himselfe vnto : saith hee , if thou wilt be my seruant , goe sell all that thou hast . As if he should haue said ; Mistake me not , if thou wilt be mine , thou must be mine altogether , thou must take vp thy Crosse , thou must part with any thing . Now , if the yong man had gone away with this mistake , that he had not vnderstood CHRIST , he had become a Disciple of CHRIST , as well as others , but it had beene vpon a mistake . And so likewise that Scribe , 2 to whom CHRIST said , The Sonne of Man hath not whereon to lay his head . As if hee should haue said , It may be thou lookest for ease , for Bed and Boord with me , thou lookest for a pleasant life , but it will not be so ; I leade not a pleasant life my selfe , I haue not whereon to lay my head ; I am not in so good a condition as many Fowles are , as many Beasts are , I haue not a nest , I haue not a denne ; that is , I haue not that which should bee in steade of these to me , and therefore know what thou doest before thou betake thy selfe to my seruice . Now men , not considering this , they put themselues vpon Christ , they take vpon them the profession of his Name , before they enter into a serious consideration , and this is it that causeth faith to be vneffectuall : as one speaking of false fortitude , names this for one amongst the rest ; Many ( saith he ) are valiant for want of experience : that is , they know not what the wars are , they know not what hardnesse they must endure , and therefore when they come to feele it , when they come to see what paines they must take , and what they must endure , they shrinke : so it is in this ; many men enter vpon the profession of Christianity , vpon that warfare , ( for so our profession is called ) I say , many enter vpon it out of mistake ; they vnderstand not what it is , they haue not experience of it , they know not how many will come against them , they know not that the force of their enemies is so great , they know not that they haue so many thousands to meet them ; therefore they vndertake the businesse , they goe about the enterprize , and it comes to naught , because they considered not what they did . Therefore , saith Christ , let him that builds a House , set downe before what it will cost . That is to say , if a man consider not what CHRIST lookes for at his hands , if he consider not before-hand , that , if he will be Christs , he must cr●cifie the flesh , with the affections thereof , that hee must denie himself in those things that are dearest to him , hee must be content to be hated of all men , this is a thing that will goe hard . This is that , that a man can hardly indure to be scoffed at , to haue euerie man his enemie , to part with all his friends , to liue a despised man , to suffer persecution , that the end of one persecution shou●d be the beginning of another , and the end of one suffering the beginning of another . Againe , for a man to haue his inward lusts and desires so mortified , and so crucified , and so restrained , to bee so strait-laced in euery thing , I say , because men consider not this , what it is to take this profession on them , when the time comes , what doe they ? They goe backe againe . Hence it is , that many , out of flashes , and in good moodes , will be ready to embrace Religion ; but wee see by experience , how soone there is an end of it . As the people , when Christ came to Ierusalem , how ready were they to receiue him , with blessed is he that commeth in the Name of the Lord , and Hosanna , & c ? but how soone were they gone againe ? so many yong commers on , in this Citie , and many , euen of our profession , in the beginning of their time , are ready to take vpon them the profession of Christ ; but afterwards , when they come to see what must be done , whē they see that Christ and the world cannot stand together , that Christ & pleasures cannot stand , but they must be content to go another course , then they go back , and their faith proues vneffectuall : this , I say , is the first cause , when men are not throughly informed what they doe . A second cause of the vneffectualnesse of faith is , when men take Christ out of feare , when they are in some present distresse , and would haue ease , and vpon this they take Christ , not because of any true loue to him , but because they would be deliuered out of that present exigent which they are in ; and this is as vsuall as the other . How many are there , that , when God affrights them a little with the terrours of the Law , when their consciences are troubled , when then begin to apprehend Hell ▪ so long as they are in such a condition , they are willing to take Christ : but as soone as these stormes are ouer , and their hearts are at peace againe , when their consciences returne to some quiet , and when there is an end of those terrours , then there is an end of their religion , and of their faith , so that their faith proues ineffectuall . So , many men , when they are in some great calamity ; as , you know , Pharoah , when hee was in the present strait , then he would doe any thing : so many men vnder great crosses , afflictions , aud disgraces in the World , then they will bee religious , but let them haue peace and prosperity , let them abound in all things againe , and they will forget GOD. Such Isay complaines of , Isay 58. they hang downe their heads for a day : That is , when the storme is on them , when they haue some affliction , for such a time , they will doe any thing ; there is nothing more vsuall then this . When men come to haue sicknesse , and to apprehend death , what will not a man doe for his saluation at such a time ? and therefore you finde by experience , that few of those that make such promises in their sicknesses , when they apprehend death , doe keepe them afterward : for they come from feare , and therefore they last not . Take any man , the most ambitious man in the world , when he comes to dye , the praise of men is then nothing to him , then he will part with any thing . Take a couetous man , to saue his life , what will not he doe ? A Merchant that loues his goods neuer so well , yet when the Ship is ready to sinke , hee will cast them out , he is willing to lose them , rather then to lose his life : So when a man comes to such an exigent , when hee comes to stand in the gate of destruction , as it were , when hee sees Heauen and Hell before him , he is ready to doe any thing then , not because indeede hee loues Christ , or is willing to take him , but to saue himselfe ; as the foolish Virgins , when the Gate was shut , then they cry , Lord , Lord , open to vs : They would faine haue had Christ then , not out of loue to Christ ; for then they would haue taken him before : It was not out of any loue to the Bridegroome , but out of feare , and fence of their own misery that they had when they were shut out , and that made them cry , Lord , Lord , open to vs. And this is the second cause that makes the faith of men to be vneffectuall , when they take Christ out of feare . The third cause is , when men take Christ , not out of loue to his person , but out of loue to those commodities and aduantages they shall haue by him , when they looke not vpon him , when they fix not their eyes vpon his person , and the beauty that is in him : but they looke vpon the Kingdome , they looke vpon the wealth they shall haue , they looke to what they shall get by him . This faith proues vneffectuall ; because when other commodities are presented , that are present , and sensible , and in their apprehension greater then these , then they let Christ goe againe . Men doe in this case , as those that marry for wealth ; if that be their end , when they haue gotten the wealth that they would haue , when they haue that which they desire , they care for their Wiues no longer : so in this case ; when men looke at nothing but simply at heauen , disjoyned from Christ ; or , when they looke at some other aduantages , when they looke at an earthly Kingdome , ( as many of the Disciples did ) when they looke for great matters by Christ in this world , when they finde it quite otherwise , when they lose in the world , and all that they haue is in hope , it is in things spirituall , that are not seene with the eye , things that are not sensible , then they are ready to slip from Christ againe . So it is vsually among vs , many take Christ for aduantages , as Christ tels them plainely , Ioh. 6. ( saith he ) you seeke me , not for the Miracles which I did , but for the loaues : That is to say , not out of loue to the worke , not because you iudge aright of the things of the spirit , not because you loue grace , but because you loue some aduantage that you haue by religion , some profit that it brings you for the present , and because you would be freed from Hell for the future ; such things as carnall men may see , and be affected with : but this will not hold out . The manner of these men is to seeke mercie and not grace . If they can be but assured that it shall goe well with them , that they shall be freed from the feares they might haue of Hell , that they may haue some hope of being in a better condition , this is that they looke for : but as for grace , for repayring the Image of GOD in their hearts , to be enabled to obey Christ in all things , this is a thing that they desire not , this is a thing they long not for : therefore the secret inquisition of their heart is , What good shall wee get by it ? They enquire not , what excellencie , and what beauty there is in CHRIST , what manner of one hee is , that they may loue him ; but what good shall wee get by him ? what aduantage will it bee to vs ? Contrarie to that in Cant. 5.12 . when the Spouse is there asked what the reason was that she followed her Beloued so much ? and that shee magnified him so much ? Shee doth not tell them , because I shall haue such things by him , or hee is thus wealthie , or I shall haue this honour by matching with him ; but marke her answer ; My beloued is white and ruddy , the chiefe among tenne thousand , his head is as the most fine Gold , his lookes are blacke as a Rauen , his eyes are as the eyes of Doues by the riuers of waters , washed with milke and fitly set : and so she goes along in a holy delectaction ; This is my beloued , oh ye Daughters of Ierusalem . I say , so it is with those that take CHRIST in good earnest , that looke vpon the excellencies of CHRIST , as hee is considered in himselfe : not that the other is excluded : for we may looke at the aduantages , and commodities that we haue by him , but not vpon that alone ; but , marke , in her answer shee describeth what a one he was , and therefore she loued him . My Beloued is white and ruddy , the fairest of tenne thousand , such a one is my Beloued , therefore , Chap. 1. Vers. 2. she describes him to be such a one as hee is ; and ( saith she ) therefore the Virgins loue thee : as if shee had said , there is a Harlots loue , that lookes only what they shall haue by him : but none but Virgins , that is , those that haue chaste and good affections , those that haue holy and right affections , indeed the Virgins loue thee ; but the others doe not : for they haue adulterous and Harlot-like affections , ( as we may call them , when a man lookes not vnto GOD himselfe , but to his owne aduantage and profit . ) And this is the third cause that makes faith prooue vneffectuall . Fourthly , faith proues ineffectuall for want of preparation , and humiliation that should goe before it ; because the heart is not circumcised , the heart is not broken yet , it is not emptyed of those things that it must be emptyed of before a man can take CHRIST , and therefore in Deut. 30.6 . saith Moses , The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts , and then you shall loue him with all your soule , and with all your strength . As if hee should haue said , It is impossible you should cleaue to GOD , to loue him indeed , to take him in good earnest , vnfeignedly , with all your hearts , except first your hearts be circumcised ; therefore the Lord your God will circumcise your hearts ; that is , hee will humble you , hee will breake your hearts , that your lusts shall be mortified in you ; he will take away those strong , violent , those carnall and sinfull desires , that abounded in your hearts before , and when that is done , then you shall loue the Lord in good earnest , not feignedly , but with all your hearts : Now , if a man come to take Christ before he be thus circumcised , he takes him in vaine , he takes him so , as that hee cannot hold him , nor continue with him . Now this circumcision is done by a certaine worke of preparation or humiliation , by which these strong lusts are broken in vs : therefore , when men come to Christ , before the Law hath beene a sufficient Schoolmaster to them , before it hath indited them , before it haue put them in prison , and told them that they must pay euery farthing , ( when a man comes to this , hee seeth that hee cannot doe it , then he goeth to Christ , and beseecheth him to pay his debt , ) before the Lawe haue done this , men care not for Christ , they take him negligently , and therefore they hold him not . And for this it was , that before Christ came into the World , he would make way before him : so , before he will come into a mans heart , the Mountaines must bee brought downe , the spirit of Elias must make way ; that is , there must be a sharpe ministry to shew men their sinnes , that they may bee throughly humbled , and prepared , or else they will neuer take Christ so as to keepe close to him . A man must be brought to haue a present apprehension of death , and of the wrath of GOD , and damnation , or else he will not lay hold on the Hornes of the Altar ; as Ioab , when he saw that Salomon would slay him indeed , and take away his life , then hee layes hold on the Hornes of the Altar , and would not let goe ; so when a man sees present death , he will keepe close to Christ , and till this bee wrought , a man may take Christ , but his faith will be vneffectuall , because indeed , till a man be soundly humbled , he neuer accounts and reckons sinne to be the greatest euill ; and till he doe that , he neuer accounts CHRIST to bee the greatest good , and if a man doe not reckon CHRIST to bee the chiefe good of all other , there will be somewhat propounded , which will bee esteemed before him , and when that comes , he lets goe CHRIST . But when there is a sound humiliation , which makes a man prize CHRIST aboue all other things , then faith proues effectuall ; that is , a man holds out , hee goes thorow with the worke , he cleaues so to Christ , as that he will not part with him : but for want of this , because mens hearts are not circumcised , because way is not made , because the Mountaines are not brought downe , because the Ministrie is not sharpe enough to prepare them , hence it is that their faith is vaine , and comes to nothing . Fiftly and lastly , the faith of men proues ineffectuall , because it is not well grounded , they take to themselues a perswasion of the remission of their sinnes , vpon an vncertaine ground ; they are not built vpon the Rocke , they take CHRIST , but they are not well bottomed : for there is a certaine false perswasion , which is nothing else but a strong fancie , which makes a man to thinke that his sinnes are forgiuen , and that hee is in a good estate : but when it comes to examination , hee can giue no sound reason for it . When men take CHRIST on this manner , when they are perswaded their sinnes are remitted , and yet haue no good ground for this perswasion and peace , it holds not out , it continues not . Therefore to such as these Saint Paul speakes , Eph. 4.10 . Bee not children ( saith hee ) in vnderstanding , to bee carried about with euery winde of doctrine . As if hee had said , Indeed you are such as haue embraced CHRIST , but you must not doe as children doe , that beeing not able to vse their owne judgement , they see what other men doe , and they heare what they say : but , saith hee , you must learne to be men , that you may vse your owne vnderstanding , that you may see with your owne eyes , or else you will bee like a Ship tossed and carried about with euery wind . That is to say , it was a false perswasion that draue you to CHRIST , and another winde will driue you from him : therefore bee not children in vnderstanding . So , I say , when you haue a perswasion of the remission of your sinnes , of beleeuing in Christ , be not children in vnderstanding , see that it bee soundly grounded . That is a condition required by the Apostle , Colos. 1.23 . CHRIST hath reconciled vs to GOD the Father , to be blamelesse , and without fault . But ( saith hee ) I must put in this condition , If you continue grounded , and stablished in the faith , that you bee not moued from the hope of the Gospell . As if he should haue said , There is a certaine faith , by which you may take Christ , and so you may bee perswaded of reconciliation ; but , saith he , that will not doe , vnlesse you bee grounded and stablished in the faith . The word in the Originall signifieth , Except you bee so built as a house is built vpon a sure foundation , as a Tree that is soundly rooted , when you are so pitched vpon Christ , that when new objects come , new temptations come , things that you neuer thought on , yet nothing can moue you from the hope of the Gospell : If you be not grounded , you may take a hope to your selues of reconciliation , and of being without fault in the sight of GOD , but it will neuer hold out , vnlesse it be soundly grounded . Hence you see therefore , that if a man bee not well rooted , if hee be not built vpon the Rocke , if this perswasion of the remission of his sinnes bee not well bottomed , that causeth him not to hold out , but to fall off againe . Whereas it is required of vs , that we keepe so close to God , in such a case our faith should be built on so sure a ground , that nothing in the World should moue vs , no not the most probable arguments that may bee brought in : as wee see , Deut. 13. saith Moses , If a Prophet , or a dreamer of dreames come , and give you signes and wonders , and the thing that he foretold come to passe , that you could not answer any thing , you can see no reason but that he should be a true Prophet , saith he , God will put you to such trials , to proue you to see if you be soundly grounded . All that are saued , hee will haue them so fixed , hee will haue them take their saluation vpon so good a ground , vpon such infallibility , that whatsoeuer shall bee brought against them , they shall keepe them close to GOD. This is that that wee should labour for , and for want of this , when men haue a confused perswasion that their sinnes are forgiuen , and thinke it enough , if their hearts bee quiet , if they haue rest in their consciences , that they be not troubled , and neuer examine what the grounds are : I say , for want of this it is , that in temptation they fall away ; when other men come and preach other doctrines , then they are plucked away with the errour of the wicked , as Peter saith , 2 Pet. 3.17 . Bee not plucked away with the errour of the wicked , but grow in knowledge . As if hee should haue said , If you haue but some perswasion , but some good opinion that Christ is yours , and that it is best for you to cleaue to him , this will not hold , you will bee plucked away with those errours that other men are plucked away with . This is the first thing which wee haue done with , to shew the causes of the ineffectualnesse of faith . 2 In the next place , I am to declare vnto you what it is that maketh faith effectuall , wherein the effectualnesse of faith consists . In this we will shew you 3. things . First , in what sence it is called effectuall faith : for the very opening of this word which the Apostle vseth , will open a Window to vs , it will open a creuice of light , to see into the nature of the thing it selfe . Secondly ; we will shew you particularly and distinctly , wherein this effectualnesse of faith consists . Thirdly , wee will shew you how it is wrought , how this faith is made effectuall in vs ; and when wee haue done these three , you will fully vnderstand what effectuall faith is . First , 1 for the opening of this very appellation , this name effectuall faith : you shall finde that a thing is said to bee effectuall in 4. respects . First , we say a thing is effectuall , when it doth its office , 1 when it exerciseth that proper function that belongs to that quality , or that grace , or that gift , or that creature whatsoeuer it is ; and when it doth not that , then we say it is ineffectuall , when it doth not the thing that we looke for from it . In this sence , faith is said to be effectuall , when it doth the thing for which faith is , when it doth the thing that God expects of faith , that is the proper function of faith : and what that is , you heard before ; namely to take Christ : If faith take Christ , it is effectuall faith . Now , for the opening of this a little further to you , to shew you what this proper function of faith is . It is , when a man is so far peswaded of the truth of the Scriptures , of the truth of the promises , and doth so far appropriate them to himselfe , that hee is willing to take Christ , though there be some doubtings and wauerings in him , yet if there be so much faith as to doe the thing , this is properly effectuall faith , though it be not perfect faith : For you must know , that there is a doubting mingled with the best faith : Therefore when wee say effectuall faith , we doe not meane that it is such a faith as is without doubtings , and without feares mingled with it : but , if it bee such a faith as doth the thing it selfe , for which faith is appointed , it is properly said to be effectuall faith . It is a point necessary for you to vnderstand ; and if you compare this that wee haue said ( concerning this description , of this first explication of effectuall faith ) with that in Iam. 1.7 , 8. we shall see what the meaning is . Hee speakes there of doubting , and tels you , that those that doubt , they are like a waue of the Sea , tossed to and fro , and in the end they vanish away . Saith the Apostle , Let not such a man thinke to obtaine any thing at Gods hands : for he is a double-minded man , and is vnstable in all his wayes . The meaning is , that there is such a faith that makes a man doubt , when he knoweth not what he should doe , but is vnstable ; as a waue of the Sea , that is tossed to and fro : hee is sometimes going towards GOD , sometimes from him againe , and in the end he goes quite away . ( Saith he ) such a man shall not receiue any thing . Why ? Because hee is a double-minded man. Now , by a double-minded man , is not meant a man that hath one thing in his face , and another in his heart , one that pretends one thing , and intends another , ( though the word be somtimes so taken , yet in that place it is not so to be vnderstood ) but by a double-minded man this is meant , when the mind is diuided , between two objects , that it knowes not which to choose , but stands as one in Biuio , that hath two wayes before him , and knowes not whether to goe this way , or that way ; a man that is distracted in his owne minde , hee knowes not what to resolue on . Now when a mans faith comes to this , that he knowes not whether to take CHRIST , or the World ; hee doubts whether he should choose , GOD , or the World , there is an vncertainety in his minde , that it is diuided : sometimes hee thinkes it is best , and sometimes he thinkes it not best , aliud stans , aliud sedens , when he thus wauers , this is not effectuall faith . But now , if a man goe beyond this , and pitch vpon CHRIST resolutely , when he goeth so farre , as that he resolues to take him , although hee haue many pluck-backs , although there bee many things that may disswade him from it , though there be some reluctancie in his mind , some feare whether it be the best way or no , yet if he pitch on CHRIST , hee chooseth him rather then the World , though he haue some inclination to the World still , though there be somewhat offensiue in his his heart , though , as I said , there bee some doubts , some feares whether it be the best way or no , yet if faith come so farre as to pitch on Christ , to choose him , to take him , this is properly effectuall faith . Indeed , it is farre from perfect faith , but it is effectuall faith , and such as shall saue you . Therefore you shall finde this rule among the Schoole-men , ( I name them , because they were Papists , and their doctrine of faith is contrarie to this ) they say , it is not faith , except it be a full perswasion ; they speake not there of resting on CHRIST , that is not the thing , but of the full perswasion of the truth of the thing to bee beleeued ; yet notwithstanding , you shall finde this rule among some of the Schoolemen , Fides non excludit omnem dubitationem : faith doth not exclude all doubting , but that doubting that ouercommeth , that doubting that casteth the ballance the contrary way : if it bee such a doubting as doth not ouercome , it may stand with true and sound faith . So , I say , if you would know now , what it is to pitch on Christ , and so to take him , though there be some reluctancie , some doubt , some feare , you shall know it by this : if a man haue so taken him , that still hee is growing , still his faith is preuailing , still his faith is ouercomming those doubts and feares from day to day , hee is better and better resolued ; I say , though his faith be not perfect at the first , yet if it bee still thus on the growing hand , it is sauing and effectuall faith . Whereas another man , that is not soundly rooted , that is diuided thus , he takes Christ , but it is not vpon any good ground , but as the Weather-cocke stands such a way , while the wind blowes that way , not because the Weather-cocke is fixed , ( for for when the wind turnes , the Weather-cocke turneth too : ) so , such men cleaue to Christ , not because they haue any good ground , but because they want temptations to a contrary way : let temptations from the World come , let there come reasons that they knew not before , let there come new objects , new allurements , which they knew not of before , they will forsake Christ againe , but when the heart is fixed , when there is an Anchor that holdes the soule though the ship wauer , when there is an anchor , to hold it fast though it be much tossed to and fro , though there be much doubting , thou maist be sure it is true and effectuall faith . This point you must marke ; when I say it is effectuall it is no more but when it thus pitcheth on CHRIST , though there bee some doubting : It is so farre from being true that faith must bee without all doubting , that wee may boldly say , it is not faith , except it haue much doubting , vnlesse there bee some feares , vnlesse there bee some troubles within , that resist this faith , and striue against it ; otherwise it is no faith : for certainely , there is no man that hath perfect faith , especially at the first , or afterward eyther , so as to set his heart fully at peace , and then if it bee not perfect faith , if there be no doubting , there must be perfect flesh , that is , there is nothing but flesh , and if there be some faith which is imperfect , alway in the beginning there must needes be doubting , because there is some flesh , and some spirit , there is fire and water , and therefore there must needes be striuing . We may say of doubting , in this case , as wee say of Thistles ; they are ill weeds , but the ground is fat and good where they grow : so doubting is a thing that resists faith , it is bad , but it is a signe the heart is good where it is . So that , where there is all peace , where there is no questioning , where the heart is not perplexed and troubled , and complaines not , it is a signe that the strong man possesseth the House wholly ; it is a signe there is nothing but flesh there . Therefore marke this point to your comfort , that if there be but so much faith as will produce this worke of taking CHRIST , though there bee some doubtings mingled with it , yet it is properly effectuall faith , because it doth the thing , though not perfectly . That is the first acception of the word effectuall , a thing is said to bee effectuall , when it doth the proper function of it , though it doe it not perfectly , and throughly , yet , if it doe it , it is said to bee effectuall : so faith , if it pitch vpon CHRIST , though not so perfectly as afterwards it may , it is effectuall . Secondly , 2 a thing is said to bee effectuall , as it is opposed to that which is vaine and empty , to that which is but a name , a shaddow of it , but is not such a thing indeed . So faith is said to be effectuall , when it is true , reall , and substantiall , you know , there bee emptie clowds , we see the heauens many times full of clouds , but there is no rayne folloues , they are driuen away with the windes , they are emptie clouds , they are not clouds indeed : so there is a great shew of faith sometimes , that makes a man shew like these clouds , and yet it is vaine and empty , no raine followes . A counterfeit Piece , although it shew to be good money , yet , when we find it counterfeit , when we finde it clipt , we cast it away : so true faith is said to bee effectuall , when it is opposed to vaine faith : in Iam. 2 the later end of the Chapter , the Apostle speakes to that purpose , to shew the difference betweene true faith , and dead faith , which is but the name of faith , but is not faith indeede . Thirdly , 3 a thing is said to bee effectuall , when it lyeth not idle and still , but is doing something : As a Pylot in a Ship , hee sitteth not still there , if he doe sit still and doe nothing , we may say he is an vneffectuall Pylot , he were as good not be there : so when faith lyes still in the heart , and is not stirred and moued , nor shewes it selfe in the fruites of it , this we say is ineffectuall faith ; whereas faith should be in the soule , as the soule is in the body , which is neuer there in vaine , but still it is stirring , and shewing it selfe by motion , by action , by doing somewhat or other . And in this sence faith is said to be effectuall , when it is a stirring faith , when it is a liuely and fruitfull faith , that is doing somewhat in the soule of a man. 4 Last of all , a thing is said to bee effectuall , when it goes thorow with the worke that it hath in hand : this differeth from that which I named first , therefore the Greeke word , that is rendred effectualnesse , signifieth perfectnesse , to bring a thing to an end ; so that faith is said to be effectuall , that goes thorow with the worke it vndertakes ; that is , when it sanctifieth the heart throughout , in respect of parts , and throughout in regard of time , when it brings a man to the end of his saluation , when it carries a man through all impediments , when it leaps ouer all difficulties ; so that a growing , preuailing , ouercomming faith , that is said to be an effectuall faith , such a faith as leaues not the worke halfe done ; such a faith as leaues not the building in the beginning , in the rudiments , but sets it vp , and puts the roofe vpon it ; such a faith , which , though it may sinke , as a Corke , for a time , yet it riseth againe : such a faith as ouercomes , and perfects the worke of our saluation : in this sense faith must be effectuall , and this differs from the other three : so that in these foure sences faith is said to be effectuall . And this is the first thing . The second thing which wee vndertooke , 2 was to shew you wherein the effectualnesse of faith consists . It consists in these foure things . That which we said before to you , when wee shewed you the causes of the ineffectualnesse of faith , will make good way to this . The first thing wherein the effectualnesse of it is seene , is in being well built ; that is , when the preparation is sound , and full , that makes way for it . The second is , when the vnderstanding is cleare , and a man beleeueth the promise of GOD vpon sure and infallible grounds , when hee seeth them perspicuously and distinctly . The third is , when the will takes Christ , and takes him out of loue , not out of feare , not out of loue to the aduantage onely by him , not out of mistake : The fourth is , when it turnes not onely the will , but all the affections , when it turnes the whole man , when it shoots it selfe into life , and practice . First , I I say , faith is effectuall , when there is a good way made for it , when the rubbish and false earth is taken away where it should be built ; that is , when the humiliation is sound and good , when the preparation is perfect , when it is such as makes a man fit for the Kingdome of GOD : For I finde that phrase vsed , He that puts his hand to the Plow , and lookes backe , is vnfit for the Kingdome of GOD : As if hee had said , there are certaine men , which come to the profession of Christianity , as many come to husbandrie , which is a hard employment ; some there are which doe this , and goe backe againe . Why ? because they are not fit for the Kingdome of God , that is , they are not throughly prepared for it : that is to say , when a man is not throughly humbled to know what sin is , and what the wrath of God is , he is not fit for the Kingdome of God ; but if he do come to Christ , if he doe begin to beleeue , he will goe backe againe . So a man is properly said not to bee fit for the Kingdome of GOD , till hee bee throughly humbled , till hee haue tasted the bitternesse of sin , till hee haue felt what the Deuils yoake is . As it was with the Israelites , put the case they had beene carried out of Egypt before the time that they were , 1 indeede they had not been fit for the Land of Canaan , because they would haue beene ready to haue turned backe in their hearts into Egypt , and though the LORD laid load on them , though their yoake were hard , though he caused them to wander vp and downe long , yet all was little enough , still they were lingering after Egypt , and if they had been taken out of Egypt , before the tale of Brick was required of them , without giuing them straw , before the taske-masters had dealt hardly with them , what would they haue done ? Might it not truely bee said of them , they would not haue beene fit for Canaan ? So in this case , if a man will take CHRIST , it is a laborious worke , as laborious as husbandrie , as laborious as putting the hand to the Plow , as taking the yoake . Now before a man haue felt how hard the yoake is that he hath already , ( for there bee many that weare the yoake of Satan , and see no hardnesse in it , but goe in a faire course , their consciences are not wounded with the sense of their sinnes , they neuer had afflictions wherein they tasted the wrath of GOD ) alas , such men may come to put their hand to the Plow , but when they come to see what worke they haue in hand , they goe backe , they are not fit for the Kingdome of Heauen . Till a man bee weary , and heauie laden , with the burthen of Satan , till hee see Satans yoake to bee intolerable , hee will neuer continue vnder the yoake of CHRIST : therefore let vs consider whether wee be fitted or no : this fitnesse is first required . So againe , 2 we may take example from the Prodigall sonne , he was in his Fathers house , but he would not continue there , when hee was there at the first , and liued as the other sonne did , because hee had not beene abroad in the World , to finde the misery of being away from his Father , hee was neuer pinched with affliction , with want of meate , till hee was from his Father , hee neuer knew what it was to be at his Fathers finding , till hee had his stocke in his owne hand ; hee was not fit , and , wee see , hee continued not there : So , take a man that is brought vp in his Fathers House , as it were , that hath tasted nothing but the sweetnesse of the promises , and all is well with him , hee hath drunke in the truth of the Gospell with his education , you shall finde that this will not vsually hold out : because hee hath not found what misery it is to bee out of his Fathers House , therefore hee prizeth it not , such a one is not fit to continue , hee is vnfit for the Kingdome of GOD. Therefore the first thing that is required to make faith effectuall , wherein the effectualnesse of faith consists , by way of preparation , to make way for it , is , when a man is soundly humbled and prepared , when it is such as will make them continue : you haue a phrase vsed , Reu. 2.25 . Hold fast till I come that which thou hast already . As if he should say , Many haue hold of the Truth , they haue hold of CHRIST , they haue hold of the promises , but they hold them not fast , they hold them a while , but they hold them not fast till I come : To him that ouercometh , &c. and , him that continueth to the end , will I make ruler ouer the Nations , &c. So , I say , till a man be thus made fit , he may take hold for a while , but hee shall not hold fast till CHRIST come , but he will let goe his hold , because he is not prepared with humility . This is that which is required in that place I formerly named , Matth. 10.6 . If there be any worthy , ( saith he ) let your peace come vpon them . That is , if there bee any , when you come to preach the Gospell , that are so farre broken and humbled , if there be any that are so farre conuinced of their sinnes that they prize mee indeede , so that they hold mee , and will not let mee goe for any thing , but they are content to let all goe , rather then mee , such a man is worthie of me , such a man prizeth and esteemeth mee , and your peace shall come vpon him : That is , it shall come effectually vpon him , it shall abide with him , and saue his soule for euer . So , I say , when there is so much humiliation wrought in the heart , when the Spirit so farre convinceth a man of sinne , that hee comes thus to prize CHRIST , this is the first thing wherein effectuall faith consists : for though it bee not the very thing wherein beleeuing consists , yet it is that preparation , without which faith can neuer be found sound and effectuall . Secondly , II when this is done , this is not all , when there is such a preparation made , that a man is willing to take CHRIST vpon any conditions , yet now , if hee shall not bee well built , if hee see not iust ground to take him , if his vnderstanding shall not see the truth of the promise so clearely , that he can build on it , that hee can rest on it , that all the arguments in the World cannot draw him from it againe , his faith will not be effectuall . Therefore the second thing wherein the effectualnesse of faith consists , is to haue it well built in the minde and vnderstanding of a man , when he cleerely seeth the truth of the promise , that he can build vpon it infallibly . For your better vnderstanding of this , you must know that then a man is said to bee well built , to bee rooted and grounded in faith , when he hath the first ground right , that so hee proceeds from one to another , that it is not a confused superficiall knowledge , to assent to the truth , and promises that are deliuered in the Word , but when hee hath a sure ground , the first ground , and the next , and so he proceeds along . 1 As , for example , the first thing that a man must doe , is to beleeue the Scriptures , to know that they are true and infallible , that they are the sure Word of GOD , when a man can say , this I know , 2 and this I build vpon . And besides that , then wee looke vpon the promises which the Scriptures containe , wherein CHRIST , and forgiuenesse of sinnes is offered . Now if the first ground faile you , that is the bottome vpon which the promises stands ; therefore haue that sure : when that is sure , you must haue the promises sure , that is , you must consider the promises , and examine them , and see if this be the sense of the Scriptures ; If there be so much light in you , as to say , I finde it so , I finde the Scriptures true , I beleeue them , I finde these promises in the Scriptures , I finde CHRIST offered to euery creature vnder heauen , I finde that I haue a warrant to take him ; when a man , out of himselfe , out of an inward principle , out of his owne proper iudgement seeth this , and is conuinced of the truth of this , that the promises are so , and that they belong vnto him , that he may justly , vpon good ground , appropriate them to himselfe ; so that when hee lookes round about him , and considers all the objections that may be made , yet he can answer all arguments ; when he fals downe , and is fully conuinced , and perfectly perswaded in his own mind , when a man thus apprehends the promises , when his vnderstanding is rooted and grounded in the faith ; that is the second thing wherein the effectualnesse of faith consists : And we see that described Ephes. 2. Saith the Apostle there , You are no longer strangers and forraigners , but Saints , of the household of God , and are built vpon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles , Iesus Christ being the chiefe corner stone . Marke , ( saith he ) you are built vpon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets ; that is , you that are Saints , must consider what ground you haue to take that name to your selues : Saith he , you are built vpon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets ; that is , you are not built vpon the foundation , vpon the word of a man , you are not built vpon this Doctrine that I teach , meerely because I teach it , but you are built vpon the foundation of the Prophets , and Apostles : that is , you see the Prophets and Apostles deliuer this Doctrine . I , but one may seeke a further ground then that : What foundation haue the Prophets and Apostles ? Saith he , Christ is the chiefe corner stone on which they are built . So that when you haue this tract of consequence , I see the promise is sure , Why ? Because it is built vpon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets , they haue affirmed it . But how shall I know that they are sure ? Because Christ himselfe hath spoken by them , hee is the chiefe corner stone , when faith is thus grounded , then we are truely said to bee built , and rooted , and grounded in faith . Therefore , as the Samaritanes said , Ioh. 4 44. We beleeue , not because thou told●st vs , not for thy words , but wee haue heard him our selues , and wee know that hee is the Messias , and Sauiour of the World. Now , if those Samaritanes had onely beleeued because the Woman brought that relation , their faith might haue fayled them , but when they heard CHRIST themselues , vvhen they saw him vvith their owne eyes , when they could say , in good earnest , out of their owne knowledge : wee know , that this is CHRIST , the Sauiour of the World , that is such a faith as will hold out . So , when a man doth onely take a perswasion out of the generall preaching of the Word , without a certaine ground , it prooues ineffectuall faith ; but when men beleeue , because themselues haue seene , and out of that knowledge can say , they know CHRIST to bee the Messias , when they know CHRIST to bee theirs , when they know CHRIST to bee the Sauiour of the World ; and so , by consequence , of them which are a part of the World , then they may be truely said to bee built , to bee rooted and grounded in faith . This is that that Saint Iohn saith , 1 Ioh. 1.19 . Wee know that wee are of GOD , and that all the World lyeth in wickednesse . Wee know that wee are of GOD ; that is , it is not a thing that we are vncertainely perswaded of , but it is a thing that wee know as certainely as any man knowes a thing that is before his eyes , as a man knowes a thing of which hee doubts not ; wee know that although all the World be against vs , though all the World runne another way , though all the World condemne vs for vaine men , idle men , for trusting in CHRIST crucified , yet we know that we are of GOD , and that all the World lyeth in wickednesse . I say , when a man holds out thus , when hee is put to the tryall , when a man knowes in his owne knowledge , that it is so , as Peter saith to CHRIST , Ioh. 6.68 . many had taken CHRIST , that went away againe . Saith CHRIST to his Disciples , Will you also goe away ? Marke the answer that Peter giues : No : saith he , Whither should wee goe ? thou hast the words of eternall life . I know and beleeue that thou art Christ , the Sonne of the liuing GOD. As if he should say , It is impossible that I should goe away , for I know and beleeue ; that is , I know vpon good ground , I haue another manner of ground then they had : If I had no more ground then the rest , I should goe away as well as they , but I know and beleeue that thou art CHRIST , the Sonne of the liuing GOD , therefore it is impossible that I should euer forsake thee , although all should forsake thee . This is to bee rooted and grounded in faith , in this second sense , when we see an infallible ground , a sure Rocke , vpon which our faith is built , and we are willing to aduenture our selues vpon it , to aduenture our goods , our name , our life , our liberty , that if a man bee brought to Martyrdome , hee can aduenture himselfe , and put all that hee hath vpon it . This ground will hold out , I say , when the vnderstanding of a man is thus built vpon the Word , when a man is examined euery way , when hee is able to answere all arguments , and all objections that may be brought against it . This is the second thing wherein the effectualnesse of faith consists . I should adde more , but I must deferre them till the afternoone . FINIS . OF EFFECTVALL FAITH . The Second Sermon . 1. THESS . 1.3 . Remembring your effectuall Faith , &c. THe third thing , wherein the efficacy of faith is seen , is when we take CHRIST ; this is the action of the will ; when wee take him in a right manner , when we take him so as to hold him , when we take him in such a manner , as that we are knit and vnited to him . That this is required : First , I will shew it in the generall : it is a point that wee haue often mentioned heretofore , but to all that I haue said , I will adde that in Heb. 10.22 . Let vs draw neere with a true heart , and assurance of faith . Marke it , first there must be an assurance of faith , that is in the vnderstanding and minde of a man , and to that must be added drawing neere , and that is an act of the will : for when we are assured of the truth of the promises , and haue appropriated them to our selues , then followes the act of the will ; therefore in vers . 38. of that Chap. it is said , The iust shall liue by faith : but if any man draw backe , my soule shall haue no pleasure in him . That Antithesis , that opposition , that is made in that withdrawing of a mans selfe from God , is opposed to faith , to drawing neere to him ; when a man not only beleeueth the promises , but accepts and receiues them . Now to doe this in a right manner , is that wherein the efficacy of faith doth principally consist . Now what is that ? It is to take Christ , to draw neere to him in a right manner ; and then it is done , when you so take him , that you bring Christ into your hearts , to dwell there , as it is expressed , Eph. 3.17 . that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith . That is , when there is an vnion made betweene Christ and vs , when he comes into the heart , when he dwels in vs , and we in him ; when Christ is so brought into our hearts , that hee liues there , and when wee are so vnited to him , that we liue in him ; when he growes in vs , as the Vine in the branches ; and we grow in him , as the branches in the Vine : when faith hath done this , then it is an effectuall faith , when it knits and vnites vs to CHRIST , as he saith , I will come in , and sup with him . That is , I will continue with him , I will liue in him , and rule ouer him . Now when Christ is in the heart , he is not there to no purpose ; but , as Paul saith , I liue in Christ , and he in me . I say , when our taking of CHRIST shall proceede so far , as to make this vnion betwixt vs , therein this efficacie lyeth ; when the heart is knit to him , as the soule of Ionathan was to Dauid , and when CHRIST shall be knit to vs againe , that we shall be content to leaue Father and Mother , and to become one spirit with him , as it is , Eph. 5.23 . It is a similitude expressing the vnion betwixt Christ and the Church : A man shall forsake Father and Mother , and shall cleaue to his Wife . The word in the Originall , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to glew : if there bee any conjunction that is neerer then other , it is signified in that word : there is not a word in all the Greeke Language , that signifieth a neerer conjunction , then the word there vsed for cleauing , or glewing . When a man shall forsake all , euen Father and Mother , the dearest things in the world , and shall cleaue to Christ , ( it is a repetition of what is said Gen. 2.24 . concerning Adam and Eue , ) when faith hath done this worke , it is an effectuall faith . But yet adde this againe , a man may take Christ , and seeme to draw neere to him , when it may be , it is done out of feare , it may bee , out of loue to his , and not out of loue to him , it may be done out of mis-information , and mistake ; but when wee draw neere to GOD , and doe it out of loue , ( put these two together ) that we so take Christ , as that there is an vnion made betweene vs and him , and when it is done out of loue ; as that condition is put in , in 1 Tim , 1.5 . The end of the Commandement is loue out of a pure heart and a good conscience , and faith vnfeigned . As if hee should say , There is a double kinde of faith , a false faith , and a faith that is not hypocriticall , that is the word vsed in the Originall . Now , saith hee , the end of the Commandement is loue , &c. That is , all that God lookes for , is such a loue as comes from a faith that is vnfeigned , that is not counterfeit . Herein is faith seene not to be counterfeit , if it beget loue , and out of that loue we cleaue to Christ. So that this is the third thing that makes faith effectuall . Fourthly , faith is then said to be effectuall , when it hath not onely done all this , 4 when there is not onely a good preparation made for it , when it is well built in the vnderstanding , and when the will hath thus taken Christ , but there must bee a further act , and that is the turning of the whole soule , and a seconding of it in our whole liues & practice , a seconding of it in our executions , and doing the things that Christ commands , as in Gal. 5. In Christ Iesus neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor vncircumcision , but faith that worketh by loue . Such a faith as workes , that is effectuall faith . As if he should haue said , Many will be ready to beleeue in CHRIST , but will doe nothing for him , they will not worke . ( Now working is in doing , or in suffering : for in suffering there is a worke as well as in doing , onely it is a worke with more difficulty , a worke with more impediments . ) Againe , if they will doe any thing for Christ , it is not out of loue , but for other respects : perhaps out of some flash , or good moode , or some other respects ; out to doe it as being rooted & grounded in loue , if faith haue this worke , it is effectuall faith ; and therfore when faith hath once taken Christ , it must shoot it selfe into all the affections : for when they are all set on worke , endeuour will follow . If the will bee so set on worke indeed , the rest will follow after it . Loue will follow , Desire after Christ will follow , Feare to offend him will follow , Repētance and turning from Satan will follow , bringing forth fruits worthy amendment of life , and obedience , &c. will follow . Therefore you shall finde , that the promises are made promiscuously , sometimes to one thing , sometimes to another : sometimes , he that repenteth shall be saued : sometimes , he that beleeueth shall be saued : somtimes , he that obeyeth shall be saued : you shall finde them promiscuously ; because that when faith is effectuall , it hath all these with it , it purifieth the heart , and bringeth forth fruit worthy amendment of life . Therefore this must be added , to shew the efficacie of faith ; and , if this be wanting , faith is not effectuall ; not that it can be disjoyned from the other , but , that it is that wherein it consisteth with the rest . And therefore it is GODS vsuall manner , when men seeme to take CHRIST , and to beleeue in him , he puts them to the tryall , to see what they will doe , whether their faith will worke or no. Thus he did with Abraham , when hee would proue him ; hee was a faithfull man before , God had experience of him before , but yet he would proue Abraham by offering his sonne , and when he saw he did it , he concluded that he had faith : indeede it was a strong faith , for it endured the tryall . I say , GOD will put men to it . So likewise those in Ioh. 12.42 . Many of the chiefe Rulers beleeued in him , but they durst not confesse him , for feare of the Iewes , lest they should be cast out of the Synagogue . There was a faith in them , a taking of Christ , but when it came to the tryall , it held not out , they durst not confesse him , because they feared to bee cast out of the Synagogue : that is , when they came to suffer a little for Christs sake , when they came to such an action as confessing his Name , when they came to endure but such a thing as to bee cast out of the Synagogue , they forsooke him , which shewed that their beliefe was ineffectuall . So that , let a man seeme to haue all the other three , yet when the praise of men shall come in competition with any command of GOD , when God shall put him to doe any thing , to part with any thing that is deare to him , as he did Abraham , if his faith worke not , if his faith hold not out in the tryall , but start aside , like a broken Bow , it is not effectuall faith . So you see the things wherein the efficacie of faith consisteth . First , in the soundnesse of the preparation . Secondly , when the mind apprehends the promises , and sees good ground to pitch vpon them . Thirdly , when the will so takes Christ as to bring Christ into the heart , so that Christ liues in vs , and that out of loue . And fourthly , when faith worketh , and that in the time of tryall , when God shall put vs to it . I say , when you finde these foure things , you may conclude that your faith is effectuall . The last thing I propounded , is to shew how this is wrought , 3 how our faith is made effectuall . It is made effectuall by the Spirit of God , it is not in our owne power , we are not able to beleeue , nay , wee are so farre from it , that wee striue against it , the spirit in vs resists it ; so that , if GOD himselfe put not his hand to the worke , no man is able to beleeue . You may thinke , when you see such generall propositions as these , that Christ is offered to euery creature vnder heauen , and that whosoeuer beleeueth shall be saued , you may thinke , I say , that it is easie to bring this home in particular , to say , Surely this pardon belongs to mee . My Brethren , it is another thing for a man indeed to beleeue , for him to take CHRIST so as to deny himselfe for him , to take him so , as to mortifie his lusts , so as to take vp his crosse , so as to obey CHRIST , to follow him in all things , this is a thing that no man is able to doe , vnlesse GOD enable him to it , with his almighty power . For the heart of euery man , by nature , is so shut vp against CHRIST , that it will giue no entrance to him , he may stand and knocke long enough ; vnlesse GOD himselfe shake off the bolts , and open the gates , and breake open these euerlasting doores , that the King of Glory may come in , we will not admit him , but keepe him out . Euery man naturally hath a hard heart , that cannot repent , that cannot turne from sinne , he will bee content perhaps to take Christ for a Sauiour , but to take him so as to obey him , and feare him , so as to loue him : this no man will doe , or can doe , vnlesse the Holy Ghost enable him . But , you will aske , How doth the Holy Ghost doe it ? The Holy Ghost doth it by these three acts . First , by putting an efficacie into the Law , and making that powerfull , to worke on the heart , to make a man poore in spirit , that so he may be fit to receiue the Gospell . 1 For the Law , though it be fit to humble a man , yet it is no worke of sanctification . If a man were able to doe any thing , he were able to see the righteousnesse the Law requires , and how far he is from it , and to discerne the curse vpon the not doing of it , and yet this he is not able to doe , without the spirit of bondage : the spirit of bondage must make the Law effectuall , as well as the spirit of Adoption doth the Gospell . That is , except the LORD himselfe presse the Law on our hearts , so as to cause it to make sinne appeare to vs , wee , that are the Ministers of GOD , may discouer your sinnes , we may shew you the rectitude required in the Law , we may shew you the danger , yet all will be to no purpose , vnlesse God awaken you : if he will set sinne vpon the conscience to worry a man , to plucke him downe , when GOD shall charge sinne on him , that he shall feele the weight and burthen of it , when he shall sharpen sinne , and cause it to vse its sting , this makes a man fit to receiue CHRIST : otherwise , if the sonnes of Thunder should speake to men , if we should come in the spirit and power of Eliah , nay , if GOD himselfe should thunder from heauen , all would not moue the heart of a man , all would not awaken him to see his sinnes , till God himselfe shake the heart . To conuert the Ga●ler , in Acts 16. the foundation of the Prison was shaken ; which was a resemblance of the shaking of his heart : wee may as well shake the Earth , as strike the heart of a sinner without the worke of GOD. For , though the Law be a sword , yet vnlesse GOD take that sword into his hand , and strike therewithall himselfe , it shall not be able to wound a sinner . Therefore the first worke of the Holy Ghost is to awaken a sinner , to set sinne vpon him , that he may be fit to receiue CHRIST . 2 Secondly , when this is done , that the heart is thus prepared by the Spirit , then the Holy Ghost shewes vs what we haue by CHRIST , he shewes the vnsearchable riches of CHRIST , what is the hope of our calling , and the glorious inheritance prepared for the Saints , and what is the exceeding greatnesse of his power in them that beleeue . I say , we neede the Spirit to shew these things . But , you will say , a man may see these things without the helpe of the Spirit . It is true , in some manner you may , but not in such a manner as shall affect you . For there is a manner of seeing proper onely to the Saints , and that is the proper worke of the Spirit in them , when wee shall so see them , as to be affected with them . Otherwise , you may reade the Scriptures a thousand times ouer , you may vnderstand them , yet you shall not bee affected with them , till the Holy Ghost shew them vnto you . This is the secret of GOD , that he reuealeth to those whom he meaneth to saue ; that is , when hee presents these spirituall things prepared for vs in Christ , in such a manner , as that we shall loue them , and embrace them ; when we shall not only see the truth of them , but the goodnesse of them , when GOD shall not onely shew vs the aduantages we haue by Christ , but the excellency of Christ , so that we shall be in loue with his person , as well as to be ready to receiue the priuiledges with him . Now this is done by the Spirit : 1. Cor. 2.12 . Wee haue receiued the Spirit of GOD , by which wee know the things that are giuen vs of GOD , and they are reuealed to vs by the Spirit . They are two or three times repeated in that Chapter ; as if he should haue said , If you saw them no more then other men doe , then naturall men doe , you would bee no more affected with them , then they are : but when you haue the Spirit of GOD to shew you the things that are giuen you of GOD , that is the thing that workes vpon you , and affects you . And so in Ioh. 14.21 . saith CHRIST , I will come to him , and shew my selfe to him : When CHRIST sheweth himselfe to a man , it is another thing then when the Ministers shall shew him , or the Scriptures nakedly read doe shew him : for when Christ shall shew himselfe by his Spirit , that shewing draweth a mans heart to long after him , otherwise we may preach long enough , and shew you that these spirituall things , these priuiledges are prepared for you in Christ , but it is the Holy Ghost that must write them in your hearts ; we can but write them in your heads : Therefore the Lord taketh that as peculiar to himselfe : I will write my Law in your hearts . That is , I will make you affected with the things that I shew you , and this is the teaching of GOD. There is a teaching by men , and a teaching by GOD , that is , when God shall enable a man to see things in good earnest ; otherwise it will be but as a man that sees a thing , when his minde is vpon another matter : so , wee shall see , and not see : but when the Holy Ghost shall shew you these things , you shall see indeed , till then , you may heare oft enough of these things , but your hearts will bee minding other matters ; some about their profits , and some their pleasures , &c. but when the Holy Ghost shall shew you these things ; that is , when he presents them to vs , that draweth the heart from minding other things , to seeke after CHRIST , to long after him , and not to content your selues , till you be vnited to him . But , besides this , there is a third act of the Holy Ghost , 3 by which hee workes it , and maketh this faith effectuall , and that is the testimonie that the Spirit giues to our spirits , telling vs that these things are ours : when the heart is prepared by the Law , and when these things are so shewed vnto vs , that wee prize them , and long after them , yet there must bee a third thing , that is , to take them to our selues , to beleeue that they be ours ; and there needeth a worke of the Spirit for this too : for , though the promises be neuer so cleere , yet , hauing nothing but the promises , you will finde that you will neuer be able to apply them to your selues : but when the Holy Ghost shall say , Christ is thine , and these things belong to thee , and GOD is thy Father ; when the Spirit shall beare witnesse with our spirits , by an immediate work of his owne , then we shall beleeue . This is necessarily required , and without this wee shall not beleeue . It is true , the holiest man doth it two wayes . One is by cleering of the promises , 1 shining into our hearts , by such a light as makes vs able to discerne them , and to beleeue them , and to assent to them . But besides that , 2 hee doth it by an immediate voice , by which he speaketh immediately to our spirits , that wee can say , as they said , Ioh. 16. Now thou speakest plainly , and speakest no parable , we vnderstand thee fully : so , till the Holy Ghost speake to vs , we are in a Cloud , GOD is hid from vs , wee cannot see him cleerely , but when we haue this Spirit of Adoption , to giue vs this witnesse , then wee beleeue plainely indeed . Therefore in Isay 57.19 . saith the Lord , I create the fruit of the lips , Peace , &c. That is , the Ministers may speake peace to you , but vnlesse I goe and ioyne with the Minister , except I adde a power of mine owne ; that is , such an almighty power as I vsed in the Creation , it shall neuer bring peace to you . I create the fruit of the lips ; that is , the words of the Minister to be peace , otherwise they would be ineffectuall . Therefore , I say , there must bee a worke of the Spirit to perswade a man in such a case . And you shall finde by experience , let a Minister come to them that are in despaire , they will not apprehend the promises , though we vse neuer so cleere reasons , though we argue with them neuer so long , and neuer so strongly , we shall finde that all will doe nothing , it will be but labour spent in vaine , till GOD himselfe open the Clouds , till hee will smile on a man , and send his Spirit into the heart , to giue a secret witnesse to him , till there be a worke of his owne joyning with the promises , we finde by experience that our labour is lost . It is true , we ought to doe this , and euery man is bound to looke to the Word : for , faith commeth by hearing ; and to hearken to the Ministery ; for it is Gods ordinance to breed faith in the heart , but yet till there be a worke of the Spirit , a man shall neuer be so perswaded , as to haue any sure and sound comfort by it . Now all this is done by the Spirit , it is the wonderfull worke of GOD : for when CHRIST is propounded to men , when he is offered , ( as we haue often offered him to you , we haue shewed you what accesse you haue to him , that no man is excluded , that he is offered to euery creature vnder heauen , we haue shewed you the generality of the promise , that it takes in all , that you are contained vnder it , that you may apply it to your selues ; I say , when all this is done ) yet when a man comes to performe this , to apply it to himselfe , he is no more able to doe it , then a dead man is able to stirre himselfe . Therefore the same power that raised CHRIST from the dead , is required to worke faith in our hearts , as it is in Eph. 1.19 . According to his mighty power which he wrought in Christ , when hee raised him from the dead . So that it is as great a worke , to moue a mans heart to CHRIST , as to put life into a dead man ; we are as vnapt and backward to it , as a dead man is to receiue life . For what else is the reason , that when we preach CHRIST to you , when hee is offered to you , that there bee so few that are affected with him , that there be so few that take him ? doth it not shew that you are dead ? yea , so dead , that vnlesse GOD call you , and that there be a mighty worke of the Spirit , the hearts of men will neuer answer vnto vs. Therefore that is required as a condition in all them who will come , Act. 2. So many as the LORD our GOD shall call . That is , when wee preach , except there bee a secret voyce of the Spirit of CHRIST speaking to your hearts , as wee doe to your eares , and saying , Come and take CHRIST , no man will come . We see , CHRIST said to his Apostles , Follow mee , and presently they followed him ; ( for it was not the outward voice that did it , there was a secret voice within ) so , when GOD shall call men to take CHRIST , then they doe it , but not before . That word that is vsed , Luk. 14.23 . Goe and COMPELL them to come in , that my House may be full , it intimates a great backwardnesse in vs. When men are compelled , it shewes , that not onely the arguments are strong , and forcible , but that there is a great backwardnesse in men , that they must ( as it were ) be constrained , that they must be put on it by force , and against their will ; such is the vnaptnesse that is in men . So , saith CHRIST , no man comes to me , except the Father draw him . That phrase of the Holy Ghost shewes , that there is an extreme backwardnesse , that , if they be not forced to come , ( as it were ) they will not doe it : not but that when a man is once wrought vpon by the Holy Ghost , hee commeth of himself ; but that phrase is vsed only to shew that backwardnesse that is in man by nature . For , when the Holy Ghost hath wrought vpon the will , and hath turned that , then a man commeth vpon his owne legs , and is moued from an inward principle of his owne ; therefore men are so drawne , that withall , they runne after him , as it is , Cant. 1. but it shewes this thing , for which I haue vsed it , that there is a wondrous backwardnesse in all of vs by nature , and that this must be done by a great worke of the Spirit . Therefore the Apostle Paul , in Eph. 1. in all the former part of the Chapter , to the 18. Verse , hauing declared the great Mysterie of saluation , he takes himselfe vpon the sudden , and beginnes to thinke with himselfe , though I shew you all this , it is to no purpose , if GOD send not the Spirit of reuelation , &c. Therefore hee lifts vp his heart to GOD , beseeching him to giue them the Spirit of revelation , to open the eyes of their vnderstanding , that they might see the hope of their Calling , and the riches of their inheritance with the Saints . So should Ministers learne to doe , to pray for the people , that GOD would infuse and send his Spirit into their hearts , that they may be able to perceiue these things effectually , with a right apprehension , to see the secrets of GOD in them , you also should goe to GOD , and beseech him to helpe you with his Spirit , that so you may be able to apprehend these things , and that they may be powerfull , to worke the same thing , for which we deliuer them to you : and so wee haue shewed you these three things ; First , what effectuall faith is : namely , in shewing you why it is called effectuall faith . Secondly , wherein the efficacie of faith consists , and Thirdly , how it is wrought . Now , last of all , wee are to shew you the reason , why GOD accepts no faith , but that which is effectuall . 4 And there is good reason why no faith should be accepted of GOD , but that which is effectuall . First , because otherwise it is not faith at all , if it be not effectuall ; 1 and if it be not faith , it is no wonder that he doth not accept of it . I say , it is no more faith , then a dead man is said to be a man : you giue the name of a man to him , yet he is not a man ; no more is faith that is not effectuall , any faith ; it hath only the name of faith , and there is no more in it : but as dead Drugges , which haue no efficacie in them , or as dead Plants , or dead Wine , which is turned to Vinegar , it ceaseth to be Wine , it is no longer Wine , but Vinegar ; so it may be said of ineffectuall faith , it is not faith , it hath the name and the shaddow of faith onely , and therefore God accepts it not . Againe , 2 GOD will saue none , vnlesse they be reconciled to him , and be such as loue him , for that condition is euery where put in . All things shall worke together for good to them that loue him : and he hath prepared a Crowne for them that loue him . Now , if faith be not effectuall , there will be no loue ; and if loue be necessarily required , GOD cannot accept that faith that is ineffectuall . Againe , 3 if GOD should accept of a faith that is ineffectuall , the Deuils haue such a faith , by which they apprehend the Word , and a faith that brings forth effects : for they feare and tremble ; but this is not the faith that purifieth the heart , it is not an effectuall , it is not a purging , liuely faith . Againe , 4 CHRIST receiues none but them that deny themselues , and are willing to take vp their crosse and to follow him , that mortifie the deedes of the body by the Spirit . Now an ineffectuall faith doth none of these , and therefore that faith that saueth , must bee a working faith , or else these things should not be necessarily required . Againe , 5 it was Christs end in comming into the world , that he might destroy the workes of the Deuill , and for this end hath the grace of God appeared , that men should deny vngodlinesse and worldly lusts : and for this end did hee giue himselfe , to purifie to himselfe a people zealous of good workes , He comes to be a King , as well as a Sauiour , to rule among his people , to haue men obey him , which could not be , if faith were not effectuall , if it did not purifie the heart , and enable men to deny all worldly lusts , and to liue soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world . 6 And last of all , good workes are required of necessity , as the way to saluation ; Eph. 2.10 . We are Gods workmanship , created in Iesus Christ vnto good workes , which he hath ordained that we should walke in them . Good workes are required of necessity , GOD judgeth vs according to our workes , Rom. 2. and at the last day , the reward is pronounced , according to that which men haue done : When I was in prison , you visited me ; when I was naked , you cloathed me , &c. And if they be required of necessity , then it is not a dead , liuelesse , workelesse faith , but a powerfull , energeticall faith , a faith that is stirring and actiue , a faith that is effectuall , which GOD requires , without which we cannot be saued . We come now to make some Vse of what hath beene said . First , If GOD accept no faith , but that which is effectuall , it should teach vs not to be deceiued in a matter of so great moment ; It should teach vs to looke to our faith , to consider whether it be a right faith or no. If a man haue Euidences , vpon which his lands , and whole estate dependeth , if one should come , and tell him that they were false Euidences , it would affect him ; he would , at the least be ready to looke , and to examine them , and yet these are matters of lesse moment . If one be told that his Corne is blasted , that all the Trees in his Orchard are dead , that all his money is counterfeit , a man would looke euen to these things ; a man would haue that which he hath to be sound , and not counterfeit : and shall not we then looke to the faith that we haue , vpon which the saluation of our soules depends ? seeing God accepteth none vnlesse it be ●ound , and seeing there is so much counterfeit faith in the world . It should teach vs to looke about vs , and consider what our faith is : For , as Iames saith , faith without workes cannot saue vs. What auaileth it , my Brethren , if a man say he hath faith , and hath not workes , can his faith saue him ? So I say to euery man , in such a case , thou that thinkest thou hast faith , if there be not workes too , if it be not effectuall , if it be not a liuely faith , will such a faith saue thee ? If a man should come and say to one that brags of the Balsome or Drugges which he hath , ( that are dead , and haue lost their efficacie ) Will such a Balsome heale thee ? If a man haue a guilded Target , made of paper , a man may say to him , Will that Target defend thee ? And so I say , when a man hath a counterfeit faith , Will such a faith as this saue thee ? It will not saue you ; you may please your selues in it , as a man is pleased with a false dreame , but , when you are awaked , you will finde that you are deceiued . Learne therefore to consider of your faith , to see if it be effectuall . When the LORD proclaimed himselfe to be a mercifull God , forgiuing iniquity , transgression , and sinne ; yet it is added , he will not hold the wicked innocent . So , when we haue said so much of faith , and that faith saueth ; yet know , that it must be a working faith that saueth vs : It must be such a faith as purifieth the heart , it must be such a faith that may shew it selfe in fruits worthy amendment of life . And therefore Saint Iames taketh so much paines in this case , as you shall finde in his first Chapter , and the beginning of the second ; hee layeth downe rules , and tels them , that if they keepe the whole Law , and yet faile in one point , they are guilty of the whole . Now hauing dealt so strictly , some might be ready to object : GOD is mercifull , and I shall be saued through faith . It is true , ( saith hee ) if you haue a right faith , you shall be saued by it ; but yet know this , that vnlesse your faith be such a faith as enableth you to doe what I say , it is a faith that will doe you no good , it will not saue you : for , though faith saueth you , yet it must be such a faith as worketh . And that he proueth by many arguments ; ( it is a place worth the considering , and fit for this purpose ) I say , hee vseth some arguments to proue , that that faith which is not effectuall will not saue vs. As first , Saith he , if a man should say to one , Be warmed , or , Be filled : as this is but vaine liberality , when as yet a man doth nothing ; so , for a man to professe that he beleeueth in CHRIST , and yet doth nothing for him , it is a vaine faith . Secondly , Some man might say , Thou hast faith , and I haue workes , shew me thy faith by thy workes . That is , if a man haue faith , hee will shew it by his workes . As if hee should haue said , If the Sunne be the greatest light , let it giue the greatest splendor ; If the Loadstone be of such a vertue , let it shew it , by attracting the Iron to it : So , if thy faith be effectuall , shew it by thy workes : that is , if thy faith be a true faith , it must bee a working faith , or else it is nothing , GOD will not accept it . Thirdly , vnlesse it be a working faith , an effectuall faith , the Diuels haue the same : thou beleeuest that there is one God ; the Diuels doe the same , and tremble . Fourthly , If any man could be justified by faith without workes , Abraham might haue beene so justified ; but Abraham was justified by his workes ; that is , by such a faith as had workes joyned with it . And not Abraham onely , but Rahab , ( that is another example : for it might be objected , Abraham indeed beleeued , and was justified by workes , but Rahab had no workes , shee was a wicked woman , and therefore was justified by faith ? To this therfore he answereth , that ) she had workes , or else she could not haue beene saued , vnlesse she had such a worke as that in sending away the Messengers , her faith could not haue justified her . Indeede , that was a great worke ; for she aduentured her life in it . And lastly , saith he , as the body , without the soule , is a dead body , a stinking carrion , there is no preciousnesse , nor no excellency in it ; so faith without workes is dead . Therefore looke to your faith ; doe not thinke that a faith that meerely taketh Christ , and beleeueth in him , that it is a faith that shall justifie you . Let all these arguments perswade you , that if it bee not a working faith , it shall doe you no good . Therefore let this be the first Vse , to consider your faith , whether it be effectuall or no , by the working of it . The second Vse that we may make of it , is this : Hence we should learne to iudge of our estates and conditions , by the efficacie of our faith : for , if no faith be receiued , but that which is effectuall , then it behooues vs to looke to the working of our faith . Againe , if GOD accept no faith but that which is effectuall , hence we may learne also not to beleeue all that say they haue faith , nor to beleeue all those that say they haue none . As for those that say they haue no faith , yet , if we see the fruites of faith in them , that they haue those things that faith brings forth : If you see a man that complaineth he beleeueth not , yet if he loue the Saints , if he endeuour to keepe GODS Commandements , if he continue not in any knowne sinne , if hee doe not dare to omit holy duties , nor to sleight them , certainely , this man hath faith : for we finde the effects of it there : although he haue lost one act of his faith , which is the comfortable assurance of a good estate ; yet if the first act , by which he resteth vpon Christ , and by which he taketh Christ to himselfe , be there , we may conclude there is faith . When we see smoke , and feele heate , we say , there is fire , though we see no flame : so , when we see these fruits in a man , we may boldly say , he hath faith , though he hath not such a reflect act , as to know in himselfe that he hath it , and so to haue a comfortable assurance of his condition . On the other side ; if a man saith , he knoweth and is perswaded that his sinnes are forgiuen , his conscience is at rest , and yet for all this , we finde no workes , I say , this man hath not faith : for there wants the efficacie of it : So that as the two sonnes in the Gospell ; one said he would goe into the Vineyard , and did not ; the other said he would not goe , yet afterwards he repented , and went : so it is with these two ; the one saith he hath not faith , and yet for all that , we see , he doth the things that faith requireth , we see the efficacy of faith in him . Againe , the other saith hee hath faith , and yet doth not bring forth the fruites of faith , he doth not shew the efficacy of faith in his life ; the one shall be justified , the other shall be condemned . As when we take two Drugges , or two Pearles , &c. the one hath lost his colour , seemeth withered and dead , so that to the outward view , it hath lost all , yet it hath its efficacie still , that such a thing should haue ; the other looks very faire , and hath a right colour and smell , but it hath no efficacie in it ; wee say , one is a liuely Drug , and a good one , and the other a counterfeit : so , when one man complaines that he hath no grace , that he is an hypocrite , and yet hee brings forth fruite worthy amendment of life , and wee see the working of his faith ; I say , this is true faith : On the other side , hee that makes a shew of faith , and yet wants the efficacie of it , he hath no faith . Wee should learne thus to iudge , when men professe they haue faith , and wee finde it not by their workes . It should teach both ciuill men and hypocrites to know their estates : for it discouereth both . For when the ciuill man commeth , and seeth that hee doth much of the second Table , and little of the first ; and the hypocrite againe , doth much of the first , and little of the second ; let them consider that faith enableth a man to haue respect to all Gods Commandements : it workes a generall change . And as this is true , for the substance , so it is also for degrees : for , if God accepts onely effectuall faith , then so much efficacie , and so much working as you finde in any man , so much faith there is . If there be no workes , there is no faith ; if the workes be few , the faith is a languishing faith ; if the workes be many , the faith is great and strong . That is the second Vse wee should make , to learne to judge aright of our selues and others . Thirdly , if it be onely an effectuall faith , which GOD accepteth , then this justifieth our Doctrine against the Papists , that say , we teach that onely faith justifieth , and require no good workes . I say , we teach , that not a naked , but an effectuall faith doth it . So that all the difference betweene them and vs , is this ; we agree both in this , that workes are necessarily required to saluation , that no man shall see GOD without them , without purenesse of heart , and integrity of life . We say , Except men mortifie the deedes of the body by the Spirit , they shall dye ; and there is no condemnation to them that walk not after the flesh , but after the Spirit : That is , there is a necessity put vpon men to walke after the Spirit ; in this we agree : but here is the difference : They say that faith and workes both are required to justifie ; we say , that nothing is required but faith , and that workes follow faith : wee say , faith indeed is working , and produceth ●uch effects ; so that , whereas they say faith , and workes ; we say faith only , but it must be an effectuall faith , a working faith . If they object that place of Iames , wee are not justified by faith , but by workes . I answer , that there is a double justification , there is a justification of the person ; so was Abraham justified by faith , as Paul expresseth it , Rom. 4. But then there is a second justification , a justification of the faith that Abraham had , he justified his faith by his works , he shewed that hee had not a dead faith , a liuelesse faith , a faith without workes , but that he had a liuely effectuall faith : for he added workes to his faith , his workes wrought together with his faith . So that , if the question be , Whether Abraham was an hypocrite ? his workes justified him that hee was none . If the question be , Whether Abraham was a sinner ? his faith justifieth him , and shewes that he was made righteous through faith . So , there is a justification of the person , and a justification of the faith of the person : as when a man is said to justifie such an action , or such a cause , the meaning is not , that he will make that just which was vnjust before , but he will make it appeare to be just ; so Abraham was declared to haue a justifying faith , by that power and efficacie it wrought in him , in offering vp his sonne . Againe , it is objected out of that place , that by workes faith is made perfect ; therefore it seemes that faith is nothing alone , if workes bee not joyned with it . I answer , that when it is said that faith is made perfect by workes , the meaning is , that faith is made good by workes ; the perfection of faith is declared by workes . As one that professeth that he hath an Art , and that he is able to doe this and that ; if he doe the worke wherein his Art is shewed , if he make any artificiall worke , by that he maketh good his Art. Or , as when we say , these Trees are good , because they haue sappe in them , they are not dead Trees . Now the Tree is made perfect by the fruit ; so faith by workes is made perfect . Not that workes put life into faith ; the sap must first be in the Tree , and then it bringeth forth fruit : so there must first be a life in faith , and then it bringeth forth workes . So that , when we say that faith is made perfect by workes , the meaning is , that workes declare faith to be right , as the fruit doth declare the Tree to haue sap . Againe , 3 if it be objected , ( as it is by them ) that workes , and loue , &c. are to faith , as the soule is to the body : for , as the body , without the soule is dead , so faith without workes is dead : Hence they gather , that faith is as the body , and that loue , and workes are as the soule : therefore faith justifieth not but workes . To this I answer ; They take the comparison amisse : For the scope of it is this ; as a soulelesse body is nothing worth , it is dead , and no man regardeth it ; so is a workelesse faith : The meaning is not , that workes are as the soule , and faith as the body ; but , as a man , when he lookes vpon a carkasse , and seeth no life in it , no pulse , no motion , no sence , such a body is nothing worth ; so when we see a faith without motion , that hath no pulses , that hath no expression of life in it , such a faith is of no worth . 4 But , you will say , if we be not justified by workes , to what end are good workes required ? I answer , there is end enough , there are motiues enow : Is not loue a ground strong enough to bring forth good workes ? When this objection was made to Paul , Rom. 6. If Grace abound , why may wee not sinne the more ; for Grace aboundeth , as sinne aboundeth ? he might easily haue answered , 1 Except you doe good workes , you cannot be saued ; but he saith , How can we , that are dead to sinne , liue any longer therein ? That is , when a man is once in CHRIST , there will be such a change wrought in him , that hee shall finde CHRIST killing sinne in him , and hee shall be raised againe to newnesse of life , insomuch that he must of necessity doe it ; there will be loue in his heart , that will set him aworke , that will constraine him : therefore , saith he , are you not baptized into Christs death ? That is , when a man is in CHRIST , he is dead to sinne , as CHRIST dyed for him : so that , though there be no such motiue , as for a man to get Heauen by his workes ; yet , vpon the taking of Christ , there is a loue planted in the heart , there is a change wrought in the heart , so that there is an aptnesse in it to doe good workes ; so that now a man delighteth in the Law of God concerning his inward man , he desires nothing more then to be employed in it , it is his meate and drinke to doe the will of GOD. Is not this enough to moue vs ? Againe ; 2 though good workes be not required for justification , yet this may be a motiue : GOD rewards vs , he chastens and afflicts vs according to our workes : 1 Pet. 1.15 . We call him Father , that judgeth euery one according to his workes : That is , if our workes be good , he is ready to reward vs ; if wee faile , he is ready to chastise vs , as a Father doth his children : therefore let vs passe the time of our dwelling here with feare . So that the Saints , after they are in the state of grace , they may contract a kinde of guiltinesse vnto them , so that they may make their Father angry , they may feele many effects of his displeasure , though they shall not lose his fauour for euer : and the more our good works are , the greater is our reward . Againe ; 3 wee require good workes of necessity , as well as the Papists : wee say , you must haue good workes , or else you cannot be saued ; so that , except you haue repented , except you haue loue as well as faith , except there be a change of heart , Christ is not in you . We require good workes with the same necessity ; onely they haue a different rise , they rise from different grounds . When the Papists are asked what should moue a man to doe good workes ? They say it is by way of merit , to get heauen ; and that is it that maketh all their workes to be of no worth . For , take any naturall man , he that hath the most impure heart , may not he , to escape Hell , and to get Heauen , doe all the workes the Papists require , and for the same end that they require them ? May he not giue Almes , &c. But to doe it out of loue , that is a thing that no Hypocrite is able to reach vnto : And therefore we say , that the meanest worke , euen the giuing of a Cuppe of cold water , is a good worke , if it proceed from loue : whereas , take the fairest worke , that hath the greatest glory , and splendour , though it be Martyrdome ; if it come not from loue , if it be not a fruit of faith , if a man giue his body to be burned , and giue all that hee hath to feede the poore , if it come not from loue , GOD accepts it not . So much for the second Vse . The third Vse that wee should make of it , is this : If nothing be accepted , but that faith that is effectuall , we should learne hence , that , if we will grow in ability to worke , if we will grow in obedience , wee must grow in faith : for all efficacie must come from faith : for it is onely the effectualnesse of faith that GOD requires . That is , if there be any effectualnesse in man , that comes not from faith , GOD requires it not : for it is the efficacie of faith which GOD requires . Therefore , if wee will bee enabled to doe the duties of new obedience , labour to grow in faith , that must inable vs to doe what wee doe : if wee haue not the ground , all that we doe is in vaine . Therefore , when we finde any coldnesse , any weaknesse in the Graces wee haue , any languishing ; increase faith , and all other Graces will grow . If you finde you cannot pray , when you find your hands weake , and your knees feeble , that you cannot runne the wayes of Gods Commandements , strengthen your faith , labour to increase your assurance . When the branches are weake and withering , we vse to dung the root ; so , in this case , labour to strengthen your faith : for that will inable you to doe much ; it is all in all . This will be of much vse to vs in many cases . When a sinne is committed , we should labour now to recouer our selues out of that relapse . 1 What is the way ? By labouring to get assurance of the forgiuenesse of it . Goe to GOD to strengthen thy faith , that is the way to get out of sinne . If there be a strong lust , 2 that thou art to grapple withall , and which thou canst not get the victory ouer , the way is to goe and increase faith , to increase assurance : for , the more faith is increased , the more loue , the more the heart is inclined to GOD : for faith turnes the bent of the heart from pleasures , and profits , from a desire of the praise of men , to GOD : so that , the more faith , the more ability there is to striue against the corruption that is in you . 3 Againe ; if a man finde hee wants patience , he wants thankfulnesse , the way is , not to looke on the Vertues , to reade morall Writers , but goe and strengthen thy faith , and that shall enable thee to doe wonders : otherwise we water the branches , and let the roote alone . Thus should wee Ministers doe , lay this maine foundation , to build vp our hearers in this , and the rest will follow . This Paul did , that was the great Master-builder , hee layes downe in all his Epistles , the foundation of faith : in his Epistles to the Romanes , to the Ephesians , to the Colossians , to the Galatians ; and after that hee deduceth particulars , and buildeth on it : so your maine businesse is to consider whether you haue faith , to get assurance of that , and when you haue that , then striue against particular vices , and adorne your selues with particular graces : For , because you labour not to haue this maine grace , this roote and foundation of all the rest , I say , this is the reason why those good motions that you haue put into you by the Holy Ghost , those motions that you haue in the hearing of the Word , and the good purposes that you take to your selues , come to nothing , because they haue not faith for their ground . That generall of Faith , must goe before these particulars : Though the Plants bee good , yet , if the ground bee not good , and connaturall , where they are planted , they will not grow . Therefore we finde it ordinarily , that when men haue resolutions to giue ouer such and such sinnes , to leaue such and such vices , their wicked company , drinking , gaming , and the like ; it may be it holds for a day or two , yet this comes to nothing ; because the maine foundation is not laid , they goe to worke without faith : when the ground is flesh , and the worke spirituall , how can it liue ? for euery thing liues in its owne element ; and these motions in them , are as the Fish is out of the water : and as the fire , when it is out of its place , dyes and is extinguished ; so these good purposes , when they are not particulars that arise from that generall of faith , they are in the heart as a thing out of its owne element , and therefore they perish . Therefore , when you haue these purposes , know that they will come to nothing , if you take not the right course . Therefore labour to beleeue the promises , to bee assured of saluation , that you are translated from death to life , by an effectuall faith : when this is done , you shall finde that your purposes will hold , and till then they are in vaine . And so againe , this should teach vs , seeing all depends vpon faith , when wee come to search , to consider what assurance wee haue , that so we may goe the right way to worke . For commonly , when wee consider our estates , we looke what fruites wee haue , what sincerity hath appeared in our life , and if we finde that weake , we commonly conclude , that our faith is weake also , and so the weaknesse of our sanctification weakneth our assurance ; but wee should goe another way to worke : When we finde a weaknesse , we should go to the promises , and strengthen our assurance : for there be two wayes to increase assurance . One is by the promises , the sure Word , on which faith is built . The second is by the fruites of sanctification in our selues . Now when we finde these languishing , we should goe to the first , and the other will be increased by it . Faith worketh in you sanctification , and maketh you to beleeue the promise ; as exercise begets health , and we are made fit by health for exercise : or as acts beget habits , and habits are meanes to exercise those acts : So assurance , grounded vpon the promise , it enableth , and enlargeth , and increaseth sanctification , and sanctification increaseth assurance : but first see faith , and then the other as fruites of it . If you finde a weaknesse in sanctification , labour to strengthen your faith , and that will increase it : for that is the ground of all . FINIS . OF EFFECTVALL FAITH . The third Sermon . 1. THESS . 1.3 . Remembring your effectuall Faith , &c. IN the fifth place ; If nothing please GOD , if he accepts of nothing but what comes from effectuall faith ; then we should learne hence to iudge aright of our workes : for what workes soeuer wee doe , they please GOD no further then hee seeth and findeth some faith in them . The Vse before shewed vs how to iudge aright of our faith ; this teacheth you how to iudge aright of all the workes you doe , that you doe not mistake in them . For men are very apt to iudge amisse of what they doe in this case . There be many workes that haue a specious and faire shew in the view of men , and perhaps in your owne opinion : But if there be not faith in those workes , GOD regards them not : as , Iames 2.22 . when Abraham did that great worke , in offering his sonne , ( which was the greatest worke that euer hee did , and the greatest worke that is recorded in all the Booke of GOD ) yet , saith the Apostle there , Do ye not obserue how faith wrought with his workes ? That is to say , If faith had not set him on worke to doe this , if faith had not beene the Spring to set this wheele on going , GOD had not accepted this . So , doe whatsoeuer you will , further then faith works with you in all that you doe , GOD regards it not . Therefore you shall obserue in Christs answer to the Woman of Canaan , in her earnest prayer , in her comming to Christ , her fighting and striuing against the Diuell , her tendernesse to her Daughter , her holding out so long as she did ; all this Christ lookes ouer : But when he comes to giue his censure of her worke , of her carriage , Oh Woman , great is thy faith , saith he . That was it that set a great price vpon her worke : Matth. 15.26 , 27. So , take the most excellent , the greatest worke that can be performed , GOD sets them at no higher a price then hee findes faith in them ; he weighes them by that : so much faith as is in them , so farre he accepts them , so farre he regards them . Looke in Heb. 11. you shall finde many glorious workes set downe . All the great workes that Sampson did , all the workes that Dauid did , the works that Gedeon did , the workes that Baruc did , the workes that Moses did , and so along , you shall see there , that there was nothing in all these workes that was regarded , but their faith : all is imputed to faith . And therefore , when you goe about any thing , labour to see faith set you aworke ; and know , that as much faith as there is in any worke , so much GOD regards it , and no further . Iacob had done many good things , that pleased GOD , yet GOD , when he would put a marke of his fauour vpon him , when he would call him Israel , when he would change his name , it was for that great worke of faith , when he prayed all night , when hee would not giue ouer , when he would not let him goe , when hee preuailed with God by faith ; now , saith God , thy name shall be called Israel . ( As if he should say ) Now I will put a name of honour vpon thee . Why so ? Not because there was more in that worke , simply considered , as it was a worke : but because there was more faith in it . And it must needes be so : for GOD doth not as men doe , who accept the giuer for the gift . ( If a man come to you with a great gift , you will accept his person for it . ) But GOD accepts the gift for the giuers sake : though the gift be neuer so small , if the giuer be such as beleeues in him ; if his affections be right , if he doe it out of a right ground ; that is , if he doe it out of a ground of faith , he is accepted , whatsoeuer it be . Indeed , otherwise , whatsoeuer we doe , we may call it by our owne name ; we may say , he is a patient man , or he is a temperate man , or these are workes of Justice , or workes of temperance : But we can neuer call it godlinesse , except it rise from faith , except it come from this ground ; because indeed it is not done to God. ( Marke it ) I say , further then a man doth a thing out of faith , hee doth it not to GOD. For , to doe a thing out of faith , is nothing else , but when out of perswasion of GODS loue to me , I doe this thing : meerely for his sake whom I haue chosen , to whom I giue my selfe ; one that I know loues mee ; and therefore , though there were no reward for it , I would serue him . This is a worke of faith . Now , I say , this is properly godlines . And therfore , in 2 Pet. 1. when the Apostle had named Patience and Temperance , lest wee should mistake , ( as if hee should say , There be many Vertues of this nature amongst men that belong not to GOD. ) Therefore , saith he , Adde Godlinesse ; that is , Let it be such as becomes a godly man to doe . Godlinesse is that which is done to GOD ; such things and such qualities as haue an eye and respect to him , such things please him . What if a man should doe neuer so much , if it please not GOD , it is lost labour . It is said , Heb. 11.6 . that Henoch pleased God. Marke how the Apostle reasons : ( saith hee ) without faith it is impossible to please God : therefore , in that he is said to please GOD , it must needes be through faith . You know , it is said , Rom. 13. whatsoeuer a man doth , if it be not of faith , and loue , GOD lookes not to it ; you know there can be no loue without faith . Consider but how it is with your selues ; If a man should doe any thing for you , you know , hee may haue many other ends , hee may doe you many a great good turne ; yet , if you be perswaded this comes not out of loue to me , nor of true respect to me , you regard it not , whatsoeuer it bee . If it bee but a small thing , if it be done out of loue , you respect it . So it is with GOD ; workes that come from faith and loue , ( for those I reckon to be all one ) those he respects wondrously . Therefore we should learne to iudge aright of our workes ; it will helpe vs against that position of the Papists , and also against the common opinion of men . Euery man thinkes that Almes-deeds , doing good to the poore , and doing glorious things , &c. that these are good workes , when as common actions they exclude , as if they were not good workes : But it is not so ; we may doe the greatest workes of this nature , and yet they may haue no excellency in them at all . Againe , the very ordinary workes of our Calling , ordinary things to men , ordinary seruice from day to day , if it come from faith , if it be done as to the Lord , he accepts them , and they are good workes indeed . This vse we ought to make of it : If GOD regard not any thing but faith , we should not be deceiued in our workes which we doe . Againe , if faith be such a thing , that no workes are accepted without it , that no branch will grow except it come from this roote ; if there be no saluation without it , if it be a thing that is most profitable for vs ; If thou sayest now , How may I know whether I haue faith or no ? I may be deceiued in it . When we hang so much vpon this peg , we had neede be sure that it be strong , and that it will hold vs. I will therefore make this present Vse , in shewing what the signes of this faith , and what the characters of it are , that you may learne to iudge aright , whether that faith that sets all the price vpon your workes , be a right faith , or no : You may know it by this : 1 Where there is a true faith , there is a secret perswasion wrought in the heart , whereby GOD assures you that he is yours , and you are his ; as you haue it , Reu. 2.17 . To him that ouercommeth , will I giue that hidden Mannah , and a white stone with a new name written in it , that hee onely knowes that receiues it : ( That is ) That is one thing by which ye shall know whether you haue true faith or no : Haue you euer had any of that hidden Mannah ? ( that is ) Haue you had such a secret perswasion , which hath beene as sweet as Mannah to you , which you haue fed on , as they fed on Mannah , which giues you life , as Mannah gaue life to them ? Onely hee sayes it is a hidden Mannah , it lyes not abroad , others see it not , but it is Mannah that your hearts secretly feede on . So that , wouldst thou know whether thou haue faith ? Hath GOD giuen thee such a stone with a new name written in it , that is the stone of absolution ? As the manner was among the Athenians , among the old Grecians ; that the sentence of absolution was giuen by white stones , as the sentence of condemnation was blacke stones : So ( saith he ) GOD will giue him such a secret testimony that he is acquitted , that when he is called in question , ( as they were , that they knew not whether they should dye or liue ; in that case , if they had the white stone , such a man was absolued : So , I say ) Hath GOD giuen thee such a stone , with thy name vpon it ? Hath he giuen you such a stone , as you know in the secret of your heart , such as none knowes , but God and your selfe ? ( that is ) Hath hee euer opened the clouds ? hath hee euer shewed himselfe to you ? hath he cast a good looke vpon you ? hath he made your hearts glad with the light of his countenance in his Beloued ? ( for such a secret worke there is of the Spirit , by which GOD cheereth and comforteth the heart of a man : that is his manner in working faith . After the Law hath beene a Schoolemaster to a man , after there hath beene such an inditement , that he hath beene brought in question of his life , when there hath beene a great storme , then he comes into the heart , as hee did into the Ship , and all is quiet . I say , that is his manner , he comes into the heart after such a manner , and speakes peace to a man. ) Haue you euer found this worke in your selues , that after much trouble and disquiet within , GOD hath spoken peace to you , that he hath said to your soules , I am thy saluation ? Not that that is absolutely required , that there should be such a trouble going before , For , although it be true , that he neuer speaks peace , but when there hath gone some trouble , but when there hath gone some conuincing of the spirit before , which conuinceth a man of sinne ; yet this you must know , that still the promise is made to the comming , and not to the preparation . And therefore , if a man be at his journies end , it is no matter how he came there . If a man finde that he be in CHRIST , and hath had such a testimonie from his Spirit , though he haue not had such a worke of humiliation as perhaps he expects , yet know , that the promise is made to that . And if you haue that which the promise is made vnto , is not that sufficient ? It is true , as I said , you must haue it really , you must haue it in good earnest , there must goe alwayes a worke of humiliation before the testimony of the Spirit . But mistake not : that turbulent sorrow , that violent disquiet of the minde goes not alwaies before . For example ; Take two men , the one is arrested , and condemned & brought to the poynt of death , he makes account of nothing else ; A pardon comes to this man , and hee is saued ; there was great trouble went before , and hee was wondrously affected when the pardon came : But now there is another man that is guilty of the same offence , and hee knowes certainly that he shall be called in question , and hee is sure to lose his life , vnlesse his peace be made . Now before this be acted , before that indeed he be put in prison , before that indeed he be condemned , and before his head be brought to the blocke , he is certified that a Pardon is come out for him . This man knowes his estate as well as the other , and he knowes that he had perished without a Pardon , as well as the other ; and he makes as much account of his Pardon as the other , and will not let it goe for his life as well as the other . Now , both these are pardoned , both are sure of life : but there is a different manner of doing it . The one man was affected and much stirred before , he was put into a wondrous afright before : The other man is convinced of the danger , he is in as well as he , although he be not put to that extremity of sorrow , though he be not brought to so neere an exigent as the other : So , if a man be convinced of sinne , if a man know in good earnest , throughly , what the danger is , that he must perish , if he haue not this Pardon . Now , I say , if thou haue such a testimony , build vpon it : For it is true , that GOD , before hee comes in the soft voice , he sends a Wind before , that rends the Rockes downe , that brings downe the Mountaines there , so much as makes the way plaine , before hee can come within the soft voice . I say , if the Mountaines be broken downe , ( after what manner soeuer it be ) that is enough ; doe not stand on that ; Be sure of this , that if there come a soft voice , thou hast reason to beleeue that , whatsoeuer preparations were before , which are diuers : for GOD workes sometimes after one manner , sometimes after another . But now , what is this soft voice ? that I may a little further come to explaine that : for certainely , if he come in the soft voice , that is , the voice of the Gospel , you are sure . But what is it ? 1 I take it to be this . One thing is , when there is a clearing of the promise , ( for the voice is the very Gospell it selfe : ) Now , when wee preach the Gospell to men , and open the promises of saluation , and of life , if God doe not joyne with vs now , and cleare them to you , by kindling a light within , that you see the meaning of them ; except he , I say , doe thus joyne with vs , you shall not be able to build vpon these promises . Therefore that is one thing that God must doe : For , though it bee true , the Word is neere you , that you neede not goe vp to heauen , nor downe to hell to fetch it , ( for saith Moses , the Word is neere you , the promises are neere , in your mouthes , in the midst of you ) yet , except God doe shew them , as cleare as they be , you cānot see them . As when Iesus stood by Mary Magdalene , he was neere enough , but till her eyes were opened , she saw him not . So Hagar , the Well was neere enough to her , but till her eies were opened , she could not see it . So , when wee preach these promises , when we lay them open as neere as we can , as neere as may be , yet it must be the worke of the Spirit to see the promises , to see them so as to beleeue them , and to rest on them . Therefore that is one part of this soft voice , to open the Gospell vnto you . 2 There is another , which is the immediate testimony of the Spirit , spoken of in Rom. 8. This Spirit beareth witnesse with our spirits : when God comes , and by a secret testimony of the Spirit , worketh such a perswasion in the heart , that he is a Father , that he is a friend , that he is reconciled to vs. But , you will say , this may be a delusion ? Therefore you must haue both together : know that they are neuer disjoyned : GOD neuer giues the secret witnesse of his Spirit , he neuer workes such a perswasion , such an immediate testimony , but it hath alwaies the testimony of the Word going with it ; bee sure to joyne them , be sure thou doe not seuer them one from the other . So that , if you would know now whether you haue faith or no , consider whether euer GOD hath spoken this to you , or no ; whether euer hee hath wrought this worke in you . For faith , you must know , is wrought in this manner : The Spirit comes , and shewes CHRIST to you , and not onely shewes you his merits , not only tels you that he will be a Sauiour , not only tels you of a Kingdome that you shall haue by him ; but shewes you the beauty and excellencie of CHRIST ; it shewes you what grace is , and makes you loue it , and then hee shewes you mercy : Out of this you come to long after CHRIST , and to say , I would I had him ; a man comes to loue him as the Spouse loues her Husband . Now to this worke hee addes a second : CHRIST comes and tels a man , I will haue thee , he comes and shewes himselfe ; he discouers himselfe to a man , and speakes plainly , ( as in that place wee haue often mentioned , Iohn 19. ) and saith to him , I am willing to marry thee . When this is done on the Holy Ghosts part , and we on our part come to resolue to take him , now the match is made betweene vs , and this is faith indeede ; when this worke is done , a man may truely say , This day is saluation come to mee . Now thou art sure that all thy sinnes are forgiuen ; now faith is wrought in thy heart . Therefore if thou wouldest know whether thou haue faith or no , looke backe , reflect vpon thine owne heart , consider what actions haue passed thorow there : for that is the next way to know what faith is , to looke what actions haue passed thorow a mans heart : a man may know what the actions of his soule are , for that is the benefit of a reasonable soule , that it is able to returne vpon it selfe , to see what it hath done , which the soule of a beast cannot doe . Now let a man consider whether such a thing haue passed or no ; that is , ( marke it ) whether on Christs part there hath beene such a cleering of the promise , that thou art so built , that , if an Angell from Heauen should come and preach another Gospell , if Paul himselfe should be liuing on the earth , and should preach the contrary , thou wouldest not beleeue him . Dost thou see the Word so cleerely , art thou so set vpon the Rocke ( as it were ) that thou canst say in good earnest , as the Apostle said in Rom. 8. I know that neither principalities , nor powers , nor things present , nor things to come , nor any thing in the world , shall euer seperate me from the loue of God in Christ , and that because I haue his sure Word ? Againe , when thou hast such a secret impression of assurance from his Spirit , which will not faile thee , when thou findest this , on GODS part , and againe when thou findest this act on thy owne part ; when thou sayest , I haue resolued to take him , ( for a man may know what he hath done ) I haue resolued to take him for my husband , I haue resolued to prefer him before all things in the world , to be diuorsed from all things in the world , and to cleaue to him : This I know , these acts haue passed on Gods part , and this I haue done on my part ; when thou findest this wrought in thy selfe , be assured there is faith wrought in thee : when the Law hath beene a Schoolemaster to thee , and when CHRIST hath spoken peace , and when thou art built vpon him againe ; consider if this hath beene wrought . This is the first meanes to try thy faith : but , because this may bee an ambiguous meanes , a man may be deceiued in it ; therefore faith doth shew it selfe by many other effects . And therefore we will adde to this , ( which is the very thing wherein faith consists ) other signes ; and they are fiue in number . First , a man must know that there may be many delusions in this kinde : many Hypocrites may haue great raptures , they may haue great ioy , as if they were lift vp into the third heauen , they may haue a great and strong perswasion that their estate is good . Satan is very apt to delude vs in this kinde , to put a counterfeit vpon vs in stead of true faith ; Therefore wee will not content our selues with this , but giue other markes , that will not deceiue . At this time you are to consider , you that come to the Sacrament , Is it not a maine thing to consider whether you haue faith or no ? What do you here else , you haue nothing to doe with Christ , you haue no interest in him ; and if you haue no interest in him , what doe you with the Elements which represent his body and his blood ? And therefore you haue cause to attend to it . First , therfore , if thou find such a worke in thy heart , ( for if thou conclude that there is no such worke , thou needest not examine further , thou maist be sure that thou hast not faith , but if thou haue such a worke ) if thou wouldst know whether it be really and truly , or whether it be a fancie or delusion , consider : First , if it be true , it purifies the heart : in Acts 15.9 . saith the Apostle Peter there , God hath put no difference betweene vs and them , after that by faith hee had purified their hearts . So in Acts 26.18 . And thou shalt preach forgiuenesse of sinnes to those that are sanctified by faith . So that this you must take as a sure rule : If thy faith bee true , it purifies thy heart , it sanctifies thee . And therefore you see , faith and repentance are alwaies put together . Repent and beleeue : for they are neuer disjoyned . If thou find the worke of repentāce be not wrought throughly & soundly in thee , if thou finde thy heart not purified , if thou be not sanctified , if there be not a sanctified disposition in thee , be sure it is a delusion , it is not faith : or , if faith be ( as you heard heretofore ) a taking of CHRIST , not as a Sauiour onely , but as a Priest ; and not as a Priest onely , but as a King too , it must needes be that there must be reall obedience , or else it is not faith , thou hast not taken him : If there be nothing but a meere assent , as the Papists affirme in another case ; For faith is a taking of Christ , and a giuing of our selues to him againe ; so that there is a match , there is a bargaine , a Couenant betweene vs , as hee saith in Heb. 8.8 . I will make a New Couenant with them . Now a Couenant hath two parts : If GOD doe this for you , you must doe somewhat on your part , you must loue him , and obey him . As in a Marriage , the Husband doth not onely take the Wife , but the Wife also takes the Husband . If faith bee such a thing as this , there must needes be a generall reformation of the life , or else it is certaine thou hast not taken him . Therefore know , that as there is a liuely hope , so there is a liuely faith : And when it is said to be a liuely faith , it intimates that there is another , that is a dead faith ; that is , There is a kinde of beleeuing , a kinde of taking Christ , a kinde of giuing a mans selfe to him : but yet , ( marke it ) saith he , it is such a one as breeds no life in thee . Marke , if thy faith be such a faith as hath brought Christ to dwell in thy heart , so as the soule dwels in the body , if it be such a dwelling in thy heart that there be life in thee : for Christ , when he dwels in vs , he acts the soule , as the soule acts the body : As the body now , when the soule is there , is able to moue , is able to stirre , is able to doe any thing : So the soule of a man , it fals to the duties of godlinesse , and new obedience , to all good workes ; it is ready ( as the Apostle saith ) to euery good worke ; it is nimble , and ready to goe about them , you are aliue to righteousnesse . Hath faith so brought Christ into thy heart , that he liues in thee , as he did in Paul , that thou canst finde and say truely , I am dead to sinne , and liue to righteousnesse ? That thou hast mortified the deedes of the body by the Spirit , that thou findest another life working in thee ; except thou canst finde this , it is not true faith : for true faith is such as brings Christ to dwell in thy heart , and he dwels there when he reviues thy spirit ; as it is , Isay 57.13.14 . I dwell in the high Heauens , and with him also that is of a contrite spirit , to reviue the Spirit of the humble ; that is , he neuer dwels , but he giues life . And , if thou finde not such a life in thy selfe , conclude that thy faith is not good . And this you ought the more to marke , because many thousands seeme to take CHRIST , and to doe much , and yet for all this , they haue not life all the while . Take two grafts , it may be there is incision made in both , both may be planted , as you often see in Plants , after they bee planted , if you would know whether the grafting bee true or no , if you come a while after , and see one of the grafts dead and withered , you say this grafting was not good , or the stocke was not good , somewhat was amisse : and if you finde it to bud , and that there be life in it , then you say it was grafted indeed , the grafting was good and right . So when a man comes and takes CHRIST , if thou see thou be grafted , if thou find thy life to be the same , if thou finde thou art no more able to pray , nor no more able to doe any duty then thou wast before , that thou liuest in thy lusts as much as euer thou didst , thou hast not that new heart , that new spirit , and that new affection which the Scriptures speake of ; bee sure then , that thou art not grafted : for if thou wert grafted aright by faith , ( for it is that which grafteth ) there would bee life . When as the graft is taken out of the former Tree , it beares no more that fruit , but it liues , and beares another fruite ; Therefore consider if this be so or no : and that is the reason of that answer of Philip to the Eunuch , in the 8. of the Acts , Vers. 37. The Eunuch professed to beleeue , and would haue beene baptized . Saith Philip , thou mayest , if thou beleeue with all thine heart . Thou mayest thinke it is nothing ; but it is a resoluing from time to time to giue vp thy selfe to be Christs seruant , to take his yoake , to weare his Liuery and his Badge . Now Baptisme is but a seale to confirme and testifie this to thy selfe , and to the World , that thou hast giuen thy selfe to CHRIST : saith Philip , take heede to thy selfe : if it bee a false taking , thou maist not haue him , but if thou beleeue with all thy heart , thou mayest be baptized . So I say to men , there is a kinde of taking Christ , when a man takes him with some part of his heart , when he resolueth , I confesse it is good , I haue a present disposition to it , it will serue me for such a turne ; I am afraid of Hell , it will deliuer me from that ; in such an exigent , in such a crosse , in such a trouble , that will come vpon me , it will free mee from that : but this is not enough ; but , if thou beleeue with all thy heart , that is , when thou hast summed and reckoned all together , all reasons , and all objections to and fro , thou resoluest altogether to take him in all respects . Againe , when all thy heart shall come in , that is , when the vnderstanding of a man is fully perswaded of these promises , that they are true , and that it is best for him to take CHRIST , if the perswasion be good , and the will follow : for that you may take for a sure rule , there is no man that is fully perswaded , and convinced euery way that such a thing is best , but the will will follow . If the mind be right , the will will follow , and if the will follow , be sure the affections will follow . For , if a man wils a thing in good earnest , and resolue , I would haue it indeed , then his desires will come and be earnest ; and if hee be in doubt , feare will come ; and if any thing hinder , anger will come and thrust away the impediments : and if he get the thing , there will be reioycing ; and so all the affections will follow ; and then certainely , action and endeuour will follow . There is no man that desires a thing earnestly , but where the affections are strong and busie , action and endeuour will be answerable . Now , if thou take CHRIST with all thy heart , that there is no reseruation , that it is not done by halues , then thou mayest haue him , and the fruites , and all the priuiledges by him , so as thou shalt be saued by him . Consider whether this be done , or no. When we preach faith , you may see what it is in Acts 26.17 , 18. Marke what the message was that CHRIST sends to Paul , nothing but to preach faith ; but what was that ? Saith hee , to turne men from the power of Satan , to God , to turne men from darknesse to light . That is , to cause them to forsake their former wayes of darknesse , that they haue beene ledde into by the Deuill , and to turne them to GOD , to seeke him . So that then a man is said truely to beleeue , when his heart is turned to GOD ; that is , when a man before was giuen to this pleasure or to that pleasure and commodity , his heart was wedded to it , hee would haue an estate in this world , and hee would haue credit in the world , and he would haue place with men , and he would be some-body in the flesh ; his heart was set on these things , he would follow them . Now faith is nothing but this , wee come and tell you that Christ is offered ; if you will be content to let all these things goe , and to turne your hearts to him that the whole bent of a mans minde is turned the contrary way , and set vpon Christ , this is faith indeede , when there is this generall turning of a mans minde from these things . Therefore know , that faith in CHRIST , and couetousnesse , cannot stand together . When thy mind goeth a whoring after thy wealth , what hast thou to doe with CHRIST ? That is not to take CHRIST . For , to take CHRIST , is to turne the minde from these things to seeke him . Againe , if thou wilt haue praise with men , thou canst not beleeue and haue that too ; it is impossible . And so for any pleasure , for any lust : dost thou thinke to follow thy pleasure , to seeke that , to satisfie thy flesh , and to haue CHRIST ? No , it is another kinde of taking ; and this is not done with that sleightnesse as they did , Ieremy 3. You turned to me ( saith the LORD ) feignedly , and not with all your hearts : but it is to turne in good earnest , to turne to GOD vpon sound ground . therefore now let vs come to the examination of this . Now , if we were not mistaken in it , there would be no question of this : we thinke that faith is nothing but a perswasion that our sinnes are forgiuen , a perswasion that the promises are true , a perswasion that the Scripture is true , a perswasion that CHRIST dyed for my sinnes : And thence it is , that men are apt to be deceiued in it : If they tooke faith as it is in it selfe , a marrying of our selues to CHRIST , with all our heart and affections , when hee hath giuen himselfe to vs , as in marriage , and we are giuen to him , in doing this wee should neuer bee deceiued . If thou wouldest know now if thy faith bee right , examine it as thou wouldest examine another thing . If you take Wine , if you would know whether it be good Wine , if you finde it flat and dead , if you drinke it , and it heates you not , it warmes you not at the heart , it quickens you not , it reviues not your spirits ; you will say , it is naught , if it were good Wine , it would doe this . If you come to looke on Plants , if you find there no fruite , nor no leaues , you say , this Plant is dead . So take a Iewell , and when it comes to the Touch-stone , or any way that you try it ; you say , it is faire , but it is a counterfeit Iewell , it is a false Diamond , or whatsoeuer it be . If you come to take a dramme of Physicke , if you take a Drugge , if it doe not worke : Take Leauen and put it into your Dough , if it sower not the lumpe , you say , it is dead Leauen , it is a counterfeit thing : So I say , If thou finde not in faith this effect , this operation vpon thy heart , that it workes not this generall change in thee , that it fires not thy soule with loue to CHRIST , if thou finde not life in it , and that it bring forth such fruites , if thou finde it not grow , that it put another taste vpon the whole soule , that it leauens it throughout ; know that thou art deceiued , rest not in it , cast it away , get a right faith , such as will not deceiue thee . But I cannot stand vpon this . This is the first signe of effectuall faith . Before I come to the second thing , know this , ( by the way ) you that receiue the Sacrament , That , if you be vnworthy receiuers , you cannot doe your selues a worse turne , then to offer to come to the Sacrament without faith , to prouoke GOD more , to eate and drinke your owne damnation . Now examine your selues by such rules as this : If you haue changed your life ; If you haue receiued it heretofore , and continue still in your sinnes ; If you say , it is true , I haue done it , I haue returned againe to my gaming , I haue returned againe to my swearing , to my loosenesse , to my company-keeping ; but yet I had a good meaning , I intended it at that time , well , that is not enough . If thou hadst faith , thou wouldest doe it indeed ; doe not say , I had a good meaning : for , if thou hadst faith , it would not onely worke a good meaning in thee , but it would worke power in thee to doe this , that thou wouldest be able to mortifie these affections , it would worke a reall and an effectuall change in thee . Consider , how faith doth it : faith takes CHRIST ; when you haue taken CHRIST , as soone as euer you haue him , he sends his Spirit into your hearts , and the Spirit is able to doe all this , and doth as Saint Paul saith , when hee had CHRIST once , I am able to doe all things , through Christ that strengthens mee . So certainely , when thou hast CHRIST , as thou commest to take the elements of Bread and Wine , if thou hadst taken him indeed , thou wouldst be strengthned to doe all things , thou wouldst finde thy heart able to doe this , thou shouldest finde a change in thy heart , that thou wouldst doe it without difficulty , thou wouldest finde thy selfe turned and changed , thou wouldst haue new affections , and a new life . And if thou doe not finde this , know that thou hast nothing to doe with the Sacrament , know it before-hand , and know that thou hast had warning giuen thee , that thou receiuest vnworthily , and art guilty of the body and blood of CHRIST ; that is , thou committest such a sinne as those did that killed CHRIST . What was their sinne that killed him ? They despised him , they mocked him , they knew him not to be CHRIST , they made no account of him ; their greatest worke in killing him , was , they despised him , they mocked him : So thou commest and art bold with him here , it is a despising of CHRIST : If thou didst reuerence him , if thou didst feare him , if thou didst tremble at him , if thou didst know him to be such a one as he is , thou wouldst not be bold to doe it . And therfore , if thou wilt venture vpon small grounds to goe on in sinne , and yet come and receiue the Sacrament , the Apostle saith , thou art guilty of the body and blood of Christ : that is , thou committest a sinne of that nature , and therefore looke to it . Secondly , 2 if thou wouldst know whether thy faith be true or no , consider whether thou hast this consequent of it , the Spirit of Prayer : for wheresoeuer there is a Spirit of faith , there is also a Spirit of prayer : that is , ( marke it , and you shall see the reason why I deliuer this to be a signe of faith . ) Faith , you know , is wrought in vs by the Spirit of Adoption . Now what is the Spirit of Adoption , but the Spirit that tels you that ye are sonnes ? as in Gal. 4.6 . So many as are sonnes , receiue the Spirit of sonnes . Now whensoeuer the Spirit tels a man he is a sonne ; that is , workes faith in his heart , the second thing that the Spirit doth , it teacheth him to pray : and therefore those words are added , that you cry Abba Father : that is , the Spirit neuer doth the one , but it doth the other ; if it be the testimony of the Spirit . And therefore this is the second signe : If thou haue such a perswasion that the Spirit haue spoken to thee , if thou wouldest know whether this be a delusion or no , thou shalt know it by this : If thou haue the Spirit , it will make thee able to cry Abba Father , it will make thee able to doe two things . 1 First , it will make thee able to cry ; that they shall be earnest prayers which thou makest ; thy prayers shall be feruent ; they were cold before , thou camest to performe lip-labour , thou camest to doe the duty , to performe it , perhaps euery day ; but alas , what prayer was it ? This shall make thee cry . 2 But againe , which is the maine , not onely so , but thou shalt speake to him , as to a Father : that is , thou shalt goe to GOD , and looke vpon him as one doth vpon a Father , as one lookes vpon one whose loue he is sure of , of whose fauour he doubts not , one that hee knowes is readie to heare his requests . It may bee thou hast prayed before , but not to him as to a Father all the while , that is the worke of the Spirit ; if it euer giue thee testimony of thy sonneship , it will make thee pray feruently , and it will make thee pray to God as to a Father : that is to be made able to pray . But , you will say , euery body can pray : Is that such a signe , is that such a distinguishing marke and character , to bee able to pray ? My brethren , be not deceiued in it : you must know , that prayer is not a worke of the memory , or a worke of the wit. A man that hath a good wit , or a ready invention , or a voluble tongue , may make an excellent praier , in his owne esteeme , and in the esteeme of others , but this is not to pray . Prayer is the worke of a sanctified heart , it it the worke of GODS Spirit : There is a double prayer , Rom. 8. there is one praier , which is the voice of our owne spirit ; there is a second praier , which is the voice of Gods Spirit in vs : that is , when the Holy Ghost hath so sanctified the heart , when hee hath put it into such a whole-frame of grace , that the heart comes to speake as it is quickned , as it is acted and moued from GODS Spirit . Now , saith the Text there , God knows the voice of his own Spirit : for that makes requests according to his will , he heares that prayer : But now the prayers which are made by the voice of our owne spirit , he knowes not the meaning of them : that is , he heares them not , he hearkens not to them . Consider whether thy prayer be such or no ; consider whether thy prayer bee the voyce of Gods Spirit in thee . But thou wilt say , How should I know that ? Thou shalt know it by this , as I said before , Dost thou come to him as to a Father ? Another man prayes to GOD , it may be , all his life , but hee comes to him as to a stranger ; yea , sometimes he may be very earnest , when it is no prayer , but when he is put to an exigent , he may be earnest , as a Thiefe is earnest with the Judge to spare him : there may be much earnestnesse , although this may bee farre off from prayer . But canst thou come to GOD as to a friend ? Canst thou come to him as to one whose fauour thou art assured of ? Canst thou come to him as to a Father ? Except thou canst doe this , know that he regardeth not thy prayers . And this , me thinkes now , when we consider , we should not deferre our repentance , and thinke with our selues , I will repent when I am sicke , I will goe to GOD in the time of extremity . Well , it may be thou maist doe it ; but alas , canst thou come to speake to God now as to a friend , when as thou hast beene a stranger to him , and he to thee , all thy life ? Certainely thou canst not . And when thou commest and prayest earnestly , when some great crosse is on thee , in some great exigent , in the day of death , in the time of thy sicknesse ; know , that though thou pray neuer so feruently , although thou adde fasting to quicken it , yet it is doubtfull whether it bee acceptable prayer at all in that exigent . The Scripture giues it another terme , in Hosea 7.14 . Saith he , You prayed not to me with your hearts , but you howled vpon your beds : it came not out of any loue to mee , nor from any change of heart , it came not out of a holy disposition in you . Therefore you praied not to mee , when you howled vpon your beds : that is , as if hee should say , they were no more but howlings . Will not a dogge , or a beast , or any other vnreasonable creature , when they are pinched , when they are in extreamity , will they not cry , will they not moane for helpe ? Your prayers were no more , they were but howlings vpon your beds . And what were they for ? They were to bee deliuered from the present affliction , they were to haue Wine and Oyle in that great dearth that was vpon them : And so in those cases , your earnest prayers are but howlings vpon your bed . And therefore thinke not that this is prayer , be not deceiued in it . And therfore it is the manner of the Saints , if you would know it , when they come to pray , they come boldly to GOD , they come boldly to the Throne of Grace , as the Apostle saith , Eph. 3 7. By faith we haue boldnesse , and entrance with confidence . Another man hee prayes earnestly , but examine his heart , and he must needes say , Indeede , GOD is a stranger to mee , I cannot be confident ; it may be he heares me , it may be he heares me not . Whereas we are required to lift vp pure hands in euery place , without wrath or doubting ; we are required to come with boldnesse : And know this , that if otherwise thou pray morning and night , if thou make neuer so many prayers , from day to day , if thou be neuer so constant in them , GOD regards them not , hee takes them by weight , and not by number , not by labour , not by earnestnesse , which is a thing that may come from the flesh . If thy prayer come from his Spirit , he accepts of it ; if not , be sure it is no prayer , and if there be no prayer , there is no faith . Thirdly , if thou wouldest know whether thou hast faith or no , consider whether thou haue peace : for faith pacifies the heart aswell as purifies it , as the Apostle saith , Rom. 5.1 . Being justified by faith , wee haue peace with God. Now , if thou wouldest know whether thy faith which thou hast be right or no , consider if there be peace there : Hast thou that peace that passeth al vnderstanding ? You know now , if a man were in debt , and were ready to bee cast into prison , and saw not how he should escape , and one should promise him an hundred pounds , which would deliuer him ; if he beleeue this friend , he is full of peace and quiet : if thou beleeue thy pardon to be good , there will be peace . But , you will say to me , there is many a man hath peace , who hath no faith . It is true : But I would aske this Question concerning this peace : Is it a peace that comes after Warre ? Hast thou knowledge of that enmity betweene GOD and thee ? Hast thou had the sense of it , and after this hast thou beene reconciled againe ? Is it such a calme that followed after a storme going before ? As I said before , when it hath beene alwaies so with thee , when thou hast had peace , and there hath beene no difference with thee , certainely this is not peace , this is a blinde peace , when a man is at peace , not because he hath escaped the danger , but because he neuer saw the danger , because he saw not what danger there was . Hence it is , that many men , yea many thousands of men , liue peaceably all their liues , and dye peaceably . Alas , the reason is , because they were neuer acquainted with the Doctrine of Iustification , and of Sanctification , they are strangers to it ; and hence it is that they die with as much confidence as the best Christians , they haue no more trouble then holy men : for this is all one , to be sure that I am free from a danger , and not to know it ; both breed alike confidence . Againe , know that there may bee peace built on fancy , such contentments as a man may find in a pleasant dreame , he is as strongly perswaded as the waking man : So many hypocrites , that haue had some trouble before , and come to haue some peace after , they thinke it sure , when it is built vpon a false ground , and not vpon the sure Word . Therefore consider whether it be such a peace as is well built , whether it be such a Peace indeed that casts out Satan , and thou findest some assaults made by him againe . For , be thou assured , if it be true peace , if Satan bee cast out , he will not let thee alone , thou shalt bee sure to haue thy peace troubled , he will make many rebellions against thee by the flesh and the world : And therefore if thou finde all quiet , that there are no such assaults in thee , that there are no troubles or attempts made on thee , be thou assured it is counterfeited peace : But still keepe this , that if there bee faith , there will be peace ; that is , the heart will be at rest , it will be quiet , there will be a certaine security in GOD. See it in other things . Take faith in any thing else , and you shall see , so much faith , so much quiet in you . For example , Hannah , in 1 Sam. 1.18 . when her petition was granted , that she beleeued it , saith the Text , she went away , and tooke meate , and looked no more sad . That was an argument that she beleeued , she tooke meate , and looked no more sad . Take Mose● at the Red Sea , Exod. 14. you shall finde that the people were all troubled and disquieted , and that they knew not what to doe : But ( marke how Mos●s carrieth himselfe ) Moses was quiet , and stood still , he was not troubled : And why ? Because he beleeued , and they did not ; if they had beleeued as well as he , they would haue beene at rest as well as hee : ( Marke what hee saith ) Stand still , and see the sal●ation of the Lord : and the Lord will fight for you ; and therfore feare not : As if he should say , If you did but beleeue , you would be at quiet , you would stand sti●l , you would not feare , you would not haue your soules troubled . So , I say , so much faith , so much quiet . Looke vpon Dauid , in Psal. 3. when he fled before Absolon , saith he , Thou art my Buckler , &c. And therefore I laid me downe to rest and sleepe : that is , I was as a man that sleepes quietly . One would thinke that that was a matter that would breake a mans sleepe , when he lay in that danger , that if Achitophel's councell had taken effect , hee had beene destroyed : and yet now , saith he , I laid me downe and slept : as if he should say , This is an argument of my faith , my heart is at rest and quiet , so that I can sleepe quietly without stirring . And ●o Paul , see how hee accompts it , how he behaued himselfe , when God told him that he should appeare at Rome before Cae●●r he knew that he should be deliuered from Ship-wracke : and though forty men had bound themselues with a curse , that they would destroy him , and hee was told of it , yet he made no great matter of it , but said , Goe and carry this young man to the Captaine . So , consider whether thy heart be quiet , and rest vpon God or no : for so much faith , so much peace : as in particular , so in generall , for matter of assurance ; know , that there is a double peace or assurance : 2 One peace that ariseth from the confidence in the creature , when a man thinkes he is strong in his wealth , when he thinkes he is at rest . The other is from assurance in GOD ; I know that he will be as good as his word ; I know whom I haue trusted : Let security be built on this ground , and the more security , the more faith . Therfore examine thy faith by peace . I should adde somewhat more in this , and some other signes , which I must reserue vntill the next time . FINIS . OF EFFECTVALL FAITH . The fourth Sermon . 1. THESS . 1.3 . Remembring your effectuall Faith , &c. THE third Character of Faith , which I named in the morning , but did not fully finish , is this ; If we haue justifying faith , then we haue peace . In this we should take heede . As it is a great mercy to haue a true and sound peace ; so to haue a peace not well bottomed is the greatest judgement in the world ; when GOD giues vp a man , that he shall be secure and at rest , that he shall not haue his minde occupied about sinne , or about matters of saluation ; I say , it is a signe that such a one God hates : if it continue so with him , it is a signe God will destroy him . But yet peace of conscience , vpon a good ground , is a signe of faith ; as I shewed in Moses , Hannah , Dauid , and the rest . So farre wee went in the morning . Now you must know , that all those instances that we brought you , that where there is faith , there is peace and quiet ; they were not onely for resemblance , to shew you , that as it is in those other things wherein wee beleeue , so it is in the maine ; ( as you doe not beleeue any particular promise , except you haue some quiet in your minde after it ; ) but likewise to shew you whether that peace bee good or no , whether that faith be sure or no. For if you beleeue the maine , certainely you will beleeue the lesse . Therefore consider with your selues , ( wee will inlarge this signe so farre ) If thou wouldest know whether thy faith be good or no , whether thou haue peace indeede concerning the maine ; Consider with thy selfe , whether thou art able to beleeue those promises which concerne those particular things which thou hast daily vse of . For there are many promises which thou hast vse of continually in thy course : thou hast euery day some occasion or other of trusting GOD : See in these how thou doest beleeue , whether thou hast peace , and know , that if thou haue not peace in these , it is a signe thou hast not peace in the maine . I will name but one place for it : Looke in Phil. 4.6 . In nothing be carefull , but in all things let your requests be made vnto God : And then , saith he , The peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding , shall preserue your hearts and mindes in Christ Iesus . Marke the opposition ; saith he , In nothing be carefull , when matters of trouble come , when crosses come , when great businesses come , wherein thou knowest not which way to turne thee , ( saith hee ) in such a case be not thou carefull ; doe the thing , thou must haue so much care as to set thy head aworke , as to deuise what to doe , and to set thy hand aworke to act it ; but let there be no sollicitude to disturbe and disquiet thy affections within . Let thy request be made knowne to GOD ; then , the peace of GOD which passeth all vnderstanding , shall keepe thy heart and minde in Christ Iesus . As if hee should say , if thou be not able to doe this , it is an interruption of that peace , it is a contradiction to that peace , which passeth all vnderstanding , that keepes thy heart in communion with CHRIST : if thou be not able to cast thy care on him for other things , that peace belongs not to thee . Where there is a secret intimation , not but that men may haue this peace , and be inordinately carefull , but ordinarily it is not so . He speakes not of such infirmities as the Saints are subject vnto by distemper , but of an ordinary course . Consider now , what thou dost for the things of this life : Saith CHRIST , Math. 6. Oh you of little saith ! Why so ? What was the signe of a little faith ? Saith CHRIST , Doest thou thinke that hee will cloathe the grasse of the field , which to day is , and to morrow is cast into the Ouen ? Doest thou thinke that he will prouide for the yong Rauens that call vpon him , and wilt thou not beleeue that he will doe so for thee ? If thou doe not beleeue this , thy faith is nothing . If thou beleeue little , thy faith is little . Consider that , consider how you carry your selues for the things of this life : doe you thinke that GOD will doe the maine , and will not doe the lesse ? Doe you thinke that he will giue you Christ , and will he not giue you other things ? The same faith , that takes hold of the maine promise , is it not ready to take hold of the lesse , and to depend vpon it ? GOD is able to doe the greatest , and is hee not able to doe the lesse ? Therefore , I say , in such a case , as CHRIST saith , Ioh. 3.12 . to Nichodemus , 〈◊〉 ( saith hee ) I come and tell you of earthly things , and you beleeue me not , how would you beleeue , if I should tell you of heauenly things ? So I say , if you will not beleeue GOD concerning earthly things , when hee promiseth these , how will you beleeue him for the greatest matters of saluation ? How will you beleeue in him for the giuing of CHRIST ? How will you beleeue in him for the raising of you vp at the last day ? Therefore , consider whether you be able to doe this or no : and know , that if there be faith , if you haue faith for the maine , you will haue faith in particular cases . As for exmple , to giue you some instance , Gen. 24.7 . when Abraham had a particular occasion to send his seruant to get a Wife for Isaac ; saith the seruant , Suppose the woman will not come with me : See now what Abrahams answer was : That God which tooke me from my Fathers House , and hath made me many promises before , ( that is ; GOD , that hath done the greatest matters for me , that hath promised me the blessed seed , in which all the Nations of the World shall be blessed ; doest thou thinke hee will not helpe mee in such a particular ? ) hee will send his Angell before thee , and will certainely giue thee good successe . Consider what you doe in such cases as these : these are things which you haue continuall vse of ; you are put many times to such exigents , that you shall haue somewhat to trust GOD for , and you will be tryed in it . So likewise Peter , that trusted GOD for the maine , when it comes to the particular case , that hee is bid to lanch out into the deepe , when hee is commanded to draw out the Ship and to goe a fishing ; although he had no hope to doe it , hee trusted in those particulars , that CHRIST would not faile him : when he bade him goe vpon the water , he trusted that he would support him . Take Dauid , see how he trusted in GOD , how many occasions had he to trust on him ? As it is true for the maine ; so for the particulars . So Paul , did not he trust GOD for his maintenance ? See in his Epistles , how carelesse he was that way . So it is with all the Saints . Consider what you doe in these things : See whether your hearts bee at peace in these things ; whether you trust in GOD , or no , so that your hearts are at rest , that you can sit still , and commit your care to GOD ; if so , it is a good argument that you rest in him for the maine . So much for that . The fourth signe or Character of faith , is , To hold out : and that you shall see in these three branches . First , when it shall cleaue to CHRIST constantly . Secondly , when it will take no denyall . 1 Thirdly , when it is content to waite in prayer , and not be weary and giue ouer . I say , if you would know whether your faith be effectuall , you shall know it by your holding out , whether it cleaue constantly to Christ. If thy faith be ineffectuall , ( as you haue heard the last day ) it comes either from mis-informaton , ( you know not what Christ is , nor what it is to take him ; you looke for other things from him : when you see what it is , if your faith be not effectuall , you will goe backe : ) or else you take him out of feare , or out of loue to his , and not to him ; or else out of false and slender grounds . Now if you would know whether your faith bee such a faith or no , consider if it hold out , if it cleaue to him . If thy faith come of mis-information , 1 when thou hast experience of CHRIST , when thou seest what hee requires at thy hands , when thou considerest and vnderstandest what he puts thee to , there is an end , thou giuest ouer . If thy faith come of feare ; 2 as soone as the storme is ouer , as soone as those troubles in minde , those disquiets in conscience are past , there is an end , thy faith cleaues to CHRIST no longer . If faith come out of loue to his , 3 of loue to a Kingdome , nothing but Hell and Heauen and some present commodities that moue thee ; when better things are offered , that are more present commodities , there is an end of it . Againe , 4 if it be out of false , slender , and slight grounds ; when stronger reasons and objections come , that faith ceaseth likewise . But now then , when thou findest that thy faith holds out , when all these are past , when all these are taken away , when the feare is gone , when such an offer is made , when all the objections are made that can be , this argues that faith is sound and good . Consider therefore , whether thy faith cleaue fast , and constantly to CHRIST , or no ; whether it hold out , when those flashes and good moodes will not ; whether it ouercome , when it is assaulted by the Gates of Hell comming against it . That is , when a mans faith is good , it is built vpon the Rocke , vpon such a Rocke , that if the Deuill himselfe , and principalities and powers come , with all their strength , and all their wit , with all their temptations , and deuises , if faith be sound , it will hold out , the Gates of Hell shall not preuaile against it . The Woman of Canaan , she had a shrewd tryall , when CHRIST tels her she was a Dog , in plaine termes , and when it came from Christ himselfe ; and yet when her faith was good indeed , she could not chuse but she must cleaue to him , she would not giue ouer , there was a strong faith , that did knit her heart secretly vnto CHRIST , there was the ground that she held out , notwithstanding all objections ; although , it may be , she knew not how to answer them , yet she let not goe , and that was a signe her faith was good : So , consider whether thy faith hold out when thou art put to such tryals as these . 2 gaine , consider whether thou wilt receiue no denyall when thou commest and seekest to him ; when thou commest to seeke fauour at GODS hands , when thou commest to seeke forgiuenesse of sinnes , consider whether thou art able to hold out , though hee deferre long before hee grant it . There is no grace that GOD giues , but hee hath tryals for it afterward : Hee giues thee the grace of Patience , he will put thee to it , thou shalt haue some crosse , some affliction or other . If hee giue thee Loue , hee will doe as hee did with Dauid , hee will see whether thou wilt forsake him , or no ; hee will make thee an offer of preferment , an offer of wealth , of praise , of somewhat or other , to see if thou wilt part with that for his sake , or no. If he giues vs Faith , he often tryes vs in this case , he denyes vs long , hee wrestleth with vs , as he did with Iacob , he makes many shewes of going away . Thus , we know , he dealt with Daniel , as soone as hee beganne to pray , the answer comes , that his request was granted ; but GOD would not let him know so much ; hee lets him goe thorow with the worke , hee lets him seeke earnestly , and then he reueales and makes it knowne vnto him . So , perhaps GOD intends thee good , but he will put thee to the tryall , consider therefore if thy faith hold out in such a case . Againe , 3 when thou hast gotten an answer , perhaps , after thou hast gotten thine answers , thou must waite long before the thing it selfe be giuen thee : Therefore consider if thou be content to waite for it : for that is the property of faith , to be willing to waite , as Dauid often repeates it , I waited vpon the Lord. You know , Abraham , how GOD tryed him that way , when hee made him a promise of a seede , of a Sonne , you know how long he waited for the performance . So Isaac , he waited long , before hee had those two sonnes , Iacob and Esau. So GOD will put thee to it to waite , it may be , for matter of justification ; that is , he will not shew himselfe , he will not speake peace vnto thee , he will not giue thee a good looke ; but yet he giues thee a secret strength that thou shalt waite , thou shalt not giue ouer , thou shalt stay till hee speake pe●ce ; that is , till 〈…〉 comfortable assurance , till thou haue the full testimony of the Spirit , as thou hast a secret testimony at the first working of faith . And so for matter of sanctification ; It may be , GOD will suffer some strong lust to wrestle with thee , to contend with thee , as hee suffered in Paul , he will put thee to waite , before he will giue thee victory ouer it . If thy faith bee good now , thou wilt consider that hee hath sworne , hee hath made an absolute promise , that he will giue the Holy Ghost to those that are in Christ , that no sinne shall ouercome them , or haue dominion ouer them . If once thou come vnder grace , if thou haue faith , thou wilt neuer giue ouer , but wilt be content to waite , and to continue still striuing and wrestling with it , thou wilt neuer lay downe the wasters , as a man that is ouercome , as a man that is discouraged , as a man that is wearie of the fight . And so for matter of deliuerance , perhaps GOD will let a crosse lye longer vpon thee : if thou haue faith , thou wilt not make haste , thou wilt be content to waite : Habac. 2. The vision is for an appointed time , it will not lye : Therefore , saith he , waite , it will come , it will not stay . That is , there is a certaine time that GOD hath appointed for thy deliuerance , before he will giue thee such a particular mercy ; consider whether thou be able to wait in such a case : for , if there be faith , ( marke it ) a man will be sure to waite , and not to giue ouer : as in Iam. 1. it is giuen there as a signe that faith is vnsound ; they had so much faith as to come to Christ ; but that was a signe that their faith was faulty , and vnsound faith , that it was not able to waite to the end , but gaue ouer . If a man were sure now , that such a man were in the house , that he must speake withall , hee will waite till he come out , if hee be sure he be there . If thou be sure of GOD , if thy faith be sound , though he doe not answer thee presently , in many particulars , yet thou wilt be content to waite vpon him . Therefore this will shew that many a mans faith is vnsound , slight , and vneffectuall , that they haue so soone done , that they are ready to doe much in flashes , in some good moodes , on a Sacrament day , it may be , or in the time of sicknesse , or when they are affected with some Sermon , or vpon such an occasion ; but , if thy faith were right , it would hold out , it would cleaue to CHRIST , it would goe thorow with all tryals , thou wouldest receiue no denyall , it would continue waiting vpon him . This is the fourth signe . Last of all , you shall know faith by the concomitants of it ; and they are foure ; Loue , Hope , Joy , and Humility . If there bee Faith , if thy Faith be good , it will alwaies haue Loue joyned with it ; 1 as the Apostle Peter saith , in 1 Pet. 1.8 . Whom though you have not seene , yet you loue him . And you know the place in Galath . 5. Faith which worketh by loue . That is , Faith which begets Loue , and such a Loue as sets a man on worke . But it is a thing that needeth no prouing : you cannot deny it : you know how they are joyned together in the first to the Corinthians , chap. 13. Faith , Hope , and Loue. And it must needes be so , that , if thy faith be good , it will haue Loue joyned with it . For , if thy faith bee right , thou lookest on GOD as vpon a friend , as vpon a Father ; now thou lookest vpon CHRIST as on one that is married to thee ; thou lookest on him as vpon one that loues thee , and hath giuen himselfe for thee . Now if thou see this , and art perswaded of this indeede , if thou thinke and art perswaded indeede that he loues thee , loue will beget loue , as fire begets fire . Therefore , if thou wouldst know whether thou hast taken Christ indeede , consider whether thou loue him or no. But you will say you loue CHRIST . I hope there is no great question of that . Salomon saith , Euery man will make shew for fashions sake , of goodnesse , but where can you finde a faithfull man ? So may I say of Loue : Euery man saith , hee loues , but where shall one finde one that doth loue indeede ? Therefore consider , doest thou loue in good earnest . You will say , How shall I know it ? It is not a place now to stand to giue notes of Loue : we will only shew now , that Loue is a sure companion of Faith , and that Faith is not good , if Loue be not there , But yet I say , if thou loue him , thou shalt find that in thine owne heart , thou needest not goe far for a tryall of that . Loue is the most sensible , the most quicke , and most active affection of all others . Consider , if thou loue any creature , or any thing , any man or woman , doest thou not feele thy affection stirring in thee ? doest thou not find thy heart thus longing after them whom thou affectest ? thou delightest to be in their company , in their presence , thou desireth to be with them . So that , if a strangenesse growe between you at any time , thy heart is not at ease till all be right againe betweene you : So , doest thou loue the Lord Iesus ? Doest thou keepe his Commandements ? Doth a man professe to loue GOD , and cares not to vexe him , and anger him ? Againe , Doest thou hate sinne ? Doest thou thinke to loue GOD , and not to hate that , which he hateth ? If a man loue GOD , he is holy and pure , and there is no man that loues the one contrary , but he must needes hate the other . There is no man that loues light , but he must hate darknesse . If thou loue GOD , in his person , in his purity , in his holinesse , thou must hate sinne ; and this hatred is generall ; thou wilt hate all sinne , if thou hate any , and hatred will breede the destruction of a thing . Againe , Doest thou loue GOD ? art thou willing to doe any thing for his sake ? Doest thou reckon matters of greatest difficulty easie to doe ; as Iacob did make it a matter of ease because of loue ? Againe , Doest thou loue the Saints , those that are like him , those that are of such a disposition as God is of ? Shall a man say hee loues the purity and the holinesse of GOD , which hee hath not seene , which is hidden from his eyes , when he doth not loue the holinesse and the purity that hee sees in his Saints ? For there it is taught in a visible manner in the creature , where you may see it more proportionable to you . It is a hundred times more easie to loue godlinesse in the Saints , then in GOD himselfe , because hee is remote farre from vs , and they are amongst vs , and are visibly seene . Therefore , except thou loue the Saints , which thou seest holinesse in ; except thou seest thy heart inwardly , to loue them with a naturall affection , as it were , that thou louest them whether thou wilt or no , thou doest but pretend . Againe , Doest thou loue CHRIST ? Art thou willing to part with any thing for his sake ? Loue is bountifull : Thou sayest thou louest GOD : What if he will haue some of thy wealth ? What if he will haue thy credit ? What if he will haue thy liberty for his sake ? If thou loue him , thou wilt be content to doe it . Therefore , consider if faith haue begotten such a loue in thee , so that thou canst truly say , though thou hast not seene him , yet thou louest him . The second concomitant of Faith , is Hope : 2 If thou hast Faith , thou hast Hope . And this distinguisheth a Christians faith from the faith of Reprobates , from the faith of Deuils , from the temporary faith that others are capable of : you know , the Deuils beleeue and tremble : He saith not , The Deuils beleeue and hope ; for that they doe not , Hope is a property of Faith , where there is Faith there is Hope . Now you must know , that a man hath neuer faith to beleeue , but hee hath hope , which makes him expect what he beleeues . If a man haue a promise of so much money which he needes , he hopes for the performance of it , and quiets himselfe , when he casts his thoughts vpon it , hee is at rest : when a man beleeues it , hee hopes for it . Take an Heyre that hath such possessions , which is yet a Ward , and is yong , he hath not the Land in possession ; but ( marke ) what hope he hath , it is not a vaine hope , but such a hope as puts other conceits in him then other men haue , puts another fashion vpon his actions , it makes him neglect many good things he would doe ; he will not be of such a calling , he will not be diligent : for hee hopes , he makes account of it : See how such things worke vpon a man , which he is not to haue in 7 or 8 yeeres after , perhaps . So thou hopest for Heauen , it is not a vaine hope , but it is a hope that will ma●e thee carry thy selfe after another fashion , it will make thee so minded , that thou wilt haue an eye to it , and euery man that lookes on ●hee , may see that thou hast an eye to it : So that faith is accompanied by Hope . But now you must not say , that if a man hope , therefore there is no feare mingled with it : for you must know , that a man may haue Hope that is true and good , and yet may haue feare mingled with it . For this you must know , that if there be nothing but hope , it is a signe that that Hope is not good . And therefore thou hast so little reason to be discouraged , because thou hast some feare mingled with thy hope , that thou hast the more cause to hope , and to thinke that thy hope is good , because there is feare mingled with it : for know , that there is a certaine sort of men , that haue neither faith , hope , nor feare ; as Atheists , that haue some hope , but no feare ; as Deuils and desperate men , that haue some feare , but no hope ; as presumptuous men , which haue but a shaddow of faith : But those that haue hope , and feare mingled with it ; that is , those may rather hope , that that hope which they haue , they may be so much the more confirmed in it , because they haue some feare mingled with it . Therefore consider , whether thou haue hope or no : Consider in what manner it is joyned with faith . When thou beleeuest that CHRIST is thine , that Heauen is thine , that thy sinnes are forgiuen , and that thou art a sonne of GOD , but these things thou hast not yet , thou art as any other man , there is no difference betweene thee and them , thou hast no more in possession then other men , that walke with thee ; now comes in Hope , and that expecteth that which is to come , that holds vp thy head , as it were , that , though you haue nothing at all for the present , yet that Hope will comfort you , that though you haue troubles , and crosses , and a thousand things more , to obscure and blot your faith , and the waues goe ouer your head , that you are ready to be drowned , this hope holds you aboue the water , and makes you expect with comfort that which is to come : and not so onely , but , I say , it is a liuely hope , a hope that sets a man aworke , a hope that purgeth him . For , you know , that that a man hopes for , he will endeuour to bring it to passe , it is such a hope as will not faile you , but will continue as well as Faith it selfe . 3 Thirdly , the third concomitant of Faith is Joy : Romanes 15.13 . The GOD of hope fill you with joy , through beleeuing . If you haue beleeued , you haue Joy. So in the first of Peter , chap. 1. vers . 8. In whom you haue beleeued : ( saith hee ) Whom , though you haue not seene , yet you beleeue in him , and ioy with ioy vnspeakable and glorious . ( As if hee should say ) If you beleeue in him , you shall know it by this , Whether doe you reioyce in him , or no ? Consider that , where there is Faith , there is Joy. And it must needes be so : As , you know , he that had the Pearle went away reioycing ; and the Kingdome of GOD consisteth in Joy , and Peace , and Righteousnesse . And therefore , where there is Faith , there certainely is Joy. And therefore consider , and examine thine owne case : Hast thou this reioycing in CHRIST ? this reioycing in the Doctrine of Justification , and forgiuenesse of sins . If we should examine mens faith by this , we should finde that there is but a little Faith in the World. Examine your selues , you that now heare mee , that heare this Doctrine of Faith ; it may bee it hath been burthensome vnto you ; it may be it is a thing you care not for ; To heare of Iustification , and forgiuenesse of sinnes , they are things at the least , that , it may be , you take no great paines for ; you doe not study them , you doe not prize them much : but , if you were forgiuen indeed , you would prefer it before all other ioy , it would comfort you aboue any thing . If you would say , what you would heare aboue all things else , you would heare of matter of forgiuenesse . A man now that hath knowne the bitternesse of sinne , and afterwards comes to the assurance of forgiuenesse , ( that is ) to haue Faith indeed , I say , he will reioyce in it aboue all things else : all worldly ioy would be nothing to it . Therefore consider whether thou haue such a Faith or no ; if thou haue not , certainely thou hast not Faith ; and it is a sure signe that will not deceiue you ; There is no man that hath it , that hath not Faith ; and wheresoeuer there is Faith indeede , there is extraordinary great reioycing in CHRIST . But , you will say , Many a man may haue Ioy ; the second ground receiued the Word with ioy : and those that followed Iohn the Baptist , reioyced in his light : and in Heb. 6. the Apostle saith , they haue tasted of the good Word of God ; they haue tasted with sweetnesse ; that is , they haue had ioy in it . It is true , we confesse there is a false ioy : and therefore , if thou wouldst know whether the ioy which thou hast be good or no , consider these three things . First , consider whether thy faith hold out in tribulation or no. Therefore the Apostle addes , Rom. 5.3 . not only so , but we reioyce also in tribulation . As if he should say , those that are hypocrites , those that haue a false faith , there may be much reioycing in them for a while , but we reioyce in tribulations ; yea , we not onely reioyce in tribulation , but our ioy is increased by them , they are as fuell , they adde to our ioy : as in Act. 5. the Disciples went away reioycing , because they were accounted worthy to suffer for Christ. Wheras the second ground , when persecution comes , there is an end of their ioy . Therefore consider whether thy ioy will hold out or no. Againe , consider the greatnesse thereof : you know those words are added , 1 Pet. 1.8 . reioycing with Ioy vnspeakable and glorious . If it bee right Joy , it will bee such a great Joy , it will exceede all other , it will be like to that ioy in Haruest , as Isay speakes , it will be a Joy vnspeakeable for the greatnesse of it ; such a Joy , that at the least is so great , that whatsoeuer comes , yet it exceedes it . the other temporary Christian may haue joy , but it is not so great , but some other joy will come , and ouercome it , and drowne it , and put it out . Therefore , in the second ground , as their humiliation was slight , so was their Faith , they had a little humiliation for their sinnes , and they tooke CHRIST in a more remisse manner . And as their Faith was , so was their joy , all slight . But now , when Faith is sound and good , that Joy is accordingly great ; it is a great Joy , that , at the least , ouercomes all other ; that , take what joy you will , if a man could haue an earthly Kingdome heere , if a man could haue as great pleasure here as mans nature is capable of , if he had neuer so much praise , and glory of men , ( these things wee naturally rejoyce in ) a right Christian , that hath Faith indeed , will not so rejoyce in these , but that he will rejoyce in CHRIST aboue them . If thy Joy therefore be so great , that it ouercome and exceede all other , be sure that Joy is good . But yet we must haue one thing more in Joy. In whom , though you haue not seene , yet you joy with Joy vnspeakable and glorious . That is , if it be such a Joy as is right indeed , which is a testimony of faith , that it is a signe thou beleeuest , it is a Joy that is glorious , it is a Joy that is glorious and spirituall . Now an hypocrite may rejoyce , he may rejoyce in Christ , he may rejoyce in the Kingdome of GOD , and the assurance he hath of it , and he may reioyce in the hope that he hath that his sins are forgiuen ; but all this while , he reioyceth after a carnall manner : as , you know , a man may reioyce in spirituall things after a carnall manner , as a man may reioyce in a carnall thing after a spirituall manner . Therefore the ioy of Hypocrites , when it is at the best , it is but a carnall ioy ; there is something there that his flesh is able to reioyce in , it may be he had some feare and terrour in his conscience , and after this comes a perswasion perhaps that his sinnes are forgiuen him , and that he is in a good estate , that same fleshly feare and griefe before , that worldly feare and griefe will haue a Joy answerable to it , a naturall ioy , and yet it may be great , it may be a great flash of ioy , that may be as a Land-flood , make a great shew , which because it hath no spring , is soone dryed vp , but it makes a great flash : and therefore in that , Heb. 6. they tasted of the good Word of God , and of the powers of the world to come . I take this to be the meaning of it , ( not as it is commonly interpreted , That an Hypocrite may taste of the good Word of God , and of spirituall priuiledges , he may taste of them , but not drinke deepe of them , but this is certainely the meaning of the place , ) They tasted some things in the good Word of God , which was sweet to them . Now , in such men there is nothing but flesh . ( Marke ) If a temporary Christian beleeues for a time , he hath ineffectuall faith , in such a man there is nothing but flesh . That conclusion must be set downe : and if there be nothing but flesh , there is nothing can taste but flesh ; for there is nothing else to doe it , and the flesh tastes nothing but objects that sute with it selfe . What shall we say then ? There is somewhat in him that pickes out , that in these spirituall comforts , in these spirituall blessings , in this good Word of GOD , he pickes out that which sutes with his flesh : That is , such a carnall man may be able to reioyce in the Word . Doe you not thinke that such a good Word of GOD may make carnall men reioyce in it ? May he not taste such sweetnesse , as to take vpon him the profession of Religion , and to bring forth fruit , and to hold out long ? No doubt there is . Are there not such things in that which wee propound in the Gospell ? To tell men of a Kingdome of saluation , of the loue of GOD , of the precious promises , of an inheritance , of escaping of Hell ; may not a fleshly man , a man vnregenerate , may he not see , and reioyce in these ? He may ; and hath such a taste as is there expressed . Consider now therefore if thy Joy be right ; If it be a signe of faith , if it be good and sound , if it be a Joy that is spirituall and vnspeakable ; that is , if it be a Joy that is so great as that it exceedes all other joyes ; if this Joy doe but hold out in tribulation , it is a certaine signe thy faith is good . 4 Now , last of all , the last concomitant of Faith is Humility . If thy Faith be right , it will bring that with it , to make thee humble and vile in thine owne eyes : For what is true faith ? It is that which brings CHRIST into the heart , as you haue heard oftentimes ; that which knits Christ and the soule together , it is that which causeth him to come and dwell with thee . Now wheresoeuer Christ comes to dwell , he comes with a light , hee shewes the creature his vilenesse , he makes a man see his sinne , he makes him see what creature he is ; whereas another that hath great hope , and professeth that he hath much assurance , his heart is lifted vp , and not cast downe . Such are not men which thinke themselues vile , and naked , and miserable , but they thinke themselues better then other men , they are forwarder then others in any thing , they thinke other men are not like them . And therefore they are ready to be more bold and venterous in any thing , they are ready to take vp opinions , they are ready to strike out this way or that way . But now a true Christian is humbled with it , because when Christ comes into the heart , he makes a man to see his vilenesse . As , you know , when GOD drew neere to Iob , when he came neere him indeed , then he abhorred himselfe in dust and ashes , then hee saw what a one he was , he saw not before , he thought the contrary , but when GOD drew neere indeed , that made him manifest . So it was with Isay , when he saw GOD vpon his Throne , and the Angels about him , when he saw his holinesse , then , Woe is me , I am vndone , because I am a man of polluted lips : He was so before , but when he drew neere to GOD , he saw it . So Peter said , depart from me , I am a sinfull man , when he saw Christ , when Christ came neere him , when he manifested himselfe in his Diuinity , that he saw GOD in him ; for so he did by that Miracle that amazed Peter , and cast him downe , and made him see what hee was . So Dauid , when GOD drew neere to him , and promised to build him an House , to giue him a House that should be eternall , to giue him the Messiah , whose Kingdome should neuer end , ( for that is included in the giuing him a Kingdome for euer , and a House that should haue no end : ) when God vouchsafed him so great a fauour , we see , Dauid was neuer so cast downe as then in the sight of his owne vilenes , he was neuer so little in his own eyes , he neuer said so much as he said then . Now , ( saith he ) what is Dauid ? What am I , or what is my Fathers house , that thou shouldst regard me thus , that thou shouldst bring me hitherto ? This is Gods manner , when he comes into a mans heart , when he speakes peace indeed , when Faith is a right Faith , that brings CHRIST to dwell there ; I say , it makes a man exceeding humble . Therfore the spirit of Christians is a meeke spirit , they are humble , and gentle , they are little in their owne eyes . Consider whether thou hast such a disposition bred in thee , or no : it is a signe thy faith is good , if there be ; if there be not , it is a signe thy faith is not true . So much for the signes of faith . I make haste , because I haue one Vse more to adde . If nothing be regarded of GOD but effectuall faith ; that is , if that be the vertue of faith to be effectuall , or else it is nothing worth , then we should learne hence , not to let that be wanting to our faith which is the excellencie of it , which is the vertue of it , which is the proper quality of it . As , if it be the vertue of a Horse to goe well ; If it be the vertue of a Knife to cut well ; If it be the vertue of a Souldier to fight well ; or whatsoeuer you will instance in , whatsoeuer vertue it be , or whatsoeuer thing , you labour to find that in it , whatsoeuer be wanting ; ( for euery thing hath some proper excellency , some speciall vertue wherein the thing consists . ) Now , to be effectuall , to be working , to be operatiue , If this be the vertue of Faith , ( as it were ) if this be the character and excellency of faith ; Let not this therefore be wanting in faith . What is that then thou shouldst doe ? Vse thy faith , set faith aworke , liue by it . You will say , This is more then I can doe ; this is Gods action , he must set faith aworke , and worke this in me . I say , thou art able to doe this of thy selfe , when thou hast faith once . I speake to those that haue it , and this exhortation is to you . If you haue faith , vse it : many haue it , that doe not vse it . This is a thing that you are able to doe : For though God worke in you all the worke of faith , as it is receiued ; yet know , he doth not worke in you onely , but by you ; he makes you instruments : you are not as dead instruments , but as liuing instrumēts , to moue of your selues . It is true , that before you haue faith you are able to doe nothing ; but when you haue it once , then you are able to vse it . Before a man hath life , he is not able to stir , but when he hath life once , then he is able to moue and stir himselfe , for there is life there . when the Lampe is once lighted , you know you may feede it with Oyle , and if you put more Oyle to it , you shall haue the greater flame : There is light , and you may increase it ; indeed the difficulty is to light it ; and that is Gods worke ; he kindles the first fire , hee workes faith in the heart : But now , when thou hast it , learne to vse it . Dost thou thinke a necessity lyes vpon vs to vse other Talents that GOD hath put into our hands , and will he not require that thou shouldst vse the Talent of Faith ? Wilt thou wrap that in a Napkin , and let it lye dead by thee ? Will not he call thee to an accompt for it ? What folly is it , ( my brethren ) you haue faith , which is so excellent a Grace , able to doe so great things as it is , and yet you will not vse it . There are many Christians that haue Faith indeed , and yet will not set it on worke . How great things would it doe , what a reward would it bring ? As Aristotle saith of habits , That if a man haue no more but a habit , and vse it not , there is no difference betweene the wisest man and a foole ; for what are habits for , but for action ? what is the Tree for , but for fruit ? The habit serues but for the act ; and this is according to the iudgement of Scripture , in Rom. 2. God rewards not men according to the habits they haue , but according to their workes . Therefore thinke not that thou shalt be rewarded according to thy habits of Faith which thou hast , though it be true that that sanctifies thee , but GOD doth reward vs according to the vse of our faith , according to the workes that our Faith doth bring forth , according to the efficacie of our faith . It is true , the taking of Christ is one worke of Faith , thou shouldst set it aworke to doe that ; and besides that , all the workes of sanctification are all workes of Faith ; all thy life long , euery houre thou hast somewhat for Faith to doe . Set thy faith aworke , and thy reward shall be accordingly . And againe , if thou vse not Faith , thou shalt haue little enough of it ; the vsing of it is that which strengthens Faith. It is Gods vsuall manner , when he giues Faith to a man , to giue him exercise , to keepe his Faith breathing , as it were ; hee will be sure to haue somewhat wherein hee will put him to it , some tribulation , he will put fire to it , to clense it , And therefore we should learne to make vse of our Faith , to set it on worke . It is a generall Rule in all things , and as true in this , If a man haue an estate , what is he the better to haue it , if he doe not vse it ? To haue a friend , what is a man the better if he doe not vse him ? Shall a man be a Fauourite of a Prince , and get nothing by it ? Faith makes a man a Fauourite of GOD , a friend to GOD ; and will you make no vse of GOD ? It is that which he expects at your hands ; will you haue GOD in vaine ? Shall hee be your GOD , and will you make no vse of his power , of his wisdome , of his ability to hold you vp , to helpe you vpon all occasions ? You should make vse of him ; all that is his , is yours , if you make vse of it by faith . Againe , shall men haue such priuiledges as we haue by faith , and shall not wee comfort our selues by them ? What is it for a man to haue great estates , great Titles of Honor , and Houses , and Lands , if a man doe not thinke vpon them , that these considerations may cheere him ? We should doe so with faith , this is the vse of faith . Againe , if faith be vsed , it is able to doe much for vs , if it lye still , it will doe nothing . You know what they did , Heb. 11. They hauing faith , it made them doe that , it was but the vse of their faith : So it is with vs ; Looke how much thou vsest thy faith , so much thou shalt be able to doe . Therefore Christ saith , Be it according to thy faith : that is , not according to the habit of thy faith , that lyes dead , as a Talent wrapped vp there ; but , be it vnto thee according to the vse of thy faith . If thou set faith on worke , it will be able to doe great things , it will be able to doe wonders , it will be able to ouercome the world , it is able to worke righteousnesse , it is able to preuaile with GOD and men , it is able to goe thorow the greatest matters . But , you will say , How shall I vse it ? That is the thing indeed which I purposed now to haue shewed , how faith must be vsed , how we must liue by faith : I should haue shewed how you should vse it . 1 First , in comforting of our selues ; for that is one vse of Faith , thou shouldst set it aworke to fill thy heart with ioy , out of the assurance of the forgiuenesse of sinne , and of the priuiledges which thou hast by CHRIST . When a man hath faith , and finds his heart no more affected then other mens , he findes no reioycing there more then ordinary ; Now set faith on work , learn to beleeue , and that throughly . First set faith on worke to beleeue , to trust perfectly , as the Apostle speakes , Gal. 3. In the grace reuealed by Iesus Christ : trust perfectly ; that is , thou shouldst beleeue the full forgiuenesse of thy sinnes , thou must not beleeue it by halues , so that there should be a distance , as it were , betweene GOD and thee , some odde scores vnacquitted , vncrost ; but thou shouldest beleeue so , that thy joy may be full , thou shouldest beleeue throughly , that thy sinnes are forgiuen , that all are acquitted , thou must not limit God in his mercie at all , as thou shouldest not limit him in his power . Thus a man should set faith on worke , that he may be able to say , My Beloued is mine , and I am his . I know there is a Match made betweene vs. For vnlesse you lay this ground , a man shall not reioyce . This is all , therfore now vse thy faith . If Satan now come , and tell thee of some sinnes , and of some circumstances of those sinnes , and of some wants in thy repentance and humiliation , what serues faith for now ? What serues all this for that you haue learned heere concerning the Doctrine of Faith , but to teach you that these should be no scruples , you should beleeue , and that perfectly ? When this is done , that you see there is a Match , a Couenant made betweene GOD and you , now you must know , that all that Christ hath is yours ; whatsoeuer hee hath by Nature , you haue it by Grace . If hee be a Sonne , ye are sonnes ; If he be an Heire , yee are heires ; and when ye haue done this , then consider all the particulars of the wealth of a Christian , that all is yours , whether it be Paul or Apollos , or the world , &c. These things wee haue often spoken of , you should runne through and consider of them : If a man will consider that he is a King , that the world is his , that whatsoeuer is in CHRIST belongs to him , and oweth him a good turne , and will doe it at one time or other ; when he considers all the precious promises . A man reckons his wealth not onely by his money which he hath lying in his Coffers , that he hath present , but by Bils , and Bonds , and Leases , &c. So , how many promises thou hast , there is not a promise in the Booke of GOD , but it is thine ; set thy faith on worke to consider this , and to reioyce in it ; set faith on worke so to see them that thou maiest reioyce in them , and weyne thee from the things of this world , not to regard them ; for they are small things of no hold . Shall a King regard Cottages and trifles ? No , if thou thinke in good earnest that thou art such a man , why doest thou regard trifles ? Thou shouldst doe this ; when other men reckon their Lands , and their Houses , and their friends , a Christian reckons he hath GOD , hee hath many good workes in store , hee hath so many precious promises laid vp in the Land of the Liuing . Set thy faith on worke thus , not onely to reioyce , but to bring in a holy magnanimitie , answerable to such a condition ; and let not Faith giue ouer till it haue brought thee to this . Certainely , a man that beleeues he is a King , he will haue another spirit : for there is no other reason wherefore it is said Saul had another spirit , but that when he came to be a King , he had a spirit answerable . When thou beleeuest these priuiledges , when thou settest thy Faith on worke to beleeue indeed , to beleeue them to be reall things , and not fancies , and notions , there will be bred a disposition answerable , a carriage and spirit suteable ; thou wilt not admit of things that are vnfit for such a person , thou canst not doe it ; but as one that is a Prince , that hath those hopes actually , he cannot admit of thoughts that other men haue ; no more can a Christian , when he is borne from aboue by the immortall seede , there is such a disposition wrought in him , that , if he will set his faith on worke to beleeue these things , he shall not be able to admit of those base things which hee did before , and which others doe . Againe , if a man set his Faith aworke to beleeue these things , he would be able to vse the World as if he vsed it not , he would not care for losses & crosses , he would not grieue for them , as one that is not able to beare them . Thus we should learne to set faith on worke , in beleeuing these priuiledges , that we may be able to walke with God , as Henoch did , and as Paul , and Moses did ; to walke with him in the vpper Region , aboue the stormes : There is much variety of weather when a man is below here , now it is faire , and then it is foule ; if a man were aboue these , there is a continuall serenity ; So a man that hath his heart in Heauen , a man that walkes with GOD , that hath his heart raised aboue others ; if you would doe this , if you would vse Faith , if thou wouldest consider this , it would set thee aloft , aboue these things ; thou wouldest soare aloft as the Eagle , thou wouldest care no more for these things , then the Eagle cares for the chirping of Sparrowes : they are trifles , thou wouldest ouerlooke them all . If we did consider this seriously , how would it alter our course ? It would worke another disposition , another affection in vs. A man would consider , that if GOD be sure , what matter is it if a friend die ? If I haue GOD , what is the losse of any creature ? And so , if a man suffer wrong in his name , what is it , if he haue praise of GOD ? If thou beleeue , and see GOD in his greatnes , to haue praise of such a one as he , will make thee to contemne the rest . And so for wealth : What is pouerty ? What account did Paul make of it ? It is nothing to one that hath Treasure in Heauen , to one that beleeues indeede , to one that seeth hee hath all GODS Treasures opened to him . Thou shouldest learne to doe this in good earnest . If a man would set this Faith aworke to beleeue it , his heart would be fixed , hee would bee afraid of no euill tydings , hee would say with himselfe , if there bee no ill tydings from heauen , it is no matter from whence they come on earth . If a man would build , through faith , vpon the promise , and consider it really . This is the vse of Faith : thus a mans heart should be filled with ioy , a man would be able to goe through ill report and good report , through want and through abundance , without being much troubled with either ; the one would not much puffe him vp , nor the other would not deject him , but he would goe as a Gyant , and march thorow the variety of conditions ; he would passe through them , that neither the one hand nor the other , the good successe nor the ill successe should worke vpon him much . This is a strong man : and this Faith will make thee able to doe , if thou vse Faith , and set it aworke . But I am sorry the time hath cut me off : this is but an entrance , I giue you but a little taste : There are many things wherein Faith stands vs in much stead , wherin if wee did vse Faith , how much seruice would it doe vs ? But for that which remains in this Doctrine of Faith , I had thought to haue shut it vp at this time , to shew you how to vse it , how to make it effectuall , how to set it aworke , how to walke by it , how to husband and improue this Talent for Gods aduantage and your owne . But I cannot stand on it . So much for this time . FINIS . OF EFFECTVALL FAITH . The fifth Sermon . 1. THESS . 1.3 . Remembring your effectuall Faith , &c. THE first thing wherein thou shouldest vse Faith , is to comfort thy selfe by it . Therefore consider , you that doubt of this , you that make question , ( I speake to those that haue the work wrought , whom the Holy Ghost hath made to desire Christ aboue all things , I say ) remember that God iustifieth the vngodly , and that you haue nothing to doe , but to take him . 2. Remember that CHRIST is made righteousnesse to vs , that no flesh might reioyce in his sight , but he that reioyceth might reioyce in the Lord. 3. Remember that the pardon is generall . Looke to the promises of the Gospell ; you shall finde them without all exception . To vs a Sauiour is borne , to take away the sinnes of his people ; he came to take away sinnes of all sorts . Now , when GOD hath made no exception , why should we make any ? 4. Consider that wee haue to doe with a GOD , who delights to shew mercie , it is a thing that he is not weary of , it is naturall to him : And therefore as the eye is not wearie of seeing , nor the eare of hearing , because it is naturall to them , no more is GOD weary of shewing mercie . Nay , he delights in it , Mic. 7.8 . Who is a God like vnto thee , taking away iniquities , delighting to shew mercie , &c. Why so ? Because mercy pleaseth him . That is , there is no worke that he is so much pleased in , as in shewing mercy . 5. Consider thou , that art in such a case , consider that his mercy is as large as any other attribute . Euery man thinkes that this is no newes ; what need you tell vs that GOD is infinite in mercy ? I say , this is a thing that thou dost not consider : if thou diddest , thou wouldest not sticke vpon it as thou doest , If thou diddest beleeue that GOD were as mercifull as he is ; but we scant GOD according to our measure ; we square Gods mercy according to our own thoughts . Euery man measures Gods mercy , according to that which he can conceiue . He thinkes with himselfe , if a man commit one sinne , it might be forgiuen , but when his sinnes exceede , when they grow out of measure sinfull , when they are sinnes so circumstantiated , as we say , that they are out of measure sinfull , here a man stands at a stay : What is the reason of this ? Because we draw a scantling of Gods mercy , according to our owne conceits . Whereas , if we considered that his mercie were as large as any other attribute , then we would consider that it hath no limits : and if it haue no limits , then whatsoeuer thy sinnes are , it is all one . 6. Dost thou thinke that Christ came from heauen , and tooke flesh , and suffered death , to forgiue small sinnes ? No , it was to forgiue the greatest ; the worke is large enough to match with the greatest sinnes . These , and such like reasons thou shouldest labour to bring to heart , that thou mayest beleeue perfectly and throughly , and giue not ouer till thou haue done it . Let not thy faith trust in Christ by halues , but trust throughly . Thou shouldest come to this disjunction : If I bee out of the Couenant , why doe I beleeue at all ? why doe I receiue any comfort ? If I bee in the Couenant , why doe I not beleeue perfectly ? I say , giue not ouer till thou haue brought thy heart to a full assurance . Thus a man should doe that yet doubts whether his estate be good , whether CHRIST bee his , when he is his . For when a man is once in the Couenant , that the match is made betweene him and thee , why doest thou doubt ? If thou be in the Couenant once , doubt not then that a sinne or two , or daily failings , shall breake the Couenant betweene GOD and thee , it is impossible . Thou must know that thou often breakest the Couenant ; but except there be a quite turning backe , except thou altogether forsake GOD , except thou leaue GOD , and chuse thee a new Master , ( this indeed breaketh the Couenant ) otherwise , if it be but a failing , if it be but a sinne of infirmity , from day to day , when as yet thou keepest GOD in thy heart , thou cleauest fast to him , thou intendest to serue him , and not to forsake him and giue him ouer ; thinke not that those sinnes , although they be great , breake the Couenant . And therefore , Psal. 41.7 . said the People of GOD there : Although these things be befalne vs , yet haue we not forgotten thee , nor dealt falsely concerning thy Couenant . Why ; We haue not turned backe ; although we haue failed , and done many things amisse , yet haue we not dealt falsely concerning thy Couenant . That is , we are not Hypocrites , our hearts are sincere . How proue they that ? We haue not turned backe from thee , our feete haue not gone out of thy wayes . That is , we haue not quite giuen ouer , as many men doe that make their pleasure their God , when they make their profit their God , when they diuorse themselues from GOD , then they breake the Couenant ; but else it is not a breaking of the Couenant . Know therfore for thy comfort , when thou considerest this , summe them vp together , and see now whether thou hast put thy seale to the truth of GOD , that he is true ; that is , whether thou beleeue the promise , whether thou take and receiue CHRIST : for that is it to put thy seale to the truth of GOD : when thou canst conclude that thou hast done that , then see if GOD hath put his seale to thee . There is a double seale : One is , thou art sealed by the Spirit ; that is , there is a secret witnesse of the Spirit , the sealing of the Spirit to the day of Redemption ; the hidden Mannah , the secret witnesse that GOD giues to euery mans heart , as a priuie Seale that GOD sets on thee , Grieue not the Spirit , by which ye are sealed to the day of Redemption . Now there is another seale , which is more manifest then this ; as in 2 Tim. 2.19 . The foundation of GOD remaineth sure , and hath this seale , The Lord knoweth who are his , and let euery one that calleth vpon the Name of the Lord depart from iniquity . That is , there is another seale that GOD sets vpon you , whereby hee enables you to depart from iniquity : This is a more open seale then the other . If thou finde that thou haue put thy seale to GOD , to his promise , and thou findest againe that he hath sealed thee by the inward witnesse of his Spirit , and hath sealed thee likewise by the fruit of amendment of life , with enabling thee to depart from iniquity ; now what shouldst thou doe then ? Make no more question , take it for granted , that CHRIST belongs to thee , and thou to him ; Trust perfectly to the grace reuealed through Iesus Christ : A place that I haue often named , 2 Pet. 1.13 . Trust perfectly in the fauour ; that is , in the free fauour , in the free promise reuealed through Iesus Christ ; that is , Doe not mince the matter , and say , it may be GOD will forgiue me , or it may be he will not ; but doe it perfectly , let nothing be wanting , doe it perfectly , that thy ioy may bee full ; if thou doe it by halues , if thou doe it but in part , thou shalt haue but imperfect ioy . The vse now that thou shouldest make of Faith , is to see thy ioy may be full : if thou be not certainely perswaded , thou doest not vse thy Faith as thou oughtest . When thou hast done this once , when thou hast settled vpon this conclusion , to say certainely CHRIST is mine , my sinnes are forgiuen ; now come to the priuiledges , consider them , and go thorow them all : ( I haue named them heretofore vpon another occasion : ) and labour to comfort thy selfe with them ; labour to haue thy heart filled with ioy ; at the least , get so much comfort as may ouervalue any affliction in the World , that there may be a greater waight in the other Ballance , that though great afflictions doe befall thee , yet thou art not drowned , thou art not swallowed vp of affliction , that thy heart faints not ; but set thy faith aworke , that thou mayest haue so much ioy , as that thou mayest goe thorow it . And againe , get so much ioy , as at least may ouertoppe any prosperity outward , any comfort that thou mayest take in thy friends , or in thy wealth , or in those things that thou findest thy heart too much to cleaue vnto , that thou settest them at too high a rate ; set thy Faith on worke , that thy joy may be full , that thou mayest not prize those so much , but that thou mayest looke vpon them as trifles , as matters of nothing , in comparison of the ioy that is prepared for thee in Heauen . Thus a man should vse faith ; that is , in any affliction , that he doe not ouer-grieue ; and that no outward comforts , whatsoeuer befall him , take not vp his ioy too much . Thus our faith should passe through all conditions , to vse the World as if we vsed it not : So , I say , set thy Faith on worke . This is the first worke that faith should doe , to comfort a mans heart . The second vse we should make of Faith , 2 should be to guide and direct our liues ; that is , we should vse Faith to be as the Rudder to the Ship , to turne our courses the right way vpon all occasions in our conuersation : For that is the office of Faith , to guide a mans life . For as it is in a way , so it is in our life ; there are many turnings , it is not only a strait way , but there are many turnings , and when a man comes to a place where there are two wayes to turne to , that he knowes not which way to goe , now Faith comes and teacheth thee what thou shouldest doe . That is , there are many difficult cases wherein a man knows not what to doe , he is amazed at them ; It may be GOD will lead thee through the way of the Philistims , through great persecutions , and troubles , which thou must wrestle with : Now set thy Faith aworke , fight the good fight of faith ; that is , thou must now ouercome , thou must not balke the way of Religion , because of the troubles thou meetest withall , but passe thorow the troubles , that thou mayest keepe thy way . Againe , it may bee GOD will leade thee through pleasant wayes , and not through the way of the Philistims , ( as when the people came out of Egygt , the Lord led them not by the way of the Philistims . ) If GOD giue thee peace and prosperity , now set Faith aworke , that this peace and prosperity that thou hast , that it soften not , that it loosen not the sinewes of thy minde , that it dissolue not thy strength : but keepe thy faith , and hold thy strength , that thou be not drawne to sinne against GOD by such a condition . In all the turnings of a mans life , to be kept straight , a man must set his faith on worke . It may be GOD will giue thee peace for a time , take heed thou sit not downe now and forget thy iourney . As thou must not turne to the left hand , so thou must not turne to the right hand , but passe through all , that thou mayest approue thy selfe the seruant of CHRIST in straites , in necessity , in tribulation , by the Armour of righteousnesse on the right hand and on the left ; through honour and dishonour , by ill report and good report . That is , set Faith on worke , in all the variety of conditions , to keepe thee in the right way , that thou turne not out of it . It is faith that must doe it : For example , put the case thou commest to Hesters condition ; there was a turning of her minde , she had peace before , but when it comes to that , that she must venter her life for the Church , here she had vse of faith . And so for Abraham , God bade him offer his sonne , he was at rest a great while before , but now GOD tryes him what hee will doe ; here is a turning of his life , here was an Exigent , here was vse for his faith , he did it , faith turned him this way ; Another man would haue turned another way , that hath not faith . So when GOD cals Moses , hee was quiet before in Pharoahs Court : now he must goe to suffer affliction with the people of GOD , then what must he doe in such a case ? The Text saith , he did it by faith ; by faith he forsooke the glory of Pharoahs Court , and chose rather to suffer afflictions with the people of GOD , then to enioy the pleasure of sin for a season . There be many hundreds of such cases that befall continually . I say , thou shouldst vse thy faith now , that it should lead thee in the right way , in all these difficult cases : for this is the vse of faith . See now another man that hath not faith , take a false-hearted man , and say what you will to him when any such exigent comes , you shall neuer draw him from his wealth , from his friends , from his worldly credit , because he makes that his maine , his heart secretly trusts in that , hee thinkes , if that be gone , he is as vndone ; that is his God , therefore you shall neuer draw him from that , for he wants faith to make God his God. Come to another man , let him come into such an exigent , and you shall not pull him from God , hee is his trust , he is his hope , and if he loseth Gods fauour , he loseth life and all ; and therefore that is the difference in all the passages of things in their conuersation . This then is the second thing we should make of faith , to guide and direct vs in our liues . But because this is generall , it may be it will not bee enough : I will come a little to Instances . 1 Suppose a man come to such a turning as those in Iohn 12.12 . Many of the chiefe Rulers beleeued in him , but they durst not confesse him , lest they should be cast out of the Synagogue . Put the case , that thou be in such a case , as that thou art brought now to such a tryall : Now , if thy faith be such a faith as they had , that is a signe that thou wantest faith indeede . Take two men , the one will be content to be cast out , he will confesse Christ , come what wil of it . Another man , when it comes to such a competition , that either he must be cast out of the Synagogue , or deny Christ , he will rather leaue that then the other , he will rather part with Christ , he will rather forsake him , & the confession of him , then indure such trouble . So again , 2 come to a matter of praise of men , to a matter of credit , whē a man sees that this is his condition in the place he liues in , and considers , If I serue GOD indeede , if I goe through in my profession , I see I must be contemned , I must be despised , I must be trampled vpon , I see , I must be hated of all men , as our Sauiour Christ saith , ( for to be hated of some men , a man might beare it well enough ) but to haue all mens hands against him , to be excluded of all good company , ( as they say ) such a thing a man shall haue much adoe to beare , to lose all his worldly credit , all his friends ; but when it comes to such a case , one man is willing to beare these , because he trusts in GOD : I know whom I haue trusted , saith Paul : Therefore he was willing to vndergoe all shame , to indure imprisonment , to do any thing : another man doth not trust in God , and therefore he will not indure hee will leaue Religion , he will not doe the things that may breed this trouble , hee will mince the matter , he will leaue that , that he may secure himselfe , and keepe his credit , that he hath amongst men . 3 So againe , come to matter of commodity : Let matters of profit , or aduantage in the World for a mans estate be offered , see the different condition now of a man that hath faith , and of a man that wants faith . See Saul , when he saw the fat Cattell , he tooke them , his faith was nothing but a notion : If he had beleeued in GOD , he would not haue thought that the fat Cattell would haue made him more happy , but because he saw them , and thought they would be aduantage to him , he saw them present , that was the thing he felt , hee beleeued not the other , therefore he did that . And so for Balaam ; when the case comes , that eyther he must curse the people , or else forsake the wages of vnrighteousnesse , surely he wil haue respect to the wages of vnrighteousnesse : that is , though Balaam made a faire shew , he would doe any thing rather then to goe against Gods Commandements , and yet he had an eye to the other all the while , and GOD saw that he secretly looked to himselfe . So that , it may be , thou makest profession , thou makest a faire shew , thou wilt do much . Remember this , it may be , it is but a high flying : The Eagle , though she flye high , yet she hath an eye to the prey below all the while : So many men , although they doe much , yet they haue a secret eye to the prey ; that is , they want faith , and therefore they regard these things too much . And when the time comes , that they must stoope to it , the time of tryall , when a man wants faith to magnifie other things , he ouervalueth those things , hauing nothing better to trust vnto . In such a case , Iudas his 30. pence was a great matter : Gehezi's change of rayment , and Achans wedge of Gold. I neede name no more examples . But take a man that hath faith , and this is no difficulty to him , hee will not only let goe that wealth which he hath inordinately gotten , as Zacheus , but he will suffer the spoiling of his goods with joy , because he beleeues God , that hee hath in heauen a more induring substance . There is no Christian , no good man , but he would be content to gaine as well as thou ; what is the reason hee takes it not ? He beleues that by forsaking that , he shall haue a more enduring substance in Heauen . There is no man would forsake any thing but for the better , and that is the reason wee beleeue , and thou dost not . And so come to matter of safety and danger , 4 and there you shall see what difference faith makes between men , how it turnes their course , when they come to such an exigent . See it in Saul , you know , he was commanded not to offer Sacrifice till Samuel came , GOD did put him to the tryall , The Philistims were vpon him , the day of Battell drew neere , hee saw the people shrinke away , Saul was put to it now , whether he would trust GOD for his safety or no : If Saul had had faith now , and had thought with himselfe , If I keepe the Commandement , is not GOD able to helpe me , what though the people shrinke away ; cannot GOD doe as much with a few as with many ? If he had beleeued , hee would haue done otherwise : But he did not beleeue , and therefore you see which way he turned . The like we see in Ioram , Ier. 42. This was his case , hee was the Captaine of t●ose that were left behinde in Captiuity ; If hee had stayed in Ierusalem , he had had nothing to defend him , there was pouerty and want of all things ; if hee went downe into Egypt , that was a safe Countrey , as farre as any one could see , it lay farre from all danger of War , there was plenty of all things , and he was a strong King , able to defend him ; There comes Commandement from GOD , that he should keepe himselfe still in Ierusalem , and should not goe downe into Egypt : It is a place worth the reading , Ier. 42 & 43. Ioram , in this case , beleeued not that God would keepe him safe where he saw no meanes of ●afety . Therefore , in that turning , you see what choice he made , which was his vtter vndoing ; he went downe into Egypt , and there the Sword and the Famine followed him , that GOD might make him know , that it was not any outward condition that could keepe him safe , and that he was able to keepe him safe in another place , where there seemed to be more danger , On the other side , take those that trust in God , in any such case , when they are brought to any such difficulty , they are willing to venter to put themselues vpon GOD , to goe any whither , as Luther went to Wormes , they care not for any danger before them . But some will say , it is true , if I had a Prophet sent to me , to tell me in such a case that I should be safe , I should trust on him . Certainely , if thou hast not , yet if the cause be good , if it be a thing that GOD sets thee aworke on , if thou goe by a right rule , know , that in this case thou hast as true a promise of safety , that God will deale well with thee , as if thou haddest a Prophet sent immediately from God. Therfore I say to thee in such a case as Luther said to Melancton , which was a good reason when Melancton began to faint : Luther being afarre off , wrote a Letter vnto him , and tels him , saith he , if the Cause be not GODS , why doe not we giue ouer ? why doe we not shrinke ? why doe wee doe any thing ? And If it be Gods Cause , why doe we shrinke ? why go we not thorow ? He needed no more but to know that it was Gods Cause : and after that , see how hee exposed himselfe from time to time : and as no man was bolder then hee , so no man had more comfort . It is with vs in this case as it was with Ieremiah , Ier. 26. GOD bids him goe and speake his Word to the people , all his words , and tels him that the people would be ready to put him to death ; and so they were , they said he should die , but yet he obeyed God , because the Lord sent him ; and see what was the issue of it , GOD turned the matter , and saued him . This is faith , when a man comes in that case to set his faith aworke , that it may set him the right way that he is to goe in , which way he is to turne . 5 And so , put the case that GOD brings thee to such a case , that thou art in danger of prison in danger of death , in danger of the greatest crosse , of the greatest persecution and trouble , now one man consults with flesh , the other consults with the spirit , he sets faith awork to worke his worke for him : you see what Stephen did in such a case , and the reason of it , Acts 6. He was a man full of faith , and therfore he feared not what they could doe to him . See what Paul did , in such a case ; you see what danger he was exposed vnto , but he consulted not with flesh and blood , but what did he ? He set faith on worke , that it might guide him in all the way that he went , in all the turnings of his life . 6 And so , on the other side , for pleasure , there are two men that haue pleasures propounded , the holiest man hath the same nature that others haue , they would take the same delight that others doe , as farre as they are naturall . What is the reason then they doe not ? why doe such men turne from all sinfull delights , and runne another course ? It is nothing but faith that enableth them to doe it . By faith Moses left Pharoahs Court , and the pleasures of sinne for a season , and chose aduersity with the people of GOD : that is , as if hee should say , If you would know why Moses did this , it was faith that enabled him : that is , he beleeued , that if hee had enioyed those pleasures of sinne , he should haue beene a loser by them , hee should haue fared the worse for them . Againe , he beleeued , that by his suffering aduersity with the people of God , he should gaine ; it was onely faith that made him doe this . If thou haddest faith , thou wouldest forsake thy pleasures , and liue a more strict life , as the Saints doe . So that still you must keepe that conclusion , that you must set faith aworke in all the conclusions and passages of your life , for that is it that guides you in the right way . Againe , 7 Take two men that haue both children to prouide for , they haue posterity to care for ; the one man he reasons thus with himselfe ; If I leaue them not as good a stock as I would , yet I shall leaue them Gods blessing , which is able to make them prosper ; and though I should leaue them abundance , yet all that , without Gods blessing , will not be able to doe it . Therefore such a man will be indifferent for matter of estate , he will leaue a conueniency for them , if he can , but he takes no great care , hee had rather lay vp faithfull prayers in heauen , he had rather see them brought vp in the feare of GOD , for hee trust GOD , and he thinkes that his blessing can do● it , without meanes ; and he knows that great meanes , without Gods blessing , cannot doe it . But when another man is in this case , hee lookes to that which is represented to his eyes : and therefore he will not haue done till he haue prouided such a portion for such a childe , till he haue built him houses , till he haue made them firme on euery side , till he haue added house to house ; this is out of want of faith , he beleeues not : hence it is that these two runne a different course . 8 So againe , one man lookes to his businesse , he will not spend time to examine his heart , he will not spend time in prayer from day to day ; he saith , my businesse will goe at sixe and seuens , my businesse will not be done : when as another man , that hath chosen Maries portion , is content to lose somewhat , hee is content that many things should goe amisse , he is content to lose somewhat of his estate , he is content to let his businesse lye vndone , or not to be so well done , because he thinkes , to be busie in good workes , in prayer , and to haue the fauour of GOD , is greater aduantage , he thinkes hee hath chosen the better part . Now it is faith that workes this difference . What should I doe ? Why should I name any more Instances ? You may name more to your selues , as you haue faith , so it will guide you , it will turne you this way and that way in the turnings and passages of your life . But now , because I am farre in the poynt , ( and I see the time runnes fast away ) before I leaue , I would not only shew you what faith is able to doe , but I would worke you to this a little . You will say then , What is it to trust in GOD ? For that is the reason of all the difference , you see : Therefore , saith Paul , 1 Tim. 4.10 . We labour , and suffer rebuke , what is the reason ? If you would know the cause , why we leade such a life , why we runne another course then others , why wee liue a painefull life in labour from day to day ; but if a man had good wages , he might well doe that , we labour and suffer , and are rebuked , and haue nothing but persecution for our paines ; but , saith he , we doe it , because we trust in the liuing God : therefore we labour , and suffer , and are rebuked , because wee trust in the liuing GOD. I say , doe this , and thou shalt be able to doe the same that Moses did , thou shalt be able to doe the same that Paul did , the same that all the Saints haue done . If I could but perswade you now to trust in God , to set your faith aworke thus farre , There is no man that heares me this day , that is in any other course then in the wayes of Religion and godlinesse , but he would turne his course : and therefore I will labour in this a little . You will aske me then what it is to trust GOD ? I will shew you a little what it is , because euery man is ready to say , I trust in GOD , but I am not able to doe this that you say , when I come to such a hard turning . Deceiue not thy selfe , this is to trust in God , namely , to be vnbottomed of thy selfe , and of euery creature , and so to leane vpon GOD , that , if hee faile thee , thou sinkest . There is many a man , that pretends he trusts in GOD ; but hee so trusts GOD , that withall hee will prouide for himselfe : such a man saith , GODS blessing is a good addition , but to haue that for all , hee will not , he will be sure he will be strong , he will make his Mountaine strong about him , and he will haue the blessings of GOD too : for faith in the promises , hee makes them good notions ; but for things to trust to , to rest on , it is a thing he will not be perswaded to . Now this is not to trust in GOD. But this is to trust in him , when thou doest so cast thy selfe on him , that , if he should faile thee , thou wert vndone by it . To exemplifie it to you : There was an action that Alexander the Great did , ( I vse it , onely to expresse what I meane by trusting in GOD : ) When hee was sicke , there comes a friend that was alwaies close with him , that was a Physician , and he prepared him a Potion ; but before the same came to him , there was a Letter deliuered to him , to signifie to him , that that very Potion was poyson : when his friend came with his Potion in his hand , he takes the Letter that was sent to giue him notice of the Treason , and drinkes off the Cup with one hand , and reaches the Letter with the other , so he dranke off the Cup before he shewed the Letter . Here Alexander trusted him , if he had failed him , he had lost his life ; he did not first shew the Letter , and then heare his excuse for himselfe , but hee shewed that he trusted him . In such a case , if thou be able to trust GOD , if thou canst put thy selfe vpon him , if he faile the , thou art vndone , in such a case ; this is to trust in GOD. To vse another expression , that you may know what it is . There was a King of this Land , that sent his seruant , a Generall of his Army , to spare a Citie : he had command vnder the Broad Seale , from the Councell , and from the Kings owne hand , to doe it : and to disobey this Warrant was death : But withall , the King sent him a secret message that he should destroy the Citie , and to trust him to saue his life . The party did so : The Broad-Seale and Commission was to spare the City , to sorbeare it , The secret charge was to destroy it : This he did , and trusted the King for his life ; if hee had fayled him , he had been destroyed . These similitudes shew what it is to trust in GOD : If thou be brought to such an exigent , if thou wilt trust GOD in such a case , as wherin if he faile thee , thou art vndone ; This is to trust GOD , not to seeke his blessing so as to make that an addition , but to put all vpon him . Therefore , that you may know that this is to trust in GOD , know , that except thou doe it thus , GOD is not ready to answer thee . Therfore commonly , he puts not forth his strength to deliuer men , or to bestow vpon them any great blessing , but when hee hath brought men to such an exigent . And because men will not trust in him commonly , while other props are taken away , ( For wee should trust in GOD in the middest of prosperity and happinesse , but because men will not doe it till then , ) hee strips them of all , that they may doe it ; he brings a man to such a case , that he shall haue nothing else to trust vnto . What is the reason that Paul saith , 2 Cor. 1. 10. We receiued the sentence of death , that wee might learne not to trust in our selues , but in God that raiseth the dead ? GOD meant to deliuer him , when he saith he receiued the the sentence of death ; that is , there was no helpe in the World , that he could see , in himselfe , or in any other creature ; Now he was brought to trust in him , and then God answered him in his trust : so you shall finde , Zeph. 3.12 . I will leaue among you men that are humble and poore people , and they shall trust in the Name of the Lord. Why did not these trust in the Lord while they were rich ? Our nature is so backward , and so exceeding deceitfull , that wee cannot till other helpes are gone . I will leaue among you a sort of poore people , and they shall trust in my Name . ( As if he should say ) When men are brought to that , that all other things are taken away , and till then they will not trust in him . Indeede , till then it is not trusting . And therefore in 1 Tim. 1.5 . She that is a Widdow is left alone , and trusts in GOD. Till she be left alone , till the other props be taken away , a man cannot trust in GOD. Hence it is , that commonly when men are brought to the lowest , they are nerest to GOD , they haue best accesse vnto him ; because when they are brought to such an exigent , then a man will pray best ; and when he prayes best , then hee speedes best , then faith is set on worke , and it workes best when it is alone , when it is stripped of all other helpes . And therefore you shall finde in the Booke of GOD , when men were lowest , they had neerest accesse to GOD. ●sa , when he was come against with many thousands , he trusted vpon GOD , though he went against them with halfe the number , and God deliuered him , because he prayed and sought to GOD , and saw that he was not able to doe any thing , he trusted in GOD. Another time , when Asa had forgotten GOD , when he was strong , when he thought himselfe more able , when hee was to deale with one that had a weaker Armie a great deale , the King of Israel , hee was ouerthrowne , and shut vp that he could not stirre , because hee sent to the King of Aram for helpe . It is GODS manner to defer sending of helpe till a man be brought to the Mount , as hee did with Abraham ; hee might haue done it before ; but , you know how he did with Abraham , he brought him to the last cast . And Dauid , he was brought to the very point of perishing by the hands of Saul , before he deliuered him . And so he did with Iacob , Esau comes against him with foure hundred men , ( with a full resolution to destroy him ) before hee would deliuer him . It is GODS manner to doe thus . And so hee did with Iob , and other seruants of his ; his fashion is to doe so , to bring men vnto the very brow of the hill , till their feet be ready to slip , when they are euen going , and then hee delights to appeare and deliuer them . Therefore , in such cases , trust GOD , put all vpon GOD ; that is , when GOD , in any turning of thy life , brings thee to such an exigent , that thou seest all at the point to be lost , that thou art at the point to be vtterly vndone , learne to trust in GOD in good earnest , and that shall guide thee , and turne thee the right way , when thy flesh is ready to goe another way . What was the reason that CHRIST , when he was on earth , would doe nothing except they beleeued in him ? When thou hast any thing to doe , if thou beleeue in God , that will make him ready to helpe thee , because then it is an acknowledging , and an attributing to his power . If hee should doe it in another case , he should lose his labour , hee should lose his glory , men would not be built vp in him by that which he did . Therefore , make vse of faith , set faith on worke , as I said . I should come to this now , to moue you to trust in GOD in all cases . If I could perswade this , men would turne the courses of their liues , and would trust in him : for know , if thou trust in GOD , he neuer failes any that trust in him , as Dauid saith , in Psal. 37. I neuer saw the righteous for saken , &c. As if he should say , Aske all his seruants , aske all men that euer haue knowne him , all the men that haue liued with him , that haue finished their course with him ; aske a seruant of GOD , when he comes to dye , how GOD hath dealt with him , whether hee hath fayled him all his life ; I am perswaded that there is not a seruant of GOD , but will say that he neuer failed him ; and , if he were to leaue an exhortation behinde him , he would exhort others , from experience of his trust ; It cannot be that GOD should faile thee , if thou rest vpon him . Thinkest thou that GOD can faile thee , when he saith himselfe so often , he will neuer faile thee , nor those that trust in him ? Will a man faile one that trusts in him ? Wee vse to say , Oh I will not faile him , for hee trusts in mee ; and doest thou thinke that GOD will faile thee in such a case ? If GOD should faile men in such cases ▪ there is no man that would seeke him . But , that men should bee encouraged to serue him , hee hath promised , not onely , not to faile thee , but hee is abundant in truth , hee will bee better then his word , hee doth what hee sayeth , and more too : If thou wouldest trust vpon him in such a case , thou shouldst finde that he will answer thee . But thou wilt say , I see not how he will doe it , the case is such a hard and difficult case . Thou must know that there are strange passages in GODS prouidence , he is able to bring things to passe , though thou know not how it should be . See his prouidence 2 Kings 5. The Woman there , the Shunamite , shee beleeued the word that the Prophet had said , that there should bee seauen yeeres Famine , shee left her Land and Countrey , this was an act of Faith , that made her doe this ; See how this Woman beleeued now : she followed the direction of the Prophet , she did that which GOD appointed her to doe : see how GOD brought it to passe , that the seruant of Elisha , Gehezi , should be there with the King , and that hee should be telling the King of Israel of the great act of Elisha , That there should be such a concurrence of all things , that shee should come iust at that time , and no other , when the man of GOD was there , yea , when hee was telling of that very story , that then she should come in , and so she got her Land ; or else it is likely that the Woman , hauing liued away so many yeeres , it is likely shee had had a hard suite of it ; but Gods prouidence brought these things together . So againe , looke on Mordecai : It is a strange case : It was concluded , that hee and all the Jewes should bee slaine : The Decree was gone out , there was nothing in the World , for ought hee saw , that could hinder it ; the very night before Hester was to come to the King to make her request ; if it had beene but a night longer , perhaps it had failed : but that there might be a concurrence of all this , it is said in Hester 6. The King hee could not sleepe that night , and when hee could not sleepe , he might haue called for another Booke then the Booke of the Chronicles ; and when hee had the Booke brought , he might haue falne vpon another place , and not vpon that where Mordecai's act was record●d , but that there should bee a concurrence of all this in that very time . Is not GOD the same GOD ? why should not wee bee ready to trust in him still ? Doe wee not see the same daily ? If his Workes were recorded and obserued in our remembrance , certainely we should trust in GOD. But , you will object , The LORD doth euery thing by meanes , hee doth not worke Wonders , hee workes not Miracles now a dayes : And , when I see no meanes , I hope you will not haue mee to expect Miracles at GODS hands , to tempt him . You must remember Ahaz his case , when GOD came to Ahaz , and told him by the Prophet Esay ; Isai. chap. 7. That Aram and Remaliah's sonne , those two smoking Fire-brands , should not haue their wils , should bee disappointed , that he would fight for him against them : Saith the Prophet to him , Aske a signe of the Lord in the Heauen aboue , or in the Deepe below . No , saith hee , Ahaz will not tempt GOD. What is the meaning of that ? That is , I will prouide for my selfe , I will not trust to his Word , I will looke vnto my selfe , I will prouide an Armie , I will not tempt GOD ; That is , I will not goe about it without meanes , I will looke about mee ; And for such a signe as resting on that promise , If I should doe this , I should tempt GOD. See heere is a faire excuse : Take heede of such excuses , say not , I shall tempt GOD. And know , that though there be not Miracles , yet GOD he workes wonders now a dayes , as well as then , his hand is not shortned ; now he is the same GOD , he is as powerfull as hee was . It is true now as it was in Dauids time , that wonderfull are thy workes . And CHRIST now in the time of the Gospell , his Name is wonderfull . In Isai. 9. The gouernment is vpon his shoulders , and his Name shall bee called wonderfull ; that is , in the gouernment of his Church hee doth wonderfull things ; that is , when a thing seemes to bee neuer so strong and well built , when the strength of the Enemy seemes to be neuer so great and inuincible , hee is wonderfull to disappoint them . Againe , when the strength of the Church seemes to be little , he can make that effectuall to doe great matters , it shall doe wonders : and therefore I say , GOD is able to doe wonderfull things now . Now those very things which seeme wonders to men , are not Miracles , though they may be great workes . That Wonder that Elisha said , that the next day things should bee so cheape , you see , that was reckoned so great a matter , yet it was done after an ordinary manner : There was but a false feare scattered in the Armie , and it was done . Therefore , he that workes wonders , he can doe the same now . That deliuerance which the Iewes had , it was a thing that may be done now . So those wonders , those great acts which God did when men trusted in him , they are things which he doth daily now . Therefore to answer punctually , because men doe deceiue themselues in that , when we exhort them to trust in GOD , they say still , we must vse the meanes , I will giue a threefold answer to it . It is true that GOD vseth meanes , but they are meanes of his owne prouiding , and not the meanes , many times , that thou pitchest vpon . For thus farre it is true , GOD doth it not but by meanes ; that is , he doth things by second causes , hee doth them not by an immediate hand of his owne , though hee be able to doe it : But now what those causes are , thou knowest not . Therefore this set downe , that GOD doth it by meanes of his owne , and not by those meanes thou seest . It may bee thou pitchest vpon some particular meanes , and thinkest , surely it must be done by this : and because thou seest no other , thou thinkest , if that fayle , all is spoiled : But it is not so ; GOD will not doe it by these , but GOD is so farre from doing it , that his vsuall course is , when men haue pitched vpon particular meanes , and thinke surely the businesse must bee brought to passe by this , or else all will faile ; GOD many times vseth not that , but a meanes which thou neuer thoughtest of . In such a case , it fares with vs as it did with Naaman the Assyrian ; when he comes to the Prophet of GOD , hee thought before-hand , that the Prophet would haue spoken some words , and haue healed him ; but he bids him goe and wash , which was a thing that hee neuer thought of : So thou many times thinkest of these meanes , thou preconceiuest things in thine owne heart , thou thinkest thou art right , thou thinkest it must needes be done this way , thou seest no other meanes ; but , it may be , GOD will not doe it this way , but he will doe it a way that thou thinkest not of . So Ioseph , when hee was in fauour with Pharoah his Steward , one would thinke , that this should haue beene the meanes of Iosephs aduancement , and of bringing to passe that promise ; but this was not the meanes that GOD vsed . Againe , when that Pharoah his chiefe Butler was deliuered , one would thinke that that should haue beene the meanes to haue wrought his exaltation ; but yet these were not , there fell a meanes that Ioseph thought not on ▪ and so GOD doth daily . Many times , the thing that we most trust vnto , and put most confidence in , doth faile and deceiue vs , GOD dasheth in pieces such meanes , and vseth other meanes to helpe , that neuer came into our hearts to thinke of . Doe we not see it oftentimes ? Againe , that meanes which wee thinke will not doe , oftentimes doth it . Therefore say not , I trust in GOD , that he will doe it by meanes ; for GOD delighteth to doe it by meanes . Men are ready to say , Oh , if had such a Physician , or if I had such ayre , or such meanes , I should doe well enough : How doest thou know that ? It may be , GOD will not vse that . So , those that are in distresse ; Oh if I had such a man to comfort me ! Why thou knowest not whether that be the meanes that GOD will vse , or no. Therefore say not , because I see not meanes , therefore I will not trust in GOD. I say , GOD will doe it by meanes , but he vseth meanes of his owne prouiding , and not of thy seeking . This is the first answer to it . The second answer : If thou say , that GOD doth it by meanes ; yet remember , that it is his blessing or his curse , which makes those meanes on which thou art fixed effectuall or ineffectuall . The greatest meanes , the fairest , the most specious , and most probable to bring things to passe ; remember , that if GOD doe but say to that meanes , prosper not , ( for that is the curse , when hee bids a thing wither ) thou shalt not doe it . Againe , If it be weaker , if GOD say to such a thing , goe and doe this businesse , it shall be able to bring it to passe : this is his blessing and his curse ; you should learne to haue these words , not onely in your mouthes , but to know the meaning of them ; and not onely so , but to come to the practice ; to say with your selues , when things are faire and probable , Except GOD bid this doe it , it shall not be effectuall , if he curse it , it shall wither . Thirdly , remember this , That his blessing is dispensed , not according to thy meanes , but according to the vprightnesse of thy heart , according to thy workes . One would thinke , when he hath riches , then he should bring it to passe : but , saith the Prophet , Psal. 62. Riches belong to the Lord , they come neither from the North nor from the South : And , when riches increase , set not your heart vpon them : Saith he , it is not riches that makes men happy ; for that Objection will come in . If I had riches , I should be able to doe this or that , they are the meanes to make a man happy , though happinesse consists not in them ? No , ( saith he ) when riches increase , set not your hearts vpon them . ( As if he should say ) If wealth would doe you good , I would giue you leaue to set your hearts vpon it : but it is not in wealth or riches to make a man poore or rich , but that comes of the Lord. But now comes in the Objection . Yea , but GOD doth it by meanes , the Lord doth it by riches . No , GOD rewards men according to their workes , not according to their wealth . So that , when thou trustest to the meanes , know that GOD blesseth thee according to thy workes , not according to the outward condition thou art in . Thus we should learne to doe , when we say GOD doth things by meanes , when a man sees the fairest meanes , yet , if thou find that thou hast not prayed , thou hast not sought to GOD , thou hast no secret assurance of his blessing , thinke not that such a businesse will be done . Againe , when the meanes are low , meane , and weake , yet , if thou haue sought him earnestly , if thou hast had a secret assurance of him , that he will be with thee , let not thy heart be discouraged ; doe in this case , as Dauid did , Psal. 31. ( saith he ) I heard the speaking against of great men , they sate and conspired against me , but I trusted in thee , I said , my times are in thy hands . ( Marke : ) When Dauid saw the greatest meanes vsed against him as might be , They were great men set against him , and many of them , they ioyned together , they tooke councell against him , he was not discouraged , but saith , my times are in thy hands . If my times were in their hands , they might make me miserable , I had reason to bee discouraged at that ; but my times are in thy hands : See if thou canst say this on both sides . When great men ioyne for thy wealth , say not now , I shall bee made a great man in the World ; but say , My time is in Gods hand , it is not in their power to doe it . Againe , when great men seeke and consult against thee , say not now , I shall be miserable , but consider thy times are in GODS hands , it is not in their hands to doe it . FINIS . OF EFFECTVALL FAITH . The sixth Sermon . 1. THESS . 1.3 . Remembring your effectuall Faith , &c. WEe haue already answered one Objection , that God workes by meanes ; we shewed after what manner : Well , if this be so , ( before we leaue the point ) take heede you deceiue not your selues ; you commonly say , GOD workes things by meanes : The saying is true , if thy heart be not false : for it is true , hee workes things by meanes ; but if such meanes come in competition , ( as GOD hath not appointed , that which is vnlawfull for thee to doe ) if it come in competition with that which GOD hath set apart , in such a case thou must let such meanes goe , else thou mayest vse that meanes , but it is the meanes alone , thou shalt haue no encouragement in the vse of them . If thou hast meanes , encourage not thy selfe so much because of them , but because thou hast GOD for thy friend ; Let not the rich man reioyce in his riches , nor the strong man glory in his strength , or the wise man ioy in his wisedome , Ier. 10. but let him that glorieth and reioyceth , reioyce in the Lord. If they could doe a man good , we might reioyce in them : The Lord requires nothing but that which is reasonable ; I dare be bold to declare it , that if the confidence in the strength of a man were able to doe him good , he might reioyce in it . Therefore we see in that place , hee saith , it comes of the Lord. As if he should say , We see by experience , when GOD will vse them as instruments , it is otherwise , then they doe that which of themselues they cannot ; they doe it no farther then GOD blesseth them , for else they hurt , and doe no good to a man. Take heede therefore thy heart bee not false , and deceiue not thy selfe , that thou mingle by-respects in the businesse ; but vse the meanes , and depend and trust in God for the bringing it to passe ; which thou shalt know by this , if thou draw neere to God ; for that is a tryall , Ier. 17. Cursed is he that maketh flesh his arme : This drawes the heart from GOD ; you shall finde that noted in 1 Tim. 1.6 . The Widdow that trusts in God prayeth day and night . Therefore when thou hast the best meanes , if thou be not slacke in prayer , it argues thy trust in GOD ; when thou goest to GOD , and striuest with him by prayer , and seekest not to the creature , to say thy wealth , or riches , or the like , shall helpe thee . So much for the answer to the first Objection . Another thing that we are ready to object , 2 is , But what if such a thing should come to passe ? what if the euill that I feare should fall vpon me ? what if the businesse I goe about proceed not , which is of that moment , I am vndone , if it be not done ? Herein the heart of a man must be quiet . First , It may be thou art too hasty in this kinde ; many times thou thinkest in such cases , that thou art without helpe and without hope , when it is not so : Know therfore , that a man may be vnder water and rise againe , he may sinke twice or thrice before he be drowned ; thou mayest receiue many foiles , many blowes , and yet not lose the victory . The best Saints haue beene vnder the cloud for a great while , but they were not destroyed , they perished not : So was Ioseph , so was Dauid ▪ so were all . Therefore put the case that thou fall into the particular ill , that the euill which thou fearest , fall vpon thee , cast not away thy confidence , GOD may helpe thee , hee may come betweene the cup and the lip , as often it is seene . It is his vsuall manner to appeare in the Mount , and not before . It was a Prouerbe in Israel , The LORD will be seene in the Mount ; not so much because it was a common speech , but because it was commonly done , it was a thing that GOD vsed to doe . Therfore be not discouraged too soone , GOD may helpe thee , as low as thou art . Suppose this doe come to passe , as a mans heart will neuer be at rest , till he suppose that which he would not be content should be so : and hence comes disquiet in a mans heart , if it do come , he hath not resolution to beare the perplexity . Therefore in such a case , if thou suppose it will be so , doe as Hester did ; resolue , If I perish , I perish . The meaning is , If I perish , I shall not perish : when she saith , If I perish , I perish , she meanes not such a matter as we say in our common speech ; but , if it will come to passe , let it come to passe : so Hester , If I perish , I perish : She knew it was a good worke that she went about , and she knew she should haue a reward for it . It is not such a thing to lose the life , as men thinke it is : If wee looke vpon it with the eye of faith , it is no such matter . And so the three Children , they care not what should become of them ; They knew not whether GOD would deliuer them , or no ; but if hee would not , they resolued to beare it , and so should wee doe . But , you will say , a man is not able to doe this . If thou diddest know the reason , it would moue thee . Therefore labour to worke thy heart to consider , that all these worst things that befall thee , may be good enough ; and if thou haue not learned before , learne now : Marke what Paul saith , We are afflicted , but not ouercome ; persecuted , but not forsaken ; cast downe , but we perish not ; euer dying , but yet behold we liue ; sorry , and yet we reioyce . That is , there is somewhat that sustaines vs in the worst dangers , somewhat that keepes vs from sinking : And Paul , he is as good as his word ; what he saith there , we see by his carriage ; we see in what a manner he went thorow all , all was nothing , persecution was nothing , but what he did in such a case , he had GOD stood actually by him , and said , Feare not , Paul , I haue much people there , when he sent him into Macedonia . But thou sayest , thou hast nothing to beare it . Consider , whatsoeuer thy case bee , If the thing doe so fall out , thou shouldest be ready to say , this is not so desperate , but it may bee helped ; it is not so heauy , but it may bee borne ; it is not so miserable a case , but it may be happy ; and lastly , it is not so bad , but it may be good for me . First , There is no case so desperate , but it may be helped ▪ Put the case thy name , which is so tender a thing , which is like vnto glasse , which if it be broke , cannot be made vp againe ; Suppose it be broken all in pieces in the World , GOD shall make it vp . Ioseph , his name could not be made vp againe , and he cleared as innocent of all ; but GOD cleared him . Dauid now by his great sinnes , hee brake his good name , so that now it was not an easie thing to heale Dauids name ; yet God did it abundantly , and he dyed full of riches and honour : It was forgotten as a thing that had neuer beene ; when he had gotten credit with GOD , he got credit with men . And so for pouerty : It is not easie for a man to be rich , riches haue wings . It is true , riches haue wings to flye to a man , if God bid them come , as well as they haue wings to flye from a man , if GOD bid them leaue him . Againe , what if such a man be thine enemie ? There is no man that is such an enemy but GOD can soone make him a friend , as we see in Iacob and Esau. Let the case be what it will : you know Iobs case , there was all extremity of misery vpon him , that , if a man should looke vpon him , hee would thinke it impossible to helpe him , yet you see what GOD did . Againe , I say , it is not so heauy but it may be borne : we see how Paul bore all his afflictions , ( we see it in other instances , which before we reckoned vp : ) in 2 Cor. 11. See how he was stoned , how hee was scourged , and imprisoned , the troubles that hee had within him : the care of all the Churches was vpon him , and who was afflicted , and he did not burne ? It was to him as a fire to a man , it scorched him ; and yet you shall see , that he bore them in such a manner , that if a man were to chuse Pauls comforts with his afflictions , he should make a good choice to take the one with the other . Paul , in the presence of Nero , is not daunted , who was a wicked Tyrant . So Dauid , hee was in a miserable case at Ziglag , he had lost his Wiues , and all that he had , he had no helpe , but ● few ( 600. ) men , and yet they would haue stoned him too : this was nothing to him , when God had setled his spirit with comfort , he comforted himselfe in the LORD . So in any case , if God keepe a whole spirit in thee , it is no matter . Take a Plaster that is sharpe , if you lay it to a sore place , it will smart and grieue it , but lay it to the whole flesh , it is nothing : So it is with afflictions , when thy soule is whole , it is like a whole shoulder ; lay a heauie burthen vpon a whole shoulder , and it goes away with it well enough : But if the soule and spirit be broken , it is not fit to beare a crosse . If GOD enable a man , it is another thing ; then , disease is nothing , imprisonment is nothing , and disgrace is nothing ; when GOD enables a man to beare it , it is nothing : therefore it is not so heauy but it may be borne . Againe , it is not so miserable , but thou mayest be happy in it . Why ? The reason is in Rom. 8. Because , whatsoeuer it be , it shall not separate vs from the loue of God in CHRIST : neither principalities , nor powers , nor things present , nor things to come , neither men , nor deuils : In such a case , the Deuill , with all his forces set against thee , shall not be able to make thee miserable , thou art a happy man notwithstanding , hee shall not be able to hurt thee , GOD loues thee still , and loues thee tenderly , thou art deare to him at all times . Therefore whatsoeuer it is , it shall not separate thee from the loue of God in Christ : and when he could name no more , he names in generall ; saith he , neither men , nor Deuils , nor any thing shall doe it . Againe , it is not so bad , ( I say ) but it may be best for thee , it may doe thee good : for our nature is so rebellious , and so set vpon things of this world , that except God should take this course , to worke a wearinesse in the World , to mortifie our lusts , if GOD should not take such courses , our nature would bee ready to rebell : therefore GOD dealeth so with men . Sometimes he afflicts thee with sicknesse , sharpe sicknesse , which is irksome to thee ; but know , that if that disease were taken from thee , thou knowest not what thy heart would doe . Some men bee afflicted with enmity of others ; thou knowest not , if thou wert friends with all men , how thou shouldest be . Thou art afflicted in the world , in thy wife , in thy children , in thy neighbours , in thy name , in thy estate , and though thou thinke with thy selfe , If I were free from this , I should be happy , I should bee humble , I should serue GOD the better ; I say vnto thee , thou knowest not what thou shouldest be : A mans minde doth not know what it would be in another estate , onely he knows the present . If thou haddest such and such circumstances , if thou haddest wealth , if thou haddest such crosses remoued , if all things should goe well with thee , Oh then thou wouldest be happy : but thou knowest not what thou shouldest be . You know what the Prophet said to Hazael : ( saith he ) Doest thou know what thou shalt be when thou art King of Aram ? Thou knowest how thou art affected now , but thou knowest not how thou shalt be then , when thou art a King , then thou wilt be answerable to thy state and condition . So much for the second Objection . Thirdly , 3 it will be objected ; It is true , if GOD did heare my prayers , or if he did vsually heare the Prayers that the Saints make , that it were no more but seeke and haue , we would trust in GOD in difficult cases : But I finde by experience , that I pray , and he doth not answer me : and it is not my experience onely , but it is the experience of others likewise ; they pray , and GOD doth not heare their prayers ; what should sustaine me therfore now ? To this I answer ; It is certaine that GOD alwayes heares thy prayers , there is no doubt to be made of that ; he is a God hearing prayers , and hath made a promise , that when they come , hee will heare them : Be assured therefore that he heares . But now to answer thee . First , there are many cases wherein GOD heares not : as first , it may bee thou askest amisse . But thou wilt say , My heart is right ; and therefore I hope I aske not amisse . Yes , though thy heart be right , thou maiest aske amisse , out of mistake , out of want of iudgement ; thou must not thinke with thy selfe , because thy affection is strong to such a thing , therefore it is lawfull for thee , and meete for thee to haue it . There are many things which a little childe asketh , which are not meete for him ; a wise Father will not second his child in all that he affects and desires : thou must thinke that God will not doe it in these cases . And therefore learne in such a case when thou comest to GOD for outward things , or for the measure of grace , or for the present vse of grace ( as you shall heare hereafter ) it may be hee answers thee not ; yet thou must acknowledge GOD to bee onely wise . If we could remember that in 1 Tim. 1.19 . To the King onely wise , be glory and immortality : we thinke our selues wise too , wee thinke that we haue some part of wisdome ; but if we did beleeue that he were only wise , that is , if thou diddest beleeue that none were wise but he , thou wouldest be content toresigne thy selfe vnto him , let him doe with thee what he will , although thou see no reason , yet thou wouldest be content . Therefore when thou commest to aske at Gods hands , thou shouldest be ready to say thus ; LORD , I see no reason why this should not be good , and yet I may be deceiued , I may be mistaken : Therefore I will not aske it absolutely ; It may be the want of it is better for me then the enioying of it ; it may be , to be crossed in it , is better for me then to haue successe in it : thou art onely wise , I am not able to iudge : and therefore when wee come to aske any thing of GOD , thus wee should doe . Paul , when he comes to aske the mortification of his fleshly lusts , 2 Cor. 12. one would thinke he might haue asked that absolutely , we cannot see how GOD should not heare that prayer , and yet in that case Paul was mistaken , GOD saw it was best to suffer that lust to continue vpon him , and to contend with him ; thou shalt not be free from this strong temptation ; for , saith he , by this I will humble thee , thou shalt haue a better grace then thou shouldest haue if that lust were taken away : when Paul saw that the continuance of that vpon him , it humbled him more , that it brought more glory to God , that it shewed Gods power in his weaknesse , he was content , hee saw that he was deceiued before : I say , in such a case a man may be deceiued , much more in outward things . You know , the Disciples , when they came to aske fire to come downe from Heauen , they thought it was a zealous request ; but CHRIST tels them that they were deceiued , they knew not from what Spirit that request did come ; If it had come from GODS Spirit , hee would haue heard it , but they were deceiued : So if thou wouldest haue GOD heare thy prayer , know whether they come from Gods Spirit , whether thy prayers be the voyce of thine owne spirit , or of Gods Spirit ; if it be the voyce of GODS Spirit , he heares it alwaies , because it askes according to his will ; our spirits may aske that which is good , but not that which is fit at this time . 2 Secondly , he will heare thee , but it may be , thou art not yet fit for the mercie , not because he doth not heare thy prayer , and tender thee in that case thou art in , but thou ar● not yet fit , herein GOD deales with vs as the Physician deales with his Patient ; The Patient earnestly desires such and such things ; The Physician wants not will to giue them him , but he resolues to giue them as soone as he is fit : and therefore he makes him stay till hee haue purged him , and made him fit for it , till hee be fit for such a Cordiall , for such a Medicine , that it may not hurt him : it may be GOD staies thee . So the men of Beniamin , they were fitted when they had fasted and prayed three times ; when they had fasted once and twice , they aduentured , and preuailed not till the third time . So GOD defers long : What if thou fast and pray , and GOD doe not heare thee , yet conclude not with thy selfe , that thou art not yet fit . There is somewhat more that must be done . Dauid , a man would thinke that he had beene fitted for the Kingdome before that time , but GOD deferred it vntill Dauid was humbled enough , till he was broken enough , till GOD had prouided a Kingdome , as he promised . And so he did with Ioseph , and so with the people of Is●ael ; they were kept long in bondage , they were long pressed , before they were fit to be deliuered : GOD tendred his people then , hee had no delight in their afflictions . And so we may see in the whole Booke of the Iudges , how God suffered his people to be afflicted , to fit them for deliuerance . So thinke with thy selfe , thou art not fitted yet ; & if thou wouldst go by a rule , see the rule , 1 Pet. 5.6 . Humble your selues vnder his mighty hand that he may exalt you in due time . ( Marke , whensoeuer God layes any affliction vpon any man , his end is to humble him . And if the worke be done , he will performe that which he hath promised , assoone as thou art humbled , he will exalt thee : therefore that word is added , he will exalt you in due time , not when thou thinkest hee will before-hand , for GOD is wise , and will doe it in due time , if he should defer it beyond the time when thou art fitted , he should not doe it in due time , but beyond the time . Againe , if he should send deliuerance before thou art fit , it were not in due time , it would come too soone : But assure thy selfe , when thy heart is humbled and weakned from the world , when thy lusts are mortified , and when thou art made spirituall and heauenly-minded by such afflictions , be sure , GOD will not deferre one iot , he will come in the exactnesse of time , that as it is said , in the fulnesse of time his Sonne came , so it is in the fulnesse of time before he will saue thee , in the fittest time . Therefore I would say to thee , whosoeuer thou art , that suest to GOD for pleasure , for honour , it may be , to be relieued in thy state , for health , for life , or for comfort ; I say , GOD hath made a promise , and it is impossible that he should faile in the performance of of it , as Salomon saith , Prou. 22.4 . Riches , and honour , and life shall he giue ; but to to whom ? to him that is humble , and that feareth the Lord. You must put in both the conditions . Many men feare the LORD , which are not humbled ; and some men are humbled , but they haue some secret way of wickednesse , wherein they are induldent to themselues ; but they must goe both together . Let a man be holy , that he may haue no way of wickednesse in himselfe , and let him be humbled , or else GOD may bestow wealth on thee , but if thy heart be not holy , thou wilt forget GOD in it . And if he giue thee health , if thy heart be not humbled , thou wilt be ready to vse it intemperately , thou knowest not thine owne heart : but be assured , when thou commest to God , he heares the requests that are made by his Spirit , that if thou be prepared , he will not deny thee , the promise is absolute , let the condition be fulfilled : for those are the words , The reward of humility , and the feare of God , is riches , and honour , and life : Except not these , when there is not the precedent preparation : for it is not best for thee . Thirdly , 3 it may be GOD doth it not because there is a defect in thy prayer , hee will haue thee pray more feruently , that condition is put in , Iam. 5. The prayer of the righteous auaileth much , if it be feruent . Indeede GOD might bestow blessings vpon vs for the meere asking , if we did but make our requests knowne ; yet he is pleased to require that condition that our prayers be feruent , and he defers the giuing of the blessing vntill we be quickned : and therfore he defers oft-times , to inhance , and to cause vs to prize his blessings , ( lightly come , lightly gone , as we vse to say . ) Things that come easily , we willingly part with , but GOD will haue vs prize them high : and therefore we must begge them earnestly , he holds them backe to affect our appetites , to make vs contend with him in prayer ; or else why did hee deferre to grant the Woman of Canaans request , why did he defer to giue Iacob deliuerance from his brother Esau ? if he had done it in the beginning , Iacob had not so wrastled , he had not done that excellent duty of prayer all night . When Hannah comes to aske a sonne of the Lord , he hath giuen to many with lesse adoe , but he would not grant it her till her spirit was troubled , till she prayed earnestly with contention and violence , that Ely thought she was drunke : No , said she , but I am a woman troubled in spirit : they must be earnest , those prayers that God will haue at thy hands ; and if thou be not heard , goe and mend thy prayers that thou mayest mend thy speeding ; quicken thy prayers , as thou labourest to make thy heart more righteous , that thou mayest be fit . The prayers of the righteous preuaile much , if they be feruent : so pray more feruently . 4 Fourthly , it may be God heares thee , but it crosseth some other secret passage of his prouidence . There are many things that GOD the great Gouernour of the world must bring together ; and though thou see no reason why he should not heare thee , yet it may be hee will discouer vnto thee , that the sum of all things being put together , thou shalt see that it is not best for thee to be heard . Dauid now , when he comes to aske a request at Gods hands , that he might build him a Temple , it was a thing that he desired , and he made no question but that it was according to Gods will ▪ and Nathan was of that opinion too , Goe , saith hee , and doe all that is in thine heart : Dauid did not know what belonged to that businesse , because no man can iudge of those things that GOD hath appointed to bring to passe , a man cannot see round about all the corners of GODS prouidence , no man is able to see it : wee see not the concurrence of things , how one thing stands with another . And therefore we ought not to looke in such cases to be heard ; as the Wisemen , they thought it fit to haue returned by the way they came , but God saw a reason to turne them another way . Therfore be not hasty in thy requests , but know that GOD is wise , and will worke all for the best , his glory must goe in all , and one thing must be done , that his end may be brought to passe in all . Againe , it may be God will grant thy request ; but for the manner , and the meanes by which he will doe it , and for the time , it is in his own power . But because these things are knowne , I will not stand to presse them farrher : but now I come to the last Objection . Last of all , 4 you will be ready to say , It is true , I would trust in God , if he did alway shew mercie for my sake , If I saw the Saints alwaies bring their enterprizes to passe , If I did see it still well with them that trust in him , but I finde it contrary for the most part : It is ill with them that trust in the Lord , and euill men prosper ; and therefore what encouragement haue I to trust in GOD in this manner as you exhort me to doe , when I am brought to such an exigent , to such a case that my life or my goods are in hazard , or my name , it is not my best way so to doe : I see by experience , that those that are wise men , politique men , and those that haue the greatest meanes , they prosper , when as other men that feare GOD , doe not bring thy deuices to passe . I will answer this , and so will haue done with the point . First , I answer , it is true , that ill men oft-times doe prosper , and that good men many times doe not succeede ; I say , we will not deny it : for wee see the Scripture is plentifull , Psal. 37. Feare not the man that bringeth his enterprizes to passe : where it is supposed that they doe so . In Ier. 12.1 . Why doe the wicked prosper ? where the Prophet sets out in particular how they prosper ; he saith , they grow and take roote , they spring , and bring forth fruit . And you know what Salomon saith , who was a wise man , and looked through many euents that fall out vnder the Sunne : Eccles. 8.14 . I haue seene this venity , ( saith he ) that where should haue beene Iustice , there hath beene wickednesse , and it hath come vnto the iust as vnto the wicked : I haue seene the Battell hath not beene to the strong , nor bread to the wise . And so he goes along , as you know well . He sets out in that Booke plentifully , that euill men may prosper long , and may exceedingly bring their enterprizes to passe . Againe , on the other side , the Saints may not prosper , and that in those things which they doe according to Gods will. When Christ sent his Disciples ouer the Water , and bade them goe to the other side , yet they rowed all night , there w●s a great storme , that they could doe no good , so that they were in great jeopardy and danger , and yet it was his owne appointment : So , I say , thou mayest goe about a businesse , and yet finde such stormes , such contrary windes and waues , such streames running against thee , that thou mayest be exceedingly hazarded , though GOD himselfe set thee on worke . When Paul went to Macedonia , you see GOD called him from another place , and bade him goe thither : you shall not finde that Paul was the better vsed ; nay , you shall finde , that for the time , he seemed to doe lesse good there of any place , there were few that beleeued in GOD. And Peter , when hee came to CHRIST on the water , he had a warrant for it , he did that which was a fruit of his faith , yet for all that he sunke , he beganne to sinke , till CHRIST put forth his hand , and was saine to helpe him . Therefore I say , you may goe about Gods businesse , and yet it may not prosper . Therefore wee must set downe that conclusion ; it is a great light to know that it is so . The Wiseman giues the reason of it , Eccles. 7.14 . ( Saith hee ) Thou shalt finde great variety , thou shalt finde some times , good times : and in the day of wealth , when thou hast it , reioyce . Againe , another time afflictions will come , know that GOD hath done this for some purpose : He hath made this contrary to that , that thou shouldst finde nothing after him . That is , that all the world may see that his wayes and his actions are past finding out . If God should deale alwayes after this manner , you might know where to haue him in his wayes : If he should alwayes giue affliction to sinners , a man might say , surely GOD will doe this : but it is not so , hee hath made this contrary to the other ; that is , he takes different courses with men , he hath made this contrary to that , that men should not finde the print of his footsteps : to say that GOD will certainely doe this another time . Therefore hee addeth those words , which doe immediately follow , that none might finde out any thing after him : I haue seene the iust perish in his Iustice , and I haue seene a wicked man goe on long in his malice . This God hath done , that men might know to feare before him , that men might learne to cry out with Paul , Oh the depth of his wisdome , and vnderstanding , and his wayes are past finding out ; that men might tremble before GOD , and acknowledge his wisdome . But I come now to a particular answer : for it is a point worthy the answering , it is a point that will stand vs in much stead , when wee meete with many such objections as mans heart will haue in that case . Therefore I answer particularly and briefely . First , though GOD doe so , yet remember that thou must not iudge any thing , till thou see he haue finished the worke : thou wilt not iudge a mans worke till hee haue done it : If a man goe about to build , iudge not his worke till it bee done , because thou seest not for what end many things are framed and made , wilt thou therefore say that hee is an vnskilfull builder ? it were folly to doe so , but stay till hee haue finished worke , and then see how one part answers with another , and in what proportion . So in all the workes of GOD , if thou see it goe well with those that are ill , and those that are good are afflicted , stay till thou see GOD haue finished his worke . And therefore I say to thee in this case , as Saint Iames saith ; Know ye not what end the Lord made with Iob ? So marke what end the Lord makes , as with Iob , so with all the Saints ; know what is their ends . And otherwise take all the euill men , as Ieroboam and Saul , and see what end the LORD made with them ; their prosperity was as a pleasant Dreame , which was soone gone ; as the flower of the grasse vpon the house top , which withereth : Looke to the end of things . I cannot stand on it . Secondly , though the wicked prosper , yet their prosperity hurts them as much as affliction and aduersity doth good to the godly , their prosperity slayeth them , whereas the afflictions of the other benefits them : if thou finde this to be thy case , that thou prosper , and that thou seest thou goest on in sinne , thou hast no cause to reioyce in this ; or if thou seest other men prosper , thinke them not happy for this , it is out of mistake , It is the miserablest condition in the world ; you know what GOD did to Hophni and Phineas , he did not afflict them , he let them goe long , he sent them no disease , hee interrupted not their course : What was the reason ? Hee had a purpose to destroy them . So againe when thou dost not succeede in thy matters , but art crossed , yet so long as that will doe thee good , what needest thou care ? But , you will obiect , My afflictions are great , and many , and therefore how shall I beare them ? I will instruct thee ; I say thou hast neede of strong afflictions . Some Colts are so vntamed , they must needs be broken so some corruptions are so vnruly , that they will not be wrought out without great afflictions . Againe , thou needest many afflictions , because the corruptions of thy heart are of diuers sorts , and if there were but one affliction , it would not serue the turne . Againe , thou hast neede that afflictions should continue long , because sinne is very naturall ; some are hidden , and long a breeding , and cannot easily be remoued . Therefore what though thy afflictions be so , as is is said Dan. 11.7 . They shall fall by the Sword , by the Famine , by Captiuity many dayes . These were men of vnderstanding , holy men , yet they had great afflictions of diuers sorts , Sword and Famine , such as Iames speakes of , and long afflictions for many dayes . Now all this was to doe them good , to try them , to purge them , to make them white . So when those afflictions are to doe thee good , and their prosperity for their hurt , let this satisfie thee . Thirdly consider , that though they doe prosper , and godly men doe not so , yet their low estate , their imprisonment , their pouerty , their obscurity , the disgrace which they are vnder , this is better to them , then the honour , and the pompe , the titles and the riches that euill men haue . I can but name these things . Psal. 37. A little that the righteous hath , is better then the riches of many wicked . What is the meaning of that ? That is , they haue more comfort in that little , then the other haue in their faire Pallaces , in their great states ; thou mayest haue more comfort in a little , then they haue in their abundance ; thou mayest haue more comfort in obscurity , as Paul saith , as not knowne , though a man be obscure , yet if he be knowne to GOD , and to mens consciences , he is of greater eminency then those that are in the highest place . So though thou haue poore possessions in outward things , though thou be melancholique , and alwayes sorry , yet that little , that very condition is better to thee then the outward condition is to the other . Fourthly , in perillous times this is a great difference : for though a man haue prosperity , yet certainely , a hard time will come , a time of sicknesse , and of temptation , and of death will befall vs : Psal. 37. In perrilous times they shall be confounded : here is the difference : and they shall melt as fat : that is , In such a time their hearts shall faint , and such men haue nothing to sustaine them ; they shall be confounded in such a time , they shall not know what to doe . But now you will say , What perrilous time is that , when GOD will deale so with them , you will say , in those perrilous times , for ought we see , the Sword deuoures one as well as another ; certainely , it sweepes away one as well as another : Sicknesse , when it comes , it sweepes away one as well as another : And therefore in the perrilous time , I see no difference between the godly and the wicked . I answer , There is difference when the same affliction fals vpon both . Looke in Ier. 24. you shall finde there , that both were carried away captiues , good men and bad men , the whole Chapter is spent in it ; it is but a short Chapter : See there what is the difference there is in the same afflictions which fell to both : saith he , There were two Baskets , the one was full of good Figs , the other was full of bad , which could not be eaten for badnesse , looke in the Text , you shall finde that both were carried away captiue , but here is the difference , they were carried both in an indifferent manner , ( saith he ) you shall be carried captiue aswell as the other , the good Figs in the Basket , but I will know you , mine eyes shall be vpon you to doe you good , and I will bring you backe in due season , and I will plant you in captiuity , and you shall grow ; and I will build you , and you shall not be destroyed ; and I will giue you a heart to know me in that condition ; and I will be your GOD , and you shall be my people : all this will I doe to you , although you be in the same affliction . And what will hee doe to the other ? They shall be carried in a Basket into captiuity , but , saith the Lord , I will make you a reproach , I will make you a curse , I will make you a common talke , I will destroy you when you come into captiuity , with the Sword , with Famine , with Pestilence , mine eyes shall be on you for ill in such a case . So I say , the same Beesome of destruction may sweepe away both , the same Sword may deuoure both , the same disease may seaze vpon both , there is no great difference outwardly in the same affliction ; both may die , and is there not great difference in their death ? both may be sicke , and is there not a great difference ? In the one his heart is made glad and light in Gods countenance , in his Beloued ; when as the other hath nothing to hold him vp : The one hath the consolation of the Spirit , the other wants it . Againe , consider in affliction there is great difference , as you shall finde this difference betweene the condition of the Saints and others , although their outward condition seeme to be alike ; The euill man stands in slippery places , and his condition is vncertaine , and it is a great miserie to be vncertaine , for a mans condition to be ready to be blowne downe with such a winde , he knowes not how long he shall continue and stand ; so they stand in slippery places . The other , those that are built on Christ , are like the house built on the Rocke , they are sure it shall be well with them . Againe , afflictions that come to the wicked , they come suddenly . Therefore it is a thing proper to the wicked , Prou. 1.27 . Their desolation shall come suddenly , and their destruction as a whirlewind : Why , is it not so with the godly ? doe not they often perish by sudden death ? doth it not fall on them ? doe not sudden changes come to them as well as to the others ? No : Things are sudden , not from their suddennesse , but from the want of the preparation of the person that they fall vpon : therefore GOD will not send affliction vpon his children till he haue prepared them ; hee will prepare them , and then it is no matter if they come suddenly , it is no matter though he strike them suddenly before they be aware ; when he hath fitted them , it comes not suddenly , Death comes not vpon them as a snare : that is to be taken in a snare properly , when the Beast is taken in a snare by the Huntsman , or by the Fowler , who meanes their destruction ; so afflictions come vpon euill men as a snare , when as they are taken in an euill Net , Satan takes them there to destroy them eternally . Againe , the afflictions of the godly are not so heauy to them , as the afflictions of the wicked are ; GOD afflicts them in the branches , not in the roote ; they drinke of the Cup , but not of the dregs ; but as for the wicked , hee smites them so , as that hee smites them not the second time , that they roare for his wrath : Psal. 31.24 . The godly , though hee fall , yet shall he rise againe , he shall not be cast off , the Lord puts vnder his hand : That is , though the godly fall into affliction , yet he is not broken in the fall , GOD puts vnder his hand , hee fals soft , he fals not so as to breake his necke , to be vndone ; so there is that difference . So that , though GOD doe the same act to both , yet he doth it to the one for loue , to the other he doth the same act for destruction . Like to a man that loppes Trees ; there is a certaine season in the yeere , when if he loppe his Trees , they will be the better for it , if they be lopped in due season , they are the better ; loppe them at another time , and they will wither : So God comes to the wicked man in the vnfittest time to him , a time when they looke not for him , a time that the wicked men feare least , then hee comes iust as a Thiefe doth in the worst , and most dangerous time of all for the owner of the house , then comes the Thiefe , he pickes out that time : So GOD comes vpon the wicked , and afflicts them when they are in peace and prosperity : take heede that he loppe thee not at that time when thou shalt wither to destruction , when thou art not prepared . So the Scripture saith , sudden destruction comes vpwicked men : So that suddennesse is when men are not prepared . And so when God saith , will free the godly from sudden death , his meaning is , he will prepare him , and fit him for death . Put all these together , That the wicked bring their enterprizes to passe , that the godly are crossed and afflicted , that GOD hath a speciall end in this , that death , affliction , and sicknesse come suddenly vpon none but wicked men , and it will giue satisfaction to any man. I should come now to presse the point , but the time is past , I cannot doe it . So much shall serue for the second Vse , for the answering of the Objections . The third thing to set faith on worke in , is to sanctifie you , to mortifie your lusts , to reuiue and strengthen you in the inward man , and to make it quicke in euery good worke . This point I intended to handle at this time . Faith is exceeding effectuall to doe this . I will touch it but in one word , I will not hold you long . Set faith aworke to sanctifie thy heart . You will aske me , How shall I doe it ? Faith doth it diuers wayes , I cannot goe thorow them : Set faith a worke , to beleeue the forgiuenesse of thy sinnes , to beleeue the loue of GOD towards thee , to beleeue the promises , and thou shalt finde that these will sanctifie thy heart , this act of faith wil purifie thy-heart . But how can that be ? Because this shall turne thy heart from thy sinnes , to GOD : for there is no way to mortifie lusts , and to quicken thy heart , but by causing thee to delight in GOD. No man can haue his heart weaned from sinne , diuorsed from sinne which he hath beene wedded to all his life , except he find another Husband , in whom hee may delight more . Now the more thou beleeuest that God is thine , the more thou beleeuest that thy sins are forgiuen , the more thou canst set faith on worke to doe this , the more victory thou shalt get ouer thy sinnes , that is the nature of mans disposition , that still it desires that object that is amiable and pleasant . Now if thou looke on GOD as a Iudge , that will turne thee away from him , that makes thee continue stil in sin ; but when thou lookest vpon him as vpon one that loues thee , as one that fauoureth thee , as one that is thy frend , that accepts thee , this will winne thine heart , this will cause a mans heart to turne from sinne , to turne from darknes to light , it will make him to leaue the wayes wherein he delighted before , it will diuorse a mans heart from the sinne wherein it hath taken pleasure a long time , so that it shall neuer get the victory ouer it . Therefore the best way in such a case , is to set faith aworke to beleeue the forgiuenesse of sinnes ; remember the promises of GOD , those promises you haue heard often , that God will forgiue thy sinnes , that he will pardon thee , take these promises , and apply them ; see GOD ready to forgiue , this will turne thy heart from sinne , thou shalt finde sinne dye and wither in thee , and thy heart to growe and bee quickned in grace : you know , that to get a louing heart , is to beleeue that GOD loues vs , to beleeue that our sinnes are forgiuen . Now I say , there is nothing that weakneth sinne indeede , but to loue GOD ; whatsoeuer sinne is weakned by other meanes then by loue to GOD , by turning the heart to him by repentance and mortification , that sinne lyeth hid , though it seeme no way to increase : this increaseth loue , when we beleeue the promise of GOD , that he is ready to forgiue , that is effectuall for this purpose . When CHRIST came to Peter , and said vnto him , Louest thou me ? then , saith he , feede my Sheepe . So after this manner , when thou once beleeuest that GOD loues thee , and canst bring thy heart to loue him againe , if now CHRIST should come to thee , and say , Louest thou me , who loued thee , and gaue my selfe for thee ? If thou doest loue me , disdaine such a thing which I hate , doe not such things as will grieue me ; keepe my Commandements , keepe my Sabbaths ; if thou louest me , let not thy conuersation be in wantonnesse , in strife and enuying ; it thou loue me , labour to bring some glory to my Name , and to doe some good to mankinde ; if thou loue me , be diligent in thy Calling ; if thou loue mee , honour mee , doe good to others , doe good to thy selfe with it . Let a man goe thorow all the particulars of sinne , and he would abstaine from it , if hee would set faith on worke this way to sanctifie his heart . Againe , faith doth it by ouercomming the World , that when a man is drawne , one of these two things drawes him , Either some offer of some great benefit , or some great euill which he is put in feare of : now when hee lookes , and seeth that GOD is able to keepe him when men doe their worst , and that hee can giue him a heauenly Kingdome , when he lookes to the promise , he is aboue the World. Againe , he not onely ouercomes riches , but he makes aduantage of them ; hee not onely loues them as a slaue , but he gets the victory ouer them , and hee gets seruice from them . And so when men can make their recreations to serue their turnes for better purposes , when a man not onely ouercomes them , gets the victory of them , but makes them seruiceable , so a man make aduantage of the World. Againe , when thou wouldest haue thy sanctification increased , increase thy faith . The more thou beleeuest , the more the Spirit of Christ is conueyed into thy heart . The stronger thy faith is , the more the winde of grace , the sappe shall flow from CHRIST into thy heart . As old Adams corruption , it is with the grace of CHRIST , when thou commest neere , thou art ingraft into the similitude of his death ; that is , there comes a gift from him , he sends his Spirit into thy heart , that doth make thee ioy in him , that causeth thee to dye to sin , and to liue to righteousnesse . This I thought to haue opened : But so much shal serue for this time , and for this Text. FINIS . OF LOVE . THE FIRST SERMON . GALLAT . 5.6 . For in Iesus Christ , neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but Faith which worketh by Love. IN the fourth verse of this chapter the Apostle affirmes , that there is no justification by the law ; for , saith hee , If you be justified by the law , you are fallen from grace : that is , you cannot be partakers of that justification which is by grace : Because for to have it by the law , and to have it by grace are opposite . And he gives a reason for it , because , saith he , Through the Spirit we waite for the hope of that righteousnes which is by faith , and not by the law . When he had expressed himselfe so farre , which is the righteousnesse received by faith , that is , that righteousnesse which is freely given by God , offered to us , wrought by Christ , but taken by faith on our parts : Thus saith he , you must be justified . Now to confirme this , he gives a reason in this verse that I have read ; for , saith he , In Christ Iesus , ( that is , to put a man into Christ Iesus , or to make him acceptable to God through Christ Iesus , to doe this ) neither circumcision availeth any thing , or uncircumcision : ( That is , neither the keeping of any part of the ceremoniall law , or the omission of it , nor the keeping of the morall law , or the breaking of it will helpe to ingraffe a man into Christ , or to make him acceptable to God through Christ : What will doe it then ? nothing saith hee ) but onely faith . Now lest we should be mistaken in this , as if he should require nothing at their hands but an empty idle faith , hee addeth further , it must be such a faith as is effectuall , as is working : And that is not enough , but it must be such a faith as workes by love . So that you have two parts in this Text : One is a removall or a negation of that which doth not ingraffe us into Christ , or that makes us not acceptable to God through Christ ; it is not being circumcised or uncircumcised , or any thing of that nature : The other is the affirmative part ; What is it that doth it , that makes us in a glorious condition , that makes us sonnes of God ? saith he , it is onely faith and love , it is such a faith as is accompanied with love and good workes ; so that you see hee removes all workes of ours , all workes of the ceremoniall law , circumcision is nothing , it is as good as if you were not circumcised , it is all one . And by the same reason that circumcision is excluded , all other is . And not onely workes of the ceremoniall law , but all the workes of the morall law also considered as the meanes of justification ; because they are opposite to faith , they exclude faith , and faith excludes them , so as they are as well to be shut out as the workes of the ceremoniall law . None of these saith the Apostle , will doe it . For you must know the way to salvation is contrary to that of damnation : Looke how you lost the kingdome of God , so you must get it , looke what gate you went out at , by the same gate ( as it were ) you must come in at . What was it that lost all mankind the kingdome of heaven ? You know it was not our particular breaches of the morall law , but it was the fall of Adam , and when the root was dead , you know , all the branches died with it . Well , what way is there then to regaine this losse ? We must goe in againe into Paradise by the same way that wee went out , that is , by being borne of the second Adam , and by being made partakers of his righteousnesse : By being borne of him , or ingrafted into him . As you communicate of the sinne of the other , because you are his children , so you must partake of his righteousnesse . Againe , saith the Apostle , it is the Lords pleasure that you should be saved after this manner , because he would have it to be of grace . If you should have beene saved by any workes of your owne , you would have imputed it to your selves , and to your owne strength : But the Lord would have it to be of grace , of his free will , and therefore hee will have it meerely of faith , by taking the righteousnesse of the second Adam which he hath wrought for you . Againe , he would have it sure to all your seede : if it had beene by workes , it would never have beene sure unto you , you could never have kept the law so exactly : But since Christ hath wrought righteousnesse , and you have no more to doe but to take it , now it is sure , or else it would never have beene sure . Againe , if it had beene by workes , the flesh had had wherein to rejoyce , it might have something to boast of : But the Lord will have no man to rejoyce in the flesh ; but let him that rejoyceth , rejoyce in the Lord. Now if it had been by works , if it had beene by any inherent righteousnesse , by any ornament of grace that the Lord had beautified us with , we had had rejoycing in our selves ; but now that it is by the second Adam , by comming home to him , by taking him , by applying his righteousnesse : Now no flesh can rejoyce in it selfe , but now whosoever rejoyceth , rejoyceth in the Lord. Therefore saith the Apostle , you must know this truth , you can never be saved by doing these actions , no nor you shall not lose salvation by omitting them , for this is not the way that the Lord hath appointed mankinde to be saved by : But the way by which mankinde must be saved , is by receiving Iesus Christ and his righteousnes . But you must remember that you must take him so as to love him . And it must be such a love as is fruitfull in good workes , and not an emptie and idle love , that is , a love in shew onely , but it must be a love in deede and in truth . Now in the handling of these words we will begin with the affirmative part , because though the other be put first , yet the affirmatiō you know in order of nature , is before the negation : therfore I wil begin with this , what it is that puts us into the happy estate of life and salvatiō , Faith. But it is faith that works by love . This is enough to make this cleere to you , that these two great radicall vertues faith and love , are the two pillars , as it were , upon which our salvation is built . The first of them we have handled at large , Faith : and the efficacy of it in the Text we handled of effectuall faith : Now the other remaines , of Love ; whence wee will deliver this point to you ; that , Whosoever loves not , whatsoever else he find in himselfe , whosoever loves not the Lord Iesus , is not in Christ , and by consequent , in a cursed and damnable estate . Because this is necessarily required that you have faith , and love , or else you can have no salvation ; or else you are not in Christ , and cannot be acceptable of God through Christ. So our businesse will be to open unto you this grace of love , that you may know what it is . And that you may know it , we must first declare unto you a little in generall , what this affection of love is . All affections , as you know , are nothing else but the diverse motions and turnings of the will , as the will turnes it selfe this way or that way , so a man is said to be affected to love or to hate , to grieve or to rejoyce . Now love is that act of the will , whereby it turnes it selfe to a thing , as hatred is that wherby it turnes it selfe from a thing : And that which is the object of this affection of love is something that is good ; for that which is true , and that which is beautifull is not the proper object of love , that is the object of the intuitive understanding : but it is no further the object of love than it is good . For this take for a generall rule , We love nothing but as it is good ; And a thing is said to be good , when it is sutable , proportionable and agreeable to us , for that is the definition of a good thing . There may be many things that are excellent , that are not good to us , we say not that any thing is good , but that which sutes and is agreeable to us , and convenient for us . So that if you take the definition of this affection in generall of love , Love is nothing else but a disposition of the will , whereby it cleaves or makes forward to some good that is agreeable to it selfe : I say , it is a disposition of the will whereby it cleaves to , and makes forward to some good thing agreeable to it selfe , which you must marke , for we shall have use of all this in the sequel of this tract . Now this love shewes it selfe by two effects : it would have the thing it loves to be preserved . And secondly , a man that loves , would have it his , and therefore he drawes neere to it , or else he drawes the thing neere to him . For ● take it not to be true that is commonly taken for granted , that love is a desire of union , for we doe not alwayes desire , that the thing should be united to us that we love , ( for a thing may be too neare us , as letters may be too neare the eye , as well as too farre off : ) But wee would have things in such a distance as is most agreeable to us , as we love fire for our use , but it may be too neare us , and wee love a knife for our use , but it may be too neere : So by the way marke it , It is not alwayes a desire of union , but it is a desire to have the thing it loves in such a distance , as is most agreeable to us : but still remember this , that love shewes it selfe by these two effects : It desires the preservation of the thing : Secondly , he would that what he loves might be his . As when a man loves an unreasonable creature , when hee loves a glasse , when he loves a horse , he preserves the glasse , he keepes the horse strong and faire , and if he can he would have them for his use . So a man that loves riches , or honour , or that loves a good name , he preserves them , he would have them his : that is , he would have them at his owne arbitrement , for his owne turne & service : So a man that loves his sonne or his friend , he desires the preservation of them , and withall he would have them his ; that is , he would have them so sure united to him , as may stand with his conveniencie . This is the nature of love ; one thing more know of it , it is a commanding affection : Love and hatred are as it were the great Lords and Masters that divide the rest of the affections betweene them , as when a man loves , he desires , he goes and makes forward towards the thing he loves ; if he obtaine it , he rejoyceth in it ; if he doe not obtaine it , yet if there be probability , then hee hopes , if there be no probability , then he despaires ; if there be any inconvenience and impediment that hinders him in his prosecution , he is angry with it , and desires to remove it : thus these affections hang on love . Againe , on the other side , as love desires the preservation of the thing in a neerenesse and union of it : so hatred desires the destruction of the thing , and the separation from it . And upon this affection likewise hang the others , when a man hates a thing , he flies from it ; if it overtakes him , hee grieves ; if it be likely it will overtake him , though it be not yet on him , he feares : if he thinke he is strong enough to resist it , hee is bolde and confident . So these two affections ( I say ) divide the rest . Now I will adde but this further , that I may declare to you the generall nature of this affection , that is , the kindes of love : And you shall finde these kindes of love . I will name them briefly . First , there is a love of pitty , as when you love a thing , you know , you desire the preservation of it ; when you finde any thing lye upon it that destroyes it , you pitty the thing you love , and desire to remove it : So a father pitties his sonne when hee is sicke , when hee is vicious and untoward , hee loves him now with a love of pitty , he desires to remove the thing that hurts it . Secondly , there is a love of concupiscence , that is , when a man desires the thing that hee is said to love meerely for his use . As when you love an inanimate creature , or any other creature for your use , you are said to love it with a love of concupiscentiall desire : and this in common men is a sutablenesse between the object and the lower faculties . Thirdly , there is a love of complacency , when a man is well pleased with the thing , that is , when the object is somewhat adaequate to the higher faculties of the will and understanding , that there is some agreeablenesse betweene the thing loved , and the frame of the soule , so that when he looks on it hee is well pleased with it : So the master loves his scholler that is every way towardly : so the father loves his sonne as one in whom hee is well pleased . Fourthly , there is a love of friendshippe that goes beyond this love of complacency , because in the love of friendship there is a reciprocation of affections , when a man both loves and is beloved againe : So a man loves his friend , and is loved againe by his friend . Lastly , there is a loue of dependance , when one loues one upon whom all his good depends , so we are said to loue God , wee loue him as one upon whom all our good and happinesse , all our comfort and hope depends . Now , as you shall see after , with these three last loues , we are said to loue the Lord , wee loue him with the loue of complacence , because he is a full adequate object to the soule : & we loue him with a loue of friendship , because there is a mutuall loue , he loues us , and we loue him ; as the spouse saith , My Beloved is mine , and I am his . Againe , we loue him with a love of dependance , for we hang and rely upon him for all our happinesse and comfort . Now this loue wherewith we loue any object that is sutable to us , it hath degrees , and that loue is stronger , as the object of that loue is more adequate and full . Againe , as it is more free from mixture ; for all things that we loue in this world , we know there is some mixture of evill in them , and therefore our loue is lesse . Againe , as the thing we loue is more high and supernaturall ; as wee hang and depend upon it more , so we loue it more ; and these you shall finde in God. Now lay these generall principles , and we will make use of it afterwards : Onely this obserue more , before I passe frō the general description of it , That there is a naturall loue that God hath placed in the heart of every man , and that loue wherewith every man loues himselfe , such a loue as every man hath to his children , such a loue as wherewith a man loues his wealth , or any thing by nature that is good to him . Now this naturall loue hath two other loues hanging on both sides of it : One is a vicious and sinfull loue , that carries it the wrong way to loue sinfull things . The second is a spirituall loue , which sets limits to this naturall loue , that sets bankes , as it were , to the streame of naturall affection , that suffers it not to runne over , and not so onely , but gives a higher rise to this naturall loue , and pitcheth it on higher ends , it elevates naturall loue , and makes it an holy loue . So that all naturall loue is to be subordinate to this , otherwise it is not good ; for naturall loue is but given us to help us to goe that way that spirituall loue should carry us , even as the winde helpes the ship , whereas otherwise it should haue beene driven with oares : And therefore the Lord , to helpe us to loue our selues , and to loue our children , and to loue those things that are sutable and convenient to us , hee hath in mercie , and for a helpe to us , put a naturall affection into our hearts , which yet is to be guided by spirituall loue , that we are now to speake of . So the next thing is to shew , what is this spirituall loue , this loue of God , this loue of Christ Iesus . And first we will shew how it is wrought , and withall what it is . For you must know , that every man by nature hates God , by reason of that opposition and contrariety which is betweene God and every man by nature , for all loue comes from similitude and agreeablenesse : And therefore where there are two of a contrary disposition , there must needs be hatred . Now the pure nature of God is contrary to us , and therefore every man by nature hates God. And therefore that love may be wrought in the heart of man towards God , this sinfull nature of ours must bee broken in peeces , and subdued . And againe , it must be new molded and framed before that can ever be fit to loue God. Therefore , if you would know how this loue of God is wrought in us , it is done by these two things : First , by breaking our nature in peeces as it were , that is , by humiliation , and by the law . Againe , by moulding it anew , which is done by faith and by the Gospell : For when we come and propound Christ to men to be taken , and to be received and loved by them , what is the answer wee have from them ? Most men , either minde him not , or regard not at all this invitation to come to Christ , but they deale with us as those that were invited to the marriage , saith the Text , they made light of it , they cared not for the invitation , it was a thing they looked not after : or againe , if they doe , yet they minde them uot enough , because they doe not prize Christ enough . Therefore the first thing the Lord doth to prepare mens hearts to loue him , is to send the law to humble them , to discover to men what neede they are in , to make an impression on their hearts of that bond of damnation that they are subject unto when the law is broken , that mens eyes may be opened to see their sins ; then a man begins to looke toward Christ , to looke on him as the captiue lookes on his Redeemer , as a condemned man lookes on him that brings him a pardon , as a widdow that is miserable and poore , indebted and undone , lookes upon her husband that will make her rich and honourable , that will pay all her debts , I say , when a mans heart is thus humbled and broken by the law , by sound humiliation , then he begins to looke towards Iesus Christ. But I say men doe faile , partly that they haue no sense of their sinnes , or else they haue a sense of their sinnes , but not enough to bring them home to Christ , for that was the fault of the second and third ground ; there was impression made in them , that they prized Christ , but there was not so deepe a preparation as to loue Christ indeede , so as to preferre him aboue all things , so as to cleaue to him , so as they will let him goe for nothing . And therefore this is required that our natures be broken all in peeces , that is , that the humiliation be deepe enough , not a little light impression , a little hanging down of the head , a little sense of sinne , but so farre as it may be to purpose , that he lookes to Christ as to the greatest good in the world , that he will rather undergoe any thing than misse of him , that hee will rather part with all his pleasure than hee will goe without him . That is the first thing that must be done to prepare our hearts , for this loue our hearts must be humbled by the law . Now when this is done , they must be made up againe , as I tolde you , they must be moulded anew , and that is done by the Gospell and by faith : For when the heart is thus prepared , now let the Gospell come and welcome : Now a mans heart is fit to be wrought on : Why ? what doeth the Gospell ? The Gospell comes and tells you , that the Lord Iesus is willing to be your Redeemer , is willing to be your Lord , he is content to be yours . If you will take him , you shall have him and all his . Now when a mans heart is broken , you cannot bring him better newes ; Indeede till then you may goe and preach the Gospell long enough , you may propound Christ to men , they will not take him : But when we propound him thus to a heart prepared , thus to him that is poore in spirit , to him that hath his heart wounded in the sense of his sinnes and of Gods wrath , now I I say hee is willing to come in , hee is willing to take Christ as a Lord , as a husband : when that is done , that Christ hath discovered his will to take them , and they resolve to take him , then there ariseth a holy , a constant conjugall loue wherein they are rooted and grounded . This is the love we are now to speake of . So that to prepare us to love Christ , wee must come to looke on him as upon that which is sutable and agreeable to us . And againe , as one that is willing to receiue us : And that you must marke diligently . Therefore wee will give you this definition of loue out of that which hath been said : It is an holy disposition of the heart rising from faith , whereby wee cleave to the Lord with a purpose of heart to serve him and to please him in all things . When these two things are joyned , that a man is humbled , and lookes on Christ as one that is now fit for him : And secondly hee is perswaded that Christ is willing to take him , when this is done , a man receiues Christ by faith : And from this faith this loue issues . Whence this is specially to be marked , and it is a matter of much moment , That to loue the Lord , it is not onely required that you be perswaded that he is well affected to you , that he is willing to receive you , ( for that men may haue , which say that Christ is mercifull and ready to forgiue , and so they think ; but yet they loue him not : Therefore I say , it is not onely required that you looke on Christ as upon one that is well affected and propitious to you ) but also that you looke on him as one that is sutable and agreeable to you , for both these must concurre to incline your hearts to loue him : you must , I say , both looke on him as one that is fit for you , as a good that is agreeable to you : And also you must be perswaded that he is willing to receiue you . Now the first indeed is the maine . This second , that Christ is willing to forgiue you , and to receiue you , though it be weake , it may be such as is a true faith , and may beget loue : when a man lookes on any other men that he loues , if he see so much excellency in them , as that he longs after them and desires them , though he thinks there be a backwardnes in them to love him , yet if there be some probability that they are likely to loue him , he may come so farre as to embrace them in his affections , and haue a desire to them , though it be true , as that perswasion is stronger , so their loue is more neere , for faith and love grow together : Indeede if there were an utter aversnesse , if there were enmity , as it were impossible to remoue it , then we could not loue , but hate even as Cain and Iudas did . But , I say , that is a thing you must especially marke , that faith doth not consist in being perswaded that Christ , or God through Christ is willing to forgiue you your sinnes , or to receiue you to mercy , but in this your judgement must be rectified , that is , to know that you are to looke on Christ as one that is sutable and agreeable to you , as one to whom you haue an inward inclination , as one that is fit for you . This is the maine thing , the other easily followes , to be perswaded that he is willing to forgiue us , and that he is willing to loue us : therefore whereas , it may be , you haue thought , that to beleeue that God is willing to forgiue you your sinnes , is faith : I dare be bold to say , it is not full faith , you may haue it , and yet not savingly beleeue , you may haue it , and yet not be true beleevers . This I make cleare by this argument : That which begets no loue , is not faith . But you may be perswaded that Christ is willing to forgiue you your sinnes , and yet not love him , as a prisoner may be perswaded that the Iudge is willing to pardon him , and yet for all this hee may not love the Iudge ; for loue as I tolde you comes from some sutablenesse , some agreablenesse betweene the party that loues , and the party that is loved . Againe , you shall finde this by experience . A man may be perswaded that he is in a good estate , that he shall be saved , and that his sinnes are forgiven him , and yet for all this , he may be an unregenerate man , he may be a man that hath no life of grace in him : I say , we see oft in experience , many men applaud themselves in their good persuasion , and they die peaceably and quietly , and all is well , they thinke God hath forgiven them ; and yet we finde there is no loue in them , nor no fruite of loue . Againe , on the other side , a man that hath his heart broken with the sense of his sinnes , may hunger after righteousnesse and after Christ , he may long after the Lord himselfe , that he desires him more than any thing in the world ; and yet there is but a weake perswasion that the Lord will receiue him , and forgiue him his sins : I say , this man may be a true beleever , though he be not yet so fully perswaded that Christ will forgiue him , when the other is no true beleever , as I said to you before . As when one loues another man or woman , if hee looke on him as one that is sutable to him , if hee thinke it be but by good probability and likelihood , I shall obtaine their loue , though I haue not yet a full assurance of it ; I say , there may be an affection of loue . And thence I confirme that which I said to you , that faith that hath beene joyned with it is true ; and that faith that is disjoyned from loue is not true . So I say , such a disposition of heart as lookes on Christ as one whom he longs after , he lookes on him as on a husband , as one whom he is willing to match with , that he can say truely , This is the best husband for me in all the world , though yet I have not wooed him , though yet I have not a full assurance of his affection to mee , as I would have ; I say , this will certifie your judgement , and withall it will comfort you , that though your faith be weake , yet he belongs to you , it is a true faith . Againe , it shuttes out those that have false hearts ; although thou thinkest thy perswasion be full , that Christ belongs to thee , yet if thy heart be not thus prepared to seeke him , and to esteeme him , thy faith is not true . I can stay no longer in the opening of this , so much shall serve to shew you what this love is : You see what love is in generall , and this love to the Lord , this love to Christ. Now I come to prosecute the point , having gone thus farre in the explication of it ; I say , this love is so necessary to salvation , as that hee that hath it not is in a cursed and damnable condition ; he is not in Christ , if he doe not love , that as the Apostle saith , hee that beleeves not shall be damned : we may say as well of love , for there is a tye betweene all these , faith , repentance and love . And therefore wee finde these words put promiscuously , sometimes he that beleeves not shall not be saved , sometimes he that repents not shall not be saved , sometimes he that obeyes not , sometimes hee that loves not shall not be saved : and therefore the Scripture is cleere in it , and there is good reason for it . First , because if a man love not , there is a curse , there is a woe due to him , for wheresoever there is not love , a man is an hypocrite , as our Saviour saith to the Scribes and Pharises , Wo be to you Scribes and Pharises hypocrites , that is because you are hypocrites . Now wheresoever love is not , there is nothing but hypocrisie in such a mans heart . For what is hypocrisie ? Hypocrisie is nothing but to doe the outward action without the inward sinceritie ; as we say it is counterfeit golde , when it hath the forme and colour of golde , but in the inside is base : as we say he is a false Hector , when he acts the part of Hector , but is not so indeede : So hypocrisie is to doe the outward act without the inward sincerity . Now to doe them without inward sincerity is to doe them without love ; for to doe a thing in love is to doe it in sincerity . And indeed there is no other definition of sincerity , that is the best way to know it by : A man that doeth much to God , and not out of love , all that he doth is out of hypocrisie , he is an hypocrite , and there is a woe belongs to him . So that as we deale with counterfeit wares , wee breake them in peeces , or we set markes upon them , as we doe with counterfeit peeces of golde and silver , we bore holes in them , as condemned peeces ; so the Lord proposeth a woe to such as love him not , for in that hypocrisie consists , when a man doth much , and doth it not out of love . Againe , hee that breakes the law , you know there is a curse belongs to him : Now there is a double keeping of the law , a strict and exact keeping of it , and there is an Evangelicall keeping of it , that is , when you desire and endeavour to fulfill the law in all things : and accordingly there is a double curse , there is a curse that followes the breach of the morall law that belongs to all mankinde , till they be in Christ ; there is besides an Evangelicall curse that followes upon the Evangelicall breach of the law . Now when a man loves not , he breakes the whole law : for as love is the keeping of the whole law , so the want of love is the breach of the whole law ; because though hee may doe many things of the law , though he may keepe the sabboth , though he may deale justly , though he may heare the word , and doe many things , yet because it is not out of love he breakes the whole law . When he breakes the law thus , there is a curse belongs to him , and it is the curse of the Gospell that cannot be repealed , it is more terrible than the curse of the law . And therefore he that loves not , is in a cursed and damnable condition . Againe , you know , in the law of God an Adulterer ought to die , as in the law of triall , when the woman was to drinke the cursed water , if shee were an Adulteresse , it was a curse to her , the Lord appointed it to be death to her . Now hee that loves not the Lord is an Adulterer , that is , hee is false to the Lord that should be his husband . And when he loves not the Lord , he doth love somewhat else : And doth it not deserve a curse to preferre their pelfe before the Lord ? that he should love pleasures more than God ? that he should love the praise of men more thā the praise of God ? And this is the case of every man that loves not the Lord , hee loves the world : and hee that loves the world is an Adulterer and an Adulteresse , saith St. Iames. Lastly , when the Lord shall be a suiter to us , when God shall offer his owne Sonne to us in marriage , and we refuse him ; when Christ shall come from heaven to shew us the way to salvation , and to guide our feete into the way of peace , and we shall either be carelesse or resist it , doe you not thinke the Lord will be filled with indignation against such a man ? will hee not be angry with such a man ? Is not the Sonne angry when he is not received ? Kisse the Sonne lest he be angry : Will he not lay the axe to the roote of the tree , and cut off such a man , as men doe briers and thornes , whose end is damnation ? This is the case of all those that love not , when they reject the Lord , and the Lord shall come to be a suiter to them , and they will have none of him . This is enough to cleare this to you , That whosoever loves not , is in an evill condition , in a state of damnation , he is not in Christ , he is a man without the Covenant . We come to make some use of this . If it be of such moment to love the Lord , 1 then let every man looke to himselfe , and consider whether hee have in his heart this love to the Lord Iesus ; for as it is with men , although you may doe them many kindnesses , yet if it proceed not from love , they regard it not : so it is with the Lord , whatsoever you doe , though you may doe much , though you pray never so constantly , though you sanctifie the Sabboth never so diligently , doe what you will , yet if you love him not , he regards it not : Neither circumscision is any thing , nor uncircumcision is any thing , but love . Indeede , when a man doth love him , the Lord beares with much , as you see hee did with David , because he was one that loved him . But when you love him not , performe never so much , he rejects all , he heedes it not : As you see it was with Amaziah , you know how much he did , yet it was not accepted , hee did it not with a perfect heart , that is , he did it not out of love . And therefore the Lord doth with us as we doe with men , when men have false hearts , we see they love us not , we say they doe but complement . So the Lord Iesus doth . This should helpe us to discover our selves , there is no way to discover hypocrisie , none so sure a signe of it , as where love is not . And therefore learne by this to know your selves , and to judge of your condition : It may be , when we confesse our sinnes , wee have not thought of this , that we love not Christ , or at the least , we have not considered what a sinne it is , but you may know what a sinne it is by the punishment of it : 1 Cor. 16.22 . Let him be accursed that loves not the Lord Iesus . You may know the greatnesse of the sinne by the greatnesse of the punishment ; for the punishment is the measure of the sinne , and ( marke it ) he doth not say , if you beleeve not in the Lord Iesus , or if you doe nor obey him ; but if you love not the Lord Iesus : That is , if there be an omission but of this one thing , that you love not , let such a man be accursed , yea let him be had in execration to the death . Therefore consider this , how great a sinne it is , not to love the Lord. And when you consider your sinnes , and make a catalogue of them , looke on this , as that which discovers to us the vilenesse of our natures , as Paul saith of lust , I knew not that it was sinne , but by the law : but when sinne began to live , he died : So I may say of this , it may be men take not this into consideration , this sinne , that they have not loved the Lord ; and therefore learne to know it . When we consider this , that he is accursed who loves not Christ , it may open a crevise of light unto us , to see what condition wee are in , how cursed our nature is , how hainous this sinne is , when a man sees that there is a cursed man , a man whom the Lord sets himselfe against , a man whom the Lord is an enemie to , whom he puts all the strength and power he hath to confound , when hee sees there is a man whom the Gospell curseth , which is more terrible than the Law , because the curse of the Law may be repealed , there is a remedie for that in the Gospell : But the Gospell , if that curse a man , there is no remedie : This should humble us ; for the Gospell should humble us as well as the Law. And there are sinnes against the Gospell as well as against the Law , and whatsoever is sinne should humble us , yea the sinnes against the Gospell are greater than the sinnes against the Law : And therefore in this sense the Gospell is fitter to humble us . Now when a man comes to consider his sinne , it may be possibly , he lookes to sinnes especially against the morall Law ; but you must learne to doe more than that : Begin to thinke , Have I received the Lord Iesus ? Have I beleeved in Christ ? These are great sins against the Gospell : and these sinnes should chiefly humble us . If you thinke I presse this too hard , consider the words of the Apostle I named , Let him be accursed that loves not the Lord Iesus : Let these words be sounding in your eares , compare your hearts to them , sometimes cast your eye on the one , and sometimes on the other , and see if it be not absolutely required to love the Lord. And againe , reflect on your hearts , and see if you be in the number of those that doe love him . And take heede herein that you deceive not your selves , for it is the manner , when we presse the love of Christ upon them , they are ready to say , I hope I love the Lord , I hope I am not such a miscreant as not to love him ; yea but consider whether thou doe or no : it is true , thou maist deceive me or another man when thou professest love to God , but in this thou canst not deceive thy selfe ; for a man knowes what he loves , love is a very sensible and quick affection . 1 When a man loves any thing , when hee loves his wife , loves his friend , loves his sonne , loves his sport , his recreation , he knowes he loves it , he hath the sense of that love in himselfe . Therefore consider with thy selfe whether thou hast any such stirring affection towards the Lord Iesus or no ; doest thou feele thy heart so possessed with him ? 1 art thou sicke of love , as the Spouse saith in the Canticles , I am sicke of love ? That is , are you grieved when he is absent ? are you glad when you have him ? when you can get into his presence ? for there is a kinde of painfulnesse in love : and all painfulnesse is of a quicke sense . When it is said , the Church was sicke of love , sicknesse is painfull : And therefore when you want the Lord , when there is a distance betweene him and you , when he doth not looke on you as he was wont , there will be painfulnesse in it and griefe . Againe , 2 there will be much joy and gladnesse when you have him . Therefore let it be one way to examine your selves , if you feele such a love towards him or no. Besides that , 2 let mee aske thee if thou walke with the Lord , if thou converse with him , if thou be perfect in his presence , if thou doe as Enoch did , walke with the Lord from day to day ; as it is an argument of an evill man , that he walkes not with the Lord , that he restraines prayer from the Almighty , that is , that he doth not converse with him : So is it a great argument of love to desire Gods company , to desire to be with him , to walke with God : ( to use that phrase . ) You will say , What is that to walke with him ? To walke with him is to observe the Lords dealing with you , and to observe your carriage and dealing to him againe , that there may be continuall commerce and intercourse every day , that continually every houre , every moment , you would consider and thinke what the Lord doth to you , what his carriage is to you , what passages of his providence concerne you . Againe consider what you doe to him , what carriage there is betweene you : I say this conversing is an argument of love . Sh●ll a wife professe love to her husband , and ne-never come where he is , never be within dores , and never be in his companie ? So , will you say you love Christ , and not be frequent in prayer , or neglect and slight that duty , seldome converse with him , and seldome speake of him ? When you love your friend , you are with him as much as you can , you love to speake with him , and to speake of him : So it is with the Lord , if you love him , certainly you will love his company , you will love his presence . 3 Besides , if you love the Lord , you know love is a diligent thing : and therefore it is called d●ligent love , 1 Thess. 1.4 . Effectuall faith , and diligent love : that is , when a man loves a thing , he is diligent to obtaine , he spares no laboure , no cost , he cares not what he doth so he may get it ; much labour seemes little to him , many yeares seeme a few dayes , hee cares not what he doth so hee obtaine it , he is diligent and laborious . Doe you take this paines to draw neere to God , to get grace , to excell in it ? Are you willing to put your selves to it , to denie your selves in your ease , to take some time from other businesses , and to bestow it this way ? are you content to put your selves to a harder taske , to forbeare things that are pleasant according to the flesh , to take paines for the Lord ? If you love God , it will make you diligent . A man will take paines to get the thing he loves . Besides , 4 love is an affection that would enjoy presently the thing it loves , it cannot endure deferring . And therefore when a man professeth he loves the Lord , and yet will deferre to come in , saying , I wil serve the Lord perfectly , but not yet , not till my youth be a little more over , not till things be thus and thus with me , then I will ; it is certain thou lovest him not : for it is true of every affection , that which is a true and right affection , that which is an hearty affection , it is present . If a man desire any thing , he would have it presently , hope would be presently satisfied : and therefore hope deferred is griefe , and love deferred is a great griefe : So that if you finde a disposition to put it off in your selves , I will doe it , but not yet ; certainly you love not the Lord. It may be , if you were sure to die within a week or a month , what men would you be ? how perfectly would you walke with God ? how would you have your hearts weaned from the world more than they be ? Well , if you love the Lord , you will doe as much presently , though much of your life remaine ; for love is a present affection , it cannot endure deferring , but it would have full communion , and that speedily and presently : so is it with that affection where you finde it . Againe , 5 if you examine your selves further , if you have this love in you , you may know it by this , Love is a thing th●t is well pleased with it selfe , as we say , Love desires no wages , that is , it carries meate in the mouth of it , it is wages enough to it selfe , it hath sweetnesse enough in it selfe , it desires no addition : So it is when a man loves , Love payes it selfe , I say , it is its owne wages . And therefore if you love the Lord , you shall know it by this ; you serve him , and serve him with all your might , with all your strength , though he should give you no wages . Iacob , as you know , served for Rachel , the very having her was wages enough : So if you love the Lord , the very enjoying of the Lord , the very having communion with the Lord , the very having the assurance of his favour , that you might say , My Beloved is mine , and I am my Beloveds : this is wages enough to a man that loves indeed , to such a man , though there were not heaven to follow , though there were not a present reward , nor a future , yet he would love the Lord ; and if he loue him , there will be a delight to serve him : and enough to him is the Lords favour , as Christ saith , It is my meate and drinke to doe my Fathers will : that is , though there were no other meate and drinke , though there were no other wages , yet this was as pleasant to him as eating and drinking . Aske thine owne breast , whether in any thing thou lovest , if the very enjoying of that , though there were no other wages superadded , if that were not motiue enough , if it were not comfort enough , and wages enough to you to doe it ? 6 But besides all this , to name one more , if you loue the Lord , it will make you , it will constraine you to please him , it will put such necessity upon you to obey him in all things , to doe what he requires , whatsoever is for his advantage , that you cannot chuse but doe it ; as the Apostle saith , 2 Cor. 5. The Love of Christ constraines us : What is the meaning of that ? That is , I cannot choose but doe it , it makes a man doe it whether he will or no ; it is like fire in his breast , he cares for no shame , it makes him goe through thicke and thin , the loue of Christ constraines us . It is true , I confesse , I may lose my reputation , you may reckon me a mad man , some men doe thinke me so , but that is all one , I must doe it , the loue of Christ constraines me . So that where loue is , it is such a strong impulsiue in the heart , it carries one on to serue and please the Lord in all things , that he cannot choose but doe it . As a man that is carried in a strong streame , or as one that is carried in a crowde , or as one that is carried in the hands of a strong man , so a man is carried with this affection that hee cannot choose . You will say , this is strange that loue should compell , it doth nothing lesse . It is true : You must know , when the Apostle saith , The love of Christ constraines me , it is a Metonomy from the effect , that is , loue makes me doe it in that manner as a man that is compelled , that is the meaning of it : so it hath the same effect that compulsion hath , though there be nothing more different from compulsion than loue . And therefore know that of loue , that it is such a change as drawes one to serue the Lord out of an inward attractiue , thence I take that note of loue , such a thing as puts it on , such a thing as riseth from an inward inclination of the mind , frō an inward principle , so that there is no other spurre , no other attractiue , but the amiablenesse of the object . Now when a man shall finde this in himselfe , that hee hath all these , hee findes that hee hath such a sensible loue , that hee knowes hee loves the Lord Iesus : Againe , hee findes an earnest desire to be in company with him , to walke with the Lord from day to day : Againe , hee is exceeding laborious and diligent to get this love , to get this assurance of favour , and to excell in that grace , without which he knowes he cannot please him : Againe , when the affection is present , you would haue communion with the Lord , and you would not haue it deferred : Againe , when a man shall be well pleased with that hee doth , it is enough that hee hath the Lord himselfe , though there were no other wages : And when hee findes such a strong impulsiue in him , in his owne heart , that carries him on to serue the Lord , that hee cannot choose but doe it ; then you loue the Lord : And if you loue the Lord , you are in Christ. But if these things be not in you , you doe not loue him : and then , what is your condition ? You know what the Apostle saith , Hee that loves not , let him bee accursed , let him bee had in execration to the death . I should prosecute it further , and shew the reasons why wee should loue the Lord , as there is great reason : But that I must deferre till the afternoone . FINIS . THE SECOND SERMON . GALLAT . 5.6 . For in Iesus Christ , neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but Faith which worketh by Love. THE last tryall of our love to Christ was its constraining vertue , love will constraine you to serve him , you cannot choose but doe it , it so constraines a man , as the weight of a stone compelleth it to goe to the center , as the lightnesse of the fire compells it to ascend up : for such a thing is love , a strong inclination of the heart , when the soule puts it selfe on any thing from an inward principle , from a bottome of its owne , when it is carried on with no other motive but the amiablenes of the object . Now to conclude this , wee must beseech you to consider your owne condition , and examine your selves by these rules , that you may be able to say as Peter said , Lord thou knowest I love thee : that is , to have such an assurance , that your hearts may be well affected towards Christ Iesus , that you may love him , that you may be able to say to God , who knowes our hearts , searcheth our reines , that knowes all the windings and turnings of your soules , Lord thou knowest that I love thee . Since it is a matter of such moment , wee should be carefull to examine , if we finde that we have not yet this love : for we must know , that all that we have , all that we doe , it will nothing availe us , but faith which worketh by love . And if you object , why doe ye preach damnation to us ? doe you tell us we are in an evill condition for want of this love ? I answere , it is profitable for you , while you are in such a condition , to have it preached , it is good for you to speake this damnation to your selves , that while yet there is hope you may seek to be healed , that you may be translated into another condition , that you may not perish in the evill day , when there shal be neither hope nor helpe for you . For you must know , that when wee deliver you these signes of examining your selves , our end is not to grieue you , this doctrine tends not to destruction , but to discover to you your owne hearts , that you may know your owne condition , that if you want it , you may seek after it . If therefore you finde a want of this love , that we will doe next , shall be to shew you what reason you have to love the Lord Iesus : for there is no better way to get it in you , than to describe him to you , to shew you what cause there is of loving him : if wee were able to present him to you as he is , we should effect this thing , but that must be the worke of the holy Ghost ; notwithstanding we will briefly open to you such reasons as we finde used in the Scriptures . And first , let this moue you to loue him , that he is worthy to be beloved , as David speakes , Psal. 18.3 . The Lord is worthy to be praised : so wee may say , the Lord is worthy to be loved : for what is it that makes any thing worthy of loue , it is the excellency that we finde there . Now in the Lord there is all kinde of excellency : whatsoever there is that is amiable under the Sunne , all that you shall finde in him more abundantly : If ever you see any thing in any creature , any thing amiable in man , if ever you saw any beauty , any vertue , any excellency , all these must be more abundant in him that made these creatures . And therefore if you haue a loue , as there is no man without some loue or other , some creature seemes beautifull to you , thinke with your selues , this is more in the Lord. If ever you see excellency in any man , if ever you see any noblenesse , any holinesse , any excellency of disposition , know that it is more abundant in the Lord Iesus : Let these rivers leade you to that Ocean , to that abundance of excellency that is in the Lord. And if you loue any creature , let it be with a little loue , let your affection be proportionable to the object ; as it exceedes in the Lord , so let your loue exceede towards him , to loue him with all your soule and all your strength : And know this , that hee hath not onely that in an omnipotent manner , that is but sprinkled among the creatures , they haue but a sparke , but a drop of it ; but also there is this in the Lord , that there is nothing in him but that which is amiable : every creature hath some imperfection in it , there is somewhat in it may cause aversation in you , there is no man but hath some weaknesse , but hath some infirmity , there is no creature but it hath some want , some defect in it : but in the Lord there is no want , there is nothing to put you off ; but as the Church saith , Cant. 5. He is wholly delectable : that is , there is nothing in him but that which is amiable . That would be a very profitable thing for us in this case often to thinke on the Lord Iesus , to present him to our selues in our thoughts , as the Spouse doth , Cant. 5. shee considers her wellbeloved is the fairest of ten thousand : so wee should beholde the person of our husband . You know it is but a harlottry loue to consider what wee haue by our husband , to consider what riches he brings , what honour , and not often to contemplate upon his person , and upon his vertue and excellency : wee should learne to doe this with the Lord , that wee may loue him . Therefore that wee may helpe you a little in this contemplation , wee will shew you how the Lord hath described himselfe : Exod. 34.4 . when the Lord describes himselfe to Moses , thus he declares his owne name , The Lord Iehovah , strong , mercifull , gracious , long-suffering , abundant in kindnesse and in truth , reserving mercies for thousands , forgiving iniquity , transgression and sinne , &c. Wee will a little open to you this description that the Lord giues us of himselfe , that so you may learne to know what hee is ; for the way to loue the Lord is to know him : and indeed therefore we loue him not , because we know him not ; there is no other reason , why in heaven , when we shall come to be present with him , wee shall loue him so abundantly , but because wee shall know him face to face ; that is the reason the Angels and the Saints loue most : And of every man amongst the Saints hee that knowes most loues most . Therefore it should be your labour to know the Lord. But to open , as I say , this description unto you , First , he is Iehovah , that is , hee is a constant friend to whomsoever he is a friend , he is alway the same ; for that is another name , by which the Lord describes himselfe to Moses , when he sends him to Aegypt , I am that I am , saith hee , say , I am hath sent me : I take this word , that it comes from the same roote , Iehovah is described by that I am , and by that it is best understood , when the Lord calls himselfe I am , whereas every man may say , I was , and I shall be , this every creature may say ; but the Lord saith , I am : that is , whatsoever the Lord was from eternity , the same he is to eternity , there is no change in him : And that is a great excellency in him that may moue us exceedingly to loue him . You know when we meete with a friend that is constant , that hath no alteration in him , that is a sure friend , haue him once and haue him for ever , it sets a higher price on him . When we can consider what the Lord is , that he hath dealt thus and thus with us , that he hath loved us ; and when we consider he is constant in it , that he embraceth them with the sure mercies of David , as they are called ; that is , his compassions faile not , but when hee hath once begun to loue , hee loues for ever : it is not so with men , if they loue us at one time , they forget us againe , as the Butler forgot Ios●ph ; when they are in prosperity they forget us , but the Lord knowes us in all our conditions ; thou hast knowne my soule in adversitie . When we are in a strait , friends oft times are backward to helpe us , but the Lord in such an exigent he is the same ; he appeares in the Mount when there is no helpe in man ; I say , this constancy , that God is alway the same to us , that his mercies are sure , for they are called the sure mercies of David . He shewed mercies to Saul too , but they were another kinde of mercies ; Saul was not one that he had chosen to himselfe , and therefore his mercies continued not , for indeed hee never loved Saul with that unchangeable loue : But when he loues any man as he loved David , his mercies are sure as they were to David . David was ready to step aside often as well as Saul , hee let Saul goe , but he carried David along , they were sure mercies : and such hee shewes to all those that he hath begun to loue . That is the first , I am , or Iehovah . Secondly , he is strong , Iehovah , strong , mercifull and gracious , &c. that is , Almighty . What is the meaning of that , that he is almighty ? The meaning of it is this , that the Lord hath all the excellencies ; those which we call graces and vertues , and qualities in men , all these abound in the Lord ; for what serues any vertue for , or any quality that you haue , but to enable you to doe something : if a man haue any science or art , that is but to enable him to doe that which without it he cannot doe : if a man hath the art of Arithmetique , he is able to number , or if he haue the art of Logicke , he is able to dispute : come to all morall vertues , What is temperance , but that which enableth us to doe such and such things uppon such and such occasions ? What is patience , but that which enableth us to endure afflictions ? So all that is excellent in man , all those amiable , those beautifull qualities wherewith the soule is adorned , are but so farre good as they enable a man to doe this or that . Now when the Lord is said to be almighty , the meaning is , hee hath all excellency in him , and hee hath it in the highest degree , for in this sense God is able to doe more than any man , in regard of excellency ; whatsoever a man is able to doe , you know how infinitely the Lord hath it beyond him , he is able to doe so much more as he is beyond any man : For that power , that attribute , that quality that is in man , it is not a quality in him , he hath it beyond any man. Againe , when a man is able to doe one thing , yet he is not able to doe another , one creature is able to doe this , another that : But the Lord is Almightie , therefore he is able to doe all things . And therefore this is a kind of excellencie , that is the second description , he is Iehovah , and he is Almightie . But now when you heare that the Lord is thus constant , and thus exceeding in excellencie , a man will be ready to say , what is this to me ? I am a sinfull man , there is nothing in me but that which may turne away the Lord from me , and cause him to abhorre me : Well saith he , to comfort you , know that I am mercifull , exceeding pittifull , exceeding ready to forgiue , though your sinnes bee exceeding many , though they bee exceeding great , yet the Lord he is mercifull : he is ready to passe by all those infirmities . And that is another of his excellencies . You know we reckon it a very amiable thing in a man when we see him pittifull . This doth more abound in the Lord , than in any creature , there is no man in the world so ready to forgive as God. If he were not God , if he were as man , my brethren , could hee beare with us as he doth ? Let us doe to a man injuries , and injuries againe and againe , and never give over , what man can beare it , doth he not in the end withdrawe himselfe , and will no more be reconciled ? But it is not so with the Lord , when wee have done all , Yet returne to me , saith the Lord , Ier. 3.2 . Well , but if we haue such sinnes in us , suppose the Lord is mercifull and ready to forgive , but yet there is no goodnes in us , wee haue nothing in us why he should regard us , and why he should looke after us : To that it is answered , the Lord is gracious , that is , though there bee no worth found in you , yet he is ready to doe you good : as grace you know is proper to a Prince or a great man , that is sayd to be gracious to his subject , or to one that is very inferiour , because hee can doe nothing to deserue it , it is called grace , for grace you knowe is nothing but freenes , and to be gracious is to doe things freely , when there is no motiue , no wages , when there is nothing to winne him , but of free grace he doth it . So the Lord doth what he doth of his free grace , he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy , that is , when all men did stand before him alike , though there were nothing , when there was no cause why the Lord should regard them more than an other , yet He will haue mercy on whome he will haue mercy , that is , he is gracious , though there be nothing in us to winne that love at his hands . Well , but yet wee may be readie to object , it is true , the Lord hath been thus to me , he hath ben very merciful to forgiue me my sinnes , he hath beene very gracious to me to shew me favour when I never deserved it , but after , I was put into such a condition , I provoked him to anger by relapsing into sinne againe and againe after I have been in a good estate , I have broken the covenant with him , I continued not in that good estate that out of his mercy he hath put me into . To this he answers , He is long suffering , that is , though you provoke him out of measure , though you have done it againe and againe , he continues patient , you cannot wearie him out , but his mercy indures for ever : you know that if there were an end of his mercy , that on your sinning , hee should give over to be mercifull , his mercy did not indure for ever , therefore it is said , He is long suffering , because though your sinnes be often repeated , yet the Lord as often repeates his mercy , therefore there is a multitude of mercyes in him , as there is a multitude of sinnes in you , there is a spring of mercy in him , that is renued every day , he opens a spring for Iudah & Ierusalem to wash in , it is not a Cesterne but a Spring , that is renewed as much as your sinnes , that as you are defiled daily , so the Lords mercy is renewed to wash away those sinnes , he is long suffering . But besides all this he goes yet one step further ; he is abundant in kindnes and in truth , that is , if you would know the Lord yet further , whereas you may thinke He is a terrible God , because of his great Majestie , and power , and therefore that those disharten you , as wheresoever you find terriblenesse , that ( you know ) puts off , it is contrary to love : and therefore the Lord to winne us the more , tells us : that though he be so great a God as he is , yet he is abundant in kindnesse , that is , He is exceeding ready to beare with us , that looke what you finde in a kinde Husband , in a kinde Father , or in a kinde friend , that you shall find in the Lord , he is exceeding kinde to you , he is not harsh , he is not stiffe , he is not ready to obserue all that you doe amisse , if you will aske any thing at his hands , if you want it , ( as therein kindnes doth consist ) he is ready to doe it , whatsoever it is , he is a God hearing prayer , he saith , whatsoever you aske at his hands he will doe it , can you have a greater kindnesse than this ? if kindnesse be an attractive to winne love , hee is kinde , and hee is abundant in it . If you will not beleeve this assertion , this affirmation , this description of himselfe , hee tells you he hath promised , and he will be as good as his word , he is abundant in truth , that is as if hee should say , I am not onely of such a nature and disposition as I have described my selfe to be , but besides this I am engaged to you , you have many promises I have made you , I have sworne I will doe thus and thus : Therefore I will adde this to this disposition , I am abundant in truth , that is , you shall finde me as good as my word ; and not so onely , but I will be better than my word : I am abundant in truth : that is , his performances exceede , they runne over , whatsoever hee hath said , he will surely doe it . Consider this , consider how many precious promises you have , consider what the Lord hath said hee will doe for you , how full is the Scripture of promises every where ; remember this , the Lord is abundant in truth , he will doe them and overdoe them , hee will fulfill every word that hee hath said . And that he may give you a proofe of it , he addes , that he reserves mercy for thousands , that shewes hee is abundant in kindnesse and in truth : as if hee should say , when any of you doe mee service , when you are faithfull as Abraham my servant was , I am bound no more but to reward your selves , but I am abundant in mercy and forgivenesse , reserving mercy for thousands : The Lord cannot content himselfe to doe good to a mans owne person , but to his children , to his generation . As David when he loved Barzillay and Ionathan , it extended to their posterity , when his love was abundant : so the Lord reserves mercie for thousands . Lastly , because the objection still comes in when you have such a description of the Lord : I but my sinnes are still repeated ; hee addes in the conclusion , he is a God still forgiving iniquitie , transgression and sinne . Why are those three words put in ? That you may know that hee forgives sinnes of all sorts ; for every man is ready to finde some peculiarity in his sinnes , hee thinkes such and such sinnes cannot be forgiven , sinnes that I have committed thus and thus : Nay , saith the Lord , what sinnes soever they are , of what nature soever , he forgives iniquity , he forgives naturall corruption , he forgives lesse infirmities , he forgives greater rebellions ; and he is still doing it , for so the word signifieth , hee is still and still forgiving iniquity , transgression and sinne . So we have shewed you what the Lord is , that you may learn to know him : therfore we wil conclude this first , and say to you as the Spouse saith , Cant. 5. Such a one is the Lord , and such a one is our wellbeloved , oh you daughters of Ierusalem , that is , he is wholly delectable : if we were able to shew him to you , it must be your labour to consider him , that you may learne to know him , and to love him . Secondly , when you know this and consider what the Lord is , and what excellency is in him , consider in the next place the greatnesse of the Lord , and know that this great God is suiter to you for your love , that is , he that makes towards you : If a great King , or if your potent neighbour should sue to you for love , would not that move you ? You know the weaker should seeke to the stronger , men of meaner condition should seeke to him of higher place ; when the great God beseecheth us to be reconciled to him , when hee desires to be at peace with us , and to be friends with us , I say , the greatnesse of God is a great argument to move us to love him : as you have that Deut. 10.17 . when the Lord reasons there with the people to perswade them to love him , saith hee , I am the God of Gods , the Lord of Lords , mighty and terrible : as if he should say ; this great God hath done all this for you : and this he requires at thy hands , that thou shouldest love him , when he shall desire but this , refuse it not . If one that we contemne , one that is beneath us should seeke our love , we are not so ready to returne love againe , for we say he is below : But when we consider God in his majesty and greatnesse , that he should seeke to be reconciled to us , that should move us , that should win our hearts to him Besides , consider what the Lord might have required of you ; you know you are his creatures , you know what a distance there is betweene the Lord and you , if he had put you on a harder task , you ought to have done it , if he had said to us , you shall offer your children to me in sacrifice , you shall give your owne bodies to be burned , you shall be my slaves , who could have said any thing to that , for he is the Lord , the great God , our soveraigne Creatour : But now when the Lord comes and askes no more at our hands but this , you shall love mee , will you deny it him ? This is effectually urged in the same Chapter , Deut. 10.14 . where Moses ( marke the manner of urging it ) had described to them what the Lord had done for them , that hee had brought them into that good land , &c. And now , saith he , what doth the Lord require of thee for all this , but onely this , that thou love the Lord thy God ? As if hee should say , the Lord might aske much more at thy hands ; if he had , thou hadst no reason to deny it ; but all that hee requires is that thou love him : and wilt thou denie this unto him ? Besides , consider who it is that hath planted this loue in the heart , is it not the Lord that giues thee this very affection ? And when he calls for this love againe at thy hands , doth hee call for more than his owne ? Shall hee not gather the grapes of his owne Vineyard ? and shall he not eate the fruite of his owne Orchard ? Hath not hee planted in us these affections ? and ought they not to be returned to him , to serve him and to pitch on him ? Besides consider , you are engaged to love the Lord , and that should be a great motive to us : in Iosh. 24.12 . You are witnesses that you have chosen the Lord this day to serve him : And they said , we are witnesses : that is Iosuahs speach to the people : As if hee should say to them , you are not now to choose , you are now engaged , you cannot goe backe , you have professed you have chosen the Lord to serve him , therefore you are witnesses against your selves . So I may say to every man that heares mee , you are engaged to love the Lord : Why ? Because you have chosen him for your husband , you are baptized in his name , you have taken him for your Master , and for your Father , therefore he may challenge it at your hands as right , for he is your Father : and where is his honour then ? He is your Master , and where is his feare then ? That is , you are engaged , he may challenge it justly , you are his , hee hath bought you , yea he hath overbought you , hee hath paid a price more worth than we , hee hath bought us with his blood : And what hath hee bought us for but to be his , that is , to love him ? Therefore when we love him not , wee robbe God of our selves , we doe an unnaturall thing , it is treachery and injustice in us . As you know , it is one thing in a woman that is free from an husband to neglect a man that is a friend , but when she hath engaged her selfe , and the match is made , now it is adultery : So every one of us that loves not the Lord , sinnes the more , because he is engaged to him : Deut. 32.13 , Thou forsookest the strong God of thy salvation , thou forsakest him to whom thou art engaged , he is the strong God of thy salvation , he hath done thus and thus for thee . Therefore consider this , for seeing you have such an affection as love is , you must bestow it somewhere , somewhat you must love : and you must know againe it is the best thing you have to bestow , for that commands all in you ; and where will you bestow it ? Can you finde any creature upon whom to bestow it rather than the Lord ? Will you bestow it upon any man ? The Lord exceedes them , as David saith , Who among the gods is like thee ? That is , take the most excellent among them , that therefore are reckoned as gods , yet who among them is like unto thee ? or whom will you bestow your love upon , your wealth , or your pleasures or your phantasies ? You must thinke the Lord will take this exceeding evill at your hands , that you should bestow this affection elsewhere than on him whom you are engaged unto , to whom you are bound so much , who hath done so much for you . But that which moves us most is particulars , if a man consider what the Lord hath done for him in particular , remember what passage hath beene betweene the Lord and you from the beginning of your youth . Ier. 2. Neither said they where is the Lord that brought you out of the land of Egypt through the wildernesse : I remember thee from the land of Egypt , &c. That is , let a man consider Gods particular dealing with him , for when the Lord would stirre up David , and melt his heart , and bring it to a kindly sorrow for his sinnes , he takes that course : 2 Sam. 12.7 . it is Nathans speech to him , saith he , Did not the Lord doe thus and thus ? Did hee not make thee King of Iudah and Israel ? Did not he give thy Masters wives and thy Masters houses into thy bosome ? And if that had not been enough , he would have done thus and thus . So let every man recount the particular kindnesses and mercies he hath received from the Lord ; and when we consider that it is he that doth all , that it is he that feedes us , that it is he that clothes us , we have not a nights sleepe but he gives it to us , we have not a blessing but it is from his hand , there is not a judgement that wee escape but it is through his providence : I say the consideration of these particulars should be as so many sparkes , to breede in us a flame of love towards the Lord , to thinke with your selves when you have done all , how unreasonable a thing it is , how unequall a thing that you should forget this God , that you should never thinke on him , that you should not love him , hee that hath done thus much for you . And last of all consider , that the Lord loves you , for that is the greatest motive to winne us to love him ; for as fire begets fire , so love begets love . This was the cause that Paul loved the Lord , Gal. 2.20 . He that loved mee , and gaue himselfe for me , saith he , I will not live any more to my selfe , but to him , he hath loved me , and gave himselfe for me , he hath loved me : and there was that testimony of his love , hee gave himselfe . I say consider this love of the Lord , and let this beget in you a reciprocall affection towards him : Put all together , and consider the Lord is worthy to be beloved , that he that is so great sues to you for your love , that he that is God , that planted that love in your hearts , and therefore hee doth but call for his owne , that hee that hath done you so many kindnesses , that you are so engaged to him , that you are now bound unto , you are not now to chuse ; at the least come to this , to say hee is worthy to be beloved , bring your hearts to this , to desire to love him . You will say , we may desire long enough , but how shall we be able to doe it ? I will tell you in a word , and so conclude . First , you must pray for it , it is a lovely suite , when we come to the Lord and tell him , that we desire to love him , that we would faine doe it if we could , and beseech him not to deny us that request , that we know is according to his will : doe you thinke that the Lord will refuse you in that case , especially if you begge it importunately at his hands ? For if you object and say , we have prayed and have not obtained it ; know , that to love the Lord is a precious thing : and therefore the Apostle reckons it so . You will say , How doth this prayer doe it ? I say that it doth it partly by obtaining at Gods hands ; for when you crie earnestly , hee cannot denie you : But as he did with the lame and the blinde when they were importunate , hee never neglected any but healed them . When you crie to the Lord , and say , I would faine love thee , but I cannot , will hee not be as willing to heale thy soule , to give thee legges to runne after him , and eyes to see him , as he was to heale the lame and the blinde , certainly he will not denie thee . But besides that , prayer doth it , because it brings us to converse and to have communion with him ; by prayer wee are familiar with God , by that meanes love growes betweene us : as you know when you converse with men , it is a means to get love . Againe , prayer doth it , because when wee are much in calling upon God , the Lord delights to shew himselfe to such a man , yea at such a time , for the most part , as hee shewed himselfe to Christ when he was praying , as he did to Moses , and to Cornelius and others . And againe , prayer it exerciseth this love , it blowes up the sparke of this love , and makes a flame of it ; therefore much prayer begets much love : If you would be abundant in love , be fervent and frequent in this dutie of prayer , pray much and you shall finde this effect of it , it will beget love in you : You will say prayer is a generall meanes for other things : Why doe you put it as a peculiar meanes to get love ? The reason is , because love in an especiall manner is a gift of the Spirit , a fruite of the holie Ghost ; and it is true , it must be a peculiar worke of the Spirit to beget love . It is true , faith comes by hearing , and hearing begets faith , it is done likewise by the Spirit ; but love is more peculiarly than other graces , the gift of the holie Ghost . And therefore 2 Thess. 4. saith the Apostle , You are taught of God to love one another : That is , it is such a thing as God teacheth , or else our teaching will never doe it : that which he saith of love to the brethren , we may say of the love of God ; the Lord hath put love into man , man loves many times , and knowes not why , many times he hath reason that he should love , and yet he cannot , because it is a peculiar gift of God. That naturall affection for a man to love his children , all the world cannot doe it , all the arguments in the world cannot perswade a man : for if arguments could doe it , we might perswade others to doe so ; but none can love so as the father doth his childe : and why ? but because the Lord workes that in men . So the love of God is a peculiar worke of the holy Ghost , none are able to love Iesus , but hee in whom the Lord hath wrought it , in whom the holy Ghost hath planted this affection : Therefore the way to get it is earnestly to pray , to acknowledge the power of the holy Ghost , to goe to him , and say , Lord I am not able to doe it : this acknowledgement of the power of the holy Ghost is the way to prevaile . Besides , you know the power of God is so transcendent beyond the pitch of our nature , that except the holy Ghost worke more than nature , we shall never be brought together in agreeablenesse and sutablenesse , wee are no more able to love the Lord , than colde water is able to heate it selfe : there must be somewhat to breede heate in that water , so the holy Ghost must breed that fire of love in us , it must be kindled from heaven , or else we shall never have it . Secondly , another speciall meanes to enable you to love the Lord , 2 is to consider your owne condition , to consider your sinnes , what you are , what hearts you have , and what lives you have lead ? You will say , how doth this beget love ? Yes , this is a great meanes : Mary loved much , because much was forgiven her , that is , Mary Magdalen had great sense of her sinnes , the Lord had opened her eyes to see what a one shee had beene , what sinnes she had committed : And because she had that sense of her sinnes , her eyes were open to see her owne vilenesse : thence it is , saith he , she loved much . For when we are humble and poore in spirit , when we are little in our owne eyes , then the Lord will come and shew mercy on us ; when a man shall see his sinne , and shall thinke with himselfe , I am worthy to be destroyed , I can expect nothing but death , then the Lord shall come sodainly as it were , and shall tell us you shall live , and shall reconcile himselfe to us , this will command love . We shall never receive the Gospell as to love Christ , till we come to poverty of spirit , till we be thus humbled : as in the first of Luke , it is the speech of Mary , My soule doth magnifie the Lord : and why ? because he had respect to the poore estate of his handmaiden : When she was little in her owne eyes , and made no account of her selfe , and thought not her selfe worthy to be looked after , the Lord comes and takes her , and vouchsafes her such an honour as to cause his owne Sonne to be borne of her : now she could not holde , but that was it that enflamed her heart with love to the Lord , my soule doth magnifie the Lord , because he had respect to the poore estate of his handmaid : So wee see in David , you never finde a greater expression of love in David , than at that time when hee was most humbled , when the Prophet came to him and tolde him what the Lord would doe for him , that he would build him and house ; David begins to consider what he was , what is David , saith he , What am I , or what is my fathers house ? That is , I am but a poore miserable man , I am but thus borne , what have I done that the Lord should respect me so farre ? If David had not beene so little and so vile in his owne eyes , those great mercies had never so wrought on his heart . And therefore I say , the way to make us abundant in love is to consider our sinnes , to be humbled , to consider what wee are , and to conceive from thence the kindnesse of the Lord : you know how it affected Saul when hee came into the hands of David , that he had power to kill him , he considered what he had done to Dauid , how he had used himselfe to him , and he saw Dauids kindnesse againe to him , but unexpected and undeserved it was , it melted his heart , it dissolved him into teares . So the love of the Lord , when we consider how we have behaved our selves to him , and yet he hath offered us peace , and yet he saith , Returne and I will forgive you , I say , this would worke on the hardest heart : And therefore consider your sinnes , it is not enough to say I am a sinner , perhaps you are ready to doe so : But come to particular sinnes , consider wherein you have offended the Lord , say you have done thus and thus , as Paul reasons with himselfe , I was a blasphemer , I was a persecuter , an oppressour , and yet the Lord had mercy on mee : so be ready to say , I have committed such and such sinnes , it may be uncleannesse , it may be Sabbath-breaking and swearing , &c. yet the Lord hath beene mercifull or willing to receive me to mercy : as that place , Ier. 3.1 . If a mans wife play the harlot , will hee returne to her ? No , he will put her away , and give her a Bill of Divorcement : but you have done it , and done it oft , and with many lovers ; and yet returne againe to mee , saith the Lord : So I say , when Christ shall come to you , when you have committed such and such sinnes , and the Lord shall say to you , though you have done this , though you have done it often , yet returne again to me , and I will receive you to mercie : I say , this should melt our hearts , and cause us to love the Lord. I should come to the third , that is , to beseech the Lord to shew his owne selfe to you : 3 for indeede wee shall never come to love him till the Lord shew himselfe to us . It is one thing when we preach him to you , and it is another when the Lord shewes himselfe : For as the Sunne is not seene but by his owne light , there is no way in the world to see the Sunne , all the candles , all the torches cannot doe it , except the Sunne shew it selfe : So I say of the Lord , all the Preachers in the world , though they should speake with the tongues of Angels , they were not able to shew the Lord Christ Iesus what hee is : but if the Lord shew his owne selfe to you , if he open the cloud and shew you his glory , and the light of his countenance , then you shall know the Lord after another manner than we can shew him to you , with another knowledge more effectually : And when you have seene him thus , you shall love him , without this you shall not love him . And therefore pray the Lord to shew himselfe to you , as it was Moses prayer , Exod. 33 , Shew me thy glory . What is that ? That is , Lord shew me thy excellency which is exceeding glorious : You must thinke Moses asked not this in vaine , it was for some purpose , hee asked not meerely to satisfie his fancie , for the Lord would not then have heard him : But what did he aske it for ? Surely that he might love the Lord the more , by knowing him better . And when Moses came to aske it at the hands of the Lord , he did assent , he proclaimed , that is , hee revealed himselfe more than ever he did before . So I say to every one of you , if you be earnest with the Lord , desire him to shew you his excellencie , that you might love him more , serve him more , and feare him more , he could deny you no more than he did Moses : for you must thinke , that this is no extraordinary thing for the Lord to shew himselfe . That which hee did miraculously to Stephen , when he opened the heavens , and shewed himselfe to the outward view , that hee doth ordinarily to the Saints , hee shewes himselfe to their mindes and inward affections . When wee preach at any time , except the Lord shew himselfe to you at that time , then our preaching is in vaine : for the word that we speake is but a dead letter , it will worke no more upon you , than a dead thing that hath no efficacy . But when the Spirit goes with the word , and hee openeth to you the thing that we speake , then it is effectuall . Therefore Paul to the Ephesians , when he had opened those great mysteries , hee concludes with this : The Lord give you the Spirit of wisedome and revelation , to enlighten the eyes of your understanding , that you may know what the hope of your calling is , and what is the glorious inheritance of the Saints , &c. As if he should say , when I have said all this , it is nothing , it will not doe it ; but he beseecheth the Lord to give them the Spirit of revelation , and then it is done . And so to conclude all , when we have said all we can to move you to love the Lord , it is all nothing except the Lord give you that Spirit of wisedome and revelation to open your eyes to see what is the exceeding greatnesse and excellency of his power . FINIS . THE THIRD SERMON . GALLAT . 5.6 . For in Iesus Christ , neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but Faith which worketh by Love. OVT of these words we have formerly delivered this point to you , that , Wh● soever loveth not is not in Christ. The last thing ( in the prosecution of this point ) was the meanes whereby this love is wrought in our hearts , which we did not then finish , notwithstanding we will not proceed in it at this time , but rather al●●r the matter , and doe that which I did not then intend ; because there are many this day that are to receive the Sacrament , and you know when we come to receive the Sacrament , our chiefe businesse is to examine our selves . Let every man examine himselfe , and so let him eate of this bread and drinke of this cup. We have often pressed to you the necessitie of these two things : First , that you may not omit the Sacrament when it is administred in the Congregation whereof you are members : for if they were to be cut off from the people that neglected the Passeover , why should not this be accounted a greater sinne , and to deserve a greater punishment , to neglect the receiving of the Lords Supper , which is come in the place of the Passeover , and is farre beyond it ? First , because it is more cleare , and it is more cleare because the doctrine is more cleare ; for it doth more lively represent Christ now exhibited in the flesh , than that which onely represented Christ which was then to come . And secondly , because the mercie that you are now to remember is your redemption from sinne and from hell , a greater mercie than that which they were to remember in the Passeover , which was their deliverance out of Egypt , ( though that was not all ) therefore the neglecting of this must neeedes be a greater sinne than the neglecting of that . Now you see how strictly God layeth a charge upon them , that no man should omit the Passeover , unlesse sicknesse or a journey hindred him . Now consider this you that have beene negligent in comming to this holy Sacrament , for it is a great sinne , and provokes God to anger when he shall see that this ordinance which himselfe hath instituted , and which he hath laid such a charge upon you to doe is neglected ? Besides , doe you thinke it is a sinne to neglect comming to the word ? and is it not as much to neglect this ordinance ? Besides , doe we not neede all helpes of grace ? and is not this among the maine helpes . Againe , 2 as you ought not to omit it , so to come negligently to it , to come without examination , to come without a more solemne and extraordinary renewing of your repentance is to receive the Sacrament unworthily , to eate and drinke judgement and damnation to your selves . Now there are two sorts that receive the Sacrament unworthily . First , those that are not yet in Christ. Secondly , those that are within the covenant , but yet come remissely and negligently , and take not that care they should in examining their hearts : for though you ought to renew your repentance every day , yet in a more especiall manner you ought to doe it upon such an occasion . As women doe in scowring their vessells , they make them cleane every day , but yet there are some certaine times wherein they scowre them more : so we should scoure our hearts in a more speciall manner upon this occasion . Now because this is the businesse that wee haue to doe this day , we will therefore handle that more fully that we touched lightly before , which is this examination , whether we love the Lord Iesus or no : for if you love not the Lord Iesus , you are not in him ; for whatsoever you doe availeth not , if you haue not faith and love . Therefore if you finde that you have not this love to Christ , that you are not rooted and grounded in love , you haue nothing to doe with Christ , and if you have nothing to doe with him , you have nothing to doe with the Sacrament . And therefore we will shew you what properties of love we finde in the holy Scriptures . 1 This is one property of love set downe in 1 Cor. 13. Love is bountifull , and seeketh not its owne things : that is , it is the nature of love to bestow readily and freely any thing a man hath to the party whom he loveth . We see , Ioseph that loved Benjamin , as his love was more to him than to all the rest of his brethren , so he gave him a greater portion than the rest . It is the nature of love to be bountifull , what a man loveth , hee cares not what he parts with to obtaine it . Herod cared not to have parted with halfe his kingdome , to please that inordinate affection of his . The Converts in the Apostles time , how bountifull were they , laying all their goods at the Apostles feete ? Zaccheus , when hee was converted , and his heart was inflamed with love to Christ , he would give halfe his goods to the poore . But in generall , it is a thing that you all know , that love is of a bountifull disposition . If you would know then whether you have this love to the Lord Iesus or no , consider whether you be ready to bestow any thing upon him , whether you be ready to part with any thing for his sake . David , when hee abounded with love to the Lord , you see how he expressed it in his provision for the Temple , you see how he exceeded in it , An hundred thousand shekels of golde , and a thousand thousand talents of silver : this , saith he , I have done according to my poverty : As if he had said , if I had beene able to doe more I would have done more , but this was as much as I could reach unto : herein hee shewed the greatnesse of his love to God in the greatnes of his bounty . Take it in the love which we have one to another : where a man loveth , he denieth nothing . Sampson , when he loved the harlot , he denied her nothing that she asked of him . If you love the Lord Iesus , examine your selves by this , are you ready to bestow any thing for his advantage ? are you ready to take all opportunities to doe somewhat for his glory ? consider how many opportunities you have had , and might have had , wherein you might have expressed and manifested this love to the Lord Iesus . Might you not have done much to the setting of a powerfull Minister here and there ? have you not had ability to doe it ? would it not much advantage the glory of Iesus Christ to make bridges ( as it were ) for men to goe to heaven by , and to make the high way that leadeth thither ? A greater worke of mercy than these externall workes that appeare so glorious in the eyes of men : to have blessed opportunities , and not to use them , because wee have straight hands and narrow hearts , is a signe we want love to Christ. In the passages of your life there is many a case , that if you were of a bountifull disposition , you might doe much good in . You know what Paul saith , which was a great testimony of his love , Acts 20.24 . My life ( saith he ) is not deare unto me , so I may doe any thing for Iesus Christ , so I may fulfill the course of my Ministery . So examine your selves whether you can say thus upon any occasion ; so that I may doe any good , so that I may help forward any good cause that may tend to the glory of God , my life is not deare unto mee , my liberty is not deare , my estate is not deare , my friends are not deare to me . You that have to doe in government , many cases there are , wherein if you will doe any speciall good , you must part with something of your owne ; God lookes to you and sees what you doe , and how your hearts stand affected in all these passages , aske your selves now whether these things be not deare to you : if there were love in you , it will cause you to doe more than you doe . It was Davids great wisedome , when water was brought to him that was purchased at so deare a rate , when so high a price was set upon it , hee would not drinke it himselfe , but powred it forth to the Lord ; and therein hee shewed the greatnesse of his love , that he was willing to part with that which he so exceedingly longed for , which was bought at such a rate . The like he did when he bought the threshing floore of Araunah the Iebusite , hee might have had it given him for nothing ; No , saith he , I will not offer to the Lord of that which cost me nothing : As if hee had said , I shall shew no love to the Lord then , and if I shew no love to him , what is my sacrifice worth ? For David knew well enough that God observed what hee did , hee observed what it cost him . The Lord observeth all that you doe : Beloved , he knoweth your hearts , and seeth what motions you have , and prizeth your actions accordingly . If you doe any action for him , that costs you something , he observeth that likewise . In Rev. 2. I know thy workes and thy patience : so doth the Lord say of every man , I know what such a service cost thee , I know what losse thou sufferedst , when thou didst part with such a thing for my sake . Therefore if you would shew your love to the Lord , and would have a testimonie in your hearts , that you have this love wrought in you , be not backward to bestow any thing upon Christ. The woman that brake the boxe of precious oyntment , you see how the Lord accepted that worke of hers so much , that he puts it down that it should never be forgotten . For love wheresoever it is , will open the heart , and open the hand , and bestow any thing upon Iesus Christ , that is in our power . Now if we examine whether love be amongst men by this signe , wee shall finde but little love , and we may justly take up the complaint of the Apostle , Every man seekes his owne things , and not the things of Iesus Christ : that is , when any thing is to be done , men are ready to enquire thus , it is the secret inquisition of their hearts ; What is this to mee ? what profit will it bring mee ? wherein will it be to mine advantage ? And if they finde it is a thing that will cost them something , and a thing that they shall get nothing by , how colde and backward are men to doe it ? It is from this , that men seeke their owne things . But here every man will be ready to professe , and say that he is not so strait handed , but hee is readie to doe manie things for Christ , that hee is bountifull , and seekes not his owne things ? My Beloved , let us trie this now a little : thou thinkest thou art so bountifull for the Lord , I would aske thee this ; Doest thou doe it purely for the Lord in such a case , when there is no profit nor praise with men , nor advantage redounding to thy selfe ? art thou as forward then as when there are all those respects ? art thou as abundant in it , as diligent , and as ready to doe it ? This discovers the falshood of mens hearts for the most part . And besides , take it in the case of selfe-love , consider what thou doest when thine owne selfe-love shall come in competition with this love to the Lord : for in that we shall know our love to the Lord , when wee denie our selves , when wee crosse our selfe-love , and reject and refuse it : for otherwise it is no thanke to us , when there is no inward crossing in us , no contrary affections drawing us another way . Therfore if you would know whether you love the Lord or no , trie what you doe in the things that are dearest to you , consider what you doe in those things that of all others you are most unwilling to part with : for indeed herein is the tryall , as the Lord said to Abraham , when hee would have offered up his sonne , Now Abraham I know that thou lovest mee : As if he had said , this is a sure testimony that thou lovest me , because thy sonne is not deare to thee . So I say , when you are to part with something that is deare to you , consider what you doe in such a case , consider whether you can say generally , I account all things but as losse and dung for Christ. It may be thou art willing to part with something that thou carest not much for , but this is nothing . Some man will not lose his credit , that is deare to him ; Examine thy selfe now , if thy credit be deare to thee , art thou content to lose the praise of men for Christ ? when thou art put to a hazard art thou content to suffer the losse of thy estate ? Every man hath some particular temptation , young men for the most part are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God , and olde men are lovers of their owne wealth more than of God. Therefore consider what you will doe now in your severall cases . Christ , you know , requires this at every mans hands , that his wife and children , that his father and mother , and whatsoever is dearest to him , that hee should neglect it all for his sake ; and herein a mans love is seene . And when you have done all this , I will adde that further , though you doe bring your hearts to doe it , yet are you willing to doe it ? doe you doe it chearfully and readily ? for why doth the Lord require that as a necessarie condition , that whatsoever is done to him might be done chearfully and willingly ? For no other reason than this , but because hee regards nothing but that which commeth from love , and if it come from love , we know , we doe it cheerefully . Therefore consider whether thou art willing to doe this chearfully , and with a full hand , not nigardly and pinchingly ; and by this you shall know whether you have this love to the Lord Iesus or no , whether you be bountifull , whether you seeke the things of the Lord , and not your owne things . 2 In the second place , you shall finde this to be one propertie of love ( by which you may trie your selves ) it will be content with nothing but with love againe from the party whom wee love . If one love another , let him doe never so much , let him be never so kinde in his actions towards him , let him be never so bountifull to him , yet except he have love againe , hee is content with nothing . Indeede when we doe not love a man , we can be content to receive profit from him , and it is no matter though his heart goe another way so we enjoy it ; but it is the nature of true love to desire to be paid in its owne coyne . Now if thou love the Lord Iesus , if thou mightest haue all the blessings that he could bestow upon thee , if hee should open his hand wide , and compasse thee about with abundance , yet if thou louest the Lord , thou wouldest not be content with this , but thou wouldest have assurance of his love , thy heart would be at no rest else . And this you may see in David , Psal. 51. David , you know , was well enough , hee had health and wealth , and abundance of all things , yet you see how miserably he complained , because he wanted that joy that hee was wont to have , because he was not in those termes with the Lord that he was wont to be ; and till hee had that , his bones were broken with sorrow , and hee tooke it so to heart , that nothing in the world could content him , till he was assured of Gods favour : And it is certaine , that if thou love the Lord , nothing will satisfie thy soule , but the assurance of his loving countenance to thee againe . Therefore that which Absolom did we may make use of , upon this occasion , hee had that wit , to make a right pretence , whatsoever his intent was : when hee was called from banishment where hee lived well enough , and enjoyed all things , hee wanted nothing , but had as much as hee could desire , yet , saith he , what doth all this availe me , so long as I may not see the Kings face ? It was but his craftinesse : Yet thus much we may observe out of it , that this is the property of love , that till a man see the face of God , that is , till he enjoy a neare and close communion with God , untill he can have the love of God witnessed to his soule , hee cares for nothing in the world besides : As you have it in 2 Chron. 7.14 . you have that condition put in : If my people ( saith he ) when they are in distresse , shall humble themselves , and seeke my face , then I will doe thus and thus . As if he should say , it may be they may seeke libertie , when they are in captivitie ; it may be they may seeke health , when they are in sicknesse ; it may be they may seeke deliverance from enemies , under whom they are enthralled ; but that is not the condition that I put them upon , but if they humble themselves , and seeke my face , then I will heare in heaven , &c. So I say now , if you will trie whether you love the Lord Iesus or no , consider whether you seeke his face , that is , whether you seeke grace or no , whether nothing in the world can content you but his favour . For it is the property of one that is truly sanctified , mercie alone will not content him , but hee will have grace as well as mercy : Another man that loveth not the Lord , it is true , it may be hee is pinched with the sense of his sinnes , but let him have mercy , it is enough hee thinkes ; but now take a man that hath his heart right towards God , except he have grace , it contents him not ; for that is the property and nature of true love , that it careth for no wages , all that it desires is the love of the party , that what it doth may be acknowledged and accepted ; and there is a great difference in that : You know , a nurse doth much unto the childe , as well as the mother , and it may be more , but notwithstanding the nurse never doth it but when she is hired ; but the mother doth it for nothing , and she doth it more abundantly , because she doth it out of love , and it is wages enough to her that she hath done it , because shee loves her childe : So I say , if you love the Lord Iesus , it is not wages that you seeke , but if you may have the light of his countenance to shine on you , if you may have his favour , if you may have opportunitie to doe him service in your place , it is enough for you , you care not for the present wages , nor for future . Therefore herein you may know the nature of your love , the rightnesse and ingenuity of it , if it be so that all that you doe is out of love to the Lord , and if you can content your selves with love againe from God , it is a signe that you love the Lord Iesus . Againe , 3 ( to proceed ) if you love the Lord Iesus , you will also love his appearance : as you have it in 2 Tim. 4.8 . A crowne of righteousnesse is laid up for me , and as many as love the appearance of Iesus Christ : and in Heb. 9. ult . Hee was offered for the sinnes of many , and shall appeare the second time to such as looke for him , &c. For whom was he offered ? and to whom shall he appeare ? To as many as looke for his comming againe . So in 2 Pet. 3.13 . What manner of men ( saith the Apostle ) ought we to be in all godlinesse & holy conversation , looking for and hasting to the appearance of Christ ? &c. So that it is certaine , every man that loveth the Lord Iesus , hee loves his appearance , hee hasteneth to the comming of the Lord , he lookes for his comming againe : and it must needes be so in reason . For if you love any , you know , you must needes love their presence ; will you professe that you are louing to any , that when you heare of their comming towards you , there is no newes more unacceptable to you ? If a woman had a husband in the East Indies , and report of his comming home should be the worst newes that shee could heare , shall wee thinke that such a woman loues her husband ? So if you did loue the Lord Iesus , you would be glad to haue his appearance . And ( Beloved ) seeing the Apostle hath chosen out this note , why should not we presse it in our examination of our selues , whereby wee may know whether wee loue the Lord Iesus or no ? whether wee desire to be with the Lord ? whether we can say , as the Apostle Paul , Wee desire to be at home , and to be with the Lord ? If we examine the loue of men by this rule , wee shall finde that there is exceeding little loue to the Lord Iesus , men are so exceeding backward in desiring to be at home , and to be with him ; and we may know that by our backwardnesse to be in the Lords presence upon earth : Shall wee thinke that men are desirous to be in his presence in heauen , and yet are so unwilling to draw neare to him upon earth ? But you will object , Many of those that loue the Lord , that are men truly sanctified , yet are afraid of death , and the newes of death is terrible to them : and therefore surely this is a rare signe , euen in those that haue faith and loue to desire the appearance of Iesus Christ ? I answer , it is true , there may be a backwardnesse even in the Saints , but you must know upon what ground it is . A spouse that is to marrie a husband , no question but shee would be glad to be handsome , and to be prepared for his comming , and though shee may desire his companie exceedingly , yet because things are not so readie as she would have them , or for feare that he may finde that which may divert and turne away his eyes from delighting in her , perhaps shee desires not his comming at that time . There is a certaine negligence and unpreparednesse in mens hearts , which breedes an unwillingnesse in them sometimes , and makes them afraid of seeing the Lord , and yet there may be a true and inward love after him . Besides , you know , there is flesh as well as spirit , and the spirituall part desires , as Paul did , to be at home , and to be with the Lord , and to enjoy his presence , but that flesh that is in us is alwayes backward to it . Therefore in Revel . 14.13 . Blessed are those that die in the Lord , so saith the Spirit , but so saith not the flesh ; the voice of the flesh is contrary to it , but it is the voice of the spirit and the regenerate part that is in us . So that this I may boldly say to you , that every man that hath this faith and love wrought in him by the Spirit of God , hee hath that in him which doth earnestly desire communion with Christ to live with him for ever , to be in his presence continually , although there may be some reluctancie by reason of the flesh that is there . Take a man that hath sore eyes , you ynow , to the eye the light is exceeding pleasant , but look how much sorenesse and defect there is in the eye , so much the light is burdensome to it ; but so farre as the eye is right , so farre as it is perfect , so farre is the light pleasing and delightfull to it ; so it is with the heart of the regenerate man , looke how much faith , looke how much spirit there is , so much desire there is of the presence of Christ , and it is most pleasing and acceptable to him , as the light of the Sunne is to the eye ; but looke how much sorenesse , that is , looke how much flesh there is in him , so much reluctancie , so much unwillingnes there is in him : and that hee must strive against : But still the rule holdeth good , that wheresoever the heart is right , there is alwayes an earnest desire and longing to be with Christ. And indeede this is only found in the Saints ; for evil mē , if they knew what heaven were , they would never desire it : for they desire heaven in another notion , they would be well , they would be freed from misery and discontent which they mette with in the world , they would have whatsoever the flesh desireth , and that is it they looke after ; but to desire heaven as it is , that is , to desire an excellency in grace , to be alway praising God , to be continually in his presence , to be freed from the practise of sinne , this is a thing that if men aske their owne hearts , they doe not desire in this manner ; for they desire it not here upon earth , when they are in the communion of Saints . When they are in places where there are holy speeches , and holy exercises , it is burthensome to them , they are out of their element , they are as men that are not upon their proper center ; these men desire to be in heaven , but they desire another kinde of happinesse than there is in heaven ; the felicity there is presented unto them under another Idea , they desire no more than the flesh desires : but to desire heaven indeed , as it is heaven , to desire God there in his purenesse and holinesse , to desire it so as thereby to be sequestred from all worldly , carnall and sensuall delights , this a carnall man desires not . Therefore this is a distinguishing note and signe , that he that loves the Lord will love his appearance . Fourthly , 4 you shall finde this to be the property of love , hee that loveth is very readie to speake of the party loved ; love is full of loquacitie , it is readie to fall into the praises of the party beloved , and to keepe no measure in it , to abound in it , that is the disposition of every man that loveth . So is it in this love to the Lord Iesus : You may see it in David , as he abounded in love to the Lord , so hee could never satisfie himselfe in praising the Lord : in Psal. 105. which is repeated 2 Chron. 15. you shall finde that hee hath never done with it , but is alwayes singing praises to the Lord : Sing praise to the Lord , and be alway talking of his wondrous workes . And againe , Remember his marva●lous workes that hee hath done of olde , and all the wonders , &c. As if he should say , if you love the Lord , shew it in praising of him . Doe you professe to love the Lord , and yet never delight to speake of him ? nor delight to heare others speake of him ? My Beloved , this backwardnesse that is amongst us to holie and gracious speech , to speeches that tend to the setting forth of the Lords praise , shewes that love to the Lord Iesus is wanting among us . You know , it is naturall for every man to abound in the speeches of the things they love , of what nature soever they be . Mariners are delighted to talke of their voyages , and souldiers of their battells , and huntsmen of their games . If you delight in the Lord , certainly your tongues will be much in speaking of him , you will be ready to doe it upon all occasions . Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh : and if love to the Lord doe abound in your hearts , this love will be expressed in your tongues , upon all occasions : and therefore , at the least , you may judge of the measure of your love by this . Hee that speakes much of loving God , and yet hath his speeches , empty , vaine , and unprofitable , surely we may guesse that he loves him not at all : and this is a marke that will not deceive us . And now what will you say for your selves , that you speake no more upon those severall occasions that you meete withall in the world ? is it because you are ashamed , because you are bashfull , and fearefull to expresse your selves , and to make an open profession of that holinesse that is in your hearts ? Certainly it is a signe that you love not the Lord Iesus : for hee that loveth , is never ashamed ; because , whom a man loveth , he magnifieth , hee prizeth much , hee hath a high esteeme of : and therefore that bashfulnesse and fearfulnesse that you object , will not keepe you backe , if you did love the Lord in truth and sincerity . Or else , why is it that you speake of him no more ? is it because you cannot speake ? is it because your understandings are weake and dull ? because you are not able to doe it as well as others , and therefore you are loath to expresse your selves ? You know , when you love any , that love will teach you to speake , it will quicken the dullest wit and invention ; love sharpeneth , and maketh the rudest tongue eloquent . It is the nature of love to set the heart on worke , and when the heart is set on worke , the tongue will be as the pen of a ready writer . You know how the Apostle setts it forth , Our heart is enlarged to you : love openeth the heart wide , and the heart openeth the tongue wide : therefore if you love the Lord much , you will bee much in speaking of him . Consider therefore what your speeches are concerning God , whether you your selues are ready to speak much , and to delight to heare others speake also ? whether you be glad of any occasion , as those that love are glad to heare those that they love to be spoken of ? Fifthly , 5 love will doe much and suffer much for the party loved : Paul , as he was abundant in love , so he was abundant in labour likewise ; whosoever aboundeth in love will abound in workes also . Therefore see what you doe for the Lord Iesus , see what you suffer for his sake . When Christ came to Peter , and asked him that question , Peter l●vest thou me ? hee puts him upon the try●ll by this fruit of his love , Feede my Lambes : As if he should say , Peter , if thou wilt shew that thou lovest me , expresse it in doing something for my sake , Feede my Lambes : herein thy love shall be discerned ; doe not say thou lovest mee , and yet art negligent in doing for mee , Feede my Lambes . We shall not need to presse this much in this Congregation , because it belongs to the Ministery : Although you haue somewhat to doe in it for the Magistracie also , whereby they may expresse their love to the Lord Iesus , to helpe the feeding of Christ Lambes . It is true , wee are as the vines that bring forth the grapes , but you are as the elmes that holde up those vines : the Magistrates feede the people as well as the Ministers : therefore that phrase is applied to David , hee was a Shepheard . Therefore in your severall occasions , when you meete with that which may tend to the feeding of the people of God , when you shall labour so farre as may lie within your compasse , that the Gospell may have a free passage , that there may be more faithfull and laborious Ministers set up in the severall places of the kingdome , the more you doe this , the more you feede Christs lambes . And if you will shew that love you have to the Lord , shew it by feeding his people , that is , by doing that which lyes in your power tending to that end , by doing of it zealously , with all your might . And as that was the worke that Christ put Peter upon for the tryall of his love , so I may say to every one of you , If you will shew that you love the Lord Iesus , doe the worke that belongs to your particular place ; for every calling hath a particular worke in it : if you love the Lord , be diligent in that way , in that calling which Christ hath given you to doe him service in : and herein you shall shew your love , as it was Christs owne speech , I have glorified thy Name , that is , in that particular worke , in that charge which thou gavest me to performe : so you must shew your love to God in doing the actions of your particular callings diligently . You know , when that womans heart abounded in love to Christ , how it found out a way wherein it would shew it selfe presently in breaking the boxe of oyntment , &c. As it is said of faith , It is dead without workes , so love is dead without workes , the Lord regards it not , it is a dead carkasse , without motion . Wee know it is the nature of love to be diligent : if you doe love Christ , it will make you diligent . And as you will be ready to doe much , so you will be ready to suffer much also : these two I put together , because suffering is a kinde of doing , onely it is a doing of things , when there is difficultie and hardnesse . Now if you love the Lord Iesus , see what you will suffer for his sake ; those that we love , wee are exceeding readie to suffer for . A husband that loves his spouse , is exceeding readie to suffer any thing to enjoy her love , he is willing to suffer any displeasure of parents , of friends , to suffer the losse of his estate , he cares not for discredit in the world , hee is ready to breake through thicke and thinne , and to doe any thing , so he may obtaine her love at the last : So if you love the Lord Iesus , you will suffer any thing for his sake . It was an excellent testimony of Davids love , in 2 Sam. 6.21 . when David there dancing before the Arke was scoffed at by Michal his wife , see what an answere hee gives her , It is , saith he , before the Lord : as if hee should say , I am willing to beare this at thy hands , for it is to the Lord who hath chosen me rather than thy father and all his house : As if he should say , seeing it is the Lord , for whose sake I endure this rebuke at thy hands , I care not for it , I am willing to doe it , yea I will doe it more , and be more vile in mine owne eyes , and expose my selfe yet to more scorne and derision , since it is to the Lord who hath chosen mee rather than thy fathers house ; so I say , when any thing comes to be suffered for any good action , for any good cause , ( as indeede commonly such actions have sufferings joyned with them ) if you love the Lord , you will be ready to goe through it , and that with cheerfulnesse , because it is to the Lord who hath chosen you , and passed by so many thousands . And therefore it was the commendation of those in Heb. 10. it was an argument of their sincerity , that they suffered the spoyl●ng of their goods with joy . Whence came this , but from their love to the Lord ? they were so farre from being backward to suffer , as that they were glad to have the opportunitie to suffer somewhat for his sake . But you will say , I am readie to doe much for the Lord , and I hope I am not backward to suffer for him . It is well if it be so , but let mee adde this to all that I have said , In what manner doest thou doe that thou doest ? You know the caution that the Apostle puts in , in 1 Iohn 5.3 . Herein is love manifested , that we keepe his commandements , and his commandements are not grievous . Indeed herein is the reality of love seene , that we keepe the commandements of God. It is true , a man may doe much for Christ , and yet not love him ; an hypocrite may goe farre in performances , and yet though he doth much , hee may not love much : therefore you must examine your selves by that , in what manner you doe that which you doe . Therefore it is added , if wee keepe his commandements , and they be not grievous : as if he should say , the manner of your doing is all in all , you must both doe much , and suffer much ; but they must both be done willingly . You know , the wife and the servant , they both serve the husband , and doe much for him , both are alike diligent , yet notwithstandi●g there is this difference , the wife doth it out of love , shee doth it in another manner , proceeding from another affection , aiming at another end than the servant doth . So two men may be diligent in keeping the same commandement of the Lord ; the one doth it as one that loves the Lord earnestly , being desirous to please him , as one that delights in the Lord , nothing doth more content him , that when he is in an opportunity wherein he may expresse his love to the Lord , all his commandements are not grievous to him , it is not respect to the reward , it is not an eye to the punishment that mooves him . A man indeed may doe much for the Lord , when it is the respects that he hath to hell and to judgement , to heaven and the reward that moves him : Not but that these may be motives ; but yet you must remember this , that if these be the principall , and if these onely moove you , you doe it not out of love , you take but an aime from your selves . When a man hath a businesse of his owne to doe , you know how carefull he is in it , and with what diligence hee doth it , how often and how seriously he is devising with himselfe to bring his matters to passe . Now if you love the Lord , the actions that you doe , you will not doe them as those that are his slaves and servants , that doe things for other regards ; And indeede such is the love for the most part that is among us now adayes , there is much formality in our actions , wee have a forme of godlinesse without the power of it : even as in our love towards men , there are many complements , and much profession of love one to another , but wee finde that there is little true love : So wee may take up a complaint against men in their love to God , there is much formality , men are much in outward performances , which is well , I confesse , but alas , the power is wanting ; it is all but complementing with God , as it were , when you come and do these duties of Gods worship , when you keepe the Sabbath , and present your selves at prayers and at Sermons , it is well you doe so ; but yet when your hearts are going after your covetousnesse , and after your pleasures , after this or that particular humour , the Lord lookes upon this as upon a formall performance : it is another kinde of doing that the Lord requires at your hands . It may be you doe duties in secret and private , and it is a good propertie that you doe so , but yet that is not enough ; you may doe them as a taske , that you are glad when the businesse is done , and it is well that is over ; but when you will doe things out of love , you must know that you must doe it in another manner , not in this formality . If you will serve the Lord out of love , it is not the praying to him morning and evening that will content you , but it is the working upon your hearts , it is the beating upon your affections till you have brought them to a good frame of grace , till you have wrought upon your selves a sound and thorow renewing of your repentance , you will never give over till your hearts be quickened in prayer , till you have found that God hath answered you , till you have had experience of his mercy and loving kindnesse towards you . So when you come to heare , is this all , ( thinke you ) that God requires of you , to sit here , and lend us your eares for a little time ? No , my Beloved , unlesse you doe it from love , unlesse you be mooved to it from an inward principle , from an entire and holy affection to God , it is nothing . You must labour to have the word wrought upon your hearts , you must observe how you practise , and how you bring forth into action that which you heare ; for you doe not learne a thing here , when you come to heare the word , till you practise it , till your hearts bee transformed into it : Doe not thinke that you have done the worke , when you have sate here and heard us , when you have gone home and repeated the Sermon , and understand it : To heare as God would have you heare is another thing : it is like your lessons in musicke , you say you have never learned them , till you be able to practise them ; so you never have learned the word of God aright , till you have an abilitie in you to practise it . To shew you what love is , and what faith is , and what patience is , to make you understand and conceive of it , it is nothing ; but to have faith , to have patience , to have love , to have your affections inflamed to the Lord , this is the right hearing . As it is in physicke , the understanding of the Physitians bill is nothing , it is the taking and applying of that which is there written that doth good to your bodies ; so is it with the doctrine that wee preach , you may understand it , and apprehend it , and conceive of it aright ; but except you bring it forth into your lives and actions , you learne it not . Therefore this slight and overly performance is not a true testimonie of your loue to the Lord Iesus , but the doing of it to purpose , so that God who searcheth the heart may accept of it ; the doing of it thorowly that your hearts may be wrought upon , this is a signe that your doing and suffering comes from Love. FINIS . THE FOVRTH SERMON . GALLAT . 5.6 . For in Iesus Christ , neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but Faith which worketh by Love. THE last thing that wee did was to shew you what were the properties of true love , that by them you might try your selves whether you love the Lord Iesus or no : we went through five in the morning , we now proceede . 6 Another property of love is this , it is full of heate : therefore in Cant. 8. it is compared to coales of juniper : and that phrase is used in Mat. 24.5 . Iniquity shall abound , and the love of many shall waxe colde . That antithesis shewes that love is a hot thing , hot as fire . Therefore if you would know whether you love the Lord Iesus or no , consider what heat and what fire there is in you . Now what are the properties of fire ? wherein doth love and that agree ? Fire , you know , is the most active of all the elements ; colde benummes a man , and is the greatest enemie to action : if thou love the Lord Iesus , thou shalt finde thy love will have that property of fire to set all on worke on thee ; it will set thy tongue on fire , and thy hands on fire , and thy head and heart on fire , every thing that is within thee will be working , and doing some service or other to the Lord. When a man wanteth love , hee is as a man benummed , as a man frozen in his dreggs , not apt to any thing : the more a thing is like to fire , the more aptnesse , and the more activenesse ; so the more love , the more aptnesse and readinesse to every good worke : where there is no love , there men are reprobate to every good worke . Besides , love as it is very active , so it is very quicke , as fire is of a quicke nature . Therefore we say that love hates nothing so much as delayes , and it is in this like to fire , which is the quickest of all the elements . Consider of this therefore ; Art thou speedy in thy executions ? if thou love the Lord , thou wilt not deferre and put off from day to day any thing that is to bee done , thou wilt not say with thy self , I wil change my course of life , but not yet : no , if thou love the Lord , thou wilt doe it presently . Besides love agrees with fire in this , that it is earnest and vehement : and indeede I take it , that in that regard it is chiefly compared to fire . For fire , as it is of a quicke , so it is of a vehement nature , and so is love . Looke what a man loves , upon that he bestowes the top of all his affections , and the maine strength of his intentions run that way . Examine by this therefore whether thou love the Lord or no. If thou love the Lord Iesus , thou wilt look upon other things , as things that thou regardest not much , thou wilt grieve for them as if thou grievedst not , and rejoyce as if thou rejoycedst not , thou wilt use the world as if thou usedst it not , thy heart will be taken up about Christ , and about the things that belong to the kingdome of God , thy intentions will be set upon the things that belong to the service of God , and thy owne salvation . This is a thing by which you may plainly discerne the truth of your love : examine therefore what it is upon which you bestow the maine and the top of your intentions . Indeed , my brethren , the greatest things that the world hath are not worthy of the toppe and strength of our affections ; for they are but trifles . Therefore if you love the Lord Iesus , if you prize him aright , and be righ●ly affected towards him , you will esteeme nothing great , but the enjoying of his favour , and nothing of worse consequent than the losse of it , nothing will be of any great moment to you , but onely sinne , and grace ; sinne that displeaseth him , and grace that brings you into favour with him : as for other things , you will looke upon them as trifles , you will not put the strength of your mindes to any thing else ; this is the nature of love , it is vehement toward the thing that it loveth . Moreover , it hath also this property of fire , that it is still aspiring , it is still enlarging it selfe , still growing on , assimulating , and turning every thing into its owne nature , it is overcomming and is not ready to be overcome : Which propertie of fire is noted in that place I spake of in the morning , Much water cannot quench it , it is as strong as death : Now death , you know , overcomes all ; so will love , it will breake through all impediments . Consider whether you finde this disposition in your selves , that your hearts are still drawing nearer and nearer the Lord , that they are still aspiring up towards heaven , that you are still going onward and thriving in the worke of grace . But that which of all other things will manifest most to us this affection of love , 7 it is those affections which depend on it ; you shall know it , I say , by the affections that hang upon it . It is true that all the affections depend upon love , but , for this time , I will instance but in two , namely , Anger , and Feare . Looke whatsoever it is that a man loveth , where he findes any impediment in the prosecution of it , hee is angry , hee desires with as much earnestnesse to remoove that impediment , as hee loves the thing . Take any man even of the mildest disposition , if in any thing that hee loveth much , and intendeth much , there be an intercurrent impediment that shall interrupt him , he is angry , though otherwise he be of a most meeke disposition . For anger is but earnestnesse to remove the thing out of the way that hinders us : whatsoever a man loveth , hee is angry with the impediments that hinder him in it . Come now and examine your love to the Lord by your anger : that anger that proceedes from love to the Lord , we call zeale : will you professe that you love the Lord , and yet your hearts are not moved when he is dishonoured ? Thinke with thy selfe when thou art wronged in thy name , or some body miscalleth thee , misreports of thee , and prosecutes thee with evill speeches and revilings , is not thy wrath kindled in thee against such a one ? Well , if thou love the Lord Iesus as thy selfe , as thou oughtest to love him above thy selfe , why are not thy affections stirred in thee , when thou hearest him dishonoured , when thou knowest that his Name is ill spoken of ? If a man should take from thee thy wealth , or any thing that is deare to thee ; if a man should come and violate thee with ill tearmes , thou wouldest be angry with him , and be ready to flie in the face of such an one . If you be thus affected to the Lord , and to his glory , why doe you not doe the like for him ? You know , David did the same : Mine eyes gush out ( saith he ) with rivers of water because men keepe not thy Law. Therefore know that , if you finde not your hearts affected with the things that belong to God , that there is no anger stirred up , it is a sure argument that you love him not . It is observable that is said of olde Ely , 1 Sam. 4.3 . when newes was brought him that the Israelites were fled , that moved him not so much when it was tolde him ; morever that there was a great slaughter among the people , that stirred him not neither ; when it was tolde him yet that his two sonnes Hophni and Phineas were slaine , yet this did not so much affect him ; but when it was tolde him that the Arke of the Lord was taken , the text noteth something more than ordinary , that hee was so stirred with it , that he fell from his seate , & it cost him his life . Can you find this affection in your selves , that you are not moved with the death of childrē so much , or for the losse of your goods , or for your owne particular discontents , as when you shall heare that the glory is departed from Israel , that religion suffers any eclipse in any place , that the Gospell of Iesus Christ is hindred ? This is a thing that will try your love to the Lord. If you finde that you can heare of the desolation of the Churches , and of the increase and growing of Poperie , and yet you doe not take it to heart to be affected with it , you doe not grieve for it , it is a signe that you want love to the Lord. You know what is noted of them in Ierem. 36.24 . when the King had done an abominable action , that hee had cut the roll insunder that Ieremiah gave him , and cast it into the fire that was upon the hearth before him , it is sayd that those that were about him , did not rent their clothes , nor petition to him &c. As if hee should say ; in this they discovered a wonderfull want of love to the Lord , and to his cause , that they were not moved with this dishonour , that was offered to God , and to his servant , and to the cause of Religion at that time . You know what disposition Paul had in this case Act. 17. He observed that the place , where he was , was given to Idolatry , the text saith , His spirit was stirred in him , his zeale and his anger was kindled in his breast . Therefore consider what your affections to the Lord are by this holy anger that is in you . Moses you know , was the meekest man vpon the earth , and yet you know how he was mooved , how his zeale was kindled in his breast , when he saw the idolatry of the people . In the next place consider your feare : For if you love the Lord , it will cause you to feare and tremble at his word , and at his judgements , for whom a man loves much , he regards much , and when a man regards another much , he is much affected with what he doth ; Now when the Lord shall shew some tokens of his wrath , those that love him , and esteeme of him , those that prize him , cannot but be affected . Shall the Lyon roare , and shall not the beasts of the field tremble ? Consider , how you are affected therefore , when the Lord shall discover any expression of his wrath , and what doth hee else in this stroake , which is now vpon this place ; is there not wrath gone out from the Lord ? You know the plague is more particularly Gods hand , then any other affliction : Therefore David saith when he chose the plague , that he would choose to fall into the hands of God , intimating that , in that buysinesse , God was in a more peculiar manner the doer of it . As the thunder is sayd to be the voyce of the Lord , so the plague may properly be sayd to be the stroake of the Lord , more peculiarly than any other affliction . Consider therfore what your affections are in this case : for my beloved , let it not be in vayne to you , that the Lord stretcheth forth his hand as hee doth now at this time among vs. It is but yet in the beginning , and what is the Lords meaning in it ? Is it not as a messenger sent vpon an errand ? If it had its answer , if that were done , for which the Lord had sent it , would he not remoue it againe ? Would he not bid the destroying Angell to put up his sword into his sheath ? Doubtlesse he would , if you would doe that at the beginning of this sicknesse that must be done before the Lord will remoove it from you . You will say , what shall we doe then ? I beseech you consider what commonly is the cause of a plague among vs. Consider what hath ben the cause of the plague in former times . You shal finde in Numb : 25. two causes of the plague . One was the superstition and Idolatrie of the people , they begann to be yokt with Idolatrie , They joyned themselues to Baal Peor . I confesse that sinne was not yet growne to any great height , it was but yet in the beginning , in the seedes , and yet you know how the Lord was offended with them . And the second was fornication , the sinne of vncleanes that was cōmitted . It is not likely that all the people fell into that sinne of Idolatry , or into the sinne of Fornication , but yet the Lord was offended with the whole Congregation for those that did it , as the manner is to be . So here you see two causes of a plague , Idolatry which was but beginning , and the very admitting it into the Campe ; and the Fornication of the people . Another cause of the plague you shall find in Davids numbring the people , it was their securitie and pride , and trusting to themselves , and the creatures : for surely it was not Davids sinne only ( who had somewhat forgotten God , and trusted to his mountaine , & thought that that was strong enough ) but it was the sinne of the people . It is good ( my beloved ) to be secure out of confidence vpon God , and therein , the more securitie the better ; but to be secure for any outward help , either in the number of men or ships , or strength or policie , or because we are compassed about with the walls of the Sea , or whatsoeever it is wherein wee thinke our safetie consisteth , the more confidence in this the worse . The Lord smott the people for this security in Dauids time . Another cause is , the unworthy receiving of the Sacrament . Many are sicke among you ( saith the Apostle ) and many are dead , because you receive the Sacrament unworthily . The Lord is pleased to punish that particular sinne of receiving the Sacrament unworthily , with some sicknesse or other , whether the plague or no , we cannot say , but this we may be sure of , that this was the cause why so many were sicke and dead . You know that passage in the booke of Chronicles concerning Ezekias , when the people had not prepared themselves aright as they ought , hee prayed to the Lord , and it is said , The Lord healed the people : we cannot say what the Lord healed them of , but yet it makes it evident that the Lord had some way smitten thē . Moses for the omission of the Sacrament the Lord would have slaine him , that is , he would have sent something upon him , whether some disease , as is most probable , or some other thing which should have taken away his life in the end . The omission and negligent receiving of the Sacrament I put together , which mooveth God to anger , and to inflict plagues upon a people . I will name yet one more besides these , and that is the coldnesse and deadnesse of their hearts who belong to the Lord , from whom he expects better things , and more zeale , which I gather hence : What was the reason that the zeale of Phineas stayed the plague ? Numb . 25. Because his love was hot , and his anger was kindled in a holy manner against that Israelitish man , and the Mid●anitish woman , that had committed fornication among the people . If the zeale of Phineas was the cause of staying that plague , and of withholding the Lords hands , then surely the coldnes of those from whom the Lord lookes for much heate , for much fervency of spirit , whom God expects should stand in the gappe , I say , that is the cause that the Lord goes on in punishing . But what should we doe now to remove it ? Amend the things that are amisse , repent and amend , and he will turne from his fierce wrath , which he not onely intendeth against us , but is also already upon us ; Labour to cleanse your hands from idolatry and superstition , and cleanse the land from the crying sinne of uncleannesse and fornication , and every man labour to cleanse his owne heart . And againe , to turne to the Lord , to take heede of security , which is a forerunner of a ruine , as a great calme is a forerunner of an earthquake . Againe , take heed of receiving the Sacrament unworthily , many of you this day have received ; therefore I should speake something particularly to them , but in truth this concernes all among us ; but chiefly let me speake to those a little that are able to pray , that have some fire in them , that have had the worke of grace in their hearts wrought by the Spirit of God , that have some sparkes if they were blowne up , that are men fit to stand in the gap ; It belongs to you , my brethren to doe something that the Lord may stay his hand : and remember that when the Lord begins to send forth tokens of his wrath and displeasure against a Nation , it is a time wherein he expects and lookes for humiliation and repentance : Therefore take heede of neglecting that in Isay 22. In that day ( saith the Lord ) when I called for humiliation , beholde killing of fatlings and oxen , &c. Therefore know what your dutie is , and learne now to see what belongs to you to doe , shew your love to the Lord in trembling at his judgements , in being zealous for his Names sake : as indeed where there is abundance of love there is alwayes exceeding much zeale : So it was with Paul , so it was with Elias , so it was with Moses , so it hath beene with all the Saints . And so much for this . Another property of love is this , 8 that it doth not play the huckster with the Lord ( as wee say ) it doth not bring things to an exact account , but when a man loveth , hee is willling to doe what offices of love and friendship he can , and he doth not stand to looke for an exact recompence ; ( for that is to play the huckster , to make a bargaine with God ) but the nature of love and true friendship , wheresoever it is found , is this , to be free in doing that it doth , and not to stand to examine how much they shall doe , and how much they shall receive for doing of it ; but to doe it with liberty and with freedome . And so it will be if your love be right to the Lord , you will not stand halfepeny-worthing , you will not stand considering what you are bound to doe of necessitie , whether you are bound to pray in your families or no , whether you are bound to keepe the Sabboth so exactly and precisely as is commanded ; whether you are bound from giving so much liberty to your selves in vaine speeches , &c. but love will rather say , what shall I doe to recompence the Lord ? It will be devising what to doe , it will be glad of any occasion of doing any thing that may be acceptable to God. When you set limits to your selves , and are afraid of going too farre , and doing too much , it is a signe that what you doe commeth not from love to the Lord , but from some naturall principle , it comes from your selves , and not from the spirit . For if you love the Lord Iesus aright , why doe you not labour to exceed in the duties of obedience ? why doe you blame those that goe further than your selves are willing to doe ? why doe you quarrell with that exactnesse and precisenesse , and strictnesse which is required in walking in the wayes of God ? Love is abundant in the worke it doth , and if you love the Lord , you will not set limits to your selves , you will not have such thoughts as these , I will doe as much as may bring mee to heaven , and no more , I will take so much paines as that I may not be damned , but to exceede , and doe more than needes , this I hope may be spared , and I may goe to heaven notwithstanding well enough , though I goe not so fast as other men . No , Beloved , if there be love in you , you will strive to doe the utmost of your power , it is the nature of love so to doe . Againe , you will not be so exact , nor indent with the Lord what hee will doe to you ; but though the Lord be slow and slacke in rewarding you , though he stay long , and suffer you to goe on without taking any notice of you , as it were , nay perhaps hee gives you many afflictions and persecutions , poverty , trouble , sicknesse , &c. though the Lord doth not doe what you expect , yet your love will be free , it will goe on , you will be ready to say as Paul did , I know whom I have trusted : that is , he was resolved to serve the Lord , to doe his utmost , though the Lord did reserve himselfe and the recompence of reward to a further time , yet he was content . Such a disposition will be found in those that love the Lord Iesus . Again you may judge of your love to the Lord Iesus by another property of love , 9 which is a hatred of sinne , by your hatred of that which is contrary to him ; for love is not better knowne by any thing than by hatred ; for all hatred is properly rooted in love : for you hate nothing but because you love the contrary ; therefore if you love the Lord Iesus , you will hate sinne . Examine your selves by this , for it is a sure rule , if you love the Lord , you will hate that which is evill . You will say , I hope I doe that . It is well if you doe , but let us consider that : it may be you may be angry with sinne , but doe you hate sinne ? That was the commendations that the Lord gives the Church , in Rev. 2. Thou hatest the works of the Nicholaitans which I also hate . Therefore , if you would know whether you love the Lord Iesus , try it by this , doe you hate sin ? You will say , How shall wee know whether we hate it or no ? In these three things you shall finde wherein hatred differs from anger , and thereby you may examine your selves . First , hatred is more of generalls ; a man hates all drunkards , if he hate drunkennesse : hee hates all toads and all serpents , if hee hate poyson . A man is angry with this or that particular , but hatred is of all . I would aske thee , doest thou hate all sinne , every thing that is called sinne , all that belongs to sinne ? If it be this or that sinne that you make against , you are but angry with sinne , you doe not hate sin : for hatred fals alwaies upon the generall . Examine therefore if you finde this disposition in your hearts , that you hate every sinne , that your hearts rise against every thing that is sinfull , whatsoever is contrary to the Lord , whatsoever you apprehend under the notion of sin , that you hate , and resist , and strive against ; this is a signe that you love the Lord. Secondly , hatred desires the utter destruction of the thing it hates , anger doth not so , anger desires but a revenge proportionable to the injurie : therefore we say there is a kinde of justice in anger , it would not have the party that it is angry with to be destroyed , but it would have him sensible of its displeasure , it would have something done that might answer the injurie that is offered ; but hatred desires the destruction of a thing utterly . Now doe you doe so with your sinnes ? doe you desire to have them wholly extirpate and rooted out of you ? to have your lusts thorowly and perfectly mortified ? are you willing to have sinne so cleane taken away , that you may have any no libertie to have dalliance with it in any kind ? do you hate it so as that you cannot endure to come neere it , nor to have it within your sight ? It is a signe you hate it indeed . Lastly , hatred differeth from anger in this , that it is implacable : hatred comes from judgement , and it continues , and therefore hatred is not a passion , but we call it an affection ; it is a beautie , and disposition , and frame of the will ; anger is a passion that dies , and flittes away after a time ; but hatred continues . Is your disposition such to your sinnes ? examine your selves ; nothing is more frequent , my brethren , than to be humbled for some sinne , which amazeth you for the present , but doth your hatred continue ? If not , you doe but fall out with your sinnes onely , and grow friends with them againe . If you did hate them , as you should , you would never returne to amity with them more . Many a man takes resolutions to himselfe , I will be drunke no more , I will be a gamester no more , I will not commit such , and such grosse sinnes , as I have done any more ; perhaps some shame , or some feare hath followed him , some deepe apprehension of wrath and judgement , which set him vpon this resolution for the present ; but if the heart be right that thou hatest sin as thou shouldest , thou wilt continue hating of it . Therefore consider , whether you love the Lord Iesus by this triall , whether your hearts hate sin , in your constant resolution or no. This was the disposition that was in Lot , His righteous soule was vexed with the unclean conversation of the Sodomits , that is , he did not onely abstaine from the actes that they did , but his soule wrought against them , he was vexed with them , as a man is vexed with a thing that is contrary to his disposition . So it is sayd of Moses , he stood in the doore of the Tabernacle , and he wept as he stood , his heart was mooved in him . It is not enough to abstaine from sinne , but to hate sinne , and that is an argument of our love to the Lord Iesus : take this therefore for an other triall of your love . Againe , there is one more which wee cannot leave out , 10 though it be a thing knowne unto you , yet because the Scripture gives it as a peculiar signe by which we may judge of our love to the Lord , it must not be passed by , and that is our love to the Saints ; and there is good reason given of it , if we consider it well , 1 Ioh. 4.20 . Wilt thou say thou lovest God whom thou hast not seene , and yet lovest not thy brother whom thou hast seene ? The meaning is this , for a man to love the Lord who is immortall , invisible , who dwelleth in light inaccessible , is a more difficult thing than to love thy brother whom thou seest . For why doe wee love the Lord , but because we conceive him under such a notion ? we thinke of him as such a God having such and such attributes : Now , saith the Apostle , whatsoever thou conceivest of God , that very image and disposition is stamped on man like thy selfe , thou shalt see the very same disposition in a holy man that is in the Lord himselfe . Indeed it differeth in the degree exceedingly , there is but a glimpse of it , yet why is it said that the Image of God is renewed , but that there is in holy men a disposition like the nature of God ? Now this is in a more remisse degree in man , and therefore more sutable to our weaknesse ; as you know , difficulty comes from disproportion , it is a harder thing to love the Lord than a man like our selves . If therefore wee doe not love men like our selves , in whom is stamped a disposition like the nature of God , and his Image , in some degree , surely we cannot love the Lord who is so farre above us . Againe , a man like our selves is visible , we see his actions , we heare him speake , we know more plainly the frame of his disposition ; and therefore it is more easie to love a holy man than to love the Lord : For so is the Apostles argument . Doe not thinke that thou lovest the Lord whom thou never sawest , when thou doest not love thy brother whom thou seest daily . Therefore wee may conclude thus much , if we love not the Saints and holy men , it is certaine we love not the Lord. I confesse every man is ready to say ( in this case ) he loves holy men . I would put you to this tryall , 4 and aske you but this question ; you shall know it by this : Doe you love all the Saints ? You shall finde that the Apostle Paul still in his Epistles puts in that caution , Love to all the Saints . If thou love grace and holinesse , thou wilt love it wheresoever it is . Many men will love some particular grace , especially when it suteth with their disposition , and is agreeable to them , and to their constitution , but to love all grace , to love all holinesse in all the Saints wheresoever it is found , it is an infallible signe that thou lovest the Lord Iesus . Againe , doest thou love none but them ; that , where grace is , thou lovest , and where it is not , thou withdrawest thy love ? But , you will say , would you have us to love none but the Saints ? I answer , it is true , wee ought to love all others with a love of pitty , wee should shew abundance of this love to all mankinde ; but then there is a love of complacencie and delight , and with this love we ought to love none but the Saints . Againe , thirdly , doe you love them as they excell in holinesse ? many men can love one that hath but some degree of grace ; but if it be one that hath more exactnes than ordinarie , that hath proceeded higher in holinesse than he thinkes requisite , here his heart is readie to quarrell , and to rise against him . Lastly , doe you manifest your loue by delighting in their companie , and by the fruites of love towards them ? You may professe much , and say much , but of all other things companie is the worst dissembled . Will you professe that you loue the Saints , and that you delight in them , and yet desire to be in any company rather than in theirs ? that when you are among them , you are as if you were out of your element , you move as if you were out of your owne center ? It is impossible but that those that are moved by the same spirit should be best pleased when they are in one and the same society . Put all these things together , and by these you may judge whether you love the Saints or no. You will object , I doe love the Saints , but who are they ? I love not hypocrites , and so it is made a notable excuse . I will not wish thee to love hypocrites , onely take heede thou suffer not the impes and instruments of the Divell to paint out the true Saints unto thee in the colours of hypocrites : thou must consider that it hath beene the usuall manner to cast that aspersion upon all the Saints , upon all holy men in all ages , as the Apostle saith in 2 Cor. We are as deceivers though true : that is the common esteeme that the world hath of the Saints , they judge them to be deceivers , and to be men that professe themselves to be otherwise than they are . You know what was said of Iesus Christ , some said of him he was a good man , others said nay , he was a deceiver of the people . You know what was said of David , that he was a subtle man , one that went about to deceive others . Paul , you know , was reckoned the great impostor of the world ; this was alwayes laid upon the Saints : therefore let not the Divells instruments deceive thee in that . Besides , why are they hypocrites ? Is it because there are some shewes of holinesse in them ? Surely that is not argument enough . Thou wilt say , because they doe not answer that which in their profession they make shew to be ? If that be the reason , why doest thou not pitch thy hatred upon those that are found to be so ? And to conclude this , you must know , that no man speakes against religion or hates religion , under its owne notions , under its owne name , but something else must be put upon it , the name of hypocrisie , or the like . And it is the common condition of men whose hearts are not upright , that they are not able to judge aright of the wayes of God ; a man that hath not grace himselfe cannot possibly judge aright of grace in others : but I hasten . I must now proceede in the point I formerly began to insist on , namely , in shewing you the meanes of getting this love , and of increasing it . I shewed formerly somes meanes to get this love and to increase it . As first prayer , for it is the gift of the Spirit . Secondly , to beseech the Lord to shew himselfe to you . We will add but one now at this time , to shew you the way more fully to obtaine this love . If you would love the Lord , remove the impediments . What are those ? They are two . Strangenes , and uncircumcision of heart , or worldly mindednesse . First , 1 strangenesse is agreat impediment to love . It is an observation that the Philosophers hath , that strangenes when we doe not salute , and converse one with another , is a meanes of dissolving friendship ; so in this case , when there growes a strangenesse betweene God and vs , it unties and loosens that love and communion that should be betweene us . Therefore , if you would preserve your love to the Lord , suffer not your hearts to sit loose from him , suffer not a strangenes to grow betweene God and you . For strangenesse breeds fearfulnesse , and fearefulnesse looseneth love , as boldnesse is the parent and nurse of love , and that which increaseth it . Besides , when there growes a strangenesse betweene God and us , wee begin not to know the Lord , there growes an ignorance , and so there is an intermission of those reciprocall offices of love betweene us ; that even as it is among the Saints , the forsaking of their fellowship looseneth their love , and so stoppeth the intercourse of good duties that should be among them : so it is with the Lord. And therefore if you would maintaine love with the Lord , draw neare to him , and he will draw neare to you . How shall we doe that ? By speaking much to him , by hearing him speake to us , by retiring to him upon all occasions for consolation and comfort . If thou receive any injurie from men , wrangle not with them , but doe as David did , betake thy selfe to prayer , take heede of sinne , for that of all other things will breede a strangenesse betweene God and thee ; and if you doe fall out , seeke to be reconciled againe as soone as may be , labour to entertaine a continuall commerce betweene God and thy selfe , observe constantly his dealing with thee , and observe againe thy carriage towards hm , this will breede a familiarity betweene God and thee . And above all , be much in prayer ; for that in a speciall manner maintaines and increaseth this communion and familiaritie betweene the Lord and thee . 2 Againe , the other thing that hinders is uncircumcision of heart , or worldly-mindednesse : in Deut. 30.6 . I will circumcise your hearts , and you shall love me with all your soules , and with all your hearts . As if he should say , that which keepes you from loving me , from delighting in mee , is the uncircumcision of your hearts , that is , your worldly lusts , and worldly cares , and worldly desires , when these abound in our hearts , they keepe us from loving the Lord : Therefore in 1 Iohn 2. If you love the world , the love of the Father is not in you . Come to any particular , and you shall finde it so ; if you love wealth , you cannot love the Lord , if you love pleasures , if you love praise with men , if you love honours , &c. you cannot love the Lord ; the love of God , and vaine glorie , the love of God and covetousnesse will not stand together . Therefore if you will love the Lord , you must have your hearts circumcised , that is , you must have these sinfull lusts cut off ; for nothing quencheth love so much as these . You know , the love of an adulterer quencheth the conjugall love of the wife to the husband : your love of the world is adulterie , the Scripture calls it so ; therefore if you love that , it will quench your love to the Lord. You will say , May we not love the things of the world ? Yes , my brethren , onely take heede that it be not an adulterous love . How shall we know that ? You shall know it by this , if it doe lessen your love to God : You may know whether your love to any creature , to any sport or recreation be adulterous or no. A chast wife may love many men besides her husband ; but if it once begin to lessen her love to her husband , that is an adulterous love : Therefore if you would love the Lord aright , be sure to cut off this , for it breedes a distance betweene God and you . As it is said of Absolom , when the hearts of the people went with Absolom , they fell from David the King ; so when our hearts are stollen away with the love of earthlie things , our love to the Lord is lessened with it . Therefore I say , if you will love the Lord aright , you must be carefull to remove this : for the cares of the world , the lusts and diverse pleasures , these choake the love of the Lord , they are the greatest quench-coales of any other . Loue , you know , is of an uniting qualitie , when any thing lieth betweene God and us , that , you may be sure , will hinder our love . Now there are many things that lye betweene God and us . Some things lie in our understandings , temptations to atheisme , temptations to thinke that the Scriptures are not true , temptations to judge amisse of God in any thing , temptations to doubt of the favour of God ; These lie in the understanding betweene God and us , and are contrary to love : for love uniteth . But in the will there lyeth much more , sometimes vaine hopes , sometimes vaine feares , sometimes one thing , sometimes another . If there be any inordinate lust after any creature , after any thing in the world , it lieth betweene God and us , and makes a separation betweene us ; and till that be removed , God and we cannot come together , till there be an union wee cannot fully love . Therefore if you would love the Lord , have your hearts circumcised , that is , have those things removed out of your understanding , and out of your will. Take away those obstacles that lie betweene God and you : And if you cannot doe it your selves , goe to Christ , it is he that circumciseth us with the circumcision made without hands . Againe , when you have done this , that you may grow in love to the Lord , learne to know the Lord ; for the more you know him , the more you will love him . What is the reason that the Angels in heaven so love him ? Because they know him . What is the reason that we shall love him more in heaven than wee doe now , but because we shall know him more ? Therefore when you reade the Scriptures , and observe the works of Gods providence in every particular , learne by this to know God : as you know a man by his actions and carriage , learne to have such an Idea of God , as he hath described himselfe in his word , that hee is true of his word , that hee is full of goodnesse , that he is abundant in long-suffering and patience , that hee is exceeding mercifull beyond measure , &c. labour to see his wisdome , his goodnesse , and his mercie , labour to know God : for when you come to know him aright , by that we come to love him . Why doe wee love one man more than another , but because wee conceive him under such a notion , wee conceive his heart to be of such and such a frame , wee thinke him to be a man of such and such a condition ? when we thus conceive the Lord , it will teach us to love him more . Therefore this you must know , that for you onely to looke upon things that are beneficiall to you , as forgivenesse of sins , and adoption , and an inheritance in heaven , that is not love to the Lord. It is true , you should doe all this , but that which you are principally to doe , is to looke to the essence of God , to see such excellencies in him , that thereby you may be led home to him : and therefore that you may know him the better , you must be taught of him . Againe , you must not onely know him , but you must likewise have assurance of his love to you : for when you know the excellencies of the Lord , unlesse you have assurance of his love to you , it is not sufficient . Take a man of the highest place , and of the most excellent quality ; if thou conceive that he hath a hollow heart towards thee , thou canst not possibly love him : thou must be perswaded of the love of the Lord to thee . Therefore in the Text it is said to be faith which worketh by love . The increase of the assurance of Gods love therefore is the meanes to increase thy love to him . So much for this time . FINIS . THE FIFTH SERMON . GALAT. 5.6 . For in Iesus Christ , neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but Faith which worketh by Love. THE last thing wee did was to give you the properties of love to the Lord Iesus . Now that which remaines to doe at this time , is to apply that which hath beene said , that is , to bring your hearts and the rule together , and to exhort you , that what you have heard in this , it may not passe like airy notions , and never be brought home to your particular practise . For , my beloved , the word that we deliuer to you , should be like nailes , driven home to the head , fastened by the masters of the assemblie , as the Wiseman speakes , that they may sticke and abide in the soule , as forked arrowes doe in the bodie , that they may not easily fall out againe . Therefore the maine businesse that wee have to doe in preaching the word , is to fasten these words thus upon your hearts . That which we will doe therefore at this time shall be to exhort you to question your owne hearts , and to examine them upon your beds , whether these characters and properties of love which have beene delivered doe agree to you or no. For , as the Apostle saith , Vnlesse you be in Christ , that is , unlesse you be knit to Christ in love , you are reprobates : it concernes every man therefore that heares me at this time , to examine this strictly with himselfe . We will expostulate the matter a while with you at this time , and you must expostulate the matter betweene God and your owne consciences , whether this love be in you or no. And although indeede this needeth not any distinct dividing into branches , yet that wee may helpe your memories wee will put it into a number . And first we will make this expostulation , you that professe you love the Lord , ( as who will not be ready to doe that , to say he loveth Christ ; but yet as the Apostle Iohn speaketh of love to the brethren , that men love them in shew , and not in truth ; so it is with most men , they love the Lord in word , and in profession , but they love him not in deed , and in truth ) therefore first let me aske you this . You that professe you love the Lord , doe you not grieve him , and vexe him from day to day , and provoke him by your words , and by your workes ? If this be your case , it is certaine you love him not indeede . Some there are that professe much love to the Lord Iesus , but yet spend their time idly , are diligent in no calling , but waste their precious opportunities in sports , in idle visitations , in gaming , in doing nothing that is profitable either to themselves or others , but eate and drinke , and rise up to play : It is the case of many of our young Gentlemen ; a shamefull thing before men , and abominable in the sight of God , that men should live like beasts , & make their soules like the soules of swine , serving for nothing but to keepe their bodies from putrifaction , doing so much the lesse worke , because they have the more wages ; burying so many precious talents , whereof their time is the chiefe , because it helpeth to improove all the rest ; of which they shall give an exact account at that day , When God shall judge the secrets of mens hearts according to our Gospell . Doe you professe that you love the Lord Iesus , and doe you neglect him thus ? Besides this mocking of the Lord , and dissembling with him , you deale most foolishly with your selves : for all the comfort that you shall ever finde in this life , it will be from working , from being serviceable to God , and profitable to men ; empty lives cause but empty joy . Therefore if any man shall finde this to be his case , examine it , it is but a false profession of love . And as I speake to those that are young , that spend their time , Nihil agendo : so I may say the same to those that are of more yeares , that waste their lives in doing something indeede , but it is not that which they should doe , or in doing it in another manner than they ought ; those that are so drowned in businesse , so overwhelmed with imployment , so occupied with outward things abroad , that they have no vacancie to feede their soules within , to cloathe them with graces . For you must know , my brethren , that your soules have neede to be trimmed every morning , as well as the body , they have neede of breakfast , and dinner , and exercise , as well as the body ; and as you faile in giving this due respect to the soule daily , so you shall finde that proportionably in that degree the inward man will languish , and grow faint . But to speake a word unto you likewise : Doe you thinke that you love the Lord Iesus in good earnest , and yet have scarse leisure to thinke of him from morning to night , that you cannot take time to speake to him , to seeke him , nor to prepare your hearts for him ? Besides this generall , come to particular sinnes , sabbath-breaking , neglecting of private prayer , vaine speeches , concupiscence and sinfull lusts , secret courses of uncleannesse , swearing , if not by greater , yet by lesser oathes , which indeede in this exceede the greater ; because in the other you sweare by the Creatour , in these by the creature . You that doe these things , will you say you love the Lord ? You must know that it is a contradiction , it is impossible : For , if you love me , keepe my commandements : if you keep not the commandements of God , certainly you love him not . But , it may be , you will say that your meaning is good , that you are well affected to Christ , and therefore surely you doe not hate him . My brethren , you are deceived in this , thy meaning is not good ; for while you cast the commandements of God behinde you , you cast him away : and let me say to you in this case , as you have it in Ier. 3.4 . You professe well in saying , Thou art my Father , and the guide of my youth , but you doe evill more and more . So I say , when you professe you love the Lord , and that you reckon him your Father , and your Husband , thus you say indeede , but you doe evill more and more ; and that is a certaine argument you love not the Lord. Therefore examine your selves by this rule : For , if you love the Lord , you will reverence him : You know , whom we love , we reverence , and whom we reverence , we dare not doe any thing unmeete in their sight . Take any one whom we love , whose good opinion wee seeke for , wee had rather that all the world should see us doe an unseemely thing , than that he should ; and certainly if you love the Lord , you would not dare to provoke him to anger . Therefore this carelesnesse in serving of him is a certaine signe of want of love to the Lord Iesus , this fearefulnesse , and carelesnesse , when you dare not shew your courage for him , when you account it a small matter to commit a sinne against God , this ariseth from the defect of your love . In the second place , as you may try your love by your taking care not to offend God , so likewise you may try it by your sorrow and griefe after you have offended him : For you must know this , that love , as it hath the greatest joy of any thing else , when it obtaines that which it would have , so it is attended with the most exquisite griefe , when it is disappointed . As when one loveth another earnestly , if any breach fall out that shall make a separation betweene them , if any strangenesse grow betweene them , if they love , they will never be at rest , it will trouble and disquiet them ; but as the Scripture speakes , they are sicke of love , that is , they cannot be quiet while there is such a condition , while there is any alienation , while there are breaches and offences betweene them . for you know that nothing is so sweete as love ; as you have it in Cant. 1. Love is better than wine : and as David expresseth it , Psal. 63.3 . Thy loving kindnesse is better than life . So sweete ( I say ) is love , as sweete as wine , and better than life . Now , by the rule of contraries , then , to have a breach made , to have a barre , and an interruption in this loving kindnesse of the Lord towards us , or in our love towards him , it is bitter as wormewood , and sharpe as death . Therfore you may examine your selves by the offences you offer to God , when they are past ; if you love him , it is certaine they will trouble you exceedingly ; for so much sorrow for sinne , so much love . And you may take it for a sure rule , in what measure any man desires to please the Lord , in that measure hee will be grieved that he hath displeased him . Therefore examine thy selfe , Hast thou sinned against him many times , and doest thou looke backe upon those sinnes in a carelesse manner , be sure that thou lovest him not . Examine this by that which passeth betweene man and man : When a father or a husband hath any thing committed against them by a childe or a wife , if they shall withdraw themselves , and professe themselves displeased , and yet the childe or the wife , in the meane time , be never troubled at this , but be at rest , well enough content it should be so , and are not disquieted for it ; will not the parent or husband take this exceeding ill at their hands , when hee seeth his displeasure slighted ? For this is much greater than the offence it selfe . So I may say , whatsoever the sinne be that you have committed , this hardnesse of heart , this negligence after the sinne is committed , when you are not disquieted for it , when your hearts are not troubled for it , it is a greater signe of want of love to the Lord , it is a greater signe of an evill and untoward disposition , than the sinne it selfe . Therefore this want of sorrow for sinne , is a sure argument that you love not the Lord. You may take that for one signe of want of love , that we commit sinnes against God from day to day . For , doe but goe to your neighbours , and professe your love to them , and yet you injure them againe and againe , you care not what wrong you doe them ; will they thinke that such a profession as you make is true ? and will the Lord regard , when you say that you love him , if you provoke him to anger , and renew your sinnes , and relapse into them againe and againe , and when you have sinned , take it not to heart ? No , my brethren , if you doe love him , you will doe as it is said , Zach. 12. when you have sinned , you will mourne as he that mourneth for his onely sonne , your hearts will melt , as Iosiahs did ; your hearts will smite you , as Davids did him : thus it is with all that love him in deede and in truth . Therefore in Levit. 16.29 , and likewise Levit. 23.27 . ( they are both one and the same ) the Lord appoints a feast and a meeting together for cleansing of sinnes , it was the feast of atonement ; saith hee , In that day when you come together to offer sacrifice unto me , and to make an attonement , you shall humble your soules , and whosoever doth not afflict his soule on that day , he shall be cut off from his people . As if he should say , At that day you come to reconcile your selves to the Lord , you make profession of your love to him , and of the desire you have to bee friends with him : Now , if you come and make this profession , and doe not humble your selves , nor afflict your soules on that day for those breaches that have beene betweene God and you , all your professions are but dissimulation ; and such a man as will thus dissemble with the Lord , shall be cut off from his people . So I say , when you professe that you love the Lord , and yet have hard hearts , that there is no softnesse there , that your hearts doe not melt towards him , but when you have sinned , you can looke backe upon your sinnes without any disturbance at all , know that it is but dissembling with the Lord , and you are worthy to be cut off from his people . I come to a third tryall : If you love the Lord Iesus , have you your hearts after his owne heart ? that is the disposition of all those that love him . Acts 13.22 . the Lord saith of David , . I have found a man after my owne heart , that will doe whatsoever I will : That is , looke how the Lord himselfe was affected in any businesse , so was Davids heart affected , and so it is with all those that love the Lord : ( for this is proper to the Saints ) If you love the Lord , you will be of one heart with him ; if we have hearts after his heart , as every Christian must have in his measure , ( though perhaps he reach not Davids measure ) in all the turnings of our lives , upon all occasions , in the diverse disposition of our wills , we will be conformable to the Lords will , we will be like God , affected in every thing as he is affected . But , you will say , this is a hard thing , how shall we discerne it ? You shall discerne it by these two things : If you be affected as he is , you will doe whatsoever he will ; as those words are added concerning David , I have found a man after mine owne heart , for he will doe whatsoever I will. You may examine your selves by that ; doe you doe whatsoever he will ? are your affections aright , that you love what he loves , and hate what he hates ? For your actions are the immediate fruites and effects of your affections , and as every man is affected so he doth . And besides , as that is one way to discerne it , so this is another which you shall likewise finde in David , that hee loved those that feared the Lord ; and those that love vaine inventions , doe I not hate them , saith hee ? &c. And that you may discerne this , consider whether you love all those that feare the Lord , and hate all those that are enemies to the Lord. For while there is nothing but nature in a man , so long those that are of good natures , that are faire in their carriages , and kinde and loving to us , those wee love , and those that are contrary we hate and dislike ; but when you love the Lord , and are after his heart , and have another nature in you , it raiseth you above this nature of your owne , and then you will love those that are like the Lord , whosoever they are , though perhaps they are not so sociable , not of so faire a naturall disposition : but if you have a new nature , and are become new creatures , now you have common friends , and common enemies . Doe not object now , that you are willing to doe so , if they were sincere and upright , but they are hypocrites . I say , doe not deceive your selves in this : for as they rejected Christ under the person of a counterfeit , and of a wine-bibber , so thou maist persecute Christ under the person of an hypocrite . Paul ; you know , hee thought hee did God good service in persecuting those whom he persecuted , yet though hee did it ignorantly , he confessed of himselfe that he was a blasphemer , and a persecuter : So I say , though you doe it ignorantly , under the person of an hypocrite , yet that is the judgement , and the censure that will be upon you , that in so doing you are persecuters . And if you shall say , that if the Lord himselfe lived amongst us , if Iesus Christ were here , I hope I should shew that I doe not hate him . You shall see what the Lord himselfe saith , In that you have done it to these , you have done it to mee . As he speakes there in the matter of giving , so may I say to you concerning this case , in that you have despised those that feare his name , in that you have spoken against such as are his , you have done it against the Lord : in this thing you have shewed your hatred against him . Examine your hearts therefore seriously by this marke . Againe , fourthly , wee will bring you to that expostulation which is grounded on 1 Ioh. 2.15 . Love not the world , nor ●he things of the world ; for if you love the world , the love of the Father is not in you . Now question with your own hearts about this , whether you love the world , and the things of the world ; for if you doe , the words are cleare , The Love of the Father is not in you . You will say , how shall we know this ? You shall know it by these three things . First , by your delight in the things of the world , and your griefe and sorrow for the losse of them after you have enjoyed them ; for if you finde that you are much affected about them , it is certaine that you love the world , and the things of the world : Intemperate and excessive griefe , and complaint for worldly losses and crosses , is a sure argument and evidence that you love the world . Whereas when you love the Lord , you will be indifferent in those things ; if a worldly losse befall you , you will grieve as if you grieved not ; if any worldly advantage happeneth , you will enjoy it as if you enjoyed it not : A man will be thus affected , If I have God sure , I reckon him onely my portion , all other things are by accident , he onely is essentiall to my happinesse . We doe not denie that a man may grieve upon such occasions , but it is a lighter kinde of griefe ; and therefore it is expressed well by the former phrase , As if he grieved not : He knoweth all this while the maine is sure , and so long his heart is stedfast within him : but when a man shall fall into excessive griefe , when the affection shall be exceedingly stirred about worldly things , it is a signe that you reckon not God , and the assurance of his favour to be the maine thing in your happinesse : you should be affected to the world with a remisse affection . Now when your affections are so much taken up about them , it is a signe you love the world , and the things of the world . It is true , you may doe the things of the world , and enjoy them , and follow after them , but in a remisse manner ; but when your affections are so much stirred about them , when you come to excessive love in the having them , and excessive griefe in the losing of them , it is a signe that you love the world , and the things of the world . Secondly , you shall know it by this , when worldly things shall come into competition with those that belong to a good conscience , and the service of God , you shall finde this one way whereby you may discerne your love to the world . When Christ would make a triall of the young man , whether hee loved the world or no , he puts him to it by this , Goe , ( saith he ) and sell all that thou hast , and come and follow me , and thou shalt have treasure in heaven . When it came in competition once , whether hee were best to follow Christ , and sell all that he had , and that he must either forsake Christ , or forsake his riches , he went away sorrowfull , and would not doe it . So we shall finde it in Iohn 12.42 . when the matter came there into competition , that if they confessed Christ they should be cast out of the synagogue ; saith the text , though they beleeved , They confessed him not , for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Their carriage there towards Christ , when their confessing of him came in competition with their applause and honour among men , it was an argument that they loved the world , and the things of the world . You shall see in Abrahams case , when the Lord would put him to the triall , and bidds him come from his kindred and from his fathers house , and from his Country , this in Heb. 11 is taken as an argument of his love , that when hee was put to doe either the one or the other , hee made his choise to obey the Lord , though it stood with the losse of Countrie and friends . So I say , consider with your selves , and you shall finde many cases wherein your conscience will dictate to you , this you must doe , this you ought to performe , this you ought not to doe . Perhaps it shall be said unto you againe , if you doe it , you shall lose such a friend , you shall lose such credit , you shall suffer such losse in your estate , you shall expose your selfe to such and such danger , you shall incurre such and such inconveniences to your selfe ; consider what you doe in such a case : Many businesses fall out everie day , wherein the like case is offered to you , many times you thinke it were best to doe so , and if it were not for the losse of some thing , or for the discredit , you would doe it . By this you may examine your hearts whether you love the world or no. Lastly , you shall know whether you love the world , and the things of this world by your actions ; for where your love is , there your tongue , and your hand will be , and all your endeavours : Now trie your selves by this , Are you occupied so abour the world , and the things of it , that all your endeavours and all your actions are taken up about them ? some about matter of pleasure , in hunting and hawking , in gaming and sporting , your thoughts are there , and your speeches there ; others againe in seeking wealth , and worldlie greatnesse : Are you taken up about these ? I say , the actions of a man are a sure signe , for the Lord judgeth us by our actions ; therefore wee may judge our selves by them . Consider in what element you live , if you be so busied about worldly things , that you are never well but when you are there , and as for heavenly things , you doe them but by the by , and when you are doing them you are wearie ; this is an argument that you love the world , when a man shall turne the streame of his endeavours all that way , when he shall turne all his projects , all his actions , all his labours into that . As when the bodie hath a wen or a wolfe in it , all the nourishment is drawne to that , and in the meane time the bodie is leane and poore : so is it when a mans heart is taken up with the world , it eates up and devoures all the thoughts , all the intentions of the minde ; all his care , and endeavour , and striving runnes this way ; & the hidden man of the heart , in the meane time , is left starved and pined within : This is a signe that you love the world , this so much intending the things of the world , as Christ speaks , The lusts of your Father will you doe , Iohn 8. What is the meaning of that ? That is , looke to your actions , to your doings , to your executions and performances , and you shall finde that they are according to the lusts of your father the Divell ; those actions they did were a signe that they did affect those things that the Divell affected . But you will object , the holiest man , hee that is most regenerate , yet is inordinately affected to the world , is too readie to grieve , and to rejoice inordinately , it too readie to faile when these things come in competition with God. Therefore how should wee examine our hearts by this ? I answere in a word , that it is true in the Saints , there is something in their hearts that doth all this that I have spoken ; but it is not they that doe it : as the Apostle speakes , It is not I , but sinne that dwells in me : We cannot denie but that there is flesh and worldlie-mindednesse even in them ; but yet this they doe , these worldly lusts and desires they are still checking them , and restraining them , and keeping them downe , so that though they be there , yet they doe not walke after the vanitie of their mindes , they are not led by it , but they are led by the Spirit , and walke by the Spirit . Indeede sometimes they fall , when they are transported with temptations , and through incogitancie , and infirmitie , yet their constant walking is not after the vanitie of their minde , for that is proper to those that feare not God. Therefore know thus much ( my brethren ) that though the Saints doe these things sometimes , yet their purpose , and their desire and care is to crosse and resist them as much as they can , that though they have these inordinate worldly desires in them , yet they are not midwives to themselves , to bring forth fruite to the flesh , they are not stewards to provide for these before-hand , as it is in Rom. 13. Put ye on the Lord Iesus , and take no care for the flesh , to make provision for it : I say , they are not stewards for their lusts , but they resist them , and strive against them . But to conclude this also , examine your selves by this rule , whether you love the world , and the things of the world . And if we take an examination of men by this , how few are there that love the Lord ? We may trulie say as the Apostle saith , The love of God is not in them , for men seeke themselves , and their owne things , and not the things of Iesus Christ. One followes this particular , another that , everie man fitting and plotting a garment to himselfe composed of such vices as doe suite everie mans humour . This is a signe that you love not the Lord , when you minde the world , and goe with the world , and let your whole bodie and soule follow it , with all the actions , and all the strength and indeavour thereof . The love of many shall waxe colde , because iniquitie shall abound . What is the meaning of that ? That is , because the men of the world , those that are in place , because they shall countenance iniquitie , because the streame of the times shall goe that way ; for this cause the love of many shall waxe colde : that is , because they mind the world , wheras if they did not love the world , and the things of it , though iniquitie did abound , yet their love would waxe hotter . When things are so that iniquitie abounds , some will not take the paines , they love their ease , and contentment ; others want courage to doe it , they are faint-hearted , and dare not adventure . Now whence doth this come but from the love of the world ? for no man is fearefull , but because there is something that he is in love with , and is loath to part with . If a man did not love the things of the world , he would have courage for the truth . This is therefore an argument that men doe love the world , and consequently the love of the Father is not in them . 5 Let us come yet to another expostulation . In the first place therefore , if you love the Lord , you will finde in your selves a readinesse to please him in all things , you will doe it naturallie : As the Apostle speakes of Timothy , I know no man like minded , who will naturally care for your matters . So if you love the Lord aright , you will doe it with a naturall affection , you will love him naturally : For what is this love to the Lord , if it be right , but that which himselfe hath planted in us ? wee are taught of him to love him . It is like the naturall affection which parents have to their children , such a kinde of affection will it be if you love the Lord , you will doe that which is good in his sight with a kinde of naturalnesse and readinesse , you will be carried to the duties of his service as the fire is carried upwards , and not as stones are carried upwards with the force of another , but you will doe them readilie , and chearfullie ; you will not doe good duties as being haled to them , and put on to doe them , but you will be zealous of good workes , that is , you will have a burning desire in your hearts , longing after them , you shall not neede to have them forced upon you , but you will be forward to doe them , you will be affected to good workes as you are out of selfe-love to your owne businesse . You know when a man naturallie loveth himselfe , when he is to doe something that concernes his owne good , how solicitous is he about it , and how provident forecasting how to bring it to passe , and if any rubbe be in the way it troubleth him , if there be any faire passage , and likelihood of atchieving it , he rejoyceth . Now , if you love the Lord naturallie and trulie , you will goe about his businesse as you goe about your owne , if there be any businesse to be done : Magistrates in their place , Ministers in their place , and everie man indeede shall finde some businesse to doe , wherein he may bring glorie to Gods name , and advantage to his cause . Consider now how you are stirred about it , doe you goe about this businesse , are you so industrious and laborious , doe you project it , doe you minde it as your owne ? you will not stand expostulating the matter , to say must I doe it ? and is it of necessitie ? But if it be a thing that tends to the advancing of the glorie of God , you will doe it with all readinesse , you will not so much stand upon this , what wages shall I have ? and what profit shall I gaine ? But as a loving womā to her husband , she is glad to doe any thing for her husbands good , she is satisfied with this , that she hath an opportunitie to doe something ; so it will be with you , if your hearts be rightly affected , you will then doe things after this manner . You will say , How shall wee know this love ? this is a nice and curious point to love the Lord thus naturallie . You shall know it by these two things : First , by the evennesse of your carriage towards the Lord ; for what a man doth naturallie , he doth with a kinde of equalitie , with a kinde of evennesse : so that , as we say , an uneven pulse is a signe of a deadlie and dangerous distemper within ; so I say , when you finde an unevennesse in your carriages to the Lord , that you are off and on with him , that sometimes you doe a thing for him , and anon you will doe for your lusts , this is a signe that you love not naturally ; feigned things are for the most part unequall : because when a man doth not doe a thing naturallie , he cannot holde out ; a man cannot dissemble so well , but at one time or other hee will discover himselfe ; what a man doth naturally , and heartily , he is like himselfe in it still . Therefore when there is such an unevennesse in your waies , ( some will be verie forward in a good cause , now in a good moode , and then out of it againe ) it is a signe you love not the Lord thus naturallie , for then you would be eaven in your carriage towards him . Adde to this the continuance of it ; for if you love the Lord with a naturall affection , you will holde out , and be constant in it . The second and third ground went farre in their profession , but their inconstancie shewed that they loved not the Lord with a naturall love , this discontinuing is a signe that your love is not true . I beseech you examine your selves by these things whether you love the Lord ; remember what I said the last day , doe you desire that your sinnes should be utterlie destroyed ? doe you not dallie with sinne ? would you not have some remainders within you ? nay , I will goe a step further with you , doe you not hate the Lord ? You will say , God forbid that we should doe so , I hope we are not in that condition . My brethren , first you must know that there are manie that doe hate the Lord : in Rom. 1. amongst others those are reckoned up , Haters of God : Therefore it is certaine that there are manie , and many of those that come to Church , manie that thinke well of themselves , and that others thinke well of too , that yet are haters of the Lord. You will say , how shall we know that ? I will aske you but this ( to bring this likewise into examination , and so to conclude ) I say , examine your selves by this : Doe you not desire that there were no God ? examine your hearts whether if this newes were brought , that you might live at libertie , that you might doe what you would , that you might satisfie your lusts in all things , that there were no God to call you to account , to reward you according to your doings , whether it would not be acceptable newes to many of you ? Now it is certaine , if you would not have the Lord to be , you hate him ; for whomsoever you would have taken out of the way , such a man you hate . And besides this , consider whether you doe not looke upon the Lord as upon a judge , whether you doe not all that you doe to him as one that lookes upon a judge : If you feare the Lord in this manner , it is certaine you hate him : for those whom you thus feare you hate , and that you shall finde in 1 Ioh. 4. If you feare , saith hee , you love not ; for perfect love casts out feare : when you look upon God as upon a strict judge , and that is it that puts you on to doe all that you doe , that is it that makes you keepe a good conscience in secret : for this you may doe , and yet looke upon God as a judge , to feare with this kinde of feare is a signe you hate the Lord ; for whom you feare , you hate . Besides this , Doe you not looke upon God and upon his wayes as contrary to your hearts ? that your hearts , and the wayes of God are in an opposition , your hearts , and sanctifying the Sabboth will not agree ; the Lord would have your speeches to be good and holy , he would have you not onely abstaine from evill , but to hate it , to have your hearts rise up against it : Are not these commandements contrary to you ? Consider but that holinesse that is expressed in the booke of God , and that is expressed also in the lives of the Saints , who carry his Image stamped on them , and is there not a kinde of contrariety betweene your wayes and theirs , betweene your hearts and them ? If there be , it is a certaine signe of hatred : for wheresoever there is contrariety , there is hatred . Examine your selves by this , and see whether you doe not hate the Lord. And yet , to come to one more , if you love pleasures more than God , and wealth more than God , you hate God : For so you have it , Mat. 6. No man can serve two Masters , but either hee must hate the one and love the other , &c. That is , when you love other things , though you thinke you doe not hate the Lord , yet , I say , in that you love pleasures , and love the world , and the things of the world , in that you love your lusts , and the objects of them ; in doing this , you hate the Lord. Now if this be your case , if upon these expostulations that I have propounded , if upon these rules of examining your selves , you finde that you doe not love the Lord , if this be your condition , ( as it is your wisedome to deale strictly with your selves ; for hence it is , brethren , that the soules of men perish , because they will not see and search into their estates , they will not come to this examination of themselves , it is a painfull thing to them , men are backward to examine themselves in private ; what is the reason of that phrase in the Psalme , Examine your selves upon your beds , but because examination should be when a man is most retired ? I say , if you finde it to be so , as it is the case of many ) then it should open a window to you , to see what you have deserved at the Lords hands , how just it were that the Lord should cast you off : For when you are enemies to the Lord , can you thinke much at it ? My brethren , what a condition is that man in , that hath the great God of heaven and earth to be his enemie ? And besides this , have you not reason to justifie God in his just judgements upon others , when you shall see God sharply plaguing them ? It may seeme to you that it is a hard thing that men should be so punished ; but when wee consider that they are haters of God , that they are enemies to him , you may justifie God in that hee doth . But , to conclude , you ought to humble your selves , if upon these tryalls you finde your selves to be lovers of the world , and not lovers of God. And you that are young , and put off repentance , it should move you to come in betimes : For if this be required of you to love the Lord , and you shall not be exempted from death when it comes , though you be never so able , and never so strong and lustly ; what condition doe you thinke you will be in , if you die enemies to God , and haters of him , as you needes must be , if you love him not . And if you thinke you have time enough . hereafter to settle your affections ; Consider , is it in your owne power , though you have warning before death , to have this affection of love ? You may doe many good duties , you may be sorry and repent for your sinnes ; but though you doe this , and a thousand times more , yet if you have not this love-wrought in you by God , if it come not from heaven , if it be not the fruite of his owne Spirit , all your repentance , and all your forsaking of sinne , all your doing of duties , the change of your courses is nothing , the Lord regards it not , unlesse you have this naturalnesse of love . I have stood therefore the longer upon it , and upon this part concerning examination , because it is a matter of great moment . Wee should have come to the next part concerning exhortation , which wee would not disjoyne , because it is very usefull and profitable ; but we cannot doe it now , but reserve it for the afternoone . FINIS . THE SIXTH SERMON . GALAT. 5.6 . For in Iesus Christ , neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but Faith which worketh by Love. AND before we leave this poynt , one thing I must add For what reason doe we put you vpon this disposition , vpon this examination , whether the love of God be in your hearts or no ? The reason is not that you should be discouraged , that ( you should be put off from comming to God , that you should be greived with the sight of the want of your love , but the end of it is to stirre you up to gett it , if you want it . You know , we have formerly delivered some meanes of getting it , onely there is one which we will commend unto you , which we gave a little touch on but could not handle it , and it consists of these Three branches ; if you would love the Lord : First you must know him , for otherwise you cannot love him . As it is in naturall loue that is bred between man and man , you say love ariseth from sight , they must see before they can love ; so you must know the Lord , there must be a sight of God by faith , before you can love him . And every man that sees him and knowes him as he is will love him , he cannot chuse , for that is the Lords worke to all the Saints . Ierem. 31 , You shall he taught of me , and you shall know mee from the greatest to the least . It may be in some manner they knew God before , but although a man have never so exact knowledge of him , yet till he be a regenerate man , he never knowes him indeede it is an other kind of knowledge that hee hath , when a man is regenerate ; whē God teaches him to know him , he lookes on God with an other eye , every thing is presented to him after an other manner , he sees now an other beautie in God than ever he saw before , hee sees an other excellencie in him : for that knowledge he had of him before bredd not love . But when a man is once within the Covenant , the Lord will teach him such a knowledge of himselfe , as withall will worke the love of him . Such a knowledge you must have of the Lord , and you may help your selves to love him by reasoning , if ever you saw any excellencie in any man , or in any creature , it did help you to love that creature . Thinke with your selves there is more in God that made that creature . He that made the eye shall hee not see ? So he that wrought that excellency , shall not he have it in himselfe in a greater measure ? Besides , you may consider how the Lord hath described himselfe , that hee is most wise , most mercifull , and full of kindness , and gentlenes , and abundant in truth , as you know that description in Exod. 34. Go through all the vertues , and excellencyes that are amiable , if you looke in the Scripture , you shall find them to be in the Lord. This serious consideration will help you , to increase your knowledge of the Lord , and by consequent your love of him . So that , if you would come to loue a man , what is it that causeth you to love him , but because by his speech , and by his carriage and behaviour , you come to have such an apprehension of his disposition , he hath a minde thus framed , thus qualified , thus beautified ? When you conceiue such an Idea of him , you love him . So , when you apprehend the Lord aright , when you observe him as he is described in his word , when you observe his doings , when you consider his workes , and learne from all these together a right apprehension of him , I say , when you have such an Idea of him , such an opinion of him , then the will followes the understanding , and the affections then followes , then you come to love him , and to delight in him . Therefore learne to know the Lord by his former carriage towardes your selves , how kinde he hath beene , how exceeding patient , how exceeding readie to forgiue , how much kindnesse he hath shewed , how hath he in mercy remembred you , though you have forgotten him ; how you haue recompenced him evill for good , yet hee hath not broaken off the course of his mercie towards you . Consider his dealing with you , and learne by this to know the Lord , and this will be a meanes to encrease in you the love of the Lord. This is not all , there is another thing , which is the second branch that I tolde you of ; that is , to looke upon God as one sutable to you , and to your disposition . For if you should finde never so much excellencie in him , if he be not agreeable to you , you love him not . A woman may see a man that she thinkes is very excellent , in many respects , yet he is not a fit husband for her . It is the sutablenesse and agreeablenesse betweene God and our owne condition , that causeth us to love him . Therefore when you put these two together , consider the Lords mercie , and see that , and looke on your selves as sinfull men needing that mercie ; when you see the Lord exceeding powerfull , and looke on your selves as very weake , needing that power ; when you looke on him as the Lord of life , and see your selves subject to death , and needing that life ; when you see your owne folly , and his wisedome , ( go through all in him , and then againe looke upon the contrary weaknesse in your selves ) this is that which will make you apprehend God as one that is sutable , as one that is agreeable to you ; and till you come to this , you shall never love him , and long after him , till the heart namely is thus framed , till a man is humbled , till he comes to the sight of himselfe : for as you must know God , so you must know your selves before you can love him . I say , when a man comes to that , hee begins to looke on God as upon one agreeable to him : As , take a man , who is touched with the feare of his sinnes , whose heart is broken , who hath an apprehension of Gods wrath , and of his owne unworthinesse , such a man now will be satisfied with nothing in the world , but the assurance of Gods love and his favour . As you see in naturall things , let a man be very weary , the daintiest meate in the world , whatsoever you give him , will not heale him ; but he must have that which is fit for that particular defect , nothing will helpe him but rest . Againe , let a man be hungry , and faint for want of meate ; all the musicke , the best ayre , or whatsoever you can give him will doe him no good , it must be meate that must helpe him . If a man have a disease , it is not sleepe , it is not meate and drinke , it must be a medicine that is fit for his disease . So it is with the heart of man , when his heart is so broken , so humbled and touched with the sense of his sinnes , that hee longs after nothing but remission , nothing but the assurance of Gods favour , the assurance of his love and kindnesse , nothing will satisfie him but that : it is so in naturall defects , and so it is in the soule , when the heart of a man is so fashioned , that it lookes upon God as one agreeable to him , and there is nothing else sutable but onely the Lord , and his favour , and his love , that is required , to breede this love in you towards him . What is the reason else , that it is said , Hosea 5. ult . When they are afflicted they will seeke mee diligently . But because afflictions teach a man to know himselfe , it teacheth him to know his owne weaknesse , to see his owne sinne , his owne impotency , his owne unworthinesse ; and when he hath done this , then he lookes upon God as one who onely is fit for him , as one who is onely able to helpe him . Affliction doth but discover what was there before : For man is a weake and impotent creature , made for the Lord , he is nothing without the Lord , it is the conjunction with God that makes him up , onely he knowes not this , he understands not this . Therefore when God opens a mans eyes either by the immediate worke of his Spirit , to teach him to know himselfe , or by affliction , then he comes to seeke after the Lord , when they are afflicted , they will seeke me diligently . If thou shouldest have such an offer as was made to those , Acts 2. Peter tells them there , they should have remission of sinnes , they should receive the gift of the holy Ghost ; if this had beene offered to them before they knew themselves , before they had beene humbled and pricked at the heart , as it is said they were , would they have regarded such an offer as this ? No they would not , although they had understood that offer never so well . So I say , though you know his name and his excellent attributes never so perfectly , yet till you come to know your selves too , you will never love him , you will never desire him , you will never long after him : for both these must goe together , the knowledge of God , and the knowledge of our selves , to teach you to love him . The knowledge of God , without the knowledge of your selves , is a fruitlesse speculation : And againe the knowledge of your selves , and your owne miserie , without the knowledge of him and his mercy , is a miserable vexation . The knowledge of God , without knowledge of your selves , is , as if a man should know a medicine , but should not know what defect it were fit to supply : And to know your selves and your owne case , without him , is to have the disease discovered , and not to know how to helpe it . And therefore learne to know both God and your selves : If you will love him , then you must learne to studie those two . We say schollers studie bookes , and Politicians studie men ; but a Christian should studie God and himselfe , to learne to know God and himselfe better , by this meanes he comes to know the Lord : as wheresoever you finde any love to the Lord expressed , you shall finde these two going together , as David oft , Psal. 18. and Psal. 116. I love the Lord , &c. Why ? For I was in distresse , I was in griefe , the grave overtooke mee , and I was compassed about with death , and I cried to the Lord , and he healed me , and set mee at libertie , hee is my fortresse , &c. That is , when David saw himselfe to stand in neede , he saw his weaknesse , and looked on God againe , as one that would helpe him , and heale him , as one that could set him at liberty ; this caused him to say , I love the Lord dearely . So Paul , when he saw these two , I was a blasphemer , I was a persecuter , and looked on Christ , who had beene mercifull to him , with faith , this was that which caused Paul so to abound in love towards Christ. And so Mary , Luke 1. My soule doth magnifie the Lord : And why ? For he had respect to the low estate of his handmaid : I was poore and meane , and loe hee hath raised mee to a high degree . This sutablenesse , this knowledge of God and of our selves is that which breedes in us a love of him . But is this enough now to know God and our selves ? This is a faire step to beget in you this love of him ; for as you heard before , love is an inclination of the heart to some good thing agreeable to us : But yet you must have a third , 3 or else this will not doe , that is , assurance of the Lords love to you : for if you long after him never so much , if you thinke him worthy to be desired ; on the other side , yet if for all this you are not perswaded of the Lords love to you , you cannot be affected towards him . Wee cannot love any man whom we conceive to be ill affected to us : And therefore you shall see in the course of the Scriptures , love proceedes from faith , faith must beget love , that is , the assurance of Gods love must goe in : This is the third ingredient to make it up . You will say to mee , wee doubt not of this , but if wee be perswaded of Gods love , wee shall love him ; but how shall wee come to this perswasion , how shall wee assure our selves of his love ? Those to whom I should speake now are of two sorts ; either such as are out of the Covenant , or such as are already within it . For you that are without , to you I say , you may , if you will consider it , come to the assurance of his love towards you . 1 For first , the Lord hath made knowne his owne willingnesse to take you to marriage . There are but two that are to give their consent , the Father to give his Sonne , and the Sonne to give his owne consent : The Father , you know , hath given his consent , Isay 9.6 . A Sonne is given : He so loved the world , that he gave his Sonne . Therefore certainely you have the Fathers consent , he hath given Christ , as a father gives his sonne in marriage . But now whether we have the Sonnes consent or no , of that wee make question ; saith the Apostle , Hee loved us , and gave himselfe to us , and for us ; yea hee not onely gives his consent , for his part , but he hath purchased his wife with his owne blood . And therefore you cannot doubt but that hee is willing to marrie with you , to take you , and to receive you if you will come in . Why then , what is required now ? Nothing at all but thy consent , if thou give thy consent to the Lord , thou needest not to question his favour , thou maist assure thy selfe of his unchangeable love in Iesus Christ ; for he hath revealed it on his part , in his word , you have his sure word for that , heaven and earth shall passe rather than that word . This is the sound consolation that will not faile you , when you come to examination , and thinke with your selves , upon what ground am I assured of Gods affection towards mee , that hee loves mee : I have his word for it , he hath said it , and he cannot recall it , yea he hath added his oath , that by two immutable witnesses you might have strong consolation ; that is , that you might have the greatest degree of assurance that can be . Why , now , why doest not thou give thy consent ? why doest thou no more rest on it ? You will say , alas I am willing to giue my consent , if that would doe it . But first , I am unfit to marry the Lord , I am not prepared for such a match as that is , my heart is too bad , and my life hath beene too sinfull to thinke of such preferment and advancement . Take thou no care for that , the Lord knew thy unfitnesse , when he made that promise to thee , when hee gave his Son ; and the Sonne gave himselfe to thee , he was well enough acquainted with thee , and with thy nature , he had an intention to marry a blackmoore , he justifieth the wicked , he knowes thou art so , and yet he will doe it , he will put a fairenesse , he will put a beautie upon thee , when thou art his wife ; therefore let not that hinder thy unfitnesse . You will say againe , it may belong to such and such , it doth not belong to me ; my case is such , I have provoked him in this manner , my sinnes are of such a nature . This shall not shut thee out neither . For why shouldst thou make exceptions where the Lord makes none . Goe , Preach the Gospell to every creature under heaven . What is the meaning of that ? That is , goe tell every man , without exception , whatsoever his sinnes be , whatsoever his rebellions be , go tell him this glad tidings ; that is to preach the Gospell to him , that if he will come in , I will accept him , he shall be saved , his sinnes shall bee forgiven him , if he doe no more but come in , and take me and receive me . Therefore to conclude this , doubt not thou that that shall be a hinderance on Gods part . And for thy owne part , there is no more requyred of thee but sinceritie , that thou take him , sincerely resolving to thy selfe I will serve him for the future , I will be contented to be divorced from all my former loves , from all the sinnes that I have delighted in before , I am willing now to take him , and to serve him , and to love him , and to give my selfe wholly to him ; I say , this sinceritie of resolution is enough , there can be no hindrance if this be found in thee . Therefore doe not thinke with thy selfe , I want sorrow for my sinnes , such a degree of sorrow , my heart is not broken enough , and therefore I am not fit : for thou must know thus much , that the promise is made to the comming , and not to the preparations . If thou canst come , and take the Lord , it is enough , if a man have so much sorrow , so much heart-breaking as brings him home to Christ , as makes him willing to match with the Lord : if hee have that wrought in him , doubt he not of the other . But now I come to the other , 2 those that are already within the Covenant , to you I say , you may much more easily and fully come to this assurance , because ye have the fruits of the Spirit in you , which are the seales of his love ; you have cause to trust perfectly through the grace that is revealed in Iesus Christ : you know that exhortation , Trust perfectly to the grace revealed , &c. that is , in the free offer to every man by Christ ; trust not in that by halves , remissively , and unperfectly , and weakly , but trust perfectly , be confident in that , that the Lord will thus receive you , trust perfectly in the grace revealed . But , you will say , I commit many sinnes from day to day , I am negligent in many duties , I find much unevennesse in my life , many distempers in my affections , & c ? What if you finde all this in your selves ? yet so long as your hearts are sincere , you must know this , that every breach , every offence doth not breake the band of wedlocke betweene the Lord and you , you must not thinke there is a breach of covenant betweene God and you upon every ●inne that is committed , but know that the Covenant holds good , till you come to choose another husband , the Lord continues your husband still . Therefore when thou art married to the Lord , it is not for thee to thinke then of questioning the match , but studie to please thy husband , and to doe thy dutie . You know , there may be many offences , and many slight breaches betweene a man and his wife , but the bond holds good , there is no bill of divorcement except it be in case of adultery , that shee choose an other husband : so thinke , in such a case , the bond is not broken upon every offence , and every sinne that is committed . Learne to know this for thy comfort , for it is a great matter to have this assurance full . 2 And besides consider this , thinke not with thy selfe , because I have not attained such a degree of holinesse as another hath , therefore I have none at all , that is an evill reason that discourageth the Saints , discourageth many times those that should be incouraged , that are already within the Covenant ; he lookes on another , and sees he cannot reach him , he propounds to himselfe such a measure of grace and of holinesse , and of mortification of his lusts , and hee cannot come neere it ; and hee thinkes , because I cannot doe this , I have no sincerity in mee . Not so , there are degrees , when a man is within the doore , hee may goe further and further , and though all may be within , yet one may be further in than another . 3 Besides all this , know that the Lord is faithfull , he cannot denie himselfe , though thou faile on thy part , yet hee continues the same , and renewes his mercy to thee , as thou renewest thy repentance . But , to conclude this , if you would love the Lord , labour to doe these three things : Labour to know him more : Labour to know your selves more , that so you may long after him as after one that you neede . And thirdly , labour to get this assurance , for it is this assurance that breedes the love , that seales it up ; when a man shall looke on God as one who may hate him for any thing he knowes , who may be an enemie to him one day , hee can never love him heartily : When a man hath no ground to set his foote on , he will doe it tenderly and nearely ; but when he lookes upon God as one whom he may trust , whose love he is sure of , that he builds on that as a rocke , this is that which makes his heart perfect to him , when hee can say , as Paul , I know whom I have trusted . If a man have never so much excellency in him , if you conceive him to be hollow-hearted to you , your affections are not perfect towards him ; so is it , if you looke on God as one that may be your enemie As wee say , friendship with Princes , it is like that familiarity that those men have with Lyons , that keepe them . A Lyon , you know , will suffer a man to play with him as long as he lists , and when he lists , he will rise and devoure him , and rend him in peeces ; so I say , the love of a Prince may be , and the love of men may be : But the love of the Lord is not such , when he loves , he loves perfectly . It is true , hee hath the strength of a Lyon , he is able to doe it , you are weake creatures subject to him , but hee hath that constancie in him , that when hee loves once , it is alwayes perfect , and unchangeable . Let all these be well considered and wrought on your hearts , and it will be a meanes to beget this love in you : Even as fire begets fire , so this will beget love in your hearts towards him againe . So much for this . The second point , which I intend to handle at this time is this ; another consectary , another use we are to draw from this doctrine , Hee that loves not , is not in Christ. The next use is to exhort you to come in , if it be a thing of that moment , now our businesse is to exhort to love the Lord Iesus . And is there not much reason to move you to it ? if you had this love in your hearts , would it not be a ground of much comfort to you ? for if you were able to beleeve in Iesus Christ , and love him , you should have your salvation sure , if once you could finde this disposition in your selves , as it must be in you , if ever you be saved , that your hearts long after him , still you are growing towards him , hanging that way , as a stone to the center , as the iron to the loadstone , there is such a lingring after him , the heart makes towards him , and will have no deniall ; but , as the woman of Canaan , it breakes through all impediments , no barre can keep it frō him : as those that love , they are not easily put off , but are importunate til they have obtained reciprocal affections of the party beloved . I say , if thou finde this disposition in thy heart , it is the greatest consolation that thou canst have in this world : 4 for if this be thy case , thou maist boldly looke that the gates of hell shall not prevaile against thee ; and if thou love the Lord in this manner , heaven and earth shall passe rather than thy salvation shall be hindred : it is impossible , because then thou hast a good ground of hope , and hope will make thee not ashamed , but be assured that God is thine , and all that hee can doe , and all that is his is thine ; as Paul tells us , his power , and his wisdome , and all is thine : He is a Sunne and a shield to thee , thou shalt want nothing that is good , nothing that is evill shall hurt thee , the Lord brings all with him : this is your case if that you doe love him , this is your consolation , this is that which may inflame your hearts with a desire of this affection . For know this , that there is scarcely any thing else that we can instance in , but an hypocrite may goe cheeke by jowle with a good Christian , in that he may doe all outward duties , he may abstaine from sinnes , there may be a great change in him , ( you know how farre the third ground went , and those Heb. 6. ) but this they cannot counterfeit , to love the Lord. Therefore , if thou finde that thou love the Lord , thou hast this consolation , that thou art now sure , and indeede thou art never till then sure . And as reason differenceth a man from a beast , so love makes the great difference betweene a Christian and an other . Indeede we say it is faith , but you know that faith is differenced by love , that is , such a faith that breedes love , and so love is it that breedes that great consolation . And therefore this is thy comfort , if thou canst once bring thy heart to love the Lord , hee will beare with any thing , hee will beare with many infirmities , as , you know , he did with Dauid when he saw that he loved him . David had many great infirmities , as wee see in the whole story , the whole relation of his life , yet because hee loved the Lord , the Lord passed by all , and in the end he gave him this testimonie , that hee was a man after his owne heart . So I say , love the Lord once , and he will beare with much in thee . On the other side , if thou doe not love him , doe what thou wilt , the Lord accepts it not . As wee see in the case of Amaziah , it is said that Amaziah walked in all the wayes of his father David , and of the good Kings , hee did as much as they , hee was as great an enemie to idolatry , hee did all the duties of religion , onely this was wanting , he did it not with an upright heart , that is , he did it not out of love , and therefore the Lord regarded it not . And therefore let this move you to get this affection ; there is much , if I could stand to presse it , that might inflame your hearts with a desire of it : onely it is this love that sets a price on all that you doe , that makes all that you doe currant ; as this stampe is set on your actions more or lesse , so they are more or lesse acceptable . This was that which set a price on the widdowes mite , that set a price on a cup of colde water ; this set a price upon Abels offering , and made it more acceptable than his brothers : the meanest service when it hath this stampe on it is currant and good in Gods sight , hee accepts it : againe , the greatest performance without it , is nothing . And if thou give thy body to be burned , if thou suffer martyrdome , if thou give all thy goods to the poore ; doe what thou wilt without love , it is nothing , thy labour is lost : this love sets a price on all that thou doest . Besides this , 2 consider , this is that that must stirre you up aboue all other arguments , that if thou love the Lord , thou shalt be no looser by it , in all other love a man seemes to be a looser , for , when you loue an other , as you know it is no love except it bee fruitfull and actiue , when you bestowe on an other your time , and your paines , and your money , you know , you have so much the lesse your selfe : And therefore it is that men are so full of selfe love , because that ingrosseth all , a man in that keepes all to himselfe , when hee comes to love an other , and partes with something of his owne . And thence it is that men are so backward to love , in truth and in good earnest . They love in shew and in complement , that is easie , but to love indeed is difficult , because it takes somewhat from them . But in loving the Lord , it is not so , there is a difference betweene that and other loves when you give the Lord your hearts , and bestowe them on him , he will giue you them every ●ot againe , and reserue not any for himself . You will aske me , what is the meaning of this ? My meaning is this , whatsoever you bestowe on the Lord , all the loue that you give to him , it reflectes and redoundes to your advantage , you gaine by it all : as we see , Isai 48.17 . I am the Lord that teacheth thee to Profite for if thou keepe my commandements , thy reward , thy prosperitie should be as a flood , and thy reioycing as the waves of the Sea. Marke it well , as if he should say to them , when I command you to serue me , and to loue me with all your soule , and with all your strength , know , that all this is for your owne profit , it shall all redound to you . For , if you keep my commandements , your prosperitie shall be as a floud , that is , it shall runne over the bankes , it shall be so large , and so great , and your righteousnes , that is , the reward of your righteousnes , as the waues of the sea , that is , one reward should follow upon the neck of an other , as one billow followes upon the neck of an other . This should be your case , saith he , if you loue me and keep my commandements , and serue me : And therefore saith hee , when I require your love and your service , herein there is a difference betweene that , & that which any man requires at your hands ; all this is for your owne profite , it redounds to your selues , your selves fare the better for it : as it is said of the Saboth , so I may say of this commandement , and all the rest , it was made for man , and not man for this , that is , for the profit of man , for the advancment of man , thy louing the Lord is for thy advantage , thou gainest by it ; as it is , Deut : 5.29 . Oh , saith he , that there were a heart in this people , to love me , and to feare me , as they have promised , then it should goe wellwith them , and their children after them . Not that I might be a gainer , and you lose , but that it might goe well with you and your children for ever . So , if you love the Lord , when you thinke with your selves , I shall be a loser by it , I shall lose much libertie , and much contentment and delight , I shall lose the giving satisfaction to many of my desires and lusts : No , thou shalt lose none of this , though a man seeme to lose this when he gives his heart to the Lord , but thou gainest all this , that is , the Lord gives thee thy heart againe , and gives thee leave to dispose of it , he gives thee leave to love thy friends , to love thy wife and thy children , and even to love thy recreations ; he gives thee leave to dispense and to distribute thy heart to this or to that , as long as thou doest it lawfully , onely thou must doe it at his command . Yea , when we give our hearts to the Lord , hee giues us not them againe onely , but hee giues them much better than hee receiued them , new painted , new beautified and new furnished , hee giues them in a farre better condition : there is no man that loseth by giuing his heart to the Lord , but he giues it him againe much better . As we say of vapours that arise out of the earth , the heavens returne them againe in pure water , much better than they receiued them , so will the Lord : if thy heart ascend to him , thy impure , thy sinfull heart , the Lord will give it thee better . As we say of earth , when the earth receives the sea water , and puddle water , it giues it better than it received it in the springs and fountaines ; for it straines the water and purifies it , that whereas when it came into the bowells of the earth , it was muddy , salt , and brinish , it returnes pure , and cleane , and fresh , as , you know , the waters of the springs and fountaines are : so the Lord doth with us ; if thou wouldest give thy hearts desire , thy affections to him , thou shouldest have all againe , onely with this difference , thy affections should be more pure , thy thoughts , all the faculties of thy soule should be renewed , and cleansed , and beautified , he would restore them better to thee , but yet thou shouldest have them ; let it be thy comfort . So that here is all the difference , take a man now that loves himselfe , and that thinkes with himselfe , Well , say what you will , I will goe mine owne wayes , I will provide for mine owne contentment in this life , I know not what I shall have after , I will looke to mine owne profit : I say , compare this man with another , that resolves this with himselfe , Well , from hence I will deny my selfe , and crosse my selfe , and will seeke no more my owne contentment , nor to satisfie my owne desires and lusts , but I will give my heart wholly to the Lord. The question now is , which of these are gainers ? I say , the latter hath as much liberty and as much power of his owne heart , he shall have as much use of all that is within him , as the other hath , that ●akes it to himse●fe : all the difference is , the one ●s an unjust owner , the second the Lord hath made the steward of his owne heart ; so that the Lord hath thy heart , and yet it is thy owne heart , ●hou maist dispose of it as a steward under thy Master , thou hast it as before , onely now thou doest it by his appointment , before it was at thine owne . Let all this therefore stirre you up to love the Lord. You will say , indeede this is enough to perswade us to come in , to love the Lord , and wee are contented to doe so ; that is the answer which wee shall have from most men . But now what kinde of love is it that wee shall have at their hands ? My brethren , we must add this for a conclusion , that it is not every kind of love that the Lord accepts : but your love must have these two conditions in it . I will breefely name them and so conclude . First , 1 you must love him with all your hearts , and with all your soule , you know that is every where requyred in the Scriptures . That is , the Lord will have the whole streame of your affections , and desires , and intentions , and your endeavours to runne to him ; there must not any riveret runne out of it , it must not be drained away , but the whole streame must all be bestowed upon him , there must be no division there , you must not say here , as he saith , My Countrie , and my father , and my children , and my friends have a part in my love , but the Lord must have all , and there is good reason for it , because he bestowed all on you . It is in this love as it is in marriage , in that there is no corrivall admitted , but there must be all in all : for the husband must bestowe himselfe wholly on his wife , and the wife on the husband ; so if you love the Lord , if the match be made betweene you , there is all in that equalitie ; if the Lord bestowe all on you , and you should bestowe but halfe on him , there would be no equalitie , there would be an unennesse . But when you bestowe all on him , when you loue him with all your heart , and with all your soule , that makes the match betweene you . You will say , the Lord doth not bestowe himselfe wholly on me , he bestowes himselfe on many others , on many thousands besides me , and why should not I bestow my selfe on an other ? I answer , it is not so , the Lord bestowes himselfe wholly on thee . Hos. 3 , 3. it is a borrowed speech , I will be to thee alone , & I will have thee to be so to me ; so the Lord saith to every man , I will be alone to thee , and thou shalt be alone to me . I am my beloveds , and my beloved is mine . This is the match that must bee betweene you . And when you say the Lord is not wholly yours , I say , he is , though he bestowe himselfe on many thousands besides . You will aske , how can that be ? I say , that may be by reason of his infinitenesse ; for that which is infinite hath not parts , and therfore he bestowes not himselfe partly on one , and partly on an other , but he bestowes all upon every one : for he is infinite , and hath no parts . To expresse my selfe by a similitude , a point hath no parts , it is one indivisible , let a thousand lines come to one point , every one hath the whole , and yet there is but one that answers all , because it is indivisible , and every one hath all : So it is with the Lord , though there be many thousands that God loves , yet every one hath the Lord wholly , he is to them alone , and he lookes for and expects this at thy hands , that thou shouldest be to him alone , that thou bestowe thy selfe wholly on him ; thereupon all those words are put in , Thou shalt love thy Lord with all thy minde , with all thy heart , with all thy soule . The meaning is this , when all that is in a man is sett a worke to serve the Lord , when he looks to the Lord , when he inclines towards the Lord , that is , when the minde is set on worke to thinke on him , to remember his glorious workes , to have a right knowledge and opinion of him : againe , when the memory is set on worke to remember him , and not to forget his benefits , his statutes and his ordinances , and so the rest of his faculties . And therefore if we love the Lord , wee will not doe this with our selves , to thinke I love him , and yet I will suffer my minde , in the meane time , to be exercised in contemplating of fornication ; not to thinke , I loue the Lord , and yet will suffer my memorie , in the meane time , to be recollecting injuries and breeding of them , and recalling my pleasant sinnes that are formerly past , that I should abhorre , thou canst not loue him and doe this . Againe , thou must not say , I love him , and yet let thy affections runne after this and that , but thy whole heart must be bestowed on him : Thou must not thinke to loue him , and to reserue thy affections for this or that particular thing that thou lovest inordinately , but thou must bestow all these on the Lord. 2 The second thing required in this love , wherewith I will end , is this , that you love the Lord with all your might . You will say , what is the meaning of that , to love the Lord with all my might , and with all my strength ? For the understanding of this , you must know that God hath given different might and different strength to men ; as a rich man hath more might than another : for he can rule more , and sway more , and command more than a poore man can . Againe , a Magistrate , he can restraine by his power , and encourage men by his authority , and winne them , yea compell them by his example . Againe , a learned man , that is of great parts , that is of a stronger wit than another , hee hath more might than another , he is able to doe more than a man of weaker parts . Now to love the Lord with all our might , is to improve all the meanes we have , all the strength , all the ability that wee have above others , to improve it so , that we may serve the Lord with it more than others , that even as thou exceedest any in these abilities , so thou maist goe beyond them in serving the Lord : This is to love the Lord with all thy might , that is , to love him so much more than a poore man , to bestow more on him , to doe more for him , as thy riches make thee more able , and more strong than another . For thee to love him now as another man doth that hath lesse might , the Lord will not take this love at thy hands ; but will say to thee as Landlords say to their Tenants , when they bring them lesse rent than they should , lesse than is due , they will receive none ; for they say , so much is due . The Lord will require this , that you love him with all your might . If thou be a rich man , if thou be a Magistrate , if thou be a man of such and such opportunities to serve the Lord , and doe but a little , hee will not accept it at all : thou must love the Lord with all thy might , for God requires this at thy hands , hee leaves it not arbitrary . He saith , To whom much is given , of him much shall be required . Hee saith not , I leave it to him , to doe more or lesse , but I require it , that is , I will exact it according to the measure he hath received . Therefore consider with thy selfe , what meanes thou hast , what power God hath put into thy hands , what ability thou hast more than others . When you send a servant to market , as you give him a greater price , as you put more money into his hands , so you expect hee should bring home more than another that hath a lesse price put into his hands : So the Lord doth with men , hee sends men into the world , as men are sent to a market , hee gives a larger price to some , to some hee gives five talents , to some three , to some two , the Lord expects that they should bring home according to the price they have in their hands , that is , according to the might , according to the strength and opportunity he hath given them . For , you must know , that the Lord observes an exact difference betweene man and man. It may be , thou livest under better meanes than another , thou hast had better education than another , thou hast more knowledge in the wayes of God than another , the Lord hath helped thee more by the inward suggestions of his Spirit than another , he lookes that thou shouldest bring forth more fruite than another . And so againe for all other abilities and advantages : the Lord expects at our hands that we love him with all our might , otherwise , saith he , you might have given my money to the exchangers , and they would have made use of it . Marke that in the Parable of the Talents ; for a man will be ready to say , if I bestow some love on the Lord , why should he exact & require the utmost , why doth he require so much at my hands ? Yes , saith he , if another had this might , if another had this strength , and this opportunity that thou hast , hee would have done as exchangers doe , hee would have brought it in with profit ; so if that ability were given to another , he would make use of it : And therefore thinke not much , if he require it at thy hands , for there is losse if he should not . Therefore know that the Lord requires this at thy hands , it may be thou art more composed , and more disposed than another , it is nothing for thee to abstaine from drinking , to abstaine from swearing , because thou art framed this way by naturall ingenuity , and naturall temper that God hath given thee , it is not that the Lord requires no more , but that thou live soberly , free from grosse sinnes : No , God lookes for more , he requires of every man according to his strength and ability . As , you know , a childe may runne , and another man may walke , the childe takes more paines , the man lesse ; it the reward were to be given according to the endeavour , the child should have it , though he that walkes come to the goale before him . A man that is weake may not doe so much as another that is strong , and able to doe ten times as much worke as another man that is weake ; though thou doe more worke than he , this is not accepted , because hee lookes that every man should doe his utmost , he requires that you should love him , and serve him , and set your selves to improve all your ability according to the might , according to the Talent , according to the price hee hath distributed and measured to you . So much for this time . FINIS . THE SEVENTH SERMON . GALAT. 5.6 . For in Iesus Christ , neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but Faith which worketh by Love. THE last thing that wee entred upon was the conditions that God requires in our love to him , we went through two of them the last time , wee come now to that which remaines . 3 Thirdly , you shall finde this to be another condition in our love to the Lord , to love him above all , that is , incomparably above all : For , my brethren , wee may love many things in the world , wee may love our selves , wee are commanded to loue our brethen as our selves ; but this is peculiarly required to the love of God , if it be right in us , and such as the Lord expects at our hands , that we loue him aboue all , for otherwise we doe not loue him as God , wee loue him as a creature : for to say we loue him as God , and yet not to loue him aboue all , is a contradiction . Besides , if wee should not reckon him as the chiefe good , and so prise him aboue all , some thing would offer it selfe one time or another to us , and draw our affections to it , and then wee should leaue the Lord , and take that : Therefore I say , it is required that we loue the Lord aboue all . For every kinde of loue is not sufficient , as we see it in other things ; that loue that will serue a servant , or a common friend , will not serue for a wife , it is another kinde of loue ; that loue that will serue for one will not serue for another : A Parent , a King , and a Master , as they haue different relations , so they must be love with different kindes of loue . Now then consider what loue it is that belongs to the Lord , he must haue all , he must haue a loue that answers him : otherwise if thou come with a little pittance of loue , and say , Lord , I am willing to bestow this upon thee , the Lord will refuse it , hee will answer , I will take none of these things at your hands : Even as landlords doe with their tenants , when they bring not all their rent , they refuse it and reject it , because it is not that which they require , and which is due . Even so the Lord deales with us , as he did with the young man in the Gospell , saith hee , Goe and sell all that thou hast : My brethren , it was not the act of selling , but it was the affection that was required . Therefore Christ did but try his affection by it ; and it was performed by the wise Merchant that solde all , this the Lord requires that we loue him aboue all . And there is good reason for it , for hee is most excellent and most amiable of all . Besides , I am sure hee hath done for us more than all , as Paul speakes , Was Paul crucified for you ? hath not Christ bought you , hath not hee redeemed you , hath not he deserved more than all , and should he not therfore be loved aboue all ? Againe , is he not the uttermost end , are not all natures else subordinate ? God as hee is aboue all , so should wee haue a loue answerable unto him . But you will object , What , to loue God aboue my selfe , how can I doe that ? Yes my brethren , and there is good reason for that too , beeause in so doing we provide best for our selues ; it is not so with the creature , if you set your loue upon it , if you loue any creature aboue your selves , it may be the destruction of your selves : But the Lord can provide for you and repaire you againe when the creature is destroyed for the Lords sake , when a man is a loser for any thing that he doth for the Lord , he is a great gainer by it ; for it is the rule that God hath appointed the creature , and the perfection of every creature is in comming neere to the rule . Now when the Lord hath appointed this to loue him aboue our selues , in so doing we cannot chuse but provide best for our selues , because therein lies our excellencie and perfection . This is therefore another property of this loue , we must loue God aboue all , aboue all riches , aboue all profits , aboue all honour and credit , aboue all learning and delight , aboue our selues and our lusts : Therefore you shall finde it in the phrase of Scripture how it runnes , those that loue pleasures more than God , those that love the praise of men more than God , those that loue wealth more than God , you see how they are excluded . You shall see what it is , not to loue the praise of men more than God , it is this , when they come together at some times in competition , as they will ever and anon , still to preferre God before them . As for example , the Lord hath commanded you to sanctifie the Sabboth , to pray continually , the least thou canst doe is to doe it evening and morning , and to doe it diligently . Now when thy profits and thy businesse , or thy ease shall come and thrust thee off from such a duty , now they come together , and here they meete upon a narrow bridge as it were ; if thou shalt now preferre thy profits and thy businesse before the service of the Lord , thou art a lover of thy wealth more than of him . You may bring it to many such examples . So againe the Lord hath commanded to be diligent in your callings , to improue the time to the best advantage , for you shall giue an account for it is one of the most precious talents you have : Now if pleasures and sports , and recreations shall come in and allure you , and call you , to draw you away to spend time amisse , now they come in competition ; if ye doe this ordinarily , you are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. So againe , God hath commanded thee that thou shouldest not commit adultery , that thou shalt not kill , that thou shalt forbeare to revenge , and the like : Now if any lust shall come and stand in opposition to such a command , if thou preferre this before it , thou art a lover of thy selfe and of thy lusts before God. In a word , goe through any such thing , wherein God and thy lusts , thy pleasure or thy profits come in competition , when thou shalt in thy ordinary course be ready to preferre that before him , thou lovest that before him , thou lovest that before the Lord ; and though thou thinke that thou lovest God , yet notwithstanding know this , that that is not sufficient , thou must loue him aboue all . And if you say , who is able to performe this ? who is it that doth not at some times preferre his pleasures and profits before the obedience to a command ? I answer , it is a thing that hath beene done and is done by all the Saints : Therefore if you looke into Deut. 30.6 . saith the Lord , I will circumcise thy heart , and the heart of thy seede , and thou shalt love me with all thy heart : He speakes it there of a thing that is acted indeede , of a thing that is to be done by those that are regenerate , I will circumcise you , and then you shall doe it . And , my brethren , a man that hath the least measure of grace , if he be once in Christ , hee loves God above all ; that is , let a man be himselfe at any time , let not his lusts get the upper ground of him , as sometimes it doth , when hee is in passion and transported ; indeede then feare may prevaile as it did with Peter , and lusts may prevaile as it did with David : But the meaning is , let a man be himselfe in his ordinary course , and still hee preferres the Lord before any thing in all his actions . You will say , this is a thing that no man can doe to love God above all . Yes , my beloved , therefore you must understand it thus , that comparatively you may reach it ; all those that are sanctified doe love him above all , although there be many degrees of love you cannot reach unto , yet you love him above all : Even as it is in marriage , a man may love his wife with such a degree of Iove as is meete for her , yet there may be a greater degree of loue , continuance of time may increase that love upon further knowledge , &c. So wee may love the Lord above all , and yet come short of that degree that we may have after longer communion , and greater familiarity . So much for this third condition , 4 to love him above all . But yet this is not enough , we finde another condition required in this love in the Eph : 3.17 . That ye be rooted and grounded in love , that is , that as ye must not love the Lord by halues , so ye must not love him by fits and by starts , it must be a fixed love , a permanent love , you must bee rooted and grounded in it , otherwise as it is said of him that is unstabe in the faith , as Iam. 1.12 . He is as a wave of the Sea , tossed too and froe , the same may be said of him that wavers in his love , he is tossed too & fro , that is some times he commeth with great purposes , with aboundance of promises and resolutions , that seeme as bigg as mountaines , but stay a while and they come to nothing , they vanish away . Suppose it were thy owne case , that a man should come to thee , with an expression of as much love , as that there could be no more for a day or two , but presently afterward , he is as strange as if he had never seene thee , wouldest thou regard such a loue as this ? No surely , but as wee use to doe with franticke men , though that they be sober for a while , yet we reckon them franticke , because they are more constantly franticke , such account doth the Lord make of such , as doe love him by fitts and by flashes . But you will say , who is there that is alwayes at the same stay ? It is true my brethren , I deny not but that the best of the Saints have their loue some times in the full tide , and some times in the lowest ebb ; but you must knowe that there is a great deale of difference betweene these degrees , and that loue , that is as the morning dew & presently dryed up againe , therefore you must alwayes remember , that this must be added to that that formerly hath been spoken , that ye must be rooted and grounded in loue . You will say how shall we doe that ? Remember but these two things . Labour to be rooted and grounded in Faith , and then you shall be rooted and grounded in love , 1 as in that place I named before in Ephes. 3.17 . he prayeth that Christ may dwell in their hearts by Faith , that so being rooted and grounded in love , they may comprehend &c. Let a man consider well upon what ground he hath perswaded himselfe of the Lords favour and loue to him , let him not build upon a hollowe sandie foundation , but let him build the assurance of his salvation upon a rock , that is , let him examine his grounds to the bottome , let him search it well , let him consider all the objections that may be made against his assurance , and not giue over till he be fully convinced , that the Lord his heart is perfect with him , and when he is thus rooted and grounded in faith , he will likewise be rooted and grounded in loue . Againe , remember to pitch your loue upon the person ; 2 not to loue him for by-respects for other matters , but set your eye upon the very person of Christ , to behold him in his glory , in his purenesse , in his attributes , in all his excellencies , and so to loue him , for that will continue ; for if you loue the Lord because he deals wel with you , because you haue hope he will saue you , because you have escaped such and such judgements through his providence , if any of these bee the ground of your love , these are mutable ; but if you love him for himselfe , because of that amiablenesse that is in him ; for my brethren , hee is the same , there is no shadow of change in him . Therefore if you love him thus , your love will be constant ; this was the case of Iob , his love was right , he loved the very person of God , therefore hee was willing to take good and evill at the hand of God , and yet his love remained sure : take another man that hath not knowne God , that is not acquainted with him , it may be when the Lord hath brought him into prosperity , he will forget the Lord , as Demas embraced the present world , the prosperity of such a man drawes him from God. Another man , when persecutions and trialls come , he forsakes the Lord , because indeede he pitched not his love upon his person , therefore hee loves him not constantly . But to goe on . 5 The next is that property ye shall finde in the 1 Thess 1.3 . Diligent loue : that is the last which I will name to you , I say , it must be a diligent love wherewith you love the Lord , and not an idle and negligent love , not a love that is in shew onely , but a love that is operative , for that God requires . You will say , wherein should our love be diligent . I answer , you must be diligent in preparing for the Lords comming , that you may receive the King of glorie , 1 that he may enter into your hearts , for there is a diligence of love in that ; to doe as Iohn Baptist came to doe , to prepare the way of the Lord , what was that ? To bring downe the mountaines , and to raise up the valleyes , that is , those high thoughts , those high lusts that stand in opposition against the Lord , that barre the doore against him , that will not let him enter into your hearts , bring downe those mountaines : againe , the valleyes must be raised up , that God may come and dwell in your hearts ; the diligence of love is shewed in opening to the Lord when hee knockes , that when a thing shall be suggested to you , it is for the Lords advantage to embrace it , for it is the nature of true love , it enlargeth and wideneth the heart . Againe , love is diligent in adorning it selfe , 2 and beautifying the soule for the approach of the lover , such is this love that wee speake of , it will make you make your selves new creatures ; expresse your diligence therefore in labouring to adorne your hearts with graces that the Lord may take a delight to dwell in you ; be diligent also in cleansing your selves from all pollution of flesh and spirit , that when the Lord commeth hee may finde no sluttish corner within you , for the Lord hateth these : As the Israelites were to goe with a paddle , and cover every filthy thing , because , saith the text , The Lord walketh among you , so must we doe , keepe our hearts cleane if wee will have the Lord delight to dwell with us , we must be diligent to remove out of his sight whatsoever he hateth . 3 Lastly , wee must be diligent in keeping his commands ; wilt thou say thou lovest God , and yet doest disobey him and rebellest against him from day to day ? The Lord careth for no such love , for indeede love cannot be otherwise judged of than in obeying : to say thou lovest him , and keepest not his commands , it is but a dead love , and a picture of love , it is not love indeede , it is but as the Apostle saith , to doe it in word , and not in truth ; for when you love him in deede , you doe the things he would have you to doe : Therefore so much diligence in keeping his commands , so much love , he that doeth most loveth most . And so you see the conditions that are required in this love , what a kinde of love it is that God will have at your hands , or else he will not take it of you . Now my brethren , there remaines but one thing more , wherewith wee will conclude this point , that is , now I have beene so large in shewing you what this love is , wherein you cannot blame us if we presse you to it , because it is one of the greatest and most radicall vertues , faith and love , therefore we have beene the larger in describing it to you ; I say now you have heard what it is , what remains but this , to shew you the great danger in not loving ? and that we wil make to be the last consectary that we will draw from this doctrine : I say , consider how dangerous a thing it is to neglect it ; the Lord you see requires it upon paine of damnation , whatsoever you have , yet notwithstanding if you have not this love , you are not in Christ , and so you shall be excluded . Let no man thinke that this is exaction , that it is a hard thing that the Lord requires it with this exaction : for what is it that he requires ? If hee had required of you to offer sacrifice , as he did in the olde law , then the poore man might have objected , he had not where withall ; if he had required us to fight battells , 1 the weake man might have said he could not doe it , he was not able : but now young and olde , rich and poore , all can love . Besides if we consider who it is that requires this love , 2 is it not the great God of heaven and earth ? is it not the Sonne ? If hee had commanded thee the hardest thing in the world , if he had said , thou shalt cast thy selfe into the fire , thou shalt sacrifice children to me , you are his creatures , and you must obey him : But when he requires this onely at thy hands , to love him , is it not equall ? Besides , 3 when he requires this , it is for your benefit , for when you have given the Lord your hearts , the Lord gives you them againe ; even as the earth , the water it receives from the sea , it returnes it better back againe in springs and fountaines , and pure streames ; so doth the Lord give you your hearts backe againe , when you have bestowed them upon him , and withall he gives you leave to b●stow them upon other things , to love all things that you may and ought to love , and which is good for you to love ; therefore the Lord may require it upon this penalty , for he askes but his owne , and what hee hath deserved at thy hands , therefore it is a most reasonable and equall request . For what doth the Lord thy God require of thee , saith Moses , but onely that you love the Lord your God ? So I say to you , what else doth the Lord your God require of you ? But againe know this , that as it is a command full of equity and reasonablenes , so the danger is the greater if you doe it it not ; and what that is I will shew you but by one place , that is , 1 Cor. 16.22 . Cursed is hee that loves not the Lord Iesus , yea let him be had in execration to the death : That is the place I would have you consider , that now when you have beene acquainted with this whole doctrine of love , you might know the danger of not performing and doing it ; whosoever loues not the Lord Iesus , let him be Anathema Maranatha , he curseth him in two languages , to shew that it is a peremptory curse . But what is that to be cursed ? My brethren , to be cursed is to be separated , to be set apart or appointed unto evill , so that all that love not the Lord Iesus , they are men separated and set apart to evill , so that no man may meddle with them , no man may touch them to doe them good , as the Saints and those that love the Lord they are set apart that no man may touch them for hurt ; so it is here , when a man is cursed , the meaning is this , he is set apart , secluded from all good things , that none are to meddle with him , hee is set apart for evill , all things shall concurre together to doe him hurt ; this is when the Lord curseth any man , and this is the case of every man that loves not the Lord Iesus . Our businesse when we preach the Gospell is but to offer the Lord Iesus to you , that is all that we have to doe ; and all that you have to doe that heare us , is to take Iesus Christ , to beleeve in him , to love him : Now saith the Lord , if you will not doe this , if you will not love him , every such one let him be accursed . Now when the Lord shall curse a man , as Isaac said , I have blessed him , and he shall be blessed : So whom the Lord curseth , he shall be cursed , and it is a fearefull thing if you consider it ; and therefore wee will a little open it , and shew you wherein this curse consists : Which I urge the more , because it is an usuall thing among men , when they come to consider their sinnes in particular , wherewith they have provoked God to anger , they looke upon this or that grosse sinne , but this defect and omission of love they scarce put into the number of their sinnes . But that you may know now what it is not to love him , you may consider by the greatnesse of the punishment , and that you see here is a curse : Now that you may know what this curse is , know that it consists in these foure things . First it consists in this , 1 hee shall be separated from grace and goodnesse , from holinesse ; and this is the curse upon his soule in this respect , in regard of exclusion from grace , which is to the soule as an obstruction in the liver is to the body , as a theefe in the candle is to the candle , which causeth it to waste and consume , and weare away ; so it is in this curse , when God shall lay it upon the soule of any man , he shall not thrive in grace , his inward man shall not prosper at all , he shall be still in the wearing hand , & the Lord shall take away from him that which hee seemes to have ; when the Lord shall say to thee as to the figtree , Never fruit grow more on thee , that is a fearefull curse , when the Lord shall curse , and say to a man , though thou hast some leaves upon thee , there are some things that seeme to be good in thee , yet because thou hast not love , never fruite shall grow upon thee more . What a curse is it thinke you that shall make the soule of a man to wither , as the figtree withered after the speech of Christ , that is , when every thing shall drive a man off from that which is good , and carry him on to destruction ; whatsoever befalleth him in poverty , in prosperity , riches , and friends or enemies , every thing shall breed his hurt : hee shall have riches when he is most ready to abuse them , he shall have adversity then when it is worst for him to be in adversity , that shall be to him as the lopping of trees out of season ; hee shall be as an unthrifty sonne , set him to a trade in the Citty , there he goes downe the winde , put him to husbandry in the Country , that thrives not with him ; such is the case of every one that loves not Christ. So my brethren , when Christ is preached to you , when you will not receive the doctrine , but refuse it , you see the doome here , saith the Apostle , let him be accursed ; this causeth men to goe away from the Lord , Because they receive not the love of the truth , therefore he gives them up to beleeve lies , because that men receive not Christ in the love of the Gospell , hee gives them up to a reprobate sense , from one degree to another , till there be no remedy . We see by experience , are there not many that are given up to the sinne of drinking and idlenesse , and company-keeping , and others , to other sinnes ; you see many plod on in an olde tracke of sinne , some lying a long time in a dead sottish course , so as the most powerfull ministery in the world will not stirre them , which is an evidence that the Lord hath cursed such , therefore the ministry can doe them no good . And this is the first curse upon men that love not the Lord Iesus . But perhaps thou regardest not this curse because thou regardest not grace and holinesse from which it sequestreth thee , 2 but yet there is another branch of it , thou shalt be separated from the presence of the Lord , that is , from the joy , from the influence , from the protection of God ; and this is a very fearfull curse . You know what it was to Cain in the fourth of Genesis , when the Lord had cursed him , saith he , I am hid from thy face : that was the great curse that was laid upon him , of which he was most sensible that he was separated from the presence of the Lord. And my brethren , this is no small thing , because God is the God of all comfort , and to be separated from his presence is the worst thing that can befall us in this life : It was Sauls case , when the Lord had once cast him off , he was separate from the presence of God , so that when he came to aske counsell , the Lord would answer him no more , hee would have no more to doe with him : you know how fearefull and how bitter this was to Saul . On the other side , see how much Moses magnifies this presence of God ; Lord , saith he , if thou goe not with us , carry us not hence : as if the presence of God were the greatest comfort in the world , as indeede it is . This is another thing wherein ye shall be cursed . 3 Againe , there is yet another branch of it , yee shall not onely be separated from grace , and from the presence of the Lord , but there shall be a curse upon your outward estate . It is said of Cain in the same chapter , Thou shalt be cursed from the earth : it may be many that heare of being cursed from grace , and of separation from the presence of the Lord , are of that minde that they care not for it , that they regard it not ; it may be you care not to be cursed from heaven : but to be cursed from the earth is that which goes neere to you , and that is a thing which the most earthly-minded man in the world is sensible of . Now you must know that whosoever loves not the Lord Iesus shall be cursed from the earth , that is , there shall be a curse upon you in all earthly things , in all things that belong to this present life whatsoever they are . But you will say , wee see it quite otherwise , we see such men as they , described to be men that abound in outward wealth , in outward blessings . It may be so in outward shew , but yet there is a curse upon them notwithstanding . Abimelech had the kingdome , yet there was a curse that never ceased till hee was rooted out of the kingdome : The Israelites had the quailes , but yet there was a curse with them : Ahab had the vineyard , but it was a curse to him . So all these things that are of themselves blessings and mercies in their owne nature , yet if the Lord will mingle them with a curse , yee shall finde no ease from them at all : and this is a thing that is well knowne by experience , if the hearts of men will speake what they know . This is the case of those that love not the Lord , The earth shall not give her increase , you shall not have that sound comfort , that sweetnesse , that influence of comfort from earthly blessings , though you have the creatures about you which naturally have blessings in them , yet they shall not give downe that milke for your comfort , you shall not be satisfied with them , you shall see a constant emptinesse in them , they shall be to you as the shell without the kernell ; and so much more shall ye be miserable , because ye shall finde the least comfort in them when you most expect it : the Lord meetes thus with those that love him not in earthly blessings . But last of all , 4 there is one branch of this curse which exceedes all the rest , that is the eternall curse that shall be upon men for ever : while yee live here in this life there is a certaine shew , a certaine twilight of comfort that the Lord sometimes affords even to evill men ; but then there shall be a perfect midnight , then the Sunne of comfort shall set upon you altogether and rise no more : in that day , saith the Apostle , it shall be the day of the manifestation of the just wrath of God : in that day when the Lord shall open the treasures of his wrath , those which have beene so long time a gathering . While wee live here the clouds of Gods indignation are but gathering , then they shall grow thicke and blacke , and fasten upon you to the uttermost , then all the great deepes shall be broken up , then the flood-gates of Gods judgements shall prevaile and overflow you ; that case shall be yours at that time , and this is a time which is to be considered by you now : in Eccles. 1.7 . Remember the dayes of darknesse , for they are many . My brethren , eternity is an other thing than wee consider it to be while wee live in this world . In Psal. 78.38 . The Lord called backe his wrath , and stirred not up all his indignation , but at that time the Lord shall stirre up all his wrath ; yee doe here but sippe of this cup , but then yee shall drinke up the dreggs of it for ever . This shall be the case of those that love not the Lord. But you will say , this is afarre off , and therefore the lesse terrible , it is not neere at hand . Well , though this curse in which wee have shewed these foure branches , be not presently executed , yet remember this , that when we preach the Gospell to you , as we doe from day to day , and are still offering you Christ , beseeching you to come in , and take him and love him , but yet you will not , know that there is a thunderbolt alwayes following this lightening : when Iohn Baptist came and preached the Gospell , hee tells them presently of the curse that ws to follow : You doe not know the time when the Lord will execute this curse ; Cain was cursed many yeares before he died : and so Saul , when the Lord had rejected him , and had made a separation between God and him , ( for a curse is but a separation , when a man is cast aside and set apart for such a purpose , so Saul was set apart for evill ) yet hee reigned many yeares after , notwithstanding hee was under the curse . So those that the Lord sware in his wrath they should not enter into his rest , there was a curse upon them , yet they lived many yeares in the wildernesse : Therefore though the execution be not presently , and though thou be in prosperity for the present , yet it is but Cains prosperity , though he had his life continued , yet the curse lay upon him notwithstanding ; therefore I say take heede of refusing and deferring , lest he sweare in his wrath that ye shall not enter into his rest ; it is a dangerous thing to refuse the Lord Iesus when hee is offered the first , second , third and fourth time , and still you will not come in , take heede and remember that speech of the Apostle that we named to you , Whosoever loveth not the Lord Iesus let him be accursed . When the Apostle looked upon the men to whom hee had preached and written , you Corinthians to whom the Gospell hath beene plentifully preached and made knowne , those among you that have heard me , and have beene made acquainted with this doctrine of the freenesse of Gods offering grace to you , if you will not take Christ in good earnest , if you will not love him , let such a man be accursed : and brethren S. Paul was stirred up by the Spirit of God to pronounce this curse . So I say , let these words continue in your mindes , that whosoever loves not the Lord Iesus let him be Anathema Maranatha ; and he that hath eares to heare let him heare what the Spirit saith : for happy and blessed are those that love the Lord Iesus , but miserable and cursed are those that doe not love him . FINIS . THE EIGHTH SERMON . GALAT. 5.6 . For in Iesus Christ , neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but Faith which worketh by Love. HAVING spoken of faith and love , it remaines that we adde to them good workes , for which wee will goe no further than this Text , wee cannot have a fitter ; for , saith the Apostle , when you come to have to doe with Christ Iesus , to be ingrafted into him , to make your selves first acceptable to God through him , all the workes you can doe are nothing , they are no more than the omission of them , circumcision is the same with uncircumcision : But what is of moment then ? Faith ( saith hee : ) But what faith must that be ? Such a faith as begets love : And what love must that be ? Such a love as sets you on worke : so that you have a chaine here consisting of these three linkes ; faith which when it is right will beget love , and love when it is right will set you on worke ; faith which workes by love . So the point we will deliver to you out of these words shall be this : That we are to be judged not onely by our faith and love , but also by our workes , that no man hath faith and love , that none are new creatures , that none have sincerity , but workes will follow . this is a point which I doe not meane to handle at large as we have done the other , but will endeavour to finish it at this time , and it is a very necessary point , because men are ready to applaud themselves in their knowledge in their good meaning , in their honest desires , and in the meane time they faile in their lives and actions : therefore as those are the radicall ver●ues which indeede make up the new creature , Faith and Love , so you must know that good workes are never disjoyned from them , wheresoever there is sinceritie , and a new creature , good workes will follow . The Scripture you know is evident in this , A good tree bringeth forth good fruite , Matth. 7. that is , it cannot be that a m●n shall have a new heart , it cannot be that a man should be regenerate , but that his workes will be also new ; looke how farre the heart of any man is holy , looke how farre his heart is put into a new frame of grace , in that measure his workes will be good , and his life sanctified . In Acts 14.22 . speaking of David , I have found a man after m●ne owne heart , who will doe whatsoever I will : and in Mat. 23.26 . Make the inside cleane that the outside may be cleane also : As if he should say , if the inside be right , if the heart be set right within , if that be well moulded , the outside will bee cleane , they cannot bee disjoyned . If a man have a treasure within , there will be silver in his speeches and actions ; but if his heart be nothing worth , his words and actions will be but meere drosse : It is the scope of that , Prov. 10.20 . The words of the righteous are as fined silver , but the heart of the wicked is nothing worth : That is , when his heart is nothing worth , his speeches and actions are nothing worth too ; but the good man that hath his treasure in his heart , there is silver and golde in his speeches and actions , that is , they are likewise precious . Therefore let no man say he hath faith and love , and as good a heart as the best , though his actions be not so good , though he be not so strict in his carriage ; for it cannot be my brethren . For first of all , if a mans heart be good , hee hath the spirit of God dwelling there : now , saith the Apostle , 2 Tim ▪ 1.6 . The spirit is not a spirit of feare , or a spirit of weaknesse , a spirit that onely makes attempts , and is not able to bring things to passe ; but it is a spirit of power , a spirit of a sound minde : That is , doe not thou pretend thou meanest well and desirest well , and thinke it is sufficient , but stirre up the gift that is in thee , set thy selfe on worke , doe the actions that belong to thee in thy place , and doe not say I am not able to doe it ; for wee have not received a spirit that is weake , but a spirit of power : the same I may say to every Christian , If ye be in Christ , yee have the spirit , which is a spirit of power . So you have it likewise , Gal. 5.25 . If you live in the spirit , walke in the spirit : that is , if you have so much of the spirit as to make you living men , shew it by walking in the spirit , by following the spirit , by doing that which the spirit guides you to ; therefore it is impossible that a man should have a right minde , but that his workes also will be good , because grace is strong : in 2 Tim. 2.1 . And thou my sonne be strong in the grace received , &c. As if hee should say , grace is a strong thing , it strengthens every man that hath received it ; if thou professe thou hast received the grace of Christ to regenerate thee , to change thee , and to make thee a new creature , let that appeare by shewing thy selfe strong in thy actions , able and ready to doe every thing that belongs to thee in thy place . Indeede flesh is weake , so much flesh , so much weaknesse , for that is weake and fading , and withering , and mutable ; it is grasse , and all the purposes of it and the desires of it are no better : but the spirit is strong , and grace is strong , quite contrary to the flesh ; as the Prophet speakes , Isa. 31.3 . Yee are men and not Gods , flesh and not spirit : when he would shew their weaknesse , as if weaknesse were a concomitant of the flesh , and strength a concomitant of the spirit : Therefore if you have the spirit of Christ in you , there will be strength to goe through good workes , not onely to intend them , and purpose them , and resolve on them , but you will put those resolutions and purposes in execution . Secondly , it must needes be so , because there is a chaine betweene good workes and the inward rectitude of the heart , a chaine that cannot be disjoyned ; for ye shall finde that these three things alwayes goe together . First , as that indeede is the beginning of every mans renewing , there must be a knowledge , a man must be enlightened , hee must be renewed in the spirit of his minde , as the Apostle saith . Now if the knowledge bee right , if it bee a convicting knowledge , a sanctifying knowledge , a knowledge to purpose , it will draw on affections , it cannot chuse , they are never separated : you are never truly enlightened by Gods spirit , but affections follow necessarily , and then if the affections be right , if knowledge draw on holy affections , love , and feare , and desires , &c. affections are the immediate principles of actions , there is no man that hath right affections , but good workes will follow : so that these three are never disjoyned , sanctified knowledge draweth on holy affections , and holy affections draw on good actions : as yee have it in Matth. 13.5 . Their hearts are waxed fat , and their eares are dull of hearing , and why ? you shall see the chaine there , lest seeing with their eyes they should understand with their hearts , and be converted , and I should heale them : Marke it , if they should see with their eyes , the Lord hath given them up to judge amisse of things , that seeing they doe not see , that is , they see not to purpose , they are not convinced , they doe not judge ; for if they did see with their eyes , that is , if they did see indeede , they would have understood with their hearts , their affections would follow in their hearts , and if they were set aright , then they would be converted , that is , their lives would be turned to God ; and if these three were done he must needes heale them : but saith God , I am resolved not to heale them : therefore they shall see as if they did not see , for these will draw on one the other . So I say , if the heart were right , if there were faith and love , good workes would follow : therefore let no man say hee hath grace , hee hath love and faith , except his life also be holy and good . Lastly , wheresoever there is faith and love , there is a change of nature ; for you know that wheresoever they come , faith that is effectuall , and love that followeth from faith it makes a man a new creature , they are the very things wherein a new ereature consists : Now when a mans nature is changed , it must needes be active , for that which is naturall to a man , he doth without unevennesse , there is no inequality in his doing it , he doth it constantly , where there are naturall principles of actions , the actions flow like water from a spring : indeede where the nature of a man is not changed , that is , where there is onely good purposes and good desires , and no alteration of nature , there actions doe not come as water from a spring , but as water from a pompe that is forced and extorted ; but where there is a change of nature , there is no difficultie , a man doth it with facility and with desire , it is his meate and drinke to doe the will of God. Therefore I say good workes will follow , there will be the same degree of holinesse , of rectitude in your lives , in your actions , as there is of grace , as there is of faith and love in your hearts . And this is enough to make the point plaine to you , the maine businesse will be to make use of it , and to apply it to your selves . And first let us make this use of it , not to content our selves with good meanings onely , as it is the fashion of men to say , my heart is as good as yours , and my meaning is as good as yours , though I be subject to infirmities , though I cannot make such a shew , though I cannot doe so much as others doe ; this is the common objection , and though men say it not constantly , yet they thinke it , otherwise they would not content themselves in such a condition as they doe . But I say , deceive not your selves in this , for , my brethren , you must know that you may have good purposes and good meanings , we will not deny you that you may have these , and yet have no true grace ; for you must know th●t good purposes and desires may arise from these two things , which every unregenerate man is capable of . 1 There may be knowledge , as you know an evill man may have knowledge of all the mysteries of salvation as well as the most holy ; I doe not say he hath the sanctified knowledge , but the law of God is partly written in his heart , the Lord hath taught every man somewhat . 2 Secondly , in an evill and unregenerate man there may be not onely knowledge , but an approbation of that which is good , they can approove that which is good , so farre they may goe ; I doe not say they can delight in it , for that is another thing , they doe not love and delight in it , that is not sutable to them , yet they may approove it . Now from these two principles , to know that which is good , and to approove it , they may goe so farre as to purpose and desire to serve God , they may have good meanings , but yet if actions follow not , if there be not reformation in their lives , if a man deny not himselfe in his beloved sinne , if hee come not to that outward profession of holinesse that is required in Scripture , and is seene in the lives of the Saints , he hath nothing to comfort himselfe withall ; these good meanings will not serve the turne . For know this , though it be true as wee see there may be actions where there is no sound heart , as the second and third ground brought forth a kinde of fruite when there was neither of them right ; hypocrites you know may goe farre , they may make a blaze as your commets doe more than the true starres : though this be true , that there may be abundance of good workes where there is no rightnesse and soundnesse , no sincerity , no purenesse within ; yet againe also on the other side , wheresoever there is sincerity there are good workes , and though many times the outside be cleane when the inside is not , yet the inside is never cleane but the outside is cleane too : And that is the thing we must examine our selves by ; though it be not a good rule to say I have good workes , therefore my heart is right , yet it is a good rule to say on the other side , I want good works , therefore my heart is not right ; except there be a generall reformation in your lives , except things be reformed that you know to be amisse . Indeede when it is not revealed to you , then there is something for you to say , but when you know that such a duty is to be done , that your speeches should be holy , that they should be seasoned with salt , that you ought to abstaine from sinnes of all kindes , from all appearance , that you ought not to admit any kinde of dalliance , not the least touch of any sinne ; now not to set your selves with all your might to reforme this , this is a sure argument you are not right ; for if the generall frame of the heart be good , there will be a generall reformation of the life . Therefore let no man say I purpose well , but in this particular infirmity I must be spared , to such a thing my nature is prone , and I am given to it , I cannot tell how to refraine it , and I hope it is not so great a matter ; say not so , for if the heart be right , the actions will be right and unblameable . For though you see sometimes a man may have a good colour from flushing and painting , when the constitution of the body within is but crasie and unsound ; yet againe it is true there is never any that hath a sound and haile constitution , there is never a healthfull body but the complection is good ; the heart is never right , but you shall see it without , though you have leaves without fruit , yet you never have fruite but there are leaves , there are actions appearing . Therefore learne to judge aright of your selves , content not your selves with good purposes , onely you see the complaint of the Scripture of the lacke of this in people . What is the reason the Lord calls for obedience rather than sacrifice ? because that is the touchstone that every man is tryed by ; I am weary , saith he , of your fat of rammes , I am burdened with your sacrifices , Esay 1. The thing that I desire is that you cease to doe evill , and learne to doe well , that is the thing that the Lord lookes for at every mans hand , these outward performances are good , they must be done , and these good meanings must be had , but yet that is not enough , you are not to judge your selves by that . But it will be objected , that the best men have their failings , those that have a good heart , yet doe wee not finde them subject to infirmities as well as other men ? and if this be the rule we are to be judged by , who shall be saved ? To this I answer first , it is true that the most holy men may many times doe that which is ill , but it is by accident , it is when they are transported , when they are carried besides their purpose : 1 As a man that is bound for such a place , sayling such a way , his compasse stands stil right , he alters not that , though the wind carry him violently another way , yet he lookes still to the right way , that is his intent still ; and it is knowne by this , when the winde is over , and the gust is past , he returnes againe and saileth to the haven he intended to goe to at the first : So it is with all the Saints , they saile by a right compasse , their intents are still good , whensoever they doe otherwise it is by accident , it is when they are overborne by some temptation , by some passion , when they are not perfectly themselves . Againe , 2 you must know this , that every holy man as hee hath grace in him , and a principle of holy actions , so he hath also flesh in him , and a principle of evill actions ; now that principle may sometimes prevaile and get ground of him , yea it may prevaile mightily sometimes , and make him doe as evill actions as the worst man : For that is a true rule , a man that excelleth in grace may sometimes excell in ill doing ; you must take me aright , that is , a man that hath a more impetuous spirit than another , so that none excelleth such a spirit when it is set aright , he may be as impetuous in evill-doing for a fit , for a time , when that evill principle within him shall get the better . Therefore though you see a good man sometime unlike himselfe for a fit , yet it is at that time when the flesh prevailes ; for now grace though it be there , yet sometimes it is laid asleepe , it is not alwayes acted : As the Philosopher was wont to say , It is one thing to have knowledge , and another thing to use it alway ; so it is with grace , sometimes the Saints doe not use that grace and holinesse , and hence it is that they are subject to great failings ; but I say it is by fits and by accident , the constant course of their life is right , because the constant frame of their heart is right . But againe there is another objection on the other side , that evill men sometimes doe well as well as good men doe sometimes ill . To this I answer , that it is true they doe so , but yet we must know that it is not they that doe it , but the good that dwelleth in them , as the Apostle speakes in Rom. 7. which may be implyed on the contrary ; when any regenerate man finneth , it is not he that doth it , but the sinne that is there ; that is , it is not the master of the house , but a rebell that is crept in by accident : so I say of euery evill man that doth that which is good and right , it is not he that doth it , but some good that is there . For it is one thing for a man to have good things in him , and another thing to be a good man , hee may doe some things sometimes for a fit that are good , Gods Spirit may be there to helpe him to doe much ; I say not that the Spirit dwells there , but he may take up his lodging for a time , and from him he may have common assistance , common gifts that may enable him to doe much : Therefore I denie not but those may have many good flashings of lightning that may enable them to doe much ; onely this wee say , The Day-spring from on high never visited them , that is , the morning never riseth upon them , to guide their feete in the way of peace , for that is proper to the Saints ; they never have any constant light that leadeth them so farre as to bring them in : they have some lightenings indeede that guide them in this or that particular , to helpe them in a step or two , to enable them to doe many good actions by fits , but not to bring them to perfection . Secondly , if this be so that we are to be judged by our actions , then this will follow from it , that poore Christians are better taught than the greatest Clerkes , they are better taught I say , because they doe more , therefore indeede they know more ; for all the knowledge wee have , all the sinceritie , whatsoever is right within us , if it be to be judged by the actions , then he that doth most hee knowes most ; for no man knoweth more than hee practiseth , because what knowledge soever a man hath that hee practiseth not , marke it , it is a dead knowledge , it is an inefficacious knowledge . When things are dead and inefficacious , wee say they are not ; as leaven that doth not leaven the dough , it hath but the name of leaven and no more , the thing it selfe is wanting ; it is not knowledge if it bring not forth practise . As we say of of drugges , they are not true when they doe not worke , but they are false and counterfeit . Every man is to be judged by what he doth : Therefore I say those that doe most , those are knowing men , Those that seeme to know , as the Apostle saith , know nothing as they ought : a man may know much , a man may have a large extent of knowledge , yet this is true of him , if his life be barren , if he bring forth nothing into action all the while , hee knoweth nothing as hee ought to know , though he know much : On the other side , the other sort though their extent be never so small , yet what they know they know as they ought . Therefore when you looke upon men in the world , when you would make a judgement of them , I say those that know most they are not the best , you must not put them in the highest degree , when you come to matters of religion , but men are to be judged by their actions ; when men have knowledge onely to know , as they have money to account with , and not to buy and sell with it , it is but dead , a man hath no good by it , that money makes him not the richer ; so men that have knowledge onely to know with , not to make them more usefull in their lives , more serviceable to God , and profitable to man , it is unprofitable knowledge : therefore those are the wisest men , let them seeme never such fooles , though they are not able to speake so much as others , yet they know most that practise most . For there is that difference betweene art and wisdome ; indeed it is true in matter of art , hee that omitteth wilfully may be the best artist , because there is no more required of him but skill , and it is but some errour in him , it is the commendation of his art that hee erreth willingly : But now in matter of holinesse and sanctity , there hee that knoweth and doth not is the greatest foole : For wisedome consists most in that . Wisedome comprehends indeed these three : First , to invent , to see , to know and understand things . Secondly , to judge aright of things you know . Thirdly , to put in practise that which you have concluded to be the best , and this latter is the greatest part of prudence : Therefore those men that know , that can dispute well , that have cleare understanding , and yet doe nothing , they are the unwisest ; againe , those that can speake little , and perhaps have not such a treasure of knowledge as others , and yet can doe more , they know more than the wisest . Therefore let us not misesteeme those that are good Christians , and holy men , and set too high a price upon others ; for there is an errour under that , and it hath an ill consequent to judge of religion by the opinion of those that are onely knowing men in religion : No , beloved , religion is the art of holy men , and not of learned men , and it was the custome of former times to judge of heresies not so much by disputes , as by the lives of those that have beene the professours of them : and that Christ directs us to , You shall know them by their fruites : and what are those fruites ? their fruites are their actions . We learne at schooles what to say in such a controversie , how to dispute rather than how to live : and that is the complaint wee may take up in these knowing times , where knowledge ( I confesse ) abounds as water in the sea , but practise is thinne and rare , like grasse upon the house top , of which the mower cannot fill his hand : and that is the burden of us that are Ministers , that we teach much , and see little fruite , wee see no amendement of mens lives , men doe the same things that they were wont to doe , the duties they were wont to be defective in , they are defective in still . Alas my brethren , the end of our preaching is not that you should know , but that you should doe and practise : as it is not the desire of the shepheard that his sheepe should returne their meate in hay againe , but hee would have it in their milke and fleece ; so it is not our desire that you should only know , though indeede many come short of that , but that you should shew it in your fleece and milke , shew it in your lives , that all the world may see it there . It is not enough for him that desires to write , to see the coppy , and to know it , and the fashion of the letters , but then hee hath learned it when he can write after it : so you must know sciences are of two sorts , indeede some there are the end of which is onely contemplation and knowledge , but some there are the end wherof is action , and they are no further good than we practise them . What is musicke , but the practise of it ? what is physicke ? the knowledge of all will not heale a man , but the taking of it : so it is with Divinity , the knowledge that we teach is nothing worth , if you know as much as could be knowne , it were all nothing worth without practise , practise is all in all ; so much as ye practise , so much you know . It is a great matter to have your judgement true in this case , for when men shall applaud themselves meerely in this , that they know and have right purposes and honest desires , and shall esteeme their estates by this , it causeth men to content themselves with a loose and a negligent life ; but wee must know that God judgeth us by our actions , and that is our best rule to judge by too , therefore we should learne thus to judge our selves . If you object , but it is a rule that wee have heard often , that the will is often taken for the deed , and if the will be present with us , though the action doe not follow , yet wee are accepted according the will. To this I answer in briefe , first , it holdeth only then where there is some impediment which you cannot remove : as for example , a man hath a desire to doe good to such poore people , 1 hee hath a compassionate heart , hee is willing to be bountifull , but he wants meanes to doe it , in this case the Lord accepts the will for the deed ; for upon that occasion is this delivered in this place by S. Paul : so it is in every thing else , when you have a desire , and there commeth some impediment that it is not in your power to remove , then the will is accepted for the deed . As when a man hath a desire to move his hands , his legges or armes , but because of a palsie that hangs upon him , he is not able to stirre them , here the will is for the deed , he is not able to doe it , though the minde be right and the desire good ; so when you come to such duties that are not in your power to doe , when there are some impediments that you are not able to remove , here the will is accepted for the deed . 2 Sometimes a man is ignorant of some particulars , and hee hath a desire to obey God in all things , here the will is accepted for the deede , though he be not come to that degree of perfection as others are : but as men apply it commonly it is amisse , for when a man thinkes I have a good purpose to doe this , but I cannot pray , I cannot be so strict in looking to my actions and speeches , here the complaint is not right : for if yee stirre up your selves , and doe the utmost you can doe , the deede will follow the will , there is no such impediment here but that you may remove . Therefore our answer is , that the reason why you cannot doe , is not because of such impediments that you cannot remove , but because your will is not yet right , which the Schoolemen call an imperfect will ; it is but such a will as the Wiseman speakes of concerning the sluggard , hee willeth and lusteth , and hath not : and what 's the reason ? If it were a full , a compleate and perfect will , it would draw action with it , hee would not be a sluggard any longer , but hee would draw forth his hands to doe somewhat to bring his desires to passe , but indeede he hath but light wishings and no more . And so it is with men in christianity , they are as Salomons sluggard , they wish they had such sinnes mortified , that they had such graces , they wish they could attaine such a measure of faith & love , but they take no paines : no man hath height of grace without paines ; doe you thinke to get the greatest excellency in the world without paines ? It is true , the Lord must doe it , but yet he doth it by your selves , you are agents in the businesse : Therefore doe not say I wish well and desire well , for if you would doe your uttermost that you ought to doe , if your will were full and compleate , and desires right and strong , you would doe more , you would excell more in grace , you would amend your lives more , you would have your lusts more mortified : therefore let not this deceive you . I should presse this further , but wee will come to the last thing , because I would conclude this point with this time , and that is , To exhort you to be doers , that your faith may be effectuall faith , and that your love may be diligent love : This is the great businesse which we have to doe , and the thing which for the most part wee all faile in , that there is no doing , no acting , no working of our faith ; be exhorted now therefore to adde to your faith diligent love , especially you that professe your selves to be growne Christians , looke you to it , and know that as in nature every thing when it is ripe brings seede and fruite , if not it is but a dead thing , a dead plant that keepeth the roome idle ; if there be that ripenesse and maturity in you , shew it by bringing forth seede and fruite , shew it by doing something . For , my brethren , we are called into the Lords vineyard for the same purpose ; it is not for you now to stand idle , the time of your standing still is past , it is for you now to worke , for ye are now come into the day . That exhortation is excellent , 1 Thess. 5.6 , 7 , 8. Let not us sleepe ( saith he ) as doe others , we are come out of the night : those that are still in the night , it better beseemes them to sleepe , and to sit still and doe nothing , but let not us sleepe as doe others , for we are of the day ; let it not be so with you as with others , to be much in speech onely , but labour to be much in actions . As it was said of Gideon , Vp and be doing , and the Lord shall be with thee , so I say to every one , up and be doing , and the Lord shall be with you ; that is , though perhaps you doe not finde that vigour , that fervencie and liveliness of spirit , yet be doing notwithstanding , it is your wisest way , for that doing will increase the grace within you : exercise increaseth health , as well as health enables to exercise , so the use of grace will increase grace and other abilities ; motion causeth heate , as well as all motion commeth from heate , so every good action proceedeth from grace , and good actions intend grace : and therefore be still acting , and judge of your selves by that , for what is grace , what is that you call Christianity else , but to doe that which another man cannot doe ? Therefore if there be such a difference betweene you and others as you professe there is , shew it by doing that which another man cannot doe , by exposing your selves to that danger , to those losses for any good cause , which another would not doe ; by spending more time in prayer , by taking more paines with your hearts from day to day than others doe , by keeping the sabbath better than others doe , by being more exact in looking to your wayes , that you may be holy in all manner of conversation , that other men will not doe : I say shew your grace , shew your regeneration , by being new creatures , by doing more than others , this is that which wil make the world beleeve that you are Christians in good earnest , and not in shew onely , that your profession is in deed and in truth : and truely there is no other way , this doing is that which makes a man excellent . You heare men complaine of the barrennesse of their grounds many times , wee may likewise justly take up the complaint against the barrennesse of the lives of men . How goodly a sight is it when a man looks into the husbandry , to see the vine full of clusters , to see the furrowes full of corne , to see the trees laden with fruite ; when we looke upon men , it is the goodliest sight we can behold in Gods husbandry , to see men full of actions and good workes ; I beseech you consider of it seriously , and now set upon the doing of it while there is sand in the houre-glasse , your life will not last long , the day doth not continue alwayes , the night will come when no man can worke . When a candle is put out , you may kindle it againe , when the Sunne is set , it riseth againe ; but when our life is past , when the glasse is runne , it ariseth no more , it is turned no more , It is appointed to all men once to die : if ye might die twice or thrice , it were another case ; but now it is your wisedome therefore while it is time , while this short day , lasts , to doe that you have to doe concerning your salvation with all your might , because the time is short . There is nothing that is a truer property of wisedome than for a man to take holde of opportunities , not to lose the day , nay not an houre in the day ; for time is most precious , it is like golde of which every shred is worth somewhat : it is your wisedome therefore to be oft sowing seede to the spirit , there is none of those good workes , not the least of them but will doe you good in the latter end ; for alas what are your lives but your actions ? so much as you doe , so much you live , your lives are short of themselves , why doe you make them shorter by doing nothing ? for as wee have said heretofore , one man may live more in a day than another in twenty , because hee doth more , you live more as you act more . Besides , what is it a man serves for in all his labour under the Sunne ? what is it that hee desires but pleasure , comfort and contentment ? Now , my brethren , this consists in doing , in working , for all pleasure followeth upon operation , and further than there is working there is no delight . Therefore it was a wise saying in that Philosopher , that the happinesse and comfort that a man hath in this life consists not in abundance of wealth , in swimming in delights , but it consists in doing the actions of a living man , which is the greatest comfort you can finde here in this life : Doe the exercises and actions of holinesse , and the more yee doe , the more comfort yee shall have ; for even as light followeth the flame , so pleasure and contentment followeth action . And besides ( my brethren ) what doe you live for , is it not to glorifie God ? 1 You professe so much , and how is it done ? Not by your desires or good meanings , but by your actions , those are the things that men see and feele , and glorifie your heavenly Father : for when your actions shine before men , Herein is my Father glorified , saith Christ , that ye bring forth much fruite : the doing of much is that which brings glory to God , the more you doe this , the more glory you bring to him . Againe , 2 another end of your life is to doe good to mankinde ; shall they be able to fare the better for your purposes , for your good resolutions ? no , they fare the better onely for that you doe for them and to them , it is your actions that benefit men . Lastly for your selves , what is it that helpeth you and doth you good ? onely your good deeds and your actions , it is that which furthers your reckoning and account : That place is much to this purpose , Phil. 4.17 . I care not for a gift , but I desire fruite , because it will further your account : marke the phrase , the meaning is this , every good worke that a holy man doth from the time of his regeneration , ( for till then no actions are spiritually good ) it is put upon his score , it stands upon his reckoning , there is not a penny nor a halfe penny lost , that is , the least good worke is not done to no purpose , but the Lord will repay him againe euery pennie and farthing : this ( saith hee ) will further your account . And when will the Lord pay ? Not onely in the day of judgement , then indeede you shall be paid to the uttermost , but you shall be paid even in this life ; marke that too , You shall have an hundredfold here , saith Christ , They that forsake father , or mother , or wife , or children , shall have an hundredfold in this life . Therefore brethren if there bee any wisedome in the world , this is the onely wisedome , to be still doing , to be much in actions ; Why doe you trifle out your time therefore to no purpose ? Why sit ye idle here ? why doe you not rise up and bestirre your selves ? why doe you not fill your lives with many actions ? You have good purposes in you , why doe you not stirre them up ? It is true indeede we are becalmed many times because the Spirit doth not blow upon us , but yet notwithstanding if we would pray for the Spirit , the Lord would quicken us . But you will say , alas what shall wee doe , it may be our callings give us no opportunity to doe that which other mens callings doe : if we might be Preachers , and have such and such businesse wherein wee might onely minde the things that belong to salvation , then it were easie . My brethren , you must know that you shall finde continuall occasions of doing good actions every day , whatsoever your callings are . It is an errour among the Papists , to thinke that to give almes , to crucifie the flesh and to use that hardly , to fast , and the like , that these are the onely and the most glorious actions : they are exceeding wide ; good actions are nothing else but to doe the will of the Lord , and to bring forth fruite ; the fruite of every tree in the orchard is but as the actions of every man ; and then are the trees good to the husbandman , when they are full of fruite . Every action that you doe is that fruite which God lookes for , now that fruite is good workes , that is pleasing to the gardener , to the husbandman : Therefore to doe the Lords will is to doe a good worke . Now by this you may see what a large field you have for good workes , in what calling soever you are set , though it be never so meane a place you have . To suffer imprisonment and disgraces for good causes , this is a good worke , for it is a great worke to suffer , and in that you doe the will of the Lord. When a man is sicke , and lieth in his chamber upon his bedde , sicke of a consumption or a feaver , that he is not able to stirre ; yet to doe this with obedience , to submit then to the will of the Lord , is a good worke : for to beare a burden is a worke , to beare sicknesse and calamity after this manner , is a worke , to thinke the Lord hath put me into this condition ; he might have given mee strength to goe abroad as others doe , but he hath laid sicknesse upon mee , I say the right bearing this burden is a good worke . Againe , to take paines with our hearts , to master our unruly lusts and affections is a good worke . Doe not you reckon it a worke to breake horses , to master coltes ? It is the trade of some men to doe so : and is it not a good worke for you to get victory over your lusts , to tame your unbridled natures , to curbe your unruly hearts and affections in all the variety of occasions that ye passe through ? It is a worke to behave our selves as becomes Christians decently and comely , and holily , in poverty , in riches , in honour , and disgraces ; to behave our selves under these things in a right manner , to carry our selves patiently and holily through them as becomes good Christians , this is a good worke , and this belongs to every one , though his calling be never so meane . When Paul stood at the barre , and Festus reviled him , and said he was a mad fellow , the suffering of this was a worke in Paul : Marke his manner of carriage in it , I am not mad most noble Festus : there was a work in that . So I may instance in the things wherein you may seeme to doe the least ; the standing still in some cases is a worke the Apostle makes among the great workes that are to be done by Christians , this to be the chiefe , To keep our selues pure and unspotted of the world , to passe through all occasions , & to be never the worse for them , to go through all defilements of this present life , & not be tainted : and if this be a worke , how much more is it then to be still doing , to be in act and operation alwaies ? Therfore doe not say you want when you shall alwayes have occasion enough of that . But you will say , these generalls are good to exhort us to be doing , but yet in particular what would you have us to doe now ? I will instance in some few things , there are certaine times of working ; as husbandmen , some times they have times of harvest , and some times they have seed times , wherein it is requyred , that they worke more then at other times : so the Church of God hath times and seasons , and the common wealth hath some seasons and times when men should be set aworke to doe more then ordinary , to doe more then at other times ; and you all know this is such a season , wherein there should be working of every one in their severall places , I say it is time now for men to bee working more then ordinarie . But you will say , what is it you would have us to doe ? My brethren , Contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints , marke it , the worke must be to contend for it , you must be men of contention , let the world say what they will of you , 1 it is a dutie that lies on you , it is that which the Spirit calls for from you , that ye be men that should contend ; you must not doe it coldly , and remissely , but earnestly to strive for it , let not pretence of indiscretion hinder you , for discretiō when it is right , teacheth a man not to doe lesse but more , and better then an other man , discretion we say doth not take mettall from Horses , but guides those horses and puts them in a righter way , disc●etion makes no man lesse actiue , but it giues his actions a better tincture . So againe , let us not say we must be moderate , for what is that moderation ? Indeed the moderation that keepeth from actions , wherein is excesse , is good ; but if you meane by moderation to goe a slow and easie pace in the wayes of God , that is coldnes , idlenesse , carelesnesse , there is no excesse in any good way . Therefore that is your worke now to contend for the Faith , that is , for all the points of faith , for every jott of that is precious : saith the Apostle Iude , it is but once delivered to the Saints , as if he should say , it is too precious a treasure oft to bee despenced , it was but once delivered to the world : if Christ did meane to come againe , and renewe the Articles of our faith , we might be more remisse and negligent , for if we did loose them he might restore them againe , but they are but once delivered , therefore your care must be to keepe them the better . Besides , it is the common faith , therefore every man hath interest in it ; do not say therefore , what haue I to doe , it belongs to these and these men to looke after it : it is the common faith , and every man hath part in it , and should contend according to his place and power , and within his spheere ; and remember it is a matter of much moment , for every part of the fath or little matter of faith ( I speake now of the whole doctrine of faith ) that you should be exceeding exact in keeping of it , that it receive no detriment , especially in matter of opinion . For my brethren , you must know , that it were better there should bee great offences committed in the land , great and notorious crimes , then that there should be any losse in the matter of faith , because where the opinions of men are sett wrong , that is a principle that carries them still on . Great finnes come from great passions , and men are able to see them , and when the passion is gone over , they are easily recalled againe ; but errours in opinion are matters of great moment , therefore it belongs to every one to looke to it , to us that are Preachers in our places , to Magistrates in their places , to every man to contend for the common Faith : and know this my brethren , that their are certaine opportunities which the Lord giues you , and you must take heed of neglecting them , it may be to let a thing goe some times , it will never be recovered againe . Therefore looke that you be diligent in it , stirr up your selves to doe it , while there is occasion offered . In other things , men are apt to be men of action , they would have imployment , and worke that they may bee some body in the world , and it is very well , there is something in that , it is a noblenesse of disposition so to doe ; but alas , what poore and weake reward haue you for that ? it may be a little vaineglory , it may be some applause from Princes or people , it may be some emptie airie preferment . To doe the will of the Lord , the worke he hath given you to doe , it is no matter what it is for , a servant must not chuse his worke ; I say whatsoever it is , though in never so meane a thing , the greatest excellencie is to do his will that makes us Kings and Princes to him that makes us partakers of the Royall bloud , as Christ saith , These are my brothers , and Sister , and Mother , that doe the will of my Father . It is this doing of his will , this action that puts you into a high condition : I see not that Paule was ambitious of any thing but of this , that he might be doing , that he might liue a usefull , a profitable life , in the 15. Rom. 20. I was ambitious saith Paule , to Preach the Gospell , even where it had never been preached , this is all my ambition to put my selfe upon the hardest taskes : so it should be your ambition to doe some thing for the Church . When you reade the storie of Moses , that He was mightie in word and deede ; of David , of the Iudges , and the Worthies of the Church , they should be so many incentives to you , to stirre you up to be doing in your place . 2 But this is not all that we would commend to you at this time , to be men of action , and to observe the opportunities , but there is an other thing , and that is this , that likewise the season cōmends to you , that is , to fast and pray : as in husbandry , so in the Church , there are certaine seasons of actions , and those seasons must not be omitted . Marke what the course of the Scripture was in every calamitie , in Ioel when there was a famine begune , Sanctifie a fast , saith the Lord , call a solemne Assemblie : when their is a plague comming , when there are great enterprises in hand , when there is any thing plotting for the advancement of the good of the Church , doe you not think now , that the omission of opportunities are sinnes , for you to neglect this dutie , doe you not thinke the Lord will require it ? It is true indeed , it is a businesse that is not ordinary , it is extraordinary : but doe not extraordinary times and occasions call for it ? Againe , is it not evill in such extraordinary cases to omit such an extraordinary duty ? As wee finde in Scripture , when the Lord would call for fasting , and they did it not : Indeed to turne it to jollity and feasting is another thing , a sinne of a greater nature ; but now the very standing still and omitting of this duty is disobedience to the Lord , and to be guilty of the judgements that are upon a people , I say the standing still and not hastening to the gappe : What shall we say then of those that resist this course , and thrust men out of the gappe ? Consider it therefore seriously , this is a speciall duty required , the season lookes for it that we should humble our selves before God. Againe , there is one thing more that wee will speake of , 3 but in a word ; that is , that every man for his owne particular renew his speciall Covenant with God concerning the amendment of his life in particular : for I finde that in all times when the Lord hath stretched forth his hand against a Church and Nation , that this hath beene required , that they should come and enter into a Covenant with God : You shall finde that Asa did it , 2 Chron. 16. that Nehemiah did it , that it was done in Ieremiahs time , when they had warres in hand : Wee have many examples of it in Scripture , every man did it ; and because every man could not come to doe it personally , the head did it for the rest . I say the Lord lookes for this from every man in private , that he should doe this in a particular manner , to consider what have I done amisse in my life ? what have I done to provoke the Lord ? What sinnes of commission , and what of omission ? Have I beene colde and lukewarme ? Have I beene too much conformable to the times ? For this is it that brings judgement upon a people : the Saints when they are not zealous , when they fall from their first love , may helpe forward a judgement as well as grosse sinners , yea and more too : let every man therefore stirre up himselfe to doe his dutie . In a word , wee should strive and contend for the advancing of Christs kingdome , for the furtherance of the Gospell , for the good of mankinde , for the flourishing of the Church , wherein our owne good consisteth ; and we should doe it earnestly , wee should contend for it , contend with God in prayer , contend with our Superiours by intreaty , with our adversaries by resistance , with colde and lukewarme men by stirring them up , by provoking one another to good workes . These are the workes that we exhort you to , and thus you shall be assured you have faith that workes by love . Learne this , to joyne these together . And so much shall serve for this time , and this Text. FINIS . THE TABLE . A. Part. Page . Absolute . COvenant absolute . Part. 1. Pag. 38 Acquaintance . How to draw neere in acquaintance with God. Part. 3. Pag. 105. Act , Active , Action . Act of faith double . Part 2. Pag. 64 Habit serveth for act . p. 2. p. 140 Love active . 3.85 . Pleasure in action . 3.206 . See Faith. ADAM . A parallell betweene the two ADAMS . 1.5 . Adoption . Spirit of Adoption , what . 2.104 Adulterer , Adulterous . Hee that loves not God is an Adulterer . 1.20 Love to the creature when it is adulterous 3.107 Affections . Affections follow the understanding . 2.98 Affections all hang upon love and hatred . 3.8 Affections , how our love is tried by them . 3.24 Affliction . Afflictions , how made easie . 2.146 Christians happy in afflictions . 2.192 We neede afflictions . 2.206 Afflictions good to the godly . 2.207 Difference betweene Saints and others in afflictions . 2.208 All. Christ offered to all in 4 respects . 1.10 All must be parted with for Christ. 1.23 Christ all in all . 1 78 Tryall of love by loving all Saints . 3.101 Love God with all the heart . 3.157 Why God is to be loved above all . 3.164 166 Love is that may be given by all . 3.175 Alexander . Alexander an example of trust . 2.168 Almighty . God is Almighty . 3.38 . Almighty what . Ibid. Alone . Faith worketh best alone . 1.68 How God is to us alone . 3.158 Amisse . God heares not when wee aske amisse . 2.194 Anger . Tryall of our love by anger . 3.87 Anger what . 3.88 Many men are but angry with sinne . 3.97 See hate . Application , see Offer . Approbation . There may be approbation of that which is good in an evillman . 3.192 Argument , see Spirit . Ashamed . Love is not ashamed . 3.76 Assaults . We meet with new assaults daily . 1.135 True peace hath assaults . 2.110 Assent . Assent of three sorts . 1.47 Assurance . Wee should labour to grow in assurance . 1.129.2.72 Two wayes to increase assurance . 2.76 Assurance of Gods love begetteth love . 3.110 , 143. Meane● to get assurance . 3.144 B. Baptise . Baptising , what meant by it in Marke 16. 1.54 Baptisme what . 2.97 Beleeve . It is not in mans power to beleeve . 2.48 If ●e beleeve , God is ready to helpe , and why . 2.173 See Spirit . Benefit . Benefit in taking Christ. 1.33 Benefits by Christ may be looked to . 1.54 91 , 97.2.14 Benefits by Christ draw the will. 1.106 Benefits by Christ must not onely be looked to . 2.119 Benefit to crosse our selves in it a signe of love . 3.64 Benefit to us that we love Christ. 3.175 Best . Best thing in man is love . 3.47 Blessing . Blessing of God. 2.180 Blood. Blood of Christ not shed in vaine . 1.111 Blood of Christ to be guilty of it . 2.103 Boast . Salvation is of gift that none might boast . 1.8 , 45 Boldnesse . We should apply the promises with boldnesse . 1.86 Gods free promise should give us boldnes . 1.88 Boldnesse in prayer from the spirit of adoption . 2.104 Boldnesse the parent of love . 3.105 Bondage . The spirit of bondage requi●ite . 2.49 Bounty . Love is bountifull . 2.127 , 3 60 Tryalls of the bounty of love . 3.64 Busie . Being over busie in worldly things , a sign of too much love to them 3.124 Build , Built . When a man is said to be well built . 2.34 How Ministers should build . 2.74 C. Calling , see Diligent . Care. Care required and forbidden , what . 2.115 Carnall . Ioy of an hypocrite carnall . 2.134 Certainty . Certainty of obtaining Christ if we seeke him . 1.33 , 109 See Promise . Change. Change , the necessity of it . 1.58 Chearfull . Chearfull service an argument of loue . 3.66 Chearfullnesse , why God requires it . Ibid. Christ. Christ , the reiecting of him . 1 , 28 Christ , what we have with him . 1 , 31 Christ , 3 considerations to move men to take him . 1 , 33 Christ his willingnesse to receive sinners . 1 , 110 Christ his riches and excellency . 2 , 50 Christ , the end of his comming into the world . 2 , 57 Christ , good workes evidence our right in him . 2 , 70 Christ , hee that loves not is not in him . 3 , 5 Christ , two things to make us love him . 3 , 15 Cleare . The righteousnesse of Christ manifested more cleerely in the Gospell than formerly . 1 , 4 Coldnesse . Coldnesse in Christian profession a cause of the plague . 3 , 93 Command . Love , an affection that commands the rest . 3.8 , 87 Hee that neglects Gods commands loues him not . 3 , 115 Keeping Gods commands a signe our loue is diligent . 3 , 173 Comfort . We should set faith on worke to comfort us . 2 , 142 Considerations to helpe faith in comforting . 2 , 149 Company . To company with the Saints a signe of loue to Christ. 3 , 102 Complacency . Loue of complacency . 3 , 9 Loue of complacency onely to Saints . 3 , 102 Compell . To compell men to come in , what . 1 , 114 2 , 56 Communion . Prayer bringeth to communion with God. 3 , 50 Competition . Tryall of loue in case of competition . 3 , 123 Comming . The end of Christs comming . 2 , 59 Desire of Christs second comming a tryall of loue . 3.71 Comming of Christ how to know wee desire it . 3 , 72 Preparation for Christs comming . 3 , 172 Complaint . Complaint double . 1 , 74 Compleate . Compleate will in taking Christ. 1 , 22 Concupiscence . Loue of concupiscence . 3 , 9 Condition , Conditionall . Conditionall covenant . 1 , 38 Condition required by God easie . 3 , 44 Confesse . Confessing of Christ. 2 , 158 Constant. Constant cleaving to Christ. 2 , 118 Constant good carriage a signe of love . 3 , 130 Constant love to God must be love above all other things . 3 , 165 Content . The nature of holy men apt to take content in outward things 2 , 161 Love content with nothing but love . 3 , 66 Constraine . How love constrai●eth . 3 , 29 Cost . God observes what cost wee are at in his service . 3 , 63 Covenant . Covenant 〈◊〉 . 1 , 38 Covenant not broken by infirmities . 1 , 131 2 , 152. 3 , 147 Covenant ought to be renewed . 3 , 215 Crosse. Crosse ▪ may meete a man in Gods worke . 2 , 201 Cruell . Hatred more cruell than anger . 3 , 98 Curse . Curse upon him that loves not Christ. 3 , 18 To be cursed what . 3 , 176 Curse of God in foure things . 3 , 177 D. Damnation . Damnation to be preached to men out of Christ. 3 , 33 Danger . Danger in not taking Christ. 1 , 33 Danger , how faith guides in it . 2 , 161 Danger in not loving the Lord. 3 , 176 Deare . We must part with that which is deare for Christ. 1.115 , 117 Deceive . Men apt to deceive themselves . 2 , 4 See Taking . Deferre . We must not deferre to take Christ. 1 , 31 Degree . Faith admits degrees in ●oure respects . 1 , 117 We must grow in the degrees of ●aith . ● 127 Our love to God not alwayes in the same degree . 3 , 170 Delight . Delight in worldly things a signe of love to them . 3 , 122 Deliverance , Delivered . Deliverance , Gods children put to waite for it . 2 , 123 Deliverance , instances of Gods deferring it . 2 , 172 Faith once delivered . 3 , 210 Deliberate . Deliberate will in taking Christ. 1 , 22 Denie , Deniall . By denying our selves wee enioy our selves . 1 , 116 Faith will take no deniall . 2 , 120 Dependance . Love of dependance . 3 , 9 Desire . Desire after Christ. 1 , 30 Desire , the strength of it how tryed . Ibid. Desire , tryall of love by it . 3 , 27 Desire , when it is right , God takes the will for the deed . 3 , 202 Death , Dead , Die. Death of Christ the end of it . 1 , 36 As great a worke to moue the heart to Christ , as to raise the dead . 2 ▪ 55 Faith ineffectuall is dead . 2 , 58 Faith without workes dead . 2 , 64 , 69 Backwardnesse in the Saints to die . 3 , 72 Difficulties . Faith admits degrees in regard of difficulties . 1 ▪ 123 Difficulties , wee must labour to beleeue notwithstanding them . 1 , 128 Difficulties , how faith guides in them . 2 , 158 Difficulties God can helpe in them . 2 , 174 Diligence . Diligence a tryall of love . 3 , 26 Diligence in our calling an argument of love . 3 , 77 Diligence of love . 3 , 172 Diligence of love wherein it is . Ibid. Direct . Direct and reflect act of faith , the difference betweene them . 1 , 63 Discourage . Those that have weake faith should not be discouraged . 1.130 The Divell labours to discourage . 1 , 133 See God. Disease . A mans carnall selfe is his disease ▪ 1 , 116 Discretion . Discretion . 3 , 209 Divell . What faith the divell , hath . 2. 59 , 63 Doe , Done. What is to bee done by those that have Christs righteousnesse . 1 , 15 Readinesse to doe for Christ. 1 , 24 That the Lord hath done for us a motive to loue him . 3 , 47 Love , ready to doe for them it loves 3 , 77 Evill men are not said to doe the good they doe . 3 , 196 Exhortation to doing . 3 , 203 Dominion , see Lust. Double . Double-minded man who . 2 , 23 Doubting . Doubting overcome by faith . 1 , 120 Doubting may be mingled with true faith 2 ▪ 22 , 25 Doubting , Papists tenent touching it . 2 , 24 Doubting how tryed . Ibid. Draw. Drawing vvhat it implieth . 2 , 56 Hovv the holy Ghost draweth . 2 , 57 Due-time . God delivereth his in ●u●-time . 2 , 198 E Easie. Afflictions easie to the Saints . 2 , 211 Effectuall , Efficacy . Effectual faith onely saveth . 2 , 3 Efficacy of faith vvherein . 2 , 20 Things effectual in 4. respects . 2 , 21 Faith effectual in 4 things . 2 , 29 Effectual faith hovv vvrought . 2 , 47 Why God vvill accept no faith but that vvhich is effectuall . 2 , 58 To try our state by the effica●y of faith . 2 , 64 Effectuall faith 5 signes of it . 2 , 92 Elect. Though Christ be offered to all , hee is onely intended to the Elect. 1 , 11 Elias . Spirit of Elias vvhat . 2 , 16 Eloquent . Love maketh eloquent . 3 , 77 Emptie . Faith empties a man of himselfe , ● , 70 Things effectuall opposed to empty . ● , 27 Essence , see Faith. Eternall . Eternal separation from God. 3 , 181 Even . An even carriage a signe of love . 3 , 130 Evill . Christ delivereth from the least evil . 1 , 46 Evil , freedome from it to the Saints , vvhence it is . Ibid. Evil vve feare not so bad as vvee thinke . 2 , ●87 Good in the evil vvee suffer . 2 , 189 See humil●ation . Example . Example of others should incourage us . 1 , 112 Exclude . No sinne can exclude from the offer of Christ. 1 , 13.3 , 146 Excell , Excellency . All excellency in God. 3 , 34 ▪ The excellency of God set forth . 3 , 36 If love be right , it is to them that excell in grace . 3 , 102 God must bee loved for his excellencies . 3 , 109 Executed . Though the curse be not executed , it may be on a man : 3 , 182 Exercise . Prayer exerciseth our love . 3 , 50 Extent . Faith admits degrees in regard of extent . 1 , 125 Extremity . Why God doth not deliver till extremity . 2 , 170 F. Faith. Faith vvhat . 1 , 16 , 48 Faith , vvhy God vvill haue men saved by it onely . 1 , 42 Faith in generall vvhat . 1 , 47 Faith iustifying vuhat . 1 , 48 Faith iustifying how it differeth from generall faith . Ibid. Faith iustifying a definition of it . 1 , 49 Faith , how it taketh Christ. Ibid. Faith the essence of it . 1 , 52 Faith , the obiect of it . Ibid. Faith , the subiect of it . 1 , 55 Faith , a twofold consideration of it . 1 , 59 Faith , the acts of it three . 1 , 62 Faith , a double q●ality in it : 1 , 69 Faith , to be laboured for above all , 1 , 81 Faith , the least degree what : 1 , 121 Faith , an exhortation to grow in it . 1 , 134 Faith , 6 motiues to grow in it . 1 , 135 Faith of many false . 2 , 4 Faith , the proper worke of it what . 2 , 21 Faith , we should try it . 2 , 60 , 84 Faith , many say they haue it , and haue not . 2 , 65 Faith , to doe a thing by it what . 2 , 82 Faith , how God workes it . 2 , 86 , 90 Faith , how to know if it bee wrought . 2 , 91 Faith , a false definition of it . 2 , 100 Faith makes a man neglect other things . 2 , 144 Faith that puts a man into Christ what . 3 , 2 Faith , to be rooted in it . 3 , 171 Faith , to contend for it . 3 , 209 Faithfull . The Lord is faithfull . 3 , 148 Failing . Failings of holy men . 3 , 195 Fancie . Fancy , the ground of unsound peace . 2 , 110 Father , see Offer . Favour . Favour of God how to grow in it . 1 , 136 Favour of God onely desired by a man sensible of sinne : 3 , 140 Feare . Feare ; the ground why many men take Christ : 2 , 10 Faith that comes from feare holdes not out : 2 , 119 Feares , how faith guides in them : 2 , 164 Feare , a tryall of our love . 3 , 92 Feeling . Feeling may be wanting where faith is : 2 , 61 Fit. When we are not fit for mercies God denieth us : 2 , 196 Vnwillingnesse to die in the Saints is that they may be more fit . 3 , 73 We should not be discouraged from comming to God because wee are not fit : 3 , 145 Fire . Love compared to fire in foure things : 3 , 84 Flesh. Flesh in the Saints makes them loath to die : 3 , 73 Flesh transports holy men to sinne : 3 , 195 Follow. What Christ lookes for of those that follow him . Forgive . A man may bee perswaded of forgivenes without faith : 3 , 16 None so ready to forgive as God : 3 , 39 Forme . Forme must be observed in taking Christ : 1 , 19 Fornication . Fornication a cause of the pestilence : 3 , 92 Foundation . Foundation of Prophets and Apostles : 2 , 36 Fortitude . Fortitude false , the cause of it : 2 , 8 Free. The will must be free in taking Christ : 1 , 22 One property of love to be free : ● , 95 Friend , Friendship . Love of friendship : 3 , 9 God a constant friend : 3 , 37 Friendship with great men what : 3 , 149 G. Garment . Wedding garment what : 2 , 5 Gift . Righteousnesse by gift for three reasons : 1 , 8 Gift accepted for the give● . 2 , 82 Glasse , see Name . Glory , Glorifie . Growing in faith brings glory to God : 1 , 137 Glory of God why Moses desired to see it . 3 , 55 Glorifying of God is the end why wee live . 3 , 207 God. God boweth the will : 1 , 57 , 102 God , wee must not be discouraged from comming to him . 1 , 67 God , by what way wee come againe to him . 3 , 3 God , why we love him : 3 , 10● God must be loved above all , else wee love him not as God : 3 , 165 Godlinesse . Godlinesse what : 2 , 83 Good. Without humiliation Christ is not accounted the chiefe good : 2 , 16 Afflictions good for us : 2 , 192 A man may doe good , and not be good : 3 , 196 To doe good to men is one end why wee live : 3 , 207 In every calling we have occasion to doe good : 3 , 208 Gospell . Sinnes against the Gospell aggravated : 1 , 27 Love of GOD wrought by the Gospell : 3 , 13 Curse of the Gospell : 3 , 20 Grace , Gracious . Righteousnesse of Christ is of grace : 1 , 8 , 43 Grace , GOD tryeth it : 2 , 46 Grace , when it is weake what to doe 2 , 73 GOD is gracious : 3 , 40 Grace sought by Christians as well as mercy . 3 , 68 Grace , to be seperate from it a curse . 3 , 177 Great . True ioy is great : 2 , 132 Greatnesse of GOD. 3 , 44 Grieve . If we grieve GOD we love him not : 3 , 113 Grounded . Faith not well grounded proves false : 2 , 17 Faith ill grounded holds not out : 2 , 119 Our love must be rooted and grounded : 3 , 169 H. Habits . Habits . 1 , 41 God rewards not according to our habits . 2 , 140 See act . Happy . Riches make not happy . 2 , 181 Hardly . God deales not hardly with us , why . 3 , 175 Harlot , see Love. Hate , Hating . Hating of sinne a signe of love . 2 , 126 Naturally we hate God. 3 , 11 Hatred of sinne a property of love . 3 , 97 Three differences betweene hatred and anger . 3 , 98 To returne againe to sinne a signe wee hate it not . 3 , 99 Hating that which God hates is a signe of love . 3 , 120 Foure signes of hating GOD. 3 , 131 Heare . GOD heares some sooner , some later . 1 , 90 Why God heareth not sometimes . 2 , 194 Hearers , Hearing . Hearers of two sorts . 1 , 28 What hearing of the word God requireth . 3 , 81 Heart . Doubting a signe of a good heart . 2 , 26 Christ dwells in the heart , how . 2 , 95 How to know whether Christ dwell in the heart . 2 , 96 To take Christ with the whole heart 2 , 97 Vncircumcision of heart . 3 , 106 A heart after Gods heart is a signe of love . 3 , 119 When wee give our hearts to God , hee gives us them againe . 3 , 155 Heaven . Heaven , how desired by wicked men 3 , 74 Helpe . God can helpe in desperate cases . 2 , 189 Hypocrites , Hypocrisie . Hypocrisy what . 3 , 19 The Saints hated under the name of hypocrites . 3 , 103 Christ persecuted under the person of an hypocrite . 3 , 121 Holy Ghost . How the holy Ghost worketh faith . 2 , 49 Love , a peculiar gift of the holy Ghost . 3 , 50 Holinesse . Holines wrought by God. 1 , 40 Holines easier loved in the Saints , than in God. 2 , 127 Holines required in comming to God. 2 , 199 Hope . Hope ill grounded faileth . 2 , 19 Hope distinguisheth the faith of Christians from others . 2 , 127 Hope mingled with feare . 2 , 128 Hope , the property of it . 2 , 129 Hold out . To hold out what it implyeth . 2 , 118 Howling . The prayers of wicked men are howlings . 2 , 107 Humbled , Humiliation , Humility . Humiliation , how it is required before we come to Christ. 1 , 14 None can take Christ till they be humbled ▪ 1 , 24 Want of humiliation causeth faith to bee vaine ▪ 2 , 15 Without sound humiliation sinne is not accounted the greatest evill . 2 , 16 Sound humiliation fits men for Christ. 2 , 30 Without sound humiliation men holde not out 2 , 32 Humility a concomitant of faith . 2 , 136 Humility required in comming to God. 2 , 199 I. Idolatrie . Idolatry a cause of the pestilence . 3 , 91 Iehovah . Iehovah . 3 , 36 Ignorance . Ignorance , what breedeth it . 3 , 105 Imployment . How faith guides a man in his imployment . 2 , 166 Imperfection . Imperfection in every creature . 3 , 35 Impediment . Two impediments of love to Christ. 3 , 104 When the impediment cannot be removed , God accepteth the will for the deed . 3 , 201 Implacable . Hatred is implacable . 3 , 101 Infinite . Gods mercy is infinite . 2 , 150 Infirmitie . Love to God makes him beare with many infirmities . 3 , 152 See Covenant . Ingage . We are ingaged to love the Lord. 3 , 45 Interest . Faith gives us interest in all Gods riches . 2 , 141 Intention . A man may pray amisse though his intention be right . 2 , ●95 Ioy. Ioy , increase of faith increaseth it . 1 , 135 Ioy may be in hypocrites . 2 , 93 Ioy , a concomitant of ●aith . 2 , 130 Ioy , tryalls of it . 2 , 132 Iudge , Iudgements . What God looks for when he sends Iudgements . 3 , 94 To looke on God as a Iudge a signe of hatred . 3 , 132 The sinnes of Gods children helpe forward Iudgements . 3 216 Iustifie , Iustification . Faith how it iustifieth . 1 , 59 Pharise not iustifyed why . 1 , 72 Iustification , difference betweene Papists and us in the doctrine of it . 2 , 67 Iustification double . 2 , 68 Good workes iustify not . 2 , 71 Waiting in iustification . 2 , 122 Workes and faith exclude each other in iustification . 3 , 3 K Kindnesse . God abundant in kindnesse . 3 , 41 Kindnesse , wherein it consists . Ibid. Killing . The great sinne of killing Christ. 2 , 103 Know , Knowledge . Particular knowledge . 2 , 36 Knowledge of God a meanes to love him . 2 , 108 Afflictions teach a man to know himselfe . 3 , 141 Knowledge of God and our selves must goe together 3 , 142 Knowledge in wicked me● . 3 , 192 L. Law. Law , how it drives men to Christ. 1 , 105 Law , an efficacy put into it to work faith . 2 , 49 Law breaketh the heart . 3 , 12 Law of the Gospell who breake it . 3 , 19 Liberty . Liberty in giving our hearts to God. 3 , 156 Life . How to use faith in guiding our life . 2 , 154 Life the end of it . 3 , 207 Limit . Love doth not limit it selfe in duty . 3 , 95 Limiting in Gods service shewes want of love . 3 , 96 Longing . Longing after Christ whence it is . 2 , 90 Long-suffering . Long-suffering in God. 3 , 40 Lose . We lose not by ourlove to God. 3 , 1●3 God loseth when wee employ not our talents . 3 , 162 Lord. Christ must be taken as a Lord. 1 , 50 Love. Love to Christ when wee have taken him . 1 , 23 Men in extremity would have Christ , but not out of love . 2 , 11 Love of harlots . 2 , 14 Love of virgins . Ibid. Love must make us come to Christ. 2 , 44 Vneffectuall faith workes no love . 2 , 59 Love cannot be counterfeited by hypocrites . 2 , 72 , 151 Love , a concomitant of faith . 2 , 124 Love , tryalls of it . 2 , 125 Love to Saints . 2 , 126 Love to God weakeneth sinne . 2 , 214 Love , what . 3 , 6 Definition of love in generall . Ibid. Love , two effects of it . 3 , 7 Love ▪ five kindes of it . 3 , 8 Love to God threefold . 3 , 10 Love of three sorts . Ibid. Love to God wrought by two things . 3 , 12 Love to Christ what . 3 , 14 Motives to love Christ. 3 , 34 Why we love the Lord no more . 3 , 36 Love why it is planted in us . 3 , 45 Love of God to us a motive to love him . 3 , 48. Love to God , meanes to beget it . 3 , 49 Love , the properties of it . 3 , 60 , 157 Love , the tryalls of it . 3 , 113 Love , an exhortation to it . 3 , 150 Love , motives to it . 3 , 152 Lust. Thraldome to lusts shewes a desire not to part with them . 1 , 93 Faith conflicts with lust . 2 , 75 Satisfying of lusts cannot stand with faith 2 , 99 Lusts , the best way to mortifie them . 2 , 213 Lusts , the mortifying of them a good worke . 3 , 207 See Liberty . M. Manna . Manna hidden . 2 , 85 Meanes . Meanes , of the use of them . 2 , 176 Meanes that we use must be Gods. 2 , 178 Meanes particular not to bee pitched on much . Ibid. Meanes , caution in using them . 2 ▪ 186 Meanes , how to know we trust God in using them . Ibid. Meaning . We must not content our selves only with good meanings . 3 , 191 Melancthon . 2 , 163 Measure . Punishment the measure of sinne . 3 , 22 Mercy . Mercy of God infinite , and therefore should incourage us . 1 , 114 Mercy sought of many and not grace 2 , 13 Mercy , God delights in it . 2 , 150 Mercy of God. 3 , 39 Mercy remembred in the Lords Supper great . 3 , 58 Might . Wee must love God with all our might . 3 , 160 Misinformation . Misinformation , the ground why many take Christ. 2 , 6 Fait● that comes from misinformation lasts not . 2 , 119 Moderation . 3 , 210 Mortifie . Vneffectuall faith doth not mortifie sinne . 2 , 59 Motions . The affections are the severall motions of the will. 3 , 6 Misery . We must see our misery before wee apply the promises . 1 , 59 The consideration of our misery draweth the will. 1 , 104 Misery at the last befalls evill men . 2 , 208 N. Name . Good name like a glasse . 2 , 190 Nature , Naturall . Righteousnesse of the Gospell not in men by nature . 1 , 4 Na●urall love why it is planted in us . 3 , 11 Naturalnesse of our love to God. 3 , 130 Good workes come from a new nature . 3 , 190 Neglect . Men ought not to neglect the Sacrament . 3 , 59 Not. If wee desire God were not , wee hate him 3 , 131 O. Oathes . Wherein lesser oathes exceed greater . 3 , 114 Obedience . 2 , 94 Object . Iustifying faith differeth from generall faith in the obiect . 1 , 48 Obiect of faith . 1 , 52 Faith and opinion differ in the obiect . 1 , 120 Offer . Errours touching the generall offer of Christ. 1 , 11 Who sleight Gods offer . 3 , 21 God offers his love to us . 3 , 144 Office. Things are effectuall when they doe their proper office . 2 , 21 Onely . Christ must be taken only . 1 , 19 Opinion . Opinion . 1 , 47 Opinion variable . 1 , 98 Opinion , wherein it differeth from faith . 1 , 120 Errours in opinion the worst errours . 3 , 210 Opportunities . Opportunities neglected shew want of love 3 , 62 Opportunities not to be slipped . 3 , 211 Outward . Outward things whence it is that wee overvalue them . 2 , 161 In outward things God dealeth promiscuously . 2 , 204 Not to iudge by Gods outward dealing . 2 , 205 Gods curse in outward estate . 3 , 180 P. Pacifie . To pacify the heart an act of faith . 1 , 62 Pardon . Wee should labour for assurance of pardon . 2 , 73 Pardon propounded generally . 2 , 150 Passeover . The Lords Supper beyond the Passeover in two respects . 2 , 58 Paines . Measure of grace not gotten without paines . 3 , 203 Peace . Peace a signe of faith . 2 , 108 Peace , wicked men may live and die in it , and why . 2 , 209 Peace twofold . 2 , 112 Peace unsound a great iudgement . 2 , 114 Person . We must take heede of errour concerning Christs Person 1 , 18 True love lookes to the Person . 1 , 53 Many take Christ , but love not his Person . 2.12 Love must be pitched on Christs Person . 3 , 171 Perfect . Faith made perfect by workes what . 2 , 69 Perswasion . Perswasion of forgivenesse on what ground to build it . 1 , 99 Perswasion , degrees in it . 1 , 118 Perswasion , to grow in it . 1 , 127 Perswasion false what . 2 , 17 Perswasion secret of the Spirit . 2 , 84 Perswasion may be in men that beleeve not ▪ 3 , 16 Perswasion may be weake in a true beleever . 3 , 17 Persecute . They that persecute Christians persecute Christ. 3 , 121 Pitty . A love of pitty . 3 , 8 Plague . Plague , causes of it . 3 , 91 Plague , how to remove it . 3 , 94 Pleasures . Pleasures , how faith guides in them . 2 , 164 Pleasures of sinne fors●ken of good men , why . 2 , 165 Pleasures , to love them more than God , is to hate him . 3.133 Pleasures , not to love them more than God what . 3 , 107 Plenty . Plenty , a man may be cursed in it . 3.181 Poore . We cannot love Christ till we be spiritually poore . 3 , 52 Posterity . How faith guides a mans care for posterity . 2 , 165 Power . Power to receive Christ is of God. 1 , 11 Power given by God when wee resolve to take Christ. 1 , 26 Power against sinne where Christ dwelleth : 2 , 102 Powers of the world to come what meant by tasting them : 2 , 134 Love powerfull as fire : 3 , 87 Prayse . Praysing God , the ground of it : 1 , 80 Prayse with men : 2 , 159 Practise . Practise of Christ when hee was on earth : 1 , 111 Prayer . Prayer , how to prevaile in it : 1 , 13● Spirit of prayer a signe of faith : 2 , 103 Prayer , what maketh earnest and bolde in it : 2 , 104 Prayer what : 2 , 105 Prayer double : Ibid : Prayer a meanes to love God : 3 , ●9 Prayer workes love 4 wayes : Ibid. What kinde of prayer comes from love : 3 , 81 Prayer needfull in times of iudgement . 3 , 212 Preaching . Preaching of Christ and his Apostles , the summe of it : 1 , 84 Presence . Presence of Christ desired according to the measure of faith : 3 , 74 Presence of God , separation from it a curse : 3 , 179 Preparation . Good preparation makes faith effectuall : 2 , 29 Pride . Pride , a cause of the pestilence : 3 , 92 Priviledges . Priviledges spirituall why they affect us not : 1 , 108 Prize . That we may prize blessings GOD defers the giving them : 2 , 199 Love sets a price on all we doe : 3 , 151 Private . Private duties performed without love : 3 , 8● Profit . How faith guides in case of profit : 2 , 160 Promise . Promises , the certainty of them : 1 , 34 Promises , two things in laying holde of them : 1 , 94 Promises made in sickness● seldome performed : 2 , 11 Promises , the beleeving of them in particular . 2 , 34 Promises made promiscuously : 2 , 4● Promises , the application of them wrought by the Spirit : 2 , 53 Promises cleared : 2 , 88 Promises , not seen without the Spirit . 2 , 89 Promises , how to know they are cleared . 2 , 91 Promises , how to try our faith in them , 2 , 114 Prosperitie . Prosperity of wicked men . 2 , 200 Prosperity hurts wicked men . 2 , 205 Prosperity in sinne a miserable condition , 2 , 206 Providence . Providence of God crossed by our prayers , 2 ▪ 200 Purposes . Purposes of good why they come to nothing in many , 2 , 74 Purposes good whence they arise . 3 , 192 Purifie . To purify the heart an act of faith , 1 , 165 True faith purifieth the heart , 2 , 93 Q. Qualification . Vpon what qualification Christs righteousnesse is given , 1 , 12 See Exclude . Qualitie , see Faith. Quicke . Love of a quick nature , 2 , 125 Love quick , like fire , 3 , 85 R. Reason . Faith a new addition to the light of reason . ● , 55 Received , Receiving . Righteou●nesse of Christ must be received as well as offered . 1 , 15 In receiving of Christ 3 things must concurre . 1 , 28 Wee must not onely belee●e in , but receive Christ. 1 , 51 None have benefit by Christ but th●se that receive him . Ibid. Reconcile . To reconcile us to God an act of faith . 1 , 62 Reciprocall . Reciprocall match betweene Christ and us . 2 , 92 Reflect . Reflect act of faith admits degrees . 1 , 126 A beast cannot reflect on his actions . 2 , 91 Rejoyce . Reioyce we should in GOD. 1 , 76 Reioyce in our selves wee are prone to it . 1 , 77 Religion . Religion hated under other notions . 3 , 104 Religion what . 3 , 199 Remedie . The curse of the Gospell without remedy . 3 , 23 Repentance . Repentance required when wee have taken Christ. 1 , 23 Repentance ioyned with faith . 2 , 94 Repentance not to be deferred . 2 , 106 Repentance removes a plague . 3 , 94 Revealed . Why Christs righteousnesse is said to be revealed . 1 , 4 Wee should labour to have more truthes revealed . 1 , 129 Respect . GODS respect to Christians in affliction . 2 , 209 Reward . Reward according to our workes 2 , 71 , 182 Reward , we may use motives from it 3 , 80 Reward , love bargaines not for it . 3 , 96 Riches , see Happie . Righteousnesse . Righteousnesse , why revealed in the Gospell . 1 , 2 Righteousnesse in the Gospell commended . 1 , 3 Righteousnesse , 6 questions about it 1 , 5 Righteousnesse of Christ how wee come by it . 1 , 7 Righteousnesse , to whom it is given . 1 , 9 Righteousnesse , what required of us when we have it . 1 , 23 Christ our righteousnesse . 2 , 150 Rob. If we love not GOD we rob him . 3 , 46 Rooted . How to be rooted in love . 3 , 171 S. Sacrament . Sacraments preach faith . 1 , 87 Sacrament , rules of examination touching it . 2 , 202 Sacrament not to be omitted , why . 3 , 58 Sacrament unworthily received , a cause of the plague . 3 , 92 Saints . Saints , love to them a signe we love God. 3 , 100 , 120 Saints , foure tryalls of our love to them . 3 , 101 Sanctification . Sanctification , God puts his children to waite in it . 2 , 122 Sanctification , we must set faith on worke to increase it . 2 , 212 How faith sanctifyeth the heart . 2 , 213 Saved . If Christ should not receive sinners , none should be saved 1 , 113 Scriptures . Scriptures beleeved in generall . 2 , 34 Science . Science . 1 , 47 Sciences of two sorts 3 , 200 Seale . Seale double . 2 , 153 Security . Security a cause of the pestilence . 3 , 92 Security double . Ibid. Seed . How salvation is sure to all the seed . 1 , 44 Season . Season , our workes must sute with it . 3 , 209 Season , what duties befit us in it . Ibid. Selfe . Self-crossing a signe of love to God 3 , 64 Why we must love God above our selves . 3 , 166 Service . Service to God and men different . 3 , 154 Shew . Difference betweene faith and a shew of holinesse . 1 , 85 In prayer God sheweth himselfe to us . 3 , 50 Gods shewing himselfe begets love . 3 , 54 Shepheard . Magistrates shepheards . 3 , 78 Signe . Signe , in what cases God will give it . 1 , 124 Sin , Sinfull . Sin , the greatnesse of it . 1 , 26 Sin , the nature of it not altered by faith . 1 , 59 Sin , the efficacy of it taken away by faith . 1 , 60 Sins most hainous Christ came to pardon . 2 , 151 Sinfull love . 3 , 10 Sin , the consideration of it makes us love God. 3 , 52 Sin , delight in it , and love of GOD cannot stand together . 3 , 159 See Exelude . Slippery . Slippery places wicked men stand in . 2 , 210 Sonne . Sonne of GOD offereth his love to us . 3 144 Soule . Soule turned to GOD by faith . 2 44 Soule needeth refreshing . 3 , 114. Soule , the adorning of it . 3 , 173 Sound . Sound heart hath good workes . 3 , 193 Sorrow . Sorrow for offending God a signe of love 3 , 116 Sorrow , the want of it worse than the sin it selfe . 3 , 117 Speake . Love delights to speake of the party loved 3 , 75 Spirit , Spirituall . Spirit given more largely now than before . 1 , 4 Spirit makes us love Christ. 2 , 50 Spirits testimony wrought two wayes . 2 , 53 Spirit , all arguments without it prevaile not . 2 , 54 Spirits of men not alike troubled in conversion . 2 , 86 Spirits immediate testimonie . 2 , 89 Spirits testimony how to know it . 2 , 90 Spirituall ioy . 2 , 133 Spirit sound will beare affliction . 2 , 191 Spirit , the more we beleeve , the more wee have of it . 2 , 215 Spirituall love . 3 , 11 Spirit is strong . 3 , 187 Stranger , Strangenesse . Wicked men come to God as a stranger 2 , 106 Strangenes dissolveth love . 3 , 105 Strength . Faith takes away opinion of our owne strength . 1 , 72 We daily want new strength . 1 , 135 Strengthening of faith usefull . 2 , 73. Study . Study of a Christian. 3 , 142 Stone . White stone what it signifieth . 2 , 85 Successe . Successe promised to good causes . 2 , 163 Sudden . Miseries come suddenly on the wicked . 2 , 210 How things are said to be suddaine . Ibid. Holy men may be suddainely transported to sinne . 3 , 195 Sure. How righteousnesse becomes sure . 1 , 8 , 43 Sutable . Looking on GOD as sutable to us breedes love . 3 , 139 Suffering . Suffering for Christ. 1 , 24 Suffering , a fruite of love . 3 , 77 Suffering a kinde of doing . 3 , 77 Suffering a good worke . 3 , 209 T. Taking . Taking of Christ what . 1 , 16 When we come to take Christ. 1 , 96 The efficacy of faith in taking Christ 2 , 41 What taking of Christ is effectuall . 2 , 43 Taking Christ deceitfully . 2 , 97 Taking Christ the way to salvation . 3 , 5 Taught . A Christian better taught than learned men wanting grace . 3 , 197 Teaching . Teaching of GOD what . 2 , 12 Temptation . Some cleave to Christ ●or want of temptations . 2 , 25 Every man hath some particular temptation . 2 , 65 Testimonie , see Spirit . Time. Our time in GODS hands . 2 , 182 GOD meetes with evill men in the worst time . 2 , 211 Time a precious talent . 3 , 113 Triall . GOD puts men to tryall that they may holde out . 1 , 9● GOD gives no grace , but hee hath tryalls for it . 2 , 121 Trouble . True ioy holds out in trouble . 2 , 132 Trust. Trusting GOD. 2 , 116 Trusting GOD instances of it . 2 , 117 Trusting in GOD what . 2 , 168 When we are said to trust in GOD : 2 , 171 Trusting GOD ingageth him to helpe us : 2 , 17● See Meanes . Truth . GOD abundant in truth : 3 , 42 Turne , Turning . To turne to GOD what ▪ 2 , 99 How to use faith in the turnings of our life : 2 , 156 V. Vaine . Faith without workes is vaine : 2 , 63 Vehement . Love vehement as fire : 3 , 89 Vertues . Morall vertues GOD regards not without faith : 1 , 82 Difference betweene faith and morall vertues : 1 , 83 Virgins , see Love. Vnderstanding . Faith wrought in the understanding : 1 , 16 Vnderstanding , what required in it touching faith : 1 , 55 Vnderstanding , 4 things in it touching the promise : 1 , 95 Vnderstanding cleare makes faith effectuall : 2 , ●3 Vnderstanding , what in it hinders love : 3 , 108 Vneffectuall . 5. Causes why faith is uneffectuall . 2 , 6. Vngodly . God iustifieth the ungod●y . 2 , 149 Vnworthily . To receive the Sacrament unworthily what . 1 , 87 Two sorts receive the Sacrament unworthily . 3 , 59 Voice . Voice immediate . 2 , 53 Voice soft what . 2 , 88 Voice of the Spirit in us . 2 , 105 Voice of Gods Spirit how to know it . 2 , 106 Vprightnes . Gods blessing according to our uprightnes . 2 , 181 Vse . Those that have faith are able to use it . 2 , 139 How to use faith . 2 , 142 Vse of grace increaseth it . 3 , 204 Vile . When a man is vile in his owne eyes . 2 , 136 W. Wages . Love desireth no wages . 3 , 27 Walke . To walke with GOD what . 3 , 25 Warre . True peace comes after warre . 2 , 109 Way . When wee looke on Gods wayes as contrary to us , we hate him . 3 , 132 See Good workes , see Taking . Waite . True faith is content to waite . 2 , 121 Instances of waiting . 2 , 122 Weake . Faith is weake for want of using . 2 , 140 Love to God weakeneth sinne . 2 , 214 Weake grace is grace . 3 , 148 Will , Willing . Will , faith wrought in it . 1 , 16 Will must take Christ. 1 , 21 Will , three things in it in taking Christ. 1 , 22 Those that are willing to take Christ , how they are affected . 1 , 32 Iustifying faith differeth from generall faith in the act of the will. 1 , 49 Will , what required in it touching faith . 1 , 56 We must be willing to kill our lusts . 1 , 92 Will , the drawing of it to take the promises . 1 , 101 Will how drawne . 1 , 103 Will drawne by three meanes . 1 , 104 Will , what in it hinders love . 3 , 108 Will taken for the deed when . 3 , 201 Wee must be willing to suffer for Christ. 3 , 99 Wisedome . Wisedome in three things . 2 , 199 Property of wisedome . 3 , 206 Wonders . Wonders wrought now though no miracles . 2 , 177 Worth , Worthy . To be worthy of Christ , what . 1.29 , 75 Faith take from a man all opinion of worth . 1 , 71 Christ worthy of our love . 3 , 34 Worship . If Christ were not ready to pardon , hee should not be worshipped . 1 , 113 Worke , Working . Faith and opinion differ in their working . 1 , 120 Working shewes a thing to bee effectuall . 2 , 27 Working in doing and suffering . 2 , 45 Good works the way to salvation . 2 , 60 Worke-lesse faith five arguments against it . 2 , 62 True faith is working . 2 , 63 Workes , without them none iustified Ibid. Doctrine of good workes iustified . 2 , 67 Works why required . 2 , 70 Good workes their different rise in Papists and us . 2 , 72 Workes , to iudge aright of them . 2 , 79 Workes how accepted . 2 , 80 Workes of our calling good workes . 2 , 84 Faith must be set on worke . 2 , 138 Motives to set faith on worke . 2 , 139 Faith inableth us to worke . 2 , 141 We shall be iudged by our workes . 3 , 186 A good heart and good workes goe together . 3 , 189 Motives to working . 3 , 203 A beauty in good workes . 3 , 205 World. World overcome by faith . 2 , 215 World , the love of God and it cannot be together . 3 , 121 World , tryalls of love to it . 3 , 122 World , how minded by Saints . 3 , 126 Word . As great a sinne to neglect the Lords Supper as to neglect the Word . 3 , 59 Wrastling . Wrastling with God. 1 , 89 Y. Yoake . Yoake of Satan easie to many that weare it . 2 , 31 Z. Zeale is where there is love . 3 , 95 FINIS . CHristian Reader , the Booke being divided into three parts , being upon three severall Texts , and each part beginning with Fol. 1. know that alway the first figure in the Table sheweth the part , the other the page , as will easilie appeare by the beginning of the Table . ERRATA . Part. 1. Page 31 line 10 for If say , reade I say , page 55 ▪ line 4 for iustification , reade testification p 59 , l. 12 , for the thing , r. the next thing . p. 75 , l. 27 , for yeranes , r yearnes p. 76 , l. 6 , for the use , r. that use . p. 109 , l. 25 , for hear● of in , r. heard in . p. 113 , l. 23 , for to serve , r : to serve him . p : 113 , l : 26 , for have no hope , r : they have no hope . p : 125 , l : 8 , for beleeve this , r : beleeve for this . p : 130 , l : 25 , for best bud , r : least bud . p : 136 , l. 20 , for eyther thy soule , r : either for thy soule . Part 2. Page 23 , line ult . blot out his ▪ p. 25 , l. 7 , blot out for . p. 49 , l. 9 , for worke , r. worker . p 72 , l 28. for 3 use , r. 4 use . p. 76. in the margine , blot out Vse 4. p. 85 , l. 22 , for was , r. was by . p ●6 , l. 1 , for selfe , r. selves . p. 88 , l. 18. for within , r. in p. 132 , 9 , for faith , r. ioy . p. 144 , l : 8 , for so , r : see p. 158 , l : 25 , for thing , r : use . p : 160 , l : 30 , blot out that p : 165 , l : 20 , for conclusions , r : turnings . p : 197 , l : 2 , 3 , r : God stayes thee for this end p : 197 , l : 9 , blot out not p. 198 , l : 10 , for weakne● , r. weaned ▪ p : 198 , l : 31 , for indulde●s , r : indulgent● p : 199 , l : 14 , for except r : expect . p : ●02 , l : 10 , for thy r : their . p : 208 , l : 19 , for certainly , r. captivity . p : 212 , l : 11 , for saith will , r : saith he will. Part 3. Page 74 , l : 15 , for they would , r : they would not . p : 99 l : 4 , blot out any . p : 99 , l : 12 , for beauty , r : bent . p : 140 , l : 9 , for feare , r : sense p : 149 , l : 12 , for nearely , r : warily . A briefe Collection of the principall heads in the ensuing Treatises . PART 1. DOCTRINE . That righteousnesse by which alone wee are saved , is revealed in the Gospell . pag. 3 Sixe Questions about this righteousnesse . 5 Vse . To see the justice of God in condemning men who neglect this righteousnesse . 26 Vse 2. Not to deferre the taking of Christ. 31 Doct. 2. Faith is that whereby the righteousnes of God is made ours to salvation . 37 Reasons . 1. That it might be of grace . 43 2. That it might be sure . Ibid. 3. That it might be to all the seede . 44 4. That no flesh should rejoyce in it selfe . 45 Definition of justifying faith . 49 The object of faith . 52 The subject of it . 55 How faith justifieth . 59 The acts of faith . 62 Vse 1. Not to be discouraged from comming to God. 67 Vse 2. To rejoyce in God. 76 Vse 3. To labour for faith . 81 Vse 4. To apply the promises with boldnesse . 86 Foure things in the understanding touching the promises . 95 Three meanes to draw the will. 104 Seven arguments to perswade us of Christs willingnesse to receive us . 110 Doct. 3. Faith admits degrees , and wee ought to grow from degree to degree . 117 Faith admits degrees in foure respects . Ibid. Vse 1. To comfort those that have faith , though in a lesse degree . 130 Vse 2. An exhortation to grow in faith . 134 Sixe motives to grow in faith . 135 PART . 2. DOCTRINE . That faith that saveth us must be effectuall . pag. 3 Five causes of ineffectuall faith . 6 Three things wherin the efficacy of faith consisteth . 20 How effectuall faith is wrought . 47 Sixe reasons why God will accept no other faith . 58 Vses . First , To try our faith whether it be sound . 60 Secondly , To judge our conditions by the efficacy of our faith . 64 Thirdly , To justifie the doctrine of good workes against the Papists . 67 Fourthly , To labour to grow in faith and assurance . 72 Fifthly , To learne to judge aright of our workes . 79 Sixthly , To try if we have faith . 84 Five signes of effectuall faith . 92 The concomitants of faith . 124 Vse 7. To set faith on worke . 138 Three wayes how to use faith . 142 Sixe considerations to helpe faith to comfort us . 149 Eight instances wherein faith should guide us . 158 Concerning using meanes . 176 Concerning evills feared . 187 Concerning God hearing our prayers . 193 Concerning the prosperity of the wicked , and affliction of the Saints . 201 PART 3. DOCTRINE . HEE that loves not is not in Christ. page 5 Five kindes of love . 8 How the love of God is wrought in us . 12 Reasons . First , If a man love not , there is a curse on him . 18 Secondly , He breakes the Evangelicall law . 19 Thirdly , it is adultery . 20 Fourthly , he slights Gods offer . 21 Vses . First , To examine if we love Christ. 21 Sixe tryalls of our love to Christ. 24 Seven motives to love Christ. 34 Meanes to enable us to love God. 49.106.138 . Ten properties of love . 60 Two impediments of our love to Christ. 106 Five tryalls whether we love God or no. 115 Foure signes of hatred of God. 133 Meanes whereby wee may be assured of Gods love to us . 146 Five things requisite in our love to God. 159 The danger of not loving the Lord. 178 ●oure things in the curse of God. 179 Doct. 2. We are to be judged not onely by our faith , but by our workes . 188 Reasons . First , Because every Christian hath the Spirit . 189 Secondly , Inward rectitude is never disjoyned from good workes . 191 Thirdly , Because every Christian hath a new nature . 192 Vses . First , Not to content our selves with good meanings onely . 193 Secondly , Christians are better taught than learned men without grace . 199 Thirdly , An exhortation to doing . 205 Three duties suting the season . 211 Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A09950-e290 1 Cor. 16.13 . 1 Thes. 5 , 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 6.16 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Notes for div A09950-e650 Doct. Eph. 1 . 1● . 6. Questions about this righteousnes . 1. Quest. How it saueth . Ans. 1. Rom. 5.14 . 1 Cor. 15.45 . Answ. 2. 2 Cor. 5.21 . 2. Quest. How we shall come by it . Ans. Esay 9.6 . Ioh. 3.16 . Rom. 5.17 . Reasons why it is by gift . Rom. 4.5 . 3. Quest. To whom it is giuen . Ans. Mark. 16.15 . Reu. 22.17 . Obiect . Ans. 1. Answ. 2. Ans. 3. Ans. 4. Obiect . Ans. 4. Quest. Vpon what qualifications it is giuen . Ans. 1 Cor. 6.9 . 1. Obiect . Ans. 1. Ans. 2. Simile . 5. Quest. Ans. Simile . Simile . Esay 55.1 . What this taking is . Ans. Faith , what . Obiect . Answ. 1 Tim. 1.15 . Simile . Three things must concurre in receiuing Christ. Ioh. 5.44 . Ioh. 1.11.12 . Three things required in the will in taking Christ. 6. Quest. What is required of vs when we haue it . Ans. Mat. 3.2 . Tit. 2.14 . Obiect . Ans. Obiect . Ans. Ioh. 1.12 , 13. Vse 1. Mar. 16.16 . Ioh. 6.44 . Cant. 3. Vse . 2. Mat. 11.28 , 29. Three considerations to moue men to take Christ. Doct. 2. Two Couenants . 1. Absolute . Ier. 31. Ezek. 36. 2. Conditionall . Mar. 16. Rom. 4.5 . Quest. Ans. Though holinesse be required , it is Gods worke . Simile . Eph. 2.10 . Habits . Why God will saue men by faith . 1. Reason . 2. Reason . 3. Reason 4. Reason . 1 Cor. 1.30 . Eph 4. Freedome from euill to the Saints , whence it is . Faith what in generall . Assent of three sorts . Iustifying faith . How it differs from generall faith . 1 In the obiect . 2 In the act of the will. Heb. 11 . 1● . Definition of iustifying faith . How faith taketh Christ. We must not only beleeue but receiue Christ. Ioh. 3. Foure things touching faith . 1 The obiect of it . 2 Cor. 1. Ioh. 3. True loue lookes first to Christs person Mar. 16. Baptizing , what meant by it in Mat. 16. 2 The subiect of faith . What required in the vnderstanding . 2 Cor. 4. What required of the will. Rom. 5.17 . Ioh. 1.12 . This act of the will wrought by God. 3 How faith iustifieth . Faith altereth not the nature of sinne . Note . 4 The acts of faith . 1 To reconcile vs. 2 To pacifie the heart . Direct and reflect act of faith . Difference betweene them ▪ 3 To purifie th● heart . Vse 1. Not to be discouraged to come to God. A double quality in faith . Quest. Ans. Faith emptieth a man of two things . 1 Cor. 1.30 . Double complaint in sense of want . Vse . 2. To reioyce in God. Eph. 1.6 . Eph. 2. 2 Cor. 1.30 . Rom. 6.4 . Phil 3. Reu. 7.11 . Vse . 3. To labour for faith aboue all Gal. 5.5.6 . Without faith God regards not morall vertues . Difference betweene faith and morall vertues . Difference betweene faith and shewes of holinesse . Vse 4. To apply the promises with boldnesse . Gods free promise should incourage vs to come with boldnesse . 1 Ioh 1.9 . Luk. 11.6.8 . Obiect Answ. Christ requireth but a willingnesse to mortifie our lusts . Obiect . Answ. 2 Cor. 8.9 . Two things in laying hold on the promises . 4. Things in the vnderstanding . Quest. Ioh. 16. Ioh. 6.44 . Cant. 2.3 . The will drawne by 3. meanes . 1. Meanes . 1 Cor. 10. 2. Meanes . 3. Meanes . Arguments to perswade vs of Christs willingnesse to rec●iue sinners . 1 By expressions in Scripture . 2 By Christs practice when he was on Earth . 3 Else Christs blood were shed in vaine . 4 By the example of others pardoned . 5 Else no flesh should be saued . 6 By the infinitenesse of Gods mercy . Obiect Ans. 2. Obiect . Ans. By denying our selues , we enioy our selues better . Obiect . Ans. Doct. 1. Doct. 2. Doct. 3. Faith admits degrees . Two parts in the Doctrine . Faith admits of degrees in 4. respects . 1 In perswasion . Obiect Ans. Obiect . Ans. Wherein faith and opinion differ . 2 In respect of difficulties . Numb . 11. 3 In regard of extent . The reflect act of faith admits degrees . Vse 1. To comfort . Vse 2. For exhortation . 2 Pet. 1. 13. Motiues to grow in faith . Notes for div A09950-e12460 Doct. The faith that saues vs must be effectuall . Men are apt to deceiue themselues . That many men haue a false faith , proued by instances , both in the Old and New Testament . Ioh. 2.23.24 . Ioh. 5.35 . Mat. 22.8 , 9 , 10 , 11. opened . Mat. 13. Ier. 3.10 . opened . Deut. 5.25 . Verse 29. Simile . Three things opened . 1 The Causes why the faith of many is vneffectuall , which are fiue . Cause 1. Taking Christ vpon mis-information . Instances . 1 The yong man that came to Christ. Luk. 18. 2 The Scribe . Mat. 8.20 . opened . Note . Cause 2. Taking Christ out of feare . Isa. 58. opened Note . Simile . Cause 3. Taking Christ for loue of the good things by him , and not for loue to his person . Note . Simile . Ioh. 6.26 . opened . Some men seeke mercy , and not grace . Cant. 5.12 . opened . We may looke to our own aduantages by Christ. Cause 4. Want of humiliation . Deut. 30.6 . opened . The Spirit of Elias , what . Without sound humiliation , sinne is not accounted the greatest euill , nor Christ the greatest good . Cause 5. Because faith is not grounded aright . Eph. 4.10 . opened . Col. 1.23 . opened . Hope that is not wel grounded , holds not out . Deut. 13.1 , 2 , 3. opened , 2 Pet. 3.17 . 2 Wherein the efficacy of faith consisteth . Three things opened . 1 In what sence faith is called effectuall . Things are said to be effectuall in 4. respects . 1 When they doe their proper office . The proper function of faith , what . Faith may bee effectuall , though it bee mingled with doubting . Iam. 1.7 , 8. opened . A double-minded man , who . Papists tenent of doubting . What doubting it is that faith excludeth . How to try truth of doubting . Simile . Some men cleaue to Christ for wans of temptations . True faith not without doubtings and feares sometimes . Simile . Doubting a signe of a good heart . 2 A thing is effectuall , in opposition to that which is vaine and empty . Simile . Simile . Iam. 2.17.20 , 26. 3 A thing is said to be effectuall , when it is operatiue . Simile . 4 When it goes thorow with the worke in hand . 2 wherein the efectualnesse of faith consists , in 4. things . I When the preparation is good . Luk. 9.62 . opened . Sound humiliation fits men for Christ. Instances . 1 In the Israelites . 2 In the Prodigall . Men hold not without sound humiliation . Reu. 2.25 . opened . Mat. 10. ● . opened . II When the vnderstanding is cleare . When a man is said to be well built . 1 When he beleeues the Scriptures in generall . 2 The promises in particular . Application of the offer of Christ. Eph. 2.19 , 20. opened . Note . Ioh. 4.44 . Particular knowledge . 1 Ioh. 1.19 . opened . Ioh. 6.68 . opened . The third thing , wherein the efficacie of faith consists : to take Christ. Heb. 10.22 . opened . Vers. 38. Eph. 3.17 . Reu. 3 . 2● . What taking of Christ is effectuall . Eph. 5.23 . opened . Gen. 2.24 . We must draw neere out of loue to Christ. 1 Tim. 1.5 . 4 Thing wherin the efficacy of faith consists . The turning of the whole soule . Gal. 5. Working in doing and suffering . Why the promises are made promiscuously . God tryeth mens graces . Ioh. 12.42 . 3 How effectuall faith is wrought , It is not in mans power to beleeue . Quest. Answ. How the Holy Ghost worketh faith : by three things . 1 Putting an efficacy in the Law. A man cannot see his sins to purpose without the spirit of bondage . Act. 16. 2 By shewing the excellency and the riches of Christ. Eph. 1.18.19 . opened . Obiect . Ans. No man can so see the riches of Christ , as to be affected with them , with●ut the helpe of the Spirit . 1 Cor. 2.12 . opened . Ioh. 14.21 . opened . Ier. 31 33. opened . 3 By assuring vs that these things are ours , This also must be wrought by the Spirit . The testimony of the Spirit wrought two waies . 1 By clearing the promises . 2 By an immediate voice . Ioh. 16.29 . Isa. 57.19 . opened . All arguments without the Spirit preuaile not . Eph. 1.19 . opened . Act. 2.39 . Luk. 14.23 . opened . That men are ▪ compelled to come in , what it implies . What is implyed by drawing : Ioh. 6.44 . opened . How the Holy Ghost draweth . Cant. 1.4 . Eph. 1.18 . 4 Why God will accept no faith but that which is effectuall . 1 Because else it is not faith , because it is dead . Similes . 2 Because such faith hath no loue . Rom. 8.28 . 3 Because the Deuils haue such a faith . 4 Because it workes no mortification . 5 Because else Christ should lose the end of his comming into the world . 6 Good workes are the way to saluation . Eph. 2.10 . Rom. 2.6 . Mat. 26.35 , 39. Vse 1. To try our faith , whether it be sound . Simile . Iam. 2.14 . Simile . Exod. 34.6.7 . Obiect . Ans. Fiue arguments of Saint Iames against worklesse faith Note . Vse . 2. To judge our conditions by the efficacy of ▪ our faith . Not to beleeue all that say they haue faith , nor all that say they haue none . Act of faith double . Simile . A man may haue faith , though he want feeling . Of those that say they haue faith , but haue not . Simile . Psal. 119.7 . Vse 3. To iustifie the Doctrine of good workes against the Papists slanders . Difference betweene vs and Papists in the Doctrine of iustification . Obiect . Ans. Iustification double . Rom. 4. Note . Simile . Answ. Faith made perfect by works , what . Simile . 3 Obiect . Ans. What meant by these words Faith without workes is dead . 4 Obiect . Ans. Why good works are required , seeing they iustifie not . Rom. 6.1 , 2. 1 They euidence our right in Christ. 2 God rewards according to our works . 1 Pet. 1.15 . 3 Good workes necessary , though not to iustification . Different rise of good works in Papists and vs. An hypocrite cannot doe things out of loue to God. 2 Cor. 13.2 : Vse . 3. To labour to grow in faith and assurance . What course to take in weaknesse of grace . Simile . Labouring to strengthen faith , of much vse . 1 In getting assurance of pardon after sin is committed . 2 In conflict with strong lusts . 3 In want of graces . How Ministers should build . Simile . Simile . Vse 4. To looke to faith in our search . Two wayes to increase assurance . Simile . Vse . 5. To learne to iudge aright of our workes . Iames 2.22 . God accepts our workes no further then he findes faith in them . Mat. 15.26 , 27. Heb. 11. God accepts the gift for the giuer . To doe a thing by faith , what . Godlinesse what . Heb. 11.6 . Rom. 13. We must reckon common actions in our callings to be good workes . Vse 6. To try if we haue faith . 1 Triall . A secret perswasion of the Spirit . Reu. 2 17. Hidden Mannah . White stone , what it signifieth . Gods manner of working faith . Alike trouble of Spirit in conuersion not necessary to all , and why . Simile . Soft voice , what . 1 Part of the soft voice , a clearing of the promise . Though the promises are neere , vnlesse God cleere them , we see them not . Luk. 24. 2 Part of the soft voice , the immediate testimony of Gods Spirit . Rom. 8. Obiect . Ans. How to know the testimony of the Spirit from a delusion . How faith is wrought . Whence longing after Christ comes . Ioh. 19. How to know whether faith be wrought in vs. A beast cannot reflect vpon his actions , as a man can . How to know that the promise is cleared to vs. Rom. 8. The match betweene Christ and the soule reciprocall . Fiue signes of effectuall faith . 1. Signe . True faith purifieth the heart . Acts 15.9 . Acts 26.18 . Faith and repentance put together in the Scripture , why . True faith hath repentance . Faith , what it is . Obedience . Heb. 8.8 . A Couenant , what . Generall reformation . Christ dwels in the heart , as the soule in the body . Gal. 2.20 . Isay 57.13.18 . opened . Simile . How to know if Christ dwell in the heart . Acts 8.37 . opened . Baptisme , what . Taking Christ deceitfully . To take Christ with the whole heart , what . Act. 2● . 17 , 18. To turne to God , what . Faith , and the desire of satisfying lusts , cannot stand together . Ier. 3. Men deceiued in the definition of faith . Try faith , as we doe other things . Similes . Digression for application to the Sacrament . Rules of examination before and after the Sacrament Where Christ dwels indeed , he giues power against sinne . Phil. 4.12 . To be guilty of the body & blood of Christ , what . Quest. Answ. 2 Signe . A Spirit of Prayer . Spirit of adoption , what . Gal. 4.6 . The Spirit of adoption maketh vs , 1 Earnest in Prayer . 2 Bold and confident . Obiect . Ans. True Prayer , what . Rom. 8. Prayer double . The voice of Gods Spirit in vs , what . Quest. Ans. How to know the voyce of Gods Spirit in our prayers . Wicked men come to God as a stranger , the Saints , as to a friend . Hosea 7.14 . opened . Eph 3.7 . 3. Signe of faith : Peace . Rom. 5.1 . Obiect . Ans. Exod. 14. Psal. 3. 2 A twofold peace . The third marke of faith , it brings peace . Phil. 4.6 . opened . Mat. 6. Ioh. 3.12 . Gen. 24.7 . 4. Signe of effectual faith , To hold out in cleauing to Christ. To hold out implyeth 3. things . 1 To cleaue constantly to Christ. which no●e can doe , that take Christ , 1 Out of mis-information . 2 Out of feare 3 Out of loue to his , and not to him . 4 Out of slender and slight grounds . 2 To take no denyall . 3 To be content to waite . Hab. 2. Iam. 1. 5. Signe of effectuall faith , the concomitants of it , which are 4. 1 Loue. 2 Pet. 1.8 . Gal. 5. 1 Cor. 13. Obiect . Ans. Quest. Ans. Tryals of loue . 2 Hope . 3 Ioy. Rom. 15.13 . 1 Pet. 1.8 . Obiect . Heb. 6. Ans. Tryals of ioy . Rom. 5.3 . 1 Pet. 1.8 . Simile . Heb. 6. opened . 4 Humility . Isay. 6. Vse . To act and exercise Faith , or to set it on Worke. Obiect . Ans. Simile . Simile . Rom. 2. Heb. 11. Quest. Ans. How to vse Faith. 1 In comforting our selues Gal. 3. opened . Ioh. 16. Simile . Considerations to helpe Faith in comforting the Soule . Micha . 7.8 . Psal. 41.7 Quest. Ans. Eph. 4. 2 Tim. 2.19 . 2 Pet. 1.13 . 2 Vse of faith , to guide and order our liues . Simile . Instances of faith guiding a man in difficult cases . 1 Instance . Ioh. 12.12 . 2 Instance . 3 Instance . 4 Instance . Ier. 42. Ier. 42. & 43. Obiect . Ans. Ier. 26. 5 Instance . Acts 6. 6 Instance . Quest. Ans. 7 Instance . 8 Instance . Quest. Ans. 1 Tim. 4.10 . Quest. Ans. To trust in GOD what . Quest. 2 Cor. 1.10 . opened . Answ. Zeph. 3.12 . Quest. Answ. 1 Tim. 1.5 . 2 Chro. 14.11 . Quest. Ans. Obiect . Answ. 2 Kings 5. Hester 6. Obiect . Answ. 1. Isay 7. Isay 9. Answ. 2. Consisting of 3. parts . Obiect . Ans. Obiect . Answ. Psal. 31. Ier. 10. 1 Tim. 1.6 . 2 Obiect . Ans. Obiect . Ans. Obiect . Ans. 2 Cor. 11. Simile . Rom. 8. 3 Obiect . Concerning Gods hearing our prayers . Ans. Why God heares not sometimes . Obiect . Ans. When we aske amisse . 2 Cor. 12. 2 When we are not fitted for mercies . 1 Pet. 5.6 . Prou. 22.4 . 3 To make vs pray feruently Iam. 5. 4 When it crosseth Gods prouidence otherwise . 4 Obiect . About the prosperity of wicked men , and the Saints afflictions . Psal. 37. Ier. 12.1 . Eccles. 8.14 . Eccles. 7.14 . We must not iudge by Gods outward proceedings . Obiect . Answ. We haue need of long and strong afflictictions . Dan. 11.7 . Psal 37. Quest. Answ. Ier. 24. Difference betweene the Saints and others in the same afflictions . Prou. 1.27 . Afflictions easie to the godly . Psal. 21.34 . Simile . Faith must be improued to increase sanctification . Quest. Ans. How Faith sanctifies the heart . Notes for div A09950-e32390 Doct. Love what . Five kindes of love . Three sorts of Love. Love of God how wrought in the heart . The loue of Christ what . Reas. 1 Hypocrisie vvhat . Reas. 2. Reas. 3 Reas. 4 1 Vse . 1 Cor. 16.22 . 1 Tryall of love by the affections . 1 By griese . 2 By ioy . 2 Tryall , by walking with the Lord. To walke with God what ? 3 Tryall , by the diligence of love . 1 Thess. 1.4 . 4 Tryall , desire of present enioyment of the thing beloved . 5 Tryall of loye , it is its owne wages . 6 Tryal of love by its constraining us to please God. 2 Cor ▪ 5. Object . Answ. Motives to love Christ. 2 Mot. 3 Mot. 4 Mot. 5 Mot. Iosh. 24. Deut. 32.13 . 6 Mot. Ier : 2. 2 Sam. 12.7 . 7 Mot. Gal. 2.10 . Obiect . Answ. Meanes to enable us to love God. Prayer . Object . Answ. Obiect . Answ. Prayer workes love 4 wayes . Object . Answ. 2 Thess. 4. 2 meanes to consider our sinnes . Object . Answ. Ier. 3.1 . 3 Meanes to beseech the Lord to shew himselfe to us . Exod. 33. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is not to be omitted . Reasons . The Lords Supper beyond the Passeover in two respects 2 Men ought not to come negligently to it . Two sorts receive the Sacramentun● worthily . Properties of love . 1 It is bountifull . 1 Cor. 13. Acts 20.24 . Revel . 2. Object . Answ. 2 It is content with nothing but love again . Psal. 51. 2 Chron. 7.14 . 3 It desires the second comming of Christ 2 Tim. 4.8 . Heb. 9. ult . 2 Pet. 3.13 . Object . Answ. 1. Revel . 14.13 . Simile . 4 It delighteth to speake of the party beloved . Psal. 105. 2 Chron. 15. 5 It will doe much and suffer much for the party beloved . 2 Sam. 6.21 . Heb. 10. Object . Answ. 1 Iohn 5 3. opened . 6 Property of love , it is like fire in 4 things Cant 8. Mat : 24 , 5. 7 Property of love , it commandeth the affections , especially anger and feare . 1 Sam. 4.3 . Ier. 36.24 . Act. 17. These sermons were preached in the time of the great pestilence . 1625. Quest. Answ. Causes of the plague . Numb . 25. Numb . 25. Quest. Answ. Isay 22. 8 Property of love , it doth things freely . 9 Property of love , hatred of sinne . Object . Answ. Rev. 2. Answ. Three differences betweene hatred and anger . 10 Property , it loveth the Saints . 1 Iohn 4.20 , opened . 4 Tryalls of our love to holy men . Object . Answ. 2 Cor. 6. Two impediments of the love of Christ. 1 Strangenes . Quest. Answ. 2 Vncircumcision of heart . Deut. 30.6 . 1 Iohn 2. Quest. Answ. Quest. Answ. When love to the creature is adulterous . Note . Knowledge of God especiall helpe to make us love him . Vse , Examination . 1. Tryall . Object . Answ. Ier. 3.4 . 2. Tryall . Cant 1. Psal. 63.3 . Zach. 12. Levit 16.29 . & 23.27 . 3. Tryall . Acts 13.22 . Quest. Answ. Object . Answ. Obiect . 2 Answ. 4. Tryall . 1 Iohn 2.15 . Quest. Answ. Three tryalls of our love to the world . Ioh. 12.42 . Heb. 11. Iohn 8. Object . Answ. Rom. 13. 5 Tryall . Quest. Answ. Naturalnesse of love to the Lord is known by two things . Object . Answ. Rom. 1. Quest. Answ. Foure signes of hatred of God. 1 Iohn 4. Mat. 6. The last helpe of the love of God consisting of three branches . The knowledg of God. A looking upon God as one sutable to us . 3 Assurance of the Lords love to us . Object . Answ. Meanes whereby men may be assured of Gods love to them . 1 Such as are without . Isay. 9.6 . Obiect . 1. Answ. Obiect . 2. Answ. 2 Such as are within the Covenant . Object . Answ. 2 Answ. 3 Answ. 4 Mot. 2 Mot. Isa. 48.17 . Deut. 5.19 . Object . Answ. Two Requisites in the love of God. 1 It must be with all the heart . Object . Answ. Hosea 3.3 . Simile . 2 Requisite in love , it must be with all your night . Object . Answ. 3 Requisite , to love him above all . Else wee love him not as God. Else we should not love him constantly . Simile . Why wee must love the Lord above all . Object . Answ. Why we must love God above our selves Not to love pleasures more than God , what . Quest. Answ. Deut. 30.6 . Object . Answ. 4 Requisite , to be rooted and grounded in love . Eph. 3.17 Iam ▪ 1.12 . Our love to God not alwayes in the same degree . How to bee rooted in love . 1 To be rooted in faith . 2 Pitch your love on his person . 5 Requisite , it must be diligent . 1 Thess. 1.3 . Wherein our love should be diligent . 1 In preparing for Christs comming 2 In adorning the soule . 3 In keeping his commandements . God dealeth not hardly with us in requiring love : because 1 It is that which every one may give . 2 Hee that requires this , might have required harder things . 3 It is for our owne benefit . The danger of not loving the Lord. 1 Cor. 16.22 . To be cursed what . The curse of God in foure things . 1 Separate from grace . 2 Separation from the presence of God. Gen. 4. 3 A curse on the outward estate Object . Answ. A man may be cursed in outward things in the midst of plentie . 4 The eternall curse at the day of iudgement . Eccles. 1.7 . Psal. 78.38 . Men may be cursed though the curse be not executed . Doct. Wee are to be iudged not only by our faith and love , but by our workes . Mat. 7. Acts 14.22 . Mat. 23.26 . Prov. 10.20 . Reas. 1 Because every Christian hath the spirit , and that is strong . 2 Tim. 1.6 . Gal. 5.25 . 2 Tim 2.1 . Isay 31.3 . Reas. 2. Inward rectitude and good workes alway goe together . Mat 13.5 . Reas. 3. Because there is a new nature . Vse 1. Not to be content onely with good meanings Good purposes whenee they arise . 1 Knowledge . 2 Approbation of that which is good . Though there may bee good workes where the heart is unsound , yet wherever the heart is sound there is good workes . Simile . Isay 1. Object . Answ , Holy men have failings , 1 When they are suddenly transported . Simile . 2 Holy men have flesh in them as well as spirit Object . Answ. The good that evill men doe it cannot bee said that they doe it . Rom. 7. A man may do good , and not be good . Vse 2. Christians better taught than great learned men without grace . Wisedome in three things . Religion an art of holymen not of learned men . Sciences of two sorts . Object . Answ. The will taken for the deed : 1 When the impediment cannot be removed . 2 When a man is ignorant of somethings , and yet his desires are right . No man hath a great measure of grace without paines . Vse 3. An exhortation to doing . Motives to be workers . 1 Thess. 5.6 , 7 , 8. The use of grace increaseth it . A goodly sight when mens lives abound with good workes . A true property of wisedome . Simile . Pleasure and contentment is in action . The end of our life . 1 To glorifie God. 2 To doe good to men . Phil. 4.17 . Object . Answ. In every calling men have occasion of dong good . Good actions , what . Good workes . In suffering . In sicknesse . In mastering our lusts . Quest. Answ. Our workes must be sutable to the season . Quest. Answ. Duties suting the present times . 1 Contend for the faith . Discretion . Moderation . The faith once delivered . Common faith Errour in opinion worse then errours in practise . These sermons were preached in the Parliament time in 1625. where diverse of the Parliament were present . Opportunities not to be slipped . Rom. 15.20 . 2 Duty , Fast and pray . 3 Duty , Renew our Covenants 2 Chron. 16. The sinnes of Gods children helpe to bring iudgements . 
A04187	----	Iustifying faith, or The faith by which the just do liue A treatise, containing a description of the nature, properties and conditions of Christian faith. With a discouerie of misperswasions, breeding presumption or hypocrisie, and meanes how faith may be planted in vnbeleeuers. By Thomas Iackson B. of Diuinitie and fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford. Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed. Book 4 Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640. 1615 Approx. 1015 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 194 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A04187 STC 14311 ESTC S107483 99843182 99843182 7895 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A04187) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 7895) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 992:10) Iustifying faith, or The faith by which the just do liue A treatise, containing a description of the nature, properties and conditions of Christian faith. With a discouerie of misperswasions, breeding presumption or hypocrisie, and meanes how faith may be planted in vnbeleeuers. By Thomas Iackson B. of Diuinitie and fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford. Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed. Book 4 Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640. [32], 279, 284-351, [1] p. Printed by Iohn Beale, dwelling in Aldersgate streete, At London : 1615. Book 4 of the author's "Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed". L7 and O7 are cancels. Variant: L7 and O7 are cancellanda; O7 contains text for cancel L7; text for O7 lacking. Reproduction of the original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Apostles' Creed -- Commentaries. Faith -- Early works to 1800. 2005-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-12 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-10 Ali Jakobson Sampled and proofread 2006-10 Ali Jakobson Text and markup reviewed and edited 2007-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion IVSTIFYING FAITH , OR The Faith by which the Just do liue . A Treatise , Containing a description of the Nature , Properties and conditions of CHRISTIAN FAITH . With a discouerie of misperswasions , breeding presumption or hypocrisie , and meanes how faith may be planted in Vnbeleeuers . By THOMAS IACKSON B. of Diuinitie and Fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in OXFORD . Galat. 3. 7. Know yee therefore that they which are of faith , the same are the children of Abraham . Iohn 8. 39. If yee were Abrahams children yee would doe the workes of Abraham . coat of arms or blazon At London , Printed by IOHN BEALE , dwelling in Aldersgate streete 1615. To the right Honourable Sir ROBERT SPENCER KNIGHT , Baron Spencer of Wormleighton ; the blessings of this life , and of that other to come bee multiplyed . Right Honourable THe imputations , which from experience of more learned writers late mishaps , I see now readie to befall mee , will be especially two : The one , my presuming to augment the superaboundant number of bookes written in this age : The other , my not writing more exactly . I must request your Lordship to stand betwixt mee and the later , that I may deale the better with the former ; whose force , if it come but single , I can easily put off , thus : Did I not see such men as holde all additions to the number of bookes formerly extant altogether needlesse and superfluous , continually ouerlading themselues with heapes of superfluities harmefull to themselues and others ; I should gladly entertaine this their dislike of these , or former labours , as a good oportunity to ease my selfe of future paines , and to aduise my fellow Ministers hereafter to spare their pens . But whiles these censurers , after the example of most now liuing , daily manifest their incredulity to our sauiours approbation of Mary , by solicitous imitation of Martha : a necessitie is laid vpon vs that be his messengers , and a woe will befall vs , if we doe not , as well by writing as speaking , by all meanes possible , disswade this erroneous and sinister choice . I may , in this regard , safely affirme , that the argument or drift of this present Treatise , cannot ( iustly ) seeme either idle or impertinent ; because it teacheth ( as the Reader in the issue will perceiue ) the extirpation of those impertinencies , or superfluities , wherewith most in our daies wilfully intangle themselues , to be altogether necessary to the sure rooting , right taking , or iust growth of that faith which onely brings forth the fruites of life . And this aduantage these present Comments , otherwise weak , haue of more accurate labours directed to the same end they are : These , as they discouer the danger of many incumbrances which vsually beset the waie of life , to be much greater then it is ordinarily thought ; so they giue intimations withall of meanes more immediate and effectuall for their auoidance ; in as much as they deriue , as well our alacritie in all good performances , as all preseruatiues against wicked practises , more directly and more necessarily then commonly a man shall find their deriuance , from the essence or internall constitution of such faith as they describe . That I handle not these points so accurately , as I my selfe could wish , much lesse so exactly as a iudicious Reader would require : The best Apologie I can make must be borrowed from that I haue already made for the vnripenes of my first fruits , published , vpon the same occasion these are , before their time . Others , besides my selfe , haue taken notice of your Honourable fauours , and kindnesse towards mee : and secret consciousnesse how slow I am in priuate testifications of my dutie , either by my pen , or presence , hastened the conception of this more publicke and durable pledge . Which notwithstanding ( as if haste had maymed speede by ouerrunning it in the starting ) hath beene now twise as long in bringing foorth , or rather in comming to publique light , as it was in comming to the birth . So long it hath been out of my sight , that the blindnesse of such affection as Parents vsually beare to their owne broode newely brought foorth , is quite abated . To say it were ill fauoured , or mishapen , is more then anie Parent will conceiue of his owne off-spring . Of such defects , or blemishes , as the accurate spectator will discrie in it verie manie , diuerse , I must confesse , it naturally takes from the Father ; but manie withall from ill hap not to haue a Mid-wife neerer to set it sooner , or at such time as he that gaue it such shape and forme as it first had , might haue looked on . But these are faults which I must seeke to amend when God shall blesse it with more brethren . This , as it is , I must humbly intreate your Lordship to accept , as an vndoubted pledge of my indeuours to make my selfe , and others , such indeed , as wee are in Name , altogether Christians ; of my sincere and heartie desire to shew my selfe thankefull to your good Lordship as to an Honourable fauourer , and chiefe furtherer of my studies . Being now to leaue it , I would onely impart this language to it , alwaies to pray for a Prophets reward vnto your acceptance of it in the name of a Prophets childe . From my studie in Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford . Aprill 20. 1615. Your Lordships in all dutie and seruice , THOMAS IACKSON . A Preface contayning the summe , the Vse , and end of the Treatise following . Beloued Reader , OF that long worke I vndertooke some yeeres agoe , ( whether well or ill ) so much is after my fashion done , as were it well done , might iustly be accounted more then halfe In these present Meditations , conceiued in the sweetest calme of minde , and purest vacation from any crosse or molestation my God for manie yeers had giuen me , I haue endeauoured so to set forth the nature , properties , and vse of Christian faith , as if thou follow my method in thy practise thou shalt neuer I trust haue iust cause to feare lest thy faith ripen too fast , or proue vnsound at the root . Now the auoidance of these inconueniences , as in the preface to my first labours is specified , was amongst others , one principall occasion of my writing after so manie learned writers of this age . What then I purposed concerning this Argument , and some what more is at large exhibited in the Treatise following . For thy better direction to trace my foote-steps throughout the principall passages thereof , otherwise not so much beaten as many of the like Argument are , may it please thee first to view my progresse in this short map or draught . Aswell of our owne as forraine writers , auncient and moderne , I found the most more forward to vrge a certainety of beleefe , as altogeather necessarie vnto saluation , then clearly to teach how this certainety could possibly fasten vpon obiects not euident to the beleeuer : such , notwithstanding the obiect of Christian saith are held by them that hold it morl certain , then the principles of any humane science . In the discussion of this difficultie ( Section 1. Chapter 34. 5 , ) I doe not much differ from that graund light of the English Church , whose opinion ( had I been aware of it , before this Treatise was conceiued ) might happily hane fashioned my conceipt vnto the form of words wherein he expresseth his , from which my phrase or dialect doth somwhat differ . In the maine point we well agree , that Faith is an assent as well vnto the goodnesse as vnto the truth of matters diuine . That which hee with some auncient Schoole men tearmes certainty of adherence , is in my dialect , stability o● firmnesse of beleefe ; which . I deriue not so much from the euidence or certainty of things beleened , as from their worth and goodnesse . All of vs by nature adhere more firmly to things of great and knowne worth , then wee could doe vnto the very same , if their worth , either were in it selfe , or by vs esteemed , lesse , albei● their certainty were equall . The next lesson which reason will hence learne is , That vnto some truths our adherence may be more firme then vnto others of greater euidence and certaintie , in case the former excell the later more in goodnesse then they are exexceeded by them in euidence and certaintie . But seeing with the Romanist we admit the nature of faith to consist in Assent , we might perhaps be thought to confine it wholy ( as hee doth ) to the vnderstanding ; an error iustly abandoned by most in reformed Churches , who , in this respect ( for the most part ) either define it not by Assent , or else to make vp one entire and compleate definition , match Assent with other tearmes not so well consorting with it as the rules of art in my occasions require . To this purpose rather in defence of mine owne , then any waie to preiudice other mens methods , which must be measured by the end at which they aime , the first and second Chapters are premised . But some perhaps would reply , that Assent being terminated vnto truth , can haue no greater alliance with goodnesse , then with those differences assigned vnto it by other writers , reiected by vs , not as false , but as not formall . And the obiection ( to speake the truth ) could not be put off as impertinent , did we follow the Romanist in another erroneous principle , not discouered , much lesse disclaimed by such as most oppugne them ; from which principle notwithstanding the worst inconueniences can in this argument be obiected to their doctrine directly follow , and are not so cleerely or fully auoided by those that contradict them , as by vs that assent vnto them in defining Christian faith by Assent . Not with the moderne pontifician onely , but generally amongst the schoolemen , faith and works are so dissociated , as if they were of linages altogether distinct , and had small or no affinity . Most protestant writers acknowledge them to be of entire blood , yet somewhat farther remoued then in my opinion they are . The principall reason whereof as I coniecture is , that they esteeme more of schoole-philosophy then schoole-diuinity , and with the schoole-men , specially Aquinas and his followers , imagine the will and vnderstanding , from which faith and good works in their ●erauldry seuerally discend , to be faculties really distinct , like brother and sister , being indeed but two names , or titles of one and the same intellectuall nature ; as truth and goodnesse ( their supposed really different obiects ) in matters morall differ onelie in degrees of apprehension ; as one and the same person knowne a farre off vnder the common notion of a man , is oft times cleerely discerned by his approach to be an honest man and our louing friend . Sutably to this true Philosophie , learned out of the best professors of that facultie , and to omitte other Schoole-men out of the wise and learned Gerson , I place faith neither in the wil nor vnderstanding , but in the intellectual nature , as subiect to both these titles or appellations . The inference hence taken is , that faith , although it be formally an Assent , may be as imediately terminated vnto the goodnesse , as vnto the truth of reuelations diuine . And these being of all the matters that can be reuealed or knowne , both in themselues , and in respect of vs , far the best : I make that faith which primarily distinguisheth● true Christian from an hypocrite , or fruitlesse professor of orthodoxall religion , to bee an assent or adherence vnto reuelations diuine , as much better then any contrary good the world , the diuell , or flesh can present to peruert our choice of what they prescribe for our sauing health , or habitually to interrapt or hinder the prosecution of their designes . By these deductions drawne forth at large in the sixth Chapter , the Reader may easily perceiue the linke betweene faith and works , to be most immediate and essentiall . This maine conclusion whereon the most of the Treatise following depends , is further confirmed ( Chap. 7. ) by instances of sacred writers , ascribing all the victories of Gods Saints ouer the world , Diuell , or flesh , vnto faith , or apprehension of diuine promises , better then ought could come in competition with them ; all backsliding into euill , or backwardnesse in good courses , vnto want of faith , or apprehension of Gods iudgements , or threatnings , as more terrible then any tortures which man can deuise against his fellow creatures . Briefely the whole drift or scope of the Apostle from the later part of the tenth Chapter to the Hebrewes , vnto the end of that Epistle , iumps fully with the former conclusion . Whereunto likewise the vsuall dialect of the holy spirit , when he speakes absolutely , not with reference to the solecismes of hipocrites , or such as haue diuorced truth from honesty , or set words and works at variance , is exactly consonant . It is generally obserued by all interpreters of sacred writ , that the termes which it vseth to expresse the proper asts or exercises of sence and vnderstanding , still include those affections or practique faculties , which are most homogeneall to them . The true reason whereof is not because hee who sees the heart , and inspires it with faith , speakes more vulgarlie or grosly , but rather more metaphysically then many Diuines or Philosophers doe ; as supposing the truth before specified , concerning the identity of the wil and vnderstanding , with the essentiall combination of truth and goodnesse in matters practicall . The consequences hence inferred and exemplified at large in the eight and ninth Chapters are in briefe vnto this purpose . As the apprehension of diuine infalibility breeds an infallibility of perswasion , or sure reliance vpon his promises : so assent vnto his goodnes or imitable attributes assimulates our soules to them . Euery obiect rightly apprehended or vnderstood imprints it similitude vpon the apprehensiue faculty . The diuine nature therfore must leaue an impression or stampe in our soules as well of his goodnesse , as of his veracity : otherwise wee apprehend him who is essentially as good as true without any liuely apprehension of his goodnesse . This stampe or character of goodnesse diuine , is as a touch to drawe the soule , as the Adamant doth the iron after it selfe : and in this adherence of the intellectiue nature ( once touched with grace ) vnto the celestiall promises the definition of sauing faith is accomplished ( Chap. 9. ) : whose generall or cheefe properties are set foorth ( Chap. 10. ) . For conclusion of the first Section ( Chap. 11. ) . I notefie the principall errors of the Ramish Church , partly because method so required , partly for more commodious solution of some difficulties obiected by them in the point of instification , but principally for expugning their doctrine of merits by works , which as it is absolutely false , so it is more abhominable in them then in vs it could bee , because their workes can bee but dead being ●eparated from the life of faith by which ours , so we practise as ●●● teach , are truely quickned . The controuersie itselfe I must refer to the article of CHRISTS comming vnto iudgement . The second part of this Treatise aduiseth for the directing of faith aright vnto it proper end , and that wee suppose to be firme adherence vnto Gods mercies in CHRIST , or inseparable vnion with this our head . Of this end many that seeke saluation by CHRIST vsually faile by these meanes especially ; First , by defectiue or misgrounded perswasions of faiths inherence before they haue it , or of great loue and loyalty to their Redeemer , when as they remaine in the same gall of bitternesse that the heathens did , which persecuted all true professors of his Gospell , or the Iewes which put him to death . The first roots or generall originals of these dangerous misperswasious are handled ( Chap. 1. ) . The poysonous sap or i●●ce of Gentilisme and Iudaisme thence propagated to most Protestants , Papists , or others professing the name of CHRIST , and boasting themselues to be the onely braunches of the true and naturall oliue , is discouered in the second and third Chapters . The conclusion arising from these instances or inductions is , that faith in CHRIST , connot be truely notified but by sincere loue , nor such loue to him otherwise knowne then by doing his fathers will , or obseruing his commaundements : and in obseruing some or many of these , wee may be so zealous as to lay downe our liues , and vndoe our selues and our posterity , rather then leaue them vndone , or transgresse them , and yet proue but Pseud● ▪ Martires . Ignorance of this Elench hath been the Mother of much blinde deuotion ( to omit the instances specified in the body of our discourse ) in such gallants as went to recouer the holy Land , it being receiued as an vndouted maxime in the diuinity of those times , that whosoeuer was slaine by the Turke or Saracen , should assuredly weare a Martyres Crowne in Heauen : which all that died in that warre I am perswaded did not ; howbe it I doe no way disparage the iust occasions of that warre , onely I wish the like whensoeuer they fall out agaiue , may be prosecuted with more discreet religious zeale . The issue of the fourth Chap. wherein the qualification required to Martyrdome with other like points are handled at large , is that the sincerity of our faith & loue must be tryed by an vnpartial and vniform obseruation of all Gods commandements , as is proued in the Chap. following ; first by the anthorities of Siracides , a man well ac●●ainted with the sacred dialect , one from whose writings we may best gather the force and extent of beleefe , in Saint Paules disputes , within whose limits is included that vniformity of works , which Saint Iames requires vnto iustification or saluation ; by whose Apostolicall authority the former conclusion is refortified . In perusing of this first Chapter recall to minde , or haue recourse vnto the points set downe ( Chap. 8. Sect. 1. ) and vnto those passages of the eleauenth , wherein the different value or diuerse acceptions of faith in Saint Paul and Saint Iames are discussed . Others againe faile of the former end of faith . i. ( vnion with CHRIST , or reconciliation with God by his mediation ) either by inuerting the vse of faith , or by mistaking the measure of sanctifying graces necessary to saluation . The former error is peculiar to the Romanist , who labours to misperswade himselfe and others , that faith is giuen him as a bare foundation of other graces , or as a talent for frewill to traffique with , vntill he obtaine such a full measure of inherent righteousnesse , as shall immediately acquite him of all reckonings betweene his Creator and him , by expelling all reliques or slaine of sinne as vtterly out of his soule as the water doth the ayre out of the vessell which it filleth vp to the very brimme . The dangerous consequences of this errour are handled at large ( Chap. 6. and 7. ) And vnto the vse and measure of faith and other graces inherent I reduce the controuersie of iustification , here inserted , contrary to my first intent ; least otherwise I might haue ministred some offence vnto the Church wherein I liue , or left some scruple in the Readers minde , how faith should iustifie without works ; the linke or bond betweene them being so strict and essentiall as I make it , almost identicall . The same doubt naturally offered it selfe from the discussion of Saint Iames his meaning , partly in the Chapter precedent , partly in the last Chapter of the the first Section . Out of sundry other passages of this discourse it likewise apeares , that the works required to iustification by Saint Iames are virtually included in the faith whereto Saint Paul ascribeth iustification : whence , it may seeme to imply a contradiction in the very tearmes , to say we are iustified by faith alone without workes , if in iustifying faith works necessarily he included . As the Trent Councels doctrine which vpon penalty of damnation exacts a measure of inherent righteousnesse , whereof mortality is not capable , nurseth finall doubting or despaire , so others in opposition to it , minister occasion of carelesnesse or presumption either by not vrging such a measure of perfection as Gods word requires , or by deeming that sufficient enough to saluation , although it bee subsequent to iustification . Whereas hee that can once fully perswade himselfe he is actually iustified , will not easily bee brought to doubt whether he want ought necessarie to saluation . All of vs that haue forsaken the Romish Church rightly acknowledge the end and vse of faith to consist in calling vpon the name of the Lord in the daie of euill and temptation , and that all such as call vpon him faithfully shall bee saued . But many of vs are either much mistaken by our hearers , or else deceiue our selues in imagining faithfull inuocation of Gods name through Christ to be one of the easiest points or operations of faith , being indeede the most difficult , because the finall seruice , whereunto all other obedience to his Lawes , and daily wrestlings with flesh and blood doe but inure vs , as souldiers in the time of peace and truce are trained against the day of battell . All persecutions or exercise of our patience are in respect of this last conflict with hell and death , wherein victory is obtained , onely through faith in Christ , but as playing at foiles in a fence schoole to better skill and courage in triall of masteries at sharpe . These and like points are handled in the two last Chapters of this second section not so fully as these times require but large enough for hints to popular sermons . The third and last Section shewes the necessity and vse of humane industry for attaining vnto the faith , whose nature and properties are set forth in the first ; notwithstanding that such faith is the sole gift of God , not wrought in part by vs but wholy created by him . The points whereto our endeauours must bee addressed , thou shalt easily perceiue by the titles of the Chapters ; onely let mee request thee to beare in mind Chap. 6. of Section 1. whi est thou readest the fowrth of this third : as also to compare Chap. ● . of Section 1. with the ● . of this . Order of doctrine did require that I should set down the nature & properties of that faith by which the iust doth liue , before I admonish for auoidance of misper swasions concerning the present cossession , right vse , or regiment of it , and these againe were to be preuented , before I direct for the right planting of it . Notwithstanding , he that desires to bee a doe● not a hearer onely of the truth , must beginne where I end , and first practise the rules giuen in the last Section , and so proceed to the first and second . Thus he shall finde euery Section suited to the three branches of his vowe made in Baptisme , as they are set downe in the Catechisme authorised by our Church . The first ; To for sake the Diuell and all his workes , the pompes and vanities of this wicked world , and all the sinfull lusts of the flesh . [ The third Section expounds the meaning of this resolution , shewing withall that serious endeauours to performe it are ordinarily precedent to the infusion of faith . ] The second To beleeue all the articles of the Christian faith ] The nature and properties of this beliefe , are set downe in the first Section . The third to keep Gods holy will and commaundements , and to walke in the same all the daies of this life . How beleefe of the Creed doth enable vs to this obseruance , is partly shewed in the first but more fully in the second Section ; wherein likewise is handled at large , how far we are bound to obserue Gods commaundements . How necessary prayers are , eyther for attaining to this perfection , or for absolution from all our sins after faith is infused ; ( which is an other principall part of that Catechisme , ) the Reader may be informed by the later part of the same Section : what it shall please any well-affected to aduise me of , as eyther defectiue or amisse in this Treatise , shal by Gods assistance be amended in my exposition of that Catechisme , a worke vpon speciall occasions , lately begun for the benefit of the vnlearned . Besides these generalls , euery part of this Treatise hath a peculiar vse for more commodious explication of the articles following . The last Section hath speciall reference to the Article of euerlasting life . The second to the articles of CHRISTS death his passion , and comming vnto iudgement ; and containes withall an Elench of those vulgar fallacies , which must be auoided before we come to search what certainety of iustification or saluation may be had in this life , or of whom it may be expected . The handling of these fallacies in my first intention was referred in the Articles concerning Christ and remission of sinnes . The first Section hath a transcendent vse throughout all the Articles following , what peculiar reference the seuerall passages of it haue to particular Articles wil better apeare in their seuer a explications ; wherunto my next labors are now consecrated . God of his infinite mercy assist meinwardly with his grace , and blesse me outwardly with that measure of health , of vacancy from other businesse , and whatsoeuer meanes , he knowes fittest for his seruice . To the Author . SIr , according to your request I haue perused your booke : I would my occasions had beene such , that I might haue ouerseene the Presse also . I would haue thought no paines too much for this purpose ; partly for the loue I beare to the Author , but specially for the liking I haue of the worke . You know my nature , farre from flattery ; and I know yours , as free from ambition . Yet if I should speak what mine heart thinks , and as the truth would giue me leaue , perhaps it might be subiect to misconstruction . I will only say thus much ; I haue profited by reading of your booke , and so I thinke will hee say , whosoeuer shall reade it with deliberation and vnderstanding . And so I leaue you and your labours to Gods blessing . Your euer louing friend HENRY MASON . A Table containing the principall arguments of the seuerall Sections and Chapters contained in this Booke . SECTION 1. Of the Nature , Essence and properties of that Faith by which the Iust doth liue . Page 1. CHAP. 1 Rules of method ▪ for the right differencing of that Assent , wherein Christian faith consists . page 1. CHAP. 2 The vsuall diuision of Faith , or Assent , into historicall and saluificall , not so form all as rightly to fit the method proposed . p. 5 CHAP. 3 What Assent is ; whence the certaintie , firmenesse , and stabilitie of it properly arise . p 8 CHAP. 4 What correspondencie euidence and certaintie hold in Assents or perswasions : what measure of either , in respect of what obiects is necessarily required to the constitution of that Assent wherein Christian faith consists . p , 11 CHAP. 5 The seuerall kindes of euidences whereof some are appliable vnto faith in respect of certaine Articles , others in respect of other : That the certaintie of faith in respect of diuine truthes not euident is grounded vpon an euident certaintie of others ; the propertie naturally arising from this difference of Assent , as it is of obiects partly knowne and partly vnknowne . p 19 CHAP. 6 The mutuall affinity betwixt truth and goodnesse : the reall identity of the will and vnderstanding : that the Assent of faith cannot be so appropriated to the one as to be excluded from the other : that admitting such a difference betwixt them as true Philosophic may approue ; faith in respect of some obiects must be attributed to the will , in respect of others to the vnderstanding : the originall of difficulties in assenting to morall obiects , or of the naturall mans back wardnesse to beleeue truths diuine : what dependance other Christian vertues haue on faith : that to adhere vnto diuine reuelations as good ( not simply considered onely but comparatiuely , or with opposition to anie other good ) is altogether as essentiall to faith rightly Christian ; as to beleeue or acknowledge them for true . p , 32 CHAP. 7 Illustrating and confirming the conclusion last inferred by practies properly ascribed to faith in Scripture , as well Canonicall as Apocryphall : of hypocrisie and the contrarie progresse obserued by it and Christian faith . p 54 CHAP. 8 That knowledge of morall obiects , in sacred dialect , includes the affections concomitant : The exact conformitie , or correspondencie betwixt the Assent or adherence ( resulting from such knowledge ) and the proper obiect whereto it is applied . p 80 CHAP. 9 What manner of knowledge it is whence the last and proper difference of that Assent wherein Christian faith consists , doth result : the complete definition of such faith . p , 92 CHAP. 10 Of the generall consequences or properties of true Faith , Loue , Fidelitie and Confidence , with the manner of their resultance from it . p , 100. CHAP. 11 Of the diuerse acceptions of faith in Scriptures or Fathers : of the Romanist pernicious error concerning the nature of it , and charity , whereby his in aginarie workes of merit necessarily become either dead , apish , or polluted . p 110 SECTION . 2. Of immature perswasions concerning mens present estate in grace with the meanes to rectifie or preuent them : of the right vse of faith and other spirituall graces . Pag. 135. CHAP. 10 The generall heads or springs of hypocriticall perswasions , with briefe rules for their preuention . p 136 CHAP. 2 That our Assent vnto the first principles of Christianitie , by profession of which , the saith of auncient Christians was vsually tryed , may bee , to our owne apprehension , exceeding strong ; and yet our beliefe in Christ no better then the Heathens that oppugned them : that it is a matter of more difficultie to be a true Christian now , then in the Primitiue Church ; did we rightly examine the strength ●p●r faith not by such points as theirs was tried , but by resisting pop●●ar customes or resolutions of our times , actully opposite to the most essentiall and vtmost , as Idolatrie is to the remote or generall differences of Christian faith . p 143 CHAP. 3 That we moderne Christians may hate Christ as much as wee do the memory of such Iewes as crucified him , albeit readie , if we were called to formall triall , rather to die , then openly to deny him or his Gospell : what meanes are surest for iust triall , whether wee be better affected towards him then these Iewes were . p 163 CHAP. 4 That the fruits of righteousnesse , if but of one or few kindes , argue the stocke whence they spring to be either imperfect or vnsound : of the danger that may come by partiality in the practise of precepts alike diuine , or from difformitie of zeale : that our Assent to generalities oftimes appeares greater to our selues then indeed it is , from our pronenesse or eager desires to transgresse in some particulars . p 174. CHAP. 5 That true faith is the soule of good workes : that it equally respects all the Commandements of God , and can admit no dispensation for non-performance of necessarie duties . p 192 CHAP. 6 Of difficulties arising from the former discourses , in the Protestants doctrine of iustification by faith without workes : That faith is as immediatly a●t to doe good workes of euery kinde as to iustifie : Of the diuerse accep●ions of Iustification : That the iustification by workes , mentioned by S. Iames , is proposed as subordinate to S Pauls iustification by faith without works : The true reconcilement of these two Apostles speeches contrarie only in appearance , from the contrariety of their seuerall ends or intentions . p 206 CHAP. 7 Of the differences betwixt vs and the Romish Church concerning Iustification , or the right vse or measure of grace or righteousnesse inherent . p 229 CHAP. 8 How far the Lawe must be fulfilled in this life : of the regiment of grace , of the permanencie of Iustification . what interruptions it may admit ; how these must be repaired , or in what sense it may be sayd to be reiterated : That euerie sinne is against Gods Law , though euery sinne not incompatible with the state of grace . p 253 CHAP. 9 That firmly to beleeue Gods mercies in Christ is the hardest point of seruice in Christian warfare : That our confidence in them can b● no greater then our fidelity in the practise of his cōmandements : That meditation vpon Christs last appearance is the surest method for grounding true confidence in him . p 272 SECTION . 3. Of the right plantation of Faith. page 278. CHAP. ● That Christian Faith , although immediately infused by God , without any cooperation of man , doth not exclude , but rather more necessarily require precedent humane endeauours , for the attaining of it . p 279 CHAP. 2 That circumspect following the rules of Scripture is more auaileable for attaining true faith , then the practise of morall precepts for producing morall habits : That there may be naturall perswasions of spirituall truths , and morall desires of spirituall good , both right in their kinde , though nothing worth in themselues , but onely capable of better , because not hypocriticall . p 283 CHAP. 3 Of the fundamentall rule of Christianity to forsake all and denie our selues : That the sincere practise thereof is a method more admirable and compendious for the attainment of faith , then any Artist could prescribe , the principles of Christianity being supposed : That the want , partly of instruction in the duties contained in it , partly of solemne and publicke personall protestation for their performance , is the principall cause of hypocrisie and infidelity . p 282 CHAP. 4 That the obseruance of the former rule is most easie vnto men of meaner gifts , vnto whom in this respect Gods mercy is greater then if their guiftes were better , and yet his mercy iustly to bee esteemed greatest towards such as haue most excellent guifts by nature p 299 CHAP. 5 Our Sauiours Parables especially those ( Mat 13. Mark 4. Luk 8 ) most soueraigne rules for the plantation and growth of faith : of vnfruitfull hearers resembled by the high-way side and stonie ground , with briefe caueats for altering their disposition . p 306 CHAP. 6 Of that temper which in proportion answeres to thornie ground : of the deceitfulnesse of riches : how difficult a matter it is to haue them and not to trust in them . The reason why most rich men of our times neuer mistrust themselues of putting this trust in Mammon p 310 CHAP. 7 Of the antipathy betweene true faith , and ambition or selfe-exaltation : That the one resembles our Sauiours , the other Sathans disposition : Briefe admonitions for auoiding such dangers as growe from other branches of voluptuous life . p. 317. CHAP. 8 Of the goodnesse or honesty of heart required by our Sauiour in fruitfull hearers : of the ordinarie progresse from faith natural to spirituall , and the different esteeme of diuine truths or precepts in the regenerate man , and him that is not , but sincerely desires to bee such : vacancy to attend all intimations of the spirit to be sought after by all meanes possible : That alienation of our chiefe desires from their corrupt obiects is much auaileable for purchase of the inestimable pearle p. 331. CHAP. 9 That faith cannot excercise it soueraigntie our affections or desires vntil ●t be seated in the hart , with brief admonitions for bringing it into his throne . p. 346. Places of Scripture expounded or illustrated by Obseruation in the Treatise following . ( ⸪ ) Out of the Olde Testament . GENESIS . Cha. 22 Verse 2 TAke now thine onely sonne Isaac whom thou louest &c. Section 1. chap. 7. parag . 5. Verse 12 & Sect. 1. chap. 8. par . 9. EXODVS . Cha. 10 Verse 8 , 9 , 10 Goe and serue the Lord your God , but who are they that shall goe &c. Sect. 2. c. 8. par . 5. Verse 26 Therefore our cattell also shall goe with vs &c. neither do wee know how we shall serue the Lord vntill we come thither ibid. Cha. 20 Verse 8 Remember thou keepe holy the Sabbaoth daie . § 1. c 8. par . 3. DEVTERONOMY . Cha. 10 Verse 16 Circumcise therefore the fore skin of your hearts &c. Sect. 2. chap. 5. par . 3. 2. KINGS . Cha. 5 Verse 12 My Father , if the Prophet had bid thee doe some great thing wouldst thou not haue done it &c. § 3. c 2. par . 2. NEHEMIAH . Cha. 6 Verse 14 My God remember thou Tobiah and Sanballat , &c. Sect. 1. chap. 8. par , 3. Cha. 13 Verse 14 Remember me , O my God , concerning this , &c. ibid. Verse 29 Remember them ó God that defile the Priesthood , &c. ibidem . PSALMES . Cha. 1 Verse 6 The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous , &c. Sect. 1 chap 8. par . 7. Cha. 15 Verse 1 , 2. &c. Lord who shall dwel in thy Tabernacle , &c. § 2. chap. 6. par . 6. Cha. 19 Verse 12 Who can vnderstand his faults ? Lord cleanse me from my secret sinnes . § 2. c 8. par . 7. Verse 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight , O Lord my strength aud my Redeemer : ibidem . Cha. 30 Verse 5 Heauinesse may lodge with vs for a night , but ioy commeth in the morning . Sect 1. c 5. par . 9. Cha. 32 Verse 1. 2 Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiuen , and whose sinnes are couered , &c. in whose spirit is no guile . § 2. c , 6 p , 6. Cha. 62 Verse 10 Trust not in oppression nor in robbery , if riches encrease set not thy heart vpon them , § 1. chap. 10. par . 4 , 5. & § 3. chap. 6. par . 2. Cha. 66 Verse 18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not heare me . § 2. c. 8 p. 7. Cha. 78 Verse 8 Their spirit was not faithfull vnto God. § 1. 6. 8. p , 7. Verse 36 They flattered him with their mouth , and they lied vnto him with their tongue , § 1. c , 7. p , 14. Cha. 95 Verse 10 It is a people that doe erre in their hearts for they haue not knowne my waies , Sect. 1. c , 8. p , 7. Cha. 137 Verse 4 If I forget thee O Hierusalem then let my right hand forget her cunning . Sect 1. c , 8. p. 3. Cha. 146 Verse 3 Put not thy trust in Princes , &c. Sect. 1 , c. 10. p. 4 , 5. Verse 8 The Lord raiseth vp them that are bowed downe , &c. ibidem . PROVERBS . Cha. 2 Verse 3 , 4 If thou crièst after knowledge and liftest vp thy voice for vnderstanding , &c. § 3. c , 8. p , 5. Cha. 20 Verse 9 VVho can say I haue made my heart cleane , I am eleane from my sinnes . &c. § 2. c , 6. p , 3. Cha. 25 Verse 28 Hee that hath no rule ouer his owne spirit is like a City broken downe , &c. § 3. c , 3. p , 5. ECCLESIASTES . Cha. 2 Verse 2 Of laughter thou art mad , and of ioy and pleasance , what is this thou dost . § 1. c , 6. p , 10. Cha. 4 Verse 17 Take heed to thy foote when thou goest into the house of God , &c § ● c , 5 p , 1. Cha. 12 Verse 1 , 2 Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth , § 1. c , 8. p , 3. ISAIAH . Cha. 32 Verse 17 The worke of righteousnesse shall be peace , &c. § 1. c , 11. p , 2. IEREMIAH . Cha. 5 Verse 2 , 3 Though they sweare the Lord liueth yet they sweare falsely , § 1. c , 8 p , 8. Verse 23 This people had an vnfaithfull and rebellious heart , &c. ibidem . Cha. 17 Verse 5 7 , 8 Cursed bee that man that trusteth in man ▪ and maketh flesh his arme , and withdraweth his heart from the Lord , &c § 1. chap. 10 p , 3. Cha. 42 Verse 1. 2 Then all the Captaines of the host and Iahonan the solue of Kareah , and Ieshaniah the sonne of Hoshaiah and all the people &c ▪ vnto the 15. verse of the 44 chap. § 1. c , 7. p , 15. EZECHIELL . Cha. 18 Verse 24 If the righteous turne away from his righteousnesse and commit iniquity in his transgression that hee hath committed , and in his sinne that he hath sinned he shall die . § 2. c. 6 p. 3. WISDOME . Cha. 6 Verse 12 , 13 Wisdome is glorious and neuer fadeth away : yet shee is easily seene of them that loue her , and found of such as seeeke her . § 3. c , 8 p. 3. Cha. 7 Verse 8 , 9 I preferred her before Scepters and Thrones , &c. ibidem , par . 4 ▪ Verse 11 All good things together came to mee with her , &c. § 3. ● . 8. p , 6. ECCLESIASTICVS . Cha. 2 Verse 12 VVoe be to fearefull hearts and faint hands , and the sinner that goeth two waies , &c. § 1. c , 7. p , 14. Verse 14 They that feare the Lord will not disobey his word , &c. ibidem . Cha. 19 Verse 19 The knowledge of the Commaundement of the Lord is the doctrine of life , &c. § 1. c , 8 p , 7. Verse 21 If a seruant say vnto his Master , I will not doe as it pleaseth thee , though afterwards he doe it , &c. § 2. c. 5. p 4. Cha. 30 Verse 24 To beleeue the Lord is to keepe his Commaundements , § 1. c. 8. p. 7. Cha. 32 Verse 23 In euery good worke be of a faithfull heart , &c. § 2. c 5. p. 2. 1. MACCABEES . Cha. 2 Verse 61 This consider yee in all ages that none that put their trust in the Lord shall be ouercome . § 1. c. 7. p. 12. 2. MACCABEES . Cha. 7 Verse 2 VVe are ready to die rather then to transgresse the lawes of our Fathers , &c. vnto the end of the chapter , § 1. c , 7 p. 11. Out of the New Testament . MATHEW . Cha. 5 Verse 17 THink not that I am come to destroy the law or the Prophets &c. § 2 c , 6. p , 1. Verse 20 Except your righteousnes exceed the righteousnes of the scribes and Pharisees , &c. ibidem . Verse 44 Loue your enemies , blesse them that curse you , &c. § 1. c. 8. p , 9. Verse 48 Be ye perfect as your heauenly Father is perfect . ibidem p. 1. Cha. 6 Verse 23 First seeke the kingdome of God and the righteousnes thereof , &c. § 3. c , 8. p , 6. Verse 31 , 32 Take no thought saying what shall wee eate or what shall wee drinke , &c. § 1. c , 8. p , 9. Cha. 70 Verse 21 Not euery one that saith vnto me Lord , Lord , &c. § 2. c , 7. p , 3. Cha. 2 Verse 24 The Disciple is not aboue his Master , nor the seruant aboue his Lord , &c. § 3. c , 3. p , 4. Verse 37 Whosoeuer loues father or mother , brother or sister more then me is not worthy of me , § 2. c , 4. p , 4. Verse 39 Whosoeuer will saue his life shall loose it , and he that will loose it shall saue it , § 3. c , 7 , p , 6. Cha. 12 Verse 33 Either make the tree good and the fruite good , or els make the tree euill and the fruit euill . § 2 , c , 2 , p , 10. Cha. 13 Verse 12 Whosoeuer hath to him shall be giuen , &c. § 3 , c , 5. p , 1. Verse 19 When one heareth the word of the Kingdome , and vnderstandeth it not , &c. ibidem . Cha. 18 Verse 15 If thy brother trespasse against thee , goe and tell him his fault betweene thee and him &c. § 2. c , 2. p , 9. Cha. 23 Verse 23 Woe be vnto you Scribes and Pharises , Hypocrites , for ye tith the mint and the rew and all manner of hearbes , &c. § 1. c , 10 ▪ p , 5. Cha. 25 Verse 44 Lord when saw we thee naked , or an hungred , &c. § 2. c , 3 p , 5. MARKE . Cha. 8 Verse 3 What doth it aduantage a man to winne the whole world , and to loose his owne soule . § 3. c , 7. p , 3. Cha. 10 Verse 17 Master what shall I doe that I may possesse eternall life . § 3. c , 6 , p , 3. Verse 23 How hardly doe they which haue riches enter into the kingdome of Heauen , ibidem . Verse 29 Verily I say vnto you there is no man that hath left house or brethren for my Names sake , &c. § 3. c , 8. p. 5. Cha. 12 Verse 33 Thou art not farre from the Kingdome of God § 2. c , 6. p , 3. Cha. 13 Verse 13 Yee shall bee hated of all men for my Names sake . § 3 , c , 3. p , 4. Cha. 16 Verse 17 These signes shall follow them that beleeue , In my name shall they cast out diuels , they shall speake with new tongues , &c. § 1 ▪ c , 11. p , 5 LVKE . Cha. 5 Verse 39 No man that drinketh old wine straightway desireth new , &c. § 1. c , ● . p , 2. Cha. 6 Verse 22 Blessed are ye when men hate you and separate you &c. § 3. c , 7 p. 5. Cha. 8 Verse 15 That which fell in good ground are they which with an honest and good heart ; &c. § 3. c , 8. par . Cha. 12 Verse 33 Prouide your selues bagges which wax not olde , &c. § 3. c , 8 p , 6. Verse 48 To whom much is giuen of him much shall be required . § 3. c , 4 p. 3. Cha. 14 Verse 8 , 9 When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding , &c. § 3. c , 7 , p , 1. Verse 12 , 13 When thou makest a dinner or a supper ▪ &c. § 2. c , 2. p , 8 Verse 33 Whosoeuer denieth not himselfe and for saketh all he cannot be my Disciple , § ● . c , 3. p , 5. Cha. 18. Verse 14 Euery one that exalteth himselfe shall bee brought low , § 1 ▪ c , 10. p , ● , & § 3. c , 7. p , 1 Cha. 21 Verse 36 Watch therefore and pray alwaies , &c. § 2 , c , 9. p , 4. IOHN . Cha. 2 Verse 24 Many when they saw his miracles beleeued in him , &c. § 1. c. 11. p 1. Cha. 3 Verse 15 VVhosoeuer beleeueth in him shall not perish but haue euerlasting life , § 1. c , 8. p , 7. Cha. 4. Verse 34 It is my meate and drinke to doe my fathers will and finish his worke § 1. c , 10. p , 1. Cha. 5 Verse 44 How can yee beleeue which receiue honour one of another , &c. § 1. c , 11. p , 1. Verse 46 Had you belieued Moses you would haue belieued mee , &c. § 2. c , 3. p , 2. Cha. 6 Verse 14 Of a truth this is that Prophet which should come , &c. § 2. c , 1 , p. 5. Cha. 7 Verse 38 Hee that belieueth in mee , as the Scripture hath said out of his belly , &c. § 1. c , 11. p , ● Cha. 8 Verse 34 VVhosoeuer committeth sinne is the seruant of sinne , &c. § 2. ● , 8 ▪ p , ● Verse 39 , 40 If yee were Abrahams children yee would doe the workes of Abraham § 2. c , 6. p , 2. Verse 44 You are of your father the diuell and the lusts of your father you will fulfill § 2. c , 3. p , 2 , & § 2. c. 8 ▪ p , 6. Cha. 11 Verse 25 , 26 I am the resurrection and the life , hee that beleeueth in mee , &c. Sect. 1. c. 7 p 4. Cha. 12 Verse 32 Euen amongst the Rulers many beleeued in him , Sect. 1. cha . 11. par 1. Cha. 14 Verse 21 Hee that hath Christs commaundements and keepeth them , &c. Sect. 1. c , 8. p , 7. Cha. 17 Verse 3 This is life eternall that they may know thee the onely true God &c. ibid. ACTS . Cha. 7 Verse 5 God gaue Abraham none inheritance , &c. Sect. 1 c. 7. p. 4. Verse 51 Ye stiffenecked and of vncircumcised hearts , &c. Sect. 2. c , 3. par , 2. Cha. 20 Verse 35 It is more blessed to giue then to receiue . Sect. 2 , c. 4. p , 2. Cha. 24 Verse 25 VVhen Paul preached of righteousnes Felix trembled , &c. Sect. 1. c , 6 , p. 12. ROMANES . Cha. 1 Verse 16 The Gospell of Christ is the power of God vnto saluation to euery one that beleeueth Sect. 1 , c. 11. p , 9. Cha. 2 Verse 13 The hearers of the law are not righteous before God , &c. Sect. 2 , c. ● . p 3. Verse 28 He is not a Iew which is one outwardly , &c. Sect. 1. chap , 11 ▪ par . 9. Cha. 3 Verse 3 The faith of God cannot be without effect , Sect. 1 , c , 10. p. 3. Verse 23 There is no difference , all haue sinned &c. Sect 2. c , 6. p , 5. Verse 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is iustified by faith , &c. ibidem . Cha. 4 Verse 3 Abraham beleeued God and it was counted vnto him for righteousnes ▪ ibidem p. 4 Verse 5 , 6 To him that worketh not , but beleeueth in him , &c. ibidem par . 6. Cha. 5 Verse 1 Being iustified by faith we haue peace with God , &c , Sect. 1. c. 1● par . 2. Cha. 6 Verse 2 , 3 How shall we that are dead to sinne liue yet therein , &c. Sect. ● c. 6. p. 2 Cha. 7 Verse 18 To will is present with me ▪ but I find no meanes to performe that which is good , Sect. 1. c , 6. p , 5. Cha. 8 Verse 30 Whom he predestinated them also he called , and whom hee called ▪ them also he iustified , Sect. 2 ▪ c , 6 p , 3 Cha. 9 Verse 6 All are not Israell that are called Israell , Sect ; 1 c , 11 ▪ p , 12. Cha. 10 Verse 10 With the heart man beleeueth vnto righteousnesse , Sect. 2. chap. 5 par . 1. Cha. 13 Verse 10 Owe nothing vnto any man but loue , Sect , 2 c , 4. p , 2. 1. CORINTHIANS . Cha. 9 Verse 9 God is faithfull by whom wee are called vnto the fellowship of his sonne Christ Iesus , &c. Sect. 1. c , 10. p , 3 Cha. 12 Verse 31 Couet ye earnestly the gifts , &c. Sect. 1 , c , 11. p. 6. Cha. 13 Verse 1 , 2 Though I speake with the tongues of men and Angels , &c. ibid. p , 4. 17. 2. CORINTHIANS . Cha. 5 Verse 21 Hee hath made him to be sinne for vs which knew no sinne , &c. Sect. 2. c. 7. p. 6. GALATHIANS . Cha. 3 Verse 7 Such as doe the workes of Abraham they are the children of Abraham , Sect. 1. c , 11. p , 12. & Sect. 2. c. 6. p. 2 EPHESIANS . Cha. 5 Verse 18 Be not drunke with wine wherein is excesse , &c. Sect. 3. c , 8. p , 5. PHILIPPIANS . Cha. 3 Verse 8 , 9 Doubtlesse I thinke all things but losse for the excellent knowledge sake of Christ , &c. Sect. 1. c , 5. p , 13. 1. THESSALONIANS . Cha. 2 Verse 16 The wrath of God is come vpon them to the vtmost , Sect. 2. c , 3 , par . 2. HEBREWES . Cha. 4 Verse 2 The word that they heard profited them not , because it was not mixed with faith , Sect. 1. c. 8. p. 7 Cha. 10 Verse 35 Cast not away your confidence which hath recompence of reward . Sect. 1. c. 10 p. 6. & Sect. 2. c 6 ▪ p. 4. Cha. 36 Verse 36 Ye haue need of patience , &c. Sect 1. c. 7. p. 1. Cha. 11 Verse 1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for the euidence of things not seene , Sect 1. c 5. p. 5. & 6. Verse 2 By faith the Elders obtained a good report , Sect. 1. c. 7. p. 2. Verse 6 Without faith impossible it is to please God , ibid. Verse 7 By faith Noah being warned by God of things not seene , &c. vnto verse 11. Sect. 1 c , 7. p. 3. Verse 18 He considered that God was able to raise him vp , &c. ibid. p , 5. & Sect. 2. c. 6 p. ● . Verse 24 When Moses came to age , &c. Sect. 1. c 7 , p. 8. Verse 20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esa● concerning things to come , &c. vnto verse 36 , Sect. 1 ▪ c , 7 p. 10. Cha. 12 Verse 2 Yet for the ioy that was set before him , hee despised the shame &c. ibid. p. 9. Verse 11 No chastening for the present seemeth to be ●oious , &c ibid p. 2. & Sect. 2. c , 6. p , 8 Cha. 13 Verse 3 Remember such as are in bonds , Sect. 1. c. 8. p. 3. IAMES . Cha. 1 Verse 5 If anie of you lacke wisedome let him aske of God. &c ▪ Sect. 2. cap. 7. par . 13. Cha. 2 Verse 10 Whosoeuer shall keepe the whole lawe and offend in one point is guiltie of all Sect 2. c 8. p 6. & Sect. 2. c 5. p 4. Verse 14 What auaileth it my brethren though a man say hee hath faith and haue no workes &c. § 2. c 6. p 4. Verse 19 The diuels beleeue that there is a God and tremble . Section 1 cap. 8. par . 8 Verse 21 Was not Abraham our Father iustified through workes , &c , Sect : 1. c 11. par . 9 Verse 24 Yee see then how a man of workes is iustified &c. Sect. 2. c 6. par 3. 4. Verse 25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot iustified by workes &c. § Sect. c. 11. par . 10 1. IOHN . Cha. 1 Verse 10. If wee say that wee haue no sinne we deceiue our selues , &c. § 2. c 7. p 8. &c 8. p 6. Cha. 2 Verse 1 If anie man sinne we haue an Aduocate with the Father &c. § 2 ▪ c 8. par 4. Cha. 3 Verse 2 Beloued now we are the sonnes of God , &c. Sect , 1. c , 8. p , 7. Verse 6 Whosoeuer abideth in him sinneth not . ib. p. 5 , Verse 7 He that doth righteousnes is righteous . § 2. c , 6 p , 1. Verse 8 He that committeth sinne is of the Diuell &c , § 2. c , 8. p , 6. Verse 9 He that is borne of God sinneth not ibid p 5. Verse 14 We know that we haue passed from death to life &c. § 2 , c , 4 , p. 5 ▪ Cha. 5 Verse 5 Who is he that ouercommeth the word ? &c , § 1 , c , 8 ▪ p , 7. REVELATIONS . Cha. 22 Verse 2 He that is righteous let him be righteous still . § 2. c , 6 p. 3. CHristian Reader , For casualtie ( whether in the text , or margine of this Treatise ) alwaies reade causalitie ; for casually , causally . If the letter S ( either as an affixe or note of the plurall number ) sometimes want sometimes redound ; ( as if thou finde Abraham for Abrahams , their for theirs ; formalitie , for formalities ; performes , for performe ; ) doe me or the Printer the fauour either to correct , or not impute these , or like pettie escapes , which way as easily beamended as committed . Such faults , as alter , inuert , or obscure the sence , are here corrected to thy hand . Errata . PAge 36 line 35 for will read nill . p. 39. l. ●● , as , p. 41 l. 14. three , p. ●3 . l. 34 , other p. 44. l. ● . affection , or p. 51. ●● . directory , ●5 . nurture , p. 54. l. 30. which , binde , p. 67. ●6 . for ioy r●glory ▪ p. 63. l. 3● cut downe , p. 8 ● . l. 30. Patriot , l. 6. an ● p. 90 l. 2. consonantly ▪ p. 96 l. 34. faculty , p. 114. l. 23. vs. p. 117 . l. 2● , Isoerates p. 126 l. 10 , least , l. 21. for and r. of , p. 129. l. 34 , nursed , p. 133. l. 22 , dele not , p 139 , l. 15 vnseaso●●bly , p. 146. l. 29 , to loue p. 162. l. 14 vse . p. 165 , l. 1 , had , p. 172. l. 1 , n●s●●able , p. 173 l. 30. for it● . we , p. 174 , l 1 , by ou● , p. 178 , l. 3 , were p. 184 l , 29 euacuacion , p. 185 , l. 7. is in diuels , p. 186 , l 23 from such , p. 187 ▪ l. 14. euer , p. 188 , l. 13 , propose , p. 189 ; l. 2 , her internall , p. 199 , l. 12 , i●●●u , p. 199. l. 18 , they , p. 206 , l. 12 , Paul commends , p. 109 l. 2. seemes euen , l. 35 of his , p. 213 ▪ l. 25. the , p. 214 , l. 15 , not doubt . p. 216. l , 29 , vs , or p , 217 l. ●5 ▪ it imports p. 222 , l. 1● the like p. ●●4 l. 32 the l. 30. onely let , p , 231 l. 28 Sunne , p , 235. l. 32 , paedanticall , p. 242 , l. 5. owne , p. 243 l. 8 recouer , l. 30 , euer , p. 245 l. 14 , whereby , l. 3● . permitted , p. 248 l. 17. these . p. 249 , l. 27 , this life , p. 251. l. 9 , for all must r ▪ most p. 254 , l. 1● . inherence , l. 36. their , p. 259 , l. 1 , the. p. 278 l. 26. r. weomen , p. 290. l 12 destiny , p. 294. l. 28. materiall . p 295 l. 17 , dele so p. 312 l. 30. matches , p. 314 , l. 37 , Hippocrates p. 315 , l. 3 , in , p. 320 , l , 29 , inuitation p , 323 , l , 3 , louer , p , 327 , l , 32 vnconscionable , p , 328 l , ●0 , fests , p. 333 , l. 26 , had that , p , 332 , l , 31 , alike , p. 342 , l , 29. dependance , l , 33 , deepelier : Page 44 li●● 17 , Read with some others , or knowledge of the same 〈…〉 in different , Page 243 l , 35. for as heathen ▪ ●●ad , which had surprised the Heathen as heathen , SAVING FAITH , OR The Faith whereby the Just doe liue . SECT . 1. Of the nature , essence , and properties of that Faith by which the Iust doe liue . CHAP. 1. Rules of Method for the right differencing of that Assent wherein Christian faith consists , THat Christian faith includes an assent to supernaturall obiects , or truths reuealed by God ; especially concerning Christ , the means of mans saluation , & matters of the life to come , hath been declared before : Nor is there , or can be any dissent among professors of Christianity about the quality of this assertion ; seeing the acknowledgment of fuch reuclations doth primarily distinguish christians from Iewes or Infidels . About the extent or quantity of the obiect assented vnto , or reuelations thus acknowledged , difference there is betwixt vs and the Romanist ; some doubt there may be amongst our selues . The Romanist will haue the obiect of Christian faith as directly to comprehend vnwritten , as written reuelations diuine : we take the actuall and ordinary limits of it from the plot drawn by the pens of Prophets , Apostles and Euangelists . Two enti●e moities we make of it , and no more ; the old Testament deliuered vnto vs by the Iewe ; and the new acknowledged by the Romane Church . The principall doubt amongst our selues ( the discussion whereof will naturally fall in the Article of remission of sinnes ) is , whether our personall election , predestination , saluatiō or possessory right in state of grace be directly contained vnder the formal obiect of Christian faith , as any proper integrall or homogeneall part therof , whereunto the former Assent may be immediately terminated . Examination of the difference betwixt vs and the Romish Churches comes not at all within the compasse of this present suruey . 2. It is agreed on by all sides againe , that euery assent vnto supernaturall trueths reuealed , of what rancke soeuer , suffiseth not to the attaining of supernaturall and eternall blisse , which is the onely end and marke , by approach whereto or declination from which , the sufficiency or insufficiency of faith , as christian must be measured . Yea some there be so farre from thinking euery assent should fit the former purpose , that they seeme scarce to vouchsafe assent any room , or place in the definition of such belief , or faith as we now treate of : but rather suspect it as a terme , though of it selfe indifferent , yet abused by Popery . Least I should mistake them , or their followers me , the point questioned I would thus propose . VVhether they dislike assent should be acknowledged as the supream kinde or stock whence al particular branches of faith should lineally descend , as diuers persons of the same kindred do from one and the same first progenitor ; or whether they would admit som other compeere with it , from which true christian faith should more immediately be deriued , as from a ioynt , but a better or more proper originall : or lastly , whether they hold it an indignity for such faith to deriue its pedigree at all from assent , as from any part of its first Originall . If they be for this last opinion , they are too nice to admit any Logicall dispute : If for the second , I request them to permit me my method as charitably , as I allow them theirs . Albeit perhaps I could guesse the originall of their disliking my termes to be onely hence , that they obseruing fewer differences betwixt Assents then happily may be found , think when we define Christian faith by Assent , we meane only a bare Assent . 3. He that would define Man to be a substance , or bodily liuing creature , should come farre short of the truth ; which notwithstanding he shall neuer be able to hit , but by following the same line . For man is but the complement or perfection of bodily liuing creatures , as these are of materiall substances . All the differences of either he hath not in him ; albeit nothing essentially in him , which is not either a true and formall difference of Substance generally taken , or some kinde of soule indued with life . And the onely right way to finde out the entire nature or complete essence of Man , were to seeke out as they lie in order all the proper differences , whereby substances from the highest to the lowest are essentially and formally diuided . In diuisiue progresses , specially if they be long , often shall he be enforced to cut or interfere that will follow his method , which of liuing creatures made some to haue feete , others none ; and of such as had feete , some to haue feathers , some none , iustly taxed by the great a Philosopher : for what affinity haue feete with feathers ? kindred betwixt them there can be none , direct and lineall . He had framed his next steps aright , had he thus proceedeed : Of liuing footed creatures some haue two feet , some fowre , some more , some fewer ; of both sorts , some are solid footed , some clouen ; of clouen footed creatures , some haue toes , some clawes , others talants ; and of all these some more , some fewer . 4 But as few take notice of more discents in meaner families then fall out within their owne memory : so most Writers omit this direct prosecution of genealogies in matters morall , or not distinguishable by ordinary sense without accurate or laborious inspection . How beit I haue euer beene of opinion that the continuall adoption of forreine differences for want of proper , ( a fault most common to curious Dichotomists , neuer allotting more then two branches to one stocke , whence scarce either naturally growes , ) doth breed as many needlesse intricate difficulties in the search of truth , as frequent alienation of lands from Name to Name , by often matching with vncouth families , for want of succession in heir-males , doth in trial of titles of Honour or inheritance . Euen in the order or ranke of materiall and sensible bodies , which in a sort marshall themselues vnto our view , we vsually suffer the intermediate linkes of the chaine , by which we should proceed , to lie double and vnfoulded , coupling things close together which nature had set farre asunder . As what a crosse double is it we vse before we make that long leape , or vast stride rather as it were with one legge shakled and another loose ; when proceeding from Vegetables to Creatures endued with sense , we say , of them , some are rationall , some irrationall . Thus indeed wee might cast about to entangle one that would denie a manifest truth , or to bee sure to encompasse a truth vndiscouered : no fit method it can be for orderly suting our conceits to the reall natures , whose knowledge we seeke ; but rather a tricke to cast off such as would artificially hunt out Natures foot-steps in her progresse , as not louing to range at randome in hope to stumble vpon their game . First , neither is irrationality any further degree of sense , nor doth sense expresse that generall notion , whereto reason is a directly subordinate as meer sense . Secōdly , betwixt reason & that general notiō of knowledge , or perception ; by some branch or other , whereof , euery sensitiue creature exceeds Vegetables , the intermediate degrees of sense are many ; yet euery one almost as directly shooting out of other , as that part of the Vine branch which growes this yeere , doth out of such as grew the former . Vegetables haue life , but perceiue not the defect or competency of that nutriment by which they liue , altogether vncapable either of paine or pleasure . The first ranke of such as we call sensitiue creatures are pained by defect , and pleased by competency of necessary nutriment , but perhaps with nothing els ; capable onely of contraction & dilatation for lessening griefe , and enlarging content ; otherwise immooueable . Others euidently enioy the sense of touching , which is the onely roote of taste , alwaies furnished with motion requisite for satisfying appetite , or generally for attaining such pleasures , or auoiding such grieuances as accompany either of these 2. senses . From these more imperfect senses spring smelling , hearing , seeing ; and these againe are perfected by other internall more noble sensitiue faculties , as memory , fancy , and the like : all subordinate vnto reason , wherein Man exceedes all other sensitiue creatures , as being last framed according to the image of his Creator . 5. Now as he that desires the exact knowledge of man should first know the intermediate parts , differences and iunctures of this chaine , which reacheth from the first perception of paine or pleasure vnto reason : so he that hopes to find out the true nature of supernaturall beliefe or assent , should first seeke the superior differences or degrees of Assent in generall . And here we suppose that the Assent of Christian faith though supernaturall , is contained as formally vnder the most common notion of Assent , as reason , though springing from an immortal root , is vnder that generall knowledge or perception which is alike communicable to creatures mortall . Supernaturall faith we likewise suppose to be more necessary to the right discernment of matters spirituall then an immortall soule for the apprehension of things eternall , although true it be , that the conceipt of eternity cannot enter into meere mortality . CHAP. II. The vsuall diuision of Faith or Assent into Historicall and saluificall , not so formall as rightly to fit the method proposed . 1. A ▪ Distinction there ●s of Historicall , temporary , and sauing Faith , often vsed by learned Diuines very fitly to their occasions , howbeit expresly reiected by some , and ( for ought I haue read ) auouched by none for an artificiall or for●●all diuision ; in which regard as in many cases I must approue it , so in this busines I may not follow it , intending the search of such differences as formally diuide Assent , and are essentiall vnto Christian ●aith . Of which rancke to bee saluificall , doubtlesse is not . For to saue , take it in what sense wee list , actually or potentially , is either an operation , or a property in order of nature following true and liuely faith ; wheras the essentiall differences must goe before it . Besides , two points there be very questionable , but in this place not determinable . First , whether in men neuer attaining vnto saluation , there may not be faith , for essence , quality , and degrees one and the same with that which saueth others , onely different in want of radication or durability : as many men are not so long liued , as others of the same complexion or constitution of body . The second , whether any faith , though supposed to continue vnto the last end of life , be sufficiently qualified for iustifying by the bare essentiall nature or quality , or rather a competent measure or quantity be necessarily required with these vnto so weighty a businesse . Omitting these questions for the present , it shall suffice to search the true nature and properties of that faith which doth iustifie , or which primarily distinguisheth a true Christian from an Hypocrite . 2. Such faith questionlesse is not opposite , but subordinate , or rather coincident to historicall assent : whose latitude , or degrees of intensiue perfection is commensurable to the different esteeme of authority in historians . He should much disparage Tacitus , Liuit , Dion , or Halicarnassensis , that made no better reckoning of their histories then of Dictys Cretensis , or Ctesias : so should he much wrong the memory of Sir Thomas Moore , that gaue no more credit to his history of Richard the third , then to diuers passages in Hector , Boetius , or in some other writers of English or Scottish affaires . But much greater indignitie should he offer Moses , or rather the blessed Spirit , that would not beleeue the booke of Genesis much better then the former , or anie domestique story . Finally , seeing historicall beliefe is but an assent to historicall narrations , whose strength increaseth according to our better esteeme of the Historian : I should suspect my hart of prophanenes , if I did not beleeue the sacred story by that sacred faith , by which I hope to find saluation . Yet besides this different esteeme of Historians , whose latitude , as it comprehends as well diuine as prophane , is as great as the altitude of the heauens aboue the earth : Many other grounds or motiues there be , whereby our assent to diuers narrations in the same author may be much strengthned , & yet the title it had , not therby abrogated it may continue historical stil . As if an vnknown writer of times , & countries otherwise sufficiently knowne , should now come to light ; a iudicious critick , or well experienced Antiquary , vpon serious comparison of all circumstāces or matters related , or due consideration of his manner in relating them , would apprehend farre more sure grounds of assent to diuers passages , then a nouice that had neuer gone further then Stadius vpon Florus , Sleidans fowre Monarchies . or Bodins methods . 3. Or , not to speake of Criticall skill in this kinde , such I professe is my simplicity , that albeit no other Writers but ancient Poets had euer intimated the generall deluge ; yet the light of such stones , as the exquisite & ingenuous * Antiquary assures me haue beene found in places farre from all approach of anie inundation , that hath happened within the times mentioned by any Historian except sacred , as much resembling the Cockle , as others doe the Oyster , from whose shell it is apparant they haue been newly hatched , would haue mooued mee to suspect there had been a time , Omne cum Proteus pecus egit altos visere montes . Scarce can I imagine any could be so wayward , or incredulous , as not to giue Caesar what belongs to Caesar , firme credence to his Commentaries , at the least as far as they only in generall relate his conquest of this Iland , or first planting of Romans here ; if digging his ground he should ( as others haue done of late ) finde by chance some ancient Romane coine , with Caesars image and superscription vpon it , or other monuments in euery point answerable to Historicall relations of customes practised by the Romanes , while they inhabited this land . 4. Were most mens assent vnto sundry passages in sacred story grounded but vpō like sensible & vnquestionable inducements , it would drawe them neerer to saluation then oft they come . And my paines ( I hope ) shall not proue vnprofitable , in searching out plenty of vndoubted experiments , more exactly answerable to the exact relation of Prophets and Euangelists . For my selfe I rest assured , that , if we will not lay the blame where it is least deserued , our faith is not to be reputed vnsound or non saluificall , because historicall ; but rather oft-times therefore vnsufficient to saue , because not so fully historicall as it might be , or in that our apprehension of diuerse matters related in sacred stories , is not so great , so liuely and sound , as to equalize the vtmost limits of some beleefe , which may yet bee fully comprehended vnder assent historicall . For no assent can exceed the measure of that beliefe or credence , which is due vnto sacred Writers . If that on our parts be but such , as it should be to Gods generall promises , it will more forcibly , more truly and naturally apply them to vs in particular , then we our selues possibly can doe , by beginning our faith at this particular application where it must end . The next thing then to be sought out is , the nature of Assent in generall , and what manner of Assent this is , which we require as due to sacred Historians , or matters related by them . CHAP. III. What Assent is , whence the certainety , firmenesse , and stability of it properly arise . 1. CReatures of euery kinde haue seueral propensions , or inclinations to such others as suite best vnto their natures , and hardly admit of anie rest , vntill they get some manner of vnion , or coniunction with them . That which in substances liuelesse , or meerely naturall , wee call propension ; descending to such as are endued with knowledge or apprehension , is differenced by the title of desire . The propension most natiue to the intellectiue faculty is desire of truth ; vnto which found out , the adherence must needs be correspondent ; and this * adherence we properly call Assent : which notwithstanding by a great a Artist is defined , to be a knowledge or apprehension of conuenience betwixt things compared in any enuntiation . But this definition he chiefely intended , in oposition to such as restrain Assent onely vnto the reflexiue , or examinatiue acts of the vnderstanding . Neither I think would haue denyed this adherence , ( wherein Assent more properly consists then in knowledge , which it necessarily supposeth ) to be an vnseperable concomitant to all acts of knowledge , whether reflexiue or direct ; especially if their obiects bee worth the contemplation . For vnlesse that proportion , which breeds a mutuall liking betwixt the obiects apprehended , and the apprehensiue facultie varie : continuance of vnion is alwaies as much desired after it is gotten , as the vnion it selfe was before . Wherefore , as desire of truth brings foorth motion , by impelling our soules vnto the search of it : so the apprehension of it necessarily infers a setling , or fastening of them to it found . For as test terminates the naturall motions , or actuall propensions of liuelesse bodies : so the desires of the sensitiue or intellectiue nature , attaining their proper obiects , are alwaies crowned with ioy , pleasance , and complacency in their purchase . 2. That such is the nature of Assent , as wee haue said , may appeare from its contrary , dissent : which , ouer and aboue knowledge or apprehension , includes an auersion in the intellectiue facultie , or a bearing off from what it apprehends as false . Whence he that beares testimony to an vntruth , may as truely be said to assent vnto it ; as his action may bee accounted voluatarie , that casts his goods ouerboord in a storme : which kinde of action the * Philosopher makes to be mixt , though more inclining vnto voluntary , because it takes the denomination , especially from the present resolution . So likewise in the former testimony there is a mixture of Assent ; because albeit the partie simply knew it for vntrue , and therefore dissonant to his intellectiue nature , ( which can no better brook the apprehension of apparant disconuenience betwixt things compared in enunciations , then the sense of touch can the impression of heate and cold together : yet , for the time present , hee is not auerse from it , but rather adheres vnto it , as it lies in his way to honor , gaine , promotion , or other sinister ends , vpon which his minde is mole strongly set , then vpon truth . 3. Doubt likewise , which is the meanes betwixt Assent and dissent , if it proceed from want of examination , is but a suspence or inhibition of the soule from any determinate inclnation one waie or other : if from apprehension of reasons diuerse or contrarie , drawing neer to an equality in strength , it is but a tremulous motion of the vnderstanding ▪ not finding where to settle or fixe its approbation . 4. Certainty is but an immunity from change or mutabilite ; and according to this generall notion , vniuocally agrees , as well to the obiect , knowne , as vnto assent or adherence to their knowledge . Those obicts are in thēselues most certain whose nature is least obnoxious to alteration . Assent most certaine we likewise account all , of whose mutability or change there is no danger , as admitting no possibility or preiudice by oppositions of contrarie oppinions : whence we must of necessity distinguish between the Certainety , the Stability , the Strength or vigor of assent or adherence vnto known truths . Certainty ariseth from cleernes of apprehensiō : Stability from the immutability or setlednes of the exact proportion betwixt the apprehensiue facultie and the obiect on which the cleerenesse of apprehension is grounded . The Strength or vigour of euery Assent springs from the woorth , or right valuation of the obiect . For vnto all truthes alike cleerely apprehended , our adherence is not equall , but greater to such as are apprehended of greatest vse or worth ; albeit the danger or possibility of dislike , or disproportion betweene the obiect and the apprehensiue faculty be more , then is betweene it and other obiects , the cleere apprehension of whose certaine truth may much lesse affect the soule . 5. That the certainety of Assent doth accrewe , partly from the certainety of the obiect , but more immediately from our apprehension of it , is set down at large in the first section of our first booke : that the strength of our Assent , or adherence vnto supernaturall obiects , doth naturally spring from a right apprehension or estimate of their worth , was intimated in the second Section of that Booke , and will manifest its truth throughout this whole discourse : what temper or disposition of the apprehensiue faculty is fittest for grounding the stability of certaine adherence vnto diuine truths , shall be generally shewed in the last section of this Booke , more particularly in the seuerall Articles , wherinthe danger of dissent or dislike is greatest . Now seeing certainety is the onely sure ground of all stability , or strength in perswasions , without which supposed to their beginnings , the greater they are the worse they proue in their endings : the subiect of the next enquirie is , what measure of certainety or eui dence is required to the nature of that assent wherein Christian faith consists . CHAP. IIII. What correspondencie , euidence , and certaintie hold in Assent or perswasions : what measure of either , in respect of what obiects , is necessarily required to the constitution of that Assent wherein Christian faith consists . 1. ASsents ( as all agree ) are most properly differenced by the diuers measures of their credibility , certainty , or perspicuity , whose growth in matters secular is alwaies equall . That the obiects of our beliefe are all in themselues most certaine , were damnable to doubt . But whether vnto the nature of that Assent , whose differences or properties we seeke , such exact certainty be so necessarily required , that without it we cānot truly be said to haue Christiā beleef , is somwhat doutfull . Or if such certainty be so necessary , the doubt is greater , whether the euidence must , or if it must , how possibly in this life it can be thereto commensurable . But by apprehension or representation there can bee no beliefe or knowledge of any truth . And if we seeke all the differences or properties of apprehension or representation : what any of them besides such clearenes or perspicuity , as satiates the passiue capacity of the apprehensiue faculty , should conferre vnto the certainty of knowledge , or assent thence resulting , is inexplicable . Euen the most d acute amongst the Schoolemen , whiles they seeke to cleere this doubt , doe but faulter or tautologize ; or finally confound the strength of adhaerence , which ariseth from the worth or amiablenesse of the obiect , with the certainty of perswasion or credence , which is the proper consequent of cleerenesse in apprehension or representation . 2. If it be replied , that the certaintie of our beliefe depends vpon the authorities of the teacher , the doubt still prosecutes the solution . For , either must our apprehension of his skill and fidelity be cleere and euident , or else our perswasion of it remaines vncertaine , and our beliefe at the best but conditionally certaine : Notwithstanding it hath beene generally held in the schooles , that faith is no euident assent , because of obiects not euident or apparent , vnto which tenent we did thus farre in the beginning of this worke subscribe , that it was not directly euident : which opinion , whether it be true of all , or of some principall obiects of our faith , or how farre of any , we are now further to discusse . 3. The Romanist exacts a certaintie of Assent in the belieuer more exact then demonstratiue sciences affoord , and yet makes diuine reuelations not onely not euident , but ineuident and obscure , the method of faith euen a * labyrinth of obscurities . And for ought I can perceiue , this obscurity in respect of euery Article is a like to all : euen whiles the Assent becomes most certaine and infallible . Yet questionlesse , whether the immediate ground of our Assent be euidence of truth in the obiect or some inferiour degree of distinct apprehension approaching thereto : the growth of certainety in the perswasion is alwaies turbulent and preposterous , vnlesse the apprehension of truth in the obiect growe more and more perspicuous , and so come nearer and nearer to the nature of euidence properly so called . Euery degree of certainty we get in beliefe not thus grounded , is but a step to sorcery . For what is the Sorcerers fault , but that he belieues those things most firmly , of whose truth he can haue no distinct apprehensions , but some pretences of warrant from the authority of scriptures , or practices of holy men therein recorded ? This grosse error in compounding faith of obscurity , and exact certainty , is one especiall roote of popery in graine , as els where I am to shew . And this certainty of perswasion which they thus enforce vpon themselues , without proportionall encrease of euidence or perspicuity apprehended in the obiect , hath the same proportion to liuely faith , that stubborne foole-hardinesse vnto true valour . Few of Iesuiticall instruction but are as aduenturous , as most of Gods Saints haue beene , were the causes they manage as good , their motiues to vndertake them as euidently warrantable , or their intensions as sincerely sound . But the Iesuite or his Catechist , nursing a conceit of obscurity in the obiect of beliefe to ground a title vnto merite , ( for what reward were it worth to belieue an euident truth ? ) out of the stubbornenesse of his forced perswasions , or violent certainty meeting with this vaile of darkenesse , wherewith he purposely hoodwinks himselfe , runnes vpon any mischiefe his Superiors shall designe him vnto , as stoutly and boldly as blind Bayard rusheth into the battell : which way hee should goe he sees not , he cares not , saue onely as his Rider spurs him , or rather as the diuell driues him ; destitute of cleere ayme by the word of God , he desperately flies like an instrument of battery , whither his liuing rule of faith shall leuell him , though it be to ruinate the state wherein hee was borne , or ouerthrow that Church which gaue him Christendome . 4. But a great deale more easie it is to discerne the grossenes of error come to full growth , then to discouer the first roote whence it springs , or assigne the originall breach betwixt it and truth , commonly vnited in the same trunke , like the two opposite branches of Pithagoras letter . As much as in reason can be required of vs will be to guesse or giue aime ( as our custome is ) grosso modo , leauing the exact designation of that Mathematicall point , or angle , wherein truth and error in this present busines are first diuided , vnto more accurate eye-sights . Seeing Euidence , besides cleerenes or perspicuity ( directly and formally included in it prime and natiue signification ) collaterally drawes with it a conceit of such plenary comprehension of the obiect knowne , as fully satiates our desire of its knowledge : ( for euident wee hardly accompt that knowledge which leaues the apprehensiue faculty capable of further or better information then it already hath from the particulars which we desire to know ) In the first place it may be questioned , whether that apprehension we haue in this life of obiects supernaturall , though neuer comming to such full growth as may deserue the title of euidence , may not ground a greater certainty thē that we haue of things les certain or credible in themselues , yet euidently apprehended , or rather exactly comprehended , according to the ful measure of that certainty or credibility they haue . For , if certainty of Assent amount proportionably to the degrees of credibilitie inherent in the obiect , distinctly apprehended by vs ; that Assent , whose euidence is defectiue or imperfect in respect of its proper obiect ( containing as is supposed almost innumerable degrees of Veracity , Certainty , or Credibilitie ) may be more certa ne , then the most exact and euident knowledge that can bee had of other matters , the full measure of whose internall certainty , or veracity , containes fewer degrees then wee did apprehend in the former . Of this assertion there could be no doubt , were the apprehension of seuerall degrees in both , a like cleere and distinct : whence , of such as hold the euidence of our Assent vnto reuelations diuine , to be lesse then that wee giue to humane sciences , many perhaps meane no more then this , that the apprehension we haue of them in this life is for euidence very imperfect , in respect of that which may bee had of them in the life to come : whereas the euidence of some scientificall principles or conclusions ( mathematicall especially ) is already as great as it possibly can be . ● Thus some opinions seeming contrary , may perchance bee reconciled with this distinction : our assent to the truth of reuelations diuine is lesse , then that we giue to conclusions in humane sciences , if we compare either euidence , as it is found in vs , with the capacity of its proper obiect ; yet altogether as great , if we compare the seuerall qualities , or degrees of euidences onely betwixt themselues . As 8 while it is compared with 7 is a greater number , because consisting of more vnities ; & yet the Octonary number applied to nine , is lesse then the Septenary applied to seauen materiall numerables . Or , to illustrate our purpose by a comparison more familiar and proper ; If a man should see the sun at mid day in a cloud , and the moone in her strength , or the beames of the one in at his chamber window , & the body of the other directly in its sphere : his sight of the Sunne would be as euident as of the Moone ; although the Moone hee could not possibly apprehend more euidently or more directly , while his apprehension of the Sunne , in respect of what it might be , is both waies very imperfect . But thus , if we make an equall comparison , the certainty likewise of our Assent vnto supernaturall obiects , should in a correspondent sense bee said lesse or greater then the certainty we haue of humane sciences , because the obiects of the one cannot possibly bee better knowne then they are , when as the knowledge of the other is not halfe so greate in this life , as it shall bee , for the Apostle ( who knew many diuine mysteries , more euidently then we doe ought ) saith of himselfe as well as others , we know but in part . Yet notwithstanding , this halfe knowledge of the one , may be more great and certain then the whol knowledge of the other ; if wee compare them onely betwixt themselues , not with the internall capacity of their proper obiects , considered as credible or intelligible . Or if our apprehension of as much as we know in the one , be not so cleere as it is in the other , it may further be questioned , whether the excessiue multitude of parts apprehended in it , though not so cleerly , or the variety of motiues procuring our assent , though not so euident ; may not , all taken together , be as forcible to support as great certainty as ariseth from euidence in humane sciences fully apprehēded , more intensiue in it selfe , vet extensiuely not so great , as not being grounded vpon so many motiu●● or degrees of internall certainty or veracity in the obiect . Thus many pillars , though all somwhat declining , may beare as great weight , as fewer exactly perpendicular ; or many lights seuerally taken , not splendent in the highest degree , may better illuminate a large roome , then one or two intensiuely much brighter . 5. Lastly , it were worth a sacred Critiques paines to obserue , whether this error that giues certainty the start so farre of euidence , did not spring from a confusion of that certainty which is in the obiect , with the certainty that may be in the subiect . It is true indeed , our Assent must bee conformable to the obiect ; and therefore as is the one , so should the other bee most exactly certaine : but , whether such exact certainty as may bee had in humane sciences , be not only necessary by way of duty or precept , or as the marke whereat all must aime though fewe in this life can hit , but euen vnto the being of a Christian ; or whether an earnest desire of encreasing our knowledge in matters diuine , ioyned with an vnfained vniforme practise of such duties ▪ as faith prescribes , be not sufficient at least to h many , albeit the certainty of their belief be not in it selfe so great as their knowledge in some other matters , may in charity , and for the comfort of weake consciences be doubted . Most certainely perswaded euen the weakest alwaies must bee , vpon the highest termes of absolute nesessity , not to relinquish the profession of Christianity , not to despaire of good successe , not to be daunted in religious courses , for all the arguments the diuell , the world and flesh can oppose against them . But hereto wee stand in our owne consciences most strictly bound , albeit the certainty of our assent vnto diuine matters be lesse then demonstratiue or scientificall ; seeing as well the danger that may accrew by renouncing , as the hopes wee conceiue by continuing our profession are infinitely greater , then any we can possibly imagine , should arise from embracing contrary suggestions . It may well seeme so farre sufficient as not to argue any nullity of Christian faith , if our Assent , vpon examination or triall , proue more certaine then any conclusions can be brought against it , which can neuer be demonstratiue , nor if well sifted , probable ; and yet retayning ▪ firme adherence to the truths contained in the Apostles Creede , and an vndaunted resolution , to follow the prescripts of Gods word , ( notwithstanding all the blasts of temptatiōs , or storms of persecutiōs the wicked spirits or their agents can raise against vs ) we may be truly said to hold fast the Faith , albeit our apprehension of the particular truths it teacheth , be not so euident , nor the grounds of our adherence to them , ( to speake properly ) so certain as they are vnto some Mathematical conclusions . For what necessity is there faith should be more certaine then such sciences , as are more prest to doe her the best seruice they can , then any way to oppugne her ? 6. Or if from the excesse of certainty , or fertility of consequences euidently flowing from vndoubted principles ; these hand maids should pleade for equall interest with their mistris in our soules : to quell their insolencies enough it were , that besides the infinite reward , which wee haue reasons many and great ( though none absolutly euidēt or demōstratiuely certain ) to expect in the life to comithe ioy & comfort euery Christian , in this life , may sensibly reape from the constant embracements of trueths taught , or practise of duties enioyned by the rule of faith , is much greater then al the delight we can imagine should elsewhere grow . Nor doth lesse certainety , or euidence of diuine truths in particular , any way preiudice , but rather aduantage our firme Assent or adherence to them , as long as their contemplation or practice euidently affoords ioy and comfort , more sincere and sweet then the most exact , most certaine , and euident knowledge that can be had of other subiects ; especially if this comfort they yeeld receiue daily increase , as euery Christian by stedfast continuance in religious exercises may vndoubtedly perceiue . For , as I said before , the strength of our adherence , or Assent , ariseth more properly from the excessiue worth of the obiect apprehended , then from the euidence of apprehension . Thus by the diuine prouidence it comes about , that euery Christian may ●itly take vp the Apostles speech , but in another sense then he meant it , When I am weake [ in faith ] then I am strong . For though his Assent vnto the articles of this Creed seuerally considered , be much lesse euident and certaine , then vnto many other matters ; yet if the fruites of it be euidently greater for the quantity , and incomparably more pleasant for the quality , the greater interest will their loue and admiration hereby gaine in his soule . And who knowes , whether he that made the heart of man , best knowing how prone it is to be pu●t vp with pride , and ready vpon suddaine change of it wonted diet , ( the beggarly rudiments of this world ) to surfet with fulnesse of knowledge , though of heauenly mysteries , doth not , with purpose to alay their sweetnesse , onely season the streame or current of our desires , whilest weake and sickely , with some light tincture of his graces ; seldome infuling the water of the well of life into the fountain of our corrupt affections , otherwise then by drops , whose soft instillations , ( during the time of our infancy in CHRIST , ) bring forth such transient apprehensions , or imperfect tastes , as rather breed a longing after the like againe , then any waies enable vs to discerne aright the nature and quality of what is past ; that so the loue of these euerlasting truths , neuer comprehensible in this life , thus secretly kindling by degrees insensible in our soules , might at length breake forth into a flame , much more ardent and durable , then if our apprehension at first acquaintance with them , had been as euident , & certaine , as our first Parents had of them in Paradise , or Lucifer before his fall . 7. Thus granting euidence and certainty to liue and die together like Hippocrates twinnes , o● rather the latter to follow the former as closely as Iacob did Esau out of the wombe ; we may conclude , that as well the euidence , as certainty of that Assent wherein Christian faith consists , is in some respects lesse , in others as great as can be found in any science . Both , in many ( at least ) rightly enioying the name of Christians , are directly much lesse , whiles we compare particulars with particulars ; as beliefe of seu●rall Articles with Assent to demonstratiue conclusions . The certainty notwithstanding , of this generall resolution [ That all diuine truths proposed in Scriptures , are most vndoubtedly to be embraced , though with opposition to all other professions , ] is as great as can be found in any scientificall conclusion , because manifestly grounded vpon euidence , as great as can be required in the vndoubted maxims , or common principles of exact sciences . For vnto breasts inspired with such inward comfort in this life , as may nurse hope of ●oies vnspeakable in the life to come ; or vnto consciences so wounded with the sting of sinne , as thence to conceiue fearefull expectation of horrible torments after death : the wisdome of this choise [ most firmely and constantly to adhere vnto all diuine truthes whatsoeuer , speculatiue or practique , particular or generall , ( though apprehended directly in themselues neither as euident nor certaine , but in some high degree of probability ) rather then to endanger the hopes of life , or increase feares of death e●erlasting , either by open renouncing their profession , or vnconstant wauering betweene the practices they prescribe , and the contrary which the world followes , ] is most cl●●re and euident . In the iudgement of such as will not be partiall for sensuality , against the euident testimony of meere naturall reason , the reiection of the former choice vpon such experience of vncouth ioies and terrours , includes more degrees of extreame folly and desperate madnesse , then can be imagined of certainty in any science , or of prudence in any other morall consultation . No heathen Philosopher , though vnwilling , because wanting all such experience , to renounce his profession , but would haue condemned him as more brutish then any beast , that hauing such , would doubt to continue the former resolution . Now this firmenesse or constancie of adherence vnto diuine truthes in particular , thus grounded vpon an euident and certaine appehension of true wisdome in the former generall choice , may serue as the first difference of that Assent , which is necessary to the being , or constitution of a true Christian , which primarily distinguisheth him from an Hypocrite or worldling Whether more be not required to full assurance of our actuall state in grace , and fauour of the sonnes of God , is hereafter to be discussed . CHAP. V. The seuer all kinds of euidences whereof some are appliable vnto Faith in respect of certaine Articles , others in respect of other : That the certainty of Faith in respect of diuine truths not euident , is grounded vpon an euident certainty of others : the properly naturally arising from this difference of Assent , as it is of obiects partly knowne aud partly vnknowne . 1. THe Conclusion last inferred as I maintaine not either against any lawfull authority that shall commaund , or learned diuine that will instruct me to the contrary ; so , left herein to my Christian liberry , I would aduise men of mine owne profession not to content themselues with such generall euidence or certaintie ; albeit perhaps sufficient to some of their flocke honestly minded , but dull in apprehension of particular diuine truthes . Wherefore , as well to encourage such as are come thus farre to goe further , as to occasion the learned to looke more narrowly into these points ; it will not be amisse to set downe the seuerall kindes of euidence , and which of them may in this life be had of points belieued . 2. Euidence , according to the Etimologie of the Latine word , includes a cleere , distinct and full apprehension of obiects present , and is most properly applied to the objects of sight . Amongst them , such are most euident , as are most visible , or apt to inforce their apprehension vpon the eye : whence the Sunne of all visibles is held most euident : because such as cannot see it can see nothing , and hardly canany sight be so distempered , as to be mistaken in the apprehension of it . Hence is this appellation translated to obiects of the speculatiue vnderstanding , because that faculty hath most affinity with sight . And with reference to it , those things are said to be most euident that are of easiest apprehension , or most apt to imprint their truth vpon it . Such for the most part are mathematicall principles , common notions , or maxims , generall to all sciences . For scarcely can any distemper of body , or minde , phrenzy excepted , worke any distrust , whether the whole be not bigger then it part , whether all right angles are equall , or whether ademption of equal portions from things equal , leaue not such equality betwixt them as it found . And in this sence it will be impossible to assigne any obiect of christian faith so vniuersally euident as these maxims are : for vnto the meere naturall man , most diuine t●uthes are distastefull , none so euident as to enforce their apprehension vpon his heart , vntill he be cured of his naturall distemper . 3. But as light to the eie , so to euery other sense the proper obiect within iust distance is most euident , albeit distemperance in them may more easily breed either a dulnesse in the apprehension , or an error in the composition : as cold in the head either obstructs or corrupts oursmel , albeit odoriferous obiects be present : bad humors either dead the taste , or by imprinting an apprehension of themselues , make meates sweete and pleasant , seem bitter , sower , or loathsome , according to the seuerall , vngrateful noisome qualities , which they communicate to the organ . Vnto this last kinde of euidence all Assent to matters morall is more properly resembled ; and vpon this , such as write of mysticall Theologie , for the most part ground their discourses . 4. Besides these sorts of euidences , arising from exact proportion betwixt the passiue capacities of particular senses , and the actiue force of the obiects to imprint their shapes vpon them , an euidence there is of bodily impulsion or motion ; whereunto in the minde is answerable an euidence of instinct , or working , alwaies manifest in the effect , though the cause oft-times be hidden or doubtfull . An euidence likewise there is of bodily strength , eyther passiue to sustaine contrary force or violence , or actiue to repell it by opposing the like . Proportionall hereunto there is an euidence of conscience , vpon iust examination alwaies witnessing , either our strength , or weaknesse to resist temptations ; or our vigour , alacrity or dulnesse in doing of good . But this kinde of euidence belongs rather vnto the triall of faith inherent , or our perswasions of it after we haue it , then vnto the obiects or grounds whence it ariseth . 5. The Iesuite hauing defaced the image of his Creator , ( as essentially good as true ) in his heart , and out of the reliques of it erecting an Idoll in his braine to represent the visible Church or Pope ; ( both which he adores as gods for their veracity , though not for sanctity ) imagines no euidence possible in matters diuine , but meerely speculatiue : and hence argues Faith to be an Assent ineuident or obscure , because not euident : after the same manner Mathematicall theorems , or common naturall notions are to the speculatiue vnderstanding , or the Sunne , Moone , or Starres of the first magnitude to ordinary sights . As if an English-man , Dane or German , should conclude Italians , French-men , Spaniards , or generally all forreiners to be Blacke-moores , because not of the same complexion they themselues are . The like loosenesse we finde in some more ancient Schoolemens collections , that the obiects of faith are neither euident , nor properly intelligible , but only credible , because neither of such propositions , as euery one that heares will approue , nor of euident deductions from such . But the question is not of the vniuersality or extent , but of the intensiue perfection of euidence : and no man I thinke will denie , that manie Truths altogether vnknowne to most , may be as intensiuely euident to some particular dispositions , as generall maxims are to all . Otherwise S. Paul should haue had no exact euidence of special reuelations made to him , no Prophets of their cleerest visions , not CHRIST IESVS himself of his fathers will , in whose bosom he was ; seeing he did not make that enident to the Iewes . Euery mans thoughts are as manifest to himselfe , as the principles of any science , though he cannot so certainly manifest the one as the other to his auditours . None of reformed Churches , I thinke did euer auouch , that he could make the Articles of faith euident to all endued with naturall reason : but that the spirit of God , which first reuealed and caused them to be written in Characters visible vnto all , cannot as euidently imprint them vpon the hearts of all his children , what reason haue we to deny ? Because faith is the argument of things not seene ? 6. A worke it were worth his paines that is not fit for very great , nor necessarily engaged to other good emploiments , to obserue how many opinions , which could neuer haue been conceiued but from a misconceit of Scriptures , haue been fastened to the Temple dore , as more certaine then Propheticall oracles . First , by continuall hammering of Schoolemen ; afterwards by instruction giuen from the great Pastor to the Masters of Romish assemblies , which for the most part do but riuet the nailes the other had driuen , or driue such faster as they had entered , not without disturbance of their opposites . What a number of such opinions , as the Trent Councell ties our faith vnto , as Articles necessary to saluation , were in ages last past meere schoole points held pro , & con , by the followers of diuerse factiōs in that profession ? And though these Trent Fathers doe not expresly teach vs , that beliefe is an Assent ineuident and obscure : yet doth it bind vs to belieue it to be such as none euer would haue conceiued , but from a mistaking of the Apostles words lately cited , which notwithstanding he vttered not anie waies to disparage the euidence , but rather to set forth the excellency of that heauenly vertue . He supposed , as shall hereafter be deduced , ( nor doth that learned a Iesuite , which long agoe had robbed the whole society of ingenuity , and buried it with him in his graue , in his Commentaries vpon that place dissent from vs ) that faith is an assurance , or instrument , by which the sonnes of God attaine vnto a kinde of sight , or glimmering , but euident view of diuine mysteries , altogether as inuisible , but more incredible to the naturall man , then Galilaeus supposed late discoueries to meere countrey men , vtterly destitute of all other helpes , or meanes for discouering such appearances , besides the eyes nature hath giuen them . Hee that said faith is the argument of things vnseene , did neuer deny it to include an euident knowledge , or apprehension of some things present , which the world sees not : yet such as he there describes , it is to the regenerate only , or vnto them whom God hath giuen this heauenly treasure as a pledge of his future fauours . But regeneration , renewing of the inner man , or fruites of the spirit are termes as vnusuall for the most part in their schooles , as their schoole-termes in common talke of the illiterate among vs ; and yet before our regeneration , or participation of Gods spirit , wee dispute of the euidence or obscurity of faith , but as blinde men may of the differences betwixt day and night , not able to frame any distinct or proper conceit , truely representing the face of either , though daylie hearing liuely discriptions of both , or learned discourses about their natures or essentiall properties . But when God begins to open our hearts , that we may see our naturall misery ; it is with vs as it was with such as being born blinde were restored to sight by our Sauiour , ( as for illustrations sake we may suppose ) in the beginning of some dismall night some howers before the moons a●isall . At the first opening of their eies they might perceiue an euident distinction betwixt the greatest darkenes inci-dent to night , by tempests , stormes , or ouer-casting , and their wonted blindnesse ; an euident difference againe betweene such darknesse , and light shortly after ensuing vpon the remooual of cloudes or apparition of starres . And albeit they did heereafter expect a cleerer distinctiō betwixt this time , & that which they had often heard others call the day ; yet easie it had beene to haue perswaded them the Moones apparance had brought the morning with it , vntill the dawning had cleered the doubt : during which , as the Sunne did neerer and neerer approach , the distinction betwixt day and night grew cleerer and cleerer . Euident it was now vnto them that the Sunne should in time appeare , although it selfe were yet vnseene , whose actuall apparition could onely terminate the former expectation , and leaue no place for further errot , the brightnesse of it being able so fully to satiate the capacity of the visiue facultie , and so all sufficient for presenting other visibles as distinctly and cleerely as their hearts could desire to their view . 7. Though not of our outward senses , yet of the more excellent internall faculties of our soules , all of vs haue a naturall blindnesse from our birth : which he alone cantake away , that gaue bodily sight to such as had been shut vp in darkenesse from the wombe . The first thing wee apprehend directly and euidently vpon this change , is the difference betwixt the state of the sonnes of darkenesse and the sonnes of light , and this appeares greater and greater as we becom more conuersant in the workes of light ; whence springs an eager longing after that maruellous glorie , which in the life to come shall bee reuealed , whose apprehension , though in this present life distinct and euident it cannot possibly be , yet from a cleere and certaine apprehension , first of the prophets light , then of the day-starre shining in our hearts , it is euident vnto vs that in due time reuealed it shall be , as fully as our soules could wish . Beloued ( saith Saint a Iohn ) now wee are the sonnes of God ; and yet it doth not appeare what wee shall be : but wee know that when he shall appeare , we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is . 8. Euen vnto this great Apostle , a that had seene the glory of Christ , as of the onely begotten Sonne of God , the ioyes which hee certainely beleeued to be prepared for the godly , and of which he stedfastly hoped to bee partaker , were as yet vnseene . But was either his beliefe , or hope , for this reason , lesse euident then certaine ? Not vnlesse wee make an vnequall comparison or measure them partially , referring euidence to one part or quality of the obiect belieued or hoped , and certainety to another . As well the manner , or the specificall quality , as the distinct measure of those ioyes hee belieued , were vncertaine , because not euident or apprehensible . But that God had prepared such ioyes for his Saints , as no eie had seene ; such , as their conceipt could not enter into the heart of man , whilest inuail●d with this corruptible flesh , was most certaine to him , because most euident from their present pledge , that peace of conscience , which passeth al vnderstanding , yet kept his heart and minde in knowledge and loue of Christ Iesus , being an infallible euidence of those ioyes which were not euident , the sure ground of all his incomprehensible hopes . This cleere apprehension of our present estate wee may call an euidence of spirituall welfare or internall sense , directly answering to that naturall euidence or certaine knowledge men haue of their health , or hearty cheerefulnesse , when their spirits are liuely and their bodies strong , not disturbed with bad humours , their mindes not cumbred or disquieted with anxious carking thoughts . Of errours incident to the intermediate state beetweene the sonnes of darkenesse , and the sonnes of light , ( if any such there be , ) or to our first apprehensions of this change , and of the meanes to auoide them , the Reader shall finde somewhat in the two next Sections of this Booke , but more particularly in the Treatise Of the triall of Faith , or Certainety of inherent grace . In this place wee onely suppose , as there is no liuing creature indued with those animall spirits that quicken the organs of bodily sense , but euidently feeles paine or pleasure : so is there none truely partaker of the Spirit of God , but hath or may haue an euident feeling of this ioy and griefe of conscience ; which is to other obiects of knowledge truly spirituall , as is the touch to the rest of our senses : yet may we not thinke this feeling to bee alike euident in all . For one liuing creature excelleth another in apprehension of proper sensitiue obiects , all alike euident in themselues , but so are not the senses , or apprehensiue faculties of seuerall creatures , alike nimble quick or strong . 9. But for mine owne part , the opinion generally receiued amongst the schoole men and other learned Clarkes , that faith in respect of speculation or discourse should bee an Assent vneuident , hath made mee often to suspect my dull capacity in matters of secular knowledge , Aristotles Philosophy I had read ouer , and yet could I hardly call any conclusion in it to minde , that might with greater euidence be resolued into cleere vnquestionable principles , then most effects or experiments , reuolution of times affoord , may bee into the disposition of a prouidence truely diuine . And considering with my selfe how grosly hee should often faile , that would vndertake to set forth a comment of my inward thoughts , by obseruation of my outward actions , when as no alteration of times , of persons , or places , euer swarued from the rules of Scripture : I rest perswaded , that the same diuine prouidence which guides the world , and disposeth all the actions of men , did set foorth these euerlasting comments ( which neuer change ) of his owne consultations or decrees concerning them . Againe acknowledging this eternal diuine power , alike able to effect his wil & purpose by ordering the vnruly wils of this presentage , though their pollicies be of a contrary mould , to such as heretofore we haue heard hee hath defeated : the former inference as it seemed more religious , so more euident then our aduersaries make ; when , from a supposition onely of some infallible authoritie in some present Church , they presently assume , it must reside in the visible Romish Church representatiue : yet this collection they hold euident by the habit of Theologie , albeit they admit no discourse in Assent of Faith , which is their second fundamentall errour in the doctrine of life , another maine roote of Romish witchery . For thus farre at least all the Sonnes of God make faith to bee discursiue , that fom euident experience of Gods fauours past , or present , they alwaies inferre a certainetie of the like to ensue . To the most of them in their distresse it was euident deliuerance should be sent them ; although the deliuerance it selfe were not so , although they distinctly apprehended not by what meanes , or in what manner it should bee wrought . The immutability of Gods decree concerning the saluation of his people , whether generall or particular , being as well knowne , as the stability of his couenant for vicissitude of day and night , or other seasons : the godly euen while they were themselues beset with sorrow , and euery where enuironed with calamity , or sawe the Church almost ouerwhelmed with vniuersall deluges of affliction , might resolue for the generall , ( that all in the end should turne vnto their good , that continued in faith and loue to the Redeemer ) as vndoubtedly , as men at mid-night may gather that the Sunne shall arise , though they know not in what manner , whether vnder a cloud in a mist , beeset with vapours , or appearing in his naturall brightnesse . Thus ( saith the Psalmist ) a Heauinesse may lodge with vs for a night , but ioy commeth in the morning . Yea , b thus saith the Lord , which giueth the sunne for a light to the day , and the courses of the moone , and of the starres a light to the night , which breaketh the Sea when the waues thereof roare , his name is the Lord of Hoasts . If these Ordinances depart out of my sight , then shall the seede of Israell cease from being a nation before me for euer . Doubts againe in other points , apprehended and assented vnto , though but conditionally , or imperfectly , yet by the habit of Christian faith , are finally resolued into the article of the diuine prouidence , which is to most others , as vndoubted principles to scientificall conclusions ; whence faith admits such discourse , or resolution as hath been mentioned in the former bookes . 10. A speculatiue euidence likewise there is , intensiuely as perfect as can be expected in most demonstratiue sciences , ( but infinitely more pleasant , though we respect only the transient delight of actuall contemplation ) and extensiuely no lesse , though not for facilitie of its apprehension , or number of persons to whom it so appeares ; yet for the multitude of necessary inferences vpon one and the same subiect , all which might appeare most euident to all were not many of vs wilfully blinde , slothfull or carelesse , and yet discoursiue too , because analitical ; the resolution I meane of Euangelicall testimonies into Propheticall predictions , legal types or historical figures of the Messiah , as in due place ( by Gods assistance ) shall be manifested . If anie obiect , that this resolution can be euident onely vpon supposition , ( if the Scriptures of the old Testament were from God ) I must answere him , as the b Parents of that blinde man did the captious Iewes , search them . For their Characters , rightly taken , euidently signifie their vndoubted antiquitie to be greater , then any record he can bring of this distinct vicissitude betwixt day and night , summer and winter , seed time and haruest , or other seasons ; the possibility of whose interruption in times past , may from some extraordinary changes within our memory , be argued with greater probabilitie , then any can possibly be brought , why the bookes of holy scripture should be suspected for new and counterfait . And the antiquity of the old Testament being euident , the admirable consonancie of it with the new , and multitude of manifest experiments euery kind , fully answerable to their rules , better ascertaines the truth of Gods promises contained in them , then any induction natural reason can frame to proue , either the vicissitude of times or seasons , or reuolution of the heauens , to haue been since the beginning perpetuall . The truth of which conclusion , as of many others in Philosophy , for which great Artists thinke they haue demonstratiue reasons , I professe I much better belieue , and more euidently know from Gods couenant , to this purpose recorded in sacred writ , then from all the writings of Philosophers , or any reason they or I can bring , or our successors shall be able to finde , although after vs they study this point till the foundations of the earth be shaken , the elements melt with heat , and the heauens be gathered like a scrole . Yea further , to me it seemes an euident demonstration from the effect , that there is such a subtill Polititian as wee call the Diuell , which cunningly bewitcheth or blinds the eyes of mens soules , or else with golden balls auerts them from looking vnto those heauenly misteries , in that they seeme either incredulous , or improbable vnto such , as can discerne the truth of curious and abstruse conclusions in secular arts . 11. Lastly , of those Articles , which seeme to flesh and blood ( as is their distinct apprehension euen to Gods children in this life ) most impossible , the possibility is directly euident : That they shall actually be accomplished depends vpon resolution of promises made to vs in Scripture , into his fidelity that hath promised ; whereof wee haue euident and full assurance . The one ranke of especiall marks , wherat these present meditations aime , shal be , to set forth these seueral euidences in the articles wherto they properly belong ; as the euidence of possibility in the Articles of creation , and the resurrection of our mortall bodies , the euidence of speculation in the Articles of the God-head , diuine prouidence of Christs incarnation , life , death , passion and resurrection ; the euidence likewise of internall sense , answering to touch or taste , in the doctrine of Original sinne and life euerlasting . Not that Assent , in respect of this obiect , can be euident to mortality , but that there may be a cleere distinct apprehension of such a disposition as hath been mentioned , of body and minde more then naturall , inclining our soules with patience to expect the accomplishment of those promises , concerning ioyes vnspeakable in the world to come ; which though neuer formally represented , may notwithstanding , be fully assented vnto in this life as certainly future , from sure experiments of his fidelity and ability that exhibited this present pledge or assurance : whether the certaintie of future matters , yet vnseene or vndistinctly apprehended , can possibly in this life bee as great , as the euident certaintie of their present assurances ; or vvhether delay or long expectation necessarily weaken faith , as excesse in length makes bodies of equall strength more easie to be broken then if they were shorter ; hath a more fit place to be disputed in . The euidence of Faith answerable to the euidence of bodily motion or impulsion , must be reserued ( as Artists do difficult problems ) as an appendix to this worke finished : he that is desirous of information in this kinde , may finde rules not altogether impertinent to this effect , in such as write of the triall of spirits , or mysticall Theologie . 12. Here some happily will demaund , whether this Assent we treate of , being of things past , present and to come , or of things partly seene , and partly vnseene , bee properly termed faith in respect of all , or some of these onely ? For ought I haue obserued in Scripture , or from the common vse of speech , the name of faith is giuen to it especially in respect of things past or to come , which are vnseen : but this I dispute not . It sufficeth that the habit of inherent grace , whereby wee formally assent vnto all the obiects of Christian faith , ( whether they include a relation vnto times present , past , or to come ) is one & the same , and may in part be defined , an Assent vnto supernaturall truths reuealed in Scriptures , firme in respect of all , directly euident only in respect of some . Or if any will exclude euidence from the definition , because not incident to those obiects , with reference to which this habit originally takes his name , let him say it is a firme infallible Assent vnto supernaturall truths already past or hereafter to he manifested , grounded vpon an experimentall euidence of others present , or vpon a true knowledge of scriptures diuine truth , or such points as they teach , indefinitely considered , without peculiar reference to this or that time . 13. From these discussions about the imperfect euidence or certainety of some , the inexhaustible capacity of all , and the incomprehensiblenesse of the two finall ob●ects of Christian faith , life and death euerlasting , the one distinctly apprehended in its pledge or assurance , the other in its presignifications ; it may appeare , the most natiue property of this Assent thus far differenced , is admiration & horror . Admiration is properly of things rare and excellent , knowne in part , but not comprehended , so as the more we know , the more wee desire to know of them . This affection it was which first brought forth philosophy , according to the dunsticall prouerbe , propter admiraricaeperunt homines philosophari : and as an excellent Philosopher tels vs , mindes naturally disposed to admire things strange , secret o● vncouth , are the fittest for this study . Belike , want of this disposition in moderne wits hath beene the cause we haue added so little to the inuention of the ancient in this noble science . Nor should I much deplore this defect in vs , that haue giuen our names vnto diuinity , if the lesse wee minded such problems as nature propounds , the more earnestly wee set our affections vpon heauenly things , or more faithfully employed our best faculties in discouering these celestial obiects , in themselues much more worthy of contemplation , as distinctly apprehended in part ; albeit the latitude , length and profundity of their internall credibility , be infinitely more incomprehensible . In all which respects they are more apt , as to begin , so to continue a longing after that which is behinde . But I know not how , the Philosophers fields looke like gardens , and the Paradise which wee are set to dresse , like an heath or wildernesse . The theoricall part of Theologie becomes loathsome vnto many , being for the most part wholy attired in slouenly tearmes of triuiall Arts , whiles the beauty of the practique is thought chiefely to consist in the flourish of Scripture phrases , or embellishment of popular discourses , with diuine sentences , most admirable ( I must confesse ) in themselues , but like Scanderbegs sword in a weakelings arme , vsually loosing their edge and strength , whilest not mannaged by that affection or disposition from which they sprung . Nor is it possible the Prophets flowers should retaine their natiue odour of life in our lippes , without such influence from our hearts as they had from theirs : Nor can our hearts be fitly qualified for this purpose , without a deepe and penetrant apprehension of what they haue discouered , or new discoueries of our owne : without assiduous and accurate obseruation of that heauenly order , exact proportion , and sweet aspect , which the seuerall rowes of these plants of life , growing in this great nurserie of wonderment and admiration , haue each with other . He that thinks as much hath been , as can be said , concerning these diuine mysteries , hath doubtlesse forgotten who is their author , and saith in his heart , God is growne old , or the spirit weary of teaching his children ▪ Let vs therefore as many as be or would be perfect , be so minded as the Apostle was . m Doubtlesse ( saith he ) I thinke all things but losse for the excellent knowledge sake of Christ Iesus my Lord : for whom I haue counted all things losse , and doe ●udge them to be dung , that I might win Christ . That I may knowe him and the vertue of his resurrection , and the fellowship of his afflictions , and be made conformable vnto his death . If by any meanes I might attaine vnto the resurrection of the dead : not as though I had already attained vnto it , or were already perfect : but I follow if that I may comprehend that for whose sake also I am comprehended of Christ Iesus . Brethren I count not my selfe to haue apprehended : but this one thing I doe , forgetting those things which are behinde , and reaching forth vnto those things which are before , I presse toward the marke for the price of the high calling of God in CHRIST IESVS . This obseruation in this place I rather touch , because who list to examine shall vpon sure triall finde , that admiration springing from calme and quiet contemplation of harmony amongst these heauenly mysteries , wil be as an armour of proofe to his most firme and best Assent , better enabling it to resist all the fiery darts of Sathan , especially to neglect the wanton allurements of the flesh , or fairest proferres the world can make , then the strongest perswasions he can enforce vpon himselfe , by perpetuall gazing vpon that point whereat we all hope to arriue ; but from whose direct aspect it would argue no error sometimes a little to deflect our course , to haue our sailes filled with these sweete and gentle blasts , which may well stretch our harts with ioy , but neuer puffe them vp with pride . 14. As for the contrary affection of horror and astonishment , arising from the sting of conscience , imperfectly representing the vnknowne terrors of that dreadfull day , and casting our soules as it were into a spice or grudging of that deadly scorching feuer , wherwith the wicked and impenitent shall euerlastingly be tormented : the best course were to stop the progresse of it by subcracting the fewell . Yet seeing these our mortall bodies can neuer be free from matter too much of this disease , it will not be much amisse for the best of vs to allot selected howres for the attentiue hearing of such complaints , as our own consciences vpon iust occasions will present vnto vs ; or otherwise , when none are offered to addresse our contemplations to take a perfect view of that infernall region where no goodnes growes , nor misery euer fad●s . No danger can accrew frō either practice , but rather great aduātage to sinful soules , if not possessed with preiudicial cōceits of vtter exclusion from that eternall league of grace and peace , or of ab●olute damnation to that lake from which is no redemption . But to what vse the contemplation of hell torments may serue Gods children , at the full ( by Gods assistance ) in the last Article of this Creed . CHAP. VI. The mutuall affinity betwixt truth and goodnesse : the reall Identitie of the will and vnderstanding : that the Assent of Faith cannot be so appropriated to the one as to be excluded from the other : that admitting such a difference betwixt them as true Philosophy may approue ; faith in respect of some obiects must be atributed to the will , in respect of others to the vnderstanding : the originall of difficulties in assenting to morall obiects , or of the naturall mans backwardnesse to beleeue truths diuine : what dependance other Christian vertues haue on faith : that to adhere vnto diuine reuelations as good , not simply considered onely , but comparatiuely , or with opposition to any other good , is altogether as essentiall to Faith righly Christian , as to beleeue or acknowledge them for true . VNto some not ill affected towards the truth we seeke , perhaps the manner of the search may seeme iniurious vnto Christian faith , in that restraining it to Assent , we may be thought to confine it wholy to the vnderstanding , the greatest glory of whose prerogatiue consisteth in reformation of the will ; and this a cure in some mens iudgements , not dischargeable , but as it were by personall residence in that part or faculty of the soule . And vnto some great Diuines it seemes improbable , if not impossible , that faith being no aggregated accident , but one pure , immixt , simple quality , should haue it seate in two diuers subiects or mansions : for such they account the will and vnderstanding ; because , as they suppose , two seuerall parts or faculties of the reasonable soule , really distinguished one from another . But in the Philosophie wee haue learned , out of the best professors of that science hitherto it hath been our hap to light vpon , the obiected difficulty can haue no place : rather this erroneous imagination of such a distinction betwixt these faculties , hath plunged the maintainers of it in such foule inextricable errors , and driuen them to such miserable endlesse shifts in matters morall , and theologicall of greatest consequence , as euery intelligent man would abhorre ; nor need any be put vnto the like , that hath more Philosophy then onely to serue , as we say from hand to mouth , or can bespeede themselues of as much as they haue vse for elsewhere , and not take all vpon trust from Aquinas or his followers . 2. Yet for the defendants of such a reall distinction betwixt the w●ll and vnderstanding , it may be alleadged that the one hath Truth , the other Goodnesse for its proper obiect , and diuers obiects argue diuersitie of faculties : not vnlesse the obiects be really distinct , rather opposite then subordinate , or mutually included one within the other : Seeing as well colours as sounds , smelles as tastes , are sensible ; and yet it cannot be truly sayd that colours are audible , sounds visible , tastes odoriferous , or odours tastable , wee hence rightly gather , that these fowre sensibles are apprehended by so manie seuerall senses . But it is quite otherwise in Truth and Goodnesse : for if we grant , as colours are of sight , or sounds of hearing , so truth to be the proper obiect of the vnderstanding ; needes must that faculty be delighted therewith : and seeing delight , ( as all grant ) is an essentiall branch of goodnesse , impossible it were the vnderstanding should delight in truth , saue only in as much as truth is good and pleasant . 3. Againe , seeing entity and transcendent goodnesse are alwaies of equall growth , and not the meanest amongst creatures altogether inanimate , or meere naturall , but hath a peculiar inclination to its proper good , whereof it hath no sense or apprehension : needes must the intellectiue and most noble facultie of man bee inclined to truth , in whose contemplation it so much ioyes , * Now what in natures inanimate we call a propension , or inclination in creatures indued with knowledge is properly called an appetite , or desire . For ( as was obserued before ) it is al one , whether we say a sensitiue creature hath an inclination ▪ or appetite vnto good : whence , if the vnderstanding either formally be , or include an inclination to truth , it must needes either formally be it selfe , or necessarily include an appetite of the same : and this appetite or desire either sensitiue or rationall , if but meere sensitue it is brutish , if rationall , it is essentially and formally a will. For euen such as admit the former distinction , cannot better define the will then by a rationall appetite , or inclination of the intellectiue nature . Thus it appeares that goodnesse is essentially contained in truth , and the will intrinsecally included in the vnderstanding . But more apparant is the like mutuall inclosure of the vnderstanding in the will. For on what good soeuer that nature entitie or faculty , we would haue signified by the name of will , is or can be bent ; needes must it know it , or else moue vnto it as earth and stones do vnto their proper place : and all knowledge is , either an act of sense or vnderstanding , if by the meere sense the will know the good to which it tendes , it is but brutish , if by vnderstanding , to will either formally is , or essentially includes such an act as wee call Intellection . 4. The issue of these perspicuous and demonstratiue collections is , that this Assent , whose differences we seeke , cannot without euident contradiction be appropriated to the vnderstanding , and excluded from the will , or so attributed to the will as to be excluded from the vnderstanding . He that grants it to be in the one , and denies it to be in the other , must affirme it to be in both , and 〈…〉 y it to be in either : for the acts of both are so essentially linked and combined , that we cannot expresse so much as any true conceit or notion of the one , but by the other . Euery choise essentially includes a will , euery approbation a choise , and euery Assent an approbation . Yet what it is to vnderstand cannot better be notified , then by some of these acts , acknowledged by all as essentiall to the will ; as by an Assent or approbation of what wee apprehend as true , or more probable then the contrary . All truthes we vnderstand are either simply necessarie , or comparatiuely more probable then such as may stand in competition with them . In our Assent to truths apprehended as simply necessary , there is as formall a reiection of all incompatible opinions whatsoeuer , as there is of a knowne euill in respect of an absolute good . In euery Assent againe to truths more probable then others of the same qualitie , there is as formall a choise of the one part , and as voluntary a refusall of the other , as there is of greater good before a lesse of the same kinde : so , that euery act men would seeme to appropriate most to the vnderstanding , is properly , essentially , and formally , a volition or willing . That such acts againe as they appropriate to the will , and call volitions , are essentially and formally intellections , is most euident . For if a man should aske what it is to will , the answere could not be more formall and proper , then to say it is to vnderstand a thing as good , at the least as good vnto the party vnderstanding ▪ This is Aquinas owne collection ; Deus est intelligens bonum , ergo est volens : God must be sayd to wilin that he vnderstands good . The reason of this mutuall combination betwixt these acts is as cleere , as the combination it selfe . For there is no truth so meerely intellectiue or contemplatiue , but essentially ends in goodnesse , because it delights the contemplator . And euen of Mathematicall Theoremes , wherein seemes least appearance of any good ; the more certaine , more vsefull , or fertile of euident , though meere speculatiue consequences is held the better , and more delights the author or inuentor . Nor is there any morall goodnesse so essentially practicall , or opposite to speculation , but essentially beginnes in truth : for to appear● good only and not to be truly such , is euil and not good . Briefly , Goodnesse is the essentiall crowne of truth , and Truth the essentiall ground of Goodnesse : whence , if we will vse accurate and scholastique termes , and ground our speech vpon the internall nature of the subiect we speake of , not vpon such extrinsecall references it hath to seuerall obiects , or denominations giuen from them to it : euery act of the intellectiue nature must of necessity be , formerly and properly both a volition and intellection . Vpon iust reasons therefore do we make beliefe an Assent , or inclination of the intellectiue nature , not appropriating it either to the wil or vnderstanding : albeit such as acknowledge a reall distinction between them or their actts , should in reason place it rather in the will , because the obiects of it are rather morall then meerely speculatiue , nor can wee euer vnderstand them a right , but we must vnderstand them as good to vs. But though so to vnderstand any obiect be the cleerest and best ●●ration , or definition , the most acute follower Aquinas hath , can giue of will or volition : yet vnto many not much addicted vnto either , it will , I doubt , seeme a doctrine new and strange , that we should will whatsoeuer we vnderstand to be good to vs. 5. But Truth ( I hope ) shall not be worse entertained by the ingenious and courteous Reader , because a stranger . Rather then it should , it shall learne the common language after some briefe aduertisements for auoiding the errors thence occasioned , or for discouering the originall of the former vnnecessary distinction ; which doubtlesse was for want of another , more needfull betwixt our intellection , or approbation of good , whilest simply considered in it selfe ; and whilest compared , either with some other more familiar good we must forgoe , or some euill which would befall vs , if we should continue or accomplish our former choise or approbation . For as a candle , though as truly bright as visible , remaines only visible , and rather obscure then bright , while actually compared with the mid-day Sunne : so our vnwillingnesse to purchase the good which we late approued , appearing most cleere and euident from actuall refusall of it , and free choise of the contrarie , when we come to examine the termes or conditions vpon which it is profered , doth quite ouershadow and drowne all former acts of our will , or desire to haue it as simply considered , and leaues only a conceit of it , as true , in the braine . Yet that both are properly acts of the will or desires , is most apparant in matters of secular vse or commodity . For euery man knowes it is one thing to desire a commodity simply , another to accept it at such a rate . A mans vnwillingnesse to giue fiue hundred pound for a Farme , doth not argue his vnwillingnesse to haue it gratis ; or if hee perfectly knew another purchase to be as well worth a thousand , his willingnesse would be the same to haue it for fiue hundred , as to haue the former gratis . Thus many diuine truths are in our first apprehensions assented vnto as good , and therefore truly willed whilest simply considered : which yet we euidently refuse , or will , when we come to question about their price . And this later act obliterating all impression of the former , we vsually appropriate that vnto the vnderstanding , though as much belonging vnto the wil. For I neuer knew any so idle or dissolute but would diuerse times wish hee were like some godly men , whom he will not imitate , and yet his wish to be like them is as proper an act of the will , as his vnwillingnesse to imitate them : this later notwithstanding wee vsually appropriate to the will , though equally appertaining to the vnderstanding ; would wee make an equall comparison . In the former we cannot but will diuine truths simply , because simply considered wee vnderstand them as good : in the later we do not therefore truly will them , because wee doe not at the instant of choyce apprehend or vnderstand them as good , being compared either with some entising sensuall good , or much seared euill , their prosecution would depriue vs of ▪ or procure vs. For , as in the Article of euerlasting life , by Gods assistance shall be shewed , it is impossible the intellectiue nature should will , or chuse a lesse good before a greater , vnlesse there be a defect in such acts as are confined vnto the vnderstanding , euen by such as distinguish it from the vvill : as , either the representation of the good , in grosse acknowledged for greater , is not formall , distinct or cleere ; or because the approhension is dull , or the impression weake . Here it contents me , that in this resolution I follow our Apostles forme of speech : b To will ( sayth he ) is present with mee , but I finde no meanes to performe that which is good . Thus he attributes the first act of the intellectiue nature , whereby he assented vnto diuine truths contained in the lawe of God , as good whilest simply considered vnto the will : that afterwards hee effected not the purchase of what he so willed or approued , hee ascribes not to anie peculiar defect in the will , but to want of abilitie , arising partly from the strength of sinnefull affection , partly from weakenesse or insufficiencie of Assent , or inclination of the minde , as it comprehends both the will and vnderstanding . 6. But is there no difference betweene Truth and Goodnesse ? no vse of any distinction betwixt the will and the vnderstanding ? Yes , wee deny not all , but had rather seeke a true difference betweene the one couple , and a commodious distinction between the other . Truth precisely considered includes a right apprehension , or representation of the obiect , whether actuall or possible . As the representation of a winged horse , or Hippocentaure , or Chymera is false , but of a winged Eagle true ; because the Eagle actually is , the horse possibly cannot be such . Although it were all one in respect of our ends , or purposes , whether the Eagle had fowre feet without feathers , or the horse wings without feet . Goodnesse , as in common vse of speech it is made the peculiar obiect of the will , besides the true representation of the obiect , or conformitie of our imagination to it , as hauing actuall or possible being , includes a conueniencie in respect of vs , or oppertunity of furthering our desires . That properly is good which is agreeable ; that bad which is contrary , that indifferent which is alike farre from contrarietie , or agreement to such affection as we haue or should haue . 7. Notwithstanding this distinction , whilest we consider the whole latitude of obiects good and true : Truth and Goodnesse in morall matters fully apprehended , are in a sort coinsident , altogether as vnseparable as sound and melody are in a pleasant consort to attentiue eares within iust distance . And as of sounds perceiued by one and the same ●are , some are dissonant , some consonant , some neither one nor other to the internal harmony or constitution of our soules : so of truths assented vnto by one and the same intellectiue faculty , some are pleasant , some distastfull , some indifferent in respect of our desires , or morall purposes . Such as are either indifferent in their nature or essence , or vnto some certaine point or degree of apprehension , we are sayd to apprehend or conceiue , as meerely true . And this apprehension or conceit , we vsually appropriate to the vnderstanding ; not that it absolutely excludes euery degree , or branch of goodnesse , but all besides that immanent delight which floweth from the bare representation , or is comprised within the impression made vpon the apprehensiue faculty , neuer diffusing it selfe into any other part of the soule , saue only that which first entertaines and embraceth the obiect , vnapt either by internall nature or imperfect apprehension to make any further entrance . As the bare quality of light , though not accompanied with any other visible ornaments , after long darknesse pleaseth the eye : so doth the meere dispelling of ignorance ( which is as blindnesse to the minde ) or cleere manifestation of truths , how abstract & simple soeuer , if before obscure and vnknowne , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vnderstanding , and therefore containe as many 〈◊〉 of goodnesse , as they quench of our naturall thirst after knowledge . ●● true it is what was intimated before , that the most slender truth we can imagine is a surface ( not meerely Mathematicall , but Physicall ) of goodnesse : the greatest good we can desire but a solidity of tru●● ▪ Whence as truth and goodnesse are one in that incomprehensible fountaine from which they flowe : so shall our apprehensions of them , when we come to a distinct view thereof , be coincident . For it includes a contradiction that we should apprehend the truth of that obiect , in whose actuall contemplation or apprehension consists the greatest felicity out humane nature is capable of , otherwise then as the greatest good conceiueable . Such is the glory of the God-head , bodily dwelling , and personally shining in the Man CHRIST IESVS . This is a truth so cleere , so sweet and solid , as will in the first moment of its distinct apprehension throughly quench our extreame thirst after knowledge , and at once more fully satiate all our desires , whether of truth or goodnesse , then the light of the Sunne in his strength doth the appetite of sight . So strict is the cleere vnion of his truth and goodnesse , both infinite in him , and will fill euery corner and angle of our apprehensiue faculties , euen whiles the sight thereof enlargeth our capacities to comprehend ten thousand times more then before they could . So forcible againe is the attractiue influence , thence diffused throughout our soules , as will perfectly vnite our most distracted appetites or inclinations into one maine flame of desire to continue holy , as he is holy : we shall not then say , This is profitable , That is pleasant , but yonder other truly good and honest . For this sanctitie , whereby we are made conformable to that Holy one , and capable of his glorious presence , shall become all in all , as it were a perfect vnity of the former Trinity . 8. But in this life , from imperfection partly of the obiects apprehended , partly of our apprehension , we frame vnto our selues distinct conceits , as of profit , pleasure and honesty : so likewise of truth and goodnesse . That truly is a morall good , and absolutely honest , which qualifies our soules for better attaining that blessed sight of our Redeemer . To our nature taken in this life , as it is , all that generally is good , and the compleate obiect of mans corrupted will ; which , besides the delight directly arising from the representation of its nature or possession of its right shape or resemblance , inflames other parts of the soule with a desire of further vnion with it , or more reall fruition of it ; and emploies our motiue ; or practique faculties for bringing the match about . Rightly to apprehend or finde out the true conceit , or notion of Temperance , or that harmony of affections which is required to this , or other morall vertues , doth as much delight the soule , as contemplation of those Mathematicall proportions betwixt sounds , whence melody resultes . But so to apprehend this vertue , as to take denominatiō from its acquaintance , includes further such a loue and liking of this Idea , or image in the braine as causeth vs submit all our affections to it , to addict our best abilities to the seruice of it , and direct our actions to attaine familiarity with so beautifull and chaste a mistris as it represents . All morall knowledge , if it be perfect , includes as great a delight in the exercise , or practice of duties subordinate , or the internall sense of that consort or concordance the sensitiue affections haue one with another and all with reason , as men vsually take in the hearing of melodious sounds . For practice or right composall of affections , being the end ( as the Philosopher teacheth ) of all morall discipline , knowledge in that subiect is imperfect , vnlesse it bring foorth good actions with ioy . Whence a meere contemplator of moralities , and a moralist differ , as if a Musitian , besides his skill to set a graue or pleasant lesson , should further out of the honesty of his minde desire to heare it perpetually sung , or to haue his spirits alwaies so composed as they are whilst externall harmony workes vpon them . But as a man either by dulnesse of hearing farre distance or intentiuenesse on other obiects , may perceiue the sound indistinctly , and yet be nothing at all affected with the melody : so may he likewise , as most haue an imperfect or confused notion of morall doctrines as true , without delight in their practice , neuer moued with that internall harmonie of affections , which is most sweet and pleasant to all such as haue their wits at home , and their mindes attentiue to such musicke . 9. That this sufferance of our imaginations to wander abroad , or fixing our desires on forraine obiects , doth either altogether hinder the forcible impressions of morall truths vpon our soules , or worke such disturbance in our conceits , as great noises do in men intentiue vnto contemplations , needs no further confirmation then euery mans owne experience . The reason is as plaine as the thing it selfe is true ; for euen our most abstract speculations or apprehensions suppose an inclination of the soule , though this in some be scarce sensible , because but weake , as the obiect is but slender , in others much weakned , either for want of positiue attention , or renitency of some contrary inclination . The ground of this assertion we take as granted by all ; because , for ought we know , neuer denied by anie : that whether the vegetatiue , sensitiue , and intellectiue faculties haue their distinct soules or substances for their seuerall originals , or all spring from one ; the inclinations of all three are so vnited in one common center , that the intention of one doth alwaies hinder the execution of what another intends , and diminish the natiue force of the soule in all by dissipation or distraction ▪ Thus intention of minde ( as hard students know ) much weakens the digestiue faculty , by this meanes comming euen with the belly , whose seruice most binders all true deuotion or contemplation . But more offensiue are the contrary inclinations of one and the same facultie , when they come to band directly one against another . From this diuision of inclinations within vs it is , that Mathematicall truths are easily assented vnto by youth ; which as the b Philosopher obserues rather recite morall duties by rote then belieue them , because these in his phrase of speech are not knowne but by experience . And seeing experience , as he elsewhere notes , ariseth from many memories of the same obiect , all presupposing distinct apprehensions of its truth : Impossible it is youth should either haue experience , or true knowledge of moralities vntill affection or passion bee asswaged . Nor doe these whilest vnnurtured , disenable young men onely for action , or practice of what is good ( as the same Philosopher , or some for him may seem to say : Rather euen this backwardnesse to practice , they especially effect , by disenabling their apprehensions ▪ For knowledge , or perfect apprehension applied to these subiects we speake of ; besides , a representation of their logicall truth , or correspondencie , includes an impression of their esteeme , vpon that part wherein the affection is seated . The want of disposition to receiue such impression , or rather the temper most opposite to it , is that , which in Scripture is called hardnesse of heart . 10. From these grounds of true Philosophy we may reduce the reasons , why the naturall man so hardly assents to matters of his owne saluation , vnto these two heads . The one , because they are so directy opposite to the chief obiect of his corrupt desires ; the other , because these are so strong and deeply diffused throughout the substance of our soules . For all affections set on matters contrary to these we should affect , according to the degrees of their strength more or lesse , either mussle or sheath the edge of our wits , that they cannot pierce into truth or goodnesse , or weaken that intention of mind which should ( whether actiuely or passiuely ) worke the mutuall penetration betwixt truths proposed , and the apprehensiue facultie . Thus we see by experience , that men proue most expert in those arts or sciences , whereto they are most inclined by nature ; and are , though otherwaies dull oft-times , very witty in that subiect whereon their desires are chiefly set , their conceits in others being vsually but forraine and borrowed from their delightful apprehensions of matters most familiar . Our readinesse againe to belieue whatsoeuer is plesant to our nature , or lies in the way to our especiall purposes , plainly argues the backwardnesse of our beliefe in diuine misteries , to be vsually if not wholly , from naturall propensions to sensuality or secular contentment . And that the former vnaptnes in youth , especially to perceiue truths morall or theologicall , doth not spring from any inherent dulnesse in the Intellectiue faculty , were the motions of it towards such points proposed free , & vnfettered , is euident , in that their wits are in that age , for the most part sharpest , and able with ease to perceiue the truth of such Mathematicall conclusions , as will hardly enter into riper iudgements : much lesse doth this inconuenience spring from any faintnesse in their endeuours , for their spirits are most liuely ; therefore onely from the abundance of affection or heat of passion , which secretly disswade their vnderstandings from all acquaintance with such obiects as are repugnant to themselues . a Of laughter ( sayth the wise King ) thou art madde , and of ioy and pleasance what is this thou doost ? Now these being the chiefe markes whereunto young men stretch their wits , seldome haue we seene any of that ranke without extraordinary education , to recouer their right mind in matters pertaining to God , vntill he binde them on their beds of sorrow , and scourge them with the roddes of affliction . But then they become more docile auditors of sacred lore then men of mature age are ; ( vnlesse formerly accustomed to penitency , or long trained in the scholle of Christ ) because the affections of youth , though more violent in their motion , are not so stiffe or stubborne in the habit , and young mens hearts euen because vnconstant or lesse setled , are more apt to repent then old mens are , oft-times hardned by affliction , through too much constancy in their wonted courses . No man I thinke hath either so much or little acquaintance with suddaine passions as to be ignorant , that their violence for the time being , quite blinds the soule , in such matters , as at other times it sees most cleerely , and drawes it oft-times to a liking of what it otherwise hath condemned . From which experience reason free from partiality will collect that strength of habituall affection makes vs vncapable of diuine knowledge , partly by hindering the natiue cleerenesse of the apprehension , partly by weakning the Assent or adherence to what we apprehend , partly by breeding an obstruction in the soule , or by resisting the impression of such truths as contradict and countersway them . For suddaine or violent passions differ from strong habituall affections or desires , but as actuall motions do from inclinations or propensions . 11 From these considerations we may gather , that the vsuall distinction betweene the speculatiue and practique vnderstanding and the will , ariserh not from any diuersitie in the faculty , but onely in the obiects willed or vnderstood : For of them some haue affinity or repugnancy to affections , or propensions to their obiects ; and with referrence to these the intellectiue nature is denominated practique , and is said to will or nill : These termes in vsuall speech including alwaies a competition betwixt seuerall goodnesses proposed . Others haue neither affinity or repngnancy , at least directly with any sensitiue affection , a naturall inclination , saue onely that contemplation of the truth causeth such a transcendent delight in the intellectiue nature , as euery conuenient obiect doth in its proper faculty : and in respect of these , the vnderstanding is denominated speculatiue . A scholler might make shew of curious skill in metaphisicall contemplations , as many yeers together , as Scotus is said to haue studied the naturall motion of bodies , before any practicall wit or polititian , did either enuie or contradict him , vnlesse it were to make himself sport : whereas should he but defend som paradoxes of the like subiect in the Schools , or seeme to know more of such matters then others of his profession doe , he should quickly perceiue that he had stird a wasps nest . Now as in the ciuell conuersation abroade , or in publique societies , a man may professe skil , or insight in diuerse matters without emulation or corriualshippe , but shall bee instantly crossed and thwarted , if he seeme but desirous of acquaintance of some others , or knowledge of the same truths in different companies : so may our intellectiue faculty within this little world , or domestick common-weale euery one of vs carries about with him , affect some obiects without check of any contrarie desire or inclination ; but others he cannot so much as seriously think vpon without ielousies , discontents , reluctations , or distractions . The obiects whose contemplations exasperate no opposite propensiōs , either to obscure their apprehensions , retradate their assent , or dull their impression , are matters most abstract from vse of moral , or religious life , especially the mathematiques , whereunto many Gentlemen are happily therefore most addicted , because the most curteous studies they could conuerse with . Their truth is certaine , and their delight resulting from the apprehension of it sincere , because not preiudiced by opposition of other desires . Knowledge of generall Theorems breeds a longing after more particular corrolaries , or conclusions ; which from the highest to the lowest , as little controule any ambitious thought or wanton purpose , as the most vniuersal principles in that faculty : So is it not in moral discipline , no not in the most vseful Poets or Historians : in which many things wil often apply themselues : and such as delight in the general , wil be loath to diue too farre into particulars , least they find the pictures of their owne passions or resolutions truly taken , or such characters of their manners , as seeme ill-fauoured whiles they behold others , stigmatized or branded with them , All truth notwithstanding is in it selfe delightfull , euen pabulum animae , the soules food , as the heathen obserued : and the knowledge of particulars rightly detiued from the generals in euery faculty , in it selfe most pleasant . But vnto distempered soules the apprehensions of such slender abstract truthes , as exasperate no internall humours , relish best : as doth small drinke or water to sicke , or aguish bodies ; although the chiefe pleasure or profit either bring , is onely mitigation of present paine : But whiles we descend to particular applications in moralities ; obsequium amicos , adulation ( which is but a branch of falsehood ) findes best entertainment : because corrupt affection would apprehend its owne praises true , and all true imputation false : veritas odium parit , Truth is excluded as an vnwelcome guest ; because distastfull vnto sensuall in-bred humours or desires , which like wanton Strumpets hauing gotten possession of the mariage bed , bring our soules out of loue with such obiects , as they haue been affianced vnto by yeelding ful Assent vnto the generalities , whence they naturally and lineally descend . For euen in matters practicall , or essentially morall , the vniuersalls may be ranked amongst the obiects speculatiue , and be referred to the vnderstanding , though their particulars belong more properly to the will. 12. Hence if it be demanded whether this Assent of faith do especially belong to the speculatiue or practique vnderstanding , or vnto the will ( supposing the vse of this distinction late specified : ) the demaund , if generall , is captious . For in respect of some obiects it may be referred to the wil , in respect of others to the vnderstanding , or in respect of the generals to the one , in respect of the particulars to the other . As our Assent vnto the Article of creation and resurrection scarce admits any positiue repugnancie of affection , or inbred desire ; the onely cause of mens distrust to them is a meere natural imperfection of the vnderstanding , or a speculatiue error springing from broken and impertinent inductions , as shall hereafter be declared . But our Assent vnto the Articles of the last iudgement and eternall life , with the particulars concerning Christs death and passion , is vsually assaulted by opposite affections . So when S. Paul reasoned of righteousnesse , temperance , and iudgement to come ; Felix trembled and answered ; a Goe thy way for this time , when I haue a conuenient season I will call for thee : the reason of this resolution is plaine : For if the roote of this former distinction be properly in the obiect onely , not in the faculty ; we cannot absolutely ascribe faith so to the speculatiue as to exclude it from the practique vnderstanding , or so to the vnderstanding at al , as to bereaue the wil of its presence ; seeing all these make but one faculty : But well may one and the same habit , or it acts though all seated in one and the same indiuiduall or indiuisible faculty receiue diuers denominations from references vnto obiects of different nature . This imagination of plurality in causes or faculties , occasioned onely from extrinsecall denominations , giuen vnto them from diuersities proper onely to their obiects or effects ( as we often mistake in thinking bodies to be in the place of their appearance , ) is such a transcendent perpetuall error , as he that will take warning of it in his yonger daies , may in contemplations morall , naturall , or theologicall , haue immediate and free accesse to truth , into whose presence others seldome are admitted , but after long windings and turnings by vnnecessary distinctions or diuisions , and yet after all scarce euer see her but masked in terms of art . 13. But euen in matters either by nature so abstract , or otherwise so generall , that our apprehension of them , or Assent vnto them cannot be directly hindred by any contrary naturall inclinations , we may often finde great incumbrances from indirect or accidentall oppositions . Thus desire of glory , or hope of victory in scholastique encounters , moues men often to disclaime the truth which others haue found out , or well illustrated ; whereunto notwithstanding they would quickly yeelde their firme Assent , might the glory of the inuention be reputed theirs , or were it no preiudice to their high esteeme of their owne wits to learne of others . For this reason I haue knowne of good scholars , some out of iealousies least their discoueries should be published in anothers name , some out of charitie refraine discourse , amongst such as too much delight or glory in that faculty , for the most part so willing to contradict others obseruations , that a man can hardly put forth a truth before them without danger of thrusting them into the opposite error . Surely neither was it desire of gaine nor loue of pleasure , nor any other carnall affection besides this foolish hope of vaine-glory or delight arising from curiosity of speculation , that of late hath tempted some to misbelief in the Article of the blessed Trinity . The admirable vnity of perpetuall Assent , to which great mistery , amongst such bitter dissentions as are this day maintained by diuers Churches in most other points of Christian saith : I haue euer more ascribed to want of direct oppositions , vnto any carnal affection or resolution much beneficiall to the chiefe managers of affaires through Christendom ; then vnto positiue deuotion or true feare and reuerence of that great maiesty , which all haue so long professed to be one in Three . For , did this vnanimous consent in that graund mistery amongst parties otherwise discordant , spring from these liuely rootes of true religion ; all sorts would be afraid so grieuously to dishonour his name by other heresies , and such vnchristian resolutions , as to maintaine with profession of allegeance vnto Christ is worse , then once for all to renounce him . Could the abridgement of honour , due either to the Sonne or holy Ghost , haue brought as great reuenewes to the Papacie , as toleration of stewes , or filthy practice of Indulgences : the acknowledgement of either person as God , had been held long since a sinne more grieuous then fornication , adultery , oridolatrie . Euen we of reformed Churches , as many as sincerely adore that glorious Vnity in the power of Maiestie , haue iust cause to sing daily prayses to Him ; that the profession of three persons in one Deitie was not so grieuous an e●e-sore to some great States-men , or Polititians , as three Abbies or Deaneries in one shire : otherwise the heauenly doctrine of the blessed Trinity had been at this day as offensiue , as that Tithes are due vnto the sonnes of Leui , iure Diuino , or by right more soueraigne then to be counter checked by any decree or lawe sinfull man can deuise . But vnto me ( as to our Apostle ) it euer hath bin and euer shal be matter of ioy & consolation , that the doctrine of Christ and of his Gospell , whether of pretence , or sincerely is euery way maintained , though by the pouerty and affliction of his true disciples . For vnlesse hope of worldly gaine , or other respects had moued Christian Princes , and their States-men , to shake off the yoke of Romish ciuill tyranny : neuer had her blasphemous positions been publiquely held in such detestation , as now they are . Whence , hardly could anie doctrine of diuels haue beene distastfull to our distempered soules , which had vnaware sucked deadly poison with our first nurses milke . If Princes againe or Potentates , had not held the doctrine of the Trinity as an ancient religious custome , no way preiudiciall , but rather aduantagious to their states , and therefore religiously to be obserued : either discontented Prelates crossed in their ambitious hopes of honour , or such curious contemplators as hold ciuil honour in contempt , out of vain-glorious affectation of fame amongst posterity , by new inuentions had wrought the maior part of Christendome to their faction , so as Arrianisme or some worse heresie , had long ere this been established by nationall constitutions . 14 The necessitie of these collections depends vpon the vnquestionable truth of this maxim , which in the sequell will manifest it selfe : that carnall desires , or resolutions of equall strength are alwaies a like forcible to weaken , alter or inuert our Assent to any one point of beliefe , as to another , if the opposition be a like direct ; and our beliefe is of it selfe soonest mis-led , or infeebled in matters most remote from light of nature , as is the Article of the Trinity . This obseruation of diuerse coniunctions , or oppositions betwixt mens carnall affections and seuerall points of beliefe , is the chiefe part of Sathans astrologie ; whereby he forecasts the fall of most in sundry ages , by meanes in shew most contrary , in issue the same . By this skill he brings his matters so about , that the greater part of mankind in latter daies , in their owne conceit louingly embrace Christianity vpon the same grounds or motiues , that disposed the heathen so bitterly to oppugne it : eleuating the one as high in hipocrisie or Pharisaicall perswasions of their misgrounded faith , as he depressed the other in infidelity or malignancie to the Gospell . It is a rule againe as cleere and indeficient , that either habituall neglect of particular duties enioined , or indulgent practice of euill forbidden by Gods word , do as euidently euince want of true faith in professed Christians ; as oppugnation of the whole frame of Christianity doth in infidels , or of some principall parts in Arch ▪ heretiques . Difference there is betwixt them , none in the internall constitution of the minde , onely the doctrine of faith by alteration of times , publicke constitutions , or references to som priuate ends , gets a coniunction with the ones predominant carnall affections , retaining opposition with the others .. The reason of both assertions is perspicuous to the intelligent : for seeing supernaturall obiects compared with others , exceed them further in worth then in certainty or credibility ; we must if rightly , both certainly and firmly Assent vnto them , not onely as truer then any arguments can bee brought against them , but as much better then any profit , pleasure , or other good , the world , flesh or diuell can profer vnto vs. Both parts of this certaine and firme Assent must be vniuersal in respect of the obiect , and perpetuall in respect of time : for as he is not to be held an orthodoxal professor that acknowledgeth the speculatiue , or general diuine truth of all the Articles in his Creed , or matters proposed by the word of God , whiles none gaine-sayes , but doubts or recants while the aduersary oppugnes them : so is he not to be reputed a sincere faithful christian , but rather tainted with hypocrisie that assents vnto the goodnes of diuine precepts whiles temptations are far off ; but disesteems them in the choice , whiles they come in competition with sensual pleasure , worldly goods , ciuil honour , estimation or the like . And if we could perswade our selues to a liking of scripture phrase , which doubtlesse hath a more fresh and liuely form of wholsome doctrine then Aquinas summes , or his followers disputes : this Assent vnto diuine matters , ( especially such as peculiarly concerne mans saiuation ) , as perpetually good , is a more essentiall part of Christian faith , then the acknowledgement of their truth , which is a difference proper to an orthodoxall professor of Christianity , but remote to a faithfull man or true Christian as he is distinct , not onely from Infidels or Hereticks , but from Libertines or Hippocrites . Thus defect in practice is censured by the spirit of God for vnfaithfulnesse , albeit euery omission of good , or commission of euil doth not conuince the delinquent of absolute infidelity ; nor is euery intemperate , or incontinent act , a iust imputation of incontinencie , or intemperancy . But as euery partiall defect is a degree , or portion of vnfaithfulnesse : so if the delinquencie bee habituall without remorse , or ioined with indulgence , it truly denominates the delinquent an Infidel in his sight that knowes his heart . So the Psalmist vsually stiles the wicked and obstinate Israelites , by the name of Heathens ; albeit they renounced not the profession of the true God. 15. Our vsuall appropriating this delinquency ( whether habituall , or by intermission actual , ) vnto a peruersity or vntowardnesse of the will ; as if it did not necessarily argue a correspondent defect , or weaknesse of that Assent which we call faith , and most suppose to be placed in the vnderstanding onely : may hence appeare to be a soleeisme of the Romish language , in that to the redresse of this enormity , no peculiar reformation of the will , or other intellectiue faculty we can imagine distinct from the vnderstanding is required , sole fortification of the former Assent , in what part of the soule soeuer it be seated , or abatement of the contrary desire or inclination , inherent for the most part in the sensitiue faculty will suffice . Yet it may be , such as first vsed this dialect , now much abused by the Papacie , did take the will in such a generall or catachresticall sense as Saint a Augustine doth ; where vnder this name he comprehendeth not only the inclination rational or intellectuall vnto good , but euery appetite , desire or motion of the inferiour or sensitiue part , whose reformation is in part presupposed as necessary , but principally consequent to true Christian faith , whose first office , ere it selfe be perfect is to subdue affections , or keep them vnder from doing euil , afterwards to vse them as instruments in doing anie good the word of God shal commend vnto vs. Whence it may bee questioned , whether this Assent should not belong vnto the sensitiue faculty ; in which the Philosopher ( for the reason late alleadged ) hath placed moral vertue , not altogether incongruously to his speculatiue positions . For , if the efficacie of agents , or terme of their actions be in the Patient : moral vertue , consisting especially in the modulation of sensitiue desires , or affections vnto reason , may wel bee referred vnto that part of the soule , wherein affections are placed , which in respect of the intellectiue faculty is patient . Or perhaps to speake more properly , and reconcile Aristotle with his master Plato : moral vertue may consist partly of a directly or commaunding power in the vnderstanding , partly of a submissiue obedience , or right mixture of our sensitiue desires or affections . Or lastly , seeing in true Philosophy the faculties sensitiue , and intellectiue are but branches of one and the same soule ; or at the most , but two parts of that compleat forme , which distinguisheth a Man from creatures inanimate , and takes from him life , sense and reason all at once by it departure : this Assent of faith being such as we haue sayd , may most commodiously be placed in the common center , wherein sensitiue and intellectiue inclinations concurre , whence it may easiliest commaund the motions of both , and diffuse it force and vertue throughout the whole substance , and euerie faculty of the humane soule . 16. If the Reader be desirous to haue the definition of faith , or that part of it which naturally ariseth from this discourse , comprehended as the schoole fashion is in two words ; he shall not much mistake if he terme it a spirituall prudence ; which includes as much as an Assent of the inteliectiue faculty , able to ouersway and moderate the sensitiue , or generally all humane affections or inclinations . The Romanists conceit that Christian charity should informe true liuely faith , is as preposterous , as if we should say , the affection doth informe the vnderstanding , or vertues morall the intellectuall ; or if we speake of the loue wee beare to God , the analogie of speech is no better , then if wee should say the gratefull memory of pleasant obiects informes the faculty that perceiues them . In what part of the soule soeuer this Queene of vertues lodge , it hath the same commaund ouer our affections , or practique powers that sense or appetite hath ouer the progressiue faculty , which nature hath giuen to sensitiue creatures for accomplishmēt of their necessary desires . That our Christian vertue should physically informe another , is a conceit altogether dunsticall , and now disclaimed in the explication of the old schoole maxim , wherein without Iesuiticall comments , no man but would thinke it were literally and necessarily included . That Faith morally informes , directs and commaunds charity as a guide appointed to it by him that is the author of both ; neither of them consulted by him that hath them , will deny . Albeit , if lawfull it be to enstamp matters sacred with the exact forme of scholastique speech , it is ( perhaps ) but one and the same spirituall grace which animates and enables the soule , as to discerne the truth , so to embrace the goodnesse of reuelations diuine , and constantly to practice all kindes of Christian duties ; bearing diuers titles from execution of seuerall offices , whiles it inspires diuers faculties of the same soule , as one and the same breath hath different sounds in the seuerall pipes of the same organes , or other wind instrument . As it illuminates the mind , or soueraigne part of the rationall soule , it is tearmed faith , as it moderates euery particular affection or desire , it takes the name of the vertue peculiarly appointed to that charge , making it of meerely morall truely Christian . Vnto Parents , kinsfolk , acquaintance , benefactors , or such as wel deserue of them , most men naturally are wel affected , vnto all as men we owe humanitie , and this affection being made conformable , and subordinate to the directions of liuely faith , becomes christian charity . But ere it become such the same grace , which as it illuminates the minde to see , and strengthens it to embrace diuine truths proposed , is tearmed faith , doth alter the quality of this affection , by purging it from carnall respect of persons , or priuate purposes , is termed faith , doth alter the quality of this affection , by purging it from carnall respect of persons , or priuate purposes , by enapting it to be ruled by faith , which fixeth it only vpon such obiects as Gods word commends , and in that degree it prescribes . Though before we did affect others vpon such motiues as flesh and blood suggested ; yet afterwards wee must know no man so , but all our loue is in the Lord. And though faith teach vs to enlarge our benignity , or good minde towards all , as well foes as friends ; yet it fixeth it especially on such as we deeme neerest allied vnto our Redeemer , albeit their personall deserts , or references towards vs be not so great . In like sort doth one and the same grace perhaps ( for the manner ) physically , but faith morally informe , and moderates euery affection , disposition or inclination , that can be matter or rudiment of vertue . It perfects our notions of equity and iustice ; it ripens and sublimates our seeds of temperance of valour , of liberality . For all these or other vertues , are in a higher degree in minds endued with faith , then in such as are destitute of it , and principally set vpon such obiects , as the naturall man could not affect . But because loue thus informed by grace , and directed or touched by faith , of all christian vertues most resembles the dispositiō of our Lord and Sauiour ; and if in this life it could be perfect , would fulfill , at least the second part of the lawe , if we compare it and faith , as they are parts of our imperfect righteousnesse , charity within its own proper sphere is intensiuely the greater , or higher in this edifice , as being supported & held vpby faith : but because our righteousnes is in it selfe imperfect , and our charity towards others vnable to withstand Sathans malice against vs , without externall muniments , procured not by the merits of it , but by faithfull prayers and supplications : therfore , as Christ is Alpha and Omega , so is faith the first of al christian vertues in plantation and the last we must in this life rely vpon , for retaining vniō with this author and finisher of faith CHRIST IESVS . Briefly , as he is to all the faithfull , so is faith to all other vertues in this life , a transcendent foundation and complement . It remaines we shew , first the truth of our maine conclusion by instances of sacred writ , or such practices as it ascribes to faith : Secondly the philosophicall premises , whence we infer it to be most consonant to the phrase of Gods spirit , which often teacheth vs more true philosophy in one word , then Philosophers do in large volums . The conclusion is , [ we are then said rightly to belieue matters of our owne saluation , when we Assent vnto them as good , as necessary and worthy to be embraced , not only whilst considered in themselues , or in generall , or without such incumbrances or occurrents , as doe often interpose or hinder their practice : but euen whilst actually compared with present losse of any sensual good , or infliction of any transitory euill , the world , diuell or flesh can oppose to raise their price . ] 17. Such must this Assent be in the habite , or constant resolution , though often defectiue in the act vpon disaduantages espied by Sathan . But euery such defect we must account a dangerous sinne ( especially if we haue any distinct notice of actuall competition between carnal and spiritual good ) : for this preposterous choice is properly not of faith , but rather directly against the very nature of it , as it is now defined to be an Assent vnto the meanes of mans saluation , as much better th●n any temporall good CHAP. VII . Illustrating and confirming the conclusion last inferred by practices , properly ascribed to faith in Scripture , as well Canonicall as Apochriphall : of hypocrisie and the contrary progresse obserued by it and Christian faith . 1. YEE haue need of patience ( sayth the Apostle ) that after yee haue done the will of God ye might receiue the promise . For yet a little while and hee that shall come will come , and will not tarry . Now the Iust shall liue by faith : but if any man drawebacke , my soule shall haue no pleasure in him . The manner how we liue by Faith , wherin that great controuersie betwixt and the Romanists consists ; Saint Paul in this place handles not , as elsewhere he doth , and we from his principles hereafter must , according to the measure of abilities bestowed vpon vs. Here it shall suffice to trace out his foot-steps in vnfolding that faith , by which the iust doth liue ; and whereby , he that rightly hopes to liue , must in some measure be made iust . That this withdrawing , whose distaste vnto our God is here intimated , is a defect in faith none ( I ▪ presume ) vpon better examination will deny . Not that it argues a totall apostacie from christianity , or hostile reuolt vnto the aduersary ; but only a disesteeme , or vnderualuation of those gracious promises , whose accomplishment must with patience be expected , whiles their future goodnes comes in actuall competition with such grieuous bodily afflictions , which euery Christian did then expose , and as it were bend himselfe vnto by profession of the truth . Such were the conditions of those times , that if their hopes had been confined to this life , Christians of all the sonnes of men had been most miserable . And conceit of extreame misery , without sure hope of redresse , can haue no fellowship with patience : it admits no consolation ▪ Whiles they looked only on things which were seene , they might descrie an army of enemies , as many creatures almost as are visible planted against them ; and must haue cried out with the Prophets seruant vnto this great Teacher of the Gentiles : a Alas Master what shall wee doe ? by his owne practice he instructs them , not to looke on things which are seene ; for they are temporall : but on the things that are not seene , for they are eternall . b Faith ( as he addes ) is the substance of things hoped for , the euidence of things not seene . This lower hemisphere , or visible part of the world is but as the diuels chesse-board ; wherin hardly can our soules moue backe , or foorth , but he sets out one creature or other to attach them ; nor haue we any other means to auoid his subtilty , but by looking vnto the hils when●e commeth our helpe ; or into that part of this great sphere which is altogether hid from the worlds eyes , c where we may behold more for vs , then those that be against vs. And seeing we come in danger of Sathans checke , either by feare , causing our soules to drawe backe , or loue of some worldly creatures alluring them beyond the lists they are to combate in : if we view that hoast of heauenly souldiers which are for vs , we may alwaies haue one of the same rank more potent to remoue all feare , or diminish the loue of any visible creature , or other incumbrance which Sathan can propose vnto vs , and which vnlesse wee be negligent in our affaires may , as we say giue our Antagonist the check-ma●e . If he tempt vs vnto wantonnesse , by presenting entising lookes of amiable , but earthly countenances to our sight : wee haue sure hopes of being as the Angels of God , and consorts of the glorious vnspotted Lambe , to encourage vs vnto chastitie . If with pleasantnesse or commodiousnesse of our present habitations , he seek to detaine vs from the place of our appointed residence , or discharge of necessary duties : we haue the beauty of the new Ierusalem , to rauish our thoughts with a longing after it , to cause vs chuse the readiest way that leads vnto it , rather then take vp our rest in Princely palaces . If with honour he go about to entrappe vs , or terrefie vs with worldly disgrace : wee may contemn●●he one by looking vpon that shame , and confusion of face , wherewith the wicked , though in this life most honorable , shall be couered in the day of vengeance , and loath the other , by fixing the eyes of our faith , vpon that glorious promise made to all the faithfull , d Come yee blessed of my Father , inherit the kingdome prepared for you . If syrants by his instigation threaten vs with feare of death , which is the vtmost of their despite : Faith sets another before our eyes , whom we must feare more then such as can only kill the bodie ; If with sicknesse and languishment , we may by Faith feele the inward man daily grow as the outward man decaies . Finally , let him assault vs what way he can , the affliction can be but light and for a moment , in comparison of that excellent and eternall weight of glory , which we hope shall be reuealed ; of which hope Faith is the onely substance . These are the rootes of reformation in life or manners , whose seuerall branches will spread themselues more at large in the Article of euerlasting life . Here it more concernes to confirme , and illustrate our former inferences , by sacred rules and instances subordinate to the late description of Faith. 2. That Faith is appointed as Guide , and Generall to all Christian vertues , ordering and marshalling euery affection as is fittest for Gods seruice , is implied in these speeches of the Apostle ; a By it the Elders obtained a good report , b without it , impossible it is to please God. As the successe of resolute souldiers valour , is the generals praise ; so is the effect of euery other worke , or commendable quality here ascribed to Faith as their director or chiefe commaunder . Had it been possible vnto them ( or were it so yet to vs ) without faith to make , or prosecute a choice of true good , or settle our desires aright ; no doubt our workes , though imperfectly , yet truly conformable vnto Christs , should for his sake be acceptable vnto his Father , who is so well pleased in him , that for him hee cannot but be pleased with all that are , in what degree soeuer truly like him . The fundamentall act , or radicall qualification of Faith for the formall generall seruice , is the stedfast acknowledgements of Gods Being and Bounty . For he that commeth to God must belieue that he is , and that hee is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him . This is a transcendent maxim , wherein truth and goodnesse are so apparently coincident , that to Assent vnto it as true , and not as good to the party assenting , implies an euident contradiction . For if the rule of strict iustice be obserued , the hire must bee as worthy the labour , as the labourer the hire . But where reward is properly an act of bounty , or liberality , it must exceede the worth of any paines vndertaken for obtaining it . And being such , once proposed it instantly allures the minde to motion , or resolution to attempt the meanes , that may procure it : if it bee apprehended as sure , and easie to bee atchieued as it is great : Will , or desire in this case commonly out-starts the vnderstanding as men in thirst swallow their drinke , before they perfectly discerne the taste . Now as we say there is no seruice to the seruice of a King , so is there no reward to the reward of the Almighty : and therefore no workes so faithfully to bee performed , as his . For , as shall hereafter better appeare , euen that Faith by which we liue , must be concurrent by an vniforme force , or strength in euery worke that is truly good ; for such it is not if not faithfully done . Nor can the truth , force , or vertue of Faith be better discerned or tried without lesse danger of error , than by an vniforme or constant practice of what it teacheth to bee good . In our Assent vnto the truth of the former maxim , That God is a rewarder of then that diligently seeke him ; this second is necessarily included : It is better to obey God than Man : Not in this or that particular only , or vpon some speciall dayes or seasons , peculiarly set apart for his seruice ; but at all times , in all places , in euery thing that he commaunds . For seeing wee are taught by the Article of creation , that his dominion ouer euery creature is perpetually most absolute ; that of all their Being , Existence , Effects or Operations , it is most true which Iob sayth of Riches : The Lord giueth , and the Lord taketh away at his pleasure ; that as he caused light to shine out of darknesse , so can he turne matter of sorrow and mourning into ioy , and mirth and laughter into woe and lamentations : The conclusions essentially answering to these premises are ; Nothing can be against vs if he be for vs , nothing for vs if he be against vs : no harme can happen vs from any losse or paine , if He be pleased : no good from any ioy or mirth wee reape from any creature , if He take displeasure at vs. Not that the condition of the faithfull in this life is alwaies so sweet & pleasant , as they could not be contented to exchange it with others for the present ; but that the worst which can befall them , whilest sustained with hope of ioifull deliuerance , grounded on Gods promises , or allayed with internall sense of his sauours and extraordinary supportance , is much better then the greatest ioyes or pleasures of the wicked , whose issue is death . This is our Apostles doctrine : For no chastening for the present seemeth to be ioyous but grieuous : neuerthelesse afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse vnto them which are exercised thereby . 3. That men acknowledging the euident truth of these generalities , should vsually faile most grieuously in the performance of particulars , is not because they knew the generall , and are ignorant of particulars directly subordinate , ( for that is impossible ) but their assent to either being weake , and not well rooted , what they knew and assented vnto as true , yea willed as good , whiles simply considered in the absence of other good , or temptations to the contrary , they neither truely know , nor assent vnto as good , when they descend to actuall choise , which is neuer effected but by comparing particulars with particulars present . Then other desires which before were couched or dormiant begin to rouse themselues and oppugne the assent of faith , which at the first like a wise and , lawfull but an impotent Monarch may exhort , not able to commaund them , at length rather yeelding to their importunate demands then continuing resolute to controule their outrages , least the soule in which both are seated be rent and torne with ciuill warres . That which the Apostle in the processe of the former discourse so much commends in the Patriarches was , not so much the quality or heauenly progeny , as the strength and valour of their assent vnto Gods word and promises , able to commaund all contrary affections of feare , hope , ioy and loue . Noah did not differ from others of the old world in the obiect of his beliefe ; that there was a God which had created the world , and could at his pleasure bring it to nothing , was a truth ● manifestly knowne by light of nature , and tradition of their Ancestours , which successiuely had not beene so many but that they might easily deriue their pedigree from the almighty ; nor had they any philosophicall heresies , or strange paradoxes to draw backe their assent from this part of truth : but that God which had lately made would in so short a time destroy the earth with all the inhabitants by her neihhbour element , would hardly be assented vnto by drunkards , or gluttōs , or if the eares of their soules were not closed vp in the fatnesse of their bellies , yet these like their maister the diuell fearing least they had but a short time to raigne , would rage the more and belch out these or like vnsauourie speeches , c Come let vs eate , drink , make merry and enioy the pleasures of the flesh whiles we may , for if this scripulous fellowes words be true , wee must all shortly die . A present good they felt in such practices ; and hath the world learned any such wisedom since , as to forgoe what they see and enioy , vpon vncertaine hope of things vnseene ? No , but rather this hypocrisie , to say : the truth which hee preached was more euident to them of his times , then such as Gods messengers would enforce vpon vs ; or that Noah was a better Preacher then any wee haue now adayes . Yet euen to this Preacher himselfe the Reuelation had been as obscure , as most our messages are to this people , had his mind been as much set on worldly mirth , wealth or iollities . This then was the commendation of that Faith , by which hee became heire of the righteousnesse we seeke by ours ; d that warned by God of things not seene as yet , being wa●y , or ( as others read ) moued with feare , ( of God no doubt , in feare of whom true religious warinesse consists ) he prepared an Arke for the sauing of his house , by the which he condemned the world , and yet saued it too : for an euerlasting Couenant was e made with him , that all flesh should perish no more by the sloud . A shadow he was of that great Redeemer , which hath comforted vs concerning our hereditarie curse , and will saue his people from that fire which shall destroy the world ; wherin the wicked and worldly minded shall perish without redemption . 4. The difficulties which Abrahams faith in his first triall was to wrestle with , were much what of the same nature : lands and possessions no doubt he had plenty , in that place which hee knew and was well knowne in . And who would leaue his fathers house , or lose assurance of his naturall inheritance , for faire promises of a better in a strange land ? None well experienced in the world . Yet such was the strength of Abrahams Assent vnto Gods fidelity and bounty , that no sooner called but he obeyed f to goe out into a place which he should ( how long or short while after he knowes not ) receiue for an inheritance , and he went to it not knowing whither . Yet com●e to his iournies end he might in wisdome haue requested , ei●●er better assurance , or leaue to returne whence he came . But the same faith , which moued him to go he knew not whither , binds him there to expect Gods leasure for the time , when he or his seed should enioy the benefit of the bequest ; content in the meane time with what estate the diuine prouidence should allot him . g For by faith he soiourned in the land of promise , as in a strange land dwelling in Tabernacles : or , as Saint h Steuen more significantly notes ; God gaue him none inheritance therein , no not so much as to set his foote in , onely he promised that he would giue him a possession for his seed after him , when as yet he had no child . Long delay of accomplishing this promise , might well occasion Sarahs distrust to proue the Mother of a mighty nation . The tentations to withdraw her Assent from the speculatiue truth whereon it was set , Gods power , were not terrible grieuous or painful : yet not so easie to be foiled , because they had got fast hold within her . Barren shee was by naturall constitution , and no better then dead , hauing so long out-liued the naturall time of bearing children : but he that without her consent or knowledge made her , gaue his promise for reuiuing her dead womb ; and she could not continue doubtfull of the euent , without distrusting his fidelity that had promised . i By faith therefore she receiued strength to beare seed , and was deliuered of a child , when she was past age . The ioifull issue of her beliefe may serue as an earnest , to assure vs of what Christ hath promised ; k I am the resurrection and the life , he that belieueth in me , though he were dead yet shall he liue : and whosoeuer liueth and belieueth in me shall neuer die . He that truly iudgeth Christ faithfull in this , as Sarah did God in the former promise , shall see life spring from death . But faithfull herein , hee onely iudgeth Christ , that esteemes the faithfull execution of his will deerer to him then all the pleasures of this life , which is neuer without the checke of death . By such a faith only , as arms vs with constancy in Christs cause , against all the terrors that accompany this last enemy wee are to deale withall , shall we receiue strength to conceiue that immortall seede , whose fruite is ioy , peace and gladnesse euerlasting . 5. Or if we consider the date of Abrahams life , almost expired in it selfe , but extraordinarily renewed in young Isaac : how much more welcome had his owne cruel executioner been vnto him , then the execution of this commaundement l Take now thy sonne , thine onely sonne Isaac , whom thou louest , and get thee into the land of Moriah , and offer him there for a burnt offering vpon one of the Mountaines which I will tell thee of . But some happely will reply ; God neuer puts any child of Abraham to such a desperate point of seruice as this ; wherein , notwithstanding , what was required , which some Heathens haue not performed vnto their false gods ? The manner of training vp the father of the faithfull , as it were by degrees vnto this , giues vs all to vnderstand , that throughout our whole course of life , wee should esteeme whatsoeuer is most deare and neere vnto vs , as base and vile in respect of Gods fauour ; of whose cōtinuance none are capable , but by faithfull performance of his will. All his commaundements are Mercy and Truth , iust and good vnto the party that vndertakes them by liuely faith : which cannot rate either declination of any euill , or execution of good incident to mortalitie , at so high a price as obedience ; of which in cases wherein it is vnquestionably due , it is so rigid an exacter , as will admit no dispensation , no not in case of grieuous sicknesse , or extreamity of death . So soueraigne and high a hand it likewise hath in marshalling and ranking all our affections for Gods seruice , that for an aged father to kill his onely child at faiths designement , becomes an act of mercy in the slayer , and an exercise of pitty vppon the slaine : for good it was to young Isaac to yeeld vp his life in obedience to his Father , willing in obedience to his God to take it from him . As CHRIST is the Way , the Truth and Life : so in this act of Abrahams faith , fore-shadowing his future sacrifice , we see an entrance opened vnto the path which must lead vs vnto this maine way of life ; for thither we come by treading the foot-steps of our father Abraham . The point of whose supportance in these tentations , whereon all the motions of his will , and other acts of his obedience reuolue as the dore vpon the hinges , or the heauens vpon the poles , was his firme Assent vnto the Article of Gods omnipotent power . For the holy Ghost assigning the cause , m why he that had receiued the promises should offer vp his only begotten Sonne , of whom it is sayd that in Isaac shall his seed be called : sayth , he considered that God was able to raise him vp euen from the dead , from whence also he receiued him in a figure . His beliefe as hath been declared , was of an obiect vnseene , perhaps vnheard of in the world before ; but grounded vpon an euidence of the pledge exhibited in Isaacks miraculous birth . We that referre all that befalls vs vnto naturall causes , or contriuances of our own or others wit , neuer sensibly feeling the finger of God in the procurement of our good , vsually faile in the performance of seruices , conditionally annexed to diuine promises . And albeit we pitch our faith where Abraham did his , yet when stormes of tentations arise , our sensuall desires , draw it , ( being destitute of firm grounds ) after them , as ships in great winds do their anchors , cast in loose grauell , or stony chanels . 6. Many of our times could discourse more plausibly of Gods omnipotency , more distinctly vnfold the seueral branches therof , and bring arguments to conuince deniers of it more forcible then Abraham could ; which cannot conuince their owne diffidence or distrust in easier trials , because not accustomed to rely vpon Gods prouidence , or to traine their affections to obedience in lesser matters . Should the practice of some duty nothing so difficult or distastfull to humane affections , but altogether as subordinate to the diuine power , be enioyned vs by expresse commaund from heauen : we would not directly deny that God were able to effect his will , but question rather , whether it were he that called vs ; or so perswaded with those in the Po●● , seeke a milder interpretation of the oracle . — Aut fallax ait est solertia nobis : Aut pia sunt , nullumque nefas or acula suadent . Our cunning failes if oracles should counsell vs to ill : They holy are , and would not we should sacred reliques spill . What should they cast their mothers bones behind their back ? God forbid sure the oracle had some other meaning Magna parens terra est : lapides in corpore terrae Ossa reor dici ▪ iacere hos post terga iubemur . The earth no doubt our mother is , for earth all flesh doth feed : She hath her bones , & these are stones , which in her body breed ; These we are backwards bid to throw , as Sowers do their seed . Or as Hercules , detesting the inhumanity of humane sacrifices , offered vp painted insteed of liuing men , vnto his false gods : so some such image of young Isaac , as Michal made of Dauid attired in his cloathes , or some youngling ●ut of the flock purposely inuested with his name ; would , to most aged fathers , haue been a sacrifice good enough for their God. This or like conceit being supposed , a cunning sophister would haue found a falacie ● rebus ad voces ; a Critique would haue relieued himselfe from the etymology of Isaac name , as some heathens in like case haue done , from a difference in the accent . For whereas their gods had prest men vnto their seruice , expecting euery yeere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a sacrifice : these cunning muster-masters by alteration of a prick of tirtle , substituted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 candles in their places , fit burnt offerings for the powers of darknesse . Or some doting Sire of our daies , wherein ardent zeale to true religion , and excessiue loue vnto children consort together as man and wife ; though forward to professe as great obedience as Abraham made shew of , would haue communicated this secret to the tender hearted mother , and with her ioint voice thus haue descanted vpon the oracle . Is God almighty so vnconstant or vnkinde , as to giue a iewell and take it againe ? Nay sure he meant not Isaac our only sonne ; but as laughter is his name so since his birth hee hath been our onely ioy . Doubtlesse wee haue surfeted of mirth and iollity in his presence : and God , it is likely , will speedily take him from vs , vnlesse wee learne to vse his blessings better , and redeeme him with some other sacrifice . And what can we offer more acceptable vnto our God , then the sacrifice of a broken and a contrite heart . Let his picture a Gods name burne to ashes , and all our mirth laughter and pleasure perish with it : let the rest of our wearisom pilgrimage here on earth consume with sorrow & mourning for him as if he were dead indeed . Though a sonne and heire we haue , in whom we may take as much ioy and comfort as any of our neighbours can in theirs : yet we will be as if we had none . 7. Should God by his owne immediate voice call such as make most conscience of obedience in hearing his Word , to offer a Sacrifice that should not cost them halfe so deare as Abraham did the examination whether this spirit were from heauen would be so scrupulous , so long time would be required for better information of their vnderstandings , that oportunity of doing what was commaunded would slide away , ere their resolution setled . But he whose faith hath got the mastery ouer his carnal affections in other conflicts , as Abrahams ere this temtation had done ; shall vpon the first proposall , know those warnings to be from God , which others distrust , and so relent in the triall , albeit he that made them their soules , exact the exercise , or practice onely of their faculties . But former negligence in fulfilling his manifested will , addes guilt to present ignorance , which cannot excuse subsequent diffidence , or disobedience . Euen where diuine precepts are as plaine , as peremptory for the generall : if we aduenture on their practice , it is for the most part but vpon such termes , as the late mentioned heathen couple did , vpon that interpretation of the oracle which themselues had framed . Coniugis augurio quamuis Tricenia mota est , Spes tamen in dubio est : adeo coelestibus ambo Diffidunt monitis : sed quid tentare nocebit ? Though Pyrrha somewhat moued is , with louing husbands spell ; Yet hope hangs doubtfull twixt them both , too weake distrust to quell : But sith no il can come therof , to try must needs do wel . Were it no harme or losse to trie , we could perhaps affoord as great paines as they did and as little hope did the issue depend vpon our firme Assent to that diuine oracle , b God is able of stones to raise vp children vnto Abraham But true beliefe of matters spirituall , as it presupposeth difficulties in attaining the principall end , whereto it directs vs : so it includes a forwardnesse in the choice , alacrity in the attempt , constance and confidence in prosecuting the meanes that leade vs to it . An act it was of true and liuely faith in Saint Peter , to go vpon the water vnto his master , in whose construction neuerthslesse , to cry out when a great waue came against him , did argue a defect in the quantity , as vnable to ouermatch the extremity , or vtmost degree of naturall feare . Why didst thou feare , ô thou of little faith ? But to preuent , quell , or moderate the fits , or extremities of passions or affections in like extraordinary temptations , an extraordinary measure of faith , though sincere and liuely , is required : whereas our purpose in this place onely was to shew by instances , that the soueraignty of faith , if it be truly Christian , or such as Saint Paul commends , and ascribes iustification vnto , must bee absolute and vniuersall in respect of euery habituall desire , or affection that can oppose it , though most naturall in bred or deare vnto vs. 8. Though the obiect of Abrahams temptation was more furious , and terrible to resist in the very brunt ; yet that which Moses afterwards ouercame , was more likely to seduce vnto disloialty : The prosperity he did enioy , and pleasures he might haue tasted in Pharaohs court , are as apt to bewitch or charme , as death of dearest friends to terrifie the mind of man from going forward in obedience . The one vsually disenables vs to follow that in practise , which wee acknowledge for good in speculation : the other so corrupts our iudgements , that we cannot discerne true good from false . Abraham resolued to kill his only child , and Moses as it were to strangle his louing wife , that borne of his flesh , had been bred in his bones and nursed in his bosome , when he was not maister of his owne will or affections . c Yet when he came to age ( sayth the text ) hee refused to be called the sonne of Pharaohs daughter ; and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God , then to enioy the pleasures of sin for a season . Euen to rebuke or reproach for Christs cause hee assented as good to him , yea better then all the treasures of Egypt : not that rebuke is such in it selfe , but as it is the meanes to attaine euerlasting life , or grounded vpon the internal pledge of those ioies , which he saw only a farre off , we nearer hand ; were not the prouerbe fulfilled in vs , that the neerer Christs Church comes to vs the farther wee go from it . But as the distance to this faith full seruant of God was greater , so his sight was the better ▪ he had a cleered view of the recompence of the reward promised , which enabled him to endure as well the want of earthly pleasures and contentments , as the height of that great kings displeasure , with such constancy as , if he had seene him which is invisible , and yet was in some sort seene by Moses : so is faith of things to the naturall man vaseen● , but in a manner seene by it . 9. Scarse now one liuing would do as Moses did ; not one that would , but should be censured , not by worldlings only for a foole , but by forward professors of truth , for betraying Gods peoples cause ; if hauing such opportunity as he had of soliciting their good in the Court , he should leaue his place to expect Gods prouidence , or the priuate contentment of his conscience else-where . But from commendation of his Faith the indicious reader may resolue , not to troble his mind with such scrupulous cogitations , as whether the faithfull , albeit no such reward were promised , were to indure as Moses did ; or whether ( as the Papists falsly lay to our great Worthies charge , though others of lesse worth haue spoken somewhat indiscreetly ) intuition of reward pollute such workes , as would be otherwise good , if vndertaken onely because we know them pleasant to our God. It is a truth most orthodoxall , that the chiefe end of our best workes should be the fulfilling of Gods will or pleasure . But let not any man hence take occasion by nice distinctions or curiosities , to separate what God hath conioyned ; for his good will and pleasure it is to reward vs bountifully for well doing , and to glorifie his name in our felicity : nor can wee intend the accomplishment of his will or glory aright , but as they are linked with his intention of good to vs. For surely he wils our life and happinesse more then our good deeds , which , but for the other he willeth not . It was a slaunderous speech of an vngracious seruant , to say his master reaped where hee had not sowen : for our God lookes not for glory , but vpon presupposall of good bestowed ; he neuer punisheth , but for ingratitude , neglect , or abuse of his mercy or bounty . The greatest praise we can procure him is , to suffer our selues to be saued by the meanes hee hath thereto ordained : and this hope of reward , euen by his ordinance , is that which strengthens the faith of his best seruants . Or if thou thinkest that Moses faith was imperfect , thy Sauiours beliefe , or knowledge of his exaltation as man , doubtlesse was not so ; Yet he ( as the same Apostle sayth ) for the ioy that wa●●et before him endured the crosse and despised the shame , and hence is set at the right hand of God ; notwithstanding he did all things for the glory of his Father , and because he knew it was his will so to doe ; of which will likewise hee knew it an especiall part , that hee should propose heauenly ioyes as a counterpoise to vvorldly paine , and sure hope of endlesse ioy , as an antidote against transitory shame or disgrace . Wherefore let vs also looke vppon CHRIST IESVS , the Author and finisher of our faith , and haue respect vnto the reward , that we may endure with patience the race that is set before vs. 10. That the same faith so much commended by this Apostle was , in respect of some obiects , speculatiue , or but an Assent , of foresight of some diuine reuelations , as true , according to that difference betwixt Truth and Goodnes before handled is apparant from these instances : [ d By Faith Isaac blessed Iacob and Esau conc erning things to come : By Faith Iacob when he was a dying blessed both the sonnes of Ioseph , and leaning on the end of his staffe worshipped : By Faith Ioseph when he was a dying made mention of the departing of the children of Israell , and gaue commaundement of his bones . ] In none of these did their Assent vrge them to any difficult , painfull , or dangerous practise ; it was to wrestle only with the naturall imperfection of mans vnderstanding , or incredulity arising thence , not from any direct opposition of sensuall or corrupt affection . Greater difficulties there were to disswade the people from aduenturing to passe through the red-sea , but after this accomplished without danger , the miraculous fall of Ierich●es walls was not so hard to be perswaded to their posterity , or vnto such as had heard what the Lord had done for their fathers . Yet by firme Assent vnto this diuine truth , as certainly future , the City was destroyed , and Rahab saued . What should we more say ? for the time would be too short ( and the discourse too long ) to insist vpon the like in Gedeon , in Baruc , in Samson , in Iephte , in Dauid , in Samuel , and in the Prophets . What victory soeuer these or other Saints of God obtained ouer themselues or their passions ouer the enemies of God , his lawes or their country ouer men , wilde beastes or other creatures ; our Apostle ascribes to faith . For by Faith they subdued kingdomes ; not by belieuing they had ouercome before they fought , but by becomming valiant in fight from firme beliefe that all victory was from the Lord of hosts , to whom it was a like casie to saue with few or with many . By the same faith , but as fixed vpon the morall lawe , or other meanes of saluation , they wrought righteousnesse . By the same faith they obtained the promises , not by perswading themselues they had them already sealed , but by practising the conditions annexed vnto them . By the same faith g they stopped the mouthes of lions , quenched the violence of fire , escaped the edge of the sword , of weake were made strong . The weomen receiued their dead raised to life : others also were racked , and would not be deliuered , that they might receiue a better resurrection . And others haue been tried by mockings and scourgings ; yea , moreouer by bonds & imprisonment . They were stoned , sawen a sunder , tempted , & slain with the sword : they wandred about in sheep-skins , and goat-skins being destitute , afflicted , tormented . 11. These last passages of the Apostle warrant the canonicall truth of what an author not canonicall relates , concerning these heroicall sonnes , and that more heroicall mother ; whose reolution best exemplifies the nature of faith , hitherto described by S. Paul , to be such as we haue defined , an Assent vnto euery part of Gods service , or euery diuine promise , not only as true & good simply considered , but as much better to the party assenting , than the fairest profers supreme earthly powers can make , either for auoidance of pain or torments present , or speediest aduancement to greatest dignities . The first resolutely professes in the name of all the rest , we are ready to die rather then to transgresse the lawes of our fathers . Nor did his soule draw back , or shrink at such sauage and vnmerciful vsage , as would moue pitty to see it practised vpon a beast . Euen to behold a flourishing tree first bereft of bark , then of al the naked branches ▪ yet 〈◊〉 standing , lastly the greene trunk downe , and cast full of sap into the fire , would be an vnpleasāt spectacle to such , as delighted in setting , pruning , or nourishing plants . But that is but a weak resemblance of this mans torture , first stript of his skin , hauing afterwards all the vtmost parts of his body lopped off ; lastly his raw bulk broiled or carbonadoed quick . Yet the second sprig of the sameroot , made spectator of al this misery , to cause him abhor like butchery practices vpon himselfe , constantly pitching the feare of God higher then any present racke or torture could raise or improue his naturall feare of tyrants rage , with his mortall life breathes out that euerlasting truth , which his Redeemer afterwards gaue in charge to his disciples . For when hee was at the last gaspe he sayd : Thou like a fury takest vs out of this present life , but the king of the world shall raise vs vp , who haue dyed for his lawes vnto euer lasting life . The third , after like derision and torments as his brothers had suffered , willingly yeelds his tongue vnto the tormentour ; but first consecrates therewith his other members as an acceptable sacrifice vnto his God , esteeming their losse as gaine for the keeping of his lawe . k For stretching forth his hands with boldnesse he spake couragiously , these haue I had from heauen , but now for the loue of God I despise them , and trust that I shall receiue them of him againe . Nor could like torments wrest any other confession from the fowrth : ●●r when he was ready to die he sayd thus ; l It is better that wee should change this which wee might hope for of men , and waite for our hope from God , that wee may be raised vp againe by him , as for thee thou shalt haue no resurrection to life . The fift againe lesse feares the torments which he suffered , than the scandall which might redound to Gods Church from relation of their grieuousnesse , vnlesse the error were preuented . m Thou hast power ô king among men , and though thou be a mortall man , thou dost what thou wilt ; but thinke not that God hath for saken our nation . The fixt likewise at the point of death charitably instructs the tyrant as our * Sauiour afterwards did the Iewes concerning them whose blood Pilate had mingled with their owne sacrifice . * Deceiue not thy selfe foolishly , for wee suffer those things which are worthy to be wondred at for our owne sakes , because wee haue offended our God : but thinke not thou , which vndertakest to fight against God , that thou shalt be vnpunished . But the mother ( sayth this Author ) was maruellous aboue all other , and worthy of honourable memory . For if by faith the Elders obtained honour , and good report : the weaknesse of her sexe doth witnesse the admirable strength of her faith ; * that seeing her seauen sonnes slaine within the space of one day , suffered it with a good will , because of the hope that she had in the Lord. That which enspired her breast with this hope , her hopes with wisdome , and her womanly affections with such manly courage , was her firme Assent vnto the Articles of the creation and the resurrection : for with these arguments shee wisely armes them against the terrours of death , or torture ; b I cannot tell how you came into my womb , for I neither gaue my breath nor life , neither was it I that formed the members of euery one of you . But doubtlesse the Creator of the world , vvho found the generation of man , and found out the beginning of all things , vvill also of his owne mercy giue you breath and life againe , as you now regard not your owne selues for his lawes sake . The seauenth , whom Antiochus had tempted to disloialty as well by hopes of honour , as threats of tortures , she thus intreats in particular ; c O my sonne haue pitty vpon me that bare thee nine moneths in my vvomb and gaue thee sucke 3 yeeres , and nourished thee and brought thee vp vnto this age , and endured the troubles of education : I beseech thee my sonne l●oke vpon the heauen and the earth and all that is therein , and consider that God made them of things th●● were not , and so was mankinde made likewise . Feare not this tormentor ; but being worthy of thy brethren , take thy death that I may receiue thee againe in mercy vvith thy bretlren . Nor did her words want effect : for this also esteemed obedience much better then honor or preferment ; yea , as much dearer then sacrifice , though of himselfe : For he sayd , d I as my brethren haue done , offer my body and life for the lawes of our fathers , beseeching God that he wil soone be merciful vnto our notton ; and that thou , O Tyrant , by torment & punishment maist confesse that he is the onely God : And that in me and my brethren the vvrath of the Almighty , which is righteously fallen vpon our nation , may cease ; so he also dyed holily , and put his whole trust in the Lord. e That a dumbe creature shall gently and quietly licke her yong ones , newly ript out of herbelly , euen while the Anatomists knife did lance and dissecate her liuing members , seemed to me , when first I read it in an Author of this profession and practise , a wondrous effect of natures force , euincing the truth of our Apostles saying ; that loue , which thus excludes all sense of paine , would if perfect , expell all feare : but doubtlesse , more then naturall was this womans loue , or rather great was her faith , that Gods loue vnto her sonnes and her was greater , then the loue of mothers to their children ; which could thus out of pitty and compassion , expose them to such sauage cruelty , & patiently behold their liue Anatomy , afterwards content her selfe to be a subiect of like practises . For last of all , after the sonnes the mother dyed . 12. So consonant to the grounds of our Apostles discourse , and these late mentioned resolutions , is that excellent exhortation Mattathias made vnto his sons before his death ; that we may without presumption presume , one and the same spirit did set the seuerall parts of this lesson , and tune their hearts to this consort , albeit hee did not pen these latter ditties . o Now hath pride and rebuke gotten strength , and the time of destruction and the wrath of indignation : now therefore , my sonnes , be ye zealous for the lawe , and giue your liues for the couenant of your fathers . Call to remembrance what our fathers did in their time , so shall ye receiue great honour and an euerlasting name ▪ Was not Abraham found faithfull in temptation , and it was imputed vnto him for righteousnesse ? Iosephs chastity , Phineas and Eliahs zeale , Iosuahs valour , and Calebs fidelity , Dauids mercy and Daniels innocency , are all ascribed to faith by him , as well as Ananias , Azarias , and M●saels safety ; or Abrahams late mentioned acts ? for after an enumeration of these particulars , he thus concludes : p And this consider ye in all ages , that none that put their trust in him shall be ouercome . All that was commendable in these auncient Worthies , was from their trust in the Lord ; and that from their firme Assent vnto his power , his bounty , and fidelity : nor can the nature of faith be better notified by the effect or property , then if we define it to be a fidelity in all the seruice of God , raised from a firme Assent vnto the former transcendent truths [ of his bountifull rewarding all that diligently seek him , that it is alwaies better to obey him then man ] as shall further appeare from the discourses following . And it is already partly shewed in our meditations vpon Ieremy , that praiers thus made in faith are still effectuall , for obtaining priuate remission of our sin , comfort in the day of trouble , or for auerting Gods heauy plagues or curses from any land or people ; if both the suppliants thus qualified hold due proportion with notorious delinquents for number , and the frequency or feruency of their supplications , with the continuance or stubbornnesse of the other sinnes . But he alone truly praies in faith , that can with constancy prosecute the right choice of means which faith doth make , and faithfully practice such duties as it prescribes , for attaining the end , whereto it directs . 13. If any of you lacke wisedome , ( sayth Saint a Iames ) let him aske of God , that giueth to all men liberally and vpbraideth not : and it shall bee giuen him . But let him aske in faith , nothing wauering , for bee that wauereth is like a waue of the sea , driuen with the winde and tossed . For let not that man thinke he shall receiue any thing of the Lord. Why ? Because he praies not in faith , but is double minded and vnstable in all his waies . In this doublnesse of mind , or distraction of the soule , as the word imports , doth hypocrisie in his language that knowes the heart and minde , properly consist . For to pretend or promise one thing , and wittingly and expresly , though in the secrets of our owne hearts to intend another , is , in scripture-phrase an act of Atheisme , or infidelity . An hypocrite hee is in the same dialect , that assents vnto the meanes of mans saluation as truely good , whiles simply considered ; but disesteemes them in the actuall choice , wherein contrary desires , or affections vnrenounced , vsurpe a negatiue voice or rather make a maior part of his owne soule against him , so as he cannot make good his former promise with his whole Assent . From this competition betweene beliefe of spirituall truths , and carnall delights or pleasure , both challenging full interest in one and the same soule , doth that doublenesse whereof S. Iames speak arise . And the vnconstancy or wauering of an hypocrite , may best be resembled by a Polypragmaticall temper , desirous to hold good correspondencie with contrary factions ; hence often enforced to shuffle from such promises as hee meant to performe when he made them , but considered not how farre hee had beene engaged by former obligements or protestations ; from which , being challenged by the aduerse party , hee cannot ●●inch without greater shame or griefe . 14. Flattery , lying , and dissimulation , of which hypocrisie is but the brood , in the phrase of Gods spirit which searcheth the reines , is not to professe one thing with the tongue , and purpose another in the heart ; but rather to protest , what for the time present we truly thinke , without due examination of the soule or inward parts , or resolution to renounce all contrary desires , or really to disclaime all interest any creature hath in our minds , or affections to the preiudice of the Creator ; as the Psalmist excellently expresseth this point . a The wrath of God came vpon them , and slew the fattest of them , and smote downe the chosen men of Israell . For all this they sinned still : and belieued not his wondrous workes . Therefore their daies did he consume in vanity , and their yeeres in trouble . When he slew them then they sought him : and they returned and enquired early after God. And they remembred that God was their Rocke , and the high God their Redeemer . This conversion questionlesse was not in ●est , or pretended only for the present , but in their apprehension that made it sincere : yet in his iudgement that was greater then their hearts or consciences , false and deceitfull , because imperfect and irresolute , as the Psalmist in the next words instructs vs. b Neuerthelesse they did but flatter him with their mouth : and they lied vnto him with their tongues . The height of their dissimulation , as followeth was , that their heart was not right with him ; neither were they stedfast ( beleeuing , or faithfull ) in his couenant : but as their Fathers had beene , ● reflectary and rebellious generation : a generation that prepared not their hearts , and whose spirit was not faithfull with God. Nor did this want of preparation , or their vnfaithfulnesse proceed from want of purpose to doe God seruice , whiles tentations did not assault them ; but herein rather , that like the children of Ephraim being armed and bearing bowes , they turned backe in the day of battaile , that they kept not the couenant of God , and refused to walke in his lawe ( when the lawe of the flesh did oppose it ) they for gate ( i. they did not esteeme ) his workes and his wonders that hee had shewed them . These diuine characters of hypocrisie , or dissimulation approues his opinion , as well befitting the author that said , it was impossible for a Coward to be either an honest man , or a true friend . For seeing honesty is but a stemme of truth , or fidelity his obseruation differs onely in the subiect , from that of the wise sonne of Sirach . c Woe bee to fearefull hearts and faint hands , and the sinner that goeth two wayes : woe vnto him that is faint hearted , for he belieueth not , therefore shall he not be defended : woe be vnto you that haue lost patience , and what will ye doe when the Lord shall visite you ? More exactly paralelled , as well to the occasion and grounds of our Apostles discourse in Hebrewes chap. 10. & 11. are these diuine sentences of the same Authour immediatly following . d They that feare the Lord will not disobey his word ; and they that loue him will keep his lawes . They that feare the Lord will seeke that which is well pleasing vnto him , and they that loue him shall be filled with the lawe . They that feare the Lord will prepare their hearts , and humble their soules in his sight , saying : we will fall into the hands of the Lord , and not into the hands of men ; for as his Maiesly is sors his mercy . From our last resolutions in the former Chapter , the Reader will easily conceiue the reason , why the same acts , operations , or practices are sometimes ascribed vnto faith , as the chiefe steward , or dispenser of spirituall grace , sometimes vnto the affection or disposition which it moderates . For as faint-heartednesse argues want of faith : so patience in aduersity , feare of God , and constant relying vpon his mercies , though springing immediatly from their proper or peculiar habits , or affections , are enspired and strengthened by faith , as blood in the veines is by the blood arteriall . 15. If we compare the seuerall growth of sted fast faith , and hypocrisie , they much resemble the order of composition and resolution in sciences or workes of nature , or of addition and substraction in Arithmetique , or of laying , or reducting sums in accompts . As young Dauid first encountred Beares and Lions , or other enemies of his flocke , and afterwards ouercomes the great Goliah , that had defied the whole host of Israell : so true and liuely faith first begins with petty desires , or such temptations as are incident to our present state or calling , alwaies so much lesse grieuous in themselues , as our places are meaner ; and hauing gotten mastery ouer them , still encreaseth , as difficulties or oppositions multiply , vntill at length it become victorious ouer the diuell , world and flesh , by a sincere discharge of particulars contained in the view of Baptisme . Hypocrisie acknowledgeth the same summe of Christian duties or practices , and subscribes vnto it , not onely in grosse , but vnto most particulars therein contained : yet still reducts , or exonerates as much , as well displeasing humours disallow , vntill it finally dissolue what true faith doth build euen vnto the first foundation , if the opposition betweene it and carnall feares , hopes , loue or hate come once to be direct & eager : What protestation could any true professor , either conceiue in tearmes more decent or submissiue , or tender in more serious and ample forme , then that supplication which the remnant of Iudah and Ierusalem presented vnto the Prophet Ieremy , after the captiuity of their brethren , a Then all the Captaines of the host , and Iehonan the sonne of Kareah , and Iezaniah the sonne of Hoshaiah , and all the people from the least vnto the most , came and sayd vnto Ieremiah the Prophet : Heare our prayer we beseech thee , and pray for vs vnto the Lord thy God , euen for all this remnant ( for we are left but a few of many , as thine eyes doe behold , ) that the Lord thy God may shewe vs the way wherein we may walke , and the thing that we may doe . After he had vndertaken this sacred businesse , and past his word for his integrity in translating it : they more pathetically oblige themselues to whatsoeuer obedience God by his mouth shall enioine them . Then they sayd to Ieremiah ; b The Lord bee a witnesse of truth and faith betweene vs , if we do not euen according to all things , for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee vnto vs : whether it bee good or be euili , wee will obey the voice of the Lord God to whom wee send thee ; that it may be well with vs , when wee obey the voice of the Lord our God. A man would think the proposall of Gods commaundement , by a Prophet so well knowne vnto this people , one whom they had chosen for this purpose , should haue enforced them to performance of their promise . Yet Ieremiah foreseeing the hypocrisie of their hearts , though hidden from their owne eyes , returnes his message in such a forme , as if hee had vsed artificiall inuention to perswade obedience . Hauing called some of the parties that had late made this serious protestation , he tells them : c Thus sayth the Lord God of Israell , vntowhom ye sent me to present your prayers before him , if yee will dwellin this land , then I will build you and not destroy you , and I will plant you and not root you out : for I repent me of the euill that I haue done vnto you . Feare not for the king of Babed , of whom ye are afraide , be not afraid of him , saith the Lord : For , I am with you , to saue you , and to deliuer you from his hand : And I will grant you mercy that he may haue compassion vpon you ; and hee shall cause you to dwellin your land . But if ye say , wee will not dwell in this land , neither heare the voice of the Lord your God ; saying : Nay , but wee will goe into the land of Egypt , where we shall see no warre , nor heare the sound of the trumpet , nor haue hunger of bread , and there we will dwell ; and now therefore heare the word of the Lord , yee remnant of Iudah , thus sayth the Lord of hosts , the God of Israell ; If ye set your forces to enter into Egypt , and go to dvve●l there : then the sword that yee feared shall take you there in the Land of Egypt , and the famine for which you care shall there hang vpon you in Egypt , and there shall ye die . And all the men that set their forces to enter into Egypt to dwell there shall die by the sword , by the famine and by the pestilence , and none of them shall remaine , or escape from the plague that I will bring vpon them . For thus sayth the Lord of hostes , the God of Israell ; As mine anger and my vvrath hath been poured out vpon the inhabitants of Ierusalem : so shall my vvrath be poured out vpon you vvhen you enter into Egypt ; and ye shall be a detestation and an astonishment , and a curse , and a reproach , and ye shall see this place no more . O yee remnant of Iudah : the Lord hath sayd concerning you ; Goe ye not into Egypt , know certainly that I haue admonished you this day . And as d Iosuah at his last farewell vnto his people , suspecting their pronenesse to idolatrie , did by a seeming prouocation of them to the practice and profession of it , wisely wrest from them more serious protestation to the contrary , and a stricter obligement to the seruice of the onely true God , then otherwise they would haue conceiued : so Ieremiah , instructed by his God that the hypocrisie of this peoples heart now secretly began to work , giues them notice of it , most desirous to be disapproued by them in the euent . e Surely yee dissembled in your hearts when you sent me vnto the Lord your God , saying : pray for vs vnto the Lord our God , and according vnto all that the Lord our God shall say , so declare vnto vs , and we vvill doe it . And now I haue this day declared it to you , but ye haue not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God , nor anie thing for vvhich he hath sent me vnto you . Now therefore know certainly that yee shall die by the sword , by famine and by the pestilence , in the place whither ye desire to goe and soiourne . Ierusalems ruines , and the Temples ashes did witnesse the seuerity and iustice of their God , against the obstinate and disobedient . The Babylonians themselues knew Ieremiah for a Prophet ; euen this people , to whom hee brings this message , were well perswaded of his familiarity with their God ; and hee himselfe had past his word for acquainting them fully with his will. f Then Ieremiah the Prophet sayd vnto them , I haue heard you ; behold I will pray vnto the Lord your God according vnto your words ; and it shall come to passe ▪ that whatsoeuer thing the Lord shall answere you I will declare vnto you : I will keepe nothing backe from you . And was it possible the same men should bee so dislike themselues , as to forget their late protestations , and refuse to do Gods will so fully made knowne vnto them by his Prophet ? To doe the will of God , if so they knew it to be his will directly , they denie not : for this general truth was not as yet directly contradicted by their present passions . But now tenne daies had past , since Ieremiah and they had mutually pledged their faith ; the one for notifying , the other for executing Gods commaundement , concerning this present case : their former iealous feares of Nebuchadnezzars ill affection towards them had increased in the interim , they had entertained some politicke hopes of shelter in Egypt from the storme that threatned Iudah . Both these with the naturall stubbornnesse of their wils , accustomed to long after things forbidden , concurre to impaire and withdraw their former Assent ; causing them , though not absolutely to distrust Gods power or goodnesse towards them nor altogether to disclaime Ieremiah for a Prophet , yet to suspect his fidelity in this particular businesse . i For when he had made an end of speaking vnto them all the words which the Lord had recorded , for the which the Lord their God had sent him vnto them , euen all these words : then spake Azariah the sonne of Hoshaiah , and Iohanan the sonne of Kareah , and all the proud men , saying vnto Ieremiah , thou speakest falsely ; the Lord our God hath not sent thee to say , Goe not into Egypt to soiourne there : But Baruch the sonne of Neriah setteth thee on against vs , for to deliuer vs into the hands of the Chaldeans , that they might put vs to death , and carrie vs away captiue into Babylon . So Iohanan the sonne of Kareah , and all the Captaines of the forces , tooke all the remnant of Iudah , that were returned from all nations , vvhither they had been driuen , to dwell in the land of Iudah . After they had thus shuffeled from their promise , disobeyed Gods word , abused his Prophet , and prouoked him vnto vvrath with the vvorkes of their hands , polluting their soules by burning incense vnto other gods in the land of Aegypt , vvhither they were gone to dwell : threatned with consummation of Gods vvrath , which had ouertaken their fore-fathers , and had almost deuoured their natiue countrie , they beginne directly calcitrare contra stimulos , and vtterly recall their former Assent vnto the generall truth , so fully acknowledged before , that Gods Commaundements ought to bee obeyed . For these , wee must consider , were most peremptory against idolatry , on which their hearts and affections were now fully let : so as the opposition betwixt Gods word and their resolutions , becomes immediate and diametrall . Nor was there any coactiue power to bridle the vnruly bent of their vntamed affections , now at liberty to run ryot , and acquaint their hearts with what they had secretly wrought before : No face of ciuill gouernment , professing true religion , to discountenance and ouer-awe their audacious and whorish for-heads , from open auowing of what they purposed ; rather the sight of like practises authorised in Egypt , did tempt their hearts to conceiue , and their mouthes to professe greater abhomination , then in their owne land they could haue thought on . And as that excesse of insolency , which moued the Israelite to wrong his brother , made him withall more impatient of Moses reproofe : So such of this remnant , as were most conscious of former disobedience to Gods lawes , were most forward and petulant to disclaime his present will , expresly reuealed for their safety , and like the old serpent to accuse his inhibitions in like case of false-hood , or enuie . For when Ieremiah had made an end of all his threatnings : g then all the men which knew that their wiues had burnt incense to other gods , and all the weomen that stood by , a great multitude , euen all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt , in Pathros , answered Ieremiah , saying : As for the word that thou hast spoken vnto vs in the name of the Lord , we will not hearken vnto thee : but wee will certainly doe whatsoeuer thing goeth forth of our owne mouth , to burne incense to the Queene of Heauen , and to powre out drinke offrings vnto her as we haue done , wee and our Fathers , our Kings and our Princes in the Citie of Iudah and in the streets of Ierusalem . For then had vvee plentie of victuals , and sawe no euill : But since wee left off to burne incense to the Queene of heauen , and to powre on t drinke offerings vnto her , vvee haue vvanted all things , and haue beene consumed by the sword , and by famine . And vvhen vve burnt incense to the Queene of heauen , and powred out our drinke offerings vnto her , did vvee make our cakes to vvorshippe her , and powre out drinke offerings vnto her vvithout our men ? 16. This last instance of these hypocrites , will yeeld somewhat to euince a conclusion , hereafter to be inferred : That no affection vnrenounced , not such as procure greatest applause and admiration amongst men , but continually exposes our soules to Sathans checke : That this cunning gamester , by extraordinary skill to play vpon like aduantages , can driue men into any point of infidelity , heresie , idolatrie , atheisme or blasphemy against the holy Ghost , as shall bee fittest for his purpose , or as the opposition betwixt mens resolutions and truths reuealed shall fall out . From the former examples , wherby the Elders obtained good report , we haue gained thus much , for confirmation of our last assertion . That the faith whereby Abraham was accounted righteous , and by which the sonnes of Abraham must liue , is a stedfast Assent to whatsoeuer God shall say , as much truer then ought can be sayd against it , to whatsoeuer hee shall commaund , as much better , then either the accomplishment of our owne desires or hopes , or obedience to contrary commaundement of earthly powers , whether accompanied with seuerest threats of any euil , or surest promises of any good , they or their instruments can procure vs. CHAP. VIII . That knowledge of morall obiects in sacred dialect includes the affections concomitant : The exact conformitie , or correspondencie betwixt the Assent or adherence ( resulting from such knowledge ) and the proper obiect whereto it is applied . 1. WHether right or no , be it in the iudicious Readers power to examine and determine ; such choise as is too late for vs to recall is already made of Assent , as the fittest threed to follow , for vnwinding those perplexities which some late intricate disputes of aduerse parties haue wouen vnawares in this argument , which we after them labour to vnfold . Now seeing euery Assent , especially of the intellectiue nature , so necessarily presupposeth knowledge , that the certainty ( as hath been obserued ) of the one , can hardly spring but from the cleerenesse , ●● perspicuity of the other , it will be a matter altogether impossible to giue the Reader a distinct and full view of the nature and essence of that Assent , whose differencies and properties we out of Scripture seeke , vnlesse wee first acquaint him with the true force and value of knowledge , vnderstanding , or other termes of vse , equiualent in the dialect of the sanctuary . 2. That words expressing the acts of sense , or vnderstanding in the holy Ghost , or his language that had not onely the forme of wholsome doctrine , but the very words of eternall life , vsually include affections concomitant , is a rule so often inculcated by best expositors of sacred writ , that to be curious in recapitulation of seuerall instances , would seeme but truantly pains , to such as are conuersant in their writings : Yet , because we write not so much for theirs , as for others vse to omit them altogether we may not . And seeing remembrance is but an act of knowledge reiterated ; or a second agitation of the mind towards that point , whereat it had arriued before : wee shall more fully conceiue what it is to know , if we first know what it is to remember . And that in the language of Canaan , is so to be affected with matters called to minde , as the nature of them doth require . Some things of beliefe and credence vndoubted , because related in Scriptures , are in themselues of such little vse , or consequence to our saluation ; that barely to remember them sufficeth , to be in heart affected with them is not required . Thus Iacobs making his sonne a party coloured coate , will , amongst other stories , present it selfe to their memory , that haue read through the booke of Genesis . But whom doth the remembrance hereof ought affect ? vnlesse perhaps such little children , as are desirous their Parents should follow this example . But not to be touched with the affliction of Ioseph , or old Iacobs sorrow , when his dearlings spangled coat was presented vnto his aged eyes , all besprinkled with blood ; would argue hard heartednesse in an old father of so young and louely a child . For christian soules not to be yet more deepely touched , with solemne remembrance of their Sauiours agonie , his barbarous vsage at his arraignement , his ignominious and cruel death : were to staine themselues with guilt of that blood , which must wash them from all their other sinnes . Nor doth the perfect remembrance of what the head hath suffered , affect the members with sympathy onely of his sorrow : but quell and crucifie all carnall lust and concupiscences that fight against the spirit , as in that article is to be declared . The heathen it seemes suspected Christian sacraments had been instituted , as bonds of dangerous combinations , or conspiracies in mischiefe ▪ but a Plinies exemption of them from that imputation may instruct vs , what vse the ancient made in remembring CHRISTS death and passion . For thereby they solemnely renewed the league of baptisme , and setled their former resolutions not to commit theft or adultery , not to falsifie their words , or any way defraud their neighbours . 3. The true force of this speech , to remember , whilest applied to matters of morality , the Psalmist excellently expresseth in the hundred thirty seauenth Psalme . Such as had brought desolation and woe vpon their natiue country , exacted mirth of them and his country-men in their captiuity . To these their demands of the pleasant songs of Syon , he answereth with indignation : b How shall we sing the Lords song in a strange land ? If I forget thee ● Ierusalem , let my right hand forget her cunning . Ierusalem we must consider was , at this time , in her widow-hood , forsaken of the Lord her husband , and depriued of all her dearest children : Sion her head , sometimes decked with maiestie and honour , was now couered with dust and ashes , as with a mourning vail● ; and for her sonnes to haue consorted with the idolatrous Babylonians in their riotous mirth , had been more then to forget Her , whom they could not rightly remember but with sorrow . Whence , in the next place heads ; If I remember not thee ô Ierusalem , let my tongue cleaue to the roofe of my mouth : which words imply as much as this imprecation , Let this be the last song I euer shall sing , the last words I euer shall speake : If I be iocound , either in heart or speech , whilest thou art sad : Thus to prefer sorrow and griefe for her misery , before all the ioy and pleasance Babylon could affoord him , was truly to remember the ruines of Ierusalem . By the same dialect , whiles he beseecheth his God to remember Edom , he implicitely wished as ill to it , as he expresly did to Babylon , such de●olations vpon the Cities and inhabitants therof , as the Babylonians , by the Edomites instigatiō had brought vpon Ierusalem ; that the whole land might be wasted with misery , that the enemy might take the children from their mothers breasts , and dash their braines against the stones . So when Artaxerxes thought it strange to see Nehemiah , as who would not to see a Courtier , not sicke , and yet sad , when his soueraigne Lord looked cheerfully vpon him : the good man replies b Let the king liue for euer , as if he had said , God grant he neuer know cause of sorrow : but why should not my countenance be sad , when the city & place of the sepul●her's of my fathers lieth waste , and the gates therof are consumed with fire ? so deeply did there cogitatiō of what he had not seene , but only heard , sink into this true Patria●kes heart . So likewise that praier of his ; c Remember them ô my God , that defile the Priest ho●d , and breake the couenant of the Priesthood , and of Leu● includes a desire that God should plague them according to their deserts . And he else where vpon like occasion expresseth : d My God remember thou Tobiah and Sanballat , according vnto those their works , and Noadiah the Prophetesse also , and the rest of the Prophets that would haue put me in feare . But when he desires God to remember himselfe , hee supposeth this remembrance should bring a gracious reward of his good service , as ●● interprets himselfe : e Remember me , ô my God , concerning this ; and wipe not out the good deeds that I haue done for the house of my God , and for the offices thereof . The like vse of this phrase wee haue in common speech : for when wee promise to remember a good turne done vs : we imply not a bare recognition onelie of what this or that man hath done for vs , vpon this or that day : but a like hearty affection toward him , and a readinesse to requite his kindnesse , whensoeuer occasion shall be offered . So when we threaten to remember our enemies , or such as wrong vs : euery man knowes the meaning of this speech to be as much , as if we had promised to be euen with them , or to doe them as shrewd a turne , as they haue done vs. But this is a remembrance which amongst Christians should be forgotten : yet as well the phrase it selfe , as the practice of it may serue , to notifie the right vse of the like in Scripture . Then we are truly said to remember Gods Commaundements , when our hearts are as firmely set on their practice , as the naturall , or vnregenerate mans is vpon requitall of iniuries offered . In this sence ( saith God himself , ) a remember thou keepe holy the Sabba●th day ; as if not to fanctifie it , were to forget it : and the Apostle , b remember such as are i● bonds , not as scoffers doe , to whom their misery is oft-times matter of mirth , but as if you were in bonds with them . So currantly did like speeches goe for as much as we haue set down in Salomons raigne ; that he deemed vs sufficiently charged with thankefulnesse to our Creator , in that we were enioined to remember him : and vpon this consideration he exhorts vs , to take the inuentory of what we receiued from him in our creation , in those dayes wherein we most delight , in which the characters of his blessings bestowed vpon vs , and their true worth , are most fresh and sensible in all our faculties ; well knowing , that if wee deferred this suruey til old age come vpon vs , in which life it self becomes a burthen , our returne of thanks for fruition of it , and the vnpleasant appertinencies , would be but wearyish . d Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth , while the euil daies come not ; nor the yeeres drawe nigh , when thou shalt say , I haue no pleasure in them : While the sun , or the light , or the moone , or the starres be not darkned , nor the cloudes returne after the raine , &c. 4 In like sort , as well in sacred as common , though lesse in the schoole language , ( the greater the schoole-mens folly ; ) to know or belieue , include , not only a logicall conceit of the things we know , or of their truth considered in themselues , but withal a right esteeme of their worth , or consequence in respect of vs. The originall of these scholastique solecismes in morall or sacred arguments , i● I mistake nor , ariseth hence ; that intentionall , or abstract truths , whereunto in younger daies wee are most accustomed , being most comprehensible and best known : we vse our apprehension , or conceit of them , because definite and vnuariable , as the fittest scale to measure matters of morality ; not considering , that these require more dimensions , then obiects meerely speculatiue , that their degrees are of another size , and oft-times asymmetrall with the former , that our soules for the exact discernment of their quality , require a more peculiar touch , then that light tincture , or impression they haue taken from matters logicall , mathematicall , or meerly secular : albeit all true knowledge , euen of these must be commensurable to the subiect we professe to know , & rightly prop●●●tionate , or rather actually reaching to that end , where at it le●els . Euen in matters secular , or most abstract , if we wel obserue that conceit or knowledge , which in respect of one obiect , or some subordinate end thereof , is exact and perfect , applied either to an obiect altogether different , or to an other end of the same , will appeere to be meer ignorance or knowledge , either imperfect or impertinent . 5 Know we may the length , or circumference of some plot of ground to an haire-breadth ; and this abundantly sufficeth euen curiosity it selfe , in him that hath no other intent then to course , or exercise in it . In iour●ying or shooting wee examine not how wide , but how long the countrie is , through which we roue or trau●il ; but the exact knowledge of this dimension would little auaile a surueier , vnlesse he haue skil withall to gather the iust quantity of the whole surface from the breadth , as accurately knowne as the length : or he that could from these two dimensions curiously calculate thus much , should be accounted meerely ignorant in measuring timber or other solids , vnlesse he knew th 〈…〉 icknesse of them , and from the distinct knowledge of all three dimensions , to notifie the iust quantity of the whole masse or substance , the most accurate knowledge whereof vvere little pertinent to him , that stands more vpon their weight then magnitude , both which onely to know ( vnto a scruple ) would argue ignorance in him , vnto whose purpose or profession , the notification of their qualities , vse , or operation , were only or principally necessary . 6. Such a difference as I haue specified betweene knowledge of lines and plaine figures , betweene them and solids , or betweene the quantity of such bodies , as their weight or quality we must imagine betweene the knowledge of truths speculatiue and morall , or betweene meerely morall and diuine concerning our owne saluation . The conceit or knowledge of these last , how exact soeuer it be , if it be only in the braine , and imprint not the true character of it selfe vpon the affection , is no better to a Christian , then it would be for a Carpenter to know the length o● bredth of a peece of timber without the thicknesse , or all three dimensions without any iudgement whether it were sound or faulty , whether rightly seasoned , or vnto what vse it would best serue in building . It would be all one , as if a Physitian or Apothecary should know the picture , shape , or colour of any hearbe in Mathiolus , or other Herbalist , ignorant of its vertue or operation , or how it should be prepared for medicine . Or , as if a Merchant , or Auditor should be able to display all the perfections nature hath bestowed on go●d 〈…〉 other mettals , not acquainted with the worth of it 〈…〉 ents , or in what countries it is most currant . Briefly , seeing all knowledge must be measured by the vse or end , and this in the subiect we treat of , is the saluation of our soules , whereunto we growe by newnesse of life : our knowledge cannot be perfect , vnlesse terminated to a right structure of affections in the heart , answerable to the Idea , or modell of truth in our braines ; vnlesse it bring forth readinesse or promptitude in euery faculty to put such precepts as require their seruice , in execution . Of these two parts of Christian knowledge , the one in the head , the other in the heart : much better the former were defectiue , then the latter . He that knowes rightly to husband the ground he enioyes , what part is good for medow , what for pasture , what for corne , what for this kinde of graine , what for that , how euery parcell may bee imploied to the best commodity of the owner , may be ignorant in suruaying , or drawing a right plat-forme of it , with lesse losse , then he that could suruey it most exactly , but hath no experimentall skill at all in tillage , or husbandry . Now seeing our Sauiour tels vs his father is an husbandman , and is best glorified by such fruites as we shall bring forth vnto saluation , ( the true end of Christian knowledge : ) he may be truly sayd to know more , at least better then others doe , that can improue whatsoeuer he heares or reades to the benefit of his owne soule , and imploy those faculties God hath giuen him to his seruice . It shall be little or no preiudice to such a man , albeit hee cannot draw a map , or perfect systeme of diuinity , or deduce one diuine attribute from another . Albeit he that can do this , and leaue not the other vndone , shall receiue his reward according to the measure of his talent rightly imployed . But if his chiefe knowledge consist in distinct conceiuing of the deity , or methodicall discoursing of diuinity ; this glorifies God but as the Painter doth the party , whose picture hee hath exactly taken ; whereas our Creators glory must shine , not in liuelesse & painted words , but in our workes patternized to his image , renewed in our minds ; as towardly children expresse their noble ancestors worth , by liuely resemblance of their personages , and reall imitation of their vertues . It is a kinde of cunning I must confesse , to be able accurately to paint God , or his goodnesse ; but as little pertinent to true Christian knowledge , as an artificiall picture of a great feast , is to a poore soule almost starued for hunger , vnlesse it make vs not painted images , but true and liue sonnes of the euerlasting God. For , our light must so shine before men , that they seeing our good workes may glorifie our Father which is in heauen . That such a father there is , and that we are his sons , we must make knowne to others by imitating his perfections . 7. * To these , or like points , do sacred writers vsually extend words importing knowledge ; whether they speake of our knowing God , or his knowing vs. a The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous ( sayth the Psalmist . ) And if he know it , will he not reward it ? Yes , with life , for the way of the wicked , because as well knowne to him , shall perish . Answerable hereto men are sayd to know Gods wayes , when their demeanure is such as if they expected he should presently take notice of theirs , either to reward or punish them . b It is a people that doe erre in their hearts , ( sayth the Lord : ) for they haue not knowne my waies . As they did erre in their hearts : so did they not know Gods wayes in their hearts , for such a knowledge of them , as is confined within the braine , or such as a man that neuer trauelled may haue of a strange country by a mappe , no doubt they had . But as beaten wayes , & vulgar directions of the inhabitants , are better guides in vnknowne coasts , then most accurate geographicall descriptions ; so is it not this superficiall knowledge of Gods wayes , that can conduct vs to his rest ; whither none come but such as can tread in the steps of holy and religious men , that haue gone them , and learne that by experience , which others paint out and decipher . c This is life eternall ( sayth our Sauiour , ) that they might know thee the only true God , and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent : equiualent hereto is that ; a Whosoeuer belieueth in him shall not perish , but haue euer lasting life . Can faith and knowledge then reach to heauen , vnlesse they be lengthened by loue and other Christian vertues ? He that is warned to receiue a Prince or man of state , will make accompt of his necessary traine , albeit no mans comming besides be specified : Nor is it needful sacred writers should mention loue , or other attendants of those queenes of vertues , Wisdome , faith , or knowledge ; if these be present the rest will certainly accompany them . Hee that sayth b I know Christ and keeps not his commandements is a lyar , and the truth is not in him . Faith or knowledge without loue , is not Christian , but hypocriticall : for only he that hath c Christs commandements , and d keepeth them , is he that loueth him . We know that the sonne of God is come , and hath giuen vs an vnderstanding , that we may knowe him that is true ; and we are in him that is true , euen in his sonne Iesus Christ . This is the true God and eternallife . Many were the peoples sinnes in the wildernesse . Yet Saint Iude comprehends all in this one , that they belieued not . f This ye know , how that the Lord hauing saued the people out of the land of Aegypt , afterwards destroied them that belieued not . So doth the Psaimist attribute all the disobediences and rebellions of his forefathers , vnto this : g That their spirit was not tied by faith vnto God ; yea , h the fire was kindled in Iacob , and also wrath came vpon Israell , because they belieued not in God , and the error of the Israelites , that knew not the way vnto Gods rest , was in the Apostles construction ) l vnbeliefe . The word that they heard profited not them , because it was not mixed with faith ; for we which haue belieued do enter into that Rest. The greatest praise we read giuen to the Israelites in the wildernesse was , that they belieued God , and his seruant Moses . As long as they thus continued , they were not ouercome by temptations of the world or flesh . And by what meanes do all such , as are borne of God , ouercome the world ? Is not this victory from faith ? Who is it that ouercommeth the vvorld , but he which belieueth that IESVS is the sonne of God ? The same dialect was well knowne in Iewry in his time that sayd : k The knowledge of the commaundement of the Lord is the doctrine of life : that all wisdome was contained in the feare of the Lord , performance of the Lawe , and knowledge of his almighty power ; l that to belieue the Lord was to keepe his commaundements . Which last testimony is very vsefull in the examination of faith , further to be insisted vpon in m that treatise . 8. It was but an effect of such mens folly as spend the best of their daies and spirits in coyning second intentions , or terms of art ; and after they haue gotten the skill to draw solid learning by this deuice into plaine tables , mistake these types or shadowes for the bodies or substances ; which first did seuer beliefe , and knowledge of diuine matters , from practise ; whereunto they are as naturally linked , as the nerue is to the part which it moueth . Nature herselfe , not stretched awry by art , or misled by passion , ( from whose attraction or impulsion she is most free in matters of ordinary and common vse ) alwaies frames her language fully paralell to the former rules of sacred speech . Into whose heart , beside the hypocrites , would it sinke , that affection should not increase according to the degrees of worth in the obiect , though no better knowne then others are ? Is not the quantity or perfection of goodnesse as intelligible , as the bare essence or quality ? Or can we in part be moued with some few degrees of goodnesse knowne , and not as much more moued by equall knowledge of farre more ? or can we rightly value the consequence of diuine truthes in respect of our selues , and not frame desires of them proportionally ? Doth any man not much affect him , whose excellent parts he highly esteemes , aib●it he expect no reall fauour or commodity from him ? To say wee know a man , in ordinary speech imports a demeanour , or respect towards him , answerable to that quality wee know in him . To know him for a sweete companion includes a desire of his company , or acquaintance , an vnwillingnesse to fall out with him , or to be estranged from him . To conceiue of one as an odde , and vnsociable wrangling mate , implies a care to eschew all occasions of intercourse , dealing or familiarity with him . If an inferiour should say hee knew his lawfull Magistrate to be a most vnpartiall , seuere Iusticer , he need not specifie his vnwillingnes to be iustly accused before him of any crime . Or if wee say wee know , or belieue one to be a maruellous wise , honest , friendly man , who would not gather , that whilest this perswasion lasted , we would be readier to commit any matter of moment to his care and trust , then vnto others , whom we know as well or perhaps better , yet not to be so wise , so honest or well affected towards vs. Speake we of what knowledge we list , sensitiue or intellectuall , to know any obiect , and not to be affected with such attributes , or qualities of it , as are dissonant or agreeable to our natures , is indeed to know it , and not them . To know that which in it selfe is terrible , and not to be terrified with it , is not to know the terrour of it . The Beare and Lyon know the wolfe by sight , as well as the seely lambe ; which no sooner sees him but is affrighted : for of these three , this poore soule only knowes him as terrible , & an enemy to his nature . Rattes know that baite which is their bane ; but as sweet , not as poisonous : for , were it as bitter in their mouth at the first tasting , as it afterwards proues in their bellies , they would auoid it . a The diuels ( saith S. Iames ) belieue that there is a God and tremble : whether he speake of beliefe properly so called , or of some greater knowledge , certaine it is , they tremble , because they belieue , and know him to be a terrible and powerfull Iudge . Did they as firmely belieue , or know he had mercy for them in store : would they not loue him and seeke to auoide his displeasure ? If our knowledge , both of his iustice to the wicked and disobedient , and of his mercy to the penitent amongst the sonnes of men , whose nature his sonne hath taken vpon him , were but such , as these infernall spirits haue of his seuerity towards them ; it would commaund all our affections , of loue , of feare , of thankfulnesse , and bring forth intire : fidelity in his seruice . Though they say the Lord liueth , ( saith the b Prophet , ) yet they sweare falsly . Yet what truth more vndoubted , then that the Lord liueth ? But swearing this , they professed a beliefe or knowledge of it , which they had not : otherwise , c they had executed iudgement , and sought the truth ; they had sorrowed when the Lord had smitten them , & receiued correction when he had consumed them . d But this people ( as the Prophet ads ) had an vnfaithfull , and rebellious heart : they are departed and gone . For , they say not in their hart , let vs now feare the Lord our God , that giueth raine both early and late in due season : he reserueth vnto vs the appointed vveekes of the haruest . 9. Why supernaturall concourse , seeing it is as necessary as diuine reuelation to produce the acts . should not as properly belong to the obiect of beliefe ? some schoole-men giue this reason ; because of these two the diuine reuelation onely is the ideall , or exemplary cause of our faith , and this ideal casualty herein consists : That as the truth and reuelation diuine is in it self , so must our Assent vnto it , be most infallible . That they extend this conformity , betwixt the obiect belieued and our beliefe of it , no further ; is not disagreeable to their intentionall , or superficiall conceit of this celestiall vertue . But constantly to our former declarations of that indissoluble combination , betwixt truth and goodnesse in moralities , and the intrinsecall identity of the wil● and vnderstanding : wee make not onely trueth , but goodnesse also diuine , with the seuerall branches of it , the exemplary cause of our Assent . The former conformity betweene the infallible veracitie of the God-head , and our beliefe of whatsoeuer it shall say or teach , wee take as transcendent , and included in euerie Assent wee giue vnto other particular attributes . This mutuall infallibility is as the authentique instrument , or legall forme of our assurance ; but renewing of Gods image , communication of his goodnesse and mercy in Christ is the patrimony or legacy conu●ied vnto vs. This is as a wrest or screw , to fasten our soules vnto his other attributes , all as apt , if closely applyed , to imprint their figure vpon them as the former . Betwixt euery obiect assented vnto , whether as good or true , and the faculties of our soules which it concernes , there must be such a correspondencie , as is betweene the Character and the letter enstamped . Our Assent vnto Gods long suffering , and forbearance of obstinate sinners , will quell vnaduised anger against our brethren : our infallible beliefe of his mercy towards our selues , and his readinesse to forgiue our trespasses , though in number infinite against his most infinite Maiesty , will cause vs forgiue our fellow seruants their offences against vs ; not vntill seauen times only , but vnto seauenty times seauen times . Our infallible beliefe that hee is good and bountifull as well to the vniust as iust , will imprint a like desire in vs of doing good , though to vngratefull persons . This is our Sauiours inference vpon the explication of this attribute . a But I say vnto you , loue your enemies , blesse them that curse you , doe good to them that hate you , and pray for them which despightefully vse you , and persecute you : that yee may be the b children of your Father which is in heauen , for he maketh his sunne to rise on the euill and on the good , and sendeth raine on the iust and on the vniust . For if ye loue them which loue you , vvhat reward haue yee ? Doe not euen the Publicanes the same ? And if ye salute your brethren onely , what doe ye more then others ? Doe not euen the Publicanes so ? Be ye therefore perfect euen as your father which is in heauen is persect : not in some onely but in all parts of his goodnesse , reuealed or proposed to our imitations . His incommunicable attributes of maiestie , honour , and glory , we are with reuerence to adore , not to imitate . Albeit , euen vnto these , his infallible veracity is as the handle by which firmly apprehended , they haue their peculiar waight , and force vpon our soules and affections , imprinting on them a generall disposition to receiue the stamp of his perfections , imitable or communicable , an vniuersall inclination to performance of his will reuealed . Thus in the language of Canaan , he is sayd to ascribe praise and glory vnto God , that euacuates his heart of pride and vaine-boasting , in such perfections as he hath receiued from his immensity , whence euery good gift dooth flowe , and whither in thankfulnesse it must returne : he ascribeth strength and maiesty , that renounceth all confidence in man , or other creature , and humbles himselfe vnder his mighty hand . And seeing wee must not only belieue the Essence but the attributes of the God-head , and all beliefe presupposeth knowledge , consonant to the language of nature late mentioned ( in matters , wherein she is ●est seene , and least corrupt ) is the dialect of grace . Hee is sayd to belieue or know God , as iust , that seares him as a Iudge most vnpartiall and vncorrupt , and is afraid , to be vniust least he take vengeance . He rightly belieues his power , that honours him as a king most omnipotent , hee his tender mercy and compassion , that reuerenceth him as a most louing Father : he his prouidence , that commends his soule vnto him as to a faithfull Creator ; he , vvhose chiefe care is to cast all his care on him , as on a Guardian most tenderly respecting the wel-fare of all such , as with prayers vnfayned commend themselues to his tuition . That these are the immediate and proper effects of Christian beliefe , or Assent vnto the diuine prouidence our Sauiour enstructs vs , where he attributes carking care , or worldly solicitude , to Gentilisme or Infidelity . Take no thought , saying , what shall we eate ? or what shall we drinke ? or wherewithall shall we be cloathed ? ( for after all these things do the Gentiles seeke ) for your heauenly Father knoweth that yee haue need of all these things : But seeke ye first the kingdome of God , and his righteousnesse , and all these things shall be added vnto you . A liuely embleme of this correspondency betweene the diuine attributes and our Assent , or betweene the characters of Gods will and ours the holy Ghost hath purposely set forth vnto vs in the story of Abraham . The prime and fundamentall obiect of Christian beliefe , was that most illustrious act of Gods mercy in offering his only sonne , in whom he was vvellpleased , for the sinnes of the world . Now to shew what manner of Assent is on our parts required , for right acceptance of this inestimable fauour ; he will haue the like minde in Abraham , that was in himselfe : ready he must bee to sacrifice his sonne , his onely sonne Isaac , whom hee loued , ere the couenant bee concluded with him . Finally , seeing the man CHRIST IESVS ( as hath been obserued ) is as the abridgement , or visible a modell of his fathers goodnesse , which is incomprehensible ; his heauenly disposition , the idaeall patterne , after whose similitude a Christians life must be framed : we are then rightlie said to belieue his incarnation , life , death , and passion , when ( as the b Apostle speakes ) the same minde is in vs , that was in him : when we are not onelie willing to lay downe our liues for the brethren , as he did his for vs , but when our liues and conuersations entirely expresse the true proportion of that absolute perfection , which shined in his humane nature , as it did in the Glory of the Godhead . His fathers loue to him brought forth the like affection in him towards vs , and to his lawes ; so must his loue to vs worke loue in vs to our brethren , and to all his commaundements . c Herein ( saith he ) is my father glorified that ye beare much fruite , and be made my Disciples . As the father hath loued me , so haue I loued you ; continue ye in my loue . If ye shall keepe my Commaundements , ye shall abide in my loue ; as I haue kept my fathers Commandements , and abide in his loue . Thus made conformable to him , not in one , or few , but in all points of obedience and Christian vertues we are rightly said to be edified in faith , and to haue him fashioned in vs. Nor is there any Article in this creed , whose stedfast beliefe doth not in one point or other , worke this conformitie ; as in their explications ( God willing ) shall be manifested . 10. The whole platforme of diuinity , or Theology , we may hence gather , cannot better be defined , or limited , then between these two lines or borders : A distinct explication , first of the obiects to be beleeued , and their certainty : secondly , of the meanes , whereby their image or Characters may be engrauen vpon our soules . This now may suffice , that , vnto that assent of faith , or beliefe in Christ , whereby the iust must liue ; such a knowledge of him , and his attributes is required , as shall enstampe our w●● and affections with the ●iue image of his goodnesse , and imitable perfections , as truly as matte●s meerely speculatiue imprint their shape vpon the vnderstanding , or obiects visible theirs vpon the eye . For seeing all knowledge must be commensurable to the obiects knowne ; in such an impression of whose entire similitude as the seale leaues in the wax , the perfection of it consists : Our knowledge of morall obiects , diuine especially , which are as essentially good as true , is imperfect , v●lesse it include a solid impression of their goodnesse , as well as a superfi●iall resemblance of their truth . From this indiuisible vnion betwixt truth and goodnesse in matters diuine , their names in phrase of scripture are oft times vsed promiscnously . And it is a Maxime vndoubted in Diuinity , That Christ Iesus must dwell in vs by the same bond and knot we dwell in him . Now it is impossible that any part of him , or ( which is all one ) of his liue image , should be fashioned in vs , by any other meanes , then by knowledge or apprehension of his incarnation , life , death and passion , with their consequences in respect of vs ; impossible that he should abide in vs , or we in him by any other linke or bond , besides firme and stedfast a●sent , or adherence vnto these , and other truthes concerning him , reu ealed and knowne . CHAP. IX . What manner of knowledge it is whence the last and proper difference of that assent wherein Christian faith consists doth result : the complete definition of such faith . 1. SEeing the word in a generall , the Lord of life , in a sence more peculiar , is not only the obiect of our beliefe , but the true food of our soules ; and all food essentially includes a relation vnto tast : the true nature of that faith , or knowledge by which we liue , cannot better be notified , then by such a proportion betweene our minde , and the food of life , as is betweene the symbole , or organicall faculty of bodily tast , and the quality of the meate it relisheth . As our bodily tast though the same in respect of all , is not alike affected with all meates , but relisheth euery one according to their seuerall qualities , or degrees of proportion or disproportion with it selfe : so though by one and the same faith wee assent vnto all matters reuealed in Scripture as true and good , yet our soules find not the like comfort or refreshing in all ; but some , albeit presented a farre off to their sence they apprehend with horror as the dregs of that cup which is in the hands of the Lord , whereof all the vngodly must bee enforced to drinke : Others , though they come but within smell , they entertaine with admiration , yet feed not on them ; as we lightly essay strong waters or quintescences , but vse them not as ordinary drinke ; such are the inscrutable mysteries of the Trinity , the glory and maiesty of the Godhead : Others are continually longed after as their onely food , more or lesse according to the seuerall degrees of their goodnes in respect of vs. 2. No man that drinketh old wine straightway desireth new , for he saith , the old is better . And in this case it is as easie to doe as to say , because one and the same faculty enclines him to like of both ; and the apprehension of ones rellish or sweetnes being as proper and naturall as the others , that which is so indeed will be esteemed better . For where the constitution of the faculty is vniformaly e●clined to all , it is alwaies most forcibly mooued by such of it proper obiects as are most potent , or apt to moue it ; as a iust ballance is alwaies farthest cast by the greatest waight ; But though when temptations are a farre off , and our corrupt . humours not stirred , we say with Peter , Verba vi●ae aeternae habes : Lord , thou hast the wordes of eternall life , and what pleasures of this transitory life should we affect in comparision of them ; yet we cannot alwaies approoue our sayings by actuall choice when both are offered to our tast . And no maruell , seeing our sence of the one is of all others the most quicke , our conceipt of it distinct and proper , of the other most men in this life haue no semblable apprehension , no true or liuely tast , but rather a smel , some heare-say conceipt or imaginary representation . Besides , the pleasures of that bodily sence by which we liue , and other desires of the flesh too deepely incorporated in our corrupt nature , often lust so vehemently against the spirit inclining vs to a liking of the sood of life ▪ that we cannot doe as we would , nor continue our assent vnto it as better for the time being , then prosecution of some sensuall good comming in actuall competition with it , lately ad●●dged of farre better worth , whilest contrary inclinations were not swared with present oportunity of enioying their proper obiects . The immediate cause of this backe starting ▪ with the remedy ▪ comes most fi●ly to be discussed ced in the article of euerlasting life . But albeit euen the best are sometimes , yea often ouertaken with this fault : the habituall constitution of euery faithfull soule must be much better ; and our faith howsoeuer defectiue in degrees , must be for essence or quality a true tast ; for as a learned interpreter of sacred writ hath well obserued out of Plato , Om●is vita gustu ducitur , without tast there is no life . The degrees of perfection which our spirituall tast wants , in respect of that bodily sence , whereto it answeres in proportion , is recompenced , euen in this life , by the greatnes of the good it apprehends , or penury of eternall comfort or refreshing ; wherewith , who so will seriously looke into the state of his owne soule , shall finde it pinched euen in the abundance of worldly contentments . 3. This true tast of Gods word , reuealed for our good , alone it is , which can sweeten affliction to vs ; and make vs couragious to aduenture vpon all difficulties that can bee obiected to deterre vs from entering into the land of promise . Such speculatiue conceipts of this food of life , as we may find in the subtile disputes of greatest Schoolemen , are of as little force to enflame our hearts with longing after that heauenly kingdome , as poeticall descriptions of some farre Countries pleasures o● commodities are to make vs vndertake their Conquest : yea as much lesse auaileable to this purpose , as their stile is lesse apt to moue affection , then the others . No imperiall Law I thinke did euer prohibit any prouince to haue maps of the imperiall seat or homericall descriptions of the Emperour and his Nobles banquets : though some ( to my remebrance ) haue strictly restrained all transportation of grapes , or other pleasant commodities into barbarous countries , least barbarians hauing experience of their sweetnes , might out of loue to the Land wherein they grow , be tempted to worke some mischiefe to the inhabitants ; as the Gals are said to haue beene drawne ouer the Alpes vpon the like temptatiō . Generally euery obiect ( caeterisparibus ) moues the obiect to which it belongs so much the more , and breeds an assent so much the firmer and more stedfast , as the conceipt of it is more proper , distinct or homogeneall . Sight of beauty , decent gestures , or comely motion more deepely wounds the hearts of louers then the most hyperbolicall sonets that can be made in praise of feature vnseene . Smell of meates is more forcible then sight to stirre the appetite , because this sence hath greater affinity then the other with tast , which alone can rightly iudge of meates and drinkes , because the temper of it only rightly symbolizeth with their qualities . 4. Euery child of Adam is an old man from his birth , iust of Barzillahs temper , without all tast of such dainties as the great King hath prouided for him . All of vs by nature herein worse then his decrepit age , that we neuer had any true rellish of them : but soit is with vs ( vntill regenerated ) as if we should imagine one grieuously distempered from his cradle ; to whom others may truly commend sundry meates for sweet and wholesome , which notwithstanding prooue distastfull & bitter to his palate , albeit , from a good opinion of their loue and honesty , that vppon experience commend them to him , still retaining a confused assent to such goodnesse in them as he cannot perceiue but guesses at ; as many well disposed naturall men doe at the sweetnesse of the bread of life , not distrusting the reports of others that so much magnifie it , yet erring as much in their conceipt of it , as he , that had neuer seene house or towne better built then the thatched cottages of that poore village wherein hee was borne , should in his imaginations of London , Venice , or some like famous Citie : whose error best appeares when hee comes to compare his former fancies with the distinct view or sight of their greatnesse , their stately and magnificent buildings . Now as our naturall life beginnes and is maintained by bodily tast : so is the new man framed and nourished in vs by this tast spirituall ; which onely rightly apprehends the nature , worth and qualities of heauenly mysteries , it selfe consisting in a temper of mind symbolizing with diuine goodnesse , or with the heauenly mind of the second Adam . Our soules and affections thus affected , haue the same proportion to the seuerall branches of Gods will reuealed , that euery sence or faculty hath to it proper obiect ; and this apprehension of our spirituall food by a proper , distinct , symbolicall conceipt of it goodnesse , is the last , and most essentiall difference wherein the nature of faith , as Christian consists ▪ which cannot possibly be wrought but by the spirit of God. For as the obiect is , such must the assent be , supernaturall ; otherwise it cannot haue that proportion to food spirituall , that bodily tast hath to naturall . The particular manner of the spirits working this alteration in our soules , is a mystery , at the least to my simplicitie , inscrutable . To the capacity of the vulgar we may resemble his working in generall to a Phisitian , that restores one desperately sicke , and vtterly destitute of tast , to a right rellish and appetite of his meate ; partly by remouing the distempered humours , wherein that sence of life lay buried , partly by reuiuing his dead spirits , by insusing of some pretious water . Answerable to one of these meanes is the infusion of supernaturall grace , which quickeneth vs vnto life , making vs new men in CHRIST IESVS ; answearable to the other is practice of ordinary meanes , appointed by God for mortification of the old man ; all which without the operation of the spirit are nothing auaileable . What is required on our parts that are patients , is handled in the third section of this Booke . Whether ability by nature we haue any , or any cooperatiue with Gods spirit in this cure , shall ( by the diuine assistance ) be disputed at large in the seauenth Booke of these Commentaries . Here at length we may define , the faith by which the iust doth liue , to be a firme and constant assent or adherence , vnto the mercies and louing kindnes of the Lord , or generally to the spirituall food exhibited in his sacred word , as much better then this life it selfe and all the contentments it is capable of , grounded vpon a tast ( or relish ) of the sweetnesse , wrought in the soule or heart of man by the Spirit of Christ . The termes for the most part are the * Prophet Dauids , not metaphoricall , as some may fancie , much lesse aequiuocall , but proper and homogeneall to the subiect defined . For whatsoeuer internall affinity or reall identity of conceipt , there is or can be betwixt life temporall and mortall , ( which no man I thinke denies to be vniuocall ; ) the same may be found betwixt food spirituall and corporall ; if we consider not so much the phisicall matter or corpulency of the later , as the metaphisicall quintessence , which is one and the same in both , saue onely that it is pure and extracted in the one but mixt and incorporated or in a sort buried in the other , but of this analogy betwixt food corporall and spirituall in the treatise of Christs presence in the sacrament . 5 Whether this Assent be virtuall , or habituall , I will not so much as question . Be it whether the Reader list to make it , question there can be none , but that it admits many interruptions in acts or operations . Nor doth this argue the meanes or pledges of saluation should be lesse euident then matters scientificall , so long as this habit or constitution of mind is not eclipsed by interposition of carnall lusts , or earthly thoughts ; wherunto our euidence of spiritual matters is more obnoxious , then our speculatiue perswasions of abstract entities : so is our bodily taste oftener corrupted then the sight , and yet that Assent wee giue in perfect health vnto the distinct quality of wholsome food , no lesse euident or certaine , then that wee giue vnto the true differences of things seene . The minde once thus illuminated with grace , and renewed by faith , whiles not darkned by exhalations from our naturall corruptions , whiles free from passion or motion of bad affection , actually moued and assisted by the spirit ; hath the same proportion to truth supernaturall of this inferiour ranke , that the vnderstanding without supernaturall concourse , or illumination of grace , hath to Obiects meerely naturall ; nor can it dissent from the truth , whiles this temper or constitution lasts , as the Iesuite imagines . Howbeit , so great euidence of matters spirituall , as others haue of humane sciences , is not required in all . Onely this I dare affirme , that although it be in some as great , or in some greater : this doth not exempt their knowledge from the former definition of faith . For who would question whether S. Iohn , S. Peter and S. Paul had not as great euidence of misteries , as either Aristotle had of philosophicall , or Euclide of mathematicall principles or conclusions . And yet what they so euidently knew , they belieued and assented vnto by the supernaturall guifte or habit of faith : and it was the greater euidence of things belieued , which made their beliefe more firme and strong then ours is , and enflamed their hearts with loue of God , and zeale of his glorie , more ardent , then our weake faith is capable of . CHAP. X. Of the generall consequences or properties of true Faith , Loue , Fidelity and Confidence , with the manner of their resultance from it . 1. THat the goodnesse of whatsoeuer we enioy is better perceiued by vicissitude of want , then continuall fruition , is a maxim whereof none can want experience . Hence the Poeticall Philosopher hath wittily faigned penury and indigence , to bee the Mother of Loue : with which conceit the vulgar prouerbe ; Hunger of all sauces is the best , hath great affinity . For this first affection , or prime symptome of sense , being but a perception of want or indigence , causeth a more quicke taste or rellish then full stomackes can haue of their meate . But nature , without further alteration or qualification of any other faculty , immediatly teacheth vs to like that best , which best we rellish and finde most good in . Nor skils it whether this loue , or liking of meates best relished , reside in the sense of taste it selfe , or from approbation of it immediatly result in some other faculty by way of sympathie : both wayes this internall sense or apprehension of want , or indigence of carnall nutriment , is still the only Mother of loue to bodily meates . Thus hath the folly of man , which wilfully depriued himselfe of celestiall food , set forth the loue and wisedome of God , who hath made this want or indigence of spirituall meate , whose apprehension is the first roote of our spirituall sense , a meane to quicken our taste or relish of his mercies , and louing kindnesse , which is the principall obiect of that faith , by which we liue . But our taste once sharpned to relish his mercies , aright , ( without any peculiar reformation of the will , or new infusion of other grace into any part of the humane soule , then what is either included in faith , or concomitant with it , ) cannot but pierce our hearts with loue of his infinite goodnesse , whence this sweetnesse distils . Euen loue naturall or ciuill , if vnfaigned , betweene equalls , brings forth vnity and consent of minde , mutually to will and nill the same things ; betweene parties in condition of life , or measure of iudgement , or discretion , vnequall , a conformity of the inferiours will to the superiours direction . Much more doth this spirituall loue of God , thus conceiued , from a true and liuely taste of his loue and goodnesse towards vs , kindle an ardent desire of doing what he likes best : whence vnto vs , as to our Sauiour , it becomes a meate and drinke to do our fathers will , and finish his vvorke . For , seeing b man liueth not by bread only , but by euery vvord that proceedeth out of the mouth of God : thus to doe must needs be part of our spirituall foode . 2. From faith thus working through loue , ariseth that most generall property , whose affinitie with faith is such as it takes the same name , fidelitie , or faithfulnesse in all the seruice of God , without respect to the fulfilling of our owne particular resolutions or desires . For once assenting vnto euery part of his will knowne , as good and fit to be done by vs , as if to do it were meate and drinke vnto our soules , wee forthwith abandon all sloth and negligence , much more deceit and fraudulencie in his imploiments . Of this generall fidelity practice of charitable offices to our neighbours is but a part or branch , though a principall one , as hauing more immediate reference to the loue and goodnesse we apprehend in God towards vs : the taste whereof is then sincere and liuely , when wee feele a present benefit redounding to our selues from the good we do to others , as if we actually perceiued the cooperatiue cōcurrence of diuine goodnesse in these workes of charity . As well this loue of God as of our neighbours , are , though in different manner , effects or properties of liuely faith , or of that grace whereof faith it selfe is the principall stemme , as it illuminates the minde or supreme faculty of the soule . Our loue of God may well seeme to be an effect immanēt , or residing in the same faculty with faith : Loue to our neighbour an effect transient , as hauing a distinct d roote , or originall whence it springs , and takes it proper substance , though quickned and moued to euery good worke by faith ; as the moone hath a distinct bodie of it owne , more capable of light then others are , but illuminated by the sunne . The substance or body of loue to our neighbours , is naturall humanity or kindnesse ; whose illumination , perfection and guidance is from faith apprehending the goodnesse of God , whom we immediately loue aboue all for himselfe , as the onely Creator and preseruer of all , the onely procurer of all good to all , others in him , and for him , as our fellow creatures , and ioint obiects with vs of his vnrecompensable loue . 3. The same dependance on faith haue trust and confidence , or that affection which in latine we call Fiducia Confidence , in their language of whom we borrow the name , implies a boldnesse , or hopefull assurance of good successe in the businesse we goe about ; and naturally springs from a perswasion , either of our owne , or others sufficiencie , of whose helpe or furtherance we may presume . Thus the strong are vsually confident in matters of strength ; wise men , or well experienced ; in matters to be tried by wit or worldly pollicie ; the wealthy , in causes that may be swaied with bribery ; men well allied , in businesses that may be carried best by multitude of friends . But all these branches of confidence haue the cursed fig-trees hap , * Cursed be the man that trusteth in man , and maketh flesh his arme , and with-draweth his heart from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the wildernesse , and shall not see when any good commeth , but shall inhabite the parched places in the wildernesse , in a salt land , and not inhabited . The stocke notwithstanding whence they grow , being purified and seasoned by grace , these lopt off , and the true knowledge of God ingrafted in their steed , beareth fruit vnto saluation . For blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord , and whose hope the Lord is . For hee shall be as a tree that is planted by the water , which spreadeth out her rootes by the water , and shall not feele when the heate commeth , but her lease shall be greene , and shall not care for the yeare of drought , neither shall cease from yeelding fruit . The points towards which this naturall affection , whereof all participate more or lesse , must be set , ere it grow vp into such confidence as spreads it selfe throughout all the waies that God hath appointed vs to walke in ; are the articles of Gods power and wisdome ouer all the workes of his hands , and his fauour towards vs. The manner how faith doth raise it , the Reader may more easily perceiue , if it please him call to minde , or hereafter obserue , that as well in the dialect of sacred writers , whether Canonicall , or Apochriphall , as other morall Authors , or common speech , there is a twofold faith One passiue , or obiectiue , which in English we vsually call fidelitie , or faithfulnesse , whereunto we may safely trust : another actiue , or apprehensiue , by which we assent vnto the former , and rely vppon it as farre as our needfull occasions shall require . Of this reliance or reposall , confidence is but a further degree , presupposing a firmer apprehension , or experience of more then ordinarie sufficiency , and fauour towards vs in the party to whose trust we commit our selues , or our affaires . Fidelity , or faith passiue , he well notified in part , that told vs , Quando fit quod dicitur tunc est fides . Faithfull hee is in his sayings , that hath good ground for what he speakes : or , called to an account , is able to make such proofe of his assertions , as the nature of the businesse shall require . Faithfull in his doing he is , that approues the truth of his promises by performance ; whom wee cannot better describe then the Psalmist hath done , c One that walketh vprightly , worketh righteousnesse , and speaketh the truth in his heart ; or , as we say , one whose heart goes with his mouth , and changeth not his oath or promise , albeit the performance of it be to his greater hinderance , then he conceiued when he made it . Alwaies the better opinion we retaine of this passiue fidelity , or faithfulnes , the greater is our actiue faith , trust , or reposall in it ; but trust or confidence in fallible , or absolute , wee cannot haue in any mortall man. For besides that his heart or intention is vnknowne to vs , such abilities as now he hath are obnoxions to change , so is his purpose and resolution . Not the honestest man on earth but is mutably honest , at least in respect of vs ; and where all other conditions be equall , we trust him better , whose meanes are whole and sound , then one of a broken or crased estate . For few there be , but sore pinched with pouerty , will shrinke from what they promised vpon presupposed hopes of better ability . And most men perhaps out of a consciousnesse of their owne mutabilitie , vpon like change of fortunes , or new discouery of dangers before vnknowne , seeme to grant a generall pardon or dispensation to others in like cases : at the least , if abilities vpon such casualties be wanting , ingenuous creditors doe not expect performance of promises made , howsoeuer their debtors minds were affected when they made them ; whence ( as I said ) confidence in such men , if other conditions be equall , are lesse safe : yet the more we trust them , vpon lesse probable meanes of abilitie , or vpon externall appearances of danger , or suspitions cast by others of their likelihood to breake ; the greater eredite and honour we doe them . For as loue ( vnlesse it proceed from a party odious and vnlouely , ) is vsually repaid with like affection , according to the olde saying . V is vt ameris ? ama : so ipsa d fides habita obligat fidem , Men oft times become more trusty then otherwise they would be , by the trust or credence we giue vnto them . God ( in whom only this fidelity , or faith obiectiue , according to the most absolute idea or perfection of it , is immutable ) is alwaies more fauourable to such , as faithfully commend themselues and their affaires vnto this care and trust . And vnto faithfull reliance and reposall on his promises , wee are tied by a triple bond of faith , which cannot possibly breake or vntwine , once surely fastened . If we fully assent to his veracitie , we cannot question whether he purpose whatsoeuer he promised : if to his omnipotencie , we cannot doubt of his allsufficiencie to performe . For this cause , when the blessed Virgin onely demaunded concerning Christs incarnation , e how shall this be seeing I know not a man , the Angell mildlie instructs her , f in the same termes he checked her mother Sarah , there is nothing impossible with God ? of whose veracitie or allsufficiencie shee neuer conceiued positiue doubt , onely her actuall consideration of his fidelitie , or other attributes before mentioned , was outstart by the vnusualnesse of the effect , or suddaine apprehension of her owne integritie , neuer acquainted with the onely knowne meanes vntill that time of producing it . Lastly of Gods fauour towards vs we can lesse doubt , seeing his mercie is ouer all his workes , and he that gaue his onely Sonne for vs before we knew him , what can he deny vs which we faithfully aske in his name ? Farre more be the promises of his fatherlie loue , then are the declarations of his power : faile we cannot in our hopes but only through vnbeleefe ; which though it befell the people to whom his promises were first directed , k Yet cannot the faith of God ( as the Apostle termes it ) bee without effect ; for they fell by vnbeleefe , that we might be raised by faith . Though conscious we be of our fra●●ie , often assaulted with others violence : yet the Lord is faithfull , and will establish vs , and keepe vs from euill ; or as the same Apostle else where speakes , l God is faithfull by whom we are called vnto the fellowship of his sonne Christ Iesus our Lord , who will also confirme vs to the end , that wee may bee acquited in the day of his appearance . These were the sure fests of Saint Barnards faith , and in these meditations or articles his hope did safely ancher in the middest of greatest stormes : o Three things ( saith he ) I consider in which my hope wholly consists : Gods loue whereby he adopted me ; the truth of his promise ; his power to performe . Let my foolish thoughts murmure as much as they list , and say : How meane art thou ? How great is that glory ? by what doserts dost thou hope to obtaine it ? But I will confidently answere , I know whom I haue trusted , and am certaine that he hath adopted me in the abundance of his loue , that he is true in his promises , and powerfull in accomplishment ; for he can doe whatsoeu●r he will. This is that triple cord which is not easily broken , on which I beseech you let vs hold fast , being let downe to vs into this dungeon from that country which wee seeke , that by it we may be raised , that by it we may be drawne within view of the glory of the great God. 4. Seeing reposall or trust naturally increaseth according to the seuerall degrees of their ability , fidelity and fauour towards vs , on whom we rely , rightly apprehended ; and all these in God ( as faith assures vs ) are infinite and incomprehensible : our confidence of good successe in all the waies he hath appointed vs , should bee without all mixture of diffidence , suspition or distrust . But as faith it selfe , though often failing in the exercise , must in the habit , or for the most part be an Assent vnto diuine precepts as good and elegible ( at the instant of proposall , ) before either auoidance of such dangers as accompany their execution or profession , or retention of such pleasures or commodities as must be made of , ere we can effect the purchase , or be capable of the reward annexed : so must the confidence hence growing be habitually sure and firme ; albeit the whole world , the diuell , or our owne flesh conspire to defeate the hopes we haue grounded vpon faithfull prosecution of such meanes as God hath promised to blesse . Such confidence was in the Psalmist , whilest assaulted with the fury and violence of mighty forreine enemies : a God is our refuge and strength ; a verie present helpe in trouble . Therefore vvill not we feare though the earth be moued ; and though the Mountaines be carried into the midst of the sea . Though the waters thereof roare and be troubled , though the Mountaines shake vvith the swelling thereof . b Though I walke in the middest of trouble ( sayth another ) yet shalt thou refresh mee : thou shalt stretch forth thine hand vpon the furiousnesse of mine enemies , and thy right hand shall saue me . The Lord shall make good his louing kindnesse toward me : yea , thy mercy , O Lord endureth for euer , despise not then the works of thine owne hands . The like was in Dauid , when the wise men of the world , such as had learned the policy to blesse with their mouthes , and cursed inwardly , had consulted to east him downe from his dignity . h My soule ( sayth he ) waite thou only vpon God : for my expectation is from him . He is onely my Rocke and my saluation he is my defence , I shall not be moued . In God is my saluation and my glory : the Rocke of my strength and my refuge is in God. Nor was this any act of supererogation , or extraordinary affection singular to him ; but he exhorteth the people vt to the like . i Trust in him at all times , yee people , poure out your hearts before him : God is a refuge for vs. This is a point wherewith would God our Preachers would pierce the hearts of their hearers by continuall pressing it . For want of confidence in good : courses is that , which will condemne this whole generation of hypocrisie or infidelity . Nor could we distrust our doome , did we but vnderstand the meaning of those words following in the same Psalme : Trust not in oppression , nor in robbery ; if riches increase set not thy heart vpon them : or those in another , k put not your trust in Princes , nor in the son of man , for there is no help in them . In these he trusts and not in God , that vseth the helpe of his wealth , or countenance of mighty friends , either to abet himselfe in bad causes , or ouer-beare others in good , as shall hereafter be shewed . Now I will conclude with the Psalmist last cited : Happy is he that hath the God of Iacob for his helpe , whose hope is in the Lord his God ; vvhich made heauen and earth , the sea and all that therein is , which keepeth his fidelity for euer ; which executeth iudgement for the oppressed , which giueth food to the hungry : the Lord looseth the prisoners : the Lord openeth the eyes of the blinde ; the Lord raiseth vp them that are bowed downe : the Lord loueth the righteous : the Lord preserueth the strangers , he relieueth the fatherlesse and widdow : but the way of the vvicked hee turneth vpside downe . 5. These being the liue characters of diuine goodnesse , and best motiues to breed confident hope of good successe in imitation of him , in workes like to those here expressed : no maruell if our Sauiour so grieuously taxe the Scribes and Pharisees for non conformity vnto them . b Woe be vnto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites ; for yee tith the mint , and the rew , and all manner hearbes , and leaue the weightier matters of the lawe , as iudgement , and mercy and fidelity ; these ought yee to haue done , and not to haue left the other vndone . Confident perswasions they had of Gods extraordinary fauour ; which notwithstanding , because it proceeded not from faith fructifying in deeds conformable to his goodnesse , made them presumptuous and open rebels against his Sonne , the onely image of his glory , for dooing the workes here prophecied by this Psalmist . c They despised him as a sinner , once , for raising vp a poore creature , not bowed downe only , but together so as she could not raise her selfe ▪ another time for giuing d sight vnto the blinde vpon a Sabbaoth day : Often for the like workes , here ascribed to that God , whose name they were to sanctifie by hallowing the Sabbaoth day ; all liuely documents , that he which visibly wrought them was the Lord , to whom this Psalme of praise and thanksgiuing was dedicated . Such confidence , as they , whiles thus affected , boasted in , was the very way of the wicked , which the Lord turneth vpside downe . His sentence is already pronounced vpon it . e Euerie one that exalteth himselfe shall bee brought lowe , which words he spake of the proud Pharisee , and such as trusted in themselues that they vvere iust despising others . Notwithstanding euen this Pharisee himselfe , whom he makes the patterne of hypocrisie , gaue God thankes for his conceited righteousnesse ; acknowledging that whatsoeuer he had , he had receiued : but in that hee gloried in it , as if he had not receiued it , the holy Ghost taxeth him for trusting in it , not in the Lord , whom he intended to glorifie for this gift amongst others . And were we so wise , that a word , though from the spirits owne mouth , might suffice for our admonishment ; this one place alone would instruct vs , that he trusts not in the Lord , but in his wealth , or dignity , that contemnes his brother for his meane giftes , whether of Art or Nature , or disparageth his worth onely for the lownesse of his fortunes . 6. Thus much of confidence , fiducia , or trust ; so nearely allied to faith , that some include it in the essence , or formall signification of the word in the learned tongues : which opinion may seeme to haue some countenance from the booke of Homilies . But what there is said of faith to this purpose , is a popular description not an accurate or artificiall definition , like as also we may not think the Author of those Homilies , meant formally and essentially to define faith , when he saith that faith is a firme hope , for so in the same place doth he describe it . And to speake the truth , he that puts fiducia in the essentiall definition of faith , and leaues hope out , had need of as much cunning , as hee that should vndertake to make paiment of ten pounds , and substract seauen . For confidence , or this trust , in their form of doctrine whose authority for the right vse of such words is most authentique , is the period or complement of Hope ; contemnenda est omnis iniuria malorum praesentium , fiducia futurorum bonorum , sayth Saint Cyprian . And againe , f Laus est fides , fiducia futurorum mundi g aduersa tolerare : It is the commendation of Faith to support our selues vnder such grieuances as the vvorld layes vpon vs , with sure hope of future good . In this godly fathers orthodoxall conceit of this chaine of christian vertues , we may behold patience springing from faith , but presupposing trust , or confidence , at least if perfect : paralell herein to the Apostle , a Cast not away your confidence , which hath great recompence of revvard for ye haue neede of patience , ( whose hold-fast he supposeth confidence ) that after ye haue done the will of God , ye might receiue the promise . The ground or supporter as well of patience , as confidence and fidelity in doing Gods will , is faith , as is before deduced . Whether such confidence as we haue , that there is a reward laid vp for the faithfull , reach in the same strength and tenor vnto personall saluation ; or bring forth like assurance of our possessary right in state of grace ; or , if so , whether it be proper to all , as it is doubtlesse onely to such as are endued with sauing faith ; or whether equall in all , or at all times , or rather decreasing according to the degrees of their delinquencie in such duties , as this confident hope of Gods mercy , and fidelity in rewarding all , without respect of persons that doe his will , doth impell and encourage them to : cannot so fitly be disputed , vntill the tenor of Gods couenant with mankind , and other difficulties concerning free-will and contingencie , with the articles of Christs death and resurrection , ( from firme Assent vnto which this speciall confidence or assurance must flow , ) be vnfolded . Here I onely would commend that place of our Apostle to the religious Readers priuate meditation , for rectifying and strengthening his faith in this point . Hauing therfore , Brethren , bouldnesse to enter into the Holiest by the blood of IESVS by a new liuing way , vvhich he hath consecrated for vs , through the vaile , that is to say , his flesh . And hauing an high Priest ouer the house of God : Let vs draw neere with a true heart in full assurance of faith , hauing our hearts sprinkled from an euill conscience , and our bodies washed vvith pure water . Let vs hold fast the profession of our faith without vvauering ; for he is faithfull that promised . And let vs consider one another to prouoke vnto loue , and to good workes . Many other properties of faith there be , and diuerse peculiar branches of these generall ones , here touched to be discussed after the explication of the Articles , out of which they properly spring . CHAP. XI . Of the diuerse acceptions of faith in Scriptures or Fathers : of the Romanists pernicious error concerning the nature of it , and charitie whereby his imaginarie workes of merit necessarily become either dead , apish , or polluted . 1. FRom the seuerall degrees , or differences of Assent vnto diuine truthes , before assigned , it will bee easie for the Reader to deriue the diuerse acceptions of beliefe , whether in writings Canonicall , Apochriphall , or of Fathers , from one head . Albeit I hold it not worth the inquirie , whether the name of Faith in the Hebrew , Greeke and Latine , were propagated from the obiect to our apprehension , or Assent ; or from these vnto the obiect : for in all three tongues faith is taken as well for that which deserues credit , as for the credence we giue vnto it . More pertinent to our present occasions it is that beliefe , euen in scriptures is sometimes applied to the very first , and lowest degree of Assent vnto truths diuine ; and they are sayd to belieue , that acknowledge any article of faith , or part of Christs doctrine , as true ; albeit the ground of their Assent were not sincere or sound , but rather humorous . So it is sayd in the second of b Iohn , that many when they saw his Miracles belieued in him : but IESVS committed not himselfe vnto their hands ; because hee knewe them all : so did hee their humours to bee like theirs , that vpon like beliefe of his power would haue made him king . Others againe are sayd to belieue , when they Assent , perhaps , to all Articles of faith as true , and good , whilest considered onely in themselues , without oppositions of such matters as they much value . So our Sauiour telleth vs , that some , c when they haue heard , receiue the word with ioy , and for a while belieue ; but in time of tentation depart : and d Saint Iohn , that euen amongst the Rulers many belieued on him . By true and liuely faith rooted in the heart ? So Bellarmine would perswade vs : or otherwise wee might make the Scriptures as a nose of waxe , or alter the nature of sacred phrase , as wee do counters in accompts . Yet if they e had in heart belieued vnto righteousnesse , they had confessed with their mouth vnto saluation : but ( sayth the Euangelist ) because of the Pharisees they did not confesse him , least they should be put out of the synagogue . And was not this to be ashamed of him and of his Gospell before men ? And whosoeuer is so affected , belieueth not in that sense the Prophet speakes , whosoeuer belieueth on him shall not be ashamed : for vnlesse he acknowledge them in that day , they shall not only bee ashamed , but confounded with vnbelieuers : yea , the very reason the Euangelist giues , why they did not confesse him , condemns the Cardinals glosse , either of great folly , or impietie . For ( sayth he ) they loued the prayse of men more then the prayse of God : vnto which latter they had assented as much better , had they so belieued as our Sauiour meanes , when hee demaunds of the Iewes : f How can ye belieue , which receiue honour one of another , and seeke not the honour vvhich commeth from God onely ? Ere our faith become such as layes sure hold on life , ( for of such in that place he speakes , ) wee must Assent vnto the honour that comes from God alone , as so much better then that we receiue of men , that the later must seem as nothing in cōparison of the former . The same word , * beliefe , oft-times is taken , not only as it includes these last degrees , or proper differences of Assent vnto diuine truthes , but as it is accompanied with it essentiall properties , or with such works as impulsiuely are from it , though proper acts or exercises of other vertues , faculties or affections , whence they spring as from their naturall roote , wherein they reside as in their natiue subiect . The places are obuious to euerie one conuersant in Scriptures . The like latitude of perfection , whether from difference of essence , or diuersitie onely in degrees : knowledge , or vnderstanding , in the vse of sacred writers admits . Nor did Saint Iohn in that speech : [ He that sayth hee knoweth God , and keepeth not his Commandements is a lyar ] contradict our Sauiour , where he supposeth , that many know their masters will and do it not . For the disciple speakes of true and perfect knowledge ; the Lord of knowledge externall , or imperfect . The same analogie the Fathers retaine in the vse of beliefe or faith . That the Pontificians can alledge their testimonies , to proue faith may bee separated from works or charity ; is as little pertinent to the point in question betwixt vs and them , as it would bee in the schooles to vrge the authority of late Philosophers , that stones and mettals did not growe , or that trees and plants had no locall motion , against him that out of Aristotle did maintaine , all bodies endued with life were capable of growth and diminution , or all with sense , of locall motion . He that holds the former conclusions , would account stones and mettals amongst bodies inanimate , and trees and plants amongst vnsensitiue . Now our question is not of euery sort , or degree of faith , but of that by which the Iust doe liue . That no Father did affirme it should be without fruites , or workes of holinesse , is more then my small reading in them can secure me to affirme ; albeit reason I haue none to thinke otherwise : but iust cause so to presume , by the places our aduersaries alleadge , so idle they are and impertinent . Howsoeuer , I dare vndertake for our assertion to bring three Fathers for one , or testimonies thrice as many out of the best approued , as any Iesuite shall do for his . And because some of them scramble at some scattered sentences in Cyprians vvorkes , or others fathered vpon him , I will instance at this time in him especially ; the rather because he sealed the truth of his profession with his blood , and had least reason to bee partiall for Faith against Charitie , of whose abundance in his heart euery letter in his writings almost is a character : yea , so he esteemed of it , that hee thought it impossible for him to prooue a true witnesse of Christ , though dying in his cause , if hee had liued without brotherly loue . How doth hee say , he belieues in Christ , that doth not vvhat Christ hath giuen him in charge to doe ? Or how shall hee ataine to the reward of faith , vvhich vvill not faithfullie keepe his Commaundements ? And againe : Seeing to see Christ is our ioy , nor can our ioy haue being vntill we see him , what blindnesse of heart what mad nesse is this , to loue the grieuances , the paines and miseries of this world , & not rather to make hast vnto that ioy which neuer can be taken from vs ? Yet all this , beloued brethren , comes to passe , because wee haue no faith ; because none belieues the truth of what God hath promised , who is true ; whose word is eternally sure to belieuers . If a graue man , and of good note should promise thee any thing , thou wouldst rely vpon his promise , thou wouldst not belieue thou shouldst be deceiued or disappointed by him , whom thou knowest to be constant in his words and deeds . Behold , God speaks to thee , and ●ost thou perfidiously wauer through incredulity of minde ? God hath promised thee at thy departure out of this world , immortality and eternity , and dost thou doubt ? This is to be altogether without the knowledge of God , this is to offend Christ the master of the faithfull vvith the sin of incredulity , this is to haue a place in the Church , and to be without faith in the house of faith . The like hath Bernard ; who speaking of the victory that is by faith , thus resolues flesh and blood moouing doubts to the contrary , Perchance it may tempt some , in that they see so many acknowledging Christ to bee the Sonne of God , still entangled with the lusts of this world . How sayth the Apostle then , who is he that ouer commeth the world , but he which belieues that IESVS is the Sonne of God , vvhen as the world it selfe belieues this truth ? yea do not the very diuels belieue as much and tremble ? but I reioine ; Dost thou imagine that he reputes CHRIST for the sonne of God , whosoeuer hee be , that is not terrified with his threats , that is not allured with his promises , which obeies not his commandements , and rests not satisfied with his aduise ? doth not such a one , albeit he professe he knowes God , deny him by his deeds ? b Valentian notwithstanding would perswade vs , that the Fathers , when they say faith without works is dead ; would onely giue vs to vnderstand , that it is not liuely and perfect , such as indeed it should be : ( He meanes they denie it not to be numerically the same without workes and with them , as the body ( in his conceipt ) is one and the same without the soule , and with it . ) And it is a manner of speech ( in his obseruation ) vsuall , to account that which is imperfect in any kinde , not to bee true in the same kinde . As for example , wee vse to say ioy or griefe imperfect , or little , is no true ioy or griefe : although it be some ioy or griefe . Who vseth to say so but dunces ? or who but haeretickes , would denie the least degree of spirituall ioy to be true ioy , the least sting of conscience to be true griefe ? Things little in any kinde , actually compared with others incomparably greater , we vse to reckon as none ; so we might say the ioy of the godly in this life is as none , in respect of that which shall be reuealed : But yet the least measure of our internall ioy truely denominates vs ioyfull , if we speake absolutely , as the Fathers doe when they denie faith without workes to bee true faith . For they denie withall that it then denominates as truely faithfull , or belieuers , as is euident from that obseruation of * Gregory vpon those wordes of our Sauiour . He that shall belieue and be baptized shall be saued . ] It is likely euery one of you will say within himselfe : I haue beleeued , therefore I shall be saued : He speakes the truth , if he haue faith with workes . For that is true faith , which in manners or deedes contradicts not what it thus professeth in wordes . Hence it is that Paul saith of certaine false beleeuers . They confesse they know God , but denie him by their workes : Hence saith Iohn . He that saies he beleeues God , and keepes not his commandements is a liar . This should teach vs to acknowledge the truth of faith in examination of our life . For then we are truely faithfull ( or belieuers ) when we fulfull in deed what we promised in word . For in the day of baptisme wee promised vtterly to forsake all workes , and pomps of the old enemy . Therefore let euery one of you turne the eies of his minde vnto the former examination : and if after baptisme he haue kept his promise made before , then let him reioice , being thus assured that he is faithfull . He ads with all , that he which knowes to bewaile his offences past , shal haue them couered in the day of iudgement . 2. This last testimony will direct the reader to gather the like in other Fathers , from their expositions of those passages wherein mention is made of that faith , whereunto our Sauiour ascribes eternall life , or his Apostles righteousnesse . The euidence of which places is in it selfe , to such as weigh the circumstances co 〈…〉 nt and praecedent , or compare one place with another , so forsible , that it oft times extorts confessions from pontifician expositors against the most receiued Tenents of their Church , first hatched by the schoolemen , which neuer saw the light of heauen , but through the darke painted glasses of the Cels wherein they were imprisoned , and hence imagine our Sauiours forme of doctrine to be of the same hew with midnight Dunsery , or grossest ignorance of sacred dialects . c One , vpon these wordes of the Prophet [ The worke of righteousnesse shall bee peace , and the effects of righteousnes , quietnes and assurance for euer , ] saith that faith whereto S. Paul ascribeth righteousnes , includes all these branches ; to commit our selues and all our waies vnto God as to a most louing father to whom we haue plight our faith , whom we accept for our God : sincerely promising to obey him , and obserue his lawes . He thinks withall , that the Apostle did borrow this speech , h Being iustified by faith wee haue peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ , from the former place of the Prophet . Yet this Commentator stiffely denies iustification by such faith alone ; how inconsequently to this obseruation shall hereafter be examined . It well fits our present purpose , that the righteousnesse herespoken of by the Prophet , is included in Saint Pauls faith . 3. a Another vpon those wordes of the same Apostle . The Gospell of Christ is the power of God vnto saluation , counsels vs to learne the right signification of this tearme to belieue , as it is vsed in Saint Paules disputes , from other places of Scripture , especially from that speech of our Sauiour . Hee that belieueth on me , as the Scripture hath said , out of his belly shall slow riuers of liuing water . The scripture ( saith this iudicious pontifician expositor ) whereto our Sauiour had respect , is in the sixteenth Chapter of the second of Chronicles . Th●●●ies of the Lord behold the whole earth , and giue strength to such as belieue on him with a perfect heart . Now they belieue with a perfect heart , which doe not onely giue credence to what the Scripture saith , or is otherwise reuealed from aboue ; but further addresse all the faculties of their soules to doe what faith requires , or praescribes . And in this sence doth Saint Paul vse this word belieue ; as if it were to be moued at the hearing of the vvord , and to embrace vvhat is said vvith an entire adhaerence of the soule . Very fitly to this purpose doth our English translation , in the booke of common praier , render that place of the Psalmist , i whose spirit cleaueth not stedfastly vnto God. Which the vulgar latine , seeking to expresse the hebrew , word by word , hath rudely expressed non est creditus cum Deo spiritus eius . 4. Two places of Scripture onely there be , with whose difficultie or obscurity the Iesuite , or other of the Trent Councels vassailes , hope to extinguish the light and euidence of all the rest , so pregnant for vs. The first is that of Saint Paul [ c though I speake vvith the tongues of men and Angels , and haue not charity , I am become as sounding brasse , or as a tinckling cymball . ] He that supposeth all faith may be without charity , ( saith Valentian ) excepteth none . But our writers reply ; That the faith by which miracles ( of what kind soeuer ) are wrought , is here onely mentioned : and such faith , though neuer so entire and perfect , may be , as in these Corinthians it was , without true loue . The truth of which answeare , most probable from the circumstances of the place , as it needs perhaps no further confirmation ▪ so for the fuller illustration of it , impertinent it will not be for the reader to obserue , that of all the Churches which Saint Paul had planted , of all he wrote vnto , or vouchsafed any mention , this of Corinth did most abound in all those extraordinary gifts of the spirit , which might set forth the glory of Christ and his gospell before heathen and vnregenerate men , especially such as these Corinthians by nature and education weere , earnestly addicted to humane arts and sciences , wherewith that City at this time flourished most , for which reason the Lord in his wisdome would haue the messengers of his truth vnto that place , k rich in all kind of speech , and in all kind of knowledge , not destitute of any gift wherewith they might foile their aduersaries at their owne weapons , as Moses had done the Egyptians in working such wonders as they most admired in their inchaunters . But though all these gifts were from one and the same spirit , from which nothing can proceed but good ; yet brought they forth such bad effects in these mens soules , not purified from reliques of heathenisme , as excellencie of secular learning vsually doth in the vnregenerate . Euery one was giuen to magnifie the guifts wherein hee excelled , whence ( as the oratour saith of Aristotle and Socrates ) each delighted in his owne faculty , despised , or which was worse , hated and enuied his brother , as appeares from the first and twelfth chapters of that epistle . To men thus affected what duty more necessary to be inculcated , then loue and vnity of soules and spirits ? which for this reason the Apostle so forcibly presseth vpon them , from the vnity of that spirit , whence they had receiued their seuerall graces . Their faith was fruitfull enough in wonderous workes , in healing , in excellency of speeches , diueisitie of tongues and learned displaies of diuine mysteries . What was the reason ? Because they were desirous of fame and glory , by manifestation of their skill in these ▪ and faith , though of it selfe but weake , works strongly when it hath coniunction with strong naturall affections , or is stirred vp by vehement desires : 5. But that their faith was not fitly quallified for the attainment of life and sauing health , not such as could iustifie them in the sight of God , though able to magnifie his name before the heathen , and declare his wonderfull power , is euident , in that it did not commaund , but rather serue their vainglorious desires or hopes of praise amongst men . The stronger it was the prouder were they , and more ambitious , and the more such , the more dissentious , so as the strength of faith , whiles it swaied this way ; did ouerbeare the naturall inclination to brotherly loue and kindnesse : the vertue and praise whereof not with men only , but with God , had they knowne or rightly valued , it would haue enflamed their hearts with greater loue of it , then of that popular ostentation they sought after . But what should haue taught them to haue valued it aright ? Onely faith , for by it alone we ●ightly discerne good from euill ; and amongst good things which is best . But by what faith should these Corinthians haue come to the knowledge of brotherly loue ? The same by which they wrought wonders , or some other ? If by some other , the Apostle in all congruity should first haue exhorted them to embrace it ; otherwise he had commended the beauty of Christian loue but vnto blinde men . For this was a disposition so well resembling the nature of God , and such a peculiar gift of his spirit , as the naturall man could not possibly discerne the vertue of it . If by the same faith that they already had ; then the same faith which with loue doth iustifie , did really exist without loue in these Corinthians vntill this time ; which no protestant must grant . This difficulty Bellarmine presseth out of Saint Augustines wordes vpon the forecited place of Iohn ; yee see how the Euangelist reprooues certaine , whom not with standing hee tear●es belieuers , who , had they held on as they were well entred ▪ had ouercome the loue of humane glory by their proficiencie . I had reason to thinke any pontifician should haue been afraid to giue vs notice of this place , least we hence inferre , that faith alone ouercommeth all humane glory , and subiects it to the loue of God , and of his praises and by this reason it was to perfect loue , not loue it in these Corinthians . For it was the loue of humane glory , which alienated their loue from God , and from their neighbour . But as his manner is , hee wrests this good Fathers meaning to his present purpose : * If proficiencie in such faith could thus ouercome the loue of humane glory , it was certainely true faith euen in the Iewish rulers . For faith is the same in the beginning , in the progresse , and in the period or perfection , though not alwaies alike strong : otherwise , when faith increaseth it remaines not the same it was before , but rather vanish , and another spring vp in it place . This obiection goes wide of the marke he was to aime at vnlesse we hold ( what we need not ) that faith doth iustifie by the bare essence or quality , without any competent degree or measure . For though we affirme . [ That faith which iustifies cannot possibly be without charity , ] we may interprete our selues thus ; faith , if it be in such a degree as is required for iustification , or right apprehension of Gods mercies in Christ , is alwaies necessarily attended vpon with a correspondent measure of Christian loue , yet * so attēded , not loue but it alone laies immediat hold on life eternall . But howsoeuer the obiection it selfe is idle , and more sophisticall then theologicall . For may not hee be said to profit in learning , that brings his opinions to perfect science : albeit the essences of opinion and sciences be distinct ? Or who would denie him to be a good proficient in moralities , that brings the seed of chastitie vnto continency , continencie vnto the habit of temperance . The matter in all is but one , the progresse most direct , yet not without some rests or stations , by which the naturall inclination or affection remaines neither so altogether the same , nor so quite different : but the old distinction of materially and formaly might resolue the doubt . Euery new addition of vnities to numbers , or of Angles to figures , alters their formes , but abolisheth not the vnities or Angles prae existent . So might the beliefe , whereof Saint Austen speakes , be materially the same in beginners and proficients , but formally diuerse , as getting some alteration in the quality , or better consistence , then before it had : and become , not only stronger , but more liuely , and actiue . In beginners , because not able to ouersway selfe-loue , or foolish desires of humane praises , it might be without Christian charity towards God , or their neighbours in proficients , or such as by it had conquered loue of the world , or humane glory , it could not be without the loue of God and of his children . But most consonantly to the forme of doctrine vsed by our Sauiour in this argument , wee may ( in my iudgement ) answere to the question aboue propounded concerning these Corinthians , by considering faith ; first according to the essence , or specificall quality of it , as it was sowne in their soules by the spirit : secondly according to the radication or taking of it in their hearts , or seate of affections , which was to be wrought by the spirit , but necessarily required not anie infusion of new spirituall grace numerically much lesse specifically , distinct from that they had . The quallity or essence of faith ( if we consider it preciselie , as the formall tearme of creation taken as the schoolemen doe it for a momentary act , not as * Scriptures doe for the whole worke of regeneration , ) may be one and the same in such as perish , and those that are saued ; so cannot the radication or working of it be : so the seed which fell by the high way side , in stony ground among thornes , and in good soile , is supposed by our Sauiour one and the same : but the radication of it was in some none , in others too shallow , in others it failed in the setling or taking . Thus charity was to be raised in these Corinthians hearts by faith , for essence and quality , one and the same with that whereby they wrought miracles : but by the same faith rightly set , firm●lier rooted , and better taken in their harts , or center wherein naturall desires concurre ; so as it might spread it selfe vniformely with them , directing them vnto obiects spirituall and good , and fix them fastest vpon such as it adiudged best , and most effectuall for edifying themselues and others . For had these Disciples , by Saint Pauls example , a affected no knowledge so much , as to know Iesus Christ and him crucified ; had they b gloried in nothing , saue in the crosse of the Lord Iesus Christ , cructfying them vnto the world , and the world vnto them : ( both which were principall lessons of faith , ) or had their Assent , or adhaerence vnto Gods loue and mercies in Christ beene as firme and sure , as their perswasions of his power to produce effects beyond the course of nature : it had wrought as great miracles in themselues , as it did in others , euen the same minde which was in Christ Iesus ; such loue to all his members , ( though their corriuals in spirituall guifts , ) as he bare to them when they were his enemies ; and that was a loue truely wondrous . The arguments brought by Pontificians , to prooue the faith which worketh miracles , and iustifies vs to be the same , make in my iudgement most against themselues : if we consider that these ministeriall effects wrought vpon others , were but emblemes of those internall miracles , which faith once rooted in the heart , and set vpon it proper and more principall obiects , alwaies workes in the belieuers themselues . To cast out diuels , was but a signe of that conquest which true faith in Christ alwaies obtained ouer hell and death : to speak with new tongues , but a pledge of that renouation which true faith alwaies workes in the heart and conscience : to take away serpents a document of the vertue of faith in resisting , or deading such temptations , as made way for death into the world ; the drinking of deadly poison without hurt , a sensible token of that soueraign antidote which true faith affords against all the infections our eares are often enforced to sucke from others pestiferous perswasions ; health restored to others by laying on of hands , an irreuocable earnest of that eternall saluation , which Faith , if firme and rightly set , neuer failes to take sure hold of : as Gregory excellently expounds that saying of our a Sauiour ; And these signes shall follow them that belieue : In my name shall they cast out Diuels , they shall speake vvith newe tongues , they shal take vp serpents , and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them : they shal lay hands on the sick & they shal recouer . 6. Howsoeuer , vpon these reasons the Apostle grounds that exhortation in his very entrance into that discourse , b couet ye earnestly the gifts , and yet shew I vnto you a more excellent wa●e : Loue he meant , wherein they might eagerly striue to excell each other , without any danger of dissention . Many admirable commendations he bestowes vpon it in the words following , to kindle a desire of it in their harts ; as well knowing their faith to be strong enough in matters they much affected , but not qualified for iustification because not rightly planted , no● set on such obiects as would bring forth Christian loue , and true humility , but rather pride and contention . Far was it from his thoughts , that the ardour of this sweet affection could otherwise kindle , then frō a firm beliefe , & ful adherēce to the loue of God. [ c For we loue him because he loued vs first ; yea because d vve haue knowne and belieued the loue that God hath to vs , for God is loue : ] nor can we faithfully apprehend this attribute in him , but it will prod●ce the like affection in vs. And yet for the right planting and radication , as well of faith , as loue spirituall thence springing , the exercise of brotherly kindnesse , or nourishing of good naturall affection is alwaies auaileable , and was peculiarly necessarie vnto this people ; whose contentious spirits did hinder the right growth , and peruert the vse of that faith which God had giuen them . Generally , the ordinary meanes appointed by God for the right fashioning of Christ in our hearts , is the precedent practice of those duties which the doctrine of faith enioines vs , as shall hereafter be shewed . 7. To such as waigh the circumstances aboue expressed , Saint Pauls meaning in the words late cited may best be gathered from the like speech of S. Iames : d He that keepes the vvhole la●e , and yet faileth in one point , is guilty of all : seeing his failing in the one ( as shall appeare ) witnesseth he keeps none aright . The ground of this inference presupposed these words , [ If I had all faith , so that I could moue Mountaines , and had not loue , I vvere nothing , ] sound , as if the Apostle had sayd , though I had faith of force enough to produce variety of miracles , and all other effects whatsoeuer , and yet not effectuall to bring forth Christianloue , neither I nor it were anie thing vvorth . For in that it works not loue , it is apparently dead in it selfe , vnable to giue life to any : but once firmely belieuing Christ loued vs , it is impossible we should not loue him againe , and for him our neighbours , not belieuing this truth aright , wee cannot belieue any other point as we should , nor by that faith which rooted , as our Sauiour speakes , f in an honest heart , brings forth fruit with patience to saluation . Is there any Iesuite that will , or dare affirme that faith the Corinthians had was altogether such as Saint Paul ascribes righteousnesse vnto , such as the Prophet speakes of , when he sayth , the iust shall liue by his faith ? For of that faith ( Paul being witnesse ) the performance of Gods will , and patient expectation of his promises , or as Romish writers confesse , feare of God , entire submission of our mindes vnto his will , and stedfast reliance vpon his prouidence , are infallible consequences . 8. The Schoole-mens collections from the former place of Saint Paul , that charity is as it were the soule and perfection of faith are of as little validity ; as if from this of Saint Iames late cited , I should inferre some one Commandement to be the form , or soule of all the rest , because if we transgresse one , ( that , for example , Thou shalt do no murther ) our obseruation of all the rest should profit vs nothing to saluation . Or if the Reader will remember the definition , or proprieties of faith , last set down ; this conceit is as preposterous , as if we should make loue to our meate , the soule or forme of a perfect taste . For meate , wholsome and pleasant , we cannot perfectly relish , but we must loue it , howbeit we liue not by louing it but by tasting , eating , and digesting it . No more can we rightly belieue Christs death and passion , but we must loue him and his members : yet liue wee not by louing them , but by tasting Gods loue and fauour to vs , or ( as I need not be afraid to speake ) by eating Christs flesh , and drinking his blood . For though by faith , one and the same , wee Assent vnto euery article in our creed : yet , this faith doth not iustifie , but as it respects Christs bodie giuen for our sinnes , or as it cleaues vnto Gods mercies manifested in that eternall sacrifice , alwaies breathing out life to men , renot neing all trust and confidence euen in such graces as wee haue receiued from him . All this notwithstanding , if we compare loue and faith together , as parts of that righteousnesse which is in vs , not considering the necessary dependance Loue hath of Faith in nature : to loue is more then to belieue , because it necessarily includes beliefe : so is it more to loue our meate then to taste it ; because loue supposeth taste : howbeit in respect of life , to taste our meate is of more vse then to loue it . So is it more to moue then to liue ; for all vicall motion includes in it acts of life : yet is not motion simply better then life , or the sensitiue sacultie whence it proceeds , because it wholly depends on them , not they on it . 9. The second principall place of Scripture they vsually alleage , doth vtterly discredit themselues ; but breeds no difficulty to vs in this present argument : for that the faith whereof Saint Iames speakes , doth differ as much from that whereto S. Paul ascribeth righteousnesse , as a liue man doth from a dead or a body endued with life and motion from a statue or painted image ; no heathen artist , that could but vnderstand the very tearmes of their seeming contradictory propositions , would deny : albeit some Romish writers , of no meane ranke , haue been giuen ouer vnto such Iewish blindnesse , as to abuse Saint Iames authority , not onely to hold iustification by workes as well as faith , wherto his words incline , ( as the thing it self in his sence , though not in that construction they make of it , is most true : ) but to perswade the ignorant , that such faith as S. Paul commends , may be without works , or christian loue . But their folly herein will worke shame in such of their successors , as shall comment vpon these two Apostles writings , ( as in some of their predecessors it hath done : ) if they consider that those very workes , without which faith in Saint Iames construction sufficeth not vnto saluation , are expresly comprehended in that faith , wherby S. Paul tels vs the Iust do liue . b Was not Abraham our father iustified through vvorks , when he offered his son Isaac vpon the altar ? he meant no more ( nor was more pertinentto his intended conclusion ) then if he had thus spoken : If Abraham had sayd ( as they did whose empty faith he disapproues ) I haue faith but had not proued his sayings true by his deedes , or readinesse to offer vp his onely Sonne vvhen God commaunded him , ( for actually hee did not offer him : ) he had not been iustified before God. Why ? because he had not belieued in such sort as Saint Paul meant , when he sayth , by faith Abraham offered vp Isaac when he was tried . But it may bee this faith was informed , perfected , or instigated to this act by loue ? of whom ? not of Isaac ; for that was the maine obstacle to worke distrust , the chiefe antagonist of his faith : Not of Sarah , or any other friends or neighbours ; all which doubtlesse had disswaded him , had he acquainted them with his purpose . Was it then the loue of God ? Him indeed he loued aboue all , because he firmely belieued his mercy and louing kindnesse towards him : but this loue supposed , it vvas his Assent vnto Gods omnipotent power , which as the Apostle expresly tels vs , moued him to this act . For hee considered that God was able to raise him from the dead , from whence also hee receiued him in a figure . This consideration or inducement was a worke , yet a proper act of faith , no way of loue . But loue perhappes did make it meritorious ? The loue indeede wherewith God loued him , made his working faith acceptable in his sight : but that it was strength of faith , not the quality of loue , which God imputed vnto him for righteousnesse ; the same Apostle , ( for doubtlesse the same hand it was which penned the eleuenth to the Hebr●es , and the fowrth vnto the Romans ) puts it out of doubt ; beeing not weake in faith , he considered not his body now dead , vvhen he was now a hundred yeere old ; neither yet the deadnesse of Sarahs wombe . He staggered not at the promise of God through vnbeliefe : but vvas strong in faith , giuing glory to God. And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he vvas also able to performe . And therefore it was imputed vnto him for righteousnesse . One and the same faith it was , and standing at the same bent , vnlesse by continuance of like triall increased in strength , which wrought in him a readines●● of minde to sactifice his onely sonne , in hope of a ioyfull resurrection , and to expect his birth from the dead wombe of Sarah . The obiect likewise whereto his Assent did adhere , was one and the same , ( his fidelitie which had promised : ) on which faithfully still relying , it was impossible his other faculties or affections should not subscribe to whatsoeuer his Assent of faith should enioine them : and that remaining in wonted strength , it could not but bring forth perfect loue , and good works ; which may be sayd in such a sense to perfect it , as we are sayd to blesse God , that is to declare his blessednesse . For as Gods loue to vs was most apparent in offering his onely Sonne : So Abrahams loue to God was best manifested by sacrificing his sonne Isaac , vvhom he loued ; yet he sacrificed him by faith . wherefore his loue did result from firme Assent to Gods couenant , and mercie , made to mankinde in him : in the faithfull acceptance whereof , and full acquiescence therein , his righteousnesse ( as in due place shall be shewed ) did consist . 10. This comment vpon the Apostles words concerning Abrahams workes , giues vs the true meaning of the like concerning Rahab . Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot iustified by vvorkes , vvhen she recei●ed the messengers , and had sent them out another way ? If she had said vnto these messengers only thus : I belieue the God of heauen & earth hath giuen you this whole land for a possession ; yet I dare not shew you any kindnesse in this city : her belief had bin as dead , as a body without breath or motion But what man or woman liuing is there of common sense , which once firmly perswaded , that God in iustice had giuen his natiue country vnto forreine people whom he loued , but would seeke to merit their fauour by gratefull offices ? It was extraordinary in this woman firmly to belieue , as shee told the messengers : but resting so perswaded , a worke of no perfection to make her peace with the Israelites ▪ ●ad shee doubted , whether their title vnto the land of Canaan had been iust ; or suspected Gods donation of it vnto Abraham to haue been forged by his successors , as Constantines is by the baser Roman cleargy : shee might without any iust imputation , for want of loue or other good works , haue aduentured her life amongst her neighbours in defence of her country . Or had she vpon the Israelites misdemeanours , distrusted their successe : she might at last in worldly policy , haue rather hazarded their future displeasure , then incurred present danger of death , or torture of her Citizens for harbouring spies . But whiles she firmly belieues , both that the Israelites donation was from God , & that they would certainly preuaile against her people ; though her entertainment and concealement of them were acts of kindnesse , prudence and humanity ; yet their omission had been properly not of faith ; because impulsiuely they were from faith , nor could they haue been omitted but through vnbeliefe , or distrust vnto Gods promises . Worldlings would haue condemned her , not for vvant of charitie , but for excesse & folly rather , had shee not done as shee was perswaded . By faith then those workes become righteous , which without it had been traiterous . And if we respect not the cause of our knowledge , but the thing knowne , faith did perfect the workes , the workes only made the perfection of faith knowne to men . In this sense it is most true of faith , what some misapply to iustification of mens persons : workes iustifie and perfect faith , not in the nature of the thing , but in the sight of man , to whom they witnesse the liuelihood and perfection of faith , no● as causes , but effects and signes : of our iustifiattion ▪ they are not onely signes , but conditions concomitant or precedent . In the same sense are these other words of the Apostle to be vnderstood : As the body without the spirit is dead ; so faith vvithout vvorkes is dead also . For if a humane bodie want spirit , breath or motion , we rightly gather it wants life : yet are breath and motion rather effects then causes of life . But the schoole-men , dreaming the holy Ghost had been scholler to Aquinas , or some chiefe masters of their profession , take the sprit in this place for actus primus , as the soule by which wee liue and breath ; and hence they conceiued that grosse error , ( which the Romanist now makes an article of his beliefe , ) to wit , that works animate , or at least casually perfect faith , as the soule of man doth his bodie . And wheras Caluin most acutely and orthodoxally infers , that if faith without works or charity bedead , it is not properly , but equiuocally called faith : * They reply , workes or charitie do not informe faith intrinsecally , as the reasonable soule doth man ; for so it would follow , that as he is not a man but a dead trunk which hath no soule ; so it should not bee true faith , but an image or dead picture of faith , which wants vvorkes or charitie . How then do they perfect faith ? Extrinsecally : as the soule doth the body , or other halfe of man , which remaines a true body though no true man , after the soules departure . For application of this distinction they adioine , when Saint Iames affirmes faith to be dead without workes , he tearmes it dead in such a sense , as we say a body is dead by the soules absence , and yet remains a true bodie . Whence sayth Valentian , the sectaries haue furnished vs with an argument against themselues . Rather this answere is contrary to Valentians , and his fellowes assertions : for were his illustration true and pertinent , workes or faith should constitute one grace and qualitie , as the body and soule make one man , which no Papist dare affirme of the habite of faith and charitie , being graces in their iudgements specifically distinct . And a Valentian , who stands most vpon the former illustration , expresly denies that charity ( much lesse workes ) can be any proper forme of faith ; either intrinsecall , as the reasonable soule is of man ; or extrinsecall as whitenesse is of the body . Some perfection notwithstanding Charitie giues to Faith ; in which respect it may , by analogie to true and proper formes , bee metaphorically said to informe saith . The perfection it giues , hee so expresseth , that the Latine Reader , by his words b cited at full in the margine , ( for I will not trouble the text with them ) may plainly perceiue hee was desirous to say somewhat , but he knew not what . c Arias Montanus , who better vnderstood Saint Iames his phrase , by the analogie of faith , and forme of wholsome doctrine , then Valentian did himselfe , or this fictitious analogie betwixt Charitie & naturall formes : interprets the former place in part to our purpose : To liue as Philosophers say , is to operate ; and vitall operation proceedeth not from the bodie , but from the spirit ; nor doth ●●e Apostle say , workes are the spirit of faith , where he speakes only of the appellation or name of life . His meaning is , that faith without workes is as truely reputed dead , as the body without the spirit is rightly sayd ( as it truely is ) dead . But if wee will not wrest the letter against the Apostles meaning , but rather gently apply his words to his intent : the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies onely breath , or motion enspired from the soule , for workes in their nature are operations , and are more fitly compared to breathings , or motions , then to the substantiall spirit or soule , or the faculty whence these flow ; which last in proportion best answeres to faith . Now as the readiest waie to ●et breath in one fallen in a swound , or raise one vp out of a dead ●it , is to reuiue the spirits , by which vitall motions are inspired and managed , so the onely way to bring forth liuing workes or fruites of righteousnes , is to quicken or strengthen faith , which liuely in it selfe , and able to performe it proper acts , as firmly to apprehend Gods power , iustice , and mercie ; will vndoubtedly giue life to all other powers and affections , and impell them to their proper functions . The Romanist as ignorant as the Iew of this righteousnesse which is by faith , preposterously seekes to make vs new men in Christ , not by reuiuing faith , which is as the animall spirit , by whose influence works become vitall : but as if one from this principle in nature ; man is dead vvithout breath and motion , should seeke to bring men out of swounds or dead fits , by blowing breath into them with a quill , or making them moue by deuises ; so he grosely mistaking that saying of S. Iames , as the body without the spirit , so faith without workes is dead also , hence seekes to raise vp such as die in Adam , after the same manner we haue seene them raised which fall downe dead in an anticke , first by wagging one arme , then another , vntill the whole body moue . The anticke trickes of Monckes and Friers to cousen the people , by making images wagge or seeme to speake , may serue as an embleme of that imposture , or Gull which Satan by Gods iust iudgement hath put vpon their subtilest wits in this argument . These Couseners made the people ofttimes thinke some Saint had moued or spoken , when a knaue did stirre the image , or vent his own vnhallowed breath through it or about it : and Satan makes them beleeue they are moued by the spirit of God , in such actions as are not enspired by faith , but thrust vpon them by his wicked Angels . Workes of charity they esteeme all such as outwardly resemble the actions of Christ or his Saints , though conceiued not by faith but vpon other motiues ; as motion infused by art may to the eye of man exactly counterfeit motion naturall . This is a maine branch of that great mistery of iniquity ; For by this error , as their faith is neuer reuiued , so their workes though faire and pompous in outward shew , and such as would be most pleasant vnto their God , did they spring from minds and affections renewed by liuely faith , being superadded onely to this dead faith , neither can perfect it nor receiue perfection from it , but become like sweet flowers , vsually put vpon dead corps , the sent of whose corruptions , hinder they may for a time , but surer at length to participate thereof then communicate their fragrancieto it . 10 It is a contemplation very profitable , to marke what troopes of errors may issue from one place of scripture mistaken , and how priuate opinions conceiued through ignorance and conceiued by negligence , are oftimes established by wilfulnesse of publike authority , for who but a schooleman , that considers morall propositions in scriptures , as if they were mathematicall definitions or indemonstrable principles , no whit dependent of what went before or comes after , could not at first perusall haue obserued , that Saint Iames had a purpose in that Chapter to taxe his pupils , as well for want of true faith , as of good workes ? yea the workes they did to be nothing worth , becouse not wrought by faith , had without all respect of persons or partiality in the Law of God. But the Romanist not obseruing what is a point most cleare , that vniforme fidelity , or faithfulnesse in all commaundements of God , is the very formall effect of that faith which was in Abraham , and Saint Paul so much commends . First takes that dead and vaine faith Saint Iames disproues , to be the same with that Saint Paul so much commends ; and consequently to this error , denies iustification by faith , but as it is informed with charity , which is as much as to say we are iustified by charity and not by faith : and vnto these two errors annexeth a third most pernitious concerning the nature of workes : which either not conceiued by such vniformity of faith as Paul requires , or not managed by a paralel vniformity become altogether Iewish , and their best righteousnesse that practise them like the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharises . Lastly , to reare vp a roofe euery way answerable to the foundation , they leade vs from the Gospell vnto the Law , and make the eternall couenant made vnto mankinde in Christ , subseruiant to the couenant made with our first parents , as shall be demonstrated against them in the Article of the last iudgement : And what other consequence could one expect of this error , ( whereto noe other could be paralell ) which makes Charity the forme , or workes the spirit of faith , yet that not onely their best priuate writers , but their Church representatiue is tainted with this stupide heresie ; this decree of the Trent Counsell will serue as a testimony vpon record : If any man shall auouch , that as oft as grace is lost through sinne , faith is alwaies lost together with it , or that faith which remaines after losse of grace , to be no true faith , although no liuing faith , or the man that hath faith without charity to be no Christian : Let him be accursed . 11. If these curses could hurt any , Saint Paul should haue the fulles measure of them , for questionlesse he neuer thought such faith as hee commended could remaine without grace , or integrity of conscience . Saint Iames I thinke should hardly escape , vnlesse he would subscribe to this conclusion ; that the Diuell was a Christian . And were Scotus , Ockain , or Swisset now aliue , they would find all the Iesuites in the world play for these hundred yeares , to hold the contrary , and defend the Trent Councell in this decree . For such faith as the Councell requires to make a Christian , may be , yea is in the worst kinde of Diuels : albeit Valentian hath laboured to find this difference , [ That faith without workes , or grace , is in men the gift of God , so is not the faith of Diuels . ] No more was this answere of his suggested by Gods spirit , or the spirit of truth . For , not to question whether such dead faith as Saint Iames speakes of be the gift of God or no , but rather supposing it were ; this argues a difference onely in the cause , none in the essence , nature or quality . That God created wants in the beginning , doth not argue they were of a more excellent nature then ordinary Lions not created , but propagated by nature , are now of . And if the quality of faith be the same in the Trent Councels , Christians and in Diuels ; Valentian doth rather wrong the Almighty in making him the Author of it in the one , then prooue either it or his owne cause to be the better , by saying it is the gift of God. For though it be his gift , and yet may be without grace or charity , and without these of necessitie as vnfruitfull as the faith of Diuels , ( both which Valentian grants : ) it is no more auaileable to make a Christian , then the faith of Diuels is . Nay in that it may be without workes , theirs is more fruitfull then it : for , as Saint Iames tels vs , theirs workes feare and trembling in them : were that faith , which the Trent Councell makes the forme of a Christian so operatiue in it nature : it could not be ( as is obserued before ) without workes or charity . For if it wrought a trembling feare of his power , it would worke a reioicing loue of his mercie : and impell them , as to auoid the stroke of the one so to embrace the gentle strokings of the other . * Their owne writers obserue , that to feare God , in the language of Canaan , is to worship him : and is it lesse to beleeue in him , then to feare him ? To conclude , what ancient father is there which should not be accursed , if God did not blesse where these Trent Fathers curse ? For though their charity would not suffer them to depriue any professing true religion , of that title wherein he ioied , the name of a Christian ; because they knew not what faith they had in their hearts : yet few of them but indefinitely auouch thus much ; That he falsly , vsurps the glorious name of a Christian , or faithfull man , which is not faithfull in Gods commandement , which doth not in heart approoue the workes Christ commaunds ; though who in particular are so , who otherwise affected , they leaue for him that onely knowes the hearts of all , to iudge . 12. How gricuously would subscription to this decree haue gone against Saint Cyprians conscience ; who accompted it a solaecisme , worthy of indignation , to call him a Christian , that was afraid least the fountaine of his liberality ( his patrimonie ) should be exhausted , by continuall refreshing his naked hungry and thirsty brethren , vnto whom our bowels of compassion should neuer be shut , seeing in feeding them we feast the Lord , who will not take so much as a cup of cold water at our hands , but with purpose euen in this life to requite it , and blesse the residue , as Elias did the poore widowes meale and oile ; which had shewed no lesse hospitality in such extreme scarcity of prouision , then that other in the a Gospell did her liberalitie by casting a mite into the treasury , with such as doubted whether our Sauiours promise did assure them of like blessings , so they would be as bountifully minded as this poore woman was , the zealous father thus expostulates ; a whence should this incredulous thought proceed ? whence is this impious and sacrilegious meditation ? what doth a faithlesse breast in the house of faith ? what shall he that belieues not Christ be enstiled a Christian ? The name of Pharisee better befits thee , for when the Lord disputed of almes , and aduised vs to gaine friends with charitable expences of earthly treasures ; the Scripture addes : All these things heard the Pharisees , which were couetous , and they mocked him . So consonant were these collections to his orthodoxall conceipt of faith , that they whose workes goe in his name , consort with him in like passages , as they do in that maine ground of religion , the nature of faith . o A Christian he is not truly called , ( saith the author of the twelue abuses ) that is not conformable to Christ in conuersation . And b hee that left vs the learned and religious treatise of twofold martyrdome , vniuersally auoucheth , whosoeuer saith with his mouth , I beleeue in one God , and serues couetuousnesse , lust or luxury lies to himselfe , contradicts himselfe in this profession . And is it possible for any without beliefe in one God , truely to beleeue in Christ , or to be truely called a Christian without beliefe in Christ ? That the former bolt was shot by blind men , which could not see where it would light ; it further perswades me , in that it can hit none more fully then it doth c Gregory the greate , sometimes Pope , both in the fall , and at the rebound . For he makes correspondency betweene profession and conuersation , the true property of faith . And least any sophister should except , this might agree not to all true faith , though to such alone ; or to true liue faith , not to faith onely dead ; as to be seene in arts is proper to men , yet not to all , but to the learned onely : he expresly tearmes such as deny in deeds , what they confesse in words , false belieuers : yet as the belieuer is , such is his faith ; the one being false , the other cannot possibly be true . Nor would Saint Gregory haue thought it any slaunder , to denie false belieuers the title of true Christians . Or haue we the warrant of Fathers only to secure vs from the former curse , albeit we teach not indefinitely , that a man without liuely faith is no Christian ? Doth not the Scripture say the same ? yes . a All are not Israell that are called Israell : b but such as doe the workes of Abraham they are the children of Abraham . d For hee is not a Iew , which is one outwardly in the flesh : but he is a Iew , which is one inwardly ( a Confessor in deeds not meerely in name , one circumcised in heart : ) for circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit , and not in the letter , whose praise is not of men but of God. Is the Gospell more indulgent to hypocrisie , then the Law ? Is it so much more addicted to the letter which killeth , then to the spirit of life ; that a faith , as dead as Iewish ceremonies , should be more effectuall to make a Christian , then outward circumcision to make a Iew ? Or what doth the Councell meane by a Christian ; a dead man , or one aliue in Christ ? one in whom Christ is not yet fully fashioned , but ready to conceiue life ? This had beene more tollerable . But one they meane which had life , and hath lost it : one as improperly tearmed a member of Christ , as the body called a Man after the spirit is departed from it . 13 Of these , and many like inconueniences , which no man though of the acutest wit , and most audacious vnderstanding liuing , durst in an indifferent auditory maintaine against any ordinary Artist , that had the leasure for to stretch them : had the Trent Fathers beene aware , happily they would haue beene more sparing in their curses . But this strange aduantage Romish Prelates haue of ours , and all the world besides ; that be they in matters of learning and religion neuer so blinde , or out of their blindnesse so bold , as to runne headlong against the Analogie of faith , all rules of Philosophy , morall or naturall , Grammar or whatsoeuer else can be named : yet shall they neuer want store of excellent wits , but mercenary consciences , which like some people of the old world ( Aethiopians or Aegiptians I now remember not , ) but more deuout and apt to supererogate , will be content to put out , not the right eye of nature onely , but that other of art , least the rarity of the spectacle might make then superiours seeme , either monstrous or deformed . What artist is there with vs , who to be araied in scarlet , to haue retinue , fare , reuenewes and whatsoeuer else correspondent , or befitting a Cardinals state , would but for some few houres aduenture to haue his face so deepely died with shame , as needes it must be , though armed with all the furniture of Art and Nature , if in an audience not kept vnder by tyrannicall and seruile awe , either for speaking what he thinkes , or thinking ought becomes a free man in Christ , he should mainetaine such base shuffling apologies , as Valentian and Bellarmine haue made for the former illiterate decree , ( which sought to couer one absurdity in speech with * two impious ouersights in religion ) but as probable . The Apology before alleaged was [ That faith might be true though dead , as a body though depriued of life is a true body , ) a carkasse rather ; no body organicall , or apt to be informed in the sensitiue soule , though really present . No more doth this faith whereof they speake containe life , or grace potentially in it , both must be created a new , ere the party in whom it is found be a true member of Christs mysticall body . For such is the nature of that faith , which the Romane Catholike makes the ground of his best hopes , that a Friers hood , though vnlined , would doe his bodie more good in his sickenesse , then it can doe his soule at the houre of death . Thus much of true faith and the errors concerning the Nature of it . It remaines we intreate of misperswasions concerning the possession or presence of it , with the right vse of it and other spirituall graces that attend it . SECTION 2. Of immature perswasions concerning mens present estate in grace , with the meanes to rectifie or preuent them . CHAP. I. The generall heads or springs of hypocriticall perswasions , with briefe rules for their preuention . 1. HHappy were we whom God hath appointed to sowe good seede in others hearts , because not altogether without hope to see some fruits of our labours , if this censorious age would permit vs to strike as freely at the rootes of Atheism , infidelity or hypocrisy , as it is ready to censure Atheists , Infidels , Hereticks , or Hypocrites . To me it hath often seemed a question very doubtfull but farre aboue my capacity to determine , whether such as reuolt from the orthodoxall Church , vpon obseruation of monstrous dissonancy betweene the truthes professed in it and the professors liues or resolutions , be in case better or worse then such as embrace true religion vpon no better grounds then they or their confederates oppugne it . Thus much the word of God will warrant , that the portion of hypocrites shall be the bitterest in the life to come . And yet hypocrisie , if it be of that stampe which our Sauiour so much condemnes , is alwaies moulded in that deepe notice , or strong perswasion which men haue of their owne loue , and others opposition vnto diuine truthes ; of their owne diligence , and others negligence in performance of sundry duties expresly required by Gods lawe . And this is a miserie of miseries peculiar to the hypocrite ; that , whereas the height of others impiety ariseth from their opposing the way of truth and godlinesse ; this monster the more he detests falsehood and error , or the impietie , whether of others practises or opinions , the more still he increaseth his owne corruption , and warres vnwittingly against his owne soule . For seeing loue to himselfe , indulgence to his deare affections , or carnall glorying in prerogatiues , perhaps spirituall , is the common roote , as well of his imaginary loue vnto such points of truth as haue some kinde of coniunction with his humours , as of the detestation he beares to others obliquities , that in life or profession ill consort with him ; the oftener he lookes , either on their knowne transgressions , or his owne precise obseruance of such duties as by nature hee is addicted , or otherwise accustomed to , by both meanes he more pampers and nourishes that vicious habit , whence the forementioned bad fruites did growe . And thus at length by vsing the helpe of strong , but impure , vnruly affections , to abandon particular errors , he ouerthrowes his owne soule , as the ancient inhabitants of this land did their state , by vsing the Saxons aide to driue out the Picts . 2. After this manner the Iew by nursing a loathsome conceit of Publicanes and open sinners dissolu●nessesse , not tyed vnto so much as any solemn acknowledgement of their misdeeds , or set forme of repentance , tooke a surfet of those outward ceremonies which God had ordained as sauees to sharpen , not as foode to satiate his appetite of sauing health . Other-whiles fiercely bending his indignation against the idolatrie of the heathen , by too much depression or debasement of their folly , he sublimated his owne naturall inclination vnto pride and haughtinesse , into presumptuous boasting in the purity of that lawe which God had giuen him by Moses . Whence in the fulnesse of time sprung an irreconcileable hatred of the long expected Messias , desperate contempt of his Gospell , and wilful refusall of saluation preached in his name . But howsoeuer the deadlinesse of this disease was most conspicuous in the fall of Gods chosen people , whom wee may without suspition of slaunder ( seeing the holy Ghost hath written the obseruatiō ) safely charge with the infection : yet the danger of it , amongst all professors of true religion throughout euery age and nation , continues the same , as hauing a perpetuall cause in nature . For whether wee speake of contraries morall , or phisicall , the enmities of the extreames is alwaies greater , then betwixt them and the meane ; from which they alwaies so much further decline , as they more eagerly entend their force each against other . The greater strength heate and cold from their vicinity gather , ( whether by mutual irritation , or a secret kinde of daring each other to combate , or by a stricter vnition of the materiall parts wherein their forces lodge ) the more both disagree with the luke-warme temper . The more likewise the prodigall detests the niggards manners , or the niggard his , the farther both roaue , ( the one ouer , the other short ) from that marke whereat they aime , but which truly liberality only hits . And as the mutuall discord of extreames , grows greater by the increase of their seueral strengths ; so the hastie , or violent introduction of the one into a subiect capable of both , makes waie for the others entertainment , and excludes the meane , which findes no entrance but where it is vshered by moderation . So water , too much , or too violently heated is more apt to freeze then to retaine the middle temper . Young prodigalls we often see turne old niggards , seldome liberall , vnlesse their education haue been exceeding good , their naturall discretion extraordinary , or the seeds of vertue in them very strong . And what more vsuall , then for a niggards feast ( because not agreeable to his ordinary disposition ) to smell of waste and prodigalitie ? Buzzards , by naturall constitution , through extreamity enforced to take heart and turne againe , ouerrunning valour , boisterously rush into fury . And desperate hotshots , once made to feele the smart of their folly , become afterwards basely timerous . The Cynicke could spurne at his fellow Philosophers pride , but so , as his scornfull heeles did bewray his preposterously proud ambitious heart . 3. Are these obseruations true in workes of nature , or morall affections onely , and not in perswasions of religion ? Yes , euen in these also , for hath not the vntimely heat of indiscreete precisenesse , disposed sundry in our daies to freeze the sooner in the dregges of Popery ? Haue not others mounted so high in groundlesse and presumptuous confidence , that their sudden fall hath made them sinke ( for any helpe man could affoord ) without recouery into the very suds of melancholy and desperation ? Others , vpon a dislike of their former hot enforced zeale , haue changed their wonted confidence into carelesnesse , and become open professors of licentiousnesse , like the possessed childe in the a Gospell , falling sometimes into the fire , sometimes into the contrary element . And experience prooues it so common a thing for young Saints ( such I meane as affect to be ripe in holinesse , ere well growne in ordinary discretion or common honesty ) to prooue old diuels , that the bent of nature vnseasonable or too much curbed in the parents , oftentimes burst out in the vnbridled affections of their children . 4. The reason of the experiments , whether in nature , moralities , or religion , is as perspicuous , as they are true . For contrarie exstreames alwaies spring from one roote , and though the natures , wherein they are , be much different in respect of their masse or substance ; yet the forme of contrariety is the same , euen in materiall and immateriall entities , consisting in an incompetiblenesse betweene the actuall motions of two opposite inclinations , both in a subiect capable of both , so fastened in one center , that the depression of the one is the eleuation of the other . Whence it is , that the violent , or intensiue agitation of the one , once come to the point of reflexion , breedes a like motion in the other , as the sharper frost by night makes more slippery waies by day ; softest waies in moist winters surbeate the sorest in dry Summers : the farther or swifter we mooue one part of a ballance one way , the farther and swifter it moues it selfe towards the opposite point at the rebound . Thus many by an eager depulsion of knowne errors or impieties , loosing their naturall station , are carried about by their violent reuolution and as it were cast round moturaptus vnto the point from which they sought , and at the first seemed directly to flie , as the sunne by speedy course vnto the West , comes quicklier backe vnto the East , from which it diuerted . Instances to this purpose , in other meditations , were taken from such in our times , as from a passionate humorous , Cynicall spurning at monkish practices , and Popish customes , haue throwen themselues off the shoare into the whirlepoole which finally sinkes them in the verie dregges of that errour wherein the others are drowned . The very selfe same superstitious or magicall conceipt the one hath of his beades and crosses , the other feeds by praecise hearing sermons , and loathsome abuse of the word of life vpon euery secular or triuiall occasion , as if he were bound to vtter a set number of sentences in Scripture phrase euery day . This circular course errors continually keepe in moralities , vnlesse our desires be kept vnder by reason , in diuinity , vnlesse directed and moderated by faith , not onely in the right choice of obiects , but also in the manner of their prosecution . For where affections , which alwaies either ebbe and flow as the Sea , or change as the Moone , are chiefe managers of either businesse , the humane soule , which should be compact within it selfe and exactly sphaericall , becomes exorbitant in it inclinations , and is turned round by alteration of obiects , as the wheele is by the streame ; sometimes held as it were in a backe water by a reciprocall checke of vnconstant turbulent passions or exestuations . Or though the same affection should continue still praedominant , yet is it apt to be impelled , and impell the soule contrary waies , from contrarietie of obiects presented , or diuers references vnto obiects in themselues the same . 5. The rules these obseruations yeeld for rectifying our perswasions in matters of religion , or trying the sinceritie or strength of our faith , are especially two . The first ; To be as obseruant vpon what motiue we dislike or hate any opinion or practise , as what the opinion or practise is which we iudge worthy of hate ; alwaies assured that the extremity of hatred to heresie , impiety , or infidelity can affoord vs no better assurance of our piety , soundnesse or true zeale vnto the truth , then these or like collections doe of certainty vnto right examiners of arguments . [ This man detests niggardnesse , and that cowardise , therefore the one is liber all , the other valourous . ] Our hate to falsehood o● impieties may as well spring from corrupt affection , as from syncere loue to truth or goodnesse . The second rule is , as diligently to examine our consciences , vpon what grounds we imbrace a truth knowne , as we are desirous to know it , that we measure not our assent vnto the Gospell by our affection to some one or few points contained in it , or some degrees of truth contained in them . For the meane , in that it is contrary vnto all , must needes haue some affinitie with euery extreame , warmth could not disagree from cold , but by agreeing in part with heat . The prodigall is like the liberall in that hee is bountifull , so is the niggard in that he is not lauish . Both of them would well agree with him in discourse , so long as hee added no definite quantitie to his rules or propositions , but indefinitely commended bounty to the one , and thrift to the other . The truth which in it selfe is but one , if we apply it to seuerall parts or diuers degrees of the same obiect indefinitely taken ; may haue partiall agreement with any affection . And so againe may one and the same temper or constitution of minde include a loue or good affection to truth indefinitely considered , and an hate vnto it as intire , or as it is referred vnto the end whereto both it and our desires shold be proportioned , So the Iews , seeing our Sauiour feede fiue thousand men with fiue barley loaues and two fishes , a said , of a truth this is the Prophet that should come into the world . The confession it selfe was orthodoxall and good , but conceiued from a false and dangerous motiue , they expected that great Prophet should be a glorious King , able to wreake their malice vpon the nations . And from this present document they rightly gathered , our Sauiour was able to maintaine an armie with lesse cost , then any ▪ earthly Prince or Monarch could . For he that of late with fiue barley loaues and two fishes , had fully satisfied fiue thousand men , might as casily feed fiue hundred thousand , if euery one that had tasted of these should but bring his loafe with him . Their next illation , wherein they ouershot the truth ▪ vnto which indefinitely considered they had subscribed , was to elect him for their King , which he perceiuing b departed againe into a mountaine himselfe alone . Though in a lo●t they beleeued in his name , yet he thought it not safe to commit himselfe into their hands , whose forwardnesse once crost in this proiect , he knew would prooue the same his Countrymens of Nazareth had beene , to attempt some mischiefe against his person . The more gloriously they conceiued of him whilest apprehended as a furtherer of these proud hopes , the more despitefully they had entreated him after manifestation of his dislike vnto their purpose . And this very temper , which was the onely ground of their assent vnto the former truth , was in his sight the maine obstacle to all true beliefe ; because in this , they sought but to honour him and bee honoured by him with that honour which one man may bestow vpon another , not with that which commeth of God alone . Hee that would haue pusht these ambitious propensions forward , or vndertaken their conduct against the nations , might haue commaunded them to haue throwne themselues headlong from the top of that steepe hill from which the Nazarites would haue cast him ; for vnto such practices , false Prophets , that come in their owne name , giuing and taking honor one of another , did after his death perswade this people . Euen whiles the act of their imaginary loue vnto the great Prophet seemed most feruent , their temper was as hatefull to him as theirs that wished his blood might bee vpon them : for it was but one and the same in both , onely with these mens affections mentioned in the sixth of Iohn , the apprehension of his miracles had coniunction for a time , but opposition with all at his passion , when they saw all his workes and doctrine tend to an end quite contrary vnto that whereupon their desires were set euen to the vtter debasement of their lofty proud imaginations . 6 , As well those Iewes that crucified our Lord and Sauiour as the heathens that persecuted his followers vnto death , we often accuse of deadly malice and indite of murther more then wilfull ; vnto which crimes euery Christian must by his faith acknowledge them guiltie in the highest degree . But our hate to such as hated our Redeemer may ( as the Psalmist speaks ) be perfect and vnsaigned , and yet not proue our loue towards him to be such ; albeit the only measure most men vse for notifying the fulnesse of their beliefe , is this supposed loue they beare vnto their Sauiour , which if in many it be but imaginary or swimme onely in the braine , whilest reall hatred of his will reuealed , no lesse offensiue to him then the despite of Iewes or heathens , lodge in their hearts or beare rule in their affections their faith must needes be but a fancie , onely seruing to leauen their naturall infidelitie with pharisaicall hypocrisie . To begin with the gentile . CHAP. II. That our Assent vnto the first principles of christianitie , by profession of which , the faith of auntient Christians was vsually tried , may be , to our owne apprehension , exceeding strong and yet our beliefe in Christ no better then the heathens that oppugned them : that it is a matter of more difficultie to be a true Christian now , then in the Primitiue Church ; did wee rightly examine the strength of our faith not by such points as theirs was tried , but by resisting popular customes or resolutions of our times , as fully opposite to the most essentiall and vtmost , as Idolatrie is to the remote or generall differences of Christian faith . 1. TAke no thought ( sayth our Sauiour ) saying , what shall we eate ? or what shall we drinke ? or wherewith shall we be cloathed ? ( for after all these things seeke the Gentiles ) for your heauenly father knoweth that yee haue neede of all these things . To thinke the vvisdome of God should in these words Oratour-like make vse of his auditours detestable hatred towards the vncircumcised , as an argument to disswade them from such heathenish resolutions as were disagreeable to their calling , would be a glosse plausible perhaps to flesh and blood easie in this case to be thus far perswaded . But who so is better acquainted with his Masters vsuall method , will quickly obserue his further purpose to giue vs in this short instance these or the like maxims of life : That profession of truth without conformable practice , though in matters most difficult , makes circumcision become vncircumcision : That to put on the name or title of his Disciples , not shaking off such resolutions as heathen , that is men without knowledge of the true God or reliance on his prouidence , is but to cloath our selues with the leaues and barke of the true Vine , being full within of such sap as at the best can bring foorth but wilde grapes . And if most of them which had been continuall auditors of Moses lawe , trained vp in Iewish discipline , were , vntill they learned to liue according to this rule , altogether as bad as the Gentiles : what reason haue we to hope the carelesse education of moderne Christians should make them better ? Besides outward appearance ( which without internall integrity correspondent is meere hypocrisie ) ods we shall finde none at all betweene our selues and the Gentiles of whom our Sauiour speakes , if we vnpartially consider [ The vsuall grounds and motiues whereupon we embrace his Gospel ] or [ The vnconsonant practises or resolutions wherewith wee continually match the profession of it ] or lastly , which is the verie life and spirit of Gentilisme [ Our diffidence vnto Gods prouidence for redressing the disorders of his Church ] . 2. What were the reasons , may we thinke , which so long with-held the auntient heathen from profession of Christianitie ? Was the doctrine of the Gospell lesse probale in their time then in ours ? No , as God , so his word is still the same , alwaies alike true , because alwaies most true . Were the people of those Countries , wherein it was first preached , lesse docile by nature then we are ? Rather generally more witty and capable of anie other lore ; such especially , as were most auerse from the truth wee now professe . The consonancy of their morall precepts with the sacred rules of the lawe , the Prophets , and Euangelists , was such , that had they conuersed with our Sauiour , and seene his doctrine so truely acted in his life , they could not , without contradiction of their owne principles , but haue admired his wisedome and magnified his constant vnaffected contempt of all applause from men , or of such vaine fashions or customes , as the gentry of that world highly esteemed , but these Philosophers vsually derided ; not without iust suspicion of sinister or preposterous desires of catching that glory at the rebound , which they seemed to neglect whiles it naturally fell into their hands , or mooued it selfe directly towards them ; as if they had held the stelth or vnderhand receipt of it more lawful or pleasant , then the purchase of it in the open market . Was his Gospell lesse powerfully preached in their dayes then now it is ? No , his Apostles and their associates were indued with farre more excellent giufts ( of tongues , of miracles , of prophecying &c. ) for manifesting the power of it to naturall men , then any Preacher this day liuing is . And what then could preiudice either them or their doctrine . First , and principally , their lowe estate , whose pouerty , according to the fashion then most followed , did ill beseeme any attempt of innouation , or alteration ; especially of such rites and practises as had been first authorized by men of grauitie , place , and great iudgement , countenanced by antiquitie , confirmed by ioint consent of all , and custome neuer interrupted . Philosophers thought it a disparagement to their wit , states-men and magistrates to their wisdome and experience , inferiour professors , losse of their studies , corporations disaduantageable to their trades or priuate labours ; to receiue new lawes from forrainers of presence and estate so meane . And albeit the integritie of Christians liues and conuersation was such , that no penalties inflicted , or statutes enacted against offendors for publique good , could take hold of them ; yet because their sacred rites and profession were incompatible with authorized idolatrous practises , and held as cases omitted by their law-giuers ; the great Pharohs of those times inuented new exactions and oppressions to stint the increase of Gods children , and make the profession of Christianitie ignominious and odious euen to babes and sucklings ; who nuzzeled vp in this preiudice , conceiued hatred against CHRIST ere they knew what manner of man he had been , and detested the very name of his Gospell , altogether ignorant what i● meant . That the cause of Christians had neuer come to indifferent hearing , that their persons were condemned for their profession , ere their liues were examined , is too apparent , in that , such of the heathen as had iust reason to haue noted a manifest difference or opposition , had obserued none betweene them and the Iewes , but adiudged the one liable to the others faults ( if faults they were , they so much disliked in the Iew : ) as honest and religious men ; especially if poore , euen all that make a conscience of their wayes , haue in these daies much adoe , to be absolued from disgracefull censures of Puritanisme , or Anabaptisme , as if because they share with the fauourers or authors of these sects in zealous profession of the truth , they should therefore with losse of their estimation helpe to pay such arrerages as the Christian world may iustly exact of the other for their hypocrisie . But since Kings and Queenes haue vouchsafed to be nursing fathers and nursing mothers , to the Church : since the titles of custos vtriusque tabulae , defeusor fidei , Rex christianis simus or catholicus haue beene accounted as fairest imbellishments in the inscriptions of greatest Caesars , like precious pearls in their crowns , or costly iewels in their diadems , Gods messengers , haue by publicke authority , been not only permitted , but enioyned to preach , and the people with reuerence , to heare the glad tidings of the Gospell , as the royall embassage of the King of kings ; Pastours strictly commaunded to exhibite , the flocke to receiue Christian Sacraments in honourable memory of CHRIST their Institutour , and signe of loyall submission to his royall hests . So haue the lawes of euery Christian nation , since this change inflicted disgracefull punishments , on such as shall vili●ie and contemne these or other sacred rites . Whence the very name of an Atheist or Infidell is become as odious vnto Christian children , as the name of a Christian was amongst the heathen , or a Coward at this day amongst souldiers . Hence , as euery one almost is willing to perswade himselfe he is as good a man as the best , because it is a fowle disgrace to be reputed a dastard ; so most belieue they loue Christ , and rightly belieue in his name , because it is so great a shame and ignominie amongst men , at least of better sort in Christian states , to be ranked amongst Atheists , Infidels or Apostataes . Thus , from one and the same secret working of corrupted nature , seeing to expell the poison of secular disgrace at contrarie or opposite emunctories , the antient heathens were brought to hate , wee loue Christ and his Gospell before we knew them : and yet it is certaine , that hee , which either hates or loues any mans person , manners , or doctrine before he know them , doth loue or hate hee knowes not whom nor vpon what occasions . 4. Many resolute spirits there be in this kingdome , who if they should in places of indifferencie heare a Turke preferre Mahomet , and the Musselman before Christ and the Christian religion , would swagger with him as sternly , as if he had spoken against Tobacco , giuen him the lie , or called him Coward ; and yet perhappes more offend CHRIST in maintaining , then the other in occasioning the quarrell . To such as looke vpon the professors themselues , or measure their goodnesse by their locall vicinity vnto truth , there is great difference in shew , none in substance to such as obserue the identitie of their motiues to embrace opposite religions . He that should a farre off see three men of equall stature walking together , the first in the ordinarie path , the second on a bench twelue inches higher , the third in an alley as much below it , not acquainted with the aduantage or disaduantage of ground which one had of another , would think there were great difference in their height , which notwithstanding would be the same if they changed walkes , or none at all if they stood all vpon one leuel . If we thus compare the Turke , and the Newtralist , and such as professe great zeale to Christian religion , considered onely in the generall , negligent in performance of particular necessarie duties , one seems to come much neerer Christ then the other : yet , the Turke , though destitute of any inherent grace , without any renouation of minde , only brought vp according to our country laws , altogether ignorant of his fathers house or profession , would shew as great loue to Christian religion as the former prosesser did : and he , though christened in our Church brought vp in Turkey , knowing nor suspecting nothing to the contrarie , but that he was by descent and progeny a Turke , would be as peremptory for the defence of Mahomet , or both brought vp in places permitting Newtralitie , or free choise of religion , would be as indifferent for the one as for the other . All the differences betwixt them , is in the lawes or customes of their countries , none in the internall constitution or qualification of their soules , which , though one and the same , may incline the heart of the Iew , the Turke , the Papist and the Protestant , alike firmly to embrace the religion wherein each hath beene brought vp , and prosecute contrary obiects with equall strength of the same corrupt desires . Nor doth the truth or excellency of the obiect iustifie , but rather condemne such as prosesse it of hypocrisie , vnlesse it imprint a liuely character of it goodnesse vpon his heart , vnlesse the force and vertue of it be diffused through his best faculties , and manifest it selfe in his life and conuersation . To be brought vp in a Princes court , daily conuersing with men of excellent behauiour , speach and complement , and still to retaine a ●lownish language , rude affections , and seruile conditions , doth argue a nature more agrest , then the same qualities would in such as had all their life time followed the plough . But for a professed Christian to sixe such base or slothfull desires on these obiects of life as the Turke doth on Mahomet , or worldlings on their commodities , is iust as if a Husband-man should offer a Ieweller as many graines of barley as his iewell weighed . This rule is generall without exception , that whosoeuer loues Christ , either for feare of disgrace , loue of honour , neighbourhood , or desire of conformity with others , would reuolt from him , if his countrey lawes , or custome should change ; for he loues these commodities , or contentments , not him . From these deductions we may gather , the hate which most Heathens , Turkes and Infidels , and the loue which vulgar Christians beare to Christ , to be of value equall , were both vnpartially weighed . For which of vs will giue a pin to chuse betwixt this enmity , that hates to day , as ready to loue to morrow ; and his friendship that loues to day , but would be as forward to ha●e to morrow , if any new occasions or prouocations should be presented . Seeing then , generall or confused notions of great affection vnto Christ , can be no argument of true faith , but rather vsuall introductions to hypocrisio ; it remaines we ●eeke some trian . 5. And for our better speed , let vs begin this search with serious deprecation of such bewitching thoughts as are apt to surprise soules much addicted to their case , and make them dreame the first professors of Christianity were so long to wrostle with flesh and bloud , and to indure a warre so lingring and terrible with powers and principalities ; that we , their successors might enioy such peace and ease as their persecutors did , or to be able to hold such a hard hand ouer Christs enemies , as these haue done ouer his friends , as if the former contention had bin only for earthly soueraignty , security from danger , or immunity from voxation . Christ came not to send such peace into the would ; but rather to continue the warre , then kindled to the would end . And euery faithfull soule must in one kinde of seruice or other make accompt to abide her fiery triall , and approue her selfe a true consort to the Bridegroome her head , in the afflictions he sustained on earth , ere her nuptiall triumphs be celebrated in heauen . The exiled Poets words vnto his trusty wife ( commutatis commu●andis ) may be a fit poesie for the Spouses , wedding ring : * Esse bonum facile est , vbi quod vetat esse remotum est , Et nihil officiss , nupta quod obstat habet . Cum Deus intonuit , non esse subducere nimb● , Hoc demùm est probitas , hoc socialis amor . An easie matter to bee good , whiles will thereto is not withstood ; Whilest no temptation doth befall , which from her charge my Spouse might call ; But Souldier-like to bide the shower , while Caesars frowne and heauens do loure ; Loe this is that true sociall loue , which best becomest my fairest Doue . The perpetuity of these truthes [ That the world , as it is vsually taken for the greater part of men , or for the wealthier , or more potent , is continually set on wickednesse , growing rather worse then better by long continuance : that the reward prepared for the faithfull now liuing , and such as haue been persecuted in former times , is one and the same : That God is no acceptor of persons , times , or nations ] might giue vs the reason of that conclusion , whose truth experience will easily teach the obseruant , [ That it is a matter at al times much what alike hard , to be a Christian in sincerity of heart ; although by alterations of lawes and customes , change of earthly powers , aspects , and other innouations , which the reuolutions of time bring forth ; such points of Christianity as vnto the antient haue been most hard and dangerous , become to others most safe and easie , and contrariwise such as were to them most easie , become most hard and dangerous vnto vs. To be a Christian in heart and conscience , was more safe and easie in the primitiue Church then to be one in name or profession . The same strength of faith which armed them with resolution to breake through the very first ranckes , did fully enable them to passe through all the pikes the diuell , the world or flesh could pitch against them . The very name of a Christian was charged with all the odious imputations or disgraces others could inuent , as most distastfull to flesh and blood : it exposed the good name of true professors to reproach and infamie , it marked their bodies vnto butcherie , and signed their lands and possessions to confiscation and spoile : and what is it besides the feare of these inconueniences , or loue of contrary contentments , that vnto this day hinders any man from being entirely such in all his deeds and actions , as he makes shew of in profession ? But now the front of that maine battaile which onely was terrible vnto them , is wholy turned in show for vs. To be a Christian outwardly is not onely a matter of no difficulty , but not to be one , so farre at least , is both dangerous and disgrace full Yet such is the cunning of the worlds great Generall , that euen in this respect to be entire Christians inwardly and in syncerity of heart , becomes ofttimes altogether as hard for vs as it was for our predecessors to make profession of Christianity , they were placed before the pikes , and we betwixt them . For the title becomming once generally glorious and common to all ; the wise men after the flesh , the mighty and noble , which before oppugned our calling , will now be principall sharers in the glorie of it , and thinke it no small disparagement to their dignities , not to be arbitrators of others demeanures or resolutions in particular businesses or duties subordinate to the generall fundamentall principles of this royall profession . Hence many of vs , the seeke to be Christians in truth and deed , become obnoxious to that distraction of minde , from which the primitiue professors were free . They suspected the customes or fashions of the world , were not tempted with them to doe ought that might seeme preiudiciall to practise of duties enioyned by Gods law , or vnto any particular rule or precept of their Sauiour . If any doubt did arise about matters of opinion in religion , they vsed the iudgements of such as were most spiritually minded , and of knowne skill in such businesses . b Euen matters of ciuill wrong they might not try before the wicked and vngodly . But now to repute any professing the name of Christ , enioying great place in Church or common wealth for such is a slander , & may bring euen Gods messengers themselues within the compas of Scandalum Magnatum : to dissent from them in opinions , or disallow their pactise by profession , of cōtrary resolution is though in alower degree very dangerous . Whence with most moderne Christians it is oft so in cases of consciēce , as it would be with those Artists , that hauing learned Philosophical rudiments , or some naturall experiments of others , should still be subiect to their authority for deduction of particular conclusions or Corallaries , whereto perhaps their skill in logicall argumentations doth better enable themselues . The examples of great men often allure and embolden vs , their exhortations or iniunctions often impell vs to goe , though not expresly against our conscience , ( for these vsually yeeld vnwittingly to temptations ) yet directly against such sacred rules as should commaund our consciences and would easily haue wonne our Assent vnto them , before any authority or power of man , had we liued in those times wherein a the rich did blaspheme the worthy name after which we were named , and drew the professors of it before the seates of iudgement . It is alwaies more easie for a resolute spirit , to resist the despitefull oppositions of open though potent enemies ; then for an ingenuous minde to auoide the snares of seeming friends , especially if set by his betters in the same profession : and yet ingenuous resolution in all causes good and honest , is the true edge and temper of a faithfull Christian . None thus qualified but will more feare the censure of such as are by his country lawes and Christian constitutions his lawfull superiours , then the curses or Anathemaes of an Aliant , though a Monarch , and able to doe him greater bodily mischiefe . To giue others warning of the particular snares wherein they are most likely to fall , is aboue my capascity , without my experience , and ill bese●ming my place : God grant I may anoid● such as are most incident to my calling : it must suffice to touch the most generall or transcendent . 6. The originall of most temptations in this kinde , is a secret presumption , which in some breeds an expresse opinion , in others onely practises thereto consequent , that the receiued lawes or customes of common weales aunciently Christian , are rather grounded vpon the law of God then contradictorie to any part thereof , or apt to vndermine it . This presumption indefinitely taken , is most true , but vniuersally , false and dangerous ; howbeit many vpon this implicit perswasion , that as their country Lawes and ordinances , so their obedience vnto them are warranted by Gods word , thinke it sufficient to examine their liues and actions by the consequent , not nec̄essarie to compare them immediately with particular rules of life , and thus by taking an vniuersall liberty from an indefinite warrant become often nonconformitants to Christ by fashioning themselues continually to the Christian world . He that will obseruantly peruse auncient records concerning the manner how profession of Christianity was first authorized , or the Gospell publikely planted in these Nations , in which it now especially flourisheth , will quickly informe himselfe , that the strength of secular powers before predominant , was alwaies readier to root out b heresies , or quell errors in speculatiue points of Religion , then to infringe any popular custome or repeale Lawes beneficiall to publike treasurers or priuate coffers , albeit they sucke the blood of the poore , or to abandon rites or fashions much applauded by braue spirits , or in themselues pleasant to flesh and blood , though deadly as poison to new men in Christ , though apt to blast the fruites of faith and obstupefie all sence or motion of the spirit : the religious and learned Viues out of Saint Austine hath obserued that customes permitted or authorised by the papacie , did argue that religion to be but an imperfect mixture of Gentilisme and Christianity . His words are ; * Austines verdict is plaine enough , that many things are permitted by the ancient . ciuill Romaine Law , which are contrary to the Lawes of God : This notwithstanding they admit not , who whilst they labour to wed Gentilisme with Christianitie , both being corrupted , neither able to brooke the other as consort , retaine neither Gentilisme nor Christianisme . 7 No commonwealth almost in Europe , but more or lesse participates of this sault . No kingdome wherein either lawes or customes , receiued by ●acite consent aequiualent to lawes doe not either allow or not discountenance such practices and resolutions as flesh and blood are apt to follow , yea to glorie in , though as directly opposite to the nature and complete essence of Christian faith , as it hath beene out of Scripture explicated as heathenish rites or lawes enacted by Romane Emperors against Christians were to the generall heads or articles of beliefe , or to the profession of Christianity ; though to abandon fellowship with these vnfruitfull workes of darknes , much more to reprooue the offendors , or men in authority , through whose negligence or conniuence these snares lie open to catch the simple , would certainly procure disgrace from the one , if not danger from the other , as great as the first propagators of the Gospell amongst the Gentiles were exposed vnto , by disswading from Idolatrie . Notwithstanding if we would not content our selues with the bare name or title of Christianity , either not regarding the principall duties thereto belonging , or not considering how faith by reuolution of times , alteration of publike constitutions , and customes ( like epidemicall diseases ) praeualent by course or turnes , doth change it aspect from such points as it was sometimes most immediately and directly set vpon , vnto others of greater vse for keeeping our hearts vpright in the midst of the crooked generation wherein we liue ; a little obseruation would serue to rectifie our irregular thoughts , and fully instructvs , that our triall whether we beashamed of Christ and his Gospell before men doth as immediately lie vpon our approbation or reproouing such popular fashions or practices of our times ( whether by speech or other significations of our affection publike or priuate , according as our calling is ) as the auncient professors did vpon their consenting or denying to burne incese to heathen Idols , to adore Caesars image to reuile Christ , or reuoke their calling . I speake not of customes or prescriptions in cases of lands , goods , or worldly commodities . For though these and the like vnwritten traditions bee like nets which may bee opened or drawne at some mens pleasures to others great losse and grieuances , yet these , if borne with pat●e●●e make a man neuer a whit the poorer but rather richer in faith . Albeit hee that resolues to vse all aduantage of humane Lawes he can take in such matters against his brother , might as well forsweare the Gospell . But my purpose is briefly to touch some few resolutions , either approoued by ioint consent of men ( as the world enstiles them , because her children ) of best fashion , for noble and heroicall , or practises patronized by the multitude of practitioners , or example of some men famous in ciuill estimation . 8. To begin with Gentillitie taken according to the vulgar and most plausible notion , it retaines the substance of Gentilisme with a light tincture of Christianity , ( To omit vnnecessary cost in apparell whereby forraigners are enriched , our natiue countrey impouerished , and the poore in it oppressed ) : To spend more in one feast or banquet , then would relieue the necessities of many miserable , pined , impotent creatures ( daily presented to their eies ) for moe months then the parties entertained are in number , is an ordinary practice of this profession , much affected by many , such as haue liued sometimes of almes , but are desirous to transforme themselues into another shape by following fashions most applauded of their betters , yet what resolution could be more flatly contradictorie then this is to that precept of our Sauiour , a When thou makest a dinner , or a supper call not thy friends , nor thy brethren , neither thy kinsmen , nor thy rich neighbours , least they also bid thee againe , and a recompence bee made thee . But when thou makest a feast , call the poore , the maimed , the lame , the blinde . And thou shalt be blessed , for they cannot recompence thee : for thou shalt bee recompensed at the resurrection of the iust . Here then is one especiall point of trying their faith whom God hath blessed with store and plenty , if they can assent to this commandement as true and good , and delight in the practice of it , whiles it comes in competition with the contrary custome so much followed and applanded by men of best place and reckoning in the worldes iudgement . Forseeing the good wee haue done or left vndone to such seely ones , as Christ here commends vnto our care , must be the measure of our faith or infidelity , of our loue or neglect of him in that day of finall accompts , indulgent or remorcelesse continuance of contrary practices will then argue as formall a deniall of him , and as damnable shame of his Gospell , as if with Peter we had said wee know not the man , or wee like the Alcaron better then his testament because Mahomet was a good fellow and loued feasting . 9. Not to be sensible of euery wrong , or not forward to wipe of the least aspertion of disgrace , though with their owne or others blood , is held the onely badge of a braue and resolute minde . On the contrary , to seeke or tender Christian submission for wrongs done priuately or publikely , before the Priest , or in the Church or congregation , is held as base and odious , as it a Souldier should seeke the peace of an old impotent woman , or as if a married man should proclaime himselfe ●uckould at the market crosse . Yet what resolution could any heathen maintaine worse consorting with these precepts of our Sauiour , without whose obseruance his death and passion nothing profit vs , euen our praiers for mercy become prouocatiue of his fathers vengeance , b for bee that turneth away his eares from hearing the Law , euen his praier shall be abhominable . Now it is a law for euer to be obserued by euery Christian . c If thy brother trespasse against thee , go and tell him his fault betweene thee , and him alone . if he heare thee thou hast won thy brother . But if he heare thee not , take yet with thee one or two , that by the mouth of two or three witnesses euery word may be confirmed . And if he will not vouchsafe to heare them tell it vnto the Church ; and if he refuse to heare the Church also , let him be vnto thee as an heathen man , and a Publicane . So is that also else where deliuered , euen where our assurance for obtaining what we pray for , seemes most ample ; d What things soeuer ye desire when yee pray , belieue that yee receiue them , and ye shall haue them . And when yee stand praying , forgiue , if yee haue ought against any : that your father also which is in heauen may forgiue you your trespasses . The consideration of these and like iniunctions of our Sauiour , hath often made me wonder in what forme their prayers , which present themselues in open fielde with purpose to reuenge , or be the obiects of reuenge by killing or being killed , are conceiued , or through whose meditation presented to their heauenly Father . But blessed be the Lord our God , whose hand hath led our Soueraignes penne to dash the bloody lines of desperate challenges , for which euen Dracoes lawes had been too milde , and Rhadamanthus too meeke a Iudge . Lord let thy spirit alwaies enspire the heart of thine anointed with like wisdome to discerne , thy Angels assist him with power and courage to execute thy righteous iudgements vpon the proud and scorne full sinner , that measures the greatnesse of his spirit by his strength to breath out blasphemies , or seekes by clamorous noise of his audacious associates in vnhallowed Ethnicke resolutions , to drowne the soft and pleasant voice of thy beloued Sonne , to outcountenance or ouer-aw his placide and gentle inuitations to peace , humilitie , and meeknesse of spirit , by haughty , fierce , disdainfull lookes , or any waies to crush and choake the vertue and efficacie of his Gospell by multitude of riches , friends or whatsoeuer other sinewes of earthly potencie . 10. The best apologie most can make , either for indulgence to vnsatiable vaste desires of gaine or honor , or dispensing with themselues for the vse of sinister meanes for their accomplishment , is it not some branch of these generalls ? Others haue so done before vs and will doe after vs , more are for vs then against vs , and these of better place and iudgement : Why should wee be precise or singular to the preiudice of our betters ? Yet if a man , without reference to this their present resolution , or further notification whereto his speeches tended , should directly aske them what way they thought those many wise , mighty , or noble men after the flesh did make choise of , or finally tooke : I am perswaded it would not be replied they stroue to enter in at the streight gate , being thus laden with sollicitous thoughts , or incumbred with vaine desires of earthly dignities , but rather held on the broad beaten way ; and did not all the Gentiles run the same race ? b Wherein then do they glorifie God more then these Heathen did ? By taking his sonnes names vpon them ? Rather God herein glorifies them more then the other , and they must haue their portion with the incredulous Iew , vnlesse in workes , in liues and conuersation they render praise , glory , and honour to their God , according to these prerogatiues of their calling . What Law or statute , though either so good and commendable in it selfe , as to win voluntary obseruance of the well disposed , or exacting obedience of all subiect to it vpon the most strict and forcible tearmes the Law-giuer could deuise , as vnder penalty of periury , supplications in the bowels of Christ , adiurations by his body and blood , or by our plea of mercie through them at his fathers hands , but may be fowlly preiudiced , if not inuerted , by the ouersight of predecessors , or long custome ; first vsually in these cases begun either vpon meere negligence in searching the truth , or conniuence vpon extraordinarie and speciall occasions at some particulars , ( perhaps conceiued as cases more then halfe omitted ) afterwards continued through ignorance of successors , but finally maintained for priuate aduantages by wicked cunning , or worldly policy , alwaies vigilant to defeate all solicitations for rectifying what hath been long amisse , or reexamining late practices by the Law-giuers principall intent or meaning . The aduise would either seeme too bitter or too light , if I should counsell the authors or chiefe abettors of these abuses , whether committed in Church , or Common-weale , to preferre a supplication with ioint consent vnto the almighty , that he would grant them his grace or continuance of his wonted fauours non obstante praecepto de votis Deo per soluendis , or conceiue such a formall Palinodie of their protestation made in baptisme , as Stesicorus did of his dispraise of Helen , turning euery affirmatiue promise into a negatiue . And yet I dare not auouch ought to the contrary , but that it were much better finally to renounce the profession of Christianitie , then to retaine it without absolute renouncing such resolutions . It is therefore our Sauiours aduice , not mine ; c either make the tree good , and his fruit good , or else make the tree euill , and the fruit euill . Thus to professe CHRIST , entertaining strong conceits , and making proffers of great loue and loyall affection towards him , bent in the meane time to do as most do , and follow the fashions of the world , is to walke with a heart and a heart , euen that crookednesse of heart , which cannot be squared vnto the streight rule of life . Many enormities like to these mentioned there be , sometimes secretly or vnwittingly practised onely , otherwhiles openly auowed and maintained as lawfull , whose discouery or prosecution with such indignitie as befits them , I leaue to the better experienced and more eloquent Pastors ; only of this I would admonish them , that seeing the diseases are grieuous and the Patients strong , it is not a milde and gentle medicine can worke their cure . Much better they endured the smart of our reproofes , though vnpleasant for the present , then that they themselues when it shall come into their mindes to compare their resolutions and practices with their professions , either made in Baptisme , or renued vpon receiuing the Sacrament of Christs body and blood , should out of the anguish of their soule , and griefe of conscience , take vp more bitter complaints then Iob or Ieremy euer vttered , euen to detst the memory of that day wherein it was said , a soule is added to the Church , to curse the hands that brought them to this sacred lauer , or lippes which there did promise or vow on their behalfe ; to wish hot scalding oile had beene powred vpon their heads , insteed of the water wherewith they were besprinckled , or that their foreheads had beene branded with some stigmaticall marke when signed they were with the Crosse , in token they should neuer be ashamed to fight vnder Christs banner , from whose tents notwithstanding , their consciences witnesse they haue beene continuall fugitiues . Doubtlesse the water which putteth away the filth of the flesh , and is powred on vs as a pledge of Gods speciall fauour , vnlesse by it the conscience , which makes request to God , be purified from these and the like dead workes of heathenisme , will be a sore witnesse against vs Christians and solicit our deliuerance ouer to the euerlasting flame , wherein the hypocrite and the periured shall aboue others be alwaies melted , neuer purified . 11. a But if any man shall in this life purge himself from these , he shal be a vessell vnto honor fit for euery good worke . And God forbid we should take either any of these last mentioned , or fowler practices for sure markes or signes of reprobation , into which estate men are not drawne so much by multitude of sinnes past , as by resolution to continue in them still ; which oft-times might be broken off and sauing Faith ingraffed in it place , did not the Physicions of mens soules or others in charity bound to attend their brethren in their sicknesse , giue them for dead or past recouery before their time . In many appointed ouer seers of others , well reformed in life and conuersation themselues , there is a branch of Ethnicke incredulity or distrust of Gods prouidence , vnder whole shelter the former weeds growe and prosper in inferiours . For whether from a positiue error in opinion , that whatsoeuer comes not to passe , it was Gods will it should not come to passe , we gather , it is not his pleasure , things long amisse shold be amended , or that the christian world should grow better then it hath bin , but rather worse & worse ; or whether from a want of consideration , or apprehension of his peculiar assistance promised to such as are gathered together in his sonnes name ; or perhaps by both meanes , so it vsually comes to passe , that good motions , for reformation of whatsoeuer is amisse , are no sooner proposed , but the wiser or better experienced in the world men are , or would be thought , the readier they are to except , that the same or like hath beene before attempted by men of farre greater place , wisdome , and experience ; and for vs to seeke the establishment of what they vpon better opportunity haue giuen for lost and desperate , were to disparage their sufficiencie , and arrogate too much to our owne . Duties very acceptable vnto God , and most necessary for time and place , I haue knowne altogether neglected vpon like suggestions , when as the voices of such as out of this politike humour did dash the motion without any trouble , losse , aad danger in the world , vnto themselues , without any contradiction or disturbance of other suffragants , might with the generall applause of all indifferently affected and the best contentment of the greater part to be reformed , haue fully ratified what was proposed . Thus partly from a willingnesse to conforme our selues vnto the world , partly from a perswasion that it is sufficient to reforme our selues , not necessary to seeke the reformation of others , we canuase secretly for the Prince of darkenesse , and strengthen the faction of the world and flesh , seeking , as it were , a maior part to disanull the Apostles Canon as out of date in our daies , b Greater is hee that is in vs ; then he that is in the world . But had our predecessors beene daunted with such politike surmises or suspitions , Christianitie had neuer preuailed against Heathenisme , whose obiections against it were the selfe same our worldly wise men now bring against all attempts of reformation ; and because they are of the world , the world ●eareth them ; and being Professors in shew deceiue manie honestly minded . 12. Finally let the Christian Magistrates and Ministers pretend what other cause they list ; from their ignorance of Gods mercie and goodnes , and want of faith it is ( for the most part , ) that the people are so bad ; Neither haue that confidence in their God they ought ; but from an opinion in it selfe most true , that God in these daies vsually workes by ordinary meanes or second causes , we come to relie more on the appearances we see in them then on his fidelity and truth that is inuisible . Were wee but as well acquainted with the fundamentall points of our profession , as other professors are with theirs we mighted escrie , it was the politician that foolishly dreames hee can mould states in his braine , and Paracelcus-like giue life immortall to humane bodies polliticke , which still spoiles the fashion of the Christian world by taking vpon him to be a grand Physician where he should be but Gods Apothecary , or to be architect or chiefe plotter of those edifices , wherein he should be but a labourer or handworker , continually expecting the direction and instruction of that Maister builder , which laid the foundation in Sion . We our selues often know the matter or staffe whereon , as also the tooles wherewith we see Artificers worke , yet cannot learne their skill or cunning , but should be ill fauouredly serued if wee tooke vpon vs to make those vtensiles our selues , which they doe for vs. Thus albeit the instruments or inferiour agents God vseth to effect his will bee conspicuous and apparent ; his wisdome notwithstanding in their disposall or contriuance is incomprehensible to flesh and blood , and it is a madnesse to thinke the like secondary meanes should alwaies produce the same effects . But did the present dressers of Christs vineyard , first sincerely renouncing their owne , as firmely assent to the wisdome of God , as the first planters did vnto his power in producing miracles , they might see , though not so quickely , yet as certainely , fruits of their faith , not properly miraculous , but to the wisdome of the world , vntill the euent did work the truth , altogether as strange and incredulous , as the others did . This part of the world , wherein we liue with others adioining , should in good time as much wonder at it selfe made Christian in heart and sincerity , not in name or title onely , as it did at the sodaine change of long rooted Gentilisme into profession of Christianitie . But it is not euery assent vnto the wisdome of God , not euery acknowledgement of his prouidence , or reliance thereon , which can draw downe these blessings from aboue vppon our labours or consultations . Nor is it ( as some haue either erroniously taught , or others conceiued from their writings ) the goodnesse of the end whereon our intentions or desires are set , but the semblable grounds or like proportion thereunto , which rightly distinguisheth them from heathen , naturall or meerely morall , and denominates them truely good and religious . * All wisdome or policy imploied in Christs cause or with intention of good vnto his Church , is not truely Christian , but that onely which begins in the vnfaigned feare of God , and is vertually moued in the strength and feruency of faithfull praiers for his direction and assistance , who thus sued vnto , neuer failes to prosper the endeauours of men otherwise weake and simple ; not at all or negligently consulted , alwaies delights to confound the wisdome of the wise , and bring to nought the Counsell of the crafty Politician , or mighty states-man . And these following are first principles or maximes of that faith , which primarily distinguisheth Christians inwardly from Christians outwardly , the children of faithfull Abraham from the sonnes of the Gentiles amongst whom they liue ; That God oft times suffers not matters of greatest vse and publike consequence to be established by men of greatest place , wisdome , or authority , least the glory should be reputed theirs , not his ; That hee oft times heares not the feruent publique praiers of his seruants at the first , second , third , or fourth time , to traine them vnto constancy in praying , to teach them ( as our Sauiour intimates in the d parable of the vnrighteous iudge ) to be importunate and constantly to expect the accomplishment of their desires , when meanes to effect it seeme most weake , the manner most strange , or incredulous to the world . These likewise are rules of euerlasting truth , not proper to times primitiue onely , that God chooseth the foolish things of the world to confound the wise , and the weake to ouerthrow the mighty ; that hee will not faile to make his name knowne amongst the Gentiles that put their whole trust in him , vnto the worlds end , by such extraordinary manifestation of his handworking in their enterprises , as hee vseth not amongst Iewes , Turkes , or Infidels , vnlesse to their harme for Christians good . The former of these rules vrge not , as any way desirous men of little experience or meane naturall parts should be managers of publike businesses , or agents in reformation of Church or Common-wealth : for the wiser such are , the more euery way shall they glorifie God , as well in the issue as the act , if they sincerely renounce their owne , and faithfully relie vpon his wisdome , or as Saint Paul saies , if they become fooles that they may attaine wisdome , or as our Sauiour , if they first become little children , & afterwards seek the kingdome of Heauen , or propagation of the Gospell ; or finally , if they vsed their naturall wisdome , learning , or experience , or other worldly meanes whatsoeuer , as if they vsed them not , or to no other end , then by making-off all glory or trust in them , to make themselues fitter for the purchase of Gods fauour . This is the true fruit of that faith which alters and sublimates the naturall temper of our hearts , and fully assures vs that Christianitie is rightly engraffed , and well taken in the stocke of Gentilisme . 13. But to be either as solicetous in forecasting or as much deuoted to prosecute any secondary meanes of mans inuention for procurement of publicke or priuate good , or as apt or peremptory to prognosticate of the euent , one way or other , out of the suruey of them so forecast or working , as the heathen were , is in heart and resolution , to deny the power and wisedome of the onely wise inuisible omipotent God , which with our lips we acknowledge ; euen to be as much without God in this present world , as those that were led with dumb idoles . Nor is it reason but fancie only which perswades vs we haue renounced the worship or seruice our fore-fathers performed to Bacous , Mars , or Venus , if we bee as much addicted to luxurie , wantonnesse or quarreling as they were ; these were the reall seruices which these internall powers , mistaken for Gods , required : the outward rites or ceremonies were but badges or formalitie ; if the substance of these misorders remaine the same , it is a signe we ha●e learned to practise that idolatry by hart which the heathen doby rule or patterne . The truth of both collections will better appeare in their proper places ; of the one in the Article of the God-head , of the other in the Treatise of diuine prouidence . CHAP. III. That we moderne Christians may hate Christ as much as we do the memory of such lewes as crucified him , albeit ready , if we were called to formall triall rather to die , then openly to deny him or his Gospell . What meanes are surest for iust triall , vvhether we be better affected towards him then these lewes were . 1. PErhaps our indignation against the Iewes , whose personall hatred to our Sauiour was more malicious , more direct and inexcusable , will more prouoke vs to amend our manners wherin they are too like theirs , and bring forth greater carefulnesse hereafter to auoid that fearefull iudgement wee often pronounce against them , whereunto notwithstanding the most of vs might well be accounted as liable , would we either charge our selues aright , or make them such allowances , as we take . Do we from our hearts detest the memory of Annas , Caiphas , or such others , as conspired to take the Lord of life from out the land of the liuing ? so did they the mention of Core , Dathan , and Abiram , of all that had rebelled against Moses . Not the name of Iudas more odious and despicable in our sight , then Iehoas , Ahab , Iehoiakim , or others , though their Princes which did kill the Prophets , were to them . Which of vs either hath made greater shewe , or thereto called , could make better proofe of our loue and loialtie to the Mediatour of the new Couenant , then they did to the transanctors , messengers , or interpreters of the old : much sooner would most of them haue denied the supremacie of any earthly power , or sustained the height of humane displeasure , then not haue continued profession of loyall affection vnto Abraham , more ready alwaies to triumph in torture , and glory in extreame disgrace , then to be ashamed of Moses and the Prophets . And though they haue been a generation long time hatefull to God and man , yet hee that will rightly weigh the grieuous mispence of so great loue and zeale as they bare toward such as proued their chiefe accusers , shall finde more matter of pitty in this people then of despight . For who would not esteem the losse of his affection towards Christ ( were it but halfe as great as theirs was to Moses , or to his apprehension as likely to be as farre misguided ) more lamentable then all the grieuances and afflictions they sustaine ? What then was the originall of their miscariage ? Their zeale was like the rude moderne Papists , mishapen from the wombe because not conceiued by knowledge . Their loue polluted in the root , because it was no fruit of faith , nor sprang it from hearts so qualified as their had bin on whom , or rather on whose true prases and deserued ●ame it was stubbornely set . Creatures sowle and most deformed are ost-times d●epliest striken with loue of externall beautie , as if the more imperfect nature were in them , the more greedily shee sought to satisfie or couer her wants by linking them with the aboundance of that perfection shee espies in others . Thus the sorer this viperous brood was tainted with hypocrisie , the more they magnified the integrity and sanctity of their forefathers ; as if to haue descended from them , and thus to admire these graces in them , which themselues wanted , had set them aboue all degree of comparison , in respect of any others that liued in the same age with them . Now this foolish pride and inbred desire of praeeminence , was the onely ground as of their loue to Gods Saints deceased so of their malice against his sonne manifested in their flesh and substance . 2. The memory of Abraham they could not chuse but naturally reuerence , he being the first Author of that glorious couenant God made with mankinde , wherein they had the priuiledges of the first borne , and in their owne opinion sole intire interest . And this first Doner being now dead , did not either by speech or action exasperate their enuious , fretfull impatient minds , whereby the strength of their imaginary loue might haue been abated . Moses likewise they could not but haue in greatest honour , as one that had talked face to face with God , and had giuen them such a lawe from his mouth , as the like was neuer heard of before , or after ; b for he that had not so gloriously dealt with any nations , neither had the best amongst the heathen any knowledge of his lawes . The religious respect they had of it , made them abhorre all idoles , yet ( as S. Paul intimates ) none more prone to robbe God of his honour then they , alwaies desirous to array themselues with his glory , and make his praises theirs by participation . With reference , though not expresly , intended to this humour , they honoured the memory of the Prophets , adorned their sepulchers , and sounded their commendations amongst the people . For that their country in times past had brought foorth men to whom the Almighty had communicated his secret counsailes , was the fairest euidence they had to shew for that prerogatiue they still chalenged aboue the Nations , the principall rest they could relie vpon for out-vying the Gentiles in vaine boasting of their auntient worthies . Besides the extraordinary gifts these Prophets had in foreshewing alterations in states , or other euents to come : they could not but seeme honourable in this peoples sight as being the Embassadours of the great Messiah , in whose expectation the meanest of them gloried more then ordinary children could in sure hope of their fathers exaltation to the lawfull crowne of the kingdome wherein they liue . Euery childe of Abraham they supposed in his dayes should be like one of d Gedeons brethren , in fashion like the children of Kings , heires of the euerlasting kingdome . To haue vp braided the softest spirit in that rebellious people with treachery or disloyalty against the Messias , when he should be reuealed , would as much haue moued his choller as to tell some forward professor amongst vs , he would be tray his Lord , were hee now in earth , for halfe the mony Iudas did . Notwithstanding all this great shewe of loue vnto their Auncestours , or fidelitie in Gods couenant , these Iewes prooued banckrupts in euery point of their accompt . They brake first in their loue to Abraham , which was no small part of their reckoning ; so our Sauiour rels them ; If you vvere ABRAHAMS children ye would doe the vvorkes of ABRAHAM : And againe , * Yee shall see ABRAHAM , and ISAAC and IACOB , and all the Prohets in the kingdome of God , and you your selues thrust out . The tender and louing respect they pretended to haue of these deceased Patriarches estimation would haue seemed to them , ( could they haue knowne it ) but as if a desperate quarreling ruf●ian , ( whose dissolute and vngracious courses more grieues his vertuous fathers spirit , then all the opposition of his bitterest enemies , ) should be ready to fight with euery one that did but speak a suspicious word against him . They brake againe in their accompt of their fidelity toward Moses ; for so our Sauiour tells them had you belieued Moses , you would haue belieued me , for hee vvrote of me ; and Moses in vvhom you trust , is he that accuseth you to my Father . They failed likewise most grieuously in their imaginations of extraordinary loue vnto the Prophets : the very rootes and poison of that spight and enmitie their fathers bare them , while they liued , were propagated to posteritie , still increasing their malignitie in the descent as Riuers doe their streames in their course ; the childrens cruelty against our Sauiour was but the fulfilling of their fathers iniquity against the Prophets : his blood shed by them vpon the crosse was as the Ocean whereinto that streame of blood which had runne thorough their generations from Abels to Zacharias death , and so downewards was exonerated . The disposition , though varying it references to seuerall persons , did after so many descents no more differ then doth the humour of amad dogge running through a long lane or row of people , alwaies shat●hing not at the same parties , but at such as are next vnto him . Thus Saint Steuen makes but one chaine of all iniquities continued from Moses vnto Christ ; ye stiff-necked , and of vncircumcised hearts , and eares , yee haue alwaies resisted the holy Ghost , as your fathers did , so doe you ; which of the Prophets haue not your fathers persecuted ? and they haue slaine them which shewed before , the comming of that iust one , of whom ye are now the betraiers , and murtherers ; which haue receiued the Law by the ordinance of Angels , and haue not kept it . For had they kept it , or faithfully belieued Moses which wrote it , they had neither distrusted ou● Sauiours doctrine , nor dispised his person ; but their naturall disposition was most contrary to Moses meekenesse , and therefore could not be agreeable to that iust ones , and yet their imaginary loue to this their Law giue● , or rather their ouer ●●●ning conceipt of their owne worth , in that they were his Disciples , imboldens them to despise his Master , for they reuiled the blind man which asked them , if they would be his Disciples , g thou art his Disciple , but we are Moses Disciples , we know that God spake vnto Moses , as for this fellow , we know not whence he is . Their cruelty against him was conceiued and prosecuted vpon the same ground , Caines was against his brother Abell : for they slew him because their owne workes were euill and his good , as their fathers had done the Prophets , to whom this vngratious seed did seeke to testifie their loue , as being now out of sight and no eye-fore to their purposes , no way offensiue to their eares , because their speeches were not personally directed to them , and what might be as fitly applied to others , they had the wit not to applie to themselues . But whiles vertue and pietie breath in the presence of the vngodly , they are still desirous to breake the vessell wherein this treasure lies , yet what was the reason or what doth the euent protend to vs , that the children should still delight to build stately mansions for their dead bones , whose glorious soules the fathers enuied imprisonment in these brittle cabbins of clay , vntill the time of Messiahs death , vnto whose memory the reliques of that vngratious seed performes no like solemnity , giues no signification either of loue to him , or sorrow for their fathers sinne , but rather openly professe oh , had we liued in the daies of our fathers , wee would haue beene pertakers with them in that praier , His blood bee vpon vs and vpon our children . This doubtlesse beares record , that Gods wrath according to their wish , is come vpon d them to the vtmost , e that the measure of the fathers iniquity and theirs was then fulfilled : that vntill Christs death there were meanes left to know those things f which were for their peace , time for repentance : but since they haue resembled the state of the damned in Hell , continually blaspheming that holy name which brought saluation to the world . Now seeing their conceipted swelling loue vnto his forerunners deceased , did in the fulnesse of time wherein it should haue brought forth life , prooue but dead and abortiue ; this should stirre vs vp to a more exquisite examination of our faith , to make sure triall , whether our loue to Christ , whom they slew , be not conceiued from the same grounds theirs was vnto the Prophets , whom their fathers had slaine ; least ours also become as fruitles or rather bring forth death , in that day wherin Christ shall be manifested againe , after which shall be no time for repentance , no meanes to amend what is then found amisse . 3. Admit our affection to CHRIST IESVS the son of Mary , borne in Bethlehem , and crucified at Ierusalem by the Iew , were more feruent then the Scribes and P●●arises loue to Abraham ; to Moses , and the Prophets ; our zeale to his Gospell more ardent then theirs to the law : such prouocations or allurements as flesh and blood may suggest , either to beginne or continue these embracements or our imaginations of them , are on our part more in number and more potent . First by Nature , fashions of the time , & education , we are more prone , because more ingenuous then they were , to conceiue well of men deceased , especially of men whose good fame hath bin propagated to vs with applause , though no● of all , but of some great or better part of our predecessors . The praises giuen to Pompey & Caesar by their followers , oft times draw yong schollers into faction , as the seuerall characters of those two great peeres liues and dispositions suit with the different idaeall notions they haue framed vnto themselues of braue mindes , of noble generals , or good patriots . Amongst Critiques some canuase for one Poet or classique Author , some for another , as they finde them most commended by writers whose iudgements they best approoue or are most beholden to , or as they apprehend their skill in that kind of learning they most affect , To make comparison of any liuing with the dead , especially in whose works those men haue much laboured , would seeme odious : and this great affection they beare vnto their writings they would haue apprehended as no meane argument of their owne like skill and iudgement , though not blessed with like inuention . Many scarce honestly minded themselues will esteeme of their great benefactors as of Saints , ready to apologize ( as is fit ) for such actions , as men in their owne times vnto whom the censure of such matters belonged , might iustly haue taxed . All these motiues of loue vnto men deceased may in their nature and substance be but carnall , and yet all concurre as the vsuall grounds of most mens affection ▪ or loue to Christ . For whilest we reade the legend of his life , we cannot but approoue the peoples verdict of him , he hath done all things well , nothing idlely , nothing vainely , nothing rashly , much lesse maliciously to the hurt or preiudice of any ; his deserts towards vs we cannot apprehend , by the lowest kinde of hystoricall beliefe as true , but we must conceiue them withall , as infinitely greater then Abrahams were to the Iewes . Abraham did but see the promise a farre off , and gaue a copie of the assurance to posterity : CHRIST sealeth it with his blood and insta●●s vs in the inheritance bequeathed . Moses deliuered Abrahams seed out of Egypt , CHRIST vs ▪ from the land of darkenesse . Moses freed them from the tyrannie of Pharach , and from working in the fornace , CHRIST vs from the futie of those euerlasting flames , for which out soules and bodies had serued for such matter as the bricke was to the other . Ioshuah placed them in the land of Canaan , CHRIST vs in the heauenly places ; the benefits already bestowed by him vpon his people are much greater then all theirs that haue gone before . Abraham was ignorant of these Iewes , Isaac knew them not , nor could Moses heare their praiers . a who is like vnto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high , who humbleth himselfe to behold the things that are in heauen , and in the earth , he that raiseth vp the poore out of the dust , and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill that he may set him with Princes , euen with the Princes of his people . But so il doth the naturall crookednesse of mans corrupted heart and preposterousnesse of his desires paralell with the righteousnesse of his Sauiour , that euen the humility wherein the first appeared which chiefely exasperated the proud Iew to contemne and despise him , doth eleuate the mindes of many seely and impotent deiected creatures amongst Christians vnto a kinde of carnall glory , whereunto otherwise they could hardly aspire . For many such , as defect of nature , want of art , good education or fortunes haue made altogether vncapable of comparison with others for wit , strēgth of bodie , wealth or other endowments in the custome of the present world vsed , for measures of mens worth , or serving to notifie the degrees of betterhood in any kinde , will oft times glory in this comparison , that they owe as good soules to God as the best , and thinke themselues as great men in our Sauiours bookes as greatest kings ▪ because their estate is , as his was on earth low and base in the sight of men . This their reioycing were not in vaine , did they vse the low esteeme that others make of them as an aduantage for more easie descent to true humility , and lowly conceipt of themselues not as a steppe to pride or stubbernenesse , contrary to their Sauiours disposition , who being in glory equall with God , did abase himselfe lower then Moses , through his whole life and conuersation , framing his speech more familiar to the meanest , his exhortations to all that would come vnto him more courteous , more kinde , more louing and comfortable then any other of his messengers euer vsed . And what heart so dull , so stupid , or hard as not to be pierced with loue of such humility , not to be stricken with awfull reuerence of that maieste , whereto it is now exalted ? who would not here charge his persecutors with a greater blindnesse , hatred , malice and vncharitablenesse towards him , then is incident to any professing Christian religion to anie as firmely assenting to the truth of his Gospell as the Iewes did vnto the writings of Moses and the Prophets . 4 The allowance we are to make the Iewes for righting the seeming oddes betwixt vs and them , must be taken from the personall offences or prouocations man nature corrupted ; as in them , so in vs , tooke at our Sauiours life , his cariage , conuersation and manner of preaching . Imagine he were now present in our land in the forme of a seruant in which he appeared to them , what entertainement could we expect most of our nobility , or gentry would giue him , should he openly disallow the accompt they make of their antiquity or descents , drawing them such a pettig●ee of their mindes as he did of the Iewes , b You are of your father the Diuell , and the lust of your father you will fulfill : or would his miracles mooue any potentate more ? It was not his fathers pleasure he should worke wonders in Herods sight , or such great ones as were not qualified for the kingdome of God , rather more like to haue hardned their hearts with Pharaoh then become like litttle children . The report or fame of such miracles as he hath wrought amongst the common people , would haue moued many rulers in this our Israel to haue said as the Iewes did , that he was a coniourer , or one of Cornelius Agrippas consorts , had he in earnest or solemne sort auouched as Cornelius doth in his satyricall suruey of vanities , that Caine was the first author of nobility , or such generosity as the world , now magnifies , which makes but a sport or recreation of shedding blood . Nor would honourable persons be more like to charge him with these or the like imputations then Lawyers to accuse him or pleade against him , or to indite him , ouer and aboue as a sedicious fellow , as a disturber of peace ; or diuines of all sorts to censure him for an hereticke , an author of sects and factions , a pestilent schismatique , should hee in an open assembly say to the one sort as sometimes hee did to men of their profession amongst the Iewes , c Woe be vnto you the interpreters of the Law , for ye lade men with burthens grieuous to be borne , and ye your selues touch not the burthen with one of your fingers , or proclaime as many woes against the other , with the superscription of hypocrites , comparing their greene affection and graue weeds to d painted tombs which appeare beautifull outward but within are full of dead mens bones , and all filthinesse . What passions would it stirre vp in all professions , in Christians of all degrees , should he accuse them of such villanies and impieties , as in their owne perswasions they are least obnoxious vnto , yea whose practise they bitterly lament euen in their ancestors , or threaten vs as he did the e Iewes , that the plagues of our forefathers sinnes should fall vpon this present generation , as more wicked then any that went before it ? And yet God knowes , how milde these or like speeches , as they are related by our Euangelists , are in respect of his intire reproofes of the Iewes , were they extant as he spake them , or of such as he would now vse , did he conuerse with vs , and daily behold the cruell oppression of many great ones , the fraud and cozenage of inferiours , the dissolutenesse of others , and the hypocrisie of such as seeme least culpable in the sight of men . 5. These are points which euery man may dilate vpon , or exemplifie proportionably to his seuerall occasions ; mine in this treatise it sufficeth to haue set downe the bare tearmes of that golden rule of reciprocall proportions , by which most men may take an accompt in what state they stand . The first tearme is the extraordinary zeale the Iewes bare to Moses , the Prophets and their writings ; the second , our parallell affection towards Christ and his Cospell ; the third , the vaine issue or empty product of Iewish imaginary zeale manifested in their destruction & mraiseble estate , since our Sauiours first comming in the flesh ; The fourth must needes be a like fruitelesse issue of our zeale to Christ at his last comming vnto iudgement , vnlesse we builde our faith and loue vpon better grounds then they did , and frame our liues and manners to the meane from which they swerued . One most generall , yet an especiall rule to try our faith , must be from experience of good affections contrary to those which made the Iewes to distast our Sauiour . What these were , the Reader may finde noted by the Euangelist , and some of them come to bee discussed in the ordinary meanes we must vse for the planting of faith . The surest measure we can take from any particular duty of our loue to Christ , or beliefe in his word , must be from our patient sufferance of his messengers to reprooue such enormities in vs as he sharply taxed in his hearers , to beate downe open and out crying sinnes with such fearefull threatnings and denuntiations of greuous woes as he vsed against hypocrisie , and other predominant vices in his time , as also to launce and rip their auditors consciences that they may be touched with a sense of such corruptions as they feele not & scarce know to be hurtful ; as our not sorrowing at others miseries with whom we liue , our insulting & reioicing at others fals , as if we did more ioy to grieue them , then sorrow they haue offended God , as if we could be content to purchase our myrth by crucifying Christ afresh , or by persecuting them for whose sake he died . But if we repine , stomacke or maligne his Embassadors taxing this or like crimes , though in sharpest tearmes , or neglect to examine our hearts and consciences at their request or instance , it is a sure token our perswasions of faith and loue vnto him are but sancies , that we are still in the gall of bitternesse , enemies as cruell to him as these Iewes were , and would haue done to him as they did , had our occasions or opportunities beene the like . To what extraordinary seruice he would appoint vs were he on earth againe , we cannot diuine , but the dueties he hath enioyned all , without exception , as obedience to the word knowne , and reuerent attention to the messengers of his will , we certainly know . Let not then hypocrisie deceip● vs by suggesting these or the like suppositions . [ If we should be vrged by the Turke or Iewe to deny him , wee would sooner die the death he did , then doe it , or were he present in person to exhort vs to such dueties as his messengers enioine vs , we should sure be as forward as any man liuing to doe them ] these or the like imaginations do but foretoken our need of that apologie , and argueth our inclination to vse it , though alas it cannot steede any in that day of tryall , d Lord when saw we thee naked or anhungred ▪ in the Pulpit or preaching in our streetes , deterring vs from euill and exhorting vs vnto good ? if not to relieue our brothers wants be to suffer him to starue , then questionlesse to dispise his messengers is to despise him , to reuile them is to reuile him , and he that wil not belieue them , neither would he haue belieued him more then the Iewes did . 6. For conclusion ( because this point may come elsewhere to be handled at large ) if respectiue , or according to our seuerall vocations , we be generally either as proude , or as couetous as ambitious or vaine glorious in our prerogatiues , as mercilesse or iealous of disparagement in our places , or as impatient of iust though sharpe reproofe , as these Iewes were : we would haue beene altogether both as prone to take , and as earnest in prosecuting any offence taken at our Sauiours doctrine , person , life or manner of preaching , as his most malicious enemies were and are as lyable to their plagues , for God iudgeth not as man iudgeth , by the actuall euent , but by the internall habit or constitution of the heart : Nor did our Sauiors presence his conuersation , or other cyrcumstances , make , but onely manifest the malicious enmitie of the Iew against all goodnesse , to the world , and their odiousnesse in the sight of God and man , should teach vs to be more carefull to auoide the inward disease then the euent or outbarsting , which cannot bee so apparant in vs vntill Christ appeare againe in person . Or if it be as backward in performance of those positiue dueties exacted by him of his Disciples , as were the ordinary , or lesse harmefull sort of vnbelieuing Iewes ; we may not expect any better hire or reward then they had , but rather a greater portion with the hypocrite for our profession of loue and loialty to him . For as we may giue perfect proofe to God of our malice or spite against Christ onely by our internall corrupt desires , without any positiue outward act : so can we make no proofe of true loue towards him , either vnto God or our selues but our deedes albeit euen in doing his commandements we are apt to deceiue our selues , and without due examination to admit false witnesses of our owne sincerity ; amischiefe in the next place to be preuented . CHAP. IIII. That the fruites of righteousnesse , if but of one or few kindes argue the stocke whence they spring to be either imperfect or vnsound : of the danger that may come by partiality in the practise of precepts alike diuine or from difformitie of zeale : that our Assent to generalities ofttimes appeares greater to our selues then indeede it is from our pronenesse or eager desires to transgresse in some particulars . 1. NOthing more naturall to our affections , when they abound or swell , then to seeke obiects whereon to bestow themselues , and after the fashion of the world to make choise of the fairest from whole beauty they vsually receiue strength and vigor . For this cause as in the last discourse was obserued , that good affection which men of disposition candide and ingenuous alwaies beare vnto the memorable vertues of men deceased or farre absent , well deseruing of the world or them , administring no occasion of dislike , doth presently seeke vpon the first sight of his legend to fasten it selfe vpon our Sauiour , in whom nothing truely admirable or praise worthy , but is ideally absolute and perfect . And strange it is not , if in practicall perswasions that error steale on most , which hath ouertaken many inretired speculations , that the obiect qualifies the desire ; as indeede it doth , but not alwaies ; not when the will out-starts the vnderstanding or reason . For where the affection or passion is violent and vnrelenting , we presently belieue what we eagerly desire . From the concurrence of these three decliuities or facile descents into error , we often mistake carnall loue for spirituall , and beliefe meerely naturall or scarce worth the title of hystoricall , for supernaturall , because set perhaps strongly on obiects spirituall or supernatural . The remedie is to let reason worke first , and take the true portrature of that spirituall beautie whereto it directs our desires or affections . Nor doe faith and loue truly Christian arise from euery reference or extremission of our faculties or apprehensions vnto CHRIST but from an intromission of his image or shape into our soules . The right esteeme or ponderation of his vertues and perfections must inspire our hearts with resolution and zeale to imitate him in his goodnesse , to be faithfull doers , not hearers onely of his precepts , and that not of some one or few , but of all . Seeing loue , as hath been obserued , is the necessary consequent of liuely faith , and faith it selfe a firme and constant Assent vnto diuine reuelations , without indulgence or dispensation : it is a sure argument , the one neuer kindly takes , vnlesse it equally spread it selfe , ( as the Sun doth his beames , or centers their lines ) , to euery obiect within the sphere of diuine truth ; that the other neuer kindls aright vnlesse it vniformly enflame euery faculty of our soules with desire of executing that part of Gods seruice whereto it is ordained , or with a delight of such practises as the Scripture proposeth to our imitation in the Law , the Prophets or Euangelicall history of our Sauiours life and death , 2. Not obseruing this vniformity , the partiall practise of duties in themselues very necessary , helpe to thrust vs headlong into the former error . For the earnest prosecution of our natural desires lighting in with our feeble Assent vnto some particular diuine truths or slender liking of some duties commaunded sutable to them , makes vs attribute the delight or loue we beare to the internall obiect of our corrupt desires , vnto the truth or precept diuine ; as by the like error many looking vpon the Sunne in a foggy morning imagine that rednesse to be in the bodie of this glorious starre , which is in the vapour directly lying betwixt their eyes and it . Howbeit this groundlesse conceit we hence entertaine of our Assent , or loue vnto any obiect of Faith , increaseth the strength of our carnall desires or delights naturall , and that inordinately increased in respect of some one or fewe points vrterly disenables vs for prosecuting others oft-times more necessary and much better . And as els●where I haue obserued , that which casts men into the fore-mentioned Iewish disease of ouerreckoning themselues in their ●●compts of faith and loialty towards God and his anointed , is the sufferance of their imaginations to run too much , or too long on some one or few good qualities or practises of such duties as our naturall affections out of particular affinitie or alliance impell vs vnto , not counterpoising these perswasions with proposall of contrary difficulties , or trying their strength by performance of such other Christian exercises as are most contrary to their natural inclinations . As what man is ther by nature free and bountiful , but wil throughly Assent vnto our Sauiours saying as true & good , a beatius est dare quàm accipere ? it is more blessed to giue then to receiue . Yet many by too much applauding their obedience in this particular , come at length to giue more then is their owne , or so much of their owne , as others cannot get from them what is theirs , and so excessiue diligence in this breeds extreame negligence , or rather manifest breach of that other rule altogether as necessary , b owe nothing vnto any man but loue : and yet whiles they compare themselues and their good deeds , with the miserable and hard hearted , these seeme as Iewes vnto them and they againe vnto these as worse then Infidels c being not more carefull to prouide for their wife , children , and other committed by nature to their charge . Many againe by wedding their thoughts vnto this , perpetually diuorce themselues from the former of our Sauiour , vtterly abandoning all deeds of charitie as the bastard brood of popery and superstition . 3. Not one almost by nature faire conditioned , or of a a plausible behauiour by education , desirous to gaine the loue of all , without giuing iust offence to any , but will admire the humility , the meekenesse , the placide and sweet affection of our Sauiour ; his gentle tollerance of his Disciples long ignorance , the milde intreatie and kinde inuitations of grieuous and open sinners . And yet many , I haue obserued , and some farre aboue the vsuall pitch of vulgar Christians , many times from too much congratulating this affinity betwixt their naturall disposition and our Sauiours , degenerate into old Elies facility , or the contrary Stoicall apathie , demeaning themselues as if all sinnes were alike ; as little moued with fowle and grieuous offences against Christ , contempt of his Sacraments , wilfull and affcted breach of sacred lawes , flouting at professed obseruance of fundamentall precepts of Christianitie , open auowing wretchlesse neglect of oaths , as if they were but matters of ordinary passe , some light ierke or gibe , or hadnsome exchange of words in table-talke , not worthy to be stood vpon amongst friends or mutuall welwillers . This is a defect of faith so common to such , as , for their esteeme and experience in the world , are held to be fittest censurers of Christian manners ; that if one should be put to giue a phisicall definition of discretion , according to the vse or application of the word in such mens language , he could not better expresse the nature of it , than by a temper apt to bee much moued with nothing , but what directly crosseth their maine purposes or may defeat them of their principall ends , as gaine , preferment , honor , applause of the multitude , or fauour with men , whose persons they hold in admiration for some aduantage . But were our hearts enspired with true and liuely faith , it would teach our affections , as to hold one straine or tenor in matters of course , indifference , or wordly consequence , so to rise and fall , to swell and asswage , whether in admiration or detestation , according to the different worth or indignity of obiects presented to them . Not thus qualified we cannot hold consort with the sweet harmony of our Lord and Sauiours affections , whose indignation at indulgence to such open sinnes ▪ as directly dishonoured his father , did raise it selfe aboue the straine of princely wrath and displeasure : witnesse his whipping the buiers and sellers , without respect of persons , out of the temple ; yet buying and selling of temples with the appertinences is the readiest meanes with vs to compasse greatest places in the Church , and and oft times because we see no meanes of preuailing against the wolues , we hope to haue some share or offals of the prey , or for our silence to be at length admitted into the association : but , O my soule , come not thou into their secrets , vnto their assembly mine Honour ( though honour should be thy reward ) bee not thou vnited ; In their ambition they slay and murder soules , and in their selfe will they ruinate the wals of Christs Church . Here were a fit place to admonish some most detesting Idols or images in Churches , that the sacriledge , they commit continually , is a sin no lesse detested of their God. But it would require a larger comment then in this place I may insert to perswade that truth vnto the belly , which euery true Diuine comparing the d Prophets word with the e Euangelists will conceiue , that the abuses committed by these marchandizing Iewes in the Temple w●● more offensiue to the pure eies of the Lord then their forefathers walking after other Gods and burning incense vnto Baall . 4 The holy Ghost I am perswaded would not so pathetically haue deciphered the sweet amity of Dauid and Ionathan , but with purpose to commend it as an especiall ornament of heroicall minds , or as a vertue to be imitated by euery faithfull professor of the truth . And yet in men farre otherwise qualified then these woorthies were , and aiming at contrary ends , first linked in friendship vpon dislike occasions , for the most part vpon mutuall consciousnesse of foule crimes or combination in euils , and continuing the bond vpon worldly or carnall considerations ; the imitation of like loue is adulterous . It may be Achitophell was as firme and constant vnto Absalom against Dauid , as Ionathan was to Dauid against the commandement of his father Saul . Notwithstanding that Ionathans reference vnto Saul was neerer , then Achitophels vnto Dauid ; the same affection in the one was like the loue of the bridegroome and the spouse , chast and loiall ; in the other praeposterous and abhominable , like the vncleane lusts of Sodome . This is a wild plant of barbarous Gentilisme so deepely rooted in most professed Christians hearts that the extirpation of it requires a peculiar volume , for scarce can we find any loue amongst men which is not deadly enmity against Christ . So mightely is the poison of it diffused throughout all our faculties and affections , that close sticking to a friend though in matters neither iustifiable by the law of God or man , is held such an extraordinary act of charity , as may serue to couer a millian of other vnchristian practises . Most out of consciousnesse of such performances , will not spare to censure others most maliciously , if they will not accord with them to forsweare themselues for their friend , forsake their God and denie their Redeemer ; for so he doth that resolues to patronage or beare his brother out in wrongs or foule offences , and rather seekes not first to worke him vnto true repentance , to sue for mercy at Gods hands & christian reconcilement with his brother whom he offends . b Whosoeuer loues father or mother , brother or sister ( much more a friend ) more then Christ , is not worthy of him . Yea he forsakes him in not disclaiming them in vniust courses . Euen amongst men to professe greatest loue to one , and take part with another , in causes which equally concerne both , and both alike affect is , ( in the mildest censure it can admit ) a breach of friendship , or forsaking of his friend . Yet who can be so neere a friend to vs as our Redeemer is to truth ? what , can they whom we loue best on earth so much affect , as he doth equitie and righteous dealing ? Is it then hyperbolicall to affirme , or rather hypocrisie either in heart or word to denie , that he which for loue to his friend p●ru●rts equity , transgresseth the common rule of charitie , and ouerthrowes iudgement , especially of the sonnes of affliction , openly denies Christ , who is alwaies the principall in euery controuersie of right or wrong , alwaies more offended with vniust grieuances then the parties grieued are ; euer better pleased with doing right then he to whom right is done . 5 Others againe through heat of blood or greatnes of spirit aduenturous , or otherwise prodigall of life for purchase of fame , can with ioy imbrace such dangers in Christs cause as would much daunt many good professors . In perswasions of zeale hence grounded they might perhaps die in battell against the Infidels , or in the Romish inquisition , and yet doe no more for the Sauiour of their soules then they would for a strumpet or some consort of bodily lust , or then malefactors haue done one for another . And it is a miserable kind of martyrdome to sacrifice a stout body to a stabborne minde ; yet besides the vanitie of the conceipt or ouer esteeme of their owne faith or vncharitable censures of others frailties in like difficulties , the very nursing of this resolution vpon these motiues disenables them either for the right fruition , or resignation of life vpon others more acceptable to the Lord and giuer of life . Few thus brauely minded but are more impatient of life or death attended on with disgrace of the most or such as they expect should be propagators of their fame , more impotent then others , to resist contempt or set light of publike scorne . Howbeit the strength of faith rightly Christian is better tried by valour passiue , such as appeared in our Sauiour when he willingly submitted himselfe to the taunts , mockes , and abuses of his enemies , then by valour actiue , such as Peter shewed when he smote of the high Prists seruants eare ; the cause in generall was most iust , and the resolution bold , hauing not one for three to mainetaine the quarrell ; but Peter at this time was more fit to make a souldier then a martyr ; for which seruice secular souldiers are for the most part meaneliest qualified . All the circumstances of the story notwithstanding , perswade me it was resolution truely noble and Christianly valourous , as proceeding from liuely faith in that a French Souldier who for his zealous profession of reformed religion adiudged with others to the fire , and in lieu of all his good seruice to the King and state , hauing this grace bestowed vpon him that he should goe to the stake gentleman-like without a with , demaunds the reason why hee might not be permitted to weare such a chaine as his fellowes did , esteeming this rebuke of Christ more glorious then the ensignes of Saint Michaels order . Such vncorrupt witnesses of Christ were these Aluigeans , mentioned in the h second booke , which neither out of stubborne humour of contradiction nor hope of celebritie amongst men , but out of sincere loue vnto the truth gaue euidence for the recouery of Christs Gospell concealed and prescribed against by the iniquitie of former times . But in Saint Cyprians time the solemne memoriall of former martyrs , and that high accompt which Christians made of Confessors that had escaped , did bribe others to giue testimony vnto Christs name , desirous to die the death of the righteous , out of loue indeed , but not of that iust one , but of fame and vaine glory . Against this poison that religious Father , and holy Martyr , prepared this antidote following , which I esteeme so much the more because of the good effect it wrought in himselfe . b Christ bequeathed peace vnto vs , enioyning vs to be of one heart , and one minde ; the league of loue and charity he commanded should be inuiolately kept . He cannot approue himselfe a Martyr , that holds not the band of brotherly loue ; and againe . He is a confessor , but after confession the danger is greater , because the aduersary is more prouoked . He is a confessor ; in this respect , he is more stricktly bound to stand for the Gospell , as hauing through the Gospell obtained greater glory of the Lord. For the Lord hath said it , to whom much is giuen , of him much shall be required and more seruice shall bee exacted of him on whom more dignitie hath beene bestowed . Let no man perish through the confessors example , let no man learne iniustice , insolence , or perfideousnesse from his manners . He is a confessor ; let him be humble and meeke , let him be modest in his cariage , that as he is entitled a confessor of Christ , so he may imitate Christ whom he consesseth ; for he hath said , He that exalts himselfe shall bee brought low , and his father hath exalted him because he humbled himselfe here on earth , albeit he were the word , the power and wisedome of his father ; and how can hee loue arrogancie which hath enioyned humility by his law , and hath obtained a name aboue all names of his Father , as a reward of his humility . 6. Non sanguis sed causa facit Martyrem . It is not the blood but the cause that makes a Martyr , was a saying subscribed vnto by orthodoxall antiquity , and since approued by the ioint consent of all truely religious . I may adde , it is not the cause or profession of whose truth and goodnesse men rest strongly perswaded , but the grounds whereupon they imbrace it , or motiues inducing them to giue testimony to it , which makes their death acceptable vnto God. Christ requires we keepe our bodies without blemish , or purifie them by repentance , if they haue beene spotted with the world , ere we offer them vp in sacrifice vnto him . d He that truely Assents to the greater and more terrible of worldly euils as good and fit to be sustained in his cause , will questionlesse suffer and sustaine grieuances of lesse weight at his request . Now he that commands vs to deny our selues rather then him , before men , exacts of vs that we confesse him by integritie and fidelity in his seruice , by abstinence from vnlawfull pleasures of what kinde soeuer , none of which can bee so deare to vs as is life , which he that for his sake renounceth by faith , would by the same , renounce all pleasures incident to it . For he that faithfully obaies in the greater and more difficult , will doubtlesse performe like obedience in the lesse . e We know ( saith Saint Iohn ) that we haue passed from death to life , because we loue the brethren ; he that loueth not his brother abideth in death : vnlesse out of this loue , as iointly respecting our brethren , we lay downe our liues in loue or testimony of the truth , we doe not rightly confesse CHRIST , nor die in faith ; f for whosoeuer hateth his brother , is a murtherer . And as he addeth , h hereby perceiue we the loue of God , because he laid downe his life for vs. but whereby shall we perceiue our loue to him ? if we doe as we ought , and we ought ( as it followeth ) to lay downe our liues for the brethren . Not onely to redeeme many of them ( if that were possible ) from a bodily death by dying for them , but rather to encourage euery one by our examples to embrace the truth and confesse CHRIST before men , whether by life or death ; whether by profession of truth , or practise of workes commanded , as occasion shall be offered . He that requires vs to lay downe our liues for their soules , will looke we should distribute our goods to relieue their bodies ; otherwise to die for them is no true testimony of our loue to CHRIST ; a for who so hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother hath neede , and shutteth vp his bowels of compassion from him , how dwelleth the loue of God in him . Againe , though we feede the poore with all our goods , and yet haue not this loue [ to lay downe our liues for the brethren , ] it profiteth nothing , and though we giue our bodies to be burned for them , and haue not this other part of loue to feede them , or those attributes of it in the same place expressed by the Apostle , as long sufferance , kindnesse , without enuie , without boasting , without pride , without disdaine , without exaction of our owne , with placide affections , neither prouoking , nor easie to be prouoked , but reioscing in truth , and detesting iniquity , with viformity of faith , hope and conscience , it profiteth nothing . For as hath beene obserued before , consideration of what CHRIST hath done for vs must bring foorth in vs the same minde that was in him , a minde to doe his fathers will in euery point alike sincerely , but with greater intentions or alacritie , as the occasions or exigence of seasons shall require . Sometimes we may more faithfully confesse his name by standing for some branch of truth ( no generall point of saluation ) in opposition to men of contrary mindes with whom we liue , ( whose proiects tending to the dishonour of Gods name , and preiudice of his dearest children we may hinder ) then by professing all the articles of true religion vpon the enemies racke , or witnessing some principall truth before the fagot . 7. Besides the obhomination of the causes they maintaine , great presumptions , or rather strong euidences , there be many of their corrupt mindes , whom the Romish Church in latter yeares sets footh for Martyres to the world . First , the Diuifications ascribed vnto them as their enrolements in the catalogue of former Saints , inuocations , adorations of their reliques and the like , would haue mooued most heathen Romanes or Egyptians to haue aduentured on greater dangers or indignities then they are put to for one of their foolish Gods , an ape , a serpent , or a crocodile . Yet these men not inconsequently , I must confesse , vnto their magicall conceipt of faith and holinesse , imagined by them in dead workes , thinke , their blood shed in the Catholique cause , shall wipe away their actuall sinnes , as clearely as the water of baptisme by their doctrine doth originall . And as that sweete relator of his fruitefull obseruations in matters of religion , hath ascertained vs , that Italians are vsually imboldned to sinne , because they must haue matter to confesse ; so men of great place and authority in this land would not suffer vs retired students to be ignorant , that some seminary priests haue purpoposely giuen the raines to fleshly lusts vpon confidence the executioners knife should worke a perfect circumcision , or the fire purifie their polluted members at the day of execution . Or in case they neuer felt the seuere stroake of iustice , yet their constant resolution to suffer , and daily expectation of being called vnto this fiery triall , should serue as a cloake to couer those impuri●es which the purity of CHRISTS blood shed vpon the Crosse ( such is the abhomination of their hypocrisie ) without perfect inherent righteousnesse , cannot hide . So farre too many of them are from sobriety , meeknes and humility , & those other qualifications required by Saint Cyprian in true Martyres , that the gift of impudence , scurrility and disdaine , serues no home-bred malefactors halfe so well in the time of their durance , or whilest they are brought before the face of authority , or arraigned at the barre of iustice , as it doth them ; as if they would giue vs to vnderstand that the marke of the beast , spoken of by S. Iohn , had some such especiall vertue , as these characters traiterous Gowry brought out of Italy , which stopped his blood from running out , after his body was runne through , as this doth theirs from appearing in their foreheads ( for onely to blush they are ashamed ) euen whilest they pierce through their owne soules and pollute their country aire with hideous forraine blasphemies ; but in re mala , animo s●vtare bono i●uat ; a good face put vpon a bad matter , ofttimes auaileth much ; yet with men , not with God , vnto whose mercy I leaue such , as affect to bee Pseudo-martyres , beseeching him of his infinite goodnesse to alighten their hearts , that they may see at length the abhominable filth of that Idole to which so many parents in this land are desirous to sacrifice their dearest children , and these men their very soules . But , oh Lord , stop the infection , that it spread not from the dead vnto the liuing . 8. But leauing this huge lake : two , no small sinckes of hypocrisie , I haue espied , from whose noysomenesse many , otherwise well affected , scarce are free , but into which Lord let not my soule descend , for their eu●cation is into the bottomelesse pit : The one , an opinion , there can bee no fit matter of martyrdome in a state authorising the free profession of that religion which amongst many we like best , and left to our selues would make choise of . The other , which in part feeds this , is a perswasion , that meere errors in doctrine or opinion , are more pernitious , then affected indulgence to lewd practises , or continuance in sinfull courses , or open breaches of Gods commandements . These are teliques of Romish sorcery , which puts an abstract sanctity in the mathematicall forme or superficial draught of orthodoxal doctrine , as it is in the braine , though deuoide of true holinesse in life and conuersation , or good affection in the heart , and hence accompteth heresie ( that is euery opinion different from the tenents , or contrary to the practises of their Church ) a sinne more deadly then any other , and which in their iudgement doth vtterly depriue vs of such faith as they maintaine , though that no better , if not worse then diuels . But if we recall what hath been hitherto discussed : First , [ That Christian faith is an Assent vnto diuine reuelations , not only as true in themselues , but as good to vs in the practise , as much better then auoiding the displeasure or gaining the fauours of any earthly powers ] Secondly , [ That this Assent must be vniforme , and a like sincere to euery truth , a like strong to euery practise , alwaies increasing according to the seuerall degrees of truth or goodnesse apprehended in the obiect , or different exigence of times and place wherein wee liue ] : these points are most cleere ; That Christian faith is more directly oppugned by wilfull neglect , or auowed violations of morall , or Euangelicall precepts , then by bare errors in opinion , or such heresie ; as directly include not blasphemie against the blessed Trinity ; for the chiefe euill of all others consists in reference to wicked practises whereunto they lead or incline men : That the Ministers of the Gospell , may deny CHRIST , or manifest their ashamednesse of his Gospell as directly by not laying his Lawe as closely to the great Herods of the world , as Iohn Baptist did ( suppose the case be as notorious and as well knowne vnto them ) as if they had been afraid to confesse him for feare of being put out of the synagogue , or ●ayd with those other Iewes , wee know that God spake with Mose and gaue authority vnto Magistrates , but this man we know not whence he is , nor do we care for his Counsells . Yet , were Iohn Baptists kinde of preaching vsed in many kingdomes , though by such as professe the same Religion with the Potentates , they should offend with their boldnesse , I think it would proue matter of martyrdome in the end . That any age , since Christian Religion was first propagated , hath wanted store of Martyrs , is more to be attributed vnto the negligence , ignorance , and hypocrisie , or want of courage in Christs embassadors , or appointed Pastors , then vnto the sincerity , mildnesse , or fidelity of the flock ; especially of the bell-weathers or chiefe ring-leaders . Or if Satan had not abated the edge of primitiue zeale and resolution by that dishonorable peace concluded betweene Christianity and Gentilisme , after the setling of Gothes and Vandalls in these parts of Christendome ; had hee not vtterly benummed mankinde by locking vp their spirituall senses in mid-night darkenesse ; and fettering their soules in superstition , since the time he himselfe was let loose ; Rome Christian had seene more Martyrs , euen of such as did not much dissent from her in most opinions held within sixe hundred yeeres of CHRIST , in one yeere , then Rome heathen at any time had knowen in ten . Euen in Churches best reformed it would bee much easier , I thinke , to finde store of iust matter for Martyrdom , than of men fit to make Martyrs . And hee that hath liued any long time in these quiet mansions and seates of Muses , secure from Mars his broiles , or externall violence , hath great cause either to magnifie the tender mercies of his gracious God , or suspect himselfe for an hypocrite , if hee haue not suffered some degrees of Martyrdome : a But vnto such as haue been exercised therein , it bringeth the quiet fruite of righteousnesse ; and ought to encourage rather then daunt them whilest they liue in these Paradises free ( God bee praysed ) from boysterous blasts , as taint other plants of the same nursery remooued abroad , to vse this calme and happy season they enioy for setting their faith and loue aright , that they may spread themselues equally to euery point of that compasse by which they are to direct their course in this troublesome sea of vncertainties : that their strength in practise and profession may iointly increase , without all respect to persons or particular duties , saue what ariseth from the excesse of worth in the things themselues belieued or loued ; or of necessity , or speciall occasions of performances , that they may further , as much as in them lies , by word and deed the vnpartiall execution of their blessed Founders statutes , of whose beneficence they daily taste , albeit oft-times with opposition to them or offence taken by them , in whose arbitrement their estimation in the world or a great part of the maintenance prouided for them , depends . If by framing our resolutions and affections by little and little to march on constantly , though but slowly , in this vniformity and proportion , wee can come at length to repell proffers of Honour , whereunto we cannot ascend but by winding and crooked steppes , or of gaine not easily gotten but by vnlawfull meanes , or to hold fleshly pleasures as deadly poisons to our soules , then shall our deaths bee acceptable in the sight of our God , and if it be his heauenly wil hereafter to call vs to resistance of iniquitie , euen vnto blood ; wee haue these sure grounds of hope , that we shall offer vp our mortall bodies in sacrifice vnto Him the onely true and euerliuing GOD , not to the sactious humours of these corrupt times , or vaine Idoles or our foolish fancies . 9. This vniformity of growth in faith and want of partiality in our zeale , I haue affected , since I knew what belonged vnto either ; the rather because ( as I sincerely professe in the sight of God ) the first ground of my dislike vnto the chiefe sollicitors of reformation in our Church , men whose excellent parts and good labours I then did and euer shall reuerence , was the difformity of their zeale : for had it been vniforme , no question but it had moued them to lay downe their liues for redressing knowne enormities in the Common-weale , as much more materiall and more neerely concerning the aduancement of the Gospell then those doubtfull controuersies ( for so I apprehended them ) of formalities about which they stroue , as death it selfe is more terrible then depriuation . The principall authors or abettors of which enormities , notwithstanding were imboldened by these encomiasts , in whose language euery Cormorant that would countenance their cause was a sanctified person a sonne of God. Their partialitie herein towards others , may occasion vs to obserue a blast of like temptation naturally rising from like humours , which oftentimes ouerthrowes faith where it is well-nigh rightly set and ready to take . By nature , if not preuented by grace and a watchfull eye ouer our perswasions , we seeke to make amends for our delinquency in points , whose practise our affections cannot well brooke , by a supererogation in some other duties , wherein we either naturally delight , or can inflict vpon our selues as an easie penance ▪ because not much distastfull to our sweet desires , nor contrary to our principall resolutions . Many gallants of dissolute and debaushed behauiour , and sometimes Ministers , of life scandalous and obnoxious ( though neither of there I vse as instances for proofe of my assertion ) will in their discourses bewray an affected desire of declaiming against errors in generall opinions abstract from vse or reformation of life , or some antient heretiques , whose heresies might oft-times sleepe with their bodies were they not wakened by loud out-cries against them . What is the reason that such men as are most vnfurnished in these subtilities are vsually most forward to entertaine conflicts with the dead or men farre absent ? They are afraid to looke vpon themselues without a foile , and seeing they can hardly finde others of life and conuersation much fowler ; they purpose vnto themselues this difformity or disproportion in such opinions as are indifferent inrespect of their delights , and therefore easie to bee embraced with ioy , as a salue vnto their sore consciences , apt for to breed such a perswasion of faith or grace inherent as the Pharisee had , with whom vpon this conceit they say Lord wee thanke thee that wee are not as other men are , not as these ꝓeeuish Schismatiques , or monstrous , and mishapen Hereticks . Others , out of the like humour againe , will bitterly inueigh against vncharitablenesse , from which indeed they are free , in respect of their owne crimmous consorts , but yet thinke it no small point of zeale to censure religious Preachers most vncharitably for reproouing the vnfruitfull workes of darknesse . But , as was intimated , the forme of this temptation is in diuers well minded , the same . Many , if we respect that great aboundance God hath either blessed them with , or permitted them to scrape together , very defectiue in workes of charitie or deuotion , albeit Leuyes reuenewes pay them tribute for this purpose , will be more forward in frequenting religious assemblies or holy exercises , then such as fructifie more by one howers conference with a true diuine , or reading a religious treatise , than they do by noting twenty sermons . The true reason of this diformity is not alwaies , perhaps not vsually , as some , not so obseruant of their owne temptations as they might be , deeme , from actuall dissimulation with the world and themselues , or expresse purpose to vse religion onely in policie for a garment to couer their mis-shapennesse ; but rather from a secret working of the soule , conscious of it eternall want and penury of works best pleasing God , which she thus seekes to recompease by extraordinary diligence in such duties as shall not much displease herselfe , or preiudice her sweet delights , or alter her most familiar purposes . Thus did the Iewes , from whom this disease descends , hope to repaire their want of mercie with multitude of sacrifices , no lesse necessarily required by the lawe then sermons are by the Gospell . And the stomacke , when it either hath no solid food , or is vnable to digest it , wil naturally desire to fill it selfe though with water or such light meats as breed nought but winde . The like aduantage hypocrisie oft gaines to strengthen it selfe by antedating indulgences to vnlawfull acts , or delights vpon presumption of increasing faith by repentance . 10. Who is he which now truely feareth God , but calling his former thoughts to strict accompt , will professe hee hath sometimes been indulgent to naturall desires , or such pleasures as haue accompanied him from the cradle , vpon hope his alacrity in doing good should by this relaxation be augmented or repaired ? Or would we be as obseruant of our demeanure toward God , as we are of it towards men , or their deportment toward vs , we could not long remaine in ignorance , that our Assent vnto generall principles of faith , or future practises of duties enioyned , doe oft-times appeare greater , then indeed they are , from our pronenesse inslantly to transgresse in some particulars , which to prosecute without checke or incumbrance we hardly could without making our selues faire promises of reformation in time to come . For apprehension , or feare of defection , either finall or totall , cannot but curbe the vnruly appetites of flesh and blood in such as haue any touch of conscience or religion . In these allurements we intreat our consciences , as men intentiue vpon waighty businesse do cumbersome guests or importunate sollicitours ( if such as in ciuility they must respect ) making faire proffers they will bee for them against another time , to be quit of them for the present . Nor do they alwaies make shewe of more than they meane , albeit when the heat of businesse is allaid , they be more loath to be vrged with performance of what they promised , then they were to promise , The reason in this and the former case is the same : eager desire of prosecuting what they had in hand without interruption or delay made them more hearty then otherwise they would haue been in their proffers ; because the vnkindnesse which might be taken , or vnciuill tearmes that might grow vpon an vncourteous dismission , might breed vexation of mind , or vnaptnesse to dispatch their instant affaires . In like sort , many put off their Creditors with earnest protestations and serious purposes to giue them contentment ere long ; but if contrary occasions in the meane time meete them , they take vp with their promises and recall their purposes : both now are conditionall . They would bee as willing as any man liuing if they had it , and can heartily wish they had wherwith to giue euery man full satisfaction . The same protestations we vsually make vnto our God , and relent from them vpon like occasions : when new temptations do assault vs ; we request him , as Naaman did , to be mercifull vnto vs in some one or all , or if not simply for the sinne , yet for the act at the present , and perhaps vow double diligence in his lawes for times ensuing ; yea oftentimes apprehend this experience of our transgression , and the sting of sinne thence arising , as a motiue to make vs more earnest solicitors for grace . When as ( God knowes ) by spending the time , allotted vs for repentance , in such trifling pleasures , wee cast our selues more and more behinde hand , entring further into Satan that cruell extortioners bands , alwaies disenabling our selues as much to resist the next temptation , as our delight hath been in yeelding to this . At length we come to desperate debtors last protestations : If we could a base our selues in stooping vnto a vulgar life , or abstaine from such pleasures as nature and education hath made vs more capable of then others are , we could be as willing to performe anie Christian duty , as the best : that now wee are more backward then most are , must not be thought to proceed from any lesse esteeme of CHRIST and his kingdome , but from multitude of great and waightie occasions to withdrawe vs. Some againe perswade themselues they beare great inward affection towards God ; but yet whiles they outwardly transgresse his lawes , or , at least , shew not their loue vnto him in the practise , the blame must be laid vpon others , which indiscreetly crosse them : let them haue their wils , and it shall be made manifest vnto the world , they are both as willing and able to doe God any seruice , as the most forward professor lluing . This is a temptation incident to braue minds , ( so euery proud man thinkes his owne ) paralel to Caesars protestations of loue and loyaltie to Rome , when he came in armes against it , for thus hee deifies it amongst the other gods . — — — — Summique ô Numinis instar Roma , ●aue caeptis , non te furialibus armis Persequor : en adsum victor terraquemarique Caesar , vhique tuus , liceat modò nunc quoque miles Ille erit ille nocens , qui me tibi fecerat hostem , Thine aide , ô Rome'mongst greatest gods , I craue my foe to foyle : Nor follow I these furious broiles , with purpose thee to spoile ; Vouchsafe t' accept my seruice now , I now before thee stand ; Victorious Caesar hitherto , as well by sea as land . So now I may , thy Souldier true , for euer will I be : His be the guilt , this bloody breach that caus'd twixt Thee and Me. Such allegeance will euery Iesuite professe vnto his natiue Soueraigne , and yet dispense with his oath , if he shall in any sort offend the Romish Church . But the Lord our God is no meane Lord , hee accepts not of fealty tendred with such reseruations as Iesuites vse in their oathes of allegiance : serued hee will be with the whole heart and affection , and will not be sharer with the diuell , the world of flesh , as in the next place from Apostolicall aurhority , confirming the reasons hitherto alleadged , is to be shewed . CHAP. V. That true faith is the soule of good workes : That it equally respects all the Commaundements of God , and can admit no dispensation for nonperformance of necessary duties . 1. THat no man without faith can please God , two reasons there be very pregnant : the one , because the wrath of God remaines on all persons without it , as being not contained within his couenant : the other more immediate , because , albeit the party destitute of it , were not preiudiced by his first parents sinne , or his owne thence deriued , his actions neuerthelesse could not be acceptable in Gods sight , not truly good , because not vndertaken and managed by that faith which interests vs in Gods couenant , and engrafteth vs in his Sonne . Whether such faith can be wrought in any without expresse and actuall knowledge of CHRIST , were perhaps curiositie to examine , and presumption to determine ; yet thus much supposed , the conclusion is vndoubted , that their workes should for Christs sake bee accepted of his Father , who better knowes the hearts of of such then they do his sonne , or wee the extent of his decree of mercy in this case ; of this we may be sure , albeit the best deeds of his dearest children are acceptable onely for his Sonnes sake , yet for his sake he neuer accepts the impure or euill deeds ( the practise I meane of things forbidden ) of such as actually know his sonne , and are expresly contained within his couenant , but those onely wherein they truely resemble him . Now euery action , whereto that faith , by which we are engrafted in Christ , is concurrent , is in it selfe sincerely and truely , though imperfectly good . Euery action without concurse of such faith , is in it nature bad , though of an obiect truely good ; or , at the best , but indifferent , if the obiect be vncapable of morall good or euill , and fall not within the precincts of any diuiuine commandement or prohibition . As the workes of nature depriued of influence from their proper and principall causes become defectiue , or , if the materiall or passiue be not subordinate or fashionable to the formatiue or actiue causes , monstrous : so are our moral actions either altogether deficient from the rule of goodnesse , or preposterous and contrarie to it , vnlesse the faculties , affections , or inclinations , whence they flow , be inspired directed and moderated by a true and liuely faith . 2. It is a Canonicall saying which the sonne of Sirach hath to this purpose : b In euery worke ( or as some read In euerie good worke ) bee of a faithfull heart ; or as Drusius , trust thy soule , but most directly to the Authors meaning , belieue with thy soule for this is the keeping of the Commaundements . But what is it hee wils vs to belieue with the soule ? that the thing is good which we intend to worke ? But vnlesse such it be in it selfe , before intended by vs , it will sooner make our beliefe bad , then become any whit the better by our belieuing it is good . For to belieue or trust our own soule , that shold be good which in its nature is either bad or but indifferent , or not good in such a degree as we deeme , is to belieue an vntruth . c To do that , which in its owne nature is good , with doubt or scruple that it is euill , is to sinne against our conscience ; from which guilt , our full resolution to the contrary , or sure trust to our owne soule ( rightly examined ) doth acquit vs and warrant our actions . And in case our doubt or scruple of spirituall euill , bee not accompanied with equall probabilitie of as great good that may follow : Saint d Paul aduiseth euery man to be fully perswaded in his minde ere hee aduenture on that which his soule had distrusted as euill . But the recalling of such distrusts , or raising confidence in our soules , doth onely warrant vs , that therein we do not sinne , it doth not make our action good , albeit the obiect were such before . Now the sonne of Syrach praesupposeth the workes , hee speakes of , should be good in themselues , and vndoubtedly acknowledged for such by all , as being expresly commaunded in the lawe . But with the first rudiments of Philosophy morall we haue learned , that it is one thing to do that which is vnquestionably right and good ; another to do it rightly or well ; that it is not euery performance of what vertue enioines or commends to vs , but the performing of it constantly , and discreetly , as knowing it to be good and honest , and delighting in the practice of it because such , whereby a man becomes , virtutis veraecustos , rigidusque satelles : so true a friend and faithfull obseruer of vertue , as he may be instiled truely good and honest . Now seeing to keep the Commaundements , doth dignifie a man with titles of an higher ranke , and denominates him godly , holy or religious . it is not the bare doing of what is commaunded , or a firme perswasion that it is lawfull , but the faithfull and constant doing of it , as perfectly knowing it to be good , because a branch of his wil who is goodnesse it selfe , the fountaine of whatsoeuer is called good in others , in whose seruice wee ought to fixe our whole delight , which makes vs keepers or obseruers of the Commandements . The Commaundements , in that sense he takes them , are the totall obiect or complete rule of righteousnes , and Faith being a firm Assent vnto the diuine nature & attributes ( whose shadow and picture the Law and the Prophets exhibite ) hath the same place and extent in diuinity that Prudence or vniuersall iustice hath in morall Philosophy . It includes the compleate and practicall knowledge of good and euill , inclining the faculties of our soules to auoide all commerce with the one , and embrace euery branch of the other . Whence he that aduiseth vs , In euery good worke to belieue with our soule , supposeth the same obiect of this beliefe , Saint Paul doth in that speech , vvith the heart man belieueth vnto righteousnesse , not by belieuing or trusting his owne heart , but by hearty belieuing Gods mercy in CHRIST and vnfaigned relying vpon them , as is sufficiently expressed by our Apostle , and was implicitly contained in that speech of Syracid●s , who , perhaps , did not expresly or actually conceiue of CHRIST , as we doe , but terminated his beliefe vnto the generall mercie and prouidence of God , whereof the great mystery of the incarnation was the principall branch : and CHRIST IESVS in the fulnesse of time exhibited in our flesh , the visible fruit of life , which that other IESVS did but hope for as yet in the roote , not distinctly knowing it nor the vertue of it , but ready actually to embrace it and feed vpon it whensoeuer it should be brought forth . For , as much as I haue obserued out of this speech , is implied in the exegeticall repetition of it . He that belieueth the Lord taketh h●ed to the Commaundements , and hee that trusteth in him shall not be hurt , there shall no euill happen vnto him that feareth the Lord , but in temptation euen againe he will deliuer him . 3. That wee may practice what is commaunded , and yet not keepe the commandement , Saint Iames hath put out of all question . b If yee fulfill the r●iall Law according to the Scripture , thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe , ye doe well . But if ye haue respect to persons , ye commit sinne , and are conuinced of the Law as transgressors . For whosoeuer shall keepe the whole Law , and yet offend in one point , is guilty of all . This fulfilling of the Law or keeping of the commaundements , which , as Solomon saith , is the whole man , or the whole duty whereunto man was ordained , the complete and perfect Christian vertue , consists of two parts , a bodie , and a soule . The bodie is the doing of what the written Law commaunds , whether by acts positiue or inhibitiue ; the soule , is the reason or internall law of the minde , which impels seuerall faculties to such acts or workes . For to speake properly , and scholastickely , all performance of good workes commaunded , or forbearance of things forbidden , spring not immediately out of faith , as the truncke out of the roote , the branches out of the truncke , or the fruit out of the branches . But as the fruits of righteousnesse are of seuerall kindes and qualities , so haue they seuerall faculties or affections , for their proper stockes , out of which they grow . The auoidance of adultery , fornication , or whatsoeuer pollutions of the flesh , with the fruites of holines contrary to these vices , spring immediately from the vertues of temperance and chastity . Abstinence from murder , with the acts of mercy opposite to the seuerall branches thereof , flourish out of the affection or vertue of humanity , courtesie , gentlenesse , or the like . So haue the acts of the affirmatiue precept contained in that negatiue , thou shalt not steale , as of euery other Commaundement , whether positiue or inhibitiue , a peculiar habite or inclination , out of which they bud : yet as all motion is inspired from the head , albeit we goe vpon our feete , or moue our hands or other member to defend our selues , or serue the necessities of nature ; So , although we are truely said to walke in Gods waies , to fight his battailes , or doe him seruice ; when we vse any facultie or affection to his glory , yet is our firme assent vnto his good will and pleasure reuealed vnto vs by the doctrine ●f faith , as the animall faculty ; which impels vs to these exercises . Hence as we gather the body is dead if it want spirit or motion , so , as Saint Iames implies , the image of God and his goodnesse ( or to vse another Apostles words ) the forme or fashion of CHRIST IESVS in vs , is without life , vnlesse our faith and assent vnto them haue this soueraigne commaund to impell and moue euery faculty to execute that part of Gods will whereto by the doctrine of faith it is designed . d And yet as the exercise of outward members increaseth internall vigor and strength , and refresheth the spirits by which we moue ; so doe the acts of euery faculty , vertue , or affection , righly imploied perfect faith , not by communication or imputation of their perfection to it , as the Romanist out of his doting loue to his faithlesse charitie , dreames ; but by stirring vp , exercising , or intending its owne naturall vigor or perfection . Vnlesse euery practique facultie receiue this influence from liuely faith , or from the image of God or Christ , which it frameth in our mindes , and proposeth as a visible patterne for ou● imitation in all our workes , thoughts , and resolutions , d●cimur vt neruis al●enis mobile lignum : we may be operatiue , as puppets are nimble , in outward shew ; but our seeming workes of charity or best other we can pretend , will be as a pish and counterfeit as their motions ; neither in their kinde truely vitall . But as puppets are mooued wholly at his direction and bent , that extends or slackes the strings whereon they dance ; so are our soules carried hither and thither , as the diuell , the world , and flesh , or our owne foolish affections ●osse them ; vsually excessiue , where they should be sparing , and there most sparing where they should exceed . This difformity was most apparent in their workes whose reformation Saint Iames seekes ; for destitute of all good workes most of them were not , but onely of vniformity in working . They had learned to giue honour , not verball but reall , where honour was due , duty and good respect to whom such offices belonged . The rich , and men of better place and fashion , they did friendly and louingly entertaine , which was a worke in it nature good and commendable , but their abundant kindnesse towards equals or superiours became as a wen to intercept that nutriment which should haue descended to other inferiour members of CHRISTS body , and by these outward exercises of magnificence their internall bowels of compassion become colde towards their poore brethren , whom principally they should haue warmed and refreshed . Yet such defects or difformities in their actions these halfe Christians , halfe gentiles , true hypocrites , hoped to couer with the mantle of faith , whose nature , vse , and properties they quite mistooke . That they were not without workes the world might witnesse ; and no question , but these enterteinments were intended as feasts of charity , and with purpose to winne the fauour of the great ones with whom they liued to their profession ; in which respect their kindnesses might well seeme vnto themselues exercises of religion , as the like doe to many of the best sort amongst vs , when there is any ground of hope for gaining furtherance and countenance to good purposes , as indeed with such references they are , if done in fath : a but that this difformity in these mens workes did proceed from a precedent defect in faith , is manifestly implied in that the Apostle seekes their reformation by reducing them to such an vniformity in working as can proceed onely from such true and liuely faith , as hath beene described . For the rectifying of faith it selfe , he expresseth vnto them the exemplary forme or patterne , first of the imitable perfection of the godhead , then of that which is in CHRIST of both which , as hath beene obserued , true faith in the minde , is the liue operatiue image , and must imprint the like character vpon inferior faculties or affections , ere their operation become spiritually vitall . b Lay apart all filthinesse , and superfluity of naughtinesse , and receiue with meekenesse the ingrafted word which is able to saue your soules . This was the word of faith which was to fructifie in their deeds ; wherefore he saith , c Be ye doers of the word , not hearers onely , deceiuing your owne selues . And doers of it many of them were in part , whence they grounded a conceipt of holinesse , bringeth forth ( as it seemes ) either contemptuous , or vncharitable censures of others . To this disease he applies that medicine , d If any man among you seeme to be religious , and bridleth not his tongue , but deceiueth his owne heart , this mans religion is vaine . And seeing they held such intertainements , as we speake of before , because glorious in the worlds eye , good and acceptable in the sight of God ; of whose glory and good liking they conceiued according to the customes best approued amongst men , he further giueth them these imitable characters of his goodnes : Pure religion and vndefiled before God and the father is this , to visit the fatherlesse , and the widowes in their afflictions , and to keepe himselfe vnspotted from the world . My brethren haue not the faith of our Lord IESVS CHRIST , the Lord of glory , with respect of persons . This patterne Moses long before had drawne from Gods owne presence , for his people to worke by ; circumcise therefore the foreskinne of your hearts ( that was to be vnspotted of the world , ) For the Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords ( the Lord of glory ) a great God , and a mighty , and a terrible , which accepteth no person , nor taketh reward , which doth right vnto the fatherlesse and widow , and loueth the stranger in giuing him foode and rayment ; loue ye therefore the stranger for ye were all strangers in the land of Egypt . 4. Want of conformity to this rule abundantly argues the leuity of their beliefe vnto such generall truths as they acknowledged . The old Romane prouerbe of faith passiue or fidelitie , a fidem nemo perdit nisi qui non habet , is more appliable to faith actiue or truely Christian . No man can haue the faith of Iesus , the Lord of glory with respect of persons , but he that hath not the faith of Christ Iesus . For he that saith he belieues CHRIT and keeps not his commaundements , or rather altogether inuerts them by costly inuitations of the rich and mighty without due respect of the poore and needy , is by Saint b Iohns rule a liar . Yet this preposterous respect of persons which is so incompatible with true faith in CHRIST , as formally contrary to it patterne , it was , as our Apostle tels vs , that made them transgressors of the Law , euen whilest they did things commaunded by the Law. c But if ye haue respect of persons ye commit sinne , and are conuinced by the Law as transgressors . The head or first fountaine as well of these erroneous perswasions , as of difformities in their works , was want of firme assent vnto the diuine attributes , or vnto the soueraigne will and pleasure of the Lawgiuer . For the Apostle to prooue that assertion which containeth the reason of the former . [ d Whosoeuer shall keep the whole law , and yet offends in one point he is guilty of all , ] giueth vs that golden and metaphisicall rule , by which this whole discourse hath beene framed , e He that said , thou shalt not commit adultery , said also , thou shalt not kill ; now if thou commit no adultery , yet if thou kill , thou art become a transgressor of the Law ; a positiue or actuall transgressor by this act of murther ; a a negatiue transgressor or non obseruer of the Law in his abstinence from adultery . Nor could his supposed chastity or restraint of lust , be a Christian action or truely vitall ; because not inspired by faith or firme assent vnto Gods will or commaundement ; whose soueraignty once faithfully acknowledged and established in his thougths , would haue beene a like potent to haue restrained naturall inclination to murther or bloodshed , acts altogether as displeasing and contrary to the will of God. b Quando ser●us ex domini sui iust ●● ea facit tantummodo quae vult facere , non dominicam voluntatem implet , sed suam , saith Saluianus . That a seruant goes cheerefully to the faire when he is bid , or to supply his Maisters roome at a feast , is no good argument of his fidelitie , trust , or diligence to doe his Masters will Many forward enough vpon these or like occasions , commanded to goe a shorter errand vpon more waighty businesse when he had as good a desire or opportunity to sport or feast themselues at home , would by their backewardnesse or grumbling bewray , they had not learned to submit their wils vnto their masters , or to preferre his businesse before their sport ; without which the doing of what is enioined , is but an impotent and lame obedience . f If a seruant say vnto his Master , I will not doe as it pleaseth thee , though afterwards hee doe it , hee shall displease him that nourisheth him . Knaues , and catchpoles , oft doe what the Law requires should be done , yet are no true obseruers of the Law , because this seruice they performe , not out of faith and loialty to the Prince or Lawgiuer , but in desire of gaine or some priuate respect , alwaies as powerfull to make some obserue , as others to transgresse paenall statutes . If an Ambassador should transact such points of his instructions as make iointly for his owne aduancement , neglecting others as necessary for the state ; his negligence in the latter would impeach his fidelity in the former ; albeit he did that which his Prince would haue done . For he did it not because it was the Princes will it should be done , but because his owne will was to haue some good done to him . And perhaps one and the same humour of ambition , feare , or the like , might cause his diligence in the one and negligence in the other : and so may one and the same affection cause a man to obserue one commaundement and transgresse another . But he alone obeyes Gods commaundements that wholly submits his will to Gods will ; that doth what God commaunds , because he belieues he did commaund it , that auoids what God forbids out of beliefe that God forbids it , or because he knowes it to be displeasant to his goodnesse . God commands all without exception to glorifie his name both in body and spirit , as well as to honour father and mother , or to abstaine from stealth . Many can stand at open defiance with the world for any touch of disobedience in these latter , which yet if out of faith they did obserue , they would be as chast of their bodies , as honest of their hands , and equalize their diligence in duties towards their parents with deuotion towards Gods , vnto whom zealous and religious praiers from out a chast and pure minde , are more pleasant then honoring of father and mother , then abstinance from theft and coozenage . Faultinesse or negligence in the former argues a faulty diligence in the latter ; that honour so giuen to parents though in abundance , was but the fruite either of such goodnesse of nature as hath beene in many heathen ▪ which neither knew God nor his lawes , or of some carnall hopes to get a better portion by pleasing them : that such abstinence from theft or performance of honest actions were but the ofspring either of secular feare to be disgraced , or of a desire to be well reputed in the world . And whosoeuer is either kept backe from euill , or drawne to good vpon no better motiues then these , wil when oportunitie serues , be as much emboldened by them to transgresse diuine precepts of greater consequence . As what sonne is there which much reuerenceth his father out of anie affection or inclination not seruiceable to faith , but at his instance would aduenture vpon such actions as much dishonour God , and are most displeasant to his Sauiour ? Or who is hee that refraines to defile his fingers with theft or cozenage onely because they are vncleanely sinnes , and most obnoxious to shame and disgrace by humane lawes , but would pollute his heart with legitimated sacriledge for maintenance of his credit , or hope of estimation with them whose applause or sauour he must glories in ? 5 , As there is no surer argument of liuely saith then this vniformity whereof we speake , so can there bee no token of hypocrisie or crookednesse of heart more cōspicuous or infallible , than to be scrupulously timorous in som points , & presumptuous or confident in others vpon faithfull examination as doubtfull , and vpon like doubt euidently as dangerous : or to bee zealous and forward in some duties , and negligent , dull or backwards in others as necessary . It is a matter ( as the author of the two-fold martyrdome tells vs ) that must be considered : How mightily doe some Christians abhorre things sacrificed vnto Idoles , going into prophane Temples , or the Idoles themselues , when as S. Paul proclaimes , that neither is the Idole nor things sacrificed vnto Idoles ought , much lesse is the Temples built of stone ought : and yet the mindes of many are so possessed with a religion of these matters , that sooner would they die than taste of things sacrificed to Idoles , and they deeme their offence cannot be expiated ; If they goe into the Temple of Iupiter , Apollo , or Diana , or if they doe but touch an Idole they thinke themselues grieuously polluted . The religion of such men , for mine owne part , ( I cannot but approue ) if it be like it selfe in all points . But now adaies with griefe alas wee may behold , some in those points ( if ● might speake home ) superstitiously fearefull , and yet in others vvhich minister iuster cause of feare too too secure . The touching of Idoles going into a Temple , or eating of things sacrificed to Idoles , doe not in themselues pollute the soule , but loue of money , rauin , hypocrisie , and such like monsters pollute the soule immediatly . His conclusion is , Therefore let no man flatter himselfe , God is not mocked : let our religion be vniformly constant , let vs not detest others , being our selues obnoxious to crimes more grieuous ; let vs not bee religiously timorous in this or that point , and in some others impudently impious . But hauing taken the profession of CHRIST vpon vs : let our whole life giue testimony of him , let vs euery way glorifie his Name by obeying his precepts , that men may hereby know wee trust him in that wee loue him from our soules , and that wee did not dissemblingly consecrate our selues vnto his seruice at our Baptisme . Many like passages of this Author I leaue to the Readers meditations , partly sorry I had not perused him before this treatise was conceiued and otherwise finished , and yet partly glad in that the Lord had put the like meditations into my heart . To interfert more proofes of antiquity , would be troublesome vnto me , ayming especially , out of Gods word , to set the w●rpe with what speed I can , and afterwards , if God permit , to weaue such authority of Fathers into it , as his prouidence shall direct me to . 6. To gather all into a briefe summe ; True faith first acquaints vs with the nature of God and his attributes , it teacheth his will to bee the rule of goodnesse , and enioines vs nothing but what is good to vs : that he loues all good , and hates all euill , without any respect to their persons , in whom they are found ; the greater of either kinde the more , and the lesser the lesse . Here then is the triall of our faith , if it haue taught vs wholly to submit our wils vnto his will , to like whatsoeuer hee likes , to hate whatsoeuer he hates , to loue that best which his word tells vs he loues most ; and likewise to hate that most which hee most hates , though otherwise either pleasant to our naturall disposition , or not so displeasant or distastfull as many other matters would bee , did wee follow the fa●●●ions of the world . Firme Assent to these and other attributes will vniformly extend that vniuersall precept , It is better to obey God than man , to our owne soules and affections . Nay , it is the very principall or graund-stemme of faith , to be in heart perswaded and resolued that it is much better at all times to obey the lawe of God , than our owne affections , the lusts of the flesh or the lawe of sinne . And then onely we pray in faith , when we say not with our lippes alone , but with our hearts and soules , Not our will , but thy will bee fulfilled . By retaining any branch of our owne wills or desires vnrenounced , or not resigned vp into Gods hands , wee giue him hold of vs who neuer will let hold go , vnlesse we cut off the member which offendeth vs. For , as one very well obserues , so the snare be strong and the hold sure , a bird though caught but by one clawe shall as certainly be the Fowlers portion , as if she had been taken by both the wings . The soule which altogether delights in it owne will , not doing any part of what God would haue it doe , is like a bird caught in a net , or so entangled in lime-twigs , that it cannot take wing , or make anie shewe of escape . But the ●oule which obserues most , and dispenseth with some one or few branches of Gods will , although for a time she may soare aloft in Pharisaical perswasions and build her nest aboue the moone , is but deluded by Lucifer ( who as he lu●ed her thither , can at his pleasure call her downe ) as birds are by little children which suffer them oft-time to make some handsome flight but with a long string about their feete . This is a snare which men of better place , meanes , and sufficiency , or of more stayed iudgement , had neede with watchfull care to auoid : for such commonly therefore abstaine from most other actuall sinnes , because they secretly delight in some one or few , which out of experience , perhaps of many , they haue made choise of , as most pleasant , either because they are naturally inclined , or haue been long accustomed to them , or because they expose them not to present danger or disagrace , as not odious in the worlds sight . And many scattered delights , meeting in one , like a multitude of broad shallow streames falling into one deepe narrow channell , carry the soule with least interruption of speedy passage , into the bottomlesse gulfe . Vnited force is alwaies strongest , and for this reason , it is oft harder to renounce one sinne , wherein wee delight much , then a great manie we equally affect . Freedome from manie vsually breeds secret presumption ; or indulgence to our delight in some one or few and indulgence bringeth forth hardnesse of heart . Of if the worldly wise-man can curbe all his desires from bursting out into knowne euils , this aboundantly contents him , but so doth it not his God , vnto whom this permanent luke-warme ciuill temper , symbolizing onely with true religion in abstinence from actuall euill , not in feruency of deuotion , is more abhominable then the distemperature of publicanes and open sinners , accompanied vsually with most vices , yet not so firmely wedded vnto any , but discouerie of their filthinesse , may induce them to be diuorced from all . It is much worse to be at the verie entrie into the kings banquet and retire , or not goe in , than to stay at home and pretend excuses . c A chaste infidell ( sayth S. Augustine ) is not onely lesse prayse-worthy ( than an incontinent belieuer ) in that hee is continent without beliefe , but rather lyable to greater reproofe , in that being continent hee doth not belieue . 7. Of such vniformity in practising dueties expresly taught by the rule of faith , as hitherto hath beene prosecuted , is that most true which the moderne Romanist ( in no point destitute of one ape tricke or other to mocke God and man with a counterfait shape of true religion ) misapplies to curious points of speculation : bearing men in hand , that if they belieue not euerie point of faith alike , they belieue none aright . Whence , many things they teach as necessarie to saluation , being intricate and impossible to be conceiued , with such euidence or probabilitie as may ground certaintie of faith ; seely soules are brought to distrust the perspicuitie of scriptures , and to repose that confidence in their instructers which they should doe in Gods word , and so for feare least they should haue no faith , but by belieuing as the Church doth , they belieue the Church only , not God , nor any article of faith , as was deliuered in the former booke . Nor can their workes , if conceiued or begotten by the booke or Iesuiticall rules of life , be euer acceptable in Gods sight , because not inspired by true and liuely faith , vniformely spreading it selfe throughout all their faculties , cherishing and strengthening them as the Sunne doth plants to bring forth fruite . To speculatiue points , or our Assent vnto diuine reuelations as true , the former rule is onely then appliable , when wilfull contempt or indulgence to our owne affections , doth blinde our vnderstanding . He that vpon such motiues doubts of any principall article , or dis●ents from it , rightly belieueth none : but , if for want either of naturall capacity or particular illumination of Gods spirit , hee cannot so firmely Assent vnto some principall truth as others doe , to whome they are more fully reuealed , so hee demeane himselfe , during the time of his dissent or doubt , according to that measure of knowledge God hath giuen him ; his faith may be sincere and sound , though not so farre spread as it is in other men . 8. But some better minded , perhaps , will here demaund , how farre this vniformity in practise is to be extended ? as , whether a man may not be more prone to one sinne then another , or more apt to conforme his will and desires vnto Gods wil in some points of his seruice , then in others , without preiudice to the sincerity or liueli-hood of his faith ? If this pronenesse to euill and negligence in good , proceed from strength of naturall inclination , or long custome : his relapse into the one , or holding off from the other , doth not disproue his obedience in those points wherin faith hath gotten full conquest ouer his desires ; if his inclinations to his beloued or bewitching sins proportionably decrease or wane , as his zeale or deuotion in the points of duty are augmented . But euery member of the old man must be mortified , ere our faith be euery way such , as that whereby the Iust doe liue . The manner of whose life by Faith is now necessarily to be discussed more fully then in these present meditations was intended , least from some passages in the former discourses the vnobseruant Reader happily suspect the difference betwixt vs and the Romish Church in this controuersie to be but small , or to consist rather in words than in substance ; especially if works be so necessarily included , as wee suppose , in that faith which iustifies . Nor seems it easie to reiect our aduersaries form of doctrine without some preiudice to Saint Iames in whose tearmes their assertions for the most part are conceiued . This last preiudice notvvithstanding first remooued , wee are to manifest their dissent from vs , and from the forme of wholsome doctrine which Gods Word prescribes to bee as great in this question as in anie . For admitting their Faith vvere sound and their workes ( which is before refuted ) liuely ; they vtterly inuert the right vse of both , and by artificiall sleights , or tricks of wit not discouerable by euery eye , drawe poore soules from CHRIST the onely end of the Lawe as well morall as ceremonial , the sole load starre of Faith , and all other sanctifying graces . CHAP. VI. Of difficulties arising from the former discourses in the Protestants doctrine of Iustification by faith without workes . That faith is as immediately apt to do good vvorkes of euery kinde as to iustifie . Of the diuers acceptions of iustification . That the iustification by workes mentioned by Saint Iames is presupposed as subordinate to Saint Paules iustification by faith without workes . The true reconcilement of these two Apostles contrarie speeches in appearance from the contrarietie of their seuer all ends or intentions . 1. SAint Paul ( as is declared at large before ) includes workes in faith , which Saint Iames takes as hee found it in vnfruitfull hearers destitute of good workes . This difference notwithstanding alone considered doth no way salue , but rather remooue the seeming contradiction between the one auouching and the other disclaiming iustification by faith without workes , and cause it wholy to settle in Saint Pauls assertion , or in the doctrine of Protestants thence deriued . For whether iustified we be by workes and faith as Saint Iames expresly speakes , or by a working saith as Saint Paul implies , this faith workes such righteousnes , as Saint Iames requires not in others but in our selues . Seeing then both faith and the righteousnesse it workes , are inherent in vs , how are we not iustified by inherent righteousnes , if iustified by such a working faith as Saint Pauls commaunds , and we haue hitherto described ? This which we conceiue by way of doubt , our Sauiours doctrine seemes to put out of all controuersie a Except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees , yee shall in no case enter into the kingdome of heauen . What righteousnesse doth he here meane ? Inherent questionlesse , for he presseth such an vniforme obseruation of all the Commaundements , as Saint Iames doth . The Scribes and Pharises did as it euen seems then calumniate him , as they afterwards did Saint Paul ( and the Pontificians do vs stil ) as a destroier of the Law because he reprooued their confidence in workes , and sought to establish the doctrine of faith which we now reach . Needfull in this respect was that eaueat : b Thinke not that I am come to destroy the Lawe or the Prophets : I am not come to destroy but to fulfill them . c Whosoeuer therefore shall breake one of these least commaundements , and shall teach men so , he shall bee called the least in the Kingdome of Heauen : but whosoeuer shall doe and teach them , the same shall be called the greatest . If by the kingdome of heauen he meant the kingdome of grace , the argument is more strong then otherwise it would be , howsoeuer strong it is , and not impeached by this reply : That such obseruance of the Commaundements , as is here required is necessarie to sanctification or saluation not to iustification . That it should be more necessary to one of these then to another implies a contradiction in the termes well expressed and equally compared ; as it doth vnto our Sauiours purpose , to say that workes are lesse necessarie before iustification then after it . A man in that he is iustified is the immedia●e heire of saluation , at the least acquitted from the sentence of death : now if we affirme such righteousnesse more necessarie after he is iustified , then before , we should in congruitie grant that workes win heauen , and faith only deliuers from hell : or granting iustification to be the passage from death to life eternall , the addition of such workes subsequent , as were not precedent , could be auaileable onely to supererogate some excesse of glory ; for though wee stood still at the same point where iustification found vs , wee should be infallible heires of glorie . Or if faith without workes obtaine iustification , hauing iustified vs , shall it not much more without them lay sure hold on saluation , and all the degrees of ioy that do accompanie it ? Suppose a man should die in the very instant wherein he is iustified : none would doubt either of absolution or saluation . Is he then saued with workes or without them ? If without them our Sauiours rule doth faile vs , for this man enters into the kingdome of heauen without more strict obseruance of the Commandements then the Scribes and Pharisees vsed , without any part of that righteousnesse , whereof they in some measure were partakers : If with them , their presence is necessarie to iustification , and in order of nature before it , because necessary ere he can be capable of entrance into the kingdome of heauen ; as performance of euery condition is in nature precedent to the accomplishment of what is not promised without it . Againe , no man denies but faith inherent in order of nature goes defore iustification in that sence we take it ; yet iustifying faith necessarily includes such workes in it as Saint Iames requires , at the least a preparation or immediate promptnesse of minde to do them , and more then so was not in the worke of Abraham which he commends , seeing Isaac vvas not actually facrificed but offered vp by faith vnfaigned to bee sacrificed , and this worke or rather thus much of it did goe before iustification , d either as the cause doth before the effect , or as the meanes before the end ; for ( as Saint Iames sayth ) he was iustified by it . But that perhaps in his language and intent was no more then to bee declared iust . So would I answere were I Aquinas his scholler , and held iustification to consist in habituall righteousnesse or grace infused . Thus Bellarmine very well expounds the like speech of Saint e Iohn , Hee that doth righteousnesse is righteous . Because of his deeds or his workes ? No , but by them he is knowne to be righteous . f For he is said to be righteous that doth righteousnesse , as he that moues is sayd to be liuing , or the tree good that beares good fruit ; yet is not the tree therfore good because it beares good fruit , nor doth a man liue because he moues : but contrariwise the one moues because he liues , the other brings forth good fruite because good ; so in like manner he that doth righteousnesse is righteous , yet not righteous because he doth righteousnes but he doth righteousnesse because he is righteous . This answere shaped by him for Saint Iohn would haue better be fitted Saint Iames , as the gloze which they put vpon S. Iames would not altogether so il beseeme Saint Iohn . That he had meant the second iustification , whereby a man receiues increase of grace and is more iust , had been harder for vs to disprooue , though most improbable for them to affirme . But that S. Iames should meane this second iustification , as the Trent Councell , without any shew of probability boldly auoucheth , is manifestly disprooued by his instance in Rahab , for the first righteousnesse shee euer wrought , was the receiuing of the messengers and sending them out another way ; and yet by this worke was shee iustified in that sence Saint Iames meant , not in the sight of men but of God. For the drift of his dispute is to shew that without workes no man can be approoued in Gods sight , howsoeuer he may perswade himselfe and others , Abrahams and Rahabs workes are but branches of that religion whose practices he had commended to those his disciples as pure and vndefiled ; before whom ? Man onely ? No , before God euen the Father . The religion it selfe he exemplifies by obseruance of the affirmatiue and negatiue precepts , as a in visiting the fatherlesse and widowes in their distresse , and by keeping themselues vnspotted of the world . Bellarmines instance in Abrahams workes euidently refutes their opinion , that thinke workes onely declare vs iust ; his allegation of Rahabs kindnesse , or hospitality more forcibly ouerthrowes the * Trent Counsell , and his owne imagination , that Saint Iames should meane the second iustification , whereby a man of iust becomes more iust , then which nothing can be imagined more contradictory to the Apostles meaning . For who can thinke he reputed them for iust whom hee called vaine men in that they had faith without workes ; the same faith notwithstanding seconded with workes had ( as our aduersaries contend ) made them iust , not more iust then before , for now they were first to become iust being before vniust and transgressors of the Lawe , as the Apostle prooues in that they had respect vnto persons . The iustification therefore he sought by Rahabs example to bring them vnto , vvas ( if so vve distinguish ) the first iustification , whereby of transgressors they were to become new men in CHRIST , and inwardly righteous , not in the sight of man , but of God : for whatsoeuer this Apostle denies of faith without workes , he attributes to faith with workes . Now it is graunted by all , that he held faith without workes to be altogether vaine and vnable to iustifie in the sight of God ; if with them it were in his iudgement not sufficient , he had denied all iustification in Gods sight either by faith alone , or by workes and faith ; so as no meanes of saluation could be left vs. More arguments I need not vse ; for euery obseruant Reader may furnish himselfe with plenty , all demonstratiue , that workes , taken as Saint Iames meant , ( not for the act or operation onely , but either for the act or promptitude to it ) are necessary to iustification ( * not before men but before God ) and in order of nature precedent . 2. But the Readers minde , as for a while mine was , may be held in suspense , that albeit we must be operatrue ere we can be iustified , yet the first operation of that faith which iustifies is alwaies seen in the busines of iustification , as that of Saint Austen may necessarily seeme to imply , Bona opera sequuntur iustificatum , non praecedunt iustificandum . If we be not iustified ( as all agreed ) without some operation or worke of faith , and all other good workes ( as this Father affirmes ) are not precedent but subsequent to iustification , those operations of faith which belong to the worke of iustification must of necessity in order of nature , if not of time , be of all others the first . This golden sentence notwithstanding will not abide ihe touch vnlesse we take iustification ( as Saint a Austen doth ) for the first infusion of that grace wherby we are iustified and enabled to bring forth works truely good . That the habite of grace ( whereof faith is the principall part or foundation ) should in order of nature be precedent to workes done in faith ( for vnlesse so done they are not truely good ) is a case excluded by it clearenesse from all controuersie . But the workes by which as Saint Iames affirmes , we are iustified must needs goe before the iustification which he speaks of , yet not before the first infusion of faith vnlesse we affirme ( which no protestant must , or any intelligent Papist doth ) that wee may bring foorh good workes ere faith bee planted in our soules . The infallable consequence of these deductions is that betweene Saint Pauls faith and Saint Iames his iustification there must be workes intermediate of what kind it skils no● , so they be done in faith . Of workes so done , to question which are in time and nature , first , were as if you should demaund what meates such as after a long sickenesse haue well recouered their tast and appetite , vse first to feed vpon : Curiosity of methode or nice prescriptions would in this case be offensiue to good stomaches , which should not doe much amisse in falling to such wholsome food as first comes to hand . Thus much in generall is not vnfitting to our present purpose ; That the internall , eli●itiue , or formall acts , are in order of nature and time precedent to the impulsiue acts of faith ; to wit such operations or exercises of other vertues , faculties , or affections as are inspired by it , as wee most firmely assent to Gods mercy , wisdome , truth , and iustice , before we can be faithfully mercifull , iust , or true , or doe the workes of righteousnesse , mercy or truth in faith . Of the internall or proper acts , or exercises of faith , such as flow directly from it , are before such as are conceiued by way of reflexion . Such as flow immediately from the essence , are ( at least ) in order of nature , before such as proceed from the properties of it . In both rankes these are before others of the same kinde , which are of more generall or abstract points ; as we actually assent vnto diuine reuelations , first as true , then as good , lastly as good to vs : and yet we must so assent vnto them , ere we can firmely or confidently relie vpon them , nor can our reliance or trust , whether on Gods prouidence in generall , or vpon his mercies in CHRIST , be more firme and faithfull , then is our precedent deniall of our selues and renunciation of all trust in worldly meanes : which property as was before b obserued , immediately results from our direct assent vnto Gods wisdome , power , and mercy , and vnto our owne misery , ignorance , and imbecillitie . From assent to both these and vnfaigned deniall of our selues thence resulting , as from ioint rootes , springs true confidence in Gods prouidence alwaies in order of nature precedent to stedfast and inseperable adherence vnto CHRIST , which is the end of all our working , and as it must for this reason be first intended , so can it hardly be accomplished without some intermediate acts or exercises of Gods graces in vs ; vnto all which faith necessarily is concurrent . If we shall then compare the acts or operations of faith amongst themselues according to the same strength or equall degrees of fidelity in doing Gods will , the effectuall application of CHRISTS merits is but a branch of the former vniformity in working required by Saint Iames , neither necessarily , nor ordinarily the first , either in order of nature , or time , whether we speake of application actuall and expresse , or of implicit and potentiall , that faith which is of strength sufficient for firme and faithfull application of Christs righteousnes or conceiuing sure trust in Gods mercie offred in him , is as immediatly operatiue of other workes ; as powerfull to bring forth deedes of mercy , alwaies vniformely prompt to doe any part of Gods will ; that first whereunto it is first called . It was an act of that faith by which Abraham liued , an act commendable in the sight of God , to forsake his Countrey when God called him ; yet an act in time long precedent to that which was imputed vnto him for righteousnes : and in his legend the holy Ghost would instruct vs , that the safest way to get full assurance of our heauenly inheritance is to execute Gods will without delay , a first to renounce the world , father and mother , natiue Countrey &c. that we may be ready when he shall call , and on these foundations surely laid to raise our confidence in CHRIST , a Know ( saith the Apohle ) they which are of faith , the same are the children of Abraham but euery one is not the sonne of faith that saies or thinkes he belieues as his father Abraham did , vnlesse he haue such an operatiue faith as Abraham had , well trained to euery point of seruice that shall be enioined . This speech of Saint Paul is but equiualent to that of our Sauiours ; If ye were Abrahams children , ye would doe the workes of Abraham , what were these ? faithfully to assent vnto the truth reuealed by God , and louingly to entertaine his messengers : but now ( saith our Sauiour ) You goe about to kill me , a man that hath told you the truth which I haue heard of God ; this did not Abraham . The nature and vniformity of faith supposed such , as hath been often inculcated ; Saint Gyprians * collections in this point , are as strong and sound as the point it selfe is orthodoxall . Christ cals them Abrahams children , whom he sees operatiue in helping and nourishing the poore For when Zacheus said . Loe the one halfe of my goods I giue to the poore , and if I haue defrauded any man I restore it fourefold . Iesus answered and said . This day is saluation come to this house , was much as this man also is the sonne of Abraham . For if Abrahams belieuing God were reputed vnto him for righteousnesse , he likewise that giues almes according to Gods commandement , belieues God : and he that hath the truth of faith , retaines the feare of God , and he that retaines the feare of God , hath God in his thoughts whiles he shewes compassion to the poore . Therefore he workes because he belieues , because he knowes all the word of God fore tels is true , that the sacred scripture cannot lie , that vnfruitfull trees ( i ) men barren of good workes must be cut downe and cast into the fire , but the mercifull shall be called vnto the heauenly kingdome . And in another place he cals such as are fruitfull in works , faithfull , denying this title to the vnfruitfull and barren . If ye haue not beene faithfull in the vnrighteous Mammon , who will commit the true riches to your trust ? And if ye haue not beene faithfull in that which is another mans , who will giue you that which is your owne . Saluianus * words here inserted in the margine imports no lesse . 3. If the workes required by Saint Iames be not truely good without presupposall of saith nor iustification possible without presupposall of such workes ; the more opperatiue wee make Saint Pauls faith , the more we rather draw then loose this former knot , whose solution in this respect must be sought by vnfolding the diuerse acceptions of iustification . Sometimes then it imports the decree or purpose of God to iustifie sinfull men , as whom he predestinated , them also he called , and whom he called them also he iustified , and whom he iustified them also he glorified . About iustification in this sence there either is , or neede to be no controuersie , at least none pertinent to our present purpose . But as God decreed before all times to create man , yet did not create him vntill time had numbred sixe daies : so although his purpose was from eternity to iustifie or absolue vs from our sinnes , yet actually he doth not iustifie or absolue vs before we haue actuall being , nor doth he iustifie all that haue such being but those onely which haue the seales or pledges of his calling , of which whosoeuer are partakers , are in a secondarie sence accompted iustified . How shall we ( ●aith the Apostle ) b that are dead to sin liue yet therein ? Know ye not that all we which haue beene baptized into Iesus Christ haue beene baptised into his death ? wee are buried then with him by baptisme into his death . All persons baptized may be accounted iustified in the same sence they are dead to sinne : and dead all such are to sinne , not really or actually , but by profession , in as much as by receiuing this outward seale of Gods couenant , or other like pledges of his fauour , they binde themselues to abrogate the soueraigntie of sinne in their mortall bodies , and to giue their members weapons of righteousnesse vnto God. Thus when the Apostle speakes indefinitely of all their saluation or iustification , to whom he writes , his meaning can be no other then this , that all of them haue receiued vndoubted pledges of Gods mercy and neede doubt of iustification actuall , or finall absolution , so they walke worthy of their calling . Their error whose rectification Saint Iames sought , did consist in holding these outward seales or conspicuous tokens of Gods fauour , whereby their Assent vnto his promises as true was confirmed , sufficient to finall approbation or admission into the inheritance of Saints , albeit they did not consent vnto euery part of the Law as good in the practise . Concerning iustification thus taken , there is at this day little or no controuersie , vnlesle betweene the spirit and the flesh , or betweene our owne conscience and Sathan , who still labours to perswade vs this kinde of iustification might suffice . Thirdly , in as much as God decreed to iustifie man by faith which euen in such as are saued by it is not ordinarily perfected in a moment , we are said sometimes to be iustified , when the first seeds of that faith , which by taking firme roote by fructification or perfection , added by the immediate hand of God becomes saluificall , are first sowne in our hearts . Hee that hath but a resolution , for the present , syncere , though variable , to walke in all the waies of his God , is in scripture often instiled iust or righteous , and may by this resolution or purpose be truely said iustified in the sight of God , not absolutely , but in respect of opposite prophanenesse or expresse dissimulation . If the righteous ( saith the Lord vnto his Prophet ) turne away from his righteousnesse and commit iniquities ; in his transgression that he committed , and in his finne that hee hath sinned , in them he shall die . And againe , The righteousnesse of the righteous shall not deliuer him in the day of transgression , &c. when I shall say vnto the righteous that he shall surely liue , if hee trust to his owne righteousnesse , and commit iniquitie , all his righteousnesse shall be no more remembred , but for his iniquitie that he hath committed he shall die for the same . And vnto such as are here specified though not vnto such alone that speech of Saint Iohn is litterally appliable . d Qui iustus est iustificetur adhuc : he that is righteous let him be righteous stil , or more iustified . Nor can that other of S. Paul be restrained to those that haue attained sauing faith or final absolution , e The hearers of the law are not righteous before God , but the doers of the Law shall be instified . That is , God doth approue their deeds so farre as they are consonant to his law and accounts the syncere practise of morall dueries , whereunto light of nature did leade the Gentiles much better then the outward obseruance of legall ceremonies or sabhatarian delight in hearing . Thou art not farre from the kingdome of God ( saith our f Sauiour to him that that had discreetely acknowledged this truth ) to loue the Lord withall the heart and with all the vnderstanding , and withall the soule and withall the strength , and to loue his neighbour as himselfe , is more then all burnt offerings and sacrifices . Now if by such workes as the heathen or auditors of the Law not yet sanctified often practised , much more by those workes which accompany true and liuely faith we may in a higher degree of the same sence be accounted , iustified ; that is approueable in the sight of God , or passiuely capable of a finall absolution , or effectuall iustification . And this was all Saint Iames meant in that assertion . g Yee see then how that a man of workes is iustified and not of faith onely , which words are but equiualent to the like precedent . h what auaileth it my brethren , though a man say he hath faith when he hath no workes ? can the faith saue him ? The conclusion intended in both places , as in that whole discourse , was no more but thus . No man may presume hee is already in the state of iustification or saluation , vnlesse hee finde himselfe vnpartially deuoted vnto good workes of euery kinde . Or albeit his faith haue once or twice shewed it selfe by his workes , or readinesse to doe ( ods will , he must not here let vp his rest or rely on what is past : Abraham had obeyed Gods will once in a leauing his fathers house , and againe in cancelling his owne resolution for making his b seruant his heire , vpon Gods promise to make his seed like the starres of heauen : his beliefe hereof was accounted to him for righteousnesse : But did he thus iustified by faith cease to work ? No , his faith by working became more perfect , and improued his former approbation , of being reputed righteous , so farre as to be thenceforth called the friend of God. And this was written for our instruction , vt qui iustus est iustificetur adhuc , that euery one which hath attained to morall hope of saluation , should make his election sure by practise of such workes as perfect faith and enapt it for sure reliance on Gods promises . Did Saint Paul then euer affirme that a man could be saued or iustified without such workes ? No , he alwaies supposed them as a qualification most necessary in the party which expected finall absolution or benefit of Gods generall pardon . In what sence then doth he say we are iustified by faith , not by workes ? Not by workes ceremoniall ? Not by such as were the best that Abraham or Dauid euer did . The forme of Salomons interrogation , [ who can say I haue made mine heart cleane , I am cleane from my sinne , ] upposeth his father could neuer haue truely auouched thus much ; yea Dauid himselfe euen in his best daies and purest thoughts vnfainedly disclaimes all such purity or perfection as this briefe demaund ( to reserue others and the full handling of this to their proper place ) is for the present proofe sufficient ; k Who can vnderstand his faults ? cleanseme from my secret sinnes . This assures vs there is another acception of iustification yet behind , most frequent with Saint o Paul to wit , the actuall sentence of the iudge acquitting or absoluing or for finall absolution or actuall acquittance of the parties so qualified , as Saint Iames requires . And as we are not capable of Gods promises of eternall life or happinesse without workes , ( and yet we apprehend them not by workes but by faith ) so this finall sentence of ioy and comfort is apprehended by faith alone ; although so truely apprehended it cannot be by parties destitute of workes , nor doe we onely by faith alone apprehend the truth or deriue the benefit of diuine promises to our selues , but by it alone ( though accompanied with all other sanctifying graces and attended with the whole traine of workes morall or ceremoniall ) we expect and pray the promises may be fulfilled , not for our sakes or for any righteousnesse we haue in vs , or can hope for in this life , but only for the merits of CHRIST , by his sole mediation and intercession . 4. The seeming contradiction betweene these two great Apostles is hence easily and cleerely thus dissolued ; Saint Iames , affirming we are iustified by workes and not by faith alone , speakes of the passiue qualification in the subiect or party to be iustified or made capable of absolute approbation or finall absolution ; this qualification supposed , Saint Paul speakes of the application of the sentence or of the ground of our plea for absolution ; the one ( by his doctrine ) must be conceiued , and the other sought for onely by saith ; the immediate and onelie cause of both he still contends not to be in vs but without vs , and for this reason when hee affirmes that wee are iustified by faith alone , he considers not faith as it is part of our qualification inherent , or the foundation of other graces , but as it includes the correlatiue tearme or immediate cause of iustification wherunto it alone hath peculiar reference , or continuall aspect . This is that which in other tearmes some haue deliuered : fides iustificat relatiue , non effectiue aut formaliter : faith iustifies relatiuely , not formally or by way of merit or efficiency . To this purpose he alleageth the Prophets testimony ; d the iust shall liue by his faith . Faith then makes him iust , and iustifies him in that sence Saint Iames meant , as it is operatiue ; but he liues by it as it vnites him to the Lord of life ; yea by it alone , in as much as by it alone , not by it and other parts of grace as ioint supporters , he trusts in Gods mercies offered in CHRIST wholly relying on them , not partly on them , and partly on righteousnesse inherent . That the Prophet in faith included this confidence and reliance vpon Gods mercies in CHRIST , was a point vnto the iudicious e Sasbout so cleere , that if the Apostle in the first to the Romanes had otherwise taken it , he knew not how they could be reconciled . That so much imports in the tenth and eleuenth to the Hebrewes , is euident , and will so appeare from the very proposall of his speeches . Cast not away therefore your confidence ; which hath great recompence of reward . For ye haue need of patience , that after ye haue done the will of God , ye might receiue the promise . For yet a little while , and he that shall come , will come , and will not tarry . Now the iust shall liue by faith : but if any man draw backe , my soule shall haue no pleasure in him . But we are not of them who draw backe vnto perdition ; but of them that beleeue to the sauing of the soule . That Paul , wheresoeuer he attributes iustificaion to faith alone , alwaies includes the principall obiect of true faith , as the sole immediate cause , whereby of men iustifiable because actually partakers of Gods graces , we become actually iustified or absolued , his coment vpon these words of Moses , d Abraham beleeued God , and it was counted vnto him for righteousnesse , doth put it out of controuersie . Was it therefore such righteousnesse as deserued absolution or reward ? Rather rewarded as such , by gracious acceptance , as is there implied . Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt , but to him that worketh not : to the loiterer or idle person ? No , to him that faithfully workes , as Abraham did , and yet seekes saluation onely by firme beleefe in him which iustifies the vngodly , his faith or rather his faith thus set vpon it proper obiects is imputed to him for righteousnesses . But the Iesuite demaunds when is it thus imputed . After grace infused , or whiles it remaines inherent , or at the first infusion only ? Not after grace infused , by which ( in his diuinitie ) he ceaseth to be impious . Was Abraham then destitute of inherent grace , before he belieued the promise concerning Isaac ? Sosome o Romanists consequently to their Churches erroneous interpretation of scripture haue auouched , whom Bellarmine dares not follow . Of Bellarmine therefore we demaund , why Saint Paul should instance in Abraham , his purpose being , as he and all his fellowes agree , onely to shew that the first iustification is not attained by workes , but by faith ? For inferring this conclusion the iustification of Rahab had beene more sit : for in Saint Pauls dialect , shee receiued the messengers by faith ; being , as Bellarmine graunts , destitute of all grace before . But thus he answeres . As Paul when he spake of the first iustification brought the example of Abraham , which belonged to the second to prooue ( a maiori ) that no vniust man is iustified by workes without faith , seeing iust Abraham was not made more iust by works without faith : so Saint Iames when he spake of the second iustification ( where by a iust man becomes more iust ) brought in the example of Rahab which was per tinent to the first iustification ( where by an impious or vnregenerate man becomes iust ) to shew a maiori , that a iust man is made more iust by workes , and not of faith onely ; seeing Rahab of an harlot was made iust by workes , not by faith onely . For it is very probable shee was not onely an harlot , but an infidell , before such time as shee receiued the messengers ; but from that time to haue beleeued in God , as being prepared to iustification by that worke of mercy , yet so as that good worke done by faith was not simply meritorious of iustification , but imperfectly and by way of congruity . 5. Surely this Authors ill will vnto vs was greater , then either the loue or reuerence he bare vnto Saint Paul , vpon whose words , least they should seeme to fauour our cause too much , he labours to foster a meaning , as ridieulous , as thwart and contradictory to his purpose , as the Diuell himselfe could haue deuised : howbeit to acquit himselfe from suspition of partialitie or particular spleene against Saint Paul , he spares not to father a sence and meaning altogether as foolish vpon Saint Iames , as if the like palpable abuse offered to him had beene a satisfaction sufficient for the wrong done to his fellow Apostle . The reader in the meane time cannot but hence take notice vnto what miserable plunges our aduersaries in this point are put , when the sonnes are thus enforced violently to sumble against their mother fallen by dashing against the stone of offence to men Iewishly minded , but the onely sure foundation of life to such as seek saluation aright ; as also how one absurditie suffered to passe by publicke authority , imboldens inferiors to forge licences for a thousand . The a Trent Councell , ignorant of any better , hath giuen faire hints vnto her children , for reconciling the former seeming contradiction betwixt S. Paul and Saint Iames as they expresly doe : [ That S. Paul when hee affirmes we are iustified freely by faith without workes must be vnderstood of the first iustification whereby wee receiue grace without any worth or merit precedent : S. Iames when he affirmes we are iustified by workes and not by faith alone implies the increment of grace or righteousnesse in the godly ] But what had Saint Iames to doe with this second iustification when as the parties whom he proposed to refute had altogether erred from the first ? Did hee intend they should accumulate iustifications as we doe degrees in schooles , and be twise iustifyed at once ? Suppose hee did , yet must the second iustifycation go ( in order ) before the first . Or admitting hee spake ambiguously or indeterminately of both , and authorized the Church when any controuersie should arise to dispose of his voice for either as shee pleased , yet what instance could worse be fit the second iustifycation , whereto the b Romish Church applies his meaning , then Rahab , who til that time , as Bellarmine grants , was not onely an infidell but an harlot , and therefore an impious person destitute of grace , and if she were iustifyed or obtained the grace of iustifycation by this work done in faith without grace , as the same writer glosses vppon this text , how shal we reconcile him to the Romish church which hath peremptorily determined , that the grace of iustifycation is not obtained by workes , and to this purpose cites that of Paul ; If it bee grace , then is it not of workes , otherwise grace , should be no grace . Vnto this difficulty which thus diuides the tongs of Babell , our answere is casie and consonant to the perpetuall voice of Gods spirit . [ Rahab was iustified according to Saint Iames his minde ( this is presumed as iust or iustifiable ) as well by workes as by faith , because her workes were a necessarie part of that inhere ●t righteousnesse which must be in euerie one that liues by faith ] for though wee liue by faith onely , yet onely the Iust so liue . This no way contradicts Saint Paul , because she did not seeke saluation by workes , but did therefore worke , that shee might lay sure hold on Gods promises onely by faith ; which is alwaies as vnable or vnapt to iustifie , to sue for grace , or apprehend Gods mercies aright , as it is to work when occasion is offered . More repugnant is this distinction of iustification first and second to Saint Pauls minde or purpose : or suppose , though he did not entend or acknowledge it , his discourse notwithstanding might admit of it : there is lesse reason why his words should be retracted , as Bellarmine doth , to the first iustification , then why those words of S. Iames [ of works a man is iustified and not of faith onely ] should be extended to the second ; or if Pauls might in part be appliable to it , Dauid and Abraham , which he makes the maine ground of his dispute , are the most vnfit instances that could haue been chosen in all the Scriptures : Abraham , our aduersaries grant , was iust before his beliefe of that promise , which was imputed to his for righteousnes : yet then reiustified , not by workes , though not without faith , as Bellarmine minceth , but by faith without workes as the Apostle strongly and peremptorily inferres . For to belieue Gods promises concerning the birth of Isaac was the sole act of Faith , yet by this act was Abraham iustified , not the first time as Bellarmine grants : Wherefore Faith without workes did iustifie him the second time , vnlesse hee take iustification otherwise then S. Paul there doth . And if this c verie same Scripture which sayth Abraham belieued God concerning Isaacs birth , and it was imputed vnto him for righteousnesse , were as Saint Iames auoucheth againe fulfilled in the offering of Isaac , he was iustified the third time onely by belieuing God , not by his worke neuer accomplished , if wee take beliefe and iustification in the same sence the holy spirit by the mouth of Paul doth in the Epistles to the Hebrewes and the Romans . Though to offer vp Isaac in sacrifice were a work , yet did Abraham offer him onely by faith , ( because faith onely impelled him to this worke ; ) yea by the very same act of Faith which had beene imputed to him for righteousnesse . Hee considered ( sayth S. Paul ) that God was able to raise him vp euen from the dead , from whence also he receiued him in a figure . And as hee staggered not at the first promise concerning his birth through vnbeliefe ; so neither did he now dispute with God about the lawfulnesse of his act , nor reason how he should be raised againe f Iustified he was at both instants by his beliefe , not as terminated to his worke , or to the possibilitie of Isaacks birth and resurrection , but as through them it found accesse to his birth death and resurrection , whom Isaac prefigured . Hauing performed Gods will in obeying his Commaund to sacrifice his onely sonne , hee patiently expected the promise concer-cerning his Redeemer , whose incarnation , whose sufferings and exaltation are obiects of Faith , not of works , effected by God , and not by man , although to the like application of their benefits , the right works as were in Abraham be most necessary , seeing true beliefe of this promise , as in the first g section was declared , virtually includes the same minde in vs that was in CHRIST , a readinesse to doe workes of euery kinde which notwithstanding are no associates of Faith in the businesse of iustifycation . h Not to bee weake in faith , not to doubt of the promise through vnbeliefe , to be strengthened in faith , to be fully perswaded that bee which had promised was able also to performe , were pure acts of faith ( though virtually including works ) as proper thereto , as forcibly excluding all other vertues from sharing with it in this businesse , as can possibly bee conceiued : yet ( sayth the Apostle ) euen for these acts late mentioned , it was imputed to him for righteousnesse . How preposterous then and basely shuffling are the glosses put by Bellarmine vpon the Apostle in this place as if his purpose had been to shew that the impious and vniust could not be iustifyed by workes onely , because Abraham , though iust before , was not made more iust by meere workes without faith , when as he leuels his whole discourse to the cleane contrarie point maintained by vs : That seeing righteousnesse was imputed to Abraham by faith and not through works , none after him should in this life at any time , whether before or after the infusion of grace , or inherent righteousnesse , presume to seeke or hope for like approbation from God , otherwise then onely by faith . Thus much the Apostle hath as fully and plainly expressed , as any ingenuous Reader can desire . g Now it was not written for his sake alone that it ( to wit the strength and full assurance of his faith ) was imputed to him sorrighteousnesse , but also for vs , to whom it ( the like faith ) shall be imputed for righteousnesse , if wee belieue in him that raised vp IESVS our Lord from the dead . The ground of the Apostles reason or similitude here mentioned ( wherein the force and strength of our argument is included ) supposeth all our righteousnesse , whether actuall or habituall , should bee as vnapt to attaine euerlasting life or saluation ( which is the end of all graces bestowed vpon vs ) as Abrahams decrepit body was to produce so many nations : yet as he onely by belieuing God , who was able to effect thus much and more , obtained the promise , and was blessed with more children from Sarahs dead wombe , then the most fruitfull Parents that liued before , or should come after them ; so wee onely by like firme beliefe in the same God , which raised vp our Lord IESVS CHRIST from the dead , shall bee partakers of the promise made in him , heires of eternall life ; whereto seeing our inherent rightcousnesse hath no proportion , it must for this reason still be sued for , as a meere gift of God , farther exceeding all desert of any supernaturall grace in vs , then the mighty increase of Abrahams seed did the strength of his decaied nature . 6. The first spring of all Romish errors in this argument issues out of their generall ignorance of Saint Pauls phrase , amongst many of whose sayings seeming hard and incompatible with their schoole conceits , that h Rom. 4. of Gods iustifying the impious and vngodly , ministers greatest offence and causeth them to inuert the course of their diuinitie quite contrary ●o the Apostles method● To pronounce him iust , that is , internally impious and vniust , cannot in their schoole learning stand with Gods truth : but to make him which ere while was by nature vniust and impious , inherently and perfectly iust , by plentifull infusion of grace , is an argument , ( as they deeme ) of his goodnesse ; no disparagement to his iustice , as perchance it were not , might wee iudge of his purpose to saue sinners by the rules of humane reason neuer consulting the Canons of life . But if wee conceiue of Gods grace by his comments , in whom it dwelt in great abundance , this verie conceipt of being iustified by its inherence , includes extreame antipathy to the nature , and vtterly peruerts the right vse of it ; as to restraine th●● same Apostles speeches to the first iustification or prime infusion of inherent righteousnesse ( which is the necessarie consequent of the former error ) is cōtradictiously to contest with the spirit by which he vttered these diuine Oracles . For , if belieuing him which iustifies the impious were imputed for righteousnesse vnto Abraham , after he had been , for a long time , more righteous then the ordinarie sort of Gods Saints or Elect , Abraham all this while vnfaignedly belieued himselfe to be a sinner , no way iustified in himselfe , but seeking to be iustified by him , who if he shew not mercie vnto sinners , whiles they are sinners , all mankind should vtterly perish . Against this poisonous leauen wherewith the Pharisee first and the Romanist his successor since hath infected the bread of life , and tainted the first fruites of Gods spirit : S. Paul prescribes that Catholick antidote . m There is no difference , all haue sinned , and are depriued of the glory of God , and are iustified freely by his grace , through the redemption which is in CHRIST IESVS . Abraham was all his life time comprehended in this catalogue , and is made by the Apostle , as a perpetuall , so a principall instance of that finall resolution : n Therefore we conclude , that a man is iustified by faith without the workes of the Lawe . Was hee then in no sort iustified by workes ? Yes hee might boldly contest , as Iob did , and euery godly man yet safely may , with others for integrity of life and plenty of workes in which hee might iustly reioice or glorie o yet with men not with God. In this sense their resolution , which say we are iustified by workes before men not before God , is most true and warranted by that place of p Saint Paul ; let them nothence deny or occasion others to forget that such integritie or comparatiue rightcousnesse to inherent is necessarily presupposed to iustification in the sight of God , and doth not only declare our faith or iustification to men ; seeing it implies a contradiction in the vnanimous tenent of all reformed Churches , to admit faith precedent and workes onely subsequent , to the iustification whereof Paul here speakes . His drift and scope in that third and fowrth to the Romans , is onely this : That although men may bee truely iust and holy in respect of others , and rich in all manner of workes that are good , as Abraham was thus farre known and approued , not by men onely but by God : yet when they appeare before his tribunal , who best knows as wel the imperfectiō as the truth of their integritie , they must still frame their supplications sub forma pauper is , yea sub forma impij , alwaies acknowledging themselues to be vnprofitable seruants , alwaies praying ; Lord forgiue vs our sinnes , and bee mercifull to vs miserable sinners , The onely complement of all inherent righteousnes possible in this life is this perpetuall vnfaigned acknowledgement of our vnrighteonsnesse , whereby wee are made immediately capable of his righteousnesse , which alone can couer our sinnes , as being alone without all staine or mixture of impiety . The like vnfaigned acknowledgement of their sinnes or faithfull plea for mercy , the hypocrites or men deuoid of faith or grace inherent cannot possibly make as shall anon be declared . This absolute necessity and vtter insufficiency of workes , or righteousnesse inherent to iustification in the sight of God is as perspicuous from the Apostles instance in Dauid , who had resolued this doubt , [ l Lord who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle ? who shall rest in thine holy mountaine ? ] with S. Iames : ( He that walketh vprightly and worketh righteousnesse , and speaketh the truth in his heart . ) Hee had pronounced a blessing m to the man that walketh not in the counsell of the wicked , but setteth his delight in the Lawe of the Lord ; shall we imagine such a man to be without workes ? The Lord ( as he addes ) knoweth the way of the righteous , which is as much as Saint Iames meant by iustification , as much as was said to n Abraham vpon that fact by which , as the Apostle sayth , hee was iustified . For that God should know their wayes , implies his approbation of their persons for men vpright and intire in respect of hypocrites and fruitlesse hearers ; of their workes , for such as hee requires in the parties to be iustified by him . Were they therfore iustified or finally acquitted by or for their works ? If finally acquitted then blessed likewise for them . Now in opposition to this Pharisaicall conceit , S. Paul directed by the Spirit , who best knew the Psalmists full meaning in euery passage , vpon what occasions and vnto what point hee spake directly , brings in Dauid himselfe deriuing the blessednesse vsually pronounced in Scriptures to the intire and vpright in heart from Gods mercies , as from it onely true and immediate cause , not from their v●rightnesse or integrity , with which it hath connexion onely finall ( as being applied onely to parties thus qualified ) none originall . a To him that worketh not , but belieueth in him that iustifieth the vngodly , his faith is counted for righteousnesse ; euen as Dauid declareth the blessednesse of the man vnto whom God imputeth righteousnesse without workes , saying . b Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiuen and whose sinnes are couered . Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no finne . The man then in whose spirit is no guile ( for of such the Psalmist speaketh ) is iustified not because of his sincerity , but because the Lord imputeth not that sinne vnto him which he still vnfaignedly acknowledgeth to bee in him , continually praying , c Lord enter not into iudgement with thy seruant , alwaies confessing , Lord in thy sight no flesh liuing shall be iustified , to wit otherwise then by not entering into iudgement , or by nonimputation of his sinnes . Thus you see euen the best of Gods saints seeke iustification onely by faith with Saint Paul , and yet require thereto with Saint Iames Pure Religion and vndefiled in the sight of God euen the Father . 7. This reconcilement of the seeming contradiction betweene these two Apostles hitherto prosecuted , doth voluntarily present it selfe to such as consider the seuerall occasions of their writings , and take not their speeches as they now lie most commodiously for application vnto moderne oppositions : For one and the same Physician to prescribe medicines much different to diseases altogether diuerse or quite contrarie , would neither impeach him of vnskilfulnesse or vnconstancy . The very contrarietie of their errors , with whom these two Apostles had to deale , would drawe speeches from any one of vs that should seuerally entend their refutation , in forme as contradictorie as theirs be , yet both fully consonant to the truth , because rightly proportioned to their opposite ends . The Iew , whose heresie S. Paul labours to auert from the Romaines , and to ●oot out of the Galathians , looked for a Messias immediately to crowne the conceited perfection of their workes with honour on earth and glory in heauen , not one that should be the end and perfection of the Law , to free them from the curse it had brought vpon them , or to reconcile them vnto God by his righteousnesse . To beate downe this pride there was no remedy possible besides faith in CHRIST , no method so auaileable as that hee vseth ; first setting foorth the haynousnesse of sinne and necessity of it inherence , whose consideration might deiect them ; afterwards pr●ssing Gods mercies in CHRIST offered to all that would denie themselues , confesse their sinnes , and by faith vnsaigned relie on their Redeemers satisfaction . Saint Iames disputes against the opposite error of the Libertines , who presumed the merits and perpetuall mediation of CHRIST to be not onely most necessary , but in themselues sufficient to saue all that did apprehend them as true , although destitute of such workes , as their calling required , and as Gods decree exacted for the effectuall application of Christs allsufficient merits ; which for this reason are scarce mentioned by this Apostle , because magnified they were , though not too much , yet amisse by the parties whom he refutes . Their contempt or wanton inuerting of Gods graces offered , or in part receiued was no lesse hainous or preposterous , then if Bartimeus , or others in his case called by our Sauiour , in hope to recouer their sight , should haue desired Him rather to haue made such a new sun as might make blind men see , without any internall light in the eye , or alteration in the organ of sight . Not by any necessity of nature but by the will and purpose of the Almighty , grace and righteousnesse inherent , though imperfect are as necessary for effectuall adherence or vnion to CHRIST as the Christall humor of the eye or right constitution of the whole organ is for perception of colours or light externall . Hence is the seeming inconuenience arising from Saint Iames his causall forme of speech ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) easilie answered . For the immediate and principall cause presupposed , it is vsuall to attribute a kinde of causality to the qualification of the subiect , though requisite onely as a meere passiue disposition , without which the principall or sole agent should want his efficacie . To one demaunding why the Moon● should be ecclipsed , when the earth is directly interposed betweene it and the body of the sunne , this forme of speech would neither be improper nor impertinent , ( because the Moone hath no light , but what shee borrowes from the sun . ) Yet if the question were absolutely proposed why the Moone were ecclipsed , as no other answere would serue , so this alone were sufficient , because the body of the earth , ( which is not transpenetrable by any light ) is directly interposed betweene the sunne and the Moone . Or if it be questioned how the Israelites being stung with serpents were saued , the reply is good and formall by the signe of saluation , which God had erected . But some we may suppose died after it was erected ; what was the reason ? they did not stedfastly looke vpon it , shall we then absolutely say the Israelites were saued not onely by this signe of saluation , which God hath giuen them , but by their eyesight , as it was a faculty or quality inherent ? This was a qualification indeed so requisite in the subiect to be healed , that such as were without it , were depriued of ordinary meanes of preseruation , yet none ▪ to speake properly and absolutely , were saued by their eyesight , but onely by the obiect of their sight , or rather by both as they had relation to him whose victory ouer the great serpent and graund enemy of mankind the manner of the brasen serpents erection represented . This last instance will apply it selfe vnto the point in h●nd . Workes or righteousnesse inherent include no other causal●●● of iustification or saluation , then the Israelites eiesight dido ▪ 〈…〉 ety , their presence notwithstanding and precedence is in the same rancke or order necessary . Christ onely is the true and immediate cause of healing vs from the sting of death , as the brasen serpent was of the Israelites temporall recouery from the sting of deadly serpents . Thus much of the agreement betweene Saint Paul and Saint Iames , now of the agreements and difference betwixt the Romish Church and ours . CHAP. VII . Of the differences betwixt vs and the Romish Church concerning iustification , or the right vse or measure of grace or righteousnesse inherent . 1. BOth grant Gods decree or purpose to iustifie sinfull man to be an act of meere mercy . Finall absolution or approbation they make no act of mercy but rather of iustice in God , because it presupposeth absolute righteousnesse in vs. Both grant Christ to be the sole meritorious and proper efficient cause of that grace which is first infused : whose reparation or increase is by their doctrine partly of grace ( because the foundation of it was meere grace precedent ) partly of debt because they merit these additions by right vse of their free wil. Whence they cannot without contradiction hold Christ to be the sole meritorious efficient cause of their second iustification , or that grace whereby they become more in 〈◊〉 better approoued in the sight of God. But about the vse or in●●●tance of this tearme iustification in Saint Pauls writings , we ●●●●ent . They contend it it implies as much as to be inherently iust or righteous . Many learned Protestants haue copiously shewed it to be a Law phrase equiualent to absolution from the sentence of iustice , acquitall , or the like . To their allegations notwithstanding a wayward Papist will not yeeld ; because it is sometimes taken in that sence their writers alleadge , as may appeare by our late instances ; or albeit we could by euidence of circumstance or otherwise conuince their vnderstandings that it hath the same valew with Saint Paul as with moderne Protestants : yet subtile wits ( whereof the Romish Church hath plenty ) would redeeme the disaduantage and recouer their former footing by producing more instances of men absolued through the vprightnesse of their cause , then we bring pl●ces wherein the word iustification is taken for absolution or free pardon of men otherwise obnoxious to condemnation . a Phinehas resolute and zealous fact was imputed to him for righteousnesse and did iustifie or absolue both himselfe and the host of Israell from the abhomination committed by one of his brethren with the Midianitish woman not by non-imputation but by positiue depulsion of the crime or guilt whose infection would otherwise haue seised on him through conniuence or neutrality . Let the Romanist therefore be as way ward as he list , or take iustification in what sence he pleaseth , that euery sonne of Adam is by nature the sonne of wrath , destitute of the glory of God , and liable to the sentence of condemnation , he neither doth nor can denie ; that euery sonne of wrath must by his Almighty Iudge be absolued from the sentence of death before he can be admitted vnto life eternall he must vpon the same necessity grant . The point then in which will he , nill he , we must ioine issue is ( What should be the true immediate and next cause of this finall absolution , ) ought within vs or somewhat without vs ? By the immediate and next cause wee vnderstand such a cause as is necessarily accompanied by this effect , and without whose participation this effect neither doth nor can befall any ; such a cause as whosoeuer is partaker of , is by participation of it , foorthwith absolued ; such a cause as who so can probably hope to be partaker of , may vpon the same degrees of probability hope for finall absolution . Such a cause as who so doubts or feares least he shall neuer be partaker of in this life must vpon the same tearmes doubt or dispaire of his absolution or saluation . We denie , he affirmes righteousnesse inherent to be such an absolute cause ( as hath beene notified ) of absolution or remission of sinnes , of iustification howsoeuer taken . Here it will not be amisse to aduise the Reader of a schoole-tricke which one that comes fresh from the arts would easily ●e use , though put vpon some graue Diuines by the Romanist . The question ( saith Bellarmine ) should be proposed not as Chenitius doth of the cause for which , seeing that implies the efficient , but of the cause by which we are iustified or absolued , that is of the formall cause of iustification or absolution . CHRISTS righteousnes they grant to be the efficient or meritorious cause for which , not the formall by which our sinne are remitted or we iust fied . They are indeed bound to assigne a formall cause by which we are truely iust , because they hold vs formally iust in the sight of God ; and seeing they teach remission of sinnes to consist in the extirpation or expulsion of them they may in congruitie affirme that sinne is formally , at least immediately , remitted by habituall grace or righteousnesse inherent , and remitted by CHRIST onely as the efficient cause which meriteth this measure of grace , in the same forme of speech that the schooles tell vs that cold is expelled out of the water by the fire as by the efficient , but formally or immediatly by the heat which the fire produceth in the water . Although perhaps it may be a question whether the expulsion of cold out of the water or of sinne out of our bodies ( consonantly to their doctrine ) can haue any proper formall cause or onely an efficient by resultance ; but to demaund of vs what is the formall cause of iustification by which our sinnes are formally remitted , is as if we should aske one of their young pupils what were Latine for manus . Iustification taken , ( as we doe it ) for remission of sinnes not by inherent righteousnesse or ought within vs immediatly incompetible with them , but by the externall merits of Christ , is a forme or entity as simple as any formall cause can be , and simple or vncompounded entities can neither haue formall causes or ought in proportion answearing to them . Wherefore as I said it is either the follie or knauery of our aduersaries to demaund a formall cause of their iustification that deny themselues to beformallie iust in the sight of God. For so to be iust and to bee iust onely by acceptance or non-imputation of vniustice are tearmes as opposite as can bee imagined . Hee alone is formallie iust which hath that forme inherent in himselfe by which he is denominated iust and so accepted with God ; as Philosophers deny the same to be formally hot because it hath no forme of heate inherent in it but onely produceth heat in other bodies . To be formally iust we for these reasons attribute onely vnto Christ who alone hath such righteousnesse inherent in himselfe as by the interposition of it betweene Gods iustice and sinfull flesh doth stop the proceeding of his iudgements , as Phinehas zeale did stay the plague , otherwise ready to deuoure the host of Israell . Our aduersaries in that they acknowledge inherent righteousnesse to be the sole formall cause of iustification doe by the same assertion necessarily graunt it to be the sole true immediate cause of remission of sinnes , of absolution from death and admis●ion to life . This is the onely point from which they cannot start at which neuerthelesse whiles they stand , they may acknowledge Christ come in the flesh , crucified , dead , and buried , or perhaps ascended into heauen but denie they doe the power of his sitting at the right hand of God , the vertue of his mediation or intercession , and more then halfe euacuate the eternity of his Priesthood as shall be shewed after this briefe explication of our assertion . 2. When we teach iustification by faith and not by workes , our meaning is , by the doctrine of faith wee are bound to acknowledge and confesse that CHRIST IESVS by his eternall Priesthood ( whose offices in their seuerall places shall bee expressed ) is not onelie the sole meritorious cause of all graces or righteousnesse inherent , requisite to finall absolution but these supposed in the party to bee absolued hee is likewise the sole immediate cause of finall absolution or iustification . The latter part of this assertion may admit this ilustration . Suppose a man not destitute of other senses yet ready euery moment to droupe or fall into some deadly fit vnlesse his spirits were refreshed by pleasant musicke , we might truely say , one in this case did liue by the sense of hearing ( for deafe hee should quickly die ) yet were musicke the sole immediate cause of his preseruation , without actuall application of whose sound euen this sense it selfe , by whose meanes his spirits refreshed better enable his other senses to their proper functions , would foorthwith faile him . In this sort doe sinfull men drawe life from CHRIST by faith alone , by which likewise and not by workes , wee are sayd to abide in him as being vnited in spirit to him , albeit by abiding so vnited our other faculties are strengthened and viuificated to bring forth the fruits of righteousnesse . The former instance , notwithstanding , doth not exemplifie the first part of our Assertion , for musicke only continues life naturall which is supposed to haue another originall . But if we speake of life spirituall maintained by saith ( and of which faith it selfe is a part ) it was originally and wholly deriued from CHRIST , on whom faith and all other graces whatsoeuer , tam in fieri quam infacto , as well in the first production as during the time of their continuance and preseruation , depend as essentially and perpetually as the light of the moone , or other participated or reflected splendor , doth on the brightnesse of the Sunne . Nor may wee imagine that this borrowed and variable righteousnesse in vs , though thus depending on the Sonne of righteousnesse , is or can be , euen whiles it remaines without eclipse , or in such fulnesse as in this life the best men at any time are capable of , sufficient for the time being to acquit or absolue vs , if God should enter into iudgement with vs. This strict dependence of such righteousnesse as we haue on CHRISTS righteousnesse presupposed , faith is said to iustifie vs not by any effects in vs deriued from him , but by its transeunt acts reciprocally lifting vp our hearts to the fountaine whence grace and spirituall life doth flow , and reflecting the beames or raies of our mindes thus illuminated vnto our mysticall head , still de●iuing vertue from his crucified body to stint the deadly issues of sinne not vtterly to expell all reliques of vnrighteousnesse . For when we take the eyes of faith of him , albeit the habite of faith and other graces remaine as intire in vs as euer they were , the very memory of transgressions past , or the sight of sinnes inherent , whilest we look on them deiect vs. According to this disferent aspect euen the best men liuing whilest this brittle glasse of mortality and mutability is in running , may bee subiect to the like subalternation of hopes and feare the exiled Po●t hath expressed : Spes mihi magna subest dum te , mitissime Caesar , Spes mihi , respicio dum mea facta , cadit . Strength to my hopes doth still accrewe , whil'st Caesars mildnesse I do vie we : But mine owne facts whilest I beholde , my heart doth faile , my hopes growe colde . But though sinne may often sting vs by fits , and bring vs almost to deaths dore by vicissitude of despaire or disma● , yet we recouer as presently by faithfull looking on the glorious author , as the Israelites did by beholding the visible signe of saluation . 3. The controuersie hitherto proposed and declared in as scholasticke forme as our English tongue well can beare , may be reduced in fewest tearmes and fittest for popular instruction vnto the right vse and immediate end of faith , and other sanctifying graces . We of reformed Churches with vnanimous consent of heart and minde belieue and teach ( and thou O CHRIST our Lord our life and strength giue iudgement out of thy throne of Maiestie whether not more agreeable to thy minde then shee which sits as Queene of heauen and brags as if she were thy best beloued Spouse or her children do ) That our Faith , our Hope and Charitie , or whatsoeuer pledges of thy fathers loue , and fauour towards vs , we through thy merits haue obtained , were giuen vs not to alter , but to better that plea we made before we had them . Being by nature the sonnes of wrath , and groning vnder the heauie burden of our sinnes , with teares and sighes , by thy precious blood by thy death and passion , wee daily besought Him for them : and shall his goodnesse in giuing them , flake the feruency of our wonted desires or supplications , when as we seeke grace , onely to the end we may finde and truly taste his mercie ? Thou hast taught vs * Not euery one that sayth Lord , Lord , shall enter into the kingdome of heauen , but such as doe the will of thy Father which is in heauen , and his wil as the Apostle witnesseth , they only do , which obey it in all things , omitting no commaundement when occasion is giuen , taking no occasion to breake or violate any . Shall we then enter into the kingdome of heauen because we thus farre do thy fathers will , and in some measure obserue his Commaundements ? Rather without such obseruance we shall not , we cannot enter therein ; yet when we haue done all this , wee are still vnprofitable seruants . To what vse then doth our inherent righteousnesse or obseruance of Gods Commaundements serue vs ? If sincere that haue been and vnfaigned , though imperfect , yet the faith which brought it forth will make a sincere and faithfull plea for mercy in the day of triall , in which he that hath been an hearer only and no doer of the lawe , or hath done in part what God would haue done , but not sincerely nor faithfully , because it was his will and pleasure , but out of humour , naturall affection or hipocrisie , shall cry Lord , Lord , and shewe many tokens of Gods loue and fauour towards him in hope to better this present sute for mercie , yet shall not be heard . Why ? Either because he neuer had any true pledge of Gods fauour , or did not vse such as hee had aright ; because as his workes haue been , such now are his prayers , presumptuous , vnfaithfull , or hypocriticall ; such as cannot obtaine any other answere of God then that , depart from mee I neuer knew thee . It shall not boote him to make proofe that hee hath giuen his goods to the poore , or his body to the fire ; that he hath healed the sicke , cast out diuels , and wrought other wonders in CHRISTS name , vnsesse his faith haue quelled all trust , all pride or glory in these gracings , wholly set on Gods mercies in CHRIST ; from whose apprehension vnlesse these other acts or exercises ( though of mercie ) sprung , they are not truely done in faith ; but springing thence , we cannot be so ready to doe them as hauing done them to renounce all trust or confidence in them . For whiles we compare these slender , yet sincere effects of our loue and thankfulnesse to him , with his infinite loue and mercie towards vs , ( wheron true faith alwaies lookes whiles it conceiues them ) the sight of them causeth greater humilitie for the present , & more hearty sorrow for sinnes past , then we could haue conceiued , if wee had not done them ; as the sight of Zorobabels temple finished did make the auntients of Israell weepe , because the perfection and glorie of the former was more liuely represented to their senses by this visible and semblable model , then by the ruines , meere absence , or imperfect reparations of it . To be able to sound the depth of many conclusions better then others can , giues stayed and setled iudgements a more distinct and compleat measure of the knowledge they wanted , then fantasticke or shallow wits can haue . For this cause solid learning alwaies contracts , verball knowledge and superficiall skill in any facultie dilates mens estimates of thēselues , & puffes them vp with preiudiciall conceits of their owne worth . And seeing all our knowledge in this life , though of matters naturall and neere at and , is euery way imperfect ; the increase of it is alwaies vnnaturall and monstrous vnlesse the more we know the better we know our imperfectious , and be humbled with a more sensible feeling of our wants Now in as much as the fruits of life do neuer take so kindely , as the fruites of knowledge in any sonne of Adam , since he made that impious and crroneous choice , and euery mans owne experience can teach him , that his practique faculties or performances come still short of his speculatiue notions or apprehensions of what is good and fit to be done : we are by this twofold reason enforced to take the vnfained acknowledgement of our imperfection in working , and serious distrust both to our works and our selues as no way iustifiable or approueable in the sight of God , but for the perfect and compleate righteousnesse of CHRIST IESVS for an essentiall branch of that vniformity before required in true and sauing faith . The growth of these particulars is like the growth of twins : the more firme and liuely faith we haue , the better and more sincerely we worke : the bettter and more sincerely we worke , the more vnfaignedly and faithfully wee renounce all confidence in our workes and our selues : the more faithfully we renounce all confidence in these , the more ca●tiestly we seeke after saluation only by CHRIST ; of whose allsufficient sacrifice , and righteousuesse fully satisfactory of Gods law and meritorious of mercy our righteousnes inherent though imperfect giues vs a truer tast then vnbelieuers can haue . Thus the weaker we are in our selues the stronger we are in Him. 4. The former question about the vse of grace depends vpon another betwixt the Romanist and vs about the measure of inherent righteousnesse . They make the encrease and growth of grace not to perfect but vtterly to abolish the nature of it , by conuerting it into righteousnes inherent as well for quantity as quality acceptable of it selfe to God without his fauour or indulgence . We ( as the name imports ) make it alwaies subordinate vnto gratious acceptance , and seeing we take it onely as a pledge of diuine fauour , whereof wee stand perpetually in need as it is first giuen , so we desire it may be increased onely to the end we may more constantly and faithfully sue for mercie , and seeke diuine approbation aright . Of our edification in CHRIST , faith is not the foundation onely but the roofe , vnto which all other graces haue the same reference that Hur and Aaron had vnto Moses . The best seruice euen charitie it selfe can performe is to vnderprop the hands of faith lifted vp vnto the throne of grace from which the sentence of absolution must proceed . Directly contradictory to this declaration ( saith the Romanist ) faith iustifies onely as it disposeth vs to the attainment of charity , which is the formall cause of iustification , the complete forme of such perfect righteousnesse inherent as is the onely immediate cause of saluation . Charitie though giuen for CHRIST is to him the Crowne of faith reaching heauen by it owne perfection , to vs not charity onely but faith it selfe , as it is part of our imperfect righteousnesse inherent , is footstoole to it selfe in the act of iustification or whiles it pleads for mercy . Nor vas any sonne of Adam for the least moment of time euer so righteous , but the actuall mediation of Christ or interposition of his sacrifice secluded from his triall at the tribunail of Gods iustice , he might besides all his other sinnes iustly haue beene condemned for not stirring vp the gifts and graces of the spirit , or not right vsing them to his glory that gaue them . Thus much euery conscience that hath tasted of Gods mercy and goodnesse in Christ will be ready to confesse ; and this truth now deliuered by vs was in effect the doctrine of the learned and religious Bucer , * in his conference at Ratisbone with our aduersaries . Although he that is iustified hath righteousnesse through Christ inherent , the faithfull soule notwithstanding doth not rely on it , but onely on the righteousnesse of Christ wherewith wee are endowed ; without which there neither is nor can be any righteousnesse . A more full declaration of his opinion in this controuersie vasquez * out of the same conference hath ready gathered to our hands . When certaine propositions which the Author of that conference cals ambiguous , were brought vnto him , amongst which this was the first , [ faith is the beginning of iustification , ] his answer was , if this speech be meant of inchoated righteousnes ( renouation of the mind ) which consists in faith , hope , and charitie with other vertues , we admit it : for such righteousnesse wee grant to bee a gift , yea a new creature in Christ , of which we participate by faith ; yea faith is the first part of it , seeing we can neither loue God , nor conceiue true hope in Him , vnlesse we first know him by faith . This righteousnesse of renouation notwithstanding is not that by which we become so righteous in the sight of God , as life eternall should be due vnto vs for it , seeing it is imperfect and cannot satisfie the Law of God during the time of this mortall life ; another righteousnesse is required , to wit , the rightousnesse of God , through which wee haue confidence in our Lord CHRIST and are established in the assurance of saluation . The like resolution or state rather of this controuersie , he gathers out of Chemnitius words , as they are related by his aduersary Tiletan . * We teach not that beleeuers are iustified without righteousnesse , for such iustification God himselfe hath pronounced to bee an abhomination in his sight ( Prou. ●● . ver . 15. Isa . 5. ver . 23. ) but we thinke it necessary that in iustification righteousnesse should interceed or interpose , and that not euery sort of righteousnesse , but such as is sufficient in the iudgement of God , such as is worthy of eternall life . Now seeing that righteousnesse which consists in the internall renouation of our mindes , by reason of carnall imperfection and vncleannesse adherent is not such , necessary it is there should be another righteousnesse , through whose interuention or intercession we are iustified in the sight of God. 5. From this learned writer , the Diuines of o Colen , and many Schoolemen , acknowledged by the Romish Church for her children in other points , did but a little dissent , as the Iesuite grants , and their words are so plaine that euery one may see , might these men haue been chiefe delegates in this cause , the controuersie had bin quickly ended . The only difference can be picked by this curious inquisitor is but this ; Chemnitius and Bucer made our inherent righteousnesse ( as he wrongfully charges them ) a sin , the diuines of Colen made it onely imperfect or no righteousnes without the merits of CHRIST , to which it serued but as an instrument ; by their confession , CHRIST righteousnesse was not only the efficient or meritorious cause for whose sake this righteousnesse innerent was bestowed vpon vs , but the sorme which did so consummate it , that is our iustification was accomplished by addition of his righteousnesse vnto ours . Vnto this opinion amongst the rest euen p Pighius himselfe , who made so light accompt of originall sinne , did subscribe , not induced thereto ( as is pretended ) with the sweet discourses of his aduersaries , but with the euidence of the truth they taught . Indeed Pighius consequently to his error concerning the nature of originall sinne , did hold our righteousnesse inherent imperfectionly for the quantity , whereas Chemnitius and Bucer did hold it vnsufficient besides for the quality , not that it was a sin , but that it had sin so adherent , as it could not make vs cleane and pure though but in imperfect measure in Gods sight . We wil be content to take these Diuines mentioned with that troupe of most famous schoolemen as well antient as moderne expresly yeelded vs by Vasquez , as more then fully sufficient , either for worth or number , to ouersway the authoritie of such later Pontificians , as in the conference at Ratisbone , or Auspurge , or in that booke exhibited vnto Charles the fift before the Trent Councell , maintained the contrarie opinion now established . Vnto the Trent Councels authoritie , because it hath determined for these later and obscurer against the former Schoolemen and vs ; we will oppose the authority of Scripture , and principles of faith directly acknowledged by all , but indirectly ouerthrowne by the Councels decree . In examining of which it may excuse our boldnesse , that so many of their writers should , without censure , before , and some ( I take it ) sinte the promulgation of it teach the contrarie . m The sole formall cause of iustification is the righteousnesse of God not by which he is righteous , but wherby hee makes vs righteous , to wit , that wherewith once endued we are renewed in the spirit of our minde , and are not onely reputed iust , but truely denominated iust , as indeed we are by receiuing righteousnesse euery one according to that measure which the holy Spirit imparts vnto vs as he pleaseth , and according to our seuerall proper dispositions or cooperations . The formall cause , or if that be not enough the sole formall cause of our iustification is righteousnes inherent , which as the Romane n Catechisme , set out by the authoritie of the same Councell , in plaine tearmes auoucheth , must be so perfect as to leaue no staine or blot of sinne inherent in vs , able to present our soules ( if I mistake not the meaning of it ) truely glorious , at least splendent and beautifull in the sight of God. Whatsoeuer else I haue charged their doctrine with , they willingly grant to be necessarie consequences of the Councels determination , and condemne vs as Heretickes for contradicting them . And least we should suspect it might be a matter not altogether vnpossible for the Trent fathers to erre in that peremptory decree ; late Iesuties would perswade vs it were a matter altogether impossible for God almighty , although he should vse his absolute power , to iustifie vs by any other meanes then the Councell hath defined . Some in their Chuch of no meaner note then the famous victoria and Melchior Canus , with other of Aquinas followers ( publique professors too ) were not ashamed or afraid to teach , that grace inherent did not make vs iust or acceptable in the sight of God by it meere entity or quallity , that the value or estimate of it did depend vpon the will and pleasure of him that gaue it , content to accept or pronounce vs once partakers of it as iust and holy , though not such in our selues , or though the inherent vertue of it , as money is valuable , not for the nature , physicall properties , or the quantitie of the mettall , but for the princes estimate , whose image and superscription it beares . One corallarie of this conclusion , gathered by these authors themselues , was , that the entitie , or qualitie of grace might increase without any necessarie increase of the value or estimate of it with God , as the kings maiesty if it should please him , might make the same portion of siluer which now goes for a shilling , to be currant but for nine pence , or rather make that peece as large as the shilling , though retaining the same value & inscription it now beares . We shall perchance no way crosse these professours tenent , but onely better illustrate our owne , if we say : As it is not the legall instrument ( though bearing the s●ale or inscription royall ) but the princes will and pleasure thereby authentiquely testified , which frees the malefactor from sentence of condemnation : so neither is it grace or righteousnesse inherent , ( though these be the image and character of our righteous Iudge ) but the mercy and free pardon of our God proclaimed indefinitely to all the penitent , but sealed to euery faithfull soule in particular by those pledges of the spirit , which finally absolues vs from the curse laide vpon vs by the Law , and enstates vs in the promises of the Gospel . In both pleas the sanctified soule vseth saith & all other graces or parts of righteousnes inherent , no otherwise then a penitent malefactor would doe the instrument wherein the princes pleasure is contained , if he were to plead his cause before the prince himselfe , in whose presence ( though with ordinary Iudges they will sometimes be too bold ) I presume no malefactor would stand vpon tearmes of integrity or present innocency because he had his pardon vnder seale , seeing that was giuen him to plead for mercy not for iustice . Not altogether different from these exemplifications of our assertion some schoolemen , though seeking to come as neer the Romish Church present tenents as they could , thought it no inconuenience to hold , that the grace wherby men become truely and inherently iust , was not of it owne nature absolutely incompatible with all degrees , or reliques of sin ; in respect of which we might stand in need of Gods fauour and mercy after communication of grace . But this and the like opinions are vtterly destroyed root and branch by the thunderbolt of the former decree , and their authors and followers censured by Vasquez * for holding it but as possible to the absolute power of the Almightie , to replenish our soules vvith grace and not take away all staine of sinne ; for that any reliques of the one should lodge in the same brest with the other , implies a contradiction in his diuinity ; which vaine surmise shall be refuted when we come to handle the nature of sin , and the necessity of grace . How friuolously he alleageth that of Saint Iohn [ whosoeuer is borne of God , sinneth not ] to this purpose the Reader may perceiue by the true interpretation of that place in the Chapter following . 6. For the time I would request as many as feare the shipwracke of faith and conscience to rest contented with this short discouery of two rocks , against which all that follow the Trent Councels direction ineuitably dash . The first , an cuacuation of Christs priesthood : for , by their doctrine , after grace is infused and remaines inherent , a man may bee iustified , saued , and glorified , without any more reference to Him , then Adam in the state of integrity had . Christ ( say * they ) hath restored vnto vs what we lost in Adam . What was that ? Inherent righteousnesse , so we grant with the Antient. But in what measure ? In as full and perfect as Adam had it before his fall , or without admixture of corruption drawne from his loynes ? So farre the Romanists seeks to extend the authoritie of some Fathers . The best vse and end then of grace in his construction , is , to passe ocuer the euerlasting Couenant of grace in Christ , that wee may recoue the state which our first Parents forfeited . This is the most immediate and necessarie consequence of the Trent Fathers determination : for if habituall grace be ( as they decree ) the sole formall cause of iustification that once gotten will exclude all necessity or vse of any other cause or meanes of reconciliation or acceptance with God. Agreeable hereto as * Vasquez disputes at large they admit no application of Christs merits , but onely in the collation of gifts inherent or infusion of Charity . Admitting then one of their Church should remaine in the state of habituall grace , a weeke or two before his death : let vs suppose ( as for disputation sake , or sure tryall of a true formall cause , it is lawfull , by their rules giuen to this purpose , to suppose any impossibility ) that Christ had neuer beene incarnate , crucified , raised from the dead , or set at the right hand of God ; the former party notwithstanding should be as certainly saued , as hee can be by beliefe of all these Articles , and become heire infallible of as great glory and felicity as wee hope for , by incorporation into Christs body . Nor doth Christ ( if their opinion may stand ) sit at the right hand of his Father to make intercession for vs after grace is infused , or whiles wee retaine it , but that it may be infused and recouered if it should chance to be lost . Now what heresie was there broached more blasphemous against Christ than this , which abolisheth the principall part of his mediation ? what could more directlie cuacuate that great mysterie of the true and reall vnion betwixt the head of the Church and the members ? By this doctrine neither are our persons in this life reconciled to God , nor our nature exalted to dignity in the life to come , by being vnited to Christ , but immediately by our inherent righteousnesse , without any intermediation of his person , his sacrifice , merites or other benefit of his passion , as any cause at all or bond of our vnion , or acceptance with God after the infusion of grace , which is the onely formall linke betwixt the diuine nature and ours : whence it necessarily followes that our humane nature must ( though by another kinde of vnion , and lesse measure of an inferiour grace ) bee as immediately vnited to God , as immediately approued for iust , as immediately meritorious of glory , as immediately capable of Gods presence , as Christ was . Might not that great Schooleman ( for such I haue euer accompted Vasquez ) with lesse danger to his soule , or repugnancie to this great mysterie ( ●hole truth directly to deny he durst not ) or other tenents maintained by him , haue granted , that as Christ is truely reputed holy , not onely from the Holinesse formally inherent in his humane nature , but from the vnction of the deitie or vncreated holinesse , whereto hee is hypostatically vnited : so might all partakers of such faith as Saint Paul ascribes righteousnesse vnto , bee truely and properly called and reputed righteous in the sight of God , from the absolute righteousnesse of Christ as man ; to whom they are by the same faith , though not hypostatically , yet truely vnited by such a mysticall but reall vnion , as may without solecisme ground as well this denomination , as our title or interest in Gods fauour . More consequently , by much to his owne positions might Bellarmine likewise haue granted , that as we are truly the sonnes of wrath by nature , albeit euery lineament of Gods image in vs be not quite razed , but rather all or most , much defared by Adams sinne made ours partly by reall propagation but more principally ( in his doctrine ) by imputation , so we become the sonnes of God , by the spirit of adoption , though not so powerfull in vs as vtterly to extirpate all relickes of sin , yet able so to dead the force or operation of it , as it did the remainder of Gods image in vs before we were renewed by Christ . Thus walking not after the flesh though in the flesh , nor working sin though sin worke in vs , we may through grace or this earnest of the spirit , but onely for the righteousnesse of Christ , whereto wee are by it vnited , haue a more reall title to be enstiled his brethren , sons of our heauenly father , then Hee can haue ( as Bellarmine obiects by our doctrine he hath ) to be called the son of him that is the father of lies and Iesuiticall equiuocation . Albeit there was no guile in him yet hee bare the punishment due to our rebellions ; and was not this commutation of punishment ●herby the seruants of sin are acquitted and the Lord of righteousnesse condemned , sufficient to make such as are in part willing to doe for others as hee hath done for them , immediately capable of absolution by his innocency , of reward by his righteousnesse ? The a Apostle doubtlesse meant no lesse when hee saide , He hath made him to be sin for vs which knew no sin , that we should be made the righteousnesse of God in Him. 7. The second point against which our aduersaries dash , doth so euidently bewray their greatest pilots vnskilfulnesse in this hauen of saluation , as euery childe that can repeate his Pater noster may easily perceiue the Trent Fathers themselues did not vnderstand it . Nor can the subscribers to this decree , vse that celestial prayer without plain mocking of God and Christ . This imputation needs no other proofe then the cleare proposall of such positions as they now all holde de fide . Take wee then one of their Catechumenies ( whether destitute of faith or no it skils not ) that hath not as yet attayned to the first iustification ( as they distinguish ) that is , one destitute of habituall grace or inherent righteousnesse ; such a man by their Churches discipline , is ●●●mitted or rather commanded to vse this petition amongst the rest , forgiue vs our trespasses as wee forgiue them that trespasse against vs. What sinnes or trespasses doth hee request should be forgiuen him ? Mortall especially , for their remission onely is necessary to the first iustification . But how must God remit them ? Immediately by pardoning or forgiuing them . No , they are immediately remitted by actuall introduction of the contrary former grace inherent , which formally expels them out of the soule as light ( to vse Bellarmines owne illustration of their positions in this point ) doth darknesse out of the aire . Nor is there any possibility of remitting sinnes by other meanes left to omnipotence it selfe , since the publication of Iesuiticall Comments vpon the Trent Councells decree . What then is the full meaning or finall resolution of this petition whilest vttered by men as yet not iustified ? Lord forgiue vs our trespasses or mortall sinnes ? This verily and no other , Lord by infusion of thy grace , make vs such as shall not need of thy pardon or forgiuenesse . For to holde , that ouer and aboue the infusion of that grace ▪ by which the staine of sinne being clearely wiped out we are made iust , Gods fauour or condonation * ( to vse their Latine word with addition of one English letter ) is any way requisite for our acceptance or approbation with him , is , in formall tearmes , the very opinion which Vasquez so peremptorily condemnes in Canus , Nedina , Victoria , Gabriel , Richardus , Ariminensis , Scotus , and others , as contradictorie to the Trent Councells oft mentioned decree ; and so indeede it is : for by that decree being made formally iust by grace alone , we become the immediate or formall obiects of Gods iustice or fidelity ( now strictly bound to render vs quid pro quo , eternall life for grace inherent ) vtterly exempted from all dependance on his mercy and fauour . And whereas some of their late Writers , desirous to giue the Church all possible satisfaction ; yet partly fearing openly to wrong God , or flatly to contradict his word , had granted that grace infused did quite extirpate all sinne , and make vs absolutely iust in our selues , but yet could not , by it nature or sole entitie , obliterate all relation of trespasse , or offence commited against God before wee had it , as being vnable to make full recompence or satisfaction for them , euen this opinion is now reiected as hereticall and contrary to the Councells meaning . It remaines therefore that the true and full meaning of that petition in the Lords prayer forgiue vs our trespasses , according to our aduersaries construction is , Lord grant that we stand not in neede of thy forgiuenesse : if wee suppose this petition to be conceiued either by men destitute of perfect inherent righteousnesse , or such as distrust or doubt whether they haue it or no. But imagine a man could be ( as I thinke few Papists are ) more then morally certaine hee were in the state of perfect grace ; his vse of the same request would bee superfluous , or requisite onely in respect of veniall sinnes ; albeit euen these , if they imprint any vncomely marke , or aspersion neuer so light on their soules , must be taken away by introduction of the contrary forme , as by acts of penitency , or the like , whereunto Gods concourse or aide of grace is necessarie : so that his desiring God to forgiue him them ; is but to request his help , that he may not need his fauour . And though in their esteeme but a light one , yet a prety mockery of God it is , that , after infusion of grace , they should not stand in neede of his mercy , or imputation of their Redeemers righteousnesse , either for remitting or taking away of the staine of mortall sinnes , or the punishment due vnto them , and yet after God hath done all , and Christs mediation , as farre as concernes them fully accomplished : most of them must be highly beholden to the Pope , not onely in this life , but after death , for releasing the punishment due to veniall and petty sinnes . 8 Some part of the first difficultie o Bellarmine ( from what place of Caluin , Melancthon , and Chemnitius I remember not , he expresseth not ) hath thus proposed , CHRIST is our mediatour , not onely in our first reconciliation , but during the whole time of our life , in which regard we alwayes stand in neede of his intercession , and consequently alwayes sinne and transgresse the Law , otherwise CHRIST after our first reconciliation should be idle , but so he is not ( saith Bellarmine ) First , because he alwayes ministers strength and grace by which wee doe good works . Secondly , hee purgeth our daily and lighter sinnes , and his blood cleanseth vs from all sinnes . Or if through transgression of the law , we fall away from our state of righteousnes ; he neuer thelesse is stil the propitiation for our sins , and reconciles vs not only seuen times but seuēty times seuen times to his father ; if conuerted by his grace , we addresse our selues to serious repentance . Therfore we make not CHRIST an idle mediatour , in saying the Law may be fulfilled ; but our aduersaries truly make his benefits vneffectuall , when they teach that the excellency of his obedience , could not effect that the iustification which is by the Law should bee fulfilled in vs. Whatsoeuer he thought , it was safest for him to professe as hee hath written , because the Trent Fathers for conclusion of that session , accurse all that should say their resolutions in this point , did rather disparage then set foorth the excellencie of CHRISTS sacrifice , or the true woorth of his merits . But the more mercifull Bellarmine makes his God , the readier to forgiue our frequent trespasses , the greater stil is their former mockery ; seeing euery time they repeat that petition , they implicitely , yet necessarily include the appurtenances , Lord make vs such as wee shall not need of thy forgiuenesse . The excesse of diuine Maiesty , in respect of princely dignity presupposed , their mockery of God in suing for restauration of grace , after relapses into mortall sinne , may for the quality be resembled by imagination of some great fauourite in the Court , after many bountifull rewards for little or no seruice falling to rob or steale , and lastly crauing pardon in these or like tearmes : I haue grieuously offended against your Crowne and dignity , but by your wonted grace I beseech you , bestow as good preferment on me , as before I had , and amends shall quickly bee made , for all the wrongs I haue done vnto my fellow subiects : you shall not finde matter of death in me againe , so long as your bounty towards me lasts ; that I shall not commit some petty sinnes of wantonnesse , quarrelling , drinking , swearing , I hope your highnesse will not expect , for these are not against your Law but besides it . The insolency of this imagination in a malefactour , ( could an earthly Prince knowe the heart whence it issued ) would make his former offence , in it self and course of common iustice , meritorious of death , altogether vncapable of mercy , otherwise easie to haue beene obtained . And is it either lesse exclusiue from Gods fauour , or more prouocatiue of his seuerity to beg such grace at his hands , as shall wipe out all former reckonings where with he could charge vs , or hauing promised sincere obedience to the Law , to elude the Lawgiuer with that distinction , without which d Bellarmine thinkes our Writers arguments to proue the fulfilling of the Law impossible , can hardly be answered . They ( saith he ) which grant ( as Vega doth ) veniall sinnes to be against the Law , are enforced to hold that to keepe the Law is onely possible , in as much as onely the greater part of it may bee kept , whence the denomination is indefinitely attributed to the whole ; But what can they say to that of Iames. Hee that keepeth the whole Law , and offendeth in one point is guilty of all . The solide answere therefore ( in his iudgement ) is , that veniall sinnes without which we doe not liue , are not sinnes simply , but imperfectly , and in a sort ; neither are they against the Law , but besides the Law. Such as first did apply this distinction , to that purpose for which the moderne Romanist now misuseth it , might perhaps be in part excused by the barbarousnesse of the times wherein they liued , and their ignorance in Scriptures . But wee haue cause to feare , that Bellarmines generall skill and knowledge in them , vvas punished by GOD vvith particular grosse , and palpable ignorance , or blindnesse rather , in thinking this qui●ke of wit should glue together such Oracles of the Apostles , as without it would mightily iarre and start asunder . As that of Iames late cited [ He that offends in one ( mortally ) is guilty of all , and this other , In many things we al offend ( 1. ) venially . ] or these two of S. Iohn [ He that is borne of God sinneth not : If we say we haue no sin we deceiue our selues . ] So doubtlesse they do , and mightily mistake both these great Apostles meaning , that thinke any in this should be so righteous , as not to stand in neede of Gods fauour for absolution from sins committed against his Law ; but of their meaning in the Chapter following . 9. These discussions may informe the Reader that Bellarmines conclusion of this controuersie , wherein hee may seeme vnto the vnobseruant to attribute somewhat to Gods mercies , in the businesse of iustification after grace infused , was but like the first inuitation of an Italian , onely for fashion sake . For if his authority could haue moued any of his profession , after fulnesse of grace , to haue tasted the louing kindnesse of the Lord , he could not be ignorant that the Trent Councell had shut the doore vpon them . It is the safest way ( saith he * ) to put our whole trust in Gods mercies . VVhy so ? because there is no trust or confidence to be put in our owne good workes or fruits of grace ? No , rather because it is more easie to grow proud of our deeds , then to be assured of our sincerity in doing them . But if neither safe it be to trust in them ; nor , by his doctrine , to any purpose without them to trust in Gods mercies ; hee hath left his Romane Catholikes in a miserable case . VVhat is it then they can hope or desire Gods mercies should doe for them ? To remit their sinnes ? How ? By not imputing them ? this is all they can condemne in vs. VVhat then ? to set heauen open vnto them without remission of sinnes or iustification ? This is more then can be laid to any heritickes charge : none euer liued but granted iustification to bee a necessary gate , through which all that haue sinned must enter into heauen . It remaines then the onely ground of all hope or trust a Romanist can haue of any good from Gods mercies , must be his precedent perswasion or beliefe of absolute and perfect righteousnesse , either now inhabiting his soule , or hereafter to be obtayned : That is , hee must trust , God one time or other , will be so mercifull to him , as he shall not stand in neede of his mercie at the houre of death . 10. He that wold clearly conuince the Romish church , or her childrē of a capitall crime vsually obiected by our writers shold begin w th the vertual intentiō of the priest , by rigid positions of their late writers most necessarily required to the effectual working of the Sacraments : for that euidently breedeth doubt ; whervnto if we adioyne this absolute necessity of compleat habitual grace , inherent for remission of sins , it openly condemnes the Trent Councell it selfe for nursing despaire of saluation . In that they make such grace the sole formal cause of iustificatiō , without which , as all grant , there is no entrance into Gods rest . a Romanists trust , hope , or beliefe of life eternall , as possible to him must first be terminated in the same degrees , vnto so full a measure of grace or righteousnesse as they require , either as present or possibly future . He that doubts ( as Bellarmine confesseth , ●ll m●st haue iust cause to doubt ) whether hee bee perfectly righteous or no , must of necessity conceiue equall doubt of his estate in grace . He that knows ( as who throughly examining his own heart for any space together but may know ) he is not able to plead for his cause with God in iustice , is bound to belieue his present want of sauing grace . Hee that cannot raise his heart ( through consciousnesse of his often transgressions much deiected ) to these magnanimous hopes of euer being able to fulfill the Law of God , is ( this distrust remaining ) by his blinde beliefe of the Churches infalibility in this decree bound finally to despaire of saluation , or any good , Gods mercies , or his Redeemers blood can doe him . VVee are content to take Bellarmines testimony as authentique against his fellowes , that our arguments prooue his former conclusion [ It is safest to put our whole trust and confidence in Gods mercies ] the vndoubted consequence whereof is , that the Trent Councell did erre perniciously in so resoluing this principall point of saluation , as hath beene declared . But it is a wonder to behold what miraculous reconciliations , the imaginary vnity of the Romane Church , can worke in Iesuiticall braines . Bellarmine , whether out of feare of sharper censure , enforced to vse this miserable shelter , or so dazled with the mysticall vnity of the inerrable Church , that hee could discerne no difference betwixt the Trent Councells decree and his owne conclusion , takes it as approued by the Romane Church , because that Church allowes the same collect wee doe vpon Sexagessima Sunday . As if because he now had captiuated , his vnderstanding to thinke the Church is alwaies the same and cannot erre , therefore the author of that collect must needs be of the same mind the Trent Councell was ; when as a greater part of their best Schollers , about the time it was celebrated , did in this point better accord with the Auspurge confession then with it . Had the doctrine contained in that collect , been exhibited to the Councell by reformed Churches , it had bin as peremtorily condemned as any Article of Wikliffe or Luthers doctrine , but now seeing it hath slept so long in their liturgy , that the sufferance of it may seeme to argue a tacite consent or approbation of that Church , into whose thoughts it neuer came , the author of it though for ought they know , a man as obnoxious to error as we are , & out of all question of our opinion in the point of iustification , must be thought not to haue erred , in cōceiuing that praier which the Church allowes ; his meaning rather shall bee quite contradictory to his words . More then miraculous must the composition of that body haue beene , which but one in it selfe , should exactly haue symbolized with euery ingredient in olde chaos : yet no lesse strange may the Iesuites temper seeme ( were hee not homo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) which can infallibly belieue euery opinion , held for this thousand yeares by that Church , which in respect of faith and doctrine , is but one , after the same manner chaos was ; one huge masse of contrarieties and confusions , in this respect better consorting with Iesuiticall faith , which is but a prime matter or indeficient seminary of various treachery , as the whole body of his religion , is but a meere hogepoge of dictinctions . CHAP. VIII . How farre the Law must be fulfilled in this life : of the regiment of grace : of the permanencie of iustification , what interruptions it may admit , how these must be repaired , or in what sense it may bee said to be reiterated : That euery sin is against Gods Law , though not incompatible with the state of grace . 1. SEeing that iustification , which is by faith in Christ , so much pressed by S. Paul , presupposeth that state of integrity or qualification for acceptance with God , whereunto S. Iames requireth workes ; or ( to vse his words ) the fulfilling of the royall Law of libertie , without respect of persons , or reserued indulgence to our desire ; it will be necessary briefly to examine , how far the Law may be fulfilled by vs in this life , or ( which is all one ) with what measure of inherent righteousnes or sanctifying grace , that faith which onely iustifies must bee accompanied . Now seeing the Law is but the image of Gods will , or of that internall Law of righteousnesse which was in Christ , whereunto faith , as hath beene saide includes a conformity : such a fulfilling of the Law in this life as may witnesse our true imitation of diuine goodnesse , no● in good will or minde onely , but in good workes is in this life not onely possible but requisite . We must be perfect as our heauenly father is perfect , which speech of our Sauiour cannot be vnderstood according to the measure of perfection , ( nor was he himselfe as man so holy and perfect as God his father ) but according to the truth of the proposition : for vero nihil verius , we must be as truely perfect and holy according to that imperfect measure which our polluted nature is capable of , as God is , according to the infinite or absolute perfection of holinesse : yet are wee not holy after the same manner Christ was holy , or Adam in the state of his integrity : It is a very fit distinction vsed by diuines in this argument , that there is a twofolde perfection one of parts another of degrees , whereof the former is as necessary as the other impossible to all in this life . The perfection of parts may in generall be illustrated by a childe or infant , which though wanting the strength and agility , hath the true life and right proportion of man in euery part , and able in some sort to moue euery member it hath , though not by perfect motion . Strong & sound men in Christ Iesus we canot be in this life , yet altogether dead , monstrous or mishapen wee may not bee . Howbeit if wee apply this resemblance to the point in question , it better fits that opinion of the Diuines of Colen , which held mens righteousnes inherent to bee imperfect onely in respect of the quantity , then the doctrine of reformed Churches , which with our best righteousnes admit a mixture of sin inherent : so as this perfectiō of parts , according to their tenēts , may more aptly bee compared vnto a childe indued with life , and rightly proportioned , yet subiect to some dis●a●e , or infirmity ; able to walke , but depraued in all his motions , alwayes p●one to stumble or fall . The maner as wel of sins inherence in our nature after infusion of grace , as of its concurrence in our actions , shal be declared ( by Gods assistance ) in the seuenth book ; here we suppose ( what there shall be prooued ) that while we are in the flesh wee haue sin in vs more or lesse , but depriued of rule or soueraignety where faith , or grace hath gotten possession in the heart . 2. Man as he is rightly called a little world , so hath he a true regiment in himselfe . His forme of gouernment in the state of integrity may be parralelled by the imaginary model of Platoes weale publique or the vtopia ; his disordered state of nature before grace infused by an Anarchy or some outcountry infested by outlawes , wherein the best are most exposed to spoile his state of grace by a ciuill or well gouerned kingdome or Aristocracie . The best and worst Bodies politique , anarchies , & right ordered states , do not differ in that the one hath theeues & malefactors , and the other none , but rather ( as some dialects in this land distinguish ) in that the one hath re●uers , the other onely plaine thieues , or briefly in that malefactors cannot so beare themselues out in mischiefe , ouersway the Lawes , or ouerrunne honest men in the one , as in the other they may . The times haue bin , not long since , wherein , if any poore man in some quarters of this land , should haue followed such rauinous creatures , as liued by night spoiles , to their dens ▪ he should haue had more to take part against him , then ioine with him : others knowing where there goods were , & who stole them durst not own them , least they should seeme to challenge the felon of theft , which would sooner haue endangered their liues then his , or procured the burning of their houses ouer their heads , or some like mischiefe . The honester man & more obseruant of his Princes lawes , the harder in those daies was his case ; the ordinary course which the more crafty or politicke could take for their safety , was when they saw a thiefe to consent vnto him , either outputting their neighbors goods for him to driue , or harbouring such as they could not but know to be bootehailers . But these misorders ( God bee praised ) are much amended ; their memory though yet fresh , fitly serues to set forth the state of the vnregerate , or meere naturall man , in whom sin is alwaies insolent and audacious , euen openly to wound the soule and waste the conscience , and persecuted by the Law of God or nature , rageth the more , and raiseth rebellion in the affections ; seeking as it were to set all the faculties of the sonie in combustion , rather then it should be restrained of it wonted course . The onely peace and security the carnally minded thus assaulted , finds , is to suffer his conscience to sleepe , and the eie of reason ( which I may tearme faith naturall ) to winke at these disorders of inferiour faculties , or tacitely cōsent vnto them . But so it is not in the state of grace , which not withstanding neuer wants sinfull adherents ; not only in habite or affection , but oftimes bursting out into action , to hurt both soule and conscience ; as there alwaies haue been and euer will be thefts and robberies , with other outrages , cōmitted euen in the most ciuill & best gouerned parts in the land . But as in them the mean●st subiect that can make proof of his wrongs or who did them , may haue enough to take his part for prosecuting or attaching , and safely vse the benefit of knowne lawes , for repressing or cutting of the stoutest or proudest malefactors ; so the faithfull heart and conscience is alwaies resolute & bold to challenge his dearest affections of euery least transgression , to represse , arraigne , and conde●n them . And as Carthages often prouocation of Rome cost it dearer in the setting on , then other Cittie 's vanquished by the Romanes ; so such delights or pleasures as haue most wronged our soules , or done greatest despight vnto the spirit of grace , are kept vnder with greatest care , and in the end throughliest mo●tified by the law of faith . Euen in the regiment of this little world that axiome hath it due force Ex malis moribus bonae leges nascūtur . Euery man inuents peculiar lawes , secret vowes , or the like , against such practises or affectiōs as haue most seduced him to transgresse the lawes of his God. 3. Now as the state or publike gouernment is not to be scandalized with the infamy of thieues and robbers , which harbour in it , so long as the magistracie is vigilant to enact and execute seuere lawes for their repression : so neither are we accounted by our gratious God amongst the vniust , for these sinnes which often make head against vs , so long as faith thus fights against them , & keeps them vnderable to holde such a hand ouer them manifested & known , as gouernors in a wel ordered body politicke , do ouer notorious & open malefactors : Not that such sins are not in their nature meritorious of eternal death , or not sufficient if God shold deale in iustice to condemne vs , but that in mercy he doth not impute them , whiles thus qualified in the habite , we sue for pardon in the name & mediation of our Sauior . Thus I dare boldly say , that not the least sin against the Law of God , committed after regeneration , but ( were it possible for the regenerate to giue indulgence to it ) would ( at the least ) exclude them from life eternall . Nor doth this argue , as some captious reader will perhaps imagine , that a man may fall either finally or totally from the state of grace , but rather that all impossibility he hath of not so falling , essentially depends vpon a like impossibility of not continuing his indulgence to knowne offences , or negligence in repeating or bewailing his secret sins . Euen after the infusion of faith most perfect , faithfull repentance for sins committed , is as absolutely necessarie to saluation , as the first iususion was . Nor is this heauenly pledge , while dormant , though truely dwelling in our soules , immediately apt to iustifie : their conceite of these great mysteries is to ieiune & triuiall , which make iustification but one indiuisible transitory act , or mutatum esse , from the state of nature to the state of grace . In St. Pauls diuinity sure I am , ●● hath a permanent duration , & it is but the next step vnto hypocrisie , a meere peruerting of the vse of grace , thus to inferre ( I haue true faith , therfore I shall alwayes vse it aright ) A wise man would rather argue thus ( I haue the right vse and exercise of grace , therefore my faith is true and such as vvill iustifie ) As the first infusion of it fully remits our sinnes past , and is to vs a sure pledge of GODs perpetuall fauour , so in no case may wee take it as an absolute antedated pardon for sinnes to come , as if they were forgiuen of God before committed by vs ; for they are forgiuen by the right vse or exercise , not by the bare habit or inhabitation of faith in our soules . Into the contrary errors men are often led , by a ielousie of comming to neere the Papists , if they should admit of more iustifications then one . And it is true , that iustification , in some sence , excludes plurality or reiteration ; but we are not to denie that of all , which is incompatible onely with some . Wee are therefore to consider there is a threefold iustification , one radicall or fundamentall , which is the infusion of habituall grace , or faith ; and this is neuer but one another actuall which I accompt actuall supplications made in faith , for the remission of sinnes committed either before the infusion of faith or after . What it is to pray in faith , is partly intimated r before , partly in the end of this Chapter , else-where more fully and purposely handled . The third is , iustification vertuall , which consists in the performance of that and the like precepts watch and pray continually , which cannot be meant of actuall prayers , for hee that so praies continually shall continually vse much babling . In this perpetuity of vertuall prayer consists the permanent duration of iustification , which yet hath many interruptions . A man may haue the habite of faith and yet not alwaies pray in faith , either actually or vertually ; as he may be out of charity with his brother , or vnlawfully deteine goods wrongfully gotten , without present forfeiture of his estate in grace , though to pray in faith , it is impossible in the one case , vntill hee be reconciled to his brother , or haue freely forgiuen him ; in the other vntil he hath made restitution of those things his conscience condemned him for keeping . The perpetuitie of this vertuall prayer or iustification therein consisting , depends vpon the continuance of some former resolution or intention made in faith , which is not alwaies preiudiced by minding other matters , but only by doing things forbidden by the law of God ; or ( as S. Paul speakes ) not of Faith. A man intending to go a iourney , vertually continues his former intent , so he keepe on his way without digression ; albeit he actually minde not the businesse hee goes about , but entertaine such other thoughts or discourse as way or company shall affoord . But if through too much minding cōpany or other matters , he should chance to wander , or for slow opportunities of dispatching his intended businesses ; his vertuall intention is interrupted , and time lost must bee redeemed with double diligence : So must such ruptures as actuall sinnes , or omission of necessarie duties make in the perpetuity of vertuall praying or permanency of iustification thence depending , be repaired with actuall praiers made in faith . But here wee may descry the idle curiosity of some wits more acute then subtile , at least then sound , and rather apt through multiplying entities without necessity to obscure matters in themselues distinct and cleere , then to cleere difficulties or obscurities . For some there bee which speake of Faith and Repentance as of two spirituall habits or graces really , or at least essentially distinct . It is one thing indeed to rise , another to walke , yet both immediate and proper acts of one and the same motiue faculty : so is it one thing to belieue , and another to repent , yet both formall acts of one and the same habite ; only the later includes a peculiar reference to a slip or fall , whence it receiueth a distinct name from the former , which specially imports a direct progresse in the way of godlinesse without interruption . Better we cannot notifie the nature of true repentance then by restauration of faith to it wonted throne , out of which it had for a time bin iustled by sinfull affections , though not deposed from it soueraigntie ; as Dauid was preiudiced by his sonnes rebellion , and for a time enforced to forsake the Hill of Sion , though not depriued of his kingdome . Euen such repentance as vsually goes before regeneration hath a correspondent faith annexed ; the difference betwixt them onely such , as is betweene heate and calefaction , which as some good Philosophers resolue vs , is heate , not acquired or consistent , but onely in the motion or acquisition . Or briefly to speake more fully , Faith alwaies moues vnto repentance , which , generally taken , may , in few words , not vnfitly be defined to be a sorrow for sin , conceiued and moderated by faith , and as the faith is , such is the sorrow , either meerly morall or truely spirituall . 4. The summe of all we haue deliuered in these two chapters is briefly , but most diuinely set downe by Saint Iohn , who though hee vse not the formall tearmes of iustification , yet expresseth by nature of it ; howsoeuer taken , by words equiualent , or rather more theologicall or significant , as * by fellowship with God the Father his Sonne CHRIST , and his members , and by the fruits of it , fulnesse of ioy . For being iustified by saith ( as Saint o Paul sayth ) we haue peace with God , through our Lord IESVS CHRIST , and reioice in hope of his glorie . p This then is the message ( sayth Saint Iohn ) which we haue heard of him , and declare vnto you , that God is light , and in him is no darknesse at all . If vvee say we haue fellowship with him and walke in darknesse , we lie and do not the truth . But if we walke in the light as he is in the light , we haue fellowship one with another . This walking in the light as God is in the light , is that iustification or qualification whereof S Iames speakes , whereby wee become immediatly capable of Christs righteousnesse , or actuall participants of his propitiation , which is the sole immediate cause of our iustification taken , as S. Paul doth it , for remission of sins or actuall approbation with God. The truth of which doctrine Saint Iohn likewise ratifies in tearmes equiualent in the words immediately following : And the blood of CHRIST clenseth vs ( walking in the light as God is in the light ) from all sin : not from such onely as were committed before the infusion of that grace , which is the ground of our fellowship with God and amongst our selues , the very lamp by whose light wee walke , but from all subsequent transgressions of what kinde soeuer . Now if we say that we ( such as S. Iohn then was , regenerate and in the state of grace ) haue no sinne , we deceiue our selues and the truth is not in vs. Euen such then as walke in the light are sinners and not iust in themselues , but onely as they are besprinkled with CHRISTS righteous bloud . Neuerthelesse if we confesse our sinnes ( faithfully ) he is faithfull and iust to forgiue vs our sinnes , and to cleanse vs from all vnrighteousnesse , not from sinnes veniall onely . And is there any circumstance either in the matter or manner of his discourse which may occasion vs to suspect the same word ( sinne ) should not be of equall importance in both these places last cited , and that third following ; These things write I vnto you that you sinne not . What , venially only ? No questionlesse , he was more desirous that they should not sinne mortally ; nor do the authors of this distinction deny that men regenerate may sinne so grieuously , as to fall both totally and finally from grace : yet sayth S. Iohn , If any man sin ( as there is no man that sinneth not both mortally and venially by our aduersaries grant ) a vvee haue an Aduocate with the Father , IESVS CHRIST the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes . In what manner ? onely as he is the meritorious cause or fountaine of grace whereby wee are immediately and throughly cleansed ? No , rather as he is b righteous and by interposition of his eternall sacrifice euen till this day , as immediate a cause of our pardon from all sinnes whether past or present , as it was of our generall reconcilement while it was offered . Nor did he die to procure vs grace wherby we might become righteous and pure in his fathers sight , but gaue vs grace that we might be purified by his death and passion : yet if sinnes mortall , as well as veniall ( to vse our aduersaries language ) bee comprehended in the saying last cited ; Bellarmines d reconciliation of the former words [ if wee say that we haue no sinne ] with this other [ e vvhosoeuer is borne of God sinneth not ] is palpably false . 5. But if his be amisse it will be expected we reconcile them a right ; and so we may with as great ease as perspicuity . In the latter then he speakes of habituall sin , or such indulgence to transgressions , as S. Iames makes liable to breach of the whole law : for by sinne it is euident he includes as much as he had said in the beginning of that discourse , t whosoeuer committeth sinne transgresseth also the Lawe . Why , is there anie sinne which in the Protestants doctrine is not a transgression of the lawe ? or is it possible a man should goe against the commandement and not transgresse it ? But if some sinnes there be , as Roman Catholiques teach , onely besides the lawe , in doing them , we doe not transgresse the Lawe , but rather pretergresse , or goe besides it . Yet seeing the Law-giuers will was , that we should do the lawe , not onely heare it , much lesse goe besides it , there is no pretergression of it , but is directly against the Law giuers will , otherwise a seruants negligence should not bee against his masters will but besides it . For tell mee ; O yee fooles and blinde , whether is more ? onely to omit the good deedes of the lawe or to commit such as your selues acknowledge to bee besides it ? Though the matter of omission may be ●arre greater , yet for the forme of the action , whence the denomination of opposition must be taken , no sinne of omission can be so properly said to be against the Law , as the least positiue sinne or transgression we can imagine . Hee that commits any thing disagreeable to the Lawe , doth omit what is commaunded by the lawe and somewhat more , and therefore doth more properly goe against the lawe , then hee which onely omits what is commaunded . But it is vsually the nature of hypocrisie to place either sanctity , or impietie rather in the matter , or outward act , than in the heart or affection . Farre otherwise are we taught by the spirit of truth that it is the heart which God requireth . No matter of sinne can be so light , but is , if the heart be set vpon it , in the issue , deadly , and excludes from mercie : scarce any obiect so bad as that the bare assent vnto it , without delight or custome , is vtterly incompatible with the habit of grace . Nor doth Saint Iohn in the former places seeming contrarie , suppose any difference in the act or matter of sinne but onely in the heart or habite of the sinner . Euery one transgresseth the lawe in what sinne soeuer , but euery transgression makes not a man a law-breaker or transgressour : this denomination is not absolutely giuen but from a greater inclination or delight in doing euill then doing good . And it is cleere that Saint Iohn when hee sayth d he that is borne of God sinneth not , vseth the selfe-same syllogisticall terme he had done before in that phrase , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that committeth e sinne . Now the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Hebraisme which he followes , imports not the act or operation onely , but the habit , or rather more then habit : and the whole phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as the Latine , operarius iniquitatis , one that maketh a trade of sinne or professeth iniquitie , whose seruice is altogether incompatible with the profession or hope of a Christian . And this was the conclusion , our Apostle was in both places to inferre , as hauing taught immediatly before , f euery one that hath this hope ( of being the Sonne of God ) doth purge himselfe as he is pure , and in habite becomes like vnto him ; as on the contrarie ( which is the Apostles inference likewise ) he that committes sinne , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resembles his father the diuell , whose chiefe delight is in doing mischiefe . It may be a Romane Catholicke , will sooner belieue if we send him vnto Maldonat ; who commenting vpon the like speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus farre beares witnesse vnto the truth we teach , that the hebrew phrase aimes rather at the habit then the act ; that to work or doe iniquity is as much as to be an artificer or craftesmaster of iniquity . 2. But wee receiue not the record of man , there is another that beareth witnesse of it euen our Sauiour , from whose mouth Saint Iohn learned both the matter and phrase of that discourse . * Verily ( saith he to the Iewes ) whosoeuer committeth sinne is the seruant of sinne : and the seruant abideth not in the house for euer ; but the son abideth for euer . If the sonne therefore shall make you free , ye shall be free indeed , from the raigne of sinne , not from all acts of sinne . Hence did Saint Iohn take that lesson , You know that he was manifested to take away our sinnes , and in him is no sinne : To be altogether without sinne then was his peculiar ; but , Whosoeuer abideth in him , sinneth not . Not at all ? So he should not need any aduocation : but he is no worker of iniquity , nor doth he sin as Diuels doe , for whose sinnes CHRIST was no propitiation . That so the Apostle meant is apparent from the paralell vse of the same words immediately after reciprocally changed ; Hee that committeth sinne is of the diuell : d for the diuell sinneth from the beginning , ( that is , hath continued his apostacy or trade of sinne euer since his fall . ) For this purpose t●e sonne of God was manifested , that he might destroy the workes of the diuell . What were these ? Delight in sinne , wilfull indulgence to transgressions and such vnrelenting opposition to the truth proposed as did conuince the Iewes , by our Sauiours verdict in the place last cited , to be the sonnes of the diuell : e yee are of your father the diuell , and the lusts of your father ye will doe : he was a murtherer from the beginning , and abode not in the truth , because there is no truth in him . When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his owne : for he is a lier and the father of lies . And because I tell you the truth ye beleeue me not , yet which of you can rebuke me of sinne . His disciples they might , because the sonnes of men : but in that there was no sinne in him , had they beene of God they might haue knowne him to be his sonne . For hee that is of God heareth Gods word , but they therefore heard them not because they were not of God. In this ( saith Saint Iohn ) the children of God are manifest , and the children of the diuell : whosoeuer doth not f righteousnesse is not of God , neither he that loueth not his brother . As this phrase to doe righteousnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 euidently imports not the bare acts but habituall practice of righteousnesse : so needes must the like phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to commit sinne , include an habituall practice or trade of sinne ; and yet to commit sinne , and to sinne , are vsed promiscuously as tearmes altogether equiualent in this chapter by Saint Iohn . Our former conclusion therefore is most firme , that the difference supposed by the same Apostle in these two places . g [ If wee say that we haue no sinne we deceiue cur selues ] and [ whosoeuer abideth in him sinneth not ] consists not in the act or obiect of sinne , but in the habit or affection of him that sinneth . The same answere fully reconciles the like speeches of Saint h Iames. He that offends in one ( to wit habitually or indulgently ) is guilty of all , and yet [ in many things we all offend ] actually not habitually , or out of infirmity , not with delight . But euery offence , whether actuall or habituall , whether of infirmity or of purpose , is directly against the Law or will of the Lawgiuer , ( for neuer was woman , I thinke , so wilfull or pettish as to bee offended vnlesse her will were thwarted or contradicted ; ) onely cases altogether omitted ( which can haue no place in God ) or matters in their nature meerely indifferent , can truely be said to be besides the Law , or his minde that made it . 7. But perhaps that passage of scripture which first instructed , and since confirmed me in the truth hitherto deliuered , will giue best satisfaction to the Reader . Concerning that exclamation of Saint Paul. k O wretched man that I am : who shall deliuer me from the body of this death , some make question : but no learned Diuine , I thinke , will demaund whether Dauid vttered that complaint of himselfe , or of some other ; a Who can vnderstand his errors ? cleanse me from my secret sinnes , yet was he then borne of God : for vnto him the statutes of the Lord were b right , euen the ioy of his heart ; the commaundements pare , and delightfull vnto his eyes , his feare able to cleanse the heart , his iudgements true and righteous altogether , all more to be desired then gold , yea then much fine gold ; so liuely and quicke was the apprehension of his faith , and yet vniformely enclined to practice . c For by the commaund ements he was warned to* beware of sinne , and in keeping them he found great reward . But was he enabled exactly to fulfill the perfection of the Law , which had conuerted his soule ? or did he euer hope to attaine to such perfection as the Romanist must ere he can haue any hope of life ? to be altogether without any sinne deserning death ? No , this is the height of his desire : Keepe backe thy seruant from presumptuous sinnes , let them not haue dominion ouer me : then shall I be vpright , and I shall be innocent from much transgression , or ( as the Gospell expounds his meaning ) from the raigne of sinne . But freed there from , did he not stand in need of Gods fauour or mercy for remitting the seattered forces , or vanquished reliques of the host of sinne ? Rather thus qualified he had sure hope , his praiers for mercy should be heard , yet through the mediation of the Messiah that was to come . For so he concludes , Let the wordes of my mouth , or as the inter line ary well expresseth the propheticall dialect , Then shall the words of my mouth ( being thus freed from the raigne of sinne ) and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight , O Lord , my Rocke , and my Redeemer . Thus did he of whom CHRIST according to the flesh was to come , after his conuersion vnto God , and long continuance in the state of habituall grace , expect redemption , not by infusion of inherent righteousnesse in so full measure as should make him immediately and formally iust in the sight of God , but by fauourable acceptance of his praiers , directed , not to the throne of iustice , but to the Lord his Rocke and Redeemer . That such qualification as here he speakes of is a necessary condition of praiers made in faith ; that praiers so made whether for priuate or publike good are neuer reiected by God , is elsewhere partly , and shall ( God willing ) more at large bee shewed . The like qualification for effectuall praiers another Psalmist hath expressed ; If I regard iniquity in my heart ; the Lord will not heare me ; But verily God hath heard me , he hath attended to the voice of my praier . In the perpetuity of praiers or meditations thus conceiued or vttered by hearts free from the raigne of sinne or guilt of indulgence to secret vnlawfull desires , haue we , without dissention doubtlesse from these Prophets and holy men of God , placed the permanencie of iustification actuall or vertuall , which are the fruites or Crowne of iustification radicall or fundamentall , the onely right vse and end of all grace inherent . For though faith or grace at their first infusion may assure vs our sinnes are remitted ; yet may we not take these or other pledges of Gods loue and fauour as a full discharge or finall acquittance of all reckonings betwixt Him and vs , but rather as a stocke bestowed vpon vs to beginne the new world with , for which with the increase we must still thinke our selues accomprable . Though it be a truth ( not vnquestionable ) that a man once actually iustified or truely sanctified , cannot finally vse Gods graces amisse ; yet is it very doubtfull whether one may not either abuse , or not vse , such gifts of God as rightly vsed , or imploied to his glory , might haue beene means infallible of iustification . But this is a rule as vnquestionable as true , that were it possible for a man to vse any extraordinary measure of inhaerent grace amisse ; he were to be called to a strict accompt , as well for all his former sinnes , as this abuse of his talent . The irresiagable consequence of which vnquestionable truth is this doctrine we now maintaine . [ The immediate qualification for remission of sinnes , is not the habit or inherence , but the right vse of grace or perseuerance in praiers conceiued by that faith which vnites vs vnto CHRIST , ] . If this vertuall in tention or resolution either by contrary acts or meere negligence be remitted , our sinnes past whether committed before the infusion of grace or after , recouer their wonted strength according to the degrees of this remission , and their seuerall waight , vntill we repaire our slackenesse , by feruent zeale and intensiue deuotion , iointly incline the minde to distrust of Gods present fauour or our sure estate in grace . 8. What we haue set downe more at large , was exactly figured in the sacrifices of the Law , daily offered , euen for such as by the Law were cleane , and obserued Gods commaundements with as great constancy and deuotion as any now liuing doe . This might instruct vs that our persons become not immediately capable of diuine presence or approbation by infusion of habituall grace , or freedome from the tyrannie of sinne ; these are the internall characters of our royall Priesthoood whose function is continually to offer vp the sweete incense of prayers from hearts in part thus purified by faith : For by such sacrifices are wee made actuall partakers of that eternall sacrifice whose vertue and efficacy remaines yesterday , to day the same for euer . * It being so perfect and all sufficient could not be offered more then once , but through the vertue of it , the offrings of our Priesthood must be continually presented vnto our God. * Nor can we so often lift vp our hearts towards heauen , but the voice of CHRISTS blood , neuer ceasing to speake better things then that of Abels , still ioines with our praiers and distinctly articulates our imperfect sighs or mutterings , alwaies crying : father forgiue them , father receiue them to thy mercy , seeing they are content to bee partakers of my sufferings , and seeke to bee finally healed onely by my wounds . As the Apostle teacheth vs , d that there is giuen no other name vnder heauen besides CHRIST whereby we may be saued , so was it foretold by the Prophet that this saluation must be by calling vpon his name : not by mediation of grace or other fruites of the spirit obtained by inuocation , but by inuocation of it in truth and spirit , seeing his spirit was poured out vpon all flesh to this end that all should call vpon his name , and by so calling be saued . This though vsually expressed in other tearmes , is the opinion of orthodoxall antiquity in this point ; and if my coniecture faile me not , the dreaming fancies of a daily propitiatory sacrifice in the Masse was first occasioned from dunsticall or drowsy apprehensions of the primitiue dialect , wherein ( as all the●● speeches of the auncient are full of life ) Christs body and blood are said to be often offered , not in scholastique propriety of speech , but in a rhetoricall figuratiue , or exhortatory sense , because our daily sacrifices become acceptable to God throught it , because the benefits of it are as effectually applied vnto vs by our faithfull representations of it , as if it were daily offered in our sight . The error of moderne Romanists hence occasioned , is the same with that of the old Heathens , which dreamed of as many Gods ; as they had seuerall blessings from the Authour of all goodnesse , who is but one . The Prebendes of Colen notwithstanding haue made a declaration of the third sacrifice in their masse much what to our purpose : so much of it as I haue here set downe , needes little correction in fauourable construction : Howsoeuer it sutes verie well with their forecited opinion concerning iustification : How farre dissonant or consonant that is vnto the truth , I leaue it to the Readers censure . As for the Iesuites resolution of the same controuersie by the Trent Councels determination it is but a further document of his Magicall faith , and that hee finally vseth the grace of God but as a charme or Amulet able to expell death by the ful measure of it onely worne or carried about , not by actuall operation or right vse . But what marueill if hee openly renounce CHRIST for his Mediatour in the principall act of redemption , when as he hath chosen the Pope for the Lord , his Rocke , and Redemer , euen for that Rocke whereon that Church against which the gates of hell shall neuer preuaile must be founded . CHAP. IX . That firmely to belieue Gods mercies in CHRIST is the hardest point of seruice in christian warfare : That our confidence in them can be no greater than our fidelitie in practise of his Commaundements : That meditation vpon CHRISTS last appearance is the surest method for grounding true confidence in him . 1. LEast the end of this discourse should misse the end and scope wherto the whole was purposely directed ; I must intreate the Christian Reader , to pardon my feare and iealousie ( which from the reasons mentioned in the first chapter of this section too well experienced in the temper of this present age is alwaies great ) least disputation against Romish heresie , cast vs into a relapse of that naturall carelesnesse or hypocrisie whereof all , more or lesse , haue participated . But for whose auoidance hereafter , if thine heart be affected as mine now is , and I wish it alwaies may continue , let this meditation neuer slip out of thy memory : That seeing the last and principall end of all graces bestowed vpon vs in this life , is rightly to belieue in CHRIST this cannot bee , as the drowsie worldling dreames , the easiest , but rather the most difficult point of Christianity . The true reason why vnto many not otherwise misaffected , it seems not such , is , because in this time of his absence from earth , our imaginary loue of his goodnesse , wanting direct opposition b of any strong desire or resolution to manifest the leuitie or vanity of it , fancieth a like affection in him towards vs. And seeing loue is not suspicious , but where it is perfect c excludes all feare , the very conceipt of great mutuall loue betwixt CHRIST and vs not interrupted , expels all conceit of feare or diffidence . Hence wee vsually rest perswaded , our assent vnto Gods mercies in Him is more strong then vnto most other obiects of Faith , when as indeed these being the highest it would appeare to bee in respect of them the weakest ; had it as many daily temptations to encounter it , as wee finde in practices of other duties whose habituall performance is the necessary subordinate meane to support it . All the difficulties we daily struggle vvith , are but straglers of that maine armie , with whose entire ioint force we are to haue the last conflict about this very point which vntill the hower of death , or other extraordinary time of triall , is seldome directly or earnestly assaulted . But then , whatsoeuer breach of Gods commaundements , loue either to the world or flesh hath wrought in our soules , will affoord Sathan aduantage and opportunitie for more facile oppugnation of our confidence . For as euerie least sinne in it owne nature deserueth death , so doth the consciousnesse of it more or lesse , impell the minde to distrust of life . Yet euen the greatest will be content in these dayes of peace and securitie to sleepe with vs , and lie quiet in hope to preuent vs in the waking , and with the ioint force of lesser to surprise the soule or gaine the start or first sway of the spirit , an aduantage much preiudiciall to strength otherwise more then equall . Much harder it is to retract a bodie after actuall motion begun , then to restraine propensions or inclinations from bursting out into actuall motions . Our often yeelding vpon fore● warning of their assaultes in manie pettie temptations , or strong ones which come single , might instruct vs how dangerous the conflict will be with all , which our memories , once throughly stirred , can muster to affright our consciences . Yet if wee did duely consider the vniformity of strength betweene the seuerall branches of faith , or as it respects diuerse obiects ; the very consciousnesse of any one sinne whereunto wee haue been indulgent will be of like force to withdrawe our assent from Gods mercies , as the delight or pleasure we tooke in the obiect of it , was to cause vs transgresse any part of his will reuealed . The same strength beautie had to allure vnto adulterie , will that fowle sinne vnrepented of haue to diuorce our soules from CHRIST . Nor could wee faile in practice of this or other commaundement vvithout a precedent defect of that faith which onely can firmely vnite vs vnto CHRIST , whereby likewise , were it firme it selfe , we would assent vnto euery precept of God as much better then any incompatible good . And seeing our present faith or trust in God is but commensurable to our fidelity in his commandements , ( then which , through scrupulositie of conscience or Christian modesty , it may be lesse , but cannot be greater without hypocrisie or presumption ) it must needes want strength to lay sure holde on CHRISTS merits , vntill it be able to subdue those desires of the flesh to which it yeelded in the former temptations . To say , Lord , Lord , cannot suffice , ere we can truely resume our woonted confidence , if any we had , or make a faithfull plea for mercy ; Gods will neglected must be executed either in the act , if the obiect be present , and may be prosecuted , or in sincere and constant resolution , if abilities or opportunities , required to execution of what we resolue vpon , be altogether wanting or our indeauours vpon ineuitable occasions hindred . 2. For our better preparation against this last and terrible conflict with the world , the diuell and flesh ; let vs imagine the next thunder-clap or vncouth sound we heare did summon vs to finall iugement ; or if our imaginations bee so quicke and liuely as to awake themselues without external noise or clamor , or able as of matters secular , so of diuine that certainely shall be , to frame representations as if they were already present : let vs contemplate CHRIST ; not as farre absent or soliciting our cause before his father , but now appearing in maiestie and great glorie , accompanied with infinite legions of holy Angels for his Assessors , or attended by Satan and in his infernal troops desirous to be emploied in the execution of his sentence . Were the eyes of all our faith as firmely set vpon this sight as some mens are vpon his merits and personall loue to them , so as the obiects of terrors yet vnseene , but which we stedfastly belieue shall be manifested , might haue as full a stroake vpon our inclinations vnto dread of that last day ( which in this life no man can want vnlesse his righteousnes be angelically perfect ) as daily cogitations of Gods mercies and fauour to vs in particular haue vpon our hopefull apprehensions or desires of glory : all vicissitude of feare and trembling in our soules thus equally poised , by contrarie impulsions , would not be taken for signes of infidelirie or hypocrisie . Nay my conscience assures mee ( but herein I preiudice no mans perswasions in particular ) that a multitude of such as condemne all without exception which cannot apprehend the truth of their owne saluation ( though alas who is he that desires not so to doe ? ) as surely as any other article belieued , would bewray tokens of feare and dread more euident to others then their former apprehensions were vnto themselues . 3. Or were wee in CHRISTS presence , though not so terrible as in that day it shall be , but rather as amiable and familiar as his Apostles did enioy it , set to compare either his precepts generall to all Christians , or peculiar to our seuerall vocations , with our daily practises or performances : who is he that would not more shame at his owne nakednesse , then ioy in his Redeemers righteousnesse ? who is he that would not bee more readie to conuey himselfe out of his sight , then with confidence to approach his presence ? who is he would not wish his former seruice might passe without account , or anie certaine hope of reward eternall , rather then aduenture to take his finall sentence without some respite for amendment ? Yet thou O CHRIST , my Redeemer and Iudge most righteous , best knowes , I propose not these scruples to diminish , but rather with purpose to increase and fortifie all true confidence in thy merits and thy Fathers mercies : but that ( I know and thou much better knowest ) it oft-times weakens it self by shooting vp before it time , or too fast , and in this forward age had much neede to be lopped , that it may grow as well in breadth and thicknesse , as in length ; seeing growth in height without soliditie correspondent , is but a mounting in presumption , the period of whose ascent is pronenesse to fall headlong in despaire . 4. Or if any man can drawe the inference here intended from other premises more commodious , I shall bee willing to relinquish mine . But the best method , as yet I knowe , for establishing of true confidence will be this : As oft as we thinke vpon that fundamentall oracle of life g Whosoeuer belieues in him shall not bee ashamed , to h consider withall that the true crisis of such a constitution as the Prophet there speakes of will not be till the day of CHRISTS appearance . Whence least wee should ouer-reach our selues in confident perswasions , by suffering our mindes to runne too much vpon the former promise without a counterpoise to trie their strength , let vs ballance our apprehensions of it with meditation vpon this truth , Hee onely belieues aright in CHRIST that will not be ashamed at his appearance . The inference hence naturally issuing , is , our Sauiours and not mine ; f Watch therefore and pray alwaies that yee may bee accompted worthy to escape all these things , that shall come to passe and to stand before the Sonne of man. From this conclusion wee may resume our former assertion as a necessary corolary , That besides iustification habituall there is a iustification vertuall which hath a permanent duration , and consists in the perpetuity of watchfulnesse and prayer , that the foundation of it as of our confidence is vnion with CHRIST , by a faith fructifying in g conuersation and workes conformable to him ; as the Disciple whom hee loued most diuinely hath instructed vs : h And now , little children , abide in him , that vvhen he shall appeare , we may haue confidence , and not be ashamed before him at his comming . If ye know that he is righteous , know yee , that vvhosoeuer doth righteousnesse is borne of him 5. Beloued Reader , I am the bolder to put thee in minde of such strictnesse as the profession of Christianitie bindes thee vnto ; the rather because I purpose not otherwise to affright thee with any markes of reprobation . Few I know so well affected but without repentance and greater constancie in performing these duties than hitherto they haue giuen proofe of , may iustly feare as not altogether without the reach of possible danger ; for euen the righteous hardly shall be saued . Altogether so bad I know none but may haue hope to escape , so they will not wilfully neglect repentance , or somnolently put off the euill day . The gate of life as it is straite , so is it continually open and wide enough to receiue all , so euery one would watch his speciall opportunities or attend Gods particular callings , and all of vs cast off that but then of sinne and superfluous cares wherewith vvee are laden and encumbred : fewer I am certaine passe through it than it is capable of , some because they striue not at all to enter in , but carelesly expect God , without any endeuours of their owne , should drawe them through it : others because they striue amisse , presuming they are able to presse in by their owne strength with a little helpe of diuine attraction , or some small courtesie of the spirit to stirre them vp , or giue some notice when the dore were open , or God at best leasure to admit them . Betwixt these two erroneous extreames there is a golden meane , for whose inuention wee are in the next place briefly to admonish . ⸪ SECTION . 3. Of the right plantation of Faith. WEre it absolutely true without restraint , that consultation is onely of matters which are in our power , or may by our care and industrie be procured ▪ the verie title of this discourse might iustly seeme to proclaime our inconsideratenesse in vndertaking these paines altogether bootlesse , in respect of men , seeing faith is a gift altogether free no way procurable by their endeuors , if not presumptuous , in as much as it is planted by the holy Ghost ; and what neede hath he of our methodicall discourse or direction ? These and the like obiections may well bee thought to haue grounds inexpugnable in the Protestants doctrine , which wholly ascribes as wel the Wil as the Deed to the operation of Gods spirit . Vnto what purpose then can it be to direct men how to worke in matters wherein they do not worke at all ? Some countenance the same suggestions may haue from a distinction , common to the Romish and reformed Churches , of Faith infused and acquired . For vnlesse the faith , for whose right plantation wee rather seeke then giue direction , may by method bee acquired , to what vse can methodicall direction serue ? Those reasons notwithstanding perswade vs rather to say little then nothing at all in this argument , vntill the difficulties about free will or mans abilitie wherewith it is linked be discussed . The maine obiection , if it could iustly preiudice any mans labours addressed to the same ende , to which these present are , might haue hindred his most , that gaue vs the rule of life wheron it is grounded : It is God that worketh in vs both the will and the deede . But why should this deterre vs from working in matters of our saluation ? rather it ought to encourage all to worke , some as Artificers and Directors , others as labourers : but both as the Apostle wils them ) with feare and trembling . Euen of saith infuted , Paul was a planter , and Apollos was a waterer , though God alone did giue increase . CHAP. I. That Christian Faith , although immediately infused by God without anie cooperation of man doth not exclude , but rather more necessarily require precedent humane endeuours for the attaining of it . 1. THat faith is the sole gift of God , wholly infused , not partly acquired by vs , should rather excite then any way abate our indeuours for attaining it , would we conceiue or speake of those heauenly misteries according to the language of the holy Ghost which wrot them , not out of the schoole-phrase of Aristotle or Aquinas , both oft-times alike full of solecisines in diuinity . m It is a perswasion will easily intrude it selfe into mindes apt to entertaine philosophicall rules , that the power of God seeing it is infinite , and ( if wee may so speake ) vncapable of resistance , should introduce forms or qualities into subiects in an instant , without preuiall alteration or disposition : which indeed would be most true did God worke after the manner of naturall agents , alwaies according to the vtmost of his power . But as the Apostle tells vs , hee doth all things according to the counsell of his owne vvill , which is fully commensureable to his power and doth modifie it in working . Some things then he createth in an instant , not because his power is infinite and admits no impediment , but because his wil is it should so work : others though as immediately created by him are accomplished by little and little after many interpositions or delaies , not that either his will or power can be crossed , but that his pleasure is to haue them so wrought . Such is the creation of true & liuely faith in our soules . For who is hee liuing that can assigne mee the very instant yea the set hower , day , weeke or moneth wherein his regeneration was fully wrought ? As life spirituall is better then temporall , so for the most part it is longer in conceiuing . Nor doth regeneration consist onely in the first infusion of grace or seede immortall ; but also in the rooting or taking of it : both are the immediate workes of God , both in Scripture phrase essentiall branches of creation . 2. Notwithstanding , if wholly both bee his sole workes , the former difficulty still remaines , and may bee increased by a position of Protestants in it selfe most true , but too much , vnlesse more watily pressed , or more skilfully applied then a man shall vsually finde it . For what is more often inculcated in popular Sermons , or in that controuersie about free-will , then that man is altogether as dead to spirituall life , as Laza●us was to life naturall , till the same power of God raise him vp ? But vvhat hence followes ? that God before the infusion of grace requires no actions or operations at our hands , more then CHRIST did of Lazarus before he restored his soule vnto him ? then let such as are destitute of the robes of righteousnesse cloath themselues with the image of death , and spend their liues in a perpetuall slumber , or get themselues downe into the graue , vntill God crie vnto them by his powerfull voice , as CHRIST did to Lazarus , come forth , or , awake thou that sleepest , for CHRIST is now made thine euerlasting light . I maruell not if vulgar auditors make such inferences to countenance their sloath and negligences , when as many vnpartiall schollers can hardly conceiue what other can be made of many zealous Pastors doctrine , wresting the meaning of the Spirit by too much wringing the lettet , or misapplying the former proportion betwixt such as are naturally and spiritually dead ; whose ●earmes , if set aright stand thus . As God required no vitall motion or operation , of such as his Sonne did raise from naturall death : so dooth hee require no operation or assent spirituall , before he infuse the life of grace . But in as much as we enioy the benefit of life naturall , or meerly morall , some passiue capacities are equired in vs , wherewith they whom CHRIST raised were not qualified , whiles naturally dead : nor were they capable of renouation in life spirituall , but by reassuming life naturall with it properties . Nor doth it imply any shewe of contradiction , that the actuall endeuours of life naturall , or meerely morall in vs , or the qualification resulting from them , should be as meerely passiue in respect of life truely spirituall , as the state of death , or vtter depriuation of all sense or motion in such as CHRIST raised vp , was in regard of life naturall : The proportion then will holde best thus . As CHRIST infused not humane life into trees , stocks , & stones , but into bodies passiuely organized and figured for the fit habitation of the humane soule : so neither doth hee ordinarily bestow supernaturall grace on euerie one that hath a reasonable soule , but on such only as are passiuely prepared for it . Wherein this preparation consists , or what our endeauours can adde vnto it , is the point now in question ; partly to be disputed in this present , more fully in discourses following . To the assertion last mentioned this obseruation well sutes , that in the first workes of creation the omnipotent power did obserue the orderly progresse afterwards appointed vnto nature , and proceeded not per saltum , but first created a common masse out of which he made the heauen and earth , not trees , plants or liuing creatures immediately . For though these receiued life from their maker , after another manner then indiuiduals of the same kinde now do , yet the earth and sea affoorded their matter and substance meerly passiue . Man he made of the earth , but first , as is probable , externally figured or proportioned : the woman likewise was his immediate workmanship , but had her bodily or passiue beginning from the man. Thus euen the most immediate workes of God presuppose ( ordinarily ) such a sub-ordination of passiue capacities as is vsually seene in matters producible by humane labour , wit or industrie . 3 That grace then is not generated , or educed out of the soule , but properly created in it , ought not in any congruitie of reason to exclude all actiue , though but humane endeuours precedent , for the better attainment of it . Nor haue I euer read of any Protestant or Papist , which held mariage , as either vnnecessarie , or superfluous for the propagation of mankinde , albeit the most and best Diuines in both religions be of opinion , that the reasonable soule is not generated , but immediatly created by God. And notwithstanding the supposed truth of this opinion , vnlesse the parents of our bodies had been as carefull for our bringing foorth , as bruite beasts are ouer their broode , few of vs this day liuing had euer enioied the light . Now for the auoiding of Pelagianisme , or iust imputation of popery in this point , it is enough to disclaime all such dispositions , preparations or endeauours , as actually cooperate or concurre to the production of faith , as temperate carriage or behauiour doe for producing the habit of temperance , or naturall qualities of moisture heate and cold doe in the education of formes meerely naturall , or constitution of bodies totally generable . So shall he neuer be able to acquit himselfe from the error of the Stoicks or Manichees , that accounts it indifferent what workes we doe , or how we demeane our selues before regeneration . For as God creates not the reasonable soule in euery matter , so doth he not create grace in euery soule . And , as this inference is good [ vnlesse the Fathers of our bodies had beene before vs , God had not created vs these soules ; in whose creation our fathers had no finger : ] so likewise in this [ vnlesse before our regeneration we so demeane our selues as God in his word prescribes , he ordinarly creates not grace in vs , ] to whose creation neuerthelesse our best endeauours conferre no more , then our parents doe to the creation of our soules , or the redd earth did to the making of Adam . This fully remoues the former difficulty , which seemed to dull our endeauors ; and from this instance of the reasonable soules creation I would rather commend this meditation to the Reader . As greater care is to be had of a woman with children , of Queenes and Princely mothers especially ; then of bruite beasts great with yong , albeit the fruit of their wombes be the more immediate worke or blessing of God : so should our care and industry for conceiuing faith , euen in that it is the sole gift of God , be much greater , then we vse for the attainement of whatsoeuer can by meanes naturall or ordinary be immediately atchieued . CHAP. II. That circumspect following the rules of Scripture is more auaileable for attaining of true faith , then the practice of morall precepts for producing morall habits : That there may be naturall perswasions of spirituall truths and morall desires , of spirituall good , both right in their kinde , though nothing worth in themselues , but only capable of better , because not hypocriticall . 1. IN that it hath pleased the spirit to write so much for mens directions in the way of life , ( yet not so much to instruct the faithfull what they should doe after their regeneration fully wrought , as the vnregenerate what he should doe that it might bee wrought in him : ) to conceiue it but as doubtfull , whether his sacred rules were not more sufficient effectuall and complete for attaining true and liuely faith , then any Philosophicall methods for planting morall vertues , were to derogate as much from Gods wisdome , as he should doe from his power that maintained man without direction or assistance supernaturall might worke out his owne saluation . Yet shall he much wrong both himselfe and me that stretcheth this similitude further then thus , As he that duely obserues philosophicall praecepts of morality shall certainely produce morall habits , and become truely iust and honest by often practising acts of iustice , temperance and sobriety : so he that circumspectly followes rules giuen by the spirit of God for attaining faith , shall haue it more assuredly produced in him , euen because it is not produced by him but by his God , who is more able to create new hearts in vs , then the naturall or vnregenerate man to worke any morall reformation in himselfe or others . All that is required of vs is onely to submit our knowledge to our Creators wisdome , our naturall desires to his most holy will , our weake abilities to his omnipotent power . But is it not a worke of the spirit to be thus perswaded or resolued ? 2. That the naturall man should rightly perceiue the things of the spirit of God implies as euident a contradiction , as to say a blind man should be able to see things visible . For as things in themselues most visible cannot be seene without the visiue faculty ; so is it impossible matters spirituall should otherwise then spiritually be discerned . Notwithstanding I scarce haue knowne any man so blind but might easily haue beene perswaded that he could not see , or induced hartily to wish he were as other men are , though in what state they were , or what pleasures there were in sight hee were altogether blind and ignorant . And I thinke it would be hard for any man to prooue that all such as our Sauiour restored to sight had sauing faith before he opened their eyes ; or that Naamans condescending to his seruants counsell [ my father if the Prophet had bid thee doe some great thing wouldest thou not haue done it ? how much more when he saith to thee wash & beclean , ] was an assent of iustifying faith ▪ yet were all these cures as immediate workes of Gods power as is the illumination of the minde by faith . What God hath wrought in them we know , but if Naaman had beene so wilfull as not to haue washed himselfe seauen times in lorden ▪ or those blinde men so wayward , as vpon the constant fame of former miracles not to haue besought CHRIST to worke the like in them : all of them , for ought we know or can imagine to the contrary , had remained still in their former misery . Thus if we graunt that a man altogether vnregenerate , vpon the hearing of Gods word , or the report that others , whom he hath no reason to distrust , doe make of the vertue thereof ; may haue a naturall apprehension of his naturall misery , and a desire ( meerely naturall ) to bee like them whose estate hee knoweth no better then he that is borne blind doth the light ; or , that as well his apprehension as desire is but a qualification meerely passiue , tending onely to this purpose , that ascribing the worke of faith to Gods power alone , hee may be a subiect not vncapable of this creation ; we shall auouch nothing contrary to reason naturall or supernaturall . For knowledge naturall and spirituall differ not in respect of the materiall obiects knowne , but in the manner of apprehending their truth and properties . What subiect is there whereof we may not logically dispute ? albeit demonstration , or scientificall conclusions , we can haue none but from the proper principles of that science whereto it belongeth , first distinctlie and infallibly apprehended . And what doth hinder vs to conceiue a naturall or morall assent vnto truths diuine , as not impossible , though to haue a true tast or homogeniall apprehension of them be the sole and proper effect of faith infused or supernaturall ? Of the same Diuine truths or rather of the goodnesse annexed to them , there may be a naturall or morall desire right in it kinde , though not such as Gods lawe requires , or can immediately please the lawgiuer , yet such as he requires that we may be capable of better . None , I thinke , but would perswade a man whom he knew to be as yet vnregenerate , to confesse his sinnes , to crie for mercy ? how , spiritually ? so to perswade him were a mockery : but rather to sue for grace that hereafter hee might spiritually desire what now he naturally doth . Nor doth he amisse in praying thus , albeit his praiers in respect of the fountaine whence they spring , be meerely naturall polluted with the poison of sinne . Absolutely he praies not aright , but in his kinde ; in as much as his desires are set vpon right obiects , though not so symbolized or proportioned to them as they should be . This rectitude of naturall desires or endeauours which ariseth from the rectitude of the obiects wheron they are imperfectly set , not in respect of degrees or circumstances onely , but for the very essence or substance of the act , is the point whereunto this discourse is directed . Whether this right vse of faculties as yet vnsanctified , be , in some degree possible to all that heare the word ▪ or whether , if possible to all , any are absolutely excluded from saluation without presupposall of some neglect or abuse of naturall faculties , is to be disputed in the seauenth booke . From our assertion thus explicated we may inferre the true meane betweene Pelagianisme and Stoicisme to be this ; [ Albeit man before regeneration hath no abilitie of doing any thing in it selfe not deseruing Hell ; yet is there a true and reall possibility left him of doing that , which being done maketh him capable of grace to be created in him , but which not done by him , he shall remaine vncapable of such creation . ] 3. Vpon these plaine grounds we hope now to proceed without offence to God or man : It was the meere good will and pleasure of God to ordaine , his meere wisedome to reueale those meanes of mans saluation , vnto which now reuealed the naturall man may so farre assent , as to make some triall of their truth as Naaman did of the Prophets words . The deeper apprehension , though but naturall , man hath of his naturall misery , or want of ability to raise himselfe , the more apt hee is , not to lay but to haue the sure foundation of faith laid in his heart by CHRIST IESVS ( who is the foundation and chiefe corner stone in the spirituall Temple , ) so he will but frame his life by his masters precepts and example . CHAP. III. Of the fundamentall rule of Christianity , to forsake all and denie our selues : That the sincere practise thereof is a method more admirable and compendious for the attainment of faith then any Artist could prescribe , the principles of Christianitie being supposed : That the want partly of instruction in the duties contained in it , partly of solemne and publicke personall protestation for their performance , is the principall cause of hypocrisie and infidelitie . 1. THat CHRIST the Sonne of God should suffer so many indignities of the Elders , and be killed , seemed a doctrine so strange to his Apostles , that one of them begins to checke him for abooding so ill of himselfe ; Bee it farre from thee , Lord : this shall not come vnto thee . What was the reason ? touching this particular they were not as yet spirituall . Thus much at the least our Sauiours reply to Peter imports ; Get thee behinde me Satan , thou art an offence vnto me : for thou sauourest not the things that be of God , but those that be of men . This truth the Prophets long before had deliuered , though not so plainly as it could easily bee apprehended without any expositor . Our Sauiour therefore vpon this dialogue betwene him and Peter shewes , not onely his owne willingnesse to vndergoe all the calamities the Prophet had foretolde , but withall that vnlesse his followers , which had confessed him for the Messiah , were made conformable to him in this point , they could not be his Disciples , not capable of any other lesson of sauing health ▪ If any man will follow mee let him forsake himselfe , and take vp his crosse and follow me . Necessarie it was the wisdome of God should thus plainly reueale this fundamentall principle of Christianitie , vnto whose necessitie notwithstanding , men in some sort may assent without the spirit of sanctification , or any branch of supernaturall inherent grace Ordinarily it is as true of the first as of the second resurrection ; b First is that which is naturall , then that which is spirituall . Manie haue assented vnto this rule as true , which did neuer spiritually assent vnto it as good in the choyce , albeit they haue desired so to do . Now that they obtained not what they desired , was because they sought it amisse , yet not spiritually amisse ( for spiritually they could not seeke it ) , but amisse in their kinde . For it is a point to bee considered , that as there is a naturall desire of spirituall good , so there may be , and vsually is , a resolution naturall , or only morall , to vndertake the course prescribed for attaining that qualification which is ordinarily required ere faith be infused or grace created . This resolution without transgressing the limits of it owne kinde may admit many degrees , as well in the feruency of the attempt , as in the constancie of the pursuit . As the spirituall good wee assent vnto is apprehended , though but morally or confusedly , as infinitely greater then any temporarie pleasure or commodity : so the resolution to suffer all the grieuances wherewith the expectance of it can bee charged , though but morall must euery way farre exceede all purposes of like nature ( all springing from the same vnsanctifyed roote ) that are set on obiects of another ranke : otherwise all that professe they seeke , make , or as the Apostle c sayth of the Iewes , iudge themselues vnworthy of eternall life . 2. Vnto what tolerance would not that flagrant speech of Cato , when hee was to conduct the reliques of Pompeius forces through the scorched sands of Libia , haue almost impelled anie resolute Souldier , that should haue seene so graue a Senator act so hard and meane a part as he professed to make choice of ? Vnto farre greater certainely then we Christians in these daies either conceiue as necessarie , or would resolue to aduenture vpon , for attaining vnto Gods rest . O quibus vna salus placuit mea castra secatis Ind●mita ceruice mori ; componite mentes Ad magnum virtutis opus , summosque labores . Vadimus in campos steriles , exustaque mundi , Qua nimius Titan , & rarae in fontibus vndae , Siccaque letiferis squalent serpentibus arua ; Durum iter , ad leges , patriaeque ruentis amorem , Per mediam Libyen veniant , atque inuia tentent , Si quibus in nullo positum est euadere voto , Si quibus ire sat est , neque enim mihi fallere quenquā Est animus , tectoque metu perducere vulgus . Ii mihi sunt comites , quos ipsa pericula ducent , Qui me teste , pati , vel que tristissima pulchrum , Romanumque putant , at qui sponsore salutis Miles eget , capiturque animae dulcedine , vadat Ad dominum meliore via , dum primus arenas Ingrediar , primusque gradus in puluere ponam , Mecalor aethereus feriat , mihi plena veneno Occurrat serpens ▪ fatoque pericula vestra Praetentate meo : sitiat , quicunque bibentem Viderit : aut vmbras nemorum quicunque petentem , Astuet : aut equitem peditum praecedere turmas , Deficiat , si quo fuerit discrimine notum Dux , an miles eam , serpens , sitis , ardor , arenae , Dulcia virtuti : gaudet patientia duris . Laetius est quoties magno sibi constat honestum . Sola potest Libye turbam praestare malorum , Vt deceat fugisse viros . — — — — Sweet mates , whose wished end of life is death deuoid of thral , Addresse your minds to seruice heard ; but valor doth you call . We enter now on sterill plaines , where Titans raies do sting , Where too much heat makes water scant , euen in the verie Spring : On coasts where Bacchus nere was set , nor Ceres euer sowne ; On drie fields destitute of grasse with Serpents ouer-growne . A wofull waie ; but to their lawes and ruined countries loue Through mids of Lybia let them march , and way-lesse wandrings prooue , As many as haue no minde to scape , but safety set at nought Content for pay to take their paines , nor came't ere in my thought With guile to traine the simple on , by couering present dread , The fittest mates for me they are whom dangers seen shall lead : Who , to haue me spectator , parts most tragicke wilaffect , As Souldier-like and Romane worth ; my campe hee must reiect That hostage for his safety craues or life accounteth sweet , Let such goe chuse some safer way his master for to meet , Whilest I first foote it in the dust and tread you paths in sand , Let heate from heauen mee first assaile , let Serpents ' gainst me band , Full charg'd with venome : t is all one , resolued I am to die , That ye your danger by my fates more safely may foretrie . Let him crie out I am a thirst that me shall spie to drinke , Or him complaine of sultring heate to shade , that sees mee shrinke : Let him lie downe and rest himselfe , that first shall see me ride , Or take my place , by any ods , if ere it be descried : Whether I as vulgar souldier march , of generall to the rest , This Serpent , sands , and scorching heate content true valour best : From hardnesse patience reapeth ioy : that honour is most worth Which dearest costs , and breeds most paine , whilest t is in bringing forth ; No land but Lybia could affoord such store , of toile and paine , That euen your flight through it , may th'fame of hardy Souldiers gaine . 3 The resolution although vnto the worldly wise , or secular gallant , it may seeme truly noble , yet rightly examined will proue but turbulent or humorous ; because his patience to endure such hardnesse , were it as great as hee himselfe , o● perhaps the Poet for him makes profession of , was but equall to his impatience of ciuill ●e●uitude : his light regard of venimous Serpents but answerable to his seare of being beholden to Caesars curtesie . And what maruell if one or more impotent desires hauing gotten absolute commaund ouer the soule , do impell it to such difficulties , as none f●ce from the like tyrannie of affections would aduenture on . To haue esteemed captiuity of bodie where was no remedie , a lighter burden then such misery as he now voluntarily exposed himselfe and others vnto , had bin a better document of true liberty . Thus enabled to brook euerie condition of life which disesteem could lay vpon him , had beene entirely to possesse his soule with patience , which is the best inheritance whereunto mortality can be entitled ; whereas now he did but striue to cast out one potent enemy , by arming a band of insolent incorrigible slaues against him . More heroicall , yea most diuine was the generositie of our Sauiours mind , that being heire of all things , Lord and maker of all mankinde , could entertaine seruitude , contempt and scorne of baser enemies with greater peace and quietnes then Cato did his free censorship : that he could suffer grieuances , not of one or few kinds , whereunto peculiar desires of pleasing himself in the auoidance of some much abhorred euils , or in the assequ●tion of any higher prized good , might impell or sway his minde : but that hee could with such constancy determine in no kind to please himselfe , resoluiug to fulfill what the Prophet had sayd , The reproches of them that reproched thee fell on mee . Nothing distastfull to flesh and bloud , whereof the meanest of Gods seruants had tasted , which he swallowed not . Now hee being our patterne and guide , to be found in him , or like him , is the end which first and principally must be intended . The next point wherto his endeuours , that desires to be a Christian inwardly , should bee addressed is seriously to cast vp his reckonings what will be required at his hands : vnpartially and throughly to examine his heart whether willing to forgoe all such hopes or contentments naturall as are incompatible with the life he seeks , or to endure such worldly crosses or calamities as the hope of it at anie time hath beene , or may be charged with . The summe of this reckoning is , that the sufferance , whereto euery true follower of CHRIST must be trained , is more entire and complete then that which Cato exacted of his Souldiers ; and herein harder , specially to braue minds , that it must proceede not from spleen or hate to any mans person , not from greatnesse of stomack or haughty indignation , but from a mild and placide disesteeme of mortall life , and whatsoeuer one way or other may affect it , whilest these are weighed with that eternall weight of glorie , or the doubtfull consequences of our estate after death . For this reason happily it is that the feruencie of propheticall spirit is so much allaied in Euangelicall relators of our Sauiours speeches , men otherwise enspired with a greater measure of diuine knowledge in heauenly misteries then the Prophets were : which knowledge notwithstanding they were to expresse in a more languishing stile , that so the characters of their discourses might bee an embleme of such calme resolution , long suffering , and mortification , as the Gospell of CHRIST requires . As our qualification is more hard , or rather requires greater time , more serious meditations and setled iudgement then is necessarie for framing the former temper of Caton●an Souldiers , or a braue Roman resolution ▪ so is the example of our leader , as more eminent and conspicuous , so more efficacious to worke the like in his followers ; partly because his dignitie in respect of vs is infinitely greater , then was Catoes in respect of those that betooke themselues to his conduct , partly in that c greater is hee which is in vs , than ●e that is in the world , so we shew our selues not vnworthy the participation of his spirit . 4. Of the former qualification one branch most distastfull to flesh and blood , or to natures most ingenuous , is constancie to endure the hate and opposition though of dearest friends , the reproches and reuilings of men , who for any endowments either of art or nature are most abiect in respect of them whom they reuile ▪ did not these willingly count all such prerogatiues well lost for gaining CHRIST . But to this yoake we are to submit our necks before we take vpon vs to be accompted seruants of CHRIST ; of whom in euery age it is true , yee shall be hated of all men for my Names sake : of all that seeke not to be his seruants ▪ ●or , whatsoeuer the euent may be , the constancie to vndergoe this heauy taske is absolutely necessary ; For the disciple is not aboue his master , nor the seruant aboue his Lord : It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master is , and the seruant as his Lord : if they haue called the master of the house Beelzebub , how much more shall they call them of his houshould ? And againe , He that loueth father or mother more then me , is not worthy of me : and he that loueth sonne or daughter more then me , is not worthy of me ; He that taketh not his crosse euen the whole body of afflictions is not worthy of me . o His mistake was exceeding grosse that tooke these or the b like passages for euangelicall counsels , or admonitions vsefull for some fewe aiming at more perfection then most are capable of ; not precepts necessary to all that seeke after glory and immortality , or that holinesse without which none shall see God. For elsewhere our Sauiour directs the same lesson to the great multitudes that followed him , least any man should deceiue himselfe in thinking it an easier matter then indeed it was to be his follower ; And there went great multitudes with him : and the turned and said vnto them , If any man come to me , and hate not his father , and mother , and wife , and children , and brethren , and sisters , yea and his own selfe also he cannot be my disciple . And whosoeuer doth not beare his crosse and come after mee cannot be my disciple . 5. The necessitie of this resolution he there more fully sets out vnto vs in two parables ; he that will build must first be able to calculate the charges and his meanes to defray them . Otherwise to begin , being vnable to make an end , were but to lay the foundation of his disgrace , and scorne , in the losse of his cost and paines . A Prince likewise that will vndertake a warre must haue sure triall of his owne , and skill to discouer his enemies strength , otherwise to bid him battell were but to incense him the more , and thrust a title into his hands to defeate him of all he hath . The conclusion of these inductions our Sauiour repeates againe , So likewise whosoeuer denieth not himselfe , and for saketh all , he cannot be my disciple . In which short speech wee haue this accompt made to our hands , that , ere we can hope to be edified in faith , or safely proclaime warre vnto Sathan , wee must make ouer all our interest in our liues , or whatsoeuer is deare vnto vs. Not thus prepared we shall but lay foundations which cannot hold siege , sure to be surprised in the day of battell , after we haue exasperated the venom and rancour of the old serpent , our sworne enemie , by professing our selues to be CHRISTS souldiers , and proffering to fight vnder his banners . For as a Salomon saith , He that hath no rule ouer his owne spirit ( or as others read ) he that refraineth not his appetite , is like a City broken downe and without wals . In this regard he that sets his hand vnto this sacred plough should first beginne to sound the depth of the former rule , what it is to denie our selues , and forsake all we haue , for in this furrow must the seed of life be sowne . And of this , as of most other diuine precepts , there may be perswasions either naturall , yet right in their kinde ; or hypocriticall and erroneous , or truely spirituall . Here no●ices in religion commonly beginne to balke , & no wonder ; seeing few are called to any strict personall accompt , of that which others haue vndertaken for them at their first admission into the bedrole of Christians . But if the contents of that triple vow were distinctly and fully vnfolded vnto vs , as soone as we had any knowledge of good and euill ; and all the seuerall branches of Gods couenant with as great care and solemnity as often inculcated , as Moses commaunded the Lawe should be to the d Israelites children ; and lastly the vow it selfe confirmed and ratified by our personall protestation in the sight of the congregation ; the feare as well of God as of shame before men , in who●e presence we made this good profession , would binde many of vs to more Christian behauiour then the best of vs , as the world goes , dare make shew of ; as also restraine vs from many deadly enormities , which now admonished of , we will not accompt any sinnes . Thus prepared to receiue it , it would be ouermuch infidelity to distrust the plentifull infusion of inherent sanctifying grace at our solemnities of confirmations , were these first sanctified with publike praiers , or performed with such Christian care and diligence as they ought . A religious duty in the Christian Church , which it were to be wished , might be performed more often , more solemnely , and more religiously then it vseth to be . But this negligence is vsually seconded by a positiue ouersight of many religious , and otherwise learned Preachets , which I take it , enter yong schollers in Christianitie amisse , labouring in the first place to encrease or fortifie their perswasions of beliefe in CHRIST , and actuall remission of their sinnes in particular ; which indeed is the end and best fruit of faith , not vsually growing vnlesse our hearts be thus ploughed vp and the strength of euery carnall desire broken . Impossible it is our perswasions in these points should be more sincere or sound , then our precedent deniall of our selues and forsaking of all that we haue . 6. He ( saith the Romane Philosopher ) that will be rich must not so much seeke to fill his coffers with coine as to empty his breast of superfluous or greedy thoughts . More certaine it is ( because the precept of a wiser teacher ) that the readiest way to bee riche in saith is , not directly to encrease , or intend our perswasions , or assent vnto the former , or like points , but first to diminish or weaken inbred desires of what contentments soeuer the diuell , the world , or flesh can present vnto vs. This is the true meaning of the former aduice which our Sauiour deliuered plainelie , and as his manner is to the capacitie of the vulgar , yet not vulgarly : for in that , as in all the rest , he spake more metaphisically then euer man spake . And though the spirit alone worke faith in our hearts , yet the rules giuen for our direction how to demeane our selues as true patients in this cure , are more methodicall and compendious , then any art vnder the sunne , the principles of Christianity supposed , could inuent ; but such as euery true artist must of necessitie admire , the more he meditates vpon them . The fundamentall and most necessary principles of arts are commonly farre distant from the vtmost end whereto they direct , though that in comparison but at hand and within the reach of reason . But the roofe of this edefice though higher then the highest heauens riseth not , as naturall buildings doe , by degrees or laying one stone vpon another , but springs immediately out of this foundation once rightly laid . That the strength , or excessiue eagernesse of our inbred appetites , or grosse desires make those transitory contentments , whereon they are set , seeme much greater , and better then in their owne nature they are ; is a conclusion whereto reason and experience , not ouerborne or peruerted by sensuall inclinations , will subscribe . Meats in themselues but loathsome or course , by extreame hunger become more pleasant then choice of delicates ; so doth grieuousnesse of thirst make ordinary water relish much better then best wines after sweete meates , or a banquet ; and vnto men of meaner fortunes but ambitious , a little court holy water is more acceptable then a reall fauour to a contented minde . Many Philosophers haue beene copious in this argument , vnto whose labou●s I remit the Reader . Now seeing Christian faith ( as from the maine current of Scriptures the nature of it heretofore hath beene deriued , ) is a firme assent vnto diuine reuelations , especially Gods mercies in CHRIST , as much better then life it selfe , or all the contentments that can attend it : impossible it is such faith should euer be rightly planted , much lesse finally prosper in our hearts , vntill the strength of those intoxicating desires , which make molehi●s seeme like mountaines , be either broken , or they extirpated ; or to vse our Sauiours wordes , vntill we learne to denie our selues , and prize this brittle life as not worth the anxious or solicitous care of keeping , much lesse of pampering . If true it be which a Seneca saith : He that holdes his body deere must needs count honesty little worth : so it is impossible a man shold rightly value diuine truthes , or constantly fixe his thoughts on things which are aboue , vnlesse hee first waine them from the world , and set all below the heauens at naught . This lesson once truely learned , the former vnpartial assent vnto the truth and goodnesse of reuelations supernatuall , will without further artificiall direction vniformely result ; and this resultance fitly qualifies for following CHRIST , and makes vs passiuely apt for euery good worke , as hauing no headstrong desire or affection to resist the impulsions of faith , b whose property most naturall is to encline the soule vnto euery kinde of true goodnesse . 7. But here the hypocrite alwaies peruerting the practicall as the hereticke doth the theoricall rules of Scripture to his destruction , from the common errour before intimated , neuer ●ounds this maine depth of Christianity , but passeth it ouer as if it were some Philosophicall shallow : holding such resolute and exact contempt of the world and all vanities or superfluities of life , as many Philosophers discouered for the only ground of morall quietnes or content of mind , to be more superstitious then necessary for obtaining that peace of conscience which passeth all vnderstanding naturall , but is the sure fruit of supernaturall faith . And after he hath once thus lost the right way , and wandered a while in vncertaine blinde perswasions of his priuat fauour with God , takes a course quite contrary to all godlines . For where our Sauiour laies it downe as one of the first and most necessary rudiments of Christianity , that we must forsake all and denie our selues , otherwise wee cannot truely follow him : the hypocrite perswades himselfe he hath forsaken father and mother , sister and brother , euen all he hath any secular reference vnto , because he so deuoutly followes CHRIST . As in what ? In worshipping images , in adoring or kissing the Crucifix , in fasting , in whipping himselfe , or the like bodily exercises , if his hypocrisie be papisticall : or if an hypocriticall protestant he be , in hearing sermons , po●ting places of scripture vpon euery occasion in common talke , or in precise obseruance of some precepts whose practice is very compatible with his principall desires , apt to support his reputation otherwise defectiue and lame , or perhaps consort as well with his sower affections , his niggardly or scraping disposition , as vanity or prodigalitie with the humour of youth or gallantry . Zeale in reading & hearing Gods word I euer admire when it is accompanied with practice conformable : but to be more precise in perswasions , then in actions , more strict in sanctifying the saboath , then open handed towards the poore , or more zealous in performance of duties towards God no way chargeable , then lowly , courteous , and really louing toward their neighbours , is a fearefull signe that worldly affection hath got the start of faith in the spring , and will hardly be ouertopped in the growth ; that the minde thus affected is sickely and faint , yet willing to stay the working of conscience with these repasts . And were it not the nature of this disease to put out the eye of reason , and relie wholy vpon forced perswasions , it were impossible such palpable contradictions betwixt most mens ordinary resolutions , and fundamentall principles of faith , ( as any heathen that could but vnderstand what the words of Scripture meant , would vpon the first view of both clearely descry ) should goe so long , oft times for ought we can perceiue the whole course of their liues , without controle or checke , and without notice of their danger . He is in worse case questionlesse then the meere naturall or reasonable man , euen blinded by Gods iust iudgement for his hypocrisie , that can suffer himselfe to be perswaded he hath truely denied himselfe , taken vp his Crosse , forsaken all , and made fit to follow Christ , when as the world sees , and his practice proclaimes he mindes nothing either so intensiuely , or continually , as the increasing of his wealth , or raising his owne , or his childrens fortunes already greater , then they are Christianly capable of . 8. For this againe is a fundamentall rule , whereof there may be perswasions , either right onely in their kinde , and but naturall ; or truely spirituall ; That great estates , worldly dignities , or plentifull matter of carnall contentments , can neuer be rightly managed or morally well vsed without great morall wisdome , good education , sobriety of life and discretion . Much more necessarie , ( as naturall reason rightly perswaded of Scriptures truth will acknowledge ) is an abundant measure of faith to vse abundance in any kinde , or such prerogatiues as flesh and blood are prone to delight in , to the glory of God , the good of his Church , and saluation of our owne soules . Hence as we rightlier reckon mens wealth , or competence of estate , by the ouerplus of their certaine incomes , compared with their necessary outlayings , then by the largenesse of annuall reuenues without such allocations , or deductions : so must we measure the strength or efficacy of true faith , not by the multitude of degrees , or the intensiue perfection of the perswasion , or assent in it selfe considered , or with reference to it positiue obiect , but by the excesse which it hath in respect of contrary desires , or temptations incident to our course of life . If the assent of faith be as twelue , and any naturall delight in prerogatiues though spirituall , such as the Corinthians had , be as thirteene ; that mans faith is worse then nothing : whereas if six degrees of the same assent should in some other match with three or foure of the like naturall delight , or affection , the soueraignty of his faith is much greater then the formers , because better able to quell all contrary motions or rebellions of the flesh . Though faith we had of force sufficient to moue mountaines , yet were it possible Achans vast desires might harbour with it in the same brest , a wedge of gold would ouersway it , or wrest it out of it place , and hale the soule wherein it lodged , maugre all it force and strength , to hell . But he that had no minde of earth , nor longed not after this bright clay might easily be aduanced to heauen by faith ; not able to worke any externall effects halfe so wondrous . Lucifer and his wicked confederates haue perswasions of some diuine truthes so firme and strong as would almost enforce any man liuing vnto goodnesse , which notwithstanding no way benefit but rather exasperate them to mischiefe , because ouermatched with malicious hellish inclinations . That excellent knowledge which was the ground of their first station , though more firme by much then the faith whereby we stand , was ouerturned by delight or pride in this their proper excellency . The name of grace or faith in scriptures includes besides the quality infused , this relation of excesse , or soueraignety ouer the desires of the flesh . But whether it be possible that grace should be the same , as well for quallity as degrees , in the carnally minded , and truely sanctified I dispute not . Howsoeuer , let the nature or entitatiue perfection of it be neuer so great , vnlesse it can thus conquer affection and bring the body in subiection to the spirit , it is not the grace we are finally to pray for , nor hath it that faith , whose right plantation we seeke , for it associate . In this sence we may safely admit the d opinion of Canus and Victoria , [ That the entity or quality of grace may encrease without any encrease of Gods fauour or good acceptance ] not onely as approueable and free from Vasquez censure , but as necessary and vnquestionable , vnlesse our loue vnto the world and flesh , or estimate of all delights and proffers they can present , vniformely decay as the entity of this infused qualitie , or our habituall assent vnto diuine truth , encreaseth . This decrease of carnall affection , may ( as we said of other perswasions and resolutions , ) be either naturall or truely spirituall ; the later kinde onely pleaseth God and is the immediate obiect of diuine approbation , but through the righteousnesse of CHRIST , of which because it is wrought in faith , it is capable , so is not our naturall resolution to abandon such delights and pleasures as others follow , though morally sincere and purposely intended to the end wee may bee fitly qualified for Christs seruice . CHAP. IIII. That the obseruance of the former rule is most easie vnto men of meaner gifts , vnto whom in this respect Gods mercy is greater then if their gifts were better , and yet his mercy iustly to be esteemed greatest of such as haue most excellent gifts by nature . 1. GOds vnspeakeable wisdome , in recouering the sonnes of Adam his forlorne patients , by bringing them low , manifested in the absolute necessitie of the former precepts , being duly waighed ; the eunuch can haue no reason to say a I am a dry tree , nor the siliest catife that creepes on earth any iust cause to complaine of his wretched estate . Indeed were good naturall parts , ( whether of body or minde ) with such ornaments as art can put vpon them , or other externall graces of wealth , authority , or birth , bestowed on man for his owne sake , or that hee might relie or trust in them : hee that excels in any or many of these might haue whereof to reioice amongst his brethren ; so had they iust cause to be deiected that were conscious of their wants . But if we consider the pronenesse of mans heart to waxe proud of good qualities , and the direct opposition betwixt all pride , and the fundamentall qualification before expressed for the receiuing of faith and grace , that the renouncing all delight in these or other naturall dignities is but an appertenance of that precept to denie our selues , and forsake all we haue : we would quickely subscribe vnto our c Apostles resolution , that if wee must needes boast or glory we would boast in that wherein we haue most reason to reioice , in our defects or infirmities ; seeing the lesse temptations wee haue to glory in wealth , strength , or wit , or whatsoeuer men call their owne : the better opportunities we haue to glory in him who is the Lord of life and strength the authour of wealth and onely giuer of these and euery good gift . To keepe mirth though actuall and externally occasioned within the bounds of wisdome , or mingle much laughter with discretion , is a skill whereof many natures are not capable : much harder it is to retaine such strong naturall inclination as are the fountaines of our internall and habituall delight , the chiefe pillars of our glory , and principall rootes of our reioicing , within the compasse of natures pollitique Lawes . Hence , as the Philosopher obserues , excellency of beauty , of bodily strength , of birth , or abundant wealth will hardly bee subdued vnto reason . With what difficulty then will such glorious prerogatiues of flesh and blood bee drawne to yeeld loiall obedience vnto the humility and simplicity of faith ; when as that subiection which * Aristotle requires in his morall patriot , is but a formality in respect of that absolute deiection , or prostration which true faith requires , ere our soules be capable of it presence : the best seruice which our inferiour faculties owe to reason morall , or meerely naturall , being but as dead and liuelesse in regard of that alacrity in performances , wherewith grace expects to be entertained . 2. The a Epigramatist acutely imputes the stoickes contempt of death vnto the slender appertenances of his poore life , in whose losse there could bee no great harme . For who would much desire to see himselfe , without change of apparell , basely clad , to lodge in a sordid cabin , and goe to a hard bedsted hungry and colde ? but had he beene a while accustomed to those pleasures of which Rome till that time had neuer scarc●tie , and Domitians present Court greatest variety ; he would haue wished ( vnlesse the Epigrammatist rashly or vncharitably censure his disposition ) that his life had beene lengthened as farre beyond the ordinary course of nature , as Philoxenus did his wesand might be aboue the vsuall size of other mens . Yet howsoeuer it be for the particular , the indefinite truth of his coniecture is confirmed by the knowne experiment of Antigonus souldier , who , after the perfect recouery of his health , became as tenderly respectfull as any of his fellow souldiers were of life , whereof whilest his body was troubled with such a loathsome disease as made his soule desire to be diuorced from it , he had beene so prodigall as made his generall admire his valour . It may be both of these were willing to make a vertue of necessitie ; or if the stoickes resolution were rather out of choice , yet it comes short of that true valour , which the censurer by light of nature sawe to bee truely commendable , and diuinity teaches to be absolutely necessary to a Christian souldier . Rebus in angustis facile est contemnere vitam , Fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest . A sorry life 's soone set at naught ; to leaue want is no losse : His soule hath marched valiantly that sinks not vnder 's Crosse . What the souldier did out of humour , or constraint , a wise man may doe out of deliberation or choice : and without controuersie great is the liberty they gaine of others in good causes , that from a serious forecast and view of a better end then these men did apprehend , can prize both the present possession and all future hopes of life , as low as these did their bodies in their calamities . 3. Some critickes willing to shew they were able to espie a fault where there were one indeed ; haue taxed it as an indecorum in Homer , which was none , to bring old Chryses into Agamemnons presence , neuer daunted with sight of the Grecian armie , when as men of his age are vsually timerous . And it is no maruell if that courage which springs from heate of blood , and makes men aduenturous in boisterous encounters , doe coole , as the roots of their bodily strength and agility decay . Notwithstanding , the short remnant of a feeble life is easily ouerswaied with calme and quiet apprehensions of an honourable death , wherewith the strong hopes , which fresh spirits minis●●●nto yong men of long life , are seldome stirred . For vnto them the fight of death is alwaies gastly , vnlesse it be presented in troubled blood ; nor can they , vsually , be drawne to meet it but vpon confidence of victorie , or at least of making others die before them . Thus vnlesse there be some other defect , the lesse way old mē haue to run the farther start they haue of youth for freedom of speech , or resolution , before such as can put them to death without resistance . Hence another * Poet , bringing in an aged sire more sharply expostulating his co●tryes cause with a Prince of fiercer disposition then Agamemnon , as if ●ec had purposely sought to preoccupate all captious or criticall censures , expresseth the reason of his boldnesse . Vnde ea libertas ? iuxta illi finis & aetas Tota retro , saeraeque velit decus addere morti What freedoms this ? A priuate man to take a Tyrant downe ? His race being run ? t' was now fit time the end with praise to crowne ? Could we out of mature deliberation rest perswaded , of what the doctrine of faith deliuers as a truth vndoubted , that promotiō comes neither from the East nor from the West , that length or shortnesse of life depend not on the course of nature , but on his will and pleasure , who hath euery member of our bodies written in his booke , able to deface all instantly with one dash of his pen ; that if we spare to speake before others in his cause , we may want breath to plead our owne before him : How easie would it bee for vs to confesse Christ , by professing the truth before the mightiest amongst the sonnes of men : when as now our seruile dependance on such as our Christian freedome and resolution might bring in subiecton to the truths they scorne ; on such as haue not power to hurt our bodies , or depriue vs of food and raiment , or other necessaries of priuate life ; but onely to repell vs perhaps from ascending higher then any opportunity of doing good seruice to our Lord and Master calls vs ▪ makes vs daylie and howerly ashamed of him and his Gospell , which the great ones of this present world confesse in words ▪ mightily oppugne in deeds , as we doe scandalise the power and vertue of it by our silence . Great were the materials of the contentments , which Hester enioyed in Ahashuerus Court , so were her hopes of hauing them continued or enlarged : a Mordecays admonition notwithstanding , grounded vpon the considerations before mentioned , mooued her to hazard all , and to aduenture on her gracious Kings extreame displeasure , rather then preiudice the cause of Gods people by forbearance of petitioning on their behalfe . Many of vndaunted courage in the open field would hardly haue pressed into the kings presence against the Lawe , for though the daunger could not bee greater then they often exposed themselues vnto against the enemie ; yet feare of disgrace which might ensue , would in this case asswage that boldnesse whereunto hope of honour , vsually animates greatest spirits . Cato then , and other such resolute Romans , as gaue Caesar to vnderstand they had lesse dread of death then of his pardon , would haue prooued but dastards in the campe of CHRIST , for many principall points of whose seruice , he that is more afraid of a miserable or disgraced life , then of a violent or bloody death , is very vnfit . Now faith if it be vniformely set , equally enclines vs to make choice of either station , as the disposition of our lot shall fall . The best ground of our qualification for vndergoing either , will be with deliberate vnpartiality to rate , as well the calamities or incumbrances , as the prosperities or pleasures incident to this mortall life , no higher then in nature they are , for quality vaine , and for durance momentary ; still weakning our naturall desires of the one , and fortifying our feeblenesse or peculiar indispositions to sustaine the other . Some are more easily deiected with feare of ignominy others of want or pouerty , most are apt to be much moued with bodily pain , but all most with that which is most contrary to the inclinations or accustomances , in whose exercise o● practice they most delight . And seeing the abundance of our desires , or affectiors , vsually brings forth a conceited greatnesse of the sensuall obiects whereon they are set ; the enfeebling or pining of internall appetites will be the readiest way to erect our spirits , and ruinate all drowsie imaginations of greater terror , then can really be presented to resolute and vigilant thoughts . The best meanes againe to enfeeble inbred appetites , or impaire the strength of naturall or customary inclinations , is substraction of their fewell , as much familiarity with their proper obiects , or affectation of what we see most followed by others , which vsually haue wit enough to accomplish their chiefe desires , but want grace to account the inconueniences , that without great circumspection alwaies attend on their accomplishment . What though our meanes be so short as will not permit vs to fare deliciouslie , our presence not so gratious as to win their fauour that behold vs , our countenances not so armed with authority as to imprint awe in our inferiours , our wits not so nimble as may enable vs to lead a faction , our experience not so great as to compasse preferment , or winde our selues out of intricate perplexed businesses : yet all these defects haue this comfort annexed , That although we had Diues fare , and Cressus wealth , Tullyes eloquence and Caesars fortune , Aristotles subtilty , and Achitophels policy , Sampsons strength , and Absolons beauty , Salomons wisdome , with all , and all his roialty ; yet were we bound to vse all these blessings as if we vsed them not , to employ them not to our owne but to his praise that gaue them , in whom without these we may more truely delight then any can doe in their abundance . b For to whom much is giuen of him much shall be required . This in the first place , not to reioice though in miraculous effects of graces bestowed vpon him , but rather in that his name is written in the booke of life , in whose golden lines none are enfraunchised but such as in pouerty of spirit haue serued an apprentiship to humility . Thus may the brother of lowest degree , so he will not be wilfully proud , nor stretch his desires beyond the measure God hath destributed to him , stoope without straining to that pitch , whereto euen such as are of gifts most eminent , or in highest dignity must of necessity descend , but by many degrees and with great difficulty , seldome without some grieuous fall , or imminent danger of precipitation . 4. But is not this to calumniate our Creators goodnes , as if he did baite his hookes with seeming blessings , or set golden snares to entangle the soules of his seruants ? No , reason taught the heathen to thinke more charitably of their supposed Goddesse Nature , on whom they fathered that truth , which faith instructs vs to ascribe vnto our heauenly Father . Natura beatis Omnibus esse dedit : si quis cognouerit vti If from true blisse thou chance to stray , doe not the blame on nature lay : Enough shee gaue thereto t' attaine : but gifts without good vse are vaine . The gifts meane or great , bestowed on euery man by his maker , are best for him ; so he would faithfullie implore the assistance of his spirit wholly submitting himselfe to his direction for their vsage . His mercy is many times greatest to such as he endowes with least blessings of art or nature , in that as their spirits are vsually slow , their capacities shallow and abilities weake , so their conquest ouer delight or pride in their own good parts , in which the strength and vertue of faith consists especially , is the easiest , their aptitude to delight in spirituall goodnesse the greatest , and their alliance to true humility most immediate . His mercies againe many waies appeare most towards such as excell in gifts of nature . First , if they seriously addresse their best faculties to contemplate the fountaine whence they slow , or to esteeme of their Creators goodnesse by his good blessings bestowed on themselues ; they haue a perpetuall spurre to stirre vp their alacrity in good courses , a curbe to restraine them from falling into ordinary and vulgar sinnes , whereinto others vsually slide through deiection of minde , or opportunitie of their obscure place , and low esteeme with others . The best lesson I remember in old Chaucer , and for ought I can perceiue the onely right vse can be made of a mans notice of his owne worth is , to thinke euery offence of like nature more grieuous in himselfe , then in others whom he accounts his inferiours . Againe , as eminencie of naturall or acquired worth exposeth men to more then ordinary spirituall danger , so , no question , rightly emploied it makes them capable of great reward ; and few of this temper if free choice were left vnto themselues , but would rather desire to get honour though with aduenture of an auoidable danger , then to be assured of ordinary recompence for safe emploiments Briefly as their stocke or talent is greater , and through indiscreet or vnthrifty courses may bring them into great arrerages at their finall accompts : so watily and faithfully emploied , it alwaies yeelds greater encrease to Gods glory , who will not suffer the least excesse of good seruice done , to passe without an ouerplus of reward . That which turnes all his blessings into curses is an ouerweening conceipt of our owne worth , and a perswasion thence arising that wee are sit for any fortunes whereunto industrious practices authorised by humane Law can raise vs ; and inwardly furnished for sustaining any place , for which the dispensers of ciuill honour can be wrought outwardly to grace , or qualifie vs. As the disease it selfe is deadly , so is it vsually accompanied with a phreneticall symptome : for like wandering Knights that seeke aduentures in vnknowne Countries , we apprehend no danger in those courses of life wherewith wee are alltogether vnacquainted , but rather wish to meet with temptations new and vncouth , because it is more glorious to conquer them , then not to be assaulted by them . But how can this resolution stand with that daily petition , Lord lead vs not into temptation ? much easier it is to auoide their daunger , by refraining all triall of such deceiptfull contentments as make way for them , then not to yeeld vnto them after accustomed experience of their pleasant insinuations . To be able not to affect their pleasures is a point of Christian valour , highly commendable amongst the wiser sort of men , and immediatly approueable with God : nor is there any that much desires to tast them , but is obnoxious with all to be so bewitched by them , that he shall thinke himselfe free enough from their entisements , when his heart and soule are indissolubly betroathed to them . CHAP. V. Our Sauiours parables especially those ( Mat. 13. Marke 4. Luke 8. ) most soueraigne rules for the plantation and growth of faith : Of vnfruitfull hearers resembled by the high way side and stony ground , with briefe caueats for altering their disposition . 1. LEt others esteeme of them as they list , our Sauiours parables in that they containe the secret mysteries of the heauenly kingdome , shall euer as they alwaies haue done , seeme to me the most soueraigne rules for planting faith , and the matters contained in them the most precious obiects for a Christians choicer thoughts to worke vpon in his selected howers . In that it hath further pleased my gratious God to make knowne vnto me , not onely the parables themselues which were communicated to the multitudes , but our Sauiours diuine expositions of them , priuatly imparted to his disciples ; I cannot thinke either my selfe or others who are partakers of this fauour , and not wilfully indulgent to such desires as brought blindnes vppon the Iew ; to be of their number that are without , but rather of theirs to whom it is giuen to know the secrets of the Kingdome of Heauen Yet euen his most perspicuous expositions shall become parables vnto vs , if seeing we doe not , or will not see , d if hearing we doe not or will not heare , neither vnderstand ; for in all such vnto the worlds end the prophecy of e I saias must be fulfilled , By hearing yee shall heare and shall not vnderstand , and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceiue . This blindnes or dulnesse in hearing , which God laieth vpon vs as well as them , supposeth a winking or closing of eyes , a shutting of eares vnto the word manifested or reuealed . For whosoeuer hath ( eyes or eares , though but naturall , open ) to him shall be giuen , clearer sight , and quickenesse of hearing more of euery kinde in abundance . But whosoeuer hath not , from him shall be taken away , euen that which he hath ; * Rather what he seemed to haue , for how can ought be taken from him that hath not ? yes , euen he that vnderstandeth not the word which he heares , hath somewhat , vntill it be taken from him . So our Sauiour instructs vs , g When one heareth the word of the kingdome , and vnderstand that not , then commeth the wicked one , and catcheth away that which was sowen in his heart . Because he had not the heart or courage to set his minde vnto it , when opportunity was offered ; for this actuall and wilfull neglect of such a talent as he had , he shall be depriued as well of internall abilities , as externall occasions seruing to that passiue capacity or qualification which wee seeke . Wherefore let him that heares take heede how he heares ; least by admission of euery vaine and idle thought hee bring such a brawne or callum vpon his heart , as shall make it like the high way side or a beaten path , into which the seed sowne findes no entrance , but lies exposed to those infernall Harpeyes ; which as the lamentable experience of our times hath taught vs , are still ready to snateh it out of mens mouthes as fast as it enters in at their eares , causing them as it were to belch vp the word receiued in vnsauoury talke , to vent it in vnseemely iests or secular meriments . This ill retention of what is heard argues the heart was not well prepared to heare : for which malady the wise Kings prescription is the best . s Take heed to thy foot , when thou goest to the house of God ; and be more ready to heare then to giue the sacrifice of fooles : for they consider not that they doe euill . Euen the best wisdome of the world is foolishnesse with God ; vnto whom he sacrificeth folly , whosoeuer empties not his soule thereof , when he comes to stand before the Lord , who accepts of no sacrifice to the contrite and broken heart , full onely o●●o●row for sinnes committed , or thankesgiuing for their remission . To bring earthly thoughts into his sanctuary , is to tread on holy ground with vnhallowed feet , which Moses the man of God was forbidden to doe , and we are commaunded to haue ours shod with the preparation of the Gospell . How great soeuer our other cares or businesses be , wee should at our entrance into the Church winde vp our thoughts as men doe their watches , that they beate not on any wordly matter , till the time allotted for hearing and ruminating vpon the word receiued be past . The bell which cals vs thither should warne all secular cogitations to absent themselues from our hearts ; otherwise by often hearing we doe but encrease our dulnesse in hearing , for the confused sound of the letter , without distinct articulation or impression made by the spirit , causeth deafenesse in the sense of sacred discipline . 2. But of ordinary hearers whom these admonitions most concerne , a great part doe not mingle seedes but receiue the pure word with gladnesse , minding no earthly matters whiles it is in setting ; who notwithstanding mightily ouersee in prognosticating of a ioifull haruest , by this gladsome or forward spring . Such hearts our Sauiour compares to stony ground , wherein seed cast shootes vp a pace , but withers as fast for want of root . Rootes , though of trees , can goe no deeper then the rocke or stone , nor can the word of life sinke deeper into the heart of man , then vnto the rootes of his naturall desires or affections ; these vnrenounced either stifle it in the growth , or prohibite the spreading of it any farther , then where it can be no annoyance vnto their propagations . Such as apprehend the tidings of peace with ioy whilest they are vttered , but forthwith relent when the profession of their truth , exposeth them to bodily griefe or sorrow , are so affected to it , as rich men or good house-keepers to pleasant companions , whom they louingly entertaine at their tables , not willing to enter bonds for bettering their fortunes , or any way to endanger the diminishing of their owne estates , for releasing these men from hard durance . And such warinesse is a point of wisdome , whilest practised towards such as we are tied vnto onely in the common bond of ordinary curtesie , or humanitie , or of whom we expect no greater good then vsuall delight : but it should be odious and detestable , if it were shewed towards such as haue engaged their liues , lands or goods for vs , or vnto them in whose defence or maintenance our very liues and substance are due ; as to our Prince , our parents or country . But for the euerlasting kingdome what can be too deare ? Not the whole world if we had it , and all the holdfasts it can lay vpon vs. The passiue incapacity or bad quality of the vnregenerate , which in proportion answeres to stony ground , is in generall impatiency of aduersity , and that but a veine or seame of mans hard and stony heart , before it be rightly enstamped with that fundamentall precept of denying himselfe , and loosing life for CHRISTS sake , which in effect containes as much as Moses tables and the Prophets . The branches of this generall aduersitie , which , though in the purchase of so glorious a Kingdome , doth offend vs , are of diuers kinds , not all alike apt to endanger euery nature or disposition . To be crost in suites of honor or preferment , is vnto some as bitter as death : but many there be who haue wained their thoughts from great matters , and yet can hardly brooke a broken estate or places far below their education , or merits in mens esteeme that be indifferent . Others not greedy of glory , or farre spreading fame , are iealous of their reputation within it precincts , and very impatient of disgrace amongst their equals or acquaintance ▪ whereof notwithstanding we should be sorry onelie to giue iust occasion , but glad to suffer it vniustly laid vpon vs for truths sake . All of vs haue some or other tender parts of our soules , which we cannot endure should be vngently touched : euery man must bee his owne methodist to find them out , and to accustome them by little and little to more familiaritie with those grieuances whose assaults if suddaine , were like to daunt them , when they should fight the good fight of faith . All of vs haue many secret concomitants of life from which we cannot willingly part : our safest course would be gently to cut the strings , or loose the ligaments one after another , which tie vs vnto this present world , that we may be drawne out of it ( as our teeth by this method are out of our lawes ) with lesse dfficulty when God shall call vs. O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liueth at rest in his possessions , vnto the man that hath nothing to vex him , and that hath prosperity in all things : yea vnto him that is yet able to receiue meate ? To like purpose , if I mistake not the circumstances , was his meaning . Illi mors grauis incubat , Qui notus nimis omnibus , Ignotus moritur sibi . That knowledge onely count thine owne , Which to thy selfe thy selfe makes knowne : The life men liue by fame is light : Death alwaies sad without foresight . CHAP. VI. Of that temper of heart which in proportion answeres to thornie ground : of the deceitfullnesse of riches : how difficult a matter it is to haue them and not to trust in them . The reason why most rich men of our times neuer mistrust themselues of putting this trust in Mammon . _1 . BVt many as was intimated in the former parable , that can hold the armor of faith close about them in stormes of aduersitie , are often enticed to put it off by faire countenance of the world , or smiling graces of blind fortune , wooing them to follow the vnlawfull fashions of her Court. Many Confessors in time of persecutions , haue prooued apostataes and factious schismatickes after long peace and prosperity . Now it would be , I thinke , lesse grieuous for a traueller to die in a farre Country in his setting foorth , then to be drowned within ken of shore at his returne ; a misfortune more ful of misery then can be expressed , to haue escaped Sylla and Charibdis rage , or safely to haue passed the streights of Magellan , and afterwards through carelesnesse to cast away both ship and passenger vpon the golden sands of Tagus , Orinoque , or Riodel plato . Much harder notwithstanding is their mishap which begin in the spirit and end in the flesh , not that they were at any time actuall participants of the sanctifying spirit , but that they had a resolution in it kind truely answerable to his prescriptions , vntill some aduentitious contagion of the flesh did pollute and corrupt it . The imperfection of these mens constitution our Sauiour exemplifies by ground in it selfe not bad , but wherein good seed well sowne comes to no proofe , by reason of thornes , brakes or such other weedes , or trash as vsually grow vp in the fields of sluggards , or men so detained with other businesses that they cannot intend their husbandry . The meanes whereby weedes hurt the corne , are especially two ; either by stealing away the strength and vigor of the soile , which should nourish it , ( for which reason trees too closely set cannot thriue , ) or by a kind of antipathy , or secret enmitie , which may bee either in the essentiall properties of the very seeds or roots , or in the cumbersome vicinitie of the blades or stalkes , each according to their strength apt to stifle other . That which in respect of our spirituall growth in faith answeres in proportion to thornes or tares amongst corne , is in generall worldly care , or sollicitude , especially the deceiptfulnesse of riches , or voluptuous life . It is hard to handle pitch and not to be defiled with it , it is harder for the soule of man to be much conuersant in any matter , and not take some touch or tincture from it ; whence all acquired inclinations , good or bad , vsually spring according to the different qualities of the obiects whereto wee are much accustomed . From this aptitude of the soule to receiue impression from externals , it fals out , that as men set to wooe or deale for others , take often oportunitie to bespeed themselues : so these things which are first sought for onely as ordinarie meanes for attaining some good end , vsually intercept the desire or loue we beare vnto the goodnesse of it ; which is successiuely infinite . For things in themselues good , admit no stint of desire , but the more we possesse of them the more we seeke , which desire or inclination , once alienated from the end vnto the means , makes vs exorbitant in all ou● courses . This miscarriage of our intentions is the sourse of all idolatry , of superstition , of hypocrisie , of all inordinatenesse in moralities : and is hardest to be preuented in the most ordinary or necessary meanes of life , as in meates and drinks , in gathering riches and worldly substance . The reason is obuious , in as much as our soules are as apt to receiue impression from these obiects , as from others , and yet must of necessity be most conuersant in these . 2. Sport or bodily exercise is meate and drinke to youth of better mettall ; of which , who is carefull for the belly , saue onely to satisfie present appetite , or to enable their bodies to actiuitie ? yet by eating well vpon such occasions , or prouocations , the stomach will come in time to prescribe , or pleade a custome ; and plenty of foode , though first sought for necessity or encreasing of ability , is afterwards necessarily desired , though to the ouercharging or disenabling of nature . To be enamoured with the sight of money is more naturall to young choughes then children ; vnto whom notwithstanding once comen to yeares of discretion , and left to their owne care or prouision , the vse of this mettall , as the world hath now decreed , is very necessary for supplies of life in euerie kinde : and mens desires to have it for this end , often multiplied or reiterated , ●et ouer the soule to loue it selfe for it selfe ; as too much familiarity , or frequent conuersation with creatures not so amiable , entice men , otherwise fit watches for more comely personages , to follie and vnlawfull lust . And this is the mischiefe of mischiefes that the fruition of money or coine being permanent , the inordinate inclination to it still increaseth with the acquisition of it , though lawfull . This the Heathen had obserued as an axiome almost without exception amongst those that knew not God. a Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit . Our loue to pelfe doth alwaies grow , as fast as pelfe it selfe doth flow . And from notice of the danger whereto increase of wealth expose mens soules , the Psalmist thought that admonition necessarie , b If riches encrease set not thy heart vpon them . Euery vice is a kinde of madnesse , in respect of that vniformity which accompanies faith and Christian sobrietie : yet many vices there be ; very foule in the act , which leaue a sting behind them , and by scourging the minde procure dilucida interualla , wherein the doctrine of life may be clearely represented , and make some impression vpon their soule . But such is not the nature of auarice or ambition : of men polluted with which diseases what one in another case hath said is most true , Qui nunquam delirat semper erit fatuus : as they bewray no spice of frantickenesse in the actuall prosecution of what they entend , so they remaine perpetuall idiotes in continuing their sinister choice . 3. It would bee a matter very difficult to finde a man in this age , in whom the word of God , as farre as the eye of mans obseruation can pierce , had taken better roote , or more vniformely branched it selfe into euery commaundement of the Law , then in that rich man ( or as Saint a Luke entitles him that ruler ) b which came running , yet not forgetfull of good respect , vnto our Sauiour : for kneeling he tenders this petition , Good Master what shall I doe that I may possesse eternall life . That as well the appellation as his desire was sinccre , and not pretended , is manifested by our Sauiours loue , which was neuer set on outward feature or externall complement , but on internall integrity and ingenuitie . His profession of obseruing all the commaundements from his youth , had his owne heart beene a competent iudge of his demeanor , was not hypocriticall but true ; for such had his care and resolution beene . But he that was greater then his heart , perceiued some thornes or weedes , already taken , which would o●ertop the good seed sowen in it , and keepe down his thoughts from growing vp to heauen , whereunto our Sauiour would haue exalted him , could ye haue suffered the extirpation of these weedes . One thing is yet lacking to thee , goe and sell all that thou hast , and giue to the poore , and thou shalt haue treasures in heauen , and come follow me , taking vp thy crosse . But he was sad at this saying , and went away sorrowfull . What was the reason ? his heart was with his treasure ; and care of keeping it , or secret delight in inioying it , being crept into the same roome , did sucke away that vertue and influence , wherby the word sowen should haue receiued strength and increase , alienating part of his soule from God , whom he was to loue with all his soule , with all his heart and all his strength . The reason of his heauy and sorrowfull departure , as it is expressed by two Euangelists , was not any vnsatiable desire of riches , or vnconscionable meanes to get them : his chiefe fault was , that he was maruellous rich ; or as S. Marke saith , that he had great possessions . For to haue these but in competent measure , and not to trust in them , is a more extraordinary blessing of God then their greatest abundance , though gotten without extortion , fraud or coosenage . Nor is it the deceitfull and fraudulent meanes commonly vsed in gathering wealth , but the deceitfulnesse of it howsoeuer gathered , which choakes the word , and makes the heart wherein it is sowen vnfruitfull . If wee rightly obserue the bounds or limits whereby the seuerall parts of this parable are distinguished , and their peculiar disposition whom our Sauiour represents vnto vs by thorny ground ; his phrase doth intimate that the very presence of riches and large possessions , though neuer sought for , though scarce expected , will inchant mindes , otherwise free and liberall with a secret delight in their fruition , and a desire to retaine if not to encrease them , and so by degrees vnobseruable breed such distempers in the soule as will be ready to bring forth death ere they can be discouered ; as bad humours oft times gather in strong bodies , neuer descried but by some straine , causing them to settle or make head against nature on a suddaine , without due obseruance of our temperature , whether naturall , customarie or accidentall , right choice of seasonable exercise , and moderation of cares in our studies or businesses , such grieuous maladies as were now mentioned may grow ripe when wee least thinke ; albeit we had Phisitians more skilfull then Hypocrates , Galen or Celsus , to appoint the set times of all our r●p●sts ▪ ●o approoue as well the qualitie as quantity of what we eat or drinke , or to ouersee vs sleeping or waking , perpetually directing vs from the right vse of other meanes ordained for preseruation of life and health . More secret by much , and more insensible is the gathering of this spirituall disease , for whose auoidance we now aduise , euen in men that make great conscience by what meanes they encrease their wealth , and will not aduenture on any bargaine though neuer so good , without particular warrant from the word of life , or some peculiar prescriptions from the learned Phisitians of their soules . Nor is there any meanes to preuent the danger saue onely by continuall exercise of good workes , almes , and other deedes of charitie , by prudent carefulnesse to improoue their substance gotten as farre as may be to Gods glory ; and oft times by voluntarie abstinence from lawfull gaine , which by their forbearance might befall the poore brethren . For a rich man to know how well he loues his riches , that is , to discouer the instant danger of his disease , is otherwise impossible , vnlesse he were put to such a plunge as this young man was , vrged to forsake them vtterly all at once : which hee doubtlesse that vseth not such charitable exercises as are here mentioned , would not haue done , though our Sauiour in person should haue charged him so to doe : Easier it is by this assiduous carefulnesse and religious practice to weede all rootes of loue , or trust in riches by little and little out of the heart , then to bee plucked from them vpon a suddaine : albeit vtterly to extirpate all trust in them , where they abound , is onely possible to the omnipotent power , and a rare document of diuine mercie as that dialogue betwixt our Sauiour and his Disciples , begunne vpon the former young mans sorrowfull departure at the mention of such qualification as he exacted of his followers , doth necessarily implie . IESVS ( saith the g Euangelist ) looked round about and said vnto his Disciples , How hardly doe they that haue riches enter into the Kingdome of God ? His manner of vttring it , or other circumstances not expressed , did intimate greater difficulty to his Disciples at the first hearing , then this short speech doth vnto vs. For they were asto●ied at his words . Did they then mistake him ? or was he willing to make the difficulty les●e then they conceiued it ? No , he answered againe ; children how hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the Kingdome of heauen ? i It is easier for a camell to goe through the eye of a needle , then for , whom ? he that trusts in riches ? No , for a rich man , to enter into the kingdome of God. Well might this reassumption of the former difficultie increase their astonishment , and extort that demaund , who then ( what rich man at least ) can be saued ? with men it is impossible any should , but not with God. Howbeit to make entrance into the kingdome of God for him that trusts in riches , while he trusts in them , is no act of his omnipotent power ; seeing no man can trust in him and in riches too : for this were to serue him and Mammon : nor is it possible by the diuine decree , that any should enter into that kingdome , without trust in God. The matter therefore which seemed altogether vnpossible to the conceipt of CHRISTS disciples was for a rich man not to trust in riches , as much as this young man did : this is an extraordinary gift of God to be sought with greater care , with greater diligence and frequency of praiers , of fastings and practices of charity , then either wealth , preferment , health , life or whatsoeuer may befall it , Blessed is the rich which is found without blemish , and hath not gone after gold , nor hoped in money and treasure . Who is he , and we will commend him ? for wonderfull things hath he done among his people . Who hath beene tried thereby , and found perfect ? let him be an example of glory , who might offend , and hath not offended , or doe euill , and hath not done it . Therefore shall his goods be established , and the congregation shall declare his almes . 4. But as in most other points , so in this , we vsually fill vp the measure of our iniquitie vnto the brimme ere wee thinke Gods iudgements can approach vs , by a generall ouersight ( elsewhere discouered ) in vsing the seculiar phrase of our corrupt times , rather then the gage of the sanctuary for notifying the capacity of that body of sinne , which we beare about vs , or the greatnesse of our actuall transgressions . Who will not confesse that it is very hard to haue riches and not to trust in them , and impossible for him that trusts in them to enter into the kingdome of God : But who is he will thus assume , [ It is very likely that I trust in riches : ] what is it blindes vs but the grosse language whereto we are accustomed ? as if to trust in them , were to say vnto them , ye shall deliuer mee , to pray or offer sacrifice vnto them ? yet so our hearts say though we perceiue it not , vnlesse we be more carefull and vigilant to make vs friends of the vnrighteous Mammon , then either to get or keepe treasures though lawfull , vnlesse more delighted in employing them to charitable vses , then in watching or entertaining oportunities for increasing them . In them we trust , not in our God , vnlesse the inclinations of our hearts to get , or forgoe them , be so iustly poised that any occasion of doing good doe cast our resolution as readily one way as the other ; that their losse , if by Gods appointment they take wing , doe not so depresse our soules , but that they may instantly returne as Iobs did vnto their wonted station , The Lord hath giuen and the Lord hath taken away , blessed be the name of the Lord. So prepared we should bee that our ioy should flow as well when our earthly store doth ebbe , as when it swelleth , d Let the brother of low degree ( saith Saint Iames ) reioice in that he is exalted , but the rich in that he is made low , for as the flower of the grasse he passeth away . Thus whiles wealth increases it should occasion vs to trust in God , because he giues it : but more whiles it failes , because it is then more manifest there is no trust to be reposed in it . CHAP. VII . Of the antipathy betweene true Faith and ambition or selfe-exaltation : That the one resembles our Sauiours , the other Sathans disposition : Briefe admonitions for auoiding such dangers as grow from other branches of voluptuous life . 1. SEeing desire of riches drawes vs into so many snates , and intangles vs with so many noisome lusts : the reader happily will condemne the couetous as the man whom God abhorreth most . Howbeit besides couetousnesse , or loue of riches , another root of euill there is , whose antipathy with the seed of life is like the enmity betwixt the womans and the serpents seed● . And no maruell seeing true and liuely faith is the expresse image of that humble , meek & lowly mind which was in Christ , as this wilde tare , whose extirpation we seeke , is but the ofspring of the great serpents venemous pride . Riches choke or sti●le the word of life in the growth , and make the passage into the kingdome of God so hard and narrow for the rich man , as is declared : but aspiring thoughts perish the very first seedes and rootes of faith , and cast downe the ambitious man headlong from approaching the gate whereat the righteous enter ; for a euery one that exalts himselfe shall bee brought low . Could we rightly measure the nature of ambition , or exaltation of mans selfe , by the true rule of the sanctuary , and not by the popular notions or conceipts that men this way very faulty haue of this infernall sinne , we might finde a more compendious ascent vnto the holie mount , then most doe take or care to enquire after . The roote whence this mischiefe springs as all agree , is a desire of ciuill power or greatenes ; which then onely ( in vulgar esteeme ) brancheth it selfe into ambition , when this greatnes is sought for by vnlawfull meanes : but this is a mist of error or hypocrisie in the minde , which riseth from foggy desires of this grosse humour in the heart . For we may , as often we doe , vse lawfull meanes for compassing most vnlawfull ends ; so may the end which we earnestly intend be exceeding good , and yet the intention of it very naught . Though Atheisme be the vsuall fruit of ambition come to full growth , or throughly ripe , yet many in a lower degree ambitiously minded often seeke after good places in Churches or Common-weale , with earnest desire to doe more good in them then others would ; howbeit the verie accomplishment of these seeming good desires , or intentions , makes them worse men then they were before ; and their Countrey can neuer gaine much by such exchanges ; as that Emperour intimated to his souldiers , bonum militem perdidistis , imperatorem pessimum creastis , by loosing a good pastor for a corrupt prelate , or a tolerable priuate man for a naughty Magistrate . Admit the partie thus aduanced might empty the Common-weale of manie enormities wherewith it had beene , and without him might be continually p●stered : yet the vsuall cousequences of high aduancements vpon so bad foundations , which like eclipses haue not their farre spreading effects till many yeares after , adde much to the fulfilling of their iniquitie with whom they liue , and cause Gods secret iudgements to hasten their pace . Did we not looke more on the visible meanes whereby good or euill seemes to be wrought , then on his inuisible power that can contriue our finall happinesse by misfortunes , and dispose aduantages to our vtter vndoing : his will reuealed against selfe-exaltation and ambition would warrant the oxthodoxall truth of this paradox , that how sincere socuer mens purposes may seeme vnto themselues , or how successefull soeuer their proiects may be held in politique guesse , yet whosoeuer he be that shall affect higher dignities in Churhc or common weale before he haue fully conquered all temptations whereto these lower mansions are exposed , doth seeke a certaine mischiefe to himselfe and others . But for a positiue rule to secure our hears from all contagion of this hellish weed , it sufficeth , not that our consciences can giue vs full assurance we haue beene most vigilant , trustie and carefull in our former callings ere wee looke after greater matters : for though this rule hold negatiuely true [ none can be fashioned for greater honour , but by faithfull discharge of lesser offices , ] manie notwithstanding may be fitly qualified for the one , and yet very vnapt for the other ; as diuers plants well taken , and likely to thriue euery day better then other in the soile wherein they haue been first set , would hardly prosper in another more commodious for better purposes . Besides this perfection of sinceritie , or hopes of it encrease in our accustomed calling : vnto such a qualification for an higher as shall not endanger the growth of faith , to compare as well the quality as the strength of our present inclinations with the seuerall impulsions or allurements of that promotion we desire is very requisite . Euen after we be secured , vpon calculation most exact , of our force and skill to resist or preuent these , the very desire of rising higher , vnlesse suggested by the concurrence of Gods prouidence , or some peculiar instinct free from all suspitious attendants , or rather accompanied with good thoughts or other pledges of internall comfort , is very dangerous . To follow the naturall or vsuall working of our will forecasting means of our aduancement , is to exalt our selues , and that in the issue is to desire to be brought low . The Iewes pressing for the highest places at feasts was but a symptome or manifestation of this inward distemper of heart , vnto which our Sauiour applies this medicine , When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding sit not downe in the highest roome , lest a more honorable man then thou , bee bidden of him . And he that bade thee and him , come , and say vnto thee , Giue this man place , and thou beginne with shame to take the lowest roome . But when thou art bidden goe and sit downe in the lowest roome , that when he that hade thee commeth , hee may say vnto thee , friend goe vp higher : then shalt thou haue worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee . For whosoeuer exalteth himselfe shall be abased : and he that humbleth himselfe , shall be exalted . It was not his purpose at this or other time to giue any rules for ciuill complement , or fashionable behauiour amongst strangers at the table , but such as were parabolicall , and had especiall reference to the internall frame or composall of mens resolutiens . The true meaning of the former parable is this , that seeing here we haue no abiding City , but continues as Pilgrimes , Gods Hospitals or Almesmen ; the meanest estate furnished with a tolerable supply of necessaries , should best content our priuate choice ; alwaies referring our aduancement to the sweet disposition or imitation of the diuine prouidene . Our Sauiour himselfe , though exactly accomplished for the right gouernance of more worlds then this world hath prouinces , did not take vnto himselfe the honor to be made high Priest , but he that said vnto him , this day haue I begotten thee , did thereto call him . And seeing to simbolize with the imitable perfections of his humane nature in the daies of his humiliation , is the most immediate and formail effect of faith ; he that desires to haue it prosper in his heart should first seeke to frame the like minde in himselfe that was in CHRIST , euen to euacuate his breast , though not of all hopes , yet of all present desires or actuall addressements to raise his estate or fortunes , grounding his expectation of future glorie in true humilitie and content●dnesse with the lowest place amongst Gods people , not taking honour to himselfe vntill he be called of God as was Aaron . 2. But to speake of an inward or particular calling to anie course of life seemes but as a relation of some dreame , or fancie in these wretched times , wherein of such as would be thought religious , and beare the names of Diuines , the most are more ready to impeach their owne loyalty towards CHRIST , and make wilfull forfeiture of faith and honesty by open profession of ambitious , and vnconscionable aspiring resolutions , then to disparage their wit or sufficiency ( as they conceipt it ) in the worlds iudgement , by renouncing their slender vncertaine hopes , or remote interest in promotion , which cannot be sought for without excessiue paines and trouble , and these alwaies great , with pining care how to maintaine or keepe it gotten , before they can be sure to get it . k Ye are of your Father the diuell , saith our Sauiour to the Iewes , and his workes you fulfill , for hee was a murtherer from the beginning ; yet was his rebellious pride and ambition the Mother of his murtherous minde . The lowest rancke of his fellow Angles , neuer affecting to climbe higher then the places first appointed them , remaine to this day loyall towards God , louing one towards another , and kinde to man their neighbour though inferiour creature . But for Lucifer to shine as the morning starre amongst his brethren did not suffice vnlesse he farre exceed the Moone , and become like the midday Sunne in glory . According to the exorbitancie of this desire , and height of his fall thereby procured hath the maliciousnesse of his deiected pride , and deepe dissimulation for bringing his murtherous plots about , continued since . Whose sonnes then may we suppose they are who neuer contented with their naturall station , much bettered by many casuall accessions , and daily additions of Gods temporall blessings , searce giue themselues respite to thinke how well God hath done by them alreadie ; so eagerly are they set to soare higher and higher without fixing any period to their towering thoughts ; as if they had said in their hearts , a Wee will ascend aboue the height of the clouds , and wee will be like the most high . Besides their participation of this hereditary qualitie , or first sinne of Sathan , the preposterous deuises of men ambitious to effect their wils , rightly blazened proclaime their pedigree . For as Lucifer since ●●● fall , albeit still like himselfe , not the sonne but the father or Prince of darkenesse , doth outwardly transforme himselfe into an Angell of light : So this painted Helen , the mistresse of moderne thoughts , ambition , though alwaies in trauell with rauen , murther and cruelty , is notwithstanding for outward resemblance ( as one well obserues ) the most exquisite ape of that Angelicall vertue , Christian charity ; It suffereth all things , it endureth all things , it belieueth all things , it doth not behaue it selfe vnseemely , it is kinde , not with respect to Gods glory or any spirituall end , but to the recompence of present reward , or in hope of gaining their fauour which may aduantage it . Not late experience of our owne misery can make vs poore men more compassionate to our miserable brethren , then one ambitious man is courteous or kinde vnto another , or ready to further him in causes that doe not crosse his owne preferment . And happie were they in their mutuall kindnesses , were not these full of cruelty towards the poore , and needy . From a generall consideration how mightily that golden rule , d [ Whatsoeuer yee would that men should doe vnto you , euen so doe vnto them , ] is violated by the mighty of our times , I was moued some yeeres agoe to vtter publikely , what no experiments which I could since obserue , as yet occasion me to recall ; that if all the calamities either immediately laid vpon men of meaner rancke by God , or procured by their owne follie and ouersight , were laid together in one ballance ; all would not equalize the grieuances which befall them by the mutuall gratifications of great ones , who either spare not to sacrifice the life and substance of the needy , ( with whose miseries the huge distance of their places will not suffer them to be affected , ) vnto others luxury or superfluous pleasures , with whose vnnecessary wants through the vicinity of their estates , and like conditions they easily and exactly sympathize ; or else to ease themselues of some light care in preferring their dependants , respect not what heauy burthens fall vpon inferiours by these vnnecessary aduancements of their fauorites . Againe , vnto what meane seruices , and base emploiments for satisfying bodily lust , or desires of reuenge will these infernall sonnes of pride prostitute themselues , to gaine some present interest with hope of future soueraignty in seely impotent & discontented soules ? And did he not well characterize the ambitious man , that said , vt dominetur aliis prius seruit : curuatur obsequie vt honore donetur ? How many in our times would be willing , so God would graunt it , to take Chams curse vpon them for their present blessing , euen to be serui seruorum , slaues to great mens seruants , so they might hope at length to dominere in the tents of Sem , or beare rule ouer the tribe of Leui ? Lastly there is a property wherein the hellish fiend , the bewitched loue and the ambitious minde are vniuocall communicants . For though all of them daily complaine of their vexations , as being howerly tortured with those things which they most affect : yet can no inducement draw them to desist , still as it were striuing to entangle themselues faster in the cordes or bonds of their cruell rackes . 3. Or if the troubles of minde wherewith the ambitious mans suites are still sollicited , and their accomplishment perpetually attended , did want that sting whereby euen his sweetest delights become too deare : he were to be thought very vnwise , or wise in his generation onely , that would forgoe the pleasant opportunities of a priuate life for the right setting of his faith , for the encrease of his deuotion , or gaining greater frequencie of more familiar and secret conference with the spirit of truth ; albeit he were sure to gaine a kingdome by employing his wits another way . For g what doth it aduantage a man to gaine the whole world with danger of loosing his owne soule : yet is he very likely to loose it that hath but small time to seeke it ; and as h one saith , nemo occupatus bonam mentem inuenit , he that is much busied in other matters , whereunto God particularly hath not called him , can hardly be at leasure to search much lesse to finde , in what tearmes his owne soule stands with her Creator , or faithfully to make vp those accounts our Sauiour exacts at our hands ere we can be worthy of his seruice . Yet of all businesses ambitious emploiments most hinder the true knowledge of our selues , whose first elements are , Dust thou art and vnto dust shalt thou returne . Dust then being our natiue foile , and last home , to which we must by a decree most certaine one time or other , but vncertaine whether sooner or later , repaire , by soa●ing aloft we doe but make our wearisome way the longer and crookedder , and our fall especially if suddaine more grieuous . And seeing such aspiring thoughts as we harbour , did ouerturne the great tempter himselfe ; that which a religious father obserued of pride in generall , is most proper to this branch at whose rootes we strike , vntimely desire of promotion , such as are ouergrown herewith need not tempter : the diuell cannot wish them more harme then they are ready to doe themselues by zealous following that course , which brought him to his fall . Cease I shall to wonder hereafter what spirit should moue such young and tender oliue plants , as scarce thriue vnder the wals of Gods house , or such vines as hardly beare fruite in the warme and wel-fenced vale , to affect remoouall to the cold and open mountaines , exposed to blasts of noisome windes . Is it their glory to bee aboue others of their owne rancke and education ? This might be purchased with lesse danger to themselues , and more good to Gods Church if they sought to ouertop them more by their owne proper height , or seasonable well furnished growth then by mere aduantage of ground . For d when euery valley shall bee exalted and euery hill and mountaine made low , vntil the crooked become straight and the vneuen places plaine : the fruit which hath growne in the vale will appeare , both higher and better then the ordinary ofspring of the mountaines . O that men were so wise as in heart to consider , that the lower their place , so not exposed to flouds of violence , the apter it is to suck in the deaw of Gods blessing in greatest plentie . 4. The poore Galilean , or vulgar Iew , had liberty to follow CHRIST euery hower , not ashamed to be seene at midday in his company . But the conspicuous eminency of e Nicodemus place compels him to repaire vnto his Lord , like a thiefe by night , an ill aboodance , that those heauenly misteries wherewith he sought to enlighten his minde should seeme obscure . This man was growne so great in Israell that he could hardly be taken downe to the pitch of childhood , or infancy , into which mould of necessitie he must be cast , ere he can be borne anew , or receiue the kingdome of heauen aright . Men in our times of farre greater place then Nicodemus was , may safely professe themselues CHRISTS disciples ; for not to be such in profession , or not to shew themselues sometimes openly in the assembly of his Saints is their greatest shame and ignominy : but so to strippe themselues of the flesh of the world , of all prerogatiues of birth or secular emmency , as they must ere they can be regenerated by the spirit , or become new men in CHRIST IESVS , would vtterly spoile their goodly fashion in the worlds eye ; in which if we might examine their hearts by their practice , or auowed resolutions , they onelie glorie : Confesse CHRIST then in speech they may , but how is it possible they should truely belieue in him when they loue the praise of men more then rebuke for his sake , and receiue honour one of another not seeking that honour which commeth of God alone . To beleeue CHRIST in ordinary phrase is lesse then to belieue in him ; yet he that seekes , but in the lowest degree , to belieue him must abandon that humour , which he hath discouered , as the principall roote of Iewish vnbeliefe or deniall of him . Was that then such grosse ambition as our corrupt language onely takes notice of ? was it immoderate desire of greater places then they enioied ? or rather onely feare least they should no longer enioy these ? The c sight of his miracles , and euidence of his diuine predictions had won the assent of some , euen amongst the Rulers , vnto his doctrine as true , whilest simply considered , or compared onely with the speculatiue arguments brought against it by his aduersaries . But what they belieued in part as true , they did not assent vnto as good , or not as better then the praise of men ; For ( saith the Euangelist ) they loued the praise of men more then the praise of God. Did they then expect to haue their praises sounded out by some panegyricall encomiast in solemne assemblies , or vnworthyly to gaine an honorable report amongst posterity ? No , these are rewards of resolution in speech , and action , not of silence . Iust suspition we can gather none of anie such haughty conceipt , or desire so farre exorbitant , seeing all they could expect for not confessing CHRIST , was , not to haue their good names or fame called in question , or to speake as it is written , because of the Pharisees they did not confesse him , least they should be cast out of the sinagogue . Liable they were vnto the former verdict of louing the praise of men more then the praise of God , in as much as they feared the losse of their places or reputation which they enioied , more then CHRISTS censure of such as are ashamed of him , or his words before men . Ashamed of him most of vs in our owne iudgement are not : for , in that grosse construction which hypocrisie suggests of this speech , in deed we cannot , as being brought vp in a state , which as it acknowledgeth him for the Redeemer and Iudge of the world , so is it able to disgrace vs and our acquaintance enduring life , and both our posterities after death , if we should denie him openlie before the Iew or Turke . But the q words which he spake , and must iudge the Iew for refusing him , will in that last day condemne vs also , if we receiue not them . Such as receiue not him receiue not God that sent him , and he that receiueth not his wordes receiueth not him . He that is ashamed of the one is vpon the same tearmes ashamed of the other ; and whilest we haue his Gospell and other Apostolicall writings , not belieuing them better then these Iewes late mentioned did him , it were hypocriticall , euen Iewish credulity to think we should haue belieued him , though we had beene eyewitnesses of his miracles , or resurrection from the dead . How many then , of higher fortunes especiallie , can we without breach of charity towards our Sauiour , and the truth of his Gospell , suppose this day liuing that can iustly say their hearts are free from such rootes , or seedes of ambition , as haue beene discouered in these Iewish rulers , yet these such as admit no compossibilitie with the seede of faith . What cause so good , what truth so manifest , or so highly concerning the honour of God , what persons so deare vnto his sonne , in whose furtherance or iust defence , either feare of sharpe censure in a ciuill , or of excommunication in an ecclesiastique court , losse of their places , or deiection from such rule or dignity as in Church or Common-weale they beare , will not make most men either afraid or ashamed to speake , ( at least ) openly to oppose their superiours in honor onely , not in knowledge of CHRISTS lawes or precepts ? Is not this to loue the praise of men more then the praise of God , to haue the n faith of our Lord IESVS CHRIST , the Lord of glory , with respect of persons ? Or if the obiects of our vsuall feare be in themselues of lesse force to withdraw vs from confessing Christ before men , then the temptations which these Iewes had ( for what to them more terrible then to bee cast out of the synagogue ? ) our faith musts needes be lesse then theirs was , though theirs no better then none , because it vanisheth as fast vpon the first approach , or rather conceipt of persecution , as the morning deaw doth at the sunnes appearance . But if the Pharisees , whose censure they feared , would haue countenanced our Sauiours doctrine , they had beene as forward Confessors as the best of vs , and Christians altogether as good as any that loue the applause , or feare the checke of men in authoritie , when truth disgraced or destitute of assistance requires their testimony . 5. If the least spice of this disease be so dangerous , what mischiefe may the heat of it procure vnto the soule of man ? It may as it often doth enflame the heart in which it kindles , with ardent desires of false martyrdome , but feares the conscience that is can neuer become truely Christian vntill euery sparkle of this strange fire be extinguished , and the sore it bred moistened with teares , or mollified with true humilitie . Mindes tainted with other corruptions seldome shrinke in defence of the truth whereto they assent , vntill assaulted by violence , or pinched with some reall persecution . Ambition onely though in the lowest degree , or but kindling , in tickling loue of applause , or iealousies of ill report , is danted with shadowes , and made to fly the field for feare of being lashed with absent tongues . And no maruell , when as the reprochfull censure of the multitude , or of men on whose voice and sentence it mosts depends ( though bequeathed by our Sauiour as an especiall blessing , descending by inheritance to his chosen from their fathers the true Prophets , ) is apprehended by the ambitious , or popular minded , as the most grieuous curse , that can be fall them . b Blessed are ye ( saith our Sauiour ) when men hate you , and when they separate you , and reuile you , and put out your name as euill , for the Sonne of mans sake . Reioice ye in that day and be glad , for behold , your reward is great in heauen : for after this manner their fathers did to the Prophets . On the contrary what he denounced as a woe is made chiefe matter of their ioy , that affect an vniuersall esteeme of honest discreet men . c Woe be to you when all men speake well of you , for so did their Fathers to the false Prophets . Thus much of this poisonous weed , whose fertile growth in the Cleargie seemes to bee prouoked by couetousnesse in the Laitie . For the more conscionable Patrons be , and the more worldly or troublesome Parishioners be ; the more vnsatiable are many Ministers desires of dignities , or pluralities , as if they sought to beate their aduersaries at their owne weapons , to outweary the minor sort insuites of law , to outuie the greater in secular pompe or brauery . Manie other branches there be of voluptuous life , through whose deceitfulnesse the word of life is secretly choakt , or stifled in mindes otherwise well affected , and by good husbandry apt to fructifie : but their particular discussion I must referre to the Readers priuate meditations ; contenting my selfe only to touch the generalitie . 6. The course of a Christians life may most fitly be compared to a nauigation , his body is as the barke , the humane soule the owner , and the spirit of God the Pilot. As there is no sea-faring man that can be secured of continuall calme ; but must resolue , as to meet with stormes and with rough or growneseas , so to redeeme himselfe , and his passengers from their rage sometimes with losse of fraughtage , sometimes of tackling or ( in desperate extremities ) of the vessell with her burthen : so is there no Christian that can expect , or may desire a generall exemption from temptations ; but must be contentto preuent the shipwracke of faith and conscience , one while with losse of goods , or other appertinences of mortall life , otherwhiles with losse of some bodily part , ( for if either hand or foote shall offend vs , it must be cut off , rather then Christ should be forsaken , ) sometimes with loosing all feasts of friendship or dependance , ( for he that loues father or mother , brother or sister , kith or l●in , superiour or inferiour more then Christ , is not worthy of him , ) sometimes with dissolution of body and soule ; for , b whosoeuer will saue his life ( when Christs cause shall demaund the aduenture of it ) shall loose it , and he that will loose it shall saue it . Now where the fraughtage or furniture of life is pretious , as if our fare be delicate , our other pleasures or contentments in their kinde , rare and delectable ; our alliance or acquaintance choice and amiable ; our reuenues ample , or authority great ; the flesh once tempted to forsake these for preseruing conscience vpright , and confessing Christ , is ready to wrangle with the spirit ; as a greedy or iealous owner would doe with a skilfull Pilot , aduising in atempest to lessen the danger by lightening the ship . If the commodities bee grosse or base the owner perhaps can bee well content to haue some part cast ouerboord , but it costly and deere , or such as his heart is much set vpon , he had rather adventure to perish with them vnder hatches , then to see them cast into the sea : for to part from them is death . Some Christians , when blasts of temptation arise , rather then they will breake with their deare friends and acquaintance , doe finally sinke with them , as ships are sometimes cast away , through the owners vnwillingnesse to cut the cables , or loose the anchors : some , when stormes of persecution beginne to rage , rather then they will hazard losse of body , lands , or goods in Truths defence , drowne both body and soule in perdition . Seeing the wisest of vs as we are by nature , or left to our owne directions , are more cunning Merchants then Marriners , and for the most part as ignorant of the voiages we vndertake , as skilfull in the commodities we traffique for : the best resolution for our safety would be to load our selues with no greater quantity of riches , honour , or other nutriment of voluptuous life , then shall be appointed vs by the peculiar instruction of Gods spirit , which best knowes the true burthen of those brittle barkes , how well or ill they are able to abide rough seas , or such stormes as he alone foresees are likely to assault vs. And seeing we are all , by profession , lastly bound for a City which is aboue , whose commodities cannot be purchased with gold or siluer or pretious stones ; much lesse may we trucke for them , with our vncleane worldly pleasures or delightes , which may not be so much as admitted within the wals or gates : our wi●est resolution in the second place is , to accoūt euē the choisest cōmodities that sea or land or this inferior world can b affoord , but as trash or luggage , seruing onely for ballance in the passage : so shall we be ready to part with it when anie tempest shall arise , and if extremity vrge vs , like Saint c Paul , and his company , to saue our soules with losse of the barke that beares vs , and of all the whole burthen besides . 7. But this aduise may seeme like their philosophicall fancie , who would perswade vs that splendent mettall , which is enstamped with Caesars image and superscription , and furnisheth vs with all things necessary , were but a piece of purified clay , or earth and water close compacted . Shall we , whom none makes reckoning of , bring downe the price of these things , which men in authoritie , and the common consent of nations , would haue raised vnto the skies ? Shall we belieue our selues , before our betters , that bodily pleasures , great preferment , or other contentments , which almost all accompt worthy of their daily and best emploiment are nothing worth ? Sure the Heathen thought this very argument no better . a Nugae , non si quid turbida Roma . Elcuet , accedas , examenveimprobum in illa Castiges trutina : nec te quaesiuer is extra . Deeme not all naught vnsteedy Rome accompteth light ; Her seales are false and cannot way mens worth aright ; But naught without can him that 's well within affright : Let vs aske counsell of our owne hearts , and they will better enforme vs ▪ then ten thousand by-standers , that liue but by heare-say and see onelie others outsides , not what is within themselues . Though we haue riches and all other materials of worldly solace in greatest abundance ; yet our liues consist not in them , much lesse doth our felicitie . Now as in all mens iudgements he liues much better that is able to liue of his owne , then he which hath the same supplies of life in more competent measure from his friends beneuolence : so much happier is that soule , which hath delight and contentment competent within it selfe , then that which hath them heaped vpon it from without ; seeing all the delights or pleasures these can beget , suppose a precedent paine or sorrow , bred from desires vnnecessary in themselues , but such as lay a necessity vpon vs to satisfie them whiles wee haue them . It is pleasant no doubt to a woman with childe , to haue what shee longs for , but much more pleasant to a manlike minde neuer to be troubled with such longings . Not to need honour , wealth , bodily pleasures , or other branches of voluptuous life is a better ground of true peace and ioy , then full satisfaction of our eager desires , whilest they are fixed on these or other transitories . The strength of our spirits , ( by whose vnited force our vnion with the spirit of truth , must be ratified ) is much dissipated by the distractions which their very presence or entertainment necessarily require : so doth the life and rellish of all true delight internall ( into which the true peace of conscience must be engrafted , ) exhale , by continuall thinking on things without vs. Finally whiles we trouble our selues about manie things , it is impossible we should euer intirely possesse our own soules with patience , or make the best of them for purchasing that vnum necessarium , that one thing which is onely necessary . But these are points which require more full peculiar treatises , to which many Philosophers especially , Plato , Aristotle , Seneca , Plutarch , and Epictetus haue spoken much very pertinent to true diuinity ; as shall ( by Gods grace , ) appeare in the Article of euerlasting life ; As in some other particular discourses framed some yeeres agoe for mine owne priuate resolution . The counsell I here commend vnto the reader is no way dissonant vnto Saint Paules aduice vnto his dearest sonne , Godlinesse with contentment is great gaine , for we brought nothing into this world , and it is certaine we can carry nothing out : and hauing food and raiment let vs therewith be content . But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare , and into many foolish and hurtfull lusts , which drowne men in destruction and perdition . For the loue of money is the roote of all euill , which while some coueted after , they haue erred from the faith , and pierced themselues thorough with many sorrowes . But thou O man of God , flie these things ; and follow after righteousnesse , godlinesse , faith , loue , patience , meekenesse . Fight the good fight of faith . CHAP. VIII . Of the goodnesse or honesty of heart required by our Sauiour in fruitfull hearers : of the ordinary progresse from faith naturall to spirituall , and the different esteeme of diuine truthes or precepts in the regenerate man and him that is not , but sincerely desires to be such : vacancie to attend all intimations of the spirit to be sought after by all meanes possible . That alienation of our chiefe desires from their corrupt obiects is much auaileable for purchase of the inestimable pearle . 1. IF riches , loue of honour , or voluptuous life , make the soule so vnfruitfull : that temper which in proportion answeares to good soile well husbanded , presupposeth a vacuity of these desires . The positiue qualification whereto these negatiue properties are annexed , is more particularly described by our Sauiour ( as Saint Luke relates ) in his exposition of this parable , Eut that which fell in good ground are they , which with an honest and good heart heare the Word , and keepe it , and bring forth fruit with patience . Vnto such honesty or goodnesse of heart , apt thus to receiue and retaine the word of faith heard , is required ; first a sincerity of intention or choice , which presupposeth a distinct and vncorrupt notion of good and euill ; secondly , a constant resolution of prosecuting the right choyce made ▪ which presupposeth a greater freedome or liberty of practique faculties then can bee found in the couetous ambitious or voluptuous . For their desires , as all concupiscences of the flesh , preiudice the sinceritie of the intention or choice , by corrupting the notions of good and euil , and maime our resolutions withal , to follow what is euidently best , by counterswaying or resisting our inclinations vnto goodnesse . The point most likely to trouble a curious inquisitor in this argument is , whether vnto the bearing of fruit with patience there bee required a goodnesse or honesty of heart , precedent to the infusion of sanctifying grace , or that faith by which the iust doth liue ; as vnto a faire croppe there is a goodnesse of soile requisite , besides the goodnesse of the seed sowne in it . To my capacity he should much wrest our Sauiours words , and offer violence to his spirit , that should deny the truth , or proportion of this similitude . Nor can I perceiue any inconuenience not easily auoidable by application of the former distinction of a twofold goodnesse or honesty ; one commendable onely in it kinde , or by way of meere passiue qualification in it selfe , of no more worth then a field ploughed , but vn●own , another acceptable in the sight of God , as the croppe or fruit is to the husband-man . The former is ordinarily precedent , the later alwaies subsequent to true and liuely faith . All soiles ( at least in this our land ) are , though ploughed and man●red alike , vnapt to bring forth good wheat , sweet grapes , or other precious fruit , without seeds precedent , yet not all alike apt to bring forth fruit sowne or planted in them , supposing their ●illage or husbandry were equall . It is alike true of all the sonnes of Adam , that all by nature are the sonnes of wrath , all destitute of the grace of God , all alike vnapt to doe any thing truely good ▪ yet the degrees or measure of their a●ersion from God and goodnesse not perhaps alike in all , albeit wee consider them as they are by birth , without difference of education , or as they are by meere ciuill education , without any naturall knowledge of Gods written Lawe . That such as heare the word , and are pertakers of outward Christian discipline , though not inwardly sanctified , are not equally indisposed to bring forth fruit , is necessarily included in the difference of vnfruitfull hearers resembled by the high way side , and by stony and thorny grounds . The framing notwithstanding of this dispotition supposed precedent to the infusion of liuely faith , may not be ascribed to our abilities , but to the spirit of God , directing our thoughts , and enabling vs for conceiuing a kinde of preuiall faith more then naturall , by some externall or inferior grace , so proportioned to these effects , as sanctifying grace is to the fruits of true holinesse . Probable it is might we speak out of experience , that as Bees first make their Cels , then fill them with hony ▪ or as the formatiue vertue first like an artisicer frames the organs or instruments of life and sense , and makes the body a sitte shop or receptacle for the humane soule ( which comes afterwards ) to exercise all her functions and operations in : so doth the spirit vsually preorganize the heart for liuely and diuine faith to work the workes of God in it aright . But as these workes are wrought immediately by faith , though principally by the spirit which infuseth it : so likewise is the heart organized by such morall or imperfect faith as they sometimes that had afterwards sinne against the holy Ghost , but by it as the spirits instrument , vsually preexistent to the faith which neuer failes , or vnto the life of grace . VVhatsoeuer may bee rightly ascribed vnto the man already regenerate in production of true fruits of the spirit , as much I thinke we may giue without offence to our endeauours in framing this passiue capacity or disposition . In the former ( after our regeneration ) wee are by consent of most diuines coworkers with the spirit of God , albeit the works be of a supernatural quaility ; and so whatsoeuer we are , we may without inconuenience be thought in the other , it being of a nature as far inferior to the former works , as the grace wherby it is wrought is to the spirit of sanctification . But in what sense wee are said to cooperate with God , by Gods assistance in it proper place ; where , notwithstanding any captious or preiudicate surmise of this assertion , it shall be made cleare that I giue as little to mans abilities in eyther worke , as he that in reformed Churches giues the least . But to our present purpose . 2 The meere naturall man , whether Infidell , or carelesse liuer ( the excesse of his indocility supposed ) is so affected to the word of faith ; as a Barbatian that neither knows letter of booke , nor other nurture , is to ingenuous arts or liberall scienences . Such as submit themselues to sacred discipline , and heare the VVord preached with intention , though but morrally sincere , to profit by it : are in this like little children , or nouices in good literature ; that , as these abstaine from sport or play for feare of chiding or whipping , and follow their bookes sometimes onely for like motiues , sometimes for shame least their equals should outstrippe them , sometimes in hope of commendation or other childish reward : so hee that is not yet , but desires to bee regenerated , eschews what Gods Lawe forbids , but with difficulty and reluctance , oft times for feare of ecclesiastique or humane censure , sometimes vpon suspition , rather then religious dread of plagues from Heauen : hee addresseth himselfe likewise to the practise of affirmatiue precepts , but vncheerefully and with distraction , moued thereto , either because he would not be vnlike those men whose vprightnes his conscience cannot but cōmend , or from som surmise rather then sure hope of diuine reward for so doing ; neuer from vniforme and sincere delight in the good it selfe enioyned , or in the fountaine of goodnesse , whence the iniunction was deriued . Yet thus to be held in compasse , and as it were bound to good outward abearance , much auailes for bringing vs to our right mindes , or for our recouery from hereditary madnesse ; from which our soules in some measure freed , still take some tincture from the goodnesse of the obiects whereunto they are applyed : and this restraint of desires , or interposed abstinence from lusts of the flesh , yeild opportunities or fit seasons for heauenly medicines to worke vpon vs ; which otherwise would proue but as good phisicke to full stomacks , leauing no more impression of their sweetnesse in our mindes , then wholsome foode doth in distempered or infected pallates . The temper of the heart once seasoned with habituall grace , is , in respect of the word of faith , like to a minde come to maturity in choicer learning , and reaping fruits more sweet then hony or the pleasantest grape , from seedes as bitter as the birch or willow : so as now no bodilie paine or griefe , not gout , or stone , or other disease can withdraw him from those studies , vnto which smart of the rod in his yonger daies could hardly driue him . To enforce or allure him to them vpon any other respects , then onely for their natiue sweetnesse , were as superfluous and impertinent , as to threaten an ambitious man with honour , or hiring a miser to fill his bagges with gold . The fruits precedent and subsequent to true faith , are in shape or outward forme ( as often heretofore hath been implyed ) the same , but different in their taste or relish , as also in their manner of production . To abstaine from wrongs personall or reall , from all pollution of the flesh , to abiure ambitious proiects , to mislike reuengefull , wanton , or couetous thoughts , are fruits that may vniformely spring from that honesty and goodnesse of heart , vsually precedent , as we suppose , to the internall renouation of the minde , but must bee enforced as it were by art or externall culture . The contrary positiue practises which ●esemble the workes of true sanctity , notwithstanding all outward helps or enforcements of discipline , good example , or the like , are seldome brought foorth without such testinesse or morosity , as wee see in children breeding teeth , whereas true faith alwaies brings forth her fruit with ioy . Abstinence from euill , to the minde once purified by it , is as a perpetuall pleasant banquet ; to mortifie all bodily members more sweet then life , accompanied with perfect health , or then the liuelihood of youth : the choicest pleasures the world or flesh can proffer , though lawfull or freed from the sting of conscience , seeme but as dregges , to be able to represse them , or intir●ly to enjoy our soules without them , is the pure quintesence of that delight or ioy which others take in them . But this is a peace which is not vsually gotten without long warre , and many combats ▪ ●o ▪ thus composed we are in actuall league with Go● , full conquerors ouer sinne and Sathan . In the conflicts that procure it , or rather are precedent to the procurement of it the flesh I take it hath not alwaies the sanctifying spirit for it antagonist : these are sorrowes which vsually goe before the conception of true faith ; of which likewise such as are actuall participants doe not alwaies fight the good fight of faith ; but euen these sometimes , whiles this generall sleeepes , as they that haue not as yet taken anie earnest or prest money of him , alwaies , before regeneration , offer battaile to the world , diuell and flesh out of such resolutions to renounce them as haue beene obserued to be right in their kinde , and suggested by the spirit as only assistant , not as inhabitant in the heart . But howsoeuer our finall victory ouer the flesh cannot be gotten but by the spirit dwelling in vs ; yet to entertaine these skirmishes or conflicts , though out of resolutions not inherently spirituall , is to verie good purpose . For seeeing we cannot assigne the very mathematicall point , how far reason directed by scripture , or ecclesiastike discipline , or externally guided by the spirit , but not yet quickned by sanctifying grace , or faith apt to iustifie , can reach ; nor know the very instant wherein such grace or faith is created in our soules ; we are therefore more strictly bound to perpetuall vigilancy , to stand continually vpon our guard , vsing such weapons as we haue , alwaies imploring Gods fauour to furnish vs with better , and his assistance in the vse of these , still expecting his leasure for accomplishing his worke in vs , or for notifying the accomplishment . 3. But before the light of the heauenly kingdome be incorporated in our soules ( though after the habituation of greater resolutions right and good in their kinde ) we haue vsually many transient gleames , or illuminations , which inspire our hearts with secret ioy , and rauish our spirits , whose representations notwithstanding as quickely vanish , as the sight of our owne bodily shape in a glasse : Here then is a point of true wisdome , accurately to obserue the circumstances , or meanes vsed by the diuine prouidence for their introduction , and vpon notice of them to estrange our selues from all other occasions , for purchasing the like opportunities as were then affoorded vs. Some mans heart perhaps hath beene thus illuminated , in his retired thoughts or vacancy from secular disturbances : vacancy then is to him the field wherein this treasure lies hid , which he must compasse though with losse of gainefull clients , or multiplicity of businesses in humane esteeme very honourable and commodious . Others , it may be haue felt like motions vpon visitation of the sicke , or some kinde office performed to the afflicted : such it behooueth to consecrate their time , before sacrificed to sport and merriment , to purchase the continuance of this inward ioy , by taking all occasions to visit the house of mourning . The spirit sometimes instils some drops of this gladsome ointment into our solues by soft insusurrations in silent night . It well befits such as haue beene inuited to these diuine cōferences to alienate some howers allotted for quiet rest , to beg his returne with sighes and grones , to entreat his presence with feruent praiers , and entertaine his aboade with hymnes and spirituall songs . Vpon what occasions soeuer the least earnest of our enheritance is proffered , it stands vs vpon out of hand to make vse of that aboue all other , for better entertaining the like , or speedier going through with offers made . Seeing by grace we can doe all things , and without it nothing , or to no purpose : our hearts should be alwaies ready , as to watch when the Lord doth knocke , or giue any signe of his presence ; so to be doing what he commaunds vpon the first signification of his will , for then we may be sure the Lord , who is our strength , is with vs , how long to continue , we cannot tell , Et semper nocuit differre paratis : especially , when as well the preparation or furniture , as the oportunities are not ours , but wholly at an others disposall , who vpon iust contempt or dislike may retract or with-hold them at his pleasure . Now to foreslowe the purchase of a pearle so inestimable as this we seeke , vpon what tearmes soeuer proffered , is not onely niggardly or foolish , but so demeritorious and meerely swinish , as makes vs vncapable of like proffers , which yet are alwaies irreuocable pledges of more reall perpetuall fauours , 〈…〉 ey be respectfully accepted in due season . o Wisdome ( saith the wise man ) is glorious , and neuer fadeth away : yea shee is easily seene of them that loue her , and found of such as seeke her . Shee preuenteth them that desire her , in making her selfe first knowne vnto them ▪ Who so seeketh her early shall haue no great trauell : for he shall finde her sitting at his doores . To thinke therefore vpon her is perfection of wisdome : and whos● watcheth for her , shall quickly bee without care . For shee goeth about seeking such as are worthy of her , sheweth her selfe fauourably vnto them in the waies , and meeteth them in euery thought . 4. It may be doubted , but not fit in this place to be discussed nor is it possible ( perhaps ) to be finally resolued , in respect of all or most men , whether these precedent representations or excitements bee of the same nature with the neuer fading fruites of the spirit , differing onely in degrees of permanency , or consistence , or rather ( to borrow a similitude from the Mineralist ) resemble some lighter mettall lying nearer the day , seruing to encourage vs to goe on with the worke begunne , and withall directing vs to the place where the true treasure lies , vntill we haue some sight or experience of the one or other , our deniall of our selues , and for saking all ( though right in it kinde ) is verie imperfect , and as it were onely by way of sequestration , appointed by order of authority , which in secular matters such as haue possession are afraid to disobey though verie willing it might not interpose . Thus we before our regeneration , renounce the vse or fruition of such contentments , as nature , ciuill merit , or custome haue entitled vs vnto , because we feare their actuall vsurpation , at least in such measure as we are capable of , might defeate vs of greater hopes , or cause vs incurre dangerous contempts : but we retaine our right or interest in them still , often desirous we might safely reape such fruites of them as others doe , alwaies prone either to bee tempted with oportunities of enioying them , or secretly or warily to encroach vpon the bounds of prohibition , prefixed by the interpreters of Gods Law , whom out of this longing humour we supect to be more scrupulous then they needed . But after we come once to view the seame or veine , wherein this hidden treasure lies , if we be marchantly minded , and not of pedling dispositions , we accompt all wee possesse besides as drosse ▪ or ( as the Apostle speakes ) dung , in respect of our proffered title to it ; for whose further assurance wee alienate all our interest in the world , the flesh , with all their appertinences , with as great willingnes as good husbands doe base tenements , or hard rented leases to compasse some goodly royalty , offered them more then halfe for nothing . Of wisdome saith the wise man in the person of Salomon , d I preferred her before Scepters , and thrones , and esteemed riches nothing in comparison of her , neither compared I vnto her any precious stone , because all gold in respect of her is as a little sand , and siluer shall be counted as clay before her . I loued her aboue health and beauty , and chose to haue her in stead of light : for the light that commeth from her neuer goeth out . 5. Now as e wisdome , so much more grace ( whereof wisdome is but a branch ) being but one , can doe all things , or rather containes all goodnesse in it , ( and for this reason is set forth vnto vs in sundry names of things most pretious ; sometimes of treasure , pearle , hidden manna , of the food of life ; most vsually vnder the title of the kingdome of heauen : ) so is there scarce an inclination or affection to any transitory good or contentment , but simbolizeth in some part with the right desire of this inestimable goodnesse , and the industry vsed for procuring the one ( the desire or affection it selfe being sublimated or refined as the transmutation betweene simbolizing natures , is easie , ) may well be assumed into the search of the other . To instance first in such as our Sauiour proposeth to our imitation . Impiger extremos currit mercator ad Indos , Per mare pauperiem fugiens , per saxa , per ignes . In hope of gaine to vtmost Indes the marchant hies , And from hard need , through Seas , through fire and flint he flies . Could he conceiue of grace as of a iewell inualuable , conuerting his toilesome cares for transitory wealth into industrious desires of euerlasting treasure : none more fitly qualified for the purchase of it then he . If thou criest after knowledg , & liftest vp thy voice for vnderstanding : if thou seekest her as siluer , and searchest for her as for hid treasures : then shalt thou vnderstand the feare of the Lord , and finde the knowledge of God. For the Lord giueth wisdome : out of his mouth commeth knowledge , and vnderstanding . But hee shall shew himselfe as vnfit to traffique for this or other spiritua● gifts , as Aesops cock to bee a Ieweller , that will wrangle for them as for ordinary ware , indenting before hand what he shall pay , seeking to beate downe their price ; or so houer , when God shall call him , as Pharaoh did with Moses , Goe and serue the Lord your God ; but who are they that shall goe ? will ye goe with your young and olde , with your sonnes and your daughters , with your sheepe , and your cattell ? Nay , let the Lord be so with you , as I will let you goe and your children yet this is too much , it shall not be so ; goe now ye that are men and serue the Lord , for that was your desire ; yet after two more plagues sent , his minde was a little altered . Goe l yee serue the Lord , onely let your flocks and your heards bee staid : but let your little ones also goe with you . But Moses his resolute answere shewes what God requires of vs ; Thou must giue vs also sacrifices , and burnt offerings that wee may doe sacrifice vnto the Lord our God. Therefore our cattell also shall goe with vs , there shall not an hoofe be left , for thereof must we take to serue the Lord our God : neither doe we know how we shall serue the Lord vntill we come thither . Nor doe wee know when God cals vs first out of this world , what peculiar seruices may afterwards be enioyned vs ; as whether to sacrifice our lands , our goods , our bodies , our honour or reputation in testimony of CHRIST and his Gospell . For this reason once called we must resolue to forsake Aegypt , wherin we haue been brought vp , and seeke after the promised land with all our heart , with all our soule , as well the brutish part , as the reasonable , with all our faculties and affections , intellectuall as well as sensuall ; otherwise by secret reseruation of speciall desires for other purposes we make our selus liable to Pharaohs plagues , or to the iudgements wherewith Ananias and Saphira were ouertaken . Now although to abiure our accustomed delights , or waine our desires from choicest matter of wonted contentments , may see me very distastefull to flesh and blood before triall made : yet did we consider that the desires or affections themselues were not to be vtterly extirpated , but only transplanted , & that such as yeelded greatest store of choicest secular were by this transmutation apt to bring forth most pleasant spiritual fruit in gretest plenty ; it would much animate vs to take the same pains in a better soile . The ambitious man wil patiently watch his opportunities to bow & crouch & giue all significations possible of good respect , towards such as may further his suits which he graceth with seemly complement & decent behauiour for the present , with deep protestation of future endeauours to deserue any fauour that shall bee shewed him . Could he but inwardly fit his soule to these outward characters of humility , and bow his spirit vnto the almighty , powring forth prayers and supplications with vowes of fidelity in his seruice , no man more fit then hee to sue for grace , the least droppe whereof , suffered to sinke into his heart , to make representation of these ioyes , whereof it is the earnest , in that forme , in which the scripture sets them forth , as vnder the title of a most glorious Kingdom ; would sublimate his aspiring thoughts ( once alienated from their wonted obiect ) into undefatigable deuotion : whose gracious respect with God would much better content his soule , then any reflexed splendor from the fauourable aspect of earthly Maiesty . Our first inclinations vnto loue ( which is but a distillation or liquefaction of the soule ) before they become polluted with the dregges of vncleane lusts , or other Sacraments of vnhallowed combinations , or extracted from these with penitent teares and true contrition , are verie transmutable into Christian charity , by the infusion of Christs blood , once shed in loue to vs , but continualle able to season the bitter fountaine of this and other corrupt affections ; so entrance were made for it thereinto , by assiduous and sober meditation of the sorrows that pierced his heart for our redemption , and no man d more apt to delight more in his loue , then hee to whom much mispence of loue hath beene forgiuen . If that inbred delight , or mirth , whose abundance impels all sociable and good natures especially , to hunt after obiects or occasions that may stirre vp exhilerant motions , if this deligh , or mirth were but drawne from those corrupt issues , which excesse of wine or strong drinke vsually prouoke ; ( as profane or wanton ditties , exchange of vnseemely and offensiue iests ) it might yeild matter for more sacred melody , and vent it selfe with greater ioy in Psalms , & Hymnes , and spirituall songs . Thus much in my vnderstanding our c Apostle supposeth in that exhortation , Be not drunke with wine , wherein is excesse : but fulfilled with the spirit ; speaking vnto your selues in psalmes , and hymnes , and spirituall songs , singing and making melody vnto the Lord in your hearts . And none in my conceipt more likely to beare his part better in the quire of Saints , whether in hearty reioicing with such as haue iust cause to ioy , or vnfaigned sorrowing with such as mourne , then a sweet nature , prone to company , but preuented by grace , before he fall into the sinke of good fellowship , or else thoroughly cleanled from the filth hee hath caught by wallowing therein , before the staine incorporate in his soule . Of this alteration of inclinations naturall into spirituall , hereafter or els where more particularly , by the assistance of that grace whose infusion alone must worke the sublimation . Here I thought good to signifie to the penitent sinner by the way , that there is no plant which hath giuen good proofe or signe of fertility in Aegypt , but remooued in time , is apt to fructifie accordingly in Canaan . Now seeing in this first resurrection to newnesse of life , our corruptible affections doe not die but only put on incorruption : why should it seeme grieuous vnto our Soules to for sake the world and flesh , with all their pleasures or preferrements , our friends , our kindred or acquaintance , when as the realitie of the contentment we tooke in these , or whatsoeuer is naturally most deare vnto vs , is euen in this life more then fully recompenced , yea many times doubled in the sublimation of the desires or inclinations , which for substance remaine numerically the same , but with gaine of reference to more excellent obiects , besides the encrease of their natiue strength and vigor thus inwardly purified and adorned with inherent beautifications ? That in renouncing all wherewith nature custome or our owne industry had inuested vs , there can be no losse , but happy change ( seeing our internall faculties still remaine intire , much bettered for the present in themselues , as also in their dependance for future hopes , ) our Sauiour most diuinely implies in that promise of comfort , Verely I say vnto you , there is no man that hath left house , or brethren , or sisters , or father , or mother , or wife , or children , or lands , for my sake and the Gospels , but be shall receiue an hundred fold now in this time , houses , and brethren , and sisters , and mothers , and children , and lands , with persecutions , and in the world to come eternall life . To speake philosophically , as health or right habit of body , so much more the welfare of soule and minde , euen all the delight or ioy we can truely say is our owne , must be from within vs ; externals may onely helpe to raise or ripen it . Now as there can be no want of fire vnlesse to creeples or chimney-corner sluggards , whilest the same heate or warmth which it yeelds , may bee as good cheape borrowed from the Sunne , or better procured from proper motion or agitation of our blood and spirits : so can it be no losse to be depriued of friends , wealth , or honour , solong as the flower and quintessence of all the contentments which these could occasion , may be more plentifully reaped from the peaceable fruition add free exercises of our owne soules , or right emploiments of their best faculties , especially from the excitation of Gods gifts in vs , whereby we are vnited to CHRIST , who is more to euery faithfull soule then was Elkanah vnto Hannah not only much better then many sonnes , but one in whom , though we had nothing besides , wee may by iust title of dominion possesse all things . 6. But if wee must affect the former change with all our hearts , with all our soules , with our whole intention and resolution , no man , it seemes , may intend any other matters , secular especially . Yes , euen such secular businesses as we are said wholy or solely to intend or minde , absolutely exclude not all , but onely incompatible cogitations of others matters , though of like kinde . The mutuall compossibilitie of actuall particular cogitations with vertuall continuance of some maine purpose or intention , was d before exemplified in a man holding on a iourney vpon some waighty businesse , yet not alwaies thinking whither or about what hee was going , but often occasioning or entertaining ordinary way faring confabulations . Our whole delight then , not euery particular delectation ; our habituall finall or principall intention or resolution , not euery particular purpose , must be set vpon the former purchase . Our desires of it should bee as the maine bulcke or truncke , out of which first well growen , and throughly set , other intentions or resolutions may spring as twigges or branches , or be engrafted in it without annoyance . Such a principality or integrity of intention our Sauiour enioines in that precept ; h First seeke the Kingdome of God , and his righteousnesse , and all these things ( which the world principally cares for ) shall accrew vnto you . An experiment of this gratious promise wee haue in Salomon , into whose sincere and hearty praiers for true wisdome no intensions or desires of wealth or honor did insinuate or intrude themselues : howbeit both wealth and honour , though vnaskt did in great abundance attend wisdome once obtained . All good things ( saith the wise man , * paraphrasing vpon this grant , p els where specified in Canonicall Scripture ) together came to me with her , and innumerable riches in her hands . And I reioiced in them all , because wisdome goeth before them : and I knew not that shee was the mother of them . Her growth in him , though suddaine , was very great , and able to beare extraordinary fortunes : notwithstanding when grieuous blasts of temptations arose , the exceeding height of these accessary branches had almost ouerthrowne the stocke wherein they were engrafted . This should teach vs alwaies to increase our desires of grace , and moderate our delight in transitories : howsoeuer , continuing so affected as Salomon in his first choice was , we may possesse all things in the Lord , and the abundance of riches , honor or other worldly blessings shall be truely sanctified vnto vs. For not the possession of them , or delight in them , but their possession or delight with preiudice or interruption of our maine intention or resolution , is vnlawfull . Ordinarie vinteners haue more wine then most noble men in their cellars ; so haue apothecaries greater choice of delicates in their shops , then can be found in Princes palaces : yet are neither vsuallie more pestered then other men of their rancke or meanes , with such diseases , as excesse of wine or sweet meates engender , because to fare deliciously euery day was no part of their intention at their assignement to these trades , but rather to encrease their stocke , and gaine some perpetuity of Lands or lease for themselues and their posteritie , by abstinence and wary dealing with these commodities , whereof others either surfet or are too licorish . Were the kingdome of grace thus primarily and wholly entended , and the practice of meanes ordained for our saluation constantly and fully resolued vpon , the increase of Riches , honour , or other materials of voluptuous life would breed smal preiudice to our faith or calling ; rather their abundance caused more by Gods meere blessing , or disposition of his prouidence then by our sollicitous care or affectation , would bring forth a more heroicall contempt of them then their want can nourish , and , as it vsually comes to passe in like cases , quite take away all delight or pleasure in them : Vse them with their excrescence men thus affected might , yet not as vsurers doe their money for their owne encrease , but rathor as a stocke to traffique with , for the finall purchase of an enheritance not subiect to such change or chance as the greatest and surest worldly possessions are . So our Sauiour aduiseth ; a Sell that ye haue , and giue almes , prouide your selues bags which wax not old , a treasure in the heauens that faileth not , where no theefe approacheth , neither moth corrupteth . For where your treasure is there will your heart be also . This last caueat may enforme vs that God requires not alwaies an actuall alienation of our right or interest in his temporall blessings , but rather an appropriation of our hearts , ( alienated from them ) vnto hm , who b is able to make all grace to abound towards vs , that we alwaies hauing all sufficiencie in all things may abound in euerie good worke . For seeing the ministration of this seruice not onely supplieth the necessities of the Saints , but also is abundant by the thankesgiuing of many vnto God ; he that findeth seed vnto the sower , will multiply the seed which wee thus sow , and encrease the fruites of our beneuolence , that it may redound more and more vnto his glory . As it is extreme vanity without speciall occasions or pecular necessitie of extraordinary times , to giue or make away the roote whence such fruit doth grow : so is it a point of spirituall folly or infidelity , to imagine the stocke should perish or not prosper by often lopping ; or that we should forset our hold of what we enioy , by due paiment of rent or tribute vnto the Lord and owner . CHAP. IX . That faith cannot exercise it soueraignety euer our affections or desires vntill it bee seated in the heart , with briefe admonitions for bringing it into this throne . 1. FRom the former and like parables put foorth by the Author and finisher of our faith , wee are taught that faith , if perfect , must be seated in the heart or fountaine of mans vaine imaginations , whence euill thoughts still issue in great abundance , vntill it be cleansed by infusion of this purifying grace . Most fitly doth that parable of the leauen exemplify aswell the vse of faith , as the truth of this obseruation . Thus much at least it directly and necessarily implies , That our assent vnto the Gospell of the kingdome must bee in such a part as the vertue of it may bee diffused thence vnto the whole masse which it is ordained to sanctifie : For it must season our inbred affections , alter the tast of euerie appetite , qualifie and strengthen our naturall inclinations vnto good . Now if wee consult true Philosophy , no other member in the body besides the heart , can be a fit seat for such absolute commaund . But whether it be possible for Assent , euery way the same with that which thus renewes the minde , and hath such soueraignty ouer all our faculties , to lodge els where then in this palace or chiefe mansion of the soule , were curiosity to dispute . Yet admit the same faith should els where reside , it could not exercise the like souerainty as there it doth : for euery desire or concupiscence deepely rooted would in temptations ouerbeare it . Nor is it the greatnesse of the good proposed , if our conceipt of it be but superficiall , or our desires of it admitted onely into the confines of our soules , that can ouersway such naturall propensions to a farre lesse , as spring from the heart or center . The reason whereof as of many other assertions in this short treatise , shall ( God willing ) at large appeare in the article of euerlasting life , where iust occasion likewise will bee offered to rescue the heartlesse imaginations of some late diuines more then half yeelded to the authority of Galen ( though forsaken in that point by the most exquisite moderne professors of the noble science hee taught ) that the head is the principall member ; as if Solomon or our Sauiour had spoken more vulgarly then accurately or philosophically , when they ascribe this principallity to the heart : How bee it the very ground of their arguments suppose this vulgar opinion ( if so men will haue it ) to bee an vndoubted truth in nature . But referring philosophicall or scholastique disputes of this point or the like , to their proper place , the Gymnosophists deuice to represent the peace and quiet state of a temporall monarchie by the Monarchs presence in the Metropolis , and the disturbance likely to ensue his absence may serue as a vulgar or popular illustration of that soueraignety , which faith once seated as hath beene said , may exercise ouer euery , affection at it pleasure , but not so seated shall euer want ; whilest hee trod the corners or vtmost parts of his buls hide , the depression of one did raise an other , but , standing once still in the middle , all lay quiet . Thus while our assent vnto precepts diuine floats onely in the braine , or keeps residence in the borders or suburbs of the soule , it may perhaps suppresse some one or fewe exorbitant passions , but the expulsiue or expugnatiue force which in this case it vseth , being vnweldy , neyther vniforme , nor well planted , will occasion others as bad to stirre or mutinee . Vsually whiles men striue to beate folly or vanitie of youth by the strength of Gods Word ( not well rooted ) out of the fancy , they let in couetousnesse into the heart ; oft times seeking to keepe out couetrousnesse , popularity , ambition , or other affection , whose helpe faith w●●●●e and unsetled commonly vseth in such expugnations , will finde occasion to insinuate themselues , or though ●●i●i● not yet well s●●ed , were able it selfe alone to root out couetousnesse , restraine l●uishnesse or prodigallity , or loppe off l●●●riant braunches of ambition : yet there is a seceet pride which vsually springs out of these stocks ▪ for manie growe inwardly ambitious of their conquest ouer ambition , or rather of restraining the out-breakings of this or other vnfruitfull plant . Now these inward swellings though in themselues lesse , are yet commonly most dangerous , beecause they come neere the heart , and will neuer bee asswaged vntill true faith bee enthronized there , as in the Fort or Castle of the soule , where it hath euery affection or desire as it were vndershot , or at such commaund as they dare not stirre to it preiudice , but by stealth , or some secret aduantage , eipyed by the flesh vnable to stand out against it . For as motion beginning at the Center , diffuseth it self equally throughout the whol sphere , shaking euery part vnto the circumference , and from this aduantage of it originall deades the force of contrary impressions whose impulsiue causes are but equally strong : so faith possessed once of the heart , hauing it force vnited by close reposall therein , commaunds euery affection , delight or pleasure of our soules , and breakes the impetuousnes of euery inclination or propension contrary to such motion as it suggests ; seing no hopes can bee equall to the reward which it proposeth to the constant and resolute ; no feares comparable to the terrors which it represents to the negligent or ●loathfull followers of such courses as it prescribes . And the equalitie of hopes and feares euen of the same rancke ( though set vpon like obiects ) equally interrested in the principall ●●an●ion of the soule , doe equally sway or moue vs either to vndertake any good , or eschew any of more euils , in themselues equiualent , being proposed to our choice . Now though God alone giue the victory , onely able to make entrance for his graces into the heart , wee may not in this respect fore●low the siege vntill he set the gates open . He , and none but He did place Dauid in the Hill Sion , and gaue Gedeon victory ouer the Midia●ites , as they hoth well knewe and firmelie beleeued ▪ ( but their beliefe h●●reof did not ( as Machiauell cal●●●●●tes Christian Religion ) emasculate their mindes , or t●e their handes from vsing such naturall strength and valour as they had ; their personall endeauours in fight , were answearable to their deuotion in praier for diuine assistance . Others after God had giuen them full assurance of most extraordinarie victories , did vse the ordinary stratagems of warre . In imitation of them we should remember that albeit our affections will neuer bee loyall vntill faith and sanctifying grace by the sole operation of his Spirit bee seated amongst them : yet euen such of these as most resist their admission may be much enfeebled or pined , and so made more willing to yeeld when God shall call the soule to parly , if wee vse such meanes as haue beene d prescribed for cutting off that reliefe or prouision they haue from without . Nor can the veriest freshwater Souldier in Christs Campe , bee altogether ignorant how the externall obiect nourisheth inbred desires or affections , which , by sufferance to range abroad , increase their strength and confederacie . But in all these indeauours we must include praier as a chief associate , for God ordinaryly lets in sanctifying grace at the same gate , at which honest hearty prayers goe out . 2. More particulars concerning subordinate meanes to bee vsed for bringing faith into it throne , must bee referred to the place often mentioned : onely one admonition remaines for such as would be fit Auditors of these diuine oracles , often intimated by our Sauiour , but too seldome vrged by his messengers in these daies especially , To hide or lay vp Gods word in our hearts , which to my capacity implies our secret meditation should farte exceed our table talke discourses of these great mysteries , at least while wee are but schollers no professors of diuinitie . And if I erre , it is rather charitable feare least others wrong their owne soules , then any iealousie least they should disparage our profession by proouing Prophets , that makes mee thinke one principall reason why the word of faith doth not fructifie or take better roote in the hearts of many indefatigable hearers , is because it shootes out too fast in their mouthes : they are commonly as swift to speake as to heare : which kinde of humour e Saint Iames in his time much disliked , as knowing perhaps this luxuriant flourish of words did partly hinder the fructification of his hearers faith in deedes and workes . But to conclude , seeing faith comes by hearing and must be hidden in the heart , the surest and most compendious method for setling it therein , would bee ( besides due preparation for ordinary bearing the generall forme of Christian doctrine publiquelie and solemnely deliuered ) to watch all opportunities when our hearts are throughly affected with vnexpected matter of sorrow , ioy , griefe , feare , admiration , or the like , and forthwith to apply such passages of Scriptures , as suit best to the present affection . The words , though of God , whilest vttered by man , vsually want weight to make entrance for themselues into hearts not well wrought in tender yeeres by good discipline : but yet might easily sinke euen into such , being first thus pierced and as it were ploughed vp by reall accidents , especially by strange and sad occasions , as sicknesse of body , or other grieuous crosse or calamity , without which neither the threats of the Law , nor sweet promises of the Gospell , make any great impression vpon many in our daies . A faithfull pastor should haue his wits vacant to attend these or such like extraordinary occurrences , that happen to his flock , alwaies ready in matter of sorrow to poure in salue whiles the wound is open , or in occasion of godly mirth or moderate ioy to clap on the seale while the wax is warme and well wrought . One short lesson well applyed in such season will worke more vpon the conscience and practique faculties of the soule , then a solemne discourse of some howers length , though containing much sound doctrine and many very profitable vses , without the concurrence of some such internall disposition to receiue them . And as the very naming of London , Paris , or some other great Citie , doth stirre vp a more liuely representation of them in his fantasie that hath been in them , then a geographicall lecture could doe in his that neuer looked vpon them but in a Mappe : so the least after touch or remembrance of the same or like points as haue beene thus seasonably instilled , will imprint a more liue working sence of Gods word in the experienced heart , then a long elaborate , and well pressed exhortation will doe in others . Thus much at this time of that faith whereby the iust doth liue , and of the qualification required in all fit auditors of the mysteries contained in the Apostles Creed , for whose right explication the Lord of his mercie so qualifie my heart and soule that I may be able as to discerne so to deliuer the truth without all respect to mine owne or other persons , and so guide euery Christian Readers affections that hee neither be vnwilling to embrace any truth , nor willing to entertaine any error for my sake . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A04187-e500 Omnium Vna 〈…〉 eadē lententia , cos qui sie in ac●e procumbebant , vitam mereri perpetuam ▪ et in pa●●e sortis sanctorum , praedestinato collocari in lumine . Willerm . Tyres . Archiepis . Hist . Lib. 3. Cap. ● . vide et 6. Vide prefat . ad librum 1. pag. 6 Notes for div A04187-e10230 a Perlege Aristotelis librosde partibus animalium . * Ca●nden in his description of Richmond shire . Quod in montium autem summitatibus , vt etiam alibi lapides nonnunquā fuerint reperti cocle●● marinas , et alia aquatilia referentes : si no● sint naturae miracula , refusi in omnem terram sub Noe , del●vycerta esse indicia , cum Orosio Christiano historico iuaicabo Refuso ( inquit ille ) sub N●e in omnem terram mari , immissoque d●luvio , cum toto otbe contecto , vnum s●acium coeli esset ac Pe. laci . d●letum suisse vniuersum genus humanum paueis in A●ca fidei suae merito ad substituendā origine ● reser . uatis euidentissimè veracissimi scriptores docét . Fuisse tamen illi contestati sunt , qui praeterita quidē tempora , ipsamque auctolem temporum nescientes , tamen ex iudicio & coniectura lapidum quos in remotis montibus conchis & ostreis scabros , etiam saepe cauatos aquis Visere solemus , conijciendo didicerunt . * This importāce of Assent , Tullie giues vs in that speech : Vberius ista quaeso : haec enim spinosiora , ori●● ut confitear , me cogunt , quam vt assentiar . ● . lib. Tuscul . et initio . a Vid Vasquez . in j●● secundae disputat . 79. cap 3. num . 12. vide eundem disput . 62. cap. 3. num . 9 * Vide Aristot , Ethic. 3 Cap. ▪ d Ad probationemcum assumitur quod n●llus tenetur ●●●mius adhaerere conclusioni , quâm sit certitude no ti●ae propter qeam ill●●dherere●●ista posset concedi cum aliqua conditione , sci● . si ill● teneatur adhaerere conclusioni praecise propter certitudinem no●●●iae : vbi autem non subest dicta conditio , propositio est simpliciter neganda : in proposito autem non subest quoniam non praecise propter certitudinem aliquam notitiae ( propriè loquendo ) si●e conclusionis , siue princi●iorum , teneatur Catholicus adhaerere ●alibus Quini●●ò quic quid Chi●roponatur per Scripturam vel Ecclesiam , fore credendam , nulla alia notitia habita credere tene●ur . Ad c●●●imat●on●m , cum dititur nullus credidit nisiquia illud sibi constat ; si loquatur de constantia notitiae ●●ls●m est● si de constantia adhaesionis , tunr etiam potest negari : quia aequiualet isti ; Nullus credit aliquod nisi quia credit illud : quae in sua proprietate non est vera . Greg. Arim. in 1. Sent. dist . 1. quaest 1. Act c. 4. The like imperfect solution ●alentian hath where he dispureth this question against the same author Fran. de Mat. and Petir Abaylard or P●ripat : which held faith to be assensus euidens . * So Valentian tearmes it whose words are cited in the appendix to the third book To this purpose they abuse a saying of Gregory● Fides non habet 〈…〉 , cu● humana r●●● praebet experimentum : Which notwithstanding he men● of the incomprehensibility , no● of the persp●cuity of obiects belieued . ●is words at full are these . Diuina operatio si ratione aprehendatut non est admirabil●●net ●ides habet mer●●● &c. Greg. hem , 16. in Euang. But of his opinion in this point we shall haue fitter occasion when wee come to speake of merits . h Aquinas and his followers g●●n●● at ve●●●a●es ●id●i sunt e●●den●er ●r●dib●●es . It y ●redio●●●y they meane ●o 〈◊〉 then probability as it is opposed to certain●● , their doctrine is dāgerous : for ●o th●y make articles o● faith to be euidently vncertaine . But if they take credi●●●●ty , as it is common or indiff●●●n●●● proba●●●●ty and ●ertai●● ▪ ● ▪ ●ropositions of faith may be ( as we maintaine ) euidently certaine vnto some , th●ugh but euidently probable vnto others in their particularities . ● 2. Cor. 12. v. 1. This I take it is ●●o more then what the learned Hook●r , in a Sermon vpon the Prophet H●bak●●● doubtfull c●●tation ( pa 3 ) hath expres●d : onely wee make that which hee ca●s certainty of adheren●● to haue ●●●dence for i●s ground , not of particulars , but of the generall choice here mentioned H● e●● we ag●●● , that this certainty of ●dherence vnto particulars arri●eth from their worth o● consequence ? a Riber● . a Iohn . 3. 2. a John. 1. 14. a Psal . 30 v. ● . b Ier. 31. v 35. 36 b Iohn ● m Phil. 3 ver . 8 10. 11. &c. * Sicut in rebus inanimalis appetitus est incl●natio natuo● in aliquid , & dicitur appetitus naturalis , ita in natura intellectuali appetitus est est inclinationaturae intellectual●s in quantum intellect u● est , prop●erea omn● actus vol●ntatis est inclinatio actualis ipsius naturae intellectualis : & dare inclinationem a●●●alem tali naturae & inclinare voluntatem , p●● eodem accipiuntur Ferrain cap. 88. lib. 3. Aquin. contragentes . Ex hoc en●m quod Deus est int●lli●ēs , sequit●r quod si● vo●ens ▪ C●● enim bon●m intellectum sit propr●m ob●e 〈…〉 m ol●ntatis , oportet quod bonū intellectum , in quantū huiusmodi , sit volitum ●intellectum autem di citur ad intel●igentem , necesse est igitur quod intelig●ns bonum , in quātum huiusmodi , sit volens . Aquin. contra Gentes . lib. 1. cap. 72. b Rom. ● . ver : 18 b Arist . 〈◊〉 ▪ lib. 6. cap. ● 〈◊〉 enim tempus experie●●●● facit , nam & hoc a●●quis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cur Mathematic●● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at ; lap●●Spand●● si 〈…〉 non 〈◊〉 . A● quod illa 〈◊〉 eo 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 au●●Spand●● experien●●● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a Eccles . 2 ver . 2 a Acts 24 , ver , 25 Reade Sect. 2 chap. 2. 3. 4 a Interest autem qualis sit voluntas bominis , quia si peruersa est , peruersos habebit hos motus : si autem recta est non solum inculpabiles , verū etiam laudabiles erunt . Voluntas est , quippe in omnilus : uno omnes nihil aliud quam voluntates sunt . Nam quid est cupiditas & laetitia , nisi voluntas in eorum consensionem ▪ qu● volumus ? Et quid est metus atque tristitia , nisi voluntas in dissentionem ab his quae nolumus . Aug. de ciuitate Dei cap. 6. lib. 14 See § 3. chap. 5 See cha . 10 § 1 & chap. 11 § 7 This grace notwithstanding is first in the intellectiue faculty● and thence diffused into others , ( ordinarily by the operation of faith ) nor can the inferior faculties be brought in subiection to the spirit , vntill they touched by the same grace which illuminates the mind . Fides lampas est quia sicut lampas illuminat domum i 〈…〉 des animum , C●●●so●t super Math. 25. Heb. 10. 36 , 37 a 2. Kings 6 , 15 b 2. Cor. 4 , 1● c 2. Kings 6. 15 d Math. 5. 34 a Heb. 11. 2 b Verse 6. Heb. 12 , 11 c Heb. 11 , 7 d Heb. 11 , 7 e Eccles . 44 , ●8 f H●● . ●● , ● g Ver. 9 h Acts 7 verse 5 i Heb. 11. 11 k Ioh. 11. 25 , 26 l Gen. 22 , 2 m Heb. 118. ● b Math. 3. 9 c Verse 24 H●● . 12. 2 d Heb. 11 ▪ 10 Verse 32 Ver . 33 g Ver. 3● , 35 Ma ● 7 , ● Ver . 9 k Ver. 10 , 11 l Verse 14 m Verse 16 * Luke 14. ver . ● 2. Mach. 7 , 18 , 19 * Ver. 20 c Ver. 27 , 28 , 29 d Verse 37 e Illud insuper nunquam ●●edid●●●es , quod videns obstu●es●●s mori●●●●m matrem c●● tulorum quo● Anatomi●us ab vtero ●ius abstraxi● maiorem ●uram gerere , quam suimet . Nam si coram ipsa ●●lium laedis , latr●● v●ciseratur : sin illum ●ri illius ad ▪ ●oues , silet , atque magna pietate lābit . Quod si aliud , non cat●ll●● ori ●ius , quam se●as , ma●ris a●cedat , rabie percita mordet , quem naturae 〈◊〉 , atque adeo paremū in liberos in●redibil●m charitatem in publicis theatris maxima spectatorum admiratio●e s●pius ostendi , Pataui praesertim , cum 〈◊〉 mus ac reuerendis●●mus Rainutius F●tne●●us , tunt Venetiar●● Prior ▪ nune Cardinalu S. Angelinuncupatus &c. Colum. lib. ●● . ●●vi●● sect . o Macc. 2 , 49 , 50 p Verse 6● a Ja●●●s 1 ver , 5 a Psal , ●● verse 31 , 32 , ●3 &c. b Vers● 3● c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 14 d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Talis est natu a sidei , quātò magis ve tatur tantò magis accenditur . Virtus fidei in periculis secura est , in securitate periclu●●ur . Quià enim alied ita laxat vigorem fidei , s●c●t longa tranquilitas . Chris●●● . in Math. 20 a Ier. 42 , 1 , 2 , 3 b Ver . 5 , 6 ▪ c Verse 9 , 10 , 11 12. d See Ioshuah 24 verse 15 , 19 , 22 , 24 e Ier. 42. 20 , 21 , 22 f Ier. 42 , 4 i Ierem. 43. 3 Ierem. 44. ●● . g Ierem. 44. 15 a Adfirma●an● autem hanc fuisse summam , vel culpae suae , vel errcris , quod essent soliti stato die ante lucē conueni●● , carmēque Christo qua●● deo dicere secu● inuicem , seque sacramento non in sc●lus aliquod obstringere ; sed ne f●●●● , ne latrocinia , ne adulteria committerent ne fidem fallerent , ne depo●itum appellat● abneg●rent : quibus pera●●●● , mor● sibi ●●scedēd fuisse 〈…〉 c●e●n●i ad capiendum cibum , promiscuum tamen el innoxiū . P●in . lib ▪ 10. Epist . 100. b Psal . 137. 4 b Nehem. 2. 3 c Nehem 13. 29 d Nehem , 6. ●4 e Noh . 13. 14 ▪ a Exod. 20. ● b Heb. 13 d Eccles . 12. 1 , 2 * Maldonat , seeking occasion to expound those words of Daniel . ( Cap. 12. ver . 3. ) Quiautem docti fuerint , id est , qui bene sapienter que vitam suam gube●narint , hos enim scriptura vocare sole● ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) babentes intellectum , sicut Galli , non eos qui docti sunt , sed eos qui moderati , s●pientes appellant : Hi ergo ( inquit Daniel ) fulgebunt , quasi splendor firmamenti , & qui ad iustitiam erudi●nt plurimo● , quasi stellae nper●etu●●●ternitates . a Psalme 1. 6. b Psalme 9. 5. verse 10. Maldonat in 13. Math. ver . 43. c Iohn ●7 . 3. a Ioh. 3. 15 b 1. Ioh. 2. 4 c Ioh. 14. 21 ▪ d 1. Job . 5. 20 f Iude 5 g Psal . 78. 8 h Verse 23 l Heb. 4. ● . 3 1. Iohn 5. 5 k Eccles . 9 19. 20. l Eccles . 3● 24. m Re●d . Sect. 2. c. 5 a Iames 2. 19 b Ierem. 5. 2 c Ver 1 23 d Ver. 23 a Math. ● . ver . 44 45. ●6 . ●● . b So it is said L●k . 6. 3● . Ye ●hall be the ch●●d ● of the most high , for he is kind vnto th● 〈◊〉 and to the euill . Our Sauiour in this place deduceth that precept from the diuine na●u●e or attribute , which the sonne of S●rach doth from Gods wil reuealed ; for to no other end were his commandements giuen , saue only to make v● like him in his 〈◊〉 attributes or per●ect●ons . Manie haue refused to lend for other mens i●● dealing ▪ ● fea●●n● to ●e defrauded . Yet haue thou patience with a man in poore estate , and delay not to ▪ shew him mercie , Helpe the poore for the Commandements sake , & turne him not away becau●e of his pouerty . Eccles . 2● . 7. 8. 9 Ethnici putan● plures esse Deo● , & hoc tibi videris perfectus Christianus , quod persua sum ●abes vnūesse Deum ? Quid magni facis ? Idem er●dunt Iudaei , qui quotidie blasphemant filium Dei in Synagog● suis : idem credunt Daemones & contremiscunt . Si verè credis in Deum , crede iustum & veracem : iustū in remunerandis p●j● , & pu●iendis impijs : & veracem in promissis . Crede non esse sp●m salutis , nisi per filium eius , quem pro nobis omnibus ●radidit in mortem : crede nihil accidere mali posse ijs qui se totos illius voluntati tradiderunt , et in illo perseueran● . Hoc est credere in Deum Patrem , hoc est credere in filium eius , hoc est credere in Spiritum Sanctum , vnii Deum , & Ecclesiam sanctam , mysticum Christi corpus , extra quam non est salus , et in quo non est pern●cies . Quisquis in ●ali pe●ra pedes animi sixerit , aduersus omnes temptationum incursus stabit immobilis . Cypr. de dupl . Martyr . Math. 6. 31. 32. 33. Their distrust , or rather want of apprehension of Gods care and prouidence ouer them , is attributed to defect of faith . Math. 6. 30 Luke 12. 28 a Vide lib. 3 Sect 3 cap. ●0 . parag . 1. 2. b P●il ● . ver . 5 c Iohn 15. ver . 8. 9. 10. Luke 5. ver . 39. Ad Barbaricum tran●f●rendi vi i ●le & l q●●●i●is 〈…〉 quisquam babeat facultat●m , ●ec g●●●●s quidem ca●se , ●●t ●su● com 〈…〉 o. r 〈…〉 . ● . ● qu● res ●●p●rtari non deb●●● . * Psal . 63. 1. &c. My soule thirsteth for thee because thy louing kindnes is better then life : my lips shall praise thee , my soule shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatnes , &c. a ● Ioh. 4. 34 b ● Deut. 8. 3 d In this sense onely did wee meane , Faith and Charity coeuall ste●s of the same Grace lib. 2 sect . 1. chap. 7. Parag. 3 * Iere. 17. v. 5. Ver. 7. 8. c Psalm 15 d Liuit . e Luke 1. v. 34. f Genes . 18. v. 14. k Rom. 3. v. 3. l 1. Cor. 1. v. 9. o Tria considero in qu 〈…〉 pes mea con●●●t●● , cha●●atem adopti 〈…〉 prom 〈…〉 pote●●●té re●d●●um● . M●rmuretiam , quan . ●●m vo●●●rit ●n ipi ●s cogitatio mea dicens , Q●● enim ●stu , et quā a est illa gloria , quibus●● m●ritu hanc obtinere speras ? Et ego fi●u●●aliter respondebo , scio cui credidi , & certus sum , quia in charitate nimia adoptanis me , quia verax in promissime quia potens in exhibitione , licet enim e● facere quod voluerit . Hic est funi●ulus ●riplex , qui difficulter rumpitur , quem nobis e patria nostra , in hunc ca●cerem vs● ▪ demiss●● , firm●ter obse●r● teneamus & ipse nos suble●et , ipse nos trabat & pertrab●t vsq●e ad conspectum gloriae magni Dei : qui est benedictus in secula . Born. d● Euang. 7. pan . serm . 3. a Psal 46. 1 , 2 b Psal . 138. 7. 8 h Psal . 62. 5 , 6 i Verse 8 Verse 10 k Psal . 146. 3 b Math. 23. 23 c Luke 13. 14 d Iob. 9. 24 e Luke 18. 9. 14 f Cypr. ●o mortalis g Idem de zelo & liuo●e . Tully to my remembrance defines confidentia ●● b● sp●s perduc●n●i ad ex●tum vem i●c●●atam . a Heb. 10. 35 Heb. 10. 19. 20. &c. b Joh. 2. 24 c Math. 13. 20 d Ioh 12. 32 e Rom. 10. 10 f Ioh. 5. 44 * Quoniam ijs quibus fidem ad●ibemus , vel quae nobis cer●o persuademus vera esse , si modo bona sint vel v●ili● , veluti si sunt promissiones , off ●●is & cor accommodare solemus , & eorum spem & fiduciam in nob●● concipere , translatum est vocabulum fidei ad significandam fiduciam erga promittentes : In his significatione ●●pe o●●ium est in sacris literis : Sane Mathaei no●o sic accip●●ur , vbi ●u●e● Christus paralyticum illum confidere . Ter●io accipitur fidei vocabulum vt h●● omnia complectatur , nempe assensi●● illum fi ●● mentis ; quo quis ●●●to persuade at sibi ver 〈◊〉 esse , quae sacrae l●tter● doce●● siue promi●●unt , & fiduciam ex Dei omnipotent●● bo●ita●e ▪ quu●● Scripturae reuelant , concep●am , non s●●● o●e , hoc est exspectatione promissorum . Sic accepisse videtur Paulus fidem ad Roman 4. & ad Haebr . 11. Explicans enim illis locis fidei naturam ac vim , passim a fiducia ad credulitatem , ru●sus a credulitate ●● fiduciā delabitur , que fac●●e subindicat se nomine fidei vtramque complecti . Certe scriptura quam ex Abacu●●●tati : Iustus ex fide vi●i● , spem & fiduciam complectitur . Sasbout . in cap. 1. ad Rom. Credere se in 〈◊〉 quomodo dicit , qui non facit quod Christus facere pr●ce●it ? aut vnde per●eni●t ad pr●●ium fidei , qui fidem non ●●lt ●er●●re manda●● ? Cyprian de Eccles . vnit . Cum ergo Chris●●● videre , gaude●● fit , nec passi● esse ga●d ●● 〈◊〉 nisi cum v●a●r●mus Christum , quae c●ti●as ●ni●●i , 〈◊〉 m●nt●a est , am●re pressuras & p●na● , & lachrymas mundi , & non f●st●nare potius ad gaudium , quod nunquam possit at f●ri ? Ho● autem fit , fratres dilect ●●mi , quio fides d●●st , quid ●em● credit vera esse qua promi●●●t Deus , 〈◊〉 est , cuius sermo credentibus ●ter●us & firmus est . Si t●●● v●r grauis & 〈◊〉 aliquid ●o●b●ne●●r , haberes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : nec te fall● aut decipi ab eo crederes , quem stare in 〈◊〉 atque in act●bus suis scires : Nunc Deus ●●cem loquitur , & tu mente incredu●a perfidus ●●●ctuas ? Deus tibi de●●c mundo recedenti immortalitatem atque ●●ern●ta●em pollicitur , & tu dubitas ? hoc est Deum omnino non ne●●e , hoc est , Christum credentium magistrum , peccato incredulitatis offendere : hoc est , in Ecclesia constitutum , fidem in domo fidei non habere . Cyprian de Mortalit . ●e . Ver●ntamen p●test forte mouer● quid tam multos vi●emus credentes IESVM f●lium Dei esse , adhuc tamen mund● 〈◊〉 cupid ●tatibus i●●e●i●os . Q●i●i ergo ait : quis est qui 〈◊〉 mundum , nisi qui cred● , quia Jes●● est filius Dei , ●um & ipse iam mundus id credat ? An non ipsi quo●●● Damon●● & credunt & ●ontrem●cum ? Sed dico : Puta●ne filium Dei IESVM reputat , quisquis ille est ho●o , qui●●●● nec t●●retur ●●n mi●●●ienibus , nec ●●●rahitur ●rom ssionibus , ●●t praeceptis obtem perat , nec consil●j , a● quies●it ? Nunne ●● etiam si 〈◊〉 se n●sse● Deum ●actis tamen negat ? Bernard in Act Pas . de 〈◊〉 Tes●●●● in C●●● e● t●● ▪ 〈◊〉 1. b Ad sextum argumentum respondeo , Patres , cum dicunt fidem sine operibus non esse veram fidem , tantum vèlle significare quod non sit viua & perfecta , qualis reuera deberet esse . Nam & hic loqūendi modus est vsitatus , vt rem , quae in aliquo genere imperfecta est , dicamus non esse veram in eo genere , sicut gaudium aut dolore ( verhi gratia ) imperfectum , aut non ita magnum , dicere solemus non esse verum gaudium aut dolorem , lametsi aliquod gaudium sit aut dolòr . Marke 〈…〉 . verse 16. * Fortasse vnusquisque apud semetipsum dicat : Egoiam credidi salv●s ero , verum dicit , si fidem operibus tenet , vera etenim fides est , quae in hoc quod verbis dicit , moribus non contradicit . Hinc est etenim quod de quibusdā falsis fiaelibus Paulus dicit qui confitentur se nesse Deum , sactis autem negant . Hinc Ioannes ait : Qui dicit se nosse Deum & mādata eius non eustodit , meadax est . Quod cum ita sit fide inostrae veritatem in vitae nostrae considerationem debemus agnossere . Tunc enim veraciter fideles sumus si quod verbis promittimus opev●bus complemus , In die quippe Baptismatis omnibus nos antiqui hostis operibus atque omnibus pompis abrenunciare promisimus . Itaque●ausquisque vestrum ad confiderationem suam mentis oculos reducat● & fi seruat post Baptismum , quod ante Baptismum spopon●it , certus iam quia fidelis est gaudeat . Sed ecce si quod promisit minime serua●it , si ad excercendu prau●● opera , ad concupiscendas mundi pompas dilapsus est , videa●us fi●●m scit plangere quod errauit . Apud miscricordem ●●mnamque iudicem , nec ille fallax habetur , qui ad veritatem reuerti : tur , etiam postquam mentiturquia omnipotens Deus dum libeter paenitentiam nostram suscipi● , ipse suo iudicio hoc quod erranimus al scondit , Greg. Hom 29. in Ascen . Demmi . c Hiac accepisse videtur Paulus illud ad Rom Iūstificati ex fide pacem habemus erga Deum , nam & hic sequitur , Cultus Iustiuae quies & siducin , ●d est , cul●us , seruitium seu obsequium ad iustitiam consequendam est nos , ●ostiaque omnia Deo committere tanquam patri am●n●issimo ; cui fidem dedimu● , quem pro De ▪ oa●cepimus ▪ cui obtemperare , cu●●●●legem exanimo s●●uare promissimus ; quiq●os in suam fidem suscepit ▪ quibus etiam , nisi in obedientes esse ●ellemus ; se nunquam des●tu●um ●ic●ssim pol icitus est . Haec omnia includ●t fides Paulina , cui iustitiam tribuit ipsc . Forer ▪ in 32. cap Iesatae verse 17. h Rom. 5 ver . 1. a Quid sit credere in hac disputatione , ex alijs locis scripturae discendumest , praecipue cap. 7. Johann● . Qui credit in me , sicutdicit scriptura , flumina de vētre eius fluant aequae viuae . Scriptura quam co loc● respicit s●luat● , habetur , 2. Paralip . cap. 16. vbi sic scriptum est . Oculi Domim contemplantur vniuersam terram , & prebent fortitudinem ij● qui cord● perfecto credunt in cum . Corde autem perfecto credunt , qui non solu●s fidem adhibent illis quae dicuntur in scripturis , vel alias diuinitus reuelantur , sed praeterea omnes animae vires accomodant , vt faciant quod habes fides . vel quod ●a prescribit . Atque hoc modo accipitur a Paulo credere , videlicet vt sit edauditum verbum commoneri , & tota an●mi adhaesione complecti , id quod dicitur . Sasbout in vers . 17. 1. ad . Rom. i Psa . 78. ver . 9. c 1. Cor. ●● ▪ k 1. Cor. 1. v. 5. * Adde vltimò etiā comentarium S. Augustini , vt ali●s interim pretermittam Nam tractat 53. in Iobannem : Vidite , inquit Augustinus , quemadmodum notauerit . Euangelista , & improbaue●it quosdam , quos tamen in eum ●●●did sse dixit , qui in hoc ingressu fidei , si proficerent , amorem quoque humanae gloriae proficiendo superarent . Quod ●● fides ista proficere poterat & amorem humanae gloriae proficiendo superare , certe vera fide● erat ●ad●m e●im est fide● 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 & perf●●●● , sed ●o●●●mper ●que magna ▪ 〈◊〉 ●● fid●● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non●●t ●adem , qu● 〈◊〉 no●●●●e 〈…〉 ▪ de 〈…〉 ▪ * If the Reader well obserue the nature and properties of faith before explicated he cannot possibly bee ignorant that euery least degree of faith brings forth a correspondent degree of loue , that it is as impossible loue should increase without a correspondēt increase of faith precedent , as that inequality betwixt two subiects should grow greater without any variation of their quantities ▪ * Creation applied vnto this subiect more properly ( in Scripture phrase ) includes the renouation it selfe wrought in our hearts then the grace or quality infused by which it is wrought , for whether that be of one ▪ and the same nature in all , God onely knowes : bound we are to beleeue that he is able to c●eate new hearts in diuers persons by meanes , whether externall or internall and infused , in nature & quality much different . See section 3. chap. 1. & ● . 1. Cor. 3. b Galas . 6. ver . 14. a Mark 16. 17. 18 b 1. Cor. 1● . 31 c 1. Io● . 4 19. d Iames ● . 10. f L k. 8. 15 Chap. 6. § 10 See Chap. 6. § 16 b Iames 2. 21 Heb. 11. 19 Rom. 4. 19 20 Iames 2. 25 * Ad quartum argumentum respond●● . D●plic●t●● al●q●●● posse dici mortuum ; vno modo p●● defectum animae , quae est forma intri●seca hominis . Et quod st●●o●● mortuum dicitur , non est a●pl●us verè tale ; vt homo mortuu● non est ●ere homo . Altero modo dicitur aliquid mortuū per defectum formae extrinsecae , sicut corpus quod dicitur mortuum per defectum animae viuae , quae est quid extrinsecum corpor● , vt corpus est . Et quod ist● modo dicitur mortuum , nihilominus est ; vt corpus mortuum vere nihilominus est corpus , quamuis non vivum corpus Valent. Tom. 3. dis . 1. quaest . 4. punct . 4. The same answere hath Bellarmine lib. 1. de iustificatione . cap. 15. a Non se●tiunt , quod tharit●● proprie si● forma sides , aut essentialis , vt anima dicitur forma ●ominis , aut accidetalis aut extrinseca vt al●id● c●rpor●s ▪ Hoc ●●●m falsum esse ex ●● perspicuum est , quod 〈◊〉 & ●i●es s●nt du● virtutes sp●cied 〈◊〉 , quae duas d●●c sas potent●●● 〈◊〉 . Solum igitur vol●●t T●●●l●g● , Charitatem quon●●● p●●●ect an●m aliquam ad●●● fides , metaphorice dici posse formam ipsius ; secundum Analogiam videlicet ad formam proprie dict●● quae suo modo subiectum perficit . Valent. Tom. 3. disp . 1. qu●st . 4. puncto 3. b Sed quaerat aliquis , quae●am sit illa perfectio , quam charitas tribuit fidei . Respondeo duplicem esse : vna est quod per charitatem valet ad ●eatitudinem consequendam id est ad meritum sicut disput●ui Tom. 2. disp . 8. quaest . v●t . Et quidem quod hanc perfectionem sides ex charitate accipiat , certum est ex fide : Altera perfectio est quod qua●e● us fidei actus per imperium charitatis refertur ad vltimum finem id est quat●nus credat aliquis propter Deum vt summum bonum , pertinet actus fidei ad ●and●m specie rectitudinem ad quam ipsa charitas , atque adeo est eiusdem speciei cuius est ips● charitas . Hoc autem est discrimen , quod rectitudo haec est essentialis ipsi charitat● , vt quae secundum sua● rationem non habet ●●●m la●dem , quam quod respicit in summum , quod est Deus . Fidei vero non est haec rectitudo nisi accidentalis , quate●us fidei accidit , vt ipsius actus voluntarie per charitatem referatur in summum bonum . Valent. ibid. punct . 3. c Ipsum viuere est ipsum operari , ●i●nt Philosoph● , operatio autem vitalis non à corpore profic●scitur , sed a coniunctione spiritus cum idone● corpore . Nec ver● Apost●l●●pera fidei spiritum esse dicit ; sed de vitae appellatione ac nomine tantum ●g●t . Tam , inquit , verum est fidem si●e operibus mortuam dici , quaem verum est de corpore sine spirit● , esse dicique mortuum . Ar ▪ Mo●t . ●n verse 26. ●●● . 2. Epist . D. Iacobi . See Sec. 2. Cha. 5. ● See sect . 2. Cha. 6. towards the latter end . Si quis dixerit , amissaper peccatum gratia , simul & fidem semper ●mitti , aut fidem , quae remanet , non esse veram fidē , licet nō sit viua , aut eum qui fidem fine charitate haebet , non esse Christianum , anathema sit Concil . Trident s●ssi●●e sexta de iustis . c●● . 28. Chap. 8. parag . 8. * Maldonat vpon these wordes of our Sauiour ( Math. 15. v. 19. ) In vaine doe they worship me , well obserues that the Greeke ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) well expresseth the originall . His reason is . Nam apud Hebraeos , timere deum est deum colere . a Volutres Deus pascit , & passeribus alimenta diurna praestantur , & quibus nullus diuinae rei sensus est eu nec cibus , nec potus deest : ●u Christiano , tu Dei scruo , tu operibus ●o●is dedito , tu domino suo ch●ro aliquid existimas d●futurum ? nisi si putas , quia qui Christum pascit , a Christo ipse non pascitur : aut e●●terrena d●erunt , quibus caelestia & diuina tribuuntur , vnde hae● incredula cogitatio ? & vnd● i●pia & sacrilega ista meditatio ? quid facit in domo ●idei perfidum pectus ? quid qui Christo omnino non credit , appellatur & dicitur Christianus ? Pharisaei tibi magis congruit nomen . Nom cum dominus in euangelio de ele●mosynis disputaret , & vt nobis ami●es de terrestribus lucris prouida òperatione faceremus , qui nos postmodum in tabernacula aeterna susciperant , fideliter & salubriter praemoner●● , addidit post haec scriptura dicens , Audiebant autē haec omnia Pharisaei qui erant cupidissimi & irridebant Cypr. d●●pere & ●l●●mos . o Christianus nem● recte dicitur , u●s● qui Christo moribus coaequatur . Ecce Christus non contendit neque clamauit , & tu simorum Christs similitudinem tenere cupis , ne contend●s , ne abu●i●●● in ecclesia Christianus exis●as Cypr. de Abus . sec . b Quisquis igitur ore dicit , credo in vnum Deum , & seruit auaritiae , aut libidin● , au● luxui , sibi men●itur , sibique re●ug●at , aliud lingua sonans , aliud animo celans , voce tantum testimonium perhibens Deo , cum vita satanam colat Cypr. de dupl . Martyr . c His wordes are cited parag . 1. a Rom. 9. v. 6. b Galat. 3. v. 7. d Rom. 2. v. 28. 29. ● The first that faith should bee dead & yet true : the second that faith truely dead whilest so remaining should giue life vnto a Christian . I thinke it would be a matter very hard for the Iesuite to finde more grosse absurdities in so few words in the simplest writer of this age . For by the litterall and ordinary sence of the wordes faith should be no part of grace . a Mat. 1● . 15 a Ioh 16. * See lib. 3. Sect. 3. chap. 8. parag . 3. b Iohn 6. v. 14. 15. Vide Socratē De Iudeis Cretā in co●entibus . Lib. 6. ca. 3● . ●a● . 5. 31. 32. * Ouidius lib. 5. Tristium E. ●g . 14. b 1. Cor. 6. 1. 2. &c. a Iames ● . 5. b see Ch. 6. Sect. 1. * Nam concubinae et pellices non sunt prohibitae . quemadmodis ex legibus de Concubinarijs ostenditur libro , Digestorum . 25. Satis aperte Augustinus testatur esseiure ciuile vetere , Romano multa permissa quae sunt contraria legibus diuinis . Hoc isti nolunt , qui dum gentilitatem coniungere et coaptare Christianismo laborant , corrupto ulroque & et alterius impatiente nec gentilitatem nec Christianissimum retinent . L. viues in haec verba August de Ciuitate Dei ad Marcell . lib. 14. ca. 18. vsum scortorum terrena civitas licitam turpitudinem fecit . a Luke 14 ver . 12. 13 14. b Pro. 28. ver . 9. c Math. 18. ver . 15 16. 17. b Hoc ad crimina nostra addimus , vt c●m ●● omnibus rei simus , ●tiā bonos nos et sanc●o● esse credamus , ac si●● nobis ●umuleatur iniquita●● 〈◊〉 , etiam praes●●ti●ne i●sti●●ae . Sal●●●nu● lib. 3. c Mat. 12. 33. a 2. Tim. ● . 21. b ● . Iohn 4. v 3. * Vide Sect. 3. ca. 2. parag . 2. & cap 8. parag . 40. d Luke 18. v. 2. 3. b Psal . 147. 20 d Iudg. 8. 18 * Luke 18. 28 Math. 8. 11 Iohn 5 Act 7. 51. 52 g Iohn 9. v. 28. 29. d 1. Thes . 2. v. 16. e Mat. 23. v. 32. f Luke 19 v. 42. Marke 7. v. 37. a Psal . 113. 5 6. ● Vile Sect. 3. cap. 4. pa●ag . b Ioh. 8. 44 c Luke 11. 46 d Mat. 23. 27. e Mat. 23. 25 d Mat. 25 44 a Acts 20. 35 b Rom. 13. 10 c 1. Tim. 5. 8 d Ieremie 7. v. 11. e Math. ●● . 13. b Math. 10. v. 37. a Cum ad supplicium ducerentur , vna quoque Lud. Marsacus home militaris sed qui in sacris libris legendis multum temporis contriuerat , productus est , minime revincto collo , v●i fieri assolet , sic enim iudex , quod ille regi militasset , iusserat ▪ cumque videret sociis indutum collo a carnifice laqueum quaesiuit à praetore eorum potior quam sua causa existeret ? cur enim inquit , non me simili torque donq● , & tam illustris ac praestantis ordinis me quoque equitem creas . Thuanus . lib. 11. anno 1553. h Sect. 3. chap. 3. parag . 8. 9. 10. b Pacem nobis Christus dedit : concordes atque vnanimes esse praecepit : dilectionis & charitatis fadera incorrupta atque inuiolata seruari mandauit : exhibere se non posse martyrem qui fraternam non tene● charitatem . Docet hoc & contestatur Paulus Apostotus d●cens , Et si habuer● fidem &c. Cyprianus de vnitate ecclesia . Confessor est , sed post confessionem periculis maius est , quia plus aduersarius prouocatus est . Confessor est , hoc m●gis stare debet cum domini euangelio , per euangelium gloriam consequ●tus a domino All eium diceus cui multum datur , multum quae●u●ur ab co , & cui plus dignitatis ad scribitur , plus de illo exigitur ser●●tutis . Nemo per confessoris exe●●●l● pe●●at , nemo iniusticiā nemo insolen●●a nemo perfidiā de cofessoris moribus discat . Confessor est , ●u humilis et quietus , sit in ●ct● suo c● disciplin● modestu●●t qu. Christi confessor dicitur , Christum qu●m confi●etur imitetur . Nam cum dicat ille , quise extoll●t , humili●bitur , & qui se humiliat ex ●●abitur : et ipse à patre exaltatus sit , qui à se in terris sermo & virtus et sapientia Dei patris hum●l●auit , quomodo potest extolle●tiam d●l●g●r , q●i et nobis ●umilitatem sua lege mandauit et ipse à patie , amplissi n●n nome● prae●●o humilitatis accepit . Cyp●tanus Ibid. d Contentus Deus noster est , vt ei pax nostra seruiat , vt solâ ei immaculatorum actum puritate & vi●ae in contaminabilis sanctitate placeamus Quo plus ei ●id●s & d●u●●●o nostra debel , quia mi●ora a nobis exigit & maiora co●●essi● . Et ideo cum & principes Christiani sint & persecutio nulla sit , & religio non i●qumetur , qui ad probandum fidem experimentis d●●●ribus non compellimur inferioribus ●●●em ●ffici● , domino plu● placere de●emus . Probat enim e●ia●● in ma oribus ▪ sires ●●iga● , executorem se idoneum sore , à quo mino●a complent●r , sal●ianus lib. 3. e 1. Iohn 3 v. 14. f Ibidem v. 15. h V. 16. v. 16. a 1. Iohn 3. v. 17. 1. Cor. 13. v. 3. 4. 5 a Heb. 12. 11. ●uk● 18 11 ● Lucan lib. 1 To make our actions acceptable in the sight of God , true and liuely faith is necessarie , not only to the persons working , but as concurrent to the worke it self ; nor are all the actions of the faithfull , but such only as are conceiued and managed by faith truly faithfull . b Eccles . 32. 23 Read Sest . 1. chap. 7. Parag. 1. 2 c Vide lib. 2. sect . ● chap. 7. parag . 7. d Rom. 14. 5 Rom. 10. 10 So Saint Iohn takes beliefe in Christ , and the keeping of Gods Commandemēts as termes reciprocall or mutually inferring and the other either capable of others properties This is then his Commandemēt , That wee belieue in the name of his Sonne IESVS CHRIST , and loue one another , as he gaue commandement . For he that keepeth his Commaundements , dwel●e●h in him , and he in him ; and hereby wee kn●w that he abideth in vs , euen by the spirit which he● hath giuen vs 1. Ioh. 4. 23. 24. b Iames 2 v. 8. ● . 10. Ecclesiasti . 12 ▪ v. ●3 . Read Sect. 1. cha . last . d In what sense good deeds may be said ●o perfec● faith . a That their defect of workes whom St. Iames reprooues did spring from a defect of faith . b Iames 1. v. 21. c V. 22. d V : 26. v. 27. Deut 10. v. 16. a Seneca . b 1. Iohn 2. v. 4. c Iames 2. v. 9 d V. 10. e v. 11. a Si pro arbi●rio suo serui Dominis obtemperant , ne in ijs quidem in quibus ▪ obtem perauerint obsequuatur , Saluianus loco inserius citato . b Sa luianus lib 3. de Gub : r● . Dei. ● Ecclesiastici 19. ● . 21. Oportet autem & illud considerare quantopere Christiani abbo●rea● ab idolothytis , & ab ngressu fanorum , atque ab ipsis etiā simulachri● , cum beatus Paulus clamet neque idolā esse aliquid , neque idolothytum : multo minus fanum ex lapidibus constructū , est aliquid : et tamen plurim●ru●●nimus ea religione tenetur , vs mortē oppetant citius , quam gustent idol●s immol●tu● , & inexp●abile piaculum ●sse ducant , si ingrediantur fanu● Iouis , aut Apollinis , aut Dianae , seque putent contactu si●●ul●c●rt vehementer contamtuari . Equidē prob●taliū religionem si sibi constet in omnibus . Nunc p●oh dolorvidere est , quosdam in bis pene superstiti●se trepidos , in ●lijs v●● grauior er a● metuendi causa , nimium esse securos . Per se non inquinat animam contactus id●li , nec ingress●● fani , nec esus idolothyti : sed per se polluit conscien●iam amor pecunie , incestu● , ●apina , hypocrisis , & his similia monstra , Quam vero congruit , horrere sani ingressum , nec b●rrere in templo sancto spiritui consecrato victimas imm●●are daemonijs . Clamat sanctus Paulus scri●e●s Corin●●ijs , Nes●●tis quia templum Dei estis & spiritus Dei habitat in vobis ? Si quis autem templum Dei violauerit , disperdit illum Deus . Rursus in eadem Epistola , An nescitis quoniam membra vestra templum sunt Sancti Spiritus qui in vobis est , quem habet●s a Deo & non est is vestri ? Quod si Christianorum pectora sibi consecrauit Deus , vt in illis inhabi●et pe● spiritum suum , ill●c d●●c●atur & inambulat , illic amat sibi offerri victima●● puram in omni loco . Et qui in hoc templum Deo sacrum , eiecto Sancto Spiritu , ●nducit abominationes quas in mystica visione conspex●● Ez●●bi●l , qui illic sedem facit Mammonae Veneri , Co●o , Ba●cho , alijsque portentis : qui ibi demonibus imm●lat spurcissimas h●●●ias , veretur ingredi fanum gentiu● ne contaminetar ? Proi●d nemo sibi frustra ●la●diatur Deus non inride●ur ▪ constet sibi nostrareligio , nec alios detestemur , ipsi gra●iori●●●●●●●ox●j criminibus , vec alibi fimas religiosi timidi , alibi impudenter impij . Sed Christum semel professi , ●●ta vita reddamus illi testimonium , & vndique glorificemus illum , obedientes illius praeceptis vt in hoc cognoscant homines quod vere fidimus illi , quod ex animodiligim●● illū , & quod non simulatè ad sacrum la●achrum add●ximus nosillius militiae . Author de duplici Martyrio . VVhether this Treau●e were written ( as Espe●●●us ●eli●●s most in his time thought ) by Erasmus desirous to try whether be could equalize Cyprian or by some other the opinion of antiquity concerning the nature of true Christian faith is so wel and pithil● expressed by him , as no treatise of like quantity , ancient or moderne , will giue better satisfaction to the iuditious vnpartiall Reader . c Continens infidelis homo non solū minus laudandus est , quia se continet , dum non credat , verum etiam mult● magis vituperandus quia non credit , cum se contineat . August . de ciuit . dei lib 16. ca. 36. Hinc apparet quam parum momenti sit in rivulis externorum operum , nisi ex puero interiore fonte manent . L. Vines in illum locum . a Math. 5. 20 b Math. 5. 17 c Verse 19. d VVhat manner of casualtie this speech includes , see § 7. e 1. Iob. 3. 7 f Tertium Iestimonium ( Qui facit iustitiam iustus est ) non docet quid facit hominem formaliter iustum , sed vnde possit cognosci , an aliquis fit iustus . Ille enim iustus est , qui iustitiam facit , sicut ille vi●ens es● , qui mouetur ; & illa est arbor bona , quia facit fructus bonos , nec tamen ideo est arbor bona , quia facit fructus bonos , nec ●de● viuit aliquis , quia monetur , sed contra ideo mouetur , quia viuit , & ideo facit fructus bonos , quia est arbor bona ; Sic igitur qui facit iustitiam , iustus est ; sed non ideo iustus , quia facit iustitiam , sed ideo iustitiam facit quia iustus est . Belsar . lib. de iustis . cap. 16. a James 1. 27. * Sess . 6. c. 10. * In what sence workes are said to iustifie vs in respect of men , not in respect of God ●ee parag . 6. a So likewise is it taken in the 12. Article of our Church . Albeit that good works , which are the fruits of saith , & follow after justification , cannot put away our sins , and endure the seuerity of Gods iudgement yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ , and doe spring out neces●arily of a true & liuely faith ▪ insomuch that by them a liuely faith may bee as euidently known as a tree dis●erned by the fruit . b Sect. 1. c. 10. VVorkes done in faith are acceptable to God for the merits of Christ vn●aignnedly a prehended as the onely author of saluation and sole end of faith , vvith whom our soules seeke perfect vnion , not from our perswasion of our owne saluation on such vnion already accomplished . a See sect . 3 cha . 3 & 4. a Galat. 3. v. 7. Ioh. 8. 39 & 40. * Eos denique fili●s Abrahe dicit , quos in iu●andis , alendisque pauperibus operarios cernit . Nam cum Zacchaeus dixisset , Ecce dimidium ex substantiâ meâ do egenis , & si cui quid fraudaui , quad●uplum reddo● : respondit IESVS , & dixit , quia salus hodie huic domu● fecta est , quoniam & hic filius est Abrahae . Nam si Abraham credidit De● , & reputatum est ei ad iustitiam : Vtique qui secundum praeceptum Dei elemosynas facit , Deo credit : & qui habet fidei veritatem , seruat Dei timorem : qui autem Dei timorem seruat , in miserationibus pauperum Deum cogitat . Operatur enim ideo quia credit , quia scit vera esse quae praedicta su●● verbu Dei , ne● scripturam sanctam posse mentiri : arbores infructuss●● , id est , steriles homines excidi , & ●● ignem mitti , miserecordes autem ad regnum vocari . Quia & in ali● loco operarius , & fructuoses fideles appellat , infructuosis verò , & sterilibus ●tdem deregat , dice●s , Si in iniusto mamona fideles non fuistis ; quod est verum quis credet vobis ? & si in alieno fideles non fuistis , quod est vestrum quis dabit vobis ? Sivereris & metuis , ne ●● operariplurimum c●peris , patrimonie tu● larg● operatione ●●●●to , ad penuriam forte redigaris , e●●● in bac parte intrepidus , esto securus . Finiri non potest vnde in vsus Christi impenditur , vndè opus caleste celebratur . Cyprianus de opere , & eleemosynâ . * Quid est igitur credulitas , aut fides ? opinor hominem fideliter Christo credere est fidelem deo esse , hoc est fideliter Dei mandata seruare ficut enim serui hominum diuitum ●ut procuratores , quibus vel supellecti●●● copiosa , vel cellaria opulenta creduntur , fideles absque dubi● dici non queunt , si res tradit●● deuorarent : sic profecte etiam Christiani homines fideles non sunt , si bona sibi a Deo assignata corrumperent . Saluianus lib. 30. Rom. 8 b Rom 6. 2. 3. 4. Non obsetuance of this distinction betweene iustification presumed and accomplished , or on Gods part proclaimed and sealed to vs , hath made many expositors ( other wise men of admirable iudgement and sagacitie ) run counter in some passages of C. Pauls Epistles . Ezech. 18. 24. d Reuel . 22. 2. e Rom. 2. 13. f Mark. 12. 33. 34 g James 2. 24. h ver . 14. a Gen. 12. v. 1. 2. &c. b Gen. 15. v. 3. 4. ● . 6. c Gen. 22. v. 1● . Iames 2. v. 23. Pro. 20 9. Psal . 19. v. 9. o In this sence is it taken by Saint Paul. Rom. 8. ver . 33. 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen : It is God that iustifieth . VVho shall condemne ? It is Christ which is dead , yea , or rather which is risen againe , who is also at the right hand of God , and maketh request also for vs. d Rom. 1. v. 17. Galat. 3. 11. e Cum hoc loco propheta nomine sidei & persuasionem siue assensum firmūmentis , 〈…〉 fiduciam siue spem compreheaderit , certum est Apostolum quoque dum ait : Iustitia Dei in eo reuelatur ex fide in fidem , fic accepisse fidem , vt vtromque complectatur . Nec detor fil apostolus , sed propris vsus est vaticinio prophetae , ad suae sententiae confirmationem . Nam licet cortex liter● proponat captiuitatem populi Iudoici sub regt Babiloniorum , & liberationem quae facta est per Cyrum , nontamen ille precipuus sensus est , sed alius quilatet sub cortice literae , qui est de captiutiate humani generis sub tyrannide Diaboli & liberationem quae factaest per Cristū Sasbout in 1. ad versum . 17. Heb. 10. v. 35. d Rom. 4. v. 3. 4. 5. 6. o De verbis Paulimaior est difficultas , non desunt qui existiment . Abrahamum tunc primum iustificatum esse a peccatis , cum creddit Deo , promitienti filium & cum de co dictum est : Credidit Abraham Deo , & reputatum est ei ad iustitiam . Ita docet Anselmus in comment ad ca. 4. ad . Roman & candem sententiam indicare videtur S. Augustious praefat . in Psal . 31. cum a●● exponens hunc locum : Ergo ex fide iustificatus est Abrabam , & si opera non praecess runt tamen sequuta sunt . Et siquidem oaec opinio vera esset , nulla esset in Paulo difficultas . caeterum non auderem dicere , Abrahaemum non fuisse multo ante iustificatum , qu●m de eo dictum sit : Credidit Abraham Deo. &c. Dico igitur P●●lum vsum esse exemplo Abrahae , non vt significanet , Abrahamum 〈…〉 catum fuisse a pecca●●s 〈…〉 non iust ficari impi 〈…〉 & gratia Dei factis , sed exside side & g●a●a Dei. Nam si Abraham iust●●s , non est factus iustior , ex ●per●bus s●●e sid ; multo magis impius non pote●●t s●ri iustus ex operibu● sine side . Igu●r Apostolus ad Rom. 4 loquitur de prima iustificatione qua quis ex impio fic iustus : tam et si ad probandum eam non si●r● ex op●ri●us , sed ex fide , exem● pl●m petatase on ●a iustificatione , qua quis ex iusto sit iustier . Quare Paulus et Iacobus co●se●●●nt omnino in exemplo Abrahe , & verbis M●●s intelligengdis , quam●is ad varias conclusiones probandas illis vtantur . Porro sicut Paulus cum loqueretur de prima iustificatione , attulit exemplum Abrahae , quod erat secundae , vt probaret , a maior● , non p●sse impi●us iustificari ex operibus sine fide : si Abraham iustus non est factus iustier ex operibus sine fide : si . Iac●bus cum loqueretur de sic●da iustificatione , attulit exemplum Rahab , quod est primae iustifications , et pro●●ret , ● maiors , iustum fieri iustiorem exoperibus , et non ex side tantum ; si Rahab ex meret●●● facta est iusta ex operious & non ex fide tantum . Nam probabile est valde . Rahab vsque ad illud tempus , qua●●s●●pit nan●●●●●●ue , s●●●sse non solum meretritem , sed etiam infideēm : sed ab eo tempore cr●didisse in Deum & opere ille 〈…〉 ae praeparatum fuisse ad iustificationem , ●● a vt bonum illud opus ex fide factum non suerit meritorium simplic 〈…〉 sicati●nis , sed imperfecte & de congruo , vt supra diximus de d●spositionibus ad gratiam . Bella● . lib. 4. d. Iust . cap. 18. a Sess . 6 , ca. 8. & 10 b Gratis autem iustificari dicamur , quia nihil corum , qua iustificationem praecedunt , sine fides , sine opera , ipsam iustificationis gratiam promeretur . Si enim gratia est , iam non ex operibus : alioquin'vt idem Apostolus inquit , gratia iam non est gratia . Concil . Trideut Sess . 6. cap. 8. c Iame● 2. 23 Heb. 11. 19 f Videtur etiam promissio , quae scribitur cap. 15. intelligenda deposterirate multiplicanda secundum nam ●rum stellarum , per semen , in quo benedicendae essent omnes nationes terrae . Quod si contendas , ( cum illi capite non fiat mentio illius seminis quod est Christus ) textum tantum ●oqui ad literam de carnali postericate ; praesertim cum Apostolus in sequentibus tantùm ●rgeat , fidem de corporali posteritate , qui contra spem ( inquiens ) in spem credidit &c. Respondere licet ad propositam difficul●at●m , fidem de qua loquitur Genesis , tamet si non esset de Christo , vt de obiecto innixam tamen faisse fidei vel fiduciae ●e Christo : vel si de ●o nondum acceperat expressam reuclationem , certe innixam fuisse miserecordiae Dei paratae hom●il us Et similiter sentiendum est de alijs quibusuis promissionibus corporal●bus : quod sides quae circa illas versabatur Deo placuit , sed in illis in quibus erat fides siue fiducia misericordiae diuinae . Sasbout in cap. 4. a d Rom. g Chap. 8. h Rom. 14. 19. 20 g Rom. 4. 23 h This speech of S. Paul is but paraleld to that of S. Iohn ● . Ioh. 1. 8. If we say that we haue no sinne we deceiue our selues and the truth is not in vs. As the iustification whereof S. Paul speaks consists in the acknowledgement of our sinnes required by this Apostle in the words following . If we acknowledge our sinnes he is faithfull & iust to forguie vs our sinnes , and to cleanse vs from all vurighteousnesse . m Rom. 3. 23 n Rom. 3. 28 o Rom. 4. 2 p VVorkes proceeding from grace inherent iustifie onely in respect of men , yet thus farre they iustifie vs not before men only but before God : Nor is it possible for anie man not thus far iustified by working grace , to make the right plea of faith , whereby iustification properly taken , that is , finall absolution is attained . l Psal . 15. 1. 2 m Psal . 1. 1 Psal . 1. 6 n Gen. 2● . 1● a Rom. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. b Psal . 32. 1. 2 c Psal . 143. 2 Si quis dixerit , hominus iustificati bona opera ita esse dona Dei , vt ●●● sint etiam bona ip●●●● iustificati merita ; aut ipsum iust●●● atum bon●● operibus , quae ab eo per Dei gratiam , & Iesu Christi meritum , cuius viv●m me●b●●m est , siunt , non v●re m●r●ri 〈◊〉 grat●● , vi●●m aeternam , & 〈◊〉 vitae aeterae , si 〈◊〉 ●● gratia decess●r●t , consecut●●n●● , atq●e etiam gloriae augme●●●m ; ●●●them● sit 〈◊〉 ▪ Tride●t ▪ sess●● . Cā non● 32. a Num. 25. 8. Ouid. * Mat. 7. 21 * Etsi it qui iustificatur iustitiam a●● pit & habet per Christum etiam inhaerentem , tamen anima fidelis huic non in●itit● , sed so●● inst●●●e Christi nobis donalae , side qui n●lla om●i●o est , nece●●● potest Iestit●a , B●cer ●● ( & si q 〈…〉 ) in li●●ll● ablata 〈…〉 Ratisbone , & in colloquin Actisb●● : 〈…〉 coll●q●in R 〈…〉 nsi ) eum ob●●t●●ss●nt ei pro 〈…〉 quae●●mq as author 〈…〉 q●ij ap●●llat am●●●●as . & in●er quas p 〈…〉 , sidem i●st●●●ation● i●●tium elle , sic respendit : ●ioc si intellt●●tur de iustitia incho●●a , quae side , sp● , & charitate , cetaerisque virrutibus hic comprehensis constat , recipimus : hanc enim i●stitia 〈…〉 donum esse , & nouam in Christ Serca●ur●m , qua ●●fide ●●●● pertipimus , pr 〈…〉 part●m esse fidem ipsam , cum n●que am●re D●um , neque benè de eo spe●●re possimus , ●●si fide euedem cogn●●erimus . H 〈…〉 inchoatam institiam non ess 〈…〉 qua iusti s●●●● apud Deum , ita vt propter illam vita aere●na nobis debeatur : cum ex parte tantum , & impe ●ecta sit●nec legi d 〈…〉 dum hic viuimus , 〈…〉 in nobis , nempe Dei iustiti ●● esse , qua Christ Domin ●c●nfidamus , & fi●ucia faluris con firme●● r. Valques in 1 , ● , ●om● 2. disput . 20 2. cap. 2. Et in coll●q●●● timo ●atisponensi post prop●sit●●●e . 〈…〉 se ●uc●●us adue● s●●●●●abat , folio ●● pag●●●● in collo●●o , quod habuit cum M 〈…〉 lmp . 〈…〉 : ponu●tur ●●●●erbt ipsius . ●den Co non 〈…〉 iustitia 〈…〉 fide , spe , ●●●●titate conster , ne● iustificari iustosque esse : quia imperficta est ; nec legi Dei 〈…〉 cit Vas 〈…〉 . * Excipio eti●m Kemnitium vt est apud Tiletan in apologia pro Concil . Tridi● . de iusticia , qua iustificamur , vbiresert haec verba illius . Non docemus eredentes sine iustitia iustisicari , quia talem iustificationem Deus pronuntiat esse abominationem Prouerb : 17. & Isaiae 5. sed dicimus necesse esse vt in iustificatione intercedat , & interu●niat iustitia , non quidem qualiscunque sed talis , quae in iudicio Dei sufficiens , & digna sit , vt iusta pronuntientur ad vitam aeternam . Quia igitur nostra interioris renouationis iustitia propter adhaerentem carnis imperfectionem , & immun●itiem non est talis , oportet aliam esse iustitiam , qua interueniente , & intercedente iustificemur coram Deo. vbi hic Haereticus fate●ur iustitiam nostram immundam ●sse atque ideo do●et esse minus sufficientem , o● per se poss●t immunditiem peccatitollere , & pargare . Quaesane sententia Haeretici huius valde notanda est , pro his , quae disp . 204. contra aliquos viros Catholicos dicemus , qui admissa iustitia inhaerente remissionem peccati , & offensae Dei infauorem ipsius Dei , tanquam in proximam c●●sa● to ●●●●al ●● reuocaent . Conabimur enim ostendere hanc opinionem a sententia Re●nity parum vid●r● diuersem . Va●quezeodem To●o . disp 102. cap. 101. o Iustificamur a Deo iustitia duplici , ●●n quam per causas formales , & essentiales . Quarum vna & prior est consummata Christ● institia : non quidem quomodo extra nos in ipso est , sed sicut & quando eadem nobis ( dum tamen fide apprehenditur ) ad iustitia● imputatur . Haec ipsa ita nobis imputata ●ustitia Christi , praecipua est & summa iustificationis nostrae causa cu● principaliter initi & fid●re deb●amus . A●●ter vero iustificam●● formaliter , per iustitiam inhaerētem : quae remissione peccato●um simul cum renouatione Spiritus Sancti , & di●●●sion● charitatis in corda nostra , secundum mensuram fidei vnius●●●usque nobis donatur , infunditur , & ●u propria ; atque ita per fructus spiritus exercetur , essi i●u●q , nobis propria quadam iustitia , qua assi●tamur . Cui tamen inherenti iustitiae ( quod sit imperfecta ) non i●●itimur principaliter : sed ea tanquam interieri quodam experimento certificamur , nobis ( qui talem renouationem spiritus nostri in nobis sentimus , & exper●mur ) remissionem peccatorum factam , & Christi consu●ma a● iustitiam nobis imp●tari , atque 〈…〉 Christam per fidem in nobis h 〈…〉 are . Antididarma Colon : de iustificatione ●om●●is cap. per quas causas in ●●●emur . Hereunto they adioi●e another decla●a●●o● so well consorting with our Chu●ches doctrine , as no man not desirous of contention can dissent either for the matter or manner of it . N●h l 〈…〉 nus hoc loquendi modo , non a scrilim●● , neque●ider , neque charitati , 〈…〉 tia . ●ustificationis quae compe●● s●l . Deo 〈…〉 etiam me i●●m eius , quod soli debetur Christo , non fidei ●u● char●tati , au●●ll alierum 〈…〉 tutum , tame●si omnes gr 〈…〉 quae ●●m Dei dona sunt . Sedem . fi●em●● haec ess● media quaedim , quibus operetur Deus in nobis suam iustificationem ▪ Colonibilem . p Vid● Vasqu●z Tom 2 in . 2. Quaest 113. Art. 2. Disp●● . 204 p. 2. m De●um vnica formalis causa est iustitia Dei ; non qua ipse ius●us est , sed qua nos iustos facit , qua videlicet ab eo donati , renouamur spiritu metis nostrae , & non modo reputamur , sedverè iustinominamur ; & sumus , iustitiam in nobis recipientes , vnusquisque suam secundum mensuram , quam spiritus sanctus partitur singulis prout v●●t , & secundum propriam cuiusque dispositionem , & cooperationem . Quanquam enim nemo possit esse iustus , nisi ●ui merita passionis Domini nostri IESV CHRISTI communicantur : id tamen in hac impij iust ficatione fit , dum eiusdem sanctissimae passionis merito per spiritum sanctū charitas Dei diffunditur in cordibus eorum , qui iustificantur , atque ipsis inhae●et , vnde in ipsa iustificatione cum remissione peccatiorum haec omnia simul 〈…〉 sa accipit homo per ILSVM CHRISTVM , cui inseritur , Fidem , Spem , & Charitatem . Nam fides , nisi ad ●am sp●s accedat & charitas , neque vn●● perfecte ●um Christ●● , neque corporis ●ius viv●m membrum eff●●t . Conc. Trid. Sess . 6. cap. 7. n Est autem gratiae , quemad●odum Tridentina synodus ab omnibus creden . ū paena Anathematis proposita , de●r●uit , non solum per quam peccatorū●it remissio sed diuina qualitas in anima inherens , ac v●luti splen d●● quidem , & lux , quae an marum nostrar● ma●●●as omnes delet , ipsasque animas pul●hriores splendidiore● reddit . Catech. Trid part● de Baptis . ca. 2. §. 8 vide Conc. Trid. cap. 7. Sess . 6. sub . finem . * Hoe pr●miss● , cōtra praedictā sententiam rationibus agendā est : prima autem ratio sit . Si gratia & iustitia nobis inhaerens possentesse simul cum peccato , etiam p●r potentiam Dei absolutam , sequeretur quitquid eiusmodi nobis inhaeret , non esseveram iustitiā , nec tale nomen mereri . Nam si quidquid nobis inhaeret secum sinit esseiustitiam , & sordes peccati , efficitur illud ex se non esse munditiam , et innocentiam animi : nam munditia , & immunditia nec per potentiam absolutam Dei simul esse possunt : vera etenim iustitia talis esse debet , vt ipsa sit animi munditia , & innocentia vilae , eo quod suapte natura reddere debet immaculatos , & innocentes eos qui antea maculati , et nocen●es erant ; quumque vt pradicta opinio fert , nostra iustitia id non effi ●al sine extrinseco fauore , & acceptatione Dei ; consequitur ex ●eipsa ●●blant● emni fauore , & acceptatione Dei non esse veram iustitiam , & sanctitatem . Quae enim iustitia , & sanctitas excogitari potest , quae non sit ipsa anim● m●●d●ties , & innocentia ? aut quit iustus , et sanctus , qui hoc ipso non ●it innocens , & imm●●u●a●us ? hanc autem ●ep●gnantiam iustitiae inhaerentis cum peccato , & macula illius videtur ostendisse Joan. 1. canonicae cap. 3. illis verbis Omnis , qui in eo manet , non peccat et infra , omnis , qui natu● est ex Deo , non peccat , quia semen Dei mane● in illo ( nempe iustitia ) & non potest peccare , quoniam ex Deo natus est , videlicet quamdiu gratia De ; ma●e● in ill● . Vasquez . in Primam Secundae , Tom. 2. disp . 204. cap. 4. * Itaque v●r●m , et Christianum iusticiam acciptences , cam , scilicet primā stalam pro ●lla , quam Adam sua inobedientia sibi et nobis per did●● , per Christum Iesum illis dona●am , candidam , et immacu●atam iubentur statim renati coaseruare , vt cam perferant ance tribunal Domini nostr● Iesu Christ et habea●t v●am ●ternam . Concil . Trident. sess . 6. cap. 7. * Si dicant aduersary ideo peccatū non remitti solae iustitia inherente sine fauore , et condonatione , quia sine illa non habet veram , et completam rationem iustitiae , praeter absurda , quae capile praecedente contra illorum opinionem intulimus , alia etiam non minora sequntur . Primū est imputationem seu applicationem merisorum Christi ad nostram iustificationem , et remiss●●nem peccatorum non solum fieri in ipsa donorum infusione , & auxiliorum commu●●catione , sed et●● post ipsam infusionem iustitiae ad hoc vt peccata remittantur . Hoc autem absurdum esse probari potest prime ex Concil : Trid. Ses . 6. cap. 7. vbi cum dixisset vnicā formalem Causam nostrae iustificationis esse iustitiam nobis inbaerentem secundum propriam cuiusque dispositionem & causam meritoriam esse ipsum Christum , ne videretur excludere a nostra iustificatione applicationem meritorum eius , sed debitum ei locum assignaret ; cum passim dici solea● , no● iustificari meritis Christi , inquit , Quanquam enim nemo possit esse iustus : nisi cui merita passi●●s Domini nostri Jesu Christi communicantur , idtamen ( nempe quod applicentur merita Christi ) in hac impij iustificatione fit , dum ●ius sanctissim● passionis m●●●●o per spiritum sanctum Charitas Dei ●●ffunditur in cordi●●● corum , qui iustificantur , atque ipsis inhaeret . Docet igitur Concil . applicationem meritorum Christi , fieri ●o ipso , quod ex meritu eius nobis dona tribu●ntur , quae infusione recipimus , & cum non dicat al● mod● , et momento , n●mpe post infusionē fier● hanc applicationem ; planc ostendit , tunc solum , et eo solo modo fi●r● . Vasquez . Tom. 2. ●● . 1. 2. quaest . 113. Art. 2. disput , 204. cap. 3. 10. Iugenue s●leor denominationem iusti fieri posse à iustitia extrinseca ipsius Dei , quamu● denom inatio omnipotent● non possit fieri , nisi ab intrinseca forma , qualis est potentia ipsius , qui omnipotens vocatur : vtor autemratione proposita , nempe quia denominatio iusti , et qualibet alia denominatio extriaseca non potest fieri ab extrinseca forma sine effi●itate aliqua , et connexione , is quod supra probatum est ▪ hanc autem esse non posse inter iustitiam ●●i , et omnes homines , nisi per vnionem hypostati●am , facile inductione monst●a●o V●lquez . Tom. 2. in . Primam second . d●sp . 2. cap. 3. Many arguments he brings , Which conclude very probable against O●ianders opinion , or such as ▪ den● any measure of in●eren● righteousnesse requisite to iustification , whose error i● ficiently re●u●es it 〈…〉 , vnlesse the sauourers of it will affirme that w●●a●e iustified before we receiue any fruits of the spirit , for the will not ( I am sure ) deny quod exso●i 〈…〉 est spiritus est , whatsoeuer the spirit worketh in v●is righteousnesse , though not able to make vs perfectly righteous in the sight of God , so long as we are in the flesh , which is neuer altogether barren , albeit the best fruits thereof be sin . Si per institiam Christi nobis imputatā , vere dici possumus visti et fil●y Dei , ergo poterit etiam Christus , per iniustitiā nostram sihi imputatā , dici vere peccator et quod h●rret animus cogitare filius Diabolt . Nā aduersarij concedunt , ita Christo imputatum fuisse peccatū , vt nobis iustitia imputatur . Bellar. de Justif . lib. 2. c. 7 The argument is friuolous against the doctrine wee maintaine , because Christ took no symbole of our sin as we doe of his righteousnesse , though not therfore righteus ( not our selues but as we are vnited to him , ) of force enough against such as think we are formally iust by Christs imputed righteousnesse without righteousnes inherent . ●2 . Cor. 5. ver . 21 * Non possum non mirari ●ntiqu●s scholasticos quos ●act●nus memora●i , quod de iustitia nobis inhaerente ita ●biectè senserint , vt veram ei adscribere formidauerint rationem iustitiae et sanctitatis inhaerentis , quae suapte n●turâ Deo necessario placeat . Recentiores verò Theologos multò magis miratus sum , quod post praeclaram Concilij Tridentini definitionem , quam inferius explicabo , tam exilem iustitiam inhaerentem iustis concesserint , vt ex se non h●beat virtutem tergendi maculas peccatorum , nec ●a● pu●gare valeat , nisi ●au●●e , & condonatione Dei relaxentur . Vasq . Tom. 2 in primam secundae quaest . 113 Art. 2. Disp . 204. cap. 2 ▪ o Q●int● obiectio , Christus mediator est non solum in prima reconciliatione , sed etiam postea in toto vitae nostrae tempore , ergo semper egemus intercessione Christi , ac per hoc semper peccamus , legemque transgredimur , alioqui post primam reconciliationem Christus ●tios●● esset . Hoc argumentum commune est Calui●● , Philippo , Kemnitio , et al●●s , qui inde concludunt si qua est in nobis legis impletio , illam non tam esse operum , qua respondea●t perfectioni legis , quam fidei , quae perpetuo apprehendit remissionem . Bellar. lib. 4. de Iustif . cap. 14. Respondeo , Christus semper nobis mediator est , nec vnquam ess , otiosus idque dupliciratione , Primo , quoniā semper nobis vires et gratiam subministrat , per quam bona opera faciamus . Ideo siquidē recte comparauit se ipse viti et nos palmitibus . Vt enim palmes non potest ●erre fructum , nisi man●●ri● in vite , et succum trax●rit a vite , sic nec nos nisi mans●rimus in Christo , et spiritum hauserimus ex ips● . Secundo , quoniam peccata nostra , quamuis l●uia et quotidiana , ipsa purgat , e● sanguis eti● emundat nos ab omni peccato . Et si forte legem praeuaricando a iustitia excidamus , ipse nibilominus propitiatio est pro peccatis nostris , et non septies , sed sup●●gies septies nos patri reconciliat , si per eius gratiam conuersi serio ●●nitentiam agere incipiamus . Itaque non facimus no● , qui legem impleri posse diximus , Christum Med●●torem o●io●um , sed vere faciunt Aduersarii Christi merita inefficacia , cum docent Christum tam insigni obedientia id e●●●●ere non potuisse , vt iustificatio legis impleretur in nobis . Bellarminus ibidem . Si qui● dixerit per ban● doctrinā catholicam de iustificatione a sancta synodo hoc praesenti decreto express●m , aliqua ex parte gloriae Dei vel meritis Iesu Christi Domini nostriderogari , et non potius veritatem fidei nostrae , Dei denique ac Christi ●esu gloriam illustrari Anathema sit Concil . Trident . sess . 6. Can. vlt. Such peremtorinesse is vsuall with them , when partiality or proud affection , ouerbeares the secret working of their conscience , labouring to reclaime their errour . Vide lib. 3. Sect. 2 ●ap . 4. parag . 22. d Quar●a obiectio . Nemo potest vitare omnia peccat● , cum scriptum sit Jacobi 2. In multis offendimns omnes . Et 1. Ioan 1. Si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus , nos ipsos seducimus . At qui legem omnem impleret , nullum haberet omnino peccatum : igitur fieri non potest , vtlex omn●● a nobis , etiā cum fide et gratia , impleatur . Respondeo , Ab ho● argument● , quod valde Kem●●tius v●get , nontā facile se expediunt qui con●ed●nt peccatum veniale esse proprie contra legem , vt Vega lib. 11. ●n Concilium cap. 20. coguntur enim dicere , legem non esse impossibilem , non quod tota simul seruari possit , sed quod seruari possit maior eius pars , et a me●iori parte fiat denominatio . Sed viden●●● est illis quid respondeant Apostolo Iacobo dicenti . Quiqunque totam ●e gem ●erua●erit , offendat aurem in vno , factus est omnium ●eus . Solida igitur responsio est , peccata venalia , sine quibus non vi●●mu● , non esse peccata simpliciter , sed imperfecte , et secundum quid , neque ess● con●ra legem sed praeter legem vt S. Thomas recte docet ●n 1. 2. quaest . 88. art . 1 , hinc enim omnia coh●rent . Nā qui offendit in vno , preuarica●s videlic●t vnum praeceptum , factus est omni●m ●e●● , et iniu●●us simpliciter constituitur , ●● tamenia multis offendimus omnes , quia ●ame●●● nihil facimus contra ligē , tamen multa ●acimus praeter legem . Et qui notus est ex Deo non peccat , transgrediendo legem , et tamen si dixerimu● , quia peccatum non bab●mus , nihil videlicet praeter legem faci●ndo , no● ipsos s●●●cimu● , et ve●itas in nobis non est . Bellar. lib. 4 de Iust . f. cap. 14. Sit tertia propositio ▪ propter in●ertitudinem proprie ●ustitiae , & periculum manis glori●●u●●ssi●um est , sidu●●●m totam in ●ola Dei misericordia , & benignitate reponere . Explic● propositionem , non enim ita accipienda est quasi non sit homi●● totis viribus studendum operibus bo●is , aut non sit in eis confidendum quasi non sint ver● iustitia , aut iudicium Dei sustine●e non possint , sed hoc solum dicimus tutius esse , mer eorum iam part●rū , quodammodo obli●●s●i , & in solam misericordiam Dei respicere , Tū quia nemo absque reuetatione certo scire potest s● habere vera merita , aut in e●s in finem vsque perseueraturū ; Tum quia nihil est ●ac●lius in hoc loco tentationis , quam superbiam ex confideratione bonorū operum gigni . Probatur igitur propositio testimoniis illis , quae aduersarij contra merita operum afferre ●olent . Nam quod ait Daniel cap. 9. Non in iustificationibus n●stru proste●nimus prece● nostras , ant● faciem tuam , sed in miserationibus ●●is multis . Et quodipse Dominus admon●t Lucae . 17. Cum ●●ceritis h●c omnia quae precepta sunt vobis , dici●e , serui invtiles sumus , hoc solum probant , quod nos dicimus , tutum esse in sol● misericordia Dei , et non in operibus nostris ●iduciam collocare . Quod etiam testantur public● precet , quat Ecclesia Catholica ad altare fundere solet . Nam is collecta Domimicae quae Sex●gess●m● dicitur , ●ic ●rat Ecclesia : Deus qui conspicis qui● ex nulla nostra actione confidimus , &c. Bellar. ●● . 3. de iustificatione . Cap. 7. Math. 5. 48 r S Chap 5. Wee then pray in faith when wee faithfully submit our will vnto Gods will , vnfainedly ren●ūciag all our former sinnes or euill customes , truly denying our selues , the world &c. Thus affected we may be● in the actuall state of grace , albeit through naturall constitutiō some disease of bodie of distemper of the br●m , no● without feare of death or doubt of saluatio . If such submission of our will to Gods will , haue been pr●i●diced or interrupted by entertaining some vnlawfull desire , or b● grieuous actuall offences : ●n former temper o● resolution must be re●umed or 〈…〉 d , & by r 〈…〉 ns wee may bee truely sayd ●o be actually reiusti●● . Of the distinctiō betwixt Faith and Repentance * Iob. 1. 3. 6 , 7 o Rom. 5. 1 p 1. Iob. 1. 3. a 1. Iohn 2. b This is his title as he is our aduocate . 1 Iohn . 2. 1. d 1. Iohn 3 9. ● Cap. 6 Para. 15. e 1. Iohn 3 4. t The distinction of mortall and veniall sinnes , or of sinnes besides the law and against the law hath no ground either in Saint Iohn or Saint Iames but was cor ceiued by meere ignorance of sacred dialect . d 1. Ish. 3. 9 e Verse 4 f Verse ● Verse ● Mittet filius hominis Angelos su●s , & colligent de regno huius omnia scandala & eos qui facinnt iniquitatem . Mat. 13. v 41 Maldon . in haec verha omnes qui iniquitatem exercent , & , vt ita dicam iniquitatis artem factitant , magis enim habitus quam actus , Hebraica phrai●i significatur . * Iohn 8. 34. 1. Ioh. 3. ● . Ver. 6. d V. 8. e Iohn 8. 44. 45. Ver 47. 1. Iohn 3. 10. f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g 1. Iohn 1. ● . h Iam. 2. 10. ● Iam. 3. ● . k Rom. 7. 24. a Psal . 19. 1● . b V. 9. 10. c V. 11. This is that which 〈…〉 saith 15 v. 1● . ●e that is begotten of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d●●● as it were 〈◊〉 a watch ouer 〈…〉 , & the wicked toucheth him not ; that is , he comes not within him to endaunger or ouerthrow him , as hee doth the world , which as the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heth in wickednes , or is , as it were surrounded with euill . ● V. 13. Psal 66. 18. 19. 1. Iohn chap. 3. 22. Whatsoeuer wee aske wee receiue of him , because we keep his commandements , & doe these things which are pleasing 〈…〉 sight . Pertinent to this obseruation is that place . Reuel . 8. v. 3. If by the Angell their offering odours with the prayers of all Saints vppon the golden alt●r , vve vnderstand Christ , as most interpreters doe , but ( vpon what grounds I know not ) Ribera and Brightma● differ from the rest , in the interpretation of that place . * Per omnia sibi pater in filio cumplacuit , nec vlla in eo serpemis sunt reperta vestigia , nec sacerdotij eius paenituit Deum , quoniam sacrificium quod in cruce obtulit , sic in bene placito Dei constat acceptabile , & per petu● virtute consistit , vt non minus bodie in conspectu patria oblatio illa sit efficax , quam ea die qua de saucio lateris sanguis & aqua exiuit , & semper reseruatae ●n corpore plagae salutis humanae exigant pretium , & obedientiae donativum requirant . Cypr. fiue author De Baptis & s . Trinit . * This man because hee endureth euer , hath an euerlasting priesthood , wherefore , hee is able also perfectly to saue them that come vnto God by him , seeing he euer liueth , to make intercession for them . Heb. 7. v. 11. d Acts 4. v. 12. Ioel 2. v. 32. Quanquam enim sacrificium illud in ea forma qua in cruce offerebatur , semel tantum oblatum sit , & semel tantum senguis effusus , vt ita repeti iterumque offerri non possit : nihilominus tamex consistit & manet tale sacrificium coram Deo perpetuo in suae virtute & efficacia acceptum , ita vt sacrificium illud semel in cruce oblatum , non minus hodiern● die in conspectu patris sit efficax ae vigent , quam eo die quode saucio latere sanguis ex ●●●● & aqua . Sic beatus Cyprianus in sermone de Baptismo & manifest . Trinitat . testatur . Quapropter cum vulnerati corporis nostri plag● pretio redemptionis semper opus habeat ; Ecclesia proponit Deo Patri pretium illud , in vera fide & deuotione iterum , ( sed figuratiue & spiritualiter ) ad consequendam remissionem peccatorum . Non quod bui● operi suo ( quo videlicet commemora● & repraesentat sacrificium illius ) meritum adscrihat remission is peccatorum , vt quam solus Christus crue●ta sua oblatione in cruce nobis promeruit . Verum tali suo commemoratius & mystice fidei sacrificio , in quo repraesentat Ecclesia , & sistit in conspectum patris verum corpus & sanguin●m eius vnigeniti applicat sibi & accommoda● magnum & inaestimabit● illud donati●●m remissionis peccatorum quod Christus impetrauit : Cum accipiat remissionem peccatorum , per nomen cius qui creditin eum Act●um 10. Antididagma Colon● . de Sacrif . Miss . de CONSECRATION● Eucharist●● , & tertio Missae Sacrificio . b Reade chap. 3 c 1. Ioh. 4. 18. g Rom. 10 ●1 Esay 28. 16 h Read chap. 7. § 7. lib. 3. with the marginall notes . f Luke 21. 36. g Herein is the loue perfect in vs , that we should haue boldnesse in the day of iudgement : for as he is , euen so are we in this world . 2. Iohn 4. 1● . h 1. Iohn . 28. 29. Phil. 2. 13 Verse 12. m Such is Zabarells collectiō against Scotus , to proue that the matter could not be created before the forme , but onely concreated with perfect cre tures . Alio quoque , argumento idem confirmari potest agens enim potens totum aliquem effectū producere , nisi impediatur , producit perfectissimum quātum producere potest ; hane maiorem propositionē negare Scotus non potest , quum lape ea vtatur : at Deus a nullo potest impediri , ne quamlibet rem perfectissimam in genere suo producat ; quamlibet igig●tur perfectā produxit , ergo non materiā nudā quia materia est imperfecte res omnes quare mat●eriā primonudam creare , & i●li postea f●●mam impon●re , repu●nat perfectioni diunae , quae imm●●ueretur , si Deus prius imperfecte ●es creasset , postea vero formas imponendo perfec●onem indidisset : resigitur primù absolutissimas ac perfectissimas produxit ▪ proinde materiam non informe● , sed sub formis . Zabarella de prima rerum 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. cap. 2. ●yhes . 1. 11. 2. Kings 5. 12 Mat. 16. 22. V. 14. b 1. Cor. 15. 46. c Act ▪ 13 ●● . Lucan . lib. 9 〈…〉 . 15 ▪ 3 ▪ ps 69. 3 c 1 Ioh. 〈…〉 Marke ●3 . ●● Mat. ●0 . ●● ▪ V. 27. o 〈…〉 e rt par● . 2. chap. 31. ● Mat. 16. v 24. ●● any man will 〈…〉 . Lake ●●● v. 2● . 26. 27. Mal●ma●●s owne exposition of this place is orthodoxall albeit hee propose it somewhat timorously and wa●isy as ●ea●ing ●east it might be censured . Vide Luke 9 23. ●4 . Marke 8 34. Ver . 33. a Prou. 25. v. 28. d Read lib. 3. sect . 3. chap. 7. a Necesse est Honestum sit ei vile , cui corpus charum est . Seneca . b Reade Sect. 2. chap. 4. & 5. Vide sect . 2. chap. 4. parag . 9. d Cited Sect. 2. chap. 6. parag . a Therefore the barren is blessed which is v●de filed , and knoweth not the sinfull bed : she shall haue fru●t in the visitation of the soules . And the eunuch , which with his hands hath not wrought iniquity , nor imagined wicked things against God : for vnto him shall bee giuen the speciall gift of faith and an acceptable portien in the temple of the Lord Wis . 3. v. 13. 14. Esay 56. 3. 4. c 2. Cor. 12. 5. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot . politic . lib. 4. cap. 11. a Lib. 11. epigram . 57 Hanc tibi virtutem ●racta ●acit vrseusansa . Et tristis nullo qui ●epe●●gne focus Et teges & Cimex & ●ud● sponda grabali , et breuis atque●adem no●te dieque toga . * 〈…〉 a Mordecay said that they should answere Ester that , Thinke not with thy selfe , that thou shalt escape in the Kings house , more then all the Iewes , for if thou holdest thy peace at this time , comfort & deliuerāce shall appeare to the Jewes out of another place , but thou and thy fathers house shall perish and who knoweth whether thou art come to the Kingdome , for such a time . Ester 4. 14. 15 b Luk. 12. v. 48. Cl●●dian who notwithstanding was in part a Christian but vt●ered this rather as a dictate of nature then as an oracle of faith Reade Mat 13. v. 10. d Marke 4. v. 11 d Mat. 13. v. 13. e Isai 6. 9. ● Mat. 13 v. 1● * What it is that is taken away from him that hath not . g Mat. ●3 . v. 19. Ecclesiast . 4. v. 17● Ecclesi . 41. 1. ●one●● in Thyest . b Psal . 61. 10. a Luk● 18. 18. b Mark 10. 17. Marke 10. v. 21. Marke 10. v. 22. Luke 18. v. 23 ▪ g Marke 10. v. ●3 . V. 24. i V. 25. ●ti● . 31. 8. &c. Iob 1. d Iames 1. 9 & 10. ● Luke 14. v 11. Luke 14. 8. 9 &c. vide prob . 25 7. Heb. ● . 9. k Iohn 8. 44. a Esay 14. 1. Cor. 13. 7. d Mat. 7. 12. g Marke 8. 3. 6 ▪ h Seneca . d Isai 40. 5. e Iohn 3. 1. 2. &c. c Iohn 12. 42. q Iohn 12. 47. & 4● . n Iames 2. 2. b Luke 6. 22. 23. c Ver. 26. b Math. 10. 39. b See chap. 4. parag . 3. c Ac● . 27. 38. &c. a Persius Sa● . 2. 2. Tim. 6. 6. &c. Luk ▪ 8. 15. o Wisd . 6. 12. 13. &c. Philipp . 3. 8. d Wisd . 7. 8. 9. 10. Ver. 27 f Pro. 2. 3 4. 5. 6. Exod. 10. 8. l Verse 24. Verse 25. d Vide Luc. 7. 4● c Ephe. 5. 18 , 19 * Mar. 10. 29. 30. d Sect. 2. chip . 7. parag . 3. h Math. 6. 32. * Wisd . 7 11. 12. ● 1. Kings 3. 13. a Luke 12. 33. 34. b ● . Cor. 8. 1● . 9. d See cahp. 3. pa r●g . 3. e Iames 1. 19. Vide Luk 1. 65 , 66 Luk. 2. 51. 
A26974	----	Of justification four disputations clearing and amicably defending the truth against the unnecessary oppositions of divers learned and reverend brethren / by Richard Baxter ... Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1658 Approx. 1035 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 225 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A26974 Wing B1328 ESTC R13779 12389757 ocm 12389757 60968 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A26974) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 60968) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 268:14) Of justification four disputations clearing and amicably defending the truth against the unnecessary oppositions of divers learned and reverend brethren / by Richard Baxter ... Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. [22], 423 p. Printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons ... and are to be sold by him ... and by Nathaniel Elkins ..., London : 1658. The four disputations have special title pages. Errata on p. [22]. Reproduction of original in British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Justification -- Early works to 1800. Theology -- Early works to 1800. Faith -- Early works to 1800. Philosophy and religion. Virtue. 2005-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-02 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-03 Ali Jakobson Sampled and proofread 2007-03 Ali Jakobson Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Of Justification : FOUR DISPUTATIONS Clearing and amicably Defending the Truth , against the unnecessary Oppositions of divers Learned and Reverend Brethren . By Richard Baxter , A servant of Christ for Truth and Peace . JOHN 3.18 , 19. He that Believeth on him , is not condemned : but he that believeth not is condemned already ; because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation , that Light is come into the world , and men loved darkness rather then Light , because their deeds were evil . Dr. Twiss , Vindic. Grat. lib. 1. part . 3. pag. ( Vol. min. ) 302. [ Verum in diverso genere ad Justitiam Dei refertur Christi satisfactio , & fides nostra : Christi satisfactio ad eandem refertur per modum , meriti & condignitatis : nostra vero fides ad eandem refertur duntaxat per modum congruae dispositionis . ] ☜ LONDON , Printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster , and are to be sold by him there ; and by Nathaniel E●●●s , at the Gun in Pauls Church-Yard . 1658. The Preface . Christian Readers , TO prevent your trouble and misunderstanding in the perusal of these Disputations : I have two things here at the entrance to acquaint you with . First , The occasion of all these Writings : Secondly , The true state of the Controversies here managed . The first Disputation is upon a Question of considerable weight , whether Christ as Christ , and so as Prophet , Priest and King ▪ be the Object of that Faith by which we are justified ? Three points especially my Reverend Brother Mr. Blake was pleased to publish his Reasons against , which in my Aphorisms I had asserted . These being vindicated by me in an Apologie , he renewed the conflict in his Treatise of the Sacraments . The first about the Sacraments I have defended again in a Volume by it self . The second is this in hand , which I had finished about fifteen or sixteen months ago . The third is about the Instrumental efficiency of Faith to our Justification , of which I had also begun above a twelve month since . But it hath lately pleased our wise and gracious Lord to call this Reverend Brother to himself : whereupon , though this first Disputation was gone so far , that I could not well recall it , yet the others , which was not out of my power , I resolved to condemn to perpetual silence . If you ask me a reason of this resolution , I must desire that my disposition and passion may go for part of a Reason this once . The grief of my heart for the loss of this precious servant of Christ would not permit me to appear any further in a way that seemed to militate with the dead , and with one whose death , we have all so much cause to lament . Alas , that our sin should provoke our dear Father , to put out the precious Lights of his Sanctuary , and to call in such experienced faithful Labourers , while ignorance , and error , and prophaness , and all Vice doth so plenteously survive . When these plants of Hell do thrive upon us , under all our care to weed them up : what will they do when the Vineyard is left desolate ? Though God in mercy is raising up a supply of young ones , that may come to be Pillars in their dayes : yet alas , what difference will the Church find between these , and their grave experienced Guides : and how many years study , and experience , and patience , is necessary to ripen these tender plants , to bring them to the stature , and stability , and strength of such as this Blessed servant of Christ , that is now taken from us . The sense of our loss doth make it doubly bitter to my thoughts , that ever I was unhappily engaged in any way of serving the Lord of Truth , which must contein so much contradiction of such a friend of Truth . As it is for God , or for Truth , or for the use of the Church , I dare not disown it ; but as it savoureth of disagreement ( though necessitated to it ) it is very ungrateful to me to think of , or review . But our diseases will have their pains . We must bear the smites of our own and our Brethrens weaknesses , rather then neglect the service of Christ , his Church and Truth . We quickly pardon one another , and at the furthest Heaven agreeth us all : But the benefit of our search , though mixed with our infirmities , may be somewhat serviceable when we are gone . The second Disputation is yet more ungrateful to me , then the first : the Reverend Brother whom I contradict being as high and dear in my esteem as most men alive ; indeed being an Honour and Blessing to the Church in this unworthy Generation . The Lord preserve him long for his service . But my Defence here also is necessitated . 1. I did my best to have prevented the Necessity , and could not : I mean , not by diswading him from opposing me in Print , for that might have hindered the Church of the Benefit of his Opposition ( for ought I knew , till I had seen it : ) But by trying first , whether I could receive or give satisfaction . 2. I had publickly obliged my self , if this Reverend Brother did Dissent , to search again : and by an Epistle , became more accountable to the world for Dissenting from him then other men . 3. His Name deservedly precious in the Church , hath the greater advantage to over-lay the Truth , where humane imperfection engageth him against it . Yet do I not blame him for beginning this Contest with me ; but take the blame to my self that might occasion it , by dishonouring his Name by a temeracious prefixing it to my undigested papers , ( though nothing but High estimation , and Affection was my Motive . ) The Letters that past between us were never intended for the view of the world : And therefore I must desire the Reader to remember it , if sometime I be more pressing and vehement , then manners and reverence require ; because we use to speak freelier in private among friends , then in the hearing of the world . And yet I thought it my duty now to joyn them with the rest for these Reasons . 1. Because some passages in the Writings of this Reverend Brother , do in a manner invite me to it . 2. Because the matter requireth me to speak the same things ; and therefore it is as good affix the old , as be at the same labour needlesly again . 3. And it can be no wrong to him , because it is my own Papers that are the main bulk of what I publish : His Letters being brief , and annexed but as the occasions of mine . 4. But especially , I was brought to think it meet , by the open blame that I have received from some very dear and Reverend Brethren , for not preventing this publike Contest . And therefore I thought good to let them see , that I was not wholly wanting to prevent it . If there be any passages in these Writings too eager or provoking ( which I must needs suspect even where I have not observed them , as being conscious of too keen a stile , forgetting the persons while I speak meerly to the words and matter , ) I do intreat my Brethren to pardon it , as being not designed to their provocation or dishonour , and as I heartily do the like by theirs , and as I hope God will do both theirs and mine . And I do adjure the Reader to believe that this Controversie : for all our infirmities is managed with a very high esteem and honour of those Reverend Brethren , whom I am necessitated to gainsay . Nor would I have it be any dishonour to them ( though an excuse to me , ) that they have been the Assailants , and begun the conflict : for the Truths of God must be precious to us all , and I doubt not but they were confident that it was some dangerous errour , which they set upon , and I have here proved to be the Truth . Nor is it any such wrong to either side , to be openly contradicted , that Reasons may be openly produced , and men may have some further help , to see into these Points . Let the proud swell or smart , because they are thus proclaimed fallible , and mistaken ; but the Humble that are devoted servants to the Truth , are of another spirit , and have learnt another lesson . And if any Papist or enemy to our unity and Peace , shall from these Writings predicate our dissentions or divisions , let them know to their faces , that even these differences as momentous as they seem , are not neer so great as are commonly published among themselves : nor are they for Number one to twenty , perhaps to a hundred , that are agitated in their Schooles , and the writings of their Doctors : Had we such differences as those of the Jesuit Casuists opened by Montaltas the Jansenian in his Mysterie of Jesuitism , out of their own writings , something they might then say against us . Yea I doubt not but we differ with more hearty Christian Love , then they agree ; and have more real union in our controversies , then they have in their Articles of Faith , and are neerer one another in our smaller differences , then the French and Italians are in their very Fundamentals . The third Disputation was called forth by Mr. Warner's Treatise of the Object and Office of Faith , and takes up the subject of the first Disputation , with some others . When that was in the Press , Mr. Tombes's Book against Infant Baptism came forth , in which I found the Papers that I sent to him ( upon his importunity ) printed without my consent , ( which if God will , I shall yet vindicate . ) And therefore seeing that it is his way , I thought he might do the like by other Papers , which formerly I had wrote to him on this subject of Justification . And therefore thinking it fitter that I should publish them ( of the two ) then he , ( I have saved him the charge of printing them , and annexed them to these . The fourth Disputation was added , because it is the very heart of our Controversie , which most of our Disputes about the instrumentall Causality of Faith as to Justification , and the other Concomitant , are resolved into . That the Reader may understand these Disputations the better , I shall here at the entrance shew him the face of the way that I maintain , and also of the way that I oppose . The way that I plead for is contained in these Propositions . 1. Man having broken the Law of Nature or works , is lost , and disabled to his own Recovery , or to do any works by which that Law will ever justifie him . 2. Jesus Christ hath Redeemed him from this lost condition , by his Incarnation , Life , Death , Resurrection , &c. fulfilling the Law by his obedience , and suffering for our not fulfilling it , and thereby satisfying the Lawgiver , and attaining the ends of the Law , and more : making himself an example to us of holiness , and becoming our Teacher , High Priest and King , to save us from all sin and enemies , and recover us to God , for our Salvation , and his Glory and Pleasure . 3. The Offices and Works of Christ , are for other ends as well as for our justification ; even for our Sanctification , Glorification , &c. 4. The Believer ought not to confound the offices , works , or ends and effects , but to apprehend them as distinctly as he can . 5. The same Offices of Christ are exercised in the effecting several works : He doth justifie us both as Priest , Prophet and King : and he sanctifieth us as Priest , Prophet and King , His Death purchasing both our justification and sanctification ; and his Teaching shewing us the way to both , and his Kingly Office conferring both , though most notably our justification ; and the Prophetical effecting more of our sanctification , then of our justification . 6 , We must have part in Christ himself as our Head , in order of Nature before we can partake of justification , Sanctification , ( as following our first faith ) or Glorification from him . 7. Though our Physical Communion with Christ is effected by a Physical change on the soul ; yet our Right to him and to Justification , and other following benefits is the effect of a free Gift , or Testament , or Promise , and that Promise or free Gift is our Title , which is Fundamentum juris , or the efficient Instrumental cause . 8. Christ and pardon , or justification , and Right to Heaven , &c. are given us by one and the same Deed of Gift : so that he that hath Right to Christ , hath by the same Title & on the same terms Right to these his benefits . 9. This Promise or Gift is conditional ; though it be but the Condition of a free Gift that is required . 10. No mans works , Repentance or Faith is his proper Title to pardon or life , nor any proper meritorious cause of it ; nor any efficient . Principal or Instrumental causes of his Right ; No act of ours can be more then a meer condition of that Right ; and a Causa sine quâ non ( which , as it is an act that 's pleasing to God , and hath the Promise of a Reward , the Fathers called improperly by the Name of Merit , which yet less fitly agrees to the Condition of our first Justification then of our Glorification . ) 11. Christs pardon and life are given by this Gospel-Promise on condition of our faith in Christ , that is , if we become Believers in Christ ; or Christians ; which is , If we accept of Christ as offered in the Gospel , and that is , to bring us from our sins and selves to God , by the acts of his Teaching , Priestly , and Kingly Office ; Or , if we believe in Christ as Christ . So that it is not any one single act of Faith that is the condition of Justification : nor are the several Benefits of Christ given us on condition of several acts of Faith ; as if we had Right to pardon by one act , and to Christ himself by another , and to Adoption by another ; and to Heaven by another , &c. Nor have the several acts of our faith as divided an Interest in procurement of the Benefits as Christs actions had : But it is one and the same entire faith in Christ as Christ , that is the condition of all these consequent special Benefits ; without division in the procurement . So that the Belief in Christ as our Teacher and King hath as much hand in our Justification , as believing in him as Priest ; it being the backwardness of nature to the acceptance of Christs Government and Doctrine , that is a special Reason why faith is made the condition of that pardon , which Nature is not so backward to accept . 12. The Reasons to be assigned , why faith in Christ is made the condition of Justification , is , 1. The will of the free Donor . 2. The fitness of faith to that Office ; as being suited to Gods Ends , and to Christ the Object , and to mans necessitous estate . Not only because it is the Receiving of Righteousness , but for all these Reasons together , in which its aptitude doth consist ; and its Aptitude to the Honour of the Redeemer and free Justifier is the principal part of its Aptitude : it being impossible that God should prefer man as his ultimate and before himself . 13. Though the Reason why Faith is made by God the condition of our Justification , must partly be fetcht from the Nature of Faith , which some call its Instrumentallity in apprehending Christ , yet the Reason why we are Justified by Faith , must be fetched from the Tenour of the Promise and Will of the Promiser . So that though the Remote Reason be that Aptitude of Faith , which is the Dispositio material ; yet the formal neerest Reason is , because God hath made it the condition of the Gift , which shall suspend the efficacy till performed , and when performed , the benefit shall be ours . 14. As Faith hath its denomination from some one or few acts , which yet suppose many as concomitant and consequent : So those concomitant and consequent Acts have their answerable place and Interest in the foresaid Conditionality , as to our part in Christ and Justification . 15. And therefore it was not the Apostles meaning to set Faith against these concomitant acts , ( as Repentance , hope in Christ , desire of Christ , love to Christ , &c. ) and to exclude these under the notion of Works : but contrarily to suppose them in their order . 16. The burdensome works of the Mosaical Law , suppoed to be such as from the dignity and perfection of that Law , would justifie men by procuring pardon of sin , and acceptance with God , are they that the Jews opposed to Christs Righteousness and Justification by Faith , and which Paul disputeth against , and consequently against any works , or acts , or habits of our own , opposed to Christ , or this way of free justification by him . 17. The not loosing our Iustification and Title to Christ and Life , hath more for its condition , then the first Reception or Possession hath . And so hath the final Iustification at judgement , if men live after their first believing . 18. Justification at judgement , being the Adjudging us to Glory , hath the same conditions as Glorification it self hath . Reader , In these Eighteen Propositions , thou mayst fully see the Doctrine that I contend for , which also in my Confession , Apologie , and this Book I have expressed . And now I will shew you somewhat of the face of the Doctrine , which the Dissenters commonly do propugne , but not so largely , because I cannot open other mens Doctrine so freely and fully as I can do my own . 1. They agree with me that Christs Righteousness is the meritorious or material cause of our Iustification , though some add that it is the formal cause , I suppose it is but a mistaken name . 2. They agree that Christ , and pardon , and Life , are Given us by the Gospel-Promise . 3. They yield that an entire Faith in Christ as Christ , is the condition of our Right to his entire Benefits . 4. But they say that the Acts of Faith in thier procurement of the Benefits , have as divers an Interest as the Acts of Christ , which Faith believeth . 5. And they say , that it is some one act ( or two , or some of them ) that is the sole justifying act , though others be compresent . 6. This Iustifying act some call the Apprehending of Christ as a Sacrifice : some Affiance , or Recumbency , or Resting on him , as a Sacrifice for sin , or as others , also on his active Righteousness , or an Apprehension of Christs Righteousness ; or as others , A perswasion that his Promise is true ; or an Assent to that truth ; or as others , an Assurance , or at least a Belief , fide Divinâ , that we are justified . 7. They say , that the neerest Reason of our Iustification by this faith is , because it is an Instrument of our Iustification , or of our Apprehending Christs Righteousness : And so , that we are justified by Faith as an Instrumental efficient cause ; say some : and as a Passive Receiving Instrument , say others . 8. They say , that there being but two wayes of Iustification imaginable , by faith , or by works , all that desert the former way ( if they despair not of Iustification ) fall under the expectation of the latter : And I grant that Scripture mentioneth no third way . 9. Therefore say they , seeing that Pauls Iustification by Faith , is but by the act before mentioned : whoever looketh to be justified , in whole , or in part , by another act ( as by Faith in Christ as Teacher , as King , by desiring him , by Hoping in him , by Loving him , by disclaiming all our own righteousness , &c. ) doth seek Iustification by Works which Paul disputes against , and so set against the only true Iustification by Faith. 10. Yea , and they hold , that whoever looks to be Iustified by that act of faith , which themselves call the Iustifying act , under any other notion then as an Instrument , doth fall to justification by works , or turn from the true Iustification by Faith. By these unwarrantable Definitions , and Distinctions , and additions to Gods Word ; A lamentable perplexity is prepared for mens souls , it being not possible for any living man to know , that he just hits on the justifying Act , and which is it , and that he takes in no more , &c. and so that he is not a Legalist , or Jew , and falls not from Evangelical Iustification by faith in Christ . So that Iustification by faith in Christ as Christ , ( considered in all essential to his Office , ) is with them no Iustification by faith in Christ , but justification by Works , so much disowned by the Apostle , the expectants of which are so much condemned . I have gathered the sum of most of the Dissenters minds as far as I can understand it . If any particular man of them , disown any of this , let him better tell you his own mind : For I intend not to charge him with any thing that he disowns . The Lord Illuminate and Reconcile all his people , by his Spirit and Truth . Amen . The CONTETS . Disputation 1. Quest . WHether we are justified by believing in Jesus Christ as our King and Teacher , as well as by believing in his blood ? Aff. pag. 1. The state and weight of the Controversie p. 2 , &c. Ten Propositions for fuller explication . p. 10 , &c. Argument first . p. 13 Argu. 2. p. 14 Argu. 3. p. 19 Argu. 4. p. 24 Argu. 5. p. 27 Argu. 6. p. 28 Argu. 7. p. 30 Argu. 8. p. 31 Argu. 9. p. 35 Argu. 10. p. 38 defended against Mr. Blak's assault . p. 40 Whether the Law of Grace condemn any , and how . p. 44 , 45 The Distinction of sides quae justificat , & quâ justificat considered . p. 46 , &c. MR. Blak's first Argument answered . p. 53 Argument 2. answered . p. 55 Argument 3. p. 57 Argument 4. p. 63 Argument 5. and 6. p. 64 Disputation 2. Quest . WHether works are a condition of condition of Justification , and so whether we are justified by works as such a condition ? The terms [ Works and Justification ] explained . p. 70 , 71 The Term Condition explained . p. 72 The Truth laid down in several Propositions . p. 75 Negative and Affirmative The main Proposition proved . p. 79 , &c. Quest . Can Christ be Instrumental in justifying . p. 84 Quest . Did Christ expiate the sins , that by the Gospel men are obliged to punishment for ? p. 86 Of Repentance , and the habit of Faith in Justification . p. 85 , 86 Quest . Doth the Gospel justifie us ? p. 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 Other points briefly discussed . p. 90 The Opponents stating of the Question . p. 94 , 95 , 96 Divers unjust charges repelled . p. 97 , to 101 The Opponents Thesis and Arguments . p. 101 , 102 How Abraham was justified , debated to p. 110 All works make not the Reward to be not of Grace , proved by six Arguments . p. 111 , to 115. And by Expositors . p. 115 , &c. His second Argument from the difference put between faith and other Graces in Justification . p. 118 The case of faiths Interest opened by a similitude . p. 120 His third Argument considered : Our first Justification how different from the following . p. 122 , 123 His fourth Argument of self Righteousness and causal conditions . p. 124 , &c. His Fifth Argument , Works are the fruits , therefore not the condition . p. 128 His sixth Argument . p. 132 His seventh Argument . Of a twofold Righteousness or Justification . p. 133 His eight Argument that cannot be a condition of Justification , which it self needeth Justification . p. 136 Answered . Paul judgeth them dung . p. 140 How justifying faith belongs to the Law , and the difference between the Law and Gospel . p. 142 More of Christs suffering for the violation of the new Covenant . p. 146 His ninth Argument , we fill men with doubts . p. 147 Answered . His tenth Argument . p. 149 Of the reconciling of Paul and James . p. 150. &c. Letters that past between this Reverend Brother and me . p. 157 In which is discussed the Argument from Abrahams Justification . And in the last Letter these questions . 1. Whether videre , audire , be only Grammatical actions , and Physical Passions . p. 194 , &c. 2. Whether Believing be only so , and credere only pati . p. 198 3. Whether Faith be passive in its Instrumentality . p. 207 4. Whether the Opponents way make not other Graces as proper Instruments of Justification . p. 211 5. Whether Faith be a proper Instrument of Justification . p. 212 6. Question . If Faith be an Instrument , whether it justifie primarily and proxime as such , or as an apprehension of Christ or Righteousness . p. 214 7. Question , which is the more clear , safe and certain Doctrine . p. 220 Repentance , whether excluded . p. 227 Of Faith relatively taken . p. 228 Of the Assemblies Definition of faith . p. 230 The Judgement of some Divines . p. 233 , &c. whether a dying man may look on his own Acts as the Conditions of the Covenant performed . p. 241 , &c. Further Explications . p. 244. &c. Disputation 3. Quest . WHether Besides the Righteousness of Christ imputed , there be a personal evangelical Righteousness necessary to Justification and Salvation ? Affir . p. 259 Distinctions and Propositions Negative and Affirmative for explication . p. 260 , &c. Proved . p. 266 Objections answered . p. 269 , &c. Mr. Warner's Arguments confuted . p. 273 to 285 Mr. Warner's 13th chap. confuted about Justistcation , and the Interest of Obedience , &c p. 286 Master Warner's Arguments answered , by which he would exclude Christ as King , &c. from being the Object of justifying faith . p. 293. &c. The other chief passages in his Book considered . p. 305 , &c. His distinction of fides quae & qua . p. 308 , &c. His Preface answered in an Epistle . p. 313 MR. John Tombe's , his friendly Animadversions on my Aphorisms , with a Discussion of them . p. 322 Justification in Law-title by the Promise fully vindicated . p. 332 , &c. Whether Justification be a continued Act , or but one Act. p. 341 &c. Whether Faith comprize Love , Subjection or other Graces : at large . p. 345 , &c. Whether Faith be only in the Intellect , or also in the Will. p. 354 , &c. Justifying Faith receiveth Christ as Lord , &c. p. 358 It is Faith , and not only Love , or other Graces , by which the Will receiveth Christ . p. 361. &c. The Gospel is a Law. p. 369 , &c. Repentance necessary to Justification . p. 370 , &c. How Faith justifieth . p. 377 Whether Christ had a Title on Earth to Rule . p. 379 Of Christs universal Dominion and Redemption . p. 380 More of the Justification by the Gospel-Promise . p. 384 Of Preparatives to Justification . p. 387 What Paul excludeth as opposite to faith in Justification . p. 391 , 392 Of Intercision , of Justification , and the guilt of particular sins . p. 393 , &c. Disputation 4. Quest . WHether the Faith which Paul opposeth to works in Justification , be one only Physical Act of the Soul ? Or , Whether all Humane Acts , except one Physical Act of Faith , be the works which Paul excludeth from Justification ? Neg. p. 399 The Question opened : and it s proved that this Faith is not one only , Act. 1. Either Numerically . 2. Or of an inferior Genus , so as to be of one only Faculty : Nor only God the Father , Christ , Promise , Pardon , Heaven , &c. the Object . 3. Nor in specie specielissima , proved by many Arguments . ERRATA . PAge 6. line 23. read that 1. p. 13. l. 10. r. quae Christum . p. 14. l. 9. r. promitentis . I. 22. r. hath . p. 18. l. 3. r. as this . l. 34. r. proof of . p. 19. ● . 24. r. be the. l. 34. r. ● . p. 21. l. 17. r. that be is . p. 24. l. 35. r. thus . p. 29. l. 13. r. though . p. 32. l. 32 r. must be p. 39. l. 6. r. with p. 44. l. 1. r. I need . p. 45. l. 30. r. Commination . P. ●2 . l. 11. r. as . p. 55. l 26. r. nostri . l. 32. r. exclusion . p. 64. l. 30. r. Curse . p. 74. l. 8. r. capitibus . p. 81. l. 13. r. no. l. 20. r. All. p. 85. l. 6. blot out against . p. 87. l. 22. r. that is . l. 21. r. execution . p. 88. l. 12. read there . p. 94. l. 10. r. notion . p. 95. l. 3. r. u. l. 9. r. your . p. 99. l. 19 r. as mediate it . p. 119. l. 36. r. as . p. 135. ● . 5. r. that he hath not . p. 136. l. 18. r. Christ . p. 139. l. 13. r. a means . page 152. l. 17. r. been . p. 166. l. 38. r. we may . p. 168. r. Gods. p. 170 l. 17. r signs . p. 175. l. 15. r. divers . p. 178. l. 19. r. be that works not . p. 180. l. 4. r. or . p. 183. l. 19. r. casuals . p. 186. l. 25. r. sensu . p. 197. l. 29. r. Potentia . p. 208. l. 8. r. Porret . l. 31. r. Passive in . p. 210 l 24. r. mediante . p. 212. l. 12. r. except . p. 233. l. 7. r. in the. p. 243. l. 32. blot out till . p. 252. l. 13. r. veritatus . p. 257. l. 14. r. exalted . p. 271. l. 10. r. righteous . p. 286. l. 17. r. be . l. 24. r. the. p. 290. l. 1. r. marks . p. 294. l. 22. and l. 26. and p. 265. l. 23. and 26. for . quae r. qud . p. 299. l. 1. r. unproved p. 314. l. 36. r. cull . p. 319. ● . 14. r. that is . p. 320. l. 14 r. fur . p. 326 l. 31. r. fruit . p. 354. l. ult . r. praemotione . p 360. l. 27. r. God. p. 361. l. 32. r. though● . p , 386. l. 27. r. Is it not . p. 387. l. 32. r. sanctification . p. 390. l. 22. r. morally . p. 398. l. 15. r. probable . l. 23 r. Impenitency . Quest . Whether we are Justified by Beliveing in Jesus Christ , as our King and Teacher ; as well as by believing in his Blood ? Aff. Though I have oft spoken to this Question in the ears of the world , as taking it to be of very great Consequence ; yet upon the Invitation of this opportunity , I shall once again attempt a brief Discussion of it ; and the rather , because the Answers of a Reverend Brother ( Mr. Blake ) to my former Arguments , and his Arguments for the contrary opinion , may wrong the Truth and the souls of men , if their Fallacy be not manifested by a Reply . And I shall first speak somewhat of the Importance of the Question , and then of the sense of it , and then endeavour a clear Resolution , and the Confirmation thereof , and the Confutation of the contrary conceits . And for the first , I shall give you my thoughts of it in these two Propositions . Proposition 1. The difference amongst Protestants about this Question is not of so great moment , that either party must Eonomine be judged to deny the Essentials ( or Fundamentals ) of the faith , and so to be of a different Religion from the other , or to fall short of Salvation . I lay down this Proposition first , Because of the Papists who stand looking upon all our differences with a mind too like the mind of the Devil ; rejoycing in them , and endeavouring to encrease them , and to make them seem greater in the eyes of the world than indeed they are , that so they may make use of them for the reproaching of our Profession , and take an advantage from them to make the truth and Servants of Christ become odious unto others . Secondly , And I do it also for the sake of some ( even too many ) among our selves , that speak of controversies as they are concerned in them , or as the party to whom they joyn doth speak of them , or as they appear to them in the dark , or at a distance , or upon a hasty superficial search ; but have not the skil ( nor some of them , the will ) to open the true state of a Controversie , and make the difference appear no wider , then indeed it is . To the proving of the Proposition , it must be observed , First , that the Affirmers do yield , that it is not the Doctrine or Government of Christ , but his blood that is the Ransome for one sins , and his Righteousness that is the sole Meritorious Cause of our Justification : and that believing in Christ as Prophet and King , is not a proper Instrument of our Justification ; and that Christ as a Ransome for us , and a deserver of our Justification , is the formal Object of that other act ( which accordingly believeth in him ) and not of this act of believing in him as Prophet and King. On the other side , it is granted by them that are for the Negative , that it is our duty to believe in Christ as a Prophet and King and that it is of necessity to salvation , yet to Justification it self ; For they yield that it is the Fides quae Justificat , the faith by whch we are Justified , but not qu● Justificat , or that it Justifieth not quà talis , as such : They yield also that it is a Condition of Justification , for so they confess that Repentance it self is ; but they only say , that it is not the Instrument of Justification , as they think the other act is . So that the difference is here : They yield all that we affirm ( if I can understand them ; ) but they affirm somewhat more themselves , which we do not yield : They grant that believing in Christ as our Teacher and Lord is a Condition of our Justification , and the ●ides quae Justificat ; which is all that I desire : But then they add , that the Belief in Christs blood and Righteousness is the Instrument of our Justification , and that it justifieth qu● talis ; which we utterly deny , if the words be properly taken ; and Tropes should not upon choice be made the terms of our Question , while there are plainer to be had . So that by this time its easie to see that neither of these opinions are such as must unchurch or damn us , or make us Hereticks . First , We that are for the Affirmative are out of that danger ; for we hold no more positively then is yielded us by the other . All that they can charge us with ; is this Negative , that [ believing in Christs blood doth not properly Justifie as an Instrument ( that is , as an efficient Instrumental Cause of our Justification ) nor yet qu● talis : ] And I think they will not lay our salvation on the Affirmative , when they consider what we yield ( of which more anon ) And on the other side , we are far from passing any damning sentence on them that are for the said Instrumentality ; especially as we perceive it commonly held . Let no Papist therefore insult over us and say , we are disagreed in our fundamentals , unless he be resolved to do it in design against the light of his own conscience . I the rather premise this Caution , because I hear that the Papists do mutter thus against us already to silly people that cannot see their deceit : They say , [ Is not the death of Christ a fundamental ? and yet some say that he died for All , and some say he died only for the Elect ; some say he paid the Idem , and some but the Tantundem ] but they tell not the people the true state of the Controversie , and wherein we are agreed , or that they differ as much about the extent of the death of Christ among themselves , without such a charge . Christ is the Foundation : but yet whether his hair were cut , or not , or whether he were thirty three or thirty five , or fifty years old when he died ; or whether he was buried in a Garden , or in a Sepulchre of stone , these are not the foundation . So much to the first Proposition for narrowing our difference . Proposition 2. Though this controversie be not of such Moment as is denied , yet is it of great weight , and the Consequents of the Errors of one party hereabout , are such , as if they were held practically and after the proper sense of their expressions , would be a great hinderance to salvation , if not plainly hazard it . And therefore the question is not to be cast by , as needless or unprofitable . It is so neer the great matters of our Redemption , Justification , and the nature of faith , that it is it self the greater . And if Amesius say true , that truths are so concatenated , that every Error must by consequence overthrow the foundation , then it must be so in this . The consequents shall be mentioned anon in the Arguments , where it will be more seasonable . And in great matters , it is not a contemptible Error which consisteth but in mis-naming and mis-placing them : It is a very great help to the clear and full understanding of Truths , to have right Notions and Methods . And the contrary may prove dangerous to many others , when the particular Patrons of those mistakes may be in no danger by them . For perhaps their first Notions may be righter than their second ; and they may not see the consequents of their mistakes ; and yet when such mistakes in terms and methods shall be commended to the world , other men that hear and read their words , and know not their hearts and better apprehensions , are like enough to take them in the most obvious or proper sense , and by one disorder to be led to more , and to swallow the Consequents as well as the misleading Premises . And therefore I must needs say , that this point appeareth of such moment in my eyes , that I dare not desert that which I confidently take to be the Truth , nor sacrifice it to the honor or pleasure of man For the explication of the terms it is needless to say much , and I have neither time for , nor mind of needless work . By [ Justification ] here we mean not either Sanctification alone , or sanctification and remission conjunct as making up our Righteousness , as the Papists do : ( though we deny not but sometime the word may be found in Scripture in some such sense : ) For thus it is past controversie , that our justification , that is , our sanctification as to all that followeth faith , is as much , if not much more , from our belief in Christ as Teacher and King , as from our belief in him as a Ransome . But by Justification we mean that Relative Change which Protestants ordinarily mean by this word ; which we need not here define . The Preposition [ By ] ( when we speak of being justified by faith ) is not by all men taken in the same sense . First , Sometime it s used more strictly and limitedly to signifie only an efficiency , or the Interest of an Efficient cause . And thus some Divines do seem to take it , when they say that we are justified by faith in Christs blood and Righteousness , and not by faith in him as a Teacher or a Lord : which occasioneth the Papists to say our difference is wider then indeed it is : For the word [ By ] hath an ambiguity and in their sence , we yield their Negative though not their Affirmative , in the last-mentioned conclusion . Secondly , Sometime the word [ By ] is used to signifie a Conditionality , or the Interest of a condition only in special . And thus we take it when we explain our selves in what manner it is that we are justified by faith , and by these questioned acts in particular . And therefore those Protestants that dispute against us who are for the Affirmative , do ( if I understand them ) deny only the propriety of the phrase which we use , but not the thing or sense which we express by it ; for they grant that these acts of faith are Conditions of our Justification , when they have never so much disputed , that we are not justified by them , and so a small syllable of two letters , is much of the matter of their controversie . Thirdly , sometime this word is used to signifie the Interest of any other cause as well as the Efficient , and that either generally , or especially of some one . This Paper is white By the whiteness as the formal cause : we are moved to a godly life By God and salvation as the final cause &c. Fourthly , Sometime the term [ By ] is taken yet more largely ( and fitly enough ) for all or any Means in General , or the interest of any means in the attainment of the End. And so it comprehendeth all Causes , even those Per accidens and Conditions as well as Causes , and all that doth but remove impediments . And in this comprehensive sense we take it here in the Question , though when we come to determine what is the special Interest of faith in Justification , I take it in the second sense . Take notice also , That I purposely here use this phrase [ we are Justified by Believing , or by Faith ] rather than these , [ justifying faith ] or [ Faith doth justifie us . ] And I here foretell you , that if I shall at any time use these last expressions , as led to it by those with whom I deal , it is but in the sense as is hereafter explained . The Reasons why I choose to stick to this phrase , rather then other , are ; First , Because this only is the Scripture phrase , and the other is not found in Scripture ; ( that I remember ) It is never said , that [ Faith doth justifie us ] though it be said that [ we are justified by faith . ] And if any will affirm , that I may use that phrase which is not found in Scripture , he cannot say , I must use it . And in a Controverted case , especially about such Evangelical truths , the safety of adhering to Scripture phrase , and the danger of departing from it is so discernable , ( and specially when men make great use of their unscriptural phrases for the countenancing of their opinions , ) I have the more reason to be cautelous . Secondly , Because the phrases are not alwaies of one and the same signification . The one is more comprehensive then the other , if strictly taken . To be justified by faith ] is a phrase extensive to the Interest of any Medium whatsoever : And there are Media which are not Causes . But when we say that [ Faith doth justifie us ] or call it [ justifying Faith ] we express a Causality , if we take the word strictly . Though this last phrase may signifie the Interest of a bare Condition , yet not so properly and without straining as the former . The Reverend Author of the seond Treatise of Justification , is of the same mind as to the use of the terms ; but he conjectures another reason for the Scripture use , then I shall ever be perswaded of , viz. that it is because Credere is not Agere , but Pati ; to Believe is to Suffer , and not to Act : that it is a Grammatic all Action , but Physically a Passion . Though I think this no truer , then that my brains are made of a looking glass , and my heart of marble ; yet is there somwhat in this Reverend mans opinion , that looks toward the truth afar off . For indeed it intimateth that as to Causality or Efficiency ; faith is not Active in the justifying of a sinner , but is a meer condition or moral disposition , which is necessary to him that will be in the nearest Capacity to be justifyed by God. The last words , [ Believing in his blood ] I use not as the only way that is taken by the Opponents ; but as one instance among divers . For they use to express themselves so variously , as may cause us to think by many ( as we know it of some ) that they take more waies then one in opposing us . First , Some of them say , that the only Act of faith that justifieth , is our believing in Christs blood , or sufferings , or humiliation . Secondly , Others say , That it is the believing in , or apprehending , and resting on his whole Righteousness , even his Obedience as Obedience , to be it self imputed to us . Thirdly , Other Reverend Divines say , that it is the apprehending and resting on his Habitual , as well as Active and Passive Righteousness ; that his Habits may be imputed to us , as our Habitual Righteousness , and his Acts as our active Righteousness ; in both which together we are reputed perfect Fulfillers of the Law ; and his sufferings as our Satisfaction for our breaking the Law. As for those that mention the Imputation of his Divine Righteousness to us , they are so few , and those for the most part suspected of unsoundness , that I will not number it among the Opinions of Protestants . Fourthly , Others say , that the justifying Act of Faith is not the apprehension of Christs Righteousness or Ransome ; but of his Person , and that only as he is Priest , and not as Prophet or King. Fifthly , Others think that it is the apprehension of Christs person , but not in his intire Priestly office ; for he performeth some Acts of his Priestly office for us ( Intercession ) after we are justified : Therefore it is his Person only as the Satisfier of justice , and Meritor of Life , which they make the adequate Object of the justifying Act of Faith. Sixthly , Others say , that it is both his Person and his satisfaction , Merit , Righteousness yet , Pardon and justification it self , that is the adequate Object : By which they must needs grant that it is not one only single Act , but many . Seventhly . One Reverend man that 's now with God ( Bishop Vsher ) understanding that I was engaged in this Controversie , did of his own accord acquaint me with his Judgement , as tending to reconciliation : And because I never heard any other of the same mind , and it hath a considerable aspect ; I shall briefly and truly report it as he expressed it . He told me , that there are two Acts ( or sort of Acts ) of Faith. By the first we receive the Person of Christ as a woman in Marriage doth first receive the Person of her Husband . This is our Implantation into Christ the true Vine , and gives us that Union with him , which must go before Communion and Communication of his Graces , and so before justification . The second of Faiths Acts are those that apprehend the Benefits which he offereth ; Of which Justification is one and this is strictly the Justifying Act of Faith , and followeth the former . So that ( said he ) it is true that the first Act which apprehendeth Christs person doth take him as King , Priest , and Prophet , as Head and Husband that we may be united to him : but the following acts which Receive his Benefits do not so , but are suited to the several benefits . ] The opinion is subtile , and I perceived by his Readiness in it , that it was one of his old studied points , and that he had been long of that mind ; my answer to him was this : [ You much confirm me in what I have received : for you grant the principal thing that I desire ; but you add something more which I cannot fully close with , but shall plainly tell you what are my apprehensions of it . First , You grant that the act of faith by which we are united to Christ , and which goes first , is the Believing in , or Receiving whole Christ as Priest , Prophet , and King. This will do all that I desire . Secondly , You add , that another act , even the Receiving of his Righteousness is after necessary , that we may be justified Your reason seems to be drawn from the difference of the effects : Union goes before Justification , therefore the uniting act goes before the justifying act . This is it that I deny ; My Reasons are these . First , Scripture distinguisheth between our Union with Christ and our Justification : but no where between the uniting and justifying acts of faith . Secondly , The nature of the thing requireth it not , because faith justifies not by a Physical causality , as fire warmeth me ; but by the moral interest of a condition : and the same act may be the Condition of divers benefits . Thirdly , Scripture hath express , made the Receiving of the person in his Relations to be the Condition of the participation of his benefits : [ As many as received him , to them gave he power to become the sons of God ; John 1.12 . whoever believeth in him shall not perish , but , &c. believe in the Lord Jesus , and thou shalt be saved , &c. ] Fourthly , Your own Similitude cleareth what I say : Though the wife have not possession of all that is her husbands as soon as she is married ; yet she hath Right to all that is her part , and possession of the benefits meerly Relative , which consist but in a Right . The accepting his person in marriage is the condition to be by her performed to instate her in his Honours so far as she must partake of them . When she is made a wife by that Consent , there needs not any other act before she can be noble , honourable , a Lady , a Queen , &c : For the former was the full condition of the first possession of this benefit ; and the benefit immediately resulteth from the Union . Fifthly , I conceive that these two acts which you mention are but one moral work ( though divers Physical acts ) and to be done without any interposition of time , before we can have Christ for Union or Justification . For the end is Essential to Relations : and he that receives Christ , must take him to some end and use : and that must be to Justifie , Reconcile and save him ; to bring him to God that he may be blessed in him . He that doth not receive Christ to these ends , receiveth not Christ as Christ , and therefore cannot be united to him : and he that doth thus receive him , doth both those acts in one which you require . Sixthly , And the case is much different between Physical and Relative benefits : For its true , that when we are united to Christ , we may have after need of renewed acts of faith to actuate the Graces of the Spirit Inherent in us ; For here Right is one thing , and Possession is another : But the Relation of Sonship , Justification , &c. are benefits that arise from the promise or free Gift by a meer resultancy to all that are united to Christ ; and whoever hath present Right to them , even thereby hath possession of them , so that this answereth your Reason . For there is no such distance of time between our Union with Christ and Justification , as that any acts of our own must interpose ; but they are in eodem instanti , and differ only in order of nature . In sum , we prove a promise of pardon to all that receive Christ himself , and believe in him : If any will affirm the necessity of any other act before we can be justified , it is incumbent on them to prove it . This was the substance of my Answer , to which the Reverend Bishop said no more ; whether satisfied or not , I cannot tell : But I thought meet to recite his Judgement , both because it comes so neer the matter , and because I know not of any other that saith the same or so much of seeming strength against us . Against all these seven particular Opinions , I am now to defend the Thesis ; when I have first told you , in certain distinctions and propositions , how much I grant , and what I deny ; which I shall in short dispatch . And here I need but to rehearse what I have said already to Mr. Blake , pag. 3.4 . or to give you some short account of my thoughts to the same purpose . First , We must not confound Justification by Constitution or Guift , and justification by the Sentence of the Judge , and the Execution of that sentence , which are three distinct things . Secondly , We must not confound Justification with the assurance or feeling of Justification . Thirdly , We must distinguish between our first Justification from a state of sin , and our daily Justification from particular Acts of sin . Fourthly , Between that which is necessary on Christs part , and that which is necessary on our part to our Justification . Fifthly , Between Christs purchasing our Justification , and his actual justifying of us . Sixthly , Between these two senses of the phrase [ justified by Fatih ] viz. as by an efficient Cause , or as a meer Condition . Seventhly , Between the Causality of faith in the Physical effects of sanctification on the soul , and its conducing to the efficacy of the Promise in our Justification . Proposition 1. Ex parte Christi , We easily grant that it is not his Teaching , or Ruling us , but his Ransome and Obedience that are the Meritorious cause of our Justification and Salvation . Proposition 2. Therefore if Christ did justifie us per modum objecti aprehensi in the nearest sense , as the Belief of sacred Truths doth make a Qualitative impression on the soul in our Sanctification , and the exciting and acting , of our Graces then I should confess that it is only that Act of Faith which is the apprehension of this Object , that doth help us directly to the benefit of the Object . Proposition 3. But it is not so : For the Object justifieth us causally by way of Merit and Moral procurement , and the benefit of that Merit is partly the Promise conveying to us Justification , and partly Justification conveyed by that Promise ( not to speak now of other benefits ) and the Promise conveyeth Justification by Moral Donation as a deed of Gift , or a Pardon to a Traytor : Therefore the Gift flowing purely from the Will of the Giver , and the Promise or deed of Gift being the Immediate Instrumental efficient Cause of it , as it is signum voluntatis Donatoris , our Belief or Apprehension qua talis cannot justifie us , nor have any nearer or higher interest in our Justification , then to be the Condition of it , as it is a free Gift . And therefore the Condition must be judged of by the will of the Donor expressed in his Promise , and not immediately by the conceits of men concerning its natural agreeableness to the Object in this or that respect . Proposition 4. Yea , Even ex parte Christi , though he Merit Justification by his Ransome and Obedience , yet he actually justifieth us as King of his Church , and that in regard of all the three sorts or parts of Justification . He giveth it constitutively by his Promise , as Lord and Legislator and Benefactor , on these terms of Grace . He sentenceth us Just , as our Judg ; and he executeth that sentence as a Just Judge , governing according to his Laws . So that if Faith did justifie ex natura rei , which they call its Instrumentality , I see not yet but that the apprehension of Christ as Lord and Judge must justifie us , because the Object apprehended doth thus justifie us . Proposition 5. I easily grant that in our Sanctification or the exciting and exercise of our Graces , the case standeth as the Opponents apprehend it to do in Justification . This Interest of the Act must be judged of by the Object apprehended . For it is not the Belief of a Promise that feareth us , but of a Threatning ; nor the Belief of a Threatning that Comforteth us , but of a Promise . For here the Object worketh immediately on our minds , per modum objecti apprehensi : But in Justification it is not so , where God is the Agent as a Donor , and there can be nothing done by us , but in order to make us fit Subjects ; and the change is not Qualitative by an Object as such , but Relative by a Fundamentum which is without us in the Gospel , and nothing within us but a qualifying Condition , without which it will not be done . Proposition 6. Accordingly I easily grant , that the Sense , or Assurance of Justification in our Consciences is wrought by the Object as an Object : Because this Assurance is a part of our Sanctification . But that Object is not directly Christs Ransome , but the Promise through his blood , and our own Faith which is the condition of that Promise . Proposition 7. I easily grant that Faith in Christ as Lord or Teacher of the Church , is not the Instrumental efficient Cause of our Justification : They need not therefore contend against me in this . But withall I say , that faith in his Priest-hood is not the Instrumental efficient Cause neither ; though I allow it to have a nearer Physical Relation to the Ransome which meriteth our Justification . Proposition 8. Though there is a greater shew of Reason to assert the Interest of the single Belief in Christs Priest-hood , for a particular Pardon , then for our first general Pardon ; yet indeed it is but a shew , even there also . For it is not only the applying our selves to his blood or Ransome , but it is also the applying our selves to whole Christ , to make up the whole breach , that is the Condition of our particular Pardon , ( so far as a particular Act of saith is a Condition ) which though it be not a Receiving Christ for Union with him , as we did in the beginning , yet is it a receiving him ad hoc et secundum quid ; and a renewed Consent to his whole Office , and adhesion to him as our special , remedy for recovery from that fall , by freeing us both from the guilt and stain of Sin. Proposition 9. It is undoubtedly the duty of every Sinner , in the sense of his guilt and misery , to fly to the Ransome of Christs blood and the Merit of his Obedience , as the satisfaction to Gods Justice , and the Purchaser of our Justification . And he that doth not this , how willing soever he may seem to learn of Christ as a Master , or to be ruled by him , yet cannot be justified or saved by him . Proposition 10. I easily grant that Faith qud Christum Prophetam et Dominum recipit , doth not justifie ; but only fides quâ Christum Prophetam & Dominum recipit , & quâ est promissionis Conditio praestita . But then I say the same also of Faith in Christ as Priest , or in his Righteousness . Having explained my meaning in these ten Propositions , for preventing of Objections that concern not the Controversie , but run upon mistakes , I shall now proceed to prove the Thesis , which is this . Thesis . We are justified by God , by our Believing in Christ as Teacher and Lord , and not only by Believing in his blood or Righteousness . Argument 1. My first Argument shall be from the Concession of those that we dispute with . They commonly grant us the point contended for : Therefore we may take it for granted by them . If you say , What need you then dispute the point , if they deny it not whom you dispute with ? I Answer , some of them grant it , and understand not that they grant it us , because they understand not the sense of our Assertion . And some of them understand that they grant it in our sense , but yet deny it in another sense of their own ; and so make it a strife about a syllable . But I shall prove the Concession , left some yet discern it not . If it be granted us , that Believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and Teacher , is a real part of the Condition of our Justification then is it granted us , that by this believing in him we are justified as by a Condition ( which is our sense , and all that we assert ) But the former is true : Therefore so is the later . For the proof of the Antecedent ( which is all ) First , Try whether you can meet with any Divine that dare deny it , who believeth that Faith is the Condition of the Covenant . Secondly , And I am sure their writings do ordinarily confess it . Their Doctrine that oppose us , is , That Faith is both a Condition and an Instrument : but other Acts , as Repentance , &c. may be Conditions , but not Instruments . And those that have waded so far into this Controversie , seem to joyne these other Acts of Faith with the Conditions , but not with the Instrument . Thirdly , They expresly make it antecedent to our Justification , as of moral necessity , ex constitutione permittentis ; and say it is the Fides quae justificat : which is the thing desired , if there be any sense in the words . Fourthly , They cannot deny to Faith in Christ , as Lord and Teacher , that which they commonly give to Repentance , and most of them to many other Acts. But to be a Condition ( or part of the Condition ) of Justification is commonly by them ascribed to Repentance ; therefore they cannot deny it to these acts of faith . So that you see I may fairly here break off , and take the Thesis pro Concessa , as to the sense . Nothing more can be said by them , but against our phrase whether it be proper to say that we are justified By that which is but a bare Condition of our Justification , which if any will deny : First , We shall prove it by the consent of the world , that apply the word [ By ] to any Medium : And Dr. Twiss that told them ( contr . Corvinum ) over and over that a condition is a Medium , though it be not a cause ; and I think none will deny it . Secondly , by the consent of many Texts of Scripture : But this must be referred to another Disputation , to which it doth belong , viz. about the Instrumentality of faith in justifying us , which , God willing , I intend also to perform . Argument 2. The usual language of the Scripture , is , that we are justified by faith in Christ , or by believing in him , without any exclusions of any essential part of that faith . But faith in Christ doth essentially contain our believing in him as Teacher , Priest , and King , or Lord : therefore by believing in him as Teacher , Priest and Lord , we are justified . The Major is past the denial of Christians , as to the first part of it . And for the second part , the whole cause lyeth on it ; For the Minor also is past all controversie . For if it be essential to Christ as Christ to be God and man , the Redeemer , Teacher , Priest and Lord : then it is essential to faith in Christ ( by which we are justified ) to believe in him as God and man , the Redeemer , Teacher , Priest and Lord. But the Antecedent is most certain : therefore so is the Consequent . The reason of the Consequence , is , because the act here is specified from its Object . All this is past further question . All the Question therefore is Whether Scripture do any where expound it self , by excluding the other essential parts of faith , from being those acts by which we are justified ? and have limited our justification to any one act ? This lyeth on the Affirmers to prove . So that you must note , that it is enough for me to prove that we are justified by faith in Christ Jesus : for this Includeth all the essential acts ; till they shall prove on the contrary , that it is but secundum quid , and that God hath excluded all other essential acts of faith save that which they assert : The proof therefore is on their part , and not on mine . And I shall try anon how well they prove it . In the mean time , let us see what way the Scripture goeth , and observe that every Text by way of Authority , doth afford us a several Argument , unless they prove the exclusion . First , Mark 16.15 , 16 , 17. [ Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every Creature : he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; and he that believeth not shall be damned : and these signs shall follow them that believe , &c. ] Here the faith mentioned , is the believing of the Gospel , and the same with our becoming Christians : and therefore not confined to one part or act of saving saith . That Gospel which must be preached to all the world , is it that is received by the faith here mentioned ; But that Gospel doth essentially contain more then the doctrine of Christs Priesthood : therefore so doth that faith . Object . It is not Justification but Salvation that is there promised . Answ . It is that Salvation whereof Justification is a part : It is such a Salvation as all have right to as soon as ever they believe and are baptized , which comprehendeth Justification : And the Scripture here and everywhere doth make the same faith without the least distinction , to be the condition of Justification and of our Title to Glorification : and never parcels out the several effects to several acts of faith ; except only in those Qualities or Acts of the soul which faith is to produce as an efficient cause . To be justified by faith or Grace , and to be saved by faith or Grace , are promiscuously spoken as of the same faith or Grace . Secondly , John 3.15 , 16 , 18. He that believeth in him shall not perish , but have everlasting life . ] [ He that believeth on him is not condemned . ] Not to be condemned , is to be justified . Condemnation and Justification are opposed in Scripture , Rom. 8 , 33 , 4. Here therefore a saving faith and a justifying are made all one . And it is [ Believing in Christ ] without exclusion of any essential part , that is this faith ; It is [ Believing in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. ] ver . 18. which is more then to believe his Ransom . Thirdly , John 3.35 , 36. The Father loveth the Son , and hath given all things into his hand , he that believeth on the Son , hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth not the son , shall not see life , but the wrath of God abideth on him . ] To have Gods wrath abide on him to be unjustified . And the unbelievers opposed to the Believers before mentioned , are such as [ Believe not the son : ] which phrase cannot possibly be limited to the affiance in his blood : It is the [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] often translated Disobedient : signifying , saith Willet , both unbelieving and disobedient , but rather Disobedient , properly it is unperswadable . But of this more anon . And the faith here mentioned is [ Believing on the son ] entirely , without exclusion of any essential acts ; nay expresly including the act in question , by shewing that it is faith in Christ as Lord , into [ whose hands the Father hath given all things ] as the connexion of these words to the foregoing doth manifest . Fourthly , Rom. 1.16 , 17 , 18. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ , for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth — for therein is the Righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith , as it is written , the just shall live by faith . ] where saving and justifying faith is made the same , and that is to be a believer of the Gospel , or in Christ , without limitation to any one essential part of it . Fifthly , Rom. 3.22 . [ Even the Righteousness of God , which is by faith of Jesus Christ , unto all , and upon all them that believe . ] Here it is faith in Jesus Christ by which we are justified , which therefore includeth all that is essential to it . Object . Vers . 25. It is said to be by faith in his blood . Answ . 1. But there is not a syllable confining it to faith in his blood alone . It saith not , ( by faith only in his blood ) Secondly , The ordinary course of Scripture is to call it by that name ( faith in Jesus Christ ) which comprehendeth all that 's essential to it . But sometime upon special occasions , it s denominated from some one notable act or part . And that is , when it is the scope of the text , to denote more the distinct Interest of that part of Christs Office which is related to that act of faith , then any sole Interest of that act of faith it self . And so the Apostle here mentioneth faith in his blood as a special act , because he now draweth them especially to observe that blood which is the Object of it ; and in other places he instanceth in other acts of faith ; but commonly speaks of it entirely . And I think the Opponents will grant that as ( only ) is not here expressed , so neither is it implyed : for then it would exclude also , faith in the rest of his satisfactory Humiliation , or at least , in his active Righteousness , if not in his Person or Relation : of which more anon . So vers . 18.30 , 31. It s called ( faith ) entirely , or without restriction by which we are justified ; and therefore none of the essentials are excluded . But it would be too tedious to recite the particular Texts : It s known , that [ by faith ] and [ by believing ] in Christ , without exclusion or limitation , is the common please of Scripture , when it speaks how we are justified : as many further be seen , Rom. 5.1 , 2. & 9.32 . Gal. 2.16 . ( we are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ , and by believing in Jesus Christ , as opposed to the works of the Law ; but not by faith in his Priesthood , or Ransom , as opposed to faith in him as our Lord and Teacher ) Gal. 3.11 , 24 , 25 , 26. & 5.5.6 . Eph 2.8 , 9. & 3.12 , 17. Phil. 3.9 . Rom. 9.30 . Heb. 11. throughout , John 6 35 , 40 , 47. Acts 10.42 , 43. Rom. 10 10. Acts 23.39 . From these and many the like I argue thus . The Scripture doth ascribe our Justification to faith ; and doth not limit it to any one part of faith excluding the rest : Believing in Jesus Christ as Redeemer , Prophet , Priest and King , is essentially this faith . Ergo , &c. If the Scripture speaks of faith essentially , not limiting it ad partem fidei , then so must we : But the Scripture doth so ; Ergo ' &c. It is nowhere more necessary then in such cases this to hold to the Rule , of not distinguishing ubi lex non distinguit . First , Because it is an adding to the doctrine of Christ in a point of weight . Secondly , Because it savoureth of a presumptuous detraction from the Condition Imposed by Christ himself . If a Prince do make a General act of Oblivion , pardoning all Rebels that will enter into Covenant with him , wherein they consent to Accept his pardon , and take him for their Soveraign Lord ; He that shall now say , that Returning to his Allegiance , or consenting to the Princes Soveraignty , is no part of the Condition of the Traytors pardon , but that they are pardoned only by accepting of a pardon , and not by the other act , will certainly be guilty of adding to the act of his Prince , and of detracting from the condition by him required ; and so is it in our present case . If God speak of any thing essentially , we must not presume without sufficient proof of the restriction , to expound it only de parte essentiali . If he invite a Guest to his marriage feast , he means not the mans head only , or his heart only : for neither of these is the man. If he require a lamb in sacrifice , we must not expound it of the head only , or heart only of a Lamb. To this Argument ( briefly in my Apology ) Mr. Blake ( having first excepted at the newness of the phrase [ Lord-Redeemer ] doth answer thus [ I say , Christ is to be received as the Lord our Redeemer , and as our Master or Teacher ; but faith in Justification eyes Redemption , not Dominion . ] Repl. First , The Phrase [ Faith in Justification ] is as unacceptable to me , as [ Lord-Redeemer ] is to you : not only for the Novelty , but the ambiguity , if not the false Doctrine which it doth import . First , If the meaning be [ Faith as it is the Condition of our Justification , ] then its contrary to your own Concession after , that this should eye Christs Priest-hood only ; and it s an untruth , which you utterly fail in the proof , or do nothing to it . Secondly , If you mean [ Faith in its effecting of our Justification , ] then it importeth another mistake , which you have not proved , viz. that faith doth effect our Justification . If you mean [ Faith in Receiving Justification ] either you mean the proper Passive Receiving , and this is but Justificari , and the man Receiveth it as the Subject , and his faith is but a Condition , or means of it : Or you mean the Moral active Metaphorical Receiving ; which is nothing but Consenting that it shall be ours ; or accepting : And this is neither part of Justification , nor proper Cause ; but a Condition , and but part of the Condition : And therefore here your meaning must be one of these two , Either That Act of Faith which is the accepting of Justification , is not the ●ying of Dominion : To which I reply , First , taking it largely as a moral Act , it s not true ; for its comprehensive of both , of which more anon : but taking it strictly as one Physical Act , its true : Secondly , But then it s nothing to the purpose : For we are not more truly justifyed by that Act which is the accepting of Justification , or Consenting to be justified , then we are by the Accepting of Christ for our Lord and Master ; the reason of which , you have had before , and shall have more fully anon ; or else you mean as before expressed , That Act of Faith which is our Consenting to Justification , is the whole Condition of our Justification , and not the eying of Dominion ; But of that before . If I may Judge by your Doctrine elsewhere expressed , you mean only That the act of Faith which accepteth of Justification , is the only Instrument of Justification ; of which in its due place : It may here suffice to say again , that I affirm not that in question to the be Instrument of it . Be not offended that I enquire into the sense of your ambiguous phrase , which I truly profess , is to me not intelligible , till you have explained in what sense it is that you intend it ; and therefore my enquiry is not needless . Ar. 3. If the Scripture doth ( not only by the specificke Denomination , as was last proved , but also ) by description , and mentioning those very acts , include the believing in Christ as our Lord and Teacher , &c. in that faith by which as a Condition , we are justified ; then we are justified by believing in Christ as our Lord and Teacher , &c. not only as a sacrifice or Meriter of Justification . But the Antetedent is true : therefore so is the Consequent . I prove the Antecedent by many Texts . Rom. 10 4 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. For Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth . — But the Righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise : Say not in thy heart , Who shall ascend into Heaven ? that is to bring Christ down from above : or who shall descend into the deep ? that is to bring up Christ again from the dead : But what saith it ? The word is nigh thee , even in thy mouth , and in thy heart , that is the word of faith which we preach , that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus , and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead , thou shalt be saved ; for with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness , and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation . ] Here it is evident , that it is a Believing unto Righteousness that is mentioned , and therefore it is the Believing by which we are justified . And then it is evident that the faith here called [ a believing unto Righteousness ] is the believing in the Lord Jesus ; expresly Christ as Lord and Saviour , is made the Object of it ; and is not confined to a believing in one part of his Priesthood only . Also [ that God raised Christ from the dead ] is the expressed object of this faith . And the Resurrection of Christ is no part of his sacrifice or meer Priestly Office. Rom. 4.24 , 25. [ But for us also , to whom it shall be imputed , if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead . ] Here it is evident that it is Justification it self that is the Benefit spoken of , even the Imputing of Righteousness : And that faith here is mentioned as the Condition of that Imputation [ If we believe ] And that this faith is described to be first a believing in him that raised Christ , and not only in Christ . Secondly , A believing in Christ Jesus our Lord , who is the express object of it ; and so his Lordship taken in ; and thirdly , a believing in his Resurrection , and not only in his blood or obedience . So that I see no room left to encourage any doubting , whether we are justified by believing in Christ as Lord , and in his Resurrection , and in God that raised him , as the Condition of our Justification . John 1.9 , 11 , 12. [ That was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world . — He came to his own , and his own received him not : But as many as received him , to them gave he power to become the sons of God , to them that believe in his Name . ] Here it is manifest , First , that it is the faith by which we are justified that is spoken of ; for its commonly agreed that Justification is here included in Adoption , or at least that its the same act of faith by which we are adopted and justified . Secondly , Also that the object of this faith is Christ as the Light , which is not his meer Priesthood . Thirdly , And that it is his person in his full office , and not some single benefit . Fourthly , that it is called [ his Name ] and [ Believing in his Name ] is more then consenting to be justified by his blood ; and in Scripture-sense comprehendeth his Nature and Office : and is all one as taking him as the true Messiah , and becoming his Disciples : Fifthly , And it s much to be Noted , that it is not by way of Physical efficacy by apprehension ( as I take Gold in my hand , and so receive possession of it ) that faith hath its nearest Interest in our Adoption : but it qualifieth the subject dispositively in the sight of God , and so God gives men Power thereupon to become his sons . So the forecited words , Iohn 3.31 , 35 , 36. Where Life is given on Condition that we believe on the Son ; and that is expressed as the object of that faith , as he is one that [ Cometh from Heaven , and is above all , and whom the Father loveth , and hath given all things into his hands . ] And so Iohn 5.22 23 , 24. [ He hath committed all judgement to the son , that all men should honour the Son , even as they honor the Father ; Verily , verily , I say unto you , he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me , hath everlasting life , and shall not come into Condemnation ] Here the faith mentioned is that which freeth men from Condemnation , and therefore is it by which we are Iustified : And the object of it is the Word of Christ ( and therefore not only his Priesthood ) and the Father as sending the Son , even to his whole office of Redemption . Moreover , that faith by which our Justification is continued , it is begun by this ( both they and we are agreed in , though some yield not that any thing more is required to its continuance . ) But the faith by which Justification is continued , is the Belief of the Gospel , which is preached to every Creature and not only one branch of it . Col. 1.21 , 22 , 23. And it is called , Col. 2.6 . a Receiving Christ Iesus the Lord. John 20.31 . These things are written , that ye might believe that Iesus is the Christ , the son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name : ] That faith by which we have life , is certainly it by which we are justified : for as Justification is part of that life , so Right to Eternal life is given on the same terms as Justification is . And the object of this faith here is , Christ in Person and entire Office , the son of God by whose Name we have life . Acts 2.30 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38. [ Knowing that God had sworn with an Oath to him , that of the fruit of his loynes according to the flesh , he would raise up Christ , to sit upon his Throne , he seeing this before spake of the Resurrection of Christ , that his soul was not left in his Hell , neither his flesh did see Corruption : This Iesus hath God raised up , whereof we are all witnesses ; therefore being by the right hand of God exalted — therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this same Iesus whom ye have Crucified , both Lord and Christ . Now when they heard this — Then Peter said unto them , Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ , for the Remission of sins — . ] Here it is evident that Remission of sins is a Benefit that by this faith they were to be made partakers of ; and so that it is the faith by which we are justified , that they are Invited to : And that the Object of this faith implyed in the terms , Repent and be baptized , &c. is the Name of Jesus Christ , and that eminently in his exaltation , as Risen , and set at the Right hand of God , and as Lord and Christ . So Acts 3.19.22.15 . Repent therefore and be Converted , that your sins may be blotted out — For Moses truly said , A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up — . ] Here the Jews are accused for killing the Prince of life , vers . 15. and exhorted to Repent thereof , and so of their Infidelity , and be converted ( to Christ , and so to become Christians , ) which is more then one act of faith ; and this was that their sins may be blotted out : And Christ as Prophet is propounded to them as the object of this faith , which they are exhorted to . So Act , 10.42 , 43. with 36 , 37 , 38 , 40 , 41. [ And he commanded us to preach unto the people , and to testifie that it is he that is ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead ; to him give all the Prophets witness , that through his name , whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of sins . ] Here the faith is described which hath the Promise of Remission . And the Object of it is at large set out to be Jesus Christ as Lord of all , ver . 36. as anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power , raised from the dead , and made the Judge of the quick and the dead ; and it is called entirely a Believing in him , and the Remission is through his name . Act. 16.31 . The faith of the Jaylor as perswaded to for life ▪ is the believing in the Lord Jesus Christ entirely : and it s called a Believing in God , ver . 34. 1 Pet. 2.4 , 5 , 6 , 7. The faith there mentioned is that By which we are justified ; he that believeth on him shall not be confounded ; and the Object of it is , whole Christ as the Corner stone , Elect and Precious . ] John 5.10 , 11 , 12. [ The faith there mentioned , is that by which we have Christ and Life ] : And the Object of it is , [ the Son of God ] and [ God ] and [ the record that God gave of his Son ] even [ that God hath given us eternal Life , and this life is in his Son. ] Mat. 11.27 , 28 , 29. The faith there mentioned , is called [ a comming to Christ weary and heavy laden , that he may give them rest , ] which must comprehend Rest from the Guilt of sin and punishment . And the Act of that Faith is directed to Christ as one to whom all Power is given by the Father , and as one whose yoak and burden we must take upon us . But I shall add no more for this . To this last Mr. Blake saith , pag. 504. This Text shows the Duty of men to be , not alone to such rest and ease from Christ , but to learn of Christ and follow him : But neither their learning nor their imitation , but faith in his blood , is their freedom or Justification . Repl. Properly neither one act of faith nor other is our Justification . Faith is a Quality in the Habit , and an act in the exercise : and Justification is a Relation . Faith is a part of our Sanctification ; Therefore it is not our Justification . But supposing you speak Metonymically , I say both acts of faith are our Justification , that is , the Condition of it . And the Text proves it , by making our Subjection not only a Duty , but an express Condition of the Promise . And this Conditionality you here before and after do confess or grant . Argument 4. If we are justified by Christ as Priest , Prophet and King conjunctly , and not by any of these alone , much less by his Humiliation and Obedience alone ; then according to the Opponents own Principles ( who argue from the distinct Interest of the several parts of the Object , to the distinct Interest of the several acts of faith ) we are justified by believing in Christ as Priest , Prophet and King , and not as Humble and Obedient only . But we are justified by Christ as Priest , Prophet and King , &c. Ergo , &c. The Consequence is their own . And the Antecedent I shall prove from several texts of Scripture , and from the nature of the thing , beginning with the last . And first it is to be supposed , That we are all agreed that the blood and Humiliation of Jesus Christ , are the Ransome and Price that satisfieth the Justice of God for our sins , and accordingly must be apprehended by the Believer : And many of us agree also , that his Active obedience as such , is part of this satisfaction , or at least , Meritorious of the same effect of our Justification . But the thing that I am to prove , is , that the Meritorious Cause is not the only Cause and that Christ in his other actions , is as truly the efficient Cause , as in his meriting , and that all do sweetly and harmoniously concur to the entire effect ; and that faith must have respect to the other causes of our Justification , and not alone to the Meritorious Cause , and that we are Justified by this entire work of Faith , and not only by that Act which respects the satisfaction or merit . And first , I shall prove that Christ doth actually justifie us as King. The word Justification , as I have often said ( and it s past doubt ) is used to signifie these three Acts. First , Condonation , or constitutive Justification , by the Law of Grace or Promise of the Gospel . Secondly , Absolution by sentence in Judgement . Thirdly , The Execution of the former , by actuall Liberation from penalty . The last is oftener call'd Remission of sin ; the two former are more properly called Justification . First , As for the first of these , I argue this : If Christ do as King and Benefactor , ( on supposition of his antecedent Merits , ) Enact the Law of Grace or promise by which we are justified , then doth he as King and Benefactor justifie us by Condonation , or constitution . For the Promise is his Instrument by which he doth it . But the Antecedent is certain , therefore so is the Consequent . As the Father by Right of Creation was Rector of the new created world , and so made the Covenant of Life that was then made : so the Son ( and the Father ) by Right of Redemption is Rector of the new Redeemed world , and so made the Law of Grace , that gives Christ and Life to all that will believe . As it is a Law , it is the Act of a King : As it is a Deed of Gift , it is the Act of a Benefactor : as it is founded in his death , and supposeth his satisfaction , thereby it is called his Testament . In no respect is it part of his satisfaction or Humiliation or Merit itself , but the true effect of it . So that Christs merit is the Remote Moral Cause of our Justification , but his granting of this promise or Act of Grace , is the true natural efficient Instrumental Cause of our Justification , even the Immediate Cause . Secondly , Justification by sentence of Judgement is undeniably by Christ as King : For God hath appointed to Judge the World by him . Act. 17.31 . and hath committed all Judgement to him , John 5.22 . And therefore as Judge he doth justifie and Condemn . This is not therefore any part of his Humiliation or Obedience , by which he ransometh sinners from the Curse . To deny these things , is to deny Principles in Politicks . Thirdly , And then for the Execution of the sentence by actual liberation , there is as little room for a doubt , this being after both the former , and the act of a Rector , and not of a Surety in the form of a servant . So that it is apparent , that as the Merit of our Justification is by Christ in his Humiliation ; So our actual Justification in all three senses is by Christ as King. And therefore Faith in order to Justification , must accordingly respect him . Secondly , As the Teacher of the Church ; Christ doth not immediately justifie , but yet mediately he doth , and it is but mediately that he justifieth by his Merits . The Gospel is a Law that must be promulgate and expounded , and a Doctrine that must be taught and pressed on sinners , till they receive it and believe , that they may be justified : And this Christ doth as the Teacher of his Church . And Faith must accordingly respect him . Thirdly , The Resurrection of Jesus Christ was part of his exaltation by Power and Conquest , and not of his Humiliation ; and yet we are justified by his Resurrection , as that which both shewed the perfection of his satisfaction , & by which he entred upon that state of Glory , in which he was to apply the benefits . Fourthly , The Intercession of Christ is a part of his office , as he is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck : but it is no part of his Humiliation or Ransome . And yet we are justified by his Intercession : And therefore Faith must respct it for Justification . Let us now hear what The Scripture saith in these cases , Mattthew 9.6 . [ But that you may know that the Son of man hath Power on earth to forgive sins , &c. ] Here it is plainly made an Act of Power and not of Humiliation , to forgive sins . Mat. 11.27 , 28 , 29. All things are delivered unto me of my Father , &c. Come to me all ye that are weary , &c. so Mat. 28.18 , 19. compared with Mark 16.15 , 16. shew that it is an act of Christ exalted or in Power , to pardon , or grant the promise of Grace . John 1.12 . To give power to men to become the Sons of God , must be an act of Power . John 5.22 , 23 , 24. it is express of the sentence . Acts 5.31 ▪ [ Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour , for to give Repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins . ] He forgiveth as a Prince and Saviour . Act. 10.42 , 43. he is preached as the Judge of quick and dead , and so made the Object of the faith , by which we have Remission of sins . Rom. 4.25 . [ Who was delivered for our offences , and raised for our justification . ] And this Resurrection ( as is said ) was part of his Exaltation . And the Apostle thence concludes ( as is aforesaid ) that this is the faith that is Imputed to us for Righteousness [ If we believe in him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead . ] vers . 26. Rom. 8.33 , 34. [ Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect ? it is God that justifieth : who is he that condemneth ? it is Christ that died , yea rather that is risen again , who is even at the right hand of God , who also maketh intercession for us . ] Here God , and the Resurrection , and Session at Gods right hand , and the intercession of Christ , are all made the grounds or causes of our Justification , and not only Christs death ; Yea , it is exprest by [ it is Christ that died , yea rather that is risen , &c. ] 1 Cor. 15.1 , 2.3 , 4. The faith by which Paul tells them they were saved , had Christs Resurrection for its object , as well as his dying for our sins . Phil. 3.8.9 , 10. Pauls way of Justification was first to [ win Christ , and be found in him ] and so to have a Righteousness of God by faith in Christ ( whole Christ , ) and not that of the Law : that he might know the power of his Resurrection , &c. The true Nature of this faith is described , 1 Pet. 1.21 . [ Who by him do believe in God that raised him from the dead , and gave him Glory , that your Faith and Hope may be in God. ] 1 Pet. 3.21 . [ The like Figure whereunto even Baptism , doth now also save us — by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ , who is gone into Heaven , and is on the right hand of God ; Angels and Authorities , and Powers , being made subject to him . ] It is certain that the salvation of Baptism consisteth very much in Remission of sin or Justification . In a word , it is most evident in Scripture , that merit and satisfaction are but the moral , remote preparatory Causes of our Justification ( though exceeding eminent , and must be the daily study , and everlasting praise of the Saints ) and that the perfecting nearer efficient causes , were by other acts of Christ ; and that all concurred to accomplish this work . And therefore even ex parte Christi , the work is done by his several acts , though merited by him in his humiliation only . And therefore it is past doubt on their own principles , that faith must respect all , in order to our Justification . And the faith by which we are justified must be that of the Eunuch , Acts 8.37 . that believed with all his heart that Christ was the son of God , and so received him as Christ entirely . Argument 5. If it be a necessary Condition of our being baptized for the Remission of sin , that we profess a belief in more then Christs Humiliation and merits then is it a necessary Condition of our actual Remission of sin , that we really believe in more than Christs Humiliation and Merits : But the Antecedent is certain . For the Prescript , Mat. 28.19 , 20 , and the constantly used form of Baptism , and the Texts even now mentioned , 1 Pet. 3.21 . Act. 8.37 . do all shew it : And I have more fully proved it in my Dispute of Right to Sacraments . And the Consequence is undeniable : And I think all will be granted . Argument 6. If the Apostles of Christ themselves before his death , were justified by believing in him as the son of God , and the Teacher and King of the Church , ( yea perhaps without believing at all in his Death and Ransom thereby ) then the believing in him as the son of God , and Teacher and King , conjunct with believing in his blood , are the faith by which we are now justified . But the Antecedent is true : therefore so is the Consequent . The reason of the Consequence is , because it is utterly improbable that the addition of further light and objects for our faith , should null the former , and that which was all or so much of their justifying faith , should be now no part of ours . The Antecedent I prove , Matth. 16.21.22 , 23. [ From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his Disciples , how that he must go unto Jerusalem , and suffer many things of the Elders and chief Priests and Scribes , and be killed , and be raised again the third day : then Peter took him and began to rebuke him , saying , Be it far from thee Lord , this shall not be unto thee ] &c. — John 12.16 . These things understood not his Disciples at the first ; but when Jesus was glorified , then , &c. Luke 28. [ Then he took unto him the twelve , and said unto them ; Behold , we go up to Jerusàlem , and all things that are written by the Prophets concerning the son of man , shall be accomplished : For he shall be delivered to the Gentiles , and shall be mocked and spitefully intreated and spit upon , and they shall scourge him and put him to death , and the third day he shall rise again : And they understood none of these things ; and this saying was hid from them , neither knew they the things which were spoken . ] Luke 24.20 , 21 , 22. [ The chief Priests and Rulers delivered him to be condemned to death , and have crucified him ; but we trusted that it had been be which should have redeemed Israel : and beside all this to day is the third day since these things were done ; and certain women also of our company made us astonished which were early at the Sepulchre — O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken ! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things , and to enter into his Glory ? vers . 45. Then opened be their understanding that they might understand the Scripture . ] John 20.9 . [ For as yet they knew not the Scripture that he must rise again from the dead . ] By all this it is plain that the Disciples then believed not Christs death or Resurrection . Yet that they were justified , is apparent in many Texts of Scripture , where Christ pronounceth them clean by the word which he had spoken , John 15.3 . and oft called them blessed , Mat. 5. & 16.17 Luke 6. And he saith that the Father loved them : John 16.27 . They were branches in him the living Vine , and exhorted to abide in him , John 15 5 , 6 , 7. — And that they were Believers is oft exprest , and particularly that they Believed in him as the son of God , and trusted it was he that should redeem Israel : that is by Power , and not by Death : and that they took him for their Master and Teacher , and the King of Israel ; some of them desiring to sit at his right and left hand in his Kingdom , and striving who should be the greatest about him , John. 16.27 . The Father himself loveth you , because ye have loved me , and have believed that I came out from God. ] John 1.49 . [ Nathaniel answered and saith unto him , Rabbi , thou art the son of God : thou art the King of Israel ] Here was the saving faith of the Disciples , Matth. 16.16 . Simon Peter answered and said , Thou art Christ , the son of the living God. ] Object . But was it possible for them to be justified without the blood of Christ ? Answ . No : as to the Fathers acceptance , his blood even then before it was shed , was the meritorious cause of their Justification : But they were justified by it , without the knowledge or belief of it , thought not without faith in Christ as the son of God , the Messiah , the Rabbi , and the King of Israel . Which also shews that faith did not then justifie them in the new Notion of an Instrumental cause apprehending the purchasing cause ; or that the effects of Christs several acts were not diversifyed according to the several acts of faith to those as Objects . I hope all that have Christian Ingenuity will here understand , that I speak not this in the least measure to diminish the excellency or necessity of that act of faith which consisteth in the believing on Christ as crucified , or in his blood and Ransom ! Or that I think it less necessary then the other to us now ▪ because the Disciples then were justified without it . I know the case is much altered ; and that is now of necessity to Justification that was not then . But all that I endeavour is , to shew that we are justified by the other acts of faith , as well as this , because it is not likely that those acts should not be now justifying , in conjunction with this , by which men were then justified without this . Argument 7. If the satisfaction and merits of Christ be the only Objects of the justifying act of faith , then ( according to their own principles ) they must on the same reason , be the only obiects of the sanctifying and saving acts of faith . But the satisfaction and merit of Christ are not the only Objects of the sanctifying and saving acts of faith : therefore not of the justifying . To this Mr. Blake answereth , by finding an Equivocation in the word Merit ; and four terms in the Syllogism ( as in other terms I had expressed it . ) And saith [ We look at Christ for justification as satisfying Iustice , and meriting pardon and remission , not as meriting sanctification . ] Repl. But this is his mis-understanding of plain words The term [ Meritor ] was not equivocal , but the General comprehending both effects : And that which he nakedly affirms , is the thing which the Argument makes against . Here it is supposed as a granted truth , that we can be no more sanctified , then justified without Christs blood and merits : and so the scope of the Argument is this : Christ as a Ransom and a Meritor of sanctification , is not the only object of the sanctifying act of faith : therefore by parity of Reason , Christ as a Ransom and Meritor of Justification , is not the only object of the justifying act of faith . The Antecedent of this Enthymeme or the Minor of the Argument thus explained , is not denied by them . They confess that faith for sanctification doth receive Christ himself not only as the Meritor of it , but as Teacher Lord , King , Head , Husband ; and doth apply his particular promises . But the meriting sanctification by his Blood and Obedience , is no part of Christs Kingly or Prophetical Office , but belongs to his Priesthood , as well as the meriting of justification doth . For Christs sacrifice layes the general Ground-work of all the following benefits , both Justification , Adoption , Sanctification , Glorification : but it doth immediately effect or confer none of them all ; but there are appointed wayes for the collation of each one of them after the Purchase or Ransom . So that if the apprehending of the Ransom which is the general Ground do only justifie ; then the apprehending of the same Ransom as meriting sanctification , should only sanctify . And neither the justifying nor sanctifying acts of faith should respect either Christs following acts of his Priesthood , ( Intercession ) nor yet his Kingly or Prophetical office at all . And therefore as the sanctifying act must respect Christs following applicatory acts , and not the purchase of sanctification only ; so the justifying act ( to speak as they ) must respect Christs following Collation or application , and not only his Purchase of Justification . And then I have that I plead for : because Christ effectively justifies as King. Argument 8. It is the same faith in Habit and Act by which we are Justified , and by which we have right to the spirit of sanctification ( for further degrees ) and Adoption , Glorification , &c. But it is believing in Christ as Prophet , Priest and King , by which we have Right to the spirit of sanctification , to Adoption and Glorification : Therefore it is the believing in Christ as Prophet , Priest and King , by which we are justified . The Minor I suppose will not be denyed ; I am sure it is commonly granted . The Major I prove thus . If the true Christian faith be but one in essence , and one undivided Condition of all these benefits of the Covenant then it is the same by which we are justified , and have Right to the other benefits ( that is , they are given us on that one undivided Condition ▪ But the Antecedent is true : as I prove by parts thus . First , That it is but one in essence ▪ I think will not be denied ; If it be , I prove it , first from Ephes . 4.5 . There is one faith . Secondly , If Christ in the Essentials of a Saviour to be believed in , be but One , then the faith that receiveth him , can be but One : But the former is true : Therefore so is the later . Thirdly , If the belief in Christ as Prophet , as Priest , and as King , be but several Essential parts of the Christian faith , and not several sorts of faith , and no one of them is the true Christian faith it self alone ( no more then a Head or a Heart is a humane body , ) then true faith is but one ( consiisting of its essential parts ) But the Antecedent is undoubted , therefore so is the Consequent . Secondly , And as Faith in Essence is but One faith , so this One faith is but One undivided Condition of the Covenant of Grace , and it is not one part of faith that is the Condition of one benefit , and another part of another , and so the several benefits given on several acts of faith , as several conditions of them : but the entire faith in its Essentials is the condition of each benefit : and therefore every essential part is as well the Condition of one promised benefit , as of another . This I prove : First , In that Scripture doth nowhere thus divide , and make one part of faith the condition of Justification , and another of Adoption , and another of Glorification , &c. and therefore it is not to be done . No man can give the least proof of such a thing from Scripture . It is before proved that its one entire faith that is the Condition . Till they that divide or multiply conditions according to the several benefits and acts of Faith , can prove their division from Scripture , they do nothing . Secondly , we find in Scripture not only Believing in Christ made the One Condition of all benefits ; but the same particular acts or parts of this faith , having several sorts of benefits ascribed to them ( though doubtless but as parts of the whole conditions . ) It s easie , but needless to stay to instance . Thirdly , Otherwise it would follow by parity of reason , that there must as many Conditions of the Covenant as there be benefits to be received by it , to be respected by our faith : which would be apparently absurd . First , Because of the number of Conditions . Secondly , Because of the quality of them . For then not only Justification must have one condition , & Adoption another , and Sanctification another , and Glorification another , and Comfort and Peace of Conscience another , but perhaps several graces must have sveral conditions , and the several blessings for our present life and Relations and Callings , and so how many sorts of Faith should we have as well as justifying faith ? even one faith Adopting , another Glorifying , &c. And ( as to the quality ) it is a groundless conceit that the belief or Acceptance of every particular inferiour mercy should be our title to that particular mercy : For then the covetous would have title to their Riches , because they accept them as from Christ , and the natural man would have this title to his health , and life , and so of the rest : whereas it is clear that it is faith in Christ as Christ , as God and man , King , Priest and Prophet , that is the condition of our Title , even to health , and life , and every bit of bread so far as we have it as heirs of the Promise . The promise is that all things shall work together for good ( not to every one that is willing to have the benefit , but ) to them that love God , Rom. 8.28 . If we seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness , ( not righteousness alone , much less pardon alone ) other things shall be added , Matth. 6.33 . Fourthly , If the Receiving of Christ as Christ , essentially , be that upon which we have title to his benefits , then there are not several acts of faith receiving those several benefits , necessary as the condition of our Title to them . But the Antecedent is true : as I prove thus . The Title to Christ himself includeth a title to all these benefits ( that are made over to the heirs of Promise : ) But on our acceptance of Christ we have title to Christ himself : therefore upon our acceptance of Christ ( as the simple condition ) we have title to all these benefits . Rom. 8.32 . [ He that spared not his own son , but gave him up for us all , how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? ] so that all things are given in the gift of Christ , or with him . Therefore Receiving him is the means of Receiving all . 1 John 5.11 , 12. [ God hath given us eternal life , and this life is in his son : He that hath the son hath life ; and he that hath not the son hath not life . ] So that accepting Christ as Christ , makes him ours ( by way of condition ; ) and then our life of Justification and sanctification is in him and comes with him . Coming to Christ as Christ , is the sole undivided condition of Life , John 5 40. Ye will not come to me that ye may have Life . ] Yet here I must crave that Ingenuous dealing of the Reader , that he will observe ( once for all , and not expect that I should on every call recite it ) that though I maintain the unity of the condition , not only in opposition to a separating division , but also to a distributive division of Conditions ; yet I still maintain these three things . First , that quoad materiale Conditionis , that faith which is the condition , doth believe all the essential parts of Christ office distinctly ; and so it doth not look to his Exaltation in stead of his Humiliation ; nor è Contra ; but looks to be Ransomed by him as a sacrifice , and meritoriously justified by his Merits , and actually justified by him as King , Judge , and Bnefactor , &c. And that it eyeth also distinctly those Benefits which salvation doth essentially consist in ( at least . ) And it takes Christ finally to Justifie , Adopt , Sanctifie , Glorifie , &c. distinctly . But still it s but one condition on which we have Title to all this . Secondly , That I maintain that in the Real work of sanctification , the several acts of faith on several objects are distinct efficient causes of the acting of several Graces in the soul . The Belief of every attribute of God , and every Scripture truth , hath a several real effect upon us : But it is not so in Justification , nor any receiving of Right to a benefit by Divine Donation ; for there our faith is not a true efficient cause , but a Condition : and faith as a condition is but One , though the efficient acts are divers . The Belief of several Texts of Scripture , may have as many sanctifying effects on the soul ; But those are not several conditions of our Title thereto . God saith not I will excite this Grace if thou wilt believe this Text , and that grace if thou wilt believe that Text. In the exercise of Grace God worketh by our selves as efficient causes : but in the Justifying of a sinner , God doth it wholly and immediately himself without any Co-efficiency of our own , though we must have the disposition or Condition . Thirdly , I still affirm , that this One undivided condition may have divers appellations from the Respect to the Consequent benefits ( for I will not call them the effects ; ) This one faith may be denominated ( importing only the Interest of a condition ) a justifying faith , a sanctifying faith , an Adopting faith , a saving faith , preserving faith , &c. But this is only , if not by extrinsick denomination , at the most but a Virtual or Relative distinction ; As the same Center may have divers denominations from the several lines that meet in it : Or the same Pillar or Rock may be East , West , North , or South , ad laevam , vel ad dextram , in respect to several other Correlates : Or ( plainly ) as one and the same Antecedent , hath divers denominations from several Consequents . So if you could give me health , wealth , Honor , Comfort , &c. on the condition that I would but say One Word [ I thank you : ] that one word , might be denominated an enriching word , an honouring word , a comforting word from the several Consequents . And so may faith . But this makes neither the Materiale , nor the Formale of the Condition to be divers : either the faith it self , or condition of the Promise . Argument 9. If there be in the very nature of a Covenant Condition in general , and of Gods imposed Condition in specicial , enough to perswade us that the benefit dependeth usually as much or more on some other act , as on that which accepteth the benefit it self : then we have reason to judge that our Justification dependeth as much on some other act , as on the acceptance of Justification ; but the Antecedent is true , as I prove : First , As to Covenant Condition in general , it is most usual to make the promise consist of somwhat which the party is willing of , and the condition to consist of somewhat which the Promiser will have ; but the Receiver hath more need to be drawn to . And therefore it is that the Accepting of the benefit promised is seldome , if ever , expresly made the Condition ( though implicitly it be part ; ) because it is supposed that the party is willing of it . But that is made the express condition , where the party is most unwilling : So when a Rebel hath a pardon granted on condition he come in , and lay down arms , it is supposed that he must humbly and thankfully accept the pardon ; and his returning to his allegiance , is as truly the condition of his pardon , as the putting forth his hand and taking it is . If a Prince do offer himself in maraiage to the poorest Beggar , and consequently offer Riches and Honors with himself , the accepting of his person is the expressed condition , more then the accepting of the riches and honors ; and the latter dependeth on the former . If a Father give his son a purse of gold on condition he will but kneel down to him , or ask him forgiveness of some fault : here his kneeling down and asking him forgiveness , doth more to the procurement of the gold , then putting forth his hand and taking it . Secondly , And as for Gods Covenant in specie , it is most certain , that God is his own end , and made and doth all things for himself . And therefore it were blasphemy to say that the Covenant of Grace were so free as to respect mans wants only , and not Gods Honor and Ends , yea or man before God. And therefore nothing is more certain then that both as to the ends , and mode of the Covenant , it principally respecteth the Honor of God. And this is it that man is most backward to though most obliged to . And therefore its apparent that this must be part , yea the principal part of the condition . Every man would have pardon and be saved from hell : God hath promised this which you would have , on condition you will yield to that which naturally you would not have . You would have Happiness ; but God will have his preeminence ; and therefore you shall have no Happiness but in him . You would have pardon : but God will have subjection , and Christ will have the honour of being the bountifull procurer of it , and will be your Lord , and Teacher , and Sanctifier as well as Ransom : If you will yield to one , you shall have the other . So that your Justification dependeth as much on your Taking Christ for your Lord and Master , as on your receiving Justification or consenting to be pardoned by him . Yea the very mode of your acceptance of Christ himself and the benefits offered you , ( that you take them thankfully , lovingly , humbly , renouncing your own worth , &c. ) are necessary parts of the condition of your pardon . There is as great a Necessity laid upon that part of the Condition which Christs honour lieth on , and that in order to your Justification , as of that part which directly respecteth your Salvation . And me thinks common reason and ingenuity should tell you that it must be so , and that its just and meet it should be so . And therefore I may safely conclude ex natura rei , that the taking of Christ for our ●eacher and Lord ▪ is as truly a part of the condition of our Justification , and our Justification lieth as much upon it , as the Affiance in Christs sufferings . If you say , [ But the efficiency is not equal , though it be equally a Condition ] I answer ; Neither of them have any proper efficiency in justifying us , unless you will unfitly call the Conditionality an Efficiency , or the Acceptableness of believing in the sight of God , an efficiency ; there is no such thing to be ascribed to our faith as to the effect of Justification . But this belongs to another Controversie . I know not what can be said more against this , unless by the Antinomians who deny the covenant of Grace to have any proper Condition , but only a priority and posteriority of Duties . But the express conditional terms of the Covenant do put this so far out of doubt , and I have said so much of it in other writings , that I shall not trouble my self here with this sort of Adversaries : Only to prevent their mistake , I shall tell them this : that in a condition there is somewhat Essential , and that is found in the conditions of Gods Promise ; and therefore they are proper conditions : and there is somewhat Accidental : as First , sometime that the thing be Vncertain to the Promiser : This is not in Gods Conditions : It is enough that in their own nature the things be contigent . Secondly , That the matter of the condition be somewhat that is gainfull to the Promiser , or otherwise have a merit , or moral causality : But this is separable : In our case it is sufficient that it be somewhat that God liketh , loveth , or is pleasing to him , though it properly merit not . And the evident Reason why God hath made some Promises conditional , is , that his Laws and Promises may be perfectly suited to the nature of man on whom they must work , and so may shew forth Gods Infinite Wisdom , and may in a way agreeable to our natures attain their ends : and man may be drawn to that which he is backward to by the help of that which he is naturally more forward to , or by the fear of that evil which naturally he doth abhor : As also that the Holiness of God may shine forth in his Word ; and it may be seen that he loveth Justice , Holiness , Obedience , and not only the persons of men : and so all his Attributes may be seen in their conjunction and the beauty that thence resulteth in the Glass of his Word . Argument 10 If the condemning Unbelief which is the Privation of the faith by which we are justified , be the Not-be-believing in Christ as King , Priest and Prophet , than the faith by which we are justified , is the believing in him as King , Priest and Prophet . But the Antecedent is true : therefore so is the Consequent . Only the Antecedent needs proof , though the Consequence have the hard hap to be denyed also . Here note , that by The condemning Vnbelief , I mean that which is the peremptory-condemning sin according to the special Commination of the Gospel : Where I suppose first , that there is a condemnation of the Law of Nature or works which is simply for sin as sin . Secondly , And a distinct condemnation by the New Law of Grace , which is not simply for sin as sin , but for one sort of sin in special , that is , the final rejection of the Remedy : And of this sort of condemnation I speak in the Argument . The confirmation of this distinction I shall be further called to anon by Mr. Blake . The Antecedent I prove . First , from John 3.18 , 19 , 20 , 21. [ He that believeth on him is not condemned , ( There 's the justifying faith : ) But he that believeth not , is condemned already . ( There 's the condemning unbelief , contradictory to the justifying faith ) [ Because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God : ] ( here is a special condemnation proved , distinct from that by the Law of works . ) [ And this is the condemnation ( that is the condemning sin or cause ) that light is come into the world , and men loved darkness rather then light , because their deeds were evil ] For every one that doth evil hateth the light , &c. The 19 verse describeth the Condemning unbelief , and the 20. gives the reason of mens guiltiness of it . And the unbelief described is a shunning or not coming to Christ as he is the Light to discover and heal their evil deeds . So that if contradictories will but shew the nature of each other , I think our controversie is here plainly resolved . So is it in Psal . 2.12 . [ Kise the Son left he be angry , and ye perish from the way ; when his wrath is kindled but a little , blessed are all they that put their trust in him . ] The faith that saves from punishment , saveth from Guilt : The faith that saves from Guilt , is justifying faith : The faith here described , is that which saves from punishment : And the faith here described is [ kissing the Son , ] which comprehendeth subjection , and dependance , and love ; and is the same for all that , which is after called [ trusting in him . ] So Luke 19.27 . [ But those mine enemies which would not that I should raign over them , bring hither , and destroy them before me . ] Unwillingness to have Christ raign over them , is here made ( not a common , but ) the special condemning sin , called commonly Unbelief ; and so is the contrary to justifying faith . So John 3.36 . [ He that believeth on the Son , ( this as all confess , is justifying faith ) hath everlasting life : and he that believeth not the Son , shall not see life , but the wrath of God abideth on him . ] Here it is apparent that this Unbelief is the privation , the contradictory or contrary to justifying faith . First , because they are so directly opposed here denominatively , that else the words would be equivocal , and not intelligible . Secondly , Because the contrariety of effects also is added to put the thing past doubt . [ The wrath of God abideth on him ▪ ] is contrary to justifying , which takes the wrath of God off him ; especially considering , that it is cursing , comminatory , obliging wrath that is principally meant ; the great executing wrath being not on men till their damnation . And that materially this unbelief thus opposed to justifying faith doth consist in contumacy , rebellion , or unperswadableness , is plain in the words , [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] which signifie [ They that are contumacious or disobedient to the Son , or unperswadable . ] And 1 John 5.10 , 11 , 12. This faith and unbelief are opposed ; and the unbelief consisteth in [ not believing the record that God hath given of his Son ] and that record is not only concerning Justification , or the merit of it . So 2. Thes . 2.12 . [ That all they might be damned , who believed not the truth , but had pleasure in unrighteousness . ] So 2 Thess . 1.8 , 9 , 10. [ That obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ] is the description of the Vnbelievers , opposed to [ them that believe , ] ver . 10. So Jo. 8.24 . [ If ye believe not that I am he , ye shall die in your sins , ] which as to the act and effect is contrary to justifying faith . And [ that I am he ] is not only [ that I am the Ransome ] but also [ that I am the Messiah and Redeemer . ] So John 16.8 , 9. [ He willl reprove the world of sin . — ( not only in general that they are sinners , but of this sin in specie ) because they believed not in me . ] Many texts may be cited where justifying faith and condemning unbelief are described from acts of the understanding ( though the will be implyed ) as believing , or not believing that Christ is the son of God , &c. which cannot possibly be restrained to his Ransom and Merit alone . The Consequence cannot be denyed , if it be but understood that this unbelief doth thus specially condemn , not in general as sin , or by the meer greatness of it , but as the privation of that faith by which only men are justified . For Privatives shew what the Positives are . And if this unbelief did condemn only as a sin in general then all sin would condemn as it doth : but that is false . And if it condemned only as a great sin , then first , every sin as great would condemn as it doth ; and secondly , it would be Derogatory to the preciousness and power of the Remedy , which is sufficient against the greatest sins , as great : It remains therefore that as it is not for the special worth of faith above all other Graces , that God assigned it to be the condition of Justification ; so it is not for a special greatness in the sin of unbelief that it is the specially condemning sin , but as it is the Privation of that faith ( which because of its peculiar aptitude to that Office , is made of such necessity to our Justification . But saith Mr , Blake [ This is like the old Argument ; Evil works merit condemnation : therefore good works merit salvation . An ill meaning damns our good meaning ; therefore saves . ] Repl. First , A palpable mistake . Meriting , and saving by merit , are effects or efficiencies so plainly separable from the things themselves , that the invalidity of the Consequence easily appears : But in good sadness , did you believe when you wrote this , that he that argueth from the description or nature of a privation , to the description or nature of the thing , of which it is the Privation , or that argueth from the Law of opposites and contradictions , doth argue like him that argues from the moral separable efficiency , or effect of the one , to the like efficiency or effect of the other ? Secondly , But understand me to argue from the effect it self if you please , so it be as affixed by the unchangeable Law or Covenant of God : I doubt not but the Argument will hold good . As under the Law of works it was a good argument to say [ Not-perfect-obeying is the condemning evil : therefore perfect-obeying is the justifying condition . ] So is it a good argument under the Covenant of Grace to say , Not-believing in Christ as King , Priest and Prophet , is the specially-condemning unbelief ; therefore believing in Christ as King , Priest & Prophet , is the faith by which we are justified ] The main force of the reason lyeth here , because else the Covenant were equivocating , and not Intelligible , if when it saith [ He that believeth shall be saved ; and he that believeth not shall be damned . ] it did speak of one kind or act of faith in one Proposition , and of another in the other . If when it is said , [ He that believeth shall be justified from all things , &c. and he that believeth not shall be condemned ] [ if you believe you shall not come into condemnation ; but if you believe not , you are condemned , and the wrath of God abideth on you ] [ He that believeth shall be forgiven , and he that believeth not shall not be forgiven ] I say , if the Affirmative and Negative Propositions , the Promise and the Threatning do not here speak of the same believing , but divers , then there is no hope that we should understand them , and the language would necessitate us to err . Now the Papists Argument ab effectis hath no such bottom ; Bad works damn , therefore good works save . For the Covenant is not [ He that doth good works shall be saved , and he that doth bad works shall be condemned ] But [ he that obeyeth perfectly shall be justified , and he that doth not shall be condemned ] Or if they argue from the threatning of the Gospel against bad works , to the merit of good , quoad modum procurandi , it will not hold , viz. that Evil works procure damnation by way of merit : therefore good works procure salvation by way of merit . For there is not eadem ratio , and so no ground for the Consequence ; Nor did I argue ad modum procurandi ; ] Rejecting Christ as King doth condemn by way of merit ; therefore accepting him as King doth save by way of merit ] This was none of my arguing : But this [ Rejecting or not believing in Christ as King , is part of that Vnbelief which is by the Law of Grace , threatned with condemnation : therefore accepting or believing in Christ as King , is part of that faith which hath the Promise of Justification ] And so if a Papist should argue , not ad modum procurandi , but ad naturam actus & effecti ; I would justifie his Argument [ Raigning sin , Rebellion , or the absence of Evangelical good works , is Threatned by the Gospel with condemnation at Judgement : therefore good works have the Promise of salvation , or justification at Judgement . ] And that I may and must thus understand the Condemning Threatning , and the Justifying promise , to speak of one and the same faith , I am assured by this : because it is usual with God in scripture to imply the one in the other . As in the Law of works with perfect ma● , the promise was not exprest , but implyed in the Threatning [ In the day that thou eatest thereof , thou shalt die . ] So in the Gospel the Threatning is oft implyed in the promise [ He that believeth shall not perish ] When the Lord saith [ The soul that sinneth shall die ] It implyeth that [ the soul that sinneth not shall not die . ] And though we cannot say the like of the prohibition of Eating the forbidden fruit , that is , because the same Law did on the same terms prohibite all other sin as well as it . And [ in the day that thou sinnest , thou shalt die ] doth imply [ if thou sin not , thou shalt not die . ] So [ he that believeth , shall be saved , ] doth imply , he that believeth not , shall be condemned . And so , If thou believe , thou shalt be justified , implyeth , If thou believe not , thou shalt not be justified . If you consent not to this , you then must maintain that this Covenant excludeth not Infidels from salvation , the term only being not implyed in the promise of pardon to Believers : But if you grant all this , ( as sure you will ) then it is most evident that Believing is taken in the same sense in the promise , and in the threatning : For no man breathing can tell me , either how a Promise to one kind of faith , can imply a threatning against the want of another kind or act of faith ; or else what that other faith must be that is so implyed , if not the same . And if it be the same faith that is implyed ( which is a most evident truth ) then it will follow , that if I prove the Threatned unbelief to be a Rejecting of Christ as King , the faith then that is made the condition of the promise , must be the accepting of him as King as well as Priest . But I have proved that not believing in Christ as King , is part of the unbelief that is specially threatned werth condemnation : therefore believing in him as King is part of that faith which hath the promise , or is the Condition of Justification . But saith Mr. Blake , [ I further answer , Rejecting Christ as King , is a sin against the moral Law , which damns : Yet somewhat more then subjection to the Moral Law is required than a sinner may be saved ] Repl. For my part , I know no Law but moral Law. It s a strange Law that is not Moral , as it is a strange Animal that is not quid Physicum . But yet I partly understand what some others mean by the phrase Moral Law ; but what you mean I cannot tell , for all your two volumns . And it s to small purpose to dispute upon terms whose sense we be not agreed in , nor do not understand one another in : And you must better agree with yourselves before you agree with me : I cannot reconcile these speeches . Mr. Blake of the Covenant , pag. 111. I know no other Rule but the old Rule : the Rule of the Moral Law : that is with me a Rule , a perfect Rule , and the only Rule . Mr. Blake here . pag. 563. Yet somewhat more then subjection to the Moral Law is required , that a sinner may be saved . I am confident you will allow me to think you mean somewhat more ex parte nostri and not only ex parte Christi : And can that somewhat more be required without any Rule requiring it ? And yet I find you sometimes seeming offended with me , for telling you I understand you not . But I further answer you : The rejecting of Christ as King , is no further a sin against the Moral Law , then the accepting him as King , is a duty of the Moral Law. Will you not believe this without a Dispute , when you are told by Paul , that where there is no Law , there is no transgression , and elsewhere that sin is a transgression of the Law ? And need not stand to prove that the same Law which is the Rule prescribing duty , is the Rule discovering sin , even that sin which is the Privation of that duty . I desire no Readers that will not receive these things without any more arguing . Mr. Blake adds [ Vnbelief , if we speak properly , doth not at all condemn , further then as it is a breath of a Moral Commandment . The privation of which you speak , only holds the sentence of the Law in force and power against us : which me thinks should be yeur judgement as well as mine , seeing you are wont to compare the new Law ( as you call it ) to an act of oblivion : And an act of oblivion saves many , but condemns none . — ] Repl. It is in more then one thing I perceive that we differ . But this is a truth that you must not so easily take out of our hands . Though having had occasion to speak largely of it elsewhere , I shall say but little now . First , Again , I know no Commandment that is not moral . But if you mean by Moral the Commandment either meerly as delivered by Moses , or as written in Nature ; I am not of your mind , nor ever shall be . To be void of the belief of these Articles of the faith [ that this Jesus is the Christ , that he was actually conceived by the Holy Ghost , born of the Virgin Mary , suffered under Pontius Pilate , was crucified , dead and buried : Rose again the third day , ascended into Heaven ; sitteth in our nature at the right hand of God ; gave the Holy Ghost to his Apostles to confirm the Doctrine of the Gospel ] with many more ; doth condemn further then as it is a breach either of the Mosaical or Natural Law : yea in some respects as it is no breach of those Laws . And yet the same sin materially may be a breach of several Laws ; and condemned by several . Secondly you very much mistake my judgement here , if you think it the same with yours : Nor will the mention of an act of oblivion justifie your mistake I suppose an Act of oblivion may possibly have a Penalty anexed , ( as , that all that stand our , and accept not of this pardon by such a year or day , shall be remediless , and lyable to a greater Penalty , ) And I think if no Penalty be named , there is one implyed . For my part , I am satisfied that the Remedying Law , or the Law of Grace , hath its special Threatning , when I so often read it , [ He that believeth shall be saved , and he that believeth not shall be damned ] and [ unless ye believe that I am he , ye shall die in your sins . ] And I take it to differ from the Threatning of the law of works , thus . First , In the matter of the condition ; which is not sin in general ; any sin : but a special sin , viz. the final rejecting the Remedy ; that is , Refusing to turn to God by faith in Christ . Secondly , In the Penalty : First , The Gospel Penalty , is Non-liberation from the curse of the Law. Not to be forgiven or saved . This had been but a Negation , and not Penal , if there had been no Christ and Gospel : But it is a privation and penal , now , because by a special sin , we forfeit our hopes and possibilities . Secondly , As to the degree , I find it will be a far sorer punishment , Heb. 10.29 . The Law of greatest Grace doth threaten the greatest punishment . Thirdly , And doubtless in Hell , Conscience will have a special kind of Accusations and self-tormentings , in reflecting on the refusals of the remedy , and treading under foot the blood of the new Covenant ; which is a punishment that was never threatned by the Covenant of works . Fourthly , And there will be a Privation of a greater Glory , then ever was promised under the Law of works . Fifthly , As also of a special sort of eternal felicity , consisting in loving the Redeemer , and singing the song of the Lamb , and being his members , &c. Thirdly , And as there are these five differences in the Penalty , besides that of the Condition of it , so is there a considerable modal difference in the consummation it self . viz. that of the Law of works was not peremptory , excluding a Remedy : but the Threatning of the Law of Grace is peremptory , excluding all further Remedy to all Eternity : which I think is a most weighty difference . I know , this is not much pertinent to our present Controversie ; but you have made it necessary for me thus to touch it : But I shall not digress now to prove it to those that see it not by its own light : But I must say , that if I should be drawn by you to deny it , I should have but a strange Method of Theology in my understanding , and should think I let open the door to more Errors then a few . So much for the proof of the Thesis . The Principal work is yet behind , which is to confute the Arguments of the Opponents . I call it the Principal work , because it is incumbent on them to prove , who make the limitation and restriction , and add a new proposition to the Doctrine of the Gospel : and till they have proved this proposition , our ground is good ; we say that [ Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is the faith by which we are justified [ and this is past denyal in the Scriptures . They say , that [ Believing in him as a Ransom and Purchaser , or apprehending his Righteousness , is the only act of faith by which we are justified , ] and not also Believing in him as Lord , Teacher , Intercessor , &c. When they have proved the restriction and exclusion , as well as we prove our Assertion that excludeth no essential part of faith , then the work is done , and till then they have done nothing . And first , before I come to their Arguments , I shall consider of that great Distinction , which containeth much of their opinion , and which is the principall Engine to destroy all , our Arguments for the contrary . And it is to this purpose . [ Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as King , Teacher , ] &c. is the fides quae Justificat , but it justifieth not qua talis ; but qua fides in Christum satisfacientem , &c. Fides qua Justificat , must be distinguished from fides quae Justificat . A man that hath eyes doth hear , and that hath ears doth see ; but he heareth not as he hath eyes , but as he hath ears ; and he seeth not as he hath ears , but as he hath eyes . So faith which believeth in Christ as King doth justifie , but not qua talis , as it believeth in him as King , but as it believeth in him , or apprehendeth him as our Righteousness . Repl. As just and necessary Distinction riddeth us out of the fruitless perplexity of confused disputings ; so unsound Distinctions , especially with seeming subtilty , are Engines to deceive and lead us into the dark . The last time I answered this Distinction , I was so improvident as to say , that , it [ it is the general ●heat ] meaning no more then a Fallacy , and thinking the word had signified no worse : But Mr. Blake publisheth this Comment on that syllable [ And as it seems you have met with a pack of Impostors , and that of the most Learned in the Land , that out of their great Condescension have written for your satisfaction . This word you think sounds harshly from Mr. Crandon , as indeed it doth , and is no small blemish to his great pains ; you may then judge how it will sound from your self in the ears of others . Such insinuations , as if it were to breed dissention between those Learned Brethren and my self , are not fair dealing . First , I do not remember one or two at most of all those Brethren , that in their Papers to me used that distinction ! How then can you tell the world in print , that it seems I have met with a pack of Impostors , even them you mention ? Did you ever see my Papers , or theirs ? Did they ever tell you that this distinction is in them ? I solemnly profess it was not in my thoughts so much as to intimate that any one of their Papers was guilty of that distinction . But if you will say so , what remedy But perhaps I intimate so much in my words ; In what words ? when I say , that [ all that I have to do with , grant the Antecedent ] and what 's that to the question in hand ? many a hundred may grant that this act is the fides quae , that assert not the other act to be the fides quâ , and allow not the use of the distinction which I resist . But perhaps it s my next words that imply it [ For the general cheat is by the distinction of fides qua and qua , &c. ] But sure it cannot be understood , that its general with al the world , nor general as to all that I have had to do with : There is no such thing said or meant by me ; for then it must extend to all that are of my own mind : and I told Mr. Blake enough of the contrary as to the persons he mentioneth , by telling him how they owned not the Instrumentality of faith , and then they cannot well maintain this use of this distinction . It is the general deceit or cheat of all that are deceived by it ; and of most that in this point oppose me . But if Mr. Blake think either that all that vouchsafe me their writings , do it by way of opposition ( when many do it but by explication and reconciliation ) or that all that oppose me , do oppose me in that point , he thinks no truer then here he writes . Secondly . And as he feigneth me to speak of many reverend persons that I never meant , so he feigneth me to take them actually for Impostors , because I take the distinction for a cheat . But is it not possible that it may cheat or deceive themselves , though some never utter it to the deceiving of others ? Much less as impostors with an intention to deceive : I would you had never learned this art of confutation . Thirdly , But I perceive how you would take it if I had applyed this to your self . And what is this , but plainly to forbid me to dispute with you ? ( which I had never done on other terms then for Defence . ) Can I not tell you that your Argument is a Fallacy , but you will thus exclaim of me , as making you an Impostor ? why then if you be so tender , who may deal with you ? On the same grounds , if I say that your Major or Minor is false ▪ you may tell the world I make you a Lyar ; and I must either say as you say , or let you alone ; lest by contradiction I make you a Lyar or an Impostor . Prove that ever I blamed Mr. Crandon for such a passage as this , if you can . It is not [ this word ] thus applyed , but other words that I excepted against ; I will not yet believe it all one to call an Argument or distinction a cheat or fallacy , and to call the person a Cheater and Deceiver , and that designedly , as purposely dissembling his Religion . Mr. Blake proceeds . [ And I much marvel that this distinction , that everywhere else would pass , and be confessed to be of necessity , to avoid confusion in those distinct capacities in which men usually act , should here not alone be questioned , but thus branded . Does not every man that undergoes various relations , variously act according to them ? And do not men that make address , address themselves in like variety ? He that is at once a Husband , a Parent , a Master , a School-master , a Physician , acts variously according to all of these capacities . Some come to him as a Father , some as a Master , some as a Teacher ; all of them come to him as a Physician : But only they that come to him as a Physician are cured by him . Believers through faith go to Christ that hears all the Relations mentioned . But as they seek satisfaction in his blood-shedding , which is an act of his Priesthood , they are justified . ] Repl. I ever granted that we are justified by trusting in Christs blood : But not [ only ] by that . Secondly , It was God that sought satisfaction in Christs blood , the Believer seeks for the fruit of that satisfactition . Thirdly , But now to the distinction , I shall tell you freely my thought of it , and the reasons of my resisting your use of it , and then answer your reasons for it . And first , We must understand what it is that is distinguished : whether the Habit of faith , or the Acts ? As far as I am able to understand them , they that understand themselves , do intend to distinguish of the Habit by a virtual distinction , and their meaning is [ The Habit of Faith which produceth both these acts doth justifie : but not as it produceth the act of believing in Christ as Lord , Teacher , &c. but as it produceth the Act of believing in his blood ] that is , [ The habit is the remote cause , and the act is the nearer cause ; and the habit justifieth by this Act , and not by the other . ] I verily think this is their meaning ; I am sure this is the most probable and rational that I can imagine . But then first , This contradicteth their ordinary assertion , that it is not the Habit of faith , but the act by which we are justified . Secondly , Then they do not mean that the act of believing in Christ as Lord , &c. is so much as the fides qua , which if they will speak out and make no more ado , the controversie will be much better understood . For then it is a question that 's easily apprehended , Whether only the act of faith in Christs satisfaction do justifie , or the believing in Christ as King , Priest and Prophet , or all that is essential to Christian faith ] This is a plain case ; which fides qua and qua do not illustrate . But then I must add , that this begs the question as used by them , but decideth it not . And as [ qua ] respecteth but the Matter of the condition ; q. d. The habit as it produceth this act , and not that , is the condition of Justification ] ( for else it justifieth neither as it produceth the one or the other , ) so it is the very Question between us , Whether it be one act , or the whole essence of the Christian faith that is the Condition ? And this supposeth the determination of other controversies that are not yet determined . There are three opinions of the Habit of faith . First , that the several acts of faith , have several habits . Secondly , that the divers acts have but one habit of faith distinct from the habits of other graces . Thirdly , That faith , love , and all graces have but one habit . If the first hold , then the distinction as before explained , hath no place . If the last hold , then the Habit of Love , or Fear , may be on the same ground , said to justifie . If I have before hit on their meaning , then the distinction of the Habit is virtualis , and the distinction of the acts is realis , and they totally exclude all acts , save that which they fix upon ; not from being present , but from a co-interest . But from what interest ? Of a Cause ? that we deny even to all : Of a Condition ? that they grant to these which they exclude . Next , we must understand the members of their Distinction : And sometime they express one branch to be [ fides qua justificat ] and sometime [ fides qua apprehendit Christum satisfacienrem , &c. ] As to the former , it cannot be contradistinct from [ faith in Christ as Lord , ] but from faith as sanctifying , &c. it being but a denominative or virtual distinction of one and the same faith , from the several consequents . And so I easily grant that fides qua justificat , non sanct ficat vel glorificat ▪ and so of all the consequents of it . As it is the condition of one , it is not the condition of the other : which is no more , then to say that there is between the consequents Distinctio realis , from whence the antecedent ( Really the same ) may be denominatively or virtually distinguished : As the same man that goeth before a hundred particular men , hath a hundred distinct Relations to them , as Before them all . The very same condition in a free Gift , may be the condition of many hundred benefits , and accordingly be Relatively and denominatively distinguished ; when yet it is as truly the condition of all as of one , and hath equal interest as to the procurement . And as for the other phrase that [ fides qua recipit Christum satisfacientem , justificat , ] properly it is false Docrine ; if qua signifie the nearest Reason of faiths interest in procuring justification ; for then it is but to say that [ fides , qua fides , justificat ] which is false . The denomination and the description express but the same thing ; fides is the denomination ; and Receptio Christi is the description : if therefore it justifie qua Receptio Christi , then it justifieth qua fides , that is qua haec fides in specie : which is to ascribe it to the ● credere with a witness . And elsewhere I have disproved it by many Arguments . But if qua be taken less properly , as denoting only the aptitude of faith to be the condition of Justification , then still the Question is begged . For we say , that as the act of believing in Christs blood-shed hath a special aptitude in one respect , so the act of believing in his Resurrection , Intercession , &c. and receiving him as King , Teacher , &c. hath a special aptitude in other respects , upon which God hath certainly made them the Conditions of our Justification with the other . But if any should distinguish of the act of faith , and not the Habit , and say that [ fides qua credit in Christum ut Regem , justificat , sed non quâ credit in Christum ut Regem ] I accept the former as being all that I desire , and grant the latter : But then I say the like of the other act of faith , that [ fides quâ credit in Christum satisfacientem non justificat , because fides quà fides , non justificat , sed fides quâ conditio praestita . ] And I think I need to say no more for the opening the Fallacy , that this distinction useth to cover . And now I come to peruse all that I can find that is produced to support this distinction . And the most is certain pretended similitudes , that have little or no similitude as to this . The common similitude is [ A man that is oculatus heareth , but not qua oculatus , but qua auritus , &c. ] Repl. First , If you take quà strictly , the affirmative is not true . For then àquatenus ad omne , every man that is auritus would hear : whereas he may stop his ears , and be where is no sound , &c. And a man that hath eyes may wink , and be in the dark , &c. Secondly , If quà signifie the aptitude , or causal interest , I deny the similitude ; It is dissimile : and the reason of the difference is evident ; for a mans eyes are Physical efficient causes of his sight , and his ears of hearing ; naturally in their aptitude and potentiality determined to their proper objects : but saith is no efficient cause of our Justification , or of our interest in Christ at all ; much less a Physical efficient cause . But the Interest it hath is Moral , which dependeth on the Donors will ; and it is no higher then that of a condition : and therefore the act that Physically hath least respect to the object , may in this case if the Donor please , do as much to procure a Title to it , as that which hath the nearest physical respect to it . As if you have a deed of Gift of a Countrey on Condition you will discover a Traitor , or marry one that oweth it : here the alien act hath more interest in procuring your Title , then your Apprehending , or treading on the soil , or taking possession , yea or accepting the deed of Gift it self . So God hath made our Accepting of whole Christ to be the condition of life and pardon ; and consequently , the Accepting him in other Relations ( in which he destroyeth sin , advanceth God , &c. ) doth as much to our Justification as the accepting him at our Ransome . Now to Mr. Blakes Reasons : when he saith that this distinction would pass every where else as necessary , he is much mistaken : for as he doth not tell us at all what sort of distinction it is , whether Realis , Rationis , Modalis , Formalis , Virtualis , &c. so I could give him an hundred instances in which it will not pass in any tolerable sense , but what are his own select instances , from a mans various Relations to the variety of his actions and their effects . But is it Christ or the believer that you put in these various Relations ? It s plain that you mean Christ : But that 's nothing to the question : I maintain as well as you that Christ performeth variety of works , according to the divers parts of his office , and that he meriteth not Justification as King , but as a Sacrifice ; as he effectively justifieth , not as a sacrifice , but as a King ; and he teacheth as a Teacher ▪ &c. this was never denyed by me . But the question is whether the Interest of the several acts of our faith be accordingly distinct ? which I deny , and confidently deny . In the works that Christ doth in these several Relations , there is distincti● realis , and Christ is the proper efficient cause of them . But though our faith must accept Christ in all these Relations , and to do the several works in the several Relations , yet it is no proper cause of the effects , and ( as I said ) the interest it hath in the procurement is meerly moral , and that but of a condition , and therefore it is to be judged of by the will of the Donor . But you say that [ only they that come to Christ as a Physician are cured by him ] Repl. Very true : I never denyed it : But not only By coming to him as a Physitian ; especially as the Worker of this one part of the cure . You add [ Believers through faith go to Christ that heareth all ● the Relations mentioned : But as they seek satisfaction in his blood-shedding , they are Justified . ] Repl. Very true ( if by as you understand only the aptitude of the act to its office , and the certain connexion of the effect : otherwise it is not as they believe at all that they are justified ; but it is not only as they seek satisfaction in his blood ; but also as they believe in him as King , Teacher , Rising , Interceding , &c. Though it be Christs blood , and not his Dominion , that Ransometh us ; yet his promise giveth the fruit of that blood as well on the condition of believing in him as King , as of the believing in his blood . Hitherto we have come short of your proofs , which next we shall proceed to , and freely examine . Mr. Blake . I shall take the bodlness to give in my Arguments , to make good that faith in Christ qua Lord , doth not justifie . First , That which the types under the law , appointed for atonement and expiation , lead us unto in Christ , our faith must eye for atonement , expiation , and reconciliation ; this cannot be denyed : These Levitical Types lead us doubtless to a right object , being Schoolmasters to lead us unto Christ , and shaddows whereof he is the substance : As also to that office in him ( who is the object of faith ) which serves for that work : But those types lead us to Christ in his Priestly office , for the most part as sacrificing , sometime as interceding , John 1.29 . 2 Cor. 5.21 . 1 Pet. 1.18 . A great part of the Epistle to the Heb. is a proof of it . ] Reply I grant you both Major and Minor : but the question is a meer stranger to the Just conclusion . First , it will not follow , because our faith must eye Christ as Priest for Reconciliation , that therefore it must eye him only as Priest for Reconciliation . And if only be not in , your exclusion of other acts of faith follows not . Secondly , No , nor if it were in neither : for ex perte Christs for Reconciliation only Christs Priesthood is to be eyed as the meritorious cause ( speaking in their sense that take the priestly office to comprehend not only Christ as Sacrificer , but as sacrifice , yea & as obeying in the form of a servant , the sicness whereoff now pass by : ) but ex parte nostri , the so eying him is not the only act of faith by which we are justified : so that for is ambiguous , and either signifieth Christs procurement of our Justification , or ours : In the former sense grant as aforesaid , these Types shew us that Christ only as Priest and sacrifice doth satisfie for us . But as to the procuring Interest of our faith , these Types shew us not that only this act procureth our Interest . Nor is there a word in the texts you mention to prove any such thing : Jo. 1.19 . saith that , Christ [ the Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world , ] but it doth not say that only believing in him as the Lamb of God is the faith upon which we have part in his blood . and are justified by him . 1 Pet. 1.18 . tels us we were Redeemed by his precious blood ; but it doth not tell us that only believing in that blood is the faith by which we have interest in it ; but contrarily thus describes that faith , ver . 21. [ Who by him do believe in God that raised him from the dead , and gave him glory , that your faith and hope might be in God. ] 2. Cor. 5.21 . tells us that he was made sin for us , &c. but it saith not that our believing thus much only , is the full condition of our Interest in his Righteousness ; But contrarily expresseth it by [ our own being reconciled to God ] to which Paul exhorteth . Thirdly , The Types which you mention , were not all the Gospel ( or Covenant of Grace , or Promise ) then extant : If therefore there were any other parts of Gods word then , that led them to Receive Christ entirely as the Messiah , and particularly as the King and Teacher of his Church , and promised life and pardon on this condition , your Argument then from the Types alone is vain ; because they were not the whole word ( unless you prove that they exclude the rest , which you never can . ) And indeed not only the very first promise of the seed of the woman , &c. doth hold out whole Christ as Priest , and Prophet and King , as the object of justifying faith , but also many and many another in the old Testament . And the Epistle to the Hebrews which you cite , doth begin with his Kingly office as the object of our faith in the two first chapters , which are almost all taken up in proving it . Fourthly , you confess your self that Christ as Interceding is the object of justifying faith ; and if you mean it of his Heavenly intercession ; that was no part of his meritorious obedidience or humiliation . It s true indeed , that it is for the application or Collation of the fruits of his blood , and so is much of his Kingly and Prophetical office too . Mr. Blake . Secondly , That which the Sacraments under the Gospel , setting forth Christ for pardon of sin , lead us unto , that our faith must eye for Reconciliation , Pardon and Justification . This is clear . Christ in his own instituted ordinances will not misguide us ; But these lead us to Christ suffering , dying for the pardon of sin , Mat 26 28. — A broaken , bleeding , dying Christ in the Lords Supper is received . Reply , First , I hope you would not make the world believe that I deny it ; Did I ever exclude a dying Christ from the object of justifying faith ? But what strange Arguments are these , that are such strangers still to the question ? you prove the inclusion of [ faith in Christ dying , ] but do not so much as mention the exclusion of the other acts of faith , which is the thing that was incumbent on you . Secondly , If you say that [ only ] is meant by you , though not expressed , then I further reply , that this Argument labouring of the same disease with the last , requireth no other answer . First , The Sacraments being not the whole Gospel , you cannot prove your Exclusion from them unless you prove somewhat exclusive in them ( which you attempt not , that I see , ) Secondly , If therefore you understand the Minor exclusively as to all other parts of Christs office , I deny it , and the texts cited say not a word to prove it . Thirdly , And if they did , yet faith may eye a dying Christ only as purchasing Pardon ; and yet ex parte Christi that act that so eyeth him may not be the only act that is the condition of our Title to a dying Christ or to the pardon purchased . Fourthly , And yet ( though it would not serve your turn ) even ex parte Christi , your exclusion is so far from being proved that it s contradicted both by the Sacraments and by Scriptures : much more ex parte nostri , your excusion of the other acts of faith . For , First , In Baptism its apparent ( which is appointed for our solemn initiation into a state of Justification ; which the Lords Supper is not . ) First , Christ foundeth it in his Dominion , Mat. 28.18 . All power is given to me in Heaven and Earth ; go ye therefore &c. Secondly , He maketh the very nature of it to be an entering men into a state of Disciples , and so engaging them to him as their Master , ver . 19. Go ye therefore and Disciple ( or teach ) all Nations baptizing them . Thirdly , The words of the Jews to John ( If thou be not that Christ nor Elias , nor that Prophet , why baptizest thou ? John 1.25 . ) and their flocking to his baptism , and the words of Paul , I Cor. 14.15 . ( I thank God that I baptized none of you , — lest any should say , that I baptized in my own name ) do plainly shew that baptizing was then taken , as an entering into a state of Disciples . And I have before proved that baptism doth list us under Christ the Commander , King and Master of the Church . Fourthly , And therefore the Church hath ever baptized into the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost , with an abrenunciation of the flesh , the world and the devil , not only as opposite to Christs blood , but as opposites to his Kingdom and Doctrine . Fifthly , And the very water signifieth the spirit of Christ as well as his blood : Though I think not , as Mr. Mead , that it signifieth the spirit only . Sixthly , And our coming from under the water was to signifie our Resurrection with Christ , as Rom. 6. shews . So that it is certain that Christ in all parts of his office is propounded in baptism to be the object of our faith , and this baptism comprizing all this , is said to be [ for the Remission of sin . ] Secondly , And though the Lords supper suppose us justified , yet he understandeth not well what he doth , that thinks that Christ only as dying is there propounded to our faith . For , First , In our very receiving we profess Obedience to Christ as King , that hath enjoyned it by his Law. Secondly , And to Christ our Teacher that hath taught us thus to do . Thirdly , The signs themselves are a visible word ( of Christ our Teacher ) and teach us his sufferings , promises , our duty , &c. Fourthly , By taking , eating , and drinking , we renew our Covenant with Christ ; And that Covenant is made with him not only as Priest , but as the Glorified Lord and King of the Church . On his part the thing promised which the Sacrament sealeth , is , ( not that Christ will dye for us , for that 's done already , but ) that Christ will actually pardon us on the account of his merits . And this he doth as King : and that he will sanctifie , preserve , strengthen , and glorifie us : all which he doth as King , though he purchased them as a sacrifice . On our part we deliver up our selves to him to be wholly his ▪ even his Disciples , and Subjects , as well as pardoned ones . Fifthly , Yea the very bread and wine eaten and drank do signifie our spiritual Union and Communion with Jesus , who is pleased to become one with us , as that bread and wine is one with our substance . And surely it is to Christ as our Head that we are United , and not only as dying for us : and as to our Husband , who is most dearly to be loved by us , and is to rule us , and we to be subject to him , being made bone of his bone , and flesh of his flesh ; Ephe. 5.23 , 24 , 25 , 30. Sixthly , We are to do it as in remembrance of his death , so also in expectation of his comming , which will be in Kingly Glory , when he will drink with us the fruit of the Vine new in the Kingdome of his Father . Object But Christ doth not pardon sin in all these respects . Answ . First ▪ But in the Sacrament he is represented to be believed in entirely in all these respects . Secondly , And he pardoneth as King , though he merit it as a sacrifice . And as his Sacrifice and Merit are the cause of all that following , so therefore it is specially represented in the Sacrament , not excluding but including the rest . Thirdly , Believing in Christ as King and Prophet , even as his offices respect his Honor and our sanctity , may be as truly the condition of our Justification , as believing in his blood . Mr. Blake . As the spirit of God guides faith , so it must go to God for propitiation and ●●tonement . But the Holy Ghost guides faith to go the blood of Christ for attonement , Rom. 3.25 . & 5.9 . Eph. 1.7 . 1 John. 1.7 . Reply . Concedo totum : The conclusion can be but this [ therefore faith must go to the blood of Christ for attonement ] Who ever questioned this I But your Thesis which you set at the Head of your Arguments , was [ Faith in Christ qua Lord doth not justifie ] which is little kin to any of your Arguments . But in the explication , you have here , at last , the term Only , and therefore I may take that to be supposed in the Argument ; But then with that Addition . I deny your Minor. The texts mentioned say nothing to prove it . Rom. 3.25 . hath no only in it , nor any thing exclusive of the other acts of Christ : And if it had , yet it would not follow that all other acts of our faith were excluded . As his blood is the meritorious cause , and so the foundation of all the benefits , and so all the Applying Causes are supposed in the mention of it and not excluded so are all other acts of our faith in the mention of that act . Rom. 5.9 . saith not that we are justified only by his blood . N●r is it any adding to the Scripture , to add more , unless you can prove that these texts are the whole Scripture , or that the other Scriptures add no more . Ephe. 1 7. and 1 John 1.7 do neither of them exclude either the other acts of Christ , or other acts of faith : Nay John seems to make somewhat else the condition on our part , then the belief in that blood only , when he saith there [ If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light , we have fellowship one with another , and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin ] Or if you think this [ if ] denoteth but a sign , yet other texts will plainly prove more . To conclude , If I were to go only to the blood of Christ for atonement , yet it would not follow , that going to that blood only for it , is the only act of Faith on which Justification is promised or given me in the Gospel , as is before declared . Mr. Blake . You demand , [ Will you exclude his Obedience , Resurrection , intercession ] ? To which I only say , I marvell at the question : If I exclude these , I exclude his blood : His shedding of blood was in Obedience , John 10.18 . Phil. 2.8 . his Resurrection was his freedom from the bands of death , and an evidence of our discharge by blood : His Intercession is founded on his blood . He intercedes not as we by bare petition , but by merit : He presents his blood as the high Priest in the Holy of Holies . Repl. It was the thing I had to do , to prove that Rom. 3.24 . and those other texts , are not exclusive of all but his blood , and that the word Only is no more meant , then it is expressed in them . And now you grant it me : And needs must do it , while Scripture tells us , that by the Obedience of one , many are made Righteous , Rom. 5.19 . and that he is Risen for our Justification , Rom. 4 ●5 . and that Righteousness shall be imputed to us , if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead . ver . 24. and It is God that justifieth : who is he that condemneth ? it is Christ that dyed , yea , rather that is risen again , who is even at the right hand of God ; who also maketh Intercession for us , Rom. 8 33 , 34. he that believeth all these texts will not add only to the first , at least if he understand them ; for they do not contradict each other . Well! but you marvell at my question ! I am glad of that ! Are we so well agreed , that you marvell at my supposition of this difference ? To satisfie you , my question implyed this Argument . If the Resurrection , Intercession , &c. be not in those texts excluded , nor faith in them , then we may not add only to interpret them ; but &c. Ergo. But let us hear the reasons of your marveling . First , As to Obedience , you say His shedding of blood was in Obedience . Answer . But though all blood-shed was in Obedience , yet all Obedience was not by blood-shed , nor suffering neither . And the text Rom. 5.19 seems to speak of Obedience as Obedience , and not only as in blood shed . Secondly , You say His Resurrection was his freedom , &c. Ans . But Suffering is one thing , and freedom from suffering is another thing . I herefore faith to our justification must eye Christs conquest and freedom from death as well as his death it self . Moreover , Resurrection was an act of Power , and his Entrance on his Kingdom , and not a meer act of Priesthood : Nor will you ever prove that faith ( to Justification ) must only look at the Resurrection as connoting the death from which he riseth . Thirdly , You say , His Intercession is founded on his blood , &c. Answer . So is his Kingdom and Lordship , Rom. 14 9. Mat. 28.18 . Phil. 2.9 , 10. It seems then faith in order to Justification must not only look at Christs blood , but that which is founded on it . His Government , in Legislation , Judgement , Execution , is all founded in his blood . &c. because he hath drank of the brook in the way , therefore did he lift up the Head , Psalme 110.7 . You add He Interceeds by Merit . Answer . Not by new purchasing Merit , but by the virtue of his former Merit , and the collation of the effects of it from the Father . And so he Reigneth and Governeth both by virtue of former Merit , and for the applying that Merit and attaining of its Ends. Whereas therefore you say If I exclude these , I shall exclude his blood ; It is a weighty Answer . And the like you may say also of his Kingly and Prophetical office . The operation of them are so woven and twisted together by infinite wisdom , that all do harmoniously concur to the attainment of the ends of each one ; and if you lay by one , you lay by all ; you exclude Christs blood as to the end of Justification , if you include not his Kingly and Prophetical offices , and look not to him as making the Covenant or Grant of pardon in his blood ; and as teaching and perswading and working us into Union with himself that we may have part in his blood : and as conferring daily the fruits of his blood as King , in Renewed pardon of daily sins ; and as justifying us at Judgement as King and Judge . His blood is a Foundation without a building , if you take it without all these : Overlook these , and you deny it as well as by over-looking his Resurrection . Besides , Session at Gods Right Hand which is one thing that the Apostle instanceth in , Romans 8.35 . is his Glorification it self . And when you say [ He presents his blood as High Priest , &c. ] I answer . But not as a renewed sacrifice ; presenting it is not shedding it , or offering it in sacrifice . And the presentation is not a minding God of what he knows not , or hath forgot , or an arguing with him to extort his Mercy ; but as the value and merit of Christs sacrifice hath its continual Being before God , so Christ doth give out all his benefis to his Church as procured and received from the Father by the merit of his sacrifice : and this is his Intercession . But your arguing yiedeth , that to Justification , we must not only believe in Christ as shedding his blood for us on earth , but also on Christ as presenting his blood for us in heaven : which is enough to my ends . Mr. Blake . You tell me further that the thing I had to prove was not the exclusion of faith in his commands , but of faith in Christ as Lord and Teacher . I can no more distinguish Lord and Command than I can Blood and Sacrifice ; it being the office of a Lord to Rule , as of blood to make atonement . Repl. First , If you cannot distinguish , there 's no remedy but you must err by confusion . It s obvious to an ordinary understanding that even Blood and Sacrifice may as well be distinguished as Earth and Man , or Ink and Writing ; [ Blood ] signifying only the matter , yea but part of the matter ; and [ a Sacrifice ] signifying that matter with its moral Form. Secondly , And it s as obvious that Lord and Command do otherwise differ then Blood and Sacrifice ; for Lord , as it signefieth principally a Proprietary , is toto caelo distinct from command , as standing in another series : And Lord as it signifieth a Rector , doth differ from Command , as the efficient from the effect ; which is otherwise then as part of the matter doth from the whole informed . It is no Argument against the truth which I maintain , that you cannot distinguish these . Thirdly , If it be the office of a Lord to Rule ; then you may well distinguish betwen the office and the work : But indeed in the first sense , Lord signifieth a Proprietary , and but in the second a Rulers Power ; which is not alwayes properly called an Office neither ; no more then the Soveraign is properly an Officer . Fourthly , To make Atonement is not all one as to be a Sacrifice , which was your former term : for Atonement is the effect of a Sacrifice : not of blood as blood , but as a Sacrifice meritorious and accepted . Fifthly , And as to the point in difference between us , the difference is palpable and weighty between believing in Christ as King , and believing or obeying his Commands . As his Kingly Power belongs to the Constitution of his mystical body or Republike , and his commands that flow from it to the Administration : so Subjection to his Power and Relation , and consenting to this constitution do enter us into the Body and unite us to him : when believing and obeying his Laws for Administration , do follow as the fruits . If you could have distinguished between the Root and Fruits , between Faith and Obedience , between making Disciples , and teaching to observe , &c. Mat. 28 . 19.2● . or becoming Disciples , and Learning ; you might have distinguished between becoming a Subject and obeying . And what ever you do , I am sure others of your way do grant , that Receiving Christ as Lord and Teacher , is the faith that justifieth , though not qua talis , but they will not say so by receiving or obeying his Governing Laws , which are distinct from the constitution or fundamental Law. Mr. Blake . You yet tell me it was fittest for Paul to say , by faith in his blood ; because he intends to connote both what we are justified by ex parte Christi , and what we are justified by ex parte nostri ; but the former principally . To this I say . If this were fittest for Paul , then it is unfit for any to come in with Animiadversions , and tell us of any other thing ex parte Christi , or ex parte nostri for Justification . I pray you rest here and we are well agreed . Here is Christs Priestly Office on his part alone , and I am resolved to look no further . Repl. Though I may not hope to change you , if you are Resolved , yet I may take leave to render a reason of my contrary as peremptory Resolution : I am resolved to look further ex parte Christi , then to his blood , yea or his whole Merit yea or whole Priest-hood for my Justification ; even to whole Christ , and in special to his Regal constitution and sentence . Yet I rest where you desire me , as to the Truth of what I said ; and if we are agreed , it s better then I can perceive in your other words . First , Though Paul there mention the Priestly office alone , yet that 's not all his Epistles , nor all the Scriptures ; nor doth he here exclude the rest . Secondly , It may be fittest to Pauls design in that particular discourse to mention faith in his blood , and yet it may be fit for another to come in with animadversions , and tell you of more necessary both ex parte Christi & nostri . It s common to express our meaning of a whole in a summary notion taken from a chief part : And indeed in Political discourses it is hard to meet with a fitter way of expression . Thirdly , Paul himself was not of your opinion , nor Christ neither , and yet it was not unfit for them to discover it . The same Paul that here thought it fittest to mention faith in his blood , did elsewhere think it fit to mention Jusstification by his Obedience , and that he Rose again for our Justification ; and to promise Jmputation of Righteousness to us , if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead , Rom. 4.24 , 25. with the like passages before mentioned . But most frequently it is the comprehensive phrase of [ believing in Christ Jesus our Lord ] that he useth . The same Christ that calleth himself so oft the Lord and Master of his followers , excludeth not thereby his other Relations And when he saith in one place [ I am the Vine ] he may freely say else where , [ I am the good Shepherd : ] And he that speaketh of laying down his life for the sheep , doth not thereby make it unfit to mention other Pastoral a is for them . And he that tels us of eating his flesh and drinking his blood , intended not the exclusion of the spirit that quickneth . I am therefore Resolved by his Grace to adhere to whole Christ as the object of that faith which is the Condition of Justification . And I think this full comprehensive faith is safer then the groundlesly distinguishing faith ; and this Doctrine more agreeable to the Scriptures . Mr. Blake . Fourthly , Our faith must look on Christ so as to obtain righteousness by him , by virtue of which we may appear before God as righteous : But it is by his Obedience as a servant that we obtain righteousness , and stand before God as righteous , Rom. 5.19 . by the obedience of one many are made righteous . Repl. First , I grant the whole : but it s nothing to our Question . It s a strange error that runs through so many Arguments , that they should be impertinent to the question . You should have concluded that Faith in Christ qua Lord , doth not justifie ] which in terminis is the conclusion that you undertook to prove : whereas all that this Argument will conclude , is , that [ our faith must look at Christs obedience for Righteousness , &c. ] which I have said no more against then you have done . Secondly , But if [ Only ] be implyed as adjoyned to [ obedience ] then it will exclude his suffering as suffering in that formal respect , and take it in only as the Matter of his Obedience . Thirdly , And by this Argument you destroy what you not only mantained , but resolved to stick to in the last , that is , that it is not fit for any one to tell us of any other thing then faith in his blood for justification , and that you are resolved to look no further then Christs Priestly office alone . For Obedience extendeth further then blood-shed : therefore if we are justified by Christs whole obedience , then by more then his blood . Yea you will be put hard to it to prove , that all Christs obedience was offered by him as a Preist to his Father : It belongs to a Subject , a Servant , a Son to obey ; but obedience is far from being proper to a Priest . Fourthly , If you intend the Major exclusively as to all other considerations of the object , I still deny it as false . Our faith ( even as the condition of Justification ) must look at Christ , not only to obtain Righteousness by him , but also to subject our selves to his Teaching and Government , and to glorifie him in and for his Mercy . Fifthly , Yea , the Minor it self is false , if you imply the exclusive Only . For we obtain Righteousness and are justified before God effectively by Christ as King first by constitution , and secondly , by sentence , as well as meritoriously by Christ as Priest . Mr. Blake . Fifthly , That way that Christ took to bring us to God , our faith must eye and follow : But Christ by death the Sacrifice of of himself brings us to God , 1 Pet. 3.18 . Christ also hath once suffered for sins , the just for the unjust , &c. Repl. Still the same error : an Ignoratio Elenchi . I grant the whole , but the conclusion's wanting . Did I ever deny that faith must eye and follow Christs death to bring us to God ? yea for Justification . But you should have said [ by his death alone ] or you say nothing . And when you prove that by his death alone Christ brings us to God , you will do somewhat . And yet if you did , it would not follow that we are brought to God in Justification only by eying the cause of Justification as such . Mr. Blake . Sixthly , As Christ freeth us from the curse , so he justifies us , and in that notion our faith must look to him for Justification . This is plain ; Justification being no other but our acquittal from the curse , which is the sentence of the Law of Moses , Act. 13.8 . but Christ freeth us from the cause in suffering as a Sacrifice , not ruling as a Lord , Gal. 3.13 . Christ hath Redeemed us , &c. Repl. First [ Only ] is again left out in the Major proposition , and so I grant it : But if it be implyed that faith must look to him for Justification only in that notion as he justifieth us , yea only as he meriteth Justification , then I deny it , and you say nothing to prove it . Secondly , The exclusive of your Minor is a dangerous error : Christ freeth us from the curse by Justifying us as a King , and teaching , and ruling , and sanctifying us ; and not only by becoming a curse for us : For if you here put in [ Only ] you plainly exclude all his Obedience as such , and much of it materially : for it is not a cursed thing to obey God. The Law curseth for disobeying : therefore Obeying is not the Curse , nor is it materially a Curse to Love God , and Trust him , and be zealous for his Glory , &c. The whole office of Christ is imployed in freeing us from the Curse : and when Paul saith , he was made a Curse to free us , he never said or thought that he did nothing else to free us ; for an hundred texts do tell us of more . Thirdly , And on the by I must say , that I am not of your mind in the description of Justification ; for , omitting the controversie whether Justification only free us from the Curse , I do not believe that this curse is only the sentence of the Law of Moses . If it were , either you must prove that all the Gentile world that heard not of it was under the Law of Moses ( which abundance of most Learned men deny with better grounds then you have to affirm it ) or else that all these are under no curse for Justification to remove . The Law of Nature was materially part of the Mosaical Law ; but the form denominateth . So much to Mr. Blakes Arguments , which are so little to the purpose , that if the weight of the cause , and the prejudice of some Readers did not call more earnestly for a Reply , then any apperance of strength in them , I had spared my self and the Reader this Labor . But that [ Christ as Christ is the object of that faith by which as a Condition we must be justified ] and so that we are not justified only by believing in his blood , but also by believing in him entirely as Jesus Christ our Lord , and by becoming his Disciples , or true Christians , ] this is a truth , that deserveth more then my Pen to defend it ; and that while God affordeth me time and strength , I shall never desert . Nov. 1656. A DISPVTATION OF JVSTIFICATION : Whether any Works be any Conditions of it ? Conteining a necessary Defence of ancient Verity ; against the unnecessary Opposition of a very Learned , Reverend , and dearly Beloved Brother , in his Treatise of Imputation of Righteousness , and his Lectures on John 17. By Richard Baxter . LONDON , Printed by Robert White , for Nevil Simmons , Book-seller in Kederminster , 1657. Whether Works are a Condition of Justification ? And so whether we are justified by Works as such a Condition ? THough we have said enough already on these Questions ( which for dispatch I joyn together , ) yet seeing there are some that must needs have more , or the same again ; I shall yield so far to their Importunity , as to recite here briefly the state of the Controversie , and some of that evidence which is elsewhere more largely produced for the truth . And First , We must explain what is meant by Works , and what is meant by Justification ; what by a [ Condition ] and what by the Preposition by here , when we speak of Justification by works : And then we shall lay down the truth in several propositions , Negative and Affirmative . It seems strange to me to hear men on either side to speak against the Negative or Affirmative of the Question , and reproach so bitterly those that maintain them , without any distinction or explication ; as if either the error lay in the terms , or the terms were so plain and univocal , that the Propositions are true only on one part , what sense soever they be taken in . No doubt but he saith true , that saith that Works are the Condition of Justification : and he saith as true , that saith they are not , if they take the terms in such different senses as commonly Disputers on these Questions do take them . And its past all doubt that [ a man is justified by faith without the works of the Law ; and that it is not of Works , but of Grace : and it s as certain that [ a man is justified by works and not by faith only ; and that by their Words men shall be justified , and by their Words they shall be condemned . ] Gods word were not true , if both these were not true . We must therefore necessarily distinguish : And first of Works . First , Sometime the term , Works is taken for that ( in general ) which makes the Reward to be not of Grace but of Debt : Meritorious works : Or for such as are conceited to be thus meritorious , though they be not . And those are materially , either Works of perfect obedience without sin , ( such as Adam had before his fall , and Christ had , and the good Angels have , ) or else Works of obedience to the Mosaical Law , which supposed sin , and were used in order to pardon and life , but mistakingly by the blind Unbelievers , as supposing that the dignity of the Law did put such a dignity on their obedience thereto , as that it would serve to life without the satisfaction and merit of Christ , or at least must concur in Co-ordination therewith . Or else lastly , they are Gospel duties , thus conceited meritorious . Secondly , But sometime the word Works is taken for that which standeth in a due subordination to grace : and that first , most generally , for any moral virtuous Actions , and so even faith it self is comprehended and even the very Receptive or fiduciall act of faith : or less generally , for external acts of obedience , as distinct from internal habitual Grace : and so Repentance , Faith , Love , &c. are not Works : or for all acts external and internal , except faith it self . And so Repentance , Desire after Christ , Love to him , denying our own Righteousness , distrust in our selves , &c. are called Works . Or else for all Acts external and internal besides the Reception of Christs Righteousness to Justification : And so the belief of the Gospel , the Acceptance of Christ as our Prophet and Lord by the Title of Redemption , with many other acts of faith in Christ , are called works : besides the disclaiming of our own Righteousness , and the rest before mentioned . Secondly , As for the word Justification , it is so variously taken by Divines , and in common use , that it would require more words then I shall spend on this whole Dispute , to name and open its several senses ; and therefore ( having elsewhere given a brief schem of them ) I shall now only mention these few which are most pertinent to our purpose . First , Some take Justification for some Immanent Acts of God , and some for Transient . And of the former some take it for Gods eternal Decree to justifie , which neither Scripture calleth by this name , nor will Reason allow us to do it , but improperly . Sometime it s taken for Gods Immanent present Approbation of a man , and Reputing him to be just , when he is first so constituted . And this some few call a Transient Act , because the Object is extrinsick : But most call it Immanent , because it makes no Alteration on that object . And some plead that this is an eternal act without beginning , because it is Gods essence which is eternal ; and these denominate the Act from the substance or Agent ; And other say , that it begins in time , because Gods Essence doth then begin to have that Respect to a sinner which makes it capable of such a denomination : And so these speak of the Act denominatively , formally , respectively : Both of them speak true but both speak not the same truth . Sometime the word Justification is taken for a transient Act of God that maketh or conduceth to a change upon the extrinsick object . And so first , It s sometime taken by some Divines , for a Conditional Justification , which is but an act that hath a tendency to that change ; and this is not actual Justification . Secondly , Sometime it is taken for actual Justification , and that is threefold . First , Constitutive : Secondly , Sentential : thirdly , executive . First , Constitutive Justification , is first either in the qualities of the soul , by inherent holyness ; which is first perfect , such Adam ( once ) and the Angels , and Christ had ; secondly , or Imperfect , such as the sanctified here have . Secondly , Or it s in our Relations : when we are pardoned and receive our Right to Glory : This is an act of God in Christ by the free Gift of the Gospel , or Law of Grace : and it is first , The first putting a sinner into a state of Righteousness , out of a state of Guilt . Secondly , Or it is the continuing him in that state , and the renewing of particular pardon upon particular sins . Secondly , Sentential pardon or Justification , is , first , by that Manifestation which God makes before the Angels in heaven . Secondly , at the day of Judgement before all the world . Thirdly , Executive Justification , viz. the execution of the aforesaid sentence , ( less properly called Justification , and more properly called pardon ) consisteth in taking off the punishment inflicted , and forbearing the punishment deserved , and giving possession of the happiness adjudged us : so that it is partly in this life , viz. in giving the spirit , and outward mercies , and freeing us from judgements ( And thus sanctification it self is a part of Justification ) and partly in the life to come , in freeing us from Hell , and possessing us of Glory . Thirdly , As for the word Condition , the Etymologists will tell us , that it first signifieth Actionem condendi : and then , Passionem , qua quid conditur , and then qualitatem ipsam per quam condere aliguis , vel condi aliquid potest ; & hinc est pro statu qui factus est rem condendo ; & deinceps pro omni statu , quem persona vel res aut causa quoquo modo habet aut accipit . But we have nothing to do with it in such large acceptions , in which all things in the world may be called Conditions . Vid. Martin . in Nom. They come nearer our use of the word , when they expound it by , Moderatio , Circumscriptio , determinatio , limitatio . In Naturals the word Condition is oft used pro ratione formali ▪ per quam alicujus disciplina subjectum adaquatū constitui solet . As e. g. Physicus considerat corpus , cum conditions mobilitatis , Geometer considerat quantitatem cum conditions continuitatis , Arithmaticus cum conditions disjunctionis ; Modicus considerat humanū corpus cum conditions , f●i● . quatenus agretare & sanari potest . Sometimes also any quality , or action , which is sine qua non to an effect or event is in meer Naturals called a Condition ; as the dryness of the wood , and the approximation of it to the fire , &c. are conditions of its burning : the non-impedition of a more powerful Agent , is a Condition of the efficacious action of every lower cause , &c. Many other acceptions of the word in Physicks by Zabarel , Claudius Alberius and others ; you may see in Goclenii Lexic . Philosoph . in nom . conditio . But we are not in a Physical , but a moral discourse , and therfore must be understood according to the subject matter . It is therfore a Civil or Legal Condition that we have to enquire after , and must fetch our descriptions from Lawyers , and not from Physicks , and therefore it is but deceitful equivocation in some Opponents , to fetch their opposition from Physical instances . The Lawyers give us divers Definitions of Condition , but for the most part they come all to one in sense . Some say , conditio est Lex adposita hominum actionibus , eas suspendens , Prat. Conditio ( say others ) est modus qui suspendit actum , donec co existente confirmetur . Vult . in Instit . de haere . instit ▪ § 3. n. 6. Accursus faith , Conditio est suspensio , cujus de futuro effectus vel confirmatio pendet : Bart. Conditio est futurus eventus , in quem dispositio suspenditar . Cuiacius , Conditio est Lex addita negotio , quae donec praestetur eventum suspendit . These are of conditions de futuro : But those that are de praesenti vel de praeterito , suspend not the obligation , unless as they are yet futurae quoad cognitionem , though not quoad esse , and so the knowledge of a Right may be suspended . They are commonly divided into Casuaeles , Potestativas , & mixtas . The moral operation of Conditions as such , is not in causing the effect when performed , but in suspending the effect till performed . The reason of the appointing of them for such suspensions is various : sometime it s because the person Giving , promising , or otherwise constituting the condition , is uncertain of the event of the performance , and would not have the effect come to pass without it . But that 's not alwaies : sometime though he might be sure of the event of performance , yet if he that is to perform the Condition be uncertain , it may make way for this constitution . It is therefore a vain Plea of them that say , God appointeth no conditions of his Promises , because the event is not to him uncertain . Saith Mat. Martin in nom . Cond . Defimri solet Dispositionis suspensio ex eventu incerto futuro ei opposito . Sic sane apud homines quo futura non norunt , sed Deus jub certis conditionibus etiam nobiscum agit ▪ at omnium eventuum ipse gna●us , pro infinita sua sap entia qua praevidet quid occur urum nobis , & quid nos amplexuri , vel declinatur● sim●s . Confer . Deut. 28 29 30 , 31. & 32. Capitobus . ] Commonly the reason of appointing Conditions is the desireab●ness of the thing to be performed , conjoyned with some backwardness or possibility of backwardness in the person that is to perform it , and therefore he is drawn on by the promise of that which he is more willing to receive : But many other reasons there may be . The first cause of the Condition , is the Requirer , whether he be Testator , Donor , Stipulator , Legislator , &c. And so the Condition of the Law or Covenant of Grace , is first , Gods condition as the Imposer . Secondly , And its the condition of each Subject as obliged to perform it . Thirdly , And the condition of each professing Christian as having Promised the performance . Fourthly , And the condition of true Christians only as actual Performers of it . The condition of the Gospel hath several respects according to the various respects of the Law that doth impose it . It s the Condition of a free Gift ; for the Gospel is a free Gift of Christ and Life : It is the Condition of a Promise ; because much of the Gospel benefits are future . It is the Condition of a Testament , because Christ dying did leave this to the Church as his last Will , and it was confirmed by the death of the Testator . It is the Condition of a premiant Law , and Act of Grace and oblivion ; because God made it as Legislator and Rector of the world in order to the conducting of his people to their happines : It is the condition of a Minatory Law , in that it is a duty commanded on pain of death and for the avoiding of that death . Fourthly , The preposition [ by ] in our present question , may signifie , either the use and Interest of any Medium in General ; or else of a true cause constitutive or efficient . So much of the terms . Proposition 1. Since Adams fall , it is impossible for man to be justified by a perfect sinless Obedience of his own , ( except Christ only : ) and consequently impossible for him to be justified by the Law considered in that form and tenor as it was given to Adam : for all men are sinners ; and that Law will ustifie no sinner . Proposition 2. By the works of the Mosaical Law , no man can be justified . And therefore the Jews seek Righteousness where it is not to be found , while they think that pardon of sin and acceptance with God are to be obtained by the bare works of that Law : while they overlook or reject Christ who is the end of that Law for righteousness to every Believer Specially now that Law is Abrogated or ceased , it were a double error to expect Justification by its works . Proposition 3. Much less can they be justified by the foresaid Law , who in stead of fulfilling it , do but falsely imagine that they fulfill it . Proposition 4. No man can be justified by works properly meritorious , because no man hath any such at all ; nor may we once imagine that we have any such works as Paul speaks of ( and the Jews thought they had ) which make the reward to be not of Grace but of Debt , Rom. 4.4 . much less that we are justified by such ; even Gospel works and faith it self do not justifie on this account , and a conceit that they are thus meritorious would but turn them into condemning sins . Proposition 5. No act of mans , no not faith it self can justifie as an act or work , nor as This act in specie that is ▪ the nearest and formal reason of its justifying Interest must not be fetcht either from the General or special nature of the act it self : and therefore it is not faith as faith , that is , as it is an apprehension of Christ or recumbency on him , that Justifyeth : nor yet as an Instrument thus acting . The nature of the act is but its aptitude to its office or justifying Interest , and not the formal cause of it . Proposition 6. No work or act of man is any true proper cause of his justification , ( as Justification is commonly taken in the Gospel : ) neither Principal or Instrumental . The highest Interest that they can have , is but to be a condition of our Justification and so a Dispositio moralis , which therefore some call cansa dispositiva , and some causa sine qua non , and it s indeed but a Nominall cause , and truly no cause at all . Proposition 7. Whatsoever works do stand in opposition to Christ , or disjunct from him , yea or that stand not in a due subordination to him , are so far from Justifying even as conditions , that they are sins which do deserve condemnation . Proposition 8. Works , as taken for the Imperate Acts of Obedience external , distinct from the first Radical Graces , are not so much as conditions of our Justification as begun , or our being put into a Justified state . Proposition 9. Repentance from dead works , denying our our selves , renouncing our own Righteousness , &c. ( much less external Obedience ) are not the receptive condition of our Justification , as faith is , that is , Their nature is not to be an actual Acceptance of Christ that is , they are not faith and therefore are not designed on that account to be the Condition of our Justification . Proposition 10. God doth not justifie us by Imputing our own faith to us in stead of perfect Obedience to the Law , as if it were sufficient , or esteemed by him sufficient to supply its place ; For it is Christs Righteousness that in point of value and merit doth supply its place : nor doth any work of ours justifie us by satisfying for our sins : for that 's the work of Christ the Mediator : Our faith and love and obedience , which are for the receiving and improving of him and his Righteousness and so stand in full subordination to him , are not to be made co-partners of his office or honor . Affirm . Proposition first . We are justified by the merits of a perfect sinless Obedience of Christ ( together with his sufferings ) which he performed both to the Law of nature , the Law of Moses , and the Law which was proper to himself as Mediator , as the subject obliged . Proposition 2. There is somewhat in the nature of faith it self in specie , which makes it fit to be elected and appointed by God to be the great summary Condition of the Gospel ; that it be Receptive ( an Acceptance of Christ ) is the nature of the thing : but that it be a condition of our Justification , is from the will and constitution of the Donor and Justifier . Proposition 3. There is also somewhat in the nature of Repentance , self-denyal , renouncing all other Saviours , and our own righteousness , desiring Christ , loving Christ , intending God and Glory as our end , ( procured by Christ , ) confessing sin , &c. which make them apt to be Dispositive Conditions , and so to be comprized or implyed in faith the summary Receptive condition , as its necessary attendants at least . Proposition 4. Accordingly God hath joyned these together in his Promise and constitution , making faith the summary and receptive Condition , and making the said acts of Repentance , self-denyal renouncing our own righteousness & disclaiming in heart Justification by the works of the Law , and the renouncing of all other Saviours , also the desiring and loving of Christ offered , and the willing of God as our God , and the renouncing of all other Gods and so of the world , flesh and devil ; at least in the resolution of the heart ; I say making these the dispositive Conditions , which are ever implyed when faith only is expressed , some of them as subservient to faith , and perhaps some of them as real parts of faith it self . ( Of which more anon . ) Proposition 5. The Gospel promiseth Justification to all that will Believe , ( or are Believers . ) To be a Believer and to be a Disciple of Christ , in Scripture sense is all one , and so is it to be a Disciple and to be a Christian : therefore the sense of the promise is , that we shall be justified , if we become true Christians or Disciples of Christ ; and therefore justifying faith comprehendeth all that is essential to our Disciple●ship or Christianity as its constitutive causes . Proposition 6. It is not therefore any one single Act of faith alone by which we are justified , but it is many Physical acts conjunctly which constitute that faith which the Gospel makes the condition of Life . Those therefore that call any one Act or two by the name of justifying faith , and all the rest by the name of works , and say that it is only the act of recumbency on Christ as Priest , or on Christ as dying for us , or only the act of apprehending or accepting his imputed Righteousness , by which we are justified , and that our Assent , or Acceptance of him as our Teacher and Lord , our desire of him , our love to him , our renouncing other Saviours and our own Righteousness , &c. are the works which Paul doth exclude from our Justification , and that it is Jewish to expect to be justified by these though but as Conditions of Justification ; these persons do mistake Paul , and pervert the Doctrine of Faith and Justification , and their Doctrine tendeth to corrupt the very nature of Christianity it self . Though yet I doubt not but any of these acts conceited meritorious ( or otherwise as before explained in the Negative ) if men can believe contradictories , may be the matter of such works as Paul excludeth : And so may that one act also which they appropriate the name of justifying faith to . Proposition 7. Sincere obedience to God in Christ is a condition of our continuance in a state of Justification , or of our not losing it . And our perseverance therein is a condition of our appearing in that state before the Lord , at our departure hence . Proposition 8. Our Faith , Love , and Works of Love , or sincere Obedience , are conditions of our sentential Justification by Christ at the particular and general Judgement ( which is the great Justification . ) And so as they will prove our Interest in Christ our Righteousness , so will they materially themselves justifie us against the particular false Accusation of being finally impenitent , Unbelievers , not Loving , not obeying sincerely . For to deny a false accusation is sufficient to our Justification . Proposition 9. As Glorification and Deliverance from Hell , is by some called Executive pardon or Justification ; so the foresaid acts are conditions of that execution , which are conditions of Justification by the sentence of the Judge . Proposition . 10. As to a real inherent Justice , or Justification , in this life we have it in part ( in our Sanctification and Obedience ) and in the life to come we shall have it in perfection . So much for the explicatory Propositions . I Come now to prove the sum of the Affirmative Proposition , together so far as they resolve the Question in hand , viz. that works or acts of man have such an Interest in our Justificaon , and are so far conditions as is here asserted . My first proof is from those Texts of Scripture which expresly speak of Justification by such acts or works . If we are justified By our words and works , then are they no less then conditions of Justification . But we are justified By them . Ergo. &c. The Consequence of the Major is plain , first , In that the Preposition [ By ] doth signifie no less then the Interest of some means : but these Works can be no means , but either a condition or a cause , which is more : A cause , the persons that now I deal with , will not affirm them to be : If they do , then they ascribe much more to them then to be a condition . Secondly , The Interest of faith it self is expressed by no higher terms then [ By , ] that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and so is the Interest of these other acts . The Minor is express , 1. Mat. 12.36 , 37. [ For by thy words thou shalt be justified , and by thy words thou shalt be condemned ] . ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : ) that is , at the day of Judgement , in the great Justification . 2. Jam. 2.24 . ye see then how that By Works ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) a man is justified , and not by faith only ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) This speaks of Justification in this life . When men argue against Justification by our words or works , I desire 1. to understand whether it be the words or the sense that they argue against . If the words , then it is either against the use of them simply , as being false or unmeet : or else against unseasonable use of them . For the former they have no ground ; for you see it is the express language of Christ himself and his Apostle . And as to the later , I easily grant that no Scripture phrase should be unseasonably used . But if it be not the words but the sense that they blame , why then do they harp so much on the words themselves , and raise the most of the odium from thence ? And what is the unwarrantable sense ? I know not of any lower sense that they can put on these words , then what importeth the Interest of a condition : As for that of Mat. 12. they say little to it . And as to that of James , they interpret it differently among themselves . First , Some of them say that James speaks of Justification before men , and others say he speaks of Justification before God. The former are easily confuted ( as they restrain the text to that alone ) by the express words of the Text. For , first , ver . 23. it expresly speaks of Righteousness by divine Imputation , and of Gods accepting Abraham into friendship . Secondly , The text speaks of that Justification which concurreth with Salvation , ver . 14. [ can faith save him ? ] Thirdly , It speaks of the Death of faith without works , as to Profiting , ver . 16.17 . which is different from manifestation . Fourthly , It instanceth in the secret act of Rahab , and such an act of Abraham , as we read of no men that then justified him for , nay they were liker to condemn him . Fifthly , Men may justifie an Hypocrite as soon as the truly godly , and can but conjecture at the faith by the works . But the scope of the text shews that it is no such frivolous justification that is here meant . Secondly , They that say that it is justification before God that is here meant , ( as no doubt it is ) have yet divers interpretations of the word Works . Some say , that by Works is not meant [ Works themselves ] indeed , but a working faith . To them I say , first , I deny it , and wait for better proof then is yet brought . Secondly , The text nameth [ works ] expresly twelve times in a few verses : which is not usual in speeches so tropicall as this is supposed to be . Thirdly , In many or most of the texts , that interpretation would make the words non-sense , as the perusall will declare . Fourthly , If the word [ works ] did emphatically signifie the [ working nature ] of faith , or faith not qua fides , but qua operans , it will be all one as to the matter in question , and yield what I desire . Others say that by works is indeed meant the works themselves properly ; but then they say that the text speaks not of the Justification of the person by them , but of faith by them , for faith , say they , alone doth justifie the person , and works only justifie faith . Answer , But first , this contradicteth the express text : for verse 14. It is the Salvation of the person that is denyed ; and ver . 21. It it the justification of Abraham himself that is there mentioned ; and ver . 24. it is the man that is said to be justified by works and not by faith only ; and verse 25. it is Rahab her self that is said to be justified by works . Secondly , The answer contradicteth themselves , or granteth what I desire : for if works justifie the faith , they must needs justifie the person in tantum , against any accusation of gross Infidelity and Hypocrisie . Sometime the person is justified when his Action cannot be justified ( as in case of satisfaction and pardon : ) but to justifie the action it self , is the highest sort of justifying the person . So that all other Interpretations being either overthrown , or resolved into that which we maintain , I need to say to more for the defending of it . My next proof is from those texts that say , we shall be Judged according to our works , and rewarded according to our Labour , &c. 2 Cor. 5.9 , 10. 1 Cor. 3.8 . 1 Pet. 1.16 , 17. Matthew 16.27 . &c. If men shall be justified according to their works , then those works are no lower then a condition of that justification : But the Antecedent is true , as I prove thus . If men shall be judged according to their works , therefore they shall be justified according to their works : The reason of the Consequence is evident ; because judging is the Genus , which comprehendeth Justification and condemnation as its species . The reason also of the consequence of the former Argument is apparent : because the term [ of judging according to works ] doth in the common use of men signifie ordinarily that which they call the Meritum causae , but never any thing lower then a bare condition : nor can any lower tolerable judiciary sense be put upon them , as might easily be shewed if it were worth the standing on . My next proof is from those texts that expresly promise the pardon of sin on condition of Repentance , Confession , &c. If Repentance , and other acts are made by the Gospel , conditions of pardon , ( and our first general Pardon ) then are they made conditions of our first admission into a state of Justification . But the Antecedent is plain , in Act. 2.38 . Mar. 14. Luke 13.35 . Isa . 55.67 . and 1.16 , 17 , 18. Ezek. 33.11 , 16. and 18.28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32. Prov. 28.13 . Act. 3.19 . with many more . The Consequence is plain , in that Pardon is by very many made the whole of our Justification ; and by others confessed a chief part ; and by all it s confessed to be made ours on the same terms as is Justification it self . My fourth Proof is from those texts which make these kind of Acts to have the place of a condition in order to salvation ; if they are conditions of salvation , then are they no less then conditions of our final Justification : But the Antecedent is ordinarily acknowledged by the Opponents , and it s proved , 1 Tim. 4.8 . Heb. 5.9 . 1 Tim. 6.18 , 19. Luk. 11.28 . and 13.24 1 Cor. 9.24 , 25 , 26 , 27. Rev. 22.14 . John 12.26 . Rom. 8.13 . Mat. 5.20 . Mat. 19.29 . Mat. 6.1 , 2 , 4 , 6. and 5.12 , 46. and 10.41 , 42. 2 Thess . 1.5 , 6. Col. 3.23 , 24. Heb. 6.10 . 2. Tim. 4.7 , 8. Gal. 6.4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. 2. Cor. 9.6 , 9. John 5.22 , 27 , 28 , 29 , &c. The Consequence is proved good , first , In that final Justification and Glorification have the same conditions ; as is plain , both in many Scriptures ( mentioned ) and in the nature of the thing : for that Justification is the adjudging us to that Glory ; and therefore so far as any thing is the cause or condition of the Glory it self , it must be the reason of the sentence which adjudgeth it to us . Secondly , And salvation is as free as Justification , and no more deserved by man : and therefore the Apostle equally excludeth works from both , Eph. 2.5 , 8 , 9. By Grace ye are saved , through faith , and that not of your selves , it is the gift of God ; not of worke , lest any man should boast . so Tit. 3.5 , 6 , 7. more fully . Now if Salvation by grace through faith without works , exclude not sincere obedience from being a Condition of Salvation , then Justification by grace through faith without works , doth not ( in Scripture sence ) exclude sincere obedience from being the condition of our final Justification , nor Repentance from being the condition of our justification as begun : ( for there is eadem ratio , and the Text makes the one as free without works , as the other ) But the Antecedent is plain in the Scriptures , Ergo , &c. My fifth Proof is from those texts that in terms seem to assign a causality to such obediential acts , which can be interpreted of no less then a conditionality ; such are Luke 19.17 . Mat. 25.31 , 23 , 34 , 35 , 40 , 46. Gen. 22.16 , 17 , 18. 2 Chron. 34.26 , 27. Psalm 91.9 , 14. Mark 7.29 . 1 John 3.22 , 23. John 16.27 . Rev. 3.10 . and 3.4 . and 7.14 , 15. &c. And though some of these texts speak not of Divine acceptance to life ; yet first , some do ; secondly , and the rest speak of no mercy but what is as freely given as Justification . A mans own works are excluded other Means and parts of salvation , as well as that . I run over these briefly and generally , both because I expect that the bare texts without my Comments , should work upon the Considerate , and because I have been so much upon it formerly in other writings ( as Confess . § . 3. p. ●6 . cap. 3. & cap 5. § . 2. pag. 117 , 118. & alibi passim ) as that I apprehend in this work more tediousness than necessity . But the chief thing that I further here intend , is to answer some Objections , that by a Reverend Brother in his second part of his Treatise of Justification are brought against me . But before I come to his Arguments , its necessary that I a little animadvert on his Description of Justification , that we may first agree upon the sense of our terms , or at least , know how to understand one another . Treat . Of Justification . p. 126. [ Justification is a gratious and just Act of God , whereby through Christ our Mediator and Surety , a sinner , but repenting and believing , is pronounced just , and hereby put into a state of Reconciliation and favour with God , to the praise of Gods glorious attributes , and to the Believers eternal salvation . I shall not examine this Description by accurate Logical Rules , &c. Answ . First , Doubtless an accurate , rather then popular definition would as soon be expected from you , as from most ; and here as anywhere in a Treatise purposely on the Subject . Secondly , Pronunciation doth not go before Constitution , not put us into a state of Reconciliation and favour , but find us in it , you say your self . pag. 120. To justifie , is to constitute and to declare or pronounce righteous , And in your first Treatise of Justification . pag. 7. Indeed the Apostle , Rom. 5. saith , many are made righteous by the second Adam ; which if not meant of inherent holiness doth imply that the righteousness we have by Christ , is not meerly declarative , but also constitutive ; and indeed , one is in order before the other ; for a man must be righteous , before he can be pronounced or declared so to be . ] Treat . p. The Application of ( Justification ) is attributed to the Holy Ghost . Answ . I know not of any such , except first , where Justification is taken for Sanctification . Secondly , or as the Holy Ghost is made the Author of the Promise , though I doubt not but he is the Author of faith also . Treat . 16. The Socinians say Christ justifieth only Instrumentally , not principally ; even so faith is said to save : but this cannot be , because Christ is God as well at Man , and therefore cannot be instrumental , but principal . Answ . As they err on one hand , that say Christ justifieth only Instrumentally ( which flows from their blasphemous denyall of his God-head ) so it s an error on the other hand , to say that Christ cannot be Instrumental , but principal ; I prove the contrary ; first , If Christ may be an Officer appointed by the Father to the Redemption , and ruling of mankind , then may he be an Instrument . But , &c. Ergo , &c. Secondly , If Christ may be a means , he may be an Instrument ; but he may be a means , for he is called by himself the way to the Father : and a way is a means . Thirdly , He is called the Fathers servant : therefore he may be an Instrument . Fourthly , He is said to come to do his Fathers will , therefore he is his Instrument . Fifthly , All Power is said to be given him , even the Power of judging , John 5.22 . and Matthew 28.18 , 19. therefore he is the Fathers Instrument in judging . And your reason is invalid , ( viz. because Christ is God ) for he is Man as well as God , and so may be Instrumental . Treat . p. 129 , 130. It sounds as intolerable Doctrine in my ears , that Christ our Mediator did only expiate by his death sins against the Law and Covenant of works , but that those that are against the Covenant of Grace , &c. Answ . A sin is against the Law of Grace or Gospel , first , because it is against some object revealed in the Gospel , which the sin is against , ( as Christ ) Thus sin was expiated by Christ : 2ly . As it is against a Precept of the Gospel and thus it is expiated by Christ : 3ly . As it is a breach of a mans own Promise or Covenant made to Christ upon the Gospel invitation . And thus it is expiated by Christ . 4ly . Or as it hath respect to the Gospel commination , so as to make a man the object of the actuall curse of this New Covenant , or the person to whom its proper penalty is become actually due ; as every sin made the penalty of the first Law actually due to us . This is it that I have said , that Christ doth not expiate , and none but this . Some Divines say , the Gospel hath no proper curse or commination & penalty . I am past doubt that it hath , even non-liberation , a privation of all the salvation offered them , and the Remedilesness of their state , &c. and I have oft opened this , and proved that only final Impenitency and Infidelity , or the finall non-performance of the conditions of life , are thus peremptorily threatned , and make a man the Subject of the proper actual curse of this Law of Grace . And if after all explications , you will still carry it in confusion , or intimate that men hold intolerable Doctrine , omitting their explications , and by generals making that theirs which they disclaim : our next reply shall be patience ; or if you think indeed , either that the Law of Grace doth oblige any under the penalty of remediless non-liberation , besides the finally Impenitent and Unbelievers , or that Christ dyed to expiate any mans predominant final Impenitency or Unbelief , I will not trouble you with any other consutation then a denyal of it . Treat . p. ibid. Repentance is not an ingredient to our Justification as faith is ; Repentance qualifieth the Subject , but faith immediatly receiveth it . Answer . The Word Ingredient is more ambiguous then to be worthy the labour of discussing : But your assigned difference I ever did allow . And yet must we voluminously differ , when I have told you that I allow it ? But then I add , that this difference is in the nature of the acts , and in their aptitude to their office . But in the general nature of being Conditions of pardon , which is the nearest reason of their interest , they agree , though upon several reasons they are made conditions . Treat . [ We are not justified by the Habit of faith ; but by the Act. ] Answer . I said so too in my Aphorisms . But the reasons of a learned man ( Dr. Wallis in his friendly animadversions ) have perswaded me that it is unsound . Treat . p. 129. It is asserted , that Justification called in Titulo , or virtual , is nothing but the Grant of it in the Gospel : But I see not how that can be called our Justification . Answ . First , That which is asserted , is , first , That the Gospel , is the Instrument justifying . Secondly , That the moral act of the Gospel-Grant ( and Gods Will by it ) is Justification in sensu activo . Thirdly , That the Relation resulting there-from , is our passive Justification . Secondly , Can you see how a Princes pardon under his hand-writing can be the Instrument of a Traitors pardon ; and how the moral or civil Action of that Instrument , and of the Prince by it , can be active pardon ; and how the Relation effected by it can be passive pardon ? If you can see it there , you may see it here : And if you cannot , many a one can . Treat . It is the sign or Instrument declaring it : not justification it self . An. Who ever said , and where , that passive Justification ( yea or active ) is the Gospel it self , or the sign ? The Letter is the sign ; The actual signification of Gods will thereby is the justifying act . The Relation thence resulting on us , is our passive Justification . These have been oft recited . Treat . As the grant or promise of our Sanctification is not our Sanctification . Answ . Good reason : The difference is not to you unknown : Sanctification ( passive ) being a Physical effect , must have a Physical cause , and therefore a bare moral cause cannot produce it . But pardon or justification being but a Relative effect , may be produced per nudam resultantiam à fundamento . 2. But suppose God had made a promise of Sanctification on condition of faith ; would not the Right to Sanctification have resulted immediately from this promise , the condition being performed ? And that Right hath the same Relative nature , as constitutive Justification , and pardon it self hath . Treat . And as on the contrary our condemnation while we abide in sin , or Gods anger against the sinner , is not the threatning promulged , but that which comes from God himself . Answ . 1. Our Condemnation per sententiam Judicis , is not the thing in question , not yet the explication of it ; but our constitutive condemnation . And that it is not indeed the Letter of the Law , ( whoever said so ) but activè , it is the action of the Law , & passivè sumpta , it is the Relative effect of the Law. 2. From your own Argument reverst , I unresistibly make good my Cause against you . Condemnation active is the Laws act , and condemnation Passive is the Laws immediate effect : therefore Justification is alike produced by the Promise or Gift in the Gospel . The Antecedent is proved , Iohn 3.18 . he that believeth on him , is not condemned , ( for the Obligation is dissolved ) but he that believeth not , is condemned already . ] Which must be by some Law , it being before Judgement and Execution , 2 Cor. 3 9. The Law in its delivery is called [ the ministration of condemnation ] and that of the Gospel [ the ministration of righteousness ] Iam. 2.9 . men are said to be [ convinced of the Law as transgressors . ] Though Paul confute the false conceits of Justification by the Law , yet he took them for no unfit phrases , to speak of [ the Law working wrath ] Rom. 4.15 . [ The curse of the Law ] Gal. 3.13 . And saith , Whatsoever the Law saith , it saith to them that are under the Law ] Rom. 3.19 . When the Law comes , sin reviveth , and we die , Rom. 7.8 9. therefore we are said to be [ delivered from the Law , ] Rom. 8.2 . & Gal. 3.13 . Rom. 7.6 . And Gal. 3.21 . If there had been a Law given which could have given life , righteousness should have been by the Law. Hence then is mention of being Iustified by the Law , Gal. 5.4 . and mens being debtors to the Law , Gal. 5.3 . And somewhat this way is implyed by Nicodemus , Iohn 7.51 . doth our Law judge any man before , &c. ] In a word , what more common among Divines , then to say , [ the Law curseth or condemneth sinners ] And then it is not abhorrent from the nature of a Law of Grace , an act of Oblivion , to absolve and justifie sinners . Treat . Neither then could we say , that we are justified by Christ given to us , but by the proposition laid down in the Scripture , whereas all say that the objectum quod of our faith is ens incomplexum , not the promise of Christ , but Christ himself promised . Answ . It s no impossible thing to be justified both by Christ , and by the Promise . There is no ground to suppose co-ordinates to be contraries . Why may not Christ given us ▪ justifie us as the meritorious cause , and a principal efficient ; and his Gospel-grant , as his Instrument ? And accordingly each of them may be the object of faith . The principal object is an ens incomplexum , Christ himself : but a subordinat Object is both the Doctrine Revealing what he is and hath done , and the promise which offereth him to us , and telleth us what he will do . If a Princes Son redeem a woman from Captivity , or the Gallows , and cause an Instrument under his own hand ( and the Kings ) to be sent to her , assuring her of pardon , and liberty , and honours with himself , if she will take him for her husband , and trust him for the accomplishment ? Is it not possible for this woman to be pardoned and delivered by the King , by the Princes ransom , by the Prince espoused , and by her marriage with him and by the Instrument of pardon or conveyance ? You may be enriched by a Deed of Gift and yet it may be an ens incomplexum that is bestowed on you by that Deed , and enricheth you too . Your Money and your Lease , both may give you title to your house . The promise is Gods Deed of Gift , bestowing on us Christ and pardon , or Justification with him . Treat . Besides , Abraham was Iustified , and he is made the pattern of all that shall be Iustified : Yet there was no Scripture-grant , or deed of gift in writing , declaring this : God then communicating himself to Belivers in an immediate manner . Answ . Was there no Gospel-grant then extant ? no deed of Gift of Christ and his Righteousness to all that should believe ? Nothing to assure men of Justification by faith , but immediate communications to Believers ? If so , then either there was no Church , and no salvation : or a Church and salvation without faith in Christ : and either faith in the Messiah to come for pardon and life , was a duty , or no duty : If no duty , then — If a duty , then there was a Law enjoyning it , and that Law must needs contain or be conjunct with a revelation of Christ , and pardon and life to be had by him . I suppose that whatever was the standing way of Life and Justification then to the Church , had a standing precept and promise to engage to the duty and secure the benefit . I know not of duty without Precept , nor of faith without a word to be believed . But this word was not written ! True ! but what of that ? Was it ever the less a Law or Promise , the Object of Faith , or Instrument of Justification ? The promise of the seed might be conveighed by Tradition , and doubtless was so . Or if there had been no general conditional grant or offer of pardon through Christ in those times , but only particular communications to some men , yet would those have been nevertheless instrumental Treat . Therefore to call this Grant or Conditional Promise in the Scripture , Whosoever shall believe shall be justified , a transient act of God , is very unproper , unless in such a sense , as we say , such a mans writing is his hand , and that is wholly impertinent to our purpose . Answ . There are two distinct acts of God here that I call Transient . The first is the Enacting of this Law , or giving this promise . If this were not Gods act , then it is not his Law or promise . If it be his act , it is either Transient , or Immanent . I have not been accustomed to believe that Legislation , Promising , &c. are no acts , or are Immanent acts . The second is the continued Moral Action of the Word , which is also Gods Action by that Word as his Instrument : As it is the Action of a written Pardon to Acquit , and of a Lease to give Title , &c. And so the Law is said to absolve , condemn , command , &c. What it saith , it saith to them that are under the Law : And to say , is to Act. Though physically this is no other Action , then a sign performeth in signifying , or a fundamentum in producing the Relation , which is called the nearest efficient of that Relation . Now either you think that to oblige ( the most essential act of Laws ) to absolve , condemn , &c. are Gods acts by his Word , or not . If not , the mistake is such as I dare not confute , for fear least by opening the greatness of it , I offend you . If yea ; then either it is Gods Immanent act , or his Transient . The former I never to this day heard or read any man affirm it to be . That which is done by an Instrument , is no Immanent act in God : To oblige to duty , to give right to Impunity and Salvation , &c. are done by Instruments , viz. the Word of God , as it is the signifier of his will : therefore they are not Immanent Acts. Moreover , that which is begun in time , and is not from Eternity , is no Immanent Act. But such are the fore-mentioned : because the word which is the Instrument , was indited in time . Lastly , that which maketh a change on the extrinsick object is no Immanent act , but such are these Moral acts of the Word : for they change our Relations , and give us a Right which we had not before , &c. therefore they are certainly transient acts . A thing that I once thought I should never by man have been put to prove . Treat . pag. 130. It s true at the day of Judgement there will be a solemn and more compleat Justifying of us , as I have elswhere shewed . Answ . You have very well shewed it : and I take gratefully that Lecture , and this Concession . Treat . pag. 131. Indeed we cannot then be said to be justified by Faith , &c. Hence this kind of Iustification will cease in heaven ( as implying imperfection . ) Answ . And I desire you to observe , that if it be no dishonour to Christ , that we be there ( through his grace ) everlastingly justified without his Imputed righteousness , or pardon , or faith pro futuro , it cannot be any dishonour to him here , that we should repent , and believe , and be sanctified , nor that those should be conditions of further mercy , and sufficient of themselves to justifie us against any false charge that we are Impenitent unsanctified Infidels . If a perfect cure disgrace not our Physitian then sure an imperfect cure and the acknowledgement of it , is no dishonour to our Physitian now . Treat . pag. 137. Thus all those Arguments , If we be Justified by faith , then by our own work , and that this is to give too much to faith , yea more then some say they do to works , which they hold a condition of our Justification ; All these and the like Objections vanish ; because we are not justified by faith , as Justification is considered actively , but passively . Answ . 1. I yet think that I have said enough in my private Papers to you , to confute the conceit of faith's being Passive . 2. If I had not , yet you yield me what I desire : If faith act not , but suffer , to our Justification , then is it no efficient Instrumental cause . For all true efficiency is by Action . And so you keep but a Metaphorical Instrument . But of this more hereafter . Treat . pag. 141. We cannot call Remission of sin a state , as we call Justification . Answ . I do not believe you : and I can bring many Scriptures against you . Put to your self it s enough to ask , How can you constantly make Remission an Essential part of Justification , and yet say , that we cannot call it a state , as we do Justification . In your first Treat . of Just . Lect. 17. pag. 145. you say , Prop. 4. Remission is not to be considered meerly as removing of evil , but also as bestowing good . It is not only ablativa mali , but collativa boni , a plentiful vouchsafing of many gracious favours to us , such as a Son-ship , and a Right to eternal life , as also peace with God , and communion with him . ] And why may we not say , [ A state of Sonship or salvation ] as well as of Justification ? Treat . ib. There is a Justification of the cause , and of the person , alwaies to be distinguished . Answ . There is no Justification of his cause , which doth not so far justifie the person : Nor any sentential Justification of the person , but by justifying his cause . Though his actions may not be justifiable ; yet when the cause to be tryed is , Whether sinful actions be pardoned by Christ , that cause must be justified , if that man be justified . Even as Accusations are not charged upon the person , without some cause real or pretended . Treat . pag. 152. Not only Bucer who is known to place Justification both in Imputed righteousness and Inherent , thereby endeavouring a Reconciliation with the Papists — But Calvin li. 3. cap. 17. sect . 8. — To this purpose also Zanchy — . Answ . Why then might not I have had as fair measure as Lud. de Dieu , Bucer , Calvin , Zanchy ? especially when I go not so far . And yet I take my self beholden to Guil. Rivet , for helping me to some scraps of Phil. Codurcus , who drives at this mark , as you say Bucer doth , though I cannot yet get the Book it self . Treat . pag. 158. O this is excellent , when a man is amazed and in an holy manner confounded at his holiness , as well as at his offences . Answ . So you before say , they must be ashamed of their Righteousness as well as their sins . I do not well understand these distinctions . Nothing in all the world confoundeth me so much as the imperfection of my Holiness : But I dare not think that imperfection to be no sin , left I must think the perfection to be no duty , and so come to works of supererrogation and Evangelical Counsels . And Holiness considered in it self , and not as sinful and imperfect , is amiable in my eyes , and I know not how to be ashamed of it , without being ashamed of God that is its object and exemplar , and heaven that is the state of its perfection . Treat . ib. Set some few , even a remnant aside , comparatively , the whole Christian world both Doctors and people , learned and unlearned , fasten on a Justification by works . — Answ . I hope not so many as you fear , or affirm . First , all the Doctors and people of your judgement do not : And if you thought those so exceeding few among Christians , you would not take me for so singular as you do . 2. None of the truly sanctified are such as you here affirm . 3. The multitude of groundless presumers of Free Grace are not such . And truly though I doubt Justiciaries are too common , I do not think that such Presumptuous ones are so small a Remnant . 4. The Libertines and Antinomians , and many other Sects of their mind , are none of this great number . 5. I will yet hope for all this , that you cannot prove it of the Doctors and people of half the Christian world . Their hearts God knows . And I will not yet believe that in their Doctrine about Justification by works , the Greek Churches , the Armenians , Jacobites , Copti's , Abasine● , &c. do fasten on such dangerous sands , or differ so much from you . 6. I heard as eminent Divines as most I know ( some yet living ) in a publick meeting say , that Bishop Vsher and Mr. Gataker affirmed , that the Papists did not fundamentally differ from us in the Doctrine of Justification . Treat . pag. 167. By all these subtile Distinctions , men would be thought — Answ . Your scope in that page seems to be against any distinguishing whatsoever about works , in this proposition , We are justified by faith , and not by works , If so , that we must not run to any distinction , but say , that in every motion or sense , Works are excluded , and do justifie in none , then I profess it is past my uttmost skill to justifie you for accusing Althamer as you do , for saying , Mentiris Jacobe in caput tuum : Yea if he had upon the reading of Mat. 12.36 . risen higher , and said , Mentiris Christe in caput tuum . For sure he that saith [ By thy words thou shalt be justified ] Or by works a man unjustified , and not by faith only ] can no way possibly be excused from that crime , if no distinction may verifie his words ; but they must then be taken as absolutely false : which I will not be perswaded of . Treat . pag. 219. Serm. 23. Observ . That even the most holy and regenerate man is not Iustified by the works of grace which he doth . This truth is the more diligently to be asserted , by how much the error that confronts it is more specious and refined , and maintained by such abettors , whose repute is not so easily cast off as the former we spake of . Now you come purposely , I perceive to deal with me . I confess the repute of Abettors doth much to bear up opinions through the world , even with them that speak most against implicit faith . But you need not despair of casting off the repute of them you mention Mr. Robertson and Mr. Crandon can teach any man that will learn that lesson . Treat . ib. The Question is not , Whether we are Iustified by works , though flowing from grace , as meritorious or efficient of Justification . This the Opinionists we have to deal with , do reject with indignation . To make Works either merits or efficient causes of our Iustification before God , they grant it directly to oppose the Scriptures ; yea they seem to be offended with the Orthodox , as giving too much to faith , because it s made an Instrument of our Iustification : therefore they are to be acquitted at least from gross Popery . Answ . This is one passage which I understand by your Preface to you Sermons on John 17. you lookt for thanks for : and I do freely thank you for it : for the world is such now , as that I must take my self beholden to any man that doth injure me with moderation and modesty . But you might have done that justice to us Opinionists , as to have put [ any causes at all ] instead of [ efficient causes ] when we had so often told you ( the Orthodox ) that we disclaimed all true causality ; and then your Reader would have been ready to hope that we are free also from the finer Popery as well as the gross . But since I have heard of late times , what it is that goes under the name of Antichristianity and Popery , even with many that are able to call themselves Orthodox , and others that dissent from them , worse then Opinionists ; I confess I begin to have charitable thoughts of a man that is but freed from the charge of gross Popery : and if those tongues should free him also from the imputation of all the finer Popery , I should begin to suspect that somewhat is amiss . Treat . ib. 2. Although to maintain faith and Obedience to be the conditions , and a causa sine qua non of our Justification , be the professed and avowed Doctrine of the Socinians , yet some of late have asserted the same Doctrine , that yet abhor Socinianism — . Answ . For this also I give you the thanks which you expected , on the foresaid grounds . But if we assert the same Doctrine with the Socinians , either it is the same false Doctrine , or the same sound Doctrine . If the later , you might as well have said , the Socinians assert that there is a God , and so do we : But to what purpose ? If the former , then either it is false quoad terminos , or quoad sensum . The former cannot be said without absurdity : the words can have no other falsness , but an unfitness , distinct from the sense : And if the terms be any part of Socinianism , then Christ and James were guilty of Socinianism ; quod absit . If it be the sense ▪ First , I crave no other favour of the impartial Reader , before he judge , then to read the Socinians explication of themselves , and to read my explication here , and in my confession . Secondly , And if he will also peruse the Allegations in the end of that confession , let him judge whether the Orthodox be not guilty of Socinianism . Or if he be tempted to believe Dr. Owens intimations , as if I had dealt injuriously with the Authors there alleadged , I only desire him to turn to the places cited , and peruse them in the Authors , and freely censure me . Treat . 220. Neither is the question about the necessity of holiness , &c. — Only the question is upon what account these are required in justified persons ; whether in some causality , or concurrence as faith is , only not with such a degree of excellency ? Whether good works be required as well as faith , so that we may say , justifying Repentance , justifying Law , ( Love , it should be ) as well as justifying faith ? This is positively and vehmently affirmed by some : but certainly those Arguments and Reasons they bring are too weak to gainsay the Torrent of the Orthodox Divines . Answ . Upon the reading of this , I complained of hard measure in the Preface to my confession : to which you reply somewhat in your Preface to Sermons on John 17. I shall recite the reasons of my complaint . First , I did both at large in private writings to your self , and publiquely to the world , profess that I took neither faith nor works for any causes at all of our Justification ; was it just then to make this the state of the Question , and say I positively and vehemently affirmed it ? ( for you deny not that it is me that you mean , and I know it by passages here agreeable to your private letters ) Secondly , I never once imagined the difference between faith and holy obedience or sanctification , to lie ( in order to Justification ) in the degree of excellency . I never to my remembrance so thought , or wrote , or spoke . But the difference I laid here , first , That ( as to actual obedience , yea and Repentance ) faith hath a peculiar aptitude to this office , as being a Receptive act , and fited to the object , as that object is fitted to our necessity . Secondly , That ( as to assent , desire of Christ , love to Christ offered , accepting him as Teacher , and Lord ) they are essential acts of faith , and so differ not at all , as they are by many supposed to do . Nay , I rather expected that some should have charged me with preferring Holiness before faith in excellency , while I made faith but the seed , and holyness as the fruit ; faith to be but the covenanting , and Obedience the performance of what we consented to ; and in a word , while I made perfect holiness the end of faith , because the end is better then the means : And I was glad when I found you saying the like , Vindic. Legis , Lect. 4. pag. 45. [ 13. Holiness and Godliness inherent , is the end of Faith and Justification . ] But little did I think to have been charged , and that by you , for making the difference to lie in faiths higher degree of excellency , and only in that . Thirdly , I never owned the phrase of [ justifying Repentance , justifying Love. ] nor ever said that we may as well use these as [ justifying faith ] And when none of these things were ever said or written by me , ought you to have left on record to Generations , that [ this is positively and vehemently affirmed . ] On the consideration of this dealing , I must say again , O what is man , and what a sad case were we in , if the best of men were our Judges ! when they will not stick deliberately to publish to the present and future Ages , that we positively and vehemently affirm those things , which we never thought nor wrote , but have by Letters and in printed books both positively and vehemently , & very frequently professed the contrary . Is here any room for further disputing ? yea , when I have told you of this dealing , you own it still , and defend it in your Preface to your Sermons on John 17. I shall therefore before I proceed , examine that Defence . Preface . pag. 3. [ Now when I had endeavoured to state the Question in a most candid and fair way between those that deny a Condition sine qua non of our Justification , and those who affirm . A Reverend and Learned Brother , judging himself concerned in this opinion likewise , doth complain of the want of Candor and truth in my stating of the Question , when I rather expected thanks for my Ingenuity : — Now let any judicious Reader , that is acquainted with controversie , decide , wherein any ( and or truth may be desired here . For I say [ causality ] which is a general word , not efficiency or merit ; Again , I say , some causality , Causalitas quaedam , which is terminus diminuens : yea I added the word Concurrence , which might satisfie any how low I brought the Question . Answer . Will you call to any judicious Reader , to tell you that which I particularly exprest to you ? Again , Then let the judicious Reader judge whether you should have said to the world , any of the forementioned particulars ; First , That I give any Causality to works as to Justification . Secondly , Or that I difference them only in degree of excellency . Thirdly , Or that I affirm , that we may say , justifying Repentance , justifying Love , as well as justifying faith . Fourthly , And this is affirmed positively , and vehemently : and all this when I had positively and vehemently denyed them . Fifthly , Yea , and that only this is the question between us . And what do your defences do to justifie such dealing ? [ you said only Causality in general , and not Efficiency or Merit ] And did not I openly and privately to you deny Causality in general , and not only Merit or Efficiency ? and is that positive or vehement affirming it ? Secondly , you said , Causalitas quaedam , which is terminus diminuens . ] If quoad esse causalitatis it be terminus diminuens , then the meaning is , that I make them no causes . But do you think any Reader will English Causalitas quaedam , by [ no Causality ] But doubtless you mean that it is Terminus diminuens as to the quality or nobility of the cause . But first , I never heard before that quaedam was terminus diminuens ; and if no Readers must understand you , but those that know this to be true , I think it will be but few . Secondly , But what if that were so ? Did you not know that I denyed even all causality , how diminute soever quaedam can express , if it be but real . Thirdly , But you added [ Concurrence ] But it was in Concurrence with the several unjust passages before mentioned : and sure the neighbour-hood of that word hath not force enough to make them all true . Preface . [ My Reverend Brother saith , He vehemently disclaimeth all Causality of works in Justification : surely his meaning is all Proper causal efficiency , and so did I in the stating of it : But to deny Causality in a large sense , is to contradict himself . Answer . If so , what hope of Justice ? Must I in paper after paper disclaim all true Causality , and will you not only perswade the world of the contrary , but persist in it , whether I will or not , and say I mean a [ proper causal efficiency ] Reader , I have no other remedy left , but to advise thee , that if yet after this it be affirmed the next time that I disclaim not all true causality , or mean not as I say , thou believe not the affirmation . Preface . [ For in his Aphoris . 74. Thes . They both , viz. Faith and Works justifie in the same kind of causality , or mediate it ( should be media , ) and improper causes , or as Dr. Twiss causae dispositivae , but with this difference , Faith as the principal , Obedience as the less principal . Here is causality , though improper ; Here is a causa dispositiva : and yet shall I be blamed after I had removed Efficiency and Merit ? Answer . This is but to add injustice . When I have written at large that faith and works are no true causes of Justification , and after tell you that a condition is commonly called causa sine qua non , which is causa fatua , and no cause at all , but meerly nominal , having by custom obtained that name , and that Dr. Twiss calls this causa dispositiva : when I say that they have only a causality improperly to called , which indeed is no causality . Is it justice for you still to perswade the world that I mean some causality , though not efficiency ? The thing I renounce : the name is not it that you only charge me with : if you had , I was not the maker of it . It was called causa sine qua non , before I was born : I must comply with common language , or be silent : especially when I tell you , I take it for no Cause . You give me such justice as the hoast of the Crown Tavern in Cheap-side had , who ( as Speed saith , ) was hanged for saying merrily , that his Son was Heir of the Crown , and his exposition would not save his life . I pray you hereafter remove more then Efficiency and Merit . I take not works to be either the material or formal cause of Justification , no nor the final , though you ( in the words before cited ) affirm it such . Who then gives more to works , you or I ? The final cause is so called , because it causeth us to choose the means to it ; Justification is not a means of our using , but an act of God. Therefore works are not properly the end of it , as to us . And yet let me say this to you , lest you should mistake me : As vehemently as I disown all true causality of works to our Justification , I intend not to fall out with all men that call them causes . As first , Not with Piscator nor such other that call them causes of our final absolution and salvation . Secondly , Nor with those that call them meritorious in the same sense as the Fathers did , though they unfitly use the word . Thirdly , Nor with those that will say , that because they please God , and so are the object of his complacency and will , they may therefore , speaking after the manner of men , be called Procatarctike causes of his act of Justification : and so that the Amiableness and desirableness of faith and holiness , is the cause why he assigned them to this Noble place and office . Fourthly , Nor with them that say , faith is a moral or a Metaphorical , passive or active Instrument of Justification . Though I say not as these men , I will not quarrel with them . Preface . But I need not run to this ; for my Arguments militate against works , at works justifying under any pretended Notion whatsoever . Answer . By the help of this , I shall interpret all your Arguments . And if so , then they militate against the act of faith justifying under the pretended notion of an Instrument , unless you will say that faith is no Act , or Instrumentality is no pretended notion . Preface . And this maketh me admire how my learned Brother could let fall one passage wherein he may be so palpably and ocularly convinced to the contrary by the first looking upon my Arguments ; that which he saith is [ the strength of my Arguments , lies upon a supposition , that conditions have a moral efficiency ] — There is no one of these ten Arguments brought against Justification by works , as a Condition sine qua non , that is built upon this supposition , or hath any dependance on it , only in the fourth Argument after their strength is delivered , I do ex abundanti , shew that a Condition in a Covenant strictly taken hath a moral efficiency . Answer . First , you confess it is your Assertion , that such Conditions have a moral efficiency . Secondly , I never said that you made that a Medium in all your Arguments , nor that you intended that as their strength ; but that their strength lyeth on that supposition ; and if I have mistaken in that , I will not stand in it : But I think to shew you that without that supposition your Arguments have no strength : which if I do , then judge at what you marvailed . But it s a farther act of injustice in you , in alleadging me Apol. pag. 8. saying that some conditions are impulsive causes , when I told you it is not qua conditions , but only as materially there is somewhat in them that is meritorious . I doubt not but the same thing may be the matter of a cause and a condition . I shall now return to your Lect. of Justification , and there speak to the other passage in your preface , about justifying Repentance and Love , &c. Treat . pag. 220. [ This therefore I shall ( God willing ) undertake to prove , that good works are not a condition , or a cause sine qua non of our Justification . Answer . But remember that it is Justification , either as begun in constitution , or continued , or as pronounced by the Judges Sentence , that the Question comprehendeth , and not only the putting us into a justified state ; And its works under any notion that you speak of , and not only under the reduplication , quà works . Treat . p. 221. First I shall instance in the great pattern and example of our Justification , Abraham ; from whom the Apostle concludeth a Justification of all Believers in the like manner he was . Now that Abraham was not Iustified by works , or his working , though a godly man , the Apostle , &c. Answ . 1. I distinguish between works in Pauls sense , and works in Iames his sense . And because you say so much against distinguishing of works , ( before ) as deceitful ; I will first prove the necessity of distinguishing . 1. Works in Pauls sense are such as make the Reward to be not of Grace , but of Debt . Works in Iames his sense are not such : therefore they are not the same . Works in Pauls sense , are actions as valuable offered to God , and justifying by their value . But works in Iames his sense , are none such . Proved . The works that James speaks of must necessarily be done : Works in Pauls sense , we may not so much as imagine that we can do ; viz. such as make the Reward of Debt , and not of Grace . Though the matter of such works may be done , which Justiciaries thus conceive of , yet under such a notion , no man may once imagine that he hath them . 2. Works in Pauls sense are such as stand in competition with Christ , or at least , would be co-partners with him in a co-ordination . But works in James his sense are none such , but such as stand in a due subordination to Christ ; such undoubtedly there are : And such James speaks of . That Paul speaks of works as Competitors with Christ , or as co-ordinate , an hundred Texts will prove ; and the case is so plain , that I think it not worth the insisting on , seeing the impartial reading over the Epistles may satisfie . 2. I distinguish of Justifying , quoad modum procurandi , or of the distinct Interests of mens actions therein , signified in the preposition [ By. ] Paul speaks of Justification [ By ] works , as by valuable deserving causes , or procatarctike causes , moving God to justifie us by their worth , or by some true causality procuring it . But Iames speaks of Works as supposing the perfect Satisfaction and Merit of Christ , and that all that is valuable to the causal procurement of our Justification is to be found in him alone , and therefore he leaves no causality herein to works but takes them as a meer condition , which cease suspending when performed . For the efficiency of a condition , is only in suspending till performed : And so Rebellion can suspend ; when the ceasing of that Rebellion by obedience , doth not cause , but only cease suspending . Now I answer to your Minor , that Abraham was not justified by works in Pauls sense , but he was in Iames's sense , unless you will own the saying which you chide Althamer for . ( Though I must say that in his Conciliationes Loc. Script . Althamer deals more mannerly with Iames. ) Abraham was not justified by works , as making the Reward of debt , and not of grace : for he had no such works : But Abraham was justified 1. By the act of faith , as a condition : therefore by an act under some notion . I know of few Divines that deny that faith is a condition of Justification . 2. However you confess your self that Abraham was Justified by faith as an instrument : and you say that it was by the act of faith ( and not the habit . ) And though you take this to be but a nominal act , and really a Passion , yet so do not others : for herein you are more singular ( a thousand to one , as far as I am able to understand ) then I am in the Doctrine which you charge with singularity . 3. The faith that Abraham was justified by , was not only a bare apprehension of Christs Righteousness , but a receiving of Christ as Christ , which is called , Works , by your party . 4. It was either By or Because of his External Obedience , that Abraham was justified . Proved . 1 By Iames 2.21 . Was not Abraham our Father justified by works , when he had offered Isaac his son upon the Altar ? 2. From Gen. 22.12 , 16 , 18. By my self have I sworn saith the Lord , for because thou hast done this thing , and hast not with-held thy son , thine only son , that in blessing I will bless thee , &c. And in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed , because thou hast obeyed my voice ▪ But then I must add , that this was none of Abrahams first Justification , for he was just before this ; but it was a renewed Acceptance and Approbation of God , and a kind of sentential Declaration thereof , by the voice of the Angel. But a Justification it was , and so James calls it . Now let us hear your Replies . Treat . pag. 221. This cannot be a solid Answer . 1. Because the Apostle speaketh generally of works in this description of Iustification , though in other places he sometimes saith [ the works of the Law ] yet Abraham could not be Instanced in for such works , &c. — When we read the Holy Ghost spake generally of all works , who are we that we should limits it to some ? — By their interpretation , the believer should be opposed only to some kind of works and faith , &c. Answ . 1. The ordinary strain of the Apostles speech , being expressive of the works of the Law , is Expository of the rest , 1. Because a few passages must be usually expounded by many . 2. And because a few ( much more abundance of ) limiting passages , must expound those where the restriction is not expressed . 2. Have not I ever yielded to you that all works are excluded from Justifying as works ? but it follows not that therefore they are ( as you may say ) excluded under any Notion whatsoever . 3. And why might not Abraham be instanced in ? Your proof is none . 1. Is it not a good Argument Negative , Abraham was not justified by works , therefore we are not ? And a good Argument to prove the Antecedent : Because he had no works that could justifie : No nor those which were then trusted on to Justification . 2. Doth not Paul shew that he speaks of these , when he proves his assertion , 1. Because Abraham was then in uncircumcision , Rom. 4.10 . ( what 's that to Gospel obedience ? ) 2. Because the Law was long after the promise , and was not then given , Gal. 3.17 . 3. Paul maketh it all one to be justified by works , and to be justified by the Law ; as abundance of passages shew . A multitude of particular Texts do expresly shew that it is a Legal Iustification only that he speaks of , and that he directly intendeth only Legal works . I will now instance but in one , viz. Rom. 4.13 . compared with Gen. 22.18 . [ For the promise that he should be heir of the world , was not to Abraham and his seed by the Law , but through the righteousness of faith . ] Now compare with this , the words of the promise it self , [ And in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed , because thou hast obeyed my voice . ] So ver . 16 , 17. Because thou hast done this thing , &c. ] 4. It s not easie to conceive how any man can expect a Legal or Pharisaical Iustification by Evangelical works without a gross contradiction : For example ; to be justified Legally by Evangelical faith , desire , love , thanks , joy , self-denyal , confession , &c. are all palpable contradictions : And such a mans faith must be thus exprest ; I expect to merit Iustification legally , by believing in Christ as the sole Meriter of my Iustification and salvation , or by desiring Christ , or by loving Christ as the sole Meriter of my salvation : Or by thanking him , or rejoycing in him as the Sole-meriter of my salvation ? Or I expect legally to merit Iustification , by denying that I can merit it , by any righteousness of my own ; or by confessing that I deserve damnation by my sins , or by praying or seeking for salvation by free gift , as merited only by Christ . ] All these are palpable contradictions ; and no man can hold both that knoweth what he doth . 5. Yet I will suppose that though no man can so trust to his works for legal Justification , that are apprehended by him as Formally Evangelical , yet perhaps he may do it by some works that are Materially Evangelical , and fancied by him to be what they are not . And so I still say , that though it were Legal works that Paul did directly dispute against , yet consequentially and indirectly he disputeth against works commanded only in the Gospel , if men will do them to Legal ends , and fancy them to be of the value legally to justifie them . 6. I will therefore suppose some men to be so unreasonable , as to expect a Legal Justification , by their believing or confessing that Christ only can Legally justifie them , and not themselves ; and so I will grant you , that Paul doth ( consequentially ) exclude all works , even Evangelical works from Justification : But though he exclude all works , yet not in every notion , nor doth he exclude All interest of All works in our Justification . All works as valuable offerings , he excludes , and so as meritorious , not only in point of Commutative Justice , but also in point of Legal worth and Legal Justice , as the Pharisees supposed them meritorious : All works he excludes from all proper Causality . But he doth not exclude all works from having any Interest at all in subordination to Christ . Do you verily believe that Repentance and Faith have no Interest in our Pardon , in sub-ordination to Christ ? If you say , No , not any , you contradict God , and your self , and all the Christian world . If you say , Yea , but they justifie not qua works ; you say nothing to the controversie : For I have over and over as loud as you , professed that they justifie not formaliter as works . If you say they have any Interest : 1. Tell us better what it is . 2. And then you confute your general assertion . There 's no Christian that I know but will confess that the Gospel works have the interest of Declaring signs in our final Iustification . And few will deny that Repentance hath the interest of a necessary qualification , or condition to our first Justification . Now would you perswade us that Paul excludeth this kind of Interest , or opposeth faith to it ? If not against the signal interest of works , then not against all Interest ; therefore if Pauls general exclusion will consist with your signal Interest , then I shall maintain that it will consist with the fore-explained Conditional interest . I will not therefore be guilty of your charge of limiting the Holy Ghost . If he spake of all works , I will believe he means All works . But 1. If he over and over near an hundred times at least , explain himself as speaking of the Law , I will not shut my ears against that explication . And 2. I will grant it is also all Evangelical Works , at least by consequence : But I need not therefore grant that because he excludeth All Work , therefore he excludeth All kind of Interest of all works ; but only that sort which he disputeth against . Besides all this , I must distinguish of Justification , Legal and Evangelical , respective to the promises and threatnings of the Law and Gospel , which do differ . No works at all did justifie Abraham , from the charge of the Law , Thou art a sinner , as being the Righteousness of the Law , and the matter of that Justification . Nor will any works at all so justifie us . But it doth not follow , that therefore no works will justifie a man from the false accusation of being an Impenitent , Unbeliever , and so having no part in Christ , whose Righteousness must stop the mouth of the Law : Or that no works are the matter of the righteousness required in this Constitution , [ He that believeth shall be saved : Repent that your sins may be blotted out . ] Which are here required as the condition of our freedom from the Law , by the righteousness of Christ . In a word , Paul bestows a large dispute to prove that no works of ours do answer the expectation of the Law , and so cannot justifie us themselves from its Accusation . It s an ill consequence , that therefore Paul proveth that no works of mans do answer the special constitution or condition of the Gospel [ Repent and Believe in Christ , &c. ] and so are not the Condition of our interest in that perfect righteousness of Christ , which is the only valuable cause of our foresaid Justification . Treat . 222. Again , that works of all sorts are excluded , is plain , if you consider the Object of Iustification , who it is that is here said to be justified , and that is , the ungodly . By the ungodly is one meant that hath not a sufficient and adequate holiness : so that Abraham though regenerated , yet as to Iustification is ungodly , he cannot stand before God , or endure , if all his imperfections be enquired after . Now certainly he that fulfilleth the conditions of Iustification , cannot be called ungodly ; for he doth all that is required . Answ . 1. Again , I grant all works excluded : but not in all their relations ; nor are all their Interests in Justification excluded . 2. This Argument I should not have expected from you . You confess that by ungodly , is meant such , though Regenerate and holy , that have not an adequate holiness : Adequate ; To what ? to the Law ? or to the constitution of the condition in the Gospel ? Marvel not if I deny the Consequence of your Argument , and if I be unable to digest your reason for it . You say , [ He that fulfilleth the Condition of Iustification , cannot be called ungodly . ] But what Condition ? I confess he that fulfilleth the Laws condition cannot be called ungodly , nor be unjustifiable by that Law. But he that performeth the Gospel-Condition of liberation , may be called ungodly in the sense you now mentioned , that is , unjustifiable immediatly for his works by the Law : or one that hath not an holiness adequate to the Law. Though indeed he cannot be called Evangelically ungodly . I suppose you clearly see that your Argument makes as much against any Condition of Justification in us , as against works being the condition . For against faith it self , being any Condition , you may equally argue , [ Its the ungodly that are justified : But he that fulfilleth the conditions of Iustification , is not to be called ungodly . Ergo , &c. ] But if you take ungodliness ( as you do ) for unadequate holiness ( to the Law ) I deny your Minor . Can no man but the Perfectly obedient , perform the condition of pardon in the Gospel ? Treat . ib. So that this is very considerable , that all those whom God justifieth , he justifieth them not for any thing they have of their own , or any conditions they have performed ; but as such who are sinners in a strict examination , and so deserve condemnation , and therefore no works of grace are looked upon . Answ . I have answered this fully in Colvinus . 1. Though Protestants oft say , that God saveth men for their obedience , and Scripture use the term [ because ] oft , yet I am willing to yield to you that men be not saved nor justified for any thing of their own , or for any conditions : But yet he would not justifie them without the performance of some conditions ; but would condemn them for the non-performance , even with a special condemnation , distinct from that which is for their sins against the Law. 2. Colvinus was the first man , and you are the second that ever I read ( to my remembrance ) saying that God justifieth men as sinners . A quatenus ad omne valet consequentia . If as sinners , then all sinners are justified . If not as performers of any Condition , then not as Believers ! These things want proof . Treat . ib. Lastly , that all works are excluded , is evident by the Apostles allegation out of David , who makes mans blessedness to be in this , that God imputeth righteousness without works . Answ . 1. This is sufficiently answered in the former . 2. Paul hence immediately concludeth that Righteousness comes not only on the Circumcision : whence you may see what works he means . 3. Your selves expound the foregoing term ungodly , of men that have not adequate holiness , though sincere ; therefore you must so take this equipollent term [ without works ] for [ without that adequate holiness ] : but it follows not , that therefore it s without any humane act . 4. Yet still I grant this also , that its without any humane act , considered as the matter of a Legal righteousness , or as opposite to Christ , or co-ordinate with him : but not without any humane act , as subordinate to Christ , and as the matter of that Evangelical righteousness which is required in this Constitution [ Repent and Believe the Gospel ] viz. sincerely . Treat . pag. 223. And indeed it is at last confessed , that its faith only that makes the contract between God and the soul : that good works are not required to this initial consenting unto Christ , so as to make him ours , but in the progress . This is that in effect , which the Papists affirm in other words , That the first Justification is only by faith , but the second by good works . Answ . How would you have your Reader understand these two insinuations ? 1. Have I so oft asserted that which you call my Confession , and put it into an Index of distinctions , least it should be over-lookt , and told you as much so long ago in private writings , and do you now come out with an [ Its at last confessed . ] I hope you would not intimate that ever I denyed it : or that ever I wrote Book of that subject , wherein I did not expresly averre it . But then ( that you think not better of me then I deserve ) I must tell you , that when I still excluded works from our begun Justification , it was external Obedience , and not Repentance , nor those acts of faith ( even the Receiving Christ as Lord and Teacher ) which those that oppose me call works . 2. If you take it but for an argument to convince such as I , that [ the Papists hold it : Ergo ▪ &c. ] I must complain that it is uneffectual : But if you intend it for another effect on other persons , viz. to affright them with the sound of so horrid a name , or drive them away by the slink of it , then you may possibly attain your ends . But you should have attempted it only by truth . Is it true , that [ this is that in effect , which the Papists affirm in other words ? ] Yea is it not a notorious truth , that it is quite another thing which the Papists affirm in somewhat like words ? 1. The world knows that the Papists by the first Justification , mean the first infusion of renewing special grace . 2. And that by the second Justification , they mean , the adding of further degrees of Sanctification , or actuating that which before was given . 3. That they hold , faith justifieth in the first Justification constitutivè . 4. And that works or holiness justifie constitutivè in the second Justification , even as Albedo facit album , vel doctrina indita facit doctum . On the other side , I have told you often privately and publikely , that , 1. By Justification I mean not Sanctification , nor any Physical , but a Relative change . 2. That by first and second , I mean not two states , or works , but the same state and works as begun , and as continued . 3. That faith justifieth neither constitutivè & inhaerenter , nor as any cause , but as a Receiving Condition . 4. And that works of external obedience are but a dispositive condition , and an exclusion of that ingratitude that would condemn . And now judge on second thoughts , whether you here speak the words of Truth or Equity . Treat . ib. Against this general exclusion of all works , is opposed ver . 4. where the Apostle saith , To him that worketh the Reward is of debt ; from whence they gather that works only which are debts , are excluded . Answ . I never used or heard such a collection . All good works are debts to God ; but our collection is , that works which are supposed by men to make the reward of Debt , and not of Grace , are excluded . Treat . But if this be seriously thought on , it makes strongly against them ; for the Apostles Argument is à Genere : if it be by works , it s of Debt : therefore there are not works of Debt , and works of no Debt . Answ . 1. If the Apostle argue à Genere , then he argueth not from an Equivocal term ; and therefore of no works but what fall under his Genus . 2. And the Apostles Genus cannot be any thing meerly Physical , because his subject and discourse is moral : and therefore it is not every act that he excludeth . 3. Nor can it be every Moral Act that is his Genus : but only Works in the notion that he useth the word ; that is , All such Works as Workmen do for hire , who expect to receive wages for the worth or desert of their works . I shall therefore here confute your assertion , and shall prove that All works do not make the Reward to be of Debt , and not of Grace : and consequently that Paul meaneth not either every Act , or every Moral Act , here ; but only works supposed Rewardable for their value ! ( What you mean by Works of Debt , and Works not of Debt , I know not : they are not Scripture words , nor my words ; For still I say , All Good works are of Debt to God from man. ) Argument 1. Ex natura rei ; There are many Moral Acts that make not the Reward from men to be of Debt , and not of Grace : Much less will such Works make the Reward from God to be of Debt , and not of Grace . The Consequence is grounded on these two or three Reasons . 1. God is infinitely above us ; and therefore less capable of being obliged by our works then man. 3. God is our absolute Proprietary , and we are wholly his ; and therefore we can give him nothing but his own . 3. God is our Supreme Rector , and we are bound to a perfect fulfilling of his Law : and we are sinners that have broak that Law , and deserve eternal death : therefore we are less capable of obliging him by our works as our Debtor , then of obliging men ( and indeed uncapable . ) 4. Gods Reward is Eternal Glory , and mans is but some transitory thing : therefore we are less capable of making God our Debtor for Justification and Salvation , then man for a trifle . This proves the Consequence . Now the Antecedent I prove by Instances . 1. If a man be ready to drown in the water , and you offer to help him out , if he will lay hold of your hand : this act of his is Actus humanus vel moralis , and yet makes not the deliverance to be of Debt , and not of Grace . 2. If a man be in prison for Debt and you ransom him , and offer him deliverance on condition he will but consent to come forth on the account of your Ransom : this moral Action makes not his Deliverance to be of Debt , and not of Grace . 3. If a man be condemned for Treason , and upon Ransom made , you procure and offer him a pardon , on condition he will take it , or if you say , If you will give me thanks for it , or take it thankfully ; or , If also you confess your Treason ; or , If also you crave pardon of the Prince ; or , If also you confess me your benefactor ; or , If also you will profess your purpose to take up rebellions arms no more ; or , If also you will openly profess the Princes Soveraignty , and renounce the Leaders of the Rebells , whom you have followed ; Vpon any one , or on all these conditions , you shall have a free and full pardon ; without any cost or suffering of your own . Do you think that any of these do make the pardon to be of Debt , and not of Grace ? 4. If you give a man a Lordship on condition he take it as a free Gift from you , and pay you yearly a grain of sand , or do some act of homage ( as to say I thank you ) which hath in it no consideration of value , but only of acknowledgment of dependance , doth this make your Gift to be not of Grace ? 5. If you give a beggar a piece of gold , on condition he will take it , and put off his hat , and say , I thank you . I will not believe , that any of these Acts do make the Reward to be not of Grace . But if you bid them , Go and do me so many daies work for it , importing somewhat profitable or valuable for yourself , then the case is altered . Argument 2. Those works which a man cannot be justified without , make not the Reward to be of debt and not of Grace : But there are some works that a man cannot be justified without , Jam. 2.24 . Matthew 12.37 . what ever they be , some they are . Argument 3. Those works which a man cannot be saved without , make not the Reward to be of Debt and not of Grace . But there are some works that we cannot be saved without . Therefore there are some works that make not the Reward of Debt and not of Grace . The Major is proved by the express exclusion of works in this sense , from salvation : both as begun , and as consummate , 2 Tim. 1.9 . who hath saved us , and called us with an holy calling , not according to our works , but his own purpose and grace , &c. Ephes . 2.8 , 9. For by Grace ye are saved , through faith , and not of your selves , it is the gift of God : not of works , lest any man should boast , Tit. 3.5 , 6 , 7. Not by works of Righteousness which we have done , but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost , — that being justified by his Grace , we should be made Heirs according to the hope of eternal life , Rom. 6.23 . For the wages of sin is death , but the Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord , ] Act. 4.12 . Neither is there salvation in any other , Mat. 25.34 . Come ye blessed of my Father , inherit the Kingdom prepared for you , &c. ] whence Expositors conclude against works . The Minor may be proved by an hundred texts , Mat. 25.35 . For I was hungry , &c. Rev. 22.12 . and 2.23 . Mark 13.34 . Rev. 20.13 . Jam. 2 14. 1 Pet. 1.17 . He will judge every man according to his works , &c. Argument 4. Those works which Grace commandeth , and causeth the Godly to perform , do not make the Reward to be not of Grace , but of debt . But there are some such works . Ergo , &c. The Major is evident : What Saint dare say , that he hath a work that makes not the Reward of Grace , especially when it is a work of Grace ? The Minor is as true as Scripture is true , 2 Cor. 9.8 . Col. 1.10 . 2 Thess . 2.17 . 2 Tim. 2.21 . Tit. 3.1 . Heb. 13.21 . Mat. 5.16 . Heb. 10.24 . 1 Pet. 2.12 . Tit. 2.14 . and 3.8 , 14. Ephes . 2.10 . &c. — Dare any say that God hath not commanded good works ? or yet , that he hath commanded us in the Gospel , so to work that the Reward may not be of grace , but debt ? Will any say that the Saints do no good works ? or else that they do such good works as make the Reward to be not of Grace but of debt ? I hope not . Argument 5. Repentance is a moral Act : Repentance maketh not the Reward to be of debt , and not of grace : therefore there are some works that make not the Reward to be not of grace , but of Debt . The same I say of Faith it self , and other Acts. But perhaps some one else will object , that though its true that there be such works , yet they have no Interest in the business of our Justification , and therefore Paul doth hence exclude them . Answer . First , It sufficed to my last purpose to prove that there are works which will not bear his description , and therefore are not they that he means . Secondly , But that those other works have some Interest in the business of our Justification , I have proved in the beginning . Repentance hath the promise of Pardon : so hath faith , &c. But I 'le not unseasonably here digress to this , but refer you to what is said before and after , and elsewhere more at large . Argu. 6. In ver . 5. the opposite term [ he that worketh not ] doth not signifie him that performeth no moral act . Therefore in the fourth verse , [ he that worketh ] doth not signifie him that doth perform any moral act . The consequence is undeniable from the evident immediate opposition , between him that worketh , and him that worketh not . The Antecedent I prove , First , From the words of the Text , which mention one act , even believing , as opposite to working , and implyed in , or consistent with not working . [ To him that worketh not , but believeth . ] Secondly , Because else it would subvert the Gospel . What sense would you make of it if you should interpret this and such texts as this of all moral Acts ? Such as Christian ears would abhor . If [ working ] be the Genus , and the Text will hold as extended to Believing , Repenting , &c. as the species , and that even in their due Evangelical notion : Let us try them a little in such an Exposition . ver . 4 , 5. [ to him that worketh , that is , Repenteth , Believeth , &c. the Reward is not of Grace , but of Debt . But to him that worketh not , ( that is , that Repenteth not , Loveth not God ▪ Desireth not Christ or Grace , believeth not in Christ , ) but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly , his faith ( supposing he have it not ) is imputed to him for righteousness . ] Is this a sweet and Christian sense ? If we should run over an hundred such Texts by such an Interpretation , you would hear no sweeter Melody . Let us hear some modern Expositors , ( for I will give you no thanks to grant me the Ancients , without citing them ) 1. Calvin , ( that excellent Expositor ) saith thus [ Optrantem vocat qui s●is meritis aliquid promeratur : non operantem , cui nihil debetur operum merito . Neque enim fideles vult esse ignavos ; sed tantum Mercenarios esse vetat , qui à Deo quicquam reposcant , quasi jure Debitum . ] Is not this one of the Opinionists , that so far joyneth with the Socinians and Papists ? 2. Bullinger ( and Marlorate citing him ) makes the Apostle to argue thus [ Si quis sit qui promereatur aliquid opere suo , res promerita , non imputatur illi gratis ; sed ut debita redditur : Fides reputatur in justitiam , non quod aliquod tale promereamur , sed quia Domini bonitatem apprehendimus . Ergo , &c. 3. Beza : Atqui ei qui operatur , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Id est , ei qui ex opore sit aliquid promeritus . Cui opponitur , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , qui non operatur , id est , qui opus nullum adfert cujus mercadem flagitet , sed gratuita Dei promissione nititur — Justificatio enim gratiae est in Christo , ista vero Meriti est in nobis . 4. Piscator in Schol. Sic argumentatur Paulus : Ei qui operibus meretur , merces non imputatur . ver . 4. Atqui Abrahamo justitia fuit imputata ; ver . 3. Ergo Abrahamus justitiam non est meritus operibus . 5. Peter Martyr also is a down right Opinionist ; In loc . pag. ( mihi ) 168. Et cum audimus à Paulo , Operanti & non operanti , nequaquam sic accipere debemus , quasi illi qui crodant non operentur . Nam de illa tantum operations loguitur , qua moreamur , an t mereri velimus Justitiam . Etherl●●● consideratu dignum , est , quod apud Theologos sehelasticos jam inveteravit us dicant meritum à Paulo appellari debitum : Quare cum hic Paulus à Justificatione debitum auferet , necessariò ▪ etiam tollit meritum , si propriè ac verè de illo velimus loqui . 6. Aretius in loc . Tertium Argumentum ex vi relativorum , opera postulant mercedem suo jure , ac debito non ex gratia , sed Abrahamo justitia debito , non sao jure , sed ex gratia est collata : Ergo , &c. — ver . 5. Nam si opera non opus fuisset imputatione , sed tanquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 postulasset meritorum suorum debitum mercedem . 7. Anton. Faeyus in loc . Argumentatur Apostollus ex locati & conduct● inter homines recepto jure : qui enim locat operam suam , pasciscitur cum conductore , ut congruens operae pretium ipsi numeretur : adeo ut non obtineat mercedem gratis , sed ex operae cum ipsa mercede 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Argumentum ergo est à disparatis : sunt enim disparata merces & donum , ut & operans & non operans . Operans accipit mercedem debitam : non operaens accipit donum . Est enim inter Deum & homines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illa quae est inter donantem , & donatarium . — Quod ad nomen mercedis spectat , apparet illam duplicom esse : nempe mercedem debitam ex proportione operae cum re , per proportionem Geometricam : ut cum operario pro diurna opera datur quod aequum est , ex mutuo stipulatu . ( This he thinks is here meant ) . A lia merces est non debita , sed gratuita : estque tanquam fructus vel commodum quoddam — ( This he thinks not here meant . ) Operantem vocat illum qui legis operibus Justitiam venatur : non quod unquam ullus extiterit qui sic operatus est , ut mercedem debitam merito possit postulare , sed ex hypothesi loquitur , hoc modo ; siquis operaretur ut decet , mercedem debitam posset exigere . 8. Dav. Paraeus in loc . Explicat quid sit fidem imputari pro justitia : minime videlicet idem quod actum vel opus fidei suo merito reputari pro justitia ( sic enim nihil confecissit , ) sed credenti iustitiam ex gratia imputari nullo merito aut debito — Operantem non vocat cum qui bona opera facit , sed qui bonis operibus confidit , justitiam quarit , seu qui operatur debitae mercedis causa . Nam & credentes bene operantur , non vero ut Mercenarii : nec operibus Justitiam & vitam mereri volunt . Qui enim sic operatur excluditur à gratia , &c. — Ita , inquit res habet inter homines : qui laborat pro mercede , in vinea , militia , ruri , vel domi , ei merces per acto labore non imputatur vel donatur ex gratia , sed redditur ex debito ut meritum ; idque ex ordine justitiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae sancit aequalitatem Arithmeticam laboris & mercedis . Talis enim labor est meritum , opus indebitum , mercedem ex indebita faciens debitam propter justitiam . — Abrahae igitur promissa & imput●tio fuit justitiae merces , nullo operum merito , sed mera gratia . — Qui vero non operatur , nempe pro mercede , h. e. qui non quaerit Justi●iam operum meritis . 9. Dr. Willet in loc Q. 12. By him that worketh is understood , him that worketh with an intent thereby to merit or to be justified : For he that believeth also worketh ; but he is said , not to work secundum quid , because he doth it not to the end to merit by . 10. Dav. Dickson in loc . Ratio 3. Mercenario operanti , seu Justitiam ex operibus quaerenti , merces non potest esse gratuita , sed ex debito seu merito retribuenda est . 11. Cartwright cont . Rhem. in loc . For if the Reward should be given according to works , God should be a Debtor unto man : But it is absurd to make God a Debtor to man. 2. He speaketh not of that Reward that ignorant men challenge to themselves ; but of the Reward that God should in justice give , if men had deseerved it by their works . 12. Hemi●gius ( even a Lutheran ) supposeth the Argument to be thus . Imputatio gratuita non est operantis merces : justitia credentis est imputatio gratuita : ergo justitia credentis non est operantis merces . Major probatur per contrarium ; Merces operanti , id est , ei qui aliquid operibus promeretur , datur ex debito . — Probatio haec per concessionem Rhetoricam intelligenda est . Nequaquam enim Paulus sentit , quod quisquam ex debito fiat justus revera , sed quae sit natura rerum indicat — Imputare est aliquid gratia conferre , non ex debito tribuere . — Merces proprie est quod debebatur ex merito : hoc est . Debiti solutio . Yea in his blow at the Majorists he confesseth the truth [ 8. Evertitur corum dogma , qui clamant , opera necessaria ad salutem , quae salus cum à Justificatione separari nequit , non habet alias causas aut merita , quam ipsa Justificatio . Hoc tamen fatendum est , quod opera necessariò requirantur in Justificatis , ut iter intermedium , non ut causa aut merita . 13. Mich. Ragerus ( a Lutheran ) in loc . Imputatio fidei opponitur imputationi ex merito ; imputatio fidei fit secundum gratiam : E. fides in negotio Justificationis , non consideratur ut opus morale : quid enim per modum operis imputatur , secundum debitum & meritoriè imputatur — [ Et qui operatur ] sive operans renatus sit , sive non , dummodo eâ intentione operetur , ecque fine , ut mercedem reportet & opera sua censorio Dei judicio opposita velit . 14. In like manner Georg Calixtus ( a Lutheran ) in loc . pag. 26.28 , &c. To these I might add many other Protestant Expositors , and the votes of abundance of Polemical Divines , who tell the Papists that in Pauls sense it s all one [ to be justified by works : to be justified by the Law : and to be justified by merits . ] But this much may suffice for the vindication of that Text , and to prove that all works do not make the Reward to be of Debt ▪ and not of Grace , but only meritorious mercenary works , and not those of gratitude , &c. beforenamed . Treat . ibid. [ The second Argument may be from the peculiar and express difference that the Scripture giveth between faith and other graces , in respect of Justification . So that faith and good works are not to be considered as concurrent in the same manner , though one primarily , the other secondarily : so that if faith when it s said to Justifie , doth it not as a condition , but in some other peculiar notion , which works are not capable of , then we are not Justified by works as well as faith . Now it s not lightly to be passed over that the Scripture still useth a peculiar expression of faith , which is incommunicable to other graces . Thus Rom. 3.25 . Remission of sins is through faith in his blood , Rom. 4.5 . Faith is counted for Righteousness , Rom. 5.1 . Galatians ● . 16 . &c. Answer . First , This is nothing to the Question , and deserves no further answer . The Question is not now whether faith and works justifie in the same manner : that 's but a consequent ( rightly explained ) of another thing in question ; your self hath here made it the question , whether Works be Conditions of Justification ? And that which I affirmed is before explained . I grant , that if faith justifie not as a condition , but proxime in any other respect , then Faith and Repentance , &c. justifie not in the same manner : so that the sameness of their Interest in the general notion of a condition , supposeth faith to be a condition ; but if you can prove that it is not , I shall grant the difference which you prove . Now it is not our question here , whether faith be a condition , or an Instrument ; but whether other works ( as you choose to call them ) or humane acts be conditions . Secondly , Scripture taketh not faith in the same sense as my Opposers do , when it gives it the peculiar expressions that you mention . Faith in Pauls sense , is a Belief in Jesus Christ ( in all the respects essential to his person and office ) and so a hearty Acceptance of him for our Teacher , Lord and Saviour ; ( Saviour I say both from the guilt and power of sin ) and as one that will lead us by his word and spirit into Possession of eternal Glory which he hath purchased . ] So that it includeth many acts of Assent , and a Love to our Saviour , and desire of him ; and it implyeth self-denial , and renouncing our own righteousness , and all other Saviours , and a sense of our sin and misery , at least , Antecedents or concomitants ; and sincere Affiance and Obedience in gratitude to our Redeemer , as necessary consequents : And this faith is set by Paul , in opposition to the bare doing of the works of Moses Law ( and consequently of any other works with the same intention ) as separated from Christ who was the end and life of it , or at least , co-ordinate with him ; and so as the immediate matter of a legal Righteousness ; and consequently as mercenary , and valuable in themselves , or meritorious of the Reward . This is Pauls faith . But the faith disputed for by my Opponents , is the Act of recumbency or Affiance on Christ at Justifier or Priest , which they call the Apprehension of Christs righteousness ; and this as opposed to the Acceptance of Christ as our Teacher ▪ and King ▪ our Husband , Head , &c. ( further then these contain his Priesthood : ) and opposed to Repentance , to the love of our Saviour , to denying our own righteousness , confessing our sins , and confessing Christ to be our only Saviour , Thankfulness for free grace , &c. all which are called works by these men , and excluded from being so much as Conditions attending faith in our Justification or Remission of sin . The case may be opened by this similitude . A Physitian cometh to a populous City in an Epidemical Plague : There is none can scape without his help : he is a stranger to them , and they have received false informations and apprehensions of him that he is but a mountebank and deceiver ; though indeed he came of purpose in love and compassion to save their lives , having a most costly receipt which will certainly cure them . He offereth himself to be their Physitian , and freely to give them his Antidote , and to cure and save them , if they will but consent , that is , if they will take him for their Physitian , and thankfully take his medicine ; His enemies disswade the people from believing in him , and tell them that he is a Deceiver , and that if they will but stir themselves , and work , and use such dyet and medicines as they tell them of , they shall do better without him ; and a third party that seem to be friends , tell them , though you do take him for your Physitian yet must you work your self to health , and take those other medicines as well as his , if you will be cured . But the Physitian saith , its only your trusting in me that can cure you . Now here we are at a loss in the interpreting of his conditions . Some say , that they must be cured barely by believing or trusting in him , and not by taking his person in the full relation of a Physitian , or at least , not by taking his medicine , which they abhor , nor by exercising or sweating upon it , or observing the dyet and directions which he giveth them . But I rather interpret him thus ; in requiring you to take him for your Physitian , it is implyed , that you must take his medicines , how bitter soever , and that you must order your selves according to his directions , and must not take cold , nor eat or drink that which he forbiddeth you ; for though it be only his precious medicine that can cure you , yet if you will take those things that are destructive to you , it may hinder the working of it , and an ill dyet or disordered life may kill you . The working therefore that he excluded , was not this implyed observance of his directions , but your own Receipts and Labourings , as above-said . 3. I further answer to your observation , that the same Scripture that saith , [ We are justified by faith ] doth also say , that Except ye Repent , ye shall all perish . Luke 13.3 , 5. And Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the Remission of sins , Acts 2.38 . and mentioneth the Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of sin ; and joyneth the preaching of Repentance and Remssion , Luke 24.47 . Repent and be Converted , that your sins may be blotted out , &c. Luke 6.37 . Forgive and it shall be forgiven you , Jam. 5.15 . The prayer of faith shall save the sick — and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him , Mat. 6.14 , 15. If you forgive men their trespasses , your heavenly Father will forgive you ; but if you forgive not , &c. Mark 11.11 , 25. Forgive , that your Father may forgive you . 1 Iohn 1.9 . If we confess our sins , he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins , &c. Isa . 55.6 , 7 , &c. And he that saith , We are Justified by faith , saith also , that [ by works a man is justified , and not by faith only ; ] and that [ by our words we shall be justified . ] 4. Lastly , to your argument from the peculiar attributions to faith , I say , that we do accordingly give it its prerogative , as far as those attributions do direct us , and would do more , if it were not for fear of contradicting the Scripture . Treat . pag. 224. From these expressions it is that our Orthodox Divines say , that faith justifieth as it is an Instrument , laying hold on Christ , &c. ad pag. 226. Answ . Though I could willingly dispatch with one man at once , yet because it is the matter more then the person , that must be considered , I must crave your Patience as to the Answering of this Paragraph , till I come to the Dispute about faiths Instrumentality , to which it doth belong , that so I may not trouble the present Dispute by the Interposition of another . Treat . pag 226 The third Argument is , If in the continuance and progress of our Justification we are justified after the same manner we were at first , then it s not by faith and works , but by faith only as distinct to works , Rom. 1.17 . Galat. 3.11 . — Answ . 1. I grant the whole , understanding faith and works as Paul doth , but not as you do . 2. By [ the same manner ] either you mean , [ the same specifically ( as specified from the Covenant and Object ) as distinct from Jewish Righteousness , or from all false waies , or all Mercenary meritorious works ( so intended ) , or any manner that is not subordinate to Christ , and implyed in Believing . ] And thus your Antecedent is true , and your Consequence ( in your sense of faith and works ) is false ; Or else you mean [ the same manner ] in opposition to any additional act implyed in our first believing as its necessary Consequent . ] And thus your Minor or Antecedent is false . If you will not believe me , believe your self , who as flatly spake the contrary Doctrine , as ever I did , being not as it seems in every Lecture of the same thoughts ; pag. 118. you write it for observation in a different Character , thus [ For though holy works do not justifie , yet by them a man is continued in a state of Justification : so that did not the Covenant of grace interpose , gross and wicked waies would out off our Justification , and put us in a state of Condemnation . ] But because you may avoid your own authority at pleasure many waies , I shall give you a better authority that cannot be avoided . 1. In our first Justification , we were not justified by our words : but in our last Justification at Judgement we shall , Mat. 12.36 , 37. therefore they so far differ in the manner . 2. In our first Justification we were not justified by our works ; but afterwards we are , in some sense , or else James spoke not by the Spirit of God , Jam. 2.24 . The Major is plain , in that the works of Abraham , Rahab and such like , that Iames speaks of , were not existent at their first Justification . 3. In our first Justification we are not Judged , ( and so Justified ) according to our works . But in the last we are : therefore they differ in the manner . 4. In our first Justification we are not justified by the mouth of the Iudge , in presence passing a final irreversible sentence on us : but in the last we are : therefore they differ in the manner . 5. Our first pardon is not given us on condition of our first forgiving others : but the continuance is , Matth. 18.35 . & 6.14 , 15. 6. Our first pardon is not given us if we confess our sins : ( For we may be pardoned without that ) : but the renewed or continued pardon is , if we be called to it , 1 John 1.9 . 7. Reconciliation and final Justification is given to us in title , If we continue in the faith grounded and settled , and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel , &c. Col. 1.23 . 8. In our first Believing we take Christ in the Relation of a Saviour , and Teacher , and Lord , to save us from all sin , and to lead us to glory . This therefore importeth that we accordingly submit unto him , in those his Relations , as a necessary means to the obtaining of the benefits of the Relations . Our first faith is our Contract with Christ , or Acceptance of him as our Saviour : And all contracts of such nature , do impose a necessity of performing what we consent to and promise , in order to the benefits . To take Christ for my Saviour , is to take him to save me , viz. from the power and guilt of sin ; therefore if I will not be saved by him when I have done , but had rather keep my sin , then I did but nominally and hypocritically take him for my Saviour . To take him for my Teacher and become his Disciple , importeth my Learning of him , as necessary to the benefit . And in humane contracts it is so . Barely to take a Prince for her husband may entitle a woman to his honours and lands : But conjugal fidelity is also necessary for the continuance of them : for Adultery would cause a divorce . Consent and listing may make a man your Souldier : but obedience and service is as necessary to the Continuance , and the Reward . Consent may make a man your servant , without any service , and so give him entertainment in your family . But if he do not actually serve you , these shall not be continued , nor the wages obtained . Consent may enter a Scholar into your School : but if he will not Learn of you , he shall not be continued there . For all these after-violations cross the ends of the Relations . Consent may make you the subject of a Prince , but obedience is necessary to the continuance of your Priviledges . All Covenants usually tye men to somewhat which is to be performed to the full attainment of their ends . The Covenant-making may admit you , but it s the Covenant-keeping that must continue you in your priviledges , and perfect them . See more in my Confess . pag. 47. 3. But I further answer you , that according to the sense of your party , of the terms [ faith and works ] I deny your consequence : For with them [ Faith ] is [ Works ] : And though in Pauls sense we are not at all justified by works ; and in Iames his sense we are not at first justified by works : Yet in the sense of your party , we are justified by works even at first . For the Accepting of Christ for our King and Prophet , is Works with them : and this is Pauls faith , by which he and all are justified . Repentance is works with them : And this is one of Gods Conditions of our pardon . The Love and Desire of Christ our Saviour is works with them : but this is part of the faith that Paul was justified by . The like I may say of many acts of Assent , and other acts . Treat . Lect. 24. p. 227. Argu. 4. He that is justified by fulfilling a Condition , though he be thereunto enabled by grace , yet he is just and righteous in himself : But all justified persons , as to Iustification , are not righteous in themselves , but in Christ their Surety and Mediator . Answ . 1. If this were true in your unlimited latitude , Inherent Righteousness were the certainest evidence of damnation . For no man that had inherent Righteousness , i. e. Sanctification , could be justified or saved . But I am loth to believe that . 2. This Argument doth make as much against them that take Faith to be the Condition of Justification , and so look to be justified by it as a Condition , as against them that make Repentance or Obedience the Condition : And it concludeth them all excluders of the true and only Justification . I am loth to dissent from you : but I am loather to believe that all those are unjustified , that take faith for the Condition of Justification . They are hard Conclusions that your Arguments infer . 3. Righteousness in a mans self is either Qualitaetive , or Relative , called imputed . As to the later , I maintain that all the justified are Righteous in themselves by an Imputed Relative Righteousness , merited for them by Christ , and given to them . And this belief I will live and die in be the grace of God. Qualitative ( and Active ) Righteousness is threefold . 1. That which answers the Law of works , [ Obey perfectly and live . ] 2. That which answers the bare letter of Moses Law , ( without Christ the sense and end ) which required an operous task of duty , with a multitude of sacrifices for pardon of failings , ( which were to be effectual only through Christ whom the unbelieving Jews understood not . ) 3. That righteousness which answers the Gospel imposition Repent and Believe . As to the first of these , A righteousness fully answering the Law of nature . I yield your Minor , and deny your Major . A man may be justified by fulfilling the condition of the Gospel which giveth us Christ to be our Righteousness to answer the Law , and yet not have any such righteousness qualitative in himself , as shall answer that Law. Nay it necessarily implyeth that he hath none : For what need he to perform a Condition , for obtaining such a Righteousness by free gift from another , if he had it in himself . And as to the second sort of Righteousness , I say , that it is but a nominal righteousness , consisting in a conformity to the Letter without the sense and end , and therefore can justifie none : besides that none fully have it . So that the Mosaeical Righteousness , so far as is necessary to men , is to be had in Christ , and not in themselves . But the performance by themselves of the Gospel Condition , is so far from hindring us from that gift , that without it none can have it . But then as to the third sort of righteousness qualitative , I answer , He that performeth the Gospel Condition of Repenting and Believing himself , is not therefore Righteous in himself with that righteousness qualitative which answereth the Law of works . But he that performeth the said Gospel Conditions , is Righteous in himself . 1. Qualitatively and actively , with that righteousness which answers the Gospel Constitution , [ He that believeth shall be saved , &c. ] which is but a particular Righteousness , by a Law of Grace , subordinated to the other as the Condition of a free gift . 2. And Relatively , by the Righteousness answering the Law of Works , as freely given by Christ on that Condition . This is evident , obvious , necessary , irrefragable truth , and will be so after all opposition . Treat . pag. 228. Yea I think if it be well weighed , it will be found to be a contradiction , to say they are Conditions , and yet a Causa sine qua non of our Justification ; for a causa sine qua non , is no Cause at all : but a Condition in a Covenant strictly taken , hath a Moral efficiency , and is a Causa cum qua , not a sine qua non . Answ . 1. You do but think so ; and that 's no cogent Argument . I think otherwise , and so you are answered . 2. And Lawyers think otherwise , ( as is before shewed , and more might be ) and so you are over-answered . A Condition qua talis ( which is the strictest acception ) is no Cause at all ; though the matter of it may be meritorious , among men , and so causal . If you will not believe me , nor Lawyers , nor custom of speech , then remember at least what it is that I mean by a Condition , and make not the difference to lie where it doth not . Think not your self sounder in matter of Doctrine , but only in the sense of the Word [ Condition ] ; but yet do somewhat first to prove that too ; viz. that a Condition as such , hath a moral efficiency . Prove that if you are able . Treat . ib. If Adam had stood in his integrity , though that confirmation would have been of grace , yet his works would have been a causall Condition of the blessedness promised . In the Covenant of Grace , though what man doth is by the gift of God , yet look upon the same gift as our duty , and as a Condition , which in our persons is performed , This inferreth some Moral Efficiency . Answ . 1. See then all you that are accounted Orthodox , the multitude of Protestant Divines that have made either Faith or Repentance Conditions , what a case you have brought your selves into . And rejoyce then all you that have against them maintained that the Covenant of Grace hath on our part no Conditions ; for your Cause is better then some have made you believe : and in particular , this Reverend Author . Yea see what a case he hath argued himself into , while he hath argued you out of the danger that you were supposed in : For he himself writeth against those that make Repentance to be but a sign , and deny it to be a Condition to qualifie the subject for Iustification . Treat . of Iustif . part . 1. Lect. 20. And he saith that in some gross sins there are many Conditions requisite ( besides humiliation ) without which pardon of sin cannot be obtained : and instanceth in restitution . pag. 210. with many the like passages . 2. Either you mean that Adams works would have been Causall quatenus a Condition performed , or else quatenus meritorious ex natura materia , or some other cause : The first I still deny , and is it that you should prove , and not go on with naked affirmations : The second I will not yield you , as to the notion of meritorious , though it be nothing to our question . The same I say of your later instance of Gospel Conditions . Prove them morally efficient , qua tales , if you can . Treat . ib. And so , though in words they deny , yet in deed they do exalt works to some kind of causality . Answ . I am perswaded you speak not this out of malice : but is it not as unkind and unjust , as if I should perswade men , that you make God the Author of sin indeed , though you deny it in words ? 1. What be the Deeds that you know my mind by to be contrary to my words ? Speak out , and tell the world , and spare me not . But if it be words that you set against words . 1. Why should you not believe my Negations , as well as my ( supposed ) affirmations . Am I credible only when I speak amiss , and not at all when I speak right ? A charitable judgementi 2. And which should you take to be indeed my sense ? A naked term [ Condition ] expounded by you that never saw my heart ? and therefore know not how I understand it , further then I tell you ; Or rather my express explication of that term in a sense contrary to your supposition . ●ear all you that are impartial , and judge : I say [ A Condition is no Cause ] and [ Faith and Repentance are Conditions ] . My Reverend Brother tells you now , that in word I deny them to be efficient Causes , but in deed I make them such , viz. I make them to be what I deny them to be . Judge between us , as you see cause . Suppose I say that [ Scripture is Sacred ] and withall I add that by Sacred , I mean that which is related to God , as proceeding from him , and separated to him : and I plead Etymologie , and the Authority of Authors , and Custom for my speech . If my Reverend Brother now will contradict me only as to the fitness of the word , and say that sacer signifieth only execrabilis , I will not be offended with him , though I will not believe him : but should so good and wise a man proclaim in print , that sacer signifieth only execrabilis , and therefore that though in word I call Scripture Sacred , yet in deed I make it execrable , I should say this were unkind dealing . What! plainly to say that a Verbal controversie is a Real one ; and that contrary to my frequent published professions ! What is this but to say Whatever he saith , I know his heart to be contrary . Should a man deal so with your self now , he hath somewhat to say for it : For you first profess Repentance and Restitution to be a Condition ( as I do ) and when you have done , profess Conditions to have a Moral Efficiency ( which I deny ) : But what 's this to me , that am not of your mind ? Treat . pag. 229. A fifth Argument is that which so much sounds in all Books . If good works be the effect and fruit of our Justification , then they cannot be Conditions , or Causa sine qua non of our Iustification . But , &c. Answ . 1. I deny the Minor in the sense of your party ; Our first Repentance , our first desire of Christ as our Saviour , and Love to him as a Saviour , and our first disclaiming of all other Saviours , and our first accepting him as Lord and Teacher , and as a Saviour from the Power of sin , as well as the guilt ; all these are works with you ; and yet all these are not the effects of our Relative Justification ; nor any of them . 2. As to External acts and Consequent internal acts , I deny your Consequence , taking it of continued or final Justification ; though I easily yield it as to our Justification at the first . 1. All the acts of justifying faith , besides the first act , are as truly effects of our first Justification as our other graces or gracious acts are . And doth it therefore follow that they can be no Conditions of our continued Justification ? Why not Conditions as well as Instruments or Causes ? Do you think that only the first instantaneous act of faith doth justifie , and no other after through the course of our lives ? I prove the contrary from the instance of Abraham : It was not the first act of his faith that Paul mentioneth when he proveth from him Justification by faith . As it s no good Consequence [ Faith afterward is the effect of Iustification before ; therefore it cannot afterward justifie , or be a Condition . ] So it s no good Consequence as to Repentance , Hope , or Obedience , 2. It only follows that they cannot be the Condition of that Justification whereof they are the effect , and which went before them ( which is granted you . ) But it follows not that they may not be the Condition of continued or final Justification . Sucking the brest , did not cause life in the beginning : therefore it is not a means to continue it : It followeth not . You well teach that the Justification at the last Judgement is the chief and most eminent Justification . This hath more Conditions then your first pardon of sin had , yea as many as your salvation hath , as hath been formerly proved , and may be proved more at large . Treat pag. 230. By this we may see that more things are required to our Salvation , then to our Iustification ; to be possessors of heaven , and ( than it should be ) to entitle us thereto . Answ . 1. It s true , as to our first Justifying ; and its true as to our present continued state : because perseverance is still requisite to salvation . But it s not true as to our final sentential Justification : There is as much on our part required to that , as to salvation it self . 1. The promise makes no difference . 2. The nature of the thing doth put it past doubt . For what is our final Justification , but a Determination of the Question by publick sentence , on our side , Whether we have Right to salvation or not ? The 25. of Matthew shews the whole . 2. I argue against you from your own Doctrine here , thus ; If Justification be it that gives us Right or Title to salvation , then that which is the Condition of our Right to salvation , is the Condition of our Justification : the Antecedent here is your own Doctrine , and is partly true : And the Consequence is undenyable ; whereto I add , [ But the Doing of Christs Commandments is the Condition of our Right to salvation : therefore also of our Right to Justification , viz. as Consummate . The Minor I prove , from Rev. 22.14 . Blessed are they that do his Commandements , that they may have Right to the tree of life , and may enter in , &c. ] Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved , Rom. 10.13 . Acts 2.21 . We are saved by hope , Rom. 8.24 . Who so walketh uprightly shall be saved , Prov. 28.18 . Baptism doth save us , 1 Pet. 3.21 . [ In doing this thou shall both save thy self and them that hear thee . ] 1 Tim. 4.16 . If he [ have not works , can faith save him ? ] Iames 2.14 . Treat . ib. It s true , that Iustification cannot be continued in a man , unless he continue in good works : Yet for all that , they are not Conditions of his Iustification : they are Qualifications and Determinations of tht subject who is justified ; but no Conditions of his Iustification . As in the generation of man , &c. Light is necessarily required , and dryness , as qualties in fire , yet , &c. Answ . 1. It s well you once more confess that the thing is necessary ! Our question then is only of the nature , and reason of that necessity ? Whether it be necessitas medii ad finem , as to the continuance or consummation of our Justification ? This I hope you will never deny . If medii , then what medium is it ? not a cause . If not a condition , then tell us what , if you can . Secondly , You say nothing to the purpose , when you give us Instances of Natural properties and qualifications . For besides that some of them are not media ( as Light to burning ) the rest that are media , are Physically necessary ad finem : But First , We are not discoursing of Physicks , and Physical necessities : but of Morals , and moral necessity . Secondly , You cannot here pretend ( or at least prove ) that there is an absolute Physical necessity ad finem to every one of the things in question to their end . Thirdly , Much less that this is the nearest reason of their Interest , and that God hath not morally superadded the necessity of a Condition by his Constitution . I prove that the necessity is moral . First , It is imposed by way of Precept , which causeth a moral necessity . Secondly , The Precept hath varied at the pleasure of God , there being more Duties now , then formerly were , and some ceased that were then imposed . Yea , That its a condition having necessity ad finem , is evident . First , Because it is the modus promissionis imposed on us by God as Promiser in a conditional form of words , as necessary to our attaining of the benefit promised . [ If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus , and believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead , thou shalt be saved , Rom. 10.9 . If you forgive men their trespasses , your heavenly Father will forgive you , &c. ] Mat. 64.15 . Secondly , And it is not of Physical necessity ; for then God could not save us without it , but by a Miracle . Whereas he saved men before Christ by believing in a Messiah in general , without beliveing that this Jesus is he , and without believing that he was actually conceived by the Holy Ghost , born of the Virgin Mary , was crucified , buried , rose again , ascended , &c. And he saveth Infants , that themselves believe not at all ; so that when you say it is a qualification of the subject , you mean either [ the subject as justified ] and that is nothing to the business : for then the question is not what Relation our actions have to that which is past , but to that which is future . Or else you mean the subject as to be Justified at Judgement , or here to be so continued . And then the question still remaineth , whether those qualifications are means or no means ? And if means , of what sort , if not conditions ? Treat . pag. 231. The sixth Argument : If Justification be by works as a condition , then one man is more or less Justified then another ; and those works are required to one mans Justification which are not to another , so that there shall not be two godly men in the world Justified alike . For if faith Justified as a work , then he that had a stronger faith , would be more Justified then he that hath a weaker . Answer . First , I grant the conclusion , if you had taken Works in Pauls sense , for the works of a hirling , or any that are supposed to justifie by their value . Secondly , I deny your first consequence : And I give you the reason of my denyal ( I hope a little better then yours for the proof of it ) First , It is not the degree of Repentance or Obedience that is made the Condition of our continued and final Justification : but the Sincerity . Now the sincerity is the same thing in one as in another ; therefore one is no more justified hereby then another . Secondly , You might as well say , that different degrees of faith , make different degrees of Justification . But that is not just , because it lies all on the sincerity ; therefore it is as unjust here for the same reason . Your Reason is such as I expected not from you . [ For if Faith ( say you ) justifie as a work ] But who saith it doth justifie as a work ? Your Reader that suspecteth nothing , but fair in your words , may think I do ; when I have again and again in terminis disavowed it . And do you think it is a cogent reason indeed , [ If works or faith justifie as a condition , there will be various degrees of Justification : Because if it justifie as a work , there will be various degrees . ] The reason of the Consequence is as strange to me , as a baculo ad angulum . Once more : First , Faith doth not justifie as a Physical act : Secondly , Nor as a Moral act , or virtue in general . Thirdly , Nor as a mercenary meritorious act . Fourthly , But as an act adapted to the object , and specially fitted to this gratious design , it is chosen to be the condition , and repentance and self-denyal accordingly to attend it . Fifthly , And as the appointed condition , we are justified by it . Sure therefore it doth not justifie as a work . But how they will avoid your consequence that say it justifieth as an Instrument , let them see . As to your Consequence , I answer ▪ First , That which is absolutely necessary , is sincere Repentance and sincere Obedience ; and this is the same in all . Secondly , But the matter of both these , viz. the sins repented of , and the duties of Obedience may differ in many particulars in several persons . One may not have the same sins to Repent of as another , and one may have some particular duties more then another : though in the main , all have the same sin and duty . But this difference is no absurdity , nor strange thing . When Christ mentioneth the final Justification of some , Mat. 25. and gives the reason from their works [ for I was hungry and ye fed me , &c. ] I read of none that took it for an absurdity , because . First , The poor . Secondly , Infants . Thirdly , Those that dye before they have opportunity , do no such works . Treat . pag. 231. The seventh Argument . This Assertion according to the sense of the late Writers ( that are otherwise Orthodox , for I mean not the Socinians ) will bring in a Justification two waies , or make a twofold Justification , whereof one will be needless . For they grant an Imputation of Christs Righteousness in respect of the Law ; he fulfilled that , and satisfied Gods Justice , that the Law cannot accuse us . And besides this , they make an Evangelical personal Righteousness by our own Evangelical works . Now certainly this later is wholly superfluous ; for if Christs Righteousness be abundantly able to satisfie for all that righteousness which the Law requireth of us ; what is the matter that it removeth not all our Evangelical failings , and supply that righteousness also ? surely this is to make the stars shine , when the Sun is in its full lustre . Thus it may be observed , while men for some seeming difficulty avoid the good known way of truth , they do commonly bring in Assertions of far more difficulty to be received . In this case it s far more easie to maintain one single Righteousness , viz. the Obedience of our Lord Christ , then to make two , &c. Answ . First , This twofold Righteousness is so far from being needless , that all shall perish in everlasting torment that have not both . I doubt not but you have both your self ; and therefore do but argue with all this confidence against that which you must be saved by , and which you carry within you . As if you should argue that both a heart and a brain are needless , and therefore certainly you have but one . But the best is , concluding you have but one , doth not really prove that you have but one ; for if it did , it would prove you had neither ; and then you were but a dead man in one case , and a lost man in the other . First , Did ever any man deny the necessity of inherent Righteousness , that was called a Protestant ? Object . But that 's nothing to its necessity to Justification . Answ . First , it s the very being of it that you plead against as needless , if your words are intelligible . 2ly . It s as gross a contradiction to talk of a Righteousness that makes not righteous , or will not justifie in tantum , according to its proportion , as to talk of whitness that makes not white , or Paternity that makes not a father , or any form that doth not inform , or is a form , and is not a form . Secondly , If there be two distinct Laws or Covenants , then there is a necessity of two dstinct Righteousnesses to our Justification . But the Antecedent is certain . I suppose it will be granted that Christs righteousness is necessary to answer the Law of works . And I shall further prove that a personal righteousness given from Christ , is necessary to fulfill the condition of the new Covenant or Law of Grace , believe and be saved , &c. Thirdly , Christ did not himself fulfill the condition of the Gospel for any man , nor satisfie for his final non-performance ; therefore he that will be saved , must perform it himself or perish . That Christ performed it not in person , is past doubt . It was not consistent with his state and perfection to repent of sin , who had none to repent of ; to return from sin to God , who never fell from him ; to beleve in Christ Jesus , that is , to accept himself as an offered Saviour , and to take himself as a Saviour to himself , that is , as one that redeemed himself from sin , to deny his own righteousness , to confess his sin , to pray for pardon of it , &c. Do you seriously believe that Christ hath done this for any man ? For my part , I do not believe it . Secondly , That he that hath not satisfied for any mans final predominant Infidelity and Impenitency , I know you will grant , because you will deny that he dyed for any sin of that person ( or at least , your party will deny it . ) Thirdly , All that shall be saved , do actually perform these conditions themselves . I know you will confess it , that none ( adult ) but the Penitent , Believers , Holy , shall be saved . This sort of Righteousness therefore is of necessity . Fourthly , The Benefits of Christ obedience and death are made over to men by a conditional Promise , Deed of gift , or act of oblivion . Therefore the condition of that Grant or Act must be found before any man can be justified by the righteousness of Christ . It is none of yours till you repent and believe : therefore you must have the personal Righteousness of faith and repentance , in subordination to the imputed righteousness , that it may be yours . And will you again conclude , that [ Certainly this later is wholly superfluous ] . Hath not God said ? ] He that believeth , shall be saved ; and he that believeth not , shall be damned . ] And Repent and be converted , that your sins may be blotted out . &c. ] Is it not necessary that these be done then , both as duty commanded , and as a condition or some means of the end propounded and promised ? And is this wholly superfluous ? In Judgement , if you be accused to have been finally impenitent , or an Infidel , will you not plead your personal faith and repentance , to justifie you against that accusation ? or shall any be saved that saith , [ I did not repent or believe , but Christ did for me ? ] If it be said that [ Christs satisfaction is sufficient ; but what 's that to thee that performedst not the conditions of his Covenant , and therefore hast no part in it ? ] Will you not produce your faith and repentance for your Justification against this charge , and so to prove your Interest in Christ ? Nay is it like to be the great business of that day to enquire whether Christ have done his part or no ? or yet to enquire , whether the world were sinners ? or rather to judge them according to the terms of grace which were revealed to them , and to try whether they have part in Christ or not ; and to that end , whether they believed , repented , loved him in his members , improved his Talents of Grace or not ? Or can any thing but the want of this personal righteousness then hazard a mans soul ? But you ask [ If Christs righteousness be able to satisfie , what is the matter that it removeth not all our Evangelical failings ? &c. ] Answ . Either you ask this question as of a penitent Believer , or the finally impenitent Vnbeliever . If of the former , I say , First , All his sins Christs righteousness pardoneth and covereth ; and consequently all the failings in Gospel duties . Secondly , But his predominant final Impenitency and Infidelity Christ pardoneth not , because he is not guilty of it ; he hath none such to pardon ; but hath the personal righteousness of a performer of the conditions of the Gospel : And for the finally impenitent Infidels , the answer is , because they rejected that Righteousness which was able to satisfie , and would not return to God by him ; and so not performing the condition of pardon , have neither the pardon of that sin , nor of any other which were conditionally pardoned to them . If this Doctrine be the avoiding the good known way , there is a good known way besides that which is revealed in the Gospel : And if this be so hard a point for you to receive , I bless God , it is not so to me . And if it be far more easie to maintain one single righteousness , viz. imputed only ; it will not prove so safe as easie . If one righteousness may serve , may not Pilate and Simon Magus be justified , if no man be put to prove his part in it ? and if he be , how shall he prove it , but by his performance of the conditions of the Gift . Treat . pag. 232. Argu. 8. That cannot be a condition of Justification , which it self needeth Justification : But good works being imperfect , and having much dross cleaving , need a Justification to take that guilt away . Answ . First Again , hearken all you that have so long denyed the Covenant to have any conditions at all : Here is an Argument to maintain your cause : for it makes as much against faith as any other acts ( which they call works ) for faith is imperfect also , and needs Justification , ( a pardon I suppose you mean ; I had rather talk of pardoning my sins , then justifying them , or any imperfections what ever . ) Secondly , But indeed it s too gross a shift to help your cause . The Major is false , and hath nothing to tempt a man to believe it that I can see . Faith and Repentance are considerable . First , As sincere . Secondly , As imperfect : They are not the conditions of pardon as imperfect , but as sincere . God doth not say [ I will pardon you if you will not perfectly believe , ] but [ If you will believe . ] Imperfection is sin : and God makes not sin a condition of pardon and life . I am not able to conceive what it was that in your mind could seem a sufficiennt reason for this Proposition , that nothing can be a condition that needs a pardon . It s true , that in the same respect as it needs a pardon ; that is , as it is a sin , it can be no condition . But faith as faith , Repentance as Repentance is no sin . Treat . ibid. It s true , Justification is properly of persons , and of actions indirectly and obliquely . Answ . The clean contrary is true , as of Justification in general , and as among men , ordinarily . The action is first accusasable , or justifiable , and so the person as the cause of that Action . But in our Justification by Christs satisfaction , our Actions are not justifiable at all , save only that we have performed the condition of the Gift that makes his righteousness ours . Treat . pag. 233. This question therefore is again and again to be propounded : If good works be the condition of our Justification , how comes the guilt in them that deserveth condemnation to be done away ? Is there a further condition required to this condition ? and so another to that with a processus in infinitum ? Answ . Once may serve turn , for any thing regardable that I can perceive in it . But if so , again and again you shall be answered ; The Gospel giveth Christ and life upon the same condition to all ; This condition is first a duty , and then a condition . As a duty we perform it imperfectly and so sinfully : for the perfection of it is a duty , but the perfection is not the condition , but the sincerity . Sincere Repentance and faith is the condition of the pardon of all our sins : therefore of their own Imperfections , which are sins . Will you ask now [ If faith be imperfect , how comes the guilt of that Imperfection to be pardoned ? is it by a further condition , and so in infinitum ? ] No : it is on tht same condition : sincere repentance and faith are the conditions of a pardon for their own Imperfections . Is there any difficulty in this , or is there any doubt of it ? Why may not faith be a condition , as well as an Instrument of receiving the pardon of its own Imperfection ? I hope still you perceive that you put these questions to others as well as me , and argue against the common Judgement of Protestants , who make that which is imperfect , to be the condition of pardon . [ Repent and be baptized ( saith Peter ) for the remission of sin ; Of what sin ? is any excepted to the Penitent Believer ? certainly no : It is of all sins . And is not the imperfection of faith and repentance a sin ? The same we say of sincere obedience as to the continuance of our Justification , or the not losing it , and as to our final Justification . If we sincerely obey , God will adjudge us to salvation , and so justifie us by his final sentence , through the blood of Christ from all the imperfections of that obedience : what need therefore of running any further towards an infinitum ? Treat . ibid. The Popish party and the Castellians are so far convinced of this , that therefore they say our good works are perfect . And Castellio makes that prayer for pardon not to belong to all the godly . Answ . It seems they are partly Quakers . But they are unhappy souls , if such an Argument could drive them to such an abominable opinion . And yet if this that you affirm , be the cause , that Papists have taken up the doctrine of perfection , I have more hopes of their recovery then I had before ; nay , because they are some of them men of ordinary capacities , I take it as if it were done already . For the Remedy is most obvious ; Understand , Papists , that it is Faith and Repentance and Obedience to Christ in Truth , and not in Perfection that is the Condition of your final Justification at Judgement , and you need not plead for perfection any more . But I hardly believe you , that this is the cause of their error in this point . And you may see that if Protestants had no more Wit then Papists , they must all be driven by the violence of your Argument , to hold that Faith and Repentance are perfect . And seeing you tell us of Castellio's absurdity , I would intreat you to tell us , why it is that you pray for pardon your selves ; either you take Prayer to be Means to obtain pardon , or you do not : If not , then 1. Pardon is none of your end in praying for pardon . 2. And then if once it be taken for no means , men cannot be blamed if they use it but accordingly . But if you do use it as a means , then what means is it ? Is Prayer any cause of Pardon ? say so , and you say more then we that you condemn , and fall under all those censures that per fas aut nefas are cast upon us . If it be no cause of pardon ; Is it a condition sine qua non , as to that manner of pardoning that your prayer doth intend ? If you say yea , you consequentially recant your disputation ( or Lecture ) and turn into the tents of the Opinionists . But if it be no condition of pardon , then tell us what means it is if you can . If you say , it is a duty . I answer , Duty and Means are commonly distinguished , and so is necessitas praecepti & medii . Duty as such , is no means to an end , but the bare result of a command . Though all Duty that God commandeth is also some means , yet that is not qua Duty . And so far as that Duty is a means , it is either a Cause , ( near or remote ) or a Condition , either of the obtainment of the benefit , simply , or of the more certain , or speedy , or easie attainment of it , or of obtaining some inferiour good , that conduceth to the main . So that still it is a Cause or a Condition , if a means . If you say , It is an Antecedent . I say , qua tale , that is no means , but if a Necessary antecedent , that which is the reason of its necessity may make it a means . If you go to Physical prerequisites ( as you talkt of a mans shoulders bearing the head that he may see , &c. ) you go extra oleas ; It s a moral means that we treat of , and I think you will not affirm Prayer to be a means of physical necessity to pardon . If it were , it must be a Physical cause , near or remote , or a Dispositio materiae of natural necessity , &c. If you say , that prayer for pardon , is dispositio subjecti , I answer , that 's it that we Opinionists do affirm : But it is a dispositio moralis , and necessary ut medium ad finem : and that necessity must be constituted by the Promiser or Donor : and that can be only by his modus promissionis , which makes it in some measure or other a condition of the thing promised . So that there is no lower moral medium then a meer condition sune qua non , that my understanding can hitherto find out , or apprehend . Treat ibid. Paul Judgeth them dung and dross in reference to Justification ; yea all things , &c. Answ . 1. But what are those All things ? 2. And what Reference to Justification is it ? If All things simply in all relation to Justification , then he must judge the Gospel dung and dross as to the Instrumental collation of Justification ; and the Sacraments dung and dross as to the sealing of it ; and the Ministry dung and dross , as to the preaching and offering it , and beseeching men to be reconciled to God : and Faith to be dung and dross , as to the receiving of it ; as well as Repentance and Faith to be dung and dross as conditions of it ; or Prayer , Obedience , as conditions of continuing it . 2. It s evident in the text that Pauls speaks of All things that stand in opposition to Christ , and that stand in competition with him , as such ; and not of any thing that stands in a necessary subordination to him as such . 3. He expresly addeth in the text , [ for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ] this therefore is none of the [ all things that are dung ] for the All things are opposed to this . And it containeth that faith , which is works with the Opponents : for this is more then a recumbency on Christ as Priest : It is the Knowledge of him as Lord also . I am confident I shall never learn to expound Paul thus [ I esteem All things , even the knowledge of Christ Jesus as Lord and Prophet , as dung for the Knowledge of him as Priest . ] Also Paul here excepteth his suffering the loss of that All. I am confident that the [ All ] that Paul suffered the loss of , comprehended not his Self-denyal , Repentance , Prayer , Charity , Hope , &c. 4. It is not only in reference to Justification that Paul despiseth All things ; but it is to the winning of Christ ( who doubtless is the Principle of Sanctification as well as Justification ) and to be found in him , which containeth the sum of his felicity . If a man should be such a self-contradicter as to set Repentance , or Faith in Christ , or Prayer in his Name , or Hope in him , &c. against winning Christ , and against being found in him , or against the knowledge of him , let that man so far esteem his faith , hope , prayer , &c. as dung . If you should say , [ I account all things dung for the winning of God himself as my felicity . ] Would you have me interpret you thus , [ I account the love of God dung , and prayer to him , and studious obeying him , and the word that revealeth him , &c. even as they stand subordinate to him . ] This same Paul rejoyced in the testimony of his conscience , that in simplicity and godly sincerity he had had his conversation among them : and he beat or subdued his body , and brought it into subjection , lest he should be Reprobated after he was justified , and he prayed for pardon of sin , and tells Timothy , [ In doing this thou shalt save thy self , &c. ] therefore these things thus used , were none of the All things , that he opposed to the knowledge of Christ , as dung . Treat . pag. 234 , 235. Others would avoid this Objection , by saying , that Gospel graces , which are the Conditions of the Covenant , are reducible to the Law , and so Christ in satisfying the Law , doth remove the imperfections cleaving to them . And they judge it absurb to say , that Christ hath satisfied for the sins of the second Covenant , or breaches , which is said to be only final unbelief . Answ . As this is brought in by head and shoulders , so is it recited lamely , without the necessary distinctions and explications adjoyned , yea without part of the Sentence it self : and therefore unfaithfully . Treat . But this answer may be called Legion ; for many errours and coctradictions are in it . 1. How can justifying faith qua talis in the act of Justifying , and Repentance , be reducible duties to the Law taken strictly ? Indeed as it was in a large sense discovered to the Jews , being the Covenant of Grace , as I have elsewhere proved ( Vindic. Legis ) so it required Justifying Faith and Repentance . But take , it in the sense as the Abettor of this opinion must do , justifying faith and repentance must be called the works of the Law. Answ . It s easilier called Legion then faithfully reported , or solidly confuted . 1. Let the Reader observe how much I incurr'd the displeasure of Mr. Blake , for denying the Moral Law to be the sufficient or sole Rule of all duty , and how much he hath said against me therein ; and then judge how hard a task it is to please all men : when these two neighbours and friends , do publikely thus draw me such contrary waies , and I must be guilty of more then ordinary errour whether I say Yea or Nay . And yet ( which is the wonder ) they differ not among themselves . 2. But seeing your ends direct you to fetch in his controversie , so impertinent to the rest , its requisite that the Abettor do better open his opinion , then you have done , that the Reader may not have a Defence of he knows not what . My opinion so oft already explained in other writings , is this . 1. That the Law of Nature as continued by the Mediator , is to be distinguished from the Remedying Law of Grace , called the New Testament , the Promise , &c. ( Whether you will call them two Laws , or two parts of one Law , is little co the purpose ; seeing in some respect they are two , and in some but one . ) 2. That this continued Law of Nature hath its Precept and Sanction , or doth constitute the Dueness , 1. Of Obedience in general to all that God hath commanded or shall command . 2. And of many duties in particular . 3. And of everlasting death as the penalty of all sin . So that it saith , The wages of sin is death . 3. That to this is affixed the Remedying Law of Grace , like an act of Oblivion , which doth 1. Reveal certain points to be believed . 2. And command the belief of them , which other particular duties in order to its ends . 3. And doth offer Christ , and Pardon , and Life , by a Conditional Donation enacting that whosoever will Repent and Believe shall be Justified , and persevering therein with true obedience , shall be finally adjudged to everlasting life , and possessed thereof . It s tenor is , He that Repenteth and Believeth shall be saved , and he that ; doth not shall be damned . 4. That the sense of this Promise and Threatning is , He that Repenteth and Believeth at all in this life , though but at the last hour , shall be saved ; and he that doth it not at all shall be damned . Or he that is found a penitent Believer at death , &c. And not , he that believeth not to day or to morrow shall be damned , though afterward he do . 5. That the threatning of the Law of Nature was not at first Peremptory and Remediless ; and that now it is so far Remedyed , as that there is a Remedy at hand for the dissolving of the Obligation , which will be effectual as soon as the Condition is performed . 6. That the Remedying Law of Grace , hath a peculiar penalty , that is , 1. Non-liberation , A privation of Pardon and life which was offered ( For that 's now a penal privation , which if there had been no Saviour , or Promise , or Offer , would have been but a Negation . ) 2. The certain Remedilesness of their misery for the future , that there shall be no more sacrifice for sin . 3. And whether also a greater degree of punishment , I leave to consideration . 7. I still distinguished between the Precepts and the Sanction of the Law of Grace or New Covenant , and between sin as it respecteth both : And so I said , that Repentance and Faith in Christ ( even as a means to Justification ) are commanded in specie in the Gospel , which constituteth them duties , but commanded consequently in genere in the Law of nature under the generall of Obedience to all particular precepts : and whether also the Law of Nature require the duty in specie , supposing God to have made his supernatural preparations in providing and propounding the objects , I left to enquiry . Accordingly I affirmed that Impenitency and Infidelity , though afterward Repented of , as also the Imperfections of true faith and repentance , are sins against the General precept of the Law of Nature , and the special precept of the Law of Grace , and that Christ dyed for them , and they are pardoned through his blood , upon condition of sincere Repentance and Faith. 8. Accordingly distinguishing between the respect that sin hath to the precept and prohibition on one side , and to the promise and threatning on the other , I affirmed , that the foresaid Impenitency and Infidelity that are afterwards repented of , and the Imperfections of true Faith and Repentance are condemned by the Remediable threatning of the Law of Nature only , and that the person is not under the Actual obligation of the peculiar Threatning of the Law of Grace ; that is , that though as to the Gospel Precept , these sins may be against the Gospel as well as the Law , yet as to the Threatning , they are not such violations of the New Covenant , as bring men under its actual curse ; for then they were remediless . And therefore I said , that its only final Impenitency and Unbelief , as final , that so subjects men to that Curse or Remediless peremptory sentence . The reason is , because the Gospel maketh Repenting and Believing at any time before death , the Condition of promised pardon : and therefore if God by death make not the contrary impenitency and unbelief final , it is not that which brings a man under the Remediless Curse ; ( except only in case of the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost , which is ever final . ) 9 Accordingly I affirm that Christ never bore , or intended to bear the peculiar Curse of his own Law of Grace . 1. As not suffering for any mans final impenitency and unbelief , which is proved in his Gospel constitution , which giveth out pardon only on Condition of Faith and Repentance : and therefore the non-performance of his Condition is expresly excepted from all pardon , and consequently from the intended satisfaction , and price of pardon . 2. In that he did not bear that species of punishment , as peculiarly appointed by the Gospel , viz. To be denyed Pardon , Justification and Adoption , and to be Remediless in misery , &c. 10. Also I said , that all other sins are pardonable on the Gospel Conditions ; but the non-performance ( that is , final ) of those Conditions is everlastingly unpardonable ( and consequently no sin pardoned for want of them . ) Reader , this is the face of that Doctrine which Reverend Brethren vail over with the darkness and confusion of these General words ; that I say , [ Christ hath not satisfied for sins against the second Covenant . ] And all these explications I am fain to trouble the world with , as oft as they are pleased to charge me in that confusion . But what remedy ? This is the Legion of errours and contradictions ; which I leave to thy impartial judgement , to abhor them as far as the Word and Spirit shall convince thee that they are erroneous , and to bless those Congregations and Countries that are taught to abhor them , and to rejoyce in their felicity that believe the contrary . Treat . pag. 235. 2. If so , then the works of the Law are Conditions of our Justification , and thus he runneth into the extream he would avoid . Answ . 1. The works which the Law requireth to Justification , that is , perfect obedience , are not the Conditions of Justification . 2. Nor the fulfilling of the Mosaical Law of Sacrifices , &c. 3. But from among duties in general required by the Moral Law , after the special Constitution of the Gospel , God hath chosen some to be the Conditions of life . And if you believe not this , I refer you to Mr. Blake , who will undertake to prove more . 2. But your assertion is groundless . I said not that they are works of the Law. What if the Law condemn the neglect of a Gospel duty ? Do I call the duty , a work of the Law , because I say the Law condemneth the neglecters of it ? 3. But are you indeed of the contrary opinion , and against that which you dispute against ? Do you think that the Law doth not threaten unbelievers , when the Gospel hath commanded faith ? Have I so much ado to perswade the men of your party , that the Gospel hath any peculiar threatning or penalty , and that it is truly a Law ( which the Lutherans have taught too many ) and now do you think that its only the Gospel that Curseth impenitent unelievers , and that maketh punishment due for the remnant of these sins in penitent Believers ? Let the Reader judge who runneth into extreams and self-contradiction . Treat . ib. But above all , this is not to be endured , that Christ hath not suffered for the breaches of the New Covenant , and that there is no such breach but final impenitency : For are the defects of our Repentance , faith and love in Christ , other then the partial breaches of the Covenant of Grace ? our unthankfulness , unfruitfulness , yea sometimes with Peter , our grievous revolts and apostacies ; What are those but the sad shakings of our Covenant-interest , though they do not dissolve it ? But it is not my purpose to fall on this , because of its impertinency to my matter in hand . Answ . I rather thought it your purpose to fall upon it , though you confess it impertinent to your matter in hand . For I thought you had purposed before you had Printed of Preached . Reader , I suppose thee one that hath no pleasure in darkness , and therefore wouldst see this intolerable errour bare-faced . To which end , besides what is said before , understand , 1. That I use to distinguish between a threefold breach of the Covenant . 1. A sin against a meer precept of the Gospel , which precept may be Synecdochically called the Covenant . 2. A sin against our own Promise to God when we Covenant with him . 3. A violation of Gods constitution , [ Believe and be saved , and he that believeth not shall be damned ] making us the proper subjects of its Actual Curse or Obligation to its peculiar punishment . 2. On these distinctions I use to say as followeth ; 1. That Christ suffered for our breaches of Gospel precepts . 2. And for our breaches of many promises of our own to God. 3. And for our temporary non-performance of the Gospel Conditions , which left us under a non-liberation for that time , ( and therefore we had no freedom from so much as was executed . ) 4. But not for such violation of the New Covenant , or Law of Grace , as makes us the actual subjects of its Curse or Obligation to Remediless punishment . These are my usual limitations and explications . And do I need to say any more now in defence of this opinion , which my Reverend Brother saith is not to be endured ? 1. Is it a clear and profitable way of teaching to confound all these , under the general name of Covenant-breaking ? 2. Or is it a comfortable Doctrine , and like to make Congregations blessed , that our defects of repentance , unfruitfulness , and unthankfulness , &c. are such violations of the Law of Grace , or the Conditions of the Gospel , as bring us under its actual obligation to Remediless punishment ? That is , in plain English , to say , We shall all be damned . Treat . ib. Argument 9. If works be a condition of our Justification , then must the godly soul be filled with perpetual doubts , and troubles , whether it be a person justified or no. This doth not follow accidentally through mans perversness from the fore-named Doctrine : but the very Genius of it tends thereunto . For if a Condition be not performed , then the mercy Covenanted cannot be claimed : As in faith ; if a man do not believe , he cannot say , Christ with his benefits are his . Thus if he have not works , the Condition is not performed , but still he continueth without this benefit . But for works ; How shall I know when I have the full number of them ? Whether is the Condition of the species or individuums of works ? Is not one kind of work omitted when it s my duty , enough to invalidate my Justification ? Will it not be as dangerous to omit that one as all , seeing that one is required as a Condition ? Answ . Your Argument is an unproved Assertion , not having any thing to make it probable . 1. Belief in Christ as Lord and Teacher , is Works with the Opponents . Why may not a man know when he believeth in Christ as King and Prophet , and is his Disciple , as well as when he believeth in him as Priest ? 2. Repentance is Works also with the Opponents . Why may not a man know when he Repenteth , as well as when he believeth . 3. Do you not give up the Protestant cause here to the Papists in the point of certainty of salvation ? We tell them that we may be certain that our faith is sincere . And how ? why by its fruits and concomitants , and that we take Christ for Lord as well as Saviour , or to save us from the power of sin as well as the guilt ? And is it now come to that pass that these cannot be known ? What not the signs by which faith it self should be known , and therefore should be notiora ? This it is to eye man , and to be set upon the making good of an opinion . 4. Let all Protestants answer you , and I have answered you . How will they know when they Repent and Believe , when they have performed the full of these ? believed all necessary Truths ? Repented of all sins that must be Repented of ? Whether it be the species or individual acts of these that are necessary ! Will not the omission of Repentance for one sin invalidate it ? Or the omission of many individual acts of faith ? are not those acts conditions ? &c. Answer these , and you are answered . 5. But I shall answer you briefly for them and me . It s no impossible thing to know when a man sincerely believeth , repenteth and obeyeth , though many Articles are Essential to the Assenting part of faith , and many sins must be Repented of , and many duties must be done . God hath made known to us the Essentials of each . It is not the Degree of any of them , but the Truth that is the Condition . A man that hath imperfect Repentance , Faith and Obedience , may know when they are sincere , notwithstanding the imperfections . Do you not believe this ? Will you not maintain it against a Papist when you are returned to your former temper ? what need any more then to be said of it ? 6. Your Argument makes as much against the making use of these by way of bare signs , as by way of Conditions . For an unknown sign is no sign to us . 7. And how could you over-look it , that your Argument flyeth too boldly in the face of Christ , and many a plain Text of Scripture ? Christ saith , John 15.10 . If ye keep my Commandments , ye shall abide in my love , even as I have kept , &c. 14. Ye are my friends , if ye do whatsoever I command you , Mat. 7.21 . Not every one that saith Lord , Lord , shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven , but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven . 23 , 24. Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine , and doth them , &c. Mat. 5. throughout . verse 20. Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of heaven . 1 John 3.10 . In this the children of God are manifest , and the children of the Devil : whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God , neither he that loveth not his brother . ] An hundred such passages might be cited . And will you meet all these with your objections , and say , [ How shall I know when I have the full number ? &c. ] Know that you have sincere Faith , Repentance and Obedience , and you may know you perform that Condition of the Gospel : else not . Treat . pag. 236. That if good works be a Condition of Justification , then none are justified till their death ; because in every good work is required perseverance , in so much that perseverance is that to which the promise is made , Mat. 24.6 . Heb. 10.38 . Rev. 2.7 , 20. So that it is not good works simply , but persevered in that is required : and therefore no Justification to the end of our daies , so that we cannot have any peace with God till then . Neither doth it avail to say , Justification is not compleat till then ; for it cannot be at all till then , because the Condition that gives life to all is not till then . Answ . 1. And is not perseverance in faith as necessary as perseverance in obedience ? Read Col. 1.23 . John 15.2 , 3 , &c. and many the like , and judge . Will you thence infer that none are justified till death ? 2. But a little step out of the darkness of your Confusion , will bring the fallacy of your Argument to the light , and there will need no more to it . The Gospel conveyeth to us several benefits : some without any Condition , and several benefits on several Conditions . 1. Our first Actual pardon and Justification , and right to life , is given on Condition of our first Faith and Repentance : and not on Condition of External works of Obedience , nor yet of the persevering in faith it self , much less in that Obedience . 2. Our state of Justification is continued on condition of the continuance of Faith and Repentance , with sincere Obedience . 3. Our particular following sins have a particular pardon , on Condition of the Continuance of the habits and renewing of the acts of that faith and repentance , for known observed sins . 4. Our full Justification by Sentence at Judgement , is on the same condition as Glorification , viz. On perseverance in Faith , Repentance , Hope , Love and sincere Obedience . Prove now if you can that perseverance is the Condition of our first pardon . Prove if you can that final perseverance is the Condition of our continuance in a justified state till now . You say , Justification and peace cannot be ours till the condition be performed . But what condition ? of that gift ? or of another gift ? If of that , it s granted : but it s still denyed that perseverance is any of the Condition of our first pardon ? If of another gift ; it s no reason of your Consequence . If you speak of final Justification and Salvation , I grant you all thus far , that you have no full Right of possessing them but on perseverance ▪ nor no Right at all , or certainty of Salvation , but on supposition of perseverance as necessary to the possession . And therefore if you can prove that we have no certainty of perseverance , I will yield that we have no certainty of salvation . Treat . Thus we have asserted this truth by many Arguments ; and though any one singly by it self may not convince , yet altogether may satisfie — Now to the great Objections — Answ . I heartily wish that wiser Readers may find more truth and satisfaction in them then I can do , if it be there to be found ; and to that end that they make their best of them all . Treat . James saith , Abraham was justified by works — so that in outward appearances these two great Apostles speak contradictions , which hath made some deny the Canonical authority of James 's Epistle . Yea one said blasphemously , Althameirius , Mentiris Jacobe in caput tuum . But this is to cut , not untie the knot . — 1. The scope of the Apostle Paul is to treat upon our Justification before God , and what is the Instrument and means of obtaining it — But the Apostle James takes Justification for the Declaration and Manifestation of it before men . — Answ . This is not the only sense of James ( as I have proved before , to which I refer you ) no nor any part of the sense of the word Justification with him , though he mention shewing faith by works to men , as an argument for his main conclusion , yet he nowhere expoundeth the word Justification by it . James expresly speaks of Imputation of Righteousness by God , and of that Justification which is meant in the words of Gen. concerning Abraham , even the same words that Paul expoundeth ; and of that Justification which inferreth salvation . Treat . Paul informeth us that faith only justifieth , and James , what kind of faith it is , even a lively working faith . Answ . I have answered this in the beginning of this Disputation . Treat . It s said , They dare not go against the plain words of the Apostle . But it s not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not the words , but the sense — Answ . Our Question is , How the sense of James shall be known ? Will you say , not by the words , but by the sense ? The words are to express the sense ; and we must take heed of forcing them as much as we can . As to your saying of the Anthropomorphites , and Hoc est corpus meum ; I answer ; the Tropical sense is oft the plainest ; and in particular in these instances . If any man point to several pictures , and say , This is Caesar , and this is Pompey , &c. I shall by use of speech ( the interpreter of words ) take the tropical sense to be the plainest , and not the literal ; viz. That this is Caesars Image , and not that it is his person . And so here . 2. Give me any cogent Evidence that I must leave the plain sense , and I am satisfied . 3. Remember I pray you , that it s not the words , but the sense that you except against . Do not you except hereafter against the saying that ( we are Justified by works , and not by faith only ] as James doth ; but against the ill sense that you can prove to be put upon the words . Treat . pag. 238. Lastly , They are forced to add to the Apostle ; for they say , works justifie as the Condition of the Gospel , which the Apostle doth not speak a Word of . Answ . 1. We say not that Jams calls them a condition ; therefore we add not to him as his . 2. Every Exposition and application is an addition of another sort , but not as of the same . 3. I use not the active phrase that Works justifie , agreeing so far with you , who note a difference between these sayings , Faith justifieth , and we are justified by faith : for all that Mr. Blake despiseth the observation , which perhaps he would scarce have done , if he had known that you had being guilty of it also . 4. Scripture supposeth Grammer , Logick , Physicks , &c. and no more is to be expected from it but its own part . If James tell you that we are justified by works , he doth not say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a verb , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a noun , and so of the rest ; but he warranteth you to say so without any unjust addition , supposing that Grammer so call them ; If the Scripture say , that God created the Heavens and the earth , it doth not say here in terms , that God was the efficient cause : but it warranteth you to say so : If it say , that Christ dyed for us , and was a Sacrifice for our sins , and hath obtained eternal redemption for us ; yet it saith not that he is the meritorious cause , or the material cause of our Justification : But it will warrant you to say so , without the guilt of unjust additions . If you may say as a Grammarian and a Logitian , when you meet with such words in Scripture , [ These are Paronyma , and these Synonyma , and these Homonyma , and this is an universal , that a singular , that a particular , and that an indefinite ; this is an efficient cause , that a material , formal or final ; this is a noun , that a verb , the other a participle or an adverb ; I pray you then why may not I say , when I read in Rom. 10.9 . that [ If thou confess with thy mouth , and believe in thy heart , &c. ] that [ If ] is a conjunction conditional ? Is this adding to the Scripture unjustly ? If I did , when ever I read that we are justified by faith , collect thence that faith is an Instrumental cause , as if by were only the note of an Instrument , then you might have accused me of unwarrantable addition , or collections , indeed . Lastly , If you have a mind to it , I am content that you say by the unscriptural names ( or additions as you speak ) of nouns , pronouns , verbs , antecedents , consequents , efficient , or material causes , &c. and I will lay by the name of a condition , as you do of an Instrument : and we will only use the Scripture phrase , which is , If you forgive men , your Father will forgive you ; if we confess our sins , he is faithfull and just to forgive : we are justified by faith without the works of the Law : A man is justified by works , and not by faith only : By thy Words thou shalt be justified . Every man shall be judged according to his works , ] &c. Let us keep to Scripture phrase if you desire it , and you shall find me as backward as any to lay much stress upon terms of Art. Having gone thus far , I shall in brief give you a truer reconciliation of Paul and James then you here offer us . 1. They debate different questions . 2. And that with different sorts of persons . 3. And speak directly of different sorts of works . 4. And somewhat differ in the sense of the word Faith. 5. And somwhat about the word Justification . 6. And they speak of works in several Relations to Justification . 1. The Question that Paul disputed was principally Whether Justification be by the works of the Mosaical Law , and consequently by any mercenary works , without Christ , or in Co-ordination with Christ , or any way at all conjunct with Christ ? The question that James disputed , was , Whether men are justified by meer believing without Gospel-Obedience ? 2. The persons that Paul disputed against , were , 1 The unbelieving Jews , that thought the Mosaical Law was of such perfection to the making of men righteous , that there needed no other , much less should it be abrogate . Where specially note , that the righteousness which the Jews expected by that Law , was not ( as is commonly imagined ) a righteousness of sinless obedience , such as was required of Adam ; but a mixt Righteousness , consisting of accurate Obedience to the Mosaical Law in the main course of their lives , and exact sacrificing according to that Law for the pardon of their sins committed , ( wherein they made express confession of sin ) so that these two they thought sufficient to justifie , and lookt for the Messias but to free them from captivity , and repair their Temple , Law , &c. And 2. Paul disputed against false Teachers , that would have joyned these two together ( the Righteousness of Moses Law , and Faith in Christ ) as necessary to life . But James disputed against false Christians , that thought it enough to salvation barely to believe in Christ , ( or lived as if they so thought ) its like misunderstanding Pauls Doctrine of Justification as many now do . 3. The works that Paul speaks of directly , are the services appointed by Moses Law supposed to be sufficient , because of the supposed sufficiency of that Law. So that its all one with him to be justified by the Law , and to be justified by works ; and therefore he ofter speaks against Justification by the Law expresly , and usually stileth the works he speaks of , the works of the Law : yet by consequence , and a parity of Reason , he may well be said to speak against any works imaginable that are set in opposition to Christ , or competition with him , and that are supposed meritorious , and intended as Mercenary . But James speaks of no works , but Obedience to God in Christ , and that as standing in due subordination to Christ . 4. By Faith in the Doctrine of Justification , Paul means our Assent to all the essential Articles of the Gospel , together with our Acceptance of Jesus Christ the Lord , as such , and affiance in him ; that is , To be a Believer ; and so to have faith , is with Paul , to be a Disciple of Christ , or a Christian : Though sometime he specially denominates that faith from one part of the object ( the promise ) sometime from another ( the blood of Christ ) sometime from a third ( his obedience . ) And in other cases he distinguisheth Faith from Hope and Charity : but not in the business of Justification , considering them as respecting Christ and the ends of his blood . But James by faith means a bare ineffectual Assent to the Truth of the Christian Religion , such as the Devils themselves had . 5. Paul speaks of Justification in its whole state , as begun and continued . But James doth principally , if not only speak of Justification as continued . Though if by works any understand a disposition to work in faith , or conjunct with it ( as Dr. Iackson doth ) so his words are true of initial Justification also . 6. The principal difference lyeth in the Relations of works mentioned . Paul speaks of works as the immediate matter of a legal personal Righteousness , in part or whole . But James spoak of Works , not as answering the Law , but as fulfilling the condition of the Gospel , and implyed ( as promised or resolved on ) in our first believing , and so as subservient to the Sacrifice , Merit and Righteousness of Christ , as the avoiding of poison or dangerous meats ( that may kill , though the conrtary cannot cure ) is subservient to the curing medicine of a Physician , and implyed in our taking him for our Physician at first . And so much briefly to satisfie you and the world of the Reasons of my Dissent from you , that I may not differ from so Dear and Reverend a Brother , without making it appear , that necessity did compel me . That which I have passed over , being about the Instrumentality of Faith , I shall speak to , ( if God will ) together with Mr. Blakes Reasonings on that Subject , in another Disputation . Oppon . Works are not a Condition , much less a Cause of our Justification , under any Notion whatsoever they are taken : i. e. Neither Faith in Christ as Lord and Teacher , becoming his Disciples , Repentance , Love , Hope , Prayer for Pardon , Confession , Self-denyal , sincere Obedience , &c. are Causes or Conditions of Justification , as begun , continued , or as it is most eminent in the sentence at Judgement . Cons . Erg. This Faith , Repentance , Prayer , Obedience , &c. are not truly means of our Justification now or at Judgement . Ergo. Not means to the pardon of sin , and freedom from punishment . Ergo. Not means of Salvation from Hell , or of that Glory to which the final Justification will adjudge us . Ergo. 1. They are not necessary necessitate medii , and 2. No Man must use them as means to his present pardon , or Justification , or final Justification or salvation . Ergo. No means must be used for present or final Justification or Salvation , but only the Instrumental receiving , or apprehending of Christs Righteousness , or of Christ as Priest . Ergo. — Object . There are means besides Causes and Conditions . Answ . Besides Causas & Conditiones proximas , there are : but besides Causas & Conditiones & proximas & remotas , in this case there are none that I know of : if there be , name them . LETTERS That past between This REVEREND , Much HONOURED BROTHER , And my SELF . 1649 , and 1650. LONDON , Printed by Robert White , for Nevil Simmons , Book-seller in Kederminster . HAving heard that Mr. — disliked some things in my Aphorisms , and by the perswasions of some , intended a Confutation of them : I wrote to him an earnest Request , that he would acquaint me with what he disliked , annexing his Reasons to convince me of my Errors , professing my earnest Desire of Information , especially from him : To which he replyed , as followeth . Dear Sir , I Have indeed declared to some , who happily may have informed you of it , as I desired , that there were several ▪ Doctrinal points asserted in your Book , to which I could not pedibus ire , much less corde ; such are many positions about Christs Righteousness , about faiths Justification in your sense , and the Efficacy of new Obedience in this work as well as faith . Yea Love made some kind of the actings of Faith : The good old sound definition of Faith waved , and a new one substituted . Not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , credere , but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 operari also called into Evangelical Righteousness , and this made our personal Righteousness . These things and divers others do make me vehemently dissent from you in the matters asserted . Yet I do really honour you , for your great Abilities and zealous Piety , earnestly desiring of God that he would prolong your life , and have mercy upon hss Church by sparing this Epaphroditus . But whereas you have been told , that I had animadversions on your Book , this was a mistake : for the truth is , though I have cast my thoughts upon some part of it , yet I have not any digested or prepared considerations about it : but do defer such a work , till I shall have opportunity to discharge that part I have publiquely promised about imputed Righteousness ; which Subject I cannot yet prosecute , being hindred by other avocations : It is true , I have had advertisement from some honoured friends of mine at London , that it is expected , I should do something in those points , because by your Inscription of my name ( which I take as an Act of your real Love and respect to me , though I am unworthy of any such Testimony ) they think I am interested . Had I known the Contents of the book before published , I would have most importunately urged you at least to have taken more time of deliberation about the divulgation of them , which you know have much novelty in them . I know things are not to be embraced or rejected , because either old or new ; yet Paul doth dislike 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if we may so read it , and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I shall conclude with this : Let not any difference from you in Judgement be any obstruction to improve your utmost Abilities ( which are many and lovely ) to the finding out , and propagating of Truth . If God prolong your life , I hope this next Summer we may have mutual oral Conference together , which is the most conducible way to clear both Truth and our Opinions . Your faithfull Friend and Brother — Decemb. 3. To the Reverend , and his much Honoured Friend , Mr. Baxter , Preacher of the Word of God at Kederminster , those Deliver . Sir , I Received yours , which I acknowledge a Favour : but not so great as I expect . Your dissent is so generally known , that I cannot but hope to know some of the Grounds of it . I hope you cannot so vehemently dissent in points of such Moment , and yet deny me a discovery of mine Error . The defering of such a work till you have wrote another Book , doth intimate what will be injurious to the Church , your self and me : If you intend to publish a Confutation , when I am dead , and deny me any help for conviction while I live . 1. The Church will lose the fruit of my own Recantation . 2. And your self , one part of the fruit of your Labor . 3. And I may dye in error unrecanted , and you ( being now importuned for , your help ) be guilty of it . If you did but know how gladly I would publiquely recant , you would not deny your help . You that would have so importuned me to deliberate , if you had known before , I hope will not deny your assistance for my recovery . I did not hastily that I did . But though I wanted the opportunity of consulting you before , yet I hope it is not too late . I am confident if you know me , you are not so uncharitable as to think me uncurable . It is therefore your flat duty not to suffer sin upon me . Let me therefore intreat you to send me one or two of your strongest Arguments against some of the weightyest points in difference ; and to answer mine . I know it is not an hours work with you to do that much ; and I would bestow twenty for you . If you suspect that I will any way mis-imploy your papers , you shall prescribe me the Law therein your self . Whether you will read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I am indifferent , being no friend to either . I thought it a greater novelty to say , Faith justifieth only or primarily as an Instrument , then to say , it justifieth as the Condition , which the free Lawgiver hath promised Justification upon . I knew it was no novelty to say , we must have a personal Righteousness besides that imputed : And I took it to be as old as the Gospel , to say , that this consisteth in Faith and sincere Obedience . I called it Evangelical , because I trembled to think of having an inherent Righteousness which the Law of works will so denominate . What you say of the [ Efficacy of Obedience and Faith ] I disclaim both , as never coming into my thoughts : I acknowledge no efficiency as to Justification in either , but a bare conditionality . I aver confidently that I give no more to works , then our Divines ordinarily do , viz. to be a secondary part of the Condition of the new Covenant , and so of Justification , as continued and consummate , and of Glorification : only if I err , it is in giving less to Faith , denying it to be the Instrumental Cause of Justification , but only a condition . My Definition of Faith is the same ( in sense ) with Dr. Prestons , Mr. Calverwell , Mr. Throgmorton , Mr. Norton of new England in his Catechism , &c. O how it grieveth me to dissent from my Reverend Brethen ! Some report it to be a pernitious Book : others overvalue it , and so may receive the more hunt if it be unsound . Truly Sir I am little prejudiced against your Arguments ; But had rather return into the common road then not , if I could see the Light of truth to guide me . I abhor affected singularity in Doctrine : therefore I intreat you again to defer no longer to vouchsafe me the fruit of one hours labour , which I think I may claim from your Charity and the Interest God hath given one member in another , and you shall hereby very much oblige to thankfulness Jan. 22. 1649. Your unworthy fellow-servant Richard BAXTER . To my Reverend and very much valued friend , Mr. — Preacher of Gods Word at — These present . Dear Sir , I Received your letter , and I returned some Answer by Mr. Bryan , viz. that now the daies growing longer and warmer , I shall be glad to take occasion to confer with you mouth to mouth about those things wherein we differ , for I conceive that to be a far more compendious way , then by letters , wherein any mistake is not so easily rectified : I shall therefore be ready to give you the meeting at Bremicham any Thursday you shall appoint that may be convenient with your health ; that so by an amicable collation , we may find out the truth . In the mean while I shall not wholly neglect your request in your letter , but give you an hint at one of those several Arguments that move me to dissent from you ; which although it be obvious , yet such Arguments as most men pitch upon , have the greatest strength : and that is the peculiar and proper expressions the Scripture giveth to faith in the matter of Justification , and that when the Doctrine is purposely handled , as Paul in his Epistle to the Romans . attributing it so to faith , as it excludes not the presence , but the co-operation of any other . He doth so include faith , as that he doth exclude all works under any notion : for Abraham was then godly , and abounded in other Graces , yet the Apostle fastens his Justification upon this : in so much that if a man would have desired the Apostle to make a difference between faith and other Graces , it could not have been done more evidently . As for the Apostle James , your sence cannot be admitted to reconcile them , but rather makes that breach wider : the one saith , a Justification without works ; you make Faith as well as works , though one primarily : whereas the Orthodox both against Papists and Arminians , and Socinians , do sweetly reconcile them . By the hint of this , I see a Letter cannot represent the vigor of an Argument . I shall only add one thing : we may hold Opinions , and dispute them speculatively in Books ; but practically , and when we come to dye , we dare not make use of them . I know not how a godly man at his death can look upon his Graces as Conditions of the Covenant fulfilled by him ; though the Grace of God and the Merits of Christ be acknowledged the procuring cause . The Papists also verbally come to that refuge : For how come the Imperfections in the Conditions to be pardoned , and conditions have a moral Efficiency ? Raptim . But of these things more fully when I see you . The Lord preserve you an Instrument in his Church , and direct and sanctifie all your parts and abilities for his Glory . Feb. 13. Your loving Brother in the Lord — To his very loving and much respected Friend Mr. BAXTER , Minister of Gods Word at Kederminster , these be delivered . Sir , FOr the expressions of your love in your two Letters , and your offer to meet me for conference ; I return you hearty thanks . But I told you of my weakness , which is so great that I am not able to travel , nor to discourse to any purpose if I were with you : a few words do so spend me ( except when I have a little ease , which fals out perhaps once in a moneth for a few hours unexpected ) therefore I am resolved to importune you once again , and if you now deny me , to cease my suit . It is expected at London , Cambridge , &c. that you write a confutation , and you intimate your purpose to do so hereafter : which I will not disswade you from , so I might but see your Arguments , that before I dye , I might know whether I have erred , and not dye without repenting or recanting : and if I err not , that I might shew you my grounds more fully ; And if you deny this request to one that hath so even unmannerly importuned you , and yet purpose to do it , when I can neither be the better for it , nor defend my self , you walk not by that Rule as I thought you did , nor do as you would be done by . But for my part , I have done my endeavour for information , and so have satisfied my own conscience . For what should I do ? There is none in this Country that will attempt a convincing of me , by word or writing , nor for ought I hear , gainsay : and you are the nearest from whom I may hope for it . In your last you overpass all the particulars almost touched in your former , and pitch on Justification by works . Where you mention Pauls attributing it to Faith , to which I have answered , and have no Reply . 1. Where you say Paul excludes the Co-operation of any other ; I answer , So do I. And of Faith too I deny the operations as effective . 2. When you say , he excludes works under any notion , I answer . 1. Would I could see that proved . 2. Then how can James say true ▪ 3. Then he excludes faith under the notion of an Instrument . 4. And Repentance under the notion of a preparative , or condition . 5. But if you mean only that he excludes the co-operation , or efficiency of works , I yield as before . 6. Paul expresly excludes only the works of the Law , that is , such as are considered in opposition to Christ , or co-ordination as required by the Law of Works , and not such as Christ himself enjoyneth in subordination to himself ; so they keep that place of subordination . 7. Pauls Question is , What is the Righteousness which must denominate a sinner just at the Bar of the Law ? And this he saith is no Works ( under any notion ) no not Faith , but only Christs Righteousness , and so faith must be taken relatively : for certainly it is Christ , and not Faith that is that Righteousness . Is not this all that our Divines say , or require ? and so say I , over and over . But Paul doth not resolve there [ what is the Condition on which Christ makes over this Righteousness of his ? ] so directly , but collaterally . 8. Or if you say he do : yet if Paul speak of our first possession of Justification , I say it is without , not only the operation , but the presence of works , which is more then you say . 9. Or whether he speak of begun , or continued Justification , I say we are justified without works in Pauls sense : yea that they are not so much as a condition of the continuance of Justification . For works in Pauls sense relate to the reward , as of debt , and not of Grace . As a man that works to yearn wages , as Paul plainly saith , Rom. 4.4 . To him that worketh , the Reward is not of Grace , but of Debt . These works I disclaim as sinfull in their ends . But obeying the Gospel , or being willing that Christ who hath redeemed us , should rule over us , and running that we obtain , and fighting the good fight of faith , and suffering with Christ that we may be glorified with him , and improving our Talent , and enduring to the end , and so doing good works , and laying up a good foundation against the time to come : I think Paul excludes not any of these from being bare conditions , or causae sine quibus non of our Justification at Judgement , or the continuance of it here . Abrahams faith excluded works in Pauls sense , as before , but not works in this sense , or in James his sense . When you say my sense for reconciling Paul and James cannot be admitted . 1. I would you had told me what way to do it better : and answered what I have said in that . 2. Your reason appears to me of no seeming force . For first you say [ the one saith a Justification by faith without works , you make Faith as well as works , &c. ] Answer 1. Paul saith not barely without works , but without the works of the Law. And I have shewed you what he means by works , Rom. 4.4 . 2. I say no more then James , that a man is justified by works , and not by faith only : I believe both these Scriptures are true , and need no reconciling , as having no contradiction in the terms . And yet I speak not so broad usually , as James doth . Where you say that [ the Orthodox do sweetly reconcile them ] I know not who you mean by the Orthodox . For I doubt not but you know the variety of interpretations to reconcile them . Piscator and Pemble have one Interpretation , and way of Reconciliation . Calvin , Paraeus and most Divines another . Camero confuteth the best esteemed , and hath another . Brochmond with most of the Lutherans have another . Jac. Laurentius , Althemor , and many more tell us of divers : which of these you mean by the Orthodox , I know not . But if you exclude all those from the Orthodox , that say as I say in this , you will exclude as Learned Divines , and well reputed of , as most Europe hath bred , viz. excellent Conrad . Bergius , Ludov. Crecius , Johan , Crocius , Johan . Bergius , &c. Who though they all dispute for Justification by faith without works , understanding it of the first Justification ( for most Divines have taken Justification to be rigidly simul & semel till Dr. Downam evinced that it is a continued Act ) yet they both take works for meriting works , that respect the reward as of Debt , and they say that otherwise Obedience is a Condition ( or cause as they make it ) of continuing , or not losing Justification once attained . And is not that to say as much as I ? And many more I can name you that say as much . And you approve of Mr. Bals book , which saith that works ( or a purpose to walk with God ) do justifie as a passive qualification of the Subject capable of Justification . You add that [ we may dispute , &c. but you know not how a godly man at his death can look on his Graces as Conditions of the Covenant fulfilled by him , &c. ] Which speech seems strange to me . I confess if I be so , I am ungodly . For I have been as oft , and as long in the expectation of death as most men , and still am : and yet I am so far from being afraid of this , that I should live and dye in horror and desperation , if I could not look upon the conditions of the Covenant of Grace fulfilled by my self through goes workings . If by our Graces you mean Habits , I think it more improper to call them the fulfilling the conditions of the Covenant . For what you say of the Papists , you know how fundamentally almost they differ from me in this , confounding the Covenants Righteousness , &c. If it were not to one that knows it better then my self , I would shew wherein . For your question , How come the imperfections in our conditions to be pardoned ? You know I have fully answered it , both in the Aphorisms , and Appendix . And I would rather you had given me one discovery of the insufficiency of that answer , then asked the Question again . Briefly thus . Guilt is an obligation to punishment ( as it is here to be understood ) Pardon is a freeing from that Obligation , or Guilt and Punishment . All Punishment is due by some Law. According to the Law or Covenant of Works the imperfection of our Faith , Love , Obedience , &c. deserve punishment , and Christ hath satisfied that Law , and procured forgiveness of these imperfections , and so acquit us from Guilt and punishment . The new Law , or Covenant of Grace doth not threaten death to any but final Unbelievers , and so not to the imperfection of our Faith , Love , Obedience , where they are sincere . And where the Law threatneth not Punishment , there is no obligation to Punishment ( or Guilt ) on the party from that Law , and so no work for Pardon . Imperfect believers perform the conditions of the new Covenant truly : and it condemneth none for imperfection of degree ▪ where there is sincerity : No man is ever pardoned , whom the new Law condemneth , that is , final Unbelievers , or Rejecters of Christ . So that Christ removeth , or forgiveth that obligation to punishment , which by the Law of Works doth fall on us for our imperfections . And for the Law of Grace where it obligeth not to punishment , that obligation which is not , cannot be taken off : nor that man pardoned , that was never guilty . Your Question occasioneth me to be unmannerly in opening these easie things to you , that I doubt not knew them sure twenty years ago and more . Though I confess I had not the clear apprehensions of them seven years ago . What ever I was then thought by others , I confess I was ignorant , and am glad that God hath in any measure healed my ignorance , though with the loss of my reputation of being Orthodox . Where you add that conditions have a moral efficiency , either you mean all or some ; if all , or if this whereof we are in speech , though I am loth to contest with you in Philosophy , yet I must confess I never read so much in any Author , nor can force my self to believe it , Causa sine qua non , est causa fatua . It is as Schibler and others , a meer Antecedent . The word Moral is ambiguous ; but if you mean it as I conjecture you do ▪ for an efficiency , interpretative in sense of Law , as if the Law would ascribe efficiency to him that fulfills the condition : I utterly deny it in the present case ; or if you mean that our fulfilling the conditions hath an efficiency on God to move him to justifie us , as an impulsive procatarctick cause ; I not only deny it , but deny that any such cause is properly with God , or hath efficiency on him ; nor can it have the operation of the final cause , which some call moral , seeing it is none of Gods end , nor can any thing move God but God , nor be his end but himself . If you mean by moral efficiency any thing else which is indeed no efficiency , I stick not on meer words . Sir , I should not have presumed to expect so much labour from you as to write a sheet for my satisfaction , had I not perceived that others expect much more to less purpose , and that your letters express that hereafter you intend more . If you deny me your answer to this , I will trouble you no more . And because I would have your labour as short as may be , I shall only desire your answer to these few Questions , which I ground on both your Letters , because the clear resolving of these , will be the readiest way to satisfie me . Quest . 1. Hath the Covenant of Grace ( which promiseth Justification and Glorification ) any condition on our parts , or none ? If it have Quest . 2. What are the Conditions ? Is not Love and Obedience part of the Condition ? Quest . 3. Must not those Conditions be fulfilled by our selves ? or hath Christ fulfi●led them by himself for any man. Quest . 4. If we must fulfill him ▪ why may not a dying man look on them ? Or what m●●● Paul to rejoyce in the testimony of his Conscience , that in simplicity and godly sincerity he had his conversation ? &c. And that he had fought a good fight , and finished his cour●● &c. And that in all good conscience , &c. and Hezekiah , Remember Lord that I have walked before thee , &c. Quest 5. Can a man have any assurance ordinarily that death shall not let him into ●ell , who hath no assurance that he hath performed these conditions , and how should he have it ? Can he know that all shall work to him for good , though he know not whether he love God ? or that there is no condemnation to him , though he know not that he is in Christ , and walk not after the flesh , but after the Spirit ? Quest . 6. If our Love and Obedience have no tendency to salvation , but as meer figures , then is not the Antinomian Doctrine true , that we may not Act for Salvation ? Q. 7. What do you mean your self , when you write against those that deny Repentance to be a Condition to qualifie the Subject to obtain forgiveness , but a sign Lect. 20. of Justification ? And when you say that Scripture limits Justification , and Pardon only to those Subjects that are so and so qualified . p. 171. where you instance in Repentance , Confession , Turning , Forgiving others , &c. and make faith an Instrumental cause , but say , there are many qualifications in the Subject . p. 172. And what mean you when you say , p. 210. In some gross sins there are many conditions requisite ( besides humiliation ) without which Pardon of sin cannot be obtained : where you instance in Restitution . Besides those , p. 148 , 149 , 150. Is it not safe when a man hath prerformed these conditions , to look on them either living or dying ? Or what do you say less then I do here ? I know you are none of the men of contention , and therefore will not recant your own Doctrine in opposition to me . And if you did not mean that these are conditions of Pardon , and Justification , when you say they are , who can understand you ? If those gross sins be in the unjustified , you will not say that the conditions of his Pardon are no conditions of his Justification . I know that you give more to faith ( and so to man ) then I do , viz. to be the Instrument of his own Justification , ( which I will not contend against with any that by an improper sense of the word Instrument , do differ only in a term ) but what do you give less to Repentance , and the rest then I do ? you say they are conditions , and I say no more . Qu. 8. And what do the generality of our Divines mean , when they say that Faith and new Obedience are our conditions of the Covenant ? As I have cited out of Paereus , Scharpius , Willet , Piscator , Junius , Aretius , Alstedius , who saith , the condition of the new Covenant of Grace is partly faith , and partly Evangelical Obedience , or Holiness of life , proceeding from faith in Christ . Distinct . Chap. 17. p. 73. And Wendeli● the like , &c. If it be said that they mean they are conditions of Salvation but not of Justification ; Then Quest . 9. Whether and how it can be proved that our final Justification at Judgement ( which you have truly shewed is more compleat then this Justificatio viae , and our Glorification have different conditions on our part , and so of our persevering Justification here . Quest . 10. And whether it be any less disparagement to Christ to have mans works to be the conditions of his Salvation , then to be the bare conditions of his ultimate and continued Justification ? Seeing Christ is a Saviour as properly as a Justifier , and Salvation comprizeth all . Quest . 11. What tolearable sense can be given of that multitude of plain Scriptures which I have cited ? Thes . 60. For my part , when I have oft studyed how to forsake my present Judgement , the bare reading of the 25 of Matthew hath still utterly silenced me , if there were no more . Much more when the whole Gospel runs in the like strain . Quest . 12. Is not the fulfilling of the conditions of the new Law or Covenant enough to denominate the party righteous , that is , not guilty of non-fulfilling , or not obliged to punishment , or guilty as from that same Law or Covenant ? And doth not every man that is saved so fulfill the conditions of the new Covenant ? and so is Evangelically righteous ? The condition is not Believe , and obey perfectly , but sincerely . Quest . 13. If there be no such thing as a personal Righteousness necessary to salvation , besides imputed Righteousness : 1. What is the meaning of all those Scriptures cited Thes . 22. that say there is ? 2. And of our Divines that say there is inherent Righteousness ? And 3. What real difference between the godly and the wicked , the saved and damned ? Quest . 14. Have you found out any lower place for Love and Obedience , then to be bare conditions , if you acknowledge them any way conducible to final Justification , or Salvation ? If you have , what place is it ? and how called ? and why hath it not been discovered unto the world ? To say they are qualifications of the Subject , is too general , and comprizeth qualifications of different Natures ; and it shews not how they are conducible to the said ends ; and why a man may not be saved without qualifications , as well as with them , if God have not made them so much as conditions ? Quest . 15. Seeing I ascribe not to Evangelical Obedience the least part of Christs Office or Honor , nor make it any jot of our legal Righteousness , where then lies the error or danger of my Doctrine ? Quest . 16. Do not those men that affirm we have an inherent Righteousness , which is so pronounced properly by the Law of works , accuse the Law of God for blessing and cursing the the same man and action ? And how can that Law pronounce a man , or his action righteous , which curseth him , and condemneth him to Hell for that same Action ? It makes me amazed to think what should be the reason that Divines contest so much , that it is the Law of Works that pronounceth them inherently righteous , which they know condemns them ; rather then the Law of Grace or new Covenant , which they know absolveth them that sincerely perform it . When all Divines acknowledge an inherent Righteousness , and that the Law of Works is fulfilled by none , and that it pronnunceth none righteous , but the fulfillers : and when the condition of the new Covenant must be performed by all that will be saved : and when the Holy Ghost saith that it was by faith ( and so pronounced , and measured by the Law of faith ) that Abel ( the second Righteous man in the world ) offered the excellent Sacrifice , and by it obtained witness that he was righteous , God testifying of his gift , &c. Heb. 11.4 . Quest . 17. Do not those Divines that will affirm that [ our inherent Righteousness is so called from its imperfect conformity to the Law of works ] and that [ it is the Law that pronounceth them righteous ] lay a clear ground for Justification by works in the worst sense ? for if the Law pronounce their works , and them properly righteous , then it justifieth them : and then what need have they ( at least so far ) of Christ , or Pardon ? yea and what Law shall condemn them , if the Law of Works justifie them ? At least do they not compound their Righteousness ( as to the law of Works ) partly of Christs satisfaction , and partly of their own Works ? Quest . 18. Whether you should not blame Dr. Preston , Mr. Norton , Mr. Culverwel , Mr. Throgmorton , &c. for laying by the good sound definition of Faith ( as you call it ) as well as me ? And is it not great partiality to let the same pass as currant from them , which from me must be condemned ? And why would you agree to such a corrupt definition , being one of the Assembly , when theirs in the lesser Catechism ( and indeed both ) is in sence the very same with mine ? And why may not I be judged Orthodox in that point , when I heartily subscribe to the National Assemblies Definition ? viz. that Faith is a saving Grace , whereby we receive , and rest on Christ alone for Salvation , as he is offered to us in the Gospel . ] Qu. 19. Do I say any more then the Assembly saith in the preceding Question ? [ What doth God require of us , that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us for sin ? Answ . God requireth of us ( to escape the said wrath and curse , &c. ) Faith in Jesus Christ , repentance unto life , with the diligent use of all the outward means , whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of Redemption . ] And is not Justification one benefit ? And is not final Justification a freeing us from that Curse ? Quest . 20. Which call you the good , sound definition of Faith ? When our famous Reformers placed it in Assurance ; Camero , and others in perswasion ( such as is in the understanding ) others in Assent , as Dr. Downam , &c. Others in a Belief of Gods special Love , and that sin is pardoned . Others in Affiance or Recumbency . Others in divers of these . Some , as Mr. Ball , calling it a fiducial Assent . Others an obediential Affiancce . Did not each of these forsake that which by the former was accounted the good sound Definition ? And why may not I with Dr. Preston , Mr. Wallis , &c. say it is an Acceptance , or consent , joyned with Assent ? or with the Assembly , and the rest , say it is a receiving , which is the same in a more Metaphorical term . Quest . 21. If you judge as Melanchton , John Crocius , Davenant , Amesius , &c. that Faith is in both faculties ; how can you then over-leap the Elicite Acts of the will ( which have respect to means ) Eligere , consentive , uti ? Quest . 22. If the formal reason of justifying faith lie in a Belief or Perswasion that Christ will pardon and save us : or in an Affiance or resting on him , or Trusting to him only for Salvation : or in an Acceptance of him as a Saviour , meerly to justifie and save from Hell : Why then are not almost all among us justified and saved ? when I scarce meet with one of an hundred , that is not unfeignedly willing , that Christ should pardon , and justifie , and save them , and do verily trust , that Christ will do it ; and the freer it is , the better they like it . If they may whore and drink , and be covetous , and let alone all the practise of Godliness , and yet be saved , they will consent . If it be said that they rest not on Christ for Justification sincerely ; I Ans. They do it really , and unfeignedly , and not dissemblingly , which as we may know in all probability by others , so we may know it certainly by our own hearts , while unregenerate . So that it is not the natural , but the moral Truth , that is wanting : And what is that ? And wherein is the Essential , formal difference between a wicked mans resting on Christ for Justification , and a true Believers ? To say it is seen in the Fruits , is not to shew the Essential difference . Quest . 23. If resting on Christ for Justification be the only condition of final Justification , What is the reason that Perkins , Bolton , Hooker , Preston , Taylor , Elton , Whately , and all the godly Divines also yet living do spend most of their labour to bring men to obey Christ as their Lord , and not the hundreth line or word to press them to Trust that he will pardon and save them ? All the powerfull Perachers that ever I heard , however they dispute , yet when they are preaching to the generality of people , they zealously cry down laziness , lukewarmness , negligence , unholyness , prophaness , &c. As that which would be the liklyest cause of the damnation of the people . But if only the foresaid saith be the condition , and all other Graces or Duties be but meer signal effects of this , and signal qualifications of the subject , and not so much a conditions , what need all this ? Were it not then better to perswade all people , even when they are whoring , or drunk , to trust on Christ to pardon and justifie them ? And then when they have the tree and cause , the fruits and signal effects will follow . Quest . 24. Yea , Why do the best Divines preach so much against Presumption ? And what is Presumption , if it be not this very faith which Divines call justifying ? viz. the Trusting to Christ for Pardon and Salvation only , without taking him for their King and Prophet ? If it be said that this last must be present , though not justifie : How can the bare presence of an idle Accident so make , or marr the efficacy of the cause ? Quest . 25. If to be unwilling that Christ should raign over us , be part of the directly condemning sin , Luke 19.27 . why is not the willingness he should raign , part of saving , justifying faith ? Quest . 26. Seeing resting in Christ is no Physical apprehension of him ( who is bodily in Heaven ) nor of his Righteousness ( which is not a being capable of such an apprehension ) How can that Resting justifie more then any other Act , but only as it is the condition to which the Promise is made ? Resting on a friend for a Benefit , makes it not yours , but his gift does that . As Perkins ( cited by me ) To believe the Kingdom of France shall be mine , makes it not mine : But to believe Christ , and the Kingdom of Heaven , &c. ( vid. loc . where he saith as much as I ) vol. 1. p. 662. If God had not said [ He that believeth shall be justified and saved , ] would Believing have done it ? And if he had said , [ He that repenteth , or loveth , or calleth on the name of the Lord , shall be justified or saved ] would not these have done it ? if so ; then doth not faith justifie directly , as the condition of the Gift , Promise , or new Covenant ? And its apprehension is but its aptitude to be set apart for this Office : And if it justifie as a condition of the Promise : must not others do it so far as they are parts of the Condition ? Sir , If you should deny me the favour I hope for in resolving these doubts , yet let me hear whether I may expect it or not . And in the interim I shall search in jealousie , and pray for direction : But till your Arguments shall change my judgement , I remain confident that I can maintain most of the Antinomian Dotages against any man that denyeth the principles of my Book : and that which is accounted novelty in it , is but a more explicate , distinct , necessary delivery of common Truths . Yours , RICHARD BAXTER April 5 , 1650 Sir I Am sorry that you are not in capacity for the motion I profered : I thought discourse would not so much infeeble you , especially when it would have been in so loving a way : And I judged it the more seasable , because I had been informed of a late solemn conference you had about Paedobaptism , which could not but much spend you , I shall press no more for it , although this very letter doth abundantly confirm me , that letters are but a loss of time : for one word might have prevented many large digressions . Is not that endeavour of yours in your seventh question to prove out of my book , that Repentance is a necessary condition , or qualification in the Subject to be pardoned , &c. a meer impertinency ? You earnestly desire satisfaction of your conscience , therefore I cannot think you do wilfully mistake . For is that the state of the question with us ? Is it not this , whether the Gospel Righteousness be made ours , otherwise then by believing ? You say by believing , and Obedience . I say only believing . I say faith is only the condition justifying , or instrument receiving , you make a justifying Repentance , a justifying Patience : you make other acts of grace justifying as well : so that whereas heretofore , we only had justifying faith , now there are as many other qualities , and all justifying , as there are Graces . So that I do firmly hold ( and it needs a recantation ) that repentance and other exercises of Grace are antecedent qualifications , and are media ordinata , in the use whereof only pardon can be had . But what is this to you ? Who expresly maintain the righteousness of the Covenant of Grace to be made ours , upon our godly working , as well as believing . If therefore you had spent your self to shew that faith had no peculiar Instrumentality in our Justification , but what other Graces have , then you had hit the mark . What is more obvious , then that there are many conditions in justificato , which are not in actu justificationis ? The fastening of the head to the body is a necessary condition in homine vidente , but it is not in actu videntis . You grant indeed some precedency to faith , but you make Faith and Works aequè , though not aequaliter , the conditions of Justification . I should say much more to the state of the question , but I forbear . In other things you seem to come off ; and though I do not say you recede from your Assertions , yet you much mollifie them , that I need not therein contend with you . But here is the stick . Let it be demonstrated , that whereas the Scripture in the current of it attributes Justification to believing only : as through faith , and by Faith , and through faith in his blood , that you can as truly say , it s received by love , and it s through love of his blood shed for our sakes , &c. This is a little of that much which might be said to the state of the question . This I judge new Doctrine , justifying Repentance , justifying Charity . And in my Letter I laid down an Argument , Rom. 4. Concerning Abrahams , Justification , the Pattern of all others . To this you reckon up many Answers , but I see not the Argument shaken by it . First you say , you exclude a co-operation effective , but why do we strive about words ? You do not exclude works justifying , as well as faith , let the expressions be what they will. Whereas Paul saith , he would be found having the Righteousness which is by faith , you will add , and which is by love , by zeal . 2. You desire it to be proved , that Paul excludes all works under any notion ; I think it s very easily done : First , because of the immediate opposition between Faith and Works ; now you will contradict Pauls Argument , and give a tertium , works that are of Grace . But the Apostles opposition is so immediate here and in other places , between faith and any thing of ours , that he admits of no medium . 2. He instances in Abrahams works , and excludes them : now were Abrahams works , works done by the meer strength of the Law ? Did not Abrahams Obedience , and other works flow from Grace ? Were Abrahams works in opposition to Christ ? Yet even these are excluded . 3. He excludes all works under any notion by the opposition , justifying , covering , all is wholly attributed unto God. 4. The Assertion is universal : The Apostle saith , without works in general , ver . 6. And he works not , ver . 5. Lastly , By the testimony he brings from the Psalmist , that blessedness is where sin is not imputed , whrere it is forgiven ; These reasons do evidence that he excludes works under all notions in the act of Justification , though not from the person justified . 3. You say , how then saith James true ? But I ask , if there be justifying works , how saith Paul true ? But again , James saith true : for this faith which in respect of its act ad intra , doth only justifie , yet it works ad extra . The old Assertion is fides quae viva , not quo viva . You speak of a seeming Antilogie among the orthodox in this reconciliation , but though all go not eadem semi●â , yet they do eadem viâ against works under any notion whatsoever in the act of Justification . 4. You argue that faith as an Instrument is excluded . Thus Bellarmine also , apprehendere est opus , therefore faith is excluded : But non sequitur : Faith is passive in its Instrumentality ; and although to believe , be a Grammatical action , its verbum activum , yet its physic●n , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passive . A man by believing , doth not operari , but recipere : As videre , audire , are Grammatical actions , but Physical or natural passions : now you cannot say thus of the exercises of other Graces : this is the seeming strength of your Exceptions . For Repentance is not excluded as qualifying , but as recipient , which is a fifth Exception . As for your discourse , whether Paul disputes what is our Righteousness ? or upon what terms it is made over to us , it doth not much matter : for indeed Paul speaks to both those only inclusively or collaterally , as you say : but that which he chiefly intends , is to shew in what manner we are justified , whether by believing or working , and these he makes two immediate opposites , not granting any tertium . You speak of Faith taken relatively for Christs Righteousness ; but how can you find out such a figure for faith in your sence , unless you will acknowledge Love or Obedience relatively for Christs Righteousness ? Indeed those that hold Fai●h instrumentally , receiving the whole righteousness of Christ , and no other Grace , they often speak of faith taken relatively , but so cannot you , who hold that not only seeing this brazen Serpent , but any other actions of sence will as well heal the wounded Christian . You say you acknowledge the Assemblies definition of resting or receiving , you cannot take in that sence , as they declare it , as the Scripture words which are Metaphorical , do imply : for its the resting of a burdened soul upon Christ only for Righseousness , and by this Christs Righteousness is made over to us ; and it s a receiving of Christ , as the hand embraceth any Object : now you make the Righteousness of Christ made over to us in any other exercise of Grace as well as this . So that although you would willingly seem not to recede from others , yet you plainly do : and although you think your Assertions are but more distinct explications , yet they are indeed destructive Assertions to what our Divines do deliver : neither may you , while you intend to dispute , exactly build upon some homiletical or popular expression in any mans book . You reply to a second part in my Letter : whether a godly man dying , may be affected according to your position , and thereupon you instance in Hezekiah , Paul , and that no man can dye with comfort without the evidence of these works . But is this the state of the question with us ? Do you think that I deny a godly life to be a comfortable testimony , and a necessary qualification of a man for pardon ? You cannot think that you speak to the point in this . But here is the question , Can a godly man dying , think the Righteousness of Christ is made his by working or believing ? Is it repent , and Christs Righteousness is by this made yours , and rest in Christ ? Certainly the dying Christian is in agonies directed to this resting on Christ , to the eying of this brazen Serpent , not to be found in any thing but the Righteousness by faith . It s an act of Dependance , not of Obedience that interests us in Christs Righteousness . It s that puts on the robes of Christ , that our nakedness may not appear . And that is very harsh still , which you express , to expect the Righteousness of the Covenant of Grace upon the conditions fulfilled by your se ; lf , through Gods workings . I am unwilling to parallel this with some passages that might be quoted out of unsound Authors ; but that I am confident , howsoever your Pen-writes , you have a tutissimum est to rest only upon Christs Righteousness , and that by bare resting , and beleiving you look for a Righteousness . As Philosophers say , we see or hear intus recipiendo , not extra mittendo : otherwise Bellarmine argues consonantly enough , that Love would justifie as well as faith ; but we say that Faith doth pati , Love doth agere . Not but that faith is an active grace , only in this act it is meer recipient . Sir , I have not time , nor paper to answer those many questions , the most of which I conceive impertinent to this business : and your Explication of your self , how imperfections in our Graces are done away , and yet the conditions of righteousness , is to me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : but I cannot go any further . What I have written with much love and respect to you , I should account it a great mercy to be instrumental to bring you to the right way again : If there be so much Joy for reducing a wandring sheep , be not offended if I say there will be much more for an erring shepheard : though I hope at last your error may prove in words rather then in sence : with heartly brotherly love I have written this , and so let it be received from your fellow-labourer , who honours Gods gifts in you , and is also sensible of his own infirmities , and proneness to err . Dear Sir , IF you doubt of the truth of my bodily infirmity , it is because you neither know my body nor mind . The dispute at Bewdley , as it was almost at home , so I had the choice of the time , and such strength vouchsafed from God , which I cannot again expect , much less promise my self . I told you I have some lucida intervalla , perhaps a few hours in a moneth : but if upon such uncertainty I should draw you to a journey , and then ten to one fail you , I should be injurious . But seeing you so far and freely condiscend , if God wil shew me so much Mercy , as to enable this restless uncessantly-pained Sceleton to such a work , I shall be bold to send you word , and claim the favour you offer . In the mean time it is my duty to let you know , I have received your Letter , and to return your hearty thanks for it , though it be not that which I hoped for , and shall now cease to expect . I am convinced now as well as you that Letters are but a loss of time : but your Arguments or direct answers to my Questions , would have been for my advantage , a precious improvement of it : but seeing I may not be so happy , I must rest content . It still seemeth to my weak understanding to be no impertinency to prove that your self affirm Repentance , Confession , Turning , Forgiveing others , &c , to be more then signs , i. e. to be conditions to qualifie the Subject to obtain forgiveness ; and to tell you that I say no more , and to tell you still , that you give more to faith ( and so to man ) then I ; but I give no more to works for ought I descern then you ; I am sure then our ordinary Divines do : And if I do mistake herein , you have little reason to suspect me of willfulness ; though of weakness as much as you please . As for the state of the Question between us , which you speak of , I am a stranger to it , and know not what you mean. I never came to the stating of a Question with you ; nor did you state any to me in your letters , but mentioned your vehement dissent from several passages in my book , and therefore I had reason to think that you fell upon the Questions as there they were stated ; so that it is intime & medullitùs , pertinent to my question , which is impertinent to yours . You say the question is , [ Whether the Gospel righteousness be made ours otherwise then by believing ? ] and tell me that I say [ by believing and obedience ] when I never stated such a question , nor ever gave such an answer . I suppose by [ Gospel Righteousness ] you mean Christs Righteousness given to Believers : Now I have affirmed that [ those only shall have part in Christs satisfaction , and so in him be legally righteous , who do believe and obey the Gospel , and so are in themselves Evangelically righteous . ] But your phrase [ made ours ] doth intimate that our first possession of Christs Righteousness should be upon Obedience as well as Faith ; which I never affirmed : But Christs Righteousness is continued ours on condition of obeying him , though not made ours so : and we shall be justified at Judgement also on that condition . As it is not marriage duty , but Contract which is the condition of a womans first Interest in her Husband and his riches ; but marriage duty and the performance of that Covenant , is the condition of her Interest as continued . And indeed it is much of my care in that Book to shun and avoid that question which you say is stated between us : for I knew how much ambiguity is in the Word [ By ] which I was loth to play with . I know we are justified By God the Father , By Christs satisfaction , By Christs absolution , By the Gospel Covenant or Promise , By the Sacraments , By Faith , By Works , ( for I will never be ashamed to speak the words of the Holy Ghost ) By our words ( for so saith Christ ) Therefore if you will needs maintain in general , that Christs Righteousness is made ours , no otherwise then by beleiving , nor otherwise continued ours ; you see how much you must exclude . But to remove such Ambiguity , I distinguish between justifying [ By ] as an efficient instrumental Cause , and [ By ] as by a condition : and I still affirm that Works or Obedience do never justifie as any cause , much less such a cause ; but that by them as by a condition appointed by the free Lawgiver and Justifier we are finally justified . And truly Sir , it is past my reach at present to understand what you say less in this then I , except you differ only about the word [ By ] , and not the sence ; and think that it is improper to say that Pardon or Justification is By that which is but a condition : You seem here to drive all at this , and yet me thinks you should not . 1. Because you affirm your self , that conditions have a moral efficiency : and then it seems when you say Repentance , Confession , &c. are conditions , you mean they are morally efficient ; which is a giving more to works then ever I did . 2. Because you know it is the phrase of Christ and his Spirit , that we are justified By our words and works ; and it is safe speaking in Scripture phrase . 3. Because you say after that my Assertions are destructive of what Divines deliver : but the word By , if we are agreed in the sence , cannot be destructive ; and except the phrase only By , &c. be the difference , where is it ? When you say Repentance , &c. are conditions , and I say they are no more : and I have nothing from you of any disagreement about the sence of the word condition . Lest you should doubt of my meaning in that , I understand it as in our usual speech it is taken , and as Lawyers and Divines generally do , viz. Est Lex addita negotio , quae donec praestetur , eventum suspendit . Vel est modus , vel causa quae suspendit id quod agitur , quoad ex post facto confirmetur , ut Cujacius . And whereas Conditions are usually distinguisht into potestativas , causales & mixtas , seu communes , I mean conditiones potestativas . Where you add that you say only faith is the condition justifying . &c. but I make a justifying Repentance , &c. And whereas heretofore we had only justifying faith , now , &c. ] I answer , 1. If by justifying Repentance , &c. you mean that which is ( as you say Faith is ) an instrument or efficient Cause , I never dreamed of any such : If as a Condition ; you confess it your self . 2. If you speak against the sence , we are agreed in that for ought I know : If against the phrase , then justifying Faith or Repentance is no Scripture phrase : but to be justified By faith , and By works , and By words , are all Scripture phrases . You say , you firmly hold that Repentance and other Exercises of Grace are antecedent qualifications , and media ordinat● , in the use whereof only Pardon can be had : but what is this to me ? &c. I answer . 1. Add conditions as you do in your Book , and you say as much as I. 2. If by the other exercises of Grace you mean the particulars in your book enumerated , or the like ; and if by Pardon , you mean even the first pardon ( as the word Only shews you do ) then you go quite beyond me , and give far more to those exercises of grace then I dare do . For I say that Christ and all his imputed Righteousness , is made ours , and we pardoned and justified at first without any works or obedience more then bare faith , ( and what is precedent in its place or concomitant ) and that bona opera sequuntur justificatum non praecedunt justificandum , in regard of our first justification . I dare not say , they are Antecedents or media ordinata . Where you add , what is that to you that make the righteousness of the Covenant of grace to be made ours upon our godly working . &c. I answer , 1. I have shewed it is as much as I say , if not more , [ upon ] intending but a condition or medium ordinatum . 2. I never said what you say I maintain in phrase or sense ( if the word [ made ] intend either efficiency or any causality , or the first possession of Righteousness . 3. You much use the harsh phrase of [ working ] as here [ Godly working ] as mine ; which I doubt whether ever I uttered or used ; And the term [ works ] I little use , but in the explication of James . For I told you that I disclaim works in Pauls sense , Rom. 4.4 . which make the reward not of grace , but of debt . You add [ If therefore you had spent your self to shew that faith hath no peculiar instrumentality in our justification but what other graces have , then you had hit the mark . ] Answ . I confess Sir you now come to the point in difference . But do you not hereby confess that I give no more to works then you , but only less to faith ? Why then do you still harp upon the word [ works ] as if I did give more to them ? the task you now set me is to prove that faith doth no more , and not that works do so much : That faith is not an instrument , and not that love or obedience are conditions . And to this I answer you : 1. I have in my book said somewhat to prove faith no instrument of justifying , and you said nothing against it . Why then should I aim at this mark ? 2. I think I have proved there that faith justifieth primarily and properly as the condition of the Covenant , and but remotely as A receiving justification , this which you call the instrumentality , being but the very formal nature of the act , and so the quasi materia or its aptitude to the office of Justifying . And because I build much on this supposition , I put it in the Queries , which you judge impertinent . 3. Yet if you will understand the word instrument laxely , I have not any where denyed faith to have such an instrumentality ( that is , receiving or apprehensiveness ) above other graces : Only I deny and most confidently deny that that is the formal , proper or neerest cause of faith's justifying : But the formal reason is , because God hath made it the condition of the Covenant , promising justification to such receiving , which else would have no more justified then any other act : And therefore so far as others are made conditions , and the promise to us on them , they must needs have some such use as well as faith : And that they are conditions , you confess as much as I. 4. But what if I be mistaken in this point ? what is the danger ? If faith should deserve the name of an instrument , when I think it is but a condition ? 1. Is it any danger to give less to faith then others , while I give no less to Christ ? ( For if you should think I gave less to Christ then others , I should provoke you again and again to shew wherein ) 2. I deny nothing that Scripture saith : It saith not that faith is an instrument : ( perhaps you will tell me Veronius argues thus : But I mean it is neither in the letter nor plain sense ; and then I care not who speaks it , if true . ) 3. You make man an efficient cause of justifying himself . ( For the instrument is an efficient cause ) : And what if I dare not give so much to man ? is there any danger in it ? or should I be spoke against for the Doctrine of obedience , as if I gave more to man then you , when I give so much less ? 4. Those that dissent from me do make the very natural act of faith , which is most essential to it , and inseparable from it , as it from it self , viz. Its apprehension of Christs Righteousness , to be the proper primary reason of its justifying . What if I dare not do so , but give that glory to God , and not to the nature of our own act ? and say , that Fides quae recipit Justificat , sed non qua recipit primarily , but as it is the condition which the free justifier hath conferred this honour upon ? is there any danger in this ? and will there be joy in heaven for reducing a man from such an opinion ? You say , [ What more obvious then that there are many conditions in justificato , which are not in actu justificationis : The fastning the head to the body , &c. ] Answ . 1. You said before that they are Antecedents & Media ordinata , and then they are sure conditions in justificando as well as in justificato . 2. Your mention of the condition in homine vidente is besides our business , and is only of a natural condition , or qualification in genere naturae ; When we are speaking only of an active condition in genere moris : The former is improperly , the later properly called a condition . 3. If this be your meaning , I confess there are many natural or passive qualifications necessary , which are no active or proper moral conditions in a Law-sense ; But this is nothing to the matter . 4. The phrases of [ Conditions in justificato , & in actu justificationis ] are ambiguous , and in the Moral sense improper . Our question is whether they are conditions ad justificationem recipiendam : Which yet in regard of time are in actu justificationis , but not conditiones vel qualificationes ipsius actus . And if you did not think that repentance is a condition ad justificationem recipiendam , and so in actu justificationis , how can you say it is medium ordinatum ? A medium , as such , essentially hath some tendency or conducibleness to its end . 5. As obvious therefore as you think this is , it is past the reach of my dull apprehension to conceive of your conditions in a judiciary sense , which are in justificato for the obtaining of justification , and not be both ad actum & in actu justificationis : for I suppose you are more accurate and serious then by the word condition to mean modum vel affectionem entis Metaphysicam , vel subjecti alicujus adjunctum vel qualificationem in sense Physico , when we are speaking only of conditions in sensu forensi . And there are many thousand honest Christians as dull as I , and therefore I do not think it can be any weighty point of faith which must be supported by such subtilties which are past our reach , though obvious to yours : God useth not to hang mens salvation on such School distinctions which few men can understand . 6. And every such Tyro in Philosophy as I , cannot reach your Phylosophical subtilty neither ; to understand that the fastning of the head to the body is not conditio in actu videntis ; ( though it be nothing to our purpose ) ; Indeed we may think it of more remote use then some other , and but propter aliud , & quasi conditio conditionis ; and if you say so of Repentance , &c. we should not disagree . You say [ In other things I come off , and so mollifie my assertions , that you need not contend ] Answ . 1. I would you had told me wherein I so come off : For I know not of a word . If you mean in that I now say , obedience is no condition of our first attaining justification , but only of the continuance of it , &c. I said the same over and over in my book , and lest it should be over-lookt , I put it in the Index of distinctions . If you mean not this , I know not what you mean. 2. But if explication of my self will so mollifie and prevent contending , I shall be glad to explain my self yet further : Yea , and heartily to recant where I see my error . For that which you desire , I demonstrate that its By love , and Through love , &c. I have answered before by distinguishing of the sense of By and Through : and in my sense I have brought you forty plain Texts in my book for proof of it , which shew it is no new Doctrine . To your argument from Rom. 4. Where you say that Abrahams justification is the pattern of all others , I conceive that an uncouth speech , strange to Scripture for phrase and proper sense , though in a large sense tolerable and true : Certain I am that Paul brings Abrahams example to prove that we are justified by faith without the works of the Law ; but as certain that our faith must differ from Abrahams , even in the essentials of it : We must believe that this Jesus is he , or we shall dye in our sins ; which Abraham was not required to believe . Our faith is an explicite Assent and Consent to the Mediators Offices , viz. that he be our Lord and Saviour , and a Covenanting with him , and giving up our selves to him accordingly : But whether Abrahams ( and all recited in Heb. 11. ) were such , is questionable . Too much looking on Abraham as a pattern , seems to be it that occasioned Grotius to give that wretched definition of faith , ( Annot. in loc . ) that [ it is but a high estimation of Gods power and wisdom , and faithfulness in keeping his promises , &c. ] ( yet I know he came short also of describing that faith which he lookt on as the pattern . ) My first answer was that I exclude also any effective co-operation ; to which you say , [ Why do we strive about words , &c. ] I see that mens conceivings are so various , that there is no hopes that we should be in all things of one mind . Because I was loth to strive about words , therefore I distinguished between causality , and conditionality , knowing that the word By was ambiguous ( when we are said to be justified By faith &c. ) now you take this distinguishing to be striving about words , to avoid which , you would bring we back to the ambiguous term again . Whereas I cannot but be most confident , that as guile is most in Generals , so there would be nothing else between us but striving about words , if we dispute on an unexplained term , and without distinction . Do you indeed think , that to be an efficient cause of our justification , and to be a bare condition , is all one ? or do you think the difference to be of no moment ? You say , I do not exclude works justifying as well as faith , let the expressions be what they will. ] Answ . 1. You should have said , [ Let the sense , or way of justifying be what it will ▪ ] for sure the difference between an efficient cause and a condition is more then in the expression , or else I have been long mistaken . 2. I do not exclude God justifying , Christ justifying , the Word justifying , &c. and yet to distinguish between the way that these justifie in , and the way in which faith justifies , I take to be no striving about words , but of as high concernment as my salvation is worth . 3. Either you mislike my phrase , or my sense : if the phrase , then you mislike the word of God , which saith , a man is justified by works and not by faith only ; If the sense , then you should not fall upon the phrase : and then to distinguish and explain , is not to strive about words . 4. If I do bring faith and obedience neerer in justification then others , it is not by giving more to works then others , but by giving less to faith ; And if in that I err , you should have fallen on that and shewed it , and not speak still as if I gave more to works then you . I am sure I give less to man , and therefore no less than you to Christ . I perceive not the least disadvantage herein that I lye open to , but only the odium of the phrase of justification by works , with men that are carried by prejudice and custome . 5. I will not quarrel about such a word ; but I like not your phrase of [ Faith justifying , and works justifying , ] for it is fitter to introduce the conceit of an efficiency in them , then to say , [ We are justified by faith and by works ] which are only the Scripture phrase , and signifie but a conditionality . To that you say out of Phil. 3.9 . I believe Paul doth most appositely oppose the righteousness which is by faith to that which is by the Law. But then 1. He means not [ By faith as an instrument of justification ] 2. Nor by faith which is but a meer affiance on Christ for justification , or only as such . 3. Nor doth he exclude Knowledge , Repentance , Obedience , &c. 4. But to say that righteousness or justification is by love , or by obedience , &c. Without adding any more , is not a convenient speech , as it is to say that righteousness is by faith . 1. Because the speech seems to be of the first receiving of righteousness , wherein obedience or works have no hand . 2. Because faith having most clear direct relation to Christ , doth most plainly point out our righteousness to be in him . 3. Because faith as it is taken in the Gospel , is a most comprehensive grace , containing many acts , and implying or including many others which relate to Christ as the object also . Even obedience to Christ is implyed as a necessary subsequent part of the condition , seeing faith is an accepting of Christ as Lord and King , and Head , and Husband , as well as a justifier . 5. Yet Scripture saith as well as I , that Christ shall justifie us By his knowledge , and we shall be justified by our words , and by works ; and me thinks it should be no sin to speak the words of God , except it be shewed that I misunderstand them . It is not so fit a phrase , to say , that a poor ignoble woman , was made rich and honorable by her Love , or Obedience , or Marriage , faithfulness , and conjugal actions , as to say , it was by marriage with such a Noble man , or consent to take him to be her husband : For the marriage consent and Covenant doth imply conjugal affection , action and faithfulness . Yet are these last as flat conditions of her continuing her enjoyments as the marriage Covenant was of first obtaining them . To my second Answer , you shew that Paul excludes works under any notion . 1. From his opposition between faith and works , where you say I contradict Paul , and give a tertium . To which I answer , to distinguish of Pauls terms , and explain his meaning in his own words is not to give a tertium , or contradict ; but this is all that I do . I distinguish of the word Works ; sometime it is taken more largely for Acts or Actions , and so James takes it : sometimes more strictly for only such Actions as a Labourer performeth for his Wages , or which make the Reward to be not of Grace , but of debt . So Paul tells you that he understandeth or useth the term , Rom. 4.4 . usually therefore calling them Works of the Law. Now he that excludes Works only under this notion , doth not therefore exclude them under every notion . Where you add that Pauls opposition is between Faith and any thing of ours : I answer . 1. Is not Faith ours as much Love , & c ? 2. Are not Knowledge , Words , Works , ours , by all which God saith , we are justified ? 3. There is no such Scripture where Paul makes any such opposition : but only he renounceth his own Righteousness which is of the Law , Phil. 3.8 , 9. and any thing of our own that may be called Works in the stricter sence . Your second is , because Paul excludes Abrahams works , &c. Answer . 1. You make my tertium to be [ works that are of Grace ] and here again , works that flow from Grace , and say , Abrahams were not by meer strength of the Law : But these are no words of mine ; nor is it candid to feign them to be mine ; but that I impute it to your haste : I believe you remembred so well the words of Andradius , Bellarmine , and other Papists , that they dropped from your pen in haste in stead of mine ; nor is my sence any whit like theirs ; for I speak not of the efficient cause of works , ( Nature or Grace ) nor the meer command requiring them , when I speak of Law and Gospel : but the full entire Covenant or Law consisting of all its parts , and so making our Acts the conditions of the Punishment or Reward : as I have opened over and over in my Book . 2. You ask , Were Abrahams works in opposition to that , & c ? Answer . 1. Paul excludes also works in co-ordination with Christ , and so do I. 2. Yea and works supposed to be subordinate to Christ , which are not capable of a real subordination , 3. but not such as are truly subordinate , from being such conditions as is before said . 4. You seem to me to mistake Paul much , as if he took it for granted , that Abraham had such works which Paul disputeth against , but could not be justified by them ; Whereas I doubt not to say , that Paul contrarily supposeth that Abraham had no such Works , ( which make the reward to be of Debt , and not of Grace ) and therefore could not be justified by them . Your third Argument is , [ because imputing , covering , all is wholly attributed to God. ] Answer , I doubt not but that God is the only Principal efficient Cause , and his Promise or Covenant the Instrumental : therefore I cannot think as others , that man is the efficient Instrumental by believing , or that Faith is such : But what Is all therefore attributed to God ? Even the performance of the Conditions on mans part ? Or are there no such conditions which man must perform himself or perish ? God only covereth sin , imputeth Righteousness , &c. but to none who have not performed the Conditions . Is Believing attributed to God , or is it an act of man ? Or is it excluded ? When will you prove the Consequence of this Argument ? Your fifth Argument is , [ because the Assertion is universal without works in general ] Answer , 1. Doth not the Apostle contradict you by expounding himself in the very next verse before those you cite ? Rom. 4.4 . That by works he means not simply good Actions , as James doth , but such as make the reward to be of debt and not of Grace ? Indeed such works are universally excluded . 2. Therefore he excludes the very presence of works , and saith , to him that worketh not , &c. ver . 5. But the presence of good actions you say is not excluded . Your last Argument seems to me the same with the fourth , and it forceth me to admire that you should think the consequence good . Blessedness is when sin is forgiven ; therefore no work or good act performed by man is the condition of forgiveness , either as begun or continued , or consummate ] If this be not your consequence , you say nothing against me : if it be , I assure you it is not in my Power to believe it , nor to discern the least shaddow of probability of truth in it , nor to free it from the charge of being the grossest Antinomianism ( si pace tui ità dicam . ) And here I must needs tell you also my utter disability to reconcile you with your self ; for you before say , they are media ordinata , and here you say , They are excluded under any notion : As if to be a medium were no notion ; or the medium did nothing in or to the very justifying of the person . To my next Answer . If works be excluded under any notion , then James his words cannot be true , that we are justified by works . You reply , If there be justifying works , how saith Paul true ? I answer . This is a most evident Petitio principii . It is undeniable that James includeth works under some notion : and that Paul excludeth them under some other notion : now therefore I might well ask , How saith James true else ? Because my supposition cannot be denyed : But you suppose that Paul excludeth works under any notion , ( which is the very Question , and is denyed . ) When you ask how saith Paul true ? Paul saith true because he speaks of works strictly taken , as is by himself explained : James could not say true , if works under every notion ( as you say ) be excluded . Next you come to reconcile them by expounding James ; where you say , Faith which in respect of its Act ad intra , only justifies , yet it works ad extra : fides quae viva , non qua viva . I answer . What 's this to the Question ? The Question is not whether Faith work ? Nor whether Faith justifie ? Nor what Faith justifieth ? But in what sence James saith , we are justified by works , and not by Faith only ? You answer by a direct contradiction to James , ( if I can reach the sence of your Answer ) saying , It is by Faith only , and that not as it liveth , &c. So dare not I directly say , it is not by works , when God saith it is : but think I am bound to distinguish , and shew in what sence works justifie , and in what not ; and not to say flatly against God , that we are not justified by works under any notion , but only by the Faith which worketh . A denyal of Gods Assertions is an ill expounding of them . To what you say of the judgement of the Orthodox , [ that they go eadem via et si non eadem semita ] I answer , you may understand your distinction as you please , but I have shewed the difference : some understand it of justification before God ; others before men , &c. And if you please to make the way wide enough , you may take me among the Orthodox , that go eadem via : if not , I will stand out with James . When you say [ they exclude works under any notion in the act of justification . ] I answer , 1. Your self include them as antecedents and concomitants ( thought I do not , ) 2. I have shewed before that [ in the act , &c. ] is ambiguous . If you mean [ as Agents of Causes ] , so do I exclude them . If you mean [ as conditions required by the new Law to the continuing and consummating our justification ] I have shewed you that Divines do judge otherwise . My next answer was [ If works under any notion be excluded , then faith is excluded ] You reply 1. [ Thus Bellarmine , &c. ] Answ . I knew indeed that Bellarmine saith so . But Sir , you speak to one that is very neer Gods tribunal , and therefore is resolved to look after naked truth , and not to be affrighted from it by the name either of Bellarmine or Antichrist ; and who is at last brought to wink at prejudice . I am fully resolved by Gods grace to go on in the way of God as he discovereth it to me , and not to turn out of it when Bellarmine stands in it . Though the Divels believe , I will ( by Gods help ) believe too : and not deny Christ , because the Divels confess him . You say , Non sequitur , I prove the consequence . If all works ( or acts ) be excluded under any notion whatsoever , and if faith be a work or act then faith is excluded . But , &c. Ergo , &c. By the reason of your denyal I understand and nothing that you deny , but [ that faith is a work or act ] which I never heard denyed before , and I hope never shall do again . The common answer to Bellarmine is , that faith which is a work justifieth , but not as it is a work : Which answer I confess to be sound , and subscribe to it . But then according to that , faith which is a work justifieth under some notion ( suppose it were under the notion of an instrument ) though not under the notion of a work . But you go another way , and say , 1. Faith is passive in its instrumentality , and though to believe , be a grammatical action , its verbum activum , yet its physicè , or huper physice passive . A man by believing doth not operari , but recipere . As videre , audire , are Grammatical actions , but physical or natural passions , &c. Answer . 1. These are very sublime Assertions , quite past the reach of my capacity , and of all theirs that I use to converse with ; and I dare say it is no Heresie to deny them , nor can that point be neer the foundation that stands upon such props which few men can apprehend . 2. What if Faith were passive in its Instrumentality ? Is it not at all an Act therefore ? If it be ; Then that which is an Act or Work , is not excluded under the notion of a passive Instrument ; and so not under every notion ( I speak on your grounds . But ) because you told me before that I should have spent my self against this Instrumentality of Faith if I would hit the mark ; I will speak the more largely to it now : And 1. Enquire whether videre , audire , be only Grammatical Actions ( as you call them ) and natural passions ? 2. Whether Believing be so , only verbum activum , but Physically passive ? And so to Believe , is not agere , but pati or recipere ? 3. Whether faith be passive in its Instrumentality ? 4. Whether the same may not be said as truly of other Graces ? 5. Whether Faith be any proper Instrument of our Justification ? 6. If it were , Whether that be the primary , formal Reason of its justifying vertue ? 7. Whether your Opinion or mine be the plainer or safer ? And for the first , I should not think it worth the looking after , but that I perceive you lay much upon it , and that Philosophers generally suppose that the Sence and Intellect in this are alike ; and for ought I discern , it is such a Passiveness of the Intellect that you intend : and therefore we may put all together , and enquire whether videre & intelligere be only Passions ? And here you know how ill Philosophers are agreed among themselves , and therefore how slippery a ground this is for a man to build his Faith upon in so high point as this in hand : you know also that Hippocrates , Galen , Plato , Plotinus , with the generality of the Platonists are directly contrary to you : you know also that Albertus Magnus , and his followers judge sensation to be an action , though they take the potentia to be passive . You know also that Aquinas with his followers judge the very potentia to be active as well as passive ; passive while it receiveth the species ; and active , Dum per ipsam agit & sensationem producit . And Tolet saith , that this is Scotus his sentence , 2. de Anima . q. 12. & Capreol . & ferè communis . I know Aquinas saith , that intelligere est quoddam pati ; but he taketh pati in his third wide improper sense , as omne qu d exit de potentia in actum , potest dici pati : 1. q. 79 a. 2. C. And no doubt every second cause may be said to suffer even in its acting , as it receiveth the Influx from the first , which causeth it to act ; but it will not thence follow that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 videre , intelligere est for maliter pati : I cannot think that you deny the intellectum agentem : and you know that generally Philosophers attribute Action to the possible Intellect : and that Jandun . Apollina , &c. do accordingly make an Agent and patient sence : and if the reception of the species were formaliter visio & intellectio ( which I believe not ) yet how hardly is it proved that the Organ and Intellect are only passive in that reception ? Yea how great a controversie is it what the sensible and intelligible species are ? Yea and whether there be any such thing ? Whether they be an image or similitude begotten or caused by the Object , as Combacchius and most ? which yet Suarez , &c. denyeth . And whether they stick in the air , and have all their Being first there , as Magyrus , and other Peripateticks ? Or whether their Being is only in the eye ? as some later . Or whether it be Sir Ken. Digbyes Atomes or number of small bodies which are in perpetual motion ? I doubt not you know that Ockam and Henricus quod . lib. 4. q. 4. reject all species as vain , and make the Intellect the only active proper cause of intellection . And Hobs of late in his book of humane Nature saith , that visible and intelligible species , is the greatest Paradox in the world , as being a plain Impossibility . And indeed it is somewhat strange that every stone and clod should be in perpetual Action , sending forth that which we call its species ; for doubtless it sendeth forth as much when we behold it not as when we do . And more strange that a Rock or Mountain should be so active a creature , and so forcible in action , as to send forth its species so many miles ! Yea , according to this Doctrine , many 1000 miles : for if our Organ were capable , we should see it so far . Whether the Angels see these things on earth recipiendo species , or not ; sure according to this Doctrine , the species must reach as far as Heaven . And why do not stones wast by such an uncessant emanation ? And it is strange to conceive how the Air is be painted with variety of species , if this be true ! that every Grass , Flower , Tree , Bird , Stone , &c. and other bodies , have their several distinct species in the Air night and day ? How strangely is it painted ? What room is there for them all , without confusion , If both color , quantity , odor , and all be there ? And its strange if we do not hear the sound nor taste the sweetness , &c. but only the species of them ! and beyond my Capacity how we should discern Distance as well as the Object distant according to the passive opinion ! and more hard is it for me to believe this Doctrine , when I consider how Cats and Owls see in the night : and how a man in a deep study , or that steepeth with his eyes open , seeth not any thing distinctly ( though I know the frivolous answers to these : ) And yet more hardly do I believe it when I feel quanto labore & conatu I must see to read a small print , or discern a thing afar off : but above all when I feel the labor of my studies , I hardly believe that my understanding is not active ; though I easily believe that I am also too passive . Why do I not understand with every dull thought ? To believe also that every stone is still active , and that the eye and Intellect of the living Creature is but passive , is hard to me ; because me thinks Action better agreeth to the living , then the inanimate . And yet the less do I assent when I observe what stress they lay upon the similitude of a looking-glass receiving the species , which I am very confident it did never receive , when I see it moving as my eye moveth , and withdrawing when I withdraw , ( though the Object be any stone or other immovable thing ) I judge that when I am gone , the glass receiveth no more species from the wall , then the wall from the glass ; nor that the water receives any more species of the Moon that there appears , then the earth doth ; but that all is in mine eyes by the help of that reflection . I doubt not but you have read D'Orbellis arguments , ( Dist . 3. in 1. sent . par . 3. q. 2. ) against both extreams in point of intellection : Against yours his reasons seem to me strong : Quia effectus aequivocus non potest excellere in perfectione causam aequivocam totalem sed deficit necessario ab ea ; sed intellectio esset effectus aequivocus speciei intelligibilis , si ab easola causaretur , & ita esset simpliciter imperfectior specie intelligibili , quod non est verum . Tum etiam quia tunc non posset salvari imago in mente , ut mens est : quia nihil ipsius mentis haberet rationem parentis . Item quomodo causarentur relationes rationis , sive intentiones logicae , quae sunt in actu collativo ? cum illa intentio dicatur realis quae causatur im̄ediate à re vel specie representante rem in se . Even des Cartes his Doctrine of vibration seemeth to make the sensation and intellection to be formally Action , though the Organ must first be passive to the producing it , before it be Active . Zabarel , Combacchius , &c. say that in sensation there is first a receiving the species . 2. A judging , &c. The first by the Organ which is passive , and the later ( which is the very sensation by the sensitive soul , which is active . Therefore Combacchius saith ▪ Intellectio est operatio animae rationalis , &c. but passio is not operatio . Schibler determineth it ( Top. p. 232. that the object doth but 1. Excitare potentiat Activas ad actus . 2. Terminare actus Viguerius Institut . p. 261. besides the intellect Agent , ascribeth to the Possible three offices . 1. To draw and receive the species . 2. Actually to understand . 3. To conserve the species . The same Viguerius , instit . p. 17. & Aquin. 1. q. 18 a 3.1 . Suarez Tim. 2. disp 48. § . 6. Scaliger Exercit. 307. s . 2. as also Bradwardine , Scotus , Cajetani ambo , Albert : D'Orbellis , Ruvio , Alstedius , Keckerman St●ierius , Zanchius , Burgersdicius , A.C. fascic . log . Prideaux Hypomnem . with many more , have taught me to account vision , intellection , and volition for Immanent Acts. And though there be a reception of the species , and so somewhat of passion as well as of action , yet that of passion is but a preparation or quasi materiale , and the formale is in action , as Keckerman , Syst . log . p. 110 Physici nonnulli discernunt materiale & formale : sic materiale in visu est receptio specierum visibilium in oculo , quae est passio : est deinde dijudicatio rei visib . lis per illas species quae est actio : hinc est quod Aristot . sensum modo ad actionem , modo ad passionem refert . Zanchius saith , Vol. 1. T. 3. p. 581. Vim omnem sensitivam esse partim passivum , partim activum , diversis respectibus : Passiva est quatenus , percipit objecta . Activa est quatenus ipsa ab objecto aff●cta , parit sensum , & rem unam ab alio discernit , Patentia enim visiva postquam recepit coloris albi speciem , discernit hans à nigro , &c. sic in rebus Divinis vis nostrae mentis & voluntatis & passiva & activa est . Passiva quatenus recipit gratiam à Deo i● nobis operante : Activa vero quatenus affecta Dei gratia , ipsa Credit , ipsa Amat ; Acti enim Agimus . Res sua natura intelligib●les vis haec animae Patiens intellectus appellata , efficit suo lum ne , suaque Actione , ut res actu intelligantur . Hoc lumen intellectus Agentis , hoc est , animae nostrae , non minima pars est imaginis Det in qua creati sumus . Obscurata fuit lux nobis communicata per peccatum Ade , sed illustratur denuo per Christum : unde hac nova luce Deum Deique mysteria intelligimus , quae certe animalis homo percipere non potest . Proinde cum essemus tenebrae , denuo facti sumus & vocantur lux in Domino . Ex hac nova luce donata per Christum , intelligimus quid sit intellectus Agens . Zanch. ibid. p. 596. You see how far Zanchius Philosophy and Divinity is from yours so p. 594. Est autem manifesta ia nobis hec intellectus Actio , nempet intelligere . Et pag. 638. He saith the intellect hath four operations . 1. Simplicium apprehensio . 2 Horum Compositio 3. Compostorum aestimatio , eoque & verorum à falsis divisio . 4. Ex his raticcinatio . And you know that Tolet , having formerly thought , with Aegid . Paul. Venet. & Cajet . that sensatio ( & ita intellectio ) est formaliter passio , did change his judgement , and at last conclude that Visio vel sensatio alia duos motus dicit : unum materialiter , & hic est receptio speciei : alterum formaliter , & hic est Actio : Prior inest Organo ratione materiae : posterior ratione potentiae , & a●imae : tamen uterque eidem inest Organo . Prior quidem non est substantialiter & essenti● liter sensatio , sed concomitans & velut dispositio : posterior est essentialiter sensatio . But I have been too tedious on this , vid. ultra in l. 2. de Anima , p. 76 , 77. &c. & l. 3. q. 13. &c. You see my reasons in part why I may think my self excusable , though I build not an Article of my faith on your Philosophical assertion ; [ that videee , audire , ( and so to believe ) are Grammatical actions ( only ) ( for you must say [ only ] or you say nothing ) and but physical passions . Quest . 2. Whether to Believe be only verbum activ●m ? but phycally passive , and a man by believing doth not operari , but recipere . This Question comes a little closer . By operari I know you mean agere : for if you should mean such an operation as Operarius pro mercede ex debito performeth , then you should say nothing , but dispute against what I disavowed even in the letter you answer ( which I dare not impute to you ) Now the reasons that force me to differ vehemently from you ( as you said to me ) in this point , are partly Philosophical , partly Theological . And 1. I would sain know what that is which you here call Faith , and say its passive ? Is it the Habit ? No : For 1. That cannot be passive . 2. That is not it that justifieth . 3. That is not a passion , as you say this is . 4. That is not a Grammatical Action , as you say this is ; What then ! Is it the Act of Faith ? No : For 1. That 's it that you are denying , and say it s but verbum activum . 2. You say , it is passive . But how an Action can be passive , is so far beyond the reach of my weak understanding , that I could not believe it , though it were judged Heresie to deny it . P●ss●o intrinsecum ordinem dicit ad subjectum , & repugnat dari passionem extra subjectum , saith Surrez . Tom. 2. disp . 49. p. 451. And that Action can be the subject of Passion , is Philosophy that I never learned , and I think never shall do . Especially if Schibler and most Philosophers say true that Actio & passio non differunt realiter sed secundum inadaequato● conceptus . For very many have taught me , that to the Peripateticks it is absurd for the same to be both the Action , Passion and Passum ; yea to common reason it is — Most certainly therefore it is neither Habit , nor Act of faith which you call faith . What is it then ? Is it a Passion ? so you say your self , and therefore I must take that to be your meaning : And I cannot imagine what else you should call faith . But here you leave me at as great a loss as before . For , 1. You say it is Passive : But I never heard or read before of a Passive Passion , any more then of a Passive Action : And if I should set my understanding on the wrack , it would not apprehend or acknowledge any such thing . I cannot imagine that it is the soul it self which you say is passive . 1. Because you say it is faith . 2. Because else your Argument must conclude that the soul only is the instrument : But we are not questioning the instrumentality of the soul now , but of faith . More I might urge to shew that this cannot be your meaning , but that I will not suppose that it is the soul it self which you call faith . It being therefore neither the Soul , Habit , Act , nor Passion which you here say is Passive in its instrumentality , I am forced to confess I know not what you mean : Yet if you should mean any Potentia Passive . 1. Whether there be any such in the rational soul distinct from the soul it self , is a great doubt . 2. If there were , I know not how it can be called faith . 3. Nor is it such a Potentia that is the instrument of justification . Yet afterwards you say , It is an act of dependance , which here you call a Passion . 2. But whether Act or Passion , it must belong either to the Vnderstanding , or Will , or both : And 1. If you should place it only in the understanding , you would ( besides Dr. Downam ) have few but the Papists with you . 2. If in the Will only , then ( as Scripture is most plain against it , so ) you would also go against the generality of our Divines Melancthon J● . Crocius , Amesius , Davenant , &c. make it the common Protestant Tenet , that it is in both . In actu si●ei Justificantis tota an ma se convertit ad causam justificantem : Davenant , Determ . Q. 38. pag. 174. Fides illa quam Scriptura justificantem agnoscit , habet in se complicatum actum voluntatis & intellectus . idem . ibid. Q. 37. pag. 166. And to them that think it absurd to have it in both faculties . I answer with the same Author . 1. Quod philos●●kantur voluntatem & intellectum esse duas potentias re ipsa distinctas , dogma philosophicum est ab omnibus haud receptum , ( not of Scotus and his followers , with many more ) & Theologicis dogmatibus firmandis aut infirmandis fundamentū minime id●neum . 2. Neque nobis absurdum , sed valde consentaneum videtur , actum illum quo tota anima purificatur & justificatur , ad totam animam pertinere : ita ut in nudo intellectu habeat initium , in voluntate complementum . Idem . ibid. 3. If you say it is in both ( as I doubt not but you will , it being the plain Truth ) then 1. It cannot possibly by any one single Act or Passion which you call the passive Instrument : and do you think to find out many such ? 2. For that which belongeth to the understanding , it must be either a simple apprehension , a composition or division , or a ratiocination or Judgement . And 1. A simple Apprehension it cannot be : 1. For so the Intellect receiveth all Objects alike . It receiveth sin , death , unrighteousness , Satan , hell in the same kind as it receiveth Grace , Life , Righteousness , Christ , Heaven . For it understandeth both in the same way , receiving them per modum objecti . 2. And thus it receiveth not the very thing it self Essentially , ( though it understand the thing it self ) but only as is said , the species or action of it , &c. ( except you will say as Sir Ken. Digby , and the Lord Brook , that the thing understood is really in the understanding , and become one with it ) Now according to this sence , you would not make faith to receive Christ or his Righteousness at all , but only the species or Idea of them . 3. And how oft hath Bellarmine been called Sophister for supposing , we mean such an apprehension ? Therefore I will not dare to think that you mean this . 4. And if you did , yet I have shewed how uncertain it is , that this intelligere is only or formally pati . 2. But if you mean not this simple apprehension ( as sure you do not ) then how is it possible to imagine the understanding should be passive in it ? Did ever man that writ of Philosophy once think that the soul did componere , dicidere , ratiocinari , judicare , patiendo & non agendo ? I think no man. When Tolet disputeth utrum ixtelligere sit pati ? he saith , Advertendum est quod sermo est de apprehensione ; nam de compositione & Jud elo non est dubium apud omnes . Tol de anima . p. 166. I will not therefore suppose you to differ in your Philosophy from all men . What Act of the understanding you will make to be part of Justifying faith , I know not : For I find Divines are very little agreed in it : But the most make Assent to be the only Act of the understanding ( though some add notitia ) and of them some make it Essential to justifying Faith : and others but as a common prerequisite Act. Now if it were Assensus Noeticus , yet it is impossible it should be formally a Passion : but much more impossible when it is Assensus dianocticus vel discursivus , as is most evident it is , and our judicious Rob. Baronius truly teacheth , Philos . Theol. An●il . Exerc. 3. Art. 16. Most Divines place the chief Essence of Faith in fiducia : but then they are as ill agreed what to mean by fiducia . Pemble would fain perswade us that to Believe the Truth of a particular Promise , is to trust on the performance of it to me ; and that the Assent of Faith which is given to such a Promise , is properly called fiducia or Trust . But this is grounded on his singular opinion , that Truth and Goodness are all one , &c. Baronius , pag. 232. tels us of a four-fold fiducia : The first he makes to be but a confident Assent to the Truth of the Promise , and a firm sure Perswasion of the Remission of my own sins and of my Salvation . The second is a Resting on Gods Goodness alone , &c. He placeth the justifying vertue only in the first , which yet containeth but partly Assent ( which we plead against the Papists usually not to be the justifying Act ) and partly a particular Perswasion or Belief of Pardon , which is properly no Faith , but that commonly called Assurance . Now this kind of fiducia is but the Assent we have spoken of , and is beyond all dispute no meer Passion , but an Act of the Understanding . 2. But most Divines make that fiducia which is an act of the Will to have the chief hand in this work of justfiying : though Baronius is so confident that it is not an act of Faith , but an Effect and Consequent , that he takes it for a thing so manifest , that it needeth no proof , p. 234. And Dr. Downam hath brought not a few , nor contemptible Arguments to the same purpose against Pemble , Append. to Covennat of Gr. Yet though we have found it in the Will , yet it is hard to find what act of the Will they mean. If it be an Elicit Act , it must first either respect the End , and then it is either velle intendere vel frui : But sure fiducia is none of these : and if it were , it is more sure that at least the two first are not Passions ; and I think not the last , though it be nothing to the present point : Or else 2. It must respect the Means ; and then it must be Eligere , Consentire vel Vti ( in which joined to Assent , I take justifying Faith to consist ) : But it is both evident that none of these is fiducia , and if they were , that none of these are passions or passive . So that hitherto we are to seek for this Passive Faith. Or else it is an Imparate Act ; and then we are in a wood to seek among so many that there is little hope of finding it . The Truth seems to me to be beyond dispute , that fiducia is no one single Act ( though one word ) but a composition of many implying or containing the Assent of the understanding , the Election of the Will , especially much of Hope and Adventurousness in the Irascible of the Sensitive , together with a suspension of some acts . And if we are justified by this Recumbency or Fiducia , I shall believe we are justified as well by Hope as any thing ; for that takes up most here , as Dr. Downam ubi supra proveth . And who ever said that in all or any of these the Soul is Passive and not Active ? Indeed Hope and Venturousness are Passions , but in another sense ( as Keckerm . and Tolet ubi supra have well opened ; it s in respect of their quasi materiale . ) I am content to stand or fall by the vote of Philosophers , giving you 100 to one , whether the Formality of these motions of the Will lie in Passion or Action ? And if they are Acts. whether they can be the Subjects of Passion ; and so be passive Acts ? So that yet I cannot find out your passive Faith. 3. But yet further , if Faith be passive Physically , let us find out first what is the Agent ? 2. What the Action ? 3. What the Patient or Object ? 4. What is the Terminus ad quem ? 1. I doubt not but it is agreed that the Agent is God : for it is he that justifieth . 2. The terminus or res motu facta is two-fold . 1. Justification in sensu legis , commonly called constitutive Justification ( passive . ) 2. Publique Justification by plea and sentence at Judgement ( passive ) 3. The Action must be therefore two-fold , or two Actions according to the two-fold Terminus . Yea in the former we may ( if we accurately consider it ) find out a two-fold Action and Terminus , though the difference be narrow : In which we are to consider , 1. Of the Instrument : 2. Add the nature of the Actions . 1. The Instrument is the word of Promise or Grant in the Gospel ( for if you know any other way of Gods justifying , or any immediate Act of God herein which is Transient , I would it were revealed what Act it is . ) Herein I have Mr. Rutherford saying as I , over and over against the Antinomians . 2. The Action therefore can be no other then a moral Action , as a Lease or Bond , or written-Law may be said to act . Now the Gospel performeth to our first Justification a two-fold Action . 1. It doth as a Deed of Gift bestow Christ and his Merits on men , so it be they will Believe . This Action doth not immediately and directly constitute them Righteous : for Righteousness being a Relation , must have its Foundation first laid : This Act therefore of Donation ( which some call Imputation ) doth directly lay the Fundamentum , whence the Relation of Righteous doth immediately arise ( when the Condition is peformed ) per nudam resultantiam without any other Act to produce it . And this is most properly called Justificatio constitutiva activa . 2. When the Gospel hath by Gift constituted us Righteous then next in order it doth declare or pronounce us Righteous , and vertually acquit us from Condemnation . This is by the like silent moral interpretative Action only as the other . ( And perhaps may be most fitly called the imputing of Righteousness , or esteeming us Righteous , as Piscator . ) And for the latter Justification at Judgement , the Action is Christs publique pleading , and sentencing us Acquitt : which is an Action both Physical and Moral in several respects . 4. Now if we enquire after the Patient , or rather the Object of these several Acts , we shall quckly find that the Man is that Object ; but that Faith is any Patient here , is past my apprehension . For the first Act of God by the Gospel [ giving Christ and his Merit to us , ] it is only a moral Action : ( Though the writting and speaking the Word at first was a Physical action , yet the Word or Promise now doth moraliter tantùm agere : ) And therefore it is impossible that Faith should be Physically passive from it . For Passion being an effect of Action , it must be a Physical proper Action which produceth a physical Passion . I will not stand to make your Assertion odious here by enquiring what Physical effective Influx , Contact , &c. here is , which should manifest Faith to be physically Passive . I know in the Work of effectual vocation the Soul is first passive : but that is nothing to our Question , whether Faith be passive in Justification . Do but tell me plainly quid patitur fides , and you do the Business . But what if you had only said that Faith is morally passive , and not physically ? I answer . It had been less harsh to me , though not fit , nor to the point . For 1. Gods Justification nor Donation of Christ , is not properly of , or to Faith ; for then Faith should be made righteous and justified hereby ; but to the person , if he Believe . 2. Besides if you should confess only a moral Passiveness ( which is somewhat an odd phrase and notion , and is but to be the Object of a moral Action ) it would spoil all the common arguments drawn from the physical nature of Faith , and its sole excellency herein in apprehending , receiving , &c. and thereby justifying . And you would bring in all other Graces to which the same Promise may as well be said to be made . 3. The Truth I have and further shall manifest to be this ; that as it is not to faith or any other act that Righteousness is given , but to the person on condition he Believe ; so this condition is no passion but an action , or divers actions . This will fully appear in the Theological Reasons following . In the mean time I need not stand on this , because you express your self that Faith is physically pas●ive . Indeed you add [ or hyperphysically : ] but though I meet with some Philosophers , that use in such cases to give [ hyperphysice ] as a tertium to overthrow the sufficiency of the ●istinction of physice & moraliter , yet I suppose that is none of your meaning who know that even Intellectus dum efficit intellectionem , & voluntas volitionem , sunt causae physicae , ut Suarez . 1. Tom. disp . 17. § . 2. p. 260. and so Schibler , and many more : yea and that our Divines conclude that Gods action on our souls in conversion is first Physical : which yet may be as truly and fully called hyperphysical as our Faith. Now for the second action of the Gospel , [ declaring or pronouncing the Believer righteous , and so de jure acquitting him ; ] It is much more beyond my reach to conceive how faith can in respect of it be passive : For 1. Besides that it is a moral action as the former , and so cannot of it self produce a physical passion . 2. It doth not therein speak of or to faith , pronouncing it just , and acquitting it , but of and to the Believer . So that if Faith were physically passive in the former , yet here it is impossible . 3. If you say that it is physically ( or morally ) passive in regard of the latter full Justification by sentence at Judgement , you would transcend my capacity most of all . To say faith is the Patient of Christs judiciary publique sentence , is a sentence that shall never be an article of my Faith : and is so gross , that I conjecture you would take it ill if I should take it to be your meaning : therefore I will say no more against it . Now you know that this is ( as you say in your Lect. ) the most compleat Justification ; and which I most stand upon : and therefore if your arguments fail in respect of this , they yield me almost all I expect . Next I will tell you my Reasons Theological why I believe not that justifying faith , as such , is passive . 1. All Divines and the Scripture it self hath perswaded me , that Christ and the Promises are the Object of this Faith : but a Passion hath no Object , but a subject , &c. Therefore according to you Christ , &c. is not the object of it ; which is contrary to all that I have heard or read . 2. I have read Divines long contending which is the Act of justifying faith , qua talis . And some say one , and some another ; but all say one , or other , or many . Now you cut the knot , and contradict all , in making it ( at least quatenus Justificans ) no Act at all , but a Passion : unless you will say it is a passive act , which I dare not imagine . And doubtless these Divines shew by their whole speech that by Actus Fidei , they mean Actus secundus vel Actio , and not Actus primus vel entetativus vel accidentalis , sive ut informans , sive ut operativus , sed ipsa operatio . 3. I am truly afraid lest by entertaining this opinion I should strike in not only with the Antinomians ( who cannot endure to hear of any conditions of life of our performing , but even with the Libertines , who tell me to my face , that man is but Passive , and as the soul Acts the body , so Christ in them moveth the soul to Good , and Satan to evil , while they are meerly Passive , and therefore the Devil shall be damned for sin who committeth it in them , and not they ; for who will bite the stone or beat the staff , or be angry at the sword ? &c. 4. Else you must depress the excellent grace of faith below all other , in making it meerly Passive while others are active : For doubtless life and excellency is more in Action then Passion . 5. If believing be only suffering , then all Infidels are damned only for not suffering , which is horrid . 6. Scripture frequently condemneth wicked men for Action , for Rebellion , Refusing , Rejecting Christ , Luke 19.27 . They hate him and say , we will not have this man reign over us , &c. and this is their unbelief . If they resisted the Holy Ghost only Passivè & non Activè , then it would be only an ineptitudo materiei , which is in all alike at first , and so all should be alike rejecters . 7. If to believe be but Pati , then it is God and not man that should be perswaded : For perswasion is either to Action or forbearing Action ; and God is the Agent : But it is in vain to perswade any to be Passive , except it be not to strive against it . This therefore would overthrow much of the use of the Ministry . 8. And then when Christ so extolleth doing the will of God , and doing his Commandments , &c. you will exclude justifying faith , as being no doing . 9. Is it credible , that when Christ cals faith Obeying the Gospel , and saith , This is the work of God , that ye believe on him whom the father hath sent ; and calls it the work of faith , 2 Thes . 1.11 . and saith , God giveth to will , ( that is , to believe ) and to do , &c. that all this is meant of meer Passion ? I undertake to bring forty places of Scripture that shew faith to be Action . 10. It seemeth to me so great a debasing of faith , as to make it to be no vertue at all , nor to have any moral good in it . For though I have read of Passio perfectiva in genere entis vel naturae , and conducible to vertue ; Yet am I not convinced yet that any Passion as such , hath any moral vertue in it . Indeed Passion may be the quasi materiale , but the vertue is in Action . Yea , even in non-acting , ( as silence ) the vertue lies formally in the actual exercise of the Authority of Reason , and so obeying God in causing that silence . Sure if men shall be all judged according to their works , and according to what they have done , &c. then it will not be because they did either Pati vel non pati . And thus you have some of my reasons why I cannot believe that Believing is passion , nor shall believe it I think , till Credere be Pati , and then I may whether I will or no , because pati vel non pati are not in my choice . 3. The third Question is , Whether faith be passive in its instrumentality ? And I think that is out of doubt , if my former arguing have proved that faith is not passive at all : or if I next prove that faith is no physical instrument . But yet if I should grant both that faith is passive , and that it is an Instrument , yet must I have either more or less Logick before I can believe that it is passive in its instrumentality . My reasons against it are these . 1. Every Instrumental cause is an efficient cause : but all true efficiency is by action : therefore all instrumentality is by action . That causalitas efficientis est Actio ; & haec est forma per quam denominatur efficiens ; quia agens & efficiens sunt idem , &c. I have been taught so oft and so confidently that I believe it . ( For oportet discentem credere ) : and that by Philosophers of no mean esteem , as Suarez Tom. 1. disp . 18. § . 10. Javel . Metaph l. 9. q. 16. Conim . Colleg. Phys . l. 2. q. 6. art . 2. & 7. Scaliger . Exerit . 254. Aquinas , Ruvio , Porrece , Melancth . Zanchius , Zabarel , Pererius , Schibler , Stierius , Gu. Tempell . in Ram. with many more . And if there be no such thing in rerum natura as a Passive instrument , then faith is none such . I know Keckerm . Alsted . & Burgersdicius do talk of a Passive instrument ; but I think in proper speech it is a contradiction , in adjecto and say as Schibler Metaphys . l. 1. cap. 22. Tit. 7. p. 319. Nisi Actionem propriam haberet Instrumentum , efficiens non esset ; & proinde passivum instrumentum quod Keckerm . vocat , revera instrumentum non est . Et ut Idem , Topic. cap. 2. num . 34. Instrumentum totum hoc habet quod ad causam efficientem adjuvantem ( ad quam referimus causam instrumentalem ) requiritur . Ratio enim communis illarum est haec . Deservire operationi principalis agentis per ulteriorem operationem . Et Idem , Topic. cap. 2. num . 6. Quer. An efficientis Causalitas , Actio ? Resp . Ita ponitur in Theor. 36. & sentit it a h●die Maxima pars Logicorum & Metaphysicorum . Vide ultra pro confirmatione ad nu . 9. Sic etiam cap. 3. num . 136. So that if most Logicians judge that there is no passive instrument , and consequently that faith is no passive instrument , then who is more singular , you or I ? For sure , Nihil est falsum in Theologia , quod verum est in Philosophia . I deny not but the soul in believing is both Passive and instrumental , but in several respects : as if Camero's way should hold of infusing grace into the will Mediante actione intellectus , then the intellect would be Passive or receiving grace into it self , and an instrument of conveying it to the will : but then it would be no Passive but an Active instrument : and the action of God on the Passive intellect and of the intellect on the will , are two Actions with distinct effects . 2. Though there were such a thing in the world as a Passive instrument , yet that faith should be such , and that physical , I dare say is either an unfit assertion , or else I am of a stupid apprehension . For there must be found in it ( if it were such ) these four requisites . 1. There must be a physical passion or reception . 2. A physical efficiency . 3. This efficiency must be patiendo , non agendo . 4. And it must be such an efficiency as is proper to instruments . I may not stand to enquire exactly into all these . 1. The first I have confuted already , and shall add this much more . 1. What doth faith thus receive ? 2. How doth it receive it ? 3. Whence ? Or from what Agent and Act ? 1. Is it Christ himself that is physically received by faith ? 1. Who dare say so , but the Vbiquitarians , and Transubstantiation men ? and perhaps not they . Christ is in Heaven , and we on earth . A multitude of blasphemers , Libertines , and Familists , I lately meet with that dream of this but no sober man. 2. And indeed if Christs person were thus received , it would not make a man righteous , or justifie him . As all our Divines say , his being in the body of Mary would not have justified her : Nor did the kissing of his lips justifie Judas ; nor eating and drinking in his presence justifie those that must depart from him for working iniquity , Matthew 7. If we had so known Christ , we should know him no more : It was necessary to his Disciples that he should go from them ; we must not have the Capernaites conceit of eating his flesh . Yea , to talk of a physical receiving by faith , is far grosser : For the mouth was capable of that physical contact , which faith is not . 3. And then this will not stand with their Judgement , that blame me for making Christ himself the object of justifying faith , and not the promise directly . 2. If you say that the thing received is Christs righteousness , ( as most do that I read ) I answer , 1. Righteousness is but a relation : And therefore a thing which is naturally uncapable of being of it self physically apprehended . This is past doubt . 2. If it be physically received , then either as a principle and quality , or as an object . Not the former : For so we receive our first , ( and after ) grace in sanctification ; but none ever said so in justification : Nor indeed can that righteousness which is formally but a relation , dwel in us as a principle or quality ▪ If we receive it as an object , then by an Act : Or if the soul were granted to be passive in reception of an object , I have shewed that , 1. It is but in apprehensione simplici : None pleadeth for more : But faith is not such . 2. And so it would receive Christ no otherways then it receiveth any object whatsoever it thus apprehendeth . 3. And this is not to receive Christ or his righteousness , but the meer species of it according to your own Philosophers , ( and if righteousness be but a relation ; and a relation , as Durandus , Dr. Twiss , and many another thin be but Ens Rationis , then the species of an Ens Rationis is a very curious Web ) Knowledge ( as D'Orbellis saith in 2. sent . Dis . 3. q. 3. ) is twofold , i. e. sensitive and intellective ; and each of these twofold , Intuitive and Abstractive . Intuitive knowledge is indeed de objecto ut in se praesens ; quando scilicet res in propria existentia est per se motiva : Exemplum de sensitiva est , ut visus videt colorem : ( yet this is but Recepiendo speciem , non rem ) and this is not it in question ) : Exemplum de intellectiva est , ut visio Divinae essentiae à beatis : This is utterly denyed to be at all by Doctor Stoughton , Camer ▪ and other solid Divines , against the School-mens judgement : And if it be , yet doubtless as we know not how , so it is not such as faiths apprehension , which we enquire after , Cognitio Abstractiva est quando species rei movet ad cognoscendum rem ipsam , & hoc siveres sit in se praesens , sive absens , sive existat sive non : Exemplum in sensitiva est , ut phantasia imaginatur colorem : Exemplum in intellectiva est ut intellectus cognoscit quidditatem coloris medicante ejus specie . So that if it be either of these , it were at the utmost but a passive reaception of the species , and not of Christ or his righteousness . 2. By what physical contact faith doth receive this ? might be enquired : and 3. By what physical act of the Agent ? to neither of which questions can I imagine what tolerable answer can be given , in defence of this cause . 2. And if faith be a passive physical instrument , it must have a Physical Efficiency ? and what is that ? to justifie ? why , even God himself in this life doth that but by a Moral Act ( by his word ) and not by a physical , ( as to particulars . ) 3. But that which driveth me to the greatest admiration is , How faith should Efficere patiendo ! If I should rip up this , or require a demonstration of it in respect to the justification at judgement , yea , or in this life , yea or of any effect , I should lay such an odium on it from its absurdities , that in dealing with you , modesty doth forbid me to insist on it . 4. The fourth requisite will be enquired after in the next Question save one . The fourth Question is , Whether other Graces may not be as properly called physical passive Instruments as Faith , is your sense ? And I doubt not but they may , ( though its true of neither ) For 1. If there be no physical reception of Christs righteousness imaginable but that which is per modum objecti , and if other gratious acts have Christs righteousness for their object , as well as that which you call faith : then other Acts do receive Christs righteousness as well as saith : but both branches of the Antecedent are true , therefore the consequence , the bare knowledge or simple apprehension of Christs righteousness per modum objecti may better pretend to this , then recombency or affiance : Yea , and love it self more fitly then affiance may be said to receive or embrace its object ( which is not therefore false neither because Bellarmine hath it : and you know he brings Austines plain words , affirming love to be the hand by which they received him , &c. ) I confess if I first renounce not the concurrent Judgement of Philosophers , I cannot approve of the common Answer which our Divines give to Bellarmine in this , viz. [ That Faith receiveth Christs Righteousness first to make it ours , but Love only to retain it , and embrace and enjoy it when first we know it to be ours : ] For though this say as much as I need to plead for , acknowledging Love to be as properly a physical Reception for retention , as Faith is for first Possession , yet if affiance be taken in any proper ordinary sence , it cannot thus hold good neither : for so Affiance must signifie some act of the will in order of nature after love , or at least not before it . I acknowledge that so much of Faith as lyeth in the understanding is before Love in order of nature ; sicut ipse intellectus est simpliciter prior voluntate , ut motivum mobili , & activum passivo , ut Aquin. 1. q. § . 2. a. 3.2 . and 12. q. 13. a. 1. C. For as he , Intellectus est primum motivum omnium potentiarium animae quoad determinationem actus , voluntas verò quoad exercitium actus , Aquin , 12. q. 17. a. 1. C. But for the acts of the will toward Christ , I could give you ( but to avoid tediousness I must forbear ) at large the Testimony of Aquinas , Tolet , Gerson , Camero , Amesius , Zanchius , Rob. Baronius , Bradwardine , Ravio , Viguerius , &c. That Love is not only the first of all the Passions , but even the first motion of the Will towards its Object , and little or not at all different from Volition , diligere being but intensive velle . I have much more to say to this , which here I must pretermit . But still I speak not of Love as a Passion , but a true closure , as it were of the will with its Object as Good : and expect love to be proper to the sensitive , and strange to the intellective soul ; we must make it the same with Velle : For Amor & ga●dium in quantum significant Actus appetitus sensitivi , passiones sunt ; non autem secundum quod significant Actus appetitus intellectivi , inquit Aquinas . 1. q. 2. a. 1.1 . The fifth Question is , Whether Faith be any Instrument of our Justification ? Answer , Scotus gives many sences of the word Instrument , and so doth Aquinas , Schibler , and most Philosophers that meddle with it : and they give some so large , as contain all causes in the world under God the first cause ; In so large a sence , if any will call faith an Instrument of Justification , I will not contend with him ; though yet I will not say so my self , as judging faith to be no kind of cause of it at all ; but in the proper ordinary sence , as an Instrument , signifieth Causam quae influit in effectum per virtutem inferioris rationis , as Suarez , Stierius , Arnisaeus , &c. Vel Instrumentum est quod ex directione alterius principalis agentis influit ad produce●dum effectum se nobiliorem , ut Schibler , &c. So I utterly deny Faith to be an Instrument . But I will first question whether it be a physical Instrument . 2. Whether a moral ? 1. And for the first , I have done it already : for seeing our acute Divines have ceased to lay any claim to it as an active Instrument , but only as a Passive ; therefore having disproved what they claim , I have done enough to that . 2. Yet I will add some more : And 1. If it be a physical active Instrument , it must have a physical active Influx to the producing of the Effect ; but so hath not Faith to the producing of our Justification . Ergo &c. The Major is apparent from the common definition of such Instruments : The Minor will be as evident , if we consider but what Gods Act in Justification is , and then it would appear impossible that any act of ours should be such an Instrument . 1. At the great Justification at Judgement Christs act is to sentence us acquit and discharged ▪ and doth our Faith activè , sixae influere ad hunc effectum ? Doth it intervene between Christ and the effect ? and so actively justifie us ? Who will say so ? 2. And the act by which God justifieth us here , is by a Deed of Gift in his Gospel ( as I Judge ) Now 1. That doth immediately produce the effect ( only supposing Faith as a condition . ) 2. And it is but a moral Instrumental cause it self , and how faith can be a Physical , I know not . 3. Nay the act is but a moral act , such as a Statute or Bond acteth , and what need Faith to be a physical Instrument ? 2. My second Reason is this : It is generally concluded , that Tota instrumenti causalit as est in usu & applicatione ; It ceaseth to be an Instrument , when it ceaseth to be used or acted by the principal cause : But faith doth most frequently cease its action , and is not used ( physically ) when we sleep or wholly mind other things : Therefore according to this Doctrine , faith should then cease its Instrumentality ; and consequently either we should all that while be unjustified and unpardoned , or else be justified and pardoned some other way , and not by faith . All which is absurd ; and easily avoided by discerning faith to be but a Condition of our Justification , or a Causa sine quae non . 3. If Faith be a physical Instrument , then it should justifie from a reason intrinsecal , natural and essential to it , and not from Gods meer ordination of it to this office by his Word of Promise : but that were at least dangerous Doctrine : and should not be entertained by them who ( truly ) acknowledge that it justifies not as a work ; much less then as a Physical reception which they call its Instrumentality . The consequence of the Major is evident , in that nothing can be more intrinsecal and essential to faith ( this faith ) then to be what it is , viz. a Reception or acceptance of Christ or his Righteousness : therefore if it justifie directly as such , then it justifieth of its own Nature . 4. It is to me a hard saying , that God and Faith do the same thing , that is , Pardon and justifie : and yet so they do if it be an Instrument of Justification : For eadem est Actio Instrumenti & principalis causae , viz. quoad determinationem ad hunc effectum , ut Aquinas , Schibler , &c. I dare not say or think , that Faith doth so properly , effectively justifie and pardon us . 5. It seems to me needless to feign this Instrumentality , because frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora . 6. Yea it derogateth from the work ; for as Scotus saith , ( in 4. dist . 45. q. 1. pag. ( mihi ) 239. D. ) Actio sine instrumento est perfectior quàm actio cum instrumento . 7. And this Doctrine makes man to be the causa proxima , of his own Pardon and Justification . For it is man that believes and not God : God is the causa prima , but man the causa proxima credendi , and so of justifying , if Faith be an Instrument Or at least man is a cause of his own Pardon and Justification . Yea faith being by Divines acknowledged our own Instrument , it must needs follow that we justifie and forgive our selves . Dr. Amesius saith , ( Bellar. Enervat . To. 4. li 6. p. ( mihi ) 315. ) Plurimum refert : quia sicut sacramenta quamvis aliquo s●nsu possint dici Instrumenta nostra , &c. proprie tamen sunt Jnstrumenta Dei : sic etiam fides quamvis possit vocari Instrumentum Dei , quia Deus justificat nos ex fide & per fidem , proprie tamen est Instrumentum nostrum . Deus nos baptizat & pascit , non nosmet ipsi : Nos credimus in Christum , non Deus . Whether faith may be a moral Instrument , I shall enquire , when I have answered the next question : which is , Q 6. If faith were such a Physical Passive ( or Active ) Instrument , whether that be the formal direct reason of its justifying ? and whether ( as it is ) it do justifie directly and primarily , quatenus est apprehensio Christi , justitioe , vel Justificationis . And this is it that I most confidently deny , and had rather you would stick to in debate then all the rest : for I ground many other things on it . I affirm therefore , 1. That faith justifieth primarily and directly , as the condition on which the free Donor hath bestowed Christ , with all his benefits in the Gospel-conveyance . 2. And that if it were a meer Physical apprehension it would not justifie ; no nor do us any good . 3. And that the apprehension called the receptivity which is truly its nature , is yet but its aptitude to its justifying office , and so a remote , & not the direct proper formal cause . These three I will prove in order . 1. And for the first it is proved . 1. From the Tenor of the justifyn●g Promise , which still assureth Justification on the condition of Believing . [ He that believeth ] and [ whosoever believeth ] and [ if thou believe ] do plainly and unquestionably express such a condition , upon which we shall be justified , and without which we shall not . The Antinomians most unreasonably deny this . 2. And the nature of Justification makes it unquestioinable : for whether you make it a Law-act , or an act of Gods own Judgement and Will determining of our state , yet nither will admit of any intervening cause , ( especially any act of ours , ) but only a condition . 3. Besides , Conditions depend on the will of him that bestoweth the Gift , and according to his Will they succeed : but Instruments more according to their own fitness : Now it is known well , that Justification is an act of Gods meer free Grace and Will , and therefore nothing can further conduce to Gods free act as on our part , but by way of Condition . 4. And I need not say more to this , it being acknowledged generally by all our Divines , not one that I remember excepted , besides Mr. Walker , that [ faith justifieth as the condition of the Covenant ] Mr. Wotton de Reconcil . part 1. l. 2. cap. 18. brings you the full Testimony of the English Homilies , Fox , Perkins , Paraeus , Trelcatius , Dr. G. Downam , Scharpius , Th. Matthews , Calvin , Aretius , Sadeel , Olevian , Melancth . Beza : To which I could add many more : and I never spoke with any solid Divine that denyed it , 2. Now that a physical apprehension would not justifie , as such , is evident . 1. Else Mary should be justified for having Christ in her womb , as I said before . 2. Else justification , as I said , should be ascribed to the nature of the act of faith it self . 3. You may see what is the primary , formal reason why faith Justifies , by its inseparablility from the effect or event ; and which is the improper remote cause by its separability . Now such a physical apprehension may be ( as such ) separated from the effect , and would still be if it had not the further nature of a condition . We see it plainly in all worldly things . Every man that takes in his hand a conveyance of land , shall not possess the land . If you forcibly seize upon all a mans evidences and writings , you shall not therefore possess his estate . If a traytor snatch a pardon by violence out of anothers hand , he is not therefore pardoned . ( But more of this under the next ) . 4. And for your passive faith , I cannot conceive how it should ( as passive ) have any Moral good in it ( as is said , ) much less justifie us . And so when God saith that without faith it is impossible to please God we shall feign that to be justifying faith , which hath nothing in it self , that can please God : and how it can justifie that doth not please , I know not . I know in genere entis the Divels please God : They are his creatures ; and naturally Good , as Ens & bonum convertuntur : but in genere moris , I know not yet how pati quatenus pati can please him . For it doth not require so much as liberty of the will : The reason of Passion is from the Agent : As Suarez dis . 17. § . 2. Secundum praecisas rationes formales loquendo , Passio est ab Actione : & non è converso . Ideoque vera est & propria haec causalis locutio , Quia agens agit , materia recipit . Now sure all Divines as well as the free-will-men , do acknowledge , that there can be no pleasing worth or vertue , where there is not liberty . And Suarez saith truly in that ( T. 1. disp . 19 pag. ( mihi ) 340. ) Addimus vero hanc facultatem quatenus libera est , non posse esse nisi Activam : seu è converso , facultatem non posse esse liberam , nisi sit activa , & quatenus activa est . Probatur sic . Nam Paisso ut Passio non potest esse Libera patienti : sed solum quatenus Actio à qua talis Passio provenit , illi est libera : Ergo Libertas formaliter ac praecise non est in potentia patiente , ut sic , sed in potentia Agente . ( Vide ultra probationem . ) 5. Yea I much fear lest this Passive Doctrine do lay all the blame of all mens infidelity upon God , or most at least : For it maketh the unbeliever no otherwise faulty then a hard block for resisting the wedge , which is but by an indisposition of the matter : and so Originall indisposition is all the sin . For as Aquinas saith , Malum in Patiente est vel ab imperfectione , vel defectu agentis , vel indispositione Materiae . 1. q. 49. a. 1. c. 3. My third proposition is , that the Receptivity or apprehension which is truly of the nature of faith , is yet but its aptitude to its Justifying office , and so a remote and not the direct proper formal reason : And this is the main point that I insist on : And it is evident , in all that is said already : and further thus , If faith had been of that apprehending nature as it is , and yet had not been made the condition in the gift or promise of God , it would not have justified : but if it had been made the condition , though it had been no apprehending ( but as any other duty , ) yet it would have justified : therefore it is evident that the nearest , proper reason of its power to justifie is Gods making it the condition of his gift , and its receptive nature is but a remote reason : 1. If faith would have justified , though it had not been a condition , then it must have justified against Gods will , which is impossible : It is God that justifieth , and therefore we cannot be a cause of his Action . 2. It is evident also from the nature of this moral reception , which being but a willingness and consent , cannot of its own nature make the thing our own , but as it is by the meer will of the donor made the condition of his offer or gift . If I am willing to be Lord of any Lands or Countreys , it will not make me so : but if the true owner say , I will give them thee if thou wilt accept them , then it will be so : therefore it is not first and directly from the nature of the reception , but first because that reception is made the condition of the gift . If a condemned man be willing to be pardoned , he shall not therefore be pardoned : but if a pardon be given on condition he be willing or accept it , then he shall have it . If a poor woman consent to have a Prince for her husband , and so to have his possessions , it shall not therefore be done , except he give himself to her on condition of her consent . If it were a meer physical reception , and we spoke of a possession de facto of somewhat that is so apprehensible , then it would be otherwise : as he that getteth gold or a pearl in his hand , he hath such a possession : But when it is but a moral improper reception ( though per actum physicum volendi vel consentiend● ) , and when we speak of a possession in right of Law , and of a relation and Title , then it must need ; stand as aforesaid . Donation , ( or Imputation ) being the direct cause of our first constitutive justification , therefore conditionality and not the natural receptivity of faith , must needs be the proper reason of its justifying . This is acknowledged by Divines : Amesius saith , ( Bellarm. Enervat . T. 4. p. ( m●hi ) 314. Apprehensio justificationis per veram fiduciam , non est simpliciter per modum objecti , sed per modum objecti nobis donati : Quod enim Deus donaverit fidelibus Christum & omni ●cum eo , Scriptura disertis verbis testatur , Rom. 8.32 . 2. And that if any other sort or act of faith , as well as this , or any other grace would have justified , if God had made it equally the condition of his gift , is also past all doubt . 1. Because the whole work of Justifying dependeth meerly on Gods free Grace and will and thence it is that faith is deputed to its office . 2. Who doubteth but God could have bestowed pardon and justification on other terms or conditions , if he would ? 3. Yea who doubteth but he might have given them without any condition , even that of acceptance ? Yea though we had never known that there had been a Redeemer , yet God might have justified us for his sake . I speak not what he may now do after he resolved of a course in his Covenant : But doubtless he might have made the Covenant to be an absolute promise without any condition on our part if he would , even such as the Antinomians dream it to be . And me thinks those great Divines , that say with Twisse , Ch●mier , Walaeus , &c. that God might have pardoned us without a Redeemer , should not deny this especially . 4. And doubtless that faith which the Israelites in the first ages were justified by , did much differ from ours now , whatever that doth which is required of poor Indians now ; that never heard of Christ . 5 And God pardoneth and justifieth Infants , without any actual reception of pardon by their faith . 2. And me thinks they that stand for the instrumentality of faith above all should not deny this ; for ( according to my Logick ) the formality of an Instrument is in its actual subserviency to the principal cause : and therefore it is no longer causa instrumentalis then it is used : and therefore whatsoever is the materia of the instrument , or whatsoever is natural to it , cannot be its form : Now to be a reception or apprehension of Christ , is most essentially natural to this act of faith , and therefore cannot be the form of its instrumentality . For as Scotus saith ( ●n 4. sint . dist . 1. q. 5. Fol. ( mihi 13. H. ) ●●ru mentii●●n●it●s p●aeceda naturaliter usum ejus ut instrumentum . And what is the 〈◊〉 or Aptitude of faith but this ? And as Scotus ibid. saith , Nullum instrumentum formaliter est ideo aptum ad usum , quia al quis utitur eo ut instrumento : but it is an Instrument quia al quis utitur , &c. 3. And if the reception were the most direct , proper cause , ( especially if the physical reception ) then it would follow , that justifying faith ●as such ) is the receiving of justification , or of Christs righteousness , but for the receiving of Christ himself , or that the receiving of Christ would be but a preparatory act which is I dare say foul and false Doctrine , and contrary to the scope of Scripture which makes Christ himself the object of this faith ; and the receiving of him ( John 1.11 , 12. ) and believing in him to be the condition of justification ; and the receiving of righteousness , but secondarily or remotely . Amesius saith ( ubi supra ) hic tamen observandum est accurate loquendo , apprehensionem Christi & justitiae ejus esse fidem justificantem , quia justificatio nostra exurgit ex apprehensione Christi , & apprehentio justificationis ut possessionis nostrae praesentis , fructus est & effectum apprehensionis prioris . So in his Medulla he makes Christ himself the object of justifying faith . 4. Also if the said reception were the immediate proper reason why faith justifyeth ; then it would follow that it is one act of faith whereby we are pardoned ( viz the reception of pardon ) and another whereby we are justified ( viz. the Reception either of righteousness or justification : ) and there must be another act of faith for Adoption , and another for every other use according to the variety of the Objects . But this is a vain fiction , it being the same believing in Christ , to which the Promise of Remission , Justification , Adoption , Glorification , and all is made . Also it would contradict the Doctrine of our best Divines , who say , ●s Alste dius , Distinct . Theol. C. 17. p. 73. that Christ is our Righteousness in sensu causali , sed non in sensu formali . I conclude this with the plain Testimony of our best Writers . Perkins vol. 1. pag. 662. In the true Gain , saith : And lest any should imagine that the very Act of faith in apprehending Christ justifieth : we are to understand that faith doth not apprehend by Power from it self , but by vertue of the Covenant . If a man believe the Kingdom of France to be his , it is not therefore his : yet if he belive Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven by Christ to be his , it is his indeed : not simply because he believes , but because he believes upon Commandment and Promise . ( that is not properly as an Instrument , but as a condition ) For in the tenor of the Covenant God promiseth to impute the Obedience of Christ to us for our Righteousness if we believe . Is not this as plain as may be ? So Bullinger Decad. 1. Serm. 6. p. ( mihi ) 44. We say faith justifieth for it self , not as it is a quality in our mind , or our own work : but as faith is a gift of Gods grace , having the promise of righteousness and life , &c. Therefore faith justifieth for Christ , and from the grace and Covenant of God. This being therefore fully proved , that faith justifieth properly and directly as the condition on which God hath made over Christ and all his benefits in the Gospel , the two great points opposed in my Doctrine do hence arise unavoidably . 1. That this faith justifieth as truly and directly as it is the receiving of Christ for Lord , and King , and Head , and Husband , as for a justifier , for both are equally the conditions in the Gospel . But if the physical Instrumental way were sound , then it would justifie only as it is a receiving of Justification or Justice . This is the main conclusion I contest for . Yield me this , and I will not so much stick at any of the rest . 2. And hence it follows , that Repentance , forgiving others , love to Christ , Obedience Evangelical , do so far justifie as the Gospel-promise makes them conditions ; and no further do I plead for them . 7. My last Question was , Whether now your Doctrine or mine be the more obscure , doubtfull and dangerous ? And which is the more clear , certain and safe ? And here I shall first shew you yet more what my Judgement is , and therein whether Faith be a moral Instrument . I think that conditio sine quâ non , non potest esse efficiens , quia hujus nulla est actio ; nec id ad cujus presentiam aliquid contigit c●tra illius actionem : nec materialis dispositio est Instrumentum , &c. ut Schibler , Top. c. 3. pag. 102. Even the Gospel-Promise , which is far more properly called Gods moral Instrument of justifying or pardoning , is yet but somewhat to the making up that fundamentum , from whence the relation of justified doth result . And the Fundamentum is called a cause of the relation which ariseth from it without any act , but what went to cause the foundation , even by a meer resultancy , as D' Orbellis fully in 1. sent . dist . 17. q. 1. But to call a condition in Law an Instrument , is yet far more improper . The Law or Promise therefore I will call a moral Instrument : the condition which we must perform , I will not call a moral Instrument , either of the Act which God performeth , or yet of the effect which floweth from that act immediately . Yet if any will say that it is properly and principally a condition , and that it so justifieth ; and yet that it may be called an Instrument moral in an improper sence , as it is a condition first , or else in regard of its receiving use , will stretch the word Instrument so wide , as to apply it to it ; I will not contend for a word , when we agree in sence . And thus Mr. Wotton yieldeth as with an ill will to call it an Instrument , proving it first to justifie as a condition . But I am loth to give it any proper causality in justifying . And now let us see whose sence is , 1. More obscure . I avoid and abhor all vain niceties in so fundamental a point as Justification is ; therefore I say plainly but [ That faith is the condition on which God hath bestowed Christ and all his benefits in the Gospel ] What woman cannot understand this at a word ? But your Doctrine , what Oedipus is able to unfold ? for my part , it is quite past my reach ; and most that I converse with , are as silly as my self . Can every poor man or woman reach to know what a passive Action , or a passive Passion , or a Passive Instrument is ? and how we receive Christ , as a man takes a gift in his hand ? or to see through all the difficulties that I have discovered here in your Doctrine ? Even they that raise questions , what one act of faith doth justifie , whether of the Vnderstanding or Will ? Whether Assent or Affiance , &c. Do seem vainly and hurtfully curious to me : much more those that reduce all to an unconceivable pat● : I plainly therefore asfi●m , that faith is not any physical receiving , ( as the hand doth receive money , as you would afterward make me believe the Assembly m●●ns ) but a Metaphorical moral receiving : and that it is not by any one act of the soul ( much less a Passion ) but by the whole soul , Understanding and Will : the former beginning , the later consummating it , ( as Dav●nant soundly . ) And let us trye by common speech , which of these is the more plain and probable sence . Suppose a Prince will redeem a Turkish condemed slave , and send him word [ I have bought thee , and if thou wilt receive ( or take ) me for thy Redeemer , Deliverer and Lord , and for the future wilt serve me and be thankfull , I will actually set thee free . Here it would sure be a silly thing to fall a questioning , what the Prince means by the word [ Receive or take ] Whether it be an act of this faculty , or that ? Whether this or that act ? Or whether it is meerly Pati ? Though we are too wise to understand this now , I warrant you the foolishest slave would soon understand it : and know that to receive or take the Prince for his Redeemer , is to believe him , and consent , and thankfully accept of him as he requires , and of deliverance by him : And he that should ask him , Whether it were the bare act of affiance , or whether gratitude or love were included in the term ? would seem but simple to him . If a Prince will deliver a condemned woman from death , and offer with all to marry her , and give her himself , and all he hath , on condition she will receive or take him for her husband , ( and accordingly be a faithfull wife to him till death ) He that should here step in , and raise profound Scruples , and enter difficult disputes , whether this receiving were an act of the Understanding or Will ? Whether Affiance , Recombency , Assurance , &c. or whether a Passion ? would be well judged rid●culous ; when every man knows at the first word what it is for the woman to receive or take a man for her Husband , even gladly and lovingly to consent and accept the offer , and with all her heart deliver up her self to him accordingly . So if a King of another Nation , that hath right also to this , but not possession , should send to us , to charge us to receive him for our King ; what a hard word is this to understand ? or doth it signifie any one act ? or the act of any one single faculty that the people of the land must perform ? Oh how too learned Divines ( or too unlearned ) have puzzled and amazed poor souls , and muddyed the clear streams of the Doctrine of Christ , in this so weighty and plain a point of justification ? In a word , Sir , I know there is never a one of my Hearers can understand your Doctrine of instrumentality Active or Passive , nor have they the Logick necessary thereto , and therefore I will not speak to them in such a language . Even while I untye your knots , I am thought a Barba●i●n , and not understood ; how much more if I spoke what I understand not my self nor am able , though I set my wits on the tenter ? 2. And then let us see which is the truer and certa●ner , your Doctrine or mine . And 1. I have said somewhat already to weaken the credit of yours . 2. And more from what is last said it is unlikely to me to be true because of the obscurity ; for I believe God hath spoke plainer in fundamentals , and not laid folks salvation upon that which none but Scholars of a better or worse judgement then I can understand . I know there is that kind of difficulty in Divine things which requireth the spiritual illumination of the understanding : but not such in foundation points that necessarily requireth so much humane learning . 3. Your way hath not one word of Scripture for it : Where doth Scripture say ( in phrase or sense ) that faith Justifieth as an instrument ; or that it is such ? Active or Passive ? Or that it is this or that only Act ? But now for the Doctrine I teach . 1. Neither your self nor any solid man denyeth it ( that faith is a condition and so justifieth : ) and that it is a Moral receiving , and by the whole soul , esepcially the hearty consent , and acceptance of the will , most Divines teach , as I could shew but for wasting time . 2. I prove it further , that it is but this plain Moral recep●ion , thus . As Christ is offered , so he is received ( therefore the Assembly say [ as he is offered in the Gosp●l ] : But Christ is offered Morally in the Gospel , and not Physically ; therefore he must be so received . 3. Rejicere est no●le ; Ergo , reci●ere est velle . To reject Christ is the condemning sin of infidelity : but that lies in an unwillingness to have him to be their Redeemer , Saviour , and especially Lord : therefore receiving Christ is a willingness , consent or acceptance of him for Redeemer and Lord , Joh. 1.10 . His own received him not ; What is that but they refused him ? and not that they wree not Passive physical receivers of Justice , Luke 19.27 . These mine enemies that would not I should reign over them , bring hither and destroy , &c. Then willingness of his reign is part of that faith which justifies : Even willingness of his Reign , as well as to be pardoned , justified and saved from Hell by him ; ( or else few among us would perish ; For I never met with the man that was unwilling of these . ) 3. And then it will easily appear , Whether your Doctrine or mine be the more safe . 1. Yours hath the many inconveniences already mentioned . It maketh man his own justifier , or the causa proxima of his own Justification , and by his own Act to help God to justifie us : for so all instruments do help the principal cause . And yet by a self-contradiction it maketh faith to be of no Moral worth , and so no vertue or grace . Yea , ( I think ) it layeth the blame of mans infidelity on God ; Many such wayes it seemeth to wrong the Father and the Mediator . 2. And it seemeth also to wrong mens souls in point of safety , both by drawing them so to wrong God , and also by laying grounds to encourage them in presumption ; For when they are taught that the receiving of Christs righteousness , or of Christ for justification , or the confident expectation of pardon , or resting on Christ for it , or a particular perswasion of it , &c. Is justifying faith , and when they find these in themselves ( as undoubtedly they may will this much , or else they cannot presume ) , Is it not easie then to think they are safe when they are not ? As I said , I never yet met with the man that was not willing to be Justified and saved from Hell by Christ : and I dare say , Really willing : and but with few that did not expect it from Christ , and trust him for it . Now to place Justifying faith only in that which is so common , and to tell the men that yet they believe not truly when they have all that is made essential to faith , as Justifying , is strange . For knowing that the godly themselves have fowly sinned , and that no man can perish that hath Justifying faith , how can they choose but presume when they find that which is called Justifying faith undoubtedly in themselves ? And to tell them it is not sincere or true , because they receive not Christ also as King and Prophet , and yet that such receiving is no part of justifying faith . This is to tell them that the truth of their faith lyeth without it self ( a strange Truth ) in a signal concomitant : and who will doubt of his faith for want of a concomitant sign , when he certainly feeleth the thing it self ? Will not such think they may sin salva fide ? When as if they were rightly taught , that justifying saving faith ( as such ) is the receiving of Christ for Saviour , and Lord , and so a giving up themselves both to be saved and guided by him , then they would find that faith in Christ and sincere obedience to Christ have a little neerer relation ; and then a man might say to such a presumer , as I remember Tertullian excellently doth , De poenitent . Operum pag. ( mihi ) 119. Caeterum non leviter in Domixum peccat qui quum amulo ejus Diabolo poenitentiâ renunciasset , & hoc nomine illum Domino subjecisset , rursus ●undem regressusuo erigit , & exultatione ejus seipsum facit , ut denuo malus recuperata praeda sua , adversus Domin●m gaudeat . Nonne quod dicere quoque periculosum est , sed ad adificationem proferendum est , d●abolum Domino praeponit ? Comparationem enim videtur egisse qui utrumque cognoverit , & judicato pronunciasse ●um meliorem cujus se rursus esse maluerit , &c. Sed aiunt quidam , satis Deum habere , si corde & animo suspiciatur , licet actu minus fiat : itaque se salvo metu & Fide peccare : Hoc est salva castitate Matrimonia violare : salva pietate parenti venenum temperare ; sic ergo & ipsi salva venia in Gehennans detrudentur , dum salvo metu peccant . Again , your Doctrine seemeth to me to overthrow the comfort of Believers exceedingly . For how can they have any comfort that know not whether they are justified and shall be saved ? and how can they know that , who know not whether they have faith ? and how can they know that , when they know not what justifying saith is ? and how can they know what it is , when it is by Divines involved in such a cloud and maze of difficulties ? some placing it in this , act and some in that , and some in a Passive instrumentality , which few understand , ( If any man in the world do . ) For the Habit of faith , that cannot be felt or known of it self immediately , but by its acts ( for so it is concluded of all Habits , Suarez , Metap . T. 2. disp . 44 § . 1. pag 332. ) and instead of the act we are now set to enquire after the passion ? and so in the work of examination the business is to enquire , how and when we did passively receive righteousness , or justification , or Christ for these ? which let him answer for himself that can , for I cannot . But now , on the other side , what inconvenience is there in the Doctrine of faith and justification as I deliver it ? As it is plain , and certain ( saying no more then is generally granted ) so I think it is safe . Do I ascribe any of Christs honour in the work to man ? No man yet hath dared to charge me with that , to my knowledge : and no considerate man I believe will do it . I conclude that neither faith nor works is the least part of our legal righteousness : or of that righteousness which we must plead against the accuser for our justification : which is commonly called by Divines , the matter of our justification . The Law which we have broken cannot be satisfied ( nor God for the breach of it ) in the least measure by our faith or obedience , nor do they concur as the least degree of that satisfaction : But we must turn the Law over wholly to our Surety . Only whereas he hath made a new Law or Covenant containing the conditions on our part of the said justification and salvation ▪ I say , these conditions must needs be performed , and that by our selves : and who dare deny this ? and I say that the performance of these conditions is our Evangelical righteousness ( in reference to that Covenant , ) as Christs satisfaction is our legal Righteousness ( in reference to that first Covenant ) , or as perfect obedience would have been our legal righteousness , if we had so obeyed . And for them that speak of inherent Righteousness in any other sense , viz. as it is an imperfect conformity to the Law of works , rather then as a true conformity to the Law or Covenant of grace , I renounce their Doctrine , both as contradictory to it self , and to the truth , and as that which would make the same Law to curse and bless the same man , and which would set up the desperate Doctrine of Justification by the works of the Law : For if men are righteous in reference to that Law , then they may be so far justified by it . Nor do I ascribe to works any part of the office or honour of faith ( Though that were not so dangerous as to derogate from Christ . ) For I acknowledge faith the only condition of our first Remission and justification : and the principal part of the condition of our justification as continued and consummate . And if faith be an instrumental cause , I do not give that honor from it to works , for they are not so : Nay , I boldly again aver , that I give no more to obedience to Christ , then Divines ordinarily do , that is , to be the secondary part of the condition of continued and consummate justification . Only I give not so much as others to faith , because I dare not ascribe so much to man. And yet men make such a noise with the terrible name of Justification by works ( the Lords own phrase ) , as if I gave more then themselves to man , when I give so much less . And thus Sir , I have according to your advice , spent my self ( as you speak ) in aiming at that mark which you were pleased to set me . And now I shall proceed to the rest of your exceptions . My next answer to you was , that [ If works under every notion are excluded ( as you say they are ) then repentance is excluded under the notion of a condition or preparative : But repentance under that notion is not excluded : Therefore not works under every notion . To this you reply , that [ Repentance is not excluded as qualifying , but as recipient , ] which what is it but a plain yielding my Minor , and so the cause : For this is as much as I say . If repentance be a work or act of ours , and not excluded under the notion of a qualification , ( or as you elsewhere yield ) a Medium ordinatum , and a condition , then works are not under every notion excluded . And that repentance is not recipient , how easily do I yeild to you ? But do you indeed think that when Paul excludeth the works of the Law , that he excludeth them only as Recipient ? and not as qualifying ? If so , ( as this answer seems to import , seeing you will not have me here distinguish between works of Law , and of Gospel , or New Covenant ) then you give abundance more to works of the Law then I do or dare : For I aver that Paul excludeth them even as qualifications , yea and the very presence of them : and that the Jews never dreamt of their works being Recipient . To my next you say , [ Whether Paul dispute what is our righteousness , or upon what terms it is made ours it doth not much matter ] But I think it of very great moment ; they being Questions so very much different , both in their sense , and importance . And whereas you think Paul speaks chiefly of the manner , I think he speaks of both , but primarily of the ( quasi ) materia ; and of the manner or means thereto , but secondarily in reference to that . So that I think the chief Question which Paul doth debate , was , Whether we are Justified by our own works or merits , or by Anothers , viz. the satisfaction of a surety ? which yet because it is no way made ours but by believing , therefore he so puts the Question , whether by works of the Law , or by faith ? and so that he makes them two immediate opposites not granting any tertium , I easily yield . ( But of that before . ) To the next you say , that [ I cannot find such a figure for faith Relatively in my sense . ] Answ . And I conceive that faith in my sense may be taken Relatively full as well as in yours ▪ Doubtless acceptance of an offered Redeemer and all his benefits doth relate as properly to what is accepted ( viz. by the assent of the understanding initially , and by the election and consent of the will consummately ) as a Physical Passive reception or instrumentality can do . And also as it is a condition I make little doubt , but it relateth to the thing given on that condition : and that the very name of a condition is relative . So that in my sense faith relateth to Christ two ways : Whereof the former is but its very nature , and so its aptitude to its office : The later is that proper respect in which it immediately or directly justifieth . Yet do I not mean as you seem to do , as I gather by your phrase of [ putting Love and Obedience for Christs Righteousness ] : For I conceive it may be put relatively , and yet not strictly ( loco correlati ) for the thing related to : when I say my hands or teeth feed me , I do not put them instead of my Meat ; and yet I use the words relatively , meaning my Meat principally , and my teeth secondarily : Neither do I mean that it relateth to Christs righteousness only or principally ; but first to himself . And I doubt not but Love to Christ and Obedience to him as Redeemer , do relate to him : but not so fully , clearly and directly express him as related to , as Faith : Faith being also so comprehensive a grace as to include some others . It is a true saying , that a poor woman that is marryrd to a Prince is made honourable by love , and continued so by duty to her husband : But it is more obscure and improper then to say , she is made honourable by Marriage , or taking such a man to her husband , which includes love , and implyeth duty and faithfulness , as necessarily subsequent . I conceive with Judicious Doctor Preston , that faith is truly and properly such a consent , contract , or marriage with Christ . Next to your similitude : you say [ that I hold that not only seeing this brazen Serpent , but any other Actions of sense , will as well heal the wounded Christian . ] To which I answer . Similitudes run not on all four . Thus far I believe that this holds . 1. Christ was lift up on the Cross as the brazen Serpent was lift up . 2. He was lift up for a cure to sin-stung souls , as the brazen Serpent for the stung bodies . 3. That as every one that looked on the Serpent was cured ( an easie condition , ) so every one that believeth Christ to be the appointed Redeemer , and heartily Accepteth him on the terms he is offered , and so trusteth in him , shall not perish , but have everlasting life . 4. That as the cure of their bodies came not from any natural reason drawn from the eye , or from any natural excellency or efficacy of seeing , above hearing or feeling , but meerly from the free will and pleasure of God , who ordained that looking should be the condition of their cure : So all those Acts ( usually comprized or implyed in the word believing ) which justifie , do it not from any natural excellency , efficacy or instrumentality , but meerly from the good pleasure of the Law-giver : And therefore the natural Receptivity of Faith ( that is its very formal essence ) must not be given as the proper direct cause of its Justifying : But that is , its conditionality from the free appointment of God. But on the other side , 1. It was only one Act of one sense which was the condition of their cure : but you will not say I believe that it is only one act of one faculty which justifieth : however I will not . 2. It was the Act of seeing which cured them , without touching , laying hold on , apprehending , resting on , &c. But you will not say so of justifying faith . 3. The sight , which was the condition of their cure , was no actuall reception of the brazen Serpent , but the species of that Serpent by the eye ; and so the eye did no otherwise receive the Serpent , then it received every Object it behold , even the Serpent that stung them . But if you say , that our receiving Christ is but per simplicem apprehensionem objecti , and that it is a receiving of his species , and so that we receive Christ no otherwise then we receive Satan , or any Object of Knowledge , I will not be of that opinion . 4. Their cure was simul & semel : but our Justification is a continued Act ; as really in doing all our lives , as at first . 5 Therefore though one act finished their cure , and there was no condition perscribed as requisite for the consummation or continuance : yet when our Justification is begun , and we truly justified , there is further conditions prescribed for its continuance and consummation . To conclude , I am so far from saying , that any other Act will as well heal the wounded Christian , besides what God hath made the express condition of his cure , that I flatly aver no other will do it . But whether he hath made any one single act ( or Passion ) to be the whole of that condition , I have elsewhere out of Scripture shewed you , and you do not deny what I say . My two last Answers to your exposition of Pauls words , you are pleased to overpass ; the last of which ( the ninth ) being the main that I made use of : viz. that Paul taketh the word Work● more strictly , for such working as maketh the Reward to be not of Grace but of debt : and in this sence I disclaim all works , not only ( as you do ) from being receptive , or instrumental , or effective , but from being concomitant : why you said nothing to this my chief Answer , I do not know . You next tell me that I cannot take the Assemblies definition in that sence as they declare it , or the Scripture words , which are Metaphorical imply : for its the resting of a burdened soul upon Christ only for Righteousness ; and by this Christs Righteousness is made over to us ; and it s a receiving of Christ as the hand embraceth any Object , &c. Answer . That the word Receiving and Resting are Metaphorical , I easily grant you ; and wonder the more that you still insist on them , and instead of reducing them to more proper expressions , do here add Metaphor to Metaphor , till all your definition be a meer Allegory , when you know how much Metaphors do seduce . But for the Assemblies Definition . I embrace it unfeignedly in that sence as the words seem to me most evidently to import , without using violence with them . But I perceive by this , that you will not think it enough in a man to subscribe to national Confessions and Catechisms in the obvious sence , or that which he judgeth the plain proper sence , except he also agree with you in the explication . Some think it not enough that we subscribe to the Scripture , because we may misunderstand it , and therefore we must subscribe to national Confessions , as more explicate : ( which I like well , so we add nothing to Gods word , nor thrust our own Commentaries into the Text , or obtrude out own Doctrines upon men as Articles of their faith , or at least , as the Bishops did the Ceremonies , which they made indifferent in word , but necessary indeed : ) But now I perceive the matter comes all to one in the issue ; when you cannot make a definition of Faith in such Language as is any easier to be understood then the Scripture : when you and I cannot both understand it : and I find that many are of Bellarmines judgement ( Apol. c. 7. cited by Mr. Vines in his Sermon against Haeres . pag. 50. ) That a man may be an Haeretick though he believe the Scriptures , the three Creeds , and the four great general Councils . But for the sence of the Assemblies definition , 1 I know not what you mean by the words [ as they declare it : ] If any private declaration , I am not to take notice of it , nor do I know what it meaneth , and could wish they would do , or might have done as Mr. Vines desired in his Sermon , J●● . 28. 1645. that is , [ To second their conclusions with the Reasons and Grounds of them ; which will do much to make them pass for currant : seeing ( saith he ) the Gorgons head which struck all dumb in former times , The Church , The Church , is not likely to have the same operation row in this seeing and searching age ; for though men be willing to be subject to Authority , yet as they are men they will be slaves to Reason . ] So that if there were any private exposition , I would we had it . But if you mean only what is declared in the words of the Definition , I am most confident , though I never was in the Assembly , that I have hit on their sence far neerer then you seem to have done : and I dare not think otherwise , lest I be hainously censorious of so reverend an Assembly , which I am resolved not to be . 1. Their very words are a receiving of Christ , and not immediately and primarily his Righteousness , but himself ; and in the confession they say as I do , that it is an accepting , receiving and resting on Christ . 2. And as Christ the anointed , which Name signifieth the Offices which he is anointed to , viz. King , Priest , &c. 3. It maketh it to consist in no one act , but several , expressed in two phrases : 1. Receiving Christ . 2. Resting on him alone for salvation . 4. It expresly saith , that it is a receiving of him , as he is offered in the Gospel , and that is , not as a justifier only , but as a Lord and Prophet , and that as immediately as the other , and conjunct with it : for he is no where offered as a justifier alone ; if he be , shew where it is . 5. And hence it is plain that they mean no Reception but moral , by Willing , Consenting , Accepting ( as they expresly say in the confession of Faith ) For he is no otherwise offered to us in the Gospel : He is not offered to our Physical Reception . It is not his person in substance that is offered to the Contact of our Spirits , much less of our flesh ; but his person as cloathed with his Relations , of Mediator , Redeemer , Lord , Saviour , &c. And can you receive a King , as King , ( who is personally distant or invisible ) by any other Reception then I have said ? If we do receive a King into England , the only Acts of the soul are hearty consenting , and what is therein and thereto implyed : though bodily Actions may follow : ( which as to Christ we cannot perform . ) I think verily this is the plain sound sence of the Assembly , and shall believe so , till the same Authority , that thus defined , do otherwise interpret their own definition . And for your phrase of [ Resting a burdened soul on Christ for Righteousness ] I doubt not as it intendeth Affiance , but it is as Perkins , Dr. Downam , Rob. Baronius , &c. say , a fruit Of faith strictly taken , rather then faith it self : but if you take faith in a larger sence ( as the Gospel not seldom doth , and against which I am no adversary ) so Affiance is part of faith it self . But that it is the whole of that faith , I shall never believe without stronger Arguments ; where you say , [ Its the receiving Christ as the hand embraceth any Object . ] I answer . 1. I am glad you here grant Christ himself to be the Object . 2. If you mean , [ as verily as the hand , &c. ] So I grant it , if a moral receiving may be properly said to be as true as a physical . But if you mean By a Physical Contact and Reception as the hand doth , &c. then I am far from believing that ever Christ or our Assembly so meant , or ever had so gross a thought . Where you say , I take it not the in sence as the Scripture words imply ; ] I answer . When I see that manifested I shall believe it . When it is said John 1. He came to his own , and his own received him not : 1. Is it meant they took him not in their hands , or received not his Person into their houses ? the later is true ▪ But 1. Only in a second place ; but their hearts were the first Receptacle 2. Else those were no Unbelievers where Christ never came in person ; And that had no houses ; 3. And that receiving cannot belong to us that never saw him , nor to any since his Ascension . 2. Or is it the Intellective Reception of his species ? I trow not : I have said enough of that before . 3. Or is it a moral Reception of him as thus and thus related , volendo , eligendo , consentiendo , diligendo ( pardon this last , it is but the qualification of the rest ) & consequenter fidendo ? I think this is it . If you can find a fourth way , you will do that which was never done ( to my knowledge ) and then you will be a Novellist as well , as I. For your next expressions , I answer to them , that you do truly apprehend that I am loth to seem to recede from others , ( and as loth to do it , but magis amica veritas : And I cannot believe what my list , nor like those that can . ) By which you may truly know , that I do it not out of affectation of singularity ( as he knoweth that knoweth my heart ) , nor intend to be any instrument of division in the Church . And if my assertions are destructive of what others deliver , it is but what some men , and not what all deliver : Not against the Assembly , nor many learned Divines who from several parts of the Land have signified to me their Assent : besides all those great names that appear for me in print . But you tell me that [ I may not build on some Homilitical popular expressions in any mans books . ] Answer , Let me again name to you but the men I last named , and try whether you will again so entitle their writings . The first and chief is Dr. Preston , who was known to be a man of most choice notions , and so Judged by those that put out his books , and his credit so great in England , that he cracks his own that seeks to crack it . And his Sermons were preached before as judicious an Auditory ( at least ) as your Lectures , and yet you defend your own expressions . Yea it is not once nor twice , not five times only , but almost through all his Books , that Dr. Preston harpeth upon this string , as if it were the choisest notion that he intended to disclose . Yea it is in his very Definition of faith as justifying ; and Dr. Preston was no homiletical Definer . I can produce the like Testimony of Dr. Stoughton : ( two as great Divines in my esteem as most ever England or the world bred . ) Another is Mr. Wallis : Doubtless , Sir , no homiletical popular man in Writing : nor could you have quickly bethought you of an English Book that less deserves those attributes : His words are these . I assent not to place the saving Act of faith , either with Mr. Cotton ( as his Lordship cites him ) in the laying hold of , or assenting to that Promise , &c. nor yet in a particular application of Christ to my self in assurance , or a believing that Christ is mine , &c. But I choose rather to place it in an act of the Will , then in either of these forenamed acts of the Vnderstanding . It is an Accepting of Christ offered , rather then an Assenting to a proposition affirmed . To as many as received him , &c. that is , to them that believe in his name . John 1. God makes an Offer of Christ to all ( else should not Reprobates be condemned for not accepting of him , as neither the Devils are , because he was not offered to them . ) Whosoever will , let him come and take of the water of life freely , Rev. 22.17 . Whereupon the believing soul replies , I will : and so takes him . When a Gift is offered to me , that which maketh it to be mine is my Acceptation , &c. If you call this taking of Christ ( or confenting that Christ shall be my Saviour ) a Depending , a Resting or relying on Christ for salvation ( if you speak of an act of the Will ) it is all one ; for Taking of Christ to be my Saviour , and committing my self to Christ to be saved , is the same : Both of them being but a consenting to this Covenant , I will be your God , and you shall be my People , &c. And if you make this the saving Act of faith , then will Repentance ( so far as it is distinct from Faith ) be a consequent of it : Confidence also , &c. Thus Mr. Wallis is clear , that the Nature of Faith is the same that I have affirmed , and in no popular Sermon , but in his Truth tryed . pag. 94 , 95. And on these grounds he well answers Bellarmines Dilemma , which else will be but shiftingly answered . The next is Mr. Norton of New England , a man judged one of their best Disputants , or else they would not have chose him to encounter Apollonius : And will you call his very Definition of Faith in an accurate Catechism , an homiletical popular expression ? What then in the whole world shall escape that censure ? His Words are : [ Quest . What is justifying Faith ? Answ . It is a saving grace of the Spirit , flowing from Election , whereby the soul receiveth Jesus Christ , as its Head and Saviour , according as he is revealed in the Gospel . ] I subscribe to this Definition from my heart . The next cited was Mr. Culverwell , not in any popular Sermon , but in a solid well approved Treatise of Faith , and not in common passages , but his very definition of faith , pag. 13.17 . and after all concludes . pag. 19. [ Thus we see that the very nature of faith , consisteth in the true Acceptation of Christ proclaimed in the Gospel ] The next I cited ( about the Definition of faith ) was Mr. Throgmorton , who in his accurate Treatise of Faith ( and not in any popular Sermons ) and that many times over , doth make Faith to be the receiving Christ for Prophet , and only Rabbi , to be his Disciples , and as the only Way and Truth , and also as King , Head , Husband , Priest , &c. and by this we are made Partakers of him and all his benefits . pag. 6.29.31.82 . &c. And for the great point that you stick at of Justification , I will repeat the words of two of those Authors which I have named : And 1. Of learned Conr. Bergius , in whom you shall have the Testimony of the Augustane Confession , Luther , Meutzer , &c. included , both about the nature and extent of Faith ; about works Legal and Evangelical ; about Justification as begun , and as continued , and the distinct conditions , and about the concurrence of Obedience , &c. Praxis Cathol . dissert . 7. pag. 973. &c. § . 41. Nec tamen negat quisquam fidem esse Obedientiam in sano sensu ex Rom. 1.5 . & 6.17 . & 10.16 , & 16 26. 2 Thess . 1 8. Act. 5.3 2. Heb. 5.9 . 1 Pet. 1.2 , 14 , 22. 1. Fides est obedientia quatenus ejus actus proprius respondet praecepto Evangelii , Crede in dominum Jesum , &c. Ideo enim , ut Calvinus a●t ad Rom. 1.5 . nomine obedientiae insignitur , quod Dominus per Evangelium nos vocat , nos vocanti per fidem respondemus . Et sic fides , ( ut loquitur Apol. August . Conf. in resp . ad Arg. pag. 125. ) est Obedientia erga Evangelium : quae cum Obedientia mandatorum legis minime confundi debet . Nam ut recte Meutzerus ( in exeg August Conf. ●ct . 4 cont . Phot. in . 15. ) Quantum ab Evangelio Lex distat , tantum haec obedientia ab illa disterminatur . 42. 2. Est etiam fides obed entia , quantenus per Synecdochen Metonymicam significat totum cultum à fidelibus praesti●um ; radicem una cum fructibus , &c. Nota enim est consuetudo sermonis ( ut inquit Apol. Conf. August . de impl . leg . pag. 87. ) quod interdum eodem verbo causam & effectus complectimur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ita accipi potest fides , Heb. 13.7 . and 12.1 , 2. Rom. 1.8 . 1 Thess . 1.8 . Ier. 7.28 . 43. Nec dubium est cum dicitur , hoc est mandatum ut credamus & Diligamus ▪ 1 John 3.23 . sicut in praecepto Diligendi & habitus charitatis & fructus atque Opera , ad quae habitus ordinatur , mandata sunt : it● etiam in praecepto credendi & habitum fidei & fructus ejus nobis mandatos esse . Vnde cum ipsa etiam charitas inter fructus sit fidei , sit ut tota doctrina Christiana aliquando verbum vel pradieatio fidei , tota Religio Christiana , tota oeconomia novi Testamenti fides praecipue appelletur , Gal. 1.23 . 1 Tim. 4.6 . Gal. 5.6 . and 3.23 . So he proceeds and alledges Luther taking faith in that large sense , including charity and obedience ; and by Works , meaning actiones factas cum opinione meriti , & cum expectatione justificationis & vitae aeterne tanquam mercedis debitae Serm. de mis . & li. de libert . Christiana . Tom. 2. Wit. f. 4.5 . & Tom. 5. com . in Zach. 2.8 . & aed Gal. c. 2. f. 300. Et ultra p. 977. Cum dicitur [ sine operibus legis ] excluduntur , 1. Opera facta●n veritate obedientiae legalis , ac meriti proinde per innocentiam , cui detur Merces citra remissionem peccati & imputationem secundum gratiam . Rom. 4.3 . & s . Quia causatus est Apostolus toto capite 1 & 2. & s . Talem Obedientiam à nemine haberi , sed omnes sub peccato esse , &c. 2. Excluduntur etiam opera facta cum opionione verae obedientia legalis ac meriti per innocentiam ; quia haec ipsa sunt etiam peccata & mendacia merentia poenam , Phil. 3.7 3. Excluduntur etiam opera facta cum opinione meriti sine obedientia , & innocentia legals aut ex qualicunque imperfecta aut particulari obedientia cui aliqualiter detur Merces citra imputationem secundum gratiam , &c. So that this is all the exclusion of Works , that he acknowledgeth : and shews that Bellarmine is driven to this , which he approveth . § . 44. Ex dictis hisce tribus modis , primo modo excluduntur vera opera legis , ita ut non adsint , licet diberent adesse primo creationis jure ; posterioribus autem duobus modis excluduntur praesumpta pera ita ut non debeant adesse sed caveri potius ; Et omnibus hisce modis opponitur inter se Lex operum , per quam relinquitur gloriatio homini , & Lex Fidei , per quam excluditur Gloriatio , Rom. 3.27 . Afterwards , one sense in which he saith Fides sola justificat , is this , sola est fides quaten us opponitur legis operum obedientiae ; cujus veritas in nullo est hominum , opinio autem in nullo debet esse ; & significat contrà obedientiam legis Fidei , sen praecepti , non de operando & expectando vitam ut mercedem debitam citra imputationem secundum gratiam ; sed de credendo in Christum & accipiendo & Retinendo vitam gratiae , & expectando vitam gloriae , ut donum mere gratuitum per imputationem secundum gratiam in Christo , quem praepos●it Deus placamentum in sanguine ipsius . And afterward , Ex dictis facile intelligitur nibil his repugnare Augustinum , ( qui praecipue nobis opponitur ) cum docet , excludi tantum ab Apostolo opera facta sine fide & spiritu Christi : ( hoc est , sine viva fide promissionis , & abnegatione meriti proprii , sicut & Bellarm. supradocebat , excludi opera quibus id quod redditur est merces non gratia ) opera vero facta cum fide & Spiritu Christi ad illam movente non excludi . Num neque nos ea excludimus , ne sint , aut debeant esse ; sed distinguit etiam Lutherus opera legis & opera Christi in nobis per fidem operantis & viventis per omnia . Additque haec non posse magis omitti , quam ipsam fidem , nec esse minus necessaria quam fides ; in li. de vot . mon. ● . 2. Wit. f. 281. But the chief thing I intend is in the next words . At quemadmodum caeterae actiones significatae per fidem quasi materiaiiter & Synecdochicè per se & directè non ordinantur ad amicitiam Dei & salutem proprie Efficiendam ( as he mistakingly thinks faith is ) sed vel ad fidem cui quequo modo prosunt , vel ad amicitiam Dei & salutem saltem non amittendam : ita neque Justificabunt & salvabunt proprie & directe . Proderunt tamen ad utrumque quatenus sunt , 1. vel dispositiones ad fidem , ut Pareus . 2. Effectus , &c. 3. Quatenus per illa excludimus & cavemus peccata & ingratitudinem , quae omnino vera causa amittendae Justitiae & salutis futura essent : qualem causam removentem probibeus appellare , & ad causas per accidens referre solent . Omnis enim arbor quae non , &c. ( Here he speaks only of the natural conducibility of works , and omitteth the moral conditionality ; and so gives a causality per accidens to them , which is more then I do . ) § . 54. & in hac fructuum comparatione , sub notione proprie causae finalis ( it was not then considered that justification is a continued Act ) pertinentis ad non amittendum sed retinendum gratuito data , ordo & respectus operum ad salutem simplicissimè , & commodissimè ad Scripturae filum explicari potest . 2 Pet. 1.10 . 2 Joh. 8. Accordingly before in this Type he makes the conditions to be 1. Acceptation : ( that faith ) 2. and retention : ( this he sheweth is also by Gospel works ) among divers allegations of his out of the Apol. Vrsin . Davenant , &c. I will add one out of Gualther in 1 Cor. hom . 28. Vt filius etsi haeres natus sit , abdicatur tamen , & ab bereditate excidit , si se inobedientem & contumaciorem praebeat : ita nos quoque regni caelorum bereditatem , quae ex adoptionis gratia nobis debetur , minime quidem nostris operibus meremur tandem vero nostra contumacia amittimus , & nostro magno merito abdicamur , si tantae gratiae iniqui simus aestimatores . And he reconcileth Paul and James thus , s . 56. Deinque notandum est : alium esse loquendi & docendi modum contra Judaismum & contemptum gratiae : alium contra securitatem & abusum gratiae cum disputatur praeciput contra Judaismum sive Justitiam operum , uti Paulus in ep . ad Rom. & alibi facit ; tunc docemur sola fide Justistcare , hoc est ; nihil in nobis placere Deo nisi per abnegationem meriti & acceptationem contra doni Evangelici . At cum disputatur contra securitatem , & docetur quid respectu amicitiae Divinae nobis agendum sit ( prout Jacobus in Epis . sua fecit , & bodiè , vel maxime necesse est ( we may truly say so ) ut Dr. Tossanus in sua Cont. Psendevangelicos disputatione et alii prè ac prudenter j●msridem monuerunt ) tunc negatur solam fidem sufficere , & praecipiuntur omnia quae quoquo modo prosunt : sive disponant ad filem , sive in iis consummetur fides , ( sicut quaevis res fine & effictibus suis consummatur : arbor fructibus , potentia animae motibus corporis , non quod ad essentiam sed quod ad usum ) sive praesens jam amicitia per illa firmetur ne dissiliat , vel etiam augeatur quod ad effectus aliquos , & hoc modo quasi impleatur . And he concludes thus . § 58. Vno verbo : solà fide justificamur : hoc est : Nullo nostro merito , sive ipsius fidei , sive alterius actionis praeter fidem . Probetur evidenter & catholice meritum quale à nostris negatur , tunc etiam illud praeter solam fidem admissuri sumus . Lud. Crocius saith , ( Syntag. l. 4. pag. 1123. ) Fides etiam sola justificat quatenus notat obedientiam quandam expectantem promissionem ut donum gratuitum ; quomodo formaliter quidem consistit in applicatione promissionis , quam tamen & pracedunt dispositiones aliquae ad hunc ipsum fidei actum , & sequuntur fructus : unde plures virtutes vel actus tum antecedentes tum consequentes connotat ; & opponitur illi obedientia quae non expectat promissionem tanquam donum omnino gratuitum , sed ut mercedem propositam sub conditione operis alicujus praeter acceptationem & gratitudinem debitam quae sua natura in omni donatione quamvis gratuitâ requiri solet . Et hujusmodi obedientia peculiariter Opus ab Apostolo , & Latinis propr è meritum dicitur . Et qui hâc conditione obediunt operantes vocantur , Rom. 4.4 . and 11.6 . Atque si it a hac propositio exponatur , ea quidem opera quae cum fide consistere nequeant , id est , que fiunt cum fiducia & opinione meriti , prorsus excluduntur , ita ut non solum negentur justifica●e , sed & adesse tam in justificate , quàm in justificando . Joh. Crocius de justifi . disp . 13. pag. 67● Credenti facta est promissio , fide accepturum remissionem peccatorum : mendico & aegro non est facta promissio , si ille manum extendat , datum iri elcemosynam ; fi iste pharmacum manu capiat convaliturum , &c. Mr. Gataker against Saltmarsh shadows , &c. pag. 26.40 , 41 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 53 , 64. doth fully give as much to Faith , Repentance , Obedience as I do . Nor know I any reason why , ( Johns ) Baptism for the substance of it , should not be an example to us also in these times , being the Baptism of Repentance unto Remission of sins , that is , if I mistake not , Baptism obsigning remission of sins upon condition of Repentance . pag. 40. and pag. 41. He saith , [ that pardon of sin and salvation are propounded and preached upon condition of Faith , Repentance , and Newness of life , which are the conditions of the Gospel : and yet may obey also be so termed as conditions of peace upon agreement unto , and performance whereof peace may be had , which otherwise cannot be obtained . ] And he evinceth this by an Argument drawn from the definition or nature of a condition , thus , [ That which is so propounded , as that being performed , life and salvation may undoubtedly be attained , and without which it cannot be had , may well be termed a condition : but such are the things before mentioned ; therefore they may justly be termed conditions ] vid. ult . and p. 48. Suppose a King be content at the suit either of the parties themselves , or any friend , to grant his gracious pardon to a company of notorious Rebels that had risen up against him , &c. upon condition that they acknowledge their offence , and their sorrow for it , with purpose and promise of living loyally for time to come ; whether would you deem this to be free grace or no ? &c. Were he not a most ungracious wretch , that having his pardon on such terms granted and signed him ▪ should in regard of those conditions deny it to be of free Grace ? and whether they do not blaspheme Gods free Grace , that deny it to be free Grace , if it be propounded on terms of Relief , Repentance and Amendment of life . Sir , Whatsoever you say to us , take heed how you tell Christ , that he doth not freely save you , if he will not save you unless you believe , &c. ] In many more places , and more fully Mr. Gataker shews that Faith , Repentance , Obedience , are jointly conditions of Pardon , &c. Only he gives Faith a peculiar Receptivity , which I never denyed : And he yields to call it an Instrument , which so largely taken , I will not contend against . But still I say that this Receptivity is but the aptitude of Faith in a special manner to this work of justifying : and the rest are apt to be conditions in thir place , or else God would not have made them conditions . Even in regard of its natural aptitude and use [ Humiliation , ( as Mr. Vines saith , Serm. on James 4.8 . pag. 12 . ) though it do not properly cleanse the hands , yet it plucks off the Gloves , and makes them bare for washing : and Godly sorrow with its seven Daughters , 2 Cor. 7.11 . are clensing things . Dr. Stoughton , Righteous mans plea for Happ . Serm. 6. pag. 32. Faith comprehends not only the Act of the Vnderstanding , but the Act of the Will too , so as the Will doth embrace and adhere , and cleave to those Truths which the understanding conceives : and not only embracing meerly by Assent to the Truth of it , but by closing with the Good of it : ( What is that but loving ? ) tasting and relishing it . As faith in Christ is not only the Assenting of a mans mind that Christ is the Saviour , but a resultancy of the Will on Christ as a Saviour , embracing of him , and loving , esteeming and honouring him as a Saviour . The Scripture comprehends both these together , and there is a rule for it , which the Rabbins give for the opening of the Scripture , viz. Verba sensus etiam denotant affectus , as Jo. 17.3 . This is eternal life to know thee , &c. It is not bare Knowledge the Scripture means , but Knowledge joined with affections . ] You see Dr. Stoughton took Love to be full as near Kin to Faith as I do . Many the like and more full in him I pass . I cited in my Append. Alstedius , Junius , Paraeus , Scharpius , Aretius , Ball , &c. making Faith , & Obedience , & Gratitude Conditions of the new Covenant ( & who saith not the same ? ) If all these be homiletical and popular , I much mistake them ; which yet I cite not as if no words might be found in any of these Authors that seem to speak otherwise ; but to shew that I am not wholly singular , ( Though if I were , I cannot help it when I will. ) On the next Q. Whether a dying man may look on his Faith and Obedience , & Duty as the condition of the N. Cov. by him performed ? You would perswade me that I cannot think that I speak to the point in this : but you are mistaken in me : for I can mistake more then that comes to : and indeed I yet think I spoke as directly to the question in your terms laid down , as was possible : for I changed not one of your terms , but mentioned the Affirmative as your self expressed it : If you did mean otherwise then you spoke , I knew not that , nor can yet any better understand you . Only I can feel that all the difference between you and me must be decided by distinguishing of [ Conditions : ] but you never yet go about it so as I can understand you . You here ask me , [ Whether I think you deny a godly life to be a comfortable Testimony , or necessary qualification of a man for pardon ? ] Answer . 1. But the Question is not of the significancy or Testimony , nor yet of all kind of qualification ; that is an ambiguous term , and was not in the Question , but of the conditionality . 2. You yield to the term Condition your self elsewhere , and therefore need not shun it . 3. Qualifications and Conditions are either physical and remote , of which I raise no question : so the Essence of the soul is a condition , and so hearing the Gospel is a natural Condition of him that will understand it ; and understanding is a natural Qualification of him that will believe it : For ignoti nulla fides . But it is another sort of conditions you know that we are in speech of , which I have defined , and Mr. Gataker before cited : viz. Moral legal conditions so called in sensu forensi vel legali : when the Law of Christ hangs our actual Justification and salvation on the doing or not doing such a thing . Yet do I very much distinguish between the Nature and Uses of the several Graces or Duties contained in the conditions ; for though they are all conditions , yet they were not all for the same reason , or to the same use ordained to be conditions : but repentance in one sence as preparatory to faith : and Faith. 1. Because it honoureth Christ , and debaseth our selves . 2. Because it being in the full an Acceptation of the thing offered , is the most convenient means to make us Possessors without any contempt of the Gift ; with other reasons that might be found : So I might assign the reasons ( as they appear to us ) why God hath assigned Love to Christ , and sincere Obedience , and forgiving others , their several parts and places in this conditionality ; ( but I have done it in my Aphorisms ; ) but then all these are drawn from the distinct nature and use of these duties Essentially in themselves considered , which is but their Aptitude for the place or conditionality which they are appointed to , and would of themselves have done nothing without such appointment . So that it is one question to ask , Why doth Faith or Works of Obedience to Christ Justifie ? ( To which I answer ; Because it was the pleasure of God to make them the conditions of the Covenant , and not because of their own nature directly : ) and it s another Question , Why did God choose Faith to the Precedency in this work ? To which I answer . 1. Properly there is no cause of Gods actions without himself . 2. But speaking of him after the manner of men , as we must do , it is because Faith is fitter then any other Grace for this Honor and Office , as being both a high honouring of God , by believing him ( that 's as for Assent ) and in its own Essential nature , a hearty thankfull Acceptance of his Son , both to be our Lord ( which is both for the Honor of God and our own good ) and our Saviour to deliver and glorifie us : and so is the most rational way that man can imagine to make us partakers of the procured happiness , without either our own danger ( if a heavier condition had been laid upon us ) or the dishonour of the Mediator : either by diminishing the estimation of the favour ( if we had done any more to the procuring it our selves ) or by contempt of the Gift , ( if we had not been required and conditioned with so much as thankfully and lovingly to accept it . ) And then if the Question be , Why God hath assigned sincere . Obedience and Perseverance therein to that place of secondary Conditionality for the continuance and consummation of Justification , and for the attaining of salvation ? I answer . Not because they have any such Receptive nature as faith , but because Faith being an Acceptance of Christ as Lord also , and delivering and resigning up the soul to him accordingly in Covenant , this Duty is therefore necessarily implyed , as the thing promised by us in that Covenant , and so in some sence greater then the covenanting it self , or the end of it : and Christ never intended to turn man out of his service , and discharge him from Obedience ; but to lay on him an easier and lighter yoak and burden , to learn of him , &c. and therefore well may he make this the condition of their finding Ease and Rest to their souls , Mat. 11.28 , 29. For , for this end he dyed , that he might be Lord , Rom. 14.9 . And therefore when we are freely pardoned , & bought from hell , it is equal that Christ should rule us , who bought us , and that his Covenant hang till the continuance of our Legal title to pardon justification , and glory , and so the full possession of them upon this perseverance in sincere loving grateful subjection to him that bought us , and by him to the Father . And thus Sir , I have digressed and used many words on this , ( which to you I think needless ) not only because I perceive that you acknowledge the conditionality of obedience in some sense , but tell me not in what sense , but lest you should not discern my sense , who desire to speak as plain as I can , that you may truly see wherein we differ : And that I also may see it when you have as clearly opened your meaning of your term , [ Qualifications . ] And for your Question [ Whether a godly man can think the Righteousness of Christ made his by working , or only believing . ] I answer , causally and efficiently by neither , I think , ( though you think otherwise ) ; I dare not so advance faith , and so advance man. I remember good , old , learned , solid Gatakers words to Saltmarsh ( pag. 53 , ) It is your self rather then any of us that trip at this stone , when you would have faith so much pressed in the Doctrine of salvation , in regard of the gloriousness and eminency of the grace it self ; which to assert , is not sound : ( sic in Animadv in Lucium part . 1. § . 9. v. 7. ) The righteousness of Christ is made ours by Gods free gift ; but faith and true subjection are conditions of our participation ; and what interest each hath in the conditionality , and on what grounds , I have shewed . I fear you give too much to faith and man. You ask [ Is it repent , and Christs righteousness by this is made yours ? ] Answer , It is oftimes , Repent and be forgiven ; and repent and be baptized ; and repent and believe , and be forgiven : but not efficiently by repenting nor believing : but on condition of both : though in ordaining them conditions God might intend one but as preparative or subservient to the other ; and not one equal terms , or to equal use immediately . And when you say , [ that the dying Christian is directed to the Resting on Christ , and e●ing the brazen Serpent , not to be found in any thing but a righteousness by faith , ] I never durst entertain any doubt of this ; it is no question between us : only in what sense it is called a Righteousness by faith , I have shewed , even in opposition to Works in Pauls sense , which make the reward to be of debt and not of Grace , Rom. 4.4 . where you say [ It is an Act Dependance not of Obedience that interests us in Christs Righteousness ] I answer ▪ It is no one Act but many ; It is an act of Assent first ( and thence the whole hath the name of faith , it being so hard a thing to believe supernatural things , as it would have been to us to believe Christ to have been God when we had seen him in the shape of man , had we lived in those times , when the Doctrine of faith came not with those advantages as now it doth . ) And then it is an act of willing , consenting , electing , affecting ( which three are but a velle Respectivum , and so in the act all one ) : in this in order of nature goes before any act which you can in any reasonable propriety call Dependance : and I doubt not are far more essential to justifying faith : yet I am heartily willing to take your acts of dependance ( for those also are more then one ) in the next place . But it confoundeth and abuseth us and the Church in this controversie , that many learned Divines will needs shun the strict Philosophical names of the several Acts of the soul , and overlook also the natural order of the souls motions , and they will use , and stil use the Metaphorical expressions , as apprehension ( improper ) dependance , relying , resting , recombency , adherence , embracing , with more the like . I know Scripture useth some of these : but then it is not in strict disputing , as Joh. Crocius tels Bellarm. We may use apprehend figuratively , because Scripture saith , apprehendite disciplinans , and lay hold on eternal life : But this would quickly end disputation , or else make it endless . Yet in the places cited , who knows not the same word hath different senses ? in the former being used for to accept and stoop to : in the later for an earnest pressing on , and endeavouring after as a runner to catch the prize . And they will be loth to say , these are all and each of them the justifying acts . And where you add that it s not an act of obedience . I answer , 1. I would you had first answered the many Scriptures to the contrary produced in my Aphor. 2. It s true of the first interest in Christ , ( further then faith is called obedience ) but not of the further continued and consummate interest . 3. Doth not Christ say , Take my yoak learn of me to be meek and lowly , that they may have ease and rest ? Ease and Rest ? From what ? Why from what they came burdened with ? and that was sure guile and curse , and what ever is opposed to pardon and justification , Mat. 11. And Blessed are they that do his commandments , that they may have right to the tree of life , and may enter in , &c. Rev. 21.14 . And he is the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him , Heb. 5.9 . And Mat. 25. is who'ly and convincingly against you . And so is the second Psalm wholly , which makes subjection to Christ as King , the great part of the Gospel condition . [ Kiss the son ] conteineth more then Recombency , in my judgement : and yet no more then that true faith which is the condition of justification . But no word in your paper brings me to such a stand as your next , where you say , And that is very harsh still which you express , to expect the Righteousness of the Covenant of Grace upon the conditions fulfilled by your self , through Gods workings . ] Answ . Truly it is quite beyond my shallow capacity to reach what you here mean to be so harsh : what should I imagine ? That there are conditions upon which the Tenor of the Gospel gives Christ Righteousness , you acknowldge : And that he that performeth them not , the Gospel giveth him none of it : I know you confess these ; And that we must needs perform them our selves , through Gods workings ( i. e. both enablement and excitation , and co-operation : ) I know you doubt of none of these ; for you have wrote against the Antinomians : and Mr. Gataker hath evinced the sottish ignorance or impudency of Saltmarsh , in denying Faith , Repentance and Obedience to be the conditions on which , performed by us , we must enjoy the things promised , Pardon , &c. or else not . Yea in this paper you yield to this conditionality . What then is the matter ? Is it harsh when yet you never once shew the fault of the Speech ? It must be either the falshood , or the unfitness ; but you have yet accused it of neither : and yet say it is harsh . But the reason you intimate , because Bellarmine hath some such phrase : which I never remembred or observed in him : and little do I care whether he have or no : If the Papists be nearer to us then I take them to be , it is cause of joy and not sorrow : But sure I am that Protestant Writers generally use the word Condition ; and Wendeline saith , The Papists abuse us in feigning us to say the Gospel is absolute ; and saith , the Gospel in each sence is conditional . In one sence Faith is the Condition ; in another , Faith and Obedience , &c. But here you come again to the Labyrinth and transcendent Mysterie of passive Faith : nay you enlarge the Mysterie yet more : 1. You say again , [ Faith doth pati . 2. And yet Love doth agere . 3. Else you would yield that Bellarmine argues consonantly enough , that Love would justifie as well as Faith. 4. Yet you acknowledge Faith an Active Grace : but only in this Act its meerrecipient . Answer . I confess my reason utterly at a loss in this ; but yet if it were in my Bible ( to me Intelligible ) I would believe it as I do the Doctrine of the Trinity , and cease enquiring . But I cannot so do by any Creature , to make him the Lord of my faith and Reason . 1. Whether Faith doth Pati , I have enquired already . 2. That Love doth Agere , I verily believe : and yet I have ofter heard Love called a Passion , then Faith : And as Keckeram saith , the Affections are more Passive then the immanent Elicit Acts of the Intellect and Will. And though as it is in the Rational soul , Love , ( saith Aquin. ) is no Passion , but a Willing ( which causeth me to judge it so near Kin to Faith ) yet as it is in the sensitive , it is a Passion . So that I am quite beyond doubt that physically love is more properly called a Passion then Faith. 3. Therefore for ought I know , it is no wonder if Bellarmine bear the Bell , and Papists be unconvinced , if you have no better Arguments then this ; especially if no body else had better . 4. But yet the Mysterie is far more unsearchable to me , that faith should be Active in all other , save only this Act. What is this thing called Faith , which you make such a Proteus , to be Active and Passive as to several Objects ? Yea when it is acknowledged the same Faith , which receiveth Christ and Righteousness , and the several promises , and resteth on Christ for the Pardon of each sin , for hearing each Prayer , for Assurance , Peace , Comfort , Deliverance from temptations , and dangers and sin , and is thus usefull through all our lives , for the fetching of help from Christ in every streight , yet that this same Faith should be Active in all the Rest , and Passive only in One justifying Act. Oh , For the face of an Argument to prove this ! Sure its natural Reception of one Object and another is in point of Passiveness alike : and its assigned Conditionality in Scripture , is of like nature as to each branch of the good on that condition promised . 5. And here also I perceive by your speech you make it consist in some single act . And yet you never tell what that is ; and how then can it be in several faculties , as Davenant , Amesius , Joh. Crocius , Melancth . with most do affirm ? 6. But yet the depth of the mysterie to me lies in understanding and reconciling your words , [ Only in this Act its meerly Recipient . ] Is this an Act too ? and yet meerly Recipient ? ( which you make a meer Pas●ive reception . ) A meerly Passive Act is such a contradiction in adjecto to my understanding , that I cannot welcome the notion thither ; yea if you had said less , that it is an Act in any Part or Degree Passive . I never knew that an Act could Pati ; yet am I more conscious of mine own insufficiency then to contend with one of your knowledge in matter of Philosophy ; but I must needs say that your notions are yet so far beyond my reach , that possibly I might take the words as true upon the credit of one whom I so highly value , yet am I not able to apprehend the sence . The Joy in Heaven which you mention for a wandring sheep , I think is meant of the first , or some eminent recovery to Christ , and not of every Philosophical notion : sure , Sir , if salvation hang on this Doctrine , as thus by you explained , I am out of hope that either I or ever a one in all this countrey should ever come to heaven ; except by believing as that part of the Church believes which is of your opinion : When I am yet apt to think , that siding with any party in such opinions will not conduce to any mans salvation : For I am of Bergius his mind , that as it is not the Jew , the Pagan , or the Mahometan , or any Infidel , ( privative , ) that shall be saved , but the Christian : so it is not the Papist , the Lutheran , the Calvinist , the Arminian , that shall be saved ( qua talis ) but the Catholick . However I am in strong hopes that a man may be saved , though he cannot understand how an Act can be a passive instrument ; nor do I think that my subscribing to that notion , would make any great rejoycing in Heaven . I am sorry you had not leisure to answer the Questions , which were very pertinent to the business of my satisfaction , though not to your business . That my explication of that plain , weighty , necessary point , how imperfect graces or duties can yet be the conditions of the New Covenant , should seem a Paradox to you , I say , to you , makes me yet more possest with admiration ; When you know that such conditions there are ( suppose it were but faith alone : ) and you know your self that this faith is imperfect . But I perceive we know but in part , and therefore must differ in part . He shall see whom God will enlighten . I had far rather you had fallen upon that point then on the term of Justification by works . If you would but grant me , that Justifying faith , as such , is an Accepting of Christ for King , and Prophet as well as for a Justifier , and consequently that it is a resigning our selves to be ruled by him , as well as to be saved by him , I shall then be content for peace sake to lay by the phrase of Justification by work● ▪ though it be Gods own phrase , if the Church were offended with it , and required this at my hands : ( So they will be satisfied with my silencing it , without a renouncing it . ) I have written thus largely , that I might not be obscure , and to let you see , that though I have scarce time to eate or sleeep , yet I have time and paper for this work , and that I make not light of your dissent . The Love and Respect which you mention to me I do as little doubt of , as I do whether I have a heart in my breast : and your desires of my reducing I know do proceed from your zeal and sincere affections . That which I take worst is , that you should so desire me not to take it ill to be called an erring shepherd : As if I did not know my Proneness to err , and were not conscious of the weakness of my understanding : or as if the expressions of so sincere love did need excuse ; or as if I were so tender and brittle as not to endure so gentle a touch : as if my confidence of your love were Plumea , non Plumbea , and would be blown away with such a friendly breath ! Certainly Sir , your sharper smiting would be precious Balm , so it light not on the Truth , but me ! I am not so unctuous , nitrous , or sulfureous , as to be kindled with such a gratefull warmth . My Intellect were too much active , and my affections too passive , if by the reception of the beams of such favourable expressions , my soul as by a Burning-Glass should be set on fire . I am oft ashamed and amazed to think of the horrid intolerable Pride of many learned Pious Divines , who though they have no worse Titles then Viri docti , reverendi , celeberrimi : yet think themselves abused and unsufferably vilified , if any word do but acrius pungere , or any Argument do faucibus premere ( witness Rivet and Spanhemius late angry censure of Amyraldus ) Can we be fit Preachers and Patterns of meekness and humility to our people , who are so notoriously proud , that we can scarce be spoke to ? My knowledge of your eminent humility and gentelness hath made me also the freer in my speeches here to you : which therefore do need more excuse then yours : And I accordingly intreat you , if any thing have passed that is unmannerly , according to the natural eagerness and vehemency of my temper , that you will be pleased to excuse what may be excused , and the rest to remit and cover with love , assuring your self it proceeds not from any diminution of his high esteem of you , and love to you , who acknowledgeth himself unfeignedly so very much below you , as to be unworthy to be called Your fellow-servant RICHARD BAXTER . June 28. 1650. Kederminster . Postscript . DEar Sir , while I was waiting for a messenger to send this by , Master Brooksby acquaints me , that you wisht him to tell me , that I must expect no more in writing from you . My request is , that whereas you intimated in your first , a purpose of writing somewhat against me on this subject hereafter , you would be pleased to do it in my life time , that I may have the benefit of it , if you do it satisfactorily ; and if not , may have opportunity to acquaint you with the reasons of my dissent . Scribunt Asinium Pollionem dixisse aliquando se parasse orationes contra Plancum , quas non nisi post mortem esset editurus ; & Plancum respondisse , cum mortuis non nisi larvas luctari : ut Lud. Vives ex Plinio , & Dr. Humfred . ex illo Jesuit . 2. p. 640. Also I request that if possible you would proceed on such terms as your Divinity may not wholly depend upon meer niceties of Philosophy : For I cannot think such points to be neer the foundation : Or at least that you will clearly and fully confirm your Philosophical grounds : For as I find that your Doctrine of a Passive Instrumentality of the Act of faith ( and that in a Moral reception of righteousness which is but a relation , yet calling it Physical ) is the very bottom of the great distance between us in the point of justification : So I am of opinion that I may more freely dissent from a brother in such tricis philosophicis then in an Article of faith : Especially having the greatest Philosophers on my side ; and also seeing how little accord there is among themselves , that they are almost so many men , so many minds : and when I find them professing as Combacchius in praef●ad Phys . that they write against their own sense to please others , ( & quod maximam opinionum in lib. contentarum partem non jam probaret ) & Aristotelem non esse normam veritates , and wishing ut tandem aliquando exurgat aliquis qui perfectiora nobis principia monstret : and to conclude as he , salsitatem opinionum & sententiarum & scientiarum imperfectionem●jam pridem video , sed in veritate docenda deficio . Et Nulli aut paucis certe minus me satisfacturum ac mihi ipsi sat scio . And how many new Methods and Doctrines of Philosophy this one age hath produced ? And I am so far sceptical my self herein , as to think with Scaliger ( ibid. cit . ) Nos instar vulpis à Ciconia delusae vitreum vas lambere , pultem haud attingere . But I believe not that in any Master point in Divinity , God hath left his Church at such an utter loss , nor hanged the faith and salvation of every honest ordinary Christian , upon meer uncertain Philosophical speculations . I do not think that Paul knew what a Passive instrument was ; much less [ an act that was physically passive in its instrumentality in a moral causation . ] You must give me leave to remain confident that Paul built not his Doctrine of justification on such a philosophical foundation , till you have brought one Scripture to prove that faith is an instrument , and such an instrument ; which can neither be done . Especially when the same Paul professeth that he came not to declare the Testimony of God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and that he determined not to know any thing among them save Iesus Christ and him crucified ; and that his speech and preaching was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that so their faith might not stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : & that he spoke the mysteries of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 1 Cor. 2. I am past doubt therefore that to thrust such Philosophical dictates into our Creed or Confession , and make them the very touchstone of Orthodoxness in others , is a dangerous presumptuous adding to the Doctrine of the Gospel , and a making of a new Doctrine of justification and salvation , to the great wrong of the Prophet and Lawgiver of the Church . I was even now reading learned Zanchius proof that believers before Christ did by their faith receive Christs flesh , or humane nature ( as promised and future ) as well as the Divine , and his heavy censure of the contrary Doctrine , as vile and unsufferable ; which occasioneth me to add this Quere , Whether that believing was a physical reception , when the object had no real being or did not exist ? Or whether meer morral reception ( by Accepting , Choosing , Consenting ) as a people receiving the Kings Heires for their future Governours before they are born ; or as we receive a man for our King , who dwels far out of our sight ; Or as Princes wives do use to take them both for their Husbands and Soveraign Lords , even in their own Native Countrey , before they come to sight of the man ; the match being both driven on and made , and the marriage or contract performed and imperfectly solemnized at that distance by an Embassador or Delegate ? just so do we receive Christ , ( whose humane nature is far off , and his Divine out of our sight ) to be our Saviour , Soveraign ( by redemption ) and Husband ; even here in our native Country ; the match being moved to us by his Embassadors , and imperfectly solemnized upon our cordial consent , and giving up our selves to him by our Covenant : ( but it shall be perfectly solemnized at the great Marriage of the Lamb. ) This is my faith of the nature of true justifying faith ; and the manner of its receiving Christ . THE Reader must understand that after this , I had a personal conference with this Dear and Reverend Brother , wherein he still owned and insisted on the passiveness of Justifying faith , viz. That it is but a Grammatical action , ( or nominal ) and a physical , or hyperpyhsical passion ; which also he giveth us again in the Treatise of Imputation of righteousness . FINIS . A DISPVTATION , Proving the Necessity of a two-fold Righteousness to Justification and Salvation . And defending this and many other Truths about Iustifying Faith , its Object and Office , against the confident , but dark Assaults of Mr. Iohn Warner . By Richard Baxter . Acts 5.31 . Him hath Gad axalted with his right hand , a Prince and a Saviour , to give Repentance unto Israel , and forgiveness of sins . Rom. 4.22 , 23 ▪ 24 , 25. And therefore it was imputed to him for Righteousness : Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was Imputed to him ; but for us also , to whom it shall be Imputed , if we Believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead ; who was delivered for our offences , and was raised again for our Justification . LONDON , Printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons , Book seller in Kederminster , and are to be sold by him there , and by Nathaniel Ekins , at the Gun in Pauls Church-yard , 1658. Question . Whether Besides the Righteousness of Christ Imputed , there be a Personal Evangelical Righteousness necessary to Justification and Salvation ? Affirm . THough it hath pleased a late Opponent ( Mr. Warner ) to make the Defence of this Proposition necessary to me ; yet I shall suppose that I may be allowed to be brief , both because of what I have formerly said of it , and because the Question is so easily decided , and Christians are so commonly agreed on it . For the right understanding of what we here maintain , its necessary that I explain the Terms , and remove confusion by some necessary distinctions , and lay down my sense in some Propositions that make to the opening of this . To trouble you with the Etymologies of the words in several Languages that signifie Righteousness or Justification would be a needless loss of time , it being done to our hands by so many , and we being so far agreed on it , that here lyeth no part of our present controversie . The Form of Righteousness , signified by the name is Relative , as strait or crooked is . ( For it is not the Habit of Justice , by which we give every man his own , that is the Subject of our Question but Righteousness in a Judicial or Legal sense ) 1. Righteousness is either of the cause , or of the person . Not that these are subjects actually separated but distinct , the one being subordinate to the other . The cause is the nearest subject , and so far as it is just and justifiable , so far the person is just and justifiable . Yet the person may otherwise be just and justified , when one or many causes are unjustifyable . 2. Righteousness is denominated either from a Relation to the Precept of the Law , or to the Sanction . To be righteous in Relation to the Precept , is to be conform to that Precept ; An Action or Disposition conform to the Precept , is called a Righteous Action or Disposition : and from thence the person being so far conform , is called a Righteous person : And so this Righteousness , as to the positive precept , is his obeying it ; and as to the prohibition , it is his Innocency , contrary to that guilt , which we call Reatus culpae . Righteousness as a Relation to the Sanction , is either a Relation to the Commination and penal Act of the Law , or to the promissory or Premiant Act. As to the former , Righteousness is nothing , but the Not-dueness of the punishment , contrary to the Reatus poenae , as it respects the execution ; and so A not being lyable to condemnation , as it respects the sentence . This is sometime founded in the persons Innocency last mentioned : sometime on a free pardon or acquittance : sometime on satisfaction made by himself : And sometime on satisfaction by another , conjunct with free pardon ( which is our case . ) Righteousness as a Relation to the Promise , or Premiant part of the Sanction , is nothing but our Right to the Reward , Gift , or Benefit , as pleadable and justifyable in foro . Which sometime is founded in merit of our own ; sometime in a free Gift : sometime in the merit of another , conjunct with free Gift , which is our case , ( other cases concern us not ) This last mentioned , is Righteousness as a Relation to the substance of the Promise or Gift : But when the Promise , or Gift , or Testament , or Premiant Law is conditional , as in our case it is , then there is another sort of Righteousness necessary , which is Related to the Modus promissionis , and that is , The performance of the condition : which if it be not properly called Righteousness Ethically , yet civilly in a Judiciary sense it is , when it comes to be the cause to be tryed and Judged , whether the person have performed the condition , then his cause is just or unjust , and he just or unjust in that respect . 3. Righteousness is either Vniversal , as to all causes that the person can be concerned in : or it is only particular , as to some causes only , and so but secundum quid to the person . 4. A particular Righteousness may either be such as the total welfare of a man depends on ; or it may be of less and inconsiderable moment . 5. When a cause subordinate to the main cause is Righteous , this may be called a subordinate Righteousness . But if it be part of the main cause , it is a partial righteousness co-ordinate . I will not trouble you with so exact a disquisition of the Nature of Righteousness and Justification as I judge fit in it self , both because I have a little heretofore attempted it , and because I find it blamed as puzling curiosity or needless distinguishing : Though I am not of that mind , yet I have no minde to be troublesome . As for the term Justification , 1. It either may signifie the Act of the Law or Promise : or the sentence of the Judge : or the Execution of that sentence ; For to one of these three sences the word may still be reduced , as we shall have to do with it ; that is , to constitutive , or sentential , or Executive Justification ; though the sentence is most properly so called . To these , Justification by Plea , Witness , &c. are subservient . 2. Justification is either opposed to a false Accusation , or to a true . 3. In our case , Justification is either according to the Law of works , or to the Law of Grace . I think we shall at this time have no great need to use any more distinctions then these few , and therefore I will add no more about this Term. As to the term [ Evangelical ] Righteousness may be so called in a four-fold sense . 1. Either because it is that righteousness which the Covenant or Law of Grace requireth as its Condition ; Or 2. Because its a Righteousness revealed by the Gospel ; Or 3. Because it is Given by the Gospel ; 4. Or because it 〈◊〉 ● perfect fulfilling of the Precepts of the Gospel . By [ a personal ] Righteousness , we mean here , not that which is ours by meer Imputation , but that which is founded in somewhat Inherent in us , or performed by us . [ Necessity ] is 1. of a meer Antecedent . 2. Or of a Means : We mean the last . Means are either causes , or conditions . I shall now by the help of these few distinctions give you the plain truth in some Propositions , both Negatively and Affirmatively , as followeth . Proposition 1. It is confessed by all that know themselves , or man and the Law , that none of us have a Personal universal Righteousness . For then there were no sin , nor place for confession , or pardon , or Christ . Prop. 2. And therefore we must all confess , that in regard of the Preceptive part of the Law of works we are all unjust , and cannot be justified by the deeds of the Law , or by our works . Prop. 3. And in regard of the Commination of that Law , we are all under guilt and the Curse , and are the children of wrath , and therefore cannot be justified by that Law , or by our works . Both these are proved by Paul at large , so that none have a personal Legal Righteousness . Prop. 4. No man can plead any proper satisfaction of his own for the pardon of sin , and escaping the curse of the Law : But only Christs Satisfaction , that fulfilled the Law , and became a curse for us . Prop. 5. No man can plead any merit of his own for procuring the Reward ( unless as actions , that have the promise of a Reward , are under Christ improperly called merits ) But our righteousness of this sort is only the merit and purchase of Christ , and the free gift of the Gospel in him . Prop. 6. We have no one work that is perfectly justifiable by the perfect precepts of the Law of works : And therefore we have no legal personal Righteousness at all that can properly be so called ; but are all corrupt and become abominable , there being none that doth good , no not one ; Imperfect legal righteousness , is an improper speech ; it is properly no legal righteousness at all , but a less degree of unrighteousness ( The more to blame they that call sanctification so ) Prop. 7. No man can say that he is a Co-ordinate Con-cause with Christ in his Justification ; or that he hath the least degree of a satisfactory or Meritorious Righteousness , which may bear any part in co-ordination with Christs righteousness , for his justification or salvation . Prop. 8. We have not any personal Evangelical Righteousness of perfect obedience to the Precepts of Christ himself : whether it be the Law of Nature as in his hand , or the Gospel positives . Prop. 9. Even the Gospel personal Righteousness of outward works , though but in sincerity , and not perfection , is not necessary ▪ ( no not as an antecedent ) to our Justification at the first . Prop. 10. External works of Holiness are not of absolute necessity to Salvation : for it is possible that death may suddenly after Conversion , prevent opportunity : and then the inward faith and repentance will suffice : Though I think no man can give us one instance of such a man de facto : not the thief on the cross : for he confessed prayed , reproved the other , &c. Prop. 11. Where sincere Obedience is Necessary to Salvation , it is not all the same Acts of obedience that are of Necessity to all men , or at all times : for the Matter may vary , and yet the sinecerity of obedience continue . But some special Acts are of Necessity to the sincerity . Prop. 12. If Righteousness be denominated from the Precept , Christs Obedience was a perfect legal Righteousness , as having a perfect conformity to the Law : But not so an Evangelical Righteousness : for he gave us in many Laws for the application of his Merits , that he was neither obliged to fulfill , nor capable of it . If Righteousness be denominated from the Promise or premiant part of the Law , Christs righteousness was in some sort the righteousness of the Law of works , ( for he merited all the reward of that Law ; ) But it was principally the righteousness of the special Covenant of Redemption ( between the Father and him ▪ ) but not of the Covenant of Grace made with man ( he did not repent or obey for pardon and salvation to himself as a Believer ; ) If Righteousness be denominated from the Comminatory or penal part of the Law then Christs sufferings were neither a strictly legal ▪ or an Evangelical righteousness . For the Law required the supplicium ipsius delinquentis , and knew no Surety or Substitute . But thus Christs sufferings were a Pro-Legal-righteousness , as being not the fulfilling of the Threatening , but a full Satisfaction to the Law-giver , ( which was equivalent ) and so a valuable consideration , why the Law should not be fulfilled ( by our damnation ) but dispensed with ( by our pardon ) So that the Commination was the cause of Christs sufferings ; and he suffered materially the same sort of Death which the Law threatened . But most strictly his sufferings were a Righteous fulfilling his part of the Covenant of Redemption with the Father : But in no propriety were they the fulfilling of the Commination of the Law of Grace , against the Despisers or neglecters of Grace . I mean that proper to the Gospel . Prop. 13. Christs righteousness is well called our Evangelical Righteousness , both as it is Revealed by the Gospel , and conferred by it , and opposed to the legal way of Justification by perfect personal Righteousness . So that by calling our own personal righteousness , Evangelical , we deny not that Title to Christs , but give it that in a higher respect , and much more . Prop. 14. No personal righteousness of ours , our faith or repentance , is any proper cause of our first Justification , or of our entering into a justifyed state : Though as they remove Impediments , or are Conditions , they may improperly be called causes ; So much for the Negative Propositions . Affirm . Prop. 1. That a Godly man hath a particular righteousness , or may be Just in a particular cause , there is no man can deny : unless he will make him worse then the Devil : for if the Devil may be falsly accused or belyed , he is just in that particular cause . Prop. 2. All Christians that I know do confess an Inherent Righteousness in the Saints , and the necessity of this righteousness to Salvation . So that this can be no part of our Controversie . Prop. 3. Consequently all must confess that Christs righteousness imputed , is not our only righteousness . Yea , that the righteousness of Pardon and Justification from sin , is no further necessary then men are sinners ; and therefore the less need any man hath of it , the better he pleaseth Christ , that is , he had rather we would beware of sin as far as may be , then sin and fly to him for Pardon . Prop. 4. And we are agreed I think that the personal Righteousness of the Saints is so much the end of Christs Redemption and Pardoning Grace , that the perfection of this is that blessed state to which he will bring them ; so that when he hath done his work , Sanctification shall be perfect ; but Justification by Pardon of further sins , shall be no more : Heaven cannot bear so imperfect a state . Prop. 5. We are agreed therefore that our Righteousness of Sanctification , or the Doctrine thereof is so far from being any derogation or dishonour to Christ , that it is the high honour which he intended in his work of Redemption , that the Glory of God the Father , and of the Redeemer may everlastingly shine forth in the Saints , and they may be fit to love , and serve , and praise him , Tit. 2.14 . Prop. 6. It is past all doubt that this Inherent Righteousness consisteth in a true fulfilling of the Conditions of the Gospel-Promise , and a sincere Obedience to the Precepts of Christ . And so hath a double respect : one to the Promise ; and so it is conditio praestita : the other to the Precept ; and so it is Officium praestitum . All Conditions here are Duties : but all Duties are not the Condition . Prop. 7. I think we are agreed , that Justification by Christ as Judge at the great day , hath the very same Conditions as Salvation hath , it being an adjudging us to Salvation . And therefore that this personal Evangelical Righteousness is of necessity to our Justification at that Judgement . Prop. 8. And I think we are agreed that no man can continue in a state of Justification , that continueth not in a state of Faith , Sanctification , ond sincere Obedience . Prop. 9 We are agreed I am sure that no man at age is justified before he Repent and Believe . Prop. 10 And we are agreed that this Repenting and Believing is both the matter of the Gospel-Precept , and the Condition of the Promise . Christ hath made over to us himself with his imputed Righteousness and Kingdom , on condition that we repent and believe in him . Prop. 11. It cannot then be denied that Faith and Repentance being both the Duty commanded ▪ and the Condition required and performed , are truly a particular special Righteousness , subordinate to Christ and his Righteousness , in order to our further participation of him , and from him . Prop. 12. And lastly its past dispute that this personal Righteousness of Faith and Repentance , is not to be called a Legal , but an Evangelical Righteousness , because it is the Gospel that both commandeth them , and promiseth life to those that perform them . Thus methinks all that I desire is granted already : what Adversary could a man dream of among Protestants in such a Cause ? Agreement seemeth to prevent the necessity of a further Dispute . To be yet briefer , and bring it nearer an Issue : If any thing of the main Thesis here be denyed , it must be one of these three things . 1. That there is any such thing as Faith , Repentance or Sanctification . 2. Or that they should be called an Evangelical personal Righteousness . 3. Or that they are necessary to Justification and Salvtaion : The first is de existentia rei : The second is de nomine : The third is de usu & fine . The first no man but a Heathen or Infidel will deny . And for the second , that this name is fit for it , I prove by parts . 1. It may and must be called A Righteousness . 2. A Personal Righteousness . 3. An Evangelical Righteousness . 1. As Righteousness signifieth the Habit by which we give to all their own , so this is Righteousness . For in Regeneration the soul is habituated to give up it self to God as his own , and to give up all we have to him , and to love and serve all where his love and service doth require it . No true habit is so excellent as that which is given in Regeneration . 2. The sincere performance of the Duties required of us by the Evangelical Precept , is a sincere Evangelical Righteousness : But our first turning to God in Christ by Faith and Repentance , is the sincere performance of the duties required of us by the Evangelical Precept . Ergo. — Object . The Gospel requireth actual external Obedience and perseverance also . Answ . Not at the first instant of Conversion : For that instant , he that Believeth and Repenteth , doth sincerely do the Duty required by it : and afterward , he that continueth herein with Expressive Obedience , which is then part of this Righteousness . 3. The true Performance of the Conditions of Justification and Salvation , imposed in the Gospel-Promise , is a true Gospel Righteousness : But Faith and Repentance at the first , and sincere Obedience added afterward , are the true performance of these Conditions . Ergo. — 4. It is commonly called by the name of Inherent Righteousness , by all Divines with one Consent : therefore the name of [ Righteousness ] is past controversie here . 5. That which in Judgement must be his justitia causae , the Righteousness of his cause , is so far the Righteousness of his person : ( for the person must needs be righteous quoad hanc causam , as to that cause ) But our Faith and Repentance will be much of the Righteousness of our cause at that day ( for the Tryal of us will be , whether we are true Believers , and penitent or not ; and that being much of the cause of the day , we must needs be righteous or unrighteous as to that cause : ) therefore our Faith and Repentance is much of the Righteousness of our persons ▪ denominated in respect to the Tryal and Judgement of that day . 6. The holy Scripture frequently calls it Righteousness , and calls all true penitent Believers , and all that sincerely obey Christ , [ righteous ] because of these qualifications ( supposing pardon of sin , and merit of Glory by Christ for us : ) therefore we may and must so call them , Mat. 25.37 , 46. Then shall the righteous answer — but the righteous into life eternal , Mat. 10.41 . He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man , shall receive a righteous mans reward . Heb. 11.4 . By faith Abel offered , — by which he obtained witnest that he was righteous , God testifying of his Gifts . 1 Pet. 3.12 . For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous . — 1 John 3.7 . He that doth righteousness is righteous , even as he is righteous . Isa . 3.10 . Say ●o the righteous it shall be well with him . Psal . 1.5 , 6. Mat. 5.6 , ●0 . An enemy to the faith , is called an enemy of righteousness . Acts 13.10 . 2 Pet. 2.21 . 1 John 2.29 . and 3.10 . Gen. 15.6 . And he believed in the Lord , and he counted it to him for righteousness . Psal . 106.31 . Rom. 43.5 . His faith is counted for righteousness . ver . 9. Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness . ver 22 , 24. Therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness . Now it was not written for his sake alone , that it was imputed to him , but for us also to whom it shall be imputed , if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead . So Jam. 2.23 . Gal. 3.6 . If any say that by [ Faith ] in all these Texts is meant Christs righteousness , and not Faith , I will beleive them when I take Scripture to be intelligible only by them , and that God did not write it to have it understood . But that Faith is imputed or accounted to us for Righteousness in a sense meerly subordinate to Christs righteousness , by which we are justified , I easily grant . As to Satisfaction and Merit we have no righteousness but Christs , but a Covenant and Law we are still under , and not redeemed to be lawless : and this Covenant is ordained as the way of making over Christ and his meritorious righteousness , and life to us : and therefore they being given or made over on Covenant-terms , there is a personal performance of the conditions necessary : and so that personal performance is all the righteousness inherent or propiae actionis , that God requireth of us now , whereas by the first Covenant perfect Obedience was required as necessary to life . So that in point of meer personal performance our own Faith is accepted , and imputed or accounted to us for Righteousness , that is , God will require no more as necessary to Justification at our own hands , but that we believe in the righteousness of another , and accept a Redeemer ( though once he required more : ) But as to the satisfying of the Justice of the offended Majesty , and the meriting of life with pardon , &c. So the Righteousness of Christ is our only Righteousness . But nothing in Scripture is more plain then that Faith it self is said to be accounted to us for Righteousness ; and not only Christs own righteousness : He that will not take this for proof , must expect no Scripture proof of any thing from me . Eph. 4.24 . The new man after God is created in righteousness . Many other Texts do call our first Conversion , or state of Grace , our faith and repentance , and our sincere obedience by the name of Righteousness . 2. And then that it may , and that most fitly be called an Evangelical righteousness , I will not trouble the Reader to prove , lest I seem to censure his understanding as too stupid . It s easie to try whether our Faith and Repentance , our Inherent Righteousness , do more answer the Precepts and Promise of Christ in the Gospel , or those of the Law of works . 3. And that this is a personal righteousness , I have less need to prove : Though it is Christ that purchased it ( and so it may be called the righteousness of Christ ) and the Spirit that worketh it in us , yet it s we that are the Subjects and the Agents as to the act . It being therefore past doubt that , 1. The thing it self is existent and necessary . 2. That righteousness is a fit name for it . 3. All that remains to be proved is the Use of it , Whether it be necessary to Justification and Salvation . And here the common agreement of Divines , ( except the Antinomians ) doth save us the labour of proving this : for they all agree that Faith and Repentance are necessary to our first Justification ; and that sincere obedience also is necessary to our Justification at Judgement , and to our Salvation . So that here being no conteoversie , I will not make my self needless work . Obejct . 1. But faith and repentance are not necessary to Justification qua justitia quaedam Evangelica , under the notion of a righteousness , but faith as an Instrument , and repentance as a qualifying condition . Answ . 1. We are not now upon the question under what notion these are necessary . It sufficeth to the proof of our present Thesis , that a personal Evangelical Righteousness is necessary , whether quâ talis or not . 2. But the plain truth is , 1. Remotely , in respect of its natural Aptitude to its office , faith is necessary because it is a Receiving Act , and therefore fitted to a free Gift , and an Assenting Act , and therefore fitted to a supernatural Revelation : And hence Divines say , It justifieth as an Instrument , calling its Receptive nature , Metaphorically an Instrument : which in this sense is true . And Repentance is necessary , because it is that Return to God , and recovery of the soul which is the end of Redemption , without which the following ends cannot be attained . The Receptive nature of Faith , and the dispositive use of Repentance , may be assigned as Reasons , Why God made them conditions of the Promise : as being their aptitude thereto . 2. But the nearest reason of their Interest and Necessity , is because by the free constitution of God ▪ they are made conditions in that Promise that conferreth Justification and Salvation , determining that without these they shall not be had , and that whoever believeth shall not perish , and if we repent , our sins shall be forgiven us . So that this is the formal or nearest Reason of their necessity and interest , that they are the conditions of the Covenant , so made by the free Donor , Promimiser , Testator . Now this which in the first instant and consideration is a condition , is in the next instant or consideration , a true Evangelical Righteousness , as that Condition is a Duty in respect to the Precept ; and as it is our Title to the benefit of the Promise , and so is the Covenant-performance , and as it hath respect to the sentence of Judgement , where this will be the cause of the day , Whether this Condition was performed or not . It is not the Condition as imposed , but as performed , on which we become justified : And therefore as sentential Justification is past upon the proof of this personal Righteousness , which is our performance of the condition , on which we have Title to Christ and Pardon , and eternal life ; even so our Justification in the sense of the Law or Covenant , is on supposition of this same performance of the Condition , as such : which is a certain Righteousness . If at the last Judgement we are sententially justified by it as it is quaedam justitia , a Righteousness subordinate to Christs Righteousness , ( which is certain , ) then in Law-sense we are justifiable by it on the same account . For to be justified in point of law , is nothing else then to be justifiable , or justificandus , by sentence and execution according to that Law : so that its clear that a personal Righteousness , qua talis , is necessary to Justification , and not only quo talis ; though this be beyond our Quest on in hand , and therefore I add it but for elucidation and ex abundanti . Object . 2. If this be so , then men are righteous before God doth justifie them . Answ . 1. Not with that Righteousness by which he justifieth them . 2. Not Righteousness simply , absolutely or universally , but only secundum quid , with a particular Righteousness . 3. This particular Righteousness is but the means to possess them of Christs Righteousness , by which they are materially and fully justified . 4. There is not a moments distance of time between them : For as soon as we believe and repent we are made partakers of Christ and his Righteousness , by a meer resultancy from the Promise of the Gospel . 5. Who denyeth that we have Faith and Repentance before Justification ? Object . 3. But according to this Doctrine we are justified before we are justified : For he that is Righteous is constituted just , and so is justifiable in Judgement , which is to be justified in Law. Answ . Very true : But we are as is said , made just or justified but with a particular , and not an universal Righteousness ; which will not donominate the person simply a Righteous or justified person : we are so far cured of our former Infidelity and Impenitency , that we are true penitent Believers before our sins are pardoned by the Promise : and so we are in order of nature ( not of time ) first justifiable against the false Accusation , that we are impenitent Vnbelievers , before we are justifiable against the true accusation of all our sins , and desert of Hell. He that by inherent Faith and Repentance is not first justifiable against the former false charge , cannot by the blood and merits of Christ be justifiable against the latter true accusation . For Christ and Pardon are given by the Covenant of Grace , to none but penitent Believers . Object . 4. By this you confound Justification and Sanctification : for inherent Righteousness belongs not to Justification , but to Sanctification . Answ . Your Affirmation is no proof , and my distinguishing them is not confounding them . Inherent Righteousness in its first seed and acts belongs to Sanctification , as its Begining , or first part , or root : And to Justification and Pardon as a Means or Condition : But Inherent Righteousness , in its strength and progress , belongs to Sanctification as the Matter of it , and to our final Justification in Judgement as part of the means or condition : but no otherwise to our first Justification , then as a necessary fruit or consequent of it . Object . 5. By this means you make Sanctification to go before Justification , as a Condition or means to it : when Divines commonly put it after . Answ . 1. Mr. Pemble , and those that follow him , put Sanctification before all true Justification , ( though they call Gods immanent eternal Act , a precedent Justification . ) 2. The case is easie , if you will not confound the verbal part of the controversie with the Real . What is it that you call Sanctification ? 1. If it be the first special Grace in Act or Habit , so you will confess , that Sanctification goeth first : For we repent and believe before we are pardoned or justified . 2. If it be any further degrees or fruits , or exercise of Grace , then we are agreed that Justification goeth before it . 3. If it be both begining and progress , faith and obedience that you call Sanctification , then part of it is before Justification , and part after . All this is plain ; and that which I think we are agreed in . But here I am invited to a consideration of some Arguments of a new Opponent , Mr. Warner in a book of the Object and Office of Faith. What he thought it his Duty to oppose , I take it to be my Duty to defend : which of us is guided by the light of God , I must leave to the illuminated to judge , when they have compared our Evidence . Mr. W. I now come to shew that both these kinds of Righteousness , Legal and Evangelical , are not absolutely necessary to Justification . — I do not undertake the Negative , and will endeavour to prove it by these demonstrations . Argument 1. If things in themselves contradictory cannot be ascribed to the sme person or action , then both these kinds of Righteousness are not absolutely necessary to make up our Justification : But things in themselves contradictory cannot be ascribed to the same person or actions , Therefore — The sequell is thus proved by Paul. If it be of works , it is no more of Grace : if of Grace , then it is no more of works . What are therefore these two kinds of Righteousness , but contradictory to each other ? And therefore it seemeth illogical Theologie to predicate them of the same person or act , c. 12. pag. 154. Answ . Reader , I crave thy pardon for troubling thee with the Confutation of such Impertinencies , that are called Demonstrations : It is I that have the bigger part of the trouble : But how should I avoid it without wrong to the Truth ? Seeing ( would you think it ! ) there are some Readers that cannot discern the vanity of such Arguings without Assistance . 1. What a gross abuse is this to begin with , to conclude that these two sorts of Righteousness are not necessary [ to make up ] our Justification , when the Question was only whether they are necessary [ to ] our Justification . [ Making up ] expresseth the proper causality of the constitutive causes , ( matter and form , ) and not of the efficient or final ; much less the Interest of all other means , such as a condition is . So that I grant him his conclusion , taking Justification as we now do Our Faith or Repentance goeth not to make it up . And yet on the by , I shall add , that if any man will needs take Justification for Sanctification , or as the Papists do comprehensively for Sanctification and Pardon both ( as some Protestant Divines think it is used in some few Texts ) in that large sense our Faith and Repentance are part of our justifying Righteousness . But I do not so use the word , ( Though Philip Codurcus have writ at large for it . ) 2. I deny his Consequence : And how is it proved ? By reciting Pauls words , Rom. 116. Which contain not any of the terms in the question . Paul speaks of Election : we of Justification ( though that difference I regard not . ) Paul speaks of works , and we speak of Evangelical Faith and Repentance . In a word therefore I answer . The works that Paul speaks of are inconsistent with Grace in Justification ( though not contradictory , but contrary , what ever Mr. W. say : ) but Faith and Repentance are not those works ; and therefore no contrariety is hence proved . Here is nothing therefore but a rash Assertion of Mr. W. to prove these two sorts of Righteousness contradictory . Be judge all Divines and Christians upon earth : Did you ever hear before from a Divine or Christian , that imputed and inherent Righteousness , or Justification and Sanctification , or Christs fulfilling the Law for us , and our believing the Gospel and repenting were contradictory in themselves ? Do not all that believe the Scripture , believe that we have a personal Righteousness , a true Faith and Repentance , and must fulfill the Conditions of the Promise ; and that in respect to these the Scripture calls us Righteous ? ( as is before proved . ) Mr. W. 2. If the person justified is of himself ungodly , then Legal and Evangelical Righteousness are not both absolutely necessary to our Justification : But the person justified ( considering him in the act of justifying ) is so , therefore . — The Sequel is undenyable ; because he who is ungodly is not Legally Righteous , and that the person now to be justified is ungodly , is express Scripture , Rom. 4.5 . But to him that worketh not , but believeth in him that just fieth the ungodly , his faith is counted for righteousness . Answ . 1. I suppose the Reader understandeth that the Legal or rather Pro-legal Righteousness , that I plead for , is Christs Merits and Satisfaction made over to us , for the effects ; and that the personal Evangelical Righteousness is our believing and repenting . Now that these are both necessary , this very Text proveth , which he citeth against it . For the necessity of Christs meritorious Righteousness he will not deny that it is here implyed : and the necessity of our own faith is twice exprest , [ To him that believeth , his faith is counted for righteousness . ] If it be the Being of Faith that this Brother would exclude it is here twice exprest : If it be only the naming it [ a righteousness ] That name also is here exprest . How could he have brought a plainer evidence against himself ? 2. To his Argument , I distinguish of Vngodliness ] If it be taken for an unregenerate impenitent unbeliever , then I deny the M●nor , at least in sensu composito ; A person in the instant of Justification is not an unbeliever : This Text shameth him that will affirm it . But if by [ Vngodly ] be meant [ Sinners , or persons unjustifyable by the works of the Law , who are legally impious ] then I deny the consequence of the Major . Do I need to tell a Divine that a man may be a sinner and a penitent Believer at once . The Syriack and Ethiopick translating the word [ sinners ] do thus expound the Text ; and it s the common Exposition of most judicious Divines . It is not of the Apostles meaning to tell you that God justifieth impenitent Infidels , or haters of God : but that he justifieth sinners , legally condemned and unworthy , yet true Believers , as the Text expresseth . 3. If any reject this Exposition , and will take [ ungodly ] here for [ the Impenitent , ] then the other Exposition solveth his Objection , viz. They were Impenitent and Unbelievers , in the instant next foregoing , but not in the instant of Justification : For faith and Justification are in the same instant of time . 4. Rather then believe that God justifieth Infidels contrary to the text , I would interpret this Text as Beza doth some other , as speaking of Justification as comprehending both Conversion and Forgiveness , even the conferring of Inherent and Imputed Righteousness both : and so God justifieth Infidels themselves ; that is , giveth them first faith and Repentance , and then forgiveness and eternal life in Christ . 5. But I wonder at his proof of his Sequel [ Because he who is ungodly is not legally righteous ] what is that to the Question ? It is Legal righteousness in Christ that Justification giveth him : Therefore we all suppose he hath it not before : But he is personally Evangelically Righteous as soon as he Believes , so far as to be a true performer of the Condition of Justification ; and then in the same instant he receiveth by Justification that Righteousness of Christ which answereth the Law. Mr. W. If nothing ought to be asserted by us which ever-throws Apostolical writings , then the necessity of a two-fold righteousness ought not to be asserted ; But — Ergo. — The Sequel is proved by this Dilemma . Apostolical writings are utterly against a two-fold Righteousness in this work ; therefore to assert both these kinds is to overthrow their writings . For to what purpose did Paul dispute against Justification by works of the Law , if the righteousness of Faith were not sufficient ? And certainly if both were required as absolutely necessary , it would argue extream ignorance in Paul if he should not have known it , and as great unfaithfulness if , &c. — Answ . Either this Writer owns the two-fold Righteousness that he disputeth against , or not : If he did not , he were an Infidel or wretched Heretick , directly denying Christ or Faith ; For Christ is the one Righteousness , and faith the other . If he do own them ( as I doubt not at all but he doth ) is it not good service to the Church to pour out this opposition against words not understood , and to make men believe that the difference is so material as to overthrow the Scriptures ? But to his Argument , I deny the consequence of the Major ; and how is it proved ? forsooth by a Dilemma ( which other folks call an Enthymeme ) Of which the Antecedent ( That Apostolical writings are against a two-fold righteousness ) is proved by this Writers word . A learned proof I into which this Disputations are ultimately resolved . It is the very work of Pauls Epistles to prove the necessity of this Two-fold Righteousness ( unless you will with the Papists call it rather two parts of one Righteousness , ) Christs merits and mans faith , one in our surety , the other wrought by him in our selves . But , saith he , to what purpose did Paul dispute against Justification by the works of the Law , If the Righteousness of faith were not sufficient ? — I answer you , 1. Because no man hath a personal legal Righteousness : But Paul never disputed against a legal Righteousness in Christ , or his fulfilling the Law , or being made a curse for us . Do you think he did ? 2. A Righteousness of faith is sufficient : for it signifieth this two-fold righteousness . 1. That righteousness which faith accepteth , which is [ of Faith ] because proclaimed in the Gospel and is the object of Faith ; and yet it is legal , in that it was a Conformity to the Law , and satisfaction to the Law-giver . 2. Faith it self , which is a particular subservient Evangelical Rigeteousness , for the application and possession of the former . And now was here a fit occasion to speak reproach fully of Paul , as extream ignorant , or unfaithful , or immanis sophista ? and all because he would not deny either Christ or Faith ? Sure Paul hath let us see by revealing both , that he was neither ignorant , unfaithfull nor a Sophister . Mr. W. 4. If both Legal and Evangelical righteousness were thus required to the purpose of justifying , then it must be because the Evangelical is of it self insufficient . But — For if Christs righteousness be insufficient to Salvation , he were not a sufficient Saviour , and if the Righteousness of Faith in him were of it self insuffient . Answ . By this time I am tempted to repent that I medled with this Brother . If he live to read over a reply or two , he may possibly understand them that he writes against . He will prove that a Legal Righteousness is not necessary , because Christs righteousness ( which is it that I called legal ) is sufficient . It s sufficient alone : therefore not Necessary . Am not I like to have a fair hand think you of this Disputer ? To his Argument once more I distinguish : Evangelical righteousness it twofold . 1. That which the Gospel revealeth and offereth : and this is Christs righteousness , therefore called Evangelical : but also Legal , because it answered the rule of the Law of works , and its ends . 2. That which the Gospel hath made the Condition of our part in Christ and his righteousness : and this is Faith it self . Both these are sufficient to Justification : but Faith is neither sufficient , nor is Faith without Christs legal righteousness : And Christ is sufficient Hypothetically , but will not be effectual to our Justification without Faith ( and repentance . ) But perhaps this Writer means only to shew his offence against my naming Christs righteousness legal . If that be so , 1. I have given in my reasons , because there can be no better reason of a name then from the form : and the form of Christs righteousness being relative , even a conformity to the Law of works ( and to the peculiar Covenant of redemption , ) I thought did sufficiently warrant this name . 2. The rather when I find not only that he is said to fulfill the Law and all righteousness , and be made a curse for us , but also to be righteous with that righteousness , which is denyed of us ; which can be none but a legal or prolegal righteousness . 3. But yet if the name [ Legal ] be all , I could easily have given this Brother leave to differ from me about a name without contention , and methinks he might have done the like by me . Mr. W. Object . But what if works and faith were both of them applyed to procure our Justification ? Answ . This Objection yet further shews , that the Author understands me not ( if it be me , as I have reason to judge that he writeth against ) for he supposeth that its works that I call a legal Righteousness , when I still tell him it is Christs satisfaction and fulfilling the Law , of which our faith or works are no part , but a subordinate , particular , Evangelical Righteousness . Mr. W. 5. If both these kinds of Righteousness were absolutely necessary , then where one of them is wanting in a person , there can be no Justification of that person . But — Ergo. — For where was any Legal Righteousness of the good thief on the Cross , condemned for legal unrighteousness ? Answ . I deny your minor . The converted thief had a legal righteousness hanging on the next Cross to him ; even Christ that then was made a curse for him , and was obedient to the death of the Cross . I begin to be a weary in writing so much only to tell men that you understand me not . Mr. W. 6. If legal Righteousness be thus necessarily to be joined with our Evangelical Righteousness to Justification , then there must be two formal causes of Justification . Answ . I deny your consequence . If the formal cause consist in remission and imputation as you say , then Christs meritorious righteousness is none of the Form , but the Matter . And if besides that Matter a subservient particular righteousness ( of faith ) be necessary as the condition of our Title to Christ ; this makes not two forms of this Justification . 2. And yet I grant you that it infers a subservient Justification that hath another form , when you are made a Believer , or justified against the false charge of being no Believer ( or penitent ) this is not remission of sin , but another form and thing . Mr. W. 7. That which maketh void Christs death , cannot be absolutely necessary to Justification . But legal righteousness makes void his Death , Gal. 2.21 . Answ . It s a sad case that we must be charged with making void Christs Death , for saying that he is legally Righteous , by satisfying and fulfilling the Law ; and that this is all the legal righteousness that we have . I am bold therefore to deny the Minor : yea and to reverse it on you , and tell you , that he that denyeth Christs legal Righteousness , denyeth both his death and obedience . The Text Gal. 2.21 . speaks not of the Law , as fulfilled by Christ , but by us . Righteousness comes not by our keeping the Law , but it came by Christs keeping it : yet so , that the Gospel only giveth us that righteousness of his . Mr. W. 8. That which concurs with another efficient , must have both an aptitude and Confluence to produce the effect : but the Law , and consequently Legal righteousness hath no aptitude to give life , Gal. 3.2 Answ . This is Disputing enough to make one tremble , and loath Disputing . Is there no aptitude in Christs legal Righteousness to give us life ? The Law doth not give us righteousness , but it denominateth Christ righteous for fulfilling it ( and the Law-giver for satisfying ) and to that it had a sufficient aptitude . The Text Gal. 3.2 . saith truly that the Law giveth not life : but first it speaks of the Law as obeyed by us , and not by Christ , that fulfilled it . Secondly , And indeed its speaks of Moses Law ; and not directly of that made with Adam . Thirdly , And it denies not that Christ fulfilling it may give us life , though the Law it self give us none , so that all this is besides the business . Mr. W. 9. That Doctrine which doth most exalt the Grace of God , ought to be admitted before that which doth least exalt it : But the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone , as our Gospel-righteousness doth most exalt his Grace , and the other less . Ergo. Answ . Still misunderstanding ! Doth the Doctrine of faith alone without Christ advance Grace ? That 's no faith . You do not think so : that which denyeth Christ or faith denyeth Grace . Mr. W. 10. That opinion which considereth a person under a two-fold Covenant at the same time , ought not to be admitted : But to require both Legal and Evangelical Righteousness , is to consider him under the Covenant of works and Grace : I conclude therefore that two sorts of righteousness are not necessarily required to our Justification . Answ . How far we are , or are not under the Covenant of works , I will not here trouble you by digressing , in this rambling Dispute to enquire . But to your Minor I say , this opinion considereth man only under the curse of the Law till Christ take it off him , by being made a curse for us , and making over the fruit of his merits and suffering to us . Mr. W. 2. As for the Subjects of these kinds of Righteousness , I thus declare . 1. That Jesus Christ and he alone who was truly endued with Legal righteousness , who as he was made under the Law , so he did not destroy but fulfill it ; and if he had not been the subject of Legal righteousness in himself , he could not have been the Author of Evangelical Righteousness to us . Answ . Here after all these Arguments , I have all that granted me that I contend for ( supposing the Imputation or Donation of Christs Righteousness to us , whether in se or in ●ffectis , I now dispute not . ) You have here his full confession that Christ had a legal Righteousness : Let him but grant the imputation of this , and then it s ours : And then I have granted him that it may be also called Evangelical in another respect . Mr. W. pag. 166. I think it to be no incongruity in speech , or Paradox in Divinity , to say that Christs Legal righteousness is our Evangelical righteousness , 1 Cor. 1.30 . 2 Cor. 5.21 . Jer. 23.8 . Answ . Sure we shall agree anon , for all the ten Arguments . Here 's all granted but the name as to us . Many and many a time I have said , that Christs Righteousness made ours is Legal in respect to the Law that it was a conformity to , and which it answereth for us ; but Evangelical as declared , and given by the Gospel . But the thing in question you now fully confess . Mr. W. pag. 171. That we our selves are not the subjects of Evangelical righteousness , I shall endeavour to prove by thes● Arguments . 1. If our Evangelical righteousness be out of us in Christ , then it is not in ●● , consisting in the habit or Acts of faith and Gospel obedience , but it is out of us in Christ . Answ . We shall have such another piece of work with this point as the former , to defend the truth against a man that layeth about him in the dark . 1. I have oft enough distinguisht of Evangelical righteousness . The righteousness conform to the Law , and revealed and given by the Gospel is meritoriously and materially out of us in Christ . The righteousness conform to the Gospel , as constituting the condition of life , [ He that believeth shall not perish : Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out , ] This is in our selves materially , and not out of us in Christ . Mr. W. 2. If satisfaction to Divine Justice were not given or caused by any thing in us , but by Christ alone , then Evangelical righteousness is in Christ alone . But — Ergo — without blood no remission . Answ . Your proof of the consequence is none ; but worse then silence . Besides the satisfaction of Justice and remission of sin thereby ; there is a subservient Gospel righteousness , as is proved , and is undeniable . Mr. W. 3. If Evangelical righteousness be in our selves , then perfect righteousness is in our selves . But that 's not so . Ergo. Answ . Still you play with the ambiguity of a word , and deny that which beseems you not to deny , that the fulfilling of the condition [ Believe and Live ] is a Gospel-righteousness , particular and subservient and imperfect . The Saints have an Inherent righteousness , which is not Legal : therefore it is Evangelical . If you say , it s no righteousness , you renounce the constant voice of Scripture . If you say , it is a Legal righteousness imperfect , then you set up Justification by the works of the Law , ( the unhappv fate of blind opposition , to do what they intend to undo . ) For there is no righteousness which doth not justifie or make righteous in tantum : and so you would make men justified partly by Christ , and partly by a Legal righteousness of their own by a perverse denying the subservient Evangelical righteousness , without any cause in the world , but darkness , jealousie , and humorous contentious zeal . Yea more then so , we have no worKs but what the Law would damn us for , were we judged by it . And yet will you say that faith or inherent righteousness is Legal and not Evangelical ? Mr. W. 4. If Evangelical righteousness were in ourselves , and did consist either in the habit or act of faith and new obedience , then upon the intercision of those acts , our Justification would discontinue . But , Answ . If you thought not your word must go for proof , you would never sure expect that we should believe your Consequence . For 1. What shew is there of reason that the intercision of the act should cause the cessation of that Justification which is the consequent of the Habit ( which you put in your Antecedent ? ) The Habit continueth in our sleep , when the acts do not . 2. As long as the cause continueth ( which is Christs Merits and the Gospel-Grant ) Justification will continue , if the condition be but sincerely performed ( For the Condition is not the cause , much less a Physical cause ) But the condition is sincerely performed , though we believe not in our sleep . I dare not instance in your payment of Rent , left a Carper be upon m● back ; but suppose you give a man a lease of Lands on condition he come once a moneth , or week , or day , and say , I thank you , or in general , on condition he be thankful . Doth his Title cease as oft as he shuts his lips from saying , I thank you ? These are strange Doctrines . Mr. W. 5. If Evangelical righteousness were in our selves , and faith with our Gospel obedience were that righteousness , then he who hath more or less faith or obedience were more or less justified , and more or less Evangelically righteous , according to the degrees of faith and obedience . Answ . I deny your Consequence , considering faith and repentance as the Condition of the Promise ; because it is the sincerity of Faith and Repentance that is the Condition , and not the degree : and therefore he that hath the least degree of sincere faith , hath the same title to Christ as he that hath the strongest . 2. But as faith and obedience respect the Precept of the Gospel , and not the Promise ; so it is a certain truth , that he that hath most of them , hath most Inherent Righteousness . Mr. W. 6. That opinion which derogates from the Glory and Excellency of Christ above all Graces , and from the excellency of Faith in its Office of justifying above other Graces , ought not to be admitted : But this opinion placing our Evangelical Righteousness in the habit , act , or Grace of faith and Gospel obedience derogates from both Christ and Faith. Answ . Your Minor is false , and your proof is no proof , but your word . Your similitude should have run thus . If an Act of Oblivion by the Princes purchase , do pardon all that will thankfully accept it and come in and lay down arms of Rebellion ; it is no derogating from the Prince or pardon to say , I accept it , I stand out no longer , and therefore it is mine . If you offer to heal a deadly sore on condition you be accepted for the Chyrurgion ; doth it derogate from your honour if your Patient say , I do consent and take you for my Chyrurgion , and will take your Medicines ? Your proof is as vain and null , that it derogates from faith . What , that Faith should be this subservient Righteousness ? Doth that dishonour it ? Or is it that Repentance is conjoyned as to our first Justification , and obedience as to that at Judgement ? When you prove either of these dishonourable to faith , we will believe you : but it must be a proof that is stronger then the Gospel that is against you . We confess faith to be the receiving Condition , and repentance but the disposing Condition : but both are Conditions . As for Phil. 3.9 . Do you not see that it is against you ? I profess with Paul , not to have a righteousness of my own which is of the Law , ( which made me loth to call faith and repentance a legal righteousness ) but that which is through the faith of Christ , the righteousness which is of God by faith : ] Faith you see is the means of our Title to Christs Righteousness : And if you deny faith it self to be any particular Righteousness , you must make it a sin , or indifferent , and contradict the Scriptures . And presently contradicting what you have been arguing for ( that Evangelical Righteousness is not in us , and we are not the Subjects of it : ) You profess pag. 178. That Inherent Righteousness is in us . It seems then either Inherent righteousness is not righteousness , or it is not Evangelical but Legal , or it is in us , and not in us . Had you only pleaded that we are not justified by it as a Righteousness , I should have answered you as before on that point . Not as a Legal Righteousness ; nor an Evangelical Righteousness co-ordinate with Christs ; but as a fulfilling of the Condition of that Promise , which gives us Christ , and Pardon , and Life ; by which performance of the Condition , the Benefit becomes ours by the Will and Grant of the free Donor ; and we are no longer impenitent Infidels , but just , and justifiable from the false charge of being such ; and so of not having part in Christ . It s one thing to be accused of sin as sin : And another thing to be accused of the special sin of not accepting the Remedy : and so of having no part in Christ and his Righteousness . From the later we must have a real Faith and Title to Christ , which must materially justifie us : but from the former , even from all sin that ever we are guilty of Christs Righteousness only justifieth us materially and meritoriously , and our faith is but a bare condition . A Confutation of the Error of Mr. Warners 13th Chapter about Justification , and the interest of Obedience therein . HE begins with a false Intimation , that we revive the Papists first and second Justification : and he that will believe him , may take his course for me : I crave only liberty for my self to believe that it is not all one to have Justification begun and continued ; and that Justification by the sentence of the Judge , is not of the same kind with Justification Legal by the Donation of the Gospel . If I may not have this Reverend Brothers leave to believe these matters , I will believe them without his leave . And that the Papists have such friends among us , as those that make the world believe that such things as these are Popery , I will also lament , though such Disputers give not their consent . His Endeavours to overthrow that Doctrine of mine which he nameth of [ second Justification ] begin pag. 223. where he argueth , 1. from Rom. 5. 1 ▪ 2 , 3. That the beginning and end is ascribed to faith . Answer . It s all granted : faith is it that we are justified by to the last . We are agreed of this inclusively : But the Question is , what 's the Exclusion : Not believing in Christ as Lord and Master , nor loving him ; but the works that make or are supposed to make that Reward to be of debt , and not of Grace . His second proof is from Phil. 3.7 , 8. To which I answer . We are of Pauls mind , but not of yours . 1. He counted all as loss and dung that stood in opposition to , or competition with Christ : and so would I do by faith and love it self , should they be so arrogant . 2. Paul expresly nameth the works that he excludeth , that is , the Righteousness which is of the Law , or in Legal works . And do we make any doubt of this ? No , nor of those works that materially are Evangelical : for if they are formally Evangelical they cannot be set up against Christ , their very nature being to subserve him . Once for all , remember this Argument . Those works that are commanded by God in the Gospel , are not excluded by God in the Gospel in that nature and to the use for which they are commanded . But faith in Christ Jesus the Lord and Saviour , ( an entire faith ) and Repentance towards God and love to him are commanded by God in the Gospel in order to the pardon of sin ; and the continuance of these with sincere Obedience , are commanded as means of our continued pardon , and as a means of our final Justification at Judgement . Therefore none of these are excluded by the Gospel from any of these uses or ends . He citeth also , Act. 15. and Heb. 2.9 . and Rom. 1.17 . to as much purpose as the rest . Pag. 228. He begins his Arguments . The first is [ Because in vain are additions of numbers , without which any thing may be done : But without addition of works the act of justifying is perfect , Ergo. ] Answer . 1. As if the Question were of the [ Act of justifying , ] and not of Justification passively taken . Gods act hath no imperfection , when yet it maketh not a perfect work . 2. It s but spleen and partiality to harp upon the term [ works ] still to seduce your Readers to believe that I am for such works as Paul denyeth . I use not the phrase of [ Justification by works ] nor think it fit to be used , unless rarely , or to explain such texts of Scripture as do use it , or terms equipollent . 3. Justification is neither perfect nor real , without a faith in Christ as Head and Husband , and Lord , and Teacher , and Intercessor , as well as a Sacrifice for sin . Nor is it perfect or true , without repenting and loving Christ . 4. Justification is so far perfect at first , as that no sin past or existent is unpardoned . But it is not so perfect , but that , 1. Many future sins must have renewed pardon . 2. And means is to be used by us , ( believing again at least ) for that end . 3. And the continuance of pardon is given us but conditionally , ( though we shall certainly perform the condition . ) 4. And the most perfect sort of Justification ( by sentence at Judgement ) is still behind . Are these things doubtfull among Divines or Christians ? That the Church must be thus molested by such disputing volumes against it , to make the Papists and other enemies believe we hold I know not what ? Read the many Arguments of learned Sandford and Parker de Descensu , and Bp. Vsher de Descensu ( to the Jesuite ) by which they prove that all separated souls , as separated , are under penalty , and that Christs soul as seperated was so : and then tell us whether your fancy of absolutely perfect Justification at the first will hold or not . I wonder that men should so little know the difference betwixt Earth and Heaven ; a sinner in flesh , and a Saint that is equal to the Angels of God ? and should dream of such perfection short of heaven , the place of our perfection ? His second Argument is , [ Faith and works are here contrary : If of Faith , then not of works ] Answer . It s true of the works that Paul excludes : but not of the works that you exclude : For Faith in Christ is [ Works ] with such as you , save only that act that resteth on his satisfaction for righteousness : And repentance and love to Christ , and denying our own righteousness , are works with you . And all these are necessarily subservient to Christ and Grace , and therefore not contrary . Augustine , and after him the School-men , put it into their most common definition of Grace , that its a thing [ qua nemo male utitur . ] And as to efficiency it s certainly true : Grace doth not do any harm : And if I may presume to tell Augustine that [ objectively ] Grace may be ill used , yet perhaps he might reply , [ not qua talis , without contradiction ] In good sadness , Is it not a strange thing for a man in his wits , to expect to be justified in co-ordination with Christs merits , by denying that he hath any merits of his own that can so justifie him , and by repenting of those sins that have condemned him , and by desiring , loving , hoping in Christ alone for his Justification : or by Thankfulness to God for justifying him by the sole merits of Christ ? And is it not a strange Exposition that feigneth Paul to mean and exclude such acts as these under the name of works . But yet really if such a man be to be found , that doth think to merit Justification by denying such merit , I am against him as well as you . His third Argument is , [ If faith justifie only as the beginning of our Justification then there are degrees of Justification : but there are no degrees . Ergo. ] Answer . 1. Faith is neither the Beginning nor End of Justification , but a means of it . 2. If you would insinuate that I deny faith to be the means of our continued , as well as begun Justification , you deal deceitfully . 3. I deny your Consequence . It may prove more necessary to the Continuance of our Justification , then to its beginning , and yet prove no degrees . 4. But how Justification hath or hath not Degrees , I have told you before ; and fuller in other writings . His fourth Argument is , [ Because good works do not precede , but follow Justification . ] Answer . 1. Repentance , and the Love of God in Christ , and faith in Christ as Lord , and Head , and Teacher , do go before the pardon of sin , and so before Justification . 2. External obedience goeth before Justification at Judgement and Justification as continued here . Did you doubt of these ? His fifth Argument is , that [ These two Justifications overthrow each other : If by one we have peace with God , what need the other ? How can good works perfect our Justification , being themselves imperfect ? ] Answer . All this is answered in the second Disputation . 1. It s no contradiction to be justified by God , by Christ , by Faith , by Words , by Works , if God be to be believed , that affirmeth all . 2. As imperfect faith may be the condition of pardon , so may imperfect Repentance , and imperfect Obedience of our sentential Absolution . Pag. 233. He answereth the Objection . [ Blessedness is ascribed to other Graces , ] thus [ Not as if Happiness were in them , per se , but only as they are signs . ] Answer . Promising is more then Ascrbing : It s a great advantage for you to have the forming of your Objections . 2. Happiness per se is as much in Love , as in Faith , and more . 3. Other , Graces are media , means , which is more then only works . Pag. 241. He proves that works justifie not subordinate to Faith ] thus [ Argument 1. No good works were found till faith had done its Works ] Answer . 1. Faith hath not done its work till death ; we are not justified only by the first act of faith : but by after-acts to the Death . 2. Faith in Christ as Head , and Lord , and Teacher , and Desire and Repentance were found before Faith had justified us . 3. Obedience is found before the sentential Justification , or the continuation of our first received Righteousness . His second Argument is , [ Because good works are the effects of Faith and Justification , and therefore cannot be the cause . ] Answer 1. They are none of the cause at all . It s not well to intimate that we hold them the cause , as in despight of all our own denyals . 2. They are not so much as Means or Antecedents of that part of Justification , of which they are the effect . The act of faith which you will exercise before your death , is as true a condition ( or Instrument , if you will needs call it so ) of your Justification as continued , as your first act of faith was of your Justification as begun . And yet that act of faith is but fruit of your first Justification , as well as Obedience is . His third Argument is , that [ If Gospel Obedience , and good works do subordinately act with faith to the effecting of Justification , then the Justification which proceedeth from both , must be of a different kind and nature . ] Answer 1. Neither faith nor work effect Justification . 2. Justification by Promise and Gift , and Justification by Sentence , Plea , &c. are much different . 3. But your consequence is nothing worth . For these are not causes , but conditions . And if they were , yet different causes may concur to the same effect , which never man before you denyed , that I know of . Our case is , as if to a Rebell that hath forfeited Life and Estate , the King ( upon a Ransom ) grant him both , on condition that he thankfully accept them as the fruits of that gift and Ransom , and to hold them on condition , that he often do his Homage to the King , and return not to Rebellion . Doth the first acceptance here serve turn for continuance of what is first received , without the following Homage and Fidelity ? or do the different parts of the condition make such a difference in the benefit , as you here take the [ Monstrous Justification ] to be ( as you rashly call it ? ) Another Argument is . [ If faith be a total cause or condition of producing the effect of Justification , then there 's no want of obedience for its assistance . ] Answer 1. Faith or obedience are no causes of pardon . 2. I will not trouble the Reader to open the shame of that Philosophy which you make such ostentation of . Only I would remember you , that causes total in suo genere , may have others under them . And that it followeth not , that the sun shineth not , or the fire heateth not , or that you understand not , and wrote not these words , though I suppose you will say that God is Causa totalis of all these act : nor yet that God doth use his creatures because of an insufficiency in himself . 3. Faith taken for our [ becoming Believers , Disciples , Christians ] is the total condition of our first Receiving Justification . 2. Faith taken more narrowly for our accepting Christs Righteousness , is not the total Condition of our first Receiving of Justification . 3. Obedience is part of the condition of the continuance of it , and of our sentential Justification . And whereas you talk over and over of [ Total causes , and particular causes . ] I tell you again they are no causes . He adds that then [ Obedience doth nihil agere , or actum agere . ] Answer . It doth nihil efficere . But besides , [ nihil ] and [ factum ] there 's two things oft mentioned , Justification at Judgement , and the non-amission of it here . 3. He insipidly gain disputes that [ If an effect doth totally proceed from any cause , then it totally depends on it . ] And what then ? Therefore it solely dependeth on it : And if these things were true , what are they to our question ? But saith he , [ When good works , the fruit of faith are interrupted , yet our Justification abides by the single influence of faith only as a total cause of its being and conservation . ] Answer . 1. Alas ! What would such Disputants do with the Church , if Gods mercy did not hinder them ! By your own Argument now , neither God , nor Christ , nor the Gospel are any causes of our Justification . For you say Faith is a Total cause , and there can be but one Total Cause , unless you lose the honor of your Philosophy . 2. Faith is no proper cause at all . 3. Did you not see what must needs be answered you . That Faith is interrupted as well as Obedience , and yet no intercision of our Justification . When we sleep we do not ( at least alway ) act faith no more then obedience ( if so much . ) And the habit of both continueth together sleeping and waking : And if you should give over love and sincerity of obedience , you would cease to be justified . His last Argument is , [ Because for sins after Conversion , we must have recourse only by faith to Christ , as our Advocate . ] Answer . 1. That speaks only of renewed pardon for particular sins , but not of our Justification at Judgement , nor the non-omission here . 2. We must have recourse to Christ with Repentance , and esteem , and self-denial , and desire , &c. as well as that act of faith which you plead for , as the total cause . And when you would set Zanchy against Zanchy , you do but mis-understand him . He saith truly with Paul , that neither in whole or part are our own works ( such as Paul speaks of ) our Righteousness , that is , to answer the Law as Paul mentioneth , or any way to merit or satisfie , or stand in co-ordination with Christ . But Zanchy never thought that Repentance and Faith in Christ as Head , and Lord , and Desire and Gratitude , &c. might be no means or Conditions of any sort of Justification , or of that which we assert them to be means of . I would answer much more of this Disputation ; but I am perswaded the judicious Reader will think I have done him wrong , in troubling him with this much . See pag. 298 , 299. how he answereth the Objection , that pardon is promised to Repentance , &c. I will not disparage the Readers understanding so much as to offer him a Confutation of that , and much more of the Book . Only his many Arguments on the Question of my first Disputation , I must crave your Patience , while I examine briefly , and I will tire you with no more . Mr. W. pag. 411 , 412. I will rally up my Arguments against the foresaid Definition of Faith to be an accepting of Christ as Lord and Saviour : proving that Christ only as Saviour and Priest , offering himself up to the death of the Cross for our sins , is the proper Object of justifying Faith , as justifying . Argument 1. If the Faith of the Fathers under the old Testament was directed to Christ as dying Priest and Saviour ; then also the Faith of Believers now ought so to be directed . But. — Ergo. — Answ . 1. I grant the whole , and never made question of it . But what kin is the conclusion of this Argument to that which you had to prove , unless [ Only ] had been added . Did we ever deny that Faith must be directed to Christ as Priest ? 2. A Saviour is a term respecting our whole Salvation , and so Christ saveth by Teaching , Ruling , and judicial justifying as well as dying . 3. The Fathers faith did not respect Christ as dying or satisfying only , which you should prove but cannot . Mr. W. Argument 2. If Christ as dying , and as Saviour do satisfie Gods Justice , and pacifie a sinners conscience , then as dying and Saviour he is the Object of justifying Faith. But — Ergo. — Answ . The same answer serveth to this as to the last . The conclusion is granted , but nothing to the Question , unless [ Only ] had been in . 2. Christ as obeying actively , and Christ as Rising , and as interceding , and as judging , as King , doth also justifie us , Rom. 5.19 . Rom. 4 24 , 25. Rom. 8.33.34 . Mat. 12.37 . and 25.34 , 40. Peruse these Texts impartially , and be ignorant of this if you can . 3. And yet the Argument will not hold , that no act of faith is the condition of Justification , but those whose object is considered only as justifying . The accepting of Christ to sanctifie us , is a real part of the condition of Justification . Mr. W. Argument 3. If Christ as Lord be properly the Object of fear , then he is not properly the Object of Faith as justifying : But — Ergo. — Answ . 1. If [ Properly ] be spoken de proprio quarto modo , then is Christ properly the Object of neither , that is , he is not the object of either of these Only . 2. But if [ properly ] be opposed to a tropical , analogical , or any such improper speech , then he is the Object as Lord , both of fear , and faith , and obedience , &c. 3. The deceit that still misleads most men in this point , is in the terms of reduplication , [ faith as justifying , ] which men that look not through the bark , do swallow without sufficient chewing , and so wrong themselves and others by meer words . Once more therefore understand , that when men distinguish between fides quae justificans , and qua justificans , and say , [ Faith which justifieth , accepteth Christ as Head and Lord ; but faith as justifying , taketh him only as a Priest . ] The very distinction in the later branch of it , [ qua justificans . ] Is 1. Either palpable false Doctrine . 2. And a meer begging of the Question . 3. Or else co-incident with the other branch , and so contradictory to their assertion . For 1. The common Intent and meaning is , that [ Fides quae credit in Christum justificat : And so they suppose that Faith is to be denominated formally [ justificans ] ab objecto qua objectum : And if this be true , then fides qua fides justificat : For the object is essential to faith in specie . And so in their sense , [ fides quae justificans ] is but the implication of this false Doctrine , that haec fides in Christum crucifixum qua talis justificat . Which I never yet met with sober Divine that would own when he saw it opened . For the nature and essence of faith , is but its aptitude to the office of justifying , and it is the Covenant or free Gift of God in modo promittendi , that assigneth it its office . The nature of faith is but the Dispositio materiae ; but it s nearest interest in the effect is as a condition of the Promise performed . 2. But if by the [ quâ justificans ] any should intend no more then to define the nature materially of that faith which is the condition of Justification , then the qua and the qua is all one : and then they contradict their own Assertion , that [ fides quâ justificans non recipit Christum ut Dominum . ] 3. If the [ quâ ] should relate to the effect , then it would only express a distinction between Justification and other Benefits , and not between faith and faith . For then [ quâ justistcans ] should be contradistinct only from [ qua sanctificans ] or the like . And if so , it is one and the same Faith and the same acts of faith , that sanctifie and justifie . As if a King put into a gracious act , to a company of Rebels , that they shall be pardoned , honoured , enriched , and all upon condition of their thankfull acceptance of him , and of this act of Grace : Here there is no room to distinguish of their Acceptance , as if the acceptance of pardon were the condition of pardon , and the acceptance of riches were the condition of their Riches , &c. But it is the same acceptance of their Prince and his Act of Grace , that hath relation to the several consequent benefits , & may be called pardoning , honouring & enriching in several respects . It is the same marriage of a Prince that makes a woman rich , honourable , &c. So it is the same faith in whole Christ , as Christ , that is sanctifying and justifying , as it relateth to the several Benefits : that is , it is the condition of both , so that their [ quâ justifi●ans ] doth either intimate this untruth , that haec fides quae talis , id est , qua fides in Christum crucifixum justificat ] ( which is true , neither of one act , nor other , ) and so begs the Question , or else it saith nothing . So that I shall never admit this quae justificans , without an Exposition ; and better then yet I have seen from any that use it . Mr. W. Argument 4. That which is the sum and substance of Evangelical preaching , is the object of Justifying Faith. But Christ as crucified , is the substance of Evangelical preaching . Ergo. Answ . 1. When I come to look for the conclusion which excluded Christ as Lord , Teacher , &c. from being the object , I can find no such thing in any Argument that yet I see . They have the same fate as Mr. Blakes Arguments had , to conclude no more then what I grant , that is , that Christ as crucified , is the object of justifying faith . But where 's the [ Only , ] or any exclusive of the rest . 2. But if it be implyed , then 1. I say of the term crucified , that Christ crucified to purchase sanctification and salvation , is the object of that faith which is the condition of Justification , and not only Christ crucified to procure Justification . 2. I deny the Minor , if by [ sum and substance ] you exclude Christ as Lord , Teacher , Judge ▪ Head , &c. Surely Evangelical preaching containeth Christs Resurrection , Lord-ship , Intercession , &c. as well as his death , or else the Apostles preached not the Gospel . This needs no proof with them that have read the Bible . Mr. W. Argum. 5. That which we should desire to know above all things , is that Object of justifying faith : But that is Christ crucified . — Ergo. Answ . 1. Still the Question wanting in the conclusion : Who denyeth that Christ crucified is the object of justifying faith ? 2. But if [ only ] be here understood , really doth not this Brother desire to know Christ obeying , Christ risen , Christ teaching , ruling , interceding , & c ? I do . Mr. W. Argument 6. That in Christ is the object of faith , as justifying which being apprehended doth justifie us : But the death , suffering , blood , obedience of Christ to death is that . — Therefore it is the proper object of faith , as justifying . Answ . 1. I distinguish of the term [ as justifying ] and answer as before . No act of Faith effecteth our Justification : and whole faith is the condition : The being or Nature of no act is the formal or nearest reason of faiths Interest in Justification It justifieth not [ as this act , nor as that . ] 2. If [ only ] or some exclusive be not implyed in the conclusion , I grant it still : But if it be , then both Major and Minor are false . 1. The Major is false , for it is not only the matter of our Justification , that is the object of justifying faith . To affirm this , is but to beg the question : we expect your proof . 2. The Minor is false : for besides the sufferings mentioned , the very person of Christ , and the active obedience of Christ , and the Title to pardon given us in the Gospel , &c. apprehended by faith do justifie . But the question is not what justifieth ex parts Christi , but ex parte nostri . Mr. W. Argument 7. That which the Gospel doth first present us with , is the Object of faith as justifying : But Christ is in the Gospel first presented as a Saviour : therefore he is therein the object of faith as justifying . Answ . 1. Distinguishing as before of the [ as justifying ] I still grant the whole ; the exclusive and so the question is still wanting in the conclusion . 2. But if he mean only , then both Maior and Minor are false . The Maior is false ; for that which the Gospel doth first present us with , is but part of the object of justifying Faith. For it presenteth us with the Articles to which we must Assent , and to the Good which we must Accept by degrees , and not all in a sentence or word . The Minor is false , because in order of nature , the Description of Christs Person goeth first , and of his Office afterward . 3. The word Saviour , comprehendeth both his Prophetical and Kingly Office , by which he saveth us from sin and Hell ; as also his Resurrection , Ascention , Intercession , &c. And in this large sense I easily grant the Conclusion . 4. If by a Saviour , he mean only ( as his cause importeth ) a sacrifice for sin , then ( as this is a strangely limited sense of the word Saviour , so ) certainly the Incarnation , Baptism , Temptation , Miracles , Obedience of Christ are all exprest before this ; And if it were otherwise , yet the consequence of the Maior is utterly groundless and vain . Priority or Posteriority of any point delivered in the Gospel , is a poor Argument to prove it the Object ( much less it alone ) of justifying faith . Mr. W. Argument 8. That which the Lords Supper doth as a seal present to justifying faith , that is the object of faith as justifying : But the Lords Supper doth present us with Christ as dying . — Ego . Answ . 1. Still the question is wanting in the conclusion . What a pack of Arguments are here ? 2. Do you believe in your conscience , that Christ is presented and represented in the Supper only as dying ? Mr. W. Argument 9. If we have Redemption and remission of sins through faith in his blood , then faith as justifying should only look upon that : But we have redemption and remission of sins by his blood , Col. 1. Answ . Here 's one Argument that hath the question in the conclusion . But 1. I deny the consequence of the Major , as not by Christians to be endured . The [ only ] followeth not . Though we must be justified by his blood , I have proved before , that we are also justified by his Resurrection , Obedience , Intercession , Judgement , &c. 2. Moreover the consequence is false on another account : Justifying faith , that is , Faith the condition of Justification , must look at more in Christ , then that which purchaseth Redemption . It justifieth not efficiently , nor of its own nature , but the Promise justifieth without faiths co-efficiency ; only it makes the condition sine qua non : and this it may do by another Act of faith , as well as that which apprehendeth the Ransom . 3. The [ qua justificans ] I have spoke to : Qua cannot here properly refer to the nature of the faith , but to the Benefit . And so faith qua justificans , is neither this act , nor that act , nor any act ; but [ qua justificans ] noteth only its respect to Justification rather then to Sanctification , or other benefits . As when I kindle a fire , I thereby occasion both Light and Heat , by putting to the fewel . And if you speak of that act of mine [ qua calefaciens : or qua illuminans ] this doth not distinguish of the nature of the act , but of the Respect that the same Act hath to several effects or consequents . Mr. W. Argument 10. If Christ only as crucified be the Meritorious Cause of our Redemption and Justification , then Christ crucified is the only object of faith as Justifying . But — Ergo. Answ . 1. The consequence of the Major is vain and an proved . More then the Meritorious Cause of our Redemption is the object of justifying faith . 2. The Minor is no small errour in the Judgement of most Protestants , who maintain that Christs active Obedience , and suffering life , are also the Meritorious cause of our Justification , and not only his Crucifixion . Mr. W. Argument 11. If Christ as a servant did satisfie Gods Justice , then he is so to be believed on to Justification . But as a servant he did satisfie Gods Justice . — Ergo. Answ . 1. I grant the conclusion . Christ as a servant is to be believed in . 2. But if [ only ] was again forgotten , I further answer . 1. I deny the consequence of the Major , because Christ is to be believed on for Justification in other respects , even in all essential to his Office , and not only as satisfying . I instanced before in Obeying , Rising , Judging , from express Scripture . 2. If the conclusion were granted , it s against you and not for you . For 1. Active obedience is as proper to a servant as suffering . 2. Christ Taught the Church as a servant to his Father , and is expresly called A Minister of the Circumcision . So that these you yield the objects of this faith . Mr. W. Argument 12. If none can call Christ [ Lord ] before he be justified by faith , then faith as justifying is not an Accepting him as Lord. The Minor is true , because none can call him Lord , but by the Spirit : and the Spirit is received by the hearing of faith , after we believe . Answ . Any thing must serve . 1. Both Major and Minor are such as are not to be swallowed in the lump . If by [ Call ] you mean the call of the voyce , then the consequence of the Major is vain and groundless . For a man may believe in Christ with the heart as Lord and Saviour , before he call him so with the mouth . But if by [ Call ] you mean [ Believe ] then the Minor is false & so confessed by all Protestants and Christians that ever I heard from of this point , till now : For they all confess that faith in Christ as Lord and Teacher , and Head , &c. is the fides quae justificat , or is of necessity to be present with the believing in his blood , that a man may be justified . Never did I hear till now that we first believe in Christ as dying only , and so are justified before we believe in him as Lord , ( and it seems before we are his Subjects or Disciples , and that is , before we are Christians . ) 2. To your proof of the Minor I answer , 1. It is no proof because the Text saith only that , [ No man can call him Lord but by the Spirit ] but our question is of Believing , and not of Calling which is Confessing . 2. Many Expositors take it but for a common gift of the Spirit that 's there spoken of : and do you think Justification must needs precede such common gifts ? 3. But if it had been [ Believe in stead of Call ] it s nothing for you : For I easily grant that no man can believe in Christ as Lord but by the Spirit : but I deny that this gift of the Spirit is never received , till after that we believe and are justified . And because it seems you judge that Believing in Christ to Justification is without the Spirit , I pray answer first what we have said against the Arminians , and Augustine against the Pelagians , for the contrary . Who would have thought that you had held such a point ? 4. How could you wink so hard as not to see that your Argument is as much against your self as me , if you do but turn it thus ? [ If none can call Christ Jesus , or the Saviour , or believe in him to Justification , before he be justified by faith , then faith as justifying is not the accepting him as a Saviour : The Minor is proved , because none can call him Jesus , or believe to Justification but by the Spirit ] This is as wise and strong an Argument as the other , and all one . See 1 Iob. 4.15 . & 5.5 . Believing in Christ as Saviour is as much of the Spirit , is believing in him as Lord. 5. The Text makes against you ( 1 Cor 12.3 . ) For there when Paul would denominate the true Christian faith or Confession , he maketh Christ as Lord the Object . Mr. W. Argument 13. If the promise of Salvation be the proper object of justifying faith , then not the commands of Christ as Lord and Law-giver . But — Ergo Answ . 1. The conclusion is nothing to our Question , which is not of Commands , but of Christ as Lord. It may be you know no difference between the Relation and subsequent Duties , between the Authority and the Command , between subjection and obedience . 2. The Minor is false , If by proper , you mean Only ( and if not , the consequence is vain and null . ) For the Person of Christ , and his Office , and the fruits of his Office , even Pardon , yea and Glory , are the true Objects of justifying Faith. Mr. W. Argument 14. If we are not justified both by Righteousness Inherent and Imputed , then not by obeying Christ as Lord and Law-giver . But — Ergo. Answ . What 's this to the Question ? 1. About Justification by Righteousness Imputed or Inherent we spoke before . 2. The conclusion never was acquainted with our Question ? Again it seems you cannot or will not distinguish between Relative subjection and actual obedience . A man may become your servant and so have the Priviledges of a servant , by covenant , before he obey you . A woman in Marriage may subject her self to you , and have Interest in your estate even by that Marriage which promiseth subjection as well as Love ( without excluding the first from being any condition of her Interest ; ) and all this before she obey you , 3. Your consequence would follow as much against your self as me . For Believing in Christ as a Ransom , is as truly a particular Inherent Righteousness , as believing in him as Lord. 4. We are justified by Righteousness Inherent as a particular righteousness , though not as a Universal : as subordinate to Christs Righteousness that it may be ours , though not in co-ordination with it . Mr. W. Argument 15. If our accepting of Christ as Lord and Law-giver be not properly or formally faith , nor properly to be called obedience , then we are not formally justified by faith in him as Lord , nor by our obedience to him as Lord. But such an accepting of him is not properly ▪ or in the account of God , or in it self Faith or obedience . Ergo. — The Minor I prove : if purposes , intentions , or verbal professions to believe or obey are not properly faith obedience , then such an accepting is not faith or obedience . The Minor proved . That which is or may be found in Hypocrites or Reprobates is not true faith or obedience . Bu — Ergo. Answ . The Lord pardon the hardness of my heart that hath no more compassionate sense of the miseries of that poor Church , and the dishonour of God which such Disputes as this proclaim ; by Arguments as fit to be answered by Tears as by words . 1. A little before he was proving ( Argument 12. ) that none could call Christ Lord but by the Spirit , and therefore this act was after Justification : And now he proveth that its common to Hypocrites , & Reprobates . 2. Here he delivereth me from all the trouble and fallacy that the distinction of fides quae Justificat and fides qua Justificat , hath been guilty of . For if the act that we dispute about , be no faith at all , then it is not the fides quae . And yet he often is upon the Qua Justificans himself , forgetting this . 3. Had I but delivered such a Doctrine as this , what should I have heard ? Justifying faith hath three Parts , ASSENT , CONSENT , and AFFIANCE , ( which also have several acts or parts , according to the divers essential parts of the Object . ) ASSENT is but Initial and introductory to the rest , as all acts of the Intellect are to those of the Will. CONSENT is the same which we here call ACCEPTING , which is but the meer VOLITION denominated from its respect to the offer and thing offered . This , as it is in the will , the commanding Faculty , so is it as it were the Heart of Faith ; the first act being but to lead in this , and AFFIANCE the third , being commanded much by this , or depending on it : For as it is seated in the Affections , so far it is distinct from this Velle or CONSENT . Now when ever we name Faith by any one of these three acts ( as the Scripture doth from every one ) we include them all , though to avoid tediousness we stand not to name all the parts , when ever by one word we express the whole . And all these Acts have whole Christ in all the essentials of his Person and office for their object . Now that this faith in Christ as Lord , or accepting him , should be said , and that by a Christian Divine , and that in the Reformed Church , to be no faith at all , ( to say nothing of his denying it to be obedience ; ) is no matter of honour or comfort to us . How oft doth the Scripture expresly mention faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ? Receiving Christ Jesus the Lord , Col 2.6 . with other equipollent terms . But I will not offer to trouble any Christian Reader with Arguments for such a Truth . 4. But yet the man would be thought to have Reason for what he saith ; and to his proof I further answer . 1. Purposes , Intentions , and verbal Professions were none of the terms or things in question : but Accepting or Believing in Christ as Lord , Teacher , &c. These are but concomitants ( the two first ) and ( the last ) a consequent . 2. Is it the Act [ Accepting ] that this Brother disputeth against , or is it the Object [ Christ as Lord ] as being none of the faith by which we are justified ? If it be the former , 1. What Agreement then hath this Argument with all the rest , or with his question ? 2. What Agreement hath his Judgement with the holy Scripture , that calleth Faith a Receiving of Christ , and maketh it equipollent with [ Believing in his Name ] John 1.11.12 . Col. 2.6 . 3. What Agreement hath his Judgement with the Protestant Faith , that maketh Christ himself as Good to be the Object of faith ; to be embraced , or chosen , or accepted by the will , as well as the word as True , to be Assented to by the understanding . But if it be the Object that he meaneth , then what force or sense is there in his Argument , from the terms , [ Purposing , Intending , Confessing ? ] Let him name what Act he please , so it respect this Object ; and if it be an Act of faith indeed , it s all one as to our present Controversie . If he take Consent , willing , or Accepting of Christ to be no act of Faith , let him name any other that he will own ( for I would quarrel as little as may be about words , or impertinent things , ) and let that be it . 4. And how could he choose but see , that his Argument is as much against [ Accepting Christ as Priest ] as against [ Accepting him as Lord ] to Justification ? No doubt but a man that had the common Reason to write but such a book as this , must needs see this if he regard what he said . And therefore I must take it for granted that his Argument is against both alike : even to prove that Accepting of Christ as Lord , or as Saviour , is no faith or obedience at all . But the Reader will hardly believe till he weigheth it , that a waking man would reason thus upon such a Question as this in hand . 5. Consenting that Christ shall be my Lord and Teacher , and Head , doth imply a consent , and so a Purpose of future obeying , learning and receiving from him ; And so consenting that Christ shall be my Righteousness , Intercessor , and Justifier , doth imply a Purpose of Trusting in him for the future . And yet this consent in both cases is Justifying faith . 6. And its dolefull Doctrine ( were he a true Prophet ) to all Gods Church , that Purposes and Intentions to believe and obey , are no more then may be found in Hypocrites or Reprobates . For though there are superficial uneffectual purposes and Intentions in them , as there is an uneffectual faith in them ; yet if no Purposes and Intentions will prove men Saints , then nothing in this world will prove them Saints ; For the Evidences of Grace are more certain to him that hath them , in the Heart then in the outward Actions . And in the Heart , the very new Creature lyeth much in these two . Desires themselves will prove true Grace : Much more when they rise to setled Purposes . Why else did Barnabas exhort the young beginners ▪ that [ with purpose of Heart they should cleave unto the Lord ] as intimating that their stability lay in this ; And Intentions are the very Heart of the New man. For Intention is that act that is exercised about the End , which is God himself . Intendere finem , is no more then Velle vel Amare Deum ; It is the Love of God above all . And if this be common to Hypocrites and Reprobates , what a case are we in then ? I hope I have given you a sufficient account of the Impertinency and vanity of Mr. Warners fifteen Arguments . To which he adjoyneth a rabble of the words of Socinians , Arminians , and I know not who , to assure you that we his new Adversaries , do joyn with that company and plead their cause : And he that will believe him , shall no further be disturbed by me in his belief . I doubt I have wearied the Reader already , and therefore I shall only add a few words about a few more of the most considerable passages in his Book . Some other of Mr. Warners passages of most importance considered . Pag. 385. MR. W. saith [ It 's worth the observing how to evade the Distinction of the Acts of faith , he saith that faith is one act in a moral sense , as Taking a man to be my Prince , Teacher , Physitian , &c. and not in a physical sence ; for so it is many acts , &c. ] And he confuteth me thus : [ Here , Reader , see the wit or forgetfulness of the man , who to maintain his own ground , doth often consider faith as Physically seated in the understanding and will ; but when we assault him , will not allow us , any Physical , but a moral Acception of it . ] Answer A most gross untruth ! ( and that 's an Arguing that Faith needeth not ) Your forgery is not only without ground , and contrary to my plain and frequent words , but contrary to the express words that you draw your Observation from . I say faith Physically taken , is many acts ; but morally taken it is one work : Hence you call out to the Reader to observe , that I will not allow you any Physical but a Moral Acception of it . ] Is it fit to Dispute with such dealing as this ? Do you think that I or any man of brains doth doubt whether faith be a Physical Act ( except them of late that take it to be but a Passion and a Nominal action ? ) Surely all know that it is an Act in order of Nature , before it is a moral act . Actus moralis , is first actus Physicus . Though Moraliter actus , i. e. actus Reputativus , may be but a non-acting Physically : He that wilfully famisheth his own child , doth kill him morally or reputatively , and so is moraliter agens , that is , Reputative . But he that cherisheth him is an Agent natural and moral , that is , Ethical or Vertuous . I wonder what made you think me of such an opinion that I have so much wrote against ? He next saith , that [ Though by one moral act we receive divers benefits , yet we receive them to divers purposes . ] Answer , True ! But many such passages of yours are to no purpose ; and such is this : impertinent to the business . Page 391. He comes to my Distinction , where I say , that ex parte Christi he satisfieth Justice as a Ransom , and Teacheth us as our Master , and Ruleth us as our King , yet ex parte nostri , it is but one and the same entire faith that is the condition of our Title to his several benefits : From hence he ingeniously gathereth that I say , [ That faith hath but one respect to those benefits , and is not diversified by several acts ; and deny the necessity of these distinct acts in reference to the several benefits of Christ . ] Whereas I only maintained , that though the acts be Physically distinct , yet they are not distinct conditions of our Interest in the benefits , but the same entire faith is the one condition of them all . Hereupon he learnedly addresseth himself to prove that faith hath several acts . And he that thinketh it worth his time to transcribe and confute his Arguments , let him do it , for I do not . Page 401. He thinks [ We need not dispute whether the Reception of Christ by faith , be moral or Physical : however it is not an improper , but proper reception . ] Answ . 1. It seems then we need not dispute whether Christs body be every where , and whether mans faith do touch him and receive him naturally as the mouth doth the meat ? 2. And whereas Recipere , in its first and proper signification was wont to be pati , now it is agere : And whereas consent or Acceptance was wont to be called Receiving but Metonymically , now it is becoma a proper Reception . Page 303.304 . Reasoning against me , he saith , [ The nearest formal Reason of a Believers Interest , is not Gods making it a condition , which is the remote reason thereof , but a Believers fulfilling the condition , &c. ] Answ . 1. Here he changeth the question , from [ What is the nearest reason of saiths Interest ] to [ What is the nearest reason of the Believers Interest . ] To the first I say , [ Its being made the condition of the Promise . ] To the second I say , [ The Promise or grant it self . ] 2. He findeth a learned Confutation for me , viz. That it is not Gods making , but the fulfilling the condition that is the formal Reason . Answ . Performance , that is , Believing maketh faith to be faith , and exist : but the Promise makes that the condition . I spoke de esse , and he de existere : And yet I usually say , that [ The nearest Reason of faiths interest in Justification , i● , as it is the condition of the Promises fulfilled ] that I might joyn both . 3. Note that in this his Assertion he granteth me the sum of all that I desire . For if this be true , then it is not the Nature or the Instrumentality of faith that is the nearest reason , as is usually said . Page 200. He doth as solemnly call his Adversarie ad partes , as if he were in good sadness to tell him what is the causality of works is Justification : And falling to his enumeration , he tells us that [ The particle A or Ab notes the peculiar causality of the efficient : the particle Ex notes the material cause : the particle P●r or By , the formal cause : the particle Propter , the final cause . ] Answ . I must erave pardon of the Reader while I suppose all this to be currant , that I may answer ad homin●m . And then 1. It seems faith is not the efficient cause , and therefore not the Instrumental cause : For A or ab is not affixed to it , in this business . 2. It seems then that faith is the formal cause of Justification , because we are said to be Justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.22 , 25 , 30 , & passim [ By Faith ] So that faith is come to higher promotion then to be an Instrumental efficient cause . 3. Hence it seems also that faith , even the same faith is [ the material cause ] too : For most certainly we are said to be justified ex fide : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Rom. 3.26 , 30. Rom. 5.1 Gal. 2.16 . & 3.8 , 7 , 5 , 9 , 22 , 24. & 5.5 . Jam. 2.24 Whether ex fide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do indeed express an Instrumental efficient , I leave to consideration : But sure I am it fitly expresseth the Interest of a condition . And if Mr. W. will needs advance faith hereby to be the matter of our Righteousness , it must be but of our subordinate particular Evangelical righteousness , which consisteth in fulfilling the condition of Justification . Chap. 5. pag. 29.30 , 31. He spends a Chapter to open to us the meaning of [ fides qua Justificat . ] And prosesseth that it is the Carad controversia ; yea it was the remembrance of this distinction and the light he received by it that induced him to enter on this Discourse ; and that it is the basis of his following exercitation . And what think you is the happy Light that deserveth all this ostentation ? Why 1. On the Negative we are satisfied that he means not [ What fides qua fides can do : ] And then we are secure that he means nothing that can hurt his Adversaries cause . 2. The Light then is all but this [ That qua here is not taken Reduplicative , but specificative , when by the particle qua or quatenus , there is some new or singular kind of Denomination added to the subject of the Proposition : as when we say , man as a reasonable creature feeleth : In this latter sence ( saith he ) I believe the particle qua or quatenus is taken , when we do not say , faith as faith , but faith as Justifying , viz. as a Grace designed to this act or operation of Justifying , looks on Christ as Saviour . ] Answ . This Chapter was worth the observing . For if this be the Basis of all the Exercitation , and the Light that Generated all the rest , the dispatch of this may serve for all . It seems by his words he had look't into Reebe's Distinctions in the end of Castaneus , and meeing with Reduplicative and specificative , admired the distinction as some rare Discovery : and this pregnant fruitful Distinction begot a Volume , before it was half understood it self . Had he but read the large Schemes for explaining Qua or Quatenus in others , its like it would have either begot a larger Volume , or by informing or confounding him , have prevented this . First , he disowneth the Reduplicative sence ; and then owneth the specificative . But 1. He seeth not , it seems , the insufficiency of this distinction ; 2. Nor the meaning of it ; 3. Nor could well apply it to the subject in hand . Of the first I shall speak anon . The second appeareth by his Description , his Instance , and his Application . He describeth it to be [ When there is some new or singular kind of Denomination added to the subject of the Proposition . ] 1. And why may it not be added also to the Predicate , as well as it may Reduplicatively ? as Motus est actus mobilis quatenus est mobile . 2. There are many new kinds of Denominations that will not serve for your specificative Quatenus . The instance you give is , [ as when we say man as a Reasonable creature faileth ] . This was but an unhappy Translation of [ Homo quatenus animal est sensibilis ] and it s true in the Latine ▪ how false soever in the English . For the Application , 1. You say [ you [ Believe ] its thus taken . As if you did but Believe , and not know your own meaning in the Basis of your Exercitation . 2. Your Specificative Quatenus is Causal , or signifieth the Reason of the thing , either of the Predication or the thing predicate : But so cannot your Basis hold good . For faith doth not look on Christ as a Saviour ( as you please Metaphorically to speak ) because it Justifieth : for its Nature is before the effect , and therefore cannot the effect be given as the cause of it ; ( unless it were the final cause , of which anon . ) Qua or quatenus properly and according to the common use signifieth the proper reason of the thing or predication ; and is appliable only to that which is spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . As to the terms , sometimes there is a Reduplication of the same term , sometimes that reduplication is of the matter , but in other terms , as in a definition , or synominal words , or it is implyed : sometimes it is the terms of the Predicate or Attribute that is Reduplicate ; sometimes it is without a Reduplication : And then sometimes it giveth a Reason from an Essential Part : sometime from the Generical Nature ; sometime from the Specifick Nature : sometime from an Accident : and those are divers : sometime from a Quality : sometime from Quantity : sometime from Relation ; and that is multifarious : If we should run into all the sences of this Term which Mr. W. doth lap up in the word [ Specificative ] the words might exceed the profit . And it s to be noted that usually the term is respective as to some other thing excluded which is contradistinct : & so we give sometimes a more Remote and General , & sometime a neerer and more special Reason by Qua or quatenus . As if you mix a purging Electuary in your Drink , I say that Purgeth quatenus medicated , which is to exclude the Drink from being Purgative . If I speak of the Electuary , I may say that it purgeth quatenus Diagridiate , to exclude many other Ingredients from being Purgative . But if I speak of the Diagridium , I may say that it Purgeth as having an Elective faculty , &c. to exclude other Reasons of its operation . Now for the opening of the matter in hand , let us try certain Propositions that may be supposed to be laid down concerning Faith. [ 1. Faith as faith justifieth ] This is True , taken laxely , for the excluding of [ faith as a meer Physical act , or meritorious &c. ] but it is false strictly taken , as signifying the formal or nearest reason . So [ 2. Fades in Christum qua talis Justificat ] that is , haec sides in specie ] is true , taken Laxely and materially to exclude all other Faith : q. d. It is not faith in Peter or Paul , but faith in Christ as such that is the matter deputed , to be the condition of Justification . But it s false taken strictly , deratione formali . 3. So [ This faith as it is an Apprehension or Acceptance of Christ , justifieth . ] It s true , Materialiter & Remotius , Laxly : but false formaliter & stricte de ratione proxima . For this is the same in other terms with the second . So [ 4. Faith justifieth as an Instrumental effitient cause of our Justification . ] It s false in every tolerable sence . So [ 5. Faith justifieth as an Instrument of receiving Christ . ] It s true , 1. taking the word [ Instrument ] Metaphorically , and meaning only the Nature of this faith , which is [ to Believe in and Accept Christ . ] 2. and taking Quatenus remotely , laxely and materially only , q.d. Faith is the Elected matter of the condition ( or is chosen to be the condition of Justification ) for this Aptitude , as , or because it is a Reception or Acceptance of Christ . But it s false , 1. Taking an [ Instrument ] strictly and Logically . 2. and speaking de ratione formali . So [ 6. Faith as a believing in Christs sacrifice , justifieth . ] It s true , Laxly , Materialiter & partialiter : that is , This act of faith is part of the matter of the condition . But it s false , formaliter de ratione proxima . So [ 7. Faith justifieth only as it is a Believing in Christs sacrifice or Righteousness . ] It s false both de materia & de ratione formali . So [ 8. Faith as Justifying is only a Believing in , or Accepting Christ as our Ransom ] Here is darkness , and either nonsence or false doctrine . 1. [ As Justifying ] signifieth either [ as a justifying efficient cause ] 2. Or [ as the merit or matter of our Righteousness . ] 3. Or [ as the means i. e. condition of our Righteousness , of which Justification is a consequent and final cause . ] In the first sense it is every way false . In the second sense it is every way false , speaking of our Universal Righteousness . In the third sense , if spoken laxely de materia , its false , because of the exclusive [ Only . ] And if spoken de ratione formalivel proxima , 1. It s preposterous to put the Consequent before the Antecedent , if you speak de ordine exequendi : 2. And it is false : For [ qua Justificans ] speaketh of Justification as the consequent , or as an act , and not of the Nature of Faith it self . And therefore [ qua Justificans ] faith is nothing ( much less that act alone . ) For it is not de esse fidei that the term speaks , but of the consequent ; So that the [ Fides qua justificans est ] what ever act you mention , is absurd and unsound : For as non justificat quatenus est , it a non est quatenus Justificat , its Essence being pre-supposed . But if you speak de ordine Intentionis , viz. [ Faith as elected a means or condition of Justification is only a Believing in Christs sacrifice . ] then Laxely & Materially it would be True , if it were not for the [ only . ] But because of that it is false , both de materia & de ratione formali . The nature of it is before its Office. So [ 9. Faith as designed to this act or operation of Justifying , looks on Christ as a Saviour . ] This is Mr. Ws. Assertion . But 1. justifying is not an act or operation of faith ; but of God on the Believer . 2. But if you mean but constituting it the condition of Justification , then 1. the wrong end is set first : For it doth not look at Christ , as it s made the condition ; but it s made the condition , because being an Accepting of Christ , its Apt for that Office. So that Materially and Laxely , it s thus true ; ( a Saviour , comprehendeth Christs Kingly and Prophetical Offices , and everlasting Priesthood in Heaven ) But this is nothing to the formal Reason of its Interest in Justification . But lest you think that [ qua Justificans ] hath no proper place , I further instance [ 9. Faith as justifying is distinst from faith as entitling to Heaven , or other promised mercies . ] This is true ( supposing Justification and the said Title to Glory to differ . ) But this is but a denomination of the same faith from its divers consequents . As my lighting a candle being one action is Actioilluminans ( ut causa moralis , ) & calefaciens ; & quailluminans non est calefaciens . So a womans marrying a Prince , is an Honouring , enriching act : and qua honouring , it is not enriching . But it s the same entire undivided act or Antecedent Means , or Condition , that is thus variously denominated from several Benefits . And thus Relations may give divers denominations to the same person ; the same man may , be considered as a Father , as a Physitian , as a Subject , &c. So 10. FAITH WHICH IS AN EFFECTUAL ACCEPTANCE OF and AFFIANCE IN CHRIST AS CHRIST , was CHOSEN and ORDAINED by God the Condition of Justification and Life , because his Wisdom saw it fit for that Office , and that fitness lyeth in its respect to the Object and Gods ends ( supposing we may assign Reasons or causes of Gods Will. ) By this faith ( so constituted the Condition ) we are actually JUSTIFIED AS T IS THE PERFORMED CONDITION OF GODS PROMISE . ] This is the plain Truth in few and easie words . By what is said you may see that when they say [ faith as Justifying ] is this or that , it is both preposterous , and the [ qua ] as distinct from the [ quae ] de ratione formali , causally spoken , is plainly false : But in other cases , Laxely and Materially , the [ qua ] signifieth the same as the [ quae ] with the exclusion of other matter . And when they have raised never so great a dust , the Question is but this : Whether we are justified by Believing in Christ as Christ , or only in Christ as a Ransom ] ( and yet as a Ransom and as dying he purchaseth Sanctification as well as Justification . ) Or. [ Whether faith in Christ as Christ , or only faith in Christ as Purchasing Justification , be the condition of our Justification . ] Reader , Having shewed the darkness of that Light that caused Mr. Ws. Exercitation , and overthrown its Basis , I shall put thee to no further trouble . To my Reverend Brother Mr. John Warner , Preacher of the Gospel at Christs Church in Hantshire . Sir , THough ( through the privacy of my habitation ) I never so much as heard of your name , before your Book of the Object and Office of faith was in the Press ; yet upon tht perusal of it I confidently conclude , that a zeal for God , and that which you verily think to be his Truth , hath moved you to this undertaking ; and doubtless you think that you have done God service by it . I love your zeal : and your indignation against Error ; and your tendernese of so great a point as that of Justification . And could I find your Light to be answerable to your heat , I hope I should also love and honour it : Had you not taken me ( with the two Reverened Brethren whom you oppose ) to be the enemies of the person and Grace of the Lord Jesus , or the followers of them ( as you say , Epist . pag. 6. ) I am perswaded you would not have either called us so , or thought your self called to this assault . And if I love Christ , I must love that man that hateth me ▪ though mistakingly , for the sake of Christ . That principle within you that hath made Christ and Truth so dear to you , that you rise up for that which seemeth to you to be Truth , I hope will grow till you attain perfection in that world of Light that will end our differences , I shall not go about to dèprecate your indignation for my plain expressions in this Defence , when the nature of your matter did require them : For I am not so unresonable as to expect that fair words should reconcile a good man to those that he takes to be enemies to Christ , or to their followers . But as I can truly say if I know what is in my heart , that the Reading of your Book hath bred no enmity to you in my brest , but only kindled a love to your zeal , with a compassion of your darkness , and a dislike of your so much confidence in the dark ; so it shall be my care as it is my duty , to love you as a mistaken servant of Christ , though you should take me for his greatest enemy . And therefore being conscious of no worse affections to you , I desire that Justice of you , as to impute the ungratefull passages that you meet with , to my apprehension of the badness of your cause and Arguments , and a compassion to the poor Church that must be troubled and tempted , and endangered by such gross mistakes , and not to any contempt of your person , with which I meddle not , but as you are the Author of those Arguments . In your Preface I find a Law imposed by you on your Answerer , which I have not fully observed : 1. Because I had written my Reply to your Arguments a considerable time before I saw your Preface ; For it fell out that I first saw your Book without the Epistle and Preface . 2. Because I thought it fittest to follow the Method that my Subject and the Readers ●●dification did require . 3. Yet did I once purpose to have answered all that was of moment in your Book against the Truth : but upon trial I found your Reasons so inconsiderable , that weariness interrupted me and put an end to my Reply , and withal I grew confident that my labour would be to little purpose . For I dare venture any Judicious Divine upon your Book without the help of a Reply : And for the rest , it is not replying that will serve turn : but either prejudice will hold them to the side that they have taken , or else they will think him in the right that hath the last word : when they have read mine , they will think that I am in the right ; and when they have again read yours , they will think that you carry the cause : and when they read my Reply again they will say , you were mistaken ; but usually they will go with the party that is in greatest credit , or hath most interest in them , or advantage on them . But yet I think you will find that none of your strength against me is neglected : For I can truly say , that when I think not meet to Answer all that a man hath said , I never pass by that which I take to be his strength , but purposely call out that , and leave that which I think is so grosly weak as to need no answer : So much of your ten Demands or Laws as I apprehended necessary , I have here answered ; supposing what I had said of the same points in my first Disputation , which I saw no Reason too often to Repeat . I am none of those that blame you for too much of the Metaphysicks , but rather mervail that you feared not lest your Metaphysical Reader will wrong you by mis-applying your cited Schegkius contrary to your better opinion of your self , and take both your Schegkius and your Scaliger for Prophets that could speak as if they had read your Book , and been acquainted with your arguings . But it seems you are not the first of that way . By your Arguments in your Preface , I perceive you think it a matter of very great moment to your cause , to prove that there are divers acts of Faith , whereas I am so far from denying it , that I am ready to demonstrate , that even the faith by which we are Justified , is liker to have twenty acts then one only , but many certainly it hath . Your first Argument is , from the different objects because the Objects specifie the Acts. A sufficient Argument which no man can confute . But 1. This is no proof , that one act only is it that we are justified by . 2. Where you add that Justifying Faith hath not respect to Christ as Lord formaliter , you beg the Question , and assert no light mistake . But where you add [ in its act of Justifying ] you do but obtrude upon us your fundamental Error ( which leadeth you to the rest ) by naked affirmations . Faith hath properly no justifying act : Justificare est efficere , Faith doth not effect our Justification : we are justified by faith indeed , but not as by an efficient cause unless you will take Justification for Sanctification ; For real qualitative Mutations it doth effect ; but the Jus or Title to any mercy in the world it cannot Effect , but Accept when offered . If you ●●n● see so plain a Truth in its Evidence , yet observe by the words of the Reverend Brother that is my Opponent in the second Disputation , and by your Prefacers Dr. Kendals course that its a passive instrumentality that the Defenders of your cause at last are driven to ; and therefore talk not of its act of Justifying unless you will mean Gods act of Justifying which faith is the Condition of . And whereas you make unbelief to be formally a slighting and neglecting Christ as a Saviour and effectively ( you must mean only effective & non formaliter ) a denying subjection to him as Lord. You err so great but so rare an error , that I suppose it needless to confute it . All Christians as far as I can learn have been till now agreed , that Believing in Christ as Prophet and King is a real part of faith , and that unbelief or rejecting him as Prophet and King is a real part of unbelief . Your second Argument is from the different subjects ; where you give us two such palpable Fictions , that its a wonder you can make your self believe them , much more that you should lay so great a stress on such absurdities . The first is that the Act of Faith is in several faculties : and you elswhere give us to understand that it is one Physical Act that you mean. And do you think in good sadness that one single Physical act can be the act of both the faculties ? The second is that the fear , love and obedience to Christ as King is but in the Will. But 1. That Readers do you expect , that will take an Assertion of Fear-Love , and Obedience , in stead of an assertion concerning Faith ? Were you not comparing faith in Christ as King , with faith in Christ as Priest only ? And why speak you not of faith in one part of your comparison , as well as in the other ? Your conclusion now is nothing to the Question ? 2. Or if you mean that Faith in Christ as King is not in both faculties , as well as Faith in Christ as Priest or sacrifice , did you think that any man of ordinary understanding would ever believe you without any proof ? or that ever such a thing can be proved ? Your third Argument is , [ Because they are in a different time exerted ; the one , that is , Faith as Justifying being precedaneous to the other , ( and to other Graces ) ] Answ . Wonderfull ! Is that man justified that believeth not in Christ as the King and Prophet of the Church ? Do you believe this your self ? why then an Infidel is justified by Faith. The ' Belief in Christ as a Sacrifice or Priest only , is not the Christian faith ; it is not faith in Christ properly , because it is not faith in Christ as Christ . For Christ as Priest only is not Christ . A Heart only is not Corpus humanum : A Body only is not a Man ; where there are three essential parts , one of them is not the Thing , without the rest . The name [ Jesus Christ ] signifieth the office as well as the person . It is essential to that Office , that he be Prophet and King. And hereby you shew that you do not only distinguish but divide . For where there is a distance of time between the Acts , there is a division . Do you think that we are Christs enemies , or followers of them , unless we will believe you that a man is Justified by Believing in Christ only as a Priest or Ransom , or in his Righteousness , before ever be believe in him as King and Lord ( and so as Teacher , &c. ) If I had said that you are Christs enemy for such Doctrine , which ▪ think you , had had the fairer pretence for his censure ? But I am far from saying so , or thinking it . I know that the Assent to the essential Articles of Christianity , containeth many Acts , and that our Consent and Affiance are many Physical Acts , as the parts of Christs Office are many Objects . But yet I ( do not think but ) am certain that all these physical Acts concur to make up that Moral A● which is called Christian , or saving , or Justifying Faith ; and that he that believeth not in Christ as to all that is essential to Christ , is no Christian . And a man is not justified by Faith before he is a Christian . And truly Sir , men that are loth to flie from the Light , and that love the Truth , and diligently seek it ( as heartily , if not as happily as you ) must yet needs tell you , that if you produce your Mormolucks an hundred times , and cant over and over [ a Papist , a Socinian , an Arminian ; and an Arminian , a Socinian and a Papist ] their understandings , will never the more be perswaded to embrace your Delusions , though you should say that the Kingdom of God doth consist in them . Your fourth Argument is that , [ There is a difference in Nature , Efficacy , Energy , and Operation ; therefore the Acts are not the same . ] Answ 1. I maintained the conclusion ( that faith hath different Acts ) before ever I heard of your name ; and have no reason now to denie it . 2. The difference of Nature , I grant you between many Acts of faith ; but what you mean by the Efficacy , Energy , and Operation , be that knows can tell ; for I cannot . But still desire you to know that I deny faith to have any efficient operation in justifying us , or that it is an efficient cause of our Justification ; especially it s no Physical efficient ; you add a strange proof of your Assertion , [ viz. For faith as Justifying makes a mystical Union and relative change on the person ; but faith as working and sanctifying produceth a moral union with Christ . &c. ] Answ . 1. Faith as justifying doth only Justifie , and produce no V●ion ; the same faith as uniting is the means of Vnion . 2. The question is of [ Faith in Christ as Priest , and faith in Christ as Prophet and King also . ] And you talk of [ faith as justifying , and as working and sanctifying ] A small alteration . 3. What Mystical Relative Union is that which is not a Moral Union ? 4. Faith in Christ as Christ , and not as a Ransom only , is the means of our Justification ; And you give us nothing like a proof of the contrary restriction . In the same Preface you tell the world of as threefold Artifice that we use ; the first is [ to set up a second Justification ] Ans . Is it the Name or the Thing that you mean ? If the name , 1. cite the words where we use that Name . 2. If it answer the subject , you may bear with the name . If it be the Thing , then tell us what Religion that it that denyeth 1. a Justification by sentence at Judgement . 2. Gods continual justifying us to the Death . 3. And his particular pardoning or justifying us from the guilt of renewed particular sins . 4. And that faith is not only in the first act , but through all our lives , the means of our Justification ; Or , justifying faith is more then one instantaneous Act ; or a man ceaseth not to have justifying faith after the first Act or moment . Tell us who those be , and what Religion they are of that deny all these , that Christians may be acquainted with them , if they be worthy their acquaintance . Our second Artifice is , [ to require Works only as Gospel-Conditions . ] Answ . Would you have us say more of them , or less ? If less , I have said enough of it in the second Disputation . Our third Artifice is , [ To include works in the Definition of Justifying faith , making it a receiving of Christ as Saviour , Lord and Law-giver to Justification ; as also confounding our consummate Salvation or Glorification with our Justification . ] Ans . Gross untruths ! contrary to large and plaine expressions of my mind in several Volumes ( if you mean me , as you know I have reason to judge ) 1. I ever took works to be a fruit of faith , and no part of it , unless you take the word Faith improperly and laxely ; unless by [ Works ] you mean [ Acts ] And you take faith for such a work your self , that is , an Act. 2. I expresly distiguished what you say I confound ; Consummate Sanctification or Glorification , and consummate Justification . But yet as I do in the Definition include Consent to Christs Lordship , though not Obedience ( that 's only implyed to be a necessary consequent , ) so I still say that much of your Justitication is yet to come ; And if your Religion teach you to say , that you will be beholding to Christ for no more Justification , so doth not mine . And whereas you cite some that say , that all our sins are pardoned in our first believing , as if I had questioned any such thing , I must tell you that I easily grant it , that every sin is then forgiven , and so far as that Justification is perfect ; but what have you yet said to prove , 1. That we are never justified be faith , but in that one instant . 2. That we need no particular Justification from particular sins that after shall be committed . 3. Nor no sentential Justification at Judgement , which Mr. Burgess will tell you , is the chief . You and others use to say , that , that at Judgement , is but Declarative . But 1. It is no common Declaration , but a Declaration by the Judge . 2. And the Sentence doth more then meerely declare ; for it doth finally decide , acquit and adjudge to Glory . 3. And methinks this Declarative should be no term of Diminution , but of Aggravation , with those that still use to say that Justification is a judicial● Term. Alas ! That these matters among the friends of Christ and Truth , should need so many words . Some more I had to say to you , but you may find it in the Preface to these Disputations . I only add , that if indeed it be true which you write to that Honourable person , to whom you dedicate your Labors , viz. That the Subject of your Discourse is so excellent and necessary to be known ; and that He who is Ignorant of the Object and Office of Faith , doth neither know what he believeth , nor how he is justified ; I should think it is high time , that you call your Vnderstanding once more to an account , and review the Fabrick that you have built on a qua justificans not understood , or upon a specificative quatenus , where there is no such thing : And if you think me unfit to be hearkned to in this , ( as being one of the men of perverse minds that there you mention , ) its more worthy your industry , to seek the advice of the learned Oxford Divines herein , then that they should be sought to approve and midwife such a Book into the world : and its likely that their Charity will provoke them to be serviceable to you in this : though I hear that their Discretion forbad them the other , For all men are not so easily whistled into a Christs-Church contention against the Truth and Church of Christ , as ' Dr. K. and one or two Confidents , that living in a cold and s●eril Country , are less substantive , and more adjective , then Innocents and Independents use to be . None 's here so fruitfull as the Leaning Vine : And what though some be drunken with the Wine ? They 'l fight the better , if they can but hit : And lay about them without fear or — ) But stay ! See What Example is ! As the name of D● . K. and the remembrance of his differtatiuncula ( an Appendant to fax pro Tribunali , that could salva fide , fidem solvere ) began to tice me into a jocound vein ; so your concluding Poetry had almost tempted me in an Apish imitation to Poetize , when weariness made me think of a conclusion . But I had rather conclude with this serious motion to you ( that my end may meet your beginning , ) that before you next write on this Subject , you will better consider of the question that your qua justificans concerneth : And instead of telling us , that fides qua justificans respicit Christum Salvatorem , that is , fides qua justificans est fides , as if it were justifying in order of Nature before it is Faith : you will be pleased to tell us , sub qua ratione fides justificat ( vel fide justificamut ? ) Whether you will say , that fides qua justificans , justificat , or fides qua fides justificat , ( which I think you disown , ) or fides qua respicit , apprehendit , recipit Christum , which is all one , as fides qua fides , or fides qua Instrumentum apprehendens , which Metaphorical expression still signifieth no more then [ qua credit in Christum , or qua fides ? ] Or whether you will stand to what you have affirmed . chap. 9. pag. 67. that its Gods assignation of it to the office , who therefore doth it , because he wills it : and to what you said , pag , 304. The meerest formal reason of a Believers Interest to pardon , is — a Believers fulfilling the condition . And if you will stand to this that you have said , and understand that the Doctrine of us whom you assault is the same ( more carefully expressed , ) be intreated then to let your next bolt be shot at the right mark : which is all that 's now requested of you , by Your Christian Brother ( whether you will or no ) RICHARD BAXTER ▪ Decemb. 25. 1657. Richard Baxters DISCVSSION OF Mr John Tombes his Friendly , Acceptable ANIMADVERSIONS ON HIS Aphorisms , and other Writings . About the Nature of Justification , and of justifying Faith. LONDON , Printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons , Book-seller in Kederminster , and are to be sold by him there , and by Nathaniel Ekins , at the Gun in Pauls Church-yard . 1658. Sir , UPON reading of the Postscript in your late Book , I have sent you these Animadversions . You say Aphor. of Justification . ●ag . 184. [ All those Scriptures which speak of Justification as done in this life , I understand of Justification in Title of Law. So Rom. 5.1 . and 4 2. and 5.9 . Jam. 2.21 , 25 , &c. ] I conceive Justification , being Gods Act , Rom. 3.30 . Rom. 8.33 . consequent upon Faith , and calling , and importing a sentence opposite to Condemnation ; Rom. 8.30 , 33 , 34. and 5.1 . terminated on particular persons , Rom. 4.2 , 3 Rom. 8.30 . it must be more then the Vertual Justification in Law-Title ; which is only an act of God prescribing or promisig a way of Justification , not the sentence it self , and is general , and indeterminate to particular persons , and is performed before the person justified believes : Yea is the same , though none were actually justified : and therefore in my apprehension , that Act of Gods Covenanting or promising , in which I conceive you place the Justification by Law-Title . Thes . 38. Is not the Justification by faith meant , Rom. 5.1 , &c. Besides , to be justified notes a Passion , which presupposeth an Action ; an Act Transient , not Immanent ; or only Gods purpose to justifie : nor can it be Gods Promise to justifie : For the Act , though it be Transient , yet it is only a Declaration what he will do ; his promise to justifie upon condition , is not Justifying , and therefore a man is not by the Covenant , without a further Act , Denominated Justified , though he be made justifyable by it . I conceive Justification is a Court term , Importing an Act of God as Judge , whereas his promising is not his Act as Judge , but Rector , thes . 42. you mention the Angels judging us Righteous , and Rejoycing therein ; which whence it should be , but by a sentence passed in Heaven , I know not . Constitutive Justification , different from Declarative by sentence , I do not find expressed under the term [ Justification ] It would be considered whether any other Act besides the sentence , doth make a man just , but giving of faith ; notwithstanding Christs Death , and the conditional Covenant before faith , a person is only justifyable ; Conditionalis nihil ponit in esse . A person is upon giving of Faith justified ; but not by giving of faith ( that 's an act of Sanctification ) but by a sentence of God , Thes . 59. You make justification a continued act ; now it being a transient act , I suppose it may not be well called a continued Act , which imports a successive motion between the terminus a quo , and terminus ad quem ; whereas the act , whether by sentence , or Covenant , is not such a Motion . It s not to be denyed , that the Benefit and Vertue of it is continued , but I think not the Act. If it be not s●mel , but saepe , yet it should be rather called Actus Renovatus , Repetitus , Iteratus , then continued I incline to think there is but one Justification of a person in this life , though there be frequent remissions of sin . Of this you may Consider . In the Saints Everlasting Rest , pag. 11. Doubtless the Gospel takes faith for our obedience to All Gospel Precepts . Believing doth not produce subjection to Christ as King , as a finite , but contains it as an Essential part , &c. Aphor. p. 25.5 . Faith doth as Really and Immediately Receive Christ as King ( as Saviour , or Priest ) and so Justifie , Thes . 65. Scripture doth not take the word [ Faith ] for any one single Act ; nor yet for various Acts of one only faculty ; but for a compleat entire motion of the whole soul to Christ its Object , Thes . 57. It is the Act of faith which justifies men at Age , and not the Habit. Against this I object ; 1. Faith worketh by Love , Gal. 5.16 . If one be an essential part of the other , and faith a compleat entire motion of the soul , then when it is said , Faith worketh by Love , it might be said , it worketh by Faith. 2. Gospel Precepts are many , if not all , the same with the Moral Law ; if Justified then by obedience to them , are we not justified by the works of the Law ? You conceive the Justification , Jam. 2. to be by works in a proper sence , and that before God ; and Rahabs act was a work of Hospitality , ver . 25. commanded in the Law ; and Abrahams work was a sacrificing , or offering a work of the Ceremonial Law , ver . 21. 3. Repentance is obedience to one Gospel Precept , yet Faith and Repentance are distinguished , Mar. 1.15.6 , 1. Love , Faith , Hope , are three , 1 Cor. 13.13 . 1. Tim. 1.5 . 2 Thes . 1.3 . faith and Love have different Objects , Col. 1.4 . Phil. 5. 1 Thes . 1. ● . Therefore not the same ; nor one an Essential part of the other . 4. Obedience is a sign to prove faith , Jam. 2.18 . and therefore not an Essential part . 5. If Faith include obedience to all Gospel Precepts as an Essential part , then actual faith includes actual obedience to all Gospel Precepts as an essential part ; and if the Act of faith Justifie men at Age , not the Habit ; and receiving Christ as King , as immediatly Justifie , as believing in Christ as Saviour , then a person of Age is not Justified without actual obedience to all Gospel Precepts , and this may be not till Death ; if then , and so , no Justification in this Life . 6. If Faith justifie as immediatly by receiving Christ as King , as by receiving him as Saviour , then it justifies by receiving Christ as Judge , Matth. 25.34 . as Law-giver , Avenger of his enemies , and so a man is justified By receiving Christs Judging , Punishing , Condemning , Commanding , Avenging , as well as saving by his Death ; which is contrary to Rom. 3.25 . & 5.9 7. The Scripture makes the object of justifying faith Christs Death , Resurrection , Blood , Rom. 3.25 . & 10.9 . Gal. 2.20 , 21. Nowhere Christs dominion . Ergo. Subjection to Christ as King is not an essential part . 8. The object of Faith is nowhere made to be a Gospel Precept , such as forgiving others , using Sacraments , &c. nor Christ as commanding ; but the Declaration of the Accomplishments of Christ , and the counsel of God in him , 1 Cor. 15.1 . &c. Rom. 1 16 , 17. Gal. 3.8 . Ergo Obedience is not an Essential part . 9. If it be an essential part , then either Genus or Difference ; for no other Essential parts belong to a quality or Action : not the Genus , that 's Assent . Aph. p. 254.274 . when the object is a Proposition : when it is an Incomplex term , Trust is the Genus : not the Difference , that 's chiefly taken from the object . Keker . syst . Logic. l. 1. sect . 2. c. 2. can . Defin. Accid . 5.7 . Obedience may make known Faith as a sign , but not as a part , it s at least in order of Nature after ; the cause is afore the effect : the Antecedent before the Consequent ; and faith is such , Heb. 11.8 . &c. 10. If Faith be a compleat entire motion of the whole soul to Christ , then it should be Love , Joy , Hope , Understanding , Will , Memory , Fear ; But this is not to be said . Ergo. It is alleadged , 1. Faith must be the Act of the whole soul ; else part should receive him , part not . Answ . Faith is expressed by the Metaphor of Receiving , Joh. 1.12 . Col. 2.6 . And he is Received by the Receiving of his Word , Joh. 12.48 . 1 Thes . 2.13 . which is Received by Assent . 2. The whole soul receives Christ , though by other Graces besides faith . 2. Acts 8.37 Rom. 10.10 . Answ . The term [ Whole ] notes not every inward faculty ; but ( as after ) sincerely , not feignedly , as Simon Magus . So Illyricus . 3. Faith is called Obeying the Gospel , Rom. 10.16 . 1 Pet. 1.22 . & 4.17 . 2 Thes . 1.8 . Gal. 3.1 . & 5.7 . Heb. 5.9 . But the Gospel commandeth All thus to obey Christ as Lord , forgive others , love his people , bear what sufferings are Imposed , diligently use his Means and Ordinances , confessing , bewailing sins , praying for pardon sincerely and to the end . Answ . Heb. 5.9 . speaks of obeyng Christ , but doth not call faith obeying Christ : but be it granted , Faith is called obeying of Christ , or the Gospel ; doth it follow that it is obedience in doing those named Acts ? It may be obedience by Assent to the Doctrine of Christ , that he is the Messiah , died for sins , &c. commanded 1 Cor. 15.3 . 1 Joh. 3.23 . which the terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do rather Import , then the other Acts mentioned . The Gospel and Truth are restrained to the Doctrine of Christs coming , dying , &c , nowhere applyed , that I know , to the Precepts of forgiving others , suffering death , receiving the Lords Supper , &c. 4. The fulfilling the condition of the new Covenant is called faith , Gal. 3.12 , 23 , 25. Answer . Neither of these places make faith the fulfilling of the Condition of the New Covenant , nor any place else In Gal. 3.12 . It s said , the Law , that is the Covenant of the Law , is not of Faith. i. e. doth not assign Life to Faith in Christ ▪ Faith Gal. 3 , 23 , 25. is put , saith Piscat . for the time of the Gospel , or Christ , say others , or the Doctrine of Faith. By Faith only the condition of the Covenant concerning Justification in this life is fulfilled , not concerning every Benefit of the new Covenant . Repentance is the condition of Remission of sins ; forgiving others , doing good to the Saints , of entering into Life . 5. The Gospel reveals not Christs offices as separate . Ergo. They mnst be so believed . Answ . The conclusion is granted , but proves not faith to justifie in receiving Christ as King. 6. It offers Christ as King , and so must be received . Answer the same . 7. Scripture nowhere tieth Justification to the receit of him as priest only . Ar. The contrary is proved from Rom. 3.25 . & 5.9 . 8. Commonly Christ is called our Lord and Saviour . Answ . True ; But we are justified by his blood . 9. If we receive him not as a King , then not as an entire Saviour . Answ . True ; Yet Justification is by his death , 2 Cor. 5.21 . Gal. 2.21 . Rom. 3 25 and 59. 10. Christ is not received truly , if not entirely as King. Answ . True ; But this proves not that obedience is an essential part of faith ; or that subjection to Christ as King , justifies as immediatety , as receiving him as Saviour . 11. The exalting of his proper Kingly office , is a Principal End of Christs dying . Psal . 2. Rom. 14.9 . Answ . True ; But it follows not that either Obedience is an Essential part of faith ▪ or subjection to Christ as King justifieth as immediately as receiving him as Saviour or Priest . Yours in the Truth I.T. Sir , IT s to be considered , 1. Whether these words answer to Valedict ▪ orat at B. pag. 191. [ Nothing but the satisfaction of Christ , is that which our Divines call the matter of our Justification , or the Righteousness which we must plead to Acquit us in Judgement . ] And it is said Rom. 3.25 . through faith in his Blood , and Rom. 5.9 . by his Blood , Do not prove Christs Death either the sole or chief Object of faith as Justifying ; and how this stands with Aphorism of Justification , Thes . 66. and its Explication . 2. Whether the words , Luk. 12.14 . import not a disclaiming or denial of a Title to judge , and so your answer be not insufficient , pag. 276. which seems to suppose a Title , and only a Suspension of Exercise in that state of Humiliation . 3. Whether if Magistrates be Officers of Christ as King , by Office they be not in his Kingdom , and so Infidel Magistrates in Christs Kingdom , contrary to Col. 1.14 . 4. If it be maintained , That Christ died for every Child of Adam conditionally , It would be well proved from Scripture , that the procuring of such a conditional Law or Covenant , was the End or Effect of Christs death ; and whether the so Interpreting Texts that speak of his dying for all , will not serve for Evasions to put by the Arguments drawn from them to prove Christs Satisfaction aad Merit , proper to the Elect. For if they may be Interpreted so , He died to procure the conditional Covenant for every one , this may be alledged justly ; then you can prove no more thence , for that is the sense ; and then we cannot prove thence , he died loco nostro , &c. It is a matter of much moment , and needs great Circumspection . Yours . Sir , BEsides what hath been formerly suggested to you , these words in your Scripture proofs , pag. 323. And where he next saith , that in the aged several dispositions are required to fit a man to receive pardon , ( and so justification ) viz Catholike faith , hope of pardon , fear of punishment , grief for sin , a purpose against sining hereafter , and a purpose of a new life , all which dispose the Receiver ; and I agree to him , though all do not ] are so like the Doctrine of the Trent Council . sess . 6. c. 6. that it will be expected you declare , whether by avowing that speech of Dr. Ward , you do not join with the Papists , contrary to Bishop Downam of Justification . l. 6. c. 7. § . 1.2 . Mr. Pemble vindict . fidei . § . 2. c. 3. And when you make Justification a continued Act upon condition of obedience , it s to be considered how you will avoid Tompsons opinion of the Intercifion of Justification , upon the committing of a sin that wasts the conscience , refuted by Dr. Rob. Abbot . but vented after by Moutague in his appeal , and opposed by Dr. Preston , and others . As for Justification by Law-Title , by the Covenant upon actual Believing , without any other act of God , consequent on Faith ; if it were so ; 1. Then it should be by necessary Resultancy ; But Justification is an Act of Will , and no act of Will is by necessary Resultancy . 2. If the Covenant justifie without any other Act of God , then it Adops , Glorifies , Sanctifies , &c. without any other Act , which is not to be said . The reason of the Sequel is , because the Covenant of it self doth in the same manner produce the one as well as the other . 3. The Justification of the Covenant is only conditional , therefore not Actual ; Actual Justification is not till Faith be put : and then Posit â conditione , it is Actual : A conditional , is only a possible Justification ; it s only in potentia , till the Condition be in act ; Now the Covenant doth only assure it on condition , as a future thing , not therefore as actual , or present . 4 The Covenant is an Act past , Tit. 1.2 . Gal. 3.7 , 8. so not continued ; and consequently , the Justification barely by it , without any other Act , must be past long since , and not continued ; and he neither Justification Actual , and in purpopse ; or virtual , will be confounded , or an effect shall be continued , without the cause . Jan. 17 , 1651. Yours . I.T. Reverend Sir , I AM more thankfull to you for these free , candid , rational Animadversions , then I can now express to you : yet being still constrained to dissent from you , by the evidence of Truth , I give you these Reasons of my dissent . 1. First , You think that [ the Scriptures cited , are not to be intepreted of Justification in Title of Law , because this is only an Act of God prescribing or promising a way of Justification ; not the Sentence it self ; and is general , and indeterminate to particular persons , &c. ] To which I answer . 1. That I am past doubt that you build all this on a great mistake about the nature of Gods Law or Covenant , & Promise , & the moral action thereof . For you must know that this Promise of God , 1. is not a bare Assertio explicans de futuro animum qui nunc est ; ( as Grotius speaks : ) Nor yet that which he calleth Pollicitatio , cum voluntas seipsam pro futuro tempore determinat , cum signo sufficientè ad judicandam perseverandi necessitatem . But it is Perfecta Promissio , ubi ad determinationem talem accedit signum volendi jus proprium alteri conferre , quae similem babet effectum qualem alienatio Domin●i . Est enim aut via ad aliena●ionem rei , aut alienatio particulae cujusdam nostrae libertatis . &c. Vid. ultra Grot. de jure Bellili . 2. c. 11. § 2.3 , 4. 2. This Promise or Covenant of God , is also his Testament : and who knoweth not that a Testament is an Instrctment of proper Donation , and not only a Prediction ? 3. Moreover this same which in one respect is a Covenant and Promise , and in another a Testament , is also truly part of Gods Law , even the New constitution of Christ , the Law-giver and King. But ●ndoubtedly a Law which conferreth . Right either absolutely or conditionally , is the true and proper Instrument of that Effect , and not only [ the presenting or promising away thereto ] The proper Effect or Product of every Law , is Debitum aliquod ; Et de hoc debito determinare is its proper Act. Now therefore this Promise being part of Christs Law , doth determine of and confer on us , the Debitum , or Right to sentential Justification , having first given us an Interest in Christ , and so to the Benefit of his satisfaction ; and this is Justificatio constitutiva . You know a Deed of Gift ( though but conditional ) is a most proper Instrument of conferring the Benefits therein contained . And is not the Promise undoubtedly Gods Deed of Gift ? And doth he not thereby make over , as it were under his hand , the Lord Jesus , and all his Benefits to them that will receive him ? So that when you say , that [ his Promise to justifie upon condition , is not justifying ] You may see it is otherwise by all the forementioned considerations of the nature of the Promise . You may as well say , a Testament , or deed of Gift conditional , doth not give , or a Law doth not confer Right and Title . And in these Relative benefits , to give Right to the thing , and to give the thing it self , or right in it , is all one : ( still allowing the distance of time limited for both in the Instrument ) It is all one to give full right to son-ship , and to make one a Son : or at least they are inseparable . Yea , ( which weigheth most of all with me ) it being the proper work of Gods Laws to give Duness of , or Right to Benefits , it cannot be any other way accomplished that is within our Knowledge ( I think ) For Decree , Purpose , and so Predestination cannot do it , they being Determinations de eventu , and not de debito , as such : And the sentential declaration presupposeth this Debitum , or true Righteousness an therefore doth not give it . No wonder therefore while you deny this Legal , Testamentary , Moral Donation , that you are forced also to deny Justification constitutive ; ( but very inconveniently and unsafely . ) By what way doth God give a father Authority over his Children , and a Husband over his Wife , and a Magistrate over the people , and a Minister over the Church or Flock , but only by this Moral Legal Action ? And even so doth he give Power to them that receive him , to become his Sons . And it is the same Instrument which performeth this , which is called a Promise , Covenant , Testament , Disposition or Law ; the name being taken from different respects or accidental considerations . Again , If the word of Christ do judge us , then that word doth justifie and condemn : ( For judging in general containeth these special Actions . ) But the word doth judge us , ( and shall do at the last day : ) therefore the word doth justifie and condemn . Again : It is a Rule in the Civil Law ( as Vlpian ) that By the same way as an Obligation is induced or caused , it must be removed or destroyed : But by the curse of the Law , or the Threatning of Penalty , was our obligation to punishment , and condemnation induced or caused : therefore by the way of Law dissolving that cause , must it be taken off . Now as Reatus est obligatio ad Poenam , so pardon is the dissolving of that Obligation , or discharge from it ; ( Venia & Poena sunt adversa : ) And therefore the Law of Christ , or this his Promise or Grant , is the Instrument of Pardoning . And methinks , when you are convinced , that God pardoneth by Law or moral Action , you should easily yield , that in the like way he justifieth . For if you be not of the Judgement , that Remission and Justification are all one : yet you must needs yield , that they are of so near a nature , that the difference is exceeding small , and rather notional and respective , then real . I might to these Arguments add somewhat from the Issue , and different tendency of this my opinion and the contrary . As that this doth give Gods Laws their honor and dignity , by ascribing to them that higher and more noble and effective Action ; which the contrary opinion denying it , doth very injuriously debase the Scriptures or Laws of God. Also that this opinion is the only expedient left , ( that I can find ) to avoid the Antinomian fancy of an Eternal Justification , which all they must assert , that say it is an Immanent Act ( which you justly and truly deny . ) For your way lying in the other extream , 1. Overthroweth all constitutive Justification ; which is not to be born . ( Whether All Pardon by the Covenant , I yet know not your mind ) 2. And it Intepreteth all Scriptures ( that speak of a Justification in this life ) of a strange feigned Justification , which for ought I find hath no ground in Scripture at all ; and is wholly aliene to our condition ; and at least utterly unknown to us , if not known to be untrue . What doth it concern a sinner to be justified or condemned now before a Court of Angels , where he is not present , nor knows any thing of it ? nor do we know what Angels have to do in such a business . And what Transient Act is it that God then and there puts forth or performeth ? Can you tell ? or doth Scripture tell you ? God speaketh not to Angels by voyce . If you think ( as the Schoolmen , some ) that they see our Justification , as other things in the face of God ; then it is no Transient Act. Else why may not they see it in it self ? And then either our Justification is Gods Essence , and they see it in him as his Eternal Being , or else God must be mutable , as having something to be seen in him de novo , which was not in him from Eternity . If you say that this Transient Act is Gods Illuminating the Angelical understanding to know us to be justified ; then this supposeth that we are justified already by some former Act ( which can be nothing that I know but the moral Act of his Lawes : ) For their knowing us to be justified is not a justifying us , but presupposeth us to be what they know us to be . I can think of nothing else that you can say , except this , that Christ as man may Vocally ( or by some equivalent Transient Act ) pronounce us Justified , as he will do at Judgement . But 1. this is without Scripture . 2. and it is God that justifieth . 3. And then how were all the faithful justified before Christs Incarnation and Ascension ? Or do you think none were justified before ? But I will return to your Exceptions . You say , [ This is but Virtual Justification ] which is in Law Title . Answ . 1. It is Actual Constitutive Justification , and not Virtual only 2. But it is indeed but Virtual sentential justification . But yet it is of the highest kind of Virtuality . It is that which makes us rectos in curia , ( which I take to be the nature of our Justification in this life . ) And taken divisi● , it seemeth more excellent in some respect , then the sentence or declaration it self ; for he that by Purchase first , and Pardon ( written ) after , maketh Offenders just in Law , ) i. e. ( non obligatos ad poenam , ) seemeth to do more for them by that act , then after by pronouncing them just . Though yet this last I know is the most perfect Justification , taken conjunctim with the rest , as the end to which they tend , and as that which giveth them their full effect . Your next Objection is , that this Gospel Justification , [ is general and indeterminate to particular persons ] Answer . It cannot be more certain or effectual . For when it is to all , no man hath reason to think himself excepted ( who excludes not himself by non-performance of the conditions . ) Every particular man is comprized in All. And for the determination , the Description of the person is as certain a way as the naming of him . To give Christ and his Righteousness to All that will receive him , is as effectual a determinate Gift to each particular Receiver , as to give him to Peter , Paul , John by name . If a Pardon be proclaimed , or given in the Laws , to all Offenders that perform such a condition ; is it not as effectual to each person , as if he were named ? If a Father bequeath such Lands or Monies to all his Children ( or a man to all the poor in the town ) on condition that they come by such a day to such a place , and signifie their acceptance and gratitude : is not this as sure and good , as if they were all named ? Next , You object , [ This is performed , before the person justified believes . ] Answer . I have said enough to you of this already . ( of Bapt. pag. 100. ) I add this much : you must distinguish between the Physical act of making this Law , Promise , Covenant , Grant or Testament : and the Moral Agency of this Law , Grant or Testament once made . The former was before we Believed : but the later was not ( properly and fully ) till after . Do not all Philosophers and Divines in the world that meddle with it , tell you that this is usual with moral causes , that they may have all their absolute Entity and vim agendi , long before they produe their effects ? and may be Actu primo , etsi non secundo effectum producente , in being long before . The Law that determineth of your right to your Possession , or that doth give a Reward to every man that killeth a wild hurtfull beast , or that condemneth every man that murdereth or committeth Felony , &c. was in Being before those persons were born perhaps : And yet it did not hoc agere ; it did not Praemiare , Punire , Praecipere , &c. as to this man before . A pardon from a Prince to a Traytor , on condition , doth not perform the moral act of his discharge , till he perform the condition , though it were in being before . The like I may say of a Testament or Deed of Gift : But what need many words in a case where the Truth is so obvious ? If some moral causes may be causes , and Agere moraliter , or produce their effects , even before they are naturally in Being , much more may they suspend it , and so produce it long after they are in Being : Causae enim moralis ea ratio est , ut etiam cum non est actu , sit efficax , modò habe at ( ut loquuntur in scholis ) esse cognitums : inquit Rivetus Disput . 13. de satisfact . Christi . pag. 282. Next you say , [ Yea it is the same , though none were actually justified . ] Answer . This requires no other answer , then what is given to the former . It is the same Physice considerata , vel in Entitate naturali : But the moral action of pardoning and justifying is not the same , nor is at all : A conditional Pardon , Deed of Gift , Testament , &c. doth not at all pardon , or Give , till you perform the condition . For it is the proper nature of a condition to suspend the act of the Grant : so that till it be absolute or equal to Absolute , it is not Actual Remission , Justification , &c. ) The reason of all this is , because these Laws , Testaments or Promises , are but the Law-makers , Testators or Donors Instruments , and therefore act when and how he pleases : and it is his pleasure that they should act no otherwise then as is aforesaid , and as in the Tenor of them he shall express . Next you add [ To be justified , notes a passion ▪ which presupposeth an Action transient , not immanent , or only Gods purpose to justifie : ] Answer 1. So far as the Reception of a Relation may be called a Passion , this is true : And no doubt you are in the right , that it is not Actus immanens . But now , What transient Act it is , I remember very few Divines that once tell us ; but only in general say , It is a Transient Act. Now you and I that have adventured to enquire , do happen to be both singular from others , and differing between our selves , ( only Mr. Rutherford , and some few others I find saying oft , that we are pardoned and justified by the Gospel : by which they seem to mean as I ) But for your way of Justification by a sentence before the Angels , as I never met with any that judged that to be our Justification by Faith , so as I have said , it seems to me very groundless and strange . And then , if yours stand not , mine only must , for any thing that is yet discovered , that I have seen , for I know of none that tells us of any third , Your next Objection is the same before answered , that [ God 's Promise to justifie , is only a declaration what he will do , and therefore a man is not by Covenant without a further Act justified , but justifiable . ] Answer . Grotius de satisfact . will tell you , that Promises give right to him to whom they are made : and that therefore they cannot be reclaimed , though threatnings may . But if these were only Promises that God will by another Act do this or that for us , then it were to the purpose that you say : but that you cannot prove . Nor needs there any other Act , but the moral Action of the Instrument it self to change our Relations here : Et frustra fit pro plura , &c. Indeed an Act of ours [ Believing ] must come in before the effect : but you and I are agreed , that this is but conditional , and not effective . These Promises therefore being also Gods Law , Testament ( of Christ ) Deed of Gift , Covenant , &c. they do not only foretell an Event to come to pass by some other Action ; but they do confer a Right or make due the benefit or relation , and so effect it ; only the Author is pleased to suspend the effect of his Instrument , till we perform the Condition . As if by a Lease , or Deed of Sale , there be some Office or Dignity made over to you : or some command in Army or Court , or Country : or by a Law a Foraigner be Naturalized or Enfranchized , on such or such a Condition ; This Lease or Deed , or Law doth not only foretel , but effect the thing . You add that [ Justification is a Court-term , importing an Act of God as Judge , whereas his promising is not his Act as Judge , but Rector . ] Answer 1. If by a Court-term , you also mean a Law-term , ( verbum forense or judiciarium in the full sense ) I agree with you . But if you confine it to the sentence as pronounced , I require Proof ; as also proof of any such sentence before Judgement , particular or general . A Rector is either Supremus or Subaliernus : A Judge is either supreme above all Laws , as being the Law-giver , or sub lege . God is both Rector and Judge , only in the first senses : and by judging , he Ruleth ; and Rector is but the Genus , whereof Judex is a species . As Rector supremus ▪ God is the Legislator , and so acteth ( and justifieth by his Laws , Grants , &c. ) as Judge he sentenceth and absolveth those that were first made just . A man is accused for killing another in fight , at the command of the Soveraign Power . Is it not as fit and proper a saying , to say [ The Law doth justifie this man for so doing against all Accusers , ] as to say , [ The Judge will justifie him ▪ ] Nay , Is it not more ordinary ? And in a sort , the Supream or Soveraign may be said to be ( though in a different sense ) justified , as well as an Inferior ; when yet the said person in Supremacy hath no Judge , nor is to have any by Law , and so cannot be justified by sentence . God will be justified in his sayings , &c. as he hath in a sort bound himself by his own Laws , that is , signified his Resolution to observe them ; so in the sense of these Laws , his works are now just , and shall be hereafter so be manifested : but not by any sentence of a Superior . But this I confess differeth from our Justification . Next you say , [ You know not whence it should be that Angels should judge us righteous , and rejoice therein , but by a sentence passed in Heaven . ] Answer . If you think ( and prove ) that Angels cannot know us to be righteous , then I will not affirm that they judge us so . For I presuppose that that they know us to be so made by some Act before , and therefore they judge us to be as we are . And if they may know that we are Believers , and know that the New Law justifieth all such , then they may judge us to be justified without any sentence in Heaven , even as they know when a sinner is converted , and rejoice in it ; which doubtless they may know without a sentence in Heaven pronouncing us converted ; and Gods making them Instruments in conferring his Mercies may make them know . You say that [ Constitutive Justification , different from Declarative by sentence , I do not find expressed under the term ( Justification : ) it would be considered , whether any other Act beside the sentence , doth make a man just , but giving of faith . ] Answer . These two things I shall prove to convince you : ( because this is of some moment . ) 1. That some Act there must be to constitute us just , before or besides the sentence . 2. That neither the sentence nor the giving of Faith doth first and properly constitute us Just . 1. If we be not just before we are judged as just , then Gods Judgement should not be according to Truth . But Gods Judgment is according to Truth : therefore we are just before we are so judged . 2. He that hath Christ , and the Benefits of his satisfactory Righteousness given him by the New Law , Covenant , Testament or Grant of Christ , is hereby constituted righteous . But every Believer hath Christ and the said benefits Given him in and by the Law or Covenant : therefore he is thereby made or constituted Righteous . And here by the way take notice , that the New Law or Covenant hath two Offices ; the one to Bestow Right to the Benefit : and hereby it makes Righteous : The other to Declare and manifest openly , and to be the Rule of publique Judgement : and so it doth both actione morali proclaim believers righteous , and Virtually sentence them so . And therefore in Rom. 10.5 . it is called [ the Righteousness which is of the Law ] And if the Old Law had a power of making Righteous , if man could have performed the condition , so also hath the New. 2. And that the sentence doth not constitute us Just , needs no proof : It is the work of a Judge by sentence to clear the Guiltless , and not to make them Guiltless . Pardon indeed may do somewhat to it : but that is not the action of a Judge as a Judge , but ( as you before distinguished ) of a Rector ( in case of transgressing Lawes . ) A Judge pronounceth men to be what they first are according to Law ; and not makes them to be righteous who are not . He that saith to the wicked , thou art Righteous , Nations shall curse him ; people shall bhor him : Pro. 24.24 . He that justifieth the wicked , and he that condemneth the Just , even they both are abomination to the Lord , Prov. 17.15 . If this were not so , then we must believe that no man is justified before the day of ( particular or general ) Judgement , till you have proved that God sentenceth at a Court of Angels . And that the Giving of Faith doth not make Righteous ( that is , according to the Law of works ) effective , I think you confess . If I thought you did not , it were very easily proved : Faith being but the condition of our universal righteousness ( which the old Law requireth in its stead ) cannot be that Righteousness it self : and some other efficient there must be of our Justification here . Next you say [ Notwithstanding Christs Death and the Conditional Covenant afore faith , a person is only justifyable : Conditionalis nihil ponit esse . ] Answ . All this is very true : but not any thing against me . I like well what you say of Christs death , because it is ( as Aquinas and our Davenant , Vsher , &c. say , ) but Causa universalis , vel Remedium omnibus applicabile . It is to prepare for and merit , & not directly to effect our Justification , ( whatsoever the Antinomians dream : ) But the Covenant or Testament is the very efficient Instrumental cause of Justification : and its Action is Gods Action . Yet its true that Conditionalis nihil ponit in esse : that is , till the condition be performed : but then it becometh of equal force to an Absolute Gift and doth ponere in esse : even the same Instrument doth it , whose Action till then was ( by the Authors will ) suspended . YOu next pass to another Point ( about Thes . 59. ) whether Justification be a continued Act. And you say that [ being a Transient Act , it cannot be well called a continued Act , which imports a successive motion between the Terminus a quo and ad quem , whereas this Act , whether by sentence or Covenant , is not such a motion , &c. ] Answ . 1. All this may be true of a proper natural Action : but you know that it is only a moral Action which I affirm to be continued , and of this you know your Rule de motu holds not , except you take Motus largely and improperly . As passive Justification , or the effect of the Justifying Act is but a Relation , which is the weakest of Entities ; so doth it per nudam resultantiam arise , which is by the weakest of Causalities ; The Act of God giving out and enacting this Law or Covenant at first , was indeed a proper transient Act , and is ceased : but the moral Action of the Law thus enacted is continual . The Law of the land , which condemneth Delinquents , and justifieth the obedient , doth both by a continued moral Act. The Lease of your House or Lands gives you Title thereto by a continued moral Act. So that this which I assert , is not Actus repetitus vel renovatus . You add that [ You incline to think that there is but one Justification of a Person in this life , though frequent Remission of sin . ] Answ . In that you judge as most of the Orthodox do : And I have said nothing to the contrary . I think also , that as Scripture useth the phrase of oft-forgiving , but seldom of oft-justifying , so it is safest to speak as Scripture doth . Yet as to the thing , me thinks , that as Remission and Justification do but respectively or very narrowly differ ; so in this case , one may as truly be said to be repeated , as the other : that is , As there is an universal Remission of all sin past , upon our first true Believing ; which universal Remission is never iterated , but continued : so is there an Universal Justification of the person at the same time , by which he is made just , ( and in Law so esteemed , pronounced or judged ) by being acquit from the condemning Power of the Law , which ( for his sins past only ) was before in force against him . And so if you look to such a Remission or Justification as wholly changeth the state of the person , making him Pardoned who was before wholly unpardoned , and fully under guilt of all former sins ; or making him justified who was before unjustified , and condemned ( in Law ; ) neither of these I think , are iterated . But then , as you confess a frequently renewed pardon for following sins , so I know no reason , but in the same sence there must be a frequent Justifying : For as our Divines well conclude , that sin cannot be pardoned before it be committed ( for then there should be pardon without Guilt ; for no man is Guilty of sin to come formally ; ) so is it as necessary to conclude , that no man is justified from sin before it be committed ; that is , from that which is not ; and so is not sin : For then Justification should go before and without Legal Accusation and Condemnation : For the Law accuseth and condemneth no man for a sin which is not committed , and so is no sin . It is said Acts 13. ●9 . that ( by Christ ) we are Justified from all things , from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses . Where , as I desire you to observe that phrase of being Justified by the ●aw , to shew it is an Act of the Law ( though sin maketh transgressors uncapable . ) so you see it is a Scripture phrase to say ▪ we are Justified from sin : And then either there must be some kind of particular Justification from particular sins after faith , of the nature of our renewed particular Pardon ; or else what will become of us for them ? For sure if the Law be so far in force against the actions of Believers as to make and conclude them Guilty and Obliged to Punishment ( as much as in it lyeth ) and so to need a frequent pardon ( for pardon is a discharge from Guilt , which is an Obligation to punishment ; ) then it must needs be in force to Judge them worthy condemnation , and so to Accuse ( and as much as in it lyes to condemn ) them ; and so they must need also a particular Justification . But then according to my Judgement , 1. There is a sure Ground said of both in the Gospel or new Law or Covenant . 2. And the said New Law doth perform it , by the same Power by which it did universally justifie and pardon them at the first . There needeth no addition to the Law. The change is in them : And the Law is said Moraliter ager● quod antea non actum erat , because of their new Capacity , necessity and Relation . As if your Fathers Testament do give you a thousand pound at his Death , and twenty shillings a week as long as you live after , and so much at your marriage , &c. here this Testament giveth you these new sums ( after the first ) without any change in it ; and yet by new moral Act ; for it was not a proper gift , till the Term expressed , or the condition performed : and if that term had never come , nor the condition been performed , you had never had right to it : so I concieve , Gods Gospel Grant or Testament doth renew both our Remission and particular Justification . If Satan say , This man both deserved death by sining since he Believed ( as David ) must we not be justified from that Accusation ? And here let me ask you one Question , which I forgot before about the first Point . Seeing you think ( truly ) that Pardon is iterated as oft as we sin , by what Transient Act of God is this done ? Doth God every moment at a Court of Angels Declare each sinner in the world , remitted of his particular sin ? ( for every moment we commit them . ) If you once-see a necessity of judging the New Covenant or Promise Gods Pardoning Instrument , I doubt not but you will soon acknowledge as much about Justification . And sure a Legal or written Instrument is so proper for this work , that we use to call it [ A Pardon , ] which a Prince writes for the acquitting of an offendor . Besides , the Gospel daily justifieth by continuing our Justification , as your Lease still giveth you Title to your Land. ( Mat. 12.37 . is of more then the continuance of Justification , even of Justification at Judgement . ) THe next Point you come to about the Nature and Object of Faith , you are larger upon , through a mistake of my words and meaning . I know not therefore how to Answer your Arguments till I have first told you my sence , and better stated the Question . Indeed that in pag. 11. of Rest , I apprehended my self , so obvious to misconstruction , that I have corrected it in the second Edition ( which is now printed . ) Yet 1. I spoke not of faith as Justifying , but as the condition of Salvation , which contains more then that which is the condition of our first justification . 2. I neuer termed those Gospel-Precepts , which are not in some way proper to the Gospel . And for the next words [ That subjection to Christ is an Essential part of faith . ] I confess I do not only take it for a certain Truth , but also of so great moment , that I am glad you have bent your strength against it , and thereby occasioned me to search more throughly . But then , if you think ( as you seem to do ) that by [ Subjection ] I mean [ Actual Obedience ] you quite mistake me : for I have fully opened my mind to you about this in my Aphoris . that speak only of the subjection of the Heart ; and not of the Actual Obedience , which is the practise of it . I speak but of the Acceptation of Christ for our Lord , or the Consent thereto ▪ and so giving up our selves to be his Disciples , Servants or Subjects . This I maintain to be an Essential part of justifying Faith , in the strict and proper sense of that word . It s true that de jure Christ is King of Unbelievers , and so of them that acknowledge him not to be their King. But in order of nature , the acknowledging of his Dominion , and consent thereto , and so receiving him to be our King , doth go before our obeying him as our King. As a woman in marriage-Covenant , taketh her Husband , as one whom she must obey add be faithfull to : But that taking or consenting , goes before the said Obedience , as every Covenant before the performance of it . Yea though the same act should be both an acknowledgement of , and consent to the Authority , and also an obeying of it ; yet it is Quatenus a consent and acceptance of that Authority , and not as it is an obeying of it , that I speak of it when I ascribe Justification to it : as faith in the common sense is certainly an act of Obedience to God : and yet Divines say , it justifie ; not as it is Obedience , but as an Instrument . So that by Heart-subjection to Christ , I mean that act by which we give up our selves to Christ as his Subjects to be ruled by him ; and by which we take him for our Soveraign on his Redemption-title . But when I judge the word Faith to be taken yet in a larger sense , comprehending obedience , I never said or thought that so it is the condition of our first Justification , nor will I contend with any that thinks the word is never taken so largely , it being to me a matter of smal moment . Now to your Objections . 1. YOU say , [ Faith worketh by Love , &c. ] Answ . 1. Faith is sometime taken strictly for a Belief of Gods word , or an Assent to its Truth . 2. Sometime more largely for the wills embracing also of the objec as an offered good , besides the understandings Assent to the Truth of the word which offereth it . The former is by the Apostle oft distinguished from Love , and is said to work by Love ; as the lively acts of the understanding produce answerable motions in the will. But the later is that faith which justifieth ; to wit , The Receiving of an offered Christ . And this comprizeth both the Act of the Understanding and Will ( as almost all Protestant Divines affirm . ) But both these acts together are called Faith from the former , which is most strictly so called : because the great difficulty then lay in Believing the Truth of the Gospel ▪ ( and would do still , if it were not for the advantages of Credit , Education , Custom , &c. ) therefore the whole work is thence denominated : though yet the compleating of the work be in the Will , and the Understandings Act but preparatory thereto . 2. You must also distinguish between Love to Christ the Mediator , and the Grace of Charity in general , as it is extended al ; so to God as Creator , to Saints , to all men , &c. And between that first act of Love , which is in our first receiving of Christ , and the love which we afterwards exercise on him : and so I answer you . 1. That as the Apostle distinguisheth between Faith , Hope and Love , So do I. 2. Faith taken strictly for assent to Divine Testimony , produceth love in every one of the forementioned senses ( of the word Love : ) 3. Justifying faith ( comprizing the wills acceptance ) produceth both the grace of Charity , as it is exercised on other objects , and also the following acts of it towards Christ the Mediator : And so I acknowledge that Faith worketh by Love , and that Love is not faith . But yet whether Love be not in some sense essential to justifying faith , if you speak only of Love to Christ , and that not as a distinct grace , but as it is comprized in our Acceptance of him at first , I shall leave to your consideration , when you have first resolved these things . 1. Whether justifying faith be not an act of the Will as well as the Understanding ? Few but Papists deny it , and not all of them . 2. Whether Christ himself be not the object of it ? Few Protestants will deny it . 3. Whether Good be not the object of the Will , and so Christ be not willed as Good ? None doubts of it . 4. Whether this willing be not the same as Loving , as love is found in the rational appetite ? Sure Aquinas saith so , no man that I know contradicting it . 5. Whether you can call Affiance , or any other act of the will justifying faith , excluding this willing , or not principally including it ? For 1. This is the Wills first act towards it object ; and will you say that Love goes before justifying faith , and so before Justification ? and such a Love as is distinct from justifying faith as being no part of it ? How then is Love the fruit of faith , and as Divines say , a consequent of Justification ? Yet it is beyond all doubt , that this Velle or Love to Christ goes before Affiance on him , or any other act of the Will. vide Aquin. 1.2 . Q. 23. a. 33. Et. 1. Q. 20. a. 1 Et Tolet de anima , l. 3. cap. 9. Q. ●7 , 28 Et Ames . contra Gravinchou . pag. 16. 2. And can it be imagined that preceding assent , and subsequent Affiance , in Christ should be conditions of our Justification ; and yet the Velle Christum oblatum , that Willing which we call Consent , Election or Acceptance , which goeth between assent and Affiance , should be excluded as no part of this condition ? 3. Especially considering that Affiance contains divers acts , whereof one is of the Irascible of the sensitive , and so is but an imperate act of the Will , and less noble then that elicite Act ( which I plead for , ) as well as Posterior to it : and if Aquin. be not out in his Philosophy , when he so oft saith , that fiducia is spes roborata , then our Divines make Hope to justifie . Yet for all this , I have not espoused this saying , that Love to Christ is Essential to justifying faith : nor will contend with any man that thinks it unmeet : if we agree in the things of moment ▪ I hate to quarrel about words . Nor do I think it a meet phrase to say , we are justified by Love , ( though in the sense before mentioned , I think it true , ) because it is but a part , or affection as it were of that reception , by which we are justified , and stands not in so full a relation to the object received . And yet , if I had said none of all this , I see not that I need any more then to deny your consequence , as being wholly ungrounded : For it followeth not , that if it be an essential part , that therefore it must have the Denomination of the whole : yea , though the whole be said to work by that part . The Brain and Heart are essential parts of the Body : and yet not to be called the Body ; and it is more proper to say that the body works by the Brain or Heart ; or that the vegetative soul doth work by the natural heat and Spirits ; then to say , the Body worketh by the Body , or the vegetative soul by it self . I will explain all together in my usual Similitude , which is Dr. Prestons ( or rather Pauls ) A condemned Beggar is offered a Pardon , and also to be made a Queen , if she will but take the Prince for her Husband . Now here put your Questions . 1. Is Love any part of the Condition of her Pardon and Dignity ? Answer , Yes : An essential part ; for Consent is of the Essence of it : and Love is essential to true consent , to receive any offered good : Not love as it is a Passion , but as it is an act of the rational Appetite ; which is but Velle ; And Eligere , Consentire , Acceptare are nothing else but a respective Willing . 2. But it is not Love as a Vertue in general , or as exercised on any other object , which is this essential part of the Condition : but only love to him whom she marrieth : And so her first love is necessary to her Pardon and Dignity as begun ; and her continued love ( and marriage-faithfulness ) is necessary to them ▪ as they are to be continued : ( supposing the Prince to know the heart as Christ doth . ) Qu. 2. Is it then a meet phrase to say , that she is pardoned and dignified by loving such a Prince ? Answ . It hath some Truth in it , but it is not a fit speech ; but rather that it is by marrying him , because Love is but a part , or as it were an Affection of that Marriage Covenant or consent , which indeed doth dignifie her : Love may be without marriage , but not Marriage ( cordially ) without Love. So in our present case , justifying faith is the very Marriage Consent or Covenant with Christ ; It is therfore fitter to say , we are justified by it , then by love ; because the former expresseth the full condition : the latter not : Qu. 3. If love be an essential part of the Marriage-consent , then may we not as well say , Marriage causeth Marriage , as to say , Marriage causeth Love. Answer No. For 1. That Love which it causeth , is the following acts of Love. 2. And the name of Love is most usually given only to the Passion which is in the sensitive ; but not usually to the meer Velle , the elicite act of the rational appetite . I have been the more prolix on this , because it serves also for answer to other of your Objections , especially the third . 2. You object [ Gospel-Precepts are many , if not all , the same with the moral Law : if justified then by obedience to them ; are we not justified by the works of the Law ? &c. Answer . 1. James yields the whole . 2. If you speak of our Justification at first , by which , of guilty and lyable to condemnation , we become recti in curia , or are acquit , I then yield all that you seek here , viz. that we are not justified by works . 3. This objection is grounded on your formentioned mistake of my meaning , as if I thought that justifying faith contained essentially such obedience or works . 4. We are not justified by works of the Law , if you mean the Law of works , or by any works which make the reward to be not of Grace , but of Debt , which are the works that Paul speaks of . 5. That which you call the moral Law , viz. the bare Precepts of the Decalogue , taken Division , without the sanction , viz : the Promise or the Commination , is not the Law , but one part of the Law : and the other part , viz. the sanction adjoined , if diversified , makes it two distinct Laws , though the Duty commanded be the same . The Law that commandeth Socrates to drink Cicutam , is not the same with that which should command a sick man to drink some for a cure . 6. That our Justification is continued , on condition of our sincere obedience , added to our faith , I maintain with James . 7. Will you answer your own objection , and you tell me what to answer : Faith is a duty of the moral Law : if we are justified by faith , then we are justified by a work of the Law. I know you will not evade as those that say , Faith is not a work , but a Passion : nor as those that say , we are justified by it not as a work ; but as an Instrument : for I have heard you disclaim that . If you say it is not as a work , but as a condition by the free Law-giver appointed to this end , then you say as I do , both of faith , and secondarily of works . For what Divine denyeth works to be a condition of Salvation , or of the final Justification ? or of our present Justification as continued , vel nor amittendi Justificationem jam recaptam , as Conr. Bergius saith ; I know but one other evasion left in the world which I once thought none would have adventured on ; but lately an acute Disputant ( with me ) maintains , that faith is not conditio moralis , vel ex voluntate constituentis , but Conditio physica vel ex natura rei . But I think I shall easily and quickly disprove this opinion . Rababs and Abrahams works were works of the New Law of Grace , and not of the old Law of works . In a word , As there is a two fold Law , so there is a two fold Accusation and Justification : when we are accused as breakers of the Law of works , that is , as sinners in common sort , and so as lyable to the penalty thereof , then we plead only Christs satisfaction as our Righteousnes , and no work of our own : But when we are Accused of final non-performance of the conditions of the New Law , that is of being Rejectors of Christ the Mediator , we are justified by producing our faith and sincere obedience to him . The former Paul speaks of ; and James of the latter . You may see Divines of great Name saying as I in this , as Mead , Deodate on James the 2. but most fully Placaus in Thes . Salmuriens . Thes . de Justific . &c. To your third Objection , That Faith , Repentance , Hope and Love ( as before explained ) are distinguished , I easily yield you . But where you say ( Faith and Love have different Objects , therefore one is no essential part of the other ) I answer , That faith in Christ , and Love to the Saints ( which your Texts mention ) have different Objects , I soon confess . But faith in Christ ( as it is the first Act of the Will ) and love to Christ , have one and the same Object , beyond all doubt . Your fourth I wholly yield , if you speak of faith strictly , or as it Justifieth , and not in a large improper sence . Your fifth is grounded on the forementioned mistake of my meaning . And there needs no further answer , but only to tell you , that though sincere obedience to all Christs Lawes be a part of the condition of our Justification as continued and consummate at Judgement ; yet it follows not that every particular duty must be done ▪ no more then that Adam must obey every particular Law before he were actually just . It is sufficient that there be no other defect in our Obedience , but what may stand with sincerity . The same Precept may command , or make Duty to one , and not to another , and so be no Precept as to him . A man that lives but an hour after his conversion is , bound sincerely to obey Christ according to his Law : but he is not bound to build Churches , nor to do the work of twenty years . Christ may be received as King , ( and is ) in the same moment in which he is received as Justifier ; and in that reception we covenant to obey him , and take him for our Lord to the death ; but not to obey him on earth when we are dead ; for we are then freed from these Lawes , and come under the Lawes of the Glorified . To your sixth I answer , The Texts alledged have no shew of contradicting the Point you oppos ; se . One saith , we are justified by his Blood : But doth it thence follow , ( therefore not by Believing in him or receiving him as King , are we made partakers of it . ) His Blood is the Purchasing cause , but we enquire after the condition on our part . The other Text saith , ( through faith in his Blood. ) But 1. it saith not only in his Blood. 2. And his blood is the Ground of his Dominion as well as of his Justifying us : for by his blood he bought all into his own hands : For to this end he Died , Rose and Revived , that he might be Lord of Dead and Living . Rom. 14.9 . It may be therefore through faith in his Blood , as the chief part of the satisfaction , and yet necessarily also through faith in himself , or the Reception of himself as the Christ . 3. Yet doth the Apostle most conveniently say , ( through faith in his blood ) rather then ( through faith in his Dominion or Government , ) because when he speaks of Faith , he speaks Relatively : not ( as some understand it ) by Faith meaning Christ , but using the name of that Act which fitliest and fulliest relates to its Object ; and so intending the Object more principally then the Act. And as it is fitter to say , that ( we are Justified by Christs blood , ) then that ( we are Justified by his Kingly Power , ) therefore the Apostle rather speaks of faith in his blood , as neerliest relating to the Object . Yet , as he excludes not Christs obedience , ( for by his obedience many are made Righteous ) nor faith in his obedience , and in his whole humiliation as well as his blood ; and in his Resurrection , and Intercession and Exaltation ; so not in his Kingly Office. Look back on the former Example to make this plain . A poor condemned woman is delivered and Dignified by marrying a Prince that hath redeemed her on that condition . When she speaks of her Deliverance , she will say , [ I am delivered by the Bounty , Goodness or Redemption of my Prince , and so by marrying him that in mercy Redeemed me . ] rather then [ I am delivered by marrying a Prince to Rule me . ] Because in the former she more fitly & fully expresseth more of the cause of her Deliverance : Much less will she think it a fit speech to say , I am delivered by marrying an Avenger of his enemies , a Condemner , a Punisher , &c. ) as you are pleased to speak in this our case . And yet who doubts , but her marrying or taking him for her Husband hereafter to Rule her , as well as presently to Deliver her , is the very true Condition on her part of her Deliverance ? Yea , and if you speak not only of her Deliverance , but of her Dignity ( being enriched , Honoured and made a Queen , ) it is the fittest phrase to say ( it was by her marrying a Prince . ) And so if you speak not only of Pardon and Justification ( which import our Deliverance in statum quo prius , ) but also of our Adoption to be sons , and Kings , and Heirs with Christ , it is no unfit phrase to say , This is by our marrying King Jesus ; or by receiving Christ as the King by Redemption . All the Benefits which we Receive from Christ ( which follow Union ) such as are Pardon , Justification and Adoption , do flow from our Union with himself which precedes them . This Union is by Faith : We are united to him as to a Head , Husband and Prince , and not only as a Justifier ? therefore from him received as a Head , Husband and Prince , do these Benefits of Justification and Adoption flow . To your seventh Objection I answer , by denying the latter part of your Antecedent [ that Scripture nowhere makes ( Christs Dominion you say , but ) Christum Dominum ( you should say , ) the Object of justifying Faith. ] I never thought that Christs Dominion , nor yet his Redemption was the proper Object of the chiefest act of Justifying Faith. But Christ himself as Lord and as Redeemer is . I prove it , 1. Christ is the proper Object of justifying Faith ( as I shall anon prove . ) But the name Christ signifieth as directly and fully his Kingly Office as his Justifying . If you include not his being King , you Receive him not as Christ . 2. To Receive him as Redeemer is to Receive him as King ▪ For his very Redeeming was a Purchasing them into his own hands , ( Joh. 13.3 . Matth. 28.18 Joh. 17.2 . & 3.35 . Luke 10.22 . Ephes . 1.20 , 21. Joh. 5.26 , 27. Rom. 14.9 &c. ) though not only so . 3. Psalm 2. Kiss the Son left he be angry , &c. Kissing , or submitting to , and Receiving the Son as King ( for so the whole Psalm expounds it ) is the condition of escaping wrath ; therefore of Pardon ( for Poena & Venia sunt aduersa : ) therefore of our Justification . 4. Matth. 11.27 . Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden , ( Guilt is the great load : ) But under what Notion will Christ be come to ? Take my yoke and burthen , &c. Learn of me , &c. and ye shall find rest to your souls . Rest ! from what ? from that they were burdened with : and that was Guilt , among other things : and to remove the burden of the Guilt of sin or curse of the Law , is to Pardon and Justifie . ( I hope you will not say , that the only Burden that Christ offers here to ease them of , was the pharises rigorous Interpretation of the Law , as I was told you expound it . ) 5. Luke 19.27 . These mine enemies that would not I should Reign over them , &c. If Rejecting Christ as King be the condemning sin according to the tenor of the New Law ; then Accepting him as King is part of the condition of Justification . The Consequence is plain , because the said Rejection condemneth , as it is the non-performance of that condition which must be performed to the avoiding of condemnation . More Scriptures might be brought ; but the first Argument alone is suficient , if there were no more . To your eighth Objection I answer . The Object of justifying Faith is Christ himself principally ; and the word as both Revealing , Offering him , Promising , Threatning : but it is not Christ commanding , first , but Christ as King to Command . This is answered in the former . To your ninth Objection I answer ; when I say that [ Receiving Christ as Lord is one part of Justifying Faith , ] I speak not of the Act morally , as if it had two parts where it is entire : It is but one moral Act to Accept of whole Christ ( if you speak simply of Accepting , as distinct from preceding Assent and subsequent Affiance . ) But I call it ( part ) in reference to the Object , whence you say ariseth the Difference : Though Christs Office of Mediator be but one ; yet from the works of that office we look on his Governing , and Pardoning or Justifying as distinct parts : and thence I call this act of faith ( a part . ) For that you say of obedience following faith and as an effect and sign , I easily yield it . But where you say , that [ Trust is the Genus where the Object is an incomplex term ] I answer ; if you take faith as it is justifying ( or the condition of our Justification ) and not in the strictest sense , so it hath more Acts then one about the incomplex term . And Affiance is the Genus of one only . To accept ( an offered Saviour , ) is an Act precedent in order of Nature before any other act of the Will ; that is , the elicite Acts are before the Imperate : and Trust is not the Genus of this . Besides , Trust is no one act , but many , and that of both faculties , and a Negation of several acts besides . A certain Argument that it is no one single Act that justifieth , even in their Judgement that say Affiance is the justifying Act ; when the Scripture speaks of faith as Affiance , it includes Acceptance or consent , which go before Affiance in order of nature ; Yea some of our most Learned , Accurate Divines , when they say Affiance is the justifying faith , do either by Affiance mean only that elicite act of the Will , which I call Acceptance , Consent or Election , or else ( rather ) they mean several acts , whereof this is one . So Amesius Medul . l. 1. cap. 3. § . 13. Fides i st a qua credimus non tantum Deum , aut Deo , sed in Deum , est vera ac propia fiducia : non qua hac voca notatur certa & absoluta persuasio de bono futuro , sed quâ significat Electionem & Apprehensionem sufficientis ac idonei medi● , ac in qou persausio & expectatio talis fundatur . Quo sensu dicuntur homines fiduciam habere in sapientia , potentia , Amicis ac opibus suis , Psal . 78.22 . If therefore you understand by Affiance many Acts , of which velle Christum oblatum , ( called Acceptation , quia volumus objectum ut oblatum ; and Election , quia volumus medium h●s , rejectis aliis ; or Consent , quia volumnus ex alterius Promotione qui prius volui● , ) is the first and chief , ( of those of the Will ) as Amesius doth , then I am of your mind . If you say that Velle vel Acceptare is not credere vel fidem babere in the common notation of the word : I answer 1. It includes Velle as its principal Act in the common use of the word , when its object is an Incompelx term : but indeed it includeth more also . 2. Words of Knowledge in Scripture do imply Affection we say : but Will much more . 3. I answer in the words of Amesius , Medul . l. 1. c. 3. § . 2 , 3 Credere vulgo significat actum intellectus Assensum testimonio praebentis : sed quoniam consequenter volunt as moveri solet , & extendere sese ad amplectendū bonum it a probatum , ideirco fides ●tiam hunc Voluntatis actum designat satis aptè , quomodo hoc in loco necessario intelligitur . Est enim receptio bond sub ratione boni , & intima unio cum codē , John 1.12 . Hinc fides fertur in bonum ; qoud per istam fit nostrum , est actus Electionis : est actus Totius hominis ; qua actui Intellectus nullo modo conveniunt . John 6.35 . Yea further , I doubt not but where this act of the Will is in sincerity , there is Justification certainly consequent : but the term Affiance contains some acts which Divines say , do only follow Justification : which also Amesi . seems to acknowledge , ibid. § 21. Quod vero fiducia dicitur fructus fidei , verum est de fiducia prout respicit Deum in futurum , & est spes f●rma , sed prout respicit Deum in Christo in praesentia se offerentem , est ipsa fides . Yea the same Amesius tells us Medul . lib 2. cap. 5. That five things concur even to that Belief which we call fides Divina ; viz. 1. Notitia rei à Deo testatae . 2. ●ffectio pia erga Deum quae facit ut maxime valeat apud nos ipsius Testimonium . 3. Assersus qui praebetur veritati test atae propter hanc affectionem erga Deum qui est ejus testis . 4. Aquiescentia in Deum ad illud quod prop●nitur consequendum . 5. Electio vel apprehensio rei ipsius , quae in Testimonio nobis exhibetur . So that even this faith hath many acts . Yea , and he adds , Primum horum est in intellectu : sed non constituit fidem , &c. secundum , quartum & quintum sunt in voluntate , & constituunt fidem , prout est virtus & actus religionis . T●rtium ( viz. assensus ) est in intellectu , sed prout movetur , à voluntate ; neque est proprie fidei virtus , s●d effectum . So that this Doctrine which 1. makes three acts of faith in the very will , 2. and makes the intellectual acts ( even assent ) to be but an effect of faith , and not the vertue , is far from yours ( though I scruple not to take in assent with the rest , for all it is in the Intellect , ) and if these be all in that faith which is a holy vertue , much more must that which justifies contain as much . And indeed to place justifying faith only in the intellect , is somewhat strange for those that make it the principal Grace , when Philosophers will not give it the name of a moral Vertue . For in the understanding are only intellectual Habits ; but moral vertues are all placed in the Will , or sensitive appetite ( for that quarrel I will pass by , whether they be only in the sensitive as Burgers●icius , &c. ) If any therefore wonder that I place faith in so many acts , and yet make one the chief compleative Act , I have yet further this most accurate Divine saying the very same as I. Perfectio autom fidei est in Electione aut apprehensione illa , qua bonum Propositum fit nostrum . Hinc fidei natura ●ptimè explicatur in Scriptura cum fideles di●untur adhaerer● D●o , Jos . 23.6 . Act. 11.23 . & vi●● veritatis ●ligere , Psal . 119.30 , 31. Where you see also that by Affiance and Adhaesion , Amesius principally means the very Elicit act of the Will as Election is . And indeed he that observeth but how the Scripture throughout doth hang mans salvation or damnation on his Will mainly , ( so far as it may be said to depend on our own acts , ) rather then on any acts of the understanding ( but only as they refer and lead to those of the Will ) might well wonder , that justifying saving faith , the great needfull act , should be only intellectual , and not chiefly in or by the Will , as well as all the rest . Ye will not come to me that ye may have life : How oft would I , and ye would not ? These mine enemies that would not I should reign over them , &c. Whoever will , let him take or buy freely , &c. Still almost all is laid on the Will : and yet is not Faith in the Will ? Assent may be compelled by evidence of Truth , and so be unvoluntary . And so a man may be a Believer thus against his Will : and if this will serve , men may be saved against their Wills. I know some think it enough that the Will commands the understanding to believe . But even thus saith Amesius , Medul . l. 2. c. they place the first principle in the Will. Qui fidem collocant iu intellectu , necessariam tamen fatentur esse aliquam motion●● vol●ntatis ad assensum illum praebendum : quemadmodum i● fide humana voluntarium esse dicitur adhibere fidem alicui ; si vero à voluntate pend●at fides , necesse est ut primū principium fidei sit in voluntate , ● . 20 But this is only commanding the performance , & so it is thus no elicit act ( for Aquinas and others conclude , that Voluntas est Principium determinans actus humanos quo ad exercitium actus ; intellectus autem quo ad actus specificationem . ) But it is moreover the Wills Elicite Act that I assert . And as I said , this imperium voluntatis may possibly be wanting , and belief be involuntary for the main . Let me add but one more consideration , ( for I perceive my tediousness ) If Infidelity as it is a Privation of saving faith , and so is the condemning sin , be in the Will as well as in the Intellect , then faith must be in the Will too : But Infidelity is in both . Ergo. &c. That Infidelity which is the Privation of meer assent , is rather said to be willing , then in the Will ; but that which is opposite to justifying faith , is in the Will. Luk. 19.27 . Those mine enemies that would not I should raign over them , bring them hither , &c. saith Amesius Medul . l. 2. cap. 5. § . 48. Opponuntur ista ( Infidelitas &c. fidei , non tantum qua tollunt Assensum illum Intellectus qui est ad fidem necessarius : sed etiam qua inferunt & includunt privationem illius Elections & apprehensionis fidei quae est in Voluntate . Surely an unwillingness to accept Christ for our Lord and Saviour , is no small part of the condemning sin , which we therefore call the rejecting of Christ ; The treading him under foot ; Neglecting so great Salvation ; Not willing to come to Christ for life ; Making light of him , when they are invited to the marriage , ( Mat. 22. ) and making excuses : Not-kissiing the son , ( Psal . 2. ) with many the like , which import the Wills refusal of Christ himself , and not only its unwillingness to believe the Truth of the Promise or Declaration of the Gospel . To your tenth Objection I answer by denying the consequence ; we speak of the soul as rational , and not as sensitive or vegetative . When the understanding & Will receive Christ , the whole soul doth it : that is , every faculty , or the soul by a full entire motion in its several Actings to the Object presented , both as true and good . Your Joy , Hope , Fear , are in the sensitive : And Love as a Passion , and as commonly taken . And for Memory , take it for an act of the Understanding ; or of Understanding and Imagination conjunct ; or for a third faculty as please your self , it will not breed any difficulty in the case . But whether Fear be properly a Receiving of Christ , or any Object as Good , I much question . I take it rather for the shunning of an evil , then the Reception of Good. So much for your Objections . I will next , as impartially as I can , consider your Answers to what I laid down for the proof of the Point in Question . But first I must acknowledge ▪ that I have given you and others great advantage against the Doctrine of that Book , by the immethodicalness , and neglect of Art , and not giving the Arguments in form , which I then thought not so necessary as now I perceive it is : ( for I was ready to yield wholly to Gibeeufs reasons against formal arguing , Praefat. ante lib. 2. de Libertate . ) The present expectation of death caused me to make that haste , which I now repent : yet , though I see some oversights in the manner of expression , I see no cause to change my mind in the Doctrine of it . Also I must desire you to remember here , that the proof lyeth on your part , and not on mine : Affirmanti incumbit probatio . It is acknowledged by almost all , that fides qua Justificat , Justifying faith is a Receiving of Christ as Lord , and not only as Saviour or Justifier : And you and I are agreed on it , that Faith justifieth not as an Instrument , but as a Condition : so that they who will go further here , and maintain that yet Faith justifieth only As it Receiveth Christ as Justifier , or as Saviour , and not as King , must prove what they say . If I prove 1. that Faith justifieth as the Condition , on performance whereof the Gift is conferred . 2. And that this Faith which is the Condition , is the Accepting of Christ as Christ , or the Anointed King and Saviour : ( both which are yielded me ; ) I must needs think that I have proved that the Receiving Christ as King , doth as truly Justifie , as the Receiving him as Priest or Justifier : ( Yet I had rather not say that either Justifies , ( because 1. it is no Scripture phrase , 2. and seemeth to import an Efficiency ▪ ) but rather , that [ we are justified by it , ] which imports here but a conditionality , and is the Scripture phrase . ) Till you have proved your exclusion of faith in one respect from the Justifying Office , and your confinement of it to the other , my proof stands good : I give you the entire condition : and ubi Lex non distinguit , non est distinguendum ; multó minus dividendum . And though those that assert the proper Instrumentality of faith in Justifying , or else the meer natural conditionality , may have something to say for their Division ; ( though with foul absurdities ) Yet what you can say , ( who have escaped those conceits ) I cannot imagine . Me thinks , if faith Justifie , as the condition of the Grant or Covenant , and this condition be the Receiving of Christ as Lord and Saviour , it should be impossible to exclude the receiving Christ as King , from Justifying , till you first exclude it from the said conditionality . A Quatenus ad omne valet consequentia . To Justifie therefore As the condition ( on which the Promise gives Christ , and with him Justification , ) must needs infer that we are justified by all whatsoever hath such a conditionality . Yet ( as I said before ) when we intend to express , not only or principally the Act of the Receiver , but also , or principally , the Grace of the Giver , then it is a fitter phrase to say , we are Justified by faith in his Blood , or by Receiving Christ the Saviour and Justifier : because it fulliest and fitliest expresseth that Grace which we intend , ( and thus Paul oft doth . ) So that they who distinguish between Fides quae Justificat , and Fides qua Justificat and admit that Act into the former , which they exclude from the latter , must prove what they say . ( Fides qua justificat , non Recipit Christum vel ut Regem vel sacerdotem , sed tantum Justificat . i. e. Qua est Conditio , non est Receptio : Nec qua Recipit Justificat ; i. e. Qua Receptio , non est Conditio : Materia & forma non sunt confundenda . Actus fidei est quasi materia , vel Aptitudo tantum ad officium conditionalitatis : Distinctio igitur ipsa est inepta . ) Now to your Answers : ( Pardon this prolixity . ) First I must tell you , that by that phrase [ the whole soul ] I mean the entire motion of the soul by Understanding and Willing , to its Object both as True and Good : For I know the whole soul may be said to understand in every Intellectual Action , and to will in every act of willing . But when it only understands or Assents , and not willeth , it doth not Act fully according to its Power , nor according to the nature of its Object , when the Goodness is neglected , and the Truth only apprehended . And it is not a compleat motion , seeing the Acts of the understanding are but introductory or preparatory to those of the Will , where the motion of the Rational soul is compleat . And so my Argument stands thus : If Justifying faith be the Act both of the understanding and the Will , then it is not one single act only : But &c. Ergo , &c. Prob. Anteced . Justifying faith is the Receiving of Christ : but Christ is Received by the Understanding and Will ; ( by the former incompleatly , by the latter compleatly : ) therefore Justifying faith is the Acting both of the Understanding and Will. Probatur Minor. Christ must be Received as Good , and not only his Word ( or himself ) as true : therefore he must be Received by the Will as well as the Understanding : for Goodness is the object of the Will. Here you answer 1. by confessing , that Faith is called a Receiving of Christ : 2. by interpreting that speech [ He is Received by the receiving his Word , which is received by Assent . ] This is worth a fuller enquiry , because the discovery of the proper Object of Faith , will shew the proper Act. The Intellectual Act [ Assent ) hath for its Objectum formale the Veracity of God , or the Authority of Gods Revealing or Testifying : This is not it that we enquire after . The material Object ( for we must use the Schools termes in this distinction , though perhaps fitter might be found , ) is 1. Proximius ; that is , the moral Verity of the Testimony or Word . 2. Vlterius , the Metaphysical Verity of the Things signified ( as Christs Person , God-head , Incarnation , Resurrection , &c. ) The former is but the means to the latter , and for its sake , and not for its self . In regard of this act of Assent , you may say as you do , that Christ is Received by receiving his Word : because the Belief of the Truth of the Enuntiation is the means of our apprehending the truth of the Thing propounded . But then 1. These are yet two distinct Acts as the Objects are distinct . 2. And this Intellectual Act is called a Receiving of the Truth Believed but imperfectly because it leads to that Act of the Will which ( in morality ) is more fitly and fully called a Receiving : and therefore if Assent produce not that Acceptation or consent of the Will , it cannot fitly it self be called a Receiving of Christ . ( For of the Intellects Reception of the Intelligible Species , I suppose we neither of us speak . ) The material Object of Justifying faith as it is in the Will , is 1. Principal , and Adaequate , which is Christ himself . 2. Subservient or Instrumental , which is the Covenant , Promise , or testamentary Gift , in & by which Christ is offered and Given . These are two distinct Acts , as the Accepting of a Testament , and of the Legacy : of a Pardon written , and the real Pardon thereby signified : or of the Oath of Allegiance , and of the Prince to whom we swear . But because of the Relation between the one and the other , Faith may be called a receiving of Christ , or a receiving of the Gospel . Yet so , as still the proper principal Object is Christ , and the Gospel but ●ediate , as to him . These are my thoughts . Now ( if I am able to understand you ) your words import , that in your Judgement , Christ is received two wayes : 1. by Faith , and that is only by Assent : and this is only by receiving his Word : that is , in Believing it to be True. 2. By other Graces ; and those I think , you refer to the Wills receiving . Against this opinion I further alledge , 1. Almost all Protestant Divines acknowledge faith to be the Act ( or rather Acts ) of both faculties , even Dr. Downame not excepted ( and Ca●●ro himself speaks sometime darkly ) insomuch that Melancthon , Joan ▪ Cr●cius and many more make it the judgement of Protestants in opposition to Popery . And so doth Amesius in Bellarm. Enerv. though he judge it ( as Camero ) not accurate , in M●dul . l. 1. c. 3. sect 22. Yea he that though it must be but in one faculty , chooseth to place it only in the Will , and excludes Assent , as being called faith quia parit fidem . Excellent Davenant saith , Insactu fidei justifit antis Totu Anima se convertit ad causam justificantem . Determin . Q. 38. pag. 174. And again , Fides illa quam scriptura justificantem agnoscit , habet in se complicatum actum Voluntatis & Intellectus . Determin . Q. 37. pag. 166 ▪ Again , Neque nobis absurdum sed valde consentaneum videtur , actum illum quo tota anima purificatur & Justificatur , ad Totam animam pertinere : ita ut in nudo intellectu habeat initium ; in Voluntate complementum ibidem . Again , Quod Philosophantur Voluntatem & Intellectum esse duas potentias reipsa distinctas , dogma philosophicum est , ab omnibus haud receptum ; & Theologicis dogmatibus firmandis aut infirmandis fundamentum minime idoneum ▪ Idem ibid. 2. Assent is not any full moral Receiving of Christ : But faith ( which Justifieth ) is a full moral Receiving of Christ , ( Job 1.12 . ) therefore Assent alone is not the faith that justifieth . I know there is a Metonymie in the word Receive ( because in strict speech in Physicks , Recipere est pati ) But it is so usual and near , that in morality it is taken for a proper speech , to call the Acceptation of an offered good [ A Receiving . ] 3. There is such a thing as the proper accepting of Christ , required as of flat necessity to Justification and Salvation : But this acceptation is not in Scripture called by the name of any other Grace : therefore it is taken for an Act of faith . The Maj. I hope no Christian will deny . For when Christ is offered to the world as their Saviour , Redeemer , Teacher , King-Husband ; who can think that the accepting of him is not required , yea even in the offer ? Not a physical Reception which some absurdly and dangerously dream of , but a moral ; as when a people take a man for their King or Teacher ; or a woman takes a man for her Husband . And for the Minor : Receiving Christ offered is not usually expressed in the term , Hope , Joy , Charity , Repentance ; therefore it is included in the word Faith ( unless you can name some other Grace which it is usually expressed by . ) 4. The Grace by which we are united to Christ is Faith : But it is receiving Christ by which we are so united to him ; therefore it is faith which is the receiving of Christ . I suppose none will deny that it is Christ himself that we must be united to by believing , and not the Word or Promise ; and that it is receiving Christ which unites us to him , is obvious both from the language of Scripture , and the nature of the thing . A People is united to their Prince , as the head of the Republique , and a Church to their Teacher , and a woman to her Husband , by the Wills consent or acceptance , and not properly ▪ ( but only initially , preparatorily , imperfectly and improperly , and if it be alone , not at all ) by believing the Truth of their words . Amesius saith , Medul . l. 1. c. 3. § . 18 Fides etiam cum sit primus actus vitae nostrae , qua Deo in Christo vivimus , consistat necesse est in unione cum Deo , quam nullo modo facere potest Assensus adhibitus veritati quae est de Deo. 5. By faith it is that we give up our selves to be Christs Disciples , Subjects , Members ; ( For Scripture ascribes not this to other Graces usually or chiefly . And to take him for our Saviour and Head , and give up our selves as his redeemed and Members , is all one work . ) But it is not by Assent only , chiefly or fully at all , that we give up our selves to Christ as Disciples , Members , &c. Therefore it is not by Assent properly or fully that we receive Christ . So Amesius ubi supra , § . 19. Crediturus etiam porro cum ex miseriae sensu , & omnimo●ae liberationis , cum in se , tum in aliis defectu , necesse habeat se dedere Deo in Christo tanquam Servatori sufficienti & fideli , Deditionem istam facere non potest ullo modo per Assensum Intellectus , sed per Consensum Voluntatis . And indeed I think this Dedition or self-delivery to be part of Faith : and that the covenanting in heart with God in Christ , is the very justifying faith , taking him for ours , and giving up our selves to him as his : and the external Covenanting is the profession of Faith : and that Baptism is the marriage-solemnization , and engaging sign and means . 6. That Act which cannot be discerned in a Saint ( in it self ) from what may be in the wicked , is not the receiving of Christ ( fully or properly ) which justifies : But the Act of Assent to the Truth of the Gospel , as it is in a Saint , cannot in it self be discerned from what may be in the wicked . Therefore the Act of Assent is not the Receiving of Christ which justifies . The Major is hence evident : In that justifying faith being the condition of our Justification , must needs be the great Mark to know by , whether we are justified or no : But if it could not be known to be sincere it self , in vain is it made a Mark to know our state by : yea or a Condition , almost , when a man can never tell when he performeth it . The Minor I have endeavoured to prove in an Additional Chap. to the third part of my Book of Rest , to which for brevity , I refer you . Dr. Stoughton , I have there shewed you , saith as I : A●esius saith , Medul . l. 1. c. ● . § . 4. quāvis fides praesuppmat semper notitiā Evangelii , nulla tamen datur in quoquā cognitio salutifera , & ab illa quo in quibusdam non salvandis reperitur , diversa , nif● consequenter ad actum istū voluntatis , & ab ipso dependens . Job . 7.17 . and 8.31.32 . 1 John. 2.3 . I doubt not but ( in the Intensness of Degree ) there is a difference between the Intellectual acts ( as Knowledge and Assent ) in a Saint and a wicked man : but if any think that they are in themselves discernable , I would he would tell me one Mark of the difference . In their different Effects on the Will , I know they are discernable . 7. If you acknowledge that other Graces receive Christ as well as Faith , and receiving of Christ doth make him ours , and so justifie ; then you must acknowledge that other Graces justifie as well as faith ; ( yea not secondarily only , but as Principally as Faith : ) But that you will be loth to do . The consequence will not be avoided , but by shewing that there is a twofold receiving of Christ , and that one justifieth , and the other not : which when you have proved from Scripture , I will yield : but then at least I shall gain this , that receiving Christ justifies not properly ex natura actus , sed ex voluntate Ordinantis : and if I get that , I get the main part of the cause in controversie . 8. Affiance is judged by Divines to be an Act of the Will : But Affiance is judged by the same Divines to be the justifying Act : Therefore they judge that the justifying Act ( and consequently the Reception of Christ ) belongs to the Will. 9. The Velle or Elicite act of the Will which I insist on , is the very first Act , and goes before Affiance ( as it denotes any other Act of the Will : ) Therefore either this Velle must be the justifying Faith and Reception of Christ , or else they must say that there is a saving reception of Christ that goes before the justifying or Reception : which sure they will not grant , that make that Faith the actus primas vitae spiritualis . 10. Lastly , The opinion seems to me so Improbable , without and against reason , and so dangerous [ that God doth assign one only Act of the soul to the Office of justifying , especially the act of assent ] that I dare not entertain it without proof It is improbable that in a Moral , Political , Theological Matter , the Holy Ghost should speak , as if it were in the strictest discourse of Physicks . It is improbable that God should speak to man in such a Moral discourse , so as no men use to speak , and therefore so as men could not , without a further explication understand . Doth he that speaks of receiving a man to be our Husband , King , Master , &c. mean it of one only Act ? ( though I know Consent is the chief . ) Or he that gives any great matter on Condition of such Receiving , Doth he mean that any one single Act is that Condition ? Much less Assent . Or is there any likelyhood , that when other Acts do receive the same Object , Christ , in a way of as high honouring him , that yet God should confine Justification to one Act , setting by all the rest ? Yea when the rest are acknowledged to be part of the Condition ? ( and Receiving as Lord , to be the fides quae ? ) I know God is not bound to give man a Reason of his Laws : but yet he usually doth it : and we must take heed of asserting that to be Gods Law , which appears unreasonable , till we can prove what we say . Yea what a dangerous loss will Christians then be at , who will hardly ever be able to find out this single Act , what it is and when they have it ? And he that knows how quick Spirits are in their actings , and withall how little able we are to observe and discern them , perhaps many doubt , whether you can find a name for any single act of a soul , or know when it is one Act , and when many . In the forementioned Instance , A woman is condemned for Treason ; the Prince writeth to her , that he hath dearly paid her Ransom & will not only deliver her , but also make her his Queen , if she will Believe this , and Receive him accordingly ; If now the Lawyers should dispute the case , what single act it was that she was Delivered and Dignified by , whether an act of the Intellect only , or of the Will only ? whether Assent only , or Affiance ? Yea whether agendo vel patiendo ( as many here do . ) would not men think that learning made them dote ? And I would entreat you to consider , whether it were Gods Design in the Gospel , to advance any one Act of mans soul above the rest , and so to honour it ? or rather to advance the Lord Jesus whom faith Receiveth ? as Mr. Gataker tels Sal●marsh , Many speak dangerously in over-magnifying their own faith , when they should magnifie Christ whom it relates to . I know the great thing that sticks with some , is that the Scripture oft seems to describe faith by the Act of Assenting . But consider , so it doth in other places by Trusting , Resting , Taking , Receiving , Coming , Eating and Drinking , ( which Metaphors must needs signifie acts of the Will , ) &c. which shew that it is not any single Act. Again , as I said , the whole is denominated from the first leading and most difficult Act : the Language of Scripture is much fitted to the times and temper of the persons to whom it was spoken . Now the Jews did generally and gladly acknowledge that the Messias or Mediator must be Received , Welcomed , Honoured , Loved , submitted to : but they could not Believe that Christ was he ; And this was foolishness to the Gentiles also , as well as a stumbling-block to the Jews ; that one that lived and walked among them , and seemed a poor contemptible man , and at last was crucified , should be God and the great Redeemer and Lord of the world . I tremble sometimes to think , if we had lived our selves in those times , how hard it would have been even to us to believe ; so that when the great Difficult act is named , the other ( Consent and Affiance ) are still implyed , and included . I will end with Amesius true observation to this purpose , Medul . l. 1. c. 3. Quamvis in scripturis aliquando Ascensus veritati quae est de Deo & Christo , Joh. 1.50 . habetur pro vera fide ; includitur tamen semper specialis fiducia : atque adeo omnibus in locis ubi sermo est de salutari fide , vel praesupponitur fiducia in Messiam , & indicatur tantum determinatio , vel applicatio ejus ad personam Christi ; vel per Assensum illum designatur , tanquam effectum per suam causam , Joh. 11.25 , 26 , 27. ( § 20. ) The second Argument which you answer , lyeth thus . If Faith be the work of the Heart and the whole Heart , then it is not only in the Understanding , but in the Will also . But the former is the words of Scripture , Act. 8.37 . Rom. 10.10 . Ergo , &c. Here you answer that [ the whole heart notes not every inward faculty , but ( as often ) sincerity . ] To which I Reply , 1. The word [ whole ] I yield to Illyricus signifies the sincerity , which is usually expressed by Integrity , but the word [ Heart ] signifies the subject ; and is commonly taken for the Will , and oft for the whole soul , Vnderstanding and Will , ( as most Fathers , Schoolmen and Divines judge in the Point , though the two former placed too much of it in the Assent : ) but where and how oft do you find the word [ Heart ] used for the sole Intellect ? I pray shew the place . 2. The proverbial speech [ with all the Heart ] is not used in Rom. 10.10 . but only subject barely expressed : with the Heart man believeth to Righteousness . My third Argument ( as you place it ) was to another use , which is of less moment . As I judge Faith to be taken , 1. sometimes more strictly for meer Assent to a Testimony : ( so James takes it when he saith , the Devils believe . ) 2. And sometimes more fully for Assent and Acceptance , or Consent : ( so Paul takes it ; and so it Justifieth . ) So 3. I suppose it is sometime taken most largely and improperly , for the full performance of the conditions of the New Covenant . If any deny this , I have no mind to contend for it , because it is but about a word , and not the thing . Your answer is twofold : 1. that Heb. 5.9 . speaks of obeying Christ , but doth not call faith obeying Christ . I Reply . That Obedience which containeth the Condition of salvation by Christ ( whereof Justification is a part ) must needs include Faith : But the word Obedience Heb. 5 9 containeth the condition of salvation by Christ ; therefore it includes faith . He is become the Author of Eternal salvation to all them that obey him . Your second answer is , [ It may be obedience by Assent , that Christ is the Messiah , died , rose , &c. ] Repl. 1. If Obedience of meer Assent be not made the condition of Eternal salvation in Scripture , then it is not that obedience which is here mentioned : But the former is true : therefore the latter . 2. The first Assent to these Gospel Truths is not in a full proper sence called Obedience to Christ at all : therefore not here to be so understood . As subjection , so obedience is a term of Relation on supposing the Authority of a Superior , the acknowledgement of that Authority , A command from that Superior , and that the action be therefore done because so commanded . Now the first Assent to , or acknowledgement of the Redeemers Office and Soveraignty , must needs in order of Nature precede all obedience to him as a Soveraign . I confess improperly a man may be said to obey , when he yields to the Reason and perswasion of another ; but this wants the very form of obedience properly so called . If it be true that the first Acceptance of Christ for our Soveraign as Redeemer , by the Wills consent , may be both the Reception of him for King , and Obedience to him : Yet in order of Nature it is respectively a Reception first ; though in time it is both at once . But the first Assent to Christs Soveraignty cannot be an obeying him as Soveraign . And for the understanding the Text , when I find Christ give the world , a systeme of Precepts , and tell them that he is become the Author of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him , I dare not without Reason restrain that obedience ( in the sence of it ) to some one or two acts : Especially when I find that he hath made the like promise on condition of other acts of ours besides Believing : as in many Text I have shewed in those Aphor . Take my yoke and burden , &c. Learn of me to be meek and lowly , &c. and I will ease you , and ye shall find rest : Forgive and ye shall be forgiven . He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy , with multitudes of the like . And Rom. 10. that is called Faith , ver . 14 , 17. which is called obeying the Gospel , ver . 16. And if the Gospel do as directly and urgently command Consent as Assent ; yea if it command love to Christ as of equal necessity with both , I have reason to think that in this large sence , Faith includes it . Why should obeying the Gospel , and obeying the Truth , be made Synonima's with Believing as it is one single Act , when the Gospel commands many other Acts as of aequal necessity and excellency ? Let me argue thus ex concessis , from your self and others . Most Divines affirm that the proper Reason why Faith justifieth , is its Relation to Christ ; because it is a Receiving of him ( it justifies Relative i.e. A Christ received Justifies : ) but Mr. Tomb●s confesseth that other Graces receive Christ as well as Faith : therefore other Graces justifie as well as Faith. The Consequence is a Quatenus ad Omne . What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 import in their first signification , is not to our business so much as in what sense they are commonly used : No doubt they may signifie properly our yielding to perswasion , improperly called Obeying : but that they are put for proper Obeying usually in Scripture , most Interpreters affirm . You may therefore as well draw to your purpose the Latin Obedire , because it is but quasi ob-audire . Indeed the Obedience to a Teacher ( as to Christ and his Ministers , and of Scholars to their Master ) who useth both Argument and Authority , is fully and fitly expressed in those words . The word [ Gospel ] is principally spoken of the Doctrine of Good tidings or Mercy by Christ ( but sure not only of the Historical or Declaratory part , but also , yea principally of the Promise or Offer : ) but the whole New Covenant or Law of Christ ( for so it is , and so the Ancients unaminously call it ) containing Precepts and Threatnings also , is called his Testament , Covenant , Gospel , being so denominated from the more excellent part . Heb. 7.18.19 , 22. The Testament of Jesus is opposed to the Commandments of the Law , and called Better : therefore it comprizeth Christs Commands , proper to him . And is it not Christs whole Law which is of force when he is dead , and called his Testament ? Heb. 9.17 . And when the Apostle saith , They were made able Ministers of the New Testament , doth he mean only of the History , or the Precept of faith , and not of Love , Hope , Repentance , &c. Let his preaching witness , as the Expositors , ( 2 Cor. 3.6 . ) Or let Christ in giving them their Commission tell you what that New Testament is , Mat. 28. Go Disciple all Nations , &c. teaching them to observe all things what ever I command . And not to strive about words , you know that New Law of Christ , which is called his Testament , Covenant , Gospels , &c. hath all the Precepts in it which you mention . Is it not Precepts as well as Narrations which Mark calls the Gospel , Mar. 1.1 . ? Was it not the Gospel which Christ and the Apostles preached ? And they preached Repentance and Faith ▪ and so commanded Duty : If a man loose his Life for publishing or obeying Christs Precepts , doth not the Promise belong to him , Mar. 8.35 . and 10 29 ? Or is that Promise to them only that suffer for the Declarative part only ? Is the Gospel that must be published among all Nations , the History only ? Mar. 13.10 Was the Precept of Accepting Christ , loving him in sincerity and obeying him &c. no part of that Gospel ▪ to which Paul was separated ? Rom. 1.1 . in which he served in Spirit , ver . 9. of which he was not ashamed , ver . 16. and which he was put in trust With , 1 Thess 2.2 , 4. Was it only the Declaration of Christs Death , Resurrection , &c. which is the Gospel according to which mens secrets must be judged ? Rom. 2.16 . or according to which the Jews are enemies , Rom. 11.28 . compared with Luk. 19.27 . Is not it larglyer taken , 2 Cor. 8.18 ? And subjection to the Gospel implies it preceptive , 2 Cor. 9.13 . Peters withdrawing and separating from the uncircumcision , and fearing the Jews , and dissembling , and Barnabas with him , was A not walking according to the Truth of the Gospel , Gal. 2.14 . The false Apostles preached another Gospel , and the Galathians turned to another Gospel , when the former preached , and the later received the Doctrine of the Necessity of being circumcised , and keeping Moses Law , Gal. 1.6 , 7. so that the word [ Testament ] and [ Gospel ] includes Laws or Precepts of Duty . 4. To that of the sense of Gal. 3.12.23 . about the largest extent of the word Faith , it being as I said , of so small moment , I intend not to insist on it . My meaning is but this ; that some other Graces are intended reductively , and the chief named for all . But by your answer I understand , 1. That you take not faith to be the whole fulfilling of the condition of the New Covenant : which concession shall satisfie me , what ever you think of the sense of the Word , of these Texts . 2. but the rest of your Ans . I am unsatisfied in . You say [ by Faith only the condition of the Covenant concerning Justificaiion in this Life is fulfilled : not concerning every benefit of the New Covenant : Repentance is the condition of Remission of sins : forgiveing others , doing good to the Saints , of entering into Life . ] Repl. 1. You know that not Wotton and many great Divines of England only , but of the most famous Transmarine , do take Justification and Remission to be one and the same thing . I have received Animadversions from divers learned Divines lately on these Aphorisms , and three or four of them blame me for making any difference between Justification and Remission ; though I make as little as may be . And can you think then that Remission and Justification have several conditions ? If they are not wholly the same , yet doubtless the difference is exceeding small , and rather notional then real . The same Commination of the Law doth both condemn and oblige to punishment . Remission is a discharge from the Obligation to Punishment ; and Justification is a discharge from the condemnation . So much then as that Obligation to Punishment , differs from the Laws condemnation , ( which is nothing , or so little as it is not obvious to be discerned , ) so much doth Remission differ from Justification . Yea even those Divines that in pleading for the interest of the active Righteousness to Justification , do to that end make Justification to have two parts ; yet one of them , they say , is Remission of sin ; as the other is the Imputation of Righteousness . And I pray how then can these two parts of the same Justification have two divers conditions , so as one is appropriated to one , and excluded from the other ? I remember no reformed Divines , but they either make Justification and Remission to be all one ; or Remission to be part of Justification , or else to be two Relations ( or other effects ) immediately and at once ( in order of time , if not of nature ) resulting or proceeding from the same foundation ( materially ) or other cause . Though Gataker and Bradshaw make them to differ , it is but in this narrow ( and almost unconceivable way ) but in time to concur . I must therfore differ from you in this , that they have divers conditions : and wait for your proof of it . But it seems you will give us leave to say , A man is not pardoned by faith only ; And yet he is justified by faith only ! and that as a condition ! Faith then it seems can do the whole , but not one half ( as some judge ) or can do , and not do the same thing ( as others . ) 2. But do you think that Repentance is not necessarily Antecedent to Justification , as well as to Remission ? If you say No ; the current of the Gospel Doctrine will confute you : which usually putteth Repentance before Faith : and those Divines that say it followeth after it , do yet make them concur in order of time . But if Repentance do necessarily precede Justification , ( as I doubt not but you will yield ) then let me know to what purpose , or under what notion or respect , if not as a Condition ? Can you find any lower place to give it ? 3. But if you should mean that Faith and Repentance are the condition of our first Justification and Remission , but afterwards only of our Remission . I Answer , 1. According to your Judgement ( who take Justification to be one act transient , once only performed , and neither a continued Act , nor renewed , or repeated , ) neither Faith nor Repentance afterwards performed , are any conditions of our Justification in this Life . This may seem a heavy charge , but it is a plain Truth . For that Justification which we receive upon our first believing hath only that first Act of faith for its condition ( or as others speak , its Instrumental cause ) We are not justified to day by that act of Faith , which we shall perform to Morrow , or a Twelvemonth hence ; so that according to your opinion , and all that go that way , it is only one ( the first ) Act of Faith which justifies ; and all the following Acts through our whole life , do no more to our Justification , then the works of the Law do . I would many other Divines that go your way ( for it is common as to the dispatching of Justification by one Act ) would think of this foul absurdity . ( You may add this also to what is said before , against your opinion herein , ) Where then is the Old Doctrine of the just living by faith , as to Justification ? I may bear with these men ( or at least , need not wonder , ) for not admitting Obedience or other Graces to be conditions of Justification as continued , when they will not admit faith it self . Who speaks more against faith , they or I ? When I admit as necessary that first act , and maintain the necessity of repeated acts , to our continued Justification ; and they exclude all save one Instantaneous act ? 2. And what reason can any man give , why Repentance should be admitted as a condition of our first Justification , and yet be no condition of the continuance of it ? or what proof is there from Scripture for this ? I shall prove that the continuance of our Justification hath more to its condition then the beginning ; ( though learned men , I know gain-say it : ) but surely less it cannot have . 4. But why do you say only of Repentance that [ it is the condition of Remision ] and of forgiving others , that [ it is the condition of entring into life ? ] Have you not Christs express words , that forgiving others is a condition of our Remission ? if ye forgive men their trespasses , your heavenly Father will forgive you ; but if you forgive not men , &c. Nay , is not Reformation and Obedience ordinarily made a condition of forgiveness ? I refer you to the Texts cited in my Aphorisms : Wash you , make you clean , put away the evil of your doings , &c. then if your sins be as crimson , &c. He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin , shall have mercy . And I would have it considered , if Remission and Justification be either the same , or so neer as all Divines make them , whether it be possible , that forgiving others , and Reformat on or new Obedience should be a condition of the continuance or renewal of a pardoning Act , and not of Justification ? Doubtless , the general Justification must be continued , as well as the general pardon : and a particular Justification I think after particular sins , is needfull as well as particular pardon : or if the name should be thought improper , the thing cannot be denyed . Judicious Ball saith as much as I ( yet men were not so angry with him , ) Treat . of Covenant . pag. 20.21 . [ A disposition to good works is necessary to Justification , being the qualification of an active lively faith . Good works of all sorts are necessary to our continuance in the state of Justification , and so to our final Absolution , if God give opportunity : but they are not the cause of , but only a precedent qualification or condition to final forgiveness and Eternal bliss . ] And pag. 21. [ This walking in the light as he is in the light , is that qualification whereby we become immediatly capable of Christs Righteousness , or actual participants of his propitiation , which is the sole immediate cause of our Justification , taken for Remission of sins or actual approbation with God. ] And pag. 73. [ Works then , or a purpose to walk with God , justifie as the passive qualification of the subject capable of Justification , or as the qualification of that faith which justifieth . ] So he . 5. How will you ever prove , that our Entering into Life , and our continued remission or Justification have not the same conditions ? that those Graces are excluded from one which belong to the other . Indeed the men that are for Faiths ▪ Instrumentality , say somewhat to it ; but what you can say , I know not . And for them , if they could prove Faith Instrumental in justifying co nomine , because it receives Christ by whom we are justified ; they would also prove it the Instrument of Glorifying , because it Receives Christ by and for whom we are saved and Glorified . And so if the Instrumentality of Faith must exclude obedience from justifying us , it must also exclude it from Glorifying us . And I marvel that they are so loose and easie in admitting obedience into the work of saving , and yet not of continuing or consummating Justification , when the Apostle saith , By Grace ye are saved , by Faith , and so excludes obedience from Salvation in the general as much as he any where doth from Justification in particular . 6. But lastly , I take what you grant me in this Section , and profess that I think in effect you grant me the main of the cause that I stand upon . For , as you grant , 1. That faith is not the whole condition of the Covenant . 2. That Repentance also is the condition of Remission ( which is near the same with Justification . ) 3. That obedience is the condition of Glorification ( which hath the same conditions with final and continued Justification . ) 4. So you seem to yield all this , as to our full justification at Judgement . For you purposely limit the conditionality of meer faith to our Justification in this Life . But if you yield all that I desire ( as you do , if I understand you ) as to the last justification at Judgement , then we are not much differing in this business . For I take ( as Mr. Burges doth , Lect. of Justification 29 ▪ ) our compleatest and most perfect Justification to be that at Judgement . Yea , and that it is so eminent and considerable here , that I think all other Justification is so called chiefly as referring to that . And me thinks above all men , you should say so too , who make Justification to lie only in sententi● judicis , and not in sententia Legis : And so all that go your way ( as many that I meet with do . ) If then we are justified at Gods great Tribunal at Judgement , by obedience as the secondary part of the condition of the Covenant ( which you seem to yield . ) 1. We are agreed in the main . 2. I cannot yet believe that our Justification at that Bar hath one condition , and our Justification in Law ( or in this Life , as continued ) another . He that dyeth justified , was so justified in the hour of dying , on the same conditions as he must be at Judgement . For 1. There are no conditions to be performed after death . 2. Sententia Legis & sententia judicis do justifie on the same terms . Add to all this what I grant to you , [ that our Justification when first begun here , is by faith ( supposing Repentance ) before and without the practice of obedience , ] and then see how near we are . The fifth Argument which you mention is grounded on the common Maxim , Non est distinguendum ubi Lex non distinguit , and runs thus : If the Scripture in propounding to man the adaequate Object of justifying Faith , ( Christ ) do not divide Christ , and say , [ In believing him to be a Priest , your faith is justifying , but not in believing him to be King , or Prophet , or Head , ] but propoundeth Christ undivided as this Object ; then must not we distinguish or divide , but take Christ entirely for the object of justifying Faith. But the Scripture doth not divide or distinguish in this case ; therefore we must not . It is Christ that must be Received , and believed in : but a Saviour and not a King , is not Christ . It is Christ as Christ . His very Name signifieth as directly his Kingly office at least , as his Priestly . And if you confess that the same act of Faith at the same instant Receives Christ both as Priest and King , then I shall stay my assent to your opinion till you bring me the Scripture that saith , it is faith in this notion ; and not in that which justifies . God speaks plainly that whosoever believeth shall be justified from all things , &c. And you confess this Believing is the Receiving Christ for King and Priest ; and that it justifies as a condition ; and doth not your ( unproved ) distinction overthrow this again ? The sixth Argument which you mention , runs thus : If Scripture particularly propound Christ as King , as the Object of justifying Faith , then Christ as King is the object of it : But Scripture doth so : Ergo , &c. I have named you some places where it so doth , a little before . The seventh is to the same purpose with the fifth . You name two Texts as proving that Scripture tyeth Justification to the Receipt of Christ as Priest only : But there is not a word in the Texts to that end . Rom 3.25 . speaks of Faith in Christs blood , but not a word for excluding Faith in his Obedience , Resurrection , Intercession , or Power , much less excluding our consent to his full Authority or Office. The word [ Only ] is not in the Text. You may as well say , that it is [ only ] by faith in his Name , and so not in his blood , because other Texts say , it is by faith in his Name . See Acts 13.16 . The other Text , Rom. 5.9 . speaks neither a word of Faith , nor excludes Christs obedience ( by which many are made Righteous ) nor Resurrection ( for he Rose again for our Justification . ) nor his Intercession , ( for who shall condemn us ? it is Christ that died , yea rather that Rose again , and is even at the right hand of God , who also maketh Intercession for us , Rom. 8.34 . ) And all these parts of Christs Priestly Office must be excluded , if you will affix the word [ Only ] to the Text , which saith , we are justified by his blood . Indeed you make so a quick dispatch in the Controversie about the active and passive Righteousness . The same answer serves to what you say in the eighth , and ninth , and tenth , being the same with that you say here . I marvail how you would form an Argument from 2 Cor. 5 21. Gal. 2.21 I Where you say , Obedience is not an essential part of Faith , I yield it willingly , taking Faith properly and strictly , and not in the largest improper sense . But that it justifies as immediatly as it Receiveth him as King , as it doth in Receiving him as Priest , I shall take for proved , till you prove the lawfulness here of dividing Christ , and Faith , or distinguishing , and appropriating justifying to one respect , and excluding another in the same act of Believing , and the same Object Christ . And to what is said before , let me yet add this , 1. If Christ be not received as a true compleat Saviour , except he be Received as King , then Faith justifies not as it Receiveth him for Priest only : ( for you here confess that he justifies as he is Received as a Saviour . ) But the Antecedent is evident : for as King he saveth his people from sin and Satan , and all their enemies , Ergo , &c. 2. If Christ as King do justifie us , then he must be Received as King to Justification . But the former is undenyable , Mat. 25. &c. Ergo. &c. The Consequence is raised on your own Grounds . The eleventh Argument ( as you number ) doth suppose several points ( very weighty with me , which I undertake to make good ) which do overthrow the unsound grounds which the contrary minded go upon . 1. I suppose that Faith justifieth principally ex Voluntate ordinantis , and not ex natura actus ; though it have Aptioudinem ad officium in ipsa rei natura . 2. I suppose Christ is first received by Faith , and his Benefits come with him , and in order of nature are after the Receiving of him . These things being supposed , it strongly perswades me , that the entertainment of Christ as King , was never intended by God to be excluded from the conditional Interest in Justification , when I find in Scripture that his own Dominion was an end of his Death , Resurrection and Reviving , and that God doth so insist on this point , to bring the world to subjection to Christ , Psalm 2. &c. And that the honouring and advancing of God the Father , and the Mediator God-man , is the most Noble excellent use of our faith . Is it then any whit probable that it is Gods meaning to exclude this respect of the act from any conditionality herein ? Shall I again tell you the true ground of mens mistake ( as I think ) in this Point ? They look on Faith as if it were a natural Reception , and did make the thing received theirs immediatly and formally , as it is such a Receiving ex natura rei , and not as it is Receptio moralis whose effect depends wholly on , and its efficacy or Interest is derived directly from the Will , Constitution or Ordination of the Legislator and Donor , and so doth what it doth as a condition in Law-sence . And I pray search , whether in this Question , you do not confound your Notions ex parte objecti , and ex parte Actus ? Let me conclude all by the Illustration of my former similitude . A woman condemned for Treason , is Ransomed by the Prince , who Decreeth , that if she will Believe that he is her Redeemer , and will take him as her Master , Redeemer and Husband , she shall be Delivered and made his Princess ; else not . Now the question is , what is the condition of this womans deliverance and Dignity ? Is the condition of her Deliverance and Pardon , the taking him only under the Notion of a Pardoner or Deliverer ? And is the condition of her Dignity , only the Taking him as a Prince who is Rich and Honourable ? No. The condition on her part , is the Taking him entirely to all these uses , or in all these Respects , and more : even the marrying him , and covenanting to be his , as a faithfull spouse and Subject ; and first acknowledging what he hath done for her freedom and advancement , then to take him for her Husband and Lord , that hath done this to advance and free her . And while she is faithfull to this marriage covenant , in the performance , she shall enjoy these Benefits : but if she forsake him and choose another , as with him she received her Dignity , so with him she shall lose them all . So that ex parte actus here is no room for your quatenus and distinguishing . But now if the Question be intended not ex parte Actus , or , what is the condition on her part , but only what is it in him that she receives for her Husband , which doth deliver her ? Why then we say , it is his Ransom , his love and free mercy , &c. And if the Question be , what is it in him that dignifieth her ? Why I say , it is his Dignity and Riches of which she participateth ; together with the same his free mercy as the Impulsive cause . And so she is Dignified by Receiving or marrying him quatenus a Prince , rich and Honourable , and not quatenus a Redeemer only : and she is delivered by taking him as a Deliverer or Redeemer , and not as an honourable Prince . The meaning of all this is no more , but that he doth not redeem her as a Prince , nor dignifie her under the notion of a Redeemer : and so on his part you may distinguish . But yet as to the conditionality on her part , there is no room for distinguishing at all . For is not this all that Paul ayms at in speaking so oft of Faith in Relation to Christs death and Righteousness , rather then to his Government ? to note [ what in Christ received doth justifie ] rather then [ what respect of our act of faith is the condition ? ] And may not this tend to an accommodation between us in this Point ? especially with those Divines that say , Faith is taken Relatively , when we are said to be Justified by it ; and it is said , to be Imputed to us for Righteousness ? The Lord enlighten our dark understandings , and give us love to the Truth and one another . HAving done with this , I proceed to your Additional Paper , which I lately received , and for which I am also really thankfull to you . But the Answer needs not be long . 1. You think the 66. Thes . hardly reconcilable with the words cited out of pag , 191 of that of Baptism , Rom. 3.25 & 5.9 . But I see not the least appearance of a contradiction Christ whom justifying Faith receives , doth Redeem us by his blood , and not chiefly by his Principality ; and he saves us as a Saviour , and ruleth us as a Ruler , &c. But that faith which on our part is the condition of our interest in him & his Benefits , is the Believing in , or receiving Christ as Christ , or as he is offered to us in the Gospel ( as the Assembly in their Catechism well express it . Davenant , Culverwell , Throgmorton , Mr. Norton of New England ( Catech ▪ pag. 29. ) and many more say as I in this : but I will not weary you with citations having been so tedious already . But I am glad to feel you yielding to the Truth , ( for it is a weighty Point ) as you seem in the next words , where you say that Christs Death is the sole or chief object of Faith as Justifying . If you yield once that it and his Priestly Office is not the sole Object , I will never contend with you about their Precedency , which is chief . I have confessed to you , that it is a fuller ( and ordinarily fitter ) phrase , to say , we are justified by faith in his blood , then to say , we are justified by faith in his Government , because it pointeth out Relatively the causality in the Object , and not only the conditionality in the Act. But I think when you respect the said condition especially , that then it is the fittest speech to say , we are justified by faith in Christ . 2. YOur next are all of other Subjects . The second is , whether Luke 12.24 import not a denial of Title in Christ to Judge . The answer is obvious , 1. He had not that derived Title from men , which was necessary to him that should exercise the place of a Magistrate . 2. Christ speaks not of Soveraignty ( that he had : ) but Magistracy ( which is distinct from Soveraignty , as being the Executioner of Lawes , which Soveraignty makes , and being under the Law , when the Soveraign qua talis is above them . ) 3. His Interrogation may perhaps be no Negation . 4. But the plain answer which I stick to is this . Christ had not then a Title or Right to the actual exercise of his power , as to divide Inheritances . The General of an Army to ransom a Souldier that should dye for Treason , doth agree with the King , that he will put himself in the place of that common souldier for a months time , and will do all his duty , and will venture his life in some desperate service . Now during this time while he is in the souldiers place , the General hath not title to the Actual Rule , &c. as before he had : not because he hath lost it , but because it will not stand with the state and duty of a souldier which he hath voluntarily put himself in . Yet at the same time , his Lieutenant General and other Officers that have their Commissions all from him do Govern. So here : will it follow that because Christ had not Title by himself to exercise the place of a Ruler and Judge being then in the state of a servant , that therefore now he hath not the Soveraignty ? 3. YOur third is from Col. 1.14 . I suppose you mean the thirteenth . But little know I how you would thence argue with any seeming strength . Christ hath a threefold Kingdom . The first ( where he most fully Ruleth ) is the souls of Believers . It follows not , that a man that is not of this Kingdom , is not of Christs Kingdom at all . The Kingdom of God is thus within us . The second is , The Church Visible . This the Apostle here speaks of , and of this Heathens are no members . The third is , The whole world of mankind , whom he hath bought under his Dominion , and to be at his Disposal ( Rom. 14.9 . &c. ) who are delivered into his hands , and over-rued by him , and he is their Rightfull King , and will Judge them as their King ▪ and give them the reward of Rebellious Subjects that would not consent to his actual Rule , ( Luke 19.27 , &c. ) and not only as Rebels against God as Creator . If he be not their King , they cannot be judged Rebels against him . Yea the Law of Nature is now his Law , by which he in part Ruleth them though they know him not , ( many know not the true God , who yet are partly Ruled by that his Law : ) . The Jews crucified their King , though they were Infidels , and knew him not to be their King. To conclude this Subject , I desire you but to consider , whether there be any inconvenience appearing in the acknowledgement of Christs General Dominion ? and whether it be not the plain and frequent speech of Scripture ? And on the other side , whether it may not be of dangerous consequence , as injurious to Christ , to deny so great a part of his Dominion ? and excuse not Infidels from the guilt of Rebellion against the Redeemer ? And whether it be not introduced by Pious Divines meerly in heat of Disputation , which usually carryeth men into extreams ? especially least they should yield to universal Redemption in any kind ? and least they should yield to the Magistrates power in Religion . 4. Your last Question is about Universal Redemption . [ If it be affirmed that Christ dyed for every child of Adam conditionally , it would be well proved from Scripture that the procuring of such a conditional Law or Covenant , was the end or effect of Christs death : and whether the so interpreting Texts that speak of his dying for all , will not serve for evasions to put by the Arguments drawn from them to prove Christs satisfaction and merit proper to the Elect ? &c. ] Answer . 1. Though I do not doubt much of the point , yet I have no mind to meddle with the question , as it concerns those Pagans that never heard of Christ . Not for fear of any disadvantage thence to the cause , but 1. Because I find God speaks sparingly of those to whom he speaks not : it concerns not us so much to know his Counsel concerning others . 2. Because it is an ill way of arguing to lay the stress of all on the most obscure point ; ( as men do , that study more how to silence an adversary , then to see the Truth ) and to prove obscurum per obscurius . 2. This is a point that I cannot give you my thoughts of in a few words ; there needs so much for Explication : and therefore being but here touched , I shall forbear . 3. I doubt not but to prove abundantly from Scripture with much evidence , what I assert in this . 4. It was not the only , nor the first effect of his Death , that Christ was [ Satisfaction to Gods Justice for the Violation of the Law. ] 5. That such a conditional Law or Covenant is granted , and exstant in Scripture , is as plain as most points in the Gospel : and sure no such thing can be but upon Christs death as the meritorious cause . 6. So interpreting these Texts which are so to be interpreted , is no evasion : And no Text will prove Christs satisfaction and Merit wholly proper to the Elect. Much less those which say , He died for all men , That God intendeth only the Elect to be certainly saved by Christs death , I can easily prove from many other Texts : But if I should prove it by these , it were strange . It is an ill consequence [ Christ died for all men ; therefore his satisfaction is proper to the Elect. ] 7. In point of Law the Elect have no more Title to Christ and his Benefits , then any others ( as Elect before they believe . ) But Gods Decree hath from Eternity appropriated Salvation by Christ only to the Elect in point of Event . He that determined de eventu , that only the Elect should be saved by Christ , did yet ●hink it the fittest way to his glorious ends to make Christs Death a sufficient satisfaction for all , & to make in his new Law a free deed of Gift of Christ , and all his Benefits to all that will receive him as he is offered : yet not engaging himself to publish this Law to every particular man ; though it be of universal extent in the Tenor. The Promise names none as included ; nor excludeth any , but who do wilfully exclude themselves . But these things require fuller opening . 8. Lastly , [ Christ dying loco nostro ] as you say , is a term that needs as great caution for the true understanding it , as most that we make use of . The right understanding of it , is the main Ground of our safety and comfort : The wrong understanding it , is the very turning point to Antinomi●nism , and the very Primum vivens & ultimum moriens , the Heart of the whole System of their Doctrine . That Christ in the person of Mediator , did suffer upon his voluntary undertaking what we should have else suffered , and thereby made satisfaction to Gods Justice for the breach of his Law , both Father and Son ( whose Will is one ) agreeing or resolving , that yet no man should have actual Remission or Salvation hereby , but on condition of receiving the Redeemer for their Lord and Saviour : and thus Christ died loco omnium : this is sound Doctrine . That at the same time it was the secret Will or Eternal Decree of the Father ; and the Will of the Mediator de eventu , to give effectually Grace to believe to his Chosen only ; and consequently that they only should be actually saved , and thus he died only loco Electorum , is also sound Doctrine . But that Christ in dying did strictly represent the person of the sinner , so as either naturally , or morally in Law-sense we may be said to have satisfied then , in or by him , as the Law calls that the action of the Principal , which is done per Delegatum , D●puta●um , Vicarium , &c. this is the soul of Antinomianism , and directly and unavoidably introduceth Justifican . before Faith , or before we are born ; the non-necessity of any other Justification , but in foro conscientiae , it certainly overthrowrth all pardon of sin at all , and so all Petition for Pardon , and all thanksgiving for it , with the rest of their errors : yea makes man his own Redeemer . But I have been too long already . I sensibly acknowledge the truth of what you say That this is a matter of great moment , and needs great consideration . I have bestowed more consideration about it , then about any other point in Divinity . YOUR unfeigned Friend and Brother ( who doubts not ere long to meet you in our Center and Rest , where all our Difference in Judgement and Affection will be healed . ) RICHARD BAXTER . Kederminster , June 9. 1651. Sir , The multitude of my Employments caused me to delay the returning you my thoughts of your favourable Animadversions , til I received your Additional paper , which made me so very sensible of your Kindness , that I could not but snatch the next opportunity , thus truly to give you my further Thoughts , as an account of the acceptance and success of your Pains . June 20. Sir , YEsterday I received your third Paper dated June 17. to which I thought best to give you this short Answer together , seeing the former were not gone out of my hands . You here touch ( very easily ) on two Subjects . I will begin with the later , viz. Your four Arguments against my Doctrine of Justification by the Gospel Grant or New Law. Your first is , that This is per resultantiam ; but Justification is an act of Will ; but no Act of Will is by necessary Resultancy ] Answer . As it proceedeth from the Instrument or Foundation , it is by Resultancy : As by that Instrument it is the Act of the Legislator or Principal Agent , so it is an Act of Will. It was his Will at the enacting of the Grant , and still is his Will , that this his Grant , or Deed of Gift should mora●iter agere & ●ffecius hos vel illos producore , at such a distance upon such and such conditions . The Act and Effect of the Law , or Testament , is the Act and Effect of the Legislator and Testator , whose Instrument it is : But the said Law or Testament doth not efficaciter agere , or produce these effects , t●● the time that the conditions are performed : ( for it is the Nature of a Moral condition to be added for the suspension of the Effect or event of the ●rant , &c. till it be performed . ) Therefore the Rector , Donor or Testator doth not efficaciter agere till then . And therefore he acteth by that his Instrument then , or not at all If you give by Deed or by Will● such and such portions to some Children at such a term of Age , and to others when they marry ; The full actual Right is by a meer Resultancy , as from the Instrument ▪ but by an Act of Will , as from you , but really from neither before the Term , or condition performed . This is a most obvious Truth . 2. And as easie is the Answer to your second . [ If the Covenant justifie without any other Act , then it adopts , sanctifieth , Glorifieth , without any other . ] Answer . In the Propositions against Mr. Bedford , you might have seen this dispelled . For Adoption , I yield the whole . But know you not that as there is great difference between changes Relative and Qualitative ; so the later results not from a mee● Fundamentum , &c. but is effected by a Physical Operation ? It is Jus ad rem , it is Right or Duness , which is the proper immediate product , or ( quasi ) effect resulting from , and given by the Law , or the like Instrument ; and not the natural thing it self . Now in these Relations , either the Right and the thing it self are the same ; or else the difference so small , that it is next to undiscernable , and must needs both in e●dem instanti result , as afore said . But in Physical changes , thete is a greater difference between the Right and the Benefit : The Benefit cannot , as the Right doth , proceed per ●ndam resultanti●● . If you give your Son 100. l. by a Deed of Gift , this giveth him the Right immediately , but not the Thing . There must be a Physical Act to that . But Pardon to a Malefactor is given by a written Pardon or Grant , from whence the Right to it , and the Benefit it self , do immediately result ( being indeed but one thing , except my understanding be too gross to distinguish them . ) If therefore you had said as you should , that Right to Glory and to Sanctity ( so far as that Covenant giveth it ) are bestowed without any other Act , ( except finall Judgement ▪ which is necessary to full Justification as well as Glory ) I should yield you all . 3. To your third , [ That the Covenant justifies but conditionally , therefore not actually . ] I answered before : for it was one of your former Arguments . Conditio est Lex addita negotio quae donec praestetur eventum suspendit , saith Cujacius . And as Mynsinger saith , Neque actio , neque obligatio ulla est antequam conditio eveniat : quia quod est in conditione , non est in obligatione : ( Schol. in Justit . p , 52● . ) So that it is the Nature of the condition to suspend the effect , but not to make the cause to be no cause . Indeed if the Condition be never performed , then it destroyes or prevents the effect , and so the Instrument doth not agere : And why ? but because it was the Will of the Agent that it should act so , and on such terms , or else not : so that the non-performance doth not undo what the Instrument did , nor doth it disoblige the Author , but it manifesteth that he was never obliged : ( they are Grotius words . ) I conclude therefore that when the condition is performed , then the Instrument or conditional Grant doth begin verè agere & donar● ; and the Agent by it : but till then it doth not properly act or effect at all . Is not your Testament that gives your Legacy , because it gives conditionally ? Or must there be some other Act , to make it an absolute proper Gift . 4. Your fourth also is one of those which you have in the Beginning , where I have answered it . The Covenant you say , is an Act past ; and so not continued , and so the Justification by it past , and not continued , &c. ] Answer . The Physical Act of Legislation or Covenant granting is past but this only makes it an Instrument , able and fit to produce such and such effects , and not actually to produce them at that present , when it is conditional . But the Moral action of this Law or Covenant is not past , but continued . The Law or Covenant is not out of Date . And therefore it continueth still to justifie . The making of our Laws , are Acts past by Parliaments long ago , and so not continued . Will you therefore conclude that the Moral Agency or Efficiency of these Laws is past , and therefore they do not condemn or justifie ? I know no ground that can bear your conclusions , except with Rishworth ( Dialog ) and such other of the more impudent Papists , one should vilifie the Scripture , and say , that they were only Miscellaneous occasional writings , and never intended to be Gods Law , or our Rule of Faith and Life : but I believe you will never come to that . Surely David frequently stileth the old Scriptures that were in his Times Gods Law : And why many Divines should strike in with some Lutheran● Error in denying the Gospel or New Scripture to be properly [ Christs Law , ] and so inveigh against those that call it the New Law , I know no Reason : but that the ignis fatuus of contention and prejudice misleadeth them . O happy Disputers that are not carried head-long into extreams by the spirit of Contradiction ! What more proper to the reformed Religion , as such , then to honour the Scriptures ? And how do these men vilifie them , and rob them of their highest honor , that deny them to be the Laws of God ? yea deny this to the Gospel it self ? Is not Christ the Law-giver ? Isa . 33.22 . Psal . 60.7 . and 108.8 . and the King ? Must not the Law go out of Zion , Isa . 2.3 . And is not that the Law and Testimony to which we must seek ? Multitudes of Scriptures , and most of the Fathers ( that ever I read ) do call the Gospel Christs Law or the [ new law . ] 2. To your second Exception , [ against my approving a speech of Dr. W. ] I ans . 1. Do I need to tell you how unlike this saying of Dr. Wards is to that of the Council of Tre●t ? You know by Justification they mean principally Sanctification ? But the Dr. saith not that these are preparatives to Justification . Sure you could not seriously suspect me to join with the Papists when they speak of one Subject and I of another . The acts of that Session will tel you more differences between them and me , then is worth the while to repeat : and you know how largely Chemmitius endeavours to prove that by Dispositions and Preparations , The Council mean Merits ; and that they would subdolously introduce the Thing , ( Merita de congruo ) by changing the name ; as out of Osius words and others he gather● . 2. And know you not that Chemnitius prosesseth to yield to the soundness of that very sixth Chapter , which you alledge , were it not for these guiles that they use , and their evil sense to advance Merit ? For saith he , Omnino certus est sive modus sive ordo in v●rbo Dei nobis designatus & prascriptus , quo Deus utitur quando vult hominem ad Justificationem deduc●re , &c. Et qui ad modum sive ordi●em illum divinitus prascriptum , non volunt s● ductu spiritus accommodare , s●d negligunt & conculcant illum , bi ad Justificationem non proveniunt . Vult enim Deus à N●titia & Assensu verbi sui nos ordiri : & ante Justificationem oportet praecedere contritionem , hoc est , seriam agnitionem peccatorum , pavores conscientiae agnoscentio iram Dei adversus nostra peccat● , & dolentis propter peocatum : in qua contritione non retinetur , sed abjicitur prapositum pers●verandi & pergendi in sceleribus . Ad hos vere terrores necesse est acc●d●r● fidem , que agnitione & fiducia misericordia Dei promissa propter silium med ator●m , rursui erigat & consoletur animum , ne oppressi desperatione ruamus in aeternum exitium . Sed fides accedat ad Deum , quaerat , defideret , petat , apprahendat & accipiat Remissionem peccatorum . Et hoc modo se● ordine in v●rbo D●i designat● via● p●rari Domino ut in ipso , per & propteripsum fide consequamur & accipiamus Justificationem , ipsa scriptura tradit , &c. this also he shews Luther approved of . Now I pray you tell me whether here be not full as much as Dr. Ward or I say ? And do you think Ghemnitius did join with the Papists of Trent , when he confuted them ? 3. And if Dr. W. had spoak of Sanctification , are there not multitudes of our own best approved Divines , that make all these acts to be found in men by way of preparation before Sanctification ? Mr. Rogers of Dedham in his Treat . of faith : Mr. Hooker in his Epist . before that book , and ost in his own book , affirmeth not only a common preparatory contrition , Hungring and thirsting , Hope , Love , Joy , but even effectual special Vocation it self , and so faith to go before Sanctification and Justification . And indeed what man denyeth it ? except Mr. Pemble and a very few that with him make Sanctification and Vocation to be all one ? which how far I approve my self , I have shewed in Tr●at . of Rest , Part. 1 Chap. 8. sect . 2.3.4 . 4. But look into the words , and find out what error you can ! Which of those acts do you think goes not before Justification ? And if they go before , sure you will not deny but they do some way or other dispose or fit a man for pardon : or else God would not have prescribed them before it . 1. Catholick faith is the Belief of the Catholick Doctrine . I am sure you take that to go before Justification . 2. If Hope of pardon go not before , then Affiance ( to which Hope is essential ) goes not before : Yea , then Believers do despair in the Act of Believing to Justification . 3. I never knew the man that doubted whether fear of Punishment went before . 4. The same I may say of grief for sin . 5. And if all the doubt be of Purpose against sin , and for Amendment , 1. Sure they that say Repentance is pre-requisite to justification , will not exclude a Purpose of Amendment . 2. And sure those that say Sanctification and Vocation are all one , and go before Justification will hardly exclude it . 3. They that take a turning from Idols to the true God , as the end , to be in order before a Turning from Infidelity to the Mediator as the way , which is by Faith ; these must needs think that so much of Actual Amendment goes before Justification ( ye believe in God , believe also in me . ) 4. They that say , Faith alone justifieth , but not the faith which is alone , will surely include this Purpose as Antecedent . Davenant , Mr. Ball &c. express it , and insist on it . Dr. Twiss calleth works Media & causae dispositivae : But it were endless to cite Authors in this Point . 5. But I tell you my mind . I take this Purpose of obeying Christ de futuro to be very Faith it self . For faith is a Covenant reception of Christ , and to take him for Christ and King-Redeemer , and to Purpose , yea Covenant to obey him , are but one thing . And therefore a Giving up our selves as Redeemed-subjects , and so a purpose of being actually subject , are faith it self . And then they must needs be prerequisite to Justification . So that whether you take these Acts for common or special , suely they go before Justification as Dr. Ward saith . Dare you tell any man of yout Hearers that though he have not so much as a Purpose to mend , yet he is justified by Faith ? Truly such passages haue embittered the minds of Papists , and many weak ones against our Doctrine of Justification : and given great advantage to the Antinomists . For what you say of contradicting Dr. Downam● and Mr. Pemble ; I answer , 1. Though they differ between themselves in the point of Justification , and one hath wrote a confutation of the others Doctrine , yet you will never shew me wherein this speech of Dr. Ward doth contradict either of them . Indeed if Dr. Ward had determined whether he meant common Dispositions or special , perhaps he might have contradicted one of them , they do so far differ themselves . For you know Mr. Pemble not only in his Vindic. Grat. but even in the place you cite ( pag. 42.43 . ) takes those Acts to be of special Grace , or a part of Sanctification , which most Divines do judge to be preparatory thereto . And for my part , I judge as Mr. Pemble , if you take but that point in to qualifie it , which I have asserted Treat . of Rest , second Edit . part 3. cap. 11. that the sincerity of Grace as saving ▪ lyeth not in the bare nature of the Act , but in the prevailing degree which Morality may specifie , then I say as Mr. Pemble , pag. 43. that these Vertues which are ( many of them by our Divines ) reckoned as Dispositions to Regeneration , are if they be true , the main parts and fruits of Regeneration . 2. But I admire how you should think that speech of Dr. Wards should be a joining with the Papists against Dr. Downame and Mr. Pemble , when Downame tells you that the Papists dispute of another subject then we do ; while they mean one thing by it , viz Sanctification , and we another : ( upon which ground Mr. Wotton is ready to throw out the Dispute , as being about one Term , but different subjects . ) And Mr. Pemble answers [ that the Argument of Bellarmine from that chapter of the Councils sixth sess . is framed on the Error which puts out of frame the whole Dispute , viz. that Regeneration and Sanctification is all one thing with Justification , and that to justifie a sinner is nothing else but to do away inherent corruption by infusion of inherent Righteousness . ] And so Mr. Pemble disputes against it only as thus meant : And Calvin also in his Antidot . on this 6. Sess . 6. chap. never once finds fault with them here , but only for ascribing that to free Will which they should ascribe to effectual Grace ; and for making Justification to be Sanctification , but not a word for making these Acts to be praeparatory to Justification , ( Tractat. Theologic . pag. 387 388. ) Vid. etiam Articulo● facultat . Parisiens . Art. 4. de sensu Papissi●o . Every man that makes Faith to contain many acts ( most Divines say , Notitiam , Assensum & siduciam , Amesius names five , ) must needs make all those Acts to be pre-requisite to Justification , besides Repentance , and besides preparatory acts of common Grace . No man that I know doth seem to come nearer you then Dr. Downame in placing justifying faith in Assent , and so not taking it to contain so many acts : And yet even he tells you , that [ the act of the Will doth concur to Faith ▪ and that faith which a habit of the mind , is seated as well in the Will as in the Vnderstanding : and this is confessed by Farthers , Schoolmen , and the modern Doctors of the Romish Church . ] Treat . of Justif . pag. 358.359 . Yea for ought I can understand he extended faith as far as I , and meant as I do herein , pag. 348.349 352. he saith , [ By the former which is a bare Assent , we do after a sort Credere Christum , acknowledge him to be the Saviour of these that believe in him : By the latter , which is the lively and effectual Assent working on the Heart , we do credere in Christum , and receive him to be our Saviour , whereupon necessarily followeth Affiance in Christ , and love of him as a Saviour . Thus then by a true Belief we receive and Embrace Christ , in our judgement by a lively Assent : in our Hearts , desiring earnestly to be partakers of him ( which Desire we express by our Prayer , ) and in our Wills resolving to acknowledge and Profess him to be our only Saviour , and to rest upon him alone for Salvation . So that a true lively and effectual faith is the work of the whole soul : that is to say , as well of the Heart as of the Mind , Rom 10.10 Act. 16.14 . Act. 8.37 . ] so far Dr. Downame . Is not this as much as I say ? and the very same ? I only mention him ( having many more at hand ) because 1. you urge him , and 2. I conjecture , you think you go his way about the nature of faith . If this be not as much as I say do but add what he saith ▪ pag. 15. and I think you have as much : ( in this particular . ) [ The true meaning ( saith he ) of the Question [ whether we are justified by Faith or by Works ? ] is not as opposing the inward Grace of Faith to the outward acts of Obedience , which indeed a●eths fruits of Faith : But as opposing the Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith , to the righteousness which is Inherent in our selves , and performed by our selves . And truly Sir , I use to charge my conscience to enquire what may be the plain meaning of a Text , and to embrace that , and not against Light to be carryed by prejudice : and this conscience tells me that this Resolution of Dr. Downame being so plainly agreeable to Paul , is not to be rejected . When I impartially , consider what Paul driveth at , my Judgement tells me that it was never his intent to advance any one simple Act of the soul into the office of justifying , excluding all the rest ; but to advance Christ against mens own works which stood up then in competition with him : And that Paul never meant that Assent Justifies , but not Velle , Acceptare , Consentire , Elig●re , Fiduciam habere , &c. Suppose there be a mortal Disease that hath seized on a City , which no man can cure but one only Physitian : nor he but by a Medicine that will cost him as much as the lives of the Citizens are worth : This Physitian comes and sends to them , and offers then all without exception , that if they will but take him for their Physitian and trust him with their lives , he will not only manifest his skill , that he is able to cure them , but he will do it , and pay for the Physick , and not put them to pay a penny . Hereupon some that are his enemies , and some that are mistaken in the man upon false reports , and some that judge of him by his outward appearance , do all conclude , [ this is some Deceiver , he is not able to do any such matter ; none but fools will trust him , and venture their lives in his hand : Let us stir about and labour and we shall overcome it , and do well enough . ] On the contrary the Physitian , having great compassion on the poor deluded people , knowing their case better then themselves , and having already bought the remedy for them , doth send to them again , to tell them all , that those that will believe him and trust him , he will certainly cure , and the rest shall dye every man of them , for all they think to labour it away . I pray you now put our Questions here impartially : 1. Is believing and trusting the Physitian some one single act , excluding all others ? Or was it ever his intent to advance some one act of theirs ? 2. Would it not be a learned madness to dispute whether the Physitian make the act of Assent , or the act of Willing only : or Accepting , &c. or Affiance , or Recumbency to be the Healing act ; and of what faculty that act was which must heal them ? 3. Is it the Trusting and Receiving him only 1. as one that hath brought a Remedy : 2. Or as one that can and will cure us by it : or 3. Also as one that must be obeyed in the use of that remedy for the effecting the cure ; which of these is it that he intends must be the Object of their Act ? 4. Doth [ Trusting him and Believing him ] exclude a Resolution to obey his Directions and the future actual obedience ? Surely no : it includeth both : But it excludeth both their trusting any other Physitian , and their thinking to work away the Disease and cure themselves . 5 Doth Trusting or Believing him cure these men as the Instrument ? or is it only a condition without which he will not cure them ? But this Question with you I may spare . Lastly , You question , [ How I will avoid Tompsons opinion of the Intercision of Justification upon the committing a sin that wasts the conscience , when I make Justification a continued Act upon condition of obedience . ? ] Answ . 1. Do you not discern that the Question concerneth you and every man , as much as me ? and that it is of aequal difficulty upon your own and others opinion , as upon mine ? Dr. Downame will tell you as well as I , that Justification is a continued Act. So will Dr. Twiss , and all that with him do take it for an Immanent Act. Your self , who take it for a transient act but once performed , do yet judge ( I doubt not , ) that our Justified estate which is the effect of it is permanent : and the relations of Reconciled , Pardoned , Adopted , are continued . Also you and they , I hope , will confess , that Justification passive is continued on the condition of continued faith . Now I would know how you will avoid Tompsons Doctrine of Intercision , upon every notable defect of a Christians faith , when unbelief gives him a foyl , which is too common ? as you answer , so will I. If you say his faith is not overcome habitually , when unbelief is prevalent in the present Act , I will say so of his obedience . 2. You know most Divines say as much as I , that obedience is a condition of the continuance of Justification , ( only they say that faith only is the Instrument of Justifying , ) and how will they answer you ? 3. You know that all say , that obedience is a condition of Salvation , and so of our present Title to Salvation . Now how will they avoid Tompsons Doctrine of Intercision of that Title to Salvation , upon the committing of such sins ? 4. It is not perfect obedience which I say is the condition , but sincere : And by sincere I mean so much as may express that we unfeignedly take Christ still for our Lord and Saviour : And so it is not every sin that I say will forfeit or interrupt our Justification and cause it to discontinue , ( that is , lose our Title , or change our Relation in Law : ) no nor every gross sin : but only that sin which is inconsistent with the continued Accepting Christ for our Soveraign : that sin which breaks the main Covenant , ( of which see Dr. Preston at large , ) as Adultery or Desertion doth in marriage : A denying God to be our God , or Christ to be our Christ , by our works , while we confess him in word : An actual explicite or implicite Renunciation of Christ , and taking the flesh for our master , and the pleasing of it for our happiness ; or as the Mahometans following a false Christ . Now , I hope that no justified person doth ever commit this sin : much less any elect and justified man , of whom Tompson speaks . You may see through his ninth chap. part 2 that Tompson erred through misunderstanding wherein the sincerity of Faith as justifying doth consist : ( I wish many more do not so . ) He thought that Justification did follow every act of undissembled Faith ; but only rooted Faith would certainly persevere ; and therefore the unrooted ( Though true Believers ) might lose their Justification , if they were Reprobates ( Prascits as he calls them , ) or have it interrupted , if they were elect . But if he had known ( what I have asserted in the aforesaid cap. 11. part 3. of Rest , Edit . 2. ) that the very sincerity of faith as justifying , lyeth not in the natural being of the act meerly , but the prevalent Degree and moral specification , then he would have known , that his unrooted ones were never justified , & therefore never lost it . And if in asserting justification by the only act of Faith , he had not over-looked the use of the habit , he had not spoke so much of Intercision of Justification , through interruption of the acts , where the Habits remain . ( Of this I must further explain my self , where it is more seasonable . ) His Objections pag. 21. cap. 5. part . 1. I have answered in the place before cited . Yet even Tompson denyeth that ever sins once pardoned do return , or Justificationem à peccatis s●mel remissis amitti . ( pag. 11 part . 1 cap. 2 ) sed ●arsonam quae aliquando justa fuit , posse contrabere , & aliquando actu contra●ere per nova peccata , novum reatum ire Divinae & mortis aeternae : So that it is not the loss of the first justification that he asserteth . I conclude then that as you and others answer Tompson , just so will I ▪ ( if you do it well : ) for it concerneth my cause no more then yours , or other mens . But Sir , you have drawn me so neer the difficulty which perplexeth me , that I will now open it to you . How to avoid the Intercision of justification , is a question that hath long troubled me : not on any of these terms proper to my own judgement ; but how on your Grounds , or any Orthodox Divines it will be avoided . I would know 1. whether we are Guilty ( not only facti , sed poenae ) of every sin we commit ? or of such sins as Davids , before Repentance ? if not guilty : then what need of Pardon , of daily praying Forgive us our Debts , or of a Christ to procure our Pardon ? If we are Guilty , how can that consist with a justified state ? Reatus est obligatio ad Pernam . The least sin unpardoned , makes obnoxious to condemnation and Hell : He that is obnoxious to them , is not at present justified . Here I am much puzled , and in the dark . In my Aphor. I have slightly touched it , but so as doth not quietare intellectum . I deny the Intercision of universal Justification . Yet I dare not say but that a Believers sins may be unpardoned till he Repent , Believe and seek pardon . And I dare not think , that Christ teacheth us to pray only for pardon in soro conscientiae , or only of the temporal punishment , nor only for continuance of what we had before . But how to make personal universal uninterrupted Justification consist with the Guilt of one sin , or with one sin unpardoned , here is the knot . Our British Divines in Dort synod . Act. de Persever . Thes . 5. pag. 266. say , that Believers by such sins Reatum mortis incurrunt . Prideaux Lect. 6. de persev . pag. 80. saith , they do reatum damnabilem contrahere , sic ut saltem demeritorie , licet non effectivè , Jus ad regnum caelorum penitus amittant : ( This distinction doth no good : for we pray not , Forgive us our trespasses , i. e. that they may not deserve Death ) Mr. Burges of Justif . Lect. 27. pag. 242. thinks , They have an actual Guilt obliging them to eternal wrath not absolutely , but conditionally till they take the means appointed of God for their pardon : for God doth not will to them salvation while they abide in that state . Mr. Reynolds ( Life of Christ , pag. 404.442 , 443 , 496. ) saith , that they certainly incur Gods displeasure and create a merit of Death , and deserve Damnation , but de facto bring it not . Now all this openeth not mine understanding to see , How a man is Reus mortis , and yet perfectly justified ( and so , non-condemnandus etiam in sententia Legis ) at the same moment of time . And were it a thing that should be futurum , ( which we may suppose ) that he should dye in that state , whether he should be justified at Judgement , and so be saved , or not ? Sir , though ● resuse not to accept your further Animadversions on the former Points , yet ( being indeed satisfied pretty well in them ) I chiefly intreat that you would communicate to me your thoughts of this one Point as soon as you can , if you have any clear way to untye the knot : and if your Grounds conduce to it more then mine , I shall like them better . Sir , pardon the prolixity here , and Acrimony elswhere of Your unfeigned well-willer , RICHARD BAXTER . THE Reader must understand that since the Writing of this , I have endeavoured to clear this point in my Directions for Peace of Conscience . To which now I add but this , that besides a Plenary Guilt or Remission , there seems to be a Guilt and Remission that are both but imperfect and of a middle sort : that is , that as in Peters act of sin , the habit of faith remained , so with his Guilt , a state of Justification remained : As none of his old sins returned on him , so the Covenant of Grace upon his Habitual Faith did hinder the Guilt from being Plenary or fixed , by beginning a Remission ; I fear not to call it an imperfect Remission : The Law doth pronounce Death on a man for every sin , & it is so far in force as to determine that Death is both deserved and due to this man for this sin . But at the same instant , though after in order of nature , the Gospel that giveth pardon to Believers , doth give an Imperfect pardon to David , Peter and such Habitual Believers as soon as they sin , before Faith and Repentance for that sin be actuall ; and their Pardon will become plenary when they actually Repent and Believe . Their Sin is like the fault of a Kings Son or Subject , that in a Passion should strike the King , when yet Habitually he hath a loving Loyal heart to him . He deserveth Death , and by Law it may be his due ; but he is a Son still , and the King will not take this advantage against him , though he will not fully pardon him , till he submit and lament his Fault . We are still the Children of God , notwithstanding those sins that go against the Habitual bent of our Hearts ( for that 's the Tryal ; ) but must have actual Faith and Repentance before we shall have full pardon : Whether you will call that Pardon which the Promise giveth upon meer habitual Repentance , A vertual Pardon , and that which it giveth on actual Repentance , an actual Pardon ; or what name you will give it , I leave to consideration ; but compleat it is not in a case of heynous sin , till Actual Repentance : Though it may be in a case of some unknown , unobserved or forgotten infirmities . For the full condition is necessary to a full Pardon . He is near the case of a man that hath a Pardon granted him for Murder , but for want of some action to be performed , he hath not yet possession of it , and cannot yet plead it . If you ask me what should become of such a man , if he so die before Repentance ; I answer . 1. I think it is a case that will never fall out : For 1. God is as it were engaged by Love and Promise , and by giving his indwelling Spirit to Believers , to bring them to Repentance . 2. The new Nature or Disposition of such a man will not suffer him to be long without Actual Repentance , at least in some measure ; especially when Death shall look him in the fa●e . I doubt not but David did repent before Nathan spoak to him ; but God would not wake up with so short and secret a Repentance for so great and odious a Crime . 2. But if you can prove it profitable for such a 〈◊〉 to be suddenly cut off before Repentance , and that such a thing will be , I should incline to think that he will be fully pardoned at the instant of Death , and so saved ; because the Lord knoweth that he repented Habitually and vertually , and would have done it actually , if he had had time for consideration . 3. Or if we should conclude that God hath purposely left men of such a middle condition , without any certainty how he will deal with them , that so no man may be encouraged to sin , and in Impudency , I think it no dangerous Doctrine , nor injurious to the Body of saving Truth . And thus I have now ( many years since the writing of the foregoing Papers ) told you in brief what satisfieth me concerning this difficult point , for the reconciling of the guilt of every particular sin , especially the more haynous , with the Doctrine of persevering , uninterrupted Justification . Somewhat also I have said of it in my Papers expressing my Judgement about Perseverance , lately published . Jan. 5. 1657. 8. THE FOURTH DISPVTATION . Qu. Whether the Faith which Paul opposeth to Works in the Point of Justification , be one only Physical Act of the soul ? Neg. OR , Whether all Humane Acts , except one Physical Act of Faith , be the Works which are excluded by Paul in the Point of Justification ? Neg. By Richard Baxter . LONDON , Printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons , Book-seller in Kederminster , and are to be sold by him there , and by Nathaniel Ekins at the Gun in Pauls Church-yard . 1658. Question . Whether the Faith which Paul opposeth to Works in the Point of Justification , be one only Physical Act of the Soul ? Neg. OR , Whether all Humane Acts , except one Physical Act of faith , be the Works which are excluded by Paul in the Point of Justification ? Neg. I PUT these two Questions together for brevity and Elucidation of the Matter in doubt ; for so in effect they are but One ▪ avoiding all unnecessary Explication of terms concerning which we are agreed ; it is but little that I have need to say for your understanding of the sense of the Question . 1. It is here supposed that Paul doth maintain Justification by Faith , and opposeth it to Justification by the works of the Law : and so opposeth Salvation by Grace and by works . 2. It is supposed that non datur tertium , there is no middle way of Justification besides these two , by faith , or by Works : and therefore whatsoever Acts we are here justified by , it must needs follow , that those Acts are none of the [ Works ] that Paul here speaketh of as excluded : and whatsoever Acts are excluded are none of the Faith , by which Paul telleth us here that we are justified . This we are agreed on , and so it is often pressed by my Opponents that there is no third way ; which I grant them . But note that I do not therefore grant them that there is no tertium , or other act either implyed in Faith , or subservient to it in that way of Justification that is by Faith : It was never Pauls meaning to exclude all other Gracious Acts relating to Christ , no not from this business of Justification , as attendants on Faith , or modifications of it , implyed in it , or subservient to it , And therefore it will not follow that any third thing by which we are thus justified , is either Faith or Works ; but only that is not Works , because they are excluded . 3. I put the Physical Act whose Unity we speak of , in contradistinction to one moral Fact , which may contain many Physical Acts : such as Marriage , which is one in a civil or moral sense , but many Physical Acts : and such as almost all Contracts be ; as taking a man to be my Prince , my Commander , my Tutor , my Physician , my Councellor , &c. which every one of them contain many Physical acts . 4. There is a fourfold Unity here to be discerned , that the term [ One ] may be understood . 1. A general Unity , and this is not it in question . We are agreed that in genere actus , and in genere actus secundi , and in genere actus immanentis , Faith is but One. 2. A Unity of the lowest Genus , and the superi or species . 3. A Unity of the species specialissima . 4. A Numerical Vnity . Our Question is of the third : but yet because the second and fourth are also controverted , I shall speak of them before I come to the Question . And concerning the fourth I Assert , that [ The Faith which Paul opposeth to Works in the Point of Justification , is not only one numerical Act of the Soul. My Opponents in this ( though they are unwilling to appear in the opposition ) must needs be all those that say , Justification is simul & semel , at once and but once , and that it is a good Argument against any acts or works after Faith that [ They exist not till we are justified , therefore they are no conditions of our Justification : ] and all those that deny and scorn the distinction between 1. Our Justification at the first ( or putting us into a justified state ) 2. And our daily Justification by the continuation of that state . 3. And our frequently reiterated particular Justification from the Guilt of particular sins . 4. And our final Justification by the sentence of the Judge . Especially by denying the second , they must needs deny my Assertion , as shall be shewed anon . Argum. 1. If Paul speak not only of Justification as begun , but as continued , then the Faith which he opposeth to works is not only one numerical Act. ( For there must needs go some other Numerical Act before it , or else the person could not be justified by faith before ) But the Antecedent is true , as I prove from Rom. 4.18 , 19. and Gal. 3. If Paul prove Justification by faith , from the instance of Abrahams believing after that he was justified , then he speaketh not only of Justification as begun ( or of our first Being justified ) But the Antecedent is plain in the Text compared with Gen. 12. and 13 and 14. and 15. Abraham was a justified man before he believed the Promise of Sara's having a Son. Argum. 2 If a true Believer have a justifying Faith after his first Justification , even as long as he liveth , then the Faith which Paul opposeth to works is not only one numerical Act ( because that first Numerical Act doth not continue with us . ) But the Antecedent is true , as appeareth 1. from the forementioned Instance of Abraham . 2 , From the necessity of a continued Active Justification : For the Passive else would cease , and we should be unjustified . If God did not continue to forgive us , and still actively repute us just , and accept us as just and impute Righteousness to us , and his Gospel-Grant did not continually justifie us , ( as every Fundamentum continually causeth the Relation , ) we should cease to be justified : And Gods active Justification continueth not without the continuance of mans Actual or Habitual Faith : Otherwise he should justifie an Infidel , and he should justifie afterwards in another way , and on other terms then he did at first . 3. From the continued Efficacy of Christs Merits , Intercession and Covenant , which daily justifie us . So that he that saith , that he was never justified but once at one moment , and by one numemerical Act of Faith , must say that Christ was his Justifier actually but for a moment , and that he will not be beholden to him to justifie him any more . And yet that no man may have a pretence of quarrelling about meer words , that hath a mind to it , let it still be remembred , that as the word [ Justification ] is used to signifie the first making a man just that was unjust ( relatively or qualitatively , ) So I confess that God , that Christ , that the Covenant do justifie us Universally but once ( though particularly from particular sins often ) And thus it is but one Act of Faith by which we are justified Relatively , and not the Habit at all . But as Justification is taken for the same Act continued ( though the mutation on us be not ab eodem termino ) so we are justified every moment , and have a justifying faith continually , and are justified by the Habit , at least as much as by the Act ; and in some respect more . The Sun doth as truly Illuminate our part of the world all day after , as at Sun rising , and by the same Action or Emanation in kind : But as Illuminating is taken for turning night into day , or illuminating the dark world from its darkness , so it doth only illuminate it from break of day to Sun rising . Your Lease of your house or Land doth first make you a Tenant of no ▪ Tenant at the first sealing and delivering : but it may by the same sort of action continue your Right till it expire , and so continue you a Tenant ; And thus we are continually justified by God , by Christ , by the Covenant and by Faith. Now as to the second kind or matter of Unity ( of an Inferior Genus and Superior species ; ) this is two-fold . 1. As the Acts of mans soul are specified and denominated from the Faculties or Powers : or ( if any deny that real distinction of faculties ) from the Objects of Intellection , Volition , &c. generally considered . 2. As the acts of the soul are specified by their special Objects ( though not speciei specialissimae . ) As to the former , the question is one of these two ( which you will in terms , for they are one in sense ) Whether the act of Faith which Paul opposeth to works in Justification , be only an act of the Intellect , or only an act of the Will ? Or , Whether it have only Entity and Verity , or only Goodness for its Object ? And in the second case the Question is this , Whether God alone , or Christ alone , or the Promise alone , or Pardon or Righteousness alone , or Heaven alone &c. be the Object of that Faith which Paul opposeth to works in Justification . But the thing intended in our Question is de specie specialissima , Whether it be but one special act which Paul opposeth to works in Justification . Here are three more Propositions that I shall handle in order , though the last only be necessary to me . Proposition 2. The Faith which Paul opposeth to works in Justification , is not only an Act of the Intellect , nor only of the Will. I shall say but little of this , because I have among Protestants but few Adversaries . The Papists indeed seat it in the Intellect only : and so doth Camero ( calling it a Perswasion ) and some few Protestants : some few others ( as Amesius sometimes ) place it only in the Will , and take Assent to be but a presupposed Act : and they call it Affiance ▪ or ( as Amesius ) also Election , Acceptance , or Consent , or embracing , or Recumbency , or such like . Pemble taking Truth and Goodness to be all one , and the Understanding and Will for all one , takes also Assent and Affiance for all one ; but I shall go on the supposition that his singular opinion is commonly disallowed ; however the Scotists , and many others deny the real Distinction of Faculties . The common Vote of Protestant Divines is , that Faith is in both Faculties , the Intellect and Will , and hath for its object the Entity of Christs person , and the Verity of the Gospel , and the goodness of Christ and his benefits offered , which Faith accepteth . Davenants Words are plain and true , Determ . Qu. 38. pag. 174. In actu fidei justificantis tota anima se convertit ad causam justificantem : And qu. 37. pag. 166. Fides illa quam Scriptura agnoscit habet in se complicatum actum Voluntatis & Intellectus — Neque nobis absurdum , sed valde consentaneum videtur actum illum quo tota anima purificatur & justificatur ad totam animam pertinere ; ita ut in nudo intellectu habeat initium ; in voluntate complementum . Argument 1. The Object of this Faith is both Truth and Goodness : Therefore it is the act both of the Intellect and the Will. That Truth is the Object of it is evident , 1. In that the Metaphysical Verity of Christs person is the Object of it , or else Christ were not the Object of it . 2. In that the moral Verity of the Gospel , 1. as revealing Christ , 2. as promising pardon , is the object of it , as is confest , and the Scripture doth so plentifully declare , that it were superfluous to cite the words . That goodness is the object of it , appeareth , 1. In that Christ as Redeemer , Mediator , Saviour , is the object of it , and that is , Christ as necessary and good to us . It is Christ for our forgiveness , Justification and Salvation : and so under the formal notion of good . 2. In that it is a Promise as a Promise ( Testament , Grant , or Deed of Gift ) that is the Object by it . And it is Essential to these to be good to us as well as True : and the Truth is but for the good . 3. In that it is Pardon , Justification and Life eternal finally , that are the object of it ; which as such , and as offered to us , are good . If I thought these things needed proof , I would give you more . Argument 2. The Scripture revealeth to us that this Faith is the Act both of the Intellect and the Will , therefore it is so . That it is the act of the Intellect , is so plain in Scripture , that I should accuse my self of wearying you with needless work , if I should go about to prove it . The Papists are right enough in thus much : and Dr. Downame de Justific . and against Pemble in Append. to Covenant of Grace , hath proved it at large . That it is an act of the Will , our Divines have fully proved against the Papists in many a full Discourse ; 1. From the sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifie Affiance , and such an Affiance as is the act of the Will as well as of the Intellect . 2. Because the Scripture often putteth [ Willing ] as equipollent to Believing ; in Revel . 22.17 . Whosoever Will , let him take the water of Life freely ] where Willing and Taking are both acts of the Will , and the faith in question ; so in other places . 3. The Scripture calleth it by the name of Receiving Christ , Joh. 1.12 . Col. 2.6 . which is the Acceptance or consent of the Will. 4. The Scripture often makes Faith to be the Internal covenanting and closure of the heart with Christ , which is the act of the Will ; and therefore it perswadeth with the Will to this end ; and accuseth men as unwilling , and calleth them Refusers , Neglecters , Slighters , Rejecters , Despisers of Christ , that are Unbelievers ( privatively . ) I trouble you not to cite the Texts as being needless , and done by many . Besides that ( as in the former Argument ) the Promise , Christ , Pardon , Life , and other good things , as good , are frequently made the Object of Faith. Argument 3. The Veracity of God is the formal Object of Faith. But the Veracity of God is his Goodness ( or participateth at least as much of his Goodness as of his Wisdom and his Power : ) therefore the Goodness of Good is the formal Object of Faith : and consequently it is an act of the Will. God cannot lye , because he is perfectly good , wise and Powerfull . Object . But ( say some Papists ) All these acts that you mention here , are Love and not Faith : Faith doth but assent , and Love consenteth or accepteth . Answ . 1. Do you not your selves call it fides formata charitate ? And why then may not we call it faith ? 2. The Scripture calleth it Faith in the phrases formentioned , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. and therefore it is Faith. 3. Though sometimes in other cases the Apostle distinguish Faith , Hope and Love ; yet when he speaketh of Faith as justifying , and as the form of a Christian , he comprehendeth Love to Christ as Saviour in it , and a confidence in him , such as in common Language we call Hope . As Love signifieth the Passion of the soul , it may be a consequent ; but as it is but the velle Christum , & beneficia oblata , so it is faith it self , as Maccovius and Chamier have truly told the Papists . It was a faith in Christ ( though beginning to sink ) that 's expressed Luk. 24.21 . [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ] [ But we trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel . ] Our Translators have put we Trusted for we Hoped , because they thought the signification the same , or else they would not sure have done it . And when the Apostle saith , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Heb. 11.1 . If we may denominate the act from the Object , we may see that he there makes Faith and Hope to be co-essential . And when Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Christ our Hope , it seems hope there is but an act of Faith. And so 2 Cor. 1.10 . 1 Tim. 4.10 . To Hope in God or Christ , or put our Hope in him , seemeth to me all one as to put our Trust in him for future Mercy , which is Faith. To which is opposed 1 Tim. 6.17 . putting our Hope in riches , so 1 Cor. 15.19 . to have Hope in Christ , so the Septuagint , Psal . 42.26 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : [ Hope in God , ] is a Complication of Faith and Hope in one word , and translated by us , Trust in God. 4. Though the Willing , Consent or Acceptance of an offered Benefit , have truly somewhat of Love in it , yet Love is not the proper name of that Act. Every Volition is not usually called Love. Prop. 3. It is not not only God the Father , nor only Christ the Redeemer , nor only the Promise , nor only pardon , or Righteousness , or Heaven , that is the object of that faith which Paul opposeth to works in Jusification . Argument 1. If many or all these art so linked together , that to believe one of them as revealed in Scripture , is to believe more or all , then it is not any one of them alone that is the object of that Faith which Paul opposeth to works . But the Antecedent is true , as is evident , e. g. To believe in Christ , is to believe the promise of the Gospel concerning Christ . For there is no Belief without a word of revelation to believe . So that here Christ and the Promise are necessarily conjunct , and Christ and the Gospel History . And to believe the Gospel with a Divine Faith , is to Believe Gods veracity , and to believe the Gospel because of Gods Veracity : For this is the Objectum formale without which there is no faith . So that Believing in God is essential to all Divine faith . Also materially ; to Believe in Christ , is to Believe in him as our Saviour , to save us from the Guilt of sin , even as to believe in a Physitian is to Trust on him to cure us of our Diseases . So forgiveness of sin , being an end essential to Christs Office , it is essential to our Faith in Christ . So also to believe in Christ as a Saviour , is to believe in him as one that is able and willing to reconcile us , and bring us to the favour of God : And so God and his favour and Reconciliation with him are ends essential to the office of a Saviour ( as health is to the Physitians ) and therefore they are essential to our Belief in a Saviour . The same may be said of eternal Life : so that you may see that these have essential respects to one another , and Christ cannot be believed in alone without the rest as co-essentials respectively in the object of our faith . Nor can the Promise be believed without believing in the Promiser and Promised . Argument 2. The Scripture most expresly maketh many such Objects of that faith which Paul opposeth to works in Justification ; therefore so must we . Rom. 3.22 , 24 , 25 , 26. There are expresly mentioned all these Objects of justifying faith . 1. The Righteousness of God. 2 , The Person of Jesus Christ , 3. Redemption by Christ , and his propitiatory blood . 4. Remission of sins past . 5. God as a Justifier of Believers ; see the Text. Rom. 4 3 , 5.6 , 7 , 8 , 17 20 , 21 , 24 , 25 There are all these objects of Justifying faith expressed , even when the work of Justification is described , 1. God as Revealer and true : 2. God as Justifier . 3. Righteousness ; imputation of it ; forgiveness of sin , not imputing it . 4. God as Omniscent . 5. God as Omnipotent . 6. Jesus our Lord. 7. The death of Christ for our offences . 8. The Resurrection of Christ for our Justification . 9. God as the raiser of Christ from the Dead . Read the words , and you shall find them all expresly mentioned . I think it superfluous to cite more Texts . Prop. 4. The faith which Paul opposeth to works in the business of Justification , is not any one single Physical act in Specie specialissima : Nor was it ever the meaning of Paul to exclude all acts except some such one , from Justification , under the name of works . For the proof of this , it is done already , if any one of the three former Propositions be proved . To which I add Argument 1. from an instance of some other particulars . If any or all the following particular Acts be such as are not to be reckoned with works , then it is no one act alone that Paul opposeth to works . But all or some of the following acts are such as are not to be reckoned with works excluded . Ergo , &c. E. g. 1. An Assent to the truth of the Gospel in general as the Word of God. 2. A belief on Gods Veracity in this exprest . 3. An Assent to the Truth of the Word that telleth us that Christ is God. 4. An Assent to the truth of the Article of Christs Manhood . 5. An Assent to the Truth of the Article of his conception by the Holy Ghost , and being born of a Virgin , 6. And to the Article of his being born without original sin in himself . 7. And to the Article of his sinless holy life . 8. And to the Article of his actual death . 9. And that this death was for our sins . 10. And that God hath accepted it as a sufficient Ransom , sacrifice or Attonement . 11. And that he actually rose again from the dead , and overcame death . 12. And that he is the Lord and King of the Church . 13. And that he is the Prophet and Teacher of the Church . 14. And that he is ascended into Heaven and Glorified , God and man. 15. And that he is now our Intercessor & Mediator with the Father . 16. And that he hath purchased by his Ransom and given or offered in the Gospel , the free pardon of sin . 17. And that he hath also purchased & offered us eternal life in Glory with God. 18. And that its the members of Christ , and of the Holy Catholick Church , that shall partake of pardon and life by Christ . 19. And that he will give us the Resurrection of life at last . 20. And that he will judge the world . I have omitted our special Belief in God the Father as Creator , and in the Holy Ghost , and have given you in these twenty Acts , no more then what is contained in this one word , [ I believe in Christ as Christ ] I think there is if any , but few that are not essential to Faith in Jesus Christ as the Saviour . And all these acts of assent are parts of the faith that is the means of our Justification ; and none of them part of the excluded works . And besides all these there are as many acts of the Will as of the Intellect concurring in or to this very assent , so that there 's twenty more . For its plain , that seeing the objects of all these are Good as well as True , they being all Truths concerning our benefit and Salvation , the Will it self in the Intellects assenting , doth command it to assent , and also doth place a certain Affiance in the Revealer , which we call in English crediting or Giving credit to one , we rest our selves upon his Truth . As I said before , Veracity is Gods Goodness , and Veracity is the formal Object in every one of the other Acts about the material Object ; and therefore the Will must act upon Veracity , and so have a part in assent it self : not as assent , but as a Voluntary assent , and as an assent to Promises or Revelations of good to us . There is goodness in the word of Revelation subordinate , or in order to the good Revealed . And so there is an act of the Will upon the good in the Word , complicated with the Intellects Assent , besides the following fuller act of the Will , upon Christ and the benefits themselves . And therefore there is a twofold Affiance . 1. An Affiance in Gods Veracity as the Revealer . 2. An Affiance in Christ the Mediator , as the bestower , accomplisher and actual Saviour or Deliverer according to his Office and Covenant . The first is an act of the Will concurring with Assent . And of this Pembles opinion is neer Truth , though not fully it . For here Affiance is as closely joyned with Assent as Heat in the Sun with Light , though they are not the same , But then the second sort of Affiance followeth Assent , and hath another act of the Will interceding , which is Consent or acceptance of the Benefit offered ; which also is closely conjunct with the first act of the Will. And then followeth last of all affiance in Christ for the performance of the undertaken acts . And these latter are also many particular Physical acts , as the objects in specie specialissima are many . And yet all these make but one object in a moral sense , and so but one act , and are done in a few moments of time ▪ of which after . Would it not be too tedious , I should stay to cite several Texts , to prove that never a one of all these acts is excluded as works by Paul. But of divers of them it s before proved from Rom. 3. and 4. and of more in Heb. 11. and in Gal. 3.1 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 21 , 22. There are at least these Objects of Justifying faith expressed . 1. Christs Person , 2. that he was seed promised . 3. That he was crucified . 4. That this was for our sins . 5. That he was made a curse for us in this his death . 6. That hereby he Redeemed us from the curse . 7. That he is the Mediator . 8. God as the Party with whom he is Mediator . 9. God as Believed in his Promise . 10. God as Justifier . 11. The Gospel preached , and he Promise made . 12. Blessedness by Christ . 13. The confirmed Covenant . 14. The Inheritance . 15. Righteousness . 16. Adoption . 17. That Belief is the means , and believers the subjects of these benefits . All these objects of Faith you will find in the Text. Argument 2. Ex natura rei . If other acts of faith in Christ are no more works then that one ( whatsoever it be ) which you will say Paul opposeth to works , then Paul doth not call them works ▪ or number them with works . But the Antecedent is true , therefore so is the Consequent . Doubtless the Scripture calls them as they are : and therefore if they are not works , it calls them not works . And for the Antecedent , 1. If by works you mean the Keeping of the first Covenant by sinless obedience , so neither the one or the other are works . 2. If you mean the keeping of Moses Law ; so neither of them are works . 3. If you mean the performance of an act of obedience to any Precept of God , so the several acts are works , but justifie not as acts of obedience to the command ( that 's but their matter ) but as the condition of the Promise . 4. If you mean that they are Acts of the soul of man , so every act of Faith is a work , though it justifie not as such , so that here is no difference to be found . E. g. If you make the Believing in Christ as Dying , ( though you take in both assent and affiance ) to be the only Justifying act ; what reason can you give why our Believing in Christ incarnate , in Christ obeying the Law , in Christ rising again , and Glorified and Interceding , in Christ actually now giving out the pardon of sin and Adoption , &c. should be called works any more then our Believing in Christ as crucified ? No reason at all , nor any Scripture can be brought for it . Yea what reason have you that our Believing in Christ as the Physitian of our souls , to cure us of our sins , and cleanse our hearts , and sanctifie our Natures , and in Christ as the Teacher and Guide of our souls to life eternal , should be called works any more then the other ? Or that believing in Christs blood for everlasting Life and happiness , should be any more called works then believing in his blood for Justification ? Yea that Believing in him as the King , and Head , and Captain of his Church to subdue their enemies , and by his Government conduct them to perseverance and to Glory , should any more be called works then believing on him as crucified in order to forgiveness ? Argument 3. All acts Essential to faith in Christ as Christ , are opposed to works by Paul in the point of Justification , and are not the works opposed to Faith. But many acts are essential to faith in Christ as Christ ; therefore they are many acts that are opposed to works ; and no one of those acts is the works excluded . The Major is proved thus : If faith in Christ as such , be it that Paul opposeth to works , then every essential part of it is by Paul opposed to works ( for it is not faith in Christ if it want any essential part ) But the Antecedent is true . Ergo. — The Minor I have proved in the first Disputation : Though sometime it is said to be [ by faith in his blood ] that we have remission of sin ; and sometime that we are justified if we believe in him that raised Christ from the dead , &c. Yet most frequently it is said to be by faith in Christ ; by believing in the Lord Jesus , receiving Christ Jesus the Lord &c. Belive in the Lord Jesus , and thou shalt be saved , was the Gospel preached to the Jaylor , Acts 16. But this is sufficiently proved already . That many acts are essential to faith in Christ as such , is also proved : and particularly , that believing in him as our Teacher , Lord , and as Rising , Interceding , and Justifying by sentence and Gift , as well as believing in him as dying for our Justification . As Christ is not Christ ( as to his Office and work ) without these Essentials , so faith is not the Christian faith without these acts . But here observe that though I say these acts of faith are not the works which Paul excludeth , I speak of them as they are , and not as they are misunderstood : For if any man should imagine that Believing in Christ is a Legal Meritorious work , and that can justifie him of or for it self ; I will not deny but he may so make another thing of faith , and so bring it among excluded works ( if it be possible for him to believe contradictories : ) But then , this is as true of one act of Faith as another : If a man imagine that it s thus Meritorious to Believe in Christ as purchasing him Justification , it is as much the excluded works , as to think it Meritorious to Believe in him as our Teacher , or King and Judge , that will lead us to final Absolution , and actually justifie us by his Sentence at that Judgement . Argument 4. Those acts of Faith that are necessary to Justification , are none of the works that Paul excludeth from Justification ( unless changed by misunderstanding ▪ as aforesaid . ) But other acts of faith as well as one are necessary to Justification : Ergo. — The Minor ( which only is worthy the labour of a proof ) 1. is proved before , and in the first Disputation . 2. And it is confessed by my Opponents , that say [ Faith in Christ as Teacher , King , &c. is the fides quae Justificat , and the condition of Justification , as Repentance also is , though it be not the Instrumental cause , as they think some other Act is . Paul doth not exclude that which he makes necessary . Argument 5. That which makes not the Reward to be of Debt and not of Grace , is none of the works that Paul sets faith against . But other acts of faith in Christ do not make the reward to be of Debt and not of Grace any more then the one act which you will choose ( E. g. Believing in Christ as King and Teacher , any more then believing in him as a Ransom : ) therefore they are not the works that Pauls sets faith against . The Major is proved from the Description of the excluded works , Rom. 4.4 . The Minor is evident . Argument 6. All acts of Faith in Christ as our Justifier , are such as are opposed to works by Paul , and are none of the works which faith is opposed to . But they are more then one or two that are Acts of faith in Christ as Justifier : Ergo. — The Major I think will be granted ; the Minor is plain : For 1. Christ justifieth us meritoriously as a Sacrifice . 2. And as Obeying and fulfilling the Law. 3. As the complement of his satisfaction , and the entrance upon his following execution , his Resurrection justifieth us . 4. As the Heavenly Priest at Gods right hand , he justifieth us by his Intercession . 5 As King and Head , he justifieth us by his Covenant or Law of Grace . 6. As King and Judge he justifieth us by sentence ▪ 7. As Prophet he teacheth us the Doctrine of Justification , and how to attain to Justification by sentence . So that at least ▪ none of these are the excluded works . Argum. 7. If the whole Essence of Christian faith be opposed to works , and so be none of the opposed works in the matter of Salvation , then it s so also in the matter of Justification . But the Antecedent is true ; therefore so is the Consequent . The Minor is confessed by my Opponents . The consequence of the Major I prove . 1. Because Salvation is as free as Justification , and no more of works which Paul excludeth . 2. Salvation comprehendeth Justification : and Glorification hath the same conditions as final Justification at Judgement , it being part of Justification to adjudge that Glory . 3. The express Scripture excludes works as much from Salvation as from Justification : Eph. 2.8 , 9. For by Grace ye are saved through faith ; and that not of your selves , it is the gift of God : not of works , lest any man should boast . Tit. 3.5 , 6 , 7. [ Not by works of Righteousness which we have done , but according to his Mercy he saved us , by the washing of , Regeneration , and the renewing of the Holy Ghost , which he shed on us abundantly , through Jesus Christ our Saviour , that being justified by his Grace , we should be made Heirs according to the hope of eternal Life . ] Many such places are obvious to any diligent Reader . For the Minor also read 1 Cor. 15.1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , &c. Argum. 8. If no man can name any one Act of faith that is opposed to all the rest as works , or opposed to works when the rest are not , then no such thing it to be asserted . But no man can name the Act that is thus opposed alone to works . 1. It is not yet done that I know of . We cannot get them to tell us what Act it is . 2. And if they do , others will make as good a claim to the Prerogative . Argum. 9. They that oppose us , and affirm the Question , do feign God to have a strange partiality to one Act of faith above all the rest , without any reason or aptitude in that act to be so exalted . But this is not to be feigned ( and proved it cannot be , ) that God should annex our Justification to the Belief in Christ as a sacrifice only ; and to oppose this to belief in him as Rising , Interceding , Teaching , Promising or Judging , is a fiction contrary to Scripture . Examine any Text you please , and see whether it will run well with such an Exposition , Rom. 4.4 , 5. [ Now to him that worketh , i. e. Believeth in Christ as Teacher , Judge , Intercessor , & is the reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt . But to him that worketh not , that is , believeth not on Christ as King and Teacher , &c. but Believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly ( an act of his Kingly office ) &c. — Doth this run well ? I will not trouble you with so unsavoury a Paraphrase upon the like Scriptures : you may try at pleasure on Rom. 3. & 4. and Gal. 3. Eph. 2. Phil. 3. or any such Text. Argument 10. If the Doctrine of the Opponents ( holding the Affirmative ) were true , then no man can tell whether he be a condemned Legalist , or not : yea more , if it be not faith in Christ as such ( containing the whole Essence ) by which we are justified , as opposed to works , or which is none of the excluded works ; then no man can tell but he is a condemned Legalist . But the Consequent is false ; therefore so is the Antecedent . The Reason of the Consequence is , because no man is able to tell you which is the sole justifying Act , or which are the only acts , if it be not faith Essentially that is it ; for among all the acts before mentioned , if a man mistake and think one other ( E. g. faith in Christs Resurrection , in Christ as King , Judge , Teacher , &c. ) is it by which he must be justified , then he falls upon Justification by Works , and so falls short of Grace : for if it be of Works , then it is no more of Grace : else Works were no Works . And so no man can tell but he destroyeth Grace , and expecteth Justification by works : much less can weak Christians tell . I never yet saw or heard from any Divine a just Nomination ( with proof ) of the one Justifying act , or a just Enumeration of the many acts , if all must not be taken in that are Essential . Some say Affiance is the only act : but as that 's confuted by the most that take in Assent also , so there are many and many acts of Affiance in Christ that are necessary : and they should tell us which of these it is . Object . And do you think that we can any better tell when we have all that are Essential ? Or doth every weak Christian believe all the twenty Articles that you mentioned at first ? Answ . 1. We can better know what is Revealed then what 's unrevealed . The Scripture tells us what faith in Christ is ; but not what one or two acts do Justifie , excluding all other as Works . Divines have often defined Faith ; but I know not that any hath defined any such one act , as thus exalted above the rest of the Essence of Faith. If we covld not tell what is essential to Faith , we could not tell what faith is . 2. The twenty Objects of Assent before mentioned are not all Articles or material Objects ▪ the second is the formal Object . And of the rest , unless the Fifth [ Believing that Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost , and born of a Virgin ] may be excepted ( which I dare not affirm ) I know not of one that 's not essential to Christianity . And I think if we had Hereticks among us that denyed Christ to be conceived by the Holy Ghost , we should scarce take them for Christians . But that man that shall deny or not believe that Christ is God , that he is Man ▪ that he was no sinner , that he dyed , and that for our sins , and that he was a Sacrifice or Ransom for us , and that he Rose again , is Glorified , and will judge us : that he hath offered us a pardon of sin ; that there will be a Resurrection of the body , and life Everlasting by this our Redeemer , I cannot see how he can be a Christian . And for the number of Articles , ● left out much of the ancient Creed it self , ( the Belief in God the Father , Creator , &c. in the Holy Ghost : the Article of the Catholick Church , the Communion of Saints , of Christs burial , Descent into Hell , and more . ) And yet do you think this too big to be essential to Christian Faith ? If so , tell not any Heretick that denyeth any one of these , that he denyeth an Essential Article of our faith . But for the ignorant weak Christian , I say , 1. He knoweth all these Articles that I have named ; but 2. perhaps not with so ripe a manner of apprehension as is formed into mental words , or which he can express in words to others : I find my self in my studies , that I have somtimes an apprehension of a Truth before I have ripened that conception for an expression . 3. And perhaps they are not Methodical and Distinct in their conceptions , and cannot say that there are just so many Articles . Every sick man can understand what it is to desire and accept of such a man to be his Physitian ; and herein he first verily desireth health , and secondly , desireth Physick as a means to Health , and thirdly , desireth the Physitian in order to the use of that means , and fourthly , therein doth take him to be a Physitian , and fifthly , to have competent skill , and sixthly , to be in some measure faithful , to be trusted , and seventhly , doth place some confidence in him , &c. all this and more is truly in his mind ; and yet perhaps they are not ripened and measured into such distinct conceptions , as that he can distinctly tell you all this in tolerable Language , or doth observe then as distinct Conceptions in himself ( and whether uno intuitu the eye and the Intellect may not see many Objects , though ab objectis , the acts must be called many and divers , is a Controversie among Philosophers ; and as I remember Pet. Hurtad . de Mendoza affirmeth it . ) But if you your selves will form all these into distinct conceptions , and ask your Catechist his judgement of them , its like he can mak you perceive at least by a Yea or Nay , that he understands them all . The new formed body of the Infant in the Womb hath all the Integral parts of a man ; and yet so small that you cannot so easily discern them as you may do the same parts when he is grown up to manhood . So the knowledge of every particular Essential Article of faith is truly in the weakest Christian in the very moment of his conversion ; but perhaps it may be but by a more crude imperfect Conception , that observeth not every Article distinctly , nor any of them very clearly , but his knowledge is both too dim and too confused . And yet I must say that it is not only such as some Papists call a Virtual or Implicite Faith or knowledge , As to believe only the General Revelation and the formal Object ; as that the Scripture is Gods Word , and God is true : or that whatever the Church propounds as an Article of faith is true ; while they know not what the Church or Scripture doth propound : for this is not actual Christian faith , but such a part as a man may have that is no Christian . And yet some Papists would perswade us that where this much is , there is saving faith , though the person believe not ( yea , or deny by the probable Doctrine of seducing Doctors ) some of the foresaid Essential Articles . Argum. 11. If the terms [ Faith in Christ , receiving Christ , Resting on Christ , &c. ] are to be understood as Civil , Political and Ethical terms in a moral sense , then must we suppose that they signifie many Physical acts , and not any one only . But these terms are to be thus morally understood . Ergo. — The Antecedent is proved thus . Terms are to be understood according to the nature of the Subject and Doctrine : But the Subject and Doctrine of the Gospel which useth these terms , is Moral Political : therefore the terms are agreeably to be interpreted . The same term in Physick , Law , Mathematicks , Soldiery , Navigation , Husbandry , &c. hath various significations : but still it must be interpreted according to the nature and use of the doctrine , Art or Science that maketh use of it . The consequence of the Major is proved , because it is the use of Ethicks and Politicks thus to interpret such phrases , as containing divers Physical Acts. Marriage is one Civil act ; but it is many Physical Acts : it containeth divers acts of the understanding concerning the Essentials of the Relation : and divers acts of the Will in consenting thereunto ; and the outward words or signs of Consent , for making the Contract . So taking a man to be my King my General , my Tutor , Teacher , Pastor , Physician , Master , &c. all signifie the acts of the Understanding , Will and expressing Powers , which the several parts of the Objects do require . Argument 12. If there be many Acts besides Faith in Christ , attendant on it , and subservient to it , which are none of the works which Paul excludeth , and opposeth faith to ; then the Essential Acts of faith it self are none of those works . But the Antecedent is true , as I prove in some instances : For a man to repent of sin , to confess it , to believe and confess that we are unworthy of any Mercy , and unable to justifie our selves , or make satisfaction for our sias , and that we are in absolute necessity of Christ , having no Righteousness , Sanctification or Sufficiency of our own , to take God for our Father reconciled in Christ , and to Love him accordingly : to forgive our Brethren from the sense of Christs forgiving us : to shew our Faith by fruitfull works and words . When Paul saith , Rom. 4.4 , 5. [ To him that worketh the Reward is not of Grace ] the meaning is not [ To him that repenteth to him that denieth himself and his own Righteousness to his Justification , to him that confesseth his sin , that loveth God as a reconciled Father in Christ , &c , ] and when he saith , [ To him that worketh not , but believeth ] the meaning is not [ to him that loveth not God , to him that repenteth not , that forgiveth not others , &c. but believeth . Object . But yet it may be [ to him that thinketh not to be justified by or for these , but by Faith. ] Answer 1. Concomitants and Subordinates may not be set in opposition ; faith supposeth the Concomitancy and Subserviency of these in and to Justification 2. Believing in Christs Ransom , may as well be excluded too , if men think to be justified for so doing meritoriously . 3. He that thinketh to be Justified by any work in that way which is opposed to Justification by Grace and Faith , must think to be justified by the Merit of them , or without a Saviour , which all these Graces forementioned contradict . 4. God saith expresly , that we must [ Repent and be converted , that our sins may be blotted out : and repent that we may be forgiven : and if we confess our sins , he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins : and if we forgive , we shall be forgiven ; and that by works we are justified and not by faith only : and that by our words we shall be justified : So that Pauls works which he opposeth faith to , are neither Jame's works , nor any of these particulars mentioned : for these are made necessary conditions or means of pardon , and of some sort of Justification , such as Pauls works could not contribute to , which were falsly imagined by the doers to make the Reward to be not of Grace but Debt . Object . There is but one faith , Eph. 4.3 . Answer . But that One faith hath many Physical Acts or Articles . There is but one true Religion , but it hath many parts . There is but one Gospel , but that one contanieth many particular Truths . COnsect . 1. To be justified by Faith , is to be justified by Faith in Christ as Christ , and not by any one part of that Faith , excluding any of its Essential parts . 2. To be justified by Faith in Christ as Christ , and so as Rising , Teaching , Pardoning , Ruling , Judging , as well as satisfying , i.e. as the Saviour that hath undertaken all this , is not in Pauls sense to be justified by works : therefore it is the true Justification by Faith. 3. It is therefore unsound to make any one Act or part of Faith the fides qua Justificans , and the other Essential parts to be the fides qua justificat , when no more can be said of any but that it is fides ex qua justificamur , and that may be said of all . 4. Though Faith be an Acceptance of Christ and Life as offered in the Gospel , so that its very Nature or Essence is morally Receptive , which may tolerably be called its Metaphorical Passive Instrumentality ; yet are we not justified by it qua talis , that is , qua fides , and so not quatenus Instrumentum tale Metaphoricum , vel Acceptatio , vel Receptio moralis , but qua conditio Testamenti vel faederis prastita . 5. Therefore it is not only the Acceptance of Righteousness by which we are justified , much less the Affiance in Christ as dying only ; but the Belief in Christ as the Purchaser of Salvation , and as the Sanctifier , Guide and Teacher of our souls in order thereunto , hath as true an Interest in our Justification as the believing in him for Pardon . And so far as any other holy act doth modifie and subserve faith , and is part of the Condition of Justification with it , so far by it also we are justified . FINIS 
A26951	----	The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb. 11, 1, formerly preached before His Majesty, and published by his command, with another added for the fuller application : the second is instructions for confirming believers in the Christian faith : the third is directions how to live by faith, or how to exercise it upon all occasions / by Richard Baxter. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1670 Approx. 1586 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 330 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2006-02 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A26951 Wing B1301 ESTC R5103 12318314 ocm 12318314 59417 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A26951) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 59417) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 201:8) The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb. 11, 1, formerly preached before His Majesty, and published by his command, with another added for the fuller application : the second is instructions for confirming believers in the Christian faith : the third is directions how to live by faith, or how to exercise it upon all occasions / by Richard Baxter. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. [25], 603, [7] p. : port. Printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons ..., London : 1670. Added engraved t.p. Errata on p. [15]. Advertisement: p. [4]-[5] at end. Reproduction of original in British Library. Bibliography of Baxter's works: p. [1]-[4] at end. Imperfect: many pages have foxing or blurred print. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691 -- Bibliography. Christian life -- Early works to 1800. Faith -- Early works to 1800. 2005-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-10 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-11 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-11 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-01 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Nos quoque floruimus sed flos fuit ille caducus : Flammaque de stipula nostra brevisque fuit . Ov. VERA EFFIGIES RICHARDI BAXTERI MIN : IES CH : IN OP ET PATA FIDEI SPEI ET CHARITATIS . An. 1670. AETAT SUAE 55º Farewell vaine World as thou hast been to me Dust and a Shadow : those I leave with thee : The vnseen Vitall Substance I committ , The Leaves & Fruit are dropt for soyle and Seed , Heaven's heirs to generate : to heale and feed : Them also thou wilt flatter and molest , But shalt not keep from Everlasting Rest . THE LIFE OF FAITH THE Life of Faith. In Three PARTS . The First is a Sermon on Heb. 11.1 . formerly preached before His Majesty , and published by his Command ; with another added for the fuller Application . The Second is Instructions for confirming Believers in the Christian Faith. The Third is Directions how to live by Faith ; or how to exercise it upon all occasions . By RICHARD BAXTER . 2 Cor. 5.7 . For we walk by faith , not by sight . 2 Cor. 4.16 , 17 , 18. For which cause we faint not : but though our outward man parish , yet the inward man is renewed day by day : For our light affliction which is but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory : While we look not at the things which are seen , but at the things which are not seen : For the things which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal . Heb. 12.27 . By faith he forsook Egypt , not fearing the wrath of the King : for he endured , as seeing him that is invisible . LONDON , Printed by R. W. for Nevill Simmons , at the three Crowns over against Holbern Conduit . 1670. To the Worshipfull , my much honoured Friend Richard Hampden of Hampden , Esquire ; and the Lady Laetitia his Wife , Grace and Peace be multiplied . SIR , YOur Names stand here in the front of this Treatise , on a double account : First , that ( the custom of Writers having given me such an advantage ) I may tell the present and future Ages , how much I love and honour your Piety , Sobriety , Integrity and Moderation , in an Age when such Vertues grow into contempt , or into lifeless Images and Names : And how much I am my self your debter , for the manifold expressions of your love ; and that in an Age when 〈…〉 the superio●●●●culties is ou● of f●shion ; and towards such as I , is grown ● crime Sincerity and 〈◊〉 are things that shall be honourable , when Hypocrisie and Malice have done their worst : But they are most conspicuous and refulgent in times of ●●rity ; and when the shame of their contraries se● them off . Secondly , To signifie my Love and Gratitude by the best 〈◊〉 which I can make ; which is , by tendering to you and to your family , the surest Directions , for the most noble manly life on earth , in order to a blessed life in Heaven . Though you have proceeded well ; you 〈…〉 need of help : so great a 〈…〉 for skilfull counsel , and 〈…〉 and industrious , and unwea●●● 〈…〉 And your hopeful children may 〈…〉 to learn this excellen● Life from these Directions , for the love of your prefixed Names . And how happy will they b● , if they converse with God , 〈…〉 are wallowing in the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 When the dead hea●ted sinner thinketh not of 〈…〉 be dragg'd out of 〈◊〉 pa●pered corruptible flesh , to divinie 〈◊〉 , and ●●●with the beginnings of endless 〈◊〉 , to the world where they might have found everlasting rest ; what joy will then be the portion of mortified and patient Believers , whos● Treas●●●s , and Hearts , and Conversati●● in He●ven , are now the foretaste of their possession , as the Spirit of Christ which causeth this , i● the se●● of God , and the pledge and earnest of their inheritance . If a 〈◊〉 pleasing life in a dark , distracted , 〈◊〉 world , were better than a life with God and Angels , methinks yet they that know they cannot have what they 〈◊〉 , should make sue of what they may ha●● ▪ And they that cannot keep what they 〈◊〉 , should learn to 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 may keep . Wonderfull stupidity ! ●h●t they 〈…〉 dead bodies 〈…〉 grave , is as common a work , 〈…〉 children into the world , and that this life is but the road to another , and that all men are posting on to their 〈…〉 , should think no more considerately whither so many thousand souls do go , that daily shoot the gulf of death ▪ and return no more to the world which one they called their home ! That men will have no house or home , but the ship which carryeth them so swiftly to eternity ! and spend their time in furnishing a dwelling on such a tempestuous Sea , where winds and tide are hasting them to the shore ! and even to the end are contriving to live where they are daily dying ! and care for no ●●bitation but on horse-back ! That almost all men die much wiser than they lived ; and yet the certain foreknowledge of death will not serve to make them more seasonably and more safely wi●e ! Wonderful ! that it should be possible for a man awake , to believe that he must shortly be gone from earth , and enter into an unchangeable endless life , and yet not bend the thoughts of his soul , and the labours of his life , to secure his true and 〈…〉 Adam hath given sin the 〈…〉 grace , and madness the priority to wisdom ; and our wisdom , health and safety , must now come after , by the way of recovery and cure . The first born of lapsed man was a malignant persecuting Cain . The first born of believing Abraham , was a persecutor of him that was born after the Spirit , 1 John 3.12 . Gal. 4.29 . And the first born of this Isaac himself , was a profane Esau , that for one morsel sold his birth-right , Heb. 12.16 . And naturally we are all the off-spring of this profaneness , and have not acquaintance enough with God , and with healthful holiness , and with the everlasting heavenly Glory , to make us cordially preferr it before a forbidden cup , or morsel , or a game at foolery , or a filthy lust ; or before the wind of a gilded fools acclamation and applause ; or the cap and counterfeit subjection of the multitude : But the — fortunae , non tua turba ( ut Ov. ) & quos sportula fecit amici ( ut Juv. ) who will serve mens lusts , and be their servants , and humble attendants to damnation , are regarded more than the God , the Saviour , the Sanctifier , to whom these perfidious rebels were once devoted . That you and yours may live that more wise and delightful life , which consisteth in the daily sight of Heaven , by a Living Faith , which worketh by Love , in constant Obedience , is the principal end of this publick appellation : That what is here written for the use of all , may be first and specially useful to you and yours , whom I am so much bound to love and honour ; even to your safe and comfortable life and death , and to your future joy and glory ; which is the great desire of Your obliged Servant , RICH. BAXTER . Feb. 4. 1669. THE PREFACE . Reader , 1. IF it offend thee , that the Parts of this Treatise are so unlike , understand 1. That they are for various uses : The first Part to make men willing , by awakening perswasions ; and the rest , to direct them in the exercises of Faith , who are first made willing . 2. That I write not to win thy praise of an artificial comely Structure ; but to help souls to Holiness and Heaven ; and to these ends I labour to suit the means . 3. That the first Sermon was published long ago ; and the Bookseller desiring me to give him some additions to it , I thought meet first to make up the exciting part in the same style , and then to add a Directory for the practice of judicious Believers . 2. And if it offend thee that the second Part containeth but such matter as I have already published , in my Reasons of the Christian Religion , understand 1. That I perceived that that Treatise was neglected by the more unlearned sort of Christians , as not descending enough to their capacities ; and that it would be useful to the confirmation of their Faith , to draw forth some of the most obvious Arguments , in as plain a manner , and as briefly as I could , that length nor obscurity might not deprive them of the benefit , who are too slothfull , or too dull , to make use of more copious and accurate discourse . 2. And I knew not how to write a Treatise of the Uses of Faith , which should wholly leave out the Confirmations of Faith , without much reluctancy of my Reason . 3. And again , I say , I can bear the dispraise of Repetition , if I may but further mens Faith and Salvation . 3. And if it offend thee that I am so dull in all the Directive part , I cannot well do both works at once , awaken the Affections , and accurately direct the mind for practice ▪ Or at least if I had spoken all those Directions in a copious applicatory Sermon style , it would have swelled the Book to a very tedious costly volume : And Affection must not too much interpose , when the Judgment is about its proper work . And being done in the beginning , it may be the better spared afterward . 4. If it offend you that I open the Life of Faith in somewhat an unusual manner , I answer for my self , that if it be Methodical , true and apt for use , I do that which I intend : And on a subject so frequently and fully handled , it were but an injury to the Church , to say but the same which is said already : Mr. John Ball , Mr. Ezekiel Culverwell , and Mr. Samuel Ward in a narrower room have done exceeding well upon this subject . If you have nothing more than they have said , read their Books only , and let this alone . 5. If it offend you that the Directions are many of them difficult , and the style requireth a slow considerate Reader , I answer , the nature of the subject requireth it ; and without voluminous tediousness , it cannot be avoided . Blame therefore your unprepared ignorant minds ; and while you are yet dull of hearing , and so make things hard to be uttered to your understanding , because you have still need of Milk , and cannot digest strong meat : but must again be taught the principles of the oracles of God , ( Heb. 5.11 , 12 , 13 , 14. ) think not to g●t knowledge without hard study , and patient learning , by hearing nothing but what you know already , or can understand by one hasty reading over ; lest you discover a conjunction of slothfulness with an ignorant and unhumbled mind : Or at least , if you must learn at so cheap a rate , or else stick still in your Milk and your Beginnings , be not offended if others out-go you , and think knowledge worthy of much greater diligence ; and if leaving the principles we go on towards perfection , as long as we take them along with us , and make them the life of all that followeth , while we seem to leave them : And this we will do , if God permit , Heb. 6.1 , 3. R. B. Feb. 3. 1669. The Contents of the first Part. The SERMON . WHat Faith is , page 2. The Text opened , p. 4. The grounds of the certa●nty of Faith briefly intimated , p. 5 , &c. Why God will have us live by Faith , and not by sight , p. 1● , &c. Use 1. To inform us what a Christian or Believer is ; described , p. 15 Use 2. The Reason why Believers are more serious in matters of Religion , than unbelievers are . Use 3. Of Examination , p. 29 The misery of unbelievers , p. 30 Marks of a true Faith , p. 32 Use 4. Exhortation to the serious exercise of Faith , p. 37 Some assisting suppositions , p. 38 How those will live who thus believe ; opened in certain Questions , p 4● Motives to live by a foreseeing Faith on things not seen , p. 45 The Conclusion ; 1. Exhorting to live by Faith : 2. And to promote this life in others , p. 46. The Additions . Cap. 1. The conviction and reproof of Hypocrites , Who live contrary to the Faith which they profess , 48 Cap. 2. A general Exhortation to live as Believers , 56 Cap. 3. An exhortation to the particular duties of Believers . 63 The Contents of the Second Part. Chap. 1. The Believers Directory must shew him , I. How to strengthen Faith : 2. How to use it , And I. For the first , the order of the presupposed Natural Verities , is briefly mentioned , 8● Chap. 2. The true Method of enquiry into the supernatural evidences of Faith , and the Rules therein to be observed , 87 Chap. 3. The proper Evidence of Faith. The SPIRIT and the Image of God himself , 97 Chap. 4. The Image of Gods Wisdom on the Christian Religion : It 's wonderful Method opened , in thirty instances . Six more instances , 99 Chap. 5. The Image of Gods Goodness and Holiness on the Christian Religion : in thirty instances , 108 Chap. 6. The Image of Gods Power upon the Christian Religion ; in twenty instances , 115 Chap. 7. The means of making known all this to us infallibly . How the first witnesses knew it . How the next Age and Churches knew it . How we know it . Twenty special historical Traditions of Christianity , and matters of fact . What the Spirits Witness to Christianity is , 125 Chap. 8. Twelve further Directions to confirm our Faith , 136 Chap. 9. Twenty General Directions how to use Faith , or to live by it , when it i● confirmed . What Christian Faith is : Errours about it , 148 The Contents of the third Part. Chap. 1. How to live by Faith on God , 168 Chap. 2. How to live by Faith on Jesus Christ , 188 Abuses of the Doctrine of Redemption . The extent of it . Of Christs Office : His Merits and Sacrifice : Example , &c. Chap. 3. How to live by Faith on the Holy Ghost . Of the Trinity . Several doubts resolved about believing in the Holy Ghost . Of giving the Spirit : His operations : Whether Love to God , or Faith in Christ go first ; exactly answered . ( And consequently whether Faith or Repentance be first . ) Of the Spirit in Christ and the Apostles : Of sufficient Grace . How Faith procureth the Spirit . Whether desires of grace be grace , 20● Chap. 4. How to live by faith as to Gods Command● . The admirable goodness of Gods Laws . Whether the Promise and ●●eward be the end of Obedience , or Obedience the end of the 〈…〉 Reward . Of Scripture examples , 232 Chap. 5. How to live by faith on Gods Promises . What will of God it is , according to which they must ask who will receive . Of a particular faith in prayer . Is the same degree of grace conditionally promised to all ? Directions for understanding the Promises . The true nature of faith or trust in Gods Promises , opened at large . Affiance is in the understanding , will and vital power . Whether Faith be Obedience , or how related to it . Ten acts of the understanding essential to the Christian Faith in the Promises . Several acts of the will essential to Faith. And in the vital power , whether all true Faith have a subjective certainty of the truth of the Word . Choice , and venturing or forsaking all , is the sign of real trust . Promises collected for the help of Faith. 1. Of Pardon , 2. Of Salvation , 3. Of Reconciliation and Adoption , 4. Of pardon of new sins after conversion . 5. Of Sanctification : 6. Promises to them that desire and seek . 7. To Prayer . 8. To groans that want expression . 9. Promises of all that we want , and that is good for us . 10. To the use of Gods Word and Sacraments . 11. To the humble , meek and lowly . 12. To the peaceable . 13. To the diligent . 14. To the patient . 15. To Obedience . 16. To the Love of God. 17. To them that love the godly , and are merciful in good works . 18. To the poor , 19. To the oppressed . 20. To the persecuted . 21. In dangers . 22. Against temptations . 23. To them that overcome and persevere . 24. In sickness , and at death . 25. Of Resurrection , final Justification and Glory . 26. For children of the godly . 27. To the Church , 241 Chap. 6. How to exercise faith on God● Threatnings and Judgements . How far belief of the threatnings in good , necessary , and a saving faith . How saving faith is a personal application . How to perceive true faith , 297 Chap. 7. How to live by faith for Pardon and Justification . In how many respects and waies Christ justifieth us . Of the imputation of Christs Righteousness . Twelve reasons to help our belief of pardon . How far sin should make us doubt of our Justification , 308 Chap. 8. 58 Dangerous Errours detected , which hinder the 〈…〉 faith about 〈…〉 and the contrary truth●●sserted● ▪ 321 Chap. 9. How to live by faith in the exercise of other graces and duties : And 1. Of the doctrinal Directions . What Sanctification is . How God loveth the unsanctified ▪ How 〈◊〉 loveth 〈◊〉 in Christ . Of Preaching meer Morality , ●61 Chap. 10. The practical Directions , to promote Love to God and Holiness , 367 Chap. 11. Of the order and harmony of graces and duties , which must be taken all together . Of the parts that make up the new Creature . 1. The intellectual order ; or a method , or scheme of the heads of Divinity . 2. The order of Intention and Affection . 3. The order of practice . Of the various degrees of means to mans ultimate end . Of the grace necessary to concur with these various means . The circular motion by divine communication to our Receiving Graces , and so by our Returning Graces , unto God again . The frame of the present means of grace , and of our returning duties . Rules about the order of Christian practice ( which shew that , and how the best is to be preferred , and which is best ) in fifty three Propositions . How mans Laws bind conscience ( and many other cases ) resolved . A lamentation for the great want of order , and method , and harmony in the understandings , wills and lives of Christians . Many instances of mens partiality as to truths , graces , duties , sins , &c. Twenty Reasons why few Christians are compleat and entire , but ●ame and partial in their Religion . Ten Consectaries . Whether all graces be equal in habit . Religion not so perfect in us as in the Scriptures ; which therefore are the Rule to us , &c. 373 Chap. 12. How to use faith against particular sins , 417 Chap. 13. What sins the best are most in danger of , and should most carefully avoid . And wherein the infirmities of the upright differ from mortal sins . 421 Chap. 14. How to live by faith in prosperity . The way by which faith doth save us from the world . General Directions against the danger of prosperity . Twenty marks of worldliness . The pretences of worldly minds . The greatness of the sin . The ill effects , 428 Chap. 15. How to be poor in spirit . And 1. How to escape the Pride of prosperous men . The cleaks of Pride . The signs of Pride and 〈…〉 , 446 Chap. 16. How to escape the 〈…〉 , by faith . The mischiefe of serving the appetite . 〈…〉 465 Chap. 17. How faith must conquer sloth and idleness . Who are guilty of this sin Cases resolved . The evil of idleness . The remedies , 474 Chap. 18. Vnmercifulness to the poor , to be conquered by faith . The remedies , 491 Chap. 19. How to live by faith in adversity , 493 Chap. 20. How to live by faith in trouble of conscience , and doubts of our salvation . The difference between true and false repentance . How to apply the universal grace to our comfort . The danger of casting our part on Christ ; and of ascribing all melancholy disturbances and thoughts to the spirit . Of the trying the spiri● : and of the witness of the Spirit , 503 Chap. 21. How to live by faith in the publick Woshipping of God , Overvalue not your own manner of Worship , and overvilifie not other mens . Of communion with others , 519 Chap. 22. How to pray in faith , 527 Chap. 23. How to live by faith towards children and other Relations , 530 Chap. 24. How by faith to order our affections to publick Societies , and to the unconverted world , 535 Chap. 25. How to live by faith in the love of one another , and to mortifie self-love . It is our own interest and gain , to love our neighbours as our selves . Objections wherein it consisteth . What is the sincerity of it . Consectaries . Loving others as your selves is a duty even as to the degree , 539 Chap. 26. How by faith to be followers of the Saints , and to look with profit to their examples and their end , and to hold communion with the heavenly Society . Reasons of the duty . The nature of it . Negatively , what it is not ; and Affirmatively , what it is . Wherein they must be imitated , 556 Chap. 27. How to receive the sentence of death , and how to die by Faith , 589 Chap. 28. How by faith to look aright to the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory , 594 Reader , The first and great Errour of the Printer , i● , that he hath not distinguished the three distinct Parts of the Treatise . Therefore you must write Page 1. PART 1. and Pag. 81. PART 2. Chap. 1. and Pag. 168. PART 3. Chap. 1. IN the Preface , Page 3. l. 16. put If you would have . p. 8. l. 8. put out have p. 31. l. 31. put out out p. 40. l. 22. for that r. the p. 51. l. 37. for yo●r r. their p. 54. l. 13. for believe r. desire p. 66. l. 31. for against r. at p. 67. l. 32. for tam r. q●am p. 68. l. 8. for murmurr r. mo●rn l. 27. after better put countrey p. 69. l. 17. r. nemo p. 70 l. 16. r. ventosam p. 75. l. 24. r. made them p. 77. l. 12. r. literate p. 87. l. 3. for offered read observed p. 93. l 25. for cannot r. can p. 96. l. 12. for Nations r. ●otions l. 21. r. conduceth p. 99. l. 9. r. which ●t p. 101. l. 38. for Goodness r. Good will p. 130. l. 13. r. inconsiderateness p. 134. l. 10. r. Victor ●t●censis p. 155. l. 37. for never r. neerer p. 163. l. 6. put out are p. 166. l. 2. for worketh r. marketh l. 24. r. aime at l. 29. r. taketh p. 196. r. 7. for meditate r. med●at● p. 206. l. 1. r. causally l. 4. for his r. this p 217. ( false Printed for 209 ) l. 38. blot out or p. 224. l. 6. for was r. were p. 232. l. 19. ● . Antoninus p. 241. l. 31. r. commutative p. 244. l. 38. put out of p. 249. l. 5. for rather r. alwa●es p. 250. l. 9. blot out O and r. of objective gra●e l. 30. for promiseth r. promiseth ●ot p. 253. l. 12. for confirmeth r. confineth l. 20. for of● . loss of p. 254. l. 29. r. non-amission p. ●32 . l. 33. r. which most p. 346. l. 14. ● . faults p. 359. l. 18. for him r. himself p. 366. l. 29. for that r. the p. ●71 . l. 12. for there r. then p. 382. l. 28. for as r. or p. 384. l. 3. put a comma after efficient and Dirigent p. 405. l. 36. r. Christians p. 406. l. 37. for end r. and p. 411. l. 16. r. th●nes p. 413. l. 20. for it r. is p. 414. l. 2. put out or and l. 34. for in it r. in us ( else it is blasphemy against the Scripture ) p. 430. l. 23. put out may p. 435. l. 25. r. Cyn●cal p. 441. l. 5. put out not p. 485. l. ●5 . for themselves r. himself p. 505. l. 27. r. Assent p. 540. l. 21. put out and p. 582. l. 11. r. friends . THE Life of Faith. HEBREWS 11.1 . Now faith is the substance of things hoped for , the evidence of things not seen . THough the wicked are distinguished into Hypocrites and Vnbelievers , yet Hypocrites themselves are Vnbelievers too . They have no faith which they can justifie , by its prevailing efficacy and works : and therefore have no faith by which they can be justified . Because their discovery is needful to their recovery , and all our salvation depends on the sincerity of our faith . I have chosen this text , which is a description of faith , that the opening of it may help us for the opening of our hearts , and resolving the great question , on which our endless life depends . To be a Christian , and to be a Believer in Christ , are words in Scripture of the same signification . If you have not faith , you are not Christians . This faith hath various offices and objects . By it we are justified , sanctified and saved . We are justified , not by believing that we are justified , but by believing that we may be justified . Not by receiving justification immediately , but by receiving Christ for our justification : not by meer accepting the pardon in it self , but by first receiving him that procureth and bestoweth it , on his terms : Not by meer accepting health , but by receiving the Physician and his remedies , for health . Faith is the practical Believing in God as promising , and Christ as procuring justification and salvation . Or , the practical belief and acceptance of life , as procured by Christ , and promised by God in the Gospel . The everlasting fruition of God in Heaven , is the ultimate object . No man believeth in Christ as Christ , that believeth not in him for eternal life . As faith looks at Christ as the necessary means , and at the divine benignity as the fountain , and at his veracity as the foundation or formal object , and at the promise , as the true signification of his will ; so doth it ultimately look at our salvation , ( begun on earth , and perfected in Heaven ) as the end , for which it looketh at the rest . No wonder therefore if the holy Ghost here speaking of the Dignity and Power of faith , do principally insist on that part of its description , which is taken from this final object . As Christ himself in his Humiliation was rejected by the Gentiles , and a stumbling stone to the Jews , despised and not esteemed , Isa . 53.2 , 3. having made himself of no reputation , Phil. 2 7. So faith in Christ as incarnate and crucified , is despised and counted foolishness by the world . But as Christ in his glory , and the glory of believers , shall force them to an aweful admiration ; so faith it self as exercised on that glory , is more glorious in the eyes of all . Believers are never so reverenced by the world , as when they converse in Heaven , and the Spirit of Glory resteth on them , 1 Pet. 4.14 . How faith by beholding this glorious end , doth move all the faculties of the soul , and subdue the inclinations and interests of the flesh , and make the greatest sufferings tollerable , is the work of the holy Ghost in this Chapter to demonstrate , which beginning with the description , proceeds to the proof by a cloud of witnesses . There are two sorts of persons ( and imployments ) in the world , for whom there are two contrary ends hereafter . One sort subject their reason to their sensual or carnal interest . The other subject their senses to their reason , cleared , conducted and elevated by faith . Things present or possessed , are the riches of the sensual , and the byas of their hearts and lives : Things absent but hoped for , are the riches of Believers , which actuate their chief endeavours . This is the sense of the text which I have read to you ; which setting things hoped for , in opposition to things present , and things unseen , to those that sense doth apprehend , assureth us that faith ( which fixeth on the first ) doth give to its object a subsistence , presence and evidence , that is , it seeth that which supplieth the want of presence and visibility . The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is that which quoad effectum is equal to a present subsistence . And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the evidence is somewhat which quoad effectum is equal to visibility . As if he had said , [ Though the glory promised to Believers , and expected by them , be yet to come , and only hoped for , and be yet unseen and only believed , yet is the sound believer as truly affected with it , and acted by its attractive force , as if it were present and before his eyes ] as a man is by an inheritance , or estate in reversion , or out of sight , if well secured , and not only by that which is present to his view . The Syriack Interpreter instead of a Translation , gives us a true exposition of the words , viz. [ Faith is a certainty of those things that are in hope , as if they did already actually exist , and the revelation of those things that are not seen . Or you may take the sense in this Proposition , which I am next to open further , and apply , viz. [ That the nature and use of faith is to be as it were instead of presence , possession and sight : or to make the things that will be , as if they were already in existence ; and the things unseen which God revealeth , as if our bodily eyes beheld them . 1. Not that faith doth really change its object . 2. Nor doth it give the same degree of apprehensions and affections , as the sight of present things would do . But 1. Things invisible are the objects of our faith . 2. And Faith is effectual instead of sight to all these uses : 1. The apprehension is as infallible , because of the objective certainty , ( though not so satisfactory to our imperfect souls ) as if the things themselves were seen . 2. The will is determined by it in its necessary consent and choice . 3. The affections are moved in the necessary d●gree . 4. It ruleth in our lives , and bringeth us through duty , and suffering , for the sake of the happiness which we believe . 3. This Faith is a grounded wise and justifiable act : an infallible knowl●dge ; and often called so in Scripture , John 6.69 . 1 Cor. 15.58 . Rom. 8.28 , &c. And the constitutive and efficient causes will justifie the Name . We know and are infallibly sure , of the truth of God , which we believe : As it 's said , John 6.69 . [ We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ , the Son of the living God. ] 2 Cor. 5.1 . [ We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved , we have a building of God , an house not made with hands , eternal in the H●avens . ] Rom. 8.28 . We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. ] 1 Cor. 15.58 . You know that your labour is n●t in vain in the Lord ] Joh. 9.29 . [ We kn●w God spake to Moses , &c. ] 31. [ We know God heareth not sinners . ] John 3.2 . We know thou art a Teacher come from God. ] So 1 John 3.5 , 15. & 1 Pet. 3.17 . and many other Scriptures tell you , that Believing God , is a certain infallible sort of knowledge . I shall in justification of the work of Faith , acquaint you briefly with 1. That in the Nature of it : 2. And that in the causing of it , which advanceth it , to be an infallible knowledge . 1. The Believer knows ( as sure as he knows there is a God ) that God is true , and his Word is true , it being impossible for God to lie , H●b . 6.18 . God that cannot lie hath promised , Titus 1.2 . 2. He knows that the holy Scripture is the Word of God ; by his Image which it beareth , and the many evidences of Divinity which it containeth , and the many Miracles ( certainly proved ) which Christ , and his Spirit in his servants , wrought to confirm the truth . 3. And therefore he knoweth assuredly the conclusion , that all this Word of God is true . And for the surer effecting of this knowledge , God doth not only set before us the ascertaining Evidence of his own veracity , and the Scriptures Divinity ; but moreover , 1. He giveth us to believe , Phil. 1.29 . 2 Pet. 1.3 . For it is not of our selves , but is the gift of God , Ephes . 2.8 . Faith is one of the fruits of the Spirit , Gal. 5.22 . By the drawing of the Father , we come to the Son. And he that hath knowledge given from Heaven , will certainly know : and he that hath Faith given him from Heaven , will certainly believe . The heavenly Light will dissipate our darkness , and infallibly illuminate . Whilest God sets before us the glass of the Gospel in which the things invisible are revealed , and also gives us eye sight to behold them , Believers must needs be a heavenly people , as walking in that light which proceedeth from , and leadeth to the celestial everlasting Light. 2. And that Faith may be so powerful as to serve instead of sight and presence , Believers have the Spirit of Christ within them , to excite and actuate it , and help them against all temptations to unbelief , and to work in them all other graces that concur to promote the works of Faith ; and to mortifie those sins that hinder our believing , and are contrary to a heavenly life : So that as the exercise of our sight , and taste , and hearing , and feeling , is caused by our natural life ; so the exercise of Faith and Hope , and Love , upon things unseen , is caused by the holy Spirit , which is the principle of our new life , 1 Cor. 2.12 . We have received the Spirit , that we might know the things that are given us of God. ] This Spirit of God acquainteth us with God , with his veracity and his Word , Heb. 10.30 . We know him that hath said , I will never fail thee , nor forsake thee . ] This Spirit of Christ acquainteth us with Christ , and with his grace and will. 1 Cor. 2.10 , 11 , 12. This heavenly Spirit acquainteth us with Heaven , so that [ We know that when Christ appeareth , we shall be like him , for we shall see him as he is , 1 Joh. 3.2 . And we know that he was manifested to take away sin , ] 1 Joh. 3.5 . And will perfect his work , and present us spotless to his Father , Eph. 5.26 , 27. This heavenly Spirit possesseth the Saints with such heavenly dispositions and desires , as much facilitate the work of Faith. It bringeth us to a heavenly conversation ; and maketh us live as fellow-citizens of the Saints , and in the houshold of God , Phil. 3.20 . Eph. 2.19 . It is within us a Spirit of supplication , breathing heaven-ward , with sighs and groans which cannot be expressed ; and as God knoweth the meaning of the Spirit , so the Spirit knows the mind of God , Rom. 8.37 . 1 Cor. 2.11 . 3. And the work of Faith is much promoted by the spiritual experiences of Believers . When they find a considerable part of the holy Scriptures verified on themselves , it much confirmeth their Faith as to the whole . They are really possessed of that heavenly disposition , called , The Divine Nature , and have felt the power of the Word upon their hearts , renewing them to the Image of God , mortifying their most dear and strong corruptions , shewing them a greater beauty and desirableness in the Objects of Faith , than is to be found in sensible things : They have found many of the Promises made good upon themselves , in the answers of prayers , and in great deliverances , which strongly perswadeth them to believe the rest that are yet to be accomplished . And experience is a very powerful and satisfying way of conviction . He that feeleth , as it were , the first fruits , the earnest , and the beginnings of Heaven already in his soul , will more easily and assuredly believe that there is a Heaven hereafter . [ We know that the Son of God i● come , and hath given us an understanding , that we may know him that is true , and we are in him that is true , even in his Son Jesus Christ : This is the true God and eternal life , ] 1 Joh. 5.20 . [ He that believeth on the Son hath the witness in himself , Vers . 10. ] There is so great a likeness of the holy and heavenly nature in the Saints , to the heavenly life that God hath promised , that makes it the more easily believed . 4. And it exceedingly helpeth our Belief of the life that 's yet unseen , to find that Nature affordeth us undeniable Arguments to prove a future Happiness and Misery , Reward and Punishment , in the general ; yea and in special , that the Love and Fruition of God is this Reward ; and that the effects of his displeasure are this Punishment : Nothing more clear and certain than that there is a God , ( He must be a fool indeed that dare deny it , Psal . 14.1 . ) as also that this God is the Creatour of the rational nature , and hath the absolute right of Soveraign Government : and therefore that the rational Creature oweth him the most full and absolute obedience , and deserveth punishment if he disobey . And it 's most clear that infinite goodness should be loved above all finite imperfect created good : And it 's clear that the rational nature is so formed , that without the hopes and fears of another life , the world neither is , nor ever was , nor ( by ordinary visible means ) can be well governed ; ( supposing God to work on man according to his nature . ) And it is most certain that it consisteth not with infinite wisdom , power and goodness , to be put to rule the world in all ages , by fraud and falshood . And it is certain that Heathens do for the most part through the world , by the light of nature , acknowledge a life of joy , or misery to come : And the most hardened Atheists , or Infidels must confess , that [ for ought they know there may be such a life : ] it being impossible they should know or prove the contrary . And it is most certain that the meer probability or possibility of a Heaven and Hell , ( being matters of such unspeakable concernment ) should in reason command our utmost diligence to the hazard or loss of the transitory vanities below : and consequently that a holy diligent preparation for another life , is naturally the duty of the reasonable creature . And it 's a sure that God hath not made our nature in vain ; nor set us on a life of vain imployments , nor made it our business in the world to seek after that which can never be attained . These things , and much more , do shew that nature affordeth us so full a testimony of the life to come that 's yet invisible , that it exceedingly helpeth us in believing the supernatural revelation of it , which is more full . 5. And though we have not seen the objects of our faith , yet those that have given us their infallible testimony by infallible means , have seen what they testified . Though [ no man hath seen God at any time , yet the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father , hath declared him , Joh 1.18 . [ Verily , verily , ( saith our Lord ) we speak that we know , and testifie that we have seen ] Joh. 3.11 . Vers . 31 , 32. [ He that cometh from Heaven is above all , and what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth . ] Christ that hath told us saw the things that we have not seen : and you will believe honest men that speak to you of what they were eye-witnesses of . And the Disciples saw the person , the transfiguration , and the miracles of Christ . Insomuch that John thus beginneth his Epistle , 1 Cor. 1.1 , 2 , 3. [ That which was from the beginning which we have heard , which we have seen with our eyes , which we have looked upon , and our hands have handled of the Word of life , ( for the life was manifested , and we have seen it , and bear witness , and shew it to you , that eternal life which was with the Father , and was manifested unto us : ) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you . ] So Paul , 1 Cor. 9.1 . Am I not an Apostle ? have have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord , 1 Cor. 15.5.6 , 7. [ He was seen of Cephas , then of the twelve : after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once , of whom the greater part remain unto this present ] Heb. 2.3 , 4. This [ great salvation at first began to be spoken by the Lord , and was confirmed to us by them that heard him ; God also bearing them witness , both with signs and wonders , and with divers miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost , according to his own will. ] 2 Pet. 1.16 , 17. [ For we have not followed cunningly devised fables , when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ , but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty : For he received from God the Father honour and glory , when there came such a voice to him , from the excellent glory : This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased : And this voice which came from Heaven , we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount. ] And therefore when the Apostles were commanded by their persecutors , not to speak at all , or teach in the name of Jesus , they answered , [ We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard . ] Acts 4.18 , 20. So that much of the obj●cts of our faith to us invisible , have yet been s●en by those that have instrumentally revealed them ; and the glory of Heaven it self is seen by many millions of souls , that are now possessing it . And the tradition of the Testimony of the Apostles unto us , is more full and satisfactory , than the tradition of any Laws of the Land , or History of the most unquestionable affairs that have been done among the people of the earth : ( as I have manifested elsewhere . ) So that faith hath the infallible Testimony of God , and of them that have seen , and therefore is to us instead of sight . 6. Lastly , Even the enemy of faith himself doth against his will confirm our faith by the violence and rage of malice , that he stirreth up in the ungodly against the life of faith and holiness ; and by the importunity of his oppositions and temptations , discovering that it is not for nothing that he is so maliciously solicitous , industrious , and violent . And thus you see how much faith hath , that should fully satisfie a rational man , instead of presence , possession and ●ight If any shall here say , [ But why would not God let us have a sight of Heaven or Hell , when he could not but know that it would more generally and certainly have prevailed for the conversion and salvation of the world : Doth he envy us the most ●ff●ctua● means ? ] I answer ; 1. Who art thou O man that disputest against God ? shall the thing formed say to him that formed it , Why hast thou made me thus ? M●st God come down to the bar of man , to render an account of the reason of his works ? Why do ye not also ask him a reason of the nature , situation , magnitude , order , influences , &c. of all the Stars , and Superiour Orbs , and call him to an account for all his works ? when yet there are so many things in your own bodies , of which you little understand the reason . Is it not intollerable impudency , for such worms as we , so low , so dark , to question the eternal God , concerning the reason of his Laws and dispensations ? Do we not shamefully forget our ignorance , and our distance ? 2. But if you must have a reason , let this suffice you : It is fit that the Government of God be suited to the nature of the reasonable subject . And Reason is made to apprehend more than we see , and by reaching beyond sense , to carry us to seek things higher and better than sense can reach . If you would have a man understand no more than he sees , you would almost equalize a wise man and a fool , and make a man too like a beast . Even in worldly matters , you will venture upon the greatest cost and pains for the things that you see not , nor ever saw . He that hath a journey to go to a place that he never saw , will not think that a sufficient reason to stay at home . The Merchant will sail 1000 miles to a Land , and for a Commodity , that he never saw . Must the Husbandman see the Harvest before he plow his Land , and sow his seed ? Must the sick man feel , that he hath health before he use the means to get it ? Must the Souldier see that he hath the victory before he fight ? You would take such conceits in worldly matters to be the symptoms of distraction : And will you cherish them where they are most pernicious ? Hath God made man for any end , or for none ? If none , he is made in vain : If for any , no reason can expect that he should see his end , before he use the means , and see his home before he begin to travel towards it . When children first go to School , they do not see or enjoy the learning and wisdom which by time and labour they must attain . You will provide for the children which you are like to have before you see them . To look that sight which is our fruition it self , should go before a holy life , is to expect the end before we will use the necessary means . You see here in the government of the world , that it is things unseen that are the instruments of rule , and motives of obedience . Shall no man be restrained from felony or murders , but he that seeth the Assizes or the Gallows ? It is enough that he foreseeth them , as being made known by the Laws . It would be no discrimination of the good and bad , the wise and foolish , if the reward and punishment must be seen ? what thief so mad as to steal at the Gallows , or before the Judge ? The basest habits would be restrained from acting , if the reward and punishment were in fight . The most beastly drunkard would not be drunk ; the filthy fornicator would forbear his lust ; the malicious enemy of godliness would forbear their calumnies and persecutions , if Heaven and Hell were open to their sight . No man will play the adulterer in the face of the Assembly : The chast and unchast seem there alike : And so they would do if they saw the face of the most dreadful God. No thanks to any of you all to be godly if Heaven were to be presently seen ? or to forbear your sin , if you saw Hell fire , God will have a meeter way of tryal : You shall believe his promises , if ever you will have the benefit , and believe his threatnings , if ever you will escape the threatned evil . CHAP. 2. Some Uses . Vse 1. THis being the nature and use of Faith , to apprehend things absent as if they were present , and things unseen , as if they were visible before our eyes ; you may hence understand the nature of Christianity , and what it is to be a true Believer . Verily , it is another matter than the dreaming , self-deceiving world imagineth . Hypocrites think that they are Christians indeed , because they have entertained a superficial opinion , that there is a Christ , an immortality of souls , a Resurrection , a Heaven and a Hell ; though their lives bear witness , that this is not a living , and effectual faith ; but it is their sensitive faculties and interest that are predominant , and are the byas of their hearts . Alas , a little observation may tell them , that notwithstanding their most confident pretentions to Christianity , they are utterly unacquainted with the Christian life . Would they live as they do , in worldly cares , and pampering of the flesh , and neglect of God and the life to come , if they saw the things which they say they do believe ? Could they be sensual , ungodly and secure , if they had a faith that serv'd instead of sight ? Would you know who it is that is the Christian indeed ? 1. He is one that liveth ( in some measure ) as if he saw the Lord : Believing in that God that dwelleth in the inaccessible light , that cannot be seen by mortal eyes , he liveth as before his face . He speaks , he prayes , he thinks , he deals with men , as if he saw the Lord stand by . No wonder therefore if he do it with reverence and holy fear . No wonder if he make lighter of the smiles or frowns of mortal man , than others do that see none higher ; and if he observe not the lustre of worldly dignity , or fl●shly beauty , wisdom or vain-glory , before the transcendent incomprehensible light , to which the Sun it self is darkness . When he awaketh he is still with God , Psal . 134.8 . He sets the Lord alwaies before him , because he is at his right hand , he is not moved , Psal . 16.8 . And therefore the life of Believers is oft called , a walking with God , and a walking bef●re God , as Gen. 5.22 , 24. & 6.9 . & 17.1 . in the case of Henoch , Noah , and Abraham . All the day doth he wait on God , Psal . 25 ▪ 5. Imagine your selves what manner of person he must be that sees the Lord ; and conclude that such ( in his measure ) is the true believer . For by faith he seeth him that is invisible ( to the eye of sense ) and therefore can forsake the glory and pleasures of the world , and feareth not the wrath of Princes , as it 's said of Moses , Heb. 11.27 . 2. The Believer is one that liveth on a Christ whom he never saw , and trusteth in him , adhereth to him , acknowledgeth his benefits , loveth him , and r●joyceth in him , as if he had seen him with his eyes . This is the faith which Peter calls more precious than perishing gold ; that maketh us love him whom we have not seen , and in whom th●ugh now we see him not , yet believing we rejoyce , with unspeakable and glorious joy , 1 Pet. 1.8 . Christ dwelleth in h●s heart by faith ; not only by his Spirit ; but objectively ; as our dearest absent friend , doth dwell in our estimation and affection , Ephes . 3.17 . O that the miserable Infidels of the world , had the eyes , the hearts , the experiences of the true believer ! Then they that with Thomas tell those that have seen him , [ Except I may see and feel , I will not believe ] will be forced to cry out , [ My Lord and my God , ] Joh. 20.25 , &c. 3. A Believer is one that judgeth of the man by his invisible inside , and not by outward appearances with a fleshly worldly judgement . He seeth by faith a greater ugliness in sin , than in any the most deformed monster . When the unbeliever saith , what harm is it to please my flesh , in ease , or pride , or meat and drink , or lustful wantonness ? the believer takes it as the question of a fool , that should ask [ what harm is it to take a dram of Mercury or Arsenick ? ] He seeth the vicious evil , and foreseeth the consequent penal evil , by the eye of faith . And therefore it is that he pittieth the ungodly , when they pitty not themselves , and speaks to them oft with a tender heart in compassion of their misery , and perhaps weeps over them ( as Paul , Phil. 3.18 , 19. ) when he cannot prevail ; when they weep not for themselves , but hate his love , and scorn his pitty , and bid him keep his lamentations for himself ; because they see not what he sees . He seet● also the inward beauty of the Saints , ( as it shineth forth in the holiness of their lives ) and through all their sordid poverty and contempt , beholdeth the image of God upon them . For he judgeth not of sin or holiness as they now appear to the d●stracted world ; but as they will be judged of at the day which he foreseeth ; when sin will be the shame , and holiness the honoured and d●sired state . He can see Christ in his poor despised members , and love God in those that are made as the scorn and off-scou●ing of all things , by the malignant unbelieving world . He admireth the excellency and happiness of those , that are made the laughing-stock of the ungodly : and accounteth the Saints the most excellent on earth , Psal . 16.2 . and had rather be one of their communion in raggs , than sit with Princes that are naked within , and void of the true and durable glory . He judgeth of men as he perceiveth them to have more or less of Christ . The worth of a man is not obvious to the sense . You see his stature , complexion and his cloths ; but as you see not his learning or skill in any Art whatsoever , so you see not his grace and heavenly mind . As the soul it self , so the sinful deformity , and the holy beauty of it , are to us invisible , and perceived only by their fruits , and by the eye of faith , which seeth things as God reveals them . And therefore in the eyes of a true Believer , a vile person is contemned ; but he honoureth those that fear the Lord , Psal . 15.4 . 4. A true Believer doth seek a happiness which he never saw , and that with greater estimation and resolution , than he seeks the most excellent things that he hath seen . In all his prayers , his labours , and his sufferings , it is an unseen Glory that he seeks : he seeth not the Glory of God , nor the glorified Redeemer , nor the world of Angels , and perfected spirits of the just : but he knoweth by faith , that such a God , such a Glory , such a world as this there is , as certain as if his eyes had seen it . And therefore he provides , he lives , he hopes , he waits , for this unseen state of spiritual bliss , contemning all the wealth and glory , that sight can reach in comparison thereof . He believeth what he shall see ; and therefore strives that he may see it . It 's something above the Sun , and all that mortal eyes can see , which is the end , the hope , the portion of a believer , without which all is nothing to him ; and for which he trades and travels here , as worldlings do for worldly things , Matth. 6.20 , 21. Col. 3.1 . Phil. 3.20 . 5. A true Believer doth all his life prepare for a day that is yet to come , and for an account of all the passages of his life , though he hath no●hing but the Word of God , to assure him of it . And therefore he lives as one that is hasting to the presence of his Judge ; and he contriveth his affairs , and disposeth of his worldly riches , as one that looks to hear of it again , and as one that remembreth the Judge is at the door , James 5.9 . He rather asketh , [ what life , what words , what actions , what way of using my estate and interest , will be sweetest to me in the review , and will be best at last when I must accordingly receive my doom ? ] than [ what is most pleasant to my flesh ? and what will ingratiate me most with men ? and what will accommodate me best at present ? and set me highest in the world ? ] And therefore it is , that he pittieth the ungodly even in the height of their prosperity ; and is so earnest ( though it offend them ) to procure their recovery , as knowing that how secure soever they are now , they must give an account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead , 1 Pet. 4.5 . and that then the case will be altered with the presumptuous world . 6. Lastly , A true believer is careful to prevent a threatned misery which he never felt ; and is awakened by holy fear to flye from the wrath to come , and is industrious to escape that place of torment which he never saw , as if he had seen it with his eyes . When he heareth but the sound of the trumpet , he takes warning that he may save his soul , Ezek. 33.4 . The evils that are here felt and seen , are not so dreadful to him , as those that he never saw or felt . He is not so careful and resolute , to avoid the ruine of his estate or name , or to avoid the plague , or sword , or famine , or the scorching flames , or death , or torments , as he is to avoid the endless torments , which are threatned by the righteous God. It is a greater misery in his esteem , to be really undone for ever , than seemingly only for a time , and to be cast off by God , than by all the world ; and to lie in Hell , than to suffer any temporal calamity . And therefore he fears it more , and doth more to avoid it ; and is more cast down by the fears of Gods displeasure , than by the feelings of these present sufferings . As Noah did for his preservation from the threatned deluge , so doth the true Believer for his preservation from everlasting wrath , Heb. 11.7 . [ By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet , moved with fear , prepared an Ark , to the saving of his house , by the which he condemned the world , and became heir of the righteousness , which is by faith . ] God first giveth warning of the flood : Noah believeth it : not with a lifeless , but a working faith : that first moved in him a self-preserving fear : This fear moveth Noah to obey the Lord in the use of means , and to prepare the Ark ; and all this was , to save himself and his house from a flood , that was as yet unseen , and of which in nature there was no appearance . Thus doth God warn the sinful world , of the day of judgement , and the fire that is unquenchable ; and true believers take his warning ; and believing that which they cannot see , by fear they are moved to flye to Christ , and use his means to scape the threatned calamity . By this they become the heirs of that Righteousness which is by faith , and condemn the unbelieving careless world , that take not the warning , and use not the remedy . By this time you may see that the Life of Faith is quite another thing , than the lifeless opinion of multitudes that call themselves believers . To say [ I believe there is a God , a Christ , a Heaven , a Hell , ] is as easie as it is common . But the faith of the ungodly is but an uneffectual dream . To dream that you are fighting , wins no victories : To dream that you are eating , gets no strength . To dream that you are running , rid● no ground : To dream that you are plowing , or sowing , or reaping , procureth but a fruitless harvest . And to dream that you are Princes , may consist with beggery . If you do any more than dream of Heaven and Hell , how is it that you stir not , and make it not appear by the diligence of your lives , and the fervour of your duties , and the seriousness of your endeavours , that such wonderful unexpressible over-powering things , are indeed the matters of your belief ? As you love your souls , take heed lest you take an image of faith to be the thing it self . Faith sets on work the powers of the soul , for the obtaining of that joy , and the escaping of that misery which you believe . But the image of faith in self-deceivers , neither warms nor works : it conquereth no difficulties ; it stirs not up to faithful duty . It 's blind , and therefore seeth not God ; and how then should he be feared and loved ? I● seeth not Hell , and therefore the senseless soul goes on as fearlesly and merrily to the unquenchable fire , as if he were in the safest way . This image of faith annihilateth the most potent objects , as to any due impression on the soul . God is as no God , and Heaven as no H●aven , to these imaginary Christians . If a Prince be in the room , an image reverenceth him not : If musick and feasting be there , an image finds no pleasure in them . If fire and sword be there , an image fears them not . You may perceive by the senseless neglectful carriage of ungodly men , that they see not by faith the God that they should love and fear ; the Heaven that they should seek and wait for ; or the Hell that they should with all possible care avoid . He is indeed the true Believer that ( allowing the difference of degrees ) doth pray as if he saw the Lord ; and speak and live as alwaies in his presence ; and redeem his time as if he were to die to morrow , or as one that seeth death approach , and ready to lay hands upon him ; that begs and cries to God in prayer , as one that foreseeth the day of judgement ; and the endless joy or misery that followeth : that bestirreth him for everlasting life , as one that seeth Heaven and Hell , by the eye of faith . Faith is a serious apprehension , and causeth a serious conversation : for it is instead of sight and presence . From all this you may easily and certainly infer , 1. That true faith is a Jewel , rare and precious : and not so common as nominal careless Christians think . What say they , Are we not all believers ? will you make Infidels of all that are not Saints ? are none Christians , but those that live so strictly ? Answer , I know they are not Infidels by profession : but what they are indeed , and what God will take them for , you may soon perceive , by comparing the description of faith , with the inscription legible on their lives . It 's common to say , I do believe : but is it common to find men , pray and live as those that do believe indeed ? It is both in works of charity and of piety , that a living faith will shew it self . I will not therefore contend about the name : If you are ungodly , unjust , or uncharitable , and yet will call your selves Believers , you may keep the name , and see whether it will save you . Have you forgotten how this case is determined by the holy Ghost himself , James 2.14 , &c. What doth it profit my Brethren , if a man say , he hath faith , and hath not works ? Can faith save him ? Faith if it hath not works is dead , being alone . Thou believest that there is one God : thou dost well : the Devils also believe and tremble . If such a belief be it , that thou gloriest in , it 's not denyed thee ! But wilt thou know , oh vain man , that faith without works is dead ? &c. Is there life where there is no motion ? Had you that Faith that is instead of sight , it would make you more solicitous for the things unseen , than you are for the visible trifles of this world . 2. And hence you may observe , that most true Believers are weak in Faith. Alas , how far do we all fall short of the love , and zeal , and care , and diligence , which we should have if we had but once beheld the things which we do believe ? Alas , how dead are our affections ? how flat are our duties ? how cold , and how slow are our endeavours ? how unprofitable are our lives , in comparison of what one hours sight of Heaven and Hell would make them be ? O what a comfortable converse would it be , if I might but joyn in prayer , praise , and holy conference one day or hour , with a person that had seen the Lord , and been in Heaven , and born a part in the Angelical Praises ! Were our Congregations composed of such persons , what manner of worship would they perform to God ? How unlike would their heavenly ravishing expressions be to these our sleepy heartless duties ? Were Heaven open to the view of all this Congregation while I am speaking to you , or when we are speaking in prayer and praise to God , imagine your selves what a change it would make upon the best of us in our services ! What apprehensions , what affections , what resolutions it would raise ! and what a posture it would cast us all into ! And do we not all profess to believe these things , as revealed from Heaven by the infallible God ? Do we not say , that such a Divine Revelation is as sure as if the things were in themselves laid open to our sight ? Why then are we no more affected with them ? Why are we no more transported by them ? Why do they no more command our souls , and stir up our faculties to the most vigorous and lively exercise ? and call them off from things that are not to us considerable , nor fit to have one glance of the eye of our observation , nor a regardful thought , nor the least affection , unless as they subserve these greater things ? When you observe how much , in your selves and others , the frame of your souls in holy duty , and the tenour of your lives towards God and man , do differ from what they would be , if you had seen the things that you believe , let it mind you of the great imperfection of faith , and humble us all in the sense of our imb●cility . For though I know that the most perfect Faith , is not apt to raise such high affections in degree , as shall be raised by the beatifical vision in the glorified , and as present intuition now would raise , if we could attain it ; yet seeing Faith hath as sure an Object and Revelation as sight it self , though the manner of apprehension be less affecting , it should do much more with us than it doth , and bring us nearer to such affections and resolutions , as sight would cause . Vse 2. If Faith be given us to make things to come as if they were at hand , and things unseen as if we saw them , you may see from hence , 1. The reason of that holy seriousness of Believers , which the ungodly want . 2. And the reason why the ungodly want it . 3. And why they wonder at , and distaste and deride this serious diligence of the Saints . 1. Would you make it any matter of wonder , for men to be more careful of their souls , more fervent in their requests to God , more fearful of offending him , and more laborious in all holy preparation for eternal life , than the holiest and precisest person that you know in all the world , if so be that Heaven and Hell were seen to them ? Would you not rather wonder at the dulness and coldness , and negligence of the best , and that they are not far more holy and diligent than they are , if you and they did see these things ? Why then do you not cease your wondering at their diligence ? Do you not know that they are men , that have seen the Lord , whom they daily serve ? and seen the glory which they daily seek ? and seen the place of torments which they fly from ? By Faith in the glass of Divine Revelations they have seen them . 2. And the reason why the careless world are not as diligent , and holy as Believers , is because they have not this eye of Faith , and never saw those powerful objects , that Believers see . Had you their eyes , you would have their hearts and lives . O that the Lord would but illuminate you , and give you such a sight of the things unseen , as every true Believer hath ! What a happy change would it make upon you ? Then instead of your deriding or opposing it , we should have your company in the holy path : You would then be such your selves , as you now deride . If you saw what they see , you would do as they do . When the heavenly light had appeared unto Saul , he ceaseth persecuting , and enquires what Christ would have him to do , that he might be such a one as he had persecuted : And when the scales fell from his eyes , he falls to prayer , and gets among the Believers whom he had persecuted , and laboureth and suffereth more than they . 3. But till this light appear to your darkned souls , you cannot see the reasons of a holy heavenly life : and therefore you will think it hypocrisie , or pride , or fancy , and imagination , or the foolishness of crackt●brain'd self-conceited men . If you see a man do reverence to a Prince , and the Prince himself were invisible to you , would you not take him for a mad man ; and say that he cringed to the stools or chairs , or bowed to a post , or complemented with his shadow ? If you saw a mans action in eating and drinking , and see not the meat and drink it self , would you not think him mad ? If you heard men laugh , and hear not so much as the voice of him that gives the jeast , would you not imagine them to be brain-sick ? If you see men dance , and hear not the musick ; if you see a Labourer threshing , or reaping , or mowing , and see no corn or grass before him ; if you see a Souldier fighting for his life , and see no enemy that he spends his stroaks upon , will you not take all these for men distracted ? Why this is the case between you and the true Believers . You see them reverently worship God , but you see not the Majesty which they worship , as they do : You see them as busie for the saving of their souls , as if an hundred lives lay on it ; but you see not the Hell from which they fly , nor the Heaven they seek : and therefore you marvel why they make so much ado about the matters of their salvation ; and why they cannot do as others , and make as light of Christ and Heaven , as they that desire to be excused , and think they have more needful things to mind . But did you see with the eyes of a true Believer , and were the amazing things that God hath revealed to us , but open to your sight , how quickly would you be satisfied , and sooner mock at the diligence of a drowning man , that is striving for his life , or at the labour of the City , when they are busily quenching the flames , in their habitations , than mock at them that are striving for the everlasting life , and praying and labouring against the ever-burning flames ? How soon would you turn your admiration , against the stupidity of the careless world , and wonder more that ever men that hear the Scriptures , and see with their eyes the works of God , can make so light of matters of such unspeakable eternal consequence ? Did you but see Heaven and Hell , it would amaze you to think that ever many , yea so many , and so seeming wise , should wilfully run into everlasting fire , and sell their souls at so low a rate , as if it were as easie to be in Hell as in an Ale-house , and Heaven were no better than a beastly lust ? O then with what astonishment would you think ! [ Is this the fire that sinners do so little fear ? Is this the glory that is so neglected ? ] You would then see that the madness of the ungodly is the wonder . Vse 3. By this time I should think that some of your own Consciences have prevented me , in the Vse of Examination , which I am next to call you to . I hope while I have been holding you the glass , you have not turned away your faces , nor shut your eyes : But that you have been judging your selves by the light which hath been set up before you . Have not some of your consciences said by this time [ If this be the nature and use of Faith , to make things unseen , as if we saw them , what a desolate case then is my soul in ? how void of Faith ? how full of Infidelity ? how far from the truth and power of Christianity ? How dangerously have I long deceived my self in calling my self a true Christian , and pretending to be a true Believer ? When I never knew the life of Faith but took a dead opinion , bred only by education , and the custom of the Countrey instead of it ; little did I think that I had been an Infidel at the heart , while I so confidently laid claim to the name of a Believer ! Alas , how far have I been from living , as one that seeth the things that he professeth to Believe ? ] If some of your consciences be not thus convinced , and perceive not yet your want of faith , I fear it is because they are seared , or asleep . But if yet conscience have not begun to plead this cause against you , let me begin to plead it with your consciences : Are you Believers ? Do you live the life of Faith , or not ? Do you live upon things that are unseen , or upon the present visible baits of sensuality ? That you may not turn away your ears , or hear me with a sluggish sensless mind , let me tell you first , how nearly it concerneth you , to get this Question soundly answered ; and then , that you may not be deceived , let me help you toward the true resolution . 1. And for the first , you may perceive by what is said , that saving Faith is not so common , as those that know not the nature of it , do imagine . [ All men have not faith , ] 2 Thes . 3.2 . O what abundance do deceive themselves with Names , and shews , and a dead Opinion , and customary Religion ▪ and take these for the life of faith ! 2. Till you have this faith , you have no special interest in Christ . It is only Believers that are united to him , and are his living Members : and it is by faith that he dwelleth in our hearts , and that we live in him , Ephes . 3.17 . Gal. 2.20 . In vain do you boast of Christ , if you are not true Believers . You have no part or portion in him : None of his special Benefits are yours , till you have this living working Faith. 3. You are still in the state of enmity to God , and unreconciled to him , while you are unbelievers . For you can have no peace with God ▪ nor a●●ess unto his favour , but by Christ , Rom. 5.1 , 2 , 3 , 4. Ephes . 2.14 , 15 , 17. And therefore you must come by faith to Christ , before you can come by Christ unto the Father , as those that have a special interest in his love . 4. Till you have this Faith , you are under the guilt and load of all your sins , and under the curse and condemnation of the Law ; For there is no Justification or forgiveness , but by Faith , Act. 26.18 . Rom. 4 , & 5 , &c. 5. Till you have this sound Belief of things unseen , you will be carnal minded , and have a carnal end to all your actions , which will make those to be evil , that materially are good , and those to be fleshly that materially are holy : Without Faith it is impossible to please God , Rom. 8.5 , 8 , 9. Prov. 28.9 . Heb. 11.6 . 6. Lastly , Till you have this living Faith , you have no right to Heaven , nor could be saved if you die this hour . [ Whoever believeth shall not perish but have everlasting life : He that believeth on him , is not condemned : but he that believeth not , i● condemned already : He that believeth on the Son , hath everlasting life : and he that b●lieveth not the Son , shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abid●th on him , Joh. 3.16 , 18 , 36. You see , if you love your selves , it concerneth you , to try whether you are true Believers : Unless you take it for an indifferent thing , whether you live for ever in Heaven or Hell ; it 's best for you to put the question close to your consciences betimes . Have you that Faith that serves instead of sight ? Do you carry within you the evidence of things unseen , and the substance of the things which you say you hope for ? Did you know in what manner this question must be put and determined at judgement , and how all your comfort will then depend upon the answer , and how near that day is , when you must all be sentenced to Heaven or Hell , as you are found to be Believers or Vnbelievers , it would make you hearken to my counsel , and presently try whether you have a saving Faith. 2. But lest you be deceived in your trial , and lest you mistake me as if I tryed the weak by the measure of the strong , and laid all your comfort upon such strong affections , and high degrees , as fight it self would work within you , I shall briefly tell you , how you may know whether you have any faith that 's true and saving , though in the least degree . Though none of us are affected to that height as we should be , if we had the sight of all that we do believe , yet all that have any saving belief of invisible things , will have these four signs of faith within them . 1. A sound belief of things unseen , will cause a practical estimation of them , and that above all earthly things . A glimpse of the heavenly glory as in a glass , will cause the soul deliberately to say , [ This is the chief desirable felicity ; this is the Crown , the Pearl , the Treasure ; nothing but this can serve my turn . It will debase the greatest pleasures , or riches , or honours of the world in your esteem . How contemptible will they seem , while you see God stand by , and Heaven as it were set open to your view ; you 'l see there 's little cause to envy the prosperous servants of the world ; you will pitty them , as miserable in their mirth , and bound in the fetters of their folly and concupiscence ; and as strangers to all solid joy and honour . You will be moved with some compassion to them in their misery , when they are braving it among men , and domineering for a little while ; and you will think , alas poor man ! Is this all thy glory ! Hast thou no better wealth , no higher honour , no sweeter pleasures than these husks ? With such a practical judgement as you value gold above dirt , and jewels above common stones ; you will value Heaven above all the riches and pleasures of this world , if you have indeed a living saving faith , Phil. 3.7 , 8 , 9. 2. A sound belief of the things unseen will habitually incline your wills to embrace them , with consent and complacence , and resolution , above and against those worldly things , that would be set above them , and preferred before them . If you are true believers , you have made your choice , you have fix● your hopes , you have taken up your resolutions , that God must be your portion , or you can have none that 's worth the having : that Christ must be your Saviour , or you cannot be saved : and therefore you are at a point with all things else : they may be your Helps , but not your Happiness : you are resolved on what Rock to build , and where to cast anchor , and at what port and prize your life shall aim . You are resolved what to seek and trust to God or none : Heaven or nothing : Christ or none ; is the voice of your rooted , stable resolutions . Though you are full of fears sometimes whether you shall be accepted , and have a part in Christ , or no ? and whether ever you shall attain the Glory which you aim at ; yet you are off all other hopes ; having seen an end of all perfections , and read vanity and vexation written upon all creatures , even on the most flattering state on earth , and are unchangeably resolved not to change your Master , and your hopes , and your holy course , for any other life or hopes . Whatever come of it you are resolved that here you will venture all : Knowing that you have no other game to play , at which you are not sure to lose , and that you can lay out your love , and care , and labour on nothing else that will answer your expectations ; nor make any other bargain whatsoever ▪ but what you are sure to be utterly undone by , Psal . 73.25 . & 4.6 , 7. Mat. 6.20 , 21. & 13.45 , 46. Luke 18.33 . 3. A sound belief of things invisible , will be so far an effectual spring of a holy life , as that you will [ seek first the Kingdom of God , and its Righteousness , ] Mat. 6.33 . and not in your Resolutions only , but in your Practices , the bent of your lives will be for God , and your invisible felicity . It is not possible that you should see by faith , the wonders of the world to come , and yet prefer this world before it . A dead opinionative belief , may stand with a worldly fleshly life ; but a working faith will make you stir , and make the things of God your business : and the labour and industry of your lives will shew whether you soundly believe the things unseen . 4. If you savingly believe the invisible things , you will purchase them at any rate , and hold them faster than your worldly accommodations ; and will suffer the loss of all things visible , rather than you will cast away your hopes of the glory which you never saw . A humane faith and bare opinion , will not hold fast when trial comes . For such men take Heaven but for a reserve , because they must leave earth against their wills , and are loth to go to Hell : but they are resolved to hold the world as long as they can , because their faith apprehendeth no such satisfying certainty of the things unseen , as will encourage them to let go all that they see , and have in sensible possession . But the weakest faith that 's true and saving , doth habitually dispose the soul , to let go all the hopes and happiness of this world , when they are inconsistent with our spiritual hopes and happiness , Luke 14.33 . And now I have gone before you with the light , and shewed you what a Believer is , will you presently consider how 〈◊〉 your hearts and lives agree to this description ? To know [ Whether you live by faith or not ] is consequentially to know ▪ whether God or the world be your portion and felicity ; and so whether you are the heirs of Heaven or Hell. And is not this a question that you are most nearly concerned in ? O therefore for your souls sakes , and as ever you love your everlasting peace , Examine your selves , whether you are in the faith or not ? Know you not that Christ is in you ( by faith ) except you be reprobates ? 2 Cor. 13.5 . will you hearken now as long to your consciences , as you have done to me ? As you have heard me telling you , what is the nature of a living , saving faith will you hearken to your consciences , while they impartially tell you , whether you have this life of faith , or not ? It may be known if you are willing , and diligent , and impartial : I● you search on purpose as men that would know whether they are alive or dead , and whether they shall live or die for ever : and not as men that would be flattered and deceived , and are resolved to think well of their state , be it true or false . Let conscience tell you : What eyes do you see by , for the conduct of the chief imployment of your lives ? Is it by the eye of sense , or faith ? I take it for granted that it 's by the eye of Reason . But is it by Reason corrupted and by●ssed by sense , or is it by Reason elevated by faith ? What Countrey is it that your hearts converse in ? Is it in Heaven or Earth ? What company is it that you solace your selves with ? Is it with Angels and Saints ? Do you walk with them in the Spirit , and joyn your eccho's to their triumphant praises , and say , Amen , when by faith you hear them ascribing honour , and praise , and glory to the ancient of daies , the Omnipotent Jehovah , that is , and that was , and is to come ? Do you fetch your Joyes from Heaven or Earth ? from things unseen or seen ? things future or present ? things hoped for , or things possessed ? What Garden yieldeth you your sweetest flowers ? Whence is the food , that your hopes and comforts live upon ? Whence are the spirits and cordials that revive you ; when a frowning world doth cast you into a fainting fit , or swoun ? Where is it that you repose your souls for Rest , when sin or sufferings have made you weary ? Deal truly , Is it in Heaven or Earth ? Which world do you take for your pilgrimage , and which for your home ? I do not ask you , where you are , but where you dwell ? not where are your persons , but where are your hearts ? In a word , Are you in good earnest , when you say , you believe a Heaven and Hell ? And do you think , and speak , and pray , and live , as those that do indeed believe it ? Do you spend your time , and chuse your condition of life , and dispose of your affairs , and answer temptations to worldly things , as those that are serious in their belief ? Speak out ; do you live the life of faith upon things unseen ? or the life of sense on things that you behold ? Deal truly ; for your endless ●oy or sorrow doth much depend on it . The life of faith is the certain passage to the life of glory . The fleshly life on things here seen , is the certain way to endless misery . If you live after the flesh , ye shall die : but if ye by the spirit , do mortifie the deeds of the body , ye shall live , Rom. 8.13 . Be not d●ceived : God is not mocked ● for whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he also reap : For he that soweth to his flesh , shall of the flesh reap corruption : but he that soweth to the spirit , shall of the spirit reap everlasting life , Gal. 6.7 , 8. If you would know where you must live for ever , know how , and for what , and upon what it is , that you live here . Vse 4. Having enquired whether you are Believers , I am next to ask you , what you will be for the time to come ? will you live upon things seen or unseen ? While you arrogate the name and honour of being Christians , will you bethink you what Christianity is ? and will you be indeed what you say you are , and would be thought to be ? Oh that you would give credit to the Word of God that the God of Heaven might be but heartily believed by you ! And that you would but take his Word to be as sure as sense ? and what he hath told you is or will be , to be as certain as if you saw it with your eyes ? Oh what manner of persons would you then be ? how carefully and fruitfully would you speak and live ? How impossible were it then that you should be careless and prophane ? And here that I may by seriousness bring you to be serious , in so serious a business , I shall first put a few suppositions to you , about the invisible objects of faith ; and then I shall put some applicatory questions to you , concerning your own resolutions and practice thereupon . 1. Suppose you saw the Lord in glory continually before you ; When you are hearing , praying , talking , j●sting , eating , drinking , and when you are tempted to any wilful sin : Suppose you saw the Lord stand over you , as verily as you see a man ! ( As you might do if your eyes could see him : for it 's most certain that he is still present with you ) suppose you saw but such a glimpse of his back parts as Moses did , Exod. 34. when God put him into a cleft of the Rock , and covered him while he passed by ( Chap. 33.23 . ) when the face of Moses shined with the sight , that he was fain to vail it from the people , Exod. 34.33 , 34 , 35. Or if you had seen but what the Prophet saw , Isa . 6.1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6. when he beheld the Lord upon a Throne , high and lifted up , &c. and heard the Seraphim cry , Holy , Holy , Holy is the Lord of Hosts , the whole earth is full of his glory . When he said , Woe is me , for I am undone , because I am a man of unclean lips , and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips ! for mine eyes haue seen the King the Lord of Hosts . Or if you had seen but what Job saw , Job 42.5 , 6. when he said , [ I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; but now mine eye seeth thee ; wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes . ] What course would you take , what manner of persons would you be after such a sight as this ? If you had seen but Christ app●●ring in his glory , as the Disciples on the holy Mount , Matth. 17. or as Paul saw him at his conversion , when he was smitten to the earth , Acts 9. or as John saw him , Rev. 1.13 . where he saith [ He was cloathed with a garment down to the foo● , and girt with a golden girdle ; his head and his hairs were white like Wooll or 〈◊〉 , and his eyes were as a flame of fire , and his feet like unto fine brass , as if they burned in a furnace , and his voice as the sound of many waters ; and he had in his right hand seven Stars , and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged Sword , and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength : and when I saw him , I fell at his feet as dead ; and he laid his right hand upon me , saying unto me , fear not , I am the first and the last ; I am ●e that liveth and was dead ; and behold I am alive for evermore , Amen , and have the keyes of hell and death . ] What do you think you should be and do , if you had seen but such a sight as this ? Would you be godly or ungodly after it ? As sure as you live , and see one another , God alwaies seeth you : He seeth your secret filthiness , and deceit , and malice , which you think is hid ; he seeth you in the dark : the locking of your doors , the d●a●ing of your curtains , the setting of the Sun , or the putting out of the Candle , doth hide nothing from him that is Omniscient , Psal . 94.8 , 9. [ Vnderstand oh ye brutish among the people ! and ye fools , when will ye be wise ? He that planted the ear , shall be not hear ? he that formed the eye , shall he not see ? ] The lust and filthiness , and covetousness , and envy , and vanity of your very thoughts are as open to his view as the Sun at noon . And therefore you may well suppose him present that cannot be absent ; and you may suppose you saw him that still seeth you , and whom you must see . Oh what a change , a glympse of the glory of his Majesty , would make in this Assembly ! Oh what amazements , what passionate workings of soul would it excite ! Were it but an Angel that did thus appear to you , what manner of hearers would you be ? how serious ? how affectionate ? how sensible ? And yet are you Believers , and have none of this ? when faith makes unseen things to be as seen ? If thou have faith indeed , thou seest him that is invisible : thou speakest to him : thou hearest him in his Word : thou seest him in his Works : thou walkest with him : he is the life of thy comforts , thy converse and thy life . 2. Suppose you had seen the matters revealed in the Gospel to your faith , as to what is past and done already ? If you had seen the deluge and the Ark , and preservation of one righteous family : the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from Heaven ; and the saving of Lot whose righte●●● soul was grieved at their sins , and hunted after as a prey to their ungodly rage , because he would have hindered them from transgressing ? Suppose you had seen the opening of the Red Sea , the passage of the Israelites , the drowning of Pharaoh and his Aegyptians ; the Manna and the Q●ails that fell from Heaven , the flaming Mount , with the terrible Thunder , when God delivered the Law to Moses ! what manner of people would you have been ? what lives would you have led , after such sights , as all or any one of these ? Suppose you had seen Christ in his state of Incarnation , in his examples of lowliness , meekness , contempt of all the glory and vanities of this world , and had heard him speak his heavenly Doctrine with power and authority , as never man spake . Suppose you had seen him heal the blind , the lame , the sick , and raise the dead ; and seen him after all this made the scorn of sinners , buffeted , spit upon , when they had crowned him with thorns , and arrayed him gorgeously in scorn ; and then nailed between malefactors on a Cross , and pierced , and die a shameful death , and this for such as you and I. Suppose you had seen the Sun darkned without any ecclipse , the Vail of the Temple rent , the Earth tremble ; the Angels terrifying the Keepers , and Christ rise again ! Suppose you had been among the Disciples when he appeared in the midst of them , and with Thomas , had put your fingers into his wounded side : and had seen him walking on the waters , and at last seen him ascending up to Heaven . Suppose you had seen when the Holy Ghost came down on the Disciples in the similitude of cloven tongues , and had heard them speak in the various languages of the Nations , and seen the variety of Miracl●s , by which they convinced the unbelieving world : What persons would you have been ? what lives would you have led , if you had been eye-witnesses of all these things ? And do you not profess to believe all this ? and that these things are as certain truths , as if you had seen them ? why then doth not your belief affect you , or command you more ? why doth it not do what sight would do , in some good measure , if it were but a lively saving faith indeed that serveth instead of sense ? Yea I must tell you , Faith must do more with you , in this case , than the sight of Christ alone , could do , or the sight of his Miracles did on most . For many that saw him , and saw his works , & heard his Word , yet perished in their unbelief . 3. Suppose you saw the everlasting Glory which Christ hath purchased and prepared for his Saints : That you had been once with Paul , rapt up into the third Heavens , and seen the things that are unutterable : would you not after that have rather lived like Paul , and undergone his sufferings and contempt , than to have lived like the brain-sick brutish world ? If you had seen what Stephen saw before his death , Acts 7.55 , 56. the Glory of God , and Christ standing at his right hand ; If you had seen the thousands and millions of holy glorious spirits , that are continually attending the Majesty of the Lord ; If you had seen the glorified spirits of the just , that were once in flesh , despised by the blind ungodly world , while they waited on God in faith , and holiness , and hope , for that blessed Crown which now they were : If you had felt one moment of their joyes ; if you had seen them shine as the Sun in glory , and made like unto the Angels of God ; if you had heard them sing the song of the Lamb , and the joyful Hallelujahs , and praise to their eternal King : what would you be , and what would you resolve on after such a sight as this ? If the rich man Luke 16. had seen Lazarus in Abrahams bosom in the midst of his bravery , and honour , and feasting , and other sensual delights , as afterwards he saw it when he was tormented in the flames of Hell , do you think such a sight would not have cooled his mirth and jollity , and helpt him to understand the nature and value of his earthly felicity ; and have proved a more effectual argument than a despised Preachers words ? at least to have brought him to a freer exercise of his Reason , in a sober consideration of his state and waies ? Had you seen one hour what Abraham , David , Paul , and all the Saints now see , while sin and flesh doth keep us here in the dark , what work do you think your selves it would make upon your hearts and lives ? 4 Suppose you saw the face of Death , and that you were now lying under the power of some mortal sickness , Physicians having forsaken you , and said , There is no hope : Your friends weeping over you , and preparing your winding sheet and coffin , digging your graves , and casting up the skulls , and bones , and earth , that must again be cast in to be your covering and company : Suppose you saw a Messenger from God to tell you that you must die to morrow ; or heard but what one of your predecessors heard , Luke 12.20 . Thou fool , this night shall thy soul be required of thee : then whose shall these things be that thou hast provided ? ] How would such a Message work with you ? would it leave you as you are ? If you heard a voice from God this night in your chamber in the dark , telling you , that this i● the last night that you shall live on earth , and before to morrow your souls must be in another world , and come before the dreadful God : what would be the effect of such a Message ? And do you not verily believe that all this will very shortly be ? Nay , do you not know without believing , that you must die , and leave your worldly glory ? and that all your pleasures and contents on earth , will be as if they had never been , ( and much worse ! ) O wonderful ! that a change so sure , so great , so near , should no more affect you , and no more be fore-thought on , and no more prepared for ! and that you be not awakened by so full and certain a fore-knowledge , to be in good sadness for eternal life , as you seem to be when death is at hand ! 5. Suppose you saw the great and dreadful day of Judgement , as it i● described by Christ himself in Matth. 25. [ When the Son of man shall come in his glory , and all his holy Angels with him , and shall sit upon his glorious Throne , and all Nations shall be gathered before him , and he shall separate them one from another , as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats , and shall set the sheep on his right hand , and the goats on his left . ] v. 31 , 32 , 33. and shall sentence the righteous to eternal life , and the rest into everlasting punishment . If you did now behold the glory and terrour of that great appearance , how the Saints will be magnified , and rejoyce , and be justified against all the accusations of Satan , and calumnies of wicked men ; and how the ungodly then would fain deny the words and deeds that now they glory in ; and what horrour and confusion will then overwhelm those wretched souls , that now out-face the Messengers of the Lord ? Had you seen them trembling before the Lord , that now are braving it out in the pride and arrogancy of their hearts : Had you heard how then they will change their tune , and wish they had never known their sins : and wish they had lived in greater holiness than those whom they derided for it : What would you say , and do , and be , after such an amazing fight as this ? Would you sport it out in sin as you have done ? Would you take no better care for your salvation ? If you had seen those sayings out of the holy Ghost fulfilled . Jude 14 , 15.2 Thes . 1.7 , 8 , 9. [ When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels , in flaming fire , taking vengeance on them that know not God , and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ , who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord , and from the glory of his power . ] What mind do you think you should be of ? What course would you take , if you had but seen this dreadful day ? Could you go on to think , and speak , and live as sensually , stupidly and negligently as now you do ? 2 Pet. 3.10 , 11 , 12. [ The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night , in the which the bravens shall pass away with a great noise , and the elements shall melt with fervent beat ; the earth also , and the works that are therein shall be burnt up : Is it possible soundly to believe such a day , so sure , so near , and no more regard it , nor make ready for it , than the carel●ss and ungodly do ? 6. Suppose at that day you had heard the Devil accusing you of all the sins that you have committed ; and set them out in the most odious aggravations , and call for justice against you to your Judge : If you heard him pleading all those sins against you that now he daily tempts you to commit , and now maketh you believe are harmless , or small inconsiderable things : If you heard him saying , At such a time this sinner refused grace , neglected Christ , despised Heaven , and preferred Earth : at such a time he derided godliness , and made a mock of the holy Word and Counsels of the Lord : at such a time he prophaned the name of God , he coveted his neighbours wealth ; he cherished thoughts of envy or of lust ; he was drunk , or gluttonous , or committed fornication , and he was never thorowly converted by renewing grace , and therefore he is an heir of H●ll , and belongs to me : I ruled him , and I must have him . ] What would you think of a life of sin , if once you had heard such accusations as these ? How would you deal by the next temptation , if you had heard what use the tempter will hereafter make of all your sins ? 7. What if you had seen the damned in their misery , and heard them cry out of the folly of their ●mpenitent careless lives ; and wishing as Dives , Luke 16. that their friends on earth might have one sent from the dead , to warn them that they come not to that place of torment ( I speak to men that say they are believers ) what would you do upon such a fight ? If you had heard them there torment themselves in the remembrance of the time they lost , the mercy they neglected , the grace resisted , and wish it were all to do again , and that they might once more be tried with another life . If you saw how the world is altered with those , that once were as proud and confident as others , what do you think such a sight would do with you ? And why then doth the believing of it do no more , when the ●h●ng is certain ? 8. Once more ; suppose that in your temptations you saw the tempter appearing to you , and pleading with you as he doth by his inward suggestions , or by the mouths of his instruments . If you saw him , and heard him h●ssing you on to sin , perswading you to gluttony , drunkenness , or unclean●ess ? If the Devil appeared to you , and led you to the place of lust , and offered you the harlot , or the cup of excess and urged you to swear , or curse , or ra●l , or scorn at a holy life ; would not the sight of the Angler ma● his g●me , and 〈◊〉 your courage , and spoil your sport , and turn your stom●chs ? would you be drunk , or filthy , if you saw him stand by you ? Think on it the next t●me you are tempted . Stout men have been apaled by such a sight . And do you not believe that it 's he indeed that tempteth you ? As sure as if your eyes beh●ld h●m , ●t's he that prompteth men to ●●er at god●iness , and puts your wanton ribbald speeches , and oaths , and curses into yo●r mouths : He is the Tutor of the enemies of grace , that teacheth them doc●è del●rare , ingeniosè insanire , ingeniously to quarrel with the way of life , and learnedly to confute the arguments that would have saved them ; and subtilly to dispute themselves out of the hands of mercy , and gallantly to scorn to stoop to Christ , till there be no remedy ; and with plausible eloquence to commend the plague and sickness of their souls ; and irrefrag●bly maintain it , that the way to Hell will lead to Heaven ; and to justifie the sins that will condemn them ; and honourably and triumphantly to overcome their friends , and to serve the Devil in mood and fig●●re , and valiantly to cast themselves into Hell , in despite of all the laws and reproofs of God or man that would have hindered them . It being most certain that this is the D●vils work , and you durst not do it if he moved you to it with open face , how dare you do it when faith would assure you , that it 's as veri●y he , as if you saw him ? More distinctly , answ●r these following Questions , upon the foregoing suppositions . Q●est . 1. If you saw but what you say you do believe , would you not be convinced that the most pleasant gainful sin , is worse than madness ? and would you not spit at the very name of it , and openly cry out of your open folly , and beg for prayers , and love reprovers , and resolve to turn without delay ? Quest . 2. What would you think of the most serious holy life , if you had seen the things that you say you do believe ? would you ever again reproach it as preciseness ? or count it more ado than needs ? and think your time were better spent in playing , than in praying ; in drinking ▪ and sports , and filthy lusts , than in the holy services of the Lord ? would you think then that one day in seven , were too much for the work for which you live ; and that an hour on this holy day were enough to be spent in instructing you for eternity ? Or would you not believe that he is the blessed man , whose delight is in the Law of God , and meditateth in it day and night ? Could you plead for sensuality or ungodly negligence , or open your mouths against the most serious holiness of life , if Heaven and Hell stood open to your view ? Quest . 3. If you saw but what you say you do believe , would you ever again be offended with the Ministers of Christ , for the plainest reproofs , and closest exhortations , and strictest precepts and discipline , that now are disrelished so much ? Or rather , would you not desire them to help you presently to try your states , and to search you to the quick , and to be more solicitous to save you than to please you ? The patient that will take no bitter medicine in time , when he sees he must die , would then take any thing . When you see the things that now you hear of , then you would do any thing : O then might you have these daies again , Sermons would not be too plain or long : In season and out of season would then be allowed of . Then you would understand what moved Ministers to be so importunate with you for conversion ; and whether trifling or serious preaching was the best . Quest . 4. Had you seen the things that you say you do believe , what effect would Sermons have upon you , after such a sight ●s this ? O what a change it would make upon our preaching , and your hearing , if we saw the things that we speak and hear of ? How fervently should we importune you in the name of Christ ? How attentively would you hear , and carefully consider and obey ? we should then have no such sleepy preaching and hearing , as now we have . Could I but shew to all this Congregation , while I am preaching , the invisible world of which we preach , and did you hear with Heaven and Hell in your eye sight , how confident should I be ( though not of the saving change of all ) that I should this hour teach you to plead for sin , and against a holy life no more ? and send you home another people than you came hither . I durst then ask the worst that heareth me , [ Dare you now be drunk , or gluttonous , or worldly ? dare you be voluptuous , proud , or fornicators any more ? Dare you go home , and make a jest at piety , and neglect your souls as you have done ? ] And why then should not the believed truth prevail , if indeed you did believe it , when the thing is as sure , as if you saw it ? Quest . 5. If you had seen what you say you do believe , would you hunt as eagerly for wealth , or honour , and regard the thoughts or words of men , as you did before ? Though it 's only the Believer that truly honoureth his Rulers , ( for none else honour them for God , but use them for themselves ; ) yet wonder not if he fear not much the face of man , and be no admirer of worldly greatness ▪ when he seeth what they will be , as well as what they are . Would not usurpers have been less feared , if all could have foreseen their fall ? Even common reason can foresee , that shortly you will all be dust : Methinks I foresee your ghastly paleness , your loathsome blackness , and your habitation in the dark : And who can much envy , or desire the advancements that have such an end ? One sight of God would blast all the glory of the world , that 's now the b●●t for mans perdition . Quest . 6. Would temptations be as powerful , as now they are , if you did but see the things you bear of ? Could all the beauty or pleasures in the world , entice you to filthiness or sensuality , if you saw God over you , and judgement before you , and saw what damned souls now suffer , and what believers now enjoy ? Could you be perswaded by any company or recreation , to waste your precious time in vain , with such things in your eye ? I am confident you would abhor the motion ; and entertertain temptations to the most honoured , gainful , pleasant sin , as now you would do a motion to cut your own throats , or leap into a coal-pit , or thrust your head into a burning-oven . Why then doth not faith thus shame temptations , if indeed you do believe these things ? Will you say , [ It is your weakness , you cannot ●hus● ] or that [ it is your nature to be lustful , revengeful , sensual , and you cannot overcome it . ] But if you had a sight of Heaven and Hell , you could then resist : you cannot now , b●cause you will not : But did you see that which would make you willing ▪ your power would appear . The sight of a Judge or Gallows can restrain m●n : The sight of a person whom you reverence , can restrain the exercise of your disgraceful sins ; much more would the sight of Heaven and Hell. If you were but dying , you would shake the head at him that would then tempt you to the committing of your former sins . And is not a lively foreseeing faith as effectual ? Quest . 7. Had you seen what you say you do believe , you would not so much stick a● sufferings , nor make so great a matter of it , to be reproached , slandered , imprisoned , or condemned by man , when God and your salvation command your patience . A sight of Hell would make you think it worse than madness , to run thither to escape the wrath of man , or any sufferings on earth , Rom. 8.18 . Quest . 8. And O how such a sight would advance the Redeemer , and his Grace , and Promises , and Word , and Ordinances , in your esteem ! It would quicken your desires , and make you fly to Christ for life , as a drowning man to that which may support him . How sweetly then would you relish the name , the word , the waies of Christ , which now seem dry and common things ! Q●est . 9. Could you live as merrily , and sleep as quietly in a negligent uncertainty of your salvation , if you had seen these things , as now you do ? Could you live at hearts ease , while you know not where you shall be to morrow , or must live for ever ? Oh no : Were Heaven and Hell but seen before you , your Consciences would be more busie in putting such questions [ Am I regenerate , sanctified , reconciled , justified , or not ? ] Then any the most zealous Minister is now . Quest . 10. I will put to you but one Qu●stion more . If we saw God , and Heaven , and Hell before us , do you think it would not effectually reconcile our differences , and heal our unbrotherly exasper●tions and divisions ? would it not hold the hands that itch to be using violence , against those that are not in all things of their minds ! what abundance of vain controversies would it reconcile ! As the coming in of the Master doth part the fray among the School-boyes ; so the sight of God would fr●ghten us from contentions , or uncharitable violence . This would teach us how to preach and pray better than a storm at Sea can do ; which yet doth it better than some in prosperity w●ll learn : Did we see what we preach of , it would drive us out of our man pleasing ▪ self-seeking , sleepy strain , as the cudgel drives the beggar from his canting , and the breaking loose of the Bear did teach the affected cripple to find his legs , and c●st away his c●utch●s . I would desire no better outward help to end our controversies about indifferent modes of worship , than a sight of the things of which we speak : This would excite such a serious ●rame of soul , as would not suffer Religion to evaporate into formality , nor dwindle into affectation , complement and ceremony : nor should we dare to beat our fellow-servants , and thrust them out of the vineyard , and say , you shall not preach , or pray , or live , but upon these or those unnecessary terms : But the sense of our own frailty , and fear of a severe disquisition of our failings , would make us compassionate to others , and content that necessaries be the matter of our unity , unnecessaries of our liberty , and both of charity . If sight in all these ten particulars would do so much , should not faith do much , if you verily believe the things you see not ? Alas , corrupted reason is asleep , ( with men that seem wise in other things ) till it be awakt by faith or sight . And sleeping reason is as unserviceable as folly . I● doth no work : it avoids no danger . A Doctor that 's asleep , can defend the truth no better than a waking child . But reason will be reason , and conscience will be conscience , when the dust is blown out of mens eyes , and sight and feeling have awakened , and so recovered their understandings ; or Faith more seasonably and happily awaked them . AND O that now we might all consent to addict our●selves to the Life of Faith : And 1. That we live not too much on visibles . 2. That we live on the things invisible . 1. One would think that worldliness is a disease that carryeth with it a cure for it self ; and that the rational nature should be loth to love at so dear a rate , and to labour for so poor a recompence . It is pitty that Gehezi's leprosie , and Judas's death , should no more prevent a succession of Gehezi's and Judas's in all generations . Our Lord went before us most eminently in a contempt of earth : His Kingdom was not of this world . No men are more unlike him than the worldlings . I know necessity is the pretence : But it is the dropsie of Covetousness that causeth the thirst which they call N●c●ssity : And therefore the cure is non addere opi●us , sed imminuere cupiditatem : The disease must not be fed but healed . Sa●s est divitiarum non amplius velle . It hath lately been a controversie , whether this be not the golden age ? that it is aetas ferrea we have felt ; our demonstrations are undeniable : that it is aetas aurata , we have sufficient proof : and while gold is the god that rules the most , we will not deny it to be aetas aurea , in the Poets sense , Aurea nunc vere sunt secula : plurimus auro Vaenit honos : auro conciliatur amor . This prevalency of things seen , against thing unseen , is the Idolatry of the world ; the subversion of nature ; the perversion of our faculties and actions ; making the soul a drudge to flesh , and God to be used as a servant to the world . It destroyeth Piety , Justice and Charity : It turneth JVS by perversion into VIS ; or by reversion into SVI . No wonder then if it be the ruine of societies , when Gens sine justitiâ , sine remige navis in undâ . It can possess even Demosthenes with a Squinancy , if there be but an Harpalus to bring him the infection . It can make a Judicature to be as Plutarch called that of Rome , [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] impiorum regionem ; ] contrary to Cicero's description of Sulpitius , who was [ magis justitiae quam juris consultus , & ad facilitatem aequitatemque omnia contulit ; nec maluit litium actiones constituere , quam controversias tollere . ] In a word , if you live by sense and not by Faith , on things present , and not on things unseen , you go backward ; you stand on your heads ▪ and turn your heels against Heaven ; you cause the beast to ride the man ; and by turning all things upside down , will turn your selves into confusion . 2. Consider that it is the unseen things that are only Great and Necessary , that are worthy of a man , and answer the excellency of our nature , and the ends of our lives , and all our mercies . All other things are inconsiderable toyes , except as they are dignified by their relation to these . Whether a man step into eternity from a Palace or a Prison , a Lordship or a Lazarus state , is little to be regarded . All men in the world , whose designs and business take up with any thing short of Heaven , are in the main of one condition , and are but in several degrees and forms in the School of folly . If the intendment of your lives fall short of God , it matters not much what it is you seek , as to any great difference . If lesser children play for pins , and bigger boyes for points and pence , and aged children for lands and money , for titles of honour , and command , What difference is there between these , in point of wisdom and felicity ? but that the little ones have more innocent delights , and at a cheaper rate , than the aged have , without the vexatious cares and dangers that attend more grave and serious dotage . As Holiness to the Lord is written upon all that is faithfully referred to his Will and Glory ; so Vanity and Sin , is written upon all that is but made provision for the flesh , and hath no higher end than Self . To go to Hell with greater stir , and attendance , and repute , with greater pomp and pleasure than the poor , is a poor consolation , a pitiful felicity ! 3. Faith is the wisdom of the soul : and unbelief and sensuality are its blindness , folly and brutishness . How short is the knowledge of the wisest unbelievers ? They know not much of what is past ; ( and less they would know , if Historians were not of more credit with them , than the Word of God : ) But alas , how little do they know of what is to come ? sense tells them where they are , and what they are now doing : but it tells them not where they shall be to morrow . But Faith can tell a true Believer , what will be when this world is ended , and where he shall live to all eternity , and what he shall be d●ing , what thoughts he shall be thinking , what affections shall be the temper and employment of his soul : what he shall see , and feel , and enjoy ; and with what company he shall converse for ever . If the pretenders to Astrological prediction , could but foretel the changes of mens lives , and the time and manner of their deaths , what resort would be to them ? and how wise would they be esteemed ? but what is all this to the infallible predictions of the All-knowing God , that hath given us a prospect into another world , and shewed us what will be for ever , more certainly than you know what a day may bring forth . So necessary is fore-knowledge in the common affairs of men , that without it the actions of the world would be but mad tumultuary confusion : What would you think of that mans understanding , or how would you value the imployments of his life , that lookt no further in all his actions , than the present hour , and saw no more than the things in hand ? What would you call him that so spends the day , as one that knoweth not there will be any night : and so past the night , as one that looked not for that day ? that knew not in the Spring there would be an Harvest , or in the Summer , that there would be any Winter : or in Youth , that there would be Age or Death ? The silly brutes that have no fore-knowledge , are furnished with an instinct that supplieth the want of it , and also have the help of mans fore-knowledge , or else their kind would be soon extinct . The Bees labour in Summer , as if they foresaw the Winters need . And can that man be wise , that foreseeth not his everlasting state ? Indeed he that knoweth not what is to come , hath no true knowledge of what is present : For the worth and use of present things , is only in their respect to things eternal : And there is no means , where there is no end . What wisdom then remains in Unbelievers , when all their lives 〈◊〉 mis-imployed , because they know not the end of life ? and when all their actions are utterly debased , by the baseness of 〈◊〉 brutish ends , to which they serve and are referred . 〈◊〉 is truly wise or honourable , that is done for small and 〈◊〉 things . To draw a curious picture of a shadow , or elegantly write the history of a dream , may be an ingenuous kind of foolery ; but the end will not allow it the name of Wisdom : And such are all the actions of the world ( though called Heroick , Valiant and Honourable ) that aim at transitory trifles , and tend not to the everlasting end . A bird can neatly build her nest , but is not therefore counted Wise . How contrary is the judgement of the world to Christs ? When the same description that he giveth of a fool , is it that worldlings give of a wise and happy man , Luke 12.20 , 21. [ One that layeth up riches for himself , and is not rich towards God. ] Will you perswade us that the man is wise , that can climb a little higher than his neighbours , that he may have the greater fall ? That is attended in his way to Hell with greater pomp and state than others ? That can sin more Syllogistically and Rhetorically than the vulgar ; and more prudently and gravely run into damnation ; and can learnedly defend his madness , and prove that he is safe at the brink of Hell ? Would you perswade us that he is wise , that contradicts the God and Rule of Wisdom , and that parts with Heaven for a few merry hours , and hath not wit to save his soul ? When they see the end , and are arrived at eternity , let them boast of their Wisdom , as they find cause : We will take them then for more competent Judges . Let the Eternal God be the portion of my soul ; let Heaven be my inheritance and hope ; let Christ be my Head , and the promise , my security , let Faith be my Wisdom , and Love be my very heart and will , and patient persevering Obedience be my life ▪ and then I can spare the wisdom of the world , because I can spare the trifles that it seeks , and all that they are like to get by it . What abundance of complaints and calamity would foresight prevent ? Had the events of this one year been ( conditionally ) foreseen , the actions of thousands would have b●en otherwise ordered , and much sin and shame have been prevented . What a change would it make on the judgements of the world ? how many words would be otherwise spoken ? and how many deeds would be otherwise done ? and how many hours would be otherwise spent , if the change that will be made by Judgement and Execution , were well foreseen ? And why is it not foreseen , when it is foreshewn ? When the omniscient God , that will certainly perform his Word , hath so plainly revealed it , and so frequently and loudly warns you of it ? Is he wise , that after all these warnings will lie down in everlasting woe , and say , [ I little thought of such a day : I did not believe I should ever have seen so great a change ? ] Would the servants of Christ be used as they are , if the malicious world foresaw the day , when Christ shall come with ten thousands of his Saints , to execute Judgement on all that are ungodly ? Jude 14 , 15. When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints , and admired in all them that do believe , 2 Thes . 1.10 . When the Sa●nts shall judge the world , 1 Cor. 6.2 , 3. and when the ungodly seeing them on Christs right-hand , must hear their sentence on this account [ Verily I say unto you , in as m●ch as you did it ( or , did it not ) to one of the least of these ( my Brethren ) you did it unto me . ] Matth. 25. Yet a few daies , and all this will be done before your eyes : but the unbelieving world will not foresee it . Would malignant Cain have slain his brother , if he had foreseen the punishment , which he calleth afterward intollerable , Gen. 4.13 . Would the world have despised the preaching of Noah , if they had believed the deluge ? Would Sodom have been Sodom , if they had foreseen that an Hell from Heaven would have consumed them ? Would Achan have medled with his prey , if he had foreseen the stones that were his Executioners and his Tomb ? Would Gehezi have obeyed his covetous desire , if he had foreseen the leprosie ? Or Judas have betrayed Christ , if he had foreseen the hanging himself in his despair ? It is fore-seeing Faith that saves those that are saved ; and blind unbelief that causeth mens perdition . Yea present things as well as future , are unknown to foolish Unbelievers . Do they know who seeth them in their sin ? and what many thousands are suffering for the like , while they see no danger ? Whatever their tongues say , the hearts and lives of fools deny that there is a God that seeth them , and will be their Judge , Psalm 14.1 . You see then that you must live by Faith , or perish by folly . 4. Consider that things visible are so transitory , and of so short continuance , that they do but deserve the name of things ; being nothings , and less than nothing , and lighter than vanity it self , compared to the necessary eternal Being , whose name is IAM . There is but a few daies difference between a Prince and no Prince ; a Lord and no Lord ; a man and no man ; a world and no world . And if this be all , let the time that is past inform you how small a difference this is . Rational foresight may teach a Xerxes to weep over his numerous Army , as knowing how soon they were all to be dead men . Can you forget that death is ready to undress you ? and tell you , that your sport and mirth is done ? and that now you have had all that the world can do , for those that serve it , and take it for their part ? How quickly can a feaver , or the choice of an hundred Messengers of death , be●eave you of all that earth afforded you , and turn your sweetest pleasures into gall , and turn a Lord into a lump of clay ? It is but as a wink , an inch of time , till you must quit the stage ; and speak , and breath , and see the face of man no more . If you foresee this , O live as men that do foresee it . I never heard of any that stole his winding-sheet , or fought for a Coffi● , or went to Law for his grave . And if you did but see ( as wise men should ) how near your Honours and Wealth , and Pleasures do stand unto Eternity , as well as your Winding sheets , your Coffins , and your Graves , you would then value , and desire , and seek them regularly and moderately , as you do these . Oh what a fading flower is your strength ? How soon will all your gallantry shrink into the shell ? Si vestra sunt tollite ●a vobiscum . Bern. Bu● yet this is not the great part of the change . The terminus ad quem doth make it greater : It is great , for persons of renown and honour , to change their Palaces for graves , and turn to noisom rottenness and dirt : and their Power and Command into silent impotency , unable to rebuke the poorest worm , that sawcily feedeth on their hearts or faces . But if you are Believers , you can look further , and foresee much more . The largest and most capacious heart alive , is unable fully to conceive what a change the stroak of death will make . For the holy soul so suddenly to pass from prayer to Angelical praise , from sorrow unto boundless joyes : from the slanders , and contempt , and violence of men , to the bosom of eternal Love ; from the clamours of a tumultuous world , to the universal harmony and perfect uninterrupted Love and Peace ; O what a blessed change is this ; which believing now , we shall shortly feel . For an unholy unrenewed soul , that yesterday was drowned in flesh , and laught at threatnings , and scorned reproofs , to be suddenly sna●cht into another world ; and see the Heaven that he hath lost , and feel the Hell which he would not believe : to fall into the gulf of bottomless eternity , and at once to find , that Joy and Hope are both departed ; that horrour and grief must be his company , and Desperation hath lockt up the door : O what an amazing change is this ! If you think me troublesom for mentioning such ungrateful things , what a trouble wil it be to feel them ? May it teach you to prevent that greater trouble , you may well bear this . Find but a medicine against death , or any security for your continuance here , or any prevention of the Change , and I have done : But that which unavoidably must be seen , should be foreseen . But the unseen world is not thus mutable ; Eternal life is begun in the Believer . The Church is built on Christ the Reck ; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it . Fix here , and you shall never be removed . 4. Hence followeth another difference : The mutable creature doth impart a disgraceful mutability to the soul that chuseth it . It disappointeth and deceiveth : And therefore the ungodly are of one mind to day , and another to morrow ! In health they are all for pleasure , and commodity , and honour : and at death they cry out on it as deceitful Vanity : In health they cannot abide this strictness , this meditating , and seeking , and preparing for the life to come ; but at death or judgement , they will all be of another mind ! Then O that they had been so wise as to know their time : and O that they h●d lived as holily as the best ! They are now the bold opposers and reproachers of an holy life : But then they would be glad it had been their own : They would eat their words , and will be down in the mouth , and stand to never a word they say , when sight , and sense , and judgement , shall convince them . But things unchangeable do fix the soul . P●e●y is no matter for Repentance . Doth the Believer speak against sin and sinners : and for an holy , sober , righteous life ? He will do so to the last : Death and Judgement shall not change his mind in this , but much confirm it . And therefore he perseveres through sufferings , to death , Rom. 8.35 , 36 , 37. [ For this cause we faint not : but though our outward man perish , yet the inward man is renewed day by day : For our light affliction , which is but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory : While we look not at the things that are seen , but at the things which are not seen : For the things which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal , 2 Cor. 4.16 , 17. 6. Lastly , let this move you to live by a foreseeing Faith , that it is of necessity to your salvation . Believing Heaven , must prepare you for it , before you can enjoy it . Believing Hell , is necess●ry to prevent it . Mark 16.16 . John 3.18 , 36. [ The just shall live by Faith ; but if any man draw back ( or , be lifted up ) the Lord will have no pleasure in him . Heb. 10.38 . H●b . 2.4 . Take heed that there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief , to depart from the living God. Heb. 3.12 . And be not of them that draw back to perdition , but of them that believe to the saving of the soul . Heb. 10.39 . It is God that saith [ They shall all be damned that believed not the truth , but had pleasure in unrighteousness ] 2 Thes . 2.10 , 11 , 12. May I now in the conclusion more particularly exhort you , 1. That you will live upon things foreseen . 2. That you will promote this life of faith in others , according to your several capacities . Princes and Nobles live not alwaies : You are not the Rulers of the unmoveable Kingdom ; but of a boat that is in an hasty stream , or a ship under sail , that will speed both Pilot and Passengers to the shore . Dixi , estis Dii : at moriemini ut homines . It was not the least or worst of Kings , that said , [ I am a stranger vpon earth ] Psal . 119.19 . Vermis sum , non homo : I am a worm , and no man , Psal . 32.6 . You are the greater worms , and we the little ones : but we must all say with Job , ch . 17.13 , 14. [ The grave is our house , and we must make our beds in darkness : Corruption is our Father , and the Worm our Mother and our Sister . ] The inexorable Leveller is ready at your backs , to convince you by unresistible argument , that dust you are , and to dust you shall return . Heaven should be as desirable , and Hell as terrible to you as to others . No man will fear you after death : much less will Christ be afraid to judge you . Luke 19.27 . As the Kingdoms and glory of the world were contemned by him in the hour of his temptation ; so are they inconsiderable to procure his approbation . Trust not therefore to uncertain riches . Value them but as they will prove at last . As you stand on higher ground than others , it is meet that you should see further . The greater are your advantages , the wiser and better you should be : and therefore should better perceive the difference between things temporal and eternal . It is alwaies dark where these glow-worms shine , and a rotten post doth seem a fire . Your difficulties also should excite you ; You must go as through a Needles eye to Heaven . To live as in Heaven , in a crowd of business , and stream of temptations , from the confluence of all worldly things , is so hard , that few such come to Heaven . Withdraw your selves therefore to the frequent serious fore-thoughts of eternity , and live by faith . Had time allowed it , I should have come down to some particular instances : As , 1. Let the things unseen be still at hand , to answer every temptation , and shame and repel each motion to sin . 2. Let them be still at hand , to quicken us to duty , when backwardness and coldness doth surprize us . What , shall we do any thing coldly for eternity ? 3. Let it resolve you what company to delight in ; and what society to be of ; even those with whom you must dwell for ever : What side soever is uppermost on earth , you may foresee which side shall reign for ever . 4. Let the things invisible be your daily solace , and the satisfaction of your souls . Are you slandered by men ? Faith tells you , it is enough that Christ will justifie you . O happy day , when he will bring forth our righteousness as the light , and set all strait , which all the false histories , or slanderous tongues or pens in all the world made crooked . Are you frowned on or contemned by men ? Is it not enough that you shall everlastingly be honoured by the Lord ? Are you wronged , oppressed , or trodden on by pride or malice ? Is not Heaven enough to make you reparation ? and eternity long enough for your joyes ? O pray for your malicious enemies , lest they suffer more than you can wish them . 2. Lastly , I should have become on the behalf of Christ , a petitioner to you for protection and encouragement to the heirs of the invisible world . For them that preach , and them that live this life of faith : not for the honours and riches of the world ; but for leave and countenance to work in the Vineyard , and peaceably travel through the world as strangers , and live in the Communion of Saints , as they believe . But , though it be for the beloved of the Lord , the apple of his eye , the people that are sure to prevail and raign with Christ for ever ; whose prayers can do more for the greatest Princes , than you can do for them ; whose joy is hastened by that which is intended for their sorrow , I shall now lay by any further suit on their behalf . But for your selves , O use your seeing and fore-seeing faculties : Be often looking through the prospective of the promise : and live not by sense on present things ; but live as if you saw the glorious things which you say you do believe . That when worldly titles are insignificant words , and fleshly pleasures have an end , and Faith and Holiness will be the marks of honour ; and unbelief and ungodliness the badge● of perpetual shame , and when you must give account of your Stewardship , and shall be no longer Stewards , you may then by brought by Faith unto Fruition , and see with joy the glorious things that you now believe . Write upon your Palaces and goods , that sentence , 2 Pet. 3.11 . Seeing all these things shall be dissolved , What manner of persons ought ye ●o be in all holy conversation and godliness , looking for , and hasting to the coming of the day of God! HEBREWS 11.1 . Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for ; the evidence of things not seen . CHAP. I. For Conviction . IN the opening of this Text , I have already shewed , that [ it is the nature and use of Faith to be instead of presence and sight ; or to make things absent future and unseen , to be to us , as to our Estimation , Resolution and Conversation , as if they were present , and before our eyes : Though not as to the degree , yet as to the sincerity of our acts . In the handling of this Doctrine , I have already shewed , that this Faith is a grounded justifiable knowledge , and not a fancy , or uneffectual opinion ; having for its object the infallible Revelation , and certain Truth of God ; and not a falshood , nor a meer probability or verisimile . I have shewed how such a Faith will work ; how far it should carry us , if its evidence were fully entertained and improved ; and how far it doth carry all that have it sincerely in the least degree ; and I have shewed some of the moving considerations , that should prevail with us to live upon the things unseen , as if they were open to our sight . I think I may suddenly proceed here to the remaining part of the Application , without any recital of the explication or confirmation , the truth lying so naked in the Text it self . The Life of Faith , and the Life of Sense , are the two waies that all the world do walk in , to the two extreamly different ends , which appear when death withdraws the veil . It is the ordination of God , that mens own estimation , choice and endeavours , shall be the necessary preparative to their Fruition . Nemo nolens bonus aut beatus est . Men shall have no better than they value , and chuse , and seek : Where earthly things are highest in the esteem , and dearest to the mind of man , such persons have no higher , nor more durable a portion . Where the heavenly things are highest and dearest to the soul , and are practically preferred , they are the portion of that soul . Where the Treasure is , the heart will be , Matth. 6.21 . The sanctifying spirit doth lead the spiritual man , by a spiritual Rule , in a spiritual way , to a spiritual , glorious , durable felicity . The sensual part , with the sensual inclination communicated to the corrupted mind and will , doth by carnal reasonings , and by carnal means , pursue and emb●ace a present , fading , carnal interest : and therefore it findeth and attaineth no more . The fl●sh lusteth against the Spirit , and the spirit against the flesh ; and these are contrary the one to the other , Gal. 5.17 . They that are after the flesh , do mind the things of the flesh ▪ but they that are after the spirit , the things of the spirit ▪ To be carnally minded is death ; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace : Because the carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the Law of God , neither indeed can be : So then , they that are in the flesh cannot please God. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ , the same is none of his . If we live after the flesh , we shall die : but if by the spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body , we shall live . Rom. 8. to v. 14. Whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he also reap . He that soweth to his flesh , shall of the flesh reap corruption : but he that soweth to the spirit , shall of the spirit reap everlasting life , Gal. 6.7 , 8. As a man is , so he loveth and desireth ; as he desireth , he seeketh ; and as he seeketh , he findeth and possesseth . If you know which world , what riches a man prefers , intends , and liveth for , you may know which world is his inheritance , and whither he is going as to his perpetual abode . Reason enableth a man to know and seek more than he seeth : And Faith informeth and advanceth Reason , to know , that by the means of supernatural Revelation , that by no other means is fully known . To seek and hope for no better than we know , and to know no more than is objectively revealed , ( while we hinder not the revelation ) is the blameless imperfection of a creature , that hath limited faculties and capacities . To know what 's Best , and yet to chuse , and seek an inferiour inconsistent Good ; and to refuse and neglect the Best , when it is discerned ; is the course of such as have but a superficial opinion of the good refused , or a knowledge not wakened to speak so loudly as may be effectual for choice ; and whose sensuality mastereth their wills and reason , and leads them backward : And those that know not , because they would not know ; or hear not , because they would not hear , are under that same dominion of the fl●sh , which is an enemy to all knowledge , that is an enemy to its delights and interest . To profess to know good , and yet refuse it ; and to profess to know evil , and yet to chuse it , and this predominantly , and in the main , is the description of a self-condemning Hypocrite : And if malignity and opposition of the Truth professed , be added to the Hypocrisie , it comes up to that Pharisaical blindness and obdurateness , which prepareth men for the remediless sin . Consider then but of the profession of many of the people of this Land , and compare their practice with it , and judge what compassion the condition of many doth bespeak . If you will believe them , they profess that they verily believe in the invisible God ; in a Christ unseen to them ; in the Holy Spirit , gathering a holy Church to Christ , and imploying them in a communion of Saints : that they believe a judgement to come , upon the glorious coming of the Lord ; and an everlasting life of joy or torment thereupon . All this is in their Creed : they would take him for a damnable Heretick that denyeth it ; and perhaps would consent that he be burnt at a stake : So that you would think these men should live , as if Heaven and Hell were open to their sight . But O what an Hypocritical Generation are the ungodly ! how their lives do give their tongues the lye ! ( Remember that I apply this to no better men . ) It is a wonder that such men can believe themselves , when they say they do indeed believe the Gospel : And shews what a monster the blind deceitful heart of an impenitent sinner is : In good sadness can they think that they truly believe that God is God , and yet so wilfully disobey him ? that Heaven is Heaven , and yet prefer the world before it ? that Hell is Hell , and yet will venture upon it for a lust , or a thing of nought ? What! believe that there is at hand a life of endless joy ! and no more mind it ! but hate them that set their hearts upon it ! Do they believe , that except a man be converted and new born , he shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ? as Christ hath told them , Matth. 18.3 . John 3.3 , 5. and yet never trouble their minds about it , to try whether they are converted and new born , or not ? Do they believe God , that no man shall see him without holiness ? Heb. 12.14 . and yet dare they be unholy ? and perhaps deride it ? Do they believe that Christ will come in flaming fire , taking vengeance on them that know not God , and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction , from the presence of the Lord , and from the glory of his power , 2 Thes . 2.8 , 9. and yet dare they disobey the Gospel ! Do they take God for their absolute Lord and Governour , while they will not so much as meditate on his Laws , but care more what a mortal man saith , or what their flesh and carnal reason saith , than what he saith to them in his holy Word ? Do they take Christ for their Saviour , and yet would not be saved by him from their sins , but had rather keep them ? Do they take the Holy Ghost for their Sanctifier , while they will not have a sanctified heart or life , and love it not in those that have it ? Do they take Heaven for their endless home and happiness ? while they neither mind nor seek it , in comparison of the world ? And do they take the world for vanity and vexation , while they mind and seek it more than Heaven ? Do they believe the communion of Saints , while they fly from it , and perhaps detest and persecute it ? Is light and darkness more contrary than their words and deeds ? And is not HYPOCRISIE as visible in their practice , as Christianity in their profession ? It is the complexion of their Religion . HYPOCRITE is legibly written in the forehead of it . They proclaim their shame to all that they converse with . When they have said , they believe the life to come , they tell men by your ungodly worldly lives , that they are dissemblers . When their tongue hath loudly said , that they are Christians , their tongue and hand more loudly say , that they are Hypocrites . And when they profess their Faith but now and then , in a lifeless outside piece of worship , they profess their Hypocrisie all the day long : in their impious neglect of God and their salvation ; in their carnal speeches ; in their worldly lives , and in their enmity to the practice of the same Religion which they profess . Their Hypocrisie is a web , so thin , and so transparent , that it leaves their nakedness open to their shame . They have not Profession enough to make a considerable cover for their unbelief . They hide but their tongues : the rest even , heart and all , is bare . O the stupendious power of self love ! the wonderful blindness and stupidity of the ungodly ! the dreadfulness of the judgement of God in thus d●serting the w●lful resisters of his grace ! That ever men ( in other things of seeming wisdom ) should be such strangers to themselves , and so deceived by themselves , as to think they love the thing they hate ! and to think that their hearts are set upon Heaven , when they neither love it , nor the way that leadeth to it ; but are principally bent another way : that when they ar● strangers or enemies to a holy life , they can yet make themselves believe , that they are holy ; and that they seek that first , which they never seek ; and make that the drift and business of their lives , which was never the serious business of an hour ! O Hypocrites ! ask any impartial man of reason , that sees your lives , and hears your prayers , whether you pray , and live , like men that believe that Heaven or Hell must be their reward ! Ask your families , whether they perceive by your constant prayer , and diligent endeavours , and holy conversations , that your hearts are set on a life to come ! It was a cutting answer of a late Apostate , to one that told him of the unreasonableness of Infidels that denyed the life to come ; saith he , There 's none in the world so unreasonable as you Christians , that believe that there is an endless life of joy or misery to come , and do no more to obtain the one , and escape the other . Did I believe such a life as this , I would think all too little that I could do or suffer , to make it sure . Who sees the certainty , greatness , and eternity of the Crown of Life , in the resolvedness , fervency , and constancy of your holy labour ! You take up with the picture of Sermons and Prayers , and with the name of Christianity and holy obedience : A little more Religion you will admit , than a Parrot may learn , or a Poppet may exercise . Compare your care , and labour , and cost , for Heaven , and for this world . That you believe the flattering deceitful world , we see by your daily solicitousness about it : You seek it ; you strive for it ; you fall out with all that stand in your way ; you are at it daily , and have never done : But who can see , that you seriously believe another world ? you talk idly , and wantonly , and proudly by the hours ; but you talk of Heaven and holiness but by the minutes : You do not turn the glass when you go to your unnecessary recreations , or your vain discourse ; or at least , you can stay when the glass is run : But in hearing the most necessary truths of God , or in praying for everlasting life , the hour seems long to you ; and the tedious Preacher is your weariness and molestation . You do not feast and play by the glass ; but if we do not preach and pray by it exactly , but exceed our hour , though in speaking of , and for eternity , we are your burden , and put your languid patience to it , as if we were doing you some intollerable wrong . In worldly matters , you are weary of giving , but seldom of receiving : you grudge at the asker , but seldom at the giver . But if the gift be spiritual and heavenly , you are a weary to hear talk of it , and expostulate the case with him that offereth it : and he must shew by what authority he would do you good ! If by serious holy conference he would further your preparations for the life to come , or help you to make sure of life eternal , he is examined what power he hath to meddle with you , and promote your salvation : And perhaps he is snapp●shly told , he is a busie , sawcy fellow , and you bid him meddle with his own matters , and let you speed as you can , and keep his compassion and charity for himself ; you give him no thanks for his undesired help . The most laborious faithful servant you like best , that will do you the most work , with greatest skill , and care , and diligence : But the most laborious faithful instructer and watchman for your souls , you most ungratefully vilifie , as if he were more busie and precise than needs , and were upon some unprofitable work ; and you love a superficial hypocritical Ministry , that teacheth you but to complement with Heaven , and leads you such a dance of comical , outside , hypocritical worship , as is agreeable to your own hypocrisie : And thus when you are mocking God , you think you worship him , and merit Heaven by the abuse . Should a M●nister or other friend be but half as earnest with you , for the life of your immortal souls , as you are your selves for your estates , or friends , or lives in any danger , you would take them for Fanaticks , and perhaps do by them as his carnal friends did once by Christ , Mark 3.21 . that went out to lay hold on him , and said , He is beside himself . ] For trifles you account it wisdom to be serious : but for everlasting things , you account it folly , or to be more busie and solici●ous than needs . You can believe an act of pardon and indempnity from man ; when as you are little solicitous about a pardon from God , to whose Justice you have forfeited your souls : and if a man be but earnest in begging his pardon , and praying to be saved from everlasting misery , you scorn him , because he does it without book , and say , he whines , or speaks through the nose ; forgetting that we shall have you one of these daies , as earnest in vain , as they are that shall prevail for their salvation ; and that the terrible approach of death and judgement , shall teach you also to pray without book , and cry , Lord , Lord , open to us , when the door is shut , and it 's all too late , Mat. 25.11 . O Sirs , had you but a lively , serious foreseeing faith ; that openeth Heaven and Hell as to your sight , what a cure would it work of this Hypocrisie ! 1. Such a sight would quicken you from your sloth , and put more life into your thoughts , and words , and all that you attempt for God. 2. Such a sight would soon abate your pride , and humble you before the Lord , and make you see how short you are of what you should be . 3. Such a sight would dull the edge of your covetous desires , and shew you that you have greater things to mind , and another kind of world than this to seek . 4. Such a sight would make you esteem the temptations of mens reports , but as the shaking of a leaf , and their allurements and threats as impertinent speeches , that would cast a feather or a fly into the ballance against a mountain , or against the world . 5. Such a sight would allay the itch of lust , and quench the drunkards insatiable thirst , and turn your gulosity into moderation and abstinence ; and acquaint you with a higher sort of pleasures , that are durable , and worthy of a man. 6. Such a sight would cure your desire of pastime , and shew you that you have no time to spare , when all is done that necessity and everlasting things require . 7. Such a sight would change your relish of Gods Ordinances , and esteem of Ministers , and teach you to love and savour that which is spiritual and serious , rather than hypocritical strains and shews : It would teach you better how to judge of Sermons and of Prayers , than unexperienced minds will ever do . 8. Such a sight would cure your malignity against the waies , and diligent servants of the Lord ; and instead of opposing them , it would make you glad to be among them , and fast , and pray , and watch , and rejoyce with them , and better to understand what it is to believe the communion of Saints . In a word , did you but see what God reveals , and Saints believe , and must be seen , I would scarce thank you to be all as serious and solicitous for your souls , as the holiest man alive ; and presently to repent and lament the folly of your negligence and delaies , and to live as men that know no other work to mind , in comparison of that which extendeth to eternity . I would scarce thank the proudest of you all , to lie down in the dust , and in sackcloth and ashes , with tears and cryes , to beg the pardon of those sins , which before you felt no weight in . Nor the most sensual wretch , that now sticks so close to his ambition , covetousness and lust , that he saith , he cannot leave them , to spit them out as loathsome bitterness , and be ashamed of them as fruitless things . You would then say to the most godly , that now seem too precise , [ O why do you not make more haste , and lay hold on Heaven with greater violence ! why do you pray with no more fervency , and bear witness against the sins of the world with no more undaunted courage and resolution ; and why do you not more freely lay out your time , and strength , and wealth , and all that you have on the work of God ? Is Heaven worth no more ado than this ? Can you do no more for an endless life , and the escaping of the wrath to come ? Shall worldlings over-do you ? ] These would be your thoughts on such a sight . CHAP. II. Vse of Exhortation . WHat now remains but that you come into the light and beg of God , as the Prophet for his servant , 2 King 6.17 . to open your eyes , that you may see the things that would do so much [ That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ , the Father of glory , may give you the spirit of revelation , in the knowledge of him ; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened , that ye may know what is the hope of his calling , and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints , Ephes . 1.17 , 18. ] O set those things continually before your eyes , that must forever be before them ! Look seriously into the infallible word ; and whatsoever that fore-tells , believe it as if it were come to pass . The unbelief of Gods threatnings , and penal Laws , is the perdition of souls , as well as the unbelief of Promises . God giveth not false fire , when he dischargeth the Canons of his terrible comminations : If you fall not down , you shall find that the lightening is attended with the thunder , and execution will be done before you are aware . If there were any doubt of the things unseen , yet you know it is past all doubt , that there 's nothing else that 's durable and worthy of your estimation and regard : You must be Knights and Gentlemen but a little while : speak but a few words more , and you 'l have spoke your last . When you have slept a few nights more , you must sleep till the Resurrection awake you ( as to the flesh . ) Then where are your pleasant habitations and contents ? your honours and attendance ? Is a day that is spent , or a life that is ●xtinct , any thing , or nothing ? Is there any sweetness in a feast that was eaten , or drink that was drunk , or time that was spent in sports and mirth , a year ago ? Certainly a known vanity should not be preferred before a probable endless joy : But when we have certainty as well as excellency and eternity , to set against certain , transitory vanity , what room is left for further deliberation ? whether we should prefer the Sun before a squib , or a flash of lightening that suddenly leaves us in the dark , one would think should be an easie question to resolve . ( Up then , and work while it is day : and let us run and strive with all our might . Heaven is at hand as sure as if you saw it . You are certain you can be no losers by the choice . You part with nothing , for all things : you escape the tearing of your heart , by submitting to the scratching of a bryer : You that will bear the opening of a vein , for the cure of a Feaver , and will not forbear a necessary Journey for the barking of a Dog , or the blowing of the wind : O leap not into Hell to scape the stinking breath of a scorner ! Part not with God , with Conscience , and with Heaven , to save your purses or your flesh . Chuse not a merry way to misery , before a prudent sober preparation for a perfect everlasting joy . You would not prefer a merry cup before a Kingdom . You would let go a l●sser delight or commodity for a greater here : Thus a greater sin can forbid the exercise of a less : And shall not endless joy weigh down a brutish lust or pleasure ? If you love pleasure , take that which is true , and full , and durable . For all that he calleth you to Repentance and Mortification , and necessary strictness , there is none that 's more for your pleasure and delight than God : or else he would not offer you the rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand ; nor himself to be your perpetual delight . If you come into a room where are variety of pictures , and one is gravely reading or meditating ; and another with a cup or harlot in his hand , is profusely laughing , with a gaping grining mouth ; would you take the latter or the former to be the picture of a wise and happy man ? Do you approve of the state of those in Heaven ? and do you like the way that brought them thither ? If not , why speak you of them so honourably ? and why would you keep holy-daies in remembrance of them ? If you do ; examine the sacred records , and see whether the Apostles and others that are now honoured as glorified Saints , did live as you do , or rather as those that you think are too precise ? Did they spend the day in feasting and sports , and idle talk ? Did they swagger it out in pride and wealth , & hate their brethren that were not in all things of their conceits ? Did they come to Heaven by a worldly , formal , hypocritical , ceremonious Religion ? or by faith , and love , and self-denial , and unwearied labouring for their own and other mens salvation , while they became the wonder and the scorn of the ungodly , and as the off-scouring and refuse of the world ? Do you like holiness , when it is for from you ? in a dead man , that never troubled you with his presence or reproofs , or in a Saint in Heaven , that comes not near you ? Why then do you not like it for your selves ? If it be good , the nearer the better . Your own health , and your own wealth , do comfort you more than another mans : And so would your own holiness , if you had it . If you would speed as they that are now beholding the face of God , believe , and live , and wait , as they did . And as the righteous God did not forget their work and labour of love for his Name ; so he will remember you with the same reward , if you shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end ; and be not slothful , but followers of them , who through faith and patience inherit the Promises , Heb. 6.10 , 11 , 12. O did you but see what they now enjoy , and what they see , and what they are , and what they do ; you would never sure scorn or persecute a Saint more ? If you believe , you see , though not as they , with open face . If you believe not , yet it is not your unbelief , that shall make Gods Word of none effect , Rom. 3.3 . God will be God if you be Atheists . Christ will be Christ if you be Infidels . Heaven will be Heaven if you by despising it go to Hell. Judgement sleepeth not when you sleep : I'ts coming as fast when you laugh at it , or question it , as if your eyes were open to foresee it . If you would not believe that you must die , do you think that this would delay your death one year or hour ? If ten or twenty years time more be allotted you , it passeth as swiftly , and death and judgement come as surely , if you spend it in voluptuousness , and unbelief , as if you watcht and waited for your change . We preach not to you Ifs and - And 's : It is not , perhaps there is a Heaven and Hell : But as sure as you are here , and must anon go hence , you must as shortly quit this world , and take up your abode in the world that 's now to us invisible . And no tongue can express how sensible you will then be of the things that you will not now be made sensible of . O then with what a dreadful view will you look before you and behind you ! Behind you , upon Time , and say , It is gone , and never will return : and hear conscience ask you , How you spent it , and what you did with it ? Before you upon Etern●ty , and say , It is come ; and to the ungodly will be an Eternity of woe . What a peal will conscience then ring in the unbelievers ears ? [ Now the day is come that I was forewarned of ! the day and change which I would not believe ! whither must I now go ! what must I now do ! what shall I say before the Lord for all the sin that I have wilfully committed ! for all the time of mercy which I lost ! How shall I answer my contempt of Christ ! my neglect of means , and enmity to a holy serious life ! What a distracted wretch was I , to condemn and dislike them that spent their lives , in preparation for this day ! when now I would give a thousand worlds , to be but one of the meanest of them ! O that the Church doors , and the door of grace , were open to me now , as once they were , when I refused to enter . Many a time did I hear of this day , and would not believe , or soberly consider of it . Many a time was I intreated to prepare : and I thought an hypocritical trifling shew , would have been taken for a sufficient prep●●●tion ! Now who must be my companions ! How long must I dwell with woe and horrour ! God by his Ministers was wont to call to me , How long , O scorner , wilt thou delight in scorning ? How long wilt thou go on impenitently in thy folly ? And now I must cry out , How long ! How long must I feel the wrath of the Almighty ! the unquenchable fire ! the immortal worm ! Alas , for ever ! When shall I receive one moments ease ? when shall I see one glimpse of hope ? O never , never , never ! Now I perceive what Satan meant in his temptations ! what ●in intended ! what God meant in the threatnings of his Law ! what grace was good for ! what Christ was sent for ! and what was the design and meaning of the Gospel ! and how I should have valued the offers and promises of life ! Now I understand what Ministers meant to be so importunate with me for my conversion ; and what was the cause that they would even have kneeled to me , to have procured my return to God in time . Now I understand that holiness was not a needless thing ; that Christ and Grace deserved better entertainment than contempt ; that precious time was worth more than to be wasted idly ; that an immortal soul , and life eternal should have been more regarded , and not cast away for so short , so base a fleshly pleasure . Now all these things are plain and open to my understanding : But alas , it 's now too late ! I know that now to my woe and torment , which I might have known in time to my recovery and joy . For the Lords sake , and for your souls sake , open your eyes , and foresee the things that are even at hand , and prevent these fruitless lamentations . Judge but as you will all shortly judge , and live but as you will wish that you had lived , and I desire no more . Be serious as if you saw the things that you say you do believe . I know this serious discourse of another life , is usually ungrateful , to men that are conscious of their strangeness to it , and taking up their portion here , are loth to be tormented before the time . This is not the smoothing pleasing way . But remember that we have flesh as well as you , which longs not to be accounted troublesome or precise : which loves not to displease or be displeased : And had we no higher light and life , we should ●a●k as men that saw and felt no more than fight and flesh can reach : But when we are preaching and dying , and you are hearing and dying , and we believe and know , that you are n●w going to see the things we speak of , and death will straightway draw aside the veil , and shew you the great amazing sight , it 's time for us to speak , and you to hear , with all our hearts . It 's time for us to be serious , when we are so near the place where all are serious . There are none that are in jest in Heaven or Hell : pardon us therefore if we jest not at the door , and in the way to such a serious state . All that see and feel are serious : and therefore all that truly believe , must be so too . Were your eyes all opened this hour to see what we believe , we appeal to your own consciences , whether it would not make you more serious than we . Marvel not if you see Believers make another matter of their salvation , than those that have hired their understandings in service to their sense ; and think the world is no bigger or better than their globe or map ; and reacheth no further than they can kenn● . As long as we see you serious about Lands and Lordships , and titles and honours , the rattles and tarrying Irons of the cheating world , you must give us leave ( whether you will or no ) to be serious about the life eternal . They that scramble so eagerly for the bonds of worldly riches , and devour so greedily the dr●ffe of sensual delights , methinks should blush ( if such animals had the blushing property ) to blame or deride us for being a little ( alas , too little ) earnest in the matters of God and our salvation . Can you not pardon us if we love God a little more than you love your lusts ; and if we run as fast for the Crown of Life , as you run after a feather or a fly ? or if we breath as hard after Christ in holy desires , as you do in blowing the bubble of vain-glory ? If a thousand pound a year in passage to a grave , and the chains of darkness , be worth your labour ; give us leave to belie●● that mercy in order to everlasting mercy , grace in order to glory , and glory as the end of grace , is worth our labour , and infinitely more . Your end is narrow , though your way be broad : and our end is broad , though our way be narrow . You build as Miners in Cole-pits do , by digging downwards into the dark ; and yet you are laborious : Though we begin on earth , we build towards Heaven , where an attractive loadstone draws up the workmen and the work ; and shall we loiter under so great encouragements ? Have you considered that Faith is the beholding grace ? the evidence of things not seen ? and yet have you the hearts to blame Believers , for doing all that they can do , in a case of such unspeakable everlasting consequence . If we are Believers , Heaven and Hell are as i● were open to our sight ? And would you wish us to trifle in the sight of Heaven ? or to leap into Hell , when we see it as before us ? what name can express the inhumane cruelty of such a wish o● motion ? or the unchristian folly of those that will obey you ? O give us leave to be serious for a Kingdom which by Faith we see ! Blame us for this , and blame us that we are not beside our selves . Pardon us that we are awake , when the thunder of Jehovah's voice doth call to us , denouncing everlasting wrath to all that are sensual and ungodly . Were we asleep , as you are , we would lie still and take no heed what God or man said to us . Pardon us that we are Christians , and believe these things , seeing you profess the same your selves . Disclaim not the practice till you dare disclaim the profession . If we were Infidels , we would do as the ungodly world : we would pursue our present pleasures and commodity , and say , that things above us are nothing to us ; and would take Religion to be the Troubler of the world : But till we are Infidels or Atheists at the heart , we cannot do so . Forgive us that we are men ; if you take it to be pardonable . Were we bruits , we would eat , and drink , and play , and never trouble our selves or others , with the care of our salvation , or the fears of any death but one ; or with resisting sensual inclinations , and meditating on the life to come ; but would take our ease and pleasure while we may . At least forgive us that we are not blocks or stones ; that we have life and feeling . Were we insensate clods , we would not see the light of Heaven , nor hear the roaring of the Lion , nor fear the threats of God himself : we would not complain , or sigh , or groan , because we feel not . If therefore we may have leave to be awake ; and to be in our wi●s , to be Christians ; to be men ; to be creatures that have life and sense , forgive us that we believe the living God ; that we cannot laugh at Heaven and Hell , nor jest at the threatned wrath of the Almighty . If these things must make us the object of the worlds reproach and malice , let me rather be a reproached man , than an honoured beast ; and a hated Christian , than a beloved Infidel ; and rather let me live in the midst of malice and contempt , than pass through honour unto shame , through mirth to misery , and a sensless , to a feeling death . Hate us when we are in Heaven , and see who will be the sufferer by it . If ever we should begin to nod and relapse towards your hypocritical formality , and sensless indifferency , our lively sight of the world invisible , by a serious faith , would presently awake us , and force us confidently to conclude , AVT SANCTVS AVT BRVTVS : There is practically and predominantly no Mean. He 'l prove a BRVIT that is not a SAINT . CHAP. III. HAving done with this general conviction and exhortation to unbelieving Hypocrites , I proceed to acquaint Believers with their Duty , in several particulars . 1. Worship God as Believers ; serve him with reverence and godly fear , for our God is a consuming fire , Heb. 12.28 , 29. A seeing faith , if well excited , would kindle love , desire , fear , and all praying graces . No man prayes well , that doth not well know what he prayes for . When it comes to seeing , all men can cry loud , and pray when praying will do no good . They will not then speak sleepily , or by rote , Fides intuendo , amorem recipit , amorem sus●●tat : Cor flagrans amore desideria , gemitus , orationes spirat . Faith is the burning-glass which beholding God , receiveth the beams of his communicated love , and inflameth the heart with love to him again ; which mounteth up by groans and prayers , till it reach its original , and love for ever rest in love . 2. Desire and use the creature as Believers . Interpret all things as they receive their meaning , from the things unseen : understand them in no other sense . It 's only God and the life to come that can tell you what 's good or bad for you in the world . And therefore the ungodly that cannot go to Heaven for counsel , are carryed about by meer deceits . Take heed what you love : and take heed of that you love . God is very jealous of our love : He sheds abroad his own love in our hearts , that our hearts may be fruitful in love to him , which is his chief delight . By love he commandeth love ; that we may suitably move toward him , and center in him . He communicateth so much for the procuring of a little , that we should endeavour to give him all that little , and shed none of it inordinately upon the creature by the way . Nothing is great , or greatly to be admired , while the great God is in sight . And it is unsuitable for little things , to have great affections ; and for low matters to have a high esteem . It is the corruption and folly of the mind , and the delusion of the affections to exalt a Shrub above a Cedar , and magnifie a Mole-hill above a Mountain ; to embrace a shadow or spectrum of felicity , which vanisheth into Nothing , when you bring in the light . The creature is nihil & nullipotens : Nothing should have no interest in us , and be able to do Nothing with us ( as to the motions that are under the dominion of the will. ) God is All and Almighty : And he that is All , should have All , and command All : And the Omnipotent should do All things with us , by his Interest in Morals ; as he will do by his force in Naturals . I deny not but we may love a friend : One soul in two bodies will have one mind , and will , and love . But as it is not the body of my friend , that I love or converse with principally , but the soul ; ( and therefore should have no mind of the case , the corps , the empty nest , if the bird were flown ) so is it not the person , but Christ in him , or that of God which appeareth on him , that must be the principal object of our love . The man is mutable , and must be loved , as Plato did commend his friend to Dionysius : Haec tibi scribo de homine , viz. animante naturâ mutabili : and therefore must be loved with a reserve . But God is unchangeable , and must be absolutely and unchangeably loved . That life is best that 's likest Heaven : There God will be All ; and yet even there , it will be no dishonour or displeasure to the Deity , that the glorified humanity of Christ , and the New Jerusalem , and our holy society , are loved more dearly than we can love any creature here on earth : So here , God taketh not that affection as stoln from him , that 's given to his servants for his sake , but accepts it as sent to him by them . Let the creature have it , so God have it finally in and by the creature ; and then it is not so properly the creature that hath it , as God. If you chuse , and love your friends for God , you will use them for God : not flattering them , or desiring to be flattered by them ; but to kindle in each other the holy flame which will aspire and mount , and know no bounds , till it reach the boundless element of love . You will not value them as friends , qui omnia dicta & facta vestra laudant , sed qui errata & delicta amice reprehendunt : Not them that call you good ; but them that would make you better . And you will let them know , as Phocian did Antipater , that they can never use you , & amici● & adulatoribus ; as friends and flatterers ; that differ as a wife and a harlot . It 's hard to love the imperfect creature , without mistakes , and inordinacy in our love : And therefore usually where we love most , we sin most ; and our sin finds us out ; and then we suffer most : and too much affection is the forerunner of much affliction ; which will be much prevented , if Faith might be the guide of Love , and Humane Love might be made Divine ; and all to be referred to the things unseen , and animated by them . Love where you can never love too much ; where you are sure to have no disappointments ; where there is no unkindness to ecclipse or interrupt ; where the only errour is , that God hath not all ; and the only grief , that we love no more . Especially in the midst of your entising pleasures , or entising employments and profits in the world , foresee the end ; do all in Faith , which telleth you , [ The time is short ; it remaineth therefore , that both they that have wives , be as though they had none ; and they that weep , as though they wept not ; and they that rejoyce , as though they rejoyced not ; and they that buy , as though they possessed not ; and they that use this world , as through they used it not ( or not abusing it : ) for the fashion of this world passeth away , 1 Cor. 7.29 , 30. 3. Imploy your time as becomes Believers . Faith only can acquaint you , what an unconceivable weight doth lye upon this inch of hasty time . As you behave your selves for a few daies , it must go with you in joy or misery for ever : You have your appointed time , for your appointed work . God hath turned the glass upon you ; much of it is run out already . No price can call back one hour that you have lost . No power or policy can retard its course ; Sic fugiunt fraeno non remorante dies . When it comes to the last sand , and time is gone , you 'l know the worth of it : You 'l then confess it should have seemed more precious in your eyes , than to have been cast away upon things of nought . O precious time ! more worth than all the riches of the world ! How highly is it valued by all at last ? And how basely is it esteemed new by the most ? Now it is no more worth with them , than to be sold for unnecessary sports , and ease , and wasted in idleness and vain delights : But then ; when it 's gone , and all 's too late , how loud would they cry , if cryes could call back Time again ! O then what a mercy would it seem , if God would try them once again ! and trust them but with another life , or with Hezekiah's fifteen years ! or but with fifteen daies , or hours , upon such terms of grace , as they held that life which they abused ! It amazeth me to observe the lamentable stupidity of the world , how hard they beg for time when they think it is near an end ! and how carelesly they let it slide away , when they have strength and faculties to improve it ! They are grievously afraid lest death deprive them of it ; and yet they are not afraid to deprive themselves of the use and fruit of it , and to cast it away as contemptuously , as if it were an useless thing . I seldom come near a dying man , but I hear him complain of the loss of Time , and wish it were to spend again , that it might be better valued and used . And yet the living will not be warned . O value Time , as wise men , while you have it ; and not as miserable fools , when it is gone ! If our Lord said , I must do the work of him that sent me while it is day ; for the night cometh when no man can work , Joh. 9.4 . What need then have such as we to be doing , and make much of time ? O let not company , mirth or business , make you forget the work of Time ! Can you play , or loiter away your hours , with Eternity in your eye ? Get the Sun to stand still , and Time to make a truce with you , and to waste no more of the oyl of life , before you lose another hour . O what heads , what hearts have all those men , that standing against the verge of an endless world , can think they have any time to spare ! Hath God given you too much ? If not , why do you lose it ? If he hath , why are you loth that he should shorten it ? You would not throw away your gold , as contemptuously as you do your time ; when an hours time is more valuable than gold . Frown on that company that would rob you of half an hours time . Tell them you have something else to do , than to feast , or play , or talk away your time unnecessarily . O tell them you were not made for nothing . You are in a race , and must not stand still : You are in a fight , and must not cease . Your work is great ; much of it is undone . Your enemies are not idle : Death will not stop : the Judge is coming , and still beholds you : and Heaven or Hell are ready to receive our ending life , and tell us how we spent our time : And can you find time to spare ? You are not made as Weather-cocks , to stand up on high for men to look at , and by turning about with every wind , to shew them which way it standeth . Turn not your lives into that curse , Levit. 26.20 . [ You shall spend your strength in vain . ] Believe it , Time must be reviewed . The day is near , when every man of you had rather find it in your accounts , [ so many hours spent in self-examination , and holy meditation ; so many in reading the Word of God ; so many spent in fervent prayer ; and so many in doing good to others ] than [ so many spent in needless sports and pleasures ; so many in idleness and vain discourses ; and so many in the less necessary matters of the world . ] Ask those that tempt you to mis-spend your time , whether at death and Judgement they had rather themselves have a life of holy diligence to review , or a life consumed in vanity , and transitory delights . You will not suffer impertinencies to interrupt your counsels , and serious business in the world : You 'l tell intruders , that you are busie , and cannot have while to attend them . And are you going into Heaven or Hell , and have but a few daies time of preparation ( God knows 〈…〉 ) and yet can you have while to pass this precious 〈…〉 vain ? O what would you not give ere long for one of the hours that you now mis-spend ? When the oath is performed , Rev. 10.6 . [ That Time shall be no longer . ] Wonderful ! that men can find Time for any thing , save that for which they had their time ! Non tam bene vivant , sed quamdiu confiderant ( inquit Seneca ) cum omnibus p●ssit contingere ut bene vivant ; ut diu nulli . ] To live well is both possible and necessary , and yet is disregarded : To live long , is neither possible , nor necessary ; and yet is sought by almost all . Incipiunt vivere cum definendum est : immo quidam ante desierunt vivere , quam inciperent . Sen. It 's unseasonable we should begin to live , when we should make an end : but it 's most unhappy to have made an end , before they do begin : Pulchrum est ( inquit idem ) consummare vitam ante mortem ; & expectare secure reliquam temporis partem . ] Do the great work , and then you may comfortably spend the rest in waiting for the conclusion . Yet you have time , and leave , and helps : you may read , and meditate , and pray , if you will : but shortly Time will be no more . O let not Satan insult over your carkasses and tormented souls , and say , [ Now it is too late ! Now murmure and repent as long as you will ! Now pray , and cry , and spare no● ! ] O use that Faith which beholdeth the invisible world , and maketh future things as present , and then delay and loiter if you can : Then waste your hours in idleness or vanity if you dare ! either light or fire shall awake you . 4. Suffer as Believers . Fear not the wrath of man ; but indure as seeing him that is invisible , Heb. 11.27 . shew plainly , that you seek a better Country , vers . 14 , 16. Read often , Heb. 11 , and 12 chapters , Behold the Kingdom prepared and secured for you by Christ , and then you will be indifferent which way the wind of humane favour or applause shall fit ; or what weather Lunatick influences and aspects shall produce . Such a Faith will make you with Abraham , to turn your back on all , and engage in Pilgrimage for an inheritance after to be received ; though he knew not whither he went , ( with a distinct particular knowledge ) Heb. 11.8 . As strangers and travellers , you will not be troubled to leave towns and fields , buildings and ●●alth , and walks behind you , as knowing that you were 〈◊〉 ●ass by them , desiring and seeking a better , that is , an heavenly : And you shall lose nothing by this passing by all in the world : For God will not be ashamed to be called your God ; and he hath prepared for you a City , Heb. 11.13 , 16. Seriously respect the recompence of reward , and it will make you chuse rather to suffer affliction with the people of God , than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches , than the treasures of the world , v. 25 , 26. Stephen's sight would cause Stephen's patience . Hold on as Christians ; the end is near : Let us run with patience the race that is set before us ; looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith ; who for the Joy that was set before him , endured the Cross , despising the shame , and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God : Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , lest ye be wearied , and faint in your minds , Heb. 12.2 , 3. You may well endure the buffeting , and scorn , if you foresee the honour . You may well endure the Crown of Thorns , if you foresee the Crown of Glory : You may endure to be forsaken of all , if you see him that will never fail you , nor forsake you : This foretaste of the Rivers of pleasure with the Lord , will drown the taste of the Vinegar and Gall. Whine not like worldlings that have lost their portion , when you are stript as bare as Job . If you are true Believers , you have All still , for God is All : You have lost Nothing ; for Faith hath made the world as Nothing to you : And will you whine and vex your self for Nothing ? Can you call it Nothing so frequently and easily in your prayers , and ordinary speech ; and do you now recall this ; or tell us by your serious grief , that you speak but in hypocrisie and jeast . [ Frangitur nemo molestiâ adversorum , qui non capitur delectatione prosperorum . August . Had there been less Idolatrous Love , there would have been less tormenting grief and care . Our life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that we possess . He is not happy that hath them , but he that neither needeth nor desireth them . [ Cum in his quae homines eripiunt , optant , custodiunt , nihil inveneris , non dico quod malis , sed quod velis . Sen. ] Superfluity doth but burden and break down : The Corn that 's too rank lodgeth ; and the branches break that are overladen with fruit . [ Omnia quae superfluunt nocent : segetem nimia sternit ub●●tas : rami onere franguntur ad maturitatem non pervenit faecunditas : Idem quoque animis evenit , quos immoderata prosperitas rumpit ; quia non tantum in aliorum injuriam , sed etiam in suam utuntur . Sen. ] It 's pleasure , and not pain , that is the worlds most deadly sting : It hath never so much hurt us , as when it hath flattered us into delights or hopes . [ Et fera & piscis spe aliqua oblectante decipitur . Sen. ] Hope is the bait ; prosperity and pleasure the net , that souls are ordinarily ensnared by . Men lose not their souls for poverty , but for riches ; nor for dishonour , but for honour ; nor for sorrow , but for delight . [ Luxuriant animi rebus plerumque secundis . ] The luxuriances of prosperity , bring us so frequently under the pruning hook . The surfeits and summer fruits of fulness and carnal contentments and delights , do put us to the trouble of our sicknesses and our Physick . [ How hardly shall rich men enter into Heaven ? ] saith he that well knew who should enter . Saith A●gustine [ Difficile , immo impossibile est , ut praesentibus & futuris quis fruatur bonis ; ut hic ventrem , & ibi mentem implea● : ut à deliciu ad delicias transeat ; & in utroque seculo primus s●t ▪ ut in terrâ & in coelo appareat gloriosus ? ] The hope is , that [ with God such humane impossibilities are possible ] But it 's more terrible , than desirable to be put upon so great a difficulty . Sweet dishes will have wasp● and flies ; but most of them are drowned in their delights . Saith Boetius of Prosperity and Adversity ; I●●a fallit , haec instruit : illa mendacium specie bonorum mentes fruentium ligat : haec cogitatione fragilis faelicitatis absolvit : Itaque illam videas ventrosam fluentem , suique semper ignaram : hanc sobriam , succinctamque ac ipsius adversitatis exercitatione prudentem . A full meal seems best in the eating ; but a light meal is better the next day . More thank God in Heaven for adversity , than for prosperity : And more in Hell cry out of the fruit of prosperity , than of adversity . Many did never look towards Heaven , till affliction cast them on their backs , so that they could look no other way . [ It is good for me that I have been afflicted , that I might learn thy statutes ] saith David , Psal . 119.71 . [ Before I was afflicted , I went astray . ] v. 67. [ In very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me ] v. 75. One sight of Heaven by faith will force you to reckon that the sufferings of this present time are unworthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us ] Rom. 8.18 . To suffer for Christ and righteousness sake , is but to turn an unavoidable fruitless pain , into that which being voluntary , is the more easie , and hath a great reward in Heaven , Matth. 5.11 , 12. And to part with that for a Crown of Life , which else we must part with for nothing . Worldly friends , and wealth , and honour , are summer fruit , that will quickly fall . Hungry fowl know where it's harvest [ At simul intonuit fugiunt : Those that must dwell with you in Heaven , are your sure and stedfast friends [ Caetera fortunae , &c. ] Those that are now highest , and least acquainted with the tongue of malice , the unfaithfulness of friends , or rage of enemies , shall shortly say , [ Atque haec exempli● quondam collecta priorum : Nunc mihi sunt propriis , cognita vera malis . ] There is but the difference of an Est and an Erit , between their mirth and endless sorrows : Their honour , and their endless shame ; nor between our sorrow and our endless joy . Their final honour is to be embalmed , and their dust to be covered with a sumptuous monument , and their names extolled by the mouths of men , that little know how poor a comfort all this is to the miserable soul . In the height of their honour you may foresee the Chyrurgion opening their bowels , and shewing the receptacles of the treasure of the Epicure , and what remains of the price that he received for his betrayed soul . He cuts out the heart with a [ Hae sedes livoris erant : jam pascua vermis ] you next tread on his interred corps , that 's honoured but with a [ Hic jacet ] [ Here lyeth the body of such a one ] And if he have the honour to be magnified by fame or history , it 's a fool-trap to ensnare the living , but easeth not the soul in Hell. And shall we envy men such a happiness as this ? what if they be able to command mens lives , and to hurt those that they hate for a little while ? Is this a matter of honour or of delight ? A Pestilence is more honourable , if destroying be an honour . The Devil is more powerful ( if God permit him ) to do men hurt , than the greatest Tyrant in the world : And yet I hope you envy not his happiness , nor are ambitious to partake of it . If Witches were not kin to Devils , they would never sell their souls for a power to do hurt : And how little do tyrannical worldlings consider , that under a mask of Government and Honour , they do the same ? Let the world then rejoyce while we lament and weep : Our sorrow shall be speedily turned into joy ; and our joy shall no man ●hen take from us , Joh. 16.20 , 22. Envy not a dying man ●he happiness of a feather-bed , or a merry dream . You think ●t hard in them to deny you the liberties and comforts of this ●●fe , though you look for Heaven : And will you be more cruel than the ungodly ? Will you envy the trifling commodities or delights of earth , to those that are like to have no more , but to lye in Hell when the sport is ended ? It is unreasonable impatience that cannot endure to see them in silks and gallantry a few daies , that must be so extreamly miserable for ever . Your crums , and leavings , and overplus is their All. And will you grudge them this much ? In this you are unlike your heavenly Father , that doth good to the just and unjust : would you change cases with them ? would you change the fruit of your adversity , for the fruit of their prosperity . Affliction maketh you somewhat more calm , and wise , and sober , and cautelous , and considerate , and preventeth as well as cureth sin . Prosperity makes them ( through their abuse ) inconsiderate , rash , insensible , foolish , proud , unperswadable . And the turning away of the simple slayeth them , and the prosperity of fools destroyeth them , Prov. 1.32 . It 's long since Lazarus's sores were healed , and his wants relieved ; and long since Dives feast was ended . O let me rather be afflicted , than rejected ; and be a door-keeper in the house of God , than dwell in the tents of wickedness : and rather be under the rod , than turned out of doors . Look with a serious Faith upon Eternity , and then make a great matter of enjoyments or sufferings here if you can . Great joyes and sorrows forbid men to complain of the biting of a Flea . Thunder-claps drown a whispering voice . O what unbelief our impatiency and disquietness in sufferings do discover ! Is this living by faith ? and conversing in another world ? and taking God for All , and the world for Nothing ? What! make such a do of p●verty , imprisonment , injuries , disgrace , with Heaven and Hell before our eyes ? The Lord vouchsafe me that condition , in which I shall be nearest to himself , and have most communion with Heaven ; be it what it will be for the things of earth . These are the desires to which I 'le stand . To thank God for the fruit of past afflictions , as the most necessary mercies of our lives ( as some of us have daily cause ) and at the same time to be impatient under present afflictions , or inordinately afraid of those to come , is an irrational as well as unbelieving incongruity . Are we derided , slandered , abused by the ungodly ? If we repine that we have enemies and must fight ; we repine that we are Christs souldires , and that is , that we are Christians . [ Quomodo potest imperator militum suorum virtutem probare , nisi habuerit hostem ] saith Lactantius . Enemies of God do not use to fight professedly against himself , but against his souldiers [ Non qui contra ipsum Deum pugnent , sed contra milites ejus inquit idem ] If the remnants of goodness had not been a derision among the Heathens themselves , in the more sober sort , a Heathen would not have said , [ Nondum faelix es , si non te turba deriferit : si beatus vis esse , cogita hoc primum contemnere , & ab aliis contemni . Sen. ] Thou art not yet happy , if the rabble deride thee not : If thou wilt be blessed , learn first to contemn this , and to be contemned of others . ] No body will deride or persecute us in Heaven . 5. Improve your talents and opportunities in your callings as Believers ; especially you that are Governours . God is the original and end of Government . The highest are but his ministers , Rom. 13.6 . This world is but the way unto another . Things seen are for things unseen : And Government is to order them to that end : Especially by terrifying evil doers , and by promoting holiness in the earth . The Moral as well as the Natural motion of inferiour agents , must proceed from the influence of the superiour . The spring and the end of every action truly good , are out of fight . Where these are not discerned , or are ignorantly or maliciously opposed , the action is vitiated , and tendeth to confusion and ruine . God is the end of all holy actions ; and carnal self is the end of sin . If God and self are infinitely distinct ; you may easily see that the actions material●y the same , that are intended to such distant ends , must needs be very distant . Nothing but saving Faith and Holiness can conquer selfishness in the lowest of the people . But where the flesh hath more plentiful provision , and self is accommodated with the fullest contents of honour and pleasure that the world affords , how difficult a work then is self-denyal ! And the reign of the flesh is contrary to the reign of Christ . Where the flesh and visible things bear sway , the enemy of Christ bears sway . The carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to his Law , nor can be , Rom. 8.7 . And how Christs enemies will receive his Laws , and use his Messengers , and regard his waies and servants , the most of the world have experience to their cost . The interest of the flesh , being contrary to Christs interest , the competition maintaineth a continual conflict . The Word of God doth seem to be against them : The faithful Ministers that would save them from their sins , do seem to wrong them , and deal too boldly with them . Were it an Elijah , he would be called , The troubler of Israel ; and met with an [ Hast thou found me O mine enemy ] No measure of prudence , knowledge , piety , innocency , meekness or self-denyal , will serve to appease the wrath and displeasure of this carnal enmity . If it would , the Apostles had escaped it : or at least it would not have fallen so furiously upon Christ h●mself . Nay , these are the oyl that increase the flame . And Satan hath still the bellows in his hand : He knoweth that if he can corrupt or win the Commander , he can rout the Army , and ruine them with the greatest ease . It hath been Satans grand design , since the Christian name was known on earth , to advance the selfish interest of men against the interest of Christ ; and to entangle the Rulers of the world in some cause , that Christ , and his Word , and Servants cannot favour , and so to make them believe that there is a necessity on them to watch against , and subdue the interest of Christ . As if it were necessary that the shore be brought to the boat , and not the boat to the shore : And that the Physician be brought to the Patients mind , or else destroyed or used as his enemy . I am afraid to speak out the terrible words of God in Scripture , that are against such persons , lest you should misunderstand me , and think I misapply them . But Christ feareth no man , and hath not spoken his Word in vain ; and his Messengers must be faithful ; for he will bear them out ; and preventive cautions are easier and safer than reprehensive corrasives . I will but refer you to the texts , that you may peruse them , Matth. 21.44 . Matth. 18.3.6 . Matth. 25.40 , 45. Luke 18.7 . Psal . 2. Luke 19.27 . Acts 9.4 , 5. 1 Thess . 2.15 , 16. Read them with fear as the Words of God. Blessed are those Rulers and Nations of the Earth , that perceive and escape this pernicious snare of the grand deceiver ; that with all his subtilty and industry , endeavoureth to breed quarrels , and sow dissentions between them and the universal King. The more God giveth to the carnal and unwise , the more they think themselves engaged against him ; because by his commands he seems to take it from them again , by crossing the flesh , which would use it only to fulfil its lusts . Like a Dog that fawneth on you till he have his bone ; and then snarleth at you , lest you take it from him ; and will fly in your face if you offer to meddle with it . Men readily confess that they have their wealth from God ; because it cannot be denyed , and because they would use the name of God , as a cover to hide their covetousness , and unlawful waies of getting : But if you judge by their usage of it , and their returns to God ; you would think that they believed , that they had nothing at all from God , but some injuries ; and that all their benefits and good were from themselves . The Turkish and Tartarian Emperour will say , that all his grandeur and power is from God ; that by making it most Divine , he may procure the more reverence and obedience to himself : But when he hath said so for his own interest , he useth the same power against God and his interest ; to the banishing of his Word and holy Worship , and the forbidding the preaching of the Gospel of salvation ; and to the cherishing of tyranny , pride and lust : As if God had armed them against himself , and made his Officers to be his enemies ; and gave them power that they might powerfully hinder mens salvation , and made great , to be great oppressors . As a believing Pastor is a Priest that standeth between God and the people , to mediate under the great Mediatour ; to receive from God his Word and Ordinances , and deliver them to the flocks ; and to offer up supplications in their names to God : So believing Governours of civil Societies or Families , receive from God a power to rule the subjects for their good , and they use it to make the subjects good , that God may be pleased and honoured by all ! And the obedience which they require , is such as may be given to God in them . They take power from God to use it for God , and are so much more excellent than the greatest of ambitious carnal Princes , as the pleasing and honouring of God , is a more excellent design and work , than the gratifying of fleshly lust , and the advancement of a lump of clay . The Kingdoms of the world would all be used as the Kingdoms of the Lord , if the everlasting Kingdom were well believed . The families of men would be sanctified as Churches unto God , if the eternal house not made with hands , were truly taken for their home , and their trade were to lay up a treasure in Heaven . In Cities and Countries Brethren would dwell in holy peace , and all concur in honouring God , if once they were made fellow Citizens with the Saints , and their Burgeship and conversation were in Heaven , Ephes . 2.19 . Phil. 3.20 , 21. 6. Resist Temptations as Believers . If you live by Faith , then fight against the world and flesh by Faith. Faith must be your helmet , and the Word of Faith must be your shield , Eph. 6.16 . And your victory it self must be by Faith , 1 Joh. 5.4 . If Satan tell the flesh of the preferment , riches , or the pleasures of lust , answer him with a believing foresight of Gods Judgement , and the life to come . Never look on the baits of sin alone , but still look at once on God and on Eternity : As a just Judge will hear both parties speak , or see their evidences before he will determine : So tell the Tempter , that as you have heard what fleshly allurements can say , you will see also what the Word of God saith , and take a view of Heaven and Hell , and then you will answer him . 7. Rejoyce as Believers . Can Faith set open the windows of the soul , and no light of heavenly pleasures enter ? Can it peruse the Map of the Land of Promise , or see and taste the bunch of Grapes , without any sweetness to the soul ? That is the truest Belief of Heaven , which maketh men likest those that are in Heaven : And what is their character , work and portion , but the Joyes of Heavenly Light and Love ! Can we believe that we shall live in Heaven for ever ? Can we believe that very shortly we shall be there ? and not rejoyce in such believing ? I know we commonly say , that the uncertainty of our proper title , is the cause of all our want of joy : But if that were all , if that were the first and greatest cause , and our belief of the promise it self were lively ; we should at least set our hearts on Heaven as the most delightful and desirable state : and Love would work by more eager desires , and diligent seekings , till it had reacht assurance , and cast out the hinderances of our joy . How much would a meer Philosopher rejoyce , if he could find out natural evidence , of so much as we know by Faith ? You may perceive what their content in finding it , would be , by their exc●eding pains in seeking . The unwearied studies by day and night , which many of them used , with the contempt of the riches and greatness of the world , do tell us how glad they would have been , to have seen but half so far as we may . If they could but discover more clearly and certainly , the principles , and elements , and forms of Beings ; the nature of spirits ; the causes of motion ; the nature and cause of light and heat ; the order , course and harmony of the universal systeme of the world ; what joyful acclamations would this produce , in the literal studious sort of men ! what joy then should it be to us , to know by Faith the God that made us ; the Creation of the world , the Laws and Promises of our Creatour , the Mysteries of Redemption and Regeneration ; the frame of the new Creature , the entertainment of the spirits of the just with Christ , the Judgement which all the world must undergo , the work and company which we shall have hereafter , and the endless joyes which all the sanctified shall possess in the sight and Love of God for ever ? How blessed an invention would it be , if all the world could be brought again to the use of one universal language ? Or if all the Churches could be perfectly reconciled , how joyful would the Author of so great a work be ? should we not then rejoyce who foresee by Faith , a far more perfect union and consent , than ever must be expected here on earth . Alas , the ordinary lowness of our Comforts doth tell us , that our Faith is very small ! I say not so much [ The sorrows of a doubting heart ] as the little joy which we have in the fore-thoughts of Heaven , when our title seemeth not much doubtful to us : For those sorrows shew , that such esteem it a joyful place , and would rejoyce if their title were but cleared : But when we have neither the sorrow or solicitousness of the afflicted soul , nor yet the joy which is any whit suitable to the belief of such everlasting joyes , we may know what to judge of such an uneffectual belief ; at best , it is very low and feeble . It is a joy unspeakable , and full of glory , which unseen things should cause in a Believer , 1 Pet. 1.6 , 7 , 8. Because it is an exceeding eternal weight of glory , which he believeth , 2 Cor. ● 17 , 18. 8. Finally , Learn to Die also as Believers . The life of Faith must bring you to the very entrance into glory : where one doth end , the other begins . As our dark life in the womb by nutriment from the Mother , continueth till our passage into the open world . You would die in the womb , if Faith should cease , before it bring you to full intuition and fruition , Heb. 11.22 . By faith Joseph when he died made mention of the departing of the children of Israel . Josephs faith did not die before him , Heb. 11.3 . These all died in faith , confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth , and declaring that they sought a better Country . They that live by faith , must die in faith ; yea and die by faith too . Faith must fetch in their dying comforts . And O how full , and how near a treasure hath it to go to ? To die to this world , is to be born into another . Beggars are best when they are abroad . The travail of the ungodly is better to them than their home . But the Believers home is so much better than his travail , that he hath little cause to be afraid of coming to his Journeys end ; but should rather every step cry out , O when shall I be at home with Christ ! Is it Earth or Heaven that you have prayed for , and laboured for , and waited , and suffered for till now ? And doth he indeed pray , and labour , and suffer for Heaven , who would not come thither ? It is Faith which overcometh the world and the flesh , which must also overcome the fears of death ; and can look with boldness into the loathsome grave , and can triumph over both as victorious through Christ . It is Faith which can say , [ Go forth O my soul ; depart in peace : Thy course is finished : Thy warfare is accomplished : The day of triumph is now at hand : Thy patience hath no longer work : Go forth with joy : The morning of thy endless joyes is near ; and the night of fears and darkness at an end . Thy terrible dreams are ending in eternal pleasures : The glorious light will banish all thy dreadful specters , and resolve all those doubts which were bred and cherished in the dark : They whose employment is their weariness and toil , do take the night of darkness and cessation for their rest : But this is thy weariness : Defect of action is thy toil ; and thy most grievous labour is to do too little work ▪ And thy uncessant Vision , Love and Praise , will be thy uncessant ease and pleasure ; and thy endless work , will be thy endless rest ! Depart , O my soul , with peace and gladness ! Thou leavest not a world , where Wisdom and Piety , Justice and Sobriety , Love , and Peace , and Order , do prevail ; but a world of ignorance and folly ; of bruitish sensuality and rage ; of impiety and malignant enmity to good ; a world of injustice and oppression ; and of confusion and distracting strifes ! Thou goest not to a world of darkness , and of wrath ; but of Light and Love ! From hellish malice , to perfect amity ; from Bedlam rage , to perfect wisdom ; from mad confusion , to perfect order ; to sweetest unity and peace ; even to the spirits of the just made perfect , and to the celestial glorious City of God! Thou goest not from Heaven to Earth , from holiness to sin , from the sight of God , into an infernal dungeon ; but from Earth to Heaven ; from sin and imperfection unto perfect holiness ; and from palpable darkness , into the vital splendour of the face of God! Thou goest not amongst enemies , but to dearest friends ; nor amongst meer strangers , but to many whom thou hast known by sight , and to more whom thou hast known by faith , and must know by the sweetest communion for ever . Thou goest not to unsatisfied Justice , nor to a condemning unreconciled God ; but to Love it self ; to infinite Goodness ; the fountain of all created and communicated good ; to the Maker , Redeemer and Sanctifier of souls ; to him who prepared Heaven for thee , and now hath prepared thee for Heaven ! Go forth then in triumph , and not with terrour , O my soul ! The prize is won : Possess the things which thou hast so long prayed for , and sought ! Make haste and enter into thy Masters joy ! Go view the glory which thou hast so long heard of ; and take thy place in the heavenly Chore ; and bear thy part in their celestial melody ! Sit down with Abraham , Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God! And receive that which Christ in his Covenant did promise to give thee at the last . Go boldly to that blessed God , with whom thou hast so powerful a Mediatour ; and to the Throne of whose grace , thou hast had so oft and sweet access . If Heaven be thy fear or sorrow , what can be thy joy ? and where wilt thou have refuge , if thou fly from God ? If perfect endless pleasures be thy terrour , where then dost thou expect content ! If grace have taught thee long ago , to prefer the heavenly and durable felicity ; refuse it not now when thou art so near the port ! if it have taught thee long ago , to be as a stranger in this Sodom , and to renounce this sinful world and flesh ; linger not now as unwilling to depart ; repent not of thy choice , when all that the world can do for thee is past , repent not of thy warfare , when thou hast got the victory ; nor of thy voyage , when thou art past the storms and waves , and ready to land at the haven of felicity . Thus Faith may sing our Nunc dimittis , when the flesh is lothest to be dissolved . But we must live by faith , if we would thus die by faith . Such a death doth not use to be the period of a fleshly worldly life ; nor of a careless , dull and negligent life . Nature , which brought us into the world , without our forecast or care , will turn us out of the world without it : But it will not give us a joyful passage , nor bring us to a better world without it . It costeth worldlings no small care to die in an honourable or plentiful estate , ( that they may fall from an higher place than others , and may have something to make death more grievous and unwelcome to them , and may have a greater account to make at Judgement ; and that their passage to Heaven may be as a Camels through a Needle . ) And may a believing joyful death be expected , without the preparations of exercise and experience in a believing life ? Nature is so much afraid of dying , and an incorporated soul is so incarcerated in sense , and so hardly riseth to serious and satisfying apprehensions of the unseen world , that even true Believers , do find it a work of no small difficulty , to desire to depart , and be with Christ , and to die in the joyful hopes of faith . A little abatement of the terrours of death , a little supporting hope and peace , is all that the greater part of them attain , instead of the fervent desires , and triumphant joyes , which the lively belief of endless glory should produce . O therefore make it the work of your lives ! of all your lives ! your greatest work ; your constant work , to live by faith ; that the faith which hath first conquered all the rest of your enemies , may be able also to overcome the last ; and may do your last work well , when it hath done the rest . CHAP. I. Directions how to live by Faith : And first how to strengthen Faith : And secondly , the natural Truths presupposed to be considered . THe Directions which I shall give you , as helps to live by Faith , are of two ranks . 1. Such as tend to the strengthening of your Faith. 2. Such as tell you how to use it . The first is the greatest part of our task : for no man can use that faith which he hath not ; nor can use more of it than he hath . And the commonest reason why we use but little , is because we have but little to use . But on this subject ( supposing it most weighty ) I have written many Treatises already ( The second part of the Saints Rest : The Unreasonableness of Infidelity : And last of all , The Reasons of the Christian Religion : Besides others which handle it on the by . ) And somewhat is said in the beginning of this discourse . But yet because in so great a matter I am more afraid of doing too little than too much ; I will here give you an Index of some of the chief Helps , to be close together before you for your memories , to be the constant fuel of your Faith. In the work of Faith , it is first needful that you get all the prerequisite Helps of Natural Light , and be well acquainted with their Order and Evidence , and their Vsefulness to befriend the supernatural revelations : For it is supposed that we are men before we are Christians : We were created before we were redeemed : And we must know that there is a God , before we can know that we have offended him , or that we need a Saviour to reconcile us to him : And we must know that we have reasonable souls , before we can know that sin hath corrupted them , or that grace must sanctifie them : And we must know , that whatso●ver God saith is true , before we can believe that the Scripture is true , as being his revelation . Faith is an act of Reason ; and Believing is a kind of knowing ; even a knowing by the testim●ny of him whom we believe ; because we have sufficient reason to believe him . 2. And next we must be well acquainted with the evidence of supernatural Truth , which presupposeth the foresaid Natural Verities . I shall set both b●fore you briefly in their order . 1. Think well ●f the nature of your souls , of their faculties or p●wers , their excellency , and their proper use : And then you will find , that you are not meer brutes , who know not their Creat●ur , nor live no● by a Law , nor think not of another world ; nor ●●ar any ●●fferings after death : But that you have reas●n , free-will , and executive power to kn●w your Maker , and to live by ●ule , a●d to hope for a Reward in another life , and to fear a p●n●shme●t hereafter . And that as no wise Artificer maketh any thing in vain ; so God is m●ch less to be thought to hav● given you such souls and faculties in vain . 2. Co●sid●r next how all the world declareth to you , that there is a G●d , wh● is infinite●y p●werful , wise and good . And tha● it is not possible that all things which we see should have no cause , or that the derived Power , and Wisdom , and Goodnes● of the creature , should not proceed from that which is more excellent in the first and total cause : Or that God should give more than he had to give . 3. Consider nex● , in wh●t Relation such a creature must needs stand to such a Creatour : If he made us of N●●hing ▪ 〈◊〉 is not p●ssible , but that he must be 〈◊〉 Owner , and w● a●d all things absolutely his Own : And if he be our Maker and Owner , and be infinitely powerful , wise and good ; and we be Reasonable-free-agents , made to be guided by Laws or Moral Means unto our end ; it is not possible but that we should stand related to him , as subjects to their rightful Governour . And if he be our Creatour , Owner and Ruler , and also infinitely Good , and the grand Benefactor of the world : and if the nature of our souls be , to Love Good as Good ; it cannot be possible , that he should not be our End , who is our Creatour ; and that we should not be related to him as to the Chiefest Good , both originally as our Benefactor , and finally as our End. 4. And then it is easie for you next to see , what duty you owe to that God to whom you are thus related . That if you are absolutely his Own , you should willingly be at his absolute dispose : And i● he b● your Soveraign Ruler , you should labour most diligently to know his Laws , and absolutely to obey them . And if he be infinitely Good , and your Benefactor and your End , you are absolutely bound to Love him most devotedly , and to place your own felicity in his Love. All this is so evidently the duty of man to God by nature , that nothing but madness can deny it . And this is it which we call Sanctification , or Holiness to the Lord. And our cohabitation and relation to men , will tell us , that Justice and Charity are our duty as to them . And when a man is fully satisfied that Holiness , Justice and Charity , are our duty , he hath a great advantage for his progress towards the Christian Faith. To which let me add , that as to our selves also , it is undeniably our duty to take more care for our souls , than for our bodies , and to rule our senses and passions by our Reason , and to subject our lower faculties to the higher , and so to use all sensible and present things , as conduceth to the publick good , and to the advancement of our nobler part , and to our greatest benefit , though it cross our sensual appetites . All this being unquestionably our natural duty , we see that man was made to live in Holiness , Justice , Charity , Temperance , and rational regularity in the world . 5. When you have gone thus far , consider next how far men are generally from the performance of this duty : And how backward humane nature is to it , even while they cannot deny it to be their duty : And you will soon perceive that God who made it their duty , did never put in them this enmity thereto : nor ever made them without some aptitude to perform it . And if any would infer that their indisposedn●ss proveth it to be none of their duty , the nature of man will fully confute him ; and the conscience and confession of all the sober part of the world . What wretch so blind ( if he believe a Deity ) who will not confess that he should love God with all his heart , and that Justice , Charity and Sobriety are his duty ; and that his sense should be ruled by his reason , & c ? The evidence before given is not to be denyed . And therefore something is marr'd in nature . Some enemy hath seduced man. And some deplorable change hath befallen him . 6. Yea , if you had no great backwardness to this duty your self , consider what it must cost you faithfully to perform it , in such a malignant world as we now live in ? what envy and wrath , what malice and persecution , what opposition and discouragements on every side we must expect ? Universal experience is too full a proof of this . ( Besides what it costeth our restrained flesh ) 7. Proceed then to think further , that certainly God hath never appointed us so much duty , without convenient Motives to perform it . It cannot be that he should make us more noble than the brutes , to be more miserable : Or that he should make Holiness our duty , that it might be our loss , or our calamity . If there were no other life but this , and men had no hopes of future happiness , nor any fears of punishment , what a Hell would this world be ? Heart-wickedness would be but little feared ; nor heart-duty regarded : Secret sin against Princes , States , and all degrees , would be boldly committed , and go unpunished ( for the most part . ) The sins of Princes , and of all that have power to defeat the Law , would have little or no restraint : Every mans interest would oblige him , rather to offend God , who so seldom punisheth here , than to offend a Prince , or any man in power , who seldom lets offences against himself go unrevenged : And so man , more than God , would be the Ruler of the world , that is , our God. Nay actually the hopes and fears of another life , among most Hea●hens , Infidels and Hereticks , is the principle of Divine Government , by which God keepeth up most of the order and virtue which is in the world . Yea , think what you should be and do your self ; as to enemies , and as to secret faults , and as to sensual vices , if you thought there were no life but this : And is it possible that the infinitely powerful , wise and good Creatour , can be put to govern all mankind , by meer deceit , and a course of lyes ? as if he wanted better means ? By how much the better any man is , by so much the more regardful is he of the life to come , and the hopes and fears of another life , are so much the more prevalent with him : And is it possible that God should make men good , to make them the most deceived , and most miserable ? Hath he commanded all these cares to be our needless torments , which brutes , and fools , and sottish sinners do all scape ? Is the greatest obedience to God , become a sign of the greatest folly , or the way to the greatest loss or disappointment ? We are all sure that this life is short and vain : No Infidel can say that he is sure that there is no other life for us : And if this be so , reason commandeth us to prefer the p●ssibilities of such a life to come , before the certain vanities of this life : So that even the Infidels uncertainty will unavoidably infer , that the preferring of the world to come is our duty : And if it be our duty , then the thing in it self is true : For God will not make it all mens duties in the frame of their nature , to seek an Vtopia , and pursue a shadow ; and to spend their daies and chiefest cares for that which is not ; Godliness is not such a dreaming night-walk . Conscience will not suffer dying men to believe that they have more cause to repent of their Godliness , than of their sin , and of their seeking Heaven , than of wallowing in their lusts . Nay then , these h●avenly desires would be themselves our sins , as being the following of a lye , the aspiring after a state which is above us , and the abuse and loss of our faculties and time : And sensuality would be liker to be our virtue , as being natural to us , and a seeking of our most real felicity . The common conscience of mankind doth justifie the wisdom and virtue of a temperate , holy , heavenly person ; and acknowledgeth that our heavenly desires are of God : And doth God give men both natural faculties , which shall never come to the perfection which is their End ? and also gracious desires , which shall but deceive us , and never be satisfied ? If God had made us for the enjoyments of brutes , he would have given us but the knowledge and desires of brutes . Every King and mortal Judge can punish faults against Man with death : And hath God no greater or further punishment , for sins as committed against himself ? And are his rewards no greater than a mans ? These , and many more such Evidences may assure you , that there is another life of Rewards and punishments ; and that this life is not our final state , but only a ●ime of preparation thereunto . Settle this deeply and fixedly in your minds . 8. And look up to the heavenly Regions , and think , Is this world so replenished with inhabitants , both Sea , and Land , and Air it self ? And can I dream that the vast and glorious Orbs and Regions , are all uninhabited ? O● that they have not more numerous and glorious possessors , than this small opacous spot of earth . And then think , that those higher creatures are intellectual spirits : ( This is many waies apparent ) and also of the communion which they have with man : And when we find also an intellectual nature in our selves , why should we not believe , that our likeness of nature , doth infer our likeness in our future duration and abode . 9. And mark well but the inward and outward temptations , which solicite all the world to sin ; and what notable Evidences there be in many of them , of an invisible power ; and you will easily believe that man hath a soul to save or lose , which is of longer duration than the body . 10. Lastly , If yet there be any doubt , consider but of the sensible Evidences of Apparitions , Witchcraft and Possessions , and it cannot chuse but much confirm you : Though much be feigned in histories of such things , yet the world hath abundant evidence of that which was certainly unfeigned . See the Devil of Mascon , Mr. Mompessons story lately acted and published : Remigius , Bodins , Danaeus , &c. of Witches , Lavater de Spectris ; and what I have written elsewhere . CHAP. II. The true Method of enquiry into the supernatural Evidences of Faith , and Rules therein to be offered . WHen you have thus seen what evidence there is of GOD , and his Government , and of a life of reward and punishment hereafter , and of the natural obligations which lie on man to a holy , just , and sober life ; and of the depraved state of the world , which goeth so contrary to such undoubted duty ; and how certain all this is even by natural revelation ; proceed next to consider what supernatural revelation God hath added , both to confirm you in the same Truths , and to make known such other , as were necessary for mankind to know . Where I must first direct you in the true Method of Enquiry , and then set before you the things themselves , which you are to know . 1. Think not that every unprepared mind is immediately capable of the Truth ( either this , or any other , except the first principles which are nota per se , or are next to sense . ) All truth requireth a capacity , and due preparation of the recipient : The plainest principles of any Art or Science , are not understood by novices at the first fight or hearing . And therefore it were vain to imagine that things of the greatest distance in history , or profundity in doctrine , can be comprehended at the first attempt , by a disused and unfurnished understanding . There must be at least , as much time , and study , and help supposed and used , to the full discerning of the evidences of faith , as are allowed to the attainment of common Sciences . Though grace , in less time , may give men so much light as is necessary to salvation ; yet he that will be able to defend the Truth , and answer Objections , and attain establishing satisfaction in his own mind , must ( ordinarily ) have proportionable helps , and time , and studyes ; unless he look to be taught by miracles . 2. Remember that it is a practical and heavenly doctrine which you are to learn : It is the Art of loving God , and being happy in his love . And therefore a worldly , sensual , vicious soul , must needs be under very great disadvantage for the receiving of such a kind of Truths . Do not therefore impute that to the doubtfulness of the Doctrine , which is but the effect of the enmity and incapacity of your minds : How can he presently rellish the spiritual and heavenly doctrine of the Gospel , who is drowned in the love and care of contrary things ? Such men receive not the things of the Spirit : They seem to them both foolishness and undesirable . 3. Think not that the history of things done so long ago , and so far off , should have no more obscurities , nor be liable to any more Objections , than of that which was done in the time and Country where you live . Nor yet that things done in the presence of others , and words spoken in their hearing only , should be known to you otherwise than by historical evidence , ( unless every Revelation to others , must have a new Revelation to bring it to each individual person in the world . ) And think not that he who is a stranger to all other helps of Church-history , should be as well able to understand the Scripture-history , as those that have those other helps . 4. Think not that the narrativt of things done in a Country and Age so remote , and to us unknown , should not have many difficulties , arising from our ignorance of the persons , places , manners , customs , and many circumstances , which if we had known , would easily have resolved all such doubts ▪ 5. Think not that a Book which was written so long ago , in so remote a Country , in a language which few do fully understand , and which may since then have several changes , as to phrases , and proverbial and occasional speeches , should have no more difficulties in it , than a Book that were written at home , in the present Ages in our Country language , and the most usual dialect . To say nothing of our own language , what changes are made in all other tongues , since the times that the Gospel was recorded ? Many proverbial speeches and phrases may be now disused and unknown , which were then most easie to be understood . And the transcribing and preserving of the Copies , require us to allow for some defects of humane skill and industry therein . 6. Vnderstand the different sorts of Evidence , which are requisite to the different matters in the holy Scriptures . The matters of fact require historical evidence ( which yet is made infallible by additional miracles . ) The miracles which were wrought to confirm our history , are brought to our knowledge only by other history . The Doctrines which are evident in nature , have further evidence of supernatural revelation , only to help us whose natural fight is much obscured . But it is the supernatural Doctrines , Precepts and Promises , which of themselves require supernatural revelation , to make them credible to man. 7. Mistake not the true Vse and End of the holy Scriptures . 1. Think not that the Gospel as written was the first Constitutive or Governing Law of Christ , for the Christian Churches . The Churches were constituted , and the Orders , and Offices , and Government of it settled , and exercised very many years together , before any part of the New Testament was written to them ; much more before the writing of the whole . The Apostles had long before taught them what was commanded them by Christ ; and had settled them in the order appointed by the Holy Ghost : And therefore you are not to look for the first determination of such doctrines or orders in the Scripture as made thereby ; but only for the Records of what was done and established before : For the Apostles being to leave the world , did know the slipperiness of the memory of man , and the danger of changing and corrupting the Christian Doctrine and Orders , if there were not left a sure record of it : And therefore they did that for the sake of posterity . 2. You must not think that all is essential to the Christian Religion , which is contained in the holy Scriptures : Nor that they are only the adequate form or record of that which is strictly and primarily called our Religion , or Christianity . For there are divers particular Books of the New Testament , which contain much more than is essential to Christianity : And many appurtenances , and histories , and genealogies , and circumstances are there recorded , which are indeed subservient helps to our Religion ; but are not strictly our Religion it self . 8. As the use of the Scripture must thus be judged of according to the purpose of the holy Spirit ; so the Perfection of the Scripture must be judged of , in relation to its intended use . It was not written to be a systeme of Physicks , nor Oratory ; nor to decide grammatical Controversies about words ; but to record in apt expressions the things which God would have men to know , in order to their faith , their duty , and their happiness . And in this respect it is a perfect word . But you must not imagine that it is so far the word of God himself , as if God had shewed in it his fullest skill , and made it as perfect in every respect , both phrase and order , as God could do . And if you meet in it with several words , which you think are less grammatical , logical , or rhetorical , than many other men could speak , and which really savour of some humane imperfection , remember that this is not at all derogatory to Christianity ; but rather tendeth to the strengthening of our faith : For the Scriptures are perfect to their intended use : And God did purposely chuse men of imperfect Oratory , to be his Apostles , that his Kingdom might not be in word , but in power ; and that our faith might not be built upon the wisdom and oratory of man , but on the supernatural operations of the Almighty God : As David's sling and stone must kill Goliah : So unlearned men , that cannot out-wit the world to deceive them , shall by the Spirit and Miracles convince them . Looking for that in the Scripture , which God never intended it for , doth tempt the unskilful into unbelief . 9. Therefore you must be sure to distinguish the Christian Religion , which is the vital part or kernel of the Scriptures , from all the rest : And to get well planted in your mind , the summ of that Religion it self . And that is briefly contained in the two Sacraments , and more largely in the Creed , the Lords Prayer , and the Decalogue , the summaryes of our Belief , Desire and Practice . And then wonder no more that the other parts of Scripture , have some things of less moment , than that a man hath fingers , nails and hair , as well as a stomach , heart and head . 10. Distinguish therefore between the Method of the Christian Religion , and the Method of the particular Books of Scriptures . The Books were written on several occasions , and in several Methods ; and though that method of them all , be perfect , in order to their proper end ; yet is it not necessary that there be in the Method no humane imperfection , or that one or all of them , be written in that method which is usually most logical , and best . But the frame of Religion contained in those Books , is composed in the most perfect method in the world . And those systemes of Theology which endeavour to open this method to you , do not feign it , or make it of themselves ; but only attempt the explication of what they find in the holy Scriptures , Synthetically or Analytically : ( Though indeed all attempts have yet fallen short of any full explication of this divine and perfect harmony . ) 11. Therefore the true Order of settling your faith , is not first to require a proof that all the Scriptures is the Word of God ; but first to prove the marrow of them , which is properly called the Christian Religion , and then to proceed to strengthen your particular belief of the rest . The contrary opinion , which hath obtained with many in this Age , hath greatly hindered the faith of the unskilful : And it came from a preposterous care of the honour of the Scriptures , through an excessive opposition to the Papists who undervalue them . For hence it comes to pass , that every seeming contradiction , or inconsistency in any Book of Scripture , in Chronology or any other respect , is thought to be a sufficient cause , to make the whole cause of Christianity as difficult as that particular text is : And so all those Readers , who meet with great or inseparable difficulties , in their daily reading of the Scriptures , are thereby exposed to equal temptations , to damning infidelity it self : So that if the Tempter draw any man to doubt of the standing still of the Sun in the time of Joshua ; of the life of Jonas in the belly of the Whale ; or any other such passage in any one Book of the Scriptures , he must equally doubt of all his Religion . But this was not the ancient method of faith : It was many years after Christs resurrection , before any one Book of the New Testament was written ; and almost an Age before it was finished : And all that time the Christian Churches had the same Faith and Religion as we have now ; and the same foundation of it : That is , the Gospel preached to them by the Apostles : But what they delivered to them by word of mouth , is now delivered to us in their writings , with all the appurtenances and circumstances , which every Christian did not then hear of . And there were many Articles of the Christian Faith , which the Old Testament did not at all make known : ( As that this Jesus is the Christ ; that he was born of the Virgin Mary , and is actually crucified , risen and ascended , &c. ) And the method of the Apostles was , to teach the people , the summ of Christianity ( as Paul doth , 1 Cor. 15.3 , 4 , &c. and Peter , Act. 2. ) and to bring them to the belief of that , and then baptize them , before they wrote any thing to them , or taught them the rest which is now in the holy Scriptures ; They were first to Disciple the Nations and baptize them , and then to teach them to observe all things whatever Christ commanded : And the main bulk of the Scriptures is made up of this last , and of the main subservient histories and helps . And accordingly it was the custom of all the Primitive Churches , and ancient Doctors , to teach the people first the Creed and summ of Christianity , and to make them Christians before they taught them so much as to know what Books the Canonical Scriptures did contain : For they had the summ of Christianity it self delivered down collaterally by the two hands of tradition . 1. By the continuation of Baptism , and publick Church-professions , was delivered the Creed or Covenant by it self : And 2. By the holy Scriptures , where it was delivered with all the rest ; and from whence every novice was not put to gather it of himself ; but had it collected to his hand by the Churches . And you may see in the writings of all the ancient defenders of Christianity ( Justin , Athenagoras , Talianus , Clemens Alexandrinus , Arnobius , Theoph. Antioch . Lactantius , Tertullian , ●usebius , Augustine , &c. ) that they used the method which I now direct you to . And if you consider it well , you will find that the miracles of Christ himself , and all those of his Apostles after him , were wrought for the confirmation of Christianity it self immediately , and mostly before the particular Epistles or Books were written ; and therefore were only remotely and consequentially for the confirmation of those Books as such : as they proved that the Writers of them were guided by the infallible Spirit , in all the proper work of their office ; of which the writing of the Scriptures was a part . 1. Therefore settle your belief of Christianity it self ; that is , of so much as Baptism containeth , or importeth : This is more easily proved , than the truth of every word in the Scriptures ; because there are controversies about the Canon , and the various readings , and such like : And this is the natural method , which Christ and his Spirit have directed us to , and the Apostles and the ancient Churches used . And when this is first soundly proved to you , then you cannot justly take any textual difficulties , to be sufficient cause of raising difficulties to your faith in the essentials : But you may quietly go on in the strength of faith , to clear up all those difficulties by degrees . I know you will meet with some who think very highly of their own mistakes , and whose unskilfulness in these things is joyned with an equal measure of self conceitedness , who will tell you that this method smells of an undervaluing of the Scripture : But I would advise you not to depart from the way of Christ , and his Apostles and Churches , nor to cast your selves upon causeless hinderances , in so high a matter as Saving Faith is , upon the reverence of the words of any perverted factious wrangler , nor to escape the fangs of censorious ignorance . We cannot better justifie the holy Scriptures in the true Method , than they can in their false one : And can better build up , when we have laid the right foundation , than they can who begin in the middle , and omit the foundation , and call the superstructure by that name . 2. Suspect not all Church-history or Tradition , in an extreme opposition to the Papists , who cry up a private unproved Tradition of their own . They tell us of Apostolical Traditions , which their own faction only are the keep●rs of ; and of which no true historical evidence is produced : And this they call the Tradition of the Church : But we have another sort of Tradition , which must not be neglected or rejected , unless we will deny humanity , and reject Christianity . Our Traditio tradens , or active Tradition , is primarily nothing but the certain history or usage of the universal Christian Church ; as Baptism , the Lords day , the Ministry , the Church Assemblies , and the daily Church exercises ; which are certain proofs what Religion was then received by them . And 2. The Scriptures themselves . Our Traditio tradita is nothing else but these two conjunctly : 1. The Christian Religion , even the Faith then professed , and the Worship and Obedience then exercised . 2. The Books themselves , of the holy Scriptures , which contain all this , with much more . But we are so far from thinking that Apostolical Oral Tradition , is a supplement to the Scriptures , as being larger than them , that we believe the Scriptures to be much larger than such Tradition ; and that we have no certainty by any other than Scriptural Tradition , of any more than the common matters of Christianity , which all the Churches are agreed in . But he that will not believe the most universal practice and history of the Church or world in a matter of fact , must in reason much less believe his eye-sight . 13. When you have soundly proved your foundation , take not every difficult objection which you cannot answer , to be a sufficient cause of doubting : For if the fundamentals be proved truths , you may trust to that proof , and be sure that there are waies of solving the seeming inconsistent points , though you are not yet acquainted with them . There are few Truths so clear , which a sophister may not clog with difficulties : And there is scarce any man that hath so comprehensive a knowledge of the most certain Truths , as to be able to answer all that can be said against it . 14. Come not to this study in a melancholy or distracted frame of mind : For in such a case you are ( ordinarily ) incapable of so great a work , as the tryal of the grounds of Faith : And therefore must live upon the ground-work before laid , and wait for a fitter time to clear it . 15. When new doubts arise , mark whether they proceed not from the advantage which the tempter findeth in your minds , rather than from the difficulty of the thing it self : And whether you have not formerly had good satisfaction against the same doubts which now perplex you : If so , suffer not every discomposure of your minds , to become a means of unbelief : And suffer not Satan to command you to dispute your faith at his pleasure : For if he may chuse the time , he may chuse the success . Many a man hath cast up a large account well , or written a learned Treatise or Position well , who cannot clear up all objected difficulties on a sudden , nor without Books tell you all that he before wrote ; especially if he be half drunk or sleepy , or in the midst of other thoughts o● business . 15. When you are once perswaded of the truth of Christianity , and the holy Scriptures , think not that you need not study it any more , because you do already confidently believe it : For if your faith be not built on such cogent evidence as will warrant the conclusion ( whether it be at the present sound or not ) you know not what change assaults may make upon you ( as we have known them do on some ancient eminent Professors of the strictest Godliness , who have turned from Christ , and the belief of immortality . ) Take heed how you understand the common saying of the Schools , that Faith differeth from Knowledge , in that it hath not Evidence : It hath not evidence of sense indeed ; nor the immediate evidence of things invisible , as in themselves ; but as they are the conclusions which follow the principles which are in themselves more evident . It is evident that God is true ; and we can prove by good evidence , that the Christian Verity is his Revelation : And therefore it is evident ( though not immediately in it self ) that the matter of that word or revelation is true . And as Mr. Rich. Hooker truly saith [ No man indeed believeth beyond the degree of evidence of truth which appeareth to him , how confidently soever they may talk . ] I remember that our excellent Vsher answered me to this case , as out of Ariminensis , that [ faith hath evidence of Credibility , and science hath evidence of Certainty . ] But undoubtedly an evidence of Divine Revelation , is evidence of Certainty . And all evidence of Divine Credibility , is evidence of Certainty ; though of humane faith and credibility , the case be otherwise . 16. Yea , think not that you have done the settling of your faith , when once you have found out the soundest evidences , and are able to answer all Objections : For you must grow still in the fuller discerning and digesting the same evidences which you have discerned : For you may hold them so loosely , that they may be easily wrested from you : And you may see them with so clear and full a knowledge , as shall stablish your mind against all ordinary causes of mutation . It is one kind ( or degree rather ) of knowledge of the same things , which the Pupil , and another which the Doctor hath . I am sure the knowledge which I have now of the evidences of the Christian Verity , is much different from what I had thirty years ago , when perhaps I could say neer as much as now ; and used the same Arguments . 17. Consider well the great contentions of Philosophers ; and the great uncertainty of most of those Nations , to which the Infidels would reduce our faith , or which they would make the test by which to try it . They judge Christianity uncertain , because it agreeth not with their uncertainties , or certain errours . 18. Enslave not your Reason to the objects of sense : While we are in the body , our souls are so imprisoned in flesh , and have so much to do with worldly things , that most men by averseness and disuse , can hardly at all employ their minds about any higher things than sensitive ; nor go any further than sense conduceth them . He that will not use his soul to contemplate things invisible , will be as unfit for believing , as a Lady is to travel a thousand miles on foot , who never went out of her doors , but in a Sedan or Coach. 19. Where your want of learning , or exercise or light , doth cause any difficulties which you cannot overcome , go to the more wise and experienced Believers , and Pastors of the Church , to be your helpers : For it is their office to be both the preservers and expounders of the sacred Doctrine , and to be the helpers of the peoples faith . The Priests lips should preserve knowledge , and they should seek the Law at his mouth : for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts , Mal. 2.7 . 20. Lastly , Faithfully practise with Love and alacrity what you do believe , lest God in justice leave you to disbelieve that which you would not love and practise . So much to direct you in the method of your endeavours , for the getting and strengthening of faith . CHAP. III. The Evidences of Faith. THese things in the Order of your enquiry being presupposed , proceed to the consideration of the Evidences themselves , which fully prove the Christian Verity : And here ( omitting the preparatory considerations recited at large in my [ Reasons of the Christian Religion ] I shall only set before you the grand Evidence it self , with a brief recital of some of those means , which bring it down to our notice in these times . The great infallible witness of CHRIST , is the SPIRIT of GOD , or the Holy Ghost : Or that divine operation of the Holy Spirit , which infallibly proveth the attestation of God himself , as interesting him in it , as the principal cause . As we know the Coin of a Prince by his image and superscription , and know his acts by his publick proper Seal : And as we know that God is the Creatour of the world , by the Seal of his likeness which is upon it : Or as we know the Father of a child , when he is so like him , as no other could beget : So know we Christ and Christianity to be of God , by his unimitable image or impression . The Power , Wisdom and Goodness of God , are the essentialities which we call the Nature of God : These in their proper form , and transcendent perfection , are incommunicable : But when they produce an effect on the creature , which for the resemblance may analogically be called by the same names ; the names are logically communicable , though the thing it self ( which is the Divine Essence or Perfections ) be still incommunicable : But when they only produce effects more heterogeneal or equivocal , then we call those effects only the footsteps or demonstrations of their cause . So GOD , whose Power , Wisdom and Goodness in it self is incommunicable , hath produced intellectual natures , which are so like him , that their likeness is called his Image ; and analogically ( yet equivocally ) the created faculties of their Power , Intellect and Will ; are called by such names , as we are fain ( for want of other words ) to apply to God ( the things signified being transcendently and unexpressibly in God , but the words first used of , and applied to the creature . ) But the same God hath so demonstrated his Power , and Wisdom , and Goodness in the Creation of the material or corporeal parts of the world , that they are the ●estigia and infallible proofs of his causation and perfections , ( being such as no other cause without him can produce ) but , yet not so properly called his Image , as to his Wisdom and Goodness , but only of his Power . But no wise man who seeth this world , can doubt whether a God of perfect Power , Wisdom and Goodness , was the maker of it . Even so the person and doctrine of Christ , or the Christian Religion objectively considered , hath so much of the Image , and so much of the demonstrative impressions of the Nature of God , as may fully assure us that he himself is the approving cause . And as the Sun hath a double Light , Lux & Lumen , its essential Light in it self , and it s emitted beams , or communicated Light ; so the Spirit and Image of God , by which Christ and Christianity are demonstrated , are partly that which is essential , constitutive , and inherent , and partly that which is sent and communicated from him to others . In the person of Christ , there is the most excellent Image of God. 1. Wonderful Power , by which he wrought miracles , and commanded Sea and Land , Men and Devils , and raised the dead , and raised himself ; and is now the glorious Lord of all things . 2. Wonderful Wisdom , by which he formed his Laws , and Kingdom , and by which he knew the hearts of men , and prophecied of things to come . 3. Most wonderful Love and Goodness , by which he healed all diseases , and by which he saved miserable souls , and procured our happiness at so dear a rate . But as the essential Light of the Sun , is too glorious to be well observed by us ; but the emitted Light is it which doth affect our eyes , and is the immediate object of our sight ; at least that we can best endure and use ; so the Essential Perfections of Jesus Christ , are not so immediately and ordinarily fit for our observation and use , as the lesser communicated beams , which he sent forth . And these are either such as were the immediate effects of the Spirit in Christ himself , or his personal operations , or else the effects of his Spirit in others : And that is either such as went before him , or such as were present with him , or such as followed after him : Even as the emitted Light of the Sun , is either that which is next to its Essence ; or that which streameth further to other creatures : And this last is either that which it sendeth to us before its own appearing or rising , or that which accompanieth its appearing , or that which leaveth behind it as it setteth or passeth away ; so must we distinguish in the present case . But all this is but One Light , and One Spirit . So then , I should in order speak 1. Of that Spirit in the words and works of Christ himself , which constituteth the Christian Religion . 2. That Spirit in the Prophets and Fathers before Christ , which was the antecedent light . 3. That Spirit in Christs followers , which was the concomitant and subsequent Light or witness : And 1. In those next his abode on earth : And 2. Of those that are more remote . CHAP. IV. The Image of Gods Wisdom . 1. AND first , observe the three parts of Gods Image , or impress upon the Christian Religion in it self as containing the whole work of mans Redemption , as it is found in the works and doctrine of Christ . 1. The WISDOM of it appeareth in these particular observations ( which yet shew it to us but very defectively , for want of the clearness , and the integrality , and the order of our knowledge : For to see but here and there a parcel of one entire frame or work , and to see those few parcels as dislocated , and not in their proper places and order ; and all this but with a dark imperfect sight , is far from that full and open view of the manifold Wisdom of God in Christ , which Angels and superiour intellects have . ) 1. Mark how wisely God hath ordered it , that the three Essentialitie● in the Divine Nature , Power , Intellection and Will , Omnipotency , Wisdom and Goodness , and the three persons in the Trinity , the Father , the Word and the Spirit ; and the three Causalities of God , as the Efficient , Directive and final Cause , ( of whom , and through whom , and to whom are all things ) should have three most eminent specimina or impressions in the world , or three most conspicuous works to declare and glorifie them ; viz. Nature , Grace and Glory . And that God should accordingly stand related to man in three answerable Relations , viz. as our Creatour , our Redeemer , and our Perfecter ( by Holiness initially , and Glory finally . ) 2. How wisely it is ordered , that seeing Mans Love to God is both his greatest duty ▪ and his perfection and felicity , there should be some standing em●nent means for the attraction and excitation of our Love : And this should be the most eminent manifestation of the Love of God to us ; and withall , of his own most perfect Holiness and Goodness : And that as we have as much need of the sense of his Goodness as of his Power , ( Loving him being our chief work ) that there should be as observable a demonstration of his Goodness extant , as the world is of his Power . 3. Especially when man had fallen by sin from the Love of God , to the Love of his carnal self , and of the creature ; and when he was fallen under vindictive Justice , and was conscious of the displeasure of his Maker , and had made himself an heir of Hell : And when mans nature can so hardly love one that in Justice standeth engaged or resolved to damn him , forsake him , and hate him : How wisely is it ordered that he that would recover him to his Love , should first declare his Love to the offender in the fullest sort , and should reconcile himself unto him , and shew his readiness to forgive him , and to save him , yea to be his felicity and his chiefest good : That so the Remedy may be answerable to the disease , and to the duty . 4. How wisely is it thus contrived , that the frame and course of mans obedience , should be appointed to consist in Love and Gratitude , and to run out in such praise and chearful duty as is animated throughout by Love , that so sweet a spring may bring forth answerable streams : That so the Goodness of our Master may appear in the sweetness of our work ; and we may not serve the God of Love and Glory , like slaves , with a grudging weary mind ; but like children with delight and quietness : And our work and way may be to us a foretaste of our reward and end . 5. And yet how meet was it , that while we live in such a dark material world , in a body of corruptible flesh , among enemies and snares , our duty should have somewhat of caution and vigilancy , and therefore of fear and godly sorrow to teach us to rellish grace the more : And that our condition should have in it much of necessity and trouble , to drive us homeward to God , who is our rest . And how aptly doth the very permission of sin it self , subserve this end ? 6. How wisely is it thus contrived , that Glory at last should be better rellished , and that man who hath the Joy should give God the Glory ; and be bound to this by a double obligation . 7. How aptly is this remedying design , and all the work of mans Redemption , and all the Precepts of the Gospel , built upon , or planted into the Law of natural perfection : Faith being but the means to recover Love ; and Grace being to Nature , but as Medicine is to the Body ; and being to Glory , as Medicine is to Health : So that as a man that was never taught to speak , or to go , or to do any work , or to know any science , or trade , or business , which must be known acquisitively , is a miserable man , as wanting all that which should help him to use his natural powers to their proper ends ; so it is much more with him that hath Nature without Grace , which must heal it , and use it to its proper ends . 8. So that it appeareth , that as the Love of Perfection is fitly called the Law of Nature , because it is agreeable to man in his Natural state of Innocency ; so the Law of Grace may be now called , the Law of depraved Nature , because it is as suitable to lapsed man. And when our pravity is undeniable , how credible should it be , that we have such a Law ? 9. And there is nothing in the Gospel , either unsuitable to the first Law of Nature , or contradictory to it , or yet of any alien nature ; but only that which hath the most excellent aptitude to subserve it : Giving the Glory to God in the highest , by restoring Peace unto the Earth , and Goodness towards men . 10. And when the Divine Monarchy is apt in the order of Government , to communicate some Image of it self to the Creature , as well as the Divine Perfections have communicated their Image to the Creatures in their Natures or Beings , how wisely it is ordered , that mankind should have one universal Vicarious Head or Monarch ? There is great reason to believe that there is Monarchy among Angels : And in the world it most apparently excelleth all other forms of Government , in order to Vnity , and Strength , and Glory : and if it be apter than some others to degenerate into oppressing Tyranny , that is only caused by the great corruption of humane Nature : and therefore if we have a Head who hath no such corruption , there is no place for that objection . And as it is not credible that God would make no communication of this Image of his Dominions in the world ; so it is certain , that besides the Lord Jesus , the world hath no other Universal Head ( whatever the Pope may pretend , to be an Vniversal Vicarious Monarch , under the Vniversal Vicarious Monarch . ) Kingdoms have their Monarchs subordinate to Christ ; but the world hath none but Christ alone . 11. And how meet was it that he who was the Monarch or Deputy of God , should be also the Mediatour ! and that a polluted sinner dwelling in clay , should not come immediately to God , but by a Reconciler , who is worthy to prevail . 12. And when we had lost the knowledge of God , and of the world to come , and of the way thereto ; yea and of our selves too , and our own immortality of soul ; how meet was it that a sure Revelation should settle us ; that we might know what to seek , and whither to return , and by what way ! seeing Light must be the guide of our Love and Power . And who could so infallibly and satisfactorily do this , as a Teacher sent from God , of perfectest knowledge and veracity . 13. And when God intended the free forgiveness of our sins , how meet was it that he who would be the Mediatour of our pardon , should yield to those terms , which are consistent with the ends of Government , and expose not the wisdom , and veracity , and justice , and the Laws of God to the worlds contempt : If no mark of odiousness should be put upon sin , nor any demonstration of Justice been made , the Devil would have triumphed , and said , Did not I say truer than God ? when he told you of dying , and I told you that you should not die ? And if the grand penalty had been remitted to the world , for four thousand years together successively , without any sufficient demonstration of Gods Justice undertaken , why should any sinner have feared Hell to the worlds end ? If you say , that Repentance alone might be sufficient , I answer , 1. That is no vindication of the Justice and Truth of the Law-maker . 2. Who should bring a sinner to Repentance , whose heart is corrupted with the love of sin ? 3. It would hinder Repentance , if men knew that God can forgive all the world upon bare Repentance , without any reparation of the breaches made by sin , in the order of the world . For if he that threatneth future misery or death for sin , can absolutely dispense with that commination , they may think that he may do so as easily by his threatning of death to the impenitent . If you say , that Threatnings in a Law , are not false , when they are not fulfilled , because they speak not de event● , but de debito poenae ; I answer , they speak directly only de debito ; but withall , he that maketh a Law doth thereby say , This shall be the Rule of your lives , and of my ordinary Judgement . And therefore consequently they speak of an ordinary event also : And they are the Rule of Just Judgement , and therefore Justice must not be contemned by their contempt . Or if any shall think , that all this proveth not a demonstration of Justice on the Redeemer to be absolutely necessary , but that God could have pardoned the penitent without it ; it is nevertheless manifest , that this was a very wise and congruous way : As he that cannot prove that God could not have illuminated , and moved , and quickened the inferiour sensitives without the Sun , may yet prove that the Sun is a noble creature , in whose operations Gods Wisdom , and Power , and Goodness do appear . 14. And how agreeable is this doctrine of the Sacrifice of Christ , to the common doctrine of Sacrificing , which hath been received throughout almost all the world ! And who can imagine any other original of that practice , so early and so universally obtaining , than either divine revelation , or somewhat even in nature , which beareth witness to the necessity of a demonstration of Gods Justice and displeasure against sin ? 15. How wisely is it determined of God , that he who undertakes all ●is , should be Man , and yet more than Man , even God ? That the Monarch of Mankind , and the Mediatour , and the Teacher of Man , and the Sacrifice for sin , should not be only of another kind ; but that he be one that is fit to be familiar with man , and to be interested naturally in his concerns ; and one that is by nature and nearness capable of these undertakings and relations ? And yet that he be so high and near the Father , as may put a sufficient value on his works , and make him most meet to mediate for us ? 16. How wisely is it ordered , that with a perfect doctrine , we should have the pattern of a perfect life , as knowing how agreeable the way of imitation is to our natures and necessities ? 17. And as a pattern of all other vertue is still before us ; so how fit was it , especially that we should have a lively example , to teach us to contemn this deceitful world , and to set little comparatively , by reputation , wealth , preheminence , grandeur , pleasures , yea and life it self , which are the things which all that perish prefer before God and immortality ? 18. And how needful is it that they that must be overtaken with renewed faults , should have a daily remedy and refuge , and a plaister for their wounds ; and a more acceptable name than their own to plead with God for pardon ? 19. How meet was it that our Saviour should rise from the dead ( and consequently that he should die ) to shew us , that his Sacrifice was accepted , and that there is indeed another life for man ; and that death and the grave shall not still detain us ? 20. And how meet was it that our Saviour should ascend into Heaven , and therein our natures be glorified with God ; that he might have all power to finish the work of mans salvation , and his possession might be a pledge of our future possession ? 21. Most wisely also is it ordered of God , that man might not be left under the Covenant of Works , or of entire nature , which after it was broken , could never justifie him , and which was now unsuitable to his lapsed state , and that God should make a New Covenant with him as his Redeemer , as he made the first as his Creatour : and that an Act of general pardon and oblivion , might secure us of forgiveness and everlasting life : And that as we had a Rule to live by for preventing sin and misery , we might have a Rule for our duty in order to our recovery . 22. And what more convenient conditions could this Covenant have had , than [ a believing and thankful Acceptance of the mercy , and a penitent and obedient following of our Redeemer unto everlasting life ? ] 23. And how convenient is it ; that when our King is to depart from earth , and keep his residence in the Court of Heaven , he should appoint his Officers to manage the humane part of his remaining work on earth ? And that some should do the extraordinary work , in laying the foundation , and leaving a certain Rule and Order to the rest , and that the rest should proceed to build hereupon ; and that the wisest and the best of men , should be the Teachers and Guides of the rest unto the end . 24. And how necessary was it that our Sun in glory should continually send down his beams and influence on the earth ? even the Spirit of the Father to be his constant Agent here below ; and to plead his cause , and do his work on the hearts of men ? and that the Apostles , who were to found the Church , should have that Spirit , in so conspicuous a degree , and for such various works of Wonder and Power , as might suffice to confirm their testimony to the world : And that all others as well as they to the end , should have the Spirit for those works of Love and Renovation , which are necessary to their own obedience and salvation . 25. How wisely it is ordered , that he who is our King , is Lord of all , and able to defend his Church , and to repress his proudest enemies . 26. And also that he should be our final Judge , who was our Saviour and Law-giver , and made and sealed that Covenant of Grace by which we must be judged : That Judgement may not be over dreadful , but rather desirable to his faithful servants , who shall openly be justified by him before all . 27. How wisely hath God ordered it , that when death is naturally so terrible to man , we should have a Saviour that went that way before us , and was once dead , but now liveth , and is where we must be , and hath the keyes of death and Heaven ; that we may boldly go forth as to his presence , and to the innumerable perfected spirits of the just , and may commend our souls to the hands of our Redeemer , and our Head. 28. As also that this should be plainly revealed ; and that the Scriptures are written in a method and manner fit for all , even for the meanest , and that Ministers be commanded to open it , and apply it , by translation , exposition , and earnest exhortation ; that the remedy may be suited to the nature and extent of the disease : And yet that there be some depths , to keep presumptuous daring wits at a distance , and to humble them , and to exercise our diligence . 29. As also that the life of faith and holiness should have much opposition in the world , that its glory and excellency might the more appear , partly by the presence of its contraries , and partly by its exercise and victories in its tryals ; and that the godly may have use for patience , and fortitude , and every grace ; and may be kept the easilier from loving the world , and taught the more to desire the presence of their Lord. 30. Lastly , And how wisely is it ordered , that God in Heaven , from whom all cometh , should be the end of all his graces and our duties ? and that himself alone should be our home and happiness ; and that as we are made by him , and for him , so we should live with him , to his praise , and in his love for ever : And that there as we shall have both glorified souls and bodies ; so both might have a suitable glory ; and that our glorified Redeemer might there be in part the Mediatour of our fruition , as here he was the Mediatour of acquisition . I have recited hastily a few of the parts of this wondrous frame , to shew you , that if you saw them all , and that in the●r true order and method , you might not think strange that [ Now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places is made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God , Ephes . 2.11 . which was the first part of Gods Image upon the Christian Religion , which I was to shew you . But besides all this , the WISDOM of God is expressed in the holy Scriptures thes● several waies : 1. In the Revelation of things past , which could not be known by any mortal man : As the Creation of the world , and what was therein done , before man himself was made : Which experience it self doth help us to believe , because we see exceeding great probabilities that the world was not eternal , nor of any longer duration than the Scriptures mention : in that no place on earth hath any true monument of ancienter original ; and in that humane Sciences and Arts are yet so imperfect , and such important additions are made but of late . 2. In the Revelation of things distant , out of the reach of mans discovery . So Scripture , History , and Prophecy do frequently speak of preparations and actions of Princes and people afar of . 3. In the Revelation of the secrets of mens hearts : As Elisha told Gebe●i what he did at a distance : Christ told Nathaniel what he said , and where : So frequently Christ told the Jews , and his Disciples , what they thought , and shewed that he knew the heart of man : To which we may add , the searching power of the Word of God , which doth so notably rip up the secrets of mens corruptions , and may shew all mens hearts unto themselves . 4. In the Revelation of contingent things to come , which is most frequent in the Prophecies and Promises of the Scripture : not only in the Old Testament , as Daniel , &c. but also in the Gospel . When Christ foretelleth his death and resurrection , and the usage and successes of his Apostles , and promiseth them the miraculous gifts of the Spirit ; and foretold Peters thrice denying him ; and foretold the grievous destr●ction of Jerusalem , with other such like clear predictions . 5. But nothing of all these predictions doth shine so clearly to our selves , as those great Promises of Christ , which are fulfilled to our selves , in all generations . Even the Promises and Prophetical descriptions of the great work of Conversion , Regeneration or Sanctification upon mens souls , which is wrought in all Ages , just according to the delineations of it in the world : All the humblings , the repentings , the desires , the faith , the joyes , the prayers , and the answers of them , which were foretold , and was found in the first Believers , are performed and given to all true Christians to this day . To which may be added , all the Prophecies of the extent of the Church ; of the conversion of the Kingdoms of the world to Christ ; and of the oppositions of the ungodly fort thereto ; and of the persecutions of the followers of Christ , which are all fulfilled . 6. The WISDOM of God also is clearly manifested in the concatenation or harmony of all these Revelations : Not only that there is no real contradiction between them , but that they all conjunctly compose one entire frame : As the age of man goeth on from infancy to maturity , and nature fitteth her endowments and provisions accordingly to each degree ; so hath the Church proceeded from its infancy , and so have the Revelations of God been suited to its several times : Christ who was promised to Adam , and the Fathers before Moses , for the first two thousand years , and signified by their Sacrifices ; was more fully revealed for the next two thousand years , by Moses first in a typical Gospel ( the adumbration of the grace to come ) and then by the Prophets , ( especially Isaiah , Micah , Daniel and Malachi ) in plainer predictions . And then came John Baptist the fore-runner , and Christ the Messiah , and the Spirit upon the Apostles , and finished the Revelation : So that it may appear to be all one frame , contrived and indicted by one Spirit . And the effects of it have been according to these degrees of the Revelation . And the end of the world ( whether at the end of the last two thousand years , or when else God pleaseth ) will shortly shew the unbelieving themselves , that the period shall fulfill what is yet unfulfilled to the least jot and tittle . CHAP. V. The Image of Gods Goodness . II. THE second part of Gods Image on our Religion , is that of his matchless GOODNESS . The whole systeme of it is , the harmonious expression of GODS HOLINESS and LOVE . The particulars I must but name , lest I be too long . 1. The Author of it , Jesus Christ , was perfectly Good himself ; being God and man ; sinless in nature , and in life ; living , and dying , and rising to do good ; and making it his office and his work , even in Heaven , to do mankind the greatest good . 2. The Matter of the Christian Religion , is GOD himself the infinite Good. The use of it is , to teach men to know God , and to bring us to him . To which end it maketh a fuller discovery of his blessed nature , attributes and works , than is any where else to be found in this world . 3. The utmost End of it is the highest imaginable ; the pleasing and glorifying of God : For he that is the Beginning of all , must needs be the End of all . 4. It leadeth man to the highest state of felicity for himself ( which is an End conjunct in subordination to the highest . ) There can be no greater happiness imaginable , than the Christian Religion directeth us to attain . 5. It placeth our happiness so certainly and clearly in that which is happiness indeed , that it directeth mans intentions , and desires , and leaveth them no longer to the old variety of opinions about the chiefest good : Nature perfected , and working by its perfectest acts upon the most perfect object , and receiving the most full communications from him , and this for ever , must needs be the most perfect felicity of man. To have all our faculties fully perfect , and to live for ever in the perfect light and love of God , and to be accordingly beloved of him ; this is the end of Christianity . 6. To this end , the whole design of the Christian Religion is to make man good , and to cure him of all evil , and to prepare him justly for that blessed state . 7. To that end the great work of Jesus Christ is , to send down the sanctifying Spirit of God , to make men new creatures , and to regenerate them to the Nature of God himself , and to a heavenly mind and life : That they may not only have precepts which are good , but the power of God to make them good , and a heavenly principle to fit them for Heaven . 8. To that end , the principal means is , the fullest revelation of the love of God to man , that ever was made , and more than is any where else revealed . All the design of Christianity is but to shew God to man , in the fullest prospect of his Goodness and unmeasurable Love , that so he may appear more amiable to us ; and may be more beloved by us ; that Loving Goodness may make us good , and make us happy . 9. To encourage us to Love and Goodness , God doth in the Gospel give us the pardon of all our sins , as soon as ever we turn to him by Faith and Repentance : Though we have deserved Hell , he declareth that he will forgive us that desert . If we had come to Hell before we had been redeemed , I think we should have taken that Religion to be good indeed , which would have brought us the tydings of forgiveness , and shewed us so ready a way to escape . 10. And this mercy is given by an Vniversal Covenant , offered to all , without exception : And the Conditions are so reasonable , that no one can have any just pretence against them . It is but to accept the mercy offered with a believing thankfull mind , as a condemned man would do a pardon . And what can be more suitable to our miserable state ? 11. And to bring us to all this , and make us holy , Christ hath given us a most holy word and doctrine : perfectly holy in its precepts , and in its prohibitions , and all the subservient histories and narratives : And he hath added the perfect pattern of his holy life , that our Rule and Example might agree . 12. So good is this word , that it calleth us to the highest degree of Goodness , and maketh Perfection it self our duty ; that our duty and happiness may agree ; and we may not have liberty to be bad and miserable ; but may be every way bound to our own felicity : And yet so good is this Covenant of Grace , that it taketh not advantage of our infirmities to ruine us , but noteth them to humble us , in order to our cure : And i● accepteth sincerity , though it command perfection . And Christ looketh not at our failings , as a severe Judge , but as a Physician , and a tender Father . 13. So good is our Religion , that the great thing which it requireth of us , is to prefer the greatest good , before the lesser , and not to be like children who take it for their riches to fill their pin-box ; or like foolish Merchants , who had rather trade for truth , th●n for gold . The great busines● of Christian precept● is , to make us know that we are capable of better things than meat , and drink , and lust , and sports , and wealth , and worldly honours ; that the Love of God , and the felicity of the soul , in Grace and Glory , may be preferred before the pleasure of a Swine . And is not that good , which calleth us up to the greatest good , and will not allow us to be such enemies to our selves , as to take up with the lesser ? 14. Yea , when we have most , it still engageth us to seek more : And will not allow us to take up with a low degree of grace , or with a little measure of the greatest good : But to shew that God would have us to be still better , and to have more , it is made our duty still to ask more , and still to press higher , and labour to be better . Asking in prayer is made our daily work ; and Gods giving , and our receiving may be our daily blessedness . 15. The mercies here provided for us , extend both to soul and body : For though we may not prefer the less before the greater ; yet we shall have it in its place : If we seek first the Kingdom of God , and its righteousness , and labour first for the food which never perisheth , all other things shall be added to us : We shall have then to do us good , but not to do us hurt . For godliness is profitable to all things , having the promise of the life that now is , and of that which is to come , 1 Tim. 4.7 , 8. & 6.6 . 16. And the future perfect Goodness , may invite us to present imperfect Goodness , the Promises of the Gospel do second the Precepts , with the strongest motives in the world : so that everlasting blessedness and joy , is made the reward of temporal sincerity , in faith , love , and obedience . And if Heaven it self be not a reward sufficient to invite men to be good , there is none sufficient . 17. Yea the penalties and severities of the Christian Religion , do shew the Goodness of it . When God doth therefore threaten Hell to save men from it , and to draw them up to the obedience of the Gospel : Threatned evil of punishment , is but to keep them from the evil of sin , and to make men better : And he that will testifie his hatred of sinful evil to the highest , doth shew himself the greatest enemy of it , and the greatest lover of good ; and he that setteth the sharpest hedge before us , and the terrible warnings to keep us from damnation , doth shew himself most willing to save us . 18. So good is Christianity , that it turneth all our afflictions unto good : It assureth us that they are sent as needful medicine , however merited by our sin : And it directeth us how to bear them easily , and to make them sweet , and safe , and profitable , and to turn them to our increase of holiness , and to the furtherance of our greatest good , Heb. 1 , to 13. Rom. 8.18 . 2 Cor. 4.16 , 17 , 18. 19. It also stablisheth a perpetual office , even the sacred Ministry , for the fuller and surer communication of all this good forementioned . In which observe these particulars , which shew the greatness of this benefit . 1. The persons called to it , must ( by Christs appointment ) be the wisest and best of men that can be had . 2. The number of them is to be suited to the number of the people , so that none may be without the benefit . 3. Their work is , to declare all this forementioned Goodness and Love of God to man , and to offer them all this grace and mercy ; and to teach them to be holy and happy , and to set before them the everlasting joyes . 4. The manner of their doing it must be with humility , as the servants of all ; with tender love , as Fathers of the flock ; with wisdom and skill , lest their work be frustrate ; with the greatest importunity , even compelling them to come in , as men that are loth to take any denyal ; and with patient enduring all oppositions , as those that had rather suffer any thing , than the peoples souls shall be unhealed , and be damned ; and they must conrinue to the end , as those that will never give up a soul as desperate and lost , while there is any hope : And all this must be seconded with their own example of holiness , temperance and love , Acts 20. 2 Tim. 2.24 , 25. Matth. 22.8 , 9. 20. So good is our Religion , that nothing but doing good is the work in which it doth employ us . Besides all the good of piety and self-preservation , it requireth us to live in love to others , and to do all the good in the world that we are able , Ephes . 2.10 . Mat. 5.16 . & 6.1 , 2 , &c. Titus 2.14 . Gal. 6.7 , 8 , 9. Good works must be our study and our life : Our work and our delight : Even our enemies we must love and do good to , Mat. 5.44 . Rom. 12.19 , 20 , 21. And sure that doctrine is good , which is purposely to employ men in doing good to all . 21. So good is Christianity , that it favoureth not any one sin , but is the greatest condemner of them all . It is all for knowledge against hurtful ignorance ; it is all for humility against all pride ; for self-denyal against all injurious selfishness ; for spirituality , and the dominion of true Reason , against sensuality and the dominion of the flesh ; for heavenliness against a worldly mind ; for sincerity and simplicity against all hypocrisie and deceit ; for love against malice ; for unity and peace against divisions and contentions ; for justice and lenity in superiours , and obedience and patience in inferiours ; for faithfulness in all relations : Its precepts extend to secret as well as open practices ; to the desires and thoughts , as well as to the words and deeds : It alloweth not a thought , or word , or action , which is ungodly , intemperate , rebellious , injurious , unchaste , or covetous or uncharitable , Mat. 5. 22. All the troublesome part of our Religion , is but our warfare against evil ; against sin , and the temptations which would make us sinful : And it must needs be good , if all the conflicting part of it be only against evil , Gal. 5.17 , 21 , 23. Rom. 6. & 7. & 8.1 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 13. 23. It teacheth us the only way to live in the greatest and most constant joy . If we attain not this , it is because we follow not its precepts . If endless joy foreseen , and all the foresaid mercies in the way , are not matter for continual delight , there is no greater to be thought on . Rejoycing alwaies in the Lord , even in our sharpest persecutions , is a great part of Religious duty , Phil. 3.1 , & 4.4 . Psal . 33.1 . Zech. 10.7 . Mat. 5.11 , 12. Deut. 12.12 , 18. 24. It overcometh both the danger and the fear of death ; and that must be good , which conquereth so great an evil ; and maketh the day of the ungodly's fears , and utter misery , to be the day of our desire and felicity , Rom. 6.23 . 1 Cor. 15.55 . Col. 3.1 , 4. Phil. 3.21 . 25. It obligeth all the Rulers of the world to use all their power to do good ; against all sin within their reach ; and to make their subjects happy both in body and in soul , Rom. 13.3 , 4 , 5 , 6. 26. It appointeth Churches to be Societies of Saints , that holiness and goodness combined may be strong and honourable , 1 Cor. 1.1 . & 2.1 . 1. Heb. 3.13 . 1 Thes . 5.12 , 13. That holy Assemblies employed in the holy love and praises of God , might be a representation of the heavenly Jerusalem , Col. 2.5 . 27. It doth make the Love and Vnion of all the Saints to be so strict , that the mercies and joyes of every member , might extend to all : All the corporal and spiritual blessings of all the Christians , ( yea and persons ) in the world , are mine as to my comfort , as long as I can love them as my self : If it would please me to be rich , or honourable , or learned my self , it must please me also to have them so , whom I love as my self . And when millions have so much matter for my joy , how joyfully should I then live ! And though I am obliged also to sorrow with them , it is with such a sorrow only , as shall not hinder any seasonable joy , 1 Cor. 12. 28. In these societies , every member is bound to contribute his help to the benefit of each other ; so that I have as many obliged to do me good , as there be Christians in the world ; at least , according to their several opportunities and capacities ; by prayer and such distant means , if they can do no more . And the Religion which giveth every man so great an interest , in the good of all others , and engageth all men to do good to one another is evidently good it self , 1 Cor. 12. Ephes . 4.15 , 16. 29. And all this good is not destroyed , but advantaged and aggravated accidentally by our sin : So that where sin abounded , there grace did superabound , Rom. 5.15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19. Grace hath taken occasion by sin to be Grace indeed , and to be the greater manifestation of the goodness of God , and the greater obligation for gratitude to the sinner . 30. Lastly , All this Goodness is beautified by harmony ; it is all placed in a perfect order . One mercy doth not keep us from another ; nor one grace oppose another : nor one duty exclude another . As it is the great declaration of Mercy and Justice wonderfully conspiring in God ; ( Mercy so used as to magnifie Justice ; Justice so used as to magnifie Mercy , and not only so as to consist ) so also it worketh answerably on us : It setteth not Love against filial fear , not joy against necessary sorrow , nor faith against repentance , nor praise and thanksgiving against penitent confession of sin , nor true repentance against the profitable use of the creatures , nor the care of our souls against the peace and quiet of our minds , nor care for our families , against contentedness and trusting God , nor our labour against our necessary rest , nor self-denyal against the due care of our own welfare , nor patience against due sensibility , and lawful passion , nor mercy to men against true justice , nor publick and private good against each , nor doth it set the duty of the Soveraign and the Subject , the Master and the Servant , the Pastor and the Flock , nor yet their interest , in any contrariety ; but all parts of Religion know their place ; and every duty ( even those which seem most opposite ) are helpful to each other ; and all interests are co-ordinate ; and all doth contribute to the good of the whole , and of every part , Ephes . 4.2 , 3 , 15 , 16. And now peruse all this together ( but let it have more of your thoughts by far , than it hath had of my words ) and then determine indifferently , whether the Christian Religion bear not the lively Image and superscription of GOD the prime essential GOOD . But all this will be more manifest , when we have considered how POWER hath in the execution , brought all this into effect . CHAP. VI. The Image of Gods Power . III. THE third part of Gods Image and superscription on the Christian Religion , is his POWER : And as mans own corruption lyeth more in the want of Wisdom and Goodness , than of Power ; therefore he is less capable of discerning God , in the impressions of his Wisdom and Goodness , than of his Power : seeing therefore he is here most capable of conviction , and acknowledging the hand of God , I shall open this also in the several parts , in some degree . 1. In the history of the Creation , the Omnipotency of God is abundantly set forth ; which is proved true , both by the agreeableness of the history to the effects , and by much subsequent evidence of the Writers Veracity . 2. The same may be said of Gods drowning the old world , and the preserving of Noah and his family in the Ark. 3. And of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from Heaven . 4. The many miracles done by Moses upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians , and in the opening of the Red Sea , and in the feeding of the Israelites in the wilderness , and keeping their cloths from wearing for forty years ; and the pillar which went before them as a fire by night , and a cloud by day , for so long time ; and the darkness , and thunder , and trembling of the Mount at the giving of the Law ; with the rest of the Miracles then done , not in a corner , or before a few , but before all the people ; who were perswaded to receive and obey the Law , by the reason of these motives which their eyes had seen : And if all this had been false ; if no plagues had been shewed on Egypt ; if no Red Sea had opened ; if no Pillar had gone before them ; if no such terrible sights and sounds at Mount Sinai had prepared them for the Law ; such reasons would have been so unfit to have perswaded them to obedience , that they would rather with any reasonable creatures , have procured scorn . And to shew posterity , that the history of all this was not forged , or to be suspected ; 1. They had the Law it self then delivered in two Tables of stone to be still seen . 2. They had a pot of Manna still preserved . 3. They had the miracle-working Rod of Moses and Aaron kept likewise as a monument . 4. They had an Ark of purpose to keep these in , and that in the most inviolable place of worship . 5. They had the braz●n Serpent ( till Hezekiah broke it ) still to be seen . 6. They had the song of their deliverance at the Red Sea for their continued use . 7. They had set feasts to keep the chief of all these things in remembrance . They had the feast of unleavened bread , which all Israel was to observe for seven daies , to keep the remembrance of their passing out of Egypt in so great haste , that they could not stay to knead up , and make their bread , but took it as in meal or unready dough . They had the feast of the Passeover , when every family was to eat of the Paschal Lamb , and the door posts to be sprinkled with the blood , to keep in remembrance the night when the Egyptians first born were destroyed , and the Israelites all preserved . And if these had been instituted at that time , upon a pretended occasion which they knew to be untrue , they would rather have derided than observed them . If they had been afterwards instituted in another generation which knew not the story , the beginning would have been known , and the fiction of the name and institution of Moses would have been apparent to all ; and the institution would not have been found in the same Law , which was given by Moses : And it could not have been so expresly said , that the Israelites did all observe these feasts and solemnities from the very time of their deliverance , but in those times when the forgery began , all would have known it to be false . 8. And they had many other words and ceremonies among them , and even in Gods Publick Worship , which were all used to keep up the memory of these things . 9. And they had an office of Priesthood constantly among them , which saw to the execution and preservation of all these . 10. And they had a form of civil Policy then established , and and the Rulers were to preserve the memory of these things , and the practice of this Law , and to learn it themselves , and govern by it : so that the very form of the Common-wealth , and the order of it , was a commemoration hereof : And the Parents were to teach and tell their children all these things , and to expound all these Solemnities , Laws and Ceremonies to them : so that the frame of Church , and State , and Families , was a preservative hereof . 5. But , to pass by all the rest in the Old Testament , the Incarnation of Christ was such a work of Omnipotent Love , as ca●not by us be comprehended . That God should be united to humanity in person ! that humanity should thus be advanced into union with the Deity ! and Man be set above the Angels ! that a Virgin should conceive ! that men from the East should be led thither to worship an Infant by the conduct of a Star ( which Caesarius thinketh was one of those Angels or Spirits which are called a flame of fire , Psal . 104.4 . ) That Angels from Heaven should declare his nativity to the Shepherds , and celebrate it with their praises : that John Baptist should be so called to be his forerunner , and Elizabeth , Zachary , Simeon , and Anna , should so prophesie of him : That the Spirit should be seen descending on him at his Baptism , and the voice be heard from Heaven , which owned him : that he should fast forty daies and nights ; and that he should be transfigured before his three Disciples on the Mount , and Moses and Elias seen with him in that glory ; and the voice from Heaven again bear witness to him : These , and many such like were the attestations of Divine Omnipotency to the truth of Christ . 6. To these may be next joyned , the whole course of miracles performed by Christ , in healing the sick , and raising the dead ; and in many other miraculous acts , which are most of the substance of the Gospel-history , and which I have recited together in my Reasons of the Christian Religion ; see Heb. 2.2 , 3 , 4. 7. And to these may be added , the Power which was given over all the creatures , to Christ our Mediatour . All power in Heaven and Earth was given him , Joh. 17.2 . & 13.3 . Mat. 28.19 . Rom. 14.9 . Ephes . 1.22 , 23. He was made Head over all things to the Church , and all principalities and powers were put under him ! And this was not barely asserted by him , but demonstrated . He shewed his power over the Devils in casting them out : and his power over Angels by their attendance : and his power of life and death , by raising the dead : and his power over all diseases , by healing them : and his power over the winds and waters , by appeasing them : and his power over our food and natures , by turning water into wine , and by feeding many thousands miraculously : yea and his power over them into whose hands he was resolved to yield himself , by restraining them till his hour was come , and by making them all fall to the ground at his name : and his power over Sun , and Heaven , and Earth , by the darkening of the Sun , and the trembling of the Earth , and the rending of the Rocks , and of the Vail of the Temple , Mat. 27.45 , 51. And his power over the dead , by the rising of the bodies of many , Mat. 27.52 . And his power over the Saints in Heaven , by the attendance of Moses and Elias : and his power to forgive sins , by taking away the penal maladies ; and his power to change hearts , and save souls , by causing his Disciples to leave all and follow him at a word ; and Zacheus to receive him , and believe ; and the thief on the cross to be converted , and to enter that day into Paradise . 8. And his own Resurrection is an undoubted attestation of Divine Omnipotency . If God gave him such a victory over death , and raised him to life when men had killed him , and rolled a stone upon his Sepulchre , and sealed and guarded it , there needeth no further evidence of the Power of God impressing and attesting the Christian Religion , than that which ascertaineth to us the truth of Christs Resurrection . For he was declared to be the Son of God by POWER , by resurrection from the dead , Rom. 1.4 . 9. And his bodily appearance to his congregated Disciples when the doors were shut ; his miracle at their fishing , his walking on the Sea , his vanishing out of their sight , Luke 24. when he had discoursed with the two Disciples , his opening their hearts to understand his Word , &c. do all shew this part of Gods Image on our Religion , even his Power . 10. And so doth his bodily ascending into Heaven before the face of his Disciples , Acts 1. 11. But especially the sending down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples according as he promised : To cause them that were before so low in knowledge , to be suddenly inspired with languages , and with the full understanding of his own will , and with unanimity and concord herein ; this made his Disciples the living monuments and effects of his own Omnipotency , Acts 2. 12. And accordingly all the miracles which they did by this power , recorded partly in the Acts of the Apostles , ( or rather , the Acts of Paul , by Luke who was his companion ; ) which you may there read ( and no doubt but other Apostles in their measures did the like as Paul , though they are not recorded ; for they had all the same Promise and Spirit . ) This is another impression of POWER . 13. Whereto must be added the great and wonderful gifts of communicating the same Spirit ( or doing that upon which God would give it ) to those converted Believers on whom they laid their hands ( which Simon Magus would fain have bought with money , Acts 8. ) To enable them to speak with tongues , to heal diseases , to prophesie , &c. as they themselves had done , which is a great attestation of Omnipotency . 14. And the lamentable destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans , foretold by Christ , was an attestation of Gods POWER in the revenge or punishment of their unbelief , and putting Christ to death . 15. And so was the great fortitude and constancy of Believers , who underwent all persecutions so joyfully as they did for the sake of Christ ; which was the effect of the corroborating Power of the Almighty . 16. And so was the Power which the Apostles had to execute present judgements upon the enemies of the Gospel , ( as Elimas and Simon Magus ) and on the abusers of Religion ( as Ananias and Saphyra ) and on many whom they excommunicated and delivered up to Satan . 17. The same evidence is found in Christs Legislation , as an universal Soveraign making Laws for heart and life , for all the world : Taking down the Laws of the Jewish Polity and Ceremonies , which God by Moses had for a time set up : Commanding his Ministers to proclaim his Laws to all the world , and Princes and people to obey them : And by these Laws , conferring on Believers no less than forgiveness and salvation , and binding over the impenitent to everlasting punishment . 18. But the great and continued impress of Gods Power , is that which together with his Wisdom and Love , is made and shewed in the conve●sion of mens souls to God by Christ . You may here first consider the numbers which were suddenly converted by the preaching of the Apostles at the first . And in how little time there were Churches planted abroad the world : And then , how the Roman Empire was brought in , and subdued to Christ , and Crowns and Scepters resigned to him ; and all this according to his own prediction , that when he was lifted up , he would draw all men to him ; and according to the predictions of his Prophets . But that which I would especially open , is , the POWER which is manifested in the work of the Spirit on the souls of men , both then and to this day . Hitherto what I have mentioned belonging to the Scripture it self ; it is to be taken as part of our Religion objectively considered : But that which followeth is the effect of that , even our Religion subjectively considered : To observe how God maketh men Believers , and by believing sanctifieth their hearts and lives , is a great motive to further our own believing . Consider the work , 1. As it is in it self , 2. As it is opposed by all its enemies , and you may see that it is the work of God. 1. As the Goodness , so also the Greatness of it , is Gods own Image . It is the raising up of our stupid faculties to be lively and active to those holy uses , to which they were become as dead by sin . To cause in an unlearned person , a firmer and more distinct belief of the unseen world , than the most learned Philosophers can attain to by all their natural contemplations : To bring up a soul to place its happiness on things so high , and far from sense ! To cause him who naturally is imprisoned in selfishness , to deny himself , and devote himself entirely to God ; to love him , to trust him , and to live to him ! To raise an earthly mind to Heaven , that our business and hope may be daily there ! To overcome our pride , and sensuality , and bring our senses in subjection unto reason , and to keep a holy government in our thoughts , and over our passions , words and deeds ; And to live in continual preparation for death , as the only time of our true felicity : And to suffer any loss or pain for the safe accomplishment of this ! All this is the work of the POWER of God. 2. Which will the more appear when we consider , what is done against it within us and without us ! what privative and positive averseness we have to it , till God do send down that Life , and Light , and Love into our souls , which is indeed his Image ! How violently our fleshly sense and appetite , strive against the restraints of God , and would hurry us contrary to the motions of grace ! How importunately Satan joyneth with his suggestions ! What baits the world doth still set before us , to divert us , and pervert us ! And how many instruments of its flattery , or its cruelty , are still at work , to stop us , or to turn us back ! to invite our affections down to Earth , and ensnare them to some deluding vainty , or to distract us in our heavenly design , and to a●right or discourage us from the holy way . And if we think this an easie work , because it is also reasonable , do but observe how hardly it goeth on , till the POWER of God by grace accomplish it ! what a deal of pains may the best and wisest Parents take with a graceless child , and all in vain ! what labours the worthiest Ministers lose on graceless people ! and how blind , and dead , and senseless a thing , the graceless heart is , to any thing that is holy , even when reason it self cannot gainsay it ! And God is pleased oft-times to weary out Parents , and Masters , and Ministers , with such unteachable and stony hearts , to make them know what naturally they are themselves , to bring them to the more lively acknowledgement of the POWER which is necessary to renew and save a soul . But having spoken at large of this in the formentioned Treatise , I shall take up with these brief intimations . 19. And the preservation of that Grace in the soul which is once given us , is also an effect of the POWER of God. Our strength is in the Lord , and in the power of his might , Eph. 6.10 . It is our Lord himself , who is the Lord of life , and whose Priesthood was made after the power of an endless life , Heb. 7.16 . who giveth us the Spirit of Power and of Love , and of a sound mind , 2 Tim. 1.7 . ( or of received wisdom , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sound understanding received by instruction : And this text expresseth the three parts of Gods Image in the new Creature , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And as Power is given us with Love and Wisdom ; so Power with Love and Wisdom do give it us ; and Power also must preserve it , 1 Pet. 1.5 . We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation , 2 Tim. 1.8 . According to the power of God who hath saved us . The Gospel is the Power of God ( that is , the instrument of his Power ) to our salvation . Rom. 1.16 . So 1 Cor. 1.18 , To us that are saved it is the power of God ; because Christ whom it revealeth , is the power and wisdom of God , v. 24. And thus our faith standeth in the power of God , 1 Cor. 2.5 . 2 Cor. 6.7 . And the Kingdom of God in us doth consist in power , 1 Cor. 4.20 . The mind of man is very mutable ; and he that is possessed once with the desires of things spiritual and eternal , would quickly lose those desires , and turn to present things again , ( which are still before him , while higher things are beyond our sense ) if the Power and Activity of the divine life , did not preserve the spark which is kindled in us . Though the doctrine of Perseverance be controverted in the Christian Church , yet experience assureth us of that which all parties are agreed in : Some hold that all true Christians persevere ; and some hold that all confirmed Christians persevere ( that is , those who come to a strong degree of grace ) but those that think otherwise do yet all grant , that if any fall away , it is comparatively but a very few , of those who are sincere . When none would persevere if Omnipotency did not preserve them . 20. Lastly , The POWER of God also doth consequently own the Christian Religion , by the Preservation of the Church , in this malicious and opposing world ( as well as by the preservation of grace in the soul ) which will be the more apparent if you observe , 1. That the number of true Christians is still very small in comparison of the wicked . 2. That all wicked men are naturally ( by the corruption of nature ) their enemies ; because the precepts and practice of Christianity are utterly against their carnal minds and interests . 3. That the doctrine and practice of Christianity is still galling them , and exciting and sublimating this enmity into rage : And God doth by persecutions ordinarily tell us to our smart , that all this is true . 4. That all carnal men are exceeding hardly moved from their own way . 5. That the Government of the Earth is commonly in their hand , because of their numbers , and their wealth . For it is commonly the rich that rule ; and the rich are usually bad ; so that the godly Christians are in their power . 6. That all the Hypocrites that are among our selves , have the same sinful nature and enmity against holiness , and are usually as bitter against the power and practice of their own profession , as open Infidels are . 7. That Christianity is not a fruit of nature ; Non nati sed facti sumus Christiani , said Tertullian . And therefore if Gods Power preserved not Religion , the degenerating of the Christians children from their Parents mind and way , would hasten its extinction in the world . 8. And as it is a Religion which must be taught us ; so it requireth or consisteth in so much wisdom , and willingness , and fortitude of mind , that few are naturally apt to receive it ▪ because folly , and badness , and feebleness of mind are so common in the world . And as we see that Learning will never be common but in the possession of a very few , because a natural ingenuity is necessary thereto , which few are born with ; so would it be with Christianity , if Divine Power maintained it not . 9. And it is a Religion which requireth much time and contemplation , in the learning and in the practising of it : whereas the world are taken up with so much business for the body , and are so slothful to those exercises of the mind , which bring them no present sensible commodity , that this also would quickly wear it out . 10. And then the terms of it being so contrary to all mens fleshly interest and sense , in self-denyal , and forsaking all for Christ ; and in mortifying the most beloved sins , and the world putting us to it so ordinarily by persecution ; this also would deter the most , and weary out the rest , if the Power of God did not uphold them . That which is done by exceeding industry , against the inclinations and interest of nature , will have no considerable number of practisers . As we see in horses and dogs which are capable with great labour , of being taught extraordinary things in the semblance of reason : And yet because it must cost so much labour , there is but one in a Country that is brought to it . But ( though the truly religious are but few in comparison of the wicked , yet ) godly persons are not so few as they would be , if it were the work of industry alone . God maketh it as a new nature to them ; and ( which is very much to be observed ) the main change is oft-times wrought in an hour , and that after all exhortations , and the labours of Parents and Teachers have failed , and left the sinner as seemingly hopeless . And thus I have shewed you 1. That our Religion objectively taken , is the Image of Gods WISDOM , GOODNESS and POWER , and thereby fully proved to be from GOD. 2. And that our Religion subjectively taken , is answerably the Spirit or impress of POWER , and of LOVE , and of SOVND VNDERSTANDING , and is in us a constant seal and witness to the truth of Christ . CHAP. VII . The means of making known all this infallibly to us . I Suppose the evidence of divine attestation is so clear in this Image of God on the Christian Religion , which I have been opening , that few can doubt of it , who are satisfied of the historical truth of the facts ; and therefore this is next to be considered , How the certain knowledge of all these things cometh down to us ? The first question is , whether this Doctrine and Religion indeed be the impress of Gods WISDOM , and his GOODNESS and POWER , supposing the truth of the historical part ? This is it which I think that few reasonable persons wil deny : For the doctrine is legible , and sheweth it self . But the next question is it , which I am now to resolve , How we shall know that this Doctrine was indeed delivered by Christ and his Apostles , and these things done by them , which the Scriptures mention ? And here the first question shall be , How the Apostles , and all other the first witnesses , knew it themselves ? For it is by every reasonable man to be supposed , that they who were present , and we who are 1668 years distance , could not receive the knowledge of the matters of fact , in the very same manner . It is certain that their knowledge was by their present sense and reason : They saw Christ and his miracles : They heard his words : They saw him risen from the dead : They discoursed with him , and eat and drunk with him : They saw him ascending up bodily to Heaven . They need no other Revelation to tell them what they saw , and heard , and felt . If you had asked them then , H●w know you that all these things were said and done ? they would have answered you , Because we saw and heard them . But we were not then present : we did not see , and hear , what they did : Nor did we see or hear them , who were the eye-witnesses . And therefore as their senses told it them ; so the natural way for our knowledge , must be by derivation from their sense to ours : For when they themselves received it in a way so natural , ( though not without the help of Gods Spirit , in the remembring , recording and attesting it ) we that can less pretend to inspiration , or immediate revelation , have small reason to think that we must know the same facts , by either of those supernatural waies . Nor can our knowledge of a history , carryed down through so many ages , be so clearly satisfactory to our selves , as sight and hearing was to them . And yet we have a certainty , not only infallible ; but so far satisfactory , as is sufficient to warrant all our faith , and duty , and sufferings for the reward which Christ hath set before us . Let us next then enquire , How did the first Churches know that the Apostles and other Preachers of the Gospel did not deceive them in the matter of fact ? I answer , They had their degrees of assurance or knowledge in this part of their belief . 1. They had the most credible humane testimony of men that were not like to deceive them . But this was not infallible . 2. They had in their testimony the evidence of a natural certainty : It being naturally impossible , that so many persons should agree together to deceive the world , in such matters of fact , at so dear a rate , in the very place and age when the things were pretended to be done and said , when any one might have presently evinced the falshood , if they had been lyars , about the twice feeding of many thousands miraculously , and the raising of the dead , and many other publick miracles , and the darkness at his death , and the rending of the Rocks and Vail of the Temple , and the Earth-quake , and the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon themselves ; with many the like they would have been detected and confuted to their confusion : And we should have read what Apologies they made against such detections and confutations ! And some of them ( at least at their death ) would have been forced by conscience , to confess the plot . 3. But to leave no room for doubting , God gave those first Churches , the addition of his own supernatural attestation , by the same threefold impress of his Image before described : 1. In the holy Wisdom and Light which was in their doctrine . 2. In the holy Love , and Piety , and Purity , which was conspicuous in their doctrine , and in their lives . 3. And in the evidences of divine Power , in the many gifts , and wonders and miracles which they wrought and manifested . And these things seem a fuller testimony than the miracles of Christ himself . For Christs miracles were the deeds of one alone ; and his resurrection was witnessed but by twelve chosen witnesses , and about five hundred other persons ; and he conversed with them but forty daies , and that by times : But the miracles of the Disciples were wrought by many , and before many thousands , at several times , and in many Countreys , and for many and many years together ; and in the sight and hearing of many of the Churches : So that these first Churches had sight and hearing , to assure them of the divine miraculous attestation of the truth of their testimony , who told them of the doctrines , miracles , and resurrection of Christ : And all this from Christs solemn promise and gift , John. 14.12 . Verily , verily , I say unto you , He that believeth on me , the works that I do , shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do , because I go to the Father . But if it be demanded , How did the next Christians of the second age , receive all this from the first Churches , who received it from the Apostles ? I answer , by the same evidence , and with some advantages . For 1. They had the credible humane testimony of all their Pastors , Neighbours , Parents , who told them but what they saw and heard . 2. They had a greater evidence of natural infallible certainty : For 1. The doctrine was now delivered to them in the records of the sacred Scriptures , and so less liable to the misreports of the ignorant , forgetful or erroneous . 2. The reporters were now more numerous , and the miracles reported more numerous also . 3. They were persons now dispersed over much of the world , and could not possibly agree together to deceive . 4. The deceit would now have been yet more easily detected and abhorred . 3. But besides this , they had also the supernatural testimony of God : For the Apostles converts received the same spirit as they had themselves : And though the miracles of other persons were not so numerous as those of the Apostles ; yet the persons were many thousands more that wrought them : All this is asserted in the Scripture it self ; as Gal. 3.3 , 4. 1 Cor. 14. & 12. and many places : And he that should have told them falsly that they themselves had the spirit of extraordinary gifts and miracles , would hardly have been believed by them . And all this also the following Ages have themselves asserted unto us . The question then which remaineth is , How we receive all this infallibly from the subsequent Ages or Churches to this day ? The answer to which is , still by the same way , with yet greater advantages in some respects , though less in others . As 1. We have the humane testimony of all our ancestors , and of many of our enemies . 2. We have greater evidence of natural certainty , that they could not possibly meet or plot together to deceive us . 3. We have still the supernatural divine attestation ( though rarely of miracles , yet ) of those more necessary and noble operations of the Spirit , in the sanctification of all true Believers ; which Spirit accompanieth and worketh by the doctrine which from our ancestors we have received . More distinctly observe all these conjunct means of our full reception of our Religion . 1. The very Being of the Christians and Churches , is a testimony to us that they believed and received this Religion . For what maketh them Christians and Churches but the receiving of it ? 2. The ordinance of Baptism , is a notable tradition of it . For all that ever were made Christians , have been baptized : And Baptism is nothing but the solemn initiation of persons into this Religion , by a vowed consent to it , as summarily there expressed in the Christian Covenant . And this was used to be openly done . 3. The use of the Creed , which at Baptism and other sacred seasons , was alwaies wont to be professed , ( together with the Lords Prayer , and the Decalogue ; the summaries of our faith , desire and practice ) is another notable tradition ; by which this Religion hath been sent down to following Ages : For though perhaps all the terms of the Creed were not so early as some think , thus constantly used ; yet all the sense and substance of it was . 4. The holy Scriptures or Records of this Religion , containing integrally all the doctrine , and all the necessary matter of fact , is the most compleat way of tradition : And it will appear to you in what further shall be said , that we have infallible proof , that these Scriptures are the same , which the first Churches did receive ; what ever inconsiderable errours may be crept into any Copies , by the unavoidable oversight of the Scribes . 5. The constant use of the sacred Assemblies , hath been another means of sure tradition : For we have infallible proof of the successive continuation of such Assemblies ; and that their use was still , the solemn profession of the Christian Faith , and worshipping God according to it . 6. And the constant use of Reading the Scriptures in those Assemblies , is another full historical tradition : For that which is constantly and publickly read , as the doctrine of their Religion , cannot be changed , without the notice of all the Church , and without an impossible combination of all the Churches in the world . 7. And it secureth the tradition that one set day hath been kept for this publick exercise of Religion , from the very first ; even the Lords day ( besides all occasional times ) The day it self being appointed to celebrate the memorial of Christs Resurrection , is a most currant history of it ; as the feast of unleavened bread , and the Passeover was of the Israelites deliverance from Egypt . And the exercises still performed on that day , do make the tradition more compleat . And because some few Sabbatarians among our selves do keep the old Sabbath only , and call still for Scrip●ure proof for the institution of the Lords day ; let me briefly tell them , that which is enough to evince their errour . 1. That the Apostles were Officers immediately commissioned by Christ , to disciple the Nations , and to teach them all that Christ commanded , and so to settle Orders in the Church , Mat. 28.19 , 20 , 21. Acts 15. &c. 2. That Christ promised and gave them his Spirit infallibly to guide them in the performance of this commission ( though not to make them perfectly impeccable ) John 16.13 . 3. That de facto the Apostles appointed the use of the Lords day for the Church Assemblies : This being all that is left to be proved , and this being matter of fact , which requireth no other kind of proof but history , part of the history of it is in the Scripture , and the rest in the history of all following Ages . In the Scripture it self it is evident , that the Churches and the Apostles used this day accordingly : And it hath most infallible history ( impossible to be false ) that the Churches have used it ever to this day , as that which they found practised in their times by their appointment : And this is not a bare narrative , but an uninterrupted matter of publick fact and practice : So universal , that I remember not in all my reading , that ever one enemy questioned it , or ever one Christian , or Heretick denyed , or once scrupled it . So that they who tell us that all this is yet but humane testimony , do shew their egregious inconsiderations , that know not that such humane testimony or history in a matter of publick constant fact , may be most certain , and all that the nature of the case will allow a sober person to require . And they might as well reject the Canon of the Scriptures , because humane testimony is it which in point of fact doth certifie us , that these are the very unaltered Canonical Books , which were delivered at first to the Churches : Yea they may reject all the store of historical tradition of Christianity it self , which I am here reciting to the shame of their understandings . And consider also , that the Lords day was settled , and constantly used in solemn worship by the Churches , many and many years before any part of the New Testament was written ; and above threescore years before it was finished . And when the Churches had so many years been in publick possession of it , who would require that the Scriptures should after all , make a Law to institute that which was instituted so long ago . If you say , that it might have declared the institution , I answer , so it hath , as I have shewed ; there needing no other declaration , but 1. Christs commission to the Apostles to order the Church , and declare his commands . 2. And his promise of infallible guidance therein . 3. And the history of the Churches order and practice , to shew de facto , what they did : And that history need not be written in Scripture for the Churches that then were ; no more than we need a revelation from Heaven to tell us thas the Lords day is kept in England : And sure the next Age needed no supernatural testimony of it : and therefore neither do we : But yet it is occasionally oft intimated or expressed in the Scripture , though on the by , as that which was no further necessary . So that I may well conclude , that we have better historical evidence that the Lords day was actually observed by the Churches , for their publick worship and profession of the Christian Faith , than we have that ever there was such a man as William the Conquerour in England , yea or King James ; much more than that there was a Caesar or Cicero . 8. Moreover , the very Office of the Pastors of the Church , and their continuance from the beginning to this day , is a great part of the certain tradition of this Religion . For it is most certain , that the Churches were constituted , and the Assemblies held , and the worship performed with them , and by their conduct , and not without : And it is certain by infallible history , that their office hath been still the same , even to teach men this Christian Religion , and to guide them in the practice of it , and to read the same Scriptures as the word of truth , and to explain it to the people . And therefore as the Judicatures and Offices of the Judges is a certain proof that there have been those Laws by which they judge ( especially if they had been also the weekly publick Readers and Expounders of them ) and so much more is it in our case . 9. And the constant use of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ , hath according to his appointment , been an infallible tradition of his Covenant , and a means to keep him in remembrance in the Churches . For when all the Churches in the world have made this Sacramental Commemoration , and renewed covenanting with Christ as dead and risen , to be their constant publick practice here , is a tradition of that faith and Covenant which cannot be counterfeit or false . 10. To this we may add , the constant use of Discipline in these Churches : it having been their constant law and practice , to enquire into the faith and lives of the members , and to censure or cast out those that impenitently violated their Religion : which sheweth , that de facto that Faith and Religion was then received ; and is a means of delivering it down to us . Under which we may mention 1. Their Synods and Officers . 2. And their Canons by which this Discipline was exercised . 11. Another tradition hath been the published confessions of their Faith and R●l●g●on in those Apologies , which persecutions and calumnies have caused them to write . 12. And another is , all those published Confutations of the many heresies , which in every age have risen up ; and all the controversies which the Churches have had with them , and among themselves . 13. And another is , all the Treatises , Sermons , and other instructing writings of the Pastors of those times . 14 And another way of tradition hath been by the testimony and sufferings of Confessors and Martyrs , who have endured either torments or death , in the defence and owning of this Religion : In all which waies of tradition , the doctrine and the matter were joyntly attested by them . For the Resurrection of Christ ( which is part of the matter of fact ) was one of the Articles of their Creed , which they suffered for : And all of them received the holy Scriptures , which declare the Apostles miracles ; and they received their faith , as delivered by those Apostles , with the confirmation of those miracles : So that when they professed to believe the doctrine , they especially professed to believe the history of the life and death of Christ , and of his Apostles : And the Religion which they suffered for , and daily professed , contained both : And the historical Books called the Gospels , were the chief part of the Scripture which they called , The Word of God , and the Records of the Christian Religion . 15. To this I may add , that all the ordinary prayers and praises of the Churches , did continue the recital of much of this history , and of the Apostles names and acts , and were composed much in Scripture phrase , which preserved the memory , and professed the belief of all those things . 16. And the festivals or other dayes , which were kept in honourable commemoration of those Apostles and Martyrs , was another way of keeping these things in memory : Whether it were well done or not , is not my present enquiry ( only I may say , I cannot accuse it of any sin , till it come to over-doing , and ascribing too much to them . ) But certainly it was a way of transmitting the memory of those things to posterity . 17. Another hath been by the constant commemoration of the great works of Christ , by the dayes or seasons of the year , which were annually observed : How far here also the Church did well ▪ or ill , I now meddle not : But doubtless the observing of anniversary solemnities for their commemoration , was a way of preserving the memory of the acts themselves to posterity . How long the day of Christs Nativity hath been celebrated , I know not : Reading what Selden hath said on one side ; and on the other finding no currant Author mention it ( that I have read ) before Nazianzene : and finding by Chrysostome , that the Churches of the East , till his time had differed from the Western Churches , as far as the sixth of January is from the 25 of December . But that is of less moment , because Christs birth is a thing unquestioned in it self . But we find that the time of his fasting forty daies , the time of his Passion , and of his Resurrection , and the giving of the Holy Ghost , were long before kept in memory , by some kind of observation by fa●ts or festivals : And though there was a controversie about the due season of the successive observation of Easter , yet that signified no uncertainty of the first day , or the season of the year . And though at first it was but few daies that were kept in fasting at that season , yet they were enough to commemorate both the forty daies fasting , and the death of Christ . 18. And the histories of the Heathens and enemies of the Church , do also declare how long Christianity continued , and what they were , and what they suffered who were called Christians ; such as Plinies , Celsus , Porphyry , Plotinus , Lucian , Su●tonius , and others . 19. And the constant instruction of Children by their Parents , which is Family-tradition , hath been a very great means also of this commemoration . For it cannot be ( though some be negligent ) but that multitudes in all times would teach their children , what the Christian Religion was , as to its doctrine and its history . And the practice of catechizing , and teaching children the Creed , the Lords Prayer , and the Decalogue , and the Scriptures , the more secured this tradition in families . 20. Lastly , A succession of the same Spirit , which was in the Apostles , and of much of the same works , which were done by them , was such a way of assuring us of the truth of their doctrine and history , as a succession of posterity teleth us , that our progenitors were men . The same spirit of Wisdom and Goodness in a great degree continued after them to this day . And all wrought by their doctrine : and very credible history assureth us , that many miracles also were done , in many ages after them ; though not so many as by them : Eusebius , Cyprian , Augustine , Victor , Vlicensis , Sulpitius , Severus , and many others , shew us so much as may make the belief of the Apostles the more easie . And indeed , the Image of Gods WISDOM , GOODNESS and POWER on the souls of all true Christians in the world , successively to this day , considered in it self , and in its agreement with the same Image in the holy Scriptures , which do imprint it , and in its agreement or sameness as found in all Ages , Nations and Persons , is such a standing perpetual evidence that the Christian Religion is Divine , that ( being still at hand ) it should be exceeding satisfactory to a considerate Believer , against all doubts and temptations to unbelief . And were it not lest , I should instead of an Index , give you too large a recital of what I have more fully written in my foresaid Treatise , I would here stay yet to shew you how impossible it is that this Spirit of Holiness , which we feel in us , and see by the effects in others , even in every true Believer , should be caused by a word of falshood , which he abhorreth , and as the Just Ruler of the world , would be obliged to disown . I shall only here desire you by the way to note that when I have all this while shewed you that the SPIRIT is the great witness of the truth of Christianity , that it is , this spirit of Wisdom , Goodness and Power , in the Prophets , in Christ , in the Apostles , and in all Christians , expressed in the doctrine , and the practices aforesaid , which I mean ; as being principally the Evidences , or objective witness of Jesus Christ ; and secondarily , being in all true Believers , their teacher , or illuminater and sanctifier , efficiently to cause them to perceive the aforesaid objective Evidences in its cogent undeniable power . And thus the Holy Ghost is the promised Agent or Advocate of Christ ; to do his work in his bodily absence in the world : And that in this sense it is , that we Believe in the HOLY GHOST , and are baptized into his Name ; and not only as he is the third person in the Eternal Trinity . And therefore it is to be lamented exceedingly , 1. That any Orthodox Teachers should recite over many of these parts of the witness of the SPIRIT , and when they have done , tell us , that yet all these are not sufficient to convince us without the testimony of the Spirit : As if all this were none of the testimony of the Spirit ; and as if they would perswade us and our enemies , that the testimony which must satisfie us , is only some inward impress of this Proposition on the mind , by way of inspiration , [ The Scriptures are the Word of God , and true . ] Overlooking the great witness of the Spirit , which is his special work , and which our Baptism relateth to , and feigning some extraordinary new thing as the only testimony . And it is to be lamented , that Papists , and quarrelling Sectaries should take this occasion to reproach us as Infidels , that have no true grounded faith in Christ ; as telling us that we resolve it all into a private inward pretended witness of the Spirit : And then they ask us , who can know that witness but our selves ? and how can we preach the Gospel to others , if the only cogent argument of faith be incommunicable , or such as we cannot prove ? Though both the Believing soul and the Church be the Kingdom of the Prince of Light , yet O what wrong hath the Prince of Darkness done , by the mixtures of darkness in them both ! So much for the first Direction for the strengthening of Faith , which is , by discerning the Evidences of Truth in our Religion . CHAP. VIII . The rest of the Directions for strengthening our Faith. I Shall be more brief in the rest of the Directions , for the increase of Faith : and they are these . Direct . 2. Compare the Christian Religion with all other in the world : And seeing it is certain that some way or other God hath revealed , to guide man in his duty , unto his end , and it is no other ; you will see that it must needs be this . 1. The way of the Heathenish Idolaters cannot be it : The principles and the effects of their Religion , may easily satisfie you of this . The only true God would not command Idolatry , nor befriend such ignorance , errour and wickedness as doth constitute their Religion , and are produced by it , as its genuine fruits . 2. The way of Judaism cannot be it : For it doth but lead us up to Christianity , and bear witness to Christ , and of it self , is evidently insufficient ; its multitude of ceremonies being but the pictures and alphabet of that truth which Jesus Christ hath brought to light , and which hath evidence , which to us is more convincing , than that of the Jewish Law , 3. The Mahometane delusion is so gross , that it seemeth vain to say any more against it , than it saith it self ; unless it be to those who are bred up in such darkness , as to hear of nothing else , and never to see the Sun which shineth on the Christian world ; and withall are under the terrour of the sword , which is the strongest reason of that barbarous Sect. 4. And to think that the Atheisme of Infidels is the way , ( who hold only the five Articles of the Vnity of God , the duty of obedience , the immortality of the soul , the life of retributior , and the necessity of Repentance ) is but to go against the light . For 1. It is a denyal of that abundant evidence of the truth of the Christian Faith , which cannot by any sound reason be confuted . 2. It is evidently too narrow for mans necessities , and leaveth our misery without a sufficient remedy . 3. Its inclusions and exclusions are contradictory : It asserteth the necessity of Obedience and Repentance , and yet excludeth the necessary means ( the revealed Light , and Love , and Power ) by which both Obedience and Repentance must be had . It excludeth Christ and his Spirit , and yet requireth that which none but Christ and his Spirit can effect . 4. It proposeth a way as the only Religion , which few ever went from the beginning ( as to the exclusions . ) As if that were Gods only way to Heaven , which scarce any visible societies of men , can be proved to have practised to this day . Which of all these Religions have the most wise , and holy , and heavenly , and mortified , and righteous , and sober persons to profess it : and the greatest numbers of such ? If you will judge of the medicine by the effects , and take him for the best Physician , who doth the greatest cures upon the souls , you will soon conclude that Christ is the way , the truth , and the life , and no man cometh to the Father but by him , John 14.6 . Direct . 3. Think how impossible it is that any but God should be the Author of the Christian Religion . 1. No good man could be guilty of so horrid a crime as to forge a volume of delusions , and put Gods Name to it ; to cheat the world so blasphemously and hypocritically , and to draw them into a life of trouble to promote it . Much less could so great a number of good men do this , as the success of such a cheat ( were it possible ) would require . There is no man that can believe it to be a deceit , but must needs believe , as we do of Mahomet , that the Author was one of the worst men that ever lived in the world . 2. No bad man could lay so excellent a design , and frame a Doctrine and Law so holy , so self denying , so merciful , so just , so spiritual , so heavenly , and so concordant in it self ▪ nor carry on so high and divine an undertaking for so divine and excellent an end : No bad man could so universally condemn all badness , and prescribe such powerful remedies against it , and so effectually cure and conquer it in so considerable a part of the world . 3. If it be below any good man , to be guilty of such a forgery as aforesaid , we can much less suspect that any good Angel could be guilty of it . 4. And if no bad man could do so much good , we can much less imagine that any Devil or bad spirit could be the author of it . The Devil who is the worst in evil , could never so much contradict his nature , and overthrow his own Kingdom , and say so much evil of himself , and do so much against himself , and do so much for the sanctifying and saving of the world : He that doth so much to draw men to sin and misery , would never do so much to destroy their sin . And we plainly feel within our selves , that the spirit or party which draweth us to sin , doth resist the Spirit which draweth us to believe and obey the Gospel ; and that these two maintain a war within us . 5. And if you should say , that the good which is in Christianity , is caused by God , and the evil of it by the Father of sin , I answer , either it is true or false : If it be true , it is so good , that the Devil can never possibly be a contributor to it : Nay , it cannot then be suspected justly of any evil . But if it be false , it is then so bad , that God cannot be any otherwise the Author of it , than as he is the Author of any common natural Verity which it may take in and abuse ; or as his general concourse extendeth to the whole Creation . But it is somewhat in Christianity , which it hath more than other Religions have , which must make it more pure , and more powerful and successful , than any other Religions have been . Therefore it must be more than common natural truths : even the contexture of those natural truths , with the supernatural revelations of it , and the addition of a spirit of power , and light , and love , to procure the success . And God cannot be the Author of any such contexture , or additions , if it be false . 6. If it be said , that men that had some good , and some bad in them , did contrive it ( such as those Fanaticks , or Enthusiasts , who have pious notions and words , with pride and self-exalting minds ) I answer , The good is so great which is found in Christianity , that it is not possible that a bad man ▪ much less an extreamly bad man , could be the Author of it ▪ And the wickedness of the plot would be so great if it were false , that it is not possible that any but an extreamly bad man could be guilty of it : Much less that a multitude should be sound at once so extreamly good as to promote it , even with their greatest labour and suffering , and also so extreamly bad as to joyn together in the plot to cheat the world , in a matter of such high importance . Such exceeding good and evil , cannot consist in any one person , much less in so many as must do such a thing . And if such a heated brain sick person as Hacket , Nailer , David , George , or John of Leyden , should cry up themselves upon prophetical and pious pretences , their madness hath still appeared , in the mixture of their impious doctrines and practices : And if any would and could be so wicked , God never would or did assist them , by an age of numerous open miracles , nor lend them his Omnipotency to deceive the world ; but left them to the shame of their proud attempts , and made their folly known to all . Direct . 4. Study all the Evidences of the Christian Verity , till their sense , and weight , and order , be throughly digested , understood and remembred by you ; and be as plain and familiar to you , as the lesson which you have most thoroughly learned . It is not once or twice reading , or hearing , or thinking on such a great and difficult matter , that will make it your own , for the stablishing of your faith . He that will understand the art of a Sea-man , a Souldier , a Musician , a Physician , &c. so as to practise it ; must study it hard , and understand it clearly , and comprehensively , and have all the whole frame of it printed on his mind ; and not only here and there a scrap . Faith is a practical knowledge : We must have the heart and life directed and commanded by it : We must live by it , both in the intention of our end , and in the choice and use of all the means : Whilest the Gospel , and the Reasons of our Religion , are strange to people , like a lesson but half learned , who can expect that they should be settled against all temptations which assault their faith , and able to confute the tempter ? We lay together the proofs of our Religion , and you read them twice or thrice , and then think that if after that you have any doubting , the fault is in the want of evidence , and not in your want of understanding : But the life of faith must cost you more labour than so ; study it till you clearly understand it , and remember the whole method of the evidence together , and have it all as at your fingers ends , and then you may have a confirmed faith to live by . Direct . 5. When you know what are the sorest temptations to unbelief , get all those special arguments and provisions into your minds , which are necessary against those particular temptations . And do not strengthen your own temptations by your imprudent entertaining them . Here are th●ee things which I would especially advise you to ●gainst temptations to unbelief . 1. Enter not into the debate of so great a business when you are uncapable of it : Especially 1. When your minds are taken up with worldly business , or other thoughts have carryed them away , let not Satan then surprize you , and say , Come now and question thy Religion : You could not resolve a question in Philosophy , nor cast up any long account , on such a sudden , with an unprepared mind . When the Evidences of your faith are out of mind , stay till you can have leisure to set your selves to the business , with that studiousness , and those helps , which so great a matter doth require . 2. When sickness or melancholy doth weaken your understandings , you are then unfit for such a work . You would not in such a case dispute for your lives with a cunning sophister upon any difficult question whatsoever : And will you in such a case dispute with the Devil , when your salvation may lye upon it ? 2. When your faith is once settled , suffer not the Devil to call you to dispute it over again at his command . Do it not when his suggestions urge you at his pleasure ; but when God maketh it your duty , and at his pleasure : Else your very disputing with Satan , will be some degree of yielding to him , and gratifying him . And he will one time or other take you at the advantage , and assault you when you are without your arms . 3 Mark what it is that Atheists and Infidels most object against Christianity ; but especially mark what it is which Satan maketh most use of , against your selves , to shake your faith : And there let your studies be principally bent ; that you may have particular armour to defend you against particular assaults : And get such light by communication with wiser and more experienced men , as may furnish you for that use ; that no objection may be-made against your faith , which you are not alwaies ready to answer . This is the true sense of 1 Pet. 3.15 . Sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts , and be ready alwaies to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you , with meekness and fear . Direct . 6. Mark well those works of God in the world , which are the plain fulfilling of his Word . God doth not make such notable difference by his Judgements , as shall prevent the great discoveries at the last , and make his Assize and final Judgement to be unnecessary , by doing the same work before the time . But yet his Providences do own , and bear witness to his Word : and he leaveth not the world without some present sensible testimonies of his soveraign government , to convince them , and restrain them . 1. Mark how the state of the sinful world agreeth to Gods description of it , and how maliciously Godliness is every where opposed by them , and how notably God still casteth shame upon sinners ; so that even in their prosperity and rage they are pittied and contemned in the eyes of all that are wise and sober , and in the next generation their names do rot , Psal . 15.3 , 4. Prov. 10.7 . And it is wonderful to observe , that sin in the general and abstract , is still spoken of by all as an odious thing , even by them that will be damned rather than they will leave it : And that Vertue and Godliness , Charity and Justice are still praised in the world , even by them that abhor and persecute it . 2. And it is very observable , how most of the great changes of the world are made ? By how small , contemptible and unthought of mean● ? Especially where the interest of the Gospel is most concerned ! The instance of the Reformation in Luther's time , and many others nearer to our daies , would shew us much of the conjunction of Gods works with his Word , if they were particularly and wisely opened . 3. The many prodigies , or extraordinary events , which have fallen out at several times , would be found to be of use this way , if wisely considered . A great number have fallen out among us of late years , of real certainty , and of a considerable usefulness : But the crafty enemy ( who useth most to wrong Christ and his Cause , by his most passionate , injudicious followers ) prevailed with some over-forward Minister of this strein , to publish them in many volumes , with the mixture of so many falshoods , and mistaken circumstances , as turned them to the advantage of the Devil and ungodliness , and made the very mention of Prodigies to become a scorn . 4. The strange deliverances of many of Gods servants in the greatest dangers , by the most unlikely means , is a great encouragement to faith : And there are a great number of Christians that have experience of such : The very manner of our preservations is often such as forceth us to say , It is the hand of God. 5. The notable answer , and grant of prayers , ( of which many Christians have convincing experience ) is also a great confirmation to our faith , ( of which I have before spoken . ) 6. The three sensible evidences formerly mentioned , compared with the Scriptures , may much perswade us of its truth : I mean 1. Apparitions ; 2. Witches ; 3. Satanical possessions or diseases , which plainly declare the operation of Satan in them ; of all which I could give you manifold and proved instances . These , and many other instances of Gods providence , are great means to help us to believe his Word ( though we must not with Fanatical persons , put first our own interpretation upon Gods works , and then expound his Word by them ; but use his works as the fulfilling of his Word , and expound his Providences by his Precepts , and his Promises and Threats . Direct . 7. Mark well Gods inward works of Government upon the soul ; and you shall find it very agreeable to the Gospel . There is a very great evidence of a certain Kingdom of God within us : And as he is himself a Spirit , so it is with the Spirit that he doth most apparently converse , in the work of his moral Government in the world . 1. There you shall find a Law of duty , or an inward conviction of much of that obedience which you owe to God. 2. There you shall find an inward mover , striving with you to draw you to perform this duty . 3. There you shall find the inward suggestions of an enemy , labouring to draw you away from this duty , and to make a godly life seem grievous to you ; and also to draw you to all the sins which Christ forbiddeth . 4. There you shall find an inward conviction , that God is your Judge , and that he will call you to account for your wilful violations of the Laws of Christ . 5. There you shall find an inward sentence past upon you , according as you do good or evil . 6. And there you may find the sorest Judgements of God inflicted , which any short of Hell endure . You may there find how God for sin doth first afflict the soul that is not quite forsaken , with troubles and affrightments , and some of the feeling of his displeasure . And where that is long despised , and men sin on still , he useth to with hold his gracious motions , and leave the sinner dull and senseless , so that he can sin with sinful remorse , having no heart or life to any thing that is spiritually good : And if yet the sinner think not of his condition , to repent , he is usually so far forsaken as to be given up to the power of his most bruitish lust ; and to glory impudently in his shame , and to hate and persecute the servants of Christ , who would recover him ; till he hath filled up the measure of his sin , and wrath be come upon him to the uttermost , Ephes . 4.18 , 19. 1 Thes . 2.15 , 16. being abominable , and disobedient , and to every good work reprobate , Titus 1.15 , 16. Besides the lesser penal withdrawings of the Spirit , which Gods own servants find in themselves , after some sins or neglects of grace . 7. And there also you may find the Rewards of Love and faithful duty ; by many tastes of Gods acceptance , and many comforts of his Spirit , and by his owning the soul , and giving out larger assistance of his Spirit , and peace of conscience , and entertainment in prayer , and all approaches of the soul to God , and sweeter forecasts of life eternal . In a word , if we did but note Gods dreadful Judgements on the souls of the ungodly in this age , as well as we have noted our plagues and flames ; and if Gods servants kept as exact observations of their inward rewards and punishments , and that in particulars , as suited to their particular sins and duties ; you will see that Christ is King indeed , and that there is a real Government according to his Gospel , kept up in the consciences or souls of men ( though not so observable as the rewards and punishments at the last day . ) Direct . 8. Dwell not too much on sensual objects , and let them not come too near your hearts . Three things I here perswade you carefully to avoid : 1. That you keep your hearts at a meet distance from all things in this world ; that they grow not too sweet to you , nor too great in your esteem : 2. That you gratifie not sense it self too much ; and live not in the pleasing of your taste or lust : 3. That you suffer not your imaginations to run out greedily after things sensitive , nor make them the too frequent objects of your thoughts . You may ask perhaps , what is all this to our faith ? why , the life of faith is exercised upon things that are not seen : And if you live upon the things that are seen , and imprison your soul in the fetters of your concupiscence , and fill your fancies with things of another nature , how can you be acquainted with the life of faith ? Can a bird flye that hath a stone tyed to her foot ? Can you have a mind full of lust , and of God at once ? Or can that mind that is used to these inordinate sensualities , be fit to rellish the things that are spiritual ? And can it be a lover of earth , and fleshly pleasures , and also a Believer and lover of Heaven ? Direct . 9. Vse your selves much to think and speak of Heaven , and the invisible things of Faith ? Speaking of Heaven is needful both to express your thoughts , and to actuate and preserve them . And the often thoughts of Heaven , will make the mind familiar there : And familiarity will assist and encourage faith : For it will much acquaint us with those reasons and inducements of faith , which a few strange and distant thoughts will never reach to . As he that converseth much with a learned , wise , or godly man , will easilier believe that he is learned , wise , or godly , than he that is a stranger to him , and only now and then seeth him afar off : So he that thinketh so frequently of God and Heaven , till his mind hath contracted a humble acquaintance and familiarity , must needs believe the truth of all that excellency which before he doubted of . For doubting is the effect of ignorance : And he that knoweth most here , believeth best . Falshood and evil cannot bear the light ; but the more you think of them , and know them , the more they are detected and ashamed : But truth and goodness love the light ; and the better you are acquainted with them , the more will your belief and love be increased . Direct . 10. Live not in the guilt of wilful sin : For that will many waies hinder your belief . 1. It will breed fear and horrour in your minds , and make you wish that it were not true , that there is a day of Judgement , and a Hell for the ungodly , and such a God , such a Christ , and such a life to come , as the Gospel doth describe : And when you take it for your interest to be an unbeliever , you will hearken with desire to all that the Devil and Infidels can say : And you will the more easily make your selves believe that the Gospel is not true , by how much the more you desire that it should not be true . 2. And you will forfeit the grace which should help you to believe ; both by your wilfull sin , and by your unwillingness to believe : For who can expect that Christ should give his grace to them , who wilfully despise him , and abuse it : Or that he should make men believe , who had rather not believe ? Indeed he may possibly do both these , but these are not the way , nor is it a thing which we can expect . 3. And this guilt , and fear , and unwillingness together , will all keep down your thoughts from Heaven ; so that seldom thinking of it , will increase your unbelief : and they will make you unfit to see the evidences of truth in the Gospel , when you do think of them , or hear them : For he that would not k●●w cannot learn. Ob●y therefore according to the knowledge which you have , if ever you would have more , and would not be given up to the blindness of Infidelity . Direct . 11. Trust not only to your understandings , and think not that study is all which is necessary to faith : But remember that faith is the gift of God , and therefore pray as well as study . Prov. 3.5 . Trust in the Lord with all thy heart , and lean not to thy own understanding . It is a precept as necessary in this point as in any . In all things God abhorreth the proud , and looketh at them afar off , as with disowning and disdain : But in no case more , than when a blind ungodly sinner shall so overvalue his own understanding , as to think that if there be evidence of truth in the mystery of faith , he is able presently to discern it , before or without any heavenly illumination , to cure his dark distempered mind . Remember that as the Sun is seen only by his own light ; so is God our Creatour and Redeemer . Faith is the gift of God , as well as Repentance , Ephes . 2.8 . 2 Tim. 2.25 , 26. Apply your selves therefore to God by earnest prayer for it . As he , Mark 9.24 . Lord , I believe , help thou my unbelief . And as the Disciples , Luke 17.5 . Increase our faith . A humble soul that waiteth on God in fervent prayer , and yet neglecteth not to study and search for truth , is much liker to become a confirmed Believer , than ungodly Students , who trust and seek no further than to their Books , and their perverted minds . For as God will be sought to for his grace ; so those that draw near him , do draw near unto the Light ; and therefore are like as children of Light to be delivered from the power of darkness : For in his light we shall see the light that must acquaint us with him . Direct . 12. Lastly , What measure of Light soever God vouchsafeth you , labour to turn it all into Love ; and make it your serious care and business to know God , that you may love him , and to love God so far as you know him . For he that desireth satisfaction in his doubts , to no better end , than to please his mind by knowing , and to free it from the disquiet of uncertainty , hath an end so low in all his studies , that he cannot expect that God and his grace should be called down , to serve such a low and base design . That faith which is not employed in beholding the love of God in the face of Christ , on purpose to increase and exercise our love , is not indeed the true Christian Faith , but a dead opinion . And he that hath never so weak a faith , and useth it to this end , to know Gods amiableness , and to love him , doth take the most certain way for the confirmation of his faith . For Love is the closest adherence of the soul to God , and therefore will set it in the clearest light , and will teach it by the sweet convincing way of experience and spiritual taste . Believing alone is like the knowledge of our meat by seeing it : And Love is as the knowledge of our meat by eating and digesting it . And he that hath tasted that it is sweet , hath a stronger kind of perswasion that it is sweet , than he that only seeth it ; and will much more tenaciously hold his apprehension : It is more possible to dispute him out of his belief , who only seeth , than him that also tasteth and concocteth . A Parent and child will not so easily believe any false reports of one another , as strangers or enemies will ; because Love is a powerful resister of such hard conceits . And though this be delusory and blinding partiality , where Love is guided by mistake ; yet when a sound understanding leadeth it , and Love hath chosen the truest object , it is the naturally perfective motion of the soul . And Love keepeth us under the fullest influences of Gods Love ; and therefore in the reception of that grace which will increase our faith : For Love is that act which the ancient Doctors were wont to call , the principle of merit , or first meritorious act of the soul ; and which we call , the principle of rewardable acts . God beginneth and loveth us first , partly with a Love of complacency , only as his creatures , and also as in esse cognito , he foreseeth how amiable his grace will make us ; and partly with a Love of benevolence , intending to give us that grace which shall make us really the objects of his further Love : And having received this grace , it causeth us to love God : And when we love God , we are really the objects of his complacential Love ; and when we perceive this , it still increaseth our Love : And thus the mutual Love of God and Man , is the true perpetual motion , which hath an everlasting cause , and therefore must have an everlasting duration . And so the faith which hath once kindled Love , even sincere Love to God in Christ , hath taken rooting in the heart , and lyeth deeper than the head , and will hold fast , and increase as Love increaseth . And this is the true reason of the stedfastness and happiness of many weak unlearned Christians , who have not the distinct conceptions and reasonings of learned men ; and yet because their Faith is turned into Love , their Love doth help to confirm their Faith : And as they love more heartily ; so they believe more stedfastly , and perseveringly , than many who can say more for their faith . And so much for the strengthening of your faith . CHAP. IX . General Directions for exercising the Life of Faith. HAving told you how Faith must be confirmed , I am next to tell you how it must be used . And in this I shall begin with some General Directions , and then proceed to such particular cases , in which we have the greatest use for Faith. Direct . 1. Remember the necessity of Faith in all the business of your hearts and lives , that nothing can be done well without it . There is no sin to be conquered , no grace to be exercised , no worship to be performed , nor no acts of mercy , or justice , or worldly business , to be well done without it , in any manner acceptable to God. Without Faith it is impossible to please God , Heb. 11.6 . You may as well go about your bodily work without your eye-sight , as about your spiritual work without Faith. Direct . 2. Make it therefore your care and work to get Faith , and to use it ; and think not that God must reveal his mind to you , as in visions , while you idly neglect your proper work . Believing is the first part of your trade of life ; and the practice of it must be your constant business . It is not living ordinarily by sense , and looking when God will cast in the light of Faith extraordinarily , which is indeed the life of Faith : Nor is it seeming to stir up Faith in a Prayer or Sermon , and looking no more after it all the day : This is but to give God a salutation , and not to dwell and walk with him : And to give Heaven a complemental visit sometimes , but not to have your conversation there , 2 Cor. 5.7 , 8. Direct . 3. Be not too seldom in solitary meditation . Though it be a duty which melancholy persons are disabled to perform , in any set , and long , and orderly manner ; yet it is so needful to those who are able , that the greatest works of Faith are to be managed by it . How should things unseen be apprehended so as to affect our hearts , without any serious exercise of our thoughts ? How should we search into mysteries of the Gospel , or converse with God , or walk in Heaven , or fetch either joyes or motives thence , without any retired studious contemplation ? If you cannot meditate or think , you cannot believe . Meditation abstracteth the mind from vanity , and lifteth it up above the world , and setteth it about the work of Faith ; which by a mindless , thoughtless , or worldly soul , can never be performed , 2 Cor. 4.16 , 17 , 18. Phil. 3.20 . Mat. 6.21 . Col. 3.1 , 3. Direct . 4. Let the Image of the Life of Christ , and his Martyrs , and holiest servants , be deeply printed on your minds . That you may know what the way is which you have to go , and what patterns they be which you have to imitate ; think how much they were above things sensitive , and how light they set by all the pleasures , wealth and glory of this world . Therefore the Holy Ghost doth set before us that cloud of witnesses , and catalogue of Martyrs , in Heb. 11. that example may help us , and we may see with how good company we go , in the life of Faith , Paul had well studied the example of Christ , when he took pleasure in infirmities , and gloryed only in the Cross , to be base and afflicted in this world , for the hopes of endless glory , 2 Cor. 11.30 . & 12.5 9 , 10. And when he could say , I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things , and do count them but dung that I may win Christ — that I may know him , and the power of his resurrection , and the fellowship of his sufferings , being made conformable to his death , Phil. 3.8 , 9 , 10. No man will well militate in the life of Faith , but he that followeth the Captain of his salvation , Heb. 2.10 . who for the bringing of many Sons to glory ( even those whom he is not ashamed to call his Brethren ) was made perfect , ( as to perfection of action or performance ) by suffering : thereby to shew us , how little the best of these visible and sensible corporeal things , are to be valued in comparison of the things invisible : and therefore as the General and the souldiers make up one army , and militate in one militia ; so he that sanctifieth , and they who are sanctified , are all of one , Heb. 2.10 , 11 , 12. Though that which is called the life of Faith in us , deserved a higher title in Christ , and his faith in his Father , and ours , do much differ , and he had not many of the objects , acts and uses of Faith , as we have who are sinners ; yet in this we must follow him as our great example , in valuing things invisible , and vilifying things visible in comparison of them . And therefore Paul saith [ I am crucified with Christ : Nevertheless I live , yet not I , but Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the flesh , I live by the Faith of the Son of God , who loved me , and gave himself for me , Gal. 2.20 . Direct . 5. Remember therefore that God and Heaven , the unseen things are the final object of true Faith : and that the final object is the noblest ; and that the principal use of Faith , is to carry up the whole heart and life from things visible and temporal , to things invisible and eternal ; and not only to comfort us in the assurance of our own forgiveness and salvation . It is an exceeding common and dangerous deceit , to overlook both this principal object and principal use of the Christian Faith. 1. Many think of no other object of it , but the death and righteousness of Christ , and the pardon of sin , and the promise of that pardon : And God and Heaven they look at as the objects of some other common kind of Faith. 2. And they think of little other use of it , than to comfort them against the guilt of sin , with the assurance of their Justification . But the great and principal work of Faith is , that which is about its final object ; to carry up the soul to God and Heaven , where the world , and things sensible , are the terminus à quo , and God , and things invisible , the terminus ad quem : And thus it is put in contradistinction to living by fight , in 2 Cor. 5.6 , 7. And thus mortification is made one part of this great effect , in Rom. 6. throughout , and many other places : and thus it is that Heb. 11. doth set before us those numerous examples of a life of Faith , as it was expressed in valuing things unseen , upon the belief of the Word of God , and the vilifying of things seen which stand against them . And thus Christ tryed the Rich man , Luke 18.22 . whether he would be his Disciple , by calling him to sell all , and give to the po●r , for the hopes of a treasure in Heaven . And thus Christ maketh bearing the Cross , and denying our selves , and forsaking all for him , to be necessary in all that are his Disciples . And thus Paul describeth the life of Faith , 2 Cor. 4.17 , 18. by the contempt of the world , and suffering afflictions for the hopes of Heaven : [ For our light affliction , which is but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; while we look not at the things which are seen , but at the things which are not seen : for the things which are seen are temporal , but the things which are not seen are eternal . ] Our Faith is our victory over the world , even in the very nature of it , and not only in the remote effect ; for its aspect and believing approaches to God and the things unseen , and a proportionable recess from the things which are seen , is one and the same motion of the soul , denominated variously from its various respects to the terminus ad quem , and à quo . Direct . 6. Remember , that as God to be believed in , is the principal and final object of Faith ; so the kindling of love to God in the soul , is the principal use and effect of Faith : And to live by Faith , is but to love ( obey and suffer ) by Faith. Faith working by Love , is the description of our Christianity , Gal. 5.6 . As Christ is the Way to the Father , Joh. 14.6 . and came into the world to recover Apostate man to God , to love him , and be beloved by him ; so the true use of Faith in Jesus Christ , is to be as it were the bellows to kindle love ; or the burning-glass as it were of the soul , to receive the beams of the Love of God , as they shine upon us in Jesus Christ , and thereby to enflame our hearts in love to God again . Therefore if you would live by Faith indeed , begin here , and first receive the deepest apprehensions of that Love of the Father ; Who so loved the world , that he gave his only begotten Son , that whosoever believeth in him , should not perish , but have everlasting life : And by these apprehensi●ns , stir up your hearts to the Love of God ; and make this very endeavour the work and business of your lives . Oh that mistaken Christians would be rectified in this point ! how much would it tend to their holiness and their peace ? You think of almost nothing of the life of Faith ; but how to believe that you have a special interest in Christ , and shall be saved by him : But you have first another work to do : You must first believe that common Love and Grace before mentioned , John 3.16 . 2 Cor. 5.19 , 20.14 , 15. 1 Tim. 2.6 . Heb. 2.9 . And you must believe your own interest in this ; that is , that God hath by Christ , made to all , and therefore unto you , an act of oblivion , and free deed of gift , that you shall have Christ , and pardon , and eternal life , if you will believingly accept the gift , and will not finally reject it . And the belief of this , even of this common Love and Grace , must first perswade your hearts accordingly to accept the offer , ( and then you have a special interest ) and withall , at the same time , must kindle in your souls a thankful love to the Lord and fountain of this grace : and if you were so ingenuous as to begin here , and first use your Faith upon the foresaid common gift of Christ , for the kindling of love to God within you , and would account this the work which Faith hath every day to do ; you would then find that in the very exciting and exercise of this holy Love , your assurance of your own special interest in Christ , would be sooner and more comfortably brought about , than by searching to find either evidence of pardon before you find your love to God ; or to find your love to God , before you have laboured to get and exercise it . I tell you , they are dangerous deceivers of your souls , that shall contradict this obvious truth ; that the true method and motive of mans first special love to God , must not be by believing first God 's special love to us ; but by believing his more common love and mercy in the general act and offer of grace before mentioned . For he that believeth Gods special love to him , and his special interest in Christ , before he hath any special love to God , doth sinfully presume , and not believe . For if by Gods special love , you mean his love of complacency to you , as a living member of Christ ; to believe this before you love God truly , is to believe a dangerous lie : and if you mean only , Gods love of benevolence , by which he decreeth to make you the objects of his foresaid complacency , and to sanctifie and save you ; to believe this before you truly love God , is to believe that which is utterly unknown to you , and may be false for ought you know , but is not at all revealed by God , and therefore is not the object of Faith. Therefore if you cannot have true assurance or perswasion of your special interest in Christ , and of your justification , before you have a special love to God , then this special love must be kindled ( I say not by a common Faith , but ) by a true Faith in the General Love and Promise mentioned before . Nay , you must not only have first this special love ; but also must have so much knowledge , that indeed you have it , as you will have knowledge of your special interest in Christ , and the love of God : for no act of Faith will truly evidence special grace , which is not immediately and intimately accompanied with true love to God our Father and Redeemer , and the ultimate object of our Faith : Nor can you any further perceive or prove , the sincerity of your Faith it self , than you discern in or with it , the Love here mentioned . For Faith is not only an act of the Intellect , but of the Will also : And there is no volition or consent to this or any offered good , which hath not in it the true nature of Love : and the intention of the end , being in order of nature , before our choice or use of means ; the intending of God as our end , cannot come behind that act of Faith , which is about Christ as the chosen means or way to God. Therefore make this your great and principal use of your Faith , to receive all the expressions of Gods Love in Christ , and thereby to kindle in you a love to God ; that first the special true belief of Gods more common love and grace , may kindle in you a special love , and then the sense of this may assure you of your special interest in Christ ; and then the assurance of that special interest , may increase your love to a much higher degree : And thus live by Faith in the work of Love. Direct . 7. That you may understand what that Faith is which you must live by , take in all the parts ( at least that are essential to it ) in your description ; and take not some parcels of it for the Christian Faith ; nor think no● that it must needs be several sorts of Faith , if it have several objects ; and hearken not to that dull Philosophical subtilty , which would perswade you that Faith is but some single physical act of the soul . 1. If you know not what Faith is , it must needs be a great hinderance to you , in the seeking of it , the trying it , and the using it . For though one may use his natural faculties , which work by natural inclination and necessity , without knowing what they are ; yet it is not so where the choice of the rational appetite is necessary ; for it must be guided by the reasoning faculty . And though unlearned persons may have and use Repentance , Faith , and other graces , who cannot define them ; yet they do truly ( though not perfectly ) know the thing it self , though they know not the terms of a just definition : and all defect of knowing the true nature of Faith , will be some hinderance to us in using it . 2. It is a moral subject which we are speaking of ; and terms are to be understood according to the nature of the subject : therefore Faith is to be taken for a moral act , which comprehendeth many physical acts : Such as is the act of believing in , or taking such a man for my Physician , or my Master , or my Tutor , or my King. Even our Philosophers themselves know not what doth individuate a physical act of the soul ▪ ( Nay , they are not agreed whether its acts should be called physical properly , or not . ) Nay , they cannot tell what doth individuate an act of sense ; whether when my eye doth at once see many words and letters of my Book , every word or letter doth make as many individual acts , by being so many objects ? And if so , whether the parts of every letter also do not constitute an individual act ; and where we shall here stop . And must all these trifles be considered in our Faith ? Assenting to the truths is not one Faith ( unless when separated from the rest ) and consenting to the good , another act : Nor is it one Faith to believe the promise , and another to believe the pardon of sin , and another to believe salvation , and another to believe in God , and another to believe in Jesus Christ ; nor one to believe in Christ as our Ransom , and another as our Intercessor , and another as our Teacher , and another as our King , and another to believe in the Holy Ghost , &c. I deny not but some one of these may be separated from the rest , and being so separated may be called Faith ; but not the Christian Faith , but only a material parcel of it , which is like the limb of a man , or of a tree , which cut off from the rest , is dead , and ceaseth when separated to be a part , any otherwise than Logical ( a part of the description . ) The Faith which hath the promise of salvation , and which you must live by , hath 1. God for the Principal Revealer , and his Veracity for its formal object . 2. It hath Christ , and Angels , and Prophets , and Apostles , for the sub-revealers . 3. It hath the Holy Ghost by the divine attesting operations before described , to be the seal and the confirmer . 4. It hath the same Holy Ghost for the internal exciter of it . 5. It hath all truths of known divine revelation , and all good of known divine donation by his Covenant , to be the material general object . 6. It hath the Covenant of Grace , and the holy Scriptures , ( and formerly the voice of Christ and his Apostles ) or any such sign of the mind of God , for the instrumental efficient cause of the object in esse cognito : And also the instrumental efficient of the act . 7. It hath the pure Deity , God himself , as he is to be known and loved , inceptively here , and perfectly in Heaven , for the final and most necessary material object . 8. It hath the Lord Jesus Christ , entirely in all essential to him , as God and Man , and as our Redeemer or Saviour , as our Ransome , Intercessor , Teacher and Ruler , for the most necessary , mediate , material object . 9. It hath the gifts of Pardon , Justification , the Spirit of Sanctification or Love , and all the necessary gifts of the Covenant , for the material , never-final objects . And all this is essential to the Christian Faith , even to that Fath which hath the promise of pardon and salvation : And no one of these must be totally left out in the definition of it , if you would not be deceived . It is Heresie , and not the Christian Faith , if it exclude any one essential part : And if it include it not , it is Infidelity : And indeed there is such a connexion of the objects , that there is no part ( in truth ) where there is not the whole . And it is impiety if any one part of the offered good that is necessary , be refused . It is no true Faith , if it be not a true composition of all these . Direct . 8. There is no nearer way to know what true Faith is , than truly to understand what your Baptismal Covenanting did contain . In Scripture phrase , to be a Disciple , a Believer , and a Christian , is all one , Acts 11.26 . Acts 5.14 . 1 Tim. 4.12 . Matth. 10.42 . & 27.57 . Luke 14.26 , 27 , 33. Acts 21.16 . Joh. 9.28 . And to be a Believer , and to have Belief or Faith , is all one : and therefore to be a Christian , and to have Faith , is all one . Christianity signifieth either our first entrance into the Christian State , or our progress in it . ( As Marriage signifieth either Matrimony , or the Conjugal State continued in . ) In the latter sense Christianity signifieth more than Faith ; for more than Faith is necessary to a Christian . But in the former sense , as Christianity signifieth but our becoming Christians , by our covenanting with God ; so to have Faith , or to be a Believer , and internally to become a Christian in Scripture sense , is all one ; and the outward covenanting is but the profession of Faith or Christianity : Not that the word Faith is never taken in a narrower sense , or that Christianity , as it is our heart-covenant or consent , containeth nothing but Faith , as Faith is so taken in the narrowest sense : But when Faith is taken ( as ordinarily in Scripture ) for that which is made the condition of Justification and Salvation , and opposed to Heathenism , Infidelity , Judaism , or the works of the Law , it is commonly taken in this larger sense . Faith is well enough described to them , that understand what is implyed , by the usual shorter description ; as , that it is a believing acceptance of Christ , and relying on him as our Saviour , or for salvation : Or , a belief of pardon , and the heavenly Glory as procured by the Redemption wrought by Christ , and given by God in the Covenant of Grace : But the reason is , because all the rest is connoted , and so to be understood by us , as if it were exprest in words : But the true and full definition of it is this . The Christian Faith which is required at Baptism , and then professed , and hath the promise of Justification and Glorification , is a true Belief of the Gospel , and an acceptance of , and consent unto the Covenant of Grace : Particularly , a believing that God is our Creatour , our Owner , our Ruler , and our Chief Good ; and that Jesus Christ is God and man , our Saviour , our Ransoms , our Teacher , and our King ; and that the Holy Ghost is the Sanctifier of the Church of Christ : And it is an understanding , serious consent , that this God the Father , Son and Holy Ghost , be my God and reconciled Father in Christ , my Saviour , and my Sanctifier ; to justifie me , sanctifie me , and glorifie me , in the perfect knowledge of God , and mutual complacence in Heaven ; which belief and consent wrought in me by the Word and Spirit of Christ , is grounded upon the Veracity of God as the chief Revealer , and upon his Love and Mercy as the Donor ; and upon Christ and his Apostles as the Messengers of God ; and upon the Gospel , and specially the Covenant of Grace , as the instrumental Revelation and Donation it self : And upon the many signal operations of the Holy Ghost , as the divine infallible attestation of their truth . Learn this definition , and understand it throughly , and it may prove a more solid useful knowledge ( to have the true nature of Faith or Christianity thus methodically printed on your minds ) than to read over a thousand volumes in a rambling and confused way of knowledge . If any quarrel at this definition , because the foundation is not first set down , I only tell him that no Logicians do judge of the Logical order of words by the meer priority and posteriority of place . And if any think that here is more than every true Christian doth understand and remember , I answer , that here is no more than every true Christian hath a true knowledge of ; though perhaps every one have not a knowledge so methodical , explicite and distinct , as to define Faith thus , or to think so distinctly and clearly of it , as others do , or to be able by words to express to another , what he hath a real conception of in himself . There is first in the mind of man a conception of the Object or Matter ( by those words or means which introduce it ) and next that verbum mentis , or inward word , which is a distincter conception of the matter in the mould of such notions as may be exprest ; and next the verbum oris , the word of mouth expresseth it . Now many have the conception of the matter , long before they have the verbum mentis , or logical notions of it : And many have the verbum mentis , who by a hesitant tongue are hindered from oral expressions ; and in both , there are divers degrees of distinctness and clearness . Direct . 9. Turn not plain Gospel Doctrine into the Philosophical fooleries of wrangling and ill-moulded wits ; nor feign to your selves any new notions , or offices of Faith , or any new terms as necessary , which are not in the holy Scriptures . I do not say , use no terms which are not in the Scriptures : for the Scriptures were not written in English : Nor do I perswade you to use no other notions than the Scriptures use ; but only that you use them not as necessary , and lay not too great a stress upon them . I confess new Heresies may give occasion for new words ( as the Bishops in the first Councel of Nice thought : ) And yet as Hilary vehemently enveigheth against making new Creeds on such pretences , and wisheth no such practice had been known ( not excepting theirs at Nice ) because it taught the Hereticks and contenders to imitate them : and they that made the third Creed , might have the like arguments for it as those that made the second ; and he knew not when there would be any end ; so I could wish that there had been no new notions in the Doctrine of Faith , so much as used ; for the same reasons : And especially because that while the first inventers do but use them , the next Age which followeth them , will hold them necessary , and lay the Churches communion and peace upon them . For instance , I think the word [ satisfaction ] as used by the Orthodox , is of a very sound sense in our Controversies against the Socinians : And yet I will never account it necessary , as long as it is not in the Scriptures , and as long as the words [ Sacrifice , Ransome , Price , Propitiation , Attonement , &c. ] which the Scripture useth , are full as good . So I think that [ imputing Christs Righteousness to us ] is a phrase which the Orthodox use in a very sound sense : And yet as long as it is not used by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures ; and there are other phrases enough , which as well , or better , express the true sense , I will never hold it necessary . So also the notions and phrases of [ Faith being the instrument of our Justification ] and [ Faith justifieth only obj●ctively ] and [ that Faith justifieth only as it receiveth Christs blood , or Christs Righteousness , or Christ as a Priest ] [ that Faith is only one physical act : that it is only in the understanding ; or only in the will ; that its only Justifying act is Recumbency , or resting on Christ for Justification ; that it is not an action , but a passion , that all acts of Faith save one , and that one as an act , are the works which Paul excludeth from our Justification ; and that to expect Justification , by believing in Christ for Sanctification , or Glorification , or by believing in him as our Teacher , or King , or Justifying Judge , or by Repenting , or Loving God , or Christ , as our Redeemer , or by confessing our sins , and praying for Pardon and Justification , &c. is to exp●ct Justification by Works , and so to fall from Grace or true Justification ; that he that will escape this pernicious expectance of Justification by Works , must know what that one act of Faith is by which only we are justified , and must expect Justification by it only relatively ( that is , not by it at all , but by Christ , say some ) or as an Instrument ( say others ) &c. Many of these Assertions are pernicious errours ; most of them false ; and the best of them are the unnec●ssary inventions of mens dark , yet busie wits , who condemn their own Doctrine by their practice , and their practice by their Doctrine ; whilst they cry up the sufficiency of the Scriptures , and cry down other mens additions , and yet so largely add themselves . Direct . 10. Take heed lest parties and contendings tempt you to lay so much upon the right notion or doctrines of Faith , as to take up with these alone as true Christianity ; and to take a dead Opinion , instead of the life of Faith. This dogmatical Christianity cheateth many thousands into Hell , who would scarce be led so quietly thither , if they knew that they are indeed no Christians . It is ordinary , by the advantages of education , and converse , and teachers , and books , and studies , and the custome of the times , and the countenance of Christian Rulers , and for reputation , and worldly advantage , &c. to fall into right opinions about Christ , and Faith , and Godliness , and Heaven ; and tenaciously to defend these in disputings ; and perhaps to make a trade of preaching of it : And what is all this to the saving of the soul , if there be no more ? And yet the case of many Learned Orthodox men , is greatly to be pittied , who make that a means to cheat and undo themselves , which should be the only wisdom and way to life ; and know but little more of Christianity , than to hold , and defend , and teach sound Doctrine , and to practise it so far as the interest of the flesh will give them leave ; I had almost said , so far as the flesh it self will command them to do well , and sin it self forbiddeth sin ; that it may not disgrace them in the world , nor bring some hurt or punishment upon them . Direct . 11. Set not any other Graces against Faith ; as raising a jealousie left the honouring of one , be a diminution of the honour of the other : But labour to see the necessary and harmonious consent of all , and how all contribute to the common end . Though other graces are not Faith , and have not the office proper to Faith ; yet every one is conjunct in the work of our salvation , and in our pleasing and glorifying God : Some of them being the concomitants of Faith , and some of them its end , to which it is a means : Yea , oft-times the words [ Faith and Repentance ] are used as signifying much of the same works , the latter named from the respect to the term from which , and the former from the respect to part of the term to which the soul is moving : And Faith is oft taken as containing somewhat of Love and Desire in it ; and he that will without any prejudice and partiality study Paul where he opposeth Faith and Works , as to our Justification , shall find by his almost constant naming [ the Works of the Law ] or by the context and analysis , that indeed his chief meaning is to prove , that we are justified by the Christian Religion , and must be s●ved by it , and not by the Jewish ▪ which the adversaries of Christianity then pleaded for , and trusted to . Direct . 12. Set not the helps of Faith as if they were against Faith ; but understand their several places and offices , and use them accordingly . Do not like those ignorant self-conceited Hereticks , who cry out , [ It is by Believing , and not by Repenting , or Reading , or Hearing Sermons , or by Praying , or by forbearing sin , or by doing good , that we are justified ; and therefore it is by Faith only that we are saved ; the same which is sufficient for our Justification , being sufficient for our salvation ; seeing the Justified cannot be condemned ; and Justification and Salvation are both equally ascribed to Faith without the works of the Law by the Apostle . ] For we are justified only by such a Faith , as is caused by Gods Word , and maintained and actuated by Hearing , Reading , Meditation , Prayer and Sacraments ; and as is accompanied by Repentance , and worketh by Love , and is indeed the beholding of those invisible and glorious motives , which may incite our Love , and set us on good works , and obedience to our Redeemer . And he that by negligence omitteth , or by errour excludeth any one of these , in the Life of Faith , will find that he hath erred against his own interest , peace and comfort , if not against his own salvation . And that he might as wisely have disputed that it is his eyes only that must see his way , and therefore he may travel without his legs . Direct . 13. Take heed left a misconceit of the certainty of some common Philosophical Opinions , should make you stagger in those Articles of Faith which seem to contradict them . Not that indeed any truths can be contrary one to another : For that which is true in Philosophy , is contrary to no one truth in Theology : But Philosophers have deceived themselves and the world , with a multitude of uncertainties and falsities ; and by straining them to subtil niceties , and locking them up in uncouth terms , have kept the common people from trying them , and understanding them ; and thereby have made it their own prerogative explicitely to erre , and the peoples duty not to contradict them ; but to admire that errour as profound parts of learning , which they cannot understand . And then their conclusions oft go for principles which must not be gainsayed , when they are perhaps either false , or non-sense . And then when they meet with any thing in Scripture , which crosseth their opinions , the reputation of humane folly maketh them despise the wisdom of God. I have given you elsewhere some instances about the immortality of the soul : They know not what Generation is ; they do not know it : nor what are the true principles and elements of mixt bodies ; nor what is the true d●fference between immaterial and material substances ; with an hundred such like : And yet some expect , that we should sacrifice the most certain useful truths , to their false or uncertain useless suppositions , which is the true reason why Paul saith , Col. 2.8 , 9 , 10. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy , and vain deceit ( not true Philosophy , which is the true knowledge of the works of God , but the vain models which every Sect of them cryed up ) after the tradition of men ( that is , the opinions of the Masters of their Sects ) after the rudiments of the world , and not after Christ : For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ; and ye are compleat in him . See Act. 17.18 . It is Christ who is the kernel and summary of the Christian Philosophy ; who is therefore called The Wisdom of God , 1 Cor. 1.24 , 30. both because he is the heavenly Teacher of true Wisdom , and because that true Wisdom consisteth in knowing him . And indeed even in those times , the several Sects of Philosophers accounted much of each others principles to be erroneous ; and the Philosophers of these times , begin to vilifie them all ; and withall to confess that they have yet little of certainty to substitute in the room of the demolished Idols ; but they are about their experiments , to try if any thing in time may be found out . Direct . 14. Especially take heed lest you be cheated into Infidelity , by the Dominicans Metaphysical Doctrine , of the necessity of Gods Physical predetermining promotion as the first total cause , to the being of every action natural and free , not only in genere actionis , but also as respectively and comparatively exercised on this object rather than on that . I add this only for the learned , who are as much in danger of Infidelity as others ; and will use it to the greater injury of the truth . I will meddle now with no other reasons of my advice , but what the subject in hand requireth . If God can , and do thus premove and predetermine the mind , will and tongue of every lyar in the world to every lye ( or material falshood ) which ever they did conceive or speak , there will be no certainty of the Gospel , nor of any Divine Revelation at all : Seeing all such certainty is resolved into Gods Veracity : that God cannot lye . And God speaketh not to us , by any but a created voice : and if he can thus predetermine others to those words which are a lye , rather than to the contrary which are true , there would be no certainty , but he may do so by Prophets and Apostles : and let them tell you what they will of the greater certainty of Inspirations and Miracles , than of Predeterminations , it will be found upon tryal , that no man can prove , or make it so much as probable , that any inspiration hath more of a Divine Causation , than such a premoving predetermination as aforesaid doth amount to ; much less so much more , as will prove that one is more certain than the other . This Doctrine therefore which undeniably ( whatever may be wrangled ) taketh down Christianity , and all belief of God or man , is not to be believed meerly upon such a Philosophical conceit , that every Action is a Being , and therefore must in all its circumstances be caused by God. As if God were not able to make a faculty , which can determine its own comparative act to this rather than to that , by his sustentation , and universal precausation and concourse , without the said predetermining premotion : When as an Action as such is but a modus entis ; and the comparative exercise of it , on this rather than on that , is but a modus vel circumstantia modi . And they leave no work , for gracious determination , because that natural determination doth all the same thing ( equally to duty and sin ) without it . Direct . 15. Consider well how much all humane converse is maintained by the necessary belief of one another , and what the world would be without it ; and how much you expect your selves to be believed : And then think how much more belief is due to God. Though sin hath made the world so bad , that we may say , that all men are lyars , that is , deceitful vanity , and little to be trusted ; yet the honesty of those that are more vertuous , doth help so far to keep up the honour of veracity , and the shamefulness of lying , that throughout the world , a lye is in disgrace , and truth in speech and dealing is well spoken of . And the remnants of natural honesty in the worst , do so far second the true honesty of the best , that no man is so well spoken of commonly in the world , as a man of truth and trustiness , whose Word is his Law and Master , and never speaketh deceitfully to any : Nor no man is so commonly ill spoken of as a knave , as he that will lye , and is not to be trusted : In so much , that even those debauched Ruffians , who live as if they said in their hearts , There is no God , will yet venture their lives in revenge against him that shall give them the lye . Perhaps you will say , that this is not from any vertue , or natural Law , or honesty , but from common interest , there being nothing more the interest of mankind , than that men be trusty to each other . To which I answer , that you oppose things which are conjunct : It is both : For all Gods natural Laws are for the interest of mankind , and that which is truly most for our good , is made most our duty ; and that which is most our duty , is most for our good . And that which is so much for the interest of mankind , must needs be good : If it were not for credibility and trustiness in men , there were no living in families ; but Masters and Servants , Parents and Children , Husbands and Wives , would live together as enemies : And neigbours would be as so many thieves to one another : There could be no Society or Common-wealth , when Prince and people could put no trust in one another : Nay , thieves themselves , that are not to be trusted by any others , do yet strengthen themselves by confederacies , and oaths of secrecy , and gather into troops and armies , and there put trust in one another . And can we think that GOD is not much more to be trusted , and is not a greater hater of a lye ? and is not the fountain of all fidelity ? and hath not a greater care of the interest of his creatures ? Surely he that thinketh that God is a lyar , and not to be trusted , will think no better of any mortal man or Angel ( and therefore trusteth no one , and is very censorious ) and would be thought no better of himself , and therefore would have none believe or trust him : For who would be better than his God ? Direct . 16. Consider also that Veracity in God is his nature or essence ; and cannot be denyed without denying him to be God. For it is nothing but his three Essentialities , or Principles , Power , Wisdom and Goodness , as they are expressed in his Word or Revelations , as congruous to his mind , and to the matter expressed . He that neither wanteth knowledge ( to know what to say and do ) nor Goodness ( to love truth , and hate all evil ) nor Power to do what he please , and to make good his word , cannot possibly lye ; because every lye is for want of one , or more of these , Heb. 6.18 . Titus 1.12 . And there as it is said , that he cannot lye , and that it is impossible ; so it is called , a denying of himself , if he could be unfaithfull , 2 Tim. 2.13 . If we believe not , yet be abideth faithful , and cannot deny himself . Direct . 17. Exercise Faith much in those proper works , in which self and sense are most denyed and overcome . Bodily motions and labours which we are not used to , are done both unskilfully , and with pain . If Faith be not much exercised in its warfare , and victorious acts , you will neither know its strength , nor find it to be strong , when you come to use it . It is not the easie and common acts of Faith , which will serve turn , to try and strengthen it . As the life of sense is the adversary which Faith must conquer ; so use it much in such conflicts and conquests , if you would find it strong and usefull : Use it in such acts of mortification and self-denyal , as will plainly shew , that it over ruleth sense : Use it in patience and rejoycing in such sufferings , and in contentment in so low and cross a state , where you are sure that sight and sense do not contribute to your peace and joy : Use it not only in giving some little of your superfluities , but in giving your whole two mites , even all your substance , and selling all and giving to the poor , when indeed God maketh it your duty : At least in forsaking all for his sake in a day of tryal . Faith never doth work so like it self , so clearly , so powerfully , and so comfortably , as in these self-denying and overcoming acts , when it doth not work alone , without the help of sense to comfort us ; but also against sense , which would discourage us , Luke 18.22 , 23. & 14.26 , 33. 2 Cor. 5.7 . Direct . 18. Keep a constant observation of Gods converse with your hearts , and workings on them . For as I said before , there are within us such demonstrations of a Kingdom of God , in precepts , mercies , rewards and punishments , that he which well worketh them , will have much help in the maintaining and exercising his belief , of the everlasting Kingdom : Especially the godly , who have that Spirit there working , which is indeed the very seal , and pledge , and earnest of life eternal , 2 Cor. 1.22 . & 5.5 . Ephes . 1.13 , 14. Gal. 4.5 , 6. Rom. 8.16 , 17. There is so much of God and Heaven in a true Believers heart , that ( as we see the Moon and Stars when we look down into the water , so ) we may see much of God and Heaven within us , if the heart it self be throughly studied . And I must add ; that Experiences here must be carefully recorded : and when God fulfilleth promises to us , it must not be forgotten . Direct . 19. Converse much with them that live by Faith , and fetch their motives and comforts from the things unseen . Converse hath a transforming power . To converse with them that live all by sense , and shew no other desires , or joyes , or sorrows , but what are fetched from fleshly sensible things , is a great means to draw us downwards with them . And to converse with them who converse in Heaven ; and speak of nothing else so comfortably or so seriously ; who shew us that Heaven is the place they travel to , and the state that all their life doth aim ; and who make little of all the wants or plenty , pains or pleasures of the flesh ; this much conduceth to make us heavenly . As men are apt to learn and use the language , the motives , and the employments of the Country and people where they live ; so he that is most familiar with such as live by Faith , upon things unseen , and take Gods promise for full security , hath a very great help to learn and live that life himself , Heb. 10.24 , 25. 1 Thes . 4.17 , 18. Phil. 3.20 , 21. Direct . 20. Forget not the nearness of the things unseen , and think not of a long continuance in this world ; but live in continual expectation of your change . Distant things , be they never so great , do hardly move us : As in bodily motion , the mover must be contiguous : And as our senses are not fit to apprehend beyond a certain distance ; so our minds also are finite , and have their bounds and measure : And sin hath made them much narrower , foolish and 〈◊〉 - sighted than they would have been . A certainty of dying 〈◊〉 last , should do much with us : But yet he that looketh to live long on earth , will the more hardly live by Faith in Heaven ; when he that daily waiteth for his change , will have easily the more serious and effectual thoughts of the world in which he must live next , and of all the preparations necessary thereunto ; and will the more easily despise the things on earth , which are the employment and felicity of the sensual , Col. 3.1 , 2 , 3. Phil. 1.20 , 21 , 22 , 23. 1 Cor. 15.31 . As we see it in constant experience in men , when they see that they must presently die indeed , how light then set they by the world ? how little are they moved with the talk of honour , with the voice of mirth , with the sight of meat , or drink , or beauty , or any thing which before they had not power to deny ? and how seriously they will then talk of sin and grace , of God and Heaven , which before they could not be awakened to regard ? If therefore you would live by faith indeed , set your selves as at the entrance of that world which faith foreseeth , and live as men that know they may die to morrow , and certainly must be gone ere long . Dream not of I know not how many years more on earth , which God never promised you ; unl●ss you make it your business to vanquish faith by setting its objects at a greater distance than God hath set them . Learn Christs warning to one and all , To watch , and to be alwaies ready , Mark 13.33 , 35 , 37. 1 Pet. 4 ▪ 7. Mat. 24.44 . Luke 12.40 . He that thinketh he hath yet time enough , and day-light before him , will be the apter to loiter in his work or Journey : When every man will make haste when the Sun is setting , if he have much to do , or far to go . Delaies which are the great preventers of Repentance , and undoers of the world , do take their greatest advantage from this ungrounded expectation of long life . When they hear the Physician say , He is a dead man , and there is no hope , then they would fain begin to live , and then how religious and reformed would they be ? whereas if this foolish errour did not hinder them , they might be of the same mind all their lives , and might have then done their work , and waited with desire for the Crown ; and said with Paul , For I am now ready to be offered , and the time of my departure is at hand : I have fought a good fight , I have finished my course , I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness , which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day ; and not to me only , but to them also that love his appearing , 2 Tim. 4.6 , 7 , 8. And so much for the General Directions to be observed by them that will live by Faith : I only add , that as the well doing of all our particular duties , dependeth most on the common health and soundness of the soul , in its state of grace ; so our living by Faith in all the particular cases after instanced , doth depend more upon these General Directions , than on the particular ones which are next to be adjoyned . CHAP. I. An Enumeration of the Particular Cases in which especially Faith must be used . 1. How to live by Faith on GOD. THE General Directions before given must be practised in all the Particular Cases following , or in order to them : But besides them , it is needful to have some special Directions for each Case . And the particular Cases which I shall instance in are these : 1. How to exercise Faith on GOD himself : 2. Upon Jesus Christ : 3. Upon the Holy Ghost : 4. About the Scripture Precepts and Examples : 5. About the Scripture Promises : 6. About the Threatnings : 7. About Pardon of sin , and Justification : 8. About Sanctification , and the exercises of other Graces ; 9. Against inward vices and temptations to actual sin : 10. In case of Prosperity : 11. In Adversity and particular Afflictions : 12. In Gods Worship , publick and private : 13. For Spiritual Peace and Joy : 14. For the World , and the Church of God : 15. For our Relations : 16. In loving others as our selves : 17. About Heaven , and following the Saints : 18. How to die in Faith : 19. About the coming of Christ to Judgement . GOD is both the object of our knowledge , as he is revealed in Nature , and of our Faith , as he is revealed in the holy Scriptures . He is the first and last object of our Faith. It is life eternal to know him the only true God , and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent . Ye believe in God , believe also in me ; was Christs order in commanding and causing Faith , Joh. 14.1 . Seeing therefore this is the principal part of Faith ( to know God , and live upon him , and to him ) I shall give you many ( though brief ) Directions in it . Direct . 1. Behold the glorious and full demonstrations of the Being of the Deity , in the whole frame of nature , and especially in your selves . The great argument from the Effect to the Cause , is unanswerable . All the caused and derived Beings in the world , must needs have a first Being for their cause : All Action , Intellection and Volition ; all Power , Wisdom and Goodness , which is caused by another , doth prove that the cause can have no less than the total effect hath . To see the world , and to know what a man is , and yet to deny that there is a God , is to be mad . He that will not know that which all the world doth more plainly preach , than words can possibly express , and will not know the sense of his own Being and faculties , doth declare himself uncapable of teaching , Psal . 14.1 . & 49.12 , 20. Isa . 1.2 , 3. It is the greatest shame that mans understanding is capable of , to be ignorant of God , 1 Cor. 15.34 . and the greatest shame to any Nation , Hos . 4.1 . & 6.6 . As it is the highest advancement of the mind , to know him , and therefore the summ of all our duty , Prov. 2.5 . Hos . 6 . 6· 2 Chron. 30.21 , 22. Isa . 11.9 . 2 Pet. 2.20 . Rom. 1.20 , 28. Joh. 17.3 . Direct . 2. Therefore take not the Being and Perfections of God , for superstructures and conclusions , which may be tryed , and made bow to the interest of other points ; but as the greatest , clearest , surest truths , next to the knowledge of our own Being and Intellection : And that which all other ( at least , not the proper objects of sense ) must be tryed and reduced to . When there is no right method or order of knowledge , there is no true and solid knowledge . It is distraction , and not knowing , to begin at the top , and to lay the foundation last , and reduce things certain to things uncertain . And it is no wiselier done of Atheists , who argue from their apprehensions of other things , against the Beings or Perfections of God. As when they say , [ There is much evil in the world permitted by God ; and there is death , and many tormenting pains befall even the innocent bruits ; and there are wars and confusions , and ignorance and wickedness , have dominion in the earth : Therefore God is not perfectly good ; nor perfectly wise , and just , and powerful in his government of the world . ] The errour in the method of arguing here , helpeth to continue their blindness . That God is perfectly good , is prius cognitum : Nothing is more certain than that he , who is the cause of all the derived goodness in the whole Universe , must have as much or more than all himself : Seeing therefore that Heaven and Earth , and all things , bear so evident a witness to this truth , this is the foundation , and first to be laid , and never more questioned , nor any argument brought against it . For all that possibly can be said against it ; must be à minus notis , from that which is more obscure . Seeing then that it is most certain by sense , that calamities and evils are in the world ; and no less certain that there is a God , who is most perfectly good ; it must needs follow that these two are perfectly consistent ; and that some other cause of evil must be found out , than any imperfection in the chief good . But as to the Being of things , and Order in the world , it followeth not that They must be as g●od and perfect as their Maker and Governour is himself : nor one part as good and perfect in it self as any other . Because it was not the Creatours purpose when he made the world , to make another God , that should be equal with himself ( for two Infinite Beings and Perfections , is a contradiction . ) But it was his will to imprint such measures of his own likeness and excellencies upon the creatures , and with such variety , as his wisdom saw fittest ; the reasons of which are beyond our search : The Divine Agency , as it is in him the Agent , is perfect : But the effect hath those measures of goodness which he was freely pleased to communicate . And as I have given you this instance , to shew the folly of trying the certain foundation by the less certain notions or accidents in the world ; so you must abhor the same errour in all other instances : Some wit may consist with the questioning of many plain conclusions : But he is a fool indeed , who saith , There is no God , or doubteth of his essential properties , Psal . 14.1 , 2. Rom. 1.19 , 20 , 21. Direct 3. Remember that all our knowledge of God , while we are in the body here , is but enigmatical , and as in a glass ; and that all words which man can speak of God ( at least except Being and Substance ) are but terms bel●w him , borrowed from his Image on the Creatures , and not s●gnifying the same thing formal●y in God , which they signifie in us . If you think otherwise , you will make an Idol in your conception , instead of God : And you will debase him , and bring him down to the condition of the creature . And yet it doth not follow that we know nothing of him , or that all such expressions of God are vain , or false , or must be difused : For then we must not think or talk of God at all . But we must speak of him according to the highest notions , which we can borrow from the nobl●st parts of his Image ; confessing still , that they are but borrowed : And these must be used till we come nearer , and see as face to face ; and when that which is perfect is come , then that which is imperfect shall be done away , 1 Cor. 13.10 , 11 , 12. And yet it is ( in comparison of darker revelations ) as with open face that we behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord ; and it is a sight that can change us into the same Image , as from glory to glory , as by the Spirit of the Lord , 2 Cor. 3.18 . D●rect . 4. Abhor the furious ignorance , which brandeth every one with the names of heresie or blasphemy , who differ from them in the use of some unnecessary metaphor of God , when their different phrases tend not indeed to his dishonour , and perhaps may have the same signification with their own . When we are all forced to confess , that all our tearms of God are improper or metaphorical , and yet m●n will run those metaphors into numerous branches , and carry them unto greater impropriety , and then rail at all as blasphemers that question them ; this practice is ( though too common ) a heinous sin in them , as it hath direful effects upon the Church . Should I recite the sad histories of this iniquity , and shew what it hath done between the Greek and Latine Churches , and between those called Orthodox and Catholick , and many through the world that have been numbered with Hereticks ; it would be too large a subject for our sorrow and complaints . Direct . 5. Abhor presumptu●us curiosities in enquiring into the secret things of God ; much more in pretending to know them ; and most of all in reviling and contending against others upon those pretences . It is sad to observe abundance of seemingly learned men , who are posed in the smallest creature which they study , yet talking as confidently of the unsearchable things of God ; yea and raving as furiously and voluminously against all that contradict them , as if they had dwelt in the inaccessible light , and knew all the order of the acts of God , much better than they know themselves , and the motions of their own minds ; or better than they can anatomize a worm or a beast . They that will not presume to say , that they know the secrets of their Prince , or the heart of any of their neighbours ; yea they that perceive the difficulty of knowing the state of a mans own soul , because our hearts are a maze and labyrinth , and o●r thoughts so various and confused , can yet give you so exact a Scheme of all Gods conceptions , that it shall be no less than heresie to question the order of any part of it . They can tell you what Idea's are in the mind of God , and in what order they lye ; and how those Idea's are the same unchanged about things that are changed ; about things past , and present , and to come ; and what futurition was from Eternity , as in the Idea of Gods mind ; they can tell me in what order he knoweth things , and by what means ; and whether future contingents are known to him in their causes , or in his decree , or in their coexistence in eternity : They can tell what Decrees he hath about Negatives ; as that such a man shall not have Faith given him ; that millions of things possible shall not be , that you shall not be a plant , or a beast , nor any other man , nor called by any other name , &c. And how all Gods Decrees are indeed but One , and yet not only unconceivably numerous , but the order of them as to priority and posteriority , is to be exactly defined and defended , though to the detriment of charity and peace : As to sin , they can tell you , whether he have a real positive Decree , de re eveniente , or only de eventu rei , or only de propriâ permissione eventus , i. e. de non impediendo , i. e. de non agendo ; whether non agere need and have a positive act of Volition or Nolition antecedent ; Though they know not when they hear the sound of the wind , either whence it cometh , or whither it goeth ; yet know they all the methods of the Spirit : They know how God as the first-mover , predetermineth the motions of all Agents , natural and free , and whether his influence be upon the essence , or faculty , or act immediately ; and what that influx is . In a word , how voluminously do they darken counsel by words without knowledge ? As if they had never read Gods large expostulation with Job ( 42 &c. ) Deut. 29 29. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God ; but those things which are revealed , unto us , and to our children for ever , that we may do all the words of this Law. Even an Angel could say to Manoah , Judg. 13.18 . Why askest thou thus after my name , seeing it is secret ? No man hath seen God at any time , ( saving ) the only begotten Son , who is in the bosome of the Father ; he hath declared him , Joh. 1.18 . And what he hath declared we may know : But how much more do these men pretend to know , than ever Christ declared ? But who hath known the mind of the Lord , or who hath been his Counsellor ? Rom. 11.34 . Etiam vera de Deo loqui periculosum : Even things that are true should be spoken of God , not only with reverence , but with great caution : And a wise man will rather admire and adore , than boldly speak what he is not certain is true and congruous . Direct . 6. Let all your knowledge of God be practical ; yea more practical than any other knowledge ; and let not your thoughts once use Gods Name in vain . If it be a sin to use idle or unprofitable words , and especially to take Gods Name in vain ; it cannot be faultless to have idle unprofitable thoughts of God : for the thoughts are the operations of the mind it self . There is no thought or knowledge which ever cometh into our minds , which 1. Hath so great work to do ; and 2. Is so fit and powerfull to do it , as the knowledge and thoughts which we have of God. The v●ry renovation of the soul to his Image , and transforming it into the Divine Nature , must be wrought hereby : The thoughts of his Wisdom , must silence all our contradicting folly , and bring our souls to an absolute submission and subjection to his Laws : The knowledge of his Goodness , must cause all true saving Goodness in us , by poss●ssing us with the highest love to God. The knowledge of his Power , must cause both our confidence , and our fear : And the impress of Gods Attributes must be his Image on our souls . It is a common ( and true ) observation of Divines , that in Scripture , words of God which express his Knowledge , do imply his will and affections : ( As his knowing the way of the righteous , Psal . 2.6 . is his approving and loving it , &c. ) And it is as true , that words of our knowledge of God , should all imply affection towards him . It is a grievous aggravation of ungodliness , to be a learned ung●dly man : To profess to know God , and deny him in works , being abominable and disobedient , and reprobate to every good work ( though as orthodox and ready in good words as others . ) Titus 1.16 . A thought of God should be able to do any thing upon the soul . It should partake of the Omnipotency and perfection of the blessed Object . No creature should be able to stand before him , when our minds entertain any serious thoughts of him , and converse with him . A thought of God should annihilat● all the grandure and honours of the world to us ; and all the pleasures and treasures of the flesh ; and all the power of temptations : what fervency in prayer ? what earnestness of desire ? what confidence of faith ? what hatred of sin ? what ardent love ? what transporting joy ? what constant patience should one serious thought of God , possess the believing holy soul with ? If the thing known become as much one with the understanding , as Plotinus and other Platonists thought , or if man were so far partaker of a kind of deification , as Gibieuf and other Oratorians , and ●enedictus de Benedictis , Barbanson , and other Fanatick Fryers think , surely the knowledge of God should raise us more above our sensitive desires and passions , and make us a more excellent sort of persons , and it should make us more like those blessed spirits , who know him more than we on earth ; and it should be the beginning of our eternal life , John 17.3 . Direct . 7. By Faith deliver up your selves to GOD , as your Creator , and your Owner , and live to him as those that perceive they are absolutely his own . The word [ GOD ] doth signifie both Gods essence , and his three great Relations unto man , and we take him not for our God , if we take him not as in these Divine Relations . Therefore God would have Faith to be expressed at our entrance into his Church , by Baptism ; because a believing soul , doth deliver up it self to God : The first and greatest work of Faith , is to enter us sincerely into the holy Covenant : In which this is the first part , that we take God for our Owner , and resign up our selves to him , without either express or implicit reserve , as those that are absolutely his own . And though these words are by any hypocrite quickly spoken , yet when the thing is really done , the very heart of sin is broken : For as the Apostle saith , He that is dead is freed from sin , Rom. 6.7 . Because a dead man hath no faculties to do evil : So we may say , He that is resigned to God as his absolute Owner , is freed from sin ; because he that is not his own , hath nothing which is his own ; and therefore hath nothing to alienate from his Owner . We are not our Own , we are bought with a price ( which is the second title of Gods propriety in us ) and therefore must glorifie God in body and spirit as being his , 1 Cor. 6.20 . And from this Relation faith will fetch abundant consolation , seeing they that by consent , and not only by constraint , are absolutely his , shall undoubtedly be loved , and cared for as his Own , and used and provided for as his own : He will not neglect his own , and those of his family , who will take us to be worse than Infidels , if we do so , 1 Tim. 5.8 . Direct . 8. By Faith deliver up your selves to God , as your Soveraign Ruler , with an absolute Resolution to learn , and love , and obey his Laws . Though I have often and more largely spoken of these duties in other Treatises , I must not here totally omit them , where I speak of that Faith in God , which essentially consisteth in them . It is a narrow , and foolish , and pernicious conceit of Faith , which thinketh it hath no object but promises and pardon ; and that it hath nothing to do with God as our Soveraign Governour : And it is too large a description of faith , which maketh actual and formal obedience to be a part of it : As Marriage is not conjugal fidelity and duty , but it is a Covenant which obligeth to it ; and as the Oath of Allegiance is not a formal obedience to the Laws , but it is a covenanting to obey them ; and as the hiring or covenant of a servant , is not doing service , but it is an entring into an obligation and state of service : So Faith and our first Christianity , is not strictly formal obedience to him that we believe in , as such : But it is an entring of our selves by covenant into an obligation and state of future obedience . Faith hath Gods precepts for its objects as truly as his promises : But his own Relation as our King or Ruler is its primary object , before his precepts , Hos . 13.10 . Psal . 2.6 . & 5.2 . & 10.16 . & 24.7 , 8 , 10. & 47.6 , 7. & 89.18 . & 149.2 . Rev. 15.3 . 1 Timoth. 1.17 . Luke 19.27 . Direct . 9. By Faith acknowledge GOD as your total Benefactor , from him you have , and must have all that 's worth the having : And accordingly live in a dependance on him . Faith taketh every good thing as a stream from this inexhausted spring , and as a token of love , from this unmeasurable Love. It knoweth a difference in the means and way of conveyance ; but no difference as to the fountain ; for all that we receive is equally from the same original ; though not sent to us by the same hand . Faith should not take or look at any good abstractedly , as separated from God ; but ever see the streams as continued up to the fountain ; and the fruit as proceeding from the tree and roots : Remember still that he doth illuminate you by the Sun ; and he doth nourish you by your food ( for you live not by bread only , but by his Word and blessing ; ) and it is he that doth teach you by his Ministers , and protect you by his Magistrates , and comfort you by your friends : You have that from one , which another cannot give you ; but you have nothing from any creature whatsoever ; which is not totally from God : For though he honour creatures to be his Messengers or Instruments , the benefit is equally from him , when he useth an Instrument , and when he useth none . From him we have our Being , and our Comforts , and all the means and hopes of our well-being ; and therefore our dependance must be absolutely on him : The blessings of this life , and of that to come ; all things which appertain to life and godliness , are the gifts of his incomprehensible benignity . For it is natural to him , who is infinitely good , to do good , when he doth work ad extra ; though when to communicate , and in what various degrees is free to him , 1 Tim. 4.8 . M●t. 6.33 . 2 Pet. 1.3 . Psal . 145.14 , 15. & 146.7 . & 18.50 . 1 Tim. 6.17 . James 1.5 . & 4.6 . Jer. 5.24 , 25. Direct . 10. By Faith set your eye and heart most fixedly and devotedly on GOD , as your ultimate end ( which is your felicity , and much more . ) He taketh not God for God indeed , who taketh him not as his ultimate end : Nay , he debaseth God , who placing his felicity in any thing else , doth cleave to God but as the means to such a felicity . But to make God our felicity is lawful and necessary ; but not to dream that this is the highest respect that we must have to God , to be our felicity . To love him , and to be beloved by him ; to please him , and to be pleased in him , is our ultimate end ; which though it be complex , and contain our own felicity , yet doth it , as infinitely supereminent , contain the complacency of God , and God as the object of our Love , considered in his own infinite perfections : For he is the Alpha and Omega , the first and the last ; and of him , and through him , and to him are all things , Rom. 11.36 . It is the highest and noblest work of faith , to make our own Original to be our End , and to set our love entirely upon God ; and to see that we our selves are but worms and vanity ; capable of no higher honour , than to be means to please and glorifie God ; and must not take down God so , as to love him only for our selves . And he only who thus denyeth himself for God , doth rightly improve self-love , and seek the only exaltation and felicity , by carrying up himself to God , and adhering to the eternal good , 1 Cor. 10.31 . Luke 14.33 . Mat. 16.25 . Mark 8.35 . Direct . 11. Distinguish these Relations of God , but divide them not ; much less set them in any opposition to each other ; and remember that the effects of them all are marvelously and harmoniously mixt ; but undivided . The effects of Gods Power , are alwaies the effects also of his Wisdom and his Goodness : And the effects of his Wisdom , are alwaies the effects of his Goodness and his Power : And the effects of his Goodness , are alwaies the effects of his Power and his Wisdom . The effects of his Dominion on his rational subjects , are alwaies the effects also of his Government and Love : And the effects of his Government , are alwaies the effects also of his Dominion and Love : And the effects of his Love as Benefactor● ▪ are alwaies the effects of his Dominion and Government . Though some one Principle , and some one Relation , may more eminently appear in one work as others do in the other works . Disposal is the effect of Propriety ; but it is alwaies a Regular and L●ving disposal of the subjects of his Government . L●gislation and Judgement are the effects of his Kingdom : Bu● Dominion and Love have a hand in both , till Rebellion turn men from subjection : Glorification is the highest effect of Love : But it is given ●●so by our Owner , as by one that may do as he list with his own and by our Governour by the way of a Reward , Mat. 20.15 . 2 Tim. 4.7 , 8. Mat. 25. throughout . Direct . 12. Especially let Faith unvail to you the face of the Goodness of God ; and see that your thoughts of it be neither false nor low ; but equal to your thoughts of his Power and Vnderstanding . 1. As our loss by sin , is more in the point of Goodness , than of Power or Knowledge ( The Devils having much of the two last , who have but little or nothing of the first ) so it is the Goodness of God which must be more studied by a Believer , than his Power or his Wisdom , because the impress of it is more necessary to us in our lapsed state . 2. They have false thoughts of Gods Goodness , who make it to consist only or chiefly , in a communicative inclination ad extra , which we call Benignity : For he was as Good from Eternity , before he made any creature , as he is since : And his Goodness considered as essential in himself , and as his own perfection , is infinitely higher than the consideration of it , as terminated on any Creature . Man is denominated good from his adaptation to the will of God , and not God chiefly from his adaptation to the commodity or will of man. And they do therefore debase God , and deifie his creature , who make the creature the ultimate end of GOD and it self ; and not God the ultimate end of the creature . And they might as well make the creature the Beginning also of it self and God : ( And yet this sottish notion taketh much with many half-witted Novelists in this Age , who account themselves the men of ingenuity . ) And they have also false thoughts of the Goodness of God , who think that there is nothing of communicative Benignity in it at all . For all the good which God doth , he doth it from the Goodness of his Nature : Thou art good , and doest good , Psal . 119.68 . And his doing good is usually expressed by the phrase of being good to them : The Lord is good to all , Psal . 145.9 . Psal . 25 8 & 86.5 . Object . But if communicative Benignity be natural to God as his Essential Goodness is , then he must do good per modum naturae , & ad ultimum potentiae ; and then the world was from Eternity , and as good as God could make it . Answ . 1. Those Christian Divines who do hold that the Vniverse was from Eternity , and that it is as good as God can make it ; do not yet hold that it was its own original , but an eternal emanation from God , and therefore that God who is the beginning of it , is the ultimate end , and eternally and voluntarily , though naturally and necessarily produced it for himself , even for the pleasure of his will : And therefore that Gods Essential Goodness as it is in it self , is much higher than the same as terminated in , or productive of the Universe . And that no mixt bodies which do oriri & interire , are generated and corrupted , were from eternity ; and consequently , that this present systeme called the world , which is within our sight , was not from eternity : But that as spring and fall doth revive the plants , and end their transitory life ; so it hath been with these particular systemes ; the simpler and nobler parts of the Universe continuing the same . And they held that the world is next to infinitely good ; and as good as it is possible to be without being God ; and that for God to produce another God , or an infinite good , is a contradiction : And that all the baser , and pained , and miserable parts of the world , are best respectively to the perfection of the whole , though not best in and to themselves ; ( As every nuck and pin in a watch is necessary as well as the chief parts . ) And that all things set together , it is best that all things be as they are , and will be : But of this the infinite Wisdom , who seeth not only some little parts , but the whole Universe at one perfect view , is the fittest Judge . 2. But the generality of Divines do hold the contrary , and say , that it is natural to God to be the Alsufficient pregnant good ; not only able to communicate goodness , but inclined to it , as far as his perfection doth require ; but not inclined to communicate in a way of natural constant necessity , as the Sun shineth , but in a way of liberty , when , and in what degrees he pleaseth ; which pleasure is guided by his infinite Vnderstanding , which no mortal man can comprehend ; and therefore must not ask any further reason of the first reason and will ; but stop here , and be satisfied to find that it is indeed Gods Will and Reason , which causeth all things when and what they are , and not otherwise . And that God hath not made the Universe as good in it self , as by his absolute Power he could have made it : But that it is best to be as it is and will be , because it is most suitable to his perfect Will and Wisdom . And this answer seemeth most agreeable to Gods Word . And as you must see that your thoughts of Gods Goodness be not false ; so also that they be not diminutive and low . As no knowledge is more useful and necessary to us ; so nothing is more wonderfully revealed by God , than is his amiable Goodness : For this end he sent his Son into flesh , to declare his Love to the forelorn world , and to call them to behold it , and admire it , John 1 8 , 9 , 10. & 3.16 . 1 John 3.1 . Rev. 21.3 . And as Christ is the chief glass of the Fathers Love , on this side Heaven ; so it is the chief part of the office of Faith , to see Gods Love and Goodness in the face of Christ : Let him not reveal his Love in vain , at so dear a rate , and in a way of such wonderful condescension : Think of his Goodness , as equal to his greatness : And as you see his greatness in the frame of the world ; so his goodness in the wonderful work of mans Redemption and Salvation : Let Faith beholding God in Christ , and daily thus gazing on his goodness , or rather tasting it , and feasting on it , be the very summ of all your Religion and your lives . This is indeed to live by Faith , when it worketh by that Love , which is our holiness and life . Direct . 13. Let not Faith overlook the Books of the Creation , and the wonderful demonstrations of Gods Attributes therein . Even such revelations of Gods goodness and fidelity as are made in Nature , or the works of Creation , are sometimes in Scriptures made the objects of faith . At least we who by the belief of the Scriptures , do know how the worlds were made , Heb. 11.2 , 3. must believingly study this glorious work of our great Creator . All those admirations and praises of God as appearing in his works , which David useth , were not without the use of faith . Thus faith can use the world as a sanctified thing , and as a glass to see the glory of God in , while sensual sinners use it against God to their own perdition , and make it an enemy to God and them ; so contrary is the life of Faith and of Sense . He hath not the heart of a man within him , who is not stricken with admiration of the Power , and Wisdom and Goodness of the incomprehensible Creator , when he seriously looketh to the Sun and Stars , to Sea and Land , to the course of all things , and to the wonderful variety and natures of the particular creatures . And he hath not the heart of a Believer in him , who doth not think [ O what a God is it whom I am bound to serve , and who hath taken me into his Covenant as his child ! How happy are they who have such a God , engaged to be their God and Happiness ? And how miserable are they who make such a God their revenging Judge and enemy ? Shall I ever again wilfully or carelesly sin against a God of so great Majesty ? If the Sun were an intellectual Deity , and still looked on me , should I presumptuously offend him ? Shall I ever distrust the power of him that made such a world ? Shall I fear a worm , a mortal man , above this great and terrible Creator ? Shall I ever again resist or disobey the word and wisdom of him , who made and ruleth such a world ? Doth he govern the whole world , and should not I be governed by him ? Hath he Goodness enough to communicate as he hath done to Sun and Stars to Heaven and Earth , to Angels and Men , and every wight ? and hath he not Goodness enough to draw , and engage , and continually delight , this dull and narrow heart of mine ? Doth the return of his Sun , turn the darksome night into the lightsome day , and bring forth the creatures to their food and labour ; doth its approach revive the torpid earth , and turn the congealed winter into the pleasant spring , and cover the earth with her fragrant many-coloured Robes , and renew the life and joy of the terrestrial inhabitants ; and shall I find nothing in the God who made and still continueth the world , to be the life , and strength , and pleasure of my soul ? Psal . 66.1 . &c. Make a joyful noise unto God , all ye Lands : sing forth the honour of his Name ; make his praise glorious : say unto God , How terrible art thou in thy works ? — Come and see the works of God : He is terrible in his doing towards the children of men . — He ruleth by his power for ever : his eyes behold the Nations : let not the rebellious exalt themselves . O bless our God ye people , and make the voice of his praise to be heard ! who holdeth our soul in life , and suffereth not our feet to be moved , Psal . 86.8 , 9 , 10. Among the gods there is none like unto thee , O Lord , neither are there any works like unto thy works . All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee , O Lord , and shall glorifie thy Name : For thou art great , and dost wonderous things : thou art God alone , Psal . 92.5 , 6. O Lord how great are thy works ! thy thoughts are very deep , a bruitish man knoweth not , neither doth a fool understand this . Faith doth not separate it self from natural knowledge , nor neglect Gods Works , while it studyeth his Word ; but saith Psal . 143.5 . I meditate on all thy Works : I muse on the work of thy hands . Psal . 104.24 . O Lord , how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom hast thou made them all : the earth is full of thy riches ; so is the great and wide Sea , &c. Nay , it is greatly to be noted , that as Redemption is to repair the Creation , and the Redeemer came to recover the soul of man to his Creator , and Christ is the way to the Father ; so on the Lords day our commemoration of Redemption includeth and is subservient to our commemoration of the Creation , and the work of the ancient Sabbath is not shut out , but taken in with the proper work of the Lords day : and as Faith in Christ is a mediate grace to cause in us the Love of God ; so the Word of the Redeemer doth not call off our thoughts from the Works of the great Creator , but call them back to that employment , and fit us for it by reconciling us to God. Therefore it is as suitable to the Gospel Church at least , as it was to the Jewish , to make Gods works the matter of our Sabbath praises , and to say , as Psal . 145.4 , 5 , 10. One generation shall praise thy works to another ; and shall declare thy mighty acts : I will speak of the glorious honour of thy Majesty , and of thy wonderous works : And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts , and I will declare thy greatness — All thy works shall praise thee O Lord , and thy Saints shall bless thee , Psal . 26.6 , 7. I will wash my hands in innocency , and so will I compass thine Altar O Lord , that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving , and tell of all thy wonderous works , Psal . 9.12 . I will praise thee O Lord with my whole heart , I will shew forth all thy marvelous works . Direct . 14. Let Faith also observe God in his daily Providences ; and equally honour him for the ordinary and the extraordinary passages thereof . The upholding of the world is a continual causing of it ; and differeth from creation , as the continued shining of a Candle doth from the first lighting of it . If therefore the Creation do wonderfully declare the Power , and Wisdom , and Goodness of God ; so also doth the conservation . And note that Gods ordinary works are as great demonstrations of him in all his perfections , as his extraordinary : Is it not as great a declaration of the Power of God , that he cause the Sun to shine , and to keep its wonderous course from age to age , as if he did such a thing but for a day or hour ? and as if he caused it to stand still a day ? And is it not as great a demonstration of his knowledge also , and of his goodness ? Surely we should take it for as great an act of Love , to have plenty , and health , and joy continued to us as long as we desired it , as for an hour . Let not then that duration and ordinariness of Gods manifestations to us , which is their aggravation , be lookt upon as if it were their extenuation : But let us admire God in the Sun and Stars , in Sea and Land , as if this were the first time that ever we had seen them . And yet let the extraordinarniess of his works have its effects also : Their use is to stir up the drowsie mind of man , to see God in that which is unusual , who is grown customary and lifeless in observing him in things usual . Pharaoh and his Magicians will acknowledge God , in those unusual works , which they are no way able to imitate themselves , and say , This is the finger of God , Exod. 8.19 . And therefore miracles are never to be made light of , but the finger of God to be acknowledged in them , whoever be the instrument or occasion , Luke 11.20 . There are frequently also some notable , though not miraculous Providences , in the changes of the world , and in the disposal of all events , and particularly of our selves , in which a Believer should still see God ; yea see him as the total cause , and take the instruments to be next to nothing ; and not gaze all at men as unbelievers do : but say , This is the Lords doing , and it is marvelous in our eyes , Psal . 118.23 . Sing unto the Lord a new song , for he hath done marvelous things , Psal . 98.1 . Marvelous are thy works , and that my soul knoweth right well , Psal . 139.14 . Direct . 15. But let the chief study of Faith for the knowledge of God , be of the face of Jesus Christ , and the most wonderful mystery of his Incarnation , and our Redemption . For God is no where else so fully manifested to man , in that Goodness , Love , and Mercy , which it most concerneth us to know ; and the knowledge of which will be most healing and sanctifying to the soul : But of this I must speak more in the chapter next following . Direct . 16. Let Faith make use of every mercy , not only to acknowledge God therein , but to have a pleasant taste and rellish of his Love. For thus it is that they are all sanctified to Believers , and this is the holy use of mercies : Remember that as in order to Vnderstanding , your eyes and ears are but the passages or inlets to your minds ; and if sights and sounds went no further than the senses , you would be no better , if not worse than beasts : So also in order to Affection , the taste and sense of sweetness , or any other pleasure , is to pass by the sense unto the heart ; and what should it do there , but affect the heart with the Love and Goodness of the giver . A beast tasteth as much of the sensitive sweetness of his food and ease as you do : But it is the Believer who heartily saith , How good is the Author and end of all this mercy ? whence is it that this cometh ? and whether d●th it tend ? I love the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplication , Psal . 116.1 . O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness , Psal . 145.15 , 16. The eyes of all things wait on thee : thou givest them their meat in due season . Thou openest thy hand , and satisfiest the desires of every living thing . He leaveth not himself without witness in that he doth good , and giveth us Rain from Heaven , and fruitful seasons , filling our hearts with food and gladness , Acts 14.17 . The near conjunction of soul and body , and the near relation of God and his mercies , do tell us plainly , that every pleasure which toucheth the sense , should touch the heart , and reach unto the soul it self ; and that as the creature is fitted to the sense , and God is suitable to the soul ; so the creature should be but Gods servant to knock and cause us to open the door to himself , and the way of his communication and accession to the heart . Therefore so great a judgement is threatned against the Israelites in their prosperity , if they did not serve God with j●yfulness and gladness of heart , for the abundance of all things , Deut. 28.47 . And therefore the daies in which men were to rejoyce in God , with the greatest love and thankfulness , were appointed to be daies of feasting , that the pleasure of the bodily senses might promote the spiritual pleasure and gratitude of the mind . 2 Chron. 19.21 . & 29.30 . Neh. 8.17 . & 12.27 . Esth . 9 17 , 18 , 19. Numb . 10.10 . Direct . 17. Let Faith feel Gods displeasure in every chastisement and judgement . For we must be equally careful that we despise them not , and that we faint not under them , Heb. 12.5 . They that pretend that it is the work of faith to see nothing in any affliction but the love and benefit , do but set one act of faith against another : For the same word which telleth us , that it shall turn to a true believers good , doth tell us that it is of it self a natural evil , and that as the good is from Gods Love , so the evil is from our sins , and his displeasure ; and that he would give us the good without the evil , if man were without sin . He therefore that believeth not that it is a castigatory punishment for sin , is an unbeliever , as well as he that believeth not the promise of the benefit , Rom. 5.12 , 14 , 16 , 17 , 18. 1 Cor. 11.30 , 32. Jer. 5.25 . Micah 1.5 . Amos 3.2 . Yea this opinion directly frustrateth the first end and use of all chastisements which is to further mens Repentance for the evil of sin , by the sense of the evil of punishment , and the notice of Gods displeasure manifested thereby : And next to make us warnings to others , that they incur not the same correction and displeasure as we have done . For he that saith , there is no penalty or evil in the suffering , nor no displeasure of God exprest thereby , doth contradict all this . But as it is a great benefit which we are to reap by our corrections , even the furtherance of our Repentance and amendment ; so it is a great work of faith , to perceive the bitterness of sin , and the displeasure of God in these corrections : of which more anon . Direct . 18. Faith must hear the voice of God in all his Word , and in all the counsel which by any one he shall send us . When sense taketh notice of nothing but a book , or of none but a man , faith must perceive the mind and message of God. Not only in Preachers , 2 Cor. 5.19 , 20. 1 Thes . 2.13 . Titus 2.5 . Heb. 13.7 . but also in the mouth of wicked enemies , when it is indeed the will of God which they reveal . And so David heard the curse of Shimei , speaking to him the rebukes of God , for his sin in the matter of V●iah , 2 Sam. 16.10 , 11. And Paul rejoyced that Christ was preached by men of envy and strife , who did it to add affliction to his bonds , Phil. 1.18 . Moses perceived the will of God in the counsel of Jethro , even in as great a matter as the governing and judging of the people , Exod. 18.19 . The counsel of the ancients which Rehoboam forsook , was the counsel of God which be rejected , 1 King. 12.8 . David blessed God for the counsel of a woman , Abigail . Whoever be the Messenger , a Believer should be acquainted with the voice of God , and know the true significations of his will. The true sheep of Christ do know his voice , and follow him , because they are acquainted with his Word ; and though the Preacher be himself of a sinful life , he can distinguish betwixt God and the Preacher ; and will not say , it is not the Word of God , because it cometh from a wicked mouth . For he hath read , Psal . 50.16 . where God saith to the wicked , What hast thou to do to take my Covenant in thy mouth , seeing thou hatest instruction , and hast cast my words behind thee : But he never read [ to the godly , saith God , Why didst thou hear a wicked Preacher ? ] He hath read , The Scribes and Pharisees fit in Moses chair , hear them , but do not as they do . But he never read [ Hear none that live not according to their doctrine . ] An unbeliever will not know Christs Word , if a Judas be the Preacher of it : but a Believer can read the commission of Judas , or at least can understand whose counsel he delivereth : and though he would be loth to chuse a Judas , or to prefer him before a holy man ; yet if workers of iniquity do preach in Christs Name , he leaveth it to Christ to say at Judgement , I know you not , Mat. 7.21 , 22. Acts 1.17 , 24. Direct . 19. Faith must not look at God now and then , and leave the soul in ordinary forgetfulness of him : but remember that he is alwaies present , and must make us rather forget them that are talking to us , or conversing with us , than to forget the Lord. Nothing is more the work of Faith , than to see him who is invisible , Heb. 11.27 . And to live as one that still remembereth , that God standeth by : To think as one that knoweth that our thoughts are alwaies in his sight , and to speak and do as one that forgetteth not , that he is the constant and most reverend witness of all . To hear , and pray , and live , and labour as if we saw the God who employeth us , and will reward us , Matth. 6.4 , 6. Isa . 59.18 . Rev. 20.12 . Matth. 16.27 . Rom. 2.6 . Direct . 20. Faith must lay the heart of man , to rest in the Will of God , and to make it our chief delight to please him , and quietly to trust him whatever cometh to pass : And to make nothing of all that would rise up against him , or entice us from him , or would be to us as in his stead . Faith seeth that it is the pleasing of the will of God , which is all our work , and all our reward : And that we should be fully pleased in the pleasing of him : And that there is no other rest for the soul to be thought on , but the will of God : And it must content the soul in him alone , 2 Thes . 1.11 . Col. 3.20 . 1 Cor. 7.32 . 1 Thes . 4.1 . 2 Tim. 2.4 . Heb. 11.6 . Mat. 3.17 . & 17.5 . Heb. 13.16 . Psal . 16.5 . & 73.26 . & 119.57 . & 142.5 . As God is often called Jealous , especially over the heart of man ; so faith must make us jealous of our selves , and very watchful against every creature , which w●uld become any part of the felicity or ultimate object of our souls . God is so great to a believing soul , that ease , and honour , and wealth , and pleasure , and all men , high and low must be as dead and nothing to us , when they speak against him , or would be loved , or feared , or trusted , or obeyed before him , or above him : It is as natural to a true life of Faith on God , to make nothing of the incroaching creature , as for our beholding the Sun , to make nothing of a Candle . And thus is faith our victory over the world , 1 John 5.4 . Jer. 17.5 . Isa . 2.22 . 1 Cor. 15.28 . Ephes . 4.6 . Col. 3.11 . CHAP. II. Directions how to live by Faith on Jesus Christ . SO much is said already towards this in opening the grounds of Faith , as will excuse me from being prolix in the rest : And the following parts of the Life of Faith , are still supposed as subordinate to these two which go before . Direct . 1. Keep still the true Reasons of Christs Incarnation and Mediation upon your mind ( as they are before expressed ) else Christ will not be known by you as Christ . Therefore the Scriptures are much in declaring the reasons of Christs coming into the world , as to be a sacrifice for sin , to declare Gods love and mercy to sinners ; to seek and to save that which was lost ; to destroy the works of the Devil , &c. 1 Tim. 1.15 . 1 John 3.8 . Heb. 2.14 . Luke 19.10 . Rom. 5.10 . 1 John 3.1 . Gal. 4.4 , 6 , &c. Let this name or description of Christ be engraven as in capital Letters upon your minds . THE ETERNAL WISDOM OF GOD INCARNATE TO REVEAL AND COMMVNICATE HIS WILL , HIS LOVE , HIS SPIRIT TO SINFVL MISERABLE MAN. Direct . 2. See therefore that you joyn no conceit of Christ , which dishonoureth God , and is contrary to this character , and to Gods design . Many by mistaking the doctrine of Christs Intercession , do think of God the Father , as one that is all wrath and justice , and unwilling of himself to be reconciled unto man : and of the second person in the Trinity , as more gracious and merc●ful , whose mediation abateth the wrath of the Father , and with much ado maketh him willing to have mercy on us . Whereas it is the Love of God , which is the original of our Redemption , and it was Gods loving the world , which provoked him to give his Son to be their Redeemer , John 3.16 . Rom. 8.32 . And God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself , not imputing to them their trespasses , 2 Cor. 5.19 . And therefore we still read of Christs reconciling man to God , and not the phrase of his reconciling God to man : Not but that both are truly wrought by Christs mediation ; ( For the Scripture frequently speaketh of Gods hating the workers of iniquity , and of his vindictive Justice , and of that propitiating and attonement , which signifieth the same thing : ) But the reason is , because the enmity began on mans part , and not on Gods , by mans forsaking God , and turning his love from him to the creature , and not by Gods forsaking man ; and the change of mans state and heart towards God , by true reconciliation , will make him again capable of peace with God ; and as soon as man is made an object fit for the complacency of God , it cannot be but that God will again take complacency in him ; so that the real change must be only on man ; and then that relative or denominative change which must be on God , will thence immediately result . Some also there be who gather from Christs death , that God desired the sufferings of Christ as pleasing to him in it self ; as if he made a bargain with Christ to sell so much mercy to man , for so much blood and pains of Christ ; and as if he so delighted in the blood of the innocent , that he would the willinglyer do good to us , if he might first forsake and crucifie Christ . But this is to contradict Christs business in the world , as if he who came from Heaven to declare Gods Love , had come to declare him to delight in doing hurt ; and as if he who came to demonstrate Gods Justice , had come to shew , that he had rather punish the innocent , than the guilty : But the case is quite otherwise : God doth not delight in mans sufferings as such ; no not of the guilty , much less of the innocent : He desired not Christs suffering for it self : But as it was a convenient means , to demonstrate his Justice , and his Holiness , and to vindicate the honour of his Government and Law , and to be a warning to sinners , not to sin presumptuously ; and yet to declare to them the greatness of his Love. And some are ready to gather from Christs propitiation , that God is now more reconcileable to sin , and so they blaspheme him as if he were unholy : As if he made a smaller matter of our mis-doings , since he is satisfied for them by a Mediator . And they are ready to gather , that God can now take complacency in man , though he have no inherent holiness at all , because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to him . And some take Gods imputation of Christs righteousness to us , to be a reputing us to be the persons , who our selves fulfilled the Law in or by Christ ; so that his very Attributes of Wisdom , and Love , and Holiness , and Justice , and Mercy , &c. which Christ came purposely to declare , are by some denyed , blasphemed or abused , on pretence of extolling Christ and our Redemption ; as if we might sin that grace may abound , Rom. 6.1 , 2. But if while we seek to be justified by Christ , we our selves also are found sinners , is therefore Christ the Minister of sin ? God forbid , Gal. 2.17 . Direct . 3. Distinguish between the common and the special benefits of mans Redemption by Christ ; and see how the latter do suppose the former ; and set not these parts against each other , which God in wisdom hath joyned together . To pass by all other the great and notable common benefit , is the conditional Covenant of grace ; or the conditional pardon of sin , and gift of eternal life to all without exception , John 3.16 . Mark 16.15 , 16. Rom. 10.9 . Mat. 6.14 , 15. Mat. 22.7 , 8 , 9. And this general conditional promise must be first preached ; and the preaching of this is the universal o● common call and offer of grace : And it must be first believed , as is before said . But the actual belief of it , according to its true intent and meaning , doth prove our actual personal title to all the benefits which were before given but conditionally , John 3.16 . 1 John 5.10 , 11 , 12. 2 Cor. 5.19 , 20 21. Direct . 4. Accordingly judge how far Redemption is common or special , by the common and special benefits procured . For no man can deny but it is so far common , as the benefits are common : that is , so far as to procure and give to sinners a common conditional pardon as aforesaid ( as Dr. Twisse very often taketh notice . ) And no man can affirm , that it is common to all , so far as absolutely or eventually to give them actual pardon and salvation , unless they dream that all are saved . But that some eventually and infallibly are saved , all confess : And we had rather think that Christ and the good pleasure of God , is the chief differencing cause , than we our selves . Direct . 5. Set not the several parts of the Office of Christ against each other ; nor either depress or forget any one part , while you magnifie and meditate only on the other , It is most ordinary to reduce all the Office of Christ , to the Prophetical , Priestly , and Kingly part . ( For it is more proper to call them three parts of one Office , than three Offices : ) But it is hard to reduce his Incarnation , or his infant-humiliation , and his whole course of obedience , and fulfilling the Law to any one , or all of these , totally . Though in some respect , as it is his example , it is teaching , and as it is part of his humiliation , it may be called a part of his sacrifice ; yet as it is meritorious , obedience and perfection , it belongeth indeed to our High-Priest , but not formally to his Priesthood : No nor yet as he himself is the sacrifice for sin : For it is not an act of Priesthood to be himself a sacrifice . But yet I think the common destribution intimateth to us that sense which containeth the truth which we enquire after : For the word Priesthood is applyed to Christ in a peculiar notion , so as it is never applyed to any other ; and therefore is taken more comprehensively , as including all that good which he doth for us ( as good ) by the way of Mediation with the Father , and all his acts of Mediation with God ; as the Prophetical and Kingly parts , contain his other acts toward men . But yet a more plain and accurate destribution should be made ; in which it should be manifested also to what heads his many other assumed titles of Relation are to be reduced : But this is not a work for this place . But that which now I advise you to avoid , i● the errour of them who look so much at Christs Mediation with God , that they scarce observe his work with man : And the errour of them who look so much at his work on man , that they overlook his Mediation with God : And theirs that so observe h●s sacrifice , as to make light of his continual intercession : or that observing both , make light of his doctrine and example : Or that observe these so much as to make light of his sacrifice and intercession : Or that extol his doctrine and example , and overlook his giving of the Spirit to all his living members : Or that cannot magnifie any one of these , without depressing or extenuating some other . If Christs Kingdom be not divided , Mat. 12.25 . sure Christ himself is not divided , nor his works , 1 Cor. 1.13 . Direct 6. Still distinguish between Christs work of Redemption , which he hath already wrought on earth , to constitute him our Mediatory Head , and that which he was further to do for us in that Relation ; that you may ground your faith on the first as a foundation laid by him , and may seek after the second as that which requireth somewhat from your selves to your own participation . The first part is commonly called the Impetration , the second the Application ( or rather , the Communication ) As God did first do himself the work of Creation , and thence result his Relations of our Owner , our Ruler , and our Chief Good ( or our Love , or End , or Benefactor ; ) so Christ first doth the works which make him our Redeemer towards God ; and then he is also our Owner , our Ruler , and our communicative Benefactor , hereupon . And this seemeth intimated by those phrases , Heb. 5.8 . & 2.9 , 10. where he is said to learn obedience by the things which he suffered , that is , as a subj●ct exercised obedience , and so learnt to know by experience what obeying is . And that ( the Captain of our salvation was made perfect by sufferings , and for suffering death was crowned with glory ) because his sufferings did constitute him a perfect Captain or Redeemer in performance ; though before he was perfect in ability . As he that undertaketh to redeem some Turkish gally-slaves by conquering their Navy , is made a perfect Redeemer , or Conquerour , when he hath taken the fleet , though yet the prisoners are in his power , to release them on such terms at seem best to him . And as a man is a perfect Chirurgeon , when ( besides his skill ) he is furnished with all his instruments or salves ( how costly soever ) though yet the cure is not done : Or as he that hath ransomed prisoners is a perfect Ransomer , when he hath paid the price , though yet they are not delivered , nor have any actual right themselves to claim deliverance by . I here mention this , because the building upon that foundation , which is supposed to be already laid and finished , and the seeking of the further salvation which yet we have no possession of , nor perhaps any title to , are works so very different , that he that doth not discern the difference , cannot exercise the Christian faith : Because it is to be necessarily exercised by two such different acts , or different waies of acting and applying our selves to our Redeemer . Direct . 7. Still think of Christs nearness both to the Father and to us ; and so of our NEARNESS to God in and by him . Our distance is the lamentable fruit of our Apostacy ; which inferreth , our fears , and estrangedness , and backwardness to draw near to God : It causeth our ignorance of him , and our false conceits of his will and works : it greatly hindereth both love and confidence : whereas the apprehension of our nearness to God will do much to cure all these evils . As it is the misery of the proud , that God looketh on them as afar off , that is , with strangeness , and abhorrence , and disdain , Psal . 138.6 . And accordingly they shall be far off from the blessed ones hereafter , Luke 16.23 . So it is the happiness of Believers to be nigh to God , in Jesus Christ , who condescended to be nigh to us ; which is our preparation to be yet nearer to him for ever , Psal . 148.14 . & 34.18 . & 145.18 . Ephes . 2.13 . It giveth the soul more familiar thoughts of God , who seemed before to be at an inaccessible distance ; which is part of the boldness of access and confidence mentioned , Ephes . 3.12 . & 2.18 . Rom. 5.2 . Heb. 10.19 . We may come boldly to the Throne of grace , Heb. 4.16 . And it greatly helpeth us in the work of Love , to think how near God is come to us in Christ , and how near he hath taken the humane nature unto him . When a sinner looketh at God only as in himself , and as he is estranged from the guilty , he is amazed and confounded , as if God were quite out of the reach of our love ; but when he thinketh how he hath voluntarily come down into our flesh , that he might be man , and be familiar with man , and what a wonderful marriage the Divine Nature hath made with the humane , this wonderfully reconcileth the heart to God , and maketh the thoughts of him more sweet and acceptable . If the life of faith be a dwelling in God , and God in us , and a walking with God , 1 Joh. 3.24 . & 4.12 , 15 , 16. Ephes . 3.17 . Gen. 17.1 . & 24.40 . & 5.22 . & 6.9 . Heb. 11.5 . Then must we perceive our nearness to God : The just apprehension of this nearness in Christs Incarnation and Relation to us , is the chief means to bring us to the nearness of love and heavenly conversation , Col. 3.1 , 3 , 4. Direct . 8. Make Christ therefore the Mediation for all your practical thoughts of God. The thoughts of God will be strange to us through our distance , and terrible through our guilt , if we look not upon him through the prospective of Christs humanity and cross . God out of Christ is a consuming fire to guilty souls . As our acceptance must be through the Beloved , in whom he is well pleased ; so our thoughts must be encouraged with the sense of that acceptance ; and every thought must be led up to God , and emboldened by the Mediatour , Mat. 3.17 . & 17.5 . & 12.18 . Ephes . 1.6 . Heb. 2.9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 17. Direct . 9. Never come to God in prayer , or any other act of worship , but by the Mediation of the Son ; and put all your prayers as into his hand , that he may present them to the Father . There is no hoping for any thing from God to sinners , but by Christ : and therefore there is no speaking to God but by him : not only in his Name , but also by his Mediation : And this is the exercise of his Priesthood for us , by his heavenly intercession , so much spoken of by the Holy Ghost in the Epistle to the Hebrews : Seeing we have a great High Priest , that is passed into the Heavens , Jesus the Son of God , let us hold fast our profession : Let us therefore come boldly to the Throne of grace , that we may obtain mercy , and find grace to help in time of need , Heb. 4.14 , 16. Direct . 10. Hear every word of Scripture Precept ; and Ministerial Exhortation ( consonant to the Scripture ) as sent to us by Christ , and from the Father by him , as the appointed Teacher of the Church . Hear Christ in his Gospel and his Ministers , and hear God the Father in the Son. Take heed of giving only a slight and verbal acknowledgement of the voice of Christ , whilest you really are more taken with the Preachers voice , as if he had a greater share in the Sermon , than Christ hath . The voice in the holy Mount , which Peter witnesseth that he heard , 2 Pet. 1.17 . was , This is my Beloved Son , in whom I am well pleased , hear ye him , Mat. 17.5 . And it shall come to pass , that every soul which will not hear that Prophet , shall be destroyed from among the people , Acts 3.23 . When ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us , ye received it not as the Word of men , but as it is in truth the Word of God , which worketh effectually in you that believe , 1 Thes . 2.13 . The Sheep will follow him , for they know his voice : a stranger they will not follow , John 10.4 , 5. Direct . 11. Take every mercy from God as from the hand of Christ ; both as procured by his Cross , and as delivered by his Mediatory Administration . It is still supposed that the giving of the Son himself by the Father to this office , is excepted as presupposed . But all subsequent particular mercies , are both procured for us , and given to us , by the Mediator . Yet is it nevertheless from God the Father , nor doth it evertheless , but the more fully signifie his love . But the state of sinners alloweth them no other way of communication from God , for their benefit and happiness , but by one who is more near and capable to God , who from him may convey all blessings unto them . Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in things heavenly in Christ , Ephes . 1.3 . He that spared not his own Son , but gave him up for us all , how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? Rom. 8.32 . Through the knowledge of him , the Divine Power giveth us all things that pertain to life and godliness , 2 Pet. 1.3 . God hath given us eternal life , and this life is in his Son , 1 John 5.10 , 11. All things are delivered into his hand , Joh. 13.3 . & 17.2 . Therefore receive every particular mercy for soul and body , as from the blood , and from the present mediation of Christ , that you may rightly understand it , and have it as sanctified and sweetned by Christ . Direct . 12. Let Faith take occasion by every sin , to renew your sense of the want of Christ , and to bring you to him , to meditate and grant you a renewed pardon . Therefore entertain not their mistake , who tell men that all sin , past , present , and to come , is fully pardoned at once ( whether it be before you were born in Gods decree , or Christs satisfaction , or at the time of your conversion ) nor theirs who teach that Christ pardoneth only sins before conversion , but as for all that are committed afterward , he doth prevent the need of pardon , by preventing all guilt and obligation to punishment ( except meer temporal chastisement . ) The preparation which Christ hath made for our pardon , is in it self sufficient , yea and effectual as to that end which he would have it attain before our believing : But our actual pardon is no such end : Nor can sin be forgiven before it be committed ; because it is no sin . Christ never intended to justifie or sanctifie us perfectly at the first ( whatsoever many say to the contrary , because they understand not what they say ) but to carry on both proportionably and by degrees , that we may have daily use for his daily mediation , and may daily pray , Forgive us our trespasses . There is no guilt on them that are in Christ , so far as they walk not after the flesh , but after the spirit ; nor no proper condemnation by sentence or execution at all ; because their pardon is renewed by Christ , as they renew their sins of infirmity : but not because he preventeth their need of any further pardon . Therefore as God made advantage of the sins of the world , for the honouring of his grace in Christ , that grace might abound where sin abounded , Rom. 5.12 , 16 , 17. So do you make advantage of your renewed sins , for a renewed use of faith in Christ ; and let it drive you to him with renewed desires and expectations of pardon by his intercession : That Satan may be a loser , and Christ may have more honour by every sin that we commit . Not that we should sin that grace may abound ; but that we may make use of abounding grace when we have sinned . It is the true nature and use of Faith and Repentance to draw good out of sin it self , or to make the remembrance of it to be a means of our hatred and mortification of it , and of our love and gratitude to our Redeemer : Not that sin it self doth ( formally or efficiently ) ever do any good : But sin objectively is turned into good : For so sin is no sin ; because to remember sin is not sin . When David saith , Psal . 51.3 . that his sin was ever before him , he meaneth not only involuntarily to his grief , but voluntarily as a meditation useful to his future duty , and to stir him up to all that which afterward he promiseth . Direct . 13. In all the weaknesses and languishings of the new creature , let Faith look up to Christ for strength . For God hath put our life into his hand , and he is our root , and hath promised that we shall live because he liveth , John 14.19 . Do not think only of using Christ , as you do a friend when you have need of him ; or as I do my pen , to write , and lay it down when I have done : But as the branches use the Vine , and as the members use the Head , which they live by ; and from which when they are separated , they die and wither , John 15.1 , 2 , 3 , &c. Ephes . 1.22 . & 5.27 , 30. & 4.4 , 5 , 12 , 15 , 16. Christ must even dwell in our hearts by Faith , Ephes . 3.17 . that is , 1. Faith must be the means of Christs dwelling in us by his Spirit ; and 2. Faith must so habituate the heart to a dependance upon Christ , and to an improvement of him that objectively he must dwell in our hearts , as our friend doth whom we most dearly love ; as that which we cannot chuse but alwaies think on . Remember therefore that we live in Christ , and that the life which we now live is by the faith of the Son of God , who hath loved us , and given himself for us , Gal. 2.20 . And his grace is sufficient for us , and his strength most manifested in our weakness , 2 Cor. 12.9 . And that when Satan desireth to sift us , he prayeth for us that our faith may not fail , Luke 22.32 . And that our life is hid with Christ in God , even with Christ who is our life , Col. 3.3 , 4. That he is the Head , in whom all the members live , by the communication of his appointed ligaments and joynts , Ephes . 4.14 , 15 , 16. Therefore when any grace is weak , go to your Head for life and strength . If faith be weak , pray , Lord increase our faith , Luke 17.5 . If you are ignorant , pray him to open your understandings , Luk. 24.45 . If your hearts grow cold , go to him by faith , till he shed abroad the love of God upon your hearts , Rom. 5.3 , 4. For o● his fulness it is that we must receive grace for grace , J●hn 1.16 . Direct . 14. Let the ●hief and most diligent work of your faith in Christ be , to inflame your hearts with love to God , as his Goodness and Love is revealed to us in Christ . Faith kindling Love , and working by it , is the whole summ of Christianity , of which before . Direct . 15. Let Faith keep the example of Christ continually before your eyes ▪ especially in those parts of it , which he intended for the contradicting and healing of our greatest sins . Above all others , these things seem purposely and specially chosen in the life of Christ , for the condemning and curing of our sins ; and therefore are principally to be observed by faith . 1. His wonderful Love to God , to his Elect , and to his enemies : expressed in so strange an undertaking , and in his sufferings , and in his abundant grace , which must teach us , what fervours of love to God and man , to friends and enemies must dwell and have dominion in us , 1 John 4.10 . Rev. 1.5 . Rom. 5.8 , 10. John 13.34 , 35. & 15.13 . 1 John 3.14.23.17 . & 4.7 , 8 , 20 , 21. 2. His full obedience to his Fathers will , upon the dearest rates or terms : To teach us that no labour or cost should seem too great to us in our obeying the will of God ; nor any thing seem to us of so much value , as to be a price great enough to hire us to commit any wilful sin , Rom. 5.19 . Heb. 5 8. Phil. 2 8. 1 Sam. 15.22 . 2 Cor. 10.5 , 6. Heb. 5 9. John 14.15 . & 15.10 . 1 John 2.3 . & 3.22 . & 5.2 , 3. Rev. 22.14 . 3. His wonderful contempt of all the Riches , and Greatness of the world , and all the pleasures of the flesh , and all the honour which is of man , which he shewed in his taking the form of a servant , and making himself of no reputation , and living a mean inferiour life : He came not to be served ( or ministred to ) but to serve : Not to live in state with abundance of attendants ; with provisions for every turn and use , which pride , curiosity , or carnal imagination , taketh for a conveniency , or a decency , no nor a necessity : But he came to be as a servant unto others ; not as despising his liberty , but as exercising his voluntary humility and love : He that was Lord of all for our sakes , became poor to make us rich : He lived in lowliness and meekness : He submitted to the greatest scorn of sinners ; and even to the false accusations and imputations of most odious sin in it self , Phil. 2.6 , 7 , 8 , 9. Heb. 12.1 , 2 , 3. Matth. 26.55 , 60 , 61 , 63 , 66. & 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31. Matth. 11.29 , 30. & 20.28 . 2 Cor. 8.9 . which was to teach us to see the vanity of the wealth and honours of the world , and to despise the Idol of the ungodly , and to lay that under our feet , which is nearest to their heart ; and to be able without impatiency , to be scorned , spit upon , buffeted and abused ; to be poor , and of no reputation among men ; and though not to enslave our selves to any ( but if we can be free to use it rather , 1 Cor. 7.21 . ) yet to be the loving and voluntary servants of as many as we can to do them good ; and not to desire to have a great retinue , and to be such voluntary burdens to the world , as to be served by many , while we serve none ; as if we ( who are taught by Christ and Nature , that it is more honourable to give than to receive , and to be helpful unto many , than to need the help of many ) would declare our impotency to be so great , that ( when every poor man can serve himself and others ) we are ( and had rather be ) so indigent , as not to live and help our selves , without the help of many servants : yea scarce to undress and dress our selves , or to do any thing which another can do for us , Only such persons are willing to eat , and drink , and sleep for themselves , and to play , and laugh , and to sin for themselves ; but as to any thing that 's good and usefull , without their present sensitive delight , they are not only unserviceable to the world , but would live like the lame or dead , that must be moved and carryed about by others . Among Christs servants , he that is the chief , must be the chief in service , even as a servant unto all , Luke 22.26 . Matth. 23.11 . And all by love must serve one another , Gal. 5.13 . 4. His submission unto death , and conquest of the natural love of life , for a greater good , even the pleasing of God , and the Crown of Glory , and the good of many in their salvation : To teach us that not only the pleasures of life , but life it self must be willingly laid down , when any of these three ends require it , Matth. 20.28 . John 10 11. & 15.13 . 1 John 3.16 . Joh. 10.17 . Acts 20.24 . Matth. 10.39 . & 16.25 . Mark 14.26 . Phil. 2.30 . 1 John 3.16 . Rev. 12.11 . Direct . 16. Let Faith behold Christ in his relation to his universal Church , and not unto your selves alone . 1. Because else you overlook his most honourable relation : It is more his glory to be the Churches Head and Saviour , than yours , Ephes . 5.23 . & 1.21 , 22. And 2. You else overlook his chief design and work ; which is for the perfecting and saving of his body , Ephes . 1.23 . Col. 1.24.18 . And 3. Else you overlook the chief part of your own duty , and of your conformity to Christ , which is in loving and edifying the body , Ephes . 4.12 , 16 , Whereas if you see Christ as the undivided and impartial Head of all Saints , you will see also all Saints as dear to him , and as united in him ; and you will have communion by faith with them in him ; and you will love them all , and pray for all , and desire a part in the prayers of all ( instead of carping at their different indifferent manner , and forms , and words of prayer , and running away from them , to shew that you disown them . ) And you will have a tender care of the unity , and honour , and prosperity of the Church , and regard the welfare of particular Brethren as your own , 1 Cor. 12. throughout , John 13.14 , 34. & 15.12 , 17. Rom. 13.8 . stooping to the lowest service to one another , if it were the washing of the feet ; and in honour preferring one another , Rom. 12.10 . Not judging nor despising , nor persecuting , but receiving and forbearing one another , Rom. 14. throughout , & 15.1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 7 , 8. Gal. 5.13 . & 6.1 , 2 , 3. Ephes . 4.2 , 32. Col. 3.13 . Edifying , exhorting , and seeking the saving of one other , 1 Thes . 5.11 . & 4.9 , 18. Heb. 3.13 . & 10.24 . Not speaking evil one of another , James 4.11 . Much less biting and devouring one another , Gal. 5.15 . But having compassion one of another , as those that are members one of another , 1 Pet. 3.8 . Rom. 12.5 . Direct . 17. Make all your opposition to the temptations of Satan , the world and the flesh , by the exercise of Faith in Christ . From him you must have your weapons , skill and strength . It is the great work of Faith , to militate under him , as the Captain of our salvation ; and by vertue of his precepts , example and Spirit to overcome as he hath overcome . Of which more anon . Direct . 18. Death also must be entertained and conquered by Faith in Christ . We must see it as already conquered by him , and entertain it as the passage to him : This also will be after spoken to . Direct . 19. Faith must believe in Christ as our Judge , to give us our final Justification , and sentence us to endless life , Rom. 14.9 , 10. John 5.22 , 24 , 25. Direct . 20. Lastly , Faith must see Christ as preparing us a place in Heaven , and possessing it for us , and ready to receive us to himself . But all this I only name , because it will fall in in the last Chapters . CHAP. III. Directions to live by Faith on the Holy Ghost . THis is not the least part of the life of Faith. If the Spirit give us Faith it self , then Faith hath certainly its proper work to do towards that Spirit which giveth it : And if the Spirit be the worker of all other grace , and Faith be the means on our part , then Faith hath somewhat to do with the Holy Ghost herein . The best way that I can take in helping you to believe aright in the Holy Ghost , will be by opening the true sense of this great Article of our Faith to you , that by understanding the matter aright , you may know what you are here both to do , and to expect . Direct . 1. The name of the Holy Ghost , or Spirit of God , is used in Scripture for the third person in the Trinity as constitutive , and as the third perfective principle of operation ; and most usually as operating ad extra , by communication . And therefore many Fathers , and ancient Divines and Schoolmen , say . That the Holy Ghost , the third person and principle is THE LOVE OF GOD ; which as it is Gods Love of himself , is a constitutive person or principle in the Trinity ; but as it is pregnant and productive , it is the third principle of operation ad extra ; and so that it is taken usually , for the pregnant , operative Love of God. And thus they suppose that the Divine POWER , INTELLECT and WILL ( or Wisdom and Love ) are the three constitutive persons in themselves , and the three principles of operation ad extra . To this purpose writeth Origen , Ambrose and Richardus the Schoolman ; but plainlier and fullier Damascene and Bernard , and Edmundus Cantuariensis , and Potho Prumensis cited by me in my Reasons of the Christian Religion , page 372 , 373 , 374. Augustine only putteth Memory for Power , by which yet Campanella thinketh he meant Power , ( Metaphys . par . 2. l. 6. c. 12. art . 4. pag. 88. ) what Caesarius and many other say de triplici lumine , I pass by : The Lux Radii & Lumen , are thought a fit similitude by many . But the Motion , Light and Heat , is a plain impression of the Trinity on that noble element of fire . That holy man Ephraem Syrus in his Testament useth the phrase ( in his adjuration of his Disciples , and the protestation of his own stedfastness in the doctrine of the Trinity against all Heresies ) [ By that three-named fire of the most holy Trinity ] ( or Divine Majesty as another Copy hath it ) [ And by that infinite and sole , one Power of God ; and by those three subsistences of the intelligible ( or intellectual ) fire . ] And as it is a most great and certain truth , that this sacred Trinity of Divine Principles , have made their impress communicatively upon the frame of nature , and most evidently on the noblest parts , which are in excellency nearest their Creatour ; so it is evident that in the creatures LOVE is the pregnant communicative principle : So is Natural Love in Generation and friendly Love in benefiting others ; and spiritual Love , in propagating knowledge and grace , for the winning of souls . What I said of the Scripture use of the word is found in 1 John 5.5 , 6 , 7 , 8. Heb. 9.14 . 1 Cor. 12.2 , 3 , 4. Rom. 1.4 . John 1.32 , 33. & 3.5 , 34. & 6.63 . Gen. 1.2 . Job 33.4 . 2 Cor. 3.17 , 18. Luke 4.18 . Micah 3.8 . Isa . 11.2 . & 61.1 . Direct . 2. The more excellent measure of the Spirit given by Christ after his ascension to the Gospel Church , is to be distinguished from that which was before communicated ; and this Spirit of Christ is it which our Christian Faith hath special respect to . Without the Spirit of God , as the perfective principle , nature would not have been nature , Gen. 1.2 . All things would not have been good , and very good , but by the communication of goodness : And without somewhat of that Spirit , there would be no Moral Goodness in any of mankind : And without some special operations of that Spirit , the godly before Christs coming in the flesh , would not have been godly , nor in any present capacity of glory : Therefore there was some gift of the Spirit before . But yet there was an eminent gift of the Spirit proper to the Gospel times , which the former ages did not know ; which is so much above the former gift , that it is sufficient to prove the Verity of Christ . For 1. There was use for the speciall attestation of the Father by way of Power , by Miracles , and his Resurrection to own his Son. 2. The Wisdom and Word of God incarnate , must needs bring a special measure of Wisdom to his Disciples ; and therefore give a greater measure of the Spirit for illumination . 3. The design of Redemption being the revelation of the Love of God , and the recovery of our Love to him , there must needs be a special measure of the Spirit of Love shed abroad upon our hearts . And in all these three respects , the Spirit was accordingly communicated . Quest . Was it not the Spirit of Christ which was in the Prophets , and in all the godly before Christs coming ? Answ . The Spirit of Christ is either that measure of the Spirit , which was given after the first Covenant of Grace , as it differeth from the state of man in innocency , and from the state of man in his Apostacy and condemnation : And thus it was the Spirit of Christ which was then given , so far as it was the Covenant and Grace of Christ , by which men were then saved . But there was a fuller Covenant to be made after his coming , and a fuller measure of Grace to be given , and a full attestation of God for the establishment and promulgation of this Covenant : And accordingly a fuller and special gift of the Spirit . And this is called The Spirit of Christ , in the peculiar Gospel sense . Quest . How is it said , Joh. 7.37 . that the Holy Ghost was not yet given , because Christ was not yet glorified ? Answ . It is meant of this special measure of the Spirit , which was to be Christs special witness and agent in the world . They had before that measure of true grace , which was necessary to the salvation of Believers , before the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ , ( which was the Spirit of Christ , as the Light before Sun-rising is the Light of the Sun ; ) and if they died in that case , they would have been saved : But they had not the signal Spirit of the Gospel , settled and resident with them , but only some little taste of it for casting out Devils , and for Cures , at that time when Christ sent them by a special mission to preach , and gave them a sudden special gift , Luke 9.1 . & 10.17 . Quest . How is it said of those baptized Believers , Acts 19. that they had not heard that there was a Holy Ghost ? Answ . It is meant of this eminent Gospel gift of the Holy Ghost , as he is the great Witness and Agent of Christ ; and not of all the graces of the Holy Ghost ? Quest . Was it before necessary to have an explicite belief in the Holy Ghost as the third person in the blessed Trinity , and as the third principle of the divine operations , and were the faithful then in Covenant with him ? Answ . Distinguish between the Person and the Name : No Name is necessary to salvation ; else none could be saved but men of one language : To believe in the Holy Ghost under that Name , was not necessary to salvation ( nor yet is ) for he that speaketh and heareth of him in Greek , or Latine , or Sclavonian , &c. may be saved , though he never learnt the English tongue : But to believe in the Energetical , or operative , or communicative Love of God , was alwaies necessary to salvation , considered in the thing , and not only in the Name : As it was to believe in his Power and his Wisdom : And to believe which is the first , and which the second , and which the third , is not yet of absolute necessity to salvation ; while they are coequal and coessential ; and it was necessary to the Jews to believe , that this Love of God did operate , and was communicated to the faithful , not upon the terms of innocency , according to the first Covenant ; but to sinners that deserved death , and upon terms of mercy , through the Covenant of Grace , which was made with lapsed man in order to his recovery , through a Redeemer . Direct . 3. All that is efficiently necessary to our salvation , in or of God , is not objectively necessary to be known . And such a measure of the knowledge of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost is necessary to save us , as is necessary objectively to sanctifie us under the efficiency of the said Spirit : And all the rest is not of such necessity . And therefore as under the Gospel , the Spirit is Christs great Witness , as well as Agent in the world , it is more necessary now to believe distinctly in the Holy Ghost in that relation , than it was before Christs coming in the flesh . There is a great deal of the Divine Perfection , which causeth our salvation , unknown to us : As the Sun will shine upon us , and the wind will blow , and the rain will fall , and the earth will bear fruits , whether we know it or not ; so our knowledge of it , is not at all necessary to any Divine Efficiency as such : The Spirit by which we are regenerate , is like the wind that bloweth , whose sound we hear , but know not whence it cometh , nor whither it goeth ( no nor what it is ) John 3.6 , 7 , 8 , 9. But all those things which are necessary to work objectively and morally on the soul , do work in esse cognito ; and the knowledge of them is as necessary as the operation is . It was of absolute necessity to the salvation of all , before Christs coming , and among the Gentiles as well as the Jews , that the Spirit should sanctifie them to God , by possessing them with a predominant Love of him in his Goodness ; and that this Spirit proceed from the Son or Wisdom of God : But it was not so necessary to them as it is now to us , to have a distinct knowledge of the personality and operations of the Spirit , and of the Son. And though now it is certain that Christ is the Way , the Truth , and the Life , and no man cometh to the Father , but by the Son , Joh. 14.6 . Yet that knowledge of him , which is necessary to them that hear the Gospel , is not all necessary to them that never hear it ; though the same efficiency on his part be necessary : And so it is about the knowledge of the Holy Ghost ▪ without which Christ cannot be sufficiently now known , and rightly believed in . Direct . 4. The presence or operation of the Spirit of God is casually the spiritual Life of man , in his holiness : As there is no natural Being but by influence from his Being ; so no Life but by communication from his Life , and no Light but from his Light , and no Love or Goodness , but from his Spirit of Love. It is therefore a vain conceit of them , that think man in innocency had not the Spirit of God : They that say , his natural rectitude was instead of the Spirit , do but say , and unsay : for his natural rectitude was the effect of the influx or communication of Gods Spirit : And he could have no moral rectitude without it ; as there can be no effect without the chief cause : The nature of Love and Holiness cannot subsist , but in dependance on the Love and Holiness of God : And those Papists who talk of mans state first in pure naturals , and an after donation of the Spirit , must mean by pure naturals , man in his meer essentials , not really , but notionally by abstraction distinguished , from the same man at the same instant as a Saint ; or else they speak unsoundly : For God made man in moral dispositive goodness at the first ; and the same Love or Spirit , which did first make him so , was necessary after to continue him so . It was never his nature to be a prime good , or to be good independently without the influence of the prime good , Isa . 44.3 . Ezek. 36.27 . Job 26.13 . Psal . 51.10 , 12. & 143.10 . Prov. 20.27 . Mal. 2.15 . John 3.5 , 6. & 6.63 . & 7.39 . Rom. 8.1 , 5 , 6 ▪ 9 , 13 , 16. 1 Cor. 6.11 . & 2.11 , 12. & 6.17 . & 12.11 , 13. & 15.45 . 2 Cor. 3.3 , 17. Ephes . 2.18 , 22. & 3.16 . & 5.9 . Col. 1.8 . Jude 19. Direct . 5. The Spirit of God , and the Holiness of the soul may be lost , without the destruction of our essence , or species of humane nature ▪ and may be restored without making us specifically other things . That influence of the Spirit which giveth us the faculty of a Rational Appetite or Will , inclined to good as good , cannot cease , but our humanity or Being would cease : But that influence of the Spirit , which causeth our adherence to God by Love , may cease , without the cessation of our Beings ; as our health may be lost , while our life continueth , Psal . 51.10 . 1 Thes . 5.19 . Direct . 6. The greatest mercy in this world , is the gift of the Spirit , and the greatest misery is to be deprived of the Spirit ; and both these are done to man by God , as a Governour , by way of reward and punishment oft-times : Therefore the greatest reward to be observed in this world , is the increase of the Spirit upon us , and the greatest punishment in this world is the denying or with-holding of the Spirit . It is therefore a great part of a Christians wisdom and work , to observe the accesses and assistances of the Spirit , and its withdrawings ; and to take more notice to God in his thankfulness of the gift of the Spirit , than of all other benefits in this world : And to lament more the retiring or withholding of Gods Spirit , than all the calamities in the world : And to fear this more as a punishment of his sin : Lest God should say as Psal . 81.11 , 12. But my people would not hearken to my voice , Israel would none of me : so I gave them up to their own hearts lusts , to walk in their own counsels : And we must obey God through the motive of this promise and reward , Prov. 1.23 . Turn you at my reproof ; behold , I will powre out my Spirit unto you , I will make known my words to you , Joh. 7.39 He spake this of the Spirit , which they that believe on him should receive , Luke 11.13 . God will give his holy Spirit to them that ask it . And we have great cause when we have sinned , to pray with David , Cast me not away from thy presence , and take not thy holy Spirit from me . Create in me a clean heart , O God , and renew a right spirit in me . Restore to me the joy of thy salvation , and stablish me with thy free Spirit , Psal . 51.10 , 11 , 12. And as the sin to be feared is the grieving of the holy Spirit , Ephes 4.30 . so the judgement to be feared , is accordingly the withdrawing of it , Isaiah 63.10 , 11. But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit ; therefore he was turned to be their enemy , and fought against them . Then he remembred the daies of old , Moses and his people , saying , Where is he that brought them up — Where is he that put his holy Spirit within them ? The great thing to be dreaded , is , lest [ those that were once enlightened , and have tasted of the heavenly gift , and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost — should fall away , and be no more renewed by repentance — Heb. 6.4 6. Direct . 7. Therefore executive pardon or justification cannot possibly be any perfecter than sanctification is : Because no sin is further forgiven , or the person justified executively , than the punishment is taken off : and the privation of the Spirit , being the great punishment , the giving of it , is the great executive remission in this life . But of this more in the Chapter of Justification following . Direct . 8. The three great operations in m●n , which each of the three persons in the Trinity eminently perform , are , Natura , Medicina , salus ; the first by the Creator , the second by the Redeemer , the third by the Sanctifier . Commonly it is called Nature , Grace and Glory : But either the terms [ Grace and Glory ] must be plainlier expounded , or that distribution is not sound : If by Grace be meant all the extrinsick medicinal preparations made by Christ ; and if by [ Glory ] be meant only the Holiness of the soul , the sense is good : But in common use those words are otherwise understood . Sanctification is usually ascribed to the Holy Ghost : but Glorification in Heaven , is the perfective effect of all the three persons in our state of perfect union with God , Rom. 15.16 . Titus 3.5 , 6. But yet in the work of Sanctification it self , the Trinity undividedly concur : And so in the sanctifying and raising the Church , the Apostle distinctly calleth the act of the Father , by the name of Operation ; and the work of the Son by the name of Administration , and the part of the Holy Ghost by the name of Gifts , 1 Cor. 12.4 , 5 , 6. And in respect to these sanctifying Operations of God , ad extra , the same Apostle distributeth them thus , 2 Cor. 13.14 . The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ , and the Love of God , and the Communion of the Holy Ghost , be with you all : Where by God , seemeth to be meant all the persons in the Trinity in their perfection ; but especially the Father as the Fountain of Love , and as expressing Love by the Son and the Spirit ; and by the Grace of Christ , is meant all that gracious provision he hath made for mans salvation , and the Relative application of it , by his intercession , together with his mission of the holy Spirit . And by the Communion of the Spirit is meant that actual communication of Life , Light and Love to the soul it self , which is eminently ascribed to the Spirit . Direct . 9. The Spirit it self is given to true Believers , and not only grace from the Spirit . Not that the Essence of God , or the person of the Holy Ghost , is capable of being contained in any place , or removing to or from a place , by local motion : But 1. The Holy Ghost is given to us Relatively , as our Covenanting Sanctifier in the Baptismal Covenant : We have a Covenant-right to him , that is , to his operations . 2. And the Spirit it self is present as the immediate Operator ; not so immediate as to be without Means , but so immediately as to be no distant Agent , but by proximate attingency , not only ratione virtutis , but also ratione suppositi , performeth his operations : If you say , so he is present every where ; I answer , but he is not a present Operator every where alike . We are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost , both because he buildeth us up for so holy a use , and because he also dwelleth in us , 1 Cor. 6.19 . Direct . 10. By the sanctification commonly ascribed to the Holy Ghost , is meant that recovery of the soul to God , from whom it is fallen , which consisteth in our primitive Holiness , or devotedness to God , but summarily in the Love of God , as God. Direct . 11. And Faith in Christ is oft placed as before it , not as if the Spirit were no cause of Faith , nor as if Faith were no part of our saving special grace ; nor as if any had saving Faith before they had Love to God ; but because as Christ is the Mediatour and way to the Father ; so Faith in him is but a mediate grace to bring us up to the Love of God , which is the final perfective grace : And because , though they are inseparably complicate , yet some acts of Faith go before our special Love to God in order of nature , though some others follow after it , or go with it . It is a question which seemeth very difficult to many , whether Love to God , or Faith in Christ must go first ( whether in time or order of nature . ) For if we say that Faith in Christ must go first , then it seemeth that we take not Faith or Christ as a Means to bring us to God as our End ; for our End is Deus amatus , God as beloved ; and to make God our End , and to love him , are inseparable . We first love the good which appeareth to us , and then we chuse and use the Means to attain it ; and in so doing we make that our End which we did love ; so that it is the first loved for it self , and then made our End. Now if Christ be not used as a Means to God , or as our Vltimate End , then he is not believed in , or used as Christ , and therefore it is no true Faith : And that which hath not the true End , is not the true act or grace in question , nor can that be any special grace at all , which hath not God for his Vltimate End : On both which accounts , it can be no true Faith : The intentio finis , being before the choice or use of means , though the assecution be after . And yet on the other side , if God be loved as our End , before we believe in Christ as the means , then we are sanctified before we believe . And then faith in Christ is not the Means of our first special Love to God. And the consequents on both parts are intollerable ; and how are they to be avoided ? Consider here 1. You must distinguish betwixt the assenting or knowing act of faith , and the consenting or chusing act of it in the will. 2. And between Christ as he is a Means of Gods chusing and using , and as he is a means of our chusing and using . And so I answer the case in these Propositions . 1. The knowledge of a Deity is supposed before the knowledge of Christ as a Mediator : For no man can believe that he is a Teacher sent of God , nor a Mediator between us and God , nor a Sacrifice to appease Gods wrath , who doth not believe first that there is a God. 2. In this belief or knowledge of God , is contained the knowledge of his Essential Power , Wisdom and Goodness ; and that he is our Creator and Governour , and that we have broken his Laws , and that we are obnoxious to his Justice , and deserve punishment for our sins . All this is to be known before we believe in Christ as the Mediatour . 3. Yet where Christianity is the Religion of the Country , it is Christ himself by his Word and Ministers , who teacheth us these things concerning God ; But it is not Christ as a Means chosen or used by us , to bring us to the Love of God ; ( for no man can chuse or use a Means for an End not yet known or intended : ) but it is Christ as a Means chosen and used by God , to bring home sinners to himself : ( even as his dying for us on the Cross was . ) 4. The soul that knoweth all this concerning God , cannot yet love him savingly , both because he wanteth the Spirit to effect it , and because a holy sin-hating God , engaged in Justice to damn the sinner , is not such an object , as a guilty soul can love : but it must be a loving and reconciled God that is willing to forgive . 5. When Christ by his Word and Ministers hath taught a sinner both what God is in himself , and what he is to us , and what we have deserved , and what our case is ; and then hath taught him , what he himself is as to his person and his office , and what he hath done to reconcile us to God , and how far God is reconciled hereupon , and what a common conditional pardoning Covenant , he hath made and offereth to all , and what he will be and do to those that do come in , the belief of all this serio●sly ( by the assenting act of the understanding ) is the first part of saving Faith , going in nature before both the Love of God , and the consenting act of the Will to the Redeemer . ( And yet perhaps the same acts of faith in an uneffectual superficial measure , may go long before this in many . ) 6. In this assent our belief in God , and in the Mediatour , are conjunct in time and nature ; they being Relatives here as the objects of our faith . It is not possible to believe in Christ as the Mediatour , who hath propitiated God to us , before we believe that God is propitiated by the Mediatour ; nor vice versâ : Indeed there is a difference in order of dignity and desirableness ; God as propitiated being represented to us as the End , and the Propitiator , but as the Means : But as to the order of our apprehension or believing , there can be no difference at all , no more than in the order of knowing the Father and the Son , the Husband and Wife , the King and subjects : These Relatives are simul naturá & tempore . 7. This assenting act of Faith , by which at once we believe Christ to be the Propitiator , and God to be propitiated by him , is not the belief that my sins are actually pardoned , and my soul actually reconciled and justified ; but it includeth the belief of the history of Christs satisfaction , and of the common conditional Covenant of Promise and Offer from God , viz. that God is so far reconciled by the Mediatour , as that he will forgive , and justifie , and glorifie all that Repent and Believe , that is , that return to God by faith in Christ ; and offereth this mercy to all , and intreateth them to accept it , and will condemn none of them but those that finally reject i● . 〈◊〉 things are of God , who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ , and hath given to us the Ministry of reconciliation , to wit , that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto hims●lf , not imputing their trespasses to them ; and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation : Now then we are Embassadors for Christ , as though God did beseech you by us : we pray you in Christs stead , be ye reconciled unto God , 2 Cor. 5.18 , 19 , 20. So that it is at once the belief of the Father as reconciled , and the Son as the Reconcil●r , and that according to the tenour of the common conditional Covenant , which is the first assenting part of saving Faith. 8. This same Covenant which revealeth God as thus far reconciled by Christ , doth offer him to be further actualy and fully reconciled , and to justifie and glorifie us , that is , to forgive , accept , and love us perfectly for ever . And it offereth us Christ to be our actual Head and Mediatour , to procure and give us all this mercy , by communicating the benefits which he hath purchased according to his Covenant-terms : so that as before the Father and the Son were revealed to our assent together ; so here they are offered to the Will together . 9. In this offer , God is offered as the End , and Christ as Mediatour is offered as the Means ; therefore the act of the Will to God , which is here required , is simple Love of complacency ( with subjection , which is a consent to obey ) but the act of the Will to Christ , is called choice or consent , though there be in it Amor Medii , the Love of that Means for its aptitude as to the end . 10. This Love of God as the End and Consent to Christ as the Means , being not acts of the Intellect , but of the Will , cannot be the first acts of Faith , but do presuppose the first assenting acts . 11. But the assenting act of Faith , doth cause these acts of the Will to God and the Mediatour . Because we believe the Truth and Goodness , we Consent and Love. 12. Both these acts of the Will are caused by assent at one time , without the least distance . 13. But here is a difference in order of Nature , because we will God as the End , and for himself ; and therefore first in the natural order of intention ; and we will Christ as the Means for that End , and therefore but secondarily . Though in the Intellects apprehension and assent ▪ there be no such difference ; because in the Truth , which is the Vnderstandings object , there is no d●fference , but only in the Goodness which is the Wills object : And as Goodness it self is apprehended by the Vnderstanding , ut verè bonum , there is only an objective d●fference of dignity . ) 14. Therefore as the Gospel revelation cometh to us in a way of offer , promise and covenant , so our Faith must act in a way of Acceptance & Covenanting with God and the Redeemer and Sanctifier . And the Sacrament of Baptism is the solemnizing of this Covenant on both parts . And till our hearts do consent to the Baptismal Covenant of Grace , we are not Believers in a saving sense . 15. There is no distance of time between the Assent of Faith , and the first true degree of Love and Consent : ( Though an unsound Assent may go long before ; yet sound Assent doth immediately produce Love and Consent ; ) and though a clear and full resolved degree of consent may be some time afterward : And therefore the soul may not at the first degree so well understand it self , as to be ready for an open covenanting ) 16. This being the true order of the work of Faith and Love , the case now lyeth plain before those that can observe things distinctly , and take not up with confused knowledge . ( And no other are fit to meddle with such cases ) viz that the knowing or assenting acts of faith in God as reconciled ( so far ) and in Christ as the reconciler , so far as to give out the offer or Covenant of Grace , are both at once , and both go before the acts of the will , as the cause before the immediate effect ; and that this assent first in order of nature ( but at once in time ) causeth the will to love God as our End , and to consent to , and chuse Christ in heart-covenant as the means , and so in our covenant we give up our selves to both : And that this Repentance and Love to God , which are both one work called conversion , of turning from the creature to God , the one as denominated from the terminus à quo , viz. ( Repentance ) the other from the terminus ad quem ( viz. Love ) are twisted at once with true saving Faith. And that Christ as the means used by God is our first Teacher , and bringeth us to assent : And then that assent bringeth us to take God for our End , and Christ for the Means of our actual Justification and Glory ; so that Christ is not by Faith chosen and used by us under the notion of a M●diatour or Means to our first act of love and consent ; but is a Means to that of the Fathers chusing only ; but is in that first consent chosen by us for the standing means of our Justification and Glory , and of all our following exercise and increase of love to God , and our sanctification ; so that it is only the assenting act of faith , and not the electing act , which is the efficient cause of o● very first act of Love to God , and of our first degree of sanctification ; and thus it is that Faith is called the seed and mother grace : But it is not that saving Faith which is our Christianity , and the condition of Justification and of Glory , till it come up to a covenant-consent of heart , and take in the foresaid acts of Repentance and Love to God as our God and ultimate end . The observation of many written mistakes about the order of the work of grace , and the ill and contentious consequents that have followed them , hath made me think that this true and accurate decision of this case , is not unuseful or unnecessary . Direct . 12. The Holy Ghost so far concurred with the eternal Word , in our Redemption , that he was the perfecting Operator , in the Conception , the Holiness , the Miracles , the Resurrection of Jesus Christ . Of his Conception it is said , Mat. 1.20 . For that which is conceived in her , is of the Holy Ghost . And vers . 18. She was found with child of the Holy Ghost . And of his holy perfection , as it is said , Luke 2.52 . that he increased in wisdom , and stature , and favour with God and men , ( meaning those positive perfections of his humane nature ( which were to grow up with nature it self , and not the supply of any culpable or privative defects ) so when he was baptized , the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him , Luke 3.22 . And Luke 4.1 . it is said , Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost , &c. Isa . 11.2 . And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him ; the Spirit of wisdom and understanding ; the Spirit of counsel and might ; the Spirit of knowledge , and the fear of the Lord , and shall make him quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord , &c. Joh. 3.34 . For God giveth not the Spirit by measure to him , Acts 1.2 . After that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments to the Apostles whom he had chosen , Rom. 1.4 . And was declared to be the Son of God , with power , according to the Spirit of Holiness ( that is , the Holy Spirit ) by the resurrection from the dead , Mat. 12.28 . If I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God , &c. Luke 4.18 . The Spirit of the Lord is upon me ; because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor , he hath sent me to heal , &c. Isa . 61.1 . In all this you see how great the work of the Holy Spirit was upon Christ himself , to fit his humane nature for the work of our redemption , and actuate him in it ; though it was the Word only which was made flesh , and dwelt among us , John 1.3 . Direct . 13. Christ was thus filled with the Spirit , to be the Head or quickening Spirit to his body : and accordingly to fit each member for its peculiar office : And therefore the Spirit now given is called the Spirit of Christ , as communicated by him . Rom. 8.9 . If any man have not the Spirit of Christ , the same is none of hi● , Joh. 7.37 . This spake he of the Spirit , which they that believe should receive , viz. it is the water of life , which Christ will give them . 1 Cor. 15.45 . The last Adam was made a quickening Spirit , Gal. 4.6 . God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts , whereby we cry Abba Father , Phil. 1.19 . Through the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ . See also Ephes . 1.22 , 23. & 3.17 , 18 , 19. & 2.18 , 22. & 4.3 , 12 , 16. 1 Cor. 12 , &c. Direct . 14. The greatest extraordinary measure of the Spirit , was given by him to his Apostles , and the Primitive Christians , to be the seal of his own truth and power , and to fit them to found the first Churches , and to convince unbelievers , and to deliver his will on record in the Scriptures , infallibly to the Church for future times . It would be tedious to cite the proofs of this , they are so numerous ; take but a few , Matth. 28.20 . Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you ( that 's the commission ) Mark 16.17 . And these signs shall follow them that believe , &c. Joh. 20.22 . Receive ye the Holy Ghost , &c. 14.26 . But the Comforter , the Holy Ghost , whom the Father will send in my name , he will teach you all things , and bring all things to your remembrance , whatsoever I have said unto you , Joh. 16.13 . When the Spirit of Truth is come , he will guide you into all Truth , &c. Heb. 2.4 . God also bearing them witness , both with signs , and w●nders , and with divers miracles , and gifts of the Holy Ghost , according to his own will. Direct . 15. And as such gifts of the Spirit was given to the Apostles as their ●ffice required ; so th●se sanctifying graces , or that spiritual Life , Light and Love , are given by it to all true Christians , which their calling and salvation doth require . John 3.5 , 6. Except a man be born of Water , and of the Spirit , he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . That which is born of the fl●sh , is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit , is Spirit , Heb. 12.14 . Without holiness none shall see God , Rom. 8.8 , 9 , 10 , 14. They that are in the flesh cannot please God : But ye are not in the flesh , but in the Spirit , if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you . Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his . See also v. 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 7 , &c. Titus 3.5 , 6 , 7. He saved us by the washing of Regeneration , and the renewing of the Holy Ghost , which he shed on us abundantly , through Jesus Christ our Saviour ; that being justified by his grace , we should be made heirs , according to the hope of eternal life . But the testimonies of th●s truth are more numerous than I may recite . Direct . 16. By all this it appeareth that the Holy Ghost is both Christs great witness objectively in the world , by which it is that he is owned of God , and proved to be true ; and also his Advocate or great Agent in the Church , both to indite the Scriptures , and to sanctifie souls . So that no man can be a Christian indeed , without these three : 1. The objective witness of the Spirit to the truth of Christ . 2. The Gospel taught by the Spirit in the Apostles . 3. And the quickening , illuminating and sanctifying work of the Spirit upon their souls . Direct . 17. It is therefore in these respects that we are baptiz●d into the Name of the Holy Ghost , as well as of the Father and the Son , it being his work to make us thus both Believers and Saints ; and his perfective work of our real Sanctification , being as necessary to us as our Redemption or Creation , Matth. 28.19 , 2● . Heb. 6.1 , 2 , 4 , 5 , 6. Direct . 18. Therefore as every Christian must look upon himself , as being in special Covenant with the Holy Ghost , so be must understand distinctly what are the benefits , and what are the conditions , and what are the duties of that part of his Covenant . The special Benefits are the Life , Light and Love before mentioned , by the quickening illumination and sanctification of the Spirit ; not as in the first Act or Seed ; for so they are presupposed in that Faith and Repentance which is the Condition . But as in the following acts and habits , and increase of both , unto perfection , Acts 2.38 . Repent and be baptized every one of you , in the Name of Jesus Christ , for the remission of sins ; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost ; for the promise is to you and to your children , and to all that are afar off , and to as many as the Lord our God shall call . See Acts 26.18 . Ephes . 1.18 , 19. Titus 3.5 , 6 , 7. The special condition on our parts , is our consent to the whole Covenant of Grace ▪ viz. To give up our selves to God as our Reconciled God and Father in Christ , and to Jesus Christ as our Saviour , and to the holy Spirit as to his Agent , and our Sanctifier . There needeth no other proof of this , than actual Baptism as celebrated in the Church from Christs daies till now . And the institution of it , Mat. 28.19 . with 1 John 5.7 , 8 , 9. & 1 Pet. 3.21 . with John 3.5 . The special Duties afterward to be performed , have their rewards as aforesaid , and the neglect of them their penalties ; and therefore have the nature of a Condition as of those particular rewards or benefits . Direct . 19. The Duties which our Covenant with the Holy Ghost doth bind us to , are 1. Faithfully to endeavour by the power and help which he giveth us , to continue our consent to all the foresaid Covenant : And 2. To obey his further motions , for the work of Obedience and Love : 3. And to use Christs appointed means with which his Spirit worketh : And 4. To forbear those wilful sins which grieve the Spirit . John 15.4 . Abide in me , and I in you . v. 7. If ye abide in me , and my words abide in you , ye shall ask what ye will , and it shall be done unto you . v. 9. Continue in my love , Col. 1.23 . If ye continue in the Faith , &c. Jude 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God. Heb. 10.25 , 26. Not forsaking the assembling of your selves together , &c. For if we sin wilfully , &c. of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy , who hath done despight to the Spi●it of grace , v. 29. Heb. 6.4 , 5 , 6. Ephes . 4 3● . Grieve not the holy Spirit of God , 1 Thes . 5.19 . Quench not the Spirit . Direct . 20. By this it is plain , that the Spirit worketh not on man as a dead thing , which hath no principle of activity in it self ; nor as on a naturally necessitated Agent , which hath no self-determining faculty of will ; but as on a living free self-determining Agent , which hath duty of its own to perform for the attaining of the end desired . Those therefore that upon the pretence of the Spirits doing all , and our doing nothing without him , will lye idle , and not do their parts with him , and say that they wait for the motions of the Spirit , and that our endeavours will not further the end , do abuse the Spirit , and contradict themselves ; seeing the Spirits work is to stir us up to endeavour , which when we refuse to do , we disobey and strive against the Spirit . Direct . 21. Though sometimes the Spirit work so efficaciously , as certainly to cause the volition , or other effect which it moveth to ; yet sometimes it so moveth , as procureth not the effect , when yet it gave man all the power and help which was necessary to the effect ; because that man failed of that endeavour of his own , which should have concurred to the effect , and which he was able without more help to have performed . That there is such effectual grace , Acts 9. and many Scriptures with our great experience tell us . That there is such meer necessary uneffectual grace possible , and sometime in being , ( which some call sufficient grace ) is undeniable in the case of Adam ; who sinned not for want of necessary grace , without which he could not do otherwise . And to deny this , blotteth out all Christianity and Religion at one dash . By all which it appeareth , that the work of the Spirit is such on mans will , as that sometimes the effect is suspended on our concurrence ; so that though the Spirit be the total cause of its own proper effect , and of the act of man , in its own place and kind of action ; yet not simply a total cause of mans act or volition ; but mans concurrence may be further required to it , and may fail . Direct . 22. Satan transformeth himself oft into an Angel of Light , to deceive men by pretending to be the Spirit of God : Therefore the spirits must be tryed , and not every spirit trusted , 2 Cor. 11.14 , 15. Mat. 24.4 , 5 , 11 , 24. 1 John 3.7 . Ephes . 4.14 . Revel . 10.3 8. 2 Thes . 3.2 . 1 John 4.1 , 3 , 6. Direct . 23. The way of trying the spirits , is to try all their uncertain suggestions , by the Rule of the certain Truths already revealed in Nature , and in the holy Scriptures : And to try them by the Scriptures , is but to try the spirits , by the Spirit : the doubtfull spirit , by the undoubted Spirit , which indited and sealed the Scriptures more fully , than can be expected in any after revelation , 1 Thes . 1.21 . Isa . 8.16 , 20. 2 Pet. 1.19 . John 5.39 . Acts 17.11 . The Spirit of God is never contrary to it self : Therefore nothing can be from that Spirit , which is contrary to the Scriptures which the Spirit indited . Direct . 24. When you would have an increase of the Spirit , go to Christ for it , by renewed acts of that same Faith , by which at first you obtained the Spirit , Gal. 3.3 , 4. Gal. 4.6 . Faith in Christ doth two waies help us to the Spirit : 1. As it is that Condition upon which he hath promised it , to whom it belongeth to give us the Spirit . 2. As it is that act of the soul which is fitted in the nature of it , to the work of the Spirit : That is , as it is the serious contemplation of the infinite Goodness and Love of God , most brightly shining to us in the face of the Redeemer : and as it is a serious contemplation of that heavenly glory procured by Christ , which is the fullest expression of the Love of God : and so is fittest to kindle that Love to God in the soul , which is the work of the Spirit . These are joyned , Rom. 5.1 , 2 , 5 , 6. Being justified by Faith , we have peace with God , through our Lord Jesus Christ ▪ By whom also we have access by Faith into this grace wherein we stand , and rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God — The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost , which is given to us . For when we were without strength , in due time Christ died for the ungodly — God commended his Love to us , that while we were yet sinners , Christ died for us — So Ephes . 3.17 , 18 , 19. Let Christ dwell in your hearts by Faith , and it would help you to be rooted and grounded in Love , and to comprehend with all Saints , what is the breadth , and length , and depth , and height ; and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge , and so to be filled with the fulness of God. If Faith be the way to see Gods Love , and Faith be the way thereby to raise our Love to God , then Faith in Christ must needs be the continual instrument of the Spirit , or that means which we must still use for the increase of the Spirit . Direct . 25. The works of the Spirit , next to the excitation of Life , Light and Love , do consist in the subduing of the lusts of the flesh , and of the power of all the objects of sense which serve it . Therefore be sure that you faithfully serve the Spirit in this mortifying work , and that you take not part with the flesh against it . A grat part of our duty towards the Holy Ghost , doth consist in this joyning with him , and obeying him in his strivings against the flesh : And therefore it is that so many and earnest exhortations are used with us , to live after the Spirit , and not after the flesh ; and to mortifie the lusts of the flesh , and the deeds of it by the Spirit ; especially in Rom. 8.1 . to the 16. and in Gal. 5. throughout . & Rom. 6. & 7. & Col. 3. Ephes . 5. Direct . 26. Take not every striving for a victory , n●r every desire of grace , to be true grace it self ; unless grace be desired as it is the lovely Image of God , and pleasing to him , and be desired before all earthly things ; and unless you not only strive against , but conquer the predominant love of every sin . There are many uneffectual desires and strivings which consist with the dominion of sin . Many a fornicator , and glutton , and drunkard , hath earnest wishes that he could leave his sin , when he thinketh of the shame and punishment ; and hath a great deal of striving against it before he yieldeth : But yet he liveth in it still , because his love to it is the predominant part in him , Rom. 6.2 . How shall we that are dead to sin , live any longer therein ? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Christ , were baptized into his death — We are buryed with him by Baptism — Knowing this , that our old man is crucified with him , that the body of sin might be destroyed , that henceforth we should not serve sin : For he that is dead , is freed from sin . — V. 12. Let not sin reign therefore in your mortal bodies , that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof . — V. 13. Neither yield your members servants of unrighteousness unto sin — For sin shall not have dominion over you — Know ye not that to whom you yield your selves servants to obey , his servants ye are to whom ye obey ? whether of sin unto death , or of obedience unto righteousness , Rom. 8.13 . If ye live after the flesh , ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body , ye shall live . See Gal. 5.16 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23. They that are Christs , have crucified the flesh , with the affections and lusts . V. 24. and 2 Tim. 2.19 . The foundation of God standeth sure , having this seal , The Lord knoweth who are his . And let every one that nameth the Name of Christ , depart from iniquity . Object . But it is said , Gal. 5.17 . The flesh lusteth against the Spirit — so that ye cannot do the things which ye would . Answ . That is , every true Christian would fain be perfect in Holiness and Obedience , but cannot , because of the lustings of the flesh : But it doth not say or mean , that any true Christian would live without wilful gross , or reigning sin , and cannot ; that he would live without murder , adultery , theft , or any sin which is more loved than hated , but cannot . We cannot do all that we would ; but it doth not follow that we can do nothing which we would , or cannot sincerely obey the Gospel . Object . Paul saith , Rom. 7.15 , 18. To will is present with me ; but how to perform that which is good I find not : and what I would , that I do not . Answ . The same answer will serve . To will perfect Obedience to all Gods Laws , was present with Paul ; but not to do it . He would be free from every infirmity , but could not : ( And therefore could not be justified by the Law of Works . ) But he never saith , that he would obey sincerely , and could not ; or that he would live without heinous sin , and could not . Indeed in his flesh he saith , there dwelleth no good thing ; but that denyeth not his spiritual power ( who so often proposeth himself as an example to be imitated by those that he wrote to . ) Thousands are deceived about their state , by taking every un●ffectual desire and wish , and every striving before they sin , to be a mark of saving grace : misunderstanding Mr. Perkins , and some others with him , who make a desire of grace , to be the grace it self , and a combat● against the flesh , to be a sign of the renovation by the Spirit ; whereas they mean only , such a desire of grace as grace for the Love of God , as is more powerful than any contrary desires ; and such a combating as conquereth gross ( or mortal ) sin , and striveth against infirmities . And of this , this saying is very true . Direct . 27. Strive with your hearts when the Spirit is striveing with you : and take the season of its sp●cial help ; and make one gale of grace advantageous to another . This is a great point of Christian wisdom : The help of the Spirit is not at our command : take it while you have it . Use wind and tide before they cease . God will not be a servant to our slothfulness and negligence . As he that will not come to the Church at the hour when the Minister of Christ is there , but say , I will come another time , will have none of his teaching there ; so he that will not take the Spirits time , but say , I am not now at leisure , may be left without its help , and taught by sad experience to know , that it is fitter for man to wait on God , than for God to wait on man. More may be done and got at one hour , than at another , when we have no such help and motions . Direct . 28. Be much in the contemplation of the heavenly Glory ; for there are the highest objects , and the greatest demonstrations of Gods Love and Goodness ; and therefore in such thoughts we are most likely to meet with the Spirit with whose nature and design they are so agreeable . We fall in with the heavenly Spirit in his own way , when we set our selves to be most heavenly . Heavenly thoughts are the work which he would set you on ; and the Love of God is the thing which he works you to thereby : And nothing will so powerfully inflame the soul with the Love of God , as to think that we shall live in his Love and Glory for ever more . Set your selves therefore to this work , and it will be a sign that the Spirit sets you on it ; and you may be sure that he will not be behind with you , in a work which both he and you must do . To this sense the Apostle bids us , pray in the Holy Ghost , Jude 20. Because though prayer must be from the Spirit , which is not in our power ; yet when we set our selves to pray , it is both a sign that the Spirit exciteth , and a certain proof that he will not be behind with us , but will afford us his assistance . Direct . 29. Conve●se with those who have most of the Spirit , as far as you can attain it . And that is not those that are most for revelations or visions , or that pretend to extraordinary illuminations , or that set the Spirit against the Word ; or that boast most of the Spirit , in contempt of others : But those who are most humble , most holy , and most heavenly ; who love God most , and hate sin most . Converse with such as have most of the Spirit ( of love and heavenliness ) is the way to make you more spiritual ; as converse with learned men is the way to learning : For the Spirit giveth his graces in the use of suitable means , as well as he doth his common gifts , Jude 20 , 21. Heb. 10.24 , 25. & 3.13 . Ephes . 4.12 , 15 , 16. Direct . 30. Lastly , The right ordering of the body it self is a help to our spirituality . A clean and a chearful body is a fitter instrument for the Spirit to make use of , than one that is opprest with crudities , or dejected with heavy melancholy . Therefore especially avoid two extreams : 1. The satisfying the lusts of the flesh , and clogging the body with excess of meat or drink , or corrupting the fantasie with foolish pleasures : 2. And the addicting your selves to distracting melancholy , or to any disconsolate or discontented thoughts . And from hence you may both take notice of the sense of all that fasting and abstinence which God commandeth us , and of the true measure of it , viz. as it either fitteth or unfitteth the body for our duty , and for our ready obedience to the Spirit of God. 1 Cor. 9.27 . I keep under my body , and bring it into subjection , lest by any means when I have preached to others , I myself should be a cast away . Rom. 13.12 , 13 , 14. Let us walk honestly as in the day ; not in rioting and drunk●nness , not in chambering and wantonness , not in strife and envying ; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ , and make no provision for the flesh , for lust . Pampering the body , and addicting our selves to the pleasing of it , turneth a man from spirituality into bruitishness ; and savouring or minding the things of the fl●sh , destroyeth both the relish and minding of the things of the Spirit , Rom. 8.5 , 6 , 7 , 8. And a sowre discontented melancholy temper , is contrary to that alacrity requisite in Gods service ; and to those which the Comforter is to work in us . So much for living by Faith on the Holy Ghost . CHAP. IV. Directions how to exercise Faith upon Gods Commandments , for Duty . IT being presupposed that your Faith is settled about the truth of the Scriptures in general ( by the means here before and elsewhere more at large described ) you are next to learn how to exercise the Life of Faith about the Precepts of God in particular ; and herein take these helps . Direct . 1. Observe well how suitable Gods Commands are to reason , and humanity , and natural revelation it self ; and so how Nature and Scripture do fully agree , in all the precepts for primitive holiness . This is the cause why Divines have thought it so useful to read Heathen Moralists themselves , that in a Cicero , a Plutarch , a Seneca , an Antonius , an Epictetus , &c. they might see what testimony nature it self yieldeth , against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men . See Rom. 19 , 20 , &c. But of this I have been larger in my Reasons of the Christian Religion . Direct . 2. Observe well how suitable all Gods Commandments are to your own good , and how necessary to your own felicity . All that God commandeth you , is , 1. To be active , and use the faculties of your souls , in opposition to Idleness : 2. To use them rightly , and on the highest objects , and not to debase them by preferring vanity and sordid things , nor to pervert them by ill doing . And are not both these suitable to your natural perfection , and necessary to your good ? 1. If there were one Law made , that men should lie or stand still all the day , with their eyes shut , and their ears stopped , and their mouths closed , and that they should not stir , nor see , nor hear , nor taste ; and another Law that man should use their eyes , and ears , and limbs , &c. which of these were more suitable to humanity , and more easie for a ●ound man to obey ( though the first might best suit with the lame , and blind , and sick ) and why should not the goodness of Gods Law be discerned , which requireth men to use the higher faculties , the Reason , and Elective , and Executive Powers , which God hath given them ? If men should make a Law , that no one should use his Reason to get Learning , or for his Trade or business in the world , you would think that it were an institution of a Kingdom of Bedlams , or a herd of beasts : And should not you then be required to use your Reason faithfully and diligently in greater things ? 2. And if one Law were made , that every man that traveleth shall stumble and wallow in the dirt , and wander up and down out of his way ; and that every man that eateth and drinketh , should feed on dirt , and ditch-water , or poyson , &c. And another Law , that all men should keep their right way , and live soberly , and feed healthfully ; which of these would fit a wise man best , and be easiest to obey ? or if one Law were made , that all Scholars shall learn nothing but lies and errours ; and another , that they shall learn nothing but truth and wisdom , which of them would be more easie and suitable to humanity ? ( Though the first might be more pleasing to some fools . ) Why then should not the goodness of Gods Laws be confessed , who doth but forbid men learning the most pernicious errours , and wandering in the maze of folly , and wallowing in the dirt of sensuality , and feeding on the dung and poyson of sin ? Is the love of a harlot , or of gluttony , drunkennenss ▪ rioting , or gaming , more suitable to humanity , than the Love of God , and Heaven , and Holiness , of Wisdom , Temperance , and doing good ? To a Swine or a Bedlam it may be more suitable ; but not to one that liveth like a man. What did God ever forbid you , that was not hurtful to you ? And what did he ever command you , which was not for your benefit ? either for your present delight , or for your future happiness ; for the healing of your diseases , or the preventing them ? And if Reason can discern the goodness of Gods Laws to us , Faith can acknowledge it with more advantage . For we can see by Faith , the goodness of their Author , and the goodness of the reward and end , more fully than by reason only : And a Believer hath found by sad experience , how bad and bitter the waies of sin are ; and by sweet experience , how good and pleasant the waies of God are . He hath found that it is the way to peace , and hope , and joy , to deny his lusts , and obey his Maker and Redeemer : And it is the way to terrour and a troubled soul , and a broken heart , to sin and to gratifie his sensuality , Prov. 3.17 . All her waies are pleasantness , and all her paths are peace . Psal . 119.165 . Great peace have they which love thy Law , and nothing can offend them . Psal . 37 37. Mark the upright man , and behold the just , for the end of that man is peace . Rom. 14.17 . Righteousness , and peace , and joy in the Holy Ghost , are the Kingdom of God. Grace , Mercy and Peace are Gods entertainment of the faithful soul , Titus 1.4 . 1 Tim. 1.2 . & 2 Tim. 1.2 . 1 Cor. 1.3 , &c. But there is no peace to the wicked , saith my God , Isa . 57.21 . & 48.22 . For the way of peace they have not known . They have made them 〈◊〉 paths ; whosoever goeth therein , shall not know peace , Isa . 54.8 . Direct . 3. Mark well how those Commands of God , which seem not necessary for your selves , are plainly necessary for the good of others , and for the publick welfare , which God must provide for as well as yours . He is not your God only , but the God of all the world . And the welfare of many , especially of Kingdoms and Societies , is more to be regarded than the welfare ( much more than the humouring or pleasing ) of any one . You may think that if you had leave to be fornicators , and adulterers , to be riotous , and examples of evil , to be covetous , and to deceive , and steal , and lye , that it would do you no harm : But suppose it were so , yet a little wit may serve to shew you , how pernicious it would be to others , and to societies . And Faith can tell a true Believer , what is like to be the end : And that sin is a reproach to any people , Prov. 14.34 . You may think perhaps that if you were excused from many duties of Charity and Justice , in Ministry , Magistracy , or a more private state , it would be no harm to your selves . But suppose it were so , must not others be regarded ? If God should regard but one , why should it fall to your lot rather than to anothers ? And why should any others be bound to use Justice or Charity to you any more than you to them ? There is no member of the body politick or ecclesiastick , which will not receive more good to it self , by the Laws of Communion , if truly practised , than it can do to others . For you are but one who are bound to be charitable and do good to others , and that but according to your own ability : But it may be hundreds or thousands who may be all bound to do good to you . You have the vital influences , and assistances of all the parts : you have the prayers of all the Christians in the world . Suppose that the Laws were made to secure your selves of your estate and lives ; but to leave the estates and lives of your children to the will of any one that hath a will to wrong them ; would you be content with such kind of Laws as these ? And why should not others good be secured , as well as your posterities ? 1 Cor. 12.12 , 14 , 20 , &c. Rom. 12.4 5 & 16.2 . 1 Cor. 10.17 , 33. Ephes . 4.3 , 11 , 12 , 14 , 15 , 16. Di●ect . 4. The chief work of Faith is to make the obedience of Gods Commands to be sweet and pleasant to us , by seeing still that intrinsecal goodness , and the extrinsecal motives , and the eternal rewards , which may cause the soul to imbrace them with the dearest love . They are much mistaken , who know no use for Faith but to comfort them , and save them from Hell ; the great work of Faith is to bring up the soul to Obedience , Thankfulness and Love. Therefore i● hath to do with the Precepts , as well as with the Promises ; and with the Promises to sweeten the Precepts to us . Believers are not called to the obedience of slaves ; nor to be acted only by the fear of pain ; but to the obedience of redeemed ones and Sons ; that Faith may cause them to obey in Love ; and the essential act of Love is complacency : Therefore it is the work of Faith , to cause us to obey God with pleasure and delight . Forced motives endure not long : They are accompanied with unwillingness and weariness , which at last will sit down , when the fears do by distance , delay or dulness , abate . Love is our Nature ; but Fear is only a servant to watch for us while we do the work of Love. As many as are led by the Spirit of God , are the Sons of God ( and therefore will obey as Sons . ) For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear ; but we have received the Spirit of Adoption ▪ whereby we cry Abba Father , Rom. 8.14 , 15. Christ suff●red death to overcome the Devil that had the power of death , and to deliver us from the fears of it , which was the bondage of our lives , Heb. 2.14 , 15. That we might serve God without f●ar , in holiness and righteousness , all the daies of our lives , Luke 1.74 . There is no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out fear , because fear hath torment , 1 John 4.18 . The meaning is , not only that the Love of God casteth out the fear of men , and persecution ; but also that it maketh the fear of tormenting punishment , to become unnecessary to drive us to obedience , so far as the Love of God and of obedience doth prevail : He that loveth more to feast , than to fare hardly , to be rich , than to be poor , ( and so to be obedient and holy , than to be unholy ) need not ( so far ) any fear of punishment to drive him to it . Even as the Love of the world , as adverse to the Love of God , is overcome by Faith , 1 John 2.15 . and yet the Love of the world as Gods creature , and as representing him , and sanctified to his service , is but subordinate to the Love of the Father ; so also Fear as adverse to Love , or as disjunct from it , is cast out by it : But as it subserveth it in watching against the enemies of Love , and is truly filial , it is a fruit of Faith , and the beginning of wisdom . Employ Faith therefore day by day , in looking into the Love of God in Christ , and the Kingdom of Glory , the reward of obedience , and the beauties of holiness , and the merciful conditions of filial obedience ( when we have a pardon of our infirmities , and are accepted in Christ ) that so we may feel that Christs yoak is easie , and his burden light , and his Commandments are not grievous , Mat. 11.28 , 29. 1 John 5.3 . And when Faith hath taught you to hunger and thirst after righteousness , and to delight to do the will of God , Love which is the end of Faith will satisfie you , Mat. 5.6 . Psal . 40.8 . Direct . 5. Take special notice how suitable a holy Law is to the nature of a most holy God ; and how much he is honoured in that demonstration of his holiness ; and how odious a thing it would be to wish , that the most holy one would have made for us an unholy Law. Would you draw the picture of your friend like an Ape or a Monkey , or a Monster ? Or would you have the King pictured like a fool ? Or would you have his Laws written like the words of a Bedlam , or the Laws of Barbarians or Cannibals ? How much more intollerable were it to wish , that an unholy or unrighteous Law , should be the product and impress of the most great , most wise and holy God ? This thought should make every Believer exceedingly in love with the Holiness of Gods Commands , because they are the Appearance or Image of his Holiness , and necessary to his honour , as he is the Governour of the world , Rom. 7.6 , 7 , 12. When Paul confesseth that he could no more perfectly keep the Law without sin , than a fettered prisoner can walk at liberty ( for that is the sense of the text ) yet doth he give the Law this honour , that it is holy , just and good , and therefore he loveth it , and fain would perfectly obey it , if he could . See Psal . 19.7 , 12. &c. 119.72 . & 37.31 . & 1.2 . Isa . 5.24 , &c. Direct . 6. Remember that both Promises , and Threatnings , and Gods Mercies , and his Judgements , are appointed means to bring us to obey the Precepts ; and therefore obedience , which is their end , is highly to be esteemed . It seemeth a great difficulty whether the Precept be for 〈◊〉 Promise , or the Promise for the Precept ; which is the End , and which is the Means ; whether obedience be a means to attain the reward , or the reward be a means to procure obedience : And the answer is as pleasant to our consideration , viz. that as the works of the Trinity of persons , and of Gods Power , and Wisdom , and Goodness ad extra are undivided ; so are the effects of the one in Gods Laws , the effects also of the other ; and they are harmoniously and inseparably conjunct : so that we must obey the Command , that we may attain the blessing of the Promise , and be assured of it : And we must believe the Promise , and the Reward , that we may be moved to obey the Precept : And when all is done , we find that all comes to one ; and in the end , the duty and the reward will be the same , when duty cometh to perfection : And that the reward which is promised is our perfection in that Holiness , and Love , and Conformity to the Will of God , in which God doth take that complacency which is our ultimate end . But if you look at the matter of obedience rather than the form , it sometime consisteth in troublesome things , as suffering persecution , &c. which is less desirable than the promised reward , which is but pleasing God , and obeying him , in a more desirable and grateful matter , even in perfect Love for ever : And therefore the more desirable must be considered to draw us to the less desirable ; and that consideration of the reward , ( and not the possessing of it ) is the means to our obedience , not for the sake of the ungrateful matter , but of the form and end , Mat. 5.10 , 11 , 12 , & 6.1 , 4. & 10.41 , 42. 1 Cor. 9.17 , 18. 1 Tim. 5.18 . Heb. 11.6 . & 10.35 . & 11.26 . Col. 3.24 . Direct . 7. Remember how much Christ himself hath condescended , to be made a Means or Mediatour to procure our obedience to God. And surely that must be an excellent end , which Christ himself became a means to ! He came to save his people from their sins , Mat. 1.21 . And to call sinners to repentance , Luke 5.32 . Mat. 9.13 . Is Christ the Minister of sin ? God forbid , Gal. 2.17 . For this end was he revealed , that he might destroy the works of the Devil , 1 John 3.8 . And he died to redeem and purifie to himself a peculiar people , zealous of good works , Titus 2.14 . Christ came as much to kill sin , as to pardon it : Judge therefore of the worth of obedience by the nobleness and dignity of the means . Direct . 8. Remember still that the same Law which governeth us , must judge us : Let Faith see the sure and close connexion between obedience and judgement . If Faith do but speak aloud to a sluggish soul [ Thou must be judged by the same word which commandeth thee to watch and pray , and to walk in holiness with God ] it will much awaken the soul to duty : And if Faith do but say aloud to a tempted sinner [ The Judge is at the door , and thou must hear of this again , and review sin when it will have another countenance ] it will do much to kill the force of the temptation , Rom. 14.12 . Phil. 4.17 . Heb. 13.17 . Mat. 12.36 . 2 Pet. 3.11 , 12. Direct . 9. Be sure that your heart-subjection to God be fixed , that you may live under the sense of his Authority . For as Gods Veracity is the formal object of all Faith ; so Gods Authority is the formal object of all obedience . And therefore the deep ●enewed apprehensions of his Majesty , his Wisdom , and absolute Authority , will make us perceive that all things and persons must give place to him , and he to none ; and will be a constant spring within us , to move the will to a ready obedience in particular cases , Mal. 1.6 . Matth. 23.8 , 10. Jer. 5.22 . Direct . 10. Keep in memory some plain texts of Scripture for every particular duty , and against every particular sin ; which I would willingly here write down , but that the book swelleth too big , and it is so plentifully done already in most Catechisms , where they confirm all such commands with the texts of Scripture cited to that use : As you may see in the Assemblies Catechism , with the proofs , and more briefly in Mr. Tobias Ellis his English School , where a text or more for every Article of Faith , and every duty , is recited for the use of children . Gods Word which is the object and Rule of Faith , should be before 〈◊〉 eye of Faith in this great work of causing our obedience . Direct . 11. Vnderstand well the different nature and use of Scripture examples ; how some of them have the nature of a divine Revelation and a Law ; and others are only motives to obedience and others of them are evils to be avoided by us . 1. To Moses and the Apostles of Christ , a special Commission was granted , to one to settle the Tabernacle and its worship , and to the other , to settle the orders of the Gospel Church . Christ sent them to teach all things , whatsoever he commanded , Mat. 28.20 . And he promised to be with them , and to send them the Spirit to lead them into all truth , and to bring all things to their remembrance . Accordingly they did obey this Commission , and settled the Gospel Churches according to the will of Christ ; and this many years before any of the New Testament was written . Therefore these acts of theirs have the nature and use of a divine Revelation and a Law. For if they were fallible in this , Christ must break the foresaid Promise . 2. But all the Acts of the Apostles which were either about indifferent things , or which were about forecommanded duties , and not in the execution of the foresaid Commission , for which they had the promise of infallibility , have no such force or interpretation . For 1. Their holy actions of obedience to former Laws , are not properly Laws to us , but motives to obey Gods Laws : And this is the common use of all other good examples of the Saints in Scripture : Their examples are to be tryed by the Law , and followed as secondary copies or motives , and not as the Law it self , 1 Cor. 11.1 . Be ye followers of me , even as I also am of Christ . Heb. 6.12 . Be followers of them , who through faith and patience do inherit the promise . 1 Cor. 4.16 . Phil. 3.17 . 1 Thes . 1.6 . & 2.16 . & 3.7 , 9. Heb. 13.7 . 2. And the evil examples even of Apostles are to be avoided , as all other evil examples recorded in the Scriptures are ; such as Peters denial of his Lord , and the Disciples all forsaking him , and Peters sinful separation and dissimulation , and Barnabas's with him , Gal. ● . And the falling out of Paul and Barnabas , &c. 3. And the history of indifferent actions , or those which were the performance but of a temporary duty , are instructing to us , but not examples which we must imitate . It is no divine Faith which forgeth an object or rule to it self . Whatsoever example we will prove to be obligatory to us to imitate , we must either prove , 1. That it was an execution of Gods own commission , which had a promise of infallible guidance : Or 2 , That it was done according to some former Law of God , which is common to them and us . ( As the first must be the revealing of some duty extended to this age , as well as that . ) Direct . 12. Faith must make great use of Scripture examples , both for motive and comfort , when we find their case to be the same with ours . We cannot conclude that we must imitate them in extraordinary circumstances ; nor can we conclude that God will give every extraordinary mercy to us , which he gave to them ( as that he will make all Kings as he did David , or all Apostles , or raise all as he did L●zarus now , &c. ) nor that every Believer shall have the same outward things , or shall have just the same degrees of grace , &c. But we may conclude that we shall have all Gods promises fulfilled to us , as they had to them ; and shall have all that is suitable to our condition . As David was pardoned upon repentance , so may others : I confessed , and thou forgavest : For this shall every one that is godly pray to thee — Psal . 32.5 , 6. Hath God pardoned a Manasseh , a Peter , a Paul , &c. upon repentance ? so is he ready to do to us . Hath he helped the distressed ? hath he heard and pittied , even the weak in faith ? so we may hope he will do by us , Isa . 38.10 , 11. Psal . 116.3 . Acts 27.20 . Jonah 2.4 . We have the same God , the same Christ , the same Promise , if we have the same Faith , and pray with the same Spirit , Rom. 8.26 . Heb. 4 15. Though we may not have just the same case , or the same manner of deliverance . Therefore it is a mercy that the Scripture is written historically : And therefore we should remember such particular examples as suit our own case . CHAP. V. Directions how to live by Faith upon Gods Promises . THis part of the work of Faith is the more noble , because the eminent part of the Gospel is the Promises , or Covenant of Grace ; and it is the more necessary , because our lapsed miserable state hath made the Promises so necessary to our use : The helps to be used herein are these : Direct . 1. Consider that every Promise of God , is the expression of his immutable will and counsel . It is a great dispute among the Schoolmen , whether God be properly obliged to us by his Promises : When the word [ obligation ] it self is but a metaphor , which must be cast away or explained , before the question can be answered : God cannot be bound as man is , who transferreth a propriety to another from himself : or maketh himself a proper debter in point of communicative Justice ; or may be sued at Law , and made to perform against his will. But it is a higher obligation than all this which lyeth upon God. His Power , Wisdom and Goodness , which are himself , do constitute his Veracity : And his very Nature is immutable , and just ; and therefore his Nature and Being , is the infallible cause of the fulfilling of his Promises : He freely made them ; but he necessarily performeth them : And therefore the Apostle saith , that God that cannot lye hath promised eternal life , before the world began ; which is either [ promised according to his counsel which he had before the world began ] or [ from the beginning of the world ] Titus 1.2 . Or as the word also signifieth many ages ago . And Heb. 6.17 , 18. Wherefore God willing more abundantly to shew to the heirs of Promise , the immutability of his counsel , confirmed it by an oath ; that by two immutable things , in which it was impossible for God to lye , we might have a strong consolation , who have fl●d for refuge , to lay hold upon the hope set before us : which hope we have as an Anchor of the soul , both sure and stedfast — And therefore when the Apostle meaneth , that Christ will not be unfaithful to us , his phrase is , He cannot deny himself , 2 Tim. 2.13 . As if his very Nature and Being consisted more in his truth and fidelity , than any mortal mans can do . Direct . 2. Vnderstand the Nature and Reasons of Fidelity among men , viz. 1. To make them conformable to God : And 2. To maintain all Justice , Order and Virtue in the world . And when you have pondered these two , you will see that it is impossible for God to be unfaithful : For 1. If it be a vice in the Copy , what would it be in the Original ! Nay , would not falshood and perfidiousness become our perfection , to make us like God ? 2. And if all the world would be like a company of enemies , Bedlams , bruits , or worse , if it were not for the remnants of fidelity , it is impossible that the Nature or Will of God , should be the pattern or original of so great evil . Direct . 3. Consider what a foundation of his Promises God hath laid in Jesus Christ , and what a seal his blood and resurrection is unto them . When it hath cost Christ so dear to procure them , certainly God will not break them . A Promise ratified in the blood of the Son of God , called the blood of the everlasting Covenant , Heb. 13.20 . and by his rising from the dead , can never be broken . If the Law given by Moses , was firm , and a jot or tittle should not pass away till all were fulfilled , much more the word and testament of the Mediatour of a better Covenant , 2 Cor. 1.20 . All the Promises in him are Yea and Amen ; that is , they are asserted or made in him , and they are ratified , and shall be fulfilled in him . Heb. 8.6 . He hath obtained a more excellent Ministry , by how much also he is the Mediatour of a better Covenant , which was established on better Promises . And those that are better , cannot be less sure . It is the sure mercies of David , that are given us , by a Promise which is sure to all the s●ed , Acts 13.34 . Isa . 55.3 . Rom. 4.16 . Direct . 4. Consider well that it is Gods own interest to fulfil his Promises ; for he attaineth not that glory of his Love and Grace in the perfection of his people till it be done , which he designed in the making of them . And certainly God will not fail himself and his own interest . The happiness will be ours , but it will be his everlasting pleasure to see his creatures in their perfection . If he was so pleased after the Creation , to see them all good , that he appointed a Sabbath of Rest , to celebrate the commemoration of it ; how much more will it please him to see all restored by Jesus Christ , and brought up to that perfection which Adam was but in the way to when he sinned and fell short of the Glory of God. He will not miss of his own design , nor lose the everlasting complacency of his love . Direct . 5. Consider how great stress God hath laid upon the belief of his Promises , and of how great use he hath made them in the world . If the intimation of another world and reward which we find in Nature ; and the Promise of it in Scriptures , were out of the world , or were not believed , and so men had nothing but temporal motives to rule their hearts and lives by , O what an odious thing would man be ? and what a Hell would the world be ? I have elsewhere shewed that the Government of the world is mainly steered by the hopes and fears of another life , and could not be otherwise , unless man be turned into far worse than a beast . And certainly those Promises cannot be false , which God hath laid so great a stress on , and the belief of which is of so great moment . For the wise , and holy , and powerful God , neither needeth a lye , nor can use it to so great a work . Direct . 6. Take notice how agreeable Gods Promises are to the Nature both of God and man. It is not only Gods Precepts that have a congruence to natural Reason , but his Promises also . It is agreeable to the Nature of Infinite Goodness to do good : And yet we see that he doth not do to all alike . He maketh not every creature an Angel , nor a man : How then shall we discern what he intendeth to do by his creatures , but by their several natures : The nature of every thing is fitted to its use . Seeing therefore God hath given man a nature capable of knowing , loving and enjoying him , we have reason to think he gave it not in vain . And we have reason to think that nature may be brought up to its own perfection ; and that he never intended to imploy man all his daies on earth , in seeking an end which cannot be attained . And yet we see that some do unfit themselves for this end , by turning from it , and following vanity : and that God requireth every man as a free Agent , to use his guidance and help aright , for his own preparation to felicity . Therefore reason may tell us , that those who are so prepared by the nearest capacity , and have a love to God , and a heavenly mind , shall enjoy the Glory which they are fitted for . And it helpeth much our belief of Gods Promise , to find that Reason thus discerneth the equity of it : Yea to find that a Cicero , a Seneca , a Socrates , a Plato , &c. expected much the like felicity to the just , which the Scripture promiseth . Direct . 7. Be sure to understand Gods Promises aright , that you expect not that which he never promised , and take not presumption to be Faith. Many do make promises to themselves by misunderstanding , and look that God should fulfil them : and if any of them be not fulfilled , they are ready to suspect the truth of God. And thus men become false Prophets to themselves and others , and speak words in the Name of the Lord , which he hath never spoken , and incur much of the guilt , which God oft chargeth on false Prophets , and such as add to the Word of God. It is no small fault to father an untruth on God , and to call that his Promise which he never made . Direct . 8. Think not that God promiseth you all that you desire or think you want , in bodily things . It is not our own desires which he hath made the measure of his outward gifts ; no nor of our own Opinion of our Necessity neither : else most men would have nothing but riches , and health , and love , and respect from men ; and few would have any want , or pain , or suffering . But it is so much as is good 1. To the common ends of Government , and the Societies with which we live . 2. And to our souls , which God doth promise to his own . And his Wisdom , and not their partial conceits , shall be the Judge . Our Father knoweth what we need , and therefore we must cast our care on him , and take not too particular nor anxious thoughts for our selves , Mat. 6.24 . to the end , 1 Pet. 5 7. Direct . 9. Think not that God promiseth you all that you will ask ; no not that which he commandeth you to ask ; unless it agree with his promising will , as well as with his commanding will. That promise of Christ , Ask and ye shall receive , &c. And whatsoever you ask the Father in my Name , according to his will , he will give it you , are often misunderstood : and there is some d●fficulty in understanding what Will of God is here meant : If it be his Decreeing Will , that is secret , and the promise giveth us no sure consolation : If it be meant of his Promising Will , what use is this general promise for , if we must have a particular promise also for all that we can expect ? If it be meant of his Commanding Will , the event notoriously gainsayeth it : For it is most certain , that since the Church hath long prayed for the conversion of the Infidel world , and the reforming of the corrupted Churches , &c. it is not yet done : And it is all Christians duty , to pray for Kings , and all in Authority ; and to ask that wisdom and grace for them which God doth seldom give them . And all Parents who are bound to pray for grace for their children , do not speed according to their prayers . Object . That is because that prayers for other men , suppose others to concur in the qualifying conditions as well as our selves : But the promise is meant only of whatsoever we ask for our selves as he commandeth , or for others who are prepared as he requireth . Answ . 1. If so , then the promise is not only made to our praying as commanded . 2. It cannot be thought that our prayers for Infidels , who must have preparing grace before they can be prepared , should be thus suspended in their preparation of themselves . 3. It maybe a duty to pray for many things for our selves too , which yet we shall not particularly receive : As a Minister may pray for greater abilities for his work , &c. Object . We pray not as commanded for any such things , if we pray not conditionally for them . Answ . But still the difficulty is , What is the condition to be inserted ? whether it be , If God will ? Or , If it be for our good ? Or , If it be for the universal good of the world ? If it were the last , then we might be sure of the salvation of all men , when we ask it ; and the second cannot be the condition when we pray for others : and if it be the first , then it telleth us that the commanding Will of God is not it which is principally meant in the promise . In this difficulty we must conclude , that the text respecteth Gods Will comprehensively in all these three forementioned respects ; but primarily his promising Will in matters which fall under promise , and his decreeing Will in things which he hath thought meet to make no promise of : and then secondarily , his commanding Will to us ; but this extendeth not only to prayer it self , but also to the manner of prayer , and to our conjunct and subsequent endeavours . And so this meeteth and closeth with the former Will of God : because we do not pray according to his commanding Will , unless we do it with due respect to his promising and decreeing Will. And so it is , as i● it were said [ Of all those things which God hath promised or decreed , whatsoever you ask in my Name , in a manner agreeable to his command and do s●cond your prayers with faithful endeavours ; you shall obtain it ; because neither his decrees or promises are nakedly , or meerly to give such a thing ; but complicately to give it in this way of asking . ] And as to the Objections in the beginning , I answer , 1. Where only Gods decreeing Will is the measure of the matter to be granted , the text intendeth not to us a particular assurance of the thing ; but the comfort that we and our prayers are accepted , and they shall be granted if it be not such a thing , as God in his wisdom and eternal counsel , hath secretly determined not to do . As if you pray for the conversion of the Kingdom of China , of Japon , of Indostan , of Tartary , &c. And 2. Where Gods Promise hath given us securi●y of the thing in particular ; yet this general promise , and our prayer , are neither of them in vain . For 1. The general promise doth both confirm our Faith in general , which is a help to us in each particular case ; and also it directeth us to Christ as the means , in whose name we are to ask all things of the Father ; and assureth us , that it is for his sake that God doth fulfil those particular promises to us . 2. And prayer in his Name , is the condition , way or means of the fulfilling them . It is a very common errour among many praying persons , to think that if they can but prove it their duty to ask such a thing , this promise telleth them , that they shall have it : But you see there is more necessary to the understanding of it than so . Direct . 10. Think not that God prom●seth you all that you do believe that you shall receive , when you ask it ; though it be with never so confident an expectation . This is a more common errour than the former : Many think that if the thing be but lawful which they pray for , much more if it be their duty to pray for it , then a particular belief that they shall receive it , is the condition of the promise , and therefore that they shall certainly receive it . As if they pray for the recovery of one that is sick , or for the conversion of one that is unconverted , and can but believe that it shall be done , they think God is then obliged by promise to do it , Mark 9.23 . If thou canst believe , all things are possible . And 11.23 , 24. Whosoever shall say to this Mountain , Be thou removed , &c. and shall not doubt in his heart , but believe , &c. Therefore I say unto you , what things soever ye desire when ye pray ▪ believe that ye receive them , and ye shall have them . Answ . The reason of this was , because they had a special promise of the gift of miracles , as is exprest , Mark 16.17 , 18. And even this text is such a particular promise : For the spirit of miracles was then given to confirm the Gospel , and gather the first Churches , and Faith was the condition of them : Or the Spirit , when ever he would work a miracle , would first work an extraordinary Faith to prepare for it . And yet if you examine well the particular texts , which speak of this subject , you shall find that as it was the doubt of the divine Authority of Christs testimony , and of his own real power ▪ which was the unbelief of those times ; so it was the belief of his Authority and Power , which was the Faith required : and this is oftener expressed than the belief of the event ; and when the belief of the event is extolled , it is because the belief of Christs Power is contained in it . [ If thou canst believe , all things are possible , Ma●k 9.23 . Not [ all things shall come to pass ] Mat. 9.28 . The blind men came to him , and Jesus said , Believe ye that I am able to do this ? They said unto him , yea Lord ▪ Then touched 〈◊〉 their eyes , saying , according to your faith be it unto you . So the Centurions faith is described as a belief of Christs Power , Mat. 8.7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , So is it in many other instances . So that this text is no exception from the general Rule ; but the meaning of it is , Whatsoever promised thing you ask , not doubting , ye shall receive it : Or doubt not of my enabling power , and you shall receive whatever you ask , which I have promised you ; and miracles themselves shall be done by you . Object . But what if they had only doubted of Christs Will ? Answ . If they had doubted of his will in cases where he never exprest his will , they could not indeed have been certain of the event ( for that is contrary to the doubt . ) But they could not have charged Christ with any breach of promise ; and therefore could not themselves have been charged with any unbelief . ( For it is no unbelief to doubt of that will which never was revealed . ) But if they had doubted of his revealed will concerning the event , they had then charged him with falshood , and had sinned against him , as ill as those who deny his power . And the large experience of this our age , confuteth this foresaid errour of a particular belief : For we have abundance of instances of good people who were thus mistaken , and have ventured thereupon to conclude with confidence , that such a sick person shall be healed , and such a thing shall come to pass ; when over and over the event hath proved contrary , and brought such confidence into contempt , upon the failing of it . Direct . 11. Think not that because some strong imagination bringeth some promis● to your minds , that therefore it belongeth unto you , unless upon tryal , the true meaning of it do extend to you . Many and many an honest , ignorant , melancholy woman , hath told me what abundance of sudden comfort they have had , because such a text was brought to their minds , and such a promise was suddenly set upon their hearts ; when as they mistook the very sense of the promise , and upon true enquiry , ●t was nothing to their purpose . Yet it is best not rather to contradict those mistaken and ungrounded comforts of such persons : Because when they are godly , and have true right to ●ounder comforts , but cannot see it ; it is better that they support themselves a while with such mistakes , than that they sink into despair . For though we may not offer them such mistakes , nor comfort them by a lie ; yet we may permit that which we may not do ( as God himself doth . ) It is not at all times that we are bound to rectifie other mens mistakes , viz. not when it will do them more harm than good . Many an occasion may bring a text to our remembrance which concerneth us not , without the Spirit of God. Our own imaginations may do much that way of themselves . Try therefore what is the true sense of the text , before you build your conclusions on it . But yet if indeed God bring to your minds any pertinent promise , I would not have you to neglect the comfort of it . D●rect . 12. Think not that God hath promised to all Christians the same degrees of grace ; and therefore that you may expect as much as any others have . Object . But shall not all at last be perfect ? and what can there be added to perfection ? Answ . The perfection of a creature is to be advanced to the highest degree , which his own specifical and individual nature are capable of : A beast may be perfect , and yet not be a man : and a man may be perfect , and yet not be an Angel. And Lazarus may be perfect , and yet not reach the degree of Abraham . For there is , no doubt , a gradual difference between the capacities of several individual souls , of the same species : As there is of several vessels of the same metal , though not by such difference of corporal extension . And there is no great probability that all the difference in the degrees of wit from the Ideot to Achitophel , is founded only in the bodily organs ; and not at all in the souls . And it is certain , that there are various degrees of glory in Heaven , and yet that every one there is perfect . But if this were not so , yet it is in this life only that we are now telling you , that all Christians have not a promise of the same degrees . Object . But is not additional grace given by way of reward ? And then have not all a promise of the same degree which the best attain , conditionally if they do as much as they for it ? Answ . O yes , objective ; but not subjective ; b●cause all have not the same natural capacity , nor are bound to the same degree of duty as to the condition it self . As perfection in H●●ven is given by way of reward , and yet all shall not have the same degree of perfection ; so is it as to the degrees of grace on earth . 2. All have not the same degrees of the first preventing grace given them ; and therefore it is most certain that all will not use the same degree of industry for more : Some have but one talent , and some two , when some have five , and therefore gain ten talents in the improvement , Mat. 25. All must strive for the highest measure : and all the sincere may at last expect their own perfection : But God breaketh no promise , if he give them not all as much as some have . Direct . 13. Much less hath God promised the same degree of common gifts to all . If you never attain to the same measure of acuteness , learning , memory , utterance , do not think that God breaketh promise with you : Nor do not call your presumption by the name of Faith , if you have such expectations . See 1 Cor. 12. throughout . Direct . 14. God often promiseth the thing it self , when he promiseth the time of giving it : Therefore do not take it to be an act of Faith , to believe a set time , where God hath set no time at all . Many are the troubles of the righteous , but God will deliver them out of all , Psal . 37. But he hath not set them just the time . Christ hath promised to come again and take us to himself , Joh. 14.1 , 2.3 . But of that day and hour knoweth no man. God will give necessary comfort to his servants ; but he best knoweth when it is necessary : and therefore they must not set him a time , and say , Let it be now , or thou breakest thy word . Patient wa●ting Gods own time , is as needful as believing : Yea he that believeth , will not make haste , Isa . 28.16 . Rom. 2 7. 2 Thes . 3.5 . James 5.7 , 8. Heb. 6.12 . & 10.36 . & 12.1 . James 5.7 . Revel . 13.10 . & 14.12 . 1 Thes . 1.3 , 11. Direct . 15. God often promiseth the thing , when he promiseth not either in what manner , or by what instrument he will do it . He may deliver his Church , and may deliver particular persons out of trouble ; and yet do it in a way , and by such means as they never dreamed of . Sometimes he foretelleth us his means , when it is we that in duty are to use them . And sometimes he keepeth them unknown to us , when they are only to be used by himself . In the Mount will the Lord be seen ▪ but yet Abraham thought not of the Ram in the Thicke● . The Israelites knew not that God would deliver them by the hand of Moses , Acts 7.25 . Direct . 16. Take not the promises proper to one time or age of the Church , as if they were common to all , or unto us . There were many promises to the Israelites , which belong not to us , as well as many precepts : The increase of their seed , and the notable prosperity in the world which was promised them , was partly because that the motive should be suited to the ceremonial duties , and partly because the eternal things being not then so fully brought to light as now , they were the more to be moved with the present outward tokens of Gods Love. And so the gift of the Spirit of Miracles , and Infallibility , for writing and confirming Scriptures , was promised to the first age , which is not promised to us . Direct . 17. Take not any good mans observation in those times for an universal promise of God. For instance , David saith , Psal . 73. I have been young , and now am old ; yet did I never see the righteous forsaken , nor his seed begging their bread . But if he had lived in Gospel times , where God giveth greater heavenly blessings and comforts , and calleth men to higher degrees of patience and mortification , and contempt of the world , he might have seen many both of the righteous and their seed begging their bread , though not forsaken ; yea Christ himself asking for water of a woman , John 4. Direct . 18. Take heed of making promises to seem instead of precepts ; as if you were to do that your selves , which God hath promised that he will do . If God promise to deliver his Church , or to free any of his servants from trouble or persecution , you must have a precept to tell you what is your own duty , and what means you must use , before you m●st attempt your own deliverance . What God will do , is one thing ; and what you must do , is another . This hath been the strange delusion of the people that call themselves the Fifth-Monarchy men in our times ; who believing that Christ will set up righteousness , and pull down Tyrants in the earth , have thought that therefore they must do it by arms ; and so have been drawn into many rebellions , to the scandal of others , and their own ruine . Direct . 19. Take heed of mistaking Prophecies for Promises ; especially dark Prophecies not understood . Many things are foretold by God in Prophecies , which are mens sins : Herod , and Pontius Pilate , and the people of the Jews , fulfilled Prophecies in the crucifying of Christ : and all the persecutors and muderers of the Saints , fulfil Christs Prophecies ; and so do all that hate us , And say all manner of evil falsly against us for his sake , Mat. 5.11 , 12. But the sin is never the less for that . It is prophesied that the ten Kings shall give up their Kingdoms to the beast ; that in the last daies shall come scoffers walking after their own lusts ; and in the last daies shall be perilous times , &c. These are not Promises , nor Precepts . It hath lamentably disturbed the Church of Christ , when ignorant self-conceited Christians , who see not the difficulty , grow confident that they understand many Prophecies in Daniel , the Revelations , &c. and thereupon found their presumption ( miscalled faith ) upon their own mistakes , and then form their prayers , their communion , their practice into such schism , and sedition , and uncharitable waies , as the interest of their opinions do require ( as the Millenaries before mentioned have done in this generation . ) Direct . 20. Think not that all Gods Promises are made to meer sincerity ; and that every true Christian must be freed from all penal hurt , however they behave themselves . For there are further helps of the Spirit , which are promised only to our diligence in attending the Spirit , and to the degrees of industry , and fervour , and fidelity in watching , praying , striving , and other use of means . And there are heavy chastisements which God threatneth to the godly , when they misbehave themselves : Especially the hiding of his face , and with-holding any measure of his Spirit . The Scripture is full of such threatnings and instances . Direct . 21. Much less may you imagine that God hath made any Promise , that all the sins of true Believers shall work together for their good . They misexpound Rom. 8.28 . who so expound it ( as I have elsewhere shewed . ) For 1. The context confirmeth it to sufferings . 2. The qualification added [ to them that love God ] doth shew that the abatement of love to God , is none of the things meant that shall work our good . 3. And it sheweth , that it is Love as Love , and therefore not the least that is consistent with neglect and sin , which is our full condition . 4. Experience telleth us , that too many true Christians may fall from some degrees of grace , and the Love of God , and die in a less degree than they once had ▪ and that less of holiness doth not work for their good . 5. And it is not a thing suitable to all the rest of Gods method in the Scriptures , that he should assure all beforehand , that all their sins shall work for their good . That he should command obedience so strictly , and promise rewards so liberally , and threaten punishment so terribly , and give such frightful examples as Solomons , Davids , and others are ; and at the same time say , Whatever sin thou committest inwardly or outwardly by neglecting my Love , and Grace , and Spirit , by loving the world , by pleasing the flesh , as David did , &c. it shall all be turned to do thee more good than hurt . This is not a suitable means to men in our case , to keep them from sin , nor to cause their perseverance . Direct . 22. Vnderstand well what Promises are universal to all B●lievers , and what are but particular and proper to some few . There are many particular Promises in Scripture , made by name , to Noah , to Abraham , to Moses , to Aaron , to David , to Solomon , to Hezekiah , to Christ , to Peter , to Paul , &c. which we cannot say are made to us . Therefore the Covenant of Grace , which is the Vniversal Promise , 〈◊〉 especially be made the ground of our faith , and all other as they are branches and appurtenances of that , and have in the Scripture some true signification , that they indeed extend to us . For if we should believe that every Promise made to any Saint of God ( as Hannah , Sarah , Rebecca , Elizabeth , Mary , &c. do belong to us , we should abuse our selves and God. And yet to us they have their use . Direct . 23. It is of very great importance , to understand what Promises are absolute , and which are suspended upon any condition to be performed by us , and what each of those conditions it . As the Promise to the Fathers that the Messiah should come , was absolute . God g●ve not a Saviour to the world , so as to suspend his coming on any thing to be done by man. The not drowning of the world , was an absolute Promise made to Noah : so was the calling of the Gentiles promised . But the Covenant of Promises sealed in Baptism , is conditional : and therefore both parties , God and man , are the Covenanters therein . And in the Gospel the Promises of our first Justification and Adoption , and of our after pardon , and of our Justification at Judgement , and of our additional degrees of grace , and of our freedom from chastisements , have some difference in the conditions , though true Christianity be the main substance of them all . Meer Christianity , or true consent to the Covenant , is the condition of our first Justification . And the continuance of this , with actual sincere obedience , is the condition of non-omission , or of continuance of this state of J●stification : And the use of prayer and other means , is a condition of our further reception of more grace . And perseverance in true holiness with faith , is the condition of our final Justification and Glorification ( of which more anon . ) Direct . 24. You can no further believe the fulfilling of any of these conditional Promises , than you know that you perform the condition . It is presumption , and not faith , for an impenitent person to expect the benefit of those Promises , which belong to the penitent only : And so it is for him that forgiveth not others , to expect to be forgiven his particular sins : And so in all the rest of the Promises . Direct . 25. But be sure that you ascribe no more to your selves , for performing any condition of a Promise , than God doth . A condition as such is no cause at all of the performance of the Promise ; either natural or moral : only the non-performance of the condition is a cause of the non-performance of the Promise : For the true nature of a condition as such , is only to suspend the ben●fit . Though naturally a condition may be meritorious among men ; and for their own commodity ( which God is not capable of ) they ordinarily make only meritorious acts to be conditions : As God also doth only such acts as are pleasing to him , and suited to their proper ends . But this is nothing to a condition formally , which is but to suspend the benefit till it be done . Direct . 26. When you find a Promise to be common or universal , apply it as boldly as if your name were written in it : and also when you find that any particular Promise to a Saint is but a branch of that universal Promise to all Saints ; or to all that are in the same case , and find that the case and reason of the Promise proveth the sense of it to belong to you as well as them . If it be said , that whosoever believeth shall not perish , but have everlasting life , John 3.16 . You may apply it as boldly as if it were said , If thou John , or Thomas be a Believer , thou shalt not perish , but have everlasting life . As I may apply the absolute Promise of the Resurrection to my self as boldly , as if my name were in it , because it is all that shall be raised ( John 5.22 , 24 , 25. ) 1 Cor. 15. So may I all the conditional promises of pardon and glory conditionally [ if I repent and believe . ] And you may absolutely thence conclude your certain interest in the benefit , so far as you are certain that you repent and believe . And when you read that Christ promiseth his twelve Apostles , to be with them , and to reward their labours , and to see that they shall be no losers by him , if they lose their lives , &c. You may believe that he will do so by you also . For though your work be not altogether the same with theirs ; yet this is but a branch of the common Promise to all the faithful , who must all follow him on the same terms of self-denial , Luke 14.26 , 27 , 33. Mat. 10. Rom. 8.17 , 18. And on this ground the promise to Joshua is applied , Heb. 15. I will never fail thee nor forsake thee , because it is but a branch of the C●venant common to all the faithful . Direct . 27. Be sure that you lay the stress of all your hopes on the Promises of God , and venture all your happiness on them , and when God calleth to it , express this by forsaking all else for these hopes , that it may appear you really trust Gods word , without any secret hypocritical reserves . This is the true life , and work , and tryal of faith : whether we build so much on the Promise of God , that we can take the thing promised for all our treasure , and the Word of God for our whole security . As Faith is called a Trusting in God ; so it is a practical kind of Trust ; and the principal tryal of it , lyeth in forsaking all other happiness and hopes , in confidence of Gods promise through Jesus Christ . To open the matter by a similitude : Suppose that Christ came again on earth as he did at his Incarnation , and should confirm his truth by the same miracles , and other means ; and suppose he should then tell all the Country , I have a Kingdom at the Antipodes , where men never die , but live in perpetual prosperity ; and those of you shall freely possess it , who will part with your own estates and Country , and go in a ship of my providing , and trust me for your Pilot to bring you thither , and trust me to give it you when you come there . My power to do all this , I have proved by my miracles , and my love and will , my offer proveth . ] How now will you know whether a man believe Christ , and trust this promise or not ? why , if he believe and trust him , he will go with him , and will leave all , and venture over the Seas whithersoever he conducteth him , and in that ship which he prepareth for him : But if he dare not venture , or will not leave his present Country and possessions , it is a sign that he doth not trust him . If you were going to Sea , and had several Ships and Pilots offered you , and you were afraid left one were unsafe , and the Pilot unskilful , and it were doubtful which were to be trufled ; when after all deliberation you chuse one , and refuse the rest , and resolve to venture your life and goods in it , this is properly called trusting it . So trusting in God , and in Jesus Christ , is not a bare opinion of his fidelity , but a PRACTICAL TRVST ▪ and that you may be sure to understand it clearly , I will once open the parts of it distinctly . Divines commonly tell us that Faith is an Affiance or Trust in God : and some of them say that this is an act of the understanding , and some , that it is an act of the will , and others say , that Faith consisteth in Assent alone , and that Trust or Affiance is as Hope , a fruit of Faith , and not Faith it self : And what Affiance it self is , is no small controversie ( And so it is what Faith and Christianity is , even among the Teachers of Christians . ) The plain truth is this : as to the name of Faith , it sometime signifieth a meer Intellectual Assent , when the object requireth no more : And sometime it signifieth a practical Trust or Affiance , in the Truth or Trustiness of the undertaker or promiser , that is , in his Power , Wisdom and Goodness , or honesty , conjunct as expressed in his word ; and that is , when the matter is practical , requiring such a trust . The former is oft called , The Christian Faith ; because it is the belief of the truth of the Christian Principles ; and is the leading part of Faith in the full sense . But it is the latter which is the Christian Faith , as it is taken , not secundum quid , but simply ; not for a part ▪ but the whole ; not for the opinion of men about Christ , but for Christianity it self , or that Faith which must be profest in Baptism , and which hath the promise of Justification and Salvation . And this Trust or Affiance is placed respectively on all the objects mentioned in the beginning ; on God as the first ●fficient foundation ; and on God as the ultimate end ; as the certain full felicity , and final object of the soul : On Christ as the Mediatour , and as the secondary foundation , and the guide , and the finisher of our faith and salvation ; the chief sub revealer and performer : On the Holy Ghost , as the third foundation ; both revealing and attesting the doctrine by his g●●ts : And on the Apostles and Prophets as his Instruments and Christs chief entrusted Messengers : And on the Promise or Covenant of Christ as his Instrumental Revelation it self : And on the Scriptures as the authentick Record of this Revelation and Promise . And the benefit for which all these are trusted , is , recovery to God , or Redemption and Salvation , viz. pardon of sin , and Justification , Adoption , Sanctification and Glorification ; and all things necessary hereunto . This Trust is an act of all the three faculties : ( for three understanding are ) even of the whole man : Of the vital power , the understanding and the will : and is most properly called A practical Trust ; such as trusting a Physician with your life and health ; or a Tutor to teach you ; or a Master to govern and reward you ; or a Ship and Pilot ( as aforesaid ) to carry you safe through the dangers of the Sea : As in this similitude ; Affiance as in the understanding ▪ is its Assent to the sufficiency and fidelity of the Pilot and Ship ( or Physician ) that I trust : Affiance in the will is the chusing of this Ship , Pilot , Physician to venture my life with , and refusing all others ; which is called consent , when it followeth the motion and offer of him whom we trust . Affiance in the vital power of the soul , is the fortitude and venturing all upon this chosen Trustee : which is , the quieting ( in some measure ) disturbing fears , and the exitus or conatus , or first egress of the soul towards execution . And whereas the quarrelling pievish ignorance of this age , hath caused a great deal of bitter , reproachful , uncharitable contention on both sides , about the question , How far obedience belongeth to faith ? whether as a part , or end , or fruit , or consequent ? In all this it is easily discerned , that as all●giance or subjection differ from obedience , and hiring my self to a Master , differeth from obeying him ; and taking a man for my Tutor , differeth from learning of him ; and Marriage differeth from conjugal duty ; and giving up my self to a Physician , differeth from taking his counsel and medicines ; and taking a man for my Pilot , differeth from being conducted by him ; so doth our first Faith or Christianity differ from actual obedience to the healing precepts of our Saviour . It is the covenant of obedience and consent to it , immediately entering us into the practice : It is the seed of obedience ; or the soul , or life of it , which will immediately bring it forth , and act it . It is virtual , but not actual obedience to Christ ; because it is but the first consent to his Kingly Relation to us ; unless you will call it that Inception from whence all obedience followeth . But it may be actual ( common ) obedience to God , where he is believed in and acknowledged before Christ : And all following acts of Faith after the first , are both the root of all other obedience , and a part of it : as our continued Allegiance to the King is : And as the Heart , when it is the first formed Organ in nature , is no part of the man , but the Organ to make all the parts , because it is solitary ; and there is yet no man , of whom it can be called a part ; but when the man is formed , the heart is both his chief part ▪ and the Organ to actuate and maintain the rest . Object . But Faith as Faith is not obedience . Answ . Nor Learning as Learning is not obedience to your Tutor : Nor plowing as plowing is not obedience to your Master : Or to speak more aptly , the continuance of your consent , that this man be your Tutor as such , is not obedience to him ; but it is materially part of your obedience to your Father who commandeth it ; and your continued Allegiance or subjection as such , is not obedience to your King ; but as primarily it was the foundation or heart of future obedience ; so afterward it is also materially a part of your obedience , being commanded by him to whom you are now subject . And so it is in the case of Faith : and therefore true Faith and Obedience are as nearly conjoyned as Life and Motion ; and the one is ever 〈◊〉 in the other : Faith is for Obedience to Christs healing means , as trusting and taking a Physician , is for the using of his counsel : and Faith is for love and holy obedience to God , which is called our Sanctification , as trusting a Physician , is for health . Faith is implicite virtual obedience to a Saviour : and obedience to a Saviour , is explicite operating Faith or trust . I. In the understanding , Faith in Gods Promises hath all these acts contained in it . 1. A belief that God is , and that he is perfectly powerful , wise and good . 2. A belief that he is our Maker , and so our Owner , our Ruler , and our chief Good ( initially and finally ) delighting to do good , and the perfect felicitating end and object of the soul . 3. A belief that God hath expressed the benignity of his nature , by a Covenant or Promise of life to man. 4. To believe that Jesus Christ , God and Man , is the Mediator of this Covenant , Heb. 8 6. & 9.15 . & 1● . 24 . procuring it , and entrusted to administer or communicate the blessings of it , Heb. 5.9 . 5. To believe that the Holy Ghost is the seal and witness of this Covenant . 6 To believe that this Covenant giveth pardon of sin , and Justification and Adoption , and further grace , to penitent Bel●evers ; and Glorification to those that persevere in true Faith , Love and O●edience to the end . 7. To believe that the Holy Scriptures or Word delivered by the A●ostles , is the sure Record of this Covenant , and of the history and doctrine on which it is grounded . 8. To believe that God is most perfectly regardful and faithful to fulfil this Covenant , and that he cannot lye or break it , Titus 1.2 . Heb. 6.17 , 18. 9. To believe that you in particular are included in this Covenant , as well as others , it being universal as conditional to all if they will repent and believe , and no exception put in against you to exclude you , John 3.16 . Mark 16.15 , 16. 10. To believe or know that there is nothing else to be trusted to , as our felicity and end instead of God ; nor as our way instead of the Mediator , and the foresaid means appointed by him . II. In the Will , Faith or Trust hath 1. A simple complacency in God as believed to be most perfectly good as fore-described . 2. It hath an actual intending and desiring of him as our end and whole felicity to be enjoyed in Heaven , Gal. 5.6 , 7. Ephes . 3.17 , 18 , 19. Col. 3.1 , 3 , 4. 1 Cor. 13. Heb. 11. Mat. 6.20 , 21. 3. It is the turning away from , and refusing all other seeming felicity or ends , and casting all our happiness and hopes upon God alone . 4. It is the chusing Jesus Christ as the only way and Mediator to this end ; with the refusing of all other , Job . 14.6 . and trusting all that we are or hope for upon his Mediation . III. In the Vital Power , it is the casting away all inconsistent fears , and the inward resolved delivering up the soul to the Father , Son and Holy Spirit in this Covenant , entering our selves into a resolved war with the Devil , the World , and the Flesh , which in the performance will resist us ▪ And thus Faith or Trust is constituted and completed in the true Baptismal Covenant . Direct . 28. In all this be sure that you observe the difference between the truth of Faith , and the high degrees . The truth of it is most certainly discerned by ( as consisting in ) [ THE ABSOLVTE CASTING or VENTVRING not part , but ALL YOVR HAPPINESS and HOPES VPON GOD and the MEDIATOR ONLY , and LETTING GO ALL WHICH IS INCONSISTENT WITH THIS CHOICE and TRVST . This is true and saving Faith and Trust . Pardon me that I sometime use the word VENTVRING ALL , as if there were any uncertainty in the matter . I intend not by it to express the least uncertainty or fallibility in Gods Promise : For Heaven and Earth shall pass away , but one jot or tittle of his Word shall not pass , till all be fulfilled : But I shall here add , 1. True Faith or Trust may consist with uncertainty in the person who believeth ; if he believe and trust Christ but so far , that he can cast away all his worldly treasures and hopes , even life it self upon that trust . Every one is not an Infidel , nor an Hypocrite , who must say ▪ if he speak his heart [ I am not certain past all doubts , that the soul is immortal , or the Gospel true : but I am certain , that immortal happiness is most desirable , and endless misery most terrible ▪ and that this world is vanity , and nothing in it worthy to be compared , with the hopes which Christ hath given us of a better life : And therefore upon just deliberation I am resolved to let go all my sinful pleasures , profits , and worldly reputation , and life it self , when it is inconsistent with those hopes : And to take Gods Love for my felicity and end , and to trust and venture absolutely all my happiness and hopes on the favour of God , the mediation of Christ , and the Promises which he hath given us in the Gospel . ] I know I shall meet with abundance of Teachers and people , that will shake the head at this doctrine as dangerous , and cry out of it as favouring unbelief , that any one should have true saving Faith , who doubteth , or is uncertain of the immortality of the soul , or the tr●th of the Gospel ! But I see so much in hot-brained proud persons , to be pittied , and so much of their work in the Church to be with tears lamented , that I will not by speech or silence favour their brainsick , bold assertions , nor will I fear their phrenetick furious censures . If it be not a mark of a wise and good Minister of Christ , to be utterly ignorant of the state of souls , both his own , and all the peoples , then I will not concur to the advancement of the reputation of such ignorance . It is enough to pardon the great injury which such do to the Church of God , without countenancing it . Though this one instance only now mind me of it , abundance more do second it , and tell us , that there are in the Churches through the world , abundance of Divines , who are first taught by a party which they most esteem , what is to be held and said as orthodox , and then make it their work , to contend for that orthodoxness which they were taught so to honour , even with the most unmanly and unchristian scorns and censures ; when as if they had not been dolefully ignorant both of the Scriptures , and themselves , and the souls of men , they would have known , that it is the fool that rageth and is confident , and that it was not their knowing more than others , but their knowing less , which made them so presumptuous ; and that they are themselves as far from certainty as others , when they condemn themselves to defend their opinions : Even like our late Perfectionists , who all lived more imperfectly than others ; but wrote and railed for sinless perfection , as soon as they did but take up the opinion . As if turning to that opinion had made them perfect . So men may pass the censure of hypocrisie and damnation upon themselves when they please , by damning all as hypocrites , whose faith is thus far imperfect ; but they shall never make any wise man believe by it , that their own faith is ever the more certain or perfect . As far as I can judge by acquaintance with persons most religious , though there be many who are afraid to speak it out , yet the far greater number of the most faithful Christians , have but such a faith which I described , and their hearts say [ I am not certain , or past all doubt , of the truth of our immortality , or of the Gospel ; but I will venture all my hopes and happiness , though to the parting with life it self up●n it . ] And I will venture to say it , as the truth of Christ , that he that truly can do this , hath a sincere and saving faith ; whatsoever Opinionists may say against it . For Christ hath promised , that he that loseth his life for his sake and the Gospels , shall have life everlasting , Mat. 10.37 , 38 , 39 , 42. & 16.25 . & 19.29 . Luke 18.30 . And he hath appointed no higher expressions of faith , as necessary to salvation , than denying our selves , and taking up the Cross , and forsaking all that we have ; or in one word , than Martyrdom ; and this as proceeding from the Love of God , Luke 14.26 , 27 , 29 , 33 Rom. 8.17 , 18 , 28 , 29 , 3O , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39. And it is most evident that the sincere have been weak in faith , Luke 17.5 . And the Apostles said unto the Lord , Increase our faith , Mark 9.24 . Lord I believe , help thou my unbelief . Luke 7.9 . I have not found so great faith , no not in Israel . The weak faith was the more common . 2. And as true Faith or Trust may consist with doubts and uncertainty in the subject ; so may it with much anxiety , care , disquietment and sinful fear ; which sheweth the imperfection of our Faith. Shall ●e not much more clothe you , O ye of little faith ? Mat. 16.8 . O ye of little faith , why reason you among your selves , &c. Mat. 8. ●6 . Why are ye fearful , O ye of little faith ? Mat. 14.31 . Peter had a faith that could venture his life on the waters to come to Christ , as confident of a miracle upon his command : But yet it was not without fear , v. 30. When he saw the wind boisterous , he was afraid ; which caused Christ to say [ O thou of little faith , wherefore didst thou doubt ? ] And you cannot say that this is only a hinderance in the applying act , and not in the direct and principal act of faith : For Luke 24.21 . we find some Disciples at this pass [ But we trusted that it had been he , who should have redeemed Israel . ] And v. 25 , 26. Christ saith to them O fools , and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken ; ought not Christ to have suffered these things , and to enter into his Glory ? Luke 24.11 . The words of them who told the Apostles , that Christ was risen , seemed but as tales to them , and they believed them not . And v. 41. While they believed not for joy , and wondered , &c. 3. Nay , a weak faith may have such a swouning fit , as to fail extraordinarily in an hour of temptation , so far as to deny Christ , or shrink from him in this fear : so did Peter , and not only he , but all the Disciples forsook him , and fled , Matth. 26 56. But yet he that according to the habituated state of his soul , hath so much Faith , and Love , as will cause him to venture life and all , upon the trust which he hath to the promises of the Gospel , hath a true and saving fai●h . And here I desire all doubting Christians , to lay by the common mistake in the trying of their faith or trust in Christ , and to go hereafter upon surer grounds . Many say , I cannot believe or trust Christ for salvation , for I am full of doubts , and fears , and troubles ; and surely this is not trusting God. Ans . 1. The question is not , whether you trust him perfectly , so as to have no fears , no troubles , no doubts : but whether you trust him sincerely , so far as to venture all upon him in his way . If you can venture all on him , and let go all to follow him , your faith is true and saving . This would abundantly comfort many fearful troubled Christians , if they did but understand it well : For many of them that thus fear , would as soon as any , forsake all for Christ , and let go all carnal pleasures , and worldly things , or any wilful sin whatsoever , rather than forsake him ; and would not take to any other portion and felicity than God , nor any other way than Christ , and the Spirit of holiness , for all the temptations in the world : And yet they fear because they fear ; and doubt more because they doubt . Doubting soul , let this resolve thee ; suppose Christ and his way were like a Pilot with his Ship at Sea : Many more promise to convey thee safely , and many perswade thee not to venture , but stay at Land : But if thou hast so much trust as that thou wilt go , and put thy self , and all that thou hast into this Ship , and forsake all other , though thou go trembling all the way , and be afraid of every storm , and tempest , and gulf ; yet thou hast true faith , though it be weak . If thy faith will but keep thee in the Ship with Christ , that thou neither turn back again to the flesh ▪ and world ; nor yet take another Ship and Pilot , ( as Mahometanes , and those without the Church ) undoubtedly Christ will bring thee safe to Land , though thy fear and distrust be still thy sin . For the hypocrites case is alwaies some of these : 1. Some of them will only trust God in some smaller matter , wherein their happiness consisteth not : As a man will trust one with some trifle which he doth not much regard , whom yet he thinks so ill of , that he cannot trust him in a matter of weight . 2. Some of them will trust God for the saving of their souls , and the life to come ( or rather presume on him , while they call it trusting him ) but they will not trust him with their bodies , their wealth , and honours , and fleshly pleasures , or their lives . These they are resolved to shift for , and secure themselves , as well as they can . For they know that for the world to come , they must be at Gods disposal , and they have no way of their own to shift out of his hands : whether there be such a life or no , they know not ; but if there be , they will cast their souls upon Gods mercy , when they have kept the world as long as they can , and have had all that it can do for them . But they will not lose their present part , for such uncertain hopes as they account them . 3. Some of them will trust him only in pretence and name , while it is the creature which they trust indeed . Because they have learned to say , that God is the disposer of all , and only to be trusted , and all creatures are but used by his will ; therefore they think that when they trust the creature , it is but in subordination to God ; though indeed they trust not God at all . 4. Some of them will trust God and the creature joyntly ; and as they serve God and Mammon , and think to make sure of the prosperity of the body , and the salvation of the soul , without losing either of them ; so they trust in both conjunctly , to make up their felicity . Some think when they read Christs words , Mark 10.24 . How hard is it for them that trust in Riches , to enter into the Kingdom of God ? ] that they are safe enough if that be all the danger ; for they do not trust in their riches , though they love them : He is a mad man they say , that will put his trust in them . And yet Christ intimateth it as the true reason why few that have riches can be saved , because there is few that have riches , who do not trust in them : You know that riches will not save your souls ; you know that they will not save you from the gr●ve , you know that they will not cure your diseases , nor ease your pains : And therefore you do not trust to riches , either to keep you from sickness , or from dying , or from Hell : But yet you think that riches may help you to live in pleasure , and in reputation with the world , and in plenty of all things , and to have your will , as long as health and life will last ; and this you take to be the chiefest happiness which a man can make sure of : And for this you trust them . The fool in Luke 12.19 . who said , Soul , take thy ease , eat , drink , and be merry , thou hast enough laid up for many years , did not trust his riches to make him immortal , nor to save his soul : But he trusted in them , as a provision which might suffice for many years , that he might eat , drink , and be merry , and take his ease ; and this he loved better , and preferred before any pleasures or happiness which he hoped for in another world . And thus it is that all worldly hypocrites do trust in riches : Yea the poorest do trust in their little poor provisions in this world , as seeming to them surer , and therefore better than any which they can expect hereafter . This is the way of trusting in uncertain riches , ( viz. to be their surest happiness ) instead of trusting in the living God , 1 Tim. 6.17 . & 4.10 . Psal . 49.6 . & 52.7 . But yet because the hypocrite knoweth , that he cannot live here alwaies , but must die , and his riches must be parted with at last , and heareth of a life of glory afterwards , he would fain have his part in that too , when he can keep the world no longer : And so he taketh both together for his part and hope , viz. as much bodily happiness as he can get in this world , and Heaven at last , when he must die : not knowing that God will be all our portion and felicity , or none ; and that the world must be valued and used but for his sake , and in subordination to him and a better world . 5. Yet some hypocrites seem to go further ( though they do not ) for they will seem , even to themselves , to resign goods , and life , and all things absolutely to the will of God. But the reason is , because they are secretly perswaded in their hearts , that their resignation shall no whit deprive them of them ; and that God will never the more take it from them ; but that they may possess as much present corporal felicity , in a life of Religion , as if they lived in the dangerous case of the ungodly : or at least , that they may keep so much , as not to be undone or left to any great sufferings in the world ; or at least , their lives may not be called for . For they live in a time , when few suffer for Christ ; and therefore they see little cause to ●e●r that they should be of that smaller number : and it is but being a little the more wise and cautelous , and they hope they may scape well enough . And if they had not this hope , they would never give up all to Christ . But like persons that will be liberal to their Physician , they will offer a great deal , when they think he will not take it ; but if they thought he would take all that is offered , they would offer less . Or as if a sick person should hear that such a Physician will give him no very strong or loathsome Physick ; and therefore when the Physician telleth him [ I will be none of your Physician unless you will absolutely promise to take every thing which I shall give you . ] He promiseth that he will do it ; but it is only because he supposeth that he will give him nothing which is troublesome : And if he find his expectation crost , he breaketh his promise , and ●aith , If I had known that he would have used me thus , I would never have promised it him . So hypocrites by promise give up themselves absolutely to God , and to b● wholly at his will , without excepting life it self : But their hearts do secretly except it : For all this is because they doubt not but they may save their earthly prosperity and lives , and be Christians too : And if once Christ call them to suffer death for him , they shew then what was the meaning of their hearts . To reassume the former similitude ; If Christ on earth should offer to convey you to a Kingdom at the Antipodes , where men live for ever in glorious holiness , if you will but trust him , and go in his Ship , and take him for your Pilot : Here one saith , I do not believe him that there is such a place , and therefore I will not go ( that is , the Infidel . ) Another saith , I like my merry life at home , better than his glorious holiness ( that 's the open worldling and prophane . ) Another saith , I will live in my own Country , and on my own estate , as long as I can , and when I find that I am dying ▪ and can stay here no longer , that I may be sure to lose nothing by him , I will take his offer . Another saith , I will go with him , but I will turn back again , if I find any dangerous storms and gulfs in the passage . Another saith , I will take another Ship and Pilot along with me , lest he should fail me , that I may not be deceived . Another saith , I am told that the Seas are calm , and there is no danger in the passage , and therefore I will absolutely trust him , and venture all ; but when he meets with storms and hideous waves , he saith , This is not as I expected , and so he turneth back again . But another ( the true Christian ) saith , I will venture all , and wholly trust him : And so , though he is oft afraid in dangers , when he seeth the devouring gulfs , yet not so fearful as to turn back , but on he goeth , come on it what will ; because he knoweth that the place which he goeth to is most desirable , and mortality will soon end his old prosperity ; and he hath great reason to believe his Pilot to be trusty . By all this you may see , how it cometh to pass that Christ who promiseth life to Believers , doth yet make self-denyal , and forsaking all that we have , even life it self , to be also necessary ; and what relation self-denyal hath to faith , Luke 14.26 , 3● . Nearer by far than most consider . You may see here the reason why Christ tryed the rich man , Luke 18.22 . with selling all , and following him in hope of a reward in Heaven : And why he bid his Diciples , Luke 12.33 . Sell that ye have , and give alms ; provide your selves bags which wax not old , a treasure in the Heavens which faileth not — And why the first Christians were made a pattern of entire Christianity , by selling all , and laying down at the Apostles feet ; And Ananias and Saphira were the instances of Hypocrisie , who secretly and lyingly kept back part : You see here how it comes to pass , that all true Christians must be heart-martyrs , or prepared to die for Christ and Heaven , rather than forsake him . You may plainly perceive that Faith it self is an Affiance or Trusting in God by Christ , even a Trusting in God in Heaven as our felicity , and in Christ as the Mediator and the Way ; and that this Trust is a venturing all upon him , and a forsaking all for God , and his promises in Christ . And that it is one and the same Motion which from the terminus à quo is called Repentance and forsaking all ; and from the terminus ad quem is called Trust and Love. They that are willing to see , may profit much by this observation ; and they that are not may quarrel at it , and talk against that which their prejudice will not allow them to understand . And by all this you may see also wherein the strength of Faith consisteth : And that is 1. In so clear a sight of the evidences of truth as shall leave no considerable doubtings , Mat. 21.21 . So Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief , but was strong in faith , giving glory to God , Rom. 4. 2. In so confirmed a Resolution to cleave to God and Christ alone , as leaveth no wavering , or looking back : that we may say groundedly with Peter , Though I die , I will not deny thee ; which doubtless signified then some strength of faith : And as Paul , I am ready not only to be bound , but to die for the Name of the Lord Jesus , Acts 21.13 . 3. In so strong a fortitude of soul , as to venture and give up our selves , our lives , and all our comforts and hopes into the hand of Christ , without any trouble or sinful fears , and to pass through all difficulties and tryals in the way , without any distrust or anxiety of mind . These be the characters of a strong and great degree of faith . And you may note how Heb. 11. describeth Faith commonly by this venturing and forsaking all upon the belief of God. As in Noah's case , verse 7. And in Abraham's leaving his Countrey , v. 8. And in his sacrificing Isaac , v. 17. And in Moses forsaking Pharaoh's Court , and chusing the reproach of Christ , rather than the pleasures of sin for a season , v. 24 , 25 , 26. And in the Israelites venturing into the Red Sea , v. 29. And in Rebab's hiding the spies , which must needs be her danger in her own Countrey . And in all those , who by faith subdued Kingdoms , wrought Righteousness , obtained Promises , stopped the mouths of Lions , quenched the violence of fire , escaped the edge of the sword ; out of weakness were made strong — O ▪ hers were tortured , not accepting deliverance , that they might obtain a better resurrection ; and others had tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings ; yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments ; they were stoned , they were sawn asunder , were tempted , were slain with the sword ; they wandered about in Sheep skins , and Goat skins , being destitute , afflicted , tormented , of whom the world was not worthy : They wandered in Desarts and Mountains , and in Deus , and Caves of the earth . And in Heb. 10.32 , 33 , &c. They endured a great fight of affliction ; partly whilst they were made a gazing flock , both by reproaches and afflictions ; and partly whilst they became companions of them that were so used — And took joyfully the spoiling of their goods ; knowing in themselves that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance . And thus , the just do live by faith ; but if any man draw back , my soul shall have no pleasure in him , saith the Lord. See also Rom. 8.33 , 36 , 37 &c. These are the Spirits descriptions of faith ; but if you will rather take a whimsical ignorant mans description , who can only toss in his mouth the name of FREE GRACE , and knoweth not of what he speaketh , or what he affirmeth , or what that name signifieth , which he cheateth his own soul with , instead of true Free Grace it self , you must suffer the bitter fruits of your own delusion . For my part I shall say thus much more , to tell you why I say so much , to help you to a right understanding of the nature of true Christian Faith. 1. If you understand not truly what Faith is , you understand not what Religion it is that you profess : And so you call your selves Christians , and know not what it is . It seems those that said , Lord , we have eaten and drunken in thy presence , and prophesied in thy Name , did think they had been true Believers , Matth. 7.21 , 22. 2. To erre about the nature of true Faith , will engage you in abundance of other errours , which will necessarily arise from that ; as it did them , against whom James disputeth , James 2.14 , 15 , &c. about Justification by Faith and by Works . 3. It will damnably delude your souls , about your own state , and draw you to think that you have saving Faith , because you have that fancy which you thought was it . One comes boldly to Christ , Mat. 8.19 . Master , I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest : But when he heard [ The Foxes have holes , and the Birds have nests , but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head ] we hear no more of him . And another came with a [ Good Master , what shall I do to inherit eternal life ? ] Luke 18.18 . as if he would have been one of Christs Disciples , and have done any thing for Heaven . ( And it 's like that he would have been a Christian , if Free Grace had been as large , and as little grace , as some now imagine . ) But when he heard [ Yet lackest thou one thing : sell all that thou hast , and distribute to the poor , and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven : Come , follow me ] he was then very sorrowful , for he was very rich , Luke 18.21 , 22 , 23. Thousands cheat their souls with a conceit that they are Believers , because they believe that they shall be saved by Free Grace , without the faith and grace which Christ hath made necessary to salvation . 4. And this will take off all those needful thoughts and means , which should help you to the faith , which yet you have not . 5. And it will engage you in perverse disputes against that true faith which you understand not : And you will think , that you are contending for Free Grace , and for the Faith , when you are proud , knowing nothing , but sick or doting about questions , which engender no better birth than strifes , railings , evil surmisings , perverse disputings , &c. 1 Tim. 6.4 , 5. 6. Lastly , You can scarce more dishonour the Christian Religion , nor injure God and our Mediatour , or harden men in Infidelity , than by fathering your ill-shapen fictions on Christ , and calling them the Christian or Justifying Faith. Direct . 29. Take not all doubts and fears of your salvation , to be the proper effects and signs of unbelief : Seeing that in many they arise from the misunderstanding of the meaning of Gods Promise , and in more , from the doubtfulness of their own qualifications , rather than from any unbelief of the Promise , or distrust of Christ . It is ordinary with ignorant Christians to say , that they cannot believe , because they doubt of their own sincerity and salvation : as thinking that it is the nature of true faith , to believe that they themselves are justified , and shall be saved ; and that to doubt of this , is to doubt of the Promises , because they doubtingly apply it . Such distresses have false principles bought many to . But there are two other things besides the weakness of faith , which are usually the causes of all this . 1. Many mistake the meaning of Christs Covenant , and think that it hath no universality in it ; and that he died only for the Elect , and promiseth pardon to none but the Elect ( no not on the condition of believing . ) And therefore thinking that they can have no assurance that they are Elect , they doubt of the conclusion . And many of them think that the Promise extendeth not to such as they , because of some sin , or great unworthiness , which they are guilty of . And others think that they have not that Faith and Repentance which are the condition of the promise of pardon and salvation : And in some of these the thing it self may be so obscure , as to be indeed the matter of rational doubtfulness . And in others of them , the cause may be either a mistake about the true nature and signs of Faith and Repentance ; or else a timerous melancholy causeless suspition of themselves But which of all these soever be the cause , it is something different from proper unbelief or distrust of God. For he that mistaketh the extent of the Promise , and thinketh that it belongeth not to such as he , would believe and trust it , if he understood it , that it extends to him as well as others . And he that doubteth of his own Repentance and Faith , may yet be confident of the truth of Gods Promise to all true penitent Believers . I mention this for the cure of two mischiefs : The first is that of the presumptuous Opinionist , who goeth to Hell presuming that he hath true saving faith , because he confidently believeth , that he himself is pardoned , and shall be saved . The second is that of the perplexed fearful Christian , who thinks that all his uncertainty of his own sincerity , and so of his salvation , is properly unbelief , and so concludeth that he cannot believe , and shall not be saved . Because he knoweth not that faith is such a belief and trust in Christ , as will bring us absolutely and unreservedly to venture our all upon him alone . And yet I must tell all these persons , that all this while it is ten to one , but there is really a great deal of unbelief in them which they know not : and that their belief of the truth of the immortality of the soul , and the life to come , and of the Gospel it self , is not so strong and firm , as their never-doubting of it would intimate , or as some of their definitions of Faith , and their Book-opinions and Disputes import . And it had been well for some of them , that they had doubted more , that they might have believed , and been settled better . Direct . 30. Think often of the excellencies of the life of faith , that the Motives may be still inducing you thereto . As 1. It is but reasonable that God should be trusted ; or else indeed we deny him to be God , Psal . 20 7. 2. What else shall we trust to ? shall we deifie creatures , and say to a stock , Thou art my Father ? Jer. 2.27 . Lam. 1.19 . Shall we distrust God , and trust a lyar and a worm ? 3. Trying times will shortly come ; and then woe to the soul that cannot trust in God! Then nothing else will serve our turns . Then cursed be the man that trusteth in man , and maketh flesh his arm , and withdraweth his heart from the Lord , he shall be like the barren wilderness , &c. Then none that trusted in him shall be ashamed , Jer. 17.5 , 6. Psal . 25.3 , 4. Psal . 73.26 , 27 , 28. 4. Gods Alsufficiency leaveth no reason for the least distrust : There is the most absolute certainty that God cannot fail us , because his veracity is grounded on his essential perfections . 5. No witness could ever stand up against the life of faith , and say that he lost by trusting God , or that ever God deceived any . 6. The life of faith is a conquest of all that would distress the soul , and it is a life of constant peace and quietness : Yea it feasteth the soul upon the everlasting Joyes . Though the mountains be removed ; though this world be turned upside down , and be dissolved ; whether poverty or wealth , sickness or health , evil report or good , persecution or prosperity befall us ; how little are we concerned in all this ? and how little should they do to disturb the peace and comfort of that soul , who believeth that he shall live with God for ever . Many such considerations should make us more willing to live by faith upon Gods Promises , than to live by sense on transitory things . Direct . 31. Renew your Covenant with Christ in his holy Sacrament , frequently , understandingly , and seriously . For 1. when we renew our Covenant with Christ , then Christ reneweth his Covenant with us ; and that with great advantage to our faith : 1. In an appointed Ordinance which he will bless . 2. By a special Minister appointed to seal and deliver it to us as in his Name . 3. By a solemn Sacramental Investiture . 2. And our own renewing our Covenant with him , is the renewed exercise of faith , which will tend to strengthen it , and to shew us that we are indeed Believers . And there is much in that Sacrament to help the strengthening of faith : Therefore the frequent and right using of it , is one of Gods appointed means , to feed and maintain our spiritual life ; which if we neglect , we wilfully starve our faith , 1 Cor. 11.26 , 28 , &c. Direct . 32. Keep all your own promises to God and man ▪ For 1. Lyars alwaies suspect others . 2. Guilt breedeth suspiciousness . 3. God in justice may leave you to your distrust of him , when you will be perfidious your selves . You can never be confident in God , while you deal falsly with him or with others . The end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart , a good conscience , and faith unfeigned , 1 Tim. 1.5 . Direct . 33. Labour to improve your belief of every promise , for the increase of holiness and obedience : And to get more upon your souls that true Image of God in his Power , Wisdom and Goodness , which will make it easie to you to believe him . 1. The more the hypocrite seemeth to believe the promise , the more he boldly ventureth upon sin , and disobeyeth the precept ; because it was but fear that restrained him ; and his belief is but presumption abating fear . But the more a true Christian believeth , the more he flyeth from sin , and useth Gods means , and studieth more exact obedience ; and having these promises , laboureth to cleanse himself from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit , perfecting holiness in the fear of God , 2 Cor. 7.1 . And receiving a Kingdom whih cannot be moved , me must serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear , Heb. 12.28 , 29. 2. The liker the soul is to God , the easier it will believe and trust him . As faith causeth holiness ; so every part of holiness befriendeth faith . Now the three great impressions of the Trinity upon us are expressed distinctly by the Apostle , 2 Tim. 1.7 . For God hath not given us the Spirit of fear , but of Power , of Love , and of a sound mind , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Power , Love , and a sound mind or understanding , do answer Gods nature as the face in the glass doth answer our face , and therefore cannot chuse but trust him . Direct . 34. Lay up in your memory particular pertinent and clear Promises , for every particular use of faith . The number is not so much ; but be sure that they be plain and well understood , that you may have no cause to doubt whether they mean any such thing indeed or not . Here some will expect that I should do this for them , and gather them such promises . Two things disswade me from doing it at large : 1. So many Books have done it already . 2. It will swell this Book too big : But take these few . 1. For forgiveness of all sins , and Justification to penitent Believers . Acts 5.31 . Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour , to give repentance to Israel , and forgiveness of sins . Acts 13.38 , 39. Be it known unto you , that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins ; and by him all that believe are justified from all things , from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses . Acts 26.18 . To open their eyes , and turn them from darkness to light , and from the power of Satan unto God , that they may receive forgiveness of sins , and an inheritance among them that are sanctified , by faith , that is in me . 1 John 1.9 . If we confess our sins , he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins , and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness . Heb. 8.12 . I will be merciful to their unrighteousness , and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more . Acts 10.43 . To him give all the Prophets witness , that through his Name , whoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins . Luke 24.47 . That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name to all Nations . 2. Promises of Salvation from Hell , and possession of Heaven . John 3.16 . God so loved the world , that he gave his only begotten Son , that whosoever believeth in him , should not perish , but have everlasting life . v. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned — v. 36. He that believeth on the Son , hath everlasting life , 1 John 5.11 , 12. And this is the record that God hath given us , eternal life ; and this is in his Son : He that hath the Son , hath life — Acts 26.18 . before cited , 1 Tim. 1.15 . Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners . Heb. 7.25 . He is able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him . Heb. 5.9 . And being made perfect , he became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him . Mark 16.16 . He that believeth and is baptized , shall be saved . John 10.9 . By me if any man enter in , he shall be saved . John 10.27 , 28. My sheep hear my voice , and I know them , and they follow me , and I will give unto them eternal life , and they shall never perish — Rom. 5.9 , 10. Being justified by his blood , we shall be saved from wrath through him — Much more being reconciled , we shall be saved by his life . See Luke 18 30. John 4.14 . & 6.27 , 40 , 47. & 12.50 . Rom. 6.22 . Gal. 6.8 . 1 Tim. 1.16 . 3. Promises of Reconciliation , Adoption , and acceptance with God through Christ . 2 Cor. 5.18 , 19 , 20. God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ , and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation ; to wit , that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself , not imputing their trespasses to them , and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation . Now then we are Ambassadours for Christ , as though God did beseech you by us ; we pray you in Christs stead , be ye reconciled unto God : For he hath made him to be sin for us , who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him . Rom. 5.1 , 2 , 10. Being justified by faith , we have peace with God , through our Lord Jesus Christ ; by whom also we have access by faith , into this grace wherein we stand , and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God — When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. 2 Cor. 6.16 , 17 , 18. I will dwell in them , and walk in them ; and I will be their God , and they shall be my people — I will receive you , and be a Father unto you , and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters , saith the Lord Almighty . Rom. 8.1 . There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus , who walk not after the flesh , but after the Spirit . John 1.12 . As many as received him , to them give he power to become the Sons of God ; even to them that believe on his Name ; which were born not of blood , nor of the will of the fl●sh , nor of the will of man , but of God. Acts 10.35 . In every Nation he that feareth God , and worketh righteousness , is accepted of him . Ephes . 1 6 He hath made us accepted in the Beloved , Ephes . 2.14 , 16. Col. 1.20 . John 16.27 . The Father himself loveth you , because ye have loved me , and believed that I came out from God. 4. Promises of renewed Pardon of sins after conversion . 1 John 2.12 . If any man sin , we have an Advocate with the Father , Jesus Christ the righteous , and he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only , but for the sins of the whole world . Matth. 6.14 . Forgive us our trespasses — For if we forgive men their trespasses , your heavenly Father will forgive you — James 5.15 . If he have committed sins , they shall be forgiven him . Matth. 12.31 . I say unto you , All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men ; but the blasphemy against the Spirit — Psal . 103.3 . Who forgiveth all thine iniquities — 1 John 1.9 . If we confess our sins , he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins — 5. Promises of the Spirit of Sanctification to Believers ; and of divine assistances of grace . Luke 11.13 . How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him . John 7.37 , 38 , 39. If any man thirst , let him come to me and drink : He that believeth on me , as the Scripture hath said , out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water : This he spake of the Spirit , which they that believe on him shall receive — John 4.10 , 14. If thou knewest the gift of God , and who it is — thou wouldst have asked of him , and he would have given thee living waters — Ezek. 36.26 , 27. A new heart also will I give you , and a new spirit will I put within you : and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh , and I will give you an heart of flesh : and I will put my Spirit within you , and cause you to walk in my statutes — Ezek. 11.19 And I will give them one heart , and I will put a new spirit within you — Acts 2.38 , 39 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ , for the remission of sins , and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost : For the promise is to you , and to your children , and to all that are afar off , even as many as the Lord our God shall call . Gal. 4.6 . And because you are Sons , God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts , crying , Abba Father . Prov. 1.23 . Turn you at my reproof ; behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you ; I will make known my words unto you — Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities ; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought ; but the Spirit it self maketh intecerssion for us , with groanings which cannot be uttered . 6. Promises of Gods giving his grace to all that truly desire and seek it . Matth. 5 6. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness , for they shall be filled . Isa . 55.1 . Ho , every one that thirsteth , come ye to the waters , and he that hath no mony : come ye , buy and eat , yea come , buy wine and milk without mony and without price — Hearken diligently to me , and eat ye that which is good , and let your soul delight it self in fatness . Encline your ear , and come unto me ; hear and your soul shall live , and I will make an everlasting covenant with you — v. 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found ; call upon him while he is near — Rev. 22.17 . Let him that is athirst come ; and whosoever will , let him take the water of life freely . 7. Promises of Gods giving us all that we pray for according to his promises and will. Mat. 7.7 , 8 , 11. Ask , and it shall be given you ; seek , and ye shall find ; knock , and it shall be opened to you : for every one that asketh , receiveth ; and he that seeketh findeth ; and to him that knocketh , it shall be opened — If ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children ; how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven , give good things to them that ask him ? Matth. 6.6 . Pray to thy Father which is in secret , and thy Father which seeth in secret , shall reward thee openly . John 14.13 , 14. & 15.16 . & 16.23 . John 15.7 . If ye abide in me , and my words abide in you , ye shall ask what ye will , and it shall be done unto you . 1 John 5.14 , 15. And this is the confidence which we have in him , that if we ask any thing according to his will , he heareth us . And if we know that he heareth us , whatsoever we ask , we know that we have the petitions which we desired of him . 1 John 3.22 . And whatsoever we ask , we receive of him , because we keep his Commandments , and do those things which are pleasing in his sight . Prov. 15.8 , 29. The prayer of the upright is his delight — He heareth the prayer of the righteous . 1 Pet. 3.12 . The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous , and his ears are open to their prayers — 8. That God will accept weak prayers and groans , which want expressions , if they be sincere . Rom. 8.26 , 27. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities — The Spirit it self maketh intercession for us , with groanings which cannot be uttered : And he that searcheth the hearts , knoweth what is the mind of the spirit . Gal. 4.6 . — Crying , Abba , Father . Psal . 77.3 . I remembred God , and was troubled , and my spirit was overwhelmed — Psal . 38.9 . Lord , all my desire is before thee , and my groaning is not hid from thee . Luke 18.14 . God be merciful to me a sinner . 9. Promises of all things in general which we want , and which are truly for our good . Psal . 84.11 . For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield : the Lord will give grace and glory : no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly . Psal . 34.9 , 10. O fear the Lord ye his Saints ; for there is no want to them that fear him — They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing . Rom. 8 28 , 32 All things work together for good to them that love God — He that spared not his own Son , but gave him up for us all , how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? Matth. 6.33 . Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness , and all these things shall be added to you . 2 Pet. 1.3 . According as his divine power hath given us all things that pertain to life and godliness . 1 Tim. 4.8 . But godliness is profitable to all things , having the promise of the life that now is , and of that which is to come . 10 Promises of a bl●ssing on them that sincerely hear and read Gods Word , and use his Sacraments and other means . Isa . 55.3 . Encline your ear and come unto me ; hear and your souls shall live . Read the Eunuchs conversion , in Acts 8. who was reading the Scripture in his Chariot . 1 Pet. 2.1 . Laying aside all malice , and all guile and hypocrisie , and envies , and evil speakings , as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word , that ye may grow thereby . Rev. 1.3 . Blessed is he that readeth , and they that hear the words of this Prophecy , and keep those things that are written therein . Psal . 1.1 , 2. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly — But his delight is in the Law of the Lord , and in his Law doth he meditate day and night . Matth. 7.24 , 25. Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine , and doth them , I will liken him to a wise man , that built his house upon a rock , &c. Luke 8.21 . Rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God and do it . Luke 10.42 . Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from her . Mark 4.23 , 24. If any man have ears to hear , let him hear — And unto you that hear shall more be given — Acts 11.14 . Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy houshold shall be saved . 1 Tim. 4.16 . Take heed to thy self and unto the doctrine , and continue therein ; for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self , and them that hear thee . Psal . 89.15 . Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound ! they shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance ; in thy Name shall they rejoyce all the day — Heb. 4.12 . The Word of God is quick and powerful , &c. 1 Cor. 10.16 . The cup of blessing which we bless , is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break , is it not the communion of the body of Christ ? Matth. 18.20 . For where two or three are gathered together in my Name , there am I in the midst of them . Isa . 4.5 . And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion , and upon her Assemblies , a cloud and smoke by day , and the shining of a flaming fire by night ; for upon all the glory shall be a defence . 11. Promises to the humble , meek and lowly . Matth. 5.3 , 4 , 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit ; for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven . Blessed are they that mourn ; for they shall be comforted . Blessed are the meek ; for they shall inherit the earth . Matth. 11.28 , 29. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden , and I will give you rest . Take my yoak upon you , and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart ; and ye shall find rest unto your souls : for my yoak is easie , and my burden is light . Psal . 34.18 . The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart , and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit . Psal . 51.17 . The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit : a broken and a contrite heart , O God , thou wilt not despise . Isa . 57.15 . For thus faith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity , whose Name is holy , I dwell in height and holiness ( or in the high and holy place ) with him also that is of a contrite spirit , to revive the spirit of the humble , and to revive the heart of the contrite ones . Isa . 66.2 . To this man will I look , even to him that is poor , and of a contrite spirit , and trembleth at my Word . Luke 4.18 . The Spirit of the Lord is upon me : he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor : he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted , to preach deliverance to the captives , and recovering of sight to the blind , and to set at liberty them that are bruised — James 4.6 . He giveth grace to the humble . Matth. 18.4 . Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child , the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven . Matth. 23.12 . He that shall humble himself shall be exalted . James 4.10 . Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord , and he shall lift you up . Prov. 3.34 . He giveth grace to the lowly . 12. Promises to the peaceable and peace-makers . Matth. 5.9 . Blessed are the peace-makers ; for they shall be called the children of God. James 3.17 , 18. The wisdom from above is first pure ▪ then peaceable , gentle , easie to be intreated — And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace , of them that make peace . 2 Cor. 13.11 . Be perfect ; be of good comfort ; be of one mind ; live in peace ; and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you . Prov. 12.20 . To the councellours of peace is joy . Rom. 15.33 . & 16.20 . Phil. 4.9 . The God of peace shall be with you , &c. shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly — Grace and Peace are the blessing of Saints . 13. Promises to the diligent and laborious Christian . Heb. 11.6 . He that cometh to God , must believe that God is , and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him . Prov. 13.4 . The soul of the diligent shall be made fat . 1 Cor. 15.58 . Be stedfast , unmoveable , alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord , forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 2 Pet. 1.10 . Give diligence to make your calling and election sure ; for if ye do these things , ye shall never fail . 2 Pet. 1.5 , 8. Giving all diligence , add to your faith , vertue , and to vertue knowledge , &c. For if these things be in you and abound , they make you that you shall neither be barren , nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ . 2 Cor. 5.9 . Wherefore we labour , that whether present or absent , we may be accepted of him . Matth. 6.33 . Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness , and all these things shall be added to you . 1 Cor. 3.8 . Every man shall receive his own reward , according to his own labour . Matth. 11.12 . The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence , and the violent take it by force . See Prov. 3.13 , &c. & 4. to 14. & 6.20 , &c. & 7.1 , &c. & 8 , & 9. throughout . 14. Promises to the patient waiting Christian . Heb. 6.11 , 12. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence , to the full assurance of hope unto the end , that ye be not slothful , but followers of them , who through faith and patience inherit the promises . James 1.3 , 4. Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience ; but let patience have its perfect work ; that ye may be perfect and entire , wanting nothing . Psal . 27.14 . Wait on the Lord ; be of good courage , and he shall strengthen thine heart ; wait , I say , on the Lord. Psal . 37.7 , 9 , 34. Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for him — Those that wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth . Wait on the Lord , and keep his way ; and he shall exa●● thee to inherit the Land. Prov. 20 22. Wait on the Lord , and he shall save thee . Isa . 30.18 . Blessed are all they that wait for him . Isa . 40.31 . They that wait on the 〈…〉 renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as Eagles ; they shall run , and not be weary ; they shall walk , and not be faint . Isa . 49.23 . They shall not be ashamed that wait for me . Lam. 3.25 . The Lord is good to them that wait for him ; to the soul that seeketh him . 26. It is good that a man should both hope , and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Rom. 8.25 . But if we hope for that we see not , then do we with patience wait for it . Gal. 5.5 . For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith . 2 Thes . 3.5 . The Lord direct your hearts into the Love of God , and the patient waiting for Christ . Rom. 2.7 . To them who by patient continuance in well doing , seek for glory , honour and immortality , eternal life . Heb. 10.36 . Ye have need of patience , that after ye have done the will of God , ye may inherit the promise . 15. Promises to sincere Obedience . Rev. 22.14 . Blessed are they that do his Commandments , that they may have right to the tree of life , and may enter in by the gate into the City . John 3.22 . Whatsoever we ask , we receive of him , because we keep his Commandments , and do those things that are pleasing in his sight . v. 24. He that keepeth his Commandments , dwelleth in him , and he in him . John 14.21 . He that hath my Commandments , and keepeth them , he it is that loveth me : and he that loveth me , shall be loved of my Father , and I will love him , and manifest my self to him . John 15.10 . If ye keep my Commandments , ye shall abide in my love ; even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments , and abide in his love . 1 Cor. 7.19 . Circumcision is nothing , and uncircumcision is nothing , but the Commandments of God. See Psal . 112.1 . & 119.6 . Prov. 1.20 , 21 , 22 , &c. Isa . 48.18 . Psal . 19.8 , 9 ▪ &c. Heb. 5.9 . He became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him . Rev. 14.12 . Here are they that keep the Commandments of God , and the 〈◊〉 of Jesus . 1 John 5.3 . For this is the Love of God , that we keep his Commandments . Eccles . 12.13 , 14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter : Fear God , and keep his Commandments ; for this is the whole duty of man ; for God shall bring every work unto judgement , &c. Matth. 5.8 . Blessed are the pure in heart , for they shall see God. James 2.24 . You see then how that by works a man is justified , and not by faith only . Rom. 2.6 , 7 , 10. Who will render to every man according to his deeds : To them who by patient continuance in well doing , seek for glory , and honour , and immortality , eternal life — Glory , honour and peace to every man that worketh good — Acts 10.35 . In every Nation he that feareth God , and worketh righteousness , is accepted with him . Rom. 6.16 . Of obedience unto righteousness . 1 John 3.7 . He that doth righteousness is righteous , even as he is righteous . James 3.18 . The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace . Gal. 6.8 . He that soweth to the Spirit , shall of the Spirit ●●ap life everlasting . Rom. 8.13 . If by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body , ye shall live . 16. Promises to them that love God. Rom. 8.28 . All things work together for good to them that love God. 1 Cor. 2.9 . Eye hath not seen , nor ear heard , nor hath it entred into the heart of man , the things which God hath prepared for them that love him . James 1.12 . He shall receive the Crown of life , which God hath promised to them that love him . James 2.5 . Rich in faith , and heirs of the Kingdom , which God hath promised to them that love him . John 14.21 . He that loveth me , shall be loved of my Father , and I will love him , and will manifest my self to him . Prov. 8.17 . I love them that love me . John 14.15 . If ye love me , keep my Commandments , and I will pray the Father , and he shall give you another Comforter , that he may abide with you for ever . John 16.27 . The Father himself loveth you , because ye have loved me , and believed — 17. Promises to them that love the godly , and that are merciful , and do the works of love . John 13.35 . By this shall all men know , that ye are my Disciples , if ye have love one to another . Gal. 5.6 , 13 , 22. In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but faith which worketh by love — By love serve one another ; for all the Law is fulfilled in one word ; in this , Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self . The fruit of the Spirit is love , joy , peace , long-suffering , gentleness , goodness — Against such there is no Law. Heb. 6.10 . God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love . 1 John 3.14 . We know that we have passed from death to life , because we love the brethren . 18. My little children , l●t us not love in word , nor tongue , but in deed and in truth : And hereby we know that we are of the truth , and shall assure our hearts before him . 1 John 4.7 . Beloved , let us love one another , for love is of God , and every one that loveth is born of God , and knoweth God — v. 16. God is Love , and he that dwelleth in Love , dwelleth in God , and God in him . v. 12. If we love one another , God dwelleth in us , and his love is perfected in us . 2 Cor. 9.7 . God loveth a chearful giver . v. 6. He that soweth bountifully , shall reap bountifully — Mat. 5.7 . Blessed are the merciful , for they shall obtain mercy . Matth. 10.41 , 42. He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet , shall receive a Prophets reward ; and he that receiveth a righteous man , in the name of a righteous man , shall receive a righteous mans reward . And whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones , a cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple , verily I say unto you , he shall in no wise lose his reward . Matth. 25.34 , 40 , 46. Come ye blessed of my Father , inherit the Kingdom — Verily I say unto you , in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren , ye have done it unto me — The righteous shall go into life eternal . Heb. 13.16 . But to do good , and to communicate , forget not ; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased . Phil. 4.17 . I desire fruit which may abound to your account . 2 Cor. 9.9 . As it is written , He hath dispersed abroad ; he hath given to the poor ; his righteousness remaineth for ever . 18. Promises to the poor and needy Christians . Matth. 6.30 , 32 , 33. If God so clothe the grass of the field , which to day is , and to morrow is cast into the Oven , 〈◊〉 he not much more clothe 〈◊〉 O ye of little faith ? Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things . But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness , and all these things shall be added to you . Heb. 13.5 . Let your conversations be without covetousness , and be content with such things as ye have : for he hath said , I will never fail thee nor forsake thee . James 2.5 . Hath not God chosen the poor of this world , rich in faith , and heirs of the Kingdom ? Psal . 34.10 . They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing . Psal . 23.1 . The Lord is my Shepherd , I shall not want . Psal . 4.19 . My God shall supply all your need . Phil. 4.11 , 12 , 13 , I have learned in whatsoever state I am , therewith to be content . I know both how to be abased , and I know how to abound ; every where , and in all things I am instructed , both to be full , and to be hungry ; both to abound , and to suffer need . Psal 9.18 . The needy shall not alway be forgotten : the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever . 19. Promises to the oppressed and wronged Christian . Psal . 12.5 , 6 , 7. For the oppression of the poor , and for the sighing of the needy , now will I arise , saith the Lord : I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him — Thou shalt keep them O Lord , thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever . Psal . 35.10 . All my bones shall say , Lord , who is like unto thee , which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him ; yea the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him . Psal . 40.17 . But I am poor and needy , yet the Lord thinketh on me ; thou art my helper and deliverer . Psal . 42.2 , 4 , 12 , 13. He shall judge thy people with righteousness ; and thy poor with judgement — He shall judge the poor of the people ; he shall save the children of the needy ; and shall break in pieces the oppressor . For he shall deliver the needy when he cryeth ; the poor also , and him that hath no helper . He shall spare the poor and needy , and shall save the souls of the needy : He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence , and precious ●●all their blood be in his sight . Psal . 113.7 . He raiseth up the poor out of the dust , and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill . See Isa . 25.3 , 4 , 5. & 14.30 . Zech. 9.8 . Isa . 51.13 . Eccles . 5.8 . If thou seest the oppression of the poor , and violent perverting of judgement and justice in a Province , marvel not at the matter : for he that is higher than the highest , regardeth ; and there be higher than they . 20. Promises to the persecuted who suffer for righteousness . Matth. 5.10 , 11 , 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake ; for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven . Blessed are ye when men shall revile you , and persecute you , and say all manner of evil against you falsly , for my sake . Rejoyce and be exceeding glad ; for great is your reward in Heaven : for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you . Matth. 10.28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32. Fear not them which kill the body , but are not able to kill the soul — Are not two Sparrows sold for a farthing , and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father : But the very hairs of your head are all numbered : Fear you not therefore ; ye are of more value than many Sparrows . Whosoever shall confess me before men , him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven — v. 39. He that loseth his life for my sake , shall find it . Matth. 19.29 . And every one that hath forsaken houses , or brethren , or sisters , or father , or mother , or wife , or children , or lands , for my Names sake , shall receive an hundred-fold , and shall inherit everlasting life . 2 Thes . 1.4 , 5 , 6. Your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations which ye suffer , is a manifest token of the righteous judgement of God , that ye may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God , for which ye also suffer : seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you ; and to you who are troubled , rest with us — when Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints , and admired in all them that believe — Acts 9.4 . Saul , Saul , why persecutest thou me ? Read Rom. 8.28 . to the end , & Rev. 2. & 3d. & Heb. 11. & 12. 1 Cor. 10.13 . There hath no temptation taken you , but such as is common to man : but God is faithful , who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape , that ye may be able to bear it . 2 Tim. 2.9 , 10 , 11 , 12. I suffer trouble as an evil doer unto bonds ; but the Word of God is not bound : I endure all things for the Elects sake — It is a faithful saying : For if we be dead with him , we shall also live with him : If we suffer , we shall also reign with him . Rom. 8.17 , 18. If so be that we suffer with him , that we may be also glorified together . For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time , are not worthy to be compared with the glory ready to be revealed on us . 2 Cor. 4.17 . For our light affliction which is but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory . 1 Pet. 3.14 , 15. But if ye suffer for righteousness sake , happy are ye : and be not afraid of their terrour , neither be troubled . Read 1 Pet. 4.12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 18 , 19. Rom. 5.1 , 2 , 3 , 4. 1 Pet. 5.10 . The God of all grace , who hath called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus , after ye have suffered a while , make you perfect , stablish strengthen , settle you — 21. Promises to the faithful in dangers , daily and ordinary , or extraordinary . Psal . 34.7 . The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him ; and delivereth them . v. 17. The righteous cry , and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles . v. 19 , 20 , 22. Many are the afflictions of the righteous ; but the Lord delivereth him out of them all . He keepeth all his bones , nor one of them is broken . The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants ; and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate . Psal . 91.1 . He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high , shall abide under the tabernacle of the Almighty . v. 2 , 3. I will say to the Lord , He is my refuge and my fortress ▪ my God , in him will I trust — Surely he will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler , and from the noisome Pestilence — v. 5. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terrour by night — v. 11 , 12 , For he shall give his Angels charge over thee , to keep thee in all thy waies . They shall bear thee up in their hands , lest thou dash thy foot against a stone , Read the whole — Psal . 121.2 , 3 , 4 , 5 6 7 , 8. My help cometh from the Lord , which made Heaven and Earth . He will not suffer thy foot to be moved ; he that keepeth thee will not slumber — The Lord is thy keeper ; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand : The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil ; he shall preserve thy soul . The Lo●d shall preserve thy going out , and coming in , from this time forth , and even for ever more . Psal . 145.20 . The Lord preserveth all them that love him — Psal . 31.23 & 97.10 . & 116.6 . Prov. 2.8 . Isa . 43.2 . When thou passest thorow the waters I will be with thee — 1 Pet. 5.7 . Casting all your care on him ; for he careth for you . 22. Promises f●r help against Temptations , to believers . 1 Cor. 10.13 . before cited , 2 Pet. 2.9 . The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations . Compare Matth. 4. where Christ was tempted even to worship the Devil , &c. with Heb. 4.15 . & 2.18 . For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities , but was in all points tempted like as we are , without sin — Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren , that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest , in things God-ward for us — For in that he himself hath suffered b●ing tempted , he is able to succour them that are tempted . James 1.2 . My Brethren , count it all ioy when ye fall into divers temptations ( that is , by sufferings for Christ . ) v. 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation : for when he is tryed , he shall receive the Crown of life . 2 Cor. 12.9 . My grace is sufficient for thee : My strength is made perfect in weakness . Phil. 4.13 . I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me . 1 Pet. 5.9 . Whom resist , stedfast in the faith : with v. 10. James 4.7 . Resist the Devil , and he will flee from you . Eph. 6.10 , 11 , &c. Rom. 6.14 . For sin shall not have dominion over you ; for ye are not under the Law , but under Grace . John 16.33 . Be of good cheer , I have overcome the world . 1 John 5.4 . This is the victory that overcometh the world , even our faith . 23. Promises to them that overcome and persevere . Rev. 2.7 . To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life , which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. V. 11. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death . V. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna , and will give him a white stone , &c. V. 10. Be faithful unto death , and I will give thee a Crown of life . V. 26 , 28 He that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end , to him will I give power over the Nations , and he shall rule them with a Rod of Iron — Even as I received of my Father : and I will give him the morning star . Rev. 3 5. He that overcometh , the same shall be clothed in white rayment , and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life ; but I will confess his name before my Father , and before his Angels . V. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God , and he shall go no more out : And I will write upon him the name of my God , and the name of the City of my God , New Jerusalem , which cometh down out of Heaven from my God , and my new name . V. 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit down with me on my Throne , even as I overcame , and am set down with my Father on his Throne . John 8.31 . If ye continue in my word , then are ye my Disciples indeed ; and ye shall know the truth , and the truth shall make you free . Col. 1.22 , 23. To present you holy and unblameable , and unreproveable in his sight ; If ye continue in the faith , grounded and settled , and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel — John 15.7 . If ye abide in me , and my words abide in you , ye shall ask what ye will , and it shall be done unto you . Matth. 10.22 . He that endureth to the end shall be saved . 24. Promises to believers in sickness and at death . 1 Cor. 11.32 . But when we are judged , we are chastened of the Lord , that we should not be condemned with the world . Heb. 12.6 , 7 , 8 , 11. For whom the Lord loveth , he chasteneth , and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth : If ye endure chastening , God dealeth with you as with Sons — Shall we not be in subjection to the Father of spirits , and live — But he for our profit , that we might be partakers of his holiness : No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous , but grievous ; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby . James 5.14 . Is any sick , let them send for the Elders of the Church — The prayer of faith shall save the sick , and the Lord shall raise him up , and if he have committed sins , they shall be forgiven him . John 11.3 . He whom thou lovest is sick — Psal . 41.1 , 2 , 3. Blessed is the man that considereth the poor : the Lord shall deliver him in time of trouble . The Lord shall preserve him and keep him alive — The Lord will strengthen him upon the b●d of languishing : Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness . 2 Cor. 5.1 , &c. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved , we have a building of God , an house not made with hands , eternal in the Heavens . For in this we groan earnestly , desiring to be clothed upon , with our house which is from Heaven — For we that are in us tabernacle do groan , being burdened ; not for that we would be unclothed , but clothed upon , that mortality may be swallowed up of life . Now he that hath wrought this for the self same thing is God ; who also hath given to us the earnest of the Spirit . Therefore we are alwaies confident , knowing that whilst we are at home in the body , we are absent from the Lord. ( For we walk by faith , not by sight ) we are confident I say , and willing rather to be absent from the body , and to be present with the Lord. Phil. 1.20 , 21 , 23 , Now also Christ shall be magnified in my body , whether it be by life or by death . For to me to live is Christ , and to die is gain — I am in a strait betwixt two , having a desire to depart , and to be with Christ , which is far better . Luke 23.43 . To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise . Rev. 14.13 . I heard a voice from Heaven , saying to me , write , Blessed are the dead , which die in the Lord , from henceforth ; yea , saith the Spirit , that they may rest from their labours , and their works do follow them . Heb. 2.14 . Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood , he also himself likewise took part of the same , that through death , he might destroy him that had the power of death , that is , the Devil ; and deliver them who through fear of death , were all their life time subject to bondage . Psal . 68.20 . He that is our God , is the God of salvation , and to God the Lord belong the issues from death . 2 Tim. 1.10 . Who hath abolished death , and hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel . 1 Cor. 15.54 . O death ! where is thy sting ? O grave ! where is thy victory ? The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the Law : but thanks be to God , which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ . 25. Promises to persevering Believers , of the Resurrection unto life , and of Justification in Judgement , and of Glorification . 1 Cor. 15. throughout . John 5.22 , 24 , 28 , 29. He that heareth my Word , and believeth on him that sent me , hath everlasting life , and shall not come into condemnation , but is passed from death to life — The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves , shall hear his voice , and shall come forth ; they that have done good , to the resurrection of life , and they that have done evil , to the resurrection of damnation . John 14.19 . Because I live , ye shall live also . Col. 3.1 , 3 , 4. If ye be risen with Christ , seek those things which are above , where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above , not on things on the earth : For ye are dead ; and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear , then shall ye also appear with him in glory . 2 Thes . 1.10 . He shall come to be glorified in his Saints , and admired in all them that believe . Matth. 25 34 , 46. Come ye blessed , &c. The righteous into life eternal . John 12.26 . If any man serve me , let him follow me ; and where I am , there shall also my servant be . If my man serve me , him will my Father honour . John. 14.1 , 2 , 3. Let not your heart be troubled — In my Fathers house are many mansions — I go to prepare a place for you . And if I go and prepare a place for you , I will come again , and receive you to my self , that where I am , there ye may be also . John· 17.24 . Father , I will that they also whom thou hast given me , be with me where I am , that they may behold the glory which thou hast given me . John 2.17 . GO TO MY BRETHREN , and SAY VNTO THEM , I ASCEND TO MY FATHER , and YOVR FATHER , TO MY GOD , and TO YOVR GOD. 1 Cor. 6.2 , 3. Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the world ? Know ye not that we shall judge Angels ? Acts 3.19 . Repent and be converted , that your sins may be blotted out , when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord ; and he shall send Jesus Christ — Luke 14.14 . Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just . Let the Reader here take notice of that most important observation of Dr. Hammond , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Resurrection , doth often signifie , in general [ our living in the next world , or our next state of life ] in the Scriptures ; and not the last Resurrection only , unless it be called , The Resurrection of the flesh , or of the body for distinction ; or the context have before explained it otherwise . By which 1 Cor. 15. and Christs answer to the Sadducees , may be the better understood . 26. Promises to the godly for their children , supposing them to be faithful in dedicating them to God , and educating them in his holy waies . Exod. 20. Commandment 2d . Shewing mercy to thousands in them that love me , and keep my Commandments . Acts 2.39 . For the promise is made to you , and to your children , and to all that are afar off , &c. Psal . 37.26 . His seed is blessed . 1 Cor. 7.14 . Else were your children unclean , but now are they holy . Matth. 23.37 . O Jerusalem , Jerusalem , how oft would I have gathered thy children together , even as a Hen gathereth hee chickens under her wings , and ye would not . Rom. 11.11 . Through their fall salvation is come to the Gentiles , 16 , 17 , 18 , &c. shew , that they were broken off by unbelief , and we are graffed in , and are holy as they were . Matth. 28.19 , 20. Go and Disciple all Nations , baptizing them , &c. Rom. 4.16 . That the promise might be sure to all the seed . And 9.8 . The children of the Promise are counted for the seed . Matth. 19.13 , 14. Jesus said , suffer little children , and forbid them not to come unto me , for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven . 27. Promises to the Church , of its increase , and preservation , and perfection . Rev. 11.15 . The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord , and of his Christ . Luke 1.33 . He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever , and of his Kingdom there shall be no end . Matth. 13.31 , 33. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of Mustard-seed , which a man took , and sowed in his field : which is indeed the least of all seeds ; but when it is grown , it is the greatest among herbs , and becometh a tree , so that the birds of the air lodge in the branches of it — The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leven , which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal , till the whole was levened . John 12.32 . And I , if I be lifted up , will draw all men unto me . Dan. 2.44 . In the daies of these Kings , shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed ; and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people , but it shall break in pieces , and consume all these Kingdoms , and it shall stand for ever . Matth. 16.18 . Upon this Rock will I build my Church , and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it . Ephes . 4.12 , 16. For the perfecting of the Saints ; for the work of the Ministry ; for the edifying of the body of Christ ; till we all come in the unity of the faith , and the knowledge of the Son of God , unto a perfect man ; unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ : that henceforth we may be no more children tossed to and fro , and carryed about with every wind of Doctrine , by the sleight of men , and cunning craftiness , whereby they lye in wait to deceive ; but speaking the truth in love , may grow up into him in all things , who is the head , Christ : from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted , by that which every joynt supplieth , according to the effectual working in the measure of every part , maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in Love. Ephes . 5.25 , 26 , 27. Christ loved the Church , and gave himself for it , that he might sanctifie and cleanse it , with the washing of water by the Word ; that he might present it to himself a glorious Church , not having spot or wrinckle , or any such thing ; but that it should be holy , and without blemish . Read Rev. 21 , & 22. Matth. 28.20 . Lo , I am with you to the end of the world . Matth. 24.14 . And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all Nations ; and then shall the end come . Matth. 21.44 . Whosoever shall fall on this stone , shall be broken ; but on whomsoever it shall fall , it will grind him to powder . The obscure Prophetick passages I pass by . So much for living by Faith on the Promises of God. CHAP. VI. How Faith must be exercised on Gods Threatnings and Judgments . THE exercise of Faith upon Gods Threatnings and Judgments , must be guided by such rules and helps as these . Direct . 1. Think not either that Christ hath no Threatning penal Laws , or that there are none which are made for the use of Believers . If there were no penalties , or penal Laws , there were no distinguishing Government of the world . This Antinomian fancy destroyeth Religion . And if there be threats , or penal Laws , none can be expected to make so much use of them as true Believers . 1. Because he that most believeth them , must needs be most affected with them . 2. Because all things are for them , and for their benefit ; and it is they that must be moved by them to the fear of God , and an escaping of the punishment . And therefore they that object , that Believers are passed already from death to life ; and there is no condemnation to them ; and they are already justified , and therefore have no use of threats or fears ] do contrad●ct themselves : For it w●ll rather follow Therefore they and they only do and will faithfully use the threatnings in godly fears . ] For 1. Though they are justified , and passed from death to life , they have ever faith , in order of nature before their Justification ; and he that believeth not Gods threatnings with fear , hath no true Faith. And 2. They have ever inherent Righteousness or Sanctification , with their Justification : And this Faith is part of that holiness , and of the life of grace which they are passed into . For this is life eternal , to know the only true God , and Jesus Christ , John 17.3 . And he knoweth not God , who knoweth him not to be true . And this is part of our knowledge of Christ also , to know him as the infallible Author of our Faith , that is , of the Gospel , which saith not only , He that believeth and is baptiz'd , shall be saved ; but also , He that believeth not shall be damned , Mark 16.16 . And this is the record which God gave of his Son , which he that believeth not , maketh him a lyar ; that God hath given us eternal life , and this life is in his Son : He that hath the Son , hath life ; and he that hath not the Son , hath not life , 1 John 5.12 . Yea as he that believeth on the Son , hath everlasting life ; so he that believeth not the Son , shall not see life , but the wrath of God abideth on him , John 3.36 . And therefore 3. The reason why there is no condemnation to us , is because believing , not part only , but all this Word of Christ , we fly from sin and wrath , and are in Christ Jesus , as giving up our selves to him , and walk not after the flesh , but after the Spirit ; being moved so to do both by the promises and threats of God. This is plain English , and plain and necessary truth , the greater is the pitty , that many honest , well-meaning Antinomians should fight against it , on an ignorant conceit of vindicating Free Grace : If the plain Word of God were not through partiality over-lookt by them , they might see enough to end the controversie in many and full expressions of Scripture . I will cite but three more , Matth. 10.28 . and Luke 12.5 . But fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell ; or when he hath killed , hath power to cast into Hell ; yea I say unto you , fear him . Doth Christ thus iterate that it is he that saith it , and saith it to his Disciples ; and yet shall a Christian say , it must not be preached to Disciples as the Word of Christ to them ? H●b . 4.1 . Let us therefore fear , lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest , any of you should seem to come short of it . Heb. 11.7 . By Faith Noah being warned of God , of things not seen as yet ( that is , of the deluge ) moved with fear , prepared an Ark , to the saving of his house ; by the which be condemned the world ▪ and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith . Note here how much the belief of Gods threatnings doth to the constitution of that faith which is justifying and saving . Direct . 2. Judge not of Gods threatnings by the evil which is threatned , but by the obedience to which the threatnings should drive us , and the evil from which they would preserve us , and the order of the world which they preserve , and the wisdom , and holiness , and justice of God ; which they demonstrate . When men think how dreadful a misery Hell is , they are ready to think hardly of God , both for his threatning and execution ; as if it were long of him , and not of themselves , that they are miserable . And as it is a very hard thing to think of the punishment it self with approbation ; so is it also to think of the threatning , or Law which binds men over to it ; or of the Judgement which will pass the sentence on them . But think of the true nature , use and benefits of these threats or pena● Laws , and true reason , and faith will not only be reconciled to them ; but see that they are to be loved and honoured , as well as feared . 1. They are of great use to drive us to obedience . And it is easier to see the amiableness of Gods commands , than of his threats : And obedience to these commands , is the holy rectitude , health and beauty of the soul . And therefore that which is a suitable and needful means , to promote obedience , is amiable and beneficial to us . Though Love must be the principle or chief spring of our obedience ; yet he that knoweth not that Fear must drive , as Love must draw , and is necessary in its place to joyn with Love , or to do that which the weaknesses of Love leave undone , doth neither know what a man is , nor what Gods Word is , nor what his Government is , nor what either Magistracy , or any civil , or domestical Government is ▪ and therefore should spend many years at School before he turneth a disputer . 2. They are of use to keep up order in the world ; which could not be expected if it were not for Gods threatnings . If the world be so full of wickedness , rapine and oppressions , notwithstanding all the threatnings of Hell , what could we expect it should be , if there were none such , but even as the suburbs of Hell it self . When Princes , and Lords , and Rich men , and all those thieves and rebels that can but get strength enough to defend themselves , and all that can but hide their faults , would be under no restraints considerable , but would do all the evil that they have a mind to do : Men would be worse to one another , than Bears and Tygers . 3. Gods threatnings in their primary intention or use , are made to keep us from the punishment threatned . Punishment is naturally due to evil doers : And God declareth it , to give us warning , that we may take heed , avoid it and escape . 4. That which doth so clearly demonstrate the Holiness of God , in his righteous Government , his Wisdom and his Justice is certainly good and amiable in it self . But we must not expect that the same thing should be good and amiable to the wicked , who run themselves into it ; which is good to the world , or to the just about them , or to the honour of God. Assizes , Prisons and Gallows are good to the Country , and to all the innocent , to preserve their peace , and to the honour of the King and his Government ; but not to murderers , thieves or rebels , Isa . 26.7 , 8 , 9. Psal . 48.11 . & 9.16 . & 89.14 . & 97.2 . & 149.9 . & 146.7 . & 37.6 , 28. Jude 6. & 15. Rev. 4.7 . & 15.4 . & 16.7 . & 19.2 . Eccles . 12.14 . Direct . 3. Judge of the severity of Gods threatnings , partly by the greatness of himself whom we offend , and partly by the necessity of them for the Government of the world . 1. Remember that sinning wilfully against the infinite Majesty of Heaven , and refusing his healing mercy to the last , deserveth worse than any thing against a man can do , 1 Sam. 2.25 . 2. And remember that even the threatning of Hell doth not serve turn with most of the world , to keep them from sinning and despising God : and therefore you cannot say that they are too great . For that plaister draweth not too strongly , which will not draw out the thorn . If Hell be not terrible enough to perswade you from sin , it is not too terrible to be threatned and executed : He that should say , Why will God make so terrible a Law ? and withall should say , As terrible as it is I will venture on it , rather than leave my pleasures , and rather than live a holy life ; doth contradict himself , and telleth us , that the Law is not terrible enough to attain its chief and primary end , with such as he , that will not be moved by it , from the most sordid , base or bruitish pleasure . Direct . 4. Remember how Christ himself , even when he came to deliver us from Gods Law , did yet come to verifie his threatning in the matter of it , and to be a sacrifice for sin , and publick demonstration of Gods Justice . For this end was Christ manifested , to destroy the works of the Devil , 1 John 3.5 , 8. And the first and great work of the Devil was , to represent God as a lyar , and to perswade Eve not to believe his threatnings , and to tell her , that though she sinned , she should not die . And though God so far dispensed with it , as to forgive man the greatest part of the penalty , it was by laying it on his Redeemer ; and making him a sacrifice to his Justice : that his Cross might openly confute the Tempter , and assure the world , that God is just , and that the wages of sin is death , Rom. 6.23 . though eternal life be the gift of God through Jesus Christ . And he that well considereth this , that the Son of God would rather stoop to sufferings and death , than the D●vils reproach of Gods threatnings should be made true , and than the Justice of God against sin should not be manifested , will sure never think , that this Justice is any dishonour to the Almighty . Direct . 5. Let this be your use of the threatnings of God , to drive you from sin to more careful obedience , and to help you against the defects of love , and to set them against every temptation when you are assaulted by it . When a tempting bait is set before you , set Hell against it , as well as Heaven ; and say , Can I take this cup , this whore , this preferment , this gain of Judas , with Hell , for my part instead of Heaven ? If men threaten death , imprisonment , or any other penalty ; or if losses or reproaches be like by men to be made your reward , remember that God threatneth Hell , and ask whether this be not the most intollerable suffering . And if any Antinomian revile you for thus doing , and say [ You should set only Free Grace before you , to keep you from sinning , and not hell and damnation ] Tell him that it is Christ the Mediatour of Free Grace , which hath set Hell before you in the Scripture , and not you : And that you do but consider of that which Christ hath set there before you to be considered of . Ask them whether it be not God that prepared hell for the Devil and his Angels , and Christ himself that will adjudge all impenitent sinners to it , Matth. 25. And ask them why Christ doth so often talk of it in the Gospel , Matth. 13. of the worm that never dyeth , and the fire that never shall be quenched , Luke 19.27 . Mark 16.16 . John 3.36 . 2 Thes . 1.8 ▪ 9. &c. And whether they know why Fear was given to man ; and whether Christ mistook in all such commands , Luke 12.4 . Heb. 11.7 . Heb. 4.1 . And whether God hath made any part of his Laws in vain . If they say , that the Law was not made for a righteous man , 1 Tim. 1.9 . Tell them that the words are expounded , Gal. 5.23 . Against such there is no Law. The Law was not made to condemn and punish a righteous man ; because he feared the threatning of it , and so fell not under the condemnation . If you speak of the Law of Christ , or any Law which supposeth the subject righteous : There is no Law can be pleaded against such to their damnation . That there is no Law against them is but as Rom. 8.1 . There is no condemnation to them . And we grant also , that in that measure as mens souls are habituated with love to God , and duty , and hatred of sin , they need no Law to urge and threaten them ; no more than a loving wife need to have a Law to forbid her murdernig her husband , or abusing him . But withall we know , that no man on earth is perfect in the degrees of Love ; and therefore all need Laws and fear . Use all Gods penal Laws to the ends that he appointed them , to quicken you in your obedience , and restrain you from yielding to temptations , and from sinning , and then your own benefit will reconcile you to the Wisdom , Holiness , and Justice of the Laws . Direct . 6. Remember that all Christians have solemnly professed their own consent , to the threats and punishments of the Gospel . Though God will punish sinners whether they consent or not ; and though none consent to the execution upon themselves , when it comes to it ; yet all that profess Christianity do profess their consent to the condemning , as well as to the justifying part of Gods Word . For every Christian professeth his consent to be governed by Christ ; and therefore he professeth his consent to be governed by Christs Laws : For if Christ be a King , he must have Laws : and if he govern us at all , he governeth us by Laws . And this is Christs Law ; He that believeth , and is baptized , shall be saved ; and he that believeth not shall be damned , Mark 16.16 . He that professeth to be governed by Christ , professeth his consent to be governed by this very Law : and therefore he professeth his consent to be damned if he believe not . Christ told you that you must consent to both parts , or to neither : and will you grudge at the severity of that Law which you have professed your consent to ? The curses of the Covenant ( Deut. 29.21 . ) were to be repeated to the people of Israel ; and they were expresly to say Amen to each of them . For life and death were set before them ; blessings and cursings , Deut. 30.1 , 19. and not life and blessings alone . And so the Gospel which we are to believe , containeth though principally and eminently the Promises ; yet secondarily also the threatnings of Hell to impenitent unbelievers . And our consent doth speak our approbation . Direct . 7. Observe that the belief of Christs threatnings of damnation to impenitent unbelievers , is a real part of the Christian saving Faith , and that when ever it is joyned with a true love and desire after holiness , it certainly proveth that the Promises also are believed , though the party think that he doth not believe them . Note here 1. That I do not say , that all belief or fear of Gods threatnings is saving Faith. But 2. That all saving Faith containeth such a belief of the threatnings . 3. And that many times poor Christians , who believe and tremble at the threatnings , do truly believe the Promises , and yet mistake , and verily think that they do not believe them . 4. But their mistake may certainly be manifested , if their Faith do but work by a love and desire after holiness , and the fruition of God. For 1. It is evident that the same Gospel which saith , He that believeth shall be saved ; doth say , He that believeth not shall be damned . Therefore the same faith believeth both , 2. It is plain that the same formal object of faith , which is Gods Veracity , will bring a man to believe one as well as the other , if he equally know it to be a divine revelation : He that believeth that All that God saith is true : and then believeth that God saith that All true Believers shall be saved ; must needs believe that this Promise is true . And he that understandeth that Christ saith , Vnbelievers shall be damned ; cannot but find also that he saith , True Believers shall be saved . And if he believe the one , because it is the word of Christ ; he doth sure believe the other , because it is the word of Christ . 3. Yea it is in many respects harder to believe Gods threatnings , than his promises ; partly because sinners are more unwilling that they should be true ; and they have more enmity to the threatning , than to the promise ; and partly because they commonly feign God to be such as they would have him be , Psal . 50. Thou thoughtest I was such a one as thy self , &c. And partly because Gods Goodness being known to be his very essence , and all men being apt to judge of Goodness , by the measure of their own interest , it is far more obvious and facil to mans understanding , to conclude that some are saved , than that some are damned ; and that the penitent believers are saved , than that the impenitent unbelievers are damned : We hear daily how easily almost all men are brought to believe that God is merciful ; and how hard it is to perswade them of his damning Justice and severity . Therefore he that can do the harder , is not unlike to do the easier . And indeed it is meer ignorance of the true nature of faith , which maketh those whom I am now describing , to think that they do not believe Gods Promises , when they believe his Threatnings . They think that because they believe not that they themselves are pardoned , justified , and shall be saved , that therefore they believe not the promise of God : But this is not the reason ; but it is because you find not the condition of the promise yet in your selves , and therefore think that you have no part in the benefits : But its one thing to doubt of your own sincerity , and another thing to doubt whether the promise of God be true . Suppose that the Law do pardon a fellon if he can read as a Clerk ; and one that is a fellon be in doubt whether his reading will serve or not ; this is not to deny belief to the pardoning act of the Law. Suppose one promise a yearly stipend to all that are of full one and twenty years of age , in the Town or Country : To doubt of my age , is not to doubt of the truth of the promise . Object . But do not Protestant Divines conclude against the Papists , that saving Faith must be a particular application of Christ and the Promise to ourselves , and not only a general assent ? Answ . It is very true ; and the closer that application is the better . But the application which all sound Divines ( in this point ) require as necessary in saving Faith , is neither an assurance , nor perswasion that your own sins are already pardoned , or that they ever will be : But it is 1. A belief that the Promise of pardon to all believers , is so universal , as that it includeth you as well as others , and promiseth and offereth you pardon , and life , if you will believe in Christ . 2. And it is a consent or willingness of heart that Christ be yours , and you be his , to the ends proposed in the Gospel . 3. And it is a practical Trust in his sufficiency , as chusing him for the only Mediatour , resolving to venture your souls , and all your hopes upon him : Though yet through your ignorance of your selves , you may think that you do not this thing in sincerity , which indeed you do , yea and much fear ( through melancholy or temptation ) that you never shall do it , and consequently never shall be saved . He that doubteth of his own salvation , not because he doubteth of the truth of the Gospel ; but because he doubteth of the sincerity of his own heart , may be mistaken in himself , but is not therefore an unbeliever ( as is said before . ) If you would know whether you believe the Promises truly , answer me these particular questions : 1. Do you believe that God hath promised that all true Believers shall be saved ? 2. Do you believe that if you are or shall be a true Believer , you shall be saved ? 3. Do you chuse or desire God as your only happiness and end , to be enjoyed in Heaven , and Christ as the only Mediatour to procure it ; and his holy Spirit as his Agent in your souls , to sanctifie you fully to the Image of God ? Are you truly willing that thus it should be ? And if God be willing , will not you refuse it ? 4. Do you turn away from all other waies of felicity , and chuse this alone , to venture all your hopes upon , and resolve to seek for none but this ; and to venture all on God and Christ , though yet you are uncertain of your sincerity and salvation ? why this makes up true saving faith . 5. And I would further ask you ; Do you fear damnation , and Gods wrath , or not ? If not , what troubleth you ? and why complain you ? If you do , tell me then whether you do believe Gods threatning , that he that believeth not shall be damned , or not ? If you do not , what maketh you fear damnation ? Do you fear it , and not believe that there is any such thing ? If you do believe it , how can you chuse but believe also , that every true Believer shall be saved ? Is God true in his Threatnings , and not in his Promises ? This must force you plainly to confess , that you do believe Gods Promises , but only doubt of your own sincerity , and consequently of your salvation ; which is more a weakness in your hope , than in your faith , or rather chiefly in your acquaintance with your self . Direct . 8. Yet still dwell most upon Gods Promises in the exercise of love , desire and thankfulness ; and use all your fear about the threatnings , but in a second place , to further and not to hinder the work of love . Direct . 9. Let faith interpret all Gods Judgements , meerly by the light of the threatnings of his Word ; and do not gather any conclusions from them , which the Word affordeth not , or alloweth not . Gods Judgements may be dangerously misunderstood . CHAP. VII . How to exercise Faith about Pardon of sin and Justification . THE practice of Faith about our Justification , is hindered by so many unhappy controversies and heresies , that what to do with them here in our way , is not very easie to determine : Should I omit the mention of them , I leave most that I write for , either under that disease it self , or the danger of it , which may frustrate all the rest which I must say : For the errours hereabout are swarming in most quarters of the Land , and are like to come to the ca●s of most that are studious of these matters : so that an antidote to most , and a vomit to the rest , is become a matter of necessity , to the success of all our practical Directions . And yet many cannot endure to be troubled with difficulties , who are slothful ; and must have nothing set before them that will cost them much study ; and many peaceable Christians love not any thing that soundeth like controversie or strife ( As others that are Sons of contention relish nothing else ) But averseness must give place to necessity . If the Leprosie arise , the Priest must search it , and the Physician must do his best to cure it , notwithstanding their natural averseness to it . Though I may be as averse to write against errours , as the Reader is to read what I write , we must both blame that which causeth the necessity , but not therefore deny our necessary duty : But yet I will so far gratifie them that need no more , as to put the more practical Directions first , that they may pass by the heap of errours ●●ter , if their own judgements prevail not against their unwillingness . Direct . 1. Vnderstand well what need you have of pardon of sin , and Justification , by reason of your guilt , and of Gods Law and Justice , and the everlasting punishment which is legally your due . 1. It must be a sensible , awakening , practical knowledge of our own great necessity , which must teach us to value Christ as a Saviour , and to come to him in that empty , sick and weary plight , as is necessary in those who will make use of him for their supply and cure , Matth. 9.12 . & 11.28 , 29. A superficial speculative knowledge of our sin and misery , will prepare us but for a superficial opinionative faith in Christ , as the remedy . But a true sense of both , will teach us to think of him as a Saviour indeed . 2. Original sin , and actual , the wickedness both of the heart and life , even all our particular sins of omission and commission , and all their circumstances and aggravations , are the first reason of our great necessity of pardon : And therefore it cannot but be a duty to lay them to heart as particularly as we can , to make that necessity , and Christs redemption the better understood , Acts 2.37 . Acts 2● . 8 , 9 , &c. 3. The wrath of God , and the miseries of this life , and the everlasting miseries of the damned in Hell , being the due effects or punishment of sin , are the second cause of our necessity of pardon : And therefore these also must be thought on seriously , by him that will seriously believe in Christ . 4. The Law of God which we have broken , maketh this punishment our due , Rom. 3. & 5. & 7. And the Justice of God is engaged to secure his own honour , in the honour of his Law and Government . Direct . 2. Vnderstand well what Christ is and doth , for the Justification of a sinner , and how ( not one only ) but all the parts of his office are exercised hereunto . In the dignity of his person , and perfect original holiness of his natures , divine and humane , he is fitly qualified for his work of our Justification and Salvation . His undertaking ( which is but the Divine Decree ) did from eternity lay the foundation of all , but did not actually justifie any . His Promise , Gen. 3.15 . and his new Relation to m●● thereupon , did that to the Fathers in some degree , which his after-incarnation and performance , and his Relation thereupon , doth now to us . His perfect Obedience to the Law ; yea to that Law of Mediation also peculiar to himself ( which he performed neither as Priest , or Prophet , or King , but as a subject ) was the meritorious cause of that Covenant and Grace which justifieth us , and so of our Justification . And that which is the meritorious cause here , is also usually called the material , as it is that matter or thing which meriteth our Justification ; and so is called Our Righteousness it self . As he was a sacrifice for sin , he answered the ends of the Law which we violated , and which condemned us , as well as if we had been all punished according to the sense of the Law : And therefore did thereby satisfie the Law-giver : and thereby also merited our pardon and Justification ; so that his Obedience as such , and his Sacrifice ( or whole humiliation ) as satisfactory by answering the ends of the Law , are conjunctly the meritorious cause of our Justification . His New Covenant ( which in Baptism , is made mutual by our expressed consent ) is a general gift or act of oblivion , or pardon , given freely to all mankind , on condition they will believe and consent to it , or accept it , so that it is Gods pardoning and adopting instrument : And all are pardoned by it conditionally ; and every penitent Believer actually and really . And this Covenant or Gift is the effect of the foresaid merit of Christ , both founded and sealed by his blood . As he merited this as a mediating subject and sacrifice , so as our High Priest he offered this sacrifice of himself to God. And as our King , he being the Law-giver to the Church , did make this Covenant as his Law of grace , describing the terms of life and death : And being the Judge of the world , doth by his sentence justifie and condemn men , as believers or unbelievers , according to this Covenant : And also executeth his sentence accordingly ( partly in this life , but fully in the life to come . ) As our Teacher , and the Prophet , or Angel of the Covenant , he doth declare it as the Fathers will , and promulgate and proclaim this Covenant and conditional Pardon and Justification to the world ; and send out his Embassadours with it to beseech men in his Name to be reconciled to God , and to declare , yea and by sacramental investiture , to seal and deliver a Pardon and actual Justification to Believers when they consent . And as our Mediating High Priest now in the Heavens , he presenteth our necessity , and his own righteousnesses and sacrifice as his merit● , for the continual communication of all this grace , by himself , as the Head of the Church , and Administrator of the Covenant . So that Christ doth justifie us both as a subject meriting , as a sacrifice meriting , as a Priest offering that sacrifice ; as a King actually making the Justifying Law , or enacting a general Pardon ; as a King sententially and executively justifying ; as a Prophet or Angel of the Covenant promulgating it ; as King , and Prophet , and Priest , delivering a sealed Pardon by his Messengers : And as the Priest , Head and Administrator communicating this with the rest of his benefits . By which you may see in what respects Christ must be believed in to Justification , if Justifying Faith were ( as it is not ) only the receiving him as our Justifier : It would not be the receiving him as in one part of his office only . Direct . 3. Vnderstand rightly how far it is that the righteousness of Christ himself is made ours , or imputed to us , and how far not . There are most vehement controversies to this day , about the Imputation of Christs Righteousness ; in which I know not well which of the extreams are in the greater errour , those that plead for it in the mistaken sense , or those that plead against it in the sober and right sense : But I make no doubt but they are both of them damnable , as plainly subverting the foundation of our faith : And yet I do not think that they will prove actually damning to the Authors , because I believe that they misunderstand their adversaries , and do not well understand themselves , and that they digest not , and practise not what they plead for , but digest and practise that truth which they doctrinally subvert , not knowing the contrariety ; which if they knew they would renounce the errour , and not the truth . And I think that many a one that thus contradicteth fundamentals , may be saved . Some there be ( besides the Antinomians ) that hold that Christ did perfectly obey and satisfie ( not in the natural , but ) in the civil or legal person of each sinner that is elect ( representing and bearing as many distinct persons as are elect ) so fully as that God doth repute every Elect person ( or say others , every Believer ) to be one that in Law sense , did perfectly obey and satisfie Justice himself ; and so imputeth Christs Righteousness and satisfaction to us , as that which was reputatively or legally of our own performance , and so is ours , not only in its effects , but in it self . Others seeing the pernicious consequences of this opinion , deny all imputed Righteousness of Christ to us , and write many reproachful volumes against it ( as you may see in Thorndikes last works and Dr. Gell , and Parker against the Assembly , and abundance more . ) The truth is , Christ merited and satisfied for us in the person of a Mediator : But this Mediator was the Head and Root of all Believers , and the second Adam , the fountain of spiritual life ; and the Surety of the New Covenant , Heb. 7.22 . 1 Cor. 15.22 , 45. and did all this in the nature of man , and for the sake and benefit of man ; suffering , that we might not suffer damnation , but not obeying that we might not obey ; but suffering and obeying that our sinful imperfection of obedience might not be our ruine , and our perfect obedience might not be necessary to our own Justification or Salvation , but that God might for the sake and merit of this his perfect obedience and satisfaction , forgive all our sins , and adopt us for his Sons , and give us his holy Spirit , and glorifie us for ever ; so that Christs Righteousness , both obediential and satisfactory , is ours in the effects of it in themselves , and ours relatively for those effects , so far as to be purposely given for us to that end ; but not ours in it self simply , or as if we were reputed the legal performers our selves , or might be said in Law sense , or by divine estimation or imputation , to have our selves in and by Christ fulfilled the Law , and suffered for our not fulfilling it ( which is a contradiction . ) As he that both by a price , and by some meritorious act , doth redeem a captive , or purchase pardon for a traitor , doth give the money and merit in it self to the Prince , and not to the Captive or Traitor himself . ( He never saw it , nor ever had propriety in the thing it self ; ) But the deliverance is the Pris●ners , and not the Princes ; and therefore it is given to the Prisoner , as to the effects , though not in it self ; in that it was given for him . And because Christ suffered what we should have suffered ( as to the value ) to save us from suffering , and our sins were the cause of our guilt of punishment , and so the remote cause of the sufferings of Christ ( his own sponsion being the nearer cause ) therefore it may be said truly that Christ did not only suffer for our benefit , but in our stead or place ; and in a larger and less strict and proper sense , that he suffered in the person of a sinner , and as one to whom our sins were imputed ; meaning no more but that he suffered as one that by his own consent undertook to suffer for the persons of sinners , and that as such an undertaker only he suffered ; and that thus our sins were imputed to him ( not in themselves , as if he were in Law sense the committer of them , or polluted by them , or by God esteemed so to have been , but ) as to the effects , that is , his suffering ; in that they were the occasion , and the remote or assumed cause of his sufferings ; as his Righteousness is imputed to us , as the meritorious cause of our Pardon and Justification . But he could not be said no not in so large a sense as this , to have obeyed in our stead ( considering it as obedience or holiness , but only as merit ) because he did it not that we might not obey , but that we might not suffer for disobeying . More of this will follow in the next Chapter . Direct . 4. Vnderstand well what guilt it is that Christ doth remit in our Justification ; not the guilt of the fact , nor of the fault in it self , but the guilt of punishment ; and of the fault only so far as it is the cause of wrath and punishment . 1. The guilt of fact , is in the reality or truth of this charge , that such a fact we did or omitted : so far it is but Physically considered , and would not come into legal consideration , were it not for the following relation of it . 2. The guilt of fault , reatus culpae , is the reality of this charge ( or the foundation of it in us ) that we are the committers or omitters of such an action contrary to the Law : or that our act or omission was really a crime or fault . 3. The guilt of punishment , reatus poenae , vel ad poenam , is the foundation of this charge , that we are by that Law which must judge us , condemnable , or obliged to punishment ( or it is our right ) for the sins so committed . Now Christ doth not by justifying us , or pardoning us , make us either to be such as really did not do the fact ; or such as did not a culpable fact , no nor such as did not deserve damnation , or to whom it was not due by the first Law alone ; but to be such who are not now at all condemnable for it , because the new Law which we must be judged by , doth absolve us , by forgiving us ; not making the fault no fault , nor causing God to think that Christ committed it , and not we ; or to esteem us to be such as never did commit it ; but remitting the punishment , and that dueness of punishment and obligation to it , which did before result from the fault and Law together ; and so the fault it self is remitted as it is the foundation from whence that obligation to punishment resulteth , respectively , but not simply , nor as a fault in it self at all . When I say the punishment and the dueness of it to us , is forgiven , I mean not only the punishment of sense , but of loss also : nor only the outward part , which is executed by creatures , but especially the first and great penalty , of Gods own displeasure with the person , and the withdrawing of his Spirit and complacential love , and that which we may improperly call , his obligation in Justice to condemn the sinner . There was upon God , before Christs satisfaction and our title to him , that which we may so call a legal or relative obligation on God to punish us , because else he should have done contrary to the due ends of Government , and so contrary to the Wisdom and Justice of a Governour , which is not consistent with his perfection . But now the ends of Government are so answered and provided for , that there is no such obligation on God to punish us , but he may remit it without any dishonour at all ; nay , with the honour of his Wisdom and Justice . We are now non condemnandi , not condemnable , though we are sinners . In Judgement we must confess the latter , and deny the former only . Direct . 5. Vnderstand well what sins Christ justifieth men from , or forgiveth to them , and what not : All sins which consist with true faith and repentance ( or true conversion to God in love , by faith in Christ ) and all that went before : But he forgiveth no man in a state of impenitency and unbelief , nor any mans final impenitency and unbelief at all ; nor any other sins , when those are final ; except it be with the common conditional forgiveness before mentioned ; or that absolute particular forgiveness of some present penalties , which saveth no man from damnation , Matth. 12.31 . Acts 26.18 , Rom. 8.1 , 30. Acts 5.31 . Acts 2.38 , 39. Mark 16.16 John 3.16 , 18 , 36. 1 John 5.11 , 12. Mark 4 . 1● . Matth. 18.27 , 32. Direct . 6. Vnderstand well the true nature of that Faith and Repentance , which God hath made the condition of our Justification . This is sufficiently opened before ; and the consulation of all the cavils against it , would be tedious and unsavoury here . Direct . 7. Vnderstand well the Covenant and Promise of Justification ; and measure your belief and expectations by that Promise . Expect no other pardon , nor on any other conditions or terms than the Promise doth contain ▪ For it is Gods pardoning act or instrument ; and by it we must be justified or condemned : And we know not but by it ; whom God will justifie . Direct . 8. Keep alwaies the assuring grounds of faith before your eyes , when you look after pardon , that your faith may be firm , and powerful , and quieting ; especially consider the following grounds . 1. Gods gracious Nature proclaimed even to Moses , as abundant in mercy , and forgiving iniquitys , transgressions and sins ( to these , and upon those terms that he promiseth forgiveness ) though he will by no means clear the guilty ( that is , will neither take the unrighteous to be righteous ; nor forgive them , or acquire them in judgment , whom his Covenant did not first forgive . ) 2. The merciful Nature and of our Redeemer , Heb. 2.17 . 3. How deeply Christ harh engaged himself to shew mercy , when he assumed our nature , and did so much towards our salvation as he hath done , Heb. 8 , & 9. 4. That it is his very office and undertaking , which therefore he cannot possibly neglect , Luke 19.10 . & 2.11 . John 4.42 . Acts 5.31 . & 13.23 . 5. That God the Father himself did give him to us , and appoint him to this saving office , John 3.16 , 18. Acts 5.31 . & 13.23 . Yea God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself , not imputing to them their trespasses , 2 Cor. 5.18 , 19. And God made him sin ( that is , a sacrifice for sin ) for us who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him ( that is , might be the publick instances of Gods merciful Justice , as Christ was of his penal Justice ; and this by a righteousness given us by God himself , and purchased or merited for us by Christ , 2 Cor. 5.21 . yea and be renewed in holiness and righteousness according to his Image . 6. That now it is become the very interest of God , and of Jesus Christ himself to justifie us ; as ever he would not lose either the glory of his grace , or the obedience and suffering which he hath performed , Isa . 53.19 . Rom. 5.12 , 13 , 18 , 19 , &c. Rom. 4. throughout . 7. Consider the nearness of the Person of Christ , both to the Father and to us , Heb. 1 , & 2 , & 3. 8. Think of the perfection of his sacrifice and merit , set out throughout the Epistle to the Hebrews . 9. Think of the word of Promise or Covenant , which he hath made , and sealed and sworn , Heb. 6.17 , 18. Titus 1.2 . 10. Think of the great seal of the Spirit , which is more than a Promise , even an earnest , which is a certain degree of possession , and is an executive pardon ( as after shall be declared ) Rom. 8.15 , 16. Gal. 4.6 . 11. Remember that Gods own Justice is now engaged for our Justification , in these two respects conjunct : 1. Because of the fulness of the merits and satisfaction of Christ : 2. And because of his Veracity which must fulfil his promise , and his governing or destributive Justice , which must judge men according to his own Law of Grace , and must give men that which he himself hath made their right , 2 Tim. 4.7 , 8. 1 John 5.9 , 10 , 11 , 12. 12. Lastly , Think of the many millions now in Heaven , of whom many were greater sinners than you ; and no one of them ( save Christ ) came thither by the way of innocency and legal Justification : There are no Saints in Heaven that were not redeemed from the captivity of the Devil , and justified by the way of pardoning grace , and were not once the heirs of death , John 3.3 , 5. Rom. 3 , & 4. Upon these considerations trust your selves confidently on the grace of Christ , and take all your sins but as the advantages of his grace . Direct . 9. Remember that there is somewhat on your own parts to be done , for the continuing , as well as for the beginning of your Justification ; yea somewhat more than for the beginning ; even the faithful keeping of your baptismal Covenant , in the essentials of it ; and also that you have continual need of Christ , to continue your Justification . Many take Justification to be one instantanious act of God , which is never afterwards to be done : And so it is , if we mean only the first making of him righteous who was unrighteous : ( As the first making of the world , and not the continuance of it , is called Creation : ) but this is but about the name : For the thing it self , no doubt but that Covenant which first justified us , doth continue to justifie us ; and if the cause should cease , the effect would cease . And he that requireth no actual obedience , as the condition of our begun Justification , doth require both the continuance of faith , and actual sincere obedience , as the condition of continuing , or not losing our Justification , ( as Davenant , Bergius , Blank , &c. have well opened , and I have elsewhere proved at large . ) As Matrimony giveth title to conjugal priviledges to the wife ; but conjugal fidelity and performance of the essentials of the contract is necessary to continue them . Therefore labour to keep up your faith , and to abide in Christ , and he in you , and to bring forth fruit , lest ye be branches withered , and for the fire , John 15.2 , 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , &c. And upon the former misapprehension , the same persons do look upon all the faith which they exercise through their lives , after the first instantanious act , as no justifying faith at all ( but only a faith of the same kind ) but to what use they hardly know . Yea they look upon Christ himself , as if they had no more use for him , either as to continue their Justification , or to forgive their after-sins ; when as our continued faith must be exercised all our lives on the same Christ , and trust on the same Covenant , for the continuation and perfection of that which was begun at the time of our Regeneration , Col. 1.23 . 1 John 2.24 . Heb. 3.6.12 , 13. Heb. 6.11 , 12. & 10.22 , 23. Direct . 10. Vnderstand that every sin which you commit , hath need of a renewed pardon in Christ : and that he doth me prevent your necessity of such pardon . And therefore you will have constant need of Christ , and must daily come to God for pardon by him ; not only for the pardon of temporal chastisements , but of everlasting punishments . Of the sense of this , I shall say more anon : the proof of it is in the fore recited Promises ; and in all those texts of Scripture which tell us that death is the wages of sin , and call us to ask pardon , and tell us on what terms it may be had . Direct . 11. Yet do not think that every sin doth put you into a state of condemnation again , or nullifie your former Justification : For though the Law of nature is so far still in force , as to make punishment by it your natural due ; yet the Covenant of Grace is a continually pardoning act , and according to its proper terms , doth dissolve the foresaid obligation , and presently remit the punishment : and as its moral action is not interrupted ; no more is our justified state . There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus , &c. Rom. 8.1 . John 3.16 , 18. 1 John 5.11 , 12. If any man sin , we have an Advocate with the Father , Jesus Christ the righteous , and he is the Propitiation for our sins , 1 John 2.1 , 2. If we confess our sins , be is faithful and just to forgive us our sisn and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness . If all need of pardon had been prevented by Christ , what use were there of his advocation for our future forgiveness ? Direct . 12. Remember , that though unknown infirmities , and unavoidable ones , have an immediate pardon , because the Believer hath an habitual Faith and Repentance ; yet great and known sins must have actual Repentance , before the pardon will be plenary or perfect ; though the person is not in the mean time an unregenerate nor unjustified person . 1. That great and known sins must have a particular repentance , appeareth , 1. In that it is utterly inconsistent with the sincerity of habitual Repentance , not to be actual , when sins are known , and come into our deliberate remembrance . 2. By all those texts which require such repentance , confession and forsaking , 1 John 2.1 , 2. 1 John 1.9 . Prov. 18.13 . Psal . 32. & 51. 2 Cor. 7.11 . Rev , 2.5 , 16. Luke 13.3 , 5. Jam. 5.14 , 15. Luke 6.37 . & 11.4 . Repentance consisteth chiefly in forsaking sin ; and if men forsake not such known wilful sins , they are wicked men , and therefore are not pardoned . 2. That unavoidable frailties , and meer infirmities , and unknown faults , are pardoned immediately to them that are truly godly , and have a general and implicit Repentance , is plain , because else no man in the world could be saved ; because every man hath such infirmities and unknown sins , 1 John 1.10 . 3. Yet David himself is not put by his sin into a meer graceless state , and as a person that hath no former Justification ; for he prayeth God not to take his Spirit from him , and he was not deprived of the true love to God , which is the character of Gods children : But he had incurred heinous guilt , and put himself in the way towards utter damnation , and caused a necessity of a more particular deep Repentance before he could be fully pardoned , than else he needed . Before the world had a Saviour , we were all so far unpardoned , that a satisfying Sacrifice was necessary to our Justification : But afterward , all men are so far pardoned , that only the Acceptance of what is purchased and freely ( though conditionally ) given , is necessary to it . Before men are converted , they are yet so far unpardoned , that ( though no more Sacrifice be necessary , yet ) a total conversion and renovation , by turning from a life of sin to God by Faith in Christ , is necessary to their actual justification , and forgiveness . When a man is turned from a life of sin to God , and liveth in the state of grace , all his following sins , which consist with the loving of God and holiness above the world and sinful pleasures , are so far forgiven immediately upon the committing , that they need neither another Sacrifice , nor another Regeneration , or Justification ( quoad statum ) but only an acting of that Faith and Repentance , which habitually he hath already . But the unknown errours and faults of such godly persons are pardoned even without that actual repentance : and infirmities , without forsaking of the sin overcomingly in practice . And so every one liveth and dyeth , in some degree of sinful defectiveness and omission , of his love to God , and trust , and hope , and zeal , and desire , and love to men , and care of his duty , and watchfulness , and fervency in prayer , meditation , &c. And in some degree of sinful disorder in our ill governed thoughts , and words , and affections , or passions , and actions : we are never sinless till we die . Direct . 13. Remember that you must neither think that every sin which is a cause of Repentance , is a sufficient reason for you to doubt of your present state of Justification ; nor yet that no sin can be so great as to be a necessary cause of doubting . If every sin should make us doubt of our Justification , then all men must alwaies doubt : And then it must be because no sin is consistent with sincerity , and the knowledge of sincerity ; which is apparently false . If no sin should cause our doubting , then there is no sin which is not consistent both with sincerity , and with the knowledge of it ; which is as false , and much more dangerous to hold . 1. There are many sins that are utterly inconsistent with true godliness ; otherwise the godly were ungodly , and as bad as others : And if you say that no godly man commiteth these , it is true ; and therefore it is true that he that committeth them , is not a godly man , or justified . And how shall a man know his godliness , but by his life as the product of his inward graces ? It is arguing from an uncertainty against a certainty , to say , I am justified and godly , and therefore my wilful sins of drunkenness , fornication , oppression , lying , mal●ce , &c. are consistent with Justification : and it is arguing from a certain truth , against a doubted falshood , to say , I live in ordinary , wilful , heinous sin ; therefore I am not justified or sincere , Ephes . 5.5 , 6. For this ye know , that no whoremonger , nor unclean person , nor covetous man , who is an Idolater , hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ , and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words ; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience , 1 Cor. 6 9 , 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God ? Be not deceived ; neither fornicators , nor idolaters , nor adulterers , nor effeminate , nor abusers of themselves with mankind , nor thieves , nor covetous , nor drunkards , nor revilers , nor extortioners , shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you ; but ye are washed , but ye are sanctified , but ye are justified , &c. Rom. 8.1 , 13. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus , who walk not after the flesh , but after the Spirit . If ye live after the flesh , ye shall die , &c. Gal. 5.20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24. 2. And there are many sins which consist with true grace , which will not consist with the assurance of its sincerity . And that 1. From the nature of the things ; because the least degree of grace conjunct with , and clouded by the greatest degree of sin which may consist with it , is not discernable to to him that hath it : He that is so very near a state of death , and so very like to an unjustified person , can never be sure , in that case , that he is justified . 2. And also God in Wisdom and Justice will have it so ; that sin may not be encouraged , nor presumption cherished , nor the comforts which are the reward of an obedient child , be cast away on an uncapable child in his stubborn disobedience , Psal . 51. & 32. & 77. Therefore for a man that liveth in grost sin , to say that he is sure that he is justified , and therefore no sin shall make him question it ; is but to believe the Antinomian Devil transforming himself into an Angel of Light , and his Ministers when they call themselves the Ministers of Righteousness ; and to deny belief to the Spirit of Holiness and Truth . And if a true Believer should come very near such a state of death , common reason , and the due care of his own soul , obligeth him to be suspicious of himself , and to fear the worst , till he have made sure of better , Heb. 6. & 3.10 . Heb. 4.1 . & 12 , 13 , 14. 1 Cor. 10. John 15.2 , 7 , 8 , &c. Direct . 14. Let not the perswasion that you are justified , make you more secure and bold infinning , but more to hate it , as contrary to the ends of Justification , and to the love which freely justified you . It is a great mark of difference between true assurance , and blind presumption , that the one maketh men hate sin more , and more carefully to avoid it ; and the other causeth men to sin with less reluctancy , and remorse ; because with less feat . Direct . 15. When the abuse of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone , and not by Works , doth pervert your minds and lives , remember that all confess , that we shall be judged according to our works ( as the Covenant of Grace is the Law by which we shall be judged : ) And to be judged , is to be justified or condemned . I need not recite all those Scriptures to you , that say , that we shall be judged , and shall receive according to what we have done in the body , whether it be good or evil : And this is all that we desire you to believe , and live accordingly . Direct . 16. Remember still that Faith in Christ is but a means to raise us to the Love of God , and that perfect Holiness is higher and more excellent than the pardon of sin : And therefore desire faith , and use it , for the kindling of love , and pardon of sin , to endear you to God , and that you may do so no more : And do not sin , that you may have the more to be pardoned . The end of the Commandment is Charity , out of a pure heart , and a good conscience , and faith unfeigned . Rom. 6.1 , 2. Shall we continue in sin , that grace may abound ? God forbid : How shall they that are dead to sin , live any longer therein ? See Titus 3.5 , 6 , 7. Rom. 5.1 , 4 , 5 , 6. Rom. 8.1 , 4 , 9 , Gal. 4.6 . & 5.24 , 26. So much for those practical Directions , which are needfull for them that love not Controversie . CHAP. VIII . The pernicious or dangerous Errours detected , which hinder the work of Faith about our Justification ; and the contrary Truths asserted . THere is so much dust and controversie raised here to blind the eyes of the weak , and to hinder the life of Faith ; and so much poison served up under the name of Justification and Free Grace , that I should be unfaithful if I should not discover it , either through fear of offending the guilty , or of wearying them that had rather venture upon deceit , than upon controversie . And we are now so fortified against the Popish and Secinian extreams , and those whom I am now directing to live by Faith , are so settled against them , that I think it more necessary ( having not leisure for both , and having done it heretofore in my Confession ) to open at this time the method of false doctrine on the other extream , which for the most part is it which constituteth Antinomianism , though some of them are maintained by others . And I will first name each errour ; and then with it , the contrary truth . Errour 1. Christs suffering was caused by the sins of none , as the assumed meritorious cause , or as they usually say , as imputed to him , or lying on him , save only of the Elect that shall be saved . Contr. The sins of fallen mankind in general , except those rejections of Grace , whose pardon is not offered in the conditional Covenant , did lye on Christ as the assumed cause of his sufferings . See John 1.29 . 2 Cor. 5.18 , 19 , 20. John 3.16 , 17 , 18 , 19. Heb. 2.9 . 1 Tim. 2.4 , 5 , 6. 1 John 2.2 . 1 Tim. 4.10 . 2 Pet. 2.2 . See Paraeus in his Irenicon ; & Twisse vind . & alibi passim , saying as much ; and Amyrald , Davenant , Dallaeus , Testardu●Vsher , &c. proving it . Errour 2. Christ did both perfectly obey , and also make satisfaction for sin by suffering , in the person of all the Elect in the sense of the Law , or Gods account ; so that his Righteousness of obedience and perfect holiness , and his satisfaction , is so imputed to us , as the proprietaries , as if we our selves had done it , and suffered it : not by an after donation in the effects , but by this strict imputation in it self . Contr. The contrary Truth is at large opened before , and in my confession . Christs satisfaction , and the merit of his whole obedience , is as effectual for our pardon , justification and salvation , as if Believers th●mselves had performed it ; and it is imputed to them , in that it was done for their sakes , and suffered in their stead , and the fruits of it by a free Covenant or donation given them . But 1. God is not mistaken , to judge that we obeyed or suffered when we did not . 2. God is no lyar , to say , we did it , when he knoweth that we did it not . 3. If we were not the actors and sufferers , it is not possible that we should be made the natural subjects of the Accidents of anothers body , by any putation , estimation or mis-judging whatsoever ; no nor by any donation neither . It is a contradiction , and therefore an impossibility that the same individual Actions and Passions , of which Christs humane nature was the agent and subject so many hundred years ago , and have themselves now no existence , should in themselves , I say , in themselves , be made yours now , and you be the subject of the same accidents . 4. Therefore they can no otherwise be given to us , but 1. By a true estimation of the reasons why Christ underwent them , viz. for our sakes as aforesaid . 2. And by a donation of the effects or fruits of them , viz. pardoning , and justifying , and saving us by them ( on the terms chosen by the Donor himself , and put into his Testament or Covenant ) as certainly ( but not in the same manner ) as if we had done and suffered them our selves . 5. If Christ had suffered in our person reputatively in all respects , his sufferings would not have redeemed us : Because we are finite worms , and our suffering for so short a time , would not have been accepted instead of Hell sufferings . But the person of the Mediator made them valuable . 6. God never made any such Covenant with us [ that he will justifie us , and use us just as he would have done , if we had our selves perfectly obeyed and satisfied . ] They that take on them to shew such a Promise , must see that no wise man examine it . 7. God hath both by his Covenant , and his Works , ever since confuted that opinion ; and hath not dealt with us as he would have done , if we had been the reputed doers and sufferers of it all our selves . For he hath made conveyance of the Benefits , by a pardoning and justifying Law , or Promise ; and he giveth us additional pardon of renewed sins as we act them , and he addeth threatnings in his Law or Covenant ; and he inflicteth penalties ; yea some that are very grievous , even the with-holding of much of his Spirits help and grace ; all which are inconsistent with that conceit ; nor would he so have used us , if we had been perfectly innocent , and had fully satisfied for our sins our selves . 8. All men would have had present possession of Glory , if God had so reputed us the perfect meriters of it . For his Justice would no more have delayed our reward , than denyed it . 9. All that are saved would have equal degrees of holiness and happiness , as well as of righteousness , because all would equally be reputed the perfect fulfillers of the Law. And as no penalty could ever be justly inflicted on them here ; so no degree of glory could be denyed them hereafter for their sin , or for want of perfect righteousness . 10. The opinion of this kind of imputation , is a most evident contradiction in it self . For he that is imputatively a satisfier for all his own sin , is therein supposed to be a sinner : And he that is imputatively a perfect innocent fulfiller of the Law , is thereby supposed to need no satisfaction to Justice for his sin , as being imputatively no sinner . 11. By this all Christs sacrifice and satisfaction is made a work of needless supererrogation ; yea unjust , or rather impossible . For if we perfectly obeyed in him , he could not suffer for our disobedience . 12. Hereby pardon of sin is utterly denyed : for he that is reputatively no sinner , hath no sin to pardon . If they say that God did first impute the satisfaction for sin , then there was no room after for the imputation of perfect obedience . We cannot feign God to receive all the debt , or inflict all the penalty , and then to say , now I will esteem thee one that never didst deserve it . If they say that he doth neither impute the obedience or the suffering to us simply , and to all effects , but in tantum ad hoc , or secundum quid only : so that we shall be pardoned for his suffering , and then judged worthy of Heaven for his obedience : this is but to come up towards the truth before you are aware , and to confess that neither of them is given us in it self , but in the effects , as being it self paid to God to procure those effects . But withall , the matter must be vindicated from their unfound inventions , and it must be said , that Christ dyed not only for our sins of commission , but of omission also ; and that he that is pardoned both his sins of commission and omission , is free from the punishment both of sense and loss ; yea and is reputed as one that never culpably omitted any duty ; and consequently fell short of no reward by such omission : so that there remaineth no more necessity of Righteousness in order to a reward where the pardon is perfect , save only ( N. B. ) to procure us that degree of reward which must be superadded to what we forfeited by our sin ; and which we never by any culpable omission deserved to be denyed . And thus much we do not deny that somewhat ( even Adoption ) which is more than meer Pardon and Justification must confer on us . But withall , as we hold not that the Sun must bring light , and somewhat else must first banish darkness ; that one thing must cure death , and another cause life ; that satisfaction must procure the pardon of sins of omission and commission , as to the poenae damni & sensus , and make us esteemed and used as no sinners , and then imputed obedience must give us right to that reward , which the poenae damni , deprived us of ; so ( N. B. ) we maintain that Christs sufferings have merited our eternal salvation , and our Justification and Adoption ; and that his obedience hath merited our forgiveness of sin : And that both go together , the merit of the one and of the other , to procure all that we receive , and that the effects are not parcelled out as they have devised : Though yet we believe that Christs sufferings were paid to God , as for our sins , to satisfie Justice , and that in the Passive Obedience , it is first satisfactory , and then and therefore meritorious , and in the active it is meerly meritorious . 13. And the maintainers of the contrary opinion , besides all the forementioned evils , could never agree how much of Christs Righteousness must be in their sense imputed : some holding only the passive ; a second sort the active and passive ; a third sort , the habitual , active and passive ; a fourth sort , the divine , the habitual , the active and the passive . But of all these things there is so much written against them , by Cargius , Vrsinus , Olevian , Piscator , Paraeus , Scultetus , Alstedius , Wendeline , Camero , Bradshaw , Gataker , and many more , that I need not to add any more for confutation . Errour 3. That no one shall suffer whose sins lay on Christ , and were suffered for by him . Contr. Many such shall suffer the sorer punishment , for sinning against the Lord that bought them , and treading under foot the blood of the Covenant , wherewith they were so far sanctified , as to be a people by their own Covenant separated to God , Heb. 10.25 , 26. Heb. 6.4 , 5 , 6. 2 Pet. 2.2 . Heb. 4.1 . & 2.3 . & 12.29 . Errour 4. That no godly man ( say some ( or Elect person , though ungodly ( say others ) is ever punished by God , because Christ suffered all their punishment himself . Contr. Every godly man is chastened of God , and all chastisement is a fatherly correcting punishment : And many justified persons are punished to their final loss , by the denyal of forfeited degrees of grace , and consequently of glory , Heb. 12.7 , 8 , 9 , 10. 1 Cor. 11.32 . 1 Thes . 5.19 . Ephes . 4.30 . But sad experience is too full a proof . See my Confession . Errour 5. That God were unjust if he laid any degree of punishment on those that Christ died for ; or ( say others ) on the justified ; because he should punish one sin twice . Contr. It is certain , that God punisheth the Justified in some degree ( much more the Elect before conversion ) and it is certain that God is not unjust . Therefore it is certain that the ground of this accusation is false ; for it was not our deserved punishment it self , or the same which was due in the true sense of the Law which Christ endured : but it was the punishment of a voluntary sponsor , which was the equivalens , and not the idem that was due ; and did answer the ends of the Law , but not fulfill the meaning of the threatning ; which threatned the sinner himself , and not another for him : seeing then it was a satisfaction , or sacrifice for sin , which God received for an attonement and propitiation , and not a solution or suffering of the sinner himself in the sense of the Law , the charge of injustice on God is groundless . And no man can have more right to Christs sufferings or benefits , than he himself is willing to give : And it is not his own will ( into whose hands all power and judgement is committed ) that we should be subject to no punishment because he suffered for us . Errour 6. That the Elect are justified from eternity ( say some ) or from Christs death before they were born ( say others ) or before they believed ( say others . ) Against this I have said enough in many Volumes heretofore . Errour 7. That Faith justifieth only in the Court of our own Consciences , by making us to know that we were justified before . Against this also I have said enough elsewhere . Errour 8. That sins to come , not yet committed , are pardoned in our first Justification . Contr. Sins to come are no sins : and no sins have no actual pardon : but only the certain remedy is provided , which will pardon their sins as soon as they are capable . Errour 9. Justification is not a making us just , but a sentence pronouncing us just . Contr. Justification is a word of so many significations , that he that doth not first tell what he meaneth by it , will not be capable of giving or receiving satisfaction . And here once for all , I must intreat the Reader that loveth not confusion and errour , to distinguish of these several sorts of Justification , as the chief which we are to note . Justification is either publick by a Governour , or private by an equal or meer Discerner : Justification is by God , or by Man. Justification by God is either as he is Law-giver , and above Laws , or as he is Judge according to his Laws : In the first way God maketh us just ; by his Act of Oblivion , or pardoning Law , or Covenant of Grace . In the second respect God doth two waies justifie and forgive : 1. As a determining Judge : 2. As the Executioner of his Judgement . In the former respect God doth two waies justifie us : 1. By esteeming us just . 2. By publick sentencing us just . As Executioner , he useth us as just , and as so judged . I pass by here purposely all Christs Justification of us by way of apology or plea ; and all Justification by witnesses and evidences , &c. and all the constitutive causes of our Righteousness , lest I hinder them whom I would help , by using more distinctions than they are willing to learn. But these few are necessary . 1. It is one thing for God to make us Righteous , by forgiving all our sins of commission and omission , for the sake of Christs satisfaction and obedience . 2. It is another thing for God to esteem us to be so Righteous when he hath first made us so . 3. It is another for God to sentence us Righteous as the Publick Judge , by Jesus Christ . 4. And it is another thing for God to take off all penalties and evils , and to give us all the good which belong to the Righteous ; and so to execute his own Laws and Sentence . And he that will not distinguish of these senses or sorts of Justification , shall not dispute with me . And while I am upon this , I will give the Reader these two remarks and counsels . 1. That he will not in disputing about Justification , with any sect , begin the dispute of the Thing , till he hath first determined and agreed of their sense of the Word . And that he will not confound the Controversies de nomine about the word , with those de re , about the matter . And that he will remember in citing texts of Scripture , that Beza , and many of our best Expositors , do grant to the Papists ( as I heard Bishop Vsher also do ) that some texts of Scripture do take the word [ Justifie ] as they do , for Pardon and Sanctification conjunctly : As Titus 3.7 . 1 Cor. 6.11 . Rom. 8.30 . three famous texts ; of which see Le Blank at large in his Thes . de nom . Justific . If the controversie be only of the sense of a Text , handle it accordingly : If of the matter , turn it not to words . 2. Note this Observation , that Sanctification it self , or the giving us the Spirit , is a great act ( though I say not the only ) of executive Justification . The with-holding of the Spirit is the greatest punishment inflicted in this life : and therefore the giving of the Spirit is the removal or executive remiting of the greatest penalty : So that if pardon were only as Dr. Twisse thought , a non-punire , a not punishing , then this were the most proper , as well as plenary pardon in this life . But the truth is , that our Pardon and Justification in Right goeth first , which God effecteth by his Covenant-gift : And then God esteemeth us just or pardoned , when by pardon he hath made us just : and if there be any sentence , or any thing equivalent before the day of Judgement or death , he next sentenceth us Just ; and lastly , he useth us as just , that is , as pardoned ( all sins of omission and commission ) which is by taking off all punishment both of pain ( or sense ) and loss ; of which part the giving of his Spirit , is the chief act on this side our Glorification . Note therefore that thus far no Protestant can deny to the Papists , nor will do , that Sanctification and Justification are all one , that is , that God having pardoned us de jure , doth pardon us executively , by giving us his forfeited Spirit and Grace ; and by all the communion which we have after with him , and the comfort which we have from him . And further let it be well noted , that the nature of this executive Pardon or Justification ( of which read Mr. Hotchkis at large ) is far better known to us , than the nature of Gods sentential Pardon and Justification : and therefore there is less controversie about it . For what it is to forbear or take off a punishment , is easily understood : But though most Protestants say , that Justification is a sentence of God , they are not agreed what that sentence is . Some think ( truly ) that our first Justification by Faith is but a virtual sentence of the Law of Grace , by which we must be judged . Others say that by a sentence is meant Gods secret mental estimation : Others say , that as Angels are his executioners ; so it is before them ( where joy is said to be for a sinners conversion ) Luke 15. that doth declare and sentence us pardoned and just . Others think that there is no sentence but Gods notification of pardon to our consciences , or giving us the sense or knowledge of it . Others think that there is no sentence till death , or publick Judgment . Others say that God doth sentence us just , though we know not where , nor how . And Mr. Lawson noteth , that ( as all confess that God hath no voice , but a created voice ; and therefore useth not words as we ; unless what Christ as man may do in that we know not ; so ) his sentence is nothing but his declaration that he esteemeth us pardoned and just in title , which is principally , if not only , by his execution , and taking off all penalties of sense and loss , and using us as pardoned in title : and so that the giving of his Spirit , is his very sentence of Justification in this life , as it is his declaration as aforesaid . And doubtless executive pardon is the most perfect and compleat , as being the end and perfection of all the rest . Therefore God maketh us just in title by . Covenant-pardon ; and therefore he sentenceth us as just , that he may take off all penalty , and give us the felicity due to the righteous ; and may use us as those that are made just . There is much truth in most of the foresaid opinions inclusively , and much falshood in their several exclusions of all the rest ( unless their quarrel be only de nomine , which of all these is fitliest called Justification . For 1. There is no doubt but our pardon , or constituted Justification in Covenant-title , is a virtual sentential Justification . 2. And there is no doubt but God doth esteem them just , that are first made just , and no other ( b●cause he erreth not : ) And that this estimation is sententia concepta , as distinct from sententia prolata . 3. And it is certain that those Angels that must execute his sentence , must first know it : And it is probable that the Joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the presence of the Angels of God , doth intimate that God useth ordinarily to notifie the conver●iod of a sinner to Angels ( whether the joy here be meant as Dr. Hammond and others think , Gods Joy signified to Angels , or rather the Angels Joy , by their presence being , in Choro Angelorum , or among them , that is , in them ; or both . ) 4. And it is granted that God doth usually give some notice of his pardon , at one time or other , more or less to a sinners conscience ( though that is too late , too uncertain , too low , and too unequal , and too unconstant to be the great and famous Justification by Faith. ) 5. And it is clear , that till death or Judgment , there is no such solemn plenary judicial sentence or declaration as there will be then . 6. And it is certain , that at death and judgment , Christ as Man , a creature , can speak or express himself , as the blessed creatures do to one another . 7 And its certain that God hath a way of expressing himself to creatures , which is beyond our present understandings : But we may conceive of it by the similitude of Light , which in the same instant revealeth millions of things to millions of persons respectively . ( Though that is nothing to his present Justification of us by Faith , unless as he revealeth it to Angels . ) 8. And it is certain , that at the day of death and judgment , God will thus by an irresistible light , lay open every man to himself , and to the world , which may be called his sentence , differing from the execution ; and that Christ in our nature will be our Judge , and may express that sentence as aforesaid . 9. And it is certain , that Gods actual taking off punishment , and giving the blessing which sin had deprived us of , is a declaration of his mind , which may be called , an executive sentence , and might serve the turn if there were no more : And that in Scripture , the terms of [ God 's judging the world ] doth usually signifie Gods executive Government , rewarding and punishing : And that God doth begin such execution in this life : and that his giving the Spirit is thus his principal pardoning and justifying act ; and yet that this is but part , and not the whole of our present executive pardon : and that glorification in this sense is the highest and noblest Justification or Pardon ; when God giveth us all that sin had forfeited ( But yet we deny not that Glorification is somewhat more than an executive pardon , so far as any more is then given us , than we did forfeit by our sins . ) I must desire the Reader not to forget all this explication of the nature of Justification , because it will be supposed to the understanding of all before and after . Errour 10. That the justified or regenerate never incur any guilt or obligation to any punishment , but only temporal corrections ; and therefore need no pardon at all of any sin , at least , since regeneration , as to the everlasting punishment ; because Christ dyed to prevent that guilt , and consequently the necessity of any such pardon . Contr. This is before explained . Christ died to procure us that pardoning Covenant , which ( on its own terms ) will pardon every sin of the Justified when they are committed ; but not to prevent the need of pardon . Otherwise Christ should not satisfie for any sins after regeneration , nor bear them in his sufferings at all : For his satisfaction is a bearing of a punishment , which in its dignity and usefulness is equivalent to our deserved , or ( to be deserved ) punishment . Now if we never do deserve it , Christ cannot bear that in our stead , which we never deserve : As the preventing of the sin or reatus culpae proveth that Christ never suffered for that sin prevented , because it is terminus diminuens , and is no sin ; so is it in preventing the desert of punishment . And as for Correction Christ doth inflict so much as is good for us ; and therefore did not die to prevent it . But of this Controversie I have said more at large elsewhere . Errour 11. That Justification by Faith is perfect at the first instant ; though Sanctification be imperfect . Contr. Against this Errour read Mr. George Hopkins book of salvation from sin ; shewing how Justification and Sanctification are equally carryed on . It is granted that at our first true faith , we are pardoned all the sins that ever we committed before , as to the eternal punishment : And so we are converted from them all : But ( as our Sanctification is imperfect , so ) our Pardon is yet imperfect in many respects : For 1. We are still liable to death , which is the wages of sin , though it be so far conquered as not to hinder our salvation : Henoch and Elias went to Heaven without it , Rom. 5 12 , 14 , 17 , 21. Gen. 3.16 , 17 , 19. 1 Cor. 15.21 , 26. 2. We are still liable to many penal chastisements in this life ; which though they do us good by accident , are yet the fruits of sin , no father chastising a faultless child , but doing him good in another way . 3. There are many sins yet left uncured , which though as sins , they are our own only , yet as an evil not cured , are also penal : I am sure that the not-giving of more of his Spirit and Grace is penal . Therefore till our grace be perfect , we are not perfectly delivered from the penal fruits of sin , and therefore not perfectly justified and pardoned . 4. That Pardon and Justification is not perfect , which hath so many conditions , and of such a nature for its continuation , as ours now hath : As to say , you shall lose your justified state , unless you fight and overcome , in mortification , sufferings , perseverance . &c. He that hath a title to an estate , which is held by such a tenure , and would be lost if he should fail in such conditions , hath not so perfect a title , as he that is past all such conditions . 5. That pardon which is only of sins past , while there are thousands more hereafter to be pardoned ( or else we should yet perish ) is not so perfect as that Pardon and Justification in the conclusion of our lives , when all sin that ever will be committed is forgiven absolutely . 6. The kind of our presen● Justification is imperfect ; it being but in Covenant-title , and some part of execution ; the full and pe●f●ct sentence and execution , being at the day of Judgment . I leave them therefore to say [ Christs Righteousness imputed to us is perfect ; therefore we are as perfectly just and justified as Christ ] who know not what Imputation here is ; nor that Christs personal Righteousness is not given to us as proprietors , in it self , but in the effects ; and who know not the difference between believing and blaspheming , and making our selves as so many Christs to our selves ; and that know not what need they have of Christ , or of Faith , or Prayer , or of any holy endeavour for any more Pardon , and Righteousness or Justification , than they have already : Or who thinke that David in his Adultery and Murder was as perfectly pardoned and justified as he will be in Heaven at last : And in a word , who know not the difference between Earth and Heaven . Errour 12. That Christ justifieth us only as a Priest : Or ( say others ) only as obeying and satisfying . Contr. Christ merited our Justification in his state of humiliation , as the Mediator subjected to the Law , and perfectly obeying it , and as a sacrifice for sin . But this is not justifying us . Christ offered that sacrifice as the High Priest of the Church or world : But this was not justifying us . Christ made us the New Covenant as our King , and as the great Prophet of the Father or Angel of the Covenant , Mal. 3.1 . And this Covenant giveth us our pardon and title to impunity , and to life eternal ; And Christ as our King and Judge doth justifie us by a Judiciary Sentence , and also by the execution of that sentence : so that the relations most eminently appear in our Justification , are all excluded by the foresaid errour . Errour 13. That we are justified only by the first act of Faith ; and all our believing afterwards to the end of our lives , are no justifying acts at all . Contr. Indeed if the question be only about the Name of Justifying , if you will take it only for our first change into a state of righteousness by pardon , it is true . But the following act● of Faith are of the same use and need to the continuing of our Justification , or state of Righteousness , as the first act was for the beginning of it . Errour 14. That the continuance of our Justification needeth no other conditions to be by us performed , than the continuance of that Faith on which it was begun . Contr. Where that first Faith continueth , there our Justification doth continue : But that Faith never continueth without sincere obedience to Christ ; and that obedience is part of the condition of the continuance , or not losing our Justification ( as is proved before , and at large elsewhere ) The Faith which in Baptism we profess , and by which we have our first Justification or Covenant-right , is an accepting of Christ as our Saviour and Lord to be obeyed by us in the use of his saving remedies ; and we there vow and covenant future obedience . And as our marriage to Christ , or Covenant-making , is all the condition of our first right to him and his benefits , without any other good works or obedience ; so our Marriage-fidelity , or Covenant keeping , is part of the condition of our continuance herein , or not losing it by a divorce , John 15. Col. 1.23 . &c. Errour 15. That Faith is no condition of our part in Christ , and our Justification , but only one of Gods gifts of the Covenant , given with Christ and Justification . Errour 16. That the Covenant of Grace hath no conditions on our part , but only donatives on Gods part . Errour 17 That if the Covenant had any conditions , it were not free . And that every condition is a meritorious cause , or at least some cause . Contr. All these I have confuted at large elsewhere , and proved 1. That Faith is a proper condition of those benefits which God giveth us by the conditional Covenant of Grace ; but not of all the benefits which he any other way giveth us . It was not the condition of his giving Christ to live and die for us ; nor of his giving us the Gospel , or this Covenant it self ; nor of his giving us Preachers , or of the first motions of his Spirit ; nor was Faith the condition of the Faith●●●elf ●●●elf ; because all these are not given us in that way , by that Covenant , but absolutely , as God shall please . 2. That some Promises of God of the last mentioned gifts , have no condition : The promises of giving a Saviour to the world ; and the promise of giving and continuing the Gospel in the world ; and of converting many by it in the world , and of making them Believers , and giving them new hearts , and bringing them to salvation , &c. have no conditions . But these are promises made , some of them to Christ only , and some of them to fallen mankind , or the world in general , or predictions what God will do by certain men unborn , unnamed , and not described , called the Elect. But all this giveth no title to Pardon , or Justification , or Salvation to any one person at all . Remember therefore once for all , that the Covenant which I still mean , by the Covenant of Grace , is that which God offereth men in Baptism , by the acceptance whereof we become Christians . 3. That Gods gift of a Saviour , and New Covenant to the world , are so free as to be without any condition : But Gods gift of Christ with all his benefits of Justification , Adoption , &c. to individual persons , is so free as to be without and contrary to our desert ; but not so free as to be without any condition : And that he that will say to God [ Thy grace of pardon is not free if thou wilt not give it me , but on condition that I accept it , yea or desire it , or ask it ] shall prove a contemner of grace , and a reproacher of his Saviour , and not an exalter of free grace . There is no inconsistency for God to be the giver of grace to cause us to believe and accept of Christ , and yet to make a deed of gift of him to all on condition of that Faith and acceptance ; no more than it is inconsistent to give Faith and Repentance , and to command them : of both which the objecters themselves do not seem to doubt . For he maketh both his command , and his conditional form of Promise to be his chosen means ( and most wisely chosen ) of working in us the thing commanded . 4. That a condition as a condition is no cause at all , much less a meritorious cause : But only the non-performance of it suspendeth the donation of the Covenant , by the will of the Donor : Or r●●her it is the Donors will that suspendeth it till the condition be done . And some conditions signifie no more than a term of time : and some ( in the matter of them , and not in the form ) are a not-demeriting , or not-abusing the Giver , or not-despising the gift : and some among men are meritorious . And with God every act that is chosen by him to be a condition of his gift , is pleasing to him , for some special aptitude which it hath to that office . This is the full truth , and the plain truth about conditions . Errour 18. There is no degree of pardon given to any that are not perfectly justified , and that shall not be saved : But the giving of the Spirit so far as to cause us to believe and repent , is s●me degree of executive pardon : Therefore we are justified before we believe . Contr. There is a great degree of pardon given to the world , before conversion , which shall yet justifie and save none but Believers : Gods giving a Saviour to the world , and a New Covenant , and in that an universal conditional pardon ; yea his giving them teaching , exhortations and offers of free grace ; and his giving them life and time , and many mercies which the full execution of the Law would have deprived them of , is a very great degree of pardon . God pardoned to mankind much of the penalty which sin deserved , even presently after the first transgression , in the prom●se made to Adam , Gen. 3.15 . Many texts of Scripture ( which partial men for their opinions sake do pervert ) do speak magnificently of a common pardon , which must be sued out , and made particular upon our believing . The world was before under so much impossibility of being saved by any thing that they could do , that they must have procured all to be done first which Christ hath done and suffered for them ; which was utterly above their power . They that were actually obliged to bear the pains of death , both temporal , spiritual and eternal , are now so far redeemed , pardoned and delivered , that all the merit and satisfaction necessary to actual forgiveness , is made for them by another , and no one of them all shall perish for want of a Sacrifice made and accepted for them ; and an universal conditional pardon is enacted , sealed , and recorded , and offered and urged on all to whom the Gospel cometh ; and nothing but their obstinate , wilful refusal or neglect , can deprive them of it : And this is so great a degree of pardon , that it is called often by such absolute names , as if all were done ; because all is done which concerneth God as Legislator or Covenant maker , to do , before our own Acceptance of it . Suppose a Prince redeem all his captive subjects from the Turkish slavery , and one half of them so love their state of bondage , or some harlot or ill company there ( yea if all of them do so , till half of them are perswaded from it ) that they will not come away . It is no improper nor unusual language to say that he hath redeemed them , and given them a release , though they would not have it . That may be given to a man , which he never hath , because he refuseth to accept it ; when the Donor hath done all that belongeth to him in that relation of a Donor ; though perhaps as a Perswader he might do more . This is the sense of Heb. 1.3 . When he had by himself purged our sins ( or made purgation of our sins ) he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high ; that is , when he had become a sacrifice for sin , and sealed the Covenant by his blood . ] For actual personal pardon was not given by him before our acceptance . This is the plain sense of 2 Cor. 5.18 , 19 , 20. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself , not imputing to them their trespasses ( that is , purchasing and giving them a pardoning Covenant ) and hath committed to us the word , and ministry of reconciliation : Now then we are Embassadours for Christ , as though God did beseech you by us , we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God. John 1.29 , 36. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world ; ( that is , as a sacrifice for sin . ) As Heb. 9.26 . Once in the end of the world he hath appeared to put away sin , by the sacrifice of himself : ( Though the sacrifice as offered only , doth not actually and fully pardon it . ) The same as Heb. 10.12 . After he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever , sate down on the right hand of God. So Matth. 18.27 , 32. He forgave him the debt — I forgave thee all that debt — viz. conditionally , and as David forgave Shimei . Psal . 78.38 . He forgave their iniquity , and destroyed them not ; that is , he forgave the temporal punishment , and suspended the execution of eternal punishment , giving them yet more time and offers of repentance and of further mercy . And so he forgave Ahab and Nineve upon their humiliation , Numb . 14.19 . Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people , according to the greatness of thy mercy , and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt until now . So Psal . 85.2 , 3. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people , thou hast covered all their sins : thou hast taken away all thy wrath — Turn us O God of our salvation , and cause thine anger to cease : wilt thou be angry with us for ever ? So that they are two palpable errors here asserted by the objecters , viz. that there is no degree of pardon to such as are not saved ; and that we are justified , when ever we have any degree of pardon . We may be so far pardoned as to have grace given us effectually to believe , and yet our Justification , or the Covenant-forgiveness of eternal punishment , is in order of nature after our believing , and not before it . Errour 19. That our natures are as far from being able to believe in Christ , as from being able to fulfil the Law of works , and to be justified by it ; they being equally impossible to us ; and as much help is necessary to one as to the other . Contr. To be justified by the Law of works , when we have once broken it , is a contradiction , and a natural impossibility ; as it is to be at once a sinner , and no sinner . But so it is not for a sinner to believe in Christ : The impossibility is but moral at most ; which consisteth not in a want of natural faculties or power , but in the want of a right d●sp●sition , or willingness of mind . And to fulfil the Law of God , and to be perfect for the future , is surely a far higher degree of spiritual grace and excellency , than to be a poor , weak , sinful believer , d●siring to fulfil it . Therefore our sinful natures are much farther off from perfection than from faith . 3. And though the same Omnipotency do all Gods works ( for all Gods Power is Omnipotency ) yet it is not equally put forth , and manifested in all his works : The moving of a feather , and the making of the world , are both works of Omnipotency ; but not equal works or exertions of it . 4. And it is certain that in verum natura , there is such a thing as a proper Power given by God , to do many things that n●ver are done , and that necessary grace ( which some call sufficient ) which is not eventually effectual : for such Adam had ( such Power , and such necessary grace or help ) to have forborn his first sin , which he did not forbear . And no man can prove that no final unbelievers , have had such power and help to have bel●eved , a● Adam had to have stood . But it is certain that we 〈…〉 such powers and necessary grace , to have perfectly 〈◊〉 all the Law. Errour 20. That Faith justifieth as an instrument and only so . Of this I have written at large heretofore . An instrument properly so called , is an efficient cause : Faith is no efficient cause of our Justification ; neither Gods instrument , nor ours : for we justifie not our selves instrumentally : The known undoubted instrument of our Justification , is Gods Covenant or deed of gift ; which is his pardoning act : They that say it is not a Physical but a Moral instrument , either mean that its morally called an instrument , that is , reputatively , and not really ; or that it is indeed a moral instrument , that is , effecteth our Justification morally . But the latter is false ; for it effecteth it not at all : and the former is false : for as there is no reason ; so there is no Scripture to prove that God reputeth it to be what it is not . All that remaineth to be said is that indeed Faith in Christ is an act whose nature partly ( that is , one act of it ) consisteth in the Acceptance of Christ himself who is given to us for our Justification and Salvation , by a Covenant which maketh this believing-acceptance its condition . And so this accepting-act in the very essence of it , is such as some call a receiving instrument ( or a passive ) which is indeed no instrument , but an act metaphorically called an instrument ( And in disputes metaphors must not be used without necessity ; and to understand them properly is to erre . ) So that such an improper instrument of Justification Faith is , as my trusting my Physician ( and taking him for my Physician ) is the instrument of my cure : And as my trusting my self to the conduct of such a Pilot , is the instrument of my safe voyage ; or as my trusting my Tutor is the instrument of my learning ; or rather as a womans marriage-consent is the instrument of all the wealth and honour which she hath by her husband . Indeed marriage may be better called the instrument of it ; that is , not her own consent ( which is properly the receiving condition ) but the consent and actual marriage by her husband : For he is the giver . And so the Covenant is Gods justifying instrument , as signifying his donative consent ; and Baptism is the instrument of it , by solemn investiture or tradition ; as the delivering of a Key , is the instrumental delivery of the house . The case then is very plain to him that is but willing to understand , viz. that Faith in its essence , is b●sides the assenting acts , an accepting of an offered Saviour for our Justification , Sanctification and Salvation , and a trusting in him : That this act of Faith being its essence , is the most apt for the use that God in his Covenant hath appointed it unto : because he will give us a Saviour freely , but yet not to be refused and neglected , but to be thankfully and honourably received and used : That this special aptitude of Faith , or its very essence , is the reason why it is chosen to be the condition of the Testament or Gift : That this same essence and aptitude , is that which some call its Receptive or Passive Instrumentality : That this essence and aptitude is not the neerest reason why we are justified by it ; for then Faith as Faith , and as such an act or w●rk of ours should justifie , and that ex opere operato ; and that without or against Gods will. For if Gods will have interposed , the signifier of that will must needs be the chief and nearest reason : Therefore this act so apt b●ing by God made the condition of the Gift or Covenant , i●s nearest and chief interest ( I will not call it causali●y ) in our Justification , i● this office of a condition . Therefore in a word , we are justified by Faith directly as , or because it is the conditio praestita , the performance of the condition of the Justifying act ; and it was by God made the condition , b●cause it was in its nature m●st apt thereto ; which aptitude may be metaphorically called its Receptive Instrumentality : And that thus as it accepteth Christ for Justification , Adoption , Sanctification and Glorification ; so it is first the metaphorical instrument of our part in Christ ; and but consequently the metaphorical instrument of our title , to pardon , the Spirit and Heaven ; and in no tollerable sense at all ( how figurative soever ) is it any instrument of Gods sentence of Justification ( which yet is all the Justification acknowledged by the usual defenders of Instrumentality ) saving as it may be said to give us a right to it , by giving us constitutive Justification in the pardon of our sins . And the Scripture never saith that Faith justifieth us , nor calleth it Justifying Faith ; but that we are justified by Faith , and most commonly [ of Faith ] for the usuallest phrase is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ex fide , as it is ex operibus , when Justification by works is denyed ; which is not the meer Instrumentality of works . So that here is a double errour ; 1. That Faith justifieth as a true and proper instrument : 2. And no o●her way . Errour 21. That Faith causeth Justification , as it causeth Sanctification ; as much and as properly . Contr. Faith causeth not Justification at all , but only is the condition of it : But Faith causeth the acts of other graces by a proper efficiency ; believing is a proper efficient cause of the wills volition , complacency , consent , ( though but a moral efficient , because the liberty of the will forbiddeth the Intellect to move it per modum naturae . ) And the wills consent produceth other acts , and physically exciteth other graces : Because to love , and desire , and fear , and seek , and obey , are acts of our own souls , where one may properly cause another : But to justifie or pardon is an act of God : and therefore Faith equally procureth our right or title to Justification and to Sanctification and Glorification ; but it doth not equally effect them , 2 Cor. 7.1 . Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit , perfecting holiness , &c. Not let us pardon and justifie our selves . James 4.8 . Cleanse your hearts you sinners , &c. Isa . 1. Wash you , make you clean , put away the evil of your doings ; ( not your guilt and punishment . ) So only Christ cleanseth us from all sin and unrighteousness , 1 John 1.7 , 9. Jude 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God. John 15. Abide in me . &c. 1 John 5.18 . He that is begotten of God , keepeth himself , &c. Errour 22. That the Faith by which we are justified , is not many physical acts of the soul only , but one . Errour 23. That it is only an act of one faculty of the soul . Contr. The contrary is fully opened before , and proved at large elsewhere , and through the Scripture . Faith is ( as Davenant well noteth ) the act of the whole man : I was wont to say of both faculties , I now say of the three faculties which constitute the soul of man , the Potestative , the Intellective and the Volitive . And the Assent it self is many acts ( as acts are physically specified by their objects ) as is shewed . It is one moral act or work of the soul : Like trusting a man as my Physician , which is a fiducial consent that he be my Physician , in order to the use of his remedies : O● as taking a man to be your Prince , Husband , Tutor , Master , &c. where he that will tell people that taking signifieth but one physical act , would be ridiculous . And he that will tell people that only one physical act of one faculty is it that they must look to be justified by , will be much worse than ridiculous . Errour 24. That we are justified by Faith , not as it receiveth Christs person , but his benefits or righteousness . Contr. The contrary is before and after proved ( and insisted on by Dr. Preston at large . ) Indeed we receive not Christs person it self physically ; but his person in the office and relation of our Saviour ; as we must chuse what person shall be our Physician , before we take his medicines , or receive our health ; but it is only a consent that he and no other , be our Physician , which we call the taking of his person . And so it is here . Errour 25. That it is one act of Faith which giveth us right to Christ , and another to his righteousness , and another to his teaching , and another to his Spirit , and another to Adoption , and to Heaven , &c. and not the same . Contr. This is 1. Adding to the Word of God , and that in a matter near our chiefest comfort and safety . Prove it , or affirm it not . 2. It is corrupting , and perverting , and contradicting the Word and Covenant of God , which unitedly makeeth the same Faith ( without any such distinction ) the condition of all the Covenant-gifts , Mark 16.16 . John 3.16 , &c. Errour 26. That though the same Faith which justifieth doth believe in him as a Teacher , as a King and Judge , &c. yet it justifieth us only quatenus receptio justitiae , as it is the receiving of Christs Righteousness . Contr. See in my Dispute of Justification , my Confutation of this Assertion in Mr. Warner . Properly Faith justifieth not at all ; but we are justified of or by it as a condition by the tenour of Gods deed of gift . And so far as it is the condition in that gift , so far we are justified by it . But it is one entire Faith in Christ , which is the condition , without such distinction ; therefore we are so justified by it . 2. According to that Rule , there must be as many acts of Faith , as there are benefits to be received , and the title to be ascribed to each one accordingly . 3. The natural relation of the act to the object , sheweth no more but what the nature or essence of that Faith is , and not how we come to be justified by it . 4. The sense containeth this false Proposition [ Haec fides qua talis , or quae fides justificat : Faith as Faith , or as this Faith in specie , justifieth ( which some call the ( To credere ) For it is the essence of Faith which they call its Reception of Christs Righteousness . 5. The true passive Reception of Righteousness and Pardon , is that of the person , as he is the terminus of the donative or justifying act of the Covenant : To receive Pardon properly , is to be pardoned : But our Active Receiving or Consent , is but the condition of it ; and there is no proof or reason that the condition should be so parcelled . 6. Yet if by your quatenus you intend no more than the description of the act of Faith as essentially related to its subsequent benefit , and not at all to speak of its conditional nearest interest in our Justification , the matter were less . 7. But the truth is , that if we might distinguish where God doth not distinguish , it were much more rational to say , that taking Christ for a true Messenger of God , and a Teacher , and Sanctifier , and King , hath a greater hand in our Justification , than taking him to justifie us ( supposing that all be present . ) Because the common way and reason of conditions in Covenants is , that somewhat which the party is willing of , is promised upon condition of something which he is unwilling of , that for the one he may be drawn to consent unto the other : As if the Physician should say [ If you will take me for your Physician , and refuse none of my medicines , I will undertake to cure you . ] Here it is supposed that the Patient is willing of health , and not willing of the Medicines , but for healths sake ; and therefore consenting to the Medicines ( or receiving this man to be his Physician as a p●escriber of the Medicines ) is more the condition of his cure , than his consenting to the cure it self , or receiving the Physician as the cause of his health : So here it is supposed that condemned sinners are already willing to be justified , pardoned and saved from punishment , but not willing to repent and follow the teaching and counsel of a Saviour ; and therefore that Pardon and Justification is given and offered them , on condition that they accept of , and submit to the teaching and government of Christ , and of salvation from their sins : But the truth is , we must not presume beyond his revelation , to give the reasons of Gods institutions : We are sure that the entire Belief in Christ , and accepting of himself as our perfect Saviour in order to all the ends of his Relation , is made by God in his Covenant , the condition of our title to the benefits of his Covenant conjunctly : And it is not only the believing in Christ for pardon that as such is the condition of pardon ; nor is any one act the condition of any benefit , but as it is a part of that whole Faith which is indeed the condition . The occasion of their errour is , that they consider only what it is in Christ the object of Faith which justifieth , sanctifieth , &c. and they think that the act only which is exercised on that object must do it ; which is a gross mistake : Because Faith is not like taking of mony , jewels , books , &c. into ones hand , which is a physical act which taketh possession of them : But it is a Jus or Debitum , a Right and Relation which we are morally and passively to receive , as constituting our first Justification and Pardon ; and as the condition of this we are to take Christ for our Saviour , which is but a physicial active metaphorical receiving , in order to the attainment of the said passive proper receiving ( For recipere proprie est pati . ) If an Act be passed , that all Traitors and Rebels , who will give up themselves to the Kings Son , as one that hath ransomed them , to be taught and ruled by him , and reduced to their obedience , & to be their general in the wars against his enemies ; shall have pardon , and lands , and honours , and further rewards after this service ; here the Prince himself doth deliver them by his ransom , and enrich them by his lands , and honour them by his honour or power , &c. But their act of giving up themselves to him under the notion of a Ransomer , doth no more to their deliverance , than their giving up themselves to him under the notion of a General or Ruler , &c. Because it doth not free them as it is such an act , but as it is an act made the condition of his gift . And note that I have before proved , that even as to the object Christ justifieth us in all the parts of his office . Errour 27. That believing in God as God and our Father in Christ , is not an act of Justifying Faith , but only a consequent or concomitant of it . Contr. 1. No doubt but God must some way be believed in , in order of nature , before Christ can be believed in ( as is proved ) who can believe that Christ is the Son and Messenger of God ? who believeth not that there is a God ? Or that Christ reconcileth us to God , before he believe that he is our offended God and Governour . 2. But to believe in God as the end of our Redemption ; to whose love and savour we must be restored by Faith in Christ , and who pardoneth by the Son , is as essential an act of Justifying Faith , as our belief in Christ . Object . But not quatenus justificantis , not of Faith as justifying . Answ . If by [ as justifying ] you mean [ not as effecting Justification ] it is a false supposition : There is no such Faith. If you mean [ not as the condition of Justification ] it is false : It is as essential a part of it as the condition . If you mean [ not as Faith is denominated Justifying from the consequent benefit ] it s true , but impertinent : For the same may be said of Faith in Christ ; it is not called [ Faith in Christ ] as it is called ( by you ) Justifying . And yet I may add , that in the very physical nature of it , Belief in God as our God and End , is essential to it : As consenting to be healed is essential to consenting to the Physician : and consenting to be reconciled is essential to our consenting to a Mediation for that end : Because the respect to the end is essential to the Relation consented to . All the Faith described Heb. 11. in all those instances , hath special essential respect to God. So hath Abrahams faith , Rom. 4.3 . Abraham believed God , and it was imputed to him for righteousness — v. 5. To him that worketh not , but believeth on him ( on God ) that justifieth the ungodly , his Faith is counted for righteousness — v. 8. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin — v. 17. Before him whom he believed , even God who quickeneth the dead — v. 20. He staggered not at the Promise of God — Being fuly perswaded , that what he had promised , he was also able to perform . v. 21 , 22. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness . Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him , but for us also to whom it shall be imputed , if we believe on him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead . Abundance such testimonies are obvious in Scripture ; but this being as plain as can be spoken , he maketh his own Faith , who refuseth to believe it . Our Faith in God as God hath as much hand in our Justification , as our Faith in Christ as Mediatour . But the form of the Baptismal Covenant which the Church ever used , fully proveth it as is aforesaid , though to answer all ignorant cavils against it , as an unnecessary tediousness I pass by . Errour 28. The belief of Heaven , or the life to come , is no essential part of Justifying Faith as such . Contr. The last answer to this Errour is sufficient : Heaven is the everlasting vision and love of God ; and therefore we are justified by believing it , though not it alone : It is essential to our Saviour , to save and bring us to the fruition of God. Errour 29. That Justifying Faith is a believing that I am justified , or elect , and shall be saved by Christ . Errour 30. That this Faith is a full assurance , or perswasion at least , excluding doubting . Contr. 1. We are justified by believing and accepting God for our God , and Christ for our Saviour , that we may be justified ; and not by believing that we are justified . 2. It is false , and ever will be , that any of the praesciti ( as Austin and Prosper call them ) or the Non-Elect , are elect , or justified , or will be saved : But the Non-Elect are commanded and bound to believe with that same kind of Faith by which we are justified : Therefore to believe that they themselves are elect , justified , and shall be saved , is not that kind of Faith by which we are justified . No men are bound by God on pain of damnation to believe a lye , nor damned for not believing it . 3. Assurance of personal pardon , is the happiness but of few true Christians in this life : And where it is , it is only an effect or consequent participating of Faith : See Mr. Hickman on this subject . Errour 31. The meaning of that Article of our Creed [ I believe the remission of sins ] is , I believe that my own sins are forgiven to me personally . Contr. Though worthy Mr. Perkins , and other ancient Divines have too much countenanced this exposition , it is false . The meaning of that Article is but this [ I believe that a sufficient provision for pardon is made by Christ , both for sins before regeneration , and after-fault which shall be repented of ; and that a pardoning Covenant is made to all , if they will repent and believe ; and to me as well as others , and I accept of that gracious offer , and trust in that Covenant in Christ . ] It s dangerous misexpounding Articles of the Creed . Errour 32. At least it is an act of Divine Belief to believe that I am elect , and justified , and shall be saved . Contr. Many have been a great scandal or snare to harden the Papists by asserting this . But the truth is , it is but a rational conclusion from two premises ; the one of which is of Divine Revelation , and the other of inward experience ; and all that is capable of being a controversie to the judicious , is only de nomine , whether logically the conclusion be to be denominated from the more debile of the premises , or from both by participation , as being both an act of Faith , and of Reason , secundum quid , and of neither simpliciter . But it is commonly concluded , that the more debile of the premises must denominate the conclusion : And it is certain de re , that the conclusion can be no more certain than it . Object . But when the Scripture saith , He that believeth shall be saved ; it is equipollent to this , [ I John believe , and therefore I shall be saved . ] Answ . A gross deceit . That I believe , is no where in the Scripture : If it be , doth the Scripture say , that all men believe , or only some ? If some , doth it name them , or notifie them by any thing but the marks by which they must find it in themselves ? Object . But he that believeth may be as sure that he believeth , as that the Scripture is true . Answ . But not that he is sincere , and exceedeth all hypocrites and common believers : At least there are but few that get so full an assurance hereof . Object . The Spirit witnesseth that we are Gods children : And to believe the Spirit , is to believe God. Answ . The Spirit is oft called in Scripture , the witness , and pledge , and earnest , in the same sense ; that is , it is the evid●nce of our right to Christ and life . If any man have not his Spirit , he is none of his , Rom. 8.9 . And hereby we know that he dweleth in us , by the Spirit which he hath given us . As the Spirits Miracles were the witness of Christ , Heb. 2.3 , &c. objectively , as evidence is called witness . 2. And withall the Spirit by illumination and excitation helpeth us to see it self as our evidence . 3. And to rejoyce in this discovery . And thus the Spirit witnesseth our adoption . But none of these are the proper objects of a Divine Belief . 1. The objective evidence of holiness in us , is the object of our rational self-acquaintance , or conscience only . 2. The illuminating grace by which we see this , is not a new Divine Testimony , or proper Revelation , or Word of God ; but the same help of grace by which all other divine things are known . And all the Spirits grace for our understanding of divine Revelations are not new objective Revelations themselves ; requiring a new act of Faith for them . A word or proper Revelation from God is the object of divine belief ; otherwise every illuminating act of the Spirit for our understanding Gods Word , would be it self a new word , to be believed , and so in infinitum . Errour 33. Doubting of the life to come , or of the truth of the Gospel , will not stand with saving Faith. Contr. It will not stand with a confirmed Faith ; but it will with a sincere Faith. He that doubteth of the truth of the promise , so far as that he will not venture life and soul , and all his hopes and happiness , temporal and eternal upon it , hath no true Faith : But he that doubteth , but yet so far bel●eveth the Gospel , as to take God for his only God and portion , and Christ for his only Saviour , and the Spirit for his Sanctifier , and will cast away life , or all that stand in competition , hath a true and saving Faith ; as is before proved . Errour 34. That Repentance is no condition of Pardon or Justification ; for then it would be equal therein with Faith. Contr. I have elsewhere at large proved the contrary from Scripture . Repentance hath many acts as Faith hath . To repent ( as it is the change of the mind ) of our Atheism , Idolatry , and not loving God , and obeying him , is the same motion of the soul denominated from the terminus à quo , as Faith in God , and Love to God is denominated from the terminus ad quem : This is Repentance towards God. Repenting of our Infidelity against Christ , is the same motion of the soul as believing in Christ , only one is denominated from the object-turned from , and the other from the object-turned to . By which you may see that some Repentance is the same with Faith in Christ ; and some is the same with Faith in God ; and some is the same with Love to God ; and some is but the same with the leaving of some particular sin , or turning to some particular fore-neglected duty . And so you may easily resolve the case how far it is the condition of Pardon , Repentance , a● it is a return to the Love of God , as he is our God , and End , and All , is made the final condition of further blessings as necessary in and of it self as the end of Faith in Christ : And Repentance of Infidelity , and Faith in Christ is made the Mediate or Medicinal Condition . As consenting to be friends with your Father or King after a rebellion ; and consenting to the Mediation of a friend to reconcile you , are both conditions , one ( the more noble ) de fine , and the other de mediis : or as consenting to be cured , and consenting to take Physick . They that will or must live in the darkness of confusion , were best at least hold their tongues there , till they come into distinguishing light . Errour 35. That all other acts of Faith in Christ ( as our Lord , or Teacher , or Judge ) or of Faith in God , or the Holy Ghost ; all confessing sin , and praying for pardon , and repenting and forgiving others , and receiving Baptism , &c. are the works which Paul excludeth from Justification : And one act of faith only being the Justifying Instrument , he that looketh to be justified by any of all these , besides that one act , doth look for Justification by Works , and consequently is fallen from grace . Contr. This is not only an addition to Gods Word and Covenant [ not to be used by them that judge it unlawful to add a form or ceremony in his worship ) but it is a most dangerous invention to wrack mens consciences , and keep all men under certain desperation . For whilest the world standeth , the subtilest of these Inventers of new doctrines will never be able to tell the world , which is that one sole act of Faith , by which they are justified , that they may escape looking for a legal Justification by the rest : whether it be believing in Christs Divinity , or Humanity , or both ; or in his Divine , or Humane , or Habitual Righteousness , or his Obedience as a subj●ct , or his Sacrifice , or his Priest-hood offering that Sacrifice , or his Covenant and Promise of Pardon and Justification , or in God that giveth him and them ; or in his Resurrections , or in Gods present sentential or executive Justification ; or in his final sentential Justification , &c. No man to the end of the world shall know which of these , or any other is the sole justifying act ; and so no man can scape being a legal adversary to grace . Unhappy Papists , who by the contrary extream , have frightened or disputed us into such wild and scandalous inventions . Of this see fully my Disput . of Justification , against the worthy and excellent Mr. Anthony Burgess . Errour 36. That our own Faith is not at all imputed to us for Righteousness , but only Christs Righteousness received by it . Contr. The Scripture no where saith , that Christ or his Righteousness , or his Obedience , or his Satisfaction is imputed to us : And yet we justly defend it , as is before explained , and as Mr. Bradshaw and Grotius de satisfact , have explained it . And on the other side , the Scripture often saith , that Faith is imputed for Righteousness , and shall be so to all that believe in God that raised Christ ( Rom. 4. ) And this these objectors peremptorily deny . But expounding Scripture amiss , is a much cleanlier pretence for errour than a flat denyal of its truth . And a true Exposition is better than either . The same God who hath given us a Saviour to satisfie legal Justice , and to merit our Justification against the charge that we are condemnable by the Law of Works ; hath thought meet to convey our title to this Christ and Justification , by the Instrumentality of a new Covenant , Testament , or pardoning Act ; in which ( though he absolutely give many antecedent mercies , yet ) he giveth these and other Rights , by a conditional gift , that as the Reward of Glory should have invited man to keep the Law of Nature and his Innocency ; so the Reward should be a moving means to draw men to believe . So that there is a condition to be performed by our selves ( through grace ) before we can have the Covenant right to Justification . Now when that is performed , Christ then is our only Righteousness ( as aforesaid ) by which we must answer the charge of breaking the first Law , and being condemnable by it . But we can lay no claim to this Righteousness of Christ , till we first prove that we are our selves inherently righteous , against the charge of being impenitent Vnbelievers . This false accusation we must be just●fied against by our own Faith and Repentance ; that we may be justified by Christ , against the true accusation of sinning against the Law , and thereby being condemnable by it . Now as to our Legal Righteousness , or Pro-legal rather , by which this last must be avoided , it is [ only the merits of Christ , given to us in its fruits , in the New Covenant , even the merits of his obedience and sacrifice . ] But our Faith it self is the other Righteousness , which must be found in our persons to entitle us to this first : And this being it , and being all ( in the sense aforesaid ) that is made the condition of our pardon by the New Covenant ; therefore God is said to impute it it self to us for a Righteousness , because that condition makeeth it so ; and to impute it to us for our Righteousness , that is , as all that now by this Covenant he requireth to be personally done by us , who had formerly been under a harder condition , even the fulfilling of the Law by innocency , or suffering for sin ; because he that doth not fulfil nor satisfie , as is said , yet if he believe , hath a right to the Justification merited by Christ , who did fulfil and satisfie . This is easie to be understood as undoubted truth by the willing ; and the rest will be most contentious , where they are most erroneous . Errour 37. That sincere obedience , and all acts of Love , Repentance , and Faith save one , do justifie us only before men ; and of that speaketh St. James , ch . 2. Contr. I must refer the Reader to other Books , in which I have fuly confuted this . How can men judge of the acts of Repentance , Faith , Love , &c. which are in the heart ? And James plainly speaketh of Gods imputing Righteousness to Abraham , James 2.21 , 23. And how should men justifie Abraham for k●lling his only Son ? And how small a matter is Justification by man , when we may be saved without it ? 2. Sincere Obedience to God in Christ , is the condition of the continuance , or not losing our Justification here , and the secondary part of the condition of our final sentential and executive Justification . Errour 38. That our inherent Righteousness before described , hath no place of a condition in our Justification in the day of Judgement . Contr. The Scriptures fully confuting this , I have elsewhere cited . All those that say , we shall be judged according to our works , &c. speak against it : For to be judged , is only to be justified or condemned : So Rev. 22.14 . Matth. 25 , &c. Errour 39 That there is no Justification at Judgement to be expected , but only a declaration of it . Contr. The Decisive sentence and declaration of the Judge , is the most proper sense or sort of Justification , and the perfection of all that went before . If we shall not be then justified , then there is no such thing as Justification by Sentence : Nay , there is no such thing as a day of Judgement ; or else all men must be condemned . For it is most certain that we must be justified , or condemned , or not-judged . Errour 40. That no man ought to believe that the conditional Covenant , Act or Gift of Justification , belongeth to him as a member of the lost world ; or as a sinner in Adam ; because God hath made no such gift or promise to any but to the Elect. Contr. This is confuted on the by before . Errour 41. That though it be false that the non-elect are elect , and that Christ dyed for them , yet they are bound to believe it ; every man of himself , to prove that they are elect . Contr. This is confuted on the by before . God bindeth , or biddeth no man to believe a lye . Errour 42. That we must believe Gods Election , and our Justification , and the special Love of God to us , before we can love him with a special Love : Because it will not cause in us a special love , to believe only a common love of God , and such as he hath to the wicked and his enemies . Contr. No man can groundedly believe the special Love of God to him , nor his own Election or Justification , before he hath ( yea before he find in himself ) a special love to God. Because he that hath no special love to God , must believe a lye if he believe that he is justified , or that ever God revealed to him that he is elect , or specially beloved of God : and no man hath any evidence or proof at all of his election , and Gods special love , till he have this evidence of his special love to God. Till he know this , he cannot know that any other is sincere . 2. They that deny or bl●spheme Gods common love to fallen man , and his universal pardoning Covenant , do their worst to keep men from being moved to the special Love of God by his common Love : But when they have done their worst , it shall stand as a sure obligation . Is there not reason enough to bind men to love God above all , even as one that yet may be their happiness in his own infinite Goodness , and all the revelations of it by Christ , and in his so loving the world , as to give his only Son , that whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have everlasting life . And in his giving a free pardon of all sin to mankind , and offering life eternal to them , so that none but the final refusers shall lose it , and intreating them to accept it , & c ? Is not all this sufficient in reason to move men to that love of God , if the Spirit help them to make use of Reason ( as he must do what Reasons soever are presented to them ) unless men think that God doth not oblige them by any kindness which they can possibly reject ? or by any thing which many others do partake of ? Yet here note , that Gods common love to man , I do not mean , any which he hath to Reprobates , under the consideration of final despisers of his Antecedent Love : But of that Antecedent Love it self , which he hath shewed to lost mankind in Christ . And note also , that I do not deny but that Love of God in some men may be true , where their own presumption that God hath elected them , and loved them above others , before they had any proof of it , was an additional motive : But this is mans way , and not Gods. Errour 43. That trusting to any thing , save God and Jesus Christ , for our salvation , is sin and damnable . Contr. Confusion cheateth and choaketh mens understanding . In a word , to trust to any thing but God , and Christ , and the holy Spirit , for any of that which is the proper part of God , of Christ , of the Spirit , is sin and damnable . But to trust to any thing or person , for that which is but his own part , is but our duty . And he that prayeth , and readeth , and heareth , and endeavoureth , and looketh to be never the better by them , nor trusteth them for their proper part , will be both heartless and formal in his work . And I have shewed before , that the Scripture , the Promise , the Apostles , the Minister , and every Christian and honest man , hath a certain trust due to them for that which is their part , even in order to our salvation . I may trust only to the skill of the Physician , and yet trust his Apothecary , and the Boy that carryeth the Medicine for their part . Errour 44. That it is sinful , and contrary to free grace , to look at any thing in our selves , or our own inherent righteousness , as the evidence of our Justification . Contr. Then no man can know his Justification at all . The Spirit of Holiness and Adoption in our selves , is our earnest of salvation , and the witness that we are Gods children , and the pledge of Gods love ; as is proved before . This is Gods seal , as God knoweth who are his ; so he that will know it himself , must depart from iniquity , when he nameth Christ . If God sanctifie none but those whom he justifieth , then may the sanctified know that they are justified . Hath God delivered in Scripture so many signs or characters of the justified in vain ? Object . The witness of the Spirit only can assure us . Ans . You know not what the witness of the Spirit is ; or else you would know that it is the Spirit making us holy , and possessing us with a filial love of God , and with a desire to please him , and a dependance on him , &c. which is the witness , even by way of an inherent evidence ( and helping us to perceive that evidence , and take comfort in it . ) As a childlike love , and a pleasing obedience , and dependance , with a likeness to the F●ther , is a witness , that is , an evidence which is your child . Errour 45. That it is sinful to perswade wicked men to pray for Justification , or any grace , or to do any thing for it ; seeing their prayers and doings are abominable to God , and cannot please him . Contr. Then it is sinful to perswade a wicked man from his wickedness : Praying and obeying , is departing from wickedness . He that prayeth to be sanctified indeed , is repenting and turning from his sin to God. We never exhort wicked men to pray with the tongue , without the desire of the heart . Desire is the soul of prayer , and words are but the body : We perswade them not to dissemble : But as Peter did Simon , Acts 8. Repent and pray for forgiveness . And if we may not exhort them to good desires ( and to excite and express the best desires they have ) we may not exhort them to conversion , Isa . 55.6 , 10. Seek the Lord while he may be found , and call upon him while he is neer . Let the wicked forsake his way , &c. You see there that praying is a repenting act ; and when we exhort them to pray , we exhort them to repent and seek God. Object . But they have no ability to do it . Ans . Thus the Devil would excuse sinners , and accuse God. Thus you may put by all Gods commands , and say , God should not have commanded them to repent , believe , love him , obey him , nor love one another , nor forbear their sins ; for they have no ability to do it . But they have their natural faculties , or powers , and they have common grace ; and Gods way of giving them special grace , is by meeting them in the use of his appointed means ; and not by meeting them in an Ale-house , or in sinful courses . ( However a soul may be met with in his persecuting , and God may be found of them that sought him not ; yet that is not his usual , nor his appointed way . ) Can any man of reason dream that it is not the duty of a wicked man to use any means for the obtaining of grace , or to be better ; nor to do any thing towards his own recovery and salvation ? Nature and Scripture teach men as soon as they see their sin and misery , to say , What must I do to be saved ? As the re●●nting Jews , and Paul , and the Jaylor 〈◊〉 ▪ Acts 2.37 . & Acts 8. & 16. The prayers of a wicked man as wicked , are abominable ; that 〈◊〉 ●oth his wicked prayers , and his praying to quiet and s●rengthen himself in his wickedness , or praying with the tongue without the heart . The prayers which come from a common faith , and common good desires are better than none , but have no promise of Justification . But the wicked must be exhorted both to this , and more , even to repent , desire and pray sincerely . Errour 46. It is sinful , and against free grace , to think that any works or actions of our own , are rewardable ; or to say , that they are meritorious , though it be nothing but rewardableness that is meant by it . Contr. The Papists have so much abused the word merit , by many dangerous op●nions about it , that it is now become more unmeet to be used by us than it was in ancient times , when the Doctors and Churches ( even Austin himself ) did commonly use it . But if nothing be meant by it , but rewardableness , or the relation of a duty to the reward as freely promised by God ( as many Papists themselves understand it , and the ancient Fathers generally did ) he that will charge a man with errour in doctrine for the use of an inconvenient word , is uncharitable and perverse ; especially when it is other mens abuse , which hath done most to make it inconvenient . The merit of the cause is a common phrase among all Lawyers , when there is commutative meriting intended . I have fully shewed in my Confession , that the Scripture frequently useth the word [ worthy ] which is the same or full as much : And a subject may be said to merit protection of his Prince ; and a scholar to merit praise of his Master , and a child to deserve love and respect from his Parents , and all this in no respect to commutative Justice , wherein the Rewarder is supposed to be a gainer at all ; but only in governing distributive Justice , which giveth every one that which ( by gift or any way ) is his due . And that every good man , and every good action , deserveth praise , that is , to be esteemed such as it is . And that there is also a comparative merit , and a not meriting evil : As a Believer may be said not to deserve damnation by the Covenant of Grace , but only by ( or according to ) the Law of Nature or Works . But to pass from the word merit ( which I had rather were quite disused , because the danger is greater than the benefit ) the thing signified thus by it , is past all dispute , viz. that whatever duty God hath promised a Reward to , that duty or work is Rewardable according to the tenour of that promise : And they that deny this , deny Gods Laws , and Government , and Judgement , and his Covenant of Grace , and leave not themselves one promise for faith to rest upon : So certainly would all these persons be damned , if God in mercy did not keep them from digesting their own errours , and bringing them into practice . Errour 47. God is pleased with us only for the righteousness of Christ , and not for any thing in our selves . Contr. This is sufficiently answered before . He blasphemeth God , who thinketh that he is no better pleased with holiness than with wickedness ; with well doing , than with ill doing . They that are in the flesh cannot please God , Rom. 8.6 , 7. but the spiritual and obedient may . Without faith it is impossible to please him , because unbelievers think not that he is a Rewarder , and therefore will not seek his reward aright : But they that will please him , must believe that he is , and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him , Heb. 11.6 . They forget not to do good and distribute , because with such sacrifices God is well pleased , Heb. 13. And in a word , it is the work of all their lives to labour , that whether living or dying they may be accepted of him , 2 Cor. 5.8 , 9. and to 〈◊〉 ●uch , and to do those things as are pleasing in his sight . Nay , 〈◊〉 add that as the glory of God , that is , the glorious demonst●●●ion or appearance of himself in his works , is materially the ultimate end of man ; so the pleasing of himself in this his glory shining in his Image and Works , is the very apex , or highest formal notion of this ultimate end of God and of man , as far as is within our reach . No mans works please God out of Christ , both because they are unsound and bad in the spring and end , and because their faultiness is not pardoned . But in Christ , the persons and duties of the godly are pleasing to God , because they have his Image , and are sincerely good , and because their former sins , and present imperfections are forgiven for the sake of Christ ( who never reconciled God to wickedness . Errour 48. It is m●rcenary to work for a reward , and legal to set men on doing for salvation . Contr. It is legal or foolish to think of working for any reward , by such meritorious works as make the reward to be not of grace , but of debt , Rom. 4.4 . But he that maketh God himself , and his everlasting love to be his reward , and trusteth in Christ the only reconciler , as knowing his guilt and enmity by sin ; and laboureth for the food which perisheth not , but endureth to everlasting life ; and layeth up a treasure in Heaven , and maketh himself friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness , and layeth up a good foundation for the time to come , laying hold upon eternal life , and striverh to enter in at the strait gate , and fighteth a good fight , and finisheth his course for the Crown of Righteousness , and suffereth persecution for a reward in Heaven , and prayeth in secret that God may reward him , and alwaies aboundeth in the work of the Lord , because his labour is not in vain in the Lord , and endureth to the end , that he may be saved , and is faithful to the death , and overcometh , that he may receive the Crown of Life : this man taketh Gods way , and the only way to Heaven ; and they that thus seek not the reward ( being at the use of reason ) are never like to have it . Errour 49. It is not lawful for the justified to pray for the pardon of any penalties , but temporal . Contr. The ground of this is before overthrown . Errour 50. It is not lawful to pray twice for the pardon of the same sin ; because it implieth unbelief , as if it were not pardoned already . Contr. It is a duty to pray oft and continuedly for the pardon of former sins : 1. Because pardon once granted must be continued ; and therefore the continuance must be prayed for : If you say , It is certain to be continued , I answer , then it is as certain that you will continue to pray for it ( and to live a holy life . ) 2. Because the evils deserved , are such as we are not perfectly delivered from , and are in danger of more daily . And therefore we must pray for daily executive pardon , that is , impunity ; and that God will give us more of his Spirit , and save us from the fruit of former sin : Because our right to future impunity is given before all the impunity it self . 3 ▪ And the compleat Justification from all past sins , is yet to come at the day of Judgement . And all this , ( besides that some that have pardon , know it not ) may and must be daily prayed for . Errour 51. The Justified must not pray again for the pardon of the sins before conversion . Contr. What was last said confuteth this . Errour 52. No man at all may pray for pardon , but only for assurance : For the sins of the Elect are all pardoned before they were born : and the non-elect have no satisfaction made for their sins , and therefore their pardon is impossible . Contr. Matth. 6. Forgive us our trespasses &c. These consequences do but shew the falshood of the antecedents . Errour 53. No man can know that he is under the guilt of any sin ; because no man can know but that he is elect , and consequently justified already . Contr. No infidel , or impenitent person is justified . Errour 54. Christ only is covenanted with by the Father , and he is the only Promiser as for us , and not we for our selves . Contr. Christ only hath undertaken to do the work of Christ ; but man must undertake , and promise , and covenant , even to Christ himself , that ( by the help of his grace ) he will do his own part . Or else no man should be baptized . What a Baptism and Sacramental Communion do these men make ? He that doth not covenant with the Father , Son , and Holy Spirit , hath no right to the benefits of Gods part of the Covenant . And no man ( at age ) can be saved that doth not both promise and perform . Errour 55. We are not only freed from the condemning sentence of the Law ; but freed also from its commands . Contr. We are not under Moses Judaical Law , which was proper to their Nation , and their Proselites : Nor are we under a necessity or duty , of labouring after perfect obedience in our selves , as the condition of our Justification or Salvation ; but to renounce all such expectations . Nor will the Law of Works it self ever justifie us ( as some affirm ) as having perfectly fulfilled it by another : But we are justified against its charge , and not by it , by the Covenant of Grace , and not of Works . But perfect obedience to all the Law of Nature , and all the Commands of Christ , is still our duty , and sincere obedience is necessary to our salvation . All our duty is not supererrogation . Errour 56. When a man doubteth whether he be a Believer or penitent , he must believe that Christ repented and believed for him . Contr. Christ never had sin to repent of ; and it is not proper to say one repenteth of anothers sin ; Christ believed his Father ; but had no use for that faith in a Mediatour which we must have . He that repenteth not , and believeth not himself , shall be damned : Therefore you may see how Christ repented and believed for us . Errour 57. A man that trusteth to be justified at the day of Judgement , against the charge of unbelief , impenitency and hypocrisie , by his own faith , repentance and sincerity , as his particular subordinate Righteousness , and not by Christs Righteousness imputed only sinneth against free grace . Contr. Christs Righteousness is imputed or given to none , nor shall justifie any that are true Vnbelievers , Impenitent or Hypocrites : Therefore if any such person trust to be justified by Christ , he deceiveth him . If the 〈◊〉 be , Thou art an Infidel or impenitent , it is frivolous to say , But Christ obeyed , suffered , or believed , or repented for me . But he that will then be justified against that charge , must say , and say truly , I truly believed , repented and obeyed . Errour 58. There is no use for a Justification against any such false accusation before God , who knoweth all mens hearts . Contr. 1. You might as well say , There is no use of judging men according to what they have done , when God knoweth what they have done already . 2. We are to be justified by God before men and Angels , that Christ may be glorified in his Saints , and admired in all them that believe , because the Gospel was believed by them , 2 Thes . 1.10 , 11. And not only the mouth of iniquity may be stopped , and open false accusations confuted ; but that the prejudices and heart-slanders of the wicked may be refelled , and our righteousness be brought forth as the light , and our judgement as the noon day : That all the false judgements and reproaches of the wicked against the just may be confounded ; and they may answer for all their ungodly sayings , and hard speeches ( as Henoch prophesied ) against the godly : and that they that speak evil of us , because we run not with them to all excess of riot , may give an account to him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead , 1 Pet. 4.4 , 5. And that all may be set straight which men made crooked , and hidden things be all brought to light . 3. And we must be better acquainted with the ingenuity of the great accuser of the Brethren , before we can be sure that he who belyed God to man , will not bely man to God ; seeing he is the Father of lyes , and did so by Job , &c. 4. But we m●st not think of the day of Judgement , as a day of talk between God , and Satan , and Man ; but as a day of DECISIVE LIGHT or manifestation . And so the case is out of doubt . The Faith , Repentance and Sincerity of the just will be there manifest , against all former or latter , real or vertual calumnies of men or devils to the contrary . 5. But above all let it be marked , that nothing else can be matter of controversie to be decided . That Christ hath obeyed , and suffered , and satisfied for Believers sins , and made a testament or covenant to pa●●●n all true Believers , will be known to the accuser , and past all doubt . The day of Judgement is not to try Christs obedience and sufferings , nor to decide the case whether he fulfilled the Law , and satisfied for sin , or made a pardoning Covenant to Believers : But whether we have part in him or not , and so are to be justified by the Gospel-Covenant , through his merits against the Legal Covenant : And whether we have fulfilled the conditions of the pardoning Covenant or not . This is all that can be then made a Controversie ; this is the secrets of mens heart and case that must be opened before the world by God. However we doubt not , but the glory of all will redound to Christ , whose merits are unquestioned . 6. Note also , that Christ will be the Judge on supposition of his merits , and not the party to be tryed and judged . 7. Note also , that we are to be judged by the New Covenant or Law of Liberty , and therefore it is the condition of that Covenant ( as made with us ) which is to be enquired after . 8. Note also that Christ himself in Matth. 25. ( and every where ) when he describeth the day of Judgement , doth not at all speak of any decision of such a controversie , as whether he was the Lamb of God , who took away the sins of the world ? or whether he did his part or not ; but only whether men did their parts or not , and shewed the sincerity of their love to God and him , by venturing all for him , and owning him in his servants , to their cost and hazard . And the fruit of Christs part is only mentioned as a presupposed thing ▪ Come ye blessed of my Father , inherit the Kingdom prepared for you — For I was hungry , &c. The Preparation ( in Gods Decree and Christs merits ) is unquestioned , and so is the donation to all true Believers ; therefore it is the case of their Title to this gift , and of the condition or evidence of their title , which is here tryed and decided . Lastly , Note that upon the decision , in respect of both together ( Christs Merits and Covenant as supposed , and their own true Faith , and Love , as manifested decisively ) they are called Righteous , v. 46. The Righteous into life eternal . So much to take the stumbling-blocks out of the way of Faith , about Free-Grace and Justification , which the weakness of many well meaning erroneous men hath laid there of late times , to the great danger or impediment of weak Believers . Isa . 57.14 . Take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people . Levit. 19.14 . Thou shalt not put a stumbling-block before the blind , but shalt fear thy God. CHAP. IX . How to live by Faith , in order to the exercise of other graces and duties of Sanctification , and Obedience to God. And first of the Doctrinal Directions . WE cannot by Faith promote Sanctification , unless we understand the nature and reasons of Sanctification . This therefore must be our first endeavour . The word [ Sanctified ] doth signifie that which is separated to God from common uses . ] And this separation is either by God himself ( as he hath sanctified the Lords day , &c. ) or by mans dedication ; either of persons to a holy office ; and so the Ministers of Christ are sanctified in their Ordination ( which is a Consecration ) and their self-dedication to God. ( And it is high sacriledge in themselves , or any other , that shall alienate them unjustly from their sacred calling and work . ) Or of things to holy uses ; ( as places and utensils may be sanctified : Or it may be a dedication of persons to a holy state , relation and use ; as is that of every Christian in his Baptism ▪ and this is either an external dedication ; and so all the baptized are sanctified and holy , or an internal Dedication , which if it be sincere , it is both actual and habitual ; when we both give up our selves to God in Covenant , and are also disposed and inclined to him ; and our hearts are set upon him ; yea and the life also consisteth of the exercise of this disposition , and performance of this covenant . This is the Sanctification which here I speak of . And so much for the name . The doctrinal Propositions necessary to be understood about it , are these ( more largely and plainly laid down in my Confession , Chap. 3. ) Prop. 1. So much of the appearance or Image of God as there is upon any creature , so much it is good and amiable to God and man. Object . God loveth us from eternity , and when we were his enemies ; not because we were good , but to make us better than we were . Answ . Gods Love ( and all Love ) consisteth formally in complacency . God hath no complacency in any thing but in good ; or according to the measure of its goodness : From eternity God foreseeing the good which would be in us , loved us as good in esse cognito ; and not as actually good , when we were not . When we were his enemies , he had a double love to us ( or complacency ) the one was for that natural good which remained in us as we were men , and repairable , and capable of being made Saints . The other was for that foreseen goodes in esse cognito , which he purposed in time to come , to put upon us . This complacency exceeded not at all the good which was the object of it : But with it was joyned a will and purpose to give us grace and glory hereafter ; and thence it is called , A Love of Benevolence : Not but that complacency is the true action of Love ; and Benevolence , or a purpose to give benefits , is but the fruit of it . But if any will needs call the Benevolence alone by the name of Love , we deny not in that sense that God loveth Saul a persecutor , as well as Paul an Apostle ; in that his purpose to do him good is the same . Object . God loveth us in Christ , and for his righteousness , and not only for our own inherent holiness . Answ . 1. The Benevolence of God is exercised towards us in and by Christ ; and the fruits of his Love are Christ himself , and the mercies given us with Christ , and by Christ . And our Pardon , and Justification , and Adoption , and Acceptance is by his meritorious righteousness : And it is by him that we are possessed with Gods Spirit , and renewed according to his Image , in Wisdom , and Righteousness , and Holiness : And all this relative and inherent mercy we have as in Christ , related to him , without whom we have nothing : And thus it is that we are accepted and beloved in him , and for his righteousness . But Christ did not die or merit to change Gods Nature , and make him more indifferent in his Love to the holy and the unholy , or equally to the more holy , and to the less holy . But his complacency is still in no man further than he is made truly amiable in his real holiness , and his relation to Christ , and to the Father . ( The Doctrine of Imputation is opened before . ) John 16.27 . The Father himself loveth you , because ye have loved me , and believed , &c. And 14.21 . He that loveth me , shall be loved of my Father — As God loved us with the love of benevolence , and so much complacence as is before described before we loved him ( 1 John 4.10 . Ephes . 2.4 . ) so he now loveth us complacentially for his Image upon us , and so much of his grace as is found in us ; and also for our relation to his Son , and to himself , which we stand in by this grace : But as he loveth not Saul a persecutor , under the notion of a fulfiller of his Law in Christ ; so neither doth he love David in his sin , under the notion of one that is without sin , and perfect , as having fulfilled the Law in Christ : But so loveth him in Christ , as to pardon his sin , and make him more lovely in himself , by creating a clean heart , and renewing a right spirit within him , for the sake of the satisfaction and merits of Christ . Prop. 2. Holiness is Gods Image upon us , and that which was our primitive amiableness , Col. 3.10 . Prop. 3. The loss of Holiness , was the loss of our amiableness , and our state of enmity to God. Prop. 4. Holiness consisteth in 1. Our resignation of our selves to God as our Owner , and submission to his Providence : 2. And our subjection to God as our Ruler ; and obedience to his Teaching and his Laws : 3. And in Thankfulness and Love to God as our Chief Good , efficiently and finally . Prop. 5. Love is that final perfective act , which implyeth and comprehendeth all the rest ; and so is the fulfilling of the Law , and the true state of sanctification , Rom. 13.10 . Matth. 22.37 . Mark 12.33 . 1 John 7.16 . Prop. 6. Heaven it self , as it is our ultimate end and perfection , is but our perfect Love to God maintained by perfect vision of him , with the perfect reception of his Love to us . Prop. 7. Therefore it was Christs great business in the world , to destroy the works of the Devil , and to bring us to this perfect Love of God. Prop. 8. Accordingly the greatest use of Faith in Christ is to subserve and kindle our Love to God. Prop. 9. This it doth two special waies : 1. By procuring the pardon of sin , which forfeited the grace of the Spirit ; that so the Spirit may kindle the Love of God in us : 2. By actual beholding the Love of God , which shineth to us most gloriously in Christ , by which our Love must be excited , as the most suitable and effectual means , John 3.1 . & 4.10 . Prop. 10. Our whole Religion therefore consisteth of two parts : 1. Primitive Holiness , restored and perfected : 2. The restoring and perfecting means : Or 1. Love to God , the final and mor● excellent part : 2. Faith in Christ , the mediate part . Faith causing Love , and Love caused by Faith , 1 Cor. 12. last , & 13. Rom. 8.35 . Ephes . 6.23 . 1 Tim. 1.5 . 2 Thes . 3.5 . 1 Cor. 2.9 . & 8.3 . Rom. 8.28 . James 1.12 . & 2.5 . 1 Pet. 1.8 . Prop. 11. Repentance towards God , is the souls return to God in Love ; and Regeneration by the Spirit , is the Spirits begetting us to the Image and Nature of God our heavenly Father , in a heavenly Love to him : So that the Holy Ghost is given us to work in us a Love to God , which is our sanctification , Rom. 5.5 . Titus 3.4 , 5 , 6 , 7. 2 Cor. 13.14 . 1 John 4.16 . Prop. 12. When Sanctification is mentioned as a gift consequent to Faith , it is the Love of God as our Father in Christ , and the Spirit of Love , that is principally meant by that Sanctification . Prop. 13. The pardon of sin consisteth more in forgiving the poenam damni , the forfeiture and loss of Love , and the Spirit of Love , than in remitting any corporal pain of sense . And the restoring of Love , and the Spirit of Love , and the perfecting hereof in Heaven , is the most eminent part of our executive Pardon , Justification and Adoption . Thus far Sanctification is Pardon it self , Rom. 8.15 , 16 , 17. Gal. 4 6. 1 Cor. 6.10 , 11. Titus 3.6 , 7. Titus 2.13 , 14. Rom. 6. Rom. 8.4 , 10 , 13. Prop. 14. The pardon of the pain of sense , is given us as a means , to the executive pardon of the pain of loss , that is , to put us in a capacity , with doubled obligations and advantages to Love God , Luke 7.47 . Prop. 15. Sanctification therefore being better than all other pardon of sin , as being its end ; we must value it more , and must make it our first desire to be as holy as may be , that we may need as little forgiveness as may be , and in the second place only desire the pardon of that which we had rather not have committed ; and not make pardon our chief desire , Rom. 6 , & 7 , & 8. throughout , Gal. 5.17 . to the end . Prop. 16. Holiness is the true Morality ; and they that prefer the preaching , and practice of Faith in Christ , b●fore the preaching and practice of Holiness , and sleight this as meer morality , do prefer the means before the end , and their physick before their health : And they that preach or think to practise Holiness , without Faith in Christ , do dream of a cure without the only Physician of souls . And they that preach up Morality as consisting in meer justice , charity to men , and temperance , without the Love of God in Christ , do take a branch cut off and withered , for the tree . Some ignorant Sectaries cry down all Preaching , as meer morality , which doth not frequently toss the name of Christ , and Free Grace . And some ungodly Preachers , who never felt the work of Faith or Love to God in their own souls , for want of holy experience , savour not , and understand not holy Preaching ; and therefore spend almost all their time , in declaiming against some particular vices , and speaking what they have learned of some vertues of sobriety , justice or mercy . And when they have done , cover over their ungodly unbelieving course , by reproaching the weaknesses of the former sort , who cry down Preaching meer morality . But let such know , that those Ministers and Christians , who justly lament their lifeless kind of Preaching , do mean by morality , that which you commonly call Ethicks in the Schools , which leaveth out not only Faith in Christ , but the Love of God , and the Sanctification of the Spirit , and the heavenly Glory . And they do not cry down true morality , but these dead branches of it , which are all your morality : It is not morality it self inclusively that they blame , but meer morality , that is , so much only as Aristotles Ethicks teach , as exclusive to the Christian Faith and Love. And do you think with any wise men ( or with your own consciences long to find it a cloak to your Infidel or unholy hearts and doctrine , to mistake them that blame you , or to take advantage of that ignorance of others ? The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ , and the Love of God the Father , and the Communion of the Holy Ghost , do shut up your Liturgy by way of Benediction ; but it is almost all shut out of your Sermons , unless a few heartless customary passages : And when there is nothing less in your preaching , than that which is the substance of your Baptismal Covenant and Christianity , and your customary Benediction ; you do but tell the people what kind of Christianity you have , and what Benediction : that is , that you are neither truly Christians , nor Blessed . True Morality , or the Christian Ethicks , is the Love of God and man , stirred up by the Spirit of Christ , through Faith ; and exercised in works of Piety , Justice , Charity and Temperance , in order to the attainment of everlasting happiness , in the perfect vision and fruition of God. And none but ignorant or brain-sick Sectaries , will be offended for the Preaching of any of this Morality . Luke 11.42 . W● to you Pharisees ; for ye tythe Mint and Rue — and pass over Judgment and the Love of God : These ought ye to have done , and not to leave the other undone . CHAP. X. The Practical Directions to live by Faith , a life of Holiness or Love. Direct . 1. TAke Jesus Christ as a Teacher sent from Heaven ; the best and surest revealer of God and his Will unto mankind . All the Books of Philosophers are sapless and empty , in comparison of the teaching of Jesus Christ ; they are but enquiries into the nature of the creatures , and the lowest things , most impertinent to our happiness or duty : Or if they rise up to God , it is but with dark and unpractical conjectures , for the most part of them : and the rest do but grope and fumble in obscurity . And their learning is mostly but useless speculations , and striving about words and sciences falsly so called , which little tend to godly edifying . It is Christ who is made wisdom to us , as being himself the wisdom of God. If you knew but where to hear an Angel , you would all prefer him before Aristotle or Plato , or Cartesius , or Gassendus ; how much more the Son himself ? He is the true Light , to lighten every man that will not serve the Prince of darkness . Christians were first called Christs Disciples ▪ and therefore to learn of him the true knowledge of God , is the work of every true Believer , John 17. ● . Acts 3.23 . John 8.43 , 47. & 10.3 , 27. & 12.47 . & 14.24 . Matth. 17.5 . Direct . 2. Remember that Christs way of Teaching is ; 1 : By his Word , 2. His Ministers ; 3. And his Spirit conjunct , and the place for his Disciples is in his Church . 1. His Gospel written is his Book which must be taught us . 2. His Ministers office is to teach it us . 3. His Spirit is inwardly to illuminate us that we may understand it . And he that will despise or neglect either the Scripture , Ministry or Spirit , is never like to learn of Christ . Direct . 3. Look on the Lord Jesus , and the work of mans Redemption by him , as the great designed Revelation of the Fathers Love and Goodness ; even as the fabrick of the world is set up to be the Glass or Revelation ( eminently ) of his Greatness . Therefore as you chuse your Book for the sake of the Science or subject which you would learn ; so let this be the designed , studied , constant use which you make of Christ , to see and admire in him the Fathers Love. When you read your Grammar , if one ask you , why ? you will say it is to learn the language which it teacheth ; and he that readeth Law-books , or Philosophy , or Medicine , it is to learn Law , Philosophy or Physick : so whenever you read the Gospel , meditate on Christ , or hear his Word ; if you are askt why you do it ? be able to say , I do it to learn the Love of God , which is no where else in the world to be learnt so well . No wonder if Hypocrites have learned to mortifie Scripture , Sermons , Prayers , and all other means of grace ; yea all the world which should teach them God ; and to learn the letters , and not the sense : But it is most pittiful that they should thus mortifie Christ himself to them ; and should gaze on the glass , and never take much notice of the face even of the Love of God which he is set up to declare . Direct . 4. Therefore congest all the great discoveries of this Love , and set them all together in order ; and make them your daily study , and abhor all doctrines or suggestions from men or devils , which tend to disgrace , diminish or hide this revealed Love of God in Christ . Think of the grand design it self ; the reconciling and saving of lost mankind : Think of the gracious nature of Christ ; of his wonderful condescention in his incarnation in his life and doctrine , in his sufferings and death ; in his miracles and gifts : Think of his merciful Covenant and Promises ; of all his benefits given to his Church ; and all the priviledges of his Saints ; of pardon and peace , of his Spirit of Holiness , of preservation and provision , of resurrection and justification , and of the life of glory which we shall live for ever . And if the Faith which looketh on all these , cannot yet warm your hearts with love , nor engage them in thankful obedience to your Redeemer , certainly it is no true and lively Faith. But you must not think narrowly and seldom of these mercies ; not hearken to the Devil or the doctrine of any mistaken Teachers , that would represent Gods Love as vailed or ecclipsed ; or shew you nothing but wrath and flames . That which Christ principally came to reveal , the Devil principally striveth to conceal , even the Love of God to sinners ; that so that which Christ principally came to work in us , the Devil might principally labour to destroy ; and that is , our love to him that hath so loved us . Direct . 5. Take heed of all the Antinomian Doctrines before recited , which , to extol the empty Name and Image of Free Grace , do destroy the true principles and motives of holiness and obedience . Direct . 6. Exercise your Faith upon all the holy Scriptures , Precepts , Promises and Threatnings , and not on one of them alone . For when God hath appointed all conjunctly for this work , you are unlike to have his blessing , or the effect , if you will lay by most of his remedies . Direct . 7. Take not that for Holiness and Good Works , which is no such thing ; but either mans inventions , or some common gifts of God. It greatly deludeth the world , to take up a wrong description or character of Holiness in their minds . As 1. The Papists take it for Holiness , to be very observant in their adoration of the supposed transubstantiated Host ; to use their reliques , pilgrimages , crossings , prayers to Saints and Angels , anointings , Candles , Images , observation of meats and daies , penance , auricular confession , praying by numbers and hours on their beads , &c. They think their idle ceremonies are holiness , and that their hurtful austerities , and self-afflictings ( by rising in the night , when they might pray as long before they go to bed ) ( and by whipping themselves ) to be very meritorious parts of Religion . And their vows of renouncing marriage and propriety , and of absolute obedience , to be a state of perfection . 2. Others think that Holiness consisteth much in being rebaptized , and in censuring the Parish-Churches and Ministers as Null , and in withdrawing from their communion ; and in avoiding forms of prayer , &c. 3. And others ( or the same ) think that more of it consisteth in the gifts of utterance , in praying , and preaching , than indeed it doth ; and that those only are godly , that can pray without book ( in their families , or at other times ) and that are most in private meetings ; and none but they . 4. And some think that the greatest parts of Godliness , are the spirit of bondage to fear ; and the shedding of tears for sin ; or finding that they were under terrour , before they had any spiritual peace and comfort ; or being able to tell at what Sermon , or time , or in what order , and by what means they were converted . It is of exceeding great consequence , to have a right apprehension of the Nature of Holiness , and to escape all false conceits thereof . But I shall not now stand further to describe it , because I have done it in many Books , especially in my Reasons of the Christian Religion , and in my [ A Saint , or a Bruit ] and in a Treatise only of the subject called The character of a sound Christian . Direct . 8. Let all Gods Attributes be orderly and deeply printed in your minds ; ( as I have directed in my book called , The Divine Life . ) For it is that which must most immediately form his Image on you . To know God in Christ is life eternal , John 17.3 . Direct . 9. Never separate reward from duty , but in every religious or obedient action , still see it as connext with Heaven . The means is no means but for the end ; and must never be used but with special respect unto the end . Remember in reading , hearing , praying , meditating in the duties of your callings and relations , and in all acts of charity and obedience ; that All this is for Heaven . It will make you mend your pace , if you think believingly whither you are going , Heb. 11. Direct . 10. Yet watch most carefully against all proud self-esteeming thoughts of proper merit as obliging God ; or as if you were better than indeed you are . For Pride is the most pernicious vermine that can breed in gifts or in good works . And the better you are indeed , the more humble you will be , and apt to think others better than your self . Direct . 11. So also in every temptation to sin , let Faith see Heaven open , and take the temptation in its proper sense , q. d. [ Take this pleasure instead of God : sell thy part in Heaven for this preferment or commodity : cast away thy soul for this sensual delight . ] This is the true meaning of every temptation to sin , and only Faith can understand it . The Devil easily prevaileth , when Heaven is forgotten and out of sight ; and pleasure , commodity , credit and preferment , seem a great matter , and can do much , till Heaven be set in the ballance against them ; and there they are nothing , and can do nothing , Phil. 3.7 , 8 , 9. Heb. 12.1 , 2 , 3. 2 Cor. 4.16 , 17. Direct . 12. Let Faith also see God alwaies present . Men dare do any thing when they think they are behind his back ; even truants and eye-servants will do well under the Masters eye : Faith seeing him that is invisible ( Heb. 11. ) is it that sanctifieth heart and life . As the Attributes of God are the seal which must make his Image on us ; so the apprehension of his presence setteth them on , and keepeth our faculties awake . Direct . 13. Be sure that Faith make Gods acceptance your full reward , and set you above the opinion of man. Not in self-conceitedness , and pride of your self-sufficiency , to set light by the judgment of other men : ( That is a heinous sin of it self , and doubled when it is done upon pretence of living upon God alone . ) But that really you live so much to God alone , as that all men seem as nothing to you , and their opinion of you , as a blast of wind , in regard of any felicity of your own , which might be placed in their love or praise : Though as a means to Gods service , and their own good , you must please all men to their edification , and become all things to all men , to win them to God , Gal. 1.10 , 11. Rom. 15.1 , 2. Prov. 11.30 . 1 Cor. 9.22 . & 10.33 . yea and study to please your Governours as your duty , Titus 2.9 . But as man-pleasing is the Hypocrites work and wages ; so must the pleasing of God be ours , though all the world should be displeased , Matth. 6.1 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 6 , &c. 2 Tim. 2.4 . 1 Cor. 7.32 . 1 Thes . 4.1 . 2 Cor. 5.8 , 9. 1 Thes . 2.4 . 1 John 3.22 . Direct . 14. Let the constant work of Faith be , to take you off the life of sense , by mortifying all the concupiscence of the flesh , and over-powering all the objects of sense . The neerness of things sensible , and the violence and unreasonableness of the senses and appetite , do necessitate Faith to be a conflicting grace . It s use is to illuminate , elevate and corroborate Reason , and help it to maintain its authority and government . The life of a Believer is but a conquering warfare between Faith and Sense , and between things unseen , and the things that are seen . Therefore it is said , that they th●● are in the flesh cannot please God ; because the flesh b●ing the predominant principle in them , they most savour and mind the things of the flesh ; and therefore they can do more with them , than the things of the Spirit can do , when both are set before them , Rom. 8.5 , 6 , 7 , 8. Direct . 15. Let Faith set the example , first of Christ , and next of his holiest servants , still before you . He that purposely lived among men in fl●sh , a life of holiness and patience , and contempt of the world , to be a pattern or example to us , doth expect that it be the daily work of Faith to imitate him ; and therefore that we have this Copy still before our eyes . It will help us when we are sluggish , and sit down in low and common things , to see more noble things before us . It will help us when we are in doubt of the way of our duty ; and when we are apt to favour our corruptions : It will guide our minds , and quicken our desires , with a holy ambition and covetousness to be more holy : It will serve us to answer all that the world or flesh can say , from the contrary examples of sinning men : If any tell us what great men , or learned men think , or say , or do , against Religion , and for a sinful life ; it is enough , if Faith do but tell us presently , what Christ , and his Apostles , and Saints , and Martyrs , have thought , and said , and done to the contrary , Mat. 11.28 , 29. 1 Pet. 2.21 . John 13.15 . Phil. 3.17 . 2 Thes . 3.9 . 1 Tim. 4.12 . Ephes . 5.1 . Heb. 6.12 . 1 Thes . 1.6 . & 2.14 . Direct . 16. Let your Faith set all graces on work in their proper order and proportion ; and carry on the work of holiness and obedience in harmony ; and not set one part against another , nor look at one while you forget or neglect another . Every grace and duty is to be a help to all the rest : And the want or neglect of any one , is a hinderance to all : As the want of one wheel or smaller particle in a clock or watch , will make all stand still , or go out of order . The new creature consisteth of all due parts , as the body doth of all its members . The soul is as a musical instrument , which must neither want one string , nor have one out of tune , nor neglected , without spoiling all the melody . A fragment of the most excellent work , or one member of the comliest body cut off , is not beautiful : The beauty of a holy soul and life , is not only in the quality of each grace and duty , but much in the proportion , feature and harmony of all . Therefore every part hath its proper armour , Ephes . 6.11 , 12 , 13 ▪ 14. And the whole armour of God must be put on : Because all fulness dwelleth in Christ ; we are compleat in him , as being sufficient to communicate every grace . Epaphras laboured alwaies fervently in prayers for the Colossians , that they might stand perfect and compleat in all the Will of God , Col. 4.12 . James 1.4 . Let patience have her perfect work , that ye may be perfect and entire , wanting nothing . We oft comfort our selves , that though we want the perfection of degrees , yet we have the perfection of parts , or of integrity . But many are fain to prove this only by inferring , that he that hath one grace , hath all ; but as to the discerning and orderly use of all , they are yet to seek . CHAP. XI . Of the Order of Graces and Duties . BEcause I find not this insisted on in any Writers for the peoples instruction , as it ought , I will not pass over so needful a point without some further advertisement about it . I will therefore shew you , 1. What is the compleatness and the harmony to be desired : 2. What are our contrary defects and distempers : 3. What are the causes of them , and what must be the cure : 4. Some useful Inferences hence arising . I. He that will be compleat and entire , must have all these Graces and Duties following . 1. A solid and clear understanding of all the great , the needful and practical matters of the sacred Scriptures , 2 Tim. 3.16 . ( And if he have the understanding of the Scripture languages , and the customs of those times , and other such helps , his understanding of the Scripture will be the more compleat , Acts 26.3 . If he have not , he must make use of other mens . ) 2. A settled well grounded Belief of all Gods supernatural Revelations ( as well as the knowledge of natural verities . ) 3. Experience to make this knowledge and belief to be satisfactory , powerful and firm . Especially the experience of the Spirits effectual operations in our selves , by the means of this word , Rom. 5.4 . & 8.9 . Gal. 4.6 . 4. The historical knowledge of the Scripture matters of fact , and how God in all ages ( since Scripture times ) hath fulfilled his Word , both promises and threatnings , and what Christ , and Satan , Grace and Sin , have been doing in the world . Therefore the Scripture is written so much by way of history ; and therefore the Jews were so often charged to tell the history of Gods works to their children , 1 Cor. 10.1 , 2 , 6 , 7 , 11. Exod. 12.29 . Deut. 26.22 . Josh . 4.6 , 21 , 22. & 22 ▪ 24 , 27. Therefore the writing of Church-history is the duty of all ages , because Gods Works are to be known , as well as his Word : And as it is your forefathers duty to write it , it is the childrens duty to learn it ( or else the writing it would be vain . ) He that knoweth not what state the Church and world is in , and hath been in , in former ages , and what God hath been doing in the world , and how errour and sin have been resisting him , and with what success , doth want much to the compleating of his knowledge . 5. And he must have prudence to discern particular cases ; and to consider of all circumstances , and to compare things with things , that he may discern his duty , and the seasons and manner of it ; and may know among inconsistent seeming duties , which is to be preferred ; and when and what circumstances or accidents do make any thing a duty which else would be no duty or a sin ; and what accidents make that a sin which without them would be a duty . This is the knowledge which must make a Christian entire or compleat . 2. And in his Will there must be 1. A full resignation and submission to the Will of God his Owner ; and a full subjection and obedience to the Will of God his Governour ; yielding readily , and constantly , and resolut●ly to the commands of God , as the Scholar obeyeth his Master , and as the second wheel in the clock is moved by the first : And a close adhering to God as his chief Good , by a Thankful Reception of his Benefits ; and a desirous seeking to enjoy , and glorifie him , and please his Will : In a word , loving him as God , and taking our chiefest complacency in pleasing him ; in loving him , and being loved of him . 2. And in the same will there must be a well regulated Love , to all Gods works , according as he is manifested or glorified in them : To the humanity of our Redeemer ; to the glory of Heaven , as it is a created thing ; to the blessed Angels , and perfected spirits of the just , to the Scripture , to the Church on earth , to the Saints , the Pastors , the Rulers , the holy Ordinances , to all mankind , even to our enemies ; to our selves , our souls , our bodies , our relations , our estates , and mercies of every rank . 3. And herewithall must be a hatred of every sin in our selves and others : Of former sin , and present corruption , with a penitential displicence and grief ; and of possible sin , with a vigilancy and resistance to avoid it . 3. And in the Affections there must be a vivacity and sober fervency , answering to all these motions of the Will ; in Love , Delight , Desire , Hope , Hatred , Sorrow , Aversation and Anger ; the complexion of all which is godly Zeal . 4. In the vital and executive Power of the soul , there must be a holy activity , promptitude and fortitude , to be up and doing , and to set the sluggish faculties on work ; and to bring all knowledge and volitions into practice , and to assault and conquer enemies and difficulties . There must be the Spirit of Power ( though I know that word did chiefly then denote the Spirit of Miracles , yet not only ) and of Love , and of a sound mind . 5. In the outward members there must be by use a habit of ready obedient execution of the souls commands : As in the tongue a readiness to pray , and praise God , and declare his Word , and edifie others ; and so in the rest . 6. In the senses and appetite , there must by use be a habit of yielding obedience to Reason ; that the senses do not rebel and rage , and bear down the commands of the mind and will. 7. Lastly , In the Imagination there must be a clearness or purity from filthiness , malice , covetousness , pride and vanity ; and there must be the impressions of things that are good and useful ; and a ready obedience to the superiour faculties , that it may be the instrument of holiness , and not the shop of temptations and sin , nor a wild , unruly , disordered thing . And the harmony of all these must be as well observed as the matter : As 1. There must be a just Order among them : every duty must keep its proper place and season . 2. There must be a just proportion and degree : some graces must not wither , whilst others alone are cherished : nor some duties take up all our heart and time , whilst others are almost laid by . 3. There must be a just activity and exercise of every grace . 4. And a just conjunction and respect to one another , that every one be used so as to be a help to all the rest . I. The Order 1. Of Intellectual graces and duties , must be this . 1. In order of Time , the things which are sensible are known before the things which are beyond our sight , and other senses . 2. Beyond these the first thing known both for certainly and for excellency , is , that there is a God. 3. This God is to be known as one Being in his three Essential Principles , Vital Power , Intellect and Will. 4. And these as in their Essential Perfections , Omnipotency , Wisdom and Goodness ( or Love. ) 5. And also in his perfections called Modal and Negative , &c. ( as Immensity , Eternity , Independancy , Immutability , &c. ) 6. God must be next known in his Three Personalities ▪ as the Father , the Word , or Son , and the Spirit . 7. And these in their three Causalities ; efficient , dirigent and final . 8. And in their three great works , Creation , Redemption , Sanctification ( or Perfection ) producing Nature , Grace and Glory , or our Persons , Medicine , and Health . 9. And God who created the world , is thereupon to be known in his Relations to it ; as our Creator in Unity , and as our Owner , Ruler , and Chief Good ( efficient , dirigent and final ) in a Trinity of Relations . You must know how the Infinite Vital Power of the Father , created all things by the Infinite Wisdom of the Word , or Son , and by the Infinite Goodness and Love of the holy Spirit ( As the Son redeemed us as the eternal Wisdom , and Word Incarnate , sent by the eternal Vital-Power of the Father , to reveal and communicate the eternal Love in the Holy Ghost : And as the Holy Ghost doth sanctifie and perfect us , as proceeding and sent from the Power of the Father , and the Wisdom of the Son , to shed abroad the Love of God upon our hearts , &c. ) 10. Next to the knowledge of God as Creator , is to be considered the World which he created , and especially the Intectellual Creatures ; Angels , or heavenly Spirits , and Men. Man is to be known in his person or constitution first , and afterward in his appointed course , and in his end and perfection . 11. In his constitution is to be considered , 1. His Being or essential parts : 2. His Rectitude or Qualities : 3. His Relations , 1. To his Creatour ; And 2. To his fellow-creatures . 12. His essential parts are his soul and body : His soul is to be known in the Vnity of its Essence , and Trinity of essential faculties ( which is its natural Image of God. ) It s essence is a Living Spirit : It s essential faculties are 1. A Vital Activity , or Power : 2. An Vnderstanding : 3. A Will. 13. His Rectitude , which is Gods Moral Image on him , consisteth 1. In the promptitude and fortitude of his Active Power : 2. In the Wisdom of his Vnderstanding : 3. In the Moral Goodness of his Will , which is its Inclination to its End , and Readiness for its Duty . 14. Being created such a creature , by a meer resultancy from his Nature , and his Creator , he is related to him as his Creature ; and in that Unity is the subsequent Trinity of Relations : 1. As we are Gods Propriety , or his Own : 2. His Subjects : 3. His Beneficiaries and Lovers : all comprized in the one title of his children . And at once with these Relations of man to God , it is that God is as before related to man , as his Creator , and as his Owner , Ruler , and Chief Good. 15. Man is also related to his fellow creatures , below him , 1. As their Owner , 2. Their Ruler , 3. Their End under God : which is Gods Dominative or Honorary Image upon man , and is called commonly our Dominion over the creatures : So that by meer Creation , and the Nature of the creatures there is constituted a state of communion between God and Man , which is 1. A Dominion , 2. A Kingdom , 3. A Family or Paternity . And the whole is sometime called by one of these names , and sometime by the other , still implying the rest . 16. Gods Kingdom being thus constituted , his Attributes appropriate to these his Relations follow : 1. His Absoluteness as our Owner : 2. His Holiness , Truth and Justice as our Ruler : 3. And his Kindness , Benignity and Mercy as our Father or Benefactor . 17. And then the Works of God as in these three Relations follow ; which are 1. To Dispose of us at his pleasure as our Owner : 2. To govern us as our King : 3. To love us , and do us good , and make us perfectly happy as our Benefactor and our end . 18. And here more particularly is to be considered , 1. How God disposed of Adam when he had new made him : 2. How he began his Government of him : And 3. What Benefits he gave him , and what he further offered or promised him . 19. And as to the second , we must 1. Consider the Antecedent part of Gods Government , which is Legislation and then ( herafter ) the consequent part ; which is 1. Judgment , 2. Execution . And Gods Legislation is 1. By making our Natures such as compared with objects , Duty shall result from this Nature so related : 2. Or else by Precept or Revelation from himself , besides our Natures . 1. The Law of Nature is fundamental and radical in our foresaid Relations to God themselves , in which it is made our natural duty , 1. To submit our selves wholly to God , and his disposal , as his own : 2. To obey his commands : 3. And to receive his mercies , and thankfully to return them , and to love him . But though ( as Gods essential principles , and his foresaid Relations , are admirably conjunct in their operations ad extra ; so ) our Relative obligations are conjunct , yet are they so far distinguishable , that we may say , that these which conjunctly make our Moral duty , yet are not all the results of our Relation to a Governour , as such ; but the second only ; and therefore that only is to be called the Radical Law in the strict sense , the other two being the Moral results of our Rectitude . The duty of subjection and obedience in general , arising from our Natures related to our Creator , is the radical governing Law of God in us . But yet the same submission , and gratitude , and love , which are primarily our duty from their proper foundations , are secondarily made also the matter of our subjective duty , because they are also commanded of God. 2. The particular Laws of Nature are 1. Of our particular duties to God ; or of Piety : 2. Or of our duties to our selves and others : 1. Acts of Justice , 2. And of Charity . These Laws of Nature are 1. Vnalterable ; and that is , where the nature of our persons , and of the objects , which are the foundations of them are unalterable , or still the same : 2. Or mutable , when the Nature of the things which are its foundation , is mutable . As it is the immutable Law of immutable nature , that we love God as God , and that we do all the good we can , &c. because the foundation of it is immutable : But e. g. the Law against Incest was mutable in nature : For nature bound Adams children to marry each other ; and nature bindeth us since ( ordinarily ) to the contrary : 2. The revealed Law to Adam was superinduced . The parts of Gods Law must also here be considered . 1. The introductive Teaching part ( for Gods teaching us , is part of his ruling us ) and that is , Doctrines , History and Prophecy . 2. The Imperative part , commands to do , and not to do . 3. And the sanctions or motive parts in Law and execution , which are 1. Promises of Beneficial Rewards : 2. Threatnings of hurtful penalties . 20. Gods Laws being thus described in general , and those made to Adam thus in particular , the next thing to be considered , is mans behaviour in breaking those Laws ; which must be considered in the Causes , and the Nature of it , and the immediate effects and consequents . 21. And next must be considered Gods consequent part of Government as to Adam , viz. his judging him according to his Law. 22. And here cometh in the Promise , or the first edition of the New Covenant , or Law of Grace ; which must be opened in its parts , original and end . 23. And then must be considered Gods execution of his sentence on Adam , so far as he was unpardoned ; and so upon the world , till the end . 24. And next must be considered Gods enlargements and explications of his Covenant of Grace , till Christs Incarnation . 25. And next , mens behaviour under that explained Covenant . 26. And Gods sentence and execution upon them thereupon . 27. Then we come to the fulness of time , and to explain the work of Redemption distinctly . And 1. It s Original , the God of Nature giving the world a Physician or a Saviour : 2. The Ends : 3. The constitutive Causes : Where 1. Of the Person of the Redeemer , in his Essence , as God and Man , and in his perfections , both essential , and modal , and accidental . 28. And 2. Of the fundamental works of our Redemption ( such as Creation was to the first Administration ) viz. ( his first Vndertaking , Interposition , and Incarnation , being all presupposed . ) 1. His perfect Resignation of himself to his Father , and submission to his disposing Will : 2. His perfect subjection and obedience to his Coverning Will : 3. His perfect Love to him : 4. And the suffering by which he exprest all these . The three first meriting of themselves ; and the last meriting as a satisfactory Sacrifice , not for it self , but for its usefulness to its proper ends . 29. From this Offering once made to God , Christ acquired the perfecter title of a Saviour , or Redeemer , or Mediatour , which one contained this Trinity also of Relations towards Man : 1. Their Owner : 2. Their Ruler : 3. Their Benefactor : The Father also as the first principle of Redemption , acquiring a second title ( besides the first by Creation ) to all these : and towards God , Christ continueth the Relation of a heavenly Priest . 30. In order to the works of these Relations for the future , we must consider of Christs exaltation ; 1. Of his Justification and Resurrection : 2. Of his Ascension and Glorification : And 3. Of the delivering of All Power , and All Things into his hands . 31. The work of Redemption thus fundamentally wrought , doth not of it self renew mans nature ; and therefore putteth no Law of Nature into us of it self , as the Creation did : And therefore we must next proceed to Christs Administration of this office , according to these Relations ; which is 1. By Legislation or Donation ; enacting the New Covenant ( where this last and perfect edition of it is to be explained ; the Preceptive , the Promisory and the Penal parts , with its effects , and its differences from the former Edition , and from the Law of Nature and of Works . 32. And 2. By the promulgation or publication of this Covenant or Gospel to the world , by calling special Officers for that work , and giving them their commission , and promising them his Spirit , his Protection , and their Reward . 33. And here we come to the special work of the Holy Ghost ; who is 1. To be known in his Essence and Person , as the third in Trinity , and the eternal Love of God : 2. And as he is the grand Advocate or Agent of Christ in the world , where his works are to be considered 1. Preparatory , on and by Christ himself : 2. Administratory : 1. Extraordinary , on the Apostles and their helpers : 1. Being in them a spirit of extraordinary Power , by gifts and miracles : 2. Of extraordinary Wisdom and Infallibility , as far as their commission-work required : 3. And of extraordinary Love and Holiness . 2. By the Apostles , 1. Extraordinarily convincing and bringing in the world : 2. Settling all Church-Doctrines , Officers and Orders which Christ had left unsettled ( bringing all things to their remembrance which Christ had taught and commanded them ; and guiding them in the rest . ) 3. Recording all this for posterity in the holy Scriptures . 2. His Ordinary Agency 1. On Ministers , 2. By sanctification on all true Believers is after to be opened . 34. And here is to be considered the Nature of Christianity in fieri : Faith and Repentance in our three great Relations to our Redeemer , as we are his Own , his ( Disciples and ) Subjects , and his Beneficiaries ; with all the special benefits of these Relations as antecedent to our duty ; and then all our duty in them as commanded : And then the benefits after to be expected ( as in promise only . ) 35. Next must distinctly be considered , the preaching , and converting , and baptizing part of the ministerial Office ; 1. As in the Apostles : 2. And in their successors to the end ; with the nature of Baptism , and the part of Christ , and of the Minister , and of the baptized in that Covenant . 36. And then the description of the universal Church , which the baptized constitute . 37. Next is to be described the state of Christians after Baptism : 1. Relative , 1. In Pardon , Reconciliation , Justification , 2. Adoption . 2. Physical , in the Spirit of Sanctification . 38. Where is to be opened 1. The first sanctifying work of the Spirit : 2. It s after-helps and their conditions . 3. All the duties of Holiness , primitive and medicinal towards God , our selves and others . 39. Our special duties in secret : reading , meditation , prayer , &c. 40. Our duties in Family Relations and Callings . 41. Our duties in Church Relations ; where is to be described the nature of particular Churches , their work and worship , their ministry , and their members , with the duties of each . 42. Our duties in our Civil Relations . 43. What temptations are against us , as be to be overcome . 44. Next is to be considered the state of Christians and Societies in the world : How far all these duties are performed ; and what are their weaknesses and sins . 45. And what are the punishments which God useth in this life . 46. And what Christians must do for pardon and reparation after falls , and to be delivered from those punishments . 47. Of Death , and the change which it maketh , and of our special preparation for it . 48. Of the coming of Christ , and the Judgement of the great day . 49. Of the punishment of the wicked impenitent in Hell. 50. And of the blessedness of the Saints in Heaven , and the everlasting Kingdom . These are the Heads , and this is the Method of true Divinity , and the order in which it should lye in the understanding of him that will be compleat in knowledge . II. And as this is the Intellectual Order of knowledge ; so the order which all things must lye in at our hearts and wills , is much more necessary to be observed : 1. That nothing but GOD be loved as the infinite simple good , totally with all the heart , and finally for himself : And that nothing at all be loved with any Love , which is not purely subordinate to the Love of God , or which causeth us to love him ever the less . 2. That the blessed person of our Mediatour , as in the Humane Nature glorified , be loved above all creatures next to God : Because there is most of the Divines Perfections appearing in him . 3. That the heavenly Church or Society of Angels and Saints be loved next to Jesus Christ , as being next in excellence . 4. That the Vniversal Church on earth be loved next to the perfect Church in Heaven . 5. That particular Churches and Kingdoms be next loved ; and where ever there is more of Gods Interest and Image , than in our selves , that our Love be more there , than on our selves . 6. That we next love our selves , with that peculiar kind of love which God hath made necessary to our duty , and our happiness and end ; with a self-preserving , watchful , diligent love ; preferring our souls before our bodies , and spiritual mercies before temporal , and greater before less . 7. That we love our Christian Relations with that double Love which is due to them as Christians and Relations ; and love all Relations according to their places , with that kind of Love which is proper for them , as fitting us to all the duties which we must perform to them . 8. That we love all good Christians as the sanctified members of Christ , with a special Love according to the measure of Gods Image appearing on them . 9. That we love every visible Christian ( that we cannot prove hath unchristened himself by apostacy or ungodliness ) with the special Love also belonging to true Christians , because he appeareth such to us : But yet according to the measure of that appearance , as being more confident of some , and more doubtful of others . 10. That we love our intimate suitable friends that are godly with a double Love , as godly and as friends . 11. That we love Neighbours and civil Relations , with a Love which is suitable to our duty towards them ( to do to them , as we would have them do to us ; which is partly meant by loving them as our selves . ) 12. That we love all mankind , even Gods enemies , much more our own , as they are men ; for the dignity of humane nature , and their capacity to become holy and truly amiable . 13. That all means be chosen according to the end ( which is to be preferred before other ends ) and their suitableness and fitness for that end ( as they are to be preferred before other means . ) III. And the order of practice is , 1. That we be sure to begin with God alone , and proceed to God in the creature , and end in God alone . It is the principal thing to be known for finding out the true method of Divinity and Religion , that ( as in the great frame of Nature ; so ) in the frame of Morality , the true motion is circular : From 〈◊〉 the efficient by God , the Dirigent to God , the final Cause of all ; therefore as God is the first spring or cause of motion ; so the creature is the Recipient first , and the Agent after , in returning all to God again . Therefore mark , that our receiving Graces are our first graces in exercise ; and our receiving duties are our first duties ; and then our returning graces and duties come next ; in which we proceed from the lesser to the greater , till we come up to God himself . Therefore in point of practice , the first thing that we have to do , is to learn to know God himself as God and our God , and to live as from him , and upon him as our Benefactor , from our hearts confessing that we have nothing but from him , and shall never be at rest but with him , and in him , as our ultimate end ; and therefore to set our selves to seek him as our end accordingly ; which is but to seek to love him , and be beloved by him , in the perfection of knowledge and d●light . 2. The whole frame of means appointed by God for the attainment of this end , must be taken together , and not broken asunder ; as they have all relation each to other . And 1. The whole frame of Nature must be looked on as the first great means appointed to man in innocency , for the preservation and exercise of his holiness and righteousness : 2. And the Covenant or Law positive , as conjoyned unto this : 3. And the Spirit of God , communicated only for such a meer sufficiency of necessary help , as God saw meet to one in that condition . And though these means ( the Creatures , and the Spirit of the Creator in that degree ) be not now sufficient for lapsed man ; yet they are still to be looked on as delivered into the hand of Christ the Mediatour , to be used by him on his terms , and in order to his blessed ends . 2. But it is the frame of the recovering and perfecting means ▪ which we are now to use : And in this frame 1. Christ the Mediatour is the first and principal ; and the Author of our Faith , or Religion ; and therefore from his Name it is called Christianity . He is ●ow the first means used on Gods part for communicating mercy unto man ; and the first in dignity to be received and used by man himself ; but not the first in Time , because the means of revealing him must go first . 2. The second means in dignity ( under Christ ) is the operation of the Holy Spirit as sent or given by the Redeemer : which Spirit being as the soul of outward means ( which are as the body ) is given variously in a suitableness to the several sorts of means ( of which more anon . ) 3. The outward means for this Spirit to work by and with , have been in three degrees : 1. The lowest degree , is the world or creatures ( called The Book of Nature ) alone : 2. The second degree was the Law and Promises to the Jews and their fore-fathers ( together with the Law of Nature . ) 3. The third and highest degree of outward means , is the whole frame of Christian Institutions , adjoyned to the Book of Nature , and succeeding the foresaid Promises and Law. Every one of these hath a sufficiency in its own kind , and to its proper use . 1. The Law of Nature is sufficient in its own kind , to reveal a God in his Essential Principles and Relations ; and to teach man the necessity now of some supernatural Revelations and Institutions ; and so to direct him to enquire after them ( what and where they be . ) 2. The Promises and Jewish Law ( of Types , &c. ) was sufficient in its own kind , to acquaint men that a Saviour must be sent into the world , to reveal the Will of God more fully , and to be a sacrifice for sin , and to make reconciliation between God and man , and to give a greater measure of the Spirit , and to renew mens souls , and bring them to full perfection , and to the blessed fruition of God. The Jewish Scriptures teach them all this , though it tell them not many of the Articles of our Christian Belief . 3. The Christian Gospel is sufficient in its own kind , to teach men first to believe aright , in the Father , Son , and Holy Spirit , and then to love and live aright . When I say that each of these is sufficient in its own kind , the meaning is , not that these outward means are of themselves sufficient without the Holy Spirit ; for that were to be sufficient not only in suo genere , but in alieno vel in omni genere ; not only for its own part and work ; but for the Spirits part also : But other causes being supposed to concur , it is sufficient for its own part : As my Pen is a sufficient Pen , though it be not sufficient to write without my hand . Now the measure of the Spirits concourse with all these three degees of means is to be judged of by the nature of the means , and by Gods ends in appointing them , and by the visible effects . And whereas the world is full of voluminous contentions about the doctrine of sufficient and effectual grace , I shall here add thus much in order to their agreement . 1. That certainly such a thing there is , or hath been , as is called sufficient not-effectual grace : By sufficient they mean so much as giveth man all that Power which is necessary to the commanded act ( or forbearance ) so that man could do it without any other grace or help from God ( which supposeth that mans will in the Nature of it , hath such a vital , free , self-determining power , that ( sometimes at least ) it can act , or not act , when such bare power is given to it ) and sometimes doth , and sometimes doth not . But the word [ necessary ] is more proper than [ sufficient : ] The latter being applicable to several degrees , but [ nec●ssary ] signifieth that degree , without which the Act cannot be performed . That there is such a thing , is evident in Adams case , who had that grace which was necessary to his forbearing the first sin ( or else farewell all Religion . ) And there are few men will deny but that all men have still such a degree of help for many duties which they do not perform ; and against many sins which they do not forbear ; ( as to forbear an oath , or a lye , or a cup of drink , to go to Church when they go to an Ale-house , &c. ) Such a thing therefore there is , and such a power mans will hath to do or not do , when such a degree only of help is given . Therefore we have reason enough to suppose 1. That such a degree of the Spirits help is given under the bare Teachings of the Creature , or to them that have no outward light but natural revelation , as is necessary to the foresaid ends and uses of that Light or Means , that is , to convince man that there is a God , and what he is , as aforesaid , and that we are his subjects and ben●ficiaries , and owe him our chi●fest love and service , and to convince them of the need of some further supernatural revelation . Not that every one hath this measure of spiritual help ; for some by abusing the help which they have , to learn the Alphabet of Nature , or to practise it , do forfeit that help which should bring them into Natures higher forms . But so much as I have mentioned of the help of the Spirit is given to those that do not grosly forfeit it by abuse , among the Pagans of the world : And so much multitudes have attained . 2. And so much of the Spirit was given ordinarily to the Jews , as was sufficient to have enabled them to believe in the Messiah to come , as aforesaid ; if they did not wilfully reject this help . 3. And so much seemeth to be given to many that hear the Gospel , and never believe it ; or that believe it not with a justifying Faith , is as sufficient to have made them true Believers , as Adams was to have kept him from his fall . For seeing it is certain that such a sufficient uneffectual grace there is , we have no reason to conceit that God doth any more desert his own means now , than he did then ; or that he maketh Believing a more impossible condition of Justification under the Gospel , to them that are in the neerest capacity of it ( before effectual grace ) than he made perfect obedience to be to Adam . The objections against this are to be answered in due place , and are already answered by the Dominicans at large . 4. The outward means of grace under Christ are all one frame , and must be used in harmony as followeth . 1. The Witness and Preaching of Christ and his Apostles , was the first and chief part ; together with their settling the Churches , and recording so much as is to be our standing Rule in the holy Scriptures , which are now to us the chief part of this means . 2. Next to the Scriptures , the Pastoral Office and Gifts , to preserve them , and teach them to us , is the next principal part of this frame of means . In which I comprehend all their office [ Preaching for conversion , baptizing , preaching for confirmation and edification of the faithful , praying and praising God before the Church ; administring the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of communion ; and watching over all the flock , by personal instruction , admonition , reproofs , censures and absolutions . 3. The next part ( conjunct with this ) is the communion of the faithful in the Churches . 4. The next is our holy society in Christian families , and family-instructions , worship and just discipline . 5. The next is our secret duties between God and us alone : As. 1. Reading , 2. Meditation , and self examination , 3. Prayer and thanksgiving , and praise to God. 6. The next part is our improvement of godly mens intimate friendship , who may instruct , and warn , and reprove , and comfort us . 7. The next is the daily course of prospering Providences and Mercies , which express Gods Love , and call up ours ; ( as provisions , protections , preservations , deliverances , &c. ) 8. The next is Gods castigations ( by what hand or means soever ) which are to make us partakers of his holiness , Heb. 12.9 , 10. 9. The next is the examples of others ; 1. Their graces and duties : 2. Their faults and falls : 3. Their mercies : And 4. Their sufferings and corrections . 1 Cor. 10.1 , 10 , 11. 10. And lastly , Our own constant watchfulness against temptations ▪ and stirring up Gods graces in our selves . These are the frame of the means of Grace , and of our receiving duties . 2. The next in order to be considered , is the whole frame of our returning duties , in which we lay out the talents which we receive , which lye in the order following . 1. That we do what good we can to our own souls : that we first pluck the beam out of our own eyes , and set that motion on work at home , which must go further : Therefore all the foregoing means were primarily for this effect ; ( though not chiefly and ultimately for this end . ) 2. Next we must do good according to our power to our neer Relations . 3. And next to our whole Families , and more remote Relations . 4. And next , them to our Neighbours . 5. And next , to Strangers . 6. And lastly , To Enemies , of our selves and Christ . 7. But our greatest duties must be for publick Societies , viz. 1. For the Common-wealth ( both Governours and People , ) 2. And for the Church . 8. And the next part ( in intention and dignity ) must be for the whole world ( whose good by prayer and all just means we must endeavour . ) 9. And the next for the honour of Jesus Christ our Mediatour . 10. And the highest ultimate temination of our returning duties , is the pure Deity alone . For the further opening to you the Order of Christian Practice , take these following Notes or Rules . 1. Though receiving duties ( such as hearing , reading , praying , faith , &c. ) go first in order of nature and time , before expending , or returning duties , so that the motion is truly circular ; yet we must not stay till we have received more , before we make returns to God of that which we have already : But every degree of received grace , must presently work towards God our end : and as there is no intermission between my moving of my hand and pen , and its writing upon this paper ; so must there be no intermission between Gods beams of Love and Mercy to us , and our reflexions of Love and Duty unto him . Even as ths veins and arteries in the body lye much together , and one doth often empty it self into the other , for circulation , and not stay till the whole mass hath run through all the vessels of one sort ( veins or arteries ) before any pass into the other . 2. The internal returns of Love are much quicker than the return of outward fruits . The Love of God shed or streamed forth upon the soul , doth presently warm it to a return of Love : But it may be some time before that Love appear in any notable useful benefits to the world , or in any thing that much glorifieth God and our Profession . Even as the heat of the Sun upon the earth or trees , is suddenly reflected ; but doth not so suddenly bring forth herbs , and buds , and blossoms , and ripe fruits . 3. All truly good works must have one constant Order of intention ( which is before opened ; God must be first intended , then Christ , then the universal Church in Heaven and Earth , &c. ) But in the order of operation and execution , there may be a great difference among our duties : As God appointeth us to lay out some one way , and some another . Yet ordinarily , as the emitted beams begin from God , and dart themselves on the soul of man ; so the reflected beams begin upon , or from our hearts , and pass toward God ( though first beloved and intended ) by several receptacles , before they bring us to the perfect fruition of him . 4. Therefore the order of Loving ( or complacency ) and the order of doing good ( or Benevolence ) is not the same . We must Love the universal Church better than our selves : But we cannot do them sincere service , before we do good to our selves . And our neerest Relations must be preferred in acts of Beneficence before many whom we must love more . 5. When two goods come together ( either to be Received , or to be Done ) the greater is ever to be preferred ; and the chusing or using of the lesser at that time , is to be taken for a sin . I lately read a denyal of this , in a superficial satyre ; but the thing it self , if rightly understood , is past all doubt with a rational man. For 1. Else good is not to be chosen and done as good , if the best be not to be preferred . 2. Else almost all wicked omissions might be excused : I may be excused for not giving a poor man a sh●lling ( whatever his necessity be ) because I give him a farthing : No doubt but Dives , Luke 16. did good at such a rate as this at least : and else a man might be excused from saving a drowning man , if he save his horse that while , &c. A quatenus ad summum valet consequentia , in the case of desiring and doing good . But then mark the following explications . 6. That is not alwaies to be accounted the greatest good , which is so only in regard of the matter simply considered : But that is the greatest good , which is so consideratis considerandis , all things considered and set together . 7. When God doth peremptorily tye me to one certain duty , without any dispensation or liberty of choice , that duty at that time is a greater good and duty , than many others which may be greater in their time and place . A duty materially lesser , is formally ( and by accident materially ) greater in its proper season . Reaping , and baking , and eating , are better than plowing , and weeding the Corn ; as they are neerer to the end : But plowing , and weeding are better in their season . To make pins or points , is not materially so good a work as to pray : But in its season ( as then done ) it is better : And he that is of this trade , may not be praying when he should be about his trade : Not that he is to prefer the matter of it , before praying ; But praying is to keep its time , and may be a sin when it is out of time . He that would come at midnight to disturb his rest , to present his service to his Lord or King , would have little thanks for such unseasonable service . 8. He that is restrained by a lower calling , or any true restraining reasons , from doing a good which is materially greater , yet doth that which is greatest unto him . Ruling and Preaching are materially a greater good , than threshing or digging ; and yet to a man whose gifts and calling restrain him from the former to the latter , the latter is the greatest good . 9. Good is not to be measured principally by the Will or Benefit of our selves , or any creature ; but by 1. The Will of God in his Laws : And 2. By the interest of his pleasedness and glory : But secondarily , humane interest is the measure of it . 10. It followeth not that because the greatest good is ever to be preferred , that therefore we must perplex and distract our selves , in cases of difficulty , when the ballance seemeth equal : For either there is a difference , or there is none : And if any , it is discernable , or not . If there be no difference , there is room for taking one , but not for chusing one : If there be no discernable difference , it is all one to us , as if there were none at all : If it be discernable by a due proportion of enquiry , we must labour to know it , and chuse accordingly : If it be not discernable in such time , and by such measure of enquiry , as is our duty , we must still take it as undiscernable to us . If after just search , the weakness of our own understandings leave us doubting , we must go according to the best understanding which we have , and chearfully go on in our duty , as well as we can know it , remembring that we have a gracious God and Covenant , which taketh not advantage of involuntary weaknesses , but accepteth their endeavours , who sincerely do their best . 11. Meer spiritual or mental duties require most labour of the mind ; but corporal duties ( such as the labours of our calling ) must have more labour of the body . 12. All corporal duties must be also spiritual ( by doing them from a spiritual principle , to a spiritual end , in a spiritual manner : ) But it is not necessary that every spiritual duty be also corporal . 13. The duties immediately about God our end , are greater than those about any of the means ( caeteris paribus . ) And yet those that are about lower objects , may be greater by accident , and in their season : As to be saving a mans life is then greater than to be exciting the mind to the acting of Divine Love or Fear : But yet it is God the greatest object then , which puteth the greatness upon the latter duty ; both by commanding it , and so making it an act more pleasing to him : and because that the Love of God is supposed to be the concurring spring of that Love to man , which we shew in seeking their preservation . 14. Our great duty about God our ultimate end , can never be done too much , considered in it self , and in respect to the soul only ; we cannot so love God too much : And this Love so considered , hath no extream , Matth. 22.37 . 15. But yet even this may by accident , and in the circumstances be too much : As 1. In respect to the bodies weaknesses ; if a man should so fear God , or so love him , as that the intenseness of the act , did stir the passions , so much as to bring him to distraction , or to disorder his mind , and make it unfit for that or any other duty : 2. Or if he should be exciting the Love of God , when he should be quenching a fire in the Town , or relieving the poor that are ready to perish . But neither of these is properly called , A loving God too much . 16. The duties of the heart , are in themselves greater and nobler than the actions of the outward man , of themselves abstractedly considered . Because the soul is more noble than the body . 17. Yet outward duties are frequently , yea most frequently , greater than heart duties only ; because in the outward duty it is to be supposed that both parts concur ( both soul and body . ) And the operations of both , is more than of one alone : and also because the nobler ends are attained by both together more than by one only : For God is loved , and man is benefited by them . As when the Sun shineth upon a tree , or on the earth , it is a more noble effect , to have a return of its influences , in ripe and pleasant fruits , than in a meer sudden reflexion of the heat alone . 18. All outward duties must begin at the heart , and it must animate them all ▪ and they are valued in the sight of God , no further than they come from a rectified will , even from the Love of God and Goodness : However without this , they are good works materially , in respect to the Receiver : He may do good to the Church , or Common-wealth , or Poor , who doth none to himself thereby . 19. As the motion is circular from God to man , and from man to God again ( Mercies received ; and Duties and Love returned ) so is the motion circular between the heart and the outward man : The heart moving the tongue and hand , &c. and these moving the heart again ; ( partly of their own nature , and partly by divine reward : ) The Love of God and Goodness produceth holy thoughts , and words , and actions ; and these again increase the Love which did produce them , Gal. 5.6.13 . Heb. 6.10 . Heb. 10.24 . 2 John 6. Jude 21. 20. The Judgment must be well informed before the Will resolve . 21. Yet when God hath given us plain instruction , it is a sin to cherish causless doubts and scruples . 22. And when we see our duty before us , it is not every scruple that will excuse us from doing it : But , when we have more conviction that it is a duty , then that it is none , or that it is a sin , we must do it , notwithstanding those mistaking doubts . As if in Prayer or Alms-deeds you should scruple the lawfulness of them , you ought not to forbear , till your scruples be resolved , because you so long neglect a duty : Else folly might justifie men in ungodliness and disobedience . 23. But in things meerly indifferent , it is a sin to do them doubtingly ; because you may be sure it is no sin to forbear them , Rom. 14.23 . 1 Cor. 8.13 , 14. 24. An erring Judgment intangleth a man in a necessity of sinning ( till it be reformed ) whether he act or not ▪ according to it . Therefore if an erring person ask , What am I bound to ? the true answer is , to lay by your errour , or reform your Judgment first , and then to do accordingly ▪ and if he ask an hundred times over [ But what must I do in case I cannot change my Judgment ? ] the same answer must be given him , [ God still bindeth you to change your Judgment , and hath given you the necessary means of information ; and therefore he will not take up with your supposition , that you cannot : His Law is a fixed Rule , which telleth you what you must believe , and chuse , and do : And this Rule will not change , though you be blind , and say , I cannot change my mind . Your mind must come to the Rule , for the Rule will not come to your perverted mind : Say what you will , the Law of God will be still the same , and will still bind you to believe according to its meaning . ] 25. Yet supposing that a mans errour so entangleth him in a necessity of sinning , it is a double sin to prefer a greater sin before a lesser : For though no sin is an object of our choice , yet the greater sin is the object of our greater hatred and refusal ; and must be with the greater fear and care avoided . 26. An erring Conscience then , is never the voice or messenger of God , nor are we ever bound to follow it ; because it is neither our God , nor his Law , but only our own Judgment which should discern his Law. And mis-reading or misunderstanding the Law , will not make a bad cause good , though it may excuse it from a greater degree of evil . 27. The judicious fixing of the Wills , Resolutions , and especially the increasing of its Love , or complacency and delight in good , is the chief thing to be done in all our duties , as being the heart and life of all , Prov. 23.26.12 . & 4.23 . & 7.3 . & 22.17 . & 3.1 , 2 , 3. & 4.4 , 21. Deut. 30.6 . Psal . 37.4 . & 40.8 . & 119.16 , 35 , 70 , 47. & 1.2 . Isa . 58.14 . 28. The grand motives to duty , must ever be before our eyes , and set upon our hearts , as the poise of all our motions and endeavours : ( As the travelers home and business , is deepest in his mind , as the cause of every step which he goeth . ) 29. No price imaginable must seem great enough to hire us to commit the least known sin , Luke 12.4 . & 14.26 , 28 , 33. Mat. 10.39 ▪ & 16.26 . 30. The second great means ( next to the right forming of the heart ) for the avoiding of sin , is to get away from the temptations , baits and occasions of it . And he that hath most grace , must take himself to be still in great danger , while he is under strong temptations and allurements , and when sin is brought to his hands , and alluring objects are close to the appetite and senses . 31. The keeping clean our Imaginations , and commanding our Thoughts , is the next great means for the avoiding sin : and a polluted fantasie , and ungoverned thoughts are the nest where all iniquity is hatched , and the instruments that bring it forth into act . 32. The governing of the senses is the first means to keep clean the Imagination . When Acha● seeth the wedge of gold , he desireth it , and then he taketh it . When men wilfully fill their eyes with the objects which entice them to lust , to covetousness , to wrath ; the impression is presently made upon the fantasie ; and then the Devil hath abundance more power to renew such imaginations a thousand times , than if such impressions had been never made . And it is a very hard thing to cleanse the fantasie which is once polluted . 33. And the next notable means of keeping out all evil Imaginations , and curing lust and vanity of mind , is constant laborious diligence in a lawful calling , which shall allow the mind no leisure for vain and sinful thoughts ; as the great nourisher of all foul and wicked thoughts , is Idleness and Vacancy , which inviteth the tempter , and giveth him time and opportunity . 34. Watchfulness over our selves , and thankful accepting the watchfulness , fault-findings , and reproofs of others , , is a great part of the safety of our souls , Mat. 26.41 . & 25 , 13. Mark 13.37 . Luke 21.36 . 1 Cor. 16.13 . 1 Thes . 5.6.2 Tim. 4.5 . Heb. 12.17 . 1 Pet. 4.7 . 35. Affirmative Precepts , bind not to all times ; that is ▪ no positive duty is a duty at all times . As to preach , to pray , to speak of God , to think of holy things , &c. it is not alwaies a sin to intermit them . 36. All that God commandeth us to do , is both a Duty and a Means ; it is called a Duty in relation to God the efficient Law-giver , first : and it is a Means next in relation to God the end , whose work is done , and whose will is pleased by it . And we must alwaies respect it in both these notions inseparably . No Duty is not a Means ; and no true Means is not a Duty ; but many seem to man to have the aptitude of a Means , which are no duty but a sin ; because we see not all things , and therefore are apt to think that fit , which is pernicious . 37. Therefore nothing must be thought a true Means to any good end , which God forbiddeth : For God knoweth better than we . 38. But we must see that the negative or prohibition be universal , or indeed extendeth to our particular case : and then ( and not else ) you may say that negatives bind to all times . 39. Nothing which is certainly destructive to the end , and contrary to the nature of a Means , is to be taken for a Duty . For it is certain that Gods Commands are for edification , and not for destruction , for good , and not for evil . 40. Yet that may tend to present inferiour hurt , which ultimately tendeth to the greatest good . Therefore it is not some present or inferiour incommodity that must cause us to reject such a means of greater future good . 41. Whatsoever we are certain God commandeth , we may be certain is a proper Means , though we see not the aptitude , or may think it to be destructive ; because God knoweth better than we : But then we must indeed be sure that it is commanded hic & nunc , in this case and place , and time , and circumstances . 42. It is one of the most needful things to our innocency , to have Christian wisdom to compare the various accidents of those duties and sins which are such by accident ; and to judge which accidents do preponderate . For indeed the actions are very few which are absolutely and simply duties or sins in themselves considered , without those accidents which qualifie them to be such : Accidental duties and sins are the most numerous by far : And in many cases the difficulty of comparing the various accidents , and contrary motives , is not small , 43. Therefore it is , that ( as in Physick and Law Cases , &c. the common people have greatest need of the advice of skilful Artists , to help them to judge of particular Cases , taking in all the circumstances , which their narrow understandings cannot comprehend ; which is more of the use of Physicians and Lawyers , than to read a publick Lecture of Physick , or of Law , so ) the Office of the Church-Guides , or Bishops , is of so great necessity to the people , in every particular Church : And that not only for publick Preaching , but also to be at hand , to help the people , who have recourse unto them in all such cases , to know in particular what is duty , and what is sin . 44. And therefore it is ( besides other reasons ) that the Office of the Bishops or Pastors of the Churches , must in all the proper parts of it , be done only by themselves , or men in that Office , and not per alios , by men of another Office : And therefore it is , that bare titles or authority will not serve the turn , without proportionable or necessary abilities or gifts ; because the work is done by personal fitness ; and cases and difficulties can no more be resolved , nor safe counsel given for the soul in matters of Morality , by men unable , than for the body or estate , in points of Physick , or of Law. ( As the Lord Verulam in his Considerations of Ecclesiastical Government hath well observed . ) 45. In such cases where duty or sin must be judged of by compared accidents ; the nature of a Means , or the interest of the End , is the principal thing to be considered : And that which will evidently do more harm than good , is not to be judged a duty ( in those circumstances ) but a sin : as if the question were whether Preaching be at this time , in this place , to this number , to these individuals , a duty : If it appear to true Christian prudence , that it would be like to do more hurt than good , it is a sin at that time , and not a duty : and yet Preaching in due season , as great a duty still . So if the question were , whether secret prayer be at this hour or day , a duty : If true reason tell you , that it is like to hinder , either family-prayer , or any other greater good , it is not at that time a duty : Or if the question be , whether reproof or personal exhortation of a sinner be now a duty : If true reason tell me , that it is like to do more harm than good , it is not a duty then , but accidentally a sin : For we must not cast pearls before Swine , nor give that which is holy unto Dogs , lest they tread it under foot , or turn again and all to rend us . And there is a time when Preachers that are persecuted in one City , must fly to another ; and when they must shake off the dust of their feet , for a witness against the disobedient , and turn away from them . ( The imprudent people can easily discern this when it is their own case , but not when it is the Preachers case ; so powerful is self-love and partiality ) Mat. 7.6 , 7. Mat. 10.14 . & 23.34 . & 10.23 . The reason of all this is 1. Because God appointeth all Means for the End : 2. And because the Law by which in such cases we must be ruled , is only general ; as , Let all things be done to edification ; as if he should say , Fit all your actions , which I have not given you a particular peremptory Law for , to that good which is their proper end . ] 1 Cor. 14.5 ▪ 12.3 , 26.17 . 2 Cor. 10.8 . & 12.19 . & 13.10 . 1 Cor. 10.23 . Ephes . 4.12 , 16 , 29. 1 Tim. 1.4 . Rom. 15.2 . 1 Cor. 12.7 . 46. Publick Duties , ordinarily , must be preferred before private : And that which is for the good of many , before that which is for the good of one only . 47. Yet when the private necessity is more pressing , and the publick may be omitted at that time with less detriment , the case doth alter . As also when that one that we do good to is more worth than the many , in order to the honour of God , or the more publick good of the whole society : or when it is one that by special precept , we are obliged to prefer in our beneficence 48. Civil Power is to be obeyed before Ecclesiastical , in things belonging to the Office of the Magistrate : and Ecclesiastical before the Civil , in things proper to the Ecclesiastical Gvoernours only . And Family Power before both , in things proper to their cognizance only . But what it is that is proper to each power , I shall tell them when I think they are willing to know , and it will do more good than harm to tell it them . 49. The supreme Magistrate is ever to be obeyed before his Inferiours : because they have no power but from him ; and therefore have none against him ( unless he so give it them . ) 50. No Humane Authority is above Gods , nor can bind us against him ; but it is all received from him , and subordinate to him . 51. No Humane Power can bind us to the destruction of the society which it governeth ; because the publick or common good , is the end of Government . 52. The Laws of Kings , and the Commands of Parents , Masters and Pastors ( in cases where they have true Authority ) do bind the soul primarily , as well as the body , secondarily : But not as the primary , but the secondary bond . It is a wonderful and pittiful thing , to read Divines upon this point [ Whether the Laws of men do bind the conscience ? ] what work they have made as in the dark , when the case is so very plain and easie ? some are peremptory that they do not bind conscience ; and some that they do ; and some calling their adversaries the Idolizers of men ; and others again insinuating that they we guilty of treason against Kings , who do gainsay them ; when surely they cannot differ if they would . 1. The very phrase of their question is non-sense , or very unfit . Conscience is but a mans knowledge or judgment of himself as he is obliged to his duty and the effects ; and consequently , of the obligations , which lie upon him . It is a strange question , whether I am bound in knowledge of my self : But it were a reasonable question , whether I be bound to know ; or whether I know that I am bound . It is the whole man , and most eminently the Will , which is bound by Laws , or any Moral Obligations . The man is bound . But if by conscience , they mean the soul , it is a ridiculous question : For no bonds can lie upon the body immediately , but Cords or Iron , or such like materials . The soul is the first obliged , or else the man is not morally obliged at all . If the sense of the question be , whether it be a Divine or a Religious obligation , which mens commands do lay upon us ▪ The answer is easie : 1. That Man is not God ; and therefore as humane it is not Divine . 2. That Mans Government is Gods institution , and Men are Gods Officers ; and therefore the obligation is Religious , and Instrumentally or Mediately Divine . Either mens Laws and Commands do bind us or not : If not , they are no Laws , nor authoritative Acts : If they do bind , either it is primarily by an authority originally in themselves that made them ( and then they are all gods : And then there is no God. ) Or else it is by derived authority . If so , God must be the Original ( or still the Original must be God. ) And then is the high way any plainer than the true answer of this question , viz. That Princes , Parents , &c. have a governing or Law-giving power from God , in subordination to him ; and that they are his Officers in governing : And that all those Laws which he hath authorized them to make do bind the soul , that is , the man , immediately as humane , and instrumentally or mediately as Divine , or as the bonds of God. As my Covenant bind my self to conscience , ( if you will so speak , rather than that they bind my conscience ) so do men a Laws also bind me . You may as well ask whether the writing of my pen , be its action or mine ; and be an animate , or inanimate act ; which is soon resolved . 53. To conclude these Rules , as the just impress of the Spirit , and Image of God upon the soul , is Divine Life , Light and Love , communicated from God by Jesus Christ , by the holy Spirit , to work in us and by us for God ( in the soul and in the world ) and by Christ to bring us up at last , to the sight and fruition of God himself ; so this Trinity of Divine principles , must be inseparably used , in all our internal and external duties towards God or men ; and all that we do must be the work of Power and of Love , and of Wisdom or a sound mind , 2 Tim. 1.7 . II. Having been so large in opening the Order of our Duties , I must be briefer than our case requireth , in telling you our Disorders , or contrary disease . O what a humbling sight it would be , if good Christians did but see the pittiful con●●sions of their minds and lives . They find little melody in their Religion , because there is little harmony in their apprehensions , affections or conversations . If the displacing one wheel or pin in a clock , will so much frustrate the effect , it is a wonder that our tongues or lives do ever go true , which are moved by such disordered parts within : that were it not that the Spirit of grace doth keep an order where it is essential to our Religion ( between the End and the Means , &c. ) we should be but like the parts of a watch pulled in pieces , and put up together in a bag . But such is Gods mercy , that the body may live when many smaller veins are obstructed ; so that the Master vessels be kept clear . I. There are so few Christians that have a true method of Faith or Divinity in their understandings , even in the great points which they know disorderly , that it is no wonder if there be lamentable defectiveness and deformity , in those inward and outward duties , which should be harmoniously performed , by the light of this harmonious truth . And no Divine in the world can give you a perfect Scheme of Divinity in all the parts ; but he is the wisest that cometh neerest to it . Abundance of Schemes and Tables you may see , and all pretending to exactness : But every one palpably defective and confused ; even those of the highest pretenders that ever I have seen . And one errour or disorder usually introduceth , in such a Scheme , a confusion in all that followeth as dependant on it . Some confound Gods Attributes themselves ( nay who doth not : ) They confound the Three great Essential Principles , with all the Attributes , by similitude called Modal and Negative : and they use to name over Gods Attributes , like as they put their money or chess-men into a bag , without any method at all . Some confound Gods Primary Attributes of Being , with his Relations , which are subsequent to his Works , and with his Relation-Attributes . Some confound his several Relations to man , among themselves ; and more do confound his Works , as they flow from these various Relations . The great works of the Creator , Redeemer , and Sanctifier , and their several designs , significations , and effects , are opened obscurely and in much confusion . The Legislative Will of God de debi●● institutive , ( which is it that Damascene , Chrysostome , and the School-men mean by his Antecedent will , if they speak properly ) which ever goeth before mans actions ( duties or sins , or as the Fathers called them merits or demerits ) is confounded by many with the acts of his Judgment and Execution ( called his consequent Will , because it ever presupposeth mens precedent actions : ) Or , his works , as Law-giver , Judge and Executioner , are oft confounded . And so are the Orders of his Precepts , Promises , and penal Threats , and the Conditions of his Promises : and the order of his Precepts among themselves ; and of his Promises as one respecteth another . And our Relations to God , and the several respective duties of those Relations , are ordinarily much confounded . The work of the Holy Ghost ( as we are baptized into the belief of him ) is poorly , lamely and disorderly opened , to the encouraging of the carnal on one hand , or the Enthusiasts on the other . Law and Gospel , and Covenant and Covenant ; words and works ; the precepts of Christ , and the operations of the Spirit , are seldom thought on in their proper place and order , and differences . In a word , Consectaries are confounded with principles : Nature , Medicine , and Health ; the precepts and parts of Primitive Sanctity , with the precepts and means of M●dicinal Grace ; the End and the Means ; yea nothing more usually than words and things are confounded and disordered by the most ( that I say not by us all . ) The circular motion of grace , from God , and by God , and to God , and in man the receiving duties as distinct from the improving duties ; and these , as communicative and dispercing unto man , from those ascendent unto God , partly in the fruits , and partly in the exaltation of the mind it self , these are not to be found , nor abundance more which I pass by , in any just harmonious Scheme . II. And O what confusion is in our Hearts or Wills , and lameness , & defect as well as confusion ; which must needs be the cons●quent of a lame and confused understanding . It is so great , that I am not willing to be so tedious as to open it at large . III. And the confusion in our practices , taking it in , and expressing it , will shew you your heart-confusion of it self . But to open this also would be long ; and the regular order before laid down , will shew you our disorders without any further enumerations or instances . Only some of our lameness and partialities , contrary to entire and compleat Religiousness , I shall briefly mention , because I think it to be of no small need , to the most , even of the more zealous part of Christians . 1. In our Studies and Meditations , we are partial and defective : we search hard perhaps for some few Truths , with the neglect of many hundred more . 2. In our Z●al for Truth , we are oft as partial , greatly taken with some one or few , which we think we have suddenly and happily found out , and see more into than others do ; or in which we think we have some singular or special interest ▪ and in the mean time little affected with abundance of Truths of greater clearness and importance , and of more daily usefulness , because they are things that all men know , and common unto you with the most of Christians . 3. In your love to the godly , and your charity , in expressions , and in your daily prayers , what lameness and partiality is there ? Those that are neer you , and conversant with you , you remember ; and perhaps those in the Kingdom , or Countrey where you dwell : Or at least those of your own society , opinions and party . But when it cometh to praying for the world , and all the Church abroad ; and when it cometh to the loving of those that differ from you , what partiality do you shew ? 4. In the course of duties to God and man , how rare is that person that doth not quite omit , or slubber over some duty as if it were nothing , while he doth with much earnestness prosecute another ? One that is much in receiving duties for themselves ( as hearing , reading , meditating , praying ) can live all the week with quietness of conscience , without almost any improving duties , or doing any good to others : as if they were made for themselves alone . And some Ministers lay out themselves in Preaching , as if they were all for the good of others ; but pray as little , and do as little about their own heart , as if they cared not for themselves at all ; or else were good enough already . Some are constant in Church-duties , perhaps with some superstitious strictness ; but in family duties how neglective are they ? They are for very strict discipline in the Church , and cannot communicate with any that wear not the same badge of sanctity which they affect : But in their families , what prophaneness , carelesness and confusion is there ? They can have family communion with the most ungodly servants , that will but be profitable to them . Dumb Ministers are their scorn ; but to be dumb Parents and Masters to their children and servants , they can easily bear . Formal preaching and praying in the Church they exclaim against ; but how formally do they pray at home , and catechize and instruct their family ? If a Magistrate should forbid them to pray , or catechize , or instruct their families , they would account him an impious , odious persecutor ▪ but they can neglect it ordinarily when none forbiddeth them , and never lay any such accusation on themselves . Some are much for the duties of Worship in private ; but negligent of publick Worship : and some are diligent in both , that make little scruple of living idly without a Calling , or doing the works of their Callings deceitfully and unprofitably . They are censorious of one that is negligent in Gods Worship , but censure not themselves ( nor love to be censured by others ) for being idle and negligent servants to their Masters ; and omitting many an hours work , which was as truly their duty as the other . Yea when they are told of such duties as they love not ( as obedience , labour , charity , patience , mortifying the flesh , &c. ) their consciences are just as senseless , or as prejudiced , or quarrelsom , as the consciences of other men are against Religious exercises . 5. And in our reformation and resisting sins of commission , shell lameness and partiality is common with the most . He that is most tender of a sin which is in common disgrace among the godly , is little troubled at as great a one which hath got any reputation among them by the advantage of some errours . In England , through Gods mercy , the prophanation of the Lords day , is noted as a heinous sin . But beyond Sea where it is not so reputed , how ordinarily is it committed ? Many would condemn Joseph , if they had heard him swear by the life of Pharaoh , because through Gods mercy , swearing is a disgraced sin . But how ordinarily do the dividing sort of Christians , rashly or falsly censure men behind their backs that differ from them ▪ upon unproved hearsay , and gladly take up false reports , and never shed a tear for many such slanders , back b●●ings and wrongs ▪ Many 〈◊〉 one that would take an oath or curse for a certain sign of an ungodly person yet make little of a less disgraceful way of evil speaking , and of a pi●vish unpleasable disposition ; and when they are in patient of a censure , or a soul word , are patient enough with their impatiency . And it deserveth tears of blood to think how little the sins of selfishness and pride are mortified in most of the forwardest Christian ( even in them that go in mean attire . ) How much they love and look to be esteemed , to be taken notice of , to be well thought of , and well spoken of ? How ill they bear the least contempt , neglect or disrespect ? How abundantly they overvalue their own understandings ? and how wise they are in their own conceits ? and how hardly they will think ill of their most false or foolish apprehensions ? and how proudly they disdain the judgments of wiser men , from whom if they had humility , they might learn perhaps twenty years together , and yet not reach the measure of their knowledge ? and what a strange difference there is in their judging of any case , when it is anothers , and when it is their own ? And among how few is the sin of flesh-pleasing sensuality mortified ? abundance take no notice of it , because it is hid , and can be daily exercised in a less disgraceful way . If they be rich , they can enjoy that which is their own ; and they can cleanlily do as Dives did , Luke 16. and take their good things here . Having enough laid up for many years , they think they may take their case , and eat , drink , and be merry , without rebuke , Luke 12.19 , 10. They that are the most zealous in strict opinions , and modes of Worship , can live as Sodom did , in pride , fulness of bread , and abundance of idleness , and use meat for their lusts , and make provision for the flesh , to satisfie those lusts , and yet never seem to themselves , nor those about them to offend ; much less to do any thing that is grosly evil , Ez●k 16.49 . Psal . 78.18 , 30. Rom. 13 13 , 14. They drink not till they are drunk , they eat not more in quantity than others ; they labour as far as need compels them ; and this they think is very tollerable . And because the Papists have turned the just subduing of the flesh , into hurtful austerities , or formal mockeries , therefore they are the more hardened in their flesh pleasing way . They take but that which they love , and that which is their own , and then they think that the fault is not great : and what Christ meant by Dives his being cloathed in purple and silk , and faring sumptuously every day , they never truly understood : Nor yet what he meaneth by the poor in spirit , Matth. 5.3 . which is not ( at least only or chiefly ) a sense of the want of grace , but a spirit suited to a life of poverty , contrary to the love of money , and of fulness , and luxury , and pride : When we are content with necessaries , and eat and drink for health more than for pleasure , or for that pleasure only which doth conduce to health : and when we will be at no needless superfluous cost upon the 〈◊〉 , but ●h●se the cheapest food and rayment which is sufficient to our lawful ends ; and use not our appetites , and sense , and fantasie to such delight and satisfaction as either increaseth lust , or corrupteth the mind , and hindereth it from spiritual duties and delights , by hurtful delectation or diversion : nor bestow that upon our selves , which the poor about us need to supply their great necessities . This is to be poor in spirit ; and this is the life of abstinence and mortification , which these sensual professors will not learn. Nay , rather than their throats shall not be pleased , if they be children in their Parents Families , or Servants , they will steal for it , and ●●ke that which their Parents and Masters ( they know ) do not consent to , nor allow them : And they are worse thieves than they that steal for hunger and meer necessity ; because they steal to satisfie their appetites and carnal lusts ; that they may fare better than their superiours would have them . And yet perhaps be really conscientious and religious in many other points , and never humbled for their fleshly minds , their gluttony and thievery ; especially if they see others fare better than they : and they quiet their consciences , as the most ungodly do , with putting a hansome name upon their sin , and calling it , taking , and not stealing , and eating , and drinking , and not fulness of bread , or carnal gulosity . Abundance of such instances of mens partiality in avoiding sin , I must omit , because it is so long a work . 6. Yea in the inward exercise of Graces , there are few that use them compleatly , entirely , and in order ; but they neglect one , while they set themselves wholly about the exercise of another ; or perhaps use one against another . Commonly they set themselves a great while upon nothing so much as labouring to affect their hearts with sorrow for sin , and meltingly , to weep in their confessions ( with some endeavours of a new life . ) But the Love of God , and the thankful sense of the mercy of Redemption , and the rejoycing hopes of endless Glory , are things which they take but little care about : and when they are convinced of the errour of this partiality , they next turn to some Antinomian whimsie , under the pretence of valuing Free Grace ; and begin to give over per●ile●s 〈◊〉 and the care ▪ and watchfulness against sin ▪ and diligence in a holy fruitful life , and say that they were long enough Legal●sts , and knew not Free Grace , but lookt all after doing , and something in themselves ; and then they could have no peace ; but now they see their errour , they will know nothing but Christ . And thus that narrow foolish soul cannot use Repentance wi●hout neglecting Faith in Christ ; and cannot use Faith , but they must neglect Repentance ; yea set Faith and Repentance , Love and Obedience in good works , like enemies or hindrances against each other : They cannot know themselves and their sinfuln●ss , without forgetting Christ and his righteousness : And they cannot know Christ , and his Love , and Grace , without laying by the knowledge or resistance of their sin . They cannot magnifie Free Grace , unless they may have none of it , but lay by the use of it as to all the works of holiness , because they must look at nothing in themselves ▪ They cannot magnifie Pardon and Justification , unless they may make light of the sin and punishment which they deserve , and which is pardoned , and the charge and condemnation from which they are justified : They cannot give God thanks for remitting their sin , unless they may forbear confessing it , and sorrowing for it . They cannot take the Promise to be free , which giveth Christ and pardon of sin , if it have but this condition , that they shall not reject him : Nor can they call it the Gospel , unless it leave them masterless and lawless ; whereas there is indeed no such thing as Faith without Repentance , nor Repentance without Faith : No love to Christ without the keeping of his Commandments ; nor no true keeping of the Commandments without Love : No Free Grace without a gracious sanctified heart and life ; nor no gift of Christ and Justification , but on the condition of a believing acceptance of the gift ; and yet no such believing but by Free Grace : No Gospel without the Law of Christ and Nature ; and no mercy and peace but in a way of duty . And yet such Bedlam Christians are among us , that you may hear them in pangs of high conceited zeal , insulting over the folly of one another , and in no wiser language , than if you heard one lunatick person say , I am for health , and not for medicine ; and another , I am for medicine , and not for the taking of it ; and another , I am for the Physick , and not for the Physician ; and another , I am for the Physician , and not the Physick ; and another , I am for the Physick ; but not for health . Or as , if they contended at their meats , I am for meat , but not for eating it , and I am for putting it into my mouth , but not for chewing it ; or I am for chewing it ▪ but not for swallowing it ; or I am for swallowing it , but not for digesting it ; or I am for digesting it , but not for eating it , &c. Thus is Christ divided among a sort of ignorant proud Professors : and some are for his Sacrifice , and some for his Intercession , some for his Teaching , and some for his Commands , and some for his Promises ; some for his Blood , and some for his Spirit ; some for his Word , and some for his Ministers , and his Church ; and when they have made this strange proficiency in wisdom , every party claim to be this Church themselves ; or if they cannot deny others to be parts with them of the Mystical Church , yet the true ordered Political disciplined Church is among them , the matter of their claim and competition , and one saith , It is we , and the other , no but it is we ; and the Kitchin , and the Cole-house , and the Sellar go to Law , to try which of them is the House . Thus when they have divided Christs garments among them , and pierced , if not divided himself , they quarrel rather than cast lots for his coat . 7. I perceive this Treatise swelleth too big , or else I might next shew you , how partial men are in the sense of their dangers . 8. And in the resisting of Temptations ; he that scapeth sensuality , feareth not worldliness ; or he that feareth both , yet falleth into Heresie or Schism ; and he that scapeth errours , falleth into fleshly sins . 9. And what partial regard we have of Gods mercies . 10. And how partial we are as to our Teachers , and good Books . 11. And also about all the Ordinances of God , and all the the helps and means of grace . 12. And how partial we are about good works , extolling one , and sensless of another ; and about the opportunities of good . In a word , what l●me apprehensions we have of Religion , when men are so far from setting all the parts together in a well-ordered frame , that they can scarce forbear the dividing of every part into particles : and must take the food of their souls as Physick , even like Pills which they cannot get down , unless they are exceeding small . III. The Causes of this Calamity I must for brevity but name . 1. The natural weakness of mans mind , doth make him like a narrow-mouthed bottle that can take in but a little at once , and so must be long in learning and receiving . 2. The natural laziness and impatience of men , will not give them leave to be at such long and painful studies , as compleatness of knowledge doth require . 3. The natural pride of mens hearts will not give them leave to continue so long in a humble sense of their emptiness and ignorance , nor to spend so many years in learning as Disciples : but it presently perswadeth them that their first apprehensions are clear and right , and their knowledge very considerable already ; and they are as ready to dispute and censure the ignorance of their Teachers , if not to teach others themselves , as to learn. 4. The poverty and labours of many , allow them not leisure to search and study so long and seriously , as may bring them to any comprehensive knowledge . 5. The most are not so happy as to have judicious , methodical and laborious Teachers , who may possess them with right principles and methods , but deliver them some truths , with great defectiveness and disorder themselves ; and perhaps by their weakness tempt the people into pride , when they see that they are almost as wise as they . 6. Most men are corrupted by company and converse with ignorant e●roneous , and self-conceited men , and hearing others ( perhaps that are very zealous ) make something of nothing , and make a great matter of a little one , and extolling their own poor and lame conceits , they learn also to think that they are something when they are nothing , deceiving themselves , Gal. 6.3 , 4. 7. Most Christians have lost the sense of the need and use of the true Ministerial Office , as it consisteth in personal counsel and assistance , besides the publick Teaching ; and most Ministers by neglecting it , teach them to overlook it . 8. Every man hath some seeming Interest in some one Opinion , or Duty , or Way , above the rest ; and selfishness causeth him to reel that way that interest leadeth him . 9. Education usually possesseth men with a greater regard of some one opinion , duty , way or party , than of the rest . 10. The reputation of some good men doth fix others upon some particular waies or notions of theirs above others . 11. Present occasions and necessities sometime do urge us harder to some means and studies , than to others : especially for the avoiding of some present evil , or easing of some present trouble ; and then the rest are almost laid by . 12. Some Doctrines deeplier affect us in the hearing , than others ; and then the thoughts run more on that , to the neglect of many thing as great . 13. Perhaps we have had special experience of some Truths and Duties , or Sins , more than others ; and then we set all our thoughts about those only . 14. Usually we live with such as talk most of some one duty , or against some one sin , more than all the rest ; and this doth occasion our thoughts to run most in one stream , and confine them by hearing and custom to a narrow channel . 15. Some things in their own quality , are more easie and near to us , and more within the reach of sense . And therefore as corporal things , because of their sensibility and nearness , do possess the minds of carnal men , instead of things spiritual and unseen ; even so Paul , and Apollo , and Cephas ; this good Preacher , and that good Book , and this Opinion , and that Church-society , and this or that Ordinance , do possess the minds of the more carnal narrow sort of Christians , instead of the harmony of Christian truth , and holy duty . 16. Nature it self as corrupted , is much more against some truths , and against some duties , internal and external , than against others . And then when those that it is less averse to , are received , men dwell on them , and make a Religion of them , wholly or too much , without the rest . As when some veins are stopped , all the blood is turned into the rest ; or when one part of the mould is stopped up , the metal all runneth into the rest , and maketh a defective vessel : Or when one part of the seal is filled up before , it maketh a defective impression on the wax . Therefore the duties of inward self-denial , humility , mortification , and heavenliness , are almost left out in the Religion of the most . 17. Temptations are ever more strong and violent against some duties , than against others , and to some sins , than to others . 18. Most men have a memory , which more easily retaineth some things than others : especially those that are best understood , and which most affect them . And grace cannot live upon forgotten truths . 19. There is no man but in his Calling , hath more frequent occasion for some graces and duties , and useth them more , and hath more occasions to interrupt and divert his mind from others . 20. The very temperature of the body inclineth some all to fears and grief , and others to love and contentedness of mind : and it vehemently inclineth some to passion , some to their appetite , some to pride , and some to idleness , and some to lust ; when others are far less inclined to any of them : And many other providential accidents , do give men more helps to one duty , than to another , and putteth many upon the tryals , which others are never put upon : And all this set together is the reason that few Christians are entire or compleat , or escape the sin and misery of deformity ; or ever use Gods graces and their duties , in the order and harmony as they ought . IV. I shall be brief also in telling you what Inferences to raise from hence for your instruction . 1. You may learn hence how to answer the question , whether all Gods Graces live and grow in an equal proportion in all true Believers . I need to give you no further proof of the negative , than I have laid down before : I once thought otherwise ; and was wont to say , as it is commonly said , that in the habit they are proportionable , but not in the act . But this was because I understood not the difference between the particular habits , and the first radical power , inclination or habit ( which I name that the Reader may chuse his title , that we may not quarrel about meer words . ) The first Principle of Holiness in us , is called in Scripture , The Spirit of Christ or of God : In the unity of this are three essential principles , Life , Light and Love ; which are the immediate effects of the heavenly or divine influx upon the three natural faculties of the soul , to rectifie them , viz. on the Vital Power , the Intellect and the Will : And are called the Spirit , as the Sunshine in the room is called , the Sun : Now as the Sunshine on the earth and plants , is all one in it self as emitted from the Sun , Light , Heat and Moving force concurring , and yet is not equally effective , because of the difference of Recipients ; and yet every vegetative receiveth a real effect of the Heat and Motion at the least ; and sensitives also of the Light ; but so that one may ( by incapacity ) have less of the heat , and another less of the motion , and another less of the Lght ; so I conceive that Wisdom , Love and Life ( or Power ) are given by the Spirit to every Christian : But so that in the very first Principle or effect of the Spirit , one may have more Light , another more Love , and another more Life : Bus this it accidental from some obstruction in the Receiver ; otherwise the Spirit would be equally a Spirit of Power ( or Life ) and of Love , and of a sound mind ( or Light. ) But besides this New Moral Power , or Inclination , or Vniversal Radical Habit , there are abundance of particular Habits of Grace and Duty , much more properly called Habits , and less properly called the Vital or Potential Principles of the New Creature : There is a particular Habit of Humility , and another of Peaceableness , of Gentleness , of Patience , of Love to one another , of Love to the Word of God ; and many habits of Love to several truths and duties : a habit of desire , yea many , as there are many different objects desired ; there is a habit of praying , of meditating , of thanksgiving , of mercy , of chastity , of temperance , of diligence , &c. The acts would not vary as they do , if there were not a variety and disposition in these Habits ; which appear to us only in their acts . We must go against Scripture , reason , and the manifold hourly experience of our selves , and all the Christians in the world , if we will say that all these graces and duties are equal in the Habit in every Christian . How impotent are some in bridling a passion , or bridling the tongue , or in controlling pride and self-esteem , or or in denying the particular desires of their sense , who yet are ready at many other duties , and eminent in them . Great knowledge is too oft with too little charity or zeal ; and great zeal and diligence often with as little knowledge . And so in many other instances . So that if the Potentiality of the radical graces of Life , Light and Love , be or were equal , yet certainly proper and particular habits are not . But here note further , 1. That no grace is strong where the radical graces , Faith and Love are weak : As no part of the body is strong , where the Brain and Heart are weak ; ( yea or the naturals , the stomach and liver . ) 2. The strength of Faith and Love is the principal means of strengthening all other graces ; and of right performing all other duties . 3. Yet are they not alone a sufficient means , but other inferiour graces and duties may be weak and neglected , where Faith and Love are strong ; through particular obstructing causes . As some branches of the tree may perish when the root is sound ; or some members may have an Atrophie , though the brain and heart be not diseased . 4. That the three Principles , Life , Light and Love , do most rarely keep any disproportion ; and would never be disproportionable at all , if some things did not hinder the actings of one more than the other , or turn away the soul from the influences and impressions of the Spirit more as to one than to the rest . 2. Hence you may learn , That the Image of God is much clearlier and perfectlier imprinted in the holy Scriptures , than in any of our hearts . And that our Religion objectively considered , is much more perfect , than subjectively in us . In Scripture , and in the true doctrinal method our Religion is entire , perfect and compleat . But in it , it is confused , lame and lamentably imperfect . The Sectaries that here say , None of the Spirits works are imperfect , are not to be regarded : For so they may as well say , that there are none infants , diseased , lame , distracted , poor , or monsters in the world ; because none of Gods works are imperfect . All that is in God is God , and therefore perfect ; and all that is done by God is perfect as to his ends , and as it is a part in the frame of his own means to that end which man understandeth not : But many things are imperfect in the receiving subject . If not , why should any man ever seek to be wiser or better than he was in his infancy , or at the worst . 3. Therefore we here see that the Spirit in the Scripture is the Rule by which we must try the Spirit in our selves , or any other . The Fanaticks or Enthusiasts , who ra●l against us , for trying the Spirit by the Scriptures , when as the Spirit was the Author of the Scriptures , do but rave in the dark , and know not what they say . For the Essence of the Spirit is every where ; and it is the effects of the Spirit in both which we must compare : The Spirit is never contrary to it self : And seeing it is the Sunshine which we here call the Sun , the question is but , where it shineth most ? whether in the Scripture , or in our hearts ? The Spirit in the Apostles indited the Scriptures , to be the Rule of our faith and life unto the end : The Spirit in us doth teach and help us to understand and to obey those Scriptures . Was not the Spirit in a greater measure in the Apostles , than in us ? Did it not work more compleatly , and unto more infallibility in their writing the Scriptures , than it doth in our Vnderstanding , and obeying them ? Is not the seal perfect , when the impression is oft imperfect ? Doth not the Master write his Copy more perfectly , than his Scholars imitation is , though he teach him , yea and hold his hand ? He that knoweth not the Religious distractions of this age , will blame me for troubling the Reader with the confutation of such dreams : But so will not they that have seen and tasted their effects . 4. Hence we may learn that he that would know what the Christian Religion is indeed ( to the honour of God , or their own just information ) must rather look into the Scripture to know it , than into Believers . For though in Believers it be more discernable in the kind ( as mens lives are more conspicuous than Laws and Precepts , and the impress than the seal , &c. ) yet it is in the Laws or Scriptures more compleat and perfect , when in the best of Christians ( much more in the most ) it is broken , maimed and confused . 5. This telleth us the reason why it is unsafe to make any men ( Popes , or Councils , or the holiest Pastors , or strictest people ) the Rule either of our faith or lives . Because they are all imperfect and discordant , when the Scripture is concordant and compleat . He that is led by them , may erre , when as the Scripture hath no errour . And yet it is certain , that even the imperfect knowledge and grace of faithful Pastors and companions , is of great use to those that are more imperfect than they , to teach them the Scriptures , which are more perfect than they all . 6. Hence we see why it is , that Religion bringeth so much trouble , and so little comfort to the most , or too many that are in part Religious . Because it is lame and confused in them . Is it any wonder that a d●splaced bone is painful ? or that a disordered body is sick , and hath no great pleasure in life ? or that a disordered or maimed watch or clock , doth not go right ? O what a life of pleasure should we live , if we were but such as the Scripture doth require ! and the Religion in our hearts and lives were fully agreeable with the Religion described in the Word of God. 7. And hence we see why most true Christians are so querulous , and have alwaies somewhat to complain of and lament ; which the sensless , or self-justifying hypocrites overlook in themselves . No wonder if such diseased souls complain . 8. And hence we see why there is such diversity and divisions among Believers , and such abundance of Sects and Parties , and Contentions , and so little Unity , Peace and Concord . And why all attempts for Unity take so little in the Church . Because they have all such weakness , and distempers , and lameness , and confusedness , and great disproportions in their Religion . Do you wonder why he liveth not in peace , and concord , and quietness with others , who hath no better agreement in himself ? and no more composedness and true peace rt home ? Mens grace and parts are much unequal . 9. And hence we see why there are so many scandals among Christians , to the great dishonour of true Christianity , and the great hinderance of the conversion of the Infidel , Heathen and ungodly world : What wonder if some disorder , falshood , and confusion appear without , in words and deeds , when there is so much ever dwelling in the mind ? 10. Lastly , Hence we may learn what to expect from particular persons , and what to look for also publickly , in the Church , and in the world . He that knoweth what man is , and what godly men are , but as well as I do , will hardly expect a concordant uniform building to be made of such discordant and uneven materials ; or that a set of strings , which are all , or almost all out of tune , should make any harmonious melody ; or that a number of Infants should constitute an Army of valiant men ; or that a company that can scarce spell , or read , should constitute a learned Academy . God must make a change upon individual persons , if ever he will make a great change in the Church . They must be more wise , and charitable , and peaceable Christians , who must make up that happy Church state , and settle that amiable peace , and serve God in that concordant harmony as all of us desire , and some expect . CHAP. XII . How to use Faith against particular sins ? THE most that I have to say of this , is to be gathered from what went before , about Sanctification in the general . And because I have been so much longer than I intended , you must bear with my necessary brevity in the rest . Direct . 1. When temptation setteth actual sin before you , or inward sin keeps up within , look well on God and sin together . Let Faith see Gods Holiness and Justice , and all that Wisdom , Goodness and Power , which sin despiseth . And one such believing sight of God , is enough to make you look at sin , as at the Devil himself ; as the most ugly thing . Direct . 2. Set sin and the Law of God together ; and then it will appear to be exceeding sinful ; and to be the crooked fruit of the tempting Serpent . You cannot know sin , but by the Law , Rom. 7.14 , &c. Direct . 3. Set sin before the Cross of Christ : Let Faith sprinkle his blood upon it , and it will die and wither . See it still as that which killed your Lord ; and that which pierced his side , and hanged him up in such contempt ; and put the gall and vinegar to his mouth . Direct . 4. Forget not the sorrows and fears of your conversion ( if you are indeed converted : ) Or ( if not ) at least the sorrows and fears which you must feel if ever you be converted . God doth purposely cast us into grief and terrours , for our former sins , that it may make us the more careful to sin no more , lest worse befall us : If the pangs of the new birth were sharp and gr●●vous to you , why will you again renew the cause , and drink of those bitter waters ? R●member what a mad and sad condition you were in while you lived according to the flesh , and how plainly you saw it when your eyes were opened ? And would you be in the same condition again ? Would you be unsanctified , and unjustified , and unpardoned , and unsaved ? Every wilful sin is a turning backward , toward the state of your former captivity and misery . Direct . 5. When Satan sets the bait before you , let Faith alwaies set Heaven and Hell before you , and take all together , the end with the beginning . And think when you are tempted to lye , to steal , to deceive , to lust , to pride , to gulosity or drunkenness , &c. what men are now suffering for these same sins ? and what all that are in Hell and in Heaven do think of them ? Suppose a man offered you a cup of wine , and a friend telleth you , I saw him put poison into it , and therefore take heed what you do . ] If the offerer were an enemy , you would hardly take it . The world , and the fl●sh , and the devil , are enemies : when they offer you the delights of sin , hear Faith , and it will tell you , there is poison in it ; there is sin , and hell , and Gods displeasure in it . Direct . 6. Let Faith keep you under the continual apprehensions of the Divine Authority and Rule ; that as a child , a servant , a scholar , a subject , doth still know that he is not masterless , but one that must be ruled by the will or Law of his superiour ; so may you alwaies live with the yo●k of Christ upon your necks , and his bridle in your mouths : Remembring also that you are still in your Masters eye . Direct . 7. Remember still that it is the work of Faith to overcome the world , and the flesh , and to over-rule your sense and appetite ; and to make nothing of all that would stand up against your heavenly interest ; and to crucifie it by the Cross of Christ Gal. 6.14 . & 5.24 . Rom. 8.1 , 9 , 10 , 13. Set Faith therefore upon its proper work ; and when you live by Faith , and walk after the Spirit , you will not live by sight , nor walk after the flesh , 2 Cor. 5.7 . Direct ▪ 8. It is also the work of Faith to take off all the masks of sin , and open its nakedness , and shame , and cast by all shifts , pretences , and excuses . When Satan saith , It is a little one , and the danger is not great , and it will serve thy pleasure , profit , or preferment ; Faith should say , Doth not God forbid it ? There is no dallying with the fire of God : Be not deceived , man ; God will not be mocked ! Whatsoever a man soweth , that shall be also reap : If you sow to the flesh , of the fl●sh you shall reap corruption , Gal , 6. When Satan saith , Ye shall not die : and when the sinner with Adam hideth himself , Faith will call him out to Judgment , and say , What hast thou done ? Hast thou eaten of the fruit which God forbade ? Direct . 9. Let Faith still keep you busied in your Masters work . Nothing breedeth and feedeth sin so much as idleness of mind and life : Sins of omission have this double mischief , that they are the first part of Satans game themselves , and they also bring in sins of commission . When men are not taken up with good , they are at leisure for temptations to intice them ; and they set open their doors to the tempter , and tell him he may speak with then when he will. Wanton thoughts , and covetous thoughts , may dwell there when better thoughts are absent . But when you are so wholly taken up with your duty ( spiritual or corporal ) and so constantly and industriously busie in your proper work , sin cannot enter , nor Satan find you at leisure for his service . Direct . 10. Let Faith make Gods service pleasant to you , and lose not your delight in G●d and godliness , and then you will not rellish sinful pleasures . You will find no need of such base delights , when you live on the foretast of Angelical pleasures . You will not be easily drawn to steal a morsel of dung or poison from the Devils table , while you daily feast your souls on Christ : or to steal the Onions of Egypt , when you dwell in a Land that floweth with milk and hony . But while you keep your selves in the wilderness , you will be tempted to look back again to Egypt . The great cause of mens sinning , and yielding to the temptations of forbidden pleasures , is because they are negligent to live upon the pleasures of Believers . Direct . 11. Take heed of the beginnings , if ever you would escape the sin . No man becometh stark nought at the first step . He that beginneth to take one pleasing unprofitable cup or bit , intendeth not drunkenness and gluttony in the grossest sense : But he hath set fire in the thatch , though he did not intend to burn his house ; and it will be harder to quench it , than to have forborn at first . He that beginneth but with lascivious dalliance , speeches or embraces , thinketh not to proceed to filthy fornication : But he might better have secured his conscience , if he had never medled so far with sin . Few ruinating damning sins , began any otherwise than with such small approaches , as seemed to have little harm or danger . Direct . 12. If ever you will scape sin , keep off from strong temptations and opportunities . He that will be still neer the fire or water , may be burnt or drowned at last . No man is long safe in the midst of danger , and at the next step to ruine . He that liveth in a Tavern or Ale-house , had need to be very averse to tipling . And he that sitteth at Dives table , had need to be very averse to gulosity : And he that is in the least danger of the fire of lust , must keep at a sufficient distance , not only from the bed , and from immodest actions , but from secret company and opportunities of sin , and from a licentious ungoverned eye and imagination . This caused Christ to say , How hard it is for the Rich to be saved ? because they have a stronger fleshly interest to keep them from Christ and godliness , which must be denyed ; and because their sin hath plentiful provision , and the fire of concupiscence wanteth no fewel , and it is a very easie thing to them still to sin , and alwaies a hard thing to avoid it : And mans sluggish nature will hardly long either hold on in that which is hardly done , or forbear that which is still hard to forbear . Good must be made sweet and easie to us , or else we shall never be constant in it . Direct . 13. If you find any difficulty in forsaking any disgraceful sin , cherish it not by secrecy , but 1. Plainly confess it to your bosom friend : And 2. If that will not serve , to others also , that you may have the greater engagements to forbear . I know wisdom must be used in such confessions , and they must be avoided when the hurt will prove greater than the good . But fleshly wisdom must be no councellor , and fleshly interest must not prevail , Secrecy is the nest of sin , where it is kept warm , and hidden from disgrace : Turn it out of this nest , and it will thd sooner perish . Gods eye and knowledge should serve turn : but when it will not , let man know it also , and turn one sin against another , and let the love of Reputation help to subdue the love of Lust . Opening a sin ( yea or a strong temptation to a sin ) doth lay an engagement in point of common credit in the world , upon them that were before under the divine engagements only . It will be a double shame to sin when once it 's known . And as Christ speaketh of a right hand , or eye , so may I of your honour in this case ; it is better go to Heaven with the shame of a penitent confession , than to keep your honour till you are in Hell. The loss of mens good opinion is an easie price , to prevent the loss of your salvation , Prov. 28.13 . He that covereth his sins shall not prosper ; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy . So 1 John 1.9 , 10. James 5.15 , 16. Direct . 14. Especially take heed of heinous sins , called mortal , because inconsistent with sincerity . Direct . 15. And take heed of those sins which your selves or others that fear God are in greatest danger of : Of which I will speak a little more distinctly . CHAP. XIII . What sins the best should most watchfully avoid ? and wherein the infirmities of the upright d●ffer from mortal sins ? Q●est . WHat sins are religious people who fear sin , most in danger of ? and where must they set the strongest watch ? Answ . 1. They are much in danger of those sins , the temptations to which are neer , and importunate , and constant , and for which they have the greatest opportunities : They have senses and appetites as well as others : And if the bait be great , and alwaies as at their very mouths , even a David , a Solomon , a Noah , is not safe . 2. They are in danger of those sins which they little think of ; for it is a sign that they are not forewarned and fortified ; nor have they overcome that sin ; for victory here is never got at so cheap a rate : especially as to inward sins : If it have not cost you many a groan , and many a daies diligence , to conquer selfishness , pride and appetite ; it 's twenty to one they are not conquered . 3. They are much in danger of those sins which they extenuate , and count to be smaller than they are . For indeed their hearts are infected already , by those false and favourable thoughts . And they are prepared to entertain a neerer familiarity with them . Men are easily tempted upon a danger which seemeth small . 4. They are much in danger of those sins , which their constitutions and temperature of body doth encline them to ; and therefore must here keep a double watch . No small part of the punishment of our Original sin ( both as from Adam , and from our neerest Parents ) is found in the ill complexion of our bodies : The temperature of some inclineth them vehemently to passion ; and of others unto lust ; and of others to sloth and dulness : and of others to gulosity , &c. And grace doth not immediately change this distemper of the complexion ; but only watch over it , and keep it under , and abate it consequently , by contrary actions , and mental dispositions : Therefore we shall have here uncessant work , while we are in the body . Though yet the power of grace by long and faithful use , will bring the very sense , and imagination , and passions into so much calmness , as to be far less raging , and easily ruled : As a well ridden horse will obey the Rider ; and even dogs and other bruits will strive but little against our government : And then our work will grow more easie : For as Seneca saith , Maxima pars libertatis est bene moratus venter : A good conditioned belly is a great part of a mans liberty : meaning , an ill conditioned belly is a great part of mens slavery : And the same may be said of all the senses , fantasie and passions in their respective places . 5. We are much in danger of the sins which our callings , trades and worldly interest , do most and constantly tempt us to . Every man hath a carnal interest , which is his great temptation ; and every wise man will know it , and there set a double watch . The carnal interest of a Preacher , is applause or preferment : The carnal interest of Rulers and great men , I shall pass by ; but they must not pass it by themselves . The carnal interest of Lawyers and Tradesmen , is their gain , &c. Here we must keep a constant watch . 6. We are much in danger of those sins , the matter of which is somewhat good or lawful , and the danger lyeth only in the manner , circumstances or degree . For there the lawfulness of the matter , occasioneth men to forget the accidental evil . The whole Kingdom feeleth the mischief of this , in instances which I will now pass by . If eating such or such a meat were not lawful it self , men would not be so easily drawn to gluttony . If drinking wine were not a lawful thing , the passage to drunkenness were not so open : The apprehension that a lusory lot is a lawful thing ( as Cards , D●ce , &c. ) doth occasion the heinous sin of time-wasting , and estate-wasting gamesters . If apparel were not lawful , excess would not be so easily endured . Yea the goodness of Gods own Worship , quieteth many in its great abuse . 7. We are much in danger of those sins , which are not in any great disgrace among those persons whom we most honour and esteem . It is a great mercy to have sin lie under a common odium and disgrace : As swearing and drunkenness , and cursing , and fornication , and Popish errours , and superstition , is now amongst the forwardest Professors in England : For here conscience is most awakened , and helped by the opinion of men ; or if there be some carnal respect to our reputation in it sometimes , yet it tendeth to suppress the sin ; And it is a great plague to live where any great sin is in little disgrace ( as the prophanation of the Lords day in most of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea ; and they say , tipling , if not drunkenness in Germany ; and as backbiting and evil speaking against those that differ from them is among the Professors in England , for too great a part ; and also many superstitions of their own ; and dividing principles and practices . ) 8. But especially if the greater number of godly people live in such a sin , then is the temptation great indeed ; and it is but few of the weaker sort , that are not carryed down that stream . The Munster case , and the Rebellion in which Munster perished in Germany , and many other ; but especially abundance of Schisms from the Apostles daies till now , are too great evidences of mens sociableness in sinning . We all like sheep have gone astray , and turned every one to his own way , Isa . 53 6. And like sheep●n ●n this , that if one that is leading , get over the hedge , all the rest will follow after ; but especially if the greater part be gone . And do not think that our Churches are infallible , and that the greater part of the godly cannot erre , or be in the wrong : For that would be but to do as the Papists , when we have sinned by fallibility , to keep off repentance by the conceit of infallibility . 9. We are in great danger of sinning , in cases where we are ignorant : For who can avoid the danger which he seeth not ? And who can walk safely in the dark ? Therefore we see that it is the ignor anter sort of Christians , and such as Paul calleth Novices , that most erre ; especially when Pride accompanyeth Ignorance , for then they fall into the special condemnation of the Devil , 1 Tim. 3.6 . Study therefore painfully and patiently till you understand the truth . 10. But above all , we are in danger of those sins which are masked with a pretence of the greatest truths and duties , and use to be fathered on God and Scripture ; and so under the specious titles of Holiness and of Free Grace . For here it is the understanding chiefly that resisteth , while the very names and pretences secretly steal in , and bring them into love and reverence with the Will. And the poor honest Christian is afraid of resisting them , lest it should prove a resisting God. What can be so false that a man will not plead for , if he take it to be a necessary truth of God ? And what can be so bad that a man will not do , if he take it once to be of Gods commanding ? The foresaid instances of the Munster and Germane actions , with those of the followers of David George in Holland ( who took himself to be the Holy Ghost , or the immediate Prophet of his Kingdom ) and Hacket and his Grundletonians , and the Familists , the Ranters , the Seekers , the Quakers , the Church-dividers , and the Kingdom and State-overturners in England , have given so great a demonstration of this , that it is not lawful to overlook it or forget it . The time cometh , that they that kill you , shall think that they do God service , Joh. 16.2 . And then who can expect that their consciences should avoid it ? Why did Paul persecute the Christians , and compel them to blaspheme ? Because he verily thought that he ought to do many things against the Name of Jesus , Acts 26.9 . O it is religious sins which we are in danger of ! such as come to us as in the Name of God , and Christ , and the Spirit : such as pretend that we cannot be saved without them : and such as plead the holy Scriptures : such as James 3. is written against , when a wisdom from beneath , which is earthly , sensual and devilish , working by envy and strife , unto confusion and every evil work , pretendeth to be the wisdom from above : when Zeal consumeth Love and Vnity , under pretence of consuming sin : which made Paul and John require us not to believe every spirit , but to try the spirits whether they be of God , 2 Thes . 2.2 . & 1 Thes . 5.20 , 21. 1 Joh. 4.1 , 2 , 3. And made Paul say , If an Angel from Heaven bring you another Gospel , let him be accursed , Gal. 1.7 , 8. And more plainly , 2 Cor. 11.13 , 14. Such are false Apostles ; deceitful workers ; transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ : and no marvel , for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of light : therefore it is no great thing if his Ministers also be transformed as the Ministers of righteousness , whose end shall be according to their works . And Acts 20.30 . Also of your own selves shall men arise , speaking perverse things , to draw away Disciples after them . And what need any Disciple of Christ greater warning , than to remember that their Saviour himself was thus assaulted by the Devil in his temptation , with [ It is written . ] Yet let no Papist hence take occasion to vilifie the Scripture , because it is made a plea for sin : For so he might as well vilifie humane Reason , which is pleaded for all the errours in the world ; and vilifie the Law , because Lawyers plead it for ill Causes ; yea and vilifie God himself , because the same and other sinners plead his will and authority for their sins : when contrarily , it is a great proof of the Scripture Authority and Honour , that Satan himself , and his subtilest instruments , do place their greatest hope of prevailing , by perverting and misapplying it ; which could be of no use to them , if its authority were not acknowledged . 11. We are in constant danger of those sins which we think we can conceal from men : Therefore suppose still that all that you do will be made known ; and do all as in the open streets : It 's written ( by two ) in the life of holy Ephrem Syrus , that when a Harlot tempted him to uncleanness , he desired but that he might chuse the place ; which she consenting to , he chose the open market-place , among all the people ; and when she told him , that there they should be shamed , for all would see ; he told her such a lesson of sinning in the sight of God , who is every where , as was the means of her conversion . Conceit of secrecy emboldeneth to sin . 12. We are in constant danger of sins of sudden passion and irruption , which allow us not season to deliberate , and surprize us before our reason can consider . 13. We are in danger of sins that come on by insensible degrees , and from small beginnings creep upon us , and come not by any sudden wakening assaults : Thus pride and covetousness , and ambition , do infect men : And thus our zeal and deligence for God , doth usually decay . 14. Lastly , We are in much danger of all sins which require a constant vigorous diligence to resist them ; and of omitting those duties , or that part or mode of duty , which must have a constant vigorous diligence to perform it : Because feeble souls are hardly kept ( as is aforesaid ) to constant vigorous diligence . Quest . 2. Wherein differeth the sins of a sanctified person from other mens that are unsanctified . Answ . 1. In a sanctified man the habitual bent of his will , is ever more against sin , than for it ; however he be tempted into that particular act . 2. And as to the Act also , it is ever contrary to the scope and tenour of his life ; which is for God and sincere obedience . 3. He hath no sin which is inconsistent with the true Love of God , in the predominant habit : It never turneth his heart to another End , or Happiness , or Master . 4. Therefore it is more a sin of passion , than of settled interest and choice . He is more liable to a hasty passion , or word , or unruly thoughts , than to any prevalent covetousness or ambition , or any sin which is a possessing of the heart instead of God , 1 John 2.15 . James 3.2 . Though some remainders of these are in him , they prevail not so far as sudden passions . 5. There are some sins which are more easily in the power of the will , so that a man that is but truly willing , may forbear them ; as a drunkard may pass by the Tavern or Ale-house , or forbear to touch the cup ; and the fornicator to come neer , or commit the sin , if they be truly willing : But there be other sins which a man can hardly forbear though he be willing ; because they are the sins of those faculties over which the will hath not a despotical power : As a man may be truly willing to have no sluggishness , heaviness , sleepiness at prayer , no forgetfulness , no wandering thoughts , no inordinate appetite or lust at all stirring in him , no sudden passions of anger , grief or fear ; he may be willing to love God perfectly ; to fear him and obey him perfectly , but cannot . These latter are the ordinary infirmities of the godly : The former sort are , if at all , his extraordinary falls , Rom. 7.14 . to the end . 6. Lastly , The true Christian riseth by unfeigned Repentance , when his conscience hath but leisure and helps to deliberate , and to bethink him what he hath done . And his Repentance much better resolveth and strengtheneth him against his sin for the time to come . To summ up all ; 1. Sin more loved than hated . 2. Sin wilfully lived in , which might be avoided by the sincerely willing . 3. Sin made light of , and not truly repented of when it is committed . 4. And any sin inconsistent with habitual Love to God , in predominancy , is mortal , or a sign of spiritual death , and none of the sins of sanctified Believers . CHAP. XIV . How to live by Faith in Prosperity . THE work of Faith in respect of Prosperity , is twofold : 1. To save us from the danger of it . 2. To help us to a sanctified improvement of it . 1. And for the first , that which Faith doth , is especially , 1. To see deeper and further into the nature of all things in the world , than sense can do , 2 Cor. 4.17 , 18. 1 Cor. 7.29 , 30 , 31. To see that they were never intended for our Rest or portion , but to be our wilderness provision in our way . To foresee just how the world will use us , and leave us at the last , and to have the very same thoughts of it now , as we foresee that we shall have when the end is come , and when we have had all that ever the world will do for us . It is the work of Faith , to cause a man to judge of the world , and all its glory , as we shall do when death and judgment come , and have taken off the mask of splendid names , and shews , and flatteries : that we may use the world as if we used it not , and possess it as if we possest it not , because its fashion doth pass away . It is the work of Faith to crucifie the world to us , and us to the world by the Cross of Christ , Gal. 6.14 . that we may look on it as disdainfully as the world looked upon Christ , when he hanged as forsaken on the Cross . That when it is dead , it may have no power on us , and when we are dead to it , we may have no inordinate love , or care , or thoughts , or fears , or grief , or labour to lay out upon it . It is the work of Faith●o ●o make all worldly pomp and glory , to be to us but loss , and dross , and dung , in comparison of Christ , and the righteousness of Faith , Phil. 3.7 , 8 , 9. And then no man will part with Heaven for dung , nor set his God below his dung , nor further from his heart ; nor will he feel any great power in temptations to honour , wealth or pleasure , if really he count them all but dung ; nor will he wound his conscience , or betray his peace , or cast away his innocency for them . 2. Faith sheweth the soul those sure , and great , and glorious things , which are infinitely more worthy of our love and labour . And this is its highest and most proper work , Heb. 11. it conquereth Earth by opening Heaven ; and shewing it us as sure , and clear , and near . And no man will dote on this deceitful world , till he have turned away his eyes from God ; and till Heaven be out of his sight and heart . Faith saith , I must shortly be with Christ ; and what then are these dying things to me ? I have better things , which God that cannot lye hath promised me with Christ , Titus 1.2 . Heb. 6.18 . I look every day when I am called in . The Judge standeth before the door , James 5.9 . The Lord is at hand , Phil. 4.5 . And the end of all these things is at hand , 1 Pet. 4.7 . And shall I set my heart on that which is not ? Therefore when the world doth smile and flatter , faith setteth Heaven against all that it can say or offer . And what is the world when Heaven stands by ? Faith seeth what the blessed souls above possess , at the same time while the world is alluring us to forsake it , Luke 16. Heb. 11. & 12.1 , 2. &c. Faith setteth the heart upon the things above , as our concernment , o●r only hope and happiness : It kindleth that Love of God in the soul , and that delight in higher things , which powerfully quencheth worldly love , and mortifieth all our carnal pleasures , Matth. 6.20.21 . Col. 3.1 , 2 , 3 , 4. Rom. 8.5 , 6 , 7. Phil. 30.20 , 21. 3. Faith sheweth the soul those wants and miseries in it self , which nothing in the world is able to supply and cure . Nay , such as the world is apter to increase . It is not gold that will quench his thirst , who longs for pardon , grace and glory . A guil●y conscience , a sinful and condemned soul will never be cured by riches , or high places , by pride , or fl●shly sports and pleasures , James 5.1 , 2 , 3. This humbling work is not in vain . 4. Faith looketh to Christ , who hath overcome the world , and carefully treadeth in his st●ps , John 16.33 . Heb. 12.2 , 3 , 4 , 5. It looketh to his person , his birth , his life , his cross , his grave , and his resurrection : to all that strange example of contempt of worldly things which he gave us from his manger , to his shameful kind of death . And he that studieth the Life of Christ , will either despise the world , or him He will either vilifie the world in imitation of his Lord , or vilifie Christ for the pleasures of the world . Faith hath in this warfare , the surest and most onourable guide , the ablest Captain , and the most powerful example in all the world . And it hath with Christian unerring Rule , which furnisheth him with armour for every use . Yea it hath through him a promise of Victory before it be a●tained ; so that in the beginning of the fight , it knows the end , Rom. 16.20 . John 16.33 . It goeth to Christ for that Spirit which is our streng●h , Ephes . 6.10 . C●l . 2.7 . And by that it mortifieth the desires of the flesh : and when ●he flesh is mortified , the world is conquered : for it is loved only as it is the provision of the fl●sh . 5. Moreover , Faith doth observe Gods particular Providence , who distributeth his talents to every man as he pleaseth , and disposeth of their estates and comforts : so that the Race is not to the swift , nor the Victory to the strong , nor Riches to men of understanding , Eccles . 9.11 . Therefore it convinceth us , that our lives , and all being in his hand , it is our wisdom to make it our chiefest care to use all so as is most pleasing unto him , 2 Cor. 5.8 . It foreseeth also the day of Judgment , and teacheth us to use our prosperity and wealth , as we desire to hear of it in the day of our accounts . Faith is a provident and a vigilant grace ; and useth to ask when we have any thing in may possession , which way I make the best advantage of it for my soul ? which way will be most comfortable to me in my last review ? how shall I wish that I had used my time , my wealth , my power , when time is at an end , and all these transitory things are vanished ? 6. And Faith doth so absolutely devote and subject the soul to God , that it will suffer us to do nothing ( so far as it prevaileth ) but what is for him , and by his consent . It telleth us that we are not our own , but his ; and that we have nothing but what we have received : and that we must be just in giving God his own : and therefore it first asketh , which way may I best serve and honour God with all that he hath given me ? Not only with my substance , and the first fruits of mine increase , but with all , 1 Cor. 10.31 . When Love and devotion hath delivered up our selves entirely to God , it keeps nothing back , but delivereth him all things with our selves ; even as Christ with himself doth give us all things , Rom. 8.32 . And Faith doth so much subject the soul to God , that it maketh us like servants and children , that use not their Masters or Parents goods at their own pleasure ; but ask him first , how he would have us use them , Lord , what wouldst thou have me to do ? is one of the first words of a converted soul , Acts 9.6 . In a word , Faith writeth out that charge upon the heart , 1 John 2.15 . Love not the world , nor the things that are in the world ( the lust of the flesh , the lust of the eyes , and pride of life . ) For if any man love the world , the love of the Father is not in him . Ye cannot serve God and Mammon . But on this subject Mr. Alleine hath said so much in his excellent Book of the Victory of Faith over the world , that I shall at this time say no more . The Directions which I would give you in general , for preservation from the danger of prosperity by Faith , are these that follow . Direct . 1. Remember still that the common cause of mens damnation is their Love of this world more than God and Heaven , and that the world cannot undo you any other way , but by tempting you to over-love it , and to undervalue higher things : And therefore that is the most dangerous condition , which maketh the world seem most pleasing , and most lovely to us . And can you believe this , and yet be so eager to be humoured , and to have all things fitted to your pleasure and desires ? Mark here what a task Faith hath ? and mark what the work of self-denyal is ? The worldling must be pleased ; the Believer must be saved . The worldling must have his flesh and fancy gratified : the Believer must have Heaven secured , and God obeyed . Men sell not their souls for sorrow , but for mirth : They forsake not Heaven for poverty , but for riches : they turn not away from God for the love of sufferings and dishonour , but for the love of pleasure ▪ preferments , dignities and estimation in the world . And is that state better and more desirable , for which all that perish turn from God , and fell their souls , and are befooled and undone for ever ? Or that which no man ever sinned for , nor forsook God for , or was undone for ? Read over this question once and again , and mark what answer your hearts give to it , if you would know whether you live by sense or faith ? And mark what contrary answers the flesh and faith will give to it , when it comes to practice ? I say , though many sin in poverty , and in sufferings , and in disgrace , yea and by occasion of them , and by their temptations , yet no man ever sinned for them : They are none of the bait that straled away the heart from God. Set deep upon your heart , the sense of the danger of a prosperous state , and sear and vigilancy will help to save you . Direct . 2. Imprint upon your memory the characters of this deadly sin of worldliness , that so you may not perish by it , whilst you dream that you are free from it ; but may alw●ies see how far it doth prevail . Here therefore to help you , I will set before you the characters of this sin ; and I will but briefly name them , lest I be tedious , because they are many . 1. The great mark of damning worldliness is , when God and Heaven are not loved and preferred before the pleasures , and profits , and honours of the world . 2. Another is , when the world is esteemed and used more for the service and pleasure of the flesh , than to honour God , and to do good with , and to further our salvation : When men desire great places , and riches , more to please their appetites and carnal minds with , than to benefit others , or to serve the Lord with ; when they are not rich to God , but to themselves , Luke 12.20 , 21. 3. It is a mark of some degree of worldliness , to desire a greater measure of riches or honour , than our spiritual work , and ends , and benefit do require : For when we are convinced that less is as good or better to our highest ends , and yet we would have more ; it is a sign that the rest is desired for the flesh , Rom. 13.14 . & 8.8 , 9 , 10 , 13. 4. When our desires after worldly things are too eager and violent : when we must needs have them , and cannot be without them , 1 Tim. 6.9 . 5. When our contrivances for the world are too sol●icitous ; and our cares for it take up an undue proportion of our time , Mat. 6.24 , 25. to the end . 6. When we are impatient under want , dishonour , or disappointments , and live in trouble and discontent , if we want much , or have not our wills . 7. When the thoughts of the world are proportionably so many more than our thoughts of Heaven , and our salvation , that they keep us in the neglect of the duty of Meditation , and keep empty our minds of holy things , Mat. 6.21 . 8. When it turneth our talk all towards the world , or taketh up our freest , and our sweetest and most serious words , and leaveth us to the use of seldom , dull , or formal , or affected words , about the things which should profit the soul , and glorifie our great Creator . 9. When the world incroacheth upon Gods part in our families , and thrusts out prayer , or the reading of the Scriptures , or the due instruction of children or servants : when it cometh in upon the Lords day ; when it is intruding in Gods Worship , and at Sermon or Prayer our thoughts are more pleasingly running out after some worldly thing , than kept in attendance upon God , Ezek. 33 ▪ 31. 10. When worldly prosperity is so sweet to you , that it can keep you quiet under the guilt of wilful sin , and in the midst of all the dangers of your souls . Because you have your hearts desire a while , you can forget eternity , or bear those thoughts of it with security , which otherwise would amaze your souls , Luke 12.19 , 20. 11. When the peace and pleasure which you daily live upon , is fetcht more from the world , than from God and Heaven ; so that if at any time you ask your selves the true reason of your peace , and whence it is that you rise and lie down in quietness of mind , your consciences must tell you , it is not so much from your belief of the Love of God in Christ , nor from your hope to live in Heaven for ever , as because you feel your self well in body , and live at ease and prosperity in the world : And when any mirth or joy possesseth you , you may easily feel , that it is more from something which is grateful to your flesh , than from the belief of everlasting glory . 12. When you think too highly and pleasingly of the condition of the rich , and too meanly of the state of poor Believers : when you make too great a difference between the rich and the poor , and say to the man with the gold Ring , and the gay Apparel , Come up hither , and to the poor , Sit there at my footstool , James 4. & 5. When you had rather be made like the rich and honourable in the world , than like the poor that are more holy ; and think with more delight of being like Lords or Great men in the world , than of being more like to humble heavenly Believers . 13. When you are at the heart more thankful to one that giveth you lands or money , than to God for giving you Christ and the Scriptures , and the Means of Grace : and would be better pleased if you were advanced or enriched by the King , than to think of being sanctified by the Spirit of Christ . And when you give God himself more hearty thanks for worldly than for spiritual things . 14. When you make too much ado for the things of the world ; and labour for them with inordinate industry ; or plunge your selves into unnecessary business , as one that can never have or do enough . 15. When you are too much in expecting liberality , kindnesses and gifts from others ; and are too much pleased in it ; and grudge at all that goeth beside you ; and think that it is mens duty to mind all your concernments , and further your commodity more than other mens . 16. When you are selfish and partial about worldly interest , and have little sense of your neighbours concernments in comparison of your own . If one give never so liberally to many others , and give nothing to you , it doth never the more content you , nor reconcile your mind to the charity of the giver . If one give to you , and pass by many that have more need , you love and honour the bounty which satisfieth your own desires . If you sell dear , you rejoyce ; and if you buy cheap , you are glad of your good bargain , though perhaps the seller be poorer than you . He that wrongeth you , or any way hindereth your commodity , is alwaies a bad man in your esteem : No vertue will save him from your censures and reproach : But he that dealeth as hardly by your neighbour , and well with you , is a very honest man , and worthy of your praise . 17. When you are quarrelsome for worldly thing , and the love of them can at any time break your charity and peace , and make an enemy of your neerest friend ; or engage you in causless Law-suits and contentions . What abundance doth the world set together by the ears ? 18. When you can see your poor brother or neighbour in want , and shut up the bowels of your compassion from him ; and do little good with what God hath given you , but the flesh and self devoureth all . 19. When you will venture upon unlawful waies of getting ; or will sin for honour or commodity ; or at least will let go your innocency and conscience , rather than lose your prosperity in the world ; and will distinguish your selves out of every danger , or costly duty , or suffering for righteousness sake ; and will prove every thing lawful , which seemeth necessary to the prosperity and safety of the flesh . 20. When you are more careful to provide riches and honors for your children after you , than to save them from worldliness , voluptuousness and pride , and to bring them up to be the heirs of Heaven : and had rather venture their souls in the most dangerous temptations , than abate any of their plenty or grandure in the world . These be the plain marks of worldly minds , whatever a blinded heart may devise to hide them . Direct . 3. Take heed of those blinding pretences which worldly minds do commonly use , to flatter , deceive and undo themselves . For instance . 1. The most common pretence is [ That Gods creatures are good , and prosperity is his blessing , and that our bodies must be cherished , and that synical and eremetical extreams and austerities , are far from the genius of true Christianity . There is truth in all this , or else it would not be so fit to be made a cloak for sin by misapplication . The world and all Gods works are good ; and to the pure they are pure : to the sanctified they are sanctified ; that is , they are devoted to the service of God , and used for him from whom they come : God hath given us nothing which may not be used for his service , and our salvation . No doubt but you may make you friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness , to further your reception into the everlasting habitations : You may lay up a good foundation for the time to come ; and you may sow to the Spirit , and reap in the end everlasting life , Gal. 6. You may provide you bags that wax not old : you may please God by the sacrifices of distributing and communicating , Heb. 13. But yet I must tell you , the world and all Gods creatures in it , are too good to be sacrificed to the flesh , and to the Devil ; and not good enough to be loved and preferred before God , and your innocency and salvation . The body must be cherished , but yet the flesh must be subdued ; and if you live af●er it , you shall die . Health and alacrity must be preserved , because they make you fit for duty ; but wanton appetites must be restrained , and no provision must be made for the flesh , to satisfie its lusts ( or wills ) Rom. 13.14 . It must be cherished as your horse or servant for his work ; but it must not be pampered , and made unruly , or your Master . You may seek food for your necessity and use ; and ask of God your daily bread ( Matth. 6. Psal . 145. ) but you may not with the Israelites , ask meat for your lust , as being weary of eating Manna so long , Psal . 78. Hurting your health by useless austerities , is not pleasing unto God : But sensuality and flesh-pleasing , and love of the world , is nevertheless abominable in his sight . Object . 2. Necessity makes me mind the world : I have children to maintain , and am in debt , and cannot pay every one his own . Answ . Whether you have necessity or not , you ought to labour faithfully in your callings . But no necessity will excuse your worldly love and cares : What will the love of the world do towards the supply of your necessities ? or what will your eager desires , and your cares do , more than the labours and quiet forecast of one that hath a contented patient mind ? Surely in reason , the less you have in the world , and the harder your condi●ion is , the less you should love it , and the more you should abound in care and diligence , to make sure of a better world hereafter . Object . 3. I covet no mans but my own . Answ . 1. Why then are you so glad of good bargains , or of gifts ? 2. But what if you do not ? You covet to have more to be your own , than God allotteth you ? Perhaps you have already as much as your flesh knoweth what to do with ; and therefore need not covet more . But will this excuse you for loving your riches more than God ? The question is not now , what you covet , but what you love . If the world hath your hearts , the Devil hath your lives ; for it is by the world that he deceiveth souls : And do you think then that you are fit to dwell with God ? Know ye not that the love of the world , is enmity to God ? And that if ye will be friends of the world , you are Gods enemies ? James 4.4 . Object . 4. It is not by any unlawful means that I desire to gr●w rich : I wait on God in my lawful labour , and crave his blessing . Answ . It is not now your getting , but your loving the world that I am speaking of : If your hearts be more set on your riches or prosperity , than on God , and the world by loving it be made your Idol , you do but turn prayer and labour into sin , ( though they be good in themselves ) while you abuse them to your ungodly worldly ends . What wretched muck-worm would not pray , if he believed that praying would make him rich ? I warrant you then their tune would be turned . They would not cry out , what needeth all this praying ? If God would give them money for the asking , they would quickly learn to pray without Book , and long prayers would come into request , upon the Pharisees old account . Can any thing in the world be more unlawful and abominable , than to love the flesh and the world , above God and Heaven ? And yet do you say that you get not your wealth by any thing that is unlawful ? Object . 5. But I am contented with my condition , and desire no more . Answ . So is a Swine when his b●lly is full . But the question is , Whether Heaven and Holiness , or that worldly condition which you are in seem more lovely to you . O●ject . 6. I give God thanks for all I have . Answ . So would every beggar in the Country give God thanks if he would make them rich . Some drunkards and gluttons , and some malicious people , do give God thanks for satisfying their sinful lusts . This is but adding hypocrisie to your sin , and to aggravate it by prophaning the Name of God , by thanking him as a cherisher of your lusts . But the question is , whether you love God for himself , and as your sanctifier better than you do the gratifying of your flesh ? Obj. 7. But I give something to the poor , and I mean to leave them something at my death . Ans . So it is like the miserable Gentleman did , in Luke 16. Or else why would Lazarus lie at his gates , if he used not to give something to the poor ? What worldling or hypocrite is there that will not drop now and then an Alms , while he pampereth his flesh , and satisfieth its desires ? Do you look to be saved for doing as a Swine will do , in leaving that which he can neither eat , nor carry away with him ? The question is , whether God or the world have your hearts ? and what it is that you most delight in as your treasure ? Object . 8. I am fully satisfied that Heaven is better than Earth , and God than the creature , and holiness than the prosperity or pleasure of the flesh ? Answ . Thousands of miserable worldlings , are satisfied in opinion that this is true : They can say the same words that a true Believer doth : And in dispute they can defend them , and call the contrary opinion blasphemy . But all this is but a dreaming speculation : Their hearts never practically preferred God , and Holiness , and Heaven , as most suitable and best for them : Mark what you love best , and most long after , and most delight in , and what it is that you are lothest to leave , and what it is that you most eagerly labour for , and there you may see what it is that hath your hearts ? Object . 9. Worldliness is indeed a heinous sin , and of all people , I most hate the covetous ; and I use to preach or talk against it , more than against any sin . Answ . So do many thousands that are slaves to it themselves , and shall be damned for it . It is easier to talk against it , than to forsake it . And it is easie to hate covetousness in another , because it will cost you nothing for another to forsake his sin ; and perhaps the more covetous he is , the more he standeth in your way , and hindereth you from that which you would have your selves . Of all the multitude of covetous Preachers that be in the world , is there any one that will not preach against covetousness ? Read but the Lives of Cardinals , and Popes , and Popish Prelates , and you will see the most odious worldliness set forth without any kind of cloak or shame : How such a one laid his design at Court , and among the great ones for preferment ? How studiously he prosecuted it , and conformed himself to the humours & interest of those , from whom he did seek it ? How they first got this Living , and then got that Prebendary , and then got that Denary , and then got such a Bishoprick , and then got a better ( that is a richer ) and then got to be Archbishops , and then to be Cardinals , &c. O happy progress , if they might never die ! They blush not openly before Angels and men to own this worldly ambitious course , as their design and trade of life : And the Devil is grown so impudent , as if he were now the confessed Master of the world , as to set Divines themselves at work , to write the history of such cursed ambitious worldly lives , with open applause , and great commendations ; yea to make Saints of them , that have a character far worse than Christ gave of him in Luke 16. that wanteth a drop of water to cool his tongue : He openly now saith , All this will I give thee ; and they as impudently boast , All this I have gotten : but they forget or know not how much they have lost . A Juda● kiss is thought sufficient to prove him a true Christian and Pastor of the Church , though it be but the fruit of what will you give me ? Instead of a scourge to whip out these buyers and sellers from Christs Temple , their merchandize is exposed without shame , and their signs set forth , and the trade of getting preferments openly professed , and it is enough to wipe off all the shame , to put some venerable titles upon this Den of thieves . But the Lord whom we wait for , will once more come and cleanse his Temple : But who may abide the day of his coming ? for he is like a refiners fire , and like fullers s●pe , and will throughly purge the Sons of Levi , Mal. 3.1 , 2 , 3 , 4. If talking against worldliness , would prove that the world is overcome , and that God is dearest to the soul , then Preachers will be the happiest men on earth . But it 's easier to commend God , than to love him above all ; and easier to cry out against the world , than to have a heart that is truly weaned from it , and set upon a better world . Object . 10. But all this belongeth only to them that are in prosperity ; but I am poor , and therefore it is nothing to me . Answ . Many a one loveth prosperity , that hath it not : And such are doubly sinful , that will love a world which loveth not them : Even a world of poverty , misery and distress . Something you would have done , if you had had a full estate , and honour , and fleshly delights to love . Nay , many poor men think better of riches and honour , than those that have them ; because they never tryed how vain and vexatious they are ; and if they had tryed them , perhaps would love them less . The world is but a painted Strumpet ; admired afar off ; but the neerer you come to it , and the more it 's known , the worse you will like it . Is it by your own desire that you are poor ? or is it against your wills ? Had you not rather be as great and rich as others ? Had you not rather live at ease and fulness ? And do you think God will love you ever the better , for that which is against your wills ? Will he count that man to be no worldling , that would fain have more of the world , and cannot ? and that loveth God and Heaven no better than the rich ? Nay , that will sin for a shilling , when great ones do it for greater summs ? who can be more unfit for Heaven , than he that loveth a life of labour , and want , and misery better ? Alas it is but little that the greatest worldlings have for their salvation : But poor worldlings sell it for less than they , and therefore do despise it more . Direct . 4. Let the true nature and aggravations of the sin of worldliness , be still in your eye to make it odious to you . As for instance : 1. It is true and odious Idolatry , Ephes . 5.5 . Col. 3.5 . To have God for our God indeed , is to love him as our God , and to delight in him , and be ruled by him . Who then is an Idolater , if he be not one , who loveth the world , and delighteth in it more than in God , or esteemeth it fitter to be the matter of his delight ? and is ruled by it , and seeketh it more ? Isa . 55.1 , 2 , 3. 2. It is a blasphemous contempt of God and Heaven , to prefer a dung hill world before him : To set more by the provisions and pleasures of the flesh , than by all the blessedness of Heaven : It is called prophaneness in Esau , to sell his birth-right for one morsel , Heb. 12.16 . What prophaneness is it then to say , as worldlings hearts and lives do , The satisfying of my flesh and fansie for a time , is better than God and the Joyes of Heaven to all eternity . 3. It is a sin of Interest , and not only of Passion ; and therefore it possesseth the very Heart and Love , which is the principal faculty of the soul , and that which God most reserveth for himself . No actual sin , which is but little loved , is so heinous and mor●al , as that which is most loved . Because these do must exclude the Love of God. Some other sins may do more hurt to others , but this is worst to the sinner himself . We justly pitty poor Heathenish Idolaters , and pray for their conversion ( and I would we did it more . ) But do not you not think that our hypocrite-worldlings , do love their riches , and their honours and pleasures , better than the poor Heathens love their Idols ? They bow the knee to a creature , and you entertain it in your heart . 4. It is a sin of deliberation and contrivance , which is much worse than a surprize by a sudden temptation . You plot how you may compass your voluptuous , covetous and ambitious ends : Therefore it is a sin that standeth at the furthest distance from Repentance , and is both voluntary , and a settled habit . 5. It is a continued sin . Men be not alwaies lying , though they be never so great lyars ; nor alwaies stealing , if they be the most notorious thieves ; nor alwaies swearing , if they be the profanest swearers . But a worldly mind is alwaies worldly : He is alwaies committing his Idolatry with the world , and alwaies denying his Love to God. 6. It is not only a sin about the means to a right end ( as mischosen waies of Religion may be ) but it is a sin against the End it self , and a mischusing of a false pernicious End. And so it is the perverting , not only of one particular action , but even of the bent and course of mens lives : And consequently a mis-spending all their time . 7. It is a perverting of Gods creatures , to a use clean contrary to that which they are given us for ; and an unthankful turning of all his gifts against himself . He gave us his creatures to lead us to him , and by their loveliness to shew his greater loveliness , and to taste in their sweetness , the greater sweetness of his love . And will you use them to turn your affections from him ? 8. It it a great debasing of the soul it self , to fill that noble Spirit with nothing but dirt and smoak , which was made to know and love its God. 9. It is an irrational vice , and signifieth not only much unbelief of the unseen things which should take up the soul ; but also a sottish inconsiderateness , of the vanity and brevity of the things below . It is an unmanning our selves , and hiring out our reason to be a servant to our fleshly lusts . 10. Lastly , It is a pregnant multiplying sin ; which bringeth forth abundance more : The love of money is the root of all evil , 1 Tim. 6.9 , 10. Therefore Direct . 5. Let the mischievous effects of this sin , be still bef●re your eyes . As for instance . 1. It keepeth the heart strange to God and Heaven . The Love of God and of the world are contrary , 1 John 2.15 . & 3.17 James 4.4 . So is an earthly and a heavenly conversation , Phil. 3.18 , 19 , 20. And the laying up a treasure in Heaven and upon Earth , Matth. 6.19 , 20 , 21. And the living after the flesh , and after the Spirit , Rom. 8.1 , 5 , 6 , 13. Ye cannot possibly serve God and Mammon ; nor travel two contrary waies at once ; nor have two contrary felicities , till you have two hearts . 2. It setteth you at enmity with God and holiness ; because God controlleth and condemneth your beloved lusts : and because it is contrary to the carnal things which have your hearts ▪ 2. By this means it maketh men malignant enemies of the godly , and persecutors of them ; because they are of contrary minds and waies . As then , he that was born after the flesh , persecuted him that was born after the Spirit , even so it is now , Gal. 4.29 . The world cannot love us , because we are not of the world , John 15.19 , 20. Pride , covetousness and sensuality , are the matter which the burning Feaver lodgeth in , which hath consumed so much of the Church of Christ . 4. It is the sin that hath corrupted the sacred Office of the Ministry throughout most of the Christian Churches in the world : And thereby caused both the Schisms and Cruelties , and the decay of serious godliness among them , which is their present deplorable case . Ignorant persons are like sick men in a Feaver : They lay the blame on this and that , and commonly on that which went next before the paroxism ; and know not the true cause of the disease : We are all troubled ( or should be ) to see the many minds , the many waies , the confused state of the Christian Churches , and to hear them cry out against each other . And one layeth the blame on this party or opinion , and another on that : But when we come to our selves , we shall find that it is , The worldly mind that causeth our calamity . Many well meaning friends of the Church do think how dishonourable it is to the Ministry , to be poor and low , and consequently despicable ; and what an advantage is it to their work , to be able to relieve the poor , and rather to oblige the people , than to depend upo● them , and to be above them , rather than below them . And supposing the Pastors to be mortified , holy , heavenly men , all this is true ; and the zeal of these thoughts is worthy of commendation . But that which good men intend for good , hath become the Churches bane . So certain is the common saying , that Constantines zeal did poison the Church , by lifting up the Pastors of it too high , and occasioning those contentions for grandure and precedency , which to this day separate the East and West . When well-meaning Piety hath adorned the office with wealth and honour , it is as true as that the Sun shineth , that the most proud , ambitious , worldly men , will be the most studious seekers of that office ; and will make it their plot , and trade , and business , how by friends , and observances , and wills , to attain their ends : And usually he that seeks shall find : when in the mean time the godly mortified humble man , will not do so ; but will serve God in the state to which he is clearly called : And consequently , except it be under the Government of an admirably wise and holy Ruler , a worthy Pastor in such a wealthy station , will be a singular thing , and a rarity of the age ; whilst worldly men , whose hearts are habited with that which is utterly contrary to holiness , and contrary to the very ends and work of their own office , will be the men that must sit in Moses Chair ; that must have the doing and ruling of the work which their hearts are set against . And how it will go with the Church of Christ , when the Gospel is to be preached , and Preachers chosen , and Godliness promoted by the secret enemies of it ; and when ambiti●us , fleshly , worldly men , are they that must cure the peoples souls ( under Christ ) of the love of the flesh , and the world , it were easie to prognosticate from the causes , if the Christian world could not tell by the effects : so that , except by the wonderful Piety of Princes — there is no visible way in the eye of reason , to recover the miserable Churches , but to retrive the Pastoral Office into such a state , as that it may be no bait to a worldly mind , but may be desired and chosen purely upon heavenly accounts : And then the richer the Pastors are , the better ; when they are the Sons of Nobles , whose Piety bringeth with them their honour , and their wealth , to serve God and his Church with , and they do not find it there to be their end or inducement to the work : But instead of invitations or encouragements to pride and carnal minds , there may be only so much as may not deter or drive away candidates from the sacred Function . 5. Worldliness is a sin , which maketh the Word of God unprofitable , Mat. 13.22 . John 12.43 . Ezek. 33.31 . prepossessing the heart , and resisting that Gospel which would extirpate it . 6. It hindereth Prayer , by corrupting mens desires , and by intruding worldly thoughts . 7. It hindereth all holy Meditation , by turning both the heart and thoughts another way . 8. It drieth up all heavenly profitable Conference , whilst the world doth fill both mind and mouth . 9. It is a great profaner of the Lords Day , distracting mens minds , and alienating them from God. 10. It is a murderous enemy of Love to one another : All worldly men being so much for themselves , that they are seldom hearty friends to any other . 11. Yea it maketh men false and unrighteous in their dealings : There being no trust to be put in a worldly man any further than you are sure you suit his interest . 12. It is the great cause of discord and divisions in the world : It setteth Families , Neighbours and Kingdoms together by the ears ; and setteth the Nations of the earth in bloody wars , to the calamity and destruction of each other . 13. It causeth cheating , stealing , robbing , oppressions , cruelties , lying , false-witnessing , perjury , murders , and many such other sins . 14. It maketh men unfit to suffer for Christ , because they love the world above him : and consequently it maketh them as Apostates to forsake him in a time of tryal . 15. It is a great devourer of precious time : That short life which should be spent in preparing for eternity , is almost all spent in drudging for the world . 16. Lastly , It greatly unfitteth men to die ▪ and maketh them loth to leave the world : And no wonder when there is no entertainment for worldlings , in any better place hereafter . Direct . 6. If you would be saved from the world , and the snares of prosperity , foresee death , and judge of the world 〈◊〉 it will appear and use you at the last . Dream not of long life : He that looks to stay but a little while in the world , will be the less careful of his provisions in it . A little will serve for a little t●me . The grave is a sufficient disgrace to all the vanities on earth , though there must be more to raise the heart to Heaven . Direct . 7. M●rtifie the flesh , and you overcome the world . Cure the thirsty disease , and you will need none of the worldlings waies to satisfie it . When the flesh is mastered , there it no use for plenty , or pleasures , or honours , to satisfie its lusts : Your daily bread to fit you for your work , will then suffice . Direct . 8. But it is the lively belief of endless Glory , and the Love of God prevailing in the soul , that must work the cure . Nothing below a Life of Faith , and a heavenly mind and conversation , and the Love of God , will ever well cure a sensual life , and an earthly mind and conversation , and the love of the world . Direct . 9. Turn away from the bait : desire not to have your estate , your dwelling , &c. too pleasing to your flesh and fancy . Remember that it killeth by pleasing , rather than by seeming unlovely and displeasing . Direct . 10. Turn Satans temptations to worldliness against himself . When he tempteth you to covetousness give more to the poor than else you would have done . When he tempteth you to pride and ambition , let your conversation shew more aversation to pride than you did before . If he tempt you to waste your time in fleshly vanities , or sports , work harder in your calling , and spend more time in better things ; and thus try to weary out the tempter . Direct . 11. Take heed of the Hypocrites designs , which is to unite Religion and worldliness , and to reconcile God and Mammon ; and to secure the flesh and its prosperity here , and yet to save the soul hereafter . For all such hopes are meer deceits . Direct . 12. Improve your prosperity to its proper ends . Devore all entirely and absolutely to God ; and so it will be saved from loss , and you from deceit and condemnation . CHAP. XV. How to be poor in spirit . And how to escape the pride of Prosperity . THough no man is saved or condemned for being either rich or poor ; yet it is not for nothing that Christ hath so often set before us the danger of the rich , and the extraordinary difficulty of their salvation : And that he began his Sermon , Mat. 5.3 . with , Blessed are the poor in spirit , for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven . The sense of which words , is not as is commonly imagined , [ Blessed are they that find their want of grace . ] For 1. So may a despairing person . 2. The text compared with Luke 16. where simply the poor and rich are opposed , doth plainly shew another sense ; agreeing with the usual doctrine of Christ . And whereas Expositors doubt whether Christ spake that Sermon to his Disciples , or to the multitude , the text maketh it plain , that he spake it to both , viz. that he called his Disciples to him , and as it were pointed the finger at them , and made them his text on which he preached to the multitude ; and the sense is contained in these Propositions ; as if he had said [ See you these followers of me : You take them to be contemptible or unhappy , because they are poor in the world ; but I tell you , 1. That poverty maketh not Believers miserable : 2. Yea they are the truly belssed men , because they shall have the heavenly riches : 3. And the evidence of their right to that , is , that they are poor in spirit , that is , their hearts are suited to a low estate , and are saved from the destructive vices of riches and prosperity . 1. And their outward poverty is better suited and conducible to this deliverance , and this poverty of spirit , than a state of wealth and prosperity is . ] All these four Propositions are the true meaning of the text . That we may see here what is the special work of Faith , we must know which are the special sins of prosperity , which riches and honours occasion in the world . And though the Apostle tell us , 1 Tim. 6.10 . that the love of money is the root of all evil , I will confine my discourse to that narrower compass , in the enumeration of the sins of Sodom , in Ez●k . 16.49 . PRIDE , FVLNESS of bread , IDLENESS : And of these but briefly , because I have spoken more largely of them elsewhere ( in my Christian Directory . ) And first of the Pride of the rich and prosperous . PRIDE is a sin of so deep radication , and so powerful in the hearts of carnal men , that it will take advantage of any condition , but Riches and Prosperity are its most notable advantage . As the boat riseth with the water ; so do such hearts rise with their estates . Therefore saith the Apostle , 1 Tim. 6.17 . Charge the rich that they be not high minded . High-mindedness is the sin that you are first here to avoid . In order whereunto I shall give you now but these three general Directions . Direct . 1. Observe the masks or covers of High-mindedness or Pride , lest it reign in you unknown . For it hath many covers , by which it is concealed from the souls that are infected , if not undone and miserable by it . For instance : 1. Some think that they are not Proud , because that their parts and worth will bear out all the estimation which they have of themselves . And he that thinketh of himself but as he really is , being in the right , is not to be accounted proud . But remember that the first act of Pride is the overvaluing of our selves : And he that is once guilty of this first act , will justifie himself both in it , and all that follow . So that Pride is a sin which blindeth the understanding , and defendeth it self by it self , and powerfully keepeth off repentance . When once a man hath entertained a conceit , that he is wiser or better than indeed he is , he then thinketh that all his thoughts , and words , and actions , which are of that signification , are just , and sober , because the thing is so indeed . And for a man to deny Gods graces , or gifts , and make himself seem worse than he is , is not true humility , but dissimulation or ingratitude . But herein you have great cause to be very careful , lest you should prove mistaken : Therefore 1. Judge not of your selves by the by as of self-love ; but , if it be possible , lay by partiality , and judge of your selves as you do by others , upon the like evidences . 2. Hearken what other men judge of you , who are impartial and wise , and are neer you , and throughly acquainted with your lives . It 's possible they may think better or worse of you than you are : but if they judge worse of you , than you do of your selves , it should stop your confidence , and make you the more suspicious , and careful to try left you should be mistaken . 2. And remember also that you are obliged to a greater modesty in judging of your own vertues , and to a greater severity in judging of your own faults , than of other mens ; though you must not wilfully erre about your selves , or any others , yet you are not bound to search out the truth about the faults of another , as you are about your own . We are commanded to prefer one another in honour , Rom. 10.21 . And vers . 3. For I say , through the grace given to me , to every man that is among you , not to think of himself more highly , than be ought to think ; but to think soberly , according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of Faith. 2 Another cloak for Pride is , the Reputation of our Religion , Profession or Party , which will seem to be disgraced by us , if we seem not to be some what better than we are . If we should not hide or extenuate our faults , and set out our graces and parts to the full , we should be a dishonour to Christ , and to his servants , and his cause . But remember 1. That the way by which God hath appointed you to honour him , is , by being good , and living well , and not by seeming to be good , when you are not , or seeming better than you are : The God of Truth , who hateth Hypocrisie , hath not chosen lying and hypocrisie to be the means by which we must seek his honour It is damnable to seek to glorifie him by a lye , Rom. 3.7.8 . We must indeed cause our light so to shine before men that they may see our good works , and glorifie our heavenly Father , Mat. 5.16 . But it is the light of Sincerity and good Works , and not of a dissembled Profession that must so shine . 2. And the Goodness of the pretended end doth greatly aggravate the crime : As if the honour of God and our Religion must be upheld , by so devilish a means as proud Hypocrisie . 3. And , though it be true , that a man is not imprudently without just cause , to open his sins before the world ; when it is like to tend to the injury of Religion , and any way to do more hurt than good : yet it is as true , that when there is no such impediment , true repentance is forward to confess , and when the fault is discovered , defending and extenuating it , is then the greatest dishonour to Religion . ( As if you would father all on Christ , and make men believe that he will justifie or extenuate sin as you do . ) And then it is a free self-abasing confession , and taking all the shame to your selves ( with future reformation ) which is the reparation which you must make of the honour of Religion . For what greater dishonour can be cast upon Religion , than to make it seem a friend to sin ? Or what greater honour can be given it , than to represent it as it is , as an enemy to all evil ; and to take the blame , as is due , unto your selves ? 3. Another cloak for Pride , is the Reputation of our offices , dignities and places . We must live according to our rank and quality : All men must not live alike . The grandeur of Rulers must be maintained , or else the Magistracy will fall into contempt . The Pastors Office must not by a mean estate , and low deportment , be exposed to the peoples scorn . And so abundance of the most ambitious practices , and hateful enormities of the proud , must be vailed by these fair pretences . Answ . 1. We grant you that the honour of Magistrates must be kept up by a convenient grandeur ; and that a competent distance is necessary to a due reverence : But Goodness is as necessary an ingredient in Government , as Greatness is ; and to be great in Wisdom and Goodness , is the principal Greatness : And Goodness is Loving , and humble , and condescending , and suiteth all deportments to the common good , which is the end of Government . See then that you keep up no other height , but that which really tendeth to the success of your endeavours , in order to the common good . 2. And look also to your hearts , lest it be your own exaltation which you indeed intend , while you thus pretend the honour of your office : For this is an ordinary trick of pride . To discover this , will you ask your selves these Questions following ? Quest . 1. How you came into your offices and honours ? did they seek you , or did you seek them ? did the place need you , or did you need the place ? If pride brought you in , you have cause to fear , lest it govern you when you are there ? Quest . 2. What do you in the place of honour that you are in ? Do you study to do all the good you can , and to make men happy by your Government ? and is this the labour of your lives ? if it be , we may hope that the means is suited to this end . But if you do no such thing , you have no such end : And if you have no such end , you do but dissemble , in pretending that your grandeur is used but as a means to that end which really you never seek . It is then your own exaltation that you aim at , and it is your pride that playeth all your game . Quest . 3. Are you more offended and grieved when you are crost and hindered in doing good , or when you are crost and hindered from your personal honour ? Quest . 4. Are you well contented that another should have your honour and preferment , if God and the Soveraign Power so dispose of it , so be it , it be one that is like to do more good than you ? By these Q●estions you may quickly see if you are willing , whether your grandeur be desired by your pride for self-advancement , or by Christian prudence to do good . 3. And I must tell you , that there is abundance of difference betwixt the case of the Civil Magistrates , and the Pastors of the Church in this . Magistracy must have more fear and pomp : But Pastors must govern by Light and Love : When his Apostles strove for superiority , Christ left a decision of the controversie for the use of all following ages . It is the contempt of the world , and the mortifying of the flesh , and self-denyal , that Pastors have to teach the people , and withall to seek a heavenly treasure : And will not their own example further the success of their Doctrine ? The reverence that a Pastor must expect , is not to be feared as one that can do hurt ( For all coertion or corporal force is proper to the Magistrate : ) but it is to be thought one that is above all the riches and pleasures of the world , and hath set his heart on higher things : Such a one therefore he must both be and seem . A Pastor will be but the sooner despised , if he look after that riches and worldly pomp , which is seemly for a Magistrate : If he have a sword in his hand , it 's the way to be hated : If he have teeth that are bloody , or claws that can tear , he will be accounted a wolf , though he have the cloathing of a sheep . When our Divines give the reason of Christs humiliation , they say , that if he had preached up heavenly-mindedness , self-denyal , and mortification , and had himself lived in pomp and fulness , the people would not have regarded his words : And surely the same reason holdeth in some measure as to all his Ministers . Again , I say , that if ever the Church be universally reformed , the Pastoral office must be only encouraged with necessary support , to keep the Pastors from despondency , and distracting cares ; but it must not be made a bait of ambition , covetousness or sloth ; but must be stript of that which makes it thus desirable to a carnal mind . Otherwise we must expect , that except when Princes are very holy , the Churches be ordinarily guided by carnal and ungodly men ; who will do it according to their minds and interest . All the world cannot answer the reason of this : which is , Honours and wealth will be certainly sought with greatest industry by the worldly , that is , the worst of men : and not by the heavenly mortified persons : And they that seek shall usually find : And so while the humble , holy person stayeth till he is called , and the proud and worldly , who have the keenest appetite , use all their art and friends to rise , the conclusion is as sure as sad , and hath been so proved by woful experience almost 1300 years . 4. Another of Prides pretences is Decency , and the avoiding of reproach and scorn : If we live not as high as others , we shall be derided or contemned ; or thought to be sordid , beggarly or base . Answ . 1. This is one of the signs and effects of Pride , that it maketh a greater matter of other mens thoughts of you , than you ought to make : It cannot bear contempt and scorn so easily as Humility can do : Too careful avoiding of contempt , is the proper work of Pride . 2. It is granted that you should not be contemptuous of your just reputation ; and also that you must not by any causless affected singularity , or by any practice which is indeed uncomely , make your selves the scorn of others . But it is as true that you must not desire a higher estimation than is really your due ; nor yet be over solicitous for that which is your due indeed ; nor must you follow the proud in any thing which is contrary to true humility , for the keeping of their good report , nor go above your rank to avoid contempt . 3. And forget not whose good word it is that you should especially regard : Your truest honour is in the esteem of God , and all good men , and not in the opinion or praises of the proud . They that are addicted to this vice themselves , perhaps may deride those that go below them ( and yet they will more envy those that go above them : ) But the humble will think much better of you for being humble , and nothing can make you viler in their eyes than Pride . If you were humble your selves , you would prefer your honour with humble , wise and sober persons , above the opinions of the proud , who know not good from evil . 5. Another cloak of Pride is opinionative and doctrinal Humility : When we have heard and read much against Pride , and can speak ( or preach ) against it , as freely , and fluently , and vehemently , and movingly , as any others ; and in all company and conference signifie our dislike of it ; when we are much in disswading others from it , and in extolling humility , and lowliness of mind ; this doth not only deceive others , but very often the speaker himself ; and makes him think that he hath no great degree of Pride . But speculation , and opinion , and talk , are one thing , and a renewed truly humble soul is another thing . If all this while you are as great , and wise , and good in your own esteem , and make as great a matter of mens opinion of you , as others do that speak less against Pride , your speeches and preachings serve but to condemn your selves . It is as easie to talk against covetousness , gluttony , and other sins , whilest he that condemneth them , continueth in them , and condemneth himself . Talking against an enemy , obtaineth no victory ; and talking against sin , may signifie what you have learned to say , or perhaps what dislike you have to that sin at a distance , or in specie , or in another , when yet you may damnably love it in your selves . It were well for Preachers , if it were as easie or common to conquer sin , as to preach against it : But alas it is not so . 6. Another cloak of Pride is , The presence of a real partial humility , together with an outward humble garb . A man may be really humble in some , yea in many respects , and yet be exceeding proud in others : He may be vile in his own eyes , because he is conscious of many great and odious sins , and because he knoweth that sin is a thing odious to God , and all that will be saved , must be humbled for it ; and because he knoweth that his body is earth , and must return by death to filth and dust : And he may go in sordid poor apparel ; and such may have a humble tone and manner of speech ; and perhaps speak so self-abasingly , as if there were none so lowly as they : And yet they may be exceeding proud of their supposed wisdom , or spiritual understanding , and of a supposed extraordinary measure of holiness , or revelations , or interest in God , or of this humility it self : Yea their common natural pride may not be taken down , though there be frequent expressions of great humiliation . And if the proudest Gallants can , with their hat at your foot , profess themselves your humble servants , why may not Religious Bride go as far ? And note here , that this Religious Pride , is of a higher and more aggravated strein than the other : 1. Because it is committed against more humbling means . 2. Because it is a sin against more knowledge . 3. Because it is accompanied with the profession of Humility , and so is aggravated by more hypocrisie . 4. Because it is an abuse of more excellent things : It is more odious to turn the pretence of wisdom , revelations , humility , godliness , good works , &c. into pride , than to be proud as children are of their fine cloaths ; or as addle-brained women are of their precedencies . 5. Because it most odiously fathereth it self on God , as if it were but the grateful magnifying of his graces : To put Gods Name into the boasts of Pride , and say , I thank thee , Lord , that I am not as other men , nor as this Publican ( Luke 18.11 . ) To say , God hath revealed more to me than to you ; or hath made me more holy and spiritual than you , Isa . 65.5 . Stand by thy self ; come not neer me ; for I am holier than thou : This is , when Pride speaketh it , most odious blasphemy ; to father the first-born of the Devil upon God. There are two sad instances of this kind of Pride , which are now too familiarly seen among us . The one is in the case of many convinced Hypocrites , yea and many passionate feeble Christians , who are afrighted with the terrours of the Lord , and partly disturbed by their guilt , or passions , and partly take it to be an honourable sign of humility to condemn themselves ; and therefore will fill the ears of Ministers with sad complaints of their fears and doubts , and sins and wants , as if they would hardly be kept from desperation . And yet if they know that another doth believe them , and think and speak as bad of them as they speak of themselves ; yea if he do but sl●ght them , and prefer others before them , or plainly reprove them for any disgraceful sin , they swell with the wrath of Pride against him , and will not easily think or speak well of such a one : And they love him best that thinketh best of them , and praiseth them most , even when they most dispraise themselves ; which sheweth that a man may be really humbled in some respects , and seem to be humbled in more , and yet at the heart be dangerously proud . The other instance is , in the common separating Spirit of Sectarians ; and in particular , in those called Quakers in these times ( For against commanded separation from sin , by self-preservation or discipline , I am far from speaking . ) Their great pretence of singularity is , to avoid and detest the Pride of others ; they cry out against Pride as much as any . Their garb is plain ; humility , and self-emptiness , and poverty of spirit , is their profession . And yet when they are so ignorant , that they can scarce speak sense ; and when they understand not the Catechism or Creed , but have need to be taught which are the principles of the Oracles of God ; they think they are taken into the counsels of the Almighty ; they think they abound in the Spirit , and in wisdom , in revelations , and in holiness ; and the wisest and holiest of Christs Ministers and People , who are as far above them in knowledge and godliness , as the aged are above a stammering Infant , are proudly despised by them , and openly and impenitently reviled and railed at , as ignorant fools , and ungodly , worldly , self-seeking men , and as the deceivers of the people , and as void of the Spirit ; which could never proceed to the height that we have seen it , and which their words and writings utter at this day , without a very strange degree of Pride , and such as either maketh men mad , or is made by madness , or little less . And here note also , that it is no wonder if Religious Pride can despise the common applause of the world , and bear a great deal of ignominy from the vulgar ; because they have learnt so much as to know that wicked men are fools , and base , and their judgment is no great honour or dishonour to any man ; and that godly men only are truly wise , and their judgment most to be regarded . And therefore it is with them whom they think highliest of themselves , that they desire to be thought highliest of ; and it is among the Religious sort , that Religious Pride doth fish for honour : even as men that are proud of their Learning , do hunt after the applause of learned men , and can despise the judgment of the unlearned vulgar , as quite below them . I know that this last instance of Pride , is not alwaies an attendant of Prosperity : But oft it is , a kind of wantonness thence arising , which is much restrained in suffering times : And being speaking of the rest , I thought not meet to pass it by . Direct . II. Vnderstand which are the ordinary effects and characters of Pride , that you may not live in it , and perish by it , whilst you thought you had overcome it . At this time ( having said more of it elsewhere ) I shall recite but these marks of prosperous Pride , and shew the contrary signs of lowliness . 1. The high-minded are self-willed , and much addicted to rule and domineer . They would have their own wills , in all their own matters , and are hardly brought to submit to the judgment and will of others . Obeying goeth quite against their grain , any further than they like the commands of their superiours : And if they are in any hope of reaching it , they aspire to be the Governours of others , that they may still stand uppermost , and have their will in all the matters about them , as well as in their own . If there be a place of Power and Preferment void , the proud man is the forwardest expectant ; and maketh no great question of his fitness ; but thinketh that he is injured if he be put by , how worthy a man soever be preferred before him : He snuffs and scorns at inferiours that stick at his most sinful and unreasonable commands ; and thunders out the charge of Rebellion or Schism against those that question his infallibility , or that will stick at obeying him before God , and against him ; as if he had been born to rule , and other men to obey him ; and all do him wrong , who fall not down and worship not his will , at the first intimation : Though perhaps he be but a Minister of Christ , who should be as a little child , and the servant of all , and should stoop to the feet of the poorest of the flock , and should receive the weak , and bear with their infirmities ; yet Pride will there lift up the head , and forget all the humbling examples and admonitions of Christ , and will either seek to draw Disciples after it , by speaking perverse things , Acts 20.30 . or forget 1 Pet. 5.3 . Neither us being Lords over Gods heritage , but examples to the flock . But on the contrary , the poor in spirit are readier to obey than rule , as knowing that ruling requireth the greater parts and graces ; and are enclined to think others to be fitter for places of Teaching or Authority than themselves ( further than clear experience constraineth them to know the contrary : ) For in honour they prefer others , instead of striving to be preferred before others : They have a tractable , humble , yielding disposition , except when they are tempted to sin . They are gentle , and easie to be entreated , James 3.17 . and can submit themselves to one another ; yea and be their voluntary subjects , 1 Pet. 5.5 . Ephes . 5.21 . ( Yet not becoming unnecessarily the servants of men ; but chusing it rather when they may be free . ) They are as little children , in that they expect not rule , but to be ruled , Matth. 18.3 . They have learned to serve one another in love , Gal. 5.13 . and take it not for Christian love , that can do good only upon terms of equality , and cannot stoop to voluntary service . They can go two mile with him that compelleth them to go one : No man more obedient when you command not sin . For as he affecteth not to be called Master , or Rabbi , or to have the highest seat or name ( Mat. 23.11 , &c. ) So he hath learnt not to please himself , but to please others for their good to edification , Rom. 15.2 . Especially if he be a Pastor of the Church , though he do by an excelling light , and love , and good life , keep up the true honour of his calling ; yet is he the more averse to Lord it over the flock , because he knoweth that he must be an example to them : And it is not an example of pride , but of lowliness , which Christ did give , and he must give ; and therefore both are joyned together , 1 Pet. 5.3 , 5. 2. The Proud do make too great a matter of that honour which perhaps may be their due : They plot for it : they set their hearts upon it . If they are slighted , or others preferred before them , their countenances are cast down , as Cains ; or they are troubled , as Haman ; or they will revenge it , as Cain , and as Joab upon Abner : Touch their honour , and you touch their hearts : Despise them , and you torment them , or make them your enemies . But the Poor in spirit regard their honour , as they do other matters of this world ; that is , with moderation , and so far as it is conducible to the honour of Religion , or their Country , or to the service and business of their lives . They will not be Prodigals of that which they may serve God by : and they will not be over desirous of that which may be a bait to Pride , and a snare to their souls , though it gratifie the fleshly fancy . They will seek it , as if they sought it not ; and possess it , as if they possest it not , remembring how vain a thing man is , and how little his thoughts or breath can do , to make us happy : God is so great in a Believers eye , and man and worldly vanity is so small , that a lowly mind can scarce have room and time to regard the honour which is the proud mans portion ; because he is taken up with honouring his God , and esteeming the honour which consisteth in his approbation . Therefore it is tolerable to him , to be made of no reputation ▪ to be laden with reproaches , to be spit upon and buffeted ; to be made as the scorn and off●scouring of the world , and to have his name cast out as an evil doer , so he be not an evil doer indeed , 1 Cor. 4.13 . Luke 6.22 . Whatever you think of him , or whatever you say of him , he knoweth that it is little of his concernment : your favour is not his felicity ; nor are you the Judge , whose sentence must finally decide his cause . He humbleth himself , and therefore can endure to be humbled by others . He chuseth the lowest place himself , and therefore can endure to be low , 1 Cor. 4.3 , 4 , 5. Luke 14.11 . & 18.14 . & 14.10 . 3. The high-minded are ashamed to be thought to come of a low descent ; or that their Parents or Ancestors were poor : And if their Ancestors were rich and great , that little honour doth help to elevate their minds ; because they want that personal worth which is honourable indeed , they are fain to adorn themselves with these borrowed feathers . But the lowly know that if Riches prove such a hinderance of salvation , and so few of the rich proportionably are saved , as Christ hath told us , it can be no great honour to be the off-spring of the rich : It is a sad kind of boast , to say [ my Ancestors are liker to be in Hell than yours ; or if any of them be in Heaven , they came thither as a Camel through a needles eye . ] We know we are all of the common earth , and there our flesh will all be levelled , and our noblest blood will turn to the common putrefaction : We are all the seed of sinful Adam ; our Father was an Amorite , and our Mother an Hittite , Ezek. 16.3 . And good men have used humbly to lament their forefathers pride and wickedness , instead of boasting of their worldly wealth ; as you may read , Neh. 9.16 , 39. Dan. 9. 4. The high-minded are ashamed to be thought poor themselves : Because wealth is the Idol which they most honour ; they think that it will most honour them . Because they see that most men admire and honour it in the world ; therefore they being of the world , do judge as the world , and confirm themselves to its opinion . Even the poor that is proud , is ashamed of his poverty , and would be fain accounted rich . But the lowly are not ashamed to say with Peter , Acts 3.6 . Silver and gold have I none ; while they have better riches to rejoyce in : They are glad , when with Paul they can say , We are poor , but making many rich , 2 Cor. 6.10 . They will not deny , or cast away any riches ( which God doth lend them ) because as his Stewards , they must be accountable for them to their Lord. But they take it to be no shame to be liker Christ than Croesus ; or liker his Apostles than the Prelates and Cardinals of Rome ; or to be of those poor that are poor in spirit , who are rich in faith , and heirs of Heaven , James 2.5 . Matth. 5.3 . Nor is it any desirable honour to have our salvation so much hindered and hazarded , as the rich have . God , and Angels , and wise men , do think never the worse of a good man for being poor . 5. The high-minded are therefore usually addicted to some excess in ornaments and apparel , because they would be taken to be rich and comely ( unless when their Pride worketh some other way . ) Yea , if they be never so mean and poor , they would seem by their clothing to be somewhat richer than they are ; or would be rich in hypocrisie , or outward appearance , except it hinder their relief . They that wear soft clothing were wont to dwell in the houses of Kings , Matth. 11.8 . but now they dwell in the houses of most Citizens , Tradesmen , Husbandmen ; yea of Ministers themselves ; wives , children and servants are commonly sick at once of this disease : And though it be one of the lowest and foolishest games , which Pride hath to play ; yet women , and children , and light-headed youths , do make up the greater number for this vanity ; while the pride of the graver wiser sort , doth turn it self to greater things . But the lowly who are not ashamed to be poor , are not ashamed of poor apparel : Though they are not for uncleanliness , nor for an affected singularity , for ostentation of humility ; yet they had rather go below their rank , than above it , as taking Pride to be a greater shame and hurt than poverty : If their clothing be convenient to their health and use , and not offensive to others , it sufficeth them : and a patch , or a rent , or a garment that is old , will not make them blush : they have learnt , 1 Pet. 3.3 . [ Whose adorning , let it not be that outward , of plating the hair , or of wearing of gold , or of putting on of apparel ; but the hidden man of the heart , in that which is not corruptible , even of a meek and quiet spirit , which is in the sight of God of great price . 6. The high-minded have high thoughts of worldly pomp , and wealth , and greatness ; and think of such as excel in these , with great esteem and reverence : They bow to the man that hath the gold Ring , and the gay apparel , while they slight the b●st and wisest that are poor : They bless the Covetous whom the Lord abhorreth , Psal . 10.3 . And they think if they be poor and low themselves , how brave a thing is it to be high and rich : And had far rather be rich than gracious , and be higher in the world , than to have a lowly mind . But the humble have learnt of Christ to be meek and lowly , Matth. 11.29 . and are still learning it of him more and more : They had rather have Pauls heart , that counted all things as loss and dung for Christ , and learned to abound and to suffer want , and in every state to be content , than to be lifted up with worldly vanity . They know that it is better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly , than to divide the spoils with the proud , Prov. 16.19 . And as the brother of low degree ( being sanctified Believer that can use all for God ) must rejoyce when he is exalted ; so must the brother of high degree , when he is made low , Jam. 1.9 , 10. They pitty a Dives in his purple and silk , more than a Lazarus at his gates in rags . They wish not too eagerly for so dangerous an exaltation , from which they see so many terribly cast down . They much more honour a poor Believer , than a pompous sinner . For in their eyes a vile person is contemned ; but they honour them that fear the Lord , Psal . 15.4 . 7. The high-minded are ashamed of low employments : If they be seen doing such work as is accounted base , or proper to poor inferiour persons , they think they are dishonoured : If the proud sort of the Pastors of the Church , had been sent as Paul and the Apostles , to travel about the world on foot , and to preach the Gospel in their humble self-denying terms , they would have said that this was an unsufferable drudgery ; and Christ must have provided more encouraging rewards of learning , or else he should have been no Master of theirs . Yea a servant that is proud , will disdain the lowest works of your service , as if it were a disgrace to stoop so low . But the lowly do learn of Christ another lesson . He stoopt to wash and wipe the feet of his Disciples , to teach them what to do toward one another . Not as the Pope doth once a year wash some poor mens feet , by a Scenical ceremony ( For Piety and Charity are both turn●d into imagery and ceremony by Satan , when he would destroy them ) but seriously to instruct his Ministers themselves , what lowliness they must use towards one another , and to all the flock . Christ went on foot to preach the Gospel , and so did his Apostles ; not to oblige us to do so when weakness doth forbid us ; nor to deny the benefit of a horse , when we m●y have it ; but to teach us that neither Pride shou●d make us ashamed to go on foot , nor lazyness make it seem intollerable , when we are called to it . When Christ would appear in state at Jerusalem , he rode upon a borrowed Ass , to fulfill the Prophecy , Zech. 9.9 . Behold thy King cometh unto thee , meek and sitting upon an Ass , Matth. 21.5 . Paul refused not ( with other Preachers ) to labour at the trade of a Tent-maker , Acts 18.3 . And Timothy was not ashamed to bring him his cloak and parchments , so great a Journey , 2 Tim. 4.13 . Nothing is avoided by the lowly at a shame , but that which is displeasing to God , and disagreeeble to his Christian duty : But not that which he can call the service of God , and which God accepteth and will reward . 8. The high-minded are ashamed of the company and familiarity of the poor ( unless when they seek for applause by populari●y : ) And they greatly affect the savour and company of the rich , James 5.4 , 6. Therefore Solomon saith , that the rich hath many friends , Prov. 14.20 . When the poor is hated of his neighbour . But the lowly chuse to converse with the low . For so did Christ who was our pattern : and it is his Law [ Rom. 12.16 . Mind not high things , but condescend to men of low estate . Christ was not ashamed to call us brethren , Heb 3.11 . nor will he be ashamed so to call the least of his true Disciples before God and Angels at the dreadful day , Matth. 25.40 . & 28.10 . Joh. 20.17 . They are the most honourable company , who are likest to Christ , and are the wisest , and the holiest ; and not those who are likest to his crucifiers and enemies , and have their portion in this world . 9. Pride is usually attended with vain curiosity : curiosity in ornaments , in fashions , in distressings , in attendance , in furniture , in rooms , and in abundance of small inconsiderable circumstances . The proud ( who go this lower way ) do make a great matter of so many such trifles , that their minds have no room for the greatest things . They do not only trouble themselves with many things , while the one thing needful is the more neglected ( Luke 10.42 . ) but all about them must be partakers of the trouble . What abundance of trades doth Pride maintain ? and how many are continually at work to serve it ? But the lowly who mind not vain ostentation , do save themselves all this unprofitable pains : They can avoid undecent sordidness , at a cheaper rate than by proud curiosity . They are accurate and curious in greater matters , in doing good , in securing their salvation , in escaping sin , and in pleasing God ; which will one day prove a wiser curiosity , than to be curious in courtship , and complements , and dressings , and other impertinent childish things : Though the least just decency is not to be neglected in its place , it is foolish pride to prefer it before things of importance and necessity . Mans mind and time are not sufficient for all things : Somewhat must be omitted ; and its wisdom which chuseth to omit the least , and folly which chuseth to omit the greatest . As in Learning , they prove the soundest Scholars who spend their studies on the most excellent and useful parts of learning ; whilst those that too much study things superfluous , are ever empty of necessary knowledge : It is so also in the actions of our lives : As Paul so vehemently condemneth vain jangling about unnecessary and unedifying questions , though yet truth was not contemptible in those matters : so also vain curiosity , and unedifying diligence ( though about things not altogether contemptible ) is but the perilous diversion of the mind , from greater things , 1 Tim. 1.6 , 7 , &c. 10. The high-minded cannot endure to be beholden ( unless necessity or covetousness prevail against their Pride . ) But they would have all others beholden to them , that they may seem as petty Deities in the world . O how it puffeth them up to have the people depend upon them , and acknowledge them for their benefactors , and to have crouded sacrifices of thanks and praise to be offered them as they go about the streets : If they were accounted such as the world could not live , nor be happy without them , as being the most necessary parts or pillars thereof , nothing could more content their humour . But the lowly mind desireth rather to do good , than to be known to do it : And it is not mens unthankfulness that will take him off , because it is not their thanks which is his reward . He would be as like God as he can in doing good , but not for his own glory , but for Gods. As he is Gods Steward , it is with God that he keepeth reckoning ; and if his accounts will pass with him , he hath enough . And if God will have him to need the help of others , he is not too stout to seek and be beholden . Though every ingenious man should value his freedom from the servitude of man , 1 Cor. 7.23 . and if he can be free , should chuse it rather , vers . 21. ( And the borrower is a servant to the lender , Prov. 22.7 . ) And we may say with him in Luke 16.3 . To beg I am ashamed : Yet here humility will make us stoop , when God requireth it . Christ himself refused not to be a Receiver , Luke 8.3 . No nor to ask a draught of water , John 4. And poverty is oft a great mercy to the proud , to take them down , and make them stoop . The rich answereth roughly ; but the poor useth intreaties , Prov. 18.23 . So much of the Marks of Pride . Direct . III. Overlook not the odiousness and peril of Pride . I will name you now but a few of its aggravations , because I have more largely mentioned them elsewhere . 1. It is the most direct opposition to God , to set up our selves as Idols in his place , and seek for some of his honour to our selves . 2. It is the first born of the Devil , and an imitation of him whom God in nature hath taught us to take for the greatest enemy of him and us ; and the most odious of all the creatures of God. 3. It is madness to fall by that same sin , which we know was the overthrow of our first Parents , and of the world . 4. And it is sottish impudency in such as we , who know that our bodies are going into rottenness and dust , and think in what a place and plight we must there lie , and that those daies of darkness will be many : And who know that our souls are defiled with sin , and if we have any saving knowledge and grace , it is small , and mixt with abundance of ignorance and corruption ; and the nature of it is contrary to Pride . 5. It is contrary to the design of redeeming grace , which is to save the humble contrite soul . 6. It betrayeth men to a multitude of other sins ( as vanity of mind , loss of time , neglect of duty , striving for preferment , quarrelling with others , upon matters of reputation or precedency , &c ) 7. And it is a sin that God is specially engaged against , and the surest way to dejection and self frustration , 1 Pet. 5.5 . James 4 6. Isa . 2.12 . Prov. 15.22 . & 16.5 . & 21.4 . Psal . 138 6. & 31.23 . Job 40.11 , 12. Luke 14.11 . & 18.14 . II. After these three general Directions , I shall briefly name a few particular ones . Direct , 1. Remember continually what you are , and what you were , what your bodies are , and will be ; and what your souls are by the pollution of sin ; and how close it still adhereth to you ; and from how great a misery Christ redeemed you : He neither knoweth his body , nor his soul , his sin , or misery , nor Christ , nor grace , who is a servant unto Pride . Direct . 2 Remember the continual presence of the most holy dreadful God : And can Pride lift up the head before him ? Direct . 3 Look to the example of a humbled Saviour , and learn of God incarnate to be lowly , Matth. 11.29 . From his birth to his ascension , you may read the strangest Lecture of Lowliness , that ever was delivered to the haughty world . Direct . 4. Turn all your desires to the glorifying of God ; remembring that you were not made for your own glory , but for his . Direct . 5. Think much of the heavenly Glory , and it will cloud all the vain-glory of the world . Direct . 6. Think what it is that is your honour among the Angels in Heaven , and what is most approved and honoured by God himself ; and therein place your honour ; and not in the conceits of foolish men . Direct . 7. Lastly , Make use of humbling occasions to exercise your self-denyal and lowliness of mind . I commend not to you the pious folly of those Popish Saints , who are magnified by them for making themselves purposely ridiculous to exercise their humility ( as by going through the streets with their breeches on their heads , and other such fooleries : ) For God will give you humbling occasions enough , when he seeth good : But when he doth it , be sure that you improve them to the abasing of your selves : and use your selves to be above the esteem of man , and to bear contempt when it 's cast upon you ( as Christ did for your sakes ) though not to draw it foolishly or wilfully upon your selves . He that hath but once born the contempt of men , is much better able to b●ar it afterwards , than he that never underwent it , but thinketh that he hath an entire reputation to preserve : And he that is more sollicitous of his duty , and most indifferent in point of honour , doth usually best secure his honour by such neglect , and alwaies best undergo dishonour . CHAP. XVI . How to scape the sin of Fulness or Luxury by Faith. THE second sin of Sodom , and fruit of abusrd Prosperity , is Fulness of Bread , Ezek. 16 49 Concerning which ( having also handled it elsewhere more at large ) I shall now briefly give you these general Directions first , and then a few that are more particular . Direct . I. Understand well what sinful Fulness : It is sinful , when it hath any one of these ill conditions . 1. When you eat or drink more in quantity , than is consistent with the due preservation of your health : or so much as hurteth your health or reason . For the use of food is to fit us for our duty ; and therefore that which disableth and unfiteth us , is too much . But here both the present and future must be considered . 2. When you have no higher end in eating and drinking , than the pleasing of your appetite . Be it little or much , it is to be judged of according to its end . A beast hath no other end , because he hath no reason , and so properly hath no end at all ▪ But we are bound to eat and drink to the glory of God , and to do all to further us in his service , 1 Cor. 10.31 . The appetite may be pleased in order to a higher end ; that is , 1. So far as it is a true directer what is for our health , and will be best digested : 2. So far as by moderate and seasonable exhilaration , it fitteth us by cheerful alacrity for our duty : and therefore it hath been good mens use to have holy feasts , as well as holy fasts . But the appetite must be restrained and denyed , 1. When it is against health : And 2. When it hindereth from duty : Or 3. When it would be the ultimate end of our repast , and there is no higher reason for it , than the appetites delight . It is not said that the Sensualist in Luke 16. did eat too much : but that he fared sumptuously every day , and that he had his good things here : that is , that he lived to the pleasing of his flesh . It is not said of him in Luke 12.19 , 20. that he ate or drank too much ; but that he said , Soul , take thy ease , eat , drink , and be merry ; that is , that he preferred the pleasing of his appetite or flesh , before the everlasting pleasures . The sin of the Israelites was , that they were weary of eating Manna only , so many years , and desired flesh only to please their appetite : and therefore is is said , that they asked meat for their lust , Psal . 78.18 . that is , to gratifie their flesh or sense . And the terrible threatnings thundered out by James against the rich , are on such accounts , James 5.4 , 5. Ye have lived in pleasure on earth , and been wanton ; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter . And we are commanded to make no provision for the flesh , to satisfie the wills or lusts thereof ; that is , meerly or chiefly to please our senses . 3. It is sinful Fulness , when you needlesly strengthen either lustful or sluggish inclinations by the quantity or the quality of your food . I know nature must not be famished , nor our health and life destroyed , under pretence of conquering sin : But when necessity of life and health doth not require it , all that must be avoided , which cherisheth any vicious disposition . And these two are the usual effects of fulness . 1. Some , especially idle youths , abound with lustful thoughts and inclinations , which fulness greatly cherisheth ; and pleasing their appetite , is the fuel of their lust : when as if they would drink water , and eat courser food , and little of it ( and withall be laborious in some serious work ) their lusts would be more extinguished : These persons are guilty of sinful Fulness , if they take but neer as ●uch as other men may do ; because for the pleasing of one lust , they seed another . 2. Others that are flagmatick and dull , can never feed fully , but they are heavy and drowsie , unfit for prayer , and unfit for work : usually the health , as well as the consciences of these persons , doth require a spare kind of dyet ; and that which is but enough for others , is too much for them . Because the avoiding of sin , and the performance of our duties , is the measure of our food . 4. It is sinful Fulness , when any of Gods creatures are taken without any benefit , and in vain . It is a sin to take any more than we have cause to think is like to do us good ; though we thought it were like to do no harm . That which is used only to gratifie the appetite , or for any other unprofitable cause , and neither furthereth health nor duty , is sinfully cast away . And if vain words be forbidden , vain eating and drinking can be no better . The evil of the sin is , 1. Because man being a rational creature , should do nothing in vain : 2. Because we are Gods Stewards , and must give an account of all our talents : 3. Because Gods mercies are not to be contemned , nor cast away as nothing worth . 4. But especially because there are thousands in want , while you abound ; and if you spend that in vain , which others need , you wrong God , and rob them , and shew that you want love to your brethren , and prefer your appetites before their necessities . If you think any thing that you have is absolutely your own , you are but foolish pretenders against God : But if you know that God hath lent it you for his service , how dare you cast it away in vain ? Joh. 6.12 . When Christ had multiplied food ( or satisfied mens appetite ) by miracle , he saith , Gather up the fragments that remain , that nothing be lost : Nothing then must be lost , on your selves or others . 5. To bestow too much cost upon the belly , is a sinful Fulness too ; though the quantity of food be never so small . Cost is too much when it is more than is profitable ; or when the cost exceedeth the profit . The reasons of this are the same as of the former ; because we are Gods Stewards , and must give account of all that we have , and must improve it all to our Masters use ; and because thousands want what we might spare , and superfluously expend . What are the occasions which will justifie some extraordinary costliness , is too long now to explicate . In general , it must be for some end and benefit , which is better than any which might be procured otherwise by that expence : But pride or appetite are no justifying causes of it . It was faring sumptuously which was that carnal Gentlemens sin , in Luke 16. It is sa●d of such , Phil. 3.18 . that their belly is their God ; for they daily sacrifice much more to it , than they do to God : Many hundred pounds a year , is little enough for many men to sacrifice to their throats . It is such a sacrifice which James calleth , the cherishing of their hearts as in a day of slaughter , James 5.5 . This is the hid treasure which their bellies are filled with , Psal . 17.14 . The rich mans full barns , Luke 12 20. were but to fill his belly , and please his flesh [ Thou hast enough laid up for many years . ] For what ? why for ease , and eating , and drinking , and mirth ; They think it is their own , and that they may spend it on themselves ; but O the terrible account ! As David would not offer that to God which cost him nothing , 2 Sam. 24.24 . so neither will they offer too cheap a sacrifice to their bellies . But lust deserveth not much cost : He that is your God , is the God of others as well as of you ; and careth for them as well as for you ; even when he giveth them less than you : And he giveth it you , that you may have the tryal , and the honour of giving it according to his will to them . It is every mans duty to chuse the cheapest dyet ( and other accommodations ) which will but answer his lawful ends ; that is , 1. His health and welfare : 2. And the meet entertainment of others , and the avoiding of those evils which are greater than the charge . He that loveth his neighbour as himself , will not see multitudes cold and hungry , while he gratifieth his own sensuality with superfluities . Though all men are not to live at the same rates , yet all are to observe this common rule of charity and frugality . The Rule given by Paul for apparel , must be used also for our food ; that women adorn themselves with modest apparel , with shamefastness and sobriety , not with broidered hair , or gold , or pearls , or costly array , 1 Tim. 2.9 . So must we feed with moderation and sobriety , and not with too rich and costly food . 6. And it is a great aggravation of this sin , to bestow too much of our time upon it : When those precious hours are spent in needless eating and drinking , or sitting at it , which are given us for far greater work . Though no set time can be determined for all men , yet all must feed as those that have still necessary business upon their hand , which stayeth for them , and for which it is that they cherish themselves : And therefore let not time pass away in vain , but make haste to your work , and feed not idleness instead of diligence . 7. And the root of all this mischief , is , when the hearts of men are set upon their bellies ; and their fancies and wits are slaves unto their appetites : when they are not indifferent about things indifferent , but make a great matter of it , what they shall eat , and what they shall drink , beyond the necessity or real benefit of it . When they are troubled if their appetite be but crost , and they are like crying children or swine , that are discontented and complaining if they have not what they would have , and if their bellies are not full . When they are like the Israelites , that wept for flesh , Numb . 11.4 . Because they serve not the Lord Jesus , but their own bellies , Rom. 16.17 , 18. But the poor in spirit , can live upon a little , and mind the things of the Spirit so much , that they are more indifferent to their appetite . And custom maketh abstinence and temperance sweet and easie to them . For a well-used appetite is like well-taught children ; not so unmannerly , nor craving , nor bawling , nor troublesome , as the gluttons ill-used appetite is . It troubles mens minds , and taketh up their thoughts , and commandeth their estates , and devoureth their time , and turneth out God , and all that is holy ; and like a thirst in a dropsie , it de●oureth all , and is satisfied with nothing , but encreaseth its self , and the disease : As if such men did live to eat , when the temperate do eat to live . 8 Lastly , It is the height of this sin , when you also cherish the gulosity and excess of others . When for the Pride of great house-keeping , you cause others to waste Gods creatures and their time ; and waste your estates to satisfie their luxury , and to procure their vain applause , Hab. 2.15 . Wo to him that giveth his neighbour drink ; that puttest thy bottle to him , and make-est him drunken also . This is the Fulness which is forbidden of God. Object . But is it not said that Christ came eating and drinking , and the Pharisees quarrelled with him and his Disciples , because they did not fast as John and his Disciples did ; and they called him a gluttonous person , and a wine-bibber , a friend of Publicans and sinners . Answ . 1. John lived in a wilderness , upon locusts and wild honey : and because Christ lived not such an austere eremetical life , the quarrelsome Pharisees did thus calumniate him . But Christ never lived in the least excess . Mark that part of his life which they thus accused , and you will find it such as the sensual will be loth to imitate . 2. Christ was by office to converse with Publicans and sinners for their cure : And this gave occasion to the calumnies of malice . 3. There was a difference of Reasons for John's austerity , and Christs . But when he , the Bridegroom was taken away , he foretelleth that his followers should fast . 4. Christ fasted forty daies at once , and drank water , and lived in perfect temperance : Imitate him , and we will not blame you for excess : His example preached poverty in spirit . Direct . II. Remember the Reasons why fulness and gulosity are so much condemned by God , viz. 1. A pampered appetite is unruly ; and feedeth your concupiscence . The flesh is now become our most dangerous enemy ; and therefore it must be dangerous to pamper it , to the strengthening of its lusts : When even Paul was put to buffet and tame it , and bring it into subjection , for fear of proving a cast-away after all his wondrous labours . 2. The pleasing of the appetite too much , corrupteth the delight and rellish of the soul . Delight in God , and Heaven , and Holiness , is the summ and life of true Religion ; and the delights of sense and fleshly appetite , turn away the soul from this , and are most mortal enemies to these true delights . For they that are after the flesh , do mind or savour the things of the flesh ; and they that are after the Spirit , the things of the Spirit , Rom. 8.6 , 7. And the carnal mind is enmity to God : if it cannot be subject to his Law , certainly it is unfit to rellish the sweetness of his Love , and spiritual mercies . 3. And the Thoughts themselves are corrupted and perverted by it : They that should be thinking and caring how to please God , are thinking and caring for their bellies . Even when all their powers should be employed on God , in meditation , or in prayer , their thoughts will be going after their fleshly appetite , as Ezekiels hearers were after their covetousness , 33.31 . And as some of Christs hearers were after the loaves . 4. The use of pleasing the fleshly appetite doth make men need riches ; which is a misery , and a snare . Such must needs have their desires satisfied , and therefore cannot live on a little : And therefore if they have riches , their flesh devoureth almost all , and they have little to spare for any charitable uses . And if they have none , they are tempted to steal , or get it by some unlawful means . And so it tempteth them to the love of money ( which is the root of all evil ) because they love the lust which needeth it . 5. And it maketh them utterly unfit for suffering ( which Christ will have all his followers to expect . ) He that is used to please his appetite , will take that for a grievous life , which another man will feel no trouble in : If a full fed Gentleman or Dives were tyed to fare as the poor labourer doth at the best , he would lament his case as if he were undone , and would take that for half a martyrdom ( if it were on a pious pretence ) which his neighbour would account no suffering , but a feast . And will God reward men for such self-made sufferings ? How unfit is he to endure imprisonment , banishment and want , who hath alwaies used to please his flesh ? If God cast him into poverty , how impatient would he be ? How plentifully and pleasantly would most poor Country-men think to live , if they had but a hundred pounds a year of their own ? But if he that hath thousands , and is used to fulness , should be reduced to an hundred , how querulous or impatient would he be ? 6. It maketh the body heavy and unfit for duty : both duties of piety , and the honest labours of your calling . 7. It maketh the body diseased ; and so more unfit to serve the soul . It is to be noted , that the excess reproved by Paul at their Love-feasts , was punished with sickness , and with death : And as that punishment had a moral suitableness to their sin ; so it is not unlike that ( according to Gods ordinary way of punishing ) it was also a natural effect of their excess . 8. It is a most unsuitable thing to such great sinners as we are , who have forfeited all our mercies , and are called so loud to penitent humiliation ; when we should turn to the Lord with all our hearts , with fasting , weeping and mourning , to be then pleasing our fleshly appetites with curiosities and excess , is a sin that God once threatned in a terrible sort , Isa . 22.12 , 13. Fasting is in such cases a duty of Gods appointment , Joel 2.12 . Luke 2.37 . 1 Cor. 7.5 . Cornelius his fasting and alms-deeds came up before God , Acts 10.30 . Daniel was heard upon his fast , Dan. 9.3 . Christ fasted when he entered solemnly on his work , Matth. 4. And some Devils would not be cast out without fasting and prayer : And is luxury fit in such a case ? 9. Lastly , Remember what was said before , that others are empty , while we are full : Thousands need all that we can spare : And they are members of Christ , and of the same body with us : And so much as we waste on our appetite , or pride , so much the less we have to give . And he that seeth his Brother in need , and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him ( when he cannot deny superfluities to himself ) how dwelleth the Love of God in him ! When the poor we shall have alwaies with us , that we may alwaies have exercise for our love : And he that glutteth his own flesh to the full , and giveth the poor but the leavings of his lust , if it were a thousand pound a year that he giveth , must look for small reward from God , however he may do good to others . More particular Directions may be as followeth . Direct . 1. Understand well how much the fl●sh in this laps●d state is our enemy ; and how much gulosity doth strengthen it against us ; and how much of the work of grace lyeth in resisting and overcoming it ; and what need we have to serve the Spirit , and not to be helpers of the flesh : And the true consideration of these things may do much , Gal. 5.17 , 18 , 19 , 22 , 23. Rom. 8.6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 13. Direct . 2. Set your selves to the work of God according to your several places ; and live not idly : And then mark what helpeth or hindereth you in your work . If you play not the loitering hypocrites , but make your duties the serious business of all your lives , you will quickly find how inconsistent a bruitish appetite , and a full belly , and a curious , costly , and time-wasting pampering of the flesh , is with such a Christian life . Direct . 3. Study well the life of Christ , and the example of the ancient Saints . Remember what dyet was in use with Abraham , Isaac and Jacob ; with the Apostles , and holiest servants of Christ . And that it was Solomon the most voluptuous King of Israel , that was told by his Mother , that it is not for Kings to drink wine , but for them that are of a sorrowful heart : And that the description of the luxurious then was [ riotous eaters of flesh , Prov. 31.5 . & 23.20 . And that it was the mark of fleshly Hereticks , to feast themselves without fear , Jude 12. And that they were destroyed by Gods wrath , though they had their desire who murmured for want of flesh , after many years abstinence in a wilderness ; and it 's called , Asking meat for their lust , Psal . 78.18 . I doubt many of our servants now , would be discontented , and think their bellies too hardly used , if they had no better than the milk and honey of the Land of Promise ; yea or the Onions and flesh-pots of Egypt . Direct . 4. Think what a base and swinish kind of sin it is , to be a slave to ones guts or appetite : And how far it is below , not only a Christian , but a man , and what a shame to humane nature . Direct . 5. Look often to the grave , and observe those skulls into which once the pleasant meats and drinks were put ; and those jaws that were so oft employed , in grinding for the belly : And remember how quickly this will be your case , and think then whether such a carkass deserve so much care , and cost , and curiosity , to the neglect and danger of an immortal soul . Direct . 6. Lay a constant Law upon your appetite , and use it not to be pleased without cause and benefit ; but use it to a wholesome , but not a full , a costly , a curious , or a delicious food : And use will make intemperance to be loathsome to you , and temperance to be sweet . Direct . 7. Learn so much reason as to know truly what is most conducible to your health , both for quantity and quality ; and mark what diseases and deaths are usually caused by excess : It is more reasonable to be temperate for prevention of diseases , than under the power and feeling of them ; when pain and sickness force you to it , whether you will or not . If you will not obey God so carefully as your Physician ; yet obey the preventing counsels of your Physician , before you need his curing counsel . Direct . 8. Neglect not the manly and the sacred delights which God alloweth : I mean , the pleasures of honest labours , and of your calling , and of reading and knowledge , of meditation and prayer , and of a well ordered soul and life , and of the certain hopes of endless glory . Live upon these , and you will easily spare the fleshly pleasures of a Swine . CHAP. XVII . How to conquer sloth and idleness by the Life of Faith. THE third sin of Sodom , and of abused Prosperity , is Idleness , Ezek. 16.49 . Concerning which I shall first tell you the nature and signs of it , and then the evil of it ; and then give you more particular Directions against it : But this also but briefly , because I have done it more largely in my Christian Directory . I. That you may know who are guilty of this sin , and who not , I shall first premise these Propositions . 1. Nothing but disability will excuse any one from the ordinary labours of a lawful calling . Riches or honours will excuse none . They are the subjects of God , as well as others that have less : And he that hath most , hath most to use , and most to answer for : To whom men commit much , of them they require the more , Luke 12.48 . & 19.23 . Greatness and wealth is so far from excusing the forbearance of a calling , that it will not allow any one the omission of one hours labour and diligence in his calling . If God give the Rich more wages than others , it 's unreasonable to think that therefore they may do less work . 2. Yet when meer necessity compelleth the poor to labour more than else they were obliged to do , even to the detriment of their health , or shortening of Gods Worship , the rich are not bound therefore to imitate them , and to incurr the same inconveniencies ; because they have not the same necessities . As in their dyet , the rich is not allowed to take any more for quantity or quality , than is truly for their good , any more than the poor : but they are not bound to live as those poor do , who want that either for quantity or quality , which is truly for their good ; so is it also in this case of labouring . 3. The labours of every ones calling must be the ordinary business of his life ; and not a little now and then instead of a recreation . If it be a mans calling , he must be constant and laborious in it . 4. Yea no interposed recreation or idleness is lawful , but that which either is necessitated by disability , or that which is needfull to fit the mind or body for its work : As whetting to the mower . 5. All mens callings tye them not constantly to one kind of labour ; but some may be put to vary their employments every day : as poor men that live by going on errands , and doing other mens business , under several Masters , several waies : And as many rich people whose occasions of doing good may often vary . 6. The rich and honourable are not bound to the same kind of labour as the poor . A Magistrate or Pastor is not bound to follow the Plow ; nay , he is bound not to do it ordinarily , lest he neglect his proper and greater work . Some mens labours are with the hand , and some mens with the head . 7. Every man should chuse that calling which is most agreeable to his mind and body : Some are strong , and some are weak : some are of quick wits , and some are dull : All should be designed to that which they are fittest for . 8. Every one should chuse that calling ( if he be fit for it ) in which he may be most serviceable to God , for the doing of the greatest good in the world : and not that in which he may have most ease , or wealth , or honour : God and the publick good must be our chiefest ends in the choice . 9. And in the labours of our calling , the getting of riches must never be our principal end : But we must labour to do the most publick good , and to please God by living in obedience to his commands . 10. Yet every man must desire the success of his labour , and the blessing of God on it , and may continue his work as best tendeth to success . And though we may not labour to be rich , Prov. 23.4 . as our principal end ; yet we must not be formal in our callings ; nor think that God is delighted in our meer toil , to see men fill a bottomless vessel ; but we must endeavour after the most successful way , and pray for a just prosperity of our labours : and when God doth prosper us with wealth , we must take it thankfully ( though with fear ) and use it to his service , and do all the good with it that we can , 1 Cor. 16.2 . Lay by as God hath prospered every man , Ephes . 4.28 . Let him work with his hands the thing that is good , that he may have to give to him that needeth , James 1.9 . Let the brother of low degree rejoyce in that he is exalted . 11. The lowness of a mans calling , or baseness of his employment , will not allow him to be negligent or weary of it , or uncomfortable in it : Seeing God must be obeyed in the lowest services , as well as in the highest ; and will reward men according to their faithful labour , and not according to the dignity of their place : And indeed no service should be accounted low and base , which is sincerely done for so great and high a Master , and hath the promise of so glorious a reward , Col. 3.23 , 24. 12. The greater and more excellent any mans work and calling is , his idleness and neligence is the greater sin . It is bad in a Plow-man , or any day-labourer ; but it is far worse in a Minister of the Gospel , or a Magistrate : Because they wrong many and that in the greatest things , and violate the greatest trust from God : Christ biddeth us pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth Labourers into his harvest , Luke 10.27 . and not proud , covetous , idle drones , that would have honour only for their wealth and titles : And he saith , that the Labourer is worthy of his hire , but not the loiterer . Among the Elders that rule the Church , it is especially the labourers in the word and doctrine that are worthy of double honour . Dr. Hammond noteth on 1 Thes . 5.12 . that the Bishops whom they are required to know and honour , were those that laboured among them , and were over them in the Lord , and admonished them ; and that it was [ for their works sake ] that they were to esteem them very highly in love . ] The highest title that ever was put on Pastors , was to be [ Labourers together with God , 1 Cor. 3.9 . ] And the calling of Magistrates also requireth no small diligence . Jethro perswadeth Moses to take helpers , not that he might himself be idle , but lest he should wear away himself with doing more than he could undergo , Exod. 18.18 . So the calling of a Schoolmaster , and of Parents and Masters of families , who have rational souls to instruct and govern , requireth a special diligence : And negligence in such is a greater sin , than in him that neglecteth sheep or horses . So also it is a great sin in a Physician , because he doth neglect mens lives ; and in a Lawyer , when by sloth he destroyeth mens estates : The greatness of the trust , must greaten mens care . 13. He that hath hired his labour to another ( as a Servant , a Lawyer , a Physician ) is guilty of a thievish fraud , if he give him not that which he hath paid for : Owe nothing to any man , but love , Rom. 13. Hired labour is a debt that must be paid . 14. Religious duties will not excuse idleness , nor negligence in our callings : ( but oblige us to it the more : ) nor will any bodily calling excuse us from Religious duties ; but both must take their place in their seasons and due proportions . Q●est . 1. But what if a man can live without labour ; may not be forbear who needeth it not ? Answ . No , because he is nevertheless a subject of God , who doth command it : and a member of the Common-wealth which needeth it . Quest . 2. What if I were not brought up to labour ; am I bound to use it ? Answ . Yes , you must yet learn to do your duty , and repent , and ask pardon for living so long in sinful idleness . What if you had not been brought up to pray , or to read , or to any needful trade , or ornament of life ? What if your Parents had never taught you to speak ? Is it not your duty therefore to learn it when you are at age , rather than not at all ? Qu. 3. But what if I find that it hurteth my body to labour ; may I not forbear ? Answ . If it so hurt you , that you are unable to do it , there is no remedy : Necessity hath no Law : Or if one sort of labour hurt you , when you can take up another , in which you may be as serviceable to the Common-wealth , you may chuse that to which your strength is suitable : But if you think that every sudden pain or weariness is a sufficient excuse ; or that some real hurt will warrant you in an idle life , you may as well think that your servant , and your Horse or Oxe may cease all their labour for you , when they are weary : or that your candle should not burn , nor your knife be used in cutting , because that use consumeth them . Quest . 4. What if I find that worldly business doth hinder me in the service of God ; I cannot pray , or read , or meditate so much ? Answ . The labours of your callings are part of the service of God : He hath set you both to do , and you must do both ; that is , both spiritual and corporal work : And to quarrel with either , is to quarrel against God who hath appointed them . Quest . 5. But is it not worldliness when we follow worldly business , without any need ? Answ . 1. Yes , if you do it only from the love of the world , and with a worldly mind : But not when you do it in obedience to God , and with a heavenly mind . 2. He cannot be said to have no need , who hath a body that needeth it , or liveth in Common-wealth that needeth it , and is a subject to God who commandeth it . Quest . 6. But what if I find by constant experince , that my soul is more worldly after worldly business , and more cold and alienated from God ? Answ . What if you should find it so after giving to the poor , or visiting the sick , or providing for your family ? What then must you do ? You must lament the carnality of your minds , and beg of God for such grace as may fit you for your duties : And not cast off your duty , because you are so bad ; but labour to be better , and to do it better . And 2. You must not judge of the benefit only by present feeling : But if God hath promised a blessing to you , believe it ; and you shall certainly meet with it at the last . Many a one thinks that to forsake all bodily labour , and to do nothing but the duties of Religion , doth benefit them more at the present ; when perhaps in a little time , the sickness of their bodies , or the melancholy destraction of their minds , doth lose them more than they had gotten , and make them unfit for almost any duty at all . And many a one that think their spiritual benefit is interrupted by their callings , do find all Gods Promises fulfilled at last , to their satisfaction . Quest . 7. But is it not lawful to set ones self only to Religion , as John Baptist , Anna , &c. did ? Answ . It is a duty to be as religious as you can : But it is also a duty to labour in your calling , and do all the good you can to others . The aged and impotent that cannot labour in a calling , are excused from it : And they that give up themselves to the Magistracy , Ministry , Physick , &c. must meddle with no lower things , which would hinder them in the higher . But no man can be excused from doing all the good he can to others , by any pretences of looking to his soul ; For he can no way more surely further his salvation ; nor cahe hinder it more , than by sinful negligence and sloth . Quest . 8. But was not labour and toil a curse upon Adam after his sin ? and any man that can may labour to escape a curse . Answ . 1. Adam in innocency was set to dress and keep the Garden . 2. The curse was in the toil and the frustration of his labour . 3. And even that is such a curse , as God will not take off , or remit . Quest . 9. Doth not Paul say to servants , If ye can be free , use it rather ? Answ . True : But he saith not , If you can be idle , use it rather . A free man may work as hard as a bondman . Quest . 10. May not a man that hath several callings before him , chuse the easiest ? Answ . Not meerly or chiefly because it is easie : but he must chuse the most profitable to the common good , be it easie or hard , if it be such as he can undergo . Yet he may avoid such a calling , as by trying his body , indisposeth him to spiritual things ; or by taking up all his time , will deprive him of convenient leisure for things spiritual . But he that only to ease his flesh , doth put by more profitable employments , because they will cost him labour , doth serve his flesh , and cast off his duty to his God. II. The signs of wealthy-idleness are these : 1. When men think it unnecessary for them to labour constantly and diligently , because they are rich , and can live without it ; or because they are great , and it is below them . The confutation of which errour , I gave you before , and shall give you more of it anon . The poor in spirit , think not a laborious life below them . 2. When men have time to spare : This is a most evident mark of Idleness : For God hath given us no time in vain ; but hath given us full work , for all our time . They that have time to play away needlesly , to sleep away needlesly , to prate away needlesly , do tell the world that Sodom's Idleness is their sin . Especially poor souls , who are yet unsanctified , and are strangers to a renewed heart and life , and are utterly unfit to die , O what abundance of important work have these to do ? And can they be idle , while all this lyeth undone ? Indeed if they are in despair of being saved , it is no wonder : And one would think by their lives that they did despair : For surely a man so neer another world , that must be in Heaven or Hell for ever , would never live idly , if he had any good hope that his endeavours should not be all in vain . The poor in spirit have no time to spare : Labour is their life : Eternity is still before their eyes . Necessity is upon them ; and they know the wo that followeth Idleness : Repentance for sin , and negligence past , is a constant spur to future diligence . And their work is sweet , and incomparably more pleasant to them than Idleness . If the Devil be so diligent , because he knoweth that his time is short , Rev. 12.12 . it is a shame to them that are not so , who call themselves the servants of the Lord. 3. When mens labour hath but the time that 's due to Recreation ; and Recreation and Idleness hath the great part of time that 's due to labour . The labour of the idle Sodomite , is like the Religion of the reserved Hypocrite : It is but the leavings of the flesh , or somewhat that cometh in upon the by . But God is not unconstant in his mercies unto us : He is still preserving us , and maintaining us : The Angels are still guarding us : The faithful Ministers of Christ are constant in teaching us ( and loth that Satan should hinder them , and save their labour : ) Faithful Magistrates also watch continually , to be a terrour to evil doers , and a praise to them that do well , as the Ministers of God for our good : And can a short and idle kind of labouring then excuse us ? Christ said , It was his meat to do his Fathers will , when he was endeavouring mans salvation , John 4 34. And that he must do the work of him that sent him while it was day , John 9.4 . And shall Idleness be excused in us ? even in us who must be judged according to our works , Rev. 22.12 . Mark 13.34 . by him that hath commanded every man his work ? Yea when we are redeemed and purified to be zealous of good works , Titus 2.14 . and are his workmanship created to good works in Christ , which God hath ordained , that we should walk in them , Ephes . 2.10 . 4. When men make a great matter of all their labour ; and of that which to a diligent man is small . The sluggard hath his thorn hedge , and a Lion in the way , Prov. 22.13 . & 26.13 , 15 , 16. But the diligent say , when they have done their best , We are unprofitable servants : Nothing is so weary to them as unprofitable idleness ( except hurtful wickedness . ) They think still , O how short is time ! and how much work is yet undone ! And as every faithful Minister in his calling , is never so well pleased , as when he doth most for the good of souls ; so is it with every faithful Christian in his place . A Candle if it be not burnt , is lost , and good for nothing . 5. The idle Sodomite hath a mind which followeth the affections of his body : And as soon as his body is a little weary , his mind is so too , and suffereth the weariness of the body to prevail : Because the flesh is King within them . Nay a slothful mind doth oft begin , and they are weary to look upon their work , or to think of it , before it hath wearyed the body at all : And what they do , they do unwillingly ; because they are in love with idleness , Mal. 1.13 . But the lowly and laborious are in love with diligence and work : and therefore though they cannot avoid the wearyness of the body , their willing minds will carry on the body as far as it can well go . The diligent woman worketh willingly with her hands ; her candle goeth not out by night , &c. Prov. 31.13 , &c. Servants must do service with good will , as to the Lord , Ephes . 6.7 . If Ministers preach and labour willingly , they have a reward , 1 Cor. 9.17 . But not if they are only driven on by necessity , and the fear of woe , 1 Pet. 5.2 . What shall we do willingly , if not our duties ? He that sineth willingly , and serveth God , and followeth his labour unwilingly , shall be rewarded according to his will. 6. The idle Sodomite doth love and chuse that kind of life which is easiest , and hath least work to be done . This is the chief provision by which he fulfilleth his fleshly lust . An idle servant thinketh that the best place , in which he shall have most ease and fulness . An idle Parent will cast all the burden of his childrens teaching , upon the Schoolmaster and the Pastor . An idle Minister thinketh himself best , where he may have no more labour , than what tendeth to his publick applause ; and when he hath the most wealth and honour , and least to do , he taketh that to be the flourishing prosperity of the Church . And indeed if our calling were like the souldiers to kill men , and not liker the Surgeons to cure them , we might think it is the best time , when we have least employment . But the faithful servant will be most thankful for that state of life , in which he doth most good : And as he taketh doing good , to be the surest way of getting and receiving ; so he taketh the good of another as his own ; and anothers necessity is his necessity : He knoweth that he is best , who is likest unto God ; and that is he that is the most abundant in love , and doing good : Like the Sun that never resteth from moving or giving light and heat . The running spring is pure , when the standing water is muddy and corrupt : The cessation of motion quickly mortifieth the blood : He that said as to works of charity , Be not weary of well doing ; for in due time , you shall reap , if you faint not , Gal. 6.9 . hath said so too , as to our bodily labour in our common callings in the world , 2 Thes . 3.13 . I know that a servant may be glad of a place where he is not oppressed with unreasonable labour , and where he hath competent time for the learning of Gods Word : And a poor man may be glad when he is freed from necessity of doing that which is to his hurt : But otherwise no man but a fleshly bruit will wish or contrive for a life of idleness . Object . Is it not said , Blessed are the dead , for they rest from their labours ? Rev. 14.13 . Ans . True : but mark that their works follow them : And what are the works which follow you ? And note , that it is not work or duty that they shall rest from : ( For they rest not crying , Holy , Holy , Holy Lord God Almighty , &c. ) But it is only their labours ; that is , the painful sort of work and suffering , proper to this sinful life . The blessed indeed are freed in Heaven from this ; because they were not freed 〈◊〉 it on earth , as the ungodly and slothful servant are . 7. Lastly , Idleness is seen by the work that is undone , Pro. 24.30 . The sluggards Vineyard is overgrown with weeds . If your souls be unrenewed , and your assurance of salvation , and evidences yet to get , and few the better for you in the world , and you are yet unready for death and judgment , you give too full a proof of idleness . The diligent woman , Prov. 31.16 , &c. could shew her labours in her treasures , her Vineyard , the cloathing and provisions of her family , &c. shew yours by the good which you have done in the world , and by the preparation of your souls for a better world . Let every man prove his own work , that he may have rejoycing in himself alone , and not in another , Gal. 6.3 , 4. What case are your children in ? Are they taught , or untaught ? What case is your soul in ? your fruit must judge you . III. The mischiefs of this Sodomitical Idleness , and the reasons against it , are ( briefly ) these . 1. It is contrary to the active nature of mans soul ; which in activity exceedeth the fire it self . It is as natural for a soul to be active , as for a stone or clod of earth to lie still . And this active nature animateth the passive body , to move it , and use it in it's proper work . And should this heavenly fire be imprisoned in the body , which it should command and move ? Psal . 104.23 . Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour till the evening . 2. It is contrary to the common course of nature . Doth the Sun shine for you as well as for others ? or doth it not ? Doth all the frame of nature continue in its course ( the air , the waters , the summer and winter ) for you as well as for others , or not ? If not , then you take not your selves beholden to God for them : And if you have no use for the Sun and other creatures , you have no use for life : for by them you live . But if yea , then what is it that they serve you for ? Did God ever frame you so glorious a retinuue , to attend you only to sleep , and laugh , and play , and to be idle ? what , is all this for no higher an end ? or rather do you not by your idleness forfeit life , and all these helps and maintainers of your lives ? 3. It is an unthankful reproach and blasphemy against the God of Nature ; yea and against the Lord your Redeemer ; to think that the wise Almighty God , did make so noble a thing as a soul , and place it in so curious an engine as the body , where spirits , and blood , and heart , and lungs , are never idle , but in constant motion ; and that he hath appointed us so glorious a retinue as aforesaid , and all this to do nothing with , or worse than nothing ? To sleep , and rise , and dress your selves , and talk , and eat , and drink ; to tell men only that you are not dead , lest they should mistake , and bury you alive ? what is it but to put a scorn on your Creator and Redeemer , to live as if he had created and redeemed you for no better and nobler ends than these ? 4. You do as it were pray for death , or provoke God to take away your lives . For if they be good for nothing else but idleness , and beastly pleasures , why should you expect to have them continued ? or at least , why should he not use you as Nebuchadnezzar , and take away your reason , and turn you into beasts , if the life and pleasure of a beast be all that you desire ? Could not you eat , and drink , and sleep , and play , without an intellectual soul ? Cannot the birds make their nests , and breed , and feed their young , and sit and sing , without an intellectual nature ? Cannot a swine have his ease , and meat , and lust , without reason ? what should you do with reason for such uses ? 5. You shew a stupid sensless heart , that can live idly , and have so much to do ; and have so many spurrs to rouse you up : To live continually in the sight of God , to have a soul so ignorant , so unbelieving , so unholy , so unfurnished of faith and love , so unready for death , so uncertain of salvation ; nay in such apparent danger of damnation , and to be still uncertain of living one day or hour longer ; and yet to live idly in such a case , as if all were well , and your work were done , and you had no more to fear or care for : O what a mad , what a dead , what a sottish kind of soul is this ! to see the graves before your eyes ; to see your neighbours carryed thither ; to feel the tokens of mortality daily in your selves ; to be called on and warned to prepare , and yet under this to live as if you had nothing to do , but to shew your selves in the neatest dress , and as a Peacock , to spread your plumes for your selves and others to look upon , or to pamper a carkass for worms and rottenness ! O what a deplorable case is this ! The Lord pitty you , and awaken your understandings , and bring you to your wits , and you will then wonder at your own stupidity . 6. Idleness is a sin which is contrary to Gods universal Law : The Law which extended to all times and places . Adam in innocency was to labour : He that had all things prepared for his sustenance by God , was yet himself to labour : He that was Lord of all the world , and was richer than any of our proud ones whosoever , was yet to dress and keep the garden . Cain was a tiller of land , and Abel was a keeper of cattel , when they were heirs of all the earth . Noah also was Lord of all the world , and richer than you , and yet he was an Husbandman . Abraham , Isaac and Jacob were Princes , and yet keepers of sheep and cattle : It is not a bare permission , but a precept of diligence in the fourth Commandment [ Six daies shalt thou labour , and do all that thou hast to do . ] Christ himself did not live idly , but before his Ministry they said , Mark 6.3 . Is not this the Carpenter ? And afterward how incessantly was he doing good to mens bodies and souls ? And what laborious lives did his Apostles live ? See 2 Cor. 6.5 . & 11.23 . Acts 18.3 . And are you exempt from the universal Law ? 7. You shew a base and fleshly mind . The noblest natures are the most active , and the basest the most dead and dull . The earth it not baser than the fire , in a greater degree than an idle soul is baser than one that is active , and spendeth themselves in doing good . Methinks your Pride it self should keep you from proclaiming such a dead and earthen disposition . 8. Idleness is of the same kind with fornication , gluttony , drunkenness , and other such beastly sins : For all is but sinful flesh-pleasing , or sensuality : The same fleshly nature which draweth them to the one , doth draw you to the other ; and they do but gratifie their flesh in one kind of vice , as you do in another . And it 's pitty that Idleness should be in so much less disgrace than they . And truly if you cannot deny your flesh it's ease , I cannot see if the temptation lay as strong that way , how you should deny it in any of those lusts ; so that you s●em to be vertually fornicators , gluttons , drunkards , &c. and ready to commit the acts . 9. And hereby you strengthen the flesh as it is your enemy for the time to come . When you have long used to please it by idleness , it will get the victory , and must be pleased still : And then you are undone for ever , if grace do not yet cause you to overcome it . For if you live after the flesh you shall die : but if by the Spirit you mortifie the deeds of the body , you shall live , Rom. 8.13 . None are freed from condemnation , nor are members of Christ , but they that walk not after the flesh , but after the Spirit , Rom. 8.1 . For the carnal mind is enmity against God , v. 7. 10. Idleness is a sin much aggravated by its continuance . A drunkard is not alwaies drunken , nor a swearer is not alwaies swearing , nor a thief is not alwaies stealing ; but an idle person is almost alwaies idle : whole hours and daies , if not weeks and years together . O what a continual course of sin do our rich and gentile drones still live in ! As if they were afraid to do any thing , which when death cometh , they could comfortably be found doing ! 11. And O what a time-wasting sin is Idleness ! O precious time , how art thou despised by these drowsie despisers of God and of their souls ! O what would the despairing souls in Hell give for some of that time which these Bedlams prate away , and game and play away , and trifle and fool away , and sleep and loiter away ! And what would they give for a little of it themselves , upon the same terms , when it 's gone , and when wishing is too late ! 12. Idleness is a self-contradicting sin : None are so much afraid of dying as the idle ( and I do not blame them if they knew all ) and yet none more cast away their lives : They die voluntarily continually : He that loseth the use and benefit of life , doth lose his life it self : For what is it good for , but as a means to its ends ? What difference between a man asleep and dead , but only that one is more in expectation of usefulness when he awaketh ? It is a pittiful sight to a man in his wits , to see the Bedlam world afraid of dying , and trembling at every sign of death ; and in the mean time setting as little by their lives , as if they were worth no more , than to spend at cards , or dice , or stage-playes , or dressings , or feastings , or ludicrous complements . 13. You teach your servants that life which yet you will not endure in them : For why should they be more careful and diligent in the work which you command them , than you in the work which God commandeth you ? Are you the better Masters ? or , will you find them better work ? or , will you pay them better wages ? I know God needeth not your service , as you do theirs : But he commandeth it , for other ends , though he need it not . And should any be more careful● to please you , that are but worms and dust , than you should be to please your Maker ? If an idle life be best , why do you blame it in your servants ? If it be not , why do you live such lives your selves ? 14. By Idleness you shew that when you do labour , it is but for your carnal selves , and that it is not God whom you serve in your daily callings . He that will labour when he is poor , and feeleth the necessity of it , and will give over all , and live idly , and playfully when he is rich , doth shew that he laboureth not in obedience to God ( or else he would continue it ) but meerly to supply his bodily wants . You have your reward then from your selves , and you cannot in reason expect any from God. But true Believers have another rule , by which they live , Col. 3.23 , 24. Whatsoever ye do , do it heartily , as to the Lord , and not to men ; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance , for ye serve the Lord Christ . 15. Idleness is a forfeiture of your protection , and of your daily bread . God is not bound to keep you to play , and loiter , and do nothing . You have not a plenary right to your meat , if you live in wilful idleness . I shewed you Gods Commands before . Gods Promise of prosperity , is , Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands , Psal . 128.2 . ( And if many in England that have most , should eat no other than the labour of their hands , it would cure their fulness . ) The diligent woman , Prov. 31.27 . doth not eat the bread of idleness . And Paul maketh it a Church-Canon , 2 Thes . 3.6.10 , 12 and commandeth and exhorteth us , in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ , that all work with quietness , and eat their own bread ; and that the Church withdraw themselves from every Brother that walketh disorderly ; and that if any would not work , neither should be eat . 16. The idle rob themselves and others : You rob your selves of the fruit of your own labours ; and you rob your Masters , or your Families , or whomsoever you should labour for , Prov. 18.9 . He that is slothful in his work , is Brother to him that is a great waster , Prov. 21.25 . The desire of the slothful killeth him , because his hands refuse to labour ; that is , 1. The sluggishness of the wisher famisheth him : And 2. The hunger or desire tormenteth him when he hath not the thing desired , Eccles . 10.18 . By much sloth the building decayeth ; and by idleness of the bands , the house droppeth through , Prov. 19.15 . Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep ; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger . And he that provideth not for his own ( kindred and relations ) but especially for those of his family , hath denyed the Faith , and is worse than an Infidel , 1 Tim. 5.8 . Hath no one need of you ? hath no one hired you ? hath no one any right to your labours , that you are so long idle ? If none have need of you , what do you in the world ? 17. The idle are drones and burdens of the Common-wealth : And the best ordered Governments have made Laws against them , as they did against other pernicious crimes , 2 Thes . 3.8 . Paul laboured day and night , that he might not be chargeable to any . And you think because you have enough , that other men must labour for you , but you may live idly without any blame . You live then upon the labours of others , but who liveth upon yours ? Yea I have known some lazy persons , that because they are professors of zeal in Religion ; or because they are Ministers or Scholars , live idly in their callings , and take their ease , and think that all others that have riches are bound to maintain them ( like the Popish begging Fryers ) and they say , He is covetous that cher●sheth not them in idleness ; and he that giveth not to them , doth them wrong ; when Paul commandeth that they should not eat : And when we ask them how they live , they say , Vpon the providence of God : And when the tenderness of people causeth them to contribute to relieve these drones , they hypocritically admire the providence of God , who provideth for them , and live in idleness , and call it living upon providence . 18. Idleness depriveth you of the great delight of doing good . There is no such pleasure in this world , as is found in succesful doing good : No man knoweth it but he that tryeth it , ( and that without any conceits of merit , in commutative Justice . ) To do good in Magistracy for the piety , peace and safety of the people ; to do good as Ministers , for the saving of souls ; to do good as Parents , to educate a holy seed ; to do good as Physicians , to save mens lives , &c. It is a pleasure exceeding all voluptuousness . And this the idle wilfully reject . 19. You lose all the reward of well doing at the last , and fall under the doom of the unprofitable servant , Mat. 25. who must be cast into outer darkness . You must answer for all the talents of time , and health , and strength , and parts , to him who will judge all according to what they have done in the body : And where shall the idle then appear ? 20. Idleness will destroy your health and lives : Nothing but fulness ( which is its companion ) doth bring so many thousands unseasonably to the grave . And do you neither love your souls , nor your lives ? Are you only for your present ease ? 21. Idleness breedeth melancholy , and corrupteth the fantasie and mind , and so unfitteth you for all that is good . Therefore the Idle that will do no good , are fain to devise some vanity to do ; some game , or play , or dress , or complement , &c. or else they would grow addle-brained , and a shame and burden to themselves . The constant labours of a lawful calling is one of the best cures of melancholy in the world , if it be done with willingness , success and pleasure . 22. Lastly , Idleness is the Nursery of a world of vices . It is the field of temptation , where Satan soweth his tares while men are sleeping . When they are idle , they are at leisure for lustful thoughts ; for wanton dalliance ; for idle talk ; for needless sports , and playes , and visits ; for gaming , and riotous feasting , drinking and excess ; for pride , and an hundred vain curiosities : Yea for contentions and mischievous designs : Needless and sinful things must be done , when necessary duties are laid by . And if they are poor , idleness prepareth them to murmure and be discontent , and fallout , and contend with one another ; to defraud others , and to steal . These and more are the natural fruits of Idleness . But here I must annex two Cautions . 1. That none make this a pretence for a worldly mind and life ; nor think that Religion is a fruit of Idleness ; nor say as Pharaoh did of the Israelites , when they would go sacrifice to God , Ye are idle , Exod. 5.17 . It is Idleness that maketh most men ungodly : They are convinced that it is better to meditate on Gods Word , and call upon his Name , and give all diligence to make our calling and election sure ; But they are idle , and say , There is a Lion in the way ; what a weariness is it ? we shall never endure it : As if their souls and Heaven were not worth their labour , and as if they would go to Hell for ease ; and as if the feast of joy and glory were not worth the labour of eating or receiving it . 2. Make not this a pretence to oppress your servants with unmerciful labours , beyond their strength ; or such as so weary them , and take up all their time , that they have not leisure so much as to pray . It is Gods great mercy to servants , that he hath separated the Lords day for a holy rest ; or else many would have little rest , or means of holiness . Some think that others can never labour enough for them , because they pay them wages ; and yet that they are bound to do nothing themselves , even because God hath given them more wages and wealth than he hath given to others . More particular Directions are as followeth . 1. Give up your selves by absolute subjection to God as his servants ; and then you can never rest in an idle unserviceable life . 2. Take all that you have , as Gods talents , and from his trust ; and then you dare not but prepare in the use of them , for your account . 3. Live as those that are certain to die , and still uncertain of the time , and that know what an eternal weight of joy or misery dependeth upon the spending of your present time : And then you dare not live in Idleness . Live but as men whose souls are awake , to look before them into another world , and you will say ( as I have long been forced to do ) O how short are the daies ! how long are the nights ! how swift is time ! how slow is work ! how far am I behind-hand ! I am afraid lest my life will be finished before the work of life ; and lest my time will be done , while much of my work remaineth undone . 4. Ask your selves what you would be found doing if death now surprize you ? and whether work or idleness will be best in the review ? 5. Try a laborious life of well-doing a while , and the experience will draw you on . 6. Try your selves by a standing resolution , and engage your selves in necessary business , and that in a set and stated course ; that necessity and resolution may keep you from an idle life . 7. Forsake the company of the idle and voluptuous , and accompany the laborious and diligent . 8. Study well how to do the greatest good you can , that the worth of the work may draw you on . For they that are of little use , for want of parts , or skill , or opportunity , are more liable to be tempted into idleness , as thinking their work is to no purpose : when the well-furnished person doth long to be exercising his wisdom and vertue in profitable well-doing . CHAP. XVIII . How by Faith to overcome unmercifulness to the needy . IV. THE fourth sin of Sodom , and of Prosperity , mentioned , Ezek. 16.49 . is , They did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy . Against which at the present I shall give you but these brief Directions . Direct . 1. Love God your Creator and Redeemer , and then you will love the poorest of your Brethren for his sake . And love will easily perswade you to do them good . Direct . 2. Labour most diligently to cure your inordinate self-love , which maketh men care little for any but themselves , and such as are useful to themselves : And when once you love your neighbours as your selves , it will be as easie to perswade you to do good to them as to your selves ; and more easie to disswade you from hurting them than your selves : ( because sensuality tempteth you stronglier to hurt your selves , than any thing doth to hurt them . ) Direct . 3. Overvalue not the things of the world ; and then you will not make a great matter of parting with them , for anothers good . Direct . 4. Do as you would be done by : And ask your selves how you would be judged of and used , if you were in their condition your selves . Direct . 5. Set the life of Christ and his Apostles before you ; and remember what a delight it was to them to do good : And at how much dearer rate Christ shewed mercy to you and others , than he requireth you to shew mercy at to any . Direct . 6. Read over Christs precepts of Charity and Mercy , that a thing so frequently urged on you , may not be senslesly despised by you . Direct . 7. Remember that Mercy is a duty applauded by all the world : As humane interest requireth it ; so humane nature approveth it in all . Good and bad , even all the world do love the merciful : Or if the partial interest of some proud and covetous persons ( as the Popish Clergy for instance ) do call for cruelty against those that are not of their mind , and for their profit ; yet this goeth so much against the stream of the common interest , and the light of humane nature , that mankind will still abhor their cruelty , though they may afright a few that are neer them from uttering their detestation . All men speak well of a merciful man , and ill of the unmerciful . Direct . 8. Believe Christs promises which he hath made to the merciful , so fully and frequently in Scripture : As in Mat. 5.7 . Luke 6.36 . Prov. 11.17 . Psal . 37.26 , &c. And believe his threatnings against the unmerciful , that they shall find no mercy , Prov. 12.10 . James 2.13 . And remember how Christ hath described the last Judgment , as passing upon this reckoning , Matth. 25. Direct . 9. Live not in fleshly sensuality your selves : For else your flesh will devour all ; and if you have hundreds and thousands a year , will leave you but little or nothing to do good with . Direct . 10. Engage your selves ( not by rash vows , but by resolution and practice ) in a stated way of doing good , and take not only such occasions as fall out unexpectedly . Set a part a convenient proportion of your estates , as God doth bless you ; and let not needless occasions divert it , and defraud the poor , and you of the benefit . Direct . 11. Remember still that nothing is absolutely your own , but God who lendeth it you hath the true propriety , and will certainly call you to an account . And ask your selves daily , How shall I wish at the day of reckoning , that I had expended and used all my estate ? and do accordingly . Direct . 12. Forget not what need you stand in daily of the mercy of God ; and what need you will shortly be in , when your health and wealth will fail you . And how earnestly then you will cry to God for mercy , mercy , Prov. 21.13 . Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor , he also shall cry himself , but shall not be heard . Direct . 13. Hearken not to an unbelieving heart , which will tell you that you may want your selves , and therefore would restrain you from well doing . If God be to be trusted with your souls , he is to be trusted with your bodies . God tryeth whether indeed you take him for your God , by trying whether you can trust him . If you deal with him as with a bankerupt , or a deceitful man , whom you will trust no further than you have a present pawn or security , in case he should deceive you ; you blaspheme him , instead of taking him for your God. Direct . 14. Let your greatest mercy be shewed in the greatest things ; and let the good of mens souls be your end even in your mercy to their bodies . And therefore do all in such a manner as tendeth most to promote the highest end . Blessed are the merciful , for they shall obtain mercy . CHAP. XIX . How to live by Faith in Adversity . IF I should give you distinct Directions , for the several cases of poverty , wrongs , persecutions , unkindnesses , contempt , sickness , &c. it would swell this Treatise yet bigger than I intended . I shall therefore take up with this general Advice . Direct . 1. In all Adversity remember the evil of sin , which is the cause , and the Holiness and Justice of God which is exercised ; and then the hatred of sin , and the love of Gods Holiness and Justice will make you quietly submit . You will then say , when Repentance is serious , I will bear the indignation of the Lord , because I have sinned against him , Micah 7.9 . And , why doth living man complain , a man for the punishment of his sins ? Lam. 3.39 . Let us search and try our waies , and turn again unto the Lord ; for he hath smitten , and he will heal , &c. v. 40 , 41. Object . But doth not Job 's case tell us , that some afflictions are only for tryal , and not for sin ? Answ . No ; it only telleth us that the reason why Job is chosen out at that time , to suffer more than other men , is not because he was worse than others , or us bad ; but for his tryal and good . But 1. Affliction as it is now existent in the world upon mankind , is the fruit of Adams sin at first , and contained in the peremptory unremitted sentence . 2. And this general state of suffering mankind , is now in the hand and power of Christ , who sometimes indeed doth let out more on the best than upon others , and that especially for their tryal and good ; but usually some sins of their own also have a hand in them , and procure the evil , though his mercy turn it to their benefit . Direct . 2. Deal closely and faithfully with your hearts and lives in a suffering time , and rest not till your consciences are well assured that no special provocation is the cause , or else do testifie that you have truly repented , and resolved against it . Otherwise you may lengthen your distress , if you leave that thorn in your sore which causeth it : Or else God may change it into a worse ; or may give you over to impenitency , which is worst of all : Or at least , you will want that assured peace with God , and solid peace of conscience , which must be your support and comfort in affliction ; and so will sink under it , as unable to bear it . Direct . 3. Remember that the sanctifying fruit of Adversity is first and more to be looked after , than either the comfort , or the deliverance . And therefore that all men , no nor all Christians , must not use the same method , in the same affliction , when as their spiritual cases differ . A cleared conscience , and one that hath walked faithfully with God , and fruitfully in the world , and kept himself from his iniquity , may bend most of his thoughts to the comforting promises , and happy end . But one man hath been bold with wilful sin , and his work must be first , to renew repentance , and see that there be no root of bitterness left behind , and to set upon true reformation of life , and reparation of the hurt which he hath done . Another is grown into love with the world , and hath let out his heart to pleasant thoughts and hopes of prosperity , and alienated his thoughts more than before from God. This man must first perceive his errour , and hear Gods voice which calleth him home , and see the characters of vanity and vexation , written on the face of that which he over-loved ; and then think of comfort when he hath got a cure . Another is grown dull and careless of his soul , and hath lost much of his sense of things eternal , and is cold in love , and cold in prayer , and liveth as if he were grown weary of God , and weary of well doing . His work must be to feel the smart of Gods displeasure , so far as to awaken him to repentance , and set him again with former seriousness , upon his duty : And when he mendeth his pace , he may desire to be eased of the rod and spur . But to give unseasonable cordials to any of these , is but to frustrate the affliction , and to hurt them , and prepare for worse . Nay , and when they are comforted in season , it must be with due caution : Go thy way , and sin no more , lest a worse thing come unto thee . It is p●rnicious unskilfulness in those comforters of the afflicted , who have the same customary words of comfort for all ; and by their improper cordials unseasonably applyed , delude poor souls , and hinder that necessary repentance which God by so sh●rp a means doth call them to . Direct . 4. Remember that your part in affliction is to do your duty , and to get the benefit of it : but to remove it is Gods part : Therefore be you careful about that part which is your own , and then make no question but God will do his part . Let it be your first question therefore [ What is it that I am obliged to in this condition ? ] What is the special duty of one in this sickness , this poverty , imprisonment , restraint , contempt , or slander , which I undergo ? ] Be careful daily to do that duty , and then never fear the issue of your suffering : Nothing can go amiss to him that is found in the way of his duty . And let it be your next question , What spiritual good may be got by this affliction ? May not my repentance be renewed ? my self-denyal , humility , contempt of the world , patience , and confidence on God , be exercised and increased by it ? and is not this the end of my heavenly Father ? Is not his rod an act of love and kindness to me ? Doth he not offer me by it all this good ? And let your next question be [ Have I yet got that good which God doth offer me ? Have I any considerable benefit to sh●w , which I have received by this affliction since it came ? ] If not , why should you desire it to be taken away ? Play not the Hypocrite in speaking that good of an afflicting God , which you do not seriously believe : If you believe that God is wiser than you , to know what is fittest for you , and that he is better than you , and therefore hath better ends than you can have ; and that really he offereth you far greater good by your sufferings , than he taketh from you : Let your affections then be agreeable to this belief : Are you afraid of your own commodity ? Do you impatiently long to be delivered from your gain ? are you so childish as to pull off the plaister , if you believe that it is curing the sore ? and that it cannot be well and safely done without it ? Do you call it the fruit of Gods Wisdom and Love , and yet be as weary of it , as if there were nothing in it but his wrath ? Trust God with his work who never faileth ; and be careful of your own , who are conscious of untrustiness . Direct . 5. Look principally to your hearts , that they grow not to an over-valuing of the prosperity of the flesh ; nor to an under-valuing of holiness and the prosperity of the soul . For this unhappy carnality doth both cause affliction , and make us unprofitable and impatient under it . 1. He that is a worldling , or a voluptuous flesh pleaser , and savoureth nothing but the things of the flesh , will think himself undone , when his pleasure , and plenty , and honour with men , is taken away . Nothing maketh men grieve for the loss of any worldly commodity , so much as the over-loving of it . It is Love that seeketh it when you are in hope , and Love that mourneth when you are in want , as well as Love which delighteth in it when you possess it : As sick men use to love health better than those that never felt the want of it ; so it is too common with poor men to love riches better than the rich that never needed : ( And yet , poor souls , they deceive themselves , and cry out against the rich , as if they were the only lovers of the world , when they love it more themselves , though they cannot get it . ) Never think of bearing affliction with a patient and submissive mind , as long as you over-love the things which affliction taketh from you : For the loss of them will tear those hearts which did stick so inordinately to them . 2. And if you grow to an undervaluing of Holiness , you can never be reconciled to afflicting providence . For it is for our profit that God correcteth us ; but for what profit ? that we may be partakers of his holiness , Heb. 12.10 , 14. If therefore you undervalue that which is Gods end , and goeth for your gain , you will never think that you are gainers or savers by his rod. In correction God doth as it were make a bargain with you ; he will take away your riches , or your friends , or your health , and he will give you ( if you refuse it not ) increase of patience , and mortification in the stead of them : he will exchange so much heavenly-mindedness , for so much of the treasures or pleasures of the world . And now , if you do not like the bargain , if really you had rather have more health , than more holiness ; more of the world , than more heavenly-mindedness ; more fleshly pleasure , than more mortification of fleshly desires , you will never then like the correcting hand of God , nor rightly profit by it : You will grudge at his dealing , and wish that you were out of his hand , and in your own ; and that your estates , and health , and friends , were not at his disposal , but at yours ; and you will lose the offered benefit , because you value it not , and accept it not as it is offered you . 3. And those that have some esteem of Holiness , and yet neglect the duty which should procure the exercise and increase of grace , do make correction burdensome by making it unprofitable to them . For to hear that they may be gainers by affliction , and to find that they are not , will not reconcile them to it . Whereas if they had really got the benefit , it would quiet them , and comfort them , and make them patient , and thankful to their Father . What have you to shew that you gained by your sufferings ? Are you really more mortified , more penitent , more humble , more heavenly , more obedient , more patient than you were before ? If you are so , you cannot possibly think that it hath been to your loss to be afflicted : For no one that hath these graces can so undervalue them , as to think that worldly prosperity or ease is better . But if you have not such gain to shew , what wonder if you are weary of the medicine which healeth not ? and if , when you have made it do you no good , you complain of it , when it is your selves , that you should complain of . If you could say , that before you were afflicted , you went astray , but now you have learnt and kept Gods precepts , you might then say by experience , It is good for me that I was afflicted , Psal . 119.67 , 71. And men are taught by natural self-love , not to think ill of that which doth that which doth them good , if by experience they know it . You will then confess that God in very faithfulness afflicteth you , Psal . 119.75 . Direct . 6. Remember that nothing can be amiss which is done by God : For where there is perfection of Power , and Wisdom , and Goodness , no actions can be bad . And there is nothing done by any of your afflicters , which is not governed by the will of God , Amos 3.6 . Shall there be evil in a City , and the Lord hath not done it ? 2 Chron. 10.15 . So the King hearkened not to the people ; for the cause was of God , that the Lord might perform his Word — God who would not cause the sin , is said to be the cause of the event as a punishment , because he wisely permitted it for that end , Acts 2.23 . Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God , ye have taken , and by wicked hands have crucified and slain — Acts 4.28 . The people of Israel were gathered to do , whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done : That is , he willed by his antecedent will , that Christ should be a sacrifice for sin ; and he willed by his consequent will , ( as a Judge and punisher of mans sin ) that the rebellious Jews should be left to their malicious wills , to execute it . And that God which moderateth the wills and actions of the most malicious men and Devils , will restrain them from violating any of his promises for his servants good . Direct . 7. Alwaies keep before your eyes the example of a crucified Christ , and of all his holy Apostles and Martyrs which have followed him . Look still to Jesus the author and finisher of your Faith , who for the joy that was set before him , endured the cross , and despised the shame , and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God. Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , lest you be wearied and faint in your mind , Heb. 12.2 , 3. If you did determine to know nothing but Christ crucified , and by his cross had crucified the the world , ( 1 Cor. 2.2 . Gal. 6.14 . ) you would be able to say , I am crucified with Christ , yet I live , that is , not I , but Christ liveth in me , Gal. 2.20 . And to look on the pleasure and glory of the world , as the world did look on a crucified Christ , when they shook the head at him as he hanged on the cross . You would love the narrow suffering way , where you see before you the footsteps of your Lord , and of so many holy Martyrs and Believers : You would say , sure this is the safe and blessed way , in which Christ , and all the heavenly Army have passed hence unto their Crown : You would say , Is the servant greater than his Lord ? If thus the innocent Lord of life , and Master of the house was injured and afflicted , am I better than he ? Though he suffered to save me from Hell , yet not to save me from the purifying tryals here on earth . Doubtless you would count all things but loss , for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ , and count them but dung that you might win him — and that you might know him , and the power of his resurrection ▪ and the fellowship of his sufferings , being made conformable to his death , Phil. 3.8 , 10. Direct . 8. Keep the eye of Faith still fixed on the eternal glory ; that you may understand what affliction is , when you take it with its end . Remember what eternal Joyes it leadeth to ; and what thoughts you will have of all your pain , when you find your selves in the everlasting rest . Remember where all tear● shall be wiped from your eyes ; and who dare blame that way as narrow or soul , which bringeth us to such an end , Psal . 126.5 , 6. They that s●w in tears , shall reap in joy : He that goeth forth and weepeth , bearing precious seed , shall doubtless come again with rejoycing , bringing his sheaves with him , Mat. 5.4 . Blessed are they that mourn , for they shall be comforted . Is not eternal joy sufficient for you ? When you are suffering with the Church militant , look up to the Church triumphant ; and remember that they were lately as low , as sad , as sorrowful as you , and you shall shortly be as high , as glad , as joyful as they . Look into Heaven , and see what you suffer for , and think whether that be not worthy of harder terms than any you can undergo . Rom. 8.17 , 18. If we suffer with him , that we may be also glorified together : For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time , are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us , 2 Cor. 4 16 , 17 , 18. For which cause we faint not : but though our outward man perish , yet the inward man is renewed day by day : For our light affl●ction which is but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory : While we look not at the things which are seen , but at the things which are not seen : For the things which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal . For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved , we have a building of God , an house not made with hands , eternal in the Heavens . Heaven well believed , will enable us patiently and chearfully to bear all things . He will account the very reproach of Christ , to be greater riches than the treasures of the world , who looketh believingly to the recompence of reward , Heb. 11.26 . Direct . 9. Learn to die , and then you have learned to suffer . He that can bear death , by the power of faith , can bear almost any thing . And he that is well prepared to die , is prepared for any affliction ; and he that is not , is unprepared for prosperity . Direct . 10. Remember still that life being so very short , the afflictions of Believers are as short . We have so little a time to live , that we have but a little while to suffer . And if thou faint in the day of adversity , when it is so little a while to night , thy strength is small , Prov. 24.10 . Direct . 11. Remember that thou bearest but the common burden of the Sons of Adam , who are born to sorrow as the sparks fly upward : And that thou in like to all the members of Christ , who must take up their cross , and suffer with him , if they will reign with him : And that thou art but going the common way to Heaven , which that heavenly society hath trod before thee : And canst thou expect to be exempted both from the lot of humane lapsed nature , and from the lot of all the Saints ? If thou wouldest be carryed to Heaven in the Chariot of Elias , and couldest expect to escape the jaws of death , yet must thou endure the persecution , weariness and hunger of Elias before such a change . Direct . 12. Think also how unreasonable it is , for one that must have eternal glory , to grudge at a little suffering in the way , and for one that is saved from the torments of Hell , to think it much to be duly chastened on earth . For a Lazarus that must be comforted in Abraham's bosom , to murmure that he waiteth a while in poverty at the rich mans doors ? Shall a wicked worldling venture into endless pains , and put himself out of the hopes of Heaven , and all this for a short and foolish pleasure ? And will you grudge to suffer so small and short a chastisement in the way to an endless rest and joy ? Direct . 13. Think why it is that Christ hath so largely commended , and blest a suffering state , and chosen such a life for those that he will save : And why he so often pronounceth a woe to the prosperous world : It is not for want of love to his Disciples ; nor for want of power to secure their peace , Matth. 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit , for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven : Blessed are they that mourn , for they shall be comforted . Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake , for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven . Luke 6.24 , 25 , 26. Woe to you that are rich , for you have received your consolation : Woe to you that are full , for ye shall hunger : Woe unto you that laugh now , for ye shall mourn and weep : Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you , for so did their Fathers to the false Prophets , James 1.2 , 3. My Brethren , count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations ( that is , trying afflictions ) knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience — James 5.1 , 2. Go too now ye 〈◊〉 men , weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you — All these words are not for nothing : And judge how he should think of adversity who believeth them . Direct . 14. Mark well whether you find not that your selves and others are usually much better in affliction , than in prosperity : And whether there be not something in the one to make you better , and in the other to delude men , and make them worse . O look and tremble at the dangers and dol●ful miseries of most that are lifted high ! how they are blinded , flattered , captivated in sin , and are the shame of nature , and the calamity of the world ! And mark when they come to die , or lie in sickness , how inlightened , how penitent , how humble , how mortified and reformed they then seem to be , and how much they condemn all sin , and justifie a holy life : And observe your selves whether you be not wiser and better , more penitent , and less worldly in an afflicted state : And will you think that intollerable , which so much bettereth almost all the world ? Alas , were it not for affliction , there are some Nebuchadnezzars that would never be humbled , and some Pharaohs that would never confess their sins , and some Manassehs that would never be converted . Many in Heaven are thankful for affliction , and so should we , Eccles . 7.2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6. It is better to go to the house of mourning , than to the house of feasting : For that is the end of all men , and the living will lay it to heart . Sorrow is better than laughter ; for ●y the sadness of the countenance , the heart is made better . The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning , but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth . It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise , than for a man to hear the song of fools : For as the crackling of thorns under a pot , so is the laughter of a fool . Do you not perceive that a merry prosperous state inclineth to folly , levity , rashness , inconsiderateness , stupidity , forgetting the latter end , & c ? And that a sadder frame is more awakened , illuminated , fixed , sensible , considerate and fit for great employments ? Quarrel not then with your Physician , because he dyeteth you as tendeth to your cure , and turneth you not over to the dyet of desperate patients , or of fools . Direct . 15. If God afflict you , add not causless affliction to your selves . If he touch your friends , or body , or estate , do not you therefore touch and tear your hearts . If you have not enough , why do you complain of it ? If you have enough , why do you make your selves more ? He that hath said , Blessed are they that mourn , did never mean that those are blessed that mourn erroneously , for nothing , or for that which is their benefit , or that plevishly quarrel with God and man , or that wilfully by pride or impatiency torment themselves . He meant not to bless the sorrow of the covetous that grieveth because he is not rich , or because he is wronged , or is a loser in some commodity ; nor to bless the sorrow of the proud , who is troubled because he is not observed , honoured or preferred : Nor the sorrow of the sensual , who grieve when their lusts and pleasures are restrained : Nor the sorrows of the idle , who grieve if they are called to diligent labour ; nor the sorrow of the envious , who grieveth to see another prosper ; nor the sorrows of the cruel , who grieve when they cannot be as hurtful to Gods servants , and their neighbours or enemies , as they desire . It is neither wicked sorrows , nor wilful self-vexation , which Christ doth bless : But it is the holy improving , and patient enduring the sufferings laid upon us by God or man. Direct . 16. Let Patience have its perfect work . He that believeth , will not make haste , James 1.3 . Isa . 28.16 . God's time is best ; and eternity is long enough for our ease and comfort . It is by patient continuance in well doing , that glory , honour and immortality must be sought , Rom. 2. We shall reap in due season , if we faint not , Galat. 6.9 . James 5.7 , 8 , 9. Be patient therefore Brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth , and hath long patience for it , until he receive the early and latter rain . Be ye also patient : stablish your hearts ; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh . When others by impatience lose themselves , do you in your patience possess your souls , Luke 21.19 . Rom. 5.4 . Patience worketh experience , and experience hope , which maketh not ashamed . If we hope for that we see not , thee do we with patience wait for it , Rom. 8.25 . Through patience and comfort of the Scriptures it is that we have hope , Rom. 15.4 . Therefore we have need of patience , that when we have done the will of God , we may inherit the promise , Heb. 10.36.11 . CHAP. XX. How to live by Faith , in troubles of Conscience , and doubts or terrours about our spiritual and everlasting state . HAving written a Treatise called , The Right Method for Spiritual Peace and Comfort , &c. upon this subject already , I must refer the Reader thither , and here only add these few Directions . Direct . 1. Distinguish of the several Causes of these troubles ; and take heed of those unskilful Mountebanks , who have the same cure for every such disease , and speak present comfort to all that they hear complain ; and that think every trouble of mind is some notable work of the Spirit of God ; when it is often the fruit of the manifold weakness or wilfulness of the troubled complainers . Direct . 2. When it is some heinous sin committed , or great corruption indulged , which doth cause the trouble , be sure that sound Repentance be never omitted in the cure ; and that a real reformation prove the truth of that Repentance . For Christ never died to justifie and save the impenitent sinner : And a deceitful Repentance is the common self-deceit and undoing of the world . And how can that be true Repentance , which changeth not the will and life ? God will not give you peace and comfort , as long as you indulge your wilful sin . Note here the difference between 1. The grosly impenitent : 2. And the mock-repentance of the Hypocrite : 3. And the true Repentance of sound Believers . 1. The grosly impenitent cannot bring his heart to a serious purpose to let go his sin , nor to a consent or willingness , that God should cure him , and change his mind : but he had rather have his pride , and covetousness , and sensuality , to be fully pleased , than to be mortified . Like a fool in a Feaver or a Dropsie , that had rather have drink , than have the cure of his thirst . 2. The mock repentance of the Hypocrite hath some purposes under an extraordinary conviction , to leave his sin ; and for a time may seem to do it . But when the temptation is as strong again , he is the same , and returneth to his vomit ; or else exchangeth his sin for a worse . And if you ask him whether he had rather have the mortifying of all his lusts , or the pleasing of them , his understanding and conviction may cause him truly to say at the present , that if God would presently mortifie his sin , or offer him this in choice , he would rather consent to it , than take the pleasing of them . But mark it , 1. That though he consent that God should do this himself ; yet he will not consent to use the means , and do his duty to attain it . If a cold wish , or bare consent would change his soul , and take away all sinful inclinations at once , that he might never more desire the pleasure of sin , nor be put to any conflict to overcome it , nor any great difficulty to deny it , and all this might be done without any labour of his own , I doubt not but the Hypocrite would consent to be so mortified . But to watch , and pray , and read , and meditate , and use the means which God appointeth him , both to get mortification , and to use it for the conquering of every temptation ; this the Hypocrite will not consent to . 2. And what he doth consent to at the present , he consenteth not to when his sinful pleasure is revived by the next temptation . 3. But the true penitent Christian is both willing to be changed and had rather have his lusts to be killed , than pleased ; and also willing to use Gods means both to mortifie the inward lust , and to overcome the outward sin : And this in sincerity is his habitual state . Direct . 3. Never forget that 1. The gracious nature of God : 2. The sufficiency of Christs Sacrifice and Merit : And 3. The truth of the universal ●ffer or promise of pardon to all ( if they will accept the offer ) are the foundation of all our faith and comforts ; and are that universal grace which is before our special grace or faith , and is presupposed to it : On this foundation all our faith and peace is to be built . Direct . 4. The particular application of this to our selves , is , 1. By Believing , and then by knowing that we do believe ; and then by discerning our priviledges upon believing . 1. Our believing it self is , 1. Our Ascent to the truth of the Gospel : 2. Our Acceptance of the good ( even Christ and life ) which is offered in it , and consent to the Baptismal Covenant with God the Father , Son , and Holy Spirit : And 3. Our Affiance in Christ and his Covenant . 2. To know that we do believe ( somehow ) is easie , when we do it : But to be sure that this belief is sincere and saving , is more difficult , because of the deceitfulness of the heart of man , and the mixtures of unbelief , and other sins , and the weakness of grace where it is true , and the counterfeits of it , and the insufficient degrees which are in Hypocrites ; so that it is not easie to discern whether the faith which we have be sincere , and predominant above our sense and our unbelief ( as it must be . ) But yet it may be known by such means as these . 1. By labouring to strengthen and increase our faith and grace , that it may not by the smalness be next to undiscernable . 2. By subduing all contrary inward corruptions , which obscure it . 3. By frequent exercising it ; seeing habits are discerned only in their acts . 4. By resisting and conquering temptations , and doing all the good we can in the world , and living as wholly devoted to God , above all worldly fleshly interest ; that so 1 Faith may be evidenced by its fruits : 2. And God may reward the faithful soul with his assuring seal , and light and comfort . 5. By escaping all those lapses into heinous and wilful sin , which cause wounds , and sears , and hinder assurance , peace and joy . 6. By a wise and constant examination of the heart , and observation of it , in the time of tryal , and finding the habits and strength of faith , and of unbelief , in their several actings , and prevalencies in their conflicts . 7. And withall , escaping those ignorances and errours , about the nature , means , causes and signs of grace and assurance , which keep many from it , who have justifying faith . These seven are the true and necessary means to get assurance of your own sincerity , and that indeed you have the true seal , and earnest , and witness of the Spirit of Christ . 3. When you have first truly believed ( or consented to the Baptismal Covenant of Grace ) and next got assurance that you do this in sincerity , the last part is the easiest , which is to gather up the priviledges , or comfortable conclusions which follow hereupon : Which are your pardon and justification , your adoption and right to life eternal , and to all the benefits promised by God , in that Covenant to which you do consent ; which are all comprehended in the three great Relations established by , the Covenant , viz. that God is your Reconciled God and Father Christ in your Head and Saviour , and the Holy Spirit is your Life and Sanctifier . These three works which make up assurance , are contained in the three parts of this syllogism . 1. He that truly believeth , is justified , and adopted , and an heir of life . But I do truly believe : Therefore I am justified , adopted , and am an heir of life . Or thus to the same sense . Every one who truly consenteth to the Baptismal Covenant , hath right to the blessings of the Covenant ; God is his Father , Christ is his Saviour , and the holy Spirit is his Sanctifier . But I do truly consent to the Baptismal Covenant : Therefore I have right to all the benefits of it : God is my Father , &c. Direct . 5. Remember that when you have got assurance , and have truly gathered this conclusion , the continual and lively exercise of faith , is still necessary to your actual joy . For it is possible for a man to have no notable doubtings of his own sincerity or salvation , and yet to have such dulness of soul , and such diversions of his thoughts , as that he shall enjoy but little of the comforts of his own assurance . Therefore true joy requireth much more , than bare self examination , and discerning of our evidences , and right to life . Direct . 6. When doubts and troubles are caused by ignorance or errour , about the true nature and signs of grace , and the way of assurance ( which is very common ) nothing then is more necessary than a sound and skilful Teacher ; to work out those mistakes , and to help the ignorant Christian to a clearer understanding of the terms of the Covenant , and the sense of the Promise , and the true methods of Christ in his gifts and operations . Otherwise the erring soul will be distracted and lost in a wilderness of doubts , and either sit down at last presumptuously on false grounds , or turn to one errour to cure the troubles of another ; or languish in despair ; so lamentable a thing is it to be possessed with false principles , and to attempt so great a work in the dark . Direct . 7. And here there are these two extreams to be carefully avoided : 1. That of the Infidel and Justiciary , who trusteth and teacheth others to trust to his own vertues and works without a Saviour , or ascribeth the part of a Saviour to them . 2. The Antinomian and Libertine , who teach men not to look at any thing in themselves at all , no not as an evidence , or condition , or means , much less as any cause of life ; but to trust to Christs blood , to be to you instead of Faith , and Repentance , and Obedience , and all your use of means ; and do ascribe the part of these duties of man , to the blood of Christ ; as if it did belong only to Christ to do that same thing which belongeth unto them . Therefore here you must be sure to be well acquainted what is truly the office and part of Christ ; and what is truly the office and part of Faith , of Repentance , of Confession , of Prayer , &c. And to be sure that you wholly trust Christ for his part , and joyn not Faith , nor any of your own works or duties in the least degree of that trust or honour which belongeth to Christ , and his office and work : And that you faithfully use ( yea I will say , Trust too , though ignorance snarl at it ) your Faith , Repentance , Prayer , &c. in and for its own office and part ; and do not foolishly blaspheme Christ , by ascribing the part and office of your duty unto him and his office , under pretence of giving him the honour of them . It is Christs office and honour to be a sacrifice for sin , and a propitiation for us , and a perfect Saviour and Intercessor , and to give us the Spirit , by which we believe , repent , pray , obey , hope , love , &c. But not to be a penitent believing sinner , nor to accept of an offered Saviour , nor to be a consenting Covenanter with God the Father , Son and Holy Spirit , nor to be washed from sin in his blood , reconciled , adopted , nor to pray for pardon in the name of another , nor to trust upon a Saviour , nor to be a Disciple , a Subject , a Member of a Saviour , &c. Nor yet that his blood , or merits , or righteousness , should be to you instead of these . No , these are to be done by you . Direct . 8. In this case also take heed of those ignorant guides , who know not the errours of fancy , melancholy , or disturbed passions , from the proper works of the Spirit of God : For they wrong the Spirit , when they ascribe mens sinful weaknesses to him : And they greatly wrong the troubled sinner many waies : 1. They puff up men with conceits that they are under some great and excellent workings of the Spirit , when they are the works of Satan , and their own infirmity or sin . 2. They teach them hereby to magnifie and cherish those distempers , and passions , and thoughts , which they should resist , and lament , and cast away . 3. And they set them in an Enthusiastick , or truly Fanatical way of Religion , to look for Revelations , or live still upon their own fancies , and passions , and distempers , and Satans temptations , conceiting that they live upon the incomes of God , and are actuated in all this by the Holy Ghost . And of what mischievous importance and consequence all this is , and how much hurt such zealous ignorance doth , both in the Teachers and the people , the thing it self doth plainly shew ; and the sad experience of this age doth shew it more plainly , in Ranters , Quakers , and other true Fanaticks , and in many women , and other weak persons , of better principles than theirs . And it is an unsafe course which many such weak persons use , to think in their troubles that every text of Scripture which cometh into their mind , or every conceit of their own is a special suggestion of the Spirit of God : You shall ordinarily hear them say , [ Such a text was brought to me , or was set upon my heart , and such a thing was set upon my mind ] when two to one , it was no otherwise brought unto them , nor set upon them , than any other ordinary thoughts are ; and had no special or extraordinary operation of God in it at all . Though it is certain that every good thought which cometh into our minds , is some effect of the working of Gods Spirit , as every good word , and every good work is ; and it is certain that sometimes Gods Spirit doth guide and comfort Christians as a remembrancer , by bringing informing and comforting texts and doctrines to their remembrance ; yet it is a dangerous thing to think that all such suggestions or thoughts are from some special or extraordinary work of the Spirit , or that every text that cometh into our minds , is brought thither by the Spirit of God at all . The reasons are these , 1. Satan can bring a text or truth to our remembrance for his own ends , as he did to Christ , Matth. 4. in his temptations . 2. Our own passions or running thoughts , may light upon some text or truth accidentally , as they do on other things which so come in . 3. When the Spirit doth in an ordinary way help us in remembring or meditating on any text or holy doctrine , he doth it according to our capacity and disposition , and not in the way of infallible inspiration , and therefore there is much of our weakness and errour usually mixt with the Spirits help , in the product : As when you hold the hand of a child in writing , you write not so well by his hand , as by your own alone , but your skill , and his weakness and unskilfulness do both appear in the letters which are made ; so is it in the ordinary assistance of the Spirit in our studies , meditations , prayers , &c. otherwise all that we do would be perfect , in which we have the Spirits help ; which Scripture , and all Christians experience do contradict . 4. And to ascribe that to the Spirit which is not at all his work , or that which is partly our own work , so far as it is our own , and savoureth of our weaknesses and errour , is a heinous injury to the Spirit . 5. And it tosseth such mistaken Christians up and down in uncertainties ; while they think all such thoughts are the suggestions of the Spirit , they meet with many contrary thoughts , and so are carryed like the waves of the Sea , sometimes up , and sometimes down ; and they have sometimes a humbling terrible text , and the next day perhaps a comforting text cometh into their minds , and so are between terrours and comforts , distracted by their own fantasies , and think it is all done by the Spirit of God. 6. And it is a perverse abusing of the holy Scripture , to make such remembrances the Rule of your application of it to your selves : that text which you remember had the same sense before you remembred it ; and your spiritual state was the same before : If that text agree with your state , and either , the terrour or the comfort of it belong to you , this must be proved by solid reason , drawn from the true meaning of the text , and the true state of your souls ; and not supposed meerly because it cometh into your thoughts , or because it is set upon your hearts : Do you think that your remembring it will prove that it specially belongs to you ? Do not many comfortable texts come into the minds of Hypocrites , who are unfit for comfort ? And many terrible texts come into the minds of humble souls , that have right to comfort , and should not be more terrified ? You may as well think that your money or estate is another mans , because he thinketh on it : Or that another mans dangers and miseries are yours , because you think of them : Or that you are either Kings , or Lords , or beggars , or thieves , or whatever cometh into your minds : Or that another mans Leases or Deeds by which he holdeth his Lands , are all yours , because they are put into your hands to read . 7. And if you go this way to work , you are in danger to be carryed into many other errours and sins , and think that all is of the Spirit of God , because you feel it set upon your hearts . And so you will feign the sanctifying Spirit to be the author of sin , and the lying Spirit shall be honoured and called by his name . Mark well these following texts of Scripture , 2 Thes . 2.1 , 2 , 3. We beseech you brethren , by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ — that ye be not soon shaken in mind , or troubled , neither by Spirit , nor by word , nor by letter as from us , as that the day of Christ is at hand : Let no man deceive you — You see here that Spirit , Word and Scripture may be pretended for an untruth . Matth. 4. Satan often saith , It is written , 2 Cor. 11.12 , 13 , 14 , 15. False Apostles , and deceitful workers may transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ , and Ministers of Righteousness ; and no marvel , for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of light . 1 John 4.1 . Beloved , believe not every Spirit , but try the Spirits , whether they be of God. Gal. 1.7 , 8. If we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel to you , let him be accursed . Quest . But how then shall I know when it is the Spirit which putteth any thing into my mind ? Answ . 1. The matter it self must be tryed , whether it agree with the sacred Scripture , and must be proved true by the Word of God. 2. The end to which that truth is brought , must be proved to be just and good : For Satan pleadeth truth● to sinful ends . 3. The application of them to your own case must be such as will hold tryal , and it must be proved by sound argument , that indeed they do thus and thus belong to you : For Gods Spirit will not belye you , nor make you better or worse than you are ; no more than he will belye the Scriptures . Object . But is it not the same Spirit which spake to the Apostles , which speaketh to us ? If they were to believe him immediately , so must we ; and seeing the Spirit is above the Scripture , we must try the Scriptures by the Spirit , and not the Spirit by the Scriptures . Answ . Alas , how pittifully ignorance beweildreth men ! 1. It is the same Spirit which was in the Apostles , and is in the weakest Christian : But he worketh not in the same degree : He inspired them to infallibility ; being promised to lead them into all truth , and to bring all things which Christ had spoken to their remembrance ; and he enabled them to prove this by manifold miracles : Doth he do all this by you ? or had you the same promises ? 2. The same Spirit in them was given to one end , and to you for another . To them it was given to cause them by his inspiration to deliver all that Christ had taught them , and to leave it on record to all generations , as his infallible Word and Law , to be the Rule of doctrine and practice to the end of the world . But to you the same Spirit is given , to cause you to understand , and love , and obey this Law which is already written , and not to write or know another . 3. The Spirit indited the Scriptures before you were born : and we are sure that that is the Word of God ; and we are sure that Gods Spirit contradicteth not it self : Therefore your after-pretended revelations , must be tryed by the certain ancient Rule , which had the seal of miracles which yours hath not . Obj. But how shall I know what application to make of Scripture to my self , but by the teaching of the Spirit of God ? Answ . But you must not take every thought and suggestion or remembrance , to be the Spirits application . Gods Spirit teacheth men by the light of sound evidence , which may be proved , and wil hold good in tryal : He teacheth you by exciteing you to rational studies and argumentation , and by blessing you in such sober use of Gods means : But he doth not teach you to know your state , by the bare remembring of a text . Direct . 9. Take heed also of misunderstanding what is the witness of the Spirit , that we are Gods children . Many think it is like some voice , or suggestion , or inspiration within them , saying , Thou art the Child of God. And so many Christians languish in terrours , that feel no such perswading Spirit in them . And many Hypocrites are deluded by the perswasions of their own imaginations . But in Scripture , the word witness is oft taken for [ evidence ] or an objective testimony : And the Spirits being a witness , and being a seal , an earnest , a pledge , a white stone , a new name , &c. are all of the like signification : And the meaning is , By this we know that we are the children of God , or that he abideth in us , by the Spirit which he hath given us , 1 John 3.10.24 . & 4.13 . And if any one have not the Spirit of Christ , the same is none of his , Rom. 8.9 . As if he should say , have you the Spirit of Christ , or have you not ? if you have , that is a seal , an earnest , a pledge of Gods Love , and of your heavenly inheritance , and a certain evidence or witness that you are his children , Gal. 4.6 . He that loveth God as his Father in Christ , and is sanctified to God , hath the Spirit . Shew this Love , and this Sanctification , and you produce the true witness that you are the heirs of life . Holiness , and Heavenliness , and Love , is the witness , seal and earnest ; and not chiefly an inward perswasion that we are Gods children . 2. Yet this much more the Spirit doth ; when it hath sanctified us , and given us the witness or evidence in our selves , ( 1 John 5.10 , 11. ) He also helpeth us to see and know that grace which he giveth and actuateth in us . 3. And also to conclude from that evidence , that we are Gods children : And also to feel the inward comfort of that conclusion . But all this he doth by these means in a discursive or rational way , and by blessing such reasoning to our comfort . 4. Also he comforteth the soul in another way , distinct from the way of concluding from evidence ; and that is by exciting the Love of God and his praises in us , which are of themselves delighting acts : But of this anon . Direct . 10. Take heed of Heretical Seducers , who use to fish in troubled waters , and to fall in with such perplexed consciences , to perswade them that all the cause of their trouble is their opinions , and unsound Religion , and not in them ; and that the only way to comfort , is to change their Religion , and to come over unto them . No person fitter for a Quaker , a Papist , or any Sectary , to work upon , than a troubled mind . For such are like the ignorant Country people in their sickness , who will hearken to any one who putteth them in hope , and promiseth them ease , and most confidently tells them , that he can cure them , and saith , I was just in your case , and such or such a thing cured me : so will the Formalist , and the Fanatick , the Papist , and the Quaker say , I was just in your condition , [ I was troubled , and could get no peace of conscience , no joy in the Holy Ghost , but was alwaies held in fears and doubting , till I changed my Religion ; and ever since that I have been well , and O what joyes I have to boast of ! ] And if it be an unsound Hypocrite that is thus tempted , perhaps God may give them over to find abundance of Bedlam joy , in the sudden change of their opinion : And falshood may comfort that man , whom the truth which he was false to , would not comfort . But if it be a weak sincere Believer ; if God shew him not so much mercy as to rescue him from the temptation , he will do as the foresaid Country patient ; he will try one mans medicine , and another womans medicines , and hearken to every one that can speak confidently , and promise him a cure , till he hath tryed , that their case and his were not the same , and that they were all but ignorant deceived deceivers ; and when all fail him , he will come back again , to the faithful experienced directors of his soul . Direct . 11. If weakness of grace be the cause of doubting ( which is of all other , the commonest cause in the world ) the way to comfort is that same which is the way to strengthen grace . Such a one , if ever he will have joy , must be taught how to live the Life of Faith , and to walk with God , and to mortifie the flesh , and get loose from the world , and to live as entirely devoted to God ; and especially how to keep every grace in exercise ; and then grace will shew it self , as the air doth in a windy season , or as the fire when it is blown up and flameth . There is no surer or readier way to comfort , than to get Faith , Repentance , Love , Hope and Obedience , in a vigorous activity , and great degree , and then to keep them much in action . Mountebanks and Sectaries have other waies ; but this is the constant certain way . Direct . 12. If you perceive that trouble is caused by misunderstanding the Covenant of Grace , and looking at Legal Works of merit , as the ground of peace , and over-looking the sufficiency of the Sacrifice , Merits , or Interc●ssion of Christ , the principal thing to be done with such a soul , is , to convince them of the impossibility of being justified by works , on legal terms ; and to shew them the necessity of a Saviour , and the design of God in mans redemption , and that there is but one Mediatour between God and man , and one Name by which we can be saved ; and that Christ is the way , the truth , and the life , and no man cometh to the Father , but by the Son ; and that he was made sin for us who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him ; and that of God he is made unto us , wisdom , and righteousness , and sanctification , and redemption ; and that God hath given us eternal life , and this life is in his Son ; and that he that hath the Son , hath life , and he that hath not the Son , hath not life ; and that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus , who walk not after the flesh , but after the Spirit ; but he that believeth not is condemned already . Thus must Christ crucified , the propitiation for the sins of all the world , be preached to them , who are troubled as for want of a Saviour , or an attonement , a sacrifice , or ransome , or propitiation for sin ; or because they are not instead of a Saviour to themselves . But to tell a man only of the sacrifice and merits of Christ , who doubteth only of his interest in him , and of the truth of his own Faith , Repentance and Sanctification , is to prate impertinently , and to delude the sinner , and to deal injuriously with Christ . Direct . 12. If Melancholy be the cause of the trouble ( which is very ordinary ) it will be necessary , 1. Well to understand it : And 2. To know the cure : Of which , having spoken more largely elsewhere , I shall now give you only this brief information . 1. The signs of this Melancholy are , overstretched , confused , ungovernable thoughts ; continual fear , and inclination to despair , and to cry out , undone , undone ; I am forsaken of God ; the day of grace is past ; I have sinned against the Holy Ghost ; never mans case was like mine ! And usually their sleep is gone or broken , and they are enclined to be alone , and to be alwaies musing , with their confounded thoughts ; and at last are tempted to blasphemous thoughts , against the Scriptures , and the life to come , and perhaps urged to utter some blasphemous words against God ; and if it go to the highest , they are tempted to famish or make away themselves . 2. The cure of it lyeth 1. In setting those truths before them , which tend most to quiet and satisfie their minds . 2. In engaging them in the constant labours of a calling , in which both mind and body may be employed . 3. In keeping them in fit and chearful company which they love , and suffering them to be very little alone . 4. In keeping them from musing , and that meditation or thoughtfulness which to others is most profitable , and a duty . 5. Keeping them from over-long secret prayer ( because they are unable for it , and it doth but confound them , and disable them for other duties ; ) and let them be the more in other duties which they can bear . 6. And if the state of their bodies require it , Physick is necessary , and hath done good to many ( if rightly chosen . ) Direct . 13. Take heed of foolish , carnal , hasty expectations of comfort from the bare words of any man ; but use mens advice only to direct you in that way , where , by patience and faithfulness , you may meet with it in due season . Nothing is more usual with silly souls , than to go to this or that excellent Minister , whom they deservedly admire , and to look that with an hour or twos discourse , he should comfort them , and set all their bones in joynt ▪ And when they find that it is not done , they either despair , or turn to the next deceivers , and say , [ I tryed the best of them : And if such a man cannot do it , none of them can do it . ] But , silly soul , do Physicians use to charm men into health ? Wilt thou go and talk an hour with the ablest Physician , and say , that because his talk doth not cure thee , thou wilt never go to a Physician more , but go to ignorant people that will kill thee ? Thou hast then thy own deserving ; even take the death which thou hast chosen , and drink as thou hast brewed . The work of a Minister is not to cure thee alwaies immediately , by comfortable words . ( What words can cure an ignorant , melancholy , or uncapable soul ! ) But to direct thee in thy duty , and in the use of those means , which if thou wilt faithfully and patiently practise , thou shalt certainly be cured in due time : If thou wilt use the Physick , dyet and exercise , which thy Physician doth prescribe thee , it is that which must restore thy health and comfort , and not the saying over a few words to thee . If thou lazily look that other mens words or prayers should cure and comfort thee without thy own endeavours , thou mayest thank thy self when thou art deceived . Direct . 14. The principal means of comfort is to live in the exercise of comfortable duties . Faith , Hope , and especially the Love of God , are duties which are also mans felicity : And the exercise of these in Praises and Thanksgiving , are the proper pleasure of the soul . Give up thy self wholly to study the Goodness and Love of God in Jesus Christ , till thou feel thy heart enflamed with his Love , and spend half thy godly conference in Gods praises , and half thy daily prayers in that , and in thanksgiving ; and this will comfort thee not only by the reasoning way of evidence ; but as a feast pleaseth thy taste , and as the fire warmeth thee , or as the loving of thy friend delighteth thee , or as health it self is the pleasure of thy flesh . As the sins themselves of not knowing God , not loving him , nor delighting in him , are the greatest part of the penalty , or rather misery of the sinner ( which hath its peculiar way of remission ) so the knowledge , and love , and praise of God , and delighting in him , is instead of a reward unto it self , and a beginning of Heaven to the heavenly Believer . Direct . 15. Dwell much in Heaven , if you would dwell in comfort . Comfort your selves and one another with these words , that we shall for ever be with the Lord. Heaven is the place or state of our everlasting comfort ; and all that we have here must come from thence : And Faith , and Hope , and Love must fetch it : He that will have carn●l joy , must go for it to pastime , or lusts and pleasure , to an Ale-house , or a Whore , or to a Gameing-house , or a Play-house , or to his weal●h and worldly honours : But he that will have heavenly joy , must go for it by Faith to Heaven ; and dwell there every day by Faith , where he hopes to dwell for ever . Heaven will nor comfort either them that believe it not , or them that remember it not ; but them whose conversation and hearts are there , Phil. 3.20 , 21. Direct . 16. Set your selves wholly to do good . Resolve that you will be faithful to Christ , and do all the good that you can in the world , and let him do with you what he will : And in this way you shall quickly find , that the soundest consolation will come in to your souls , before you could expect it . Though no works of our own can add any thing to God , nor must be trusted to at all , in a legal sense ; and though blind Libertines tell you , that all comfort is legal and unsound , which came by the thoughts of any thing in your selves , or any of your own doings ; yet God is no such enemy to godliness , but he that will hereafter judge you to Heaven or Hell according to your works , will now judge you to joy or sorrow of heart , usually according to your works : Well doing shall afford you peace , and ill doing shall disquiet you , when all ●s said . Direct . 17. Lastly , Be sure , while you want the comforts of assurance , to hold fast those comforts which rationally belong to common grace , and to them that have the Gospel offers of salvation . When the Gospel came to Samaria , Acts 8. there was great joy in that City . It is glad tidings in it self , for guilty souls to have Christ and pardon freely offered to them . Can you not say , I am sure that I am regenerate , justified and adopted ? For all that , if you be not Infidels , you can say , I am sure that Christ , and Pardon , and Heaven , are freely offered me , and Ministers are commissioned to intreat me to accept it ; and nothing but my wilful and final refusal can deprive me of it , and shut me out . This is certain ; take but so much comfort as this much should rationally inferr . To which I might add , the comforts of your probability , when you are in some degree of hope , that your faith and repentance are sincere , though you are not certain : But this I have more largely spoken of ( and the rest which is needful to be spoken on this subject ) in the fore-named Treatise long ago . The ordinary and long troubles and unsettledness of honest Christians , are caused most 1. By unskilful Guides , who are most confident , where they are most ignorant , and revile those Truths and Methods which God hath appointed for the settling of mens peace : 2. And by their own lazy and unskilful course ; who take up most with examining and complaining , instead of learning more understanding in Gods Methods , and diligent ●●●nding what is amiss , that the cause of their trouble might be taken away . CHAP. XXI . How to live by Faith in the Publick Worshipping of God. I May not be so tedious ( nor do that which is done elsewhere ) as to direct you in the several parts of Worship distinctly ; but shall only give you some brief Directions about Publick Worship in the general . Direct . 1. Come not before God with Pharisaical conceits of the worthiness of your selves , or Worship , as if you offered him something which did oblige him : But come as humble receivers , that need him and his grace , who needeth not you ; and as learners that hope to be wiser and better by drawing neer to God. You know Christs instance of the prayers of the Pharisee and the Publican : And remember that many a ones heart saith , I thank thee Lord that I am not as other men , or as this Publican , whose tongue can spend an hour or more in sad confessions ; yea and that it is those very copious confessions of their badness , that puff them up as if they were so good . Yea many a one that in opinion is most vehement against all our works in our Justification , or looking at any thing in our selves at all , to make us acceptable with God , as being against free grace in Christ , do yet look so much at that which is ( or is conceited to be ) in themselves , that fe● Churches on earth are thought worthy of t●●●r communion . Note also that it is sacrificing which is commonly the Hypocrites Worship in the Old Testament , and hearing and obeying which he neglecteth , and God calls him to : As you may see at large in Isa . 1. throughout ; and many other places , Psal . 40.6 . Sacrifice and offering thou didst no● require : Mine ears hast thou opened , &c. So Psal . 50.8 , 9 , &c. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices and burnt offerings , to have been continually before me ; I will take no bullock out of thy house — For every beast of the Forest is mine , &c. If I were hungry , I would not tell thee , for ●he world is mine , and the fulness thereof — Offer to God thanksgiving , and pay thy vows to the most High. And call upon me in the day of trouble — But to the wicked , saith God , What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes , or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth , seeing thou hatest instruction , and castest my words behind thee — 1 Sam. 15.22 , 23. Hath the Lord delight in burnt-offerings , and sacrifices , as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold , to obey is better than sacrifice , and to hearken , than the fat of Rams . Psal . 4.3 , 4 , 5. Know , that the Lord hath chosen the man that is godly for himself — Stand in awe and sin not — Offer the sacrifices of righteousness — Psal . 51.17 . The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit . Matth. 9.13 . & 12.7 . Learn what this meaneth , I will have mercy , and not sacrifice — Eccles . 5.1 . Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God , and be more ready to hear , than to offer the sacrifice of fools , for they know not that they do evil . All this telleth us , that fools and hypocrites , while they disobey Gods Law , do think to make up all with sacrifice , or to appease God with offering him something that is excellent : But the acceptable Worshipper cometh to God as a penitent , a learner , resolving to obey ; as a Receiver of mercy , and not a meriter . Direct . 2. Over-value not therefore the manner of your own Worship , and over-vilifie not other mens , of a different mode : And make not men believe that God is of your childish humour , and valueth or vilifieth words , and orders , and forms , and ceremonies , as much as self-conceited people do . If one man hear another pray only from the habits of his mind , and present desires , he reproacheth him as a rash presumptuous speaker , that talketh that to God which he never fore-considered . As if a beggar did rashly ask an alms , or a corrected child , or a malefactor did inconsiderately beg for pardon , unless they learn first the words by rote : or as if all mens converse , and the words of Judges on the Bench were all rash ; or the counsel of a Physician to his Patient , because they use not books and forms , or set not down their words long before . And if another man hear a form of prayer , especially if it be read out of a Book ; and especially if it have any disorder or defect , he sticketh not to revise it , and call it false Worship , and mans Inventions , and perhaps Idolatry , and to fly from it , and make the world believe , that it is an odious thing which God abhorreth . And why so ? Are your words so much more excellent than the words of others ? Or doth the Book , or Press , or Pen , make them odious to God ? Or are all words ba● which are resolved on before-hand ? Is the Lords Prayer and the Psalms all odious , because they are book-forms ? Or doth the command of other men make God hate them ? Let Parents take heed then of commanding their children prescribed words . ( Nay rather let them take heed lest they omit such prescripts : ) Or , is it the disorder or defects that makes them odious ? Such are not to be justified indeed where-ever we find them : But woe to us all , if God will not pardon disorders and defects , and accept the prayers that are guilty of them . Many a time I have heard such forms of prayers , whose disorders and defects I have much lamented ( and done my part to have cured ) and yet I durst not so reproach them as to say , God will not accept and hear them : Or that it is unlawful to joyn in communion with them . And many a time I have heard as sad disorder in extemporate prayers sometimes by wrong methods , or no method at all ; sometimes by vain repetitions ; sometimes by omitting the chiefest parts of prayer , and sometimes in the whole strein , by turning a prayer into a Sermon to the hearers , or a meer talk or narrative to God , that had little of a prayer in it , save very good matter , and honest zeal . And though this prayer was more disorderly than the forms which ( perhaps in that prayer ) were accused of disorder ; yet durst I not run away from this neither , nor say , it is so bad , that God will not hear it , nor good men should have no comunion in it . It is easie ( but abominable ) to fall in love with our own , and to vilifie that which is against our opinion , and to think that God is of our mind , and is as fond of our mode and way as we are , and as exceptious against the way or words of other men , as childish , pievish Christians are . Look on your Book , and read , or learn your prayer in words , saith one , or else God will not hear you : Look off your Book , and read not or learn not the words , saith another , or God will not hear you . But oh lamentable , that both of them tremble , not thus to abuse God , and add unto his Word , and to prophesie or speak falsly against their brethren in his Name ; nor to reproach the prayers which Christ presenteth from his servants to the Father , and which ( notwithstanding their defects ) are his delight ! Direct . 3. Offer God nothing as worship , which is contrary to the perfection of his Nature , as far as you can avoid it : And yet feign not that to be contrary to his nature which he commandeth . For then it is certain that you misunderstand either his nature or command . Direct . 4. Never come to the Father but by the Son ; and dream not of any immediate access of a sinner unto God , but wholly trust in Christs mediation . Receive the Fathers will from Christ your Teacher , and his commands from Christ your King , and all his mercies from Christ your Head , and the Treasury of the Church , and your continual Intercessor with God in Heaven . And put all your prayers , praises , duties , alms , into his hand ; that through him alone they may be accepted of God. Direct . 5. Understand well how far the Scripture is a particular Rule ( as to the substance of Gods Worship ) and how far it is only a general Rule ( as to the circumstances ) that so you may neither offer God a Worship which he will not accept ; nor yet reject or oppose all those circumstances as unlawful , which are warranted by his general commands : ( Of which I have said enough elsewhere . ) Direct . 6. Look first and most to the exercise of inward grace , and to the spiritual part of Worship ( for God will be worshiped in spirit , and in truth , and hateth the Hypocrite , who offereth him a carkass , or empty shell , and ceremony , and pomp , or length of words , instead of substance ; and draweth neer him with the lips , without the heart : ) And yet in the second place , look carefully also to your words , and order , and outward behaviour of the body : For God must be honoured with soul and body . And order and reverend solemnity is both a help to the affections of the soul , and a fit expression of them . Never forget that hypocritical dead formality , and ignorant , self-conceited , fanatical extravagancies , are the two extreams by which the Devil hath laboured in all ages , to turn Christs Worship against him , and to destroy the Church and Religion by such false Religiousness . The poor Popish Formalists on one side , mortifie Religion , and turn it into a carkass , and a comely Image that hath any thing save life . And the Fanaticks on the other side , do call all the enormities of their proud and blustering fancies by the name of spiritual devotion ; and do their worst to make Christianity to seem a ridiculous fancy to the world : Escape both these extreams , as ever you will escape the dishonouring of God , the dividing , and disturbing , and corrupting of the Church , the deluding of others , and the disappointing and deceiving of your selves . Direct . 7. Neglect not any helps which you can have , by the excellent gifts of any of Christs Ministers or flocks ; and yet take heed that through prejudice , or for the faults of either , you vilifie or reject nothing which is of God. But carefully distinguish between Christs and theirs . Communion with the holiest and purest Assemblies , is more desirable than with the less pure . But yet all that is less desirable comparatively , is not simply unlawful , nor to be rejected : The labours of an abler and more faithful Minister , are much to be preferred before theirs that are less able and faithful : For God worketh usually according to the aptitude of the means , and of the receiver . To the recovery and salvation of a soul it is necessary , 1. That the Vnderstanding be made wise : 2. That the Heart or Will be sanctified by Love. 3. That the Life be holy and obedient . To the first of these there are three things needful ; 1. That the Vnderstanding be awakened : 2. That it be illuminated : 3. That it be preserved from the seduction of temptations to deceit . Now an able and faithful Pastor is suited to all these effects : 1. He is a lively Preacher to awaken the understanding : He is a clear , intelligent , methodical and convincing Teacher , to illuminate it : 3. He can confute gainsayers , and refute objections , and shame the cavils of tempters and deceivers to preserve it . And 2 He speaketh all from the unfeigned Love of God and men ; and as all his words do breathe forth Love ; so they art apt to kindle such love in the hearers : For every active nature tendeth to propagation . 3. And the holiness of his life , as well as doctrine , tendeth to win the people to a holy life : So that he that loveth his own soul , must not be indifferent what Pastor he chuseth for the help and conduct of his soul ; but should most carefully seek to get the best or fittest for such necessary ends . But yet it followeth not that a weaker or worse may not be heard , or may not be accepted or submitted to , in a case of necessity ; when a better cannot be had , without more disturbance and hurt than the benefits are like to recompence . And when we live under such a weak , or cold , or faulty Pastor , our care must be so much the greater , that we may make up that in the diligence of our attention , which is wanting in his manner of expression ; and that we make up that in a care of our own souls , which is wanting in his care : And that our knowledge of his failings tempt us not to slight the truth which he delivereth ; and that we reject not the matter for the manner : The Sheep of Christ do know his voice , and they know his words , and reverence and love them , from what mou●h soever they proceed . A Religious z●alous man that preacheth false doctrine , is more to be avoided , than a cold or scandalous man who preacheth the truth . If you doubt of this , observe these texts . Matth. 23.2 , 3. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat ; All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe , that observe and do : but do not ye after their works , for they say and do not . Acts 1.17 . For he ( Judas ) was numbred with us , and had obtained part of this Ministry . Judas the thief and traitor was an Apostle , called and sent out by Jesus Christ . Phil. 1.15 , &c. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife , and some also of good will. The one preach Christ of contention , not sincerely , supposing to add affl●ction to my bonds — what then ? Notwithstanding every way , whether in pretence , or in truth , Christ is preached , and I do therein rejoyce , yea and will rejoyce — Rom. 16.17 . Now I beseech you brethren , Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned , and avoid them — Acts 20.30 . Of your own selves shall men arise , speaking perverse things , to draw away Disciples after them . Gal. 1.7 , 8. If we or an Angel from Heaven bring another Gospel , let him be accursed — Is not all this a plain decision of the case ? Direct . 8. While you prefer local communion with the purest Churches , and ●est taught and ordered , for your own edification , take heed that you disown not a distant and mental communion with any part of the Church of Christ on earth , which Christ himself disowneth not . But first remember that you are members of the Vniversal Church , and as such in mental communion with the whole , present your selves and services to Christ ; and next as members of your Particular Church . It is true , that you must not own the corruptions of any Church , or of any of their Worship ; but you must own the Church it self , and own all the substance of the Worship which is good , and which God owneth . God doth not reject the matter for the manner , nor the whole , for a faulty part , where the heart is sincere that offereth it : nor no more must you . And if they force you not to any actual sin ( as by false speaking , subscribing , or the like ) you must sometimes also locally joyn with such Churches , when occasion requireth it : ( As when you have no better to go to , or when it is necessary to shew your mental communion , or to avoid schism , scandal or offence ) As you must not approve of your own failings in Gods Worship ( as in the manner of praying , preaching , &c. ) and yet must not give over worshipping God , though you are alwaies sure to fail ; even so must you do by your communion with others . And here I would earnestly intreat all those that are inclinable to sinful separation , to think but of these few things . 1. What is more contrary to Christianity than Pride ? and what is a plainer sign of Pride , than to separate from whole Churches ( and perhaps from most part of the Christian world , for such faults as are no greater than others of our own ? and to say , They are too bad for such as you to communicate with ? 2. Whether it be not much contrary to that clemency of Jesus Christ , by which he pardoneth the failings of Believers ? and which we have need of our selves as well as others ? And whether it be not an horrid injury to our Lord , to ascribe his inheritance to the Devil , and to cast those out of his Church whom he himself receiveth , and to deny so many of his servants to be his ? 3. How great a loss is it , to lose your part in all those prayers of the Churches ( how weak soever ) which you disown ? And how can you justly expect the benefit of such prayers ? I would not take all their riches for my part of the benefit of those prayers of the Churches of Church , which some reject because they are extemporate , and others because they are forms , or book-prayers , or imposed ; nor would I take all their wealth and honour , for my part in all the prayers of the Vniversal Church , which are guilty of more disorders , tautologies , unmeet expressions , and manifold defects , than any that I ever yet heard from those Ministers that pray either by habit or book . Direct . 9. Take heed both of carelesness and curiosity in the worshipping of God. Avoid carelesness , because it is prophaneness and contempt : Therefore watch against idleness of mind , and wandering thoughts , and remember how great a work it is , to speak to God , or to hear from him about your everlasting state . And yet curiosity is a heinous sin : When men are so nice , that unless there be quaint phrases , and fine cadencies and jingles , or at least a very laudable style , they nauseate all , and are weary of hearing a homely style , or common things : when every unmeet expression , or tautology of the speaker , doth turn their stomachs against the wholesomest food . This curiosity cometh from a weak and an unhealthful state of soul . Direct . 10. Lastly , Let your eye of Faith be all the while upon the heavenly Host , or Church triumphant : I remember how they worship God : with what wisdom , and purity , and fervour of Love , and sacred pleasure , and with what unity , and peace , and concord ? And let your Worship be as much composed to the imitation of them , as is agreeable to the likeness of our condition unto theirs . There is no hypocrisie , dulness , darkness , errours , self-conceitedness , pride , division , section , or uncharitable contention : Oh how they burn in Love to God ? and how sweet that Love is to themselves ? and how those souls work up in heavenly Joyes to the face of God , in all his praises . Labour as it were to joyn your selves by faith with them , and as far as standeth with your different case , to imitate them . They are more imitable and amiable , than the purest Churches upon earth . Their love and blessed concord is more lovely , than our uncharitable animosities , and odious factions and divisions are . And remember also the time when you must meet all those upright souls in Heaven , whose manner of Worship you vilified , and spake reproachfully of on earth , and from whose communion you turned away : And only consider how far they should be disowned , who must be dear to Christ and you for ever . The open disowning and avoiding the ungodly and scandalous , is a great duty in due season , when it is regularly done , and is necessary to cast shame on sin and sinners , and to vindicate the honour of Christianity before the world . But otherwise it is but made an instrument of pernicious pride , and of divisions in the Church , and of hindering the successes of the Gospel of Christ . CHAP. XXII . How to pray in Faith. PAssing by all the other particular parts of Worship as handled elsewhere ( in my Christian Directory ) I shall only briefly touch the duty of prayer ; especially as in private . Direct . 1. Let your heart lead your tongue , and be the fountain of your words ▪ and suffer not your tongues in a customary volubility to over-run your hearts . Desire first , and pray next ; and remember that desire is the soul of prayer ; and that the heart-searching God doth hate hypocrisie , and will not be mocked , Matth. 6.1 , 3 , 4. Direct . 2. Yet do not forbear prayer , because your desires are not so earnest as you would have them . For 1. Even good desires are to be begged of God : 2. And such desires as you have towards God , must be exercised and expressed . 3. And this is the way of their usual increase . 4. And a prophane turning away from God , will kill those weak desires which you have , when drawing near him in prayer , may revive and cherish them . Direct . 3. Remember still that you pray to a heavenly Father , who is readier to give , than you are to receive or ask . If you knew his Fulness and Goodness , how joyfully would you run to him , and cry Abba , Father ? John 20.17 . Luke 12.30 , 32. Mark 11.25 . Matth. 6.8 , 32. Direct . 4. Go boldly to him in the Name of Christ alone . Remember that he is the only Way and Mediatour . When guilt and conscience would drive you back , believe the sufficiency of his sacrifice and attonement . When your weakness and unworthiness would discourage you , remember that no one is so worthy , as to be accepted by God on any other terms , than Christs Mediation . Come boldly then to the Throne of Grace , by the new and living way , and put your prayers into his hand , and remember that he still liveth to make intercession for you , and that he appeareth before God in the highest , in your cause , Heb. 10.19 . Ephes . 3.12 . Rom. 5.2 . Heb. 9.24 ▪ & 7.25 , 26. Direct . 5. Desire nothing in your hearts which you dare not pray for , or which is unmeet for prayer : Let the Rule of Prayer , be the Rule of your Desires . And undertake no business in the world , which you may not lawfully pray for a blessing on . Direct . 6. Desire and pray to God , first , for God himself , and nothing lower ; and next for all those spiritual blessings in Christ , which may fit you for communion with him . And lastly , for corporal mercies , as the means to these , Matth. 6.33 . Psal . 42.1 , 2 , 3 , &c. Psal . 73.25 , 26. Direct . 7. Pray only for what is promised you , or you are commanded to pray for : And make not promises to your selves , and then look that God should fulfil them , because you confidently believe that he will do it ; and do not so reproach God , as to call such self-conceits and expectations , by the name of a particular Faith : For where there is no word , there is no faith . Direct . 8. What God hath promised , confidently expect ; though you feel no answer at the present . For most of our prayers are to be granted ( or the things desired to be given ) at the harvest time , when we shall have all at once . Whether you find your selves the better at present for prayer , or not ; believe that a word is not in vain , but you shall reap the fruit of all in season , Luke 18.1 , 7 , 8. James 5.7 , 8. Direct . 9. Let the Lords Prayer be the Rule , for the matter and method of your desires and prayers . But with this difference : It must alwaies be the Rule which your desires must be formed to , both in matter and method . You must alwaies first , and most desire the hallowing of Gods Name , the coming of his Kingdom , and the doing of his will on Earth as it is in Heaven , before your own being , or well-being : But this is only a Rule for your General Prayers ( which take in all the parts : ) For when you either intend to pray only , or chiefly for some one particular thing , you may begin with that , or be most upon it . Therefore all Christians should specially labour to understand the true sense and method of the Lords Prayer ( which God willing , I hope elsewhere to open . ) Direct . 10. Be more careful in secret of your affections , than of the order of your words ( yet chusing such as are aptest to the matter , and fittest to excite your hearts ) But in your families or with others , be very careful to speak to God , in words which are apt , and orderly , and moving ; and to do all with such skill , and reverence , and seriousness , as tendeth ( not to encrease , but ) to cure the dulness , hypocrisie and unreverence of others , Eccles . 5.1 , 2. Matth. 6.7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , &c. Direct . 11. Pray as earnestly as if God himself were to be moved with your prayers : Yet so as to remember , that the change is not to be made upon him , but upon you . As when the Boat-man layeth hold upon the bank , he draweth the Boat to it , and not the bank unto the Boat. Prayer fitteth you to receive the mercy ; both naturally as it exciteth your desires after it , and morally as it is a condition on which God hath promised to give it : when you pray you tell God nothing which before he knew not better than you : But you tell him that in confession and petition , which he will hear from your own mouths , before he will judge you meet for the mercies which you are to pray for . In summ , pray , because you believe that praying Believers shall have the promised blessing : And believe particularly and absolutely , that you shall have that promised blessing through Christ , because you are praying Believers , and therefore the persons to whom it is promised . CHAP. XXIII . How to live by Faith towards Children , and other Relations . Direct . 1. BElieve Gods Promises made to Believers and their seed : ( of which I have written at large in my treatise of Infant-baptism . ) And labour to understand how far tho●e promises extend , both as to the persons and the blessings . There was never an age of the world , in which God did not distinguish the holy seed , even Believers and their Children , from the rest of the world , and take them as those that were specially in his Covenant . Direct . 2. Let not your conceits of the bare birth-priviledge , make you omit your serious , solemn and believing Dedication of them unto God , and entering them into his Covenant . For the reason why your seed is called Holy , and in a better case than the seed of Infidels , is not meerly because they are the off-spring of your bodies , and have their natures from you ; much less as deriving any grace or vertue from you by generation : But because you are persons your selves who have dedicated your selves with all that you have , absolutely to God by Christ : And they being your own , and therefore at your disposal , your wills are taken for their wills , so far as you act in their names , and on their behalf : And therefore when you dedicate them to God , you do but that which you have both power and command to do : And therefore God accepteth what you so dedicate to him . And Baptism is the regular way in which this dedication should be solemnly made : But if through the want of a Minister , or water , or time , this be not done , your believing dedication of your child to God , without Baptism shall be accepted . For it is the substance , and not the sign , the will , and not the water , which God requireth in this case . Quest . But what then shall we think of the children of godly Anabaptists , whose Judgement is against such dedication ? Answ . Many whose Judgement is against baptizing them , is not against an offering or dedicating them to God. And those who think that they are not allowed solemnly to enter them into Covenant with God , yet really do that which is the same thing : For they cannot be imagined , to be unwilling , to dedicate them to God , to the utmost of that interest and power , which they understand that God hath given them : and doubtless they most earnestly desire that according to their capacity , they may be the children of God , and God will be their God in Christ . And this vertual dedication seemeth to be the principal requisite condition . But yet as the unbaptized are ( ordinarily ) without the visible Church and its priviledges ; so if any be so blind , as neither explicitely nor vertually to dedicate their seed to God ; I know no promise of their childrens salvation , any more than of the seed of Infidels . Direct . 3. If the children of true Christians dedicated by the Parents will to God , through Christ , shall die before they come to the use of reason , the Parents have no cause to doubt of their salvation . It is the conclusion of the Synod of Dort in Artic. 1. And the reason is this . If the Parent and child be in the same Covenant , then if that Covenant pardon and adopt the Parent , it doth pardon and adopt the child : But the Parent and child are in the same Covenant : Therefore , &c. God hath but one Covenant on his part , which is sealed by baptism ( as I have proved at large to Mr. Blake . ) Indeed some are only externally in Covenant with him on their part , that is , they did covenant only with the tongue , and not the heart : And consequently God is no further in covenant with them , than to allow and command his Ministers to receive them into the Visible Church , and give them its priviledges ; and is not as a Promiser in Covenant with them at all himself , either for inward , or for outward blessings . He hath not one Covenant which giveth outward , and another which giveth inward blessings . And it is here supposed , that the only condition prerequisite on the Infants part , that he may have right to this Covenant , and its blessings , is that he be the seed of a true Believer , and dedicated in Covenant to God by the Parents will or act . Actual Faith is not prerequired : Seminal grace may be inherent , but 1. Not known to the Baptizer : 2. Nor prerequired as a condition ; but liker to be given by vertue of the Covenant . Nothing else therefore being prerequisite as a condition , it followeth , that as the Parents dedicating themselves to God , if baptized at age , is the condition of their certain title to the present blessings of the Covenant ( viz. that God be their Father , Christ their Saviour , and the Spirit in Covenant to operate in them to sanctification , and their sins are all pardoned , and they are heirs of Heaven ) even so upon the Parents dedication of their children to God , they have right to the same blessings ; else why do we baptize them , seeing Baptism in the true nature and use of it , is a solemn dedicating them to God , in that same Covenant , and a solemn investing them in the relations and rights of that same pardoning Covenant , and not in any other . I do not say that all baptized Infants , so dying , are saved , be they the children of Infidels , or Heathens , and remaining their true propriety ; nor those that are offered and baptized never so wrongfully , or hypocritically ; nor will I stay to dispute for what I have asserted . But 1. I exhort Christians believingly to dedicate their children in Covenant with God in Christ : And 2. To believe that if they so dye , that Covenant of Christ forbiddeth them to doubt of their salvation . Direct . 4. Let your Duty be answerable to your hope : And do not only pray for your childrens sanctification , but if they live , endeavour it by all possible care , in a wise and godly education : Remember that nature , and your dedicating them to God , do both oblige you to this care for their salvation . And that the education of children , is one of the greatest duties in the world , for the service of Christ , and the prosperity of Church and State : And the neglect of it , not the smallest cause of the ruine of both , and of the worlds calamity . Many a poor , sottish , lazy Professor have I known , who cry out against ignorant , dumb and unfaithful Ministers , as guilty of the blood of souls , and are so religious , as to separate from the Assemblies that have Ministers that are but partly such ; when as their own children are almost as ignorant as Heathens , and they only use them to a few customary formal duties ( while they think they are enough against forms ) and turn over the chief care of their instruction to the Schoolmaster . And are themselves so ignorant , dumb and idle ; unfaithful and unnatural to their poor childrens souls , as that it is a doubt whether in a well-ordered Church they ought not to be denyed communion themselves . They so little practise , Deut. 11.18 , 19. & 6.7 . Ephes . 6.4 , &c. Direct . 5. If your children live to the flesh in an ungodly course of life , contrary to the Covenant which by you they made , they forfeit all the benefits of the Covenant : And you can have no assurance by any thing that you can do for them , that ever they shall be converted ( though it is not past hope . ) And if they be converted at age , their pardon and adoption will be the effect of Gods Covenant , as then it was newly entered with themselves , and not as it was made before for them in infancy . Direct 6. Y●t because that still while there is life , there is hope , you ought not by despair or negligence to omit prayer , exhortation , or any other duty which you can perform in order to their recovery : And though now they have wills of their own , their salvation is not laid so much upon you , as it was in Infancy , at their first covenanting with God ; yet still God will shew his love to his servants in their seed ; and faithful endeavours are not vain nor hopeless ; and therefore it is still one of your greatest duties in the world , to seek their true recovery to Christ . Direct . 7. If God make your children a scourge , or a heart-breaking to you , bear and improve it as becomes Believers : That is ; 1. Repent of your own former sin , your own youthfull lusts ; your disobedience to your Parents ; your carnal fondness on your children ; your loving them too much , and God too little ; the evil examples you have given them ; and your manifold neglect of a prudent , seasonable , earnest , unwearied instructing them in godliness ; your bearing with their sin , and giving them their own wills , till they were masterless , &c , Renew your Repentance , and you have got some benefit . 2. Think how unkindly and unthankfully you have dealt with a gracious Saviour , and a heavenly Father . 3. Let it take off your affections from all things under the Sun , and call them up the more to God : For who would love a world , where none are to be trusted , and where all things are vexatious , even the children of your love and bowels . Direct . 8. If they die impenitently , and perish , mourn for them , but with the moderation of Believers : That is , 1. Consider that God is more the owner of your children , than you are ; and may do with his own as he list . 2. And he is more wise and merciful than you ; and therefore not to be murmured at as wanting either . 3. And it is an unvaluable mercy that your own soul is sanctified , and shall be saved . 4. And the most godly have had ungodly children before you . Adam had a Cain , Noah had a Cham , Isaac had an Esau , David had an Absalom , &c. 5. And if all the godly that pray for their childrens salvation must be therein gratified , all the world would then have been saved . For Noah would have prayed for all his children , and they for theirs , and so to the worlds end . Object . Oh but my conscience telleth me , that it is my own sin which hath had a hand in their undoing . Answ . Suppose it be so ; it is certainly a pardonable sin . Do you then repent of it , or not ? If you repent ; as you mourn for your relations ; so you should rejoyce that God hath forgiven you . For repented sin is certainly pardoned to you , and pardoned sin to you , is as great cause of joy , as unpardoned sin in your relations is cause of sorrow . Therefore mourn with such moderation , and mixed comfort and thanksgiving , as becometh one that liveth by faith . The affliction indeed is neer and great ; and heavier than any calamity that could have befallen their bodies , and is not to be slighted by an unnatural insensibility : But yet you have a God who is better to you than a thousand children ; and your cross is but as a feather , if you set it in the ballance against your blessings , even the Love of God , and your part in Christ , and life eternal . CHAP. XXIV . How by Faith to order our Affections to publick Societies , and the unconverted world . Direct . 1. TAke heed that you lose not that common Love which you owe to mankind , nor that desire of the increase of the Kingdom of Christ , which must keep up in you a constant compassion to the unconverted world , viz. Idolaters , Infidels , and ungodly Hypocrites . It is pittiful to observe the unchristian senslesness of most zealous Professors of Religion in this point : Though God hath purposely put the three publick Petitions first in the Lords Prayer , to tell them what they must first and most desire , that is , the hallowing of his Name , and the coming of his Kingdom , and the doing of his Will on Earth as it is in Heaven ; yet they seem not to understand it , or to regard it : But their thoughts and desires are as selfish , and private , and narrow , as if they knew nothing what the World or the Church is , or cared for neither . Their mind and talk is all of their own matters , for body or soul , or of their several Parties , and particular Churches ; or if any extend his care as far as this spot of Land in Brittain and Ireland , or some of the Reformed Churches , they go further than their companions ; their selves , and their side or party is almost all that most regard : Perhaps the poor scattered Jews have a few words in the prayers of some ; but the miserable case of the vast Nations of the Earth , who seem to be forsaken of God is neglected by them . Five parts in six of the earth are Heathens and Mahometanes : and of the sixth part , the Protestants are but about a sixth , compared with the poor ignorant Abbassines , Armenians , Syrians , the Greek Churches , and the Papists ; ( to say nothing what the most of the Protestants themselves are . ) Yet are almost all these put by , with a word or two , or none at all , in the daily prayers of most Professors : And it is rare to hear any to pray with any importunity for their conversion . Is this mens love to mankind ? Is this their love to the Kingdom of Christ ? or to God and Godliness ? Is God of as narrow a mind as you ? Are you and your party all the world , or all the Church ? or all that is to be regarded and prayed for ? Direct . 2. Do not only pray for them , but study what is within the reach of your power to do for their conversion . For though private men can do little in comparison of what Christian Princes might do who must not be told their duty by such as I. ) Yet somewhat might be done by Merchants and their Chaplains , if skill and zeal were well united ; and somewhat might be done by writing and translating such books as are fittest for this use : And greater matters might be done , by training up some Scholars in the Persian , Indostan , Tartarian , and such other languages , who are for mind and body fitted for that work , and willing with due encouragement to give up themselves thereto . Were such a Colledge erected , natives might be got to teach the languages : and no doubt but God would put into the hearts of many young men , to devote themselves to so excellent a service ; and of many rich men , to settle Lands sufficient to maintain them ; and many Merchants would help them in their expedition . But whether those that God will so much honour , be yet born , I know not . Direct . 3. Pray and labour for the Reformation and Concord of all the Christian Churches ; as the most probable means to win to Christ the world of Heathens and Vnbelievers . If the Protestant Churches were more pure and peaceable , more holy , and more unanimous and charitable to each other , it would do much to win the Papists that are near them : And if the Papists , and Greeks , and Armenians , and Abassines were more reformed , wise and holy , it would do much to win the Heathens and Mahometanes round about them . They would be the salt of the earth , and the lights of the world , and the leaven which must leaven the whole lump : The neighbouring Mahometanes , and Heathens , would see their good works , and glorifie God , Matth. 5.16 . A holy , harmless , loving conversation , is a Sermon which men of all languages can understand : Thus as Apostles we might preach to men of several tongues , though we have but one . O that the sanctifying Spirit would teach Christians this art , and reform and unite the Churches of Christ , that they might be no longer a scandal , to hinder the saving of the world about them ! It is the sense of Christs prayer before his death , John 17.21 , 22 , 23 , 25. that they all may be one , as thou Father art in me , and I in thee , that the world may believe that thou hast sent me — I in them , and thou in me , that they may be made perfect in One , and that the world may know that thou hast sent me , and hast loved them , as thou hast loved me . Direct . 4. Be sure at least that your holy , loving and blameless loves , be an example to these that are about you . If you cannot convert Kingdoms , nor get other men to do their duty towards it , be sure that you do your part within your reach : And believe that your lives must be the best part of your labours , and that good works , and love , and good example must be the first part of your doctrine . Direct . 5. When you see that the world lyeth still in wickedness , and there seemeth to be no possibility of a cure , yet search the Scripture , and so far as you can find any Prophecy or Promise of their conversion , believe that God in his time will make it good . Direct . 6. But take heed that on this pretence , you plunge not your selves into any inordinate studies , or conceited expositions of the Revelations , and other Scripture Prophecies , as many have done , to the great wrong of themselves , and the Church of God. By inordinate studies , I mean , 1. When you begin there where you should end , and before you have digested the necessary greater truths in Theology , you go to those that should come after them . 2. When an undue proportion of your zeal , and time , and study , and talk , is bestowed upon these Prophecies , in comparison of other things . 3. When you are proudly and causlesly conceited of your singular expositions : That when of ten of the learnedest and hardest studied Expositors of the Revelation , perhaps in many things scarce two are of a mind ; yet when you differ from them all , or all save one , you can be as peremptory and confident in your opinion , as if you were far wiser , or more infallible than they . 4. When you place a greater necessity in it than there is ; as if salvation , or Church-communion lay upon your conceits . Whereas God hath made the points that are of necessity to salvation , to be few and plain . Direct . 7. When you look on the sin and misery of the world , and see small hope of its recovery , look up by Faith to that better world , where all is Light , and Love , and Peace . And pray for that coming of Christ , when all this sin shall be brought to Judgment , and wisdom and godliness be fully justified before all the world . Let the badness of this world drive up your hearts to that above , where all is better than you can wish . Direct . 8. When you are ready to stumble at the consideration of Gods desertion of so great a part of the world , quiet your minds in the implicite submission to his infinite wisdom and goodness . Dare you think that you are more gracious and merciful than God ? Or that it is meet you should know all the secrets of his providence , who must not know the mysteries o● Government , in the State or Kingdom where you live ? He that cannot rest in the wisdom , will and mercies of infinite Goodness it self , but must have all his own expectations satisfied , shall have no rest . And think withall , how little a spot of Gods Creation this earthly world is : and how incomprehensibly vast the superiour Regions are in comparison of it . And if all the upper parts of the world be possessed with none but holy Spirits , and even this lower earth , have also many millions of Saints , prepared here for the things above , we have no more reason to judge God to be unmerciful , because this lower world is so bad , than we have to judge the King unmerciful , when we look into the common Jayle ; nor to judge of his government by the Rogues in a Jayle , but by his Court , and all the subjects of his Kingdom . If God should forsake no place but Hell , of all his Creation , you could not grudge at him as unmerciful : And it is a very hard question whether this earth , and the air about it , be not the place of Hell ; when you consider that the Devils are cast down from Heaven , and yet that they dwell and rule in the Air , and compass the Earth , and tempt the wicked , and work in the children of disobedience , Ephes . 2.1 , 2. Job 1. 2 Tim. 2.26 . And that Satan is called , the God and Prince of this world , Joh. 12.31 . & 14.30 . & 16.11 . 2 Cor. 4.4 . Ephes . 6.12 . But if it be not the place of final execution , it is the place where they are kept in prison till the great Assizes , and where they are reserved in chains of darkness , to the Judgment of the great day , and where they are tormented before the time , 2 Pet. 2.4 . Jude 6. Matth. 8.29 . Look then from this Dungeon , to the glorious incomprehensible mansions of the holy ones ; and judge by them , and not by this prison , of the goodness and infinite benignity of God. And if he will give so many obstinate despisers of his grace , a place with those Devils that did seduce and rule them , think not God to be therefore unmerciful ; but behold his mercy in the innumerable vessels of honour and mercy , that shall possess the higher mansions for ever . CHAP. XXV . How to live by Faith in the love of one another , against Self-love . Direct . 1. LEt Faith first employ you in the knowledge of God : and when you know him who is Love it self , you will best learn of him to love . You will see that that is best , which is likest unto God ; and that is worst , which is most unlike him . And when you consider how universally , though variously , he loveth his creatures , and how he expresseth it , and how he loveth benevolently , because he is good , and loveth complacentially , because also the thing is good which he loveth , you will learn the art of love from God , Rom. 9.13 ▪ Deut. 4.37 . & 7.8 . & 23.5 . & 33.3 . 1 John 3.16 , 17. & 4.7 , 9 , 11 , 12 , 19 , 20 , 21. Direct . 2. Study Jesus Christ aright , and you will also learn to love of him . There you will see Self-denying Love ; which stooped to earth , to reproach , to sufferings , to labours , to death , and spared not life or any thing to do good : It is the chief Lesson which you go to School to Christ to learn : And it is as proper to go to him to learn to love , as it is to go to the Sun for light , Rom. 5.8 . John 13.34 . 1 Thes . 4.9 . John 11.36.5 . & 13.1 . & 15.9 . Ephes . 5.2 , 25. John 15.12 . Direct . 3. Know God in his Works and Image , and then you will see him in his natural Image , in all men as rational , and in his moral Image in all his Saints ; and then you will see what to love , and why . He that cannot see God in a glass in this world , cannot see him at all , and cannot love him . Remember that it is in his servants and creatures , that he exposeth himself to be seen , and known , and loved , 1 Joh. 2.10 . & 3.10 , 14. & 4.7 , 8 , 20 , 21. & 5.1 . Matth. 25.40 . Direct . 4. Abhor that proud malignant censoriousness , which is apt to make the worst of others , and to deny , and extenuate , and overlook Gods graces in them ( as the Devil did by Job : ) and which can see no goodness in them that are not eminently good . For this is but the Devils artifice , to kill mens love to one another . Though he pretend the honour of Godliness , and the hatred of sin , when he telleth you , [ such an one is an Hypocrite , and such an one hath nothing but a form , and no power of Godliness : I can see nothing of God in him ; alas , they are poor carnal people ; ] all is but to destroy your Love. And thus he mightily prospereth in the malignant spirit of separation ; by which he can make you unchurch whole Churches , and unchristen whole Towns and Parishes , and all because that you that are strangers to them , and see not their godliness , or hear of nothing eminent in them . But the world of dividers will take no warning , any more than the world of the prophane . Satan doth deceive them all . Direct . 5. Abhor therefore the sin of backbiting and evil-speaking ; and when you hear a malignant censurer thus unchristen and unchurch men without proof , behind their backs , if gentler reproofs will not serve the turn , frown them away , and say [ Get thee behind me Satan : ] the accuser of the brethren , and the spirit of hatred , maketh it his work in the world to destroy mens love to one another ; and he hath no such way to do it , as by making them seem unlovely to one another : And he that perswadeth me that my neighbour is not good , perswadeth me that he is not lovely , and so perswadeth me from loving him , Prov. 25.23 . Rom. 1.30 . Psal . 15.3 . 2 Cor. 12.20 . Rom. 14.3 , 4 , 10 , 13. James 4.11 , 12. Matth. 7.1 , 2. 1 Cor. 4.5 . Direct . 6. Above all , seek to mortifie selfishness , which is the great enemy of love to God and man. A selfish man can faithfully love none but himself ; for he loveth all others but for himself : His own opinions , interests and ends , are the disposers of his Love. Therefore he never heartily loveth his enemy : no nor the best , that do not honour him , but seem to slight him . If any should neglect him , or speak hardly of him , or do him any real or seeming wrong , or be of another side , against his party , or his cause , no censures are too sharp , nor no love too little for such a one . And yet these that can love none heartily but themselves , will find that they had no greater enemies than themselves , and that Hell and Earth did not so much as themselves against them . Direct . 7. Subject your selves truly to Gods authority , and his commands will further Love : For it is the summ of them all , and the fulfilling of his Law , both old and new , Gal. 5.14 . Rom. 13.8 , 9 , 10. John 13.34 . & 15.12 , 17. Matth. 12.30 , 32 , 33. Direct . 8. Remember that Love is the bond , and life , and interest of the Church , and of the world . Without Love the world would have neither unity , peace or safety : What were a family without it ? Were it not for Love , men that were not kept fettered in Jayles , or Bedlams , would be as Robbers , or Wolves , or mad Dogs to one another . Were it not for Love , the Church would be crumbled into malicious Sects , that would spend their time in prating and militating against each other ; and preach and talk down Love to one another ; and would call this devilish work , the preaching of the Gospel , or the worshipping of God ; while they blaspheme him by offering him a sacrifice of hatred and reviling , as they do that offer him a sacrifice of mans blood , Ephes . 4.15 , 16. But speaking the truth in Love , you may grow up into him in all things , which is the head , even Christ . From whom the whole body fitly joyned together , and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth , according to the effectual working in the measure of every part , maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in Love. Yea their own Sects would turn to dust and atoms , if Love , which is there confined , did not soder them together , when it is dead in them as to all others , or as to the most . Direct . 9. Love is our spiritual health , and Selfishness is our sickness , sin and death . When we fell from the Love of God to our selves , we fell also from the Love of others to our selves : The individuate creature was contracted in himself , and all together set upon Propriety , and forgot his relations to God and man : And when grace destroyeth this selfish privateness of spirit , it setteth us again in love with God and man together ; and the better any man is , the more publick spirit he is of , and the less d●fference he maketh between his neighbours interest , and his own ( when God and his interest make not a difference . ) And this is to Love our neighbour as our selves ; that is , without the vice of partial selfishness ; not setting up our own interest against his , but equally measuring both by Gods ; and referring them thereunto , Levit. 19.18 , 34. Matth. 19.19 . Gal. 15.4 . Direct . 10. Remember that loving others as our selves is our own interest and benefit , as well as our duty . And a notable instance it is , how much our duty is our own interest and good ; and how merciful God is in his strictest Laws . As the Love of God is Heaven it self , and sinners that love him not , do damn themselves , and put themselves from Heaven and happiness ( and to pardon them , is to sanctifie them ) even so it is an unspeakable loss and misery which sinners draw upon themselves , by not loving their neighbours , as themselves , but only in a subordination to themselves , and for their proper private ends . I pray you mark but these few particular instances . 1. If I love my neighbour as my self , my very love is my delight and ease . The form of Love consisteth in complacency or pleasedness ; and therefore it must needs be pleasant to every one that useth it ( However bad Love hath bitter fruits . ) And whenever wrath , or envy , or hatred , comes instead of Love , it is my sickness , I feel my self diseased by it . 2. If I love others , others will love me . They are scarce free to do otherwise . You may almost constrain any man to love you , if you love him heartily , and shew it plainly , and were within his view to make him see it . All men love a loving nature ; but especially if they be loved by such themselves . 3. If I love my neighbour as my self , to do good to him will be as easie and pleasant as to my self . I can ride , and run , and labour contentedly for my self : I can sloop to the most sordid employment for my self : And so I should as easily do for others : Whereas want of Love doth make all tedious that I do , and maketh my duty a continual burden , and too often tempts me to omit it . Love made both Christ and his Apostles to do so much for souls with ease and pleasure , which else they could not have undergone , John 15.13.9 . 2 Cor. 12.15 . Ephes . 3.17 . & 5.2 Col. 2.2 . 4. If I love my neighbour as my self , I can as easily suffer any thing from him , as from my self . I can easily bear that in my self , as to sight or smell ; the loathsomest sores or ulcers , which others cannot bear . I am easily brought to forgive my self , and to forbear self-hurting , and self-revenge ; and so should I do to others , if I thus loved them . And then how easie would my life be among all the injuries of the world ! 5. If I loved my neighbour as my self ; if my flesh did want , my mind ( which is my self ) could never be in want : Because all that my neighbours have is mine , as to my comfort and content . My house is homely , but my neighbours is comely and convenient ; and to my mind that is as comfortable , as if it were my own : My Land is small , but my neighbours is large : my grounds are barren , but my neighbours fruitful : my corn is bad , but his proves good : my cattel die , or prosper not , but his do well : I am low and despicable , and no man careth for me ; but others are Lords , and Princes , and honourable : and if I love them as my self , their corn , their cattel , their houses and lands , their Kingdoms and honours , are as much my comfort , as if they were my own . I know these are Paradoxes to dapraved selfish nature ; but thus it would be if Love were perfect ; and thus it is in that measure that we love . And should that duty be taken for a burden , which as to my comfort maketh all the wealth , and honour , and Kingdoms of others to be my own ? Obj. If you love your neighbours as your selves , you must mourn with them that mourn ; and all the calamities and sorrows of the world must be yours ; which will overcome your joyes . Ans . 1. I am not to sorrow as much as they do sorrow , but as much as they rationally ought to do . And men are not to think that a loving correction , which worketh for their good and salvation , is worse than the snares of prosperity : The brother of high degree must rejoyce when he is made low , as well as the brother of low degree must rejoyce when he is exalted , Jam 19.10 . And why should that be my sorrow , which is his benefit , and should be his joy ? If Paul and Silas sing in the stocks , why should not I sing with them ? Patience and rejoycing are the duty of all Believers in affliction . 2. The mercies and happiness of every one that feareth God ▪ is far more than his misery : Therefore his joy and gratitude should be more than his sorrows and complaints . If a mans tooth do ach , and all the rest of his body be well , should not he and I be more thankful for the health of all the rest , than troubled for a tooth ? A Believer hath alwaies the Spirit of God , and a part in Christ , and the pardon of sin , and a right to Heaven : And then how much greater should his joy be than his sorrows , and mine also on his behalf ? 3. The Goodness and Love of God is manifested to the world more abundantly than his justice and severity . We know of no afflicted Saints but on this spot of earth : And we know of no damned ones , but Devils and wicked men : But we know that the worlds above us are incomparably more vast than this , and that the glory of the celestial Spirits , is far greater than our sufferings and sorrows here : Therefore our joy which Love procureth , should be a thousand-fold greater than our sorrows . 4. And as for the wicked , as the consequent Will of God layeth by compassion ; so consequently , considering them as the obstinate final refusers of grace , they are not those neighbours whom we are bound to love as our selves : For they are enemies to God , and deprived of his Image ; and therefore our obligations to mourn for them , are abated ( as Samuels for Saul , when he knew that God had rejected him ( 1 Sam. 15.35 . & 16.1 . ) And we are obliged to rejoyce in the declarations of the Justice and Holiness of God , and the universal benefit which redoundeth from his Judgments , Rev. 18.20 . & 12.12 . Esther 8.15 . So that it still remaineth clear , that loving our neighbours as our selves , doth entitle us to the comforts of all mens health , estates , prosperity , honours ; yea and their holiness and wisdom too ; and this without any such participation of their sorrows , as should be any considerable ecclipse of our delights ; if we do it all regularly , as God requireth us . 6. If I love my neighbour as my self , I am freed from all the trouble of cross interests ; in buying and selling , in trespassing , in Law-suits ; It will comfort me as much if he get by me , as if I get by him : If his bargain prove the better , as if mine did ; if he have the better at Law , as if it were judged to my self . Yea all his successes , prosperity , and whatever good befalleth any that I know of in the world , will all be mine . 7. And I shall never be loth by death to leave the world ( while I have no cause to fear the missing of salvation ) because whatever I leave behind me , will be possessed by such as I love as my self . They will have life , and time , and health , and comforts , and whatever my nature is loth to leave : Therefore whilest I live , why should it not be as comforting to me to think that so many shall live and prosper , whom I love as my self , as if I were my self to live and prosper . 8. Yea , more than so , I have by Love a part in the Joyes of Heaven , before I am actually there . For the Joyes of all those blessed souls , and of those holy Angels , are mine by participation , so far as to cause me to rejoyce in their felicity , as if it were my own , as far as I can now apprehend it . Yea the Glory of the Lord Jesus , and the eternal blessedness of God himself , would rejoyce us more than our own felicity , if we loved him as much above our selves , as we ought to do , we should partake of our Masters joy . And now judge whether loving God as God , and our neighbours sincerely as our selves , would not cure almost all the calamities of our minds , and give us a kind of Heaven , and be a cheap and certain way , to have what we can wish in all the world , and even to make all the world our own . And whether it be not sin it self , which is the first part of all mens hell and misery ? Object . But my neighbours meat will not fill my belly ; nor his health doth not ease my pain ; nor his fire keep me warm . Answ . The flesh hath got the dominion indeed , when men cannot distinguish between soul and body , between the pain and pleasures of the body and of the mind . I do not say that Love will change the pain or pleasure of your bodies , but of your minds . Your appetites will not be satisfied with your neighbours food , but your minds may be comforted to see his welfare . Your pain is not eased by your neighbours health ; but your minds may be pleased by it , as much as if it were your own , if you loved him as much as you do your self . And therefore many in a danger have saved the life of a Prince , a Captain , a Parent , a Child , a Friend , with the voluntary loss of their own . Object . This is all true ; but who is there in the world that doth it , or findeth it possible to love another as himself ? And how can that be a duty , which is to nature it self an impossibility ? Therefore let us first know what this duty is , of loving our neighbours as our selves . Answ . Doubtless if it be the summ of the Law , all true Christians do it in sincerity , though not in perfection . And as to the sense of it , 1. You must distinguish between that sensitive and passionate affection , which is in the soul as sensitive , and is common to beasts with men , and that rational appetite , which doth will , and chuse , and is pleased according to the conduct of pure reason . The first we doubt not will be still more to our selves than others ; and it is not the use of grace to destroy it , but to rule and moderate it . 2. You must distinguish between Love and outward actions , which are the expressions of it . When our Love is due as much to one , as to another , yet our outward actions may be under a particular Law , which obligeth us to do that for one , which we are not bound to do for others . As to maintain our own children , families , servants , and so our selves rather than others . And the reason is , because the difference of individuals maketh that fit for one , which is not fit for another ; and so maketh every man the fittest chuser for himself , and those that are neerest to him ; and nature instigateth him to the greatest care in doing it : And all good must be done in a regular order , or else confusion will destroy it . And nature maketh this most orderly As every Parish must keep their own poor , and yet must love other poor as well . 3. You must know that Love is formally nothing but complacence ( as aforesaid ) but Love joyned with a will and purpose to do good to another , is called Love of benevolence ; when yet the Love there is one thing , and the doing good , or purpose to do it , is another ; and I may in obedience to God , purpose and do more good to one whom I am bound to Love , not more but less . And now you may see what it is to love our neighbours as our selves . 1. God must be loved above our neighbours and our selves ; and both must be loved purely as related and subordinate to him , and for his sake . There is a double respect which all things have to God : 1. As they contain that excellency which he hath put upon them , which is some likeness , representation or signification of himself ; and is called his Glory shining in the creature ; that is , it 's derived Goodness . 2. As they conduce to his further service , and may honour him , and please him . Thus all creatures must be loved only as a means , even a means declaring God , being derivatively and significantly good and useful ; and as a means to serve and please him . 2. Therefore this being the formal reason of our Rational Love , must also be the measure of it ( à quatenus ad quantum . ) As it is certain that I must love that best which is best , because I must love it only as good ; so it is certain that that is best which hath most likeness to God , and most of his Glory upon it , and that which is most pleasing to him , and useful to his service . Therefore if my neighbour be better than I am , I must judge him better , and love him better . 3. Though natural self-appetite , and self-preservation , by which all creatures are for themselves only ( not feeling the hunger , cold , pain of others ) be not sinful , but the effect of creating individuation , yet Reason was perfect , and the Will could perfectly follow Reason , in its complacency and choice , till sin corrupted it : Reason could judge that best which was best , and the Will could love that best which was best . Therefore where ever any of this is wanting , it is sin . 4. The principal part or summ of positive sin , doth consist in selfishness . Man is fallen from the Love of God and man , to himself ; and grace recovereth him from this . Therefore it is , that this duty is not only unperformed , but hardly discerned by unrenewed men : so far as they are selfish , they hardly believe that they should love their neighbours as themselves . 5. To love our neighbours as our selves , in point of duty , containeth these two things : First , To love them simply according to their goodness , without any hinderance of selfishness or partiality : Not to forbear loving them , because they are not our selves , or because they are against any inordinate selfish interest or appetite of our own . And also comparatively , to love them in the same degree with our selves , if they have the same degree of loveliness ; so that it cannot extend to the kind , and the end , ●nd reason of the Love , but it must needs also extend to the degree . If I love him less than my self , who is better than my self , I love him not as my self , as to ends and reason . 6. Yea I am bound by this Law to love every man better or more than my self , who is really better , and is so manifest to me : Or else I love him not as my self , that is , on the same true Reasons as I must love my self ( for God and the goodness of the object . ) 7. But as all men fail in the degree of this Love ( and therefore none perfectly keep the Law ; ) so the sincerity which all Gods servants have , doth consist in this ; that 1. Our love to others is for Gods sake , and for the goodness which he hath endued them with , and the service they may do him . 2. That this God and his service , for whose sake we love them , be preferred before our selves , and every creature , and loved better than all our sinful pleasures . 3. That our love to them for Gods sake and graces be such , as ordinarily in the exercise and effects will prevail ag●●●st our Love of sensual interest and delights ; and will bring us effectually to succour , relieve , and do them good , though to our fleshly loss , when God requireth it . He that cannot love Christ in his servants , better than his carnal pleasures , loveth him not at all sincerely . Gods Image and interest in his servants , and in mankind , must be practically more precious to us , and more beloved by us , than all our carnal sinful pleasures . ( For as for our own spiritual good , it standeth in such a connexion with Gods will and glory , and our neighbours good , that I know not how to put them into comparison in the try●l , much less in opposition . ) 4. That all carnal self-love and uncharitableness contrary to this , be hated , resisted , repented of , and subdued , and be not predominant in us , against the Love of God and man. 8. The meaning of the Command is not that we shall love our neighgours as we inordinately and sinfully love our selves ; but as we ought to love our selves ; and as we regularly and justly do love our selves . He that loveth himself too much and sinfully , must not therefore so love his neighbour . 9. He that loveth his neighbour as himself ( that is , without selfish partiality , and for the same reasons as he must love himself , viz. for the Image and Interest of God ) is obliged by this very rule , to love himself more than his neighbour , when he is better , and more pleasing and serviceable to God. ( Therefore he that would warrantably love himself most , must labour to be himself the best , and then he may lawfully do it , so far as his own goodness , and other mens defects are truly known to him . 10. As a Fathers Love may consist with the correction of his children , and self-love with blood-letting , purging , labour , and other unpleasing things ; so we may love our neighbours as our selves , and yet correct and punish evil doers : For sometimes their own good requireth it ; and ordinarily the publick good requireth it ( poena debetur Reipublicae ) and also Gods command requireth it ; so that this is not loving our selves more than our neighbour ; but loving him more than his ease , or his favour and loving God , and the Common-wealth , more than him . 11. Our love of our neighbours as our selves , doth not at all make our natural selfish appetites and senses , or desire of food , health , ease , rest , &c. to be sinful : Nor oblige us to have such natural senses and appetites for others ; but only rationally to equal them in estimation and complacence , and to do them so much good as God requireth us . 12. And it doth not oblige us to do as much for them as for our selves , for the reasons before all●dged ; but to do them good without the hinderance of self interest : That selfishness be not to us as a Bile or Imposthume , which draweth the humours and spirits unequally and disorderly from the rest of the body to it self . By all this it is evident , 1. That no man hath an inequality in his love to himself and his neighbour , beyond the inequality of goodness , but it is sinful ( speaking of Rational Love. ) 2. That all Love to out neighbour is not sincere : There is a real Love to them , which bad men may have , which is not the sincere love which God requireth . 3. Every man that loveth another for his goodness and godliness , loveth him not sincerely : For he may have a love to goodness it self , which is not sincere : As if he love his lusts and pleasures more . 4. Every man that doth good to another in Love , doth not therefore sincerely love him . A Dives may give Lazarus his s●●●ps : And the very est sensualist may give another some of the leavings of his fleshly lusts . And though the giving of a cup of cold water to a Disciple , when we have no better to give , doth shew sincerity , and shall have its reward ( because God accepteth it , according to mens will , and to what they have , and not according to what they have not ; ) yet it is certain that an unhappy worldling may give much more . And if Christ had bid him Luke 18.23 . sell part , instead of selling all , it 's like he might not have gone away sorrowful . 5. It is not therefore the value or proportion of the gift , which is it that must try our love to others , in it self considered ; for it may oft fall out that a Widdows mite may signifie truer charity , than the substance of some others . But it is the prevalency of the Love of God in man , and of man for the sake of God , against our sinful self-love , and carnal interest . And now I will add a little more evidence , to the principal thing in question , viz. that 〈◊〉 the very degree the Rational Appetite or Will should love another equal with our selves . And 1. The forementioned reason is undenyable , that the Will should love that best which is best , and must measure that by the respect which things have to God , and not to our own commodity in the world . 2. No man can deny this principle but by setting up natural self-love or appetite , and making the rational stoop to that , which would infer as well , that we may love our selves better than God himself ; and that our sense is nobler than our reason , and must rule it . 3. We find our own reason tell us much more of our duty in this , than our corrupted wills do follow . The best way therefore to discern the truth , is to treat with reason alone , and leave out the will , till we have dispatcht with reason . And you will find that the common light of nature justifieth this Law of God. 1. He that would not confess that it is better he had no being , than that there were no God , or no world besides him , is a monster of selfishness . And if a man say never so much [ I cannot do so ] yet while he confesseth that this should be his desire , it sufficeth to the decision of our present case . 2. He that will not confess that it is better that he himself should die , than all the Church of Christ , or the whole Kingdom die , is unreasonably selfish in the eyes of all impartial men . The gallant Romans and Athenians had learnt it , as one of their plainest greatest Lessons , to prefer their Country before their lives : And is not that to love their Countryes better than themselves . 3. For the same reason many of them saw , that it was the duty of a good subject , or a gallant souldier , to save the life of his King or General , with the loss of his own : Because their lives were of more publick utility . And the ground of all this was these natural verities . [ The best should be best loved : Goodness must be measured by a higher rule than personal self-interest : Multitudes are better than one . &c. ] 4. All men acknowledge that a man of eminent Learning , Piety , Wisdom , and Vsefulness to the Church or World , should be loved and preserved rather than a wicked , sottish , worthless child of our own . Yea God himself requireth that Parents procure the death of their own children , by publick Justice , if they be obstinately wicked , Deut. 21. 5. The same Reasons plainly infer , that I ought rather to desire the life of a much more worthy useful instrument for the Church and State , than my own ; and so to love a better man better than my self , if I be acquainted sufficiently with his goodness . And if this be all so sure and plain , hence observe , 1. How much humane nature is corrupted . Alas , how rare is this equal Love ! 2. How few true Christians are ; and how defective and imperfect grace is in the best . Alas ! how strange are many Christians to the extent of this duty , and how far are we all from practising it in any eminent degree ? 3. Wherein it is that natures corruption most consisteth ; and what is the chief part of the nature and work of sanctifying grace and reformation . 4. Whence come all the oppressions , injuries , persecutions , frauds and cruelties on the earth : For want of loving mens neighbours as themselves : Otherwise how tenderly would they handle one another ? How easily would they pardon wrongs ? How patiently would they bear the dissent of honest , upright Christians , who cannot force their judgments to be of other mens mould and size ? How apt would men be to suspect their own understandings , of weakness , presumption or errour , rather than to rave with the fury of the Dragon against all others , who think them to be mistaken ? How safely and quietly might we live by them in the world , if they loved their neighbours as themselves ? I do not say now , How plentiful would men be in doing good to others ? I am but pleading a lower cause , How seldom they would be in doing hurt ? But , alas , miserable Brittain ! It was in thee that one extraordinary Emperour , Alexander Sevetus was betrayed and murdered , who made that Christian precept his Motto , and wrote it on his doors , and books , and goods [ Do as you would be done by . ] In thee it is that Love hath been beheaded , while nothing hath been more acknowledged and professed . If Love be treacherous , hurtful , envious , scandalous , ensnaring and plotting for mens destruction : If Love teach proud and vicious sots , to take themselves for Deities , and Oracles , and all for Vermine that must be hunted unto death , who bow not to their carnal erroneous conceits , and do not with the readiest prostitute consciences , serve their carnal interests and ends : If Love be known by reviling those that are much better than our selves ; and stigmatizing the faithfullest servants of Christ with the most odious character that lyes can utter : If it was Love that called Paul a pestilent fellow , and a mover of sedition among the people , and represented Christ as an enemy to Caesar and his followers , as the filth and off-scouring of the earth ; then happy age in which we live ; and happy they that are possessed with the proud and factious spirit . But if all be otherwise , alas , where be they , and how few that love their neighbours , or betters , as themselves ? 5. You see here what a plague sin is to the earth , and how great ( a punishment may I call it , or rather ) a misery to the sinner , and to the world . 6. And you see how joyful and heavenly a life we should live , if we did but follow Gods commands : And what a felicity Love it self is to the soul . 7. And you see by what measure to try mens spirits , and to know who are the best among all the pretenders to goodness in the world . Certainly not the most censorious , contemptuous , backbiters and cruel , that seek to make all odious that are not for their interest : But those that most abound in Love , which Faith it self is given to produce . Object . All this is true ; but still we find it a thing impossible to love our neighbour equally with our selves : Can you teach us how to do it ? Answ . It is that I have been teaching you in the ten Directions before set down : But it is this which I have reserved to the close that must do the work indeed , and without it nothing else will do it . Direct . 11. Make it the work of all your lives , by Faith in Christ , to bring up your souls to the unfeigned Love of God , and then it will be done . For then you will love God above all , and love God in all ; and love your selves and your neighbours principally for God : Then Gods Image , and Glory , and Will , will be Goodness or Amiableness in your eyes ; and not carnal pleasure , honour or commodity . And then it will be easie to you to love that most , which hath most of God. You will then easily see the reason of this seeming Paradox , and that the contrary is most unreasonable . You will then be as Timothy , who had a natural Love to others , as others have to themselves , and who sought the things of Jesus Christ , when all others ( even the best Ministers too much ) sought their own , Phil. 2.20 , 21. You will understand Pauls charge , Phil. 2.3 , 4. In lowliness of mind , let each esteem others better than themselves . Look not every man on his own , but every man also on the things of others . Let this mind be in you , which was also in Christ Jesus . You will learn of Christ to take your neerest friend for a Satan , that would perswade you to save or spare your self ( yea your life ) when you ought to lay it down for the Glory of God , and the good of many , Matth. 16.22 , 23. SELF and OWN are words which would then be better understood , and be more suspected : And the reason of the great Gospel duty of SELF-DENYAL would be better discerned . Therefore set your selves to the study of God , especially in his Goodness ; study him in his Works , and in his Word , and in his Son , and in the Glory where you hope everlastingly to see him : And if you once love God as God indeed , it will teach you to love your Brethren , and in what sort , and in what degree to do it . For many waies are we taught of God to love one another : Even 1. By the great and heavenly teacher of Love , Jesus Christ : 2. And by Gods own example , Matth. 5.44 , 45 ▪ 3. And by the shedding abroad of his love in our hearts by the Spirit of Love , Rom. 5.5 . 4. And by this actual loving God , and so loving all of God in the world . Object . But by this doctrine you will prepare for the Levellers and Fryers , to cast down , or cry down Propriety . Answ . 1. There is a propriety of food , rayment , &c. which individuation hath made necessary . 2. There is a propriety of Stewardship , which God causeth by the various disposal of his talents , and which is the just reward of humane industry , and the necessary encouragement of wit , and labour in the world : None of these would we cast down , or preach down . 3. But there is a common abuse of propriety to the maintenance of mens own lusts , and to the hurt of others , and of all Societies : This we would preach down if we could : But it is Love only which must be the Leveller : In the Primitive Church , Love shewed its power by such a voluntary community , Acts 4. And all Politicians , who have drawn the Idea of a perfect Common-wealth , have been fumbling at other waies of accomplishing it : But it is Christian Love alone that must do it . Unfeignedly love God as God , and love your neighbours really as your selves , and then keep your proprieties as far as this will give you leave . I will conclude with this considerable observation ; that though it is false which some affirm , that individuation is a punishment for some former sin ( for how could a soul not individuate sin ? ) And though sensitive self-love , which is the principle of self-preservation , be no sin it self ; nor doth grace destroy it ; yet the inordinacy of it is the summ and root of all positive sin , and an increaser of privative sin : And this inseparable sensitive self-love , was made to be more under the power of reason , and to be ruled by it , than now we find it in any the most sanctified person ; even as Abrahams love of the life of his only Son , was to be subject to his Faith. And holiness lyeth more in this subjection , than most men well understand . And the inordinacy of this personal self-love , hath so strangely perverted the mind it self , that it is not only very hard to convince men of the evil of any selfish principles or sins ; but it greatly blindeth them , as to all duties of publick interest , and social nature : Yea and maketh them afraid of Heaven it self ; where the union of souls will be as much neerer than now it is , as their Love will be greater and more perfect : And though it will not be by any cessation of personal individuation , and by falling into one universal soul ; yet perfect Love will make the union neerer than we who have no experience of it , can possibly now comprehend . ( And when we feel the strongest Love to a friend , desiring the neerest union , we have the best help to understand it . ) But men that feel not the divine and holy love , are by inordinate self-love , and abuse of individuation , afraid of the life to come , lest the union should be so great as to lose their individuation , or prejudice their personal divided interests . Yea true believers , so far as their holy Love is weak , and their inordinate sensitive self-love is yet too strong , are from hence afraid of another world , when they scarce know why ; but indeed it is much from this disease ; which maketh men still desire their personal felicity , too partially ▪ and in a divided way , and to be afraid of losing their personality or propriety , by too ne●r a union and communion of souls . CHAP. XXVI . How by Faith to be followers of the Saints , and to look with profit to their examples , and to their end . THE great work of living in Heaven by Faith , I have said so much of as to the principal part in my [ Saints Rest ] that no more of that must be expected here . Only this subject which is not so usually and fully treated of , to the people as it it ought ( being one part of our heavenly conversation ) I think meet to speak to more distinctly at this time . As we are commanded first , to look to Jesus the Author and perfecter of our faith , Heb. 12.2 , 3. so are we commanded to remember our guides , and to follow their faith , and consider the end of their conversation , Heb. 13.7 . And not to be slothful , but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises , Heb. 6.12 . To which end we have a cloud of witnesses set before us , in Heb. 11. that next to Jesus whom they followed , we should look to them , and follow them , Jam. 5.10 . My Brethren , take the Prophets for an example — The Reasons of this duty are these . 1. God hath made them our examples two waies : 1. By his graces , making them holy and fit for our imitation . He gave them their gifts , not only for themselves , nor only for that present generation , but for us also , and all that must survive , to the end of the world . As it is said of Abrahams Justification , Rom. 4.23 , 24. It was said that Faith was imputed to him for righteousness , not for his sake alone , but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe — So I may say in this case ; their faith , their piety , their patience was given them , and is recorded , not for their salvation , or their honour only ; but also to further the salvation of their posterity , by encouragement and imitation . If all things are for our sakes , 2 Cor. 4.15 . then the graces of Gods Saints were for our sakes : For the Churches edification it is that Christ giveth both offices , gifts and graces to his Ministers , Ephes . 4.5 , 12 , 14 , 15 , 16. yea and sufferings too , Phil. 1.12 , 20. 2 Cor. 1.4 , 6. 2 Tim. 2.10 . I endure all things for the elects sake . 2. By commanding us to follow them , 2 Thes . 3.7 , 9. For your selves know how ye ought to follow us — To make our selves an example for you to follow us , Phil. 3.17 . Be followers together of me , and mark them that so walk , as ye have us for an ensample , 1 Cor. 4.16 . I beseech you be followers of me , 1 Thes . 1.6 . Ye became followers of us , and of the Lord : So well are both examples consistent . 2. The likeness of other mens cases to ours , is greatly useful to our direction and encouragement . If we are to travel in dangerous waies , we will be glad to hear how others have sped before us ; and if we were to deal with a crafty deceiver , we would willingly advise with others that have dealt with him . If we be to learn any Trade or Artifice , we would learn it of them who with best success have practised it before us . If we are sick of any disease , we are glad to talk with them that have had the same , and have been cured of it ; to hear what means they used for their cure . In all such cases reason teacheth us , both to observe how others were affected ; whether their case and ours were the same ; what course they took ; and how they sped ; especially if they were persons known to us , and the likeness of their case well known ; and if they were such as for wisdom and fidelity we could trust : So is it in this great business of our salvation . We have nothing to do , but what many thousands have done before us ; nothing to suffer but what they have suffered ; no temptation to resist , but what they have been assaulted with , and overcame , 1 Cor. 10.13 . and we want no grace , no help or comfort , but what they did attain : And the glory which we seek and hope for , they possess . To look to them therefore , must needs be useful to us in this our wilderness state . 3. And as experience is a powerful Teacher ; so to be the Master of other mens experiences , and so many , and so wise , and in such various cases , and in so many ages , must needs be very useful to us . We that are born in the last ages of the world , have the benefit of the experience of all the world that have gone before us : Therefore is the Scripture written so much historically ; that all who are there mentioned , may still be our instructors . Even the first brethren that were born into the world , were so plain a discovery of the nature of sin and grace , and of the difference of the womans and the Serpents seed , that their history is useful to all generations . And Abel by his faith , and sacrifice , and righteousness , being dead ( by malignant cruelty ) yet speaketh , Heb. 11.4 . He that will but soberly look back to all the worlds experience , may quickly be resolved , whether wisdom or folly , labour or idleness , godliness or ungodliness , temperance or sensuality , furthering the Gospel of Christ , or persecuting it , have sped better at the last , and hath proved best to the actors upon full experience . I shall therefore here give you some directions how you may believingly follow the Saints . And first observe that the duty hath these parts , which you must distinctly mind ; 1. To take them for your examples under Christ , and so to fix your eyes upon them , and look at them , and mind them as examples , must be minded : 2. To improve these examples which you look upon : And that is , 1. For your direction in duty , and for your warning against sin : 2. To your encouragement and consolation . Direct . 1. Look after them to their end , and consider 1. Whither they are gone : We see nothing of them after death , but the corpse which we leave in dust and darkness : But Faith can attend their souls to glory , and see where they now are ; even with Christ , according to his promise , John 12.26 . Phil. 1.23 . John 17.24 , with Angels , and with one another , in the heavenly society , the City of God. 2. What they are doing : And Faith can see that they are beholding God , and their glorified Redeemer , Matth. 5.8 . Heb. 12.14 . 1 John 3.2 . They are loving God with perfect Love , 1 Cor. 12. & 13.1 , 2 , &c. They are praising him with perfect alacrity and joy ; saying , Holy , Holy , Holy , Lord God Almighty , &c. Rev. 4.8 . They are so far minding the state of the world , as to cry , How long , O Lord , holy and true , dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth : And they are waiting in white Robes , till their fellow servants also , and their brethren that shall be killed as they were , shall be fulfilled , Rev. 6.10 , 11. They are rejoycing when the enemies of Christ and his Church are subdued , Rev. 18.20 . And they shall judge the malignant Angels and the world , 1 Cor. 4.2 , 3. And this seemeth not to be only an approbation of Christs final Judgment : For 1. Judging is very often put in Scripture for governing : As in the book of the Judges , it is said , such and such a one judged Israel ; that is , ruled them according to the Laws of God. 2. And a Kingdom and Reign is often promised to the Saints : To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne , even as I also overcame , and am set down with my Father in his Throne , Rev. 3.21 . Which must needs signifie some participation in power of Government , and not only in splendor of Glory . And so Christ expoundeth , Matth. 19.28 . Luke 22.30 . Ye which have followed me , in the regeneration shall sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel . ( And of God it is said , Psal . 9.4 . Thou sa●est in the Thrones judging right . ) It is too jejune and forced an exposition of them that say this is spoken only of the power which the Apostles had in their ministration on earth : And as absurd is the other , that it is spoken only of Apostles , Pastors , and Saints , and Martyrs in specie that their successors shall be Popes and Prelates , and great men in the world , and the Saints be uppermost after Constantines conversion . As if the promise meant only to reward one man , because another suffered for Christ , and God had promised these great things , not to the persons mentioned , but to others that should be their successors ; yea as if that Venom then poured into the Church , were all the benediction . And though I know not what changes are yet to come before the final Judgment , yet the Millenaries opinion , who restrain all this to an earthly temporal reign of some Saints for a thousand years , doth seem as unsatisfactory on many accounts . It is most likely therefore that as the wicked ( who are now very like them ) must be hereafter of the same Region and Society with the Devil and his Angels , ( Matth. 25.41 . ) And as the godly shall be like and equal to the Angels , Luke 20.36 . so we shall be of the same Society with the Angels ; and consequently shall have their employment . And as the Angels have a Ministerial Stewardship or Superintendency over men and their affairs ( as many Scriptures fully shew ) so also shall the Saints : And it is not likely that this is wholly deferred till the resurrection ; but as they have a Glory before that with Christ and his Angels ; so they have now their part in this Superintendency before ; though both will be greater at the Resurrection . If any say , what use will there be of our superiority , after the world is destroyed ? I answer , 1. The Apostle Peter plainly telleth us ( though some would force his words into the dark ) that we according to his promise , expect a new Heaven and a new Earth , in which dwelleth righteousness . And the Creation groaneth to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God , Rom. 8.21 . And the Heavens must contain Christ , till the times of Restitution of all things , which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets , since the world began , Acts 3.21 . 2. And he that said , the Saints shall judge the Angels , seemeth so intimate , that the Devils with the wicked will be in a state of subjection or servitude to them hereafter . Certain it is , that Michael and his Angels shall be the conquerours of the Dragon and his Angels , Rev. 12.7 , 9. And that the Serpents head shall be bruised by all the womans seed , though chiefly by the Captain of our salvation . But this shall now suffice concerning their employment . 3. Behold also by Faith what the departed Saints are now enjoying . And what is said of their place and work will tell you that . They enjoy the fight of their glorified Head , Joh. 17.24 . They are with him in Paradise , and therefore also enjoy the sight of the Glory of God : Being absent from the body , they are present with the Lord , 2 Cor. 5.8 . They see not as in a glass , as here they did , but with open face . They enjoy the pleasures of a more perfect knowledge of God and all his wondrous works , than this world affords . They are happy in their works , in the perfect Love and Praises of God ; and they are filled with the pleasures of his Love to them . This is their fruition . 4. Let Faith also behold what evils they are delivered from . 1. From a heavy drossy body which since the fall hath been an enemy , a prison and fetters to the soul : and therefore they here groaned to be better cloathed , 2 Cor. 5.4 , 5. Rom. 8.21 . 2. From the worlds temptations : 3. From wicked mens malice and persecutions : 4. From sickness , pain , necessities , labours , weariness , and all the troublesome effects of sin : 5. From all troublesome passions , desires , anger , discontent , disappointments , griefs , and cares , and fears of evil . 6. Specially from the fears of Hell , and the doubts of their own sincerity and salvation ; and from the desertions of God , and the terrible sense of his displeasure . 7. From the troubles and errours of ignorance , and all our natural imperfection . 8. From the fears of death , which now is more painful than death it self . 9. From the suggestions of Satan , and his malicious vexing disquieting temptations , and from his flattering allurements , which are much worse . 10. From the company , and the tempting or grieving examples of ungodly men . 11. From all sin it self , and all our moral imperfections and defects . 12. And finally from all danger , and fear of ever losing the felicity they possess . These are the immunities of the blessed . 2. When Faith hath seen the Saints in Glory , look back and think next what they were lately here on earth ; that it may help you to compare your state and theirs . And here you will see 1. That they were lately in flesh , as we now are . They had bodies as drossie , as vile , as frail , as burdensome as ours are . It cost them as dear ( not as it doth the sensual , but ) as it doth the temperate person now to keep them up a while for the service to which they were appointed . 2. They had pains and sicknesses as we have . The souls in Heaven have escaped thither from bodies which have lain as long tormented with the Stone , with Stranguries , Collicks , Gripes , Convulsions , Consumptions , Feavers , and other the most tedious , painful and lothsome diseases , as sober men on earth now feel . 3. Satan was as malicious to them , as he is to us ; and to many of them as troublesome : he haunted them with as ugly temptations , to the greatest sins , to unbelief , and pride , and despair , and self-murder , and horrid blasphemy , as he doth any of us . ( Yea he did so by Christ himself , Matth. 4. ) 4. They met with as many allurements to worldliness , sensuality , pride and lust in the worlds deceiving baits , and flatteries , as now we do ; and were fain to proceed every step towards Heaven , by conflict and conquest as we must do . 5. They were in as many wants and straits ; in as poor , and low , and despised a state , as we are now : They were tempted to cares , and murmurings , and discontents , through their wants and crosses , as well as we . 6. They have been in dangers , and in fears , and many a time at the brink of death , before it came : and put to cry to God for deliverance in the terrours and anguish of their hearts . Their flesh , and heart , and friends have failed them , and all the creatures cast them off . 7. They have gone through far greater persecutions for the sake of Christ and righteousness , than ever we did : So persecuted they the Prophets before you , Mat. 5.11 , 12. Which of the Prophets did not your Fathers kill and persecute ? even of them for whom their posterity erected Monuments ? Matth. 23.36 , 37 , 38. We have not resisted unto blood , as many of them did , Heb. 11. The same and greater afflictions which we have undergone , were accomplished on our brethren in this world , 1 Pet. 5.9 . We go through the same conflict as they did , Phil. 1.30 . We are no more falsly nor odiously slandered in any of our sufferings than they were , Mat. 5.11 , 12. 8. They were men of like passions as we are ; for so James saith even of Elias , that was carryed to Heaven without our kind of death . They had their ignorances , uncertainties , doubts , mistakes ; their dark thoughts of God , and that world where they now are . Many of them knew as little of it , till they saw it , as we do now . Many a fearful trembling hour , many a thought that God had forsaken them , and that the day of grace was past , have many of them had as well as we . 9. Yea they were imperfect in all their graces ; they had an imperfect faith , an imperfect hope , an imperfect Love to God and man , and many an hour in such groans as ours now are , O when shall we be saved from our darkness and unbelief ! when shall we better love the Lord ! 10. They had their actual sins also . ( Though none that were regnant after conversion ) their obedience was imperfect as ours now is . Many of their faults and falls are left on record for our warning . There is not one humane soul in Heaven besides our Saviours , that was not once a sinner : They all came thither by a Redeemer as we must do . They had their too great selfishness , Phil. 2.21 . They had their pusillanimity and fears of men ( as Peter and the Apostles . ) They had their sinful controversies , as Paul and Barnabas ; and sinful separations in complyance with the censorious , as Peter and Barnabas had , Gal. 2.16 , 17. They had their carnal sidings , factions and divisions in the Church , 1 Cor. 1. & 3. Many a time have they been put to groan , O wretched man , who shall deliver me from this body of death , Rom. 7 , &c. 11. They had as difficult duties to go through , as any of us : They were put upon as many tears and troubles , watchings and travels , fastings and self-denyal , as the most laborious and suffering Christians now . 12. They had as long delayes of the accomplishment of their desires , as any of us . 13. And lastly , they past through death it self , as we must do . They lay gasping on their beds of langu●shing , and death broke in upon every part , and they underwent that separation of soul and body , as we must do : Their flesh was turned to rottenness and dust , and laid out of the sight of man in darkness , and remaineth to this day as common earth . All this the Saints in Heaven have undergone . This was their case a while ago , who are now in glory . And this was not only the case of some few , but of thousands and millions , and that in the most of these particulars , even of all that are gone before us unto blessedness : It is not we that are tempted first , that are persecuted or afflicted first , that have sinned first , that must die first ; but all this host hath broke the Ice , and are safely past through this Red Sea , and are now triumphing in felicity with their Saviour . Direct . 3. Let Faith next look back , and see by what way these Saints have come to this felicity ; I mean , by what means they did overcome , and win the Crown . And briefly , you will find , 1. That they all came to Heaven by the Mediation , the Sacrifice , the meritorious Righteousness of a Redeemer , Jesus Christ ( either as promised , or as incarnate ) none of them were justified by the works of the Law , or the Covenant of Innocency . 2. That their common way was by Faith , Repentance , Love and Obedience ; Not by works of Righteousness , which we have done , but according to his mercy he saved us , by the washing of Regeneration , and the renewing of the Holy Ghost , which he shed o● us abundently through Christ , Titus 3.5 . Even by the triple Image of the Divine perfections , Power , Love and Wisdom , 2 Tim. 1.7 . They lived soberly , righteously and godly in the world , and were zealous of good works , looking for the blessed hope which they have attained , Titus 2.14 , 15. Knowing that Repentance towards God , and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ , are the summ of saving doctrine and duty , Acts 20.21 . And that to fear God and keep his Commandments , is the whole duty of man , Eccles . 12.13 . And that the end of the Commandment is Charity , out of a pure heart , and a good conscience , and of faith unfeigned , 1 Tim. 1.5 . and that Love is the fulfilling of the Law. 3. They studied the Word of God , or such means of knowing him as God afforded them , in order to the attaining and maintaining of these graces , Psal . 1.2 . and sought the Lord with all their hearts , while he might be found , and called upon him while he was near , Isa . 55.6 , 10. And did not presumptuously neglect Gods helps , and despise his Word , while they trusted for his mercy . 4. They lived in a continual conflict against the temptations of the Devil , the world and the flesh , and in the main did conquer as well as strive . They made it their work to mortifie those fleshly lusts , which others make it their interest and work to please , Gal. 5.17.21 , 22. & 6.14 . 5. They suffered afflictions and persecutions patiently ; and being reviled , they did not revile : They loved their enemies , and blest those that curse them , and prayed for those that despitefully used and persecuted them , Matth. 5.44 45. 1 Cor. 4.11 , 12 , 13. 2 Cor. 1.6 , 7. Heb. 11. They would not accept of deliverance from imprisonment , torments and death , upon sinning terms . 6. They endured to the end , and did not fall off and forsake the Covenant of their God , Rev. 2. & 3. 7. Lastly , They did all this by the motive of their hopes of Heaven , and by a confidence in the promises of it , and in a heavenly mind and conversation , as knowing that they did not labour or suffer in vain , 1 Cor. 15.58 . 2 Cor. 4.17 . 1 Tim. 4.10 . Rom. 8.18 . Matth. 5.11 . 2 Thes . 1.6 , 7. Heb. 12.2 . This was the way by which the Saints have gone to Heaven ; the only true successful way . Direct . 4. Consider next what helps and means God gave them for this work , and compare our own with them , and see whether ours be not as great . 1. We have the same natural capacity as they : we are intellectual free agents , made for another world , and capable of all that they attained . There is no difference in our natural faculties . 2. We have the same God to shew us mercy , 1 Cor. 12.5 , There are divers operations , but the same God , Ephes . 4.4 , 5. There is one God , one Lord , &c. even the Lord over all , good to all that call upon him , Rom. 10.12 . The same mercy which called them , and waited on them , calleth us , even a God who hath no respect of persons ; but in every Nation he that feareth him , and worketh righteousness , is accepted of him , Acts 10.37 . Though he be a free benefactor , he is a righteous Judge , and he is good to all , and the Father of every member of his Son. 3. They had the same Saviour as we have ; the same sacrifice for their sins ; the same Teacher , and the same example ; the same intercessor with the Father : For though there be divers administrations , there is the same Lord , 1 Cor. 12.5 . Ephes . 4.4 . For other foundation can no man lay , than him who is the chief corner stone , 1 Cor. 3.11 . They all did eat of the same spiritual meat , and drank of the same rock as we do , which is Christ , 1 Cor. 10.3 , 4. It was the reproach of Christ which Moses in Egypt esteemed better than their treasures , Heb. 11.26 . The same Physician of souls who hath us in cure , did cure all them : The same Captain who is conducting us to salvation , is he that saved them . The same Prince of the Covenant , and Lord of life , who conquered death and all their enemies , hath conquered them for us , and is preparing us for life with them . They had no greater , or better High Priest and Mediator with God than we have . 4. They had the same Rule to walk by , and the same way to go , as all we have , Gal. 1.7 , 8. & 6.16 . Phil. 3.14 , 15. The same Gospel and Word of God , in the main , though under various promulgations and administrations : Those before the flood were under the Covenant of the promised seed , made universally to mankind in Adam . Those after the flood were under the same Covenant renewed universally to mankind in Noah . The Israelites were under the same Covenant renewed to them specially in Abraham , with special additions ; and after under that Covenant seconded with the Law which was given to Moses : And all Christians after Christs Resurrection are under the perfected Covenant of Grace , and have the same word of salvation for their rule ; even the Gospel of Christ , which is the power of God , to the salvation of every one that believeth , Rom. 1.16 . 5. They had but the same Promises in this Covenant to believe , and to assure them of the salvation which they now possess . They had no other charter from God to shew , nor any but this universal act of oblivion to trust to for the pardon of all their sins , which we have to trust to for the pardon of ours , John 3.16.18 . Mark 16.16 . The promise which was made to the Jews , and to their children , was made also to them that are afar off , and to as many as the Lord shall call , Acts 2.39 . For the promise that he should be heir of the world , was not to Abraham or his seed through the Law , but through the righteousness of faith , Rom. 4.13 . And therefore it was of faith , that it might be by grace , to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed , not only to that which is of the Law , but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham , who is the father of us all , v. 16. That it might appear that God justified not Abraham for any peculiar carnal priviledge , but as a Believer , which is a reason common to him with all Believers : To whom also their faith shall be imputed for righteousness , v. 24. Godliness still is profitable to all things , having the promise of the life that now is , and of that which is to come , 1 Tim. 4.8 . Yea what difference there is in both these forementioned respects , it is to our advantage : we have the most perfected Rule , and the fullest Promises ; and we have many Promises fulfilled to us , which were not fulfilled to them in their daies , Heb. 11. last . And we are nearer the final accomplishment of all the promises . 6. They had the same Motives to faith , and patience , and godliness as we have : They could have no greater happiness offered them , nor any greater punishment threatned , to drive them from sin by fear : They could have no higher ends than ours ; nor any nobler reasons to be religious . The same reasons and ends did bring them through all temptations and difficulties , to everlasting life , which we have also to satisfie us , and to carry us on , 2 Tim. 4.8 . 7. The same spirit did illuminate , sanctifie and quicken them , which is illuminating , sanctifying , and quickening us . All the most excellent and heavenly endowments and workings of their souls , were wrought by the same operator who is still at work in all the Saints , Rom. 8.9 . There are diversities of gifts , but the same Spirit , 1 Cor. 12.4 . We have the same Spirit of Faith , 2 Cor. 4.13 . All that are Sons have the same Spirit of the Son , even the Spirit of Adoption , Gal. 4.6 . Rom. 8.16.26 . which is the Spirit of Power , of Love , and of a sound mind , 2 Tim. 1.7 . We have the same Almighty Power within us , to destroy our sins , to raise up our sluggish hearts to God , to keep us in his Love , to overcome the flesh , which did all these excellent works in them . We are sealed with the same seal , and are known by the same mark , 1 John 3.24 . and are actuated by the same heavenly principle as they were . 8. We are members of the same universal Church , which is the body of Christ : For there is but one body , whatever diversity of the members there be , Ephes . 4.4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 12. 1 Cor. 12. We are members of the same City and Family of God , Ephes . 2.19 . We are in the same Ship which conveyed them to the Haven : We are Disciples in the same School , where they learnt the way to life eternal : We are workmen in the same Vineyard , where they procured their reward . 9. They had the same work to do as we have ; the same God to love and serve ; the same Christ to believe in ; the same Spirit to obey ; the same things to believe ( in the main ) the same things to desire and pray for ; the same things to love , and the same to hate ; the same things ( in the main ) which are sin to us , were sin to them , and the same life of holiness , temperance and righteousness , which is commanded us , was commanded them . They had the same temptations to resist , and the same fleshly mind to overcome , and the same senses , and appetites , and passions to rule ; the same enemies to overcome ; and the same or greater sufferings to bear , as is said before . 10. They had but the same means and helps as we have ( except some Prophets and Apostles , and extraordinary persons in one age : ) And what they received of the Lord , they have delivered unto us , 1 Cor. 11.23 . We have the same Gospel to to teach us ; the same Sacraments to initiate and confirm us ▪ the same Pastors and Teachers , for office , to instruct us , Ephes . 4.12 , 13 , 14 , 16. Matth. 28.20 . Fasting , and Prayer , and Thanksgiving , and Church-communion , and mutual Exhortation , which are our helps and means , were theirs . 11. The same method of Providence which carryed them on , is still on foot for all the Saints , Psal . 145.9 , 18. & 86.5 . He broke them , and bound them up ; he cast them down , and raised them , as he doth us now : He made them contrite , and then did comfort them : He led them through as rude a wilderness , and they had as many wild beasts to assault them , and as many dangers round about them as we have : They had seasons of adversity , and seasons of prosperity ; their stormy and their sunshine daies ; their troubles , which quickened their cryes to God , and the gracious answer of those cryes ; and were led to Heaven in the same course of providence as we are . 12. And , to conclude , the same Heaven is prepared for us , and offered , yea given to us , which they possess . It is ours in right , though our title be not absolutely perfect , till we have finally presevered and overcome : We are heirs of God , and co-heirs with Christ , having his seal and earnest ; if so be that we suffer with him , that we may be glorified with him , Rom. 15.16.17 . The Kingdom is prepared for all them that love him . Christ prayed for all that the Father had given him ; and for all that should believe by his Word , John 17.2 , 20 , 27. even that they may have eternal life , and may be with him where he is , to see his glory : Whosoever believeth shall not perish , but have everlasting life , John 3.16 . In all this you may see , how like their condition in this world was unto ours , and that our way is the same which all those have gone , that are now past all these snares and dangers , sins and miseries , in the presence of their Lord. Direct . 5. When you have made these comparisons , think next what an excellent benefit it will be to you , to look thus believingly and frequently to the Saints , that are gone before you into glory . All these unspeakable benefits will follow it . 1. It will much quicken and confirm our faith : As we do the more easily trust the boat , and boat-man , when we see many thousand passengers safely landed by him : And we easily trust the Physician , when we see many thousands cured by him , who were once in our case ; so it will greatly satisfie the soul against the suspicions and fears of unbelief , when faith seeth all the glorified Saints , that are actually , saved by Christ already , and have obtained all that we believe and seek : Methinks I hear Henoch , Joshua , Abraham , Peter , Paul , John , Cyprian , Macarius , Augustine , Melancthon , Calvin , Zanchius , Rogers , Bradford , Hooper , Jewel , Grindal , Vsher , Hildersham , Ames , Dod , Baines , Bolton , Gataker , with thousands such , as men standing on the further side of the river , and calling to us that must come after them [ Fear not the depths , or storms , or streams ; trust boldly that vessel , and that faithful Pilot ; we trusted him , and none of us have miscarried , but all of us are here landed safe : We were once in storms , and doubts , and fears , as you now are ; but it is our diffidence , and not our confidence , which proved our infirmity and shame . ] Who would not boldly follow such a multitude of excellent persons , who have sped so well ? 2. It will also much confirm our hope ( that is , our glad expectation of the Crown ) when our apprehensions of it grow dull and slack , and our feare do grow upon us , and we are ready to question whether ever such a happiness will be our lot , the sight of these that are now triumphing in the actual possession , will banish despair , and much revive us : We cannot but think , they were once as low and bad as I , and had as many difficulties to overcome : and why may not I then be as holy and as happy as they ? 3. Such a sight will greatly quicken our desires , to attain their happiness , and to go their way : As when worldlings see the grandeur , and honours , and power of Great men ( as they are yet called ) it maketh them think , how brave a life is this ? And as the sensual , when they see their companions in the Tavern , or Gaming-house , or Play-house , or the merry fool-house , as Solomon accounteth it , Eccles . 7.4 . do long to be with them , and to partake of their beloved pleasure : so when by faith we see the departed Saints in glory , and think where our old acquaintance are , and the multitudes of wise and holy souls , that are gone before , it will greatly stir up our sluggish desires , and make us long for the same felicity , and to be as near to God as they are . 4. And it will do much to direct us in the way : For we must follow them as they followed Christ . As the history of the Wars of Alexander , Caesar , Tamerlane , &c. will teach men how to fight for temporal tyrannical domination ; so the history of the Saints do teach us how to fight against spiritual wickednesses and powers , and how to take the prospering way . It is easie there to find , whether laziness or labour , whether sensuality or spirituality hath alwaies been the way to Heaven ? Whether Saints were gluttons , drunkards , whoremongers , riotous , licentious and proud , or temporate , chaste , mortified and humble ? whether the Saints were the scorners , or the scorned , the oppressors , or the oppressed , the persecutors , or the persecuted ; the burdens , or the blessings of the times they lived in : When the world is divided about matters of Religion , and every Party hath a several way , for the Unity , and the Reformation , and the Communion of the Churches , and the right Government , Discipline and Worshiping of God ; how easie and safe is it ( in the main , and in all things of necessity ) to look back and see which way it was that Peter and Paul did go to Heaven by ; and what terms they were on which their Union , Communion , Government , Discipline and Worship were performed . 5. The sight of blessed souls by faith , will also increase the Resolution and Fortitude of the mind . Faintness and pusilanimity seize upon us when we look only on the difficulties and dangers : But when we see the thousands that have overcome them all , by the same means which we are called to use ; it steeleth our courage , and maketh us resolve to break through all : When we think only how mortal our diseases are , our hearts do fail us : But when all that were cured of the very same , do call to us , and say , [ Never fear ; there is no disease too hard for your Physician ; he hath cured us of the very same , and cureth all that ever trust him , and use his remedies ] This will embolden a fainting mind . Therefore in the fore-cited text , Heb. 6.12 . It is said , Be not slothful ( which there meaneth , such as faint with despondency , despair or fears ) but followers of them who by faith and patience inherit the promises . ] When we look on the Saints tribulations for the faith , we are apt to faint ( as some do that stand by another that is under the Surgeons hands ) Ephes . 3.13 . But when we see them in triumph , it cureth our cowardize ( and it is they only that labour and faint not , that are crowned , and that reap in due season , &c. Rev. 2.3 . Gal. 6.9 . ) that is , who faint not into cessation , or so as to be overcome . ) Do you think when the Israelites passed through the Red Sea , that the Leaders had not the greatest tryal ? and that it was not an exceeding increase of their courage , who came after in the rear , when they saw most of their brethren safely passed through ? Look believingly upon the souls in Heaven , and you will do or suffer any thing to follow them . 6. And it will greatly provoke us to diligence in well doing : Look up to your Brethren , and you will mend your pace . If a horse be going towards his Pasture , he will go chearfully ; especially when he seeth his companions there . It will make us pray hard , and meditate studiously , and work laboriously , and watch diligently , that we may be with Christ , where our Brethren are , and receive the end of our faith and labour . 7. And to see our Brethren in Heaven before us , will greatly help us to suffer for Christ , and to be patient in any tribulation which befalleth us . When we see them in glory , we shall source stay to complain of the soulness or narrowness of the way : but look before us , and go on through all . Or if the flesh do repine , and our hearts begin to fail us , it will make us lift up the hands which hang down , and the feeble knees , and make strait paths for our feet , Heb. 12.12 , 13. and to gird up the loins of our minds , and be sober , and hope to the end , 1 Pet. 1.13 . When we look forward to the end of former sufferers , it will cause us to possess our souls in patience , and to let it have its perfect work . 8. It will much overcome the fears of death : It is no small abatement of them that Cicero , and such honest Heathens had , to think of the thousands of their worthiest Ancestors , and that they were to go the common way of all mankind : But how much more may it encourage a Believer , to think that he is not only to go the way of all the world , through the gate of mortality ; but the way also which all Gods Saints have gone ( save Henoch and Elias ) who are now in Heaven . Thus died all the Prophets , and the holy men of God ; yea Jesus Christ himself , before us ; that death might be conquered when it seemed to have conquered , Heb. 2.14 . 9. It will do much to raise us from hypocritical reserves , and temporizings , and from lukewarmness , and resting in low degrees . When our conversation is with the holy ones above , we shall have upon our minds an ambition to attain to their degrees ; and to do Gods will on Earth , as it is done in Heaven . It will much encline us to the highest and noblest sort of duty , which the spirits of the just made perfect do perform . He that converseth only with his own sad , tempted , sinful heart , and with tempted , faulty , mourning Christians , may learn to confess , and mourn , and weep , and pray : But he that also converseth with glorified spirits , will be so rapt up with their heavenly melody , that he will learn and long to love God more fervently , to praise him more chearfully , and to give him thanks more abundantly for his mercies . Heaven-work is learnt by a heavenly mind , in the use of a heavenly conversation . 10. And to look much at our Brethren that are now in glory , will also fill our lives with pleasures , and make our Religion our continual joy ; and will help us to a foretaste of Heaven on Earth : For we shall as it were take our selves to be almost with then ; and their melodies will be our delight ; and love to them , will make their joyes to be our own . And though it is the sight of God and our Mediatour by faith , which must be our chiefest hope and joy ; yet while we are here men in flesh , yea more when we have laid by flesh and blood , the presence of all the blessed spirits , and heavenly host , will be a great , though subordinate part of our heavenly felicity and delight . Direct . 6. When you have gone thus far , consider what obligations lie upon you to converse by Faith with your Brethren in Heaven , and to look up frequently to their state and work . 1. Your necessary Love to God requireth it : For as your Love to him must be shewed by your loving his Image in your Brethren ; so it requireth you , to love them most that are likest God : or else you love them not for his likeness . And it requireth you to love them most whom God loveth most ; and that is those that are likest him , and nearest him . And he that loveth God in his creatures , and loveth any one truly for God , must love the Angels and perfected Spirits best , because they love him best , and are nearest him , and likest to him , and are also most beloved by him . 2. The common nature of Love and Humanity requireth it : For it requireth us to love that best which is best ; ( as is said ) But the blessed ones in Heaven are better than any here on Earth ; and therefore should be better loved . 3. The nature of our Love to the Saints requireth it : For if we love them as Saints and Godly , we shall love those most that are most holy ; and that is the blessed ones above . And if we love them most , we shall certainly mind them , and converse with them by Faith , and not be voluntary strangers to them . 4. It is part of that heavenly conversation , which is commended to us , Phil. 3.20 , 21. When it is said , that our conversation is in Heaven , it signifieth that our Burgeship is there , and our interest and great concerns are there , and our dwelling is there , and our trading and thriving business is there , and for it ; and our friends and fellow-citizens , and those that we daily trade and converse with , in love and familiarity , are there ; even as our God , and our Head , and our Inheritance is there . He never knew a heavenly conversation , that pretending there to know God alone , hath no converse with his holy ones that attend him ; and doth not live as a member of their society in the City of God ; that doth not with some delight behold their holiness , unity and order , &c. 5. The honouring of God and our Redeemer doth require it , ( that we daily converse with the Saints in Heaven : ) Because it is in them that God is seen , in the greatest glory of his Love ; and it is in them that the Power , and Efficacy , and Love of our dear Redeemer most appeareth . You judge now of the Father by his Children , and of the Physician by his Patients , and of the Builder by the House , and of the Captain by his Victories . And if you see no better children of God , than such childish crying , feeble , froward , diseased , burdensome ones as we are , you will rob him of the chief of this his honour . And if you look at none of the Patients of our Saviour , but such lame and languid , pained , groaning , diseased , half-cured ones as we ; you will rob him of the glory of his skill and cures . And if you look but to such an imperfect broken fabrick , as the Church on Earth , you will dishonour the Builder . And if you look to no other Victories of Christ and his Spirit , but what is made in this confused , dark , and bedlam world , you will be tempted to dishonour his conduct and his conquests . But if you will look to his Children in Heaven , who are perfected in his Love and Likeness , and to Christs Patients which are there perfectly cured , and to his Building in the heavenly unity and glory , and to all his Victories as there compleat , then you will give him the glory which is his due , Rev. 21. & 22. 2 Thes . 1.10 , 11 , 12. 6. So also you will dishonour Religion , and the Church , if you converse not with the Saints above . For the reasons last given : For you will judge of the Church , and of Religion , by such imperfect things as here you see , where men turn Religion to the service of their worldly interests and ends , and fight for ambition , faction , tyranny , usurpation , and worldly lusts , under the sacred names of Religion and the Church ; and for the pretended Love of Christ , and one another , do tear the Church into shreds , and worry , and hunt , and devour one another : You will be tempted to be Infidels , if you do not here converse with the sincere , humble , holy , charitable Christians and look up to Heaven to perfect souls : And then you will see a Church that is truly amiable , holy , unanimous and glorious in perfect Love. 7. If you look not up to those in Heaven , you will quite misunderstand the providences of God , in the prosperity of the wicked , and the sufferings of the Saints , and the changes that are usually made on Earth : You will begin to think , that sin is safe , and the wicked are not so miserable as they are , nor godly diligence so profitable a thing ; you will not know the reasons of providence , unless you can see unto the end : And the ultimate end is not on Earth . But go into the Sanctuary , and take the prospective of the promise , and look to the blessed souls with Christ , and all the riddle will be expounded to you , and you will be reconciled to all the providences of God : You are strange to truth , if you are strange to the triumphing Saints in Heaven . 8. The progressive nature of your faith and godliness requireth it . You are travelling to Heaven , where the blessed are , and are nearer to them than when you first believed : And the nearer you are to them , the more you should mind them , and by Faith and Love be familiar with them : And when you are almost at home , you should be even ready to embrace your friends at the meeting . 9. Your Relation to the blessed Spirits doth require it ; and your Christian and ingenuous disposition towards them . 1. Are they not such as were latety near you in the flesh ; some of them your dearest companions and friends ; and should you causlesly forget them ? 2. Are they not not now your friends who love you better than they could do on earth ? Doubtless their knowledge and memory is not grown less , to forget you , if once they knew you ; but they are like to know much more : And their Goodness being increased , their Love is increased , and not diminished . 3. And you belong to the same Society with them ; even to the Body or Church of Christ , whose nobler part above , and inferiour part on Earth , do make up the whole . Is it not expresly said , Heb. 12.22 , 23. that we are come unto Mount Zion , and unto the City of the Living God , the heavenly Jerusalem , and to an innumerable company of Angels , and to the general Assembly , and Church of the first born , which are written in Heaven ? ( that is , to those which as the first born , are most noble , and possessed of the heavenly inheritance , and are there entered inhabitants already : ) And to God the Judge of all , and to the spirits of just men made perfect , and to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant , &c. And what is it to come to them , but to come , or be joyned to that Society , of which they are the nobler part ? Will you be Fellow-Citizens with them , and have no communion with them , nor seriously remember them ? How can you remember God himself , and not remember those that are his Courtiers , and nearer to him than you are ? And how can you think of Christ , and not think of his Body ? Or how can you think of his Body , and forget the most excellent and honourable parts ? Or how can you remember your selves , and forget your chiefest Friends and Lovers ? 10. The very nature of the Life of Faith requireth us , to look much to the departed Saints : The Life of Faith consisteth in our conversing with the things unseen ; as the life of sight or sense is our conversing with things seen : If you love , and think on none of the Saints , but those that are within your sight , you live ( so far ) but as by sight : Though Faith live not upon Saints properly , but on God , and our Redeemer ; yet it liveth and converseth with the Saints : If it work aright , it will as it were set you among them , and make you live on Earth , as if you heard their songs of praise , and saw their Thrones of Glory . 11. The present necessities of your condition in this world , do require you to look much to the Saints above ( as is before shewed in the benefits recited : ) We live here among such persons and things as are objects of continual sorrow to us : And have we not need of some more comfortable company ? If you had nothing at home but chiding , and discontent , and poverty , you will be willing of so much recreation , as to be invited to feast sometimes , where there is plenty , pleasure and content . If you lived among groaning , sick or melancholy persons in an Hospital , you would be glad sometimes of merryer company , a little to refresh your minds . Alas , what a deal of sin do we daily see or hear of ? and what a deal of sorrow is round about us ? What are our News-books filled with , or the daily reports which come to our ears , but sin , and sorrow , vanity and vexation ? what is the employment of most of the world ? what is it that Court and Country , City , and all Societies ring of , but vanity and vexation , sin and sorrow ? And is not a walk in Heaven with better company , a pleasure desirable in such a case ? What grief must needs dwell on the minds of sober Catholick Christians , to see the Church on earth so torn , so worryed ; so reproached as it is throughout the earth ? so torn in pieces by its zealous ignorant self-conceited Pastors and Members ? so worryed by its open and secret enemies ; even by the usurping tyrannizing Wolves in Sheeps cloathing , who spare not the flock ? Matth. 7.15 . & 10.16 . Acts 20.29 . so reproached by the world of Infidels and Heathens , who fly from it as from an infected City , and say [ Christians are drunkards , and deceivers , and lyars ; they are all in pieces among themselves ; they revile and persecute one another ; we will therefore be no Christians . ] How sad is it to see the one part of the world professing Christianity , to make it odious by their wickedness , and their divisions ; and the rest of the world abhorring it , because these have made it seem odious to them ? How sad is it to hear all Christians speak of love and Concord , Unity and Peace , while few of them know the way of Peace , or how to hold their own hands from tearing the Church into more pieces , while these peaceable words are in their mouths ? To see the Pastors and People , as if it were for Unity and Peace , contriving the ruine of all that are not of their Party and Way , and studying how to extirpate one another ; and multiplyjng snares and stumbling blocks , as necessary means to heal the Church ! How sad is it to see ▪ so great a faction as the Roman Kingdom ( for it is more properly a Kingdom than a Church ) to lay the necessary Vnity and Communion of all the Churches , upon so many forgeries of their own ; upon the supposed certainty of the falseness of all mens senses ( in the point of Transubstantiation ) and upon the subjection of the Church to an universal usurpes , and to keep up ignorance , lest knowledge ( by reading the translated Scriptures , and such Books as do detect their frauds ) should mart their markets , and spoil their trade ? To see their Prelates take their own domination , wealth and greatness , to be really the prosperity of the Church , and the interest of the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ ; and to promote the Gospel by silencing or prohibiting the most able , zealous , faithful Preachers of it ; and to go with a drawn sword among the people , and say , Love us , or we will kill you : Love Christ and us , or the inquisition and wrack shall reach you love : To see them take the terrifying of men by corporal penalties , to be their chiefest work , and the way of Love to be but such popularity as destroyeth the Church ▪ Will not now and then a walk in Heaven , be a great refreshing to the mind that hath been long haunted with such hideous and ugly specters as all these ? Will not some converse with the most wises and holy , and peaceable Society , whose Life is Love , be a great recreation to your minds , when such sights as these have made them sad ? Moreover , you have many burdens of your own to bear ; your own ignorance , your own temptations , your passions , your wants , and worst of all , the relicks of your sin , which you cannot bear with that hope and support which is needful to you , without oft looking to the happiness of those that have overcome all these , and are now at rest . And you have many excellent duties to perform , which will not be so well done without looking oft on such a Copy . Yea you have the fears of death to overcome , which will not be so easily done , as by looking to all the world of souls , that have already gone that way before you . Yea in your converse with God himself , though you have one only sufficient Mediator , you will cast your selves upon great disadvantages , if your thoughts leave out the blessed society of Saints and Angels , who are nearest to him : You cast away your stepping-stones , or stairs of ascent , and you will but tempt your selves to look at God , as through the great interposing gulf ; and hinder the needful familiarity of your thoughts above . Neglect not then a help so needful to you in your present state . 12. Lastly , The remembrance and observation of the heavenly inhabitants , is the way that is commended and commanded to all Believers , and that as part of their ordinary duty , in their prayers to God. He hath not only minded us that Abraham , Isaac and Jacob are still living , to prove the resurrection , Matth. 12.27 . but hath also comforted the expectants of Heaven , by describing the joy of Lazarus as in Abrahams bosome , Luke 16.22 , 23. and introduced Abraham as pleading Lazarus's cause , v. 25 , 26. And hath made it a part of the comfortable description of his Kingdom , that we shall sit down with Abraham , Isaac and Jacob in it , Matth. 8.11 . And when he would appear transfigured in a glimpse of his glory , to Peter , James and John , he would not do it alone , but with Moses and Elias talking with him , Matth. 17. And the comfort which Paul giveth to the suffering Thessalonians , is Rest with us , 2 Thes . 1.6 . not only Rest with Christ , but with his servants : And when he describeth the glory of Christs appearing , it is , that He shall come to be glorified in his Saints , and admired in all them that do believe , vers . 11 , 12. As himself describeth his appearing as with his glorious Angels , Mat. 25.31 . All the holy Angels with him . Whether it be all the blessed Spirits of the higher worlds , or only all those of them , who were deputed to the service of the Church on earth ( Matth. 18.10 . ) and so were made Angels to man , I pass over . And Henoch the seventh from Adam prophesied , saying , Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints , &c , Jude v. 14. Many other Scriptures tell us , that we must not leave out the Saints and Angels , when we look towards Heaven by faith , and when we converse and walk above . But this is but as on the by : That which I intend for your special observation , is , the third Petition of the Lords Prayer , where the annexed clause ( which seemeth to referr to all the three first Petitions ) doth set the heavenly Church before us , as the Pattern of that obedience to the will of God , which both we , and all the world must imitate , and pray to God that we may imitate . [ Thy Will be done on Earth , as it is done in Heaven . ] Here Christ requireth all Christians in Prayer , to look up to the Heavenly Society , and to consider how they do the Will of God , and to make it their Pattern , and in their daily Prayers , as men that long for their celestial perfection , to pray that they may become their imitators : even as the Scholars in the lowest form in the school , must look at those in the highest form , and desire and endeavour to attain to their degree . You see them that this is a commanded ordinary duty . Direct . 7. Consider next wherein it is that your converse with Angels , and the perfected spirits of the just consisteth ; that you may neither by your mistake , neglect it , nor carry it too far . I. Negatively : 1. It is not a Deifying them , as the Heathen did their Hero's , and their Divi : They are still but Gods Ministers , and must have nothing ascribed to them of the Divine Prerogative . 2. Nor doth it consist in building Temples and Altars to their honour , which savoureth at least of a compliance with Idolatry . 3. Nor doth it at all consist in praying to them . 1. Because , as we know that they are not omnipresent , or omniscient ; so 2. We know not at all when they are present , and when they do hear us , and when not . 3. Nor do we know which of them it is that is at any time present with us . 4. Nor have we any precept , president , promise , or other encouragement to such prayers in Gods Word , but rather much to keep us from it . 4. Nor yet is it in desiring them to pray for us : For that which is their duty , they better know than we ; and it is little that we know of their capacities or opportunities . And we have no Word of God neither to encourage us to this . 5. Nor doth it consist in chusing any one of them above the rest , for our guardian and protector ; and so committing our selves to their care . For we have no reason to be so presumptuous , as to think that we have the choice of our own Protector ; or that it is a matter at all referred to us ; or that they will undertake it ever the more for our choice . 6. Nor yet may we pretend to know what particular Saint or Angel is deputed of God to our protection : For there is not the least discovery of it in Nature , or in the Word of God : And he that pretendeth extraordinary revelation of it , must be sure to prove it . 7. Nor may we pray for them , as if they were in purgatory , or in any misery or danger which did need our prayers for them : For we have neither reason to believe the thing , nor any precept or encouragement to the work . And as all these seven are unlawful things , so these also that follow must be medled with very tenderly and cautelously . 1. Our Praises of them , must be sober and wary ; and such as are in a plain tendency to the praises of God and godliness , lest before we are aware , we kindle superstition in the minds of the auditors . Praise them we may ; but with a care of the manner , measure and consequents , and with a due respect to the praise of God. 2. Our Prayers for the Resurrection of their bodies , and their solemn Justification at the day of Judgment , though lawful in it self , yet must be done with very great caution . And it is fitter that we pray together in general for the Resurrection of All the members of Christ , both those that are dead , and those that will be , than to fix upon the dead distinctly , because as we have no precept or example for it in the Scriptures ; so the minds of the hearers ( if it be publick ) may easily abuse our example to errour and excess . 3. Our thankfulness to them for their love and benefits , must be very cautelously expressed : Not by a verbal thanksgiving to them , of whom we are uncertain when they hear us : Nor yet in any such language as tendeth to encroach upon the honour of our great Benefactor ; nor to acknowledge any more as from them , than as the Ministers of Christ . 4. And in our acknowledgements of their general prayers for the Church , we must take heed of feigning them to be more particular than we can prove that they are . 5. And we must take heed of all such Rhetorical Prosopopeia's as tend to delude the hearers or the readers ; as if we would draw them to believe the presence and audience of those spirits which we intend not to express . 6. And our honouring of the memory of their Martyrdom or Holiness , must be so cautelous , that it tend not to Idolatry or Superstition : It is lawful in it self to keep the relicks of a Saint or a Friend , and to keep a solemn thankful memorial of Gods mercy to his Church , in her most excellent helpers , and successfullest instruments of her good : But in a time when these are commonly abused to superstition , the consequents may make that evil , which in other circumstances might be good . When the Primitive Pastors led their people , sometimes to the places where their neighbours suffered Martyrdom for Christ , and there praised God for their praised constancy , to encourage the people , and engage themselves to be true to Christ , and die as constantly as others did ; this then had good effects ; and if it had been used more cautelously , had been laudable : But they did not foresee the great inconveniencies of relicks , pilgrimages , prayers to Saints , &c. which in after-ages it introduced : And now , it must be with very great caution indeed , if we will imitate them . 7. To pray to God to hear their general prayers for the Church , ( such as those mentioned , Rev. 6.9 , 10. ) doth intimate no false doctrine that I know of . But it is a practice that hath danger , and no Scripture precept or example to encourage it , nor solid reason , that I remember : And if God would have had us used it , it 's like he would have made it known . II. Affirmatively : Our converse with those in Heaven consisteth in all these parts . 1. We must acknowledge our Relation to them , and not think that they are nothing to us . 2. We must not forget them , but see them by faith , and take it as part of our daily business to have some daily conversation with them . 3. We must love them with a peculiar love ; even better than we love the godly upon earth : because they are better , and liker unto God , and love him more , and are more beloved by him . 4. We must specially rejoyce that God is glorified in and by them ; and look often to them as the more illustrious representers of the Divine Perfections , than any of the Saints on Earth . 5. We must greatly rejoyce in their own felicity and glory ; even as if it were our own . If we did see with our eyes our old dear friend , as Lazarus in Abraham's bosome , triumphing now in the glory of the blessed , we could not chuse but be daily very glad on their behalf ; to see and think , O what felicity do my friends enjoy ! And faith should make it in some measure to you , as if you saw it . 6. We must have a grateful sense in our minds of their love to us ; and must give God thanks for his Angels ministrations for us . For doubtless , as they are wiser and better than any of our friends on earth ; so they have a better , a purer and diviner kind of Love to us , than these below have . And the Angels disdain not to be Christs servants for our good ; yea for our salvation , Heb. 1.14 . For , are they not all ministring spirits , sent forth to minister for them , who shall be heirs of salvation , Matth. 18.10 . Their Angels alwaies behold the face of my Father in Heaven , Psal . 34.7 . The Angel of the Lord campeth round about them that fear him , and delivereth them , Psal . 91.11 . He shall give his Angels charge over thee , to keep thee in all thy waies . They shall bear thee up in their hands , lest thou dash thy foot against a stone , Luke 15.10 . There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth , Luke 16.22 . The beggar dyed and was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosome . Though the great Love is that of God our Creator , Redeemer and Sanctifier , and our chiefest gratitude is due to him ; even for the benefit which we have by any of his creatures ; yet love and mental thankfulness is due to the rational creatures which are his voluntary instruments ; because they do what they do out of real love to us ; otherwise we should owe thankfulness to none , either benefactor , friend or parents . 7. And our believing converse with the blessed spirits , must make us earnestly desire to be like them ; even to be as like them here as possibly we may , and to be with them , that we may be perfect as they are perfect . We must long to be near God , as they are , and to know him , and love him , as they do ; and this holy ambition is well pleasing to God : Though we must not desire to be as God , we must desire to know and love him perfectly . 8. And hence we must proceed to a sober imitation of them as they are now employed in Heaven : Not in those particulars wherein their case and ours differ ( as to thank God for that conquest which they have made , and that glory which they do possess , &c. ) But in all those duties , which in some degree , belong to us as well as them . For instance , Ask what kind of Religion is likest to that which is in Heaven ? Is it studying bare words , and disputing about things unprofitable , or contending and quarrelling about precedency , preheminence or domination ? Or is it not rather the clearest knowledge , and the ferventest Love of God , and all his holy ones , and the fullest content , delight and rest of the soul in God , and the highest praises and thanksgivings , with the readiest and chearfullest obedience . And what kind of Religious performances are most excellent which we must principally intend ? Groans , and tears , and penitent confessions , and moans , are very suitable to our present state , while we have sin and suffering : But surely they are duties of the lower rank : For Heaven more aboundeth with praises and thanksgiving ; and therefore we must labour to be fitter for them , and more abundant in them ; not casting off any needful humiliations , and penitent complaints ; but growing as fast as we can above the necessity of them , by conquering the sin which is the cause . So ask , what is it that would make the Church on Earth to be likest to that part which is in Heaven ? Is it striving what Pastors shall be greatest , or have precedency , or be called gracious Lords or Benefactors ? Luke 22.24 , 25 , 26. 1 Pet. 5.3 , 4 , 5. Or is it in making the flock of Christ , to dread the secular power of the Shepherds , and tremble before them , as they do before the Wolf ? Or is it in a proud conceit of the peoples power to ordain their Pastors , and to rule them and themselves by a major vote ? Or in a supercilious condemning the members of Christ , and a proud contempt of others as too unholy for our communion , when we never had authority to try or judge them ? Is it in the multitude of Sects and divisions ▪ every one saying , Our party , and our way is best ? Surely all this is unlike to Heaven : It is rather in the Wisdom , and Holiness and Vnity of all the members : When they all know God , especially in his Love and Goodness , and when they fervently love him , and chearfully and universally obey him ; and when they love each other fervently , and with a pure heart , and without divisions do hold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ; and with one heart , and mind , and mouth , do glorifie God and our Redeemer . Leaving that Church-Judgment to the Pastors which Christ hath put into their hands ; and leaving Gods part of Judgment unto himself . This is to be like to our heavenly exemplar , and to do Gods Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven , Ephes . 4.2 , 3 , 4 , 11 , 12 , 16. 9. And we must also look back to the examples of their lives , while they were on earth ; and see wherein they are to be imitated as the imitators of Jesus Christ : which way went they to Heaven before us ? 10. Lastly , We must give God thanks on their behalf ; for making them so perfect , and bringing them so near him , and saving them from sin , and Satan , and the world , and bringing them safe to Heaven , through so many temptations , difficulties and sufferings : For making them such instruments of his glory , in their times , and shewing his glory upon them and to them in the Heavens ? For making them such blessings to the world in their generations , and for giving us in them such patterns of faith , obedience and patience , and making them so great encouragements to us , who may the more boldly follow them in faith , duty and sufferings , who have conquered all , and sped so well : For , shewing us by faith their present state of glory with Christ , for our confirmation and consolation . Thus far , in all these ten particulars , we must have a heavenly conversation with the glorified by Faith. Direct . 8. Consider next wherein your imitation of the example of their lives on earth consisteth . And it is 1. Not in committing any of their sins , nor indulging any such weaknesses in our selves , as any of them were guilty of . 2. Nor in extenuating a sin , or thinking ever the better of it , because it was theirs . 3. Nor in doing as they did in exempted cases , wherein their Law and ours differed ( as in the marriage of Adams children , in the Jews Polygamy , &c. 4. Nor in imitating them in things indifferent , or accidental , that were never intended for imitation , nor done as morally good or evil . 5. Nor in pretending to , or expecting of their extraordinary Revelations , Inspirations , or Miracles . 6. Nor in pretending the high attainments of the more excellent , to be the necessary measure of all that shall be saved , or the Rule of our Church-Communion : Our imitation of them consisteth in no such things as these . But it consisteth in these . 1. That you fix upon the same ultimate Ends as they did . That you aim at the same Glory of God , and chuse the same everlasting felicity . 2. That you chuse the same Guide and Captain of your salvation ; the same Mediator between God and man ; the same Teacher and Ruler of the Church , and the same sacrifice for sin , and Intercessor with the Father . 3. That you believe the same Gospel , and build upon the same Promises , and live by the same Rule , the Word of God. 4. That you obey the same Spirit , and trust to the same Sanctifier , and Comforter , and Illuminater , to illuminate , sanctifie and comfort your souls . 5. That you exercise all the same graces of Faith , Hope , Love , Repentance , Obedience , Patience , as they did . 6. That you live upon the same Truths , and be moved by the same Motives as they lived upon , and were moved by . 7. That you avoid the same sins as they avoided ; and see what they feared , and fled from , and made conscience of , that you may do the same . 8. That you chuse and use the same kind of company , helps and means of grace ( so far as yours and theirs are the same ) as they have done : And think not to find a nearer , or another way to that state of happiness which they are come ●o , Phil. 3.16 . Walk by the same Rule , and mind the same things , and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded , God shall reveal even this unto you . If any preach another Gospel , let him be accursed , Gal. 1.7 , 8. Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned , and avoid them , Rom. 16.17 . Heb. 6.11 . We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence , to the full assurance of hope to the end , that you be not slothful , but followers of them , &c. 9. That you avoid , resist , and overcome the same temptations , as they did , who now are crowned . 10. That you bear the same cross , and exercise the same faith , and hope , and patience , unto the end , 1 Pet. 4.1 . Arm your selves with the same mind , &c. In brief , this is the true imitation of the Saints . Direct 9. Never suffer your life of sense to engage you so deeply in sensible converse with men on earth , as to forget your heavenly relations and society ; but live as men that unfeignedly believe , that you have a more high , and noble converse every day to mind . If you are Believers indeed , let your faith go along with the souls of your departed friends , into glory : And if you have forgot them by an unfriendly negligence , renew your acquaintance with them . Think not that those only that live on earth , are fit for our converse , and our comfort : Will you converse with none but ignorant , selfish , worldly sinners ? Are you more contemptuous of the heavenly inhabitants , than the Gentleman in hell torments was , Luke 16.26 , 27. that thought one from the dead , though it had been but a beggar , would have been reverenced even by his sensual brethren on earth , so far as to have perswaded them unto saving Repentance . I tell you , a dead mans skull is oft-times a more profitable companion , than most that you shall converse with in the common world . The dust of your departed friends , and the clay that corps are turned into , is a good medicine for those eyes that are blinded with the dust of worldly vanities . Much more should you keep your acquaintance with the soul , which may , for all the distance , be perhaps more useful to you , than it was in the flesh . Alas , how carnally , and coldly , or seldom , do most Professors look at their Brethren , and at the Angelical hosts that are above . They long for our conversion , and mind our great concernments , and rejoyce in our felicity ; and shall we be so swinishly ungrateful , as seldom to look up , and remember their high and blessed state ? Many think that they have no more business with their deceased friends , than to see them decently interred , and to mourn over them , as if their removal were their loss ; or to grieve for our own loss , when we perceive their places empty ; but we scarce look up after them with an eye of faith , much less do we daily maintain our communion with them in Heaven : When Christ was taken up , his Disciples gazed after him , Act. 1.10 . Stephen looked up stedfastly into Heaven , and saw Christ sitting at the right hand of God , Acts 7.55 . And how seldome , how slightly do we look up , either to Jesus , his Angels , or his Saints . I tell you Sirs , you have not done with your friends when you have buryed their flesh . They have left you their holy examples : They are entered before you into rest : You are hastening after them , and must be quickly with them , if you are true Believers : You must see them every day by faith : When you look to Christ , you must look to them , as his beloved friends , entertained by him in his family of glory . When you look up to Heaven , remember that they are there : When you think of coming thither , remember that you must there meet them . You must honour their memories more than you did on earth , because they are more honourable , being more honoured of God. You must love them better than you did when they were on earth , because they are better , and so more lovely : You must rejoyce much more for their felicity , than you did whilest they were on earth ; because they are incomparably more happy than they were . Either you believe this , or you do not . If you do not believe that the dead are blessed that die in the Lord , and rest from their labours , and are with Christ in Paradise , why do you seem Christians ? If you do believe it , why do you not more rejoyce with your glorified friends , than you would have done , if they had been advanced to the greatest honours in the world ? It is the natural duty of friends , to mourn with them that mourn , and to rejoyce with them that rejoyce ; and if one member be honoured or dishonoured , the rest of the body are accordingly affected . Do not your sorrows then instead of joyes , tell all men that you believe that your friends are gone to sorrow , and not to joy ? If not , you are very selfish or inconsiderate . Direct . 10. Lastly , Let not your aversation to Popery , turn to a facti●us partial forsaking of Gods Truth , and your own duty and consolation , in this point . Abundance of Christians have taken up opinions in Religion , upon the love and honour of the parties that they took them of ; and being possessed with a just dislike of Popery in the main , they suspect and cast away , not a few great truths and duties upon a false information , that they are parts of Popery . It hath grieved 〈…〉 ●han once to hear religious persons come from heari●g 〈◊〉 Ministers with disdain and censure , saying that they prayed for the dead ; and all their proof was that [ Thanksgiving is a part of prayer : but they gave God thanks for the glorification of the spirits of the Just ; therefore they prayed for them . ] And so have they argued , because they have read the 1 Cor. 15. at the grave ; or because they have preached a Funeral Sermon while the Corpse was present , or because they prayed then for themselves , or for the Church . Alas , for the childish ignorance , and pievishness , and foolish wranglings of many Christians , who think they are better than their neighbours ! How much is Christs family dishonoured by his silly froward children ? And they will not be instructed by their friends ; and therefore they are posted up , and openly reproached by their enemies . Have Angels or heavenly Saints deserved so ill of God or us , that we should be so shy of their communion ? Are they nothing to us ? Have we nothing to do with them ? Have we cause to be ashamed of them ? Is their honour any dishonour to God or us ; if it be no more than what is their due ? Can we give so much love , respect and honour to Magistrates , Ministers , and Friends on earth ( imperfect , sinful , troublesome mortals : ) and shall we think that all is idolatrous , or cast away , which is given to them that so far excel us ? Is it your design to make Heaven either contemptible or strange to men on earth ? Or would you perswade the world , that the souls of the Saints are not immortal , but perish as the bruits ? Or that there is no Heaven ? Or that God is there alone without any company ? Are so many fond of the opinion of a Personal Reign on Earth , for Christ with his holy ones ; and yet is it Popery so much as to speak honourably and joyfully of the Saints in Heaven ? My Brethren , these things declare you yet to be too dark , too factious , and too carnal ; and to hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ , with respect to parties , sides and persons . Christ taketh not his Saints as strangers to him : He that judgeth men as they love and use him , in the least of his Brethren upon Earth , will not so soon censure and quarrel with us as the Sectary will do for loving and honouring him in his Saints in Heaven ; for it is his will and prayer that they be with him where he is to behold his glory , John 12.26 . & 17.24 . And he will come with his holy Angels to be glorified in his Saints ( who shall judge the world and Angels ) and to be admired in all them that do now believe , 2 Thes . 1.10 , 11 , 12. CHAP. XXVII . How to receive the Sentence of Death ; and how to die by Faith. HAving said so much of this elsewhere ( in my Books called , A Believers last work : The last Enemy : My Christian Directory : Treatise of Self-denyal , &c. ) I shall be here but very brief . I. For the first Case , before sickness cometh : Direct . 1. Be sure that you settle your Belief of the life to come , that your Faith may not fail . Direct . 2. Expect Death as seriously all your life , as wise Believers are obliged to do : That is , as men that are alwaies sure to die ; as men that are never sure to live a moment longer ; as men that are sure that life will be short , and death is not far off ; and as foreseeing what it is to die ; of what eternal consequence ; and what will then appear to be necessary to your safe , and to your comfortable change . Direct . 3. All your daies habituate your souls to believing , sweet enlarged thoughts of the infinite Goodness and Love of God , to whom you go , and with whom you hope to live for ever . Direct . 4. Dwell in the studies of a crucified and glorified Christ , who is the way , the truth and life ; who must be your hope in life and death , Ephes . 3.17 , 18 , 19. Direct . 5. Keep clear your evidences of your right to Christ , and all his Promises ; by keeping grace or the heavenly nature , in life , activity and increase , 2 Pet. 1.10 . 2 Cor. 13.5 . John 15 , 1 , &c. 1 John 3. Direct . 6. Consider often of the possession which your nature in Christ hath already of Heaven ; and how highly it is advanced , and how near his relation is , and how dear his love is to his weakest members upon earth : And that as souls in Heaven have an inclination and desire to communicate their own felicity to their bodies ; so hath Christ as to his body the Church , John 17.24 . Ephes . 5.25 , 27 , &c. Direct . 7. Look to the Heavenly Host , and those who have lived before you , or with you in the flesh , to make the thoughts of Heaven the more familiar to you ( as in the former chapter . ) Direct . 8. Improve all Afflictions , yea the plague of sin it self , to make you weary of this world , and willing to be gone to Christ , Rom. 7. Direct . 9. Be much with God in Prayer , Meditation , and other heart-raising duties ; that you may not by strangeness to him be dismayed . Direct . 10. Live not in the guilt of any wilful sin , nor in any slothful neglect of duty , lest guilt breed terrour , and make you fly from God your Judge . But especially study to redeem your time , and to do all the good you can i● the world , and to live as totally devoted to God , as conscious that you live to no carnal interest , but desire to serve him with all you have ; and your consciences testimony of this , will abundantly take off the terrours of death ( whatever any erroneous ones may say to the contrary , for fear of being guilty of conceits of merit . ) A fruitful life is a great preparative for death , 2 Tim. 4.8 . 2 Cor. 1.12 ▪ &c. Direct . 11. Fetch from Heaven the comforts which you live upon through all your life : And when you have truly learned to live more upon the comforts of believed glory , than upon any pictures or hopes below , then you will be able to die in and for those comforts , Matth. 6.20 , 21. Col. 3.1 , 4. Phil. 3.20 , 21. 1 Thes . 4.18 . Phil. 1.21 , 23. Direct . 12. The Knowledge and Love of God in Christ is the beginning or foretaste of Heaven , ( John 17.3 . 1 Cor. 13. &c. ) and the foretastes are excellent preparations : Therefore still remember that all that you do in the world , for the getting and exercising the true Knowledge and Love of God in Christ ; so much you do for the foretastes ( and best preparations ) for Heaven , 1 Cor. 8.3 . If any man love God , the same is known of him ( with approbation and love . ) II. In the time of sickness , and near to death . Direct . 1. Let your first work , when God seemeth to call you away , be , to renew a diligent search of your hearts and lives , and to see lest in either of them there should be any sin which is not truly hated and repented of . Though this must be done through all your lives , yet with an extraordinary care and diligence when you are like to come so speedily to your tryal . For it is only to Repenting Believers , that the Covenant of Grace doth pardon sin : And the impenitent have no right to pardon . Though for ordinary failings which are forgotten , and for sins which you are willing to know and remember , but cannot ; a general Repentance will be accepted ; ( as when you pray God to shew you the sins which you see not , and to forgive those which you cannot remember or find out : ) Yet those which you know must be particularly repented of : And Repentance is a remembring duty , and will hardly forget any great and heinous sins , which are known to be sins indeed . If your Repentance be then to begin , alas it is high time to begin it : And though if it be sound , it will be saving ( that is , If it be such as would settle you in a truly godly life , if you should recover ; ) yet you will hardly have any assurance of salvation , or such comfort in it as is desirable to dying man : Because you will very hardly know whether it come from true conversion , and contain a Love to God and Godliness ; or whether it be only the fruit of fear , and would come to nothing if you were restored to health : But he that hath truly repented heretofore , and lived in uprightness towards God and man , and hath nothing to do , but to discern his sincerity , and to exercise a special Repentance for some late or special sins ; or to do that again which he hath done unfeignedly before , will much more easily get the assurance and comfort of his forgiveness and salvation . Direct . 2. Renew your sense of the Vanity of this world : Which at such a time one would think , should be very easie to do . When you see that you are near an end of all your pleasures , and have had all ( except a grave to rot in ) that ever this world willd o for you , may you not easily then see , whether the godly or the worldly be the wiser and the happier man ? And what it is that the life of man should be spent in seeeking after ? Matth. 6.33 . Isa . 55.1 , 2 , 3. Eccles . 7.3 , 4 , 5 , 6. Direct . 3. Remember what Flesh is , and what it hath been to you , that you may not be too loth to lay it down . Of the dust it was made , and to the dust it must return : Corruption is your Father , and the Worm is your Mother , and your Sister , Job 17.14 . Drought and beat consume the Snow-waters ; so doth the grave those which have sinned : The womb shall forget him ; the Worm shall feed sweetly on him , Job 24.20 . Flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God ; but this mortal must put on immortality , by being made a spiritual body , 1 Cor. 15. And this flesh hath cost you so dear to carry it about ; so much care and labour to provide it food , to repair that which daily vanisheth away ; and so many weary , painful hours ; and so many fearful thoughts of dying , that methinks you should quietly resign it to the grave , which hath been so long calling for it . Especially considering what it hath done , by the temptations of a vitiated appetite and sense , against your souls : into how many sins it hath drawn you , and what grief and shame it hath procured you ; and what assurance and heavenly pleasures it hath hindered ; and how many repentings , and purposes , and promises it hath frustrated , or undone : Methinks we should conceive that we have long enough dwelt in such an habitation . Direct . 4. Foresee by Faith the resurrection of the body , when it shall be raised a spiritual body unto Glory ; and shall be no more an enemy to the soul . Direct . 5. Renew your familiarity with the blessed ones above . Remember that the great Army of God ( the souls of the just from Adam till now ) are all got safe through this Red Sea , and are triumphing in Heaven already ; and that it is but a few straglers in the end of the world that are left behind : And which part then should you desire to be with ? And remember how ready those Angels which rejoyced at your conversion , are to be your Convoy unto Christ , Luke 16.23 . Direct . 6. But especially think with greatest confidence and delight , that Jesus your Head is entred into the Heavens before you , and is making intercession for you , and is preparing you a place , and loveth your company , and will not lose it . You shall find him ready to receive your souls , and present them spotless unto God , as the fruit of his mediation : He will have you be with him to behold his glory ; and none shall take you out of his hands . Let his Love therefore draw up your desires , and stablish your hearts in confidence and rest . Direct . 7. Remember , that all that are living must come after you ; and how quickly their turn will come ; and would you wish to be exempt from death alone , which the whole world below must needs submit to ? Direct . 8. Think still of the Resurrection of Christ your Head , that you may see that death is a conquered thing , and what a pledge you have of a life to come . Direct . 9. Dwell still in the believing fore thoughts of the blessedness of the life to which you go , as it is your personal perfection , and the perfect Love and fruition of God , with his perfect joyous praise . Remember still what it is to see and know the Lord , ( and all things else in him , which are fit for us to know . And labour to revive your Love to God , and then you revive your desires and preparations . Direct . 10. Give up your selves wholly to the Will of God ; and think how much better it is for upright Souls to be in Gods hand , than in your own . The Will of God is the first and last , the Original and End of all the creatures . Besides the Will of Infinite Goodness , there is no final Rest for humane souls . But mans will is the Alpha and Omega , the beginning or first efficient , and the ultimate end of all obliquity and sin : Be bold then and thankful in your approach to God , remembring how much more safe and comfortable it is to be ( for life and death ) at Gods disposal , than our own . B●sides these , read the Directions against the fear of death , in my Book of Self-denyal ; and what is said in my Saints Rest , and other the Treatises before mentioned . CHAP. XXVIII . How by Faith to look aright to the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory . BEcause I have said so much of this also , in my Saints Rest , and in many other Treatises , I will now pass it over with these brief Directions . Direct . 1. Delude not your souls , nor corrupt your faith and hope , by placing Christs Kingdom in things too low , or that are utterly uncertain . Think not so carnally of the second coming of Christ , as the Jews did of the first who looked for an earthly Kingdom , and despised the spiritual and heavenly : And make not the unknown time , or other circumstances of his coming ▪ to be to you as the certain and necessary things ; lest you do as many of those called Millenaries , or Fifth-Monarchy men among us , who have turned the doctrine of Christian hope into an outragious fury , to bring Christ down before his time , and to make themselves Rulers in the world , that they might presently reign under the name of the Reign of Christ ▪ and have by seditious , rebellious railing at Christs Ministers , and hating those that are not of their mind , done much to promote the Kingdom of Satan , while they cryed up nothing but the Kingdom of Christ . Direct . 2. Do all that you can in this day of grace , to promote Christs present Kingdom in the world , and that will prove your best preparation for his glorious coming . To that end labour with all your might , to set up Life , and Light , and Love , abhorring Hypocrisie , Ignorance , and Vncharitableness ; turn not Religion into a ceremony , carkass or dead Imagery or Form : Nor yet into Darkness , Errour , or a humane wandering , distracting maze : Nor into selfish , proud , censorious faction : Build not Christs Kingdom as the Devil would do , by hypocritical dead shews , or by putting out his Lights , or by schism , division , hatred and strife . Read James 3. Direct 3. Yet leave not out of your faith and hope , any certain part of Christs glorious Kingdom . We know that we shall for ever be with the Lord , and in the presence of the Father in heavenly glory ; and withall , that we shall be in the New Jerusalem ; and that there shall be a new Heaven , and a new Earth , in which shall dwell righteousness ; and that we shall judge the Angels and the world . And if we know not the circumstances of all these parts , let not therefore any of them be denyed , 1 Thes . 4.11 . 2 Cor. 5.1 , 3 , 8. Rev. 20. & 22. 2 Pet. 3.13 . Direct . 4. Think what a day of Glory it will be to Jesus Christ , Matth. 25.31 . O how different from his state of humiliation ! He will not come again to be despised , spit on , buffeted , blasphemed and crucified : Pilate and Herod must be arraigned at his bar ; it is the marriage-day of the Lamb ; a day appointed for his glory , Rev. 21 , & 22. Direct 5. Think what a day of honour it will be to God the Father ; how his Truth will be vindicated , his Love and Justice gloriously demonstrated , Matth. 25. 2 Thes . 1.8 , 9. Direct . 6. Think what a day it will be to all the children of God ; to see their Lord , when he purposely cometh to be admired and glorified in them , 2 Thes . 1.11 , 12. To see him in whom they have believed , whom they loved and longed for , 2 Pet. 3.11 , 12 , 13. & 1 Pet. 1.8 . To see him who is their dearest Head and Lord ; who will justifie them before all the world , and sentence them to life eternal : To see the day in which they must receive the end of all their faith , and hope ; their prayers , labours and patience to the full , 1 Pet. 1.8 , 9. Rev. 2 , & 3. Matth. 25. 2 Pet. 4.13 . Direct . 7. Thinks what a day it will be to the shame of sin , when it shall be the reproach and terrour of the world , and to the Honour of Holiness , when faith , obedience and love shall be the approved honour of all the Saints : And what a day of admirable Justice it will be , when all that seems crooked here , shall be set strait : O the difference that there will then be in the thoughts of sin and holiness , in comparison of those that men have of them now ! Direct . 8. Think what a confounding day it will be to the infernal Serpent , and all his seed , Matth. 25.41 , 16. When impudent boasters shall then be speechless , and all iniquity shall stop her mouth , Matth. 25.44 . & 22.12 . Psal . 107.42 . And when Lazarus shall be seen in Abraham's bosome ; and the enemies of the Saints shall see them advanced ( as Haman did M●rdecai , and rejoycing when the Glory of Christ is revealed , 1 Pet. 4.13 . When every scorners mouth shall be stopped , and all stand guilty before their Judge , ( Rom. 3.4.19 . ) and the wretched unprepared souls must for departing from God , be sentenced to depart into misery for ever , Matth. 25.41 , 46. Jude v. 6. Direct . 9. And think what a change that day beginneth both with the Saints , and with the world : What a glory is it that we must immediately possess , in body and soul ; and how we must partake of the Kingdom of our Lord : Saints shall be scorned and persecuted no more : The threatnings and promises of Christ shall be no more denyed by unbelievers : Sin will be no more in honour , nor pride and sensuality bear sway : The Church will be no more ecclipsed , either by its lamentable imperfections , and diseased members , or by the divisions of sects , or the scatterings of the cruel , or the slanders of the lying tongue , Ephes . 5.17 . Satan will no more tempt or trouble us ( Rev. 12.9 . ) Matth. 25.41 . Sin and death will be excluded ; and all the fears and horrours of both : For the face of Infinite Love will perfectly and perpetually shine upon us , and shine us into perfect perpetual Glory , Love and Joy ; and will feed these , and the thankful and pra●seful expressions of them , to all eternity , Matth. 5.46 . 2 Cor. 4.17 . Rev. 2 , & 3. Direct . 10. Lastly , Think how neer all this must needs be : If the day of the Lord was near in the times of the Apostles , it cannot be far off to us . If the worlds duration be to six thousand years ( the time which arrogant presumption most plausibly guesseth at ) it will be less than 350 years to it . Though we know not the time , we know it cannot be long . And let me conclude with a warning to both sorts of Readers : And 1. To the ungodly unprepared sinner . Poor soul ! dost thou believe this dreadful day or not ? if not , why dost thou dissemble , by professing it in thy Creed ? if thou do , how 〈◊〉 thou live so merrily or quietly in a careless unprepared state ? Canst thou possibly forget so great , so sure , so near a day ? Alas , it will be another kind of meeting , than Christ had with sinners upon earth ; when he came in meekness and humiliation , not to judge and condemn the world , b●t to be falsly judged and condemned by them , John 3.17 . & 12.47 . Nor will it be such a meeting as Christ had with thee , either by his Ministers that called thee to repent , who were men whom thou couldest easily despise ; or by his Spirit which thou couldest resist and quench ; or by his afflicting Rod , which did but say to thee , Go , sin no more , lest worse befall thee , Joh. 5.14 . Heb. 12.10 , 12. 1 Tim. 5.24 . Nor as the Judgment of mans Assize , which passeth sentence only against a temporal life , Luke 12.4 . Nor like the treaty of a Judas with his new awakened conscience here . O no! It will be a more glorious , but more dreadful day : It will be the meeting , not only of a creature with his Creatour ; but of a sinner with a just and holy God , and of a despiser of grace , with the God whom he despised : O terrible day to the unbelieving , ungodly , carnal and impenitent ! Heb. 10.31 . & 2.3 . & 10.12 . Luke 19.27 . There must thou appear to receive thy final doom ; to hear the last word that ever thou must hear from Jesus Christ ( unless his everlasting wrath be called his Word ) And O how different will it be from the words which thou wast wont to hear ! Thou wast wont to hear the calls of grace : Mercy did intreat thee to return to God : Christ by his Ministers did beseech thee to be reconciled : But if thou intreat him for pardon and peace , with the loudest cryes , it would be all in vain , Matth. 7.21 , 22 , 23. Prev . 1.27 , 28. Now the voice is , Behold the Lamb of God , who taketh away the sins of the world , John 1.29 . But then it will be , [ Behold he cometh with clouds , end every eye shall see him , and they also which pierced him , and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail , because of him , Rev. 1.7 . And [ behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints , to execute Judgment up●n all , and to convince all that are ungodly among them , of all their ungodly deeds , which they have ungodly committed , and of all their hard speeches , which ungodly sinners have spoken against him , Jude 14 , 15. Now he entreateth you to come to him that you may have life , John 5 40. But then you will cry to the Mountains to fall upon you , and the hills to cover you from his presence , Luke 23.30 . Rev. 6.16 . Now he saith , Behold I stand at the door and knock ; If any man hear my voice , and open the door , I will come in to him , and will sup with him , and he with me , Rev. 3.20 . But when once you hear that midnight cry , Behold the Bridegroom cometh , go ye forth and meet him ; then they that are ready shall go in , and the door shall be shut against the rest , Matth. 25.9 , 10. The door of mercy shall be shut : Your Reprobation will be then made sure , Rom. 9.22 . & 2.5 . The day of thy visitation is then past , ( Luke 19.41 , 42. ) No more offers of Christ and mercy : No more intreaties to accept them : No more calls to turn and live : Min●sters must no more preach , and perswade , and intreat in vain . Friends must no more warn thee , and pray for thee . All is done already that they can do for thy soul for ever . No more strivings of the Spirit with thy conscience ; and no more patience , health or time to be abused upon fleshly lusts and pleasures : All these things are past away , 1 Cor. 7.31 . 2 Cor. 4.17 . And the door of Hope will be also shut : No more hope of a part in Christ : No more hope of the success of Sermons , of Prayers , or of any other means : No hopes of pardon , of justification , of salvation ; or of any abatement of thy woe , Luke 16.25.26 . Behold this is the accepted time ; behold this is the day of salvation , 2 Cor. 6.2 . Heb. 6.4 , 5 , 6 , 8 Psal . 5.4 , 5. & 9.7 . James 1.15 . By this time , methinks you should better know what the use and meaning of the Gospel , and Grace , and Ministers is ; and what is the design of Preaching , and in what manner it should be done . Would you have us silent , or talk to you as in jeast , while we see such a day as this before us ? Every true Preacher spaketh to you with Judgment and Eternity in his eye . Our work is to prepare you , or to help you to prepare to meet the Lord , and to be ready for your final sentence : O then with what seriousness should we speak , and should you bear , and should both we and you prepare ! It 's pitty to see people hear Sermons many years , and not so much as know what a Sermon is ; or what is the use and nature of it . If our business were to draw away Disciples after us , and to make our selves the admired heads of factions , then we would speak those perverse things contrary to the doctrine which you have been taught , by which our ends might be carryed on , Acts 20.30 . Rom. 16.17 . Or if our design were to be high , and great , and rich , we would flatter the great ones of the world , that we might rule you with violence instead of love : Or if we consulted our case , we should spare much of this labour , and let you silently alone , at cheaper rates to the flesh , than now we speak to you . But O who can be silent , who is engaged in this sacred office , when he foreseeth what will shortly be the issue of our prevailing , or not prevailing with you ! Now as we love Christ , we must feed his sheep ; and necessity is laid upon us , and woe be unto us if we preach not the Gospel , 1 Cor. 9.16 . Our preaching Christ is to warn every man , and teach every man , that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus , Col. 1.22 . And to perswade men as knowing the terrours of the Lord , 2 Cor. 9.10 , 11. Heb. 12.25 , 29. If it were only that we loved so to hear our selves talk ; or to be cryed up by many followers , we deserved to pay dear indeed for such Preaching . But when our Lord loved and pittied souls at the rate of his sufferings and bloody death , surely our rates are not above the worth of souls . O what a doleful sight is it to us , to foresee by faith how loud , how earnestly you would knock and cry , when the door is shut , and hope is gone ! And what you would then give for one of these daies which you now are a weary of ; and for a drop of that mercy which now doth beg your entertainment ! What then remaineth , but as ever you believe that day ; and as ever you care what becometh of your souls and bodies for ever ; and as ever you would not be charg●d and condemned , as final and obstinate refu●ers of mercy and salvation ; yea and for wronging the Ministers of Christ , by making them study and preach in vain : That you harden not your hear●s , but hear Christs voice , to day , while it is called to day ▪ before the door of grace be shut : O cry while crying and begging may do good : Meet Christ now as may best prepare you to meet him then . Meet him now as the Prodigal met his Father , Luke 15. Saying , I have sinned , and am no more worthy to be called thy Son , make me one of thy hired servants . Meet God as Abigail met David , 1 Sam. 25.32 , 34. with an offering of peace ( even Christ apprehended by an obedient faith : ) When she heard from David , Except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me , all had been destroyed . Meet him to enquire of his sacred Oracle , what is like to become of thy soul ; as the King of Syria sent Hazael with a present to Elisha , to meet him , saying , Shall I recover of this disease ? 2 King. 8.8 . Or as Paul met with Christ when he humbled and converted him , saying , Who art thou , Lord ? and what wouldst thou have me do ? Acts 9. Meet him as the men of Israel and Juda did David their King , 2 Sam. 19. striving who should first own and honour him , Amos 4.12 . Meet God thus n●w when h● ca●●eth you by his Word , when he perswadeth you by his M●●●sters , when he moveth you by his Spirit , when he allureth and obligeth you by his mercies , while he driveth you by affliction , while he waiteth on you by his patience , and by all th●se calleth you to repent , to love him , and to obey ; to set your hearts on Heaven if ever you hope it should be your portion : Meet him thus now , and then you may joyfully meet him in his glory . II. And O all you that are true Believers , lift up your heads with hope and joy , for your final deliverance draweth nigh . The world hath but a little while longer to abuse you : Satan hath but a little while more to molest you : The blinded Sodomites shall not long be groping for your doors : You shall not long walk among snares and dangers ; nor live with enemies , nor with troublesome unsuitable friends : You have not long to bear the burden of that wearisome body , of that seducing flesh , of those unruly passions , or those disordered thoughts ; you have not long to groan under the misery of that troubled and doubting conscience , that darkened mind , those dull affections , those remnants of unbelief , stupidity and carnality ; nor to cry out with weariness from day to day , O when shall I know God better , and love him more ! Death is coming , and quickly after , Christ is coming : One will begin , and the other perfect your full deliverance , and put an end to these complaints . And remember , that though Death hath somewhat in it , which to nature is terrible ( God having made the love of Life to be the pondus , or spring of motion to the great engine of the sensitive world ) yet what is there in the second coming of Christ , that should seem unwelcome to you ? You shall not meet an enemy , but a friend ; your surest , and your greatest friend ; one that hath done more for you than all the world hath done ; and one that is ready now to do much more , and shew his love and friendship to the height . One that will be then your surest friend , when all the world shall cast you off . You go not to be condemned , but to be openly justified ; yea honoured before all the world , and sentenced to endless glory . You go not to be numbered with the enemies of holiness , or with the slothful and unprofitable servants ; but to be perfectly incorporated into the heavenly society , and to see the glorified faces of Henoch , Moses and Elias , of Peter , and John , and Paul , and Timothy , and all the Saints that ever you knew , or whose writings you have ever read , or whose names you ever heard of , & millions more . You go to be better acquainted with those Angels that rejoyced at your repentance , and that ministred for your good , and that bore you in their hands , and were your continual guard both night and day . You go to joyn in consort with all these , in those seraphick praises which are harmoniously sounded forth continually , through all the intellectual world , in the greatest fervours of perfect Love , and the constant raptures of perfect Joy , in the fullest intuition of the glory of the Eternal God , and the glorified humanity of your Redeemer , and the glory of the celestial world and society , and under the streams of Infinite Life , and Light , and Love , poured forth upon you to feed all this , to all Eternity : And all this in so near and sweet an union with the glorified ones , who are the body and Spouse of Christ , that it shall be all as one Praise , one Love , one Joy in all . O for a more lively and quick-sighted faith , to foresee this day in some measure as affectingly , as we shall then see it ! Alas , my Lord , is this dark prospect all that I must here hope for ? Is this dull , and dreaming , and amazing apprehension , all that I shall reach to here ? Is this sensless heart , this despondent mind , these drowsie desires , the best that I must here employ in the contemplation of so high a glory ? Must I come in such a sleepy state to God ? and go as in a dream to the beatifical vision ? I am ashamed and confounded to find my soul , alas , so dark , so dead , so low , so unsuitable to such a day and state , even whilest I am daily looking towards it , and whilest I am daily talking of it , and perswading others to higher apprehensions than I can reach my self ; and even whilest I am writing of it , and attempting to draw a Map of Heaven , for the consolation of my self , and fellow-believers . Thou hast convinced my Reason of the truth of thy predictions , and of the certain futurity of that glorious day : And yet how little do my affections stir ? and how unanswerable are my joyes , and my desires , to those convictions ? when the light of my understanding should cure the deadness of my heart , alas , this deadness rather extinguisheth that light , and cherisheth temptations to unbelief ; and my faith , and reason , and knowledge , are as it were asleep , and useless , for want of that Life which should awaken them unto exercise and use . Awakened Reason serveth Faith , and is alwaies on thy side : But sleepy Reason in the gleams of prosperity , is ready to give place to flesh and fancy , and hath a thousand distracted , incoherent dreams . O now reveal thy Power , thy Truth , thy Love and Goodness effectually to my soul , and then I shall wait with love and longing , for the revelation of thy Glory : Thy inward , heavenly , powerful Light , is kin to the glorious brightness of thy coming ; and will shew me that which books and talk only , without thy Spirit , cannot shew . Thy Kingdom in me , and my daily faithful subjection to thy Government there , must prepare me for the glorious endless Kingdom : If now thou wouldest pour out thy Love upon my soul , it would flame up towards thee , and long to meet thee , and think with daily pleasure on that day : And my perfect Love would cast out that fear , which maketh the thoughts of thy coming to be a torment : O meet me now when my soul doth seek thee , and secretly cry after thee ; that I may know thou wilt meet me with love and pitty at the last . O turn not now thine ears from my requests : For if thou receive me not now as thy humble supplicant , how shall I hope that thou wilt receive me then ? And if thou wilt not hear me in the day of grace and visitation , and in this time when thou mayest be found , how can I hope that thou wilt hear me then , when the door is shut , and the seeking and finding time is past ? If thou cast me out of thy presence now , and turn away thy face from my soul and my supplication , as a loathed thing , how can I then expect thy smiles , or the vital embracements of thy glorifying Love ? or to be owned by thee before all the world , with that cordial and consolatory Justification , which may keep my conscience from becoming my Hell. If thou permit my flesh and sense to conquer my faith , and to turn away my love and desire from thee ; how shall I then expect that Joy , that Heaven , which consisteth in thy Love : And if thou suffer this unstedfast heart to depart from thee now , will it not be the forerunner of that dreadful doom , Depart from me ye workers of iniquity , I know you not : And if for the love of transitory vanity , I now deny thee , what can I then expect but to be finally denyed by thee ? Come Lord and dwell by thy Spirit in my soul , that I may have something in me to take my part , and may know that I shall dwell with thee for ever : If now thou wilt make me thy temple and habitat●on , and wilt dwell by faith and love within me ; I shall know thee by more than the hearing of the ear , and thy last appearing will be less terrible to my thoughts : Thou wilt be health to my soul , when my body lyeth languishing in pain : And when flesh and heart fail , my failing heart will find reviving strength in thee : And when the portion of worldlings is spent , and at an end , I shall find thee a never-ending portion . Why wouldest thou come down from Heaven to Earth in the daies of thy voluntary humiliation , but to bring down grace to dwell where God himself hath dwelt ? If the Eternal Word will dwell in flesh , the Eternal Spirit will not disdain it , whose dwelling is not by so close an union , but by sweet unexpressible inoperations : This world hath had the pledge of thy bodily presence , when thou broughtest life and immortality to light : O let my dark and fearful soul , have the pledge of thy illuminating , quickening , comforting Spirit , that life and immortality may be begun within me ! Thy word of promise is certain in it self ; but knowing our weakness , thou wilt give us more : Thy seal , thy pledge , thy earnest , will not only confirm my faith , as settling my doubting mind ; but it will also draw up my love and desire , as suited to my intellectual appetite ; and will be a true foretaste of Heaven : How oft have I gazed in the glass , and yet overlookt , or not been taken with the beauty of thy face ? But one drop of thy Love , if it fall into my soul , will fill it with the most fragrant and delectable odour , and will be its life , and joy , and vigour . I shall never know effectually what Heaven is , till I know what it is to love thee , and to be beloved by thee : For what but Love will tell me what a life of Love is ? If I could love thee more ardently , more absolutely , more operatively , I should quickly know and feel thy Love. And O when I shall know that prosperous life , and live in in the delicious entertainments of thy love , and in the sweet and vigorous exercise of mine , then I shall know the nature of Heaven , the wisdom of believers , and the happiness of enjoyers ! And then foretaste will do more than foresight alone , and will make me love the day of thy appearing , and long to see thy glorious Love ! But alas , this feeble sleeping Love , doth threaten , if not the thrusting of me out of doors ( for none but friends and hearty Lovers dwell with thee ) at least , that I shall be set behind the door , and be one of the lowest in thy Kingdom , as I was in thy Love. For if I have the least degree of Love , I must needs have the least degree of Glory , seeing that blessedness is Love it self : And if I have the least in this life , how can I hope to have proportionably with others , the most in that ? I know that it is better to be a door-keeper in thy house , than to reign in the Palaces of earthly sordid and polluting pleasures : And that the least in thy Kingdom , is greater than Emperours in the Kingdoms of darkness . But how can I have faith indeed , and not desire intuition ? or grace , and not desire glory ? Or who can love thee truly , and yet be contented to love thee but a little ? Or who ever tasted truly of thy Love , that desired not the fulness of it ? If sincerity consist in the desire of Perfection ; and if mutual Love be heaven it self , I am not sincere then , if I desire not the highest place in Heaven , which is suited to the measure of my natural capacity , and with the freedom and wisdom of thy bounteous Will. Did I grudge at my natural capacity , and my rank among my fellow-creatures , and aspired after the Divine Prerogatives , or a Greatness without Goodness , or any prohibited station or degree , I might then expect the reward of Pride , and to fall into Satans condemnation for falling into his sin . But when wast thou ever offended at the ambition of loving thee with the most perfect Love ? Thou forbiddest our carnal Pride , as our self-abasing folly : Not thinking preferments , Lordships and domination to be things too high for us , but too low : Thou allowest and commandest the poorest Lazarus to seek and hope for things ten thousand times more high ; in comparison with which these pleasures are pain , these Lordships are losses ; this wealth is dung ; these Courts are de●● of uncleanness , wild and ravenous beasts ; and all this earthly pomp is shame . Thou forbiddest not the pleasures and glory of the world , as too good for thy servants , but as too bad , and base , and hurtful . O therefore encourage in my drooping soul , that holy ambition which thou commandest ! Disappoint not the desires which thy self , by thy Precept and thy Spirit hast excited . I know thou hast promised to satisfie them that hunger and thirst after Righteousness : And ( if my soul be acquainted with it self ) it is Righteousness which I desire . Though the solliciting calls of vanity have drawn me too often to look aside , it is the Knowledge and Love of my Creatour , and Redeemer , and Sanctifier , which I pursue ; and my prayer is , that thou wilt turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity , and quicken me in thy way . But it is the dulness of my desires which I fear ; lest they are not the hungring and thirsting which have thy promise ; and lest they should prove but as the desires of the slothful which kill him , because his hands refuse to labour : But thou knowest that I hate the sluggishness and indifferency of my soul , and the coldness and interruptions of my desires : And what is there in this world which I desire more , than more desires after thee ; even more of that Desiring , Seeking Love , which is the way to enjoying and delighting Love. O breath upon my soul , by thy quickening Spirit , that it may pant , and gasp , and breath after thy presence ! The most dolorous motions of Life and Love , have more contenting sweetness in them , than my dead insensibility and sleep . When I can but long to love thee , or when I lie in tears for want of love , or when I am hating and reviling this sluggish , carnal , disaffected heart , even in my very doubts , and fears , and moans , I find my self nearer to content and pleasure , than when I neglect thee with a dead and drowsie heart . If therefore my vileness make me unfit to enjoy that pleasure in the daily prospect of thy Kingdom , which reason it self adjudgeth to a serious lively faith ; O yet keep up the constant fervour of desire , that I may never grow in love with vanity and deceit , nor never be indifferent whether I stay on earth , or come to thee ! And that in my greatest health I may never think of Thee without desire ; nor never kneel in prayer to thee with such an unbelieving , and unprayer-like heart , which doth not unfeignedly say , Let thy glorious Kingdom come : That so when on the bed of languishing , I am waiting for the dissolution of this frame , I may not draw back , as flying from thy presence ; nor look at Heaven as less desirable than Earth ; nor be driven unwillingly from a more beloved habitation ; but with that Faith , Hope and Love which animateth all thy living members , I may in consort with thy Saints to the last sincerely break forth , our common suit ; Come Lord Jesus , come quickly . Amen . FINIS . A Catalogue of Books written and published by the same Author . 1. THE Aphorisms . 2. The Saints Everlasting rest , in quarto . 3. Plain Scripture proof of Infant Church-membership and Baptism , in quarto . 4. The right Method for a settled Peace of Conscience and Spiritual Comforts , in thirty two Directions , in octavo . 5. Christian Concord ; or the Agreement of the Associated Pastors and Churches of Worcester-shire , in quarto . 6. True Christianity ; or Christs Absolute Dominion , &c. in two Assize Sermons preacht at Worcester , in twelves . 7. A Sermon of Judgement preacht at Pauls , London , Decemb. 17. 1654. and now enlarged , in twelves . 8. Making light of Christ and Salvation too oft the Issue of Gospel-Invitations , manifested in a Sermon preached at Lawrence Jury , in London , in octavo . 9. The Agreement of divers Ministers of Christ in the County of Worcester , for Catechizing , or Personal Instructing all in their several Parishes that will consent thereunto ; containing 1. The Articles of our Agreement . 2. An Exhortation to the People to submit to this necessary work . 3. The Profession of Faith and Catechism , in octavo . 10. Guildas Salvianus , The Reformed Pastor , shewing the nature of the Pastoral work , especially in private Instruction and Catechizing , in octavo . 11. Certain Disputations of Right to Sacraments , and the True Nature of Visible Christianity , in quarto . 12. Of Justification : four Disputations clearing and amicably defending the Truth , against the unnecessary Oppositions of divers Learned and Reverend Brethren , in quarto . 13. A Treatise of Conversion , preached and now published for the use of those that are strangers to a true Conversion , &c. in quarto . 14. One sheet for the Ministry against the Malignants of all sorts . 15. A Winding-sheet for Popery . 16. One Sheet against the Quakers . 17. A second Sheet for the Ministry , &c. 18. Directions to Justices of Peace , especially in Corporations , to the discharge of their duty to God , &c. 19. The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ , &c. in quarto . 20. A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live , and accept of mercy , while mercy may be had , as ever they would find mercy in the day of their extremity : From the Living God : To be read in Families where any are unconverted , in twelves . 21. Of Saving Faith : That it is not only gradually , but specifically distinct from all Common Faith. The Agreement of Richard Baxter with that very Learned consenting Adversary , that hath maintained his Assertion by a pretended Confutation in the end of Serjeant Shepherds Book of Sincerity and Hypocrisie , in quarto . 22. Directions and Perswasions to a sound Conversion , &c. in octavo . 23. The Grotian Religion discovered , at the invitation of Mr. Thomas Pierce in his Vindication : With a Preface , vindicating the Synod of Dort from the calumnies of the new Tilenus ; and David , Peter , &c. and the Puritans , and Sequestrations , &c. from the censures of Mr. Pierce , in octavo . 24. Confirmation and Restauration , the necessary means of Reformation and Reconciliation , &c. in octavo . 25. Five Disputations of Church-Government , in quarto . 26. A Key for Catholicks , to open the jugling of the Jesuites , and satisfie all that are but truly willing to understand , whether the Cause of the Roman or Reformed Churches be of God ; and to leave the Reader utterly unexcusable that after this will be a Papist , in quarto . 27. A Treatise of Self-denyal , in quarto . 28. His Apology against the Exceptions of Mr. Blake , Kendall , Crandon , Eires , L ▪ Moulin , in quarto . 29. The unreasonableness of Infidelity , in four parts , &c. in octavo . 30. The Worcester-shire Petition to the Parliament , for the Ministry of England , defended , &c. in quarto . 31. His Holy Common-wealth ; or Political Aphorisms , opening the true Principles of Government , &c. in octavo . 32. His Confession of Faith , &c. in quarto . 33. His humble Advice ; or the heads of those things which were offered to many honourable members of Parliament , in quarto . 34. The Quakers Catechism ; or the Quakers questioned , in quarto . 35. An account of his present Thoughts concerning the Controversies about the perseverance of the Saints , in quarto . 36. His Letter to Mr. Drury for Pacification , in quarto . 37. The Safe Religion ; or three Disputations for the Reformed Catholick Religion , against Popery , &c. in octavo . 38. Catholick Unity ; or , the only way to bring us all to be of one Religion , &c. in twelves . 39. The true Catholick , and Catholick Church described , &c. in twelves . 40. The Successive Visibility of the Church of which Protestants are the soundest members , &c. in octavo . 41. The Sermon of Repentance . 42. Of Right Rejoycing . 43. Sermon of Faith before the King. 44. Treatise of Death . 45. The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite , &c. in several Sermons preached at the Abbey in Westminster , in twelves . 46. Two Sheets for Poor Families , &c. 47. Short Instructions for the sick : a sheet . 48. A Saint or a Bruit , &c. in quarto . 49. The mischief of Self-ignorance , and benefit of Self-acquaintance , in octavo . 50. Universal Concord , &c. in octavo . 51. The last work of a Believer , &c. in twelves . 52. The Divine Life in three Treatises : The first of the Knowledge of God : The second , of Walking with God : The third , of Conversing with God in Solitude , in quarto . 53. The Reasons of the Christian Religion , &c. 54. Directions for weak distempered Christians , to grow up into a confirmed state of grace , &c. 2. The Characters of a sound confirmed Christian : written to imprint on mens minds the true Idea or Conception of Godliness and Christianity , in octavo . These Books following are also printed for Nevill Simmons at the three Crowns near Holborn Conduit . THE Novelty of Popery opposed to the Antiquity of true Christianity . By Peter Dumoulin , D. D. in folio . A Commentary or Exposition upon the five Books of Moses together with the following Books ; Joshua , Judges , Ruth , first and second of Samuel ; first and second of Kings ; and first and second of Chronicles , in folio . The Beauty of Magistracy , in an Exposition on Psal . 82. By Thomas Hall , B. D. The Souls Looking-glass ; wherein a man may discern what estate his soul stands in towards God , and what evidences he hath for Heaven , &c. By Edward Bury , late Minister of great Bolas in Shropshire , in octavo . The Profit of Godliness , set forth in five Sermons , on 1 Tim. 4.8 . The unprofitableness of worldly gain in four Sermons on Mark 8.36 , 37. The Parable of the barren Figg-tree , in seven Sermons on Luke 13.6 , 7 , 8 , 9. Victorious Violence , in two Sermons , on Matth. 11.12 . By Thomas Brindall , late Minister of Walshall in Staffordshire , in octavo . The Girdle of Holy Resolution , in two Sermons , on 1 Pet. 1.13 . By William Gearing , Minister of the Gospel , in quarto . The Love-sick Spouse , in four Sermons on Cant. 2.5 . By William Gearing , Minister of the Gospel , in quarto . A Discourse on Prodigious Abstinence , occasioned by the twelve months fasting of Martha Tayler . By John Reynolds , in quarto . The Dead Pastor yet speaking , in two Sermons , preached on Bartholmew day , Aug. 24. 1662. in Bewdley Chappel . By Henry Osland , then Minister there , in octavo . The Christians daily Walk ; a sheet . By the same Author . A Sinners Justification on the Lord Jesus Christ , the Lord our Righteousness ; in several Sermons . By Obadiah Grew , D. D. late Minister in Coventry , in octavo . The Repenting Sinner pardoned , being a brief Relation of the wicked life , and penitent death of James Wilson of Wolverhampton , in Staffordshire , in octavo . The English School ; or the readiest way to teach children , or elder persons , to read , spell , and rightly pronounce English ; fitted to the use of common English-Schools , illustrated with five brass Cuts . By Tobias Ellis , in octavo . FINIS . LET the Reader know , that whereas the Bookseller hath in the Catalogue of my Books , named my [ Holy Common-Wealth , or Political Aphorisms ] I do hereby recall the said Book , and profess my Repentance , that ever I published it , and that not only for some by-passages , but in respect of the secondary part of the very scope . Though the first part of it , which is the defence of God , and Reason I recant not . But this Revocation I make with these proviso's , 1. That I reverse not all the Matter of that Book , nor all ; that more than ONE have accused ; As e. g. the Assertion that all humane Powers are Limited by God : And if I may not be pardoned for not defying DEITY and HUMANITY , I shall preferr that ignominy before their present Fastus , and Triumph , who defie them . 2. That I make not this Recantation to the Military fury , and rebellious pride and tumult , against which I wrote it ; nor would have them hence take any encouragement for impenitence . 3. That though I dislike the Roman Clergies writing so much of Politicks , and detest Ministers medling in State matters without necessity , or a certain call ; yet I hold it not simply unbeseeming a Divine , to expound the fifth Commandment , nor to shew the dependance of humane Powers on the Divine ; nor to instruct Subjects to obey with judgement , and for Conscience sake . 4. That I protest against the judgement of Posterity , and all others , that were not of the same TIME , and PLACE , as to the ( mental ) censure , either of the BOOK or the REVOCATION ; as being ignorant of the true reasons of them both . Which things Provided , I hereby under my hand , as much as in me lyeth , reverse the Book , and desire the World to take it as non-Scriptum . April . 15. 1670. R. B. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A26951-e50550 What true Christian Faith is ? See Dr. ● Stillingfleet of Satisfaction on this point . 
A29752	----	The life of justification opened, or, A treatise grounded upon Gal. 2, II wherein the orthodox doctrine of justification by faith, & imputation of Christ's righteousness is clearly expounded, solidly confirmed, & learnedly vindicated from the various objections of its adversaries, whereunto are subjoined some arguments against universal redemption / by that faithful and learned servant of Jesus Christ Mr. John Broun ... Brown, John, 1610?-1679. 1695 Approx. 1972 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 285 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-05 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A29752 Wing B5031 ESTC R36384 15685276 ocm 15685276 104357 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29752) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 104357) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1180:9) The life of justification opened, or, A treatise grounded upon Gal. 2, II wherein the orthodox doctrine of justification by faith, & imputation of Christ's righteousness is clearly expounded, solidly confirmed, & learnedly vindicated from the various objections of its adversaries, whereunto are subjoined some arguments against universal redemption / by that faithful and learned servant of Jesus Christ Mr. John Broun ... Brown, John, 1610?-1679. [12], 565, [3] p. s.n.], [Holland? : MDCXCV [1695] Place of publication suggested by Wing. Despite the title, this is a commentary on Galatians chapter III, verse 11. Imperfect: stained. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- N.T. -- Galatians III, 11 -- Commentaries. Justification. Faith. 2004-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-02 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-03 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2004-03 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE LIFE OF JUSTIFICATION OPENED . Or , A Treatise grounded upon Gal. 2. 11. Wherein the Orthodox Doctrine of Justification by Faith , & Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , is clearly expounded , solidly confirmed , & learnedly vindicated from the various Objections of its Adversaries . Whereunto are subjoined some Arguments against Universal Redemption . By that Faithful and Learned Servant of Iesus Christ Mr. JOHN BROUN , sometimes Minister of the Gospel at Wamfrey in Scotland . JER . 23. 6. In His dayes JUDAH shall be saved , and Israel shall dwell safely : and this is His name whereby He shall be called , THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS . Iustificatio est Articulus stantis & cadentis Ecclesiae . LUTH . Printed in the Year . M.DC.XCV . THE PREFACE TO THE READER . IT is the true wisdome of a Christian to understand aright and with a spiritual eye to discern the great difference between the Law and the Gospel , the Covenant of Works and that of Grace , the Legal and Euangelical Justification , the ignorance whereof is the great Cause of most errours this day among professed Christians . When our blessed Saviour came into the world , he found flowing out of this bad fountain a multitude of Heresies in the Jewish Church , deceived by the Pharisees , blind Leaders of a blind People , erecting & establishing their our Righteousness before the throne of God. And it is certain that our Lord Jesus Christ was rejected of the Jews , because they could not believe their own unrighteousness , miserie & condemnation by the Law , nor be made to seek in the Messiah his Sufferings & Satisfaction the true expiation of sins and a compleat Righteousness , sufficient to eternal happiness . Certainly they understood not the promises of the Prophets , especially that of Isaiah Chap. LIII . neither looked they to the end of the Ceremonial oeconomie & Law which was to be abolished , 2 Cor. 3. 13. Of this Judaical errour we have a clear example in the Apostle Paul , before his conversion a Pharisee , & by his great Masters well instructed in the letter of the Law. For he looking upon himself , and not understanding the nature of the Law in its Spiritual meaning , was in his own eyes no sinner , but a just man , living , and having a right to pretend a sentence of Justification before God upon the account of his works according to the Law. But when it pleased God to reveal his Son to his soul , he could count all things but l●ss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ , and desire only to be found in him , not having his own Righteousness which is of the Law , but that which is through the Faith of Christ ; the Righteousness which is of God by Faith. Phil. 3. 8 , 9. And so became a great example of all true Converts & Believers , & his Conversion a Demonstration of this Euangelical Doctrine , that no man is Justified by his works , but by the Righteousness of Christ imputed & by Faith received & applyed . No doubt , Christian Reader , but this doctrine is the whole scope of the same Apostle in his Epistles to the Romans & Galatians . For having proved both Jews and Gentiles to be all under sin , & supposing consequently that by the works of the Law no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God , he sheweth , that all elected sinners coming short of the glorie of God , must be justified freely by his grace through the Redemption which is in Jesus Christ , whom God hath set forth to be our Propitiation through faith in his blood , so that all boasting may be excluded ; which cannot be , if a man could be justified by his works . Yea the Apostle Chap. 4. gives a Demonstration of this doctrine out of the examples of Abraham & David , to whom after conversion , Righteousness is imputed & sin pardoned by faith in the promise . In his Epistle to the Galatians , he likewise presseth this Doctrine against the heresie of judaizing Ministers , who would have mingled the Law with the Gospel , and rejects their sentence as another Gospel worthy to be Anathematized , with every one who teacheth it , though even an Angel from Heaven ; since he saith upon the matter , that Christ is dead in vain , as we see Chap. 1. 8 , 11. Chap. 11. 21. How happy were the Church in these dayes , if the Doctrine of Gospel-Justification did continue pure , & could be propagated & transmitted to the following ages ! But it is too manifest that the Christian Church , by Heathenish & Jewish errours upon the one hand , & by Pelagian infusions on the other , hath lost a great deal of her primitive sinceritie & puritie . Certainly the Roman Superstitions , tending only to the establishing of humane Righteousness in Gods sight , are clear demonstrations of a corrupted doctrine , yea of that Apostacie of the latter times so oft soretold by the Apostle Paul. For we see that Popery is wholly erected upon a Judaical & Pelagian Righteousness , proceeding from the bitter root of the Heathenish Free-will , whereby the corruption of Nature is denyed , sin excused , the faculties of Nature , as sufficient to all good works , asserted ; especially when they are sustained by a sufficient grace given to all men for obtaining eternal happiness . But this great errour , worthy of the Apostles Anathema , was abominable in the eyes of our Protestant Fathers : and therefore the Doctrine of a contrary Gospel-Justification was the greatest reason of separation , especially when they heard the trumpet from Heaven sounding and crying , come out of Babel , my people , that ye be not partakers of her sins , and that ye receive not of her plagues . And herein we must admire the wonderful providence of God , that the Protestants did aggree in this point of Justification , even when their minds were distracted about the Doctrine of the Lord's Supper : and it is known how careful the Lutherians are , even to this day , in following the Doctrine of their Master in this great Article . But alas ! it is a sad & lamentable thing , that Arminians ( being fomented by the Kings of France & Spain as the immediate way to introduce Popery , saith Wilson in his Historie of Great Britain pag. 119. ) when they adopted the Pelagian grounds , did forsake the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , because they could not join this great mystery of the Gospel with the opinions of Universal Grace & Redemption , as appears in the writings of Episcopius , Curcellaeus , Limburgh , and others , filled not only with Arminian , but also with wicked Socinian errours against the Divinity & Satisfaction of our Saviour Jesus Christ. And how could it be thought , that those books should have been accepted & approved by Reformed Divines & Churches , as we see they are in our neighbouring Kingdom of England ? O what errours in that Nation are observed & complained of before by Honorius Reggius in his book de Statu Ecclesiae Britannicae , errours tending even to the ruine of the Protestant Cause ! And what shall we say of the latter books , written by Bull , Parker , Sherlock , and others , against the principles of Reformation , expressed hitherto with great agreement in all the Confessions of Reformed Churches . Yea even those who were purer in appearance , pressing the moral duties & practical doctrine of pietie ( I mean the followers of that famous Minister Mr. Richard Baxter ) did corrupt the true Doctrine of Justification , because they adopted Universal Grace and Redemption . For suspending such an Universal Redemption as Conditional , upon the vertue of Faith , taught , that Justification is depending upon this vertue , and consequently that a man by Faith , as a vertue , must be justified : and because Repentance should be acknowledged as a Condition of eternal happiness , beside the vertue of Faith , therefore they imagine that Justification may be suspended even upon Repentance ; so that we must believe , that Justification is not only by Faith , but also by Repentance . But , O my Brethren , ye are out of the way , ye have left your first love ! Remember therefore from whence ye are fallen , and repent , and do the first works ! Remember the former dayes and years ! Remember your former Divines at the beginning of the Reformation , Iuel , Whitaker , Perkins , and other glorious stars once shining in your Countrey ! Remember the Apologie of your Church against that harlot of Rome , written by that most excellent Divine J. Iuel B. of Salisbury , & approved of your Fathers ! Remember your Confession aggreeing with all the Confessions of Reformed Churches , and confirmed in the dayes of Q. Elisabeth An. 1562. by a Synodical decree ; yea by the Parliament of your Kingdome ! Remember the former ages , when the Doctrine of Anselme & Bradwardine Archb. of Canterbury against Pelagianisme sounded & obtained in your Churches ! Yea Bradwardine his book de Causa Dei opposed to the Cause of men defended by Pelagianisme , printed first in this age An. 1616. in the dayes of King Iames , who himself was a great Adversarie to Arminian tenets , by the care and studie of George Abboth a worthy successour of that great Divine , because he loved the Doctrine of Grace , and could not endure that Arminian errours should infect the Church of England , to that time depending onely upon the grace of our Saviour Jesus Christ. But what great iniquitie is it now to neglect this grace , and , leaving the principles of Protestant Religion , to rely upon , and trust to our own works for Salvation ? My Brethren , how think ye to mingle the Law with the Gospel ? the Righteousness of Christ with your own ? your faith , depending alone upon your Saviour , with your works ? What will ye say , when you wil dye , & this weighty case of Conscience comes to be resolved , how shall my poor , guiltie & sinful Soul be justified before a Righteous God ? How can ye thus prepare the way to return , and lead your followers back again unto Babylon ? What fellowship hath Righteousness with unrighteousness ? or what communion hath light with darkness ? Yet glory be to God in the highest , who hath reserved by his grace many Protestant and Learned Divines against all these and the like errours . And hence we have the learned Labours of the worthy J. BURGES , J. OWEN . A. PITCAIRN and other eminent Divines , worthy to be remembered in all ages . And to those great Doctours we may very warrantably add the worthy Author of the following Treatise Mr. JOHN BROUN , whose praise liv's deservedly in the Churches , and whose light did for a considerable space shine here in our Low-countreys , when through the iniquitie of the times , he was because of his zeal , pietie , faithfulness and good Conscience obliged to leave his native Land. Yet was he not idle : for while he was here he wrote , with a great deal of wisdom , against the Philosophers of this time , who would subject the Scriptures to Philosophie , setting up humane Reason for a Rule of Scripture-Interpretations . Moreover , he was known in our Churches by his Books of the Perpetual Moralitie of the Sabbath , written with a great efficacie of Arguments , and approved by Fr. Spanheym , that worthy and most famous Divine of our age ; besides what other Treatises he wrote in English. But we have here his work of Justification as a Posthumus , full of Wisdom , Doctrine and Pietie . The Author had committed the care of it to his very intimate and dear acquaintance , the Reverend and Learned Mr. JAMES KOELMAN , who , while he was alive , had the care of it at the press : but before the work was perfected , he was called home to his Masters joy , after he had faithfully served God in his generation . And I being now desired to prefix the accustomed Ceremonie of an Epistle to this excellent book of Mr. JOHN BROUN , I undertook it most cheerfully with all my heart . For I must give Testimony to the Reverend & Learned Author of this work , that he wisely expounds the mysteries of Justification according to the Doctrine of the Gospel , & the principles oft he Reformed Churches : that he confirms the expounded Doctrine with efficacious arguments able to stop the mouths of all Adversaries ; that he prudently dissolves all their vain oppositions ; that he shows himself a true Christian Minister , and a Scribe well instructed by the Holy Spirit unto the Kingdom of God. And therefore this excellent book was worthy to be printed , to be esteemed and loved amongst the best Treatises upon this great and weighty Doctrine of Justification . I need say no more , the work will speak for it self , and the Judicious Readers oun experience will testifie that it is written in the Demonstration of the Spirit & Power , profitable for Doctrine , Reproof , Correction , Instruction in Righteousness and Consolation of penitent souls . I pray the God of all grace , that he would give the Readers the Spirit of Wisdom and of a sound mind , that having the eyes of their understandings enlightened , they may know what are the great mysteries of Redemption , and may be sound in the Faith in order to this fundamental point of Justification here expounded and vindicated , with this full persuasion of mind that the Reformed profession is the true way of Salvation , able to save a sinner eternally , according to the Covenant of Grace revealed in the Gospel . MELCHIOR LEYDECKER . S. S. Th. D. & Prof. Dabam Ultraj. 1 Apr. 1695. P. S. Atque haec quidem ego Britonum Sermone , ut potui . Si quid commissum est culpae adversus linguae genium , id condonandum Belgae est . Conari & imitari exterorum linguam , eruditis haud vulgarem , satis erat . Interim si Latino Sermone uti licuisset , pluribus Doctrinam Ecclesiae Reformatae de Gratia & Justificatione explicuissem , ut forte horum animum moverem , qui prima Principia ipsius Euangelii a Paulo ad Romanos , ad Galatas , ad Ephesios demonstrata neglexerunt , ac deseruerunt . Nunc sufficiat ex Confessione Anglicana quosdam Articulos notasse , in quos digitum Praefatione intendebam , uti habentur in Corpore & Syntagmate Confessionum fidei , quae in diversis Regnis & Nationibus , Ecclesiarum nomine fuerunt Authenticè editae : Haec enim ibi medium habet locum , quod cum caeteris accurate conveniret . Utinam tali haberetur hodie veneratione , quali fuit habita antiquitus , quando decretis Publicis , Politicis & Ecclesiasticis fuit sancita & roborata ! Sic ergò habent Articuli , quos in Anglicum Sermonem versos exhibemus . X. Of Free-will . This is the condition of man after Adams fall , that by his own Power , and good works , he cannot convert , and prepare himself to Faith , and calling upon God. Wherefore without the grace of God , which is by Christ preventing us , that we may will , and to operating , while we will for doeing works of Pietie , which are acceptable , and well pleasing to God , we can doe nothing . XI . Of Mans Justification . Wee are only reputed Righteous before God , for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by Faith , not for our works and merits . For which cause the Doctrine of our being Iustified by Faith alone , is most wholsome , and full of consolation , as it is explained in the Homilie about mans Iustification , at more length . XII . Of Good Works . Good works , which are the fruits of Faith , and follow the Iustified , although they cannot expiat our sins , or endure the severity of Divine Iustice ; Yet they are pleasing , and accepted by God in Christ and necessarily flow from a true and lively Faith ; So that plainly by them a vive faith can be known , as a tree can be judged by it's fruit . XIII . Of works before Justification . Works which are done before the Grace of Christ , and the influence of his Spirit , since they do not proceed from the Faith of Iesus Christ , are not at all acceptable to God ; neither doe they merit the grace , which many call congruous . Yea , because they are not done according to Gods will and command , we doubt not , but they have the nature of sin . XVII . Of Predestination , and Election . Predestination to life , is the eternal purpose of God , whereby He , before the setling of the foundations of the world , by his Counsel hid indeed as to us , Immutably decreed , those whom he had chosen in Christ out of mankind should be delivered from the curse and destruction , and ( as vessels made to honour ) brought to eternal Salvation by Christ. Hence those who are gifted with this notable favour of God , are called in due time , according to his purpose , His own Spirit working , they obey by Graces call , are Iustified freely , are Adopted to be the sons of God , and made consorme to the Image of his only begotten Son Iesus Christ , they walk holily in good works , and in end , by the mercy of God , they come to eternal happiness . As the pious consideration of our Predestination , and Election in Christ is sweet , pleasant , and full of ineffable consolation to the truely Godly , and to those , who find in themselves the efficacie of the Spirit of Christ , mortifying the deeds of the flesh , and members , which yet are upon the earth , and by force drawing the mind to things above , both because it does much establish , and confirme our Faith of obtaining eternal Salvation , as also because it vehemently kindles our love toward our good : So it is a very destructive precipice to curious and carnal men , and who are destitute of the Spirit of Christ , to have alwayes the sentence of Gods Predestination proposed to their view , whereby the Devil either presses them to despair , or into equally pernicious security of a most impure life . Thereafter , the Divine Promises most be so imbraced , as they are generally proposed to us in the holy Scriptures , and the will of God , which we have expresly revealed in Gods word , is to be followed by us in our actions . Atque hi quidem sunt Ecclesiae Anglicanae de Gratia & Iustificatione Articuli , convenientes utique cum aliarum Ecclesiarum , praesertim Ecclesiae Scoticanae doctrina , ●ti ex hujus Confessione Art. III. VIII . XII . XIII . manifestum est . THE LIFE OF JUSTIFICATION , Through faith , cleared , from Gal. 3 : 11. For the Iust shall live by faith . CHAPT . I. The Introduction ; & the text ( the ground of this following discourse ) opened-up . THe Doctrine of Iustification cannot but be acknowledged by all , whose thoughts are taken up about an interest in everlasting felicity , to be of great concernment ; & debates or Controversies about the same cannot be esteemed vaine & fruitless Digladiations , & Disputes about a thing of naught ; seing in this lyeth the Ground of all our Hop , peace , & Eternal Salvation ; & a Mistake or Errour , as to the Theorie in this matter , followed with an answerable & corresponding practice , ( I meane as to what toucheth the heart & Substance of this Divine Mystery ) may , yea must of necessity , prove not only dangerous to Souls ; but even inevitably destructive . Wherefore it cannot be justly accounted blame worthy , that Churches & particular persons , who woule be faithful ( & so accounted ) unto the grand-interests of Souls , contend , with alle earnestness , for the faith once delivered to the Saints , in this particular ; this being the true Basis of all Religion , & of Christianity ; without which there can be no access to , nor Communion with , God ; No peace with God , nor true peace in owr own Consciences ; no life of Comfort here , nor true hope of Salvation for ever here after ; No change of State , nor saving change of li●e & conversation ; in a word , no life of Grace here , nor of Glory hereafter : And what then must follow upon the corrupting of this Truth , & upon Erroneous Apprehensions & practices herein , is aboundantly obvious to all such , as have not sinned away all sense & consideration , in these matters . Wherefore it is no wonder , that Satan hath , in all ages , laboured , by one Instrument or other , upon one occasion or other , and under one pretext , or other , to corrupt the pure streames of this wholesome Fountaine of Truth , in one Measure or other , in one particular or other ; & that by such Mediums & Arguments , as he knew would be most taking , & seem most plausible , at these Several times , & upon these Several occasions . What way , & how far the corruption of this Truth was advanced , in the Antichristian Church , is yet known ; & what ground , their errour in this gave un to such , as began to be enlightened in the knowledge of the Truth , to separate from them , & to appear against them , is manifest : and what Effaies the Devil made , about the beginning of Reformation , or shortly after , to darken this Truth , by Questions & Disputes , even among such , as hold the Truth fast , as to the maine , and what since , by Several New Opinions , or new Modes and Methods ( as they were called , and given out to be ) vented , and improven by Several Artifices , to seeming different Ends , he hath effectuated ; to the hardening of some , in their Misapprehensions ; & to the Corrupting of the Hearts & Mindes of others ; and also the Staggering and Shaking of not a few , may be called to minde with grief and sorrow ; Not to mention the bold attempt , made by Socinians , to overturne the whole Grounds of Christian Religion ; and to take away at once all the pillars of Gospel-justification . The devil began early , in the breaking up of the clear day of Christianity , to darken this Sun , that the poor Church might for ever abide in darkness , if the Church , her Head and Husband had not provided a Remedie , and had not effectually dispelled these Cloudes : And he had no small advantage of the corrupt Iewes , who had a zeal of God , but not according to knowledg , and had a very Specious pretext of crying up the Law , prescribed by God himself , and of Obedience thereunto , and constant observation thereof , in all points , to the prejudice of the Gospel-truth , in the matter of Justification . And though the first rise of this difference and debate was upon occasion of the Ceremonial Law , which was the dispensation of the Grace of God , which the ancient Church was under , while under Tutors & Governours , and in her Non-age state ; and was never rightly obeyed , or improven , but when in led them unto the promised Messiah , Christ , the end of that law , in a peculiar manner , the Substance thereof , and vailed thereunder ; and which they might have known , was to be done away , when Christ , the Substance of all those shadowes , came in to the world , in the due time appointed and foretold ; and which , contrare to its very Nature & End , to the many prophecies of old , & to the signal dispensations of God , giving clear significations of his mind , touching the evanishing of these shadowes , the Iewes , principled with false Conceptions about that Law , & with prejudices against the truth of the Gospel , and animated and encouraged by false Teachers , raised up of Satan , to corrupt the Doctrine of the Grace of God , did strenuously contend for the constant Observation thereof , either Solely , as a Sufficient ground of their Justification ; or in conjunction with the Gospel : Yet , because this tookalongs with it , the observation of all that Law , which God had prescribed of old , as the only ground , in their mistaken apprehension , of their Justification , & acceptance with God ; therefore we finde the Apostle Paul ( who was especially stirred up , & immediatly inspired of the Spirit , to vindicat the Gospel-way of justification from this corruption ; after he had been singularly fitted thereunto , by being in so signal a manner brought to embrace this Truth , ( who was formerly so zealous for the Law , & against the Gospel in all points ) prosecuting the controversie to the full ; & not only handling it in reference to the immediat Rise & occasion thereof ; but in reference to that also , where-unto of necessity it must have come , & where it must have landed , at length . And though there have been few , since those dayes , & none at present , who will contend for the Observation of the ceremonial Law , in the sense , & for Ends , urged by the jewes , & jewish false Apostles , in the primitive times ; yet we must not think , that therefore all the Doctrine of the Apostle hereanent is if no use to us . Many debates & discourses had the Apostle , beside what we have recorded of him in Scripture ; & to think , that his Disputes & Discourses , in his Epistles , concerning Justification , are of no more concernment to us , as to the question about justification , because none now adaies , plead for justification by the observation of the ceremonial Law , as did the jewes , against whom Paul Disputed , is , in my judgment , no small imputation upon the Spirit of the Lord , inspireing the Apostle to write these Epistles , & putting them into our Canon : and of this such , in my apprehension must be guilty , who think to wave all the Apostles Discourses , in this matter , with this , that he is only to be understood , as speaking & Disputing against such , as cried-up the constant observation of the Ceremonial Law , as such . But , whatever circumstantial differences , whether as to the Rise or occasion , or as to other things of the like Import , there may seem to be , or may really be , betwixt the Disput , as then stated , & as now prosecuted ; Yet all the Disputes & Differences about the Maine & Essentials of justification , as also about inferiour & subordinat Questions , in so far as they depend upon , or are influenced by the Maine , will be found to be , upon the matter , one & the same , whether managed of late or of old : For different Termes & Expressions may be , where the matter & thing so expressed , is really one & the same . And therefore , as we are to observe with thankfulness the Lords love to & care of His Church , in providing & preserving , for the use & Edification of the same , in all ages , to the end of the world , such a necessary Depositum ; & His wonderful wisdome in inspireing His Amanue●ses so to write , as not only to refell the Errour , in all its Circumstances & Branches , as it was then broached , to the darkning of Gospel-light ; but so also as the Truth might remaine full cleared , confirmed & saifguared against all the assaults of Satan , in all time coming , by whatever Instruments , & under whatsomever new Notions , Distinctions , Termes of art , Expressions and pretences , the same may come 〈◊〉 be attacqued : So are we to acquaint our selves well with the Doctrine of the Spirit of the Lord , in this matter ; to the end , we may be fully instructed in the Truth , & enabled , to maintaine the same , & fortified against all new Assaults ; or , rather , old Assaults renewed , howbeit mannaged by seemingly new weapons , & new filed Instruments & Arguments . It would prove long & tedious , to handle at length ( & to touch in short , upon them , may seem to some to be but superficiary work ) all the various controversies , that are on foot this day , about the matter of justification ; & a short discovery of the truth , in this matter , as to the most principal things controverted ( to which others may be so reduced , as a Scriptural discovery of the truth , as to those , may serve for a discussion of the rest ; at least , so pave the way , that a solution of these Inferiour Controversies may be the more easie ) may therefore be sufficient to such , at least , whose Edification and Instruction we mostly Intend here ; that is , Such , as are not in case to improve what is written of Controversies , in Scholastick & abstruse termes . And , I judge , who ever handle this Controversie , in such termes only , or mostly , as are above the reach of ordinary Christians , who are herein as much concerned , as others , misse that mark , which they should mainely aime at , that is , Edification & Instruction of such , whose high concernment this is ; & who have most need to be plainely instructed in this foundamental point of Truth , a Practical mistake in which may prove to them deadly & destructive ; & especially of such , who , when under the pangs of an awakened Conscience , & under the convictions of sin , & fears of wrath , pursueing for sin , are then most ready to take any course that may seem to promise present ease & reliefe ; & to be led away from Christ , the onely peace-maker , through the slight of Satan , & the deceitfulness of their own heart ; & through Ignorance of , or Mis-information about the true Gospel-way of Justification & peace with God ; whereby their Ease & Reliefe may prove more deadly , than was their Distemper & Disquiet . As therefore , I Judge , this concerning Truth cannot be made plaine enough ; so I think , the less use be made of Philosophick or Scholastick termes ( which none but such as are well versed in these dry Nations , can competently understand ; & which , though never so handsomely , set off , will prove very unsatisfying to awakened Consciences ) it will be so much the better ; seing , let men please themselves in them , as they will , as they are not the language , the Spirit of the Lord hath thought good to use in this matter so they darken rather , than cleare the matter , at least to me . The Apostle ( that we may in short cleare the words , upon which we are to ground our Discourse ) in this vers . 11. after other Arguments , formerly adduced to prove the Thesis , which he laid down Chap. 2. vers . 16. to wit , That a man is not Iustified by the works of the Law , but by the faith of Iesus Christ ; he bringeth another Argument from Scripture , after he hath againe repeated the one halfe of the grand Thesis , by which the other is suffificiently understood , & more emphatically included in the probation , or Testimony of Scripture adduced , saying , Gal. 3 : 11. But that no man is Justified by the Law , in the sight of God , it is evident ; for the just shall live by faith . HE doth not explaine what is meaned by that word , Iustified ; but presupposeth that there was no doubt , concerning the true meaning thereof , among those , with whom he had to do , in this Disput : as Indeed none , that consider what is the constant use thereof , in the Old Testament , ( well known to the Jewish Teachers ) yea & in the New Testament also , can doubt of its true Import , how ever Papists do quite mistake its true Nature & Import , supposing that it signifieth an Inward Renovation , or Infusion of Holiness ; & so make it the same with Sanctification . But as no man , acquainted with the Scriptures , & with what is said of justification in them , can be ignorant of its right meaning ; so every man , exercised with the sense of his own natural condition , & of the curse of the Law , under which he feeleth himself lying , according to what is here said , in the foregoing verse , readily understandeth , what it is to be justified & freed from that curse & Sentence of Condemnation ; & so made free from the wrath that he is liable unto , because of the broken Law of God : So that we need say no more of it here . He saith , No man is Iustified by the Law ; & so , maketh no exception of any what somever , no not of the holiest meer Man , that ever existed since the fall : & this is of the same import with that expression Chap. 2 : 16. No flesh ; for by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified . So he hath the same expression Rom. 3 : 20. It is here said , by the Law ; in the original it is , in the Law : but the sense is the same with that expression Chap. 2 : 16. thrice repeated , by the works of the Law. The Ethiopike Version here is rather a short Commentary : for there it is ; They are not justified doing the command of the Law. It is observable , That the Apostle useth variety of expressions , in this matter , all tending to cleare this one thing . That there is no justification by the works of the Law ; so as no coloure or shew of evasion might be left unto any . Rom. 3. 20. he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by or out of the works of the Law ; as also Gal. 2 : 16. And Rom. 3 : 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without the works of the Law ; they having no consideration therein . Rom. 4 : 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by , or out of works . So that there is no justification by the Law , nor by works ; nor by the works of the Law : all which expressions are used to signifie one & the same thing . And in the following verse , he taketh the Law , & doing of them , that is , the commands of the Law , for one & the same thing . Those that were looking to the Law for justification , he saith of them vers 10. That they are of the works of the Law and chap. 4 : 21. — Ye that desire to be under the Law. This elsewhere viz Phil. 3 : 9. he calleth his own righteousness , which it of the Law : & Tit. 3 : 5. works of righteousnoss , which we have done - & Rom. 10 : 3. their own righteousness & Rom. 9 : 31. the Law of righteousness . But what Law is this , by which , he denieth , that any can be justified ? The forementioned Expressions do Sufficiently cleare , what Law he meaneth , even all that Law , that was the Rule of Righteousness , & was prescribed of God , as such ; & not the Ceremonial Law only : that Law , by the works whereof he denied ( Rom. 4 : 1 , 2. ) that Abraham , the father of the faithful , was justified . That Law , in obedience to which consisted that righteousness , which the jewes laboured to cause stand ; & that righteousness , which himself desired not to be found in : That Law , which was called the Law of righteouness : That Law , which the Gospel establisheth Rom. 3 : 31. In a word , it is that Law , whereof he speaketh , in the preceeding verse , that is , that Law , the transgression of which , in the least particular , bringeth the sinner under the curse , according to that saying . Cursed is every one , that continueth not in all things , which are contained in the book of the Law , to do them Deut. 27 : 26. And here also we see the Law & the book of the Law , are one : & sure , this book of the Law contained more , than the Ceremonial Law , even all the Moral Commandments ; in respect of which & not in respect of the Ceremonial Law , the Gentiles , & amongst the rest , these Galatians , at least , so many of them , as had not yet Judaized , were of the Law , & so , under the curse . It is obvious , how useless all the Disput of the Apostle here , & in his Epistle to the Romanes , is rendered by asserting , That Paul's Disput runneth only upon the observation of the Ceremonial Law ; seing now the very Subject of the debate is taken away from us . And , if matters be so , I would faine know , why the Apostle should have used any other Argument , in all his Dispute , beside this one , That by the Gospel , the subject of the question is wholly removed ; the Ceremonial Law being utterly abrogated by the Gospel ? Sure , this would have Sufficiently put an end to that debate . But this Supposal is , I confess , a short cutt to answere all the otherwise unanswerable Arguments of the Apostle against Justification by works , but yet it is such , as cannot yeeld satisfaction . He addeth , in the sight of God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is the same , upon the matter , with that expression Rom. 3 : 20 ▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in His sight ; whereby we understand , what justification this is , whereof the Apostle speaketh ; even ; justification before Gods Tribunal , in His Court , who is the Supream & Righteous judge ; as it is with Him alone that the poor convinced & wakened Sinner hath to do : And this is the justification , that we are most concerned to know the nature of , & to understand what way it is brought about , or to be had : This is the justification , which the Apostle alwayes denieth to be by works , & asserteth alwayes to be by faith , in opposition to works . As for a justification of our selves against the false Accusations of Satan , the unjust Surmises of our own treacherous Hearts , & mis-informed Consciences , & the groundless Alleigances of men , judging not according to truth , but according to their owne mis-apprehensions ( whereof Iob's friends were guilty , in an high measure ) It is not that justification , whereof the Apostle treateth . And whatever Interest good works may have herein , as real fruites of an upright working faith , & consequenly as evidences of our Interest in Christ , & of our being in a state of justification ; Yet they are utterly excluded from having an Interest in that justification , which is before God , & in His sight : & here , Christ's Righteousness , Laid hold on by faith , only taketh place . The Argument , whereby the Apostle disproveth this justification by the works of Law , in the sight of God , is in the following words , where he ushereth-in the argument with an , It is Manifest , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; to shew , That the Argument was irrefragable , & that the truth thereby was certaine , & beyond Contradiction . Now , the Argument is taken from the opposition , that is betwixt Faith , & the Law , or , the works of the Law , in the matter of justification : A ground , whereupon the Apostle goeth , in his whole Disput , upon this matter ; as we see Rom. 3 : 27 , 28. & 4 : 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. & 9 : 32. Gal. 2 : 16. and therefore it must be a certaine truth , That if justification before God be by faith , it can not be by works ; & consequently , whoever assert justification by works , destroy Gospel-justification by faith : and hence , it is also Manifest , That justification cannot be by both together , Faith & works conjoined ; because what is of faith cannot be of works ; these two being here inconsistent Rom. 11 : 6. That Gospel-justification is by faith , the Apostle proveth from that known sentence , the just shall live by faith ; a sentence , which the Apostle adduced first of all , when he was to handle this question , in his Epistle to the Romans Chap. 1. vers 17. saying ; for therein ( i.e. in the Gospel ) is the Righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith , as it is written , the just shall live by faith . Where we see , that this Sentence confirmeth the whole nature & contents of the Gospel , that is , That the Righteousness of God , i.e. the Righteousness , which only will stand in Gods Court , & be accepted of him , in order to the justifying of sinners ; & which is the Righteousness of one , who is God , is revealed from faith to saith ; that is to say , is hold forth to be embraced bysinners through faith , first & last ; & this Righteousness , thus embraced & laid hold on by faith , is the onely ground of the life of justification : so that beleevers their living by faith , saith , their faith laith hold on the Righteousness of God , revealed in the Gospel , as the onely ground of their life . As to the passage it self , it is cited our of Habakuk chap. 2. vers 4. where the Prophet being told vers 3. that howbeit sometime would passe , ere the promised delivery should come ; Yet it would come ; & that therefore he & all the People of God , should waite for it , & live in the certaine expectation thereof , addeth these words , as being told him of the Lord , that his Soul , which is lifted up , is not upright in him ( how variously & these words are rendered by diverse , we need not mentione ) the meaning is this , That such , as will not , in faith & patience , waite with confidence upon the Lords promise , that shall be made good , in His good time ; but in their pride & impatience of heart , will think to anticipate their delivery , by sinistrous & sinful meanes , declare , that their heart is not upright , & that they are void of true faith . Upon the other hand , it is said , the just shall live by his faith , that is , Such , as are real & true beleevers , will waite in the exercise of faith , till God's time come ; & by this faith , trusting & leaning to the faithful promise of God , through the Messiah , in whom all the promises are yea & amen 2 Cor. 1 : 20. they shall have a life of it , they shall be carried thorow , supported , strengthened & com●orted . And much to this same Purpose , is this passage , cited by the Apostle Hebr. 10 : 37 , 38. For yet a little while , & he that shall come , will come , & will not tarry , now the just shall live by faith &c. ( of which we have spoken elsewhere ) in all these places , the Apostle leaveth out the pronoun his , which the Prophet useth ; but that maketh no great alteration , the matter being clear , & that sufficiently understood . The Septuagints make a great alteration , when they render the words thus , The just shall live by my faith . The great difficulty is , how these words of the Prophet , spoken of such , as were already justified , & beleevers ; & his saying of them , that they shall live by their faith ( for we need not owne that sense of the words ; which some think may not improbably be given , to wit , That he , who is by his faith just ( or justified ) shall live ) can be applicable to the Apostl'es purpose , to prove justification by faith . Not to mentione what others say to this , nor judging it very necessary to enquire anxiously into this matter , seing the Spirit of the Lord 's moving & inspireing of Paul to alleige , & apply this passage of Old Testament truth , for confirmation of what he was about to prove , may fully satisfie us , as to its pertinency , though we should not satisfie all by proprosing our thoughts concernin it . ● Conceive , the ground may be this , That this being a general truth , & universally true , that even beleevers , who are already changed , & have a life begun in them , must all their life long make use of faith , gripping to the promises , as yea , & amen in Christ , ( promised & come ) who is the Substance & Kirnel of them all , to the end they may be supported , Strengthened . Upheld , & carried thorow Difficulties , Distresses , Darknesses , Temptations & the like , without fainting , or doing what is unbeseeming a living Beleever , in the day of trial ; so that their whole life , even unto the end , is kept-in & continued by faith , bringing new supplies & influences from the head , through the promises ; it will hence follow , that without faith no man can at first attaine to this life , & change from death ; yea , that in this case , faith is much more necessarily requisite , yea faith only without works is & must be , the only way to justification of life : for if the progress , & continuance of this life , or renewing of it after decayes , be had by faith , drawing sap , life & influence from the head , much more must this be the way of getting the first change made from death to life . And this way ( or not much different ) of argueing in this same debate , we see the Apostle followeth Rom. 4. where from what was said of Abraham , a considerable time after he was a beleever , he proveth justification by faith , without works , or that Abraham was justified by faith , & not by works . The Import then of the Testimony is , that this life , whereof beleevers are made partakers , is begun , continued & carried on by faith , & therefore it is not by the works of the Law , but by faith , that they are justified & brought into a state of life ; If it be true , that without faith , even belevers cannot be supported , nor in case to live , as becometh , to the glory of God , & to their own peace & Comforth , in new Trials & Difficulties ; much more is it true , that without faith those , who are in nature , & in state of Enmity to God , cannot live the life of justification , & with it alone they can & shall . Before we come to speak particularly to any Truthes , deducable from the words , we shall premise some few things considerable . CHAP. II. Naturally we are inclined to cry up Selff , in Justification . THe Apostle , as we see , in all his writtings about this matter , is very carefull to cleare the question of justification so , as Man may have no cause of boasting , or of glorying in himself , upon the account of any thing he hath , or he hath done in order to justification ; that hereby he might cast a copie unto all such , as would approve themselves faithful unto the Lord , in being co-workers with Him , in the Gospel ; & that he might so much the more set himself against that innatelusting of heart , that is in all naturally , unto an exalting & crying up of Self , in the matter of their justification before , & Acceptance with God ; and especially we finde , how zealously , how frequently , & with what strength & multitude of Arguments , he setteth himself against , & cryeth down that , which men do so naturally , & with such a vehement byasse , incline unto ; to wit , justification by their own works , or by their own obedience to the Law ; to the end , their innate pride may have ground of venting it self , in boasting & glorying before men . From this we may premit , in short , the consideration of these Three things , to prepare our way unto the clearing-up of the Gospel-Doctrine in this matter . First . That there is a corrupt byasse in the heart of men by nature , & a strong Inclination , to reject the Gospel-Doctrine of free justification , through faith in Christ ; & to ascribe too much to themselves , in that affaire : as if they would hold the life of justification , not purely of the free grace & rich mercy of God , through Jesus Christ ; but of themselves , either in whole , or in part , in one measure , or another . Secondly , That it is the duty of all , who would be found faithful Ambassadours for Christ , after the example of the Apostle , so to preach forth the Grace of God , in this mystery , & to explaine the same , as corrupt Nature within , & such without , as are byassed with mistakes about this matter , & are led away with proud & carnal self conceits , may have no apparent or seeming ground of boasting ; nor be confirmed in their natural prejudices & Mistakes therein . Thirdly , That in very deed , free Gospel-justification is so contrived & ordered as that none have any real ground of boasting , or of glorying in themselves , or of ascribing any part of the glory thereof unto themselves , as if they , by their deeds & works , did contribute any thing to the procuring thereof . It will not be necessary to speak to these at any length , but only briefly to touch upon them , to make way unto what followeth to be said on this weighty subject , which is of so much concernment to us all . As to the First of these ( to which we shall speak little , in this Chapter , & thereafter of the rest , in their due order ) it is too too apparent to be a truth from these grounds following . I. This is most manifest from the many Errours & false opinions , that are Vented , Owned & Maintained , with so much Violence & corrupt zeal , & all to cry-up Self , in less , or in more ; & to cry down Grace . Hence so many do plead , with great confidence , for an Interest of our works , in our justification ; Such as Papists , ( who quite mistake the nature of true justification ) Socinians , Arminians , & Others , who side with these in less , or in more ; & will plead for a justification by our inherent Righteousnoss , or works of Righteousness , which we do . Others , that will not plead for such an early Interest of our works , in this matter , will plead for faith , as our Gospel-Righteousness ; & affirme , that the very act of our Obedience in us , is imputed for a Righteousness to us , & is accounted such by God ; & so , hath the same place in the New Covenant , that compleet & perfect obedience had in the Old Covenant of works , made , with Adam ; which , as shall hereafter appear , driveth us upon the same rock . II. It is manifest likewise from the large & frequent Disputes about this matter , that we have in Paul's Epistles . If there had not been a great pronness in man , by nature , to cry-up himself , & to set up his own Righteousness , in matter of justification , why would the Spirit of the Lord have been at so much paines ( to speak so ) to cry down Self & our works , in this matter , as He is , in these Epistles of Paul , if He had not seen the great necessity thereof , by reason of this strong Inclination , that men Naturally have hereunto ? We must not think , that any thing is there spoken in vaine ; or that the Spirit of the Lord would have left that Doctrine so fully cleared , wherein our works are so expresly excluded , if there had not been a necessity for it , & if it had not been as necessary , in all after ages of the Church , as at that time , when first written . Whatever the truth be , that is so frequently & pungently inculcated in the Scriptures , we may saifly suppose , that as the faith & practice of that truth is necessary ; so there must be much reluctancy of Soul in us to receive the same , & to close with it , and a strong Inclination to beleeve & practise the contrary . III. In the Infancy of Christianity , we see , what a strong Inclination there was to cry-up works , what we do , & the Law , as the only ground of justification ; or , at least , to have a share with Christ , in that Interest , which gave occasion to the penning of these Epistles of Paul , where this matter is so fully & clearly handled ; particularly that to the Romans , & that to the Galatias ; & unto the speaking less or more hereunto , in almost all his other Epistles . And this Inclination to the crying up of works & the Law , in Opposition to the pure Gospel-way of justification , was not only among the Gentiles , who had been without God , & without Christ , & all the Meanes of understanding any thing of Salvation , through a slaine Saviour ; but even amongst the Jewes , who , by the Dispensation of the New Covenant , which they were under , might have been better principled ; for it was they , who most urged the Interest of the Law , & of works , & thereby● laboured to corrupt the Gentiles , & to lead them off the simplicity of the Gospel-truth ; and of them , saith the Apostle Rom. 10 : 3. that , being ignorant of God's Righteousness , & going about to establish their own righteousness , they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. They sought after a Righteousness another way , than by faith in Christ , who is the end of the Law for righteouness , to every one that beleeveth Rom. 10 : 4. but as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9 : 32. IV. The Pharisee , who went up to the Temple Luk. 18 : 11 , 12. & prayed thus with himself God , I thank thee , that I am not , as other men are , Extortioners , Unjust , adulterers , or even as this Publican : I fast twice in the week , I give Tithes of all that I possesse , &c. hath many followers . Many there are , who will have confidence in the flesh , & in what they do . Nature never taught Paul , to account all his great Privileges & Attainments loss & dung ; but rather to account them gaine ; for he saith , they were gaine to him ; that is , while he was a stranger to the Gospel , & to the Grace of God , manifested therein . Hence is it , that the last are first , & the first are last ; such , as thought themselves far advanced , & to have attained a great measure of righteousness , & so to be children of the Kingdom , are shut out , & Publicanes & Harlots are preferred , as being willing to renounce themselves & their own righteousness more , than such Legalists & Iusticiaries , who confide in something , which they themselves do , & have attained . V. This is also manifest from the great difficulty of prevaling with such , as seem to themselves to have in them something more than ordinary , to relinquish & renounce these things , & to betake themselves only unto Jesus , & to rest on Him alone , for Righteousness , Life & Salvation ; & from the little fruit that the Gospel Doctrine findeth among them . How many subterfuges finde they out , under which they think to shelter themselves from the wrath of God ? How many fig-leaves do they sowe together , that they may cover the shame of their nakedness withall ? And at what cost , paines & charges are they , in seeking to establish their own Righteousness ? And all to fortifie themselves in their own delusions , & to keep our the pure Doctrine of the Gospel . And how ready are some to take hold of the smallest wig , that they may hang upon it , & finde reliefe , if it can yeeld but the least ground of hop , in their imaginations , ere they betake themselves to Christ according to the Gospel ? How many Fetches , Turnings & Windings hath a Soul , pursued with wrath , & the apprehension of death , ere it be willing to close heartily with Christ , offered in the Gospel ? Yea , if such , as have had some wakenings , come so far , as to change something of their former outward sinful courses , & be not so loose & prophane , as formerly , how ready are they to sit down , even upon that bit of negative righteousness ? Much more , if they be brought the length , to go about some religious duties , how will they then sit down & sing , as if all were well ? All which do plainly evince , that there is a strong Inclination in us by nature , to follow the way of works , that we may have some share of the honour of our own justification . VI. This sad truth is hence apparent likewise , That when any Opinion is broached , that but seemeth to give more to works , than ought to be given , though possibly upon the matter , there be but little said , that may make any real Difference , how ready are many to close therewith , to entertaine that Doctrine , to cry it up & commend it , & to improve the Advantages , real or supposed , there had , to the fur●er Confirmation of that Anti-evangelik errour , which their Soul 's fully comply with : when , upon the other hand , there is such a nauseating in many too too manifest , at the Simplicity of the Gospel , & of the Doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ. If it be enquired , whence doth this proceed ? or what can be the true causes hereof ? I answer , Many things have a powerful Influence into this , as . I. The Natural Enmity unto all the wayes of God , that each hath , as a piece of his heirship from Adam : What ever God willeth , we will not , yea we will nill ; though our nilling of it be against ourselves , & we have no reason for it . There is a Spirit of Contradiction & Enmity to God in us all by nature , that we neither can , nor will comply with God's wayes , & with what tendeth to set forth His Glory . It is marked of the Iewes , that they stumbled at that stumbling stone , Jesus Christ , who was the end of the Law for righteousness , to all such as beleeve Rom. 10 : 4. & 9 : 32. They had such a prejudice at Christ , & at the way of Salvation through Him , that they brake their necks upon Him , who onely was the rock of Salvation . II. The innate darkness of Mens mindes , touching themselves , & all the things of God , especially the Mysteries of Salvation , is another cause of this Opposition to the Gospel-way of justification . They neither know their own hearts , nor their own wayes & doings ; nor are they acquainted with the holy & righteous Nature of God , nor with the nature of His Lawes & Commandments &c. They know not , I say , the Corruption of their own Natures & the innate wickedness which is there , which neither is , nor can be subject to the Law of God. Hence ordinarily such as erre , in this matter of justification , do intertaine erroneous apprehensions about Original sin , & our innate Pravity ; as do all the S●cinians , Papists , & many Arminians & others . So they are ignorant of the Law of God , not knowing how Holy , Good & Spiritual it is ; & how it obligeth the whole man , Spirit , Soul , Judgment , Understanding , Will , Affections & Memory ; & all the out ward Man ; condemning the least sin , in Thought , word or deed , & commanding the highest pitch of holy duties , & right Principles , Ends & Motives &c. And hence they see neither Omissions of what is commanded , not their Commissions of what is prohibited , whether as to their Nature , Multitude , or other Aggravations ; and the ignorance of this maketh them to see less the necessity of a Righteousness without them ; & to seek for it with less earnestness & zeal : whence it cometh to passe , ordinarily ( as is to be seen among Papists ) that such as are most for works , in justification , shape the Law according to their minde , & curtaile it , as did the Pharisees of old , that it may look more conforme to their works , when their works are no way conforme to it . So likewise , they are ignorant of god , & of His Holiness , & Righteousness ; & because they see , that if He be Such , as the Orthodox say He is , according to His Word , they cannot stand before His justice ; therefore they deny His justice altogether , as do Socinians ; or Imagine Him to be all Mercy &c. & so imagine Him to be altogether such an one , as themselves ; & therefore are not very zealous for any other righteousness , than what may come most readily to hand , & they themselves can make up with their own diligence & care ; never remembering , that the justice of God must be satisfied ; therefore deny all Satisfaction ( as do Socinians ; ) or suppose Christ hath satisfied for all , & procured a New Covenant , or way to life , wherein we may bring what we have , & it will be accepted , & there is no more to do : Nor remembering , that we must have an Interest in Christ by faith , ere we have any Interest in His Merites & Satisfaction ; & that the whole of our Salvation is so contrived , as Man may be abased , & Christ only exalted . III. A vaine conceite , that all things in Religion must be just as we apprehend them to be ; & our blinde , corrupt & byassed Reason & Understanding must be the Supream judge & Determiner of all these Mysteries . Hence the Socinians down-right say that 〈◊〉 the Scripture say what it will , & how oft it will , they are to beleeve & to receive nothing , but according to their Reason : so that , what their blinded Reason cannot comprehend , they may & will reject . And others , who possibly will not so plainely lay down this ground ; Yet in stead of conforming their judgments and Apprehensions to the word , & of being led by it , do frame a conception of the Matters of God , in their own heads , & then cause the Scriptures comply with their Apprehensions , by Interpreting them accordingly . So that following a corrupt guide here , they cannot but incline to that way , which suiteth most with that corrupt Principle ; & be most averse from compliance with the Mystery of God , which is most opposite there-unto . IV. Natural corrupt self love is another evil Principle , concurring to this effect , by its malignant Influence . We love to cry-up ourselves , to have something of our owne to boast of , & to glory of before men ; and hence we cannot naturally comply so sweetly with that way , which taketh away all boasting , & leaveth no ground for man to glory in any thing , save in the Lord ; & such is the way of faith , & of Gospel-justification Rom. 3 : 27 & 4 : 2. V. A vaine & groundless high conceite , that people have of themselves , & of what they do , as if there were worth & excellency in it , to oblige God , to bestow upon them , what reward they think meet ; not knowing , that when they have done all they can , they are but unprofitable , & that they have nothing but what they have received ; & that for any good they do , they are more beholden to God , than God is beholden to them ; & that the best of their actions are so defiled , that they could not answere for one of them , nor stand , if God should enter into judgment with them , & strickly mark iniquity Psal. 130 : 3 & 143 : 2. VI. Pride of heart is another malignant cause of this Aversation & Unwillingness , to comply with God's way ; & of this strong Inclination to the way of justification by Works . This was it , which led the jewes away from Christ , the end of the Law for righteousness : they would not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God Rom. 10 : 3. & because they would not bow themselves to take on this Righteousness , therefore they were at so much paines & labour , to establish their own , & to cause it stand . Proud man would work , & enjoy the reward of his laboures , & will not willingly hearken to any other way . he will not be beholden to free Grace , nor ascribe glory to the Lord Mediator ; but will still be at the old way of the first Covenant , at work & wages ; that he may have it to say , he hath erned & purchased the crown of life with his own hands & industrie . Therefore , from this we should all take warning , to look about us , & to guard against this strong & violent torrent , that is ready to carry us headlong to our ruine ; & to be jealous of our treacherous hearts . Hence also we may see , whence it cometh , that the Gospel getteth so little footing among many ; & how nothing less than the mighty power of God , will be able to prevail with a Natural Soul , & cause it comply with the Gospel-way of justification , & submit it self unto the Righteousness of God , & hold on Christ by faith . Further , We need not wonder to see , so many riseing-up , in all ages , against the Gospel of the Grace of God , & corrupting the Gospel-Doctrine of justification , seing blinded & unmortified Man is not in case , to be cast in its mould , nor willing to embrace it , untill he be broken , & broken over againe . CHAP. III. The Doctrine of justification should be keeped pure with all diligence ; & what dangerous expressions should be shunned . WE come next to speak a word unto the Second particular mentioned ; to wit , That all , who would be found faithful Ambassadours , & be accepted of the Lord , should endeavoure , both in practice & in Doctrine , to keep this doctrine of the Grace of God pure & unmixed : & particularly guard against the giving ground , or occasion to proud Nature , to cry-up Self , in the matter of justification , by any expression , used in the explication thereof . We see here & elsewhere , how careful Paul is in this Matter , using such expressions , as may most emphatically exclude man , & all his paines , & set free grace on high , that God alone may be exalted ; for here & elsewhere he debaseth man , & excludeth all his works , even the works of the best of men ; even his works , who was the father of the faithful : & he crieth up Christ as all , & free grace as beginning & carrying on all ; consonant to what the Prophet Esaias said Esai . 45 : 24 , 25. Surely shall one say , in the Lord have I righteousness & strength ( or , as it is in the Margine , Surely , he shall say of me , in the Lord is all righteousness & strength ) Even to him shall men come — In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified , & shall glory . So that such , as look to Him ( as it is vers 22. ) & come to Him ( as it is vers 24. ) have all their righteousnesses in the Lord , & from Him ; and in Him alone are they & shall they be justified , & shall glory ; & not at all in themselves . So Ieremiah Chap. 23 : 6. expresseth the matter very emphatically , holding it forth , as one of Christ's glorious & comfortable Titles of honour , that He shall be called , the Lord our Righteousness , thereby Importing , that all the Saints their righteousness , in order to their justification before , & acceptance with God , was in Christ ; & that it would be a robbing of Christ of His due honour , to seek for a righteousnes else where . So Chap. 33 : 14 , 15. it is promised that the Lord will cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David , & that hereby Iudah should be saved , & Israel should dwell saifely : And it is further said , that His spouse should wear her husbands name , & be called after Him , the Lord our righteousness ; thereby professing her adherence to Him , as her Husband , & her owning of Him , as all her righteousness , & glorying in that , that He and He alone is her righteousness . In compliance herewith , we should beware of expressing our conceptions , about the matter of justification so , as may give proud man ground of boasting , & of robbing Christ of His Crown , Title & Glory , in less , or in more : and these expressions following seem to me justly chargable herewith . I. To say , That all works are not excluded in justification ; but such only as are done by the meer Power & Strength of Nature ; & not the works of Grace , wrought by the Spirit . But who seeth not , how this is to set up proud Man , whom Paul would have debased & kept down ? And doth not Paul expresly tell us , that neither Abraham , nor David were so justified Rom. 4 ? And that if our father Abraham were justified by works , he should have had , whereof to glory , though not before God vers 2 ? And doth he not also tell us , that this would make the reward to be reckoned not of grace , but of debt vers 4 ? & would exclude faith & its operations , in reference to justification , & take away that blessed & refreshful stile of God , that He justifieth the ungodly vers 5 ? Should we not thus be saved by works of righteousness , which we do , & not according to His mercy , expresly contrary to Tit. 3 : 5. 2. In like manner to say , That we are not justified by the works of the Ceremonial Law ; but by obedience to the Moral Law , is peccant here also : for the works of the moral Law are works of righteousness , which we do , & such as obey this Law , & are considered as such , cannot be called ungodly . Neither doth the Apostle thus distinguish , that proud man might have any Interest . Nor doth he exclude only such works , when he saith , that Abraham was not justified by works ; for his works were not works of the Ceremonial Law , but of the Moral , which will as well give ground of boasting , & make the reward of debt , & not of grace , as works of the Ceremonial Law , if not more . And it is manifest , that Paul speaketh of that Law ( & of obedience to it , or of works commanded by it ) which convinceth of sin , & discovereth it Rom. 3 : 20. & 7 : 7. & maketh all the world guilty Rom. 3 : 19. & bringeth them under the curse Gal. 3 : 10. is established by faith Rom. 3 : 31. & hath the promise of life annexed to it Rom. 10 : 5. Gal. 3 : 12. Nor doth he exclude only such works , when he speaketh of himself Phil. 3 : 9. 3. Likewise to say , That all works are not excluded , but only Outward works , which are done out of Principle of fear , & not out of love & faith , & are not inward works of grace ; is to adde Fewel to this fire of pride , & to please proud Self , & proud Man : for who can think , that only such works , would lay the ground of boasting , & of glorying before men ? or that only such would make the reward of debt ? or that any in these daies were pleading for justification , upon the account only of such works ? or that such works were to be understood by the Law , as if the Law did command no other ? or that such were Abraham's works ? or that Paul thought of none other , when he desired not to be found in his own righteousness Phil. 3 : 9 ? 4. They are guilty of the same crime , who say , That Paul only excludeth the jewish Law : for if thereby they meane only the Ceremonial Law , it is manifest from what is said , that hereby Self & Man shal be much exalted , when justification is made to be by , & according to the works of the Moral Law. If they meane thereby the Judicial Law , then justification should be by obedience to the Moral Law ; yea & by obedience to the Ceremonial Law , as well as by obedience to the Moral Law , quite contrary to the whole discourse of the Apostle . And if they meane all the Law , that was given to the jewes , then the Moral Law is included : & so all works are excluded , which are done in obedience to any Law of God. 5. It is no less injurious to truth , & favourable to proud Self , to say with Socinus , That Paul onely excludeth perfect works , done in full conformity to the perfect Law of God ; but not our Imperfect works , which through grace are accepted , & accounted our righteousness : for even these works being works of righteouness , which we do , would not exclude boasting , but give ground of glorying before men . Neither did Abraham , or Paul , or any other Saint suppose , that their works were perfect . Nor is it Imaginable , that any in these dayes did plead for justification , by their own works , upon the account , that they were perfect , & wholly commensurat unto the Law. Nor doth Paul insinuate , in all his discourse , any such Distinction , or give any ground to think , that Imperfect works should be the ground of justification , when Perfect works are not . And all this is grounded upon this gross mistake , That by faith , which the Apostle opposeth to works , is meaned our Imperfect Obedience unto the Commands of God. 6. It is injurious , upon the same account , to say , That Paul onely excludeth such works , as are accompanied with a conceite of merite , & none else : for he excludeth all works , without any such Distinction , even the works of Abraham , ( who , doubtless , was far from any such fonde conceite , to think , that his works were meritorious ) & all such works , as give ground of boasting before men , though not before God. And who will say , that even Adam's works , performed in Innocency , had any proportion , in the ballance of commutative justice , or would merite at God's hand , ex condigno ? And yet , sure , such works would have made the reward of debt , according to the Compact . Yea , the Apostle , in his way of argueing , supposeth , that works cannot be mentioned in this case , without merites ; so that merite is inseparable from them . And shall we think , that Paul Phil. 3 : 9. meaned , by his own righteouness , only such works , as he expresly accounted meritorious ? Or that he could , or did account any of his works such ? 7. It runneth far in the same guilt , to say , That faith it self , which is our work , & considered as our act of obedience , is Imputed to us for righteousness , & is that righteousness , upon which we are justified : for how easily might proud Self lift up its head , & boast & say , it was justified , because of some thing within it , or because of one work of righteouness , done by it : & so glory in it self , & not in the Lord ? for though it were granted , that faith were the gift 〈◊〉 God yet that would not sufficiently keep down pride , seing such , as plead for justification by good works , will also grant , that these good works come from the Grace of God , & are wrought by the Spirit : & yet such a justification would lay a foundation of boasting , & of glorying before men ; & some would have more ground of boasting , than others , because of their stronger faith : And justification by this way , would as well be opposite to justification through Christ , & His Imputed righteousness , & by Grace , as justification by good works ; for faith here would not be considered , as bringing-in & laying hold on a Righteousness without , the Righteousness of Christ imputed ; but as a commanded duty , & as a piece of obedience to the Law ; & would as well make the reward of debt ex congruo , & ex pacto , as if justification were by works . 8. It is of the same Nature , to say , That Paul excludeth the works of the Law , but not the works of the Gospel : for the same ground of pride , boasting & glorying should be laid , that would be laid , by pleading for the works of the Law : because these are still works of righteousness , which we do , & so opposite , in this matter , unto mercy , Tit. 3 : 5. And Paul , to exclude all boasting & glorying before Men , opposeth faith , ( not considered in it Self , but as laying hold on the Righteousness of Christ , & as carrying the Man out of himself to Christ for Righteousness ) unto works ; & not Gospel-works unto works of the Law. And , sure , we cannot say , that none of Abraham's works were Gospel-works , or works required in the New Covenant , seing even then he was a beleever , when the object of his faith , or that which he laid hold on by faith , in the Gospel , which was preached unto him , was said to be imputed unto him for righteousness . And is it not plaine , that if justification were upon the account of Gospel works , that God should not then be said to justifie the ungodly ; seing he , who is clothed with a Gospel righteousness , cannot be called , or accounted an ungodly person ? And yet faith looks out unto , & laith hold upon a God , that justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4 : 5. In a word , the asserting of this would be the same , upon the matter , with asserting of justification by the works of the Law : for what ever is required in the Gospel , is injoined by the Law ; & so is an act of obedience to the Law , which is our perfect Rule of Righteousness , & all our obedience must be in conformity thereunto . 9. It must also be accounted dangerous , for puffing-up of Self , to say , That we are justified by our Inherent Righteousness : for then the Man could not say , that all his righteousnesses were as filthy rags Esai . 64 : 6. Nor could that be true , which is Psal. 143 : 3. for in they sight no man living should be justified , to wit , if God should enter into Iudgment with him . Why should Iob have abhorred himself Chap. 42 : 6. if he had a righteousness within him , & had been justified by the Lord , upon the account of that inherent righteousness ? And had not Paul as good ground , as any , to assert his justification by his personal inherent holiness & righteousness ? Yet we hear of no such thing out of his mouth ; but on the contrary , his accounting all things but less & dung , that he might gaine Christ , & be found in His Righteousness , hath a far different import . How proud might man be , if he had it to say , that he was justified in the sight of God by works of Righteousness , which he had done , or by his own inherent righteousness ? 10. Nor will it much help the matter , to say , That this Inherent Righteousness is not the price laid down , but onely the Condition , or Causa , sine qua non , or the like : for still man would hereby have some thing to be proud of , & to glory of before men ; because , he would have it to say , that his own Inherent Holiness was as well the ground of his justification , & the Condition thereof , as Adam's obedience would have been the ground of his justification . And who knoweth not , that Self can wax proud , & be puffed up , upon a smaller occasion , than is this ? And is it not strange , that Paul never once made mention of this distinction ? Shall we think , that Paul denied Abraham to have been justified by works , because Abraham looked upon them , as the meritorious cause , & not as the Condition only of his justification ? or that Abraham indeed did so ? or that Paul included them , as the condition of his justification , when he said , he desired not to be found in his own Righteousness , meaning , not his own righteousness as a price , or as the Meritorious cause of his acceptance ? Why should David have spoken so absolutely , & said Psal. 143 : 2. enter not into judgment with thy Servant ; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified , seing , even though God should enter into judgment with His servants , they should be justified , as having fulfilled the condition ? And why should he have said Psal. 130 : 3. If thou , Lord , shouldest mark iniquities ; ô Lord , who shall stand ? seing , though the Lord should mark iniquities , yet where the Person hath fulfilled the Condition , & hath a Personal Inherent Righteousness to hold up , as the fulfilling of the condition required , he is in case to stand in judgment , & to plead for his justification , & absolution , upon the account of his performing all the condition required : And would not vaine man have great ground of boasting here ? 11. Neither yet will it prevent this boasting , to say , That this Inherent Righteousness is but a Subordinat Righteousness , whereby we have right unto the Merites of Christ , which are the Principal Righteousness , answering the demandes of the Law : for if man have any thing in himself , that can be called a Righteousness , though but a Subordinat Righteouness , & yet such a Righteousness , as giveth right & ground to justification , though that justification be also called , only a subordinat justification , conforme to the New Covenant , & the Condition thereof , he will soon boast , & account his justification not of free grace but of due debt , conforme to the covenant : And though this be called , only a Subordinat Righteousness ; yet proud Self will account it the Principal ; because upon it dependeth all his justification ; for thereby not onely hath he a right unto Christ's Merites , but unto justification it self ; this being called the proper condition of the New Covenant , wherein justification , Adoption &c. are promised ( as they say ) upon this condition . And will not proud Man see , that he hath a price in his hand , & a compl●●● Righteousness , conforme to the Covenant , to presente unto God where-upon to seek & expect the reward of debt , according to the covenant ? And so much the rather should we abstaine from such expressions , in this matter , that we finde no mention made of two fold Righteousness , & of a twofold Justification ; the one subordinat , the other Principal , in the Scriptures ; but all expressions , in this matter , framed designedly to abase man , & make all appear to be of free grace , that he , who glorieth , may glory in the Lord. And as Self will be ready , in this , to make that , which is called a Subordinat Righteousness , a Prinpal Righteousness ; so it will have this faire & plausible ground to do so ; to wit , That upon our own Righteousness , we are Immediatly accepted of God , as Righteous ; especially when the Merits of Christ are made subservient unto our personal Righteousness , as procuring the New covenant ; & that therein our Personal Righteousness shall be accepted , & accounted perfect & compleet , though it be not so in it self , & we thereupon immediatly justified , & accepted of God , as Righteous ; as they love to speak , who assert these things . 12. Though faith be indeed the mean of our justification , that is , the onely thing required of us , in order to our Interest in Christ , & actual participation of the benefites of His Redemption , & of justification in the first place , according to the Gospel methode : Yet it is too favourable to proud Self , to call it such a Condition , as hath a far more dangerous Import ; That is , ( 1. ) To call it a Condition , & withall deny , that it is an instrumental Cause , or that it is to be considered , in the matter of justification , as it laith hold on Christ , & His Righteousness . ( 2. ) To say , that the very act of faith , or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere is imputed for Righteousness ; & that Paul is to be so understood Rom. 4. as speaking properly , & not metonymically ( 3. ) To say , that this is the Righteousness , which is imputed to us , in order to justification , & not the Righteousness of Christ , except as to its Effects , in respect of some whereof , Yea the chiefe & only immediat , it is equally Imputed to all , Reprobat , as well as Elect. ( 4. ) To say , that this faith is our Gospel-Righteousness , & because a Righteousness , is perfect , & adequate to the Rule of the New Covenant . ( 5. ) To say ; that this faith hath the same place & consideration , & consequently , the same force & efficacy , in the New Covenant , that perfect obedience had in the Old Covenant with Adam . ( 6. ) To say , that Christ hath purchased the New Covenant , & that this shall be the condition of persons partaking of the benefites thereo● : & withall ( 7 ) To say , that Christ hath died for all , & by his death made Satisfaction to justice for the breach of the Law ; & so purchased freedom from the Curse of the Law to all , equally , at least conditionally ; whereby it is apparent , that all are put in statu quo prius , in the state , they were once in , & that equally ; & now have new conditions proposed unto them , which , if they performe , they are righteous , & upon that performance are freed from the Curse , & made heirs of Glory : and thus the New Covenant is of the same Nature & kinde with the Old , only its Conditions are a little altered , & made more easie ; & their Performance of the condition must-have a 〈◊〉 with it , at least , ex pacto , though not ex condigno , as neither Adam's Perfect obedience could have had . And the performers of this condition , in this case , may reflect upon their own deed , & lay their weight on it , & , it being their Righteousness , may plead upon it , as their immediat ground of right , before God , unto justification , & Acceptance . Let any man now consider these things , & see whether or not , the asserting of faiths being such a condition , as this , be not a plaine gratification of proud Self , & the laing down a ground for vaine man to boast , & of glorying , though not-before God , yet before others ; And whether this be not an ascribing more to faith , than is done by such , as , yeelding it to be a condition , of the mean appointed of God , & required of us , in order to justification , say with all , that it is to be considered not in it self , nor as an act of our obedience ; but as an Instrument , or mean laying hold upon the Righteousness of Christ without us , that it may be ours , & our onely Righteousness , where upon we may expert , according to the Gospel justification & absolution , &c. 13. It tendeth too much to blow up proud Self , to say , That if works of Obedience be not the Condition of our first justification , yet they may be called the Condition of our Second justification , or of the Continuance of our justification : for , as the Scripture speaketh nothing of a Second justification ; so to assert our works to be the Condition thereof , is to crosse the argueings of the Apostle , & manifestly to lay a foundation of glorying for Man : for if even Abraham had been justified by works , a considerable time , after he was first justified , and first a beleever , he should have had , whereof to glory , though not before God , as saith the Apostle Rom. 4 : 2. And vers 3. he proveth that he was justified by faith , & that after he had been a beleever ; for that passage , Abraham beleeved God , & it was imputed to him for righteousness , was not spoken of & at his first beleeving ; & so cannot be properly meaned of his First justification onely ; but some yeers there after : & therefore must be true , of his Second justification , if there were any such ; Yea , the just liveth by faith ( a passage that the Apostle useth ( as wee have seen ) to prove justification by faith , both here in our Text , & Rom. 1 : 17. ) all alongs , both first & last ; so that the beginning & continuance of this life of justification is by faith , & not by works . 14. It is also dangerous , to say , That the work of the Law , convining of sin , with the Effects & Consequences thereof , Sorrow , griefe , Anxiety , Legal Repentance , &c. are either Dispositions , Preparations , or Conditions of justification , or Meritorious thereof by way of Congruity ; as if there were a certaine & constituted connexion betwixt these & the blessing of justification , made by any Law or promise of God ; & as if none could be justified , that had not these sensible & affecting Effects going before . Sure , the asserting of this cannot but contribute much , to stirre up & foster pride in Man , & give occasion to think , that man himself hath done or suffered something , that calleth for , procureth , & , in congruity at least , meriteth justification . CHAP. IV. Justification is so contrived , in the Gospel , as man may be abased , & have no ground of boasting . THirdly , we come to speak to the third thing mentioned above , to wit , That justification is so contrived , begun & carried on , that man hath no real , or apparent ground of glorying before men , or of boasting in himself . A few particulars will sufficiently cleare this . I. The Lord 's ordinary & usual Method , in bringing His Chosen ones into a justified State , is first to convince them of their Sin and Misery , by setting home the Law , & wekening their Consciences ; as Paul doth Doctrinally follow this method , when he is about to cleare-up , & explaine the truth , about Gospel-justification , in his Epistle to the Romans ; where in the first place , he convinceth all of Sin , both jewes & Gentiles Chap. 1. & 2. & 3. concluding vers 23. That all have sinned , & come short of the glory of God , & vers 9. he giveth an account of his foregoing Discourse , saying , we have before proved both jewes & Gentiles ; that they are all under sin . And againe vers 19. that every mouth may be stopped , & all the world may become guilty before God. Now this work of Conviction layeth the sinner low before God ; for thereby the Man is discovered to himself , to be undone in himself , to be under Sin & Wrath , under the Sentence of the Law , having his mouth stopped , & having nothing to plead for himself , neither by way of Extenuation , nor of Apology ; & having nothing in himself , wherewith he can come before the Lord , to make Atonement for his Transgressions , & to make Satisfaction to justice : And thus the man is made to despare in himself , as being irremediably gone & undone , if free grace prevent him not . II. Whereupon the man is made to renounce all his former grounds of Hop , & Confidence , all his former Duties , good works , civility , Negative Holiness , & what else he placed his Confidence in formerly ; Yea all his Righteousnesses are as filthy rags , & accounted as loss & dung . So that he hath nothing within himself , as a Righteousness , that he can expect to be justified by , before God ; but on the contrary , he findeth himself under the Curse , & that what he thought before to be his Righteousness , is now , by the light of the Law , & the discovery he hath of his natural condition , founde to be sin & iniquity before God ; & therefore to be so far from bringing any reliefe unto him , that thereby his anxiety is made greater , & his case more desperat . III. The way of Gospel-justification is so contrived , & the wakened man ( whom God is about to justifie ) is now convinced of it , that Man must be abased ; for he is now made to see , that he is empty & poor , & hath nothing to commend him to God , no Righteousness of his own to produce ; nothing within him , or without him , except the alone Righteousness of Christ the Mediator & Cautioner , that can stand him in stead ; Nothing of his own must here come in reckoning , neither alone , nor in conjunction with the Righteousness of Christ ; for what is of Grace , must not be of works , otherwise Grace is no more Grace Rom. 11 : 6. Christ must have all the glory , & he , who glorieth , must glory alone in the Lord. And therefore is Christ made Righteousness unto us . 2. Cor. 1 : 30. & is become the Lord our Righteousness Ier. 23 : 6. And all His must say , That in the Lord , they have righteousness Esai . 45 : 24. IV. Nothing , that preceedeth faith , no motions or workings of the Law , no legal Repentance , & the like , have any infallible connexion with justification ; nor are they any congruous disposition thereunto , or a Condition thereof , there being no promise made , that all such , as are convinced & awakened , & have some legal terrours & works of the Law upon their Spirites , shall certainely be justified ; & experience proving , that several , who have had deep convictions & Humiliations , have , with the dog , returned to their vomite , & become afterward worse than ever , doth also confirme this . So that , after the deepest legal Humiliations & works of Terrour & outward Changes , & the like Effects of the Law ( though when they are wrought by the Lord , intending & bringing about the Elect sinner's Conversion & justification , they have this kindly work upon the heart , to cause the Soul more readily & willingly listen to the offers of Salvation & Mercy , in the Gospel ; & to submit to the termes & Method , which God hath , in His great wisdom & mercy , condescended unto , as to the actual Conferring & bestowing of the blessings , purchased by Christ , for His own chosen ones ) justification is an Act purely of God's free Grace , undeserved of them , on any account ; & an act of His meer mercy & Love. So that they are justified freely by His grace , through the Redemption , that is in Christ Rom. 3 : 24. V. Unto this justification , their good Works are not required , upon what somever account : for good works must follow justification , & not preceed it . They must be first accepted through Christ , before their works of holiness can be accepted . The whole Gospel doth most plainely exclude works of the Law , under whatsoever Notion , Qualification , or Restriction , as we manifested above , & shall more manifest hereafter : Yea , all works , upon what somever account , are excluded , as opposite to justification by faith , through Jesus Christ. The man , who had no more to say , but God be merciful to me a sinner , went home justified , when he , who said , God , I thank thee , I am not as other men , nor as this Publican , &c. did miss that Privilege . Paul hath so directly & plentifully proved , that no man is justified by works , that we need say no more of it ; and therefore , in this matter of justification , man hath no ground of boasting , but must glory in the Lord alone . VI. As without a Righteousness no man can be justified before God , because His judgment is alwayes according to truth , & He will pronunce no man Righteous , who is not so , or who hath no Righteousness : And as no man hath a Righteousness of his own , & in himself , that will abide the trial of God's judgment ; for if He should enter into judgment , with any that liveth , they should not be able to stand before His judgment seat , & be justified ; but all , who are justified , are in themselves ungodly , & void of all Righteousness , that can ground a sentence of absolution from the Condemnation of the Law : So it is the Righteousness of Christ , as Mediator & Cautioner , which is to them the only ground of their absolution & justification ; & this Surety-Righteousness of Christ is imputed to them by God , & they are clothed therewith ; & being considered as clothed there with , are pronounced Righteous by the Lord , the righteous judge , & dealt with as such . So that all the Righteousness , which is the ground of their absolution from the Condemnation of the Law , is without them , in another , who was appointed their Cautioner : & therefore all appearance of any ground of boasting in themselves , is quite taken away by the Law of faith Rom. 3 : 27. & the reward is now wholly of grace , & not of debt Rom. 4 : 4. VII . Though faith , & faith only be required of us , in order to our having Interest in Christ & His Righteousness , & to justification therethrough ; Yet this leaveth no ground of boasting unto man , or of glorying in himself ; for it is in it self a plaine solemne Declaration of the Beleevers Sense , Conviction , & Acknowledgment of his own Beggarliness . Poverty & Nakedness , & of his being a dyvoure & non-solvendo , haiving no Righteousness of his own , & renounceing all that is in him , in order to his own justification ; & , as it were , a swearing of himself bare ; & a laying hold upon a Righteousness without him , even the Righteousness of Christ , who is the End of the Law for righteousness to every one that beleeveth Rom. 10 : 3 , 4. & resting upon it ; & a producing of it , as the ground of his Absolution , in face of court , to his own shame , & to the glory of his Cautioner So. far is it from being the mans Righteousness , that it is a plaine & open declaration , that he hath no Righteousness , but must go to Christ for a Righteousness . And so far is the beleever from reflecting on it , as his Righteousness , & from darring to present it to God , as his Righteousness , & plead for absolution upon the ground thereof , as if it were perfect , & a full Righteousness , according to the Gospel ; that he only thereby saith , in the Lord have I Righteousness ; & he looks upon it , as most weak & imperfect ; & , being encouraged by the free promise of God , he laith hold on Christ , with the trembling & weak hand of faith , which he hath ; & ostentimes , so far is he from having any confidence in his faith , that with much doubting & hesitation , he , as almost despairing of being the better thereby , seeing no other outgate , or remedie , ventureth , with a peradventure , he may be saved so , & that how ever he can but perish . How far , such a soul , that is fleing to Christ for refuge , is from conceiveing any ground of boasting in himself , is sufficiently plaine , & the sense & experience of all , so exercised , can declare . VIII . Even this Act of the soul , looking out , going to , gripping & laying hold upon Jesus Christ & His Righteousness , held forth & offered in the Gospel to all self condemned sinners , despairing in themselves , is not of themselves ; it is the gift of God Ephes. 2 : 8. The Spirit of Jesus boweth & inclineth the soul hereunto , & determineth the doubting man unto this choice , & maketh him willing , whether it be in a lesser , or in a greater degree , to flee to Christ for shelter , from the storme of wrath , & to be saved from the Curse : And though the soul , in the meane while , be not in case to observe & take notice of the powerful workings of grace herein ; Yet afterward he is in better case to see it , & to celebrate the rich & free grace of God , who hath visited him in his low condition , & began à work in him & never left him , untill he landed him in Christ , in whom was all fulness , & he found he was compleat , & through whom he obtained that delivery from wrath , which he was seeking after , meerly out of his wonderful free grace & mercy . CHAP. V. In Justification there is a State of life . HAving premised these three particulars , not unworthy of our consideration , & serving to prepare the way unto what followeth to be spoken unto ; we come more particularly to handle the words , & to see what may be drawn out of them for our Information & Edification , that we may be instructed concerning the nature of this noble Privilege , & concerning the way , how it is brought about , & persons may be made partakers thereof , as also stirred up unto a right Improvement of the truth herein , whether we be already made partakers thereof , or are yet strangers thereunto . We Intend not ( as we hinted at the beginning ) to touch upon , far less to discuss at lenghth , all the many & perplexed controversies , that are moved , both of old & of late , by men of different Principles & perswasions . Nor do we intend to handle the several Arguments , which the Apostle adduceth for confirmation of the Truth , in this matter , But our purpose only being to touch upon , & , at least , to endeavoure the clearing of some of the Principal Questions , moved in this matter , in reference to the forementioned ends , we shall satisfie our selves , at present , with speaking to such particulars , as the Text will give ground for . The words having been cleared , & the Scope of the Apostle declared , which cannot be hid from the eyes of any , who will read the purpose , there are only two things , which call for our Consideration ; First The Conclusion , which the Apostle is disproving & confuting with a manifesto ; to wit , That no man is justified in the sight of God by the Law , or by the works of the Law. Next The argument , which the Apostle maketh use of , to this end ; for the just shall live by faith . The Apostles way of argueing here , & elsewhere , with the same , or the like Argument , whereby he stateth an Inconsistency , yea an Opposition , betwixt justification by the Law , & justification by faith , saith , that it will not be very necessary to speak much to that , which is here the Apostles Conclusion ; that is , to cleare , that justification is not by the works of the Law : for the clearing of justification by faith will enforce that of it self . We shall not therefore insist upon that , howbeit we may in end , consider , what is said by some for justification by works , & what way such think to shun the odium , of manifestly contradicting the Apostle , & of maintaining that Errour , which he setteth himself so peremp●orily against , as acted by the Spirit of God. The Principal thing then , which we have here to do , is to consider the Import of the Apostles argument , for the just shall live by faith , yet we are not to consider these words , in their just length & breadth , nor particularly , in reference to the use , which the Prophet Habbakuk maketh of them . Hab. 2 : 4. & this same Apostle Heb. 10 : 38. ( of this we have spoken elsewhere ) But only in reference to the use , which the Apostle here maketh of them , in clearing up the way , how justification is brought about . And considering them in this respect , we will have two things only to take notice of ; First The assertion of justification by faith . Next The Influence , that this assertion hath into the Apostles Conclusion ; to wit , That therefore justification is not by the Law , nor by the works of the Law. In speaking to the First , we will have occasion to speak both to the beginning , the nature & ground of this change , made in justification , as also to the continuance of that state of justification . And then we will have occasion to show , how both the beginning & Continuance of justification is by faith : for as the sinner at first becometh just , or is brought into a justified state by faith , so is he carried on & continueth in that state of life , to the end : this being alwayes true , that first & last , the just liveth by faith ; faith beginneth , & faith carrieth on this life , untill the justified man be glorified . The Apostle ( that we may come to speak something to cleare the nature of this State of justification ) is asserting justification by faith , to cry down justification by the Law , or by the works of the Law , which some false Teachers were perswading those Galatians to beleeve ; & he adduceth a passage of Scripture , which saith , the just shall live by faith , thereby giving us to understand , that the just man , or the justified man , is a living man ; for the just liveth . And it is too narrow , to interprete this life , of eternal life ; & this would make the Apostles argument very obscure ; we must therefore unde●stand it of a life begun here , which shall certainely end in glory : & this is most consonant both to the Prophet's scope , & to the scope of the Apostle here . Whence we may gather , That in justification by faith , there is a real life obtained : by justification the soul● is brought into a new state of life ; & by it , such , as were really dead , are really made alive . This may be further cleared from these particulars following . I. Such are said to be born again Iob. 3 : 5. not only by the Spirit , which may import Sanctification , but also by Water , which may import Iustification , wherein iniquities are pardoned , & the Soul is washen from its guilt , through the bloud of Jesus Christ , represented by the Water in Baptisme . Thus are they also put into a new state , being delivered from the Power of darkness , and translated into the Kingdome of His dear Son , Col. 1 : 13. Christ now owneth them , as His , & Satan hath no more power and jurisdiction over them , their guilt being removed , and their sinnes being pardoned : for , because of sin hath Satan , as a jailour , had power over them , as so many prisoners , but sin being taken away , in their justification , they are loosed from his bondes , and delivered from his prison and power . We see Paul was sent Act. 26 : 18. To open eyes , and to turn from darkness to light , & from power of Satan unto God , that they may receive forgiveness of sinnes , &c. 2. Hereby they are brought into a State of Salvation , and being out of harmes way , they are said to be saved , being now in a State of life and Salvation , through Jesus Christ , Ephes. 2 : 5 , 8. For by grace are ye saved through faith : and how was this ? It was by Christ , together with whom they were quickened ; when before they were dead in sins & trespasses , v. 5. So Tit. 3 : 5. Not by works of rigteousness , which we have done , but according to his mercy he saved us , by the washing of regeneration , and renewing of the Holy Ghost . But how was this work of Salvation begun ? See vers 7. That being justified by His grace , we should be made heirs , according to the hop of eternal life . So that as justification maketh way for Adoption ; so it bringeth Souls into a saife state , a state of Salvation ; so as they , in a sense , are already denominated , saved ; that is , brought out of the state of death , and put into a state of Salvation : Thus are they also said , to be quickened together with Him , ( i. e. Christ ) having forgiveness of all their sinnes , Col. 2 : 13. This will be further clear , if we consider how 3. Those , who are justified , shall certainly be saved , not only in respect of the Decree and purpose of God ; but in respect also of the Gospel constitution , and the declared will of God. Therefore saith the Apostle Rom. 8 : 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them , which are in Christ Iesus . And all such , as are in Christ Jesus , are justified ; as the Gospel cleareth . And againe more clearly , vers 30. And whom he justified , them he also glorified . The connexion betwixt these two is indissoluble . So doth the Apostle not only assert , but he confirmeth this , Rom. 5 : 9. Much more being now justified by his bloud , we shall be saved from wrath through Him. And againe , vers 17. For if by one mans offence death reigned by one , much more they , which receive aboundance of grace , and of the gift of righteousness . ( That is , who welcome , embrace and receive the rich offer of grace , and the rigteousness of Christ , freely and graciously presented in the Gospel to all that will accept thereof ) shall reigne in the life by one Iesus Christ. So likewise , vers last . That as sin hath reigned unto death , even so might grace reigne through righteousness unto eternal life by Iesus Christ , our Lord. 4. They who are justified , are brought into a state of blessedness , and therefore may well be said to live , or to be made partakers of a life , Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. Even as David also describeth the man , unto whom God imputeth righteousness , without works ; saying , blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven , and whose sinnes are covered . Blessed is the man , to whom the Lord will not impute sin . See Psal. 32 : 1 , 2. If then they be brought into a state of blessedness , they must be a in a state of life ; for death and blessedness are inconsistent . 5. They are said to be redeemed ; and consequently brought out of the state of death , wherein they were , Ephes. 1 : 7. In whom we have redemption , through his bloud , the forg●veness of sins , according to the riches of his grace . In & by justification is this forgiveness of sinnes , whereby they are made partakers of a redemption . See Col. 1. 14. Where the same is asserted by the Apo●●le . For further clearing of this , let us see wherein this life consisteth ; and then we shall not only see , that it is really a life , but also , that it is a special and excellent life . To this end therefore , let us consider these following particulars . 1. Hereby they have Remission and pardon of their Iniquities , as was now cleared , and is manifest from Rom. 3 : 24 , 25. Being justified freely by this grace , through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ ; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation for the remission of sins , that are past , &c. And by this Remission and pardon of sins , they have a freedom and exemption from the Curse and wrath of God , that was lying upon them , and to which they were obnoxious by sin and guilt , Orginal and Actual , which they were to be charged with , that being the penalty threatned in the Law , even death and the Curse of God ; for it is written , cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the Law , to do them , Gal. 3 : 10. Deut. 27 : 26. O how excellent a life is this , to be delivered from the wrath of the Almighty , sin-revenging God , and from the Curse and malediction of the great Legislator , and dreadful Judge ? How rightly may they be said to live , who are freed from the sentence of death , to which they were liable ; from the penalty of the broken Law of the great God of Heaven and Earth ; and from that doom , that all , who shall not share of this rich privilege of Remission , shall be made to hear at length , depart from me , ye Cursed , &c. A person guilty of death , and lying in chaines , looking for nothing but the sentence & doom to be given out against him , would think himself a living man , if in stead of that sentence , which he was every houre looking for , he should hear of a free and gracious pardon . Much more may this state of Remission be looked upon as a state of life . ( 2 ) They are hereby freed from that death , Slavery and Tyranny , which the Law did exercise over them before , and doth exerce over all such , as are not yet justified , for as the Law discovereth sin , Rom. 3 : 20. So it worketh wrath Rom. 4. 15. And thereby hath dominion over a man , binding him over in chains , as it were , unto the wrath & Curse of God. But Christ hath now delivered them from the Curse of the Law , being made a Curse for them , Gal. 3 : 13. And they by faith having fled to him , are pardoned , and the Law hath no more to say , especially seing it is satisfied by the Cautioners being made a Curse , and having fulfilled it in our Nature and place , Rom. 8 : 3 , 4. Thus are they freed from and dead to the Law by the body of Christ , Rom. 7 : 4. O what a noble , sweet and refreshing life is this , to be free of this Slavery and Bondage , whereby the Law is alwayes lying about the neck of the poor sinner , the Curse and wrath of God , as oft as he sinneth . And adde to this ( 3. ) That they are freed from the just and well grounded managment of the Law against them by Sa●an , or a wakened Conscience . I say , just and well grounded managment ; for I grant , the Devil and a mis-informed Conscience can bring forth the Law , and terrifie therewith a true beleever , by charging , him with the transgressions thereof , even after these transgressions are pardoned ; but this is unjust and illegal ; and the beleever is under no obligation to acknowledge these Charges , or to admit them , but , on the contrary , to reject them , as being groundless , & contrary to the tenor of the Gospel . But the unbeleever and unjustified Soul is laid open to all these fearful charges and dreadful challenges , to all those summons , that are as so many poisoned darts , shot into his very heart , every one of which is a death to him , which he seeth not how to evite . Must not then this be a considerable and noble heavenly life , to have sin pardoned and thereby be freed from these Soul-affrighting , Heart-pierceing , Conscience-burning and Mind-tormenting Acculations , Charges , Libels , and Dittayes , brought home and delivered by the wicked Accuser of the Brethren , and a wakened enligtened Conscience ? Must there not be many lives in this one ? 2. Hereby they have peace and Reconciliation with God , being justified by faith , we have peace with God , Rom. 5 : 1. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself , not imputing their trespasses unto them , 2 Cor. 5 : 18 , 19. They are now reconciled , Rom. 5 : 10. So Col. 1 : 20. And , ( having made peace , through the blood of His cross ) by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself . Herein also they have received the Atonement , Rom. 5 : 11. And the Enmity is abolished , Ephes. 2 : 15. And slaine v. 16. So that the enmity on both hands is taken away ; they are reconciled unto the Lord , who before were alienated and enemies in their mindes by wicked works , Col. 1 : 21. And the Atonement being made , the wrath of God is apaced towards them , and that Law-wrath , under which they did formerly lye , is quite removed , and they are no more looked upon , nor dealt with as Enemies , but owned and regarded , as reconciled friends . And who can express the good and sweet of this life ? or who can conceive what an heaven lyeth wrapped up here ? How justly may he be accounted a dead man , who is an Out lawer and a Rebel to God , who tasteth nothing of the Kindness and Friendship of God , getteth nothing from Him , as from a Friend , but all as from an Enemie , even all the outward favoures he enjoyeth in the World ; how great and glorious so-ever they be , in the eyes of men ? And , on the other hand , how happy is he , and how justly and deservedly may he be called a living man , who can call God his Friend ; go to Him as to a Friend ; receive all from Him as from a Friend , how inconsiderable so-ever in the eyes of the World the things be , which he getteth . This is a life , the Good , the Advantage , the Joy , the Comfort , the Peace of which , who can express ? 3. Hereby they are absolved and acquitted from all , that could be justly laid unto their charge : for justification in Scripture , is expressive of a juridical Act of a just Judge , absolving a person from the guilt laid to his charge , and from the sentence of the Law , due upon the account of that , where with he was charged ; and never doth denote a making of righteous by infusing of tigteousness , or by making any real physical change within , whatever Papists say , as wee see , Deut. 25 : 1. 2 Sam. 15 : 4. Prov. 17 : 15. Esai . 50 : 8. 1 King. 8 : 31 , 32. Ex●d . 23 : 7. Mat. 12 : 37. Luk. 7 : 29. & 16 : 15. And in multitudes of moe places . O! what a life is here , when a poor self-condemned sinner standeth before the Judge , the righteous Lord , & hath his sinnes charged upon him , and the Law brought forth , cursing every transgressour , for every transgression , and justice appearing against him , calling for the execution of the sentence , according to Law , and for death & vengeance due by Law ; and upon all this can look for nothing but doom and present execution of the dreadful sentence : what a life , I say , is it for such a sinner ; standing in this posture , to have a sentence of absolution pronounced , and be openly declared righteous , and not worthy of death , or free of the charge given in against him : and thus is it with Beleevers , according to the Gospel constitution ; for though they have sinned , & come short of the glory of God , in themselves ; yet now they are justified freely by his grace , through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ , and that by faith , Rom. 3 : 22 , 23 , 28. Gal. 2 : 16. Though they were Unrighteous , Fornicators , Idolaters , Adulterers , Effeminat , Abusers of themselves with mankind , Theeves , Covetous , Drunkards , Revilers , and Extortioners ; yet now they are justified , in the name of the Lord Jesus , 1 Cor. 6 : 9 , 10 , 11. God justified the Ungodly , Rom. 4 : 5. The Circumcision by faith and the Uncircumcision through faith , Rom. 3 : 30. 4. The ground of this sentence of Absolution , passed upon them , or in their favours , will more manifest both the Reality and Excellency of this life . Though they in themselves have been , and are sinners and ungodly , & cannot plead not guilty , nor adduce any ground in themselve where upon they can plead Exemption from the penalty of the Law ; but as they stand guilty in Law , so they stand convicted in their own Consciences , their mouthes are stopped , and they are become guilty , Rom. 3 : 19. They know and acknowlege that they have sinned , and come short of the glory of God vers 23. & so can expect nothing , but death & destruction , if the Lord should enter with them in jugdment , and mark iniquity , Psal. 130 : 3. & 143. 2. Yet , the judgment of the Lord being alwayes according to truth , Rom. 2 : 2. Such as He pronunceth Righteous , and absolveth from the sententence of the Law , as such , must be Righteous ; for to justifie the wicked is an abomination to the Lord , Prov. 17 : 15. And seing they are not , neither can be Righteous , in themselves , nor have a Righteousness of their own , which they can present to justice , and in which they can appear before God , who is a righteous Judge , they must needs have a righteousness from some other ; and this is a Surety-righteousness , the righteousness of the Mediator and Cautioner , Jesus Christ , Imputed to them , and received by faith : and being clothed with this noble rob of Rigteousness , with Christ , who is the Lord our Righteousness , and beareth this Name and Title , Ier. 23 : 6. And who is made of God unto us Righteousness . 1. Cor. 1 : 30. They may be looked upon as living indeed . In the Lord have they righteousness , and upon this account , in the Lord are they justified , and shall glory , Esai . 45 : 24 , 25. This is the Righteousness of God , without the Law , which is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets ; the righteousness of God , which is by faith of Iesus Christ , unto all , and upon all them that beleeve . Rom. 3 : 21 , 22. This is that faith , or object of faith , that was imputed to Abraham for righteousness , Rom. 4 : 3 , 5 , 9. And the righteousness , that God imputeth without works vers 6 , 11. This is the righteousness of faith , through which the promise is , vers 13. This is the righteousness , that shall be imputed to all , who beleeve on Him , that raised up Iesus our Lord from the deed . vers 24. This is the free gift by grace , which is by one man , Iesus Christ , that hath abounded unto many , Rom. 5 : 15. This is that aboundance of grace , and gift of righteousness , which beleevers receive , whereby they reigne in life , by one Iesus Christ , vers 17. And that righteousness of one ; by which the free gift come upon all beleevers , unto justification of life . vers 18. And the obedience of one , by which many are made righteous , vers 19. And that righteousness , through which grace reigneth unto eternal life by Iesus Christ , our Lord , vers 21. This is the righteousness of the Law , fulfilled in us , by Gods own Son , whom He sent in the likeness of sinful flesh , Rom. 8 : 2 , 3. This is Gods righteousness , to which the Jewes would not submit , but went about to establish their own righteousness : for Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that beleeveth , Rom. 10 : 3 , 4. It is that righteousness , which is of faith , which the Gentiles have attained , who followed not after righteousness ; & which Israel did not attaine to , though they followed after the Law of righteousness , because they sought it not by faith , but as it were by the works of the Law , for they stumbled at that stumbling stone , Rom. 9 : 30 , 31 , 32. By this are Believers made the righteousness of God in Him , who , though He knew no sin , yet was made sin for us . 2 Cor. 5 : 21. This is that righteousness , which is through the faith of Christ , the righteousness , which is of God by faith , Phil. 3 : 7 , 8 , 9. which Paul desired only to be found in , and that in opposition to his own righteousness , which is of the Law ; and for which he did account all things , which formerly were gaine to him , to be loss & dung . Now , what a noble life of faisty and Security is this , for a poor naked sinner , void of all righteousness , and thereby exposed to the lash of the Law , to the Curse and wrath of God , to be covered with a compleet and perfect righteousness , consisting in full satisfaction to all the demandes of the Law , both for doing and suffering ; with which the Self condemned sinner may now , with boldness and confidence , think of approaching unto , and appearing before the Tribunal of God ? who can express the Serenity of Soul , the inward peace calmness , and Quietness of mind , the Joy , Cheerfulness and Exulting of heart , that followeth here upon ? How is the Drooping , Sincking , Dead and discouraged Soul , that hath any sense or feeling of this , revived & quickened ? And how beit the sense of it be away ( as oft it happeneth ) yet the change , that is hereby made , when the Lord imputeth this righteousness of Christ , & causeth the Soul by faith to embrace it , and accept of it , is as a Resurrection from the dead . 5. They have , as a benefite , necessarily following upon , and inseparably accompanying this justification , the noble and rich privilege of Adoption : For to as many , as received Him , to them gave He power to become the Sones of God , Joh. 1 : 12. And all those , that are justified , receive Him and His righteousness , and rest upon it . Being thus redeemed from under the Law , they receive the Adoption of Sones , Gal. 4 : 5. And being justified by His grace , they are made heirs , according to the hop of eternal life , Tit. 3 : 7. And by this as their State is demonstrated to be a State of life ; so the many and exceeding great and rich , yea incomprehensibly glorius and excellent favours , Advantages , and Privileges , that lye in the womb of this comprehensive Privilege , shew their life to be an excellent life : for ( 1 ) Being thus adopted , they have a new Relation unto God , as their Father , and they are His Children , taken into His Family : they have His name put upon them , they are called by His name , or His name is called upon them , Ier. 14 : 9. Then is that word make good , 2 Cor. 6. 18. I will be a Father unto you , and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters , saith the Lord God Almighty . Then is He their God in a peculiar manner , and they are His People , Ier. 31. 1. Then have they written upon them the name of Christs God , and the name of the City of His God , and His own new name , in its earnest and beginnings , Revel . 3 : 12. O! what a life is here , to stand thus related unto the great God ? what an honourable life and Privilege is this , for such , who were by Nature Children of the Devil ! ( 2 ) Being thus Adopted , they have a Relation to all the Children of the Family , and are united unto them , as members of the same Familie , as Brethren or Sisters of the chosen Family . They are then among those , whom Christ hath gathered together in one , Ephes. 1 : 10. And belong to that Church , which is His Body , the fulness of Him , that filleth all in all , vers 22 , 23. They have a relation now unto the Church Triumphant , as well as to the Church Militant ; whence that is in part verified . Heb. 12 : 22 , 23. But ye are come unto Mount Zion , and unto the living God , the heavenly Ierusalem , & to an innumerable company of Angels ; to the General Assembly & Church of the first born , which are written in Heaven . They are no more Strangers and Forreigners but fellow-citizens with the Saints , and of the houshold of God , Ephes. 2 : 19. ( 3 ) Being by Adoption Children , they are heirs , heirs of God , and joint-heirs with Christ , Rom. 8 : 17. Gal. 4 : 7. They are now begotten to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled , and that fadeth not away , reserved in heaven for them . 1. Pet. 1 : 4. Hence they are heirs of Salvation , Heb. 1 : 14. Being Abrahams seed , they are heirs according to the promise , Gal. 3 : 29. & these promises they do inherite , Heb. 6. 12. What a life hath the Son and heire of a great King , when he may look upon the many great Dominions & Kingdomes of his Father , as his own ? But what a greater life is it , when a poor sinner , that is now adopted through faith , may look thorow all the great and precious promises , contained in the Book of God , and say all these are mine ; and may look up to Heaven , & to that glory , which eye hath never seen , nor ear heard , nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive , & say , all that is mine , through Jesus Christ I am served heire thereunto , & have the begun possion thereof , in mine Head & Elder Brother Jesus Christ ? ( 4. ) Being adopted , they have the earnest of the Spirit , sealing them to the day of Redemption : for in Christ they have obtained an inheritance , & are sealed with that holy Spirit of promise , which is the earnest of our inheritance , until the redemption of the purchased possession Ephes. 1 : 11 , 13 , 14. & 4 : 30. And who can express what a life this is ? ( 5 ) Being adopted , they have free access to the throne of Grace with boldness , God being their Father , the door standeth open , & they may approach with liberty , freedom , & filial Boldness ; for through Christ , they have an access by the Spirit unto the Father Ephes. 2 : 18. And in Him , they have boldness & access with Confidence , by the faith of Him Ephes. 3 : 12. They may now come boldly unto the throne of Grace , that they may obtaine mercy , & finde grace for help in time of need Heb. 4 : 16. By Him they have access by faith into the grace , wherein they stand Rom. 5 : 2. And here certainely is a life , the riches of the joy & Comfort whereof cannot be expressed . ( 6 ) Being adopted , they receive the Spirit of adoption , whereby they are delivered from that Spirit of Bondage , under which they were formerly ; & are now Principled , Spirited & ●mboldened to cry Abba , Father Rom. 8. 15 , That slavish fear , under which they some time were , is away , & they have now the reverential fear of Children , which doth not hinder , but encourage them to approach , with freedom & Enlargment of Spirit & now they have the Spirit of prayer & Supplication , whereby they can call on God , as their Father in Christ ; because they are Sones , God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son , into there hearts crying Abba , Father Gal. 4 : 6. What a resurrection from Death unto life is this , to have heart & tongue loosed , & to be in case to speak unto the Father , in the language of the Spirit through Jesus Christ ? ( 7. ) Being adopted , they have a right to all the Privileges of the Sones of God , & are under the Fatherly Care , Inspection , Provision , Protection , Leading , Teaching & Chastisement of their kind God & Father Psal. 103 : 13 : Prov. 3 : 11 , 12. & 14 : 26. Mat. 6 : 30 , 32. 1 Pet. 5 : 7. Heb. 12 : 6. And o ! what a bundle of Mercies of life is here ? The beleever may welcome all the Dispensations of God , & receive them , as out of the hand of a tender-hearted Father ; & say , Thus & thus doth my Father unto me ; this is the hand & working of a Father about me : This how sharpe so ever it seem to be , yet is the effect of tender love , & floweth from the heart & bowels of a kinde & compassionat Father to me . 6. Their justification saith , They are translated out of nature , & delivered from that death , under which they did lye formerly , unable to performe any , even the least , vital act of life : for before justification , they are united unto Christ by faith , life is begun in their soul , the seed of life is beginning to bud in them , & to bring forth fruit , when they are enabled to beleeve , & to act faith upon , & to receive Jesus Christ , as He is offered in the Gospel . The spiritual life is in them , & is working , when it moveth them Christ-ward , & powerfully draweth & inclineth their Soul , to close with Christ. This faith is the work of the Spirit of God alone ; It is not of our selves , but the gift of God Ephes. 2 : 8. This beleeving is according to the working of his mighty Power , which he wrought in Christ , when he raised him from the dead Ephes. 1 : 19 , 20. Therefore is the Spirit called , the Spirit of faith , which all beleevers have 2 Cor. 4 : 13. for now , in order to the effectual producing of this grace of faith in the Soul , their mindes are enlightened to understand Spiritually & Savingly , the things of God Act. 26 : 18. For God revealeth them unto them by His Spirit , who only knoweth the things of God ; which Spirit they have received , that they might know the things , that are freely given them of God 1 Cor. 2 : 10 , 11 , 12. Now they have received the Spirit of Wisdom & Revelation , in the knowledge of Him , the eyes of their understandings being enlightened Ephes. 1 : 17 , 18. And as their mindes are changed , so is their heart ; for the heart of stone is taken away , & the heart of flesh is given , according as was promised Ezek. 36 : 26. & their wills are renewed & inclined unto good : They have gotten the one heart , & the New Spirit , Ezek. 11 : 19. The Lord hath wrought in them both to will & to do Phil. 2 : 13. Their heart is circumcised to love the Lord , according as was promised Deut. 30 : 6. And the Lord hath put His Spirit in them Ezek. 26 : 27. & thereby hath drawn them unto Christ Ioh. 6 : 44 , 45. all which saith , that the life of God & of Grace is begun in their souls ; & the Spirit of life hath taken possession of them , & abideth there & worketh . These things cleare , how justly the justified soul may be said to live ; & in what respects , the justified state is a real state of life . CHAP. VI. What mysteries are in Justification . WHat was said in the foregoing Chapter may by way of use , First , discover unto us that Kindness and Love of God our Saviour , that hath appeared unto men , whereof the Apostle speaketh , Tit. 3 : 4. For this is one remarkable Instance thereof , and calleth for Admiration and praise from us , upon that account . O! what Tenderness , Love and Pity appeareth here ! And what a wonderful Grace is this , that is here manifested ? what condescension of Love and free Grace is clearly legible in this business ? And how clear and distinct will all this appear to a self condemned sinner , arraigned in its convinced Conscience , before the tribunal of God ; and then seeth , in the Gospel , a well contrived way of absolution , & closeth with it ? How will all this shine forth unto them with a heavenly Lustre and Majestie ? And how sweetly will their hearts acquiesce in this Sure and Saife way of obtaining life ? Secondly , This may discover unto us , what a manifold wisdom of God is to be seen & observed , in the Gospel dispensation , that even Principalities and powers may look into , and wonder at ; as it is said to be made known unto them , by the Church , Ephes. 3 : 10. That is , by what they see and observe , in the administration thereof , in the Church . And in this part of Gospel-device , there are several things remarkable , that may give us ground to wonder at this manifold Wisdom of God. The whole is a mysterie , and this is a prime part of the mysterie , and in this mysterie there are many mysteries , a short view of which may be of some use to us . 1. What a mysterious and wonderful thing is it , That such , as are dead by Law , lying under the sentence thereof , & so bound over to the wrath of God , according to the threatning of the Law , which is just and righteous in all points ; and such , as have nothing to defend themselves by from the threatned death , unto which they are obnoxious ; nor any thing , whereby to make Satisfaction to the demandes of the Law , or to the offended Law-maker , or where with to appease Him ; should notwithstanding hereof be Really , Formally and Effectually absolved from the sentence of the Law , by the sentence of the Judge ; and so made and declared to live juridically & in Law-sense ; and to be as free of the curse and penalty of the Law , as if they had never been guilty of the transgression thereof . And thus is it here indeed ; Such , as were dead in trespasses and sinnes , and in the uncircumcision of the flesh , are quickened together with Christ , Ephes. 2 : 1 , 5. Col. 2 : 13. He , who before had the wrath of God on him , and abiding on him , by beleeving on the Son of God , hath everlasting life , Ioh. 3 : 36. And they , who were in a manner condemned already , yet , by beleeving on Him , are not condemned , yea have eternal life , Ioh. 3 : 15 , 18. 2. What a mysterie is this , That God , who is righteous and just , and the righteous Judge of the World , and who hath declared , that he looketh upon it , as an abomination for any man to justifie the wicked Prov. 17 : 15. And whose judgement is alwayes according to truth . Rom. 2 : 2. Should be one that justifieth the Ungodly ? And yet so is He said to be , and so is He stiled , and so is He held forth , as the object of faith , Rom. 4. 5. But to him that worketh not , but beleeveth on Him , that justifieth the Ungodly , his faith is counted for righteousness , Papists & others , who will not suffer their Reason to follow Revelation , but will measure all the mysteries of the Gospel , by the corrupt rule of Reason ; and wiredraw those , according to the dictats of this , pretend an Inconsistency here ; and therefore will rather pervert the whole nature of Gospel-justification , than yeeld to the Spirits Revelation of the matter . Hence it is , that they say , a person cannot be justified by God , untill he be a Godly man , and have a Righteousness within him , upon the account of which he must be justified ; little adverting , That by their own principles it would follow , that no man should ever be justified : for , seing God is a God of righteousness , and it is a sure and certaine thing , that His judgment is alwayes according to truth , He could not absolve a Person as righteous , that were not perfectly righteous , and void of all sin ; & where is the man , ( not out of his wits ) that dar say this , remembering what David said , Psal. 130. 3. & 143. 2. But here lyeth the truth & the mystery . Such as are really and truely Ungodly in themselves , and have nothing of their own , but unrighteousness within them , and whose righteousnesses are but as filthy rags , Esai . 64 : 6. are yet justified by God upon the account of a perfect righteousness , imputed to them , & received by faith . In the judgment of God , such , as in themselves are Ungodly , are considered as clothed with the perfect righteousness of the Mediator , Christ , that Head & publik person , which free grace putteth on them , & they receive & stand under by faith ; and so are justified & declared to be righteous by God , whose judgment herein and sentence is most righteous , & most consonant to truth : for he justifieth such , as are righteous , though not with their own inherent righteousness , yet with the righteousness of their cautioner , now made theirs . 3. Here is another piece of this mystery , That Transgressours of the Law shall be Absolved and Justified ; & yet the Law established , which threatneth death to Transgressours , and promiseth life only to such , as observe it in all points . Who can reconcile this seeming Contradiction , that is not acquanted with the glorious mystery of the Gospel ? Paul , a man well acquanted with this mystery , tels us expresly , that the Gospel-way of justification , which he preached , and fully cleared in his Epistles , derogateth nothing from the Law , but establisheth it , Rom. 3 : 31. Where , after he had cleared & confirmed the Nature and Causes of Gospel-justification , & had said vers 30. that He was one God , who would justifie the circumcision ( or Jewes ) by faith , and the uncircumcision ( that is , the Gentiles ) through faith ; hy obv●ateth this objection , that some might have proposed , & said , What shall then become of the Law ? you make it void , by speaking of faith , & ascribing justification to it , as a mean , in opposition & contradiction to works : he answereth . Do we then make void the Law , through faith ? That be far from us , yea we establish the Law. So that there is nothing , in this Gospel justification , that weakeneth , or maketh void the Law ; but , on the contrary , it is thereby more fully confirmed and established : for , what the Law could not do , in that it was weak , through the flesh , God sending His own Son , in the likeness of sinful flesh , & for sin condemned sin in the flesh , that the righteouness of the Law might be fulfilled in us , Rom. 8 : 2 , 3. Here is then the mysterie , Transgressours of the Law are justified , upon the account of what their Mediator , and Surety , their publik person & Representer did & suffered , for Satisfaction to Law , Justice & the Law-giver ; & by what He did & suffered , the Law is more established , then it would have been by any thing that we did , or could suffer ; for He made Satisfaction to all its demands ; there was perfect obedience given thereunto , & its commands answered , in all points , by our Lord Jesus Christ , who knew no sin , nor was deceite found in His mouth , 2 Cor. 5 : 21. Esai . 53 : 9. And because it was violated by sinners , & the Curse threatned was due , therefore , He did also satisfie that demand , by dying the shameful death of the cross , & undergoing the wrath & curse , due to us for sin ; & thereby making a more perfect Satisfaction unto the Sanction and threatning part of the Law , than we could have done , by lying in hell for ever more . And by faith , closeing with Christ , & resting upon Him , as such a satisfying Cautioner & Redeemer , the sinner acknowledgeth the Law , in all its force , confessing himself a Transhressour , and obnoxious to the Curse ; & now presenting to the Law & Law-giver the obedience & Satisfaction of Christ , whereby both its commands & Sanction are fully answered ; & resting thereupon , as the only ground of his Absolution from the sentence of the Law for his guilt , and of his right to the Crown , which he formerly had forfeited . 4. Here is another mystery . That such , as are unrighteous , and Ungodly , should be declared and pronunced Righteous . In justification , the person is declared not guilty , of what was laid to his charge , in order to punishment , & that juridically ; and so he is declared free from the punishment , that the Accuser was seeking to have inflicted upon him ; and so is declared & pronunced to be a righteous man , though not one , that hath not sinneth , yet now one , that is juridically righteous , But how can this be , seing every man and woman is guilty before God , and is come short of the glory of God ? The mystery lyeth here ( as was said ) The righteousness of their Cautioner , Christ , is reckoned upon their score , and is imputed to them , & they receive it by faith , and so it becometh theirs ; for now by faith they are united unto Christ , & become members of His mystical body , He being the Head and true Representative ; & thereby He and they are one Person in Law , ( being one Spirit ) as the Husband and the Wife are one person in Law ( being one flesh ) and as the Representer and Represented , the Cautioner & principal debtor : and thus they have a true Interest in His Righteousness & obedience to the Law , which He yeelded , not upon His own account , being not obliged thereunto , antecedently to His own voluntary condescension for us ; for as to His person , He was God , and so not obnoxious to any such Law , imposed upon man , who is in the way to the obtaining of a Crown , as the end of his race : yea nor was this requisite , as to His humane Nature , which , by vertue of the personal union with the God-head was , as to it self , either in Patria , and in possession of the State of blessedness ; or in a capacity thereto , without working therefore : And it is certaine , that therefore His being made under the Law , was for His owne people , that , in their room , He might , in the Nature of Man , give perfect obedience to the Law ; and so make up a righteousness , with which they might all become clothed , by Imputation on Gods part , & by faith receiving it , on their part ; and so be justified . Hence-saith the Apostle , by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous , Rom. 5 : 19. And thus are they , who are unrighteous in themselves , being Transgressours of the Law , constituted righteous as to the Commands of the Law by the righteousness of their Cautioner . As also they are , though guilty in themselves & obnoxious to wrath , yet pronunced free , and absolved from that charge , by the Imputation of the Satisfaction of Christ , made in His sufferings , & death , who did bear our griefs , and carry our sorrowes , and was wounded for our transgressions , and bruised for our iniquities , the chastisement of our peace was upon Him , and with His stripes we are healed , Esai . 53 : 4 , 5. 1 Pet. 2 : 24. And his own self bear our sins , in His own body on the tree . 3. There is likewise a mystery here , That the Imputation of the obedience and Righteousness of Christ doth not take away the Imputation of His Satisfaction , nor make His Satisfaction useless & of no Importance , or necessity , as Socinians imagine , who cast the whole Gospel in the mould of their own corrupt Reason and understanding : For they think , if Christs Righteousness be imputed to us , we are perfectly righteous ; and if we be perfectly righteous , we have no sin ; & if we have no sin , there is no need of Satisfaction for our sin . But they little consider , that we are both guilty of the broken Law , and also nothwithstanding obliged to perfect obedience . It is unreasonable to think , that Adam , by his breach of the Law , was exeemed & delivered from any obligation to obey the Law ; sin doth not , neither can , dissolve that obligation ; otherwayes , the best way of being freed from the Lawes of God , or Man , were to break them , & cast them at our heels . We then being transgressours , & still under the obligation of obedience to the whole Law , our Mediator and Cautioner must not only obey the Law for us , to the end , we may inherite the promised reward ; but must also make Satisfaction , for the Violation of the Law , to the end we may escape Gods Curse & wrath , threatned in the Law , and due to us for the breach of the same . Had we perfectly kept the Law , we had then had no need of any Satisfaction for our breach thereof : but being guilty of sin , this Satisfaction and the Imputation thereof to us , is absolutely necessary . And though we need not nicely here distinguish betwixt this Righteouness & Satisfaction , in reference to the different ends ; and say , that by His Righteousness imputed to us , we have right to the Crown , & by His Satisfaction , freedom from death , which was the penalty of the broken Law : for God hath joined both together for both ends ; & what He hath thus joined together , as we should not separat , so neither may we nicely & scrupulously distinguish ; but adore the wonderful wisdom of God in this contrivance , and observing our necessity of both , sweetly acquiesce in and thankfully accept of both . But you will say , if we be perfectly righteous by the Imputation of Christs righteousness , what need have we of any more ? are we not possessed of right to the reward , and being righteous , are we not free of our sin ? I answer . It is true indeed , if we said , that Christs Righteousness , or compleet obedience , was first imputed to us ; or if the Scripture gave any ground to say so , there might be some coloure for this Exception : but , as the Scripture giveth no such ground ; so neither do we assert it : Only we have need of both , & both are graciously imputed , and received by faith : yea , we being sinners , if we might speak of an order here , Satisfaction must first be imputed , that thereby we may be freed from the sentence of the Law , which most presseth a wakened , convinced sinner , who is most anxious hereanent , crying out , How shall I escape the wrath and curse of God ? But , as the Lord hath graciously and wonderfully knit the effects together , so is the Cause . Both Christs obedience and Sufferings were so woven together , that they belonged both to , & made up His state of humiliation ; & by both imputed by God , and received by faith , the beleever receiveth the whole Effect , that is , both Immunity from punishment , & a Right to the reward promised to obedience , or to the Crown . As Christ , the Messias , made an end of sins , & made reconciliation for iniquity ; so He brought in an everlastingh righteousness , Dan. 9 : 24. And beleevers have the benefite of both ; for as they receive the grace of God , & the gift by grace , & aboundance of grace , and of the gift of righteousness ; so they shall reigne in life ; and grace through righteousness reigneth unto eternal life , Rom. 5 : 15 , 17 , 21. 5. Upon the other hand , this mystery is also observable . That Christs Satisfaction taketh not away the necessity of the Imputation of Christs Righteousness & obedience ; as some do say , who think , that because we have full pardon of all sinnes , by vertue of the Satisfaction of Christ ; therefore we need no more ; a person , who is pardoned , being therefore one , that is not unrighteous ; & one that is not unrighteous , being righteous , for ( say they ) there is no mids betwixt just , or righteous , and not unjust , or not unrighteous ; & he , who is righteous , having done all his duty , & so having a right to the promised reward of life . So that , upon this ground they suppose , there is need of no more , in order to obtaining of life : & beside , say they , the Scripture saith , that the man is blessed , to whom the Lord imputeth not sin ; & he , who is blessed upon this account , needeth no righteousness to be added , to render him blessed , and to give a right unto glory . But ( 1 ) we were ( as was said ) guilty of the breach of the Law , & so , liable to punishment , & were also under obligation , to give perfect obedience unto the Law ; Satisfaction therefore for our breach , & our pardon upon Satisfaction , faith not , that we have not broken the Law ; and if we have broken the Law , we cannot be said to have yeelded perfect obedience unto the Law , when God pardoneth upon a Satisfaction made , He doth not judge , or suppose , that the person pardoned hath perfectly kept the Law ; for His judgment is according to truth ; and the very pardon supposeth a Transgression ; and a Transgression taketh away perfect obedience ; as perfect obedience destroyeth or rendereth useless all pardon . Wherefore neither before God , nor man , can a person , meerly because of Pardon , be said , or be accounted to have all that was required . Upon Pardon , it is true , he is as much exeemed from the obligation to punishment , as if he had kept the whole Law ; but yet , by that pardon , he is not made , nor accounted to be one , who never broke the Law , & there upon hath a right unto the reward promised : As ( supposing for illustrations sake ) when a Prince maketh a Law , & commandeth such & such persons to obey the same , under the paine of death ; & with all promiseth to such , as observe the Law , and do what is commanded , that they shall enjoy a rich reward , & become heirs of a great Kingdom ; and the persons , after they have broken the Law and become guilty of death , are pardoned , upon the Interposition of some great person , & Satisfaction made by the same for the failure ; they cannot , upon the account of this Satisfaction , & their pardon thereupon , be said to have done what was commanded , nor to have right unto the reward , & to the Inheritance , promised to such , as obeyed the Law. ( 2 ) Therefore , though a person , that is pardoned , be one that is not unrighteous , that is , obnoxious to the penalty ; yet he is not one that is righteous positively , or in reference to the reward ; but only one that is negatively righteous ; that is , one that though he hath no right to the reward , yet he is not liable to the punishment : and therefore , though he be thus negatively not unrighteous , that is , one that is freed from the punishment ; yet he cannot be accounted one , that hath done all that was commanded ; & so he cannot be accounted Righteous , in reference to the reward . ( 3 ) So that there is a manifest mids betwixt being righteous , that is , one having a right to the reward , and being not unrighteous , that is , not obnoxious to the punishment , as is clear by the Instance of Adam , before his fall ; for during that time ( how long , or how short so ever it was ) he could not be said to be untighteous , because he had not yet sinned ; nor could he be said to be righteous , in reference to the reward , that was promised , on condition of perfect obedience to the end ; that is , such as had done all his duty : for if he had then done all his duty , or all that was required , in order to the reward , he had then had a full and compleat right to the reward of life promised , & God would have given it to him , according to the Covenant and Promise . But we know it was not so ; for he was to finish his course & run his race to the end , before he could have challenged a right to the promised inheritance ; and this he did not . So that before he fell by transgression , it might have been said of him , that he was not unrighteous , that is , that he was one , that had not yet transgressed , and deserved the punishment-threatned ; but he could not be said to have been fully & positively righteous , that is one , that had done all his duty ; and therefore had now a full & compleat right unto the reward . ( 4 ) It is true , the Scripture saith , that the man is blessed , to whom the Lord doth not impute sin : but it doth not say , That he is blessed , to whom the Lord only imputeth not sin , or to whom He giveth no more : nor doth the Scripture say , that this pardoning , or not imputing of sin , purely & abstractively considered , that is , considered alone without any more ( as it must be considered by such , as oppose us here ) is that compleat blessedness , whereof the Scripture speaketh . But the reason , why such are said to be blessed , to whom the Lord doth not impute sin , is , because Imputation of ●ighteousness is inseparebly annexed with non-imputation of sin : & therefore in that same place of Scripture ; to wit , Rom. 4. 6. It is said , that David Psal. 32 : 1 , 2. describeth the blessedness of the man , unto whom God imputeth righteousness , while he saith , blessed is the man , unto whom the Lord will not impute sin , &c. Whereby we see , that both these are so firmly connected by the Lord , that the one cleareth and confirmeth the other ; & that who ever hath the one , hath the other also ; and upon that account are blessed , enjoying the whole Effect of the Imputation of Christs whole Surety-righteousness : and these two , to wit , pardon of sins , and the Right to the Inheritance , flowing from the Imputation of Christs Satisfaction , & of His obedience , though they are never separated , yet they are distinguished , & spoken of distinctly in Scripture . It is one thing to be delivered from under the Law , & another thing to receive the Adoption of Sones , and the blessing of Abraham , Gal. 3 : 13 , 14. & 4 : 4 , 5. As it is one thing to finish the Transgression , to make an end of sin , & to make Reconciliation for iniquity ; & another thing to bring-in Everlasting Righteousness , Dan. 9 : 24. Yea , the redemption from the Law and from its curse is mentioned , as preceeding the other ; as the finishing of transgression is also mentioned before the bringing-in of Righteousness , in the passages cited . And thus , as these Effects are distinguished , though inseparable , so is the Cause . By the Imputation of Christs Satisfaction , we have pardon of sin , being redeemed from the curse of the Law , by His being made a curse for us , & by the Imputation of His Rigteousness , and obedience , we are looked upon as Righteous , & so have a right to the promise and Inheritance : Though we need not thus distinctly consider both , save only to demonstrat the necessity of the Imputation of both : for Christ by His death did also purchase the Inheritance for us ; and by His obedience made Satisfaction for sin , it being a piece of His Humiliation . So that both , in the deep wisdom of God , make up one cause of that one Effect , which comprehendeth all Blessedness ; that is , both pardon of sinnes and Right to the Inheritance , &c. By the Imputation of both , or of this compleat Surety-righteousness of Christ including both , beleevers are pardoned and adjudged unto life . Hence our pardon and justification are often ascribed unto Christs death , not as distinctly considered , or as excluding His Righteousness & obedience ; but , among other reasons , because that was the compleating Act of His obedience ; and to which all the rest preceeding had a respect , as to that , which should compleat the whole Meritorious part of His Mediation . And hereby His obedience can no more be excluded , than His foregoing soul-sufferings . Nay His death did presuppose and include His obedience ; for it was the death of one , who had perfectly obeyed the Law ; which death & obedience , being His Mediatory work in the state of His Humiliation , was a compleat Righteousness , for the blessedness & advantage of all those , for whom He appeared , & whose debt He undertook to pay . ( 5. ) That the obedience of Christ must also be imputed to sinners , is manifest from this , That otherwise they should have no Righteousness at all imputed to them , that properly can be called a Righteousness : for if nothing but that , which is commonly called Christs passive obedience , or His Sufferings , be imputed , there can no Righteousness be said to be imputed ; for dying and suffering the penalty , as such , are no righteousness ; being no obedience to the commands of the Law , in conformity to which consisteth proper Righteousness : as when one dieth for his crime of Murther , he cannot be said to be thereby a righteous man , or to have obeyed the Law , forbidding Murther , nor can we be said properly to have obeyed the Law , when Christ in our room did suffer the penalty of death , due to us for the breach of it . They who are in hell , suffering the vengeance of eternal fire , cannot be said to be obeying the Law. It is true , Christ in dying did obey a command , Imposed upon Him by the Father ; but that was no command of the Moral Law , prescribed unto man : & thereafter in dying & Suffering , He gave no obedience to that Law , under the obligation to which we were standing ; no more than He can be said to have Suffered the penalty , while He was obeying the Law ; these two being so manifestly different . So that it is clear , that if Christs obedience be not imputed to us , no proper Righteousness is , or can be said to be imputed to us . Yea ( 6 ) If Christs obedience be not imputed to us , that Law , which saith , do this and live , is not fulfilled ; but rather abrogated & quite abolished : and it must be said , that not withstanding of that constitution of Gods , we live , though we neither do this ; nor is our Cautioners doing of it imputed to us . And so we have a right to the Reward , & get it at lenght , without the Righteousness required in order thereunto . Let us therefore admire the harmonious perfection of this Effect , & Work of infinite wisdom . I know several things are objected against this Truth , as there are many other grounds & Reasons adduced for the same ; but these I shall speak to at more length afterward . 7. This is also a mysterie here to be noticed , That a Righteousness , that is not ours inherently , but Christs , should be made ours , made over to us , & reckoned upon our score , or we become clothed therewith , & there upon justified as Righteous , as really & effectually , as if we had wrought it our selves , and it had been properly inherent in us . Socinians , Papists , Arminians & others , who will not subject their reason unto this mystery , and give credite to Revelation , will acknowledge no such imputation of Righteousness : but at most do grant but an improper imputation ; that is an imputation as to Effects : so that with them , Christ neither Suffered , nor obeyed , in our stead & room ; but only for our good & advantage ; & that too conditionally only , in case , we beleeve and performe the Gospel-condition . But this imputation as to Effects only , is no imputation at all , there being no thing thereby Imputed ; not the Righteousness of Christ it self ; for this they expresly deny ; nor yet the Effects themselves , for we no where read of Imputed Justification , Adoption , Pardon &c. which are the Effects . Yea , it is not enough to them to deny this Imputed Righteousness ; but in contempt & scorne , they call that , which we name an Imputed Righteousness , a putative Righteousness , as if it were a meer imaginary thing . But whatever such in decision think or say , the Gospel holdeth forth to us a Righteousness imputed , or the Righteousness of Christ , graciously bestowed upon & made over to belevers , or freely given unto them , so that they are dealt with by God , as Righteous Juridically & legally , or as possessours of such a compleat & perfect Righteousness , & that as really , & to all Effects , as if it had been their own inherently , & performed by them , & so had been theirs without any such Imputation . And because this , as the cause , is imputed to them & made theirs ; therefore all the Effects thereof shall really & certainely be bestowed upon them , in God's appointed time & methode . This is the Truth , which the Gospel holdeth forth , to the solide peace , joy & comfort of Beleevers ; the full clearing & vindicating of which would require a just Treatise . I shall therefore here propose but a few clear & manifest Grounds of this refreshful & comfortable truth , leaving the further prosecution & vindication of them , & of other arguments , that are used in this matter , with the examination of what is objected on the contrary , till afterward . First therefore , we say , as Christ , who knew no sin , was made sin ; that is ; had the sinnes of His people laid upon Him , & imputed to Him ; so that they were all caused to meet together on Him Esai . 53 : 6. & He therefore was made a Sacrifice for sin , or dealt with & punished , as a sinner , though no sinner inherently , but only by Imputation , for He did bear our griefs , & carried our sorrowes , & was wounded for our transgressions , & bruised for our iniquities , Esai . 53 : 4 , 5. to wit , now imputed to Him by God , & reckoned upon His account , who knew no sin in Himself inherently : So are we made the Righteousness of God in Him 2 Cor. 5 : 21. that is , have His Righteousness , who is God , imputed to us , who were in our selves & inherently sinners ; & being in Him by faith are dealt with as Righteous . The manifest scope of the place , & the plaine Import of the word , must enforce this truth , on all , who are not more than ordinarily blinded with prejudice . Secondly as Adam's posterity , who were not existing , when he transgressed the Law of God , but were only in his loines , & federally comprehended with him , in that covenant , by God's voluntary disignation & appointment ; & so did not actually , & really eat that fruit , which Adam did eat ; yet have that sin & guilt so imputed unto them , that it is really accounted theirs ; & not meerly in its Effects , for its Effects are not truely Imputed , neither can be saied to be so ; for that natural contagion & corruption of Nature , which is truely propagated to the posterity , & all actuall trangressions , the fruits thereof , cannot be said to be imputed , because they are really theirs , & inherent in them . But that original sin , which is the guilt of Adam's first sin , is only it , which can be imputed ( unless we mean such an Imputation , whereby our actual sinnes , which we commit , are said to be imputed to us , when they are laid to our charge , & we actually punished therefore ) to them , who did not actually commit it , in their own person ; & by vertue of this Imputation , they are accounted guilty of that self same sin ; & therefore are dealt with & punished , upon the account thereof , no less than if they had actually committed it themselves , in their own persons ; & no less than Adam himselfs was punished therefore . So are Beleevers , being by faith united unto Christ , & made real members of His mystical body , & now interessed in Him , as His Children & Brethren , made partakers of His Righteousness , & have it imputed unto them , for all ends & uses , as if it had been their own , without any Imputation . The reading of the Apostles discourse Rom. 5. from vers 12. & forward to the end , may satisfy any as to this whole affaire , who will yeeld themselves captives unto Truth : for upon this doth the Apostle found His whole discourse & explication of the rich advantages , had by Christ & His Righteousness , clearing , & illustrating the same by that similitude of Adam , whom He expresly calleth the figure of Him , that was to come vers 14. & so asserteth , that as by one man sin entered into the world , & death by sin , & so death passed upon all , be●ause all did sinne ; so by one man , Jesus Christ , the second Adam , righteousness ontered into the world , & life by it , & so life passed upon all , that were in Him , because they are righteous in Him , or have His righteousness imputed unto them . Nay , in the following verses , the matter is cleared with an advantage unto Beleevers in Christ. But ( saith he vers 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19. ) not as the offence , so also is the free gift ; for if through the offence of one , many be dead ; much more the grace of God , & the gift by grace , by one man Iesus Christ , hath abounded unto many , &c. And so he goeth on to shew what & how great things beleevers receive from Christ , with no less , Yea rather with much more of a certainety , than the Posterity of Adam were interessed in what he did : and therefore , as judgment was by one to condemnation ; ( saith he ) so the free gift is of many offences unto justification ; & if by one mans offence , death reigned by one , much more they who beleeve or receive aboundance of grace , & of the gift of righteousness , shall reigne in life by one Iesus Christ. And as the offence of one Adam was imputed unto all , & thereby guilt & judgment came upon all , making them liable to condemnation : So by the righteousness of one Jesus Christ , imputed to all , that receive this aboundance of grace & of the gift of righteouseess , the free gift of justification cometh unto them , reconciling them to God , & instating them for life . And the ground & reason of this is laid down vers 19. for as by one mans disobedience , many were made sinners ; & so were guilty , & made liable to judgment & condemnation ; So by the obedience of one , that perfect obedience to the Law , that Christ performed , opposite to Adam's transgression & disobedience , shall many be made righteous , that is , constituted righteous ; & therefore dealt with as such , through this imputed righteousness ; & so justified & made heirs of life : for vers 21. he addeth as sin hath reigned unto death , even so grace must reigne , through righteousness , unto eternal life , by Iesus Christ , our Lord. They then , who will deny , or oppose themselves unto this Imputation of Christ's righteousness , must do manifest violence unto the whole discourse of the Apostle , in this place . Thirly . Hence another evidencing ground of this imputation : for as what is done by a publick person , representing others , whether upon one ground , & after one manner , or another , is accounted legally to be done by those , who are represented , & they are dealt with accordingly , as Adam was a publick person , representing all his posterity , that were to come of him by ordinary generation , according to the ordination & appointment of God : So Christ , of whom Adam was a figure , was a publick person , representing all , whom the Father had given to Him , & for whom He had undertaken , & for whose sake He sanctified Himself Ioh. 17 , 19. & become their Brother taking on their Nature . Heb. 2 : 11 , 14. & becoming like them in all things , sin only excepted Heb. 2 : 17. comp : with Heb. 3 : 15. Therefore He took not upon Him the Nature of Angels , but the seed of Abraham Heb. 2 : 16. & He was the Captaine of their Salvation , vers 10. He is also made & called the Head of the Church , which is , His body & fulness Ephes 1 : 22 , 23. & 5 : 23. Col. 1 : 18. and so He with His Church make up one mystical body , whereof He is the Head , & Beleevers are members ; Thus there is a closs & mystical union betwixt Christ & Beleevers ; beyond any union , that is in Nature , whether it be that of Head & members , of Root & Branches , of King & Subjects , or of that betwixt Husband & wife , for all these are but dark resemblances of this Spiritual Union betwixt Christ & Beleevers , which is therefore compared unto these , & in part explained thereby , for our better understanding of the matter : but none of them , nor all of them do fully unfold the mystery . And in it there is ground enough to suppose , Christ to be a publick person & a Representative ; as also for asserting of this Imputation ; because Beleevers being thus united unto Christ , are made partakers of His righteousness , & of what He , as Head & Husband , did & suffered , in their room & place ; & they thereupon are blessed with all the fruits & effects thereof . Fourthly His being called a Surety Heb. 7 : 22. doth also give ground & confirmation unto this Imputation : for as He who becometh Surety for another , undertaketh to do or suffer , what he , for whom he is Surety , was obliged to do , or suffer : As when Paul became Surety for Onesimus ; & bound himself , as such , unto Philemon , he would have Philemon , requiring all , that Onesimus was due to him , at his hand , & reckoned upon his score ; & he undertook to satisfie him for this debt , or for what he could crave of Onesimus ; as we see Philem. vers 18 , 19. If he hath wronged thee , or oweth thee ought , put that upon mine account , I Paul have written it with mine own hand , I will repay it . So what the cautioner doth , or suffereth , as such , or according to his undertaking , is reckoned upon the score of the Principul debtor ; as Paul's paying of what Onesimus & imputed to was endue te Philemon , was to be reckoned on the score of Onesimus , him , that he thereby might be freed from all pursuite of Law , or action against him , at the Instance of Philemon . Wherefore as Christ , becoming Surety for His Children , & saying to the Father , Lo , I come , in the volumne of they book it is written of me , I delight to do thy will ; ô God Psal. 40 : 7 , 8. Heb. 10. 7. did take upon Himself the debt of sinners , & engaged to pay all ; that is , both to give perfect Obedience to the Law , & fulfill all Righteousness , Mat. 3 : 15. as also to pay the penalty , to make Satisfaction to Justice , by becoming a Curse , & suffering Griefs , Sorrowes , Bruisings , Mockings , & the cursed death of the Cross : for all this He did willingly & cheerfully . I have ( said He ) a baptisme to be baptized with , ( meaning His death ) & how am I straitened ( or pained ) untill it be accomplished Luk. 12 : 50. He laid down His life , that He might take it againe ; & no man took His life from Him , against His will ; but He laid it down of His own accord Ioh. 10 : 17 , 18. And as Christ did really & actually performe all , that He did undertake , so that He said upon the Cross , it is finished : It must of necessity follow , that all they , for whom He became Surety , & undertook to do & suffer what was laid upon Him , must have that Imputed , & made over unto them , & they must be clothed with that rob of Righteousness , which He did make for them , & must appear before the throne of justice clothed therewith . Fiftly Christ's making proper & full Satisfaction to the Father , in the Name & room of His people , saith also , That there is an Imputation of Christ's Righteousness unto them , for whom He performed that Righteousness ; as His Satifaction must be for them . So that if Imputation be denied , Satisfaction also must be denied . Hence the Socinians wickedly deny both : & indeed , who ever deny the one , must also deny the other , or not speak consequentially ; for when one laith down a satisfactory price for another , it must be reckoned upon the score of & imputed to that other ; to the end , he may be dealt with , as if he had laid it down himself ; & thereby be freed from what otherwayes he must have undergone : & if upon the account of that Satisfaction , he be not so freed , it cannot be called a Satisfaction for him . When Christ laith dwon his life for His sheep , His sheep must not dye & perish ; for if they perish , He did not die for them ; & if they perish not because of His dying for them , His death must be imputed to them ; & upon the account of it they must be saved So that Christ's dying for His own is dying in their Room , Person , place & Stead , as the particle for manifestly importeth 2 Sam. 18 : 33. Gen. 44 : 33. Numb . 3 : 12. Rom. 5 : 6 , 7. Hence His Ransome is expresly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 1 Tim. 2 : 6. Many moe arguments might be here adduced , for confirmation of this Truth ; but I shall satisfy my self at present , with these few & plaine ones ; & so proceed . 8. This Mystery is also considerable here , That both the justice of God , the Mercy & free Grace of God , take place in this matter . Socinians cry up the Mercy & free Grace of God , in the matter if justification : but it is to this end , that they may , with more desperat confidence , shut out the Justice of God , so as it may have no place there : & therefore they deny all Satisfaction , Redemption & Atonement &c. ( except what is meerly metaphorical ) because they cannot see , how justice & mercy both can with joint hands concurre to our justification . But the Apostle , better taught than they , & better acquainted with the mind of Christ , in this Mystery , than they are , seeth no Inconsistency ; But rather declareth the sweet & & perfect harmony & concurrence of these , in this mystery ; telling us Rom. 3 : 24 , 25 , 26. That we are justified freely by His grace ; & yet addeth , through the redemption , that is in Iesus Christ , whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation , through faith in His bloud , to declare His righteonsness , &c. And againe , to declare His righteousness , that He might be just , & the justifier , of him , which beleeveth in Iesus . Here is a free grace triumphing ; & yet Justifice declared and manifested ; God declared to be just , and His righteousness manifested ; & yet sinners and beleevers justified freely by grace . So Eph. 1 : 7 , 8. There is a Redemption through the price of bloud ; & yet a free pardon of sinnes , according to the riches of Gods grace , wherein He hath abounded towards us , in all wisdome & prudence . But if it be enquired , wherein appeare to this mercy and freedom of grace , in our justification , seing there was a Satisfaction made to justice , for all the sinnes of His peaple ? I answer , ( 1 ) was it not an Act of wonderful free grace & mercy , that , when the Lord might have executed the sentence of the Law upon us , according to that threatning , that day thou eats , thou shalt die ; and so have made us , sinners , who transgressed the Law , to die and suffer ; yet He would accept of a Satisfaction , at the hands of a Surety & Cautioner ? ( 2 ) Was it not Act of grace & mercy to us , that He himself would provide a Surety and put His name in our obligation ; & so make Him sin for us , who know no sin , & lay all our iniquities upon Him , that He might bear the punishment , due to us for the same ? See Ioh. 3 : 16. ( 3 ) Was it no Act of Soveraigne grace & mercy , that God should both provide a Mediator & Surety for us , & accept of His Mediation and Satisfaction , most freely , out of free Grace and Love , when we neither had done , nor could do any thing to move Him hereunto , or to procure this at His hands ; yea , when all our carriage , & all that He could see in us , did rather cry aloud for the contrary dealing ? ( 4 ) Was it no Act of Soveraigne Grace , that God should provide all this remedie for a few , whom He did choose for Him self out of free Grace and Love , and gave away to Christ , to bee redeemed by Him , leaving the rest , & passing them by , though no more unworthy , than such , as were chosen ? ( 5 ) Is it no Act of grace & mercy , that in order to this great favour of justification , no more should be required on our part , than faith in Jesus Christ ; seing this very faith , including an Union with and a marriag-consent unto Christ , is , in it self , a favour nothing , in a manner , inferiour to the pardon of all our sinnes , & to the accepting of us as Righteous , in His sight ? ( 6 ) Is justification no Act of grace and mercy , though it be upon the account of the obedience and Satisfaction of Christ ; when that very faith , which is only required of us , in order to our full interest in Christ & His merites , is also the free gift of God , Ephes. 2 : 8 ? If these particulars will not aboundantly say that we are saved in justification by grace , & by the exceeding riches of Gods grace & kindness towards us , through Christ Jesus , according to Ephes. 2 : 7. what will ! 9. Here is a great and wonderful mystery , in this matter , That the Innocent should suffer , and the guilty escape & go free . The Socinians , that they may strengthen them selves in their mischievous prejudices against the Satisfaction of Christ , imagine an Impossibility here , & an Inconsistency with Justice , that an Innocent person should be put to suffer . But what ever they dream , who will walk in these mysterious matters by no other guide , than the dim light of corrupt nature , it comporteth aboundantly with Justice , that the Surety be put to pay what he hath undertaken to pay , for the principal debtor . And here was no wrong done to our Surety , Jesus Christ , who willingly undertook this debt , and was lord of His own life , having absolute power to lay it down , and power to take it up againe , and to raise him self from the dead ; & knowing withall , how richly to compensate & make up that loss another way , so as He should be no loser , when He should see His Seed , and receive the rich reward of His laboures from the Father , whose Servant He was , in this affaire . Here is then a mystery of wisdom , Grace and Love , that the Innocent Lamb of God , who knew no sin , who did no violence , nor was guile found in his mouth , 2 Cor. ● : 21. Esai . 53 : 9. Who ; when He was reviled , reviled not againe . 1 Pet. 2 : 22 , 23. Who was Holy , harmless , undesiled and separat from sinners , Heb. 7 : 26. That He should be made sin by God , 2 Cor. 5 : 21. And so legally guilty , & obnoxious to the punishment due for sin ; that He should be made an High Priest to offer up Him self a sacrifice for sin , Heb. 9 : 14 , 28. That He should bear our grieves , & carry our sorrowes ▪ and be wounded for our Transgressions , and bruised for our Iniquities ; that the punishment of our peace should be upon Him ; & He should stripes , & be oppressed & afflicted , and be cutt off out of the Land of the living ; have strokes upon Him , & make His grave with the wicked ; be bruised & be put to griefe , and make His soul an offering for sin . Esai , 53 : 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. That he , who could not be charged with sin , should yet be put to suffer most grieveous torments , immediatly in his soul , Mat. 26 : 37 , 38. & 27 : 46. Luk. 22 : 44 Ioh. 12 : 27. And paines in his body , Mat. 26. & 27. Chapters . That He should die , and that He should die the Shamful , Painful , and cursed death of the Cross , Gal. 3 : 13. Phil. 2. 8. And , upon the other hand , that we , who were the sinners , and guilty , and so obnoxious to all the miseries of this life , to death it self , and to the paines of hell and wrath of God for ever , should escape , and be healed by His stripes , Esai . 53 : 5. 1 Pet 2 : 24. & become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5 : 21. And be justified and made heirs of the promises ; O! what an unsearchable mystery of Love and free grace shineth forth here ? 10. This is also a Part of this Mystery , That nothing should be forgiven , & yet all should be forgiven . Nothing was forgiven to our Surety , He paid all that was required of Him ; for the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all . He gave full obedience to the Law , in all its demandes , & made a perfect & compleat Satisfaction for our Offences ; so that the Father was well pleased in Him ; & the same was at two several times declared , & expressed out of heaven ; once at His Baptisme , Mat. 3 : 17. & againe at His Transfiguration , Mat. 17 : 5. The sword of Justice was awakened against Him , though He was Gods fellow , Zech. 13 : 7. And did abate Him nothing of what was due . The Lord Jesus gave him self for us , an offering and a Sacrifie to God , for a sweet smelling savour , Ephes. 5 : 2. He is a perfect High Priest , continueing for ever , having an unchangable Priest-hood , and therefore is able to save them to the uttermost , that come unto God by Him ; for He needeth not daily as the High Priests under the Law to offer up Sacrifie first for His own sinnes , & then for the People ; for this He did once , when He offered up Himself : for the word of the Oath maketh Him a Priest , who is consecrated for ever more , Heb. 7 : 24 , 25 , 26 , 27. And yet , though He had nothing forgiven or abated to Him , while standing in our room , but paid all to the outmost farthing ; all notwithstanding is freely forgiven to us , and we have blessedness , by the Lords forgiving our Iniquities , & covering our sins , or not imputing them to us , Psal. 32 : 1 , 2. Rom. 4 : 7 , 8. Our Redemption is forgiveness of sinnes Ephes. 1 : 7. Col. 1 : 14. And all sinnes must be forgiven to us , or our Redemption should not be perfect , nor we saved ; for one sin would ruine us for ever ; because if the Lord should mark iniquity , & enter in to judgment , no man should stand , & no flesh should be justified Psal. 130 : 3. & 143 : 2. 11. Here is another Mystery , considerable in our justification , That though thereby we be declared & pronounced righteous , & so acquite & absolved from what was , or might be charged upon us ; Yet we have need of Pardor , & must be freely pardoned . Socinians cannot or will not 〈◊〉 Conexion , that Infinite Wisdom hath made here ; & therefore make use of forgiveness & free pardon of sinnes , as an Argument , wherewith to fight against true Gospel justification , or the justification of a sinner upon the account of the Imputed Righteousness of Christ ; & against the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to this end , that the sinner may be absolved & pronounced righteous , & accepted as such . But the Scripture seeth no Inconsistenry or Repugnancy here , but an harmonious & sweet accord betwixt the Lord's causing people their iniquities passe from them , & His clothing them with change of raiment Zach. 3 : 4. And the Apostle joineth both , as inseparable ; yea he declareth the necessity of both , saying Rom. 3 : 21 , 22. That now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested — even the righteousness of God , which is by faith of Iesus Christ , unto all , & upon all them that beleeve . where upon it followeth , vers 24. that they are freely justified by His grace . But then , what need is there of Remission ? might one say : doth not this quite take away all Remission ? No ; for he addeth vers 24 , 25. through the redemption , that is in Iesus Christ , whom God hath setforth to be a propitiation , through faith in His bloud , to declare His righteousness for the remission of sinnes , that are past . Yea , the forgiveness of sinnes establisheth & confirmeth the Imputation of righteousness , where by we are justified ; for thus speaketh the Apostle Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man , unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works , saying , blessed are they , whose iniquities are forgiven , & whose sinnes are covered ; blessed is the man , unto whom the Lord will not impute sin . Where we see , that non-imputation of sins is so far from shutting out Imputation of Righteousness , that it confirmeth it , & proveth it , & is in separable from it , & must necessarily presuppose it : for we , being sinners , can have no Absolution , untill the Satisfaction of Christ be applied to us , & made ours by Imputation : & where this is imputed by God , the soul must be absolved from all that can be laid to its charge . Therefore in justification , as we are declared righteous , by reason of the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us & received by faith ; so have we thereby a full remission of all our sinnes . Paul tels us 2 Cor. 5 : 19. That God was in Christ , reconciling the world unto himself , not imputing their trespasses unto them . And what giveth he for the ground of this ? See vers 21. for ) saith he ) He hath made Him to be sin for us , who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. 12. It is also observable in this mysterious business , That though our jestification be an act of God's free grace , wherein , only upon the account of the Righteousness of Christ Imputed to us by God ; & not upon the account of any thing in us , or done by us , He pardoneth our sins & accepteth our persons as righteous : Yet this is not with an exclusion , bur rather with an Inclusion of faith , which is a Receiving , a laying hold upon , & a Leaning unto the righteousness of Christ , imputed to us , So●inians & others are utter strangers unto this mystery ; & make use of their wit here , to plead against the imputation of Christ's Righteousness , the onely ground of our justification ; because faith is required of us , in order to our justification , and 〈◊〉 ( as they say ) it self 〈◊〉 to us as our Righteousneis ; upon the account of which we are justified . They suppose , that if Christ's Righteousness be imputed to a person , & he thereupon acquite & pardoned of all his sinnes , that person must be righteous , pardoned & Justified , whether he beleeve , or not ; & the Righteousness of Christ must be his , before he beleeve , But , leaving the debating of that Question , whether faith properly taken , that is , as our act , done in obedience to the command of God , be Imputed to us , as our righteousness ? untill we come to the next part of the words . I shall only now say , as to the other thing here alleiged , That they , as ignorant of the Gospel , feigne an opposition in things , among which the Gospel pointeth forth to us a perpetual & harmonious agreement ; & upon the other hand , they will patch up a reconciliation & agreement betwixt those things , which the Gospel setteth at perfect Opposition & variance : for Paul , better acquainted with the Gospel , & with the nature of Gospel-justification , than they , tels us , yea he proveth it by many Arguments , That by the deeds of the Law , there shall no flesh be-justified ; & consequently , not by faith , as one deed or work of the Law. And he maketh mention of the righteousness of God without the Law ; & saith , that that righteousness of God is imputed to & upon all them , that beleeve . And notwithstanding of this ; he tels us , that this Righteousness is by faith of Iesus Christ , & imputed to all that beleeve , exclusive of others Rom. 3 : 20 , 21 , 22. And againe he tels us , that as we are justified freely by bis grace ; yet it is through the Redemption , that is in Iesus Christ , whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation , through faith in His bloud vers 24 , 25. And againe vers 26 : as God is declared in this matter to be just ; so is he the justifier of him only , that beleeveth in Iesus . Moreover vers . 27. he mentioneth the Law of faith , as opposite to the Law of works , in that it excludeth boasting ; & concludeth againe vers 28. That a man is justified by faith , without the deeds of the Law , and vers 30. that God justifieth by faith & through faith . Yet we never hear , that he faith , we are justified for faith or upon the account of faith . Further , That faith is required , in order to justification , is clear from Rom. 9 : 31 , 32. where it is said , that Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness , hath not attained to the Law of righteousness , because they sought it not by faith , but as it were by the works of the Law. This also is fully proved by the same Apostle , in this Epistle to the Galatians , knowing ( saithe he Chap. 2 : 16. ) that a man is not justified by the works of the Law , but by the faith of iesus Christ ; even we have beleeved in Iesus Christ , that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. And to pointe forth this Interest of faith ; & yet not as imputed for our righteousness ; when properly taken , the same Apostle Phil. 3 : 9. calleth that righteousness , which he opposeth unto his own righteousness , which is of the Law , a righteousness , which is through the faith of Christ , & the righteousness which is of God by faith . By all which , & many other passages mentioning our justification by faith , which might be cited , we see that the Lord hath so ordered the matter , that faith should have an Interest in justification as an Instrumental cause , or some such thing ( for to contend about words , is not much to edification ) as may fully denote & pointe forth the Emphasis of the Scripture expressions herein ; such as are to be found Rom. 3 : 22 , 28 , 30. & in other places now cited ; and that because faith carrieth a poor convicted & self-condemned sinner out of himself , to seek a righteousness in Christ , in & upon the acount of which , he may be accepted of God & justified : & so bringeth him to close with Christ & to accept of His righteousness , & put it on , that he may appear in it before God , & so receive the Atonement & abundance of grace and & of the gift of righteousness Rom. 5 : 11 , 17. And albest it may satisfie us to know , that so the Lord God hath ordained it , that the self-condemned sinner should flee to the Righteousness of Christ , held forth in the Gospel , lay hold on it , & lean to it , thereby he may attaine Justification and Remission , without enquireing after reasons of this Contrivance : Yet we may clearly see the wisdom of God shining forth , in this appointed way of justification : for the sinner is hereby brought to swear ( as it were ) himself bare , to renounce all in himself , to declare & profess himself a plaine bankrupt ; and so to despare in himself ; that the riches of the free grace of God , & everlasting love may shine forth in him , in a more divine lustre , & in a singular heavenly beauty : & hereby all ground of pride , boasting , or glorying in himself is taken away ; & the sinner is made to see & to subscribe unto the glorious wisdom , that then appeareth in that contrivance , & to wonder ; as also to see his everlasting obligation unto the Lord contriver , & to the Lord Ransomer . So is he made to see the perfect ground of security & saifty in this way , when he seeth , that , in order to his partaking of the great blessings & favoures , his soul longeth for , he must first be united unto Jesus Christ himself , & married unto Him , in a perpetual marriage-Covenant , that shall never be dissolved . And he winneth hereby to a sure ground of peace & Tranquillity of soul , when he seeth , that it is nothing in himself , that is taken , as Satisfaction to the Infinite justice of God ; but the Righteousness of Christ who is God & Man in one person ; & so a perfect & Infinite Righteousness , able fully to repare the breach made , & to make Satisfaction for the wrong done to the Infinite God. So that upon this ground , he may boast & glory in the Lord alone , & triumph over all assaults & Temptations of Satan . Hereby then as the Lord hath consulted His own glory ; for the sinner , fleing to the Righteousness of Christ , as his only refuge , & resting there , doth proclame God to be Holy , Just , Righteous , Gracious & only Wise ; so he hath consulted the saifty , Peac , joy , & Confidence of His own . The consideration whereof should make us comply sweetly with this noble contrivance ; & in stead of disputing against it , or ourselves out of it , acquiesce with all our heart in it , & rest there . 13. We may observe further another mystery , in this matter of justification to wit. That the way of justification , through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ , doth not take away the necessity & Usefulness of the Exercise of the Grace of Repentance . Socinians & others , who follow their footsteps , can observe no harmony here , & cry-out against the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , because ( as they suppose ) it 〈◊〉 the Use and Necessity of Repentance , and enervateth all the commands enjoining it . But ( 1 ) This mistake must certainly flow from a misconception of the true Nature Use & ends of Gospel-repentance , for they must of necessity Suppose , that Gospel-Repentance is required for the same Ends & Uses , for which the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is required ; otherwise they could not think , that the asserting of the one should tend to the justling out of the other . But whatever they imagine , we assert no such thing ; but affirme . That Christ hath purchased the whole of our Remission : and Repentance , whatever Papists say , hath no interest herein ; nor hath it any merite with-it , whether ex condigno , or ex congruo , to procure Remission , & the Favoure of God , or Reconciliation with Him ; but it is only required in its own place , to accompany faith , & to follow upon it , as a sutable & profitable exercise for sinners , advanced to such high favoures & Privileges . And the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , can no more prejudge the exercise of this grace , than of any other Gospel-Grace , or duty , such as Love , Fear , Hop , prayer , Patience &c. but rather incite & encourage to it ( 2. ) what was formerly said of faith & its harmonious agreement with the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , will sufficiently also clear & confirme this : for if the Adversaries speak of legal Repentance , the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness will no more take that away , than faith , for it preceedeth faith , whereby the sinner laith hold on Christ. And if they speak of Gospel Repentance ( which is more to the purpose ) they must know , that though in its Exercise ( at least in its remarkakle exercise ) it doth follow faith , and in order of Nature is posteriour to it ; Yet it is inseparably-connected therewith ; so that where faith is , there is & must also be Repentance , at least , in its root & begun exercise : for a sinner cannot rightly accept of & close with Christ , as offered in the Gospel , for Gospel ends , & in a Gospel manner , & according to the call of the Gospel , but withall he must have a sight & sense of his sins , & a hatred thereof , as also a purpose firme & fixed , to turn from them unto God , as also an Endeavour after new obedience . Yea , we finde sometimes , Repentance pressed , as including faith in it ; as when pressed in order to pardon & acceptance with God : Sometimes againe it is mentioned together with faith , as being inseparable therefrom . ( 3. ) As the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , and the justification of beleevers thereupon , doth not put them in such a case , as they shall sinne no more afterward , so neither doth it take away the Usefulness and necessity of renewed Acts of faith and Repentance ; nor in the least weaken the after exercise of these Graces , but rather doth excite thereunto , each in their proper place , and to their proper ends , in order to actual pardon , according to the Gospel Method , in which it is required , that justified persons or Believers repent of their after sinnes , and by faith flee to Christ for pardon , and as at the first , so afterward there can be no true exercise of faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ , for pardon of after sinnes , without a true exercise of Repentance towards God , these perpetually accompanying other : yet we must not think , that Repentance considered by it self , and as distinct from faith , hath the same Interest in the Covenant , for pardon , first or last , that faith hath : for neither doth it so act on Christ and his Righteousness , in order to pardon , as faith doth ; nor is it appointed or called for , for that end : and when it is enjoined and mentioned , in order to Remission , it is to be taken as distinct , far less as separated from faith , but as including faith , being the necessary concomitant and consequent thereof , as also the publick and sensible expression and evidence of true and lively faith : for Repentance being towards God , & a turning to God , from whom Sin draweth the Soul away , must of necessity have faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ , accompanying it , and laying a ground for it , seing there is no coming to the Father , but by the Son. Ioh. 14 : 6. ( 4. ) To say , that by Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , we should have no more need of Repentance , than Christ had , who was wholly without Sin , is to imagine , that we dream of such an Imputation , as maketh us to have been no Sinners , or under no guilt ; and consequently to have stood in need of no gracious Imputation . But we assert no such thing ; for we were Sinners , and so stood in need of a Righteousness to be imputed to us , in order to our iustification . And he who graciously did provide this Righteousness for us , might also , without the least derogation from the freedom and glory of his Grace & Favoure , as appointe the meanes , Method & way , how he will have us made partakers of the benefites of this Grace & Imputed Righteousness first & last ; so also to prescribe what duties He thought meet for such , as He had so visited with Grace & Mercy . 14. Another part of this Mystery lyeth in this , That justification through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ , taketh not away the rich & honourable privilege of Adoption . Such , as are Adversaries unto this Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , alleige that there is no consistency here ; because , say they , if Christ's Righteousness or Obedience should be imputed unto us , that so we may have a Right and Title to life , according to the tenour of the Covenant , do this and live , Adoption , by which this Title and Right is conveyed , according to the Scriptures , is rendered Useless . But not to mentione the great difference , that is betwixt the Life and Privileges of Life , a Right whereunto is solemnly had in Adoption ; and the Life , that was promised in the old Covenant , by these words , do this and Live. They consider not , that the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness doth no more destroy or take away Adoption , than it doth destroy , or take away pardon ; and that it is so far , from rendering either Useless , that it establisheth both , & is the ground and firme Basis of both : for as without the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness and Satisfaction , there can be no ground for pardon ; so without the Imputation of his Righteousness and obedience there is no ground for Adoption . As justification is a solemne and formal stating of a person in Favour & reconciliation with God , and in pardon of Sinnes ; so Adoption is a Solemne and formal stating of a person in a Right to glory and to all the Privileges of Son-ship here & hereafter . Now netther of these are rendered Useless , through the Doctrine of Imputation ; but both are the more cleared , confirmed and secured thereby . The Imputation of Righteousness is not formally pardon it self , nor is it formally a Right to glory ; but the necessary ground of both . Christ's Righteousness is Imputed , that we may be justified , and that we may be Adopted ; that is , solemnely and formally placed in a state of pardon & Reconciliation , & into a state of Right & Interest in the Privilege of Son-ship . As the producing of the cautioners payment , in judgment , is not formally the absotion of the debtor , but the ground of a formal sentence of absolution ; so the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness and Satisfaction , is not the formal sentence of Absolution & pardon , but the ground thereof : And as the paying of the price condescended on for Land or houses , is not a formal infeofing , or a formal and legal conveyance of Right & Title , by Charter and Seasing , but the ground thereof ; So the Imputation of Christ's merites and obedience is not the formal & legal Conveyance of Right to the Inheritance of glory , and glorious Privileges of Son-ship ; but is the ground thereof , upon which necessarily followeth adoption , which is , as it were , the Beleevers Infeosment and Seasing , whereby Right is formally & legally , conveyed unto him , to all these Privileges . 15. This is also a mystery in this matter , that such as are adversaries to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , cannot understand , to wit , That Beleevers should be accounted Righteous , & there upon justified , through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ ; and yet the Lord should see sin in them . They say , if beleevers be righteous with the righteousness of Christ , God can no more see sin in them , than in Christ. But they distinguish not betwixt the being of sin , and obnoxiousness to punishment , which is separable from the being of sin , otherwise there could be no pardon . In such , as are coered with the Righteousness of Christ , imputed by God , and received by faith , God seeth sin in its being , for He pardoneth it , and pardon doth not make sin to have been no sin ; nor say , that the man hath not sinned ; for then pardon should be no pardon , seing all pardon supposeth sin : but he seeth not sin so , as to punish and condemne for it : for in respect of this Reatus , guilt and obligation to punishment , sin is taken away , forgotten , cast behind God's back , & in to the depths of the sea &c. As the Scripture expresseth this matter . The judge seeth not the debtor guilty & obnoxious to the sentence , when the payment made by the cautioner is instructed in open court : yet He cannot but see , that he hath contracted debt , and was thereupon obnoxious to the sentence . Neither do our Adversaries here consider , that by this way of argueing , they destroy all pardon ; for when a man is pardoned , he is no more obnoxious to punishment ; and God cannot see sin in him , in order to condemnation , because it is pardoned ; & thereby that obligation to condemnation is taken away : And so , if they mean this only , by God 's not seeing of sin , when they deny this , they must deny Remission , nor yet do we say , that the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness taketh away the being of all after sins , and maketh them no sins ; but only that it ensureth their pardon . Nor do we argue the not being of after sinnes , or God 's not seeing of them , from this Imputation , but only the Non imputation of them unto condemnation ; for we know , that sin , in its being , is killed and mortified another way viz by the work of Sanctification . 16. To the same end , we may consider . That though by the way of justification through the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , and faith laying hold on the same , the Law is not made void , but established ; as the Apostle saith Rom. 3 : 31. and the righteousness of the Law is in some sense fulfilled in us , being fulfilled in our Nature , by Christ , the Mediator and Surety Rom. 8 : 4. yet we are not justified by the Law , but by the Gospel ; not by the Covenant of works , but by the Covenant of Grace . The Adversaries to Imputation alleige , that we , by asserting the same , do establish justification by the works of the Law , because the obedience of Christ was obedience to the Law , and so legal Righteousness ; and if that be imputed to us , so as we are accounted to have done what he did , we must be justified by Law-righteousness , & consequently by the Law ; which is contrary to the Scriptures . But in answere to this I say ( 1. ) They advert not , that some of themselves do expresly call Christ's Righteousness , our legal , or prolegal righteousness ; & therefore it must be a righteousness answering the Law , & also made ours . ( 2. ) Nor do they observe , that justification by the Law , or by the works of the Law , which the Scriptures speak so much against , is not to be understood in their sense ; the obvious , plaine and only meaning thereof being this , that no man can be justified by his own personal obedience to the Law , for by the Law , the doers only of the Law are justified Rom. 2 : 13. The plaine tenor of the Law is Set down : Rom. 10 : 5. Where Moses is mentioned , as describing the Righteousness of the Law to be this , that the man , who doth those things , shall live by them . Levis . 18 : 5. When therefore the Law saith , that the man , that doth these things , shall live by them , & not , the man that either doth those himself , or getteth a cautioner to do them for him , shall be justified ; it is manifest , that we are not justified by the Law , seing we do not these things ourselves , in our oun persons ; but by the Gospel , which only provideth this Surety , & proposeth justification through His Righteousness imputed & received by faith . Thus we see . That justification through the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , doth quite annull & destroy our Justification by the Law : all Imputation being inconsistent with Law-justification , & repugnant thereunto , because it is of grace ; & what is of Grace , neither is , not can be of works , Rom. 11 : 6. ( 3. ) We assert not Imputation in this sense , to wit : That we are accounted & reputed to have done what Christ did ; for that cannot be , God cannot judge amisse ; but He should judge amisse , if He should judge , that we did what Christ did . Our meaning is this , that the Beleever , being now united unto Christ , hath an Interest in Christ's Righteousness & upon the account thereof , now reckoned upon his Score by Imputation , he is freed from all that the Law could charge upon him , and that as fully , to all ends , as if he had performed that Righteousness himself . 17. It is likewise here considerable , That we are justified upon the account of the Righteousness of Christ imputed ; and yet this Righteousness of Christ is the proper meritorious cause of our justification , & of all that followeth there upon . Some , who oppose this Imputation , imagine an opposition here : But mistakingly they think , that the Righteousness of Christ must be made the meritorious cause of it self , or of that Righteousness , which is imputed ; whileas we only say , That Christ's Rightteousness is the meritorious cause of our justification , Adoption &c. and that it is also imputed to us , for this end , that we may be thereby formally righteous , juridically & in Law sense ; and so justified . &c. And who seeth not , that it must be so , seing we can be justified by no Righteousness , which is not a proper meritorious cause of our justification : & consequently , that we cannot be justified by any other Righteousness than the Righteousness of Christ ; & so not by our own Gospel-righteousness , nor by faith , as suchs a Righteousness ; for that cannot be a meritorious cause of our justification . 18. This is also a considerable part of this mystery , which carnal eyes cannot see , and which men , carried away with prejudice at the pure doctrine of the Grace of God , in the Gospel , cannot sweetly comply with ; to wit. That our justification is Solely upon the account of the Imputed Righteousness of Christ , and not upon the account , or because of any thing wrought in us , or done by us : & yet our obligation to holiness & conformity to the Law of God , in all points , is not hereby in the least weakened . Paul's frequent preoccupying of this Objection , in his Epistles , may let us see , how ready carnal hearts are to abuse the doctrine of the Grace of God , revealed in the Gospel , to carnal liberty ; and what a propensity there is in us , to look for justification upon the account of our works only ; so that if we hear of any thing , to put us of this apprehension , we presently are ready to conclude , that all study of and endeavour after holiness , is wholly useless & unnecessary : and that we need not wonder much at Socinians & others , who do thus reasone against the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. But Paul doth cleare to us a sweet consistency betwixt free justification upon the account of Christ's Righteousness imputed , and the serious study of holiness . He saw no Inconsistency betwixt the study of obedience to the Law , in all points , and the expectation of justification by faith in Christ alone , whatever men , who would seem sharp-sighted , & zealous for the study of holiness , do suppose they cannot but see . And albeit men in those dayes were ready enough to except against free justification , through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ ; and to pretend , that the asserting thereof did take away all study of holiness : yet ( & this is very remarkable ) the Apostle , to remove that objection , never giveth the least hint of the necessity of our works of obedience , in order to our justification . And though He doth frequently press to holiness ; yet he never maketh use of any argument thereunto , which might so much as insinuat , that we were justified by works , in one measure , or other . Nay , we will finde , that He draweth arguments , pressing unto holiness , from the very nature of their Gospel-justification , & of their State by vertue thereof . And experience proveth , this day : that the most effectual Medium to holiness , is taken from free justification , through faith in Christ alone ; and that the holiness and obedience of such , as practise the orthodox doctrine , concerning justification , hath another heavenly lustre ( as it floweth from another fountaine , & standeth upon another ground ) and looketh more like true holiness , & universal sincere obedience , than what is to be seen among such , as lay most weight upon their own duties , whether we speak of Papists , Socinians , Arminians , or of others . And whatever inconsistency men may imagine to be betwixt free justification , through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ , and the Universal , Sincere , & Acceptable study of holiness , yet the Gospel knoweth no such thing ; but presseth holiness , though not for this end , that we may thereby be put into a state of justification , or might sweat & foile , run & work for the prize , as the hire & wayes of our work ; yet upon more Spiritual & Gospel like grounds ; and by Arguments more sutable to the state of the justified , who only are in case to performe acts of obedience , and duties of holiness , acceptably unto God ; Such as the Image of God proposed for our Imitation ; the perpetual obligation of His Law ; the Relation they stand into ; the holy appointment of God ; the engagments they stand under , the Spiritual help & furniture , which is at hand , the Nature of holiness it self ; the genius & kindly inclination of the new Nature , whereof they are partakers ; and the many advantages thereof here and hereafter , too many , here to be mentioned . Let any consider the Arguments , used to this purpose by Paul Rom. 6. & 7. & 8. Chapters , and in many places elsewhere , & he shall finde this true CHAP. VII . Justification through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ , cleared out of the Old Testament , & the Passages Vindicated from the exceptions of JOHN GOODWINE . WE shall now proced unto another use , & mentione another way , how this Truth , That belevers in Christ attaine unto a life in justification , ought to be improved , to wit Secondly That we may hence take notice of a loud call herein to all Persons , not yet justified , to beware of a cheate in this matter , & not fix upon a wrong bottom in Justification , nor lay their weight on any thing within themselves , or on any thing else whatever , except upon the Imputed Righteousness of Christ alone , which they are to embrace & to leane to by faith . If they leane to their own works , and make them the condition & ground of their justification , they will be disappointed ; for by the works of the Law●an no man be justified , in the sight of God , as the Apostle asserteth , & proveth , in our Text , & irresragably concludeth Rom. 3 : 20 , 28. & in several other places . Yea , if they leane unto faith it self , which is called for only to interesse us in the Righteousness of Christ , that free grace may be exalted , & proud man abased , they deceive themselves ; & not only disappoint themselves of what they are expecting , but even destroy the very Nature & Ends of true Gospel-justifying faith : for its native & proper work is , to carry the man out of him self wholly unto Christ , for Righteousness , Life & Salvation : for faith is the Mans looking to Christ , as the stung Israelite in the wilderness did look unto the brazen serpent Ioh. 3 : 14 , 15. and saying , as it is Esai . 45 : 24. In the Lord have I righteousness : and it is the beleevers putting-on of the Lord Jesus , that he may be found in Him , & clothed with His Righteousness Phil. 3 : 9. It is the Man's receiving of Christ Ioh. 1 : 12 , and receiving of the Atonement in Him , & through Him. Rom. 5 : 11. and of aboundance of grace & of the gift of Righteousness . Rom. 5 : 17. Therefore it is called a beleeving on His name . Ioh. 1 : 12. & on Him , whom the Father hath sent &c. Ioh. 6 : 29 & 7 : 35. & 17 : 20. Act. 16 : 31. & 19 : 25. And because faith laid hold on this Righteousness of Christ ; therefore is this Righteousness called the Righteousness of faith Rom. 4 : 11. & the righteousness , which is of faith Rom. 9 : 30. & that , which is through the faith of Christ , the Righteousness , which is of God by faith , Phil. 3 : 9. Now if this be the native work of justifying faith ( as we shall more fully cleare afterward ) to receive Christ , and His Righteousness ; & consequently to carry the Man out of himself , that he may finde & partake of that al sufficient Righteousness of Christ , to the end he may with confidence stand before God , and expect pardon and Acceptance ; It cannot be said without destroying the & Native work of justifying faith , that faith is that Gospel-Righteousness , unto which they may leane , & upon the account of which they may expect justification . Faith , in this matter , is as the eye of the Soul● , that , seeth not it self , but looketh out to another . Beside , this would overturne the whole Nature of the Covenant of Grace , and is irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Apostle Paul about justification , as shall be manifested hereafter . Therefore , all , who would live the life of justification , must betake themselves to Jesus Christ , & leane to Him , & to His Righteousness : for with the rob of His Righteousness must they alone be cloathed , & in Christ alone must they be found ; & they must think of standing before God , having on His Righteousness , that God imputeth unto Beleevers , & which they receive by faith , in order to their justification . I know , this doctrine is not favourie to many , now adaies , & as Papists , Socinians & Arminians do oppose themselves with all their Industrie & learning unto this doctrine of the Imputation of the Surety-Righteousness of Christ ; so there are now a dayes , and have been of late , who would not willingly be reckoned among either of these mentioned , and yet do oppose this foundamental truth , the sure ground of our Hop , Peace & Comfort . As the Principles , whereupon these mentioned go , are different , so are the grounds , upon which they plead against this truth ; yet they do unanimous enough joine in this : 〈◊〉 , & argu● against this Imputation , which the Orthodox have owned and do owne . Before I come to consider the chiefe ( at least ) of their Arguments against the Truth , which hath been now asserted , I shall , with what brevity & plainness I can , lay down & vindicate the Grounds and Reasons of our Assertion ; and then take notice of their contrary Objections ; that this Truth may be made plaine & clear to such , as are concerned therein . As to our Grounds , I shall first beginne with Scripture Authority ; & here propose our Reasons from the Old Testament . First The First passage to this purpose , which I shall take notice of , is Esai . 45 : 24. Surely shall one say , in the Lord have I righteousness , ( or in the Lord is all righteousnesses ) to wit , for me : and this following upon what was said vers 22. look unto me , & be ye saved , all the ends of the earth ; which was an Invitation & call to them , to act faith upon Him , in order to their Salvation ; as the stung Israelites did look unto the brazen serpent , in order to their recovery ; this looking being clearly explained by coming vers 24. Even to Him shall men come ( and we know how frequently faith is held forth & expressed by coming , in the Gospel ) saith , that hereby is pointed forth the rich Advantage , that such shall have , who look & come to Him by faith , & submit unto Him heartily & cheerfully , imported by bowing of the knee , & swearing with the tongue , to wit. That they shall have a righteousness in Him ; & this they shall avow & profess : and this being exclusive of all others , as the Context cleareth , saith , that they should be brought to that , that they should renounce all other righteousness what somever , & rest on this God alone , who is the only God vers 22. & on His righteousness ; for in Him they shall be made to look for it , & that in rich aboundance : And upon this followeth their justification , & glorying in the Lord alone vers 25. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified , & shall glory . This passage therefore doth clearly hold forth a justification , through the righteousness of the Messiah , of the true & living God , laid hold upon & applied by faith , or owned & embraced , as their only righteousness : & this righteousness is not a righteousness wrought in them ; for such a righteousness is aboundantly hold forth by the word strength ; but a righteousness made over over Beleevers , & which they owne as theirs , and rest upon . It is too narrow & scanty an Interpretation , to limite this justification , to the Lords vindicating of His peoples sincerity & Innocency , in respect of their Enemies , at whose hands they suffered great things , and that unjustly ; & not to take in their Spiritual justification , & delivery from the guilt of sin , through faith in the Messiah ; especially seing there is an Invitation going before to them , to lay hold on the Lord Messias by faith , according to the Gospel Methode ; and upon this followeth their glorying in the Lord conforme to what the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 1 : 30 , 31. that the Lord Jesus is made of God Righteousness to His people , that he that glorieth , may glory in the Lord. Nor is there any weight in that , which Io 〈◊〉 in this Treatise of justification Par● . 2. pag. 129. 130. alleigeth , to Infringe the authority of this Testimony , to wit. That the meaning only is this , that they receive these favoures , of the free grace and donation of God , by Iesus Christ. For , as the expressions are more emphatick ; so all the circumstances of the Text , pointe out their eyeing of the Lord , and coming to Him , and that in order to their justification and Salvation ; together with their profession of owneing the Lord's Righteousness alone , for their Righteousness , renouncing all other Righteousness , in themselves , or in others , in order to justification : and thereby declaring , that they look upon it as necessary for them to have a Righteousness ; and that this is onely the Righteousness of Jehovah , or of the Messiah , where with they desire to be clothed , and rest satisfied . All which import the Lords bestowing of this Righteousness upon them , that is , imputing of it unto them ; for without this they cannot have it , nor glory in it , as their owne . Secondly , it is faid Esai . 61 : 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord ; My Soul shall be joyful in my God ; for He hath clothed me with garments of Salvation , He hath covered me with the rob of Righteousness &c. And this coming in upon the back of what was said , in the beginning of the Chapter , concerning Christ's furniture for His work of Mediation , His Call thereto , and His special work , or the End , for which He was sent , to wit , to binde up the broken-hearted , to proclame liberty to the Captives &c. pointeth forth the sweet welcome , and hearty acceptance , that the anointed Messiah should have among His own chosen ones : for these words hold forth their expression of their sense of what they had received from Him , and of their joy upon the account thereof . They professe openly their joy & rejoiceing in the Lord , because He had clothed and covered them with the garments of Salvation , and with the rob of Righteousness . Now this rob could not be a rob of their owne making ; nor can it be understood of their Inherent holiness ; for it is a Garment put on , and wherewith they are covered . Thus are we said to put on the Lord Jesus Rom. 13 : 14. Gal. 3 : 27. And Iohn Rev. 19 : 8. helpeth us to understand the meaning of this Expression , when he saith . And to her was granted , that the should be arayed in white Linen , clean and white : for the fine Linen is the Righteousness of Saints . Against this Testimony ; the fore-named Author Io. Goodwin . pag. 130. &c. maketh some Exceptions . as 1 , These Expressions ( sai's he ) concerne the jewes onely , and are meaned of their deliverance out of Babylon ; if not out of their present Condition ; which is an effect of God's faithfulness and truth , or of his goodness and graciousness . Ans. ( 1. ) To limite this to the jewes , and to their outward and temporal delivery , is but a part of their Socinian fiction , without any apparent ground in the Text. Nay , the first part of the Chapter , which Christ applieth to Himself Luk. 4. and the several particulars there mentioned , may shame this out of countenance ; unless we minde to make Christ only a temporal deliverer● , as the jewes did dream their Messias would be . And the Gospel reacheth us Spiritually to expound , as pointing forth Spiritual promises , even such promises , as savoure more of temporal things , as to the letter , that what are here mentioned do ( 2. ) it is but ground-less to imagine ( and a piece of the ordinary course of Socinians , in evading clear Testimonies of Scripture , brought against them ) that Righteousness here doth signify God's faithfulness : for though somewhere , where mention is made of God's Righteousness , and other circumstances of the Text make it evident , this sense might be admitted ; yet it cannot be so understood here , where the Righteousness is said to be granted to the people , as a rob and a garment to cover them : and the very following words of the verse show , that this is meaned of Some thing , bestowed upon them , for it is added , as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments , and as a bride adorneth her self with her jewels ; or , as Some render the words , He hath decked me with ornaments , as a bridegroom , and with jewels as a bride . 2. He excepteth , If these words be taken in a Spiritual sense , the promise , which is contained in them , cannot suite the Church ; because the Church is at all times and alwayes clothed with Christ's Righteousness , being justified in Him Ans. This one answere will destroy all the Spiritual promises , hold forth by the prophets , as the fruits & effects of Christ's coming ; for the Church of true and faithful beleevers was really , in some measure answerable to that more dark dispensation , made partaker of these Saving and Spiritual benefites , both at that time , and before , even from the beginning : and thus there shall be no promises in all the old Testam of Spiritual things , touching pardon of Sin , Justification , Grace and Sanctification , and the like , made unto the Church ; but all of them must be interpreted of carnal things : though the New Test. teacheth us the contrary , as might be evinced by multitudes of places . But the matter is clear , to wit. That this is mentioned , as the open profession of the Church , with joy and thankfulness , of what she was blessed with , and made partaker of in Christ ; and had , as a fruit and effect of His performing His Mediatory work ; that is , That she was clothed with a rob of Righteousness ; and that by Him , which was , and would be to her a ground of perpetual joy , and rejoiceing in the Lord. Against that passage Rev. 19 : 8. which was adduced for clearing of the place , now under hand , he excepteth thus , These words only pointe forth the honour and dignity , which Christ now conferreth upon the Church , in remembrance of her Righteousness : for it is parallel to that other place Rev. 3 : 4. Ans. This is nothing , but a plaine perversion of the Scriptures ; for it is not said , for her Righteousness ; nor for the Righteousness of the Saints : but in these words a reason is given , why by this araying in fine Linen , the bride is said to be made ready ; and withall hereby the signification and Import of that fine-linen is held forth , when it is said , for the fine linen is the Righteousness of the Saints . The Spirit of the Lord is here speaking of the returne of the jewes , and of their marrying of new with their former husband , from whom they had so long departed , by playing the harlot ; ( as worthy and judicious M. Durham sheweth , in his comment on the place ) and of this new Bride it is said , that she is arayed in fine linen , clean and white ; and this linen is explained to be the Righteousness of Saints , or justifications of Saints , the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the same , that is used Rom. 5 : 16 , 18. Where it is translated justification ; and it is called here the Righteousness , or justifications of Saints , because it is no other , than that which is common to all Saints ; whereby is signified , that the jewes , at their conversion , shall be accepted and justified , after the same manner , that all the Saints have been ; even after that self same manner , at which they formerly stumbled , and which wickedly and peremptorily they refused and rejected . This Righteousness therefore can be nothing else , than the Righteousness of Christ imputed : for this only is cleane and white , all other having spots and defilements . This is not within , but from without , and is put on , & is granted to the Church , and so imputed . Against that saying of putting on Christ , twice mentioned , he excepteth saying . That none of them speak of justification , but that Rom. 13 : 14. speaketh of Sanstification ; and that Gal. 3 : 27. of profession . Ans. If we are said to put on Christ in Sanctification , and as to a profession , much more may we be said , to put Him on in justification , which is the basis and ground work of Sanctification , and the truth & reality of that which is professed . Without justification there is no Sanctification ; and except we be clothed with Christ , and put Him on in order to justification , we cannot put Him on , in order to Sanctification . And as such , as are baptized in Christ , have declared , that they have put on Christ ; so such have done it in truth and reality , who are the Children of God by faith in Christ Jesus , and are Christ's and are Abraham's seed , and heirs according to the promise Gal. 3 : 26 , 29. Not could they be said to do this outwardly , as to a profession , in their Baptisme , if a real putting on of Christ were not to be found in such , as had the Spiritual and inward thing Imported & signified by outward Baptisme . Thirely a 3 passage is Ier. 23 : 5 , 6. Bohold the dayes come , saith the Lord , that I will raise unto David a Righteous Branch , and a King shall reigne & prosper , and shall execute judgment & justice , in the earth . In his dayes judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell saifly : and this is His name , whereby He shall becalled , the Lord , our Righteousness . It is undeniable and manifest , that this is spoken of Christ , who was the Branch , raised up unto David ; and the King that should reigne and prosper ; and it is through Him , that judah is saved , and Israel made to dwell sai●ly . Now of this Righteous Branch , it is said , that His name shall be called Jehovah our Righteousness : He shall be owned and embraced as such ; whereby it is declared , that as we have need of a Righteousuess , and have none of our owne ; so this Righteous Branch shall become a Righteousness to us : in Him , and in Him alone shall all His people have a Righteousness : He and His Righteousness shall be made over unto them . And as they shall glory in Him , acknowledging all their Righteousness to be in and from Him ; so He shall glory in that stile and Title , which shall be given to Him upon that account , and He shall owne it , as His glorious Title and Name , for their further refreshment and Consolation . He shall look upon that , as His greatest honour , to be called the Lord our Righteousness , Jehovah that purchaseth and prepareth for and bestoweth a sufficient Righteousness on His people . This passage with its forcible light so opened the eyes of Bellarmine , the popish adversary to the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , that he was forced to confess , That Christ is said to be our Righteousness , because he hath made Satisfaction for us to the Father ; and doth so give and communicat that Satisfastion unto us , when He justifieth us , that it may be said to be our Satisfaction & Righteousness — and in this sense , it would not be absurd , if any should say , that the Righteousness of Christ & His merites are imputed unti us , as if we our selves had satisfied . De justif . lib. 2. cap. 10. Fourthly , adde to this Ier. 33 : 15 , 16. where , as Iunius & the Dutch translation have it , this same Title is repeated , as given unto the righteous Branch : but if we take the words , as they are rendered by others , & as they are in our Translation , as the Stile & name of the Church , they willcon tribute not a little to our present purpose . And this , wherewith she shall be called , THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNES : for hereby is clearly Imported the Churches glorying in that Title , & in having all her righteousness in & through her Head & Husband ; that as she owned herself to be the Spouse of Christ , & had His name called upon her ; so this would be all the name , that she would owne , as her greatest glory ; & by that alone would she be called ; thereby professing , with glorying & satisfaction , that she had no righteousness of her own ; & if any would know her aright , & give her her highest titles , they should know her under that notion , & give her that Name , that should openly declare , that she were void of Righteousness in her self , & were ungodly , & had all her Righteousness from her husband , & would appear before God in no righteousness , but in her husbands . So that she would owne that Title alone , which should be a proclamation to all the world , that she was covered with her Husbands , righteousness , & with that alone , & a constant Memorandum , to keep her in the fresh conviction , Faith & Profession of this . Against these clear & pregnant passages Ioh. Goodwine excepteth . pag. 127. saying , It is not here said , the righteousness of the Lord shall be our righteousness , or shall be imputed to us for righteousness . Avs. Though this be not said , in so many words & syllabs , yet that same is said in a more clear , convinceing & emphatick manner : so that he , who seeth not this lying in these words , must be more blinde than Bellarmine was . When this righteous Branch is raised up by Jehovah , & gotteth this name , the Lord our Righteousness , what can be more manifest , than that , He is made Righteousness to His people ; Yea & all their Righteousness ; & that this Righteousness is made over to them ; so that He is , in a manner , wholly theirs , & nothing but theirs , & all that He hath is theirs ; & particularly that His Righteousness is all the Righteousness they owne , as their Righteousness . He excepteth 2 That in no tolerable sense , can Christ , being a person , be said to be imputed to us . Ans. Do we not hear , that a childe was born to us , & a Son was given to us ? Esai . 9 : 6. & was not that child & Son a person ? And may not a person be as well said to be Imputed , as given , seing imputation , upon the matter , is nothing but a giving , or bestowing ? Yet we do not say , that Christ is Imputed ; but that this expression here used , doth manifestly evince , that we are righteous through the righteousness of Christ made ours , & that Christ is become the Lord our righteousness , & that true beleevers receive & owne Him , as such , & rest upon His righteousness alone by faith . He excepteth 3. The plaine & direct meaning is , that He shall be generally acknowledged & celebrated by his people of the jewes , as the great author & procurer of that righteousness , or justification in the sight of God , upon which aboundance of outward glory , peace & prosperity should be cast upon them , Ans. ( 1. ) That this is not to be restricted to the jewes , is manifest , seing it is spoken of the Gospel times , when the righteous Branch shall be raised up unto David , & a King shall reigne & prosper . ( 2. ) It is too carnal an Interpretation , to think , the text speaketh only of such a justification , as is followed with aboundance of outward Glory , peace & Prosperity ; whileas the whole Gospel informeth us of something more spiritual , attending upon & following justification . ( 3. ) Righteousness & justification are here made Synonymous , which ought not to be ; though these two be inseparably lincked together ; yet they are formally different . ( 4. ) Wherein standeth this righteousness & justification ? He tels us , in the place , to which he here referreth us , that it standeth in Remission of sins : But pardon of sins is no righteousness ; though a man pardoned hath freedom from the obnoxiousness to punishment ; yet righteousness is another thing , & respecteth the obligation to duty , required in the Law. ( 5. ) Though it is true , Christ is indeed the author of our justification & pardon ( which is an effect of God's pronouncing us righteous , & of His accepting of us , as righteous in justification ) as of our peace ; yet that needeth not destroy what we assert , there being no inconsistency here , but a necessary & essentiall agreement betwixt the Imputation of Christ ' righteousness & justification ; but it rather contributeth to the establishment of our Assertion : Yet it is obvious , that when Christ is called the Lord our Righteousness , there is more Imported , than His being the author of our peace & justification ; even the way also , how He bringeth about our peace & justification , is here denoted , to wit , His being made of God righteousness to His people ; so that His righteousness becometh theirs , in order to their peace & justification . But to confirme his Interpretation , he tels us , 1. That the Imposition of name upon either thing or person , often notes the quality , or proprity in either , or same benefite redounding from either , answereable thereunto , as Esai . 9. his name shall be called wonderfull , that is , he shall be acknowledged & looked upon by men , as a doer of things very strange . Ans. Seing all these names given to Christ Esai . 9. cannot be so interpreted , as to have this import mentioned ; for who will say , that the name everlasting Father , & the mighty God can be so interpreted , as to denote only some answerable benefite redounding there from ; who seeth not how little this can satisfie ? But ( 2. ) be it so , that this name shall denote some benefite , redounding therefrom , why may it not denote this Effect , which is only answerable hereunto , to wit , that His people shall be made partaker of His Surety-righteousness , & have the same made over unto them , as they become united unto Him , & have His name called upon them . He tels us 2. That it is familiar to attribute the Effect to its Cause , or Author , by a verbe substantive only ; as when Christ is called our Hop , our life , Resurrection , peace & Glory , meaning that he is the author & purchaser of all these . Ans. Yet this proveth not , that He is the author of all these Effects after one & the same way . He is otherwise our hope , of which He is the Object ▪ as well as the Author , than He is our life : And He is otherwise our life and peace , which He worketh & createth in us , than He is our Resurrection and Glory . So He is our Righteousness , by making us partaker of His Surety-righteousness , & imputing it unto us , that it may be reckoned on our Score ; for this the nature of the thing requireth , seing a Righteousness we must have , ere we be justified ; and a Righteousness of our owne we have not ; and therefore must have one imputed to us : and what Righteousness can suite us better than His , who is THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ? He tels us 3. That by Righteousness is meaned that justification , which standeth in Remission of Sinnes : and the meaning is , that through Him God would be reconceled to them and pacified with them . Ans. Justification is something else , than pardon of sins ; for a justified man is one , that is declared and pronunced Righteous in order to pardon of Sins ; and in order to a persons being declared such , by God , who alway judgeth according to truth , he must be Righteous ; & Righteous can no man be in the sight of God , in order to his justification , by what is in himself ; & therefore he must have a Righteousness from some other : & seing Christ is called , the Lord our Righteousness , it must be His Righteousness , which must be bestowed upon them , in order to God's being reconciled to them , & pacified with them . Fiftly another passage is Dan. 9 : 24. to finish the transgression , and to make an end of sins , & to make reconciliation for iniquity , and to bring in everlasting Righteousness . That all this is to be understood of the gr●at & spiritual effects of power & Grace , which are to be brought about by the Messiah , no Christian candeny ; and among the rest we see , He is to bring in a Righteousness , and a Righteousness of ages , an everlasting Righteousness , that shall endure for ever , & shall have everlasting effects : and this Righteousness is something more , than Remission of Sins , & is distinct from it , which is sufficiently held forth by the foregoing Expressions of finishing transgressions , of making an end of Sins , and of making reconciliation for iniquity : which saith , that to justification there is a Righteousness required , & that this Righteousness is not meer Remission of Sins ; but some thing beside , that must endure , when sin is taken away . This Righteousness is to be brought in by the Messiah , as a favoure , distinct from the preceeding , & yet inseparable there from , & firmly connected therewith . This Righteousness , which the Messiah is to bring in , being something beside Remission of Sins , must be a Righteousness wrought by the Messiah , & brought in for the use and advantage of His people , who , as they are to be made partaker of the foregoing favoures , are also to be made partaker of this ; and consequently must have it imputed to them ▪ seing no other way , it can be made theirs . Sixtly We way adduce to this purpose , Zech. 3 : 4. take away the filthy garments from him : and unto him he said , behold , I have caused thine iniquity to go from thee ; I will cloth thee with change of rayment . Here by a vision is signified to the propher , how the Lord would at length be reconciled to His Church , & bring her in to His favour againe , that her service might become acceptable to Him , which now was wholly defiled , and so defiled , that even their High priest , who should weare the holy garments , whereupon was engraven Holiness to the Lord , is said to have had on filthy garments ; whereby the accuser of the Brethren , Satan the enemie , had no small advantage against them : and the way is set down in borrowed termes , which are in part explained . First the Lord caused to take away the filthy garments from the High Priest ; and this is more plainely expressed , in these words , I have caused thine iniquity to go from thee . But beside this , there is a Righteousness required , in order to acceptance with God , as was said above : therefore that this work of justification may be compleated , it is added , & I will cloth thee with change of rayment . Some , it is true , would referre this to Sanctification ; but others unto justification . Iunius's Notes , & the English annot , take in both : and sure , if this be true of Sanctification , which is wrought in us , it is much more true of the Righteousness , that is required unto justification , which is without us , and must be put on . And the Chaldee Paraphrase turneth it thus , behold I have taken away thine iniquity , & have clothed thee with Righteousness . The word in the original , which is translated change of rayment , importeth some suite of apparell , that is not for ordinary wearing , but kept for solemne times , & so may well import the Saints wedding or Marriage-suite : & that which is added in the sollowing verse , may be understood , as denoting Sanctification , which is added with the Mitre on his head , signifying the graces of the Spirit , qualifying the High priest , for his work . CHAP. VIII . Some passages of the New Test. confirming the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , Vindicated from the exceptions of JOHN GOODWINE . HAving seen , what countenance the Old Test. giveth unto the Truth , we are asserting ; & vindicat some of these passages from the Exceptions of Iohn Goodwine . We come next to search for confirmation of this truth , out of the New Test. and I shall here beginne with such , as the said Author taketh notice of , in order to excepting against them , in his Treatise of justification . First Rom. 3 : 21 , 22. But now the Righteousness of God without the Law , is manifested , being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets , even the Righteousness of God , which is by faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all them that beleeve . But if men would disput against this truth , they should except against whole Chapters , in that Epistle ; and disput against the very scope & designe , yea and all the Arguments of the Apostle , who , in the first part of that Epistle , is about to clear and confirme that , which he setteth down Chap. 1 : 17. as the summe of the whole Gospel , and clear demonstration of its being the power of God unto Salvation &c. to wit , that in it the Righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith ; a Righteousness revealed , laid open , and offered to all , that hear the Gospel , that they may lay hold on it by faith : a Righteousness , revealed from the true and faithful God , unto our faith ( as Ambrose , P. Martyr and others understand it ) or revealed from faith to faith , that is only to faith , ( as Pareus ) or ( as Calvin , Beza , Musculus and others ) from a weak faith , to a stronger faith : or rather , to faith first and last , through the whole of a Saints life here , as the following words clear it , as it is written , the just shall live by faith . Yet let us see , what he excepteth pag. 136. He 1. Supposeth , that he hath proved before , that this passage speaketh plainly for the imputation of faith for Righteousness ; but no way for the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , for any such purpose . And. We may have occasion hereafter to examine his grounds , both from this and other passages , for the Imputation of faith , in opposition to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness . I shall only say at present , that this Righteousness cannot be faith it self , because it is revealed to faith ; & it is called the Righteousness of God , which is by faith of Iesus Christ ; & so not faith it self . One thing cannot be both the Act , & the Object of that Act. And what sense would that make , to say , faith is upon all them that beleeve . 2. He said . By the Righteousness of God some under stand here His truth and faithfulness , in keeping promise . Ans. But though God's Righteousness may elsewhere import & signifie His faithfulness in keeping promise ; yet that is not the Righteousness here understood ; for this suiteth a guilty sinner ; such as the Apostle hath been proving , in his foregoing discourse , both jewes & Gentiles to be ; & is such a Righteousness as is requisite to such , as would be justified in God's sight vers 20. & cannot be had by mans doing the deeds of the Law , by which is the knowledg of sin , & which therefore rendereth their case more desperat ; & such a Righteousness , as is had by faith , & which is unto all & upon all them that beleeve vers 20 , 22. and such a Righteousness , as is manifested without the Law vers 21. All which , and much more , which might be mentioned , show , that some other thing is here understood by the Righteousness of God , than His Faithfulness & Truth ; even the Righteousness of God , which is imputed unto , & bestowed upon all that beleeve . 3. He saith . Hereby is mea●t that way , method & meanes , which God himself hath found out to justisis , or make men Righteous : or else that very Righteousness , by which we stand justified , or Righteous , in the sight of God. But not the Righteousness of Christ : nor is there the least appearance in the context of any necessity to take is so . Ans. It is true , the 〈◊〉 is here showing the whole way , method & meanes of our justification ; & particularly , what that Righteousness is , by which poor sinners can stand justified & Righteous in the sight of God ; even a Righteousness , that is not had by the works of the law , but by the faith of Jesus Christ : and this sufficiently evinceth , that the Righteousness of God , here spoken of , is the Righteousness of Christ , which saith seeketh in , and goeth to Christ for , that it may be imputed ; for faith hath no other end or errand to Christ , in reference to a freedom from the wrath & Curse of God , but to lay hold on a Righteousness , in which the poor self condemned sinner may appear before God. Beside that the following words vers 24 , 25 , 26. where the Redemption & propitiation of Christ , which was His Surety-righteousness , is mentioned , may Satisfie us , as to what is meaned by this Righteousness of God. Sure , there is not the least appearance of Paul's understanding that Mean & Method , which this Excepter supposeth to be the onely Method , to wit. That our faith , considered , as our Act , is that : as if that were the Righteousness of God , & could constitute us Righteous , in the sight of God , and were a Righteousness had without works & without the Law , & received by all that beleeve . Secondly , Rom. 3. last Do we then make void the Law through faith ? God forbid ; yea we establish the Law. Where the Apostle , preoceupying an objection , asserteth ; That through justification by faith , he did not make void the law , but rather did establish it ; the ground whereof is this , That by the Gospel-way of justification , the law getteth full Satisfaction , in all points , because Christ not only Satisfied for the penalty thereof , which we were guilty of , and did lye under ; but did also yeeld a perfect obedience thereunto ; that so He might make up a full & compleat Surety-righteousness , by the Imputation of which unto His own , or the Lord 's reckoning it upon their score , when they receive it by faith , they may be justified . And thus , though sinners , who have broken the Law , & so have forfeited the reward , promised to such as observe it in all points , & are come under the Curse , threatned to Transgressours , be not only freed from the Curse , but receive the rich Recompence of reward ; yet the law is not made null & void , but is rather established & confirmed in its full force , both as to its Commands & Sanction . Iohn Goodwine excepteth 1. There is no necessity , that by the Law , in this-place , should be meaned precisely the moral law ; others understand it as well of the Ceremonial Law. Ans. But sure , Paul's doctrine was not for establishing of the Ceremonial Law , in whole , or in part . The Law , whereof the Apostle is speaking , is that Law , by which both Gentiles & jewes were convinced of sin , & had their mouthes stopped , & were become guilty before God vers 19. & that Law , which maketh a discovery of sin vers 20. comp . with Rom. 7 : 7. & by the deeds of which no flesh shall be justified , in the sight of God vers 20 , 28. It is that Law , by the works whereof even Abraham could not be justified , nor David Rom. 4 : 1 , 2 , 6 , 7 , 8. 2. He said , It is much more probable , that Paul should here assert the establishing of the Ceremonial Law , than of the Moral 1. Because the jewes were more tender and jealous over the Ceremonial Law , placing the far greatest part , if not the whole of their hop of justification and Salvation , in the observation thereof . 2. Because the Doctrine of faith did not carry any such colour of opposition to the Moral , as to the Ceremonial part of their Law. Ans. To imagine , that no Law is here to be understood , but the Ceremonial Law , is to make the Apostle establish here , what he destroyeth else where , particularly in his Epistles to the Galatians & Colossians , & in his whole doctrine : yea this would make the Apostle , to cross the whole intent and designe of the Gospel , which who dar once have the least thought of ? The Law here doth plainely signifie that , which was the Rule of Righteousness and of Obedience , & was publickly given unto the jewes for that end ; & by obedience to & observation of which Law , they were expecting justification & life ; as by the young man is manifest , who came to Christ to enquire what he should do to be saved ; & said , he had observed all these &c. As to his reasons , they have no force : for . 1. The jewes had a zeal for the whole Law , but not according to knowledg , & went about to establish their own Righteousness , which was not in meer Ceremonials but in obedience & full conformity ( as they supposed ) unto the Righteousness , which they sought after , yea followed and hunted after Rom. 9 : 31. & 10. 3. ( 2. ) The doctrine of faith carrieth the same colour of opposition to the Moral Law , that it doth to the Ceremonial , in the point of justification . And it is not the doctrine of faith that carrieth any colour of opposition to the Ceremonial Law ; though the doctrine of the Gospel-administration doth ; else we must ●ay , there was nothing of the doctrine of faith , under the Law , or that old dispensation . 3. He saith . Though the moral Law were precisely here understood ; yet there is no necessity to say , that it is established by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness : for , Some affirme , that the Law is therefore said to be established by faith , because faith compasseth & attaineth that righteousness , which the Law sought after , & could not attaine . 2. The Moral Law may in this sense be said to be established ; because faith purgeth the hearts of beleevers , & so promotes the observation of it . Ans. As for the first , I do not understand , what the meaning of it is . What is that Righteousness , which faith compasseth , and the Law sought after , and could not attaine ? It would seem to be nothing else but Holiness and Sanctification : and if so , the two make but one : and therefore I answere to this also , by saying to the Second . That albeit Subordinates can well consist together , & this sense needeth not thrust out our sense ; yet I judge , this is not the maine Objection , that Paul obviateth here : he reserveth a peculiar place for that hereafter , where he speaketh fully to it Chap. 6. & 7. But he speaketh of the establishing of the Law , both in its commanding power and Sanction ; for having spoken so much of justification by faith in opposition to justification by the Law ; and having said in the foregoing vers that the circumcision shall be justified by faith , and the uncircumcision through faith : and neither the one , nor the other by or through the Law ; some might have thought , that by his thus crying up of faith , and speaking so much of it , and only of it , as to justification , he was quite casheering and rendering the Law null & void : And therefore he answereth , That he is so far from making the Law void through faith , that he rather doth establish the same , as was shown above . 4. He saith . The Law may be said to be established by saith , in as much as the threatnings of the Law are by the doctrine of faith declared not to be in vaine , Christ's sufferings being a full confirmation of the force , efficacy and authority of the Curse of the Law. Ans. This is so fargood : But why shall not also His obedience be a full confirmation of the force , efficacy & authority of the commanding power of the Law ? This being principally intended in the Law , belongeth as much , at least , to the establishment thereof , as the Sanction . We assert not the one with an exclusion of the other ; but assert the establishment of both by faith : and thus the Law is by faith fully established , in all its parts & demands . 5. He saith . The best Interpretation is , that by the Law here is meant that part of the Old Test. which comprehendeth the writting of Moses , with those other books , whi●h together with the writtings of the Prophets , make up the entire body thereof , as it was used vers 21. and in this sense , the Law may most properly be said to be established by Paul teaching the Doctrine of faith , because it is fully consonant & agreable to those things , that are written there . Ans. But this sense is not the same with the sense of the word Law v. 21. for the Law there is mentioned , as distinct from the Prophets . And if that part of the Old. Test. be meaned , which is different from the book of the Prophets , what ground was there to think , that the doctrine of faith did more seem to cross what was con ained in the one , than what was contained in the other ? especially seing he had said v. 21. that the Righteousness , he spoke of , was witnessed both by the Law and the Prophets . And if both should be here understood , seing the Apostle did fully enough declare his mind as to that v. 21 . what ground is there to think , that he was called to remove that objection here againe ? And what imaginable colour can be from any thing that the Apostle spoke , in the foregoing words , for such an objection , as this ? This manifestly is nothing but a groundless invention of men , that know not else what to say . Thirdly Rom. 4 : 6. where mention is made of a Righteousness imputed without works , & that as the ground of a mans blessedness & justification : for it is of the blessedness of justification that the Apostle is there speaking , and he showeth , that this is attained , not by the works of the Law , but by an imputed Righteousness , which can be none else , that the Righteousness of God , spoken of in the preceeding Chapter ; or of Christ , who wrought the Redemption , and was set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood . Against this He excepteth pag. 140. saying 1. If we●will needs here understand a positive legal Righteousness , it is much more probable , He should meane a Righteousness consisting of such , or of such an obedience to the Law , as hath an absolute & perfect agreableness to every mans condition & calling respectively , than the Righteousness of Christ , which hath no such property in it . Ans. The Apostle speaketh of a Righteousness , and of a Righteousness imputed , and all Righteousness must consist in obedience to the Law , and in full conformity thereto : and seing it is said to be imputed , and not by our works , it must of necessity follow , that the Apostle is to be understood , as speaking of the Surety-righteousness of Christ. And if the Righteousness of Christ , who gave perfect obedience to the Law , and was constituted Mediator and Surety by the Father , and as such did give full Satisfaction both in obeying the Law , and in paying the penalty , be not such an obedience to the Law , as will serve every Beleevers turne , where else will the beleever finde a more adequat Righteousness ? Shall we think , that his act of saith , which is but one act of obedience to the Law , or an act of obedience to one command of the Law , hath a more perfect & absolute agreablness to every mans condition respectively , than the perfect obedience & Righteousness of Christ ! Let such beleeve this , as can . 2. He saith . The Righteousness , which God is said here to impute , is placed in Remission of Sins . Ans. That Imputation of Righteousness and pardon of sinnes do inseparably go together , is true ; and that the one proveth the other , is also clear from these words . But it is not proved , nor can it be proved , that Imputed Righteousness and Remission of Sins are the same ; seing it is obvious enough , that Righteousness is one thing , and pardon of sinnes is another distinct thing . No man will say , that a pardoned thiefe , is a Righteous man ; for that were as much , as to say , He was never a thiefe . It is true , by pardon He is no more obnoxious to the penalty ; the obligation to underlye that being now taken away : yet that will not evince , that He is a Righteous man : and there is still a difference betwixt him , and one that never was chargable with that guilt : this man , as to this , is indeed a Righteous man , but not the other . 3. He saith . The phrase of imputing Righteousness is best understood by the contrary expression of imputing sin ; & this signifieth either to look upon a person , as justly liable to punishment ; or to inflict punishment upon him , in consideration of sin . Therefore doubtless to impute Righteousness importeth nothing else , but either to look upon a man as righteous , or to conferre upon him the privileges , belonging to persons truely righteous . Ans. This is true , if we speak of a person , who is truely Righteous , antecedently unto this Imputation ; as the sinner is supposed to be truely a sinner antecedently unto this Imputation . But when sin is imputed to a Righteous person , or to one , who , before the imputation , was not guilty , nor looked upon as a Sinner , as Sin was imputed to Christ , the Holy and Righteous one , who knew no sin ; and as Sin through injustice , was imputed to Naboth , who was not guilty of what was laid to his charge ; Imputation , in this case , must import some thing else , than either of these two mentioned , and that antecedently to an holding of that person liable to punishment , or to a punishing of him , with consideration to that sin : thus before Christ could be looked upon , as a person liable to punishment , or could be punished for sin , by the Righteous God , sin must first have been imputed to Him , and reckoned upon His Score ; and that Righteously , because of His undertaking and willingly submitting to the debt , as Surety : as when Iezabel would have Noboth killed as a Malefactor , she first by injustice and indirect meanes , made him guilty of sin , & then held him liable to punishment , and dealt with him accordingly . So , upon the other hand , when Righteousness is imputed to a sinner ( as we all are sinners ) before He can be looked upon as a Righteous person , or be dealt with , as a Righteous person , He must first have a Righteousness imputed to him , and bestowed upon him : for how can God , whose judgement is according to truth , look upon a person as Righteous , and conferre privileges upon him , due only to such as are Righteous , who is not Righteous indeed ? Must He not first bestow a Righteousness upon him , & reckon a Righteousness upon his Score , to the end He may be just and Righteous , when He is the justifier of him that beleeveth ? Lastly He said . Here is neither peer nor peep of the least ground or reason to perceive , that by Righteousness , in this Scripture , should be meant the Righteousness of Christ. Ans. It is enough that the Text saith , Righteousness is imputed : for the man here spoken of , hath not a Righteousness of his own , as the Apostle hath proved in the preceeding Chapters , & doth here , take for granted : And therefore this Imputed Righteousness must be the Righteousness of another ; and it must be such a Righteousness of another as can found free Remission of Sins . And whose Righteousness else can this be , if it be not Christ's ? Is there any third competitour here imaginable ? must it not be the Righteousness of Him , whom faith goeth out unto & laith hold on , in order to justification ? Must it not be His Righteousness , who was the Mediator , who laid down the price of Redemption , & was a propitiation , as He told us in the preceeding Chapter ? Some men , in alleiging a difference , betwixt a Righteousness imputed to us Sinners , and the Righteousness of Christ , as if there could be any other Righteousness imputable to us , except the Surety-righteousness of Christ ; as they expresly in this joine with Socinians ( See Volkel de vera Relig. lib. 5. cap. 21. p. 565. ) & with Papists & Arminians ; so they declare themselves utter strangers to the Gospel ; yea greater strangers ; than those were , against whom the Apostle wrote , who took it for granted , that if any Righteousness from without , or that was not by any thing , which we do , were imputed , it behoved to be the Righteousness of the Mediator : And this , we may conceive , is the reason , why the Apostle doth not say , in so many express words , that it was the Righteousness of Christ ; for who could have thought of another ? Fourthly Rom. 5 : 19. a place , with its whole contexture pregnant for our purpose : for the Apostle is not onely here confirming , but also illustrating this whole matter , from the Imputation of Adam's Sin unto his posterity ; & after many various and emphatick expressions , used there-anent from vers 12. and forward , he saith here vers 19 ▪ for as by one mans disobedience , many were made Sinners ; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous . Socinus de Servat . lib. 4. cap. 6. is so bold as to tell us , That he supposeth , there is nothing written in the Scriptures , that hath given us a greater occasion of erring , than that comparison betwixt Adam & Christ , which Paul made & did prosecute at length here . And he would cleare to us the comparison thus , That as by Adam's Sin & disobedience , it came to passe , that all men were condemned and died ; so by Christ's righteousness and obedience it came to passe , that they wero absolvod , and did live : for Christ by His own Righteousness and Obedience , by vertue of the decree of God , did penetrate the heavens , there to reigne for ever , and there he begote eternal life and everlasting blessedness both to Himself , and to His. How aliene this is from the whole of the Apostle's discourse , needs not be declared , seing there is not one word giving the least hint of the Apostle's designe to be , to declare how & what way Christ obtained power and authority to save : Yet He goeth on to tell us , That as Adam's fault made him guilty of death , whence it came to passe , that all mankind , that are procreat of him after that guilt , is obnoxious to death : so Christ by His Righteousness purchased to Himself eternal life ; whence it cometh te passe , that who ever are procreat of him , partake of this life . But He never once taketh notice , that Paul giveth for the ground of all mankind's becoming guilty of death , their sinning in him vers 12. even such , as had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression vers 14. yea , in every verse this cause is noted , or pointed at : & it being Notour of it self , that ifall mankind did sin in Adan , Adam's sin must be imputed unto them ; so Christ's Righteousness must be imputed unto all His , inreference to their justification , & that with a much more . Let us now see what Iohn Goodwine excepteth pag. 142. &c. It is not here ( said He ) said , that by the Imputation of Adam's disobedience , men are made formally Sinners , but simply sinners , that is , either obnoxious to death and condemnation , or else sinners by propagation , not Imputation . Ans. This is the same upon the matter , with Bellarmin's answer de justif . lib. 2. cap. 9. & here we have a distinction proposed without any explication , to wit. betwixt simply sinners , and formally sinners ▪ And what can he meane by formally sinners ? possibly he meaneth that , which otherwise is expressed by inherently sinners : And if so , though Adam's posterity , so soon as they come to have a being , have an universal corruption of Nature convoyed by propagation ; yet that is not it , which is properly said to be Imputed : for that which is imputed , is the guilt of Adam's sin , whereby they become sinners , that is guilty legally , and so obnoxious to punishment , death & condemnation : & this is enough for us ; for as the posterity of Adam have the sin of Adam so imputed to them , that they become guilty and obnoxious to wrath ; so Beleevers have the Righteousness of Christ imputed unto them , and they thereupon are accounted legally righteous . ( 2 ) Whileas he will not grant , that Adam's posterity are sinners by imputation , he joineth with the Socinians , who turne these words vers 12. 〈◊〉 not in whom ; but because , or whereas , which the Ethiopick version doth better sense , saying . Because that sin is imputed unto all men , even unto them who know not what is that sin ; And the Arabick turne thus , seing all have now sinned : and the Syriack word is Behi , or Bhi , which may as well be interpreted in whom , as because . And in several other places , this praeposition so construed , as here in the Greek , hath this same import ; as Mark 2. 4. Luk 5 : 25. & 11 : 22. Rom. 6 : 21. Phil. 4 : 10. 1. Thes. 3 : 7. But enough of this here , seing that matter is sufficiently cleared by the orthodox , writting against the Socinians ; and we have also spoken of it against the Quakers . Againe saith He , Neither doth the Apostle here oppose unto , or compare the Obedience of Christ , with the disobedience of Adam , as one Act unto or with another ; but as Satisfaction to and with the provocation ; or the Remedie to and with the disease . Otherwise he should make sins of Omission to be no disobedience , be cause Omissions are no Acts. Ans. The Apostle so compareth the Obedience of Christ with the disobedience of Adam , as the Satisfaction with the provocation , or as the Remedie with the disease ; as that withall & chiesly , he cleareth up the manner & way thereof to be by Imputation , thus , That as Adam's sin of disobedience ( which includeth both Omission & Commission , being a Violation of the Law , & of the Covenant ) was imputed to his posterity , & they hence became guilty & obnoxious to death , yea & were punished with original Corruption , ( which cometh by propagation ) & the consequences thereof ; so Christ's obedience , which was full & compleat , is imputed unto Beleevers , whereupon they become Righteous , in order to their recovery out of their Natural state of sin and misery . Further He saith , By that obedience of Christ , whereby it is here said , that many are , or shall be made Righteous , that is jus●ified , we cannot understand that Righteousness of Christ , which consists only in obedience to the Moral Law ; but that Satisfactory Righteousness , or obedience , which He performed to that peculiar Law of Mediation , which was imposed upon him , and which chiesly consisted in his sufferings . Ans. By the obedience of Christ unto the Law of Mediation , strickly so taken , as distinguished from His obedience to the Moral Law , beleevers could not be made Righteous , as the posterity of Adam are made sinners by his disobedience ; for that could not be properly imputed , as this is , as hath been shown ; & so Paul's similitude should halt . But ( 2. ) Why is Christ's obedience to the Law of Mediation set in opposition to His obedience to the Moral Law , seing this was a part of that , & unto this He obliged Himself , in undertaking the Mediation . Was He not by the Law of Mediation bound as well to give obedience to the Law , as to suffer the penalty ? And was He not obliged to both , as Surety , in room & place ? And then why may not both be imputed unto them ? ( 3. ) Why should obedience here be thus restricked to the Law of Mediation ? He addeth two reasons , but neither are valide . The 1. is this , Because otherwise the opposition ●etwixt Adam's disobedience , which was but one single Act , and Christ's Obedience , if it were his universal conformity to the Law , would not hold . Ans. This same man told us in his former exception , That Christ's obedience , in respect of Adam's disobedience , was considered & opposed , as the Satisfaction to the provocation , & as the Remedie to the disease : now if this be true , Christ made Satisfaction for no provocation , but for that single act of eating the forbidden fruit : & what He did & suffered should be only a Remedie for that one distemper : & if so , how shall the rest of the Provocations and diseases be taken away ? or are there no more Provocations or diseases ? ( 2. ) Adam's disobedience was no Single act of disobedience ; but a disobedience including the breach of the whole Moral Law : Saith not Iames , that he who offendeth in one , is guilty of all ? Iam. 2 : 10. & prove it too , in the following vers ? The 2. is this , The Effect that is here attributed to this obedience of Christ , to wit , justification , or Righteous making of many , is constantly appropriated to the death & blood of Christ. Ans. This that is attributed to the blood & death of Christ elsewhere , to wit , our justification , sheweth , that the death of Christ is not understood exclusively ; for by His death , exclusivly considered , we cannot-be made Righteous ; for the Imputation of another's suffering , though it may exeem from death & suffering ; yet it cannot constitute Righteous , in reference to the commanding Law. ( 2. ) The death of Christ must not be looked on , as one act of obedience ; but as including all His foregoing acts of obedience , belonging to His State of humiliation , whereof His death was the crowning piece ; & so as including as His whole suffering ; so His whole obedience to the Law , under which he was made : for He is said to have been obedient unto death , even unto the death of the cross Phil. 2 : 8. not that the death of the cross was all His obedience , as it was not the whole state of His humiliation , but the terminating remarkable act thereof ; as it was not all His suffering , His whole life being a life of suffering . ( 3. ) If this obedience be understood of this one act of obedience in His dying , & justification be looked upon , as the effect of this only , what shall become of His Soul-sufferings , while He was in an agonie in the garden ? But if the act of obedience in His death , include these , why not His whole state of humiliation ? And if it include all this , why not also His obedience to the Law , seing His being made under the Law , belongeth to His state of humiliation , as the Apostle tels us Gal. 4 : 4. He excepteth furder , saying , Suppose , that by the obedience of Christ , we should here undorstand , His active obedience to the Moral Law , yet it will not hence follow , that men must be justified , or made Righteous by it , in such a way of imputation . Ans. If by Christ's obedience to the Moral Law , we be made Righteous , as the posterity of Adam were made sinners by the disobedience of Adam , that obedience of Christ must necessarily be imputed to us , as Adam's disobedience was imputed to his posterity : for there is no other way imaginable . Let us hear his reason to the contrary . For certaine it is ( said he ) that that justification or Righteous-making , whereof the Apostle speaketh vers 19. is the same with that , which He had spoken of v. 16 , 17 , 18. Now that Righteousness vers 17. is described vers 16. to be the gift ( i.e. the forgiveness ) of many offences i.e. of all the offences , whereof a man either doth , or shall stand guilty of before God , unto justification : and evident it is , that that Righteousness &c. cannot stand in the Imputation of a fulfilling of the Law. Ans. ( 1. ) Though making Righteous and justification be inseparable ; yet they are not formally one & the same ; but Righteous-making ( to wit by Imputation ) is antecedent unto justification , & the ground thereof , as becoming sinners is not formally to be condemned , but is prior to it , & the ground thereof . ( 2. ) That free gift mentioned vers 16. is not free forgiveness , but is that , which is opposite to judgment , or guilt , or reatus , tending to condemnation ; & so is the same with that which is called the Grace of God , & the gift by Grace vers 15. and the gift of Righteousness vers 17. which is in order to justification & free pardon . As therefore the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , guilt is not the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemnation ; but tendeth thereunto ; so neither is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the free gift the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justification , but leadeth thereunto , & is followed therewith . ( 3. ) Nor can the Adversary Himself take these words vers 16. the free gift is of many offences , to be the same with free pardon of many offences , else he must say , that this free pardon goeth before justification & consequently is not justification it self , as he saith else where ; for the text saith , that the free gift is of many offences unto justification ; as judgment or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was antecedent to condemnation . ( 4. ) So then , the true meaning is , that the free gift of Righteousness hath respect unto many sinnes , to the end , that justification & pardon , that followeth thereupon , might be full , whileas the guilt , that was imputed to Adam's posterity , had respect only to his first breach of the Covenant , for which all were made obnoxious to condemnation . Lastly He saith . It is but loose and unsavoury argueing , to reason from a thing simply done , to a determinat manner of doing of it : so is it to reason from being made Righteous , to a being made Righteous by Imputation . Ans. The particular manner or way how we are made Righteous , is aboundantly signified by our being made & constitute Righteous by the Righteousness of another , who was our Head , Representative & Surety : & that because it can be imagined to be no other way , than by Imputation . And Further , the whole discurse of the Apostle here , & particularly the comparison so much here insisted upon , putteth the matter beyond all debate . As Adam's sin was imputed to his posterity , whereby all were accounted sinners , & dealt with as such , even as guilty , by reason of Adam's act of sin : So Christ's Righteousness becometh ours by Imputation , & we are made Righteous & accounted such & dealt with as such , upon the account thereof . No man can imagine , how one shall be accounted guilty , & punished as guilty of a sinful act , done by another , unless the guilt of that sinful act be imputed to him ; so no man can imagine , how one can be accounted Righteous , & dealt with as such , upon the account of the Righteousness of another , if that Righteousness of the other be not imputed to him . And beside , This is called a gift , a free gift , & a free gift of Righteousness , & a free gift of Righteousness received , which fully pointe forth this Imputation , which we contend for . Fiftly . Rom. 8 : 3 , 4. For what the Law could not do , in that it was weak through the flesh , God , sending His own Son , in the likeness of sinful flesh , & for sin condemned sin in the flesh , that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us . The Law could not help a sinner from under the Curse , nor unto the recompence of reward , because it was weak through the flesh , through the sin & corruption of man , whereby he could not give right and full obedience thereunto . And therefore God sent His Son , in the likeness of sinful flesh , who by His obedience & suffering , in His state of humiliation , took away the sting of death , & the strength of sin , by satisfying all the demandes of the Law , the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the jus & right of the Law , which consisted in yeelding full & perfect obedience , & in making full Satisfaction for the violation committed : for the Law said , cursed is every one , that continueth not in all things , which are written therein , to do them Deut. 27 : 26. Gal. 3 : 13. And the Righteousness , which is of the Law , is , that the man , who doth these things , shall live by them . And this was so ordered , that the Righteousness of the Law , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Law , the jus and demand of the Law mentioned , might be fulfilled in us , that is , in our Nature , by the Redeemer & Surety , who did & suffered all this in & for His own . The Ethiopik Version is a clear commentary , and when we were impotent to do the commands of the Law , God sent His own Son for that sin , who took on our body of sin , & condemned sin it self in our body , that he might justifie us , & be propitious unto us , and that so he might fulfill the work of the commands of the Law for them , who walk in the Law of the holy Spirit . Let us now see what John Goodwine excepteth p. 145. &c. He saith . ( 1. ) Some understand this rather of Sanctification , than of justification ; & by the fulfilling of the Righteousness of the Law , that Evangelical obedience to the precepts thereof , which all those , that truely beleeve in Christ , do in part performe , and desire and strive to performe more perfectly . Ans. Gospel justification & Gospel-Sanctification agree well together , and Christ is the true foundation & cause of both . But that this is to be understood rather of justification , appeareth hence . ( 1. ) That this is a further explication & confirmation of what was said vers 1. There is therefore now no Condemnation to them , which are in Christ Iesus ( 2. ) all that measure of Sanctification , which the Saints through Grace attaine unto here , cannot be called a fulfilling of the Righteousness of the Law , the Lawes demands are not thereby satisfied ; for it calleth for perfect obedience , which none of the Sanctified can give . ( 3. ) If this were understood of Sanctification , why are these words added , who walk not after the flesh , bue after the Spirit ? 2. He said . By the Righteousness of the Law , which is here said to be fulfilled in beleevers , cannot be meant the Righteousness or active obedience of Christ imputed , because it must of necessity be such a Righteousness and such a fulfilling , as may be apprehended as a proper and sutable effect of Christ's condemning sin in the flesh , as the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 declareth . But it is unpessible that the active obedience of Christ , or the imputation of it , should be any proper effect of condemning sin in the flesh , that is of the abolishing or taking away the guilt , or the accusing and condemning power of sin ; for when the guilt of sin is purged away , there needeth no other Righteousness , nor Imputation of Righteousness for justification . Ans. ( 1. ) Christ's obedience & Suffering need not be distinguished , both being done in His state of humiliation , and belonging-thereto , & both being necessary to answere the demand of the Law , which we did lye under : Christ performed both , to the end the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or jus & right of the Law might be ful●illed in us , and for us , by this Surety . And before guilt be purged away , we must have both imputed to us ; for justification by saith must not make the Law void , but rather establish it . ( 2. ) Neither is this vers 4. to be looked on , as holding forth the end of that , which did immediatly preceed in the end of vers 3. or of Christ's condemning sin in the flesh ; but rather as a further end of God's sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh ; or as a comprehensive end of all that was mentioned before . 3. He saith . That clause in them still notes either a subjective inhesion of some things in persons , or else some kind of Efficiency . But the Righteousness of Christ is Subjectively and inherently in Himself only ; nor are we the workers of this righteousness . Ans. Though the Righteousness of Christ be subjected in Him only , & wrought by Him alone : yet the same being imputed unto Beleevers , the Righteousness of the Law may be said to be fulfilled in them because by faith they are in Christ , & Christ is in them : and in them , is as much , as for them , or upon them , or on their account ( as this same person hereafter granteth , in a like case ) & so it is accepted of God for all ends , as if it were performed by them ; & so it is fulfilled in our nature , for for this end , He came in the likeness of sinful flesh . 3. He saith . If by Righteousness of the Law we understand that entire obedience , which every beleever , according to the great variety of their several conditions , callings , & relations stand bound to performe , it cannot be said to be fulfilled in them , by the imputation of Christ's righteousness : for every beleever is bound to many moe particular acts , than can be found in all that golden Catalogue of works of Righteousness performed by Christ. Ans. If the works of Righteousness , performed by Christ , shall not be a compleat Righteousness , that can Satisfie the demandes of the Law , where shall beleevers get a compleet Righteousness ? Shall their poor imperfect obedience , wherewith themselves are not satisfied , but complaine much of , and mourne for , be a more perfect & compleat fulfilling of the Righteousness of the Law , than was the perfect obedience of Christ , with which the Father was well pleased ? Or shall the single & weak act of their Faith ( as this Author saith ) be a more entire fulfilling of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Law , than the Catalogue of the works of Righteousness , performed by Christ ? What probable ground is there for this imagination ? ( 2. ) Christ's obedience was perfect , & the Law-giver was satisfied there with , & accepted of it , in the behalfe of all the chosen ones , & all their defects & sinnes , in their various conditions , callings & Relations , were done away by the Satisfaction made by Christ : so that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Law was perfectly fulfilled , in their behalf ; & this being imputed unto them & received by faith , no more is requisite unto a stateing of them into a state of pardon & right to glory . 5. He saith . The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth not obedience to or conformity with the Law , but rather that justification , which was the end and intent of the Law , or rather that jus , or right , or Law ( as it were ) of the Law. Ans. But all this will not weaken our Argument : for that right , jus , or demand of the Law was , as to us now sinners , both Satisfaction for transgressions committed , and full and compleat obedience ; & till both were done & performed , there could be no justification of sinners : and so this rather establisheth than hurteth the doctrine of Imputation , whatever he may imagine . 6. He saith By the word Law , cannot necessarily be understood the Moral Law for 1. The weakness of the Law extends also to the judicial and Ceremonial . 2. The jewes , to whom he specially addresseth himself , in all this disputati●n , built as much on the observation of the Ceremonial Law. 3. The Moral Law , though perfectly observed , could not have justified all men , at least , not the jewes , who were obliged to the observation of other Lawes . 4. The Imputation of the observation of the Moral Law would not have served for the justification of the jewes , who were under the transgression of , other Lawes . Ans. It wi●● satisfie us , if by the Law here be understood , that universal Rule of Righteousness , which God prescribed unto men , & that certainely is the Moral Law , whereof , as to the jewes , the Ceremonial & judicial were a part , or were reduced unto : & particularly the Ceremonial Law , being God's instituted worship , they were obliged to observe it by vertue of the Second command . And thus both the Exception , & all the Reasons confirming it , evanish : for ( 1. ) we take not the Law here so narrowly , as to exclude the other lawes , which God gave to the jewes , seing they are all reduced there unto , & comprehended thereunder . ( 2. ) Paul is here mainly writting for Information of the Gentiles , the Church of Rome ; & though there might be some jewes among them , & what he saith may be also for their use : yet this will not prove that by the Law , he understandeth any other , than that perfect rule of Righteousness , which God gave unto them , comprehending these other Lawes , as appendices thereof . ( 3. ) The Moral Law , thus taken , if observed , could have justified even jewes , if we suppose they had not been born sinners . ( 4. ) Christ having fulfilled all Righteousness , His Righteousness was an observation of this Universal Law : & therefore the Imputation thereof can serve for the justification both of jewes & Gentiles . Lastly He saith . The clear meaning of the place seemeth to be this , That that justification , or way of making men Righteous , which the writings of Moses prophefied of long since , to wit , by faith in the Messiah , might be accomplished , made good , and fully manifested in us , or upon us , viz in our justification , who by an eminency of holiness in our lives , above the straine and pitch of men under the Law , give testimony unto the world , that the Messiah , the great justifier , is indeed come into the world , and having suffered for sin and overcome death , hath poured out the Spirit of Grace aboundantly upon those that beleeve . Ans. ( 1. ) To take the Law here for the meer writtings of Moses , & then to Interpret the fulfilling thereof , as is here done , is to exclude the witnessing of the Prophets , which Paul expresly mentioneth Rom. 3 : 21. ( 2. ) What could this contribute to prove , that there was now no condemnation to such , as were in Christ Jesus , among the Gentiles ? ( 3. ) How can this be a proof of what was said vers 3. foregoing ? ( 4. ) How can this be the end of Christ's condemning sin in the flesh , as himself said it was , Except 2 ? ( 5. ) He told us before , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did properly Signifie jus , right , or Law of the Law , now I pray , what is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this jus , right , of Moses's writtings ? And how is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o● Righteousness fulfilled ? ( 6. ) What then can be meant by the weakness of Moses's writtings ? or how could they be said to be weak through the flesh ? ( 7. ) And how could God be said , by this Interpretation , to send His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh , because Moses's writtings were weak through the flesh ? ( 8. ) I see then , in us may import the same that upon us importeth , though it was excepted against formerly , as we heard ( 9. ) It seemeth by this Interpretation , that there was no Eminency of holiness or walking after the Spirit , among those , who were under the Law ; which is utterly false ▪ ( 10. ) Christ , by His coming , did not only fulfill Moses's writtings , but also all the predictions & prophecies , many of which are else where to be found , than in Moses's writtings . Yet to fortifie this Audacious & groundless Interpretation . He tels us 1. That this Interpretation ( as far at least , as ●oncerneth the clause in question , that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us ) is confirmed by the sweet proportion between , such a fulfilling &c. as the effect , & that sending of Christ &c. as the cause or meanes thereof . Ans. But before this proportion appear to be so sweet , it must be shown to us , what proportion there is hereby kept with the manifest scope of the Apostle , which is to cleare & explaine , how there is now no condemnation to them , which are in Christ Jesus , notwithstanding of the weakness of the Law , through the flesh . As also it must be shown to us , what interest these words , for what the Law could not do , in that it was weak through the flesh , have , or can have , in this Interpretation : for a proportion , that suiteth not all the parts of the Text , is but a disproportion , being a plaine perversion of the true meaning of the words . He tels us . 2. In this Interpretation the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fulfilled hath its proper & genuine force , which is to signify the accomplishment , making good , or full manifestation of a thing , which before was only promised , or foretold . Ans. Not only the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often taken in another sense than is here alleged , as we see Rom. 13 : 8. Gal. 5 : 14. but the very verb in the same Tense & Mood , that is here viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used , to import some other thing , than a fulfilling of what was promised , as we see 2. Cor. 10 : 6. when your obedience is fulfilled , that is , perfected , established & confirmed . So Ioh. 15 : 11. & that your joy might be full , or fulfilled , that is , might be aboundant and full in all points , and upon all considerations . So Luk. 22 : 16. untill it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of heaven , that is , perfected . He tels us . 3. The Righteousness of the Law here must be the same with that mentioned . Rom. 3 : 21 , 31. Ans. The Righteousness of the Law here , is the Lawes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , jus , right & demand , which was Satisfied by what Christ , the Surety , did & Suffered . But that Righteousness , mentioned Rom. 3 : 21. is the Righteousness of God , or of Christ , which he performed , to Satisfie the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Righteousness of the Law ; & so they are not the same formally , this being the obligation , & that the payment . It is true , the Law here & Rom. 3 : 31. is the same ; & that maketh for us , as appeareth by our foregoing Vindication of that place . He tels us ▪ 4. By this Interpretation , this passage is of perfect Sympathy with those Rom. 3 : 21 , 22 , 25. Ans. This also will make for us , as appeareth by our foregoing Vindication , where this gloss was rejected : & I wonder , how he could imagine such a perfect agreement , seing there mention is made of the Prophets , as well as of the Law , giving countenance to Gospel Justification : but here by his Interpretation , only the Law of Moses is understood : where then will he make his harmony appear ? And what would he hence inferre ? 1. ( saith he ) That the righteousness of God , that is , the way that God holds for justification of men , stands in remission of sins Ans. Of this we have hithertill seen neither peer nor peep : pardon of sins hath no affinity with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 legis , the righteousness of the law . 2. Saith he That this righteousness or justification of his is witnessed , that is , asserted & vindicated by the law , that is , the writtings of Moses . Ans. Neither is Righteousness & justification one & the same thing , as we said above , nor are the writtings of Moses all the law & the prophets . Neither is witnessed by the law the same , with fulfilling of the law . 3. Saith he , That this way was not manifested , declared , or fulfilled , that is , fully revealed to the bottom & foundation of it , till the coming of Christ , & dying for sin . Ans. What ever truth be in this , there is no foundation for it here , but in his Imagination ; as is manifest from what is said . And thus this place is vindicated . Sixtly . He mentioneth next , that he may except against , Rom. 9 : 31 , 32. But why is not vers 30. mentioned ? Is it because the matter is there too clearly hold forth ? The Apostle doth there expresly say , That the Gentiles , which followed not after righteousness , That is , did not pretend to justification by the●r own works ; nor once think , by their own works to patch up a righteousness , wherein they might appeare before God , and be absolved ) have attained to righteousness . even the righteousness which is of faith ( that is , have a righteousness imputed to them , & they made possessours there of by faith , laying hold upon it ) But Israel ( as it followeth vers 31. ) who followed after the law of righteousness , hath not attained to the law of righteousness , ( That is . Isra●l , who conceiting their own works , & crying them up , and seeking after Absolution , justification & life , by the law of righteousness , and their conformity thereunto , & that with all earnestness & eager persecution , have not attained to that , they were pursueing after ) vers 32. Wherefore ? because they sought it not by faith , but as it were by the works of the law ( that is , They would not submit to the Gospel-way of justification , through the righteousness of Christ , laid hold on by faith ; but would still be essaying the way of works ; though all they did , was rather a shadow of obedience , or of conformity to the law , than a true performance of what was commanded . ) The Aethiopick Version , though a corrupt Translation , yet hinteth something of the true sen●e , saying , But Israel , following after their law , could not be justified because they did not performe compleatly the commands of the law . Wherefore ? Because the law doth not justifie , but only is by faith , which perfecteth the accomplishment thereof . And we may further notice here , that what the Apostle , when speaking of the Jewes , calleth the law of righteousness , he called , while speaking of the Gentiles , simply Righteousness : and what he there called the righteousness of faith ; he here , speaking of the jewes ▪ calleth by faith , in opposition to the works of the law . What excepteth Mr. Goodwine ? He saith 1. That by the law of righteousness here cannot be meant the moral law , or any law : for God had prevented them with the gift of all these , so that they needed not have soughs after them . Ans. But Cal●in thinketh there is an Hypallage here , & the law of Righteousness is put for the Righteousness of the law . And if we take the law of Righteousness here for the law of that law ( as he himself spoke above ) that is that forme of righteousness and holiness , which the law called for , will not this satisfie ? But the matter is plaine , Their fault was , that they sought after a righteousness , by their owne obedience to the law ; & neglected that righteousness , which the Gentils attained by faith , viz. the Righteousness of Christ , at whom they stumbled , vers 32. 33. And the Righteousness of God , of which they were wholly ignorant , Rom. 10 : 3. This was not a simple endeavour of keeping the law ( as he hinteth in the following words , where he would preoccupy this objection ; and then tell us , that this study could be no cause of their coming short of righteousness , as Christians are never further off from justification , by keeping the commands of God ) but a proposeing of that designe of attaining a Righteousness by their own works , whereby alone they might be justified . And when Christians endeavour after holiness , but not from Gospel-principles , nor upon Gospel-grounds ; but to the end they may attaine unto a Righteousness of their owne , by their works of obedience ; they prejudge themselves of justification : for thus they do not lay hold on Christ , but reject Him , and stumble at that stumbling stone , that is at Christ , who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that beleeveth , Rom. 10 : 4. 2. He faith , neither Calvine , nor any other restaine the law to the Moral law . Ans. Nor do we so restraine it to that law , strikly so taken ; but comprehend thereby all that God prescribed for a righteousness ; and this is the Moral law , in its full sense ; the ceremonial & judicial being parts thereof & appendices thereto . 3. He saith , There is no reason to limite this to the Moral law only , for the jewes sought righteousness by the Ceremonial also . Ans. This is but the same with the former ; and we have told him , that the Ceremonial law was then enjoined by the Moral law ; & so the Moral law did comprehend it , so long as the Ceremonial law was unrepealed . And whatever law it was , their seeking of righteousness by it , and their refusing of Christ and his Righteousness went together ; and they so pursued after it , that they sought Righteousness by their obedience to it ; and did not seek by faith after Christs Righteousness , nor would they submit thereunto . 4. He saith , The righteousness of the Moral law alone , suppose they should have attained to it by beleeving , could have stood them in no stead , they being bound also to the observation of the Ceremonial law . Ans. This hath been answered before . Christ fulfilled all righteousness , and satisfied that law of righteousness , which was an Universal Rule of righteousness ; & so comprehended the ceremonial lawes , so long as they were in force : so that if they had forsaken their own righteousness , and embraced by faith the righteousness of Christ , they had been certainely saved ; & the Imputation of this Righteousness had made them up . Lastly , he saith , The clear sense is , that the law of righteousness is justification it self , or righteousness simply and , indefinitely taken , which the jewes seeking to attaine to by the works of the law , that is , by themselves , & the merites of their own doings , and not by faith in Iesus Christs , lost Gods favour and perished in their sinnes . Ans. ( 1 ) That the jewes sought after justification by the merites of their own works , otherwise than merites are included in all works , is not manifest , in this place . ( 2 ) Otherwayes this may passe for part of the sense , for by faith he understands the act of faith it self , as our righteousness , & not the Righteousness of Christ , which faith laith hold on , or faith as laying hold on & receiving a Surety-righteousness , which is here imported , when the contrary is expressed of the jewes , & of them it is said , that they stumbled at that stumbling stone ; & in the next chapter it is said , they would not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God. What he addeth , as a confirmation of this interpretation , is to no purpose , for he speaketh nothing to cleare the maine thing in doubt ; but all is to prove , that by the law of righteousness , Righteousness is meaned ; which is not denied : & withall he taketh for granted , what is not proved , & hath been denied , viz. That Righteousness and Justification are one & the same thing . Seventhly , Rom. 10 : 3 , 4. A passage cleat & pregnant for our purpose , where the Apostle is but prosecuting the same purpose , as to the jewes , and shewing whence their disappointement & missing of that came , which they so earnestly endeavoured after , viz. A righteousnss by which they might be justified before God : for ( saith the Apostle ) they being ignorant of Gods Righteousness , and going about to establish their own righteousness , have not submitted themselves unto the Righteousness of God : for Christ is the end of the law for righteousnes to every one that beleeveth . There is a Righteousness here called Gods Righteousness , which is opposite to , & inconsistent with mens owne righteousness , that is , all that is done by them in conformity to the law of God , as a righteousness , whereupon to be justified : yea , so great is this opposition , that who ever laboures most to establish & set on foot his own Righteousness , or to seek after a Righteousness by his own performances , is furthest from the Righteousness of God , as being both ignorant thereof , and in pride refuising to submit thereunto . This Righteousness of God is explained vers 4. to be the end of the law , that is , the full righteousness , which the law , in its primitive institution , called for , & which is the accomplishment of the lawes designe , as proposed to be a Rule of Righteousness , and the condition of life promised , upon the performance thereof . And Christ is said to be this end of the law for righteousness . He , by yeelding perfect obedience , hath brought forth a righteousness , in which the law hath its End , And Christ is this , to every one that beleeveth , the righteousness being made over unto them , who beleeve , and by faith lay hold on him ; which , because the Gentiles did , they therefore attained to this righteousness , Rom. 9 : 30. Mr. Goodwine , pag. 137. &c. excepteth several wayes , 1 There is ( saith he ) no coloure of Reason , that by the law here should be meaned precisely & determinatly the Moral law ; because the jewes never dreamed of justification by this law only , but chiefly by the Ceremonial law . Besides , vers 5. he citeth that description , which Moses giveth of the righteousness of the law not out of any passage of the Moral law ; but out of the heart , as is were of the ceremonial law , Lev. 18 : 5. Ans. The first part of this Exception hath been often answered : we take not the Moral law so precisely & determinatly , as not to include , as parts or appendices , all other lawes given by God. And the last part of this Exception will say nothing , unless he think , this law is precisely & determinatly to be understood of the Ceremonial law , excluding all others , & especially the Moral law , taken as distinct from judicial and ceremonial . But why doth he say , that this description of the righteousness of the law is taken out of the heart of Ceremonials , seing in the place cited , both before and after the words , morals are mentioned ? yea that whole Chapt. is taken up , in rehearsing morals . Except 2. Neiter is it any wayes agreable to truth , that the Righteousness of Christ imputed to beleevers , should be called ; the end of the moral Law , for no Law , considered simply as such , is any cause or meanes of justifing a person , than by the observation of it self ; & consequently justification by Christ cannot be conceived to be the end of the moral Law : for nothing can properly be said to be the intent or end of a thing , but that which in likelyhood may be obtained by it . Now it is impossible that justification by Christ should be procured by the moral Law. It may be said , with a for more favourable aspect to truth , that Christ is the end of the Ceremonial Law ; yet not simply considered , as a Law , but as comprehending in it such & such usages & rites typifying Christ. Ans. ( 1. ) This whole Exception looketh with a very ill favoured aspect both to truth & modesty : For its scope & drift is not so much against the truth which we maintaine , as against the Apostle Paul himself , & against the language of the Spirit of Lord ; for it faith this in effect ; that either the Apostle spoke not truth , or spoke not good sense , when he said , that Christ was the end of the Law : for ( to use Mr. Goodwin's reason ) as nothing can be properly said to be the Intent or end of a thing but that which in likelihood may be obtained by it ; so nothing can be said to be the Intent & end of a Law , but what in likelihood may be obtained by it : But how can any think , that Christ can be , in any likelihood obtained by the Law ? ( 2. ) But we say not , that justification by Christ is had by the moral Law : yet , why the righteousness of Christ , consisting in perfect obedience to the Law , & in full answering of the same , in all its demands , may not be called the end or fulfulling of the Law , I see not ; especially seing the Apostle saith expresly , that Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness . The question being moved about a Righteousness , required by the Law , & this not being to be found in Man's obedience , but in Christ's , who was the end of the Law for righteousness , the Law hath its full accomplissement in him also when He suffered , & satisfied the Sanction of the Law , the Law had satisfaction , or the Law-giver rather , & the Law its end & accomplishement , Now this Righteousness of Christ being imputed to beleevers , they are thereupon justified , & the Law is satisfied . And though the Law because it was weak throuw the flesh , could not bring about this righteousness , & this end , in us ; yet Christ having answered all the demands of the Law , & given full Satisfaction both in point of obedience , & in point of Suffering , the Law hath its full accomplishment in Him , & that End , which is here meaned ( 3 ) We do not say , that the Righteousness of Christ , imputed to beleeleevers , is , or is called , the end of the moral Law : but that Christ came , & was made under the Law , that He might answer all the demands thereof ; & both satisfie for its violation , & yeeld perfect obedience unto its commands ; & so fulfill it in all points : So that it had its end & accomplishment in & through Him , & what He did & suffered : & that He submitted Himself hereunto , that He might make up a righteousness , wherewith the Law should be satisfied , for the justification of Believers . ( 4. ) Though the Moral Law , nor no Law , considered in it self , can be any cause or meanes of justifying a person , otherwise than by the observation of it self ; & though justification by Christ cannot be conceived to be the end of moral Law : yet in Christ's obedience & Suffering , the Law may be said to have received its Accomplishment and Satisfaction ; & thereby a compleat Righteousness may be said to be obtained for all Believers . Except . 3. The Greek Expositors make Christ in this sense , to be called the end of the law for righteousness , because he performed , or exhibited unto them that , which the law propounded to it self , as its end , & would have performed , but could not , to wit , their justification . Ans. Seing the law ptopounded their justification , as its end , only by the perfect observation of it self , or by a full & perfect conformity unto it , Christ cannot be called the end or accomplishment of the law , unless He had performed all that , which the law required : nor could He be called the end of the law for righteousness , unless He had fully satisfied the law ; and thereby made up a Righteousness , in the behalfe , & for the behove of Believers , to whom it being Imputed , they might be accepted , & justified upon the account thereof . And this righteousness , where with the law was satisfied , & wherin it had its full accomplishment , is , I grant , exhibited in the Gospel , to the end , that all , who would be justified , may lay hold on it , receive it , & rest upon it , as the only righteousness , in and through which they desire to be accepted , and to stand before God , the righteous judge . Except . 4. Some conceive , that Christ is said to be the end of the law , &c. Because the law , by convinceing men of sin , and exacting of them a Righteousness , which it doth not enable them to performe ; & againe by threatning & condemning them for the want of it , it doth as good as lead them by hand to Christ by whom they are freely justified . But neither doth this seem to be the meaning of the place . Ans. Seing he himself is not satisfied with this interpretation , he might have forborne to have added it . But as for the interpretation it self , I judge the thing said to be true , and that it hath a subordinat aspect unto what we have said ; & holdeth forth part of the truth ; though it be not a plaine and full exposition of the place : for there is mention made here of a Righteousness of God , which the jewes neither understood , not would submit unto : but in opposition to this they went about to establish their own righteousness , that is , to seek after a righteousness by their own works , or by their own obedience to the law ; & therefore did misse their end : for this righteousness , which they were seeking after ▪ & which they could not attaine unto , by all their own acts of obedience ; that is , a righteousness , that was a perfect obedience & conformity to the law , & withall a Sufficient compensation & Satisfaction for the breaches of the law , already committed , was only to be found in Christ , who is the end of the law for righteousness , that is , made full Satisfaction for the breaches committed , and performed compleat and perfect obedience , which the law did principally require ( what ever other accidental ends it might have had , or the law-giver in promulgating it , & accompanying it with other things , as to the Nation of the jewes ) because for this end was the law , as a law , given by the law-giver , that Subjects might walk according to the same , and that they might become thereby righteous , and have a right to the reward promised , by fulfilling this condition of the Covenant . Now , when these ends ( or this end , putting these together as one ) were onely attained by what Christ did and suffered , the jewes , who stumbled at this stumbling stone , & rejected this righteousness of God , could never be justified by all their own acts of obedience to the law , how zealously so ever they should have sougt after a rigteousness thereby . Except . 6. ( The 5. we passe , because he laith no weight on it him self ) The plaine & direct meaning is , that the law , that is , the whole Mosaical dispensation was for that end given by God to the jewes , that whilst it did continue , it might instruct and teach them , concerning the Messiah , who was yet to come , and by his death to make atonement for their sinnes , that so they might beleeve in Him accordingly and be justified : and further that in time , that Nation might be trained up & prepared for the Messiah himself , and that Oeconomy & perfection of worship & service , which He should bring with him , & establish in the world at his coming . Ans. What was said to the two foregoing Exceptions , may serve for an answere to this : for what ever truth may be in this ; yet it is no true sense & exposition of the place ; because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that beleeveth ; & so to the Gentiles , as well as to the jewes ; whereas this gloss limiteth & restricketh all to the jewes . ( 2 ) There is nothing here , keeping correspondence with what is said , vers 3. touching their going about to establish their own righteousness and refuising to submit unto the righteousness of God. 3. The righteousness of the law , described by Moses , & here cited vers 5. hath no interest in the Mosaical Oeconomy , as given for the mentioned end to the jewes . ( 4 ) If Christ made an atonement for sins , & was to be bele●ved in accordingly , by such as would be justified , then that atonement was to be made over unto them & reckoned upon their score , to the end they might be justified upon the account thereof . ( 5 ) The Text saith , that Christ was the end of the law for righteousness ; & so was to bring in everlasting Righteousness , as well as to make atonement for sins , Dan. 9 : 24. ( 6 ) The perfection of that service & worship , which Christ was to establish at His coming , was a clearer manifestation of the Gospel of the Grace of God , whereby the Righteousness of God , or the Surety-righteousness of Christ , was imputed unto Beleevers , & received by faith , in order to justification , as the whole Gospel declareth . He laboureth to confirme this gloss with two reasons , 1. Because the jewes sought Righteousness & self justification , as well from the observation of the Ceremonial , as of the Moral law . 2. Because Christ is held forth ; as the end of this dispensation , 2 Cor. 3 : 13. Gal. 3 : 24. Ans. As to the first of the reasons , we have often replied to it already . And the second will not prove , that there is no other interpretation of this passage , that can have place . And beside , That whole Oeconomy did pointe out and lead them to the Messiah , that in Him they might find that , which they were seeking after by their own works , & all in vaine ; even the Righteousness of God , which will sufficiently cloth all beleevers , and both keep them from wrath due for sin , & give them a right to glory . So that even this sense , if rightly understood , doth rather strengthen than hurt imputed Righteousness . Eightly . 1 Cor. 1 : 30. Is excepted against by him pag. 162. &c. To which we may adde vers 29. & 31. Which will help to cleare the matter . That no flesh should glory in His presence : but of Him are ye in Christ Iesus , who of God is made unto us Wisdom , Righteousness , Sanctification & Redemption . That according at it is written , he that glorieth , let him glory in the Lord. All the work of God in and about His chosen ones , is so contrived , that no flesh should have ground to glory in the presence of God ; but that he , who glorieth , should glory in the Lord : and therefore He hath made Christ to be all things to them , that they stand in need of , in order to their everlasting enjoyment of Himself ; and particulary , Christ is said to be made of God to us ( among other things , which our necessity calleth for ) Righteousness , answering His Name the LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS , Ier. 23 : 6. And a Righteousness he cannot be made unto us , any other way , than by clothing us ( who are naked and have no righteousness of our own ) with a Righteousness ; that is , by Imputing to us His Righteousness , that we may thereby become Righteous , & be looked upon , as such , and so be accepted of God , & justified . Except . 1. Christ is no other way said to be made righteousness , then He is said to be made Wisdom , &c. Therefore we may as well plead for the Imputation of His Wisdom , or His Sanctification : there is no more intimation made of the Imputation of the one then of the other . Ans. This is but the old exception of Socinus part . 4. de Servant , Cap. 5. And of Volkel . De vera Relig. Cap. 21. p. 566. And it standeth upon this onely ground , That Christ is made all these particulars to us here mentioned , after one & the same manner : and what that manner is , should be declared : & of necessity it must be a very general one , otherwise it shall not agree to all these particulars . Therefore Socinus hath devised a very general manner of way , saying in the place cited : That all this signifieth nothing else , than that we have attained to that by Gods providence , through Christ , that we are become wise , holy & redeemed before Gods : & that therefore Christ is said to be righteousness to us , because through the providence of God by Christ , we have attained to be just before God. But this general way maketh us not one white wiser . Volkelius , in the place cited , giveth us no relief , but only tels us , That Christ is said to be made all these to us ; because he was the cause of all these ; & because God , by his meanes , made us wise & holy , & will at length redeem us . Bellarm. condescendeth to tell us , that He is said to be our Righ●eousness , because He is the efficient cause thereof . But how that is , he doth not explaine : But Bellarm. next answere is to some better purpose ; Christ ( saith he ) is said to be our Righteousness because He satisfied the Father for us ; and doth so give and communicat that Satisfaction to us , when he justifieth us , that it may be called our Satisfaction & Righteousness . ( 2 ) Such as oppose us here , do ( & must necessarily so do ) speak of this matter , as if Righteousness & Sanctification were one & the same thing ; & so give us here a most needless Tautologie . And others , who will not yeeld to imputed Righteousness , & yet will grant a difference betwixt Righteousness & Sanctification , must tell us distinctly , how He is the one , & how He is the other , to His chosen ones . ( 3. ) Wisdom & Sanctification are of a different Nature from Righteousness ; for Righteousness cannot be here taken for Inherent Grace & Holiness ; for then it should be the same with Sanctification , & so there must needs be here a Tautology ; & withall no perfect enumeration of the several great things , we stand in need of , & Christ is made to be unto us of God : & seing they are different , there is ground to say , that He is not to us Righteousness , the same way that He is Sanctification ; Sanctification is wrought in us by His Spirit ; but so is not Righteousness ; for if we had a Righteousnes wrought in us , we should be justified by vertue thereof , & upon the account thereof ; & if we be justified by a Righteousness within us , we are justified by our own works , & by the law , contrary to all the Apostles disput , & contrary to what preceedeth & followeth the words under consideration ; for then he who glorieth might glory in himself , & not in the Lord alone . 4. Al these particulars here mentioned , we must have or finde in Christ , as the Ae●●●opik version hath it , & each , according to its Nature . And withall we must be made partakers & pos●essors of them all , according as the Nature of the benefite will admit : & therefore , as Christ is forthcoming to His chosen ones , for Wisdom , so as they may really become wise ; for Sanctification , that they may become holy ; & for Redemption , that they may be redeemed : so is He forthcoming to His own for Righteousness , that they may be justified ; for though Righteousness & justified be not one & the same , as our Excepter often alleigeth ; yet they have constant respect to other , and are inseparable , in our case . If then we finde a Righteousness in Christ , for justification , that Righteousness must be made ours , & this being a Righteousness , that is not our own , before it be made our own , it must be imputed to us , that we may be there by justified . He addeth , Suppose , Christ were made Righteousness unto us by Imputation : yet this special manner of his being righteousness to us , must be made out by other Scriptures , than this : as because a rich man hath silver & gold & jewels in possession , it will not follow , that he hath silver in one chest , and gold in another , jewels in a third . Ans. Christs being made Righteousness to us , who have no Righteousness of our own , in order to our justification , saith , that the Righteousness , we have from Him , can be no otherwayes ours than by Imputation , for it cannot be wrought in us , else it should be the same with Holiness & Sanctification . And therefore the similitude of gold , silver & jewels is not worth a straw , in this case ; because the dissimilitude is obvious . Except . 2. The meaning only is this , That Christ is made , ordained of God , to be the author , or sole meanes , by way of merite of our justification . Ans. ( 1 ) According to his former exception , it will follow hence , that He worketh not Holiness & Wisdom in us , by His Word and Spirit ; but only is the meanes thereof , by way of merite : for he will have Christ to be all these particulars to us , one & the same way . ( 2 ) This differeth little from the answere of Schlightingius cont . Meisnerum , p. 250. who saith , It is enough that Christs righteousness be the cause of our justification : & Christ may be said to be made righteousness to us , because his righteousness redoundeth to our good and justification . ( 3 ) It is not said , that Christ is made justification to us ; but it is said , He is made Righteousness to us , & though it is true , that He hath merited our justification ; yet when He is said to be made of God Righteousness to us , it is apparent , that He bestoweth a Righteousness upon us , in order to justification , or He must be Righteousness to us , ere we be justified : & how shall we partake of His Righteousness , if not by Imputation ? ( 4 ) Christ can not be the Author , or sole meanes , by way of merite , of our justification , till we have a Righteousness ; that is , He must be the sole Author & Meanes of a Righteousness ; for we must not say , That He hath merited , that we shall be justified without a Righteousness , it being an abomination to the Lord , that even a terrene judge should justifie one , that hath no Righteousness . If then He hath merited , that we shall be justified by having a Righteousness , that Righteousness must be within us , or without us : if within us , then He hath merited , that we shall be justified by the works of righteousness , which we do , & by the law , & by the works of the law , contrary to the whole Gospel : If without us , then it must either be Christs own Righteousness , or the Righteousness of some other . It cannot be the Righteousness of any other , as will easily be granted : and if it be Christs Righteousness , it must be imputed to us , to the end it may be ours , and we justified thereby : and this is the thing we press . He addeth , to confirme this sense , That Righteousness is very frequently used for justification . Ans. Thus he gaineth nothing : for . ( 1 ) That will not prove , that it is so used here . ( 2 ) And though it did Import justification here ; yet seing there is no justification before God , without a Righteousness , it would say , That Christ were our Righteousness too , or that He merited a Righteousness for us : and what is that Righteousness , that He hath procured , that we shall have , in order to our justification ? Is it the Righteousness of our own works ? Then He hath merited , that our works shall merite justification ; & why not also glorification ? Is not this to overturne th● 〈◊〉 Gospel ▪ He addeth . 2. Righteousness or justification , which Beleevers have in or by Christ , is still attributed unto His death & Sufferings , & never to His active obedience . Ans. But he hath forgetten what is said , Rom. 4 : 25. Who was delivered for our offences , and was raised againe for our justification . Sure , His Resurrection was neither His death , nor His Sufferings . He hath forgotten also what is said , Rom. 5 : 19. So by the obedience of one , shall many be made righteous . And to be Righteous , and to be justified , is all one with him , as we have oft-times heard . Except . 3. This will not say , That Christs active obedience only is imputed ; or that he only , by his active obedience , is made righteousness to us . Ans. I plead not for the sole Imputation of Christs active obedience , but for the Imputation of Christs whole Surety Righteousness , that is , His compleet obedience & Suffering , or of what He did & suffered in answering all the demands of the law , which we were lying under . Except . 4. Many sound & able expositors are for this sense ; understanding nothing by this , but our justification , or righteous making by Him ; some placeing this justification in Remission of sins ; some ascribing it to the Sufferings of Christ. Ans. We ●ould also cite sound & able expositors for our sense , & bring-in beside the general Verdict of such , as write against Socinians , & Papists , & others also : but this is not our present work . ( 2. ) Justification & Righteous-making are not one & the same . If we be made righteous by Him , it must be by His Righteousness : an● if we made righteous by His Righteousness , it must be imputed to us . ( 3 ) That justifi●ation is nothing but Remission of sins , is not yet proved . ( 4. ) We have hea●d Paul say , That by the obedience of one ( i e : Christ ) ( in opposition to the disobedience of Adam , whereby all his posterity were made sinners ) many are made righteous , Rom. 5 : 19. Ninthly , 2 Cor. 5 : 21. For he hath made Him to be sin for us , who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. This is added , as a confirmation and further explication of what was said , vers 18 , 19. Concerning the reconciliation of a sin●ul world unto God , in & through Christ , and of Gods imputing their Trespasses unto them . As if he had said , all our Salvation , & all the way how it is brought about , is of God , who , in and through Christ , reconcileth the sinfull world of His own chosen ones to Himself , and Pardoneth their sinnes , by laying them all on Christ , & making Him bear the guilt and punishment of all ; that the chosen ones might be made partakers of that Righteousness , and have it imputed unto them , as their sinnes were imputed unto Christ ; and so become the Righteousness of God in Him , or by being in Him , and united to Him. This place is pregnant and full of proof : so that the whole matter cannot be more clearly & emphatically expressed , than it is here hold forth . Yet Mr. Goodwine laboureth to darken it with his Exceptions , pag. 164. &c. let us hear him . Except . 1. Here is nothing said , touching any Imputation of our sins to Christ : & consequently here can be nothing to build a reciprocal Imputation of His righteousness unto us upon . Ans. If that Expression of Gods making Christ to be sin who knew no sin , & that for us , will not enforce an imputation of our sinnes to Christ , it must be so only with such , as will hold fast their opinion , let Scripture speak what it will to the contrary : for when it is said , that Christ , who knew no sin , i. e. was guilty of no sin , by committing of it , in thought , word or deed ; was yet made sin by God , & that for us , what words can be imagined , that shall more emphatically express this Imputation ? And the Greek commentators ( whom our adversary doth oft cite , when he findeth it any thing to his advantage ) give the meaning to be , That he was made a great sinner , & was handled , as if he had been the worst of sinners , even very wickedness it self . And Esaias tels us , Chap. 53 : 6. That the Lord laid all our iniquities on Him , or caused them to meet in one upon Him. And nothing can be alleiged against this , except it be said , the meaning is , He was made an offering or Sacrifice for sin . But this is so far from weakening the truth , concerning the Imputation of our sinnes to Christ , that it aboundantly confirmeth it : for there was a real imputation of the guilt of the sinner upon the Sacrifie , as is expresly said , Lev. 16 : 21 , 22. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat , and confess over him all this iniquities of the Children of Israel , & all their trespasses in all their sinnes , putting them upon the head of goat , and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited . And the people were to lay their hands on the head of the Sacrifice , to signifie their rolling of their guilt over upon the expiatory Sacrifie , Levit. 1 : 4. & 3 : 2 , 8 , 13. & 4 : 4 , 15 , 24 , 29 , 33. So that if Christ was made sin , that is , a Sacrifice for sin ( though the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no where in the New Test. so taken ) it must needs be granted , that guilt was transferred upon Him , in order to His becoming a Sacrifice for sin : justice could not exact upon Him , if it had not been so , He having been free of all sin and guilt , in His own person . Except . 2. Some of the most judicious & learned assistants of the way of this Imputation , absolutely reject this equality or reciprocation of Imputation between the sinnes of beleevers unto Christ , and the Righteousness of Christ unto them . There is not the same force and power of our unrighteousness to make Christ unrighteous ; which is of His Righteousness to make beleevers righteous . Therefore we are not made formally righteous by such an Imputation . Ans. We willingly grant several differences , beside what is mentioned : yet this agreement & correspondency ( which is all we seek ) is manifest , That , as Christ , who knew no sin , as to Himself , was made sin , or had the guilt of sin laid upon Him , and was handled by justice as a sinner legally ; so we , who have no righteousness of our owne , have Christs Righteousness imputed to us , and bestowed upon us ; and upon the account thereof are dealt with as legally righteous . We do not speak of Christs obedience only ; but assert the Imputation of His Sufferings too . Nor do we say , that we are hereby made formally Righteous , if the terme formally import inherently ; but that by the Imputation thereof to us , we are accounted & looked upon by God as Righteous formally in a legal sense ; and as such are accepted of God & justified . Except . 3. There is not so much , as the face or appearance , in this place of any comparison between Christs being made sin for us , & our being made the Righteousness of God , in Him ; but only the latter is affirmed , as the end , consequent , or effect of the former . Ans. Though the latter be a consequent of the former ; yet every word holdeth forth a comparison , or correspondence ; Christ made sin , & we become Righteous : Christ made sin , or a sinner for us , and we made Righteousness , or Righteous in Him : Christ knew no sin , and yet was made sin ; & we , who were sinners land rebels , standing in need of reconciliation ( as the preceeding words evidence , & as is undeniable ) are made Righteous . Except . 4. That the weight of that particle , in Him , should be by the Imputation of His active obedience unto us , hath neither Instance or parellel expression in Scripture , nor rule in Grammar , nor figure in Rhetorick , to make probable in the lowest or lightest degree . Ans. We plead not solely for the Imputation of Christs active obedience , as is said ; but for the Imputation of His whole Surety-righteousness . And though these words in Him , that denote Beleevers Union with Him , as the ground of their Interest in His Righteousness , should not be asserted , to Import this Imputation : yet this words , that we might be made the Righteousness of God , will be a rock , whereupon Imputation may stand : for they hold this forth unto us , That as God made Christ sin by Imputation ; so He maketh us righteous , yea the Righteousness of God , by Imputation . Except . 5. The clear meaning is this , that God for that end made Christ sin , that is , an offering or Sacrifice for sin , for us , that we might be made the Righteousness of God in Him , that is , that we might be justified , or made a Society or Remnant of Righteous ones , after that peculiar manner of justification , which God hath established , through that Sacrifice of His Son. Ans. When Christ was made an offering for sin , the guilt of sin was laid upon Him , even the guilt of our sin . And if we be justified , or made a Society of justified ones , we must be made a Society of righteous ones : and if we be made a Society of Righteous ones , we must first have a Righteousness ; seing we have not a Righteousness of our own , we must have a Righteousness made over to us : and seing we have this Righteousness made over to us , as being in Christ , it must be the Righteousness of God. So that though this Interpretation be very far fetched , and hath no countenance from the words , and destroyeth the cohesion of these words with the former , as also the reason , that is contained in them , adduced for confirmation of what was said , vers 19. yet it cannot destroy the doctrine of Imputation ; but must contribute to its support , though a little more remotely . He laboureth to give strength to this his Interpretation by alleiging . 1. That it is a frequent Scripture expression , to call the sin-offering , or the Sacrifice for sin , by the name of sin simply , as Exod. 29 : 14. and 30 : 10. Levit. 5 : 6 , 16 , 18 , 19 , & 7 : 1 , 2 , 7 & 9 : 7. Ezek. 44 : 27. & 45 : 19. 23. Hos. 4 : 8. Ans. Though it be true , that the Hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do sometimes signify sin , & sometimes , an offering for sin : yet the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth alwayes signify sin in the New Test. and the 70 do not use this Greek word in the places cited , except Exod. 29 : 14. & there , in the version that is in the Biblia Polyglot , Lond. It is in the Genitive case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of sin : & the chald-paraph calleth it an Expiation Targ. Ionath . & Hierof . say , it is a sin , & so doth the persik version : & the Samaritan Version turneth it , that is for sin ; & the Arabik , an Expiation . But further , though it were granted to be so taken here ; yet our cause would hereby suffer no prejudice ; but be rather confirmed , as was lately shown . And when the same word used to express a Sacrifice for sin , which signifieth sin it self , we may hence be confirmed in this , that that Sacrifice for sin hath guilt laid upon it , before it can be Sacrifice for sin ; & it must be sin , in respect of this , before it be a due Sacrifice , or oblation for sin . And therefore Christ must have been sin , in law , by Imputation , or have the guilt of sin laid upon Him , before He could be a fit Sacrifice for sin . He alleigeth . 2. To express a Number of justified or righteous persons by the abstract terme of Righteousness , is very agreable to the Scripture dialect , in other places , as poverty for poor , captivity for captives . Ans. ( 1 ) Yet no one instance can be given , where the word Righteousness hath this Import . ( 2 ) But how ever , as was said , these justified , or righteous persons , must be righteous , else they cannot make up such a company ; as captivity can never signify a company of men , that are not captives ; nor poverty a company of persons , that are not poor . So that this company of righteous ones must needs be righteous , and that in order to justification : & seing they have no Righteousness of their own , for in themselves they are ungodly , they must have a Righteousness by Imputation . ( 3 ) Why should they be called the Righteousness of God , according to this Interpretation ? And how is the opposition here observed , betwixt Christs being made sin , & their being made the Righteousness of God in Him ? But this man , by this Interpretation , transgresseth all lines of Correspondence . He alleigeth 3. That addition of God imports , that that righteousness or justification , which beleevers obtaine by the Sacrifice of Christ , is not only Righteousness of Gods free donation , but of His special procurement and contrivement for them . Ans. ( 1 ) Righteousness and justification are not one & the same , how oft so ever he name them as Synonymous . ( 2 ) We grant , that the Righteousness & the Iustification , which Beleevers obtaine , are both Gods free gift & His contrivement : But notwithstanding hereof , yea so much the rather , is there a Righteousness imputed to them , & the Righteousness of Christ , who is God , and a Righteousness , which will be accepted of God , whose judgment is according to truth , as a sufficient ground , whereupon to pronounce such , as in themselves are ungodly , to be Righteous , & so to justifie them . He alleigeth 4. That by the grammatical construction & dependance of the latter clause , our being made the Righteousness of God in Christ , upon the former , it is evident , that in the latter such an Effect must of necessity be signified , which may answere that cause , to wit , the death of Christ for us ; & this is deliverance from the guilt & punishment of sin , not the Imputation of His active obedience . Ans. As Christs death could not be separated from His Obedience , which is thereby presupposed . His death being the Sacrifice of one , who is made under the law , and was obedient thereunto unto death , & that in the room & stead of His own ; So the Imputation of Righteousness to us should not be separated from the Imputation of His Sufferings , both being necessarily required unto sinners , who had sinned , & yet remained under the obligation of the law , in order to their acceptance with God , and Justification . He alleigeth 5. The Scriptures , when they speak of the Sufferings of Christ , as a cause , inrespect of justification , never ascribe any other effect unto them , but only , either the Remission of sins , deliverance from wrath , Redemption , or the like . Ans. As the Scriptures making so frequent mention of the Sufferings of Christ , do not exclude His Obedience ; so neither do they exclude the Imputation of His Obedience , in order to our justification , and receiving a Right to glory : yea they make our being constitute Righteous , an Effect of His Obedience ; & Righteousness or Righteous-making is accompanied with Justification . So that though the Scriptures speak sometimes more expresly of the Sufferings , & sometimes more expresly of the obedience of Christ , according to the exigence of the cause handled ; yet both are inseparable , as a cause ; & so is our Righteousness & Justification inseparable , as the full Effect . CHAP. IX . Other passages of the N. T. briefly mentioned , which plead for this Imputation of Christs Righteousness . THere are other passages of Scripture , beside these mentioned , in the preceeding chapter , and against which I finde no Exceptions made by Mr. Goodwine , in the forecited Book , which yet do with no small clearness and fulness of evidence plead for the truth , which we owne , to wit , The Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto Beleevers , in order to their Justification . These we shall not insist upon , but only mentione in short ; seing the full insisting upon them will not be necessary , after what is said , in the Explication & Vindication of foregoing passages . 1 Rom. 1 : 17. For therein is the Righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith , as it is written , the just shall live by faith . The Apostle is here giving a reason , proving the Gospel , whereof he was not ashamed to be a preacher of , to be the power of God unto Salvation , & that to every one that beleeveth , be he jew , or be he Gentile ; viz. Because there is a Righteousness revealed therein , which sinners only stand in need of ; & that Righteousness of God ; that is , not only a Righteousness , which is devised by God , and is accepted in His sight ; but an excellent Righteousness , even the Righteousness of one , who is God ; and a Righteousness revealed for faith to lay hold on & receive , & that which faith leaneth to first and last , when it is weakest , and when it is strongest ; that thereby the poor sinner , who formerly was dead by law , may live , as one reconciled to God. So that hence we see , Sinners have need of a Righteousness ; and this Righteousness is the Righteousness of God , & is revealed in the Gospel , that it may be received by faith , and so Imputed & made over to the poor sinner , in order to his Justification , and acceptance with God. 2 Rom. 4 : 11. And he ( i. e. Abraham ) received the signe of circumcision , a seal of the Righteousness of the faith , which he had , yet being uncircumcised , that righteousness might be imputed to them also . Here is a Righteousness , and a Righteousness called the Righteousness of faith , because received & applied only by faith ; and a Righteousness , whereof circumsion was appointed a seal , & granted to Abraham as such ; and a Righteousness , which was imputed to Abraham , that he might be the Father of all them , that beleeve : for it is added , that Righteousness might be Imputed to them also : And this must be the same Righteousness , that was Imputed to Abraham , & the same way Imputed , & the same way received , that there migt be no essential difference betwixt the way of justification of Father and Children . The Aethiopick Version may serve for a commentary , and he had circumsion , a signe of his righteousness , which He gave him , and the signe thereof ; that this might be made known unto him , that God justified Abraham by faith , when he was not at that time circumcised , that they may know , that they also are justified by faith . 3. Rom. 4 : 24 , 25. But for us also , to whom it shall be Imputed , if we beleeve on Him , who raised up tesus , our Lord , from the dead , who was delivered for our offences , & was raised againe for our justification . Here is some thing said to be Imputed , & this must be in order to justification : And this that is Imputed , cannot be faith it self , or our act of beleeving ; for what is said to be Imputed , is promised to be Imputed upon condition of faith , or our beleeving on Him , who raised up Iesus our Lord. So that it must be the Righteousness of Christ , consisting in His Mediatory work , which He undertook & performed for His owne : for it is added , that He was delivered for their offences ; that is , He was delivered unto the death , to make satisfaction for their sinnes ; & He rose againe , that He might declare , He had given full Satisfaction ; & that He might apply this Surety-righteousness of His , to the end , they might be justified . Socinus doth not understand this , & therefore de Servat . part . 4. p. 333 saith , It is most certaine , that the Apostle doth not speak of any Imputation of the righteousness of Christ ; but assert , that the faith or credite , we give God , because He hath called Iesus Christ , our Head , from death to eternal life , shall be accounted unto us , in the place of righteousness ; just as faith , whereby Abraham gave credite to the words of God , was Imputed to him for righteousness . But the Text hereby is manifestly perverted : for it saith , that some thing shall be imputed , if we beleeve , which can not be faith ; but something distinct from faith , which is to be Imputed , upon condition of faith . And what can this be else , than the Surety-righteousness of Christ , who is here mentioned , as dying & riseing , in the place , and for 〈◊〉 good of His people , that they might be justified . And further , if it were faith it self , that were here said to be Imputed , in order to justification , the justified man should not be one , that is in himself ungodly , because he hath a Righteousness in himself ; and he , who hath a Righteousness in himself , is not ungodly : & yet it is said , Rom. 4 : 5. That God justifieth the ungodly . Againe , That , which is Imputed , must be a Righteousness without works , vers 6. but if faith it self be Imputed , a work is Imputed , and not a Righteousness without works : and this would also lay down a ground of boasting , & make the reward of debt , & not of grace , v. 14. 4. Rom. 10 : 10. For with the heart man beleeveth unto Righteousness , & with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation . The Apostle had been before vers 4. telling us , That Christ was the end of the law for righteousness to every one that beleeveth ; & thereafter he discriminateth the way of justification by the law and by the Gospel , under the Notion of a Righteousness which is of the law , and a Righteousness , which is of faith : & then more particularly he describeth the Righteousness of faith , or a Righteousness is had unto Salvation , in & through faith vers 9. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus , & shalt beleeve in thine heart , that God hath raised him from the dead , thou shalt be saved ; which he proveth in the 10. vers , now cited ; & therein sheweth , how by this beleeving that God hath raised the Lord Jesus from the dead , Salvation is brought about ; viz. That by beleeving with the heart , a Righteousness is obtained & received : and this righteousness must be Christs , even His Surety-righteousness ; for faith looketh on Him , as raised from the dead , & that by God , as having now received full Satisfaction from Him ; & thereupon bringing Him , as it were , out of prison . And in the Text cited , we see , that by faith a Righteousness is received ; or faith is the way unto the possession of a Righteousness , as Confession is the way unto Salvation , or as the actual possession of Salvation is had by Confession . And as Confession it self is not Salvation , but the way thereto , and the mean thereof ; so faith it self is not the Righteousness , but the way thereunto , and the meane or medium thereof . 5. Gal. 2 : 21. I do not frustrat the grace of God ; for if Righteousness come by the law , Christ is dead in vaine . Whence we see , that a Righteousness must be had ; and that this cannot be had by the law , or by our obedience to the law ; but by Christ ; & to deny this , is in plaine termes , to frustrat the grace of God , & to say , that Christ is dead in vaine . And if we look back to vers 16. & forward , we shall see , that the Apostle is speaking of justification by faith in opposition to the works of the law ; that is , by faith in Jesus Christ , receiving a Righteousness , which He hath wrought in His estate of Humiliation . 6. Gal. 3 : 21 , 22. For if there had been a law given , which could have given life , verily righteousness should have been by the law : but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin , that the promise by faith of Iesus Christ might be given to them that beleeve . Whence we see , that Righteousness is required unto life , viz. the life of justification ; and by whatever way life is had , by the same is Righteousness had : and that neither life , nor Righteousness is had by the law , but by the faith of Jesus Christ : and both are held forth in a free promise , & given to the Beleever in Christ. 7. Gal. 4 : 4 , 5. But when the fulness of the time was come , God sent forth His Son , made of a Woman , made under the law , to redeem them , that were under the law , that we might receive the Adoption of sones . Christ , we see , was made under the law , & that to redeem such , as were under the law , that they might be freed from what they were liable to by the law , and by being under the law , and withall receive the Adoption of sones , which necessarily taketh in His Obedience , as the Aethiopik Version explaineth it saying , He was begotten of a Woman , & was a doer of the command , in the law . And that His Sufferings are here included , is plaine from the one end assigned , that he might redeem them , who were under the law , or under the lawes curse . The end therefore here being twofold , viz. Deliverance from under the law , and receiving the Adoption of sones ; the Cause must have a subtableness thereunto ; and say , That this compleat Righteousness , comprehending both , must be Imputed unto us , for the ends mentioned . 8. Gal. 5 : 5. For we through the Spirit , wait for the hope of Righteousness by faith . Whether we take here the hope of Righteousness , for justification , as the Aethiopick Version doth , translating the words thus , and we in the Holy Spirit , and in faith hope to be justified ; to which also the scope may give some countenance ; or for the Recompence of glory , which is the thing hoped for ; that which we intend , will be equally confirmed ; for if Justification be immediatly here spoken of , it is manifest , that hereunto a Righteousness is requisite , and that this Righteousness is had by faith ; and so is not in our selves ; and therefore must be the Righteousness of Christs , unto whom faith carrieth forth the soul , & of whom he spoke , vers 4. Saying , Christ is become of none effect unto you , who soever of you are justified by the law . If glory be here immediatly intended , we may see , that the Apostle , to perswade the Galatians , not to seek after a Righteousness by the law , tels them , what he & others did , and were resolved to do ; to wit , how they ventured their whole Salvation on the truth he delivered ; for they waited and looked for heaven and happiness ( which is here called , hop , by a Metonymy ) not by the works of the law ( for heaven with them was not the hop of the law , or of the works of the law ) but by the Righteousness of faith ; that is , by & through that Righteousness , which is by faith ; & therefore it is called the hope of Righteousness by faith ; that is , that which they hope for , through the help of the Spirit , and expect in & through the Righteousness of Christ ; which Righteousness is had by faith in Christ : & that this Righteousness is none else but the Righteousness of Christ , the following verse cleareth , where he saith ; for in Iesus Christ , &c. 9. Philipp . 3 : 8 , 9. That I may win Christ , & be found in Him , not having mine own Righteousness , which is of the law , but that which is through the faith of Christ , the Righteousness , which is of God by faith . This place is so clear and full , that by speaking much of it , we may rather darken it , than explaine it . We see , what was the maine thing Paul designed , in opposition to what he once intended and sought after : what he did formerly look upon , as gaine , and was hote in the pursuite of , he now had no better account of , than of as much loss & dung : yea he had no better esteem of all things beside Christ , & in this judgment , he persisted , accounting all but dung , that he might win Christ , & have Him for all his gaine . And what would he make of Christ ? He would be found in Him , hid in Him , covered with Him , and united to Him. In opposition to this , he desireth not to be found in , or having on his own righteousness , which is of the law ; thereby showing us , That it was the Righteousness of Christ , he desired to be clothed with , and found in ; & therefore addeth ; but that ( i. e. that Righteousness ) which is through the faith of Christ , the Righteousness which is of God by faith . The he was seeking , is the Righteousness of God , and which is of God by faith , and is had through the faith of Christ ; and all this was said in opposition to the way , that the dogs , the evil workers , the concision , mentioned vers 2. were crying up , and following , viz. the observation of the law , in order to justification . 10. Hebr. 11 : 7. By faith Noah became heir of the righteousness , which is by faith : Where there is a Metonymy , the Cause puth for the Effect ; Righteousness put for that life , which is had by this righteousness : which sheweth , ●hat a righteousness is necessarily required , unto the life of acceptance with God , and unto Salvation ; and that this righteousness is not in or of our selves , but in and from another ; for it is had by faith ; and therefore is called , the Righteousness , which is by faith : and faith layeth hold on no Righteousness , but on that , which is Christs . These and other passages , which might be mentioned , are evident proofs of the Truth , we are asserting , with all such , as are unprejudiced , in the point ; beside all those passages , which prove justification not to be by the works of the law , but by faith ; for they also confirme this truth , That in order to our justification and Salvation ; we must be clothed with the Righteousness of Christ ; which is that , which faith grippeth to & apprehendeth , that the shame of our nakedness may not appear , and we may be in case to stand before the Tribunal of God. CHAP. X. Some Arguments for the Imputation of Christs Righteousness , Vindicated from the Exceptions of John Goodwine . THe truth concerning the Imputation of Christs Righteousness , hath been hitherto asserted from Scripture ; & several of these passages have been vindicated from the Exceptions of Mr. Goodwine , a maine adversary thereunto . For further clearing of the matter , we shall see what Exceptions the same man bringeth-in against the Arguments , which are made use of by the Orthodox for the truth asserted . Argum. 1. If there be no standing in judgment before God , unless we be endued with perfect Righteousness ; then must the Righteousness of Christ be imputed to us , in our justification . But there is no standing for us in judgment before God , unless we be endued with a perfect Righteousness . Ergo , &c. Against this he excepteth , pag. 192. Chap. 7. saying , That the consequence of the former proposition is not good . And so doth Bellar. answere de Iustific . lib. 2. cap. 7. So do also the Socinians . But let us hear his reasons . Remissin of sins ( saith he ) which is the purchase & procurement of the death of Christ , is a perfect Righteousness , & is every way able to bear us out in judgment . Ans. Remission of sins neither is , nor can be called righteousness ; ●or a pardoned person is no● the same with one , that hath kept the law : though by vertue of this pardon , he is freed from the punishment , due to the transgressours of the law ; yet hath he no right to the reward , promised to the keepers of the law . ( 2 ) Remission of sins being the purchase of Christs death & Sufferings , cannot be had without the Imputation of the death & Sufferings of Christ unto the Beleever : & so hereby one halfe of the truth must be granted . But His Sufferings & Obedience going together & both making up one Mediatory & Surety-righteousness , performed by Christ in His estate of humiliation , both most be Imputed , & made over to the Beleever , to the end he may receive pardon , & right to Glory . Arg. 2. He that is justified by the Righteousness of another , and not by his own , must needs be justified by the righteousness of Christ imputed ; because there is no righteousness to be found in any other , for the justification of a person , in the sight of God. But every man , that is justified , is justified by the righteousness of another , and not by his own . Ergo , &c. He excepteth 1. The Major is false , because the passive obedience of Christ is the Righteousness of another : and men may be & are throughly & fully justified by the merite hereof , communicated to them in the free pardon of their sinnes ; and so need not the imputation of His active obedience . Ans. ( 1 ) We plead not for the sole Imputation of Christs active obedience ; but for the Imputation of all , that He did and suffered , for & in the room & stead of His owne . ( 2 ) Where are Christs meer Sufferings , as distinguished from His obedience , called a righteousness ? or how can meer Sufferings , as such , or bearing of the punishment threatened by the law , be called a righteousness ? doth not righteousness denote the conformity of actions unto the law ? ( 3 ) When it is said , the merite of Christs passive obedience is communicated unto us , the meaning must be one of these two ; either that it self is properly made over & imputed to us ; or onely in its effect , free pardon of sinnes . If this latter be said , Then no other Imputation is granted , than what Socinians will yeeld unto : & how can it be said to be Imputed , as to its Effects , when it self is not Imputed , in order to the partaking of these effects ? If the former be said , then there is something , that is in it self imputed , & not meerly in its Effects . And if Christs Passions & Sufferings be imputed , abstracted from His righteousness & Active obedience , they shall be justified without a righteousness . And it neither is , nor ever will be proved , that pardon of sinnes is the whole of justification ; or that a pardoned man is , 〈◊〉 ipso , that he is pardoned , a righteous man ; or that a pardoned man , meerly as such , hath right to the recompence of reward , promised to the fulfiller of the law . Except 2. to the Minor , A man may be said ( saith he ) to be justified by the Righteousness of another , and not by his own , in a double sense , Either 1. by way of merite ; and then it is true , that every one is justified by the Righteousness of another , that is , by the merite of the righteousness of another , or 2. by way of forme ; & so it is altogether untrue ; for that Righteousness , where with a man is formally made Righteous , is alwayes a mans own by donation & Possession . Ans. ( 1 ) When a man is justified by the merite of the Righteousness of another , that Righteousness of the other must be imputed to the justified person ; or we have no other Imputation , than what Socinians yeeld to ( 2. ) If the righteousness , whereby one is formally justified , be his owne by donation & possession , & no other possession be thereunto requisite , then we may be said to be formally justified by the righteousness of Christ : for we affirme , that Beleevers are possessed thereof by Gods free donation and Imputation : & thus the whole is granted ; for nothwithstanding hereof , that same righteousness , which is made over to the Beleever , by free donation & Imputation , is Christs Inherently , & so is the righteousness of another . Whereby we see , that the members of this distinction thus explained , are not different . Yet , we must not think , that this righteousness of Christ is so given to us , as that it is inherent in us , & wrought in us , as Faith & Repentance are : for even Remission of sinnes , whereby he will have us formally justified , is not so in us , as Faith and Repentance are in us : And through Gods Imputation and Donation , the righteousness of Christ may be the Beleevers , when it is received by faith , as well as Remission of sinnes : for , to speak in his own language , that which is given unto man by God , may truely and properly be called his own . ( 3 ) That remission of sins is formal justification , will never be proved : and seing he will have Remission of sins to be the pure Effect of Christs Sufferings and death ; so must justification be : and then , why saith the Apostle , Rom. 4 : 25. Who was delivered ( viz. to Sufferings and death ) for our offences , and raised againe for our justification ? Arg. 3. If Beleevers have a true and real communion with Christ , then is his Righteousness theirs by imputation . But the former is true , &c. It may be , he proposeth the Argument , in such a mode & way , as may be most to His own advantage ; for who argueth thus , he nameth not . Yet it is true , that the Union , which beleevers have with Christ , is the ground or their communion with Him in all things , which He was made or God to be for them , & which their necessity called for ; among which His whole Surety-righteousness doth challenge a chiefe p●ace . Nor would I argue from the Union & communion in general ; but from such a particular Union and communion , as is darkly shadowed forth unto us in the Scriptures , by such and such similitudes ; such as the Union betwixt Man and Wife , who are one flesh , as Christ and Beleevers are one Spirit ; as the Union betwixt the principal debtor and the Cautioner ; and betwixt the publick Head and Representative , and the Members represented ; as betwixt the Redeemer and the Redeemed and the like . And to argue from such an Union , for such a peculiar end , to such a communion , as we here plead for , may stand against all his Exceptions , pag. 195. &c. Which are these following . Except 1. The Major wants truth , because a true and real communion with Christ may stand , without His active obedience being made theirs by Imputation . There is a real Union and communion between the head and the feet , in the same Natural body ; yet is not the braine , or the proper functions & operations of the head , made the braine or functions of the feet . So between the Husband and the Wife ; yet is not the holiness , strength and Wisdom of the Husband made over to the Wife by Imputation . And. Similitudes go not alwayes upon foure ●eet : and as these Similitudes come short of expressing the Union and Communion , that is betwixt Christ and Beleevers ; so they are not appos●●ely here applied : for neither is the end of the Union and Communion between the Head and the Feet , that the braines and operations of the Head should be communicate to the feet ; but that the head should use its proper operations & functions for the good of the feet : nor do the feet stand in need of any other thing from the head . And thus also is it in the other Similitude , as to the particulars Instanced : yet in other particulars , this last Similitude will come neerer to our business ; for though the Husbands Wisdom , Holiness or Strength ( which are not communicable ) be not imputable to the Wife ; yet his Honour & Riches can be & are imputed or communicated : for , though before the Mariage , the Woman was in a base condition , yet being matched with on honorable person , she partaketh of his honour ; and being , before the marriage , a person in debt , her Husbands riches are so imputed to her , that she may be & is made thereby solvendo , and freed from her Creditors pursuit , and her Husband and she becometh one person in law , & he becometh chargable with her debt , & obliged to pay it So that as there is an Imputation , or a real devolving by law of the debt of the Wife upon the Husband ; so his making payment & Satisfaction for the same , is by law accounted hers ; & she is thereupon freed from all charge & trouble from her creditours . Except 2. The Major wanteth reason ; for there is no coloure of truth in it , that that Union and Communion , which beleevers have with Christ , should of necessity draw after it the Imputation of His active obedience ; so that this obedience of His should become their formal Righteousness ; more than the Imputation of His Wisdom , Power and Glory . Ans. ( 1 ) If by formal righteousness he understand with Papists , inherent holiness , or righteousness , it is nothing to the purpose ; for we assert no such Imputation . ( 2 ) That the whole of Christs Surety-righteousness be so imputed to beleevers , as that it becometh theirs ; so that they , meerly upon the account thereof , and clothed therewith , may be and are repute and held to be persons just , in the account of God , & so be justified in His sight , is the thing we assert : and that this doth necessarily flow from Beleevers Union with Him by faith , and is a part of the Communion they have with Him , and that upon a double account , First because He became Surety , and undertook their debt ; & so was made under the law , and obeyed and Suffered all that it could have demanded of them ; for this end and purpose , that what He thus did & suffered , as a publick person or Surety , might stand for them , & be accepted on their behalfe . Secondly because their case and necessity called for this , in order to their justification and Acceptance with God. ( 3 ) His Wisdom and power are other waves improven , and laid forth to their advantage , according to the Nature of the thing , and necessity . Arg. 4. If there be no other principal End , Reason , or Necessity , why Christ should fulfill the law ; but only that His obedience thereunto might be imputed to us for Righteousness , in our Justification , then is not the Imputation thereof to be denied . But the former is true . Ergo , &c. And sure , if Christs obedience to the law , was not necessary in respect of Himself , it must have been performed upon the account of Beleevers ; and that principally and mainely for their Justification and Salvation ; and therefore for this end , that it might be imputed unto them . Against this , pag. 197. &c. He , Except . There are diverse other ends , reasons and necessities to be assigned hereof . Ans. This is not the maine thing , that is here denied ; nor will all this help our Adversary , unless it can be shown , that those other Ends , which we deny not , are prejudicial unto , & inconsistent with that , which we look upon , as the chiefe , & as peculiar to Him , as Mediator & Surety , standing in the room of His people , who did mainely stand in need of this . Let us now see the particular ends he toucheth . 1. One reason ( saith he ) might be , to procure the greater Authority & deeper reverence to the Doctrine , which he taught , Matt. 7 : 28. Ans. ( 1 ) The Socinians , upon the same account , deny , that His death was any proper Satisfaction for Beleevers : and if this be a weak argument in their mouth , it cannot be strong in the mouth of our present Opposites . ( 2 ) This End is but subordinat unto , and no way inconsistent with the principal End , which we have mentioned . ( 3 ) Though Christs Miracles had a more direct tendency to procure this Reverence , than His Holy life ; yet neither the one , nor the other were peculiar to Him alone : for both the Miracles , wrought by others , such as Prophets and Apostles , and their holy life , had a tendency to procure Reverence and Beleef to their Doctrine : And himself confirmeth this in the following words , saying . It is a truth of general acknowledgment , that the holiness , uprightness and unblameableness of the lives of Teachers have a powerful Influence into the consciences of Men , to render them more observant & awfull in their attention to the things , which are taught by them , citeing Mat. 2● : 32. Ioh. 5 : 35. & 8 : 46. 1 Tim. 4 : 12. 2 Tim. 3 : 14. ( 4 ) We are to consider Christ , as Mediator and Surety , in what He did , as well , as in what He Suffered , in His state of Humiliation : for to us a Childe was born , and to us a Son was given ; He was made under the law for us , that he might redeem such , as ●ere under the law , that they might receive the Adoption of Sones . Esai . 9 : 5. Gal. 4 : 4 , 5. 2. This active obedience of Christ , ( saith he ) was serviceable to that same great End , whereunto our righteousness and obedience are subservient , viz. the glory of God , & the advancement of His Kingdom , Ioh. 8 : 49. & 7 : 18. Ans. And was not His death & Sufferings also subservient unto this great end ? Will it therefore follow , that He died not , to make Satisfaction to justice , for the sinnes of His people ? And if this cannot follow , what ever Socinians imagine ; how shall it , or can it hence follow , that His obedience was not to satisfie the demands of the law , and to procure the reward to His people ? Is there any Inconsistency betwixt His fulfilling the law , as Mediator and Surety , in the room of His people ; & His doing it for the glory of God , & the advancement of His Kingdom ? 3. Another en● ( saith he ) is the exemplariness of it . Ans. This is but another arrow , taken out of the quiver of the Socinians ; & is of no force to weaken our argument ; seing a subordinat & less principal end doth not destroy a more principal end . Was He not exemplary to us in His death & Sufferings ? shall we therefore say , That there was no satisfaction for sins intended thereby ? And what is there here peculiar unto Christ , as Lord Mediator , seing the lives of other Saints are also exemplary ? 4. It had ( saith he ) an excellent Importance to draw to Imitation . Ans. This is the same with the preceeding , and deserveth no further answere . 5. It was ( saith he ) a meanes of continueing His person in the love and complac●ncy of His Father , which was a thing of absolute necessity , for the carrying on of the great work of Redemption : for if He had once miscarried , who should have mediated for Him ? Ioh. 15 : 10. & 8 : 29. Ans. As to His Person , He was God equal with the Father , in power and Glory : It were therefore blasphemy once to suppose , that His person stood in need of this , for any such end : or to suppose , that He could have failed , as to any act of obedience , & thereby have displeased God. Wherefore His obedience being the obedience of one , who was & is God over all , blessed for ever , it could not be necessary to Himself unto any such end . Therefore it behoved to be wholly for us , for whom He was made under the law ; as He was given to us , and borne for us . 6. It was ( saith he ) of absolute necessity to qualify & fit the Sacrifice for the Altar , and render Him a person meet by His death and Sacrifice of Himself , to make attonement for the world , and to purge and take away the sin of it . Ans. Shall we think that He , who was God , was not a fit enoug Sacrifice for the world ; but that He must be made fit and prepared by acts of obedience ? And as for His Humane Nature , which was no person , but did subsist in the Divine Nature , being assumed into the subsistence thereof , was it not sufficiently fitted to be a Sacrifice , by its personal union with the Godhead ? was it not thereby Holy Harmless & undefiled & separat from sinners , which is all that the Apostle requireth , Heb. 7 : 26 ? Was not the Humane Nature personally united unto the Godhead , from the very first moment of conception ? The holiness then , that consisteth in Acts of Actual obedience , was not required unto this Union : and after this Union it was not possible , that He could sinne : as it is not possible , that the glorified now in Heaven can break the Lawes , that we break here , while on earth ; and yet it will not follow , that they are under the same particular obligations to particular acts of commanded duties , that we stand under : So nor was Christ , as to Himself , under the obligation of the p●rticular duties of the law , to which He willingly submitted Himself , & gave obedience ; but all this was for us : Nor was this necessarily required to make His Sacrifice Holy ; for His Humane Nature , being once united , to the Divine , could not otherwayes be but holy and without sin ; and so a sinless and holy Sacrifice . And withall we would take notice , that the Actions of the Mediator , were the Actions of the person , and not of either of the Natures alone ; & therefore must not be looked upon , as the Actions of a meer man. So that His acts of obedience , were the acts of obedience of God man , or of that person , that was God. He needeth not then tell us , that the Absolute holiness and Righteousness of the humanity it self was of necessary concurrence unto His obedience : for we grant it , and this flowed from the hypostatical union : but that , which we deny , is , That there was an Holiness and Righteousness in acts of outward obedience to the law requisite thereunto ; as if the humane Nature , by vertue of the hypostatical union , had not been holy and harmless , untecedently unto those outward acts of obedience ; and so had not been a sinless and holy Sacrifice , if He had been offered up in His Infancy , or before He was in capacity to do any commanded acts . He needeth not say ( as he doth pag. 204. ) that we conceive , that Christ-man might have been righteous without doing the works of Righteousness , which is all one , as to say , that He might have been Righteous , though He had transgressed ; for not to keep the law , in those , to whom the law is given , is nothing else , but to transgress . For we neither do , nor need assert any such thing : for by vertue of the hypostatical union , He was Righteous , and could not transgress , or do any thing contrary to what was imposed upon Him : but we say , that by vertue of this union , as to Himself , the Humane Nature was not under the law , as we are ; but He was under the law , that He might fulfill it for others ; & not to fit and qualifie Him to be a meet Sacrifice , as if for this His Humane Nature had not been meet enough before . To this he saith , pag. 205. Let this Supposition be admitted , that Christ had suffered in the womb , and that this Suffering of His had been fully Satisfactory ; yet had He been as perfectly righteous , in this case ; and consequently had kept the law perfectly , as now He hath done ; for the law requireth of Infants , during their Infancy , nothing but holiness of Nature . I Ans. ( 1. ) This is enoug to confirme what we say , viz. That all His after actual obedience was not necessary to this end . ( 2 ) And beside though this holiness of Nature was conforme to the law upon the matter , yet it was not a formal obedience unto the law , if we speak of Him in reference to Himself ; for the Humane Nature had this Holiness by vertue of the Hypostatical union : and Christ , when the Humane Nature was first conceived , was God-man ; and the person was under no law ; & so was not under the obligation of any such law ; but was made under the law , as Mediator ; and so , for us , and not for himself ; nor it is any more to advantage , to except againe & say , that His meaning is not , that there was an absolute necessity , that he should keep the law , upon the same termes , every wayes , which now He hath done , as that He should performe the same Individual acts of obedience , or the same number of acts , in case He had been called to suffer any white sooner : but that untill the very Instant , in which He should suffer , whether it were sooner , or later , He should in all things submit himself unto the good pleasure of God. For it doth hence sufficiently appear , That all his after obedience , in all these particular acts , was not necessary to fit Him , as a Sacrifice ; & so could not be necessary for Himself . And therefore seing He had been a sufficiently holy Sacrifice , had He been offered up before the actual performance of these commanded duties in the law , it is manifest , that these duties were not required unto the end alleiged : but that , as He was made under the law for us ; so all His actual obedience to the law was for us , and not for himself . The Excepter , in end , perceiving the Invalidity of all his own discourse here , closeth the matter thus , pag. 206. But however suppose this necessity or use of the Righteousness of Christ could not be sufficiently cleared ; yet since there are many others of undeniable evidence , the position so much contended for ; to wit , that the Godhead of Christ sufficiently qualified Him for such a Sacrifice , as He was , makes nothing at all for the Imputation of His Righteousness . Therefore we shall not trouble either our selves , or our Reader any further with untying an Impertinent knot . What these others of undeniable evidence are , we have not yet seen : and , sure , this one ground is sufficient to demonstrat , that his obedience to the law , in all points , was not for himself , nor to qualifie him , as a Sacrifice ; but for us : and therefore it must be imputed , & made over to us and become our Righteousness , whereby and whereupon , together with his Sufferings , made over to us also , we are to be justified and accepted of God , as Righteous ; and not only have pardon of sinnes , but also a Right to the Inheritance , and to the reward promised upon obedience . 7. As Christ ( saith he , p. 206. ) was a Sacrifice ; so was He and yet is , & is to be for ever , Hebr. 7 : 27. &c. An High-Priest ; and that Righteousness of His we speak of , qualifieth Him , that is , contributeth to His qualification for Priesthood , as well as it did for His Sacrifice . Ans. Seing it cannot be proved , that his actual obedience to the law ( which is the Righteousness we are here speaking of ) was necessary to qualifie him to be a Sacrifice here on earth ; much less can it be proven , that it was necessary to qualifie him for his Priest-hood in heaven . And all these qualifications mentioned , Heb. 7 : 26 , He had , before that actual obedience was either performed , or he in a capacity to performe it : & therefore his actual obedience was not necessary thereunto . 8. That holy pleasure ( saith he ) and contentment , which Christ himself took in these works of Righteousness , may be looked upon , as one considerable end , Ioh. 4 : 34. Ans. So took He pleasure and delight to Suffer : He had a Baptisme to be baptized with , and how was he straitned , or pained , till it was accomplished , Luk. 12 : 50. Shall we then say , that therefore his death was not to make Satisfaction for the sins of his own ? These are but Socinian Evasions , that have no force to weaken the truth , in the least . And thus , notwithstanding of all his Exceptions , this Argument abideth in its strength . We proceed to another . Arg. 5. If we be debtors unto the law , and that not only in matter of punishment , but in perfection of obedience also ; then did Christ ●ot only suffer death for us , that we might be delivered from the Curse ; but also fulfilled the law , that so we may be reputed to have fulfilled the law in him , or by the Imputation of His fulfilling of the law to us . Otherwise the law should yet remaine to be fulfilled by us . But the former is true . Ergo , &c. The force of the Argum. lyeth here , that we were debtors unto the law , not only as to the punishment , which we had deserved by transgression ; but also as to perfect conformity thereunto : and therefore coming in our law-place , & taking on our debt , did not only undergoe the punishment for us , but did also yeeld perfect obedience : And this compleet Surety-righteousness of Christ , consisting both in doing and Suffering , must be imputed unto us , and reckoned upon our score , to the end , we may be justified and Accepted of God , as Righteous ; & have Right not only to Impunity , but also to the Reward , promised to the obedient . He excepteth p. 208. &c. Against the Minor , upon these grounds . 1. If the meaning ( saith he ) be , that we , who are beleevers , are debtors to the law in perfection for our justification ; it is false . But as for these , that beleeve not in Christ , it may be true , in this sense ; that if they mean to be justified , and to escape the punishment , otherwise than by Christ , they must keep the whole law . Ans. ( 1 ) We say not , that Beleevers , who are already justified , through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ , are debtors unto the law , for this end : but that ere they could be justified and accepted of God , as Righteous , they were obliged to perfect obedience , as well as to suffer the penalty : and seing this was impossible unto them , their Surety was to do it , and he did it , and what he did was imputed unto them , and reckoned upon their score . ( 2 ) As for Unbeleevers ( ans such are all by Nature ) seing it is confessed , that they ere under this obligation , then it is necessary , that before they be justified , either they , or a Surety for them , must satisfy both these demands of the law . And though none be now under a command , to give perfect obedience unto the law , to the end , they may be justified ; but such as hear the Gospel are commanded to beleeve in Christ , and to accept of him by faith , that they may have an Interest in his Righteousness , & so be justified : yet that taketh not away this Imputation , but establisheth it rather ; because Christ having satisfied all the demands of the law , both in doing and in Suffering , and that as a Surety , Head , Redeemer and publick Person , by beleeving in him , they receive this , and have it made over unto them . 2. If the proposition ( saith he ) meaneth , that Beleevers are debtors of perfect obedience to the law , in a way of Sanctification & thankfulness . This is true , but it concerneth not the question . Ans. Nor do we speak of this , knowing that it is nothing to the present question : But this we say , That all men by nature , and so Beleevers , before they be justified by faith in Christ , are not only under the Curse , because of sin ; but are under the demand of the law , or the commanding power of the law , requiring perfect obedience , in order to the reward : And that therefore both these demands of the law must be satisfied by their Surety , and the same must be imputed to them and reckoned upon their score , before they can be looked on , as free of the Curse , and as heirs of the Reward , promised to full & perfect obedience . 3. We are not ( saith he ) therefore exempted from keeping the law , no not in respect of justification it self , because we have transgressed it , but because 1. having once transgressed it , we are utterly uncapable of such an observation , whether personally , or by imputation , which may amount to justification , or exemption from punishment . 2. That relaxation or release from an observation of , or dependance upon the law by justification accrueth unto us by meanes of our dependance upon Christ for justification , through his death , Rom. 7 : 4. Ans. ( 1 ) If our transgression of the law doth not exeem us from the obligation to keep it perfectly , in order to justification , then , ere we be justified , that obligation must be satisfied , as well , as the obligation to punishment ; and so the law must be perfectly keeped , as well as its penalty suffered : And seing we our selves can do neither , our Surety must do it for us , & that must be accepted for us , & imputed to us . ( 2 ) Nor can it be said , that our uncapableness to keep it , so as may amount to justification , doth exeem us from the obligation , or destroy the lawes power to require that of us ; more than our uncapableness to suffer the penalty , so as may amount to a justification , doth or can exeem us from the obligation to suffer , or destroy the lawes power to require the penalty of us . It is true , that no man now is called of God to endeavoure this way of justification : yet all such , as live without the Gospel have not the better & more sure way , through faith in Christ made known unto them . The obligation to perfect obedience remaining after the transgression , saith , that , ere a man , that was both obliged to Suffer , and to yeeld perfect obedience , can be justified , the law , as to both these demands , must be satisfied , & the Sureties Satisfaction to both must be reckoned upon his score . ( 3 ) Justification & Exemption from punishment are not one & the same , in our case , more than pardon & Righteousness . ( 4 ) The Exemption , that accrueth to beleevers , saith not , that there was no obligation upon mankind both to suffer and to obey , in order to justification , anteriour to Christs doing both . 4. God never required ( saith he pag. 210. ) of any man , but only of Christ , both exactness of obedience to the law , & subjection to punishment , due to the transgression of the law conjunctim , but divisim only . He that shall perfectly keep the law , is not bound to suffer the penalty . Ans. ( 1 ) Then our transgressing of the law should exeem us from the obligation to obedience , contrare to what was granted in the First Exception . ( 2 ) Though he , who perfectly keepeth the law , is obnoxious to no punishment ; yet he , who breaketh the law ( as we all did in Adam , beside our daily transgressions ) is obnoxious to punishment ; & this obnoxiousness to punishment no more dissolveth his obligation to obedience , than his transgression was able to do . And therefore we are all , considered in our Natural state , obliged to both conjunctim ; for we are borne sinners , and yet born under the obligation of keeping the law of God. ( 3 ) Gods requiring both of Christ , who was Mediator & Surety , saith , that both were required of us : for what was required of him , as Surety , was required of the principal debtors . 5. He saith , In case a Man hath transgressed the law , & hath suffered ( whether by himself , or by some other for him ) the full punishment threatned , he is no further a debtor unto the law , neither in point of punishment , nor of obedience : for the punishment is of equal consideration to the law , with the most absolute conformity : and as no man can be obliged to fulfill the law twice for his justification ; so neither is it reasonable to conceive , that he , who hath suffered the full penalty , that being as satisfactory to the law , as the exactest obedience , should be still bound to the observation of the law . Ans. When the law promiseth life to the fulfillers , as well as threatneth death to the transgressours , the suffering of death for the transgression , is not such a fulfilling of the law , as hath the promise of life annexed to it : Devils , though now suffering the vengeance of eternal fire , the death threatned , yet cannot be said to be fulfilling the law , or obeying unto life ; nor can they be said to be justified , nor to be suffering any thing , in order thereunto . In order therefore to our justification & Acceptance with God , as heirs of the life promised , who were both obnoxious to punishment , & also obliged to give perfect obedience to the law , the law as to both , must be satisfied . Nor can we say , that the punishment of Devils is of equal consideration to the law , with the conformity yeelded thereunto by the confirmed Angels . And though the suffering of the penalty in lawes penal or such as promise no reward unto the obeyers , may be said to be of equal consideration with the keeping of the law ; yet this cannot be said in lawes , which promise a Reward to the observers , as well as threaten a punishment to transgressours : Nor can the man , that suffereth the punishment , suppose to the full , that is threatened in the law , be said to have fulfilled the law , and to have deserved the reward promised to obeyers . ( 2 ) Though Christ hath both obeyed the law , & suffered the punishment ; yet the law is not twice fulfilled , but once , because , as was granted , such as were sinners and obnoxious to punishment , were also obliged to yeeld perfect obedience : for transgression did not destroy this obligation . As when a man is punished for breach of a law , that not only required obedience under such a penalty , but also promised a reward to the observers , when he is put to performe what was commanded , ere he can have the promised reward , he is not put to fulfill the law twice : for his punishment was but Satisfaction to one part of the law , or to threatning ; but it was no satisfaction of the law , as to the reward promised . Arg. 6. If there be no justification , without a perfect Righteousness , & no such Righteousness to be found , but the Righteousness of Christ performed to the law , then of Necessity this Righteousness must be imputed to us unto justification . But the former is true . Ergo , &c. The ground of this Argument is , that justification is the pronouncing of a person righteous , & justification being Gods act , the person justified must be righteous , ere God can judge & pronounce him to be such ; for the judgment of God is alwayes according to truth ; & no person having a righteousness of his own , all that are justified must have a Righteousness imputed to them ; and there is no Righteousness that can be said to be imputed , but the Surety righteousness of Christ , and particularly , in satisfying all the demands of the law . He Excepteth , pag. 211. against the Minor 1. That however it be true , that justification cannot take place , without a perfect Righteousness , being nothing else than the making of a man perfectly Righteous : yet a Righteousness consisting determinatly of such a tale of righteous acts , as Christ performed unto the Moral law , is not absolutely necessary : for in reference to the jewes , there must have been righteous acts performed unto the ceremonial law also . Ans. ( 1 ) Justification is not the making of a man perfectly righteous ; but the judicial pronouncing & declaring of a man to be so , through the Righteouseness of Christ , imputed to him & received by faith . ( 2 ) A perfect Righteousness , consisting in compleat obedience the law is required : we urge not such a determination of acts , in number & tale to the moral , or to the Ceremonial law : only we assert the necessity of a full obedience to the Rule of Righteousness , which God prescribed unto men , & this was the Moral law : Though , as to the jewes there were other prescriptions proposed , than were to others of the world ; yet these same prescriptions , consisting in Ceremonials , or in Judicials , were reduced to the Moral law , & were enjoined thereby , so long as they stood in force , and were not repealed by the Supream Law giver . Except 2. Neither is it so absolutly true , that there is no perfect Righteousness to be found , beside Christs . There is a Righteousness in the law as absolut & compleat . And it is much more probable , that if God Imputes a legal Righteousness unto Men in justification , He fournisheth them this way out of the law . Ans. But what is that Righteousness in the law ? doth the law hold forth any Righteousness , but perfect obedience ? and how can God furnish them with this , but by Imputing unto them the perfect obedience of Christ , seing He hath not so ordered matters , as they shall be in case , while here , perfectly to keep the law themselves . ( 2 ) He remitteth us to what he said formerly in the same Treatise ; and in that place , he maketh this compleat Righteousness to consist in Remission of sinnes . And yet , it is certaine , that Remission is no obedience ; nor is it a Righteousness held forth in the law ; not is it any Satisfaction to the law : yea , it agreeth noth with common sense , nor with Reason to say , that by Remission of sins men are made formally Righteous . Except . 3. That perfect Righteousness , wherein justification consisteth , and where with men are made formally Righteous , when they are justified , is nothing else but Remission of sins , Rom. 4 : 6 , 7. Ans. Remission of sins is not a perfect Righteousness . This hath no countenance , from Scripture , nor from Reason , or common sense . Who ever thought , or said , that a pardoned Thiefe or Murderer was a Righteous man ? or that his pardon made him formally Rightheous , and an observer of the law ? Though thereupon he be freed from the penalty , or from the punishment threatned in the law against such transgressours ; yet is he nor thereupon either made or declared to be Righteous ; but his pardon is a virtual declaration , that he is not Righteous , but a Transgressour . How that place , Rom. 4 : 6 , 7. is perverted , when adduced to give countenance to this fiction , is declared already . He addeth , pag. 215. two Reasons for this : the first is , That remission of sins is equivalent unto , and virtually containeth & comprehendeth in it , the most absolute and entire obedience unto the law . Ans. Remission of sins , as such , is so far from being equivalent to this , or from comprehending this in it , that it is a plaine declaration of the contrary : for where entire obedience is , there Remission hath no place , and Remission must presuppose a Transgression . The next is , Because ( swaith he ) it hath all these great and high privileges annexed to it , and depending upon it , which a Righteousness , most strickly so called , could have , as the Love , Favour , acceptation and approbation of God. Ans. If we speak of Remission of sinnes , in it self , and abstractly considered , this is also false : for though a pardoned man be freed from the punishment , due to Transgressours ; yet , as meerly pardoned , he hath no right to Reward , promised to the perfect observers of the law : Nothwithstanding hereof , we grant that the man pardoned of God hath all these high and great privileges ; but not by vertue of his meer pardon ; but because there is a Righteousness , imputed to him , upon which these privileges do depend , and Exemption from punishment dependeth upon his pardon . He hath two other Reasons elsewhere , pag. 5 , 6. to this purpose ; as 1. That Remission includeth the acknowledgment of the observation of the whole law , even as the Imputation of the law fulfilled , necessarily includeth the non-imputation of sin . Ans. Though in our justification , this might be granted to be true , upon the matter , because there is an Imputation of the whole Surety-righteousness of Christ together ; and the one part is not separated from the other ; so that the one consequently inferreth the other . But when it is thus reasoned against the Imputation of the one , the Inference here must be understood of a formal Inference , and so it is false , that Remission includeth the acknowledgment of the observation of the whole law ; for it only includeth the non-Imputation of guilt , notwithstanding that the law was broken : yea , as is said , it manifestly supposeth the contrary , viz. That the law was not perfectly observed , for had the law been perfectly observed , there had been no place for pardon . Moreover , Remission as such , giveth no Right to the reward , promised unto perfect obedience ; but only impunity from the punishment , threatned for disobedience . 2. saith he . He cannot be said to have all this sinnes fully forgiven , who is yet looked vpon , as one that hath transgressed , either by Omission , or Commission , & intended to be dealt with all as such . Ans. Though he , whose sinnes are fully forgiven , cannot be dealt with , as one guilty of sin , that is , as one liable to the punishment ; yet he may be looked on , as one , that was guilty , and so did not give full and perfect obedience : and therefore , though he cannot be dealt with as a Transgressour ; yet neither can he be dealt with , upon the account of his Remission , as one that hath yeelded perfect obedience , & did never transgress . Wherefore , seing he cannot be looked upon , as one that never transgressed , he cannot be looked upon , as one that hath a perfect Righteousness , and so , a Right to the Reward . The similitudes taken from a phisician , restoreing his patient to health , by recovering him from his sickness ; and from the Sun , in one act expelling darkness & bringing in light , which are here adduced for illustration , have no force to prove any thing here , in regard , there is no correspondence in all points , betwixt Matters Natural , & Matters meerly Moral , or Political . There is no Medium betwixt light and darkness , or the habite and its privation ; but there is a Medium here betwixt Transgressing of the law , & perfect obedience to the law unto the end , Adam , so long as he stood , was no Transgressour ; yet he had not then given perfect obedience to the end , according to the Covenant . So there is a Medium betwixt Freedom from the Penalty , & the Right to the Reward , as was shown above . Arg. 7. If do this & live , be an everlasting Rule of God , & which shall never be dissolved , then must the Active obedience of Christ be imputed unto Men , in justification , that so they may be said to have done this , and so live . But the former is true , Ergo , &c. That these words , do this and live , containe a determination & constitution of the Lord , as unalterable , as these words , That day thou eats , thou shalt die , cannot well be denied : and therefore , if because of this latter , no man can be saved , unless their Surety die for them ; so because of that former , no man can have right to the reward , unless his Surety performe perfect obedience . And as the one is imputed to the Beleever , so must the other be Imputed also , in order to his compleat Salvation . Against this he excepteth , pag. 216. &c. thus , In this sense , I grant , that do this and live , is an everlasting Rule , that is , it is , hath been , and shall be everlastingly true , that who so ever shall fulfill the law perfectly , shall live . But not in this sense , that it is the only perpetual and standing Rule , whereby and according to which , men must be justified , and so saved : for in this sense , it neither is , nor ever was , nor ever shall be a rule of God : for God hath alwayes had , and for ever will have another rule for the justification of men . Ans. ( 1. ) Was it not a Rule of life & justification to Adam , in the state of Innocency ? was he not , according to that Covenant , where in he stood , to purchase the good promised by his doing ? It may be , the Excepter thinketh , with the Socinians , that no more was promised to Adam , than what he had in possession . ( 2. ) We do not assert it , as a standing rule , whereby we should now expect to be justified ; but we say , that it being a constitution of God's , as well as the other , viz. That day thou eats , thou shalt die , It must be satisfied , as well as the other . And as the rule of faith taketh not away Christs suffering of death , according to what was threatened in the law ; so nor doth the law of faith take away His obedience , according to the command of the law : and as Christs paying down of the Penalty was necessary for our freedom from death ; so His giving full obedience to the law is necessary to our life ; though , as was said , we need not nicely thus distinguish , save to shew the necessity of the Imputation of both . Arg. 8. That Righteousness , which God accepteth on our behalfe , is the Righteousness imputed to us in justification . But the Righteousness of Christ is that Righteousness , which God accepteth on our behalf , Ergo , &c. He excepteth , pag. 217. 1. Denying the Major , because God may and doth accept that for us , or on our behalf , which yet He need not impute to us ; at He accepted of Abrahanis prayer , in the behalf of Ismael ; & of the prayer of Elisha for the Shumanites Son , and yet neither was imputed to the other . Ans. But all this , & a thousand Instances of the like nature , can evince nothing ; for the Argument speaketh of what is accepted of God , in order to justification , as the ground and meritorious cause thereof ; which the Instances adduced come not nigh unto . He addeth , In like manner , these , in whose behalf , Christs Sufferings were accepted , receive an unspeakable benefite & blessing by them ; but this operats nothing to the Inference of the Imputation pleaded for ; that is , that God must look upon these Sufferings of Christ , as if they had personally endured them , on whose behalf they are accepted . Ans. Then it seemeth not only is the Imputation of Christs active obedience denied ; but also the Imputation of His death and Sufferings ; and no more is granted , than what Socinians will yeeld unto . ( 2 ) The Imputation , we plead for , is not such as maketh God to look upon these Sufferings of Christ , as if Beleevers had personally endured them : but such , as maketh God to look upon them , as the Sufferings of Christ , as Surety , Head & Publick person , in the room & stead of His chosen ones ; which Sufferings & payment of the Penalty by the Surety , being made over unto , & reckoned upon the score of Beleevers , they are , upon the account thereof , accepted & dealt with , as if they themselves had so Suffered and Satisfied , in their own persons . 2. He distinguisheth thus , If by the Righteousness of Christ the proposition meaneth , precisely that obedience , which He exhibited to that general & common law , whereunto all Men are obliged , considered apart from His obedience to that particular law of Mediator , given to Himself alone , so it is false . If by Righteousness be here meant that obedience of Christ , commonly called passive , or both active and passive together ; so it may be true : but then the other will be found tardy . Ans. ( 1 ) Christs obedience to that general law , by which all men were obliged , did as well belong to His law of Mediation , and was comprehended under it , as His giving up Himself to Suffering & to death : for as Mediator He was made under the law , as well as suffered the Curse . ( 2 ) The Minor proposition is to be understood of the whole Surety-righteousness , consisting not only in Suffering ; but also in actual obedience to the law : & when this is granted , the whole we seek is granted . Neither is the former proposition found tardy , as appeareth from what is said ; & the Syllogisme is good , and no Paralogisme , what ever he supposeth . Arg. 9. If Christ were a publick Person , standing in the place or stead of all those that should beleeve in Him ; then all that He did and Suffered , is to be looked upon & reputed by God , as done & Suffered by these , & consequently are Imputed to them . But the former is true , Ergo , &c. Sure , if Christ was a publik person , standing in the place and room of the chosen ones , all that He did , as such a person , or as a Surety , as to that wh●●h law and justice required of them , & they were obliged unto , must needs be imputed unto them , & reckoned upon their score ; and they must be dealt with upon the account thereof , as if all had been done & suffered by themselves . We do not say , that all He did & Suffered , is or must be Imputed : but that all , which He did and suffered , in Satisfaction of the law , and in payment of that , which we were liable unto , & stood under the obligation of , is and must of necessity be imputed , to the end we may be deliver●● from under the former obligation . He excepteth , pag. 220. &c. 1. The publickness of Christs person , or His standing in the place of those , that should beleeve , is no sufficient ground to build this Inference upon , That therefore all He did & suffered , are looked upon by God , as done and suffered by them ; such as His conception , Birth , &c. Ans. We have obviated this already , by showing , that the Major is to be limited to , & understood of those things only , which the law required of us , & which we were under the obligation of , and were debtors to do and suffer , amongst which none of the particulars mentioned , and many moe such-like , can be reckoned . His after rambling discourse upon this mistake , is not worth the noticeing : And who seeth not , how vaine it is for him to say , that then God should look upon men , as having redeemed the world : For , as the law did not require this of us ; so to speak thus , destroyeth all acts of Sutetyship : for the Sureties acts can never be so imputed to the debtor , as to make him thereby the Surety . We know , that Sureties and publick persons may do many things , which cannot be said to be imputed to the deb●ors & persons represented : but these things are not done by them , as such publick persons & Sureties , but in another capacity . And it is folly hence to inferre , that therefore the Sureties payment of the debt cannot be said to be imputed to the debtor ; or that wherein the publick person was a publik person , and which he did as such , cannot be said to be imputed to those , whom he represented . 2. Except . Itagreeth not with Scripture expression , to say , that the Sufferings of Christ are by God looked upon , as our Sufferings , or to conceive , that we should suffer in Him. It is not all one to say , we were punished in Christ , and Christ was punished for us . This last as warranted by Esai . 53 : 6. But the other cannot be affirmed ; for seing in Christs death , we hav● remission of sins , we cannot be said , for the same sinnes to be punished in and with Christ. Ans. This is wholly founded upon his own way of wording the Argument , so as he thought it would give him most advantage : for all this looketh to these words , in the Major propos . are to be looked upon , & are reputed by God , as done & suffered by those ; which words might have been left out , without any hurt to our cause : the Argum. without them would have been full and concludent for us , whether any have argued so , or he hath framed the Argum ▪ to his own mind , I know not . Sure , there is no necessity for adding of these words : yet the words may admit of a candide Interpretation ; for it hath no repugnancy , or dissonancy to Scripture expression , to say , that the Sufferings of Christ are looked upon as the beleevers sufferings , when they are impu●●d to him ; not as if God should think , judge or conceive , that the beleever , in his own Physical person , had suffered , that which Christ did suffer ; but that he hath a special legal interest in these Sufferings , as being in a special manner interessed in Christ : and are now dealt with by God , no otherwayes , than as if he himself had , in his own person , laid down that satisfactory price . And in this sense , there is no difference betwixt the saying , that we are punished in Christ , & that Christ was punished for us : for we 〈◊〉 only punished in Christ legally , as Christ suffered for us , as coming in ●ur law-place . Neither doth the saving , in this sense , That we are punished in Christ , take a way Remission of sins , but doth rather establish the same , as being the only ground thereof : for till we have an Interest in Christ , and in His Sufferings , by the Imputation thereof to us , & our leaning to them by faith , we can have no Remission , according to the Gospel-way . Except . 3. The publikeness of a person , who negatiats the affaires of others , doth no further , nor any other wayes , interesse those , whose affaires he mannageth , in what he doth in , or about such a transaction : buth only with reference to the issue , & success of what he doth for them , in that behalf : so that his dishonest , or unconscientious way , in the miscarying , or his wisdom & faithfulness , in the right managing , are no wayes imputable to the persons , whose business is negotiated . Ans. It is not necessary , that that special manner of managment should be so imputed unto the persons , whose affaire is negotiated , it being sufficient , that the persons represented be interessed in the transaction it self , in reference to an interest in the issue in the same affaire managed : and the transaction it self is so imputed to the persons represented , in reference to the effects , as if it had been done by themselves . So in our case , though the Wisdom , Faithfulness & patience of Christ , used in the managment of that publick affaire intrusted to Him , as a publick person , undertaking for , and representing all His Children , be not imputed unto them : yet the business it self , with which He was intrusted , viz. Giving satisfaction to the law in all points , by Suffering & Obedience , which the law required of us , is imputed to us , & must be so , in order to our partaking of the benefites & advantage thereof . Except . 4. It is not altogether so solide or sound , as is supposed , that Christ stood in the place & stead of those , that should beleeve in Him , especially in all things , performed by Him , and which tended to the qualification of His person . To stand in the place and stead of another , implieth a necessity of his being in the same place , & doing the same things himself , wherein he stands , & which he doth , who is supposed to stand in his stead , unless they had been done by this other for him . Ans. This last Exception is the same with the first , & needeth little more consideration . We do not assert , that He did so stand in the place & stead of beleevers , as to all things He did & suffered ; but only that He stood in in our room & stead , in the whole of His active & passive obedience , or in making satisfaction to the demands of the law , in His state of humiliation , this being it , for & in reference to which , He was appointed to be a publick person : all other things He did , as His Miracles , assuming a body , and the like , need not be said to be imputed to us ; though , in that they concerned His person , & were requisite thereunto , & to the work He was imployed in , they carry a special advantage in them for Beleevers ; & were in a particular manner designed for their good , & were subservient to that maine designe . Arg. 10. If we cannot be justified by the Righteousness of Christ otherwise than by the Imputation of it , then must it needs be imputed to us , in our justification . But the former is true . Ergo. &c. He excepteth p. 225. The Righteousness of Christ concurreth toward justification , by qualifying His person for that Sacrifice of himself , by which justification hath been purchased for all those that beleeve Ans. The Argum. is to be understood of His whole Surety-righteousness , and not of His active obedience only . ( 2 ) Even as to this , it was answered above , that it was not requisite unto this end , His humane nature being sufficiently hereunto qualified , by the personal union , by which His bloud became the bloud of God , and all He did and Suffered was the deed & Suffering of Him , who was God. Arg. 11. If we may truely be said to be dead & crucified with Christ , to be quickened & have risen againe with Him , &c. then may we truely be said to have fulfilled the law with Christ ; & consequently that should be imputed to us . But the former is true , Ergo , &c. These expressions pointe forth the closs union , that is betwixt Christ and Beleevers , & thereupon their Interest in what He did and suffered , as Mediator , Surety & publick person , to the end they may have right to , and possession of the great benefites , purchased and procured by Him. So they hold forth Christs suffering , dying , riseing , &c. as a publick person in their room & in their stead , & as their Representative : so that it is r●ckoned for them , and upon their score , and they are so interessed therein , as that they are to be dealt with , as if all these things had been done & suffered by themselves . And though , in these expressions mentioned , there be no express mention made of Christs fulfilling the law ; yet they sufficiently hold forth that , which by parity of reason will enforce this , as well as the other : for they pointe forth Beleevers their union & communion with Christ , as to His Mediatory work , to which His fulfilling of the law did belong . Against the consequence he saith , These expressions have no such Inference : for if we could be said to have fulfilled the law with Christ , our own fulfilling it in Him should rather be said to be imputed to us , than His fulfilling it for us . Ans. ( 1 ) This will say as much against the Imputation of Christs sufferings ; for we are said to be dead with Christ ; & therefore not Christs death , but our own death in Him should be said to be imputed to us : But the Scripture knoweth no such thing . ( 2 ) The meaning of the expression is , we say , but to denote emphatically the imputation of what Christ did & suffered , unto us : for our own fulfilling of the law in Him , is but His fulfilling of it for us , & the same imputed to us ; so as we are dealt with no otherwayes , than if we had done it our selves ; as our being dead & buried with Christ , is but His dying in our place & stead , or our having such an Interest in His death & burial , as that we are dealt with , as if , in a manner , we had died our selves . But he supposeth , there is a difference , as to this , betwixt Christs dying & His fulfilling the law , saying , When the Scripture saith , we are dead &c. with Christ , the meaning is not , that God looked upon us , as if we had laid down our Natural lives by death , when he laid down His ; & as if this laying down our lives were a satisfaction to His justice ; for then we might be said , to have satisfied for & redeemed our selves : But these expressions import either a profession of such a death in us , which holds proportion with , or hath a likeness to the death of Christ , or else this death it self really wrought in us , by that death of Christ. Ans. We do not asserte the meaning of these expressions to be , That God looketh upon us , as if we had laid down our Natural lives , &c. But that beleevers have such an Interest in Christs death , as being the death of their Surety , Redeemer , Head , Husband and publick person , that they receive the benefites & advantag●● thereof , no less really & effectually , than if they themselves , in their own persons , had dyed & satisfied , the same being now imputed unto them , & laid hold on by faith . ( 2 ) Though these expressions , at least some of them , & in some places of Scripture , as Rom. 6. may & do import what is here expressed ; yet the full import of these Expressions is not hereby exhausted , as the scope & circumstances of the places may cleare ; as particularly that expression , Gal. 2 : 20. I am crucified with Christ : & these Ephes. 2 : 5. 6. He addeth against this . That Gal. 2 : 20. The expression is taken in the latter sense , importing that the natural death of Christ for Paul & others , had wrought upon him , in a way of assimilation to it self , & had made him a dead man to the world . Ans. Paul is rather clearing & confirming , how he was become dead to the law , and alive unto God , vers 19. in & through the vertue of Christs death & crucifixion , in which he had such an Interest , that he accounted him self , as it were hinging-on the cross in & with Christ ; & did so rest upon that by faith , & owne that Sacrifice alone , that he & Christ , as it were , were become one person ; & he owed his being dead unto the law onely thereunto , & had it as really flowing therefrom & following thereupon , as if he himself had hung upon the cross , as a satisfactory Sacrifice . To that Ephes. 2 : 5 , 6. he saith , The meaning is not , that God looks upon them , as quickened from a natural or corporal death , as Christs quickening & riseing againe was . Ans. Nor do we say , that this is the meaning , nor need we either think , or say so : but this we say , that the expression holdeth this forth , that Christ dyed & rose againe , as a publick person & Surety ; & that Beleevers have so neer an Interest in His Mediatory work , & so closs an union with the Mediator , that they are as one person in law ; so that they are really made partakers of some of the fruites of what Christ did & suffered , already , & shall as really partake of what is yet to be communicated , as if they themselves had laid down that purchasing price . Let us hear what he giveth for the meaning . The meaning ( saith he ) is either to signifie the profession , that is made by us of that newness of life , which in way of a Spiritual Analogy , answers that life , whereunto Christ was quickened and rose againe ; or else the new life it self wrought in us . Ans. That the Apostle is not here speaking of a meer profession , is manifest : nor is he speaking only of a new life , wrought in them ; for he addeth , and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Iesus : Nor doth that , which he saith , invalidate the meaning , which we give ; for that effect , or inwrough quickening is spoken of , as flowing from Christs dying & riseing , & from their Interst in His dying and riseing , & their union with Him in all that , as being one person in law with Him ; & so as virtually riseing with Him , and now sitting with Him , who is their common Head & Representative All which doth abundantly confirme the Doctrine of Imputation , which we plead for . He addeth finally , But on the other hand , as there is no such expression in Scripture , as this , we have fulfilled the law with Christ ; so neither● if there were , would it make any thing at all to salve the truth of the proposition , under question : for what if we should be said either to profess such a fulfilling of the law , as holds proportion with Christ's fulfilling it , or really & personally to fulfill the law , after such a manner ? Ans. The expressions already mentioned do sufficiently evince this union and communion , that beleevers have with Christ , in His mediatory work , which is a solide ground of Imputation of the same unto them , as the foundation of their partaking of the benefites flowing therefrom : for there cannot any shew of reason be given for the one , which will not hold good for the other also . And it is said , but not proved , that these & the like expressions hold forth no more , but one or both of these two things alleiged : yea the scope of the places , and the Import of the words , hold forth much more , as is said . Arg. 12. Whosoever is a sinner , & so continueth whil'st he liveth , cannot be justified other wayes , than by the Imputation of Christs Righteousness . But every man ( Christ excepted ) is a sinner , &c. Therefore , &c. He excepteth , pag. 219. &c. If there be no other meanes of justifying , the condition of the whole world is hopless ; for there is no such Imputation . Ans. The contrary hath been shown , & shall be more demonstrated hereafter . He addeth , Without Imputation there is another door opened . What is this ? Those that truely beleeve in Iesus Christ , being not under the law , but under grace , are not liable to condemnation for their daily sinns , 1 Ioh. 2 : 1 , 2. Ans. True , but what then ? How come they to be under grace , & not under the law ? Is is not by vertue of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto them , unto their Justification ; & because of their Interest in Christ , as Mediator , as their Head , Husband , Surety , Interessour & Advocat ? He addeth . So that for the dissolving & taking away of all guilt , there needs no Imputation of the active obedience of Christ. The propitiation , which He is unto them , by His blood & Intercession , hath done this service to them , before this Imputation is supposed to come at them . Ans. We plead for the Imputation of His whole Surety & Mediatory work ; & say that it is wholly imputed , & that at once , & not one part now , and another at another time . Nor do we say , that Christs death did procur● one thing , & His obedience another thing : but that in & by both , He , as Surety , performed what the law required of us ; & thereby procured all to us , that we stand in need of , to make us happy . Thus have we vindicated the Arguments , which this Author thought good to make any answere unto : others might be mentioned , but we shall forbear mentioning of them , till some other occasion . CHAP. XI . Objections taken out of Scripture by Mr. Goodwine , against the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto Justification , Answered . HAving in the foregoing Chapters proved , both from Scripture & Reason , That Christs Righteousness is imputed unto Beleevers unto justification ; & having vindicated such of them , as were excepted against by Mr. Goodwine ; we shall now come & examine the Arguments , by which he oppugneth the Doctrine of Imputation , in the first part of his Treatise of justification ; Where he marshalleth his Arguments under two heads , viz. of Scripture & Reason . He beginneth with his supposed Scripture proofs , Chap. 2. &c. As to the first of which , largely prosecuted Chap. 2. we shall speak to it afterward , when we come to speak of the Interest of faith in Justification ; for thereunto it doth more properly belong , being rather a proof of the Imputation of faith , in a proper sense , as our Righteousness , unto justification , than of the Non-Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. Leaving therefore the examination of this to its proper place , we come to see what other Scriptures , adduced by him against the Truth hitherto asserted , do say , in this question under debate ; & that the more willingly , because Mr. Baxter in his late book against D. Tully , referreth us to this man for Arguments . First , he adduceth such passages , as absolutely exclude the works of the law from justification , as Rom. 3 : 28. Gal. 2 : 16. Rom. 3 : 20. We spoke something to this matter , while we were mentioning the Mysteries , remarkable in justification : yet we shall here consider what he saith . He thus reasoneth , pag. 55. If a man be justified by the Righteousness of Christ imputed unto him , he shall be justified by the works of the law ; because that Righteousness of Christ , we now speak of , consists of these works . Ans. The vainity & falshood of the Consequence is obvious : nor doth the reason added , make any supply . It is true the Righteousness of Christ did consist in works of obedience , required by the law ; yet though this be imputed to us , it doth not follow , that we are justified by the works of the law ●●ccording to the Scripture sense of that expression : for the Scripture meaneth works of the law , which we do in our own persons , Tit. 3 : 5. And the whole Scope , Drift & purpose of the Spirit of the Lord , in all these places cited , & in all others , evinceth this ; and all the Arguments mentioned in Scripture against justification by the works of the law , demonstrat this to be the true and only impo●● of that expression , as cannot but be plaine to any considering person . Yet he hath 4. answers , and he addeth several other things , which we must examine . He saith I. Where the Holy Ghost delivereth a truth simply & indefinitly & in a way of a General & Universal conclusion , without imposeing any necessity there , or else where , to limite or distinguish upon it ; for men to interpose by distinctions & limitations , to overrule the express meaning of the words , is to usurpe authority over the Scriptures . Ans. I grant , to adhibite distinctions or limitations , which the Scripture giveth no warrand for , to over rule the express meaning of the words of the Holy Ghost , is to exercise an unlawful authority over the Scriptures , & savoureth of audacious profanity . And I judge , that there are not afew of such distinctions & limitations to be found , in his Book , making him fall under the lash of this censure . But to assert such a general and universal sense of a Scripture expression , as neither will agree with other Scriptures , nor with common Sense & Reason ; yea which so directly crosseth the whole Gospel , and destroyeth the Scope , Cohesion , & obvious Sense of the whole purpose , and of every sentence , used by the Spirit of the Lord in that matter , is to usurpe a Supra-papal power and Authority over the Scriptures of truth , and a most ready way to render them wholly useless . ( 2 ) As for our sense of this Expression , who , that will willingly be ruled by the Scriptures , cannot submit unto it ? Let us but look to the very first place cited by himself , Rom. 3. & consider the whole preceeding discourse of the Apostle from Chap. I : 18. & forward , & particularly Chap. 3 : 19. Where the Apostle closeth his discourse , tending to evince both jewes & Gentils to be under the Curse , by saying , Now we know , that what things so ever the law saith , it saith to them who are under the law , that every mouth may be stopped , and all the world may become guilty before God. Is not this to be understood , in respect of their own personal deeds & works ? See then his conclusion , vers 20. Therefore by the deeds of of the law , there shall no flesh be justified in his sight . Can any man , that hath not renounced common sense , understand this otherwise , than that no man shall be justified in the sight of God by his own personal works ; seing this is the only native conclusion , that floweth from the premisses ; seing by their own personal works they can be justified before men ; & seing the following words , for by the law is the knowledge of sin , that is , the law proveth & evinceth all , that we do , to be short & sinful , enforce this likewise ? Is not this also enforced by these words , vers 23. For all have sinned , and come short of the glory of God ? Is it imaginable , that justification , through the Imputed obedience of Christ to the law can evince , that we are not justified freely by His grace through the Redemption , that is in Jesus Christ , vers 24 ? If this general sense were the true meaning , what ground was there for that vers 27. Where is boasting then ? It is excluded . By what law ? of works ? no , by the law of faith ? Would Justification by Christs obedience give ground of boasting ? And what ground were there for that objection vers 31. Do we then make void the law , &c. & in the following Chapter , when speaking of Abraham , doth he or can any man imagine , that the Apostle doth mean any other works , when be denieth that Abraham was justified by works , than Abraham's own personal works ? And meaneth he , or can he meane any other works , when he saith vers 4. Now to him , that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace , but of debt ? But it were tedious to prosecute this matter further , that is so clear in it self to every ordinary Reader , that it must needs argue a desperat designe , together with unpasrallel'd boldness , thus , with confidence & peremptoriness , to assert the contrary . He saith 2. If the Apostles charge had been , in delivering of this doctrine , either to have made , or to have given allowance for any such distinction , certainly he should have been unfaithful in his trust , in giving the honour , due to the works of Christ , unto a thing of a far inferiour nature , viz to faith , as he doth Gal. 2 : 16. Where he saith not , but by the works of Jesus Christ , but by faith Ans. This answere is , in a great measure , sick of the same distemper of presumption , with the former . We must not think , that the Apostle is still to be blamed for unfaithfulness , when he speaketh not , as we would have him speak : Christian sobr●ety should reach us , to search for Gods mind , in the expressions He hath thought good to use , for signifying of His mind . These , against whom the Apostle here wrote , & whose errour , in the matter of justification , he was confuting , never had a thought of such a general groundless sense , as we have here obtruded upon us ; nor can it come into the thought of any rational man ; & when then should we suppose , that the Apo●●le should have spoken to such a thing ? ( 2 ) Paul giveth not the honour , due to the works of Christs , unto any thing of an Inferiour Nature , no not to faith , whatever this Author , misunderstanding the Apostle's mind , & perverting his words , would make his Reader beleeve , as we shall have occasion to shew hereafter . This Author setreth Christ and Faith at variance , whileas the Apostle every where sheweth their agreement & indissoluble union . ( 3 ) Taking faith , in this Authors sense , we see , That by his own Confession , the ascribing of that unto faith , which he doth ascribe to it , in the matter of ●ustification , is a giving of that honour unto it , which , we say , is due to Christs obedience . So that the question betwixt him and us , is , whether Christ and His obedience , or Faith of a far inferiour Nature , must have that honour ? We see no ground to imagine , that Paul would give the honour , that Universal obedience might call for , unto one act of obedience , or think that he would cry up one act of obedience , that is , faith , & cry down all other acts of obedience : far less that he would cry up faith , in prejudice of the full & perfect obedience of Jesus Christ , the Redeemer and Surety . He saith 3. If Paul's intent had been , to have reserved a place in Iustification , for the works of the law , as performed by Christ , his indefinite expression would have been , as a snare upon men , to cause them passe over the great things of their Iustification . Ans. Paul's indefinite expression neither was , nor could have been a snare unto any ; nor came such an imagination ever in the head of any man , but such an one , as can stumble in the most even path , being blinded with prejudice at the truth , & drunk with love to his own Inventions , which he cannot otherwise maintaine , but by new and unheard-of fictions . What great things of justification could , I pray , Paul's expressions cause any passe over ? Why are not some of these great things mentioned ? He saith 4. If this had been Paul's meaning , it cannot be once imagined , but that he would have made use of such a distinction , or reservation , & would have been glad , if , without trenching upon some Gospel-truth , he could have come over so neer unto the jewes , who where chiefly incensed against Paul , for passing over the law in justification . Now had he said , that be did not exclude the righteousness of the law by faith , but advance it rather ; only he preached that they could not be justified by their own observation of it ; who seeth not how this would have taken off great part of their opposition , Ans. It is a wonder to see , how some men can shut their eyes , that they should not see what is most obvious , and what is in plaine termes asserted in the Scriptures . Did not Paul say expresly enough , Rom. 3. ult . That he did not make void the law through faith , but did establish it ? doth he not also plainly tell us , where the difference lay betwixt him & the jewes ; & what it was especially , at which they stumbled , when he said , Rom. 9 : 31 , 32. But Israel , which followed after the law of Righteousness , hath not attained to the law of Righteousness ; wherefore ? Because they sought it not by faith , but as it were by the works of the law , for they stumbled at that stumbling stone . And againe Rom. 10 : 3 , 4. But they being ignorant of God's Righteousness , & going about to establish their own Righteousness , have not submitted themselves unto the Righteousness of God ; for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness , &c. Is it not hence clear , that they rejected Christ , and would not owne Him , as the end of the law for Righteousness : & that they stumbled at Him , seeking after justification & life , by their own personal following after the law of Righteousness , & by seeking to establish their own righteousness ? How then can this man say pag. 61. That Paul was as far from holding justification by the works of the law , as performed by Christ , as the jewes were , who would have nothing to do with Christ , but stumbled at Him , while as Paul sought only to be found in Him , not having his owne Righteousness , which is of the law ; but that which is through the faith of Christ , the Righteousness which is of God by faith , Phil. 3 : 9. And proclamed Christ to be the end of the law for Righteousnes , to every one that beleeveth , Rom. 10 : 4. Against Fit. 3 : 5. where mention is made of the works of righteousness ; which we have done ; & a sufficient ground laid for the distinction mentioned , & to prevent the stumbling of such , as love to walk in the light , he advanceth several answers , pag. 62. &c. As I. He never said , that the active righteousness of Christ should be made a stander-by ; but that it hath a blessed influence into justification , as it issueth into His passive obedience , which together may be called a Righteousness for which , but not with which we are justified , except it can be proved to be either the Material , or formal , or instrumental cause of justification , & whoever attempt to do this , will wholly dissolve the merite of it . Ans. ( 1 ) All this maketh nothing to the purpose now in hand , which is to show , that Paul by this expression cleareth sufficiently , what he meaneth by the works of the law , which he excludeth from having any interest in justification , viz. The works of the law , performed by us in our own persons . ( 2 ) What influence the active obedience of Christ hath in justication , when he will not admit it to be any part of that Surety-righteousness , which is imputed unto us , he showeth not ; nor what way it issueth in to His passive obedience . If all this influence be to make Him fit to be a Sacrifice , we have shown above , that the personal Union did that ; and consequently His active obedience , if it had no other influence , is made a meer stander by . ( 3. ) A Righteousness for which , & a Righteousness with which , is a distinction , in our case , without a difference ; for the one doth no way oppugne , or exclude the other , because the meritorious cause imputed , made over to and reckoned upon the score of beleevers , can be also that Righteousness with which they are justified . ( 4 ) Whether it may be called the Material , or Formal cause of justification ( that any ever called it the instrumental cause , is more than I know ) is no great matter , seing it may be either , as the termes shall be explained , which men are at freedom to do , according to their own minde , when they apply them unto this matter , which hath so little affinity with Effects meerly Natural , unto the causes of which these termes are properly applied : though I should choose rather to call it the formal objective cause , if necessitated to use here philosophik termes . ( 3 ) That to call Christ's whole Righteousness either the Material or Formal cause of justification , is to overthrow the merite of it , is said , but not proved : It is not these philosophical termes themselves , but the explication of them by such , as use them in this matter , that is to be regarded : and none shall ever show , that either of these termes , as explained by the orthodox , doth overthrow the merite of Christ's Righteousness , both doth rather establish it . He saith , 2. The H. Ghost may reject the works of men from being the cause of such or such a thing , & yet no wayes intimat , that the works of any other should be the cause thereof , If the words had gone thus , not by the works of Righteousness , which we our selves had done , this had been some what an higher ground , to have inferred the opposite member of the distinction upon , viz. by the works of another , or of Christ. Ans. This exception is as little to the purpose , as the former ; for these words were here brought only to show , what the Apostle meant by the works of the law , which he excluded from justification , viz. the works which we do : and not to prove immediatly , that the works of any other were understood hereby . ( 2 ) It is foolish thing to imagine a distinction , betwixt works , which we do & works , which we our selves , do , the same word in the original , which vers 5. is rendered we , is rendered we our selves , vers 3. What poor shifts are these , which men take to support a desperat cause ? He saith 3. To put the matter out of all question , that excluding the works of the law , which we had done , he had no intent to imply the works , which another might do , he expresseth the opposition thus , according to His mercy . Ans. The mistake is still continued in : By these words , we onely cleare what the works are , which are excluded ; viz. our personal works , or works , which we do , or have done : whose works else are accepted , other places prove expresly , & this by consequence , unless the worke of a third could be alleiged . ( 2 ) The opposition here made , destroyeth not the opposition , which we make : for when we are justified & Saved by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , we are justified & saved according to His mercy ; as well as we are justified freely by His grace , when justified through the Redemption , that is in Jesus Christ , Rom. 3 : 24. He saith 4. & thereby seemeth to reply to what is last said . The Apostle delivereth himself distinctly of that , wherein this Mercy of God , be speaks of , consisteth , viz. regenerating us , &c. Ans. But , I hope , the Apostles mentioning of Regeneration , doth not exclude the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , the ground thereof ; nor can he suppose this , unless he plead with Papists for justification by our good works , done after Regeneration , & the new birth . He saith 5. Such an inference is neither probable , nor pertinent to the purpose ; because the Apostle rejecteth the works of righteousness , which he nameth , from being any cause , antecedaneously moving God to save us ; & not from being the formal cause of justification : and we our selves ( saith he ) will not say , that the works of the law , which Christ hath done , moved God to saveus . Ans. ( 1 ) The Inference , which he here speaketh of , is his own , and not ours , as we have said . ( 2 ) The Salvation here mentioned is comprehensive , and includeth Justification & Adoption , as vers 7. cleareth ; & the Mercy , mentioned , v. 5. comprehendeth all other subordinat causes & meanes , which the Lord hath appointed : & though the obedience of Christ be no cause , moving God to decree to save ; yet it may be a cause of justification . But then ( saith he pag. 65. ) This will only establish the merite of Christ's Righteousness in justification , but overthrow the formality of it . And why so ? Because ( sa it be ) it is unpossible , that one and the self same thing , in respect of one and the self same effect , should put on the different habitude both of the Formal & Efficient cause . Ans. All this is but vaine talk , & a reasoning from termes of art , or philosophical notions taken improperly , to the same taken most properly & strickly ; as if a Moral , polititical or legal effect were every way the same , with a Natural physical effect : and yet in physical Effects , as such , meritorious causes have no proper Efficiency : But , as to our case , we plainly say , that Christ's Righteousness is the meritorious cause of our justification , & yet may be called the formal cause thereof , as that terme may be adapted & fitly explained , according as the matter will bear ; or the formal objective cause , which we rather incline to . He speaketh against Gal. 4 : 4. pag. 66. saying , that it is adduced to prove , that Paul mentioneth the works of the law , as done by Christ , in the discourse of justification ; & consequently , that he had no intent to exclude the works of the law , as done by Christ from having their part in justification . But , as was shown above , there are many other places of Scripture evincing this . Yet let us see what he saith . 1. The law , under which Christ was made , is the ceremonial law , as is clear vers 5. we are not redeemed from the Moral law , which is of eternal obligation ; but from the Ceremonial law . Ans. ( 1 ) That Christ was made under the Ceremonial law only , no reason can evince ; for He was made under that law , under the curse whereof we were , who were to be delivered there from by Him , Gal. 3 : 10 , 12. But this was not the Ceremonial law only ; otherwise he should have died only for the jewes . Againe , The law , which he speaketh of , was ordained by Angels , in the hand of a Mediator , Gal. 3 : 17 , 19. but this was the Moral law , contained in the decalogue . Is the ceremonial law only that law , that cannot give life vers 21. was nothing a Schoolmaster to Christ , but the ceremonial part of the law , vers 24. ( 2 ) To be under the law , is not only to be under the lawes obligation , but chiefly to be under the lawes Curse , which is the same with being concluded under sin , Gal. 3 : 22. ( 3 ) If being under the law be thus limited , or restricked , to a being under the obligation of the ceremonial law , no more can be meaned , by receiving the Adoptions of Sones , there mentioned , as the opposite mercy , than a freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law ! but this , I suppose , will be too narrow an Interpretation . ( 4 ) Though none be redeemed from obedience to the Moral law ; yet they may be delivered there from , as the sole condition of the Covenant , & as the sole way of obtaining life . 2. He saith , hereby may be meaned His subjection to the curse of the law . Ans. That this may be part of the meaning , may very easily be granted : & what then can hence follow ? The expression of being under the law , hath not alwayes this single and sole import , as we see in that same Chapter , vers 21. Secondly , Chap. 4. pag. 69. He argueth from Rom. 3 : 21 , 22. thus , If the Righteousness , of faith , which is here called the Righteousness of God , consists in the Imputation of Christs Righteousness , then is it not , nor can it be , made manifest without the law , that is , without the works of the law . But the Righteousness of faith is sufficiently manifested without the law , that is without the works or Righteousness of the law . Ergo. The connexion of the Major he thus confirmeth . Because to such a Righteousness the law , and the works thereof , are every white as necessary than faith it self ; for faith is made only a Meanes of the derivation of it upon men ; but the body & substance of the Righteousness it self is nothing else , but the pure law , & the works of it . Ans. The connexion of the Major is unsound , and its probation is founded upon a manifest wresting , or misinterpretation of the place : for the meaning of these words , The Righteousness of God without the law , is this , The Righteousness of God , which is not had by our performance of the commands of the law , or , doth not consist therein ; not , the Righteousness of God , which is without all obedience to the law : for there be no such Righteousness ; all Righteousness being a conformity to the law of God ; & if Righteousness consist not in obeying the law of God , wherein shall it consist ? The Righteousness then of God is a Righteousness consisting indeed in full obedience to the law ; but yet a Righteousness consisting in obedience to the law , performed by one , who was God ( & therefore also called the Righteousness of God ; & not meerly because invented by God ; or because bestowed by Him upon men ; or because such , as will only be accepted of by Him , as he saith ; though these be also true , & may in part ground the denomination ) & not by ou rselves , who were properly and originally under the obligation of the law . This will not satisfie him , & therefore he saith . I. This sanctuary hath been polluted , & the hornes of ibis altar broken down , in the demonstration of the former proof . Ans. The contrary is manifest from our foregoing examination of that supposed demonstration . He saith 2. There is not the least intimation given , that the Apostle should have any such by , or back meaning , as this . Ans. Nor was there any necessity , for any express mention hereof ; not only because the party , the Apostle had here mainely to deal with , understood nothing else by the law , but our obedience performed thereunto ; knowing the meaning of the law to be this , he that doth these things shall live by them ; but also because the whole scope and manner of argueing of the Apostle , & his whole procedure in this debate , manifest this to be the meaning : for having convinced both jewes and Gentiles to be under the law , as guilty before God , he inferreth , that therefore by the deeds of the law , there shall no flesh be justified , Rom. 3 : 20. That is , by their own deeds or actions : for the law to them can do nothing , but convince of sin , & binde guilt more upon them . But it did not so to Christ , who yeelded perfect obedience . We might also demonstrate this from the Apostles following discourse , if it were necessary ; but we said enough of this , in answere to the foregoing objection . He saith 3. The works of the law are never the less the works of the law , because performed by Christ. Ans. Yet when performed by Christ , they are not the works of the law done by us , who did lye under the obligation ; and by the Imputation of such an obedience , as was performed by Christ , we have no ground of boasting or of glorying , either before God , or Man : and it is against such an obedience to the law , as the ground of justification , as doth not exclude glorying or boasting , and such as consisteth in works of Righteousness , which we have done , & is exclusive offree grace , that the Apostle disputeth . He saith 4. This righteousness is said to receive testimony from the law , that is , from that part of Scripture , which is often called the law ; and from the Prophe●● . Now , neither of these give any testimony to such a Righteousness , but to a Righteousness procured or derived upon a man by faith , Gen. 15 : 6. Hab. 2 : 4. Ans. It is true , this Righteousness receiveth testimony from the law , and from the writtings of the Prophets ; & we plead for no other Righteousness , but such , as is so testified of , & hath the concurrent consent both of the O. and of the N. Testament . Both law & Prophets , that spoke of the seed of the Woman , & of the Messiah , & of His being the Lord our Righteousness , or spoke of the peoples duty in reference to Him , as such , did bear witness to this Truth . ( 2 ) What is that Righteousness , which is here said to be procured , or derived upon a Man by faith ? Is it the Righteousness of Christ ? Then the cause is yeelded . Is it the Righteousness of men themselves ? Then justification by works is established , & the whole Gospel is overthrown . And how , I pray , can this besaid to be procured or derived upon a man by faith ? The places cited speak of no such thing , but have a far contrary Import , as may hereafter appear . He saith 5. This Righteousness of God is said to be unto all , & upon all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by or through faith , by way of opposition to the works of the law : Now between Faith & the works of the law , there is a constant opposition ; but between the law and the works of righteousness of Christ , there is no opposition . Ans. ( 1 ) If this Righteousness be unto and upon all , by or through faith , it must of necessity be the Righteousness of another , in bringing home and applying of which , faith is an Instrument : & to this way of bringing in the Righteousness of God by faith from without , is the seeking of Righteousness by our own works , or by our own acts of obedience to the law , manifestly opposite & irreconcilable : & this is the opposition , which the Scripture alwayes maketh , betwixt justification by the law , & by faith , as the very Scriptures , cited by himself , make manifest , to wit , Rom. 3 : 27 , 28. & 4 : 13 , 14. & 9 : 32. & 10 : 5 , 6. Gal. 2 : 16. & 3 : 5 , 11 , 12. &c. ( 2 ) This argument & all the steps of its prosecution , make against himself , who will have our act of faith to be the Righteousness of God , though it be no where so called ; & cannot be that , which is by , or through faith ; for faith is not by or through faith ; nor doth faith become a Righteousness by , or through faith : nor is faith , as our act , against the law , otherwise it should be no act of obedience , but a piece of willworship ; and consequently no righteousness at all but an unrighteousness , & a plaine disobedience , or a work of Supererogation : nor do the law or Prophets , any where , testify to this , as our Righteousness . Thirdly Chap. 5. pag. 73. He reasoneth from Rom. 5 : 16 , 17. thus . The gift of righteousness ( as it is called vers 17. ) which is by Christ , in the Gospel , & is said vers 16. to be a free gift of many offences unto justification , that is the forgiveness of many offences , cannot be a perfect legal righteousnes imputed unto vs , or made ours by Imputation , but the righteousness which is by Christ in the Gospel , is the gift of many offences . Ergo , &c. The Major he thus confirmeth . That righteousness , which extends unto a mans justification , by the forginess of sins , can be no perfect legal righteousness imputed . But the righteousness of Christ , in the Gospel , by which we are justified , extendeth unto a mans justification , by the forgiveness of sins . Ergo , &c. The Major of this , he thus proveth . Because a legal or perfect righteousness doth not proceed to justifie a mans person by way of forgiveness of sinnes ; but is of it self intrinsecally & essen●ially a man's justification ●t yea such a justification , with which forgiveness of sins , is not competible : for what need hath he , that is legally righteous , or hath a legal righteousness imputed to him , of forgiveness of sins , when as such a rightousness excluded all sin , & all guilt of sin from his person . To all which I ans . ( 1 ) The Major propos . of the two Syllogis●es , is true only of a perfect righteousness , wrought by our selves , in conformity to the law ; and not of the Righteousness of another imputed to us ; which though it may be called legal , as to Christ , as consisting in perfect obedience & conformity to the law ; yet is rather to be called Evangelical , as to us , upon the account of its discovery and revelation , and manner of communication unto us . ( 2 ) The confirmation of the Major is likewise only true of a righteousness performed by our selves : for that indeed excludeth all Remission : and therefore if our faith be accounted our righteousness ( as he faith ) it must be our justification , & so , inconsistent with free forgiveness . ( 3 ) As to the Scripture , where upon all this founded . I say , The text saith not , that our righteousness is only free forgiveness ; but that in reference to pardon & free forgiveness , there is a gift bestowed ; & that this gift by grace , which aboundeth unto many , is attended with free forgiveness , as a necessary consequent . It is the free gift , that cometh upon all men unto justification vers 18. & that , by which many are made righteous vers 19. & therefore is called the gift of righteousness , vers 17. He objecteth against himself thus , A man's sins are first forgiven him , and then this perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed unto him ; and so he is justified . But this is not the thing we would say , but on the contrary , That first the perfect Righteousness of Christ is imputed , whereupon the beleever is justified & pardoned , Let us hear his answer . 1. He saith , If we will needs distinguish the effects of the active & passive obedience of Christ , so as from the active part to fetch a perfect righteousness for Imputation , & from the passive remission of sins ; yet whether it be any wayes reasonable to invert the order , I leave to sober consideration . Christ did not first die , & after death keep the law ; therefore reason requireth , that what is first purchased , should be first received & applied . Ans. I see no necessity of distinguishing , after this manner , the Effects of Christ's active & passive obedience ; but judge it best , to keep as conjoined what divine wisdom hath firmerly & inseparably joined together : But though we should thus needlesly distinguish these effects ; yet there is no necessity of saying , That Christ's obedience , because first existing , should be first imputed unto justification ; and then His death to Remission : for neither do we assigne justification to His active obedience only ; nor is the same order to be observed , in the application of the Effects , that was observed in Christ's performance , of what was laid upon Him , and required of Him , as our Sponsor : for the Nature of the thing required , that Christ should first have obeyed , before He died : & on the other hand , the condition of sinners requireth , that they be first justified and pardoned , before they have a right to all the Effects of Christ's active obedience imputed . 2. He saith , If a man hath once sinned , it is not any legal righteousness what so ever imputed , that can justifie him . Ans. This is granted ; But in order to justification we say , That Christ's whole Surety-righteousness is imputed ; & this comprehendeth both His active & His passive obedience , so usually distinguished . 3. He saith , If a mans sins be once forgiven him , he hath no need of any further righteousness for his justification ; because forgiveness of sins reacheth home , & amounteth unto a full justification with God. Ans. If justification were nothing else , but forgiveness of sins , there would be some colour for this : but in justification there is also an accepting of the man as righteous , & to this a meer pardon of sins will not serve : for a Righteousness is hereunto requisite ; & pardon of sins and Righteousness are not one thing . It is false then to say , as he addeth , That this is all the justification , the Scripture knowes , or speaks of , the forgiveness of sins , or acquiting from condemnation . For both according to Scripture , and the native import , and universal usage of the word , justification denoteth a constituting legally and declaring solemnely a person to be righteous , or free of the accusation , given in against him ; or a pronouncing of an accused man to be righteous ; & therefore supposeth , when the sentence is just , that the person is a righteous person : & , in our case , the sentence of God being according to truth , the person justified , having no righteousness of his own , must be clothed with the Surety-righteousness of Christ , as Surety , Head & Husband , imputed to him & received by faith . He addeth , That righteousness , which we have by Christ , and where with we are said to be justified , is only a negative righteousness , not a positive : It is nothing else , but a non-Imputation of sin , which I therefore call a Righteousness by Imputation , as having the privileges , but not the nature & substance of a perfect legal righteousness , Ans. A Righteousness not positive , but meerly negative , is no righteousness at all ; for a true Righteousness is a positive conformity unto the law , the Rule of Righteousness ; and as the Righteousness is but negative and Interpretatively such ; so must the justification be , that is founded thereupon . He thinketh to prove this from Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. & addeth , a Righteousness without works must needs be a negative or privative Righteousness . The Imputation of righteousness vers 6. is interpreted vers 7 , 8. to be a not imputing of sin . Ans. The place cited , as we declared above , giveth no countenance unto this sense of the word justification ; but evinceth rather the contrary . A righteousness without our works ( which is the Apostles meaning ) may be , & is no negative , nor privative Righteousness ; but a positive , full and compleat Righteousness , being the Surety-righteousnes of Christ , the Sponsor : and the Text saith , not , That this Righteousness is nothing else , than a non-Imputation of sin , but inferreth rather the Imputation of Righteousness , as the cause , from the Non-Imputation of sin , as the Effect ; and all this to prove , that justification is not by the works of the law . He tels us , that we have the like description of this Righteousnes , 2 Cor. 5. that which vers 19. he calls in God , the not imputing of our sins unto us , he calls in us vers 21. a being made the righteousness of God in Him. Ans. This is a plaine perversion of the scope of the meaning of the words : for vers 21. the Apostle is giving the ground & reason of what was said vers 19. & showing how this Reconciliation & Non-Imputation of sin is founded , & what is the special ground thereof ; as appeareth by the particle for vers 21. for He hath made Him sin , &c. He saith , This is most plaine , Act. 13 : 38 , 39. where forgiveness of sins is immediatly thereafter called justification . Ans. All that can be hence inferred , is , that in justification sins are pardoned ; or that such as have forgiveness of sins are justified ; or that these do inseparably go together : But no appearance of proof here , that they are both one thing ; or that in justification there is no more , but pardon of sins . He prosecuteth this purpose yet further , saying , This is the most usual & proper signification of the word , justifie , not to signify the giving or bestowing of a compleat positive righteousness ; but only an acquiting or discharging & setting a man free from guilt & penalty , due unto such things , as were laid to his charge . Ans. ( 1 ) Nor do we say , that justification signifieth such a giving & bestowing of a compleat , positive Righteousness ; but that it signifieth a declaring & pronouncing of a person to be righteous : & therefore presupposeth this giving or be stowing of a compleat Righteousness ; for the man , whom God declareth & pronounceth to be Righteous , must be Righteous ; & seing he hath no Righteousness of his own , he must have his Suretie's Righteousness imputed to him . ( 2 ) And so , in this sense , justification is an acquitting , or setting a man free from the guilt & penalty , due to such things , as were laid to his charge ; for he is pronounced Righteous . But it is not a simple discharge of the person from the guilt and penalty , upon a pardon & Remission : for a pardoned man is not a justified man , but rather is supposed to be guilty , & is pardoned , because guilty . He proceedeth , In the Scripture , it is usually opposed to condemning Prov. 17 : 15. Where , by justifying the wicked , nothing is meart , but the making of them just , in the rights & privileges of just men , which are freedom from censure , punishment , &c. So that by justifying the wicked , nothing else is meant , but the not condemning of him , Rom. 8 : 33 , 34 , & 5 : 19. Therefore by justifying nothing else is meant , but acquitting from condemnation ; & so to be justified & live are equipollent , Gal. 3 : 11 , 21. Esai , 53 : 11. Ans. ( 1 ) That justifying is opposed to condemning , is granted ; but this maketh for us ; for condemning is something-else , than a not pardoning , even a pronouncing or declaring of a person guilty ; & therefore an adjuging of him to the punishment , due for the guilt ; and therefore justification must be something else than pardon . ( 2 ) Justification is more than not condemning ; for not condemning may be a meer suspending of the sentence of condemnation ; & while the Process is under tryal , or the guilty person not yet convicted in law , he is not condemned ; yet he is not therefore justified . ( 3 ) When justification & life are said to be equipollent , it is manifest , that justification is more than pardon , even an adjudging of one to the reward promised : for life here is not a meer Negative or privative life , but a positive life , called a Reigning in life , Rom. 5 : 17. & the blessing of Abraham Gal. 3 : 14. the promise of the Spirit , ibid. & all the blessings of the Covenant vers 17. & the Inheritance vers 18. Here then is a difference betwixt justification in our case , & justification among men : for among men , justification is usually in reference to the Accusation given-in ; & the accusation beareth a reference only unto the sin committed & to the punishment due to such or such transgressours : so that the justified man is declared not guilty , & therefore not liable unto the penalty ; but there is no word here of a Reward , due to the observers of the law , unless in cases , where a reward is expresly promised . And yet , even where there is no more , but a simple declaring of the person not guilty , & so not liable to the punishment , justification is more than meer pardon . But in our case , when the Lord justifieth the Beleever , He not only declareth him not liable to the punishment , due to transgressours of the law ; but also adjudgeth him to the Reward promised to the observers : and therefore here the person is declared and pronounced righteous , having a right to the reward , through imputed righteousness . Fourhtly , He objecteth from Phil. 3 : 9. This objection must be hard-headed , & sheweth , with what confidence , some men , once in love with their own darling conceipt , can abuse the most plaine passages of Scripture : for what can be more plaine & full against our Adversaries , than is this Text ? The Apostle is here shewing , upon what ground he desired to stand , in his appearing before God , & expresly renounceth all his former privileges , & what once he had an high esteem for ; & particularly also his own Righteousness , of whatsoever kind , that consisted in his obedience to the law ; & he saith not , which consisteth in my full obedience to the law ; but , in mine own righteousness , which is of the law . And , in opposition to all this , he desireth to be found in Christ , stated & hid in Him , which includeth Christ's Righteousness : for Christ & His Righteousness are not separated ; & the Righteousness he also expresly mentioneth , calling it , that which is through the faith of Christ , & againe , the Righteousness , which is of God by faith . By which he cannot meane the act of faith , for that is his own righteousness , all which he renounced ; for it was conforme to the law & commandement , being enjoined by the law of God , otherwise it had been no act of obedience . Moreover ; Faith is not through faith , nor by faith ; but this Righteousness , which Paul sought after , is a righteousness , that is through faith & by faith , as an Instrument laying hold upon it , & applying it ; Faith cannot be that Righteousness , which is through faith , or by the faith of Christ ; for if so , Christ should be rendered useless , & the nature of faith in Christ should be changed , seing true faith in Christ carrieth the soul out of it self to Christ , to the end a Righteousness may be had . Faith , sure , is not the Righteousness , which is of God , wrought by God , & imputed by Him. So that when Paul desired to be found in Christ , having the Righteousness , which is through faith in Christ , even the Righteousness , which is of God by faith , what can be more plaine , than that he desired to be found in the Righteousness of Christ , which is imputed by God , & received by faith ? As to this place , our Adversary frameth no formal argument therefrom , but hath some observes , tending rather to make it useless to our point , than directly to confirme his own Chap. 6. pag. 84. I shall only take notice of such things , as he alleigeth to darken the glorious light of the grace of God , shineing with a meridian brightness in this passage . He ( i. e. Paul ) doth not say ( saith he ) that he may be found in His righteousness ; much less in His righteousness imputed to him ; but simply in Himself ; which is an usual expression in Scripture of the Spiritual state & condition of a Beleever . Ans. ( 1 ) To be found in Christ , who is the publick person & Surety , is to be found in His Surety-righteousness : for Christ & His Righteousness are no more separated , than a Surety , as such , and his Surety-payment and satisfaction : And therefore , when Paul spoke of being found in Him , he emphatically enough expressed what we say . ( 2 ) It is true , the expression , in Christ , doth else-where denote a spiritual state , but here Paul speaketh not simply of being in Christ , but of being in Him , in order to the having of a Righteousness , wherewith to appear before God ; in order to which , he had renounced all his former privileges and attainments . What it is ( saith he ) to be found in Christ , he expresseth , negatively thus , not having mine own righteousness , yet not simply & altogether , no righteousness , that may in no sense be called his own ; but precisely & determinatly no such righteousness , as his own , which stands in works of the law ; such he must be sure , not to have ; i. e. not to trust to , or to shroud & shelter himself under , from the stroke of Gods justice . Ans. Then faith , considered as an act of obedience , must not be that Righteousness , under which he could think to shelter himself from the stroke of justice : for that stands in one work of the law ; & if that righteousness be renounced , which standeth in works of the law ; much more must that be renounced , which standeth in one work of the law . ( 2 ) The Righteousness of Christ , imputed & received by faith , may in some sense be called the Beleevers own : but that Righteousness , which the Apostle calleth his own here , is opposed to the Righteousness of another , and comprehendeth all his own acts & works , done in obedience to the command of God. Next ( he saith ) affirmativly thus , but that , which is through the faith of Christ , &c. Here is not the least jot or title of any Righteousness , he should have by Imputation , no nor of any Righteousness by or through tht Righteousness of Christ ; but only such a Righteousness , as is through the faith of Christ. Ans. ( 1 ) When all that Righteousness is excluded , which is in mans self , or in any acts of obedience to the law , which he doth ; & yet a Righteousness mentioned as the only refuge & sheltering place , what can this Righteousness be else , than an Imputed Righteousness ? & what can this Imputed Righteousness be : if it be not the Righteousness of Christ ? Is there any other that will do our business ? ( 2 ) A Righteousness through faith in Christ is most clearly a Righteousness obtained , possessed & laid hold on by faith . The Apostle addeth ( saith he ) by way of commendation of this Righteousness , that it is the Righteousness of God i.e. a righteousness , which God himself hath found out , & which He will owne & countenance , even the righteousness of God , which is in faith , i. which cometh , & ac●rueth , and is derived upon a man by faith . Ans. ( 1 ) It is not only a Righteousness , which God himself hath found out , and which He owneth & countenanceth ; but a Righteousness also , which is in God , or is in Him , who is God , & is derived from Him to man ; for it is a Righteousness , that is not to be found in man , or in any thing he doth , in conformity to the law of God , all such Righteousness being already renounced by the Apostle . ( 2 ) The Righteousness of God , which is by , or through saith , & cometh , accrueth , or is derived upon a man in & by faith , must needs be some thing else , than faith it self , even the Righteousness , that is without a man , & is derived unto him from another , viz. from Him , who is God , & on whom faith laith hold , that is , Jesus Christ , in whom alone the Apostle was seeking to be found . Fiftly , Chap. 7. pag. 88. &c. He abuseth to this end all those Scriptures , wherein justification is ascribed unto faith , as Rom. 3 : 28. & 5 : 1. As to the Interest of faith , in the matter of justification , we will have occasion hereafter to speak of it , at some length : here we are only enquiring after that Righteousness , upon the account of which , we are justified , which our Adversary , as it would appear , placeth only in faith : and so , in stead of making faith the meane of applying & bringing home the Surety-righteousness of Christ , he maketh it the very formal righteousness it self , upon the account of , and because of which we are justified . Let us hear what he saith . When men say ( saith he ) that faith justifieth , I demand , what is it , they meane by faith ? do they not meane their beleeving of act or faith ? Ans. When the Scripture ●aith , That we are justified by faith , faith is taken for our act of faith , laying hold on Christ & on His Righteousness , it being the mean appointed of God for this end , by interessing us in & uniting us with Christ , & applying that Surety-righteousness of His. But this can no way prove , that therefore faith it selt is that Riphteousness , upon the account whereof we are declared Righteous in the sight of God , in order to justification ; or is the formal objective Reason of our justification . Though faith be said to justifie , as an Instrumental cause ( as this Author himself afterward confesseth ) it will not follow , that therefore it justifieth as a principal cause , or as the formal objective cause . The hand receiving riches doth instrumentally enrich ; but is not the principal cause of the mans riches . The producing , in face of court , of the Surety's payment , by the principal debtor , now pursued by the creditor , is not the formal ground of the debtor's absolution from the charge , but the payment it self , which is instructed , is the only formal ground , though the Instruction of that payment by the debtor , in face of court , be requisite in its place , and a mean to the debtor's absolution . He saith , he conceiveth not of faith as divided , or severed from its object , either Christ in person , or Christ in promise . Ans. It is true , the act cannot be conceived without its object ; & all the consideration of the object here had by him , is by vertue of the act reaching the object , & so the act is only considered by him no further , than as a commanded duty , or as any other act of the Soul , which is commanded : and beside , this faith , thus acting on Christ , is but an historical faith : for if he consider faith , as acting on Christ , according to the Gospel , & as it is called Justifying or Saving faith , in distinction from the faith of Miracles , & from Historical faith , he must look upon it , as the soul 's fleeing out of it self to Christ for refuge ; and as laying hold on His Righteousness as only sufficient ; and as receiving , embraceing , leaning to and resting upon Christ and His Righteousness ; whence it is manifest , that it cannot be conceived , nor looked to , nor rested upon , as our Righteousness , its use & work being to bring-in and receive another gifted Righteousness , and to rest upon that for life , Justification and Salvation . He ●●ls us next , That he also confesseth , that saith justifieth instrumentally , & not otherwise ; & that he hath neither said , nor intended to say any other thing . Ans. But how this can agree with what he hath said , & with what hereafter we shall hear him saying , let men of understanding judge . Did ever man before acknowledg faith , to justifie instrumentally , & yet deny the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , as he doth ? and yet assert that this Instrument faith is imputed for our Righteousness , for our only Righteousness , and as the only formal ground of our justification , as he doth ? Did ever man assert this Instrumentality of faith , to shoulder-out the chiefe and principal Interest , that the Surety-righteousness of Christ hath , in the business ? This therefore must be looked upon , as inconsistent with his only designe , in this whole book ; and as an unwary expression overturning all ; or else that he must have said all this in an hid sense , not yet understood . To that , That faith justifieth , as it taketh hold of Christ's Righteousness , he answereth , That yet it is the act of faith that justifieth . Ans. And did ever any meane otherwise , when they spoke of faith as an Instrument , or mean ? But that is not our present question : we are now enquireing after that Righteousness , for which , & upon the account of which we are justified ; and not after the Instrument , or Mean , by which we are possessed of that Righteousness , upon the account of which alone we are justified , & by which we are put into a state of Justification . So that all this waste of words is to no purpose . He moveth another objection against himself , thus , If it be said , that when we are justified by faith , the meaning is , we are justified by that , which faith apprehendeth ; & this is far from saying , that faith is imputed for Righteousness . Here I can observe nothing but confusion , & a jumbling together , as one , these two far different Questions , viz. What is that Righteousness , for , because and upon the account of which we are justified : & what is that way , Mean , or Instrument , by which we partake of Righteousness , unto Justification , & are justified . Here is a manifest confounding of the principal Meritorious cause , & the Instrumental cause : of the formal objective cause ( which some call the Formal , others the Material cause ) and the Inferiour Meane , or Instrumental cause . Here also these two are confounded & made one , viz. We are justified by faith ; & faith is Imputed unto Righteousness . That these are far different , shall be cleared hereafter . But what answereth he ? He saith 1. If their meaning be simply so , that we are justified by that , which faith apprehendeth , they speak more truth , than they are aware of . But that whatsoever faith apprehendeth should justify , is not true . Ans. Who speaketh thus , I know not ; yet I see little danger in it , their meaning being only this , in that expression , we are justified by that , which faith apprendeth , that Christ & His Righteousness , which justifying faith , in the act of justifying , laith hold on ▪ is the formal objective cause , or that upon the account of which we are justified : & this no way saith , that our faith is that Righteousness , for which we are justified . Next he saith , If men ascribe justification , in every respect , to that , which faith apprehendeth , they destroy the Instrumental Iustification of faith . Ans. No man , that I know , doth or will ascribe Justification , in every respect , unto that which faith apprehendeth , & so , they need not destroy the Instrumental use of faith in Justification ; for as to the Instrumental justification of faith , I understand it not ; it seemeth to be a very catachrestick expression . In end , he addeth , If faith justifieth any way , it must of necessity be by Imputation , or account from God , for righteousness ; because it is all that God requires of men to their justification , in stead of the righteousness of the law . Therefore if God shall not impute , or account it to them for this righteousness , it would stand them in no stead at all to their justification ; because there is nothing useful , or available to any holy , or saving purpose , but only to that , whereunto God hath assigned it . If God in the New Covenant , requires faith in Christ , for our justification , in stead of the righteousness of the law , in the old , & this faith will not passe in account with him for such righteousness , but his command and Covenant for beleeving , and the obedience it self of beleeving , will both become void , & of none effect , the intire benefite of them being suspended upon the gracious pleasure & purpose of God , in the designation of them to their end . Ans. Whatever interest , or place Faith hath , in the New Cov. & in the matter of justification , it hath it from Gods sole appointment & designation , & it is all that , which is now required of us , in order to our justification , & entering into Covenant with God : yet unless we change & alter its true nature , and assigne another place & power to it , that God hath , the Crown is keeped on the head of the Mediator , & His Righteousness is only owned , received , produced by the sinner , as it were , in face of Court , & rested upon by faith , in order to justification . But when faith is said to be imputed for Righteousness ; that is , when our act of beleeving is made our Righteousness , & said to be so accounted & esteemed by God ; & all this to shoot out the Righteousness of Christ , and to take away the Imputation thereof to us , as the only ground of our justification , not only are the native & kindly actings of justifying faith destroyed ; but the very nature & gentus of the New Covenant is altered , & it is made to be the same , in kinde , with the first Covenant , with this gradual difference , that the first Covenant required full & perfect obedience ; the second one act of obedience only , viz. Faith , as a Peppercorn ( as some speak ) in stead of a great rent , & our whole Righteousness : for no other Righteousness will our adversaries grant to be really imputed to us , save what they grant of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness only as to Effects , and thus they make the Lord to repute ( for that is the meaning of imputing with them ) that to be a Righteousness , which , at best , is but imperfect , & not every way conforme to the command of God , enjoining it . Whereby thus one imperfect act of obedience , viz. Faith , is made that , whereupon the wakened sinner is to rest , and lay his whole weight , & wherein he is to refuge himself from the wrath of God , & which he is to hold up , as his legal defence , against all accusations , coming in against him : and all this use is to be made of faith immediatly , in stead of Christ , & His Surety-righteousness . Whence we see , that it is false to say . ( 1 ) That if faith justifieth any way , it must of necessity be by Imputation for righteousness : For it justifieth as the mean appointed of God , to lay hold on an Imputed Righteousness , and to carry the soul forth thereunto . The reason added is vaine , for though it be all that God requires of men to their justification , it is not that Rightheousness , which is imputed unto Justification , or the ground thereof ; but the Mean or Instrument of a soul 's partaking of that Righteousness of Christ , which is the only ground , or formal objective reason . ( 2 ) It is false to say , That if God shall not account it to them for righteousness , it shall stand them in no stead to justification . For it is required , as the meane , whereby the Sinner is married unto Christ , & partaketh of His Righteousness , in order to justification ; and is as the legal production of the righteousness of the Surety , in face of court , as the ground of absolution to be pleaded & stood unto . The reason he here addeth is of no force , because faith is assigned of God to this end & purpose , as the Gospel cleareth ; & only to this end , that so the Mediator alone may weare the Crown , & beare the weight of sinners ; & nothing in us , or from us may share with Him , in that glory . It is false ( 3 ) to say , or suppose ( as his following words intimate ) That faith in the New Covenant hath the same place , force & efficacy , which the righteousness of the law had , in the old Covenant : For then Faith should be Meritorious ex pacto , & should give ground of glorying before men . It is ( 4 ) false to say , That if faith hath not this place , force & efficacy in the New Covenant , the command for beleeving , & beleeving it self shall be vaine . Seing it hath another use designed to it of God ; and it is required for another end , as is said , according to the gracious pleasure & purpose of God. Lastly Chap. 8. pag. 93. &c. he argueth from Gal. 3 : 12. thus , If the Scriptures do not only no where establish , but in any place absolutely deny a possibility of the translation or removing of the Righteousness of Christ from one person to another , then there is no Imputation of Christ's Righteousness . But the former is emphatically true from this place . Ergo , &c. Ans. This , upon the matter , is but what Socinus said lib. 3. cap. 3. viz. That one mans deed can no more be the deed of another , than one mans death , or paine can be the death or paine of another : & that in deeds of the law , the deed it self is not simply called for , but the proper deed of every one , who is under the law : & that nothing can be more ridiculous , than to say , that one mans righteousness can be the righteousness of another , who is unrighteous in himself : & that it is against common sense , to say , that one may obey for another . But howbeit we easily grant , there neither is , nor can be any physical translation or removing of Righteousness from one to another : yet to deny all legal translation , is to deny all Suretiship & cautionry ; yea and all Satisfection : & therefore the Socinians , who see the force of this consequence , do peremptorily deny , that Christ made any Satisfaction to justice , or payed the debt of the chosen ones , as their Surety : & such , as deny this legal translation of Christ's Righteousness , would do well to consider , if they do not hereby weaken the truth , concerning Christ's Satisfa&ion , & His dying in the Room , place & Stead of the Elect. As for the thing it self , every one , that knoweth what a Surety is , knoweth that his payment of the debt is by law reckoned on the score of the principal debtor , & so transferred upon him , as he is no more liable to the charge of the Creditor , or to the execution of the law against him for non-payment , than if he himself had laid down the full Summe . He would prove , what he alleigeth , thus , This Scripture doth not barely and simply deny a possibility of translation of the Righteousness of the law from one person to another ; but denieth it emphatically . Ans. Howbeit it be a truth , that no meer-mans righteousness is derivable from him to another : set this Text proveth no such thing ; but only telleth us the nature 〈◊〉 of the Covenant of works , viz. that it required personal and perfect obedience of him , that would have right to the promised reward . Which speaketh nothing against the new contrivance of the Gospel , wherein the Supream God and Law-giver , & the great Rector of the world did , in Mercy & Love , appoint Jesus Christ to be the Mediator & Surety for the chosen ones , to pay their debt , & suffer for them ; & did ordaine a way , how they should , in due time , come to have an Interest in , & to partake of that Surety-righteousness of Christ Jesus , that so they might be justified , & dealt with as Righteous persons , having Christ's Surety-righteousness imputed to them , & reckoned upon their score , when by faith they close with Him , and lay hold on it . He addeth for proof , for it denies a possibility of it to be done even by faith , which was the likeliest hand to have done it , if the nature of the thing had not resisted the doing of it . Ans. The meaning of these werds , the law is not of faith , is , only to shew , That the way of justification by faith & by the law , are so far different , that they cannot agree together : but not to show , that by faith Beleevers are not made partakers of the Righteousness of Christ , or have it not imputed unto them & reckoned upon their score ; as the whole scope & circumstances of the place show . That therefore is not true , which he addeth , By which it appeareth also , that be ( i.e. the Apostle ) had an Intent particularly , to make the righteousness of the law , as performed by Christ himself , uncapable of this translation , or Imputation . For though the law should be against the Imputation of the Righteousness of one man , who is Naturally and every way under the law , & obliged by his being , to obey the law , unto another : yet it is not against the Imputation of the Righteousness of one , who is God ; & so under the law only by voluntary Submission , & is appointed thereunto by the Supream Law-giver & Rector , unto all such , as were committed & given to Him to save that way , in a way condescended upon by Jehovah , and the Mediator . He proceedeth , The meaning of these words , the law is not of faith , must be this , that the righteousness of the law doth not arise , or come upon any man , out of his faith , or by his beleeving : & this is proved because the very doer shall live in or by them , Ans. It is true , the law-way of justification , or the way of justification , revealed in and by the law , and hold forth in the old Covenant , saith only , that the man that doth these things shall live in them : and doth not prescribe the way of justification through faith . But the Gospel revealeth , how the righteousness of the law , which was part of our debt , being performed and payed by the Lord Jesus , the Surety , appointed of God , is transferred and imputed unto those , He did represent . He addeth further , The word law here is put for the Righteousness or fulfilling of the law . Ans. And why also shall not the word be taken in that sense in the following vers , where it is said , Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law ; & so the meaning will be , from the curse of the righteousness or fulfilling of the law ? Againe , what though the word had that Import here ? can any thing more hence follow , than that personal Righteousness is not derivable now from one man to another , so as to stand for his personal righteousness ? But how shall this sense of the words make them a proof or confirmation of what was said in the former verse ? He answereth to this , saying , The Apostle in the former verse had delivered it for a truth , that no man could be justified by the law i.e. by the righteousness or works of the law ; because the Scripture saith , the just shall live by faith . Now because this consequence might seem doubtful , upon this account , that it might be said , why may not the just live by faith , & by the works of the law too ? may not the righteousness of the law be made over to them by faith ? No , saith the Apostle , The law is not of faith , there can be no legal rigteousness drawn upon men by faith , &c. Ans. This confirmation is manifestly perverted : for there was no occasion for that question , whether the righteousness of the law could be made over by faith , whether it be taken in his sense , viz. Whether the Righteousness of Christ , performed to the law could be made over and received by faith ; as appeareth from what he had said of the Gospel-way vers 8 , 9. Or whether it be taken in this sense , that the righteousness of the law , performed by a meer-man , only for himself , according to his obligation , can be now made over to another by faith ; for no man over dreamed of such a thing . But enough of this froathy trash . What he talketh afterward of the opposition betwixt the law and faith , in the matter of justification , is utterly impertinent ; because quite mistaken , and misunderstood by him : for he only understandeth the difference thus ; That faith hath nothing to do with the Righteousness of Christ , but must be considered alone , as our act of obedience ; & wherever the law , or the righteousness thereof is excluded in the matter of justification , there the righteousness of Christ is as well to be understood , as our own personal acts of obedience . But how crosse this is unto the whole doctrine of the Gospel , is already abundantly shown ; and we may have further occasion to touch upon this matter hereafter . CHAP. XII . Some other objections , proposed by John Goodwine , examined . MR. Iohn Goodwine proceedeth , in his forementioned book Chap. 9. and forward , to propose some Arguments , against the Imputation of Christ's righteousness , which in order fall under consideration . Obj. 1. That Righteousness , which will not furnish all Beleevers with all points or parts of that righteousness , which the law requireth of them , cannot be imputed to them unto justification . But such is the Obedience , that Christ performed unto the Moral Law. Therefore &c. Ans. ( 1. ) We plead not only for the Imputation of Christ's Obedience to the Moral Law ; but for the Imputation of His whole Surety Righteousness , that is , of all He both did & Suffered , as the designed & appointed Surety . ( 2. ) This Argum , though it be levelled only against the Imputation of Christ's Obedience ; yet it equally wageth warre against the Imputation of His Sufferings : for as to the Satisfaction & payment of the old Covenant , or His Suffering of death , it may be also said . The payment of the penalty must be such , as they , for whom it was laid down , were otherwise lying under , & under a necessity to pay it themselves . But Christ's death & payment was not such ; for He did not suffer the same , as to duration , nor as to concomitant despaire , & other evils , that would necessarily attend the same in Man , & doth attend it in the damned . Which consideration is enough to render this Argument suspected of falshood , unto all such , as are not bred in the School of Socinus . Let us see , how he confirmeth this Argum. & particularly the first proposition thereof . Because ( saith he ) a compleat legal righteousness requireth a punctual through-obedience unto all things in the Law , in reference to each mans place & Calling . Ans. But we may distinguish the proposition thus . That righteousness , which will not furnish all beleevers with every specifick & individual act of obedience , which is required of them , in their places & Stations , i.e. Is not made up of , nor expresly & explicitly comprehendeth in it all these particular Acts , specifically & numerically considered , cannot be imputed unto them in justification ; It is false in this sense . But if it be thus taken . That righteousness , which neither did comprehend in it , not was made up of every specifick & numerical Act , required of them , nor yet was infinitly transcending & exceeding the obedience of all men whatsomever , in all their distinct and particular occasions , Relations , places , & Callings , & brought more glory unto God , the Law-giver , and was a fuller proclamation of the holiness of the Law and of the Law-maker , and acknowledgment of His Authority ; and with which the great Rector of the world and Law-giver was fully satisfied in all points , cannot be imputed ; in this sense it may be granted . But then the Minor is palpably false ; and so the Conclusion is null . And as to the first sense , or branch of the distinction , it is no way touched , let be weakened by the confirmation mentioned , as every one may see . And so the Argument is null . And as for the ground & relevancy of the distinction , it is clear from what is said , touching the Sufferings of Christ ; so that it can be denied by none , who are not professed Socimans . To confirme the Minor , he tels us of duties of Servants , Masters , husbands wives , judges &c. Ans. The distinction given maketh all this useless , and to no purpose . Christ obeyed perfectly the same Law , we were lying under , & that as made under the Law , and as willingly subjecting himself thereunto , in our room and stead , as Surety and Sponsor ; and this obedience of His was full , perfect end Compleat , for He fulfilled all righteousness . Mat. 3 : 15. He was , dureing His life , holy , harmeless , undefiled , and separat from sinners , Heb. 7 : 26. He knew no sin 2. Cor. 5 : 21. No man could convince Him of sin . Ioh. 8 : 46. Yea the father was well pleased in Him Mat. 3 : 17-& 17 : 5. And this perfect and full obedience , which Christ gave unto the Law , which He came to fulfill Mat. 5 : 17. being the obedience of one , who was God , equal with the Father , had in it a Supereminent excellency , worth and dignity , to the full Satisfaction of the Law and of the Law-giver , and to the repairing of that loss , and to the recovering of that Glory , which was wronged by mans violation of the Law. So that howbeit He performed not all duties , which were required of every one of the Chosen ones , in their several Sexes , Ages , Relations , occasions and Callings , which was Impossible and not needful : Yet He performed that obedience to the Law of God , which was required of Him , as standing in the room and stead of the given ones , and that in all points , yea and full obedience , wherewith the Supream Law-giver was fully Satisfied . And , Sure , every unprejudiced person may easily see and be convinced , that this perfect and compleat obedience of Christ is moreable to furnish beleevers with all points of Righteousness , which the Law requireth , than the single act of faith , which our Adversaries Substitute in the place thereof . Shall we think , that God accepteth of , in place of all , and imputeth that unto beleevers for their Righteousness , rather than the Full and perfect Obedience of Christ ? Shall one imperfect Act of obedience be of more value , than the Full and perfect obedience of Christ ? W●ence we see , that whatever shew our Adversary maketh with this Argument against us ; yet it is of no weight with himself ; for as He useth it against the Imputed Obedience of Christ , so we may use it , with much more strength of reason , against the Imputation of our Faith for Righteousness , as is obvius . We need not take notice of that objection , which He moveth against himself pag. 101. viz. That love is the fulfilling of the Law ; nor of his Replies made thereunto : for we assert Christ's fulfilling of the Law in another manner , and upon other grounds : He fulfilled all righteousness , and performed all particular acts of obedience , required of Him as our Surety , so that the Father was well pleased with Him : and what more is requisite ! He moveth another objection pag. 103. viz. That it is not necessary , that men should have all particular Acts of Righteousness , qualified with all circumstances , imputed to them , it being Sufficient , that such a righteousness be imputed , which is equivalent ; yea and more than equivalent , as bringing more glory to God , and as much worthy in it self . He answereth . 1. The Law will not know any thing by way of proportion , but must have its jot for jot , title for title , or else it will curse . Ans. ( 1. ) We are to regard here more what the Law-giver and Supream Rector will know , than what the letter of the Law will acquiesce in . ( 2. ) This taketh away the Satisfaction of Christ , and all His Sufferings , as Mediator , and destroyeth that ground of our hope and Salvation : for the Law , as to its letter , saith , the Soul that sinneth to it shall die ; and hath not one jote or title of the Satisfaction and Suffering of a Mediator . ( 3. ) What shall our Adversary now do with faith ? doth any jote or title of the Law countenance the Imputation of faith , for a proportionable Righteousness ? doth faith answere every jote , title , point and letter of the Law ? He answereth . 2. To impute acts of Righteousness to a Man , which are proper to another calling , is rather to impute sin , than righteousness , Ans. Christ was a publick person , appointed of the Father to represent all the chosen ones , & did , in their place & room , fulfill the law , in all points , according as was required of Him , by the Supream Lord Rector & Law-giver ; & this perfect & compleat Obedience is made over to all those , who are His ; & not one part to this particular Beleever , and another to another , or some acts to this man , & some other acts to that man : & therefore this reply is groundless . As to that viz. That God inflicted on Christ , not the circumstantiat curse threatned , but its equivalency , he saith . 1. That in these words , Thoushalt die the death , there is no necessity to meane precisely & determinatly eternal death , according to the letter . Ans. If that was not threatned in the Law , no man shall suffer it , for the breach of the Law ; and so there shall be no eternal death even to such as perish , which yet himself granteth . ( 2. ) It was a spiritual death , and such as includeth many circumstances , which Christ neither could , nor did suffer . He saith 2. Gods meaning there was not , to threaten eternal death in one kinde , or other ; but to have the word death understood , as it indifferently signifieth that evil of punishment , which was known by that names for eternity is not of the essence of the punishment , due unto sins . Ans. The doubt remaineth concerning other circumstances , & ingredients of that death , as threatned to man. And whether eternity be of the Essence of the punishment , threatned for sin , or not ; this is sure , that all , for whom Christ hath not suffered , shall perish eternally ; & all had perished eternally , if Christ had not suffered : And when God threatned death to man , he know , that if that threatning did overtake him , his death would be eternal . He saith 3. Though God should take liberty to vary from the letter of the Curse ; yet it followeth not , that the creature , who was bound to obey the precepts of the Law , might take the like liberty to do one thing , in stead of another ; or that God should accept any such payment for them . Ans. We assert no liberty for man : but why should not this liberty be allowed to the Supream God ? All the reason he giveth , I finde to be this . That God accepteth on any mans behalf , as a perfect legal righteousness , the performance of such things , which are not required of him , hath no correspondence with any of the Covenants . Ans. If God could accept that , as a perfect Satisfaction , which did not every way answere to & correspond with that , which Man himself was to suffer ; why might He not accept of that , as a perfect legal righteousness , which did not in all particulars , answere to , & correspond with that , which every beleever was obliged unto ? What reason is , or can be given for the one , which will not hold for the other ? The answere he hath given , is no answere unto this . Perfect obedience was required of all by the first Covenant , & Christ did performe perfect obedience for all His owne ; & this being a perfect legal Righteousness , is sufficient for all ; & is not the performance of such things , as are not required of them . Obj. 2. Chap. 10. pag. 107. That Righteousness , which is exactly and precisely fitted to the person of Him , that is Mediator between God & man , cannot be imputed unto any other man. But such is the Righteousness of Christ. Ergo. The Major he thus confirmeth . He that assumeth this Righteousness of Christ , represents himself to God , in the glorious attire of him , who maketh men righteous , & may conceue himself as great in holiness , as Iesus Christ himself &c. Ans. Christ's Righteousness was indeed the Righteousness of a Mediator & Surety ; & therefore was imputable to all , who by faith should be married to Him , & have union with Him , as their Head , & Husband , & are become one person in Law with Him , as their Representative & Surety ; though not as it was subjected in Him , but according to the nature of the thing , & to their necessity . Hereby therefore is no wrong done to Christ , no robbing of Him of His mediatory glory ; but , on the contrary , a more clear & manifest ascribing of the same unto Him , by acknowledging Him for the only Mediator , & by resting on Him , & on His Righteousness , as our only Righteousness and ground of Acceptance . We cleare the matter thus . When the payment of a Surety is imputed to the debtor , and he pleadeth the same in court , for his own absolution , he doth no injurie unto the cautioner ; but rather declareth himself unable to pay , & ascribeth the honour of the payment unto the Surety : for he doth alleige or produce that payment , as if he would thereby declare , that he himself ; as Surety , had paid the summe for another ; but only produceth the payment of a Surety , in reference to himself , as a ground sufficient in Law , whereupon he should be absolved from the Charge , giuen-in against him by the creditor . So when the beleever applieth to himself the Righteousness of Christ , he doth not make himself a Mediator or Surety ; but only applieth the Righteousness & payment of his Surety , Head & Husband , for his own use , to answere the charge given-in against himself , and in reference to his own particular case & necessity . Hereby the beleever doth not assume to himself an equality of Righteousness with God himself ; but only assumeth that Mediatory & Surety-righteousness , which He wrought , who was equal with God , & was God , so far as their own case & necessity requireth . We dream of no such imputation , as would give ground to us to conceite our selves to have done & said all that He did & said . This is the fiction of the Adversary , not our Assertion . Against the consideration of the Union betwixt Christ , as the Head , & beleevers as the Members , which is the ground of this Imputation & communication , He saith pag. 113. 1. Christ & Beleevers are a mystical body , & therefore an universal agreement , in all things , with a natural body , cannot be thought on ; one difference is this , what one member of the body natural doth , the whole may be said to do . But not so in the mystical body ; the body of Christ cannot be said to have wrought miracles &c. Ans. Nor de we asserte an agreement betwixt this mystical body & a natural body , in all points : But yet , as Christ accounteth Himself a sufferer , when the members of His body are suffering , as such : So what Christ did , as an Head to His mystical Body ▪ and Spiritual Kingdom , according to the designation and appointment of God , who made Him both King & Lord , must redound to their advantage , according to their necessity ; and therefore what He did , as a publick Head & Representative , must be imputed unto them , who are of His Body , & were undertaken for & represented by Him. He saith , 2. Though the benefite of what the head doth , be communicated to the whole body ; yet what the head doth , is no wayes to be imputed to hand , or to foot . Ans. The hand or foot needeth no imputation of what is done by the head , but a community , or political body , and every member thereof , needeth an Imputation of what is done for their good , & in their Law-place , by their Head & publick Representative . And in this matter , we look upon Christ , as such an Head. Against the Marriage Union betwixt Christ & Beleevers , mentioned as another ground to cleare this Imputation , he saith 1. It is true , the wife by marriage , comes to be endowed with all that is her husbands , but this endowing is no ingredient into the marriage it self , but a fruit thereof ; so the right , which a beleever hath to the Righteousness of Christ , accrueth unto him by & upon this Spiritual marriage ; and therefore it cannot be imputed to him . The marriage must be first made up , before the right be had unto this Righteousness . Ans. If the right unto Christ's Righteousness accrue unto Beleevers by & upon their Spiritual marriage with Christ , this Righteousness must be imputed to them , and reckoned upon their score , or made over unto them , as the dowrie is made over to the wife and reckoned hers , upon her marriage . We grant the marriage is first made up , and that this is done by faith ; and yet at the very act of beleeving , this Righteousness is imputed . This marriage Union is first in order of nature , but no time interveeneth betwixt this Union and the Imputation of Righteousness . He saith 2. all that is the husbands is not every way the wifes , nor for every use & purpose , but only in a way of expediency and beneficialness ; as his clothes are not hers to put on : so the beleever must take heed of assuming the glorious rob of His Righteousness to himself , otherwayes than in the benefite and comfort of it . Ans. All that is the husband's becometh the wifes by Marriage , for every use and purpose , that her necessity calleth for , and the nature of the thing admitteth ; as his riches becometh hers to her maintainance , and to the paying of her debt ; and his honour becometh hers , to the exalting of her to a Sutable state of honour ; even so must Christ's Righteousness become the Beleevers , that his debt may be payed , and he saved out of the hand of justice , & advanced to a state of life , and have right to glory . Obj. 3. Chap. 11. pag. 118. If God hath sufficiently provided otherwayes for the justification of his people , He doth not impute this Righteousness of Christ for that end . But God hath provided otherwayes for this end . Which he thus prodeth . He that is compleatly justified by having his sins forgiven , is justified without this Imputation . But a beleever is sufficiently justified before God by the forgiveness of sins . Ergo. Ans. Though a person justified is pardoned , yet justification includeth more , than meer pardon of Sins . Justification is the pronouncing and accepting of a person as Righteous ; and therefore the person so justified and accepted must be righteous : and seing he is not inherently righteous , he must be righteous by Imputation . What he said to this purpose before Chap. 5. of his book ( to which he here remitteth us ) hath been examined already . What he addeth here , shall now be considered , waving mens Sayings , wherewith I purpose not to medle here . He citeth againe to this purpose Rom. 4 : 6 , 7. to which we spoke above . He supposeth , that the Apostle here did intend a full description of justification ; But this he cannot clearly evince , & he forgetteth , that the Apostle maketh mention of Imputed Righteousness ; and that not as one and the same thing with free Remission , but as inseparable from it . The Apostles designe was not to give here a full Definition or description of Justification , it being Sufficient to the purpose he had in hand , to mention so much thereof , as did clearly & irrefragably confirme the same viz. That the blessed state of justification is not brought about , or had by the works of the Law : yea , ( as is said ) that very Imputation of Righteousness is not only included in the word blessedness , by which this State of justification is expressed ; for a blessed man is one , who not only is freed from guilt and punishment , but hath also a right to the Crown , and to the rich recompense of reward , which is not had without a Righteousness ; but is plainly also expressed , when he saith , Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man , unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works . Here is a Righteousness , even a positive Righteousness , mentioned , and a Righteousness imputed , and a Righteousness without our works of obedience to the Law. Hence we need not assert any Synecdoche here ; or say , that a part is put fot the whole , which yet is no unusual thing in Scripture ; and might be admitted here , even in this matter , without any absurdity ; seing where one part of this business is mentioned , the other is necessarily understood , because of the necessary & inviolable connexion , that is betwixt them . He saith further pag. 130. If forgiveness of sins be but a part , and the worser half of our justification , then when the Scripture saith , we are justified by His blood ( Rom. 5 : 9. ) the sense must be , we are justified by half through his blood , but the better halfe of our justification must come another way ; for by his blood we cannot have his active Righteousness imputed to us . ( 1. ) We use not to make such comparisons betwixt these things ( here called parts ) had in justification ; as to call the one the better part , and the other the worser part , both being requisite to make up our state of blessedness , and necessary thereunto . ( 2. ) When the Scripture saith , we are justified by His blood , the meaning is not , we are justified by the half through His blood : for half justification is no justification . ( 3 ) Nor is the Reason added of any force : for by blood here , we may as well understand , by a Synecdoche , His active Righteousness , as all His passive , both being but integral parts of His Surety-righteousness , & emphatically expressed by His death , or blood , the most remarkable piece thereof , & expressive of His love and condescension , and terminating point of Surety-obedience ; for He said , it was finished , when He offered up Himself , & gave up the Ghost . He addeth , So where it is said againe Chap. 5. vers 16. that the gift ( viz. of Righteousness by Christ ) is of many offences unto justification : If the gift of many offences , i.e. the forgiveness of Mans Sinnes , will not amount to a justification , without the Imputation of a legal Righteousness , we must give a check to Paul's pen. Ans. This is but vanity : we need give no check unto the Apostle's pen : for though He said not in this verse expresly , that there was a gift of Righteousness also imputed ; yet he said it expresly vers 17. & 18. & 1. And shall we think , that in such a continued discourse , as this is , wherein the Apostle is explaining the whole mystery by its parts , he should mention all things , in one verse ? He proceeds to prove , that Remission of sins is the whole of justification pag. 131. Because the end ( saith he ) for which this Imputed Righteovsness of Christ is thus brought in to the business of justification , viz. to be the Right to the Inheritance , is supplied in a way more evangelical , & of more sweetness & dearness to the Children of God , to wit , by the grace of Adoption , Ans. To this we have said enough above , & will have occasion to speak againe to it , in the next objection . He addeth further 4. That if we thus separat and divide the benefite of Christ's Active and passive Obedience , in Iustification , we take a course to lose & destroy both . Ans. Not to transcribe his tedious discourse , on this accout , I only say , That it is wholly founded upon a mistake , as if our showing the necessity of the Imputation of both , were a separating or dividing of the benefite of both , whileas the whole Effect floweth from the whole cause , both Christ's Active & His passive obedience making up one compleat Surety-righteousness ; and so producing one whole blessedness to beleevers , consisting in Remission of Sins , & in a Right to Glory : we say with him , that neither of them separated or abstracted from the other can profite us ; and therefore we assert the Imputation of both , as one compleat Surety-righteousness , answereing our necessity in all points . His own words pag. 132. 133. make clearly for us . I would not have ( saith he ) the active obedience of Christ separated from the passive , nor againe the passive from the active , in respect of the common & joint effect , justification , arising from a concurrence of them both ; yet would I not have Christ in his mystery tumbled up together on a heap ; for this would be to deface the beauty and excellency of that wisdom , which shines forth gloriously , in the face thereof . I would have every thing , that Christ was , did-and suffered , to be distinguished , not only in themselves ; but also in their proper and immediat Effects , respectively ariseing and flowing from them severally . Lastly . He tels us , If the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness must be added , as another part of justification , then must the formal cause of one & the same Effect be double ; yea one & the same formal part of the thing shall be compounded of two things , of a diverse and opposite consideration . Ans. We make the Imp●tation of Christ's Righteousness not a part of justification ; But the cause of it ; and yet the formal cause of one and the same Effect is not made double ▪ for as the Cause is one compleat Cause , viz. the Surety-righteousness of Christ , so the Effect is one compleat Effect , though both Cause and Effect may be considered , as consisting of several Integral parts . There is no ground here to say , That one and the same formal part of a thing is compounded of diverse or opposite things . Obj. 4. Chap. 12. Pag. 136. &c. That which dissolveth and taketh away the necessity & use of that sweet evangelical grace of Adoption , cannot hold a streight course with the thruth of the Gospel . But this is done by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness . Ergo. The Minor , which is only here to be denied , he laboureth to prove , because we say , The Righteousness of Christ must be imputed in order to our obtaining Right and Title to Life ; & that by Remission of Sins a man is only delivered from death , but receiveth no Right to the Kingdom of heaven . But what can he hence inferre for confirmation of the Minor ? Now ( saith he ) this being the direct & proper end , use , office , purpose & intent of Adoption , to invest a beleever with a capacity with heaven ; it followes , that whosoever shall attempt to set any thing else upon this throne , seeks to dissolve Adoption . Ans. The Consequence is null . The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness will no more take away Adoption , than justification ; for it is the ground and Cause of both . He might as well say , That because in and by justification , we have Remission of Sins , to assert the Imputation of Christ's death and Sufferings for this end , is to dissolve justification . But the truth is clear , as was explained above Myst. 14. He thinks both cannot stand together , because either of them is a compleat & entire Title within itself ; perfect Righteousness is a perfect title alone ; so is Adoption or Sonship . Ans. ( 1. ) This will say as much against the Imputation of Christ's death and Sufferings , as against justification : for either of these is a compleat Title ( according to our Adversary ) to Immunity from death : perfect Satisfaction is a perfect title alone to this Immunity , as well as perfect Righteousness is a perfect title to the Inheritance : & Justification or Remission of Sins , ( which are one with him ) is also a perfect Right to this , as well as Adoption is a perfect Right to that . ( 2 ) But as Justification is founded upon the Imputed Righteousness of Christ ; so is Adoption . As Christ's death and Satisfaction is not formall pardon , or Right to Impunity , but is , when Imputed , the ground and cause of justification , wherein the Beleever is solemnely brought into a state of freedome from death : So Christ's Obedience and Fulfilling of the Law is not a formal Right unto the inheritance , but , when Imputed and received by faith , the ground and cause of Adoption , whereby the Beleever is , as it were , solemnely infeoffed of the Inheritance . Here then is nothing in vaine ; but all things so ordered , as may most commend the riches of the wisdom & Grace of God ; & may most ensure life and all to the ●eleever . So that his following discourse is meer froath and vanity : for , as God may appoint moe meanes for the same end , as He pleaseth ; as His promises , oath & Sacraments to confirme the faith of beleevers ; so there can be no reason given , why it may not be so here : & yet , to speak properly , Adoption is no mean , or Cause of the Right and Title to Glory , being the solemne Collation of that Right to the beleever , or the solemne stating of him in that Right ; as justification properly is no Meane to or Cause of pardon and Acceptation of Sinners , but rather the solemne bringing of them into or placeing of them in that state of peace , Pardon and Reconciliation , who beleeve in Jesus and lay hold on His Righteousness . What he speaketh of the opposition betwixt the Law and the promise , in giving of life from Gal. 3 : 21. is most Impertinent ; so also is that , which he saith from Gal. 2 : 21. for though it be an abrogating and making void of the ordinances of God , when another thing , that is contrary & expresly excluded by the Lord from that office & work , is set up with it , to bring the same end to passe , or to serve in the same place and office : yet is there not the least coloure of ground to say , That if our Right & Title to heaven be by Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , then doth God give the grace of Adoption in vaine : for the Righteousness of Christ is the Meritorious procuring Cause of this Right and Title to heaven ; and when this is Imputed & made over to the beleever , he receiveth the Effect and ▪ Fruit of that purchase viz. an Actual Right to glory , & is solemnely infeofed ( as it were ) thereof . What ignorance & folly would it discover in a man , to say , That the legal installing of a man by publick seasing & Infeofment in the legal Right to & possession of such a Land , or House , is that which giveth the man Right ; and therefore the price he hath laid down , to purchase that Land , or house , hath no Interest or Consideration in that purchase , for these two cannot consist , the one must necessarily render the other useless ; if he hath made a purchase of the Land & house by his money , he needeth no Charter or Infeofment thereof : or if his Charter & Infeofment giveth him Right to possesse the same , the price laid down is of no use ? would not every one smile at such Non-sense ? And yet so reasoneth this learned Adversary , who will have the Righteousness of Christ laid by , which is the only price and purchasing Merite of our Right to Heaven ; or the Grace of Adoption , whereby the beleever becometh legally ( as it were ) infeofed of the Inheritance . It is vaine , if he should think to escape by saying . That he acknowledgeth the price of Christ's Righteousness ; but speaketh of the Imputation of that Righteousness , in order to this Right ; For the Imputation of this Righteousness is but the Interessing of the beleever in that price , as the price of such a purchase , to the end he may receive the legal infeofment of the Inheritance purchased , in Adoption . Obj. 5. Chap. 13. pag. 145. He that hath a perfect & compleat Righteousness of the Law imputed to him , standeth in need of no Repentance . Ans. This Consequence is utterly false , as was shewed above Chap. 6. Mystery . 13. Repentance is not prescribed in the Gospel , for any such use or end , for which the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is called for . If Adam ( saith he ) had kept the Law , he had needed : no Repentance , more than Christ himself needed ; & those that kept the Law in him , as exactly & perfectly as he did , what more ne●d of Repentance have they , than he had , Ans Adam , it is true , had needed no Repentance , if he had kept the Law : But the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness & obedience to us , though thereby we come to enjoy the Effects & purchase thereof , as really as if we had Fulfilled the Law ourselves ; yet it maketh us not to have been no sinners ; nor doth it exeem us from the Law , in time coming , nor put us out of case of sinning any more ; and consequently prejudgeth not the true & lively exercise of that grace of Repentance . He addeth . He that is as righteous , as Christ is , ( which those must needs be , who are righteous with His righteousness ) needeth no more Repentance , than He needed . Ans. We do not love to say , that beleevers , through this Imputation , are as Righteous , as Christ was : for that expression might import that thereby they become as Righteous inherently , as He was ; which is false : But that thereby they are legally accounted Righteous , to all ends & purposes , as if they themselves , in their own persons , had Fulfilled the Law : And therefore , though thereby they become , in Law-sense , Righteous ; yet they are inherently ungodly & unrighteous , till sanctifying grace make a change here ; & therefore stand in need of Repentance . To that That Beleevers need Repentance for their daily & personal failings , he saith , But they that have an entire & perfect Law-righteousness Imputed to them , have no such need , in any respect ; because in the Imputation of a perfect Righteousness , there is an universal non-Imputation of sin apparently included . Besides , if God doth Impute a perfect Law-righteousness , it must be supposed , that the rights & privileges , belonging to such righteousness do accompany it , in the Imputation — Now , one maine privilege hereof is to invest with a full & entire right unto life , out of its own intrinsecal & inherent dignity & worth , which is a privilege , wholly inconsistent with the least tincture of sin , in the person that stands possessed of it . Ans. Where there is an Imputation of a perfect Righteousness , there there is an universal Non-Imputation of sin , in reference to actual condemnation , or to the prejudging of the person , partaker of this Imputation , of the reward of life ; but as this Imputation of Righteousness maketh not a sinner to have been no sinner ; so neither doth it make their future sinnes to be no sinnes , or them to be no sinners , in time coming ; because it is imputed for no such end . ( 2 ) It is true , the Rights & privileges , belonging to this Righteousness , do accompany the Imputation thereof ; & that thereby beleevers become invested with a full & entire Right to life , because of its intrinsecal & inherent dignity ; but it is utterly false , to say , That this full & entire Right to life is inconsistent with the least tincture of sin , in the person possessed of it : & hereby he must say one of these two ; either that there is no full Right had to life , while persons are in this life ; or that there is a full and sinless perfection attainable and had by all beleevers ; so that they sinne no more , Both which are most false . But what will he say of Faith , which he will have imputed for Righteousness , seing this must bring alongs with it the same privileges ; & so exclude Repentance too ? To this he saith . The meaning is not , as if God either Imputed , or accepted , or accounted faith for the self same thing , which the Righteousness of the Law is intrinsecally & formally ; or as if God , in this Imputation , either gave or accounted unto faith any power or privilege to justifie , out of any inherent worth of it . But the meaning only is , that God , upon Man's faith , will as fully justify him , as if he had perfectly fulfilled the Law● He that fulfilled the Law & thereby is justified , is justified out of the inherent dignity of that , which justifieth him ; but he that is justified by faith , is justified by the free & gracious acceptation of it by God ; for that , which is justifying in its own Nature , & by vertue of its inherent worth & dignity . Ans. What God Imputeth & reputeth to be a Righteousness , in order to justification , must be accounted such , or a man shall be justified , without all consideration of a Righteousness ▪ and so be pronounced & declared Righteous , though he be not Righteous upon any account , or in any manner of way : And if faith be not accounted for the self same thing , or for the equivalent with the Righteousness of the Law , how shall it be accounted a Righteousness , in order to the justification of a sinner , who is under the Curse of the Law , & who , because of the breach of the Law , hath no right to life ? wherefore faith must have that inherent worth , that the Righteousness of the Law should have had , else it cannot be a Righteousness , whereupon a sinner can be justified before God , who is Just and Righteous , and will not pronounce such to be Righteous , as are not Righteous . ( 2 ) If God , upon a man's faith , will as fully justify a man , as if he had fulfilled the Law , either that faith must be a Righteousness , and so accounted , which he here denieth ; or the man must be declared Righteous , who hath no Righteousness ; and so the judgment of God should not be according to truth ; or upon his beleeving he must be justified , as being Righteous by an Imputed Righteousness ; which is the thing he peremptorily denieth . ( 3 ) When one is justified by faith , by God's free & gracious Acceptation of it , this act of grace must either import , that faith is accepted as a Righteousness , & so accounted of God ; or still the beleever shall be declared and pronounced Righteous , though he hath no Righteousness ; or the meaning of this Acceptation must be , that God hath graciously condescended to appoint this mean & way of sinners having an Interest in the Righteousness of Christ , whereby he may be accounted Righteous & justified , as really , as is he had performed that Righteousness himself , in his own person : & in this sense , it is most true , but utterly destructive of his designe . ( 4 ) If faith be accepted for that , which is justifying in its own Nature , & by vertue of its Inherent worth & dignity , it must either be that , which is of such inherent worth , or it must be accepted for that , which it is not , & so a man must be judged by God to have that , which he hath not . He concludeth thus . Wherefore , the Imputation of faith for righteousness may well stand with personal sins , in him , to whom this Imputation is made , in respect of which sins he remaines obliged to repent : but the Imputation of a perfect legal Righteousness makes a man perfectly righteous in the letter & formality of it . Ans. Then it seemeth that by the Imputation of faith for Righteousness , a man standeth not invested & possessed of a full & entire right unto life : for that , he said before , was a privilege wholly inconsistent with the least tincture of sin . ( 2 ) If by a perfect legal Righteousness , he meane a Righteousness required of the Law & performed by us personally , we plead not for the Imputation of any such : but if he mean a Righteousness consisting in full conformity to the Law , performed by Christ & graciously imputed to us , & received by faith , that is well consistent with inherent & personal sins . What he meaneth by making a man perfectly righteous in the letter & formality of it . I know not , till some be pleased to explaine it . Obj. 6. Another argum . he prosecuteth pag. 149. &c. thus . If men be as Righteous as Christ himself was , in his life , there was no more necessity of His death for them , than for himself ▪ then the just should not have died for the unjust , but for the just . Ans. If we had not transgressed the Law , there had been no necessity , that either we , or any for us , should have died ; but having transgressed the Law , & thereby fallen under the Curse , & wanting all right to life , we must have a Surety-righteousness , whereby not only the Curse shall be taken away , but the blessing of Abraham may come upon us , & we may have a full right to life : & therefore both the Active & passive Righteousness of Christ is necessary ( 2 ) Christ died for the unjust , because His death , which was the period & terminating act of His obedience , and Surety righteousness , which He undertook to performe in our room and Law-place , was for sinners , lying under the Curse , & void of all right & title to life . He imagineth , that first Christ's Active Righteousness is imputed , & thereby the person is constituted Righteous ; & then inferreth the non● necessity of Christ's death : By we say , that Christ's whole Surety-righteousness , consisting in what He did & suffered , in His state of Humiliation , in our room , and as Cautioner , is at once imputed , and not in parts ; that so the necessity of sinners may be answered in all points . He thinks to prove this consequence by these words Gal. 2 : 21. If righteousness be by the Law , then Christ died in vaine ; rejecting the sense of the word Law , viz. as importing the works of the Law , as performed by us , in our own person , & thereby doing violence to the whole Scope of the place , & to the constant acceptation of the expression ; & supposing that the Consequence will be strong , though the works of the Law , as performed by Christ , be here understood ; & that meerly upon this false ground , Because the Righteousness of Christ's life imputed had been a Sufficient , & every wayes a compleat Righteousness for us . Nor need we say , as he saith in our name , That there was a Necessity , that Cbrist should did , that so the righteousness of His life might be imputed to 〈◊〉 . For the necessity of His death arose from our transgressing of the Law , & being under the Curse . Obj. 7. Chap. 14. pag. 151. He alleigeth , that this Imputation evaniateth Remission of Sins , saying , for if men be righteous with the same righteousness , wherewith Christ was righteous , they have no more need of pardon , than He had . Ans. We spoke to this above . Chap. 6. Mystery 11. & therefore need say no more here , then that the Consequence is null , & that the probation is insufficient , for though we be constituted Righteous through the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness ; it is but a Surety-righteousness , & not our own inherently : & the Surety not being of our appointing or fitting & furnishing , our pardon is a Consequent & Effect of this Imputation . ( 2 ) The consequence is no more valide from the Imputation of the Active Righteousness of Christ , than from His passive and Satisfaction : and so with Soci●ians , he must also hereby deny Christ's Satisfaction , that he may establish his free Remission . But Gospel free forgiveness is rather established , than any way weakened by our Assertion of the Imputation of Christ's whole Surety-righteousness . He addeth , Christ hath taught us to pray for forgiveness of Sins : now to pray for that , and yet to conceite ourselves as righteous , as Christ was , is rather to mock , than to worship . Ans. This expression to conceite ourselves as righteous as Christ was , is none of ours ; & though it may admit of a good sense as being true , quoad veritatem , though not quoad modum : yet because it is so ambiguous , & liable to misconstruction , I chose rather to forbear it , seeing no necessity touse it . And to conceite our selves legally & juridically righteous with the Imputed Surety-righteousness of Christ , is very consistent with praying for pardon : for Christ's Surety-righteousness is not , nor yet said to be , imputed for this end immediatly , that all our after actions should be sinless ; but to this end rather , that we may have actual pardon of by past sinnes , & of future sins too , after the methode of the Gospel ; and that none of our sins should actually procure our Condemnation , or prejudge us of eternal Felicity ; but that notwithstanding thereof , we should not come into condemnation , but enter into life . He saw , that what he here objecteth against the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , will militat as much against the Imputation of Faith , which must derive a righteousness upon the person , as perfect and compleat , as the Righteousness of the Law ; & so can leave as little place for Remission , as what we plead for ; and therefore to obviat this , he tels us . That when faith is imputed , another thing is imputed ▪ then the righteousness of the Law it self , to wit , faith , by name , in stead of it : Now any other righteousness , or any other thing imputed for righteousness , besides the righteousness of the Law , will bear a consistency of sin with it , & of remission . Ans. If by the righteousness of the Law here , he only meaneth that , which we performe in our own persons , it is true , that is inconsistent with sin or pardon : but it is false , if he understand thereby , the righteousness of the Law , performed by another , Christ our Surety . And sure , if his faith be accounted a Righteousness , it must be a Righteousness , or God's estimation is not just : & if it be a Righteousness ; it must be accompanied with all the privileges of a Righteousness ( as himself saith ) and consequently exclude all Sin & Remission , if these be such concomitans of an Imputed righteousness . He addeth , when a perfect Sanctification is imputed to a man for his justification ▪ that man can be no more reputed to have sin in him , than to be obnoxious to death , which is opposite to justification . Ans. And no wonder ; for perfect Sanctification being a perfect inherent holiness , cannot , without a contradiction , but exclude sin . But who speak of such an Imputation of Sanctification ? We know no such thing ; for Sanctification is wrought & inherent in us , & not imputed to us . If he meane by this perfect Sanctification , the perfect Obedience and Righteousness of Christ imputed to us , we say , though that perfect Sanctification or Righteousness could be consistent with no sin in Christ ; yet , when imputed to us , it can consist with sin inherent in us , & with pardon of sin also ; as we have already cleared . Further saith he . But when that , which either is no Sanctification , or at most , but an imperfect Sanctification , is imputed for Righteousness in a mans justification , place is left for inherencie of sin , & consequently for the forgiveness of it . Ans. That which is no Sanctification , or at most , but an imperfect Sanctification , must either be no Righteousness , or at most , an imperfect righteousness ; and therefore cannot be reputed or accounted a perfect righteousness ; and so cannot be imputed to a person , in order to justification . Or if we should suppose , that God did make it , & really repute it to be a righteousness , it must be a compleat righteousness ; & consequently inconsistent with pardon , because it shall hereby become a compleat inherent Holiness & Righteousness . Obj. 8. Chap. 15. pag. 153. &c. Whoseever is perfectly righteous , or as righteous as Christ is , in him God can see no sin . But every beleever ( saith this opinion , which we impugne ) is as perfectly & compleatly righteous , as Christ himself is . Therefore &c. Ans. How false this consequence is , was manifested above Chap. 6. Mystery 15. And now , waving that expression of being as righteous , as Christ himself is . I distinguish the Major thus , Whosoever is perfectly righteous with an inherent Righteousness ( taking perfection here not for kind , but for degrees ) in him God can see no sin , true : but in this sense the Minor is false . Whosoever is perfectly Righteous with an Imputed righteousness , in him God can see no sin , or order to actual condemnation , it is true , but then the Conclusion containeth nothing but truth . It is true , God could see no sin in Christ , because there was no sin existing in Him ; yet He can see sin in beleeves , in whom sin existeth , notwithstanding they be clothed with the perfect Righteousness of Christ , which only maketh , that God can see no sin in them , for which He will actually bring them into condemnation ; and this is consonant to Scripture Rom. 8 : 1. Obj. 9. Another Reason he proposeth Chap. 16. pag. 154. &c. alleiging ; That by this Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , we confound the two Covenants of Works & of Grace . But as to this , we have cleared the truth above Chap. 6. Mystery 16. Nor need we be much troubled at his bold alleigance ; fo● not we , but he & others with him , by his opinion , in pleading for the sole Imputation of faith , as our Gospel Righteousness , to which some adde other works of obedience , do turne the Gospel into a new Covenant of Works : for if faith , properly taken , alone , or conjunct with other works of Righteousness , which we do , be all our Gospel-righteousness , we are justified by our own personal obedience & righteousness ; and this was the plaine tenor of the Covenant of works : The variation of the obedience , now required from what was of old , though now it be but as a pepper corne , in comparison of the greater rent formerly required , doth make no alteration in the Nature and Essence of the Covenant : for justification & life is still by works of righteousness , which we do , and which are our owne . But when the Righteousness of a Surety is imputed , & we are upon that account accepted , though the righteousness , wrought by the Surety , be obedience to the same Law , that was in force under the first Covenant , & which we were obliged unto , & lying under the Curse of ( as it must needs have been , seing He did substitute himself in our place , & took our debt upon Him ) the Covenant is altered : for the first Covenant knew no Righteousness , but what was our owne & personal ; & did not admit of a Surety . Thus these two Covenants are not confounded by us , but kept manifestly distinct ; & we cannot owne their Gospel-way of justification , as being a way to bring us back againe to the old Covenant of works , with a meer pretext of some ease , as to the Conditions , or Termes . Yet he would prove , that the two Covenants are made one by us , thus , where the parties Covenanting are the same ; & the things covenanted for are the same ; and the Conditions or agreement the same , there the Covenants are every way the same . But if the Righteousness of the Law imputed to us be the agreement , or Condition of the New Covenant , all the three , persons , things , & Conditions are the same . Ans. ( 1 ) It may be questioned , if either the persons Covenanting , or the things Covenanted for , in both Covenants , be the same every way ; but to speak of this is not our present purpose ( 2 ) The Covenants do not agree , as to their Conditions ; for the condition required in the Covenant of works , was a proper antecedent condition , which is a cause of the thing promised ; but the Condition of the New Covenant is only a consequent condition , denoting nothing else , than a connexion , or order betwixt the thing promised , & the condition required . ( 3 ) The Righteousness of the Law imputed to us , is no condition required of us , in the New Covenant ; but it is required of us , that by faith we close with Christ , & thereby come to have an Interest in Christ , & in all His Righteousness , to all ends and purposes ; which our case and necessity calleth for . ( 4 ) This Righteousness of the Law was called for from us , in our own persons , in the old Covenant ; but in the New Covenant , the righteousness is Imputed to us , when we beleeve in Him. And this , as is said , is enough to distinguish these Covenants . But he thinks . The Righteousness of the Law imputed from another , & wrought by ourselves do not much differ , the substance being the same . Ans. Yet this difference may make a substantial difference in the two Covenants : for when the Covenant of Works did not admit of the performance of the Conditions by a Surety , as himself proved by foure Arguments pag. 155. And the Covenant of Grace holdeth forth justification only through the Righteousness of another , imputed to us , & received by faith : Though the Righteousness , mentioned in both , consist in conformity to the same Law ; yet the Covenants cannot but substantially differ , as is obvious to every one . Beside , that the righteousness imputed consisteth in more , than in Obedience to the Law ; for it comprehendeth his whole Surety-righteousness ; & that took in His Sufferings also . The following objection , which he preoccupieth , is purely his owne , & so I leave it . Obj. 10. Chap. 17. pag. 158. &c. That for which Righteousness is imputed to those that beleeve , cannot be imputed to them for righteousness . But the Righteousness of Christ is that , for which righteousness is imputed to those that beleeve . Ergo. The Assumption he thinks none will deny , but such as deny the righteousness to be the Meritorious Cause of that Righteousness or justification , which is conferred upon men . The Major he thus proveth If it be Impossible , that the thing merited should be the same thing , with that , which is the Meritorious Cause thereof , then it is not only not true , but impossible , that the Righteousness of Christ should be the Righteousness of a beleever . But the former is true Ergo &c. Aus . This is nothing but a pure fallacy , founded upon a palpable mistake viz of confounding righteousness & justification as if they were one & the same . To discover this , let us put Iustification for Righteousness in the first Argument , thus . That for which beleevers are justified , cannot be imputed to them for righteousness , But the Righteousness of Christ is that for which beleevers are justified . Therefore &c. Who seeth not now , how false the Major propositions is ; & how impertinent & ridiculous the probation thereof is ? justification , which is the Effect , or the thing merited , is not the same thing with the Righteousness of Christ , the Meritorious cause thereof . Obj. 11. pag. 160. If the Righteousness of Christ be imputed to a beleever for righteousness , in his justification , then the meritorious cause of his justification is imputed . But that cannot be imputed . Ergo &c. He proveth the Minor , which is denied , thus , Because the Meritorious cause , being a kind of Efficient can not be either the matter , or the forme of that , whereof it is Efficient — It is an Inviolable Law amongs the foure kindes of causes , Material , Formal , Final & Efficient , that the two former do only ingredi composition , or effectum , & are partes rei constitutae ; & that the two latter are alwayes extrinsecal , & stand without . Ans. All which is but vaine argueing , grounded upon this palpable mistake , that justification is a physical Effect , like the whiteing of a wall ; ( which is the example , whereby , he illustrats the matter ) & therefore he thinketh , that these termes are used , in this matter , in as proper a sense , as when they are applied to physical causes & Effects ; whileas the matter is quite otherwise ; & many of these termes are here used , but in a metaphorical sense . But to the matter , whether Imputed Righteousness , be called the Material cause , with some , or the formal cause , with others , of justification , is no great matter , seing every one hath liberty to explaine , in what sense he useth these termes , in this matter ; & I should rather choose to use the terme ( if such like termes must be used ) of the formal objective cause , or Reason ; This is enough to us , That it is that , whereby they become juridically righteous ; & that , upon the consideration whereof , now imputed to them , they are pronounced Righteous & justified ; & so is the meritorious cause of their justification , & that Righteousness , which covereth them , & upon the account of which , they are declared & pronounced Righteous : as the payment of the Surety , is as the meritorious cause in Law of the absolution of the debtor , & the ground upon which he is absolved , being accounted his payment , because the debtor & Surety are one person in Law. As in a juridical sentence of Absolution of an accused debtor , there is no proper formal , or material cause ; so neither in the matter of justification , which is God's juridical Act & Sentence . Yet I cannot acquiesce to what he addeth , saying That only remission of sins or absolution from punishment , is as the forme applied unto , or put upon the matter , & the matter or subject it self , where unto this forme is applied ; Not only because , according to his own argueing , one thing cannot be both matter & forme of the same thing ; but because Remission of sins in hereby made the whole of justification ; whereas to speak properly it is but an Effect or consequent , or at most a part thereof ; & the person justified is properly absolved from the accusation & declared to be Righteous ; & so is legally constituted or put into a state of Righteousness , or of Righteous persons , whereupon followeth freedom from guilt , or punishment , & a Right to the reward : & as to this State , whatever we shall conceive as the forme thereof , it must be a Righteousness ; & consequently the Righteousness of Christ imputed ; for sinners can have no other . Obj. 12. If the meritorious cause of our justification be imputed unto us , thon the Effects themselves of this cause may be imputed to us also ; & so we may be said to have merited both our own justification , & salvation : for if I may be accounted or reputed to have wrought that Righteousness , which is meritorious , why may I not be conceived as well to have merited ? Nay further , if I may be conceived to have wrought that Righteousness in Christ , whereby I am justified my self , I may as well be conceived to have wrought that Righteousness , by which the whole world is justified . Ans. This is but a meer sophisme , founded upon a mistake : The consequence is false , & the proof thereof standeth only upon this rotten bottome . That to say , That Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us , is to say , that we are reputed , esteemed , or accounted to have done or wrought that Righteousness our selves ; whileas the true meaning of Imputation is this . That the Righteousness of Christ is made over by grace unto Beleevers , & reckoned upon their score , where by they are dealt with now , no other wayes , than if they had fulfilled all Righteousness , in their own person . Whence it is clear , that the Effects cannot be said to be imputed to us ; but only that we partake of the Effects thereofs , so far as our own Necessity requireth : As the Ransom payed for the Redemption of so many captives , is imputed to each of the captives , in order to his owne Redemption , & to none of them as Redemption of others : & without this Imputation , or reckoning it upon their score , as the price of their Redemption , no man could have right to the Effects thereof in reference to himself , or could be redeemed thereby . So that it is manifest , that through the meritorious cause , or the righteousnes of Christ imputed to us , we obtaine justification & Salvation ; but do not merite them : our Redeemer & Surety meriteth them for us , & we enjoy what He merited for our own happiness . It is false then to say , That by Imputation we are conceived to have wrought that righteousness in Christ , whereby we are justified : & therefore it cannot but be most false to think , That we may be conceived to have wrought that righteousness also , by which others are justified ; for it was only our Head , Husband , Surety & Redeemer , who wrought it , & free grace imputed it to , or reckoneth it upon the score of Beleevers . Obj , 13. chap. 18. pag. 165. If the active Righteousness of Christ be in the letter & formality of it imputed unto me , in my justification , then I am reputed before God , to have wrought that righteousness in Christ. But this is false &c. Ans. Neither proposition is true : The Major is denied , unless by these word , letter and formality , he understand such an Imputation , as we do not acknowledge , & his words would seem to import this : for ( saith he , in confirmation of the Major ) to have any thing imputed to a man , in the letter of it , is to be reputed the doer of what is so imputed to him : And if this be the only sense of his proposition , the conclusion maketh not against us : for we asserte no such Imputation , as inferreth such a Reputation , Nay , to say , That God should repute things so , were to destroy all Imputation , for what God ( whose judgment is according to truth ) ●eputeth us to have done , we must have done it ; & if we have really done it , & be reputed to have done it by the Lord , it cannot be said to be imputed to us , in the sense we take Imputation ; for Imputation with us , is of that , which we have not , or did not , & which God knoweth & judgeth we did not ; & yet is by Imputation so made over to us , & put upon our score , & reckoned upon our account , as that we are as really made partakers of the Effects thereof , that is , of justification &c. As if we had done it ourselves , or it had been ours , without & before any Imputation . Hence the beleever is made the righteousness of God in Christ ; & not reputed , or esteemed to have been the righteousness of God , but now , through the gracious Imputation of God , & through faith made to be so . Hence we see , that the proof of his Minor goeth upon the same Mistake if ( saith he ) I be reputed before God to have wrought Righteousness , in Christ in my justification , then is Christ , in His Sufferings , reputed before God to have sinned in me . Ans. We say neither the one , nor the other . Christ did not sinne in us , nor did the Lord repute Him to have done so . But he was made sin , by Imputation ; the guilt of sin being laid upon Him ; or our sinnes , as to their guilt , being caused to meet on Him. Whence it came to passe , that He suffered as really the punishment of sin , as if He had sinned in us , whileas , as to His own person , He knew no sin , neither was deceit found in His mouth . Obj. 14. pag. 166. If the Active obedience of Christ be imputed , then His Passive is imputed also . Ans. And why not ? If the death & Sufferings of Christ ( saith he ) be imputed unto me ; then may I be accounted or reputed to have died or suffered in Christ. But this cannot be : because in Christ , we are justified & absolved from punishment ; & therefore cannot be said to have been punished in Him. Ans. This whole Argument is of a piece with the foregoing : Though therefore it be upon the matter answered already : Yet we shall adde this word further . That though in one sense it is false , to say , That we are reputed to have died & Suffered in Christ viz physically ; yet in a legal sense , it may be admitted , as a truth , that Beleevers , who now by faith are in Christ , & of His Body , are accounted & reputed to have suffered in Christ , their Head , Surety & Publick person ; & therefore are now dealt with , as , such . Hence they are said to be crucified with Christ , to be dead & buried with Him , & to be risen with Him Rom. 6 : 4 , 5 , 6. Ephes. 2 : 5 , 6. Col. 2 : 12. Yet it will not follow hence , that in a legal sense Christ can be said to have sinned in us ; for we were not His Representative or Head. Though the debtor may be said , in Law sense , to have paid his creditor , in his Suretys payment ; Yet the Surety cannot be said to be contracting debt , in the debtor , for the debtor's deed cannot affect him , untill he voluntarily submit himself to be Surety , where may be after the debt is already contracted by the debtor . And to say , in this Law sense , that Beleevers Suffered in Christ , doth not weaken the ground of our justification , absolution , Acceptation , & Healing , as is manifested above , unless we turn . Socinians ; & then upon this same ground , we may deny all the Satisfaction of Christ. Obj. 15. pag. 168. If the Righteousness of Christ be imputed to us , then are we justified , at least in part , by the ceremonial Law ; because part of that Righteousness , which Christ wrought , stood in obedience to the ceremonial Law. But this is not true . Ergo &c. Ans. We are not said to be justified either by the Moral , or by the Ceremonial Law ; But by the righteousness of Christ , which consisted in yeelding perfect obedience to the Law of God , & in answering all the demands of the Law , in the behalf of His owne . And so , though the Law doth not justifie us , because we are sinners ; yet neither can the Law now condemne us , because Christ , our Surety , hath perfectly fulfilled it , & given full Satisfaction to the Law given , for our violation thereof . And , in this matter , the Ceremonial Law is not to be separated from the Moral , it being but a branch , or an Appendix thereof , & enjoined thereby : for the Moral Law saith , that God must be worshipped only that way , which Himself hath prescribed , & that Ceremonial worship being the then Instituted worship of God , whosoever knowing this did not worship God after that manner ; did violat the Second of the Moral Law , which became not Him to do , who came to fulfill all righteousness . And thus the righteousness of obedience , that is Imputed , is Moral , or righteousness consisting in obedience to the Moral Law. And this is wholly imputed to all beleevers , whether of Jewes , or of Gentiles , in reference to their own Redemption , or delivery . The objection , which he frameth against himself . viz. That the Moral Righteousness is Sufficient , & the other needeth not be imputed , is none of ours , as appeareth by what is said ; for we do not exclude the Ceremonial , But reduce it to the Moral , obedience to that being enjoined by this . Obj. 16. Chap. 19. If the Righteousness of Christ be imputed to us , then are our sinnes imputed to Christ , the same manner . But this is not so . Ergo. The Minor he proveth thus If the sinnes of Men be imputed to Christ , then God looks upon Him , & reputes Him , in His Sufferings , as one that truly & really had provoked Him , & sinned against Him. Ans. This consequence is denied ; for no such Reputation , or Estimation followeth upon the Imputation , which we assert , as hath been already cleared : only this will follow , that Christ being , through His own willing consent , in our Law-place , as our Surety , & having undertaken to pay our debt , He was exacted upon , & dealt with by Justice , as if He had been the true sinner , though He knew no sin ; as Beleevers , having Christ's righteousness imputed to them , are dealt with , as if they had kept the Law , & made Satisfaction by themselves . But as God doth not look upon them , nor esteem , nor consider them , nor repute them , as having really fulfilled the Law in their own Physical persons ; so nor doth He look upon , esteem , consider or repute Christ to have been truely & really a Transgressour of the Law , in His person . Hence we see , that his proof , that God did not look upon Christ so , is impertinent ; for we do not say so , knowing that to look upon Christ , as one that had truely sinned , were to look upon Him , as deserving in Himself what was inflicted upon Him ; & that God's judgment is alwayes according to truth ; & that Christ knew no sin in Himself , but was made sin , as having the guilt of our sinnes imputed to Him , when He put Himself in our room & Law-place ; & so He died & Suffered for us , in our stead , & became a Sacrifice for sin , having the guilt thereof laid on Him. Obj. 17. pag. 173. If the Righteousness of Christ be imputed unto us , in our justification , then God doth look upon us , as worthy of that justification . But this is an unclean saying . Ergo. The Major he thus proveth . If God reputes me to have kept the Law , as perfectly as Christ did , He must conceive of me , as worthy of my justification ; for as the fulfilling of the Law , & deserving justification , are the same Rom. 4 : 4. So the reputing of a man to have done the one , is the reputing of him to have deserved the other . The Minor he thus confirmeth , Because then God should show us no grace or favour in our justification . ( Rom. 4 : 4. with Rom. 11 : 6 ) But if any favour be shewed , it is only in this , that He reputeth us worthy to be justified , or puts a worthiness upon us for justification ; whereas the Scripture expresly affirmeth , that God justifieth the ungodly , that is the unworthy Rom. 4 : 5. Ans. Unto all this , I say ( 1. ) We say not , that God imputeth to us the righteousness of Christ , in justification ; But that He doth it in order to justification . ( 2. ) Though Christ's Righteousness be imputed to us ; Yet it will not follow ; that God looketh upon us , as worthy of our justification , viz in ourselves : & it may be yeelded , that He looketh on us , when clothed with Christ's righteousness , a worthy of justification , viz in Christ our Surety 〈◊〉 with whose righteousness we are now covered , when it is imputed unto us . But then the conclusion will make nothing against us . ( 3. ) If the meaning be , that therefore God looketh upon us , as worthy of justification in our selves , the consequence is false ; & the Reason adduced for confirmation is invalide : for the Text Rom. 4 : 4. speaketh of him that worketh , & so hath the ground of the merite in himself : he indeed that fulfilleth the Law in himself deserveth to be justified . And let our Adversaries see to this , who will have no Righteousness imputed , but our own faith , which is in us , & is our own , & is , in their account , as good as the fulfilling of the Law , & is accepted for that end : for Sure , such as have this faith , which is in them , reputed for their righteousness , upon the account of which they are justified , must have the reward reckoned to them , not of grace , but of debt ; & so must merite & deserve their justification , in full & proper sense . ( 4. ) It is not to be admitted , as a truth , without the forementioned distinction , to say , that the reputing of a man to have done the one , is the reputing of him to have deserved the other , for to repute a man to have done the one , in his own person , is indeed a reputing of him to have deserved the other . But we assert no such Reputation in God ; for His judgment is according to truth ; But only assert an Imputation , which taketh away this Reputation , these two being inconsistent : & from this Imputation can no such thing be inferred . ( 5. ) It is true , if we deserved justification , justification should be no act grace ; but we deserve no such thing , being in our selves , & as to ourselves , indeed ungodly ; yet when justified , we are looked upon as clothed with the Righteousness of Christ , imputed to us , & received by faith : & so , though our justification be merited by Christ , & be an Act of justice & truth in God , in reference to Christ ; yet as to us , it is of free grace ; & so much the more of free grace , that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us for that end . And such as understand not this , are more principled with Socinian abominations , than with the doctrine of the Gospel of the grace of God. Obj. 18. pag. 173. If men be formally just by God's act , imputing Christ's righteousness , then do men become formally sinful by the like act of God , imputing Adam's sin . But this is not true : for then an Act of God should be as the life & soul of that sin , which is in men . Ergo Ans. As this argument concludeth nothing against the truth , now asserted , this conclusion being different from the question now in hand ; so it is but a meer exhaling of vapores out of the fog of philosophical termes & notions , that thereby the truth may be more darkened . We are not obliged by any Law of God , to explaine or interpret these mysteries of Salvation , according to these Notions , which men explaine after their own pleasure , knowing no Law , constraining them to follow either one man or other , in the arbitrary sense , which they put upon these termes . But as to the present ●rgument , no answer can be given , untill it be known , what is the true meaning of these words formally just . Possibly he will understand hereby the same , that others meane by Inherently just , & so indeed do all the Papists : And if so , we can answere by saying , That no orthodox man thinketh or saith , that in this sense , we are made formally just by God's act imputing Christ ' righteousness ; but by Holiness , wrought in us by His Spirit . And as to that righteousness , which is imputed , whether it be called the Formal , or the Material cause of our justification , it is but a nominal debate , having no ground , or occasion , in the Word of God , by which alone we should be ruled in our thoughts & expressions , in this matter . Nor do they , who say , we are formally just by Christ's righteousness , say , we are formally just by God's Act imputing that righteousness ; But by the righteousness it self imputed by God & received by faith . Nor do they say , that men become formally sinful by the like act of God , imputing Adam's sin unto his posterity , but by Adam's sin imputed : though God's Act be the cause of this effect , it is not the effect it self . Adam's sin imputed doth constitute the posterity sinners , that is guilty & obnoxious to wrath : so Christ's righteousness imputed doth constitute beleevers Righteous . Obj. 19. pag. 175. If justification consists in the Imputation of Christ's righteousness , partly in Remission of sins , then must there be a double formal cause of justification , & that made up & compounded of two several natures , really differing the one from the other . But this is impossible , Ergo. Ans. ( 1. ) This Argument is founded upon another School-nicety , or notion , viz the Simplicity & Indivisibility of Natural formes : & this Philosophical Notion is here adduced to darken the mystery , we are treating of . It were a sufficient answere then to say , That the Minor , though it be true in natural formes ; Yet will not necessarily hold , in the privileges of Saints , which may be single , or compounded , as the Lord thinketh meet to make them . And can any reason evince , that the Lord cannot conferre & bestow , in the grand privilege of justification , moe particular favoures than one ? Can He not both pardon sins , & accept as , & declare to be Righteous ? Can He not both free the beleever from the condemnation of hell , & adjudge him to the life of glory ? or cannot these two be conceived as two things formally distinct , though inseparable ? ( 2. ) But I shall not say , That Imputation of Christ's righteousness is a part of justification ; But rather that it is the ground thereof , & necessarily presupposed thereunto . Nor shall I say , that Remission of sins is the forme , or formal cause of justification ; a pardoned man , as such , not being a justified man. It is true , pardon of sins doth inseparably follow upon , & is a necessary effect of our justification , & a certaine consequent of God's accepting of us , as righteous in His sight , upon the account of the righteousness of Christ , imputed to us & received by faith . I grant also that justification may be so described , or defined , as to take in that Effect , without making it thereby a formal part thereof , when strickly considered . ( 3. ) But he will have Remission of sins to be the whole of justification , & nothing more included therein , or conferred thereby , abusing to this end ( as we heard above ) Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. Where the Apostle is citing the words of the Psalmist & is not giving us a formal definition of justification ; nor saying , that justification is the same with Remission ; nor that Remission's the formal cause of justification : but only is proving , that justification is not by our works , as the ground thereof , & that by this reason , Because that would utterly destroy free Remission , which is a necessary Effect & consequent of Gospel-justification , & cannot be had without it ; in order to which justification , he there asserteth expresly an Imputation of righteousness : Now , an Imputation of righteousness is not formally one & the same thing with Remission of sins ; nor can Remission of sins be-called a righteousness , or the Righteousness of God , or of Christ : yet the Man is a blessed man , whose sins are covered , because that man is necessarily covered with the righteousness of Christ , whose sins are covered : for Imputation of righteousness & free pardon do inseparably attend one another . Nor is it to the purpose to say . That pardon is a passive righteousness , though not an Active righteousness ; for all righteousness , rightly so called , is conformity to the Law , & that is not a passive or Negative righteousness , which may be in a beast , that transgresseth no Law , & consequenly hath no unrighteousness . Obj. 20. pag. 176. If such Imputation be necessary , in justification , this necessity must be found either in respect of the justice of God , or in respect of His Mercy , or for the salving or advancing of some other attribute . But there is no necessity in respect of any of these . Ergo. Ans. ( 1 ) This same man tels us , that there is a necessity for the Imputation of faith , as our Righteousness , not withstanding of all that Christ hath done ; and why may he not grant the same necessity for the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ ? will it satisfie him , that we found the necessity of Imputation of Christ's Righteoufness on the same ground ? ( 2 ) Though we should not be in case to assigne the real & just ground of this necessity ; yet , I judge , it should satisfie us , that the Lord , in His wisdom & Goodness , hath thought fit to appointe and ordaine this methode & manner of justification ; & so far should we be from disputing against this Truth , with such Arguments , & from rejecting of it untill we be satisfied , as to the grounds of necessity requiring this , that we should receive it , close with it , and embrace it with all thankfulness , as a Mystery of Love , free Grace & wisdom , that Angels may wonder at . ( 3 ) Yet , accrding to the Scriptures , we may say , that the Truth & Justice of God require this : for His judgment is alwayes according to truth Rom. 2 : 2. and it would be an abomination in His eyes to justifie one every way wicked . Therefore , if He pronounce a person righteous , in His sight , which He doth when He justifieth a person , that person must be a Righteous person : but when no man can be justified , or pronounced Righteous , as being inherently Righteous Psal. 130 : 3. & 143 : 2. all , who are justified , must be clothed with an Imputed Righteousness : for God must be just , even when he justifieth him , which beleeveth in Jesus Rom. 3 : 26. In reference to the justice of God , he saith , That there is nothing at all necessary to be done either by God himself , or by man , about justification of a sinner , by way of Satisfaction to the justice of God , since that one offering of Christ of himself upon the cross . Ans. We plead not for Imputation , upon any such account : nor do we see the least ground to think , that this should derogat any thing from the full & compleat Satisfaction of Christ , made to justice , or from the price , laid down by Him , as if this Imputation were required , to supply some thing wanting there : Yea our doctrine of Imputation doth rather confirme & establish the same , it being an application of the Sponsor's Surety-righteousness , or payment & Satisfaction unto the debtors , in order to their Absolution & freedome from the sentence . Though the Surety hath paid the creditor ; yet the Law may require , that when the debtor is charged or challenged for the debt , the payment of his Surety be instructed & made manifest unto the judges : And yet it will not hence follow , tha● the Satisfaction or payment , made by the Surety , was defective and insufficient . He further saith . That God can as well and as truely pronounce that Man righteous , that wants a literal or legal Righteousness ( especially supposing ▪ he hath another Righteousness , holding any Analogy or proportion thereto ) as he may account any Mans uncircumcision circumcision Rom. 2 : 26. Ans. That the Lord may deal with one uncircumcised , that keepeth the Law , no less than if he were circumcised ; and so thereby declare , that He valueth not outward circumcision so much , as the jewes were ready to dream , who questieneth ? But what is this to the business in hand ? shall we therefore think , that the Lord , whose judgment is according to truth , shall account any Righteous , who have no righteousness ? Shall we think , that the Righteous judge shall pronounce & declare him to be Righteous , who is not so ? ( 2. ) He may think to warde this of by his parenthesis ; But , I pray , what is that other righteousness , that holds any analogy or proportion to the righteousness , required by the Law of God ? Is that the single Act of faith ? Sure , that must hold a very unproportionable proportion & a poor analogy unto Obedience to all commands of God! I need not take notice of that word legall righteousness literally so called ; for he hath many such of little other use , than to amuse the Reader , & darken the matter ( 3. ) If by this proportionable righteousness , he mean the righteousness of Christ , which may be said to hold an analogy to the righteousness of the Law , which man was obliged to performe , which possibly he understandeth by a legal righteousness literally & properly so called , he speaketh truth , & yeeldeth the cause ; for that is it , we contend for . But afterward he seemeth to tell us , what he meaneth by analogical righteousness , saying So may God , with as much righteousness & truth , pronounce , & call or account a man righteous , that is not strickly , properly or literally , such , if he hath any qualification upon him , that any way answereth , or holdeth proportion , in any point , with such a Righteousness , as he should do , in case this man had this legal righteousness upon him , in the absolutest perfection of the letter . Ans. And who may not see the folly of this Reddition , to inferre this from the Lord's calling Iohn Baptist Elias & the like ? Will he make the Lord 's pronouncing sentence , in judgment , as a righteous judge ( as He doth in the matter of justification ) to be such a figurative speach , as when Iohn Baptist was called Elias , because he had some resemblance to Elias , when he came in his Spirit & power ? Will he be accounted a righteous judge , upon earth , who in judgment should pronounce that man righteous , who , in stead of the righteousness he should have had , hath only one poor qualification upon him , that some way or other holdeth proportion with it , in any point ? If so , it will be a great question , if ever any wicked man can be condemned , seing it will be rare to finde one , that hath never all his dayes done some thing , that answereth to the Law , in some poor way or measure , as to same one point or other . Yea , if we might drive this further , it might be made probable , that hence it would follow , that all the world should be justified even in the sight of God. But enough of this , which is too too gross . Yet wo heare not what that qualification is . He saith , when God pronounceth a man righteous , it is sufficient to beare out the justice & truth of God , if his person be under any such relation , & condition , as belongeth to a legal righteousness , or which a legal righteousness would cast upon him . Ans. What before was called a Qualification , is here called a Relation , or condition ; & these seem not to be one & the same thing : But what if that Relation , or condition have no foundation , how shall the Lord , upon that account , pronounce such a person righteous ? or , though it be not founded upon a legal righteousness , performed by the mans self in his own person , yet may it not be founded upon a Surety-righteousness imputed ? But what is this ? He addeth , Now , one special privilege or benefite belonging to a perfect legal righteousness , is to free the person , in whom it is found , from death & condemnation , & he that hath his sins forgiven him , is partaker with him in the fulness of this privilege , is as free of condemnation , as he Ans. But he hath not yet proved , that any man is pardoned , without the Imputed righteousness of Christ : & beside , righteousness bringeth with it , as a special privilege or benefite , right to the promised Inheritance of Glory : But a pardoned man , as such , hath not this Right , nor yet can challenge it , as was showne above . Moreover , if God pronounce a Man righteous , because he is pardoned , then the man must be pardoned , before he be justified ; for in justification he is declared & pronounced Righteous , & not made such : & if he be pardoned , before he be justified pardon is not the forme of justification , nor the whole thereof , as he saith , but rather something antecedent thereto . What in fine he saith , is but what we have often heard viz That forgiveness of sins , is a true & compleat righteousness , in the kind , a passive righteousness , as absolute & perfect in the kind of it , as any Active righteousnest : And for him that hath once sinned , there is no other righteousness applicable to him , but only this , which for all other ends , purposes , advantages , privileges what som ever , is as offectual as the active righteousness it self could be . Ans. ( 1. ) No Scripture calleth pardon of sins a righteousness ( 2. ) A passive righteonsness is no righteonsness , as we lately made appear . ( 3. ) That another righteousness , even the positive Surety-righteousness of Christ , is applicable unto a sinner , hath been hithertil evinced . ( 4. ) pardon , as such , can give no Right to the reward , promised to obedience ; & therefore cannot be as effectual , as an active righteousness , to all Ends , purposes , Apvantages & privileges . Obj. 21. Chap. 20. That , which having been dhne , in our own person , could not have been our justification , nor any part of the righteousness , by which we could have been justified , cannot be made our justification , nor any part of it , by Imputation from another . But such is the righteousness of the Law , pretended to be imputed from Christ. Ergo &c. Ans. ( 1. ) We do not call the righteousness of Christ our justification ; nor do we say , that it is made our justification or any part of it , by Imputation unto us : nor yet do we make it a part only of the righteousness , by which we are justified ; for His righteousness is the whole of that righteousness : Nor by His Surety-righteousness imputed to us , do we understand only His Active obedience to the Law. ( 2. ) He here Supposeth that we say , there is nothing imputed to us , in order to our justification , but Christ's Obedience to the Law , without His Satisfaction by Suffering : And thus we see , the maine pilla●s of this Argument are weak , & its whole foundation being sandy , it cannot stand . He confirmeth the Major thus . If a personal fulfilling of the Law could have been no justification , nor part of justification to us , certainly an Imputative fulfilling of it could not have been either . The Imputation of a thing from another cannot adde any strength to it , above a personal acting , yet the Nature of Imputation is only to supply the defect of personal performance , & therefore cannot exceed it . Ans. Though obedience to the Law cannot availe us , now we are sinners , even though it were perfect ( which is in effect a supposition of what is impossible yea & self contradictary , & therefore can lay the foundation of no truth , in an Argument ) yet it could have availed Adam , while standing , & us in him . ( 2. ) The Righteousness , which is now imputed , is not the Righteousness of a sinner ; & so cannot be called the same with that Rightoeusness , which is supposed to be done by us , who are sinners : for the Righteousness in the supposition had been no righteousness at all , not being compleet & perfect . Now , who seeth not , that the Imputation of a perfect righteousness hath other strength & vertue , then that hath which is personal & Imperfect ? ( 3. ) The Imputation of an Obedience , perfect & compleet , can availe such , as are recocciled by the death of Christ , when personal obedience , suppose it never so full ( if the supposition could be made ) cannot availe such , as are under God's curse because of sin already committed . He confirmeth the Minor thus , Man being once fallen & made obnoxious to condemnation , can never be recovered againe by ten thousand observations of this Law. Ans. Though the observation of the Law , could it now be done by fallen man , which is impossible , cannot availe unto justification ; yet , as is said , it could have availed man , while standing : & man remaining still under the obligation , it is his debt : & seing it is now impossible for him to pay this debt , his Surety must pay it for him , & the Surety's payment must be reckoned on his score . Obj. 22. That which men are not bound by any Law , or command of God , to do , in their own persons , for their justification , cannot be imputed from another to any such and. But men are not bound , by any such Law , to observe the Law , for their justification . Ergo &c. Ans. The Major I distinguish thus ▪ That which men neither now are , nor never were bound to do , in their own persons for their justification , by any Law , or command of God , cannot be imputed from another , to any such end ; this is granted : but the assumption speaketh only of what men now are obliged unto ; & so the Argument is inconcludent . That which men , though once obliged unto , in their own persons , in order to justification , yet now are not obliged unto by the Law of God , cannot be imputed from another , to any such end : this is false . Let us hear his proof . Because ( saith he ) Imputation is found out & ordained by God to supply personal defects : But where there is no Law , there can be no personal defect . Ans. Imputation is not found out & ordained by God , to supply the want of that , which men are now obliged unto by the Law of God ; but to supply what once they were obliged unto , & is not yet done : and the reason is , because the Law , being not abrogat by the breach thereof , continueth in force to oblige to perfect & Exact Obedience ; & every violation thereof is a sin before God : & because it must be satisfied , even as to this , ere any can think to enjoy the reward promised to perfect obedience ; & no man can satisfie the demands of the Law by himself : therefore every one , who would have the Reward , & partake of Life , must have a perfect obedience imputed to him to the end , that , without any infringing of the Law , the sinner may be-justified , & the Law established . To the Minor I only say , That albeit no Man be under any command of God , now to observe the Moral Law perfectly , that thereby they may be justified , the Lord having now provided another way , in the Gospel which all , to whom it is revealed , are bound to take : Yet all , out of Christ , & who have not yeelded obedience unto the Gospel , are still under the old covenant , being not as yet brought in into the New : & so , while they abide there , have no other way , whereby to expect justification , but the old way , hold forth in the old covenant , viz. Perfect Obedience , which is now become Impassible : for till they beleeve in Christ , they are still in Nature , & are not translated into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ , though , as to such as hear the Gospel , there is a command to beleeve in Jesus Christ , to the end they may be justified : But as to such , as either hear not the Gospel , or hearing it would not yeeld obedience thereto , they have no other way , whereby they can expect justification , but doing of the Law Rom. 2 : 13. & that is also a desperat & Impossible way , when the Law is already now broken . The meaning of these words Rom. 2 : 13. The doers of the Law shall be justified , is not , what he imagineth pag. 184. viz. That God will accept , justifie , & save only such , who out of a sincere & sound faith to wards Him by His Christ , address themselves to serve & please Him , in a way of obedience to His Lawes : for this sense of the words keepeth no correspondence with the scope of the Apostle there , nor with the Circumstances of the place . Obj. 23. If God requires only faith of men to their justification , then He imputes this faith unto them there-unto . But God requires only faith to justification . Ergo &c. Ans. ( 1. ) The conclusion is not directly the thing , that is now in question , but another question , of which hereafter in due time . ( 2. ) The Minor is false to some of his own party , who joine works with faith . ( 3. ) The Major is denied ; for though God require faith of men to their justification ; Yet that faith is not imputed unto them viz. as their Righteousness . It may be , he meaneth no more by the word Impute here , but to accept of it , when performed , according as it is prescribed : and indeed his proof annexed can evince nothing else ; because ( saith he ) to impute unto justification , & to accept unto justification are nothing differing at all , in sense & signification : Now if God should require faith of Men , & only faith to their justification , & not accept it thereunto , he should make a bargaine , & not stand to it : for hereby it is manifest , that to Impute faith unto justification , is but to accept it , in order to justification , in the place , & for the end , which God hath fixed to it , & required it for ; that is , to be a Mean & Instrument , in the business , & to be the way of Interessing us in the Righteousness of Christ , the sole Righteousness for which , & ground upon which , we are justified . This then being the meaning of his Major Proposition , for any thing that yet appeareth , his whole Argument is but a meer sophistical evasion . ( 4 ▪ ) It is true , God requireth of us only faith , as an Instrument & mean to lay hold upon the Righteousness of Christ , in order to our justification : but this is so far from proving that therefore there is no necessity for the Righteousness of Christ , that , on the contrary , it establisheth that truth more firmly : for the faith , that is required unto justification , is not a bare historical faith , but such a faith , as carrieth the beleever out of himself , to seek a Righteousness in Christ , & declareth his full Satisfaction therewith , & his resting thereupon , in order to his Acceptance with God , & being justified & absolved from the sentence of the Law , under the conviction of which he was lying . ( 5 ) The scope and drift of this Objection is to separat these things , that God hath most firmly and manifestly conjoined , viz. God's Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , and our Receiving that gift of Righteousness by faith , and the atonement through faith . But , as was shown above , the Scripture holdeth forth the necessity of both , and what God hath conjoined , let no man separate . To this he saith . If the Righteousness of Christ be that , which is imputed , & not the faith , that is required of them , then may this Righteousness be Imputed to this end , before , yea & without the faith of any man ; for this faith adds no vertue , or value to that Righteousness . Ans. This being God's free Constitution , His will should serve us for a Law ; and in stead of too curious enquiring , whether this might be , or not be without the other , or before the other , we should rest satisfied with God's Method ; & therein carry more like Christians , than in making such objections against His express determinations . What though it were granted , that God might , if it had so pleased Him , impute the Righteousness of Christ unto sinners , before , or without their faith ; will it therefore follow , that now faith is unnecessary ; or , if faith be asserted to be necessary , that therefore the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness must be denied ? Why ? what ground can be given for such fictions ? Nay , will not this be as strong against the objecters , if Christ made full Satisfaction to Justice , what necessity is there for the Imputation of faith unto Righteousness ? Thus we see , the objecter must either turne fully Socinian , or reject this way of argueing . But he will not rest satisfied with the good pleasure of God , in this matter ; for he addeth pag. 186. If the will & pleasure of God be to make no Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , but upon the Condition of faith interveening , then it is evident , that this Righteousness is not imputed unto justification , to any man , because the Condition of faith must necessarily interveen , so that if this Righteousness of Christ were imputed unto men , yet it must be only towards justification , not unto it ; for faith hath the next & most immediat connexion therewith . Ans. Not to trouble our selves with that fonde & fooli● distinction betwixt towards & unto , which rather renders the Adversaries Cause desperat , & himself faine to shelter himself under such fig leaves , to cover his nakedness , than evidenceth any apparent probability of a real ground of Scrupling here . We say , That the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , which is God's Act , hath as immediat a connexion with justification , as Faith hath , which is our Act : for there is no priority or posteriority here , as to time ; for whensoever a Man beleeveth , in that same instant , Righteousness is imputed ; and in that same Instant , the beleever is justified ; We cannot say , a Man is a beleever , and yet hath not the Righteousness of Christ imputed to him , or is not justified ; as we cannot say , a Man hath the Righteousness of Christ imputed to him , and yet is not justified . Nay , the very Argument will conclude as well , that the Imputation of Righteousness hath a more neer connexion with justification , than faith hath ; for we may likewise say , though a man beleeve , yet without imputation , cannot be justified . But the truth is , all such argueings are but the Cavils of men , seeking to darken that , which they cannot destroy ; & are meer sophismes , unbeseeming Christians , in such a concerning business . Then ( saith he further ) faith doth not take hold of the Righteousness of Christ Imputed ; but first takes hold of it , & then the Imputation followeth & then a man may have the Righteousness of Christ upon him by faith , & yet not be justified by it . Ans. Though faith at first doth not take hold of the Righteousness of Christ , already imputed ; but of the Righteousness of Christ hold forth in the Gospel : yet faith may leane to that Righteousness imputed , and rest upon it ( 2 ) We assert no such Conditions , as this argument would say are the Conditions understood by our Adversaries , that is , such Conditions , as are like a price , that may be , for some time , in the buyers hand , before the bargane be made ; and may also be paid down some time before he obtaine the purchase . We owne only such consequential conditions here , as are but the means and Methods appointed of God , for such and such ends , & which have an immedial connexion with the end here intended . And therefore , we neither say , nor imagine , that a man may have the Righteousness of Christ , or Faith , & yet not be justified ; for in the very moment , as was said , that a Man acteth true Gospel-and so justifying faith , he hath the Righteousness of Christ imputed to him , and is justified : Every priority in order of Nature doth not conclude also a priority , as to time ; far less can a man be supposed to have the Righteousness of Christ , without God's Act of Imputation . But Finally all these Argueings returne upon his own head ; for when he saith , that faith is Imputed for Righteousness , meaning by faith our act of beleeving , he must also say , that a man may beleeve , and yet not be justified , untill his faith be Imputed unto Righteousness , by God , whose work alone this is : and his reply to this will relieve us . Obj. 24. That which was Imputed to Abraham for Righteousness , in his justification , is imputed to other beleevers also . But the faith of Abraham was imputed to him for Righteousness . Ergo &c. And for proof of all , he referreth us to what he hath said Chap. 2. upon Rom. 4. Ans. We shall not here anticipat the consideration of that place , and of this Argument founded there upon ; seing afterward we will have a fitter occasion to speak hereunto . Obj. 25. Here is his last argument , which he largely prosecuteth Chap. 21. pag. 188. &c. and it would seem , that it is here adduced againe ( for we had it once , if not oftner before ) that he may take occasion to vent his mind against the Imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity . Thus he Argueth . If the Righteousness of the Law be not imputable , or derivable , in the letter and formality of it , from one mans person to another , then cannot the Righteousness of Christ be imputed to any man , in justification . But the former is true , therefore ▪ &c. Ans. What may be answered unto this Argum. the Reader may see in the foregoing Chapter . Object last & I shall not here repeat , but go on to take notice of what he saith to that objection , which he moveth against himself , and proposeth thus , If the transgression of the Law be imputable from one Mans person to another , then may the Righteousness of the Law be imputed also . But the former is hence evident , because the sin of Adam is imputed to his posterity . He first excepteth against the Major , and denieth the Consequence thereof , and giveth reasons of his denial . 1. There is ( saith he ) no such Emphatical restraint of the guilt and punishment to the transgressour , as there is of the reward to the performer of obedience : for Gal. 3 : 12. the very man that hath done them shall live by them ; which is no where said of the Transgressour . Ans. But all this is loose reasoning : for as the Law saith , God will visite the iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children , unto the third and fourth Generation ; so it saith , that He will shew mercy to thousands of them that love Him , and keep His Commandements : and here the one is as Emphatick , as the other . ( 2 ) As he readeth Gal. 3 : 12. that the man that doth them , shall live in them ; so we read Ezek. 18 : 3. the soul that sinneth , it shall die . and Gal. 3 : 10. Deut. 27 : 26. Cursed is every one , that abideth not in all things , which are written in the Law to do them ; which words do Import as emphatical a restraint , as the other . But of that Gal. 3 : 12. we have said enough above , we might also mentione that , which was said to Adam , in the day thou eats , thou shalt die , which seemeth to have no less an Emphatick Import . But 2. he mentioneth this difference . Sin ( saith he ) is ever greater , in ratione demerity , than obedience is , in ratione meriti : Adam might by his transgression , merite condemnation to himself and posterity , & yet not have merited by his obedience Salvation to both ; because , if he had kept the Law , he had only done his duty . Luk. 17 : 10. & so had been but an unprofitable servant . Ans. All this saith nothing , where a Covenant is made , promising life to the obeyer , as well , as threatning death to the transgressour . Albeit Adam could not be said to have merited life , by his obedience , in way of proper and strick merite ; yet in way of merite expacto , he could have been said to have merited ; for the reward would have been reckoned to him , not of grace , but of debt ; and there would have been ground of boasting and glorying . Rom. 3 : 27. & 4 : 2 , 4. How beit he had done but his duty , when he had obeyed to the end ; yet the condescending love of God , promising the reward to perseverance in obedience to the end , was sufficient to found this . Whether Adam had merited Salvation to all his posterity , if he had kept the Covenant to the end , or not , is not our present question to enquire j this we know , that by one man sin entered into the world , & death by sin , & so death passed upon all men , for that all have sinned . Rom. 5 : 12. And upon the other hand , this we know , that Christ was made sin for His , as a publick person , and all His promised Seed and Children are made the Righteousness of God in Him. 1. Cor. 1 : 30. 2. Cor. 5 : 21. and those are sufficient for our purpose . 3. He saith . The Imputableness of the transgression of the Law rather overthroweth the Imputation of the obedience of it , than any wayes establisheth it : for the more Imputable , that is , punishable , the transgression is , the less imputable , that is rewardable , is the obedience of it . Ans. This is very true , when we speak of the same man , as of Adam , in both : for he could not both be a Transgressour , and a Final Observer of the Law ; and so both obedience and Transgression could not be imputed to himself , Let be to any other ; & the Imputation of the one did quite evacuat the other . But what maketh this meer shift to his present purpose , which is to show ( if he could ) that the Righteousness and obedience of the Second Adam , the Lord from heaven , is not as imputable to His Spiritual Seed & Issue , as the Sin and Transgression of the first Adam , who was of the earth earthy . 1. Cor. 15 : 47. was imputable to his Natural Seed . Next , he cometh to the Minor , and denieth the Imputation of Adam's sin ; and this seemeth to be his maine buliness , wherein he complieth with the Socinians , and others . Let us hear him , first ( saith he ) the Scripture no where affirmes either the Imputation of Adam's sin , or of the Righteousness of Christ. Ans. The contrary is sufficiently proven above ; & all his reasons cannot evince what he saith . He tels us , that neither is the phrase , nor manner of such speaking any wayes agreable to the language of the Holy Ghost : for still in the Scriptures , wheresoever the word , imputing , is used , it is only applied unto or spoken of something of the same persons , to whom the Imputation is said to be made ; & never to or of any thing of anothers . Ans. Though it be true , that some things are said to be imputed , in Scripture , unto persons , which are , or were theirs , before the Imputation : ( though that Instance of faiths being imputed to Abraham Rom. 4. which he adduceth , doth not belong to this head , as shall be evinced in due time ) whether it be good , or evil , as 2. Sam. 19 : 19 , Act. 7 : 60. where this Imputation is deprecated . So 2. Chron. 24 : 22. Gen. 30 : 33. Psal. 106 : 31. Yet it is also true , that we read of an Imputation of Something , that did not belong to , or was not possessed by the person , before the Imputation was made ; as when Paul desireth Philemon , to impute to him what Onesimue was oweing ; and that he would reckon both the debt and the injury , whereof Onesimus might beguilty , upon his score , and require it of him . Philem. vers 18. Thus do Sureties take upon themselves what formerly was not theirs ; and so make that imputable to themselves , which formerly was not so , as we seen Gen. 43 : 9. & 44 : 32. and the Sureties payment or Satisfaction , according to what he voluntarily undertook , is according to Law and equity , imputable & to be imputed unto , or reckoned on the Score of the debtor , to the end he may be dealt with , by vertue of that imputed payment & Satisfaction , as if he himself had made the payment , or given the Satisfaction . And this is the very Nature & End of this Imputation ; not that the person , to whom the Imputation is made , should be accounted one , who had that before the Imputation was made ; but that the thing Imputed may become his , to whom it is imputed , and he thereupon be dealt with , as now an owner & possessor of that thing by Imputatio● . Secondly , he saith , When a thing is said simply to be imputed , as sin , folly or righteousness , the meaning is not to be taken concerning the bare acts of things ; as if to impute sin signified to repute the man to have committed a sinful act , but to charge the guilt or demerite of sin upon his head , of purpose to punish him for it . Ans. This is true of such things , as are either really or falsly by injustice supposed to be in the person , before that imputation be made . But notwithstanding hereof , there is , as we have seen , & as all acts of Suretiship do further cleare , an imputation of what was not the persons before , whereby the thing it self , that is imputed , is legally made over unto them , & reckoned upon their score , & thereupon they are dealt with , as being now possessed of that , which is imputed ; as when a person voluntarily becometh Surety for another , as Paul for Onesimus , Iudah for Benjamin ; first the debt it self is made their & reckoned upon their score , & then they willingly undergo the consequences thereof , that is , the payment or punishment . Thridly pag. 198. he cometh home to the point , saying . The expressions ( i.e. of Christ's Righteousness & of Adam's sin ) are unknown to the Holy Gost in Scripture . Ans. This is but the old exception of Bellarmin de Iustif. lib. 2. chap. 7. & of the Socinians ; See Volkel do Vera Relig. lib. 5. pag. 564 , 565. who , upon this same ground , reject several other fundamental points , as the Trinity & others . But we have already shown Scripture-proof enough of this matter ; & himself in the following words granteth , that there are expressions in Scripture , concerning both the Communication of Adam's sin , & of Christ's Righteousness , that will fairly enough bear the terme of Imputation . So that all the difference betwixt him & us is about the sense of the word . Now , we come to the matter . He speaketh to Rom. 5 ▪ 19 , giving this for the only meaning thereof , that the demerite or guilt of Adam's sin , is charged on his posterity , or that the punishment ran over from his person to them , i a maine part of which punishment lyeth in that original defilement , wherein they are all conceived & borne , & whereby they are made truely and formally sinners before God. Ans. But , if that sin of Adam be imputed , in its curse & punishment , the sin it self must be imputed , as to its guilt ; else we must say , that God curseth & punisheth the posterity , that is no wayes guilty , which to do suiteth not the justice of God , the righteous Governour of the world . We do not say , ( as he supposeth , when he setteth down our sense of the words ) that that sinful act of eating the forbidden fruit , in the letter & formality of it ( an expression that on all occasions he useth , & whose sense , is not obvious , but needeth explication , & is excogitated meerly to darken the matter ) & as it was Adam's own personal sin , is imputed to the posterity : but it is enough for us , to say , with the Scripture , that by Adam's disobedience , his posterity became guilty ; & that all sinned in him ; & therefore death passed on all , & that guilt was by that one sin to condemnation Rom. 5 : 12 , 15 , 16 , 18 , 19. & so that the posterity sinned legally & originally , though not formally , because not existing in Adam actually , but legally & originally ; & became thereby obnoxious to the punishment threatned , that is , death both in body & Soul , here & hereafter : Whence it is manifest , that punishment being relative to sin , such as are punished because of sin , must be sinners , & judged to be sinners & so guilty , before they be punished for sin , Adam being the Head & Root of Mankind , & God entering into Covenant with him , as such , & therefore with all his posterity in him , when he broke the Covenant & transgressed , all Mankind descending from him by ordinary generation , being comprehended with him in the Covenant , became actually partakers of that guilt , so soon as they did partake of Nature actually ; & being really guilty when existing , they were justly punished . But if this guilt were not imputed to them , they could not be justly punished for it . On the contrary , he thinks they might be justly punished for that sin , though not guilty thereof : & he laboureth to establish this upon three pillars . 1. The demerite ( saith he ) & sinfulness of that sin which had so many aggravations , and in this regard , was beyond the sin of devils , that Adam had the estates of all his posterity in his hand , & knew , that if he sinned , he should draw all their souls after him into the same perdition . Ans. But if by Adam's having the estates of all his posterity in his hand , this truth be not included , that his sin should become their sin , & they should be looked upon as guilty thereof , & chargable therewith ; how could he know , that by his sin heshould draw the souls of all his posterity after him into the same condemnation ! And how could they be punished for that same guilt , if it was not some way theirs , by the just & righteous Judge & Governour of the world ? The posterity can no more be justly punished for the great & hainous sins of their progenitors , than for their lesser sinnes , if they have no interest in these sinnes , nor partake of the guilt thereof : But as to Original sin , the Scripture giveth the Sin , as the ground of the punishment , & maketh the one to reach all , as well as the other , telling us Rom. 5 : 12. that by one Man , sin ●ntered in to the world , & death by sin ; & so death passed upon all Men , for that all have sinned ; or , in whom all have sinned . See vers 19. 2. The Narrownese or scantisness of Adam's Person , who could not beat that fulness of punishment , which God might require for that great sin ; & we cannot think , that God should sit down with loss . Ans. This is his second pillar . But neither is it sufficient ; for God could have punished Adam condingly for his sin : but when the posterity is punished for that sin also , that sin must be theirs . Though for great crimes , as Treason & the like , the Posterity suffe●eth , when the guilty is forfeited I yet the posterity are not properly punished for that sin ; nor can be said to be so ; as we are punished for Original sin , because it is ours , & we sinned in Adam . 3. His 3d. & maine pillar is , the peculir & near relation of the posterity of Adam to his person ; for then they were in it , & , as it were , a part , or some what of it ; so that Adam was us all , & we were all that one Adam , as Augustine speaketh ; & the whole generation of mankind is but Adam , or Adam's person , expounded at large . Ans. This is sufficient for us ; for it will hold forth the Covenant relation , wherein Adam stood , as representing all his posterity ; & so they were as well in him , & a part of him , in his sin , as in his punishment : which is all we desire , for hence it appeareth , that all sinned in that one Adam , as well , as they were all punished in him . Then he tels us , that all these three are jointly intimat R●● . 5 : 12. Where first there is the demerito , Imported , when death is said to enter ; & the scantiness of Adam's person , when it is said , to have passed upon all men ; & the relation of his posterity to him , in that all are said to have sinned in him . Ans. But the maine thing , which he denieth , is there also imported , when it is said , that all men sinned in him , or became guilty of his sin : for thereby it is manifest , that only they had an interest in his person , but that they had such an Interest in & relation to his person , as so stated , & as standing in a Covenant-relation to God , that they sinned in him , or became guilty of his sin , & therefore suffered with him the demerite thereof . Whence it is evident ( howbeit he seemeth confident of the contrary pag. 207. ) That the Imputation of Adam's sin , or of his sinful Act as sinful , or as it was a sin ; & not of the act as such ( for that himself faith once & againe , was directly & efficiently from God himself , & therefore was good ) is the ground , or cause of punishment , that cometh on his posterity . But he saith pag. 208. If any Imputation be in this case , it is of every mans own sin , in Adam ; for is was Adam alone that sinned , but all sinned in him : It is not said , that Adam's sin is Imputed to his posterity ; but rather that his posterity themselves sinned in Adam . Ans. If he wil stand to this , we need not contend with him , about the word , Impute ; this expression of Scripture comprehending & plainely holding forth all that we would say . And if he will grant as much , in reference to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , as is here said of Adam , who was the type of him that was to come , he must , I judge , retract all that he hath said , against the same . What followeth in that Chapter , being but founded upon what is already mentioned & examined , needeth not here againe be repeated or expressed , & considered . Thus we have taken notice of all , which this voluminous Adversary hath said , upon this matter , both against the Truth , & for his own Errour : & no doubt , he hath scraped together all that he could finde , giving any , seeming contribution unto the Notion , which he hugged ; & hath laboured after his usual manner , to set of with a more than ordinary measure of confidence , & with an affected pedantrie of language , supplying , with bombast expressions , the want of reality of truth & solidity of reasoning . What remaineth in that book , concerning the Imputation of faith , in opposition to the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ shall be examined , when we come to the second part of our Text , & to speak of the matter of justification . And as for other things , we may take notice of them elsewhere . CHAP. XIII . M. Baxter's opinion , Concerning Imputation , examined . THere being so frequent mention made , in Scripture , of Imputation of Righteousness ; or of Righteousness Imputed ; & of Christ's being our Righteousness ; or of our being Righteousness , or Righteous in Him , & the like , many , that even plead much against the Doctrine of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , maintained by the orthodox , must yet yeeld to it , in some sense or other ; at least in such a sense , as may , in their apprehensions , not cross their other Hypotheses & Dogmes : Yea & sometimes grant this Imputation in that sense , at least in words , which overthroweth or weakeneth all their Disputations to the contrary . Schlightingius , in defence of Socinus against Meisnerus pag. 250. will grant , That Christ's Righteousness may be called & accounted ours , in so far , as it redoundeth to our good & righteousness , & is the cause of our justification . And Bellarmin , will also say ( de just . lib. 2. cap. 10. ) That Christ is said to be our Righteousness , because He satisfied the father for us ; & so giveth & communicateth that Satisfaction to us , when He justifieth us , that it may be said to be our Satisfaction & Righteousness . Mr. Baxter , though he seemeth not satisfied with what is commonly hold by the Orthodox , anent the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ ; yet will not professe himself an Enemie to all Imputation ; but on the contrary , saith , he owneth it in a right sense : And it is true , men have their own liberty , in expressing their sense & meaning of Truths ; & where there seemeth to be some considerable difference , as to words & expressions ; yet there may be little , or none upon the matter . And it is not good , I confess , to make real differences of these , that are but verbal ; nor is it good to be so tenacious of our own expressions , as to exaggerat the expressions of others , whose meaning may be good , because not complying with our own , in all points , Let us therefore enquire after Mr. Baxter's sense , & see wherein he really differeth from us , in this matter . In his late Treatise of justifying Righteousness against D. Tully . The first part ( as the Title page sheweth ) is of Imputed Righteousness , opening & defending the true Sense , & confuting the false . Here then belike we shall finde his meaning , as to this question . In his preface to this book , he giveth us his sense , in these words , That Righteousness is imputed to us , that is , we are accounted Righteous , because for the merites of Christ's total fulfulling the conditions of his Mediatorial Covenant with the Father , by His Habitual Holiness , His Actual perfect Obedience , & His Sacrifice , or Sati●factory Suffering for our sins , in our stead , freely without any merite , or conditional act of mans , God hath made an act of oblivion & Deed of Gift , pardoning all sin , justifying & Adopting & giving Right to the Spirit & Life eternally to every one , that beleevingh accepteth Christ , & the gifts with , & by , & from Him ; & when we accept them , they are all ours by vertue of this purchased Covenant-gift . But this , I Judge , cannot give satisfaction , for upon the grant of the Act of Oblivion , ( as he calleth it ) which , in his judgment , is extended to all Mankind , no man in particular can be called or accounted Righteous , or have Righteousness imputed to him , more than another ; & so upon this account , all are equally Righteous , & have equally Christ's Righteousness imputed to them , that is , no man hath it . As for these Effects , pardon , justification , Adoption , & Right to the Spirit & to Life , they cannot be called the Righteousness of Christ ; no more than the Effect can be called the cause : And though they become ours , when we accept them , or rather when we accept of Christ ; yet upon that account meerly , it can not be said , that the Righteousness of Christ is imputed to us , & no otherwayes : for that is nothing but the Socinian Concession formerly mentioned , & it cannot Satisfie the orthodox . The questin is about the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , & the Answer given is concerning the Effects thereof given to us ; But these Effects are not the Righteousness of Christ ; nor are they to be called a Righteousness ; nor are they in Scripture so called , unless we say with Ioh. Goodwin , that Righteousness Imputed is nothing but free justification . Yea these Effects must presuppose a Righteousness in the persons receiving them , either Inherently , or by way of Impu●ation : for God will justifie no man , or declare no man to be Righteous , who is not Righteous : And concerning this Righteousness is our question : And Mr. Baxter giveth us nothing here for this , unless it be our beleeving : & this is that which Servetus , Socinians & Arminians say . In opposition to this , which he calleth a short & plaine explication of Christianity , he setteth down what others say , as necessary to go in to our Christianity ; & so tels us , that according to them , we must say , That Christ was habitually & actually perfectly Holy & obedient , imputatively in our particular persons ; & thath each one of us did perfectly fulfill that Law , which requireth perfect habites & act : in and by Christ imputatively ; and yet did also in & by him suffer ourselves imputatively for not fulfilling it , & imputatively did ourselves both satisfie God's justice , and merite heaven ; and that we have ourselves imputatively a Righteousness of Perfect holiness & obedience , as sinless ; & must be justified by the Law of Innocency , or works , as having ourselves imputatively fulfilled it in Christ. And that this is our sole-righteousness : & that faith it self is not imputed to us for Righteousness , no not a meer particular subordinat Righteousness , answering the conditional part of the new justifying Covenant , as necessary to our participation of Christ , & His freely given Righteousness . As touching the latter part of this discourse , about the Imputation of Faith , & its being called our particular subordinat Righteousness , it is true , Several of the Orthodox have appeared against it , & we shall also speak our judgment of it hereafter . But as to the former part ( which is only pertinent to our purpose now in hand ) I know not , if ever any Orthodox person uttered his minde , after this manner : Yea , I wote not , if Antinomians themselves have at any time expressed themselves , in all points , as is here set down . But be it so , that they have thus expressed their meaning , & that these expressions , here set down , are not meer Consequences & Inferences , drawn by Mr. Baxter himself , from their opinions & assertions : yet Mr. Baxter cannot but know , that the Orthodox are against them , in these assertions , as well as he : & to me it appeareth no faire , to set down these words , as containing that opinion , which all must hold , who cannot fully embrace Mr. Baxter's owne judgment ; as if there were no Medium betwixt the Socinian or Arminian judgment , on the one hand , & the Antinomian opinion on the other hand ; whileas he cannot but know the contrary . Nether is this a ●●t & sure way to cleare up the true sense of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , at least , that sense , which we owne . In the Book pag. 24. he againe setteth down his own judgment , or sense of Imputation , which he taketh to be the true healing middle way ; Part whereof is as followeth . That as Christ suffered in our stead , that we might not suffer , and obeyed in our Nature , that perfection of obedience might not be necessary to our justification ; and this in the person of a Mediator and Sponsor , for us sinners ; but not so in our persons , as that we truely , in a moral or civil sence , did all this in and by him : Even so God reputeth the thing to be , as it is , and so far Imputeth Christ's Righteousness and Merites and Satisfaction to us , as that it is reputed by Him the true Meritorious Cause of our justification ; & that for it God maketh a Covenant of Grace , in which he freely giveth Christ , pardon and life to all that accept the gift , as it is ; so that the Accepters are by this Covenant and Gift , as surely justified and Saved by Christ's Righteousness , as if they had obeyed and satisfied themselves . Not that Christ meriteth , that we shall have grace to fulfill the Law ourselves , and stand before God in a Righteousness of our own , which will answere the Law of works , and justify us ; but that the Conditions of the Gíft , in the Covenant of Grace , being performed by every penitent Beleever , that Covenant doth pardon all their sins ( as God's Instrument ) and giveth them a Right to life eternal for Christ's merites . As to this though it may seem faire & a far advancement : yet I shall crave leave to say these few things against it . 1. When he saith , That Christ suffered in our stead , I would know , in whose stead it was ? Whether it was in the stead of some select persons , or in stead of all ? If in the stead of some select persons only , then these select persons , must have another Interest , in the death of Christ , than all others ; & it being done in their stead , must needs be accepted in their behalfe , as it was undergone for them , & in their stead & place : & if it be accepted in their behalfe , they must necessarily be freed from Suffering , after God's Methode ; & that upon the account of Christ's Suffering in their stead ; and if so , must not that Suffering of Christ , in a Law-sense , be accounted theirs , and imputed unto them , & they as really & effectually freed from what they were under , and obnoxious to , & made partakers of was purchased thereby , as if they had suffered all that , in their own persons ? If it be in stead of all , then all must , upon the account of it , be delivered from Suffering , which cannot be said ; or not one shall be delivered from Suffering , meerly upon the account of it , but upon the account of some other thing Interveening , which he calleth , in the following words , the New Covenant , & the performance of the Conditions thereof : And if so , all Christ's Sufferings in our stead , will be but a Suffering for our good , as say the Socinians . 2. When he saith , That we might not suffer , is that meaned eventually viz. That none of us should ever be put to suffer the penalty ? or is it only meaned potentially , that is , that it might be possible , that we should not suffer ? If the former be said , then either all of us shall be saved , or the us must be restricked to the Elect. If the Latter be said , then this dying in our stead , is really but a dying for our good , which the Socinians grant . 3. When he saith , & obeyed in our Nature , this , in our Nature , must either be the some with in our stead , which he mentioned before ; or some thing different , if the same , then it seemes , when he said , Christ suffered in our stead , his meaning only was , that Christ suffered in our Nature . And will not all Socinians grant , that Christ Suffered thus in our stead , that is , in our Nature ? If different , I would know , why he putteth such a difference betwixt Christ's Suffering and His obeying , seing both belonged to that Law ( as he speaketh in the foregoing words ) which was His Covenant Conditions ; and both were Satisfactory and Meritorious , though the one more primarily Satisfactory , & the other more primarily meritorious ? 4. When he saith , That Christ obeyed in our Nature , that perfection of obedience might not be necessary to our justification , I would ask , if this end did , or could flow from , or follow upon Christ's Obedience , meerly because it was performed in our Nature ? Had we no other Interest , or ground of Interest in it , or in Him , but that it was performed in our Nature ? or did all the Benefite & Advantage , that we received , or are to receive thereby , flow from it meerly upon this account , that it was performed in our Nature ? 5. As to this end of Christ's obeying viz. that perfection of obedience might not be necessary to our justification , I suppose his meaning is , that this perfection of obedience might not be required of us , in order to justification : but yet he doth not say ( as he should ) that this was our debt ; and that Christ paid this perfect obedience as our debt , in order to life : for if he shall say this , then it will follow , that this payment must , in Law-sense , be imputed to those , for whom it was paid . How ever these words do plainely insinuat , that howbeit Christ obeyed in our Nature : that perfection of obedience might not be necessary to our justification ; yet notwithstanding an Imperfect Obedience might be accounted necessary to our justification ; and thus the New Covenant be supposed to be of the same kind and Spece with the old ; and Christ be supposed to have obeyed , only that the termes of the Old Covenant might be abated , as to the rigour of perfection of obedience required . 6. That Christ Obeyed and Suffered in the person of a Mediator & Sponsor , ( as he saith ) that is , that person God-Man , who was Mediator and Sponsor , did obey & suffer , is very true ; but notwithstanding hereof , yea so much the rather , he obeyed and suffered , as a Publick Person , that is , for others , and not for Himself personally considered . And therefore those , for whom He thus Obeyed and Suffered , must , in a just and consequent sense , be accounted as Obeying & Suffering in Him , that is , there was such a Relation betwixt this Mediator , or Surety , and those , for whom He was a Mediator and Surety ( in the purpose & designe of God appointing Christ hereunto , & in the purpose & designe of Christ undertaking , and actually performing what He undertook ) as gave them fundamentally another Interest in His Obedience & Suffering , then others had , or could have , to & for whom He was no Mediator & Sponsor . 7. Whence Christ may be said to have Obeyed and Suffered legally , in the person of , and as representing others ; that is , in the construction of the Law & Law-giver , not for Himself , but for others , in whose Law-place He did substitute Himself , undertaking their debt , in order to their Redemption . And though Beleevers , who now come to have an actual Interest in Christ , cannot be said to have done all this in and by Him , that is , as by their delegat and Servant ( as Mr. Baxter else where expresseth it ) yet they may be said to have done it in and by Him , Civilly , juridically or legally , as the debtor is by Law said to have Satisfied the Creditor , in and by the Surety , who yet physically paid the debt by himself only , but legally in the person of the debtor , the debtor and Surety being in Law-consideration , but as one person , in so far as , they concurre in , and are both obliged by , one and the same Obligation ; just as the heir succeding in jus defuncti , is eatenus repute & said to be una & eadem persona with him ; whence it is evident , that one payment made by either must be accounted as made by both , and doth in effect dissolve the whole obligation ; and the consequently the debtor is as effectually & justly absolved from all charge or danger of Law , upon the account of that debt , as if he had paid the money out of his own purse . But whether the terme of Morally , or Civilly , or Legally , or the like , be most apposite , is of no great weight to occasione a debate , especially seing the thing it self is so well known to all , who know what it is to have a friend paying their debt , or Satisfying the Creditor for them , and in their behalfe ; and thereupon bringing them out of prison . Though I know , the case of pecuniary debts doth not in all things quadrate with our case ; yet it is sufficient to explicat what we are now upon . 8. We grant , That God reputeth the thing to be , as it is ; and therefore it is very true , that God reputeth Christ to have obeyed and suffered , as being in the Law-place of others , and as making Satisfaction for them ; and them , for whom He satisfied , to be in another manner in Him , than any others whatever . 9. He addeth , & so far imputeth Christ's Righteousness , as that it is reputed by Him , the true Meritorious cause of our justification . But it was reputed and estimate so to be , before this Imputation ; for it was accepted as such : therefore Imputation must denote something more , than this Reputation , even a reckoning of it ( as it were ) now upon their Scoce , and accounting it theirs , or them to have a full , special and actual Interest therein , in order to their justification and absolution from the charge of guilt and death brought in against them , whereby they are accounted and reckoned to be Righteous , because of that Imputation , & therefor pronounced such in justification : so that now it is the objectum formal● , or the ratio formales objectiva of our justification . 10. When he addeth & that for it God maketh a Covenant of Grace , if those words mean , that in this also Christ's Righteousness is said to be imputed , then , it seemeth , it is equally imputed unto all Adam's poste●ity : for with him , all are comprehended within this Covenant . But this were as much as to say , it is imputed to none in particular . Moreover , it may be thought that this is explicative of what went immediatly before : & so Christ's righteousness shall be repute the true Meritorius Cause of our justification , in that it was the Meritorious cause of the Covenant of Grace : now hereby the immediat ground of justification will be the Gospel-righteousness , he speaketh of , that is our performance of the conditions of the New Covenant of Grace ; & Christ's Merites , Satisfaction & Righteousness shall be only a remote ground . But we shall show hereafter , how groundless it to say . That Christ procured the New Covenant by His Merites & Satisfaction . 11. He saith , in which ( i.e. Covenant of Grace ) He freely giveth Christ , pardon & Life , to all that accept the gift , as it is . That all these are hold-forth in the Covenant , & that such as receive Christ , receive pardon and Life , is true . But what is that , to accept the gift , as it is ? & what is meaned by this gift ? 12. He addeth , so that the accepters are by this Covenant & Gift as surely justified and saved by Christ's Righteousness , as if they had obeyed & Satisfied themselves . But this is not by vertue of any immediat of that Righteousness unto them , whereby they are looked upon as Righteous in the sight of God ; but by vertue of faith , whereby the gift is accepted , that is offered in the Covenant , which faith is indeed immediatly imputed to them according to him , & reputed their Gospel-righteousness , & they thereupon are reputed Righteous , & so justified , as such : for the Righteousness of Christ is only imputed , in that it is reputed the meritorious cause of the New Covenant . 13. Though Christ hath not merited , that we shall have grace to fulfill the Law ourselves &c. Yet he will say , that Christ hath merited , that faith shall be the Condition of the New Covenant , & consequently , that we may stand before God , even as the great Law giver , & so before His Law also , in that Gospel-righteousness ( as he calleth it ) of our own , which will justifie us . 14. In end , when he saith , the Covenant of grace doth pardon & give right to Life for Christ's Merites , I suppose ( because of what is already observed ) it is only upon the account that Christ's Me●ites have purchased this Covenant ; & not because they become our Immediat Righteousness , whereupon we are justified & have pardon : & he should rather say , conforme to what went before , that this Covenant doth Pardon & give Right to Life , for faith , our Gospel-righteousness , the condition thereof . These are my Exceptions against this supposed healing middle way ; & the grounds why I cannot acquiesce therein , as the right way . He tels us againe pag. 45. Note 3. That it is ordinarily agreed by Protestants , that Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us , in the same sence , as our sins are said to be imputed to Him. And to this I also heartily acquiesce ; & hence inferie . That as Christ was made sin by that Imputation , so we are made righteous by vertue of this Imputation : as our sins were laid on Him ( as the sins of the people were laid on the scape goat , the type ) so His Righteousness is put on us , as He came in our Law-place , so we come in His : As our sins imputed to Him were the immediat procuring cause of His stripes & punishment or suffering ; so His Righteousness imputed to us is the Immediat procuring cause of our justification &c. As Christ was repute legally or juridically , though not inherently , a sinner , because of this Imputation of our sins to Him , & therefore dealt with , punished & chastened , as if He had been a real sinner , because He stood in our Law-place ; to His Righteousness being imputed to us , we are repute legally & juridically , though not inherently ; Righteous , & thereupon are dealt with , justified & accepted &c. as if we had been really Righreous , because now standing in His Law-place . So that if Mr. Baxter will stand to this , that ordinarily protestants agree unto , I am fully Satisfied : & had he done so from the beginning , many of his discourses would have been forborne : And whether he , or others who owne what protestants agree unto , be to be reckoned among the self conceited wranglers , as he speaketh in the following page , indifferent men may judge : & I conceive , if he would yet stand to this , he should alter that , which he gave us , in the fore-mentioned words , as the only healing middle way ; For that middle way ( as he calleth it ) giveth us a far other sheme , than can be drawn out of this , wherein protestants are commonly agreed as is obvious . He tels us Chap. 2. ( where he cometh to state the question ) pag. 51. that we must distinguish of Imputation , & giveth us six senses thereof ; five whereof are such , as I know not , if even Antinomians did owne them . They are these . 1. To repute us personally to have been the Agents of Christ't Acts , the Subjects of His Habites & passion , in a physical sense . I know not , who in their wits would affirme this : & to me , it is not a fit way to end , or clear controversies , to raise so much dust needlesly , & imagine senses out of our owne heads , as if they were owned & maintained by some , what is the 2 ? Or to repute the same formal relation of Righteousness , which was in Christ's Person , to be in ours , as the Subject . But this is only a consequent of the foregoing 3. ( saith he ) or to repute us to have been the very Subjects of Christ's Habites & passion , & the Agents of His Acts , in a Political , or Moral sence ( & not a physical ) as a man payeth a , debt by a Servant , or attornay , ordelegate . If this be the only meaning of his Political & Moral sense , I suppose no man will owne it either : for no man will say , That Christ was our Servant , Attornay , or Delegate . The 4. is but a consequent of this ; and consequently , ( saith he ) to repute a double formal Righteousness to result from the said habites , acts & passions , one to Christ , as the Natural Subject & Agent ; & another to us , as the Moral , Political or reputed Subject & agent ( & so His formal Righteousnese not to be imputed to us in it self , as ours , but another to result from the same matter . This is too Philosophical for me to owne , or follow . The 5 , is , or else that we are reputed both the agents & Subjects of the matter of His Righteousness , morally , & also of the formal Righteousness of Christ himself . All these are but the effuvia of a braine floteing & swimeing in ill digested Philosophical Notions & School dregs , & contribute nothing to the clearing of Gospel-Truth , which hath little or rather no affinity with aery Philosophical Notions , but tende manifestly to the darkening of the same . But now , when all these Philosophical Notions & Relations are at an end , & we can proceed no further , where is that Imputation , which is legal , & plaine to every ordinary Man viz whereby the Satisfaction made to a judge & Governour for a crime committed , by the delinquen'ts friend ; or that payment & Satisfaction made to the creditor , for the debtor , by a friend Interposing , is in Law-sense accounted the delinquent's & debtor's ; & he as really & effectually delivevered out of prison therefore , as if he had made Satisfaction in his own proper person , or had paid the summe out if his own Substance ? If any Philosopher , after Mr. Baxter's manner here , should , with such Philosophical Whimseyes , ( I call them so , for they are no other in this case ) laboure to disprove any such Imputation , & say , it must be in one of those five senses &c. would not any countrey man smille at this ▪ But now let us see Mr. Baxter's sixt sense , wherein he granteth the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness . Or else ( saith he ) by Imputation is meant here , that Christ being truely reputed to have taken on the Nature of sinful Man , & become an Head for all true Beleevers , in that undertaken Nature & office , in the person of a Mediator , to have fulfilled all the Law imposed upon him , by perfect Holiness & obedience , & offering himself on the cross a sacrifice for our sins , voluntarily suffering in our stead , as if He had been a sinner ( guilty of all our sins ) as soon as we beleeve , we are pardoned , Iustified , Adopted , for the sake & Merites of this Holiness , obedience & Penal Satisfaction of Christ with as full demonstration of divine Iustice , at least , & more full Demonstration of His wisdom & Mercy , than if we had suffered our selves what our sinnes deserved ( that is , been damned ) or had never sinned . And so Righteousness is imputed to us , that is , we are accounted or reputed Righteous ( not in relation to the Precept , that is , innocent or sinless , but in relation to the Retribution , that is , such as have right to impunity & Life ) because Christ's foresaid perfect Holiness , Obedience & Satisfaction , meritedour pardon & Adoption and the Spirit ; or merited the New Covenant , by which , as an Instrument , Pardon , justification & Adoption are given to Beleevers , and the Spirit to be given to Sanctifie them ; and when we beleeve , we are justly reputed such , as have right to all these purchased gifts . As to this I shall only note a few things ( 1. ) Christ's fulfilling of the Law imposed on Him , doth not hinder , but that He paid our debt , & so came in our Law-place , & substitute Himself in our room , to do what we should have done & to suffer what we should have suffered according to the Law , in all the essentials & Substantials of that punishment : for had He not done this , He could not be said to have suffered in our stead : for he only suffereth in the room & stead of another , who suffereth what that other should have suffered . If one be condemned to suffer death , another that suffereth only Imprisonment for his delivery , cannot be said to suffer in this stead , but onely for his cause & good , as the Socinians say , Christ suffered for us . ( 2. ) Christ not only suffered in our stead , as if he had been a sinner & guilty , but as sinner legally & juridically guilty , having sins imputed to Him , though He was most free of all sin inherently , and knew it not : & the reason is manifest ; for otherwayes Divine justice should not have shined forth in His sufferings , it being no Demonstration of justice to punish one , who neither inherently , nor Imputatively & legally , is or can be accounted & reputed a sinner . ( 3. ) Wee cannot , with right , be reputed Righteous , except we be either inherently righteous , or righteous by Imputation ; & so legally , juridically , & in Law-sense righteous , by vertue of the Imputation of the Surety-righteousness of Christ , our Sponsor . ( 4. ) Righteousness must properly respect the Commands & Prohibitions of the Law , & but secondarily the Retribution , if not most Improperly ; as unrighteousness is in reference to the Law , as commanding or forbidding , & very improperly attributed to any in reference to the punishment threatned . And therefore , if we be accounted Righteousness , it must be in relation to the precept , at least , in the first place : Nor can we be accounted Righteous , in reference to the Retribution , that is , have a Right to Impunity & life , in the sight of God , who judgeth & reputeth according to equity & right , unless we be first accounted Righteous , in reference to the precept ; for this is the only just & legal foundation of the other . ( 5. ) Upon this it doth not follow that we are Innocent or sinless inherently , far less , that we never transgressed ; but on the contrary , it clearly saith , that we were sinners ; but now are legally , or juridically innocent & sinless by the Imputation of the side jussorie Righteousness of Christ ; & therefore are not obnoxious to the penalty , or to punishment ; but have right to Impunity & life . ( 6. ) When he speaketh of what Christ merited , he expresseth himself dubiously , not being positively clear , whether Christ merited our pardon &c. or the New Covenant : & the disjunctive particle Or , saith He did not merite both , in his judgment : but before , we heard him plainly affirming , that Christ merited the New Covenant , & consequently He did not purchase pardon , Adoption & the Spirit to any immediatly , but only mediatly , in purchasing the Covenant , which promiseth these to such , as performe the Conditions thereof . ( 7. ) By this way , Beleevers are repute such , as have right to all these purchased gifts , not immediatly by vertue of Christ's Merites & righteousness , imputed to them & bestowed upon them , but by vertue of their being inherently Righteous with that Gospel-righteousness , faith , which is the potestative Condition of the Covenant , & is now imputed to them , & accounted their Righteousness , according to his judgment . Speaking afterward pag. 55. of Christ , as an Head & Root , he tels us , that He was no Natural Root or Head ; which is undeniable ; Yet He was a Super-Natural & Political Head. But he saith , He was not actually such an Head to the Redeemed , when He obeyed and suffered ; but as an Head by Aptitude , office , power & Vertue . Ans. It is true , as to such , as were not then Beleevers , He was not a Supernatural Head actually , that is , by communicating actually Physical and supernatural influences of Spiritual life : Yet He was , as to all given to Him , actually a Political Head , or an Head in a Political sense , that is , by God's Appointment , and His own voluntary undertaking , He obeyed & Suffered for them , & in their stead ; paying their debt answering for all that the justice & the Law did require of them , and so purchasing all Grace & Glory for them , to be certainely bestowed in due time . In this respect , that must be denied , which he addeth ( n. 12. ) Therefore they were not Christ's members Political , when He obeyed & dyed : for they may as well be said , to have been then His members Political , as some , not yet within the sold , but that were to be brought in , & were to hear His voice , were by Himself called His sheep Ioh. 10 : 16. Whence , I pray , come the I●fluences , whereby they are made to beleeve , if not from Him , as their Political-head , or Surety-head , standing ingaged for them ? But possibly the ambiguous use of the word Political may occasione his mistake here . A Natural Head ( saith he n. 14. ) being but a part of a person , what it doth , the Person doth . But seing a contracted Head and all the members of his Body contracted , or Politick , are every one a distinct person , it followeth not , that each person did really , or reputatively what the head did . Nay , it is a good consequence , that if he did it , as an head , they did it not ( numerically ) as head or members . Ans. Passing the Impropriety of the expression contracted head , whereby , it is like , he meanes a Conventional Head. I say , Though a Conventional Head and all the members of that Body , be every one a distinct person Physically ; Yet considered as such , they are all but one person Politically & in Law-sense : & so in Law-sense & Politically ( as all lawyers know , & even Men of Common sense can acknowbedge ) every distinct Physical person is supposed to have done what their Political Head & Representative hath done , as such . And though it be a good consequence , that if the Head did it , as an Head , they in their in their Physical persons did it not : Yet it were a ridiculous Consequence , to say , They therefore , as Political Members of that Political conventional body , did it not viz Politically ( not Physically , or numerically . Christ ( saith he n. 15. ) suffered & obeyed in the Person of the Mediator , between God & Man , & as a subject to the Law of Mediation . Ans. Though He suffered in the Physical Person of the Mediator ; Yet because Suffering & obeying as a Mediator & Surety . He Suffered & obeyed , as a Political Head , & in a Political person . ( 2. ) Though He was Subject to the Law of Mediation ; Yet by vertue of that same Law of Mediation , He was subject to the Law , under which we were , both as to its Duty & Penalty : for Suffering & obeying , as a Mediator & Surety , He , in Suffering & obeying , did pay out debt , for He came into our Law-place . Christ may be said ( saith he n. 16. ) to suffer , in the person of a sinner , as it meaneth His own person , reputed & used as a sinner , by His persecutors ; & as He was one , who stood before God , as Undertaker , to suffer for mans sins . Ans. Seing He was one , who stood before God , as an Undertaker for sinners ; & not only to suffer for mans sin , did he not suffer as a sinner ( not inherently , but ) legally & juridically ? and did He not represent and stand in the room of sinners , as their Political Head & Representative ? These things can not be handsomly , with any shew of reason , contradicted , or denied . Nay , himself addeth ( n. 17. pag. 56. ) that Christ suffered in the place & stead of sinners , that they might be d●livered , though in the Person a Sponsor . Whence we see , that though He suffered in the person of a Sponsor . Physically taken ; Yet He suffered in the person of others , Politically & legally , because He suffered as a Sponsor , in their stead , that they might certainely & eventually be delivered , & not possibly only . But then ( n. 18. ) he cometh to an Accomodation , saying , When we are agreed that the person of the Sponsor & of every particular sinner are diverse ( if the word Person be here understood in a Physical , or Numerical sense , & the word sinners be understood of the Elect only , I agree ) and that Christ had not suffered , if we had not sinned : ( true ) & that he as a Sponser , suffered in our stead , & so bore the punishment ; which not He , but we deserved ( adde also , & obeyed , & I agree : If any will here , in stead of a Mediator , or Sponsor , call Him our Representative , & say , that He suffered even in all our persons reputatively , not simpliciter , but secundum quid , & in tantum only , that is , not representing our persons simply & in all respects , & to all ends , but only so far as to be a Sacrifice for our sins , and suffer in our place and stead , what He suffered , we take this to be but lis de nomine . And why is not His obeying also added ? But againe , if He suffered , as a Mediator & Sponsor , in our place & stead , He must needs have been our Political-Representative , according as we use to speak and understand these termes ; & so must have suffered in all our persons reputatively , so far as was necessary to our Redemption & Salvation , & for more we enquire not . And seing this is what the orthodox assert , Mr. Baxter is much to be blamed , for troubling the church so long by his opposition hereunto , & his own new Notions . He proceedeth ( n. 19. ) Christ did not suffer , strictly , simply , absolutly , in the person of any one Elect sinner , much less in the millions of Persons of them all in Law-sense , or in God's esteem ; God did not esteem Christ to be , Naturally , or as an absolute Representer , david , Manasseh , Paul , & every such other sinner , but only a Mediator , that suffered in their stead . Ans. Till we understand what is meant by these termes , Strickly , Simply & Absolutly , we cannot know well what to say to this . We grant , He suffered in the person of no Elect sinner , so as to become David , Manasseh &c. Yet , when He suffered in their stead , as Mediator & Surety , both in Law-sense , & in God's esteem , He did represent them ; & did & suffered what He did & suffered , as a Surety for them , & as representing their Persons , in a Law-sense & Politically , simply & absolutely , to all ends necessary for their Redemption & Salvation . He addeth ( n. 20. ) God did make Christ to be sin for us , that is , a Sacrifice for our sins , & one that by man was reputed , & by God & Man was used , as sinners are & deserve to be . Ans. Christ could not be made a Sacrific for sin , till He had the guilt of sin laid upon Him by Imputation , as the Sacrifices of old had typically . His being reputed such , & handled as such by man , is of no consideration here : And by God He could not be used , as a sinner , or as sinners are & deserve to be , unless our sins had been first caused to meet upon Him , & imputed to Him , to the end , He might properly be said to Suffer & become a Sacrifice for sin . We say with him ( n. 23. ) that God did not suppose or repute Christ to have committed all , or any of the sins , which we all committed ; Nor to have had all the wickedness in His Nature which was in ours ; nor to have deserved what we did deserve ; nor did in this proper sense impute our sins to Christ. For indeed this had not been in a prope sense , to impute our sins to Him , but plainly to confound His Physical person with ours ; & to speak thus , I should account to be horrid blasphemy : Yet it may be & must be said , that Christ , being made sin for us , & made to suffer for sin , in the room of sinners , had their sins laid upon Him ; & so , was a sinner , not Inherently but legally by Imputation ; that is , had the guilt of our sins , in order to punishment , imputed to Him , & He put to suffer for that guilt , or because a sinner by Imputation . And when the Scripture saith , that God made Christ sin for us 2 Cor. 5 : 21. & Laid on Him the iniquity of us all , Esai . 55 : 6. It is as emphatick ( & to me more ) as to say , God did impute our sin to Christ , which he some-way excepteth against ( n. 23. pag. 57. ) He addeth ( n. 26. pag. 58. ) Though Christ suffered in our stead , and in a large sence , to certaine uses , and in some respects , as the Representer , or in the persons of Sinners : yet did He not so far represent their persons , in His habitual Holiness and actual obedience , ( no not in the obedience of His Suffering ) as He did in the Suffering it self . He obeyed not in the person of a sinner , much less of millions of sinners , which were to say , in the person of sinners , he never sinned . He suffered to save us from suffering ; but He obeyed not to save us from obeying , but to bring us to obedience : yet His perfection of obedience had this end , that perfect obedience might not be necessary in us to our justification and Salvation . Ans. Seing Christ was appointed Mediator & Sponsor to take on mans debt and come in his Law-place , what reason can be given , why He should not , as well be said to represent them , in the paying of the one part of that debt , as in the paying of the other ? We were under the Law and obliged to performe perfect obedience , in order to the obtaining of the reward promised ; and because of sin we were under the Curse . Now when the Surety come to pay our whole debt , He did as much , and as well represent us , in paying of and in performing obedience , as in Suffering . And why may we not say , that He obeyed in the juridical and Law person of a sinner , as well as that He suffered ? Though I should not use such improper and unusual expressions , as Mr. Baxter here doth ; yet I must tell him , That Christ's obeying in the person of a sinner , saith no more than that , He being the person representing sinners , His obeying was and is repute , in Law-sense , their obeying . He Suffered , it is true , to save us from suffering of the Curse of the Law ; But Mr. Baxter will not say , that He suffered to save us from all Suffering : He obeyed , it is true , to bring us to obedience , as He died also for that end , that we might haue the Sanctifying Spirit bestowed upon us : yet notwithstanding He obeyed to save us from obeying viz. after that manner , that we were obliged to obey under the old Covenant , that is to obey perfectly , or never enjoy the crown , and to obey for that end , that we might enjoy the crown , as the legal reward of and due debt for our labour . And seing Mr. Baxter granteth in the following words , that Christ's perfect obedience had this end , that perfect obedience might not be necessary in us to our justification ; why may he not say , that to certaine uses , and in some respects , Christ obeyed , to save us from obeying ? Or why will he not say , that He obeyed for us , that we , who could not obey of our selves , might be repute to have obeyed perfectly in Him ? This is all we desire . He saith next ( n. 27. ) It was not we our selves , who did perfectly obey , or were perfectly holy , or suffered for sin , in the person of Christ , or by Him : nor did me ( naturally , or morally ) merite our own Salvation by obeying in Christ : nor did we satisfie God's justice for our sins , nor purchase pardon or Salvation to ourselves , by our suffering in and by Christ. Ans. However , Christ doing all this for us , as our Sponsor and Surety , we are so taken-in in a Law-sense , that the same is imputed unto us , and we enjoy the fruits thereof , pardon and Salvation ; no less than if we had done and suffered all in our own physical persons . As to what he saith ( n. 29 , 30. ) it is nothing to the purpose ( and therefore I shall not set down his words ) for we are not here speaking of Relations and Accidents , physically , or metaphysicall rather considered , which cannot pass from one Subject to another : nor do we speak of Christ , while speaking of the Imputation of His Righteousness , physically considered , but politically & legally , as a Sponsor and Surety some way representing us . I assent to him , that the meaning of this Imputation is not , That we ourselves , in person , truely had the habites , which Christ had , and did all that Christ did , and suffered all that he suffered , as by an Instrument , or legal Representer of our persons , in all this , meaning that we in our physical persons should have done all this , by Him , as our physical Instrument . But why He addeth here , or legal Representer , unless he meane thereby that which elsewhere he hath expressed to be , as our delegat , or Servant , I know not . And however it seemeth not to me appositely here annexed , if ingenuous and plaine dealing be designed . But there is another sense , in which he will yeeld to Imputation , & he thinks there cannot be a third . Let us hear what this other sense is . That Christ's Satisfaction ( saith he ) Righteousness and the Habites , Acts & Sufferings , in which it lay , are imputed to us , & made ours , not rigidly in the very thing it self , but in the effects and benefites . Ans. But if he shall yeeld to no other Imputation , than this , he shall grant no Imputation : for that Imputation , as to effects , is no Imputation at all : unless the meritorious cause be imputed , in order to the receiving of these Effects , there is nothing imputed ; for they Effects are never said to be imputed . There is therefore a Third sense , wherein neither Christ's Righteousness , that is , His Habites , Acts & Sufferings are said to be physically translated , and put in us , or upon us ; nor are they said to be Imputed to us meerly in their Effects ; as Socinians say ; but wherein Christ's Surety-righteousness , consisting in His Obedience & Suffering , is in a Law-sense , made over to beleevers , & put upon their score , & now accounted theirs ; & they , because thereof , accounted Righteous , legally and juridically ; and have therefore the Effects bestowed on them . This being so obvious , I wonder that Mr. Baxter cannot see it . When a debtor is lying in prison , for debt , and a friend cometh & Satisfieth the creditor for him by paying the summe , in his place & stead ; the Law doth not impute that payment to the debtor meerly in the effects ; but imputeth the payment it self , not in its Physical acceptation , as if it judged that he was the man , that in his own Physical person , told the money with his own hands , & brought it out of his own purse , as the other did , but ) in its legal force , vertue , & efficary , unto him , & accounted him , in this Legal sense , to be no more a debter unto the creditor ; & therefore one that hath right to his liberty , & must therefore be set free from prison . So , in our case , the Righteousness of Christ , in a legal sense , as to its efficary & vertue , is made over to the Beleever , & he thereupon is accounted Righteous , and no more a debtor , and therefore free of the Penalty . Further , Although he say , that Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us in the Effects ; Yet he knoweth , that that is ( in his judgment ) but very remotely ; and that really these effects are more proximely the effects of Faith , which he calleth our Gospel-righteousness ; and that the Immediat effect and product of Christ's Righteousness is the New Covenant ; and this New Covenant being made with all Mankind ( as he thinketh ) Christ's Righteousnes is , in this immediat Effect , imputed to all flesh , Reprobat , as well as Elect. And this is , in part , cleared from the words Immediatly following , when he saith , In as much , as we are as really pardoned , justified , Adopted by them , as the Meritorious Cause by the Instrumentality of the Covenants Donation , as if we ourselves had done & suffered all that Christ did . For this Instrumentality of the Covenant includeth the performance of the Condition thereof , i. e. faith ; & this Faith is properly imputed for Righteousness , as he saith : And therefore , as the Covenant is the Effect of the merites of Christ ; so pardon and Salvation must be the Effects of Faith ; and the Effects of Christ's Righteousness only , in that he did procure the Covenant , which conveyeth these to us , upon Condition of our performing of this faith , which is therefore called , by him , our Gospel-Righteousness . He giveth us next foure wayes ( n. 31. pag. 60. ) wherein the Lord is said to be our Righteousness ( an Expression that doth emphatically & more than sufficiently express the meaning of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness ) 1. In that ( saith he ) He is the meritorious cause of the pardon of all our sins , & our full justification , Adoption & Right to glory : & by His Satisfaction and Merites only our justification by the Covenant of Grace , against the Curse of the Law works , is purchased . Ans. He cannot be said , by him , to be the Meritorious Cause of pardon , &c. But in as far as He is the Meritorious cause of the Covenant , in which these benefites are promised , upon Condition of faith , our Gospel-righteousness , which properly and only is our Imputed Righteousness , according to him ; and so Christ is our Righteousness , in meriting that faith shall be repute our Gospel-righteousness in order to our obtaining of Pardon and Right to glory . But moreover , where is our Righteousness ? For Pardon is no Righteousness ; neither is justification , Adoption , or Right to Glory properly a Righteousness ; But do presuppose a Righteousness , after which we are enquiring , and cannot finde that Christ is made to be that to us ; and consequently , either faith must be it , or there is none . The other senses are 2. In that He is the legislator , Testator & donor of our Pardon & justification by this new Covenant . 3. In that He is the Head of Influx , King & Intercessour , by whom the Spirit is given to Sanctifie us to God , & cause us sincerely performe the Conditions of the Iustifying Covenant . 4. In that He i● the righteous judge & justifier of Beleevers by sentence of judgment . Ans. All these three will make the Father to be our Righteousness , as well as the Son : for He is legislator ; He draweth to the Son & sendeth the Spirit to Sanctifie us , & He judgeth by the Son & justifieth . ( 2. ) But none of these , nor all of these give us the true Import of that glorious Name , according to the true scope of the place Ier. 23 : 6. of which we have spoken above . In like manner ( n. 32. ) he giveth us four senses of these words , we are made the Righteousness of God in Him. The 1. is , In that , as he was used like a sinner for us ( But not esteemed one by God ) so we are used like innocent persons , so far as to be saved by Him. Ans. As He was used by God like a sinner , so was He legally accounted a sinner , otherwise God would not have used Him as a sinner . Therefore if we be used like innocent persons , we must be in God's esteem , legally & juridically innocent , through Christ's Righteousness imputed ; & so must be saved by Him. The 2. is , In that through His Merites , & upon our union with Him , when we beleeve & consent to Hi● Covenant , we are pardoned & justified , & so made Righteous really , that is such , as are not to be condemned , but glorified . Ans As I said , neither pardon , nor justification maketh us Righteous , but suppose us to be Righteous ; and therefore , in justification we are declared & pronounced Righteous , & thereupon pardoned . Moreover , all our Righteousness , that we have , in order to justification & pardon , is , according to Mr. Baxter , our Faith , which is , & is reputed to be , our Gospel Righteousness ; & is said to be properly Imputed to us : & thus Christ suffered in our stead , that our faith might be accounted our Righteousness . Though pardon will take away condemnation yet ( as we have cleared above ) more must be had , in order to Glorification . His 3. & 4. are . In that the divine Nature & Inherent Righteousness are for His merites . In that God's justice & holiness , truth , wisdom & mercy are all wonderfully Demonstrated , in this way of Pardoning & justifying of sinners by Christ. Ans. This last hath no ground , as the sense of the words ; And as for the. 3. Before he make it the sense of the place . 2 Cor. 5 : 21. he must say , That Christ was a sinner inherently ( which were blasphemy ) for otherwayes that beautiful correspondence , that is betwixt the First & the Last part of the verse , must be laid a side , contrary to the manifest scope of the place . He tels us ( n. 36. pag. 61. ) It is an errour , contrary to the scope of the Gospel , to say , that the Law of Works , or of Innocency , doth justifie us , as performed either by our selves , or by Christ : for that Law condemneth & curseth us ; & we are not efficiently justified by it , but from , or against it . Ans. I shall not say , that we are justified by the Law of works efficiently ; yet I hope , Mr. Baxter will not say , that upon the fall , that Law , or Covenant was quite abolished & annulled ; & if it was only disp●nsed with , in order to the admitting of a Surety , which it did not provide ▪ or give place to , in its primitive Institution , we may saifly say , That it must be satisfied both as to the commands , & as to the penalty , ere we can escape wrath & obtaine Life : for this Law said ( as himself confesseth pag. 63. ) Obey Perfectly & Live , sinne & dye . And though it condemne & curse us sinners ; Yet it hath nothing to say against our Surety ; nor against any clothed with His Surety-righteousness , whereby all the demands of this Law and Covenant were Satisfied . Hence he inferreth ( n. 37. ) Therefore , we have no Righteousness , in Reality , or Reputation formally ours , which consisteth in a conformity to the preceptive part of the Law of Innocency : we are not reputed Innocent ; But only a Righteousness , which consisteth in Pardon of all sin , & right to Life ( with sincere performance of the condition of the Covenant of Grace , that is , true faith ) Ans. If by formally ours , he mean Inherently ours , I grant what he here saith : but I deny it , if by formally ours , he meane that , by which we may be denominated formally Righteous : for by Imputation we have a Righteousness , whereby we are formally righteous , legally & Juridically ; & this Righteousness must needs consist in conformity to the Lawes commands . It is true , we are not repute inherently Innocent ; Yet we are repute non-sinners legally ; & hence cometh our Pardon & Right to Life , which of it self is no Righteousness , but the Result of a Righteousness . So that with him Beleevers have no Righteousness , in order to justification , but faith , the Gospel Righteousness , as was said above , & this he saith here in effect , & yet more plainely & fully pag. 64. He addeth ( n. 38. pag. 62. ) our Pardon puts not away our guilt of fact or fault , but our guilt of and obligation to punishment . God doth not repute us such , as neversinned , or such , as by our Innocency merited heaven ; but such as are not to be damned but to beglorified , because pardoned & Adopted , through the Satisfaction & merites of Christ. Ans. Though pardon , as pardon , will do no more , than he here granteth ; Yet Righteousness & justification presupposing Righteousness will take away the Reatum culpae ; not as if it would make us such as never sinned , for that is Impossible ; but because by Righteousness imputed , we are now reputed sinless Legally , that is , not guilty of the fact in order to punishment , & this must be , that we may not only not be damned , but may be glorifeed , according to the Constitution , that said , Obey perfectly & live . And though now every pardoned man shall be glorified ; Yet that is not meerly and formally upon the account of Pardon ; but because no man is pardoned , till he have the compleet Righteousness of Christ , consisting in obedience and i● Suffering , imputed to him , whereby beside pardon , he obtaineth a right to glory . He cometh to cleare the matter of Imputation of Christ's Righteouss , by the Imputation of Adam's sin , which is a good Medium , the Apostle going before us herein Rom. 5. And though he saith somethings ( n. 41. p. 65. ) wherewith I am not Satisfied , yet I passe , because not much to our present purpose , & come to ( n. 42. p. 66. ) where he saith , As Adam was an head by Nature , & therefore conveyed guilt by Natural Generation : so Christ is a Head ( not by nature , but ) by Sacred contract , & therefore conveyeth right to pardon . Adoption and Salvation , not by Generation , but by Contract , or Donation . So that what was to be Naturally in Adam , seminally and virtually , though not personally in existence ; even that it is , in order to our benefite by Him , to be in Christ by contract , or the New Covenant , virtually , though not in personal existence , when the Covenant was made . Ans. As Adam was an Head by Nature , so was he by Covenant ; and as Christ is an head by Covenant , so is He an Head by supernatural Influences , and conveyeth His blessings by Regeneration , as well as by Covenant ; And therefore what was to be Naturally in Adam , seminally and virtually , though not personally in existence , that is , to be in Christ by supernatural Regeneration virtually . And as his Effects of Adam's fall are conveyed by Natural generation , so that we are made partakers thereof actually , by actual partaking of our Natural being ; so the Effects of Christ's Righteousness are conveyed by Spiritual Regeneration , & we are actually made partakers thereof , when we partake of this Spiritual being . He proceedeth ( n. 43 . ) They therefore that look upon justification , or Righteousness , as coming to us immediatly by Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us , without the Instrumental Intervention , and conveyance or Collation by this deed of Gift , or Covenant , do confound themselves , by confounding and overlooking the causes of justification . That which Christ did by His merites , was to procure the New Covenant . Ans. Though the Instrumental Intervention of a Covenant be acknowledged ; Yet Righteousness must come to us immediatly by Imputation of Christ's Righteousness ; For His Righteousness imputed is our Righteousness , and is only that Righteousness , whereby we become formally Righteous in order to justification . The difference lyeth here betwixt us : Mr. Baxter thinketh , tha● Christ's Righteousness is imputed , in that it purchased the New Covenant ( and consequently is euqlly imputed to all ; for the Covenant , with him , is equally made with all ) and in and through the new Covenant , which conveyeth pardon and life to such , as performe the conditions thereof , i.e. beleeve , & so are inherently Righteous , these benefites are bestowed ; & so Christ's Righteousness is not the immediat ground of our justification and Right to Glory ; but our own Personal Righteousness , Faith , called our Gospel-righteousness : Christ's Righteousness is only the immediat ground of the Covenant , being the Meritorious cause thereof ; & the immediat ground , whereupon our faith is so far advanced . But our judgment is , that though Christ convey the blessings purchased covenant-wayes , yet the Covenant it self is not purchased by His Merites ; & the way of conveyance is this , that He first by His Spirit worketh the soul up to faith in Christ , & then communicateth Christ & His Righteousness unto the beleever ; & upon that immediat ground of Christ's Imputed Surety-righteousness , whereupon they become Righteous , in the sight of God , they are justified , pardoned & receive a right to the Crown . And though the difference here may appear to be but small , yet to me it is such , that by Mr. Baxter's way , the whole frame of the Gospel is changed ; & such , as hold it , do in my judgment , not only confound , but alter the causes of justification . If that , which Christ did by His Merites , was to procure the New Covenant , what was there in Adam , that can be said to answere this , or hold correspondence with it ? With us , the Parallel runneth smoothly and clearly , thus . As by vertue of first Covenant , whereof Adam was the head , engaging for all his Natural Posterity , so soon as they partake of Nature , & thereby become actual members of that Political Body , partake of Adam's guilt , or breach of the Covenant , which is imputed to them ; & there upon share of the consequences thereof , as immediatly resulting therefrom , to wit , the corruption of the whole Nature , Privative & positive , wrath & the curse &c. This himself asserteth pag. 34. So by vertue of the Second Covenant , whereof Christ , the Second Adam is Head , engaging for all His Spiritual posterity , they , so soon as they come to partake of His spiritual Nature , & so become members of His mystical body ( which is by a Phisical , supernatural operation , conveyed morally and Covenant wayes , according to the Good pleasure of His will , & according to His wisdom , who doth all things well & wisely ) are made partakers of Christ's Righteousness , which is imputed unto them ; & thereupon do share of the Consequences , which do immediatly result theref●om , viz. of justification , pardon , Adoption & Right to Glory . He addeth ( n. 44. ) Though the person of the Mediator be not really , or reputatively , the very person of each sinner ( nor so many persons as there are sinners , or beleevers ) yet it doth belong to the person of the Mediator , so far ( limitedly ) to bear the person of a sinner , and to stand in the place of the persons of all sinners , as to bear the punishment they deserved , & to suffer for their sins . Ans. We do not imagine , that the Physical pe●son of the Mediator is , either really or reputatively , the Physical person of each sinner . It is enough for us to say , that the Mediator is an Head , Surety & publick person ; and so , that He & Beleevers are one legally and juridically . And we judge also , that it belongeth to the person of the Mediator , being Surety , to Satifie for the whole debt of these , for whom He is Surety : & therefore must not only so far stand in the place of sinners , as to Suffer for their sins , & bear the punishment they deserved ; But also give that perfect obedience , which they were obliged unto , and were not able to performe , or pay . He granteth ( n. 45. pag. 67. ) that Morally it may be said , that Christ's Righteousness was given to us , in that the thing purchased by it was given to us , as the money , given for the ransome of the Captive , may besaid morally to be given to the captive , though Physically it begiven to the Conquerour . But neither this similitude , not yet the other , of a mans being said to give anothe● so much money , when he giveth him the land , bought therewith , do not come home to the point in hand : for there is a neer & closs union betwixt Christ & Beleevers , which union is not supposed in these cases . Next Christ was in our Law-place , and undertook to do what He did , as our Surety ; neither is this supposed in the cases proposed ; & againe , the benefite here following viz. Justification &c. doth presuppose us to be Righteous , & consequently we must have a Righteousness imputed , because we have none of our owne ; for we may not admit Faith to that high dignity . We have mentioned more apposite & fit Similitudes above . I cannot assent to what he saith ( n. 47. pag. 68. ] That Christ is less improperly said to have represented all mankind , as newly fallen in Adam , in a general sense , for the purchasing of the universal gift of pardon & life , called the New Covenant , than to have represented , in his perfect holiness and sufferings , every beleever , considered as from his first being to his death . For of His representing all mankind newly fallen in Adam , I read not in the Scriptures : nor yet of His purchasing the New Covenant . Whether these be not additions to the word of God , let Mr. Baxter ( who oft chargeth others herewith ) consider . Nor do I know , what Scripture warranteth him to say . pag. 69. That Christ , the second Adam , is in a sort , the root of Man , as Man , as He is the Redeemer of Nature it self from destruction ; Nor what truth can be in it , unless he think to play upon the word , in a sort . He seemeth to come neerer us , when he saith ( n. 48. p. 70. ) The summe of all lyeth , in applying the distinction of giving Christ's Righteousness , as such in it self , & as a Cause of our Righteousness , or in the causality of it ; as our sin is not reputed Christ's sin in it self , and in the culpability of it ( for then it must needs make Christ odious to God ) but in its causality of punishment . So Christ's material or formal Righteousness is not by God reputed to be properly and absolutely our own in it self as such , but the causality of it , as it produceth such & such effects , Ans. How Christ's Righteousness should be the cause of our Righteousness , if we speak properly , I know not ; for we are here speaking of Righteousness , in order to justification , & in this case , I know no other Righteousness , but Christ's Surety-righteousness , imputed to us , and bestowed upon us : & it is improper to say , that Christ's Righteousness is the cause of it self , as given to us . But it may be , he meaneth , that it is the cause of our Faith ; & this I grant to be true , but I deny , that this faith is our Righteousnese , whereupon we are justified , or the ratio formalis objectiva of our justifications . When we mention the Imputing of Christ's Righteousness , we mean the Righteousness of Christ it self , not Physically , but legally & juridically , & that is its worth or legal causality ; not as it produceth , but in order that it may produce such Effects . Our sin is reputed Christ's legally , in its demerite of punishment , or in its reatus culpae , that He might be legally thereby reus culpae and yet He was not odious to God , because it was not His Inherently , but only legally & by Imputation . Mr. Baxter in his following Chap. 3. fearing , that by all that he had said , he had not made the state of the controversie plaine enough to the unexercised Reader , goeth over it againe , in a shorter way , that he may make it as plaine , as possibly he can . And yet , I judge , ( such is my dulness ) that he never made the matter more obscure , at least , to the Unexercised Reader , nor possibly could , than he hath done here ; for if any man , how understanding so ever shall understand his Expressions , let be the matter by them , that is not very well versed both in Aristotles Logicks or Metaphysicks , and the termes thereof , and in justinian's Lawes and the termes thereof , I am far deceived . He that would understand this plaine discovery of the Question , must understand what Relations are ; what Reatus culpae & poenae ; what poena damni & sensus ; what cessante capacitate Subdut , what pro-legal Righteousness ; what quoad valorem & quoad ordinem conferendi , & rationem comparativam , What is Terminus & fundamentum in relations ; what is Titulus & fundamentum juris ; what causa fundamenti & donationis , & the like : And if all Unexercised Readers shall be able to understand this , I doubt : And sure I am , many a poor soul , that understands nothing of these termes , gets grace of God to understand the thing , better than all this explication ( how plaine so ever it be called ) shall ever make him do . And if this be the plainest way , that Mr. Baxter can chose to make us understand this so necessary and fundamental a truth , I shall never choose him for my Teacher , as to this . It could therefore tend o no edification , at least unto his Unexperienced Readers , ( whose edification , I judge , should be sought by us all , in handling of this matter ) to fall upon any examination of , or debate with him about what he hath here said , seing it would necessarily end in a debate about logical and Law termes ; which I shall rather leave to others , who have delight therein . And beside , the matter it self , delivered by him in more plaine & intelligible termes , ( as I judge ) both to exercised & more unexercised Readers , is already examined . Notwithstanding ( as we have seen ) his opinion be different from what the orthodox do commonly hold , in this question ; yet Chap 4. he stateth the question , against which he purposeth to disput , so as he may be sure , none of these will oppose him : yea and it may be doubted , if Antinomians themselves will contradict him ; for thus he proposeth what he denieth . That God did so impute Christ's Righteousness to us , as to repute , or account us to have been holy with all that habitual holiness , which was in Christ , or to have done all that He did , in obedience to His Father , or in fulfilling the Law ; or to have suffered all that He suffered , & to have made Satisfaction for our sins , & merited our own Salvation & justification in & by Christ ; or that He was , did , suffered & merited all this strickly in the person of every sinner , that is saved . Or that Christ's very individual Righteousness , material or formal , is so made ours in a strick sense , as that we are Proprietors , Subjects or Agents of the very thing it self simply and absolutely , as it is distinct from the effects ; or that Christ's individual formal Righteousness is made our formal personal Righteousness ; or that , as to the Effects , we have any such Righteousness imputed to us , as formally ours , which consisteth in perfect Habitual and Actual conformity to the Law of Innocency ; that is , that we are reputed perfectly holy and sinless , and such as shall be justified by the Law of Innocency , which saith , perfectly obey and live , or sin & dye . And the more to secure himself from all opposition from the orthodox , 〈◊〉 proposeth this Law ( which is but equitable ) to all that will answere him ( I suppose he meaneth the Arguments that there follow ) that he must keep to his words , & not alter the sense by leaving any out . I shall therefore be none of his Opposites here on these termes , but shall consider what he saith elsewhere . CHAP. XIV . How Christ is our Surety , and what Mr. Baxter saith , as to this , is examined . OUr Lord Jesus being called a Surety in the Scriptures , may give us much satisfaction and clear light , anent the Doctrine of the Imputation of His Righteousness , if prejudice and Love to our own particular hypothesis do not blinde us . The Apostle tels us Heb. 7 : 22. that Iesus was made a Surety of a better Testament ( or Covenant , rather ) and though the greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , rendered Surety , be only in this place found in the N. Testam . yet that can give no colourable ground of Exception against the true & Native import of the word , and the truth , thereby hold forth , seing one sentence of divine Revelation should captivat our faith & judgment , as well as Twenty , otherwise all divine Revelation , though never sooft reiterated , will hereby at length come to be questioned . And beside , the word properly signifieth a Surety , Cautioner , Praes , Sponsor , fide jussor : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is sponsio , expromissio , fidejussio : hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sub fide sponsionis trade , as it were , to deliver into hands , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spondeo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fidejussio , Vadimonium , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fidejussor , vas , sponsor : and whether the word come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prope , or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appropinquo , or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in manibus , the same import and signification is hold forth ; and the conjunction and neerness betwixt the Sponsor , or Surety , and the person for whom He is sponsor , with the ends , for which he engageth himself , who is a Sponsor , is manifestly hold forth ; for the word Importeth one , who of his own accord engageth for another , taking upon him , the Cause and Condition of that other , & promising to do or pay what the other was obliged unto , or to see it done , and , thus engaging and promising , becometh the just & legal debtor for what he hath engaged , and obliged unto the performance . And this sense is both obvious and generally received by all men ; which should Satisfie us , as to the acceptation of the word here , untill it be demonstrat , that of necessity it must be taken in a peculiar & distinct sense , in this place ; which yet the scope and circumstances of the place will not admit ; but rather confirme the usuall and generally received signification & Import of the word . This is also confirmed by the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath many significations , all , or most , of which , as some think , may be reduced to two general heads : one is of mixing things together , or agreeing things or persons together , by compacts , Merchandice , pledges , or Caution . Hence it signifieth to become Surety Gen. 43 : 9. & 44 : 22. Prov. 11 : 15. & 6. 1. & 17 : 18. & 22 : 26. Psal. 119 : 122. as also to oppignorat , or give in pledge Neh. 5 : 3. 2. King. 18 : 23. Esai . 36.8 . Iob. 17 : 3. Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , arrabon , a pleage Gen. 38 : 17 : 20. & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fidejussion , sponsio , pignus , suretiship , & a pledge . 1. Sam. 17 : 18. 2 King. 14 : 14. This word then denoteth the Conjunction & Mixture , that is between a Surety , & him for whom he is Surety ; for the word signifieth to mix or mingle together , so that they become hereby one person in Law ; & an engaging . Ier. 30 : 21. to shew , that the Surety standeth engaged to performe what he hath promised , & become Surety for , having 〈◊〉 stricken hands , as it is rendered Prov. 22 : 26. Whence we see that there is a neer and closs Union betwixt Christ and Beleevers ; so as they ( to speak so ) become one person in Law ; for a Sponsor , as such , standeth engaged with and for the debtor , as if they were both but one ; for the Surety maketh himself the debtor ; & the Creditor may pursue either of them for payment , and when payment is made by the one , both are free of the obligation : so that if the Surety pay the debt , the creditor cannot reach the Principal debtor . These things are clear and universally known and received . And hereby , we see how Christ , being a Surety , and Beleevers become one person , in Law-sense ; so that as He did voluntarily engage for them , and put Himself in their Law place ; so His payment and Satisfaction is accounted theirs , and justice cannot reach them , for that , which He , as their Surety , hath paid . But Mr. Baxter , in his book ag . Doct. Tully . pag. 108. in answere to the first objection , which he there moveth , tels us , That when Christ is thus called the fidejussor of a better Covenant , it seemeth plaine , that it is God's Covenant , as such ; and so God's sponsor , that is meant . And for this he citeth Grotius & D. Hammond , in their Annot. Ans. This is the very same answere , that Socinians give , with whom both Grotius & Hammand do too well agree : and it is not much for Mr. Baxter's honour , nor for the credite of his cause , that he will forsake all the Orthodox , and embrace rather the Socinians , & such , as joine with them , than abandon what he thinketh contributive to his Hypothesis . Whether Christ was at all a Surety , upon God's part , or not , needeth not here be discussed ; some Orthodox being of the judgment , that He was , as we see in Mr. Gillespie's late Piece Chap. 21. others thinking , that He was not , as may be seen in D. Owen's book of the Doctrine of justification by faith . It is Sufficient against Mr. Baxter & the Socinians , to prove , that He was a Surety and Sponsor for man to God ; & this is aboundantly made good by what both these forementioned Authors have said , in the books mentioned , that more needeth not be added . But what doth Mr. Baxter mean by God's Covenant ? He can meane nothing here , but God's part of the Covenant ; & so make Christ only a Surety for that part . But what ground is there for this in the Text , or context ? The Apostle is proving , that Christ's Priesthood ( which respecteth not God towards man , but man towards God ; for every Priest is ordained for men in things to God , that he may offer both gifts and Sacrifices for sin Hob. 5 : 1. ) is more excellent than the levitica , He being made a Priest by oath , & a Surety of a better Covenant , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & therefore his suretiship & His Priesthood must both respectmen , & the things of men to God ; or the one should not be a fit Medium to prove the other ; nor should there be any Coherence in the words ; Vnless , with the Socinians , we should pervert the Nature of Christ's Priestly office , & make it to be for God , in things pertaining to Men , contrary to Heb. 5 : 1. and all the use of Priests from the beginning ; as they do , when they make Christ's Priesthood to consist , in His making effectual to us the promises of God ; or in his effectual Communicating to us the good things , promised to us of God ; from which Mr. Lawson doth not much differ , when he saith ( as Mr. Baxter citeth his words ) That a Priest doth undertake to procure from God both the confirmation and performence of the Promises to the people ; & to that end mediats between both . He saith next , That Calvin seemeth to Intimate that , which he thinketh is the truth , viz. that Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God's Covenant , from the Sacerdotal appropinquation , mentioned vers 19. But no such thing appeareth in Calvin's Comment . And that appropinquation , mentioned vers 19. is the people their privilege now under the New Testam . He tels us further , that Marlorat and others by Sponsor mean a Mediator . And it is true , that the Sponsor here is a Mediator : But that the word Sponsor here shall denote nothing else , than what the word Mediator signifieth , I shall not readily beleeve , without clearer grounds , than any I see yet adduced ; for I cannot think , that the Apostle would make use of a word , which no where else he useth , & which is no where to be found in the N. Test. but here , in a sense , that it is never found to have , neither in Scripture , nor in the common use of men . And how-ever ; Yet it must be granted , that He is such a Mediator , as is a Priest , & so must offer Sacrifices to God for men , & therefore must as well be a Mediator and Sponser on mans part , as on God's . He saith , that Pareus on the place , calleth Christ a Sponsor of the Covenant , quia novum foedus sanguine & morte sua obsignavit . But for answer , he may read the same author on Chap. 8 : 1. saying , est & Sponsor foeder is spondens Deo populi nomine fidem & obedientiam , non verbis modo sed & victimis . And thus he distinguisheth a Sponsor from a Mediator . Mr. Baxter granteth ( pag. 109. ) that a Mediator is not of one , but doth some what on the behalf of both parties : but addeth . That as Mediator , He is , Hath , Doth , Suffereth , Meriteth , Satisfieth , so as the Representer or Person of such a Beleever , as that every such person is supposed in Law , to have Been , Done , Suffered , Merited , thus in and by the Mediator , is neither signified by this , or any other Text. Ans. Though this cannot be said of a Mediator , who is only a Mediator , strickly so taken , & no more ; yet it may be said of him , who not only is a Mediator , but also a Sponsor and Surety , as we have several times explained it . He addeth 2. They that distinguish of a Natural & Political Person , do but darken the case , by an ill expressed distinction , which indeed is not of two sorts of persons , but between Reality & Acceptation , taking person properly for a Natural person : It is one thing to be such a person ; and another thingh to have the Act , Passion , Merite &c. accepted for that other person : And this latter signifieth either , 1. That it was done by the other person raediatly , as being a chiefe cause acting by his Instrument . 2. Or that it was done for that other Person by another ; the first is our denied sence , & the second our affirmed sence . Ans. And I think ( such is the discordance of Mens apprehensions ) that his explication darkeneth what is clear enough by the distinction given . His Reality & Acceptation , is , in our case , as darkning a distinction , as the others , if not more , and is against the Common sense of the Law , & the plaine Common sense and understanding of men , when speaking of Law-matters . Who doth not understand how the Suretys payment is really , in the sense of the Law , the payment of the debtor , & not meerly accepted for him ? If the payment were purely accepted , neither could it be said , that the Surety was anteriourly obliged , nor that the Creditor might not refuse that payment , neither of which can be affirmed . As for the first sense of his Acceptation , we owne it not , more than he : & the second is true , but not full & plaine , being only general ; nor is it , as thus generally expressed , any sense of his Acceptation : for when two persons are obliged for a summe conjunctly & severally , & the Creditor may distress either for the whole ; when one payeth the whole , he may be said to pay for the other ; & yet Common sense will not Suffer us to say , that his payment was only accepted for the other . He tels us afterward , that Sponsors & Sureties with us , are of several Sorts , & that they , who lay all upon the very name of a Surety , as if the word had but one signification , & all Sureties properly represented the Person of the Principal obliged person , do deal very deceitfully . Ans. But there is no remedie against some Mens censures . Some will possibly think , that his dealing is not faire , to speak , in the Answere , of Sureties representing the principal debtors , when the Objection , as himself set it down , speaketh only of their being one person in Law sense ; & these two are not every way the same ; every one that representeth another , is not his Surety , or Sponsor ; nor doth the Surety , in every case , represent the Principal debtor ; neither is he said so to do . But , sure , it is plaine dealing to take the word Surety , or Sponsor , in that sense wherein it is alwayes taken by Men that use it , untill he demonstrat , that of necessity it must have a peculiar sense , in this matter , & in this place ; and it is not faire , to object deceitful dealing to us , in this , untill he hath first discovered the deceit . He reckoneth up , three or foure various things , in which persons may become Sureties , as Debt , Punishment , Duty , & the like ; But to what purpose , I know not . Doth he think , that we make Christ such a Surety , as agreeth in all things with every Surety , among men ? We know , there never was , nor never will be such a Surety , as our Lord Jesus is : A Surety , notwithstanding , we acknowledge Him to be ; because He is so called ; & in what respects He is a Surety , we know from the Scriptures , where that is aboundantly declared , & not from the simple name of a Surety : The name tels us , that that must be said of Christ , which agreeth to all Sureties , or is commonly acknowledged to agree unto them ; & that is , that they , in so far as they are obliged , or have obliged themselves , whether before or after the Principal Debtor stood obliged ( for this maketh no difference as to the obligation Instit. fidejus . & ff . eod . l. & II. ) are one person in Law-sense with the principal Debtor ; so that their payment & Satisfaction is acknowledged in Law , as the payment & Satisfaction of the Principal Debtors . His Novices , that look into Calv. Lex . Iurid . for Fidejussor & Sponsor , will finde nothing contrary to this ; Yea they will finde , that fidejussor dicitur , qui pro alio fidem suam obligat , & fide sua , id est , periculo suo esse jubet , quod alius debet ; & that , fidejussor proprie decitur debitor ; & that even fidejussor conditional is nomine debitoris continetur ; & fidejussorem proprie esse debitorem fere omnes tradunt , quia jura eum plerumque appellant debitorem . The same is to be seen in Spigelius . As for that , which Mr. Baxter addeth , that fide juffor non est conveniendus , nisi prius principali debitore Convento , it neither altereth the case , nor was it universally so , but only in some certaine cases , as he migt have read in the same place . So that it still holdeth true , that the Sponsor & the Debitor are one person in Law ; & that so , that if the Debitor pay , the Sponsor is free ; & if the Sponsor pay the Debitor is free . See Instit. lib. 3. Tit. 30. quibus modis tollitur obligatio & l. 13. § si . fide jussor ; D. de Acceptil . Where it is said , that the debitor is liberat , if the Sponsor give only that , which is called , solutio imaginatia . There must be ( saith he ) some what more than the bare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , once used of Christ , as Mediator of Gods Covenant ; or the name of a Surety as now used among men , that must go to prove , that the Mediator & the several sinners are the same legal Persons in Gods account . Ans. What he meaneth by God's covenant , he would do well to explaine . That the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used of Christ , as Mediator , if he take this as reduplicatively , he should prove . When he saith , the Mediator & the several sinners are the same Legal Persons , it is ambiguously uttered , & no clear Declaration of our minde . But as to the thing , we would faine know a reason , why we may not take this word , in its common acceptation among men , seing there is nothing in Scripture to the contrary ? yea , though this greek word be but here only found ; yet , as we saw , we have an hebrew word of the same Import , several times used in the old Test ; & the whole matter , that we seek after , clearly held forth thereby , if the places be but lookt into To put a close to this , we would call to mind that five fold Law-identity & sameness , that is betwixt Christ the Surety & Sinners , for whom He satisfied , mentioned by worthy Mr. Rutherfoord , in his Treatise of the Covenant part 2 pag. 251. which are these . 1. Though Physically the Surety & the Debtor be two different Men ; yet in Law they are one & the same Person , & one & the same legal party , & the same object of justice , who so in Law pursueth the Surety , doth also pursue the Debtor . 2. The Debt & Summe is one ; not two Debts , not two Ransomes , nor two Punishments ; nor two Lives to lose , but one . 3. It is one & the same Solution , & Satisfaction ; there cannot in Law-justice come another Reckoning , Dying , & payment asking , after the Surety hath payed . 4. There is one & the same Acceptation , upon the creditor's Part ; if he accept of Satisfaction in the payment made by the Surety , he cannot but legally accept of the Debtor , & cannot pursue him in Law , but must look upon him , as no debtor &c. 5. It is one & the same legal effect . Christ crucified in the Spirit & risen againe 1. Tim. 3 : 16. & we in Him , as in the Meritorious Cause , are legally justified . Mr. Gillespy in his late piece Chap. 21. hath several things , which will both cleare up & confirme what is said ; we shall mention only a few , pag. 373 , 374. He tels us , [ that 3. Suretiship imports not only a voluntary obligation for another person , but also union of parties , & Assumption of the Condition of that person , in the lawes sense ; so that the Surety & debtor are but one party in Law : therefore say the Iurists , fidejussor proprie dicitur debitor . Christ , by His Suretyship did not only take out Natures upon Him , but He took our condition upon Him. He put His name in our Bond , that the Law migt reach Him for our debt . 4. It imports a Communion betwixt the debtor & the Cautioner , whereby as the debt of the Principal debtor , becometh the debt of the Surety & affecteth him ; so also the Satisfaction & Payment of the Surety & his Discharge & Reliefe , becometh the Satisfaction , Discharge & Reliefe of the principal Debtor , Christ's Suretiship imports not only an Union of Parties & Conjunction of interests & Condition with His People ; but also a Communion with Debtful broken Man , resulting from His Bond of Suretiship ; whereby as upon the one part our Debt becometh His intirely , as the jurists say of all Sureties , Singuli , in solidum tenenter ; so upon the other part His Satisfaction & Discharge become ours 2. Cor. 5. last Gal. 3 : 13. 5. It imports a Commutation , Surrogation , or Substituting of one in the room of another ; & soo Christ was substitute in our stead & room , as Iudah was in Benjamin's . 1. Pet. 2 : 21. Rom. 4. last & 5 : 8. Gen. 44 : 33. ] So pag. 381. His Assert . 5. is [ Christ the Surety & broken man the Debtor are one in Law , but not intrinsecally one Esai . 1. They are legally one or in the Lawes sense one ; because by a legal Substitution & surrogation , Christ having put His name in the Beleevers Bond , by the Law ▪ He is in his place , & the beleever is put in Christ's law-place ; so that by a legal act , the Surety 〈◊〉 the broken man : therefore Christ , being made Surety , saith , I am the broken man , all my friends debts be upon me , my life for their life , my soul for their souls Gal. 4 : 4 , 5. Ioh. 1● : 8. Gen. 44 : v. 3. Asserts Neither the creditor , nor the Law can exact Satisfaction from both the Surety & the Debtor ; but the Surety having paid all & Satisfied , the broken debtor can say , I have paid all , I am free ; he may plead , my friend & Surety hath done all for me , & that is as good in fore , in the court of justice , as if I had paid all in mine own Person . Gal. 3 : 13. Rom. 4 : last , 1. Pet. 2 : 24. The debt , that Christ paid , is our very debt , & the beleever can say , when Christ my Surety was judged & Crucified for my sins , then was I judged ; & what would you have more of a man , than his life ? Esai . 53 : 6 , 7 , 8. ] So thereafter pag. 422. he saith [ Among men usually , Sureties & Debtors enter into one & the same Bond with the Creditor ; but here Christ's single bond lyeth for all Psal. 89 : 19. here Christ our Surety hath changed Bonds & obligations with us , & putteth out our name , & putteth in His own , in the bloudy Bond of the Law , that the Debt , Satisfaction & Curse may be upon Him alone Gal. 3 : 13. Esai . 53 : 5. ● Among men , the Creditor hath it in his choice , which of the two he will seize upon , the Surety , or the debtor , as he seeth it best for his Satisfaction : but it is not so here , for the Lord , the Creditor hath declared , that He will take Him to Christ for all ; & hath Determined , that all the Satisfaction shall be made by Him : and Christ the Surety is content that it shall be so , and that the poor broken Creature shall go free , and no execution of the bloudy Bond of the Law shall passe against him , he being a bankrupt creature , which hath obtained a liberation , as where there is cessio bonorum Psal , 89 : 19. Heb. 10 : 7. Rom. 8 : 1. Esai . 53 : 6. 3. Among men , usually the Principal Debtor is first conveened for the debt , before the Surety be pursued : But it is not so here , the curse of the Law , and the execution of the bond thereof doth not first strick upon us , and then afterward upon Christ , to seek from Him what it cannot finde in us : But the Lord , the Creditor , having astricked Himself to the Cautioner , the Law stricks first upon Him , and can never come to strike against the Beleever , unless it should not finde compleet Satisfaction in our Surety , which is Impossible Esai . 53 : 8. Gal. 3 : 13. 4. Among men the debtor is the Principal Bondsman , and his obligation and Bond is the Principal obligation ; & the Sureties obligation is but an accession to it , for strengthening the Security : but here the Surety is the Principal debtor ; and by His Bond of Suretiship , He hath changed the Nature of the Beleevers Bond and Obligation , and put His own name in it , so as He is become the Principal Debtor . His Suretiship hath swallowed up the Debtor's Obligation to satisfie justice , the Surety being the Head and Husband of the poor broken Debtor Rom. 7 : 4. and having changed the Bond of Satisfaction . and put out our Name , and put in His own , whereby He hath transferred the debt upon Himself , as Principal Debtor Heb. 10 : 7. — 9. Among men , usually the broken Debtor's Name stands still in the Bond , even after the responsal Surety hath interveened : But here Jesus , the Surety of the New Covenant , when He put in His own name , He puts out our names , that the Law might reach Him , and might not at all reach us . He wrote Himself the sinner legally , and wrote us Righteous persons . 2 Cor. 5 : 21. Ier. 50 : 20. ] CHAP. XV. Mr. Baxter's Answers to some of our Argum. for Imputation , examined . MR. Baxter , in his book against D. Tully proposeth some Objections , that he may make answere unto them , according to his own Grounds : Though some things , here repeated in his answers , have been already considered by us ; yet we shall examine briefly his answers , as here given . His answere to the first Objection hath been examined , in the foregoing Chapt. The 2. is this . Christ is called tht Lord our Righteousness , & He is made Righteousness to us , & we are made the Righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5 : 21. & by the Obedience of one many are made Righteous . He answereth to this 〈◊〉 . And are we not all agreed of all this ? But can His Righteousness be ours no way , but by the foresaid personating R●presentation . Ans And will not Socinians ; who overturn all the foundations or Christianity , and ought not be called , or accounted Christians , say the same , as to the Scripture-expressions ? are we therefore agreed with them in judgment ? or is there no difference betwixt us : His not agreement in the words , but in the sense of Scripture , that maketh a true agreement ( 2. ) Christ's Righteousness may be , and is Ours another way , than by that Personating and Representating , which he stated , as the butt of his arguments & another way also , than he proposeth as his own judgment , as we saw . He rels us next , how Christ is our Righteousness , & how His obedience maketh us Righteous , in his judgement , in 8 or 9 particulars . 1. Because the very Law of Innocency , which we dishonoured & broke by sin , is perfectly fulfilled & honoured by Him , as a Mediator , to repaire the injurie , done by our breaking it . Ans. The Law , which the Devils dishonoured & broke by sin , was perfectly honoured & fulfilled by the Angels , who stood ; is therefore their Righteousness to be called the devils ? But he will say ; They obeyed not , as Mediator ; True : But then the ground of Christ Righteousness , becomning ours , must be some other thing , than His honouring that Law by fulfilling it , which we dishonoured by breaking . But he saith , Christ repaired the injurie , done by our breaking it True ; yet 〈◊〉 there be no more , that will not make His Righteousness ours ; because , as is obvious , ere this be , we must have an Interest therein ; & this obedience must be performed by Him , a our Mediator & Surety , undertaking & Satisfying the demands of the Law for us , & in our stead . 2. In that ( saith he ) He suffered to satisfie justice for our sin . Ans. Neither is suffering , as such , Righteousness ; Nor could He satisfie justice for our sin , in & by suffering , if He had not done it in our stead , & as one Person with us in Law. If Titius steal from Sempronius a 1000. Pound ; & Maevius givius Sempronius a 1000. Pound upon some distinct account . Sempronius receiveth no satisfaction , for what Titius stole from him , but if he come & give it for Titius & he be satisfied there-with , then there is a Law Union & oneness betwixt Titius & Maevius , whereby the Satisfaction given by Maevius , becometh the satisfaction of Titius . 3. He saith , in that hereby He hath merited of God the Father all that Righteousness , which we are truely the Subjects of , whether it be Relative or qualitative , or Active ; that is , our right to Christ in union , to the Spirit , to Impunity & to glory , 2. the grace of the Spirit by which we are made holy , & fulfill the conditions of the Law of grace : we are the Subjects of these , & he is the Meriter ; & the Meritorius Cause of out life is well called our Righteousness , & by many the material Cause ( as our own perfect obedience would have been ) because it is the matter of that merite . Ans. That Righteousness , which he saith here Christ hath merited , is not that Righteousness unto justification of life , as the Apostle speaketh Rom. 5 : 18. And which we have by the Obedience of Christ , made ours by Imputation vers 19. whereof we are here speaking , & in respect of which Christ is said to be our Righteousness ( 2. ) Our right to Christ is not our Righteousness , in order to justification ; nor is our Right to Impunity & Glory that Righteousness , but a consequent thereof ( 3. ) In respect of the Graces of the Spirit , which follow justification , & do not preceed it , Christ is called our Sanctification : & Mr. Baxter knoweth , there is a difference betwixt Righteousness & Holiness . ( 4. ) The Meritorius Cause of our life is well called our Righteousness . when it is Imputed to us & put upon our score , as the Ground of our justification & Absolution ; & upon this account only is it by many called the Material Cause . 4. And also ( saith he ) Christ's jntercession with the Father still procureth all this , as the fruit of His Merites . Ans. Of Christ's procuring our holiness we make no Doubt : but that upon this account , He is called our Righteousness , is denied : for this is not His Obedience & Righteousness , whereby we become Righteous unto justification of life . 5. And we are related ( saith he ) as His members ( though not parts of His person , as such ) to Him , that thus merited for us . Ans. if we be related to Him , as members , in order to our partaking of His Righteousness & Merit●s , we must be parts of His legal Persons though not of His Physical Person● for by Members here I suppose , he meaneth Members of His Mystical body or members of His Ransomed & Redeemed body : And head & Members here make one Political body , & become one Political Person , or one in Law-sense . 6. And ( saith he ) we have the Spirit from Him , as our Head. Ans , This is but what what was said before in the 3. place . And this Spirit is given for holiness : but Christ is our Righteousness , as well as our Sanctification ; & it is of His being Righteousness , that we are speaking . 7. And he is our Advocat ( saith he ) & will justifie us , as our judge . Ans. His being our Advocat , is the same with His Intercession spoken of in the 4. place . ( 2. ) The Father will judge us , & justifie us by Him ; therefore God the Father shall be our Righteousness , as well as Christ ; & consequently shall have merited all for us , by His blood & Sufferings , & that in a more principal manner , according to this Reason . 8. And all this ( saith he ) is God's Righteousness , designed for us , & thus far given us by Him. Ans. But all this is not that Righteousness , which God hath designed for us , in & through Christ , in order to our justification ; nor that Righteousness , by which we become formally Righteous in Law-sense ; & thereupon are justified & pronounced Righteous in the sight of God ; for this is Christ's Surety-Righteousness , imputed to us , & none else can be it . Lastly saith he . And the Perfect justice & holiness of God is thus glorified in us , through Christ. And are not all these set together enough to prove , that we justly owne all asserted by these Texts . Ans. It remaineth to be cleared , how the Perfect justice & holiness of God can be said to be glorified in us , through Christ , if Christ's Righteousness & Satisfaction be not imputed to us & accounted ours , & Christ & we be not looked upon , as one Person in Law : for all that is wrought in us , is far from being answerable to the Perfect justice & holiness of God , because of its Imperfection . And because Mr. Baxter doth not grant the Imputing of Christ's Surety-righteousness ( which is only answerable to the Perfect justice & holiness of God ) unto us , in all that he hath here said , he cannot be said to owne all , that is asserted by these Texts . The 3. object , is . If Christ's Righteousness be ours , then we are righteous by it , as ours ; & so God reputeth it , but as it is . But it is ours 1. by our Union with him . 2. by his gift , & so consequently by God's Imputation . To this he answereth . 1. That he hath told before , in what sense it is ours , & in what sense not . Shortly here he giveth us his mind againe , saying . It is truely Imputed to us , or reputed , reckoned , as ours ; but not in their sense , that claim a strick Propriety in the same Numerical Habites , Acts , Sufferings , Merites , Satisfaction , which was in Christ , or done by Him , as if they did become subjects of the same Accidents ; or as if they did by an Instrumental second cause . But it is ours , as being done by a Mediator , in stead of what we should have done , & as the Meritorious Cause of all our Righteousness & Bonefites , which are freely given us for the sake thereof . Ans. This is but what we heard , when he was clearing the state of the question ; & there ( Chap. XIII . ) we shewed , that his sense was not satisfying : for in his judgment , as we found , there is no Righteousness truely ours , in order to justification , but our Faith , which he calleth our Gospel-righteousness , which by Christ's Merites is advanced to this dignity of being the potestative Condition of the New Covenant , wherein pardon & Right to life is promised upon Condition of Faith ; & so faith is our Immediat Righteousness , in order to the obtaining of these favoures ; & Christ's Merites have only procured them remotely , in procuring this Covenant . But we hear no mention made by him of any such Imputation , as whereby Christ's fide jussory or Surety-righteousness is really made over and Imputed to Beleevers , that they thereby may become formally Righteous , in the sight of God , and be justified as such , & so pardoned and have right to life , immediatly upon the account of this Surety-righteousness made theirs . Nor hear we any clear ground laid down by him , whereupon Christ's Righteousness can be called Ours , & we thereupon be reputed of God legally Righteous , & dealt with as such . We hear of Benefites bestowed because of His Merites ; But we hear not that Pardon and Right to Glory are made the Immediat result and effect of Christ's Merites & Righteousness , but only mediat , by the Interveening of the New Covenant , whereby our Faith , the condition thereof , called our Gospel , Personal Righteousness , is made the Immediat cause of our possessing these benefites ; whereby he giveth occasion , at least , to judge , that he maketh our faith the Immediat procuring & Meritorius Cause of Pardon and Right to life . However between his way , & that , which he here rejecteth ( which we also reject , neither asserting , that Christ was our Instrumental Second cause : nor claiming a strick propriety in the same Numerical Habites &c. which were in Christ , as if we became Subjects of the same Accidents , speaking of what Christ did & suffered , in a Physical sense ) we know , & owne a Midway , whereby Christ's Obedience & Suffering , considered not Physically , but legally & juridically , are transferred & communicated unto us , not as Physical accidents , from one Physical subject to another , but in a Law & juridical sense . And though this Imputing & communicating of Christ's Surety-righteousness cannot be explained by , nor appear consistent with Logical or Metaphysical Notions , applicable only to Physical Entities , & as considered as such ( to wich Mr. Baxter in all his Explications of this matter , doth so frequenily laboure to restrick us , contrary to all Reason , Yea and to Common sense ) Yet we must owne it for a truth , knowing that these fundamental truthes , recorded in Scripture , and held forth to us only by divine Revelation , stand in no need of Aristotle's learning , in order to their being Savingly understood & practified : And that Law-termes are more fit , to help us to some understanding in this matter , which is hold forth in Scripture , as a juridical act , than Metaphysical termes ; and yet we see no ground to say , that this matter , whereof we treat , must , in all points , keep even a resemblance unto Iustinian's modes , knowing that it is a divine Mystery , and unparallelable . He saith 2. He that is made Righteousness unto us , i● also made wisdom , Sanctification , & Redemption to us , but that sub genere causae Efficientis , non autem constitutivae ; We are not the Subjects of the same Numerical wisdom and Holiness , which 〈◊〉 Christ , plainly the Question is , whether Christ or His Righteousness Holiness , Merites and Satisfaction , be our Righteousness constitutivly , or only efficiently . The matter and forme of Christ's personal Righteousness is ours , as an efficient cause ; but it is neither the neerest matter , nor the forme of that Righteousness , which is Ours , as the subjects of it , that is , it is not a Constitutive cause , nexly material , or formal of it . Ans. ( 1. ) It is true , He , who is made Righteousness to us , is also made Sanctification , &c. and that He is made Sanctification by being an Efficient cause : but it will not follow , that He must be also the Efficient cause , and no other of our Righteousness , which is of a far other Nature , and is no Inherent inwrought thing , as is Sanctification . ( 2. ) It is true , we are not the Subjects of the same numerical Wisdom and Holiness , which is in Christ , neither can we be , if they be considered Physically : but yet we can be Subjects of the same Numerical Righteousness , Legally and juridically considered ; & thus we are to consider it here , & not Physically , however Mr. Baxter , ad nauseam usque inculcat this ; for we consider it , and must consider it , as a Surety-righteousness ; & we know that that same Individuat payment and Satisfaction , made by the Surety , is in Law-sense the Debtor's , and imputed to him , as the ground of his liberation from trouble and distress , at the hands of the Creditor . ( 3. ) Hence we see , that Christ's Surety-righteousness , consisting in His Obedience and Sufferings , is that whereby we are constituted Righteous in the sight of God , in a legal sense : and need not enquire , whether it be the neerest matter , or forme or both , of our Righteousness : for these Metaphysical termes have no place here , though Mr. Baxter can never hold of them . We are made Righteous in a Law-sense , & not Physically , by Christ's Imputed Righteousness , and upon this account , it is ours legally : & it is folly , to enquire for Physical matter , and forme or Constitutive causes of Moral or juridical Beings , or Effects , as Phylosophers do , when speaking of Physical , or of Metaphysical beings . He saith 3. If our Union with Christ were Personal ( making us the same person ) then doubtless the accidents of his person would be the accidents of ours : & so not only Christ ' Righteousness , but every Christians , would be each of ours . But that is not so , nor is it so given us by him . Ans. We acknowledge no Union with Christ , making us the same person with Him Physically ( & it seemeth Mr. Baxter will understand it no otherwayes ) But we acknowledge an Union legal , Political , & foederal , whereby we become one person juridical , in Law-sense : and as to this , Mr. Baxter's accidents have no substantial place or Consideration . The 4. Object is , you do seem to suppose , that we have none of that kind of Righteousness at all , which consisteth in Perfect Obedience & Holiness ; but only a Right to Impunity and Life , with an Imperfect Inherent Righteousness in our selves . The Papists are forced to confess , that a Righteousness we must have , which consisteth in a Conformity to the preceptive part of the Law , & not only the Retributive part . But they say , it is in our selves , and we say , It is Christ's Imputed to us . Thus he proposeth it , but if I were forming the objection , I would say , That Mr. Baxter Supposeth , we have no Righteousness at all , in order to justification , beside our Act of Faith : for as for his Right to Impunity and life , it is no Righteousness : & beside , I hope he will not say , that that is given before justification ; & of a Righteousness preceeding ( in order of Nature , at least ) justification , we are speaking , & enquireing after it . What he answereth to this Objection , in the first place , because it only concerneth Papistes , & their Misapprehensions , in the matter , I passe . But 2. he saith , If any of them do , as you say , no wonder , if they & you contend : If one say , we are Innocent , or sinless , in reality ; & the other , we are so by Imputation , when we are so no way at all , but sinners really , & so reputed . Ans. If by Innocent , or sinless , he mean such , as never sinned , never Man , Protestant or Papist , dreamed of such a thing . If by these termes , he meane such , are now not guilty legally , of the charge brought in against them ; this we acknowledge , and must acknowledge , or we know not , how any shall ever be justified ; for God will not pronounce sinners , as such , really and legally to be righteous , His judgment being according to truth : & therefore because we have no righteousness within us , whereupon we can be pronounced not guilty , we must have a Righteousness imputed to us , even the Surety-righteousness of Christ. But Mr. Baxter , it seemeth , will not understand , what this legal non-guiltiness is ; & yet in matters among men it is very clear and manifest . If Paul had fully Satisfied , according as he undertook , Philemon , for the wrongs and injuries done him by Onesimus ; If Onesimus had been convented before a judge for these same crimes and Injuries , & had produced the Satisfaction made by his Surety Paul , & accepted by the creditor Philemon , would not the judge have had ground in Law & equity , to pronounce Onesimus not guilty , & therefore not to be punished , according as was libelled against him ? And yet though Onesimus had been pronounced Innocent , that is , not-guilty , as to Crimes and Injuries alleiged against him , in this case , in a legal sense , it would not follow , that he had never committed these wrongs ; nor had the evincing of that been necessary to his Absolution and justification . His Legal Innocency or Righteousness , by vertue of the Satisfaction made by his Surety , now judicially accounted & reputed his , being Sufficient . These things are plaine to such , as will but open their eyes : but all the world cannot make them plaine to such , as will understand nothing , but what is cast into Aristotelian Metaphysical Mould . Were it not lost laboure for any to enquire , what is the Matter & Forme of this legal Righteousness of Onesimus ? Whereof is it constitute ? How came Paul's righteousness to be his , and so one accident to go from subject to subject ? whether was Paul's satisfaction the Efficient , or Constitutive cause of Onesimus his Innocency , or non-guiltiness , and the like ? The 5. Object is , How can God accept him , as just , who is really & reputedly a sinner ? This dishonoureth His Holiness and Justice . To this he saith . Not so : cannot God pardon sin upon a valuable Merite , & Satisfaction of a Mediator ? & though He judge us not perfect now , & accept us not , as such ; Yet . 1. Now he judgeth us holy . 2. And the members of a perfect Saviour . 3. And will make us perfect and spotless , and then so judge us , having washed us from our sins , in the bloud of the Lamb. Ans. All this giveth no satisfaction to the objection ; for the objection speaketh of acceptance in Justification , & consequently of that acceptation , that preceedeth Sanctification . ( 2. ) It is true , God can & doth pardon sins ; but meer pardon of sins is not justification , the person must be accepted , as righteous ; and yet by Mr. Baxter's way , the man hath no righteousness , to ground such a judgment and acceptation : and God's judgment being alwayes according to truth , the justified man must be righteous , that he may be accounted & accepted as Righteous , in Justification . Therefore either Mr. Baxter must grant , that he is Righteous through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ ; or that he is Righteous inherently by his faith , or by his fulfilling of the Conditions of the New Covenant ; for there is not a third : or that he is prononnced Righteous without a Righteousness . The 6. object . Thus you make the Reatus culpae not pardoned at all , but only the Reatus poenae . To this he saith 1. If by Reatus culprae be meaned the Relation of a sinner , as he is revera peccator , & so to be reus is to be revera ipse qui peccavit , then we must consider , what you meane by Pardon : for if you mean the nullifying of such a guilt ( or Reality ) it is impossible ; because necessitate existentiae , he that hath once sinned , will be still the person that sinned , while he is a person , & the relation of one that sinned will cleave to him . It will eternally be a true proposition , [ Peter & Paul did sin . ] But if by pardon you mean the pardoning of all the penalty , which for that sin is due ( damni vel sensus ) so it is pardoned ; & this is indeed the Reatus poenae ; not only the penalty , but the dueness of that penalty , or the obligation to it is remitted and nullified . Ans. The nullifying of the Reatus culpa physically or metaphysically is indeed Impossible ; for it will be alwayes true , that such & such persons did sinne : but this Reatus culpae may and must be nullified legally and juridically , otherwise never shall man be justified : for in justification this Reatus culpae is declared to be taken away ; for the man is declared non reus , & accepted as not-guilty , or Righteous ; not physically , or Metaphy●ically , but legally : a man must be legally Righteous before he be justified , according to equity ; & he cannot be legally Righteous , as long as the Reatus culpae doth legally remaine ; for a man legally guilty , is not legally Righteous . Now , Mr. Baxter must yeeld to this , or he shall destroy his own ground , and take away all pardon , as well as justification : for as it will be eternally true , that Peter & Paul did sinne , & so were rei culpae ; so it will be eternally true , that punishment was due unto them , that is ▪ they were rei poenae : & therefore , if because it will be eternally true , that Peter & Paul sinned , therefore the Reatus culpae cannot be annulled ; so because it will be eternally true , that Peter & Paul were obnoxious & liable to punishment , therefore also the Reatus poenae cannot be annulled . But the truth lyeth here , that though neither the Reatus culpae nor poenae can be annulled physically , or metaphysically , that is , so taken away , as if they never had been ; yet both are taken away legally & juridically , and a pardoned man is legally and juridically non puniendus , & thus the Reatus poenae is taken away : and a justified man is legally and juridically , not-guilty of the offence charged against him , & thus the Reatus culpae is taken away . As it is inconsistent with pardon , to say , that the person pardoned doth legally remaine obnoxious to punishment , though it will be eternally true , that he is the man , that did contract that dueness & onbnoxiousness : so it is inconsistent with justification , to say , that the person justified is legally chargable with the offence , though it will be eternally true , that he is the man , that did contract that guilt & sin . He saith . 2. Therefore if by Reatus culpae , you meane an obligation to punishment for that fault , this , being in deed the reatus poenae , is done away . So that we are , I think , all agreed de re ; & de nomine ; you may say , that the Reatus culpae is done away or remitted , or not , in several senses ; in se it is not nullified , nor can be , but as dueness of punishment followeth that is pardoned . Ans. The Reatus culpae is the ground of the obligation to punishment , & not the same with Reatus poenae ; it is a being chargable with such a crime & offence ; and this , as we said , much be as well done away , in a legal sense , as the obligation to punishment : Nay , in our case , the obligation to punishment cannot be taken away , untill first this chargableness with the sin be removed . The Lord will not declare that man non-obliged to punishment , who remaineth legally and Juridically reus culpae & chargable with the crime . And so long as we differ herein , we are not agreed de re , nor de nomine . The Reatus culpae , in se , is as well nullified , in a legal sense , as the Reatus poenae ; and neither the one , nor the other can be otherwayes nullified . But I see , Mr. Baxter is so for pardon , as to destroy all Justification , or he thinketh that Pardon and Justification are all one thing , and by both nothing is taken away , but the obligation to punishment ; and thus the pardoned and justified person is still chargable with the sin ; & the obligation to punishment is taken away , where the charge of guilt remaineth : and thus God is supposed to justifie a person , that is not justifiable , except by an iniquous sentence . Yea , hereby we have the Socinian pardon owned , but not the orthodox pardon : for the Socinian-Pardon can well consist with this chargableness of guilt , because they acknowledge no Satisfaction , to remove the Reatus culpae : but the orthodox pardon doth presuppose the removal , in a legal sense , of the guilt or chargableness of sin , and is a Native consequent thereof : for because of Satisfaction made by the Surety , Christ , and the same now imputed to the sinner , and made his , guilt is taken away , & he is no more chargable with that guilt , but looked upon as Righteous ; and therefore all obligation to punishment is actually removed , & he is no more obnoxious thereto in Law , being rectus in curia . Object . 7. You have said , that though we are not personally , but seminally in Adam , when he sinned , yet when we are persons , we are persons guilty of his actual sin . And so we must be persons , that are partakers of Christ's actual Righteousness , and not only of its effects , as soon as we are beleevers ; for Christ being the second Adam & publick person , we have our part in His Righteousness , as truely , and as much , as in Adam's sin . His answere to this is long . He saith . 1. Our Covenant Union & Interest supposeth our Natural Union & Interest , & it is an adding to God's word & Covenant , to say , that He Covenanted , that Adam should personat each one of his posterity , in God's Imputation , or account , any further than they were naturally in him , & so that his innocency or sin should be reputed theirs , as far , as if they had been personally the Subjects & Agents . Ans. If the Covenant Union & Interest supposeth the Natural Union & Interest , then there is a Covenant Union and Interest here to be considered : and therefore it can be no adding to God's word or Covenant , to say , That Adam did personat each one of his posterity foederally , as well as Naturally : Yea , to deny this , were a corrupting of truth , & a denying of all Covenant-Union & Interest . Whence it is manifest , that in a Federal or legal sense , we must needs say , that Adam's Innocency , or sin is reputed ours , as far as if we had been personally ( not physically , but legally ) the Subjects & Agents . If Mr. Baxter shall prove , that the Foederal Union & Interest , which he saith is superadded to the Natural , will admit of no other Consideration of the posterity Interessed , than what is physical & Natural , & followeth upon the Natural Union , he shall then lay a ground for what he would say here , but till then he shall but beat the aire ; & when he hath done that , he shall destroy what he hath granted , viz. all Foederal Union & Interest : for a Foederal Union & Interest will ground a foederal & legal Consideration of the persons interessed ; as well as a Natural Union and Interest will ground a Natural and physical Consideration of the same persons . And Mr. Baxter's not adverting to this , confoundeth all ; for hence it is , that he will have all things here considered only physically , and according to Aristotle's notions , with which we have nothing to do , while speaking of a Foederal Union and Interest , and of what followeth thereupon . This being premitted , we may quickly dispatch the rest . The person of Peter ( saith he ) never was in reality , or God's reputation , the person of Adam ( nor Adam's person the person of Peter ) but Peter being virtually & seminally in Adam , when he sinned ; his person is derived from Adam's person ; & so Peter's guilt is not numerically the some with Adam's , but the accident of another Subject , & therefore another accident , derived with the person from Adam , & from neerer parents . Ans. All this is only true , in a physical Natural sense ; but notwithstanding , if we consider Adam and his posterity , in a legal & foederal sense , as we must , if there be ( as is granted ) a foederal Union & Interest , then all runneth in another channel . The person of Peter is foederally and legally , in the person of Adam ; yea God reputeth them both to be one Federal person : and the person of Peter was thus actually in the person of Adam , and not virtually and seminally : for these notions have no place here . And hence Peter's original guilt is numerically the same with Adam's : and in this sense Peter had as neer a Relation to Adam , as Abel had ; for here Adam is considered , as the Head & Center , and all his posteri●y , as equal members of this Political & Foederal Body , and as Lines coming equally from the same Centre . He addeth . The fundamentum of that Relation ( of guilt ) is the Natural Relation of the pe●son to Adam ( & so it is relatio in relatione fundata ) The fundamentum of that Natural relation is Generation , yea a series of Generations from Adam to that person . And Adam's Generation being the communication of a guilty Nature with personality , to his Sones & Daughters , is the fundamentum next following his personal fault & guilt , charged on him by the law . So that here is a long series of efficient causes , bringing down from Adam's person & guilt , a distinct numerical person & guilt of everyone of this later posterity . Ans. 1. The fundamentum of that relation of guilt is more properly & proximely , the foederal relation of the person to Adam , than the Natural relation : and the fundamentum of this foederal relation is not Generation , but the free Ordination and Constitution of God. ( 2 ) What he meaneth by these words , and Adam's generation being the communication of a guilty nature with personality to his Sons and Daughters , is the fundamentum , next following his personal fault and guilt , charged on him by the Law , I do not know : If his meaning be , that the Communication of a guilty Nature , by the peccatum originale originatum , is the fundamentum of the following personal fault and guilt , by reason of the peccatum originale originans ; that is , if he say , that the corrupted Nature is the ground of the Imputation of Adam's transgression , it is not consonant to truth , nor to what himself said above pag. 34. against Placeus . But if he meane , that Adam's Generation being the communication of a guilty Nature , is the fundamentum , that next followeth his personal guilt , charged on him by Law , I must say , I do not understand what he would be at , though the words seem to express some such thing . But the truth , that I shall lay down , is this ; That all Adam's posterity , being federally in him , sinned in him , and fell with him , in his first transgression ; by vertue whereof , when they come physically , by natural Generation , to partake of his Nature , they are first , in order of Nature guilty of Adam's transgression , and then have a corrupt Nature communicated , as a punishment and consequent of the other ; & this Corrupt Nature being sin , hath its own guilt attending it also . ( 3 ) Though this long series of Efficient causes be requisite to the production of a distinct numerical person from Adam's person , in a physical and natural sense ; yet every one of these physically distinct numerical persons do immediatly derive from Adam their legal and foederal personalities , that is , these same persons , considered foederally , are equally and alike neer to Adam , their federal Head and Representative : And therefore the guilt of Adam's sin cometh from him immedratly to each one of them , foederally considered ; and is consequently , the same numerical guilt : and all this is founded upon their Federal Union with , and Interest in Adam . He saith . 2. And it is not the same sort of guilt , or so plenary , which is in us , for Adam's act , as was on him ; but a guilt Analogical , or of another sort , that is , he wes guilty of being the wilfull sinning person , & so are not we ; but only of being persons , whose being is derived by Generation from the wilful sinning persons ( besides the guilt of our own inherent pravity ) that is , the Relation is such , which our persons have to Adam's person , as makes it just with God to desert us , and to punish us for that & our pravity together . This is our guilt of original sin . Ans. ( 1 ) Hereby that original sin , whereof we are speaking here , viz , Adam's breach of Covenant , seemeth quite to be taken away : for not only is it said , that original sin , as in us , is another sort of thing , than what it was in Adam ; and so not only not the same numerically ( as he formerly said ) but not the same specifically : but moreover it is said to be only an Analogical guilt : yea in end it is made just nothing ; for it is said , that we are guilty of being persons , whose being is derived from the wilfull sinning persons , and this is no guilt at all ; no mans simple being , let it be by generation from the most prodigiously guilty and wicked persons , that can be , can be imputed to him for guilt ; for his receiving a being is contrary to no Law. And beside , when he addeth by way of Explication , that the Relation is such , which our persons have to Adam's person , as makes it just with God to deserte us , he must either make the simple Relation to be the guilt , or the ground of guilt , and its Imputation . The Simple Relation , without some guilt following it , and founded upon it , cannot make it just with God to desert us &c. For sin only can do this , & that Relation is not sin . If he say , That guilt is Superadded , & upon this account , it is just with God thus to punish . I would ask , what is this guilt : It is not Adam's sin , but some analogical thing , which Scripture knoweth nothing of , and Reason can give us no account , whence it came . He cannot say , that it came from Adam's sin , for if we be federally united to & Interessed in Adam ( as we are , & as he confessed we were ) and if upon that account we be reputed guilty , the same Individual guilt , which was on Adam , must be upon us ; and if our guilt be of another sort , he must give us another Adam , from whom that other analogical sort floweth . The Scripture saith , that we all sinned in Adam Rom. 5 : 12. which were not truth , if his individual sin were not ours , or if ours were of another sort , and only analogical . But this is the fruit of Mr. Baxter's casting all these things in Aristotle's mould . But moreouer ( 2 ) It hath a foule aspect towards Pelagianisme , to make our guilt another , than Adam's , because that Adam was the wilful sinning person , and so are not we : for this is to confirme the Pelagians , who say , that that sin was only Adam's , because he was the only wilfully sinning person , & we had no will therein . 3. He saith . And this guilt cometh to us by Natural propagation , and resultancie from our very Nature so propagated . Ans. It is true , we come to be actually charged with this guilt , & to have it imputed to us , when we partake of our beings by Natural Generation or propagation ; and that because of our federal Union with & Interest in Adam ; and exclusive of this , it cannot be said to come to us by resultancy from our very Nature so propagated : for the guilt of all Adam's after-Transgressions should as well be said to come to us , after this manner , as the guilt of that one Transgression & Disobedience , of which only the Scripture maketh mention Rom. 5. He cometh next to consider our contrary Interest in Christ , & tels us 1. Our persons are not the same as Christ's person ( nor Christ's as ours ) nor ever so judged or accounted of God. Ans. Physically this is true ; but it is not true legally : for when he came in the Law-place of the Elect , & become Surety for-them , they and he became one person in Law. He saith 2. Our persons were not Naturally seminally & virtually in Christ's person ( any further than He is Creator & Cause of all things ) as they were in Adam's . Ans. Adam was a natural Head , our Lord is a Spiritual & Supernatural Head : & as to this , we willingly grant a difference ; but both were Federal Heads & Publick Persons , & their agreement in this satisfieth us . He saith 3. Therefore we derive not Righteousness from Him by Generation , but by His voluntary donation and contract . Ans. We derive it from Him by Regeneration ; that is , as we partake of Adam's guilt , when by Generation we partake of a Natural being ; so we partake of Christ's Righteousness , when by Regeneration we partake of a spiritual being in Him. And there is no new formal contract made here anent , but what is sutable to the Nature of this privilege , in order to its conveyance . He saith 4. as He became not our Natural parent , so our persons , not being in Christ , when He obeyed , are not reputed to have been in Him naturally , or to have obeyed in & by Him. Ans. We say only ( and we seek no more ) that Christ was our Federal Head ; and our persons Federally ( not physically ) were in Christ , when He obeyed : we are reputed to be in Him not Naturally , but Foederally , and so to have obeyed in & by Him. He saith 5. If Cbrist & we are reputed one person , either He obeyed in our person , or we in His , or both ; if He obeyed , as reputed sinner , in the person of each sinner , His obedience could not be Meritorious , according to the Law of Innocency , which required sinless perfection ; & He being supposed to have broken the Law in our person , could not so be supposed to keep it . If we obeyed in His person , we obeyed as Mediators , or Christ's . Ans. Aristotle's Notions , to which Mr. Baxter , contrary to all sense & reason , will have this whole matter restricked , in its explication , are the cause of all this ridiculous Confusion . But for answere , I say , Christ & we are reputed one person , not physically , but in Law-sense & federally ; & therefore both he obeyed ; as taking on our Law-place , & coming in to our Law-condition : and to say , that therefore His obedience could not be Meritorious , is ridiculous : as if forsooth His coming into our Law-place , would make Him to be supposed , to have broken the Law , in His physical person , as if one would say . The Surety cannot pay the debtor's debt , because by coming in to his Law-place , he becometh a bankrupt . Himself saith , that Christ suffered in our stead ; & this cannot be in our Physical stead , but in our Law-stead ; now will it not as well hence follow , that He suffered as a sinner ▪ & then , how could He , who suffered , as being supposed to have broken the Law , make Satisfaction for us ; or how could His death be Meritorious ? Thus indeed good service shall be done to the Socinians , but bad service to the Truth . Finally , we obeyed , as Federally in Him , & yet were no Mediators , or Christ's , but redeemed Saints ; as the debtor satisfied the Creditor , in Law-sense , when his Surety did it ; and yet became no Surety thereby . He saith 6. But as is oft said , Christ our Mediator undertook in a middle person to reconcile God and Man ( not by bringing God to judge erroneously , that He , or we were , what we were not , or did whas we did not , but ) by being , doing and suffering for us that , in His own person , which should botter answere Gods Ends & Honour , than if we had done and suffered in our persons , that hereby he might merite a free gift of pardon & life ( with himself ) to be given by a Law of Grace , to beleeving penitent Accepters . Ans. I doubt there be one word here said , to which a Socinian will not subscribe . But for answer , I say , Christ our Mediator so undertook , in a middle physical person , to reconcile God & man , that He became our Surety , & came in our stead & Law-place , to do and suffer what we were obliged unto by the Law : and when God judged Him to be , and to do thus , He judged not erroneously , but truely , according to His own gracious Appointment , and Ordination , making Him a Publick person , representing all such , as He gave Him to save . We have shown elsewhere , that Christ merited something else , than a Law of Grace , to Convey a free gift of pardon & life upon New Conditions , otherwise His death could not be called a Ransome , a Redemption , or a price ; nor could He be said to have died in the stead of any person , or to have born their Iniquities , or the punishment thereof ; far less to have been made sin for us . But more of this hereafter . Object 8. As Christ is a sinner , by Imputation of our sin ; so we are Righteous by the Imputation of His Righteousness . But it is our sin it self that is Imputed to Christ. Therefore it is His Righteousness it self , that is imputed to us . To this he saith . 1. Christ's person was not the subject of our personal relative guilt , much less of our habites , or acts . 2. God did not judge Him to have been so . 3. Nay Christ had no guilt of the same kind reckoned to be on Him , else these unmeet speaches , used rashly by some , would be true , viz. That Christ was the greatest murderer , Adulterer &c. and consequently more hated of God , for God must needs hate a sinner , as such . Ans. ( 1 ) Mr. Baxter will understand nothing here , but according to his Philosophical & Metaphysical Notions : & in this sense , we may grant him all that he saith : And yet adde , That Christ was the legal , juridical , and federal subject of our guilt ; for our sins did meet together on Him , and He was made sin ( 2 ) and God doing all this , could not but judge Him to have been so . ( 3 ) Christ inherently had no guilt neither of the same kind , nor of any other : but that our very sins were imputed to Him , & reckoned upon His score , must be granted , or we must deny , His dying or satisfying in our stead ; & so plainely embrace Socinianisme ( 4 ) Those speeches are but unmeet to such , as mistake them , as Mr. Baxter doth here , who supposeth that their meaning is , That He was the greatest sinner Inherently ( which were indeed blasphemy , but far from their thoughts ) for he inferreth , that consequently he must have been more hated of God ; while as God's hatred ( if we take it not for meer punishing of sin ) is only against such , as are inherently sinners . What saith he moreover ? To be guilty of sin , as we are , is to be reputed truely the person , that committed it . But so was not Christ ; & therefore not so to be reputed , Christ was but the Mediator , that undertook to suffer for our sins , that we might be forgiven , & not for His own sin , really or justly reputed . Ans. No man saith , that Christ was guilty of sin , as we are , that is , Inherently . But if He undertook to suffer for our sins , unless we turn Socinians , in expounding this sentence , we must say , that the guilt of our sins was laid upon Him , otherwise He could not suffer for them , in our place & stead ; & we must say , that He , so suffered for them , as that all they , in whose stead He suffered , should certainly be forgiven ; & not have a bare may be of forgiveness , by a New Covenant , offering the same upon new termes . What next ? Expositors ( saith he ) commonly say , that to be [ made sin for us ] is but to be made a [ Sacrifice for sin ] so that Christ took upon Him , neither our numerical guilt of sin it self , nor any of the same species , but only our Reatum poenae , or debt of punishment , or ( left the wranglers make a verbal quarrel of it ) our Reatum culpae , non quâ talem , & in se , sed quatenus est fundamentum Reatus poenae . Ans. Yet some Expositors will say more , and that in full consonancy with the Scriptures , as Esai . 53 : 6. And however , all we say , is hereby sufficiently confirmed ; for if He be made a sacrifice for our sins , our sins must necessarily be imputed to him , as the sins of the people were typically laid upon the Sacrifices : and therefore Christ must have taken on Him , not physically but legally , our very numerical guilt , without which he could not be accounted reus poenoe , or obnoxious to our punishment . What he meaneth by the reatus culpae qua talis , & in se , he would do well to explaine : If his meaning be , that Christ was not legally accounted guilty , this is denied ; for then he could not have been a Sacrifice for our sins , to have died in our stead . Wrangling is not good : Yet Turpe'est Doctori , &c. He addeth , And so His Righteousness is ours not numerically , the same Relation that he was the subject of , made that Relation to us ; nor yet a Righteousness of the same species as Christ's is given to us at all . Ans. Though Christ's numerical Righteousness be not ours physically ; yet that same is made over to us legally : as it is one & the same Individual payment , that is made by the Surety , and made over in Law unto the debtor . And therefore what he addeth is to no purpose . But ( saith he ) His Righteousness is the Meritorious cause & reason of another Righteousness or justification , ( distinct from His ) freely given us by the Father & Himself by His Covenant . Ans. Righteousness and justification are not one and the same , more than the cause is the same with the Effect . As Christ's Righteousness is the Meritorious Cause of our Justification , so it must be legally made ours , in order to our Justification , otherwayes we cannot be accounted Righteous , and legally free of the Charge , brought in against us . And this is not granted us by a Covenant with new Conditions , in Mr. Baxter's sense , as hath been evinced already . Therefore he is in a great mistake , when he concludeth , that they that will not blaspheme Christ , by making guilt of sin it self , in its formal relation to be His own ; & so Christ to be formally as great a sinner , as all the Redeemed set together ; & they that will not overthrow the Gospel , by making us formally as Righteous , as Christ , in kind & measure , must needs be agreed with us , in this part of the controversie . For we have shown , how far we are from Blasphemy , & how groundless his Insinuation is , founded only on his Physical or Metaphysical acceptation of things here , which we understand only legally and juridically , according to all right and reason . And as for subverting of the Gospel , it is one of our choise grounds of Reason against his way , because by it the Gospel is indeed changed , and the true and native Gospel-way of Salvation is indeed removed , and a Sociniano-Armintan Gospel substitute in its room , which is daily more and more confirmed , by books coming out , wherein Mr. Baxter's grounds are owned , and more Socinianisme & Arminianisme vented , than Mr. Baxter himself hath yet had the confidence to express in his own books ; witness Mr. Allens discourse of the two Covenants , ushered in with Mr. Baxter's preface ; and others of that kind much commended , and cryed up by Mr. Baxter . 9. Object . When you Inferre , that if we are reckoned to have perfectly obeyed in and by Christ , we cannot be againe bound to obey ourselves afterward , nor be guilty of any sin : you must know , that it is true , that we cannot be bound to obey to the same ends , as Christ did ( which is to redeem us , or to fulfill the Law of works ) but yet we must obey to other ends viz. in gratitude and in love to God , and to do good , and the like . Though I think the objection is not so favourably proposed , as it might be , seing that end to Redeem should not here be mentioned ; for though it was the end of Christ's coming in to our Law-place , yet it cannot be said to be properly the end of that Obedience , he performed , while he was in our Law-place , proximely . Let us see how ever , what he saith to it . 1. Hence ( saith he . ) it clearly followeth , that Christ obeyed not in each of our persons legally , but in the person of a Mediator , seing His due obedience & ours have so different ends , and a different formal-relation ( His being a conformity proximatly to the Law , given Him , as Mediator ) that they are not so much as of the same species , much less numerically the same . Ans. I think rather , that hence it clearly followeth , that Christ did indeed obey the Law , as it was the Condition of the Covenant of works , in each of the Elect's person legally : for though His Obedience and ours now , after faith , have far different ends ; yet His Obedience , as Obedience to the Law of works , had the same end that our Obedience should have had by that Law , viz. the fulfilling of the same , in order to the obtaining of a Right to Life ; and if not , to lose all . The Law , given Him as Mediator , taken in its latitude , is not the Law , whereof the objection speaketh ; for it speaketh of the Law of works , under which Adam was , and all his posterity in him , and under the breach of which we lay . And Christ's obeying , in the person of a mediator , doth not hinder His representing His own legally ; for He was such a Mediator , as was a Sponsor and Surety , and came in our Law-place , and undertook our debt . Therefore , though Christ's Obedience to the special Law , given to Him , as Mediator , was not of the the same kind , with the obedience , required of us ; yet the obedience He performed to the Moral Law , in our place & stead , and as our Surety and Sponsor , was the very same debt , we were oweing . He saith 2. Either this Obedience of Gratitude , is a duty , or not ; if not , it is not truely obedience , nor the omission sin : If yea , then that duty was made a duty by some Law : And if by a Law , we are now bound to obey , in gratitude , ( or for what ends so ever ) either we do all that we are so bound to do , or not ; if we do it ( or any of it ) then to say , that we did it twice , once by Christ & once by ourselves , is to say , that we were bound to do it twice , & then Christ did not all , that we were bound to , but half . Ans. We distinguish betwixt the Law , as the Condition of the Covenant of works ; and as a Rule of Obedience : A duty may be duty now , as required by the Law still in force , as to its commanding regulating power , and yet not be a part of the Condition of the Covenant of works , wherein we had failed , which Christ fulfilled , by giving perfect obedience to that Law , as the Condition of Life , to which we neither did , nor could give perfect Obedience : and all our Obedience now , though commanded by the same Law , is no fulfilling in whole , or in part , of the Condition of the Covenant of works ; and therefore can not be said thus to be done twice , but once , and that by Christ alone . He addeth , But what man is he , that sinneth not ? Therefore , seing it is certaine , that no man doth all , that he is bound to do by the Gospel ( in the time & measure of his faith , hope , love , fruitfulness &c. ) it followeth that he is a sinner , and that he is not supposed to have done all that by Christ , which he failed in , both because he was bound to do it himself , & because he is a sinner for not doing of it . Ans. As there is a difference betwixt obedience to the Law , and the performing the Condition of the Covenant of works ; so there is difference betwixt sin or failing in Obedience , and Violation of the Condition of the Covenant of works : as our Obedience now is not the performance , so our sinning is not the Violation of the Conditions of the old Couenant . Beleevers performed the Conditions of the Covenant only in Christ , which they could not do in themselves ; and therefore their sins now , though transgressions of the Law , are not counted Violations of the conditions of the Covenant of works , under which they are not . He saith 3. Yea the Gospel bindes us to that , which Christ could not do for us , as to beleeve in a Saviour , &c. Ans. And what then ? were these part of the Conditions of the Covenant of works ? If they were , Christ hath performed them , for He gave perfect Obedience ; and thereby hath freed us from that obligation . If they were not , neither can they now be required , as part of that Condition . He saith 4. The truth , which this Objection intimateth , we all agree in , viz. That the Mediator perfectly kept the Law of Innocency , that the keeping of that Law might not be necessary to our Salvation ( and so such Righteousness necessary in ourselves ) but that we might be pardoned for want of perfect Innocency , & be saved upon our sincere keeping of the Law of Grace , because the Law of Innocency was kept by our Mediator , and thereby the grace of the New Covenant merited , and by it , Christ , Pardon , Spirit & Life by Him freely given to beleevers , Ans. The truth expressed in the Objection , is very far different from this Sociniano-Arminian Scheme of the Gospel , which we have had often times proposed to us by Mr. Baxter , but never yet confirmed ; nor do we expect ever so see it confirmed . We have also , at several occasions , given our reasons against it , and need not therefore here repeat , or insist upon it . Last object . The same person may be really a sinner , in himself , and yet perfectly Innocent in Christ , and by Imputation , How or upon what occasion , this objection is used , Mr. Baxter doth not show , and therefore we cannot certainely know the true meaning and Import thereof . In one sense it may be very true , and yet in another sense it cannot be admitted . It is true , in this sense , The same person may be Inherently a sinner , and yet legally Innocent , through the Imputation of the Surety-righteousness of Christ. But it cannot be admitted in this sense , The same person is legally Innocent in Christ by Imputation ; for this were a Contradiction . What saith Mr. Baxtor to it ? Remember ( saith he ) that you suppose here the person & Subject to be the same Man ; & then that the two contrary relations , of perfect Innocency or guiltlesness , & guilt of any ( yea much ) sin can be consistent in him , is a gross contradiction . Ans. There is no contradiction , unless the matter be ad idem : & here it is not so ; for he may be guilty Inherently , as to himself , and yet innocent legally , as to his Surety . But if both be understood of a person , legally considered , I grant , it is a Contradiction ; for he , that is legally Innocent , cannot be legally guilty , in so far as he is legally Innocent , whether the Charge be particular for one sin , that is brought in against him , or for moe , or for all . He saith 2. But if you meane , that God reputeth us to be perfectly Innocent , when we are not , because that Christ was so , it is to Impute error to God. Ans. This cannot be their meaning : for they know , that God reputeth no man to be other-wayes , than he is . But yet it must be said , that God reputeth Beleevers , who have the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them , Innocent , as to the Violation of the Covenant of works , I mean , legally Innocent , and so , not guilty of the charge of sin , & death upon that account , brought in against them ; for they are so , being justified ; & therefore there is now no condemnation to such Rom , 8 : 1. & none can lay any thing of that Nature to their Charge vers 33. He addeth , But He ( i. e. God ) doth indeed first give , & then Impute a Righteousness evangelical to us , in stead of perfect Innocency , which shall as certainely bring us to glory . Ans. That God doth indeed Impute , that is , give & put upon our score an Evangelical Righteousness , that is , the Surety-Righteousness of Jesus Christ , revealed in the Gospel , in stead of our perfect & personal Innocency , which we neither had , nor could attaine to , & which shall certainely bring us to glory , being the Meritorious Cause thereof . But Mr. Baxter's sense hereof is a manifest Perversion of the Gospel : for thus he senseth it . And that is , He giveth us both the Renovation of His Spirit ( to Evangelical obedience ) & a Right by free gift to pardon & glory , for the Righteousness of Christ , that merited it , & this thus given us , he reputeth to be an acceptable Righteousness in us . Ans. Now that this is a clear perversion of the Gospel is manifest from these particulars ( beside several others else where touched ) ( 1 ) Hereby the Covenant of Grace is changed into a Covenant of works , only with a Mitigation of the Conditions . ( 2 ) Christ's Surety-righteousness is not Imputed to us , neither as our legal Righteousness , nor yet as our Evangelick-righteousness ; for at most it is only granted to be Imputed , as to its Effects . ( 3. We have no other Righteousness hereby properly imputed to us , but our own Inherent Righteousness . ( 4 ) Christ is hereby made of God unto us Righteousness , by being made of God Sanctification to us . ( 5 ) Hereby the immediat ground of our Pardon & Right to Glory , is not Christ's Surety-righteousness , but our own Inherent righteousness . ( 6 ) Christ hereby me●ited neither Pardon , nor Glory to be granted , as the Immediat fruites of His merites ; but He only merited the New Covenant , wherein these favours are offered upon new Conditions . ( 7 ) Thus Christ is made only a far off Mediating person , procureing new and easier termes ( which yet are as Impossible to us , till we be renewed by grace , as the old ) but no Redeemer , or Surety , suffering and obeying in the room and stead of any . ( 8 ) Thus are we justified by our own works of Evangelical Obedience ( 9 ) God is made hereby to repute a Right to Pardon & Glory , & our Imperfect Evangelical Obedience , to be an acceptable Righteousness , & the all of our Righteousness : all which are against the Gospel of the Grace of God , revealed to us in the Scriptures , as hath partly been discovered already , & will further appear by what will hereafter come to be spoken unto . CHAP. XVI . Mr. Baxter's Further opposition to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness examined . WHat Mr. Baxter's opinion is , about the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , in order to our justification , we have hitherto been enquireing ; & though , in his book against D. Tully , while he is giving an historical relation of the Controversie , he plainely enough declareth , that he is of the judgment ( as to the maine ) with Iohn Goodwine : yet he there ( as we have heard ) so stateth the question , against which he disputeth , as the Orthodox will not owne it ; wherein he dealeth not so ingenuously with us , as Mr. Goodwine did . He will not deny , that there is a midway betwixt the Socinians , Papists & Arminians , on the one hand , & the Antinomians on the other ; though the Middle way , which he hath se● down in his Confess . pag. 152 153. &c. seemeth to me not be the just & orthodox way , but to incline more unto the Socinians &c. for all the Imputation , which he seemeth to owne , is nothing else , than what Papists , Socinians & Arminians , will subscribe unto : for ( beside what we have seen & examined above Chap. XIII . & XIV . ) in his book against Mr. Cartwright pag. 179. he hath these words . I have still acknowledged the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , sanosensu . And what found sense is , he tels us in a parenthesis , that is ( saith he ) 1. per Donationem ejus fructus and 2. per adjudicationem justitiae nobis inde promeritae , that is to say , by giving us the fruits thereof & 2. by adjudging to us Righteousness , thereby purchased : which two seem to me , to be but one , the last being comprehended in the first : & so all the Imputation by him granted , is only in respect of the fruits thereof , which are given . And will not Papists , Socinians & Arminians yeeld unto this Imputation : Nay doth not Bellarmine come a further length , in the words formerly cited ? Mr. Baxter in his Catholick Theol. part 2. of Moral morks , giveth us here & there , while speaking of other things , without any apparent Connexion ( choosing this way rather , than to give us his whole sense of that matter , in one place together , which might have been some ' ease to such , as were desirous to know the same : but I know , he is at liberty to follow his own wayes & methods ) some hints of his mind ; and that rather of his dissatisfaction with the orthodox , and their manner of expressing their Thoughts & Conceptions , in this matter , than any full & positive declaration of his own Thoughts about the question . We shall , having seen & examined his own judgment , shortly here examine what he is pleased to say , in one place or other of that Book , so far as we can finde , & may be done without repetition , against our doctrine . Only we shall premit some few of his own words , in the Appendix to the Premonition p. 2. whereby we may see , how small the difference would appear to be ; & how little cause he had to write so much against the Orthodox , as he doth . He there saith . [ 14. No man is saved or justified , but by the Proper Merite of Christ's perfect obedience ; Yea and His habitual holiness & Satisfactory Sufferings , advanced in dignity by His Divine Perfection : 15. This Merite , as related to us , supposeth that Christ , as a Sponsor , was the Second Adam , the Root of the justified , the Reconciling Mediator , who obeyed perfectly with that Intent , that by His obedience , we might be justified ; & who suffered for our sins , in our room and stead ; & so was , in tantum our Vicarius poenae , as some phrase it , or Substitute , & was made a curse for us , that we might be healed by his stripes ; as He was Obedient , that His Righteousness might be the reason , as a Meritorious Cause , of our justification , which Supposeth the relation of an Undertaking Redeemer in our Nature , doing this , & in our stead , so far forth , as that therefore , perfect obedience should not be necessary to be performed by ourselves . And Righteousness therefore is Imputed to us , that is , we are truely reputed Righteous , because we , as beleeving members of Christ , have right to Impunity & life , as merited by His righteousness , & freely given to all penitent beleevers . And Christ's own Righteousness may be said so far to be Imputed to us , as to be reckoned & reputed the Meritorious cause of our Right & justification , as aforesaid . ] One might think the difference now to be little , or none ; but all this is but Sutable to what is already examined , and what might here further be animadverted upon , will occurre hereafter . He beginneth Sect. 8. n. 119. to speak against the Doctrine of Imputation , taught by the Orthodox . I shall yeeld to him , that Christ's personal Righteousness , Divine or Humane , Habitual active , or Passive , is not given to us , or made ours , truely and properly , in a Physical sense ; as if the same were transfused in & upon us . Yet , the same , being imputed to us , is made ours , more than in the meer Effects : for according to the Gospel methode , beleevers , being by Faith interes●ed in Him , have an Interest in His Surety-righteousness , as to its vertue , force and efficacy , or as the cause , and that morally and legally ; so that Christ and beleevers are one person in Law. No● do we hereby say ; That Christ's Merite & Satisfaction are reput●d by God , to be inherent in us , or done by us , in our own proper persons ; or that in a sence Natural we did all these things ourselves , or that God judgeth us so to have done , or that all the Benefites of Christ's Righteousness shall as fully and Immediatly be ours , as if we bad been , & done & Suffered , merited and Satisfied , in and by Christ. But we say , that Christ being a Surety , & putting himself in our Law-place , & putting ( as it were ) His name in our Obligation , being thereunto Substitute by , and accepted of the Father , His Satisfaction & obedience , being performed by Him , in our Law-place , as a Surety voluntarily taking on the obligation , is accounted , in Law and justice , to be ours , who beleeve in Him , to all ends and uses , that is , in order to justification , pardon , and Right to Glory ; and that , as effectually , as if we our selves , in our own persons , had done and Suffered all . When Mr. Baxter confoundeth and jumbleth these together , as if they were the same , he neither befriendeth Truth , nor us . Nor will it follow from our assertion , ( as he suppseth n. 123. ) that then we could need no Pardon : for though he , who is reputed to be Innocent , by fulfilling all the Law , in his own physical person , be reputed never to have sinned by Omission , or Commission ; & consequently to need no pardon : yet he , who is a transgressour , & consequently hath forfeited all right to the Reward , & is obnoxious to the Penalty , hath need of a Remission , through his Suretie's making Satisfaction ; & of a new Title to Glory , through his Suretie's Obedience . So that the Non-necessity of Pardon will no more follow from our doctrine of Imputation , than from our doctrine of the Satisfaction of Christ , whatever Socinians think , who plead as vehemently from free Remission against this , as Mr. Baxter doth , upon the same ground , against Imputation . But when any say , that Christ's Sacrifice satisfied for all our sins , that they may be forgiven ; & His Righteousness is Impu●ed , that we may also be accounted just , he thinketh , ( n. 122. ) that this is but either ambiguity ; or the fore-detected gross contradiction . And why so : for ( saith he ) if by justice , they meane reputed sinlesness , or perfection , then these two cannot stand together ; for he that is supposed a sinner is supposed not sinless , or perfect ; & he that is supposed sinless , cannot be supposed pardonable . Ans. By justice , or being accounted just we mean Righteous , or rectus in curia , in order to the Reward promised : and when full obedience is imputed to this end , we do not say , that God reputeth such sinless , that is , such as , in their own physical persons , gave perfect obedience ; for such indeed need no pardon : but that now God reputeth them such as are Righteous , and have Right to the Reward , through the perfect Righteousness of Christ Imputed : and this carrieth no shew of Repugnancy to pardon of sins , through the Satisfaction of Christ. But ( n. 123. ) he tels us , that some think to avoid the Contradiction by distinguishing only of the moments of Nature , & double respect of the same Mans Actions , saying , that we are first in order of Nature supposed to be sinners & pardoned , & then to be such , as moreover need the Reputation of Innocency , or Righteousness , which is added to pardon . What necessity there is for this curious distinguishing of Order & Priority , whether in respect of Nature or of Time , I do not yet see . And whether we say , we are first pardoned , & then reputed Righteous ; or first reputed Righteous , & then pardoned ( which would seem most rational of the two ) it is all one to Mr. Baxter , who equally argueth against both . But though I see no necessity of asserting any of these orders ( Save that though the first thing , that a wakened sinner is pardon & freedom from the Curse ; Yet it is more rational to say , the Reatus culpae first taken away , and not the Reatus poenae ) yet I see a necessity of asserting both the Imputation of Christ's Satisfaction , in order to our pardon ; & of His Obedience , in order to our obtaining Right to the Inheritance ( and both these Mr. Baxter comprehendeth in justification , as we shall hear ) or of both His Satisfaction and obedience , or of His compleat Surety-righteousness , in order to our obtaining compleat justification , & its Effects , or consequents , Remission of sins & Right to the Crown . But saith Mr. Baxter 1. He that is pardoned of all sins of Omission & Commission , is accounted Innocent & Righteous , as to any guilt of punishment , either of sense or loss . Ans. True he is accounted Innocent , or Righteous , as to guilt of punishment of sense ; yea or of loss , in so far as it is a punishment , or belongeth to the punishment threatned . But he is not accounted Innocent , that is , one that hath never sinned ; or one that hath never lest right to the reward : & therefore beside this pardon , he must have a Righteousness , in order to the Reward promised . He saith 2 , He that is after accounted Innocent & just from his first being to that houre , is judged never to have needed Pardon . Ans. But by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , there is no such account made , as if the man were reputed , or accounted one , that never sinned , from his first being to that hour ; but that now hath as good right to the Reward , as he could have had , if so be , he had never siuned , not only from his first being to that hour , but from the first to the last moment of being . We need not then notice what followeth , when he saith . And so they make God come with an after act , and condemne His own foregoing act of errour & injurie ; or at least to contradict it , and in the first instant to say [ I pardon this sinner ] & in the second to say , [ I now repute him one , that never sinned , nor needed pardon ] for , as we have seen , the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness hath no such Import . He tels us ( n. 125. ) of some , that say , that the Law , since the fall , obligeth us both to obey & to suffer , & not to one only ; else a sinner , bound to suffer , should not be bound to obey . Therefore Christ must do both for us . And this would seem to be a very Innocent assertion , & consonant to truth : yet he saith , This is too gross for any man to utter , that ever know what Law or Government is . Ans. And I had thought , that it had been too gross for any Christian to have denied this , who would not outstripe all the Antinowians , that ever were : for if it be thus , one of two must follow ; either that now after the fall , Adam & all his posterity are loosed from all obligation to obedience to the Law of God ; or that they are not under the curse . Neither of which , I suppose Mr. Baxter dar say : But , what saith he : do they mean , that as to the same act & time , the Law bindeth us to obey and suffer ; or for diverse acts and Instants of time ? Ans. In regard that , since the fall , nothing can be done , in perfect conformity to the Law , both may be said . Do they mean ( saith he further ) that the Law bound man both to perfection , & to suffering for perfection , or to suffering for sin ? Ans. We are speaking of the Lawes obligation now , since the fall : & it is certaine , that because the Law is now broken , we are obliged to suffer ; & that , because of that constitution , do & live , no man can have life , untill that Law be perfectly obeyed : but because this is Impossible for man , therefore it must be done by his Surety . He querieth againe , did the Law binde Adam , to obey & suffer , before he sinned ? Ans. No. Did it binde him ( saith he againe ) both to obey & suffer for his new sin , the next Instant ? Ans. What himself addeth is a sufficient answere to this , viz. That it did binde him to suffer for his old sin ( adde , & also for his new sin ) & yet the obligation to obey for time to come remained . But all this is beside the purpose ; for the maine thing is not yet noticed by Mr. Baxter viz. That Adam by his sin was obliged to suffer , & that yet there was no way for him to come to the promised Crown , but by perfect obedience to that Law : & that therefore neither he , or any of his posterity , can enjoy life , untill their Surety fulfill that Law for them , or undertake to do it : as they cannot be freed from Suffering , untill their Surety suffer the penalty for them , or undertake to do it . We need not speak so unaptly , as he supposeth we do , that is , say , that the Law commandeth lapsed man , not to have sin , or imperfect man , to have been perfect ; for we know , that were to binde to an Impossibility in Nature ; for sin existent cannot but be existent . But this we say , That by vertue of that Law & constitution , there was no way for lapsed man , to enjoy the Reward-promised , but by yeelding perfect obedience unto that Law ; and as this was Impossible in Nature ; so was it impossible for lapsed man to enjoy the Reward , & therefore the Lord provided a Surety , who should yeeld perfect obedience unto that Law ; & this perfect Obedience is made over unto the Beleever , & put upon his score , as well as the Sureties Sufferings are . But saith he , if Christ's perfect Obedience and holiness be imputed unto them from their first being , then they are reputed not lapsed , nor sinners from the beginning , & so not pardonable . Ans. There is no necessity for such a Reputation ; for this is not the end of that Imputation : It is Imputed , in order to their obtaining a Right to the Reward , which was lost ; & by vertue hereof , they do obtaine the Reward , as certainly , as if they had never sinned . Others ( he saith n. 126 , ) would come neerer the matter , & say , that we are reputed Righteous , as fulfillers of the Law ; & yet reputed sinners as breakers of the Law : & that though there be no medium in Naturals betwixt light & darkness , life & death ; yet there is betwixt a breaker of the Law & a fulfiller of it , viz. a Non-fulfiller ; & between just & unjust , that is , not just . ● Ans. I Finde Wolls bius in his Compend . Theol. Lib , 1. Cap. 30. § 15. full & plaine , as to this , who , in order to prove , that in justification , there is a Remission , or Abjudication of sins , & Imputation or Adjudication of a perfect Righteousuess : & that though these two benefites be the same , as to Time & Subjects ; yet they are really distinct , both as to their proper definitions , their proxime Causes , & proper Effects : & in clearing of the difference , as to their definitions , he tels us , that there is a difference betwixt not just & just ; not just & unjust ; not unjust & just : & that not just & just are contradictory ; that unjust & just are partly privative , & partly contrary ; & that not just , & unjust ; & unjust & just are diverse : as also , that unjust & just are not immediatly contrary ; for there is Medium betwixt them viz. Innocent , who is such an one , as is neither unjust , nor yet just : and that though now these two do not differ , as to Subjects ; yet of old they did ; for Adam in Paradise , before he fell , was innocent , but was not just ; for he was to obtaine this by perfect Obedience . Now. what saith Mr. Baxter to this ? He saith , this is meer darkness . As it seemeth all things are , that agree not to his Notions . But why ? There is ( saith he ) a Medium negative in a person , as not obliged , but none between positive & private , in one obliged as such , A stone is neither just , nor privatively unjust , nor a man about a thing never commanded or for bidden him . But what is this to the matter ? God's Law is presupposed : we talk of nothing , but Moral Acts. The Law forbideddeth omissions and Commissions ; both are sin . Ans. Though there be no medium betwixt positive and privative , in a person obliged , as to particular acts commanded , or forbidden ; yet there is a Medium , in such a person , in reference to the Reatus poenae , & meritum praemii . In reference to every moral act , Adam was either just , or unjust , i. e. either one , that obeyed , or one that transgressed ; but in reference to the punishment threatned & to the Reward promised , before he fell , he was neither unjust , that is , one that was a Transgressour , & reus culpae & poenae nor was he just , that is , one that had purchased the Reward ; but was in his way thereunto : & himself saith little less ( as I judge ) in his premonit p. 19. saying [ 3. But that Law giving life eternal only to obedience to the end of his time of trial , he merited not that life by Initial obedience . This was Initial Imperfect Righteousness , wanting perseverance ; but not a Medium between just & unjust , except as just signifieth the merite of life by persevering Righteousness to the last . And so , I never denied , but in a disobliged Subject , there is a Medium : Adam was not bound to do a yeers work the first hour ; & so was neither just , nor privatively unjust , as to the future yeers work ; but as to what he was presently obliged unto , he was either Righteous , or a sinner . ] Here upon the matter , is almost all I desire , or say . When a command is given to a person , to run so many miles in an hour , & a Reward is promised in case he do it , & a punishment threatned , in case he do it not ; while he is running , as to his present acting , he is not disobedient , but obedient ; & so , in so far is just , & not unjust ; yet in reference to the Reward , he cannot be called just , untill he hath finished the course , in the time appointed . So Adam , while standing , though he sinned not , yet he had not merited the Reward . Mr. Baxter replieth 1. He merited what Reward he had , viz. the Continuance of his blessings first freely given . Ans. That was not all the Reward , which was promised , whereof we are speaking ; for Adam was not yet in Patria : & howbeit himself was not clear , as to this , when he wrote his Aphorismes ; yet afterward , in his Book against Mr. Cartwright , pag. 19. he tels us , he became convinced hereof . 2. He raiseth dust to darken the aire by saying . That it is yet unresolved , what that was , by which Adam must merite Immutability & Glory : whether 1. Once obeying or Consent to his full Covenant . 2. Or once loving God. 3. Or conquering once . 4. Or eating of the tree of life . 5. Or persevering in perfect obedience to the end , that is , till God should translate him . But this dust falleth to the ground , when he addeth . That this last is most likely . And indeed it were much of his concernment , to prove , if he could , that all that was required of Adam , by vertue of that Covenant , was only one single act of obedience : for then his Notions about just & unjust , as to Adam , would have some ground : but till this be done , all he hath said is to no purpose . 3. He saith , That he maintain●th , as well as we , that Christ hath not only satisfied for sin , & merited pardon ; but also merited immutable Glory . Ans. But we say further , that He merited pardon & Immutable glory , not by His death & sufferings only , but by His whole Surety-righteousness , consisting in Active & Passive Obedience , whereby He paid our whole debt . But he willeth us to consider . 1. That Adam's not doing that which was to merite glory , was sin of Omission , and to pardon that Omission is to take him as a Meriter of Glory . 2. Therefore it must be somewhat more , than he forfeited by that Omission and his Commission , which cometh in by Christ's merite above forgiveness . 3. That Christ merited all this by his active , Passive & habitual Righteousness , by which he merited pardon . 4. That it was not we , that merited in Him , but He to give it to us only , in the termes of a Law of Grace . Ans. ( I ) To pardon that Omission in Adam , was not to take him , as a Meriter of Glory ; but only to take him , as one that was free of the obligation to punishment for that Omission . It is false then , to suppose or say , that one pardoned , as such , is taken to be one that never sinned ; for the contrary is manifest ; & to take Adam , as a Meriter of Glory , is to take him for one , that never sinned ; yea , & for one , that fulfilled his course of obedience ; which can never be supposed of a pardoned man , as such . ( 2 ) That by Christ's Merites the Elect obtaine more , than what Adam forfeited ( to speak so ) I shall easily grant ; but notwithstanding thereof we stood in need of more , than of meer forgiveness , even of a Right to what Adam lost the expectation of ; and in order to this , the Law was to be fulfilled ( 3 ) I yeeld the 3d. ( 4 ) Though we need not say , that we Merited in Him , yet we say , That Christ merited , as a Publick Person , representing His own , & as a Sponsor and Surety , coming in their Law-place , and taking on their whole debt , both as to punishment deserved , and Duty required . And I see no warrand to say , that Christ only merited to give it to us , only on the termes of a Law of Grace : for this would make Him no Sponsor , or Surety , nor to stand in the room of any ( which yet he granteth n. 130. ) but only hold Him forth , as a third unconcerned person , no wayes related to them ; & like a man buying a Bond or Obligation from a Creditor , whereby he may be in case to distress the debtor , and call for payment in his owne way and time . Whereby the whole tenor of the Covenant of Redemption , between Jehovah & the Mediator , is altered ; the Mediator's Place & Relation to those , for whom he died , is changed ; His Righteousness of Active and Passive Obedience is made to have no necessary respect unto the old Covenant & Man's Obligation . He is supposed to have merited & bought all for Himself immediatly : He is supposed to have died for all : & that the New Covenant , or Caw of Grace is wholly of Him. To none of all which , I can assent . He saith next ( n. 127. ) that some come neerer & say , that to punish and not reward are all one ; & so the respect , that sin hath to the deserved punishment needed Pardon and Satisfaction ; but our deserving the Reward needed Christ's perfect obedience to be Imputed . What saith he to this ? He granteth , that there is some what of truth here ; but ( saith he ) there are errors also that lye in the way ; and so he willeth us to remember 1. ( without a 2. or 3. ) that man can have nothing from God , but what is a meer gift , as to the matter , though it be a Reward , as to the Order & Ends of Collation . Ans. True ; what then ? And in this case ( saith he ) punishment is damni , as well as sensus ; & so the loss of the Reward is the principal part of hell , or punishment , Ans. That there is poena damni , as well as sensus , I grant ; but I am sure , the punishment , threatned to Adam , was more than the meer want of what was promised ; otherwayes we must say , that Adam was punished before he fell ; because even while he stood , he had received the Reward promised ; so that poena damni is some other thing , than the meer want of the Reward ; even the want of that , which man had already in his possession , together with the hopes of what was promised . The faithful , yet living , are not pof●essed of the Reward of Glory ; yet it may not be said , that they have the principal part of hell , being delivered there from . So that all this is but loose Sophistrie from the word loss . What more ? So that ( saith he ) if Christ's death hath pardoned our sins of Omission , we are reputed to have done all our duty . Ans. Passing the Impropriety of speach here , we say , that it is manifestly false , as appeareth from what is said . And if so ( saith he again ) we are reputed to have merited the Reward . And. This is also false , as is shown . And if he pardon our sins ( saith he more-over ) as to all punishment of sense & loss , he pardoneth them , as to their forfeiture of heaven , at a gift , if not as a Reward . And. Neither can this be granted ; for there is more required to the taking away of the forfeiture of heaven , if by this nothing else be meaned , than a giving of a Right to heaven , whether as a Gift , or as a Reward , than to the taking away of all punishment , whether of Sense , or of Loss , as such : as for example , when a King covenanteth with his own Servant , whom he hath already advanced to great honour & dignity , and promiseth him far greater honour , if he will work one day to end , in sueh an Imployment ; & if not , threatneth to deprive him of all he hath , & to cast him in prison , untill he die : This servant faileth & performeth not the condition , and therby hath both forfeited what he was in hope of , and what he had , and is now obnoxious to perpetual Imprisonment : when the King 's own Son goeth to prison for some time , to make Satisfaction , and thereby deliver the Servant from perpetual Imprisonment , he doth not thereby deliver him from his loss , so as to give him a right to the far greater honour promised : though he deliver him from the punishment of constant Imprisonment : Yea it may be a doubt , if he thereby procure his restauration to his former state : but in order to this , and to the end , the servant may get the Reward promised , beside his going so long to prison in the servants room & stead , that he may be delivered from the punishment , he must also , in his room & stead , performe that daies work . We say that Remission of sin is a consequent , or at most , but a part of justification ; because a man may be for-given , & yet not reputed never to have broken the Law. To put away guilt , and to make one Righteons , are two things . This is most clear ; yet Mr. Baxter saith ( n. 128. ) Still confusim . Which is wonderfull ; where , I pray , must the confusion lye ? Is it in this , that we say , Remission of sin ; is , at most , but part of justification ? Doth not himself say as much hereafter ( n. 208. ) when he saith , that our first constitutive justification , is in its ( own Nature , a right to Impunity , & to life , or glory ? Now this Right to Impunity , is the same with Remission ; but a Right to life , or glory is something more . Is it in this , that we say , a man may be forgiven , and yet not reputed one , who never broke the Law ? That , I am sure , can be no confusion and contradiction : for it is a contradiction to say , that a man is pardoned , and yet reputed one , that never broke the Law ; for pardon is of a breach of the Law. What saith he , to make out this alleiged Confusion ? Guilt ( saith he ) is either of the fault , as such , or of the punishment , & of the fault only as the cause of punishment : If all guilt , both culpae & poenae , were done away , that person were reputed positively righteous , that is , never to have omitted a duty , or committed a sin . ] Ans. But do we say , That pardon taketh away the Reatus culpae , in it self ? His own following words , may partly be our answer . But indeed ( saith he ) when only the Reatus poenae ( & culpae quoad poenam ) is done away , the Reatus culpae in se remaineth . And this Christ himself never taketh away , no , not in heaven , where for ever we shall be judged , once to have sinned , & not to be such , as never sinned . Where is now the Confusion Mr. Baxter spoke of ? But yet , I suppose , he is in a mistake , when he saith , that the Reatus culpae cannot be taken away ; for it must be taken away , legally , or there shall be no justification , though it can never be taken away Metaphysically ; & the same may be said of the Reatus culpae it self , seing it will alwayes be true , that they did once deserve punishment , & are not such , as never deserved punishment . He addeth ( n. 129. ) that , which to him , is the Core of our errour , [ That we ●hink , we must be justified in Christ , by the Law of Innocency , which justified Christ Himself : & that we are quite , or washed simply from all guilt of fault as well as Obligation to Punishment . ] But neither of these do we say , as hath been frequently shown . We are justified by the Law of Grace , & by faith ; yet we say with Paul , that the Law is not made void by faith , but established : the Law of Innocency must be fulfilled , but it is not fulfilled by us , but by Christ ; & His Righteousness is Imputed to us , and received by faith ; and we thereupon are justified , & receive Remission , and Right to Glory . We do not say . That Adam's Law meant , do this by thyself , or by Christ , & thou shalt live : yet we say , that that Constitution of God , do this and live , must as well be established , as this ; Cursed is every one , that continueth not in all things written in the Law and that , as by vertue of this Christ our Surety was to die the cursed death ; so by vertue of that , He was to fulfill all Righteousness . He 〈…〉 next ( n. 130. ) that the truth , which we grope after , and must reconcile us all , is as followeth . ] As if all the Reformed divines almost had been hither to but groping after the truth , like blinde men groping for the wall ; and he and possibly two or three moe , had their eyes opened to see the truth . His discourse here is too long to be rehearsed , that it may be examined ; a few observes upon it may suffice . ( 1 ) He saith , Christ , in His sufferings did stand in the room of sinners , as their Sponsor . Ans. Then His Satisfaction to justice must , in due time , be reckoned on the score of such , in whose room He suffered . Why will he not say this also of Christ's Obedience ; seing both were performed by Him , in His estate of Humiliation , & as the Surety of the Covenant ? Was He not made under the Law , as well as under the Curse ? And was He not made of a woman , given and born to us ? But neither can we say , That Christ stood in the room of all sinners , as he supposeth . ( 2 ) We saith . That Christ acquired a Right first to Himself of giving out the purchased benefites , to sinners , by a new Law , viz. by what He suffered & did . Ans. This is denied , as not yet being confirmed ; and it destroyeth His being a Sponsor and Surety , and saith , He was not born to us , nor died for us ; but to and for Himself , And yet I deny not , that Christ hath gote all power , and is the General dispensator of the blessings of the Covenant purchased . ( 3 ) He saith , Had Christ antecedently done all , that He did in our person , & we in Him , in Law sense , the thing its self , with its inseparable consequents & effects , had been all ours , ipso facto . Ans. There is no necessity for this ; seing Christ was not thereunto appointed by us , or conjunctly obliged with us , in the first Covenant ; but after we were broken , did , of His own accord , put His Name in our Obligation , and came in our Law-place , & so was made sin for us , that we might be made the Righteousness of God in Him. ( 4 ) He speaketh of these benefites being given us , upon termes & Conditions . But we shew before , and here-after will have occasion to do it more fully , of what Nature , these termes and Conditions were ; and that they are not such , as He meaneth . ( 5 ) He saith . What is given by the New Covenant , we have title to upon this account , because it was purchased by the perfect merite & sacrifice of Christ ; & so given us by Him , and by the Father . Ans. According to Him , the Right , that is had thus , is but remote & common to all , even to such as perish ; & therefore can hardly be called a Right ; but the only Right is had , is by our performance of the termes and Conditions : for he saith ( n. 137. ) that Glory is given as a Reward for our beleeving , and performing the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace . ( 6 ) He saith , we deserved punishment & Christ was punished in our stead , that we might be forgiven : we had forfeited life by sin , & Christ merited life for us by His perfection . Ans. And why will he not say , that Christ did this last , as well as the first , in our stead , seing hereby the freedom of the Gift can no more be weakened , than pardon by the other . What followeth hath been spoken to already . He granteth ( n. 132. ) That not to punish , & to reward are different : yet he saith , not to have the Gift is to be punished ; & so , non-donari here is puniri materially : & that it is the same Righteousness of Christ , which meriteth our Impunity , quoad damnum & sensum , & which Meriteth our Right to the Gift of life , both sub ratione doni , as a Gift , & sub ratione Condonations , as a forgiveness of the forfeiture , & of the poena damni : And then addeth , That so there is here no room for the conceite , that Christ's Death was only to purchase pardon , & His Righteousness : to merite life ] Ans. We have said before , that we need not be so curious here in distinguishing , if both be granted to make up a Compleat Righteousness , to purchase both , we have all we desire : and from what hath been said formerly , it is manifest , that both are requisite ; & Mr. Baxtor granted as much before , as we see in the foregoing paragraph Note 6. Nor saith Mr. Baxter any thing here , to invalidate what we have said . Sure , not to have this Gift was no punishment to Adam , before he sinned , what-ever it might be said to be after his sin . Nor is forfeiture of that properly , which a Man never had , neither in Right , nor in possession : And therefore Adam could not be said properly ( nor we in him ) to have forfeited glory ; but only that blessedness and felicity , wherein he was created , and that Righteousness , that was concreated : So that beside the taking away of this forfeiture , there will be a Righteousness of Obedience requisite , according to that Constitution , do this & live , in order to the obtaining of a Right for us unto the life of Glory . And to this he assenteth in end , when he saith , That the same Merites of Christ's Active & Passive & Habitual Righteousness , do causo our Glory . For we do not separat them : Nor need we curiously enquire , whether Christ's Suffering were first Satisfactory , & then Meritorious ; & His Obedience first Meritorious , and then Satisfactory , as he speaketh : it being sufficient to us , that both made up a compleat Righteousness performed for us , by Him , as our Surety , coming in our Law-place , whereby justice was satisfied , and life merited . Nor need I say ( as he supposeth n. 135. too many hold ) That heaven is our Reward , for our perfection of Holiness and Obedience in and Christ ; more than that pardon is our Reward for our Satisfaction in & by Christ. Yet as Christ satisfied as a Sponsor , in the stead & room of sinners , as he confessed ; so it may be said , that Christ obeyed , as a Sponsor , in their room & stead : & that as the one was requisite for purchase of pardon ; so the other was requisite for purchase of Glory : and that as we must be Interessed in the one , imputed to us & received by faith , to the end we may be pardoned ; so we must be Interessed in the other imputed to us , and received by faith ( both being Integral parts of one compleat Surety-righteousness ) to the end , we may have a Right to Glory . Nor can I say with him ( Ibid. ) That eternal life is ours , by Christ's free Gift as a Reward to Christ , for His own Merites : for then , we could not say , that Christ suffered properly in the roome of any , as their Sponsor ; and this would take away that fundamental relation betwixt Christ & the Chosen ones , that were given to Him of the Father ; and for whose sake He sanctified Himself & was made a Curse , & made under the Law , and became the Father's Servant , and was made a Surety Blessings came through Christ , as the appointed Mediator , not from Him , as the principal Donor ( speaking of Him , as Mediator ) The blessing of Abraham cometh on the Gentiles , through Iesus Christ Gal. 3 : 14. The God & Father of our Lord Iesus Christ , blesseth us with all spiritual blessings , in Christ , according as He hath chosen us in Him ; & hath predestinat us unto the Adoption of Children , by Iesus Christ ; & hath made us accepted in the Beloved Ephes. 1 : 3 , 4 , 5 , 6. It is God , who saveth us according to His mercy , by the washing of Regeneration , & the renewing of the Holy Ghost , which He shed on us abundantly , through Iesus Christ , our Saviour , that being justified by His grace , we should be made heirs , according to the hop of eternal life Tit. 3 : 5 , 6 , 7. Christ is the way to the Father Ioh. 14 : 6. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself 2 Cor. 5 : 19. Yet it is true , that Christ is now exalted as King and Prince , and giveth the Crown of life , Revel . 2 : 10. as the great Administrator and Executor of His own Testament ; yet not as if He had purchased all these things firstly , or primarily to Himself , and were now become the Sole or Principal Donor : for this doth overturn the tenor & forme of the Covenant of Redemption . He tels us ( n. 141. ) That Christ's Righteousness is made ours , as our sinnes were made his . Which is all that we desire . We grant that Christ never had the Reatum culpae , in it self : & he saith , that sin was Imputed to Him , as to the punishment deserved , that is , He assumed the Reatum poenae . But sure , the Reatus poenae , being a dueness of punishment , because of sin , He could not come under this Obligation , unless the Reatus culpae had been Imputed to Him , not in it self physically , but juridically , in ordine ad poenam . And accordingly we must have the Righteousness of Christ , in order to its Effects ; and this is more , than to have the meer Effects themselves , as he saith : & we shall grant to him , that we have it not , in the relation of a Meritorious cause to all uses ; if he will grant to us , that we have it , in the relation of a meritorious Cause , to those uses , which God accepted it for ; & hath assigned to it in the Gospel ; as he seemeth to grant ibid. Though we do not assert such an Imputation , as he calleth the rigide sense thereof ( n. 142. ) whereby God is supposed to repute us to have done that in & by Christ , which we never did by Him : yet we see no reason , why we may not say , that God judged Christ , to be the publick legal person : yea himself in the appendix to his Premonition , yeeldeth that Christ may be called , our Vicarius poenae , or Substitute ; And when we say , He is a Publick legal person , we say not , that He is as many persons , as there be redeemed sinners in the world , as Mr. Baxter speaketh ; but that He was such a publick legal person , as did represent in Law all that were given to Him , as their publick Head & Surety . And what he saith ( n. 143. ) of the various sorts of Sureties ( some of which are very Impertinent , as the 3● for no man calleth an Agent a Surety ; & the 5. for no man calleth a pay-master , who is the debtors Instrument , servant , or delegat , a Surety ) doth not much help him , seing there are no such Sureties among Men , nor no manner of Suretyship , that can quadrat with Christ's Suretiship , in all things : and therefore it is to no purpose to say , Christ is not such a Surety , as is among men , in this , or that , or in the other respect , therefore He is no Surety at all . He is such a Surety , as is not in all things like Sureties among men ; & yet in some things , every sort of Surety among men , may carry some resemblance to Him. See for this Mr. Gillespie's late piece on the Covenant of Redemption ; where the Reader will finde much Satisfaction in this matter . I finde no more spoken to the Doctrine of Imputation , in this place , by M. Baxter , that calleth for any particular Notice : for we say not , as He hinteth ibid. that Christ was our Instrument , or Delegate : yet we may say , He was our Surety , that did all in our legal person : for He did substitute Himself in our Law-place , & in so far suffered , in the Law-person of beleevers , as well as in their Nature . We come next to Sect. 9. pag. 73. Where Mr. Baxter proposeth an objection , that those of his minde do use viz. If we had fulfilled all the Law reputatively by Christ , as our legal person , we could not be bound to further Obedience to it . This is founded ( if it be directed against the Orthodox , & not meerly against the Antinomians ) upon the mistake of the true meaning of these words , as our legal person & Reputatively . When we speak of Christ's being our legal person , we mean His becoming our Surety , and putting His name in our Bond , and satisfying the Law , as our Surety , in our room & stead : and that therefore , all His own , being now united to Him by faith , are dealt with , as if they had fulfilled the Law themselves ; Christ's fulfilling of it , being now imputed to them , and received by faith , unto the ends , for which it was ordained ; that is , to be accounted theirs , and reckoned on the● score , in order to the obtaining of the Reward promised to Adam , on Condition of perfect obedience . This being so , it is manifest , that hence it will not follow , that beleevers are not now bound to obedience to the Law. What saith he we answere hereunto ? That we are not bound to obey to the same ends , as Christ ; that is , for Righteousness , or justification , or Merite : but in gratitude . It is true , Beleevers are not now bound to obey the Law , for that end , that Adam was obliged to , that not being now possible , and the Lord not requiring it , for that end & purpose , that we should purchase the reward of life to ourselves thereby , & have a Righteousness , whereby we may be justified , by the Righteous judge , and purchase or merite to ourselves the Reward : but , among other ends , to declare our Thankfulness unto God , & to set forth His Glory . What saith he to this answere ? He judgeth it to be a yeelding of the Cause , & ignorantly to destroy our own , for 7 or 8 reasons . 1. This is to say , that when a Man is reputed to have fulfilled all the Law ; yet it is to be reputed unfulfilled , as to certain ends ; as if he fulfilled all the Law , that fulfilled it not to all due ends . Ans. This is , as if one should reason from our saying , that Christ bore the whole Curse , and yet beleevers are not freed from Fatherly chastisements ; that this is to say , That he bore all the Curse , that did not bear it under all Considerations , & as to all effects , that might passe under other Considerations , & accordingly be endured for other ends & Advantages . ( 2 ) Beleevers are reputed in Christ to have fulfilled the Law , in order to the obtaining of the Crown ; and in reference to that , to have fulfilled the Law to all due ends , but not to have done it in themselves , or in their own Natural persons . Nor is the fulfilling of it by their Surety imputed to them , to exeem them from under the Authority of God & of His Law ; far less particularly to exeem them , from testifying their Love & Gratitude , by endeavouring after Obedience to the Law , upon Gospel-Principles , & Grounds , & upon Gospel-motives , & for Gospel-ends . 2. Or ( saith he ) as if the Law obliged one man to fulfill it twice over , for the same lefes time ; once simply , & in all its obligations , & another time for other ends . Ans. This is denied ; neither followeth it from what we say . Because we cannot fulfill the Law once , to which we were obliged ; there-for must Christ fulfill it for us , to the end we may enjoy the promised Reward : And His fulfilling of it for this end , doth not make us Law-less , far less exeem us from Obedience for other Gospel ends , to which Adam in Innocency was not obliged . Or 3 ( saith he ) as if the Law required any more than absolute perfection , Ans. We do not say , that it doth : But all our Obedience , with all the superaddition of new ends , is most Imperfect . 4. Or ( saith he ) that absolute perfection had not been in Christ's holy Obedience . Ans. Neither doth this follow-from what we say , more than from what himself saith ; Yea not so much : for he maketh our Gospel-Obedience , a perfect Righteousness , which we may lean to , & plead for our justification & Salvation upon . Or 5. ( saith he ) as if there were any Obedience , whose end is not Righteousness & justification , against the charge of the contrary disobedience . Ans. This is but vanity , for neither is it denied , nor is it any thing to the point ; because the Righteousness spoken of is a perfect Righteousness , answerable to the Covenant of works , as the condition of life : And who ever performe Obedience , with such an eye & designe , & for such an end , shall in end meet with a sad disappointment , be their diligence & attainments what they will. 6. ( saith he ) And is not gratitude an end , & a thing commanded by the Law ? If we obeyed perfectly in Christ , we were perfectly thankful in Christ. Ans. It will only follow , that we were perfectly thankful in Christ , in order to the obtaining of the reward ; but not so , as if we in our own persons , were no more obliged to endeavoure thankfulness . 7. ( saith he ) But if they say , That Christ fulfilled the Law only made to Adam for us , & not his own Law of Grace , & therefore , that he obeyed for us only to the ends of that Law. Sure this is the thing that himself will say , or he must say , that Christ fulfilled no Law for us , in our stead . But what answereth he ? If the ends ( saith he ) & matter of that Law be fulfilled by us in Him , our Obedience to any other must be needless ; for he that is supposed never to have sinned , needeth not use any meanes for pardon or remedie . Ans. We say not , That the Law was fulfilled by us , in Him ; but that He fulfilled the Law , as a Surety , willingly putting His Name in our obligation , & undertaking our debt : And from the Imputation of this to us , it will never follow , that we are thereby , or can be , supposed never to have sinned . What next ? By this rule ( saith he ) Christ only fulfilled the Law for Adam & Eve ; & for us only as we were in them , which is only virtually , & not actually at all , but not at all for us , according to any obligation , that ever fell upon our persons . How proveth he this ? For 1. ( saith he ) we were never personally bound to perfect , personal , perpetual Obedience , as the Condition of life for that Covenant , as to the promise & condition , ceased before any man was born . Ans. That Covenant , I grant , ceased to be the way to life , as it was to Adam at first ; because it became a thing impossible ; yet , as Adam fell under the Curse of that broken Covenant , so did all his posterity fall with him & in him : hence when his posterity come to be existent persons , they are Children of wrath , & are under the Curse of that Covenant ; and all their Actions , afterward committed , are further sins & violations of that Covenant : for we may not think , that Adam , after his first sin , was not in case to violat that Covenant any more : And though before any man was born , the new Covenant , or Gospel was promulgat ; yet , notwithstanding thereof , all men were born under the Curse of the first Covenant , and were never delivered from under that , untill they closed with the termes of the second Covenant , or Covenant of Grace . But he saith 2. All the duty in the world , which we are bound unto , is to be done for Euangelical ends , for recovery , grace & unto gratitude . Ans. And was not Adam before the fall also bound unto gratitude ? But he possibly meaneth gratitude for Redemption , yet he hath proved , that all the world , Heathens , I meane , & such as never heard of the Gospel , are obliged to Gratitude , upon the account of Redemption : or that all , that is required of them , is to be done for Gospel ends . But in all this , I am little concerned , who see no necessity of restricking Christ's obedience so . 8. He saith . That we see not , that our own answere implieth the truth , of what he and others assert ; and is the same which they give but our cause is uncapable of . What then saith he & his ? We say ( saith he ) that Christ did indeed most perfectly obey the Law of Innocency , so far for us , & in our stead ( though not in our persons ) as doing that , which we should have done & did not ; & hath merited for us a better Covenant , which obligeth us not at all to obey for the ends of the first Covenant viz. that our perfection might be our Righteousness , or the Condition of life ; but only to obey for the ends of the New Covenant , for the obtaining & improving of recovering grace & Salvation by Christ freely given us , which we ourselves must do , or perish . Ans. ( 1 ) If Christ obeyed for us , and in our stead , I see not , why he may not be said to do it , as our Surety , and so in our Law-person , seing , according to our Common discourse , the Surety & Principal debtor are one person in Law. But about ambiguous termes , we need not debate . It is of greater moment to differ , as to this , that he thinketh the us compr●hendeth all persons , Elect & Reprobat . ( 2 ) That Christ did merite the New Covenant , is no where said in Scriptur● ; & yet this is all , that Mr. Baxter here mentioneth , as merited by Him. ( 3 ) I think , he is as much concerned , as we are , to loose his own difficulties , formerly proposed : for . 1. How can He be said , to have fulfilled all the Law for us , that did not fulfill it to all due ends ? 2. Can the Law require more than absolute perfection ? 3. Was not absolute perfection in Christ's holy Obedience ? 4. Is not gratitude an end required in the Law of Innocency ? 5. If Christ fulfilled only the Law of Innocency , did he not fulfill the Law for Adam & Eve only , or for us , as in them &c. Let him answere these himself , and he shall help us . Next ( n. 190. ) he bringeth some in saying . That we may as wel say , that man must not die , because Christ died for us ; as not obey because Christ obeyed for us , & then tels us , that we strangely use their reason against ourselves , & know it not . But what if this be his mistake ? Let us hear his reason . For we say ( saith he ) that we must die , because we did not perfectly either obey the Law , or suffer all its penalty , by Christ , as our legal person ; but he suffered only to satisfie justico in tantum , to this end , that man himself suffering death & temporal afflictions , & obeying the Law of grace , might be saved from all the rest of the punishment . But if we had so fulfilled the Law , as afore said , by doing or suffering , we could not have died , or suffered the least affliction , as a penalty ; for all punishment , in the essence of the relation is for sin . Ans. Though I had rather say , That Christ Suffered & Obeyed for His own , & in their stead , as their Surety , willingly undertaking the debt , that they were under , than that we Suffered & Obeyed in Him : yet it may be , they who speak so , are far from that meaning , that Mr. Baxter putteth on their words : & when they call Christ our legal person , they mean no more , than that he was a Surety , or a publick Person . ( 2 ) Though he suffered not to deliver His own from temporal death ; yeth he did bear the Curse , & satisfied Vindictive justice , and left nothing of that for them to suffer : & what chastisements they meet with , yea & death it self is made to work together for their good . He bringeth them in againe ( n. 190. ) saying . It is more Inconvenient to say , that Christ was perfect in our person , than that He satisfied in our pe●son , & we by Him ] And here possibly the same mistake is but continued . But , as he taketh it up , he thinketh that hereby the Gospel is subverted . Ans. The whole dependeth upon the Explication of these words , in our person . Mr. Baxter thinketh that these words , in our person in a Law sense , import , that we payed all in Christ , as a man payeth a Summe of Money by his servant , whom he sendeth to carry it ; or some such thing . And if this be not their meaning , who use this expression ; all this outcry is to no purpose ; and is only a fighting against his own imagination , & a meer striving about words : yet he granteth , that we may fitly say , that Christ suffered in the person of a sinner ; but he bids us mark the sense , saying 1. Suffering as penal belongeth to a sinner as such ; but Satisfaction is an effect of Christ's Suffering , which resulteth not from the meer suffering , nor from the person of a sinner ; but from the will & Covenant of God , made to that excellent person , who was God & perfect man , Well , what next ? 2. Note 2. ( saith he ) that it is not any other mans person , that we mean , that Christ suffered in , but His own . Ans. And no man ever dreamed , that He either did , or could suffer , in any other man's physical person . But seing He was made sin for us , & so died in our room & stead , why may He not be said to have died in our Law-person ? If a pledge , or hostage , suffer for those he standeth for , may not he be said to suffer in their Law-person ? If a Surety be put in prison for the debtor , may he not be said to suffer in the debtor's Law-place , & in his person in Law-sense ? He addeth . And we mean that He took upon Him the person of a sinner ; in as much as He consented to suffer for sin . Ans. This is good , & we accept of it cheerfully in tantum , for it explaineth to us , in part , the meaning of these words , He made Him sin for us ▪ And so ( he addeth ) personating here is not meant beco●ing any other mans person in Law-seuse ; so as that other legally suffered what he did ; but it is only his own persons becoming a sufferer , in the stead of sinners , for their sins . As the Apostle saith . He was made sin for us ; that is , so far by Imputation , as that he undertook to suffer what sinners suffer , & for their sins . Ans. But when Christ came in the Law-place of sinners , & did substitute Himself , in their room , & suffered what they were obliged to suffer ; sure , He took on their person , in a Lawsense , & they , for whom He suffered , can be said , in His , & in His Fathers designe , so far legally to have suffered , what He suffered , as never to be made to suffer the same themselves . But he seeth , that this is but a wordy Controversie ; & therefore to free the matter of ambiguity of words , he ( pag. 77. ) addeth several things , as 1. That as we hold , that Adam was the Natural Root or parent of Mankind ; so also that Christ was the foederal root of all the saved , & in several respects ( though not all ) a second Adam . Ans. We hold , that Adam was not only the Natural Root , but he was also the federal Root of all mankinde : for the Covenant was made with him , and with all his posterity in him : and hence it was , that all sinned in him , & fell with him , in his first transgression . Rom. 5 : 12. 1. Cor. 15 : 20 , 21. He addeth . 2. Adam was but one single Natural person , nor did God ( by err●ur , or arbitrary reputation ) esteem or account Him to be any other , than he was . None of our persons were distinct persons in Adam , nor those persons , that now they are . Therefore we were not so personally in him , at his fall . But all our persons are in time & mediatly by our progenitors derived lineally from him , not as having been persons existent in him , but being persons caused remotely by him . Ans. Adam , it is true , was but one single Natural person , in a physical sense ; yet in a Law-sense , as he was constitute the federal Head & Root , we were all that one Adam , or he was us all , representing all ; & so did God esteem , or account him , not by errour , but by a Right Reputation , founded on His own Constitution . ( 2 ) None of our physical persons were distinct persons in him , yet our legal persons were in him , when he represented us all , as a federal Head. ( 3 ) We know , that our physical persons were only seminally , or virtually in him ; & we grant also , that to be only virtually in Adam is terminus diminuens , as to personal inexistence ; but I know not , how we could be personally in-existent in him , even when existent in a physical sense . But all this taketh not away that federal inexistence , whereby , in a Law-sense , we were in him , as our federal Head & Root . But , it seemeth , Mr. Baxter doth not acknowledge this , because he maketh our Natural relation to Adam to be the only reason of out partaking of his sin . We do not deny our Natural Interest in Adam , but we superadde to it this federal Interest . He saith . It is our Natural relation to Adam , supposed in God's Law , which is the reason of our participation in his sin & not any will or judgment of God , without or beyond our Natural Interest ; for else it should be God , most properly , who by His arbitrary Imputation , should either make us sinners , or repute us such , when we are none . Ans. I have granted , that we have a Natural relation to Adam , but I adde , that that is not the sole ground or reason of our participation in his sin ; but the federal relation , with the Natural relation . And hence it doth no way follow , that God doth properly make us sinners , or repute us such , when we are not , by His arbitrary Imputation : for this Imputation , being founded upon this double preconstituted relation , cannot be called meerly arbitrary ; nay , nor could it be so called , though it were said to be solely founded upon this federal relation , more than when it is said to be grounded upon the Natural relation . Though in another sense , it might be so called as well , when said to be founded on the Natural , as when said to be founded on the federal Relation , God being the free Author & Constitutor of both . 3. He addeth . So Christ is , though not the Natural , yet the federal Adam & Root of Beleevers : When he satisfied & merited , we were not in Him , either as in Adam seminally , as in a Natural Generator , nor as existent persons ; nor did God falsly so repute us to be . But He was then the Cause ( materially ) or had that virtus effectiva , which would justifie & Sanctifie & Glorifie us in due time . Ans. Christ , it is true , is no Natural ; but a federal Root ; & so keepeth Correspondence with the first Adam , a federal Root . ( 2 ) It is true also , we were not in Christ , when He satisfied , as in Adam , seminally , as in a Natural Generator : but yet the Elect were in Him , in a more noble & supernatural manner , as given of God to Him , & as undertaken for by Him , when He did substitute Himself in their Law-place , & became their Surety . ( 3 ) If Christ had only been the material cause , as having that virtus effectiva , how could He be called their federal Head ? or how could they be said to be chosen in Him , before the foundation of the world ? It was the nature of sinners ( saith he ) though not a sinful Nature , which He assumed : But that Nature , which He undertook , was existent in His Individual person , & no other individual person was existent in His existent personal Nature . What then ? So that ( he addeth ) when we say it was the common Nature of Man , we mean only specificè ▪ that Nature which is of the same species with all other mens , but not that which existed individually , in any , but himself . Ans. Notwithstanding of all this , Christ was a federal Head , & a Publick Person , undertaking for , and therein representing all those , that were given to Him to save ; and this his following words confirme , when he saith . But it was individual persons , in whose stead , or place Christ suffered , & whom He undertook to justifie , sanctify & save , & gather into an holy Society to that end ; & to that end , He undertook & performed His office , & merited all this by His perfect Righteousness ; so that hereby He made Himself a federal Head & Root of an holy society ( His Church ) & when ever any person doth beleeve , & is united federally to Him , he then receiveth the effects of that , which was before in Christ , as a virtus effectiva . Ans. But Christ , being a federal Head to His own , whom in due time , He was to bring in to an holy Society , beleevers receive the effects of that , which was in Christ , as such a federal Head ; which is more , than as a virtus effectiva , & Importeth His Obligation , as a Surety , to work these effects , & speaketh out His representing of them , as a publick Person , and paying their debt , according to His Undertaking , in the Covenant of Redemption . Thereafter ( pag. 78. ) from this , That the Law made to Adam did not assigne Christ to this office , nor oblige Him to suffer for sinners , according to it , & that therefore He suffered not by that obligation , which bound us to suffer , but by the obligation of His own consent , he inferreth , that the Law of works took not Christ for the Civil , or legal person of Beleevers , more than it made Him such . Ans. But this consequence is denied ; for when a debtor is lying in prison , a friend , who was not formerly obliged , undertaking to satisfie the Creditor & making satisfaction , is by Law taken for the legal person of the debtor , who is accordingly dealt with , as if he himself had satisfied the Creditor . In the 4 , 5. & 6. places , he tels us , That beleevers , receiving Christ Himself , receive title to His Grace , Spirit & Glory , & are personally & actually His Subjects &c , and have a right to all His conferred benefites ; which right followeth not Immediatly to them from what Christ did , or suffered , but from the Covenant of grace ; & therefore they have no right before the time , nor any , but on the Conditions specified in the Covenant . Ans. ( 1 ) Though they have no full , compleat , actual right , untill such time , as is condescended upon ; yet by vertue of the compact betwixt Jehovah & the Mediator , wherein the Mediator undertook particularly , for those given unto Him , these may be said to have a real fundamental right , though that right be not subjected in them , nor pleadable by them , before the time appointed ; yet a Right , or something equivalent ( for I will not strive about words ) must necessarily flow from Christ's Satisfying for them , and paying their debt , according to His Undertaking . As , when it is contracted , that the Eldest daughter of the marriage shall have such a summe of money , when she cometh to be married , or to be of such an age , that daughter hath another right unto that summe , than any other daughter hath , & that fundamentally from the contract & Agreement , though before the time designed , her right be not such , as she can plead it in Law , in order to the possessing of the summe ( 2. ) Therefore the right , that Beleevers have , floweth from the Compact , & Christ's Suffering according to compact , though it be conveyed by the Covenant of Grace , & their possession of the Benefites be immediatly therefrom ; as that daughters right to the summe is properly from the contract , though her actual possession according to the contract , be from her Marriage , or coming to that age . Though beleevers right to the actual possession of the benefites be so conveyed ; & as to the conveyance , some be granted absolutly , as faith ( as himself will confess ) some upon condition of faith , that is , in that order , & according to that Methode , that faith shall preceed : Yet , in respect of God , their right to all is absolutly purchased by Christ ; & so in a sense theirs , though not subjected in them , nor pleadable by them , till the time appointed come . This whole scheme of Mr. Baxter's seemeth to me to be founded upon , and to flow from his Notion of Universal Redemption , whereby he will have Christ to have died in the room & stead of all ; which ( to me ) is in the room & place of none ; & to have purchased the New Covenant , a Common good to all , whereby all that would performe the New Conditions , should have right to the benefites , as having obtained the same , by their performance of these proper Conditions ; anteriour to which , there was no difference at all betwixt them & others ; but this Scheme and the ground thereof I cannot owne . 7. He tels us , that as none , till he was a person , could be a person guilty of Adam's sin , nor when he was a person any sooner , than he was also guilty of his own inherent pravity , & none that had the use of reason was guilty of either , or both these only , without the guilt of his own actual sin . So none till he be a beleever is related , as a member of a perfectly Righteous Saviour ; & that is done no sooner ( in time ) then he hath the inherent righteousness of his personal faith & federal consent , & that obligeth him to the further active Righteousness of a holy life . Ans. The Protas●s & Apodos●s seem not to agree , for as upon our personal existence , we become persons guilty of Adam's sin , & that before ( as to nature , though not as to time ) we have inherent pravity ; because this is an Effect , Consequent & Punishment of the former : so upon our faith , which is our personal existing grace , corresponding to our personal existing in Nature , by our Natural being , should follow , as answering to this Imputation of Adam's guilt , the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness : but in stead of this , he mentioneth nothing , but a Relation as a member of a righteous Saviour ; which ( according to the comparison ) should correspond to our relation to Adam , which is , in nature , before our partaking of his sin . ( 2 ) As answering to our inherent pravity , he should have named our justification , Adoption &c. as the effects of the Imputation of Christ's Righteous●ess ; in stead of this , he nameth the Inherent righteousness of our personal faith & federal consent ; thereby Importing that this federal consent is posteriour to our Relation ; while as I suppose , he will say , that our Relation is upon the condition of our federal consent : Not to mention here his errour ( hereafter discovered ) of making faith to be considered here , as our personal Inherent Righteousness . Then he tels us . That all these three conjunct ( though not coordinat ) make up the total Righteousness of a Saint . viz. 1. our Relation to Christ , in Union , as to a perfectly Righteous Head , who fulfilled all Righteousness for us , to merite our justification ( which is called Christ's Righteousness imputed to us , as being thus far reputed ours ) 2. our penitent beleeving consent to his Covenant , which is the condition of the foresaid relation to Christ. 3. And our Sanctification . Ans. ( 1 ) Here we see , that Righteousness made the second Righteousness , which yet is the condition of the first ; as if our Inherent pravity were the condition of the Imputation of Adam's sin to us ( 2 ) our Relation to Christ is not one & the same with the Imputation of Righteousness to us ; no more than our relation to Adam is the same thing with the Imputation of his sin to us . ( 3 ) Thus we see , by asserting the cause , viz. our relation to Christ , he taketh away the effect viz. the Imputation of His Righteousness , as being no distinct thing : as if one should say , we are related to Adam , a sinful Head , who broke the Law for us ; & this is called Adam's sin imputed to us , as being thus far reputed ours . But yet Christ's fulfilling all Righteousness for us ( if that for us , were understood in the Scripture sense , and not according to the Socinian , or Arminian gloss ) would abundantly ground the Imputation , we plead for , and that as a fruit of our Relation to Christ. Passing what he saith 8 , as not worth the noticeing . We come to see , what he saith 9. & lastly . Proposing this objection to himself , if Christ's person be given us , then His personal Righteousness is given us with it . He replieth thus . Yes , as His person is ; He is not given us as proprietors & Lords , to become our own , at our dispose ; nor is his person made one Person with each , or any of us . His person is not turned into ours , nor ours into his . Ans. This is all to no purpose ; for no man , in his wits , either said so , or dreamed so , at any time . As the husband ( saith he ) is not the person of the wife , nor the King of each Subject : but as one , that hath a Great , wise , learned , Bountiful , Holy King or Husband , hath also his Greatness &c. as they have him , that is , as his perfections for their good , as far as his relation bindes him ; but not as if his enduements were removed from him to them , or falsely reputed to be in them , or his person to be their persons : so here as we have a Christ , so we have a perfect Righteous Christ given us to be our federal head , when we beleeve ; and the Righteousness , which is not in us , but in Him , is ours so far as to be for our good , as far as His office & Covenant do oblige Him. Ans. This savoureth of making Christ's dying for us , to be nothing else than His dying for our good , as Socinians say : and if it import more , ( as it doth in truth ) he cannot but see , that his simile here , hath nothing of a similitude in it ; for the objection speaketh of Christ's person given to us , not as a great , wise &c. King is given to his Subjects ; but as the Surety is given to the debtor , i.e. as one , whose payment of the debt , must be reckoned on the score of the debtor , in order to his liberation out of prison . He addeth . So that a Righteous Christ and therefore the Righteousness of Christ , are ours , relatively themselves , quoad jus beneficii ; so as that we have right to these benefites by them , which we shall possess : and for the merites of His Righteousness , we are conditionally justified and saved , before we beleeve , and actually after . Ans. All this jus beneficii is but remote ; for in the foregoing pag. he told us , as we heard , that this right doth not flow immediatly from what Christ did and suffered , but from his Covenant of Grace : and I think , he should have said rather from their performance of the condition : for the Covenant conveyeth no title , but conditionally , he knoweth , and therefore can give no title or Right , untill the condition be performed ; upon the performance of which , the conditional Title becometh actual . And further , there is no more here said than what a Socinian will say ; and particularly Sclightingius pro Socino . cont . Meisnerum pag. 250. whose words we cited above towards the beginning of our XIII . Chapter . CHAP. XVII . Reasons enforcing the practice of the Truth , hithertill Vindicated . WE have now , at some length , as the Lord was pleased to help , essayed to vindicat this noble & fundamental Truth , of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , in order to the obtaining of this life of justification ; and ere we proceed , I judge , it will not be amiss to press the practice of this Truth , & the hearty & practical embracing thereof , by several Arguments & Considerations : for it will not be enough for us , to know the Theory , and to be orthodox in our judgments , as to these Necessary & soul-concerning truthes ; but we must also practise them , that it may appear , we do beleev them in very deed , and that we beleeve them with the heart ; & this will be the best way to be kept orthodox , and stedfast in the truth . I shall therefore propose a few Considerations , moving to the practice of this so necessary & concerning a Truth . As 1. This way of justification through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ , the Mediator & Surety , is a way , thath hath the testimony of both Law & Prophets , confirming it ; & is now more clearly revealed & manifest under the Gospel dispensation , than it was formerly . Rom. 3 : 21 , 22. But now the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested , being witnessed by the Law & the Prophets , even the Righteousness of God , which is by faith of Christ , unto all , & upon all them that beleeve . And the same Apostle tels us Rom. 1 : 16 , 17. That he was not ashamed of the Gospel ▪ for it is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that beleeveth &c. And what is the ground & reason of this : for therein ( saith he ) is the Righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith , as it is written , the just shall live by ●aith . This then must be a very sure & saife way , being thus attested & witnessed by all , that are worthy of credite , in this matter & a way , that is one & the same , as to its substance , both before the Law , under the Law , & now under the Gospel , though it be now more clearly unfolded & explained , since the coming & exaltation of the blessed Mediator , than it was before His coming ; when it was darkly revealed & shadowed under the Mosaical Ceremonies & Observances . None need to feare a Miscarrying , or a disappointment , in following of this way , which even the Law it self , or the Mosaical observances did point forth , in the daily & yeerly Sacrifices , pointing forth the Lamb of God , that taketh away the sins of the world , & on which the offerers were to lay their hands , before they were to be offered up , in token of their devolving & laying their sin & guilt upon the same , as the the type of that one & only acceptable Sacrifice , that was to come in the fuluess of time , & was to satisfie justice for their sinnes ; & to shew forth , & declare their faith , relying thereon , & expecting acceptance there through , as we see Levit. 1 : 4 & 3 : 2. & 16 : 21. And a way , which also the Prophets , or the Spirit of Christ , which was in them , did testifie , and bear witness to , when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ , and the glory that should follow . 1 Pet. 1 : 10. &c. So Peter , in his Sermon to Cornelius , told him Act. 10 : 43. that to Him , ( i.e. to Christ ) gave all Prophets witness , that through His Name , whoso ever beleeveth in Him , shall receive Remission of sins . 2. It is the way , which all the Ancients took , & found to be a saife & sure way ; & therefore it should be to us a way , worthy of all acceptation . Abraham beleeved God , preaching to him the Gospel ; & the object of his faith , or the summe & substance of the Gospel , that is , the Righteousness of Christ , was imputed to him ; & thereby he was justified : so doth Paul clear the matter to us Rom. 4 : 1 , 2 , 3. What shall we say then , that Abraham our father , as pertaining to the flesh , hath found &c. for if Abraham were justified by works , he hath to glory , but not before God : for what saith the Scripture ? Abraham beleeved God , & it was counted to him for righteousness . And if we enquire , what this was , which Abraham did beleeve ? or where in was it , that he beleeved God ? Paul tels us Gal. 3 : 8. That it was the Gospel . And the Scripture fore-seeing , that God would justifie the heathen through faith , preached before the Gospel unto Abraham , saying , in thee shall all Nations be blessed . Now , though these words , in thee shall all Nations be blessed , be not expressly repeated Gen. 15. where it is said , that Abraham beleeved God , & it was imputed to him for righteousness : Yet this was the chiefe & principal part of that promise of multiplying of his seed ; & was therefore both before this time mentioned together with that promise Gen. 12 : 2 , 3. & twice there-after to wit. Gen. 18 : 18. & 22 ; 17 , 18. And further , this is called the Covenant , which God made with the fathers Act. 3 : 25. and therefore it must have been the chiefe thing , which Abraham's faith did fix upon , who is therefore called the Father of the faithful , as being the Father of many nations , Rom. 4 : 16 , 17. And this is the sure promise , that is made sure to all the seed , & must be laid hold on by faith . Rom. 4 : 16. And upon this account , Abraham is said to have seen the day of Christ , & to have been glad Ioh. 8 : 56. And as Abraham took this way ; so did others take it , before him : such as Abel , who by faith offered unto God a more excellent Sacrifice , than Cain ; by which he obtained witness , that he was righteous . Heb. 11 : 4. And Enoch , who pleased God by Faith : and Noah , who became heir of the Righteousness which is by faith . Heb. 11 : 5 , 6 , 7. So David under the Law , describeth the blessedness of the man , unto whom God imputeth Righteousness , without works &c. Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. Psal. 32 : 1 , 2. This then being such a paved way , we must close with it , and seek after no other . 3. This way is by getting or putting on a Righteousness , with which God will be well pleased , and with which alone , he is & will be satisfied ; for it is called the Righteousness of God Rom. 3 : 21 , 22. And the Righteousness , which is of God by faith Phil. 3 : 9. as being not only a Righteousness , which God hath found out , who knew best , how to bring about the Salvation of his chosen ones , to his own glory , & which alone will be acceptable to Him ; but , as being also the Righteousness of one , who is God , even of Jesus Christ , God-man , the Saviour & Cautioner , and this is made over to beleevers , & imputed to them , and they receive it by faith , that it may become theirs , and they may stand before justice clothed with it , & thereby answere all that Law , & justice can say against them , or lay to their charge . Can sinners finde out & fall upon a Righteousness , more excellent in it self , or more pleasing or satisfying unto God , & whereupon a distressed soul pursued by justice and the ●errours of the Lord can with more confidence rest and relye , then this is , which is the Righteousness of God ; the Righteouness wrought by him , who was and is the Fathers equal , God over all , blessed for ever , and is Lord , our Righteousness Ier. 23 : 5. & is made of God to us Righteousness 1 Cor. 1 : 30 ? What can sinners invent , that can once be compared here-with ? Can any thing ; which they themselves can do , yeeld more ground of Peace & Confidence ? No certainely . 4. This way demonstrateth both the Justice & Mercy of God , & so a way wherein the Lord hath given a great demonstration of his wonderful Grace & Mercy : and a way also , wherewith justice is fully satisfied . This the Apostle doth fully declare Rom. 3 : 24 , 25 , 26. being justified freely by his grace , through she redemption , that is in Iesus Christ. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation , through faith in his blood , to declare his Righteousness to declare I say , at this time his Righteousness , that he might be just , &c. And this should commend it higly unto us , that when neither Angel's , nor men , could have found out a way , how Mercy & Grace might have shined forth , in the Salvation of poor sinners ; & with all how Justice should have had satisfaction , the Infinite Wisdom of God , hath found out this way , whereby Justice and Mercy are no more , as it were , at odds , but concurring to the justification of a poor sinner . Whatever way else we take , should we with these Micah . 6 : 7. come before the Lord , & bow ourselves before the high God , should we come before him with brunt Offerings , with calves of a yeer old . It were all in vaine : He would not be pleased with thousands of rams nor with ten thousands of rivers of oil . Should we give our first born for our transgression & the fruit of our body , for the sin of our Soul : What would that avail ? It could be no Satisfaction to Justice : the Lord would not be just , in justifying such sinners . 5. The sad disappointment , that such , as took another course to the end they might be justified & Accepted , have met with , should be as an hand upon the margine to us , to beware of tradeing in the footsteps of their folly , lest we fall into the same pit of ruine . We read Rom. 9 : 31 , 32. that Israel , which followed after the Law of righteousness , did not attaine to the Law of righteo●sness ; Wherefore ? because they sought it not by faith , but as it were by the works of the Law ; for they stumbled at that stumbling stone . They were at much paines to follow after the Law of Righteousness , thinking thereby to attaine unto Righteousness , & so to be justified ; but after all their paines & travail , they did misse their mark , & came short of what they projected : They would not take the way of Faith , they would not by faith lay hold on Christ , and put on His Righteousness , but they stumbled at that stumbling stone ; they sought after a Righteousness , by their own works , which they supposed were the works of the Law , but were not so indeed ; for they sought after the Law of Righteousness , but as it were by the works of the Law : And therefore they could not reach their intended end , how confident so ever they were in their way . So againe Rom. 10 : 3 , 4. it is said of them for they being ignorant of God's Righteousness , & going about to establish their own Righteousness , have not submitted themselves unto the Righteousness of God ; for Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness , to every one that beleeveth . They would not follow God's way , nor submit to that Righteousness , which is twice here called the Righteousness of God ; but in the pride of their heart , would set up & establish their own Righteousness , and make it stand on its feet , and therefore would not be beholden to Christ , & to his Righteousness , nor look to him by faith , who was the end of the Law for righteousness , to every one that beleeveth : and so they lost all . This sad example should cause all look about them , & beware of intertaining a prejudice at the Gospel-way of Justification . 6. From this Instance , we may also take notice of another Consideration , to wit , That to refuse this Gospel-way of Justification argueth intolerable pride of heart , & haughtiness of minde : It is observed of the Jewes here , that they would not submit themselves unto the Righteousness of God ; they would not bow so low , nor humble themselves so far , as to deny their own Righteousness , & condescend to take on Christ ; but in their pride & stoutness of heart , they thought , though the bricks were fallen , they should build all up againe with their own hewn stones , & so they went about to underprop & set up their own Righteousness , that it might stand . And what an intolerable thing is this , for beggers & dyvours to be so proud of nothing , & to refuse to accept of & be satisfied with the payment of a Cautioner ? As then we would not have this guilt of contemning in the pride of our hearts , the way that the Wisdom of God hath found out , & the Righteousness of God , let us not refuise our own Salvation , & stand out against this established , sure & approven way of taking on Christ's Righteousness . 7. We may take notice of another Consideration here , to move us to close with this only way , to wit , That the refuising of this way , as it argueth ignorance both of the worth , & of the excellency & of the necessity of this way of Justification , through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ ; so it argueth a rooted prejudice against Christ , and the way of justification through him , & a judicial stroke of wrath from the Lord upon such , as wilfully & pertinaciously refuise this Gospel way : for it is said of the jewes here , Rom. 10 : 3. that they were ignorant of God's Righteousness : And Chap. 9 : 32. that they stumbled at that stumbled stone , they brake their necks on that , which was the only meane of saving them , & that in the righteous judgment of God , according to what was foretold Esai . 8 : 14 , 15. where it is said , that the Lord of hosts , who would be for a Sanctuary to his own , should be for a stone of stumbling , & for a rock of offence ; for a gin & for a snare & many among them shall stumble & fall , & be broken , & be snared & be taken . And this is further confirmed by that which Peter saith 1. Pet. 2 : 7 , 8. but unto them , which be disobedient , the stone , which the builders disallowed , the same is made the head of the corner . And a stone of stumbling & a rock of offence , to them which stumble at the word , being disobedient , whereunto also they were appointed . The consideration of this should cause all look about them . 8. It is also considerable , that such as will not submit themselves unto this Righteousness of God , have no way to betake themselves unto ; no course that they can follow , in order to their Justification , but that , which is peremtorily rejected of the Lord , & condemned in his word ; that is , the way of their Owne Works . These Jewes , who would not submit themselves unto the Righteousness of God , could fall upon no other course , but the establishing of their own Righteousness : And there is no other way mentioned in Scripture but these two , either by Works , or by Faith ; that is , either by the Righteousness of Christ , or by our own Righteousness ; hence the Apostle doth alwayes oppose these two to other , & by disputing against the Law , our Works , or our Righteousness according to the Law , he establisheth and confirmeth the true & only way , through the Righteousness of Christ ; & by pleading for this , he destroyeth the other , and as there are no third way distinct from both , so there is no commixture of both , to make up a third , in apart agreeing with both : for grace & works cannot agree to gether to make one composition . Rom. 11 : 6. So that what ever different Wayes , and Modes or Methodes , men excogitate in this matter , if they step aside from the pure way of grace , the way of Justification through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ , they must of necessity close with that way , which is through Works , & against which Paul hath disputed so much , in his Epistles . Now what madness is it , to embrace such a way , in whole , or in part ( & if in part , it must also be in whole , for as is said , grace and works will not mixe ) against which the Apostle hath argued so much , both in his Epistle to the Romans , & to the Galatians ? 9. This way of Justification through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ is the only way to Peace & Reconciliation with God ; as the Apostle concludeth Rom. 5 : 1. Therefore being justified by faith , we have peace with God , through our Lord Iesus Christ. Peace with God standeth only upon this foundation , to wit , Justification by Faith ; that is , Justification through the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us by God , & received by faith . People may dream of obtaining Peace & Reconciliation another way ; but they will be miserably disappointed , for , as we said above , justice can be no other way satisfied & till iustice be satisfied , there is no Reconciliation , no Peace . What a miserable case then are persons in , who will not submit unto this way ? They may frame a way to themselves , and be very Zealous in it , as the Jewes had a Zeal of God Rom. 10 : 2. & be at much expense of duties & toile therein , as the Pharisee , who fasted twice a week , and yet attaine to no Peace or Reconciliation with God. All then , who are desireous of this blessed Peace , must choose this way , and close with it heartily , and this should be a strong enducement unto them thereunto . We should remember what Paul said 2 Cor. 5 : 18 , 19 , 21. God hath reconciled us to himself by Iesus Christ & that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself , but how was this : See vers . 21. for he hath made him to be sin for us , who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him . This , even this only , is the way to Peace & Reconciliation with God , and who ever take a way , different from this , or will not cordially close herewith , must resolve to abide in that estate of enmity , whereinto they are by Nature . 10. This way of Justification , as it is the only way of Peace & Reconciliation with God , so it layeth the ground of solide Joy & Rejoyceing in hope of the glory of God & of Glorying in tribulation also , as Paul informeth us . Rom. 5 : 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. Being justified by faith , through Jesus Christ , we have through him , accesse by faith , in to this grace wherein we stand , & rejoyce in hope of the glory of God ; & not only so , but we glory in tribulations also , knowing that tribulation worketh patience , & patience experience , & experience hope , & hope maketh not ashamed , because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts &c. Men may , I know , promise to themselves much Peace , Joy and Consolation , in their own false way , & may also deceive themselves , as the Pha●isee did , when he thanked God , he was not like the publican : but how had will the discovery of the deceite and cheatry prove in end ? God's way is the only way , that will yeeld all these desirable things , in truth & reality : and therefore we would do well , to follow this way alone . 11. Moreover this way of Justification will only lay the sure & unfailing foundation of true Holiness and Sanctification , and hence are the most spiritual , convincing & moving Arguments unto the study of holiness , only to be taken ; as we see the Apostle clearing it in his Epistle to the Romans Chap 6. & 7. & 8. having laid down , in the preceeding Chapters , as a sure ba. sis thereunto , the only Gospel-way of Iustification . Men may think , that the pressing of Justification by our own works should prove the most effectual Meane & Perswasive unto the real study of holiness , & a most infallible Argument to set people awork to follow holiness with all their might : But experience sufficiently proveth that all such , who by their doctrine lay more or less of their weight upon their owne works , in their Justification , are so far from outstriping others in the spiritual exercise of true holiness , that for the most part the very contrary is too too manifest : and howbeit Adversaries to Gospel-Justification , through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ , object to the Asserters thereof , that thereby they are Enemies to the study of holiness , & give way to laziness & negligence ▪ in that exercise ; yet , not only is their alleigance groundless , seing we press holiness upon the same grounds , that the Apostle doth , who oft times meeteth with this objection , in his way of declaring & pressing the Gospel-way of justification : but also experience showeth , that such as have fled to Christ , for Righteousness , have another way of Communion with God , in all holy conversation ; & their walkeing in all the wayes of God ; hath a spiritual lustre & heavenly beauty , being compared with the walk of others , strangers in practice , and in opinion , to the Gospel-way of being Justified through Faith in Christ. 12. Whoso ever reject this truth , and do not accepte of this way of justification , through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ , received & leaned to by faith , do interpretativly say as much , as that Christ is dead in vaine : for the Apostle tels us Gal. 2 : 21. that he did not frustrat the grace of God ; for if righteousness come by the Law , then Christ is dead in vaine . thereby teaching us , that the crying up of the Law , & the Righteousness thereof , and urging people to seek after a Righteousness , by which they may be justified , in their Obedience to the Law , is a real frustrating of the grace of God , & a declaring that Christ is dead in vaine : and consequently , whoever seek after a Righteousness , consisting in their personal obedience to the Law , & will not accepte of , nor heartily & practically close with the Gospel-way of justification , through faith in Christ , do really frustrate , so far as in them lyeth , all the grace of God , manifested in , & brought to light by the Gospel , where this noble way of recovering sinners is revealed , & more clearly & fully explained , than it was formerly . And it is a saying upon the matter , that Christ hath died in vaine : for if he died not to satisfie for sinners , after he had finished his course of Obedience , & so to make up a compleat Righteousness , which might answere all the necessities of sinners , lying under the sentence of a broken Law ; and having no way , without Christ , to obtaine the Crown of life , but by perfect & personal Obedience to the whole Law , which was & is to them utterly impossible : If , I say , Christ died not for this end , he died in vaine ; & all such , as will not heartily imbrace this way , do on the matter say , he died not for this end ; & so , as far as they can , they make him to have died in vaine . 13. This Consideration might also have force with us , that what Paul taught , as to this matter , he did also practise , & sweetly complye with ; thereby casting us a copie , in his own practice : for thus he speaketh Phil. 3 : 8 , 9. Yea doubtless & I count all things but loss , for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Iesus my Lord : for whom I have suffered the loss of all things , & do count them but dung , that I may win Christ , & be found in him , not having mine own Righteousness , which is of the Law , but that which is through the faith of Christ , the righteousness , which is of God by faith . So Gal. 2 : 16. knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law , but by the faith of Iesus Christ ; even we have beleeved in Jesus Christ , that we might be justified by the faith of Christ &c. If therefore , we would be sure in this matter , we must take this course , which is so corresponding in all points , with the Gospel-doctrine , in this matter . Therefore who ever would expect to have it going well with them for evermore , must resolve upon this course , to be clothed with the Righteousness of Christ , and get on that rob of Righteousness , which is had through the faith of Christ , the Righteousness , which is of God by faith . CHAP. XVIII . Some of the duties of such , as live the life of Justification , proposed . IN the last place , we shall mentione this Use of the Truth , formerly cleared & confirmed , in reference to such as have attained unto this life of justification , through faith , which every one may readily see , That it is the duty of such , as are made partakers of this life , to beware of such things , as may & will provoke the Lord to anger ; & will be unsutable for them , who are thus graciously advanced to such an high State & Privilege of grace ; & to minde such duties , as do most suite such , as are so highly advanced , and so greatly obliged to him , that hath thus called them effectually , by his grace , and hath wrought up their hearts unto a full compliance with the Gospel-contrivance of free grace . Many such particular duties might here be mentioned : but I shall only pointe at a few , to which others may be reduced . 1. Such , as live this life of Gospel Justification , should beware of intertaining thoughts of pride , or of boasting of any thing , they have freely and graciously received ▪ and particularly , they should guard against boasting in this matter , that they are preferred to others , and brought out of a state of death , when others are left yet to lye thereinto . This whole matter is so contrived , and so wisely framed , that no ground of boasting , either before God , or man , may be left unto Man ; but that every one may celebrate the praise of Free Grace . Therefore Justification is not by works , or by our obedience to the Law ; for then the justified man , being justified upon the account of his own works , or of the works of righteousness , which he hath done , should have ground of glorying , though not before God , yet before Men ; as having by his own sweating , working & doing , obtained that , which others by their laziness , negligence & not doing , have come short of . Paul tels us this expresly . Rom. 4 : 2. If Abraham were justified by works , he hath to glory , but not before God : and this is further confirmed vers . 4. Now to him , that worketh , is the reward not reckoned of grace , but of debt . So that if Justification were by works , Justification it self , & all the Consequences thereof should be due debt unto the worker , and his reward : and so , as the hireling may boast of his labour , when he gets his hire & reward ; so the justified man , if justification were by the works of the Law , might boast of his own paines & diligence , as having received but his reward , and that which was due to him of debt , and not of grace . But now , that all mouthes may be stopped , & no flesh might glory , or have ground of boasting , in themselves , and before others , the Lord hath contrived a far other way of justification , to wit , by Faith alone , whereby the Man goeth out of himself , renunceth all his own Righteousness , prosesseth himself poor , naked & miserable , & a plaine dyvour , and utterly non-solvendo , & layeth hold on a compleet & alsufficient Righteousness , in Jesus Christ ; and so hath no ground of boasting or glorying even before men : for it is nothing that is in him ; or that he doth , that is that Righteousness , upon the account of which he is Justified ; but only the Righteousness of Christ without him . It is not his faith , not his works , nor his Righteousness ; but Christ's Righteousness is equally imputed to all beleevers , to the weakest beleever , as well as to the strongest ; and so the strongest beleever hath no ground of boasting before the weakest . Where is boasting-then ? ( saith the Apostle Rom. 3 : 27. ) It is excluded by what Law ? Of works ? nay ; but by the Law of faith . 2. Upon the other hand , let all such glory in the Lord , and in his free grace & gracious workings ; Let them say , when they reflect on this matter , not unto us Lord , not unto us , but unto thee be glory , seing the matter is so contrived , as that all the justified may see , that God may only have the glory of all , & that none ought to share with him ; that he alone should weare the crown ; & all his glorified ones should most cheerfully cast their crownes down at his feet . But of him ( saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 1 : 30 , 31. ) are ye in Christ Iesus , who of God is made unto us Wisdom , Righteousness , & Sanctification & Redemption : that , according as it is written , he that glorieth , Let him glory in the Lord. Christ is made all things unto & for his people , & they have all of God through him , that no flesh should glory in his presence , as it is said vers . 29. Let all such therefore , as are made partaker of this rich & honourable Privilege , comply sweetly & cheerfully with this designe of God , to have God alone exalted , and the mouth of all flesh stopped , that he who glorieth , may alone glory in the Lord. 3. Let such as are thus advanced , minde the great duty of holiness , and of growing in grace , and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ ; The way of faith is not to make void the Law , but it doth establish it Rom. 3 : 31. as Christ is made of God unto is Righteousness , so is he made Sanctification . As he is Priest to reconcile us to God , and become Righteousness to us , so is he a King to cause us walk in the Lord , & to subdue our spiritual enemies , and so become Sanctification to us . It is the language of the flesh & of corruption , to argue from this Change & advancement unto a liberty to sinne . Shall we continue in sin , that grace may abound ? will the flesh object . But the Apostle answereth . Rom. 6 : 2. &c. God forbid , how shall we , that are dead to sin , live any longer therein ? It is repugnant to the nature of that state , whereinto now they are bro●ght , to give way to sin : Therefore the justified should minde what they are called to , & what new grounds , new advantages , new helps , new encouragements they have unto holiness , that they had not before , all plainly & fully set down by Paul Rom. 6. & eise where . 4. How should they commend & cry up the free grace of God , and that love that visited them , when they were lying in their blood , and no eye pityed them . They were ungodly & without strength , yet Christ died for them Rom. 5 : 6. and the Lord did justifie the ungodly , even them , who had no righteousness of their owne , nor nothing to commend them unto him , Rom. 4 : 5. Yea where sin abounded , grace did much more abound Rom. 5 : 20. Not only had they nothing more then others to commend them unto God , but even they had less , and ●et God through free grace set his Love upon the less worthy ; for , saith Paul ( 1 Cor. 1 : 26 , 27 , 28. ) ye see your calling , Brethren , how that not many wise men after the flesh , not many mighty , not many noble : but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world , to confound the wise ; & God hath chosen the weak things of the world , and things which are despised hath God chosen , and things which are not , to bring to naught things which are . That no flesh should glory in his presence . Should not the thoughts of this raise their wondering , & cause them speak to the commendation of the rich and free grace of God ? 5. Let such as are brought into this state of life , wherein they have peace with God , and are reconciled to Him , through Jesus Christ , carry as persones no more strangers unto him , & as forraigners , but as now madenigh by the blood of Jesus ; & therefore let such remember , that through him , they have an access by one Spirit unto the Farher , being now fellow-citisens with the Saints , and of the houshold of God Ephes. 2 : 13 , 14 , 18 , 19. Rom. 5 : 2. Therefore should improve this advantage , both for their own good and for the good of others ; & should exercise communion & fellowshipe with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ & so walk with him . as agreed with Him , & have their conversation in heaven . Hath the Lord brought them into his houshold , yea & admitted them to his presence , that they may kisse his hand , & stand before his face continually , in the lower chamber of presence ; and should they carry as yet estranged from him ? Is He at peace with them , and should they have jealous thoughts of him ? Is He reconciled unto them , and should they carry , as keeping up some grudge against Him ? 6. Such should account this state , whereinto now they are brought , their only blessedness here below . Even as David ( saith Paul Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. ) also describeth the blessedness of the Man , unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works ; saying , blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven , and whose sinnes are covered : blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute sin . Here is the poor self-condemned sinners blessedness , that he hath a righteousness imputed to him , who had none of his owne , and who thereupon hath his iniquities forgiven , covered , & not imputed . And such as are made partakers of this blessedness , should account it their happiness , that how ever it be with them , as to outward things in the world , yet they are now brought within the Covenant , and are covered with the mantle of Christ's Righteousness and have all their iniquities covered , cast into the midst of the sea , so that they shall never be reckoned upon their score . 7. This should be aground for them of glorying in the Lord , in the hardest condition , they can be into in the world ; being thus justified , they should glory in tribulations knowing that they can suffer no loss o● disadvantage thereby , but on the contrary reap much good and advantage ; for tribulation worketh in such as are thus justified , and at peace with God , patience , and patience experience , & experience hope , & hope maketh not ashamed , because the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost . Ought they not then to carry under all oppressions , persecutions , hard usages of men , upon the account of owning Christ & his Interest , as persons that are upon the gaining hand , and reaping much spiritual advantage , being now brought through grace into such a state of life ? And how would they hereby glorify God in the world ? 8. The consideration of their present state of life , should cause them triumph , in the midst of all difficulties & temptations , that they shall meetwith in their way , as knowing , that the life of justification , whereof now they are made partakers , shall continue : and that it shall end in the life of glory ; for whom the Lord justifieth , them he also glorifieth . Rom. 8 : 30. Who shall then lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect ? It is God that justifieth : who is he that condemneth ? Who shall then separat such from the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation , or persecution , or distress , or famine , or nakedness , or perill , or sword ? Nay in all these things they are more then conquerours , through him that loved them : Rom. 8 : 33 , 34 , 35 , 37. Hear how Paul concludeth that matter for himself & others vers . 38 , 32. for I am perswaded , that neither death , nor life , nor angels , nor principalities , nor Powers , nor things present , nor things to come , nor height , nor depth , nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God : which is in Christ Iesus , our Lord. Should not therefore such carry , as persons that cannot be made miserable ? How much doth the Apostle insist on this , and cleare it from this ground Rom. 5 : 9 , 10. saying , much more then being now justified by his blood , we shall be saved from wrath through him , for if when we were enemies , we were reconciled unto God , by the death of his Son ; much more being reconciled , we shall be saved by his life . And againe vers . 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death , even so might grace reigne through righteousness unto eternal life , by Iesus Christ , our Lord. There being then a sure ground of confidence & assurance of life & of compleet salvation , laid in justification , all such are called to rejoice in hope of the glory of God Rom , 5 : 2. And to have confidence in the Lord , that he will perfect what he hath begun & to rest assured , that all they , which receive abundance of grace , & of the gift of righteousness , shall reigne in life by one Jesus Christ. Rom. 5 : 17. 9. Yea particularly , the consideration of their many sinnes should not discourage them , or cause them despond : for being now justified , all their bygone sins are pardoned , & shall not be by the Lord laid to their charge againe , however the memory of them may humble them , & cause them run to the fountaine of the blood of Jesus ; & all their future sins shall be pardoned , according the Gospel grounds , & after the Gospel-methode , so that they shall not prejudge them of their promised possession of glory and life everlasting . Now the free gift is of many offences , unto justification Rom. 5 : 16. There is a sure way laid down , in the Gospel , whereby all their sins shall be taken away , and the very body of death shall be killed more & more dayly , so that they shall not finally perish , what ever Satan , & body of death within shall do , to prejudge them of the promised inheritance . Hence the Apostle inferreth from his foregoing discourse Rom. 8 : 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to then , which are in Christ Jesus . 10. Such as are thus justified , should follow the example of Paul Phil. 3 : 7 , 8 , 9. and so account such things less for Christ , which formerly were gaine yea & count all things but loss , for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ , Jesus , their Lord , yea & account them but dung , that they may win Christ , and be found in him ; Here should their heart & delight be : about this should their whole occupation be , to win and gaine Christ more , to know him & the power of his Resurrection and the followshipe of his sufferings , & to be made conformable unto his death vers . 10. that hereby Christ may be their gaine , their glory , & their all . How jealous should they be of their deceitful hearts , that nothing be admitted , to share of the glory due to Christ , or to possesse any of that room in the heart , that is due to him ? He should have the throne , for He is well worthie of it : And whatever cometh in competition with him , be it within us , or without us , should be rejected that He alone may be exalted in our souls . 11. Such as have been made partaker of this royal life of justification , through a Crucified Christ , laid hold on by faith , should labour to keep this doctrine pure both by word & deed , so far as they can , that 〈◊〉 grace of God , that so eminently shineth forth therein , may not be darkned by mens erroneous apprehensions ; & that so much the rather , that Satan without & corruption within many , are so far at enmity with this doctrine of the grace of God , that they laboure by all meanes , either more directly , or more indirectly to perver●tit , & to presse for a mixture of works upon one consideration , or other , in this matter , which it will not admit : and that because , it is so crosse & contrary to the corrupt inclinations of Man , who is so proud of nothing , that he will not be beholden to Christ for less and for more , and for all . We see Paul was most jealous in this matter , and most zealous for the truth , & therefore on all occasions did assert & vindicate it , as we may see especially in his Epistle to the Galatians , where he did so zealously withstand Peter Chap. 2 : 14. and immediatly did state the question , vers . 16. saying , knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law , but by the faith of Iesus Christ , even we have beleeved in Iesus Christ , that we might be justified by the faith of Christ & not by the works of the Law &c. adding vers . 18. that he for his part , would not build againe the things , which he had destroyed , & so make himself a transgressour . Nor would he vers . 21. frustrate the Grace of God. 12. Finally all such , as have by faith laid hold on Christ , & his righteousness , and are by faith justified , and so made partaker of this life through faith in Christ , must resolve to abide in Christ by faith , that life may be preserved , and by new acts of faith dayly on Christ , get as it were new breath , that their life may be continued , and thus live continually the life of justification by faith , & by faith take their new sinnes to Christ , that they may be done away in his blood ; for the Righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith ; as it is written , the just shall live by Faith ; But of this we are to speak more hereafter . CHAP. XIX . Of the Life of Justification , as to its continuance . WHen it is said , that the just shall live by faith , there is a State pointed forth , & a Condition intimated , that is not momentany , & of short continuance , but such a condition , or change of state is hold forth , as is of a lasting Nature ; not only because Life doth connote some permanency , for a longer , or for a shorter time ; but chiefly because this Scriptural axiome saith , especially as else where applied by the Spirit of the Lord , that the just ▪ or justified man , hath through faith a life , in the worst of times , & that he is made partaker of that privilege of life , which shall prove lasting & continueing , to the end , a life , that is keeptin , fed & nourished by Faith. Having spoken therefore of this life of Justifi on , as begun ; that we may more fully explaine the nature of it , we must speak a litle of it also , as continued . But first , we must premit some things to shew , what that Justification is , of the continuance of which we here speak ; and what we do not hereby understand , when we speak of the continuance of the Life of Justification . 1. We do not speak here of Justification , which Antinomians tell us , is from Eternity ; for that can be nothing , but God's eternal Purpose to justifie ; and which cannot more be called Justification , than his eternal purpose to Condemne the Reprobate , & to save the Elect , can be called condemnation & Salvation : and we can no more say , That there was a Justification of any man from Eternity , than that there was a Condemnation , or Salvation of men from eternity ; we must distinguish betwixt God's Purposes , & the Effects , which he hath purposed : His purposes are indeed eternal : but the Effects or Events purposed , have their being in time , according to the Season , meane and Methode , when & whereby God hath purposed to effectuate them . And sure we are , that Justification , whereof the Scripture speaketh , is a relative change wrought in Man , in time , when and not before , he laith hold on Christ by Faith , according to the tenor of the Gospel . 2. Nor do we meane here , that Justification , which the same Antinomians , call only declarative in this life : for the true Gospel Justification is a real Relative Change , whereby the beleever is brought out of a State of Wrath and Judgment : where they were lying under the Curse of the Law , and the sentence thereof , unreconciled to God , and enemies to him , having their sinnes lying upon then , according to the sentence of the Law , & therefore strangers to God's favoure & countenance , and so without God & without Christ ; & brought into a new State of Peace , Pardon , Reconciliation & Friendshipe with God , of which we spoke above Chap. V. We cannot then look upon the Iustification , mentioned & explained in the Scriptures , and of which we have hitherto spoken , as a meer Declaration to the beleevers Conscience of what God did from Eternity ; as if the admittance into favoure , and Pardoning of sinnes , were nothing but his Declaration to their consciences , that they were accepted from eternity , & had pardon from eternity : a notion , sure , that hath no feeting or foundation in the Scriptures . 3. We do not here speak of that , which some call Baptismal Iustification , & whereby they say , all Infants baptized are justified ; & which they must yeeld to be such as can & doth meeth with a final & total intercision , yea & amission , as to many ; & so be quite of another nature , from that which adult beleevers partake of , from which there is no final or total Apostasie to be granted , according to the Scriptures . But we owne no such Justification of all baptized Infants . 4. Nor yet do we here speak of that , which others , being more wary , must owne , as consequentially following upon their opinion of Baptismal Regeneration of all baptized elect infants , to wit , a Baptismal Iustification of all baptized elect infants , it being certain , that there can be no Regeneration , without a corresponding Justification : for as such a Regeneration is not clearly revealed in the Scriptures , so , were it granted , no Actual Justification , but only a Seminal & Potential Justification could be hence inferred ; because such as the Regeneration is said to be , by such as maintaine this opinion , such must the Justification be ; but this Regeneration , which is thus owned , is only said to be Initial , Seminal , or Potential , & is distinguished from Actual Regeneration ( See D. Burges of Baptismal Regeneration . pag. 14 , 15 ▪ ) As concerning the justification of Infants , though we cannot say , that there is no such thing , yet , as the knowledge of the way of the Lords effectuating it , doth not much concerne us ; so the Scriptures are spareing in speaking of that Subject ; Sure , the Lord hath a way of uniteing their hearts to Christ , and of justifying Regenerating & Saving such of them , as die in their Infancy , & belong to the Election of Grace ; though we cannot distinctly understand , & determinatly explaine the manner how . It is more of our concernment to enquire after & know the way , how adult persones come to partake of these Privileges . 5. We do not here speak of that Justification , which some call a Iustification of the cause , and distinguish from that , which they call , a justification of the person : for that is but the justification of a person falsly accused , as to some particular , as David was frequently accused of many things , by his Adversaries , of which he was Innocent , laying to his charge crimes , he knew not , about which he was in case ( as we finde he did several times in his Psalmes ) to appeal unto God , the righteous Iudge , being conscious to himself of no guilt in the particulars alledged , & knowing his own innocency , in the sight of God , who knew all things : Such was the matter of that question , concerning Job's sinceritie so much agitated betwixt him , & his friends , in the book of Iob , and at length decided in Iob's favours , by God himself ; for though this was not , concerning one or a few particular acts , but concerning his whole deportment , and concerning his State before God , upon the account of his deportment , and the Lord's dispensations with him ; yet it was a justification of his Cause , rather than of his Person ; for in the justification of our Persons , we have to do immediatly with God , and not with man ; and the question was properly about a matter of fact , to wit , whether he had been a real beleever , or an hypocrite , though such a matter of fact , as meerly concerned his whole State. 6. Nor do we here speak of that justification , even as to our state , which is before men , or in the judgment of men , which oft proceedeth upon mistakes and unsure grounds ; as the now-mentioned instance of Iob's friends evidenceth : and so varieth , according to the various judgments & apprehensions of men , yea and of the same Man , at several times , according as the grounds , whereupon he judgeth , are to him clear , or dark : Neither is this sentence or judgment of men , who are but fallible , and judge by outward appearance , not being able to see into the heart , and judge how matters are there , alwayes according to truth ; even though according to that judgment of Charity , which the Law of God requireth : Nor is it Constant and equable . 7. Nor do we speak of that Iustification , whereof the Apostle Iames speaketh Chap. 2. which is not the justification before God , whereof the Apostle Paul speaketh , in his Epistles ; but the evidencing , proving and demonstrating thereof , by effects and works obvious to the eyes of others and demonstrative of the cause ; Those I grant will oft admit of an intercision , through Temptation , and the prevalency of Corruption , and so the cause or true justification may , as to this manifestation , he eclipsed , though not in it self . 8. Far less do we here speak , of a groundless , fancied & supposed justification , whether in the apprehension of deluded persons themselves , or of others : for this is no true Iustification , but a meer delusion , as to themselves , and a conjecture , as to others : and the sooner this be quite cast away and renunced , the better . 9. Nor do we here speak of that Iustification , which is in the court of mans own conscience , or as it is there , and opposed to that Iustification , which is in God's court ; for it is certaing , this Iustification , which is said to be in the court of conscience , is but a manifestation of the other unto the mans conscience , and is some times had , & sometimes missed ; sometimes it is more clear , some times more dark , and therefore can be oft repeated and reiterated , and intended and remitted ; yea and some may for a long time if not their whole life time be wholly without it , Walking in darkness without all light , as to this ; some may once get a cleare sight thereof , and never see more of it , till nigh the landing in eternity , & yet all this while , the Iustification , which is in the court of God , remaine fixed , invariable , and without any interuption . 10. By Justification here , we meane not that , which some call a Particular justification , and do distinguish it from an Universal Iustification : by this understanding an universal pardon of all sins past and committed , and by the other understanding a particular pardon of this or that sin , that is committed , after the man hath been universally pardoned and accepted of God ; and now pardoned after a new act of faith in Christ : Though it be needless to debate , whether this Particular Pardon can be called a Iustification , or not ; yet it is certaine , it is not that Iustification , whereof Paul speaketh so much , and explaineth , in all its causes , in his Epistles ; nor that Iustification , which connoteth a change of State before God , and the translation of a person out of an estate of Enmity into an estate of Favour and Friedshipe , in reference to which there must be a juridical sentence , passed in the favours of the man , through the impured Righteousness of Christ , received by Faith : while as this posterior act of pardon of a particular transgression , is rather a Fatherly act pardoning the failing of his Son & receiving him againe into his Fatherly embracements . 11. Nor finally , do we here speak of that sentence of Absolution , that shall be pronunced , at the last day ; for , howbeit that may be called a Iustification ; yet it is not that Iustification , whereof we are now speaking , & it doth not make such a change in the state of such , as are thereby absolved , as this doth ; and therefore , in respect of this , it is rather a publick Declaration and Manifestation , before Angels and Men , of their Iustification , or being in a Iustified state , who shall be adjudged unto eternal life ; than any Iustification connoteing a change of state , seing none in that day will be justified but such as have been here partakers of this Iustification , whereof we speak , they who have been in heaven will need none , & such as have been in hell will expect none ; & none of the living , who have not by faith laid hold on Christ , will hear any other sentence , then , depart from me , ye cursed . 12. The justification then , whereof we here speak , is That change of state before God , which such are made partakers of , as lay hold on Christ by faith , through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , whereby they are brought into an estate of Favour & Reconciliation with God , who were before under his Wrath & Curse ; and upon which they have all their iniquities , whereof they are guilty , actually pardoned ; are accepted of , as Righteous , and pronunced such through the Surety-Righteousness of Christ imputed to them ; and freed from the sentence & Curse of the Law , under which they were lying . That we may cleare the nature of this life of Justification , as to its continuance , we shall lay down these few Propositions . Propos. 1. Justification denoteth a State , wherein the beleever is brought , a real change , as to state : as a man accused of some crime , & keeped in prison till he be tryed , & examined by an assise , is really changed , as to his Law state , when cleared by an assise , and pronunced not guilty , and so absolved as to that , whereof he was accused , and set at liberty , he is now a free man , in Law : much more is there a great change in a mans Law-state , when before he was guilty of death , lying bound in fetters , keeped unto the day of execution , and now getteth a free Remission of all , when of a Man of death he is made a free liege , as there is a change in a mans state , and Relation , when he is made an Adopted son , so is there a new state , wherein the sinner is brought , when he is absolved from the sentence of the Law , and declared a Righteous man. Sanctification , Regeneration and Glorification , do all of them hold forth a new real State , whereinto he is brought , who is made partaker thereof ; so Iustification with Adoption held forth a new relative state , which is also real as real , is opposed to what is false , or imaginary . Hence is it , that a beleever is justified even while he is sleeping & not acting faith ; as a person remaineth in a married state , though not actually consenting unto the match , the consent once granted enstateth the person in that new Relation . Propos. 2. This new state of Iustification is continueing & permanent ; not in this sense , that God reneweth & frequently reiterateth the enstating of them into this new relative state ; but in this sense , that once justified alwayes justified ; they are fixed & preserved in that state : as Adoption is a permanent state , because once adopted alwayes a child of God. Hence it is called a grace , wherein me stand Rom. 5 : 2. It is a state of Reconciliation and Peace wherein we stand . It is no fluctuating state , wherein one may be to day & be out of it to morrow , and againe brought into it . The ground of this sentence is fixed , lasting and permanent , to wit , the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ : once clothed therewith , never naked or spoiled thereof againe ; the gifts and calling of God being with out Repentance Rom. 11 : 29. The foul's union with Christ through faith , is lasting and abiding : once in Him , alwayes in Him , once a member of his mystical body , & married to him , as his spouse , and alwayes so , for he must finally present all such holy & without spot● , or wrinkle , or any such thing Ephes. 5 : 27. Faith whereby the knot is made , and the marriage consent is given , remaineth , as to its root and habite , Christ prayeth , that it fail not . Luk. 22 : 32. They are keeped by the power of God through faith unto Salvation . 1. Pet. 1 : 5. All the arguments proving Perseverance of the Saints , which we cannot here summe-up , do confirme this . Propos. 3. Hence Iustification is a State , that is not Interrupted and broken off , and renewed and reiterated againe : as it cannot be quite taken away and annulled : so neither can it be broken off for a time , so as for that time , they should be in a non-justified state : the marriage once made is not broken ; the sentence once pronunced is not recalled ; sinnes once pardoned by God , are not laid againe to his charge . The Spirit that once spoke peace & said , Son be of good cheer , thy sinnes are forgiven thee , will not be againe , a Spirit of bondage unto fear Rom. 8 : 15. If Iustification could at any time be th●s interrupted , Adoption behoved to be interrupted with it , and so a childe of God behoved to be for that time a childe of the devil . The Scripture speaketh not of any such relapse into the state of Nature & Sin. And such were some of you , but ye are washed , but ye are sanctified , but ye are justified , in the name of the Lord Iesus & by the Spirit of our God 1. Cor. 6 : 11. once brought out of Nature never reduced into that state againe : No more new Iustification , than new Adoption ; once quickened , never againe brought into a state of death in trespasses & sins Ephes. 2 : 1 , 5. for such are then brought into a saife state , being quickened together with Christ ; as Christ being raised from the death , dieth no more , death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6 : 9. so they , who are planted with him , in the likeness of his Death and Resurrection , may alwayes reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin , but alive unto God , through Jesus Christ vers . 4 , 5 , 11. Hence there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8 : 1. They are not under the Law , but under grace Rom. 6 : 14. And this holdeth true , notwithstanding of after-sins ; for if after-sins , & remanent sinnes and corruption , could break of this relation , and make an alteration in this state , no man should be said to be one day in a justified state : for the best of men falleth seven times a day in sin , and no man can say , that he is free of sin : there being no perfection here , there could be no state of Justification , & consequently no state of Adoption , and Reconciliation : if after-sins could break of this Relation , or Relative State , a beleever could not be said to be partaker of any of the privileges attending this state , for one day to end . New sins indeed call for new Remissions , but these new Remissions are fatherly pardons , and not such a sentence of absolution , as the person had at first , when translated out of the Rate of Death into Life , for then the person was not a reconciled Son : but now he standeth in a state of Reconciliation and Sonshipe , & his new pardons are the pardons of a Father , granted to a Son ; as we see Psal. 89 : 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34. If his children forsake my Law , and walk not in my judgments ; if they break my statutes , & keep not my commendements ; then will I visite their transgression with the rod , & their iniquity with stripes : never the less my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him , nor suffer my fatihfulness to fail : my Covenant will I not break , nor alter the thing , that is gone of my lips . So 1 Ioh. 1 : 8 , 9. If we say , that we have no sin , we deceive ourselves , and the truth is not in us . If we confess our sins , he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins , & 2 : 1 , 2. My little children , these things write I unto you , that ye sin not and if any man sin , we have an Advocat with the Father , Iesus Christ the righteous ▪ And he is the Propitiation for our sins . Psal. 103 : 3 , 8 , 9 , 12 , 13. Who forgiveth all thine Iniquities . The Lord is merciful and gracious , slow to anger & plenteous in mercy : he will not alwayes chide , neither will he keep his anger for ever , as far as the east is from the West , so far hath heremoved our transgressions from us : like as a Father pitieth his children , so the Lord pitieth them that fear him . So this state remaineth firme and unbroken , notwithstanding of the various changes , which are in their apprehensions concerning it ; these may alter many a time in one day , But the Lords thoughts are not as our thoughts : nor are his wayes as our wayes , Esai . 55 : 8 , 9. His sentence & judgment remaineth the same , how alterable so ever ours be . He is in one minde , though we be in many . Propos. 4. Hence also it is manifest , that Iustification is an Instantaneous act ; that is , it is not a work , that is carried on by degrees ; but a sentence pronunced by the Lord , the Righteous Judge , once for all : Though hereafter they still need renewed pardons , & so , may have moe sinnes actually pardoned this yeer , than they had the last yeer ; yet Justification , as relating to their state , is no progressive work : We hear not of a grouth in Iustification , as we hear of a growth in Sanctification ; for as for that word Revel . 22 : 11 , he that is Righteous , let him be Righteous still , or , let him be justified still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not import a growth or progress in Iustification , but a continuance in that state : beside that others read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : So Ar. Mont. The complut edition , as also the Syriack & Arabick Versions . This relative change , that is made in Iustification , is like the relative change , that is made in Adoption ; now the act of Adoption is an Insantaneous act , and not a work , that is carried on by degrees , nor doth it admit of a grouth , so that an adopted childe of God can not be more the adopted childe of God this yeer , than they were the last yeer ; though the sense and clear Perception of the one and of the other may & doth admit of degrees , & is not so full & clear alwayes at the first , as it may be afterwards . Propos. 5. Hence it followeth , That justification is equal in all ; that is , that all who are justified , are alike justified ; none more than others ; as none are more Adopted than others , speaking of these , who are made partaker of the privilege : None can be said to be more a son , than another ; so none can be said to be more justified , than another , who is also justified ; the Lord's sentence absolveth all equally from all their sins , who beleeve ; and admitteth them all equally into a State of Favoure and Reconciliation ; They equally passe from death unto life , they have equally peace with God , they have all an equal imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , or a share therein , none more or less then others , though the faith , which laith hold on the Righteousness of Christ , be not a like strong , in all ; for it is faith in the same kinde in all , and the promise is to the kind , and not to the measure or degree of faith . It is no where said , that we are justified by a faith of such a measure or degree ; but by faith ; importing that how weak so ever saith be , if it be faith of the right kinde , it inte●esseth a soul in Christ , & in his Righteousness , whereupon he is justified . It is true , one may have many moe sins pardoned , than another . Yet both being Pardoned & Iustified , they are equally absolved from all , that could be laid to their charge ; he that was the greater sinner , is not more liable to the Law , then he who was the least offender ; for the sentence of Pardon or Absolution doth equally free both from all hazard of Condemnation ; as when two persons are pardoned , the one whereof hath committed many crimes worthie of death , the other but one , they are both equally pardoned , freed from prison , and from the sentence , and set at liberty : So also when two persons are pardoned , the one whereof hath a greater debt remitted , the other a lesser , they are equally pardoned , the one is not more discharged , though discharged of more , than the other , but both are alike discharged of all their debt , & freed from all trouble of Law upon the account of their debt . So in Iustification , all who are justified , how great so ever the difference be among them , as to the sinnes , whereof they were guilty , are alike justified , because alike freed from the accusation and curse of the Law ; & alike made partakers of the Privileges of Persons pardoned ; have alike interest in the Favoure of God , & Right to glory . As to what difficulty may arise from the consideration of after sinnes , we shall speak to that afterward . Propos. 6. The State of Iustification is perfect at the first , or Iustification is perfect and compleet to all ends and uses ; This is clear from what is already said : for if Iustification be not an act & privilege , that admitteth of degrees , or of increase ; and doth not grow more and more dayly , it must be perfect at first , or adequate to all ends and purposes , for which it is appointed , or have that perfection that is competent to it . It is true , it is not so perfect , as that it can never be out of sight ; or as if the sense & feeling of it might not grow or become greater ; nor yet is it so perfect & compleet , as it thereby the justified person were freed from all sin , or all the consequences of sin in this life , for it is not hereunto appointed , nor granted for these ends . But in these respects , and for these ends , it is may be said to be perfect . ( I ) That all their former sins are pardoned , how many & how hainous so ever they have been , for then all their sins are cast into the depths of the sea , Micah . 7 : 19. & are not found . Ier. 50 : 20. In those dayes , & in that time , saith the Lord , the iniquitie of Israel shall be sought for , and there shall be none , & the sins of judah , & they shall not be found , for I will pardon them whom I reserve . He taketh away all iniquity Hos. 14 : 2. Then he imputeth no iniqui●y Psal. 32 : 2. but covereth & forgiveth sins , without exception . Rom. 4 : 7 , 8. Thus he redeemeth Israel from all his iniquities Psal. 130 : 8. He forgiveth their iniquitie , & remembereth their sin no more Ier. 31 : 34. Heb. 8 : 12. & 10 : 17. He cast : all their sins behinde his back . Esai . 38 : 17. Hereby is remission of sinnes , without any exception . Rom. 3 : 25. Mat. 26 : 28. Mark. 1 : 4. Luk. 3 : 3. Act. 2 : 33. & 5 : 31. & 10 : 43. & 26 ; 18. Eph. 1 : 7. Col. 1 : 14. He forgiveth all trespasses Colos. 2 : 13. and forgiveth all iniquity Psal. 103 : 3. ( 2 ) These sins once pardoned & blotted out , and cast behinde God's back , are not againe laid to the charge of the justified persons : once forgiven alwayes forgiven : It is true , Satan may renew the charge , and use false summonds against the Beleever ; & it is also true , that after-sins may waken feares , & bring old sins againe to remembrance , & the Lord may let them see their former debt , not to charge it upon them , but to bring them on their knees , to humble them the more , & to cause them cry for , and seek out new extracts of the Pardon received : yet the sinnes that God once pardoneth , he never writteth down againe upon the score of Beleevers , as if he had recalled the former pardon granted , for he remembereth their sin no more Ier. 31 : 34. Heb. 8 : 12. & 10 : 17. And for future sins by vertue of their State , they have access to seek for pardon and have ground . ( 3 ) The Righteousness of Christ , which is a perfect Righteousness , is fully and perfectly communicated and imputed ; so as thereby they become the Righteousness of God in Christ 2. Cor. 5. last . He is their whole Righteousness , in order to Iustification , and wholly their Righteousness , as made of God Righteousness unto them . Ier. 23 : 6 , 1. Cor. 1 : 30. And with this Righteousness , they are wholly & perfectly covered , to expect it as found & hid there Phil. 3 : 9. & are made Righteous Rom. 5 : 19. & 10 : 4. ( 4 ) They are now wholly Reconciled unto God , and have Peace with Him ; and not by halfes , or in some certain respects only , as if in other respects they were still Enemies , or in a state of Enmity : Being justified by faith , they have Peace with God Rom. 5 : 1. once they were enemies but now they are reconciled vers . 10. by Christ they have now received the Atonement vers . 11. once alienated & enemies in their mindes by wicked works , but now reconciled Col. 1 : 21. once a far off but now made neer Ephes. 2 : 13. the enmity being staine . vers . 16. No more strangers or forreigners now , but fellow citizens with the Saints , and of the houshold of God vers . 19. Then is the Lord pacified toward them , for all that they have done Ezek. 16 : 63. ( 5 ) They are compleetly translated , into a new Covenant state , not halfe the children of Saran , and half the children of God ; not halfe in Nature and halfe in the state of Grace , not half translated & halfe not Ephes. 2 : 13 , 19. Col. 1 : 21. not halfe quickened with Christ , and halfe not Ephes. 2 : 5. They are not now halfe without Christ , or aliens from the common wealth of Israel , or strangers from the Covenants of promise , &c. Ephes. 2 : 12. There is a perfect change , as to their state 1. Cor. 6 : 11. ( 6 ) They are secured as to final Condemnation , There is no condemnation for them Rom. 8 : 1. being beleevers , they shall not perish , but have eternal life Ioh. 3 : 15 , 16. He that beleeveth is not condemned vers . 18. See also Ioh. 3 : 36. & 6 : 47. They are passed from death unto life Ioh. 5 : 24. 1. Ioh. 3 : 14. being discharged of all guilt of eternal punishment , which formerly they deserved by their sinnes . And all this holdeth good , notwithstanding of their after sins ; which ( as we shall shew ) do not annull , or make any such breach upon their state of Justification ; It is true , these sins must also be Pardoned , & will be Pardoned ; but yet when they are pardoned , their Justification , as to their state , is not hereby more perfected , as to these respects formerly mentioned : It holdeth good also , notwithstanding of what shall be at the great day ; for that will put no man in a new Justified state , who was not Reconciled to God before . It is true , there will be many additions , as to the Solemnitie , Declaration , Consequences & Effects thereof , in that day , but not withstanding hereof the state of Justification here as to what respecteth its grounds & the essential change it maketh , together with the Right , that beleevers have thereby unto all , that in that day they shall be put in possession of , is perfect , & may be said so to be . Propos. 7 By what is said , it is manifest , how & in what respects this life of Iustification differeth from the life of Sanctification . ( 1 ) Sanctification maketh a real Physical change : Iustification maketh a Relative change . And thereby they come to have a new State or Relation , unto the Law , & unto God the judge . ( 2 ) Sanctification is continueing work , wherein beleevers are more & more built up daily . Iustification is an act of God , or a juridcial sentence , Absolving a sinner , & pronunceing him free of the charge , brought in against him , and not liable to the penalty . ( 3 ) Sanctification is a grōwing and increasing work , & admitteth of many degrees ; & is usually weak , and small at the beginning : Iustification doth not grow , neither doth it admit of degrees ; but is full & compleet & adequate unto all ends here . ( 4 ) Sanctification is ever growing here , and never cometh to full Perfection before death : Justification is perfect & adequate unto all ends ; as we shewed . ( 5 ) Sanctification is not alike in all ; but some are more , some are less sanctified : But Iustification is equal in all ; none being more justified , then others . ( 6 ) Some measures & degrees of Sanctification , which have been attained , may be lost againe : But nothing of Iustification can really be lost ; for we are not here speaking of the sense and feeling of Justification , which frequently may be lost ; but of Justification it self ( 7 ) Sanctification is a progressive work ; Iustification is instantaneous , as was shown . ( 8. ) Sanctification respecteth the Being , Power & Dominion of ●in , in the beleever , and killeth , subdueth and mortifieth it : Iustification respecteth its guilt & demerite , & taketh away guilt and the obligation to punishment , or obnoxiousness to the paying of the penalty . ( 9 ) In justification , a man is accepted upon the account of the Righteousness of Christ , imputed to him ; and received by Faith : But in Sanctification , grace is infused , and the Spirit given to perfecte holiness in the fear of God. ( 10 ) In Iustification , there is a right had unto life , and unto the rich recompence of reward , upon the account of the Righteousness of Christ imputed , whence they are said to have passed from death to life : But in Sanctification they are made meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light . ( 11 ) Unto Iustification nothing is required but faith in Christ , whereby the soul may become united to Him , & have a right to his benefites : But unto Sanctification , all the graces of the Spirit are requisite , and all the exercises of the same ; all diligence is required , and an adding of Vertue to Faith , of Knowledge to Vertue , of Temperance to Knowledge , of Patience to Temperance , of Godliness to Patience , of Brotherly kindness to Godliness , & of Charity to Brotherly kindness , 2 Pet. 1 : 5 , 6 , 7. Propos. 8 Hence it followeth also , thar there is no ground to assert a first & a second Justification , as Papists do , meaning by the first an Infusion of an inward Principle or Habite of Grace , which is no Justification , nor part thereof , but the beginning of Sanctification : and by the Second , another Justification , which with them is an Effect or Consequent of the former , having good work , which flow from the foresaid infused principle of grace & love , for its proper & formal cause . This Justification , they say , is by works , where as the former is by faith ; and yet this second , they make to be an Incrementum , an increase of the first ; and for this they say , the church prayeth , when she saith , Lord increase our saith , hope & charity . Concil , Trid. Sess. 6. cap. 10. whereby we see , this Justification , whereof they say Iames speaketh , Chap. 2. is manifestly nothing else , but the very grouth of Sanctification : and so they know no Iustification at all , distinct from Sanctification : wherefore we need say no more against the same , it being Justification , formerly explained , which we treat of , and not of Sanctification , whereof they seem only to speak , when they mentione Iustification ; and indeed this their Iustification , which is true Sanctification , admitteth of various and different degrees ; & of this , they may imagine not only a first and a second , but according to the various degrees thereof a third and a fourth yea a Tenth & Twentieth , if they please . The Scripture , it is true , maketh mention of twosold Iustification , one by the Works of the Law , & another by Faith : but it asserteth with all , that these are inconsistent , and that no man living can be justified the first way , by the works of the Law. Mr. Baxter , beside the difference he maketh , betwixt Justification as Begun , and as Continued , in reference to the different conditions , required to the one , and to the other , imagineth a twosold Iustifieation , or two Iustifications , or ( as he saith against D. Tullie pag. 167. ) rather two parts of one , yet in his last Reply to Mr. Cartwright pag. 46. he maketh them as distinct , as are the two lawes he speaketh of , & the first , he saith , is by God the Creatour , the second by Christ the Redeemer and in order to the vindication & clearing of this , he speaketh much of a twosold Righteousness In his writtings against Mr. Cartwright pag. 70. giving us several ( to the number of thirteen ) differences , betwixt them ; making the one to consist in out Non-obligation to punishment by the Law of works , because of its dissolution upon Satisfaction made by Christ : to be without us , in the merite & satisfaction of Christ ; to be in substance the same with Pardon ; to be opposite to that guilt , which sin in general procureth ; to be but the tantundem of what the Law required , to justify us from a true Accusation , that we by sin deserve death &c. And the other to consist in our Non-obligation to the far greater punishment ; to be within us & done by us , to consist in innocency or notguiltiness ; to be opposite to that guilt , which one particular sin procureth ; to be the idem required in the new Law ; to justifie us from a false Accusation , that we have not performed the Conditions of the new Covenant &c. all which to examine is not my present purpose : only I shall say , as to this two sold Justification , that it is an explication of the matter , which we have not in Scripture , which , I judge , should only regulat both our Conceptions & Expressions , in this affaire : and what ever pleasure men may take , to give way to their Luxuriant phancies ; yet it will be safest for us to follow the threed of the Word , and to speak of this mysterie , according to Revelation , and not according to our Apprehensions : And of all men , I judge , Mr. Baxter should be most averse from creating new Termes , Words & Expressions , in these divine things , who expresseth himself so angry-like ( especially in his later writtings ) in words , which to some may seem to favour little of sob●iety or of modesty , against such as contend about words ; when it may be , they are but defending the received orthodox doctrine from his new Notions and Expressions , as being Censorious , dividers , Word-souldiers , & I know not what . But , as to the matter in hand ; & in particular , as to this second Iustifica●ion , or rather first ( for it is supposed to be first in order of nature , if not in time also ) which is founded upon our Innocency , or performance of the Conditions of the new Covenant , Faith , Repentance & New Obedience & so is a declaring of us Righteous because of our inherent Righteousness , I shall only say these few things . 1. That I finde not this new Iustification explained , expressed , nor so much as hinted by the Apostle , in all his discourses and disputes about this subject , though he hath spoken very much of Iustification , and on all occasions did vindicate & clear up the gospel-truth thereanent . If it be said , That all this is sufficiently hinted , & more then hinted by the Apostle , when he tels that Faith is imputed unto Righteousness . I answere . What the proper meaning of this Expression is , shall be shown hereafter , where it shall also be manifested , that the Faith here said to be imputed , is not our act of Faith , but Christ , & his Righteousness laid hold on by faith , or the object of Faith held forth in the Gospel , & received by Faith. And for answere to this , I judge it sufficient to say , That the Apostle is manifestly there speaking of that other Iustification , which we owne , for the only Iustification , hold forth in the Gospel , whereby Remission of sins is had , & Peace with God , through a Righteousness without , & of that Iustification , which taketh away all glorying , both before God & man , and wherein God is hold forth to be & laid hold on by Faith as one , that justifieth the ungodly , and of that Justification , which is from the Accusation of the Law ; by all which & many other Particulars , observable in the Apostles discourse there , it is undeniable , that he is speaking of that other Iustification , which we asserte . If it be said , That all this is sufficiently imported , when Faith is made the Condition of Justification , & we are said to be justified by faith I answer . What way Faith is the Condition of Justification , & is so to be called , shall be seen afterward : only I say , that what the Scripture speaketh of this , can give no ground for a new & distinct Justification , because this new Iustification is rather a Iustification of Faith , or of the Beleever because of his faith , & purely upon the account of his Faith ; for it is a sentence of judgment , pronunceing the man to be a Beleever , because he is so ; & his faith to be right Faith , because it is so ; than any Iustification of him by faith . Not to mentione this , that together with faith , as the Condition , Repentance & New Obedience is joyned ; & then there must be a Iustification of works , or of the man by , yea & because of works , which cannot be imported by being Iustified by faith , because that is alwayes opposed to Iustification by works . Beside , that even in mens courts there are not two distinct sentences of the judge , required in deciding of a Controversie , depending upon the clearing of a Condition ; one anent the truth , of the Condition , & the other anent the thing depending upon that Condition ; but the Condition being instructed to be performed , the one sentence is given out ; much less is this requisito here , where we have to do with God , who knoweth whether the Condition be performed , or not ; and needeth not , that we instruct the same against the Accusations of Satan , or of the world in order to his information . Moreover , there is but one Accusation here brought in against the man , from the Law , & from the Righteous Iudge , to wit. That he is a sinner , & therefore a son of death : & therefore there is but one sentence requisite : for as for that Accusation , that the person hath not performed the Condition of the new Covenant , neither will the Law-giver , or judge , nor can the Law bring it in against a Beleever : and what Satan , the accuser of the Brethren , or what a blinde or prejudged World , or what a man 's own blinde & deceitful heart shall or can herein do , is of no consideration , in reference to a Iustification , which is before God , & in his sight . But 2. Against this twofold Iustification . I would say , that all that is mentioned , concerning Gospel Iustification , in Scripture , agreeth but to one , & the very contrary thereof must be attributed to the other new-coyned Iustification , according to his own explication thereof : the one is by faith , the other is for faith ; the one is by faith alone , withour works , the other is because of Faith & Works too ; the one is an act of God's free Grace , the other is an act of pure Iustice ; the one is of a sinner , and of an ungodly person , the other is of a Righteous man , as such , & because such ; the one taketh away all boasting and all gloriation even before men ; the other not ; the one maketh the reward of free grace , the other of due debt ; the one is because of a Righteousness without us , the other because of a personal inherent Righteousness ; The publicans language , God be merciful to me a sinner suiteth the one best ; The Pharisees language , or some thing like it , God , I thank thee , I am a beleever &c. suiteth the other best ; In the one the one the man can plead no innocencie , in the other he can & must plead himself not guilty , in the one , the sinner must say with David Psal. 143 : 2. enter not into judgment with thy servant , for in thy sight shall no man living be justified ; in the other , he may and must say , enter into judgment with thy servant , for in thy sight , I shall be justified . Other things or this Nature might be mentioned , but these are sufficient . 3. This New Justification must of necessity be a justification of conscience , or in it , or terminated in it ; because it is not before God , or in his sight , where the world , or the deceived heart the chiefe accusers here , do not compear to accuse , & Satans accusing them before God can cause no trouble to them , untill he come , as an Accuser , before conscience , & give in false summonds there . And therefore it is not the Justification by Faith , treated of in Scripture : as himself proveth in his Confession Chap. 8. pag. 189. &c. 4. This will make way for moe Iustifications , than two ; for as faith must be justified so must Repentance , so must also Works , & Perseverance in them to the end : If it be said , that all these make but one compleet Condition , & therefore give ground but to one sentence . I answer : Then no man can have this sentence pronounced upon him , to wit , to be one , that hath performed the Condition , until he hath persevered unto the end , & finished his course , & this being the first Iustification , at least in order of Nature before the other , a man must be dead before he be justified from the Law , yea or with this Iustification : and yet we hear of Iustification in this life . Further , this will make way for moe Justifications , upon this account , that it is a declaration of the man to be what he is indeed , & to have what he hath indeed ; & so , as hereby tho man who hath true saving faith , must be justified upon that account , so the man , that hath but an historical faith , must be justified in so far , in comparison of him , that is a meer infidel , and may plead his own cause , so far , even before God's tribunal ; so may the man , that hath but a legal Repentance , in respect of him , that hath none at all ; & the man , that performeth Works materially good , though not in a right manner , in comparison of him , that doth not so much , & himself tels us pag. 8 , ag . Cartwright of a , 3 sold Accusation , 1. that we are not beleevers . 2. That we are not true beleevers , 3. that we are ●●lifidians ; & that accordingly , there must be several wayes of justification , 5 , This will lay the ground for God's multiplying , or frequently reiterating of one & the same Iustification ; for Iustification presupposeth alwayes an Accusation , & seing neither God , nor the Law , will ever accuse a Beleever of being no Beleever , only Satan , & the world , & his own Misguided Conscience it ; now , if the Accusation of these or of Satan alone ( as he seemeth to insinuat p. 81. & else where , against Mr. Cartwright ) be enough to lay the foundation of such a Iustification , then as oft , as this Accusation is renewed , ( & how oft that may be , who can tell ? ) must the Lord reiterat his sentence of Iustification , and pronunce the man a true Beleever : and it will not be sufficient to say , that it will suffice if the Lord manifest to the Mansconscience , that he a beleever ; for why shall that be sufficient now , more than at the first ? and if this take away the necessity of reiterating the sentence , it will also say , that there was no necessity for pronuncing the sentence of his being a beleever at the first . None need to say , that this same may be alledged against our Iustification before God ; for the Iustification , we only owne , is in reference to the Accusation of the Law , & of Justice & of God the Righteous Judge , under whose Curse the sinner lyeth , until he be justified , & when he is once justified through faith in Christ , he is no more troubled with their Accusations ; for neither God , nor Law , nor Gospel accuse a Beleever of being an Unbeleever & under the Curse againe , whatever Satan , & his own misguided conscience , or others may do . 6. He groundeth his twosold Iustification p. 93. & 94. upon a twosold Covenant with distinct conditions & a twosold Accusation for non-performance of the one , & of the other . But thus , as he shall make us to be justified by the old Covenant of works , & that by the principal justification , an absurdity , that he frequently loadeth our opinion with ; so he maketh all the justification which is according to the new-Covenant to be upon & because of our own personal Righteousness ; which is also repugnant to the whole Gospel . We do not performe the conditions of the first Covenant , and all the liberation from the Curse of that Covenant , under which we are by Nature , is through the Surety-Righteousness of Christ , imputed to us , & received by faith : and the Gospel or new-Covenant revealeth no other way of Justification to us . As for the distinct accusations , we have said enough already . Neither the Lord , nor his Law do ever accuse a Beleever of not being a beleever , & as for Satans or others accusations of this kind , a well informed conscience from the light of the word ; & of the Spirit , clearing up the work of faith , in the soul , & the true & real works of a lively faith , will be sufficient to quiet the beleever , & stop the mouth of all these Accusers ; without the fiction of a new & distinct Justification , whereof the Scripture is silent . But Mr. Baxter in his last reply to Mr. Cartwright explaineth , the matter far otherwayes , telling us pag. 46. and forward . That the first justification is by God , as Rector , only by the pure Law of works , as Creator : the other by God in Christ , as Redeemer & Rector of the Redeemed world . The first is conditionally past upon the whole condemned world & that without any condition in man , whether faith or works : & so it is both absolute & conditional . In the first the Father first condemned his Son , as it were ( see pag. 52. ) & after satisfaction given justified first him , as Sponsor , & then the world for his sake : thus God forgave those all the debt , who yet perish by taking their fellow servant by the throat . Here is a justification both absolute & conditional ; Here is pardon & no pardon : Here is a justification of all the Reprobat : Here is a justification of persons not in being & prior to & without all faith . This therefore is not the justification , whereof the Scriptures speak , as himself proveth , in his Confession . CHAP. XX. The state of justification remaineth , notwithstanding of after sinnes , & punishments . FOr further clearing up of this life of Justification , as to its Continuance , we shall remove two objections , that may seem to stand in the way of the truth , hitherto cleared . For it would seem , that Justification is not such a continueing uninterruptible state , as it was said to be , upon this double account , first . That the sinnes , which Beleevers , who are justified , do commit , especially such as are of a more hainous & crying Nature , do break off this state of favoure & reconciliation , seing they deserve , even the least of them , God's wrath & curse , & so expose the sinner unto the just revenges of God ; which seemeth not to be consistent with a state of Justification . And then secondly as their sinnes deserve God's curse & wrath , so the many sharp & sore afflictions , which they are made to lye under , both are effects of the wrath of God , & fruites of the Curse , & also would say , that that state is such , as can be broken off , or at least , is not perfect , as it was said to be . Now for clearing of the truth , formerly asserted , & vindicating of the same , from these two Objections , to which all others may be reduced , we shall propose some few things to consideration . 1. None will say , that every sin of infirmity & weakness , which beleevers commit , doth or can cut them off from the state of justification ; for then they should never remaine one day to end in that state ; for no man liveth , that sinneth not , & the Righteous fall seven times a day ; if the Lord should stricklymark iniquity , no man should stand ; even the best of their actions are defiled with sin , and they cannot answere for one of a thousand . So that either it must be said , there is no state of justification , or that it is consistent with sin in the justified : Justification , though it take away all the guilt of by paft sins , and free the beleever from that obnoxiousness to the wrath & curse of God which they were formerly under ; yet it preventeth not all future sinnes , not doth it put the beleever into a perfect sinless state ; nay nor doth it kill any one sin , as to its being , but only taketh away the guilt , offensiveness & the obligation to punishment , or the reatus poenae , whereby the sinner is bound over unto the Penalty . 2. As for such sins , as we may suppose , if committed , would ipso facto , as they say , forfeit the transgressour of the state of Justification , & destroy all interest in Christ , in the Covenant of grace , & so transferre them into their former state of Nature , while they were under the Curse ; as being sins , inconsistent with a state of Grace & Reconciliation with God ; such as the sin against the Holy Ghost , or of full & final Apolstasie : as for such sins , I say , the faithfulness of God , Mediation of Christ , & the Operation of the Spirit of Grace , are , as it were , engadged , to keep the Iustified from falling into them ; as all the Arguments , proving the perseverance of the Saints , do abundantly evince . 3. Though every sin , being a transgression of the Law of God , which still remaineth in force to oblige the beleever , as all others , unto obedience in all points , doth , in its own nature , deserve God's wrath & curse , according to the threatning & penalty of the Law : yet these sins do not annul the state of justification , nor interupt it ( 1 ) because notwithstanding thereof , all their former sins , of which they were pardoned , remaine pardoned , & do not bring them againe under the curse , & their Right to the Inheritance remaineth fi●me , through Jesus Christ. ( 2 ) Because all these after sins were virtually pardoned , & their obligation to the suffering of the penalty upon the account of these , virtually removed , in their Iustification ; for therein was there a legal security laid down & given , that all future sins should not actually bring them under the curse , or into the state of condemnation : & this is much more , than what was before their actual closing with Christ , & being thereby brought into an estate of justification , for though it may be said , there was sufficient security laid-in in the Covenant of Redemption betwixt Iehovah & the Mediator , concerning the Non-perishing of the Elect ; Yet this security was hid & under ground , lying in the unchangable purposes of God ; in the Fathers Election of them , & giving of them to the Son to be redeemed ; in the Son 's undertaking for them , & in due time becoming sin & a curse for them , & so taking on their debt , & making full & compleet satisfaction therefore ; And this fundamental & remote Right , ( as it may be called ) could not be pleaded by themselves . But after they have closed with Christ , and are brought into a state of justification , their Right appeareth above ground , and the security is laid open in the Covenant of Grace , whereby they are in case to plead their virtual pardon , to be made actual , & the promises to be made good , according to the Gospel termes , & after the Gospel-method . And thus . 3. Not only doth the law's threatnings speak to them , as shewing what de jure only they may look upon us due unto them , & not declaring what shall eventually befall them , or that eventually they shall fall under the eternal curse ; for in a sense , that is true even of all the elect not yet justified , as was said ; but they have a legal ground & Right in the Covenant of Grace , securing them from Condemnation , & they have accless & ground in Law to plead this Right & so to plead for actual Pardon in the termes , & according to the methode of the Gospel : I do not say , that the justified while lying in sin , without making application to Iesus Christ , & acting faith on him , in order to pardon , have ground to plead for actual pardon , for that is repugnant to the Methode of the Gospel , requireing new acts of faith , in order to new acts of Pardon , I mean the implicit acts if faith ( to speak so ) in reference to dayly infirmities & unseen sins , & the more explicit acts of faith , in reference to grosser sins , seen & lamented : But they have ground to plead for grace to discover their sins , to humble them for their sins , & to excite their soul to renewed acts of faith in Christ , and thereupon to expect , according to the Gospel methode , Remission ; and to plead for it , in the merites of Christ , unto which they have a sure Right . Therefore 4. New sins cannor annul the state of justification ; because not only are beleevers secured that de eventu , they shall not come into Condemnation for these sins ; but even as to any legal dueness of punishment , that new sins may bring them under , there is a sure & saife remedie at hand , the blood of Christ that taketh away all sin , to which they are called to go that they may wash their souls there by faith , and be clean , & be delivered from guilt . 4. For further clearing of this , we could consider , that there is a difference to be put betwixt Sin , in order to its direful effects , considered in it self , and considered , as it is in the Iustified . Though sin , in it self is alwayes mortiferous , and exposeth to the curse and wrath of God , having a malignant demerite constantly attending it : Yet it is not so , being considered , as it is in the justified : for as poison , is alwayes deadly in it self , & working towards death ; yet it is not so , as in a person , who hath received a sufficient antidot . Though every act of felonie in it self make obnoxious unto death , according to the Law ; yet some acts , as committed by one , who can read , will not have that effect : so the beleever is antidoted by the Covenant of Grace , that howbeit sin remaine still deadly , in its own nature ; yet as to him , it cannot produce these effects . 5. Though after sins , in a justified person , may have , before they be pardoned , very sad effects , in reference to Comfort , or comfortable Improvment of their Privileges & Advantages : yet they cannot disinherite them , or put them from their Right : Though leprosie did deprive the leper of the comfortable enjoyment and use of his own house ; yet it did not destroy his right : though the miscarriages of the prodigal son did incapacitate him for any present enjoyment of his interest in his Fathers affection ; yet they did not destroy his Sonshipe Luk. 15 : 17. So though sins , not yet washed away , in such as have been justified , may and will certainly prejudge them of many comfortable Advantages , which they might otherwayes have ; yet they do not take away their Sonshipe , nor their Right to the Inheritance of sones . 6. Though after sins , not yet pardoned through faith , do and will stirr up Fatherly Anger & Displeasure against them , who are justified , and become his Adopted children ; Esai . 54 : 7 , 8. Yet they bring not justified man under pure judicial wrath , and under the Curse and Law-anger , so as God is no more their Father , but hath cast them out of his familie , & fatherly favour . It is one thing to be under the frowns & gloomes of an angry Father : & another thing to be under the severe aspect of an angry judge . 7. It is considerable also . That through grace , and the Lord 's great love and wisdom , after-sins are so far from destroying their State and Right to the inheritance , that upon the contrare , they are ordered to the Justified mans good , and further establishment in grace ; not that sin it self hath any such natural tendency ; but it is by accident to sin , which is so ordered by the wise disposal of a loveing Father , making all things work togerher for good , and thus counter-working Satan without , & Corruption within , making that , which Satan had designed to their ruine and destruction , contributo to their good & advantage , by giving them fresh occasion , of exercising Humility & Repentance , & of Renewing their gripping of Christ by Faith , & of Watching more with Diligence here-after ; as also hereby they are put to search & examine themselves , to try their Rights & Securities , & thus to make their calling & election sure , to their further establishment & comfort in the Holy Ghost . 8. Thus we see whatever present alteration after sins , not yet taken to Christ , to the end they may be pardoned through his blood , do , or can make , as to the present Condition of the justified ; yet their State remaineth firme , & unshaken ; for thereby they fall not againe under the old Covenant ; nor under the sentence thereof , nor under pure Law wrath , pure Justice & the Curse of a broken Covenant ; but being under Grace , & not under the Law , they are secured as to Condemnation Rom. 8 : 1. & as to the loss of the favour & friendship of God Rom. 8 : 35 , 39. for not only is the guilt of Original sin , & of all their preceeding Actual sins taken away , through faith in Christ , when they were justified , but there is a sure way condescended upon betwixt Jehovah & the Mediator , how their after-sins shall be Pardoned , & taken out of the way , & the same method and way is declared in the Gospel , & made sure by the Covenant of Grace : and by their being in the Covenat , they have a right unto the promises thereof , and ground to press for the performance ; & so for Remission , & for all things requisite thereunto , or following thereupon ; yea they have a sure pledge of Remission already , to wit , the actual Pardon of what is past , and their past Justification ; that is a comforting & strenthening word Rom. 5 : 9 , 10. much more then being now justified by his bloud , we shall be saved from wrath through him ; for if when we are enemies , we were reconcile ● to God , by the death of his Son ; much more being reconciled , we shall be saved by his life & so is that Rom. 8 : 32. He that spared not his own son , but delivered him up for us all : how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? 9. We may adde , That if sins , afterward committed , could take away Justification , then they should also take away Adoption , & Regeneration ; & so the justified man , should by after sins , not only become an unjustified man ; but also the child of God should become againe the childe of the devil , & the Relation should be quite broken off , & he , who was borne againe , should return unto his former state of black Nature : & thus there should be a second , & a third , yea & multiplied Regeneration ; whereof the Scripture is silent , nay it clearly depones the contrary . 10. And if it be enquired , how it cometh to passe , that after sins may not , at least , gradually impaire the State of Justification , as sins do impaire and weaken Sanctification ? I answere ( and this may further help to clear the business under hand ) The reason is manifest , from the difference , that is betwixt these two blessing and benefites ; Iustification is an act of God , changing the Relative-state of a man , and so is done and perfected in a moment : Sanctification is a progressive work of God , making a real physical change , in the man ; whence sin may tetard this or put it back , but cannot do so , with the other , which is but one single act , once done , and never recalled , the gifts and calling of God being without repentance Rom. 11 : 29. In justification we are meerly passive , it being a sentence of God pronunced in our Favours ; in Sanctification , as we are in some respect patients , so are we also Agents , and Actors , and thus sin may retard us in our motion , and as it evidenceth our weakness for acting , so it produceth more weakness . Moreover Sin and Holiness are opposite to other , as light and darkness , & therefore , as the one prevaileth , the other must go under , and as the one increaseth , the other must decress . But there is no such Opposition betwixt sin , & pardon , which is granted in Justification . And whereas it may be said , that sin expelleth also grace Meritoriously : yet that prejudgeth not the truth in hand , for it can expell grace meritoriously no further , than the free constitution of God hath limited : and so though it can and oft doth expell many degrees of Sanctification ; yet it cannot expell & make null the grace of Regeneration ; or the Seed of God , so no more can it expell or annul Justification ; because the good pleasure of God , hath secured the one & the other & made them both unalterable . By these particulars , we see how the first doubt is removed out of the way ; we shall next speak to the Second , which is concerning afflictions , & Punishments , which are the fruits and deserts of sin , and seem to be part of the curse or penalty threatned in the first Covenant : To which we need not say much to show , that notwithstanding hereof , the State of Justification remains firme , and unaltered . These few things will suffice to cleare the truth . 1. Though all affliction , and suffering be the fruite & consequent of the breach of the Covenant by Adam , the head of mankind ; for if he had stood , and the Covenant had not been violated , there had been no Misery , affliction , Death or Suffering : and though in all , who are afflicted in this world , there is sin to be found ; And though it cannot be instanced , that God ever brought an afflicting or destroying stroke upon a Land or Nation , but for the provocations of the People , yet the Lord may some rimes afflict outwardly or inwardly , or both , a particular Person , in some particular manner , though not as provoled thereunto by that persons sin , or without a special reference to their sin , as the procuring Cause thereof ; as we see in Iob : and as Christ's answer , concerning the blinde man Ioh. 9 : 3. Neither hath this man sinned , nor his parents ( that he was born blinde ; ) but that the works of God should be made manifest in him , giveth ground to think . 2. Though it doth oftner fall out , that God doth afflict , Punish and Ch●sten his people even because of their sinnes , as well as other wicked persons ; yet the difference betwixt the two is great , though the outward Camitie may be materially the same : To the godly , they flow from Love , are designed for good , are sanctified , and made to do good , they are covenanted mercies ; but nothing so to the wicked . They are mercies to the one , but curses to the other ; They speak out love to the one , but hatred to the other ; They are blessed to the one , but blasted & cursed to the other ; They work together for good to the one , but for evil to the other : and all this notwithstanding , that the outward affliction & calamity that is on the godly , may be double or treeble to that , which is upon the wicked : Yea there is mercy and love in the afflictions of the Godly , when the prosperity of the wicked is cursed . Whence we see , that all these afflictions cannot endanger or dammage their Justified state . 3. Though the Lord may be wroth & smite in anger his own people , chasten & punish them in displeasure ; yet , this wrath & anger , is but the wrath and anger of a Father , and is consistent with fatherly Affection in God , and therefore cannot be repugnant to a state of Sonshipe in them . Prov. 3 : 11 , 12. Heb. 12 : 5-8 . Psal. 89 : 30 33 , 34. Revel . 3 : 19. 4. In all these afflictions , that seem to smell most of the Curse , and of the death threatned , and are most inevitable , such as death , &c. there is nothing of pure vin●ictive justice to be found in them , when Justified persons are exercised with them : for Christ did bear all that , being made a curse for them , and as to this , the Lord caused all their iniquities to meet together upon him : He drunk out the cup of Vindictive anger , and left not one drop of the liquor of the Curse of the Law , for any of his own to drink : He alone did bear the weight of revenging justice ; and there is nothing of this , in all that doth come upon beleevers ; So that the very sting of death is taken away , & the sting of all these Afflictions is sucked out , and now they are changed into Mercies & Blessings . 1 Cor. 3 : 21 , 22. Therefore we must not think that they contribute the least mite unto that Satisfaction , which justice required for sins , & Christ payed down to the full ; & justice was fully satisfied with what he paid down : nor must we think , that God will exact a new satisfaction for sins , or any part thereof , of the hands of beleevers , after he hath received a full satisfaction from the Mediator Christ , & did rest satisfied therewith . The afflictions and Punishments then , that the godly meet with , being no parts of the Curse , nor of that Satisfaction that justice requireth for sin , nor flowing from vindictive justice ; but being rather fatherly chastisments , mercies & meanes of God , can do no hurt unto their state of justification ; nor can any thing be hence inferred , to the prejudice of that glorious state . 5. But it is said , Pardon and Justification is one thing , and a man is no more Justified than he is Pardoned ; and Pardon is but the taking off of the obligation to punishment , and consequently of punishment it self ; and seing punishment is not wholly taken off , but there remaineth some part of the curse , or of the evil threatned for sin , and will remaine untill the resurrection , it is cleare , that pardon is not fully compleet , not consequently Justification so long as we live . But for answere , & to clear up the matter in hand more , we say ( 1 ) Pardon of sins is not adequatly the same with Justification , nor the whole thereof , but at most a part , or rather a partial effect in justification , the person is constituted Righteous , and declared such , and thereupon hath his sins pardoned , and a Right to the purchased reward ; and he is thus made & declared Righteous , through the Mediators Surety-Righteousness , imputed to him , and laid hold upon by faith . ( 2 ) When a person is justified , he is at once and for ever freed from the punishment due from the Law & from vindictive justice , for the broken Covenant : & the Obligation to punishment required by vindictive justice , is taken away and dissolved ; Christ having fully born that Punishment , and satisfied that demand of Justice , they , in & through him , are delivered from the Curse , and the maledictory sentence . ( 3 ) Hence all their sufferings & afflictions here , being no part of the Curse , nor of Satisfaction to divine vindictive justice , nor of the Condemnation threatned , how ever they be materially evil , and Fatherly Chastisments or Punishments ; yet are no effects of Law-vengeance , nor parts of vindictive Punishment : and so cannot give ground to inferre an imperfect Pardon , or an imperfect Justification . ( 4 ) Nor must we call them any part of the Punishment , threatned by the Law , remaining yet unremoved ; for that would make them parts of the Curse ; and yet Mr. Baxter Confess . p. 125. conceiveth it fittest to say , that beleevers are freed from the curse , & are not under it , and addeth his reasons there : And the consequence is clear , because , what the Law threatneth , as such , belongeth to the Curse ; for the Law saith , Cursed is every one , that continueth not in all things , which are written in the book of the Law to do then , Gal. 3 : 10. Deut. 27 : 26. And therefore every Punishment , that is a punishment of the Law , must be part of the Curse ; So if the Punishments , or Afflictions , that the Godly are now under , be part of the Curse , that is yet remaining unremoved , or of the Punishment ( as Mr. Baxter there p. 124. saith ) it will inevitablie follow , that beleevers are yet under the Curse , and not wholly delivered there from ; and as to these outward afflictions , many of the truly Godly shall be more under the Curse , then several of the wicked : and if they be under any part of the Curse , how can they be pronunced Blessed ? how can they be said to be Redeemed from the Curse of the Law ? how can Christ be said to have been made a curse for them ; how shall their sufferings not be a part of Satisfaction to Vindictive justice ? Shasl not they be in part Satisfiers for themselves ? Shall not they then be beholden to Christ , only in part ? How shall then these Afflictions flow from love , run in the channel of love , and work-out their good , through grace & love , if they be any real & formal parts of the Curse ? Shall not the curse then be a part of the blessedness of the Saints , and of their bequeathed portion , which they may owne as theirs , as well as they may owne life ! Shall not the curse , or a part of the curse , separat from the Love of God , and of Christ ? What , I pray , will , if that do it not ; and yet the Apostle tels us Rom. 8 : 33. &c. that afflictions cannot do it , nor death it self . How can any part of the curse work for us a far more exceeding & eternal weight of glory ? and yet Afflictions do that 2. Cor. 4 : 17. The curse will not conforme us unto Christ ; yet afflictions will , and do Rom. 8 : 29. ( 5 ) Even as to the remnants of the body of death , that cause the godly to groan , and cry out . Miserable man &c. if we consider them , as an Affliction , we cannot say , that they are a remanent part of Law-vengeance , of Law-punishment , or of the curse , threatned in the Law ; for then they should be effects of God's hatred towards the Persons , & of pure vengeance and of juridical , & judicial Wrath & Anger , and were not capable of Sanctification to their spiritual advange ; and Beleevers , upon this account , could not be said to be delivered from the Law , and dead to that , wherein they were formerly held , as they are Rom. 7 : 6. for they , who are under the Curse , and under such an especial part or Effect thereof , cannot but be under the Law , and that , as a cursing Condemning Law. Gal. 3 : 10. Nor could the Apostle inferre , as he doth , after the mentioning of the sad wrestlings , that the godly have , with the body of death . Rom. 7 : 15. &c. that there is now therefore no Condemnation to them , that are in Christ Rom. 8 : 1. for this would not follow from their being really & properly under such a great part of the Curse . Sure , this cannot but be derogatory unto the perfect Satisfaction made by Christ ; seing hereby there is , in some measure , a Satisfaction made unto the justice of God : and it was the end of Christ's suffering & satisfaction , to deliver his people from the curse of the Law , in whole , and in part , & from that penalty threatned in the Covenant of works . Christ was made a curse for us , and thereby did redeem us , not in part only , but wholly , from the curse of the Law : and this penal Law Mr. Baxter must understand pag. 127. Confess . or he speaketh not to the purpose . Nor can I say with him ibid. p. 119. that every threatning is it in one sense , & the execution in another , that is commonly called the curse of the Law : for the execution of the Law upon any person , is inconsistent with loving-kindness towards that person ; but so is not every threatning , nay nor the execution thereof upon beleevers , as we see Psal. 89 : 30 , 31 , 32 , 33. Nor could these executions of threatnings be said to flow from Love , contrare to Revel . 3 : 19. Heb. 12 : 6. Prov. 3 : 12. for there is no fatherly Love , in executing of the Curse . CHAP. XXI . Justification is by Faith : what this Faith is , & how it is wrought . HAving thus spoken unto , & laboured to clear up the Nature & some causes of this life of ●ustification ; we come , in the next place , to speak to the following part of the Text. Where the way , how this life of justification is brought about and attained , is pointed forth , when it is said . The just shall live by faith . Faith , we see , is here mentioned , as that which interesseth us in this privilege of life . Whence we see 1. That no man is made partaker of the life of Justification , before Faith ; or that untill souls exercise faith , they are without this life of Justification . Some talk of a Justification from Eternity ; & thus confound Justification with Gods love of Election ; or with Gods decree & purpose to justifie . Some speak of Justification of all , in the death of Christ ; but neither is this to be admitted , if we speak of actual Justification ; It is true , Christ did , when he laid down the full price of Redemption , conforme to the Eternal compact betwixt Jehovah & Him , make an absolute & actual purchase of all those , that were given to him to be saved , & did buy & purchase all the Favours , Blessings & Privileges for them , which were afterward to be actually bestowed , in the time , & after the way & methode , condescended upon by Jehovah & the Mediator : ( I am here speaking of such as came to have a being , in the world , after Christ had in the fulness of time , come & laid down the price ; & not of those ; who lived before , when Christ's death & Satisfaction had only a Moral being , & yet full efficacie to produce the same saving effects on beleevers : ) and though in this respect , all the Elect may be said to have been virtually justified , when Christ laid down the actual price , and was justified from all the charge of their debt , that was laid upon him ( as in some sense , it may be said , that all the Elect were virtually Justified in Him , when he undertook to make satisfaction for their debt ) yet there is no actual Justification before Faith ; according to the Scriptures that speak of justification , of adoption , & of Sanctification by Faith , shewing that these Benefites & Privileges follow Faith , as to their actuall being , though they were from eternitie decreed , as was also Glorification , & were actually procured by Christs death : in which respect , as also in respect of Christs undertaking or substituting himself in the room of sinners , they may be said to have been virtually , Sanctified & Glorified , even then . It is true , that before Faith , the justification actual of the Elect is every way secured , & all things tending thereunto are concluded & firmly laid , & all the other anteceding causes are existent , before Faith , for Christ is appointed & substitute Mediator ; Christ hath accepted & undertaken the work of Mediation ; He is come in the fulness of time , & hath laid down the full price ; The Father is satisfied with the price paid . The Father laid upon him the iniquity of all the Elect , & He hath born it , & made full satisfaction , therefore he is accepted of the Father , as Head of the Elect justified & possessed of glory , so as they may be said to be risen with him in heavenly places , to wit virtually , & meritoriously ; & all this before faith , Thus God was in Christ , reconciling the Elect world unto himself , not imputing trespasses unto them , because he imputed them to Christ & made him sin , who know no sin & this before the word of Reconciliation , ministred by the Ambassadours of Christ , hath wrought them up unto God by faith . 2 Cor. 5 : 18 , 19 , 20. And this I think was more , then what Mr. Baxter saith confess . pag. 225 , 226. to wit , that he was providing a sufficient remedie for the pardon of it , if they would accept of it freely given ; for the world here spoken of is the world of the Elect , though he think otherwayes ibid. & the Lords not imputing their sin unto them , was more then his not dealing with them , according to the desert of their sin , but in mercy , for as yet many of them had not a being , and so were not capable of being dealt with , according to the desert of their sin ; but it importeth , what is more emphatically expressed thereafter vers . 11. to wit , that God was laying their sins on Christ ' and making him sin , as to its demerite , or guilt , for them , that they might in due time be made the Righteousness of God in him . Yet notwithstanding of all this , actual justification & Reconciliation is not before 〈◊〉 , as is clear from many passages of Scripture , asserting our justification , life to by faith , Rom. 1. 17. & 3. 28. & 9 : 1. Ephes 2 : 8. Gal. 2 : 16 , 20. Ad it cannot be said , to evite the force of these & the like Scriptures , that this is to be understood only of justification , as to our feeling , sense & apprehension : for the case , which the Apostle proveth all to be into before justification , in his Epistle to the Romans Chap. 1. & 2. & 3. is such as cannot consist with a justified state , as to be under sin , Rom. 3 : 9. to have their mouth stopped & be guilty before God vers . 19. But it is manifest , that many , who are now not under the Law , nor under sin , but delivered from under both yet may & do want the sense & feeling of their justification , & doubt thereof . And beside this crosseth the whole scope of the Apostle , in proving justification by faith , which is to evince , that justification is not by the works of the law , or the works of Righteousness , which we do ; so that the justification , whereof the Apostle speaketh , cannot be by works , but by faith alone ; but the manifestation of justification to our sense & consciences , can well be by works , as Iames sheweth & proveth Chap. 2. Works can contribute unto this , but not unto that justification , whereof the Apostle speaketh , in his Epistles to the Romans & Galattans & which is justification in the sight of God. That justification is not before faith , is manifest from the condition , which the Scripture telleth us , such are into , who have not yet beleeved ; for if that condition be such , as is inconsistent with a state of justification & Reconciliation , there can be no justification before faith : now the Scripture telleth us , that such as beleeve not , are condemned Ioh. 3 : 18. dead in trepasses & sins , children of wrath , Ephes. 2 : 1 , 2 , 3. Without Christ , & without God in the world , & strangers from the Covenants of promise Ephes. 2 : 12. have made God a liar , 1 Ioh. 5 : 10. cannot please God Heb. 11 : 6. By all which , & many like passages , that might be cited , it is manifest , that before faith , there is no real justification , Faith is required in order to adoption , & Remission of sins , and therefore must be before justification Ioh. 1 : 12. Act. 10 : 43. Gal 3 : 26. Act. 13 : 38 , 39 , of 26 : 18. But enough of this , seing M. Baxter hath abundantly confuted it , in his Confess . pag. 229 , &c. Some move this Objection . If we are justified by faith , then faith is in order before justification ; & consequently the act is before the object , whereas on the contrary , the act depends upon the object , & not the object upon the act , Thus Bellarm● de justif . lib. 1. c. 10. disputeth against the assertion , that maketh the special mercy of God to be the object of justifying faith : wherein the ground of the whole debate , lyeth in a mistake of that special mercy of God ; and whatever mistake may be , at least as to expression , in the assertion , which Bellarmine opposeth ; yet Bellarmius Opinion can no way be owned , who doth so defend the object of faith , as that he maketh justifying faith to be nothing but Historical Faith. Learned & grave Mr. Norton , in his Orthodox Euangelist Ch. 14. p. 314. in answering this objection , distinguisheth betwixt the being of justification & our being Justified ; or betwixt justification in abstracto i. e. without the receiving subject thereof , & in concreto i. e. together with the beleever , The first , which signifieth Remission of sins and Righteousness to Acceptation prepared , though not yet conferred upon the Elect , he saith , hath a being before Faith and so the object is before the act : though the ather be after faith . But I conceive there is no great necessitie of this , for answering of the argument , if any should propose it , to evince justification before faith ; and Bellarm. adduceth it not , to this end , as we saw ; for I see no ground to assert justification to be the object of justifying faith , as if in order to justification , we were called to beleeve , that we are justified , and that our sins are pardoned : ( as was said above ) And as for this justification , considered in the abstract , which is said to have a being not only in the Purpose of God , but also in the Covenant , between the Father , & the Mediator , & in the Purchase of Christ ; not only is it not called justification in Scripture , but also , in so far , as it is the object of faith ( as all other revealed truthes are ) it is of the elect in general , and not of this , or that particular person : so that though justifying faith may beleeve that God Purposed & Christ Purchased , & the Covenant of Redemption did expresly containe the justification of the Elect ; yet it doth not beleeve , in order to the mans justification , that he in particular so was justified , either in the Purpose of God , or in the Purchase of Christ , or in the Covenant betwixt Iehovah & the Mediator ; nor is this Faith called for , because this object is not a revealed truth : Yet this same justifying Faith , is of that Nature , as to produce afterward reflecting acts , whereby the man may see his own justification & be perswaded of it , in truth , & hence also be perswaded , that the Lord Purposed to justifie him in particular ; that Christ Purchased his justification , in particular , and that it was an article of the Covenant of Redemption , that he in particular should be justified . 2. While it is said , That the just liveth by faith , we see that faith is the way , whereby persons come actually to live the life of justification ; and hence it can not it self be the matter of their life : What interest properly faith hath in this affaire , must be debated afterward ; to wit , whether it be properly imputed as the matter of our Righteousness ; or only be to be considered as an Instrument : or as a Condition , & how so ? 3. We see , That this living by Faith proveth that there is no justification by works , in the sight of God ; whence it is manifest , that faith here cannot be considered as a work of the Law , or as a duty enjoined by the Law or under any such consideration . ( 2 ) That works have no interest as a cause , or condition , with Faith in justification . ( 3 ) That the life of justification , as to its continnation is by faith , and by faith , as opposite to works ; for the just , ( or the man already justified ) liveth by faith : This being also questioned , we will have occasion to speak more to it afterward . 4. While it is said , the just liveth by faith , it is considerable , That this faith in its kinde , and not in such , or such measure , is here said to be the meane , whereby persons come to live the life of justification . So that this true Faith , how weak so ever is the only mean of interessing a soul in this privilege of justification . This will give occasion to speak of the object of this justifying faith , which will help to cleare the nature of it . Our larger Catechisme qu. 72. giveth us such a definition or description of justifying faith , that may satisfy us as to most of these difficulties ; The answere is this [ justifying faith is a saving grace ( Heb. 10 : 39. ) wrought in the heart of a sinner , by the Spirit ( 2 Cor. 4 : 13. Ephes. 1 : 17 , 18 , 19. ) & word of God ( Rom. 10 : 14 , 17. ) whereby he being convinced of his sin & misery , & of the disability in himself & all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition ( Act. 2 : 37. & 16 : 30. Ioh. 16 : 8 , 9. Rom. 5 : 6. Eph. 2 : 1. Act. 4 : 12. ) not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the Gosspel ( Ephes. 1 : 13. ) but receiveth & resteth upon Christ and his Righteousness therein hold forth , for pardon of sin ( Ioh. 1 : 12. Act. 16 : 31. & 10 : 43. ) & for the accepting and accounting of his person Righteous in the sight of God , for salvation ( Phil. 3 : 9. Act. 15 : 11. ) ] And this question is none of these particulars , wherein Mr. Baxter in his Confess . desireth to dissent from the said Catechisme , as the next Question is ; as we shall hear . We may hence take notice of these particulars , concerning this faith ' , whereby it may be known , & distinguished from what some may mistake for it . 1. As to its nature , & kinde , it is saving ; for all such , as have this grace of justifying faith , are in the sure way of salvation ; & whatever faith persons may have , if they have not this , they are not in the sure path of life . There is a faith of miracles , both Active & Passive , as we may say , that is a faith to do miracles , and a faith to receive miracles wrought upon them . The first was that which the Apostles had and others , who wrought Miracles ; and is to be understood Mat. 17 : 20 , 21. Luk. 17 : 6. The other is that , which some of those had , who received miraculous cures , as the woman Mal. 9 : 21 , 21. and that Man , who cried out , I beleeve , help mine unbeleefe Mark. 9 : 24. and the man of lystra Act. 14 : 9. and others This in it self considered is not a saving grace . Iudas had this faith , whereby he cast our devils , and had commission to work miracles with the rest Mat. 10 : 8. Luk. 9 : 1 , 6 , 10. So also the Seventy disciples Luk. 10 : 9 , 17 , 19. And how great a privilege so ever this was ; yet Christ told them vers . 20. that it was a far greater matter , and much greater ground of joy , to have their names written in heaven , whereby he giveth us also to understand , that these are distinct & different from other , and also separable . Many ( saith Christ Mat. 7 : 22 , 23. ) will say to me , in that day , Lord , Lord , have we not prophesied in thy name ? & in thy name have cast out devils ? & in thy name have done many wonderful works ? And then will I professe unto them , I never knew you , depart from me , ye that work iniquity . And it is of this Faith , that Paul speaketh 1. Cor. 13 : 2. & though I have all faith , so that I could remove mountains , and have no charity , I am nothing , Importing that this Faith may be , where there is no saving Christian Love. There is an Histori●al faith , that is a beleeving not only of the histories recorded in the word of God ; but of the whole Revelation of God's minde there , yet only as things historically recorded , working up the man , in whom it is , unto a voluntary profession of that truth ; This , though true in its kinde , yet is not saving , seing many may have this , who are strangers to true saving Faith. Simon Magns beleeved thus Act. 8 : 13. who yet was but in the gall of bitterness & in the bond of iniquity vers . 23. Many beleeved in the name of Christ , when they saw the miracles , which he did , to whom notwithstanding Christ did not commit himself Ioh. 2 : 23 , 24. Christ had many disciples , who professed the truth and yet went back , & walked no more with him Ioh. 6 : 66. This faith , when it cometh no further , is but such a Faith , as devils have , who beleeve , there is a God , & tremble Iam. 2 : 19. This is the fruitless , workless Faith , that iames speaketh of Iam. 2 : 14. that cannot save , & which he calleth a dead faith . vers . 17 , 20. a faith that cannot work with works vers . 22. There is a Temporary faith , which ( whether we look upon , as distinct from the preceeding historical faith , or as an higher measure & degree thereof , the matter is not much ) is also different from & far short of this saving Faith , whereby a man cometh to live the life of Iustification , though it hath some effect wrought upon the affections ; this is the stonie-ground that receiveth the sowen seed Mat. 13 : 20 , 21. These are they , who hear the word , and anon with joy receive it , yet have no root in themselves , but endure for a while only ; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth , because of the word , by & by they are offended . 2. Every act of saving Faith , is not the justifying act of faith , or that act thereof , whereby we are Justified before God. Saving Faith hath many several acts , as we may see Heb. 11. Though where ever there are any of the real acts of saving faith , that man hath also acted justifying faith : yet we may look on Justifying Faith , or on the act of faith whereby the soul becometh Justified , as some way distinct from other acts of Saving Faith. Though by saving Faith we come to understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God Heb. 11 : 3. not in a meer historical manner , but savingly ; yet , that act of saving Faith , is not the Justifying act thereof , to speak so . Though the same Faith by which the Ancients subdued kingdomes , stopped the mouthes of Lions , quenched the violence of fire &c. was that by which they were justified , yet these were not justifying acts of that faith ; that is , in order to justification , faith acteth in another peculier manner : Though it be one & the same saving faith , whereby a beleever is united unto Christ , in order to answer the Challenges & Accusations of the Law , & to free him from guilt & condemnation , and maketh use of Christ's Right , Strength Support &c. in times of Darkness , Temptations & Difficulties : yet these acts of the same faith are not the same , but may be looked upon as distinct : Faith acteth one way on Christ in order to Justification , & another way in order to Sanctification : Faith acteth one way , when it receiveth in , and another way , when it giveth out , as it were , Faith acteth one way on Christ as Priest , and it acteth another way upon him , as Prophet & as King : yet we would know , that in all these actings of faith , whole Christ is laid hold upon , though more expresly & explicitly , in the uniting act , whereby the soul is married unto Jesus , & thereby becometh one spirit with him . There can be no use making of Christ for any end whatsomever , untill the soul be united with himself , and in every act of faith , whereby Christ is made use of , for what ever particular mercy the Beleever would have , be it Pardon , Light , Strength , Comfort , or such like , Christ himself is gripped to , & laid hold on ; for there is no separating of Him & his favours : yet the Beleever , while gripping & laying hold on whole Christ , taketh him up under that Relation , and eyeth that Office ; that most neerly answereth to and correspondeth with his present necessity , and pointeth forth that good , which he is now desirous of , & so acteth faith suitablie or putteth forth faith in suitable acts : as for example , when the beleever is troubled with conscience of guilt , he runneth to Christ , yet in a special manner he goeth to him , as Priest , & eyeth that Blood , that only can purge consciences from dead works Heb. 9 : 14. When he is troubled with Raging Corruptions , & would have them subdued , or would have his hard Rebellious Heart made more soft & pliable to God's will , he goeth to Christ ; yet in special manner , he eyeth Christ as a King & acteth Faith upon him accordingly ; So when he is troubled with Ignorance , Doubts , and Darkness , he goeth to Christ ; yet he eyeth him th●n especially as a Prophet & accordingly acteth Faith upon him . Yet we would know , that when the Beleever acteth thus , in this different manner , upon Christ ; whether as a Prophet , or as a Priest , or as a King , there is no exclusion , far less any denyal of the other offices ; which cannot be , because Christ himself , & consequently whole Christ , is alwayes He , to whom the beleever goeth , though with a more express , explicite & special application to & usemaking of that office & work of Christ , which most suiteth the beleevers present necessity . Now , though all these acts of faith , be acts of saving faith ; yet they are not all that act of faith which is or may be ( for distinctions sake ) called , the Justifying act of faith ; for this is that act of faith only , which the soul exerteth , in order to Justification , and Absolution from the Curse of the Law. 3. This Faith is no product of the power of Nature , accompanied with all its advantages , & elevated to its highest pitch , & to the highest measure of accomplishments : Nature , as now corrupted & depraved , not only will not willingly complye with the designe of Grace in the Gospel ; but it cannot , being nothing but pure enmity to the holy Wayes & Counsels of God ; all its mindings are of the flesh , and all the minding of the flesh , or the carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the Law of God , neither indeed can be Rom. 8 : 7. Persons , deluded by Satan , may imagine , & suppose with themselves , that it is so wholly in their power to beleeve , that they can exerte that Faith , at what time so ever they will : But , howbeit , out of their own mouths such unbeleevers stand convinced , & condemned , for their not beleeving ; yet the mighty power of God's Spirit must be exerted , ere they be brought unto a beleeving frame , or their souls be made to look towards Jesus in earnest , so as to lay hold on him by Faith. Therefore is Faith called the gift of God Ephes. 2 : 8. There is the working of the might of God's power requisite unto beleeving Ephes. 1 : 19. Such then , as have not the workings of the Spirit of God , Inclining , Drawing , Perswading & Causing the heart beleeve , are real strangers to this grace , whatever great Enduements & Gifts , or ordinary effects of the Spirit they may be possessed of . The author of a Discourse of the two Covenants ( a book recommended to us by Mr. Baxter , in his preface , prefixed thereunto , as a Treatise , which will give us much light , into the Nature of the Gospel ) pag. 24. tels us , that man himself , is not wholly passive , in this change , or what goes to the making of it ; but is so far active in it , as to denominate what he doth by God's assistance to be his own act . Whereby he sufficiently discovereth an Arminian designe ; yet so qualifieth his expressions , as may abundantly show , he intendeth to evade . For he will not say , that man is not at all passive , in this change , but only , that he is not wholly passive ; and yet he dar not say this confidently , but must adde , or what goes to the making of it : and how much he may comprehend under this , who can tell ? But if man be not passive , he must be active . How far then is he active ? So far , saith he , as to denominate what he doth by God's assistance , to be his own act . That the act of Faith is mans act , is most certain , for it is he that beleeveth ; but the question is , what change is wrought in the soul , by the Spirit of God , before the act of faith be exerted ? and what hand mans labours and endeavours have in the infusion of the new Principle , the Divine Nature ? Is not the man purely passive , in the receiving of the effect of that creating act , or in the work of Regeneration ? That the Lord prescribeth the use of ordinary means , wherein the man is to waite for the free & gracious working of the Spirit is true ; but there is no connexion made by the Lord , by any Law or Constitution , betwixt the use of these meanes , and the gracious work of faith , nor betwixt ordinary Light & Conviction , and the like common effects of these meanes , and Saving Grace . Yet he tels us afterward , that if man do but what he can do , through the assistance of God's : common providente ( in whom we live , & move , & have our being ) God is most ready , through his good pleasure , or out of the goodness of his will & pleasure , to work in him , both to will & to do savingly , to carry the work quite thorow . But what Scripture doth teach us this ? Sure I am , that Phil. 2 : 12 , 13. with which he ushereth in this discourse , giveth no ground for this ; for that is spoken to such , in whom the work of Salvation is already begun , and who are commanded to work it out , & to say , that the case is the same , is to overturne the whole Gospel , and present us with pure Pelagianisme ; is there as sure & certane a connexion betwixt mans work of nature & God's gracious works of Grace , as is betwixt the work of grace Begun & Carried on ? His adducing afterward p. 25. the commands to make ourselves a new heart , & to repent &c. to enforce this , is but the old Pelagian argument brought againe upon the stage , to which I have said what I hope will befound Consonant to the Scripture , in my book against the Quakers . But this man discovereth himself more plainly afterward pag. 28 , where after mentioning some acts of men , which cannot be called acts of super-natural grace , he tels us , if men will but go thus far ( as they can ) out of a real-desire to ●e happy , I should make no question , but that the Spirit of God would yeeld them his assistance to carry them quite through , in the work of conversion . Beside that connexion , whereof he maketh no question , though the orthodox have hithertill denied it , writting against Pelagians , Iesuites & Arminians , we may observe this , here , That nature can carry the work of conversion quite through , having only the assistance of the Spirit of God ; and what difference is there then betwixt Nature & Begun Grace : for begun Grace needeth the assistance of the Spirit of God , to work Salvation quite thorow ; and Nature needeth no more ? where are then the Infused Habites ? Is Regeneration only brought about by assistance ? Need they , who are dead , no more but Assistance ? If this Author help us to clearness in the doctrine of the Gospel , it must be the Gospel , that only Pelagians , Iesuites , Arminians & Quakers owne ; but not the Gospel of the Grace of God revealed to us , in the Word ; which telleth us of something more requisite unto the Conversion of a sinner , & to the bringing of him to Beleeve & Repent , than the Cooperation of God's assistance ( as he speaketh pag. 25. ) & mans endeavours . He tels us pag. 26. that there is a promise of divine assistance to Man , using his ●ndeavours in doing what he may , & can do towards the performing the condition of the Covenant : But he showeth us not , where that promise is to be found : and pag. 17. he talks of an implicit promise ; and this he very wonderfully inferreth from the Gospel , that was preached to Abraham : for thus he speaketh , for God in promising blessedness to the Nations through Abrahams seed , therein promised all that was absolutly necessary for him to vouch safe to make them blessed , & without which they could not be blessed . And if so , then he therein implicitly promised to assist the endeavours of men to perform the condition of the promise , without the assistance of whose grace , they cannot savingly beleeve repent & obey . Whence it would seem ( 1 ) that all men , are comprehended within this promise ; and ( 2 ) That no more is promised in reference to the Elect , than to the Reprobat . ( 3 ) That the promise of faith & Repentance , is but a promise of of Assistance . ( 4 ) And this promise of Assistance , is not to assist Grace , but to assist Nature . ( 5 ) That the promise of Faith & Repentance was but an implicite promise , This is a sufficient taste of this Authors Pelagian-Gospel . 4. We proceed . This work of the Spirit upon the soul , whereby the man is brought to a closing with , and to a resting upon Christ , is ordinarily wrought by the word : for faith cometh by hearing , & hearing by the word of God Rom. 10 : 17. The Lord hath established that great Ordinance of Preaching , for this end ; and for this end , he blesseth it unto his chosen ones , we meane not this exclusivly , as i● the word could no other way be-blessed ; for he blesseth , as he seeth good , for this end , the Reading of , & Meditation on the word also ; though the grand & special mean be the Preaching ; as we see Act. 2 : 37 , 41. & 8 : 26-30 . & 26 : 18. The Lord , it is true , may send wakenings by his Judgments & by other like Occasions ; & may blesse the private Endeavours of Parents & friends , by their private Instructions & Admonitions : yet all these are no way prejudicial unto , but rather contribute to the confirming of the privilege of the word , as the Principal Mean & Ordinance , both as leading thereunto , & as receiving strength thereby : for what ever real beginnings the Lord may work so , they have this effect to commend the word more unto these persons , & , in special , the publick Administration thereof by his Authorized Ambassadours : so that whatever saving work be wrought , as it is not altogether without the word , some way or other made known ; so it tendeth to the further usmaking of the word publickly administred , where it may be had , as Saul , when under that terrible work of God Act. 9. was directed to go to Ananias in Damascus , to understand what he should do , & Cornelius was ordered Act. 10. to send for Peter , to get instruction in the wayes of God. And whatever work of Light , Conviction , or Terrour , be wrought upon any occasion , that is attended with a contrary effect , is to be suspected , as not of God , nor saving . How dreadful then their Condition is , who have not the word , but are without the pale of the Church , where this word is preached ; & their condition also , who , though living within the Church , have this word as a sealed book , needeth not be said . 5. The condition of soul , unto which the Man is brought by the Spirit , accompanying the Administration of the word , in order to his actual beleeving , is considerable here ; for thereby we will be helped to understand better the Nature and Actings of Faith , whereby only , as a mean , reliefe is brought unto the soul ; and to know what that reliefe is , and wherein it lyeth , that the distessed man is pursueing after , & seeking with earnesness . In order to which , we would know , ( 1 ) That the Spirit by the Word beareth home Convictions of Sin and Misery , discovereth to the man , how he standeth guilty of the breach of the Law of God , & so chargeth sin home upon him , both Original and Actual , & thereby fixeth guilt upon the Conscience , shewing how he hath forfeited all Right to blessedness & life , & how moreover he is under the Curse , threatned to the breakers of the Law , and hath the wrath & malediction of God hanging over him : He is made to see the sins he never saw before , both of Omission & Commission , & the sad Consequences thereof , to wit , how he is obnoxious to the penalty , the insupporrable wrath of the living God. Thus the Spirit convinceth of sin Ioh. 16 : 8 , 9. thus he openeth their eyes , & turneth them from darkness to light , in so far Act. 26 : 18. thus the secrets of the heart are made manifest 1. Cor. 14 : 24 , 25. and they become lost in themselves , like a lost sheep , the lost piece of mency ; & the lost son Luk. 15 : 6 , 9 , 24. and like one of those whom Christ came to seek & to save Mat. 18 : 11. Luk. 19 : 10. These are the sinners mentioned Mal. 9 : 13. that is , such as are now brought by the work of the Spirit , to see & feel their sinful condition , to know that they are sinners , and that they are in a lost condition . 2 ) There is a discovery made of their Inability to relieve & help themselves out of this woful condition of sin & miserie . They are made to see , that nothing in them , or in any other creature , can make satisfaction unto the justice of God & thereby redeem them from the Curse of the Law , and from the wrath of God , that is lying upon them , the sense & apprehension whereof doth now presse & pinch them sore . Which maketh them cry out , with these pricked in their hearts Act. 2 : 37 : & 16 : 30. What shall we do to be saved ? They see , they cannot keep the Law : & though they could , it would not availe , as a Compensation & Satisfaction to the Justice of God , for the by gone innumerable Transgressions , whereof they stand guilty . Whereby we see , that the troubled wakened soul , in this case , is brought to a desparing in himself . He is under the sentence , and he seeth nothing under heaven that can command Peace to his soul ; nothing within him , nor without him , beside God , that can bring him out of this Prison , & relieve him from this dreadful sentence , under which he is lying , as a condemned Malefactor : And we see , what is properly the reliefe , that he would be at , and that he only desireth : to wit , To be freed & delivered from the sentence of the Law , and from the curse of God ; & to be brought into a state of Favour & Reconciliation with God , that his sins may be pardoned , he may be accepted of God , as Righteous , & so brought into a State of Peace & Salvation . This is the plaister , that his soul is longing for ; this is the only remedie that can relieve him ; this is the only good that he can be satisfied with : all the Pleasures , Honours , & Rihes of the world will bring no reliefe or ease to his distressed soul : And when he findeth tha● this is not to be found in himself , nor in any other Creature , he must look for it , elsewhere . And thefore ( 3 ) When the Spirit of the Lord is carrying on this work , he , by the preaching of the Gospel , convinceth the man of the reality & truth thereof , & discovereth the Suitablness , Fulness , Satisfactoriness , Glory & Excellency of the remedie , that is hold forth in that Gospel , that hath brought life & immortality to Light , even in the Gospel of the grace of God , wherein is revealed , what Christ God-man hath done & suffered , to satisfie the justice of God : therein is the Righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith : There he seeth , that the Father is well pleased with him , & with the Sacrifie , which he offered up for sins , Whence the poor wakened sinner seeth , that his case is not utterly desperate , & that there is hope for him , through Jesus ; or at least that it is possible , he may be saved from the wrath to come ; & a may be of reliefe is a great reliefe : And he seeth , that if that Righteousness & Satisfaction of Christ were made over to him , or he interessed therein , he were well ; for that would sufficiently guarde him from the wrath of God , and secure him , as to future blessedness . Thus the Spirit , by the word , revealeth the Gospel of Salvation to the end the wakened sinner may see his reliefe there , & betake himself to the only reliefe that is held forth there . 6. Hence we see , that while the wakened sinner is in this condition , his maine & only work will be , how he may be interessed in that al sufficient Redemption , & Purchase of Christ , to the end he may be partaker of the Ben●fites , that flow there from , and so be freed from the state of Sin , Wrath & Enmity , wherein he is now ● plunged : And when the Gospel calleth for Faith , in order to this , & he findeth , that it is not in his power to Beleeve , but that it is the pure gift of God , who must give the new heart , & the heart of flesh , & must regenerat & beget him of new , & so create a new Principle of grace in his soul , to the end he may be brought to act Faith on the offered mediator & Mediation , & accept thereof , as his only Cure & Remedie . 7. So that , when the Spirit worketh up the soul to beleeve , he causeth him sweetly acquiesce , in the way of Redemption , revealed in the Gospel , and to count it a faithful saying , and worthie of all acceptation , that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners 1. Tim. 1 : 15. and to comply sweetly with the designe thereof , in all points : and for that end to close with Christ , and to accept of him upon his offer , and particularly to rest upon him , and his Righteousness , revealed in the Gospel , as the only ground of their hope & peace : This being the thing that their soul longeth after , to wit , how they shall get guilt taken away & they be clothed with a Righteousness , wherein they may with confidence appeare before God , the Spirit of God , when working the soul up to a compliance with the remedie , held forth in the Gospel , causeth them accept of Christ , as made of God unto them , Wisdom , Righteousness , Sanctification & Redemption , and every such soul to say . In the Lord our Righteousness , have I Righteousness . In him alone will I look for Pardon , Acceptance , Reconciliation & life , & on him alone will I roll my debt , & there will I rest , in hope . 8. Therefore , this Faith , though it bring the soul unto Christ , as the only Redeemer , and is the mans clasping his armes about him , & embraceing him , as all his Salvation , & rolling all his weight upon him , yet it looketh to & in a special manner , eyeth the Satisfaction , Merites & Righteousness of Christ ; for that is it , which the man mainly now standeth in need of Justice must be satisfied , saith he , my sins must be pardoned , I must be accepted in favour with God , I must have a Righteousness where with my sins may be covered , and the month of justice , of the Law , & of my challenging conscience , may be stopped , & whereby I may have Right to life : and this being held forth in the Gospel , Faith bringeth the soul to a resting on this Righteousness of Christ , that he may be found in Christ , not having his own Righteousness , which is of the Law , but that which is through the faith of Christ , the Righteousness , which is of God by faith Phil. 3 : 9. This is to beleeve on Christ Ioh. 3 : 16 , 36. Act. 16 : 31. & faith in his blood Rom. 3 : 25. Thus the soul refugeth it self from the storme of wrath , under the wings of Christ , and hideth itself , as it were , in him from the avenger of bloud , the wrath of an angry God , purseing for a broken Law. And here , the Man abideth hid in Christ , and eleaveth to him , as being glued to him , and utterly unwilling to be separat from him , or to appear without his garment of Righteo●sness , which faith fasteneth on the soul ; and the man by faith trusteth to this way , and resteth upon it with full confidence , nothing doubting of his saiftie thereby . 9. By this we see , how the way of justification by Gospel-faith serveth both for setting forth the Glory of God , the Riches of Free Grace , and for abaseing of Man , as also for secureing of Life unto the Beleever : for ( 1 ) Hereby the Man is convinced of his guilt & declareth himself to be guilty ; for he his guilty before God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3 : 19. he is made speachless knowing nothing to speak in his own defence , nor no apologie to give in , his mouth is stopped , and he can say nothing , but cry out , guilty , I am a childe of death , the Lord is Righteous , should he damne me for ever , I must justifie him , when he speaketh , and cleare him when he judgeth Psal. 51 : 4. ( 2 ) Hereby the Man pronunceth & sweareth himself poor & bare ; he forsaketh all , and renunceth all , that formerly he had any eye upon , or confidence in , counting them losse & dung , as Paul did Phil. 3. He proclameth himself Empty , Lost , & Naked , and declareth he hath nothing that he can leane to , within himself . He accounteth all his former Righteousness to be nothing but rotten rags , and filthy rags , and Professeth that he knoweth nothing within himself , wherefore , or whereupon he can expect Reconciliation with the Lord , and to be Accepted of him . ( 3 ) Thus all ground , or occasion of boasting , or of glorying before men , is taken away from the beleever Rom. 3 : 27. & 4 : 1. ( 4 ) Thus the glorious beauty of free Grace shineth forth . Therefore it is of faith , that it might be of grace . Rom. 4 : 16. Grace here appeareth in its own glory , when free grace without us , & contrare to our demerites , doth all , provideth the Sacrifie , accepteth of the same , in their behalfe for whom it was offered up , bringeth them to the actual participation of the fruites and effects thereof by working up their hearts to a satisfaction in it & to a resting upon it , & all this freely , out of free Love. It is corruptly said by the fore mentioned Author of that discourse of the two Covenants pag. 42. that Grace appeareth , in the Lord 's making Faith the condition of the promise , in that great things are promised upon such a possible practicable easie condition , as faith is , considering the meanes and assistance promised by God to work it : for this spoileth Grace of its Glory , when Man is looked upon , & said to be the principal author of saith , as he is , upon the matter , said to be , when all that God doth , is but called assistance , and at least the man may challenge , as his owne , no small share of the Glory of acting Faith , and of going so great a length in the way to Faith , without any more assistence , than he hath need of , to eate his meat when hungry , and of going on his own feet to the very place , where God stood ready to lend him a hand to help him forward . Not to mentione , how this altereth the whole Nature of the Covenant of Grace , making it nothing but a new edition of the old Covenant of works . ( 5 ) It is of faith to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed Rom. 4 : 16. When all the business is wrought , as it were , to our hand , and nothing more requisite to interesse us , in the noble Effects of all , than our consent , & this also is wrought by the Spirit of God conforme to the Covenant of Redemption , can a more ensureing way be imagined ? Alas ! what ground of Confidence or of Certainty , can the Arminian & Socinian way , followed by the formentioned Author , give to a poor soul ? When all is made to hang upon the tottering & inconstant will of man , who hath no more from God , but some common assistances , standing ready to attend him , if he advance so far his alone without them ; & when he hath gotten them to day , may run back , & undo all againe to morrow , & Apostatize for ever ; for this also is a part of that Gospel , that this man will teach us , pag. 135. if we beleeve Mr. Baxter's Preface . Beside that hereby , no man can win to any solide Peace , or Joy , so long as he liveth ; for he is but still performing the Condition of his Justification , and perfecting it by his works ; so that till they be at an end , the Condition of Justification is not performed , and consequently no Justification : and it is the maine scope of this mans discourse to prove the interest of Gospel-obedience ( as he calleth it ) as a Condition , as well as Faith , or rather as a part or best part of practical Faith , in the matter of Justification . 10. Hence we may also see , how erroneous & dangerous that definition of faith as Evangelical , Christian & Justifying , is , which the mentioned Author giveth us pag. 38. to wit , Such an hearty assent & consent unto God's declaration in the Gospel by his Son , concerning Christ himself & his Grace & Favour towards men by him , & concerning their own duty , as causeth a man to expect from God , and to act in a way of duty , according to the tenor of such a declaration , & his own concerns in it . This upon the matter is the very faith of Adam , only Adam heard no word of Christ ; & so it is but a Law-faith , & no Gospel-Faith . And againe more plainly by way of explication , he saith pag. 39. nor is it a bare beleefe , that God will for Christ's sake pardon & save , as many as truely repent & amend their lives & become new creatures ; unless they so beleeve all this , as seriously & heartily to repent themselves of their former folly , and to return to their duty in new Evangelical obedience . Not only doth this man take away from Justifying & saving Faith , all that peculiar closing with Christ , & accepting of him , as Redeemer , & all particular & special eye or respect had to his Righteousness & Mediation ; but he maketh Iustification depend on works , as well as on faith , or on works , as the integral parts of practical justifying faith : It is true , Saving faith , cannot but bow & incline the man , in whom it is , to all holy Obedience ; But to make these thus to be included in Faith , as the Condition of Justification , is to give us the Socinian Iustification , & the Socinian Faith , for the true orthodox justification & faith : and if this be the Gospel justification , & Gospel faith which ( as Mr. Baxter thinks ) this look will help us unto , the Socinians are better acquainted with the Gospel , than the orthodox have been , or are . And to evince this ( which is all I need to do here ) I shall propose a few of their Assertions concerning Faith , that the Reader may judge what harmonie is betwixt this Author & them . The Racov. Catech. cap. 9. de fide tels us , that faith is a Trust in God , whereby we not only confide in him , but also obey him . This is short yet fully the same with our Auther's . Socinus himself dial de justif . f. 11. what is that to beleeve in his name ? It is receive him , to beleeve his words , to confide in him , & finally to obey him . And in not : in dial f. 25. he tels us , that the faith by which we are justified , doth containe obedience to the commands , not as an effect , but as its substance & forme , yea ( faith he ) it is obedience it self . And againe de fid . & oper . f. 60. he faith , I will have nothing else , than to con●ide de in Christ ; and this is done & receiveth its perfection , & as it were , its forme , when obedience is yeelded unto his commands : So that betwixt justifying faith & good works there is no difference . See him further f. 123. 134. Smalcius de divin . Christ. cap. 14. f. 38. tels us , that faith in Iesus Christ is a firme assent unto what he hath said & a confideing truely so called , whereby not only we firmly beleeve what he hath said concerning us , but we confide in him & adhere to him , ( this is much more , than our Author saith ) & heartly embrace his doctrine as celestial & saving , placeing our considence & hope in him , as such & so great , a King , & as our Priest ( fy upon our Author , that is less orthodox , than this Socinian ) hanging wholly upon him , with a firme hope to obtaine these things , which he hath promised to such as obey him , that is , if we amend our lives , according to his prescriptien , we are confident to receive remission of sins , deliverance from death & eternal life . But you will say , there is no mention made of good works in this faith . See therefore what he saith disp . 6. cont . Frantz de bon . ope . Thes. 53 , 55 , 63 , 68. We do not ( saith he ) consider two parts of faith . Trust in God , & Obedience to his commands , but we distinguish them , as if they were two : for albeit really they may be taken for encthing , & are one , they can be some way distinguished - Obedience is rather the forme of faith , or faith it self , than any part of it . And in this , the Arminian Remonstrants in their Confess . cap. 10. s. 1 , 2 , 3. do homolegate with the Socinians , telling us , that faith comprehendeth all the commands of the Gospel , and that the command of Faith must no other-way be considered , than as by a natural proprietie it includeth obedience , and is a fruitful mother of good works : and that faith thus considered comprehendeth a mans whole conversion , prescribed in the Gospel . Socinus is plaine Synops. 1. s. 8. and tels us , that the way of justification is the same under both Covenants , seing in both on God's part was required Remission of sins : & on mans part , Repentance , & Obedience to his commands , which is truely that very faith , that every did , & ever will make man acceptable unto God. And then tels us , that we must beware to make sanctification an effect of justification . These things may shew , that this part , at least , of this Authors Gospel is more learned out of the Socinian & Arminian Scholes , than out of the Scriptures : and if we would be guided into this , we may follow other more ancient leaders , than is this Author , whom else where , I suppose , Mr. Baxter calleth Mr. W. Allen. 11. We would also take notice of this , That when the Scripture saith , the just liveth by faith , or we are justified by faith , the meaning must not be , we are justified by Hope , or we are justified by Love , or we are justified by Patience or by any other Grace : for though all these Graces of the Spirit , may be conceived as springing from one and the same root , & seed of God , which is planted in the soul , in the new birth ; and though , we may , by our acute wits , so explaine each , as to include the rest , more or less : Yet as divine Revelation is the ground of all our Faith , in this matter , so Scripture expressions , are the best guide to us , in our Expressions & Conceptions about this matter . And as the Scripture doth speak of and name these Graces , as formally distinct , ascribing to each their distinct , and several Operation , End and Use ; so we never read , that we are said to be . justified by Love , or by Patience , or by Hope , or any other ; but alwayes by Faith. This certanely must instruct us , that Faith here hath a peculiar and singular interest , & must be considered , as looking to Christ , in a different way , from Hop & Love , which also have Christ for their object , or Christ must be the object of Faith , in another manner & under some other consideration , than he is the object of other graces . 12. It is also considerable , that it is simply said , the just man liveth by faith , or we are justified by faith , and not the just man liveth , or we are justified , by a strong faith , or by a faith continueing to the end : Though it be true , that a true & lively Faith is of that Nature , that it will continue to the end , and will grow ; yet we may not say , that only a strong Faith , or a Faith as continueing to the end , is the condition of the Covenant , or of Justification ; for hence it would follow , that as no man of a weak , yet true and sincere Faith , could be said to be Justified , so no man could be said to be Justified untill his Faith had endured to the end , which is contrary to Scripture , speaking of beleevers , while in their infancy , as justified & adopted , as partakers of , or at least , as having a Right to the consequences of Justification , such as Pardon , Peace , Glorying in Tribulation , and Comfort &c. The promise granteth Justification and Adoption to Faith , that is of the right kinde , & no mention is made of that Qualification thereof , He that beleeveth is passed from death to life , and shall never die &c. Ioh. 3 : 36. Ioh. 3 : 16 , 18. Ioh. 1 : 12. If the meaning of such , as make Faith , as continneing to the end , the condition of the Covenant and of Justification , were this , That Faith as continued in to the end is the Mean of Continuance in the Covenant , and in the state of Justification , they should speak truth : for the just liveth by faith first & last , as by Faith they are brought into the estate , so by faith they are continued therein ; Faith maketh the first Union , Faith continueth it : But of this we shall have occasion to speak more afterward . 13. This faith is not one single act of the soul , nor seated in one faculty , The various things , spoken of it in Scripture , and the various objects it acteth upon , and is exercised about , and the various and different necessities , which beleevers stand into , with the corresponding uses , which faith serveth for , in these necessities , cleare it to be no one single act of the Soul : I would rather call it the act of the whole Soul , than the act of any faculty , whatsomever . CHAP. XXII . Our act of Faith is not imputed to us a Righteousness . Wproceed now to cleare , at some further length , several Particulars , touched in the foregoing Chapt. contributing to the explication of our Justification by Faith : The first & great Question anent Faith is , whether it be imputed unto the Beleever , as his Righteousness , whereupon he is justified ? Adversaries to the truth both Socinians & Arminians do plainly assert , that our faith , or that grace of faith is the very thing , which is imputed to the Beleever for his Righteousness . They are all convinced , that the sinner , must be clothed with a Righteousness , some way or other , in some sense or other , ere he can be Justified , for the Lord is Righteous , & will not justifie the wicled , that is such as have no Righteousness : and being willing to yeeld to the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , they substitute , in place of Christ's Righteousness , Faith , properly taken , or our act of Beleeving , as is it performed by us , in obedience to the Gospel-command . Socinus de Serv. lib. 4. c. 4. Cum igitur &c. i.e. seing he teacheth , by the example of Abraham that Righteousness is imputed , when can doubt , that nothing else can hereby be under stood , but that we arerighteous before God , because it hath seemed good to the Lord , to account our faith , in place of Righteousness . And thereafter . That faith is imputed unto righteousness , is nothing else , than that faith is accounted to us in place of Righteousness , but not that the Righteousness of christ is imputed to us & cap. 11. Themselves say , that that saith justifieth not by its proper worth , but because it apprehendeth Christ : But that apprehension of Christ of yours , is a meer humane fiction , & a most vaine dream . And when we read , that faith was imputed to Abraham for Righteousness , or unto Righteousness , we have no reason to think , that mention is there made of the Righteousness of another , when it is manifest , that he is speaking of his own . In his dial . de Justis . f. 14 , 15. he tels us , that faith is by God imputed to us for Righteousness , & he accounteth that in place of Righteousness , faith is in very deed that whereby the Scripture witnesseth that we are justified that is , accounted Righteous before God , & have our sinnes pardoned . This faith maketh us acceptable unto God unto eternal life . And in not . ad dial . f. 27. Nothing else was said , than that faith is accounted to us of God , & imputed for Righteousness , & that that faith is truely in us , who will deny seing these words are said to exclude the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness ? The Arminians do homologate with the Socinians , in this Arminius himself cont . Perkins . faith expresly , that faith it self is imputed to us & in Praf . ad Hyppolit . this ( faith he ) is my opinion about justification , that faith , & that alone is imputed unto Righteousness , that by it we are justified before God , absolved from our sins , and accounted righteous , pronunced & declared by God giving sentence from the tribunal of grace . Some blaine ine for saying , that the act of faith it self , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere is imputed unto Righteousness , & that in a proper sense , not metonymically I say , faith is imputed unto us unto righteousness , for Christ & for his righteousness sake . He owneth the same decl . Sent. ad Ord. f. 65. 66. & in Resp. ad 31. Artic. f. 152-154 . John , Goodwine in his Treatise of Justification Part. 1. Ch. 2. asserteth the same most considently from Rom. 4. whose reasons hereafter shall be examied . The same purpose he prosecuteth Part. 2. Ch. 6. answering the arguments of the orthodox against that imputation , which shall be considered in due time . Mr. Baxter in his Confess . pag. 18 , 19. Excepteth against some words in our larger Catechisme & Confession of faith , to wit , that it is denied , that the grace of faith , or any act thereof is imputed for Justification , unless it be thus understood , that our faith is not imputed to us , as being in stead of a perfect Righteousness of Obedience , to the ends , as it was required by the Law of works ; nor is our faith the matter , or the meritorious cause of the remission of our sin , or of our right to Salvation . But the meaning of the Assembly is plaine enough against that , which is the opinion of Socinians & Arminians , as the words of the Answer to quest . 73. of the larger Catech. make manifest ; where it is said ( in answere to that Question , How doth faith justifie a sinner in the sight of God ? ) Faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God , not because of these other graces , which do alwayes accompany it , or of good works , that are the fruit of it ; nor a● if the grace of faith , or any act thereof were imputed to him for his justification ( & this is confirmed from Rom. 4 : 5. comp . with Rom. 10 : 10. ) but only as it is an instrument , by which he receiveth & applyeth Christ , & his Righteousness . And in the Confess . of Faith. Ch. 11. f. 1. nor by imputing faith it self , the act of beleeving , nor any other evangelical obedience , to them , as their Righteousness . Nor is this a determining of a point , expresly against the words of God , as he supposeth ; for it is not the bare words , as Hereticks interpret them , that is the minde of God , but the true sense & meaning of his words : And in Confessions & Catechismes , I judge that matters should be made plaine , and that it were not plaine & ingenuous dealing to set down the truth in these expressions , that hereticks can subscribe unto , when it is known , they have an exposition of these words contrary to truth : It seemeth that Mr. Baxter will not say , in the explication of the Sacrament of the Lords supper , that the bread is not changed into the body of Christ , lest he seem to contradict expresse Scripture , which saith , that Christ said of the bread , this is my body . But now , as to the matter , I assert , with our Confess . & Catechis . and with all the orthodox against Socinians & Arminians . That faith , considered , as our act of obedience , is not that which is accounted our Righteousness , in order to Justification , nor that , which is properly imputed to us for that end ; Nor is that the meaning of the Apostle . Rom. 4. And of this I give these reasons . 1. The Apostle , in his whole Disput about Justification , opposeth Faith & Works as inconsistent with , yea as repugnant to other : as is notoure ; But this could not be , if Faith as our act of obedience were imputed to us , as our Righteousness ; for faith , as our act of obedience , is a work , and a work commanded by the Law of God , otherwayes it should be unlawful , or a work of supererogation . The meaning then of the Apostles Conclusion Rom. 3 : 28. should be this , a man is justified by one dead of the Law , without all works or deeds of the Law ; which were a contradiction . And it is certaine , that when the Apostle excludeth the works of the Law , he excludeth their from being looked upon , as our Imputed Righteousness ; for Adversaries did plead for their interest in justification , as a Righteousness to be imputed to the doers , where upon they might be justified : if then faith as our work , were imputed as our Righteousness , Pauls disput should be , whether all works should be imputed for Righteousness , or one work of faith only : Nor can it be said , that by the Law here , the Apostle understandeth only the Law of Moses , as such , for he is speaking this , even of the Gentiles , who never were under the Law of Moses , and instanceth Chap. 4 , in Abraham , who was justified long before the Law of Moses , as such , had a being . And he is speaking of the Law , by which is the knowledge of sin . Rom. 3 : 20. & which worketh wrath Rom. 4 : 15. which cannot agree to the Law of Moses only . 2. By asserting , that Faith , properly taken , is accounted our Righteousness , the whole scope & all the Arguments , which the Apostle useth in this matter , should be enervated and contradicted ; as a very light view of them might make manifest , and the following Arguments will evince . 3. Faith , considered as our act of obedience , and as a work of ours , is not that Righteousness of God without the Law , which is witnessed by the Law , and the Prophets : Nor is it that Righteousness of God , which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ unto all , and upon all them that beleeve Rom. 3 : 21 , 22. Neither Law nor Prophets did bear witness , that faith , as our act & work , was accounted all the Righteousness that was to be imputed to the beleever : Nor said , that our act of faith was the Righteousness of God , without the works of the Law. Nor is it imaginable , how faith can be that Righteousness of God , which by Faith is imputed unto all , and put upon all that beleeve . Shall we think , that the Apostles words have but this sense , That faith is unto & upon them , that have faith ; or that faith is imputed by faith ? Sure the Apostles words must be so understood , as to import , that the beleever hath by his faith something imputed to him , which is distinct from faith , as is obvious . 4. If faith , as our work , were imputed as Righteousness , how could the Righteousness of God be declared in the justification of sinners , & God be just , when he was the justifier of him , which beleeveth in Jesus ; as the Apostle saith Rom. 3 : 26 ? Is our Beleeving such a perfect & compleat Righteousness , that God cannot but account us Righteous , because of it , & so justifie us , as Righteous , upon the account of it ? Is it not sick of the same discemper of weakness with other graces ? 5. If Faith , as our act & work , were imputed to us , as our Righteousness , how should boasting be excluded , & all occasion of glorying , though not before God ( before whom even Adam , though he had continued in his state of innocency unto the end , could not have gloried ) yet before Men , taken away , as it is in the matter of justification Rom. 3 : 27. & 4 : 2. The Law of works will not exclude boa●ing , & faith , as our work belongeth to the Law of works : and if we were justified by Faith , as our imputed Righteousness , we should certainly have ground of glorying before Men , as well as Adam should have had , if he had stood in his integrity , & obtained the crown by his doing . 6. If Faith , as our work , were imputed to us for our Righteousness , Justification & the reward should not be of grace , but of debt ; as the Apostle expresly affirmeth . Rom. 4 : 4 , 5. Now to him , that worketh ( & he who beleeveth , in this , which he now opposeth ; worketh ) is the reward not reckoned of grace , but of debt ; but to him , that worketh not , but beleeveth ( beleeving then here is opposite to working , & therefore cannot be considered , as a work of obedience in us , but as carrying us out of our selves , to seek & lay hold on the Righteousness of Christ , without us ) on him , that justifieth the ungodly , his Faith is counted for Righteousness ; that is , the Righteousness of Christ , which Faith laith hold on , is counted for Righteousness . 7. If Faith , as our act of obedience , were accounted our Righteousness , & we were justified upon the account of it , as our Righteousness , God should not be he , who justifieth the ungodly , as he is expresly stiled Rom. 4 : 5. And the reason is , because he cannot be called an ungodly person , who hath a Righteousness inherent in him , & which is his own , & which the Lord accounteth to him for a Righteousness : he is not unrighteous , whom God accounteth Righteous , & he whom God accounteth Righteous , cannot be called ungodly : so that if God account Faith to us for our Righteousness , putting it up upon our score , as our Righteousness , when God justifieth us as Righteous , by vertue of our faith , or as clothed with faith , as a compleet Righteousness , he cannot be said to justifie such as are ungodly . But now , the Scripture tels us , that God is one , that justifieth the ungodly , that is , one who hath no Righteousness inherent in him , upon the account of which the just & righteous God can justify him ; but one that must have a Righteousness from without , Imputed to him , upon the account of which he is Justified , and accounted Righteous in Christ , though unrighteous & ungodly in himself ; our Faith cannot be said to be imputed to us , as our Righteousness . 8. If Faith , as our act of obedience , were imputed to us , as our Righteousness , Paul could not say , as he doth Rom. 4 : 6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man , unto whom God imputed righteousness without works : for then Righteousness should not be imputed without works ; but a prime , special , principal & comprehensive work ( for with our Adversaries here , faith is in a manner all works , or comprehendeth them , as we heard , towards the end of the foregoing Chapter ) should be imputed , as our Righteousness , & not a Righteousness without works . 9. Free pardon of sins will never prove the man blessed , unto whom God imputeth Faith , in a proper sense , for his Righteousness ; as it doth prove him blessed , unto whom God imputeth Christ's Righteousness , or a Righteousness without works : And the reason is , because faith is no satisfaction to the justice of God ; & therefore can not be our Righteousness , upon which we are pardoned & justified . Now the Apostle argueth thus Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. Even a , David also describeth the blessedness of the man , unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works ; saying , blessed are they , whose iniquities are forgiven , & whose sins are covered , blessed is the man , to whom the Lord will not impute sin . 10. The Righteousness imputed is something distinct from our Faith , & is not our faith it self , for the Apostle saith Rom. 4 : 23 , 24. Now it was not written for his sake alone , that it was imputed to him , but for us also , to whom it shall be imputed , if we beleeve on him &c. If Faith it self were the Righteousness imputed , these words could make no good sense . Shall we think , that the meaning of the Apostles words is nothing but this . Faith shall be imputed if we have faith , or our Beleeving shall be imputed to us , if we Beleeve . This looks not like one of the discourses of the Apostle . 11. The imputation of our Beleeving , as our Righteousness , cannot ground our Peace with God , not have we by it access into this grace , wherein we stand ; nor can we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God ; nor glory in Tribulation : for it is obvious , how weak a ground that were for such a great building . But the Righteousness of Christ laid hold on by Faith , can be a sufficient basis for all this Rom. 5 : 1 , 2 , 3. 12. Faith , as our work of obedience , is not the grace of God , and the gift by grace , which must be imputed to us , as our Righteousness , upon the account of which we are to be justified : as the offence & transgression of Adam was imputed to his posterity , as the ground of death , passing upon them , and of judgment or guilt to condemnation : But is only our receiving of that abundance of grace , and of the gift of Righteousness Rom. 5 : 17. But that which is imputed , as the ground of Justification , as Adam's disobedience was imputed , as the ground of their Condemnation , is the Righteousness of the Second Adam , of whom the first was a figure vers . 14 , 15 , 18 , 19. 13. When the Apostle saith 2. Cor. 5 : 21. for he made him sin for us , who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God , in him ; his meaning cannot be , that our Faith is the Righteousness of God , or that we are made the Righteousness of God upon that account of having faith : for the Apostle is holding forth here a comfortable commutation , which God maketh betwixt Christ & us , as the ground of that ministrie of Reconciliation ; to wit ; that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself , not imputing their trespasses unto them , mentioned vers . 18 , 19. And therefore as Christ hath some thing , that was properly ours , imputed to him by God , that is Sin or Guilt , which he had not in himself : so we must have something , as the native fruit & effect of that , that is properly Christ's , imputed to us of God , that is , his Righteousness , which we have not in ourselves . And beside , this Righteousness of God is that , whereupon Reconciliation is founded , as is manifest , comparing vers . 19. with 21. But who will say , that our Reconciliation unto God is founded upon our Faith , as if that were our Peacemaker , & our Atonement , & Satisfaction ; & as if that were Christ , in whom God was reconciling the world unto himself . Was Christ made sin , that the imperfect grace of faith might be made a compleet Righteousness & become our compleet Righteousness ? 14. When the Apostle saith Rom. 9 : 31 , 32. That Israel hath not attained to the Law of righteousness , because they sought it not by faith , he must meane a Righteousness , that is distinct from Faith , and therefore he cannot meane Faith it self : for if he meaned faith it self , as our work , the words should have this sense , they sought not Faith by Faith , and therefore they did not attaine to Faith. Shall we impute such jejune & insipide expressions to Paul , or rather to the Spirit of God speaking in & by Paul ? 15. The same Apostle tels us Rom. 10 : 3 , 4. That the jewes being ignorant of God's righteousness , & going about to establish their own righteousness , have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God : And by this Righteousness of God , he cannot meane , Faith : for their faith had been their own , & so their own Righteousness , if Faith had been Righteousness : but he must meane the Righteousness of Christ , which faith laith hold on , for he addeth , for Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness , to every one that beleeveth : So that it is the Righteousness of him , who is the end of the Law , that is that Righteousness , unto which they should have submitted themselves by Faith ; & it is not Faith it self , but a Righteousness which is had from Christ ; who is the end of the Law , & a Righteousness , which is had by Faith , and which every one partaketh of that beleeveth , as the following words show . 16. When the Apostle saith Rom. 5 : 19. by the Obedience of one shall many be made righteous , doth he meane by that obedience of one , our Faith ; & not rather the Obedience of Christ , which is imputed , and whereby we become Righteous ? As the disobedience of Adam was not some particular after deed of his posterity , which was imputed to them for their disobedience ; but it was the particular fact of Adam , eating the forbidden fruit , which was imputed to all his posterity , and whereby they were constituted sinners : so this obedience of Christ cannot be any act of obedience in us , be it Faith , or what you will ; but the acts of Christ obeying the Law , & imputed to us , whereby we become Righteous , & are constituted Righteous in the sight of God. 17. When Paul said Phil. 3 : 9. and be found in him ( i. e. Christ ) not having mine own righteousness , which it of the Law , but that which is through the faith of Christ , the righteousness , which is of God by faith , can he meane by this Righteousness , which he was desirous to be foundin , only Faith ? If he had meaned Faith , had not that been his own Righteousness ? Is not our Faith called our owne ? If not , why saith Iames Chap. 2. shew me thy faith , & I will shew thee my faith . And should not this Righteousness , if his beleeving had been it , been of the Law ? Or is faith according to no Law ? If it be according to no Law , it is no act of obedience . Moreover , how could Faith be said to be through Faith ? Is Faith a mean to it self ? How can Faith be the Righteousness of God , which is by faith ? Was not the Apostles scope & desire , to win Christ ? And is Faith Christ ? 18. If our act of beleeving be imputed to us as our Righteousness , then we cannot say . In the Lord have we righteousness , contraire to Esai . 45 : 24. in order to a saying , in the Lord we shall be justified , as vers . 25. but rather in ourselves have we Righteousness , in order to this end , for Faith or our act of Beleeving is in our selves immediatly , and is said to be our Righteousness , Nor can we thus call the Lord our righteousness , contrate to Ier. 43 : 6. But rather our own act of beleeving shall be our Righteousness , & trusted to as such . Nor yet could we say , that Christ is made of God to us righteousness . As it is 1 Cor. 1 : 30. unless that because by vertue of his mediation , our act of beleeving is made of God to us Righteousness sure I am the emphasis of the words pointeth out some other thing , as hath been seen . 19. Is our beleeving that rob of Righteousness , wherewith the Lord covereth such , as have ground to rejoice greatly in the Lord , and to be joyful in their God Esai 61 : 10 ? Such might as well rejoice greatly in themselves , & be joyful in themselves , & in their Beleeving . 20. Is Faith that everlasting Righteousness , that the Messias was to bring in Dan. 9 : 24 Doth our act of beleeving last for ever ? Paul hinteth some other thing . 1 Cor. 13. 21. When Paul saith Rom. 10 : 10. that with the heart man beleeveth unto righteousness , must not this Righteousness be something distinct from beleeving ? If not , we may as well say , that Confession with the mouth is the same with Salvation , for he addeth , & with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation , wherefore , as Confession is but a mean & way unto Salvation , so Beleeving is but a mean & way unto Righteousness . 22. Can we with any coloure of reason suppose , that our act of beleeving is that Righteousness of God , which is revealed from faith to faith Rom. 1. 17. Can faith be said to be revealed from it self , & to it self ? 23. Our act of Beleeving cannot be that Righteousness , whereof Noah become heir Heb. 11 : 7. for he became heir of this Righteousness by Faith : & he could not be said to be come heir of Faith by Faith. 24. Faith is among the works of Righteousness , which we do : and al● these works of Righteousness the Apostle excludeth from an interest in that Righteousness , where-upon we are Justified , as opposite to mercy . Tit. 3 : 5. Therefore our Beleeving cannot be our Righteousness unto Justification . 25. If our act of Beleeving be imputed to us for Righteousness , then it alone must be that fine linen , wherein the lambs bride is arayed ; and it must be the fine linen , that is clean and white , for this fine linen is said to be the Righteousness of the saints Revel . 19 : 8. But that cannot be because our Faith is not so pure , as that it may be called clean & white linen ; the Saints themselves are ashamed of their faith , as being so full of blemishes and imperfections ; as also because this favour granted to her to be arayed in this linen , cometh in after that she hath made herself ready vers . 7. which ( as Mr. Durham on the place sheweth ) is to be meaned of Faith. 26. All this work about the Imputation of Faith taken properly , for our act of Beleeving , is made of purpose , to shoot out the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ ; as is clear by Iohn Goodwines whole disput ; & from his very stateing of the question part . 1. pag. 7. saying . But the Question in precise termes is this . Whether the Faith of him , who truely beleeves in Christ , or whether the Righteousness of Christ himself be in the letter & propriety of it , that which God imputes to a beleever for righteousness , or unto righteousness , in his Justification . Now let any judge which of the two hath more countenance in Scripture , when the one , to wit , the Imputation of Faith , is but to be drawn , with any show of probability , from one place of Scripture ( and yet how small countenance that giveth to it shall be seen hereafter ) and the other is so emphatically expressed , in so many places , both in the Old & New Testament ; And which of the two deserve most the name of Righteousness , in order to our Justification : and the Imputation of which of the two is most consonant unto the genius of the Gospel Covenant , which we must suppose to be far different from the Nature & Constitution of the Covenant of Life , made with Adam ; & withall , which of the two wayes speaketh out most distinctly the riches of the Love & Grace of God , & giveth most sure ground of hope & Confidence unto a poor wakened and distressed Soul ; & finally , which of the two is that , which the seriously exercised Christian dar with fixedness of Resolution , Lean the weight of his soul upon , & exercised Christians finde to be that , whereupon they Loaning & resting finde Peace , & Quietness of Soul ? CHAP. XXIII . Some Arguments against the imputation of Faith , Vindicated from the Exceptions of John Goodwine . AFter these Reasons against the Imputation of our act of Beleeving , drawn from the Scriptures , we come here to Vindicate some Arguments adduced by others to the same end , from the Exceptions of Iohn Goodwine , in his Treatise of Iustification . part . 2. Ch. 6. The first Argum. is thus framed . That which impeacheth the truth , or justice of God , can have no agreement with the truth . This is undeniable . But the imputation of our act of Beleeving for Righteousness doth so ; because then he should esteem & account that to be a Righteousness , which is not . Therefore &c. He excepteth against the Assumption & its probation thus . 1. This was in effect the plea of Swencfe●dus , ( as recorded by Zanchy Epist. lib. 1. p. 215. ) & likewise of the Councel of Trent ( as Calv. hath observed Antidot . ad Sess. 6. p. 324. ) to prove that the word Justification in the Scripture , was not to be taken in a juridical sense to wit for absolution : but in a physical or moral sense , for making of a man compleetly just & righteous . Ans. What Swencfeldus said , I finde not recorded by Zanchie in the place cited , in my edition , & if his words be rightly repeeted in the margine , he hath had the same judgment , that Papists have , which is sufficiently known , & with whom none in reason will say we conspire , upon the account of this argument , who but observeth this , ( which abundantly discovereth the impertinency of this Exception ) That the minor & its Probation speak not of the act of God Justifying , but of his simple act of Estimating or Judging , which must alwayes be according to truth , & therefore we cannot think , or say , that God judgeth , or estimateth that to be a compleat Righteousness , which is nothing so . And beside , though Justification it self were here understood : yet it might be said , without any ground of imputation either of Popery or of Swencfeldianisme , that God , who is the just & Righteous Judge , will not absolve a person as Righteous , who is not Righteous , nor pronunce him Righteous , who hath not a Righteousness , as he hath not , who hath nothing but his act of Beleeving imputed to him . Except . 2. Any action conformable to a righteous Law may be & is called Righteousness , as that fact of Phineas Psal. 106 : 30. And faith being an obedience to a special commandement ( 1 Ioh. 3 : 23. 2 Pet. 2 : 21. Rom. 1 : 5. ) it may be with truth , & sufficient propriety of speach , called a righteousness . Ans. But of a particular Righteousness we are not here speaking , nor of a particular Justification of such an act , but of a Justification , as to State , and of a corresponding Righteousness , which must be universal , answerable to the challenge of the Law ; and no particular act of Obedience will be accounted such a Righteousness by God , who is Truth & Justice it self , in order to the condemned mans Justification . Beside himself tels us , in end , that this exception is nothing to the purpose ; for he doth not conceive , that by Faith , when it is said to be imputed , is meaned an act of conformity to any particular precept of God. And therefore he . Excepteth 3. That , which we meane , is this , that God looks upon a man , who truely beleeveth , with as much grace & favour , & intends to do as bountifully by him , as if he were a man of perfect righteousness . Ans. But this Excepter should have said , that Faith in the letter & formality of it , is imputed ; for thus he disputes against the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness : and he should have said , that God looketh upon the simple act of Faith , as Perfect Obedience to all the Law : for when we plead for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , he said , that thereby we make God to look upon us , as performing that Righteousness , in our own persons . Neither will he & others understand any other Imputation : and yet we see , how they can speak , when explaining the imputation of faith , that they may think to evite the force of an argument . But ( 2 ) though it be true , that God dealeth thus , as is said , with Beleevers ; Yet that can give no ground to think , that he imputeth Faith for Righteousness : because it is not upon the account of Faith , taken as an act of their obedience , that the Lord dealeth so with them , but upon the account of the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them , and received by faith . ( 3 ) A Justified person is accounted Righteous not inherently but imputativly , and is accepted as such , and pronunced such ; and therefore must be righteous indeed : for the judgment of God is according to truth : And if nothing be imputed to the justified , but his faith , unto Righteousness , that faith must be accounted to be a Perfect Righteousness ; which yet it is denied to be . He Excepteth 4. Nothing is more frequent with the best writers , than that God accounts those just , who , in strickness of speach , are not such , but only have their sinnes forgiven them . Ans. And their ground is good ; because they alwayes suppose , that such , as have their sins pardoned , have a perfect Righteousness imputed to them , and received by Faith , without which their could be no Pardon . Argum. 2. If faith should be imputed for Righteousness , then should Justification be by works● or by some what in our selves . But the Scripture every where rejecteth works , & all things in our selves from having any thing to do in Justification . He excepteth . That by works or some what in ourselves may be understood either by way of merite , and in this sense the Consequence of the Proposition is false ; or by way of simple performance , & then the Assumption is false , for the Scripture expresly requireth faith , or a work of us , in order to Iustification . When Faith is required in order to Justification , in way of simple performance , it is not required , as our Righteousness , far less as all the Righteousness , which the Justified soul must have ; but only as a mean , or Instrument , laying hold upon , and putting on the Righteousness of Christ , which is offered and imputed , and whereby the beleever resteth upon , and wrappeth himself in that Righteousness , as the only Righteousness , wherein he can think to appeare before God's tribunal , and thus Faith is not considered as our act , making up our Righteousness , but as bringing in , with a begger 's hand , a Righteousness from without . But when faith or Beleeving is purely considered , as our work , and as an act of obedience in us , and yet is called our Righteousness , & said to be all that Righteousness , which is had , & is imputed , in order to Justification , it justifieth as a work ; & upon the account of it , as something in our selves , we are said to be justified ; & all this in perfect opposition to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness ( 2 ) It is but a Popish evasion to say , that by Iustification by works , the Scripture only meaneth justification by works , that are meritorious ; as if either any work of ours what somever could be meritorious ; or as if such , against whom Paul disputed , did meane a meritoriousness in their works ; or as if the Scripture did not inferre merite from every work , that is ours , and that we do to make up a Righteousness by , upon the account of which we might be justified . Saith not the Apostle Rom. 4 : 4. Now to him that worketh , is the reward not reckoned of grace , but of debt , inferring debt & so merite from all works that we do , whereby to patch up a Righteousness , in order to Iustification ? He doth not distinguish betwixt works , that are by way of merite , & other works , but meaneth even such works , as were performed by Abraham ; who was far from imagineing any merite is his works . ( 3. ) And sure , if any work be accounted meritorius , in this case , that must be so accounted , which is made the whole of our Righteousness , upon which we are justified ; & is said to be the only Righteousness , that is imputed to us , for that end , that we may be Justified . Is not that beleeving made our Righteousness , & thereby declared to be no less meritorious , than Adam's perfect Obedience would have been ? Argum. 3. That which maketh justification not to be of grace , cannot stand with the truth of the Gospel . But the imputation of Faith for Righteousness maketh Justification not to be of Grace . He excepteth , The Scripture still maketh a perfect consistency of free grace with the condition of saith Eph. 2 : 8. Rom. 3 : 24 , 25. Nay the work of beleeving is purposely required , that the freeness of his grace might have place Rom. 4 : 16. How can a gift be conceived to be more freely given , than when nothing more is required , than that it be received : now beleeving is nothing else , but a receiving of that righteousness or justification , which God giveth in & with his Son Iesus Christ Iob. 1 : 12. Ans. Here are good words , but nothing to loose the argument , for Faith , receiving a Righteousness , or the gift of Righteousness , or the Atonement , or Christ & his Righteousness , is but the instrument ( as it were ) of the soul , laying hold on , & in law presenting ( to speak so ) the fidejussorie-righteousness of the Surety , Christ , as the Righteousness , upon the account of which , & for which alone , he is to be justified . But beleeving , considered in it self , as our work , & made to be our Righteousness , & all our Righteousness , & said to be imputed for our Righteousness , is not considered as a receiving of a gift of Righteousness ; ( which is distinct from Justification , howbeit he confound them ) but really is made a price in our hand , wherewith to purchase the gift of Justification ; & the reckoning of this work to us ( which is our work ) as our Righteousness , in order to justification , maketh Justification not of grace , but of debt , as the Apostle argueth Rom. 4 : 4. & maketh our Justification to be of works , & if it be of works , it is no more of grace , as the Apostle asserteth Rom. 11 : 6. The consideration of Faith , as the act of the soul , receiving & laying hold upon a Righteousness , or on Christ , & his Righteousness , establisheth the Imputation of Christs Righteousness ; but the Imputation of Faith , properly taken doth quite extrude it : & these two are made incompatible by our adversaries ; & the one is asserted , that the other may be denied ; for which there were no necessity , if Faith were considered , in the Scripture sense , as it ought to be , that is an Instrument laying hold on & bringing in a Righteousness from without , even the Surety-Righteousness of Christ. So that this exception , if it be ingenuous , must overthrow the Position maintained . Arg. 4. That which ministereth occasion to the flesh of boasting in it self , is not consonant to the tenor of the Gospel . But the imputation of Faith for Righteousness doth minister occasion to the flesh of boasting Therefore &c. He excepteth , Suppose the act of beleeving , which is so imputed for righteousness , be a mans own work , yet it is so by the meer gift of God Ephes. 2 : 8. Phil. 1 : 29. 1 Cor. 2 : 12. & 3 : 6. and this cuttech off all groud of boasting . 1. Cor. 4 : 7. Ans. ( 1 ) Though there be no true ground of boasting of that , which is freely given ; yet the flesh can take occasion therefrom to boast , as the Pharisee did Luk. 18. when yet he acknowledged all to be gives , for he thanked God for what he was not , & for what he did , & so acknowledged all to be given , and all to be given freely . ( 2 ) The Apostle saith expresly , that boasting is not excluded by the Law of works Rom. 3 : 27. and yet all works are given , & are not absolutely of & from our selves . ( 3 ) Saith not the Apostle expresly . Rom. 4 : 2. If Abraham were justified by works , he hath to glory : And yet I hope , Abraham did acknowledge , that all these works of his were of grace , & of God's free gift , and not absolutly & every way his own . ( 4 ) The works , required in the old Covenant of works , were not absolutely Adam's own , but were in some sense also given of God ; yet by that way of Justification , there had been ground of boasting . ( 5 ) Though now there should be no ground of boasting before God ; ( as neither would there have been ground of boasting before him , by the way of works ; for the Apostle addeth Rom. 4 : 2. but not before God ) yet there is ground laid for boasting before men , when our Beleeving is made our Righteousness , upon the account of which we are justified & pronunced righteous in order to Absolution from what was brought in against us . ( 6 ) Therefore is the way of Justification now so contrived , that man should have ground or coloure of ground of boasting , even before men : for all that Righteousness , which is required unto Justification , as that Righteousness upon the account of which they are to be justified , and by which only they are to be declared & pronunced Righteous , is not in them ; but in another and imputed unto them ; it is the Righteousness of Christ made over unto them of God's free grace , & received by Faith , which receiving hand is also given : so that the Righteousness , upon which all are justified , is one & the same , & is a Righteousness without them ; & therefore the flesh hath no seeming occasion of boasting in this matter . He excepteth 2. Suppose the act of beleeving were from a mans self , yet there were no cause of boasting ; because that weight of glory is not given to faith for any worth in it , but by the most free gracious & good pleasure of God. If a King for taking a Pin of a Mans sleeve should raise his house , & make him honourable in the State , were it not a ridiculous thing for such a man to brag of the Pin of his sleeve &c. Ans. ( 1 ) Can we think , that those , against whom the Apostle disputed , in this matter , did think , that there was worth & excellency in all their works , to merite the exceeding great & eternal weight of glory ? did Abraham think so . And yet though we cannot say , that he thought so , Paul not withstanding denieth , that he was justified by his works . ( 2 ) If the act of Beleeving were from a Mans self , & made all that Righteousness , which he is conceived to have when justified , & upon the account of which he is justified , he should not only have occasion , but even cause of boasting before men , notwithstanding of the disproportion betwixt faith & the weight of glory : for it might then be said , that he had made himself to differ ; & that he had laid down , out of his own purpose , the whole price , that was required , and so had , according to the termes of the Compact , made a purchase of glory to himself : as the man with the pin in his sleeve , if the Law & Covenant had so stood , that all that gave the Prince a Pin out of his sleeve , shall receive such & such great things ; & he only & a few moe were so good merchants , as to give the Pin , when others did not , might well have boasted & said , he had not gotten those great things for nothing , for he laid down the full price , condescended upon by Law & Covenant , and had ground of boasting , at least , before men , though not before the Prince , who graciously condescended to reward so richly such a mean gift . ( 3 ) This answere will say , that there had been no ground of boasting , even by the old Covenant of works , though man had keeped the Law perfectly : for even then , it might have been said , that the weight of glory was not given , for the really worth & excellency of perfect Obedience ; Perfect Obedience & Holiness having its sufficient reward in its own besome ; for it is a reward to it self . But he saith . If men had fulfilled the Law , & bin justified that way , there had been some pretence of boasting or glorying in themselves . Ans. And why not also , if faith be now accounted the fulfilling of the Law , and be now imputed to us , as all our Righteousness ? Let us see , if the reasons , which he bringeth for the former , will not also evince this . His first is this ; Because such a Righteonsness had held some proportion at least that should have been given to it Rom. 4. vers 4. God had given them no more , than what they had ( at least in some sort ) deserved . Ans. But who can tell us , what that proportion , or that sort would have been ? And may not also the Righteousness of Faith ( which is here supposed to be of our selves , and not the meer gift of God ) be said to hold some proportion , at least in some fort ? Yea , may it not , in this respect , be said to hold a greater proportion , viz. that the exerting of the act of Faith now would argue more strength of free will , to that which is good , that Perfect Obedience in Adam ; for though we should suppose , that man now had as full a power to beleeve , if he would , as Adam had to obey , yet it cannot be denied , but there is much more opposition now even within , to that which is good , than there was in Adam ; and consequently that the vertue appearing in the acting of Faith , must be conceived as greater , than what could have appeared in Adam's full obedience , who had nothing within to oppose him , or prove a remora in his way ? As it would argue more valour for a weak souldier to go a quarter of a mile fighting with his enemies in the way , then for a giant to go twentie miles , wherein he should meet with no opposition . But though the proportion were granted to be greater betwixt the reward and Adam's Obedience ; than is betwixt the reward & Faith ; yet there must be & will be a proportion granted : for majus & minus non variant speciem , degrees make no variation in kinde . ( 2 ) Can or will it be said , that God had given the perfect obeyer no more , than he had , in some sort at least , deserved , if we should suppose , there had been no promise made of such a reward to obeyers , or antecedently to a Covenant ? And if this cannot be said ( as it cannot be said , by any I suppose , who seriously consider the matter ) then the reward was made such only by God's free Condescension ; & God had , in that case , given what they had deserved according to the Covenant made , wherein such a reward was promised to obeyers ; and , in justice , bestowing it as a reward upon such , as did fulfill the condition . Now , when Faith is said to have the same place , in the New Covenant , that Perfect Obedience had in the old , and so the same Efficacy & influence in the reward ; & withall , it is supposed , that Faith is now no more the gift of God , than Perfect Obedience was under the old Law ; is it not as true now , that God giveth no more , than what beleevers have by Faith ( at least in some sort ) deserved , by vertue of the Compact & New Covenant , wherein this reward is promised , as it would have been under the old Covenant ? And is it not hence also manifest , that the New Covenant is made to be of the same Nature with the Old , and that the reward is as well now of debt , as is would have been by the Old Covenant ? Is it not also hence undeniable , that hereby there is a proportion acknowledged , in some sort , betwixt Faith & the Reward ? where is then the difference ? Let us see , if his next reason will helpe here . Secondly ( he saith ) because if they had made out their happiness , that way they had done it out of themselves , that is , out of the strength of those abilities , which were essential to their Natures , & in the strickest & most proper sense that can be spoken of , or applied to a creature , their owne . Ans. ( 1 ) When he supposeth ( as we saw in the Exception ) the act of Beleeving to be from a mans self , must we not also say , that the beleever making out his happiness this way , doth it out of himself , though not out of the strength of abilities essential to his Nature . ( 2 ) I much doubt , if those abilities ( if he speak of moral abilities , as he must , or speak nothing to the purpose ) can be said to have been essential to mans Nature , for then it would follow , that man , after he lost these abilities ( as it must be granted he did , when he fell ) was no more a compleet man , wanting something that was essential to his nature . These abilities may be said to have been natural or con-natural to him , considering the state , the Lord thought good to create him in , and so not meerly supernatural ; but how they can be said to have been Essential to his Nature , I see not . ( 2 ) When God gave Adam these Abilities , and thereby furnished him with a sufficient stock ; was he not to acknowledge God for all that he did ? or was he afterward to act without dependance upon , or influence from God , the first Cause ? If not as it is confessed , when it is said to be so only in a sense , that can agree to a creature ; and when Faith is here supposed to be from mans self acting in the same dependance on God , and receiving the same influence from him , as the first Cause , may not Faith also be said to be mans own , in as strick & proper a sense as can be spoken of , or applied to a Creature ? And even though we speak of Faith , in the orthodox sense , as being the gift of God , yet seing it floweth nativly from the new Nature given in Regeneration , & is said to be mans faith , & his act , all this difference will not exclude all occasion of boasting & glorying before men , more then Abraham's works would have done , if he had been justified by them . And yet the Gospel-way of Justification perfectly excludeth all boasting , being so contrived in all points , as that he who glorieth may only glory in the Lord. Argum. 5. If Faith be imputed unto us for Righteousness , then are we justified by that , which is Imperfect , & which it self needeth a Pardon ; seing no mans Faith is perfect in this life . But there is no Justification to be looked for before God by that which is Imperfect , but by that , which is Perfect . Therefore &c. He excepteth . These words then , we are Iustified by that , which is imperfect , may either have this sense , that we are justified without the concurrence of any thing , that is simply perfect , to our justification , or that somewhat that is comparativly imperfect , may some wayes concurre & contribute towards our justification . In the first sense the proposition is false , in the later sense the assumption goeth to wreck Ans. This distinction is to no purpose ; for it doth not loose the difficulty , in regard that the argument speaketh of a Righteousness , as the formal cause , or as the formal objective cause of Justification , or as that upon the account of which the person is Pronunced & Declared to be Righteous , and Justified : and so is levelled against Faith , concluding that it cannot be our Righteousness , or the formal Objective cause of our justification ( as it is said and supposed to be by such , as say , that it is imputed to us for Righteousness , for it is made by them to be all the Righteousness that is imputed to us ) & that because of its Weakness & Imperfection . He addeth , in application of this distinction . The truth is , that the Imputation of faith for Righteousness presupposeth somewhat , that absolutely perfect , as absolutly necessary unto justification . Had not the Lord Christ , who is perfect himself , made a perfect atonement for sin , there had been no place for the Imputation of faith for righteousness , for it is through this , that either we beleeve in him or in God through him ; & it is through the same atonement also , that God justifieth us upon our beleeving , that is , imputes our faith unto us for righteousness . Ans. This presupposal doth not helpe the matter ; for notwithstanding thereof , Faith it self is made the only Imputed Righteousness ; and faith is not considered as an Instrument , receiving Christ's Righteousness ; and the Atonement there through , but as a work , making the reward of the Atonement to be of debt , ex pacto , and not of free grace , and so to have a worth & a merite in it . Our Adversaries will not grant , that this presupposed Righteousness of Christ , whereby the perfect Atonement was made , is imputed unto us ; for this is expresly denied : and beside , they say , that it was equally made for all , and so is equally imputed to all ; so far , as that thereby , all are put into such a state , as , notwitstanding of the former breach made , they may now , upon the new termes of Faith , receive the promised reward . And thus , it is manifest that with them , this imperfect thing , saith is that , for & upon the account of which , they are justified . As for example ( that we may hereby illustrate & cleare the matter ) if we should suppose , that Christ had by his Atonement delivered all from wrath , due for the former transgression of the Covenant , and had put them into the former state , wherein Adam was , before he fell , & procured that God should take a new essay of them , and make promise of life unto them , upon the old termes ( as some , who plead for Universal Redemption , say God might have done , had he so pleased , after the Atonement was made ) in this case , might it not be said that every person , that should now be Justified , upon the performance of these termes , were justified by the performance of the Condition , as by his own Righteousness ; & that this new Obedience were all the Righteousness he had , & declared to have , when justified ? & should he not be justified upon the account thereof solely ? And was he more obliged unto the Atonement of Christ , than others , who did violate of new these Conditions ? And seing now Faith is put in the same place , and made to have the same Force & Efficacy ; shall we not now be Justified by this one act of Obedience , as we would have been , in the other case , by perfect Obedience ? And if it be so , is it not manifest , that we are justified by a Righteousness , that is Imperfect , & that all the presupposal of a perfect Atonement , doth not availe ? ( 2 ) When it is said , that it is through the Atonement , made by Christ , that we beleeve in him , or in God through him , it must be granted , that Christ hath purchased Faith , & that either to all , or to some , and if to all , then either absolutly , or upon condition if to all , & that absolutly , then all should have faith ; if upon condition , we desire to know , what that condition is ? If not to all , but to some only , then Christ cannot be said to have died alike for all . ( 3 ) as to that he faith , viz. That it is through the same atonement , that God imputeth our faith to us , for righteousness , & justifieth us upon our beleeving , it being the same that others say , who tell us , that Christ hath procured faith to be the condition & termes of the new Covenant , we shall say no more now , than that we see no ground to asserte any such thing , & here after we shall give our reasons . Argum. 6. If faith be imputed to us for Righteousness , then God should rather receive a Righteousness from us , then we from him , in our Iustification . But God doth not receive a righteousness from us , but we from him in Iustification . Therefore &c. He excepteth by denying the consequence upon these reasons . ( 1 ) Because God's imputing Faith for righteousness doth no wayes implye that faith is a righteousness , properly so called , but only that God by the meanes thereof , & upon the tender of it , looks upon us as righteous , yet not as made either meritoriously , or formally righteous by it , but as having performed that condition or Covenant , upon the performance whereof he hath promised to make us righteous , meritoriously by the death & sufferings of his owne son ; formally with the pardon of all our sins . Ans. All this can give no satisfaction , for . ( 1 ) If no Righteousness be imputed to us , in order to Justification , but Faith , and if faith it self be hereby made no Righteousness , then we are justified without any Righteousness at all ; & God shall be said to pronunce them Righteous , who have no Righteousness at all ; or Justification must be some other thing , than a pronunceing or declaring of a man Righteous . ( 2 ) Why have we heard so much above said for Faiths being Righteousness & why have there been so many passages of Scripture adduced to confirme this , particuiarly such as mention the Righteousness of faith , or the Righteousness of God by faith ? But it may be , this salvo is added , a Righteousness properly so called : Yet then it will follow , that it must be , at least , a Righteousness improperly so called , and that must be an improper speach , faith is imputed for righteousness , and if that be an improper speech , why is there so much noise made about the impropriety of the speech , when we take Faith for the object of faith , in that sentence , faith imputed unto righteousness ? All that great clamoure must now recurre upon the excepter , and his followers . ( 3 ) If this , which he hath given , be the meaning of these words , faith imputed unto righteousness , let any judge , whether our sense of them , or this be most genuine , & freest of trops & figures , & which of the two is apparently farthest fetched . ( 4 ) Faith then , it seemeth , is tendered unto God , & faith being but a Righteousness improperly so called , we tender unto God , in our Justification a Righteousness only , that is improper , & thereupon are declared Righteous , whether properly , or improperly , I know not . ( 5 ) If upon the tender of Faith , God look upon us as Righteous , then we m●st be righteous ; for we must be what he seeth , & acknowledgeth us to be : And then I ask , whether doth he look upon us , as properly Righteous , or as improperly Righteous ? ( 6 ) If God look upon us , as having fulfilled the condition of the Covenant , & as Righteous upon that account , then he must look upon us , as properly righteous & faith must be a proper righteousness ; or he must say , that Christ hath purchased , that an improper Righteousness shall be the Condition of the Covenant , for we heard , he said , that Christ had purchased , that Faith should be the condition . But the performance of the Condition of God's Covenant must be hold for a proper Righteousness , as perfect obedience was under the first Covenant . And we heard lately , that Faith was truely & properly called a Righteousness , & that it might be so called with truth , & in sufficient propriety of speech , in his answere to the first argument . ( 7 ) If we be righteous by faith , & be looked upon , as such by God , having performed the condition of the Covenant , it is not imaginable , how we shall not be , if not meritoriously , yet at least formally Righteous ; seing as Adam by Perfect Obedience , would have performed the Condition of that Covenant , under which he was , and thereby had been both Meritoriously & formally Righteous ; so must it be now , in respect of faith , which is made to have the same place , force & efficacy , in the new Covenant , and that through the procurment of Christ , that Perfect Obedience had in the old Covenant . ( 8 ) He saith , we are made meritoriously righteous by Christ's sufferings . But what is the meaning of this ? Is this the meaning thereof , that Christ's sufferings hath merited a Righteousness to us ? Then hereby nothing is spoken to the point ; for we are not now speaking of Christ's Righteousness , but of ours . And againe I would enquire , what Righteousness hath it merited unto us ? Whether a meritorious Righseousness , or a formal Righteousness ( as he distinguishad ) or both ? Or is the meaning this , That through Christ's merites & sufferings , we have a Righteousness , which is meritorious ? If so , I enquire , what is that Righteousness ? Whether is it Christ's Righteousness imputed to us , & made ours ; or is it our Faith that becometh meritorious ? If this last be said , that is granted , which was denied ; & Faith must be accounted our meritorious Righteousness . If the former be said , imputation of Christ's Righteousness will be granted , & more than we dar say . ( 9 ) He saith , we are made formally righteous , with the pardon of sins : But this is never proved , and it hath been often asserted : And how will he make this a Formal Righteousness , & Righteousness properly so called ? Is this any conformity to a Law , in whole , or in part ? Did not himself insinuat in his answere to the first Argum. that nothing can with truth , and in sufficient propriety of speech , be called a Righteousness but what is a conformity to the Law of God ? And sure I am , Pardon of sins is not any such conformitie . ( 10 ) The summe of this answere is , this Faith is not imputed , as a Righteousness ; but it is said to be imputed unto Righteousness , because it is the fulfilling of the Condition of the new Covenant , whereby we come to be made Righteous meritoriously by Christ's death , & Righteous formally with the pardon of sins . And what a wiredrawn , untelligible & self-contradictory sense this is , let every one judge . He denieth the consequence . 2. Because , suppose that this inference lay in the bowels of what we hold , that faith were a proper righteousness ; yet neither would this argue , that therefore God should receive a righteousness from us , in our justification ; for we rather receive our faith from God for our justification , shen God from us , in our justification ; though I grant that in a sense a far off , & with much adoe , it may ( haply ) be made a truth , that God receives our faith from us in our justification . Ans. But , sure , though Adam's obedience was originally from God & efficiently , he being the First Cause ; yet had Adam been justified , according to that Old Covenant , he had been justified by his own works , & not by the Righteousness of another , bestowed on him by God ; so he had been said to have presented his own Righteousness unto God , in order to his justification , and God might have been said to have received it from him , in his justification , or rather , in order thereunto . Now , just so is it here , as to Faith : for faith is our work , & we come with it to God , & he taketh it from us , & thereupon justifieth us , according to our Adversaries opinion , not in a sense a far off , or made with much ado , as he supposeth , but in a sense most plaine & obvious . He saith lastly . That that imputation of faith for righteousness , which he protecteth , supposeth a righteousness given unto & received by men , because it could not be truely said , that God doth impute faith for righteousness unto any man , except he should make him righteous upon his beleeving . Now , as it is impossible , that a man should be made righteous without a righteousness in one kinde or other ; so is it impossible also , that that righteousness , wherewith a man is made righteous in justification should be derived upon him from any other , but from God alone , for this righteousness can be none other , but forgiveness of sins . Ans. ( 1 ) How can the Imputation of Faith suppose a Righteousness given , unless the Righteousness be given , before Faith be imputed , seing what is supposed is alwayes first in order of nature , if not also in order of time ? And if matters be thus , sins are first forgiven , and then Faith is imputed . ( 2 ) If the supposing of a righteousness will follow , to wit Remission of sins , then there is no answere to the argument , for the argument speaketh of a Righteousness anterior to Justification , and in order there unto . ( 3 ) It is againe said , but was never proved , that to forgive sins is to give a Righteousness . And I would ask , what for a Righteousness this pardon of sins is ? is it a Righteousness perperly so called ? But that cannot be , for all such Righteousness consisteth in obedience to the Law : therefore it must be a Righteousness improperly so called , & if so , it cannot be called our formal righteousness , as he said it was . ( 4 ) When he saith , we are made righteous in justification , & yet will not grant an Imputed Righteousness , and his Remission of sins is not yet found to be a proper Righteousness , the sense must either be Popish , or none at all . I shall not here adde other reasons against this Assertion , whereby it might be made manifest , how dangerous this Opinion is , if it be put in practice ; & how it tendeth to alter the Nature of the Covenant of Grace : It may suffice at present , that we have vindicated these few reasons against it , & that we have found it , in the foregoing Chapter , inconsistent with the doctrine of grace , in the New Testament & repugnant to the Nature of Justification , as declared & explained to us by the Apostle : and that we shall finde it , in the next Chapter , without any footing in the Apostles discourse Rom. 4. which is the only place adduced for its confirmation . CHAP. XXIV . The imputation of Faith it self is not Proved from Rom. IV. THe maine , if not only ground , whereupon our Adversaries build their Assertion of the Imputation of our act of Beleeving , is Rom. 4. where they tell us , the Apostle doth frequently & expresly say , that Faith is imputed unto Righteousness . We must therefore , in order the vindication of truth , vindicate this place from their corrupt glosses ; & to this end , we shall first show , that that can not be the meaning of the Apostle , in this place , which our Adversaries contend for ; & next we shall examine what they say to enforce their Exposition of the place . That the meaning of the Apostle Rom. 4. where it is said Abraham beleeved God , and it was counted unto him for righteousness : & afterward his faith is counted for righteousness , and faith was counted to Abraham for righteousness &c. is not that Abraham's act of beleeving was accounted the Righteousness , whereupon he was accepted , & was imputed unto him as a Righteousness in order to his justification ; and consequently , that the act of Beleeving is now imputed to Beleevers for their Righteousness , as said Servetus , Socinus & his followers , Arminius & his followers , Papists , & others ; that , I say , this is not the true meaning of the place , may appear from these particulars . 1. If the act of Beleeving be accounted a Righteousness , it must either be accounted a Perfect Righteousness , or an Imperfect Righteousness : If it be accounted for an Imperfect Righteousness , no man can be thereupon Justified ; But Paul is speaking of a righteousness that was accounted to Abraham the father of the faithful , in order to Justification , & that behoved to be a perfect righteousness , for all his works , wherein was an Imperfect Righteousness , were rejected : It cannot be accounted for a perfect righteousness , because then it should be accounted to be , what it is not , and this accounting being an act of God's judgment , it would follow , that the judgment of God , were not according to truth ; contrare to Rom. 2 : 2. The reason is , because our faith is not perfect in it self , there being much drosse admixed , & many degrees wanting in it : far lesse can it be a Perfect Righteousness , seing a Perfect Righteousness must comprehend full Obedience to the whole Law of God. 2. The Imputation , whereof the Apostle speaketh , is of some thing to be made the Beleevers , by the Imputation of God , which the Beleever had not before : But this cannot be Faith , or the work of Beleeving , because Faith is ours before this Imputation ; for Abraham beleeved God , & then followed this Imputation ; and vers . 24. it is said , that it ( to wit , some other thing , than the act of beleeving ) shall be imputed to us , if we beleeve : therefore it is not the act of Beleeving , properly taken , that is imputed , or accounted here . 3. Faith being antecedent to this Imputation , if the act of Beleeving be imputed , the word impute , or account here , must not signifie to Bestow , Grant or Reckon upon their score ; but simply to Esteem , Judge or Repute : and thus Faith , or the act of beleeving shall be in a beleever , and yet not be a Righteousness , till God repute it , to be so : But when God esteemeth , judgeth , or reputeth any thing to be in us , he doth not change it , nor make it something , that it was not before ; but judgeth it to be , what it is indeed , for his judgment is according to truth Rom. 2 : 2. 4. This sense & glosse is quite opposite unto , and inconsistent with the Apostles maine scope , in the first part of that Epistle , which is to prove , that Righteousness is now revealed from faith to faith Rom. 1 : 17. and that we are not Justified by the works of the Law , but freely by grace , through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ , whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3 : 24 , 25. And therefore not through the Imputation of Faith , the act of Beleeving , or any work of Righteousness , which we have done : for that should not exclude boasting , or glorying ; but through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , received by Faith. 5. That which was accounted to Abraham for righteousness , did exclude all works , and that to the end , that all ground of boasting , even before men , might be take , away vers . 2. & 3. Therefore Faith as a work , or the act of beleeving can not be it , which is here said to be reckoned or accounted to Abraham for righteousness : for this is a work , and being made the Ground & Formal Objective Cause of justification , can not but give ground of glorving before men . 6. This glosse maketh the Apostles discourse wholly incoherent ; for he saith vers . 4 , 5. Now to him , that worketh , is the reward not reckoned ef grace , but of debt : but to him , that worketh not , but beleeveth on him , that justifieth tht ungodly , his faith is counted for Righteousnese . Now if Faith , properly taken , be imputed , the reckoning shall be of just debt : for to reckon a men righteous , who is righteous antecedent to that act of accounting , is no act of grace , but of just debt : but Faiths being accounted for Righteousness is an act of grace , and therefore it must be the Object of Faith , or the Righteousness , that Faith laith hold on , that is here said to be counted upon the Beleevers score ; and this indeed is no act of just debt , but of grace . 7. Againe , as was said above , if Faith properly taken , or the act of Beleeving be imputed for Righteousness , God should not be the justifier of the ungodly ; nor could Faith act upon God , as such , with truth . And yet the Apostle tels us here expresly , that Faith acteth upon God , as one that Justifieth the ungodly . He who hath a Righteousness in himself is no ungodly man ; and God justifying a righteous man ; could not be said to justifie the ungodly . But if we take faith here , for the object of faith , or for the Righteousness of Christ , which faith fleeth unto , and layth hold on , all is clear & harmonious ; for then that man is not a worker , but beleeveth , & he beleeveth on God , that justifieth the ungodly , that is one , that hath no Righteousness in himself , but must have it elsewhere , even imputed to him , and bestowed upon him , through Faith ; & when he thus heleeveth , or layelh hold on Christ's Righteousness , this Righteousness , which by faith he leaneth to , is counted on his score for Righteousness , & he is thereupon justified . 8. Leaving what was formerly adduced against this glosse from vers . 6 , 7. 8. of this Chapter Chap. XVIII . we shall see what other passages in this chapter will say against it . The Faith that was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness , when he was in uncircumcision , vers . 9 , 10. is the same with the Righteousness of faith , which he had , being uncircumcised vers . 11. But this Righteousness of faith is not his act of Beleeving , nor Faith taken properly , as an act of Obedience ; but the Righteousness of the promised seed of the woman , in whom all Nations of the earth should be blessed , embraced by faith : for it is this , and not the meer act of beleeving , that was sealed by the signe of Circumcision vers . 11. for this Sacrament was a seal of the Covenant ; & we know , Sacraments seal the whole Covenant , & all the promises thereof , to such as beleeve ; & never seal our Faith , or the like , to be our Righteousness . 9. The same , that was imputed to Abraham for Righteousness will be imputed to all beleevers vers . 11. But that is not the pure act of Beleeving ; for Abrahamt act of Beleeving was a strong act , and is declared and explained to be such , but every beleever , who yet must be justified , hath not such a strong act of faith , as Abraham had : And we cannot say , that some are lesse , & some are more justified , because the faith of some is weak , and the faith of others is strong : and yet this must be said , if the act of Beleeving be imputed for a Righteousness , for the Righteousness of one shall be greater than the Righteousness of another : & their Justification must hold correspondence with the ground thereof . 10. That which was imputed to Abraham , & will be imputed to all beleevers , for a Righteousness vers . 11. must be a Righteousness , which such have imputed unto them , who do beleeve ; for it is added , that he might be the father of all them that beleeve , though they be not circumcised , that righteousness might be imputed unto them also : Abraham had Righteousness imputed to him , or reckoned upon his score , through faith , while he was uncircumcised , that he might be the Father of Beleevers , among the Gentiles , to whom also , when they beleeve , a Righteousness will be imputed , as it was to Father Abraham . 11. It is againe called vers . 13. the Righteousness of faith , & through it , he sais , the promise was to Abraham , & to his seed : but the promise is not through faith , as an act of virtue & obedience in us ; for then it should be through the Law ; but as the promise was made upon the account of the Righteousness of the promised seed , ( our faith can not be said to procure , or purchase the promise ) so its application is by Faith , laying hold on & gripping to that Righteousness . 12. If faith properly taken were imputed , it should be made void , & the promise of none effect , & they that are of the Law should be heires , for faith taken properly , for the act of Beleeving , belongeth to the Law : & when it is made our Righteousness , it is opposite to the free promise ; for what is promised or given upon the account of Righteousness , or any thing within us , is not a free & gracious promise : And when a free & gracious promise is taken away , all the right use of Faith is taken away ; & so Faith is made void ; for the very essence of justifying faith lyeth in looking to , laying hold on & leaning to a free & gracious promise . 13. The Apostle vers . 15. proveth , that they , who are of the Law , cannot be heirs ; & consequently that Faith , or the act of Beleeving cannot be imputed for Righteousness , as it is our act , done in obedience to the Law ; by this reason , because the Law worketh wrath &c. And this also maketh against the Imputation of faith , properly taken , because that is an act of obedience to the Law , & cannot become our Righteousness , being Imperfect , & consequently not conforme to the Law , which requireth Perfection in all duties , or other wayes threatneth wrath . And if any shall deny this of faith viz. that it belongeth to the Law , they must say , that there is no Law for it , & consequently that not to beleeve is no sin , for the Apostle addeth , where no Law is , there is no transgression . 14. The ground of the free promise is that which must be Imputed , and laid hold on by Faith : But that cannot be Faith properly taken , as our act ; for then the promise should not be of grace , as it is expresly said to be vers . 16. nor should it be sure , if it depended upon our faith , & not upon that , which faith laith hold on . These things , beside what was mentioned before from this same Chapter vers . 6 , 7 , 8 , 23 , 24. may satisfie us , in this matter , and sufficiently evince , that it is not the Apostles meaning , that Faith , properly taken , as our act , or our act of Beleeving , is imputed unto Righteousness ; but that the Object of Faith or the Righteousness of Christ laid hold on , and applied by Faith is that Righteousness which is reckoned upon the beleevers score . Let us now , in the next place , see what the Adversaries say , to make us beleeve , that Paul saith Rom. 4. That our very act of Beleeving is imputed to us for Righteousness : & that thus the Apostle must be understood , & not as meaning the object of faith or the righteousness of Christ. The forecited Author Iohn Goodwin of Iustifie . Part. 1 . Ch. 2. adduceth some grounds for his glosse , which must be examined . His first ground is the letter of the Scripture , that speaks it once & twice yea a third & a fourth time vers . 3 , 9 , 22 , 23 , 24. Certanely , saith he , there is not any truth in Religion , not any article of ●he Christian beleefe , that can boast of the letter of the Scripture , more full , expresse , & pregnant for it . Ans. We finde it only twice said , in express termes , that faith is counted for Righteousness vers . 5. and againe vers . 9. that faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness . It is then too widely spoken , when he saith , that there is not any truth in Religion , nor any article of the Christian Faith , that can boast of more full , expresse & pregnant letter of Scripture ; yea even , though it were as oft & as expresse as he allegeth : but we must let many such confidente expressions passe with him . ( 2 ) The question is not touching the letter , or the words ; but the true meaning : & if a truth be but once delivered , in the Scriptures , it is sufficient to command our faith ; but words never so oft repeated , when corruptly glossed , yeeld no foundation to faith . We know , what Papists say , of these words , This is my body , which with them is as full , expresse and pregnant a proof of their dream ; as this passage of Paul's is of our Adversaries fancies . And we know what Arrians say of these words My Father is greater than I : And yet their false glosses cannot be embraced for truthes , let them boast of expresse Scriptures , never so much . And what errour I pray , or heresie is it , that doth not pretend to the like ? Let us see his next ground . 2. Saith he . The scope of the place rejoiceth in the Interpretation given . I grant indeed , that this is a good rule or interpreting of Scriptures ; for it is as a sure threed to lead us through many labyrinths : But , which is the miserie , many imagine that to be the scope of the place , which is not so indeed ; & thus perv●rting or mistaking the scope , they must needs pervert all . Yet let us see , how he would make the scope contribute to his Notions . The Apostles maine drift ( saith he ) was to hedge up with thornes that false way of Iustification , which lay through works & legal performances ; & with all to open and discover the true way of justification , that is , to make known what they must do , & what God requireth of them to their justification ; & that is ( as Ioh. 6 : 28 , 29. ) faith or to beleeve in the proper & formal signification , & not the righteousness of Christ , this he required of Christ himself , he requireth our faith in Christ himself , & nos in his righteousness . Ans. Paul's scope is indeed to hedge up all Justification by the Law , or by the works thereof , in subordination to this other , of shewing , that in the Gospel , the Righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith Rom. 1 : 17. And therefore he cannot speak , for the Imputation of Faith , in its proper & formal signification ; for that is a work , commanded by the Law of God ; & the Imputation thereof is expresly alledged by our adversaries , to shoot out the Righteousness of God , which is revealed from faith to faith . ( 2 ) To say , that the Apostle here only requireth faith in Christ , and not faith in his Righteousness , in order to Justification ; is either to divide Christ & his Righteousness , or to give us an Historical Faith , in stead of justifying Faith ; that is such a faith in Christ as is the faith of any other truth revealed in the Scriptures , such as the creation of the world : And this is indeed to make a fundamental Alteration , in the Gospel Covenant & to destroy the true Nature of Justifying faith . ( 3 ) It is true , the Apostle is withall shewing what we must do , in order to our Justification ; but this no way impeacheth the interest of Christ's Righteousness , as the formal ground of the Justification of the ungodly ; but rather establisheth it : for he sheweth , that we are not now Justified by our doing , or working , but by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us , & received by Faith. ( 4 ) Though God doth not require of us the performance of the Righteousness of Christ ; yet he requireth of is , that we lay hold thereupon , and be covered therewith by faith , that under that rob , we may appear before our judge ; for to this end , is Christ made of God unto us Righteousness , and is become the Lord our Righteousness , 1. Cor. 1 : 30. Ier. 23 : 6. And he requireth of us , that we renunce all our own Righteousness , in this affaire , & acknowledge the Righteousness of Christ the only Righteousness , upon which we are to be justified , and therefore he willeth us to say that in the Lord have we Righteousness . Esai . 45 : 24. He is pleased to add Therefore for Paul to have said , that the righteousness of Christ should be imputed unto them , had been quite beside his scope . Why so ? His telling them what was required of themselves , maketh nothing against this , but doth rather confirme it ; for when faith is pressed upon us , it is clearly supposed , that the Righteousness of Christ is Imputed , this being the peculiar work of faith , as justifying , to bring in & put on Christ's Righteousness : and so , where our Redemption or Justification by Christ is mentioned , faith ( though it be not expresly mentioned ) is to be understood , as the Mean or Instrument , whereby the same is applied to us ; as also the Redemption & Righteousness of Christ is to be understood , where Justification by faith is only expressed : And as sometimes we finde both expresly mentioned ; so both are most emphatically comprehended and included , in that expression , now under consideration . Such a glorious & firme connexion is betwixt all these Causes of our Justification , & such a beautiful harmonie of grace , that as they cannot be separated , so the deforming , misplaceing or any way altering of any one piece thereof , destroyeth the harmonie , & darkeneth the beauty of the whole . In the third place he argueth against faiths being here taken Tropically or Metonymically & to this end adduceth these confiderations 1. It is not likely that the Apostle , in this great & weighty point , should time after time , in one place after another , without ever explaining himself , through out the whole disputation use such an harsh & uncouth expression , or figure of speach , as is not to be found in all his writting beside , nor in all the Scriptures . Ans. Figurative expressions are neither harsh in themselves , being rather emphatically explicative , and more forcible upon the understanding , as to the uptaking of these mysteries ; nor are they strange & uncouth to the Apostle , even in this matter , as might be abundantly evinced , almost as to every expression , used in this matter , or at least , as to such expressions as are about the maine parts thereof : Let any read Paul's writtings on this subject , here , & his Epistle to the Gallatians & he shall finde this true , almost in every Chapter . But it should satisfie us , that the Holy Ghost hath thought fit , to expresse the matter thus ; & that to prevent mistakes , he hath given both here & elsewhere , abundance of clear , plaine , and down right expressions , for a supply , as hath been shown above , so as none may mistake , but such as will wilfully step aside to follow their own wayes : And it is not faire for such , to object this , who , of all others , make the Scriptures to speak most figurativly & trop●cally , when they have a minde to evade the dint of our arguments from Scripture ; of which very many instances might be adduced . It cannot but seem strange to any , who hath read the Scriptures with attention , to hear one with such confidence saying , that the naming of the act for the object is such an harsh & uncouth expression & figure of speach , as is not to be found in all the Scriptures againe ; when the same man hereafter cannot but , confess that Hop is oft put for the thing hoped for , and is manifest from Rom. 8 : 24. Col. 1 : 5 , 27. & else where & also faith put for Christ Gal. 3 : 23. twice , 25. once . This putting the object for the act is a known and common Hebraisme . His 2. consideration is this : It is evident ( said he ) that that faith , or beleeving , which vers . 3. is said to be imputed to Abraham for righteousness , is opposed to works or working vers . 5. Now between faith properly taken & works , and so between beleeving & working , there is a constant opposition : but between the active obedience of Christ & works , there is no opposition . Ans. It is most true , that in the matter of justification , beleeving is opposed to working , & that constantly ; and therefore he is concerned to look to it , who will have us considering Faith here only in such a way , as it cannot be opposed to , but every way agree with works , as one of them . ( 2 ) The opposition betwixt our Righteousness , consisting in works which we do , & the Surety-Righteousness of Christ , consisting , not in his Obedience Active only , ( as he mistakingly supposeth all alongs ) but in both active & passive Obedience , whereby he gave full satisfaction to the Law , in all its demands , is so Palpable , that it cannot be well dissembled , far less denied . His 3. Consideration is , that it is said vers . 5. His faith is imputed to him , where it is evident , that that faith ( whatsoever we understand by it ) which is imputed for Righteousness is His , that is , some what that truely & properly may be called his , before such imputation be made unto him . Now it cannot be said of the Righteousness of Christ , that that is any mans , before the imputation of it be made unto him : But faith properly taken is the beleevers , before it be imputed , at least in order of nature , if not of time . Ans. The words vers . 5. are , His faith is counted for , or unto Righteousness . And so whatever be understood by faith it may in some respect , at least , in order of nature , be his , before it be counted for or unto Righteousness , or reckoned upon his score ; Yea it must so be , that it may rightly be reckoned on his score : And this is clear of the Righteousness of Christ , which becometh the beleevers by faith , and is given to him , & bestowed upon him , & so made his , by vertue of his union with Christ through faith : His mistake lyeth here , that he taketh these words counted for Righteousness , to be every way the same , with imputing to or bestowing upon a person ; while as the formal difference is manifest , though the one includeth the other , & Accounting unto Righteousness doth in this matter , presuppose the Imputation or bestowing of that , which is counted to such an end . Further , why may not his faith , denote the object of his faith , as our hope , or our love may denote the object of our hope & love ? And whence then shall there any necessitie arise to say , that that object shall be truely & properly called his before the Imputation of it be made unto him , taking this Imputation for bestowing , as he seemeth here to do ? but if Imputation be taken for counting on their score it presupposeth their interest in the same , prior in order of nature , ( as is said ) & that most manifestly . In the fourth place he saith . Though we should grant a trope in this place , & by faith , its object should be meaned : Yet it will not follow , that the Righteousness of Christ , should be here said to be imputed , but either God himself , or the promise of God , for it was God be beleeved vers . 3. Ans. In that promise made to Abraham , & which he beleeved , the summe of the Gospel was comprehended , as Paul himself teacheth us Gal. 3 : 8. And this promise was a bundle of promises , and therefore is called promises , in the plural number Gal. 3 : 16 , 21. and was the Covenant confirmed of God in Christ vers . 17. & the Inheritance vers . 18. & life vers . 21. which cannot be had without a Righteousness Ibid. even the Righteousness of Faith that was to come , to wit of Christ vers . 22 , 23 , 24. who is the only mediator vers . 20. and is there expresly called Christ & was to be revealed . Hence they , that have beleeved in Christ Jesus & are baptized into Christ , and have put on Christ , and are in Christ , & are Christ's , are Abraham's seed & heirs according to the promise vers , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29. And if such be Abraham's seed , Abraham must have been such himself ; that Father & Children may be of one Complexion ; for the promise , that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham , or to his seed , through the Law , but through the Righteousness of faith . Rom. 4 : 13. that is , through the Righteousness of Christ the object of faith , & who is expresly called Faith Gal. 3 : 23 , 25. And it is added Rom. 4 : 14. for if they , which are of the Law , be heirs , faith is made void , and the promise made of none effect : Faith , that may be , Christ , the object of faith , is made void , & all the actings of faith upon him are vaine & of none effect , conforme to what the same Apostle saith Gal. 2 : 21. If Righteousness come by the Law , then Christ is dead in vaine . And as this Faith is made void , so the promises of this Faith , that was to come , are of no effect . Therefore the object of Abraham's Faith was Christ , the promised Messiah & that Faith that was to come , and the Righteousness of that Faith. He reckoneth up , in the following words , to very little purpose , the several objects of faith from Ioh , 3 : 16. & 5 : 46. & 20 : 31. & 8 : 24. Rom. 10 : 9. 1. Pet. 1 : 21. Ioh. 12 : 44. 1. Ioh. 5 : 10. And supposeth , that no where Christ's Righteousness is mentioned as the Object . But where ever Faith , or its Object is mentioned , in the matter of justification , Christ's Righteousness is never excluded , more then himself , for as himself was the Cautioner , so his Righteousness was fide-jussry ; & faith acting upon one must necessarily act on both , these being inseparable ; beside , that elsewhere this is expresly enough mentioned . Yet he granteth , that it is of nearer concernment to the maine , to beleev this righteousness of Christ than the beleeving of many other things besides , comprehended in the Scriptures . But why , I pray , if this belong not to the object of justifying faith ? He not only will have us beleeve , that Christ's Righteousness is not reckoned amongst the objects of faith , as justifying ; but he will also give a reason , why it is no● so reckoned ; to wit , because , though it ought to be & cannot but be beleeved by that faith , which justifieth , yet it may be beleeved also by such a faith , which is so far from justifying , that it denyeth this Christ to be the Son of God. Thus some jewes gave testimony to his innocency , who yet received him not for their Messiah , not beleeved him to be God ; & this is the frame of the Turkish faith , for the most part , concerning him , at this day . Ans. It is one thing to beleeve a Righteousness , but it is another thing to beleeve in it , & rest upon it . The innocency of Christ as man , before men is one thing , but his compleet Surety Righteousness as one that was both God & man , is another thing . Now Justifying faith looketh to , & resteth upon his whole Surety-Righteousness & looketh upon him , as God-Man ; Therefore it cannot be thus beleeved ( which is the only right way of beleeving it ) but only by such , as leane to this Righteousness , as the Righteousness of the promised Messiah , & Mediator , God-Man , as Abraham did , and as all his children do : and this is the only Faith , that is Justifying & Saving . It seemeth by this expression , that there is no more to be regairded in Christ's Righteousness , but the meer innocency of a man. Fiftly he tels us . That faith , which is here said to be imputed vers . 3. is that faith , by which be beleeved in God , that quickeneth the dead &c. vers . 17. But the Righteousness of Christ can in no tolerable construction be called that Faith. Ans. That the Proposition is false , appeareth sufficiently from what is said : And these words vers . 17. shew , how firmly & fixedly Abraham received , and rested on the promise , and thing promised : but it is not said , that that was imputed to him for his Righteousness ; but that which was imputed was the Righteousness of the Faith , that was to come , whereon he beleeved and rested . Sixtly & Sevently he saith , that the faith , that was imputed unto Abraham was that , wherein he was said not to be weak vers . 19 & is opposed to doubting vers . 20. & by which he was fully assured , that he who had promised , was able to do it vers . 21. Ans. This is like wayes denied : for the thing that was imputed , was not that act of Faith , but the Righteousness of the Messiah , whom he undoubtedly expected to come out of his loines , as Man , & that even when he had no appearance of an issue : for it is this Righseousness which is the Righteousness of Faith , and is distinct from the act of Beleeving ; for it is said , that it shall be imputed to us , if we beleeve ; which expression could be no way satisfying , if nothing were meaned to be imputed here , but our Beleeving ; for then the sense would be this , we shall be reputed beleevers , if we be beleevers . Eightly he saith . That which shall be imputed unto us for Righteousness , is said to be our beleeving on him , that raised up the Lord Iesus vers . 24. Ans. This is sick of the same disease with the foregoing : nothing like that is here said , but rather we may see , that some distinct thing is promised to be imputed to us , if we beleeve on him , that raised up Christ from the deed , which clearly saith , that the Imputation of something to us for Righteousness is promised , when we beleeve : & shall any man then think , that Beleeving it self is the thing , which is to be imputed ? Lastly he tels us , ( which is but what we heard before , & is shortly this ) That a tropical & metonymical interpretation , turneth Paul's perspicuity into greater obscurity , than any light of the Scripture knoweth well how to re●●eve . Ans. Whatever darkness he conceive herein , Yet others see in these tropical expressions a greater beauty of illustration , & a greater emphasis of strength & signification , than all his Rhetorick is able to darken . The Apostle , not only here , but almost every where , while speaking of this subject , followeth this same manner of expression , Especially Gal. 3. Nor do we say , that the word Faith is here taken simply for Christ's Righteousness ; but for Christ's Righteousness laid hold on & applied by Faith ; so that what is in one place called the Righteousness of Christ , is in another place called the Righteousness of Faith , & the Righteousness , which is by Faith & through faith : as Christ is called our hope , not simply , but as our hope acteth upon him , as the real & true object thereof . He cannot deny , but Faith is sometimes taken for its object , even for Christ ; yet he saith . 1. That though the faculty be sometimes put for the object , yet the act seldome , or never . The act or exercise of the grace of hope is never put for the things hoped for , but hope it self is sometimes found in that signification as Col. 1 : 5. Tit. 2 : 13. N●w that which is here said to be imputed unto Abraham , was not the habit or grace of Faith , but the act . Ans. Neither habit , nor grace , nor act of Faith is here said to be imputed , but the object , which the act may also denote , as well as the habite . And if he limite & restrick this to any particular act , he must say , that Abraham was not ●ustified before ●his time & that after this act was past , it could not be said , that his Faith was imputed to him for Righteousness , But 2. he saith . That though it were granted , that as well the act it self , as the faculty or habit may be sometimes put for the object , yet when the act & object have been named together , & the act expressed by an object proper to it , & further something immediatly ascribed to this act , under that consideration ( all which is plainly seen in this clause , Abraham beleeved God , & it was imputed to him for Righteousness ) in this case to conceive & affirme , that what is ascribed , is neither ascribed unto the act it self , there mentioned , nor unto the object mentioned , but unto a third thing , not once mentioned in the text , is to turn our back upon the text . Ans. Do we not see Tit. 2 : 13. where it is said , looking for that blessed hope & glorious appearing of the great God , & our Saviour Iesus Christ , that Christ is denominated by the act or habite of hope , and called our hope , and that here both act & object are named together , to wit , looking , looking for our Saviour Jesus Christ ? It is true , there is nothing here immediatly ascribed to this act ; but not withstanding thereof , we see Christ the object of hope , denominated by the act or habite of hope . And whereas it is said that this third thing , the Righteousness of Christ , is not once mentioned , it may suffice , that it is sufficiently included , & clearly enough expressed , when mention is made of Righteousness , & of the Righteousness of faith , & of Righteousness imputed . ( 2 ) It is also to be considered , that in that clause , Abraham beleeved God , & it was counted to him for Righteousness , it is not said , that Faith , or his Beleeving was counted to him for Righteousness , but that it was counted &c. and that is not his Faith , but the marrow of the Gospel , which God at that time preached unto him , and so there is nothing in this clause , immediatly ascribed to this act but a third thing is understood . Lastly , he saith , The righteousness of Christ is not the object of faith , as justifying ; only the Scriptures propose his Righ●eousness , or obedience to the Law , as that , which is to be beleeved ; & so it may be termed a partial object , as is the creation of the world , & that Cain was Adam's son . But the object of faith as justifying properly is either Christ himself , or the promise of God concerning the Redemption of the world by him . Ans. ( 1 ) Hereby we see , that in stead of a justifying faith , he giveth us a meer historical faith : and indeed such as deny the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , must of necessity substitute a new sort of faith , in room of that , which we owne for the only Justifying faith . But though justifying faith containe in it that historical faith , & presuppose it ; yet it includeth more , & hath other peculiar actings of soul upon and towards Christ , & his Righteousness ( which here we cannot separate , far less oppose to other , as our Adversary doth ) in reference to the mans liberation from the sentence of the Law , & the Curse due to him for the breach thereof , now charged home upon him by the Lord , & an awakened conscience : ( 2 ) By Christ's Righteousness we do not understand his simple innocency , or freedom from the transgression of the Law ; but his whole Mediatory work , in his state of humiliation , as satisfying the offended Law-giver , & answering all the demands of the Law , both as to doing & suffering , which debt we were lying under . ( 3 ) Justifying Faith eyeth him thus , runneth to him & accepteth of him , as he is thus set forth by God to be a Propitiation , through Faith in his blood Rom. 3 : 25. and as making Reconciliation , for faith receiveth the atonement Rom. 5 : 11. and it receiveth abundance of grace , & of the gift of Righteousness vers . 17. Justifying faith must receive him , as the Lord our Righteousness ; & as made of God to us Righteousness . Therefore is this Righteousness of God called also the Righteousness of Faith , or the Righteousness of God , which is by faith of Iesus Christ , unto all , and upon all them that beleeve . Rom. 3 : 22. A Righteousness , which is through the Faith of Christ , or the Righteousness , which is of God by Faith. Phil. 3 : 9. Thus have we examined all , that this Man hath brought by way of Reason ( for as for Authorities on the one hand , or other , I purposely wave them in this whole discourse ) to prove , that Faith properly taken is imputed for Righteousness & that the tropical sense , commonly received by the orthodox ( which we have also chosen to follow , notwithstanding that there is another sense given of the words by some , to evite in part this tropical sense , and by which the Adversaries against whom we here deal , can receive no advantage ) is to be utterly laid aside & rejected ; & in answering him , we have answered others also , who do but-urge the same things . Yet if any should enquire . If the Apostle doth not meane , that faith properly taken is our Righteonsness , & is imputed to us & accounted our Righteousness , why would he say so plainly , that Faith is imputed , or counted for Righteousness . I Answere . The expressions , which the Holy Ghost hath used , should satisfie us , though we should know no reason beside his good pleasure , why he did express the matter so : It is our part , to search into his meaning , according unto the surest rules of finding out the sense of the Scriptures , among which this is to be reckoned as a ●●ite one , not to be rejected , viz. to attend the scope , with the connexion & cohesion of the words as they lye , & contribute unto that scope , together with the common plaine & frequently reiterated expressions & assertions of the Spirit of God , in other places , where the same matter is treated of : for to the end , that we may be exercised , in the study of the Scriptures , & in comparing Scripture with Scripture for finding out the mind of the Lord , hath he thought good to express the same matter in diverse places , & in various wayes , & in some places more plainly , what in other places appeareth more obscure . And it cannot be judged a saife way of interpreting Scripture , to fix upon one expression & give it a sense , or take it in such a sense , as tendeth manifestly to darken the whole doctrine of the Spirit of the Lord , concerning that truth , and to crosse the scope , to mat the connexion , and to contradict multitudes of other passages of Scripture . It is not unusual for the Apostle to use several expressions , in a figurative sense . How oft is the word Law taken for obedience to the Law ? What sense could be made of Gal. 3 : 25. if the word Faith should be there taken properly , & not for its object ? as also vers 2 , & 5. of that same Chapter . And what sense shall we put upon these expressions . They which are of faith Gal. 3 : 7 , 9. & as many as are of the works of the Law vers . 10. & upon many such like , if all these words must be taken properly ? Nay , how little of this whole matter of Justification is expressed to us , without Trops & figures ? which yet do not darken , but give a more special & divine lustre unto the Truthes , so expressed . How oft is the word Hop put for its object , for the thing hoped for ? And though this might satisfie us herein ; yet further , if I might adventure to give a reason of this manner of expression here , ot rather to pointe forth what this expression should signifie & hold forth to us , I would say , That Paul is not handling this Controversie about Justification , in a meer speculative manner ; & therefore doth not use such Philosophical & Metaphysical Notions & expressions there about , as some now think so necessary , that without the same they judge themselves not in case to explaine the matter to the capacity of the meanest , which would rather have darkened , then explained the matter to the ordinary capacity of Christians , as I judge the way , that some of latetake , in explicating this matter , contributeth much more to the darkning of the same : at least to me : But the Apostle is handling this matter in a practical manner ; so as both such he wrote unto , & the Church of Christ to the end of the world , might so understand this necessary & fundamental truth , as to put the same in practice : And therefore doth say , that Faith is imputed unto Righteousness , to shew , that it is not the Righteousness of Christ , conceived in our heads , that will save & justifie us ; but his Righteousness laid hold on , brought home & applied by Faith : that so all might see & be convinced of the necessity of faith , whereby the soul goeth out to Christ , layeth to his Righteousness , and might not satisfie themselves with a Notion of Christ & his Righteousness , never applied by Faith ; but be enduced to lay hold on him by Faith , to the end they might have an interest in Christ's Righteousness , the same being , upon their faith , bestowed upon them , and reckoned upon their score . The expression is most emphatick to hold forth , the necessity now of faith , according to the Lord 's Soveraigne appointment , as if thereby Christ's Righteousness & their faith were become one thing , as being wholly inseparable in this affaire , so that it cometh to one , whether by faith , we understand the Grace as acting upon & connoting the Object , or the Object , as acted upon by the Grace of Faith as in that expression , the Righteousness of faith Rom. 4 : 13. Faith may either be interpreted to be Christ , as said hold on by faith , & so the meaning will be through the Righteousness of Christ , laid hold on by Faith , & faith may be the same way explained in the following vers . 14. & 16. for if they which are of the Law , be heirs , faith is made void , i. e. if the grand heritage come by the Law & by obedience to it , the Gospel , holding forth Christ to be laid hold on by faith , is made void , as to this end : and againe vers . 16. therefore it is of faith , that it might be by grace i. e. it is of & by Christ , laid hold upon by Faith , that it might be by grace . Or faith in all these may be interpreted to be faith as acting upon the object , Christ & his Righteousness ; & the consequence & force of the words will be found to be the same , whether of these wayes we explaine the matter . As , when speaking of the Israelits stung in the wilderness , it were all one to say , they were healed by the brazen serpent , to wit , looked to ; or they were healed by their look , to wit , upon the brazen serpent , for still it will be understood , that all the vertue came from the brazen serpent ( or him rather , that was typified thereby ) yet so as it was to be looked upon ; & that their looking was but an Instrumental mean thereunto , and when a mean thereunto must include the object looked unto . We hear it sometimes said of persons miraculously cured , that their Faith made them whole , while as the vertue came from the object acted upon by faith , as Peter fully explaineth the matter saying Act. 3 : 16. And his name , through faith in his name , hath made this man strong . Thus we see , how this matter may be saifly & must be understood , when the vertue and efficacy of the Principal cause is attributed to the Instrumental cause : And yet , lest any should stumble at the expression , & pervert it , as many do , to day , the Apostle abundantly Caveats against this by telling us so plainely & so fully & so frequently , of the Righteousness of God , which is had by faith , & through faith , as we have seen ; & never speaketh of a Righteousness had , because of faith , or for Faith ; nor saith he , that faith is our Righteousness , while treating of Justification . CHAP. XXV . Faith is not our Gospel-Righteousness . OUr Adversaries , to strengthen their Assertion of the Imputation of Faith , in a proper sense , to the exclusion of the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , have other two Positions , which they own & maintaine . One is , that our Faith or our act of beleeving is the whole of our Gospel-Righteousness : And the other is . That Christ hath procured that it should be so , by procuring the New Covenant , whereof this faith is made the Condition . To this last we shall speak something , in the next Chapter ; & of the other here . How much Mr. Baxter doth contend , for our Faith 's being called & accounted our Gospel-Righteousness , is known . The forenamed Author of the discourse of the two Covenants is very plaine pag. 48 , &c. where he is explaining , what God's counting Abraham's faith to him for Righteousness is . There he tels us , that he takes it to signifie thus much , to wit. That God , in a may of special grace , or by vertue of a new Law of grace & favour , which was established by God , in Christ ( Gal. 3 : 17. ) that is , in reference to what Christ was to do & suffer , in time then to come , did reckon his practical faith to him for Righteousness , that is , that which in the eye of that new Law , should passe in his estimation for righteousness , subordinat to Christ's Righteousness , which procured this grant or Law. And thereafter pag. 40. he tels us , That it is an act of God's special favour , & by vertue of his new Law of grace , that such a faith , as he hath described ( that is , a faith taking in all Gospel Obedience , as we saw above ) comes to be reckoned or imputed to a man for Righteousness ; & through God's imputing it for righteousness , to stand a man in the same , if not in a better stead , as to his eternal concerns , as a perfect fulfilling of the original Law from first to last would have done . Christ's Righteousness being presupposed the only Meritorious Cause of this grant or Covenant . Thereafter pag. 50. he tels us , there are two things , which constitute & make up the Righteousness of the Law of Grace , first , that which consisteth in the forgiveness of sins & 2. the righteousness of sincere obedience : And in inference to both , he saith , faith is imputed for righteousness be vertue of the Law of Grace ; for , saith he , faith as practical is imputed to a man for righteousness , as it is that & all that , which is required of him himself by the Law of Grace , to entitle him to the righteousness , which consisteth in remission of sins . And then as to the second he saith pag. 52. That faith is imputed for righteousness , which is practical or productive of sincere obedience , without which proper●y it is not a fulfilling of the Law of Grace , as a condition of the promised benefites , & consequently cannot justifie a man , in the eye of that Law : for , as he addeth , there must be repentance , & forgiving men their injuries , & faith must be such as worketh by love , & then he tels us , that Abraham was justified by his works . Jam. 2. All which abomination of doctrine , & perversion of the right wayes of the Lord , we are not here to examine : It is enough , in reference to the clearing of what is now before us & under consideration ; that we see here a plaine d●lmeation & explication made of that Gospel , which Mr. Baxter said , this Treatise would lead us into the knowledge of : & which is the very same , upon the matter , with that Gospel , which Socinians & Arminians hold forth , joyning herein with Papists , as we saw in part above Chap. XVIII . towards the beginning , & we shall at this occasion trouble the Reader with some more of their expressions , that we may see , that the doctrine , which is now so much cried up , & followed after , is nothing but old Socinianisme & so , owned & professed by such , as do not deserve to be called Christians , Socin . de Servat . lib. 4. c. 4 , 7 , 11. God justifieth the ungodly , but now converted , penitent , & after he hath left off to be ungodly : the justified are not ungodly in themselves , neither are they so called , yea they are not sinners ; & which is more , they do not now sinne . And so faith & works , that is , obedience to the commands of Christ , as the forme of faith , doth justifie us before God , & by them through them ( per illa , ex illis ) he justifieth us . Smalcius disp . 4. c. Frantzium . Regeneration , all other good works , Love , Prayer , Obedience , Faith , Charity &c. are so far from being effects of justification , that without them justification can no way really exist , for God justifieth no man , but him , who is compleetly adorned with all these vertues ● yea the study of good works & walkeing before God were the cause ( though not the chiefe ) of the justification of Noah , Abraham & others , who are said to be justified by faith . Socin . ubi supra de Serv. lib. 1. c. 4. Faith doth not justifie by its proper vertue , but by the mercy & go●d will of God , who justifieth such , as do such a work , & imputeth it for righteousness . With Paul , to have righteousness imputed is nothing else , but to have faith imputed , & to be accounted just , faith is so imputed to us , as that because of faith , we , howbeit guilty of many unrighteousness , are esteemed perfectly righteous , or God so dealeth with us , as if we were perfectly righteous who can doubt , that the Apostle meaneth no other thing than that we are not righteous before God , because our works require that , as a due reward , but because it hath so seemed good to the Lord , to take our faith in place of righteousness ; so that we receive the reward of grace , by which we are declared righteous before him . More might be adduced for this end , as it might be shown also , how herein the Arminians conspire with them against the orthodox . And as for the judgment of Papists , in this point , it is likewise known . It will not be necessary that we insist , in disproving that , which hath been so much witnessed against by the orthodox writting against Papists , Socinians , & Arminians , upon these heads : It will suffice , I suppose , if we give a few reasons , why we cannot acquiesce in the doctrine , proposed by the forenamed Author . 1. Hereby works of obedience are exalted to the same place , & are allowed the same Force , Influence & Efficacy into Justification , with Faith , whereby all the Apostles disputes for Faith & against Works , & for faith as inconsistent with & exclusive of works , are evacuated & rendered useless ; So that the Apostle hath either not spoken to the purpose , or hath not spoken truth : either of which to say is blasphemie . The Apostle argueth thus , we are Justified by faith ; therefore we are not Justified by works . This man reasoneth on the contrary , we are justified by faith , therefore we are justified by works ; because by a faith that includeth works ; as if the Apostle had meaned a Faith that was dead , & had no affinity with works . 2. Hereby he confoundeth all these duties , which are required of Beleevers , or of such , as are in Covenant with God , with that which is solely required of them in order to their first entering in Covenant , or into a state of Justification : as ● one should say , that all the marriag-duties , required of such as were already in that marriage state , were conditions of entering into the marriag-state . 3. Hereby he confoundeth Justification , with Glorification , making all that Faith & sincere obedience , which is required in order to actual Salvation & Glorification , to be necessary before Justification : And thereby must say , that no man hath his sins pardoned , so long as he liveth ; but if he be sincerely obedient , he is in the way to a Pardon , & to Justification . He cannot say , that by a practical Faith , he only meaneth such a true and lively Faith , as will in due time produce these effects : for , as that will not consist with his explication of that practical Faith , so it would crosse his whole designe . The just man in the eye of this new Law , ( as he saith p. 49. ) is every one that rightly beleeves , repents & sincerely obeyes , because that is all that it requires of a man himself to his Iustification & Salvation . Where we see , that with him , Justification & Salvation go together , & have the same conditions , and he that is just must be one , that hath these Conditions ; and he who hath not these Conditions is not just in the eye of that new Law ; and if he be not just in the eye of that new Law , his faith cannot be accounted to him for Righteousness , nor he Justified . 4. The man hereby confoundeth the two Covenants , or giveth us a new Covenant of Works , in stead of the Covenant of Grace ; for this practical Faith , which includeth all obedience , hath the same place , force & efficacy in the new Covenant , that compleet Obedience had in the old . And this Gospel is but the old Law of works , only with this change , that where as the old Law required Perfect Obedience to the end , in order to Justification & Salvation ; this new Covenant of works requireth Sincere Obedience to the end , in order to Justification & Salvation : And so thus we are Justified & saved as really by & upon the account of our works , as Adam would have been , if he had continued in obedience to the end ; & this Faith and sincere Obedience is as really , & , to all ends & purposes , as effectually and formally our Righteousness , as Perfect Obedience would have been the Righteousness of Adam : And thus the reward must as really be reckoned to us of debt , & not of grace , as it would have been to Adam , if he had stood : And as faire a ground is laid for us to boast & glory , though not before God , as had been for Adam , if he had continned to the end . The evasion he hath to make all this of grace , saying p. 49 , 50. And yet every beleevers justification will be all of grace , because the Law by which they are justified is wholly of grace , & was ena●ed in meer grace & favour to undone man , is not able to help him ; for it was wholly of undeserved grace & love , that God did so far condescend to Adam , & to all mankinde in him , as to strick a Covenant with him , a promise of such an ample reward upon his performance of the condition of Perfect Obedience to the end ; & yet , notwithstanding this Law was wholly of grace & was enacted in meer grace & favoure : for neither was the Lord necessitated thereunto ; nor could Adam say , he had deserved any such thing at God's hand , the reward had been reckoned to Adam , if he had stood , of debt , not simplie and absolutly , but ex pacto ; by reason of the compact : So that we see , the cases run parallel & the Covenant is of the same nature & kinde . The difference betwixt the Power granted to Adam , & now to man , to performe the conditions required , is with him , the same upon the matter ; for if man will go the length he can & may , he may be sure of God's help to convoy him all the length he should ; And what had Adam more ? And as for the diversitie of the conditions , which then were Perfect Obedience , & now only Sincere , that can make no alteration in the Nature of the Covenant : and beside , I see not , why this Man can not as well say that if man now will go as far , as he may & can , by his own stock of power , unto the performance of Perfect Obedience , God will certainly give him his help to carry him forward ; as he saith , that if man will now go all the length he can unto the performance of Faith , Repentance , & new sincere obedience , God is ready & willing to contribute his help to carry him forward thereunto . 5. He confoundeth the right to , with the possession of life eternal , as to their Causes & Antecedents ; for as new & holy Obedience is by us made the way to the possession of the Kingdom : so by him it is made the way or cause of the Right jus to the Kingdom ; for he requireth it as antecedent to a mans Justification & first being brought into a Covenant state with God , when he first receiveth the Right to the inheritance ; And thus the Inheritance is made to be of the Law , & not of promise , contrare to Gal. 3 : 18 , for the whole and sure Right thereunto is had by Obedience to the Law , with him . I shall say no more to this here , because there is a sufficient confutation of this to be found in Mr. Durham on the Revel . pag. 234. &c. where that digression is handled , concerning the way of Covenanting with God , & of a sinner obtaining of Iustification before him . And in all such as write against Papists and Sociniant , on this head . But if it be asked , may not faith be called our Gospel-Righteousness , & be said to be imputed to beleevers , as such a Righteousness , without any wrong done to the Righteousness of Christ , which keepeth still its own place of being our legal or pro legal Righteousness ? I Ans. Though it be true , that Faith is now required of all that would be Justified ; yet I no where finde , that it is called our Gospel Righteousness ; and I judge it not saife to admit expressions , without warrand of the word , in this tender matter ; especially such expressions , as have a manifest tendency to corrupt , rather then explicate the truth , in this particular ; as , I judge , will be found true of this expression ; for how beit it be said by the Asserters thereof , that Faith , is but a less principal & Subordinat Righteousness ; Yet in effect , according to their explication of the whole doctrine ( as may be seen by this Treatise last mentioned & answered ) it is made the Principal & only Righteousness , that is imputed to us : for Christ's Righteousness , say they , is only imputed , as to is effects , or in its causality . See Baxter against D. Tully p. 70. ( just as Suarez said de divin . gr . lib. 7. de sanct . hom . c. 7. § . 39. cited by Mr. Rutherfoord Exercie . Apel. Exerc. I. c 2. pag. ( mihi ) 64. the merites of Christ are not given to us , that we might be formally justified , but that they may be a price wherewith we may buy a Righteousness , whereby we may be formally justified ; as he who giveth a price to another , whereby he may buy clothes , is said to clothe him , not foomally , but effectivly , morally , as is manifest : ) And even as to these effets it dependeth wholly upon Faith , and this Faith is only said to be properly imputed for our Righteousness . And beside , they tell us , that the Righteousness of Christ is alike common to all , to the Reprobat as well , as to the Elect , and so it can be imputed properly to none : And as to its effective ●mputation ( as Suarez calleth it ) or Imputation , as to its effects or in its causality ( as others speak ) after that it is offered & held forth to all , & hath the same common effects , unto all , untill the condition be performed , that dependeth wholly upon mans performance of the Condition ; And as to its antecedent effects , it is equally & absolutly imputed to all ; that is , it is imputed to none , but the effects thereof are equally made common to all , in making Salvation possible , & the condition to be faith , and the like : And as to the special effects , ( as they may be called ) which depend on faith , when one beleeveth , & so fulfilleth the Condition , he hath thereby a Gospel-Righteousness , or this Faith of his is reckoned upon his score , for a Gospel-Righteousness , & thereupon he receiveth Pardon , Justification &c. Now let any Judge , whether or not these effects are not more the effects ( at least more immediatly ) of their own Gospel-Righteousness , than of Christ's : for Christ by all his Righteousness did purchase these effects to all a like , & that conditionally ; and now they themselves by their own personal Gospel Righteousness of Faith , do make an actual purchase of these effects , according to the Covenant , ex pacto . And to say , That Christ did by his merites purchase the New Covenant , doth but confirme , what I have now said , towit , That all that , which Christ procured , was , That all such , as should acquire a Gospel-Righteousness of their owne , shonld be justified &c. And thus Christ died to purchase a vertue & merite to our faith , & that to this end , it should become a Gospel-Righteousness , whereby they might have whereof to boast & to glory before men , at least . Hence we see that Christ's Righteousness might rather be called the Subservient & ours the Principal . And further , ( which may justly make Christians ab horre this opinion ) Thus this poor convinced sinner , pursued by justice for a broken Law , is called to leane his whole weight of Acceptance with God , & found all his hope of Pardon & Justification , upon his own Faith , or Gospel Righteousness , as the only Righteousness , wherewith he is to be covered , & the only Righteousness , which is imputed unto him ; & not upon Christ & his Righteousness , for what Christ did or purchased was common to all , & had only a conditional vertue , which the personal Righteousness reduceth into act , & so must have a principal share of the glory ; for as to what Christ did , Iudas had the same ground of thankfulness & praise , that Peter had , & Peter no more then Iudas ; and thus Peter was to sing the song of praise for his Justification & Pardon , unto his own personal Faith & Gospel-Righteousness . If this be not the Native result of this doctrine , let any put it in to practice ( which I shall be loath to advise ) & trye , whether thereby more of their weight is laid on Christ , or on their own faith : And on the other hand , let any serious & exercised Christian be enquired , & see if their practice agree with this doctrine . If it be said , That there is no such hazard , so long as Faith is not considered here as abstracted from its Object Christ , but is considered with a respect thereunto . I Ans. ( 1 ) We have seen , what a poor & general respect faith by some of our Adversaries is said to have to Christ , whereby it is made nothing but a meer historical faith & the Author of the Discourse of the two Covenants , p. 31. saith , that even that faith , that had not the Messias in the promise is imputed for Righteousness . ( 2 ) As for such as confesse that justifying faith hath a special respect to Christ & his Righteousness , we would know , whether it hath this respect , that it peculiarly refugeth the soul there from the storme of wrath , and bringeth in thence Christ's Righteousness , or cartieth the man out to it , that he may lean upon it , & plead the same , as the only ground of his Absolution from the sentence of the Law ? And if this be granted , then it is manifest , that the beleever hath no Righteousness , but Christ's Surety-righteousness , where withall he desireth to appeare before God , & this is it alone , to which he leaneth , & through which alone he hopeth for Pardon & Acceptance , without the least reflecting act of soul upon his own Faith. ( 3 ) But againe if so , faith must stand alone , as acting thus in a peculiar manner on Christ , which no work else is fitted to do ; & therefore Faith & Works must not be joyned together ; nor must Faith be considered , in this affaire , as comprehending all Obedience in it , as we see , they say . ( 4 ) But when Faith is made our Gospel-Righteousness , in whole , or in part , howbeit they say , they consider Faith , as acting on its object Christ ; yet it is manifest , that it is then considered with relation to its object , in a Physical , or metaphysical manner , as all acts ( specified from their objects ) may & must be considered ; but not in a theological sense , as required in the Gospel , to bring-in the Surety Righteousness of Christ , & to leane the soul thereupon , as its only Righteousness : for when it is said to be our whole Gospel Righteousness , it is considered as a moral vert●e , & as an act of Obedience in us , constituting us Righteous in a formal sense , according to the new Law , which is hereby fully & in all points performed & obeyed ; much more , when works are joyned with it , doth it with works put on a far other respect , than to be the hand receiving the Atonement , & the gift of Righteousness . But saith Mr. Baxter against Mr. Cartwright p. 179. In regai●d of that justification , which is from the accusation of the Law of works , I say faith is but a condition & no otherwise justifieth , but because it is made that condition by a New-Law , per legem remediantem , & we must be judged by that Law : therefore , when the case is , whether we have performed the conditions of that new law , or not ? then faith is materially that Righteousness , by which we must be justified , against all accusations of Non-performance . Ans. ( 1 ) I doubt if such as never heard a report of Christ , shall be judged by the New-Law ; far lesse by it alone . ( 2 ) God will not call in question a Beleevers faith , nor accuse him of Non-performance . Nor will the Gospel , or New-Law do it ; so that the Beleever needs not plead his performance ; in reference to a Justification at the tribunal of God. ( 3 ) When Faith is made a Condition by a New-Law , & thereby become the beleevers Righteousness , this Righteousness is the Condition , and is therefore a Righteousness , because made a condition , by that new Law ; yea & elsewhere ibid. pag. 106. this Righteousness is said to be compleet & perfect , as all Righteousness must be : we see , what weight is laid upon it . And when there is no other Righteousness properly imputed to us , ( for as for that Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , which he would yeeld to as the only sound sense , it is but what Iesuites , Socinians , & Arminians yeeld to , & we cannot be satisfied with , ) who seeth not , how this matter is framed so , as all the weight of the soul must be laid upon this personal Righteousness , especially when it is made another Sort of Condition , than we can acknowledge it to be , as shall be seen afterward ; and when it is the immediat ground of our Right to Pardon , Justification , Adoption &c. for Christ's purchase was ( to him ) general & common , and no more for one , than for another , and to all conditionally . If it be said . What hazard is there , so long as Christ's Righteousness is held to be that , which satisfieth for the breach of the Covenant of Works , & is full Satisfaction to justice , and which hath purchased the New-Covenant , and the new easie termes ; our Righteousness , in performing the new easie termes , whereby we come to have Right to life & all the benefites purchased by Christ , is no way prejudicial unto that , nor robbeth not Christ's Satisfaction of the least of the glory due to it . I Ans. The hazard still continueth , for hereby 〈◊〉 Gospel Righteousness , be it Faith alone , or Faith & Works together , is made the immediate & sole ground of our Right to the benefites ; for what Christ did , was general & common , and He , by what he did , made no particular purchase of any good unto any , but procured the New-Covenant , and the new grant of life upon the easie termes , alike unto all : the satisfaction , which he made unto the Law giver for the breach of the old Covenant , was not as a peculiar Cautioner , for any in particular , but was equally for all , & as much for the damned , as for the saved ; So that our Right to the benefites cometh purely & wholly from our performance of the New-Termes , which Christ is said to have purchased . Therefore , though our personal Righteousness hath no interest in purchasing the New Covenant , or in making satisfaction to Justice , unto that end ; yet Justice being now satisfied equally for all , and the New Covenant being purchased alike for all , our personal Righteousness is that , which must bear the glory of our interest in the benefits : & the Obligation , where in we stand to Christ , upon that account , is the same that others are under who reap none of the benefites , which we reape by our New Righteousness . And here it is also manifest , that Faith ( if that should be made the Gospel-Righteousness alone , without works ) in order to the justification of a sinner , is not conceived to act upon Christ , as the Lord our Righteousness , that the soul may put on his Surety-righteousness & thereby answere all challenges of the broken Law : but is conceived as our Work , and as our Performance of the New Conditions , and as such is rested upon , & leaned to ; Whereby man , hath ground of glorying before men , in himself , and not in the Lord alone , for all have alike ground of glorying , upon that account , seing what the Lord did was common to all , and this new personal Righteousness maketh the difference . But it will be said , That Christ's Righteousness , being acknowledged to be our only legal Righteousness , whereby we answere the charge of the Law , the asserting of a Gospel-Righteousness , whereby we come to have an interest in that legal Righteousness , can do no prejudice . I Ans. Beside that this maketh two distinct Righteousness as , & the one a meane to obtean another , the one within us a price ( ex pacto ) for the other without us ; and all this in order to Absolution from one charge of the Law brought in against the sinner : hereby , as to us , our personal Righteousness is really made our legal Righteousness , because it is made that Righteousness , whereupon this man , and not the other that wants it , is freed from the charge of the Law : for , according to this way , Faith is not imployed to lay hold on Christ's Righteousness , that by presenting that Surety-Righteousness unto justice , the soul may escape the charge , but when the charge of violation of the Law of God is brought in against the sinner , his only reliefe is his Gospel-Righteousness , which he presenteth , whereupon he pleadeth for Pardon & Absolution , by vertue of the new Covenant , which Christ hath purchased ; for should he alledge the death & satisfaction of Christ that should give no reliefe , because that was for all alike , & thereby the New Covenant was purchased where in the Gospel Righteousness ( whether Faith alone , or Faith & New Obedience ) was set down , as the Condition ; and therefore it can stand him in no avail ; but he must refuge himself from wrath under the wings of his own Gospel-Righteousness ( for he hath no other ) and thereupon rest secure , & be confident of his Absolution from all that the Law could charge against him . As , for example , if the Princes son should by a valuable price , given to the Prince , procure new Termes and Conditions to be proposed to a company of condemned treatours lying in prison : if any one of these were challenged for the old crime , & threatned with the execution of the sentence past upon that account , it would be of no avail to him , to say , the Princes son hath laid down a valuable price to buy me from death , because he knew , that he did that for all the rest , in purchasing a New Covenant , & new conditions ; but the first & sure course he would take , would be to present his performance of the new conditions , & say , the charge cannot reach me , because I have performed the Conditions of the New Covenant , procured by the Princes son . This I suppose is plaine & cleare , & this in our case , would be found to be the only saife course , that poor challenged sinners would take , if they should act according to the doctrine of our Adversaries , to which , ( as I said ) I should not dar to advise one or other . But really the Gospel-way ( which is opposite to this ) is plaine & saife , if we have but so much humility , as to complye therewith : And a difference may seem small , in the debate , which yet in practice may prove great & of dangerous consequence . CHAP. XXVI . Christ did not procure by his death the New Covenant , or the termes thereof . WE heard what the Author of the discourse of the two Covenants , & what Iohn Goodwine said of this New Covenant . As the foundation of their assertion of the imputation of faith , properly taken , they tell us , that the New Covenant wherein this Righteousness is required , as the condition thereof , is founded wholly in the blood of Christ , so that whatever is required of man by way of condition of his acceptation with God , becomes accepted to that end , upon account of Christ's suffering , Mr. Allen p. 16. & p. 53. 54. saith . Nor doth this , that faith accompanied with obedience is imputed for righteousness , at all derogate from the obedience & sufferings of Christ , in reference to the ends , for which they serve . Because the whole Covenant , & all the parts & termes of it , both promises of benefites , & the Condition on which they are promised , are all founded in Christ his undertaking for us ; and all the benefites of it accrue to us upon our beleeving & obeying , upon his account & for his sake . Mr. Baxter also telleth us , in his book against D. Tully p. 66. That that which Christ did by his merites , was to procure the new Covenant . And elsewhere p. 181 , that they were the meritorious cause of the forgiving Covenants , & the like he ●aith elsewhere frequently . The Arminians ground the imputation of faith upon the merites & obedience of Christ Apol. f. 113. And Arminius himself disp . 19. thes . 7. that justification is attribute to faith , not because it is the very righteousness , which may be proposed to God's rigide & severe judgment , howbeit acceptable to God ; but because , by the judgment of mercy triumphing over judgment , it obtaineth pardon of sins , & is graciously imputed unto righteousness , the cause of which is both God righteous & merciful , & Christ by his obedience , oblation & intercession . And in his Epistle ad Hyppolet . he tels us , that the word imputing signifieth that faith is not the righteousness it self , but that it is graciously accounted for righteousness , whereby all worth is taken away from faith , except , that which is by God's gracious estimation & that gracious estimation of God is not without Christ , but in respect of Christ , in Christ , & for Christ. Christ by his obedience is the impetrating cause , or meritorious , why God imputeth faith to us unto righteousness . And againe in his Artic. perpend . de justif . What fault is it so say , that faith by free & gracious acceptation is accounted for righteousness , because of Christ's obedience . But with this assertion , we are not satisfied , for these reasons 1. The Arminians , who maintaine this so confidently , make it the whole of what Christ merited by his death & Satisfaction , saying that Christ by his death did so satisfie the offended party , as he would be favourable to the offender ; and so say , that he acquired to the father a jus & a will to enter into a new Covenant with men . See their Confess . c. 8. § . 9. collat . cum Apolog. c. 8. § . 9. and as the learned Voetius inferreth Select . dispp . p. 2. p. 233 , 234. it followeth hence , that Christ was not in very deed our Cautioner ; that he died not in our room & stead ; that he did properly obtaine & acquire nothing to us ; & that he did not sustaine the person of the elect , while he suffered on the crosse . 2. ... that Christ procured no more , but a power or liberty unto God of prescribing new Conditions ; and some go so far , as to say , that this liberty was such only , at the Lord might , if he had pleased , have appointed the old way of works againe , for the condition ; So said Grevinchovius ag . Amesius . But it is true , they yeeld more , who grant , that he purchased the New Covenant : Yet by this purchase , they can not say , that Christ died to redeem us from our sinnes from the wrath of God , from a vaine conversation , & to save us : And indeed the same person last named , saith expresly , that Christ died not properly to saye any one . And what can else be said by such , as make this the whole of what Christ did purchase ? And how-rational is that consequence , which the same person hath , when he saith it might so have come to passe , that Christ had had the end of his death , & that no one had fulfilled the new Covenant , & had been saved ; for they will not grant , that Christ did purchase faith . 3. Hence we see , that such as say , that this was all which Christ procured by his Death & Merites , do manifestly spoile us of all the rich Benefites , which Christ hath purchased , as being no immediat fruites of his death ; such as Faith , Justification , Adoption , Sanctification , Grace , & Glory , & thus evacuat the whole vertue of the death of Christ : And this do Mr. Allen's words p. 54. import while he saith , that all the benefites of the Covenant accrue to us upon our beleeving & obeying , upon his account & for his sake : and so they do not accrue to us upon his account & for his sake immediately ; but immediatly upon the account & for the sake of our Beleeving & Obeying ; only for Christ's sake is this connexion made . 4. Who ever assert , that Christ hath purchased the framing & Constitution of this Covenant , in its termes & conditions , ought to confirme this their assertion out of Scripture ; & till this be done , we are a liberty to deny it , how confidently so ever it be affirmed . It is certane , that such a principal point & ground article of our Religion would not be darkly expressed in the Scriptures , far less wholly passed over in silence , as , for any thing that yet is made to appear , it is : for as for 1. Cor. 1 : 30. & Ier. 23 : 6. which Mr. Allen citeth , any may see how impertinent they are , that we say no more . 5. If so , then we must say with Papists , that Christ hath procured a worth to our Faith & Obedience , to merite ex pacto , the good things promised unto such , as are beleevers & obedient : Yea hereby there would be more of merite in our Faith , then in Christ's obedience . 6. We mnst say , that Christ hath purchased that we might be Justified by an Imperfect Righteousness ; For sure , our faith & new Obedience is not perfect even when sincere , they laboure of many Imperfections , & have drosse & faultiness admixed : As also that he hath purchased , that an Imperfect Righteousness should be accounted & estemed a perfect Righteousness ; & consequently that the judgment of God shnuld not be according to truth : which were blasphemeous & iniquous to imagine . 7. Thus in effect , Christ should be made the minister of sin , by changing the conditions of the old Law , which were perfect & compleet Obedience , into an obedience far short of that , & thus he must be come either to dissolve the Obligation of the Law , that it should not exact now , what it did exact of old ; or to loose us from the Obligation thereof ; that we should be in part Law less ; neither of which can be asserted ; & yet this Position maketh clear way for either , or for both . 8. Then we must say , that Christ hath purchased such a way of Justification , as leaveth ground to men to glory & boast though not before God , yet before men ; for hereby he is made to purchase the renewing of the old Covenant of works , with some mitigation , as to tht termes , though with little mitigation , as to the persons ; unless we say with these Arminians , that Man is as able to beleeve & obey sin●erely , if he will , as Adam was to obey perfectly : But sure Christ came for a far other end , than to leave man any ground of boa●ting , or of glorying in himself for his Justification & Salvation , as having made himself to differ . 9. Then Christ hath purchased a way , whereby man might hold his Pardon , Justification , Adoption &c. more of himself , than of Christ ; for Christ by this way cannot be said to have purchased our Pardon , Justification &c. but only that we should have these favoures upon our Faith : or have such & such a reward of our Faith & Obedience ; As he , who procureth that a person shall have such a benefite upon condition he performe such a piece of service , cannot be said to have procured that reward ; for notwithstanding of this procurement ( if it may be so called , which is at best , but a conditional uncertain thing ) the person might never have gote the reward . 10. Then the making of the New Covenant , and the making of it on these termes , should be an act of meer Justice , in God , and not an act of his free Grace , Love , good Pleasure , Will & Kindness : for it is Justice & Righteousness in God , to do that , which Christ hath purchased & procured to be done ; though , it is true , it may thus be accounted a meer favoure , that it was of God's free will , to enter into such termes of agreement with the Mediator , & to yeeld to the making of such a condition , upon Christ's purchase . But the Apostle tels us Ephes. 1 : 9. that God made known unto us ●he mysterie of his will , according to his good pleasure , which he purposed in himself . Which mysterie of his will is the New Covenant & dispensation of grace in the Gospel ; & it is ascribed not to the merites of Christ ; but to God's good Pleasure , & to the Purpose , which he purposed in himself . So the saving of such as beleeve , floweth from the love of God , as well as , & no less then the sending of Christ Ioh. 3 : 16. God so loved the world , that he sent his only begotten son , that every beleever in him should not perish , but have everlasting life . So Ephes. 3 : 9 , 10 , 11. the fellowshipe of the mysterie was hid in God ; & the manifold wisdom of God ( which shineth forth in the New Covenant ) was according to the eternal Purpose ; which he had purposed in Christ Jesus , our Lord. This is ascribed to God's Love Ioh. 3 : 16. & will Ioh. 6 : 40. 11. I grant , it may be said , that as Christ hath purchased to his own Pardon , Justification , Adoption & Salvation ; so , as a consequence of this , he hath purposed the Meanes , or rather the Application of the meanes , thereunto , that so the good things purchased may be actually conferred , according to the manner & methode condescended upon by Jehovah and the Mediator in the Coveuant of Redemption ; for He hath chosen us , in himself having predestinat us unto the Adoption of children , by Iesus Christ , unto himself , according to the good pleasure of his will , to the praise of the glory of his grace , wherein he hath made us acctpted , in the beloved , in whom we have redemption , through his blood , the forgivness of sins &c. Ephes. 1 : 4 , 5 , 6 , 7. the chosen ones are predestinated both to the end , & to the meanes leading to the end● : But this matter is not consistent with their Assertion , who say , that Christ by his death hath purchased Faith & New Obedience to be the Condition of the Covenant , because by their Universal Redemption they leave all at an uncertainty , especially when also they will not grant , that Christ hath purchased Faith itself to any person . 12. It must be said ... that Christ purchased the termes of the new Covenant . ... and purchased , that God should abolish the Law quite , and not require a conformitie thereunto , as our Righteousness , by vertue of the new Covenant , nor exact full Obedience to the Law , from any , in our name ; & consequently it must be said , that Christ hath purchased , that the Law giver should wholly passe from that established Constitution , do & live , without any real accomplishment thereof , or requiring the accomplishment thereof from any , on their behalf , to the end , the Lord might be just , when he is the justifier of him that beleeveth in Jesus . 13. This assertion also stricketh against Christ's being the Surety of the New Covenant : for it is not the work of a Surety , as such , to purchase the Making & Constitution of a Covenant ; but to confirme & ratifie the same , & to engage for the party , for whom he is a Surety , that he shall performe the conditions , accorded to in the Covenant ; & so to establish the Covenant or contract , already agreed unto & constituted . 14. Thus it should be said , that Christ died rather for graces , than for persons , to wit. That Faith & new obedience may be elevated beyond their ordinare sphere , & exalted to be the Condition of the New Covenant . But the whole Scriptures speak otherwise of Christ's death . 15. If this were the thing that Christ procured , he could not be said to have Redeemed any , not so have died in the room & stand of any , but only for our good , as say the Sociniant , To purchase a new Covenant , is not to be a Propiltation , an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to ●ear our sins , to Reconcile any , unto God. 16. Mr. Baxter himself against Mr. Cartwright p. 91. hath these words . And therefore the Performer & the Accepter did themselve● ( NB. ) choose , on what termes it ( i.e. Christ's Righteousness ) should be applied to us , or be made ours , quoad fructus : And the termes resolved on were the New Covenants conditions , which are now required of us to our participation hereof . These words import some other rise unto this Covenant , than the purchase of Christ. CHAP. XXVII . How Faith is , and may be called a Condition of the new Covenant , and of Justification , how not . IT may be of some use . ... to enquire in what way faith is and may be called a Condition . ... The orthodox never denied , that it may be called a Condition . ... yet with all we must alwayes look upon Faith , as an Instrument , or Instrumental Meane in Justification , because of its being as the hand of the soul to receive , bring-in , grip-to & lay hold on the Righteousness of Christ , as the Righteousness of a Cautioner & of a publick person , to the end they might be Justified , Absolved from the sentence of the Law , & Accounted & pronunced Righteous , in the sight of God. Upon the other hand , Socinians & Arminians , who cast the whole Gospel in a new mould of their own , deny Faith to be an Instrument , & assert , that it is only a Condition , or a cause sine qua non , as they speak : And this they do , that their doctrine about Justification ( which is wholly corrupt ) may appeare to hang the better together . We heard how they denied the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness ; & now they must of necessitie also deny , Faith to be considered here as an Instrument ● for they know that it was called an Instrument meerly upon 〈◊〉 account of the Surety-Righteousness of Christ , which it was to apply , to receive , & to put on . They affirmed , that Faith properly taken was imputed unto Righteousness , & by vertue of Christ's merites was accepted of God for a Righteousness , & was so accounted , & now consequentially they must say , that Faith ( together with new Obedience , which they also 〈◊〉 & conjoine , as making up one Righteousness ) is to be looked upon , us a Condition , or causa sine qua non . Socinus de Iustis . tels us , that though that obedience , which 〈◊〉 performe unto Christ , be neither the different nor Meritorious cause , of our Iustification & eternal Salvation , yet it is the caus● sine quation , as they say . The same he saith Synops . justis . 2. p. 14. So doth Volkelius do vera Relig. lib. 4 . c . 3. & Smalc , Coner . Frantz . disp . 4. p. 103. So the Remonstrants in their Apologief . 112. Faith ( say they ) if we consider the matter aright , cannot properly be called an Instrument of Iustification ; nor can the act of beleeving be an Instrumental action ; far less can it as an Instrument be opposed to faith , as an action , Corvin . cont . Tilen , Faith carrieth that respect unto the gift of adoption , that it is an obedience required of God , upon condition of which the gift of adoption is decerned unto the sinner for a reward , faith is not a meanes , or instrument , but a condition , ordained of God for obtaining of life . Simon Episcop . disp . 22. faith , in this matter , cometh to be considered , not as an instrument apprehending Christ's Righteousness imputed , but as apprehending Christ Iesus , by whom that Righteousness is obtained . It cannot be called properly an instrument , but a condition prescribed by , & required in the Gospel-Covenant , without which God will not pardon sin & impute Righteousness . Lawyers , as may be seen in Spigely & Calvinilexic . ●urid . tell us of various sorts of Conditions ; Some Possible , Some impossible ; Some certaine , some uncertaine ; Some ... Voluntarie conditions , say they , do suspend the whole obligation , untill they be performed , Casual ( & also necessary ) conditions do only prorogue the effect of the obligation , the obligation itself , & its force is instantly perfected . A condition thus taken they usually define , Suspensio , cujus de futuro effectus , vel confirmatio pendet ; or futurus eventus pendet : or le●● adposita hominum actionibus , eas suspendens : or Modus qui suspendit actum , donec ca existente confirmetur : or Modus vel causa , que suspendit id quod agitur , donec ex post facto confirmetur . They tell us with all , that the word Conditio is some time , in the Law , taken pro Modo , though in many things , these two differ much ; and that it is the same with ratio , lex , pactio , pactum , fortuna , status , locus jus , causa ; so that it admitteth of various significations : and in which of these significations here definitly to take it , the Scripture giveth no determination ; for it is no scripture-expression , in this matter : And if it be said , that the termes used in Scripture , in this matter , such as these , beleeve , & thou shalt be saved , to whom it shall be imputed , if we beleeve , if thou shall beleeve thou shalt be saved , & the like , will sufficiently warrand the use of the word Condition ; I Answere , So will the like termes of being justified by Faith , and through faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , allow us to call faith an Instrument , which yet our Adversaries , as we have seen , will not suffer us to do . But moreover . We do not condemne the use of the word Condition , in this affaire , simply , but allow it , & also make use of it : But this however is manifest , that seing it is no Scripture word , we are under no Law to receive the word , in that determinate sense , in which the Adversaries use it , & must use it according to their principles : nor are we to conceive of Faith Repentance & new Obedience , as such conditions , as they hold them forth ● be . We know , how variously the word Condition is used , in our ordinary language : & how some time , that is called a condition , which is the real price , & worth of the thing given upon that condition ; as when a man is willing to quite his house , lands or horse to another , upon condition of so much money , which is the real price , or a valuable consideration : if we should call Faith & Good Works such a condition , the errour would be worse than Popish . But Mr. Baxter tels us Apol. ag . Mr. Black p. 39. § 27. that he doth not understand the word de conditione contractus vendition is & emptionis , vel emphyteusis , or any the like , that is proper pretium ; but it is the condition purae donation is , but some what partaking naturae sendi , as to some of the benefites . And yet this will not sufficiently clear the matter , especially seing that natura feudi is not fully explained , and the feud-duties , ( whether we look to the first use of these donations ; or to perfect practice , or whether we speak of the highest degree , that is , of the Vassallage of dukes , marquises and Earles . ... And some are most personal , being but yeerly pensions , which is extinct with the death of the giver , or of the receiver , other divisions may be seen in Craig de feudis lib. 1. Dieg. 10. And as to the way of giving these : though it be said to be by donation ; yet the Service required in most , may be very onerous , to speak nothing of such , as are purchased by money , or by excambion ; nor yet of such , as are burdened with that , which we call Ward , & Ward & Reliefe . Mr. Baxter ibid , defineth to us , the condition of the Covenant , which he calleth a potestative condition , thus ; Actio voluntaria de futuro , a Deo legislatore & Christo Testatore , innovalege , foedere , Testamento requisita , ut ex ejus praestatione , constituatur jus actuale ad beneficium : vel , ut obligationem & eventum suspend at donec praestetur : for ( he addeth ) ex stipulatione conditionali neque obligatio , neque act to ulla est , antequam conditto even●at ; quia quod est in conditione , non est in obligatione . But first , as to the name potestative condition , as opposed by the Lawyers to what is Casual ; & as importing that the person of whom that condition is required , hath full power to performe it , if he will , except some inevitable , & unfore-seen impediment fall out , which is not ordinarily supposed ; how can any reckon Faith amongst these , unless they grant , that it is as much in Man's power to beleeve , as it is to one at Rome , to ascend the Capitol , if he fall not sick , or break not his leg ? Whereby to all , who are not Pelagians , Socinians & Arminians in this matter , but acknowledge Faith to be the pure gift of God , & wrought by the Spirit , Regenerating the soul & giving an heart of flesh , it may be manifest , that no kinde of Conditions , spoken of by Lawyers , who treat only of Compacts , & other Actions , betwixt man & man , can comprehend this matter ; whereof we are now speaking . Where is there such an instance , in all the Law , of a person promising to give or to do such or such a Favour , Courtesie , upon condition that he do something , which is not in his power , nor in his will , & which he only who promiseth , can make him able & willing to do ? This would either be looked on by them , as an impossible condition , which is next to none , or if the promiser should possiblie make him to fulfil , as a casual condition , or rather , as no proper condition at all . If a father should promise his little childe an apple , on condition he should touch the Crown of his fathers head with his finger , which were impossible for him to do , unless the Father should either stoop so low unto him with his head ; or take him up in his armes , that he may reach his head ; who would call this a potestative condition ? But next , what meaneth Mr. Baxter by this jus actuale ? Is this the same with jus in re , as opposed to jus ad rem ? this jus ad rem ; which yet I suppose , he will not grant , or doth he meane by this . ... But what is a Potential Right ? Is it the same with a remote right ? and how very far remote must that Right be ( if it be at all ) which the Reprobat have ? And is there no difference as to this Remote & Potential Right , or what way it may be called , which is opposite to an Actual Right betwixt the Reprobat & the Elect , before Faith ? It is like , Mr. Baxter will say , there is none , by reason that the Redemption is Universal and for all alike , & so that Right , how ever it be called , that preceedeth the Actual Right , is equally common to all , if we meane that Potential Right , which followeth upon the Redemption . But to us , who affirme , that Christ died only for the Elect , & that he took on their debt ; & in due time made fall satisfaction , according to his undertaking , these Elect ones for whom Christ engadged , in the Covenant of Redemption , have another sort of right , call it Potential , or what you will , than the Reprobat have : because Christ hath purchased all the blessings , promised in the Covenant , unto them : and he hath a Right keeped , for them , and not for the rest : so that a Right unto all these good things , being purchased by their Lord Redeemer , & Cautioner , and left unto them as his sure legacie , in his Testament , & all so ensured , that in due time , according to the methode condescended upon , they shall be put in possession of the same , their Right is in Christ's purchase , and they are put in actual Possession of Justification , when they beleeve ; which Faith is also purchased for them : all the benefites they shall enjoy concerning grace & glory are equally by him purchased , & are equally neer related unto his merites & death , as to the right , though as to the actual collation , Soveraigne wisdom hath appointed an Order , & determining of one , before another , & so hath resolved to give faith , and than Justification &c. And though it be true , that in this case , what is inconditione , non est in obligatione , as to the actual possession ; yet we cannot think , but the holy & Just God , having received satisfaction from the Mediator , in behalfe of such , for whom it was laid down , is under an obligation ( as we may conceive , and speake ) unto the Mediator , to cause him see of the travel of his soul , & to give him his seed , and those he purchased , and in due time to call them effectually , & work Faith in them , & then Justifie &c. Adopt them &c. & thus bestow all the benefites purchased upon then ▪ in the time & methode wisely determined . But if Mr. Baxter understand by this jus actuale , that is constituted upon the performance of the condition , a plaine , and simple Right unto the benefite , we can acknowledge no such Condition , lest we render the death of Christ void : for in him alone , have we all our Law-title & Right to all the blessings of the Covenant , to Faith , & all that follow upon it . That we may put an end to this , we shall first shew , in what sense , we cannot admit Faith to be a Condition , & then shew in what sense we do admit the denomination . As to the first we say . 1. We cannot admit it to be a Condition , in their sense who will have Justification so to depend upon it , as on a Procuring Cause , some way or other meriting , at least ex pacto or ex congruo as Bellarm , saith that benefite as a Reward : for this destroyeth the Freedome of Grace , that : shineth forth in our Justification ; & overturneth the whole nature of the Covenant of Grace , & spoileth Christ of his glory ; and doth man to come in , as a sharer in the glory of that purchase . 2. We cannot admit it to be a Condition , in their sense , who take a new Obedience with it : for this taketh away the special Use of Faith and its special End , in laying hold on & refuging the soul under the wings of the Surety-Righteousness of Jesus Christ ; This changeth the nature of the Covenant of Grace , & maketh it a new Covenant of Works , & giveth ground of boasting & of glorying before men ; yea & maketh the reward of Justification , and what followeth thereupon , to be of debt , & not of grace : And such a Condition in the Covenant of Grace we cannot owne . 3. We cannot admit it to be a Condition , in their sense , who make it strickly a Potestative Condition ; placeing it in the power & free will of man , to beleeve or not , as he will ; for as this overturneth the whole Covenant of Grace , and exalteth proud man ; so it parteth , at least , the glory of Redemption betwixt Christ & Man ; & giveth man ground to sing to the praise of his own Lord , free will ; & to say , he hath made himself to differ , & he oweth but halfe thanks , & hardly so much , to Jesus Chaist , for all that he hath done and suffered , in order to the purchasing of Salvation . 4. We cannot own it for a Condition , in their sense , who make it , or it & our new obedience together , our Gospel-Righteo●sness , & that Righteousness which only is properly Imputed to us , & Reckoned upon our score , as the Righteousness , upon the account of which , we are Justified : for thus the nature of the Covenant of Grace is changed ; God is made to estimate that for a Righteousness , which is no fulfilling of the Law ; & Christ is made to have procured , that it should be so ; & that his own Surety-Righteousness , should no otherwayes be imputed . 5. We cannot account Faith a Condition , in their sense , who ascribe to it or to it with works , the same Place , Use & Efficacie in the new Covenant , that Perfect Obedience had in the old Covenant of Works : for this maketh the New Covenant nothing but a new Edition of the old ; and shooteth Christ , the Lord our Righteousness , far away , who is & should be our immediat Righteousness , that in him we might be found hid , & secured from the dint of the Law-Curse ; and with all giveth proud man too palpable ground of boasting , contrare to the whole Contrivance of the Gospel-Covenant . 6. We cannot owne it for a Condition , in their sense , who reject it , and disowne it for an Instrument , or an Instrumental Meane , in our Justification ; because they deny that particular and special Use , which it hath , in our Justification , & so pervert its whole Gospel-Nature : It s special use & work in Justification being to lay hold on the Lord Jesus , & his side jussorie-Righteousness , to carry the Man out of himself , as renuncing his own Righteousness , & every thing that is not Christ & his Righteousness , that as poor , empty , & naked he may lay hold on , & rest upon the Surety-Righteousness of the publick person & Cautioner , Jesus Christ : for thus Christ & his Righteousness are put by , and he getteth not that rent of glory that is only due to him ; & the soul is made to leane upon something beside this Rock of ages . 7. We cannot admit it for a Condition , in their sense , who will have us hereby to have gotten a legal Title or Right unto Justification & other benefites according . ... following the same ; seing this puts the crown upon Mans head , as having by his deed acquired a jus & Law-right unto these blessings , which become hereby a reward not of grace , but of just debt : We acknowledge all our Right & Title to all the blessings of the Covenant , to be from Christ , the only purchaser ; & of him must we hold all , that all may be of free grace , & he , even he alone , may have all the Glory , having redeemed us with his precious bloud , & purchased the whole Inheritance , of grace & glory for us . 8. We cannot account it a Condition , in their sense , who plead for Universal Redemption ; because thereby Christ is only made to have purchased something to all alike , & that Conditionally , & no more grace & glory for Peter than for Iudas , but Peter by his own Paines & Industrie , by his Faith & New Obedience , did purchase the whole personal and immediat Right unto the blessings , which he enjoyeth ; and hath received no more from Christ , than what Iudas had , & so hath no more ground of exalting him for Redeemer , than those have , who perish , seing what he purchased was common to all , & no more for one in particulur than for another : for this setteth the crown upon mans head , who hath saved himself by his sweating , paines & labour ; and spoileth our Lord Redeemer of his glory . 9. Nor can we account it a condition , in their sense , who will have the whole or principal part of what Christ purchased to be the New Covenant & the Termes & Conditions thereof ; as if Christ had been a Cautioner for none in particular , but had so far redeemed all , as to have brought them into such an estate , wherein they might now work & won for themselves , run & fight for the prize , according to the new Conditions purchased ; and so , if they run well , sacrifice to their own net , and burn incense to their own drag , because by their own industrie & care in performing the Conditions , now made easier , than they were to Adam in the first Covenant , their portion is fat , & their meat plenteous . 10. Nor yet can we call it a Condition , in their sense , who will have us look upon it , in the work of Justification , purely as a work of ours & as an act of Obedience to a command ; & as such a work , as comprehendeth in it all the works of new Obedience : for thus its peculiar Use of applying Christ , & of apprehending his Surety-Righteousness , is taken from it ; & the whole nature of the new Covenant is changed into the old Covenant of works ; & Christ's ●idejussorie-Righteousness is not made our immediat Gospel-Righteousness ; yea when we are thus justified by Faith , we are justified by works ; whereby the whole of the Apost●l's disput is overturned ; & we are taught to leane to , & lay our weight upon a Righteousness within ourselves ; contrare to the whole scope of the Gospel . Upon the other hand , we say , Faith may be looked upon , and called a Condition of the Covenant , and of Justification , in this sense ; That Christ having purchased all the good things of the Covenant , all the sure Mercies of David , all Grace , and all Glory , unto the chosen ones , and the Father having promised the actual collation & bestowing of all and every one of these mercies & blessings , so purchased and procured ; and Jehovah & the Mediator both , in the counsel of their will condescending on such a methode & way of making the ransomed ones the owners of the Blessings purchased , that is , first to give the New Heart and the heart of fless and in effectuall calling , worke them up to Faith in and Union with Christ and so draw them to the mediator , and cause them accept of him , & wait upon him , and rest there , for life & salvation ; and then to Justifie , Accepte of as Righteous , Adopte them , and then worke the works of holiness by his Spirit & more , in their soul ; and so carrie on the work unto Perfection , till grace be crowned with glory : matters , I say , being thus wisely ordered , in the councel of heaven , there is a Priority of order ; Faith , receiving Christ , and resting on his Surety-righteousness , going before ; and Justification following , and a firme connexion made betwixt the two , that who so ever beleeveth thus , shall be justified , and none shall be justified who beleeveth not thus : Now , when by vertue of this constitute order & Method , explained & revealed in the Gospel , the Ambassadours of Christ , in obedience to their Injunctions , call upon all , who heare the Gospel , to receive Christ and refuge themselves under his wings , and receive the atonement through his Righteousness , and promise them thereupon , in their Masters name , Pardon , Peace with God , Reconciliation ; and acceptance &c. nothing more is here insinuated , than that such a Methode & Order is wisely determined , and that there is a fixed connexion made betwixt Faith & Justification ; so that who ever would be saved from the wrath to come ; & would enjoy God for ever , must come unto God in this way , and according to this methode , and must receive his blessings and Favoures , in this order , first beleeve , and lay hold on Christ and his Righteousness , and then receive Justification &c. Thus we see faith is no legal , Antecedent Condition , no Proper or Potestative Condition ; but only a consequent , or Evangelick Condition , or a Condition denoting a fixed and prescribed Order and Method of receiving of the blessings purchased by Christ , with a firme and fixed connexion betwixt the performance of the condition , and the granting of the thing promised thereupon . Thus Christ hath the whole glory of the work ; Man is abased , and hath nothing to glory of in himself ; The reward is not of debt , but purely of grace ; The wisdom and love of God is wonderful and remarkable ; All ground of carnal security and self confidence is removed ; A plaine and powerful ground is laid for ministers , to press , exhort , aud obtest to Faith in the first place , with all seriousness and zeal ; Full security and ground of confidence of being Justified and Accepted of God upon our beleeving , is given ; The difference betwixt the Covenant of works and the Covenant of Grace , is distinctly observed ; The Antinomian mistakes , saying we are Justified from Eternity , or at the death of Christ , or at any time before faith , are manifestly obviated ; And all grounds of excepting against , or dissatisfaction with this way , are removed from all such , as will willingly comply with the designe of free grace , in the Gospel . CHAP. XXVIII . How faith is and may be called an Instrument , in Justification . COncerning the Instrumentality of faith in Justification , much needeth not be said , howbeit too much hath been written , about it & that to very little edification ; so I judge : I am sure , to little use , as to the clearing up of that concerning pointe of Justification , & the true interest of Faith therein . We heard , in the beginning of the proceeding Chapter , how both Socinians & Arminians did disowne faith its being an Instrument , and Papists also before them did plead against it : On the other hand , the orthodox , writting against Papists , Socinians , & Arminians , did unanimously assert Faith to be an Instrument , or to be considered as an Instrument , in the matter of Justification . And few , or none , can be instanced of those , who hold with the orthodox , in all chiefe Controversies , about Justification , that did impugne , or so much as deny Faith to be an Instrument , in justification ; Yea Iohn Goodwine , in his book of justification , doth expresly call it an Instrument in justification . It is true , the Scripture no where calleth faith an instrument ; & the same being no Scripture expression , there needeth not be much strife about it , nor will there be , among such , as are unanimous , in the maine & principal Questions about Justification ; or to that , which is only designed & intended by that expression . And though the Scripture doth not use that expression , interminis , yet no man can hence inferre , that all use of it , and of the like should be laid aside , nor can such be supposed to adde to the Scripture , ( as Mr. Baxter hinteth . Apol. against Mr. Blake p. 40. ) who call Faith an Instrument ; more then he can suppose that himself addeth to the Scripture , when he calleth faith a Condition , or a causa sine qua non , for these are as little to be found expresly , in the Scriptures , as the other . Nor do they , who say Faith is an Instrument , so much plead for the name , as for the thing intended thereby : All expressions , that are not in Scripture , must not be laid aside , in our speaking of divine things ▪ for then we must lay aside the word Trinity , Sacrament , Satisfaction & several others : far less must the truth , which we conceive can be intelligibly & usefully expressed by those borrowed words and termes , be laid aside , because the terme itself , by which we express our Conceptions of the truth , is not in so many letters & syllabs to be found in Scripture , if so indeed , we had quickly lost a fundamental point of our Religion , and yeelded the cause unto the Socinians . If the Scripture may be explained , we may make use of such expressions , termes & sentences , as will , according to their usual acceptation , contribute to make the truthes revealed in Scripture intelligible to such , as heare us . And when some termes have been innocently used in Theologie , for explication of truthes , whether to the more learned , or to the more unlearned , & have p● ssed among the orthodox without controll , or contradiction , beyond the ordinary time of prescriptions ; it cannot but give ground of suspicion for any , now to remove these old Land-marks , especially when it is attempted to be done , by such meanes & arguments , as will equally enforce a rejection of many Scriptural expressions : for should all the Metaphorical expressions & sentences , which are in ●ature , be so canvassed , & rejected , because every thing agreeing properly to them when used , in their own native soile , doth not quadrate with them , as used in the Scriptures , in things divine , where should we Land ? If these divine mysteries had been expressed to us only in termes , adequatly corresponding with & suiting the matter ; how should we have understood the same ? Therefore we finde the Lord condescending in the Scriptures , to our low Capacities , and expressing sublime & high mysteries , by low & borrowed expressions , to the end , we might be in case to understand so much thereof , as may prove , through the Lord's blessing , saving unto us : And thereby hath allowed such , as would explaine these matters unto the capacity of others , to use such ordinary expressions , as may contribute some light & understanding to them , in the truthes themselves . Now when the orthodox have , according to their allowed liberty , made use of the word Instrument , in this matter , and maintained that Faith was , & was nothing more then an Instrument , in Justification ; it is not faire to reject it altogether , because improper , though fit enough to signifie what they did intend thereby ; & because all the properties , that agree to proper Physical , or artificial Instruments , do not agree to it ; and because if the same be strickly examined , according to the rules of Philosophie , concerning Instrumental Causes , it will be found to differ from them . Mr. Baxter himself , writting against D. Kendal . § . 47. tels us , that the thing ; which he denieth , is , that Faith is an Instrument , in the strick logical sense , that is , an Instrumental efficient cause of our Iustification ; & that he expresly discla●meth contending de nomine , or contradicting any , that only use the word instrument , in an improper large sense , as Mechanicks & Rhetoricians do : So that the question ( saith he ) , is de re , Whether it efficiently cause our Iustification , as an Instrument ? But it may be conceived to have some efficient Influence , in our Justification , not as that is taken simply & strickly for God's act justifying , but as taken largely , comprehending the whole benefite : as activly coming from God , & as Passively received by or terminated on us , & that as an Instrument , though not in that proper sense , that Logicians , or Metaphysicians take Instrumental causes , and explaine them , in order to physical & natural Effects . We know , that Justification is a supernatural work & effect ; and therefore , though in explaining of it in its Causes , we may make use of such termes , as are used about the expressing of the Causes of Natural , or Artificial Works & Effects ; yet no Law can force us , to understand by these borrowed expressions , the same proper , & Formal Efficacy , Efficiency and influence , which is imported by these Expressions , when used about Natural Causes & Effects . But Mr. Baxter against Mr. Blake § . 5. tels us , what great reasons he had to move him to quarrel with this calling of faith an Instrument viz. he found that many learned divines did not only assert this Instrumentality , but they laid so great a stress upon it , as if the maine difference betwixt us & the Papists lay here , And yet any might think , that they had reason so to do , when Papist's on the other hand , laid as great stresse upon the denying of Faiths Instrumentality . He tels us moreover , that our divines judged Papists to erre in Justification fundamentally , in these points 1. about the formal Cause , which is the formal Righteousness of Christ , as suffering & perfectly obeying for us . 2. About the way of our participation herein , which as to God's act is Imputation , & that in this sense , that legaliter we are esteemed to have fulfilled the Law in Christ. 3. About the nature of that faith , which justifieth . 4. About the formal reason of faiths interest in justification , which is as the Instrument thereof . I doubt not ( saith Mr. Baxter ) but all these four are great errors . But we neither may , nor can call all errors , which Mr. Baxter calleth errors . We have seen above how necessary truthes the two first are , and have explained , in part , the third , wherein I confesse , too many ( yet not all ) of the forraigne divines have , as to expression , missed the explication of true Justifying faith & it may be , it was not their designe to describe it so , as it might agree to the faith of every sincere , though weak beleever : but rather to shew its true nature , grounds & tendency , when at its best ; & yet what Papists hold , on the contrare , is more false & absurd . But as to this fourth , it seemes , that it hath a necessary dependance upon the foregoing ; and this to me seemes to be the maine reason , why our Divines did owne & plead for Faiths Instrumentality , in the matter of Justification , viz. because the Righteousness , which they called the Formal , or others the Material Cause thereof , was not any Righteousness inherent in us , as Papists said ; but the Surety-Righteousness of the Cautioner Christ , without us : And therefore they behoved to look on Faith , in this matter , otherwayes then Papists did , and not account it a part of our Formal Righteousness , but only look upon it , as an hand to lay hold on & bring-in the Surety-Righteousness of Jesus Christ ; and therefore judged it most fit to call it only an Instrumental Cause . And how ever Mr. Baxter exaggerat this matter , as complying with Papist's in condemning us , as to all these controversies , and think it no wonder , they judge the whole Protestant cause naught , because we erre in these , and yet make this the maine pairt of the Protestant cause ; yet we must not be scarred from these truthes ; Yea , because this point hath such a connexion with the other , concerning that Righteousness , upon the account of which we are to be Justified in the sight of God , we are called to contend also for this , & that so much the rather , that , though Papist's do utterly mistake the Nature of Justification , and confound it with Sanctification ; yet Mr. Baxter hath more rational apprehensions there about , and yet will not have Christ's Righteousness to be that Formal Righteousness , upon the account of which we are Justified . Yet notwithstanding , we need not owne it for such an Instrument , or such an Instrumental cause , as Philosophers largely treate of , in the Logicks & Metaphysicks , knowing that the Effect here wrought is no Natural Effect , brought about by Natural Efficient & Instrumental Causes ; Only we say , the Scripture affirming , that we are justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , giveth us ground to call Faith ( if we will use such termes , to expresse our mind ) an Instrument , seing these expressions pointe forth , some special interest & influence , that Faith hath in Justification , & no other Influence or Causation can be allowed to it , conforme to the Scriptures ; but that , which , we express in our ordinary discourse , not in a strick Philosophical sense , by an Instrument . And that so much the rather , that hereby is pointed forth that , which is the maine ground & designe of using this terme , viz. the Application of the Righteousness of Christ , which is made by Faith , as a meane or mid's laying hold upon without which we cannot be Justified , according to the Gospel ; And though in these borrowed expressions from Causes , metaphysical accuracy be not intended , yet the true meaning & intendment of the users of these termes being obvious , it is but vanity , to raise too much dust thereabout ; unless difference about other more Principal Questions , in the matter of Justification , enforce it , as indeed all such as place the Formal Cause or reason of our justification before God in our own Inherent Righteousness , and not in the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us & received by faith , must of necessity deny all interest of faith here , as an Instrument , or as any thing like it ; because , having all their Righteousness within them , they have no use for Faith to lay hold-on & bring-in one from without . There things may satisfie us , as grounds of this Denomination . 1. That in justification , we are said to be receivers , & do receive something from the Lord ; not only the Passive justification itself expressed by our being justified , but of some thing in order thereunto , as of Christ himself , the Abundance of Grace & of the Gift of Righteousness , the atonement , the word of promise , yea every thing that concurreth unto justification , or accompanieth it , we are said to receive , Ioh. 1 : 12. Col. 2 : 6. Rem . 5 : 11 , 17. Act. 2 : 41 , & 10 : 43. & 26 : 18. Heb. 9 : 15. 2. That the only Grace , whereby we are said to receive these things , is Faith : receiving is explained to be beleeving Ioh. 1 : 12. Act. 2 : 41. comp . with vers . 44. we receive forgiveness of sins by faith Act. 26 : 18. 3. That the Surety-Righteousness of Christ , is that only Righteousness , ●pon the account of which we are justified before God , & not any Inherent Righteousness within ourselves , hath been evinced above . 4. That this Righteousness of the Surety must be imputed unto such , as are to be Justified , or reckoned upon their score ; hath also been evinced . 5. That this Surety-Righteousness of Christ must be laid hold on by us , in order to our justification , hath been showne ; & must be granted by all , that acknowledge it to be the Righteousness , upon the account of which we are Justified . 6. That the Scripture saith expresly , that God justifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by faith & through faith , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by faith Rom. 3 : 24 , 25 , 28 , 30. Gal. 3 : 8 , & 2 : 16. and that even when justification is denied to be by works ; So that Faith must have a far other interest in ; & must otherwise concurre unto our Justification , than any other Works , or Graces ; and therefore must be looked upon , as having some peculiarity of interest and influence here , and this peculiarity of interest , can not be otherwayes better expressed , so ▪ as the matter shall be cleared , then by calling it an Instrument . Not as if it did concurre to the produceing of the effect of justification by any Physical operation , as Physical Instruments do ; but as a medium & mean required of us , in order to Justification , according to the free pleasure of God , who disposeth the order & methode of his bestowing of his Favours upon us , aud the Relation & Respect ; that one hath unto another , as he seeth most for his own glory , and for our good ; and that such a mean , as concurreth therein , and thereunto , according to what is said , in such a way , as we be can best understand by calling it an Instrument ; for we can not allow it to be called any way meritorious , or any formal disposition of the soul or Preparation unto the Introduction of an Inherent Formal Cause of Justification , as Papists say ; nor can we allow it to be called such a proper & Potestative Condition , as some would have it to be , as we saw in the forgoing Chapter . 7. That no real inconvenience can follow upon the owning of Faith for an Instrument , in justification ; for Justification is not here taken simply & strickly for that , which is properly God's act , but more largely & complexly , including other things requisite unto Justification , such as the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , which Faith , as the Instrument or hand of the soul , layeth hold on , & bringeth-in , for this end , that the man being clothed therewith , may be acquitted before the Tribunal of God , Pardoned , & accepted of as Righteous . And howbeit it be God , that justifieth , & as to this act of God justifying , Faith hath no real interest or influence ; yet the Scripture saying , that God justifieth by Faith , and through faith , we must acknowledge some interest , that Faith hath , in the work & Effect ; as when the Scripture saith , that He purifieth the heart by faith Act. 15 : 9. the purifying of the heart is God's work , and yet it is said to be done by Faith , which is our work . It is said Heh . 11 : 11 , that through faith Sara herself received strength to conceive seed & vers . 33 , 34. that some through faith subdued Kingdomes , stopped the mouthes of Lions , quenched the violence of fire &c. all which were the works of God , & yet while they are said to be done by faith , faith must have had some interest & influence in these effects . So in working faith in the soul , which is God's work alone , the Lord useth the preaching of the Gospel , and ministers , & the peoples hearkning & listning to what is preached , as meanes & midses thereunto ; though preaching & hearing be mens work , yet God useth them for his ends ; and as he sendeth Preachers to preach , & moveth persons to hear , that thereby he may , according to his own will & pleasure , work Faith in then ; so he worketh Faith in souls , that he may , thereby Justify them . Nor is it of any weight to say , that if Faith be an Instrument , it must work as an efficient cause , because the Instrumental Cause belongeth to the Efficient ; for neither do all Philosophers agree to this , some holding Instruments to be a fift kinde of Cause ; nor are we obliged to stand to their prescriptions & rules , especially in these things , that are no natural causes or effects ; no man saith , that faith hath the same kind & measure of Efficiency in & towards the effect , justification , that all Instrumental causes , or Instrumental causes so called , have in the Effects , which they concurre to the producing of ; what efficiency hath an examplary cause , which some Philosophers reduce to the efficient viz. Keckerman : But that Faith hath some Influence , is manifest from the Scripture , not of it self , it is true , but by the gracious appointment of God ; and that this Influence cannot be better & more saifly expressed , than by the name of an Instrument , appeareth to us clear ; hereby nothing of the glory due to God , or unto Jesus Christ , and to his Righteousness , is ascribed unto man , nor is any more hereby granted unto Man , than to a beggar , as to the enriching of himself , when it is said , his hand made him rich , by receiving the Purse of gold , that was given unto him : yea hereby is Christ & his Righteousness more fixedly established , in their due place , because faith is considered not as a Righteousness of it self , nor as a part of Righteousness ; but purely and simply as an Instrument of the soul laying hold on the Righteousness of Christ , and pleading the same , as the only Formal ground of his justification before God. If it be said , that it were saifer to call it a causa sine qua non . We must first know , what is properly signified thereby , & whether it will help us more , to understand the just & true import of the Scripture expressions about Faith in Justification ; for no termes ought to be used , that attaine not this end , or have not a direct tendency thereunto ; such termes , however we may please our selves in the invention of their application unto the business in hand , and think we are in case to defend the same against opponents ; yet if they do not contribute manifestly to the clearing and explaining of the matter , according to the Scriptures , can only darken the matter : And no reason can enforce us to embrace them , with the arbitrary explications & limitations of the Authors , and to reject or lay aside such , as do more obviously explaine the matter , unto all such , as have orthodox apprehensions of the matter ; and have given offence to none , nor have been excepted against by any , but such as were not orthodox in the point of justification ; & whose erroneous Principles led them to deny , or except against the same . And what for a cause shall we take that , causa sine qua non to be ? ( which cannot be so explained in our language , as that every one that heareth it , shall be in case to understand , what it meaneth ) Such as speak of it , call it causa fatua , and referre to it external occasions , time & place , and such like things , without which the action cannot proceed , as the place wherein we stand , & the time , wherein we do any thing , which have no more interest in , or relation to one action , than another , for all must be done by us , in some time , and in some place : And shall we say , that faith hath no other interest or influence in justification , than the hour of the day , when or the place wherein a minister preacheth , hath into his preaching ? Shall we have so meane & low an account of the ordinances & appointments of God , in reference to spiritual ends ? Seing the Lord hath appointed Faith , in order to Justification , we must not look upon it as a causa fatua , or as a meer circumstance , but as having some kindly influence in the effect , by vertue of the appointment of God , & such a connexion therewith , that it no sooner existeth , but as soon justification followeth . Faith then can not be called a meer causa sine qua non . Historical faith & several other antecedents , may be a conditio or causa sine qua non ; for no man of age can be justified without it ; yet we may not say , that we justified by it , as by saving faith ; the same may be said of Conviction & Sense of sin , of some measure at least , of legal Repentance , and of desire of Pardon & of Peace , which yet may be , and oft are without justification . And it may also seem strange , how this causa sine qua non , can be called a potestative condition ; or how that , which is said to be a proper Potestative Condition , ex cujus praestatione constituitur jus actuale ad beneficium , can be called a meer conditio or causa sine qua non , seing it hath such a considerable moral influence in the effect ? But saith Mr. Baxter against Mr. Blake § . 27 , faith cannot justifie both as a Condition , & as an Instrument of Iustification ; for either of them importeth the proximam & causalem rationem of faith , as to the effect ; & it is utterly inconsistent with its nature , to have two such different neerest causal interests . Ans. When we speak of Faiths justifying , as an Instrument , we consider the physical , or quasi physical way of its operation , and denote only its kindly acting on Jesus Christ , and on his Righteousness which it layeth hold on , applyeth , apprehendeth , & putteth on . And when we say it justifieth as a condition , we consider it as appointed of God unto that end , & as placed by Him , in that state & relation unto justification , which now it hath : And either of these can be called the proxima ratio causalis of Faith , according to its different consideration : if justification , ( meaning not God's act only , but the complex relative change ) be considered in genere Physico , or quasi physico , then the neerest causal interest of faith , is its instrumentality : but if it be considered in genere morali , or legali , then its neerest causal interest is , that it is a condition . As when a rich man bestoweth a purse of gold on a beggar , & requireth that he , in order to the possessing of it , streatch forth his hand , & take it , considering this act of enriching him in genere physico , his hand acteth herein , as an Instrument , apprehending the purse , & taking it to himself : considering this , in genere legali or morali , the streatching forth of his hand , and apprehending the purse is a condition ; for so the donor hath determined to give the riches , after such a manner & methode , for his own ends , according to his good pleasure . Thus we see , how faith can , in its way , produce one & the same effect of justification , both as an Instrument , and as a Condition , taking these termes , in a large sense , according to the matter in hand . Mr. Baxter saith Confess . p. 89. he denieth that Faith is an Instrument of Iustification , because he dar not give so much of Christ's honour to man , or any act of mans , as to be an efficient cause of pardoning himself . Ans. And he knoweth , that the orthodox do of purpose , call faith an Instrument in justification , in opposition to the Papists , that Christ may weare the honour alone , and man may be abased : & if they have been unhappy , in falling upon the medium to that end ; Yet their Intention was honest . But when Faith is called an Instrument in justification , justification is not taken for an act of accepting & pardoning alone ; for they knew , that it was God only that accepteth & pardoneth , & that it is he only , who Justifieth ; but they took justification in a more comprehensive sense , as including Christ's Righteousness , the only formal ground of justification , in reference to which , Faith is said to act as an Instrument receiving . And this may satisfie such , as will not have the mysteries of God cast in a pure Philosophical mould , because some such termes are used for explications sake . Mr. Baxter Confess . p. 95. saith . Such as say , faith justifieth qua instrumentum , de most certainly make it to justifie , as an action . And in his postscript , to Mr. Cartwright . Those that make faith to justifie , as an Instrument , or as apprehensio Christi , do set up the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere , which they cry down ; for that , which they call instrumentality , is the apprehensive act , & apprehendere & credere are here all one . They contradict themselves in saying , that Paul excludes all works , because faith ( say they ) justifieth not as a work : for to justifie qua instrumentum , or qua apprehensio Christi , is to justifie as a work , or as this work . And so this doctrine sets up justification by works & that in an unlawful sense ; for it maketh the formal reason of Faiths justifying to be its apprehension , that is , that it is such an action ; or its instrumentality , which is an operation . ] Ans. This is no new Objection ; for Schlichtingius the Socinian Cont. Meisnerum p. 130. did object the same upon the matter . It is true , when we say faith Justifieth as an Instrument , we make it to Justifie as an action , taking qua specificativè as he himself also must do , when he faith it justifieth as a Condition Potestative , for a potestative condition is some action performed , & himself , as we heard , called it actio voluntaria de futuro . But he knoweth , that when it is said , that Faith justifieth , as an Instrument , the meaning is but more emphatically to shew , that it is the Righteousness of Christ , which faith apprehendeth , by which we are justified , & that they , who cry up the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere , make that the Righteousness , by which we are justified ; so that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere in their sense , who will have it imputed to us for Righteousness , respecteth immediatly the benefite , to wit , Pardon , Acceptation &c. Faith as an Instrument , or apprehension , in our sense , respecteth Christ & his Righteousness immediatly , which it receiveth as an Instrument , in order to the benefite , which is had upon the account of Christ & his Righteousness , made ours ; In our sense , faith is no more , but as the hand receiving bread , and as the mouth eating it , in order to food & nourishment thereby ; in their sense , faith is made the very food & nourishment , or meat it self that nourisheth : When we say , that Faith Justifieth as an Instrument , it is but , as if we said , man liveth by his hands taking meat , and by his mouth eating it ; when they say , that faith justifieth as a work , & that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere is imputed for Righteousness , it is , as if they said , the hand & the mouth are the very food , or the meat it self , by which we live and are nourished : we , looking upon Faith as an Instrument , as upon the hand and mouth , as instruments of nourishment , ascribe all the vertue of nourishment unto the meat . They , denying the hand and the mouth to be considered here as instruments , and saying that we live and are nourished by the hand and the mouth , ( just as they do , when they make the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere our Righteousness , in reference to justification ) ascribe all the vertue of nourishment unto the hand & the mouth , and so set up the hand & the mouth , in the place , that is due unto the meat , and rob the meat , of that power & vertue , that is only proper to it . Yet withall , when we say , that hands and mouth nourish us as Instruments , we do not deny , but in a general sense , our receiving of meat with our hands , & eating of it with our mouth , are conditions of nourishment , importing hereby , that the wise God hath appointed this order and methode , giving us hands to receive meat , & mouths to eat it , & a stomach to digest it , in order to the living , and receiving thereby nourishment ; only we do not say , they are such conditions , as have all the vertue of nourishment in them . This is but a similitude , and so must halt in some things , as all similitudes do ; yet it serveth to illustrate the matter , and to shew the difference betwixt our expressions , and the expressions of our Adversaries , in this matter ; & how little ground there is so this objection , and particularly how , when we say faith justifieth as an Instrument , we do not withall say , it justifieth , as a work , in our Adversaries sense ; And how , when we say , Faith is a condition , we do not withall say , that it justifieth as a potestative proper condition , in our Adversaries sense ; as also , how we cannot admit , that faith shall be called no more , than a causa sine qua non ; seing it is so manifest , that eating & digesting of meat hath another influence into nourishment by food , than a meer causa sine qua non hath into any effect . Mr. Baxter Confess . p. 95. 96. I must therefore professe , that after long consideration I know no one terme , that properly expresseth this neerest & formal interest of faith in justification , but only the terme condition , as that is usually taken for the condition of a free gift , & when the Scripture telleth us , how faith justifieth , it is in such termes , as these , if thou confess with thy mouth &c. he that beleeveth shall be saved &c. In all which , if the conditional if , & the conditional forme of the promise , express not a condition , I despaire of ever understanding it in this life . Ans. As for the neerest & formal interest of Faith , in Justification , if all other questions touching that fundamental truth of Justification , were satisfyingly determined , & put to an end , there needed not be much controversie ; but when as we have seen , the decision of this hath such an interest in the decision of more substantial points , or necessarily attendeth the same , enquirie with sobriety after the truth , even in these lesser things , cannot be condemned ; And , on the contrare , receding from , & condemning received termes & expressions , which have an obvious , plaine & sound meaning , being taken , according as they have been constantly used , because not quadrating every way with mens new Philosophical and too metaphysical apprehensions & notions , in this matter , cannot but be displeasing . And too much Philophical accuracy in the clearing up of these mysteries , is not the most edifying & saife way of explication . 2. We are not against the use of the terme Condition in this matter , knowing that faith may well be called a condition , but the question is in what sense we must take the word , condition : And to say , that it is taken , as commonly used for the condition of a free gift , will not satisfie in our case ; because though the gift which we expect by faith , is to us indeed free ; yet it is a purchased free gift ; & such a free gift , as these who get it , have all the legal title & Right thereunto , through the Ca●tioners purchase & payment , & only come to the possession of it through Faith , according to the wise methode & Connexion , made by the Soveraigne Lord. Adam's perfect obedience might have been called the condition of a free gift : and we cannot give the same place & power to Faith in the New Covenant , that perfect obedience had in the old ; for Adam if he had perfectly obeyed , had gote his reward without any intervention of a Price by a Mediator , purchasing it , but we must hold all our reward solely of Christ , that he may have the glory of all ( 3 ) as ( if ) can denote a Condition , so ( by , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) can denote an instrumental cause . Himself tels us som-where in his Confut , of Ludom , Colvinus , aliàs Ludov , Molinaeus , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoteth an efficient cause & we read , that we are Iustified by faith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And further , though these passages , which he citeth , and the conditional if , and the conditional forme of the promise , do indeed express a Condition ; yet they do not say , or prove that the terme Condition is the only one terme , that properly expresseth the nearest & formal interest of faith in Justification ; or that the terme of an Instrument is no way fit to express this neer & formal interest of faith in justification , seing to be justified by faith , or through faith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( all which the Scripture useth ) is as expressive of an Instrumental interest , as if thou beleeve &c. is expressive of a condition . He saith ibid. p. 89. Conclus . 10. That the difference betwixt him & others , is not that he giveth any more to works , than they ; but that they give more to faith , than he , & consequently to man : & if he be guilty of equalling faith & obedience too much , it is not by bringing up works too high ( to be Instruments of Iustification , as they make Faith ) but in taking down Faith too much , & consequently , in too much abaseing all acts of man. Ans. If he bring up works to Faith , in our Justification , & give a like interest to both , he giveth more to works , than the orthodox will do : And when we call faith an Instrument in justification , we give not so much to it , as they do , who call it conditio potestativa , and give it the same place in the New Covenant , that perfect obedience had in the old , as was seen above : And who ever say this , are so far from debasing man & his actions , that they give him , as much ground of glorying & boasting , as ever Adam would have had , if he had fulfilled the condition , & given full & perfect Obedience : And he cannot but know , that that terme , Instrument , was of purpose applied to Faith , in this matter , to depresse man , & to keep the crown upon the head of Christ , as it is apt enough to do , if it be but candidely understood , & taken as it is applied , and no further , nor vexed with metaphysical niceties , a way , that might render every borrowed terme , whether from arts or sciences , how expressive so ever of our meaning , & explicative of the matter intended , utterly useless . It is true , when he calleth faith only a causa sine qua non , he seemeth to giveless to Faith , than we do , if that terme be taken , in its strick sense , as it is by Philosophers taken , who will not have it called a Cause at all , but rather conditio sine qua non : But thus he depresseth it below that place & interest , which is due to all the institutions & appointments of God , as such ; for none of them can rightly be called conditio sine qua non , and no more , in reference to that effect & end , for which they are appointed of him ; and far less can Faith be said to be only conditio sine qua non , in reference to justification , seing by the unalterable appointment of the Soveraigne Lord , justification so dependeth upon & is connected with Faith , that who ever beleeveth ( to wit , savingly , or with that Faith , which here we only understand ) whensoever he beleeveth , doth immediatly passe from death unte life , and is justified . But no man will say , that the effect doth so much depend upon , or is connected with that , which is but a conditio sine qua non , as was before shewn , in several Instances : And where is then his Conditio Potestativa ? is that but a causa fatua . But ibid. Conclus . 9. he tels us , that one maine reason , which constrained him to deny that Faith is an Instrument in justification , is because he dar not give so much of Christ's honour to man , or any act of mans , as to be an efficiont cause of pardoning himself . Ans. When we make Faith an Instrument in justification , we make it not an Instrument of the act of pardoning , which is solely the Lords act ; but taking justification largly as including the Righteousness of Christ the only ground thereof , we say , that in reference to Christ , & this Surety-Righteousness of his which is imputed , in order to the Lord 's justifying & Pardoning of us , faith acteth as an Instrument , apprehending Christ & his Righteousness , & upon that account is to be considered as an Instrument , in the matter of justification : And himself Concl. 11. ibid. saith that he ever held , that it is only faith , that is the receiving of Christ , & that faith being the only receiving grace ( wherein no meer moral duty or grace doth participate of its honour or nature ) it was therefore by God peculiarly destinated or appointed to the office of justifying , as fittest to the glorying of free grace , & of God Redeemer therein . And if this be the all . ( as to the substance ) of what we say , or the most of that which we meane , when we call faith an Instrument , what ground was there of differing from his brethren ? or what ground was there to feare , that Christ's honour should have been wronged thereby ? Sure , while Faith is called an Instrument , as receiving Christ & his Righteousness , in order to justification , Christ is more honoured in that affaire , than when our Faith is made our Gospel-Righteousness , & called a perfect Righteousness & so our whole Righteousness ( as some ) a chiefe part of it ( as others ) upon the account of which we are justified . CHAP. XXIX . What Interest Repentance hath in our Justification . IN reference to the clearing of this Question , about the Interest of Repentance in Justification , it will not be necessary to speak much of Repentance it self , the premitting of a few things will be sufficient unto our purpose . The Hebrew word , which is rendered repent , is of a general signification for it signifieth to return , whether from a place , or from the distemper of our minds , or from our former courses ; & so denoteth a motion or change of the body from one place to another ; or of the mind from any purpose , or of the whole way & walk , and in special , it sometime signifieth a change of the whole man to the better , both as to his Mind , Resolution , and Deportment , & thus denoteth a mans turning unto God : And accordingly we read in the New Testam . of the Prodigals coming or returning to himself , or to his right mind & wits ; and we heare of Repentance towards God. In the N. Testam . there are two greek words , the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importing such a change , as it attended with after care ; the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying such a change , as denoteth after-wit or after thought . Some do so difference these two , as that they say , the last signifieth so to sorrow for what is done , as to amend it , called by the latines Resipiscere & therefore properly is meaned of a good & saving Repentance , wherein the penitent returneth to his right wits , so as to reforme & amend what hath been amisse ; and the other denoteth properly care , anxiety & solicitude after something done , called by the Latines poenitere , and this may be used in an evil sense , as denoting properly no change of minde or carriage to the better , but simply such a trouble & anxiety for what is done , as maketh them wish , it were not done , whether the thing done was good or evil . But in the New Test. we finde not this difference constantly obsérved ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken both in a good sense , for a good Repentance , & saving Mat. 21 : 32 , 29. and for a common Repentance , that is not saving . Mal : 27 : 3. where mention is made of Iudas repenting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cometh therefrom , import a good & saving Repentance , except , Heb. 12 : 17. What this word denoteth , when used of God , either affirmativly , or negativly , we need not here enquire . It is more for our purpose to consider , that Repentance may be taken in a threefold sense , 1. for a common work of legal sorrow through conviction of hazard , because of sin , whereby the man may rew , be grieved , & be sorrowful for what he hath done , and wish he had not done it , as Iudas repented of his wickedness . This may be ; and yet not be attended with Pardon of sins : And , as to such , in whom the Lord purposeth to carry on the work of Condition , & Humiliation untill it come to real Conversion , and an Union with Christ , though it may be called a conditio sine qua non of Justification & Pardon , in such , in regaird that usually , if not alwayes , the Lord premitteth some thing of this , as to some sensible measure , or other , unto his more gracious workings ; yet this Common Repentance hath no proper interest in justification , & cannot be called a Condition thereof , far less a Cause , seing in it self it hath no certain connexion with justification , & though it be an antecedent in the justified , yet it may be , and often is , where no justification followeth , being in many nothing but the sorrow of the world , that worketh death 2. Cor. 7 : 10. But 2. There is a Repentance , that is only peculiar unto such , as are already Justified & Pardoned , following upon & flowing from the sense and intimation of Pardon expressed by Self-abhoring , Self-lothing , Melting of heart , and Tenderness & the like . so Ezek. 16 : 63. That thou mayest remember & be confounded , & never open thy mouth any more , because of thy shame , when I am pacified toward thee &c. So Ezek. 36-25 , 26 , 27 , 28. comp . with vers . 31 : See also Ier. 31 : 19 , 20. Neither can this be called , or accounted a Condition of Justification , & Remission , because it manifestly followeth not only Justification , & Remission , itself , but also the sense and intimation thereof ; & therefore cannot go before it . But. 3. The greatest difficulty is anent that work of Repentance , which is a saving work of the Spirit going a longs with Faith , ariseing from the sense of sin committed , and the apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ , causing spiritual & kindly griefe , sorrow and indignation at themselves and their sinful wayes ; with an hatred of sin & a fixed purpose to forsake it , and to turn to the Lord & this is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures . Now this Repentance may be considered two wayes , first as it is in these , in whom the Lord is working a work of Conversion , & whom He is translating out of dearkness in to the Kingdom of his dear Son , and Secondly as it is in such , as are already brought in to a justified state , after new sins committed . As to this last , we will have a fit occasion to enquire afterward , how or what way it is required in reference to Remission & Pardon of after-sins . The first falleth now under consideration , because we are speaking of Justification , which holdeth forth a change of state , as was formerly explained . That we may therefore proceed the more distinctly in this Inquisition , we must fi●st take notice of the several senses of the word , or of the termes equipollent in Scripture ; and see what is properly denoted there . by . And 1. Sometime it denoteth most griefe , sorrow , or that which is called contrition , or that part of Repentance , as Luk. 10 : 33. where it is explained by sitting in sackcloth & ashes . Ier. 8 : 6. - No man repented him of his wickedness , saying what have I done . Thus it may also be taken 2. Cor. 11 : 21. - & that I shall bewail many which have sinned already , & have not Repented of the uncleaness & fornication & lasciviousness , which they have committed . Here , I say , it may be looked upon as mostly denoting this part of Repentance ; though not as excluding the other parts . 2. Some time it denoteth mostly a change of former courses & wayes ; whether of errour , as 2. Tim. 2 : 25. If God per adventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the truth ; or of Conversation , called Repentance from dead works Heb. 6 : 1. So 2. Chron. 7 : 14. it is called a turning from their evil wayes & from sins Ezek. 18 : 21. It was said to Simon Magus Act. 8 : 22. repent of this thy wickedness . See Rev. 2 : 21 , 22. 3. Sometime it denoteth the whole work of Conversion & turning unto God , Act. 26 : 20 - that they should Repent & turn to God , where the latter expression is but exegetick of the former . So also Act. 3 : 19. Repent ye therefore & be converted : where both expressions denote one & the same thing , the last being explicative of the former Ezek. 18 : 30. Repent & turn yourselves . And this is imported by many Synonimous expressions , in the Old Testament , as Seeking the Lord Deut. 4 : 29. Turning to the Lord vers . 30. Returning to the Lord. Hos 5 : 4. Seeking the face of God 2. Chron. 7 : 14. & the like . See also Revel . 3 : 19. 4. It is sometimes expresly distinguished from Godly sorrow , & mentionned as a Consequent , or fruite & effect of it 2. Cor. 7 : 9 - yee sorrowed to Repentance . 10. for Godly sorrow worketh Repentance . 5. Sometime it is expresse distinguished from Faith , as Act. 20 ; 21 - Repentance toward God , & faith toward our Lord Iesus Christ. Heb. 6 : 1. not laying againe the foundation of repentance from dead works , & of faith towards God. So Ier. 31 : 19. after I was turned ( that is wrought up to faith ) I repented . 6. Sometime it signifieth nothing else , upon the matter but a receiving of the Gospel & a beleeving in Christ , not only Mark. 1 : 15. repens ye & beleeve the Gospel ; where the later is explicative of the former , but also in many other places , where Bapist's ministrie is spoken of , the summe whereof is said to have been Repent , for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand Mat. 3 : 2. and his baptisme was called the Baptisme of Repentance Mark. 1 : 4 or unto Repentance Mat. 3 : 11. See also Luk. 3 : 3. Act. 13 : 24. Now , that this preaching of Repentance , & Baptisme of or unto Repentance , which is said to have been Iohn's ministrie , & work , was the preaching of Faith in the Messiah , Paul telleth us expreslie Act. 19 4. Then said Paul , Iohn verily baptized with the baptisme of Repentance , saying unto the people , that they should beleeve on him , which should come after him , that is , on Christ Iesus . So that , by this Commentary of Paul's , we understand both what was the scope of his Baptisme of Repentance , & also what was the meaning of his calling on his hearers to Repent , to wit , to embrace Christ , who came after him , & to beleeve in him . And by this Commentary , we may understand the purpart of Christ's preaching Mat. 4 : 17. from that time Iesus began to preach , & to say , Repent ; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand . And this is called Mark. 1 : 14. the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. As also of the preaching of the Apostles & Seventy disciples , when they were sent to say , the Kingdom of God was come , or is nigh unto you Luk. 10 : 9. Mat. 10 : 7. which is called the Gospel Luk. 9 : 6. and Repentance Mark. 6 : 12. they went out & preached that men should Repent . By this also we may understand the meaning of these & the like passages Mat. 9 : 13 - I am not come to call the Righteous , but sinners to Repentance . So Mark. 2 : 17. Luk. 5 : 32. as likewise of that passage Luk. 15 : 7 , 10 - joy in heaven , over one person , that repenteth : for this is Christ's saving of the man , that was lost Mat. 18 : 11. Luk. 15 : 4. & 19. 10. See also Mat. 11 : 20. Act. 2 : 38. & 11 : 18. & 26 : 18. & 20. compared together . 7. Sometime it denoteth a recovery from some measure of defection , into which persons are backsliden , as Revel . 2 : 5. Remember therefore , from whence thou art fallen , & Repent , & do shy first works . So Ch. 3 : 3. Remember therefore , how thou hast received , & heard , & hold fast , & Repent . 8. Sometime it is distinguished from works of Obedience , that follow upon it & flow from it ; as Mat. 3 : 8. bring forth fruits meet for Repentance , that is fruits suiting or answerable unto a Christian state , or a state of beleeving in Christ , which before we saw was denoted by Iohn's Baptisme . So Luk. 3 : 8. & Act. 26 : 10. 9. Sometime it includeth all , that is required , in order to Salvation , upon mans part , as 2 Pet. 3 : 9 - not willing that any should pert●h , but that all should come to Repentance . So that Repentance includeth all , that is requisite to escape perishing . So Luk. 13 : 3 , 5 - except ye Repent ye shall all likewise perish . So also Act. 5 : 31. to give Repentance to Israel , & Remission of sins ; where , as Remission of sins may comprehend all the spiritual favours and privileges , which Christ bestoweth , so Repentance may include all the gra●es & blessings , which he bestoweth , in order to the actual participating of these privileges . Thus we may understand it Act. 17 : 30. but now commandeth all men every where to Repent , that is , by the preached Gospel , wherever it cometh , commandeth all men to relinquish their courses of vanity & to embrace the Gospel of Salvation , & to walk accordingly . So Luk. 24 : 47. And that Repentance & Remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations : which is the short summe of the Apostles Commission , to wit , to exhort to all Christian duties , imported by Repentance ; & hold forth all Gospel privileges , as an encouragment thereunto , included in Remission of sins . Having premitted these things ; in order to the clearing of the question , we would know further . 1. That the Question is not , whether the doctrine of Papists about Repentance in order to Justification , be to be owned , in whole , or in part ? for none now appeareth in the direct owning of their Assertions , who commonly are utterly ignorant of true Justification , as different from Sanctification , as may sufficiently appeare by the very naming of their positions for ( 1 ) They look upon Repentance as having force & efficacy to expell sin , as light hath to expell darkness , taking Remission to be a destroying of the very being of sin , & expelling of Corruption by contrary gracious Qualities , & inherent Holiness , of which they make Repentance a part . ( 2 ) They make Repentance concurre , as a material cause dssposing the soul for receiving a gracious Quality , for the expelling of sin . ( 3 ) They make Repentance to obtain pardon by way of merite , and ( 4 ) by way of Satisfaction . Not to mention ( 5 ) their Sacrament of Pennance . All which the Reader will finde not only rejected ; but also shortly & solidly confused by worthy & judicious Mr. Durham in his Comment , on the Revel . in that digression on Repentance . pag. 251. 2. Nor is the Question , whether the Lord call for Repentance as a duty , at the hands of such as either are to be Justified , or are already Justified ? for both these we willingly grant , as being divine truthes , richly confirmed in the Scriptures , what ever Antinomians say to the contrary . 3. Nor is the Question , whether Repentance be a Condition of the Covenant , or not ? For if by a Condition of the Covenant , we understand every thing , that is a duty , required of the Covenanters , it is readily granted , as was said , that Repentance is a duty required of such as are really in Covenant with God ; but if by a Condition of the Covenant be meaned a duty required in order to the closing of the Covenant , or entering into Covenant , upon the performing of which the Covenant is immediatly closed & entered into , this ●s denied ; and abundantly confuted by Mr. Durham , in the forecited Digression . 4. But the Question is , if Repentance hath the same Place , Office , Use & Consideration in Justification , that Faith hath ; so that it may be every way as well , & as fully called the Coudition of Justification , as Faith is ; & so that it is called for in order to Justification , upon the same account , and under the same formality , that Faith is called for . Socinians & Arminians ( as we heard above ) joine Repentance & Faith , in the same Order & Place , & ascribe the same Office Use & Power unto both , in order to Justification . And Mr. Baxter tels us Confess . pag. 37. n. 19. That Repentance is made by God , in the Gospel , a proper Condition of our first general pardon of sin , as well as Faith is . And he laith down a ground for this interest of Repentance ( which , I suppose , will reach to the including of other works also ) in the foregoing n. 18. saying , a quatenus ad omne vale● consequentia . If faiths formal interest in pardon be , as it is the Condition of the act of pardon , then whatsoever is such a Condition , must have the same Kind of formal interest , as faith . By the first general purdon of sin here , he meaneth Justification ; for with him Remission of sins & Justification is all one thing . And yet afterward pag. 96. Concl. 29. he hath words , which would seem to give some peculiar interest unto Faith ; & so contradict what is here said , for he saith , If any say , that seing faith hath a peculiar aptitude to this office , therefore it must have a peculiar Interest . I answere , so it hath . For I , it doth alone , without ( merites , or ) any positive Gospel works of obedience ( as such at least ) procure ( as far as belongs to its office ) our first full Justification . 2. The love of Christ received , Gratitude &c. are but as modification of Faith , which is called the receiving itself . Though some of them be distinct physical acts , yet all the rest , morally considered , are but as it were , the modification of faith : I mean of that act , which is the acceptance of Christ , & life freely given &c. Now , I suppose , he will grant ( as he doth above , as we may see ) that Repentance hath not that peculiar aptitude , to this office , that Faith hath ; & consequently cannot have that peculiar Interest , as he confesseth : I suppose also , that he will put Repentance , in the same rank with Gospel-Works of Obedience ; & consequently it must no more share of that special Interest , that belongeth to Faith , in this office , than they : I suppose likewise , that he will grant Repentance to be but , a Modification of Faith , as well , as Love & Gratitude : and then I would know , how Repentance can be said to be as proper a Condition of Justification , as Faith is ? Sure , if it be as proper , it must have as peculiar an interest , for this peculiarity of Interest cannot respect its aptitude meerly , but it s de●●gned & appointed state , in that office ; otherwayes the objection , which he moved , and answered , should have this sense , seing Faith hath a peculiar aptitude to this office ; therefore it must have a peculiar aptitude to this office , which were non sense . Now that Repentance hath not the same Interest in Justification , that Faith hath , we judge evident from these grounds . 1. The Scripture tels us , that we are justified by Faith , and that several times , & not only saith it , but proveth it , as we saw above : But it no where saith , that we are justified by Repentance . And reason would require , that such as say , that Repentance hath the same Interest in Justification , that faith hath , should tell us , where it is said , we are justified by Repentance : for when it is thus said of Faith , & no where thus said of Repentance : there must be a vast difference , as to their interest in Justification ; unless they can give us some Scripture expressions concerning the Interest of Repentance , aequivalent to this , we are justified by Repentance . If it be said . That this is equipollent when it is said , Repent that your sins may be blotted out : & Repentance & Remission of sins are joyned together & the like . I answer , Leaving the particular examination of these & the like passages alledged , untill afterward , I shall only say this at present . ( 1 ) That justification & Remission of sins are not every way the same . Though Mr. Baxter hath several times said it ; yet in his Catholick . Theolog. of God's Covenant &c. Sect. XIII . n. 203. he saith our first constitutive justification is in its own Nature a Right to impunity ( & this , as he oft elsewhere tels us , is Remission ) & to life or glory . Now what is beside a Right to Impunity , also a Right to life & glory , is more than Remission of sins : And therefore the consequence from Remission to Justification cannot stand . ( 2 ) In like manner , because it is said Luk. 6 : 37 - forgive & it shall be forgiven you , it may be inferred , that for-giving of our Neighbour some fault , that he hath done us , is the Condition of our Constitutive Justification , & hath as great an interest in our Justification , as Faith it se●f , and by it we have as really Right to impunity , and Right to life & glory , as by Faith. It is true , Mr. Allen will not think this very absurd , who reasometh from this same passage , not far otherwise . In his discourse of the two Covenants . pag. 52. Yet I suppose , others will : & I doubt , if Mr. Baxter shall make this one & the same thing with Faith , as he laboureth in his Catholick Theol. to make Faith & Repentance one . It will be said , when we are said to be Justified by Faith , it is all one , as if we were said to be Justified by Repentance : for Mr. Baxter cleareth , Of God's Govern. Sect. XII . how Faith & Repentance is all one thing . I Ans. ( 1 ) if the Spirit of the Lord had but once said , in his word , that we were justified by Repentance , we might then be allowed , to think of such explications , as might make either both one thing , or shew , how both hath the same interest in Justification : but when the Scripture never once saith , that we are justified by Repentance , for us to devise such explications , as to make the Scripture speak what it never speaketh , is not faire , nor is it to edification , because it hath no tendency to explaine the matter , as expressed in the Scriptures ; and is so far from clearing up the truth , that it darkeneth all ; for hereby we are taught to understand faith , wherever we hear of Repentance , & Repentance , where mention is made of Faith ; so that we may ascribe all to Repentance , that is spoken of Faith Heb. 11. & say , that Repentance is the substance of things hoped for , & the evidence of things not seen &c. ( 2 ) Though it is true , the word Repentance ( as we have seen ) is sometime taken so largely , as to include faith ; yet that will not allow us , to say , we are Justified by Repentance , as we are justified by Faith : It is best for us to follow Scripture language : The Scripture expresly denieth , that we are justified by works ; & yet Repentance is sometimes , taken in such a large sense , as to include all acts of Obedience ; This way then would allow us to sav , we are justified by all works of obedience , ( even as to constitutive Justification ) as we are by Faith : Yet Mr. Baxter in his Confess . p. 89 , 90. putteth a difference betwixt Faith & Evangelick Obedience as to this Constitutive Justification , making the one , like consent to marriage relation , or taking one to be my Captaine ; & the other like conjugal fidelity & obedience , or obeying the captain , & sighting under him , & tels us , that he no more comprizeth all Obedience in Faith , than conjugal obedience in the marriage consent . ( 3 ) That Repentance is not the same with Faith in the matter of justification ; ( in reference to which , we now speak of both ) will appear from our following reasons : So that whatever paines be taken to make them one , on other accounts , will be to no purpose , as to our present business . 2. If Repentance have the same interest in Justification , that Faith hath , then works shall have the same interest with Faith ; but this is diametically opposite to all the Apostles disput Rom. 3. & 4. & Gal. 2. & 3. The reason of the Consequence is , because Repentance includeth works , & is a special work & act of obedience itself Mr. Baxter tels Confess . p. 94. That Paul's scope is both to take down Moses's Law ( especially its necessity & conceited sufficiency ) & the Dignity of legal works ( & consequently of any works ) & that therefore by works Paul meaneth to exclude only merites , or works , which are conceited Meritorious , or which for the worth of the dead done , should procure Pardon & acceptance with God , without a Mediators blood ; & so Paul himself described the works , that he speaketh against . Rom. 4 : 4. That they are such as make the Reward to be not of Grace , but of debt . Ans. This is but the same we heard before from Iohn Godwine , and the same answer may suffice . ( 1 ) If the scope of Paul had been only to take down Moses's Law ; why did he speak so much of the Gentiles , & shew how they were all under sin , & therefore must be justified by Faith , & not by the Law , or by works ? This had no manifest tendency to that scope . ( 2 ) Why brought he in the Instance of Abraham , who was before the Law of Moses ? Abraham's not being justified by works , could not prove the insufficiency of Moses's Law thereunto : ( 3 ) To think , that the Jewes did conceite , that they would obtaine Pardon & Acceptance with God , only by their laborious performance of Ceremonies & costly Sacrifices , excluding all Moral acts of obedience , is apparently groundless ; contrary to Rom. 9 : 30 , 31 , 32. & 10 : 3 , 4 , 5. & would say , that Paul took not a right medium to destroy that conceite , for his neerest & surest course had been to have shown the nullity of that Law , now under the Gospel ; hereby all occasion of further debate being perfectly removed . ( 4 ) Paul is so far Rom. 4 : 4. from describing the works , that he speaketh of , to be such only as make the reward of debt , that he proveth that Justification cannot be by works , by this medium , because then the reward should be reckoned , not of grace , but of debt , and so telleth us , that all work make the reward of debt : This is a manifest perversion of the Apostles argument : for he saith not , now to him , that so worketh , as to conceite his works meritorious , the reward is not reckoned of grace , but of debt ; but now to him that worketh : far less can this be the meaning or construction of the words , now to him , that maketh the reward to be not of grace , but of debt : for what sense is here ? And further the meaning of the following words must accordingly be this ; but to him that so worketh , as not to make the reward of debt but of grace , his working is counted for Righteousness . While as the Apostle saith a plaine other thing . But to him , that worketh not , but beleeveth on him , that justifieth the ungodly , his faith is counted for righteousness . Sure , working without this conceite of merite , is not beleeving on him , that justifieth the ungodly , neither are these works counted for Righteousness ; for holy Abraham wrought without that conceite & yet he was not justified by works , vers . 2 , 3. Nor did David meane , that mans blessedness did consist in the imputation of such works ; nor did he describe that blessedness , when he said , blessed are they , whose iniquities are forgiven &c. Consider 1. Cor. 4 : 4 , Ephes. 2 : 9. Phil. 3 : 9. Tit. 3 : 5. 3. Repentance hath no instrumentall acting on Christ & his Righteonsness , in order to our being justified . But Faith hath this , as was shown in the foregoing Chapter . Therefore Repentance hath not the same Interest in Justification , that Faith hath . It is requisite & necessary , in order to our Justification , that we be clothed with a Righteousness , even the Surety-Righteousness of Christ : and Faith only can lay hold on this & put it on , & not Repentance . Repentance doth not act so upon any thing without a man , to bring it home that it may become the mans Righteousness , it hath other work , & acteth upon another object , upon sin within the man. It is true Mr. Baxter in his Catholick Theol. of God's Government Sect. XI . will have faith rather to be called a receiving cause than an Instrumental , & a medium or dispositive cause of the effect , justification as as received , but not as given . And then Sect. XII . he calleth Repentance a disposit to materiae recipientis too , & a part of the condition of the Covonant . But we think it needless here to distinguish , with him , betwixt , receiving Iustification , & being Justified , we do not call Faith an Instrument of God's act Justifying , as was said above . If Faith & Repentance be dispositive causes of the effect & causa dispositiva be part of the causa materialis , as he also saith , I suppose , they are not meer causae sine quibus non ; as he said elsewhere . But to our business , we have cleared before , how ●aith acteth in the matter of Justification , how it receiveth an imputed Righteousness & laith hold on this Surety-Righteousness of Christ & applieth it , to the end , the accused impeached man may have wherewithall he may stand before the Tribunal of God , & be accepted of as Righteous , in his Cautioner , & through his Cautioners Righteousness imputed to him , & now received by Faith : & though Mr. Baxter do account Faith's accepting of Christ , & life offered on that condition , only its aptitude to the office , & that the formal reason of its office as to our Justification , is its being the performed condition of the Covenant , as he there speaketh ; yet that will not invalidat our argument : for ( 1 ) Faiths aptitude ( as he calleth it ) or rather its work & acting in Justification , is not meerly an accepting of Christ , & life offered on that condition ; but it is the accepting , laying hold on , leaning to , & applying the Surety-Righteousness of Christ , presupposing the accepting of Christ himself . ( 2 ) Though it may be said , that the neerest formal Reason of Faiths office , is the Lord's appointment ; yet this being too too Philosophical here contributeth nothing to the clearing up of the matter , in order to practice , so neither was Philosophical accuracy the ground whereupon they went , who said , that Faiths interest in Justification , was as an Instrument , but rather their end was to cleare the matter in order to Practice ; so as poor souls might not fall into mistakes ; & this I judge to be the best Theological acuracie , howbeit he should account many such speaches nothing but unintelligible phrases , and such doctrine to containe such senselesness & consequents , as the opening up of would offend , as he there speaketh . ( 3 ) It is certaine , that Repentance doth not so act on Christ , and his Surety-Righteounsness , in order to Justification , as Faith doth , Repentance , as such is no acceptance of a free gift , far less of a gift of Righteousness , & of an Atonement there-through ; Repentance acteth not thus on Christ : Yea the reason he giveth Confess . p. 39. why Repentance was made a condition of pardon , doth sufficiently shew , that it cannot have that interest , that Faith hath . His reason is this . Because without it ( Repentance ) God & the Redeemer cannot have their end in pardoning us ; Nor can the Redeemer do all his work , for which we do accept him : for his work is , upon the pardoning of us , to bring us back in heart & life to God ; from whom we were fallen & strayed . This was Christ's work . Therefore the condition , which Christ maketh , are , as if he should say , If you will be saved by me , & are willing that I shall bring you back to God , I will both bring you into his favour by Pardon , and into a capacity of personal pleasing & enjoying of him . Now , our Repentance is our consent to return to God , & the change of our mindes , by turning from former sin , that was our idol , & being willing by Christ to be restored to obedience . By this , I say , it is clear , that Repentance hath a more direct aspect upon , & reference to the consequences of Pardon & Justifiction itself ; we grant its necessity unto all the ends mentioned , and its necessary presence in such as are Justified ; & that its contrare , or positive impenitency , cannot consist with Faith , in such as are to be Justified : Yet that will not give ground to inferre , that it hath the same Interest , Influence & Consideration , in Justification , that Faith hath . Mr. Baxter In his Confess . p. 39 , 40. seemeth to grant this whole Argument , when he expresseth himself thus . This I say , that man may see , I do not level Faith with Repentance , much less ( as they charge me ) with actual external works of obedience , which in this first remission & justification , I take not to be so much , as existent . What he addeth concerning the Ratio forma●ts , why faith or Repentance have such an interest in our Pardon , to wit , because God hath made them the Conditions of the promise , cannot hinder our conclusion , untill first it be proved , that God hath made Repentance such a Condition , we are speaking here of the difference , that is betwixt the two , as to their Nature & Aptitude , which he confesseth to be very great , & also as to their place & use because of the great difference , that is betwixt them , as to Nature & Aptitude . 4. If the Interest of Faith be not , as it is a work , or inward grace . inherent in the soul , but as such a going out of the soul from it self , & all its own inherent good , and from all external privileges , or what may be called adherent personal good , unto an offered Mediator , that it may embrace him , & lay hold on , and lean to his jussorie-Righteousness ; then Repentance cannot share in this Interest with it . But the former is true . Therefore &c. The Conncection may be cleared from what is already said : we are not speaking of that here which Mr. Baxter will have to be the neerest formal reason , nor of that only , which he will have to be its nature & aptitude : but of its Use & proper Actings in this office , in reference to the end , Justification ; which are such , as cannot agree to Repentance , as is manifest . Himself tels us in his Confess . p. 89 , 90. That he takes Repentance to be to our faith in Christ , as the breaking off from other Suitors & Lovers , & turning the mind to this one , is to Marriage . Whereby we see , that though Repentance be necessarily required , in one that is a beleever , and that faith can not be without Repentance ; Yet Repentance hath no place in the office of Justification , it hath no plaine formal & immediat interest in the receiving of Justification ; as that turning to the minde from other Suitors to that one hath no formal interest or place , in closeing the Marriage Covenant , though it be a very necessary prerequisite unto right closing & consenting the marriage Covenant . This giveth ground for another Argument . 5. As upon the account that a woman hath changed her minde from other Suitors , to one , it cannot be said or inferred , that therefore the Marriage Relation is made up with that one Suitor ; which is done only by a formal full & explicite Consent : so upon the account that one is a penitent , it cannot be formally inferred , that that persons is in Covenant with Christ , and is Justified . Because as Mr. Baxter hath told us , Repentance is unto Faith , but as the womans changing her mind from other Suitors to one , is to the consenting unto the Marriage proposal . And if upon a Persons being a Penitent it cannot be formally inferred , that he is in Covenant with God & a Justified person , then Repentance hath not that interest in Justification , that Faith hath , for upon a mans beleeving , it can formally & immediatly be inferred , that he is in Covenant , and is Justified . I say formally ; because consequentially it will also follow , that a Penitent man ( meaning one that is truely penitent ) is justified , upon this account , that where ever there is true Repentance , there is also true Faith : But as the change of the womans mind is not formally the making up of a marriage Covenant ; So neither is Repentance that , which formally constitutes a man a Covenanter with Christ , and a Justified person , only Faith doth this ; as the womans consent maketh up the marriage-Relation . 6. I● Repentance hath the same interest in Justification with Faith ; then as our Adversaries say , that Faith is imputed to us , as our Gospel Righteousness ; so must they say , that our Repentance is imputed to us for Righteousness . But , beside the reasons , whereby we proved above , that Faith was not imputed to us , as our Gospel Righteousness , which will also serve here , mutatis mutandis , we may adde this , that there is nothing in Scripture giving the least countenance hereunto , even as to words or expressions . 7. If Repentance have such an interest in Justification , as Faith hath , then this must either be true of Repentance as begun , or as perfected ( I meane as to p●rts ) But of neither it can be true ; not of begun Repentance , for questionless there are some beginnings of Repentance before Faith ; ( taking Repentance largly , as it is here taken , ) as the womans change of her minde from other Suitors , is before her closeing a Marriage Covenant with this man & then it would follow , that a man were Justified before Faith ; which I suppose will not be said . Not of compleeted Repentance , for that followeth faith ; for thus it followeth godly sorrow , 2. Cor. 7 : 10. and is expressed by that Carefulness , Clearing of ourselves , Indignation , Fear , Vehement desire , Zeal , & Revenge , mentioned 2. Cor. 7 : 11. all which must follow Faith ; And repenting Ephraim Ier. 31 : 19. said , after I was turned , I repented ; & after I was instructed , I smote upon my thigh : I was ashamed , yea , even confounded &c. This being instructed , & being turned includeth Faith ; & the rest , that followed upon it , are expressions of Repentance : and hence it would follow , if only compleeted Repentance be that Repentance , that hath the Interest in justification that Faith hath , a man cannot be said to be justified upon his beleeving , no not untill Repentance be brought to this Perfection ; And then Faith cannot be the consenting act , whereupon the bargane is closed . 8. Repentance can bring nothing in , that can stay , or prove a support unto an awakened soul , pursued with the sense of wrath for the breach of the Law ; nor can it present any thing unto God , as a ground , whereupon to be delivered from guilt & wrath , as Faith can do & doth , by laying hold on Christ & his Righteousness , an only sufficient ground , whereupon the poor soul can have hope , and with confidence can expect Absolution : Therefore it cannot have the same interest , in justification . The antecedent is clear , & undeniable , & the Consequence is also manifest ; because this interest in the matter of justification must be estimate according to the ground of Hope , that is yeelded thereby unto the poor vexed & tossed soul , & the ground of Confidence that is had thereby of Acceptance of God. 9. To say , that Repentance hath the same interest in justification , that Faith hath , will prove , I judge , dangerous doctrine to many poor wakened sinners ; & prove a meane to keep them off the Rock of ages , and at least , a meane to hinder or retard their motion Christ-ward , in order to Peace & Reconciliation with God : for experience teacheth such , as deale with wakened Consciences , that the most of their work oft times is to keep them from resting on someting within themselves , in order to Peace , and particularly from relying & resting upon some sort of Griefe , Sorrow , or Repentance , which they conceive to be in themselves & to b●ing them unto a cleanly resting upon Christ & his Righteousness , forsaking all other things : And when now they hear , that Repentance hath the same interest in justification that Faith hath , how will they be fortified in their Resolutions , so that all the labour & paines of Ministers , or other Christians may prove much fruitless , unless the Lord come in a wonderful manner , & many others may perish in their presumptuous thoughts , founded on their inward Sorrow & Repentance , as they supposed , because they would never go out of themselves to leane to Christ & his Righteousness . It is true , These of the contrary minde , presse not Repentance alone , but Faith & Repentance together . Yet by their way , I finde not the right Gospel-exercise of Faith-pressed , that is , faith bringing in an imputed Righteousness , or laying hold on Christ for Righteousness , & refuging the Soul in Him , & resting upon that , as the only & absolutly surest ground of Confident appearing before God , and of expecting Pardon & Peace ; but only such or such an act of faith pressed , as being now under the New Covenant in the same place , that Perfect Obedience had in the Old , whereby , as the Old Covenant is but renewed , so the wakened or alarmed sinner is but taught to look after & lean to something within himself , as his immediat Righteousness , upon which he must be justified . 10. If the Surety-Righteousness of Christ imputed by God , & received by Faith , be only that Righteousness , upon the account of which , the poor sinner is to be accepted of God as Righteous , & to be absolved from the Curse of the Law ; As we have above proved it to be ; then Repentance cannot have the same interest in justification , that Faith hath ; because it neither doth , nor can so lay hold upon this Cautionary-Righteousness , as Faith doth . Or we might frame the argument thus . If Repentance have the same interest in justification , that Faith hath , Christ's Cautionary-Righteousness shall not be the only Righteousness , with which , the soul that is to be justified , must be clothed ; because Repentance cannot put on Christ & his Righteousness , as faith doth . But this last cannot be said , for reasons given already . 11. If Repentance hath the same interest in justification , that faith hath , then even by Gospel justification , there should be ground left to man , to boast , & to glory before men ; & the reward should not be of grace , but of debt ; contrary to Rom. 3. & . 4. The Consequence is clear , because Repentance acteth not on a Righteousness without us ; and can be considered no other way , then as an act of Obedience in man , and so as a work : and Faith by this way goeth under the same Consideration ; & is not considered , as bringing-in the Surety-Righteousness of Christ , and laying hold on it alone ; ( as it is by our way ) for both are looked upon as dispositive causes , and as parts therefore of the material cause , and as proper potestative conditions , just as perfect obedience was under the Old Covenant . And whatever difference be acknowledged to be betwixt them , as to their Essence & Aptitude , whereby Faith is said to be an acceptance of the gift formally , Repentance not so , in its averting act ( as Mr. Baxter is speaking Cath. Theol. ubi supra Sect. XII . n. 201. ) whatever it may be as to other acts : yet they are both made formal Potestative conditions , as is said , & so solely considered , as works done by us : and all such , as was evidenced above , make the reward of debt , & give ground of boasting ; because , being our formal works , they are made the immediat & formal , legal ground of our Justification , being made our immediat , formal & perfect Gospel-Righteousness ; as was seen above . 12. Adde to these . That if Repentance have the same Interest in Justification , that Faith hath , God cannot be beleeved on , as the justifier of the ungodly , contrare to Rom. 4 : 5. for Faith & Repentance are hereby made the mans personal Righteousness , and Mr. Baxter tels us Confess . p. 46. n. 38. that there is no such thing in rerum natura , as a true Righteousness , which doth not formaliter make the person so far Righteous . Now a Righteous man can not be an ungodly man ; that were a contradiction . It is not here enough to say , that the man is ungodly before he be Justified ; for in the act of justifying , or while he is a justifying , he is considered , not as ungodly , but as Righteous , yea antecedenter to his being Justified , he is considered as a Righteous man , & is therefore justified because Righteous in himself , having performed the conditions , whereby he becometh personally Righteous . And therefore while he is justified , God doth not justifie an ungodly man. But it will be said , that this will as well follow upon our way . I Ans. Not at all , because though we place Faith in priority of Nature , before Justification , yet we make not faith a personal Righteousness ; so that while the beleever is justified , a man guilty in himself & void of all Righteousness in himself , is justified ; so that God justifieth an ungodly man. But it will be said . By our way , the beleever is considered as clothed with Christ's Righteousness ; & upon that account , cannot be called nor accounted an ungodly man. I Ans. He is still , notwitstanding an ungodly man in himself , having nothing , wherewith to satisfie justice , or to procure Peace to himself ; but what he hath imputed to him , from a Cautioner : And thus God is justifier of the ungodly , in himself ; that by his faith proclaimeth himself such & one that is not in case to pay one farthing of his own debt . Other Arguments may be brought from our foregoing debate against the Imputation of Faith , in a proper sense , and Faiths justifying as a work , I shall now proceed to examine what is alledged for the Interest of Repentance . Obj. 1. Mr. Baxter . In his Confession pag. 37. n. 19. citeth some passages of Scripture , whereby he thinks to prove , that Repentance is made by God , in the Gospel , a proper Condition of our first general Pardon of sin , as well as Faith is . The first whereof is Luk 13 : 35. But this I judge is miscited , there being nothing there , that looketh here away possibly it should be Luk. 13. v. 3 , 5. & of this place , we will have occasion to speak afterward . The next he citeth is Act. 3 : 19. Repent ye therefore , & be converted , that your sins may be blotted out , when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Ans. But ( 1 ) Repent here can not be meaned of the acting of that Repentance , whereof we are here speaking , to wit , of that particular & special grace , which is distinct from Faith , & that because of the exegetical terme added , & be converted . So that Repent here can denote nothing else , but a turning from all their sinful opinions & wayes , and an embraceing the Gospel way of Salvation , that thereby they may be saved for ever . And ( 2 ) Neither is the Apostle speaking here of constitutive justification , or of our first general Pardon ; but of a blotting out of sins a long time hereafter , to wit , when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord , at his second coming , as the following verses shew . So that ( 3 ) As by this blotting out of sins , all the favours & great rewards of free grace , which the Righteous judge will give in that day , are signified , or comprehended under it , which he mentioned especially , that it might suite the charge of the grievous guilt of killing the Prince of life , which he was laying home upon them ; so under the other two termes , of Repenting & being Converted the whole of the duties , required in the Gospel , are to be understood . If it be said . That Repent & be Converted is as much as Repent & beleeve , & so the Particular grace of Repentance is here understood . I Ans. ( 1 ) Then it will follow , that neither are conditions of Pardon here : but both are requi●ed in order to Pardon , at the great day , when Christ shall come agai●e ; for the blotting out of sins , here mentioned , is said to be at that time , as the following words clear . ( 2 ) This will say only ( though it were the true meaning thereof , as it is not ) that Repentance is required of those , that would expect of Christ Pardon at his second coming , as well as faith ; which we deny not . ( 3 ) This Repentance should not be compleet Gospel Repentance , because it is anteriour to Conversion , or to Faith , while as the best part of true Repentance followeth , as we cleared above . Obj. 2. He citeth next Act. 2 : 38 - Repent & be baptized every one of you , for the remission of sins . Ans. ( 1 ) This would plead for Repentance alone , without Faith. ( 2 ) It would plead for as great an interest for Baptisme , as for Repentance : Neither of which can be owned , as true . Therefore the true meaning of the place is , Turn from your former way of seeking slavation , by your own corrupt Imaginations & Superstitions , which led you , out of blinde zeal , to crucifie the Lord Christ ; & embrace the Gospel of Salvation , now preached to you through that Lord , whom ye crucified , that ye may receive Remission of sins , through Faith in him ; & be baptized , that you may have the outward signe of your professing of having Remission of sins through him , & a seal of Remission , granted to you , through him . And this may be cleared from the promise subjoined , & ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost , which is no where promised unto Repentance ; but unto the faith of the Gospel , and the receiving of Christ therein , & was accordingl● bestowed Act. 8 : 12. with 15 , 17. & 9 : 17. & 13 : 52. & 15 : 7 , 8. & 19 , 1 : 2 , 6. And what Peter exhorted then unto , they did vers . 41. And what was it , that they did ? They gladly received his word , that is ; willingly and cheerfully they embraced the Gospel , and so were added to the Church . Obj. 3. He citeth Act. 26 : 20. that they should repent & return to God , and do works , meet for repentance . Ans. But here is no mention made of Justification , or of Remission of sins ; And who denieth , but people are to Repent , & return to God , & do works meet for Repentance ? This is not the thing , that is here in question . If he mean vers . 18. where it is said . To open their eyes , & to turne them from darkness to light , & from the power of Satan unto God , that they may receive forgivness of sins , & inheritance among them , that are sanctified by Faith , that is in me . I Ans. There is no word of Repentance here , but express mention made of Faith. It is true , turning from darkness to light & e. will include Repentance : Yet it is by Faith , that both Forgivness of sins , & the Inheritance , & Sanctification is had ; for by Faith that is in me , may referre to all these three : And though this should be denied ; Yet all that could be hence inferred , would amount but to this , That Repentance is necessarily called for in these , who receive forgivness , and the Inheritance , or would receive them . But all this is nothing to our present question . Obj. 4. He citeth in the Margine Luk. 24 : 47. And that Repentance & Remission of sins should be preached in his name . And Luk. 15 : 7. I say unto you , that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner , that repenteth . Ans. This last place maketh no mention of Pardon , or of Justification , & only saith , that Repentance will Include Faith , & doth import the whole Conversion of a sinner unto God , whereof Faith in Christ is the first & chiefe step . As to the other place , we told before , that by Repentance here is understood all that duty , which is called for in the Gospel , this being a short summe of the whole preaching of the Gospel , & that therefore by Remission of sins all the blessings & favours , that sinners need & are promised in the Gosspel , must be understood . So that this maketh nothing against us : Yea if these two expressions were strickly to be taken , it would give ground to inferre , that Repentance alone were the Condition of Remission . But what saith all this to the purpose now in hand ? do any of these expressions give the least coloure to inferre , that Repentance strickly taken hath the same use & Interest in Justification , that Faith hath ? Obj. 5. Others possibly may urge Act. 8 : 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness , & pray God , if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee . Ans. ( 1 ) If this place prove any thing that way , it will say as much for the Interest of Prayer in Justification , equal to the Interest of Faith ; as for the Interest of Repentance . ( 2 ) Yea & plead for these only with exclusion of Faith , or at least for the Sufficiency of Repentance & prayer without Faith , which is not here expresly mentioned . ( 3 ) But Repent here is taken in a comprehensive sense , as including Faith , its ground & Cause , & whereof it is the expressive evidence , & sensible effect ; So that the presence of Repentance in such , as would be Pardoned , may hence be well inferred : which is granted necessary , upon several accounts , but the present question is , whether it hath the same Place , Office & Influence in Justification & Pardon , that Faith hath ? Obj. 6. It may be , some will f●rther object Luk. 13 : 3 , 5 - except ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish : And this likely was the passage , which Mr. Baxter cited in the first place , the printer putting vers . 35. for 3. 5. through a mistake . But I Ans. This place only proveth , what is not denied , to wit. That Repentance is necessarily required of such , as would be saved : And if hence it be inferred , that therefore not only its presence , but its interest is the same with Faiths , in Justification ; the Interest of good works & of all commanded duties , may be hence inferred to be the same with Faiths , in justification , because these are as necessary , in order to Salvation , as is Repentance . Obj. 7. Prov. 28 : 13. He that covereth his sin , shall not prosper ; but who so confesseth & forsaketh them , shall finde mercy . Ans. ( 1 ) If forsaking of sin be here taken strickly for Repentance , & if this place be urged pertinently to the point now in hand , Confession of sin will be made to have the same influence , & will be made more necessary , than Faith it self , which is not here expresly named . ( 2 ) Finding mercy is not strickly to be understood of Justification , or of meer Pardon , but is to be taken more largly for Felicity here & hereafter , as being opposed to a not prospering : And so hence can only be inferred the necessity of the presence of confessing & forsaking of sin , in such as would finde grace & mercy in the eyes of the Lord , & would prosper in all their wayes . Obj. 8. Christ is sent , to preach good tidings to the meek , the broken hearted , the mourners , & to such as are under the Spirit of heaviness Esai . 61 : 1 , 2 , 3. Ans. This place indeed proveth , that Christ was annointed to preach good tidings unto the meek , to binde up the broken hearted , to comfort all that mourne , to appoint & give unto them beauty for ashes , the oile of joy for mourning & the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness ; but here , as the Repentance imported is something more than ordinary , as the expressions intimate , so the good , that Christ is here said to be sent to do unto them , is something more than ordinary , to wit , Comfort & Joy in an high measure , which is more than meer Pardon , or Justification ; some pardoned & justified may stand in need hereof , being indeed mourners in ashes , & under a spirit of heaviness , notwithstanding of their being in a justified state . So that this place cometh not home to the point now in question . Obj. 9. Is not this to favoure the Antinomians , who say , that Repentance is needless , and is a meer legal duty , neither to be urged , nor practised under the Gospel . Ans. Though we say , that Repentance hath not the same Place , Office & Interest in & about Justification & Remission of sins , that Faith hath ; Yet we give no countenance unto the Antinomian errour , because we affirme Repentance to be necessary , in all such as are Justified , and the real beginnings of Gospel Repentance to be also necessary , unto such as are to be justified , I say the beginnings , because I conceive , the principal parts or workings of saving & Gospel-Repentance follow faith , and upon Faith in Christ is the union betwixt Christ & the Beleever made , and the man brought into a justified state . Seing then we presse & urge the exercise of Repentance as a constant duty , & require it in all such , as would enjoy Peace & Comfort here , & be saved here after , we yeeld nothing unto the Antinomians . And against them we urge the same Scriptures , that have now been alledged , & others also , as irrefragable proofs of the necessity of this grace , though to other ends , than to be justified thereby , in such manner , as we are said to be Justified by Faith. Obj. 10. Do not our Divines ordinarily say & prove , that Faith & Repentance are Conditions of the Covenant of Grace . I Ans. True , but their meaning is not , that Repentance is the same way a Condition of Justification , that faith is ; but that terme , Conditions of the Covenant they take largely , to wit , to signifie & import the duties required of such , as are within the Covenant of Grace ; & not strickly , for Conditions of entering into Covenant ; These two are carefully to be distinguished : many things may be called the Conditions of marriage , that is , duties of married persons to other , that can not be called Conditions of making up the marriage Relation , as is manifest ; & so is it here . Many duties are required of Beleevers , that neither are , nor can be called Conditions of Justification , or of entering into Covenant with God. Obj. 11. But do not many both in sermons & in writtings , even when speaking of Pardon & of justification , joyn Repentance with faith ? Ans. It may be so ; but their meaning is not , I conceive , to give an equal share of Interest , Power & Office in & about justification , unto Repentance , with that , which they acknowledge Faith to have , but either their purpose is , hereby to show the inseperable connexion , that is betwixt faith & Repentance , or to show , that they speak of that faith , which is attended with this necessary Grace of Repentance , & doth effectually work the same ; or both rather : So that their true meaning is , to give the due privilege & interest unto that saith , which can prove it self to be real & true justifying faith , by effectuating Repentance , never to be repented of ; and thus they withall satisfie an Objection , or question , that might be made , if they had mentioned faith alone ; for it might be enquired , How shall we know , whether our faith be of the right kind , or not ? Now their joining of Repentance with faith , doth shortly answere this question ; Repentance being a concomitant , and a fruit of true faith , & more sensiblie felt , & obvious to their perception , might be to them a vive & perceptible expression of true & justifying faith . Obj. 12. But seing faith by some is called , that which doth morally qualifie the subject to be a fit patient so be justified : why may not Repentance have an equal share in this moral Qualification , with Faith ? I Ans. If we should make faith to have no other Interest in justification , than Repentance hath , or may be yeelded to have , we may easily grant , that Repentance hath the same & equall Interest with faith : but it is denied , that faith hath no other Interest , but as that , which doth morally qualifie &c. drieness in wood may qualifie it for the fire , & yet the wood may be long so , before it become the subject of fire ; & so may it be with moral qualifications : many a man may be morally qualified to be a fit match for such a woman ; or a woman for such a man ; & yet the marriage Relation never be made up betwixt them : But this cannot be said of faith , whereby the marriage is made , & the person is actually justified , & not a bare fit patient to be justified . CHAP. XXX Whether Love , purpose of Obedience , or perseverance be Conditions of Justification . BY what is said , in our foregoing discourse , we may know , what is to be answered unto these Questions , so that we need not insist long , in the discussing of them . Some of late lay downe for a ground ( and hereby give occasion to discuss these and such like questions ) that whatever is or may be called a● the Covenant of Grace , is , upon that account , & may be called , the Condition of Justification ; thus confounding the whole order of the Gospel , & making all duties , required of such , as are in Covenant , & ordained of God for other ends & uses , to be required as Conditions of entering in Covenant , and to have the same use and end in & unto justification , which faith hath ; contrary to express Scripture , saying , that we are justified by faith , & not by works of Righteousness , which we do , and contrary to the whole methode of the Gospel , & grounds laid down therein , for an acceptable performance of obedience . As to Love , Papisit's make it the forme ( as they speak ) of faith , not in it self simply considered , but in order to Justification & Salvation thereby , saying that faith without Love is dead : And it is true , that true & saving faith worketh by Love : and that faith cannot be called Saving or Justifying , which doth not excite unto acts of Love , and many may deceive themselves with a faith , that will not be found , when tried , to be of the right stamp : as the Apostles Iames teacheth . But yet they put no specifick difference , commonly , betwixt this dead faith & faith informed ; for both ( as to what is essential & intrinsik to faith , which they hold to be an assent unto all things , revealed by the Lord unto men , upon the account of the Veracity and Authority of the Revealer ) are one & the same ; so as one and the same faith may be sometime dead , when to wit , not working by Love , & sometime lively , when formed with Love. But of these things we need not here speak : only we see , that with them , Love is in a manner more necessary unto Justification , than faith ; & must be looked on , as a necessary condition thereunto , even as that , without which faith can do nothing . And to confute this here is but vaine . seing it shall serve nothing to our purpose ; because with them justification is the very same , we call Sanctification . But others , who have more sound and distinct apprehensions of justification , tell us , That love is the condition of justification , because a condition of the Covenant of Grace ; as if all the duties of such , as are in Marriage Relations , were conditions of making up the marriage Relation , Others , who distinguish betwixt Faith & Evangelick Obedience , as betwixt consent to a mans Soveraignity , & obeying him , as Soveraigne , as doth Mr. Baxter Confess . p. 89 , 90. Yet say , that Love is comprized in Faith , and is some degree of Justifying Faith & not properly a fruite of it ; because the wills apprehension of a thing good , or earnest willing & accepting it , is the fame with Love ; so is the wills Consenting , Electing & accepting ; & all this being in Faith , Love must be comprehended in it ; Yea they say , that as Love & Faith are propounded in the Gospel , as of the same necessity , so they are necessary in Justification , & concurrent in apprehending Christ. So spoke Mr. Baxter in his Aphorismes . And in his Confess . p. 34 , 35. he saith . Though Charitie , as it respecteth other objects , is no part of faith , yet as it respecteth an offered Saviour , it is as much essential to faith , to receive Christ with Love , as it is essential to a Saviour ( the object of faith ) to be good for us ; for good as good is received by love . Nor was it ever the Intent of the Holy Ghost , to take faith in Christ , in so narrow a sense , as includeth not Love to him , when it is saving Faith , that is spoken of . In reference to all which , we need say but those few following things . 1. The Scriptures do plainly enough distinguish betwixt Faith & Love , They are reckoned as distinct fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5 : 22. Love , joy-faith yea Faith is said to worke by love Gal. 5 : 6. we heare of the work of faith , and labour of love 1. Thes. 1 : 3. we heare of Charitie out of a pure heart , & of faith unfaigned . 1. Tim. 1 : 5. And the grace of our Lord ( saith Paul 1. Tim. 1 : 14 ) was exceeding abundant , with Faith & Love , which is in Christ Iesus . We hear of the brestplate of Faith & Love. 1. Thes. 5 : 8. 2. The Scriptures do plainly tell us , that we are Justified by Faith , as we heard , but never saith , that we are justified by love : And sure , as it is best for us , to regulate our expressions , according to the Lord's Revelation of this mysterie ; so it cannot but be offensive to use such expressions , as not only are not scriptural , but also seem inconsistent with Scriptural expressions : when the Scripture saith expresly & frequently , that we are Justified by faith , and that in opposition to works , and not only saith it , but proveth it , it cannot be justifiable in us to say , that we are Justified by Love ; seing that would at least seem to crosse the Apostle's assertion , the force whereof is ( as ours abundantly evince against the Papists ) that we are Justified only by Faith , & consequently by no other grace : neither by Love , nor by Hope , nor by Patience , &c. 3. By the Scriptures telling us , that we are Justified by Faith , & never saying , that we are Justified by any other grace , as by Love &c. we are given to understand , that Faith hath other Operations , Uses & Ends , in the office of justification , than Love , or any other grace hath : And therefore to insinuate , that love hath the same Interest & Office in & about justification , that Faith hath , is to deny , or overturn the proper & specifick actings of Faith , in order to justification : And , how small a matter soever this may appear to be at first ; yet , when it is further prosecuted , or the ground of this searched into , or its designe & tendency considered impartially , it will befound of a deeper consequence , & to tend to the alteration of the whole specifick nature of the Covenant of Grace , as it is distinct from the Covenant of Works : for though both Faith & Love may & must be looked upon , as acting upon the same object Christ ; yet when Faith is conceived as acting no other way , than Love , and both , as potestative Conditions , or as parts of one Potestative Condition , and no other way ; it is plaine enough , how the special actings of faith , in compliance with the designe of God's Wisdom , Grace , and Love in the Gospel contrivance , and thereupon in receiving & resting upon Christ , as the alone propitiating Sacrifice , and on his Surety-Righteousness , as that alone , by vertue of which they are to expect Justification & Acceptance with God , & to receive the Atonement , are laid aside : And the beleeving soul is supposed not to act on Christ , nor apply Him & his Righteousness in order to the being Acquit from the sentence of the Law , & from the Curse , due for the breach of the same , in that particular manner , that both its case & condition requireth , and the Gospel pointeth forth , and the experience of soul , attaining hereby to Peace , doth confirme . 4. It is true , there is Love to Christ , in the soul , that beleeveth , and it must be so ; and it is true also , that this Love is called for in the Gospel ; but hence it will not follow , that Love is the Condition of Justification , or that every thing , that is present with , or accompanieth faith in justification , hath the same Life , Ends , and Interest in Justification , or the same Influence thereupon , that faith hath ; far less will it follow , that that which followeth faith , and whereby faith worketh through all the after-carriage of a Beleever , hath the same Place , Power and Interest in & about justification , that faith hath , as we shewed above of Repentance . 5. If by this Love nothing else were meaned , but that Love of desire , that necessarily accompanieth the souls accepting , and closeing with what is good , or offered as good ; sure , it would have given no ground of offence to have called it so , & would have been more acceptable , than to have called it otherwayes , even though speaking strickly , the Love of desire may be called Love , and is a Love , in its own kinde : and therefore , I judge , that denomination might have been rather chosen , which would have given no offence , than the other , which to avoide suspicion and offence , calleth for so much waste of words , to render the expression less , noxious , especially , seing for all that is said , in clearing of the same , all ground of suspicion is not removed , but that some other thing was intended , than that meer Love of desire , that is inseparable from the will 's earnest pursuite after , or embraceing any good thing offered ; especiasly when it is said , That Ioh. 16 : 27. & 14 : 21. make Love the antecedent Condition of God's Love & Christ's Love to the person . And that that goeth with Remission and is a Love of Reconciliation ; and Reconciliation comprehendeth Remission : At least you will never shew out of Scripture , that the procureing God's Love , and the Procuring Remission & Reconciliation have not the same conditions : for hereby it is manifest , that Love , even as distinct from faith ( as it is Ioh. 16 : 26 - because ye have loved me & have beleeved that I am come out from God ) is made as formal & full a Condition of Reconciliation & Pardon , & consequently of justification , as faith his ; Yea & that both faith & Love are made Conditions procuring God's Pardon & Reconciliation . Thus speaketh Mr. Baxter against Mr. Cartwright pag. 202. But lest any should think , that either of these places cited should prove , what Mr. Baxter alledgeth them for , it would be considered . ( 1 ) That Ioh. 14 : 21. He is speaking of such , as are already beleevers & justified , when he is speaking of such as have already Christ's commandemants , & keep them . ( 2 ) He speaketh of the Fathers & of his own Love of such , in the future time , which cannot be meaned in reference to his Disciples , unless we think , they were not yet justified , contrary to the very forgoeing verse , & many other passages in that discourse , particularly Chap. 14 : 1 , & 15 : 3 , 4 , 5 , 9. ( 3 ) This is meaned of a Love of Manifestation ; as Christ's own words added exegetically declare . And I will Love him & will manifest my self to him . ( 4 ) This same sort of expression of Love is also to be understood Ioh. 16. as the whole scope cleareth , this being spoken to perswade them , that they should receive the returne of their prayers & should not ask the Father in vaine ; for such a Love carrieth he towards you ( as if he had said ) that , in a manner , I need not intercede for you . ( 5 ) And so the Love of the disciples here mentioned , is that Love of complacencie , which they had in Christ , in abiding still in his Company , and delighting in him , whom they had followed as their Master , all alongs ; and the cause from whence this flowed , is added , and have beleeved , that I came out from God. As to the second particular , to wit. Purpose of obedience . M. Baxter in his Aphorismes told us , that as the accepting of Christ for Lord ( which is the hearts ( Subjection ) is as essential a part of justifying faith , as the accepting him for Saviour : So consequently , sincere obedience ( which is the effect of the former ) hath as much to do in justifying us before God , as ( some ) Affiance , which is the fruit of the latter . Hereby he would seem to give the same Interest unto actual Obedience , in Justification , that he giveth unto Affiance , which cannot be wanting unto Justifying Faith , yea himself confesseth to be an essential act of Faith , in the margine of these words , Printed with Mr. Cartwrights observations and his Reply pag. 204. But in his Confess . ( as we heard above ) p. 89 , 90. he putteth as great a difference betwixt faith , & Evangelick Obedience , as betwixt the Consent to Marriage Relation , and the conjugal Fidelity & Obedience of a wife to her husband : So that hereby it is manifest , that with him , all Obedience cannot comprized in faith , & so cannot be a Condition with Faith of Justification : and this he saith pag. 90. expresly . So that I do no more ( as I am accused ) comprize all Obedience in Faith , because I comprize a Love to the Redeemer , & a Consent to be governed by him , then I comprize all Coujugal Obedience & Fidelity of a woman to her husband , in the Marriage ●●venant or Consent , because I comprize in it Love to the Man & a Covenant of fidelity & obedience to the future . His meaning is not then , that actual Obedience is either a part of faith , or hath the same interest of a Condition in Justification , that faith hath . Therefore he tels us more plainly & positively his meaning , as to this , Confess . pag. 38 : 39. n. 22. This Covenant ( saith he , meaning the Covenant , that a Beleever entereth with Christ , as a Saviour , and in him , with the offended majestie ( containeth an engagement to future obedience : So that though our first faith be not the same thing with Obedience to Christ - yet in taking Christ for King , it essentially containeth a Resolution & Covenant to obey him . Hereby we see , that a Resolution , Promise , or Covenant to obey Christ , for the future , is essentially included in faith , as justifying , & consequently that this must be as kindly a part of the Condition of Justification , as any thing in Faith. And next , that the ground of this is , because justifying faith , as justifying , doth as kindly & really take Christ for a King , as for a Priest. This is further explained by what he saith immediatly before n. 21. The very nature of this saving Faith , is to be a Heart-Covenanting of a Sinner with Christ , as a Saviour - Even as is a Covenant of a woman to her husband , a Souldier to his Commander ; a Subject to his Prince , a Scholler to his Master ; it is our becoming his Disciples . By which we see these things laid down , as truthes to be received . 1. That the souls Covenanting with Christ , or accepting of him , as offered in the Gospel , is like the Covenanting of a woman with her Husband , of a Souldier with his Commander ▪ a Subject to his Prince &c. 2. That as the Woman , Souldier or Subject , Resolve , Covenant & Promise to performe obedience unto the Husband , Commander , or King , so the Sinner , in Covenanting with Christ , doth Resolve , Covenant and Promise to performe Obedience unto Him. 3. That therefore , this Resolution , Covenanting & Promising to performe obedience , being essential to Justifying Faith , is a formal Condition of Justification , & the meaning of faiths being the Condition of Iustification must be this , the Man's Resolution , Covenanting & Promising to performe Obedience , is the Condition of Iustification ; or at least this part of faith , as well as others , is the Condition . 4. And the ground of this is , because Justifying faith , even as Iustifying , or in order to Iustification , acteth as directly & expresly on Christ as a King , as on Christ , as a Priest. In Answere to which , I shall but briefly say these things . 1. The similitudes adduced halt in one thing , & that one thing , is all , as to our present business . A woman Covenanting with her husband , and thereby promising obedience , or a Souldier with his Commander , or a Subject with his Prince , presuppose & acknowledge , Power & Strength in themselves to performe the obedience promised , & upon the Supposition & Conviction of this power & ability in themselves to performe what shall be commanded , they willingly & of their own accord , promise to put forth that Power , Strength & Ability of theirs , unto the performance of obedience , that shall be required . But it is not so , in our case , The Sinner , who is now supposed to be about Covenanting with Christ , through the Spirit of Conviction , & Humiliation , is put far from all his natural Pelagian conceits & apprehensions of himself , & of his own abilities ; He is now made to see , that as he hath nothing at present , wherewith to Satisfie God , for the sins that are charged upon him ; nor to allure Christ , to do for him ; unless it be wretchedness & miserie , that may move Christ to compassionate his case ; so he can do nothing for the future , that can be accepted of God , till he be renewed ; He is made to see , that there is a Natural Impotency ( I mean not a physical impotency , as if he wanted a soul , or Faculties ) in him to any thing that is good , & a pravitie of Will , whereby it is impossible , that he can do any thing , conforme to the will of God , untill he be Regenerated , made willing by an omnipotent Power , & have a new active Principle of life and grace , given unto him , or infused in him , by the Spirit of Jesus . 2. Whereupon , it is manifest , That a sinner in that plight ( & in that Condition we must consider him to be , who is now seeking to be Justified , and to be delivered from the wrath of God for sin ) in fleeing to Christ for refnge , cannot be thought to be making any such Promises , or having any such Resolutions , in order to his Justification , and & Freedom from the Curse of the Law ; He , that is throughly convinced of his total Impotencie , will not think ( while he is under the power of these Convictions ) of making any Engagements for obedience in time to come : Yea , where any such things really were , it might be feared , that the work of Conviction was not keep enough ; and that such , so acting , would not receive Christ freely , as he is offered in the Gospel ; but rather came with a price in their hand , a parcel of faire promises for the future , of doing that , which was not in their power . But it will possibly be said . That though there be no express and explicite Engaging & Promiseing here ; yet there cannot but be a virtual engageing ; as in the making of Marriage , though the woman do not explicitly promise obedience , yet her engagement is included in her acceptance of the person . I Answere . Let us suppose , that the woman is every way as unable to obey her husband , as the sinner , not yet converted , is to obey the commands of God ; & that from her husband alone she must receive that , whereby she shall become able : & then see , if her consenting to the match do formally include , even virtually , her engagement to future obedience . I do not suppose , by all this , that the Beleever is under no Obligation , or Engagment to Obedience ; for as he hath received a principle of obedience , even the new heart , the willing minde , and the renewed faculties ; so he is under many Obligations , Promises , Vowes & Engagements explicite & virtually , to carry as devouted unto God , in all obedience : but we are speaking here of a person , not yet out of the state of nature , but being under the terrours of the Lord , and Convictions of guilt & misery , is seeking after a Reliete , unto his present case , to wit , how he may be freed from the Curse of the Law , and put in a Justified state , & in Favoure with God. 3. Hence , it is much to be doubted ( however it be put beyond all doubt , or disput , with Mr. Baxter ) whether Faith , Saving & Justifying , include essentially any such formal Engagement & Resolution unto Obedience ; seing the person , of whom we are speaking , fleeth to Christ , for reliefe , as one , that is throughly convinced of his own Impotency , Inability to do any thing less or more for his own help , or for pleasing of God. This Resolution unto new obedience is rather included in Repentance ( which is distinct from Faith , as we saw above ) & so it is mentioned , in the description of Repentance , given in our shorter Catechisme . 4. But it will be said , How then is Christ received by faith , as a King ? I Ans. Not to debate that here , which is to be spoke to afterward , ( to wit , whether justifying faith , while it is acting , in order to Justification , doth receive Christ , as a King ? or rather , ( for this is more properly the question ) whether a person , under the Conviction of sin & wrath , & seeking for Pardon & Acceptance in & through Christ , doth six the eye of his soul upon Christ as King , or as Priest ? Or whether there is that in Christ , considered as a King , or considered as a Priest , that is more sutable unto the present case of the convinced sinner ? Or whether , or not , the Person , in the Condition mentioned , seeketh reliefe rather from Christ , as a Priest , offering up himself , as a Sacrifice giving his bloud for a Ransome , to Satisfie the justice of God for sins ; or as a King , endued with Authority to subdue sin ? And if the question thus were proposed unto the experienced Christians , or unto the persons , in such a Condition , it would , I suppose , receive a very quick answere . ) Unto the question now proposed I say , That , though it were granted , that Faith , in order to the mans Justification , did act as well on Christ as a King , as on Christ , as a Priest ( which yet cannot be granted ; as is already hinted , and shall be cleared afterward ) yet it would not follow , that this Faith did essentially include a Resolution and Engagment to future obedience : for it is not here , as in Subjects receiving a person for their King , as was said already , whose Persons or Subjects , have power & ability , & their will ( as to these things ) in their own hand , & may therefore promise obedience , according as the Relation made up , formally engageth unto ; & yet Mr. Baxter ag . Ludiomaeus Colvin . § . 15. saith That this is but to consent to the Relation , or to his Soveraignity , that they may obey him , and Love , honour & obedience come after . But if we should suppose a company of men , lying bound in chaines , in dunge●ns , under the feet of cruel Tyrants & Enemies . & in that case receiving one for their King ; would their receiving of him for their King firstly & primarily import a formal engagement , on their part , to obey him ? I suppose , it would import some other thing , anteriour to that , to wit , their ready consent , th●t he , by all the power & might he can make , shall loose their bands , and set them at liberty , & put them in the case & condition of free Subjects . Now the case is so here with us , with advantage ; for not only , are we in bands , and lying in prison , and so unable to performe any Obedience ; but naturally , till a change be made , we are utterly unwilling & averse from performing any acts of Obedience , though it were in our power , so that before we be in case to yeeld obedience , the whole man must be renewed , Judgment , Will & Affections ; when therefore , we , in such a case , receive Christ , as our King , it is firstly & chiefly , that he may make us willing in the day of his power ; that he may make us his Subjects , willing & obedient , & ready to do his will ; that he may loose our bands , deliver us from the bondage & slavery of sin , bring us out of captivity , & from under the power of Satan , & worke in us both to will & to do , according to his good pleasure . These are Acts of Christ's kingly power , these are Benefites , that answere the present necessity of wakened souls : these therefore must be the good things , their souls must seek after , & for these things must they goe to him , as King , & in reference to these must they lay hold on Him : So that this is mainly implyed in their receiving of Christ , as King. In like manner , when they receive him , as a Prophet they do not come unto him , as other Scholers do to their Masters , bringing a Capacitie , a Faculty & an Ingine with them for learning , without which all the Masters paines in giving Instructions , & theirs in studying hard , will be in vaine : but they come unto him , in the through conviction of their Blindness , Incapacitie to learne , want of Understanding to perceive the things of God , and to take up the mysteries of the Kingdom : that he may teach them , as never man taught ; by giving them an hearing eare , and an understanding Heart , by opening their eyes , to see the mysteries of God & of Christ ; that he may so teach , as to write his lawes in their heart ; cause their hear●● to come to wisdome , & cause them , to know the way , wherein they should walk . It is true , the receiving of Christ as King includeth also their obligation to owne him , as such , by receiving his Lawes , subjecting unto his Dispensations , &c. And the receiving of him as Prophet , includeth their obligation to acknowledge him for their only Teacher , and to depend on him for their Instruction : But yet I say , as this speaketh out no formal promise or engagment to actual Obedience & actual learning , but rather an Engagement & Resolution to be willing that he may act the part of a Prophet & of a King towards them , and so cause them carry & look like Scholers & Subjects ; so the thing that is firstly & mainely in their eye , in their coming to Christ , is that which suiteth their present case , and answereth their present felt necessity , & is an help to their present pinch . What Engagements may be laid upon them by these Relations ; or what Resolutions they may have , after they are renewed in the Spirit of their mindes , and united unto Christ , unto actual obedience , in the power and strength of the Lord , is not to the present purpose , while we are speaking of what the Soul doth , in order to Justification . 5. Hence we see , how groundless it is , to say , that a Resolution to actual obedience is a Condition of justification : This we finde no where required in order to Justification : This is no where called a Condition of Justification . We are no where said to be Justified by this Resolution . This is inconsistent with the frame of a poor wakened soul , seeking Justification . This would in part make the gift of Justification not free & of free grace , but to be of works or of a Resolution for works ; and so would give ground ( in part at least ) of boasting & of glorying , contrare to the whole frame of the Gospel . And so this would lessen the difference betwixt the Old Covenant of works , and the New Covenant of Grace . Having thus dispatched the second particular , we come unto the Third ; to wit , to enquire , whether perseverance be a Condition of Justification ? And of this we need not speak much , seing by what is already said , it is apparent how false this is . Every thing , that is required of such , as are Beleevers , cannot be called a Condition of Justification . It is said , that a Condition suspendeth the obligation , to bestow the benefite promised upon Condition , untill it be performed : And so it will hence follow , that , if Perseverance to the end be the Condition of Justification , no man can be justified , untill he have persevered to the end ; & so no man shall be justified in this life ; whereby an end is put to all our present debate , the subject thereof being taken out of the way . If it be said . That faith is the Condition of Justification , as it endureth to the end . I Ans. That that faith , which will endure to the end , is the Condition , I grant . But I deny , That Faith is the Condition of Justification , as it endureth to the end , we no where read of Faiths being the Condition , under this reduplication , as enduring to the end ; for then it would follow , that no lively faith , how strong so ever , could unite a soul to Christ , untill it had endured to the end , and so man upon his first Beleeving 〈…〉 be never so livly & strong , can be said to be justified , to have passed from death to life ; contrare to all the Scriptures . And this would too much assimilate the New Covenant unto the Old , wherein Adam was to work out his dayes work to the end , ere he had Right to his wages . Yea & hence it would follow , that in this life , there were none of the fruites of justification to be had , such as Peace with God , Accesse to God , Glorying in tribulations , Joy & Comfort , contrare to experience , & the Scriptures . Rom. 5 : 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 11. & 8 : 35. to the end . Luk. 7 : 50. Mat. 9 : 2. 2. Thes. 2 : 16. Heb. 6 : 18 , 19. 1. Pet. 1 : 4. So that in a word , from what hath bein said , it is evident , how little ground M. Br. hath to glory in this way of his , and though to an inadvertent person it may appeare Plausible , what is adduced for a reason , yet when considered , it will be found fioath and a florish of words : for be it so , that justifieing faith receive whole Christ ( which we doe not deny : for Christ is not divided : for as there is but one faith , so but one Christ. And I will have occasion to speake more fully to this matter afterward . ) Yet what doth Mr. Baxter gain ? hath he gained his Pepper-corne of Faith or Gospel-obedience to be imputed unto us for Righteousness according to the new law ( he should say , the new edition of the Old Covenant , or rather the Old Covenant newly established ? ) no , by no means : for be it grainted , That Iustifieing Faith as such respected Christ equally as King and Prophet , as it doth him as Priest ( which yet I deny , and shall , without divideing Christ , make it appeare ) I aske him , how doth it receive Christ Jesus the Lord ? Surely he cannot but say , as he is offerred in the Gospel ; well then , the Lord , who knoweth what we are , offereth him to us , and makes him to us wisdom , Righteousness , Sanctification and redemption , so that God in the offer of his Christ as a King , lookes upon the sinner in the same capacitie to obey him , as in the offer of him as a Priest he is to pay his debt , and that is not onely in no capacitie but as opposit to such a thing of himself . Hence it as evident that Faith receives Christ as a King not by promiseing or purposeing to obey him , but from a Conviction of its own aversion to purpose to please God , that he by his Kingly Power shall kill the enmity , Conquer the soul , bring it to purpose , as well as practise , work in it to will as well as to doe , cast down imaginations , that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God , and bring every thought in captivitie to his obedience , so when Faith acts on him as a Prophet , there is in this act neither purpose nor promise , to obey him as a teacher &c. But from a Conviction that the mind is not onely void of light , but it is prepossessed with corrupt principles , so that the man that hath nothing but the soul of a man , takes up the whole Gospel Mysterie as foolishness . And it is impossible for him , to know these things , since they must be spiritually discerned . I say from this Conviction he receives Christ as his wisdom , as he that shall give him an understanding , to know him that is true ; and to make him who is not onely as a beast , but so much worse , that his light is darkenesse , of a quick understanding in the feare of the Lord , and wise to salvation . Now this exactly answereth the sinners need , and hath all his wants made up by Jesus Christ according to his riches in glory , and God's end in makeing his Christ to poor sinners wisdom , Righteousness &c. That so he , who glorieth may glory in the Lord. Now if Mr. Baxter will Consider this , he will even lay aside his Pepper-Corne as of no Price ; for here all is without money and without Price to the poor soul &c. and he is considered as a receiver of all from Christ. CHAP. XXXI . Gospel-obedience is not the Condition of Justification . THough , as we heard , Mr. Baxter himself will not say , that Gospel-obedience is the Condition of Justification ; yet he recommendeth a book to us to peruse , to the end we may receive much light in the knowledge of the Gospel , I meane the discourse of the two Covenants formerly mentioned , wherein this is asserted with great confidence : And though this be sufficiently confuted by what is said ; yet we shall in short take some notice of the grounds of this Mans Confidence , & give some remarks upon what he saith . He tels us pag. 132. That the sense , in which the Apostles did assert it , ( i.e. Justification by Faith without the works of the Law ) was , that faith Iustifieth without works , antecedent to beleeving ( This is what Bellarmin & other Papist's say ) & without works , as the works of a literal observation of Moses law , which was opposed by the jewes to faith . This is but his fiction , and its grounds may come to be considered afterward . But what is this Faith ? It is a Faith ( saith he ) that hath Repentance , Regeneration & sincere Obedience in a holy life for its inseparable effects . Then ( 1 ) this Faith is not fruite of Regeneration , because Regeneration is an effect of it . ( 2 ) Then upon a mans sincere Beleeving , he cannot be said to have passed from death to life , & be freed from Condemnation , nay not untill all the effects of faith be produced . And this he expresseth more clearly within a line or two , calling Regeneration & new obedience parts of the Condition ; thus making men able to Regenerat themselves , with some help of the Spirit , according to his former doctrine . Passing his inveighing pag. 134. & forward , against the orthodox doctrine , concerning Justification by faith alone ; and loading it with Socinian reproaches , wherein he bewrayeth more acquaintance with Popish , Socinian & Arminian Principles & Consequences , than with the Gosp. I doctrine , either in Theorie or pract●ce , I proceed to examine his grounds , which he laieth down Chap. 7. pag. 140 , 141. and prosecuteth to the end of that Chapter . His grounds are Ten in number . The first is . That works of Evangelical obedience are never in Scripture opposed to God's grace in reference to Iustification & Salvation . Ans. ( 1 ) Here we have the fundamental errour of his whole discourse hinted to us ; when he putteth Justification & Salvation together , making all that is antecedently required unto Salvation , to be also antecedently required unto Justification ; or he must acknowledge no justification , untill Salvation come ; ( 2 ) A perfect contradiction to this ground of his we have Ephes. 2 : 8 , 9 , 10. for by grace are ye saved , through faith , not of works , lest any man should boast : for we are his workmanshipe , created in Christ Iesus unto good works , which God hath before ordained , that we should walk in them . Here grace is opposed to works , to good works , unto which we are created in Christ Jesus , & in which we are to walk , and that in reference to the Salvation , that is in justification . The man was so wise for his own unhallowed ends , as never once to take notice of this place . He cannot but grant , that Works & Grace are opposed to other : but he giveth us a very sceptick evasion , telling us , that then by works we are to understand either works antecedent to conversion , or as they are denyed ( I think he would have said deemed , or some such thing ) to merite , at the hands of God ; or the works of the Law of Moses , as erroneously contended for by the jewes ; or the works of the Law as Typical & as opposed to things typified ; or the works of the Law , as the Law is in its rigour opposed to the milder oeconomie of the Gospel . And yet all this will not helpe the matter , for Paul tels us , that even Abraham was not justified by his works , but by faith , in opposition to works Rom. 4 : 1 , 2 , 3. And Abraham's works here excluded from Justification , can be reduced to none of these heads of works here mentioned ; They were not works antecedent to Conversion ; for in opposition to these it is said , his Faith was reckoned unto him for Righteousness , long after his Conversion . Nor did the holy father dreame of any merite in his works , nor were these the works of the Law in any of the senses mentioned ; for Faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness , even when he was in uncircumcision . Rom. 4 : 9 , 10 , 11. &c. He taketh notice of Tit. 3 : 5. not by works of Righteousness , which we have done , but according to his mercy , he s●ved us : but giveth us p. 143. this glosse . This change of their condition was not effected , or so much as begun among them by any reformation of their own , till the Gospel came to work it ( which is meant by the appearing of the kindness & Love of God vers . 4. & is of like import with . Ch. 2 : 11 , 12. Ans. By what either Law or Reason he restraineth that appearing of the kindness , & Love of God , mentioned vers . 4. to the Gospel , I know not . ( 2 ) And though the Gospel were here understood , that would not help the matter ; for the Text saith , that after this did appear , he saved them ( that is Justified in the first place , as we see vers . 7. ) according to his mercy , & not by work of Righteousness . ( 3 ) These works are called works of Righteousness ; But no works of their own , before Conversion , can be so called : can the works of such as are foolish , disobedient , deceived , serving diverse lasts & pleasures , living in malice & envie , hateful & hating one another , be called works of Righteousness ? and yet such were these , before the kindness & Love of God reached them , as vers . 3. showeth . He thinks the same answere may be given to 2. Tim. 1 : 9. And so we think , the same reply may suffice . His 2. ground is p. 114. That Paul , in speaking agaist Iustification by works , giveth sufficient caution not to be understood thereby to speak against Evangelick obedience in the case . That is , not to speak against justification by Evangelick works ; which were to say , he took much paines for nothing ; for if he had but said , that the Ceremonial Law was abrogate , he had sufficiently confuted justification by the Ceremonies , if that had been all the Law he meaned . But how proveth this man , what he here alledgeth ? He adduceth Rom. 3 : 31. But I wonder how did the Apostle by his doctrine establish the Ceremonial Law ? In the Spirit of it ( saith he ) in as much as in preaching Iustification in the Gospel way , he preached in plaine precepts , the necessity of that spiritual purity unto Salvation , which was but darkly taught by the Ceremonial Law. Ans. ( 1 ) Then this man supposeth , that he is establishing the Ceremonial Law , by his doctrine in this book ; for he thinks , that therein he is preaching up Justification in the Gospel way . ( 2 ) Neither did the Ceremonial Law more darkly , nor doth the Gospel in more plaine termes preach the necessity of spiritual purity , as the Condition of Justification : So that this Author beggeth what he cannot prove . ( 3 ) But that this is the Moral Law , hath been frequently shown above ; as also it hath been shown , how & what way it was established , by the doctrine of just●fication without works ; so that we need not regaird his saying ; that by the doctrine of justification by faith , they established the moral Law , both in the letter & Spirit of it , in teaching the necessity of Evangelical obedience to it , after a more spiritual & forcible manner , than had been taught before . For this saith nothing for their pleading for obedience to this Law , as a Condition of Justification ; which is the thing , he should have said : And if he know not , how Justification without the works of the moral Law , can consist with necessity of Obedience to the Moral Law , upon Gospel grounds , he is ignorant of the Gospel , and hath been more educate in Socinus his School , than in the orthodox Church . He citeth to the same purpose Rom. 10 : 4. & tels us , that Christ was the end of the Law in his doctrine , having taught that Righteousness of living , which the Law itself taught , but in a more excellent spiritual & effectual manner . Which is a very Socinian like gloss , but no way suiting the words , nor the scope of the Apostle , as the very reading of them may evince , & the following words vers . 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. may put beyond all question , His citeing thereafter pag. 146. Rom. 7 : 4. Gal. 2 : 19 , 20. is to no purpose ; for in neither of these , nor any where else , doth he cry up holiness , performed in any manne● whatsomever , as a Condition of Justification ; and this our Author should show , or he doth nothing : for we are not against the necessity of holiness , but see more Sure , more Comfortable , more Heart quieting , more Divine , and more Gospel-like grounds , whereupon to presse holiness , than any he discovereth in all his book , or can , according to his principles . His 3. ground is p. 147. That Regeneration or the new creature , as including Evangelical Obedience , is opposed to works of the Law , in the business of mans Iustification , as well as Faith is , & as well as the grace of God it self is . And this he thinketh to prove from Gal. 6 : 15. as Schlightingius the Socinian did before him cont . Meysner p. 148. But one thing is to be proved , to wit , that the Apostle is speaking this , in order to justification , and so contradicting all the former disput he had ; which neither Reason , nor Religion will allow us to think , nor do the words , nor any Circumstance of the words , nor any thing of the scope , or of the threed of the Apostles discourse give the least countenance hereunto . His 4. ground p. 148. is also from Schlichtingius ubi supra . That Evangelical obedience as well as faith , & together with faith , is opposed to the works of the Law , in reference to Iustification & Salvation . Gal. 5 : 6. Ans. He supposeth here , that Circumcision is the same with the works of the Law , while as these that were crying it up at that time , took it only for a privilege , which might be keeped together with Christianity ; and therefore the Apostle told them vers . 3. which they did not take notice of , that by their taking on that badge of circumcision , they made themselves debtors to do the whole Law ( 2 ) All that is required in reference to Salvation , is not required in reference to Justification . ( 3 ) Faith working by Love denoteth the right & the livly Faith , which only is Justifying & Saving , but bringeth not in all Evangelick Obedience under Love , as sharing with faith , in the same prerogative of justification , as was shewed above . His 5. ground p. 149. is . That Evangelical Obedience alone is opposed to the works of the Law , in reference to Iustification . And this he confirmeth by 1. Cor. 7 : 19. borrowing it from Schlightingius , the Socinian , where only two things are wanting , to make this passage a confirmation of his Assertion , one is , that by Circumsion here is meaned the keeping of the Law : and what shall then be understood by Uncircumcision ? The other is , that the Apostle is speaking this in reference to Justification , contrary to the whole context . His 6. ground ibid. is . That faith itself is an act of Evangelical obedience . Unto which we need say nothing here , having said so much above , to shew , that Faith in the matter of justification is not considered as an act of Gospel-obedience , but as an Instrument , laying hold on the Righteousness of Christ , the Cautioner . His 7. ground is p. 152. That by Gospel-obedience Christians come to have a Right to Salvation Revel 22 : 14. This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liberty ( as it is translated 1. Cor. 8 : 9. ) Power or privilege , as it would seem to import 1. Cor. 9 : 18. & elsewhere , is no proper Right ; for all that can be called proper Right , the Saints have it through the purchase of Jesus Christ ; his blood & his blood alone , hath bought the inheritance to us : And hereby we see the true tendency of this Man's doctrine , even to give us heaven as that , which we have bought with our labour & obedience ; that is , to give us heaven by a new Covenant of Works , which Christ hath procured to be made with us . But this Right , is but a liberty to take possession of the crown of life purchased by Christ , & promised , at the end of the journay , in the way , wherein the Lord hath appointed us to walk towards the possession thereof : And can only prove , what we deny not , to wit , the necessity of Holiness , in order to the actual injoyment of life : But what saith this unto justification ? He will not have us put any difference betwixt them , alledging that , such as do , are more curious & nice in distinguishing , than Paul was . And why so ? Paul cals Iustification , the justification of life . Rom. 5 : 18. Therefore Justification & Glorification is one & the same , & have every way the same conditions : Ans. It followeth not . He citeth next Rom. 8 : 30. which clearly maketh them distinct . What more ? He ( i.e. Paul ) proves that men shall be justified by faith , because it is written , the just shall live by faith Gal. 3 : 11. & with him to be justified & blessed are all one Gal. 3 : 8 , 9. Rom. 4 : 7 , 8 , 9. Ans. What that from Gal. 3 : 11. can be made to prove by him , I know not . And as for the next , it will prove as much , that is , just nothing . He might as well inferre , that Poverty in Spirit , Mourning , Meekness , Hungring & Thirst●ng after Righteousness , Mercifulness , Purity in heart , Peacemaking & Suffering of persecution , were all the same with glory , because of what is said . Mat. 5 : 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11. Yet he proceedeth at this rate , & tels us p. ●54 . That Paul useth Righteousness , or Iustification & life , as Synonimous termes Gal. 3 : 21. Ans. As if Justification were not a state of life , unless it were the same with Glory . We have shown above , what a life it is . And ( saith he ) Iustification & Condemnation are put in direct opposition to eachother Rom. 5 : 18. & 8 : 33 , 34. Ans. And what then ? In short ( saith he ) Salvation as well as justification is promised to beleeving Ioh. 3 : 16. Act. 3 : 31. Heb. 10 : 39. & therefore both must be the immediat effect of faith . Ans. Himself answereth all this , by adding if we take Salvation , as begun here in this life , as the Scripture represents it to be Ioh. 5 : ●4 . 1. Ioh. 3 : 14. & 5 : 12. He would further prove it from Iam. 2 : 14. As if in one Chapter the Apostle could not speak , both of Justification & Salvation , unless he would make them both one thing : But though there be a life begun in Justification , that shall at length end in Glory , we see no ground to say , for all that he hath brought forth , that they are so the same , as to require the same previous Conditions : How profitable so ever Mr. Baxter account this Treatise to be , yet I cannot think , that he shall approve of this , which yet is the maine designe of the book . His 8. ground p. 156. That the promise of forgiveness of sins is sometimes made unto Evangelical obedience . This he goeth about to prove from 1. Ioh. 1 : 7. Where the Apostle is shewing the Advantages that such have , as have fellowship with God through faith in Jesus Christ , evidenced by their walking in the light ( as is clear from vers . 6. and this in particular , that as they will be dayly failing , so they will have ready accesse to the blood of Christ ; to get all their sins cleansed away . Neither is the Apostle here speaking of the first Pardon granted , when persons are translated into a state of justification , but he is speaking of such ▪ as are already in that State. He cite●h next to this purpose 1. Pet , 1 : 2. & addeth they were not elected to the benefite of being sprinkled with the blood of Christ , without obedience . Making that a condition of being sprinkled with the blood of Christ , which the Apostle mentioneth , as a distinct medium , to which they were elected , in reference to eternal life , the supream end , as to them : And he might as well say , they were not elected to the benefi●e of obedience without being sprinkled with the blood of Christ : and that too agreeth more with truth . His 9. ground p. 157. is . That to forgive injuries is an act of Evangelical obedience to that precept Mat. 11 : 25. And yet without this , men cannot be pardoned & so not justified Mark , 11 : 25. Mat. 6 : 15. & 18 : 35. Ans. Though men cannot be pardoned without this , it will not follow , that therefore it is a part of the condition of Justification : but only proveth , that this must be present , as an evidence of their acting Faith on Jesus Christ , in truth & reality , in order to pardon : And these passages are explications of the fift petition of the Lord's prayer , the sense whereof is well given in our larger Catechisme § . 194. in these words , which we are the rather emboldened to ask . & encouraged to expect , when we have this testimony in ourselves , that we from the heart forgive others their offences . His 10. & last ground is . That Repentance is an act of Evangelical Obedience Act. 17 : 30. & yet pardon of sin , which is essential to justification , is not to be obtained without it . Luk 13 : 3 , 5. Ans. Of Repentance we have said enough above Chap. XXV . I wonder how he can to this end cite Luk 13 : 3 , 5. where no mention is made of Remission of sins ; but perishing threatned to all , that will not repent . I shall not here meddle with his mis representation of our doctrine , in the following pages , nor with the grounds & reasons of the preference he giveth , unto his way , seing , by all that he speaks , he bewrayeth utter ignorance of the Gospel truth , which we owne , & of its true Tendency to promove Gospel holiness , beyond any other way , what somever , hatched by Papist's & Socinians , that may be little or nothing beholden to Iesus Christ , for Grace here , or for Glory hereafter . And his Insinuations , as if we did not presse Repentance & Holiness , is little to his credite , or to the credite of the cause he maintaineth , seing the contrarie is so well known , to say no more . Nor shall insist on the grounds he layeth down , to overturne the whole argueings of the Apostle in this matter , seing they are , upon the matter , the same , that others have laid down , and have been before spoken to : for from a tedious discourse concerning the mistaking apprehensions of the jewes , about the Law & the works thereof , in order to justification , to very little purpose , he inferreth p. 117. that doubtless Paul's denial of Iustification & Salvation to be by the Law , is to be understood in the very same sense , in which the incredulous jewes , against whom he disputed , did hold these so be attainable thereby : Forgetting with all , that what Paul wrote , was dictated by the Spirit , & so that for the use of the Church unto the end of the world . But sure , if no other works were here understood , than this Author will have here understood , it could be of little use to the Gospel churches , after the subject of the question , the Ceremonial Law , it self is taken away : And had it not been a shorter & most effectual way to have confuted the jewes errour here , simply to have proven ( as he doth elsewhere ) the abolishing of that Law ? Beside , we finde many things spoken of this Law , against Justification by obedience to which the Apostle disputeth , that cannot agree to the Ceremonial Law , as hath been several times touched . But let us hear what the true question was . We must understand him ( saith he ) to deny a freedom from the eternal punishment to be attainable by legal Sacrifices : & also to deny that the promise of eternal life was made upon Condition of literal Circumcision , & a literal observation of the Mosaical Law. Ans. If this had been all to what purpose , I pray , did the Apostle laboure so much to prove , that not only the jewes , but that the Gentiles also were under sin , Rom. 1. & 2. The Gentiles were not , nor yet were to be under the Law of Ceremonies . ( 2 ) How could the Apostle inferre , that by the deeds of the Law , there should no flesh be justified , from his proving , that both jewes & Gentiles were guilty of the breach of the Moral Law , whereby every mouth was stopped , & all the world become guilty before God Rom. 3 : 10-20 ? ( 3 ) did only the Law of Ceremonies give the knowledge of sin ? Himself proveth the contrary pag. 57. ( 4 ) did the curse only belong unto the Ceremonial Law ? or did Christ only become a Curse , in reference to the breaches of that ? Gal. 3 : 10. He will not so much as yeeld p. 119. that Paul doth , on the bye , deny Justification by other works : And that meerly because it would destroy his fabrick of a Iudaical Socinian justification : though he pretend , that thereby the Apostles doctrine would be made inconsistent , not only with the Faith of the holy men of old , but also with his own doctrine : But neither did the holy men of old express the Condition of Justification ( which he confoundeth with the Condition of the Covenant of mercy ) by loving God & keeping his commandements ; nor doth Paul speak any such thing , as we have seen , what ever he with Socinians & Arminians say . He giveth us another character ( which also we heard from others before ) of the works , by which Paul denied men were justified , calling them such works , which were apt to occasion boasting Ephes. 2 : 9. Rom. 4 : 2. But thus he quite perverreth both the sense of the words , scope & argueing of the Apostle ; for the Apostle cleareth that it is by grace we are saved : & not by works , upon this very account , that if we were saved or justified upon the account of any of our works , man should boast Ephes. 2 : 9. Not of works ; why ? lest any man should boast , manifestly declaring that all works were laid aside , in this matter , & that for this end , that no man should have any occasion of boasting : & this is not spoken , as every one may see , to qualifie , or specifie the works that are excluded ; these words carry nothing of a restriction in them : The same is cleare also Rom. 4 : 2. If Abraham were justified by works , he hath whereof to glory ▪ shalll the meaning be , Abraham was not justified by such works , as give ground of gloriation ? then the meaning lyeth not in the words , but the words do expresly crosse & contradict that sense , unless we shall suppose them to have no sense : to speak nothing of the following vers . 3. where beleeving is mentioned , & not another sort of works , to wit , such as give no ground or occasion of boasting , which , in this case of justification , no man can describe unto us , or tell us what they are . He tels us p. 122. that the meaning of these words Rom. 3 : 28. Therefore we conclude &c. is no more but this , viz. That a man is justified in the Gospel way But not only is that in the general included ; but that Gospel-way is particularly expressed , to be by faith without the deeds of the Law : And consequently his Popish , & Socinian way is diametrically opposite to the Gospel-way . He goeth about to explaine to us p. 124. &c. what is meaned by their own Righteousness , that is so frequently set in opposition to the Righteousness of God , & tels us , that it was so called upon a threefold account . 1. Because they sought the pardon of their sins by their own Sacrifices . Ans. And why not also by their works of Obedience ? Sure. neither Abraham , nor David sought for pardon upon any such accout , & they renunced other works , than these . Is that all the Righteousness that Paul renunceth Phil. 3 : 9 ? Was he then occupied about Sacrifices ? Some thing else sure is understood . 1. Cor. 4 : 4. 2. Because ( saith he ) they did not think Regeneration , or Supernatural grace necessary to the obtaining of it . Ans. And truely , all the Regeneration & Supernatural grace , which he thinks necessary , is but that a Pelagian , Iesuite & Arminian will think necessary , & no more , as we saw above . But doth he think , that Abraham , or David had any such apprehensions ? & yet even their works are excluded from justification . Was that the Righteousness that Paul called his owne Phil. 3 : 9 ? I think for shame he will not say it . And what meaneth Paul to say 1. Cor. 4 : 4. I know nothing by my self , yet am I not hereby justified . This sure , must include works done by supernatural Grace ; & after Regeneration . 3. Saith he . Because it was a way of seeking to be justified of their own devising , & not of God's appointing . Ans. This is very true , but it is not the whole truth in this matter : And his way is of the same Nature , no more consistent with the Gospel methode of justification , through the Righteousness of God by faith , than theirs is ; for the Imputed Righteousness of Christ he rejecteth with contempt : True justification he is ignorant of ; He knoweth no Faith , but what is Popish & Socinian . His New Covenant is but a new edition of the old . His Regeneration is Pelagian . His Good Works are but works flowing from a Principle of Nature , aided with a common divine assistance . Let us now in end hear , what is the result of all his discourse . It is to shew ; That they were the works ef the Law , as exclusive of Faith in Christ , & his death : & Not those , which are the immediat effects of Faith in Christ , in his death & in his doctrine . But the Gospel tels us , that in the matter of Justification , all the works , of the Law , are exclusive of faith in Christ , even Abraham's works David's works : & Paul's works ; & therefore they were all laid aside , & justification was only looked for through Faith. Thus we have seen , what a Gospel this is , which Mr. Baxter recommendeth to us , the consideration whereof may move some to say . Noscitur ex socio , qui non dignoscitur ex se. CHAP. XXXII . Of the object of justifying Faith. THough something of the Object of Faith was hinted before Chap. XX. when we were speaking of the Nature of Faith : yet it will not be amisse , to speak a little more of it here , both in reference to what followeth ; and also , & more particularly in order to the better understanding of , what it is to Live by Faith. In order therefore to the explaining of this Object , we would premit these few things . 1. As was mentioned in the forecited place , there is presupposed unto the right exercise , & actual exerting of Faith , accepting the offered Saviour & Salvation through him , a Conviction of sin & misery , in one measure , or other , whereby the Sinner is brought to a desparing in himself , seing he can finde no remedie , or reliefe for himself , within himself , and to a concluding , that he is an undone man , if there be no other remedie , than what he is able to do for himself : for after all meanes assayed ( and a soul in that case is ready to turn to many hands , to seek reliefe , & until preventing grace come , will embrace & close with any promising way , how chargable & troublesome so ever it be , ere it sweetly comply with the only Man-abasing & Grace-exalting way of Salvation , through Faith in Christ , revealed in the Gospel ) he findeth himself disappointed . And further , it is presupposed , as necessarily requisite hereunto , some knowledge of the grounds of Religion ; & particularly of the Gospel , of Christ , of his offices , Work &c. all revealed in the Gospel . 2. When we speak here of the Object of Faith , we mean that Faith , by which a Soul is united unto Christ , & closeth with Him , as offered in the Gospel , & improveth Him to all ends & uses , which their case & necessitie , in all time coming , calleth for . So that it is one & the same Faith , whether it be called Uniting Faith , Saving Faith , Justifying Faith , Sanctifying & heart-purifying Faith , or the like . It is one & the same radical grace , receiving these or the like various denominations , from the effects brought about by it , or the several ends & uses it hath , & is appointed for . And the same Faith bringeth all these effects about , in its way , according to the Order , Methode & measure , ordained of God : the same Faith , whereby the beleever is Married to Christ , & Covenanteth with Him , as Head , Husband , Lord & Saviour , by the same is he justified , adopted & brought into a state of Peace & Reconciliation with God. By the same Faith also doth the man get his heart Purified , & he liveth the life of Sanctification . By the same also he getteth Strength , Reviving , Comfort , & Support in times of Temptation & Trial. So that the Beleevers life first & last is by Faith , the beginning , progress , all the steps of it , & final Salvation is by Faith ; whence it is called Saving Faith , to distinguish it from that Historical Faith , which , ( though true in its kind yet ) is not from the saving grace of God , nor hath it effects accompanying Salvation . 3. Though this Faith be one & the same , by which the Beleever liveth first & last ; and which proveth serviceable & useful to him , on all occasions , & to all ends & uses , that his several necessities call for : Yet in reference to these various ends & uses , it acteth not after one & the same manner , in all points : Faith acteth not every way , after one & the same manner , in order to get Strength for Duties , that it acteth , in order to get Sin Pardoned : It acteth not the same way for Subdueing the reigning power of sin , that it acteth for Justification , nor doth it act the same way for Comfort and upholding strength in a day of trial , that it acteth , in order to Justification : And yet we need not say , that it acteth distinctly & differently , according to every distinct benefite , and blessing , that is had thereby : The diffe●ent natures of the necessities we stand into , with the different wayes of the ●ord's communicating what we stand in need of , according to the various Relations he standeth in , & various offices he hath taken on , in reference to his peoples good , may satisfie us herein , & according as these several particular necessities may come under one head , & reliefe may be conveyed to them , after one & the same manner : All which will be best discerned by the understanding Christian , in his application to Christ , according to his Condition & wants , which he would have helped & supplied . 4. Hence , though the Principal Object of this Faith be alwayes one and the same ; Yet there may be some peculiarities in that object , which Faith eyeth more in one case , than in another : As we finde the Saints , in their adresses to God , in their several straits & necessities , sometimes pitching upon one attribute of God , sometimes upon another ; according as thereby Faith presented God to the soul in a sutablness to the present case it was in ; and so when dispensations seemed to crosse the promises , Faith eyed God as Faithful & Unchangable ; when enemies appeared strong , difficulties invincible , and the like , Faith took hold on God , as the Almighty , to whom nothing was impossible ; & when sin appeared as a discouragment to drive them from their hopes , Faith took hold of the mercy of God &c. So when a poor sinner is under the convictions of sin & threatnings of the Law , Faith must take up Christ in a sutableness thereto , & eye something in Him , that peculiarly suiteth that case ; & when againe the beleever hath need of Light , Instruction , Strength , Comfort , Throwbearing & the like , he fixeth his eye on some thing in Christ , that suiteth that particular necessity : and so Faith acteth accordingly : And thus , though the object remaine the same , and Christ be alwayes made use of ; Yet Faith may and doth act more immediatly on Christ , as Prophet , when in one case whereunto this office carrieth a respect ; and at another time more immediatly & directly on Christ , as a King , when the present necessity calleth for help from Christ as King ; & againe faith acteth on him , as a Priest , when only that , which Christ , as a Priest did , can answere their present necessitie . Yet , ( which is carefully to be observed , to prevent Mr. Baxter's challenge ) I do not say , nor see I any necessity to say , that these several acts of Faith , are as so many several Conditions unto the receiving of the several favours , taking the terme Condition in his sense ; I do not say , that Faith acting one way on Christ is a proper Condition of Justification , & Faith as acting another way on Christ is the proper Condition of Adoption , & that Faith acting a third way on Christ is the proper Condition of Sanctification &c. but that , as the effects & benefi●es , which sinners stand in need of , are ascribed unto several effectuating acts of Christ , & to the several Relations & offices he hath taken on ; so Faith in order to the receiving of these benefites , acteth suitably on Christ , & the Beleever is , taught so to do by the Spirit of the Lord , to his Comfort , Hope & Encouragment . 5. I presuppose here the Formal Object of all divine faith , which is the Truth & Veracity of God ; for all divine faith giveth credite unto divine Revelations upon the Credite ▪ the Truth & Veracity of the Revealer . Thus saith the Lord , who is true , & who is Truth itself , is the sole Formal ground & Ratio of this Faith. 6. I presuppose here also that Comprehensive Material Object of all divine Faith , which is the whole will & mind of God , concerning whatsomever thing it be revealed , whether by the Scriptures , or by the Light of Nature . If the Truth & Veracity of God be the only Formal Ground of this Faith , then all that this God revealeth must be beleeved & received , as true , when known to be revealed by Him. By faith we understand , that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Heb. 11 : 3. & we beleeve all things which are written in the Law & the Prophets Act. 24 : 14. Yea & in the whole word of God : I do not here determine , what particular Truthes , revealed in the word , are necessarily to be expresly & explicitly beleeved , by every one , that hath a true Saving Faith , & what not : only this I say , that many particular truthes , are revealed , whereof a true Beleever may be ignorant , & yet have a true Saving Faith , receiving all , which he knoweth to be revealed by the Lord , & rejecting no one Truth whatsomever , that he knoweth to be revealed . But we are here to speak of that Object of Faith , which immediatly & directly concerneth our delivery from our natural state of sin and miserie ; and our eternal Salvation : And this , we judge , to be whole Christ Iesus , as he is hold forth and revealed in the Gospel . We say Christ Jesus ( 1 ) wholly , and ( 2 ) as he is held forth and revealed in the Gospel . And both these , for explications sake , may be branched out , in several particulars . I say then first . That whole Christ is the object of Saving or Justifying Faith. Hence are we so often times commanded to Receive him , & to Beleeve in & on Him & in his name ; & Faith is expressed by a Coming to him , Eating & Drinking of Him , Receiving of him , &c. Ioh. 1 : 12. & 3 : 16 , 36. & 6 : 29 , 35 , 37 , 40 , 44 , 47 , 51 , 54 , 55 , 58. & 7 : 38. Act. 10 : 41 , & 13 : 38 , 39. & 26 : 18. Rom 3 : 22. Gal. 2 : 16. and many moe places . Hence this Faith is called the Faith of Christ Gal. 2 : 16. and the Faith of the Son of God Gal. 2 : 20. So then Saving and Justifying Faith taketh whole Christ. 1. Faith taketh him & closeth with him wholly ; as to his Natures : Faith receiveth him , as Mediator , God & Man in one person , though it be formally terminated on him , as God Ioh. 14 : 1. & as the Son of God Gal. 2 : 20. Yet faith receiveth him , as God manifest in the flesh . 1. Tim. 3 : 16. as the word made flesh Ioh. 1 : 14. as the Christ , the Son of the living God Matt. 16 : 16. Ioh. 6 : 63. as the Immanuel , God with us Esai . 7 : 15. Mat. 1 : 23. Luk 1 : 31. 2. Faith taketh him wholly , as to his Offices ; as a Prophet , as a Priest , & as a King : Faith embraceth him , as that great Prophet Act. 3 : 22. as the Word of God , that came out of the bosome of the Father , to reveal his mind & counsel for our Salvation Ioh. 1 : 17 , 18. Faith receiveth him also as Priest , offering up himself to God a sacrifice for sins , and making Satisfaction to the justice of God , & as Interceeding with the Father Ephes. 5 : 2. Heb. 2 : 17. & 7 : 25. & 9 : 14 , 28. Hence we hear of Faith in his blood . Rom. 3 : 25. And Christ crucified is proposed to Faith to receive , & feed upon . And in order to Justification & Pardon , faith ( as we shall hear ) hath a special eye unto the Surety . Righteousness of Christ. Faith also receiveth him as a King , to subdue their souls to himself , to make them Subjects , to swey his scepter in their souls , to subdue all their spiritual Enemies , & to Support , Rule , Guide & Defend them by his Spirit Esai . 33 : 22. Act. 5 : 31. Psal. 110. through out . 3. Faith receiveth him wholly , as to the Relations he hath taken on , in reference to his people , to wit , as an Husband Ephes. 5 : 30 , 31 , 32. as an Head Ephes. 5 : 23. & 1 : 22. Col. 1 : 18. as the Chief-Corner stone Ephes. 2 : 20. 1. Pet. 2 : 4 , 5 , 6 , 7. as a Vine Ioh. 15 : 1 , 2 , 5. As a Witness , Leader & Commander Esai . 55 : 4. as a Light Esai . 42. 6. & 49 : 9. Faith receiveth him under whatsoever Title , & Denomination , he is held forth for the comfort of his People . 4. Faith receiveth him wholly , as to the Work imported , & Ends designed by these Offices , Relations , & Denominations , which he took upon him , & under which he holdeth forth himself . 5. Faith receiveth him wholly , as to the Furniture & Qualifications , whereby he was fitted for the discharge of the duties , belonging to the Offices , which he did execute both in his Estate of Humiliation & Exaltation ; & for throughing & perfecting of the work , which he undertook to do : so that Faith receiveth him , as the Anointed of the Lord , & as having the Spirit of the Lord upon him , & as having all Fulness , all Power & Authority , even the Spirit without measure , Esai . 61 : 1. Luk. 4 : 18. Ioh. 3 : 34. & 1 : 14 , 16. Col. 1 : 19. & 2 : 3 , 9 , 10. Mat. 28 : 18. 6. Faith receiveth him wholly , as to all the sinners Necessities , Cases , Wants , Straits , & Difficulties , which they either are , or may be into , from first to last : All the Vessels must hang on Him , as the nail , that it fastened in a sure place Esai . 22 : 24 , 25. Faith eyeth Him , & Him alone , & seeketh the upmaking of all in Him alone , as knowing that in Him only , sinners can be compleet Col. 2 : 10. & out of his fulness must they receive , & grace for grace . Ioh. 1 : 16. Therefore is he held forth , as fournished with all richly , that we stand in need of , as a Store house & Treasurie of all necessaries , as having Eye salve , Gold & Rayment , & what we need . Revel . 3 : 18. 7. Faith receiveth Him , with all the Sufferings , Crosses , & Inconveniences , that can follow : Faith taketh up the Crosse , & followeth Christ. Mat. 10 : 37 , 38. Mark. 8 : 34. Mat. 16 : 24. Luk 9 : 23. Next I say , That Christ as revealed , held forth , & offered in the Gospel , is the object of Saving & Justifying faith : And so 1. He is received , as the result ( to speak so ) of the wonderful Contrivance & Designe of free Grace , Love , Goodness , Mercy , & Wisdom , concerning the glorifying of God , in the Salvation of the chosen ones , in & through Him : faith here observeth & closeth chearfully with that gracious Covenant of Redemption , betwixt Jehovah , or God Father , Son and Holy Ghost , and the Son in order to the Salvation of poor man , through the Sones becoming Mediator , God-man , & becoming Cautioner , for such as were given unto Him , and coming in their Law-place , and suffering for them , and their debt . &c. Faith closeth with , and embraceth this foundamental Ground of Salvation , in all its Parts , Ends & Meanes : and so receiveth Christ , as standing in such a place , and as engageing to through such a designe of Love & free Grace ; so far as the Beleever cometh to know & understand the same to be revealed . We may consider to this end Esai . 53. through out Ephes. 1 : 3. & forward . Rom. 3 : 21-27 . and other places ; & there see how Christ is held forth . 2. He is received as the great Gift of God Ioh. 4 : 10. as the Soveraigne Mean , through which all the great designe of Grace is brought about , in a glorious manner , as the authorized Ambassadour of God , and messenger of the Covenant Mal. 3 : 1. as the grand Effect of Love , Grace & Goodwill Tu. 3 : 4. Ioh. 3 : 16. as fore-ordained and set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3 : 25. and as made of God unto us wisdom , Righteousness , Sanctification & Redemption . 1. Cor. 1 : 30. He is received as the Power of God , and as the Wisdom of God 1. Cor. 1 : 24. as He , in whom God was reconciling the world unto himself , not imputing their trespasses unto them 2. Cor. 5 : 19. and as made sin , though he knew no sin for us , that we might be made the Righteousness of God , in him 2. Cor. 5 : 21. that is , as the Lord our Righteousness Ier. 23 : 6. Thus faith , in receiving Christ , as thus held forth in the Gospel , eyeth God , the Giver , the Sender , the Maker of Christ to be sin , and eyeth God , as the Justifier of the ungodly in him Rom. 4 : 5. and as the Reconciler of us to himself by Christ 2. Cor. 5 : 18. as forgiving sins , and granting Redemption through Christ's blood , according to the riches of his Grace , wherein He hath abounded toward us , in all wisdom & prudence . Ephes. 1 : 7 , 8. Here is the incomprehensible riches of the Mercy & Grace of God Father . Son & Holy Ghost , eyed as the Object , according to their peculiar methode & order of working , in this grand affaire . 3. He is received as offered & held forth in the Promises : Thus was he embraced of old , as the promised Messiah , and as the substance of all the Promises , which the Fathers of old saw a far off Heb. 11 : 13. Ioh. 8 : 56. That promise made to Abraham that in him all Nations should be blessed , was the Gospel Gal. 3 : 8. and contained a bunddle of promises vers . 16. And the faith of this , was that faith , by which Abraham was justified Rom. 4 : 16-22 . Hence all the promises are made good in and through him ; and they are all yea & amen , in him 2. Cor. 1 : 20. And he is the Substance of them all ; for they either hold forth his Person , or his Work , or some thing of Him , or some thing from Him , according to the Various Exigencies & Necessities of his people . 4. He is received as the grand meane of declaring & setting forth the glorious Attributes of God ; which the Lord will have manifested in and by this noble designe of the Gospel : for Faith sweetly acquiesceth in this designe of God's , to preach forth his Excellencies & Vertues , in this manner ; and therefore receiveth Christ , as offered & held forth in the Gospel , for such a glorious End ; & so receiveth him , as the great Gift of Love Ioh. 3 : 16. as the mean , whereby the Righteousness of God is declared Rom. 3 : 25. and his Grace Ephes. 1 : 5 , 6. and as the Power of God. and the Wisdom of God. 1 : Cor. 1 : 24 , Ephes. 3 : 10. Thus Faith seeth the glory of God shining with a peculiar splendour , in the face of Jesus Christ 2. Cor. 4 : 6. 5. So is he received as the grand & only Meane to bring about all the great Ends , designed of God , and desired by them : so that in the receiving of him , all these ends are closed with , and expected : such as Remission of sins , Justification , Acceptation , Adoption , Sanctification , Peace of Conscience , Joy in the Holy Ghost , yea life , and Immortality & full Redemption Ephes. 1 : 7. Col. 1 ; 14. Act. 26 : 18. Rom. 3 : 25. & 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. Ephes. 1 : 11 , 12 , 13 , 14. Rom. 5 : 1 , 2 , 3. 1. Pet. 1 : 3 , 4. So that Faith eyeth here , by way of end , all that Grace & Glory , they would have , and can desire to make them up , 6. And , in a word , He is received as the grand meane to Interest them in God , Father , Son & Holy Ghost , as theirs ; to bring them nigh unto God , and in Covenant with Him , and to enjoy the several Effects & Benefites of their Workings . They come to God through Him , as the only way to the Father Ioh. 14 : 6. They close with the Father , as their God and Father through Him , and with the Holy Ghost , as their Sanctifier , and comforter through Him , who sendeth the Spirit from the Father , Ioh. 15 : 26. & 14 : 26. All these several things belong unto the adequate & full Object of that faith , whereby beleevers become Justified , Adopted , Sanctified , & shall be at length finally Saved , for they shall receive the end of their faith , the Salvation of their souls 1. Pet. 1 : 9. Yet to prevent mistakes , we would adde some few considerations . 1. By all this , we do not meane , that all these Objects , or Various parts or Considerations of the one adequate & compleet Object , are expresly and distinctly conceived & laid hold on by every Beleever , when they act faith on Christ , or come unto God through him , according to the Gospel-command : But that these things belong to the full Object of Saving faith , and are implied therein ; so that whoever beleeveth savingly , beleeveth these several truthes , according to the measure of the Revelation of God , and of their Capacity & Information . So that a more full & explicite beleefe of these particulars is now required under the Gospel , than was required under the Old Testament , when ●his Revelation was not so full and plaine , as now : and more is required of such , who have had clear information of Gospel truthes ; than of others , who have wanted that Advantage : and more also is required of such , as have large Capacities & Understandings , than of others , who are more Rude & of a narrower Reach . 2. Wherever any of these truthes are rightly beleeved , and heartily closed with , all the rest are implicitly also received ; for they cannot be separated ; the whole contrivance is such a noble piece af divine art & of infinite wisdom , that all the several pieces , are indissolubly knit together : Hence what ever piece it be , that the beleever first doth directly & explicitly close with , or under whatsoever notion Christ at first be embraced , according us the beleever cometh to more distinct apprehensions of other pieces or parts of this contrivance , so his heart complyeth with , and he cordially embraceth the same . 3. We may be hereby helped to understand , the several and various expressions used in Scripture , to pointe forth faith , acting on its object ; for , however these be not alwayes one and the same , but different ; yet the same whole object is implicitly understood ; and these particulars , expresly mentioned , must not be considered abstractly , or alone ; but according to their several place in the grand designe , and with respect thereto ; as when the object of faith is said to be He , who justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4 : 5. and to be Him , who raised up Iesus our Lord from the dead vers . 24. and in that same Chap. the object of Abraham's faith , whereby he was justified , is the Promise , that God would make him a Father of many Nations &c. vers . 17 , 18. &c. all these must be considered with respect unto Christ , the grand medium , who was appointed to be a Saviour to all Nations , and was to die & rise againe , after satisfaction made to Justice , and in and through whom alone God will Justifie the poor sinner , that is ungodly in himself . With reference here unto must we understand the Publicans saying , God be merciful to me , a sinner , and the saints under the Old Testam . their so frequent fleeing to the Grace , Mercy & Bounty of God ; for all this was with respect to the only Soveraigne way , that the Lord had condescended upon , whereby to shew forth , and manifest , his Mercy & Goodness & Grace to sinners . In the New Test. we finde more express mention made of Christ , as the object of faith , as Iesus of Nazareth , the true Messiah , who was promised Ioh. 20 : 31. 1. Ioh. 5 : 9 , 10 , 20. Ioh. 1 , 45. Act. 13 : 38. or as Lord & God. Ioh. 20 : 28. as the Son of David . Mat. 15 : 21. & 9 : 27 , & 20 : 30. & 21 : 42. As the Son of God Ioh. 9 : 35. as the Christ the Son of God Ioh. 11 : 27. Act. 8 : 37. as come forth from God Ioh. 16 : 30 , 27. as the Lord Iesus Act. 16. 31. as raised by God from the dead Rom. 10 : 9 as one that died & rose againe 1. Thes. 1 : 14. as sent of God Ioh. 17 : 8. that Iesus is the Christ. 1. Ioh. 5 : 1. So that under all these and the like , one and the same thing for substance is pointed forth ; though some particular in that grand designe of grace is more expresly & immediatly pointed at ; yet that particular is to be understood with reference to the whole ; and the whole is to be included . So also when God is mentioned as the object of faith ; either absolutely 1. Pet. 1 : 2. Tit. 3 : 8. Heb. 5 : 1. 1. Thes. 1 : 8. or in Reference to Christ , whom he sent Ioh. 5 : 24. or through whom he is beleeved in 1. Pet. 1 : 21. or the like , the matter must be thus understood . 4. Hereby also may the Various Explications of this object of faith , given by men , be some way understood & reconciled , when some say , the Mercy of God is it , others say , the Promises , some Remission of sins , and the like ? some God the Father , Son & Holy Ghost : for such as seem to restrict it most , may be understood as not speaking exclusively of what else the Scripture mentioneth as belonging thereunto . 5. All this notwithstanding , faith may have & hath a special respect to Christ as Priest , and making Satisfaction to justice , and laying down the Ransome-money , and paying the debt , according to his undertaking as Surety , in order to the particular benefite of Justification , and of Pardon of sins ; as was in part cleared above , and may be more spoken to afterward , in the following Chapters . CHAP. XXXIII . The Righteousness of Christ is the special Object of Faith in Justification . COnsidering what hath been said at some length above , concerning the imputation of the Surety-Righteousness of Christ , in order to Justification , we needed not insist on this here ; Seing if what is said touching that fundamental point hold , this will not endure much debate : Yet because Mr. Baxter in his Apologie against Mr. Blake § . 11. is pleased to tell us , that Faith , which is the Iustifying condition , is not terminated on the Righteousness of Christ : And that it is a meer fancy & delusion to speak of the receiving a Righteousness , that we may be justified constitutive thereby , in such a sense , as if the Righteousness were first to be made ours , in order of nature before , our Iustification , & then justification follow , because we are Righteous . But , sure , this eyeing of , laying hold on , and leaning to the Righteousness of Christ , holdeth clear correspondence with the experience of the Children of God , not only at their first Conversion , when delivered from under the Convictions of sin , and the terrours of the Law ; but even afterward , when exercised with new assaults of Satan , objecting unto them their Unworthiness , & Filthiness , and hence inferring their exclusion from the face of God : for then their maine quieting refuge is the Righteousness of Christ ; wherein they seek only to be found , acknowledging that in themselves , they are but sinners , and so rejecting their own worth & holiness , as too ragged to cover the shame of their nakedness , wherein they have the Apostle Paul going before them Phil. 3 : 8 , 9. ( which may also serve , for a scriptural proof and ground of the truth in hand ) He rejected all these things , wherein sometime he gloried , and he did now ( even long after his Conversion , while a prisoner at Rome & after all his great Labour & Paines in spreading the Gospel ) count all things ( nothing is here excepted ) but loss ( saith he ) for the excestency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus , my Lord , for whom I have suffered the loss of all things , & do count them but dung . that I may win Christ , & be found in him , not having mine own Righteousness ( it is nor good that Mr. Baxter should carp at Writters & Preachers , for speaking & teaching after this manner , as he doth Cath. Theol. Mor. Works § . 176. ) which is of the Law ; but that , which is through the faith of Christ , the Righteousness which is of God by faith . This saith ●early , that in order to Justification before God , faith laith hold on a Righteousness , which is of God , and which is had by the Faith of Christ. And this Surety-Righteousness of Christ , is that which can only prove sutable unto the case of a wakened sinner , pressed with the guilt of sin , and seeing justice armed against him , stopping his way to life , because of his Un-righteousness . What can be more welcome unto such a sinner , than the newes of a Righteousness , and of having Christ to become the Lord his Righteousness , as made of God Righteousness ? And what can his faith grippe to more earnestly , than to this Righteousness , that he may be covered therewith , and think with joy of appearing before God ? How else shall he think to be justified by God , who is just , even when the justifier of a beleeving sinner . He knoweth , that God is Righteous , and will not acquit the guilty ; and therefore he must have a Righteousness , that he may be in case to stand before the Righteous God : So that he can have no peace , till by faith he have interest in the Surety-Righteousness of Jesus Christ ; for he knoweth , that he hath none of his owne , and that there is none any where else to be had . And further , this way doth exceedingly serve to demonstrate , upon the one hand , the Righteousness of God , who will not Justifie without a Righteousness , or one that hath no Righteousness ; and upon the other hand , it commendeth the riches of the free Grace & Mercy of God , when the sinner seeth , how free Love hath provided such an alsufficient Remedie , a Righteousness against which , no exception can be made , and a Righteousness , under the wings of which , he may saifly hide & shelter himself & being covered with which , he may rest confidente of acceptance , and so may with full peace of mind rest here , and relye upon it . As also it serveth exceedingly to abase man in his own eyes , and to make him for ever keep a low saile , and walk humblie before this God , and give Him the Glory of all . Hence this Righteousness is called the Righteousness of Faith , or of Christ beleeved in , and laid hold on Rom. 4 : 13. & the Righteousness of God , which is by faith of Iesus Christ Rom. 3 : 22. Phil. 3 : 9. & a Righteousness through the faith of Christ , ibid. All which & the like expressions do manifestly say , that faith laith hold on a Righteousness , even on the Righteousness of God. And this Righteousness is said to be unto all , & upon all them that beleeve Rom. 3. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And imputed , or reckoned upon their score . Rom 4 : 24. Mr. Baxter in the forecited book Cath. Theol. § . 131. saith that the meaning of this Rom. 4 : 24. is no more , but that God reputeth , or judgeth us Righteous . But how can he repute us Righteous , unless we have a Righteousness , either of our own , or from some other : of ourselves we have not a Righteousness , unless he account beleeving all our Righteousness , against which we have said enough above ; and the very words of the text will not admit of this glosse , as was also shown above . If it be the Righteousness of Christ , who was delivered for our Offences , and was raised againe for our Justification vers . 25. then it is fit object for faith to lay hold on , it being Christ's Surety-Righteousness , or the Righteousness , which he performed & wrought out , when he was delivered for our offences ; and which was publickly declared to be accepted , when he was raised againe for our Justification . And whatever Mr. Baxter think , this is , and must be so far made our owne , through the gracious Imputation of God , that the Righteous God , whose judgment is to according to truth , may pronunce us Righteous , and accept of us , as such . But saith he , Imputing Righteousness to us , is a consequent act ( after faith ) of God as judge , and not an antecedent donation ] Yet it is such a consequent act of God , as necessarily presupposeth God's free antecedent Donation : for it is God's reckoning that Righteousness upon the beleevers score , in order to the Justifying of him thereupon ; and because this Righteousness must be given , we not having it of ourselves , there must a free donation antecede , and this groundeth Faiths accepting thereof , and receiving of it . And himself immediatly before this , saith , that God , giving us all the effects , or Salvation merited , in it self properly , is said also not unfitly to give us the merit or Righteousness , which procured them , that is , as it was paid to God for us , to procure them . And if so , why doth he inveigh so much , in the foregoing pages , against the orthodox doctrine of Imputation ; seing he cannot but know , that they do not say , that God doth give us the very habits of holiness ( as he speaketh there ) which were in Christ , nor the transient acts which he performed , nor the very sufferings which he under-went , nor the Relation of Righteous Satisfactory & Meritorious , as it was that numerical relation , which immediatly resulted from Christ's own habits , acts and sufferings : They dreame of no such Translation of accidents . But only say , that seing ( as Mr. Baxter here & elsewhere saith ) this satisfactory Righteousness was paid to God for them , and accepted of God , as a compleat & Satisfactory Righteousness , they by faith coming to be united unto Christ ( according to the way & methode , which the Lord hath wisely condescended upon ) have an interest in that Satisfactory Righteousness , as legally made over unto them , and therefore have the benefites purchased thereby ; as when a stranger , who was not under the Obligation , cometh to pay the debt of a debtor lying in prison , the payment must in Law sense be made , and accounted the debtors , or put upon his score , and received upon his account , ere he can therefore be relieved out of Prison . But in the fore-cited place against Mr. Blake he maketh this Righteousness & Remission all one thing : And indeed if it were so , it could not belong to the Object of Faith , other wayes , than as an end , intended to be obtained thereby . But to us Remission is a benefite purchased by this Righteousness , and followeth upon our having interest therein through Faith , according to the appointment of God : a Pardoned man , as such , is not a Righteous man. But he tels us there , that our divines of the Assembly do perfectly define justifying Faith to be , a receiving & resting on Christ alone for Salvation , as he is offerest in the Gospel . It is of dangerous consequence to define justifying faith to be the receiving of justification , or Righteousness . Ans. Here we have Justification & Righteousness made one and the same , which with me , differ as Cause & Effect ; our divines of the Assembly give a more full definition or description of Justifying Faith , in the Larger Catechisme , and there tell us , that thereby the convinced sinner receiveth & resteth upon Christ , & ( N.B. ) his Righteousness therein ( i.e. in the Gospel ) held forth , for pardon of sin , & for the accepting & accounting of his person Righteous in the sight of God for Salvation . And if Mr. Baxter would say so much , as is here , this debate would be at an end , and yet I finde not this among his exceptions , against that Catechisme , in his Confession . And when our devines mentione this Receiving & Resting upon Christ's Righteousness , they make not Justifying Faith to be a receiving of Justification ; but the one a cause of the other : And he addeth a little thereafter , ( which is considerable to our present purpose ) That receptio Ethica activa of justification , or of Righteousness ( for they are both one thing with him ) goeth before Iustification , as a small & secondary part of condition , it being the accepting of Christ himself , that is the maine condition : And we never spoke of the receiving by Faith of Christ's Righteousness , as exclusive of the receiving of himself . He tels us next . That Christ's Satisfaction or Redemption ( solvendo pretium ) & merit , cannot properly be received by us ; for they are not in themselves given to us . We grant the price was payed to God , but it being payed to God for us , it may be imputed to us , and reckoned upon our score ; and we may that way receive it by faith , and Lean our soul upon it , to the end , that the fruit of it may be given to us . And likewise he granteth ibid. that justifying faith doth as necessarily respect Christ's satisfaction & merit , as it doth our Iustification thereby procurea . If he will grant , that Justifying Faith respecteth Christ's Satisfaction & Merite , as the Cause , in which we are to have an interest , and under which we must refuge our selves , and upon the account of which we are to be accepted of God , and accounted Righteous in his sight , all is granted that I desire . But his following exceptions are founded upon a manifest mistake of his own , taking this Righteousness , whereof we speak , and Justification , for one and the same thing : for he saith . To say therefore , that the justifying act of faith , is only the receiving of Christ's Righteousness , or of Iustification , is to exclude the receiving of Christ himself , any way , even to exclude him as Satisfier from the justifying act : & to exclude from that act his Redemption by Bloudshed , Satisfaction & Merite . The mistake here is palpable : for we look on Righteousness , which faith receiveth , as the Cause , and on Justification as the Effect : when this Righteousness of Christ , the causa proca●arctica of our Justification , is received by faith , it is impossible , but Christ himself must be received as a Satisfier : his Redemption , Bloudshed , Satisfaction & Merite , cannot be excluded ; for therein was the Righteousness , which faith laith hold upon , in order to Justification . He addeth for confirmation , for if it be only the receiving of Righteousness , that is the justifying act ; than it is neither the receiving of Christ himself , nor yet the acknowledgment of his Satisfaction & Redemption by his blood . But this is nothing but what was said , repeated againe , Neither do we say , that the Justifying act of Faith , as it is called , is a receiving of Christ's Righteousness , as distinct from himself : nor is it imaginable , how Christ's Righteousness can be received , without the acknowledgment of his Satisfaction , and of the Redemption by his blood . How he can say , that Christ's Righteousness & our Justification , are but one and the same thing , I do not understand , when as he saith himself ▪ Cath. Theol. of moral works Sect. 13. n. 208. that our first constitutive justification ( which is it whereof we are here speaking , to wit , that by which a soul is brought from an Unrighteous to a Righteous State , as he speaketh , n. 207. ) is in its nature a right to impunity & to life , or glory . Now sure , this Relation , or Relative state is one thing , and the Righteousness of Christ , the ground & meritorious cause thereof is a far other thing . And when he saith Apologie ag . Mr. Eyre . § . 4. that he is well content to call Christ's Righteousness of Satisfaction the matter of ours , and that the imputation of Christ's Righteousness , taken for Donation , is the forme of Constitutive Iustification , & that sentential adjudication of Christ's Righteousness to us , is the forme of our sentential Iustification . That Faith in order to Justification doth in a special manner , eye the Righteousness of Christ , is clear from Esai . 45 : 24 , 25 , Surely shall one say , in the Lord have I Righteousness ; & then followeth . In the Lord shall al● the seed of Israel be justified . This truth is also clearly held forth , when faith in the matter of Justification , is called faith in Christ's blood Rom. 3 : 25. for when faith laith hold on the bloud of Christ , it cannot but lay hold on his Surety-Righteousness , whom God set forth to be a Propitiation ; and in & through whom there was a Redemption wrought vers . 24. for this hlood was the Redemption-money , the price payed , in order to Redemption . 1. Pet. 1 : 18 , 19. And the blessedness of Justification is through the Imputation of Righteousness , without our works Rom. 4 : 6. and therefore faith , in order to the obtaining of this blessedness , must eye and relye upon this Righteousness which is the Righteousness of him , who was delivered for our offences and was raised againe for our Justification vers . 25. where we may also observe a manifest difference betwixt this Righteousness , ( which consisteth in his being delivered for our offences ) and our Justification ; the one being the Cause ( as was said ) & the other the Effect . Moreover , this same truth is clear from R●m . 5 : 17. where we read of the receiving of the gift of righteousness , which is by faith , and that in order to a reigning in life by one Jesus Christ : where also we see a difference put betwixt this gift of Righteousness & Reigning in life ; which is also more cleare , in the following vers . 18. Even so by the righteousness of one , the free gift came upon all men unto Iustification of life : this righteousness of one , to wit , one Jesus Christ , is the Cause , and the Iustification of life , is the Effect : And further this difference is againe held forth . vers . 19 , 20 , 21. Our being made Righteous is different from the obedience of one Christ Jesus ; and by the Imputation of this Obedience to us , do we become Righteous , as our being made sinners is different from Adam's act of Disobedience ; and we are made sinners by the Imputation of it to us . And as sin & death are different , when it is said , that sin hath reigned unto death ; so Eternal life is different from Righteousness , when it is said , so might grace reigne through righteousness unto eternal life . We need say no more of this , seing it clearly followeth , from what was formerly at length confirmed ; to wit , That justification is by the Righteousness of Christ imputed . CHAP. XXXIV . Faith in Justification respecteth not in a special manner Christ , as a King ; but as a Priest. MR. Baxter did long ago in his Aphorismes tell us ; That the Accpting of Christ for Lord , is as essential a part of Iustifying Faith , as the accepting of him for our Saviour ; that is , as he explained himself , That faith , as it accepteth Christ , for Lord & King , doth justifie . And this was asserted by him , to the end , he might cleare & confirme how Sincere Obedience cometh in with Affiance to make up the Condition of Justification ; for his Thesis LXXII . did run thus . As the accepting of Christ for Lord ( which is the hearts Subjection ) is as essential a part of Justifying Faith , as the accepting of him for our Saviour ; So consequently , sincere obedience ( which is the effect of the former ) hath at much to do in justifying us before God , as Affiance ( which is the fruit of the later . Hence the question arose , and was by some proposed thus ; Whether faith in Christ qua Lord , be the justifying act : or , whether the Acceptation of Christ , as a Lord , and not only , as a Priest , doth justifie . And Mr. Baxter in his Confess . p. 35. § . 13. saith , that it is not only without any ground in God's word , but fully against it , to say , that faith justifieth only , as it apprehendeth Christ , as a Ransome , or Satisfier of justice , or Meriter of our Iustification ; or his Righteousness as ours ; & not as it receiveth him , as King , or as a Saviour from the staine & tyranny of sin . I have shewed before , that the moving of this question , is of little use , in reference to that end , for which , it seemeth , it was first intended , to wit , to prove , that Sincere Obedience hath as much to do in Justification , as faith , or Affiance hath ; where I did shew the inconsequence of that consequence . That because Justifying Faith receiveth Christ , as King ; Therefore Obedience is a part of the Condition of Justification , yea , or therefore a Purpose , or a promise of Obedience is a part of the Condition of Justification . So that , in order to the disproving of that Assertion , that maketh obedience , or a Purpose , or a promise of obedience , an essential part of the Condition of Justification we need not trouble ourselves with this question : Yet , in regaird that the speaking to this may contribute to the clearing of the way of Justification by faith , ( which is our great designe ) we shall speak our judgment there anent . And in order thereunto , several things must be premitted . As 1. The question is not , whether Christ , as a King , belongeth to the compleet & adequate object of that faith , which is the true & justifying faith : for this is granted , as was shown above , this faith , being the same faith , whether it be called True Faith , or Saving Faith , or Uniting & Covenanting faith , or Justifying faith , it must have one & the same adequate Object . 2. Nor is the Question , whether Faith in order to Justification , doth so act on Christ , as a Priest , as to exclude either virtually , or expresly , the consideration of any other of his offices , or of Christ under any other of his offices : for under whatever office Christ be considered ; when faith acteth upon him , whole Christ is received , and nothing in Christ is or can be excludeth ; So that there is no virtual exclusion ; nor can there be any express exclusion of any of his offices , when he , under any other of his offices is looked to a right & received ; for such an exclusion would be an open rejection of Christ , and no receiving of him . 3. When we speak here of receiving of Christ , as a Priest , or in respect of his Sacerdotal Office , it is all one , as if we named his Sacerdotal work , or what he did in the discharge of that office , offering up himself a Satisfactory Sacrifice , and giving his blood , and life for that end , and suffering inwardly & outwardly , what was laid upon him by the Father , in order to the making of full Satisfaction to justice , and paying our debt , by his Righteousness Active & Passive . 4. Nor do we , when we speak of Faiths acting on Christ , as a Priest , so limite & restrick the same unto his Sacerdotal work , as to exclude any thing , that is presupposed thereunto , concomitant thereof , consequential thereunto & depending thereupon , or is necessarily requisite unto the effectual application of the same unto our Justification & Advantage . When therefore it is said , that in Justification , faith eyeth in a special manner the Sacerdotal office & work of Christ , there is no exclusion of the Consideration of that fountaine Love , Grace , & favoure of God , whereby Christ was given unto the chosen , and appointed to be their Priest , and to make Satisfaction for them : Nor of his foregoing Incarnation , Obedience , Resurrection , Asctnsion &c. nor of other thlngs that are necessarily requisite hereunto , for all these are necessarily herein included . 5. When we speak of the Souls acting faith , in order to Justification , we do not suppose , that at that time , the troubled soul can have no other end or designe before his eyes ; nor be troubled with no other evil , or with the thoughts thereof , that he would be delivered from ; and so in order to getting help therein , and a remedie thereof , cannot eye some-thing else in Christ , answering & suiting the same : for a Sinner in that case , may be troubled with the sense of the great Unbeleef & Hardness & Impenitency of his heart , the Unholiness of all his wayes , his Blindness & Ignorance ; as well as with the sense of his Guilt , and of his being under the Curse ; and so may & must be supposed , in coming to Christ for reliefe , to eye in a special manner , that in Christ , which is answerable to these his Necessities : And in this respect , a Sinner may be said to go to Christ , as a Prophet , and as a King , as well as to him , as a Priest ; But in reference to these evils , they are not said or supposed to go to Christ , for Justification ; for that respecteth merely their state of Sin & Guilt . 6. But the real question should be , what is the special & practical meaning of these words , we are justified , or live by faith : and to this end , the true Question is , what special way doth faith act on Christ ( for it is here presupposed , that Christ must be the Object of Justifying Faith ) in order to the sinners Justification ? or what is that in Christ , that faith specially eyeth , and carrieth the soul out unto , when Justification before God is only designed ? Or when the wakened sinner is earnestly desireous of delivery from the Guilt of sin & from the Curse of God , and of enjoying the Favour & Reconciled Face of God , whether he is to apply himself by faith unto Christ , as King , or unto Christ , as a Priest & to what he did as a Priest , for the reliefe of sinners ? In answere to the Question thus proposed , I say , That the wakened sinner , in that case , while seeking reliefe from sin & guilt , and from the curse , by Absolution & Justification , in the sight of God , in compliance with the Gospel methode & designe , making Justification to be by faith , & in obedience to the Gospel command , saying , Beleeve & be justified , is to act faith in a special manner on Christ's Mediation & Satisfaction ; & to betake himself to Christ as a Priest , and rest on him & on what he di● as a Priest , that is , on his death , Bloud , and Satisfaction . This is it , which others call the justifyinh Act of Faith : or that special act of faith , required in order to Justification . Though what was said in the foregoing Chapter to prove , that Christ's Righteousness is the Object of Justifying faith , may serve for confirmation of this ; Yet we shall , in short , lay down these grounds of proof , and First Several Scriptnre-expressions , where Justification is spoken of and cleared in its causes , shew and pointe forth what is , which faith should specially eye , and be employed about , in order to the interesting of the soul in this benefite : such as 1. Rom. 3. 24 , 25. Being justified freely by his grace , through the Redemption that is in Iesus Christ ; whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation , through faith in his blood . Here , as justification is said to be brought about & effect●at through the Redemption of Christ , who was a Propitiation , & this respecteth only his Priesthood ; so the special object of faith , in this affair ' , is expresly said to be his Bloud , through faith in his blood , to tell us , that all such , as would have interest in this Privilege of justification , must by faith eye the Propitiation , the Bloody Sacrifice of Christ ; And by blood we finde it oft said , that Remission of sins is had Col. 1 : 14. Ephes. 1 : 7. Mat. 26 : 28. and not without it . Heb. 9 : 22. 2. Rom. 4 : 24 , 25. - to whom it shall be imputed , if we beleeve on him , that raised up Iesus , our Lord from the dead , who was delivered for our offences , & was raised againe for our Iustification . As justification , here is held as procured & brought about by Christ , as a Priest , for as such , was he delivered for our offences , and as such was he raised , or brought out of prison , so faith here , even when acting upon God , yet it is with a special relation to Christ's Priesthood , or to his Satisfaction ; for it is a Beleeving on him , that raised up Christ Jesus , our Lord , from the dead , that is , in God as declaring he hath now received full Satisfaction from the Cautioner Christ by bringing him out of prison ; & consequently in that Satisfaction given by Christ , wherewith the Father is now well pleased . See also Rom. 10 : 9. 3. Rom. 5 : 9 , 10. Much more then being now justified by his blood : for if when we were enemies , we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son &c. As the way is here pointed out , how justification & Reconciliation was effectual by Christ , to wit , by his Bloud & Death , or by what he did & suffered as Priest & Cautioner ; so accordingly is our faith directed to look , in order to a partaking of this Justification & Reconciliation , especially when this is so clearly & expresly explained to us . 4. Rom. 8 : 33 , 34. - It is God that justifieth - It is Christ that died , yea rather that is risen againe , who is even at the right hand of God , who also maketh Intercession for us . All which grounds of justification belong to his Priestly Office. And , if these be here laid down for grounds of Comfort & Assurance unto Beleevers , to fottifie them against all Assaults of the Accuser of the brethren , and against all Accusations , or Condemnations of men or devils ; sure , the way is also pointed out , how faith should act , in order to their being brought into a state of justification . 5. 2. Cor. 5 : 19 , 21. To wit God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself ; not imputing their trespasses unto them for he hath made him to be sin for us , who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him . The way how Reconciliation was brought about , is here set down , to the end the ministrie of Reconciliation , mentioned vers . 18. and whereby persons are beseeched to be Reconciled vers . 20. may be understood , and such as are called upon may know in special what to do , in order to be reconciled , to wit close with him , and be in him , and be united to him , who was made sin , for sinners , that they might be clothed with a sufficient Righteousness in him : so that this points out Faith 's eyeing Christ , as such a Cautioner , having the debt of sinners imputed to him , and becoming a Sacrifice for sin . 6. Gal. 2 : 16 , 20. - We have beleeved in Christ , that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. And what he did , when he thus beleeved in Christ , that he might he j●stified , he plainly tels us vers . 20. saying I am crucified with Christ : thus he wan to the life of justification ; by eyeing Christ on the crosse , making satisfaction unto justice , and assenting unto that way , & acquieseing in it , & resting & relying upon it . And in the same vers . he tels us , that his faith by which he lived , was on the Son of God , who have himself for him , that is , unto death . 7. Gal. 3 : 11 , 13. The just shall live by faith . This is the Text we are upon , and we have cleared how this life here mentioned is the life of justification ; But what is the speciall object of this faith , in order to justification ? That is clearly enough pointed to vers . 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law , being made a curse for us . It is Christ , & Christ as Redeeming from the Curse of the Law , & that by being made a curse for us ; which only looks to his Priestly office . 8. Phel . 3 : 9 , 10 , 11. Paul was desireous to be found in Christ , & to be partaker of his Righteousness alone , which was by faith ▪ But what was it in Christ , that the eye of his Faith was mainly fixed upon ? He sheweth that vers . 10 : 11. That I may know him , & the power of his resurrection , & the fellowship of his Sufferings , being made conformable to his death &c. Christ's Sufferings , Death & Resurrection were most in his eye . 9. Ioh. 3 : 14 , 15. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness , even so must the Son of man be lifted up , that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish , but have eternal life . The special object of faith here is Christ , as lifted up , that is , as Crucified . Ioh. 12 : 32 , 33. It will not be sufficient for weakening of these reasons , to say . That none of these conclude , that faith in order to Justification , eyeth Christ as a Priest only : for ( 1 ) They sufficiently prove , that faith in this matter of Justification goeth to Christ , as a Priest , and eyeth his Sacrifice , Bloud & Redemption through his death ; and we are called to prove no more , because it lyeth upon those , who are of another judgment , to shew us from Scripture , that Faith , in order to the obtaining of justification , acteth on Christ's Kingly office , & receiveth him , as Lord. ( 2 ) We know what outcryes Papists make against the like Arguments of Protestants for justification by faith , because it is not said , we are justified by faith alone . ( 3 ) Though the Scriptures do not as plainly say , that faith in justification doth not in an especiall manner eye Christ , as King & Prophet ; as it saith , we are not justified by works ; Yet we are bound to follow the light of the word , and to regulate our conceptions , by what we finde there expressed , & if we finde not any mention made of faith in Christ's command or Government , or the like relating to his Kingly office , as we heare of Faith in his Blood & the like relating to his Priestly office , we may saifly judge , that the one , being so clearly mentioned & so frequently , is a denying of the other , that is never mentioned . Secondly . The very case & condition , wherein such are , who are desireous justification , may cleare this : for they are now awakened , & made to see their natural state of death , wherein they are under the sentence of the Law , under the Curse & Malediction of God : And therefore the thing , which their soul now seeketh after , is a sutable Reliefe , something that may answere this case and may prove a fit Reliefe to them thus imprisoned , & in chaines , because of their Debt & Transgressions : And therefore , as all Reason requireth ; so experience proveth , that these wakened sinners seek after the Satisfaction through the Death & Merites of Christ , that they may have an Interest therein , and the benefite thereof , to the quieting of their souls ; They lay hold on the Sufferings of Christ , that they may be hid in his wounds ( as it were ) that so they may be healed by his stripes ; and have a Righteousness , under which they may with confidence stand , and appear before God ; They become crucified with Christ , sweetly acquiesceing in , resting satisfied with , contentedly accepting of , and confidently resting & relying upon , his Merites , his Death , his Payment & Sntisfaction 〈◊〉 justice . Seing then , that this ( as experience proveth ) is the way , that pursued souls take , to refuge themselves under a Crucified Christ , to flee to his Death & Merites , this , or Christ as a Priest dying & paying the debt , must be the special Object of the Faith of an hunted soul , panting after justification , or freedom from Condemnation . Thirdly , Christ's other Offices , as his Kingly , or Prophetical office , do not hold him forth , as immediatly sutable unto souls under this pressure ; nor is there any thing properly belonging to these offices , that promiseth immediat Reliefe unto a Soul , in this case , seeking after Reconciliation with God , & Pardon of sinners , which is only had by Christ's Death & Bloud Rom. 5 : 9 , 10. & 3 : 25. Ephes. 1 : 7. Col. 1 : 14. Christ by his Kingly or Prophetical office , doth not act towards God , in the behalfe of sinners , but by his Priestsly office he doth Heb. 5 : 1 , 5 , 6 , 7. And it is after this , that poor sinners , pursued with the sense of wrath , do seek , & this can only give present & futable Reliefe . Fourthly . The Faith of Beleevers under the sense of sin & guilt , under the Law , was thus led to act on the promised Messiah , when he was typified unto them by their Sacrifices , & they were to put their hands on the head of the Sacrifice , thereby , rolling their sin & guilt upon the Sacrifice , or on Him rather , who was the true Sacrifice , represented by these outward Sacrifices , & thereby professing their Faith in Him , as the only Satisfying Sacrifice , that could make Atonement , & Pacifie an angrie God , & deliver them from wrath . Fiftly , Christ is held forth , as having taken an these different offices , and as to shew his being a full & compleet mediator , able to answere all our necessities , and ●s authorized to give forth sutable reliefe ; so to instruct us how 〈…〉 , & to act faith upon him sutabl●e , with hope & confidence , Therefore as he is a King to subdue Enemies , the faith of his people is to act upon him , as such , when they would have their spiritual Enemies subdued ; & as He is a Prophet to teach , the faith of his people must act upon him , as such , when they would have Light , Counsel & Direction ; so , as He is a Priest to Die , Satisfie , make Atonement , Reconciliation & Peace , their Faith is to act upon him , as such , when they would have Guilt removed , & Peace made up betwixt God , & their souls . Sixtly . The end & designe of asserting Christ , as King to be as specially the Object of Faith , in Justification , as is Christ , as Priest , may sufficiently render it suspicious ; for it is , as we touched above , to bring-in our Obedience , as distinct from Faith , or as included in it , to be the Condition of Justification , the same manner of way , that Faith is : though , as was cleared above , the consequence will not be fou●d good . The reall question here ( as is well observed by others ) is not , whether any thing of Christ , ● to be excluded from being the Object of Justifying Faith. But what , in and of our selves , under the name of Receiving Christ as King , is to be admitted to share with Faith , in its place and interest , in our Justification ? Seventhly . To say , that faith acteth , in order to justification , in as special a manner , on Christ as a King , as on Christ as a Priest , is to alter the Nature , Use & Ends of Faith , in this work & to give it the Place & Power of a proper potestative condition , as it is a vertue & work of ours ; & not to look upon it as bringing all sutable supplies , in a distinct manner , from Christ , as was shown above : and this is but sutable to that alteration of the Nature of the New Covenant , that is made by the asserters of this , whereby it is of the same specifick nature with the Old Covenant of Works ; as if it were no more , but a new Edition thereof , with some alterations , as to the Conditions . Let us now see , what Mr. Baxter saith to the contrary , in his Catholick Theol. p. 2. of moral works Sect. 7. p. 55. &c. He tels us ( n. 105. ) That to be justified by faith in Paul's sence , is all one as to be justified by becoming Christians . Ans. We grant , with him , that to be a Believer , a Disciple , and a Christian , are all one , in the Gospel sense , & that by the same Faith , by which one is justified , he is a Christian also : but this proveth not , that Faith , in order to justification , acteth not , in a special manner , on Christ , as a Priest ; and we have found , how Paul both in his Doctrine , and in his own Practice , explaineth the acting of Faith in Justification . This may serve for an answere also to what he saith ( n. 106. ) to wit , that the faith , by which we are justified is essentially a beleeving fiducial consent to our Covenant relation to God the Father , Son & Holy Ghost : for we grant , that it is but one & the same Faith , which doth all this , but yet this Faith may be conceived , as acting in a peculiar manner in order to justification . We grant also , that it is the same faith , by which we have Right to the benefites of the Covenant , & by which we are justified ; Yet we say , that in order to Justification , that same Faith , which receiveth whole Christ , and thereby a Right to the benefites of the Covenant , acteth in a peculiar manner on Christ , as Priest , in order to Justification . He tels us next ( n. 108. ) That the faith by which we are justified , hath God the Father for its object , as essentially , as Christ the Saviour . Ans. And we do not deny God the Father to be the Object of that Faith , by which we are justified . And will he say , that Faith in God without Christ will justifie a sinner , or that there is any beleeving in God the Father now , without beleeving also in Christ ? The places he citeth Ioh. 17 : 3. & 13 : 1. shew the contrary . Adam's Faith indeed was such before the fall ; but our Faith now must be of another kinde . It is to as little purpose for him to say ( n. 109. ) That it is as essential to this faith to beleeve in Christ , as the Purchaser of Holiness & heaven , as to beleeve in him , as the purchaser of pardon : For he purchased all as a Priest , & not as a Prophet or King & when faith acteth on him , as a purchaser , it acteth on him , as a Priest. But he addeth . And to beleeve in him , as the Teacher & Ruler of the Church , as to beleeve in him , as the justifier of beleevers . True because beleeving in him , as a Ruler , & beleeving in him as the justifier of beleevers , are both to beleeve in him , as a King : And this is not the thing that is denied , Beleeving in Christ , as the justifier of beleevers , is not the same with beleeving in him , as a Priest , in order to justification , which is the thing , he should have said here , if he would have spoken to the purpose . What he saith ( n. 110. ) concerning Faith's being the act of the whole soul , & having for its object God , the Father , Son & Holy Ghost & in Christ , all that is essential to him , as a Saviour , was granted , & asserted also by us formerly : but it maketh nothing to our present question . He tels us ( n. 111. ) That to say , that some one only of these parts of Christ's office , as they are conceptus inadaequati of a Saviour , is the only object of justifying faith or that by beleeving in Christ , as our Teacher & Ruler , as well as Priest , & as a Iustifying judge , as well as a justifying Sacrifice , and as a fulfiller of the Law , is to ●xpect justification by works , as Paul denyeth it . This is a vaine distinguishing , a falsifying the doctrine of Faith & Iustification , a departing from the Scripture simplicity by corrupting seeming subtility , & one of those humane Inventions , which have wronged the Church . Ans. These , are but angry words , & carry with them no force of reason : And who is most guilty of vaine distinguishing & of falsifying the doctrine of Faith & Justification &c. he , or such as he opposeth in this matter , indifferent persons are at freedom to judge : And whether his new Doctrine , or the old , which he so violently , in all his writtings , oppugneth , hath more of seeming subtility in it , to the wronging of the Church , in its peace & quiet , every one may judge by the effects . But as to the matter in hand , he may know ( 1 ) that there is a difference betwixt saying , that some one only part of Christ's office is the only object of justifying Faith ( as he here speak ) & sa●ing ; that faith ( whose adaequate object is confessed to be as large , as he himself doth make it ) in order to a souls justification , acteth in special manner on Christ as a Priest , not excluding Christ as a King , or as a Prophet , but rather including whole Christ , according to the manner above mentioned , ( which is the thing we say . ) ( 2 ) Where readeth he of Faith in Christ ( in order to justification ) as our Teacher , or Ruler or Justifying judge , or justifying Sacrifice ? He should remember what he said ( n. 107. ) when speaking against the Phrase justifying faith , & faith justifying us , as being humane , & not Scriptural at all . ( 3 ) Indeed beleeving in Christ as Teacher & Ruler &c , in our sense , cannot inferre justification by works : but he knoweth , that it was for this end , to bring Works in with Faith , as equal Conditions , or parts of one Condition of Justification , that this new question was stated by him , in his Aphorismes ; And whether such doctrine be consonant to Paul's or not , we have seen in part above . He addeth ( n. 112. ) That it is but the same deluding subtilty , & vaine curiosity , playing with deceitful words , to say , that we are justified by faith , quatenus recipit Christ justitiam , as it beleeveth in Christ's Sacrifice & perfect obedience only ; & not as it beleeveth in him , as Teacher & Ruler , Sanctifier , judge . when the Scripture saith no such thing at all , but simply maketh faith in Christ , ( supposing faith in God the Father ) to be that , by which we must be justified . Ans. We minde not to be startled at his bold & angry expressions , for we meet with them so oft . Whether the Scripture warrandeth us to say , what we have said , or not , the Reader is at liberty to judge , from what is said . And we have nothing here yet said by him , to prove , that we are justified by Faith in Christ , as Teacher , or Ruler , which is it we are looking for here . More of this Stuffe we have ( n. 113. ) This distinction ( saith he ) is founded on another falshood supposed , which is that the effects of all Christ's saving works , are as distinctly to be ascribed to Receiving acts of faith , as they are to the the several procuring acts of Christ , the object of Faith , which is another corrupting addition to God's word . Ans. Who it is that saith so , as to all the several effects , I know not ; Nor do I see any necessity to say so ; as to some , & in special , as to Justification , we but follow the Scripture , going before us , as is shown . And we make no addition ; but he is the man , that is singularly guilty of adding to God's word , in this pointe ; for he saith , that faith , in order to justification , acteth not only in a special manner on Christ , as Priest ( which is the truth , we say , and owne with the Scriptures ) but also on Christ , as a King , and as a Prophet , & as a judge ; & yet giveth us us not one passage of Scripture to confirme this , but thinks we must be satisfied with his assertions , subtile distinctions , vaine & curious expressions , answering his own Philosophical Notions , with which he seemeth to be much taken , and we very little . What followeth there , I have nothing to do with . He hath a large discourse of various Receivings ( n. 114. 115. ) to what purpose , as to the business , we are now upon , I do not well see ; yet let us see , how he endeth it , God's Covenant ( saith he ) doth give us Christ & life , that is , Iustification , Sanctification , & Glorification , in title or right , in one gift , to be accepted by one entire faith , as the Condition ; not making at all , the order of the gifts & faiths respect to them in that order , to be any of the Ratio Proprietatis . Ans. ( 1 ) Will he not distinguish betwixt having of these benefites in Title or Right , & having them in possession ? He must , sure , or he must say , that beleevers are already perfectly Sanctified , and Glorified . ( 2 ) Will he say , that there is no more required to the actual Possession of Glory & full Sanctification , than here he saith is required unto the Title ? But it is like , he will comprehend under this Faith , all after Gospel-obedience ; But then , all this must preceed to justification &c. as well as to actual Glorification , & so none shall be justified , till they be Glorified , or he must admit of differences here . ( 3 ) As notwithstanding of what he saith here , he will , I suppose , grant that Faith hath a Further & special acting or manner of acting on Christ , in order to obtaining of Light , Life , Strength , and other things necessary in & for grouth in Sanctification ; so he may suffer us to say , that notwithstanding of this , Faith in a special manner eyeth & acteth upon Christ , as a Priest , in order to justification ; for there is no more inconsistency in the one , than in the other . The humane instances , whereby he thinks to make this plainer ( n. 116. ) do not help here . A wifes relation ( saith he ) is founded in her marriage consent . Now if he be a noble man , a rich man , a wise man , a good man , & they knew all this , & by knowing it were induced to consent , & are to have their proportionable benefites by his Nobility , Riches &c. Yet their Title to these benefites ariseth not from the act of their consent , as it respecteth these benefites distinctly , but meerly by consent unto their Relation . Ans. Notwithstanding hereof , when the woman is charged by her Creditors to pay her debt , her running to her husbands Wisdom , Nobility , & Goodness will not avail her ; but she must in a special manner run to his Riches & must from thence bring a Satisfactory payment unto her Creditors : And if he , whom she hath taken for her husband , hath already satisfied the debt , she is to instruct that before the judges , before whom her alleidging , that her now-husband is a great Noble man , and a most Wise man &c. will not avail . We grant also , that by Faith the Beleever is united & married unto Christ & hath thereby a Right , unto Him , & to all his Benefites , according to their necessity : Yet will the Lord have , that , in order to their actual justification , they shall apply his Merites , lay hold thereon , & as it were , produce the same in face of Court , as the only ground of their Discharge : as in order to their actual Glorification , he will have them doing many other things . In end ( n. 117. ) he tels us , that to say [ faith justifieth me , as it is the receiving of Christ's Righteousness , & not as it is the receiving of Christ , as a Teacher , Ruler ] &c. is a confounding or seducing saying . But as yet we have seen no strong reasons evinceing this to be such a seducing or confounding saying : but the contrary is apparent from what is said . Let us see why he judgeth thus . For ( sayeth he ) if it intimate , that faith justifieth us as an efficient cause , [ principal or instrumental ] it is false . But we have seen before , that faith may be considered here as an Instrument , & to say this , is neither to confound nor seduce : otherwayes all the Reformed , yea & his friend Iohn Goodwine have been Confounders & deceivers , & none but Mr. Baxter , with Papists & Socinians & some Arminians , are free of this charge . 2. ( saith he ) If it meane , that faith is the condition of justification , as it receiveth Christ's Righteousness only , it hath either one or two falshoods . We only say , that in order to the obtaining of justification , Faith acteth in a peculiar manner on Christ's Righteousness & Merites , & conceive that in this , there is neither one , nor two falshoods , 1. ( saith he ) if it mean that faiths receiving act is the formalis ratio conditionis , or that it justifieth not quà conditio donationis , but qua receptio justitiae Christ , it is false . Ans. We are not here speaking precisely of the formalis ratio conditionis , in such a Philosophical Notion : for we say , that Faith in order to Justification , receiveth Christ's Righteousness ; & that the Lord hath so appointed . Let Philosophers break their heads on these rationes formales , & the qua's & quae's ; we speak of this matter , so as every soul concerned may understand it . And then ( saith he ) 2. that [ only the Accepting of Righteousness justifieth us , that is , is the condition of justification ] is a falshood . This he should have proved to have been a falshood : but in all this discourse of this , we have had nothing like a proof , only confident Assertions , & that in great number . But in his Confession pag. 35. where he hath the same discourse for substance , he citeth several passages of Scripture , on the margine , as if they were confirmations of what he saith : And yet not one of them cometh home to the point in hand , as a short view may discover . For Col. 2 : 6. proveth what we deny not , to wit , that Beleevers receive Christ Jesus the Lord : We have shown above , that whole Christ belongeth to the Object of Faith that is Justifying : but we are here speaking of the special acting of that faith , in order to Justification . Psal. 2 : 12. only proveth , that such shall perish , as do not kisse & submit , to the Son & that kissing & submitting unto him , is required in order to being saved . Mat. 11 : 28 , 29. saith , that such as would have rest & ease , that is freedom from sin & misery here & hereafter , must come to Christ , & take his yoke upon them , & Learne of him : And in order to that particular rest & ease , had in Justification , we say also , that they must come to Christ , & take on his Righ●eousness , which is easie , though it seem a yoke to unrenewed Nature . Luk. 19 : 27. Proveth indeed , that such as will not have Christ to reigne over them , shall perish ; but doth ▪ doth not prove , that in order to Justification , Christ must be received , as a King Rom. 10 : 9 , 10. proveth , that faith eyeth Christ , as raised from the dead by God , ( which respecteth his Death & Sacrifice ) & that for a Righteousness , in order to the life of Justification ; which is what we say , Mat. 17 : 5. & Mark. 9 : 7. prove , what is not denied , to wit , that it is the will of God , that Christ his only beloved Son should be heard & obeyed , in all things . And Ioh. 10 : 3 , 4 , 9 , 27. only proveth , that Christ's sheep know & hear his voice : And who denieth this ? Ioh. 12 : 46 , 47 , 48. showeth , what benefites beleevers shall receive , & what shall be fall unbeleevers : but touch nor the point now in hand . Act. 2 : 30 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 38. Proveth , that Christ is indeed a King , & that all such , as would be saved , must receive him , as the exalted King. Act. 3 : 22 , 23 , 26. Proveth , that he is that Prophet , that was spoken of by Moses , & that he Died , Rose againe & sent forth the Gospel . to the end , that poor sinners might be turned from their iniquities : But there is nothing here to prove , that Faith , in its special acting , in order to justification , receiveth & layeth hold on Christ , as well as a Prophet , as on Christ , as a Priest. Act. 5 : 31. saith , that Christ is exalted to be a Prince & a Saviour , for to give Repentance to Israel & Remission of sins : but what is this to the question now in hand ? Ioh. 13 : 35. & 15 : 8. & 8 : 31. sheweth the genius , disposition , & kindly work of his disciples , to wit , to love one another , to bear fruite , & to continue in his word ; all which we willingly grant : Luk. 14 : 26 , 27 , 33. Evinceth , that right coming to Christ is inconsistent with a predominant Love to any terrene thing , how neer & dear so ever : But toucheth not the question now in hand . These are all the passages , he adduceth there , & none of them come neer the question . CHAP. XXXV . Faith is the only Condition on our part , of the continuance of justification . HAving spoken of Iustification , as to its beginning , or as to a Beleevers entering into that State of Life : & having spoken to some Questions for further clearing of the truth : We come to speak a word or two of the Continuance of this Privilege & State : That it is a continueing and permanent State , we have seen above . The Question then , that we have to discuss , is , Upon what termes & Conditions is this State continued ? or what is it , which the Lord requireth in order thereunto ? or whether any thing more be required of us for continueing this Relation than was at first required to the making of it ? that is , whether Faith alone , or Faith together with Works of sincere obedience , Mr. Baxter in his Confess , p. 47 , n. 40. tels us , that there is much more goeth to the continuing & consummating our Iustification , then doth at first to justifie us as to the condition on our parts , to be performed to that end : This Continueing of our State of Iustification , & Not-losing of it , he maketh one & the same , and that , which he requireth , as necessary unto the Not-losing or Continueing of this State , he maketh to be Sincere obedience , & many particular materials of that obedience , as to be humble , to forgive others , to confess Christ , & suffer for him , if called to it . That we may know both the State of the difference , & the Consequence thereof , we would premit these things . 1. It is readily & on all hands granted & yeelded unto , that there is an Holiness & Personal Obedience & Conformity to the Law , called for at the hands of all Justified persons , that are come to age : The denial therefore of what Mr. Baxter & others , that joyn with him , do here assert , cannot , with any shew of reason , be loaded with this foule inference , that hereby we cry down , or lay aside all necessity of Holiness , & of sincere obedience : for we still affirme that the Law is in force , & obligeth unto obedience , and that all such as are justified , have received a new frame & disposition of soul , inclineing them to obedience ; Yea & that they have now both peculiar Obligations unto Holiness , and also Advantages & Helps thereunto : They are his wormanship created in Christ Jesus unto Good Works , which God hath before ordained , that they should walk in them Ephes. 2 : 10. 2. Mr. Baxter tels us Confess . p. 102. that it is his strong opinion , & that he is confident of it , that no justified person shall ever lose his justification ; & that God hath promised to cause them persevere . This State then is not to be compared with other States , which are losable & changeable among men : nor can we with such freedome speak of Conditions of not loseing that , which is fully secured from all loseing ; as we may speak of the Conditions of keeping & Not-loseing that , which may be & oft is lost . We can not then speak of the State of Justification , as we do of Marriage betwixt man & woman : here there may be & are indeed Conditions required of each part , in order to the keeping up of the Relation , & they may be called Conditions of not loseing that Relation or Privilege : But as to justification , which is not so loseable , to speak of Conditions of not loseing it , may occasion Apprehensions in the mindes of men of its being losable . It were saifer then , in my apprehension , to enquire how or what way is this State & Relation continued ? or what is required on our part , in order thereunto ? then to enquire ? what are the Conditions of Not-loseing this State ? 3. Seing Mr. Baxter granteth Confess . p. 109. that no new sin destroyeth their State of Justification , nor maketh them cease to be God's reconciled Children , seing they are still united unto Christ , and have his Spirit , and have Faith & Repentance , ( at least as to the habit ) & ( pag. 129. ) That the habite of Faith & Repentance , which is ever in them , qualifieth them for present Remission of ordinary sins of infirmity , at least : And it is undeniable , that the Lord's Spirit preserveth them from such sins as are inconsistent with a State of Justification , or that make an intercision in that State , & consequently in their Adoption & Union with Christ : seing , I say , all this is granted , to what purpose is such a question as this here moved and stated , anent the Conditions of Not-loseing this state ? 4. The terme Condition here is taken in the same sense , that it was understood in , when the question was about the Condition of our first entry into the State of Justification : and so they must take it here for a proper legal antecedent Potestative condition : for if by condition here were meaned no more than a mere Consequent Evangelick Condition : the question only would be . What is the Lord's Way , Methode & Manner , how & by which he preserveth his own , in that State of Justification ? But , according to their acceptation of the word condition , the question really cometh to this , What that is , which beleevers betake themselves unto , & which they can , may , & should plead with God upon , for the continuance of their state , that is , of their Reconciliation unto , & Acceptance with God , of the Pardon of their sins , & Right to glory ? 5. The question is not , what is the Condition , or what is required on our part for keeping the sense & evidence of our justification in our own ▪ Consciences : many things may be useful herein , that yet cannot be called ▪ Conditions of the Continuance , or Not-loseing of Iustification : But the Iustification here spoken of , is that which is before God , whereby the Beleever is indeed brought into a State of Peace & Reconciliation with God , & hath obtained a Right unto the Inheritance of Life . 6. When we speak here of the continuance , or Not-loseing of Iustification , the Iustification spoken of must be that State or Relation , where into the Beleever is already brought : for that only can be said to be continued , while we are living , and that only can be said properly to be losed , or Not-losed , which a man hath : These seeme then to be two distinct questions , What is the Condition of our final Absolution in Iudgment ; & what is the Condition of the continuance of our justification here ; which Mr. Baxter seemeth to confound Confess . p. 83. as the Papists do confound their second justification with the last judgment , when they are pleading for works , being required as the causes thereof . 7. Though , as we have seen before , Iustification importeth more than Remission of sins ; Yet in this question of the Condition of the Continuance of Justification , the matter seemeth to be brought to this issue ; whether works of Obedience be the Condition of future Remission of sins , in the justified . And though these may be conceived of , as distinct questions , yet the clearing of the way of the Remission of future sins , may serve much to cleare the present Question ; for if it befound , that the same course is taken for Remission of future sins , that was taken at first , it will be manifest , that justification is continued upon the same termes , or in the same manner , that it was at first obtained , if properly we can speak at all of the Conditions of its Continuance . Having premitted these things , the Question is , Whether faith alone , or works alone , or faith with works , are the condition required on our part , for the Continuance , or not-loseing of the state of justification ? And I judge as faith alone was required at first , in order to justification , so that alone is to be called the Condition of the continuance of justification : or that the Condition both of our first installing in that state of justification , & of the Continuance of the Privilege , or of Beleevers continueing in that state , is the same grace of Faith. Yet these two things would be noted . 1. That though the first act of Faith in Christ , doth suffice to the entering of a soul into the state of justification ; Yet we do not meane , that that one first , solitarie , & numerical act sufficeth for all time coming , albeit it sufficeth for making up of the Relation , according to the appointment of God ; for the same Faith is to continue in its habite ; Yea & in its actings . So that we state not the Question so strickly , as Mr. Baxter seemeth to do , Confess . p. 47. when from the Continuance of the habite of Faith , & from the renewing acts of that Faith , required after the first act of Faith , he inferreth , that much more goeth to the continueing of our justification , than doth at first justifie us . But our question is about the addition of sincere Obedience which he there mentioneth . 2. When we suppose the Continuance of Faith , not only as to its habite , but as to its renewed actings ; we do not suppose , that the actings & Effects , or Concomitans of Faith afterward , are every way the same , with what they were at first ; so that we may also yeeld to this difference , & grant that some thing more may be requisite afterward , Particularly , in order to the Remission of some hainous sin , in the acting of Faith , or in the Effects or Concomitants thereof , at least as to measure , or outward significations , to wit , in Godly sorrow , Humiliation , Forgiving of others , Restitution , or the like ; & yet it will still remaine true , that justification is continued by Faith , & not by Works . For the proof of what we conceive to be truth , we lay down these grounds , both from Scripture & Reason ; as 1. The words of the Text , whereupon we are , do evince this : for it is said , the just liveth by Faith : And , as was cleared at the beginning of our discourse , the words , as used by the Prophet Habbakuk , from whom they are cited , are spoken of such , as were already Beleevers & Justified ; and pointed out the way , how they were to have a life , in an evil time ; and how they were to continue , or be keeped in that State of Favoure with God , whereinto they were brought ; to wit by Faith ; for the just shall live by his Faith ; and accordingly the same words are cited by the Apostle Heb. 10 : 38 , 39. Now the just shall live by faith ; but if any man draw back , my soul shall have no pleasure in him . But we are not of them , that draw back , unto perdition , but of them that beleeve to the saving of the soul. Where living by Faith is opposed to drawing back , to wit , through unbeleefe ; and as drawing back is unto perdition , so beleeving is to the saving of the soul ; & therefore the Continuation of this life of justification unto the end , even unto the final Salvation of the soul , is by Faith. This life of justification , as it is begun by Faith ( as the Apostle evinceth Rom. 1 : 17. and in our present Text citing in both places these same words , for that end ) so it is continued by Faith , as the only condition thereof . And to say , that the particle only is not here added ; & therefore , other Works of Obedience must be , or may be adjoyned here , in this matter , notwithstanding it be said , the just liveth by Faith , were in effect to destroy the Apostles Argument , in our Text , where he useth this same expression , without the addition of only , to prove , that we are not justified by the works of the Law. Therefore , as this assertion , that the just liveth by faith , proveth justification by faith without the works of the Law ; so the same proveth the Continuation of Justification , without the works of the Law , as the Condition thereof . 2. The Grounds & Causes of Justification , mentioned by the Apostle Rom. 3 : 22 , 24 , 25 , 26. hold good al 's well in the Continuation , as in the first beginning of justification ; for there , as well as here , the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested , even the Righteousness of God , which is by Faith of Jesus Christ , unto all , and upon all them , that beleeve ; for there is no difference . Justification first & lastly is free by his grace , through the Redemption , that is in Iesus Christ , whom God hath set fort to be a Propitiation , through faith in his blood . And there is not the least hint given , that the matter is altered , in the Continuation of justification . 3. As the beginning of justification is so contrived , as all boasting is taken away , so must the Continnance thereof be conceived to be ? But if works be admitted , as Conditions of the Continuance of Instification , though they be denied to be the Condition of the Beginning thereof , all boasting shall not be excluded , contrary to Rom. 3 : 27. for if a sinner , after that he is Iustified by the merite of Christ , at first , should have it to say , that for the Continuance of his justification , he were beholden to his own Works , he should surely have matter of boasting in himself , in so far at least . Papists think to evite this Argument against their Second Iustification by works , by saving that all these good works are not of themselves , but of the Father of Lights . But this shift will not help , for all these works are not the Righteousness of Christ , but are works of Righteousness , which we do , & are excluded in this matter , as occasioning boasting , or giving ground thereunto ; as the next Argument will more fully cleare . 4. Abraham is said to have Righteousness imputed unto him , & Faith imputed unto Righteousness , and so to be justified by faith , not only when he was first justified , but many yeers after , even when he offered up Isaac his son . Rom. 4. & Iam. 2 : 21 , 23. So was he justified first & last , as , to have no ground of glorying , and therefore not by works . Rom. 4 : 1 , 3 , 4. But it will be said , that the Apostle Iames saith expresly , in the place cited , that our father Abraham was justified by works , when he had offered his Son Isaac on the Altar . I Ans. Not to engage in the whole explication & vindication of that Passage of Scripture here , which is of late to good purpose , & most satisfyingly done by the learned Doctor Owen ; I only say , that Abraham's being justified by works , was such , as thereby the Scripture was fulfilled ; which saith , Abraham beleeved God , and it was imputed unto him for Righteousness &c. vers . 23. Now if Abraham had been justified by works , properly so taken , the Scripture had not been fulfilled , which said , he was justified by Faith , but the contrary had been made good , to wit , that works were imputed to him , & he was justified by them , as by his Righteousness . But the meaning is , that Abraham was justified by faith , a true faith , that proved itself such , in time of a trial , by works of obedience , & particularly by obedience to that command , whereby the Lord tried or tempted him Gen. 22 : 1 , 2. and by such a Faith as wrought with his works , & was perfected , or discovered & manifested to be real , after the trial of the fire . Iam. 2 : 22. It is a good direction that the learned Camero giveth here Op. fol. pag. 83. That we should hóld fast the scope of the Apostle Iames , & to this end , that we should take notice of the Apostles Proposition , and of the Conclusion thereof . The Proposition is set down vers . 14. What doth it profite , my brethren , though a man say he , hath faith , & have not works , can faith , ( or that faith ) save him . Whereby we see , that the Apostles scope is to prove , that that Faith , which the man supposeth he hath , who hath no works , is not that Faith , by which we are Justified & saved ; & that because it is unprofitable to poor indigent brethren , in necessity vers . 15. 16. is dead vers . 17. 20 , it can not be shown by works vers . 18. it is a Faith that devils have vers . 19. All which & what followeth is cleared from the Conclusion vers . 26. for as the body without the Spirit is dead , so faith with works is dead also . 5. It will alwayes hold true , that God is he who justifieth the ungodly & so justifieth him , that worketh not , but him to whom saith is counted for Righteousness . Rom. 4 : 5. But if the Continuance of Justification were by works ; & works were counted for Righteoulness , in order to the continuance of justification ; God should not continue to be the justifier of the ungodly : but should justifie the ungodly at first , & thereafter justifie the Godly ; whereof the Text giveth not the least hint . 6. The Instance of David cleareth this also Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. for David is there Psal. 32. speaking of himself , long after he was first justified , and yet his words saying , blessed are they , whose iniquities are forgiven &c. prove Justification by faith , without the works of the Law ( which is the Apostles scope , & the end , for which he adduceth this prove ; and we must not think , that any of his probations are impertinent ) but this they could not prove , if the ●ontinuance of justification were by works , & not by Faith only ; as is manifest ; for who can inferre , that the beginning of Justification is by Faith alone , from this , that the continuance of justification is by works ? but when the Continuance of Justification is by Faith alone , it followeth manifestly , that the beginning of it must be by faith alone . Yea , it is hence also manifest , that Pardon of sins committed after Justification , is not had by works , but by the imputation of Righteousness , without works , for saith Paul , David describeth the blessedness of the man , unto whom God imputeth Righteousness , without works : And how did David describe this ? When he said , blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven &c. 6. Paul tels us Rom. 5 : 2. that as by Christ , we have access by Faith into grace , so in the same we stand , & rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Access into this grace must import the State of Justification , & as this is by Faith , so is the standing & abiding therein ; and consequently , the continuance of Justification : and there is no word of works here at all , in this whole affaire . 7. Paul likewise confirmeth this , in his own Experience Gal. 2 : 20. where he tels us , how , and what way he lived unto God , being dead to the Law , to wit by the Faith of the Son of God : and as this was true of the life of Sanctification : so much more of the life of justification , both as begun & as continued ; for the whole life of a Christian , now crucified with Christ , & living unto God , is here spoke to : And this is in opposition to the works of the Law , as is cleare from vers , 16. & from the following vers . 21. 8. The same is confirmed by the doctrine of the Apostle Ephes. 2 : 8 , 9 , 10. for by grace are ye saved , through faith - not of works lest any man should boast : for we are his workmanship , created in Christ Iesus , unto good works , which God hath before ordained , that we should walk in them . This Salvation taketh-in both the Beginning , Continuance & End of our life , of Justification ; & all this is by Faith alone , & expresly it is said , not to be by works , and that , lest any man should boast ( which confirmeth our third argument ) & these works are works of Gospel-obedience , and he tels us of another end & use of these , than to be the Condition of the Continuance of our Justification , even to be the way we should walk in , according to the fore-ordination of God , and carry as his workmanshipe , created thereunto . 9. We have the Apostles own practice againe set before us , to cleare this matter Phil. 3 : 9. where he tels us , what was his maine designe & work , not at first only , when he was Justified ; but long thereafter , to shew what was his constant designe , & should be to the end ; even labour to be found in Christ , renuncing his own Righteousness , and to seek to be hid under & covered with that Righteousness , which is through the faith of Christ , & which is of God by Faith : So that , as he beleeved in Jesus Christ , that he might be justified by the Faith of Christ , and not by the works of the Law. Gal. 2 : 16. So here he sheweth , that he will continue in this exercise to the end . 10. We may adde to these , that passage of Paul. Tit. 3 : 5 , 6 , 7. Not by works of Righteousness , which we have done , but according to his mercy he saved us ( and this Salvation , sure , will take-in the Continuation of justification ) by the washing of regeneration , & renewing of the holy Ghest ; which he shed on us abundantly , through Iesus Christ , our Lord : that being Iustified by his grace , we should be made heirs , according to the hope of eternal life . And when he willeth Titus in the following verse , to affirme , that they which have beleeved in God , may be careful to maintaine good works , as being good & profitable unto men ; he addeth nothing of their being the Condition of the Continuance of our justification , as sure , he had a faire occasion to do , if the matter were so : but he had fully excluded them from all interest therein vers . 5. We may adde to these a few Reasons . 1. Is it not considerable , in this point , that Paul speaking so frequently & disputing at such a length of justification & clearing so many things about it ; Yet , in all his discourses thereupon , he never mentioneth this Condition ( to wit works of obedience ) of its continuance . And , which is also considerable , though he oftentimes press to holiness , & useth many Arguments to that end ; Yet he never maketh mention of this place & office it hath , in & about the Continuance of justification ; which sure , is supposed by the Assertors , to be a mighty argument unto the constant exercise of Holiness . 2. We have proved above , that justification at first is by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , received by faith ; and we have shown , that Faith in Justification specially eyeth the Righteousness of Christ , & resteth thereupon . If then our personal Obedience be brought in to be the Condition of the Continuance of Justification , Christ's Righteousness is quite laid aside from having any Further interest therein , and the Beleever is never , after the first time , to act faith upon the Righteousness of Christ ; and the reason is , because works do not act so upon the Righteousness of Christ , as Faith doth ; neither have they that capacity to do so . But how absurd is it to think or say , that the Beleever hath no more to do with Christ's Righteousness ? And how contrary is it to the fixed resolution of Paul Phil. 3 : 9. And how inconsistent with the whole scope of the Gospel , which is the power of God unto Salvation to every one that beleeveth , and wherein is the Righteousness of God revealad from faith to faith , as it is written , the just shall live by faith Rom. 1 : 16 , 17 ? If it be said , That this cannot militate against such , as take-in Faith with works . I Ans. It will militate against such ; for works cannot act upon the Righteousness of Christ , as faith doth ; & therefore if faith & works concurre as conditions , in one & the same manner , Faith is not here considered , as acting on the Righteousness of Christ , but only as a work , & another moral vertue : and so the Righteousness of Christ is quite excluded . 3. Beleevers by Faith in Christ , are compleatly justified , as to their state & have all their bygone iniquities pardoned , and they are accepted as children in his Favour Ioh. 1 : 12 , they are made heirs of God & joynt heirs with Christ Rom. 8 : 17 , and are discharged ( as Mr. Baxter granteth himself Confess . p. 102. Concl. 9. ) from all guilt of Eternal Punishment , yea & of all destructive Punishment in this life . Yea they are justified from all things , from which they could not be justified by the Law Act. 13 : 39. They are blessed Rom. 4 , 5 , 6. And all this is so fixed , that none can lay any thing to their charge Rom. 8 : 33 , 34. Yea they are said to have Everlasting Life , Ioh. 5 : 24. Now , seing all this is by Faith : what necessitie is there for another Condition , beside this same Faith , keeping fast by Christ , unto the Continuance of this State ? If it be said , that notwithstanding hereof , they are liable to future sins , and these must also be forgiven ; and in reference to the Pardon of these , other Conditions may be required , & in that respect , these may be called Conditions of the Continuance of Justification . 4. The answere to this will furnish us with another Argument ; for answere therefore I say . That works are not the Condition of Pardon of after sins , but faith going to Christ , and washing in his bloud 1. Ioh. 2 : 1 , 2. If any man sin , we have an advocat with the Father , Iesus Christ the Righteous , & he is the propitiation for our sins . Christ is here proposed to sinning beleevers , in his Priestly office , as the object of their Faith , in order to Pardon : And Mr. Baxter , in the forecited place Concl. 11 saith , that when ever the Iustified do commit any sin , they have a present & effectual certaine remedie at hand for their pardon , that is , the merit of Christ's blood , & his Intercession , the Love of God , the Promise of Pardon , in which they have interest , & the Spirit to excite them to Faith & Repentance . No word of works of obedience , as Condition here . David in order to the obtaining of the pardon of his sin , did betake himself to the free mercy of God , that he might get his sin covered , his iniquities forgiven , and his sin not imputed unto him ; Psal. 32 : 1 , 2. and this was , in Paul's judgment Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. a betaking himself to imputed Righteousness without works . So he betook himself to mercy , and withall he desired to be purged with hysope , Psal. 51 : 1 , 7. which looked to the blood of Christ , that only sprinkleth consciences . Heb. 9 : 13 , 14 , 22. 5. If Justification be continued upon Condition of works , we enquire what these works are ? Are herein comprehended all commanded duties ? or all that is required of justified persons by way of duty ? then a faloure in any of these , whether by Omission , or Commission , should cause an intercision of that State , and a breach of that Relation : But this is utterly false ; Yea , if so , the justified should become Unjustified every day , for no man liveth & sinneth not . The reason of the Consequence is , because the non-performance of the Condition , upon which the State & Relation of the justified is continued , must make a breach in that State. If it be said , That not every sin , but only such sins as are inconsistent with the State of Justification , will make an Intercision . Then it must consequently be said , that upon these alone , or on the non-performance of these alone doth the Continuance of Justification depend , as on a Condition . And what be these ? David's sin , I hope , nor Peters sin , were none of these . And whatever they be , I suppose it will be granted , ( except by Arminians ) that there is sufficient provision against these laid-in in the New Covenant of Grace ; and that such , as are justified indeed , shal never fall into such sins . And then , what need it be said , that the State of Justification is continued upon such termes ? 6. By this way , Proud Nature should have occasion to boast , and say . It was of God's Grace & Mercy , that I was brought into a justified State , & had all my former sins pardoned ; but for my abiding & continueing therein ; and for the pardon of all my sins , that I have committed , or do commit since , I am beholden to my own Gospel-obedience immediatly ; for Remission is granted , and my Justification continued , upon Condition of my personal & Gospel-obedience . But how inconsistent this is with the whole straine of the Gospel , cannot be unknown . We no where read , that our sinnes are pardoned , or not imputed to us , in or by our Evangelick Obedience ; but as we are justified freely by grace , through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus , Rom. 3 : 24. so it is in & through Him , & his bloud , that we are washen , & our sinnes purged away Mat. 26 : 28. Revel . 1 : 5. Ephes. 1 : 7. Col. 1 : 14. 7. The dayly experience of the people of God , may cleare to us , what that is , upon which their State is continued ; and upon which they seek & obtaine new Remission of their new Transgressions , and shew us , that it is not their own personal Obedience ; but the Grace & Mercy of God , in Jesus Christ : for it is to this they betake themselves daily , both in reference to their being keeped in the favour of God , & in reference to their getting new extracts of Pardon ; It is to the blood of sprinkling they goe dayly , that there they may be washen , & cleansed from all their sins & sailings . It is to this fountaine opened to the house of David & to the Inhabitans of Ierusalem , that they run with their sins & uncleannesses . Zach. 13 : 1. For it is his bloud alone , that cleanseth from all sin . 1. Ioh. 1 : 7. And so they finde by experience , that they stand only by Faith , and that it is through Faith in this bloud , that they are keept in the favoure of God , & get their sins pardoned . These proofs may serve for confirmation of what we say ; Let us now see what Mr. Baxter saith for the contrary . In his Confess . p. 47 . he adduceth three Arguments . The first is this . The word expresly constituteth these Conditions of our not-loseing our State of Justification , or of Continueing it . And this he tels us , he hath formerly shewed in many Scriptures , meaning , I suppose , the passages he had immediatly before cited on the margine . But to these I Answere in general . That not one of them maketh mention of the continuance of our justification , or of our not loseing of it : And therefore it cannot be said from these , that the word expresly constituteth these Conditions of our not-losing Justification . But we shall consider them particularly . Mat. 12 : 36 , 37. speaketh not of justification , whereof we are now treating , but of the last judgment , and we see no cause of confounding this Justification , whereof we speak , or its Continuance , with the last Judgment , as Papists do confound their second justification with this judgment ; and abuse the same Scriptures here adduced by Mr. Baxter & the like , to prove their second justification to be by works . Jam. 2 : 24. speaketh not of the Continuance or not losing of justification ; but of the very beginning of justification , which is not by a dead faith or by a faith , that cannot produce works of Obedience , or by such a faith , as devils have ; but by a faith that is working , & making the soul prompt & ready to yeeld all Obedience unto the Lord : and this is the true meaning of the words , as was showne above , and the whole scope of the place evidenceth . Will Mr. Baxter say , that by a dead Faith , and by a Faith that cannot save , and by a Faith that is in devils & is attended with no Christian Love , we are brought into a justified state at first ? No sure : and yet this is the faith , that Iames opposeth unto works , or rather unto a working faith , whereby we are justified first & last , as was Abraham vers . 21. whose faith was such , as it wrought with his works , and by the same was manifest to be what it was , the true & saving faith of God's Elect. And sure , this Faith of Abraham , and the faith that wrought in Rahab , was another sort of Faith , than is the Faith of devils , or that Faith , that is but a dead carcase . Mat. 6 : 14 , 15. speaketh of Remission of sins : And I suppose , it will not be said , that every one , who forgiveth his neighbour , doth thereby and thereupon obtaine Remission of his own sins , at the hands of God ; otherwayes Heathens , & wicked persons may be said to have their sins Pardoned before God , because they may forgive others , some wrongs done unto themselves . If it besaid , that such cannot forgive others a right , not having a principle of grace , and not being in Christ. True , but then we see , that it is not this forgiving abstractly considered , that is spoken of here , but a Forgiving , flowing from faith & principled thereby ; and so the meaning of the place is , That without such a Faith in Christ , as principleth & prompteth to Pardoning of others , we can expect no pardon of our own sins from God ; not have ground to suppose that we are indeed pardoned of God : our forgiving of others then is here mentioned as the native Effect , & evident Signe of Faith ; as our Commentators manifest upon the place , speaking against the Papists . See Pareus , Gualter & others . Pareus particularly disproveth the Papist's gloss ; & sayeth , that our pardoning of others must follow upon God's pardoning of us , as he cleareth from Mat. 18. and will not have our forgiving of others said to be the causa sine qua non of our obtaining Remission from God. This place then saith , That while we cannot finde in our heart , a readiness cheerfully & heartily to forgive others , we have no ground to imagine , that our sinnes are pardoned ; for all such as are pardoned of God , have this Christian disposition flowing from faith in Christ : They may have this , as to the seed & root ; but till it grow up to yeeld this fruite , they want the evidence of their faith & consequently of pardon . 1. Ioh. 1 : 9. meaneth such a Confession of sins , as is accompanied with the making use by faith of the bloud of Christ , that cleanseth from all sin vers . 7. and with a running to the Advocat with the Father , Jesus Christ the Righteous , who is a Propitiation for sins Chap. 2 : 1 , 2. Most wicked persons , as Saul may make confession of their sins ; but not so as to run to the fountaine , the blood of sprinkling : And by a Confession , that is not accompanied with this acting , they can attaine to no Remission before God : And therefore faith only acting in humble Confession to the glory of God , & to the taking of shame to themselves , is the condition of Pardon , & of Continuance of Justification , as to this . Revel . 22 : 14. is also abused by the Papists . to prove their second justification to be by works . The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hereused , doth not alwayes denote right , or jus : for it sometimes signifieth meer freedome , liberty & power to do such or such a thing , as 1. Cor. 9 : 4 , 5 , 6. And so here the words import that such as do his commandements , are blessed ; for thereby they have free access unto the tree of life , unto Christ , their objective blessedness , which is the same with that , which is commonly said , viz. that Works of Obedience are the way of the Kingdom , but not the cause of reigning . It will not suite with the Gospel , to say , that by our works of obedience we buy a right to the tree of life , even in part , or in subordination to Christ's blood ; for Christ hath purchased the whole Right : & nothing of ours must be joined , as a part of that price , otherwise must we have a proportionable share of the glory to ourselves . Nor can it be said , that by our works of Obedience we obtaine a Right to Christ & to his Merites ; for before we have a Right to Christ , we can do no works of Christian Obedience , and Christ alone hath bought to us both Grace , & Glory : But our works of Christian Obedience , though they cannot precede our Right to , yet they may go before our Possession of the Inheritance purchased ; now Right & Possession are different things . But in fine we say , that this place , speaking of the possession of glory , is not apposite to the purpose now in hand , for Justification is different from Glorification . Rom. 8 : 30. And of justification , as continued are we here speaking . Ioh. 15 : 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 8 , 9 , 10. Verse . 3. & 9. can prove nothing , in reference to what we are upon . Vers. 4. sheweth that there is no fruitfulness in Grace , but by a constant abiding in , & sucking of sap by faith from Christ the true Vine , which none denieth . Verse 8. sheweth that by fruitfulness in good , the Father is Glorified , & thereby a demonstration is given to the world , who are indeed the true disciples of Christ , vers . 6. holdeth forth the dreadful punishment that attendeth Apostates ; but we hope , true beleevers are secured against full & final Apostasie . Vers. 10. proveth indeed , that keeping of Christ's commands , is a mean to keep the sense of our being beloved of Christ fresh in our souls , & to enjoy the fruites of his Love of Beneficence : but saith nothing of good works being the Condition of our Continuance in the state of justification : unless we will also say , that Christ's obedience was the Condition of his Continueing in the State of Justification . 1. Ioh. 2 : 24. &c. proveth , that full & final Apostasie from the faith & truth of the Gospel will indeed cutt off from all Interest in Christ , & from benefite by him ; But as true beleevers are secured from this , as vers . 27. cleareth . So this will only prove , that continuance in Faith , is the Condition of continuance of Justification . Mat. 18 : 35. Only proveth ( and so confirmeth what was said to Mat. 6 : 14. ) that such as do not from their hearts forgive their brethren their trespasses , can have no ground of Assurance , that God hath forgiven them theirs . ... our Cruelty & Unmercifulness towards our Brethren , may give us sufficient ground to doubt of our Pardon , whatever seeming assurance we had formerly . So that this place speaketh nothing of the Condition of our pardon , but of the condition rather of our Sense , Feeling & grounded Assurance of Pardon ; which is a far different thing . These are the Scriptures , whereby he would prove his first argument . His 2. Arg. is this . Our first faith having the nue nature of a Covenanting with Christ , & giving ourselves to him , & taking him for our Lord & Redeemer : therefore it followes , that as the Covenant making & accepting was of necessity , as the condition of our first right & remission ; so is our Covenant keeping of the same necessity to our continued right . And that God is , as it were , disobliged , if we should not keep Covenant . And the keeping hath more in it , than the bare making . No Covenant-relations usually are entered among men , but the Covenant keeping is more than the making ; and the conditions of their continued right more then of their first right . So it is with a Subject to his Prince , wife to a husband , Souldier to a commander , Scholer to his Teacher . Servant to his Master &c. Promising will give them the first right , but performing ( in the essentials ) must continue it , it or will cease : for the end of the promise was its performance : And in that respect faith , which is the Covenant , is inferiour to obedience , which is promised , though in other respect it may be superiour . Ans. ( 1 ) Though Justifying Faith be also a Covenanting faith , and of uniteth he soul with Christ ; Yet in order to Justification , it hath not ( to use his words ) the true Nature of a Covenanting with Christ , nor a giving up ourselves to Him : but rather it is a receiving & resting on Him , and his Righteousness , and a fleeing to his Merites for refuge . ( 2 ) Nor doth faith , in order to Justification , ( as we cleared above ) receive Christ , or goe to him , as Lord & King , but rather as Priest. ( 3 ) Nor doth the receiving of Christ at first , as King , formally include Obedience , or a promise of obedience ; as was also manifested above . ( 4 ) Therefore , from this first acting of faith in order to justification , it can no way follow , that Obedience , or Covenant keeping ( as he speaketh ) is the condition of our continued Right , or of our continued justification . ( 5 ) What God hath promised upon Covenant-keeping , he is , it is true , disobliged from giving to speak so , when the Covenant is not keeped : But we find not , that he hath promised Justification , or the continuance thereof upon these termes . ( 6 ) There is no Covenants among men , that can fully quadrate , either with God's Covenanting with us , or with the matter of Justification , about which we are now speaking . The sentences of judges absolving the debitor , upon the payment of the Cautioner instructed , agreeth more with this ; and we finde not in such sentences , any such-like Conditions , mentioned of their Continuance in force . ( 7 ) Some of these Relations or Covenants mentioned are purely aliene , being betwixt a Master & his servant , and the Captain and the Souldier ; these are meer mercenary contracts , having Obedience & service for their only end , & promiseing a reward upon that Condition . Our justification hath no likeness to this . ( 8 ) Even in these Relations , every act of disobedience , or non-performance of the duties required , doth not dissolve the Relation ; and therefore it cannot be said , that upon the contrare performance , as a condition , the continueing of the Relation dependeth , Mr. Baxter seeing this , addeth a restriction , ( in the essentials . ) And in our case , I would require , what he will account Essential ? It must be that , sure , the contrary whereof is inconsistent with a Justified state : and what can this be , but a total Apostasie ? From which there is full securitie laid-in , in the New Covenant , ( which is not in any of the Covenants among men , which he hath mentioned . ) And this total Apostasie must include a full renuncing of Christ , & his Righteousness , as to Justification : And this rather would say , that the continuance of Justification dependeth on the continuance of Faith , adhereing to Christ & his Righteousness : & to this I shall willingly assent . And this taketh away the force of the 3. Arg. which he adduceth , saying . 3. Arg. If there were no more necessary to the continueing of our Iustification , but only the same thing , which did constitute it , then we should be justified by no none act of faith , to our lives end , but only the first instantaneous act ; & so our faith , after that instant , should never more be justifying faith . But that 's false , &c. Ans. This whole argument , I yeeld unto ; for I plead not against the interest of faith here ; but against our works being the condition of continued Justification ; as was said above . CHAP. XXXVI . Of the Interest of Repentance in the Pardon of after-sinnes . WE spoke before Chap. 29. of Repentance in order to the first pardon of sinnes , or to justification ; and in the foregoing Chapter we shew that the continuance of Justification did not depend on our works , as the Condition thereof : But now the question will be moved touching Repentance ; Whether it may not be said to be required , as a Condition of the Continuance of Justification ; or at least , as a Condition of the Pardon of sins committed after justification . Concerning which we would premit these things . 1. It is granted , that Repentance is not only necessary , at the first Conversion of a sinner , but is a Grace , that is constantly to be exercised , by a Beleever , so long , as he liveth ; both in respect of its terminus a quo , & of its terminus ad quem , or both in respect of its aversive , & of its conversive part ; for he is still more & more to depart f●om sin , and to turne unto God , and to all the wayes of his Commandements Psal. 119 : 59. The very body of death is constant matter of groaning and mourning unto him Rom. 7 : 24. & his dayly iniquities & transgressions ought to keep him low , and to put him to this exercise . Beside what at extraordinarie times of publick wrath or judgment against the Land , Church , or Place he liveth in , or judgments upon his own neer Relations , Familie &c. or upon occasion of his own more hainous out breakings : as in David . Psal. 51. 2. It is also granted . That where is no Repentance , or no true Repentance , for sinnes committed , there is no ground for that man to suppose , that his sin is pardoned : I do not here speak of the measure or expressions of Repentance ; for there may be mistakes on both hands ; some thinking their Repentance is naught , because not in such a sensible measure , as they think is required ; may therefore inferre that their case is worse , than indeed it is , others , upon the other hand , may suppose they have repented , when it is not so ; & so inferre pardon , when they have no ground . But this is granted , that where true & sincere Repentance is not , there is no Pardon from God of sins , whereof such are guilty : for to such , as he mindeth to Pardon , he giveth also a Spirit of Repentance , as both Scripture & Experience proveth : 3. Yet notwithstanding of this , it is true , that an outward Repentance ; where there is no inward , real & sanctified change wrought , may hold off for a time , or prorogue the inflicting of temporal strokes ; as we see in Aabh , Nineveth & others . 4. It will be granted also by all the orthodox , that Repentance is no proper , meritorious cause of pardon ; not doth it make any Satisfaction to God , or appease his wrath & anger . 4. I shall also grant , that where there is true & unfeigned Repentance , after some sin committed , there that person may saifly inferre that his sin is pardoned : Repentance is a good signe of Remission ; because it is a good evidence , that the man hath run to the fountaine , to the blood of Jesus , and there hath washen himself , & made himself cleane . See Esai . 1 : 16 , 17 , 18. 5. The Exercise of Repentance is very usefull , to make sin become bitter , mercy welcome , & to make the soul more careful & watchful in time to come . But the Question is , whether Repentance be a proper Condition of Pardon of sins , committed after Justification : or not ? And when we speak of Repentance here , we consider it by itself , & not as being the sensible signification & expression of Faith ; for the Question is not , whether Faith acting in & through Repentance , or working the soul up unto unfaigned Repentance , be the Condition of Remission ; for that is not Repentance , but Faith , accompanied with , & acting the soul to Repentance ; but the Question is of Repentance considered in itself , & as a distinct grace from Faith : And speaking of Repentance , as such , & considered in itself , I say , that it is not the Condition of Remission of after sins ; but faith only , acting in a Gospel manner , on Jesus Christ , & his Bloud & Merites . And the reasons are . 1. Because it is Faith & not Repentance , that carrieth the sinner away to the Bloud of Jesus Christ , & to his Merites , through whom , & by which alone Remission is had Ephes. 1 : 7. Col. 1 : 14. Zach. 13. 1. Heb. 9 : 14 , 22. Revel . 1 : 5. Repentance as such , layeth not hold on Christ , grippeth not his Merites , maketh no application of these ; but is wholly exercised about another object , about sin . 2. This would give man too great ground of boasting in himself : if upon his Mourning , Sorrow & Repentance , Pardon were to be had ; and would give occasion to think , that there were some merite & worth , in that work , & some thing satisfying or appeasing to God : for the man hereby is keeped within himself : & upon the account of something within himself , or done by himself , is he pardoned , as he might suppose . 3. This should be derogatorie to the Bloud & Merites of Christ , by which alone we have pardon first & last ; and the Gospel is so contrived , as that Christ must have all the Glory ; and all the methodes , meanes & order of the Gospel , and new Covenant , are in like manner framed , so that man may be abased , free grace exalted , Christ acknowledged the only Redeemer ; But if our Repentance were made such a Condition , there should be no application made of Christ & of his bloud by the sinner ; No acting on him , & on his merites , in order to the obtaining of Pardon ; and so , no occasion of exalting free grace , and Love in Christ ; no occasion of wondering at the wise contrivance of the Covenant of Grace , in all points : If it be said , There is no derogating from Christ & his Merites here ; because it is by vertue of his Merites , that Repentance is made such a Condition : I Ans. This is not cleared from the Scripture ; nor is it sutable to the frame of the Gospel-Covenant ; for the whole of it is so contrived , as that Christ is immediatly to be made use of : But this way keepeth the soul off all immediat going to , applying of , and resting upon Christ , in order to Remission of new sinnes ; & setteth them only upon the exercise of Sorrow & Repentance within themselves . 4. The Apostle Iohn pointeth out the way to beleevers of obtaining Remission-of sins 1. Ioh. 2 : 1 , 2. - And if any man sin , we have an Advocat with the Father , Iesus Christ the righteous . And he is the Propitiation for our sins . Now , Repentance doth not make use of Christ , as an Advocat , & as a Propitiation ; but Faith doth . And it is the proper work of Faith , in order to Remission , to make use of Christ , in his Priestly office , & to carry the soul away to his Propitiation & Intercession . 5. The dayly experience of the Saints evidence this , when upon conviction of sin , they betake themselves to the free Mercy of God , in Christ , to the Bloud of sprinkling , crying out for Pardon for the Lord's sake , and seeking to be washen , in his blood . It is not their Repentance , or Sorrow , that they flee to , as the ground of their hope of Pardon ; but the merites of Christ , held forth in the new Covenant , is that fountaine , wherein they must wash & be cleane . See Psal. 25 : 11. & 51 : 7. 6. This was sufficiently held forth under the Law , when for their Errours , Failings & dayly Transgressions , the people were to bring their Sacrifices to the Priest , which were to be offered up , as types of Christ & they were to lay their hands upon the head of the Sacrifice , in signe of their resting upon the Sacrifice typified , & of rolling their sins upon that only Sacrifice , & of expecting Acceptance & Pardon , through it alone . See Levit . 4 : 20 , 26 , 31 , 35. & 5 : 10 , 13 , 16 , 18. & 6 : 7 , 19 , 22. 7. If Repentance be the Condition , then this must either be said of that part of Repentance , which preceedeth the acting of faith , or of that which followeth : This last cannot be said ; for then it would follow , that upon the acting of faith , that preceedeth , there were no Remission ; & so faith laying hold on Christ & his Merites , should be utterly excluded from having any Interest in the pardon of sins . Nor can the first be said , for then there should be Remission , before & without all application made of Christ by Faith : Yea & the very imperfect beginnings of Repentance should be judged sufficient for Remission : which cannot be said . If it be said , that this is meaned of compleat Repentance . I Ans. Compleet Repentance cannot be without Faith : & it is against what is said , to make Repentance , considered alone & by itself , or as abstracted from Faith , the only Condition ; seing this would be a manifest exclusion of Faith altogether . If it be said , that Repentance & Faith may be considered together , & as joyned together called the Condition of Pardon . I Ans. Seing it is manifest , that both do not , neither can act one & the same way on Christ ; they cannot be considered as equally sharing in the place & interest of a condition : And therefore , I judge it saifest to say , That faith , acting in & by Repentance , or so discovering itself to be true & lively , is the sole Condition of Pardon . 8. As at first , so alwayes that holdeth true , which Peter saith Act. 10 : 43. To him ( i. e. to Jesus ) give all the Prophets witness , that through his name whosoever beleeveth in him , shall receive Remission of sins . As the stung Israelit was alwayes , in order to his cure , to look to the brazen serpent : so is the Beleever , that would be cured of the guilt of new transgressions , to have his recourse by Faith unto the Mediator , crucified & lifted up Ioh. 3 : 14 , 15. Obj. 1. It is said , that Repentance is necessary both as commanded , and as a meane appointed for attaining Remission of sins : And therefore must be the Condition of Remission . Ans. The consequence is not good ; for this same may be said of Prayer , and other Duties ; which yet cannot be called proper Conditions of Pardon . That prayer is a commanded duty , none will deny ; That a praying sinner may be said to be using the meanes to attaine unto Pardon , and to be in the way of obtaining of it , will also be granted : and so in that respect , prayer may be accounted a meane : and yet it cannot be called the Condition ; for then every one that prayeth should have pardon , though he act not faith : And if it be said , that it must be prayer in faith Iam. 5 : 15. I Ans. True , but then the Condition is not Prayer , but Faith exerting itself , and acting in & through Prayer : And the same we say of Repentance , and so keep it in its due place , and presse it in the Gospel way & methode . Obj. 2. It is said . That there is a kind of congruity & sutablness , in this order , by subjoining the promise of pardon to it ; for it is more sutable that a penitent sinner should have Pardon , than an impenitent . Ans. So this same may be said of Prayer ; for it is also more sutable , that a praying sinner , be pardoned , than a sinner that nev● once asketh pardon : And this tendeth more also to the exalting of free grace . But the truth is , in pardon there is not only a declaration & exalting of Grace & Mercy ; but also of divine Justice Rom. 3 : 25 , 26. and unto this , Faith is singularly fitted , because it layyeth hold on the Propitiation , and on bloud , for the declaration of God's Righteousness for Remission of sins ; and hereby is the Lord declared to be just , when he is the Justifier & Pardoner of the beleever . So that neither prayer , nor Repentance , nor Self-searching &c. can be properly called the Condition , but Faith acting in & by these . Obj. 3. It is said , that Repentance qualifieth the sinner , in reference to the promise of pardon , or putteth him within the reach of the promise ; so that he may take hold of the promise of pardon : And it disposeth him to accept the offered Salvation freely , and to rest upon Christ alone , for that end . Ans. ( 1 ) What disposeth to accept of Salvation &c. cannot for that cause be called the Condition of Pardon , unless we speak improperly ; as felt poverty in a beggar , though it disposeth him to receive an offered almes thankfully , Yet it is not the proper Condition : No more self conviction , in our case , a Condition of Pardon . ( 2 ) If it qualifieth for the receiving of the offered Salvation ; then it qualifieth immediatly for Faith , & but mediatly & remotly for Pardon . ( 3 ) The promise of Pardon is not made to the penitent properly , & as such ; but to the Penitent beleever ; that is , to faith acting & exerting itself in & by Repentance . Obj. 4. Esai . 1 : 15 , 16. put away the evil of your doings , cease to do evil , &c. this is Repentance : & then vers . 18. full pardon is promised , though your sins be as scarlet , they shall be as white , as snow &c. Ans. Yet with all he bids them wash & make cleane ; which could only be , by the blood of the Messiah , for that only cleanseth . 1. Ioh. 1 : 7. and this they had neglected , in going about their Sacrifices , which therefore were abominable in the eyes of the Lord vers . 11 , 12 , 13. because not accompanied with Faith , that purifieth the heart Act. 15 : 9. Obj. 5. 2. Chron. 7 : 14. the Lord promiseth to forgive sin , if his people would turne from their wicked wayes . Ans. But with all it is required there , that they seek the face of God , & that was in & through the Messiah , typified by the Temple , to which their prayers were to be directed , as we see Chap. 6 : 20 , 24 , 26 , 29 , 31 , 34 , 38. Obj. 6. Prov. 28 : 13. - He that confesseth his sin & forsaketh it shall finde mercy . Ans. True , because none will do that a right , but the beleever ; who laith hold on the Merites of Christ. And so this & the like places , are not exclusively to be taken , but principally to be understood of Faith so acting , and evidencing itself to be true & lively , and of the right stamp , by its acting so . FINIS . CHAP. I. Imputation both of Christs Active and Passive Obedience necessary . MR. Iohn Goodwine in his Treatise of justification part . 2. Ch. 2. laith down several conclusions , whereby he might overturne this Truth : & what he saith must be examined . His 1. Conclusion in this . He , for whose sins a plenary satisfaction hath been made ( either by himself , or another for him ) & hath been accepted by him , against whom the transgression was committed , is as just & righteous , as he that never sinned , but had done all things , that were requisite & meet for him to do . Ans. If by just & righteous be meaned one , who only hath not deserved the punishment threatned ; then his Conclusion is true : but if by just & righteous be meaned one , who not only hath not deserved the punishment , but hath also deserved the reward promised ; then his Conclusion is false ; for the Satisfaction , if it respect only the transgression committed , can only put the man , for whom it is given & accepted , in the state of one , that is under no obligation to be punished : but it cannot put him in the state of one , who not only is not to be punished , but is also to be rewarded . He addeth . This is evident ; because there is as much justice & righteousness in repairing the the wrongs & injuries done to any , as there is in abstaining from doing wrong . Ans. True , in reference to the wrong done ; and therefore such an one is rightly & justly delivered from the obligation to punishment ; but is not made so righteous , as to challenge the reward , till a more compleet satisfaction be made , to wit , such as may comprehend also perfect conformitie unto the Law in all points , to the end , he , for whom this is done , may be looked upon as a fulfiller of the Law , & therefore to have right to the reward , as he would have had , if he had in his own person perfectly keeped it . He that simply repaireth the wrong done , doth not that , which deserveth the reward . The simile he annexeth confirmeth this , and demonstrateth how far out he is , as to our case . He that by his cattel , or otherwise , hath made spoil in his nieghbours Corne , & hath given him full satisfaction for the spoil done , to his contentment , is as good a Nieghbour , & deals as justly & honestly with him , as he that never trespassed in that kind upon him . How impertinent this is , as to our case , any may see ; or he must say , that there was no reward promised to Adam , upon his perfect obedience ; & that that word , do this & live , had no place , in the Covenant made with him . The Satisfying Nieghbour deserveth no reward , nor was there any reward promised to him , upon Condition of his being a good Nieghbour . He addeth . The essence & nature of justice or righteousness is suum cuique tribuere , to give to every man his own . i. e. that which is his own in a way of equity & right , is due from us unto them . Ans. But that which Adam was obliged to give to God , as his owne , was glory , by faithful & constant obedience , that he might receive the reward to the glory of God's faithfulness , & goodness . Now when Adam dishonoured the Lord by disobedience . & robbed him ( as it were ) of his Authoritie , as just & righteous Governour , a satisfaction for the wrong done , excluding positive & full obedience unto the Law , is not a giving to God all that is due to him . Now ( saith he ) when we have enjured or damnified any man , in any of his rights , or things belonging to him , there is nothing more due to him , than that which is his own , i. e. that which is fully valuable to the injurie we have done unto him . Therefore he that tenders a valuable consideration or satisfaction for an injurie done to another , is just , according to the height & utmost exigency of justice ; & consequently as just , as he that never was injurious or did wrong . Ans. All this is to no purpose , as to our question ; for it is not betwixt God & us : no● was it betwixt God and Adam , as it is betwixt one man & another . God is to be considered , as a supreme Law-giver & Ruler , enjoyning obedience to his Lawes , under penalties , and promising rewards unto the obedient : Now when his Lawes are broken , he is doubly enjured , & the breaker , is obliged unto punishment , and also forfeited of his expectation of the reward . When satisfaction is made , and withall no compleet obedience to the Law , the person is by the satisfaction made , only exeemed from the obligation to punishment , but hath thereby no right to the reward promised , untill the Law be compleetly obeyed . His 2. Conclusion is . There is no medium between a perfect absolution & freedome from all sin ; & a perfect & compleet righteousness : But he that is fully discharged & freed from sin , ipso facto , is made perfectly & compleetly righteous . Ans. The same distinction , which we made use of in the other Conclusion , will helpe us here . If by perfectly & compleetly Righteous be meaned one , that is liable to no punishment , it is true , that he , who is fully discharged & freed from sin , is made perfectly righteous , but if by perfectly & compleetly Righteous be meaned one , that moreover hath a right to the recompence of reward , that is promised , than it is false : freedom & absolution from sin respecteth only the guilt , & dissolveth the obligation to punishment , & in that respect , is a perfect & compleet Righteousness ; i. e. the person , so absolved , is as free of punishment , or of obligation thereunto , as if he had never sinned ; but having sinned , he cannot by this dissolution of the obligation to punishment be ipso facto made as perfectly & compleetly Righteous , as he would have been , if he had never transgressed , but had perfectly keeped the Law ; for if he had perfectly keeped the Law , he had obtained full right to the reward , which now he hath not , and which no pardon , or discharge , as such , can restore him unto . Let us hear his reason . Nothing ( saith he ) can any way diminish , or prejudice the perfection of Righteousness , but only sin , as no thing can hinder the perfection of light , but darkness in one degree , or other . So that as the aire , when it is free from all degrees of darkness , must of necessity be fully light ; so he that is perfectly freed from all sin , must of necessity be fully & perfectly Righteous . Ans. This would make us beleeve , that he is here speaking of sin itself , and not of its guilt and demerite , and so the opposite hereunto , must be holiness ; which expelleth sin ( in a manner ) as light doth darkness , or as one quality doth its contrary . But then he is fighting , all this while , against his own shadow , for we are speaking of the guilt of sin , which also must be properly understood , ( and nothing else can ) when he spoke of absolution & freedom from sin , in the Conclu●on . If he speak here of sin in respect of guilt & demerite , his simile doth not quadrate ; and opposite to this guilt he should set Righteousness or obedience with its merite : and if any will do this , they shall easily see the mistake , for though a man hath not transgressed , yet he hath not eo ipso right to the premium , for in order to this , moe dayes work may be required , than one or halfe of one dayes work ; far less can the Pardon of or satisfaction for this transgression , give a man right to the reward . He addeth . It is impossible to conceive a man defective in any part of Righteousness , & yet withall to conceive him free from all sin : sin & Righteousness being in subjecto capaci , contraria immediata , as Logicians speak . Ans. Defective in Righteousness may be either understood in respect of the meer duty or command , or in respect of full right to the reward . In the first sense , such an one cannot be free of all sin ; but taking it in the second sense , he may : as for example , when one is to work eight dayes in dressing a garden , & then to receive the reward promised , & if he fail in his work any of the dayes , to be punished ; this man , so long as he worketh 2 , 3 , 4. 5. dayes cannot be charged with sin , nor said to be defective , as to his duty ; and yeth he hath not full right to the reward untill he hath wrought Eight dayes , but is defective in some part of his Righteousness , as to this reward . And according to this may we understand that logical axiome . Further he saith , The Scriptures themselves still make an immediat opposition , between sin & Righteousness . - To finde out a third estate between sin & Righteousness , we must finde out a third Adam , from whom it should be derived . Ans. The state of sin & of Righteousness , whereof the Scripture speaketh , admitteth indeed of no medium , or third betwixt them , and the reason is because , we are all now borne in a state of sin , & are obnoxipus to wrath ; & remaine so , untill we be translated into a state of Righteousness , which is not by meer pardon of sins , but also by the imputation of a Righteousness ; for being in this State of Righteousness , we have not only the Obligation to wrath & eternal punishment removed , which is done by Remission upon the account of the Satisfaction of Christ imputed ; but we have also a right to the reward , the crown of life , which is had by imputation of Righteousness , or of obedience , though it were better to say , we have both by both ; or we have both by the imputation of that compleet Satisfaction & merite , which comprehendeth , or consisteth of both . His 3. Conclusion is this , Adam , whilst his innocency stood with him , and till his fall by sin , was compleetly Righteous , & in an estate of justification before God : Yea , for the truth & substance of Righteousness , as Righteous , as he could or should have been , if he had lived to this day , in the most entire & absolute obedience to the Law. Ans. Adam , while he remained innocent , was compleatly Righteous , that is , was changable with no transgression , it is true : That he was compleatly Righteous , that is , had full right to the reward , as having done all his duty , and compleated his work , it is most false . Therefore ( 2 ) it is false to say , he was in a state of justification , unless nothing else be hereby meaned , than that he was not in a state of condemnation . Though there be no mids betwixt these two now , as to us , but either we must be in a state of justification , or in a state of condemnation ; Yet Adam while he stood , was in neither ; Not in a state of condemnation , because he had not yet transgressed the Law ; Nor yet in a state of justification , because he had not yet done all his duty ; for he was to persevere in obedience to the end : And if he had been justified , he had full right to the reward , & so had been glorified , for whom the Lord justifieth , he glorifieth : But Adam was not glorified upon his Law-obedience , and consequently was not justified by his Law-obedience . ( 3 ) The truth & substance of Righteousness ( unto which he would restrick all ) is not the thing enquired after , nor is it at all to the point ; for upon Adam's having of that simply he could not expect the reward of life , that was promised , because , the Covenant , he was under , required continuance & perseverance in all the several duties , called for by the Law , even to the end , ere he could challenge a right to the reward : And further Adam had this truth & substance of Righteousness at the first , & it was concreated with him ; Yet he could not , upon that account , have challenged glory , as his due . He addeth . Even as the second Adam was as compleatly & perfectly Righteous from the womb , & so from his first entrance upon his publick ministrie , as he was at last , when he suffered death . Ans. If we speak of our Lord Jesus , as the second Adam , that is , as standing in the room of sinners , as the Head & publick Person , engadging in their behalfe , whom he did represent , to pay all their debt ; though he knew no sin , and upon that account was perfectly Righteous , and separat from sinners ; Yet he was to finish the work laid upon him , and to performe the whole debt , both of duty & suffering , which he had undertaken ; and till the last penny of that debt was payed , his work was not finished , and untill his work was finished , he could not challenge his reward : And so this confirmeth what we have said of the first Adam . To say ( he addeth ) that Adam was not perfectly Righteous , & consequently in a justified estate or condition before God , untill his fall by sin , is to place him into an estate of condemnation before his sin , there being no middle or third estate betwixt these two . Ans. This was obviated before . Adam's state before his fall , was a state of Innocencie , wherein he enjoyed the favour & presence of God , he being perfectly Righteous , in reference to that state ; & to what was required of him ; but justified he was not ; for the reward was not adjudged unto him . So that , as to him , there was a middle state betwixt a State of Justification & a State of Condemnation ; though , as to us , there is not , as the places , which he citeth afterward namely Rom. 5 : 18. & 8 : 1 , 2 , shew , & the whole Scriptures evince . He closeth this matter thus . Therefore to grant , that forgiveness of sins puts a man into the same estate & condition , wherein Adam stood before his fall ( which is generally granted by men of opposite judgment in this controversie ; & nothing granted neither , in this , but the unquestionable truth ) is to grant the point in question , & to acknowledge the truth laboured for , throughout this whole discourse . Ans. It is not granted that remission of sins , as such , putteth a man every way into the same Condition , wherein Adam stood before his fall ; for it putteth not a man in the same estate of inherent holiness , wherein Adam was ; but it putteth a man into the same estate of freedome from any obligation to punishment , for it taketh away the reatus poenae , so that a pardoned man , as such , is no more under the actual obligation unto the curse & wrath of God , threatned for transgression , than was Adam , before he fell : and this is all , that is confessed . Which is far , yea very far from granting the point , that he goeth about to establish : for he would have remission , as such , put a man in the state of full right to the reward , to the end he might exclude the imputation of the obedience or Righteousness of Christ , as not being necessary unto this end , contrary to the Scriptures of truth . Adam , before he fell , had not right unto the promised reward , because he was to finish his course of obedience , before he could obtaine that : And therefore the granting , that remission putteth a man into the same Condition , wherein Adam stood , will contribute nothing to his end . His 4. Conclusion is . That perfect remissien of sins includeth the Imputation or acknowledgment of the observation of the whole Law ; even as the imputation of the Law fulfilled , necessarily includes the non imputation of sin , or the forgiveness of all sin , in case any hath been committed . Ans. The conclusion is manifestly false , if we speak of remission simply , & abstractivly as such ; And the ground here alleiged for it , is ambiguous ; for the imputation of the Law fulfilled , may either be to sach , as never broke it , & then it doth not include remission , but taketh away all necessity of it ; or to transgressours , and then indeed it may presuppose remission , but doth not include it , as such . But to remove ambiguities , we shall distinguish , & say , that perfect Remission of sins includeth the acknowledgment of the observation of the whole Law , in respect of Punishment ; but not in respect of the Reward ; that is , perfect Remission of sins exeemeth a man from Punishment , as well as if he had perfectly keeped the Law ; but doth not give him right to the Reward ; for unto this was requisite the perfect observation of the Law : Now perfect observation of the Law saith , there was no transgression ; but remission saith , & supposeth , that the Law was not perfectly observed . So the imputation of the Law fulfilled either saith , the Law was not broken , or that now satisfaction is made for the breach thereof , & therefore the person , unto whom this imputation is made . hath a right unto the reward , which this imputation doth directly & immediatly respect , as such . But in our case , both these go together , perfect remission , & the imputation of the Law fulfilled , because freedom from the obligation to punishment , & right to the reward , go also together inseparably . For how can he be said ( saith he ) to have all his sins fully forgiven , who is yet looked upon , or intended to be dealt with all , as one that hath transgressed either by way of omission , or commission , any part of the Law ? Ans. He that hath his sins fully forgiven , may well be looked upon , as one that hath transgressed , either by omission , or by commission , or by both ; because he must be so looked upon : for pardon presupposeth sin ; no man can be pardoned , but a sinner , and no man can think or dreame of a remission , but withall he must suppose , that the person pardoned hath sinned . But it is true , he who is said to have all his sins fully forgiven , cannot be intended to be dealt withall , as one that hath transgressed : for pardon destroyeth that obligation to punishment , but doth not so destroy sin , as to cause that it never was ; for that is impossible . What more ? And he that is looked upon as one , that never transgressed any part of the Law , must needs be conceived or looked upon as one , that hath fulfilled or keeped the Law. Ans. This is very true : But what then ? Which is nothing else ( saith he ) but to have a perfect Righteousness , or ( which is the same ) a perfect fulfilling of the Law imputed to him . Ans. This is also true , taking this imputation of a perfect fulfilling of the Law , to be to one , who never broke the Law by sin ; but it is not true , in our case , who are transgressours , all the imputation of Righteousness in the world can not make us to have been no sinners . Yet he inferreth . So that besides that perfect remission of sins , which hath been purchased by the bloud of Christ , there is no need of ( indeed no place for ) the imputation of any Righteousness , performed by Christ unto the Law. Ans. The inconsequence of this is manifest from what is said : But he addeth a reason . Because ( saith he ) in that very act of remission of sins , there is included an imputation of a perfect Righteousness . Ans. This is but the same thing , which was said , & is manifestly false . Remission regairdeth only the punishment , or the obligation thereunto , & dissolveth it , but , as such giveth no right to the reward , which was promised only to obedience to the Law. But then he tels us more properly , & with Scripture-exactness ( as he saith ) that that act of God , whereby heremitteth & pardoneth sin , is interpretativly nothing else , but an imputation of a perfect righteousness or of a fulfilling of the Law : compare Rom. 4 : 6 with vers . 7. & 11. Ans. This is but the same thing , & needeth no new answere ; for it is denied , that that act of God , whereby he pardoneth sin , considered in itself , & as such , is interpretativly an imputation of perfect Righteousness . But it is true , in our case , it may be called so interpretativly , in this respect , that there is such an in dissoluble connexion betwixt the two , that the one inferreth the other , necessitate consequentis . And this is all that can be proved from Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 11. He addeth , Even as the act of the Physician , by which he recovereth his patient from his sickness , may , withfull propriety of speach , be called that act , whereby he restoreth him to his health . Ans. The Physician purging away the humors , the causes of the distemper , is the cause of health , by being the causa removens prohibens ; because ex natura rei , health followeth upon the removal of that , which caused the distemper ; but the connexion of pardon & of imputation of Righteousness is not ex natura rei , but ex libera Dei constitutione : connecting the causes of both together . His next similitude of the sun , dispelling darkness , & filling the aire with light , is as little to the purpose ; because here is a natural necessary consequence , light necessarily expelling darkness ; which is denied in our case . Hence there is no ground for what he addeth , when he saith . In like manner , God doth not heal sin , that is forgive sin , by one act , & restore the life of righteousness , that is impute righteousness , by another act at all differing from it , but in & by one & the same punctual & precise act he doth the one & the other . For we are not here enquiring , after the oneness or diversitie of God's acts in a Philosophical manner : God can do many things by one Physical act : but we are enquireing concerning the Effects , whether they be one precise thing , flowing from one moral cause ; or so diverse , as to require diverse moral causes , & grounds , or whether the one doth naturally & essentially include the other , as being both but one thing . His following words would seem to speak to this , when he saith , forgiveness of sins , & imputation of Righteousness are but two different names , expressions , or considerations of one & the same thing one & the same act of God is sometimes called forgivness of sins , & sometimes an imputing of Righteousness ; & the forgivness of sins is sometimes called an imputing of righteousness , to shew & signifie that a man needs nothing to a compleet Righteousness , or Iustification , but the forgivness of his sins : And againe the Imputing of Righteousness is sometimes called the forgivness of sins , to shew that God hath no other Righteousness to conferre upon a sinner , but that which standeth in forgiveness of sins . Ans. This is but gratis dictum ; nothing at all is proved : These two , pardon of sins & imputation of Righteousness , are two distinct parts of one compleet favour , and blessing granted of God , in order to one compleet blessedness , consisting likewise in two parts , to wit , in freedome from punishment , which was deserved , & in right to the promised inheritance , which was lost : And because these two , both in the cause , and in the effect , are inseparable conjoined by the Lord ; therefore , the mentioning of the one may & doth import & signifie both , by a Synecdoche : And hence no man , with reason , can inferre , that they are both one & the same precise thing , flowing from one & the same precise cause , and import only the different names , expressio●s or considerations of one & the same thing , Christ's obedience to the Law , and his suffering for sin , were not one & the same thing under various considerations , or names , but distinct parts of one compleet Surety-Righteousness : no more can the effects , that flow therefrom , be accounted one & the same thing , but two distinct parts of one compleet effect : And therefore the mentioning of the one , in stead of the whole , proveth no confusion , or sameness , but rather an inseparablness , which is yeelded . He move ●in an objection against himself ● ▪ 5. thus . How can God be said to impute a Righteousness to a man , which never was , nor ever had a being , no Righteousness ( at least of that kind , whereof we now speak ) having ever been , but that perfect obedience , which Christ performed to the Law ? This indeed is a very rational question ; for our Author talketh much of an imputed Righteousness , and never doth , nor yet can tell us , what that is , that can deserve the name of a Righteousness . Let us heare , what he answereth . 1. saith he . There is as express & compleet a Righteousness in the Law , as ever Christ himself performed . Ans. But what Righteousness is or can be in a Law , but what is there , by way of prescription ? And who doubts 〈◊〉 the perfection of this , that acknowledgeth the perfection of the Law ? This is utterly impertinent to the purpose in hand , where the question is of a Righteousness consisting in conformity to the Law , and which must be attribute to man , to whom the Law is given ? And what if it be said ( saith he ) that God , in remission of sins , through Christ , from & out of the Law , imputeth to every man , that beleeveth , such a Righteousness , as is proper to him ? Ans. To say this , is to speak plaine non-sense : for what is that to furnish a man with a Righteousness out of the Law ? Can a man be changed into a Law ? or can a man have any Righteousness , prescribed by a Law , but by thoughts , words , & deeds , bearing a conformity to the commands of the Law ? And how can 〈◊〉 pardon cause this transformation ? can the pardon of murther , or of any prohibited act , make that act conforme to the Law ? Pardon thus should be a self destroyer ; for an act , that is no transgression of a Law , can need no pardon : and thus pardon should make itself no pardon . What he subjoineth , hath bin spoken to elsewhere . He giveth a 2. answere , saying . To say , God cannot impute a Righteousness , which never had a being i.e. which never was really & actually performed by any man , is to deny that he hath power to forgive sin● . Ans. This hath been & is full denied ; it never hath been , nor never shall be proved , that forgivness of sin is the imputation of a Righteousness . Though he addeth from Rom. 4 : 6. & 3 : 28. &c. that it is the imputation of such a Righteousness , as consisteth not , no●es made up of any works performed to the Law by any man , which is but a Righteousness , that never had a being . Ans. This is but a plaine perverting of the Scriptures , which speak only of works ( in that exclusion ) done & performed by us , as the whole scope , and all the circumstances of the passages , demonstrate to any man , who will not willingly put out his owne eyes : and it were a meer imposing upon the Understandings of the most ordinary Reader , and a miserable mispending of time , to goe about the evincing of this , which is so obvious . But what desperat shifts will not a wrong cause put men to use , who will not be truths captives ? His 5. Conclusion cometh here also to be considered : It is this . He that is fully discharged from his sins , needeth no other R●ghteousness , to give him-Right 〈◊〉 unto life . This is as false as the rest ; for the Law is ; do this & live : and pardon for transgressions is not the same with doing of the Law. What is his reason ? death is the wages of sin , is of sin only , being due to no creature in any other respect , nor upon any other terme whatsomever . But what then ? Now he that it free of death , & no wayes obnoxious thereunto , cannot but be conceived to have a right unto life , there being neither any middle condition between death & life , wherein it is possible for a reasonable creature to subsist , nor againe any capacity of life , but by some right & ●itle thereunto . Ans. Though this be true , as to us now , that he who is no wayes obnoxious unto death , hath a right unto life ; Yet the consequence that he would draw from it , is not good : to wit , that that only , which taketh away the obnoxiousness unto death , giveth also a right to life : because God hath inseparably joined these effects together , as also their distinct causes together , and giveth them inseparably ; so that he who is pardoned hath also a right to life , not meerly upon the account , that he is pardoned , but because together with the imputation of the Satisfaction of Christ , whence floweth pardon , he imputeth also Christ's Righteousness , upon which followeth the right to life . And howbeit now , as to us , there is no middle state betwixt these two ; Yet in Adam there was ; for while he stood , he was not obnoxious unto death ; and yet he had not right unto life : but was to work out & perfect his rask , to that end . But he tels us , That while Adam stood , he was already in possession & fruition of life ; else he could not be threatned with death . Ans. This is not the life , whereof we are speaking ; we are speaking of the life , promised by that Covenant , unto perfect obedience : But it seemeth , that he joyneth with the 〈◊〉 , in this , granting no life promised to Adam , but a Continuance of what he was already in possession of . He enquireth . If he had not a right unto life by his freedome from sin , but was to purchase this right , by an ctlual fulfilling of the Law , it would be known , what quantit●e● of obedience to the Law he must have paid , before he had made this purchase ; & how long he must have obeyed & keept the Law ? Ans. There is no necessity of any exact knowledge of these things ; our maine question doth not ●●and or ●all with the knowledge or ignorance of them : Yet , we may say ( and that is sufficient ) that that Law , or Covenant , requiring perfect obedience , and perpetual , without the least omission or commission , he must have paid all that obedience , which the Law required of him , to the day of his trans●●●gration , or change to glory , before the 〈◊〉 had been made . He addeth ; for had he lived a two yeers in his integrity & uprightness , without the least touch of any transgression , he h●d still but a debtor of obedience to the Law , upon the same termes , that he was , at the beginning , & the least interruption or breach in the course of his obedience , had even now been the forfeiture of that life he enjoyed . Ans. How long Adam should have lived upon earth , before his translation to glory , we know not ; nor is it of use for us to enquire ; it is sufficient to know , that he was to finish his course , & to persevere in obedience to the end , if he would not both forfeit the life he had , and the expectation of the life of glory , which was promised upon his compleeting his work of obedience . He addeth . Notwithstanding , the Scriptures of the New. Test. seem to place the immediat right , or capacity , which beleevers have to the Kingdom of heaven & eternal glory , rather in the grace of Adoption , than in any Righteousness whatsoever , even Remission of sins itself not excepted . Ans. I have spoken to this elsewhere , and shall only say here , That hereby he hath destroyed his Conclusion ; for hereby we see , that in order to the attaining of right to life , more is requisite , than meer Remission , for he cannot say , that Remission of sins & Adoption , is all one , having clearly hinted the contrary here , & having also denied Righteousness to be the ground of Adoption , while as before he made Righteousness & Remission of sins all one . He shall never prove that Adoption is without the Imputation of Righteousness . Let us heare his reason . The reason whereof may ( haply ) be this , because the life & blessedness , which come by Iesus Christ , are of far higher nature , excellency and worth , than that which was Covenanted to Adam , by way of wages for his work , or obedience to the Law , & therefore require an higher & fuller & richer capacity , or title in the creature , to interesse him therein , than that did : work faithfully performed is enough , to entitle a man to his wages , but the gift of an inheritance requirtth a special grace or favour . Ans. As this is but dubiously asserted ; so it is to no purpose ; for though some difference may be granted betwixt the glory , now had by the Gospel & that promised to Adam , in several respects ; Yet it was a life of glory , that was promised to Adam , & our Adoption is not without the imputation of a Righteousness . Nor was Adam's obedience such a work , as in strick justice called for wages , without a Covenant . The Imputation of Righteousness is indeed a special grace & Favoure & therefore fit enough to found Adoption . His 6. Conclusion is this . That Satisfaction , which Christ made to the justice of God for sin , & whereby he procured Remission of sins ( or perfect Righteousness ) & reconciliation with God for those that beleeve , consists only in that obedience of his , which he performed to that peculiar & special Law of Mediation , which God imposed upon him ( which we commonly , though perhaps not altogether so properly , call his passive obedience ) & not at all in that obedience or subjection , which he exhibited to that common Law of nature , which we call moral . Ans. Though , if we should speak strickly of satisfaction , as distinguished from obedience , & as relating to the punishment for sin , the substance of this Conclusion might be granted ; Yet taking Satisfaction more largly , as relative to our whole debt , it must necessarily include his obedience to the Law moral . ( 2 ) Though for explications sake , we may speak of Christ's Active , & of his Passive obedience distinctly ; Yet there was suffering & satisfaction , in all his Active obedience ( as it is commenly called ) & there was action & meriting in all his Passive Obedience ( as it is commonly called . ) His supposing Remission of sins , & Perfect Righteousness , is already discovered to be a mistake , ( 4 ) The special Law of Mediation required of Christ both obedience & suffering , & he speaketh without ground , when he restricteth it to his passive obedience , ( as it is commonly called ) only . His reason is . Because nothing can be satisfactory to divine justice for sin , but that which is penal . Heb. 9 : 22. for doubtless , where there is Satisfaction , there is & may be remission . Ans. This confirmeth only what we granted of satisfaction taken strickly . But cannot prove , that Satisfaction largely taken , may not , or cannot , yea or must not , include obedience , this being part of our debt to the Law , and to the Lawgiver : nor will it prove , that there was nothing of Satisfaction in Christ's obedience , which he performed in his state of humiliation . It is true , where there is Satisfaction , there is & may be Remission ; but Remission is not all , that we stand in need of . But he will have that obedience , which Christ exhibited to the moral Law , no way penal : And his reason is , because it was required of man , in his innocency , & imposed by God upon Adam before his fall ; Yea & still lyeth & shall lye to the dayes of eternity upon men & Angels . Ans. Yet for all this , it might be & was penal unto Christ , who was not meer man , but God & man in one person : And for Him , who was God , & above all Law , that man cometh under , to subject him self to that Law , which was imposed upon man , as a Viator , must needs be penal , it being a part of his subjection , as made under the Law , & a piece of his humiliation , for thus , in part , he took upon him the forme of a servant , & was made in the likeness of men ; & being found in fashion , as a man , he humbled himself , & became obedient unto death . Phil. 2 : 7 , 8. Gal. 4 : 4. What they do , who are in glory , is not to the purpose ; for here we are speaking of the obedience & subjection of such , as are Viators , & not Comprehensors . And Adam while innocent , was a Viator ; and Christ , to pay that debt , which was required of us all , as Viators , did humble himself to performe the obedience of a Viator , in our place , & in our stead , that so he might give full satisfaction , & pay our whole debt . From hence , there is no ground for his Inference , to wit , that . Therefore man was punished , & that by order & appointment of God , before his fall , & that now the glorified Saints & Angels , yea & Iesus Christ himself , are now punished in heaven . For ( 1 ) it might be & was penal to him , who was God , which was duty unto man in innocency , as is cleared , & ( 2 ) The Obedience of Saints & Angels , now in glory , & far less that of Jesus Christ himself , ( if it can properly be called obedience ) is not the duty of Viators , & therefore utterly impertinent to our purpose : We do not say , that Adam's obedience was penal , it being his duty : but Christ's was , seing no Law required such obedience of him , who was God ; nor was it necessary even to his humane Nature , in order to life for himself : for the hypostatical union fully removed that necessity , & either made him , as to himself , in respect of his humane nature , a comprehensor , or in the nearest capacity to it , even when he was subjecting himself to the obedience of a Viator , for us , and as standing in our room . But he saith , the Scriptures themselves no where ascribe this satisfaction to Christ's Active obedience ; but still to his passive . And here he citeth many passages of Scripture , to no purpose , seing none of these give any hint of the exclusion of his active obedience ; but rather do include it ; or else he may as well say , that all Christ's active obedience was no way necessary , or requisite , unto the work of Redemption ; because these passages do not expresly say so ; and yet this he will not say , seing he granteth , that his obedience was an essential requisite , & absolutly necessary , to the constitution of him our Priest , and his Sacrifice propitiatory : But we read of his being made under the Law , to redeem these , that were under the Law. Gal. 4 : 4 , 5. and of his Righteousness & obedience , as necessary to our Righteousness & justification , and as having a no less direct influence into the same ; than Adam's offence & disobedience had unto our death & damnation . Rom. 5 : 17 , 18 , 19. CHAP. II. Christ underwent the Curse of the Law. MR. Goodwine tels us in his 14. Conclusion . That the sentence or Curse of the Law was not properly executed upon Christ in his death : But this death of Christ was a ground or consideration to God , where upon to dispense with his Law , & to let fall or suspend the execution of the penalty , or curse therein threatned . Ans. ( 1 ) This is directly contrary to what the Apostle saith Gal. 3 : 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law , being made a Curse for us ; for it is written , cursed is every one , that hangeth on a tree . It was the Curse of the Law , that we were under , & were to be delivered from ; and this Christ hath delivered us from , by coming in our stead & bearing it for us , yea bearing it so , that he is said to have been made it , being made a Curse for us , which is a most emphatick expression , to hold forth Christ's bearing the very penalty , threatned in the Law , which cursed every one , that continued not in all things , which are written in the book of the Law to do them . vers . 10. Deut. 27 : 26. If Christ underwent the Curse of the Law , he , sure , did suffer the very sentence , or punishment threatned in the Law ; for the Curse of the Law can import no other thing . ( 2 ) If Christ did not bear the sentence or Curse of the Law , how could he be said to have died or suffered in our place , room or stead ? No man is said to suffer in the place & stead of another , who doth not suffer that same particular kind of punishment , that the other is obnoxious to , and is obliged to suffer . ( 3 ) Why was Christ said to be made sin for us 2. Cor. 5 : 21. & to bear our iniquities Esai . 53 : 6. 1. Pet. 2 : 24. If he did not undergoe the very punishment ; that was due to us , because of sin ? ( 4 ) This is to give away the cause , in a great measure , unto the Socinians , who will not yeeld , that Christ's death was any satisfaction to the justice , or payment of our criminal debt , or a suffering the punishment of sin , due to us ; for if Christ did not suffer the curse & sentence of the Law , he did not suffer the punishment , which the Law threatned , and justice required ; he did not suffer any punishment at all , if he suffered not our punishment , or that which was due to us ; he did not stand in our Law-place to answere all the demands of justice according to what we were liable unto by the Law ? nor did he bear our sins in his own body on the cross . ( 5 ) If Christ's death was a ground or consideration to God , whereupon to dispense with his Law ; then it is apparent , that the consideration of Christ's death was anterior to the dispensing with the Law : whereas the contrary is rather true , to wit , that the Lord's dispensing with the Law , was anteriour to his sending of Christ , because the Law properly knowing no mediator , and requiring none to suffer the penalty for another , must first , in order of nature , be considered , as dispensed with , before Christ be substituted in the room of sinners to undergo what they deserved . ( 6 ) If it was only a ground to God , whereupon to let fall , or suspend the execution of the penalty , then it seemeth , Christ's death was no full payment , or Satisfaction ; for a full Satisfaction requireth more than a suspension of the execution of the punishment , even a full delivery there-from . Let us heare his reason . Because ( saith he ) the threatning & Curse of the Law was not at all bent or intended against the innocent or Righteous , but against transgressours only . Therefore God in inflicting death upon Christ being innocent and Righteous , did not follow the purport or intent of the Law●but in sparing & forbearing the transgressours ( who according to the 〈◊〉 of the Law should have bin punished ) manifestly dispenseth with the Law , and doth not execute it . Ans. All this being granted , yet it will not follow , that the sentence & Curse of the Law was not executed upon Christ in his death : for notwithstanding of this dispensing with the Law , as to the persons ; Yet was there no Relaxation of the Law , as to the punishment threatned ? Though the Law did not require , that the innocent should suffer ; Yet the Supream Lord & Ruler dispensing with his own Law so far , as to substitute an innocent person , in the room & place of sinners , the Law required , that that innocent person , taking on that penalty , and thereby making himself nocent , as to the penalty , should suffer the same that was threatned , & consequently bear the Curse , threatned in the Law. As ( saith he further for explication ) when Zaleucus ( the Locrian Law-giver ) caused one of his own eyes to be put out , that one of his son's eyes might be spared , who according both to the letter & intent of the Law , should have lost both , he did not precisely execute the Law , but gave a sufficient account or consideration , why it should for that time be dispensed with . Ans. This speaks not home to our case , wherein we pay not the half , nor no part of the penalty . But Christ payeth the whole , as substitute in our room . If Zaleucus had substituted himself in the room of his son , & suffered both his own eyes to be put out , though the Law had been dispensed with , as to the persons , yet the penalty of the loss of both eyes had been payed , & the same punishment , which the Law required , had been exacted : And so it is in our case , as is manifest . Yet he granteth , that in some sense , Christ may be said to have suffered the penalty or Curse of the Law ; as 1. It was the Curse or penalty of the Law ( saith he ) as now hanging over the head of the world , & ready to be executed upon all men for sin , that occasioned his sufferings . Ans. If this were all , all the beasts & senseless creatures , may be as well said to have suffered the penalty & Curse of the Law ; & consequently to have suffered for man & to have born mans sin , in order to his Redemption , as Christ ; for the sin , & penalty of sin , whereunto man was liable , did occasion their suffering , or being subjected to vanity Rom. 8 : 20 , 21. Thus our whole Redemption is subverted , & the cause yeelded unto the wicked Socinians , for if this be so , Christ had not our sins laid upon him , he did not beare our sins in his body on the tree , he was not wounded for our transgressions , the chastisement of our peace was not on him ; He was not made sin for us . He was not our Cautioner & High Priest ; He died not in our room & stead . Againe 2. ( saith he ) ( & some what more properly ) Christ may be said to have suffered the Curse of the Law , because the things , which he suffered were of the same nature & kinde ( at least in part ) with these things , which God intended by the Curse of the Law. Ans. Though this seemeth to come nigher to the truth , than the former ; Yet it cannot give full satisfaction , untill it be explained , what that part , is in respect of which , only Christ's sufferings were of the same Nature & kinde , with what the Law threatned . Let us hear therefore what followeth ; & see if thence satisfaction can come . But if by the Curse ( saith he ) of the Law , we understand either that entire systeme & historical body ( as it were ) of penalties & evils , which the Law itself intends in the terme ; or else include & take-in the intent of the Law , as touching the quality of the persons , upon whom is was to be executed ; in neither of these senses , did Christ suffer the Curse of the Law. Ans. ( 1 ) This doth not explaine to us , what that part is , in which Christ sufferings are of the same Nature & kind , with what was intended by the Curse of the Law. ( 2 ) There is need of explication here , to make us understand , what is that entire Systeme & historical body of penalties & evils , which the Law itself intends in the terme Curse , or death : for this is but to explaine one dark thing by what is more dark ; & so can give no Satisfaction . ( 3 ) But if the alternative added be explicative , & so the two particulars here mentioned be one & the same ; then we deny , that that doth properly belong to the essence of the penalty , as threatned in the Law : that is , every thing that necessarily attended the punishment , as inflicted on man , did not directly & essentially belong thereunto , as threatned by the Law , such as the everlastingness of death , despaire , & the like necessarily accompanying this punishment inflicted on sinners ; so that notwithstanding Christ did not , neither could , endure these accidental & consequential evils ; Yet he both did & might be said to suffer the Curse & death threatned by the Law , which is to be abstracted from what floweth not from the Law itself , but meerly from the Nature of the subject , or Condition of the sinner punished . But it may be , these words of his , the intent of the Law , as touching the quality of the persons , upon whom it was to be executed , have some other import , & that he meaneth , hereby no more but this , that the intent of the Law was , that the sinner should suffer : And indeed if so , it was impossible , that Christ's sufferings could answere the intent of the Law : But we have said above , that as to this , the Law was dispensed with ; & yet notwithstanding Christ the substitute Sufferer did suffer the same kinde of punishment , that the Law threatned under the termes of Death & Curse . What he addeth Further can give no Satisfaction . So that God ( saith he ) required the death & sufferings of Christ , not that the Law properly , either in the letter or intention of it , might be executed ; but on the contrary , that it might not be executed , I meane upon those , who being otherwise ohnoxious unto it should beleeve . Ans. Though it be true , that God required the death & sufferings of Christ , not that the Law either in the letter or intention of it might be executed , as to that , wherein it was dispensed with : Yet God required the death & sufferings of Christ , that the letter & intent of the Law might be executed , as to that wherein it was not dispensed with : that is , as to the punishment therein threatned ; And unless the Law , as to this , had been executed , no man obnoxious to it , should have escaped , and that because of the Veracity of God , yea & because of his justice , which he had determined to have Satisfied , ere sinfull man should escape the punishment . In the next place he tels us , that God did not require the death & sufferings of Christ , as a valuable consideration , where on to dispence with his Law towards those that beleeve , more ( if so much ) in a way of Satisfaction to his justice , than to his wisdom . Ans. This savoureth rankly of Socinianisme . It is not for us to make such comparisons , as if God's Wisdom & justice were not at full agreement , and were not one . The Scripture tels us , that God set forth Iesus Christ t s be a propitiation through faith in his blood , to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past , To declare , I say , at this time his Righteousness , that he might be just & the justifier of him , which beleeveth in Iesus . Rom. 3 : 25 , 26. And so it is manifest , that Satisfaction to justice was hereby intended : And this is enough to us , who know also , that in the whole contrivance of the business , the Infinite Wisdom of God is eminently relucent ; And Love not to make any such comparisons : only we think , that a Propitiation , and Satisfaction , & the like termes , used in Scripture , in the expressing of this matter , have a direct aspect , & bear a manifest relation unto justice , and correspond di●ectly there with , yea clearly enough inferre the same , though there were no other mention made expresly of the justice of God , in this matter . What saith he next to prove this . for ( doubtless ) God might ( saith he ) with as much justice , as wisdom ( if not much more ) have passed by the er ansgression of his Law , without consideration of satisfaction . Ans. What God might have done by his absolute Soveraignity , antecedent to his designe & purpose , as to the punishment , or the reatus poenae ( which must not be extended to the reatus culpae ) is not to the question . But now , the Lord , having declared his determination & purpose to rule & governe the world thus , & to have the glory of his relative justice manifested in the Salvation of lost man , could not according to justice , passe by transgressions , without a satisfaction . He adds . No man will say , that in case a man hath bin injured & wronged , that therefore he is absolutly bound in justice , to seek satisfaction , though he be never so eminent in the grace & practice of justice : but in many cases of injuries sustained , a man may be bound , in point of wisdom , & discretion , to seek satisfaction in one kind or other . Ans. This is the Socinian way of argueing : & nothing to the pointe ; for we are to look upon the Lord in this matter , not as a private man , who may dispense with injuries done him ; but as a Righteous Governour , who is resolved to demonstrate his justice & equitie , and who therefore cannot suffer sin to go unpunished without a due satisfaction had , for the violation of his Lawes . Nor is it to the point to tell us , that some hold , that God , if it had pleased him , might have pardoned Adam's transgression , without the Atonement made by the death of Christ : for they speak not of what God may now do , having determined to manifest the glory of his justice ; but what he might have done in signorationis ante decretum . And as for that word Heb. 2 : 11. It became him . &c. it will as well respect the justice of God as his wisdom , seing it became him upon the account of justice , which he would have glorified . Mr. Baxter in his Confess . Chap. IX . Sect. 5. pag. 289. thinketh that to say , that Christ paid the same thing , that the Law required of us , & not only satisfied for our not payment , is to subvert the substance of Religion : But this is only in his apprehension , & as he taketh up their meaning , who say so ; And others possibly may have no lower thoughts of some , who hold , that Christ only gave such a sacrifice to God , as might be a valuable consideration , on which he might grant us the benefites , on such conditions as are most sutable to his ends & honour ; & that he did not suffer the same , which the Law threatned . The screwing up of differences to such an hight , as to make either the one , or the other , subversive of the substance of Religion , had need to be upon clear & undeniable grounds , and not founded on meer sandy and loose consequences , such as those seem to me , by which Mr. Baxter maketh out this Charge . For he tels us . The Idem is the perfect obedience , or the full punishment that the Law requires . It is supplicium ipsius delinquentis . Ans. But now , seing such as say , that Christ paid the Idem , will say as well as he , that when Christ suffered that , which they call the Idem , the person himself that sinned , did not suffer : And I would enquire at Mr. Baxter , whether paid Christ the Idem , as to all other respects beside ; that is , whether Christ suffered all that penalty , which the Law did threaten to transgressours only this excepted ( which must be excepted ) that he did it in another person , & that he was not the person himself , that sinned , or not ? If he say , Not , then the difference goeth deeper ; but why doth he not then , to make out this heavy charge , Instance some particulars , threatned in the Law , which Christ did not undergo ? And why doth he insist only on this one , that he was not ipse delinquens . but another person ? If he grant that in all other respects , Christ paid the Idem ; no man , sure , can see such difference here , as shall make the one side subvert the Substance of Religion : for it is a meer s●●ife about a word ; & it cometh all to this , whether when one man layeth down his life , to save another condemned to death , after all satisfaction in money , lands , rents service , or what else , hath been rejected , he can be said to pay the Idem , which the Law required , or not ? Some Lawyers would possibly say , he did pay , or suffer the Idem ; Mr. Baxter would say not , because he was not ipsa persona delinquens , was not the very person , that was condemned , but another . And yet death , unto which the other man was condemned , was inflicted upon him , and no less would be accepted as satisfaction , at his hands ; which would make some say , that all that debate , whether it was the same , or the equivalent , were a meer needless contest about a word . And if it be but just so here , in our present debate , every one will judge it very hard , to call that a subversion of Religion , which , after examination & trial , is found to be but a strife about a word . Now , how will Mr. Baxter prove that the suffering of the Idem , is only , when it is supplicium ipsius delinquentis ? And not also , when the same punishment , in all its essential ingredients , is undergone & suffered by another ? When the Law imposeth the penalty of death , or of such a great summe of money , on a person transgressing such a Law ; common discourse would say , & I suppose the Law give allowance thereto , that , when another came , & payed the same penalty for him , without the least abatement , he payed the same penalty , which he Law impofed , and not another ; and not meerly a valuable consideration . It is true , the Law threatened only the transgressour , & obliged him to suffer ; but notwithstanding , another might pay the very same thing , which the Law threatned & requireth . He saith next ( p. 290. ) the Law never threatned a Surety : nor granteth any liberty of substitution : that was an act of God above the Law ? If therefore the thing due were payed , it was we ourselves morally or legally , that suffered . Ans. Sure , some Lawes of men will threaten Sureties , & grant liberty of substitution too : But if he speak here only of the Law of God , we grant ; that it threatned only the transgressour ; & that it was an act of God above the Law , & dispensing therewith , that granted a substitution ; Yet notwithstanding of this it is not proved , that that Substitute did not , or could not , suffer the same punishment , which the Law threatned . And if Mr. Baxter think , that the lawes not threatning a Surety , nor granting liberty of a substitution , will prove it ; it is denied . Next His other consequence is as uncleare , viz. That if the thing due were payed , it was we ourselves that suffered personally : all these consequences run upon the first false ground , that no man can pay the Idem , but the very transgressour . What he meaneth by , we ourselves morally , he would do well to explicate . And as for legally , we ourselves may be said to do legally , what our Surety & undertaker doth for us . And if this be all he meaneth , viz. that if the thing due ( to wit by Law , as threatned there ) be payed , either we in our own persons , or our Surety for us , & in our room & Law place , payed it , it is true , but subversive of his hypothesis : It must then be some other thing that he meaneth by morally or legally & it must be the same with , or equivalent to personally : or the like ; but his next words cleare his meaning ; for he addeth ; And it would not be ourselves legally , because it was not ourselves naturally . And what lawyer , I pray , will yeeld to this reason ? I suppose , they will tell us , that we are said to do that legally , which our Cautioner , or Surety doth for us . But if he think otherwayes here also , that nothing can be accounted to be done by us legally , but what is done by our selves Naturally ( which is a word of many significations , & might occasion much discourse ) that is , personally ; Yet it will not follow , that no other can suffer the Idem , that was threatned , but the delinquent himself . At length he tels us , That if it had been ourselves legally , then the strickest justice could not have denied us a present & perfect deliverance ipso facto , seing no justice can demand more , than the idem quod dehitur ( rather debetur ) the whole debt of obedience or punishment . Ans. But what if ourselves , in our own natural persons , had undergone the penalty , had we therefore ipso facto attained a perfect deliverance ? It will be confessed , I suppose , that all that underlye this punishment , underlye it for ever : how then doth their legall suffering the idem helpe them ? If it be said , that they must eternally suffer , because never able to suffer so , as to make satisfaction : Yet still it is obvious , that their undergoing the idem in their own persons naturally , doth not advantage them , as to a present & perfect deliverance ipso facto , or ever at all . And where is then the truth of this axiome ? Or where is its pertinency to our purpose ? When a man is punished with death , according to the Law , is he ipso facto presently & perfectly delivered ? It seemeth then , that the paying of the Idem , yea , or the tantund●m by another person , is more effectual for their liberation , than their paying of the Idem in their own persons . And againe the Law , in many cases granteth liberation , even when the Idem in Mr. Baxters sense is payed , that is , when another payeth down the same : Yea & likewise if the Creditor be satisfied , when another thing is payed : So that neither part of this assertion holdeth true , universally . But yet some may say ; That if the Idem or the very same , were payed by Christ , our liberation should immediatly follow . I Ans. It will not follow ; so if we , in our own persons , had made full payment of that debt of suffering ( which is impossible to be done in time ) it might be granted , that actuall liberation would immediatly follow : but when we did not this , in our own persons ; but Christ made full payment of what the Law could demand by way of punishment , or threatned , for us , it will not follow , that our deliverance should immediatly follow thereupon : and the reason is because it was such a paying of the Idem , as was refusable , and as God himself provided out of wonderful love & free grace ; and was accorded unto by a mutual compact , according to the free & wise Conditions of which the benefites were to be given out . Mr. Baxter in his Cath. Theol. part . 2. n. 48. saith , the Very nature & Reason of the Satisfactoriness of Christ's sufferings was not in being the very same either in kind , or in degree , which were due to all for whom he suffered . Whence we see , that he denieth , that Christ suffered the same , either in kind , or in degree , that was due by the Law to those for whom he suffered . His reason , why they could not be the same , which was due by the Law , he giveth ( n. 49. ) is the same we heard before viz. The Law made it due to the sinner himself . Which notwithstanding , it might be the same both as to kind & degree , which Christ suffered , that the Law made due ; the substitution of a new person , that the Law did not provide , altereth not the punishment either as to kind , or as to degree . He addeth : and anothers suffering for him ful●illeth not the Law ( which never said either thou , or another for thee shall die ) but only satisfyeth the Law-giver , as he is above his own Law , & could dispense with is , his justice being satisfied & saved , dum alius solvit , aliud solvitur . Ans. Though the Law intend only the punishment of the transgressour ; Yet when the Law-giver dispenseth with the Law , & accepteth of the punishment & suffering of a●other , the punishment & suffering of another , doth not eo spso , that it is the punishment & suffering of another , become different in kind & degree from the punishment enjoyned by the Law ; as is obvious ; when ●ne man suffereth death for another , the Law being dispensed with , that made death due to the transgressour himself : his death doth not become eoipso , that it is the death of another , than of him that transgressed , another kind of death , ar distinct as to degrees ; it may be the same as to both : And yet this is all the force of Mr. Baxter argument , dum alius solvit , aliud solvitur ; which whether it be a certaine & universal rule in the Law , I much doubt : but though it were : Yet no man can hence inferre , that aliud quoad genus & gradus , eo ipso solvitur : for it is a rule in logick , that a genere ad speciem non sequitur affirmativ● , so that though , when the Law requireth , that he who sinneth shall suffer , & die , & another suffereth & dieth , in the room & stead of him who sinned , it may be said , that in so farr aliud solvitu● ; Yet it cannot be hence inferred , that the death or suffering of him , who sinned not , is quite of another kind , & differeth in degrees from that death , which the Law made due to the sinner . He mentioneth afterward in the 2 , 3 , 4. & 5. places some particulars , which were not in Christ's sufferings , & yet would have been in the sufferings of sinners themselves : But all this is to no purpose ; for the question is not , whether Christ's sufferings were the same every way with the sufferings of the damned , as to all circumstances , & consequents , flowing from the Condition of sinners suffering ; But whether they were the same , as to kind , with that death & Curse , which was threatned in the Law , by way of punishment , & which was therefore due by Law unto the transgressour . Let us now see the particulars . 2. And sin ( saith he ) itself ( though not as sin ) was the greatest part of the sinners punishment . To be alienated from God , & not to Love him & delight in him , but to be corrupted & deluded & tormented by concupiscence . Ans. These are indeed necessary consequents of sin in the person , who is a sinner , and are consequently punishment ; but not directly such ; neither were they threatned as punishments by the Law , & so do not belong to the essence & substance of that punishment , which the Law threatned , & which Christ was called to undertake . 3. Saith he . And the immediat unavoidable consequents resulting from sin itself , were punishments , which Christ did never undergo , ( as to be hateful & displeasing to God , as contrary to his holy nature , to be related as criminal , to lose right to God's Favour & Kingdom . Ans. To be hateful & displeasing unto God ● agreeth only to a creature ( which God doth not hate , as such ) as a sinner inherently : and though Christ did not feel God's hatred & anger against his own person , yet he felt his anger & hatred against sin , & sinners . And Christ was also related as Criminal , not inherently , but by imputation , when he was made sin for ●s . 2. Cor. 5 : 21. The sinner that is such inherently only , loseth right to God's Favour , & Christ missed the sense thereof , when he cried out , my God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? And 4. ( saith he ) none of the further punishment , which supposed real faultiness , could fall on Christ , as the torment of an accusing conscience , for rejecting & offending God , for casting away our own felicity & running into hell &c. the sense of God's hatred of us , as real sinners . Ans. All this is granted , but these belonged only to the punishment as inflicted on the sinner & transgressour himself , but did not belong to its essence & substance abstractly confidered , & so could not accompany the same , as inflicted upon one , who was in himself wholly free of all sin . And this is yet more manifest in that which he mentioneth . 5. Saying much less the Desertions of the Spirit of holiness , to be left without goodness , in a state of sin , & to hate God for his justice & holiness , which will be the damneds case ; for these did not belong to the essence & substance of the punishment , threatned in the Law ; but were only consequents thereof , as inflicted on sinners inherently . We do not say , that Christ suffered , what the damned do suffer , or that he was in the damneds case . Thus , though we make them not of the same kind , with all that the damned do suffer ; Yet without any blind zeal ( as he is pleased to censure ) we may say , that Christ suffered the same curse & death , that was threatned in the Law properly , as a punishments , as to substance ; and yet no way be guilty of intollerable blaspheming of our Saviour . The same answer may serve to that , which he saith ( n. 50. ) Nor could Christ's sufferings be equal in degree , intensively & extensivly , to all that was deserved by the world , as is easily discernable by perusing what is now said , seing our deserved suffering lay in things of such a nature , as to be left in sin itself , destitute of God's image & love & communion , under his hatred , tormented in conscience , besides the ever-lasting torments in hell , which are more than these , upon all the millions of sinners , which were redeemed . This is already answered : & it is not demonstrated , that all these consequents & concomitants of the punishment , as inflicted on such as were sinners inherently , did properly belong to the essence & substance of the punishment threatned , in itself considered ; And of this we only speak , for as to this , we only say , that Christ suffered the same . If two men be condemned to pay , each a thousand pounds , which none of them are well able to do , & a rich man undertaketh to pay the summe for one of the two , that rich man may well be said to have payed the same summe , that the poor man was obliged to pay , though his paying of that summe be not attended with such consequents & circumstances , as it would have been , if the poor man himself had been put to pay it , or as the other poor man findeth it , who is made to pay it ; in the poor man it is necessarily attended with poverty to himself & all his family , & possibly he & all his must be sold for slaves to make up the summe ; but the rich man can pay it without any such concomitants , or consequents , & yet be said to have payed the same summe . It is to be observed , that Papists & some others use all these same arguments to prove , that Christ did not suffer any thing of the penalty of sin in his soul , as may be particularly seen in Parker de descensu lib. 3. But Mr. Baxter granteth ( n. 51. ) that Christ did suffer more in soul , than in body : And yet what answers are made by Parker & other reformed divines , in this matter , against Papist's , may also serve our turn against Mr. Baxter & others : Socinians also , ( as may be seen in Smalci● Refut . lib. de Satisf . Christ Chap. 6. & 7. ) upon these same grounds , deny , that Christ's sufferings were a proper satisfaction , he thereby not paying the Idem , the same , that man should have suffered . And Socinus Prael . Theol. Cap. 18. fol. 205. saith in plaine termes , That Christ did no way satishe the justice of God by his sufferings , unless it be said , that he suffered the same things , which we should have suffered because of our sins . Therefore there is a necessity , to hold that Christ suffered the same for substance , that the Elect were liable to suffer , that it may the more clearly appear , that his sufferings were indeed a Satisfaction . But Mr. Baxter tels us , in the same book ( n. 149. ) that Solution of the debt & satisfaction , strickly taken , thus differ , that Satisfaction is solutio tantidem , vel aequivalentis , alias indebiti . And if Christ be said to have paid the very same duty & punishment , which the Law required , he is denied to have satisfied , for our non-payment ; for a Law that is fully performed can require no more , nor the Law-giver neither : And therefore both Satisfaction & Pardon are shut out . Ans. Thus we seem to be hardly straitned , for if we say , that Christ paid the Idem , the Same , Mr. Baxter thinketh we destroy thereby all Satisfiction & all Pardon , and so yeeld the cause to the Socinians : If upon the other hand , we say , that Christ did not suffer the Idem , we yeeld the cause unto the Socinians , and deny all Satisfaction , in t●er judgment ; and their consequence seemeth to be as rational , as Mr. Baxter's . But truth may be affirmed , without all hazard : And to make such a difference betwixt Solution & Satisfaction , is to play needlesly upon words , & at length will but recurre unto this , Sialius solvit , aliud solvitur ; and so by saying that Christ's Satisfaction was also a solutio ejusdem , we shall deny both Satisfaction & Pardon ; or by calling it so : But , as was said above , it is not fit to lay so much weight upon the simple use of a terme or word ; and sure it is most unfit for Mr. Baxter to do so , who on all occasions , venteth his displeasure so much against others , who lay so much weight on meet termes of art , or words . But , as to the thing , sure , the creditor will think himself satisfied , when the same summe , which was oweing by one , is payed by another for the debitor , & that in the same species of Silver , or of Gold. And if that hold , that sialius solvit , aliud solvitur , Mr. Baxter may see , that if another pay , his payment may become a Satisfaction , because it is so far aliud another thing , though really & upon the matter , it be the same . And here lieth the truth , that we assert , Christ paid the very same suffering , that we were obliged to pay ; but he being another , and not the persons guilty themselves , his sufferings were not only a solutio debiti , a payment of our debt , but also , as being performed by him , they were a Satisfaction to justice , and so much the rather a compleet Satisfaction , that they were the same sufferings , we were liable to , & not strickly equivalent . And this appeareth to me the more clear from what Mr. Baxter said before ( n. 5● . & 53. ) where he hath these words . [ The true reason of the Satisfactorieness of Christ's suffering was , that they were a most apt meanes for the demonstration of the Governing justice , holiness , Wisdom & Mercy of God , by which God could attaine to the ends of the Law & Government , better than by executing the Law on the world in its destruction . ] Where we hear no word of its being solutio equivalentis alias indebiti . and next , all this is more clear by Christ's suffering the very same , that we were to suffer , than by saying that he suffered some other thing ; The most clear demonstration of the Governing justice of God was in exacting of Christ the full penalty , & the very same punishment both in Soul & Body , that the Law of God made due unto transgressours ; No other thing could give such a demonstration hereof , justice could not have required more ; and justice had not fully been demonstrated by exacting less : and the exacting of the very same , both as to Kinde , and as to degrees keeped a just correspondence with the requisite demonstration of the Governing justice of God. Hereby also was his Holiness Wisdom & Mercy , whereby he attained the ends of the Law & Government , most clearly manifested , when he did not execute the Law upon the sinful world , but upon the substituted Cautioner , that the Elect world might be saved : This , I am sure , was evidently a full salvo to Gods justice , when the same punishment was paid down , that Law & justice called for . Not that God might give pardon & life to sinners , upon the new termes of the Covenant of Grace ( as he speaketh n. 53. ) for that looketh too like the Arminian Satisfaction : as if nothing but a possibility & freedom were here obtained for God to bestow pardon & life , upon such conditions ; whereby notwithstanding of this Satisfaction , it might come to passe , that not one should be saved . See Colloq . Hag. p. 172. Impetratio salutis pro●omnibus , est acquisiti● possibilitatis , ut nimirum Deus , illaesâ suâ justitiâ , hominem peccatorem possit recipere in gratiam . See also Grevinch . ad Ames . fol. 9. Posita & praestita Christi morte & Satisfactione , fieri potest , ut , nemine novi foederis conditionem praestante , nemo salvaretur . Therefore I judge it saifest to say . That justice was so satisfied , as that all such , for whom the Satisfaction was given , shall in due time , and according to God's own method , certainly receive both pardon & life , both grace & glory , both grace to beleeve in Christ , and all the other graces that follow thereupon , with life everlasting . CHAP. III. We must not lean to any Righteousness within us , whereby to be justified . Mr. Baxter in his Cathol . Theol. part . 2. n. 176. speaketh thus . It is ordinary ( saith he ) with some writers & preachers , to tell men , that no part of their Righteousness is in themselves , & with others , that at least , none which they are justified , by in any part is in them ; And that it is all in Christ only : And that nature is loth to yeeld to this , but thinketh it a fine thing , to have some little part of the honour to itself : And as to the honour of a good Action , if it be but 999. parts , that it ascribeth to God , & taketh one part of a thousand to ourselves , it is a dangerous arrogation : We must have none . And it might be thought , that such as ever understood the Gospel , considered the particular expressions , used in Scripture , to abase man , yea & the whole Contrivance of the Gospel Salvation , through a Crucified Cautioner , and that such as ever understood & were acquanted with the Natural Pride , deceit , & Treacherie of their own heart ; and had any experience in the devices of Satan , in & about wakened consciences , to keep them from an hearty closing with & willing accepting of , and cleanly resting upon the way of Salvation , revealed in the Gospel , should be far from condemning this saying , & from making exceptions against it . But indeed , the grounds , that Papists , Socinians & Arminians lay down , as the Basis of their antievangelick Fabrick , & Contrivance of the way of Salvation , are more favourable to Self , and are therefore the more cordially embraced by many , & more stiffly maintained . Mr. Baxter seemeth to say here , that these are different things , to say , That no part of our Righteousness is in ourselves , and that no part of our Righteousness , by which we are justified , is in ourselves , where with the Orthodox , these are but different expressions of the same thing ; for when they deny a Righteousness within ourselves , it is not a denying of begun Holiness & Sanctification ; but a denying of a Righteousness as the ground of justification , for all this they acknowledge to be wholly & only in Christ , the Lord our Righteousness . And to adjoine to this , the Question about the honour of a good Action , as whether that should be wholly ascribed to God , or one part of a Thousand may not be ascribed to ourselves ; is neither very savourie in itself , nor pertinent to the clearing of the other . But what answereth Mr. Baxter ? This ( saith he ) well explained may be made sound : But thus grosly delivered , it is but a popular cheat , under the taking Pretence of self abasement & giving Christ all . Ans. I should readily feare , that Mr. Baxter's explication should be so far from making the expressions sounder than they are , that it should rather prove a Commentary corrupting the text , seing I finde him thus dissatisfied with expressions so consonant to the straine of the Gospel , to the holy genius of all savingly illuminated , and to the very language of the Saints , in Scripture . But as to his Consure , calling this no less than a popular cheat , it is sharpe , and , more befitting , in my judgment , a Papist , or a Non-Christian Socinian , than Mr. Baxter . Yet let us hear the ground of this so sharp & so unseemly censure . The Devil ( saith he ) is as willing as any one , that you should have nothing honourable or praiseworthie in you ; & be as vile , as he can make you . Ans. If it would not be displeasing , I would say , that this answere is a plaine cheat : for the question is not , whether we should have any thing in us , truely honourable & praise worthie , or whether we should be as vile , as the devil would make us ; No protestant ever spoke so ; But the question is . Whether for any thing in us truely honourable & praise worthie , we should Sacrifice to our own net , & burne incense to our own drag ; or give the glory unto God , who worketh all our works in us ; and worketh in us both to will , & to do Esai . 26 : 12. Phil. 2 : 13. The question is not , whether we should have good in us , or not ? but whether we should not say , with Paul 1. Cor. 4 : 4. Even when we know nothing by ourselves , yet are we not hereby justified ? and whether we should not say with him Phil , 3 : 8 , 9. that we count all things but loss , for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus , our Lord , & count them dung , that we may win Christ , & be found in him , not having our own Righteousness , which is of the Law , but that which is through the Faith of Christ , the Righteousness which is of God by Faith. The question is not , whether Christ be made Sanctification to us ; but whether that Sanctification , be any part of that Righteousness , which Christ is made of God to be unto us ? What more ? He addeth . It is God , who honoureth these , that honour him , & praiseth his Saints , as the excellent on the Earth , & his Jewels & peculiar Treasure , adorneth with his own lovely image , & partakers of the divine Nature , and members of Christ , as his own flesh . And it is Satan & wicked men that vilifie & dishonour them . Ans. This is but a Continuance of the same cheat : for it is no part of the question , whether the Saints should be vilified , or honoured ? But the question is , whether the Saints should rob God of his glory , and ascribe that unto themselves , which is due unto him , be it in less , or in more ? We know , the Saints are God's excellent ones , his Jewels & his peculiar treasure ; but all this is through the free underserved grace of God , making them beautiful & lovely with his own graces , and partakers of his divine Nature : And therefore we say , that for all that they ought to be humble , knowing what their birth & ●ativity was , and whence all this is come ; and who ought to have the glory of all this ; and notwithstanding of this , what is the sole ground of their justification before God , and what is that Righteousness , upon the account whereof they are justified in the sight of God. And I have oft lamented it ( saith he furder ) that these very men , that hold this kind of doctrine of self-abosement , as having no part of Righteousness , nor share at all in any good work , are yet too oft so proudly conceited of their own goodness ( even for holding , that they have none for which they are praise worthie ) as that their pride is no small trouble to the Churches & all about them . Ans. I shall not plead for pride , or proud conceits in any : but whether such as lay down doctrinal grounds of pride , and teach men to be proud , or such as lay down contrary grounds , but do not practise accordingly , be most blame worthie ; I leave Mr. Baxter to judge . One thing I would ask : How Mr. Baxter came to know , that such , as he opposeth here , were proudly conceited of their own goodness ? Pride & a proud conceit lyeth most within , & is not obvious to the view of every one , especially being upon such a ground . I hope Mr. Baxter will not take upon him to judge of hearts : And if it be by their contendings for that , which they conceive to be truth : If this be an infallible mark , no man can be judged more proud , than is Mr. Baxter , none having in this matter contended by so many & so great volumnes , as he hath , since his Aphorismes come abroad , & that indeed to the no small trouble of the Churches . And further , some might think , that if Mr. Baxter did aright lament , that any were proudly conceited of their own goodness , he should not have laid doctrinal grounds for fomenting of this pride ; nor moved such an objection against himself , as he doth here ; for no man can rightly lament at the practice of that doctrine , which himself embraceth & teacheth . He proceedeth ( ● . 177. ) Whatever is of God is good : & whatever is good is la●dable or praise-worthie , & meriteth to be esteemed as it is . Ans. True , & therefore God , who is the Author thereof , should have the glory , & it should be esteemed , as it is , to the glory of God , & not to puff us up with proud conceits , or to be the ground we leane to , in order to be justified & accepted of God. He addeth ( n. 178. ) All the Sanctified are inherently righteous , but with an imperfect Righteousness , which will no further justifie them in judgment , save only against this Accusation , that they are unholy . Ans. Mr. Baxter then is much to blame , who will have this Imperfect Righteousness to be a perfect Righteousness , as being our Gospel Righteousness , and the Po●estative condition of our Justification & absolution at judgment , and so the immediat & sole formal ground of our Justification before God. But this answere is also impertinent ; for these he here writteth against , speak not of a particular justification , from this or that false Accusation ; but of that justification before God , whereof Paul treateth , in his Epistles to the Romans & Galatians , & which is a justification of the ungodly . Rom. 4 : 5. He addeth ( n. 179. ) There is no Righteousness , which will not justifie him , that hath it in tantum , so far as he is Righteous : for the contrary is a contradiction : for to be just , is to be justifiable . Ans. This is sick of the same impertinency with what went before : for the question is not concerning a particular Righteousness , & a particular justification , upon that account ; but of a general justification , as to our state & that from the just accusation of Law & justice , under which we stand by Nature , in reference to which , all our inherent Righteo●sness , how great so ever it be , is no ground , nor part of the merite , or formalis ratio of that . Paul had no small share of this Righteousness , when he said , he knew nothing by himself : And yet he addeth ▪ Yet am I not hereby justified 1. Cor. 4 : 4. and we would say the same , & speak after this manner , if Mr. Baxter would suffer us . Next ( n. 181. for 180. ) he saith . All the Righteousness , which formally justifieth us , is our own , or on ourselves , where it justifieth us : for to be made just or justified , in the first sense constitutivly , is nothing else , but to be made such , as are personally themselves just . Pardon of sin is made our own , Right to Christ & glory is made our own ; though Christ's Righteousness was the only meritorious cause of all this ; which therefore is & may be called our Material Righteousness , as that , which meriteth it , is the matter . Ans. There seemeth to be nothing here , but confusion : for ( 1 ) he speaketh ambiguously , when he saith , that all that Righteousness , which formally justifieth us , is our own , or on ourselves ; for this may be true , whether by that Righteousness , he mean the Surety-Righteousness of Christ ( which he doth not meane , for he is too much against the imputation of that , as we have seen ) beeause we say , that is made ours by imputation , in order to our justification upon the account thereof : or whether he mean our own inherent Righteousness ; but then if this be his meaning , it is false , that we are hereby formally justified , unless he mean , as before , only a particular justification , which is nothing to the point , as was said . ( 2 ) To be made just & to be justified , are not formally the same , but to such only , who Love confusion . ( 3 ) He who is made just , is but constituted justifiable , & is not eo ipso constitutive justified : But Mr. Baxter loveth his own Expressions & Explications of them . ( 4 ) When he saith that to be justified constitutively is nothing else but to be made such , as are personally themselves just , he speaketh very indistinctly ; not only as confounding , being made just & being justified , as if they were formally the same ; but also as not giving us to understand , what he meaneth by these words personally th●mselves just : Hereby he would seem to say , that only by something inherent in our persons , we are constituted Righteous , & are justified ; and not by any thing imputed to us : And if so , the ground of all Anti-evangelick boasting & glorying in ourselves is laid . ( 5 ) Pardon of sin , as such , is neither a making a just , nor a justifying : and the same we say of Right to Christ & to Glory . ( 6 ) Christ's Righteousness , according to Mr. Baxter , can not be called the meritorious cause of our pardon , justification , & Right to Glory &c. because it is only made by him the meritorious cause of the New Covenant , wherein pardon , Right to Christ & to Glory are promised upon New Conditions , & so is made the meritorious Cause of the connection betwixt the performance of these New Conditions , & the obtaining of Pardon & that Right ; so that by vertue of Christ's Merites , these New Conditions are made the proper & immediat meritorious cause ex pacto of these favours : And by this way , Man can not but boast & glory in himself immediatly , and give Christ only some remote far-off thanks , for procuring the New termes . ( 7 ) Christ's Righteousness cannot be called our Material Righteousness , any other way , than as it hath purchased the New Covenant , according to Mr. Baxter ; & this being equally for all , Christ's Righteousness shall be the Material Righteousness of the Reprobat , as well as of Beleevers : And how can that be called ours , which is not ours , nor our own , nor are we by it made personally just ourselves ? as he spoke before ( 8 ) According to this doctrine , Christ Righteousness meriteth to us another Righteousness , which is our own & on ourselves & by this we are formally justified : that is , according to what went before , & to what followeth , we are formally justified by our own personal inherent holiness ( for of this , he is speaking only ) and yet that which he here mentioneth , as the Righteousness , which formally justifieth us , is said to be pardon of sin , & a Right to Christ & to Glory , which formally is no Righteousness at all , nor no where so called in Scripture , & is but a consequent of that , which elsewhere he calleth our Gospel Righteousness , and the Condition of Justification . He goeth on ( n. 182. ) He that is no cause of any good work , is no Christian , but a damnable wretch , & worfe than any wicked man I know in the world : And he that is a cause of it , must not be denyed falsly to be a cause of it . Nor a Saint denied to be a Saint , upon a false pretence of self-denyal . Ans. Of such a cause of any good work , he knoweth the objection speaketh , that should have the glory & praise thereof ; and & of good works , as the ground & formal Cause of justification ; which these against whom Mr. Baxter here disputeth , do deny . But we may see here , what Mr. Baxter accounteth good works ; even such as the most damnable wretch , and possiblie the devil himself may do ; that is a work materially good , though far different from the good works described to us in Scripture . And thus the Justification upon good works , which Mr. Baxter here meaneth , must be a Justification , that all Heathens , damnable wretches , yea & devils themselves are capable of : But this is not the justification we speak of , of which who ever are partakers shall be glorified Rom. 8 : 30. We say nothing , that giveth him ground to think , that our thoughts are , that a Saint should be denyed to be a Saint , upon pretence of Self-denyal . Only we say that such as are Saints indeed will be loth to rob God of his glory , or take any of that to themselves , which is due to him alone , in so far as they act as Saints ; And they should not , because Saints , glory & boast , as if their justification before God , were by their Sanctity & good works ; & not of meer grace , through the imputation of the Surety-Righteousness of Christ. One thing I would ask . Doth Mr. Baxter think , that Christ's Righteousness hath merited that justification , which those damnable wretches & devils may partake of , by any good work , which they do ? himself told us in the foregoing ( n. 81. ) that all Righteousnuss which formally iustifieth , is our own , & that to be made just & to be justified are the same , or equipollent ; and to be Justified constitutively is nothing else , then to be made such as are personally themselves just . Now , when devils & damnable wretches may be the causes of some good work , that good work cannot but formally justifie them , and they thereby become constitutively justified , I would enquire , whether this Justification be purchased by Christ or not ? And againe I would enquire , whether this Justification be accompanied with pardon of sin , & with Right to Christ & to glory , or not ? If not , how can it be called a justification ? & if it be not a justification , how can they be hereby formally justified , & constitutively justified ? He tels us next ( n. 183 ) As God is seen here in the glass of his works , so he is to be loved & praised , as so appearing . This is , say I , good & reasonable . What then ? Therefore ( saith he , he that dishonoureth his work , dishonoureth God , & hindereth his due love and praise . This consequence , I grant , is good ; but what is it to the point in hand ? And his most lovely & honourable work ( saith he ) on earth is his holy image on his Saints ; & as Christ will come to be admired & glorified in them at last , so God must be seen & glorified in them here in some degree ▪ Neither , say I , is any thing of this to the purpose in hand . He addeth . And to deny the glory of his image is the malignants way of injuring him , & that in which the worst will serve you . And what then ? He that will praise God ( saith he further ) as Creator & Redeemer must praise his works , of Creation & Redemption : And is it the way of praising him , as our Sanctifier , to dispraise his work of Sanctification ? Ans. What maketh all this to the purpose ? Must all such be guilty of this malignant wickedness , who tell men , that no part of their Righteousness is in themselves , by which they are to be justified , but that it is all in Christ only : or that say , that God must have all the glory of what good action they do ? This is hard , that either we must be wicked Malignants , or Sacrilegious robbers of God of the Glory , due unto him , But I see no connexion , and Mr. Baxter hath not yet demonstrated the same . He must then prove the Consequence of this argueing . He addeth ( n. 184. ) Those poor sinners of my acquantance , who lived in the grossest sins against Conscience ( as Drunkeness , & horedome &c. ) have been glad enough of such doctrine , & forward enough to beleeve , that there is nothing in man , that in any part can justifie him , or that is any part of Righteousness , but it is all out of us in Christ , & therefore they are as justifiable , as any . But Conscience will not let them beleeve it , as they desire , Ans. To this cannot answere , not knowing , nor having acquaintance with those poor sinners ; Yet this I may say , ( & others will say the same with me ) that Mr. Baxter's way is that , which I finde more relishing unto carnal Souls , than the self denying way of the Gospel , which we use to preach : And that the way , which Mr. Baxter is not satisfied with , is the way , that is most pleasant & acceptable unto the truely gracious , and rightly exercised Souls . But surder , what of all this ? Knoweth not Mr. Baxter that some can turn the grace of God into lasciviousness ? Must therefore the mountains be removed for them ? He saith Moreover ( n. 185. ) It is arrogant folly to divide tho praise of any good act between God & man , & to say God is to have so many parts & man so many : for the whole is due to God ; & yet some is due to man : for man holdeth his honour only in Subordination to God , & not dividedly in Co-ordination . And therefore all is due to God : for that which is Mans is God's ; because we have nothing ; but what we have received . But he that arrogateth any of the honour due to God or Christ , ●ffendeth . Ans. If it be thus , Mr. Baxter is the more to blame , in being dissatisfied with such , as are but expressing their care , that God have all his due , and that man do not proudly arrogat to himself any of that honour & glory , which is due to God alone : And if Mr. Baxter knoweth not , that there is a strong propension in corrupt nature , to spoil God of his glory , he knoweth nothing : And wo to such , as would indulge nature in this Sacrilege . Them that honour God , He will honour . What honour is justly due unto man , in subordination unto God , none of those , I suppose , whom Mr. Baxter here opposeth , will grudge him of ; but all their care is , to have God's due keeped for himself , & that is all ; & it is not commendable in any , to oppose them in this . But next he saith ( n. 186. ) If all had been taken from God's honour , which had been given to the creature , God would have made nothing , or made nothing good ; heaven & earth & all the world would derogate from his honour ; and none of his works should be praised . And the better any man is , the more he would dishonour God , & the wickeder the less . But he made all good , and is glorious in the glory , & honourable in the honour of all : & to justifie the holiness of his servants , is to justifie him . Ans. All this is little or nothing to the purpose : for such as are carefull that man rob not God of his glory , do not deny the honour due to the creature , knowing that when honour is given to the creature , upon a right ground , and in the right manner , it redounded unto the honour of the Creator : But who knoweth not , how ready the Creature is to steal into the throne of God ; and how ready men are to transcend● , and transgress all due limites ? And is it not saifest to keep far from such a dangerous precipice ? Is it to edification thus to gratifie with our pleadings proud Nature , and to blow at this fire of corruption , that the Saints have dailyhard work about to suppress & exstinguish ? Must we thus , on so small occasions , plead so stoutly for man , & pretend to plead for God too ? He addeth next ( n. 187. ) If these Teachers mean , that no man hath any power freely to specifie the acts of his own will by any other help of God , besides necessitating predetermining premotion ; & so that every man doth all that he can do , & no man can do more than he doth ; They di honoure God by denying him to be the Creator of that f●ee power , which is essential to man , & which God himself accounteth it his honour to creat . And they feigne God to damne & blame all , that are damned & blamed , for as great impossibilities , as if they were damned & blamed for not making a world , or for not being Angels . Ans. This is not a fit place to treate of that Question of Predetermination , though Mr. Baxter pull it in here by the eares ; It is enough for us , that we see now , whither all that Mr. Baxter hath here been saying , tendeth , even to give unto Man , the glory of all the good he doth , of his Faith , Repentance , Love of God , obedience & perseverance , in the first , chiefe & immediat ●●ace ; for by his own Natural Power he did freely specifie the acts of his own will , and so beleeved , when he might have rejected the Gospel , Loved God & Christ , when he might have hated both , Repented , when he might have remained impenitent , Converted himself , when he might have remained in his former state ( & Mr. Baxter maketh no difference of acts here , and so his words must be looked on as meaned of supernatural acts , as well as of Natural ) & that without any predetermining grace or motion of God. This glory shall we never yeeld to be due unto man , Let Mr. Baxter load the Doctrine of Predetermining grace , with all the reproaches , and absurdities , he can invent . He needs not think now to restrick his opinion of denying Predetermination unto natural acts , for as the good spoken of by those he here opposeth , is supernatural good , as such ; so his discourse here is expressive enough of this : And thus the cause is yeelded unto Pelagians , Iesuits & Arminians , and the crown is put upon the head of man , and he is to honour & praise himself for what good he doth , for all began at his own self-determining power & will ; and the Almighty himself could not have bowed & predetermined his will , except he had overturned the course of Nature , & destroyed that free power , which is essential to man. And thus it is made to be to the honour of God , to creat a Creature , that is absolute Lord & Master of all his own actions , & so must be the first Cause of his own actions , as to their specifick moral nature , & what is this , but to make man an independent Creature , as to his actions , & consequently a God to himself : Mr. Baxter hinteth some other help of God besides Predetermination ; but what that is , he telleth us not ; is it his Concourse ? From this the same inconveniences will flow , that flow from Predetermination . And beside Mr. Baxter seemeth to incline more to Durandus's his opinion , & A dola's , which even the Jesuites are ashamed to owne , and his friend D. Strang doth directly confute ; as loving to set man yet higher up , than they dar do . Doth Mr. Baxter think that it is essential to man to have such a free power , as that of himself he can specifie the acts of his own will , without any predetermining Motion of God ? Can he then beleeve in Christ. Hope savingly in God , yeeld Christian Obedience to all the commands of God , without God's Predetermining motion upon his heart ? And is that Common General influx , whereby he is preserved in his being , & his faculties & power not taken away , enough to make a man turn from Nature unto Grace , if he will be so good natured as to bow his own will , & determine himself , as he may ? Why do we then condemne the Pelagians ? What did or could Pelagius say more ? But enough of this here . In the following , Paragraph ( n. 188. ) He tels us , that some men teach , that Christ strippeth a Christian of two things , his Sins , & his Righteousness . Or that two Things must be cast away for Christ , Sins & Righteousness . And he is not satisfied with such speeches , though they be consonant to , yea upon the matter , the very same with the speeches of Paul Phil. 3 : 8 , 9. He faith they should speak better , if they would not deceive . And why saith he not so of the Apostle Paul also ? May it serve him , that we speak , as Paul did ? Nothing ( saith he ) is to be cast away , as evil , but sin . True ; and yet the Apostle desired to be found in Christ , not having his own Righteousness ; & what was a Righteousness in his eyes before ; and was a Righteousness , which is in the Law , and wherein he was blameless , he now accounted loss for Christ , yea he accounted them but dung ; which includeth a rejecting & casting of it away with detestation . He addeth , Righteousness truely such is good , & never to be cast away . If it be no Righteousn●ss , why do they falsly say , that we must cast away our Righteousness ? Ans. Let the Apostle Paul answere this , whom it concerneth as much , as us : And let Mr. Baxter in soberness consider how this reflecteth upon the Spirit of the Lord , inspiring the Apostle to speak so . As for us , we are not very anxious in this matter , but can freely tell Mr. Baxter , that though our personal Righteousness be good ; Yet in the matter of justification before God , and absolution from the condemnatory sentence of the Law , & adjudication to life , we must lay it aside , and betake ourselves solely to the Righteousness of Christ , and seek to be found in him alone , after the example of the Apostle , & according to the clear doctrine of the Gospel ; And this we are resolved to do , how displeased soever Mr. Baxter be with us upon that account . He addeth . To cast away a false conceit of Righteousness , is not to cast away Righteousness , but Sin only ; indeed beside sin , we are said justly to cast away that , which would be the object & matter of sin : And the phrase is fitlier applied to a thing Indifferent ; than to a thing necessary , lest it seduce . Ans. To account our Righteousness , consisting in our obedience to the Law , to be dung , as Paul did , in the business of justification , is all we plaid for , let Mr. Baxter call it a casting away of a false conceite of Righteousness , if that will satisfie him , but even in this we cast away our Righteousness , when we will not trust to it , as our Righteousness , in order to justification ; or as that Righteousness , upon the account of which we expect to be justified in the sight of God. And if Mr. Baxter be afraid of Seducing here , he may know where we ground our expressions : I suppose Paul was far from seducing , when he spoke , as he did Phil. 3 : 8 , 9. There is nothing so good ( saith he ) which may not be made the object of sin ; not Christ , or his Righteousness , or God himself excepted ; But we must not thus objectivly abuse them . Ans. And what is all this to the purpose ? Doth he think that those teachers , he here opposeth , were enemies to holiness ; or would have men laying aside all thoughts of it , and care about it when they spoke so ? He may as well inferre such things from the Apostles speaches . But what is meaned secundum quid , should not be understood as spoken simpliciter . His reasoning here then is impertinent , as also is that which followeth , when he saith . So holiness & true Righteousness ( inherent or imputed ) may be objects of sinful pride & boasting ; But it is not edifying doctrine therefore to say , that we must cast away inherent & imputed Righteousness . For we plead not for casting away every thing that may be abused , but for casting away our own Righteousness , in the matter of justification , that impured Righteousness may only take place . But how imputed Righteousness can be the object of sinful pride & boasting , he would do well to teach us ; that Inherent Righteousuess may be so , we know ; and to plead for justification upon that account , is to lay the foundation of sinful pride & boasting , as the Scriptures teach us . He addeth . But yet true self deny●l requireth that we deny our Righteousness ( inherent or Imputed ) to be that which indeed it is not . Ans. And therefore we deny , that our inherent Righteousness is the ground , or formalis ratio objectiva of our justification : But what way Self-denyal teacheth us to deny our imputed Righteousness to be what it is not , he must be pleased to informe us ; and to speak thus alike of both our inherent & imputed Righteousness , is not very faire ; as if there were no difference . Further he tels us . And so when men accounted the jewish observations to be a justifying Righteousness , in competition with , & in opposition to Christ , Paul counteth it as loss & dung , & nothing in that respect : when yet elsewhere he saith , I have lived in all good conscience to this day : And Christ himself fulfilled that Law & Righteousness . Ans. What meaneth Mr. Baxter by these jewish observations ? Meaneth he nothing but their observance of the Ceremonial Law ? But did Paul meane nothing but his consciencious observance of this Law , when he said , I have lived in all good conscience to this day ? And did he mean nothing else , by that Righteousness , which he counted loss & dung . Phil. 3 ? The Apostle himself distinguisheth betwixt the Law , touching which he was a Pharisee ; and that Law touching the Righteousness whereof , he had been blameless : And sure before the writting of this Epistle , he had preached down the observation of the Ceremonial Law , and was far from the observation thereof , & yet now , he accounted that same Righteousness , which formerly was gaine to him , now to be loss & dung , so that this could not be , his Ceremonial Observances ; for it had been a small demonstration of his excessive desire to win Christ , to count tha●loss now , which he had before comdemned as unnecessary . Yea as unlawfull , & had laid aside , as such . So that he meaneth all that , which could be called his own Righteousness , & which is of the Law , and was not that Righteousness , which is through the Faith of Christ , and of God by Faith. And it is also observable , that the Apostle useth a very comprehensive terme beside , saying , And I count all things but losse &c. Moreover , th● jewish observances , while that Law stood in force , were useful & good , & a Righteousness , as well as the observation of the moral Law , to which they were also reducible , being enjoined by vertue of the Second Command . And if these observances could be brought ( through mens corruption , ) in competition , with & set in opposition to Christ , and therefore were justly accounted as loss & dung & nothing , in that respect : why ought not also moral observances be ●o accounted , seing they through mans corruption , can be & are too oft brought in competition with , & set in opposition against Christ , & his Righteousness ? If Mr. Baxter will yeeld to this , he needs disput no more at this rate . He addeth . So if a man will conceit , that his common grace will justifie without holiness ; or his holiness without pardon , & the Righteousness of Christ , he must deny this Righteousness ; that is , he must deny it to be what it is not , & must cast away ( not it , but ) the false conc●its of it . Ans. We think them in an errour , who conceit , that either common grace will justifie without holiness , or holiness with or without pardon & the Righteousness of Christ : and it is not proper for him , who will not hear others saying , that Faith justifieth , to say , that holiness justifieth . And it is as improper to say , that pardon justifieth : Let him tell me , how holiness with pardon can justifie ? And as for the Righteousness of Christ , all men ( with Mr. Baxter ) are justified by it alike , for it only purchased the New Covenant , and that it did to all alike , and is no other way imputed unto any whatsomever . And so , according to his judgment it must be denied , that Christ's Righteousness becometh the beleevers through God's imputation , & that beleevers are there with clothed , and thereupon made juridically Righteous , and then justified , or pronunced Righteous , through that imputed Surety Righteousness of Christ : this is the self-denyal that Mr. Baxter will teach us ; and stead of this Surety-Righteousness of Christ , we must be clothed ( according to him ) with our own Gospel Righteousness , Faith & New Obedience , and upon that ground , as the only neerest formal reason ; or meritorious cause , expect to be justified ; because Christ's Righteousness hath purchased this Covenant , and connexion . Mr. Baxter must not be offended , that I mention the word Merite here , remembering what he saith himself ( n. 194. ) where his friendliness to Papists , & his displeasure at Protestants is so remarkable , in these words . [ And those that reject the saying of some Papists , who in this sence say , that Christ merited that we might merite , placing our Evangelical merite in a meer subordination to Christ's , do but shew , what prejudice & partiality can do , and harden those , who perceive their errors . ] Finally he saith here . And so if any Libertine will say , that Christ's Righteousness imputed to him , will justifie him without Faith , or be in stead to holiness to him , he must deny imputed Righteousness thus to be , what indeed it is not . Ans. Though I know , the Lord hath thought good to ordaine Faith , as a mean , whereby we may be made partaker of Christ's Surety-Righteousness , and so be justified ; Yet I may say , that Christ's Righteousness imputed , as being the sole meritorious cause & Ratie formali● objectiva of our justification , will justifie without Faith , as any part of that Righteousness , which we are considered as clothed with , when declared & pronunced Righteous . And though it be not in stead of holiness , as if holiness were no more required of us ; Yet it is & must be in stead of that holiness & Righteousness , which was required of us in the Old Covenant & by the Law , in order to our being accepted & justified thereupon . He tels us in the margine , that none deny . That all that are saved have inherent Righteousness ; and that in tantum we are Righteous by it ; That a man accused , as being an Insidel , Atheist , Impenitent , Ungodly , a Hypocrite &c. must be justified by pleading all the contraries in himself ; or else perish ; And that this inherent Righteousness is imperfect , and in us found with sin , & that therefore no man can be justified by it without pardon of sin , nor at all against the charge of being a sinner , & condemnable by the Law of innocency . But what is all this to the point ? Must we not therefore say with Paul , that in the business of justification , we must account our own Righteousness to be but dung , and only lean to the Righteousness of Christ ? What would he hence conclude ? And what remaineth then ( saith he ) but to trouble the world with contending de nomine , whether this Imperfect Righteousness , shall be called Righteousness , & the giving of it , called justifying , or making us Righteous so far . Ans. And who , I pray , more guilty of troubling the world with these contendings , than he ? But to the matter , it is no meer contending de nomine , that he hath caused , when in stead of the Surety-Righteousness of Christ , with which the Orthodox Asserted beleevers to be clothed , as the immediat ground of their justification before God , and which they by Faith were to lean to , and rest upon in order to justification , he substituteth , in its place , our imperfect holiness , & maketh that to merite justification & Salvation , as a subordinat Righteousness ( so called , though indeed in this case the principal . ) advanced to that dignity by the merites of Christ's Righteousness ; and as all that Righteousness , which can properly be said to be ours , and to be imputed to us , as the only Potestative Condition of our Justification & Salvation , according to the New Covenant , purchased by Christ. This is something more , and a great something more , than a meer contest about a word , or a name . This toucheth the foundation of the Gospel , let Mr. Baxter think as little of it , as he will. I need not take notice of his making these two one thing , justifying & making us Righteous , and of his calling the giving of Righteousness or holiness a justifying of us , for this is but sutable to him , who would confound all . This is all he speaketh to this matter in this place : But thereafter Sect. 5. of merite ( n. 196. ) he tels us , It is a great question , whether a man may trust to his own Faith , Repentance or Holiness . And I should think , that no orthodox man should once make a question about it ; but should reject the very insinuation of such a thing with detestation : seing Trusting to these things is the native consequent of the Popish , Socinian & Arminian errour about justification ; or of all , who speak of the Imputation of Faith &c. as our Righteousness , in stead of the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. What answere giveth he ? But some men ( saith he ) will trouble the world with unexplained words , where no sober men differ . Ans. The words are plaine enough , and need no explication , & every ordinary Christian understand their meaning ; but against such , as will seek knots in rushes , and raise dust in the most clear aire , for their own ends , there is no remedie . I am afraied the point of difference shall be found such here , as that our agreement shall not be expected in ●haste , unless our sobriety be such , as well make us embrace inconsistences . Let us hear what he saith . No wise man can dream , that we may trust to those for more than their proper part , as that we may trust them to do anything proper to God , to Christ , to the Spirit , to the promise &c. And to use the phrase of Trusting to our own Faith , or holiness , when it soundeth absolutly , or may tempt the hearers to think , that they may trust them for God's part , or Christ's part , & not only for their own , is a dangerous deceiving course . Ans. It is true , no wise man will say , that we may trust to these for more than their proper part , but when we are mistaken about their proper part , & conceive them to have that place & part , which they have not , and accordingly trust unto them , do we not amisse ? And Mr. Baxter maketh it their part to be the immediat meritorious cause expacto ( which he otherwayes expresseth to be the Potestative Condition ) of Justification & Salvation : which we say is the part of Christ & his Righteousness alone : And sure , who ever shall trust unto them for this part , which according to the Gospel is Christ's part , trust unto them for more than their proper part . Neither is it any dangerous or deceiving course , to speak thus , when the meaning is obviously known ( except to such as have wit enough to darken things ) to be this , that we must not Trust to Faith &c. as the price , the merite , ex pacto ( as perfect obedience was under the first Covenant ) of our Justification , Adoption , & Salvation . But it is a most dangerous & deceiving course to call them only Conditions , or cause fine quibus non , when in the meane time , they are made to have the same place in the New Covenant , that perfect obedience had in the old ; & are made our Gospel-Righteousness , for which we are justified , yea & put in the same place , that the Orthodox put Christ & his Surety - Righteousness , that is , to be the immediat ground , formal cause , Ratio formalis objectiva of our Justification . What more ? But that really they may be trusted , for their own part , and must be so , no sober person will deny : for so to beleeve , obey , pray to God &c. & not to trust to them in their place , that is not to think , that we shall be ever the better for them , is unbeleefe & indeed distrusting God , & saying , it is in vain to seeke him , and what profite is it that we call upon him & such diffidence & despair will end all endeavours . Let every man prove his own work &c. This is our Rejoicing &c. If we are justified by Faith , we may trust to be justified by it . But the rare use of such a phrase in Scripture , & the danger of it , must make us never use it without need . Ans. As I said , all the question is concerning what is their own part : And by saying that they are not to be trusted unto , we deny them to have that part , or place in the matter of our Justification & Salvation , that others give unto them : And if there were no more , this is a shreud ground of presumption to us , that Mr. Baxter , owneth not the Orthodox doctrine in this matter , viz. That he cannot with patience heare it said , That we must not trust to our own Faith , Repentance or Holiness , but accounteth such expressions dangerous , aud deceiving . ( 2 ) It is but a wrong gloss put upon this expression , We must not trust to our own Faith &c. to make the meaning of it to be , we must not think , that we shall be ever the better for our Faith. &c. And therefore his following words are vaine , and to no purpose . ( 3 ) It is one thing to trust to be justified by Faith , which is but beleeve God , and trust in his word ; and a far other , to trust in our Faith ; For this is to lay our stress , & lean our weight , & found our hopes of Justification & Salvation on our weak & feckless Faith , in stead of trusting to , & relying upon Jesus Christ & his Surety Righteousness , as the only immediat ground , & as that Righteousness by & upon consideration of which , we are justified , & have a Right to Glory : And if Mr. Baxter do not see a difference betwixt these two , it is not because he cannot , but because he will not , as some may suppose . ( 4 ) He talks of the rare use of such a phrase in Scripture ; but I would know , where he findeth it used at all iu Scripture ? And it is well , that he confesseth there is danger in it : which two , me thinks , should be enough to make him , as great an enemie to this expression , as we are : But the truth is , according to his principles , we are as much now to Trust to our Faith Repentance & Holiness , in order to Justification & Salvation , as Adam was to trust to his perfect obedience , according to the Covenant of works ; & as much , as , according to our doctrine , we are to trust to Christ & his Surety-Righteousness . CHAP. IV. The Law , by the works whereof Paul denyeth that we are justified , is not the jewish Law. WE finde the Apostle Paul directly & pro●essedly proving & concluding , that we are not justified by the Law , nor by the works of the Law : Yet such as differ from us , about the interest of works , in justification , not being willing to yeeld & submit unto the truth , do seek what Evasions they can , to evite the force of the Apostles a gueings & peremptour Conclusions ; and therefore say , that Paul is to be understood , as speaking only of such , or such a Law ; & excludeth only such & such works , in which they think they may yeeld unto , what the Apostle saith , the same being limited & restricted , according to their own minde , and yet do no prejudice to their own Hypothesis : But yet what this Law in particular is , and what are the works thereof , our Adversaries are not at all agreed among themselves ; but some imagine one thing , and some another , as we shall heare . Some by the Law , and the works thereof , which Paul excludeth from justification , do mean the Ceremonial Law , and the Observances thereof ; or as others express it , the Iewish Law , including their judaical Law , & so understanding hereby all that Law , which is called Moses's Law : this is owned by some Papist's , as Bellarmine sheweth us . De justif . Lib. 1. Cap. 19. but he himself rejecteth it , upon this ground , that the Apostle Rom. 4. Ephes. 2. Tit. 3. doth simply exclude works , making no mention of the Law of Moses : The Socinians do chuse this way of interpreting the Apostle , as perticularly may be seen in the Author of a book , in●●●●led Consensus Pauli & Iacobi &c. printed . An. 1620. But this opinion doth not correspond with truth , as may be manifest from these particulars . 1. If Paul disput only against Justification by Ceremonial Observances , he had a far shorter cut , to confute that conceite , than the way he took , to wit , to tell them : that shortly that Law , with all its observances , was to be laid aside & no more to be observed , by vertue of the Gospel Administration , & because the end of all these observances , & He , who was typified thereby , was come , and had put an end to that dispensation . But we finde not the Apostle making any use of this One & Onely Argument , which had sured that purpose ; but on the contrary he useth such Mediums & Arguments , as suite no less , if not more , other Lawes , beside the Ceremonial . 2. Yea before the writting of these Epistles , wherein the Apostle did disput against Justification by the Law , at least , before he wrote that to the Galatians , he had by his preaching & practice , opposed the observation of the Ceremonial Law , as himself telleth us Gal. 2. And in that same Epistle Chap. 3. & 4. he condemneth the observation of that Law , in most peremptory termes , as being no less , than a falling from grace : And yet when he is treating of Justification not by the works of the Law Chap. 3. he mentioneth not this ground , which would have taken away the very subject of the debate . Shall we think , that the Apostle would have disproved Justification , only by the works of the Ceremonial Law by such Arguments and Tipicks , out of Scripture , when he was within a little by forcible reasons to remove the very Law itself , and condemne all observation thereof ? 3. It is strange , that Paul in writting to the Gentils , should deny Justification to be by the works of the Law , meaning the Ceremonial Law only ; and Iames writting to the Jewes , should cry up the observation of that Law , and plead for justification thereby : This would say , that Jewes & Gentiles were not both to be justified one way : or that Iames & Paul do clearly contradict other ; neither of which must be said . That Iames speaketh of another Law , than Paul speaketh of , cannot be made good . And therefore when our Adversaries will prove from Iames , that we are justified by works , their meaning is , that we are justified by the Observation of the Ceremonial Law. 4. The several things mentioned of this Law , whereof the Apostle speaketh , sheweth , that he is not speaking of the Ceremonial Law only : as ( 1 ) Rom. 3 : 19. It is a Law that stoppeth all mouthes , & whereby all the world becometh guilty before God : But this is not the Ceremonial Law , or the jewish , or Moses Law , under which the Gentiles were not , nor yet are . ( 2 ) Rom. 3 : 20. It is that Law , by which is the knowledge of sin : but this is not by the meer Ceremonial Law , as we see Paul himself professing Rom. 7 : 7 ( 3 ) Rom. 2 : 13. It is that Law , the döers whereof shall be justified : But this can not be asserted of the meer Ceremonial Law , or of Moses's Law. ( 4 ) Rom. 3 : 27. It is that Law , which doth not exclude boasting : but it cannot be said , that the Law of Moses is only that Law. ( 5 ) Rom. 3 : 31. It is that Law , that is not made void , through Faith. But this is not the Ceremonial Law ; The Ceremonial Law is not established by Faith. ( 6 ) Rom. 3 : 28. It is that Law , justification by which is inconsistent with & opposit to justification by Faith : but this is not the Ceremonial Law only . ( 7 ) Rom. 4 : 1 , 2. It is that Law , by the works whereof Abraham , was not justified . But the Apostles argument from the Instance of Abraham had not been pertinent , if no Law had here been understood , but Moses's Law ; which was not in being in Abraham's dayes . ( 8 ) Rom. 4 : 2. It is that Law , & works of obedience to it , that would give ground to man of glorying : But this is not true only of the Ceremonial Law. ( 9 ) Rom. 4 : 4. It is that Law , obedience to which is a working , and maketh the reward of debt : But this cannot be said only of the Ceremonial Law. ( 10 ) Rom. 4 : 15. It is that Law that worketh wrath : But other Lawes do this , than the Ceremonial Law , ( 11 ) Rom. 8 : 3 , 4. It is that Law , that was weak through the flesh , and the Righteousness of which was to be fulfilled in us : but this cannot be applied to the Ceremonial Law only . ( 12 ) Gal. 3 : 10. It is that Law● , of the works of which as many as are , are under the Curse , and of which it is said , cursed is every one , that continueth not in all things , which are written in the Law to do them . But this agreeth not to the Ceremonial Law only . ( 13 ) Gal. 3 : 12. It is that Law , by the doing of which , man should live : But by perfect obedience to the Law of Moses alone life was not to be had . ( 14 ) It is that Law , that cursed all transgressours , & under the Curse whereof all thoselay , for whom Christ died . Gal. 3 : 13. But that is not the Ceremonial Law , which laid no Curse upon the Gentiles . ( 15 ) Ephes. 2 : 9 ▪ 10. It is that Law , that enjoineth those good works , which God hath before ordained , that we ( even Gentiles ) should walk in them : But that is not the Ceremonial Law. ( 16. It is that Law , the works whereof are inconsistent with grace , as the ground of Election : Rom. 11 : 6. But this is not Ceremonial Law only , else we must say , that Election is for works of the Moral Law , and yet is for grace . ( 17 ) Phil. 3 : 9. It is that Law , obedience to which can be called our Righteousness : But this is not the Ceremonial Law only . 5. If Paul's minde had been only to disput against Justification by Mosaical Observances ; after he had stated the question , and proposed the Truth , he was minded to confirme Rom. 1 : 17. to what purpose did he insist so much , to shew , how guilty the Gentiles were , who were never under Moses's precepts , and thereby clear , what need they had of a justification by free grace through faith without the works of the Law ? This seemeth not to have a clear tendency unto the clearing of justification to be by Faith , & not by Mosaical Observances ; for what had the Gentiles to do with these ? 6. We finde like wise the Apostle to convince the Jewes themselves to be under sin , in order to the necessity they had of being justified by faith , holding forth their breaches of the Moral Law Rom. 2 : 21 , 22. and speaketh of a Law distinct from that , to which Circumcision belonged , saying vers . 25. &c. for Circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the Law ; but if thou be a breaker of the Law , thy Circumcision is made uncircumcision : And this Law , is a Law , that he , by supposition , saith , one not circumcised , might observe , and so could not be the Law of Ceremonies . See also Rom. 3 : 9 ▪ 19. 7. The Arguments , which the Apostle adduceth to disprove justification by the Law , cannot conclude against the Ceremonial Law only : for ( 1 ) all the world are not guilty of transgressing only the Ceremonial Law : and yet because all the world are become guilty before God , the Apostle inferreth Rom. 3 : 20. Therefore by the deeds of the Law , there shall no flesh be justified . ( 2 ) So that other Argument ibid. for by the Law is the knowledge of sin , cannot conclude against the Ceremonial Law only . ( 3 ) Justifieation by the deeds of the Ceremonial Law only , repugneth not to the justification through the Righteousness of God without the Law , and which is by Faith of Jesus Christ ; and through the Redemption , that is in Christ. ( 4 ) The Law of Ceremonies alone doth not exclude boasting . ( 5 ) Abraham's works were not works of the Ceremonial Law only ( 6 ) works of the Ceremonial Law only do not exclude glorying , nor make the reward of debt & not of grace . ( 7 ) Beleeving on him , that justifieth the ungodly , is opposed as well to him that worketh according to other Lawes , as to him , that worketh according to the Ceremonial Law Rom. 4 : 5. ( 8 ) Imputed Righteousness , mentioneth Rom. 4 : 7 , 11. is as much opposite , in the matter of justification , to other observances , as to Mosaical Observances . ( 9 ) Forgiveness of sins , mentioned Rom. 4 : 7 , 8. is as inconsistent with the observation of other Lawes , as of the Ceremonial Law. ( 10 ) Justification by the Faith of Christ is as opposite to the Moral Law , as to the Ceremonial Law : And thus reasoneth the Apostle Gal. 2 : 16. ( 11 ) That Curse denounced Deut. 27 : 26. by which the Apostle proveth Gal. 3 : 10. that justification can not be by the works of the Law , is not against transgressours only of the Ceremonial Law. ( 12 ) Obedience , to the moral commands , is as little a living by faith , as was obedience to the Ceremonial Law : And by this Argument Paul proveth Gal. 3 : 11. that no man is justified by the Law , in the sight of God , because the just shall live by faith . ( 13 ) This is clear also from vers . 12. & 13. to mentione no more . And the Law is not of faith ( which holdeth not true only of the Ceremonial Law ) but the man that doth them shall live in them ( which was the Tenor of the Old Covenant Rom. 10 : 5. Levit. 18 : 5. ) Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law ( And sure this is from the Curse of other Lawes , than of the Ceremonial Law. ) 8. Though it were true , that Paul's conclusion was only against Justification by Mosaical Observances : Yet by good consequence it might hence be inferred , that there is no Justification by the works of the Moral Law. Partly because the Apostle's Mediums & Arguments are general , & , as we saw , reach further than to the Ceremonial Law : Partly because if it were not thus , all the Apostles disput should be of no use or value unto us , now the subject of that controversie being quite removed : Partly because the Ceremonial Law belonged to the first table , being God's institute worshipe , & obedience thereunto required by the Second Command : Partly because so long as that Law was not abrogated , obedience thereunto was their Gospel Righteousness , as well as obedience to other Law 's is now called our Gospel-Righteousness : And if that could not then justifie them , no more can this now justifie us . We do not by all this say , that the Ceremonial Law had no place or interest in this disput ; for the Jewes being pertinacious adherers unto this , & the false Teachers urging the observation of this , even upon the Gentile Churches , gave occasion & first rise unto this Question ; for they alleiged , there was no Justification , or Salvation without the observation hereof : But as they did not restrict the Law & the works thereof , purely unto the Mosaical Rites & Typical Ceremonies ; but urged the observation of the whole Law , which comprehended moral precepts , as well as Ceremonial Injunctions ; so the Apostle argueth against Justification by the works of the Law in general , without any particular limitation ( expressed or hinted ) unto the Ceremonial Observances . Mr. Baxter , in his Cathol . Theol. part . 2. Sect. 26. where he would tell us , how Paul & Iames agree , about justification by works ( n. 362. ) saith that , The key of understanding Paul's discourses of justification is , to know 1. That the grand question , which he first manageth , is , whether the Gentiles may not be saved , without keeping the Iewish Law , as well as the Iewes with it ? Ans. ( 1 ) But our Principal difficulty here is to understand , what Mr. Baxter meaneth by the Iewish Law ? for if he meane all that , which was prescriscribed unto the Jewes , as a Rule of their obedience , we assent ; but then the Moral Law is as much concerned here , as the Ceremonial , or judicial : And these , as such being abrogated , the disput concerneth us , as well as them , in respect of the Moral Law : But if he mean hereby , only the Law of Ceremonies , we have shown , that howbeit this might have given the first rise unto the disput , yet the disput was not wholly & purely restricted thereunto ; Nor doth the Apostle only speak to that abstracted or restricted consideration of the Law , in his pleading against a justification by the works of the Law ; as we have seen ; This he doth , when he pleadeth for the Abrogation of that Law , & against the observation of it . ( 2 ) Mr. Baxter , as it would seem , supposeth , that Paul made no question concerning the Jewes themselves , but yeelded that they were justified & saved by their Law : for the question was , saith he , whether the Gentiles might not as well be saved thereby , as the Iewes ? But where findeth he this , either asserted , or granted by the Apostle , or the Question thus stated by the Apostle ? 2. Saith he . To prove the Affirmative , he proveth , that the Jewes themselves cannot be saved or justified meerly or primarily by the Law , notwithstanding the divinity & great excellency of it ; But must be justified by a Saviour , & free given Pardon & Right to life , & to which the sincere keeping of Moses Law was intended to be but subservient . Ans. ( 1 ) Then the Question concerned the Jewes , as well as the Gentiles , & Paul did no more grant justification by the Law to the one , than to the other . ( 2 ) Where findeth Mr. Baxter these restrictions , Merely or Primarily , in all the Apostles disput ? This is not faire , to pervert the Apostles plaine peremptour , & absolute Conclusions , & restrick them to a certain limited sense , that they may the better be subservient to our designes , & our Hypotheses . Do the Apostles Mediums only serve to prove , that justification is not by the Law Meerly or Primarily ? Which of them all , I pray , hath only this force ? ( 3 ) Though the keeping of Moses's Law be here said to be but subservient ; Yet , according to Mr. Baxter , it was all their Righteousness , no other was properly imputed to them , & upon it immediatly they received Pardon & Right to life , as merited thereby ex pacto , the Saviour only procuring the New Covenant : that is , that all , who work well & keep the Law of Moses , shall have free Pardon & Right to life . And thus they were as well justified by the works of the Law , as by faith : for faith was also required of them : And then the meaning of the Apostles Conclusion Rom. 3 : 28. is , therefore we conclude , that a man is justified by faith , and by the deeds of the Law : for both faith & works with Mr. Baxter , belong to this Subservient Righteousness , as he calleth it . If this be consonant to the Apostles doctrine , which doth so contradict it , let the Reader judge . 3. Saith he . That therefore it appeareth , that the Jewes did so fondly admire the Law , & their National Privileges under it , that they thought the exact keeping of it was necessary & sufficient to Iustification & Salvation . And they thought the Messiah was not to be their Righteousness , as a Sacrifice for sin , & meriter of free Pardon , & the Gift of life , but only a great King & Deliver , to redeem them by Power from all their Enemies & Bondage . Ans. This mistake of the Jewes , concerning the Messiah , speaketh nothing to the point , whereupon we are ; that is , that Paul denieth justification to be by the Law : And their errour & mistake about the Law , is not to be limited & restricted to the Ceremonial Law ; & so the thing , that we say , is confirmed hereby . ( 2 ) They thought the Messiah was not to be their Righteousness : And Mr. Baxter will not have him to be our Righteousness , save only , in that he hath purchased the New Covenant , wherein our faith & obedience to the Law , is to be looked upon as all our proper & immediat Righteousness , upon the account of which we are to receive Pardon & Right to life . 4. He saith . That is was not Adam's Covenant of Innocencie , or persection , which the Jewes thus trusted to , or Paul doth speak against , as to justification ( though a minore ad majus , that is also excluded ) for the Jewes knew , that they were sinners , & that God pardoned sin , as a Merciful God , & that their Law had Sacrifices for Pardon & Expiation with Confessions &c. But they thought that so far as God had made that Law sufficient to Political ends , & to Temporal Rewards & Punishments , it had been sufficient to Eternal Rewards & Punishments , & that of it self , & not in meer subordination to the typified Messiah . Ans. Though the jewes knew , that they were sinners , yet they did also suppose , that by their works of obedience to the Law Moral , as well as Ceremonial , they might make amends , & so think to be justified & pardoned thereby , and that God would accept of them , & grant them life for their own Righteousness sake , & therefore did they laboure so much to establish their own Righteousness , & followed after the Law of Righteousness , & sought Righteousness , as it were by the works of the Law. What Mr. Baxter talks here of the jewes not using of that Law , in subordination to the Typified Messiah , hath need of Explication : for as to his sense of it , we see no ground thereof in all the Apostles discourse . 5. He saith , That the thing , which Paul disproveth them by , is . 1. That the Law was never made for such an End. Ans. Yet he said , that the man , which doth those things shall live by them . Rom. 10 : 5. Levit. 18 : 5. Gal. 3 : 12. & that the doers of the Law are justified Rom. 2 : 13. And therefore speaketh of that Law , which according to its primitive institution , was made for such an end 2. saith he . That even then it stood in subordination to Redemption & free given life . Ans. This we cannot yeeld to , in Mr. Baxters sense , often mentioned , for Paul no where giveth us to understand , that their obedience to this was their immediat Righteousness , & Condition of Justification , & the meritorious cause ( ex pacto ) of their Right to Christ , & to life &c. 3. saith he . That the free Gift or Covenant of Grace , containing the promise of the Messiah , and Pardon & life by him , was before the Law , and justified Abraham & others without it . Ans. It is true , this Argument did particularly militate against the Ceremonial Law ; Yet , this not being the Apostles onely Argument , & other Arguments reaching the Moral Law , as well as the Ceremonial , we must not limite the Apostles disput only to the Ceremonial Law. 4. saith he . That their Law was so strick , that no man could perfectly keep it all . Ans. Adde also , that they could not perfectly keep any one command thereof . 5. saith he . That every sin deserveth death indeed , though their Law punished not every sin with death by the Magistrate . Ans. And this holdeth true of the Moral , as of the Ceremonial Law. 6. saith he . That their Law was never obligatory to the Gentile world , who had a Law written in their hearts ; & therefore not the common way of justification . Ans. The Apostle maketh no such conclusion , that therefore it was not the common way of justification , for this would suppose , that it were the way of justification unto them , which is directly against the Apostles disput . 7. saith he . That their Law , as such , discovered sin , but gave not the Spirit of Grace to overcome it : in so much , as though he himself desired perfectly to fulfill it without sin , yet he could not , but was under a Captivity , that is , a moral necessity of Imperfection , or sins of infirmity , from which only the grace of Christ could , as to guilt & power , deliver him . Ans. Therefore the Moral Law is as well here to be understood , as the Ceremonial ; as is manifest . 8. saith he . That no man ever come to heaven by that way of merite , which they dreamed of , but all by the way of Redemption , Grace , free Gift , & Pardoning Mercy . Ans. But that way of merite attendeth all works , in the matter of justification ; as the Apostle assureth us Rom. 4 : 4. Ephes. 2 : 8 , 9. & is opposed to the way of Redemption , Grace , free Gift , & Pardoning Mercy . Rom. 11 : 6. & 3 ; 21 , 24. Tit. 3 : 5 , 7. From these things Mr. Baxter draweth this Conclusion . Therefore their conceite , that they were just in the maine & forgiven their sins ; & so justifiable by the meer dignity of Moses Law , which they keept , & by the works of the Law , & not by the free Gift , Pardon & Grace of a Redeemer , & by the Faith & Practical Beleife of that Gift , and acceptance of it , with thankful penitent obedient hearts , was a Pernicioue Errour . Ans. 1. Nothing is here said to ground a restriction of this erroneous conceite of theirs unto the Ceremonial Law : for this conceite of being justifiable by the Law , and the works thereof , in opposition to the free Gift , Pardon & Grace of a Redeemer , is as applicable to the Moral , as to the Ceremonial Law. ( 2 ) The Apostle doth not ground his disput upon the Iewes their express rejecting of a free Gift , & of Pardon &c. But from justification by Faith , laying hold on the free Grace & Merites of a Mediator , he argueth against justification by the Law & the works thereof : And according to the Apostle's Methode do we argue . ( 3 ) To cover Justification by our own inherent Righteousness , having the same place in the New Covenant , which inherent Righteousness & Obedience had in the old , by these fine words , Faith , & a Practical beleef of the Gift , & acceptance of it , with thankful penitent & obedient hearts , is not such ingenuous dealing , as the Importance of the matter requireth : But this will be clearer by what followeth . But ( saith he ) the true way of Righteousness was to become true Christians , that is , with such a penitent , thankful accepting , practical beleefe , or affiance to beleeve in God , as the giver of Salvation , in Christ as the Redeemer , & his Spirit , as our life & Sanctifier ; and to accept Christ , and all his procured Benefites , Iustification & Life , as purchased by his Sacrifice & Meritorious Righteousness , & given in the New Covenant on this Condition , and so to give up ourselves to his whole saving work , as to the Physician of our souls , & only Mediator with God. This is the summe of Paul's doctrine on this point . Ans. Not to speak of this matter here , which is elsewhere done , I shall only say , that we are not enquiring after the true way of Righteousness , but after the true way of Justification before God ; And enquire where the Apostle teacheth , that all the Righteousness , required unto justification , must be within us , & none at all imputed ; as this Summe holdeth forth ? Where he teacheth that this faith , including works & all obedience , is the only meane of justification ? Where he teacheth , that this inherent imperfect Righteousness of ours , is the immediat ground , and meritorious Cause ( ex pacto ) of our justification & Salvation ? Where he teacheth , that Christ's Righteousness is no otherwise ours , than as purchasing the New Covenant , wherein our own personal Righteousness is made the Potestative Condition of our Justification & Salvation ? And yet these and several other Particulars of this alloy doth Mr. Baxter hold forth , as taught , in Scripture ; as hath been seen elsewhere . CHAP. V. Works excluded in Justification are not works only done before Faith , nor perfect works required in the Law of Innocency , nor outward works only . THe other Evasion , which such , as plead for the Interest of Works in Justification , fall upon , to evite the dint of the Apostle's argueing & concludings against Works , is , That by the works of the Law , which Paul excludeth from justification , works are meant , which are done before Conversion & Faith , by the strength of Nature ; & not the works of grace done after . This is the Evasion of Bellarmine & others . But against this we have these Reasons to propose . 1. When the Scripture saith , we are justified by faith , the meaning is that so soon as a soul beleeveth in Christ , by a true Faith , he is justified before God : But this opinion saith , That a man is not justified when he beleeveth in Christ ; No not untill he performe Works of Righteousness after he hath beleeved : And thus , we may conceive a man to be a beleever , & yet not to be justified ; which is contrary to the Gospel . 2. If we were justified by the Works of Regenerat persons , we should be justified by works , that are imperfect ; and consequently by an imperfect Righteousness : for these works being made our Righteousness , if we be justified by them , as our Righteousness , we must be justified by an imperfect Righteousness ; for they are not perfect , neither as to parts , nor as to degrees . Esai . 64 : 5. 1. Ioh. 1 : 8 , 10. 1. King. 8 : 46. 2. Chron. 6 : 36. Eceles . 7 : 20. 3. Regenerat persons have renunced their own Righteousness , in the matter of justification before God ; therefore they judged , that they were not justified thereby : And this is registrate in the word for our Instruction & example ; that we may learne also to renunce our own works in this business . The Antecedent is clear from these Instances ( 1 ) David saying Psal. 130 : 3. If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity , o Lord , who shall stand : And in opposition to this , he betakes himself to free Remission , saying vers . 4. But there is forgiveness with thoe . So Psal. 143 : 2. And enter not into judgment with thy servant ; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified . So that if God should enter in judgment with the best , even with his servants ; they could not expect to be justified by their works , even by their best works . So when he saith Psal. 32 : 1 , 2. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven , whose sin is covered &c. he renunceth all justification by the best of his works ; for Paul Rom. 4 : 6 , 7. giveth the meaning hereof to be , that David describeth the blessedness of the man , unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works . ( 2 ) Paul also renunceth his Righteousness in this matter , & that several times ? for he saith 1. Cor. 4 : 4. for I know nothing by my self , yet am I not hereby justified . And he speaketh of himself , while in the State of Regeneration . So Gal. 2 : 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law , but by the Faith of Iesus Christ , even we have beleeved in Iesus Christ , that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ , & not by the works of the Law. And Phil. 3 : 9. he desired to be found in Christ , not having his own Righteousness , which is of the Law. No man can think , that by his own Righteousness here he meaneth only works , done before he was regenerate . 4. The Instances , whereby Paul proveth Justification by Faith , without the works of the Law , confirmeth this , that works after regeneration are excluded as well as works before : for ( 1 ) Abraham was a regenerat man when his saith was said to be imputed to him Rom. 4 : 1 , 2 , 3. compared with Gen. 15. for before this time Gen. 12 : 1. he obeyed the call of God by faith . Heb. 11 : 8. See also Rom. 4 : 9 , 10 , 11. ( 2 ) David ( another Instance of Justification by Faith ) was also regenerat when he was justified , as Paul cleareth Rom. 4 : 6 , 7. by the imputation of a Righteousness , without the works of the Law. 5. The Apostle excludeth simply the works of the Law , from being the Righteousness of any , in point of justification : And we have no warrant to except or distinguish , where the Law excepteth not , nor distinguisheth . The works of Regenerat persons are works , & works of the Law , as well , as any other : And Paul doth absolutely & simply exclude works & the works of the Law , from being the ground of justification . 6. By what reason can it be evinced , that the Law , or the Works of the Law signifie works before Regeneration , or works done before faith , more than other works ? Do these words carry this sense , where ever they are used ? Or can it be demonstrated , that they carry this express sense any where ? 7. Are only regenerat persons said to be under the Law ? Now the Apostle speaketh of all the works of those , who are under the Law , that every mouth may be stopped , & all the world become guilty before God. Rom. 3 : 19. 8. The Righteousness of God , which is by Faith of Jesus Christ , is as much without the Law , or the works of the Law , done by Regenerat persons , as without the Works of the Law , done before Regeneration : And justification by these works after Regeneration , is as much inconsistent with justification by faith without the works of the Law , as justification by the works of the Law , done before regeneration ; as is manifest , from the true sense of justification by faith . 9. Paul excludeth all works of the Law from justification , that giveth any ground of boasting : and of glorying , as we see Rom. 3 : 27. & 4 : 2. But if justification were by works of the Law , done after Faith & Regeneration , all boasting & glorying should not be excluded Ephes. 2 : 9. Not of works lest any many should boast : And what these works were , the next Argument will shew . 10. Even works are excluded , unto which we are created & which God hath before ordained , that we should walk in them Ephes. 2 : 8 , 9 , 10. for by grace are ye saved , through Faith , & that not of yourselves , it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast : for we are his workmanship , created in Christ Iesus unto good works , which God hath before ordained , that we should walk in them . Now these works are works done after regeneration , as is manifest . 11. All works are excluded in this matter , which make justification not be of mercy or of grace . Rom. 3 : 24. Ephes. 2 : 8. Tit. 3 : 5 , 7. But this do works after Regeneration , as well , as before , as Paul cleareth Ephes. 2 : 8 , 9 , 10. & works & grace cannot consist , in being the ground of justification , no more , than in being the ground of Election . Rom. 11 : 6. 12. Works done after regeneration belong to that Righteousness , which is of the Law , which Paul describeth Rom. 10 : 5. from Levit. 18 : 5. to be , that the man , which doth those things shall live in them . But the Righteousness of the Law , & the Righteousness of Faith are opposite & inconsistent , as the Apostle cleareth there Rom. 10. 13. Works done after regeneration , if made the ground of justification , will made the reward of debt & not of grace Rom. 4 : 4. as well as works done before regeneration ; for the Scripture holdeth forth no ground of difference , in this matter . 14. If works done by Faith , and after Regeneration , be admitted , as the ground of justification , God should not be said to justifie the ungodly ; for a Regenerat beleever , working works of Righteousness , is no where in Scripture called an ungodly man. But the Scripture speaketh this expresly Rom. 4 : 5. 15. Paul tels us Rom. 4 : 16. that the promise was of Faith , that it might be by grace , to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed , not to that only which is of the Law , but to that also , which is of the Faith of Abraham , who is the Father of ut all . Now this seed which is of the Faith of Abraham are beleevers or Regenerat persons ; And yet as to these the Law is excluded , & the works thereof ; because if they which are of the Law be heirs , Faith is made void , & the promise made of none effect vers . 14. 16. If Justification were by the works of the Law , done after Regeneration , we could not , upon first beleeving , be justified , & have peace with God , through our Lord Jesus Christ ; nor could we rejoice in hope of the glory of God , & glory in tribulation &c. And yet this the Apostle expresly affirmeth Rom. 5 : 1 , 2 , 3. &c. If justification did depend upon our after works , we could not as yet have peace & reconciliation , or assurance , or joy &c. because of the uncertainty of our obedience . 17. If Paul had not excluded works done after Faith & Regeneration , from being the Cause & ground of our justification , what seeming ground or occasion had there been for that objection Rom. 6 : 1. What shall we say then ? Shall we continue in sin , that grace may abound ? What ground could any have to say . We are justified by our works done after Regeneration ; therefore we may continue in sin , that grace may abound ? Any might see at first , how ridiculous this was . 18. And if we are justified by works done after Regeneration , is it not strange , that in all Paul's answers unto this objection , he never once sayeth , nor hinteth , that by these works we shall be justified , & no other way , and yet this had been the shortest & clearest solution of the objection , if it been according to the doctrine of justification , delivered by Paul. 19. The false Apostles , who were corrupting the doctrine of the Gospel & of Justification , did not urge works done before Faith in the Gospel , as the ground of justification , for they were corrupting such , as had already embraced the Gospel & beleeved in Christ ? as is clear out of the Epistle to the Galatians . Therefore when Paul is confuting their errour , & opposing himself unto them , he must deny that we are justified by works done after Faith in Christ. 20. Justification by works done after regeneration , is as opposite to faith , & to living the life of justification by faith , as justification by works done before Regeneration for the Law is never of faith , so reasoneth Paul Gal. 3. 11 , 12. But that no man is justified by the Law , in the sight of God , it is evident : For the just shall live by Faith : And the Law is not of Faith. 21. All the works of the Law are excluded : But works wrought after beleeving & after Regeneration , are works of the Law , being required thereby Psal. 119 : 35. Rom. 7 : 22. Therefore even these works are excluded . 22. When the Apostle excludeth works from being causes of justification he must meane good works , for no man was ever so mad , as to imagine , that he could be justified by bad works . But no works can be called good works but such as flow from faith , & from the Spirit of grace , granted in Regeneration . Therefore while good works are excluded , these done after Regeneration are excluded . What is said by Bellarmine , in confirmation of his sense of these works of the Law , which are excluded from justification , is abundantly answered by all , that write against him ; & therefore we need not take any notice thereof . There is another Evasion , found out by our Adversaries in this matter , & another glosse put upon these works . By the works of the Law there shall no flesh be justified . For some say , that hereby the Apostle only excludeth those works , that are perfect , which were required by the Law in Innocency . This Evasion granteth , that the Law here spoken of is not the Ceremonial Law , for that was not required in Innocency ; but the Moral Law. The end why they invent this Evasion is not , to exclude works in the matter of justification ; but to establish their own fancie of asserting justification by other works , than perfect works , required by the Covenant of works , to wit by imperfect works , which they say , are required in the Gospel : And therefore their meaning is , we are not justified by perfect sinless obedience ; but by imperfect obedience to the Law. This is the Evasion of the Socinians , who say , the Apostle speaketh of the works of the Law , to shew , that he speaketh of those works , which are enjoined by the Law , to wit of perpetual & perfect obedience required by the Law : And they say , that by Faith he meaneth that confidence & obedience , which every one is able to performe , and which is endeavoured after & studied . That this cannot be the meaning of the Apostles conclusion , we suppose will be clear from these Considerations . 1. This supposeth , that they against whom the Apostle is here disputing , were of opinion , that men could yet be justified , & must be justified by perfect obedience to the Moral Law : But it is hardly imaginable , that men in their wits did ever so dreame , or think , that they were innocent , & could expect to be justified before God by their own perfection , or perfect obedience to the Law in all points : for this were to say , they never had sinned : 2. When the Apostle , in the beginning of his disput , in his Epistle to the Romans proveth , that all have sinned , & are guilty before God , both jew & Gentile , he thence inferreth , that by the works of the Law , no flesh shall be justified in God's sight Rom. 3 : 20. Whereby he giveth us to understand , that there is no justification by the Law , unless it be perfectly keeped : And because no meer man did ever keep it perfectly , or can so keep it ; therefore he concludeth , that no man can be justified thereby . There is no justification by works , unless the works be perfect ; & consequently that such as expect justification thereby , be wholly sinless . 3. If the Apostle had so disputed against justification by perfect works , as to have granted , or established justification by imperfect works ; he needed not have used any moe arguments to that end , than what was mentioned & cleared Rom. 1. & 2. & in the beginning of the 3. Chapter : for his evincing that all had sinned & come short of the Glory of God , had been sufficient to this end , without the addition of any one argument more , seing it is impossible , that sinners can be perfect obeyers . And we must not think , that all the Apostles further argueings are meerly superfluous , for this would reflect upon the Spirit of God , who acted Paul in this . 4. How strange is it to imagine , that the Apostle should disput against perfect works , that he might establish imperfect works in the matter of justification : & to think that the Apostle is proving , that we are not justified by the perfect works of the Law , but by the imperfect works thereof ; that is , we are not justified by such works , as keep a conformity with the Law , but by such works , as are violations of the Law ; as all works are , which are not conforme thereunto , in all points ? 5. Imperfect works , as to the ground of justification , are not that Righteousness of God without the Law , & which is by Faith of Jesus Christ , but opposite the●eunto , and inconsistent therewith , as well as perfect works : for as he , that perfectly keepeth the Law , needeth not another Righteousness , in order to his justification ; so neither needeth he , who hath an imperfect obedience if that be made the formal objective & merite cause of justification . But Gospel-justification is by the Righteousness of God , which is without the Law , & which Faith laith hold on Rom. 3 : 21 , 22. 6. Gospel justification is by Faith , as the whole Gospel cleareth ; but faith & imperfect works are not one & the same : Yea they are as repugnant in this affaire , as faith & perfect works are . We are justified by faith , without the deeds of the Law. Rom. 3 : 28. Gal. 2 : 16. Living by faith & living by works , are opposite . Gal. 3 : 11 , 12. 7. Justification by imperfect works , is not free justification by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ , whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood : as is manifest : But this is the Gospel-justification Rom. 3 : 24 , 25. 8. Imperfect works , exclude grace , & are as inconsistent therewith , as perfect works are . But Gospel-justification is by grace without works Rom. 3 : 24. Ephes. 2 : 8 , 9. Tit. 3 : 5 , 6 , 7. The Major is clear from the places cited , as also from Rom. 11 : 6. If by grace , then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace . But if it be of works , then is it no more grace , otherwise work is no more work . Now if it be said , that perfect works are here understood , and not imperfect works : it must be said also , that Election ( of which the Apostle here speaketh ) is upon foresight of imperfect works . 9. Imperfect works if made the Cause of Justification , can give ground of boasting & of glorying , as we see in the Pharisee Luk. 18. But Gospel justification removeth all ground of boasting . Rom. 3 : 27 & 4 : 2. 10. Imperfect works can not be accounted a perfect Righteousness , by the Lord , whose judgment is according to truth Rom. 2 : 2. But there is no justification without a perfect Righteousness , either inherent , or imputed . God will pronounce no man Righteous , who is not so , nor justifie any as Righteous , who is not so indeed : But upon the account of an imperfect Righteousness , can no man be justified as Righteous . 11. Even this imperfect Righteousness , when made the ground of justification , will make the reward of debt , and not of grace : As Abraham's works , if he had been justified by them , would have done : for Abraham's works were not perfect works , but imperfect works , as is manifest . 12. If justification were not by perfect works , but by imperfect works , then through faith , or through Gospel justification , the Law should be made void , contrary to Rom. 3 : 31. The reason of the consequence is , because hereby the Law , that requireth perfect obedience , is laid aside & another Law that requireth imperfect obedience admitted in its place : or rather the same Law is pretended , but it is made void , as to its requireing perfect obedience ; & must now be satisfied with an imperfect obedience . But this is not to establish the Law , but to destroy it , when many Jotes & titles are taken away from it Mat. 5 : 17 , 18. 13. The Iewes did not imagine , that they were perfect & without sin , but followed after the Law of Righteousness , & that , as it were ( ●s ) by the works of the Law Rom. 9 : 31 , 32 : And this of necessity must have been mixed with much imperfection : And yet the Apostle plainly saith in the place cited , that they did not attaine to a Righteousness , nor to the Law of Righteousness , because they sought it not by faith , but as it were by the works of the Law , so that seeking after Righteousness as it were by the works of the Law , is opposite to a seeking of it by Faith. And againe Rom. 10 : 3. they went about to establish their own Righteousness , and did not submit themselves unto the Righteousness of God ; which two are opposite & inconsistent ; And this their own Righteousness , was but an imperfect Righteousness , which they were labouring to cause stand , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 14. We cannot imagine , that when the Apostle did exclude his own Righteousness , and desired not to be found therein , he only excluded , that which was not ; & desired not to be found in that , which he had not , and which he knew he had not , to wit , a perfect sinless obedience . Rom. 7 : 24. 1. Tim. 1 : 13 , 15. He confessed he had been a blasphemer , and the chiefe of sinners , and so was far from imagineing , that his obedience was perfect & sinless . This then could not be the Righteousness , whereof he speaketh Phil. 3 : 9. but his imperfect Righteousness , being that only which he could call his owne , is that only , which he desired not to be found in , in the day of his appearing before his judge , in order to his justification . 15. If Paul had disputed only against perfect obedience & had yeelded justification by imperfect obedience . What ground was there for that objection . Rom. 6 : 1. Shall we continue in sin , that grace may abound : seing justification by imperfect obedience doth of it self engadge to all endeavoure after obedience , & against the allowance of sin ? 16. And the Apostles answere to this objection may fournish us with another Argument against this ; for if Paul had allowed of , or pleaded for justification by our imperfect works , he had used this , a● least , as one argument to perswade unto an absteaning from sin , by saying , there is no justification but by endeavouring after obedience ; But we hear of no such think in all the Apostles Arguments , whereby he presseth unto holiness & obedience , whether there , or elsewhere . 17. We are not justified by works done after Faith & Regeneration , as was proved before . Therefore we are not justified by imperfect works ; for works after faith are imperfect , & againe , they cannot but be so , as presupposing sin & guilt going before . There is yet another Evasion , wherewith some satisfie themselves , for they say , that when Paul saith , we are not justified by the works of the Law , by these works , he meaneth only outward works of the Law , performed without an inward Principle of Grace , of faith , or fear or Love of God. But we need not insist in the discovery of the vanity of this Evasion , having before at large proved , that the works , whereof Paul speaketh , are not works done before Faith & Regeneration ; For all these works , that are done before Faith & Regeneration , are done without any inward Principle of Grace , & are only outward works , such as Heathens may performe : a few reasons will serve he●e : as 1. When Paul denieth justification to be by the Law , or by the works thereof ; he must mean such works , as are enjoined & commanded by the Law : But the Law commandeth other works , than those outward works , for it condemneth all works , that flow not from a principle of grace : because the Law is holy & spiritual , & the first & chiefe command thereof is , that we , Love the Lord our God , with all our heart ; with all our soul with all our strength &c. Rom. 7 : 12 , 14. Mat. 22 : 37. Mark. 12 : 30. Luk. 10 : 27. Deut ▪ 13 : 3. & 30 : 6. If then Paul exclude only such works , as flow not from a principle of grace , he shall not exclude the works of the Law , but works prohibited by the Law ; & his meaning should be , we are not justified by works , which the Law commandeth not , but we are justified by works , which the Law commandeth : which is contradictory to the whole scope & designe of the Apostle . 2. The Apostle doth manifestly exclude the works of Abraham Rom. 4 : 1 , 2. But the works of Abraham were other than such servile works or such outward works , performed from no principle of grace or Love to God ; Therefore such cannot be here understood . 3. Outward works , done without any principle of grace , could with no face or shew of a pretence , lay a ground , or be any occasion of boasting or of glorying , because they were no other , but manifest sins , being prohibited & condemned by the Law , & not commanded or approven : But the Apostle excludeth such works , as could do this . Therefore he excludeth good works , which were done in conformitie to the Law , & not such outward lifeless works only , as were meer servile works , & no better . 4. Such lifeless , servile , & outward works could give no shew of a ground of making the reward of debt : But Paul excludeth such works as would make the reward of debt . Rom. 4 : 4. 5. If Paul had meaned here only such outward , servile works , which are not conforme to the Law ; what occasion had there been , for Paul's proposeing of that objection . Rom. 3 : 31. Do we then make void the Law through Faith ? for to lay aside these works , which are not conforme to the Law , giveth no probable ground of supposal , that thereby the Law is made void . 6. Israel could not have been said to have followed after the Law of Righteousness , by doing of works meerly ourward & lifeless : And yet this is said of them , & it is also said , that by all their following of the Law of Righteousness they could not be justified . Rom. 9 : 31 , 32. 7. Meer performance of outward servile works , cannot be called a Righteousness : But the jewes went about to establish their own Righteousness , & therefore missed justification . Rom. 10 : 4. 8. There was never any life had by these outward & servile works alone ; But by the works , which Paul excludeth , there was life to be had , if they had been perfect . The man , which doth those things , shall live by them . Rom. 2 : 13. & 10 : 5. Levit. 18 : 5. Gal. 3 : 12. 9. These outward servile works are not good works ; but even good works are here excluded . Ephes. 2 : 9 , 10. 10. Paul did not meane such works only , when he excluded his own Righteousness . Phil. 3 : 9. Nor can such works be called works of Righteousness ; which yet are expresly excluded in this matter . Tit. 3 : 5. CHAP. VI. By works , which Paul excludeth , is not meant the Merite of Works . THere is one other Evasion , thought upon to shift by all the Apostles argueings , & yet to maintaine the Interest of Works , as the Cause & ground of justification before God , to wit. That Paul only disputs against a groundless conceite of merite in works ; not against the works themselves , but against a Pharisaical sense of merite & worth in their works , whereby they conceived & conceited , that thereby they could satisfie for their sins , & buy & purchase to themselves Justification & Salvation . But against this Evasion , we have these things to say . 1. By merite here must either be understood , that which is called meritum ex condigno , that is , that merite , which ariseth from the due proportion of worth , that one thing hath unto another , in the ballance of equity & justice . And who ever imagine this merite in their works , must dreame of an intrinsick worth in their works , which God , if he do according to justice , cannot but reward with eternal life : or that which is called meritum ex congruo , which floweth not from any inward Condignity in the work , but from a Promise or Covenant , & so it is meritum ex pacto , whereby the reward is not absolutly of grace , but of debt , because of a congruity in the thing , in respect of the Promise & Compact made . Our Adversaries cannot understand this last , when they say , that Paul disputeth against merite , because themselves owne it , when they make works the Condition of the Covenant , & God to have promised justification & life unto our works . Neither are they shy of the word merite it self , as we saw lately from Mr. Baxter . But now , that Paul is not disputing against the merite of works , in the first sense , is manifest from these . ( 1 ) The very works required of Adam in the first Covenant , had not in them this intrinsick worth & merite ex condigno , and so the Apostle shall be disputing against that , which never was nor never will be nay , nor cannot be . ( 2 ) Then the Apostle saith nothing to disprove justification by the Old Covenant of Works made with Adam , but establisheth that , which who can beleeve ? ( 3 ) No man , that is right in his wits , can imagine such a thing . And shall we think that the Apostle is disputing against that , which none , but such as are transported with mere ignorance & vanity , will owne , or stand to , in their more sedate & composed thoughts . ( 4 ) Even the most proud & vaine person , that is , will joyn the free mercy of God , with all the conceite of merite they have ; but this merite ex condigno leaveth no imaginable room for the free mercy of God , in lesse , or more . ( 5 ) Paul disputeth not against the merite ex congruo , as separated from the works themselves , whereupon it is founded . As the following Arguments will evince . Therefore far less doth he dispute only against the fond & foolish conceite of the merite ex condigno . 2. It is strange , that the Apostle should dispute against that , which he doth never once mentione , in his dispute , or in his Conclusions . He every where mentioneth works & the Law , & the works of the Law ; but no where mentioneth he this merite of works , as the thing he disputeth against , as abstracted & distinguished from the works themselves . 3. And that place , which they think , giveth some countenance unto their imaginations , viz. Rom. 4 : 4. Now to him that worketh is the rewasd not reckoned of grace , but of debt , is directly against them : for , there the Apostle sheweth that works are excluded , & all works ( for there is no distinction made ) are excluded ; because , then the reward should be of debt : shewing , that if works have any place , in the matter of justification , debt must have place also ; but because debt hath no place , but grace ( which two are inconsistent & incompatible ) therefore all works are excluded . And to think , that the meaning of the Apostle is , now to him , that worketh , with a conceite of merite , attending his work , the reward is reckoned of debt ; is to adde to the word of God , to pervert the Apostles Argument , & to contradict the scope & cohesion of the words ; as hath been shown elsewhere , far less can any hence inferre a restriction of works to such only as make the reward of debt : for then the reward might be reckoned to him , that worketh , & yet be reckoned of grace & not of debt , & thus the Apostles Argument , should be manifestly false , & a plaine Paralogisme : which were wickedness & blasphemie to assert . 4. The Apostle excludeth , in as plaine termes , as can be , all the works of the Law : but even such works , as are performed without this fond & groundless conceite of mer●te , are works of the Law , being required & commanded by the Law. Yea the Law never commanded any works with this conceite of merite : And therefore by this opinion none of the works of the Law are excluded . 5. Adam was obliged to give perfect obedience to the Law , without the least thought of meriteing ex condigno thereby : And if no merite or works with a conceite of merite be now excluded , but the merite ex condigno , then is the Covenant of works established by the Gospel . Nay thus , our imperfect works , are made to merite as well ex congruo & ex pacto , justification & life , as Adam's perfect & sinless obedience could have done . 6. The man that hath works , without this conceite of merite , can not be called an ungodly man , no more than Adam could have been called so , while he stood in his integritie : But the justification under the Gospel is of the ungodly , God justifieth the ungodly . Rom. 4 : 5. Nor can the worker without this conceite of meriting , be said to be one that worketh not , but beleeveth on him , that justifieth the ungodly : as is manifest . 7. Either the Apostle establisheth works of justification by them , & only condemneth the apprehension of merite in our works : or he excludeth all works , in which men may conceite some merite to lye . If the first be said , then I conceive , the Apostle would have once mentioned this in argueings & conclusions , and not alwayes have mentioned the Law & the works of the Law ; for with our adversaries these are separable , and from the one the other can not be inferred : but we see not the least appearance of any such thing in all the Apostles argueings . And if the last be said . We have all we desire , for thus all works shall be excluded , because men can & ignorant persons too oft do imagine & conceite a merite in what they do , though not that merite , which is ex condigno , Yet that which is ex congruo . 8. If the Apostle disput not against works , but against a conceite of merite in works , why doth he not oppose works without this conceite unto this conceite , or to works with this conceite ? Why doth he alwayes oppose Faith unto works , & say , we are justified by faith without the deeds of the Law ? Is works the same with conceite of merite , or with works having this conceite adjointed ? and is faith the same with works , or with works without this conceite of merite ? Then Adam should have been justified by faith , if he had stood in his state of innocency ; for he should have been justified by works without this conceite . But what palpable & manifest perverting of the Scripture & of the works thereof , is this ? To take this liberty of expounding the words of the Scripture , is plainly to make nothing of the Scripture , but what we please . 9. Are there no mediums to prove , that there is no merite in our works in reference to justification & Salvation , but such as the Apostle here useth , to exclude works from this Interest ? If this had been all , which the Apostle had intended , his saying with Christ. Luk. 17 : 10. So lilkewise ye , when ye shall have done all those things , which are commanded you , say , we are unprofitable servants ; we have done that , which was our duty to do , had sufficiently confuted that mistake : But the long series of Arguments , with their variety , which the Apostle here useth , manifestly declare , there was some other thing in his eye ; and he levelled at some other mark , even that , which he plainly declareth , in his repeated conclusions , viz. That we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ , without the works of the Law. 10. Gospel Justification is of Grace . And therefore is not of works : Rom. 4 : 4. Ephes. 2 : 9 ▪ 10. And the Apostle cleareth the consequence , because all works have a ground of merite with them , & make the reward of debt & give ground to the worker to boast & to glory before men : thought not before God : for upon these grounds doth the Apostle reject all works , in this affaire ; as we see Rom. 3 : 27. & 4 : 2. Now to say , that the Apostle rejecteth only such works , as men conceite to be meritorious for their intrinsick worth , & not other works , that merite only ex pacto ; is to destroy the Apostles Arguments , & to enervat all his discourse ; for even works meritorious ex congruo , or ex pacto , will give ground of boasting before men , & make the reward of debt , as we know it would have been , if Adam's Covenant had stood : But whatever works lay the foundation of due debt , they stand in opposition to the way of grace ; for grace & debt are not compatible . 11. If any were puffed up with this conceite of the meritoriousness of their works , ex condigno , it could be none beside the proud fantastick Pharisees ; nor is there any ground to suspect any other . And if so , why , may we suppose , would the Apostle state a needless controversie , a controversie concerning all both Iewes & Gentiles , when none of the Gentiles , and few , if any of the Iewes , were concerned therein ? And why , may we enquire , would the Apostle so laboriously prove both Iewes & Gentiles to be guilty of sin ? and why doth he speak of them all , without exception , seing the question did only concerne a few , & a very few , & such , as are never once named in all the dispute ? These things look not very probable like . 12. Can we think , that the Galatians , who were seduced by false Teachers , to adjoine to their Christianity , the practice of some jewish Ceremonies , were also carried away with this absurd Phancie , that there was a meritoriousness ex condigno , in all their works ? Though there be ground to imagine such a thing ; Yet we see the Apostle followeth the same disput against them , that he did , in writting to the Romans , of which no reason could be assigned if this merite was all , he disputed down . 13. We finde it said of the Jewes Rom. 9 : 31. that they followed after the Law of Righteousness ; and yet by so doing did not attaine unto the Law of Righteousness ; because ( vers . 32. ) it was not by Faith , but as it were by the works of the Law. Now neither were these works of the Law , nor that Law of Righteousness which they were following after , a meer irrational conceite & groundless fancie of a merite in what they did , or of an intrinsick worth , meriting ex condigno the reward they expected . But a groundless apprehension , that their works themselves was the way of their attaining unto life , & therefore they followed that way of works , & would not take the way of faith , but stumbled at that stumbling stone . 14. Then , according to this interpretation , works performed without this conceite of merite , must be God's Righteousness , as works together with this conceite of merite must be our owne : for these two are opposite . Rom. 10 : 3. But there is no ground to imagine ; that our works performed without this fonde conceit of merite in them , are the Righteousness , for these are not Christ , or his Righteousness : And it is there added vers . 4. for explication of the Righteousdess of God , for Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness , to every one that beleeveth . 15. The Righteousness of the Law is , that the man , which doth these things shall live by them . Rom. 10 : 5. Gal. 3 : 12. Levit. 18 : 5. So that this Righteousness consisteth in mans own doing : and not in a meer irrational apprehension of a merite in what he doth : So that it is not this groundless phancie , that the Apostle is disputing against , but this Righteousness , which is of the Law , because he is labouring to establish by his doctrine , the Righteousness of Faith , which is opposite to & inconsistent with the Righteousness of the Law. And this Righteousness of Faith is not our own personal Righteousness , or obedience performed to the Law without this apprehension & conceite of merite , as is clear from vers . 8 , 9 , 10 , 11. following , & from the whole Gospel . 16. If this be all that the Apostle is disputing down , to wit , justification by works , which we conceite to be meritorious , & not all justification hy works , why did the Apostle adduce the Instance of Abraham , & insist so much upon it , as he doth Rom. 4 ? Shall we think , that Abraham that holy Patriarch & friend of God , did obey with any such conceite of intrinsick worth , in his obedience ? Was he infected with that leaven of Pharisaical pride ? And if not , where is the consequence of the Apostles argueing from his practice ? Is it a good consequence to say , Abraham was not justified by works performed in sincerity , without pharisaical pride & conceite of merites ; therefore we cannot be justified by works , which we conceite to have merite in them : but by such works we can & must be justified , when we conceite no merite in them , but a simple merite ex congruo , or ex pacto ? The like may be said of David , who had no conceite of merite in his works , & yet expected not to be justified by them , but looked for free pardon , & for justification through imputed Righteousness . Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. 17. If the Apostle had been establishing justification by works performed without such a fonde conceite of merite in them ; what ground was there for that objection which he preoccupieth Rom. 6 : 1. saying . Shall we sin , that grace may abound ? The urging of justification by works , could give no shew or apparent ground for this . Neither can any such purpose be in the least seen & observed , in all the answere at large prosecuted Chapters 6. & 7. which is given hereunto . There is not the least hint given of his rectifying of the misapprehensions , that any might have about works , as if they were or could be supposed to be meritorious ex condigno : Nor is there the least ground of surmise laid down , of their being meritorious of justification or of life eternal ex congruo , or ex pacto : but all things sound the contrary way : & life eternal is expresly said to be the free gift of God. 18. Then all that Paul meaned , when he desired to be found of his judge , not having his own Righteousness , which is of the Law , was that he desired not to be found puft up with a pharisaical conceite of the perfection & meritoriousness of his works , as meriteing his justification & life ex condigno , by their intrinsick value & worth . But no such thing appeareth Phil. 3. 9. where he utterly renunceth his own Righteousness , which is of the Law ; that is , a Righteousness consisting in his obedience & conformity to the Law : for in opposition to this , he desireth to be found in that Righteousness , which is through the Faith of Christ , the Righteousness , which is of God by faith ; & this is some other thing , than his own works , performed without that pharisaical opinion . 19. We are saved by grace , through faith , not of works , lest any man should boast , Ephes. 2 : 8 , 9. & consequently not of any works , seing all works give ground of boasting . And he meaneth such works , unto which we are created in Christ Jesus , as his workmanship : and which God hath before ordained , that we should walk in them vers . 10. Now these works are certainly works done without any vaine conceite of merite : and yet we see , that by these works we are not brought into a state of Salvation . 20. The Apostle excludeth works of Righteousness , which we have done , as opposed to Mercy & grace . Tit. 3 : 5 , 7. Now grace standeth in opposition to all works , even to works performed without this conceite of merite , as we see Rom. 11 : 6. else we must say , that the Apostle there granteth Election to be for foreseen works , performed without a conceite of merite , and nothing must be called works , but what is done with a Pharisaical conceite of merite & intrinsick worth in them , which is absurd . CHAP. VII . James 2 : 14. &c. cleared & Vindicated . ALI , who have been of old , and are this day Adversaries to the way of justification before God , which the Orthodox owne from the Scriptures , have thought to shelter themselves , under the wings of of some expressions of the Apostle Iames ; & have therefore laboured so to explaine & streatch forth the same expressions , as they with their corrupt Notions about justification may seem at least to have some countenance therefrom , yea and warrandise to hold fast the same : And for this cause they have laboured so much , and do still laboure , so to expound the words of Paul , as that they may carry no seeming difference unto the words of Iames : for it is received as a known truth , and it is willingly granted , that there is no real Contradiction betwixt the two Apostles , but what ever apparent or seeming disagreement there be betwixt their words ; yet all that difficulty is removable ; & their words , how contradictory soever they seem to be , are yet capable of such an interpretation , as shall manifest their harmonious agreement in the truth : so that Iames saying Ch. 2 : 24 , Ye see then , how that by works a man is justified , & not by faith only , dot not contradict the Apostle Paul , who saith & concludeth , that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law. Rom. 3 : 28. But a question is here made , whether we should interpret Iames's words by Paul's , or Paul's by Iames's . Our Adversaries are much for this later , to wit , that we must interpret Paul's words by the words of Iames , because , as they alledge , Paul is obscure in his doctrine , & many were beginning to misinterpret & pervert the same & that therefore Iames was necessitate to clear up that doctrine of justification , so as Paul's words might be better understood . But how unreasonable this is , the leamed D. Owen hath lately manifested , & his grounds are indeed irrefragable ; for ( 1 ) It is a received way of interpreting Scriptures , that when two places seem to be repugnant unto other , that place , which treateth of the matter directly , designedly , expresly & largely , is to regulate our interpretation of the other place , where the matter is only touched obiter , on the bye , and upon some other occasion , and in order to some other ends . And that therefore accordingly , we must interpret Iames by Paul , and not Paul by Iames ; seing it is undenible , that Paul wrote of this Subject of Justification , directly & on purpose to cleare up the same , and that with all expresness & fulness , on severall occasions , disputing the same , in a clear & formal manner , with all sorts of Arguments , Artificial & Inartificial , and answereth objections , that might be moved against the same , at large , and with a special accuracie : But on the other hand , it is as certaine , that Iames hath not this for his scope to open up the Nature of Justification ; but only toucheth there-upon , in order to the other end , which he was prosecuting . ( 2 ) There is no ground to suppose , that it was the designe of Iames to explaine the meaning of Paul , no footstep of any such purpose appeareth . For then his maine business should be to explaine & clear up the doctrine of justification , which neither is apparent from this part of the Epistle , nor from any part of it at all ; his designe being quite another thing , as is obvious . ( 3 ) Nor was there any necessitie for Iames , to Vindicate the doctrine of Paul , from such corrupt inferences , as Adversaries suppose , were made therefrom : for as to any such , as might be made , to wit , as if he had given any countenance unto such , as were willing to lay aside good works ; he himself did fully & sufficiently Vindicate his owne doctrine , by showing , on all occasions , the necessity of good works , and particularly when he is speaking of Justification , not only in his Epistles to the Romans , and to the Galatians , where he largly & professedly treateth of that matter , but even when he is but mentioning the same on other occasions ; as we see Ephes. 2 : 8 , 9 , 10. Phil. 3 : 9 , 10 , 11 , &c. & Tit. 3 : 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. So that to imagine that Iames asserteth another interest of works in our justification , than Paul doth , and that to explaine Paul's meaning , is not to reconcile these Apostles , but to set them at further varience & enmity . And it cannot comport with sobriety , to think or say , that Iames , to cleare the Apostle Paul's doctrine , and to vindicate it from objections , should speak to the same objections , which Paul himself had spoken to & fully removed , and that Iames should give such answers unto these objections , as Paul would not give , but rather rejected : And yet this must be said by our Adversaries here . It will be of great use to us here , to understand aright , what is the plaine scope & drift of the Apostle Iames ; for as for the designe & scope of Paul , in his discourses of justification , it is so obviously manifest unto all that read the same , that no doubt can be made thereof , to wit. To cleare up fully & plainely the Nature & Causes of this great privilege of justification , which is the hinge & ground work ( as it were ) of his doctrine of the Gospel , and to shew how poor sinners , standing under the Curse for sin , come to be justified before God ; as in his Epistle to the Romans : And to Vindicate the same doctrine of the Gospel from the corrupt pervesions of false teachers , as in his Epistle to the Galatians ; as also to commend the free grace of God , in that noble contrivance , both in the places mentioned , and Ephes. 2. Phil. 3. Tit. 3. and elsewhere , when he mentioneth the same . Now as to the scope of the Apostle Iames , there is nothing to declare unto us , that it was his Intent , or designe to explaine & make known the way ▪ how poor convinced sinners , standing under the sentence of the Law , come to be justified before God , and to receive pardon of their sins . No such question proposeth he to be discussed ; No such point of truth doth he lay down to be cleared , or Vindicated . But his whole scope & drift is to press the reall study of holiness , in several points particularly spoken to through the Epistle . And in that second Chapt. from vers . 14. & forward ( as will appear more fully in the explication & vindication of the several verses in particular ) he is particularly obviating that grosse mistake of some , who thought that a bare outward profession of the Gospel Faith , or of Christian Religion , was sufficient to save them , and evidence them to be in a justified state , and that therefore they needed not trouble themselves with any study of holiness : And therefore sheweth , that all such hopes of Salvation were built on the sand , for they had no ground to suppose , that they were truely justified , & so were in any faire way unto salvation , so long as all their faith was no other , than a general assent unto the doctrine of the Gospel , & to truthes revealed , & not that true lively faith , hold forth in the Gospel , whereby sinners become justified before God. Mr. Baxter tels Cath. Theol. part . 2. n. 364. that St. James having to do with some , who thought that the bare profession of Christianity , was Christianity ; & that faith was a meer assent to the Truth ; & that to beleeve that the Gospel is true , & trust to be justified by Christ was enough to justification , without Holiness & fruitful Lives ; & that their sin & barrenness hindered not their justification : so that they thus beleeved ( perhaps misunderstanding Paul's Epistles ) doth convince them , that they were mistaken ; & that when God spake of justification by faith , without the works of the Law , he never meaned a faith that containeth not a resolution to obey him in whom we beleeve , nor that is separate from actual obedience in the prosecution : But that as we must be justified by our Faith against the charge of being Insidels ; so must we be justified by our Gospel personal holiness , and sincere obedience , against the charge , that we are unholy & wicked , or impenitent , or hypocrites , or else we shall never be adjudged to Salvation , that is justified by God. Ans. ( 1 ) It is true , for it is manifest , and undeniable , that Iames had to do with some , who thought that the bare profession of Christianity was enough , & that an assent unto the truth , was that faith that would prove justifying & saving . But ( 2 ) it is not so manifest that Iames had to do with such , as thought that to trust to be justified by Christ , was enough to justification without holiness & fruitful lives , & that their sin & barrenness hindered not their justification : for whatever Mr. Baxter imagine , we finde not in Scripture , that justification followeth lives , that is , that there is no justification , before this fruitfulness of life appear : And himself useth to say , that in order to the first justification , this holiness of life is not requisite : And beside this , which he calleth the first , we know no other ; unless he mean glorification . But then ( 3 ) as to glorification & final Salvation , we grant , that Iames hath to do with such , as thought a meer assent to the truth , without holiness , was sufficient hereunto ; but that their beleeving thus could flow from their misunderstanding of Paul's Epistles , is not any way probable , seing Paul in all his Epistles , even where he speaks most of justification by Faith without the deeds of the Law , presseth the necessity of holiness in order to Salvation , so as no imaginable ground hereof can with the least of shewes be pretended . ( 4 ) That when Paul said , justification was by Faith , without the works of the Law , he meant a true & lively faith , which only is to be found in that soul , in which the seed of grace is sown , and which is made partaker of the holy Ghost , and of the divine Nature , is true ; but yet justifying faith , doth not formally containe in it a resolution to obey him , in whom we beleeve , as was shown elsewhere . ( 5 ) Then we see , that the faith , whereof Iames speaketh , is not the same with that Faith , whereby Paul said , we are just●fied : And seing both do not speak of the same Faith , there can be no appearance of discrepance . ( 6 ) When he saith , we must be justified by our Faith , against the charge of being infidels . I would know , what he meaneth , by this charge of infidelity ; If he meane , the charge of not beleeving the Gospel , he knoweth that a meer assent to the truth , will ●ustifie from that Charge . If he meane the charge of not receiving & resting upon Christ , according to the Gospel , even that will be but a particular justification from that particular charge ; and is not that justification from the sentence of the Law , whereof Paul speaketh . ( 7 ) That we must be justified ( as he saith ) by our Gospel personal holiness & sincere obedience , against the charge , that we are unholy & wicked , or impenitent & hypocrites , is true ; but what can all this say , for a justification from the sentence of the Law , under which we are all lying by Nature ; and of which the Apostle Paul speaketh ? And if Iames speak of justification by works , in reference to this accusation , he speaketh of no other kind of justification , than that which the most wicked wreatch , yea & the devils are capable of , when , to wit , they are falsely accused of having done some evil , which they have not done . And how can Mr. Baxter inferre from what Iames saith , ( if he speak of no other kind of justification ) that works are required unto our justification , as to state , or unto our general justification from the sentence of the Law , adjudging us to death because of transgression ? ( 8 ) But he addeth , or else we shall never be adjudged to Salvation , that is , justified by God. Then the Justification , that Iames speaketh of , & that Mr. Baxter meaneth , is final Salvation : And we willingly grant , that there must be personal holiness & sincere obedience before this , and that no wicked or impenitent person , or hypocrite shall be adjudged to Salvation . But the justification , which Paul treateth of , is different from this , though it be the sure way to this , seing all who are justified , shall be thus saved . Thus we see , that according to Mr. Baxter , the meaning of Iames is , the same with Paul's , when he saith Heb. 12 : 14. Follow peace with all men & holinoss , without which no man shall see the Lord. And then , Iames speaketh nothing of that justification , whereof Paul treatch & this is , what we say ; whence it is manifest , that there is no appearance of contradiction betwixt the two holy writers . But that we may come to some further clearness in this matter , we must see , whether Paul & Iames mean & speak of one & the same Faith : for if it be found , that they speak of diverse Faiths , all appearance of Contradiction is removed . Now that the Apostle Paul meaneth of a true , lively , saving Faith , which is a saving fruite of the Spirit of God & the special Gift of God , is easily granted on all hands : All the question is of that faith , which Iames speaketh of , Papist's say , that it is true justifying , that Iames speaketh of : for justifying . Faith , with them , is nothing but a real assent unto the Catholick Doctrine , or to divine Revelation : And indeed if Justifying . Faith be nothing else , it can not be well denyed , that Iames meaneth here a justifying faith . But the folly of this ground is obvious to all , that understand the Gospel : and we need not here insist in confuting the same . That which Iames here saith of this Faith , is enough to demonstrate of what Nature it is ; and the Epithets he giveth it , do sufficiently manifest , that it is not Faith of the Right stamp , nor that true & lively Faith , by which Paul saith , that we are justified : and the discovery of this will be enough to our purpose ; and every verse of his discourse hereanent will help us herein for ( 1 ) vers . 14. it is a profitless Faith , which cannot be said of justifying Faith , as the whole Scripture cleareth . ( 2 ) Ibid. it is a Faith , that hath no ground or reality , but a mans saying , nor no other evidenee , or proof , What doth it profite , my Brethren , though a man say , he hath Faith ? There is no other proof adducable but his say so ; which cannot be justifying Faith. ( 3 ) Ibid●can Faith save him ; so that , it is a Faith , that hath no sure connexion with , nor tendency to Salvation ; which cannot be supposed of the true , lively justifying Faith , as is known . ( 4 ) vers . 15 , 16. It is no more true Faith , than that is true charity , which saith to the naked & destitute brother , depart in peace , be thou warmed & filled & notwithstanding giveth not those things , which are needful to the body . ( 5 ) vers . 17. It is expresly called a dead Faith. But the precious Faith of God's elect is a lively Faith. ( 6 ) ibid. It is a Faith without works , having no connexion therewith , nor being any ground thereunto ; but the true Faith , that justifieth , worketh by Love , & is a living principle , and floweth from the infusion of life . ( 7 ) So vers . 18. It is a Faith uncapable of any true evidence , or demonstration , as to its being , from works of holiness ▪ and so is not accompanied with any real change of soul : But it is not thus with true & saving Faith. ( 8 ) vers . 19. It is such a Faith ; as devils may have : But devils are not capable of justifying Faith. ( 9 ) vers . 20. It is the Faith , that a Vaine man ▪ never humbled in the sense of his own lost Condition , nor driven out of himself to seek reliese elsewhere , in the free mercy & grace of God , through Jesus Christ , may have : But that is not the Faith of the humbled , hear broken man , that 's sleeing to Christ for refuge , ( 10 ) vers . 21 , 22 , 23. It is not such a Faith , as Abraham had , that made him willing to offer up his son Isaac , when commanded , & so wrought with & was evidenced & demonstrated by works . ( 11 ) vers . 25. Nor is it like the Faith of Rahab , which prompted her to receive the Messengers , and send them out another way . ( 12 ) vers . 26. It is such a Faith , that is no better than a carcase without breath , which is no essential part of a living man. But the Faith that justifieth , is a far other thing . By these particulars , it is manifest , that this Faith , whereof James speaketh so much , and which he opposeth unto works , & denieth justification , & salvation unto , is not the precious faith that Paul speaketh of . We have seen , that Paul & James speak not of one & the same faith , we shall now enquire , whether they speak of One & the same Justification : And if it be found , that therein they differ , all ground of imaginable difference will be further removed . What that justification is , whereof Paul speaketh , is manifest , & needeth not here be declared , for it is plaine , that he treateth of that justification , whereby a poor sinner , convinced of his sin & misery , in lying under guilt , & under the Curse of God because of sin , is absolved before God from the sentence of the Law , & accepted of Him , and brought into an estate of Favour & reconciliation , having a right unto Salvation , through Faith in Jesus Christ. Upon the other hand , it is as obvious & cleare , that James is not treating of this justification , whereby a change of state is made in the man. But of a justification of a far other nature , even such a justification , whereby the Mans Faith , the reality of his Christianity , & his justification before God , is evidenced , or may be evidenced to himself , or to others . So that , whether we take justification here , as mentioned by James , for the evidence & demonstration of justification , or for a justification of the truth of the Mans Faith & Christianity , it cometh all to one ; for where true faith & true Christianity is , there is justification , and there only ; so that what demonstrats the one , will demonstrat the other ; and a justification , or manifestation of the one will be a justification of the other . Nor is this sense of the word justifie , or justification alien from the Scriptures , as we see Psal. 51 : 4. Rom. 3 : 4. for God can not other wayes be justified , but by being declared , avowed , & proclamed to be Righteous . So Ier. 3 : 11. Ezek. 16 : 51 , 52. Mat. 11 : 19. Luk. 7 : 35 , 29. 1. Tim. 3 : 16. Now that this is the justification , whereof Iames speaketh , may be furder cleared by these particulars . ( 1 ) The scope , that Iames here levelleth at , being not to clear up the way & manner , how , or the causes by which , this change of Relation & State is wrought & brought about , but to discover the groundlesness of the vaine pretenses of such , as supposed they were justified , & in a sure way to be saved , who had no more for their ground , but a loose & verbal outward profession of the preached truth , without any real fruit of godliness : So that this Enquirie is , what can truely evidence a person to be justified indeed before God ? And he sheweth that an empty fruitless profession will not do it , but works of Faith , or Faith proving it self lively by works . ( 2 ) The very Instance of Abraham , which he adduceth , cleareth this ; for he saith vers . 21. Was not Abraham our Father justified by works , when he had offered his Son upon the altar ? Now twentie five yeers , or as some compute , Thirtie yeers , or thereby before this time the Scriptures say , that Abraham beleeved God , & it was reckoned to him unto Righteousness . Gen. 15. & hence Paul proveth Rom. 4. that he was justified by Faith. Therefore if now he was justified , when he offered , his Son , he must have been twice justified & that in the same sense , with the same kind of justification , which can not be said . Nor will it avail to say , That Gen. 15. he was justified by the first justification , which was by Faith , of which Paul speaketh Rom. 4. But Gen. 22. he was justified with the second justification , which is by works ; & of this Iames speaketh : for this distinction of justification into First & Second , is but a meer device of the Papist's , having no ground in , nor countenance from the Scriptures : and beside , it would follow , that a meer historical , dead Faith is sufficient unto the first justification , and that Paul understandeth such a faith only , when he said Rom. 4. that Abraham beleeved God , & it was counted to him unto Righteousness , the contrary whereof is manifest . Nor will it serve here to say , that Paul speaketh of justification as begun : but Iames speaketh of justification as continued : for then it would follow , that justification at first , or as begun , is by a dead faith , and by such a kind of faith , as devils may have , & consequently , that of such a faith , as this , Paul speaketh ; because of such a faith Iames speaketh , as we have seen : But this cannot be said , for it was a true & lively faith , that Abraham had , when he beleeved the promise of the Messiah & a dead faith is not the faith , that justifieth , first , or last . Yea because Iames maketh an opposition betwixt faith & works , in reference to justification , in the sense , wherein he speaketh of it , it will follow , that faith should not be requisite unto the Continuance of justification . ( 3 ) Iames said vers . 20. that Faith without works was dead : and to confirme this , he addeth vers . 21. was not Abraham our Father justified by works &c. As if he had said . The faith by which Abraham was brought into an estate of justification & life , was a lively faith , having works of obedience attending it , and his obedience declared that his faith was lively , and that he was truely justified by faith , Ergo a faith , that is lifeless , and wholly without works of obedience , is but dead , & can give no ground to conclude one justified , & in the way to life ; So that what mention he maketh of justification by works is but to prove the reality of lively faith ; & by works true justification by faith is evidenced & demonstrated , & not by a bare idle & vaine fruitless profession . ( 4 ) When Abraham was justified by his works , the Scripture was fulfilled , which saith , Abraham beleeved God , & it was imputed unto him for Righteousness , as is manifest from vers . 22 , 23. Now by this mentioned of Abraham in the Scripture Gen. 15 : 6. Paul proveth Rom. 4. that he was justified by faith . But if Iames were here speaking of the way of our becoming justified , before God , as Paul doth , there could be no connexion here , yea the proof should contradict the thing to be proved ; for to say , that Abraham was justified by faith , will not prove , that he was justified by works : nor could his being justified by works , be a fulfilling , a clearing & confirming of that truth , that faith , he was justified by faith ; for faith & works , in the matter of justification , are inconsistent , & perfectly opposite , as Paul teacheth us , & as here Iames also teacheth us . But taking justification here for its declaration & manifestation , it can be by works , and a declaration of justification by works can be & is a very signal confirmation & clearing of that Testimony , which saith , that Abraham was justified by faith . ( 5 ) By that work of offering up his son , at a the command of God , Abraham declared , that he was no hypocrite , but a true beleever , and thus was he justified ( as Mr. Baxter will have it , as we heard lately ) from any such accusation . But a Justification from this accusation , is but a justification of the truth & sinceritie of faith , & so a confirmation & evidence of justification ; or justification as evidenced & declared ; and not justification as produced by its causes . ( 6 ) When Iames saith vers . 23. That the Scripture was fulfilled , which saith , Abraham beleeved God & it was imputed to him unto Righteousness , when he was justified by offering up his son vers . 21. this fulfilling of the Scripture-testimony was , either because at that time , when he offered up his Son , Righteousness was imputed unto him , & he was justified , or because it was then manifest , to be a truth , that he was justified indeed : But the former can not be said , because Righteousness was imputed unto him , and he was justified long before this . Therefore it can be only understood , as to its manifestation . ( 7 ) This is also clear from what the Lord spoke at that time , Gen. 22 : 12. Now I know , that thou fearest God , seing thou hast not witheld thy Son , thine only Son from me . No word here of imputing Righteousness unto him , or of his being brought into a justified state ; but only God's solemne declaration , that he was a true fearer of God , & so one , that had true faith , & was really justified . ( 8 ) Vers. 22. he saith Seest thou , how faith wrought with his works & by works was faith made perfect . But how could this follow upon what he had said vers . 21 ? Justification by works ( if justification be taken absolutely here & not for its declaration & manifestation , ) will not prove faith's working with works . But if justification be here taken for justification declared & manifested , the sense is plaine : for such works as do evidence & declare , that a person is justified , will manifestly prove , that faith is working with these works , because justification presupposeth alwayes a true & lively faith , that will work with works of obedience . ( 9 ) Far less could it follow from justification ( taken absolutly ) by works , that faith was made perfect by works : but from such a work as will evidence a man to be justified , it is manifest to every one , that that work is a clear evidence of a true & lively faith , & by it faith is perfected , that is declared , evidenced & demonstrated , to be faith indeed , as the word perfected is used 2. Cor. 12 : 9. for my strength is made perfect in weakness . ( 10 ) That other Inference vers . 24. ye see then , how that by works a man is justified & not by Faith only : will not follow from what went before , if justification be here taken absolutely : for the command so Abraham to offer up his son was no promise , and to did not call for faith , but for ready obedience , though upon another account he beleeved that God was able to raise him up from the dead Heb. 11 : 17 , 18 , 19. But Gen. 15. promises were made unto him , & he is said to have beleeved , & upon this Righteousness was imputed unto him . So that Gen. 15. he was justified by faith only , as the Apostle proveth Rom. 4. for thereby he confirmeth his Conclusion set down Rom. 3 : 28. that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law. And from that other place Gen. 22. Iames could not inferre , that Justification is by faith & works together , for then he could not inferre therefrom that the Scripture was fulfilled , which said , Abraham beleeved God , & it was imputed unto him for Righteousness , because Paul doth hence inferre Rom. 4. that justification is by faith without works : And what is a ground for justification by faith without works , cannot also be a ground for justification by works & not by faith only ; And thus the Apostles are made in plaine termes to contradict other : by inferring contrary or contradictory conclusions from the same premises : which ought not to be thought , let be said . But it will be said , that Paul speaketh of the beginning of justification , which is by faith without works ; but Iames speaketh of justification , as continued , which is by works , and not by faith only . This cannot satisfie : for beside what is said , it must first be granted hereby , that this faith , which Iames mentioneth , when he saith & not by saith only , must be the same faith , that Paul faith , we are justified by , without the deeds of the Law : but this cannot be , for the faith , that Iames speaketh of is , as we saw above , a dead , useless , fruitless carcass & no saving Faith , as that is , whereof Paul speaketh , and whereby we are justified . But now taking justification for its manifestation & declaration , the words of Iames are most clear , & carry no appearance of contradiction , unto what Paul taught ; For his meaning is , ye see then , how that by works , a man evidenceth , proveth & declareth his Justification , or maketh it manif●st , that he is a justified person ; & not by that faith only , which is but a naked fruitless , & dead profession . ( 11 ) The same may be said of the other Instance of Rahab vers . 25. She was justified by works , when ●he had received the messengers ; not that she was brought into a justified state by that act ; for she received the Spies by faith Heb. 11 : 31. & declared her faith unto them Ios. 2 : 10 , 11. And so was a beleever & consequently justified , before she received the Spies , or they came to her . Yet by this deed , accompanied with so much hazard , unto her self & all her families , she proved & evidenced her faith & justification . ( 12 ) The Conclusion of his discourse vers . 26. for as the body without the Spirit is dead , fo faith without works is dead also , declareth manitestly , what he would be at , to wit , to shew , that works can only demonstrate trew faith & consequently prove justification ; for a naked profession of faith , that wanteth works , is dead , and like a body wanting breath & soul , which is but a dead carcass . This cannot be said of that faith , whereby Paul saith and proveth , that we are justified , for it is true & lively , flowing from the Spirit of life , although it be not as yet proved by outward works of obedience , whereof there may be , as yet , no opportunity or call . What is brought against this sense , of the word justifie & justification , which we have now confirmed , by the Socinian Author of the book , intituled Consensus Paul● & Iacobi &c. pag. 2. &c. and by the Remonstrants in their Apologie Cap. 10. is of no great weight . When they say . That the proposition set down vers . 14. is subordinat to what is said vers . 12. where the judgment of God is spoken of , & therefore saving justification must be here understood . Ans. We grant , that It is saving justification , but yet it is justification that is distinct from Final Salvation . We grant , that Iames speaketh here of saving justification ; Yet he handleth not that question , how & by what Causes this justification is brought about ; but how it is evidenced & proven to be true , and not a meer presumptuous conjecture . They say next . It is said vers . 25. that the Scripture was fulfilled ; not , that it was shown to be fulfilled . A●s . That saying of Scripture was a truth before this time , even when Abraham first beleeved ; which was before he was circumcised as we see Gen. 15. comp . with Gen. 17. & Rom. 4 : 9 , 10 , 11. And therefore was not now first fulfilled , or verified . And to talk of the increase of imputation according to the increase of Faith , and to measure the excellencie of faith , by the excellencie of that obedience which it produceth , as that Socinian Author doth , is to give us nothing but the Popish justification ; for Relations ( of which Nature we hold Justification to be ) are not intended & remitted in themselves , but only as to their evidence : We esteem it a Socinian dream , to say , that the first Narration of Faith & Justification , which is Gen. 15. was but a rude draught of that , which was afterward Gen. 22. Abraham's faith was afterward said to be perfected by that special work , of offering up his son , no● in it self , for he had a strong faith before Rom. 4 : 19 , 20 , 21. but in its manifestation after that signal trial , It is said further . Mans justification cannot be here understood , for that is not necessary to salvation , nor universally true , seing men may justifie other , upon vaine grounds . Ans. No● do we understand any such justification pronunced by men here , but a true justification before God , yet as evidenced , proven & declared by effects , unto all , that will judge understandingly & spiritually , so that works here are mentioned as the Effects , and yet as the Causes of justification . But then they object further . Thas , as the Apostle from that Faith , which the vaine man boasted of denieth the man to be justified , so from works he proveth justification , & that as antecedent . Ans. The Apostle sheweth , that the vaine man , who had no more , but a vaine dead empty faith , had no ground to conclude himself a justified Man : for this is no Cause or Condition of Justification : And hence it will not follow , that works , by which both the reality of sa●ing Faith , & of Justification thereupon , may be evidenced , are antecedent Causes , or Conditions of Justification . It is objected againe by the foresaid Socinian Author . That if the meaning of these words , the Scripture was fulfilled , be , that the Scripture was showne to be fulfilled : then the meaning should be , that it was demonstrated to Abraham's two servants , who went with him to the mountaine , & by them to others ; But then it must be supposed , that before this time , that which passed Gen. 15. was known unto them : & it must he said , that by a work done long afterward , men may see , that the worker was justified . But that should not sutte James's scope , seing by this meanes they might think to delay for a long time their good works , & yet suppose themselves presently justified . Ans. All this is but vaine language ; for it is all one to the scope of Iames , whether this come to the actual knowledge of few , or of many , & who they were to whose knowledge it came ; He is only shewing , that such , as had but a dead faith , that brought forth no works of obedience , when called for , had no evidence , or clear ground to assert their own justification , seing Abraham's justification was thus declared by his signal obedience , to all that came or ever should come to the knowledge of that act of obedience of his , to the end of the world : Yea , had it been unknown to any , yet hereby he had a sure proof , to ascertaine his own heart & conscience of his justification . But say the Arminians , Good works cannot be such a proof & demonstration , because it cannot be known to others , whether these good works proceed from faith , or not . Ans. Nor is any infallible judgment here necessary , or requisite ; nor doth the scope of Iames require any such thing , who is only shewing , that such as wrought not works of obedience , when called for , could not conclude themselves justified , & in a saife estate , notwithstanding of all their faire profession . Notwithstanding we cannot judge infallibly of principles , motives & ends of the good works of others , yet by what may be seen of these , God may be glorified Mat. 5 : 16. 1. Pet. 2 : 12. Thus we have seen , that neither is that faith , whereof Paul speaketh , when he saith . We are justified by faith without the deeds of the Law ; & whereof Iames speaketh , when he saith . Ye see then , how a man is justified by works & not by faith only , is not one & the same . Nor is it the same justification , or justification in the same sense & consideration , that both the Apostles speak of . And therefore how ever , as to their words , they seem to speak contrary to other : Yet in their true sense & meaning , there is nothing but a sweet harmony & agreement . But now as to works , whereof both make mentione , the question remaineth , whether they be one & the same ? The forenamed Socinian Author saith , that both do not speak of the same works ▪ and that Paul excludeth from justification only legal works , & not Evangelical . And consequently , that Iames must speak of Evangelical works only : But sure we are , Iames cannot be supposed to speak of Evangelical works , in their sense ; seing , they cannot say , that Abraham's offering up Isaac or Rahab her receiving & sending away the spies , were Evangelical works . James speaketh of works commanded by the Moral Law , which he mentioneth both in general , & in its particular commands Iam. 2 : 9 , 10 , 11. And all the duties , which he presseth them unto , & the sins , which he disswadeth them from , relate unto the Moral Law. And what these works are , whereof Paul speaketh , we have seen before . Others think , that Iames by Works here meaneth a working faith : & so that his meaning , when he saith , that by works a man is justified , is , that by a working faith , such as Abraham had , a man is justified . But though it be a truth , that justifying faith is a working lively faith ? And that we are justified only by such a faith , as is lively , & prompteth to obedience , in every duty called for ; & though this truth will follow by consequent , from what the Apostle Iames here saith ; Yet I judge , that both Paul & Iames understand the same thing by works , even duties of obedience , performed to the Law of God , & that by Works here in Iames , is not meant a working faith , this not being the scope & designe of Iames to clear up justification in its Causes , or to shew by what meanes it is brought about ; but only to shew , what way it is or may be evidenced proved & demonstrated to ourselves or others , so as we may not be deceived thereanent ; And real works of obedience , as they evidence a true & lively faith , so they prove the reality of justification : And the Apostles intention being , to shew the vanity of that pretence , whereby many deceived themselves , thinking that their profession of the truth of the Gospel was enough to secure their Salvation , & to prove them to be in a justified saife state , though they indulged themselves a liberty to walk loosly , according to the flesh ; this acception of the word works , in a proper sense , is most contributive unto that designe , & no other acception , how consonant so ever unto the Analogy of Faith , doth so directly & clearly contribute assistence thereunto . Therefore he opposeth faith & works , & denieth that to faith , which he ascribed unto works : though by consequence he put hereby a difference betwixt a dead faith , & a working faith ; Yet his principale Thesis vers . 14. is , that by works , & not by a bare profession of the truth , we come to Salvation . And the enquirie prosecuted is , whether we have that faith , that will indeed prove saving , & this can only be evidenced by works , as his whole following discourse evinceth , especially when he saith vers . 18. shew me thy faith without thy works , & I will shew my faith by my works . And vers . 20. when he saith , faith without works is dead & vers . 26. that it is as dead , as a body is without breath or Spirit . And this he fully confirmeth by the following instances of Abraham & Rahab . From what is said , it is apparent , how little ground there is to think , that there is any real appearance of contradiction betwixt Paul & James ; & how needless it is , in order to a reconciliation , to say with Papists , that Paul speaketh of a first justification & Iames of a second ; or with others , that Paul speaketh of justification , as begun , & Iames of justification as continued , or with Socinians , that Paul denieth justification by the works of the Law , James affirmeth justification by the works of the Gospel . CHAP. VIII . No countenance given to Justification by Works , from Jam. 2 : 14. &c. BEcause all , who ascribe our justification in one sense or other ( all are not agreed in one & the same sense ) unto our works , seek countenance unto the same from these words of James Chapt. 2 : 14 , & forward : notwithstanding that what was said concerning this passage , in the fore going Chapter , might be sufficient , to discover the groundlesness of any such pretence , where it was showen , that the whole face of this place looked towards another airth , and had not the least aspect unto any such conclusion ; Yet for a fuller Vindication of this place from this too ordinarie abuse & perversion , we shall examine every part thereof , & see , what ground there is ; for any to alleige the same , for confirmation of their particular opinions . The Papists generally say , that this place speaketh of the Second Justification : But their opinion of a first & second justification is vaine , having no ground in the word , and the whole of their fabrick is sufficiently demolished by the Reformed , writting against them ; so that we need not insist thereupon . Others there are , who suppose that James is here shewing , how justification is continued , & therefore say , though faith alone be the Condition of Justification , as begun ; Yet unto the continuance thereof works are required , as the Condition . But all that speak thus , & think that Iames pointeth forth the Condition of Justification as continued , must say , that those persons , who had this faith , whereof James speaketh , were really justified , & that James doth presuppose them to be justified , & speaketh to them & of them , as such ▪ But then it must be granted , that the Popish faith , consisting in a meer assent unto the truth revealed , is justifying faith ; and that that faith , which is no more true & saving faith , than that is true & Christian Charity , which saith to a brother or sister , that is naked & destitute of daily food , depart in peace , and giveth not those things , which are needful to the body , is sufficient to bring one into a justified state ; and that a dead faith , & a faith of the same nature & kinde , with the faith of devils & a faith , which a vaine man , puft up with a vaine conceite & a fleshly mind may have , & a faith , that cannot & will not worke with works , is a justifying faith : which if true , it would follow , that all men , who beleeve that God is , & Devils also , who beleeve this , should be justified . But none , who understand the Gospel can think or speak thus . And therefore this place carrieth no shew of proof , that works are the Condition of Justification ▪ as continued . Nor can this place give any countenance to such , as say that Faith & Works together are the Condition of Justification , making no difference betwixt justification , as begun , & as continued . For ( 1 ) James'● scope ( as we manifested above ) is not to cleare up & explaine the way , how justification is brought about , or to shew , what are the Causes , or Conditions thereof : but to discover the vanity of that ground , whereupon some professours , who indulged their Lusts , deceived themselves & supposed that they were in a state of justification , & salvation , notwithstanding they neglected all duties of holiness . ( 2 ) James opposeth a faith here unto works , a faith , which he called unprofitable , dead &c. & doth not ascribe justification hereunto , as to a Condition , in whole , or in part : But such , as speak thus , include faith & works , as making up one full & compleat Condition . ( 3 ) The Instances , which James here adduceth , should not then serve his designe , if his purpose was to prove faith & works to be the Condition of Justification ; for Abraham was long justified before that particular act of obedience in offering up his son Isaac , was called for : And so was Rab●● justified before she sent away the spies . ( 4 ) This work , by which Abraham is said to have been justified , was a work , that seemed contrary unto the Moral Law : And therefore if this be urged , as a ground of justification by works , it will rather prove justification by other works , then by works commanded in the Moral Law of God. ( 5 ) The works , mentioned in both the Instances , are outward external works , obvious to the eyes & eares of others : And hence it may as well be proved , that only external works , are required unto justification , and no other . And indeed , if it had been Iames's designe to prove justification by works , he had named other works , then meerly external , that he might have prevented a mistake . But more fully to discover the vanity of this supposition , let us see , what can be alleiged from the several parts of this passage , for justification by works , from vers . 14. it is said . Faith alone cannot save , but is unprofitable ; but yet faith & works is profitable & will save . Ans. This maketh nothing for justification by works ; because it is denied , that whatever is requisite before Salvation , is requisite also before justification , for if so , no man could be said to be justified , as long as he lived . But next , the faith , whereof Iames here speaketh , availeth not to Salvation , because it is not of the right kinde , & we say also , that this faith availeth not to justification , because it is but meer empty profession , deceiving & puffing up & it is but a faith , that a man saith he hath . From vers . 15 , 16 , 17. It is said As charitable wishes , joined with real acts of Love & Alms deeds is , profitable & no other charitable wishes ; so Faith with works , is available to justification , but not without them . Ans. These charitable wishes , not accompanied with Alms deeds , as they are not profitable unto the indigent brother & sister , so they are far from that Christian charity , that is called for in the Gospel : & as that charity is not true , Christian & saving charity ; so neither is the Faith , which he proveth to be dead , true , saving or justifying Faith. Nor doth the Apostle say , that faith with works is available unto justification ; but that that faith , which hath not works , is dead , & not available to prove & evidence , that the man that hath it , is in a saife & in a justified state . But the maine ground of this apprehension is vers . 21 , 22 , 23 , &c. for it is objected that it is expresly said , that Abraham was justified by works . Ans. That it is so said , we grant ; but the difference is about the sense & meaning , in which it is said so . We have shown , that the meaning is . That by works Abraham was declared , proved & manifested to be a justified person , and one that had a true & lively faith ; for it is added , that hereby the Scripture was fulfilled declaring him to have been justified by faith , or that he beleeved God , & it was accounted to him for Righteousness . And this is it , which others have called justification before men , in opposition to justification before God , that is , a justification declared & manifested to the mans own conscience & to others , & not the justification before God in its causes . And this Mr. Baxter seemeth to have mistaken in his Aphorismes , when he argued against this justification before men , as if it had been meerly a justification from Mens Accusation , & not the true justification before God , as evidenced & proved to men : And when we speak of justification in this sense , we do not make the world lawful judges of our Righteousness before God , or in reference to the Law of God , or say , that they are competent , or capable judges : But we only say , that by works of obedience Faith & Justification by Faith is evidenced . And where as he saith . That works are no certaine medium , or evidence , whereby the world can know us to be Righteous : for there is no outward work , which an hypocrite may not performe , & inward works they cannot discerne : nor yet the principles from which , nor the ends to which our works proceed & are intended . There is as much need of a divine heart-searching knowledge , to discerne the sincerity of works , as of faith it self . He may see , that all this will make as much against Christ's saying Mat. 5 : 16. Let your light so shine before men , that they may see your good works , & glorifie your Father , which is in heaven . And that Ioh. 13 : 35. By this shall all men know , that ye are my disciples : if ye love one another : and that 1. Pet. 2 : 12. Having your Conversation honest among the Gentiles — they may by your good works , which they shall behold , glorifie God , in the day of Visitation . Nor is it to the purpose to say , that he was the justifier , who was the imputer of Righteousness , that is , God ; for works of obedience may declare , that God hath imputed Righteousness unto the person , & hath justified him ; and this is all ; we say that Abraham was in this sense justified by his works , that he was declared to be justified indeed before God , by his works . Some were pleased to express their sense of Iames's words thus , That Iames speaks of works as justifying our faith , & not as justifying our persons , meaning only , that the Apostle did not consider works here , as the Cause , or Condition of the persons being justified before God , but as the effect & evidence proving the mans faith to be sound & saving , and consequently the man thereby to have been justified : which sense is the same with what we have given : but Mr. Baxter , saith , it is as plaine , as can be , that it is the person & not his Faith , which is here said to be justified . Ans. The person , it is true , is said here to be justified , but not causatively , but declaratively , that is , It is not said , that by works his justification is effectuated , but that it is declared , & that because it is hereby declared , that the man is a true beleever , & thus his faith is manifested to be of the right kind , which is all that was intended by that expression . Yet Mr. Baxter will not say , that works do effectually produce our justification ( for Faith doth not so . ) But yet he will have both to justifie , as Conditions , or as parts of one Condition : Only he addeth , that they do not justifio , as equal parts of the Condition ; for Faith is the principal ; but as the secondary less principal part of the Condition . Ans. Yet , Iames hinteth at no such thing , but giveth the preference to works : Yea excludeth the faith , whereof he speaketh ; altogether from having any interest in justification , as being nothing but a dead , carcass , a vaine , fruitless & unprofitable thing , & so hath no kind of causality or procurement in justification . But he addeth as a reason . 1. That when it is said we are justified by works , the word by implieth more than an idle concomitanoy . Ans. I shall easily grant this , but withall say , that this will not give unto works any causality in justification ; but only evince works to be an evidence of justification , as the cause is said to be manifested by the effect . He addeth 2. When the Apostle saith . By works & not by faith only , he plainly makes them concomitant in procurement , or in that kind of causality , which they have . Especially seing he saith not , as he is commonly interpreted , not by faith , which is alone ; but by faith only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ans. Then hath fruitless dead faith , which devils may have , a kind of causality in justification ; which is expresly contrary to the scope & all the reasonings of the Apostle : And therefore the common interpretation must be admitted ; But he addeth . 3. Therefore he saith , that faith is dead being alone , beca●se it is dead , as to the use & purpose of justifying ; — This appears from his comparison in the former vers . 16. that this is the death he speaks of ; & so works make faith alive , as to the attainment of its end of justification . Ans. If it be thus , how could he then say before , that faith was the principal part of the Condition ? can that be the principal part of the Condition , which is dead & useless without the other , & must be quickened , in order to its usefulness by the other : I would think , that other looked rather like the principal part , and most considerable & necessary , seing this were but a dead Cypher without it . But the truth is , the Apostle , as is said , hath a far other designe , & sheweth , that that faith , which they pretended unto , as sufficient to ground their concl●sion of their justification , & hope of Salvation , was no true saving faith at all , but a dead thing & so no works could make it of any use as to justification ; because it behoved first to flow from another principle , even from a principle of saving grace ; and then it would evidence & prove itself to be of the right kind , by good works , that would flow from it . But saith he . When the Apostle saith , that faith did work in & with his works , it clearly aimeth at such a working in & with , as maketh them conjunct in the work of justifying . Ans. No such matter ; for the Apostle is only there shewing ( as the whole context cleareth ) that Abraham's faith was another sort of faith , than that , whereupon they relyed ; even a faith that did prompt to the most difficulte duties , when the call of God came , & so did work in & with his performances ; but not in order to justification , for he was justified already , many yeers before this . He addeth . And when he saith , that Faith was made perfect with works , it is not only a manifesting to be perfect , But as the habite is perfected in its acts , because they are the end to which it tendeth : & as marriage is perfected per congressum & procreationem ; or any Covenant , when its Conditions are performed . Ans. The whole of the context sheweth , that faith was perfected purely , as to its manifestation , as by the like expression is clear 2. Cor. 12 : 9. Col. 4 : 12. Mat. 5 : 48. Nay , though It were granted , that faith were perfected by works as the end to which it tendeth , that would say nothing for the interest of faith in justification , but in Salvation ; let is be granted , that justification is perfected by faith without works , as marriage is by consent , without what he addeth , & we have what we desire . That works are a Condition of entering into Covenant , or of the Covenant , in order to justification , as required before justification , is still denied . He saith further elsewhere , against Mr. Cartwright p. 212. That by works faith was made perfect , as is hath naturam medii viz. conditionis to the continuation & consummation of justification . Ans. That the continuation of justification hath other media or Conditions , than the beginning hath , is not yet made apparent : far less can any such thing be drewn from this passage to continuance the same , the Apostles scope not being to speak to any such thing ; nor can it be supposed , that he looketh on such , whose proud conceits he was here depressing , as already justified , as to the beginning of justification , seing a dead faith , ( which was all the faith they had ) is no Condition of justification at all . And as to consummation of justification ( as he speaketh ) Abraham's saith was not yet perfected , neither could be before his death . He addeth finally . That obedience perfecteth faith , as it is part of that necessary matter ( not necessary , at the first moment of beleeving , but necessary afterward , when he is called to it ) whereby he is to be justified against the charge of non-performance of the New Covenants Condition , even against the Accusation of being an unbeleever or hypocrite . Ans. If obedience perfect faith thus , it is only as evidenceing & proving the man a true beleever , & no hypocrite , or one that hath only a meer profession ; which is the thing we say ? if it be looked on as the Condition of the Covenant , & so as the ground of justifying the man from the charge of non-performance of that Condition , it standeth only for itself , & for its own part , & cannot not be said upon that account , to perfect faith ; as when both abstaining from murther , and from stealing is called for ; the absteaning from stealing cannot be said to perfect the other , though it ground a Mans justification from the charge of stealing . And therefor by this assertion , faith can as well be said to perfect works , as works be said to perfect faith . Mr. Baxter giveth this ground of Agreement betwixt Paul & Iames ; that Paul is about this question , What is the Righteousness , which we must pload , against the Accusation of the Law ? or by which we are justified as the proper Righteousness of that Law ? And this he well concludeth is neither works , nor faith : But the Righteousness which is by faith , that is , Christ's Righteousness , Ans. Paul speaketh to this question , how sinners come to be justified before God , & therefore cleareth up the matter of justification , in all its causes ; and not only sheweth what that Righteousness is , which must be pleaded against the accusation of the Law ; but also what way we come to be partakers of that Righteousness in order to our being justified before God , to wit , by faith , without the deeds of the Law. If faith be not that Righteousness , why did Mr. Baxter say ▪ that Rom. 4. where it is said , that faith is imputed unto Righteousness , faith is taken for our act , & not for the object of faith , or Christ's Righteousness laid hold on by faith . But now , what question handleth Iames ? His question is , saith he . What is the Condition of our ●ustification by this Righteousness of Christ , whether faith only , or works also ? Ans. And doth not Paul also speak to this question , when he saith . We are justified by faith ? Will not Mr. Baxter grant , that faith is the Condition of our justification by this Righteousness ? If Iames then handle this question , there shall be no agreement betwixt him & Paul , but a manifest contradiction , for Paul saith that we are justified by faith without the deeds of the Law , that is upon Condition of Faith , as Mr. Baxter will grant , & Iames saith , that we are justified not by faith only , but by works , as the Condition : & here is a perfect contradiction , both speaking ad idem & the one saying we are justified by faith without works , & the other saying by faith & works . What the true question is , whereof Iames speaketh , we have shown above ; & the ●eby manifested a cleare harmonie betwixt the Apostles , & left no ground of suspicion of any contradiction . He saith , next that Paul doth either in express words , or in the sense , & scope of his speach , exclude only the works of the Law , that is , the fulfilling of the Conditions of the Law ourselves . But never the fulfilling of the Gospel Conditions , that we may have part in Christ. Ans. Whether the works of the Law , which Paul excludeth , be so to be understood , or not , we have seen above : only I say , now , that both speak of the same Law , that is , the Moral Law , & both consequently , speak of the same obedience , that is obedience to the same Law : And nothing can be alledged to prove that Paul meaneth works as taken for the fulfilling of the Conditions of the Law ourselves & Iames meaneth the same works as taken for the fulfilling of the Conditions of the Gospel ourselves . And further , the faith that Iames speaketh so much of , is none of the Gospel Conditions of justification , for it is but a dead carcass , & an unprofitable thing . But his following words , saying . Indeed if a man should obey the commands of the Gospel with a legal intent that obedience should be but legal shew that by the works of the Law he meaneth some thing in opposition to the commands of the Gospel , wherein he joineth with Socinians . But we owne no commands of the Gospel , but such as are enjoined by the Law of God , even the Moral Law , of which Iames speaketh expresly vers . 10 , 11. He tels us 3. for clearing of this agreement , That Paul doth by the word Faith especially direct our thoughts to Christ beleeved in : for to be justified by Christ , & to be justified by receiving Christ , is with him all one . Ans. This is all very true , & sure , he must also say , that to be justified by Christ , & to be justified by works , is not all one , for all obedience or works is not receiving of Christ. But now , what doth Iames direct us to by the word Faith , which he mentioneth ? doth he not direct our thoughts to Christ beleeved in ? If not , it cannot be justifying Faith , he speaketh of , as Mr. Baxter supposeth . If yea , why doth he adde works more than Paul doth ? Shall Paul's directing our thoughts to Christ beleeved in , exclude works , and Iames's directing our thoughts the same way include them ? Where is then the agreement ? But 4. he addeth , that when Paul doth mentione Faith , as the Condition , he alwayes implieth obedience to Christ. Ans. It is denied , that he implieth obedience , as the Condition of Justification : And Mr. Baxter himself will grant this , I suppose , as to justification begun , or as to our fi●st justification as he speaketh , in replying to Mr. Cartwright : which is enough for us , for we know no second justification , distinct from the first , whereof either of the Apostles do speak . And I like not that which he addeth , saying . He i.e. Paul ) implieth obedience in requiring Faith , as truely , as he that subjecteth himself to a Prince , doth imply future obedience , in his engagement to obey : for this maketh justifying faith a plaine engagment to obey . And thus to be justified by faith is to be justified by a formal engagment to obey , & a formal engagment to obey , is a receiving of Christ : for to be justified by faith , & to be justified by receiving Christ is all one . Mr. Baxter in his Catholick Theol. part . 2. n. 365. giveth us five particulars of justification by works , that Iames standeth for , & that he accounteth undeniable by any thing but prejudice , Ignorance , & siding peevishness . So that it must be unquestionable , that Iames speaketh of all those particulars , & that he speaketh of justification by works , in no other sense , the contrary whereof we have seen already : Yet let us see what these particular respects are , wherein ( as he saith ) works are not excluded from being Conditions of our justification , or the matter of it . 1. Saith he . That faith itself , which is our act , & an act of obedience to God , & is the fiducial accepting beleefe in God the Father Son & Holy Ghost , for the benefites of the Covenant , is the Condition of our first Cevenant-Right to these benefites . Ans. To speak of Saving Faith in its full latitude , or of that faith , whereby the Covenant is fi●st made up , as such , is not to the present purpose ; but of faith only , or of its acting , in order to justification : and as to this , himself lately told us , that Paul by the word Faith doth especially direct our thoughts to Christ beleeved in : so that faith in this matter is not considered as our work , or as an act of obedience in us , & as our personal Righteousness ; but as the Mean , Hand , or Instrument laying hold on Christ & his Righteousness . And if this be the meaning of Iames , when he saith , we are justified by works , that , we are justified by faith , we shall not contend , as to the thing ; though we conceive Iames handleth another purpose , as is said . 2. Saith he , That this faith is not actual obedience to Christ , as Christ ( at first , but only to God , as God ) But it is the souls subjection to Christ , as Christ , which is our Covenant-consent , to our future obedience , & virtually , though not actually , containeth our future obedience in it . Ans. This upon the matter , is but the same with the former , & needeth no furder answere , as to our present question , concerning the meaning of Iames , when he saith we are justified by works ; for if this faith be not actual obedience , Iames doth not mean actual obedience by the word works , but only that Faith , which is a consent to future obedience . But what the Faith is , whereby we are justified , & what is its peculiar acting , in order to justification , we have shown elsewhere . And to distinguish betwixt obedience to Christ , as Christ , and to God as God , is to be unnecessarily critical : & by Mr. Baxeer we see , that all the after obedience of beleevers is obedience to God , as God , though their first Faith be said to be a fiducial accepting beleefe in God the Father , Son & Holy Ghost , and this be said virtually to containe after obedience , which therefore must be obedience , to God Father , Son & Holy Ghost ; And their first Faith is no obedience to Christ , as Christ , though Christ , as Christ call & invite , yea & command sinners to come unto him , & beleeve in him . 3. He saith . That there is somewhat of Love Consent or willingness , of Desire , of Hop , of Repentance , which goeth to make up this Moral work of Faith , as it is the Condition , even our first Christianity itself . Ans. All this somewhat of Love , Consent &c. which necessarily attendeth Faith ( for that they make up this moral work of Faith , as integral parts thereof , I see no ground to assert ) only shew the true nature & genius of that Faith , whereby we are justified , for it is no where said , that we are justified by Love , Hop , or Repentance ( as for Consent or willingness & desire , they are included in Faith. ) But all this yet saith nothing for the Interest of Works ( as it is pleaded ) in our justification : And if Iames mean no other thing by works he shall give little ground to any to assert justification by works , as is done this day , by too many . 4. He saith , That at the making of a Covenant , is for the performing of it ; & subjection is for obedience ; & Marriag for conjugal duties ; so our said first Covenanting-faith is for our future faith , Hop , Comfort , & grateful obedience & Holiness . And these are the secondary parts of the Condition of Salvation . And so are the secondary parts of our justifications Condition , as continued , or not lost & consummat . For to justifie us is to justifie our Right to Impunity & Glory . Ans. How different Faith as justifying , or in its acting in order to justification , is from this Covenant making , Subjection & Marriage , as explained & applied to this purpose by Mr. Baxter , is elsewhere showne . ( 2 ) That these graces are required in order to Salvation , we grant , & shall not stand to call them secondary parts of the Condition of Salvation , as to its possession . But ( 3 ) we are here speaking of justification , and not of Salvation , which two differ , as we conceive , much more being required to the one , in case persons live after their first Faith , than to the other . ( 4 ) We have shown elsewhere , that justification , as continued hath the same Conditions , that justification as begun hath , & of loseing of justification we read not in the Scriptures , nor yet consummat justification : these are Mr. Baxters new Notions , with which we are not satisfied . ( 5 ) Our Right to Impunity & Glory is had by Christ alone , when we are possessed of his Surety-Righteousness , through Faith ; and thus are justified by Faith : And how justification is a justification of that Right , Mr. Baxter would do well to explaine . In the last place he saith . That our own performance of the Condition of the free Gift of Impunity & Glory , by the New Covenant , purchased by Christ's Righteousness is the thing to be tried & judged in God's judgment . And therefore we must so far be then justified from the charge of not performing that Condition of being Infidels , unsanctified , Impenitent , hypocrites , Apostats ; & so of having no part in Christ & the free gift , even by our personal , Evangelical Faith , Holiness , Repentance , Sincerity & Perseverance , Ans. Then , it seemeth , Iames speaketh only of works , in order to final Salvation , or our justification ; at the day of judgment , and not in order to our justification here , when first brought out of nature into the State of Grace : And if so , what ground can any hence have , to inferre our present justification to be by works , unless they think , that whatever is required antecedent unto our Final Salvation , is required also antecedent to our first justification ? which I know Mr. Baxter will not say . And if this be all that Iames saith , why did not Mr. Baxter give this as a ground of reconciling Iames with Paul , that Iames speaks of works , in order to Final Salvation , but Paul , excludeth them , in reference to justification ? This would have had greater agreement with what the Orthodox say , than to tell us of works being the secondary parts of the Condition of our Justification , and that Iames includeth them as such , when he saith , we are justified by works , and not by Faith only . CHAP. IX . John Forbes his Arguments , against the Imputation of Christ's active obedience , examined . With a View of Wendelin's reasonings against it . John Forbes in his Treatise tending to clear the doctrine of justification Chap. 24. pag. 93. &c. cometh to speak of the matter of our Righteousness , that is , that , wherein Christ is made of God Righteousness unto us ; And tels us , that this in one word , in the Scripture , is said to be his obedience Rom. 5 : 19. But this obedience he restricteth pag. 94. unto the passive Obedience of Christ only in his death : And by this restriction , not only excludeth all his obedience to the Law , but even all his suffering , in his state of humiliation ; Yea & his soul-sufferings also , for any thing that appeareth . He mentioneth a distinction betwixt those things , wherein the Righteousness itself standeth , which is imputed to us , & those things , which are requis●●e in Christ , to the end , that in the other he may be Righteousness unto us . And this distinction is good in itself ; but not rightly applied , when he referreth all to this last head , which Christ did and suffered , except only in his death . He granteth pag. 95. that the word obedience is oft times in the Scripture referred to the whole work of Christ's humiliation : But we do not take it so largely here , as to comprehend even his Incarnation ; but as comprehending that , which belonged to his work of Mediation , as our Sponsor , in satisfying the Law & the Law-giver , for what we were owing , and were not able to pay : Nor can we so restrict it , as he doth : Let us therefore see his grounds . His first ground is this . We are not to esteem Christ to be our Righteousness , in any thing , but in that only , wherein God hath purposed , & according to his purpose ordained , & according to his ordinance set forth Christ to be our Righteousness & Propitiation . For the purpose of God , he citeth Col. 1 : 19 , 20. for the Ordinance 1. Pet. 1 : 18 , 19 , 20. For his setting forth Rom. 3 : 25. Ans. We are not to esteem Christ to be our Righteousness in any thing , but in that only where in the Scriptures hold him forth to be so : And in that , wherein the Scripture holdeth him forth to be so , God purposed , ordained & set him forth to be so : But we must not restrict the whole Seripture to these three or four places cited : If the Scriptures elsewhere pointe forth Christ to be our Righteousness in other acts , than in his death , all this argueing is to no purpose . Sure the Scriptures speak of his sufferings in soul , & of his being made a curse for us , & of his being obedient even to the death , of his being made under the Law to redeem them , that were under the Law : And that what the Law could not do , in that it was weak through the flesh , God , sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh , & for sin condemned sin in the flesh , that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us . See Phil. 2 : 7 , 8. Gal. 4 : 4. Rom. 8 : 3 , 4. ( 2 ) There is nothing in these texts exclusive of Christ's obedience : And it is loose argueing to say , Christ's death only is mentioned in three or foure places of Scripture . Ergo nothing else is mentioned , or to be understood , any where else : the particle Only is not here to be found , neither expresly , nor tacitely . ( 3 ) Beside that in all these passages , there is not one word of a Righteousness , no expression , signifying the matter of imputed Righteousness to consist therein ; or that Christ was our Righteousness , upon the account thereof : Nay , neither here , nor no-where finde we Christ called our Righteousness , because he died for us . Nor doth the Apostle attribute our Righteousness unto his blood only Rom. 5 : 9. Ephes. 1 : 7. Col. 1 : 14. No such thing appeareth there . Neither Pardon , nor Justification , which only are there spoken of , are a Righteousness , or our Righteousness , but the consequences , fruites or effects thereof . His argueing , That without shedding of bloud , there is no remission , & from Heb. 6. & 10. That Christ dieth no more . Therefore Christ is appointed our Righteousness & peace , in nothing , but in his death & bloud of his crosse , is most loose , & can only conclude against those ( if there be any such , that say , By Christ's obedience active only , & not at all by his death & sufferings have we peace & remission of sins . We willingly grant , that without shedding of bloud there is no remission ; But this saith not , that shedding of bloud alone is all our Righteousness . We conjoine both his active & his passive obedience , & so we take in his whole Mediatory work , which maketh up his compleat Surety-Righteousness : and say that this must be imputed to us , in order to our Justification , Peace , Pardon & Acceptance . He ▪ argueth next from Adam , as the Type Rom. 5. & sayeth , that this Type teacheth us foure things . 1. That our Righteousness should proceed from one man Iesus Christ. 2. That our Righteousness should consist in the obedience of that one man. 3. That our Righteousness should consist in one obedience only of that one man. 4. That our Righteousness should consist in the only one obedience of that one man , once only performed . Ans. ( 1 ) If our Righteousness consist in the obedience of Christ , & that in opposition to Adam's disobedience to the Law ; then it must not consist in his sufferings alone ; for sufferings , as such , are no obedience to the Law : And further Christ's obedience is called his Righteousness Rom. 5 : 18. but suffering & dying is no Righteousness . ( 2 ) There is no ground to assert either of the two last , much less both : for though Adam's act of disobedience was one , and that done at once ; Yet it will not follow that therein he was a Typ of Christ ; or that therefore Christ's obedience must be one act only , & that performed at one time only : for Paul hinteth no such comparison , and we must not make typical similitudes without warrand . And againe , one act of disobedience , once committed , is a violation of the Law , & enough to constitute one unrighteous ; but one act of obedience , howbeit frequently performed , far less once only performed , cannot be a compleet Righteousness , which requireth conformity to the whole Law , in all points , & that all the dayes of our life . Wherefore Christ's obedience , being a Righteousness ( which consisteth in full conformity to the Law ) must be perfect , & correspond with the whole Law , & cannot be one only act , once only performed ; & that such an act too , is no formal act of obedience to the Law at all . His Second ground is taken from the signes & seals of the Righteousness , which is by faith , that is Baptisme & the Lord's supper , & tels us , that they signifie & represent to us , what is the Righteousness it self , whereby we are justified , & seale & confirme unto us , that that Righteousness is ours . Ans. I should rather think , that they represent & exhibite whole Christ , & seal to beleevers , or the worthy receivers their interest in Him , & Right to Him , and to all his Spiritual benefites . And though these Sacraments , do in a more special manner , represent Christ , as suffering , or as dying ; Yet it is no good consequence hence to inferre , that his dying alone & shedding his blood is our Righteousness ; for his death is principally & specially there held forth , as being the last & compleeting act of his Mediatory obedience , in his state of humiliation , unto which all his former acts of obedience had a special respect ; & in which they did all ultimatly terminate . And by what reason , will it be proved , that nothing done or suffered by Christ , can be any part or portion of our Righteousness in him , but what is distinctly & expressly represented & pointed forth by these seales ; What shall then become of his soul sufferings in the Garden , & on the Crosse ? these were not his bloud , nor his broken body : & therefore , according to him , make no part of our Righteousness in Christ. But we dar not say this . His Third ground is from Heb. 10 : 5 , 6 , 7. &c. cited out of Psal. 40. And thus he argueth . The obedience of Christ , in the matter of our Righteousness , is of no larger extent , than is the will of God , which he did obey & by which we are sanctified . But this is restrained only to the offering of Christ. Ans. The minor is here denied , there being no such restraint made , as is alleiged : for he came to do all the will of God & therefore was baptised , that he might fulfill all Righteousness : It was not se●ving to the Apostles scope , to mentione any other act of obedience , than his offering up of himself ; but his mentioning no other there , will not exclude all , mentioned elsewhere : Sure , the Adversarie will not exclude the promptitude & readiness of mind , that Christ had unto the offering up of himself , long before the appointed time , as being no part of that obedience , that he performed ; It cannot then be said , that by his once offering up of himself , at the last , alone , we are sanctified , & by nothing going before in conjunction with this . But he tels us , that our Iustification , Reconciliation , &c. are ever attributed unto the bloud , death & Crosse of Christ. Ans. Never exclusively as to his preceeding obedience : Yea we are to be saved by his life Rom. 5 : 10. & justification is upon Christ's Righteousness vers . 18. And all this will as well conclude for the exclusion of his foregoing obedience from being requisite in Christ ( as he said above ) to the end he may be Righteousness to us , as for excluding of it from being any part of our Righteousness : as also the next thing he saith , concerning Paul's respecting in his preaching only the crosse of Christ : for the Apostle is not there speaking meerly of the matter of our Righteousness , but of the Gospel way of Salvation , through a crucified Mediator , which the wisdom of this world despised ; And to this , sure , our Author will willingly acknowledge that more belongeth , than his death abstractivly considered . His fourth ground is from Heb. 10 : 18. whence it followeth , saith he , that i● nothing , which is in Christ himself , before his death , consisteth the remission of our sins , & so consequently our righteousness . Ans. We willingly grant , that in nothing , that Christ did before his death , considered abstractly from his death , and separatly by it self , did remission of sins consist , or to speak more properly , was satisfaction made , in order to remission ; Yet hence it will not follow , that all his preceeding obedience was no part of his Righteousness , or of that , whereof we are made partakers in him ; more than it will follow , that it was not requisite in him , to the end , he might become Righteousness to us : If any said ( as he seemeth to alleige ) that all our iniquities both original & actual were pardoned in his preceeding actual obedience , ( which I shall be loath to say , nor know I who speaketh so ) then his argueing were good , that then Christ should be made to dye without a cause . If any say , ( as he insinuateth also pag. 104. ) that Christ was offered only to remove the punishment of our sin , and not the sin , or guilt thereof , I shall not approve of it . Yet I cannot assent to what he saith . Ibid. That the very offering of Christ for sin , secludes all things preceeding whatsoever , from all vertue or efficacy of removing iniquity ; for then it should seclude his soul sufferings , which , sure , were no small part of the Satisfaction made by him for sin . Neither will it hence follow , that all his foregoing acts of obedience made no integral part of that Surety-Righteousness , which he undertook to performe . He citeth for his first ground 1. Ioh. 1 : 7. To which we say , That it is true , the bloud of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin , because it was the bloud of him , who had fulfilled all Righteousness , & in his death had compleeted that Satisfaction he undertook to do : He tels us againe pag. 105. from Rom. 4. That unto eternal blessedness it is sufficient to have remission of sins . But he remembereth not , that all such as have remission of sins , there , have Righteousness also imputed without works : & we deny , that Righteousness consisteth , in remission of sins alone : But in all this , he is disputing only against such , who say , that remission of sins is had by the imputation of Christ's actual obedience , & by his death , freedome from punishment is obtained ; & with such , I have nothing to do . To what he here addeth of the difference betwixt an innocent man , & a just man , enough hath been said already elsewhere . His sixt & last ground pag. 108. is builded upon the Law of the Priesthood , which saith he , was ordained of God , for this end to make expiation of our sins , & to bring us unto God , which two were shadowed in two actions , in the day of Expiation viz. in offering sacrifice &c. & in carrylng the names of the tribes , ingraven in the stones on his shoulder & brest plate . And this is so far from making against us , that it consirmeth rather our opinion : for that carrying of the names of the Tribes , on the Ephod , which was upon the other holy garments , together with that plate of pure gold , that was upon the mitre , on the forefront having engraven upon it HOLINESS TO THE LORD Exod. 28. was sufficient to typifie & hold forth Christ's holy obedience & Righteousnest , & could not typifie his death & sacrifice . And without a Righteousness , there is no coming or approaching unto God , & this Righteousness is some other thing , than meer remission of sins . His argueing from the Priests first entry on their office at 30. Yeers of age , & Christ's doing the like Luk. 3 : 21. to inferre , that no action performed by Christ before that time , can be accounted the action of expiation of sin , or of reconciliation of us to God , is most vaine ; for ( 1 ) we make no limitation or restriction of his expiatory work to what he did before he was 30 yeers of age . ( 2 ) This will make against himself , & nothing for limiting & restricking all to his last act of death . Therefore he addeth . That no action done after by Christ , can be accounted a Priestly action of expiation except only the offering of himself , & entering with his own blood into the heavens for us . But then ( 1 ) what will he do with his prayer & intercession before his death , specially Ioh. 17 ? ( 2 ) There was more than expiation of sins requisite to bring us unto God ; Therefore the High Priest was to carry that memorial on the front of his Mitre . The learned Wendeline , in his Great Systeme of Theology lib. 1. c. 25. Thes. 7. pag. 1116. &c. disputeth against the imputation of the Active obedience of Christ together with the Passive , making it only a Condition requisite in the Mediator , so as without it , he could not be our Mediator , & merite any thing to us , by his death : So that in his judgment , Christ's active obedience , whereby his obedience to the Law of God is understood , & that no doubt , moral , Ceremonial & Judicial , did only contribute to qualify him , to be a fit Mediator , which it seemeth then , according to him , he was not by his hypostatical union ; & to put a value upon his passive obedience , ( by which he understands his suffering & dying , so undergoing the Curse of the Law , & paying the penalty in our room ) which his being God did not , as it would seem , sufficiently doe : And thus all his acts of obedience , while under the Law , & in the state of humiliation , howbeit in all he may be conceived as a sufferer , are excluded from being any part of the Satisfaction , he was to make unto justice , & to the Law-giver , for us & in our room , or any part of that Righteousness , which is imputed to us , in order to Justification . He first proposeth his Arguments & Vindicateth them , & then proposeth , some , used for the contrary opinion , adding his Answers . His 1. Arg. is , Christ , as man , was bound to give active obedience to the Law , for himself ; every Creature is bound to obey his Creator . Therefore it is not imputed unto us . Ans. The Antecedent is denied ; neither doth the proof adduced confirme it ; for the humane Nature of Christ , now in the state of glory , is & will be a creature for ever ; Yea the consirmed angels , & Saints made perfect are Creatures , yet not subject to any Law as Viatores , but as Comprehensores ; such was not the obedience of Christ , while in the flesh . He was obedient , as a Viator , but in respect of himself , he cannot be looked upon as a meer Viator , his Humane Nature being personally united unto the divine , & subsisting therein , in respect whereof he became heir of all things , & Lord of life ; & therefore stood in no need of working out a life of obedience for a crown to himself : wherefore , what he did as a Viator was for us , for whom he subjected himself , & became obedient , even to the death : And moreover all his acts of obedience were not the acts of obedience of a meer creature , out of one who was God-man ; for his humane Nature did not subsist of it self , and so did not of it self as a nature not subsisting , performe acts of obedience , but in the Godhead , & performed acts of obedience , as so subsisting . We have said enough to this at several occasions before . It was Answered Christ was made man , not for himself , but for us ; Therefore he obeyed not for himself , but for us , that is , in our place . He Replyeth . 1. The Anteced . is ambiguous : If you say Christ was made man for us , that is , for our good , it is granted , if for us , that is in our room , it is denied : for what Christ was made , in our place , that we are not bound to do & to be , as he was made a curse for us , that we might not be an eternal curse . But Christ by his Incarnation did not obtaine , that we should no more be men , or be bound to do things congruous to humane Nature . Ans. We grant that he was made man for us , not in our room , but for our good : Yet do hence gather , that he being made man for our good , to the end he might come under the Law , both as to its duty , & as to its curse , under both which we were lying , what he did , as well as what he suffered , while in that Condition , in order to the ends of his being made man , for our good , was in our room & stead ; because this was our debt & he became man for our good , that in our stead , he might pay our debt . The reply is not grounded upon that word alone , he was made of a woman , but on that , with what followeth . Made of a woman , made under the Law. And if it would have necessarily followed , from his being made of a woman , that he would have been under the Law for himself ; to what purpose was this added , made under the Law ? And yet we see the maine emphasis lyeth here , because of what is added to redeem them , that were under the Law. And why did the same Apostle Phil. 2 : 7 , 8. after he had said , that he took upon him , the forme of a servant , & was made in the likeness of men , & found in Fashion , as a man , tell us moreover , that he humbled himself , & became obedient unto death , seing this did necessarily follow his being man , & that for himself ? And may it not hence be inferred , that the exaltation afterward mentioned vers . 8 , 9. was given to him , not as Mediator , but for himself , as an humble , obedient man ? He R●plieth 2. denying the Conseq . for ( saith he ) albert Christ was made man , not for his own , but for our good ; Yet after he was made man , he was a man by himself , & therefore subject to the Law by himself , & for himself , as man● as after he assumed a body subject to corruption of itself , he stood in need for himself , of meat , drink , rest &c. As it was not necessary for man to be created , so nor for the Word to be incarnate , & to assume the forme of a servant , but only upon supposition . Yet as man , being created , is necessarily subject to the Law of his Creator ; So the Word being made man , is , as man , necessarily subject to the Law of God. Ans. ( 1 ) Christ , being made man , for our good , & particularly for this end , that he might come under the Law , & pay our debt , he was not subject to the Law for himself . ( 2 ) Though he was true man , having mans Nature , yet he was not made man , as other men are ; for his humane Nature had no subsistence of its own , as other men have ; & therefore could not for it self be subject to the Law , as other men are . ( 3 ) How or what way Christ's body was subject to corruption , of it self , we need not here debate ; it is sufficient , to note , that our question here is about moral actions as such , the performance of which was a part of our debt . ( 4 ) What is added , is but a repetion of what is denied , to wit that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word , becoming man , did become , upon that account , necessarily subject to the Law for himself . His 2. Arg. is . If Christ did performe active obedience , in our room , so as it might be imputed to us unto Righteousness , then we should be no longer obliged to performe active obedience to the Law. The reason of this , he taketh from the like , saying ; as we are not obliged to undergo eternal death , because Christ hath sustained that , in our room . Ans. To this enough hath been said elsewhere : I shall only here say , That it will no more hence follow , than from the Satisfaction of Christ ( whatever Socinians alleige ) that we are loosed from all obedience to the Law ; but only that we are loosed from that obedience , which was required , under the Old Covenant of works , to wit , to perfecte obedience , & thereby obtaine the prize , as our reward of debt ; and faile in the least , & lose all , which were the Conditions of the Old Covenant ; and as to this we deny the minor . He replieth by denying , what is now in question , to wit , That Christ performed active obedience , in our room , to procure eternal life to us , affirming that he was bound to do it for himself , & so did merite nothing to ut thereby . Ans. This is but , what was said above ; & hence it is cleare , that , in his judgment , Christ wrought for the crown of glory to himself , & did merite it to himself : & so had no Right thereto before , by vertue of his hypostatical union , let be possession , albeit all the Angels were to worshipe him , & his throne was for ever & ever Heb. 1 : 6 , 8. He addeth . If notwithstanding of Christ's active satisfaction , we be obliged to satisfie actively ; so , notwithstanding of his passive satisfaction we should be bound to satisfie passively , that is suffer eternal death . Ans. All the obedience now required , is no satisfaction to the Old Covenant-Conditions : Christ hath satisfied that , and left no part thereof for us to do ; And therefore it will not follow , that we are bound to suffer eternal death , or any part of the Curse , as such . To that answere , that some gave , that by Christ's active obedience we have this advantage , that we are more obliged unto rigide & exact obedience . He replieth . That then we should not sin by short-coming , or negligence . Ans. But by that rigide & exact obedience , is not meaned full conformitie unto the Law ; but such a conformitie , as was the Condition of the Old Covenant , as is said ; that is , we are now freed from obtaining the crown , or right thereto by perfect conformity ( which to us is impossible ) & from loseing of the crown upon the least escape or failing . All obedience runneth now in another channel , though the commands & the Law , as a Law & rule of walk , remaine the same . His 3. Arg. is . The Scripture every where , speaking of our justification & pardon , mentioneth Christ's passive , & not his active obedience . As Esai . 53 : 5 , 6. Rom. 3 : 24 , 25. & 5 : 9. Gal. 3 : 13. 1. Ioh. 1 : 7. Ans. It is denied , that the Scripture doth every where mentione only Christ's passive obedience , and the contrary hath been frequently showne . And as to the places mentioned , none of them containe any exclusive particle , or hinte the exclusion of his active obedience : And our Adversaries themselves must understand these & the like passages , Synecdochically , otherwayes they shall exclude Christ's soul sufferings , as well , as his active obedience , & restrick all to his death & bloud shed on the crosse ; which yet they will not do . Now followeth his answere to some Arguments for the contrary Arg. 1. Two things are required unto our Salvation , delivery from death , & the gift of life ; that is had by expiation of sin by his suffering , this by the donation of Righteousness , or imputation of his active obedience . He answereth . The passive obedience of Christ both expiateth sin , & giveth life , his death giveth life 1. Pet. 2 : 24 , & 3 : 18. Ans. True , but the reason is , because it was the death of one , who had fulfilled all Righteousness : we need not speak of his obedience & of his sufferings , so distinctly , as to ascribe to each severally , these several effects ; It is better , I judge , to take both conjunctly , as one compleet Righteousness , for us , & one meritorious cause of all the benefites procured thereby . Arg. 3. ( for the Arg. 2. I passe , as judging it not cogent . ) The actual disobedience of Adam made us sinners . He answereth . If by actual obedience of Christ , in the Conseq . his active obedience be understood ( for his passive may also be called actual , in that actually & not potentially only he suffered ) & that imputed to us , the consequens is denied : for Christ's passive obedience imputed hath restored unto us what we lost by Adam's disobedience . Ans. But thus the comparison , that Paul maketh Rom. 5. betwixt Adam's disobedience & Christ's obedience is taken away : He opposeth the Righteousness of Christ to the offence of Adam : now Christ's death & suffering is no where called his Righteousness : So he opposeth obedience to disobedience , & therefore , as the disobedience was the violation of the Law , obedience must be the keeping of the Law. Christ's death imputed is no Righteousness answering the commands of the Law ; and therefore , though it did merite the recovery of what we lost in Adam , being the death of one , that fulfilled all Righteousness ; Yet considered abstractly , by it self without his active obedience , it cannot be our formal Righteousness , with which we must be covered & as having which we must be considered , when justified of God , who pronunceth none Righseous , but such as are Righteous indeed . Arg. 4. With Christ's active obedience , his passive was conjoined . He ans . Denying the conseq . that therefore the one cannot be imputed without the other : for things conjunct can be distinguished ; & as the one can be known , so also imputed without the other . Ans. But they are so conjoined , as being integral parts of one compleat Surety-Righteousness & Satisfaction for our debt ; & therefore belong to his Estate of humiliation ; during which in all his obedience there was suffering , for a part of his subjection was , that he was made under the Law , even under the commanding power thereof ; because otherwayes , being God & Man in one person , he was not subject to the Law , as a Viator , in reference to himself . So in all his sufferings , there was obedience . And what is thus inseparably conjoined , we ought not to separate , especially seing our case & necessity calleth for the imputation of both . Arg. 5. If only Christ's passive obedience were imputed , then only the halfe of Christ should be given unto us ; contrary to Esai , 9 : 6. He Ans. denying the Conseq . because it is one thing to be given to us , & another thing to be imputed , even Christ's humanity & deity is given unto us . Ans. But Christ was so given , as that all he did & suffered , as such a given & publick person & which our case called for , was to be made over to us , in order to our receiving the grand benefites of pardon & life : Now it was necessary for us , to have a Righteousness , consisting in perfect obedience to the Law , because of that Constitution , Do this & live , & Suffering , as such , is no obedience to the Law. He addeth . Their opinion is hard , who deny that Christ's passive obedience is imputed to us unto Righteousness , & that it is the cause of the reward , or of life eternal . How could Christ's blood purge us from all sin , if it were not the Cause of our Righteousness ? how should he give his flesh for the life of the world , if life were not restored to us thereby ; ho● should we be healed by his stripes , if we were not sanctified by him ? how should Christ's death be our life , if we gote not life thereby ? betwixt freedone from the Curse of the Law , & right to the everlasting inherita●ce , there is no middle state . Ans. ( 1 ) We deny only , that Christ's passive obedience alone is imputed to us , unto Righteousness ; for alone considered , being only the paying of the penalty , it is not the Righteousness required in the Law. ( 2 ) The paying of a penalty , though it may deliver from punishment ; yet cannot procure a right to the reward , promised to keeping of the Law ; as is manifest ; & therefore Christ's passive obedience , considered alone , cannot procure a right to that reward of life , that was promised to the fulfilling of the Law by obedience . ( 3 ) Christ's blood , being the blood of one , that fulfilled also the Law ; and conjunct with that obedience , both purgeth from sin , & meriteth life : And so we say of the rest following ; only I cannot see how pertinently , in the last , sanctification is mentioned ; for we are speaking of right to life eternal . ( 4 ) It is true , as to us now , there is no midd'le state , betwixt freedom from the Curse of the Law , & Right to the Inheritance ● because Christ's whole obedience both active & passive is imputed , as a compleat Satisfaction & Righteousness , whereby we come to obtaine both a freedome from the Curse , & a right to the Inheritance : But in Adam before he fell , there was a middle state , for so long as he stood , he was free of the Curse , & yet was to finish his course of obedience , in order to obtaining the right to the promised reward ; unless it be said , that no more was promised , than the continuance of what he possessed . It was excpted , That the Law is not fulfilled by suffering the punishment : for the Law & the command is one ; but punishment fulfilleth not the commandement , it only satisfieth the threatning . Therefore the suffering of the punishment can not be the cause of the reward . He ans . by denying the Antec . & saying , that by suffering of the punishment the Law is fulfilled by the Mediator , partly formally , in that he suffered the punishment due to us by the Law , partly efficiently , in that by his sufferings he not only took away the Curse , but acquired a holiness to us , & with holiness , life eternal . Ans. This answere is no way satisfying ; for suffering of the punishment , as such , is no obedience to the Law ; and of the fulfilling of the Law by obedience to the commands thereof , did the Exception only speak , no man will say , that such as are now suffering the punishment in hell , are any way fulfilling the Law. Neither is that holiness , procured by Christ's death , any fulfilling of the Law , according to the Old Covenant ; & such a fulfilling is required , in order to the obtaining of a right to the reward of life , promised in that Covenant . He answereth againe , that when the threatning of the Law is satisfied , that is done , which the Law commandeth to be done ; & so in part the Law is fulfilled . Ans. Suffering as such is no commanded thing , & the Law constituting a penalty , maketh only suffering to be due , but doth not enjoine any suffering : So that though the Law be satisfied with a Satisfaction laid down by another , so far as that the other is not to suffer ; Yet by this paying of the penalty , the Lawes commands are not fulfilled , in whole , nor in part ; And the Law , as to the commands , must be fulfilled , ere a right to the reward , promised to obedience● , be obtained . Arg. 6. is taken , from passages of Scripture , mentioning the active obedience of Christ , such as Dan. 9 : 24. Ier. 23 : 6. 1. Cor. 1 : 30. Rom. 5 : 19. Phil. 2 : 8. He Ans. 1. That these places do not prove , that Christ's active obedience is imputed , so as by it we are accounted observers of the Law. Ans. These passages sufficiently prove , that his active obedience belongeth to that Righteousness & Satisfaction , which is imputed unto us ; & the fruites of the Righteousness of Christ , imputed , are here as well ascribed to his active , as to his passive obedience : of the places in particular , we have said enough elsewhere : our disput here is not about imputation , but about that which is imputed , or that , which is reckoned to us , as our Righteousness , & this , we say , cannot be pure suffering of the penalty ; for that , as such , is no Righteousness nor no where is it so called . He Ans. 2. That it only followeth , that the reforming of our corrupt nature could not be had from Christ & by Christ , without his active obedience . Ans. The same may as well be said of the passive obedience ; & so the cause shall be yeelded unto the Socinians : But the matter is clear . That Christ is our compleat Righteousness , not effectivly : for he worketh no compleat legal Righteousness in us , that is a Righteousness according , as was required in the Old Covenant : And beside the expiation of sin , he brought in a Righteousness , which is called everlasting Dan. 9 : 24. which can not be understood of our imperfect sanctification . And beside that he is our Sanctification , he is our Righteousness 1. Cor. 1 : 30. & therefore must be our Righteousness another way , than by working it in us ; for so is he our Sanctification . And Rom. 5. our justification & life is directly ascribed to his Obedience & Righteousness . To that Phil. 2 : 8. he saith . The meaning is , that Christ from his birth to his death , did so accommodate himself to his Fathers will , that he suffered all most patiently , that was to suffer , even the cursed death of the crosse . Ans. It was a suffering of what he was to suffer , even to come under the Law , for that was a part of his humiliation ; & the text saith , he humbled himself , & became obedient ; and there is no ground to restrick the word Obedient , to his suffering only . Arg. 7. Christ was made under the Law for us Gal. 4 : 4 , 5. He Ans. He was made under the Law for our good , that he might be a fit Mediator . Ans. Why may not we as well admit the same sense of Christ's being said to be made a curse for us , to wit , that it was only for our good ; and so give up the Cause to the Socinians ? Then it seemeth all the Hypostatical union , & his having the Spirit , without measure , was not sufficient to make him a fit Redeemer for us . Nor was he a fit Mediator , untill he had finished his whole course of obedience . And yet he was borne a Saviour Luk. 2 : 11. And was the Lord's Christ vers . 26. & Salvation vers . 50. Arg. 8. We are made acceptable unto God in the beloved , Christ , Ephes . 1 : 6. He Ans. We are acceptable to God by inherent obedience , which Christ hath purchased by his sufferings . Ans. But the Text is to be understood of a being made acceptable , in order to our obtaining the redemption , mentioned vers . 7. that is , the forgiveness of sins ; & so cannot be meaned of that acceptation , which is upon our inherent holiness , which followeth our Justification & Pardon . Arg. 9. Christ hath purchased his Church , that he might present it to himself a glorious Church , not having spot or wrinkle Ephes. 5 : 27. He Ans. That Christ did purchase by his death the churches inherent Righteousness . Ans. This is granted . But not withstanding ▪ the expressions here used , & in the foregoing verse , will hold forth a full cleansing , not only from the staine & power of sin , in Sanctification ; but also from the guilt of sin in justification , the Church must be presented without spot , or wrinkle , or any such thing , & cleansed with the washing of water , & holy & without blemish : Now in order to justification , the sinner must be clothed with a compleat Righteousness . Arg. 10. Beleevers are found in Christ , having a Righteousness Phil. 3 : 9. How forceable this place proveth our point , hath been shown elsewhere . He Ans. The Righteous●ess of Faith is twofold , one is imputed & apprehended by Faith , which is Christ's passive obedience ; the other is inherent , which is also by Faith. Ans. But Paul here layeth by all his inherent Righteousness , which was his own , & was according to the Law ; & only betaketh himself , to that Righteousness , which is of God by Faith : & this is not to be restricked to Christ's sufferings only ; for these , as such are not a Righteousness , as hath been oft said , & the contrary hath never yet been proved , though it be the maine ground of all . Arg. 11. We are perfect & compleat in Christ Col. 2 : 10. He Ans. Christ maketh us perfect in justifying , sanctifying & glorifying us , by the imputation ef his passive obedience only . Ans. This is but to assert the thing , that is a disproving : we say , we cannot be justified , without the imputation of a compleat Righteousness , because in justification we receive a right to life , & this cannot be had , according to the Constitution of God , do this & live , till the Law be satisfied by obedience , & because we could not do it , we must have it in & from Christ , in whom we are compleat , & have all , we need . Arg. 12. Christ hath delivered us from all our debt , both of yeelding perfect obedience , & of suffering for disobedience Col. 2 : 14. He Ans. He denyeth this , & sayeth ; Christ hath not delivered us from giving perfect obedience , for we remaine obliged thereunto , & wherein we come short it is pardoned for his satisfaction imputed to us , & it is piece & piece made up by begun holiness , which hereafter shall be perfected . Ans. This looseth not the force of the argument ; for though we be obliged to keep the Law in all points , yet we are not under that obligation , by vertue of the Old Covenant , so that the least breach should frustrate us of heaven , & so as the reward should be of debt , and of this obligation the Argument is to be understood : Now because , by vertue of this Covenant , which must be satisfied , we cannot partake of the prize , because it is violated , therefore , it must be satisfied by the perfect obedience of another , of our Surety , which must be imputed unto us , in order to life ; for all our begun sanctification will not avail us ; & Christ's satisfying by his suffering , according to that , that day thou eats , thou shalt die , doth not withall satisfie that other part of the Law , do this & live . Arg. 13. We must not only not be unjust , but we must be just , if we would have life eternal . Therefore Christ's Righteousness must be imputed , as well as his death . He Ans. denying the Conseq . And saith . We are freed from the Curse of the Law by Iustification , whereby the Passive Righteousness of Christ is imputed to us : Purity is begun in us in Sanctification . Ans. By justification we have no Righteousness imputed to us , for we must be Righteous , before we be justified ; & therefore must have a Righteousness imputed before . ( 2 ) Our begun Sanctification , is no purchase of the reward of life ( 3 ) delivery from the Curse , is but a freeing us from punishment , or from the guilt of punishment , but this is nothing but a being not unjust , as Adam was before he fell ; It is not a being positivly just , in order to the reward ; for to this is required compleat obedience to the Law , & that unto the end , in which respect Adam was never just , having never finished his course of obedience , that he might have had a right unto the reward promised , I mean in himself . CHAP. X. The Fathers give Countenance to the Doctrine of Imputation ; and some Papists approve it . THat it may not be thought , that the Doctrine of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ , is a new up-start opinion , I shall here set down some of their Testimonies unto this truth ▪ Iustin. Martyr . Epist. ad Diognet . p. 386. Quid enim aliud peccata nostra potuit tegere , quam ejus justitia ? in quo alio nos iniqui & impii pro justis haberi possumus , quam in solo Dei filio ? O dulcem permutationem ! o impervestigabile artificium ! O beneficia expectationem omnem superentia ! ut iniquitas quidem multorum in justo uno abscondatur ; justitia autem unius faciat , ut multi injusti pro justis habeantur . i. e. for what else could cover out sins , but his ( i. e. Christ's ) Righteousness ? in whom else , could we , who are naked & ungodly , be accounted for Righteous persons ? than only in the Son of God ? O sweet permutation ! O unsearchable Contrivance ! O benefites exceeding all expectation ! that the iniquity of many should be hid in one just one , & the Righteousness of one should make many , who are unrighteous , be accounted Righteous . Againe in lib. de Expositione fidei . Filius Dei , quatenus homo , vitam ab crimine remotam traduxit ; mortemque voluntariam pertulit ; per exactam & accuratam Conversationem , peccatum obliterans , & per mortem indebitam debitum delens . i. e. The Son of God , as Man , led a life free of all fault , and suffered a voluntary death ; obliterating sin by his exact & accurat Conversation , & deleting the debt by an undue death . Irenaeus Adv Haeres . c. 15. Dominus in Amicitiam nos reduxit per suam in●arnationem , mediator De● & hominum factus , propitians quidem pro nobis Patrem , in quem peccaveramus , & nostram inobedientiam Consolatus : nobis autem donans eam , quae est ad Factorem nostrum , Conversationem & Subjectionem . i. e. The Lord brought us into friend shipe by his Incarnation , being made a Mediator betwixt God & Man , Propitiating the Father for us , against whom we sinned & comforting us over our disobedience : but freely giving us that Conversation & Subjection , which is to our Maker . Athanasius Tom. 2. p. 270. Necessarium est , maximeque necessarium , ●re●dere Scripturis Sanctis , confiteri ex nostro genere primitias , celebrare singularem● assumentis in genus humanum amorem , obstu pescere magnâ oeconomiae atque dispo sitionis miraculum , non timere execrationem legis ( Christus enim nos a maledictione legis liberavit ) impletionem legis a primitiis factam toti massae asscribere ( imputare , in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) i. e. It is necessary , yea most necessary , to beleeve the holy Scriptures , to confesse the first fruits ( i. e. Christ ) of our kind , to celebrat that singular love of him that assumed ( viz. Mans Nature ) unto mankind ; to be astonished at that miracle of the great Oeconomie & disposition ; not to feare the Curse of the Law ( for Christ hath delivered us from the Curse of the Law ) ascribe or impute the fulfilling of the Law , done by the first fruits , unto the whole masse . The same Author de Incarn . Verbi contra Samosat . Tom. 1. p. 461. Impossibile est puritatem & innoeentiam in humana natura exhiberi , nisi Deus credatur in carne esse , qui justitiam omni peccato liberam in mundum introduxit , cujus quia participes redditi sumus , vivemus & salvabimur . Illud enim non est justus in terra , qui bonum faciat , & non peccet , in commune , ad omnes homines pertinet , unde ex coelo descendit , qui immaculatam ex se justitiam daturus erat . i. e. It is impossible that purity & innocency shall be exhibited in mans nature , unless we beleeve , that God is in the flesh , who hath brought into the world a Righteousness free of all sin , of which because we are made partakers , we shall live & be saved : for that there is not a just man upon earth , who doth good & sinneth not , doth appertaine to all men in common , wherefore he descended from heaven , who was to give a pure Righteousness of himself . Chrysost. When a Cavilling jew shall object , how can the world be saved by the Rectitude , or Obedience of one Christ ? Answere him againe , by asking , how came the world to be condemned by the disobedience of one Adam ? Greg. Nyssen . Orat. 2. iu Cantic . Christus in se transtatis peccatorum meorum sordibus , puritatem suam mecum communicavit ; meque pulchritudinis ejus , quae in ipso est , participem fecit . i. e. Christ having translated the filth of my fins upon himself , did communicat unto me his own purity , & made me a partaker of that beauty , which is in him . By these we may see , that even before Augustins dayes , this Truth was asserted , though Mr. Baxter , in his book against D. Tully Ch. 1. § 3. intimate the contrary . Cyrillus Alexandr . in Ioan. lib. 11. c. 25. Quemadmodum praevaricatione primihominis , ut in primitiis generis nostri , morti addicti sumus : eodem modo per obedient●am & justitiam Christi , in 〈◊〉 seipsum legi subjec● quamvis legis Author esset , benedictio atque vivificatio , quae per Spiritum est , ad totam nostram penetravit naturam . i. e. As by the transgression of the first man , as in the first fruits of our kind , we are adjudged unto death ; so the same way by the Obedience & Righteousness of Christ , in as much as he subjected himself to the Law , though he was the Author of the Law , the blessing & Vivification , which is by the Spirit , did reach to our whole Nature . Leo Epist. 72. ad Iuvenalem . Ut autem repararet omnium vitam , recepit omnium causam , & vim veteris chirographi pro omnibus solvendo vacuavit : ut sicut per unius reatum omnes facti f●erant peccatores , ita per unius innocentiam , omnes fierent innocentes , inde in homines manante justitia , ubi est humana suscepta Natura . i. e. But that he might repaire the life of all , he undertook the cause of all , & paying for all made void the force of the Old obligation , to the end that as by one mans guilt all were made sinners , so by one mans innocency , all might become innocent ; Righteousness coming unto men thence , where the humane Nature is taken on . August . ad Laurent . Cap. 41. Ipse peccatum , ut nos justitia ; nec nostra , sed Dei sumus : nee in nobis , sed in ipso ; sicut ipse peccatum , non suum , sed nostrum , nec in se , sed in nobis constitutum , similitudine peccati , in qua crucifixus est , demonstravit . i. e. He was sin as we were Righteousness , not our own , but of God , not in ourselves but in him : as he did demonstrat himself to be sin , not his own , but ours ; not in himself , but in us , by the similitude of sinfull flesh , in which he was crucified . Idem in Psal. 30. Cone . 1. in tua justitia erue me & exime me , quia non invenisti in me justitiam meam , erue me in tua , hoc est illud , quod me eruit , quod me justificat , quod ex impio pium facit , quod ex iniquo justum . i. e. Deliver me in thy Righteousness . Because thou didst not finde my Righteousness in me , deliver me in thine ; that is it which delivereth me , which justifieth me , that maketh me of ungodly godly , & of unrighteous Righteous . Id. in Psal. 70. Erue me in justitia tua , non in mea , sed in tua ; si enim in mea , er● exillis , de quibus ille ait , ignorantes Dei justitiam , & suam volentes constituere , justitiae Dei non sunt subjecti . i. e. Deliver me in thy Righteousness . Not in mine , but in thine ; for if in mine , I should be of them , of whom he saith , being ignorant of God's Righteousness & willing to establish their own , they did not subject themselves unto the Righteousness of God. Id. Tom. 9. Tract . 3. in Ioan. Omnes qui ex Adamo cum peccato , peccatores , omnes qui per Christum justificati , justi ; non in se , sed in illo ; nam in se , si interroges , Adam sunt ; in illo si interroges , Christi sunt . i. e. All that are of Adam with sin are sinners , all who are justified by Christ , are Righteous ; not in themselves , but in him ; for if you ask , what they are in themselves , they are Adam's ; if you ask what they are in him , they are Christ's . Bernard . Serm. 61. in Cantic . Nunquid justitias meas ? Domine , memorabor justitiae tuae solius : Ipsa est enim & mea ; nempe factus es mihi tu justitia a Deo. Nunquid verendum , ne non una duobus sufficiat ? non est pallium breve , quod secundum Prophetam , non possit operireduos , justitia tua justitia in aeternum , & te pariter & me opertet larga & aeterna justiti● , & in me quidem operit multitudinem delictorum . i. e. Shall I make mention of my Righteousness ? Lord , I will make mention of thine only : for that is also mine , because thou art made of God unto me Righteousness . Is it to be feared that that one shall not serve two ? It is not a short cloak , that according to the Prophet , cannot cover two ; thy Righteousness is an everlasting Righteousness , & that large & eternal Righteousness shall cover both thee & me , & in me indeed it shall cover a multitude of sins . Id. Dom. 1. post Octav. Epiph. Serm. 1. Veruntamen , ut jam non sit quod causeris , O homo , contra inobedientiam Adae , datur tibi obedientia Christi , ut si gratis venundatus es , gratis & redimaris . i. e. But , that thou ô man , should not have whereof to complean , fore against the disobedience of Adam ( which he said before , was imputed ) the obedience of Christ is given unto thee , to the end , that if thou be sold for nothing , thou shalt also be redeemed for nothing . Idem Epist. 190. ad Innocent . Pont. Rom. Quid namque ex se agere poterat , ut semel amissam justitiam recuperaret homo , servus peccati , vinctus diaboli ? assignata est ei proinde aliena , qui carui● sua , & ipsa sic est . Venit Princeps mundi & in Salvatore non invenit quicquam , & cum nihilominus innocenti manus injecit , justissime quos tenebat amisit ; quando is qui morti nihil debebat , accepta mortis injuria , jure illum qui obnoxius erat & mortis debito & Diaboli solvit Dominio Qua enim justitia id secundo exigeretur ? homo siquidem qui debuit , homo qui solvit : nam si unus , inquit , pro omnibus mortuus est , ergo omnes mortui sunt , ut viz sa● factio unius omnibus imputetur , sicut omnium peccata unus ille portavit , nec alter jam inveniatur , qui forte fecit , alter qui satisfecit , quia Caput & Corpus unus est Christus . Satisfecit ergo Caput pro membris ; Christus pro Visceribus suis &c. quod si dixerit , Pater tuus addixit te , Respondeb● , sed Frater men's redemit me , cur non aliunde justitia , quia aliunde reatus ? alius qui peccatorem constituit , alius qui justificat a peccato ? alter in semine , alter in sanguine . An peccatum in semine peccatoris , & non justitia in sanguine Christi ? - non convenit filium portare iniquitatem patris , & fratern● fieri exortem justitiae . i. e. For what could man , a servant of sin & a bound slave of the devil , do of himself , to recover the Righteousness , which he had once lost ? Therefore another is assigned unto him , because he wanted his own , & the same is so . The Prince of the world came , & found nothing in the Saviour , & when notwithstanding he put hands on the Innocent , he lost those most justly , when he held ; when he , who owed nothing to death , having received the injurie of death , he did by right loose him , who was liable to the debt of death , & deliver him from the Dominion of Satan , for by what Right could he exact that the second time ? seing as it was man , who owed , so it was man , who payed : for if one , he saith , died for all , then are all dead , that , to wit , the Satisfaction of one , might be imputed to all , as that one did bear the sins of all ; Neither now is it found , that one did the wrong & another satisfied , for the Head & the body are one Christ : the Head therefore did satisfie for the members ; Christ for his own bowels . But if he shall say . Thy Father bound thee over ; I shall answer , but my Brother hath redeemed me , why should not Righteousness be from another ; as guilt was from another ▪ one who made man a sinner , & another who justifieth from sin ; the one in the seed , the other in blood . Was sin in the seed of a sinner ; & shall not Righteousness be in the bloud of Christ. It is not right , that the Son should bear the iniquity of the Father , & be defrauded of the Righteousness of his Brother . Idem Serm. ad Milites Templi c. 1. Qui peccati meritum tulit , suam nobis donando justitiam ; ipse meritis debitum solvit , & reddit vitam ; sic namque mortua morte , revertitur vita , quemadmodum ablato peccato redit justitia ; porro mors in Christi morte fugatur , & Christi nobis justitia imputatur &c. Qui nostram & induit carnem & subiit mortens , putas suam nobis negabit justitiam ? Voluntarie incarnatus , voluntarit passus , voluntarie crucifixus , solam à nobi● retinebit justitiam ; afterward ibid. Unus peccavit & omnes tenentur rei , & unius innocentia soli reputabitur uni ? Unius peccatum omnibus operatum est mortem , & unius justitia uni vi●am restituet ? Haud Dei justitia magis ad condemn●ndum , quam ad restaurandum valuit ? aut plus potutt Adam in malo , quàm Christus in bono ? Adae peccatum imputabitur mihi , & Christi justitia non pertinebit ad me ? i. e. He who took away the desert of sin , giving to us his Righteousness , the same by his merites , paid the debt , & restored life ; for if death be dead , life returneth ; even as sin being taken away , Righteousness returneth : Moreover death is banished away in Christ's death , and Christ Righteousness is imputed to us &c. He who took on our flesh , & underwent death , thinks thou , that he shall deny to us his Righteoysness ? He who willingly was incarnate , willingly suffered , willingly was crucified , shall he withold his Righteousness from us?-one man sinned & all are guilty , & shall the innocency of one be accounted only to one ? One mans sin hath wrought death unto all , & shall the Righteousness of one restore life only to one ? Shall God's Righteousness be more powerfull to condemne , than to restore ? Could Adam do more in sin , than Christ in good ? Shall Adam's sin be imputed unto me , & shall not Christ's Righteousness belong unto me ? Ambros. lib. 3. de Virginit . p. 100. Om●ia Iesus est nobis si volumus . Si vulnus curari defideras , Medicus est : Si febribus aestuas , sons est : Si gravaris iniquitate , justitia est : si auxilio indiges , virtus est : Si mortem times , vita est : si c●lum desideras , via est : si tenebras fugis , luxest : si cibum quaeris , alimentum est . i. e. Christ is all things to us , if we be willing , if thou desirest to have thy wound cured , he is the chyrurgen : if thou burn with feavers , he is a fountain : If thou be burdened with sin , he is Righteousn●ss : If thou want help , he is vertue : If thou fear death , he is the life : if thou desirest heaven , he is the way : If thou fleest from darkness , he is light : if thou seek meat , he is aliment . Idem de side lib. 2. c. 4. O sides the sauris omnibus opulentior ! O vulnerum nostrorum peccatorumque medicina praestantior ! Consideremus , quia nobis prodest bene credere . Mihi enim prodest scire , quia propter me Christus suscepit infirmitates meas , mei corporis subiit passiones , pro me peccatum , - pro me maledictum factus est , pro me atque in me subditus atque subjectus . i. e. O faith more rich than all treasures ! O most excellent medicine for all our wounds & sins ! Let us consider , for it is profitable for us to beleeve well : It is profitable for me to know , because Christ for me took on my infirmities , he underwent the passions of my body , he was made sin for me-for me was he made a curse , for me & in me , was he made a subject . Macarius Homil. 20. Quicunque enim in propria sua justitiâ & redemptione consistit , in vanum & cassum laborabit ; nam omnis opinio de propria justitia concepta , tanquam pannus menstruat● mulieris , in novissimo die manifestabitur , sicut inquit Esaias Propheta-Petamus itaque & obtestemur Deum , ut induat nobis vestem salutis , Dominum nostrum , Jesum , Christum , ineffabilem lucem , quem ferentes animae in aeternum non exuentur . i. e. Who ever standeth in his own Righteousness & redemption laboureth in vaine : for all conceived opinion of our own Righteousness shall be manifest to be a menstruous cloth , in the last day , as the Prophet Esai saith - Let us ask therefore ; & beseek the Lord , that he would cloth us with the garment of Salvation our Lord Jesus Christ , that ineffable light , whom if our souls put on & wear , they shall never be denuded thereof . Even some Papists of old , ( though few or none now since the Councel at Trent , ) did assent unto this Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. In Colon there was a book written an . 1475. directing , how to comfort dying persons , wherein these words are found . Age ergo dum superest in te anima , in hac sola morte fiduciam tuam constitue , in nulla re fiduciam habe , huic mortite totum committe , hac sola tetotum contege , totum immisce te in hac morte , in hac morte totum te involve ; & si Dominus Deus te voluerit judicare , dic Domine , mortem D.N.I.C. objicio inter me & tuum judicium , aliter ●ecum non contendo . Et si tibi dixerit , quia peccatores , dic mortem D.N.I.C. pono inter te & peccata mea . Si dixerit tibi quod meruisti damnationem , dic Domine , mortem D.N.I.C. obtendo inter te & mala mea merita , ipsiusque merita offero pro merito , quod ego debuissem habere , nec habeo , Si dixerit , quod tibi est iratus , dic , Domine , mortem D.N.I.C. oppono inter me & iram tuam . i. e. Go to then , while thy soul is in thee , put all thy confidence in this death alone , have confidence in no other thing , commit thy self wholly unto this death , cover thy self wholly with this death alone , mixe thy self wholly in this death , roll thy self wholly in this death ; & if the Lord will judge thee , say , Lord , I cast up the death of our Lord. J. C. betwixt me & thy judgment ; no other way do I contend with thee . And if he say to thee , that thou art a sinner , say , I put the death of the Lord Jesus Christ betwixt thee & my sins . If he say , that thou hast deserved damnation , say , Lord , I hold forth the death of our Lord J. C. betwixt thee & my evil merites ; & I offer his merites , for the merite , which I should have had , & have not . If he say , that he is angry at thee ; say , Lord , I set up the death of our Lord J. C. betwixt me & thine anger . Isidorus Clarius Orat. 40. in Luc. Nos dicimus neque fide primò , neque charitate , sed una Dei justitiâ in Christo nobis impertitâ justificari . i. e. We say , we are justified at first neither by faith , neither by charity , but by the Righteousness of God alone in Christ , bestowed upon us . Albertus Pighius Controv. 2. de side . Fortassis etiam nostram hanc damnarent ( n. Scholastici ) sententiam , qua propriam , & 〈◊〉 ex suis operibus esset 〈◊〉 Deo , justitiam derogamus omnibus Adae filiis , & docuimus una Dei in Christo niti nos pesse justitid , una illa justos coram Deo , destitutos propria , nisi hoc ipsum astruxissemus aliquanto diligentius . i. e. It may be they ( i. e. the Scholasticks ) would condemne this opinion of ours , whereby we take away from all the Sons of Adam , their own Righteousness , which is of their own works , before God , & did teach , that we must leane upon the Righteousness of God , in Christ , alone , & that by that alone , we are Righteous before God though destitute of our own , if we had not confirmed it a little more diligently . Idem ibid. Nam quod nen operibus nostris , non in justitia nostra , sed in una ignoscente iniquitates nostras misericordia , benevolenti● erga nos divinae , & salutis a Deo assignandae nobis spes sit Davidis Testimonio Apost . ad Rom. comprobans , non alia justiti● niti nos posse , nisi quam imputari nobis absque nostris operibus affirmat-non dicit , beati qui ex operibus suis justi coram Deo sunt , beatus vir , qui non commisit , nec fecit injustitiam , sad beati , quorum a Deo misericorditer remissae sunt iniquitates quorum ipse , sua justitia tegit & abscendit peccata . i. e. That our hope of the Lord 's good will , & of life is not by our works , nor in our Righteousness , but only in the mercy of God , forgiving iniquities , Paul to the Rom. confirmeth by the testimonie of David , proving to us , that we may lean to no other Righteousness , but that , which he affirmeth to be imputed to us without our works . — He saith not blessed are they , who are Righteous before God by their own works ; blessed is the man , that hath done no iniquity ; but blessed are they , whose iniquities are mercifully pardoned , whose sins he covereth , and hideth with his own Righteousness . Thereafter the same man saith . In illo ergo justificamur coram Deo , non in nobis , non nostra sed illius justitia , quae nobis cum illo jam communicantibus imputatur . Propriae justitiae inopes extra nos in illo docemur justitiam quaerere . Cum inquit , qui peccatum non noverat , pro nobis peccatum fecit , hoc est hostiam pecc●ti expiatricem , ut nos efficeremur justitia Dei in ipso : non nostra , sed Dei justitia justi efficimur in Christo : quo jure ? Amicitiae , quae communionem omnium inter amicos facit , juxta vetus & celebratissimum proverbium , Christo insertis , conglutinatis & unitis , & sua nostra facit , suas divitias nobis communicat , suam justitiam inter Patris judicium & nostram injustitiam interponito , & sub ea , veluti sub umbone & clypeo , a divina , quam commeruimus , ira nos abscondit , tuetur ac protegit , imo tandem nobis impertit , & nostram facit , qua tecti , ornatique audacter & secure jam divino nos sistamus tribunali & judicio ; justique non solum appareamus , sed etiam simus . i. e. In him ( that is , Christ ) therefore are we justified before God , not in ourselves ; not by our own but by his Righteousness , which is imputed to us , when now we communicat with him . Being void of a Righteousness of our own he teacheth us to seek a Righteousness , without ourselves ; in him , when he saith he made him sin for us , who knew no sin , that is , he made him a sacrifice for sin , that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him . By what Law ? By that of friendship , which maketh a community of all things among friends , according to the old & well known proverb . Being insert into Christ glued & united unto him , he maketh what is his to be ours , he communicateth unto us his riches , he interposeth his Righteousness betwixt the Fathers judgment & our unrighteousness , and under it , as under a shield , he hideth , defendeth , & protecteth us from God's wrath , which we had deserved ; Yea at length giveth it to us , & maketh it ours ; with which being covered & adorned , we may boldly & saifly sist ourselves before the Tribunal of God , and we not only appear Righteous , but also are Righteous . Ruardus Tapperus Tom. 2. Art. 8. p. 36. Sicut Christo nostra scelera a Patre , ob spontaneam eorum assumptionem , & corporis mystici intimam unionem , imputantur : ita ejus justitia , quasi capitis , nobis ejus membris , ad justitiam & via●m aeternam imputatur . i. e. As our iniquities were imputed by God unto Christ , because of his voluntary assuming of them , & of the neer union of the mystical body : so his Righteousness , as head to us his members , is imputed unto us unto Righteousness , & life eternal . Yea Bellarm. granteth lib. 2. de justif . C. 10. That Christ may be called our Righteousness , because he satisfied the Father for us , & did so give & communicat that Satisfaction to us , when he justifieth us , that it may be called our Satisfaction & Righteousness . And againe ; this way it were not absurd to say , that Christ's Righteousness & merites were imputed to us , when they are given & applied to us , as if we ourselves had satisfied God. So in Resp. ad 3. Arg. We are said to be the Righteousness of God , not in ourselves , but in Christ , because he is our head , & what agreeth to th● head , agreeth to the members , not as they are distinct from the head , but as they are one with it . So c. 11. in Resp. ad Arg. 2. The similitude of putting on agarment may be saifly accommodat unto imputed Righteousness ; if one say , we must put on Christ's merits , & some way be covered with them , seek pardon of sins . cap. 7. Arg. 4. he saith Christ's merits are imputed to us , because gifted to us , & we may offer them to the Father for our sins , because Christ took upon him the burden of satisfying for us , & of reconciling us to God the Father . Thus he After Cardinal Bellarmin . we may mention Cardinal Contarenus , who is more orthodox here , than any of them ; & speaketh as plaine truth , as any of the orthodox themselves can do : for so doth he , in Tract . de Iustif. state the question . Quoniam ad duplicem justitiam pervenimus , per fidem , justitiam inharentem nobis & charitatem ac gratiam , qua efficimur consortes divina naturae ; & justitiam Christi nobis donatam & imputatam , quoniam inserti sumus Christi , & induimus Christum : Praetat inquirere Utra-nam debeamus niti , & existimare nos justificari coram Deo , id est , justos & Sanctos haberi . i. e. Because by faith we obtaine a twofold Righteousness , one inherent in us , love & grace , whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature ; the other the Righteousness of Christ , given & imputed to us , because in●ert into Christ , & because we have put on Christ : It is fittest to Enquire , unto which of these we ought to leane ourselves , & account ourselves justified before God , that is looked upon as Righteous & holy . The question thus proposed he thus determineth . Ego prorsus existimo , pi● & Christian●egrave , di●i , quod debeamus niti ( niti inquimus , tanquam rei stabili , quae cert●nos sustentet ) justitia Christinobis donota , non autem justitia & sanctitate nobis inhaerente : h●c enim nostra justitia est inch●ata & imperfecta , quae impedirenon potest , quin assidue pe●cemus ; idcirco in conspectu Dei possumus eb hanc justitiam haberi justi & boni , quemadmedum deceret filios Dei esse bonos & Sanctos ; Sed justitia Christi est vera & perfecta justitia , quae omnino placet oculis Dei , in qua nihil est quod Deum offendat , quod Deo non summopere placeat ; h●ac ergo sola re certa & stabili nobis nitendum est ; & ob eam solam credere nos justificari coram Deo , id est haberi justos & dioi justos . Hic est pretiosus Thesaurus , quem qui invenit , vendit omnia quae habet , & emit illum . i. e. I verily think , that it is piously & christianly said , that we ought to lean ( I say lean , as to a stable thing , that shall certainly hold us up ) unto Christ's Righteousness , given unto us ; but not unto the Righteousness & holiness , that is inherent in us : for this Righteousness of ours is inchoate & imperfect , that cannot hinder us from ssinning dayly ; therefore we cannot for this Righteousness , in the sigt of God be accounted just & good , as would become the Sones of God to be : but the Righteousness of Christ is true & perfect Righteousness , which every way pleaseth God's eyes , in which is nothing that can displease God , & doth not highly please him : Therefore we must only leane to this certaine & stable thing , and beleeve , that for it alone we are justified before God ; that is , accounted Righteous , and so called . This is the Precious Treasure , which who findeth , he selleth all he hath , & buyeth it . Yea this he confirmeth afterward by Experience , saying . Inde est , quod pro experimento videmus viros Sanctos , qui quanto magis in veritato proficiunt , tanto minus sibi placent ; ac propterea tanto magis intelligunt se indigere Christo & justitia Christi sibi donata ; ideoque se relinquunt , & soli Christo incumbunt : ●●c non obeam accidit causam , quod facti sanctiores minus videant quam prius ; neque quia facti sunt animo dimissiori vel viliori ; imo quanto magis in sanctitate proficiunt , tanto majore sunt animo , tanto sunt perspicaciores . i. e. Hence it is , that by experience we see , holy men , how farther they advance in the truth , please themselves the less , & therefore do more understand , that they have need of Christ , & of his Righteousness given unto them : wherefore they relinquish themselves ; and leane upon Christ alone : This cometh not to passe , because they become of a more base & Law spirit : Yea the further they advance in holiness , they are of greater spirits , & see more clearly . FINIS Arguments against Universal Redemption . AS concerning the point of Universal Redemption , we finde various sentiments , or various explications of the matter , given to us by Adversaries ; for they do not all agree in their apprehensions of the thing . Some explaine the matter thus , God sent his only begotten Son to be a Redeemer and Propitiator for Adam and all his Posterity ; who by his death did pacific an angry God , and restore Mankinde to their lost inheritance ; so as all , who are now condemned , are not condemned for their former sins and guilt ; for Christ hath abundantly satisfied for these ; but for their Unbeleef , for not beleeving in the Redeemer of the world , and for rejecting the Reconciliation made , & the grace of God declared in the word . And thus , they must say , that Christ hath died for all sinnes , but Unbeleefe ; and that salvation doth not certainly follow upon this Reconciliation ; and so that it is rather a Reconciliableness , than a Reconciliation ; and they must necessarily maintaine , that this matter is revealed unto all and every son of Adam , who otherwise cannot be guilty of Rejecting this reconciliation , other wayes it shall be of no advantage to them ; unless they say , that the want of the Revelation putteth them out of a capacity of being guilty of Unbeleefe ; and so they must necessarily be saved ; and thus their condition shall be undoubtedly better , than is the condition of such , as hear the Gospel ; and then the revelation of the Gospel shall be no Favour , but a Prejudice rather . And in reference to this , they devise an Universal Antecedanious Love , whereby God , out of his Infinite Goodness , was inclined to desire the happiness and salvation of every mothers son ; and therefore to send his Son to die for : as if God had such Natural & Necessary Inclinations ; and as if all his Love to Mankinde , and every appointment of his concerning us , were not the free act of his good pleasure ; and as if there were any such Antecedent & Conditional will in God , that could or might have no issue or accomplishment , but as Lord Freewil would ; and as if the Love that sent Christ , were only such a Poor Conditional Inclination towards all Mankinde , which the Scripture holdeth forth , as the greatest of Loves , & as the ground or all the Effects & Grants , which mans full Salvation calleth for . But why could not this Love effectuat the good of all ? Therefore , they tell us , that Justice being injured by sin , unless it were satisfied , that Love of God , whereby he wisheth well to all sinners , could effectuat nothing , as to the recovery of any : & upon this ground they imagine , Christ was sent to make an Universal Atonement ; & so , Justice , being satisfied , might not obstruct the salvation of any , whose Freewill would consent unto termes of new to be proposed . Others hold forth the matter thus [ Christ , according to the eternal Counsel of God , did properly die for this end , and by his propitiatory sacrifice obtaine , that all and every man , who beleeve in Him , should for his sake actually obtaine Remission of sins , & Life Eternal ; but others , in case they would Repent & Beleeve , might obtaine it . ] But thus we hear no word of Christs obtaining any thing to any in particular ; no word of his obtaining Faith & Repentance : and what Counsel of God can this be , to send Christ to die for persons , upon that condition , which he knew they would not & could not performe ? And what by this meanes hath Christs Propitiatory Sacrifice obtained more , than a meer possibility of salvation , to either one or other ? Shall we imagine , that God designeth good to persons , who shall never enjoy it ? Or that God hath Conditional Intentions & Designes ? By this means , Christs death was designed , and no person designed thereby to be saved , yea Christ should be designed to die , and that for no certain end , unless to procure a meer possibility , by stopping the mouth of justice , that it should not stand in the way : but then we can not say , that God sent Christ to die for any man , much less for all . Others express the matter thus [ Christ , out of the gracious Decree & Purpose of God , did undergoe death , that he might procure & obtaine Reconciliation with God for all sinners whatsomever , without any difference , before that God would open againe the door of salvation , & enter into a new Covenant of Grace with sinners . ] But this Reconciliation hath no more force , or import , but that God might enter againe into a Covenant with sinners : and so there is no Actual Reconciliation of sinners unto God. And all that is obtained , is for God , & nothing for man , save a Possibility of Salvation by a new Covenant ; nor are we told , whether Christ hath satisfied for the breach of the First Covenant , so that that sin is fully pardoned unto all ; or not , untill the condition of the second Covenant be performed : nor are we told , upon what account the sins against the second Covenant are pardoned ; Or if they be unpardonable . Others explaine the matter thus [ Christ died for all and every man , not only that God might , without any violation of Justice , enter into a new Covenant with sinners , upon what condition he pleased ; but that it should be upon this Condition , that man should be united with Christ the Cautioner : and not only , that Redemption & Salvation should be possible to all , but that really & most certainly Salvation should be bestowed on such , as Christ thought good . ] But seing Christ knew , that his death would profite none , but these few , whom he had designed , to what purpose should he have laid downe his life for the rest ? And how can his death be a price of Redemption for the rest ? How can Christ be said to satisfie for the rest ? Did he purchase Faith to these few ; and would he not purchase Faith to the rest , & yet lay downe the great price for them ? What was the end obtained for the rest ? was it only a Possible Call of all , Justice bein satisfied ? But of what import could that Possible Call be , if Salvation was not also possible unto them ? And whereunto is that Call ? They will not say , it is unto Salvation , but to Faith : But did not Christ know , that this call would not be obeyed by them ? Did he procure Grace unto them , to obey it ? then he procured Faith , and if he procured Faith , than he procured Salvation . Againe , if Justice be satisfied for these others , why are they not liberat ? If they say , the new Condition is not fulfilled . Then it cannot be simply said , that Christ satisfied Justice on their behalfe , for he knew before hand , that these would not performe the new Condition ; how can he then be supposed to die for them not withstanding ? Thus we see what difference is among men , that hold Universal Redemption , about the Proper & Immediat End & Aime , of the purpose of God , in sending Christ to die ; and of Christ in comeing to died : and how , for the most part , it cometh all to little , or nothing , for it was , saith Arminius , That God might save sinners , what way it pleased Him , his Iustice , which stood in the way , being satisfied , or as Corvinus : That God might will to save sinners , & That Christ intended by his death , to make such satisfaction to justice , as that he might obtain● to himself power of saving upon what Condition the Father pleased . And thus Christ is said to have obtained Reconciliation & Redemption to all , not that they should actually be partakers thereof , but that God , his justice now being satisfied , might prescribe a Condition , which when they had performed , he might & would actually make them partakers thereof : Some say , that all men are put into a new Covenant , in which Adam was a common person , as well , as in the old , by vertue whereof , none shall be damned that do not sin actually against the Condition , & fall thereby from that new state , whereunto they are borne . And this opinion differeth not much from that of Iacobus Andreae at the conference at Mompelgard , which afterward Huberus maintained ( as Kimedoncius sheweth , in his refutation of the same ) which was this in short , [ That Christ suffered & died for all , none excepted , Effectually , and obtained for all a Reconciliation , without any respect to Faith , or Unbeleefe ; so that all who receive this Reconciliation & continue in it , shall be saved , but as to those who refuse it by unbeleef , it is made null , and they perish . ] Others say , [ That Christ by his satisfaction removed Original sin in all , so that all Infants , dying in infancy , are undoubtedly saved . ] Others [ that he died for all sinnes alike , but conditionally . ] Some say , [ that after the price was payed , it was absolutely undetermined , what condition should be prescribed ; so as God might have re-established the Covenant of works : ] Others , [ that the procuring of a new way was part of the fruit of Christ's death . ] As for this condition , some say , [ that man can performe it with the help of such meanes , as God affordeth to all ] and thus establish the Diana of Freewill . But others [ assert the necessity of grace flowing from election hereunto , ] and so destroy Universal Redemption , which yet they assert . So that some say [ Christ died for all Conditionally , if they beleeve ] making the Act the cause of its own object ; for Faith with them is a beleeving that Christ died for them . Some say [ that he died for all Absolutely ; Yet so as they partake not of the benefire , until they performe the Condition , which was to be prescribed ; ] and thus they affirme , that Christ did no more sustaine the persons of the Elect , than of the Reprobat , but of all alike . If we enquire therefore , what was the Immediat Result & Product of the death of Christ , they agree not to tell us , whether it was a Power , or a Will , or a Right , to God , to save any he pleased . However all the Arminians & Camero with them agree in this . That Christ did not purchase faith for any : and that as to all ( say some ) or as to the most part ( say others ) Christ hath only procured a Possibility of Salvation : And what is this Possibility ? Some call it an Exemption from that necessity of perishing , under which they came by the violation of the former Covenant , if a satisfaction had not interveened ; and by this Exemption , they say , it cometh to passe , that Christ , if he will , justice being now satisfied , may bring all to life : And hereby also , say they , all may be saved , if they will : But what is this else then a meer Possibility ? What efficacy hath it , seing notwithstanding thereof , all may perish againe ? They say , it is really Efficacious as to this Possibility , which was not , before Justice was satisfied : But yet notwithstanding of this Efficacious Possibility , it might come to passe , that not one should have been saved : for how can salvation be possible without faith ? So that if faith be not hereby purchased , it would seem , that Salvation is not possible . And further , it doth hereby appear , that all which is procured , is but some power to God & to Christ ; But what is mans advantage ? They say , That a way to life is opened unto man , that so he may now come to God by Faith & Repentance . But how can he come , who hath no power to Beleeve or Repent , without grace ? Or is it in corrupt mans power to Beleeve or Repent ? What that truth is , which we stand for , is plainly & fully enough set downe in several places of Our Confession of Faith : as Chap. 3. § . 6. As God hath appointed the elect unto glory ; so hath he , by the Eternal and most free purpose of his Will , fore ordained all the meanes thereunto . Wherefore they who are Elected , being fallen in Adam , are redeemed by Christ , are effectually called unto faith in Christ by his Spirit , working in due season ; are Justified , Adopted , Sanctified , & Keeped by his power through faith unto salvation . Neither are other Redeemed by Christ , effectually Called ▪ Iustified , Adopted , Sanctified & Saved ; but the Elect only . So Chap. 8. § . 1. It pleased God , in his eternal purpose , to chose & ordaine the Lord Iesus , his only begotten Son , so be the mediator between God & man. ●Unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed , and to be by him in time Redeemed , Called , Iustified , Sanctified & Glorified . And ibid. § . 5. The Lord Iesus by his perfect obedience , & sacrifice of himself ; which he through the eternal Spirit , once offered up unto God , hath fully satisfied the Iustice of his Father , & purchased , not only Reconciliation , but an Everlasting inheritance in the Kingdom of heaven , for all those , whom the Father hath given unto him . So ibid. § . last , To all those , for whom Christ hath purchased Redemption , he doth certanely and effectually apply & communicate the same , making intercession for them , & revealing unto them , in & by the word , the mysteries of salvation , effectually perswading them by his Spirit to beleeve & obey ; and governing their hearts by his word & Spirit , overcoming all their enemies by his Almighty power & wisdom , in such manner & wayes , as are most cansonant to his wonderful & unsearchable dispensations . Our judgment is this , in short , That Christ , according to the good pleasure of his Father , laid downe his life a Ransome for the Elect only , who were given to him to save from Wrath , and Destruction ; and by that price purchased Salvation , & all the Meanes necessary thereunto , for them only to whom in due time , & after the method , which he thinketh best , doth effectually apply the same unto them , & actually save them . Though grounds sufficient , considering the places of Scriptures , annexed in the margine of the Confession , confirming all , are clearly hinted & laid downe , in these passages cited ; yet I shall , with what brevity is possible , point forth our grounds in plaine termes . And ( 1. ) The Scripture is full & plaine , in holding forth 2 Covenant betwixt ●ehova , and the Mediator , a transaction concerning man ; or the purposes of God concerning the Salvation of Man , in way of a mutual Compact ; both for our better understa●ding of that solide ground of our Peace & Hope , & for the confirming of our staggering & weak Faith. And though the full explication & confirmation hereof , would , I judge , fully undermine & destroy the rotten grounds of Socinians & Arminians , and of all , who are for the Diana of Freewill , and enemies to the Grace of God ; yet I cannot digresse thereunto here ; and shall only referre such , as would see the same confirmed , unto Mr. Dicksons Therapeutica sacra , & Mr. Rutherfords book upon the Covenant . Taking it therefore for granted , till what is by these Worthies said anent it , be confuted ; and finding , that Arminius himself in his Orat. de Sacerdotio Christi , saith , there was a Covenant betwixt the Lord & Christ , I shall but shortly inferre therefrom , That it is repugnant to reason , to say , that the result of that Eternal Transaction : and the whole intended by it , was only to procure a meer Possibility of Salvation ; and that such a Possibility , as that though it was equally for all ; yet it might so fall out , that not one person should be saved , among all the sones of Adam . How unreasonable is it to imagine such a bargane betwixt the Father and the Son , as among men , considering what they are doing , can have no place ? If Christ was to see his seed , by vertue of this Contract , then certainly God had a special eye and respect unto that seed ; and that feed must be distinguished from all the rest , for it cannot be all , else all should be saved : and so Christ did not undertake to buy all , nor did the Father give him all , for his feed : and in reference to that feed , the Redemption purchased must be an Actual , & not a meer Potential , or Possible Redemption ; and the Lord must have full Power & Dominion over the Will of that Seed , whereby he may determine their hearts unto a following of the Method , which he was to prescribe ; and all these meanes , whereby this actual Closeing with the Conditions was to be effectually wrought , must have been secured : for a transaction betwixt persons , infinite in Wisdom , must of necessity be , in all things , contrived in deep Wisdom . So then , if by vertue of this Covenant , a feed was ensured to Christ , it was these concerning whom the transaction was made ; for what interest could others have in this , or advantage by it ? And so the Rademption was neither Universal ; nor yet meerly Possible , & no more . Againe ( 2. ) The Scripture every where pointeth out the end of Christs coming & dying , to have been , to Procure & Obtaine some good to man ; it were endless to cite the Scriptures speaking this out plainely : But if it had been only to have procured a Possibility , then the proper & immediat end of his dying , had been only to have procured something to God , viz. a Power to Him , that he might , without hurt to his Justice , prescribe a possible way of salvation . Now , not to discusse that question , agitated among Orthodox Divines , viz. whether it was impossible for God to have pardoned the sins of man , without a satisfaction made by his Son , or not ; meaning antecedently to a decree , determineing this way of manifestation of the Justice of God ; only I must say , that as yet I can see nothing from Scripture , determineing the egresses of the Relative Justice of God , to be more essential to God , & less subject to the free determinations of his good will and pleasure , than are the egresses of his Mercy ; nor do I see any necessity for asserting this against the Socinians , seing our ground , walking upon a decree , is proof against all their Assaults ; far less see I any necessity of founding our whole debate with the Socinians , upon that ground ; yea I cannot but judge it the result of great imprudence so to do , seing the Socinians may reply , that the sole ground of that Opposition to them is not only questioned , but plainly denyed , by such as we account Orthodox & learned ; and may hence gather , that we have no other solide ground , whereupon to debate with them , but such as the learned of our owne side overthrow . The depths of God's Counsel are beyond our fathoming ; and it is hard for us to say , hithertil the omnipotent can come , but not one ince further . I dar not be wise above what is written ; and I would gladly see one passage of Scripture , declareing this to have been in itself utterly impossible , & inconsistent with God. B● whatever may be said of this . what Scripture tels us , that Christ was sen to die , that he might obtain this Power unto God ? And further , what was this power ? Was it a meer Power & Liberty , that should never have any Effect ? If it was to have an Effect , what was that ? Was it only to make a new Transaction with man , in order to his salvation ? If that was all , notwithstanding of all this Power & Ability , not one man might have been saved . Was it certanely to save some ? Then , the Redemption cannot be called Universal , nor yet meerly Possible . Nay , if by the death of Christ a Right & Power only was obtained to God , God was at full liberty to have exerced that Right & Power , or not , as he pleased ; and so notwithstanding thereof man might have remained in the same Condition , whereinto he was , and never so much as have had one offer of life , upon any termes whatever ; or only upon the old termes of the Covenant of works ; and what then should the advantage of this have been ? The whole Scripture , speaking of the death of Christ , mentioneth far other Ends , respecting man. If we ( 3. ) Consider how the Scripture mentioneth , ● number given of the Father to Christ , to be Redeemed & Saved , we shall see , that there is neither an Universal , nor yet a meer Possible Redemption : for this gift is utterly repugnant to , & destructive of both : for if , conforme to the Covenant betwixt the Father and the Son , there were some given to Christ to save & redeem , these he must actually save & redeem ; and for these only , was Christ ordained & designed of the Father to be a Redeemer ; and upon the account of these only , did he undertake the work , & lay down the ransome-money : for it is not rational to suppose , that , the designe of Father & Son being to save actually these gifted ones , Christ would shed his blood for others , who were no● given to him , & who should receive no salvation by his blood ; for cui bono ? what could be the designe of Father & Son in this ? The matter goeth not so in humane transactions , where the price is considerable . Now , that the Scripture mentioneth some given to Christ , & that in distinction from others , is clear Ioh. 17 : 2. — that he should give eternal life to as many , as thou hast given him . So vers . 12. Those that thou gavest we , I have keept , and none of them are lost , &c. So Ioh. 6 : 37. All that the Father hath given me , shall come unto me , & vers . 40. And this is the Fathers will , that hath sent me , that of all which he hath given me , I should lose nothing Joh. 17 : 9. I pray for them , I pray not for the world , but for them , which thou hast given me ; for they are thine . 10. And all thine are mine & mine are thine , and I am glorified in them . 11. - Father , keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me . 24. Father I will , that they also whom thou hast given me , be with me where I am , &c. Whence we see , that Christ had no charge of the rest ; was under no tye to save them , nor would be so much as pray for them : but as for the given ones , Joh. 10. called his sheep , for these he laid downe his life , & prayed ; and for these was ●e to give an account : nay , which is more , these had a special Interest in God's heart & affection & were thereupon given to Christ. They were the Father's , & given of the Father to the Son ; and so fully discriminated from all the rest ; and both Father & Son stand engadged to carry these thorow unto salvation : all which considered , it is most plaine , that the Redemption was Particular & Actual , conforme to the Undertaking , & Transaction . Nay ( 4. ) If we will consider the fountaine love , from whence the sending of Christ came , we will see how unreasonable it is to imagine an Universal meer Possible Redemption , as the proper end & effect , of Christ's death & merites . It is said Ioh. 3 : 16. A place , which our Universalists look upon , as most favourable for them ) that God so loved the world , that he gave his only begotten Son , that all beleevers in him , might have eternal life . This love is held forth as unparallelable , a love greater than which cannot be conceived , & a love demonstrated by the greatest effect imaginable , sending & giving his only begotten , to give his life a ransome , & to die for sinners ; and it must be contrary to all reason , to imagine , that all this was to procure a Redemption , by which it was possible , that not one man should be Actually Redeemed . Christ himself saith , Joh. 15 : 13. greater love hath no man , tha● this , that a man lay down his life for his friends . See also Rom. 5 : 8. And shall we think , that the effect of all this Non-such Love , both of the Father , & of the Son , was only a Possible Salvation , and Redemption ? and that all this love should be outed ; and possibly not one man saved ? Either the Lord knew , that some would get good by this fruite of wonderful love , or not ? then he was not omniscient : and then the Father gave his Son , & the Son came , & both were the effect of the greatest love imaginable , & yet neither of them knew , that any one soul should be saved for all that . If he knew , that they would get good by it , either by themselves alone , without his Grace , or not . If the first , why would he send his Son to die , & why would Christ come to die for such , as they saw would never have a will to be saved by his death ? If the last be said , then , seing the greatest expression of of love was to send his Son , & in the Son to come & die , how can we think , that that was for all , when the grace to improve that death , & profite by it , was not designed for all ? Sayeth not Paul Rom. 8 : 32. He that spared not his owne Son , but delivered him up for us all , how shall not with him also freely give us all things ? Importing that that was Impossible . Shall we imagine that that is the greatest love , which is common to all , & is not able to effectuate the salvation of those upon whom it is set ? and how can this be , that the greatest effect of this greatest love shall be common to all , & smaller effects not common also ? See also 1. Ioh. 4 : 9 , 10 , 11. where this speciall love , by which Christ was sent , is made peculiar unto beleevers ; for Iohn is speaking of none else : So is this love peculiarly terminated on Christ's Wife & Church Ephes. 5 : 26 , 26. & hath gracious & saving effects Gal. 2 : 20. Tit. 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7. Ephes. 2 : 4 ; 5 , 6. Rom. 8 : 36 , 37. 2. Thes. 2 : 16 , 17. Revel . 1 : 5 , 6. Beside , that this love is mentioned as an Old , Everlasting , & Unchangable Love , Ier. 31 : 3. Ephes. 1 : 3 , 4. Rom. 9 : 11. Ioh. 13 : 1. Zeph. 3 : 17. And is all this nothing but a General Common thing , that cannot save one soul , if Lord Freewil do not consent , of his own accord ? Moreover ( 5. ) if we consider the ends assigned to the Death of Christ , mentioned in Scripture , we shall see that it was some other thing , than a meer Possible Delivery & Redemption , common to all mankinde . Mat. 8 : 11. He came to save that which was lost ; and not to make their salvation meerly possible ; for if that were all , Christs argument should have had no strength : So 1. Tim. 1 : 15. - Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinner : if it were a meer possibility , that might never take effect , how should this faithful saying be worthy of all acception ; So Luk. 19 : 10 where the matter is exemplified in Zaccheus Mat. 1 : 21. the reason of the name Iesus , given to the Redeemer is , because he shall save his people from their sinnes , that is , Actually & Really , and not Potentially or Possibly only : and this cannot be meaned of all ; for he saveth not the Reprobat from their sins ; at least , not from the sin of unbeleef , by the confession of Adversaries ; But here , no sin is excepted , and therefore is his death restricted to his people , whom he saveth from all their sinnes . Heb. 2 : 14 , 15. there is another end of his death mentioned , viz. that he might destroy him that had the power of death , that is the devil , and deliver them , who through fear of death , were all their life time subject to bondage . This was no meer Possible Deliverance , but Actual & Effectual ; and it was not common to all ; for it is restricted to his Brethren vers . 11 , 12 , 17. and to sones 13. & to the children which God gave him vers . 13 , 14. & to the Seed of Abraham vers 16. and againe vers 17. wherefore in all things it behoved him to be make like unto his brithren , that he might be a Merciful & Faithfull High Priest in things pertaining to God , to make reconciliation for the people . Behoved Christ to be a Merciful & Faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God , only to make a Possible Reconciliation , whereby it might be , that not one person should be reconciled ? & are the Reprobate his brethen ? Ephes. 5 : 25 , 26. To what end did Christ give himself for his Church ? ( And all the world of mankinde belong not to his Church . ) It was , that he might sanctifie & cleanse it with the washing of water , by the word , that he might present it to himself a glorious Church , not having spotor wrinkle , or any such thing , but that it sh●uld be holy and without blemish . Is this a meer Possibility ? Then might Christ have died , & have no Church to present to himself faire & spotless : his Church might have remained full of spots & wrinkles , unholy & full of blemishes , yea should have been no Church . Tit. 2 : 14. He gave himself for us , that he might redeem us from all iniquity , and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works . Do all the world belong to his peculiar people ? doth Christ redeem all the world from all iniquity ? Is all the world purified & made zealous of good works ? Or is all this meer may be , which may not be ? 2. Corinth . 5. vers . 21. He hath made him to be sin for us , who knew no sin , that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him . Was Christ made sin , or a sacrifice for sin , that all the world might possibly be made the Righteousness of God in him ? that is , that possibly not one person might be made the Righteousness of God in him ? who can dream thus , that God's intentions & designes should be so loose & frustrable , & that God should be so uncertain in his purposes ? Gal. 1 : 4. why did the Lord Jesus give himself for our sinnes ? It was , that he might deliver 〈◊〉 from this present evil world , according to the will of God and our Father . This is no meer Possible Deliverance ; and it is such as was designed not for all the world , but for the us , there mentioned . So Chap. 4 : 4 , 5. — God sent forth his son , made of a woman , made under the Law , to redeem them that were under the Law , that we might receive the adoption of sones . This Real Benefite is manifestly here restricked . Ioh. 17 : 19. for their sakes I sanctify my self , that they also may be sanctified through the truth , Christ sanctified himself , to be an ob●ation , not to obtaine a meer may be ; but 〈◊〉 they , for whose sakes he did sanctifie himself , that is , they that were given to him vers . 6 : 9. and were his owne vers . 10. & were in due time to beleeve in him vers . 20. ) might Really & Actually be Sanctified through him . Heb : 13 : 12. wherefore did Jesus suffer without the gate ? it was , that ho might sanctifie the people with his own bloud ; sure , this is more , than a may be . Rom. 3 : 25 , 26. Why did God set forth Christ to be a propitiation ? It was to declare his Righteousness , for the remission of sinnes that are past , that he might be just , and the justifier of him that beleeveth in Iesus : a Certaine Real thing . Many moe passages might be added to this purpose , but these may suffice , to discover the absurd falshood of this doctrine . Adde ( 6. ) such passages , as mention the Actua● Accomplishment & Effect of Christ's death , where it will yet more appear , that this was no meere may be , or Possible thing , but that which was to have a certaine Being & Reality as to the persons , for whom it was designed ; Such as Heb. 1 : 3● — when he had by himself purged our sinnes . Can their sinnes be said to be purged , who pine a way in hell for ever , because of their sinnes ? could this be true , if no man had been saved ? and yet , if it had been a mere possible & may be Redemption , it might have come to passe , that not one person should have been actually saved . So Heb. 9 : 12. - by his owne blood he entered in once into the holy place , having obtained eternal redemption . Is a meer possible Redemption to be called an eternal Redemption ? and was that all that Christ obtained ? Then Christ's blood was more ineffectual in the truth , than the type was , in its typicalness ; for the blood of buls & goats , and the ashes of an hiefer sprinkling the unclean , did not obtaine a possible and may-besanctification , and purifying of the flesh ; but did actually & really sanctify to the purifying of the flesh vers . 13. Againe vers . 14. ( which also confirmeth what is now said ) how much more shall the blood of Christ , who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God , purge your conscience from dead works , to serve the living God. So that all such , for whom he offered himself , and shed his blood , and none else , have their consciences purged from dead works , to serve the living God : and who darsay , that this is common to all , or is a meer may be , which the Apostle both restricteth & asserteth , as a most certaine real thing ; Againe vers . 26. - but now once in the end of the world , hath he appeared , to put away sin , by the sacrifice of himself . So that he did Actually & Really , and not Possibly & Potentially only , put away sin ; the sin viz. of those , for whom he was a sacrifice , even of them , that look for him , and to whom he shall appear the second time , without sin unto salvation vers . 28. and sure , no man in his wits will say , that this is the whole world . Gal. 3 : 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law , being made a curse for us . 14. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Iesus Christ , that we might receive the promise of the Spirit , through faith . Here are three Ends & Effects of Christ's Redemption mentioned , which no Man will say , are common to all viz. Redemption from the Curse of the Law ; and this was Really , & not potentially only done , by Christ's being made a curse for us ; the Communication of the blessing of Abraham , and the Promise of the Spirit , which are ensured to such as are Redeemed from the Curse of the Law , and to none else . So Ephes. 2 : 13 , 14 , 15 , 16. But now in Christ Iesus , ye , who sometimes were afar off , are made nigh by the blood of Christ ; for he is our peace , who hath made both one , and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us ; having abolished in his flesh the enmity , the Law of commandements in ordinances ; for to make to himself of twain one new man , so making peace ; and that he might reconcile both unto God , in one body , by the crosse , having slaine the enmity thereby . To which adde the paralled place Col. 1 : 21 , 22. & 2 : 14 , 15. was all this delivery from Wrath , Enmity , Law of commandements & whatever was against us , but a meer Potential thing , and a may be , common to all , in whose power it was to cause it take effect , or not , as they pleased ? Esai . 53 : 5. He was wounded for our transgressions , ●e was bruised for our iniquities , the chastisement of our peace was upon him , and with his stripes we are healed with 1. Cor. 15 : 3. - Christ died for our sinnes & 1. Pet. 2 : 24. who his owne self bear our sinnes in his own body , on the tree - by whose stripes we are healed : How can we then imagine , that all this was a meer may be , seing he was so bruised for our iniquities , so died for our sins , so bear our sinnes , in his own body ; as that thereby all , in whose room he stood , are healed by his stripes ? The Apostle doth moreover fully clear this matter , Rom. 5 : 6. - Christ died for the ungodly : was this for all ? Or was it to have an uncertaine End & effect ? No , vers . 9. much more then being now justified by his blood , we shall be saved from wrath through him . The ungodly and the sinners , for whom he died , are such as become justified by his blood , & shall at length be fully saved from wrath . And againe vers . 10. for if when we were enemies , we were reconciled to God , by the death of his son ; much more being reconciled , we shall be saved by his life : Upon his death followeth Reconciliation with God , & then Salvation ; and his death is for no more than his life is for . By him also they receive an atonement vers . 11. As the consequences & effects of Adam's sin did Certainly , and not by a may be , redownd to all , that he represented & engadged for ; so the fruites & effects of Christ's death do as certainly come unto such , as are his , as the Apostle cleareth , in the following verses , laying the advantage on the side of Christ & his ; vers . 15. — much more the Grace of God , and the gift by grace , by one man Iesus Christ , hath abounded unto many , vers . 16. — but the free gift is of many offences , unto justification , vers . 17. - much more they , which receive abundance of grace and of the Gift of Righteousness , shall reigne in life , by one Iesus Christ , vers . 18. — even so by the Righteousness of one , the free gift came upon all men to justification of life , vers . 19. — so by the obedience of one shall many be made Righteous , vers . 21. — so might grace reigne , through Righteousness unto eternal life , by Iesus Christ , our Lord. Is all this a Common thing , and a meer may be , or Possibility ? Ioh. 10 : 11. he giveth his life for his sheep & vers . 15. But may they for all that perish ? No , in no wise vers . 28. and I give unto them eternal life , and they shall never perish . He came that they might have life , and might have it more abundantly , vers . 10. To the same purpose he saith Ioh. 6 : 33. that he giveth life unto the world , not such a life , sure , as may never quicken any . Upon Christ's death doth the Apostle inferre Rom. 8 : 32. that the Elect shall have all things , & vers . 33 , 34 , 35. that they are free from all Accusations , or any Hazard therefrom , being justified , and having Christs Death , Resurrection , and Intercession to secure them at all hands ; & thereupon they have assurance , that nothing shall separate them from the love of God. Act. 20 : 28. Christ hath purchased a Church with his own blood . The whole world is not this Church ; nor is this purchase an uncertane may be ; And all this Real & Certaine Effect of Christ's death , was foretold by Daniel Chap. 9 : 24 , — to finish the transgresion , and to make an end of sins , and to make reconciliation for iniquity , and to bring in everlasting Righteousness , &c. And who can imagine , that this is Universal , or Uncertane ? If we will ( 7. ) Consider some other Ends of the death of Christ , which the Scripture pointeth forth , which are not to be found among Heathens , or any except the few Chosen ones , Ordained to life , we shall see , how unreasonable the Adversaries are . Gal. 4 : 5. Christ died to redeem them that were under the Law , that we might receive the adoption of sones . Was this end , & fruit left at an Uncertanty ? Shall we thinks , that Christ might have died , & yet one man receive this Adoption ? Was this Adoption purchased upon an uncertain Condition ? Or was this purchased equally for all ? Then such as received it , might have thanked their owne well natured Freewill , upon that account . But let us consider some other fruits . Gal. 1 : 4. who gave himself for our sins , that he might deliver us from this present evil world . So 1. Pet. 2 : 24. He bear our sins , in his own body , on the tree : but for what end : That we being dead to sin , should live unto Righteousness : & Chap. 3 : 18. Christ suffered for sins , the just for the unjust : To what end and purpose ? To bring us to God. Heb. 10 : 10. by the which will we are sanctified . How came this to passe ? Through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ , once for all , So he suffered without the gate , that he might sanctify the people Chap. 13 : 12. Revel . 1 : 5 , 6. — he loved us , and washed us from our sins in his owne blood . But was this all ? No , it is added , And hath made us Kings & Priests unto God , and his Father . So Ch. 5 : 9 , 10. — thou was ●tain , and hast redeemed us to God , by thy blood ; and what more ? And hast made us unto our God , Kings & Priests , &c. So 2. Cor. 5 : 15. He died for all : But for what end and purpose ? That they which live , should not henceforth live unto themselves , but unto him , which died for them , and rose againe . See Col. 1 : 22. These & the like passages do clearly pointe forth a special end of Christ's Death , which was designed both by the Father , that sent him , & by himself : and shall we suppose , that this great & chiefe designe was made to hang upon the lubrick & uncertain will of man ? Shall Christ be beholden to mans good will for the purchase he made , at so dear a rate ? If not , why are not all these ends attained , in all , for whom he died ? Did Christ fail in laying down the Ransome ? Or doth not the Father keep condition ? Who can say either of these ? Then surely , there can be no reason to say , that Christ made an uncertain bargain , & purchased only a Possibility of these fruites , which he knew not if ever he should attaine , in any one ; Nor to say , that he died for all . Let us further ( 8. ) take notice : That for whom Christ died , he died to take away their sins ; And that so , as they may be fully Pardoned , & never brought on reckoning againe : that is , that they be Remitted & Pardoned ; and that the poor sinner may not suffer therefore . This sure must be the import of that prayer , forgive us our trespasses . If then Christ by his death hath taken away sin , and purged it away , making satisfaction to justice therefore , how can we think , that justice can punish the sinner in hell fire , for these same sinnes ? But let us see , what the Scripture saith , 1. Ioh. 3 : 5. — he was manifested to take away our sins . Ephes. 1 : 7. we have redemption in his blood : what Redemption ? forgiveness of sins , according to the riches of his grace . So likewise Col. 1 : 14. Now when sinnes are thus taken away , they are blotted out , & not remembered Esai . 43 : 25. Fer. 31 : 34. Heb. 8 : 12. Yea they are blotted out as a cloud , and as a thick cloud Esai 44 : 22. So they are said to be subdued , & casten into the depths of the sea . Mica . 7 : 19. Shall we now say , that Christ hath died , to purchase this Redemption , the Forgiveness & blotting-out , as a thick cloud , and casting into the depths of the sea , of sin ; and yet multitudes of those ; for whom this was purchased , and that by the blood of God , should never obtaine this benefire , but have all their owne score ? This so pincheth the Adversaries , that the best evasion they can fall upon , is to say , that none shall have Original sin charged upon them : But the Scripture no where restricteth this Remission to that sin only . Others therefore say , That no sin now shall be be charged upon any , but the sin of Unbeleef . Then Iudas doth not suffer to day , for betraying his master : was it for this sin only , that the Old World was drowned ; or that the Cities of Sodom are suffering the vengeance of eternal fite ? Iude seemeth to say some other thing vers . 7. so are there other sins there reckoned up vers . 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. to which is reserved the blakness of darkness for ever , vers . 13. But some say , that these are all but pardoned upon condition . Then the Redemption is neither Actual & Real , nor Compleat , but a poor may be , and a may not be : and how can such sins be said to be forgiven or blotted out , and casten behinde God's back , and into the depths of the sea ? Did Christ know , whether or not this condition would be performed ? If not , then He is not the omniscient God. If he knew , that it would not be performed by the greatest part , how can we imagine , that he would notwithstanding lay downe his life to purchase a Remission for them ? And how 〈◊〉 we think , that He should purchase a Pardon to all , and let the event hang upon the pendulous tottering will of a sinfull creature ? But as to that Condition , we shall . Propose ( 9. ) this consideration . The not performance of that Condition was no doubt a sin , and if Christ died for all the sinnes of the world , he died for that too : And if he died for that too , that is taken out of the way , or there must be another Condition imagined , upon performance of which , that is to be taken our or the way ; and the non-performance of this Condition being also a sin , our proposition will recurre upon this , and so in infinitum : but if this sin be taken out of the way , it cannot prejudge them of the pardon of therest : and thus all their sins being pardoned , they must needs be saved : and yet it is not so . But it is said , that Christ died not for the sin of Final Unbeleef ; yet it seemeth , that it will be granted , that he died even for the sin of Unbeleefe of all the world , and for unbeleefe continued in , until the last houre of a mans life ; but not for that last act ; which yet is but the same Unbeleefe continued in an hour longer ; and shall we think , that Christ bare the Unbeleefe of 20 , 40 , 60. or moe yeers , in his body , on the crosse , & not the same Unbeleefe for one houre or halfe houre , yea or quarter of an houre ? Who seeth not , how little ground there is for such an imagination ? But the thing I would have mainly here considered , is this . That for whose sinnes Christ hath died , he hath died for all their sins ; and therefore , if he died for the sinnes of all the world , he died for the Final Unbeleefe of all the world : But this will not be granted ; therefore neither can it be said , that he died for the sinnes of all men . Whose sinnes he took upon him to make satisfaction for , he left none for them to answere for ; for he is a compleat Mediator , and is sole Mediator . If he died for all the rest of the sinnes of the Reprobat , and of the whole world , why not for that also ? Sure , when the Scripture speaketh of Christs taking away of sin , and of the Redemption , that is , forgiveness of sins , which people enjoy through him , there is no sin excepted , He was wounded for our transgressions , he was bruised for our iniquitie ; Esa. 53 : 5. the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all vers . 6. or made the iniquitie of us all to meet on him ; there is no ground for any exception here : when he was stricken for transgression vers . 9. and his soul was made an offering for sin , vers . 10. is there any appearance of the exception of any one sin ? when he bear their sin and their iniquities vers . 11 , 12. what intimation is given of an exception of any ? Yea , if this exception was to be made , which would null & destroy all , what consolation could the declaration of this Redemption , remission of sins , yeeld unto poor sinners ? Col. 1 : 14. Ephes. 1 : 7. When the Lord made him to be sin for us , was it only in part ? how then could we be made the Righteousness of God in Him 2. Cor. 5 : 21 ? was the Lord in Christ reconcileing the world unto himself , not imputing only part of their trespasses to them ? but the imputing of one sin would mar the reconciliation for ever . Is not final unbeleef a dead work ? Doutbles ; yet the blood of Christ purgeth Consciences from dead works Heb. 9 : 14. Did the blood of buls & goats so sanctify , as to the purifying of the flesh , as to leave the most defileing spot of all untaken away ? How could healing come by his stripes , if he bear but part of our sins , in his body on the tree , seing final unbeleef alone would mar all ? for where that is , there is no coming to God imaginable . But moreover , the Scripture tels us , that the blood of Iesus Christ his Son oleanseth us from all sin 1. Ioh. 1 : 7. and that if any man sin , there is an Advocat with the Father , who is a propitiation for sins , 1. Ioh. 2 : vers . 1 , 2. and so must be for all sins , otherwayes there were little ground of comfort here : And it was foretold by Daniel Chap. 9 : 24. that he should make an end of sin , & finish the transgression , & so bring-in everlasting Righteousness . Doth this admit of exceptions , and of such an exception , as would unavoidably make all null ? No certanely . But you will ask of me , if I think , that Christ did die for final unbeleefe ? I Answ. Not : for I judge , it is the sin only of Reprobates , who hear the Gospel : and I judge that Christ did not die for any sin of Reprobats : But this I hold , and have cleared , That for whose sinnes soever Christ hath died , he hath died for all their sins : And because he hath not died for Final Unbeleef , therefore he hath not died for any sin of such , as shall be guilty of this : and as for his owne , he died to prevent their falling into , and to keep them from this sin ; for he died to bring them unto God , that they might have the Adoption of sons , that they might be sanctified , and live unto Righteousness , be made Righteous , yea the Righteousness of God ; as is clear 1. Pet. 2 : 24. Heb. 10 : 10. 2. Cor. 5 : 21. 1. Pet. 3 : 18. Rom. 5 : 19. what then will they say to this ? Final unbeleef is certainly a sin ; and Christ either died for it , or not ; if he died for it , than it can be laid to no mans charge ; or Christ's death is of no value . If he died not for it , he died not for all the sinnes of all men ; but at most , for some sinnes of all men ; and if that was all , no man could thereby be saved , for one sin is enough to procure damnation . Moreover ( 10. ) we finde the Persons , for whom this price of blood was laid down , designed more particularly , and the Object of this Redemption restricted ; and so it could not be for all & every one . It is said to be for Many Esai 53 : 11. Matth. 20 : 28. & 26 : 28. Mark 10 : 45. Heb. 9 : 28. and what these many are , is abundantly declared in other Scriptures , where they are called Christ's Sheep Ioh. 10 : 15. Christ's People Mat. 1 : 21. His People , whom according to the predictions of the Prophets , which have been , since the world began , he should save from their enemies , and from the hand of all , that hate them , to performe the mercy promised to the Fathers , and to remember his holy Covenant , the oath , which he swore to Father Abraham ; that he would grant unto them , that being delivered out of the hand of their enemies , they might serve him without fear , in holiness & Righteousness , before him , all the dayes of their lifo Luk. 1 : 68 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75. His Church Ephes. 5 : 25. Act. 20 : 28. His Body Ephes. 5 : 22. The Children of God , that were scattered abroad Ioh. 11 : 52. Sones , Sanctified , Brethren , the Children that God gave him , that Seed of Abraham Heb. 2 : 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17. They are the Sheep , that shall infallibly beleeve , because sheep Ioh. 10 : 26. and Whom Christ knoweth , and of whom he is known vers . 14. and such as shall heare his voice vers . 16. & follow him vers . 27. to whom he will give eternal life , so that they shall never perish , & who are given to him of his Father vers . 28 , 29. & the Elect 2. Tim. 2 : 10. He is bread giving life unto the World , of them , that the Father hath given him , and shall come to him Ioh. 6 : 33 , 39. They are these , concerning whom the Fathers will was , as being given of him , that he should lose nothing , but raise it up againe , at the last day ver . 38 , 39 , 47. The Redeemed ones that are numbered by God 144000. & are the first fruites unto God , and the Lamb. Revel . 14 : 3 , 4 , 5. They are such as are the Lords , & whom the Lord knoweth for his 2. Tim. 2 : 19. & are enrolled in the Lambs book , Revel . 13 : 8. & 20 : 15. So are they designed to be these , for whom God is , and who shall have unquestionably all things ; the Elect who shall be justified , who shall not be separated from the Love of Christ ; are in all things more then Conquerours Rom. 8 : 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 37 , 38 , 39. These with whom the Covenant shall be confirmed Dan. 9 : 27. The redeemed out of every Kinred , & Tongue , & People , & Nation ; and made Kings & Priests Revel . 5 : 9 , 10. Further ( 11. ) if Christ died for the sinnes of all persons , how cometh it that they are not all actually pardoned ? It cannot be said , that Christ's death was not a satisfactory price , nor that the Father did not accept of it : If then he shed his blood for the remission of sins , Mat. 26 : 28. are not all these sins pardoned virtually & fundamently ? or shall they not all actually be pardoned in due time ? If it be said , they shall be pardoned upon Condition of their faith . But if the sinnes of all be equally payed for , and equally in a virtual manner discharged , in Christ's being actually discharged from that debt , in the day of his Resurrection ; and the actually discharge depending upon the uncertain Condition of mans Will ; man , who willingly performeth the Condition , shall praise himself for the actually pardon , and none else ; for Christ did no more for him , as to the Actual Pardon , than for others , who never shall be blessed with actual forgiveness : and yet forgiveness is held forth , as a special act of free grace ; forgivenesse of sinnes is according to the riches of his grace Ephes. 1 : 7. Moreover as to that Condition , whether did Christ purchase it , or not ? If he did not purchase it , than man is not beholden to Christ , for the Condition ; be it faith , or what ye will , it is no purchased mercy , but man is beholden to his good Lord - Free Will , for it , and so he may sacrifice to his own net , and sing glory to himself , for making himself to differ , and for obtaining to himself Actual Remission of all his sinnes , and consequently blessedness Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. for had not his owne well disposed Lord - Free Will performed that Condition , all that Christ did , had never more advantaged him , than it did others that perish . If it be said , that grace to performe the condition , though it be not purchased by the blood , of Christ , yet it is freely given by God , to whom he will. I Answer Not to insist here , on the proof of faith's being purchased by Christ ; because we shall cleare it afterward , & there is nothing else assigned for the condition , I would enquire , whether Christ knew to whom this grace would be given ; or not ? if not , then we must deny him to be God : if he knew , why shall we suppose , that he would lay down his life equally for all , when he knew before hand , that many should never get grace to performe the condition , upon which his death should redound to their actual pardon & justification ? what Ends , or what Advantages can we imagine of such an Universal Redemption ? ( 12. ) If the Condition , upon which actual pardon & justification is granted , in the blood of Christ , be purchased by Christ ; then either all shall certainly be Pardoned & Justified , or Christ hath not purchased an Equal , Common , & Possible Redemption , to all and every man : But the former is true , & it is not true that all shall certainly be pardoned & actually justified ; for then all should be glorified . That the condition , to wit , Faith , & Repentance is purchased by Christ , who can deny , seing , he is expresly called the Author of Faith , Heb. 12 : 2. and a Prince exalted to give Repentance & forgiveness of sins Act. 5 : 31 ? So that as forgiveness of sins is founded upon his death , as the Meritorious cause ; so must Repentance be ; and Christ , as an exalted Prince & Saviour , hath this power to dispose of his owne purchased legacy , which he hath left , and ensured by his death , unto the heires of salvation . Upon his Death , & Satisfaction made in his death , hath he gote all power in heaven & earth , a power to quicken whom he will Matth. 28 : 18. Ioh. 5 : 21 , 22 , 27. Phil. 2 : 9 , 10. Hence we are said to be compleat in him Col. 2 : 10. & to be blessed with all spiritual blessings , in celestials ( to which , no doubt , Faith & Repentance do belong ) in him Ephes. 1 : 3. Is it not from hence , that the divine power hath given unto us all things , that pertaine unto life and godliness 2. Pet , 1 : 3 ? Nay Paul tels us expresly Phil , 1 : 29. that it is given to us , in the behalfe of Christ , to beleeve on him . And certainly there is a promise of Faith & Repentance ; and all the promises are yea & amen in Him 2. Cor. 1 : 20. all the Blessings contained in the Covenant , are made sure by his death , who was the surety of this better Testament Heb. 7 : 22. & this Testament was to have force by his death Heb. 9 : 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , & the New heart & heart of flesh , is promised in the Covenant , & comprehendeth Faith & Repentance , they being some of his Lawes , which he hath also promised to write in the heart Ier. 31 : 33 , Heb. 8 : 10. Ezech. 11 : 19 , 20 , & 36 : 26 , 27. We have moreover seen that Sanctification & Holiness , from which , Faith & Repentance cannot be separated , were purchased by Christ , & intended in his death : whence he is made of God unto us Sanctification 1. Cor. 1 : 30. If it be not purchased by Christ , how come we by it ? is it a thing in our Power , and an act of our owne Free Will ? Then , as I said before , we are beholden to ourselves , for Faith and all that follow upon it , & then farewell all Prayer for Faith & Repentance , & all Thanksgiving to God for it . This is pure Pelagtanisme . If it be said , that it is the free gift of God Ephes. 2 : 8. and a Consequent of electing love . I Answere all the fruites of election , which are to be wrought in us , are procured by the blood of Christ , for all are conveyed to us in a Covenant , whereof Christ is the Mediator & Surety , and with Christ he giveth us all things Rom. 8 : 32. & we are blessed in Him with all spiritual blessings , according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world Ephes. 1 : 3 , 4. So we are predestinate unto the adoption of children by Iesus Christ , Ephes. 1 : 5. and adoption is not had without Faith Ioh. 1 : 12. can we have Actual Redemption in Christ's blood Ephes. 1 : 7. Col. 1 : 14. even forgiveness of sinnes , and not have also in his blood Faith , without which there in no actual redemption , or forgiveness of sinnes to be had ? when Christ gave himself for us , that he might purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2 : 14. did he not purchase Faith , without which we cannot be such ? when the Renewing of the holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly , through I. C. Tit. 3 : 5 , 6. have we not Faith also through him ? May we not pray for Faith ; and can we pray for any thing , & not in Christ's name ? See 2. Tim. 1 : 9. 1. Pet. 1 : 3. Rom. 8 : 32 , 39. Luk. 22 : 32. Againe ( 13. ) All that Christ died for , must certanely be Saved , But all Men shall not be saved . That all , for whom Christ died , must certanely be saved , is hence apparent . ( 1. ) That all , who have Saving Faith & Repentance , shall be saved , will not be denyed ; & that Christ hath purchased Faith & Repentance to all , for whom he died , we have showne above . ( 2. ) These who shall freely get all things f●om God , must get Salvation ; for all things else signifie nothing without that ; but all they , for whom Christ was delivered , shall get all things , Rom. 8 : 32. ( 3. ) They whom nothing shall separate from the Love of Christ , and from the Love of God , which is in Christ Jesus , our Lord , must certainly be saved : But all they , for whom Christ hath died , will in due time have ground to say this . Rom. 8 : 34 , 35 , 39. ( 4. ) All they , to whose charge nothing can be laid , shall be saved : But this will be true of all that Christ died for ; for Christ's death is held forth as the ground of this , Rom. 8 : 33 , 34. ( 5. ) They , for whom Christ interceedeth , shall undoubtedly by saved : But Christ interceedeth for all , for whom he died , Rom. 8 : 33 , 34. ( 6. ) All who are sanctified shall be saved : But all that Christ died for , shall in due time be sanctified ; Sanctification being , as we shewed above , one principal intended end of Christ's death . ( 7. ) All Christ's Elected sheep shall be saved : But such are they , for whom Christ died , as was showne . ( 8. ) All that God & Christ love with the greatest love imaginable , shall certainly be saved : But such are they , for whom Christ died , Ioh. 3 : 16. & 15 : 13. Act. 20 : 28. Eph. 5 : 25. ( 9. ) All that become the Righteousness of God in Christ shall be saved . But that shall be true of all , for whom he died , or was made sin , or a sacrifice for sin 2. Cor. 5 : 21. ( 10. ) All , that shall be blessed in having their sins pardoned , shall be saved , Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. But all for whom Christ died shall have this Redemption , Ephes. 1 : 7. Col. 1 : 14. ( 11. ) All they , whom Christ knoweth & acnowledgeth , shall be saved , Mat. 7 : 23. But he knoweth all them for his sheep , Ioh. 10 : 14 , 17. for whom he died . ( 12. ) All , for whom Christ rose againe , shall be saved , seing he rose for our justification , Rom. 4 : 25. But he rose againe for all those , for whom he died , Rom. 4 : 25. who was delivered for our offences , and was raised againe for our justification , Rom. 8 : 34. ( 13. ) All who shall be planted together with Christ , in the likeness of his resurrection , shall be saved : But that is true of such as he died for , Rom. 6 : 5. ( 14. ) All they in whom the old man shall be crucified , that the body of sin might be destroyed , that hence-forth they should not serve sin , shall be saved : But that is true of such as he died for , Rom. 6 : 6 , 7 , 8. knowing this , that our old man is crucified with him , that the body of sin might be destroyed , that henceforth we should not serve sin : for he that is dead is freed from sin . Now if we be dead with Christ , we beleeve , that we shall also live with him , &c. ( 15. ) All they , who shall be made Kings & Priests unto God , shall be saved . But all the redeemed shall be such , Rev. 1 : 5 , 6. & 5 : 10. See worthy Mr. Durham on the Revel . p. 303. ( 16. ) If Christ must see of the travail of his soul , then these he died for must be saved : But the former is true , Esai . 53 : 11. ( 17. ) All whom Christ shall Justifie shall be saved , But he shall justify all , whose iniquities he beareth , Esai . 53 : 11. Thus is this sufficiently proved . It is also considerable ( 14. ) That no where in Scripture , we finde it expresly said & affirmed , That Christ died for all men ; Far less finde we it said , that Christ died for all and every man. Why then is all this trouble made ? But they say , as much as all that is said by consequence . And this we deny : if they will rationally presse this matter , they should evince , that such expressions , as they make so much work about , can be no otherwise understood , than they suppose , in the places , where they stand : and this they shall never be able to do . Though it be said , that Christ gave his life a Ransome for all ; yet no reason can evince , that that is necessarily to be understood of all & every man : so nor can they conclude any thing rationally from the word world . They may as well inferre from these words all , and the world , that Christ died for devils , beasts & sensless creatures , as that he died for all & every man ; for they are comprehended under these terms , as well as Men : And if they will restrict these termes to men , because of other Scriptures ; why may not we restrick them also to the Elect , because of the correspondence of other passages of Scripture ? They cannot deny us the liberty , they take to themselves . If they say , that there is a vast difference betwixt Devils an Men , in reference to such favours . We deny it not : but shall adde , that in reference to spiritual favours , amongst which we cannot but reckon , with the good leave of our Adversaries , the death of Christ , being the fruit & expression of the greatest Love of God to Man , we finde also a great difference in Scripture . Some are Loved , some Hated Rom. 9 : 11 , 12. Some whom he Knoweth some whom he Knoweth not Ioh. 10 : 14. & 13 : 18. Mat. 7 : 23. 2. Tim. 2 : 19. Some Chosen & Ordained to life , others not , but to Wrath Act. 13 : 48. Rom. 8 : 30. & 9 : 18. &c. Ephes. 1 : 4. 1. Thes. 5 : 9. Some Sheep , others Goats Mat. 25 : 32. Some on whom God hath Mercy , others whom he Hardeneth Rom. 9. Some his Church , others not Act. 20 : 28. Ephes. 5 : 25. Some . of the World , others not Ioh. 17 : 9 , 10. Some his Brethren , others not Heb. 2 : 10 , 12 , 13. And as plainly read we , that Christ died for his People Mas. 1 : 21. his Sheep Ioh. 10 : 11 , 12 , 14. his Church Act. 20 : 28. Ephes. 5 : 25. his Elect Rom. 8 : 32 , 34. and his Children . Heb. 2 : 12 , 13. If we would consider aright . ( 15. ) What Christ did undergoe & suffer , while he was made sin , or was making satisfaction for sin ; we should hardly think it probable , that Christ Jesus , God-man , who was the brightness of tho Fathers glory , and the express image of his person , Heb. 1 : 3. and thought it no robbery to be counted equal with God , Phil. 2 : 6. Should have undergone what he did undergoe , and that the Father should have laid all that upon him , which he did lay upon him , and that to purchase only a meer Possible Redemption from sin & wrath , whereby not one person should be saved or pardoned , if so it had seemed good to captaine Free will. Not to mention his condescending to be Born of a woman , & to be made under the Law , Gal. 4 : 4. nor his being in the forme of a servant , Phil. 2 : 7. nor his Poverty & mean Condition in the world , 2. Cor. 8 : 9. nor his Conflicting with the indignities of the world , Psal. 22 : 6. Heb. 12 : 2 , 3. with the temptations of Satan Math. 4 : 1-12 . Luk. 4 : 15. and his being under the infirmities , common to the nature of man , being in all things like us , except sin Heb. 2 : 17. & 4 : 15. Esai . 52 : 13 , 14. Nay , nor his sufferings in his Body , Name , Honour at death , when he was betrayed by Iudas Mat. 27 : 4. forsaken by his disciples Math. 26 : 56. Scorned & Reviled by the world Esai . 53 : 2● 3. Condemned as a malefactor by Pilat , & Tormented by his persecutors Mat. 27 : 26-50 . Ioh. 19 : 34. & Endured the Painful , Shameful & Cursed death of the crosse Phil. 2 : 8. Heb. 12 : 2. all which & the like being endured by Him , who was the Son of God , could be no mean suffering , nor undergone for an uncertain end , or for the procureing of a meer Possible & Uncertain good : But that which we would most take notice of here , is , his Soul sufferings , being persued by divine justice , when that Zach. 13 : 7. was accomplished , awake , O sword , against my shepheard , against the Man , that is my follow , saith the Lord of hostes , smite the shepheard and the sheep shall be scattered , Mat. 26 : 31. and the Lord did bruise him , and put him to griese Esai . 53 : 5 , 10. and he began to be sorrowful even unto death Mat. 26 : 37 , 38. and was sore amazed and very heavy Mark. 14 : 34. and was put to offer up prayers and supplications , with strong cryes and teares to him , that was able to save him Heb. 5 : 7. when ; notwithstanding that an angel appeared unto him from heaven , strengthening him , yet being in an agony , he prayed more earnestly , and his sweat was , as it were , great drops of blood falling down to the ground Luk. 22 : 43 , 44. and at length was made to cry out , my God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me Psal. 22 : 1. Mat. 27 : 46. Mark. 15 : 34. This was no mean business , when the Rayes & Irradiations of Divine Love were drawn-in & withheld from him , who had such a sharp sense of the happiness in the enjoying of God's favour , because of the Personal union with the Godhead . But that which is most of all to be considered , is his being made a Curse Gal. 3 : 13. and so made to wrestle with the Justice and Wrath of a sin revenging God. This was the gall and the worm wood , that made him cry Ioh. 12 : 27. Now is my soul troubled , and what shall I say ? Father save me from this hour . Shall we suppose , that all this was about an Uncertane Bargane ? Shall we think , that he died the cursed death of the crosse , and bore the weight of God's wrath Luk. 22 : 41. Mat. 27 : 46. and so became a sacrifice to satisfie divine justice Heb. 9 : 14 , 18 , & all to purchase a meer Possibility ; or a meer Possible Redemption ? Shall we think , that the Second person of the Trinity should do & suffer all these things , for to redeem man , when possibly , if Freewill should be so ill natured , not one man should reap any advantage thereby ? Me thinks , the asserting of this should be a great temptation to cause people turne Socinians , and deny all these soul sufferings of Christ , & his bearing the wrath of God , & making any satisfaction to justice . Adde to this ( 16. ) That the Scriptures speak of Christ's Death & Sufferings , as being not for himself , but for others ; and that not only for the good & advantage of others ( and doubtless the advantage of all this should be but little , if it were nothing else , but a meer Possible Redemption , which Free will might make actual , or not Actual , as it pleased ) but in their Roome & Place : hence it is called the chastisement of our peace Esai . 53 : 5. and he is said to have borne our griefs , and carryed our sorrowes vers . 4. He was wounded for our transgressions ; and bruised for our iniquities vers . 5. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all vers . 6 , — for the transgression of my people was he stricken vers . 8. — for he shall bear their iniquities vers . 11. — he bare the sin of many vers . 12. He bear our sins , in his body , on the tree 1. Pet. 2 : 24. the just suffered for the unjust 1. Pet. 3 : 18. Hence beleevers are said to be crucified with him Gal. 2 : 20. - to be baptized into his death Rom. 6 : 3. buried with him by baptisme into death vers . 4. - planted together in the likeness of his death vers . 5. dead with Christ vers . 8. He was cut off , but not for himself Dan. 9 : 26. See also Heb. 2 : 9. 1. Pet. 2 : 21. Shall we say , that this was meerly for our good , seing it was , in some respect for the good of the whole creation Rom. 8 : 20 , 21 , 22 , 23. Act. 3 : 21. and not in our Place & Stead ? Paul saith 2 Cor. 5 : 14. If one be dead then were all dead . And it is manifest , that he payed the Law-debt , having taken on him the seed of Abraham for this end Heb. 2 : 16 , & being made a curse for us , he redeemed us from the curse of the Law Gal. 3 : 10. So that it was in our stead Rom 5 : 6 , 7 , 8 Ioh. 11 : 50. & 10 : 11 , 15. And the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath clearly this import Mat. 5 : 38 , & 17 : 27 , Esa. 41 : 4. Exod. 21 : 23 , 24. 1. Chron , 14 : 1. 1. King. 3 : 7 , 2. King. 1 : 17 , & 11 : 43. Prov. 11 : 3. Ioh. 16 : 4 , & 34 : 17. 1. Pet. 3 : 9. Rom 12 : 17. See many other places cited by worihy Mr. Rutherfoord in his book of the Covenant pag. 254 , 255. where both in the N. T. and in the LXX . version of the old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath this import . And this truth is abundantly made out by our Orthodox Divines , writting against the Socinians ; so that I need say no more of it ; only I think , such as assert the Redemption purchased by Christ to have been a meer General Possible Redemption , do strengthen the hands of the Socinians ; and joyn with them against the Orthodox : But to our purpose , Such as Christ did thus die for , & in their room & place , are accounted to have died in Him , & so freed : as in Ter. Pro illo te ducam , Ego pro te molam . Moreover ( 17. ) If we consider the furniture , which Christ as mediator had given to him of the Father , we shall see more of the unreasonableness of this opinion , which the Arminians embrace : Not to speak of what he had as God , the Fathers Fellow & Equal , let us but take notice of that communicated furniture , which he had as Mediator between God and man , 1. Tim , 2 : 5. and our Emmanuel , Esai . 7 : 14. We see he is called Wonderful , Counsellour , &c. Esai . 9 : 6 , 7. He is that Candlestick , whence the golden pipes do empty the golden oile , Zeoh 4 : 12. He was full of grace & truth Ioh. 1 : 14. Was this fulness for a meer Possible effect ? Or had he it so , and for such an end , as none might possibly be the better thereof ? No ; and of his fulness have all we received grace for grace Ioh , 1 : 16. He had not the Spirit by measure Ioh , 3 : 34. It pleased the Father , that in him should all fulness dwell . Col. 1 : 9. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdome & knowledge Col. 2 : 3. and in him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily vers . 9. And wherefore is all this ? Even that all his might be compleet in him vers . 10. Grace was poured into his lips Psal. 45 : 2. and he was anoynted with the oyle of gladness above his fellowes vers . 7. And Esai . 61 : 1. Luk. 4 : 18 , &c. The Spirit of the Lord God was upon him , because the Lord had anoynted him . And for what end ? To preach glade tideings unto the meek , to binde up the broken hearted , to proclame liberty to the captives , and the opening of the prison to them that are bound . See further vers . 2 , 3. Sure , this was no uncertain end , nor left to the discretion of Free will. So Esai . 11 : 2. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him , the Spirit of wisdom and understanding , &c. Shall all this be , and further shall Righteousness be the girdle of his loines , and faithfulness the girdle of his reines vers . 5. And may it notwithstanding so come to passe , that the Wolf shall not dwell with the Lamb , nor the Leopard lye down with the Kid , &c. nor the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord , as the waters cover the sea ? Vers. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. How absurd is it to imagine this ? All this furniture saith , that it was no Uncertain General End , which he had before his eyes , in undertaking this work ; and the Father in sending him , and granting to him this fulness . Adde to this ( 18. ) The Titles & Relations , which Christ took upon him : for they cannot be meer insignificant and empty Names . He is called a Redeemer Esa. 41 : 14 & 54 : 5. & 49 : 26 , & 60 : 16. & 43 : 14 & 44 : 6 , 24. & 48 : 17. & 49 : 7. & 47 : 4. & 59 : 20. Rom. 11 : 26. And shall we imagine , that He shall be a Redeemer & Deliverer , and yet no man Redeemed or delivered ? No : He hath a redeemed company , whom he owneth as such Esa. 35 : 9. & 43 : 1 , 23. & 44 : 22. & 48 : 20. Ier. 31 : 11. Esai . 51 : 11. & 52 : 3. & 63 : 4. Zach. 10 : 8. Luk. 1 : 68. & 24 : 21. 1. Pet. 1 : 18 , Revel . 5 : 9. & 14 : 3. He is called a Saviour Esai . 43. 3. 11. & 45 : 15 , 21. & 63 : 8. Luk. 1 : 47. & 2 : 11. Ioh. 4 : 42. Act. 5 : 31. & 13 : 23. 2. Tim. 1 : 10. Tit. 1 : 4. Ephes 5 : 23. T it 2 : 13. & 3 : 6. 2. Pet. 1 : 1 , 11. & 2 : 20. & 3 : 2 , 18 , 1. Ioh. 4 : 14. Shall we think , that he was given & sent for a Saviour , and took upon him that title & relation , and notwithstanding no man might be saved ? No , there are also some designed , the Saved 2. Cor. 2 : 15. Act 2 : 4. 1. Cor. 1 : 18. He is called a King Revel . 15 : 3. & 17 : 14. & 19 : 16. 1. Tim. 6 : 15. Ioh. 12 : 15. Luk. 19 : 38. & 23 : 2. Zach. 9 : 9. Mat. 21 : 5. Now is he an actual King , and shall have none but potential Subjects ? Shall he be a King without a Kingdom ? See Ioh. 18 : 36. Col. 1 : 13. 1. Cor. 15 : 24. He is called an Husband 2. Cor. 11 : 2. Ier. 31 : 32. And therefore he must have a Wife & a Bride Ioh. 3 : 29. Revel . 18 : 23. & 21 : 9. & 22 : 17. He is called an Head Ephes 5 : 23. 1. Cor. 11 : 3. Ephes. 4 : 15. & 1 : 22. Col. 1 : 18. And so must have a body Ephes. 1 : 23. Rom. 12 : 5. Ephes. 4 : 4. Col. 3 : 15. & 1 : 24. & 2 : 19. Ephes. 4 : 16. & 5 : 23. & 3 : 6. He is called the Vine stock , & shall he have no Brancnes ? Ioh. 15 : 1 , 2. &c. These things might be further enlairged & pressed ; but we shall haste forward . ( 19. ) Our Adversaries say , That Christ by his Death & passion did Absolutely , even according to the Intention of God , purchase Remission of sins & Reconciliation with God , and that for all & every man : Others say conditionally : But withal as to the application of this purchase : it is made to depend upon faith : and so they distinguish betwixt Impetration & Application . And though it is true , the purchase made is one thing , and the actual enjoyment of the thing purchased is another thing : Yet we may not say , with our Adversaries , that the Impetration is for moe , than shall have the Application ; But we assert , that both Impetration & Application , in respect of the designe of the Father , which is absolute & certain , and the Intention of Christ the Mediator , which is fixed & peremptory , are for the same individual persons ; so that for whomsoever God sent Christ , & Christ came to purchase any good , unto these same shall it actually , in due time , & in the Method & manner Condescended upon & prescribed , be given ; & upon them , & none else , shall it actually be bestowed : for ( 1. ) No other thing , beside this Application , can be supposed to have been the end of the Impettation ; And sure , Christ was herein a Rational Agent : Nay , it was the Intention & designe of the Father , that the Application of these good things should be by the meanes of this Impetration , as is abundantly cleared above . ( 2. ) We cannot suppose that either Christ , or his Father , should faile , or come short of their end designed ; but by our Adversaries , the Impetration might have been obtained , and yet no Application made of the good things impetrated & obtained . ( 3. ) If no Application was intended by the Father or by Christ , then it must be said , that both were uncertain , as to what the Event should have been , or at least Regardless & Unconcerned ; either of which to affirme were blasphemy . ( 4. ) The very word Impetrate , having the same force & import with , Purchase , Procure , Obtaine , Merite , and the like , doth say , that such , for whom this Impetration was made , have a right , upon the Impetration , to the thing Acquired & Purchased : And if they have a right thereto , that Possession should follow . ( 5. ) Yea the word importeth , the actual conferring of the good , to be the very end of the Purchaseing & Impetrating ; and so , in this case , the very Impetration is ground of Assurance of the Application , considering , who did impetrate , and at whose hands , and withall , what was the ground of the Fathers sending of Christ , and of Christs coming to impetrate , even inconceiveably wonderful & great Love. Nor doth the intervening of a condition , required before the actual collation of some of the good things purchased , hinder at all ; for all these Blessings , some whereof are as a condition to others , are the one good thing Impetrated , and the very conditions are also Impetrated , as we declared above : and so this pointeth forth only the methode of the actual bestowing of these good things purchased . ( 6. ) How absurd is it to say , a thing is Impetrated or Obtained , and yet may , or may not be Bestowed ; may be Possessed , or not Possessed ? Or to say , that such a good thing is Obtained by price or petitioning , and yet the same good thing , may never be Bestowed , or the Bestowing of it hangeth & dependeth upon an Uncertain Condition , which may never beperformed ? ( 7. ) How unreasonable is it , that such should have right to the Merites , that have no right to the thing Merited ? Doth not an interest in the Merites , procureing any thing , include an interest in the thing Merited ? When a ransome is payed for captives , to the end they may be delivered , have not these Captives a right to the deliverance , upon the payment of that ransome ? ( 8. ) The Scriptures do so connect these two , that it argueth contempt thereof , to imagine such a separation : as Rom. 4 : 25. Yea the one is assigned as a certain Effect & Consequent flowing from the Other , as its Moral cause Esai . 53 : 11. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many , this Justification is the Application ; & whence cometh it ? For he shall bear their iniquities , there is the Impetration given as the ground hereof : So further vers . 5. he was wounded for our transgressions , &c. and what followeth upon this Impetration ? And by his stripes are we healed . So Rom. 5 : vers . 18. By the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification . So that the Application reacheth an all , that is , all who have interest in the Righteousness , which is the thing Impetrated see also Heb. 10 : 10. ( 9. ) If Christs Intercession be for the same persons , for whom he died , then the Application is to the same ; for this Intercession of Christ is in order to the Application : But that Christs Intercession is for the same persons , for whom he died , we shall see hereafter . ( 10. ) If all things be ensured to such , for whom Christ died , then certanely this Application cannot fail but the former is true Rom. 8 : 32. He that spared not his owne Son , but delivered him up for us all , how shall he not ( mark this manner of expression which importeth the greated of absurdities to think otherwise ) with him also freely give us all things ? ( 11. ) And in that same place vers . 33 , 34. Christs death is given as the certain ground of Justification , & Salvation , so that such , as he died for , shall certanely , in due time , & after the methode prescribed , be Justified & Saved ; otherwayes , there were no sure ground in the Apostles argueing ; for if all the ground of this certanty , as to Application , were from their Faith , or fulfilling of the Condition , the Apostle would have mentioned this , as the maine ground , & not have led them to a ground common to others , who never should partake of the Application . ( 12. ) This matter is abundantly confirmed from what we said above , concerning Christs purchasing of Faith , and dying for our sanctification , & to bring us to God , &c. so that more needeth not be added here . ( 20. ) For further confirmation of this , and because our Adversaries think to salve the fore mentioned separation of Impetration & Application , by telling us , that where good things are Absolutely purchased , then Application must follow ; But not where good things are purchased only Conditionally , as in our case : we shall therefore shew , how this will not hold , nor advantage their cause : for ( 1. ) If all be Redeemed Conditsonally , that condition , whatever it be , must in equity be revealed to all . ( 2. ) Either God & Christ knew , who would performe this condition , or not : If not , then they were not omniscient : If they did know ; then sure , this death was more particularly & designedly intended for them , than for the rest : and upon what account , & to what end , should Christ lay down his life a Ransome for such , as he knew certainly should never be the better thereof ? And why would the Father send him to die for such ? ( 3. ) This Condition is either in mans sole power , without the help of the Grace of God , to performe , or not : If it be in mans power , from what Scripture shall this Pelagianisme be confirmed ? How shall then the new Covenant of Grace be distinguished in specie from the Covenant of Works , made with Adam ? If this Condition be not in mans power , but the Grace of God must work it . Then either God will work it in all , or not : If not , why would God purchase good things to people upon a Condition , which they could not performe , & which he alone could work in them , & resolved not to worke in them ? If he will worke it in all , then all shall certainly be saved . Againe , if this Condition be the free gift of God , then either God will give it Absolutely to all ; and so all shall certainly be saved : or Absolutely to some , & then none but they shall be saved , and why should Christ die for the rest ? Or Conditionally to all : And if so , the doubt will recurre concerning that Condition , which either must be Absolutely given , & so we are where we were , or Conditionally , and so still the doubt recurreth . ( 4. ) This condition is either purchased by Christ , or it is not . If not , then we owe no thanks to Christ for it , nor for what is obtained upon that Condition , more then others who performe not the Condition , & so obtaine nothing : but to ourselves only , who make ourselves to differ ; and so may we sing praises to ourselve , & put the crown upon our owne heads , and give no song of praise to the Redeemer , but what such as go to hell are bound to give , contrary to all Christian Religion : If Christ hath purchased this Condition , then it is done either Absolutly , of Conditionally : If Absolutely , than all shall Absolutely have it : if Conditionally , we enquire , what is the Condition ? And whatever it be , we may move the same questions concerning it . ( 5. ) By this meanes the act should creatits owne object ; for Faith in the death of Christ is ordinarily given as the Condition , and this faith maketh the death of Christ valide , which otherwayes would not be . ( 6. ) This maketh all the vertue of Christs death to depend upon mans act ; so that if man will , all shall be saved ; if not , no man shall be saved , notwithstanding that Christ died for them . ( 7. ) This makes Christ but , at most , a half Mediator , doing one part of the work ; and man , coming in to compleete it must be the other half mediator ; and so , at least , must have the halfe of the Praise . ( 8. ) where saith the Scripture , that if we beleeve , Christ died for us ? or that Christ died for all , or for any , Conditionally ? It is true , some of the effects of Christ's death are bestowed Conditionally , ( taking the word conditionally not properly , as if the performance of that Condition , did in proper Law sense procure a right to these mercies ; for through the merites of Christ's blood have we a right properly to all ; but improperly as denoteing nothing but the Methode & way of God's bestowing the blessings purchased , first this , and then , upon the souls acting of that , another ; as for example , first faith , then upon the souls acting of Faith , Justification , then Sanctification &c. and upon the souls acting of Sanctification , Glorification ) but the death of Christ cannot therefore be called Conditional , more than the will or purpose of God can be called conditional , because some of the things willed , may depend upon other , as upon a condition . ( 9. ) Then by performing the Condition , man should procure to himself a Legal Right , and Title not only to the death of Christ , but to Justification , Adoption , Sanctification , yea & to Glorification ; yea and that a more near & effectual Title & Right , than what was had by Christ's death ; for the Title had by Christ's death ( if it can be called a Title ) was far Remore & Common to such , as shall never have any profite by it ; but the other is Certain , Particular , Proxime , & giveth possession , ●us in re . ( 10. ) Then Christ's blood , as shed upon the crosse , was but a Po●●ntial thing , having no power or vertue in it self to redeem any , it was but a poor Potential price : and all its vertue of actual purchasing & procureing is from mans performing the Condition ; this , and this only , giveth it Power & Efficacy : and so Christ is beholden to man for giving vertue unto his Blood , and making it effectual , which before was a deadineffectual thing . Then let any judge , who should have the greatest share of the Glory of Redemption , Man or Christ. ( 11. ) was Christ's death Absolute in no respect ; or was it , as to some things , I mean , belonging to Grace & Glory , Absolute ? if in nothing , then Man must certanely have a great share of the glory : if it was Absolute as to any thing , what was that ? and why was it more Absolute as to that , than as to other things ? And why should it then be simply , & without limitation , said that Christ died for all Conditionally ? For Further confirmation of our 19. Argument , & confutation of our Adversaries position , we adde ( 21. ) That Christ Jesus is heard of the Father in all that he asketh Psal. 2 : 8. Ioh. 11 : 41 , 42. and as an High Priest he entred into heaven Heb. 9 : 11 , 12. now to appear in the presence of God for us vers . 24. to prepare a place Ioh. 14 : 2. & to act the part of an Advocat , interceding with the Father , in the behalfe of all such , for whom he died 1. Ioh. 2 : 1 , 2. If then Christ , whom his Father heareth alwayes , intercedeth in the behalfe all these , for whom he died , either he did not die for all , or all must certainly be saved . That Christ's Intercession , & Death are for the same persons , will be , and must be denyed by our Adversaries : But to us it is most manifest from these grounds . ( 1. ) To Intercede & pray are as Essential & Necessary Acts of the Priestly office , as to offer sacrifice : and the Apostle Heb. 9. cleareth up , how Christ did in truth , what the High Priest among the Jewes did in the type ; for as the High Priest alone went , once every yeer , into the second tabernacle , or holy of holies , not without blood , which he offered for himself , and the errours of the people vers . 7. So Christ , being come an High Priest of good things to come , by a greater and more perfect tabernacle , by his owne blood , he entered in once into the holy place , having obtained eternal Redemption vers . 12. Hence he is said to Live for ever to make Intercession for us . Heb. 7 : 25. and he is an Advocat with the Father 1. Ioh. 2 : 1. Hence then it is manifest , that Christ must Intercede for such , as he did Offer up himself for , or he shall not be a Perfect & Compleet High Priest ; or not faithfull to performe all the Offices of the High Priest : neither of which can be said . ( 2. ) The ground of his Intercession , is held forth to be his Oblation : as the High Priest went into the holy of holies with the blood of the sacrifices , which he had offered ; so Christ entered into the holy place , having first obtained by the sacrifice of himself an Eternal Redemption . Heb. 9 : 12. So he is an Advocate with the Father , being first a Propitiation for sinnes 1. Ioh. 2 : 1 , 2. ( 3. ) Both his Death & Intercession make up one Compleet Medium , & are intended & designed , as one Medium , for the end designed , viz. the bringing of many sones unto glory , saving to the uttermost all that come to God through him &c. ( 4. ) How unreasonable is it to think , that Christ would refuise to Pray for such , whom he loved so dearly , as to lay down his life for ? yet he saith expresly , that he prayeth not for the world , but for others , distinguished from the world , Ioh. 17 : 9. ( 5. ) As His Death was for such as the Father had given him ( is we saw above ) so his Intercession & Prayer is restricted to such Ioh. 17 : 9. - I pray not for the world ; but for them which thou hast given me , for they are thine . ( 6. ) Christ's end in coming into the world , was to save his people ; Hence he gote that name Iesus ; but he should not be able to save them , Perfectly , Compleetly , & to the Utermost , if he did not joyne his Intercession , with his Oblation ; Yea upon this account he continueth ever a Priest , having an unchangable Priesthood , Heb. 2 : 24 , 25. But this man , because he continueth ever , hath an unchangable Priesthood , wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost , that come unto God by him , seing he ever liveth to make intercession for them . ( 7. ) The Apostle so joyneth them together Rom. 8 : 34. that they must do manifest violence to the Apostles reasoning , who would pull them asunder , & separate the one from the other . It is ( sais he ) Christ that died , yea rather that is risen againe , who is even at the right hand of God , who also maketh intercession for us . ( 8. ) Yea , they are so joyned together here , that his death alone considered could not yeeld that ground of triumph & boasting , nor security from Accusations : Yea rather , that is risen againe , &c. ( 9. ) So that the separating & taking of these asunder , is greatly prejudicial to the consolation of his people ; for though they should attaine to some apprehensions of Christ's dying for them , as an Advocate with the Father , upon new sinnes 1. Ioh. 2 : 1 , 2. Though Christ died , yet they might be condemned , for he must also Interceed ; and if he do not Intercede for them , their Hopes , & Comforts are gone : And so there should be no force in that , who is he that condemneth , it is Christ that die●● Rom. 8 : 34. And a poor soul might be hal saved , but not to the uttermust , contrare to Heb. 2 : 25. ( 10. ) And that place Rom. 8 : 33. restricteth both equally unto the Elect : who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? ( 11. ) When Christ laid down his life a Ransome for sinners , he could not but know , that by that Ransome none should be actually saved , without his Intercession , it being accorded betwixt Father & Son , that the mediator should mediate both by Price & by Prayer : And he could not but know , for whom he purposed & intended to Interceed ; how shall we then suppose , that he would lay down his life for those , for whom he was purposed not to Pray ? Or that he would do the most for them , For whom he would not do the least ? ( 12. ) Christ's intercession is really a presenting unto God the Oblation made : Therefore sayes the Apostle Heb. 9 : 24. that Christ is entered into heaven it self , to appear in the presence of God for us : And so by appearing he Interceedeth : & his appearing is in his owne blood , whereby he obtained Eternal Redemption Heb. 9 : 12. & so his Intercession must be for all , for whom the Oblation was , & the eternal Redemption was obtained . ( 13. ) Yea both these are so joyned together by Esaias Chap. 53 : 12. as that they are made one ground , & procureing cause of God's divideing him a portion with the great , & of Christs own divideing the spoile with the strong ; Because he hath poured out his soul unto death , and he bare the sin of many , and made ●ntercession for the transgressours . ( 14. ) This is further clear from the reasons , we gave to confirme that fast connexion betwixt Christ's Impetration & Application , in the foregoing paragraph , for the Actual Application of the benefite & fruit of his oblation is attributed to his Intercession . ( 15. ) Nay , that whole Chapter Ioh. 17. confirmeth this ; for there Christ is both Offering himself , or sanctifying himself thereunto vers . 19. and Interceding ▪ and these are so lincked together , both in themselves , & as to the persons for whom , that it must argue , at least , much incogitancy , to imagine a divulsion , & separation of these two acts of his Priesthood . ( 16. ) If Christ Intercede not for the same persons , for whom he died , we ask for whom he Intercedeth ? Is it for actuall beleevers ? Then we ask a Scripture ground for this restriction ? And then it is manifest hence , that Christ Intercedeth not for the working of faith in any : And yet Esaias tels us , that he maketh Intercession for transgressours . And we see Ioh. 17 : 20. that he prayeth not only for those , who were already beleevers , but for such also , as were not yet beleevers . He told us Himself also , that he would pray the Father for the Spirit , Ioh. 14 : vers . 16. And among other things , this is one work of the Spirit , to cause a sinner beleeve , 2. Cor. 4 : 13. Ephes. 1 : 17 , 18 , 19. The point we are upon will be further cleare , if we consider . ( 22. ) That Christ's death was a Redemption , & we are said to be Redeemed thereby Gal. 4 : 5. & 3 : 13. Rom. 3 : 24. Ephes. 1 : 7. Col. 1 : 14. ● Pet. 1 : 8. Revel . 5 : 9. Tit. 2 : 14. And therefore , all such , as he laid down this Redemption , or Redemptionmoney for , must of necessity be redeemed & saved , & consequently he died not for all , seing all are not redeemed & saved . His Ransome , or Price of Redemption , which he laid down , viz. his blood , which he shed , is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransome Mat. 20 : 28. & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Tim. 2 : 6. That all such , for whom this Redemption-money was payed , & this Ransome was given , must be saved , is cleare ; for ( 1. ) Other wayes it were no Redemption , a Ransome given for Captives doth say , that these Captives , in Law & Justice , ought to be set at liberty . ( 2. ) This Redemption is the same with , ( as to the effect , ) or hath attending it , forgiveness of sins . Col. 1 : 14. Ephes. 1 : 7. & forgiveness of sins , is with justification , & hath blessedness attending it Rom. 4 : 6 , 7 , 8. ( 3. ) Salvation necessarily followeth upon this Ransome & Redemption , as is clear 1. Tim. 2 : 4. compared with vers . 6. ( 4. ) This Redemption is from a vaine Conversation 1 , Pet. 1 : 18. & consequently is attended with Salvation . ( 5. ) It is attended with justification , Rom. 3 : 24. being justified freely by his grace , through the redemption , that is in Iesus Christ. ( 6. ) Hence it is called the Redemption of the transgressions Heb. 9 : 15. that is , either of Transgressours , by a metonimy , or of us from the evil of transgressions , & that upon a valuable compensation & satisfaction ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Redemption from evil by the Intervening of a Price , a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Ransom , ( 7. ) This was a Redemption from the Law , for God sent forth his son — made under the Law , to redeem them , who were under the Law Gal 4 : 4 , 5. & so by this redemption , there is a liberation had from the Law , & its Curse & Penality . ( 8. ) And it is a Redemption of such as were under the Law , for this end , that they might receive the adoption of sones Gal. 4 : 5. But this Adoption of sones is not common to all . ( 9. ) All which receiveth confirmation from this , that the Father , who received this ransome , did himself send his Son to lay it down , & so it was his own Ransome ; and therefore must have been payed , upon a certaine designe of actually Redeeming & delivering from Sin , Satan , Death & Hell , those , for whom it was laid downe . ( 10. ) So is there an other end of this Redemption mentioned Gal. 3 : 13 , 14. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law — that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Iesus Christ. ( 11. ) Seing the Lord Iehovah might have refused to free the sinner , upon any Redemption or Satisfaction offered , & exacted all of the sinners themselves , that they lay under by the Law , it was a great condescendence in love of this great Lord , & a gracious act of Soveraignity , to accept of a mediation ; & of Love & free grace to provide a Redeemer ; we cannot but in reason think , that His good pleasure did regulare this matter , as to the Persons , who should be Redeemed , & as to the manner & method after which they should actually partake of the Redemption . And that therefore , the persons to be redeemed were condescended upon , and the persons condescended upon were certanely to be Redeemed ; the Lord having intended , in the contrivance of this Redemption , the certaine Salvation & Redemption of those , who were condescended upon , & of none else , and the Intentions , Designes & Purposes of God are not vaine nor frustrable . Further ( 23. ) Christ's death ha● a real Merito in it , that is , a worth and value , to procure the good things , it was given for ; so that thereby there was a Purchase made . Act. 20 : 28. And therefore , we cannot suppose , that all that was Procured & Purchased hereby , was a General , Uncertaine , & meerly Possible thing . If it had a value & worth in it , ( as no question it had ) to purchase & procure grace & glory , unto all , for whom it was given , and was accepted as a valuable price of the Father , why should not the thing , hereby purchased , be given & granted , in due time ? To say , that all was suspended upon a condition , is to made all Uncertaine : or we must say , that Christ's death did procure that Condition also : and then all is right , for that is it , we say . ( 24. ) Christ's death is to be considered as the death of a Testator Heb. 9 : 15 , 16 , 17. And for this cause , he is the Mediatour of the New Testament , that by meanes of death , for the redemption of transgressions , that were under the first Testament , they which are called , might receive the promise of eternal inheritance : for where a Testament is , there must also of necessity be the death of the Testatour : for a Testament is of force after men are dead , otherwise it is of no strength , at all , while the Testatour liveth . So he said himself of the cup , in the Sacrament , that it was the blood of the New Testament Mat. 26 : 28. Mark. 14 : 24. & that it was the cup of the New Testament in his blood Luk. 22 : 20. and Paul calleth it , the New Testament in his blood 1. Cor. 11 : 25. So that his Death & Bloodshed was the death of a Testatour , for the confirmation of the New Testament , and for ascertaneing of the Legatees , of the good things bequathed to them in legacy , by the Testament . Now a Testament commonly is a declaration of the Testatours free , Absolute & Voluntary Purpose of bestowing such & such benefites , to such & such friends ; and so it is the Testatours letter will , whereby he willeth that this legacy be given to this person , & that to another . It is true , men may insert some Conditions , as to some legacies , because they are but men , & know not contingent future things , nor have they the wils & dispositions of such , they appoint legatees , in their own hand and power ; But it is otherwayes with our Testatour : and therefore we cannot think , that He left the legacies in his Testament , at the uncertainty of conditions , to be performed by men ; especially considering , how as he died to ratify the Testament , so he rose againe to administrate the same , as the sole executor thereof by his Spirit , & that what legacies he left to be bestowed , upon such & such conditions he left not the matter at an uncertainty ; for the condition it self was bequeathed , as the necessary good of the Testament , without which all would have been to no purpose . It is unreasonable then to think , that Christ died to give force to his Testament ; and yet it might come to passe , that he should have no heire , to enjoy the goods left in legacy . Nor is it reasonable to think , that all the world were equally his heires , seing the Inheritance , and Kingdom is for the little flock Luk. 12 : 32. and a peculiar select number 1. Pet. 1 : 4. Ioh. 17 : 24. Col. 1 : 12. who are heires of the promises , of God , of salvation , of the Grace of God , of the Kingdom &c. Rom. 8 : 17. Gal. 3 : 29. & 4 : 7 , 30. Ephes. 3 : 6. Heb. 1 : 14. & 6 : 1. & 11 : 7. Iam. 2 : 5. 1. Pet. 3 : 7. Therefore , all whom Christ hath appointed heires in his Testament , shall certainly enjoy the good things tested , in due time , for his Death gave force to his Testament , as being his Last & Unchangeable will , so that they cannot misse of the inheritance , and be disappointed ; especially considering , that Christ by his death laid down a valuable & rich price to purchase all these good things , which he left in legacy to his friends & heires . Christ's death moreover ( 25. ) is to be considered , as the death of a Sponsor & Cautioner , and this will further confirme our point : Hence he is called a Surety Heb. 7 : 22. and is said to die for the ungodly Rom. 5 : 6. to be made a curse for us Gal. 3 : 13. and to be made sin . 2. Cor. 5 : 21. and other expressions of the like Kind have the same import : From whence it is evident , that Christ took the debt upon him , that was justly to be charged upon the account of sinners , that he became one person in Law , with sinners the principal debtor ; that he payed & satisfied for all the debt , and that in their room and place : and that therefore all these , for whom he died , must certainly be delivered from the Debt , and from the Charge & Consequences thereof . These things are manifest of themselves , and need no further confirmation . Now seing all are not delivered from the debt of sin , nor from the punishment due because of sin , we cannot say , that Christ died , as a Cautioner , for all ; for sure his death was a compleat payment of all the debt he undertook to pay , and to satisfie for . Nor can we say , that he died as a Cautioner for he knew not whom ; far lesse , that he died as a Cautioner , and yet none might possibly receive advantage thereby . Not yet can we say , that he died , as a Cautioner , and payed for some sinnes of all , and not for all their sinnes , for whom he died ; seing he was a Compleet Cautioner . So then , as Christ died in their roome & stead , as their Cautioner , & Sponsor , for whom he died , wrong should be done to Him , if all these , for whom he was a Cautioner , should not at length actually be delivered out of prison , & freed from the accusation of the Law : They , for whom he died , being in him legally , when he died , and morally & virtually dying in him , and with him , must not , in justice , be made to pay their own debt , & satisfie the Law over againe : Christ's stricking hands ( as the phrase is Prov. 22 : 26. ) and so putting his name in the obligation , and accordingly making satisfaction , the Principal 's name is blotted out , and he free in the time appointed : for he bare our griefs , and carryed our sorrowes &c. Esai . 53 : 4 , 5. and by meanes of death , he delivered them , who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2 : 14 , 15. This matter will be further clear , if we consider ( 26. ) How the death of Christ was a Satisfaction : and none can deny this , but Antichristian Socinian : Others willingly grant , that Christ did substitute himself , in the room of sinners , and was willing to undergo the punishment , threatned in the Law against sin , that the sinners , for whom he undertook satisfaction , might be freed : So he bare their sins Esai . 53 : 11. 1. Pet. 2 : 24. And he was made sin 2. Cor. 5 : 21. Hence he is called a Propitiation 1. Ioh. 2 : 3 & 4 : 10. Rom. 3 : 25. Whereby we see , that Christ took upon him the whole Punishment , that was due to sin ; and that God , whom sinners had offended , was well pleased with what he did and suffered , according to that undertaking , yea more pleased , than he was displeased with all the sinnes of those , for whom he suffered : for hereby His Authority & Justice was made to appear more glorious & excellent . How then can we think , that many of those , & it may be all , for whom he gave that satisfaction , may , notwithstanding , possibly be made to make satisfaction for themselves , as they may by our Adversaries way ? Was not his satisfaction full & compleat ? Why should any then , for whom he gave that satisfaction , be liable to Punishment ? Is this consonant to justice ? Did not the Lord Jehovah send Christ & sit him with a body for this end Psal. 40 : 6. Heb. 10 : 5. & laid upon Him the iniquities of us all Esai . 53 : 6. that He might make full satisfaction for them to justice , & suffer for them all that the Law could demand of them , or they were liable unto by the broken Law ? Did not Christ do & suffer all , which he undertook to do , & suffer for this end ? And did not the Father accept of what he did & suffered , as a full Compensation , & Satisfaction ? And seing this cannot be denied , & it is manifest that this was done by Christ as a Cautioner Heb. 7 : 22. how can it be imagined , that the Principal debtor shall not thereupon have a fundamental right to freedom & pardon , & in due time , after the Gospel method , be actually Discharged , & delivered from the penalty of the Law , & Redeemed by the Satisfactory Price payed by the Cautioner , & accepted of the Creditour ? Doth not the denying of this certain & infallible Effect , call in question the value & worth of Christ's satisfaction , and give ground to say , that Jehovah was not Satisfied with the price ; or that Christ made no Satisfaction ? Did not Christ make Reconciliation for the sinnes of his people ? Heb. 2 : 17 ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Adde for a further confirmation of this . ( 27. ) That Christ's death was a propitiating sacrifice . He gave himself for us , an Offering and a Sacrifice to God , for a sweet smelling savour Ephes. 5 : 2. He offered up himself once Heb. 7 : 27. He is a sacrifice for us , 1. Cor. 5 : 7. & the lamb of God , which beareth , or taketh away she sin of the world Ioh. 1 : 29. He offered up himself without spot to God Heb. 9 : 14. & he was once offered to bear the sinnes of many Heb. 9 : 28. — we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all , — he offered one sacrifice for sin for ever Heb. 10 : 10 , 12. Now as the sacrifices under the Law , which were a type of this , did not procure a General , Possible benefite , but did procure a Real favour , only to the People of God ; for they sanctified to the purifying of the flesh Heb. 9 : 13. So certainly this Real & Perfect sacrifice must have a Peculiar & Real Effect & sprinkle consciences from dead works , to serve the living God : Heb. 9 : 14. And this is not a thing common to all , nor is it a meer Possible thing : They must then do a great indignity unto the Sacrifice of Christ , who speak of an Universal meerly Possible Redemption . Adde to this . ( 28. ) How upon this Sacrifice , which Christ offered up , in his death , we read of a Reconciliation made Ephes. 2 : 16. and that he might Reconcile both unto God , in one body , by the crosse , having s●aine the enmity , by it , or in himself 2. Cor. 5. 10. when we were enemies we were Recenciled to God , by the death of his Son. Col. 1 : 20. and having made peace , through the blood of his crosse , by him to Reconcile all things unto himself . Therefore is he called our Peace Ephes . 2 : 14. & he maketh Peace vers . 15. we have Peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. Rom. 5 : 1. Now this Reconciliation being of parties , that are at variance , must be a Reconciliation of both to other , and so a mutual Reconciliation : and Christ effectuateth both : and both are purchased by his death : we cannot then imagine with Socinians , that all the Reconciliation , mentioned in Scripture , is of us to God ; as if God's Anger & Wrath were not appeased & taken out of the way ; nor with Arminians , that Christ obtained an Universal Reconciliation of God to all , but no Reconciliation of man to God ; friendship betwixt enemies must be mutual , if a Reconciliation be ; and our state before this was enmity Rom. 5 : 10. Col. 1 : 20 , 21. and God's wrath was against us & upon us , Ephes. 2 : 3. Ioh. 3 : 36. But now , how will this agree with Universal Redemption ? Is God Reconciled to all , when many perish under his wrath , for ever ? Can God be said to be , upon the death of Christ , Reconciled to all , when it may so fall out , that not one soul shall have peace with God ? How cometh it to passe , that many , whose Reconciliation Christ hath purchased , live & die enemies to God ? Sure the Apostle tels us 2. Cor. 5 : 19. that to whom God is reconciled , to them he doth not impute sin : & he assureth us , that all such , as are reconciled to God , by the death of his Son , shall be saved . Rom. 5 : 10. Adde ( 29. ) That it seemeth hard to say , That Christ laid down his life a Price , a Ransome , a Sacrifice , an Atonement & Propitiation , &c. to Purchase , Procure , Merite Grace , & Glory , & to make Reconciliation & Peace betwixt God , & such , as were already suffering the vengeance of eternal fire , & to satisfie for their sinnes , who were already condemned to the torments of hell fire : and yet this must be said by such , as assert Universal Redemption . Was Christ so prodigal of his blood , as to cast it away , for such as were irrecoverably gone ? If it be said , that this is no more hard , than to say , that Christ suffered for such , as were already glorified . Any may see , how vast the difference is , for such as were glorified , were glorified upon the account of Christs Death , which was to be , in the time appointed & designed by Father & Son. When one promiseth a summe for redeeming of so many slaves , & the summe , according to mutual agreement , is to be payed at such a day , the slaves may be presently relieved , in contemplation of the price , which is accepted , & is to be payed hereafter at the time appointed : But when one cometh to lay down Ransome-money , he cannot be said to lay it downe for such are are dead , & that he knoweth to be dead many years ago , & so uncapable of Redemption . Further ( 30. ) If Christ died for all , then he intended to die for all ; then the Father also intended , that he should die for all ; then he intended that it should be a Redemption for all , & that thereby all should be Redeemed : for to what end else should Christ die & redeem , if not that such , as he died for & Redeemed , be Redeemed & Delivered ? Or to what other end should God intended that Christ should die for all , than to the ends mentioned in Scripture , of which we have spoken ? And how can we say , that God did intend the Redemption of all , when all are not actually Redeemed ? Are his intentions so fallible , and frustrable ? If it be said , that he Intended only a Possible Salvation , and not Actual . I Ans. The Scripture speaketh no such thing as we have seen : And how unsuteable is it to the wisdom of God , to send his Son , actually to die , and bear the curse , and only intend thereby a Possible Redemption , which might never prove Actual to any one soul ? If it be said , That he Intended an Actual Redemption , but Conditionally . I Answer . Redemption upon a Condition is but a Conditional Redemption , & that is but a Potential , Possible Redemption , unlesse you say , that the condition is also purchased : and then , as to God , it is an Absolute Redemption , & intended as such : doth it suite the wisdom : of God , to intend Redemption to all , and not intend also the Condition , by which alone it must become Actual , & which he alone can work , but will not ? Must we thus ascribe such intentions to God , as must hang upon mans will , & be subordinate thereunto ? Or if he see , that the Condition will never be performed , how can we think , that he intendeth any thing upon a Condition , that shall never be ? But enough of this , at present . Moreover ( 31. ) This doctrine of Universal Redemption is derogatory to the solide consolation of the Redeemed , & Weakeneth the grounds of their song ; and therefore it is not to be admitted . This Argument is fully & solidely prosecuted , and vindicated from what can be allaiged against it , by the learned & solide divine Mr. Durbam , in his Comment on the Revelation pag. 304. & 305. And to him shall I referre the Reader : only I shall crave leave to adde this : That by our Adversaries grounds , the song of the Saved shall not run , as it doth Revel . 5 : 9 , 10. But rather thus , We have saved our selves , out of every kinred , & tongue ; & people , & nation , & have made our selves unto God , Kings & Priests : For whereas Christ by his blood Redeemed all of every kinred , and tongue , and people , & nation , and not some only out of them ; we our selves have , by our own free good will , made a difference betwixt our selves , and the rest ; and we are no more beholden to Christ for all that we have attained to , then the damned in hell are , for whom Christ shed his blood , as well as for us , & to whom he purchased by his blood & death , as much , as for us ; as Adversaries say . So that I see not how Arminians , can think to joine in this Song , & have any share of this Consolation , which is solely founded upon the Redemption of Christ , as a peculiar & no common blessing . Let them consider it , for it concerneth them not a little , seing all that come to glory will sing to the honour of their Redeemer , upon other grounds , as we see , then these are , which our Adversaries lay down , and plead so earnestly for . If any say , that Christ moreover hath purchased faith to some , even to all that are actually saved . I Answer . As neither the Arminians , nor semi-Arminians , I mean the followers of Camero will say this , or grant so much ; so the granting of it , will ever the other Universal Conditional Redemption ; for the Scripture speaketh but of one kind of Redemption , of one Price laid down , of one Covenant betwixt Jehovah & the Mediator ; & of one Giving unto Christ of Persons to be redeemed . Shall we think , that Christ would lay down as great a ransome for such , as he was not to purchase faith unto , as for the rest ? Shall we think that he would lay down his life in vaine , & make no purchase thereby ? And of the Reprobat , for whom he was not to purchase thereby ? And of the Reprobat , for whom he was not to purchase faith , he knew he could make no purchase ; for without faith his death would be of no advantage unto them . And where do we read , that all were given unto him to redeem ? Yea , are not the given ones clearly distinguished from the rest ? Ioh. 17 : 6 , 9 , as we cleared above . Againe ( 32. ) If the Redemption of Christ be Universal , and Conditioonal : it must necessarily follow , that Christ laid down his life , and the price of his blood , as much for Iudas , and all the Reprobate , as he did for Iohn , and all the Elect : for the Redemption being Conditionally for all , it cannot be more for one , then for another . And yet this cannot be said , as appeareth from the reasons formerly adduced . This would lay , that the Fathers and Christs love was equal towards all ; and that no more was purchased for the one , than for the other ; and that the Elect have no more benefite by Christs death , than the Reprobat have ; and that Christ had no more an eye to Redeem the Elect by his death , than to Redeem the Reprobat ; & was no more a Cautioner for the one , than for the other : all which and the like cannot but be looked upon , as most absurd . Shall we think , that Christ became sin , as well , or as much , for Iudas , as for Peter ? Shall we think , that He redeemed all alike from the Curse of the Law ? These sound ill to Christian ears . So ( 33. ) we may thus reason : Either Christ's Redemption is Conditional & Universal , as to the Price laid down & Satisfaction made ; or as to the Application & Actual bestowing of the benefites purchased : But neither can be said to the advantage of the Adversaries cause ; for if the last be said , we willingly grant that some of the benefites , as Justification , Adoption , and actuall Glorification , are conferred in a manner conditionally : but some , as faith and the New heart , are given absolutely : and this cannot Help the Adversaries cause , for they will not say , that either all have faith bestowed upon them , or that all are by believing Justified & Adopted &c. and so this is not Universall : and if the first be said , to wit , That Christ laid down his life Conditionally , it must be said , that Christ did not lay down his life Absolutely , but upon some condition ; and what can that Condition be , upon which the death of Christ was suspended ? If it be said , that the faith of those , to whom it was to be preached , was the Condition : then it must be said , that christ did not die untill these believed , or that his death was no satisfaction or price , untill they actually believed : and then the Father could not be well pleased with the price as a satisfaction , until mens Faith came to make it an Actual price : which is both absurd , and contrary to Scripture . If it be said , That Christ did absolutely lay down his life a satisfactory Ransom , and that for all , yet so as none , that would not fulfil the Condition , should be redeemed . I Answer . If it was an Absolute satisfactory Ransome , & accepted as such , something must have been purchased thereby , & all behoved actually & really to be delivered from the Law & from the curse , or from something , by vertue of that Absolute Price ; and they could not be made to pay over againe what was payed by the price of his blood ; for Justice could not call for two satisfactions . And if all were , upon this Absolute Price payed , Redeemed from the Law , the Curse , & the Sentence of the first Covenant , no man shall now die for that broken Covenant . If it be said , No man was Absolutely delivered even from that , but only Conditionally . I Ans. How then was it an Absolute Price ? Or what was purchased thereby ? If it be said , That a possibility of Freedom was absolutely purchased . Ans. This was rejected above : and the Scripture inferreth Actual Redemption from Christs purchase , He shall justifie many , for he shall bear their iniquities Esai . 53 : 11. which saith , That all whose iniquities he did bear , shall be Actually & Really Justified by him , & not have a meer Possibility of Justification . Further ( 34. ) We may thus argue , If Christ died for all & every one , He either died for all Absolutely or Conditionally , The first cannot be said , for the reasons already adduced militate against that . Nor can it be said , that He died for all Conditionally : for then either he died to purchase Life & Salvation to all upon Condition of their performance of something proposed as a Condition ; or to purchase salvation , and all the meanes thereunto or Conditions thereof , Conditionally , But neither of these can be said . Therefore &c. The major is clear from this ; that the enumeration is full , & noother way can this Conditional Redemption be conceived or explained . The minor may be thus confirmed , The first way cannot be said , to wit , that life and salvation was purchased to all , upon a Condition to be by them performed , that is , upon Condition of their believing : for either this Condition is in the power of every son of Adam , or not : if it be not in their power ( as all but Pelagians will confess ) then this Redemption is no Redemption ; for a Redemption of Captives upon a Condition impossible to them , is as good as no Redemption . Nor can the last way be said , to wit , that Redemption , and all the Conditions & Means thereof were Conditionally purchased ; for what can be assigned as the Condition of these Conditions ? And though there were a Condition of the Lords working of Faith assigned , ( which yet we finde not in Scripture ) yet that would not help the matter ; for that Condition of Faith would it self be a mean to salvation , and so purchased Conditionally , upon another Condition , and that other Condition must be purchased upon another Condition , & so in infinitum : which is absurd . As also ( 35. ) this is considerable , That the asserting of Universal Redemption goeth not alone ; but there are several other Universalities also affirmed , and maintained , either as Consequences , or Concomitants , or Grounds thereof , which the Scripture knoweth not : such as these . ( 1. ) An Universal Love & Philanthropie , towards all & every one , without any difference : which they lay down , as the ground of the Sending of Christ to die for all indiscriminatly . ( 2. ) An Universal Will in God to save all , which they call an Antecedent Will ; and hold forth as a Velleity , or a wish & desire , that all might be saved ; as if God could not effectuat whatever he desired , or could have a velleity towards any thing , which either he could not , or would not effectuat . ( 3. ) An Universal Predestination conditional ; which expression Amerald used untill the Synods in France did disswade him therefrom . ( 4. ) An Universal gift of all to Christ , or an Universal gift of Christ to all ; that is , a Will & purpose that Christ should lay down his life for all , and Redeem all ; at least Conditionally . ( 5. ) An Universal Justification conditional . And why not also an Universal Salvation conditional ? ( 6. ) An Universal Covenant of Grace made with all mankinde in Adam , wherein is a free universal deed of gift of Christ first , and of Pardon , Spirit & Glory , in & by him , to all Mankinde without exception , upon condition of acceptance ; as also an offer of Faith , Repentance , Conversion , with all the consequences thereof . ( 7. ) An Universal will in God to call into this Covenant , and unto the Participation of the benefites thereof , all & every man. ( 8. ) An Universal execution of this will , or promulgation of this Gospel or New Covenant , unto all & every one , by common favours & benefites bestowed on all , whereby all are called to believe in a merciful pardoning God ; and all have abundance of Mercies & Meanes of Recovery & of life ; for the Lord now governeth the world , only on termes of grace . ( 9. ) Upon this followeth an Universal Command to all men to use certaine duties & meanes for their Recovery by Faith & Repentance . ( 10. ) An Universal pardon of the first Sin , so far , at least , that no man shall perish for the meer Original sin of Nature alone , unless he adde the rejection of grace . ( 11. ) Hence followeth an Universal Judgment & Sentence on all , in the great day , only according as they have performed the new Gospel Conditions . ( 12. ) Some also adde an Universal Subjective Grace , whereby all are enabled to performe the conditions of the new Covenant . ( 13. ) Universal proper Fruits & Effects of this death , whereby all the outward favours , that Heathens enjoy are said to be purchased for them by Christ : & why not also what Devils enjoy ? Finally ( 36. ) This assertion of Universal Redemption layeth the ground of , & maketh way to a new frame of the Covenant of Grace , quite overturning its Nature , and transforming it into a new Covenant of Works , making it one & the same with that , as to kinde , & only to differ , as to the change of Conditions to be performed by man : for as , in the first Covenant , Adam was to obtain right to , & possession of life promised , in , by , for , through and upon the account of his fulfilling the Condition of perfect obedience , imposed by the Lord ; so , in the New Covenant , man is to obtaine & acquire to himself a right to & possession of the Life promised , in , by , for , through & upon the account of his performance of the Condition of Faith & new obedience , now imposed in the Gospel ; and all the difference is , that in stead of perfect obedience to the Law , which was the Condition of the first Covenant , now Faith & sincere Gospel Obedience is made the Condition : And thus we can no less he said to be justified by works of the Law , or which we do , then Adam should have been said to have been so justified , had he stood ; and this justification giveth as great ground of boasting unto man , & of making the reward of debt , & not of grace , as justification by the first Covenant would have done ; for though it be said , that Christ hath made satisfaction to justice , for the breach of the first Law , & thereby purchased to all , upon Condition , Justification & Salvation ; yet this removeth not the difficulty ; for what is purchased by Christ's death is made Universal & Common to all ; and so can be nothing ( according to our Adversaries ) but a putting of all men , in statu quo prius , in case to run & obtaine the prize for themselves ; as God's absolute free love put Adam in that Condition at first : Christ's death ( though thereby , as they say , he purchased the New Covenant , which with them is the chiefe , if not the only , effect & fruit of his Death & Merites ) can be no more , than a very remote ground of Right to Life & Salvation , unto any person ; for it is made Universal & Common to all , so that all have equal share therein , & advantage thereby ; man himself , by performing the new Conditions , only making the difference ; so that the immediat ground of the Right to life , which any have , is their own Faith & Obedience , or performance of the New Covenant-conditions . Whereby it is manifest , that as to our Particular , and Immediat Right to Happiness , we are to plead our own works , & lean to them , as our ground whereupon we may stand & appear before God's Tribunal ; and upon the account thereof plead for the crown , as our due debt , having now run for it , & performed the Condition , agreed upon , and so sing praises to our selves , in stead of singing praises to our Redeemer . Hence the Righteousness , wherein we must appear before God , is not the Righteousness of Christ , but our own ; for the Righteousness of Christ , say they , is only imputed in regard of its effects , whereof the new Covenant is the All , or the Chiefe ; and so that doth not become the Righteousness of any man , nor can be said to be imputed to any man properly , ( which also they assert ) but his own Faith is only imputed properly ( which also they plead for ) as his Righteousness ; not , as a Way , Medium , or Methode , of Gospel-Righteousness ( especially when Gospel-Obedience is adjoyned ) The Righteousness of Christ being thereby only accounted to be imputed , in that it hath procured , that our own Gospel Righteousness , Faith & new Obedience , shall be imputed to us , as our Immediat Righteousness ; & the ground of our Right to Glory . What accord is betwixt this frame of the Covenant of Grace , & that way of justification held forth by Socinians , Arminians & Papists , the learned will easily see ; and how contrary it is to the Covenant of Grace held forth in the Gospel , & hitherto professed & maintained by the orthodox , every one acquainted therewith cannot be ignorant ; & it is obvious , how opposite this is unto what the Apostle saith Phil. 3 : 8 , 9. yea doubtless , and I count all things but loss , for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord , for whom I have suffered the loss of all things , and do count them but dung ; that I may win Christ , and be found in him , not having mine own Righteousness , which is of the Law ; but that which is through the Faith of Christ , the Righteousness which is of God by Faith. And Tit. 3 : 5 , 6 , 7. Not by works of Righteousness , which we have done , but according to his mercy he saved us , by the washing of regeneration , and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly , through Iesus Christ our Saviour : that being justified by his grace , we should be made he●rs , according to the hope of eternal life . And Rom. 3 : 20 , 21 , 22 , 24. Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified — but now the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifest — even the Righteousness of God , which is by Faith of Iesus Christ , unto all and upon all them that believe — being justified freely by his grace , through the Redemption , that is in Iesus Christ. And many other places . It is no less clear , how hereby the true nature of justifying faith , and Gospel Obedience is perverted : & withall how dangerous this is , if put into practice ; or if men act & live accordingly , every serious exercised Christian knoweth . FINIS . The Contents of the Chapters . CHAP. I. THE Introduction to the Work , and the Text Gal 3. 11. opened up . Pag. 1 CHAP. II. Naturally we are inclined to cry up Self in Iustification . 12 CHAP. III. The Doctrine of Iustification should be kept pure with all diligence , and what dangerous expressio●s should be shunned . 15 CHAP. IV. Iustification is so contrived in the Gospel , as man may be abased , and have no ground of boasting . 22 CHAP. V. In Iustification there is a state of Life . 25 CHAP. VI. What mysteries are in Iustification . 34 CHAP. VII . Justification through the Imputed Righteousness of Christ , cleared out of the Old Testament , & the passages vindicated from the exceptions of JOHN GOODWINE . 57 CHAP. VIII . Some passages out of the New Test. confirming the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , vindicated from the exceptions of JOHN GOODWINE . 66 CHAP. IX . Othen passages of the New Test ▪ briefly mentioned , which plead for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness . 94 CHAP. X. Some Arguments for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness , vindicated from the exceptions of Mr. JOHN GOODWINE . 98 CHAP. XI . Objections taken out of Scripture by Mr. GOODWINE against the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto Iustification , Answered . 118 CHAP. XII . Some other Objections , proposed by JOHN GOODWINE , examined . 147 CHAP. XIII . Mr. BAXTER's opinion , concerning Imputation , examined . 182 CHAP. XIV . How Christ is our Suretie , & what Mr. BAXTER saith as to this , examined . 202 CHAP. XV. Mr. BAXTER's Answers to some of our Arguments for Imputation , examined . 209 CHAP. XVI . Mr. BAXTER's further opposition to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness examined . 226 CHAP. XVII . Reasons enforcing the practice of the Truth vindicated . 247 CHAP. XVIII . Some of the Duties of such , as live the life of Iustification , proposed . 254 CHAP. XIX . Of the life of Iustification , as to its continuance . 259 CHAP. XX. The State of Iustification remaineth , notwithstanding after-sins , & punishments . 273 CHAP. XXI . Iustification is by Faith , what this Faith is ? and how it is wrought ? 280 CHAP. XXII . Our act of Faith is not imputed to us as a Righteousness . 296 CHAP. XXIII . Some Argum , against the Imput ▪ of Faith vindicated from the exceptions of I. G. 303 CHAP. XXIV . The Imputation of Faith it self is not proved from Rom. IV. 5. 314 CHAP. XXV . Faith is not our Gospel-Righteousness . 327 CHAP. XXVI . Christ did not procure , by his death , the New Covenant , or the terms thereof . 335 CHAP. XXVII . How Faith is , & may be called a Condition of the New Cov. & of Iustification , how not ? 339 CHAP. XXVIII . How Faith is and may be called an Instrument ? 346 CHAP. XXIX . What interest Repentance hath in our Iustification : & that it is no Condition of the same . 357 CHAP. XXX . Whether Love , purpose of New Obedience , or Perseverance be Conditions of Iustification . 374 CHAP. XXXI . Gospel-Obedience is not the Condition of Iustification . 383 CHAP. XXXII . Of the Object of Iustifying Faith. 391 CHAP. XXXIII . The Righteousness of Christ is the special Object of Faith in Iustification . 398 CHAP. XXXIV . Faith in Iustification respecteth not in a special manner Christ as a King but as a Priest. 403 CHAP. XXXV . Faith is the only Condition , on our part , of the continuance of Iustification . 414 CHAP. XXXVI . Of the Interest of Repentance in the pardon of after-sins . 426 The Contents of the Appendix . CHAP. I. IMputation both of Christ's Active & Passive obedience necessarie . 431 CHAP. II. Christ underwent the Curse of the Law. 442 CHAP. III. We must not lean to any Righteousness within us , whereby to be justifyed . 452 CHAP. IV. The Law , by the works whereof Paul denyeth that we are justifyed , is not the Iewish Law. 465 CHAP. V. Works excluded in Iustification , are not only works done before Faith , nor perfect works required in the Law of Innocency , nor outward works only . 473 CHAP. VI. By works , which Paul excludeth , is not meant the merit of Works . 481 CHAP. VII . Iames 2. 14. cleared & vindicated . 486 CHAP. VIII . No countenance given to Justification by works from Iam. 2. 14 , &c. 497 CHAP. IX . John 〈◊〉 Arguments against the Imputation of Christ's a Active Obedience , examined , with a View of Wende●●n's 〈◊〉 against it . 506 CHAP. X. The Fathers give Countenance to the Doctrine of Imputation , some Papists approve it . 518 Arguments against Universal Redemption . 526 ERRATA . PAg. 1. l. 13. for woule read would . p. 2. l. 17. r. Essaies . p. 3. l. 3. r. Essentials . p. 4. l. 4. r. safeguarded . l. 7. r. to be attacqued . l. 39. r. Notions . p. 7. l. 36. r. held forth , l. 41. r. out . p. 8. l. 18. r. just p. 9. l. 11. r. comfort . p. 12. l. 5. r. twig . p. 18. l. 31. r. for in thy sight . p. 20. l. pe●ult . r. laying . p. 21. l. 6. r. expect . p. 24. l. 38. r. oftentimes . p. 28. l. 17. for this , r. his . p. 31. l. 34. for faisty . r. feasting . p. 33. l. 2. for possion . r. possession , l. 9. r. standeth . p. 37 , l. 2. r. transgressor . l. 17. r. finned . l. ult . r. bare . p. 38. l. 9. r. notwithstanding . p. 42. l. 8. r. length . l. 31. r. derision . p. 46. l. 6. r. layeth down . l. 18. for of r. if . l. 32. r. Justice . l. 37. r. appeareth . l. 38. r , people . p. 57. l. 10. r. toile . l. 11. r. wages p. 58 , l. 23. r. the Nature and Native work . p. 59. l. 30. r. made over unto . p. 60. l. 42. r. than what . p. 69. l. 24. r. Christ's p. 70. l. 33 , r. than the Righteousness p. 75. l. ul● . r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 76. l. 1. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 81. l. 26. r. prosecution . p. 82. lin . 3. à fine . r. Christ. p. 84. l. 20. r. Spirit of the Lord. l. penult . r. believers . l. 85. l. 9. r. of the Moral . p. 90. l. 12. r. and if we be made . p. 91. l. 6. r. all the iniquities . l. 8. r. head of the goat . p. 92. l. 6. r , these words . p. 94. l. 22. dele of . p. 95. l. 1. & 8. r. circumcision . p. 97. l. ● . r. suteablenesse . p. 104. l. 36. r. Nor is it . p. 134. l. 25. r. as faith it self . p. 159. l. 30. r. evacuateth . p. 187. l. 24. r. immediate imputation of p. 434. l. 14. r. chargeable . p. 476. l. 37. r. words . p. 501. l. 3. à fine . r. drawn . ibid. r. countenance . p. 512. l. 8 r. repetition . p. 514. l. 24. for hoas . r. how . p. 521. l. 12. r. Frater meus . p. 533. l. 22. r. If not , then he was not . l. 24. r. If he knew , then he knew that they would . l. 28 , dele of . l. 32. r. shall he not . p. 537. l. 23. r. not one man. l. 35. r. Priests . p. 538. l. 22 , 23. r. but have all their sins charged upon their own score . p. 539 l. 35. r. trespasses . l. 36. r. doubtlesse . p. 541. l. 10. r. fundamentally . l. 14. & 16. r. actual . p. 551. l. 17. r. of all these l. penult . for is r. as .